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:
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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 :)

Holiday Update

Not sure if I should admit to playing on Christmas Day even if the rest of the family had gone to bed... alright I didn't. There, feel better now I have denied it.

Entered the Betfair Forum HU tourney and played my first round match against seasider1. While trying to sit down for the tourney I was gatecrashed by sweatpollock. 3 hands in I get AA, so a 3xBB raise goes in, which is reraised. Can't believe my luck and we end up all in pre-flop and he has Q10o. He hit trips on the flop to end the game. Things don't always work out like you think they should.

Eventually managed to sit down with the right player. Only came from behind once when I pushed A4 against a mid-pair and hit the A, apart from that the chips didn't really go in unless I thought I was ahead. The 77th and last hand was the 22 monster, which I had folded earlier in the match, up against A3 - all in pre-flop and a 2 hit the flop to see me through to the 2nd round against the_yarv or chivu.

On the cash tables, I have been plugging away on the PLO and PLO8 tables on Sun, with my balance now up to $206. Not really played any STTs or MTTs recently on there, apart from a £400 gtd this morning, where I came 27th trying to steal a pot as the blinds started to creep up.

1x$5 STT on Mansion for no result. Traffic on that site is quite low at the moment, but it does seem quiet most places at the moment.

The Sun Always Shines on my PC

So, have had my account on Sun for nearly 3 weeks now and currently, bank is standing at $141 up from starting roll of $100. Had a nice couple of days on Omaha and HiLo that has turned what was a stationary balance into one that is going up. Tonight I had to wait to get on the .15-.25 table for about 20 minutes, then when I was on I had 3 tables up and accidentally closed it and lost my seat. Instead of wanting to wait for another 25 minutes I moved to the .5-1.0 table and made 50% before deciding it was really too high for my roll and left. That being said, I did not think the standard of play was very good, it was in fact clearly worse than the lower stakes table.

Have not played much on the STT front - 1x £5 yesterday where I identified the A-rag monkey and proceeded to get knocked out by him on the bubble. At least I knew he was the most likely to hit a runner runner and because of that it did not put me off my game when it happened.

On Mansion I have played 1x 9 handed $10 stt since the last update - it took 90 minutes to get heads up then lost to a draw - but a cash is a cash. Oppo was a right classless twat who was clueless about how to play, but brilliant at winding up all the other players on the table. They all ended up tilting their stacks away, he kept quiet when heads up until after the winning card had been dealt, thankfully.

Have not played on Betfair recently, even though they have sorted out the delays between hands. Will go for the Christmas HU forum comp and see how it goes before deciding whether to wait for an improved interface to turn up.

A New Dawn

Courtesy of dibble's link I now have a shiny new Sun Poker account. It's nice to be back on Crypto and I managed to copy over the old notes file I had from Betfair I. This tells me that there are still a lot players active on there I have been playing for more than a year. Initial results have been good, though I did let dibble talk me into playing the ntx express first night, which saw me go out to AJ calling my all in with KK as the blinds ratcheted up. Have since managed to move my account back into positive territory playing STTs and a little bit of cash, plus managed a 2nd place in a £2 mtt, though not that many runners and I did tilt a little at the end managing to lose when ahead by playing too loose.

Betfair gave me some free money, so my account there is back up to £16 from £1.80 last week and will now aim to win 5 STTs on the trot to win a BF Santa prize. Played a $2.50 STT earlier, made a poor call with J9 vs AJ and hit the 9 I needed to double up and tilt the eventual 2nd place. Rocked up a bit after that, though the table thought I was playing rubbish cards and under-estimated me right to the end when my 99 was good enough to beat AQ heads-up. Might have to try a more loose aggressive approach again and see what happens.

Mansion account is £15 in credit, cashed in 3 out of 5 last STTs, but the rake on the $5 tourneys is $1, so I need to push up to the next level asap or stop playing on the site. Interface is nice, BF could have bought it instead of Pokerchamps and done us all a favour, still could IMO. Traffic is a little light, which makes game choices a little limited, but the small stake STTs fill eventually and the standard is woeful.

same old same old

so, can't say I have been playing well lately. just read highstacks latest blog update and could copy and paste the exact same paragraph here. however, you should read his blog, it's a compelling read and much better written than this one.

have burned through the rest of my balance on betfair, so am going to give that a rest for a week or two. have found myself playing against 2 opponents more than once when I thought there was only one other still in the hand. don't like the interface at all and the 12 plays don't really appeal either.

have played a couple of $12 rebuys on the tribeca network, went close both times. first time went out unnecessarily 10 places from the bubble when deciding I would go all in against big stack with oe str8 draw - with slightly above average stack. second time about the same, but this time just ran out of chips and took a chance that went down. need to remember how to play the later stages of mtts, I can do it, just not right now

elsewhere have only got any money left on mansion, where I am not overly endowed with funds. so, with christmas coming up I think I will probably cut back a little and maybe spend a little more time on the tribeca skin. the 6 seater stts are very soft and my strike rate in them is around 50%, just need to steer clear of the mtts that my bank roll can't afford

Slowly Does It

So, Betfair moved onto the Pokerchamps platform and completely fucked everything up - the site has gone to the dogs, the forum is deserted and most of those still posting are pissed off with the site. My form has been frankly terrible, when I have been playing, I have been losing. Simple solution to that problem, don't play.

Easier said than done of course, it's a hobby I enjoy for the most part, but when my bank is done this time I will take a break until the 12 plays of christmas, or BF make their interface look like the old crypto one.

GL at the tables!

Can I Be Bothered to Post?

Put simply no :)

Have been far too busy lately to devote much time to poker and even less to blogging. Footie and rugby seasons have started, which means I am out all weekend with my boys and learning how to play golf with them too.

When I have played recently I have found my STT and MTT form is absent, I think I need to recover my patience, but have made some progress playing small stakes pot limit Omaha.

I find that particularly with cash, timing the departure from the table right determines how much retained profit you carry over to the next day. It is reasonably easy to double your starting stack and I will do this more often than I will lose it. However, moving on from doubling to treble or more is usually only something that you can manage when the really loose players are out. Therefore, once I hit the double up, it is probably time for me to leave the table. Putting theory into practise is not always my forte - posting to a blog is one way of reminding myself what should be done.

The Opposite of Tilt

Well, having posted that update two days ago I finally accepted that I was on tilt. I guess I knew I was, but was obviously in denial about it. Bizarre that it all came about after the result at BFWCOP. Subsequent to the eye opening, I have felt much more confident in my game and as a result have played much more like I know I can. That and I had a really good kip last night: flaked out about 10 and overslept until 7am - 9 hours = almost a whole weekend's sleep in one night!

Two games tonight:
- 1x £5 nlh stt on Betfair - 1st: With a little help from my friends AA, QQ and TT
- 1x$10 nlh 6-seater on Mansion - 1st: Timed levels, plenty of opportunity to recover from early setbacks, without the lunacy on the BF 6 packs. Table not good, only 2 out of the 6 players were of any decent standard and we both made the money.

Upgrade Hell

I upgraded my antivirus and firewall last week, which meant I couldn't post updates to my blog until I had worked out how to enable all the nasty components you obviously need to enter text into an html word processor...

Gave me time to think about why I have been on a bit of a losing streak since the BFWCOP. Managed not to come last in the Flashmob on Sunday by a whisker, falling for some table banter from dbth who had flopped nut str8 when I had top pair with str8 and flush draws that did not come. Did the same on Mansion on Friday too. Maybe the solution is to withdraw 90% of my balance to enforce some discipline in my play - which is where I have been falling down.

Congrats to dibble for winning a trip to the BAPT in Singapore with 5 consecutive STTs on Betfair. This is no mean feat for any level of player.

Friday Night Update

So, wasn't necessarily planning an update, but reading the latest version of Betfair's The Deal newsletter I find I have made my mark.

Which of the forumites would you most like to play heads-up against?

It would have to be anyone but Milton Bradley, 2 hours, or whatever it was, was quite enough for me! If I had to choose though I’d probably like to play KingHawko, especially if I am lucky enough to keep cracking his J4 off with AA.

Nuff respect to strokeit, would be tough to play him heads up again too, although in retrospect I did enjoy it a lot. Hopefully will get the chance to play him heads up again in the future.

I won the Betfair STT I entered as was updating last time, meaning I am no longer super tilt on sharkscope. Tried a bluff on the Pokerchamps $1k guaranteed that saw me knocked out when I was down to about 15 x BB and haven't played since.

The Curse of Withdrawal

Took £1800 out of Betfair as a result of BFWCOP. The inevitable has happened, in that I seem to have been unable to play a game of marbles since. Have played a few STTs, the first of which I was blinded out because I had my MTT head on. Also played in the Flashmob on Sunday and fished myself out. Slightly better on the cash tables in that so far have managed to play two Omaha sessions without loss, though am working on fixing that record as I type.

On Pokerchamps have been running much better, 3rd and 1st in the $5 11:00pm MTT, one fail in another $5 MTT and a win and a place in 2 STTs. Balance now up to over $130 on that site. I have been tempted to enter tonights $1k guaranteed as it seems to be excellent value given the relative lack of runners, looks like it's going to be a $375 added.

[Late update, just checked sharkscope and found I am on Super Tilt. It's STT time!]

BFWCOP II Review

So, played my biggest live tourney last weekend. Put it more simply, it was the second live MTT and only the 4th time I had played poker live. Following is extracted from my posting to the betfair forum with another couple of thoughts at the end.
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It was excellent to meet up with all the posters from the Betfair forum and the flashmob certainly managed a good turnout at the bar on Friday.

In the team event, I was playing on a table with JPJ and Hawko. Clearly my idea to have a flashmob last longest by time bet was a bad idea with these 2 loons chucking their chips around. Eventually, from SB I flat called with KQ against JPJ who checked. Flop was K9x, so I checked and JP was all in - an easy call based on his aggression. I was delighted when he showed 9-5, until the 5 came on the turn and I was on my way out. Spent the rest of the evening drinking Guinness with team Flash (almost all early exits) and sat down for an STT with Pennick, playing any two cards he beat my AK with the 8-4 monster. Congrats to boro for winning his table and the flash last longest bet.

Next day decided I was going to stay sober and drive, so me and AJ went out and found a cafe for breakfast about 12:00. Breakfast No.3 with beans and black pudding certainly put some colour back into my cheeks and we even bumped into the dutch representative of paddy poker.

Arrived at the club and seemed to wait for an eternity for the game to start, it eventually got underway around 2:30ish with 109 payers. Started in Seat 6 and looked down for the first had - AA! Called early raise as was first hand and watched an Ace appear on the flop with 2 hearts. Turn made it worse by putting the 3rd heart out but as no raise from the other player, I put in a 1 k raise on the river and he called with AK. Off and running.

Played very tight for ages, then when the blinds started to go up I was moved to a table with estelle, doobs and kp. I think i arrived with about 10-12k of chips when the blinds were 600-1200. By the time the blinds were up to 2-4k I was down to 8K of chips - 88 in the hole and I was all in to double up. Almost next hand A9 suited, push and hope - that was me up to 36k. Then not for the first or last time I was dealt AA. Small blind goes all in with 44 and an easy call sees me up to around the 65k mark.

Down to about 10 or 11 left and am feeling confident, AQ suited on the button and I raised. Doobs was sitting on BB with 88 and we both ended up all in pre-flop. Flop QAQ and the 8 on the river meant that even if had slow played the FH, I was always going to be taking 63 out of his 64k stack. He doubled 2 or 3 times before eventually going out on the SB - but I was sitting on about 120k of chips and heading for the final table.

When the final table was brought together, I was sitting down with a lot of people I had read postings from and about. Regalfish, Strokeit, Martin Green, nibbles, verapera, Sunday8pm, highstack and two others whose names I didn't know (even though I sat next to one of them for about 6 hours...)

Started very tight, watching sunday and martin playing more often than not. As the blinds started to go up, I took out a few of the shorter stacks (not sure if the order is right):

highstacks - I have AA in blinds with 120k, strokeit 35k raise from utg (must have big Ace), highstacks all in with 80k (assume big pair) - ergo I am ahead of both and the only way to keep strokeit out is to go all in - I did and he folded - flop Jxx (OMG I have one out), turn A and there was no help on the river - I moved into 2nd or 3rd after this hand
verapera - AQ vs 88, board 99 10 10 x meant that I took it with the ace high
Martin Green - my QQ vs his KK when he was short stack - I hit a Q on the flop

After we eventually agreed a chop with 5 left (my fault for wanting a slightly better deal than was offered), we started playing for the package only. This loosened the table up for a bit with the bigger stacks bullying the smaller ones.
regalfish - I think AQ vs 55 and I hit a queen
sunday8pm - AK vs JJ, he had just been hit by strokeit and I had him covered and hit my bigger pair

Strokeit took out Nibbles with a bigger straight and it was heads up. Embarassingly at one stage I had about 75% of the chips. I made my one playing mistake of the day and called with KJ all in and he was back ahead about 55-45. He made his mistake then and reminded me more than once how bad I had played that hand - it helped me get my concentration back again and for the next hour or so it was a real grind. We swapped dealers a few times and the cameraman fell asleep in the corner.

As the clock came round to 4:00am strokeit proposed a chop and I accepted, we would go one hand cards face up for the bracelet and bfwcop championship. Strokeit won with a pair of Kings and at last I could do something about getting to bed, nearly 14 hours poker is a pretty tough ask. I think I really only made the one mistake, but you might have noticed above I came from behind 3 times with AQ at critical times. A big thanks to the dealers who gave me 7 AAs on the night: all of them held up, 4 for significant pots and only 2 for the blinds.

Enjoyed the banter on all the tables, especially with nibbles when we were down to 4. I still don't want to tell him what I had for my all in bet when he had 88 on the Big Blind.
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Having reflected on this for a couple of days now, I honestly consider myself extremely lucky. I came from behind 6 times in the list above and though I always had a strong hand until the q8 where I conspicuously failed to hit, it was still less than evens every time. Against highstacks I was down to 5% after the flop but still came through. So, will bask in the warm glow for a few more days before I decide whether or not to move onto MTTs or try and play a bit more live.

Given all the bad beats I took last week, I feel very much like karma gave me them all back, in Spades (AQ) in one night,

Made about $25 last night playing Omaha cash, lost 1 £5 STT tonight by playing like a rock until I got blinded out.