Vegas WSOP Trip 2010

Brief summary of my trip.

Flew BA from Heathrow where I eventually recognised John Tabatabai in the queue for the extra security checks at the gate, but only when the security guard tried to pronounce his name. Checked in to the Rio and went to bed, but slept quite bad, like I did for the whole week. No fault of the Rio, room was fine, clean, bed was great, just on the wrong timezone.

Got up next day and registered for the $1500 PLO8 along with 850 or so other players. My first table was quitean interesting, mixture of players, all of whom seemed to know at least the basics of the split pot game. I was in seat 2, Brandon Cantu was 2 to my right in seat 10, guy on my immediate right was a $2-4 PLO8 cash grinder who plays on Stars.

Early action saw a lag in seat 6 get felted a couple of times, he tilted quite bad when Stars grinder rivered quad 9s to scoop a pot. This led to my first competitive hand, when I called his ep raise with A26K and got all in on a Q8x flop. He had A29K, which was exactly the kind of hand I was expecting to see. I had better lo draw and a backdoor flush, which duly came in on the river for my first 1k+ pot. Got some more chips from seat 3 on my button when I turned a set of 9s and no lo came in. Eventually worked my stack up to about 4k or so and felt comfortable.

Critical hand for my whole tournament happened about 1/2 hour from end of Level 4, I raised pot pre from cut off with AA56, small blind called with 9TJQ. Flop was 38J rainbow and we got all in with my expectation about .61. Turn 3 improved this to .68 but the river 10 gave him his straight and the scoop. Hit that and I would have been approaching a 10k stack. As it was I was down to 3k having not used any of my rebuy chips at all.

Table dynamic immediately changed, previously I had raised UTG and seen the whole table fold to me. Tried it was A246 later and got called 5 times. This was lucky as I got quartered for the lo and still only saw my stack go from 3.5k to 3k. Took out the Stars grinder just before the table broke with another rivered flush and moved with about 7k stack. This was not enough on 150-300 blinds, especially when you are card dead and moved to 2 tables with player who had mega stacks and raised every hand.

Looking back at the second table, I can't think of a better hand than A48J , but to stay in with it would have meant calling 20% of my stack. Third table I was dealt and raised A234 from the button, but the flop was 2 hi and that was the last hand that would have potentially given me any returns. Of the better players, there were no hands that stood out that I thought I would have played differently to the way they did.

Also played a couple of $200 hold em tournaments, less said about these the better. I have completely forgotten how to play hold em tournaments and might as well have tried some $1-3 or $5-5 cash with the buy-ins I dropped.

Anyway, back in the UK for 24 hours before I fly out to New York on business on Tuesday. Then I will start focusing on building up my bankroll so I can go back next year.

The Devilfish Wears Prada

Well, actually maybe he doesn't but he did make me laugh when I was railing the $5k PLO8 on my last day in Vegas. Check out the photo to the right, he has removed a curtain from one of the trolleys and wrapped himself up in it like a toga. At the time my initial thoughts were, "wtf, he is wearing curtains, what a c**t". However, it was only me being a bit of a twat and I soon warmed to the funny side of it, especially when he tried to wave it around like a matador's cape as he moved tables. Not long after I took the picture he left early for the break and returned sporting a shiny new hoodie. He was also more than happy to pose for photos with anyone who asked with a smile and some banter.

Have Macbook will travel

All packed apart from my toothbrush, will be on my way to Vegas tomorrow.

Managed to turn round my form a lot, balance on Full Tilt is now in the $300 region, with my Pokerstars account almost at the same level (from under $100). As ever, the problems started with a move to cash - this time Rush Poker - which unbalanced my tournament game and as a result played bad until I remembered how to play SNGs.

Hopefully will be able to post some updates, either here or on Twitter as electricchair99.

May Wrap Up

As the regular reader will know, I hate posting during a downswing. As I had second my most losing month ever in May ($450 down), I guess posting the end of month round up means I think it has turned. My worst ever month was May 2009 ($465), which was followed by going on a massive heater in June. I suppose I can hope the same happens in 2010. The thought has occurred to me that it is because the pros who inhabit the O8 games I played might have gone to the WSOP. I expect I will know pretty soon anyway.

Speaking of WSOP, I have everything crossed hoping that the BA strikes don't impact my flights. If I had been flying this week or last I would have been OK and I think the timing means that the union would have to run a new ballot (and get it past the BA lawyers) before they announce any more strikes. All I need now is for the $ to weaken a couple of points in the next week before I buy some.

Unlucky for Some

It's all gone a bit pear shaped in the last week. I can almost track it to a single hand during the O8 FTOPS, when I tilted a lot after playing well for about 2 1/2 hours, and losing a pot against a short stack for about 4k, out of a 14k stack. Since that time I have not cashed in 13 STTs, as well as dropping $150+ on O8 rush tables. Bit frustrating all round really, including my out hand in the last STT.

In the BB with 1700 chips and A356, button has 475, chip leader is SB with 6k+. Folds round to SB who bets 1k, so I push He turns over KKJ10 and the board gives me no help at all and I am gone. I could have tried foldingd into the money, but that would have meant I had less chance of winning overall.

Ah well, time for bed and will be back again tomorrow.

End of March Round-up

Not much to report since the last update, apart from a welcome continued upward trend in my gross rake and profit for the month. Overall profit about $380, despite a complete failure yesterday when I dumped $80 in pretty short order. Now in profit on the Rush O8, but it has changed my game so that I can no longer hit a barn door on the STTs. Managed to earn a total of $115 rake back for the month, which is like 4 months of normal payments. This cash game could become addictive.

Hotel booked for my Vegas WSOP trip, decided to stay in the Rio so I can fall out of bed and roll down the stairs to the games.

Alan Green is a Dickhead

I know why of course, just not sure why I feel compelled to this as the heading on my blog update. Actually, if anything I think that is a bit light and I could have used any of the extra strong swearwords instead. What triggered it was Radio 5, probably commentary on the Man Utd- Liverpool game on Sunday. Such an apologist for Liverpool, so much so that he makes Lord Haw Haw look like Mary, Mungo and Midge. He's also the most negative commentator, "like ever". Even if the referee is having a bad day, or the game is not the greatest show on earth, there's no need to moan about it so much you forget to describe the action.

Anyway, back on topic, the pokerrrzz.

February turned out to be a complete washout, at one stage I was $500 down for the month, almost exclusively playing SNGs but with some PLO Rush poker losses too. As usual, not sure what was driving it, but if I could have won what felt like a share of my races against pimpdaddydolla and pena82 the position would have been very different, final score $245 loss.

March started with what was supposed to be a week's poker break, with a trip to Boston for work. Flew in on the Saturday as the flight cost was £400 instead of £1200. This meant I had the whole of Sunday evening to myself, and as the devil makes work for idle hands, I was soon installing Full Tilt on my work laptop and taking on the US time zone players. I noticed a difference in quality straight away and over the course of a couple of evenings bumped my balance on Full Tilt up from $850 to $1,100, just playing a few $11/22 hilo turbo STTs.

I continued reasonably well when I got back to the UK and Full Tilt opened up O8 Rush poker. My first few attempts were a bit hit or miss, which I eventually worked out was because I was getting too wrapped up in the "rush" effect. Am down $40 overall, which is one buy-in at the only O8 stakes in play, entirely the result of a tilted bust yesterday. But, I feel comfortable enough to play more than one buy-in at a time and it certainly turbo-charges the rakeback. Currently I am on target to easily have my biggest ever month of rake generated, approaching $200, which means over $50 back already, compared to my normal average of $30. Am also starting to recognize the regular players, just need to work out the best way to deal with the aggressive ones that raise out of position pre-flop and then bet flop turn and river - I know they don't have it every single hand.

Also, slight strategy change, I have decided not to play Rush and STTs concurrently. They each require a different approach, which I am OK with individually, but just tilts me stupid when I try and play them at the same time.

March profit to date $310.
2010 running total $1213.
Sharkscope SNG lifetime Profit $2,499 - looks like a generally consistently upwards slope on the graph too.



Silver Star disappeared yesterday, have not played many PLO STTs this month as was focusing on the lower variance game to get back on track. Here's what it looked like back at the beginning on February.

Against the Grain

Quick round up for January.

Given how poor my results were in January 2008 and 2009, I was prepared for a downswing in 2010. I will be honest, I did my best to allow history to repeat itself. Rush Poker on Full Tilt is just that, a faster way to lose at cash. Down about $250 and I won't likely be back again in the near future.

Looking at my Sharkscope stats, I managed to add a total of $19 profit on SNGs in the month, up on the PLO super turbos, down on the HILO games. So much up on the PLO games that I managed to make the $5-15 leaderboard and picked up a star. Might not last long so will have to remember to take a screenshot while it is still there.

Where I did make a lot of profit and was not able to play enough games was in the Sunday night HILO MTTs. One first place (see earlier post) was followed up by a 4th place (which could have been higher but I lost a flip to cripple myself). Total MTT profit for the month about $1300.

Net overall profit $1,150, which makes it my best month since I started keeping records. All I need to do now is keep it up in February and find the time to play a few more of the Sunday night rebuys.

Only remembered to play in two of the WBCOOP tourneys, managed to get 36th place in the 8 Game for a $33 SCOOP ticket. Never played 8 Game before, but I did find that I was much better at most of the players on the Omaha, O8 and Stud Hilo (even though the number of times I have played Stud Hilo I can count on the fingers of one hand). Did struggle a bit with Razz and 2-7 triple draw, but all in all, did not feel I was out of my depth. The other game was NLH. Lot's of sit outs and there were effectively only 4 players active including me at the table I finished on. One of the players was particularly loose, raising, jamming and generally splashing his chips all over. Managed a nice pot when I raised 64 and flopped 2 pr, maybe a value bet on the river would have cleaned him out but the board was 4567K and he had the K. This tilted him a lot and a few hands later I raised pre with Ks9s and checked a KJ9 flop. One re-raise later and he shoved, so I called to see him flip over K10. Turn J, river blank, GG me.

Vegas Baby

Finally. Flights now booked for Vegas in June, leaving Heathrow on 21st, coming back from Vegas on 26th. Flying BA because it is only costing me £220 using my airmiles. Aim is to play the $1500 Omaha Hilo Pot Limit and win a fortune. As I have not been so good at hitting my targets recently, I guess just this one time will do. :)

No hotels yet, waiting to see if my mate can come out as well. He will know in 3 weeks when the local planning committee will let him know if he can start rebuilding his house.

WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 103327

A Couple of Firsts!

Just won my first MTT of the 2010, $5 O8 rebuy on Full Tilt, 281 runners.
First time I can remember having more than 1m chips during any Omaha game.
First time I have won over $1k for 1st place.
First time someone has asked for more than the chip stacks said we should get when we discussed a deal.
First time I turned down a deal.

I did make it difficult for myself after that by doubling him with KK vs AA, but I rode my luck and took him out with flopped 2 pair Q10 when he had A10 straight draw that missed.

That's a wrap for 2009

Tis the season for end of year reflections, first a quick recap of my two goals for the year:

One is to buy a new number plate for my car, cost about £1k.

FAIL. Simple fact was I never quite made enough money to warrant buying the thing.

Second is to try and get out to Vegas for a $1500 PLO or O8 event in the WSOP.

FAIL. This time with a but, for the second year running, I started off badly, even worse than 2008 in fact. However, I have now banked $2k and with BA flying direct to Vegas I have enough air miles to get a flight for the $1500 PLO starting on 10th June. If anyone wants a prop bet for me to play in an Elvis cat suit.... :)

Anyway, summary for the year.

Played bad from January to March, ended up nearly $700 down. Turned it all round in April with my first ever $1k month. As with 2008, the longer the year went on, the better my results looked, apart from December. This is still profitable month, but I played in 3 Mini FTOPs (one of which I forgot I had registered for) and one night I managed to bubble in a $22 sat for the $15k O8 on Full Tilt.

Over the various sites:
- Betfair - down $150, stopped playing there completely since June as have no reason to play there and dislike their customer relationship model
- Blue Square - down $210, hardly played anything since August
- Sun - down $250, really dislike the skin and even with 30% rakeback I can't bring myself to learn to deposit on a site I don't get on with very well
- PokerStars - up $7, deposited and have been playing a few of the $16 18-man O8 SNGs, with mixed results
- Everest - up $32, again almost not played there since August
- Full Tilt - up $3,180 - including about $350 rakeback

Highlights from Full Tilt:
- 25% ROI on 278 9 seat 300 chip super turbo PLO SNGs
- 20% ROI on 123 $22 O8 SNGs
- 33% ROI on 133 rebuy MTTs, incuding 3 wins

Lows:
- Cash, again, though this year I have stayed away from it pretty much and latterly, playing low stakes I have finished some sessions in profit

Interestingly, last year I thought I was OK pre-flop and better post-flop. Having thought about it, especially in light of the results from the 300 chip SNGs, I wonder if it really is the reverse. I am much better than average at assessing hands pre, but not that great post. Maybe in 2010 I will find some time to watch some training videos, or maybe not since I still cleared $2.5k from a hobby.

Might post some goals early in January, but really the main one is to stay in profit... good luck at the tables.

Lastly, here's my lifetime Sharkscope results for Full Tilt, which I think is quite respectable.

You don't see a Royal flush for ages...

...then two come along in the space of about 10 minutes.

First this, I flopped the flush and turned the Royal, but managed to keep my oppo in calling down for his lo draw that did not come in.

Full Tilt Poker Game #16695306682: $11 + $1 Sit & Go (Turbo) (124090100), Table 1 - 25/50 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 17:47:20 ET - 2009/12/10
Seat 1: TJ Ungar (911)
Seat 2: citybrewedmind (1,315)
Seat 3: RNI66 (2,280)
Seat 4: fifty_pesos (389)
Seat 5: First Count 3 (1,135)
Seat 6: XHEAD HUNTERX (1,460)
Seat 7: misshaj (1,110)
Seat 8: Tribuconi (1,500)
Seat 9: electric chair (3,400)
XHEAD HUNTERX posts the small blind of 25
misshaj posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [9h Kc Jc 8c]
Tribuconi folds
electric chair calls 50
TJ Ungar calls 50
citybrewedmind folds
RNI66 folds
fifty_pesos calls 50
First Count 3 folds
XHEAD HUNTERX folds
misshaj checks
*** FLOP *** [2c Ac Tc]
misshaj checks
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair bets 112
TJ Ungar folds
fifty_pesos calls 112
misshaj folds
*** TURN *** [2c Ac Tc] [Qc]
electric chair bets 224
fifty_pesos calls 224
*** RIVER *** [2c Ac Tc Qc] [9s]
electric chair bets 50
fifty_pesos calls 3, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 47 returned to electric chair
*** SHOW DOWN ***
electric chair shows [9h Kc Jc 8c] a Royal Flush, for high
fifty_pesos mucks
electric chair wins the pot (903) with a Royal Flush
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 903 | Rake 0
Board: [2c Ac Tc Qc 9s]
Seat 4: fifty_pesos mucked [3h 4d 7h Ad] - HI: a pair of Aces

And then this, where I walked into it and I know I could have got away from it on the turn, but had been slightly tilted by $15 plo super turbo when I went out first hand to 2236 all in preflop.

Full Tilt Poker Game #16695563352: Table Rio Canyon (6 max, ante, deep) - $0.10/$0.25 Ante $0.05 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 17:58:05 ET - 2009/12/10
Seat 1: mgg888 ($28.65)
Seat 2: semper_fi76 ($20.36)
Seat 3: iceball12 ($40.10)
Seat 5: jwc529 ($51.71)
Seat 6: electric chair ($42.95)
iceball12 antes $0.05
electric chair antes $0.05
semper_fi76 antes $0.05
jwc529 antes $0.05
mgg888 antes $0.05
iceball12 posts the small blind of $0.10
jwc529 posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Jh 7d Kc Kh]
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair raises to $1.10
mgg888 folds
semper_fi76 raises to $3.90
iceball12 folds
jwc529 folds
electric chair calls $2.80
*** FLOP *** [Jd Qd Kd]
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair bets $4.20
semper_fi76 has 15 seconds left to act
semper_fi76 calls $4.20
*** TURN *** [Jd Qd Kd] [4s]
lowskipper sits down
electric chair bets $16.80
semper_fi76 calls $12.21, and is all in
electric chair shows [Jh 7d Kc Kh]
semper_fi76 shows [Td 8s 9s Ad]
lowskipper adds $50
Uncalled bet of $4.59 returned to electric chair
*** RIVER *** [Jd Qd Kd 4s] [Qh]
electric chair shows a full house, Kings full of Queens
semper_fi76 shows a Royal Flush
semper_fi76 wins the pot ($39.16) with a Royal Flush
semper_fi76: lol
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $41.22 | Rake $2.06
Board: [Jd Qd Kd 4s Qh]
Seat 1: mgg888 folded before the Flop
Seat 2: semper_fi76 (button) showed [Td 8s 9s Ad] and won ($39.16) with a Royal Flush

End of November was an absolute heater, total up for the month over $850, first third of December has been very up and down, with a $30 loss to show for it so far.

Oops, I did it again

Another $5 plo rebuy last night, another donking out for me. This hand meant I min cashed instead of making the final table. Little bit of patience required at the right time, whereas last night I convinced myself we had the same two pair on the flop. Almost criminal to blow 60BBs here really.

Full Tilt Poker Game #16380424391: $5 + $0.50 Rebuy (120835685), Table 8 - 1000/2000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 19:10:43 ET - 2009/11/28
Seat 2: Markt37 (80,777)
Seat 4: Deset (16,786)
Seat 5: electric chair (60,208)
Seat 6: Shamanilixir (79,602)
Seat 7: Ilu1 (60,216)
Seat 8: baxterb123 (3,190), is sitting out
Seat 9: 00Bert00 (27,824), is sitting out
Markt37 posts the small blind of 1,000
Deset posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Jd As 9d 7d]
hipsych sits down
hipsych adds 42,613
Jesse_Arellano sits down
Jesse_Arellano adds 52,358
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair calls 2,000
Shamanilixir folds
Ilu1 folds
baxterb123 folds
00Bert00 folds
Markt37 raises to 8,000
Deset folds
electric chair calls 6,000
*** FLOP *** [Jh 6s Ad]
Markt37 checks
electric chair bets 9,000
Markt37 raises to 20,000
electric chair calls 11,000
*** TURN *** [Jh 6s Ad] [Qs]
Markt37 bets 52,777, and is all in
electric chair calls 32,208, and is all in
Markt37 shows [Th Ah Ac Jc]
electric chair shows [Jd As 9d 7d]
Uncalled bet of 20,569 returned to Markt37
*** RIVER *** [Jh 6s Ad Qs] [Ks]
Markt37 shows a straight, Ace high
electric chair shows two pair, Aces and Jacks

Still, I was very lucky to be there, having hit a 1 outer earlier after getting all in with a flopped set 10s, vs a flopped set As. I had to wait until the river to get my quads, but the result was never in doubt as far as I was concerned :)

Results looking good for November overall, up $725 so far and cashed in 4 of last 8 MTTs and 6 or last 8 STTs I have played.

Second Time Around

So, I played the $5 PLO rebuy on Full Tilt again tonight. This time, there was no blow up on the final table, this was the hand that gave me the stack I needed to take control of the table, after which memoly proceeded to explain to me how it had been a "donky" play on my part.

Full Tilt Poker Game #16229448401: $5 + $0.50 Rebuy (119370163), Table 13 - 2500/5000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 20:02:26 ET - 2009/11/22
Seat 2: electric chair (174,658)
Seat 3: superruik (282,134)
Seat 4: memoly (108,774)
Seat 5: muelling87 (97,094)
Seat 8: comeon69 (73,340)
muelling87 posts the small blind of 2,500
comeon69 posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [7s 6s 7d 8s]
electric chair raises to 10,000
superruik calls 10,000
memoly calls 10,000
muelling87 calls 7,500
comeon69 folds
*** FLOP *** [Qh 6d 9s]
muelling87 checks
comeon69: allin -lol
electric chair bets 45,000
superruik folds
memoly has 15 seconds left to act
memoly has requested TIME
memoly calls 45,000
muelling87 has 15 seconds left to act
muelling87 has requested TIME
comeon69: do it
muelling87 folds
*** TURN *** [Qh 6d 9s] [3d]
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair bets 55,000
memoly has been disconnected
memoly has 15 seconds left to act
memoly has 90 seconds to reconnect
superruik: :S
comeon69: its a fold
memoly has reconnected
memoly has 15 seconds left to act
memoly calls 53,774, and is all in
electric chair shows [7s 6s 7d 8s]
memoly shows [Qs 8c Kc Td]
Uncalled bet of 1,226 returned to electric chair
*** RIVER *** [Qh 6d 9s 3d] [Th]
electric chair shows a straight, Ten high
memoly shows two pair, Queens and Tens
electric chair wins the pot (242,548) with a straight, Ten high

Chopped when we were 3 handed and I had 420k chips, so the numbers changed a little from what is shown here. This makes it twice in 3 weeks I have won this now.



[25-Nov - edit, posted the wrong screenshot last time, this is the right one]

Check out the Call of the Wildcat blog link well, he has won it a couple of times recently too.

You Plonker

Plonker: Person of Little Or No Knowledge and Electrical Retarded


I cashed in 2 MTTs last night, one was a min cash in the $5 hilo on Full Tilt, the other was the $5 PLO rebuy on the same site. I played well in both, but in the PLO I played really well until my out hand. History is below, but I had been playing with curtis for about 2 hours and knew he would race with anything. Maybe that's why I thought it was worth getting it all in, because I knew he would be light. But, in the cold light of day, we were well clear first and second and I really should have stayed away from him until we got HU.

Full Tilt Poker Game #16202570822: $5 + $0.50 Rebuy (119123226), Table 2 - 3000/6000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 20:04:42 ET - 2009/11/21
Seat 1: robenson (105,996)
Seat 2: Curtis4marsh (285,532)
Seat 4: electric chair (148,793)
Seat 8: UBsucks (81,853)
Seat 9: Mirakelman (39,826)
electric chair posts the small blind of 3,000
UBsucks posts the big blind of 6,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Ac Qh 7h 9c]
Mirakelman folds
robenson folds
Curtis4marsh has 15 seconds left to act
Curtis4marsh raises to 21,000
electric chair raises to 69,000 ==> I guess I was expecting him to fold to this raise
UBsucks folds
Curtis4marsh has 15 seconds left to act
Curtis4marsh raises to 213,000
electric chair calls 79,793, and is all in
Curtis4marsh shows [3d Jd Jh 8c]
electric chair shows [Ac Qh 7h 9c]
Uncalled bet of 64,207 returned to Curtis4marsh
*** FLOP *** [Tc 2h Ks]
*** TURN *** [Tc 2h Ks] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 2h Ks 5h] [8d]
Curtis4marsh shows a pair of Jacks
electric chair shows Ace King high
Curtis4marsh wins the pot (303,586) with a pair of Jacks

On the plus side, I am now back in the black for the month of November, albeit a couple of hundred dollars less than it should be.

Playing Bad

Hmm, since the last updateI have been on a one way trip downwards. 8 losing sessions in 8 and losing is causing me to make bad decisions. Ordinarily I would not be leading from UTG with A78J in a hilo game, but it seems I have been recording multiple exits with this astonishingly bad move. The only silver lining is I know I am playing badly, so yesterday I managed to stop after just 1 game. Month to date -$125, which is about $350 the wrong way from where I peaked a week ago. Still, I am playing a bit better tonight and have even reached the money in a couple of SNGs, so hopefully the recovery starts here.

MacBook Update

So, about 1 week in I am more convinced than ever that I made the right choice. Not only does Full Tilt work on it, but so does PokerStars. Don't see me going back to Windows in the next couple of years, except to install it as a guest OS under MacOS. Also managed to break my duck on the SNG front, so far in November over $200 profit and up nearly $1k in the last 30 days. Sharkscope lifetime says I just went past $1500 for SNGs on Full Tilt tonight as well. Bizarrely, I still do better in the $22 games than I do in the $11 ones.

Anyway, back to the Mac before anyone starts to think this is still a poker blog... Mouse pad is just so god dammed sexy, swipe all 4 fingers down to show all open windows so you can choose one, all 4 fingers up to clear the screen, 2 fingers in any direction to scroll, plus all the iPhone touch screen controls to zoom and rotate. Startup and shutdown time is much better than any Windows machine I have seen, I think I am online within 30 seconds of pushing the power button, and the battery can last 7 hours. If you need a new laptop and can afford to pay the Apple premium, it will become a guilty pleasure.

OpenOffice is available too, same controls and file formats as Windows, my results spreadsheet works just the same on the Mac as it did on the PC. And it's still free :)

October Round-up

October ended up finishing quite nicely for me as I won the early evening $5 PLO rebuy on Full Tilt again, which returned $440 for a total of $10.50 in buy-in and add-on. Total profit for the month was just over $750, all of which and more has been spent on a Macbook Pro which I am using to make this entry. It's a great little toy and unlike the Windows laptops, just seems to work. I even connected my wireless headphones via bluetooth without breaking into a sweat.

I have also download and installed Full Tilt poker for the Mac. So far I have played 6 STTs and 1 MTT on it with no cashes and not even a bubble. Not all of this is bad play, but it is a bit tilting to be missing by so far. First game should have given me the clue, in a PLO8 STT, I flop a set of Js from the BB on 47J board, fill up on the turn and get all in 3-way, only to see a 3rd 7 give someone else quads and a 3-way scoop.

Elsewhere have played a few more games on PokerStars. Now I am used to the interface I think I have worked out that the PLO8 SNGs are generally populated by clueless idiots, especially the 18 runner $16 games. I know I have not played that many games, but it is so easy to double up on the first table and the only time the going gets any kind of tricky is on the bubble with 5 left.

Anyway, going to see if switching back to the Windows laptop makes any difference to my results, GL in your games.

An Apple a Day

So, going to start with some off-topic musing. Last year I read a book called The Tipping Point. It was about how trends started and what caused them to happen. Ultimately, it comes down to a group of people who are recognized as leaders by their peers triggering a behaviour. It happened in Greenwich Village in the 1980s with Hush Puppies, some skate board kids wearing a particular brand of trainer or one boy in a Polynesian culture taking his own life. Each of them triggered a cult like rise to fame for their actions.

Personally, I work in the IT industry, am a bit of a geek, good with numbers and particularly patterns. Last week I was at a meeting with, er, lots of other geeks, all working at big IT companies like Dell, Oracle, IBM, CA, HP and Symantec. The one thing that stood out was how many of them had an Apple Mac, or were planning to buy one in the near future. In fact, it was probably 80% of the people I spoke to, with the guy from Dell winning the prize for owning the most with 3. Two years ago at the same meeting, the same group of people were just getting into the Nintendo Wii and wondering if they needed an XBox or a PS2 to go with it.

The point of all this? I think Apple might just be about to break out of the zealot user base they have owned for years and into the mainstream. In my world, I started with an iPod, graduated to an iPhone and will be getting a Macbook - as soon as Apple announce whatever it is that will be their Windows 7 release spoiler. But I'm not the only one. I'm not sure Linux is for me, certainly it won't have many poker options, but there are some available for Mac. I am also fed up with Windows just breaking - having worked with it for nearly 20 years it's turned into a right dog and as Vista has proved, you really cannot polish a turd. So, get some shares in Apple now if you have some spare cash, with the exclusive iPhone distribution agreements coming to an end, the next wave of new owners will be wondering how they ever managed to do anything with a Windows interface - and looking at the other kit they sell. [BTW, didn't bump into anyone from Apple or Microsoft at the meeting]

Back to the intended topic for this blog.

Eventually got back to winning ways in September. Ended the month $420 up with no outstanding highlights, just solid returns on SNGs and even some positive returns from capped 6-max PLO cash tables. Also played a few games on Pokerstars and finding that the $5 O8 STTs are slow, but easy to beat. Trouble is they take too long and even on there take a while to fill. All this meant that at the end of the month my Full Tilt balance was bouncing around the $1k mark again. With $1k tucked away in a savings account, it is starting to look like I will be able to afford a trip to the WSOP in 2010 (only 1 year late) with the aim of playing a $1500 PLO or O8 event.

Highlight so far this month was last night, deciding on a whim to play the $4k gtd $24 PLO knockout on Full Tilt. Started at 9:15pm, ended about 2:00am when I finished 4th for about $500 profit including bounties. Interestingly I only had 1 bounty when we reached the money (27) and 4 by the time I went out. Actually think I played awesome apart from 2 hands, one where I rivered to win a pot that put me into the top 10, the other where I blew more than half my stack min-betting into a calling station with 4 left. Thought that perhaps trying consecutive min raises on flop, turn and river might be interpreted as strength - but not by a useless Italian fish...

Anyway, couple of my better hands - this was a total soul read:

Full Tilt Poker Game #15167418576: $4,000 KO Guarantee (111043850), Table 5 - 800/1600 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 19:32:30 ET - 2009/10/06
Seat 1: trubbzz (18,178)
Seat 3: the77pig (57,660)
Seat 4: electric chair (62,060)
Seat 5: il_pata (71,861)
Seat 6: boildoc (4,433)
Seat 8: pempe2 (70,555)
Seat 9: jerome555 (17,388)
pempe2 posts the small blind of 800
jerome555 posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Th Qd Js 8c]
trubbzz calls 1,600
the77pig folds
electric chair calls 1,600
il_pata calls 1,600
boildoc folds
pempe2 calls 800
jerome555 checks
*** FLOP *** [6c 7s Qs]
pempe2 checks
jerome555 checks
trubbzz checks
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair bets 4,000
il_pata has 15 seconds left to act
il_pata folds
pempe2 folds
jerome555 calls 4,000
trubbzz folds
*** TURN *** [6c 7s Qs] [3c]
jerome555 checks
electric chair bets 16,000
jerome555 calls 11,788, and is all in
electric chair shows [Th Qd Js 8c]
jerome555 shows [As 9s 4c Jc]
Uncalled bet of 4,212 returned to electric chair
*** RIVER *** [6c 7s Qs 3c] [3h]
electric chair shows two pair, Queens and Threes
jerome555 shows a pair of Threes
electric chair wins the pot (39,576) with two pair, Queens and Threes

And this was a golden hand that took out an overly aggressive player:

Full Tilt Poker Game #15167599179: $4,000 KO Guarantee (111043850), Table 5 - 1000/2000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 19:41:47 ET - 2009/10/06
Seat 2: wolverine6 (50,288)
Seat 3: the77pig (18,260)
Seat 4: electric chair (87,949)
Seat 5: il_pata (73,761)
Seat 6: boildoc (46,515)
Seat 8: pempe2 (73,768)
Seat 9: dinamo15 (55,808)
the77pig posts the small blind of 1,000
electric chair posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [3d Qd 8h 3c]
il_pata folds
boildoc calls 2,000
pempe2 calls 2,000
dinamo15 folds
wolverine6 calls 2,000
the77pig calls 1,000
electric chair checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah 3s 9h]
the77pig checks
electric chair bets 10,000
boildoc folds
pempe2 raises to 40,000
wolverine6 folds
the77pig folds
electric chair raises to 85,949, and is all in
pempe2 calls 31,768, and is all in
electric chair shows [3d Qd 8h 3c]
pempe2 shows [Kh Ac 9d 8s]
Uncalled bet of 14,181 returned to electric chair
*** TURN *** [Ah 3s 9h] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 3s 9h 3h] [6d]
electric chair shows four of a kind, Threes
pempe2 shows two pair, Aces and Nines
electric chair wins the pot (153,536) with four of a kind, Threes

Checking through the rest of the hand histories I can't actually find that many hands where we went to showdown, this was pretty typical, just taking the pot with a continuation bet on the flop from OOP:

Seat 1: LUu-9 (73,924)
Seat 2: wolverine6 (41,258)
Seat 4: electric chair (147,592)
Seat 5: il_pata (122,329)
Seat 9: dinamo15 (81,208)
electric chair posts the small blind of 2,000
il_pata posts the big blind of 4,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Jc Qs 9s Qh]
dinamo15 has 15 seconds left to act
dinamo15 folds
LUu-9 folds
wolverine6 has 15 seconds left to act
wolverine6 raises to 10,000
electric chair calls 8,000
il_pata folds
*** FLOP *** [2c Ts 3d]
electric chair bets 24,000
wolverine6 folds

Anyway, net impact is that Full Tilt balance is now in excess of $1500. Just realized that BA now fly direct to Vegas and I have enough BA exec club miles to fly there 1 1/2 times :)