Another Friday, Another Win

Signed up to Full Tilt through ThisIsTheNuts because:
- one and only contact with BF customer service proved what everyone else said about how bad they were
- could get Smart Money some referral $$$s by signing up (as a thanks for the Flashmob t-shirts)
- could get 27% rake back

Have played only 2 STTs (1 2nd) and 3 MTTs, but won my first MTT tonight, 49 runner $5 PLO rebuy, for $243.

Chuffed.

ROI on rebuy tournaments is now in excess of 200%, will have to give up all other forms of poker if it stays like this.

Just gone past 1,000 hits on the web counter at the bottom, will tell my mum she can stop opening it every day now as it is now almost respectable, even though it is still 100 times less popular than gatsby's blog.

If you want a rakeback deal through TITN, sign up with me as referrer (miltonb) typlz

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnn!

This is a screenshot of a rebuy win from tonight, though this time it was Hold Em not the usual PLO and took 4 hours to finish. Thankfully not working tomorrow.

New Tactics

Ahem. As gatsby so nicely pointed out, I have had a couple of wins since the last update. In fact, on the MTT front I have won 2 PLO rebuys, 3 PLO freezeouts and cashed in quite a few more. Anyone interested in what has changed?

Mid-November I downloaded openoffice and installed on my laptop. Never had the inclination to give Micro$oft more money than I needed to and Office is pricey for the use I would make of it at home. First thing I used it for was to create a poker results tracking spreadsheet. Only built it to cover STTs and MTTs (reminded myself again in November with a $50 whipping that cash is currently not my A-game).

Overall proft since beginning of November $893 with an ROI of 61%. Would be higher but I had a go in the $55 PLO rebuy last week and gave up after my 1st rebuy vapourized. ROI for MTTs is currently 250% (partly courtesy of a 2nd place in a $1k GTD $1 buy-in tournament), rebuy MTTs 66%, STTs 24.5%.

It was blindingly obvious from the 1st 2 weeks of results entered that my highest ROI was on MTTs. So I have reduced the number of STTs I am playing and increased the MTTs. Managed to cash 6 times straight in the 20:35 PLO on Betfair (when I entered, not 6 days running), though that streak came to an end Sunday when I was first out.

Hello to barbielou who I keep playing in the PLO rebuys and 20:35 freezeouts on BF and mentioned that she had read the blog. She also cashes as often as I do in these, though don't think we have been HU at the end of any yet. It is always nice to have someone on the table who talks a bit, without crass comments about everyone else's ability.

Profit so far for December: $296.
Betfair Balance: £280 (have withdrawn £300 cash this month for Christmas pressies).
Pokerchamps - account closed as BF are closing their bastard child site.

Can do nothing but recommend openoffice, great tools that you can use to replace most of the functionality you get from Office for free. http://www.openoffice.org for details.

Lucky Fish

Obviously posting because I had a win, but can honestly say I had a dreadful October. After the last post I decided I needed to change games again and went back to the cash tables. This culminated in dropping about $150 in 2 days towards the end of the month and basically decimating my Betfair balance, it went under £100 for the first time in ages. Pokerchamps account was also sub-$100 as well.

So, went back to basics again and started back on the $2.5/$5 STT trail again. Managed to spin back up to about £150 again before last weekend. Played the 20:35 PLO $10 on BF Friday and came 3rd for $38. Only about 20 runners, but I seem to do well in this tourney.

Then on Sunday I was online "early" and decided to go for the $350 gtd PLO rebuy. $10 buyin was enough to see me through to the first break, with about 4x starting stack and in the top 5. The addon at this point is 3000 chips, which made the decision a bit of a no-brainer as most other folks seemed to be adding on too. 19 runners managed to produce a total of 45 buy-ins for a $450 pot, with top 3 paid only.

Into the 2nd hour, most players seemed happy to bet their big stacks against everyone else, which meant quite a few started to drop. Down to 8 it slowed down and I managed two big double-ups betting a flopped set that held against a straight draw and 2 pair. Down to final 3 and I start in 3rd, get to roughly evens, down a bit, then double on the 2nd with another set and took him out with a river when he was short a few hands later.

Heads up, playing against eggo, managed to get ahead, although fell back a bit a little. Final hand was where I made my biggest mistake of the whole tournament and got totally lucky, by rights I should have ended up 2nd with $135, instead of first with $225. But, I only played the hand the way I did based on eggo's previous hands, where he came from behind to beat 3 or 4 players for big pots. Here are the cards and some percentages:

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 271441629 *****
PL Omaha $10 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee, Level:11 Blinds(600/1,200-75 ante) - Sunday, November 04, 22:25:38 GMT 2007
$350 GTD $11+Rebuy PLO #109339
Table 1 9-max (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of active players : 2

Seat 1: harayir ( 44,390 )
Seat 6: eggo ( 35,110 )

Tourney Level:11 Blinds(600/1,200-75 ante)
harayir posts ante [75]
eggo posts ante [75]
harayir posts small blind [600]
eggo posts big blind [1,200]

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to harayir [ 4s, 3d, 8s, Td ] woohoo - double suited - 51.5% to win here
harayir calls [600]
eggo checks

** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, Qc, 3c ] I hit the flop so pot raise - 6.5% to win now
eggo checks
harayir bets [2,550]
eggo raises to [10,200] not unusual, could have anything based on previous play
harayir calls [7,650]

** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ] ooh, flush, gutshot straight and FH draws - 27.5% to win - doh!
eggo bets [22,950]
harayir goes all-in
harayir raises to [32,915]
eggo calls [685]
eggo goes all-in
Returning uncalled bet [9,280] to harayir

** Showdown **
harayir shows [ 4s, 3d, 8s, Td ]
eggo shows [ 4h, 7h, 4c, 9s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6d ]

** Hand Conclusion **
harayir wins 70,220 from main pot with a Flush
************ Game 271441629 ends ************

At no point did I put him on a set once the flop came down. Still, would have been a reasonable result to come 2nd for a total $20 buyin and it was kind of karma that he was beat when he went in a head for once.

Betfair balance now back up to £280, with the harayir account scoring positive points on 3 leaderboards out of 3. Not sure about Pokerchamps as have only cashed in 1 of 3 STTs tonight, so it might be back down to $2.5 grinding on that account for a while. Partpoker dollas all gone again, so will wait until they send me another freebie before I play there again.

Deposited on Ladbrokes again to test out their double your money tables. Seduced by the thought that I could easily manage to finish in top 3 of 6 or 5 of 10. In fact it's not so difficult, but the games are soooo boring as everyone rocks up straight away. The one time I decided to loosen up, I was runner, runnered by the table fish and knocked out. What I have found is the hilo games where top 3 of 6 get paid, but it is not even payout, might be the way forwards on there.

Also managed to find the maddest STT in the world: 6-seater no limit hi lo. 4th of 6 I will only go back to that format when my bankroll is bigger than $45.

Good luck at the tables

Donkaments

I like this word, it has a nice ring to it and rolls off the tongue like a barrel of brandy. It also encapsulates the way I have been playing recently. Following the last update I decided to focus on Omaha STTs. This went quite well and I nudged my Betfair account over £200 (from about £125) for the first time in ages. Even had a go at 6-paks and turbos, still cashing in about 50% and winning 25%. Until this week.

Last night I was 0 for 4, went to bed thinking I had been rivered out in all 4 games I played - OK the $10 PLO turbo mtt I was - but used the new betfair hand browser and can honestly say the other 3 exits were all shite play on my part. Can't believe I got all in with 88xx preflop, what a useless fish.

Anyway, having realised I lost because I played bad last night, I'm going to go and play again now and will be pwning all-comers.

PS. Party Poker gave me $30 to play with for free, found that I do reasonably well in the $6 Omaha HiLo games, although the 20% fee is a bit high, and to be honest, the balance is now below $20 (having been up to $60). Still don't like the interface, but the standard of play is generally dire at this level and I ought to be doing better. Maybe not tilting away my stack would be a good start.

BFWCOP III Update

Posted this to the Betfair forum, but here is a bit more of a permanent record.

Friday started well, 8:30am call cancelling my first ever golf lesson after my dog had woken me up at 4:00am. Decided that I would share bug phil's buggy, which I really needed, both because he's a good talker and because we had a lot of running about to do chasing my ball. Ended up going round in 140 and winning the most golf prize (which covered most of the cost of my round).

Team event went really well for me, found myself on a table of rocks and lucked up a bit vs Reraise after a couple of hours. He raised my BB for the 4th or 5th time and I had AJ, so assuming it was a steal I pushed all in. He called with AQ, but a J spiked the flop and I had a big stack.

After that the game went really quick. I kept raising 10-10ks BB because he kept letting me have it, until he decided to call when I actually had a hand (AK) with an A hi flop. Took Ariston out and heads up against nibbles I was about 90:10 in chips and although he held on bravely, the odds were always in my favour. Turns out that table 1 was the first to finish. Doob came 6th on his table and he was knocked out after I had won.

Day two and the main event saw me sitting to mandylou's left. First time have played against him, so a few hands in when he raised pre I folded a big pair (never again...), but after about an hour of him playing 70% of the pots everyone on the table knew he ws playing loose. We had a spectator (philbet's wife), which was a bit unnerving to start with, but I did get used to it after a while.

Played very rock like and didn't get many good starting hands until AA utg. Raised 3x BB and SB reraised me. So, checked his stack and decided 8k was enough to put him all in so that was my raise. SB start to move chips forwards and dealer says "on their backs" and I flipped my cards. SB had not moved his chips over the line and stopped. Aaarrghhh. TD was called and ruled that SB could fold if he wanted (I had won a few K from his reraise), which after a lot of thought he did (?). ML then quietly told me that my hand could have been considered mucked - so I got away with a mistake, albeit one driven by the dealer. Won't do that again in a hurry.

After 2nd break I don't remember going to a showdown until we went past the bubble after the 3rd break. We actually burst it quite quickly in the end and putmeonpal managed to put us all in the money (sitting to my left he went for a pot with a big ace and missed). I had about 24k stack and found QQ, raised and was put all in by table big stack with his AJ and doubled up nicely. Very quickly, maybe next hand, I had A10 in the big blind and kp raised to 7k from unopened SB. Decided that I needed to go for a big stack, so pushed all in and he called with AA. Left me short, but final position of 15th meant that both me and my roomy doob(chronic) had cashed for the second year running and it was time to get lashed.

Was really great to meet everyone, especially the flashmob and it was nice to sit next to Carl for a couple of hours bitching about the rest of the table. StevieP was a great substitute for the team game, finishing 3rd on his table despite being blind drunk. Well done to Snap, can't believe it took 5 hours to go from 15 to 1, but guess that the 10 minute pauses while snap decided to call an all in with KK probably drove that. Trash talk of the highest order on the final table and the final hand to formally decide the winner was:

snap - 27o
tuvok - 26o

flop - 286
turn - 7
river - who cares?

See you all next year (hopefully)

summer break is over

My balances took a bit of a hammering in early August, managed to turn over $300 on Pokerchamps into $120. Thankfully I went on holiday and had 2 weeks off. First game on my return was a 20:35 PLO MTT on Betfair, doubled first hand and won it about 30 minutes later (16 runnners...).

Managed to get the BF balance up to about £75 by the start of last week, but seemed to max out and could not make it go up further and needed to register for BFWCOP III. Added £50 last night and registered so can't wimp out of it now. Looking forward to meeting up with everyone - though AJ can't make it this year on account of his extended holiday - follow the link to his blog for more details.

As luck would have it, I have not managed to get home from work in time to play the 20:35 again since the day I came back and the weekend opportunities were missed. Until tonight. Played with my Pokerchamps account and ended up sitting to the left of the LAG chip leader on the FT. Was quite easy to play, he was pot raising every hand and all I had to do was wait for AA to appear in my hands and push. This he did 3 times on the bubble, making us roughly joint chip leaders when we were down to 3 and in the money. Then HU, he had AA and I flopped 2 pr 5-10 that held firm. If you see horsey44, he's quite prepared to enter into some good natured banter and then give you all his chips. What a top bloke.

So, $10 in, $110 back, Pokerchamps account now looking more respectable at $250. :)

Also deposited on Sun Poker again last week and spunked the lot playing like a tosser. Can't believe I change my style so much just because the interface is different.

Anyway, next post will probably be write up of BFWCOP III, hopefully will have something interesting to talk about and hopefully a decent cash again.

belated june update and july in-running

Final STT results on Pokerchamps for June:
CASHED: 26/49
TOTAL OUT: 310.25 TOTAL IN: 406.50
GAMES: 16 x 2.50, 15 x 5.00, 17 x 10.00

Played a couple of satellite MTTs for no return
Betfair balance about the same as it was

So far this month has been pretty good. When BF was down last week I put £25 onto VC and managed 4th in a $10 PLO mtt, followed this with 11th in the same tourney on Saturday. When 2nd of 11, close 3rd place decided he would take me on from flop with 2nd pair and flush draw - which hit on the river - I lasted 2 more hands.

Yesterday played on Pokerchamps and spotted ajcairns registered for a $25 STT. Have seen him on a few of these and decided that if he could play at this level, so could I. Shortly before the off snap joined and we had a mini-flashmob. Better still was the flush I flopped on hand 1, which doubled me - I had 2 callers with a royal flush draw showing, though I had the J, and the Q was missing, it still didn't stop the holder of the 8 raising into me and a 3rd player calling. After that I held my own and made the final 3 in 2nd, took snap out in 2 hands and was left 10:3 against with the chip leader. This was clearly not enough of an advantage for him and I pulled it back to evens and took his 77 on with AK all in preflop - K duly hit and I had won my first $25 STT 2 hands later. Player I beat HU was the first hand raiser...

Balances now:
Pokerchamps $334
Betfair £62
VC £35

[btw this is not intended to be a slur on aj, I reckon we are very evenly matched and anything he can do in poker, so can I and vice versa]

Bastards!

I hate Friday night poker players.

2 hands into a satellite I get QQ, get reraised preflop by player behind me, call and raise blank flop for pot - reraised all in I called to see him show AK - which duly hit the K on the river and I was out

Much the in the $5 mtt and the $11 PLO STT and I get a bit tilty, so piss away my stack in the next 2 $11 STTs. Up until 2 hours ago my Pokerchamps account was up to $275, now it's back down to $226.

The Pokerchamps site is all fucked up as well, STT tables appear and don't start for ages, then when you do get knocked out they keep coming back up like the ghost of Christmas Past. Don't think this week's upgrade was very successful.

I reserve the right to post only when I am winning

I actually sat down and worked through some of my records recently, been meaning to do it for a while... this is all Pokerchamps a/c

STTs:
=====
April: CASHED: 33/65 TOTAL OUT: 397.75 TOTAL IN: 379.5
May: CASHED: 22/54 TOTAL OUT: 419.75 TOTAL IN: 400.00
June so far: CASHED: 18/33 TOTAL OUT: 180.75 TOTAL IN: 250.00

Balance currently standing at $217, meaning it has gone up $10 since the last update.

On Betfair the account is now at £65 following a couple of reasonable weeks on STTs, plus a $50 cash on a Maxim King of Poker freeroll. This also means I am qualified for the final next week - see AJ's blog since he won this last month. He finished 5th in the same qualifier so we are both qualified. 10:30pm was a strange start time but I played my nuts off until the final table. On the way hit a very nice FH after raising preflop with 67o into table calling station, who called every street until I hit the 76 FH on the river for a 100k pot. Final table I made the money and then a very tired mistake by reraising the UTG raiser with AJ and ran into AK. Oh well, it was 2:15am and I was going to work the next day.

Monthly Summary

Quick check of the last update suggests I have gone nowhere, Pokerchamps account is at $207 and Betfair about £20. This masks the variations I have had over the past 6 weeks or so.

Pokerchamps a/c nearly made $300, but then played on a Friday night and managed 0/7 STTs. Did the same the next week and suddenly the balance was $140.

So, reassessed what I was doing and decided to focus more on the PLO games. Have also played 2 small Omaha MTTs, cashing in both but not quite manaig the win (HU I ran 2 pr into a flopped set 2s...).

Yesterday decided I would go for an STT marathon (wife away for the day) and played 12 - cashing in 11. Also played 1 MTT (3rd) and 2 qualifiers. Nearly qualified in first, but ran my pocket Qs into the chip leader who could not put down his flush draw - the inevitable happened on the river. Should have known really, he was a calling station and only in first place because he had been hitting good cards.

Repeat after me

I must not play from utg on the bubble against the chip leader when I am in 2nd... done this a few times recently and been knocked out. Usually happens when I am playing after a hard day and concentration drops. Think I have mostly started to notice the signs for this - i.e. numpty exits close or on the bubble - but stopping this happening would really see my results shoot up.

Have played a couple of sessions of cash Omaha, with the usual result. I have worked out that joining a table where more than one of the players has more than 4 times the max buy-in is a good sign that you will probably lose money.

Still managing to place regularly in STTs, mostly in $5 and $10 STTs, though occasionally do go for a $2.50. Bankroll on Pokerchamps has increased again to $205. Still not redeposited on BF yet, but as I seem to have been blocked from posting to the forum think I will leave it for a bit. Don't get any incentives for playing through the blue monster interface and the PK green one has enough to keep me busy for a few months.

Have even managed a couple of STT cashes and wins on VC. Trying to make myself focus on the games I know I can win at there (NLH STTs) and stop playing the Omaha HiLo STTs - I love it but the returns are not the same as I can get from NLH. Balance there about £22 now, from a low of about £3.

Seconditis

Two posts in one weekend, wow!

Just finishing up for the night, having played 2 each of $2.50, $5.00 and $10 STTs on Pokerchamps (all 9 seaters). Came second in 4 out of the 6 - at least I cashed in both the $10 games - but really must not give away my chips so easily when HU. Still, balance on there is now $175 so am doing something right.

Recent good form is down to ensuring I make the money in STTs, even if it guarantees coming 3rd, because all the other finishing positions are zero return. Guess all the seconds mean that I need to concentrate on hands a bit more after crossing the value line.

Swings, roundabouts and a new name

Can't remember if I posted how low my pokerchamps account went, but it was under $1 around the turn of the year. Today, without reloading, it is as high as it has ever been at $130 and I am converting 2 in 3 STTs, mostly in the $2.5 - $10 range. Same software as BF, same players, much better results.

Betfair account was running along fairly flat until couple of days ago at around £25, but a bad STT run and a complete donking in a $25 PLO has put it down to £0.70. Decided I would see how difficult a $25 could be, first hand I ended up all-in in a 3-way pot preflop. What a dickhead, I would never do that in a $2.5 game, so why in a $25?

Last STT on BF took a sick beating being called by egit with 2 pair from flop to my nut straight. Pot raise, pot rase, all in and obviously hits FH on river... but last laugh with me on this one I think, since have just seen him go out first in an STT tonight.

VC a/c still has some cash in but not much, am only playing the $5 hilo stts on there at the moment. If I'm not tired I play well and break even, if I am the balance drops slowly.

Finally, decided I would change my BF forum name to something different. Everyone else was doing it and I did feel a little uncomfortable about sharing my name with someone who is getting on a bit. So just before BF stopped the gap I changed my name to "M" - just in case you had not recognized the posting style already.

A Poker Lesson

Since christmas have managed to resist the urge to dump large parts of my stack, until last weekend. Decided I wantedto step back up to the $0.5-1.0 which is well beyond the scope of a social bank of£75 - which promptly turned itself into a £15 bank. Decided that would invest most of it in the Betfair Gold Cup since it was $10k added.

Early on not much action, moved up slowly to about 2.5k when decided to take on the short stack (800) on BB with KQ - bad move since he had AA. Few more rounds later and I was down to about 1100 chips and dealt 99 - all-in, insta called by the previous short stack who had AA again. A 9 on the flop saw me double up and from then until the bubble I played some pretty good poker.

3rd break time and I was 34 of 55 with cash starting at 54 with about 16k chip. First hand back I am BB for 2k, get dealt QQ. Table big stack (48k) makes it 6k to go from 2nd position - as usual, he was raising with nothing having had a caller when he pushed in with 85. I thought about what to do. Easy, tell him he needs a big pair to beat me and push... so I did. With little time to think he calls with AJo, I survived the flop, but the turn brought an Ace and I thought I had blown it. Luckily, someone else had managed to go out before me so I picked up the $74 for coming last in the money places.

Next time, wait and use the timebank - will at least give me the option of pushing if someone else goes out in the meantime. Otherwise it will be an easy fold - I would still have had over 10k in chips at a time when most players seems to be fighting over who can go out first.

My Tribeca skin decided to pull out of VC when they moved, so I now own a shiny new VC Account. First £50 deposited during the weekend of tilt saw it whittled down to about £15 playing cash. Decided should really take a look at the STT action and find the standard very soft. If I can win 6 out of 8 six packs in various flavour it can't be strong. Means have recovered bank to about £40 and think I will focus on these games for a bit on this site while I build up.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Quick quiz: the lack of recent updates clearly indicates:
a) a loss of interest in writing
b) a loss of form - who wants to report their losses to the whole world
c) too much work on for much time to play poker never mind write about it
d) all of the above

Answer d) - though still like the idea of keeping this going - this will be my 22nd post and the blog is now 7 months old

Since my last update I have managed to wipe out the Mansion a/c, having decided it was a good idea to enter the $100k one Sunday afternoon when drunk - it was a good idea, just the wrong time to execute it.

Jennings has now moved to a new network, tested it yesterday with £0.54 PLO HU game (starting balance £0.55). Won that, balance now £1.01 - maybe I should start a $1 to $10k and see how long it takes to get wiped out?

Betfair is plodding on around £75 balance, recent ill advised rugby bet on England bet still leaving me smarting because I was too stupid to lay it off.

Sun Poker a/c is currently dormant. Maybe need to rethink my strategy as a good start on the new a/c eventually ran into a bad run - perhaps being poker tracked teaches your opponents too much. More likely it is tilt causing me to stay in when I should not, especially after I make a mistake and try and recover losses.

Since the delays were fixed on BF I have played quite a bit there. Finding form comes and goes quite quickly, but generally I only play to satisfy my competitive streak so I don't embarass my boys by turning into "competitive dad" when watching them play football/rugby at the weekends. Still, last time I deposited was £25 at the beginning of January and I still have more than that in the account now.

I wonder if the new hand histories that are available now will make any difference to the opposition? Probably not at the $10 STT level, but will be interesting to see how I get on over the coming few weeks.

Time for an Update

Been a bit topsy turvy lately.

After having a $100 up day on Sun the last time I posted, I managed a $150 down the next day followed by another $75 the day after. Made the bank look a bit slim so have not played much on their recently. I think next Christmas would be the best time to play cash on there again. Came 11th in a £2 mtt going down to the table calling station 3 hands running - should definitely have made the final table and that was one that really got away.

On Betfair I seem to have run into a bit of form. In the HU tourney I beat Chivu in a 100 hand "thriller". Followed this by 2-1 against divaflava: 1st game was won with 1010 vs overcards, lost 2nd with 1010 vs overcards. In the final game I don't remember being in trouble at all and can't remember what the final hand was.

Played against duffs straight after in the semi, two perfect games later, while he had no cards at all, I was in the final. Flopped a spade flush with two low cards, with straight potential. Turn was another spade and we traded small bets, river gave me the straight flush which I slightly overbet to see him fold his Jack. Last hand was a slow played AA where I just let him bet into me for the game. Lovely. Could be a while before the final since pennick is in Australia and he is holding up a quarter final in the other half of the draw.

Managed to play the Flashmob $50 added on BF on Sunday night, only 1 table but it still reached the break. When we were down to 4 or 5 left I was feeling a bit short stacked and chanced my KJ against nibbles all in reraise. This smelled weak to me which is why I called. When he turned over 55 I felt vindicated, but he did give me some abuse (probably deserved) after the hand. Eventually came third to dibble taking me out pushing with 77 when he was 3:1 chip leader.

Betfair statement now showing 5 consecutive HU STT wins, which is nice. History suggests I won't be able to keep this up, but while it lasts I guess I should keep following the same path.

GL to anyone still reading this :)