Owned, and new rule

Got walked all over at one of my four tables during a brief session last night. Three of the four tables were standard passive/rubbish but the other one I joined was mental - the standard raise was to 12c which I can handle when there's one player at a table doing it, but this table had three players making it 12c to go whenever they felt like it. Obviously, being the only one who had to call these bets made it quite tough for me to get the better of the table as a whole. I looked like a right loser to be honest and my preflop started getting comments. And the longer I continued to call them, the more comments I got and the more they raised and laughed, idiots... If I was an absolute Moorman about the stats of this challenge, I might have left the table after one round but I stuck with it and played 80 hands there for a $2.10 loss, which actually included a $2 KK vs AA aip sickener. [This also got laughed at despite me insta-typing 'nh' in the chat. Cunts.] A $2 loss looks good for a table like this but it's heavily varianced because of the unusually large size of the (often effectively blind) flop bets/raises which have to be made because of the... unusual preflop action. I could have stacked myself very quickly if some of my early bluffs didn't run good. I may seek more tables like this in future sessions because it's much more of a challenge and a lot less boring than the tighter tables. My new rule is simply that I can't leave a table because it's too hard, though, as I've just explained, hard is a quality I look for in a table now. So, rule one: Must call every raise to 29c or less and rule two: don't be a complete and utter Moorman twat about the stats and leave a table I'd be lucky not to lose on. Finally, a nh to Keysie who has just cashed in the WSOPE for the second year running for another £20k+ score. Well played mate. Quite where my paragraphing has gone, I'm not sure. Moorman, who I've just given a bit of stick to there, hilariously (because I don't know him and it got cheesy closer) lost a massive KK vs AA and busted shortly after to bring the bubble on, which burst the same hand... So sick at that stage in a tourn that big to run KK into another big stack's AA but I don't know him and I do know Keys, so fuck it, it's FUCKING HILARIOUS. imo. Soz, rambling...

Game: NLHE, 6-max, 1c/2c
Hands played: 1484
Pots won without a showdown: 418 (28% of hands)
Profit/loss: +$17.74

The 'pots won w/o sd', of the stats I have available to me, is the only one (except for profit) that really interests me now with this challenge. We all know the rules so 'flops seen' is irrelevant. 'Pots won at showdown' could actually have been interesting for a couple of reasons but I don't care to explain them and I've lost track of that stat already anyway. My 'pots won without a showdown' was 118 of 310 (38%) in my mini 4-tabling session last night which is totally ridiculous six handed. Though I recorded a loss. Peace.

Well, a Pgchips challenge wouldn't be a Pgchips challenge without some Pgchips challenge music

Raided the charity shop again and I think I've found a couple of beauties:

Spice Girls - Spiceworld, their second album which is over ten years old now ffs. How old do I feel? Should be fucking horrific to listen to but I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully it won't tilt me too much when I'm playing. It was a bargain at 50p imo.

And,

Pure Global Chillout, which pretty much speaks for itself. Perfect untilting poker music I reckon. Unless it's shit. Double CD, 50p.

That's about three hours of music to play to. I hope it treats me well. I've played poker with Elvis' In the Ghetto on repeat in the past though so I should be able to cope with whatever shit these CDs throw up. Woman was supposed to be coming round tonight but isn't now, I don't feel like any more tourns at the moment, so I might as well continue the Pgchips 'let's-go-broke' challenge.

Preflop rule

Okay, I've decided that any pre flop raise of 15 big blinds (to 30c) is too expensive. I must call a raise to 29c (unless one of yous decide to sit down and make it 29c to go every hand...) but can fold pre to any raise of 30c or more.

Just finished my first session which was fucking hilarious to be honest, there were people getting proper pissed off! Four tabled for a few hours:

Hands played: 1174
Flops seen: 1063 (lots of pots taken down pre and folds to bets that were too big...plus the odd accidental fold as with the similar Omaha challenge from a while back)
Pots won at showdown: 118 of 210
Pots won without a showdown: 300

That last stat is pretty sick to be fair, I won over a quarter of the hands at six handed tables without showing my cards. I suppose bluffing is where I made most of my profit...

Total profit: $20.70 (@44ptBBs/100)

As with the Omaha challenge, I think that this looks like a great little exercise to improve your post flop play, though the standard really is horrendous at these tables. Maybe I should try it at 10c/25c?...

New challenge!

Just a quickie to let you know what my plans are at the moment. Have ran badly the last couple of days, including another really annoying outdraw in the $3 r, but whatever, not gonna keep complaining about bad beats, so I've decided to have a go at a new challenge I've been thinking about for the last couple of weeks. Probably my toughest yet...

My aim is to show a profit from seeing every flop at the 1c/2c 6-max NLHE tables.

I've spoken to a couple of people about it and they seem to think it's impossible. An obvious problem is having to call open shoves... bound to prove expensive. I will play for a bit and work out whether or not I need some kind of rule that means I don't have to call all in pre, we'll see.

Let's hope I run better than I did at my recent trip to the barber's...

Living next door to Jim

I moved to my current address in early December of last year, an unfit twenty two year old slightly annoyed at the unfitness of his, once marginally less unfit, twenty two year old body. My house is literally a thirty second walk (twenty if, unlike me, you don't have to stop half way to catch your breath) from one of the 'biggest and best' gyms in Birmingham. So why, before today (almost ten months later), I hadn't even taken a look inside, sort of beggars belief.

Not only did I look inside, I joined. I didn't even mean to...

I left my house at about half five this evening in search of one thing, food. Unhealthy food. Pizza was the plan. I usually take the unpleasant short cut to the high street, which takes me past three dead and unused factories in just a two minute journey to the shops. But today, for some reason, I decided to take the slightly longer scenic route (scenic in that it only takes me past two small factories and a public toilet), which, along with it's many delights, leads me past a Fitness First gym. Completely unexpectedly, my brain led me in.

After all these months living next door to a gym, I can't help but wonder why I chose today as the day. I don't know... maybe it was the two and a half days of sleep I needed after my embarrassing one hour football session a few weeks ago that prompted my subconscious to lead my body gymwards. Or perhaps it was my worrying lack of shock at the heart pains I experienced on holes fourteen onwards during my second round in Bournemouth. Thinking about it, it's probably a combination of both.

Either way, it's over now, I've done the easy part by committing myself to forking out literally tens of pounds a month for the next twelve months, now 'all' I have to do is drag myself out of the house to use it. The opening hours are 6.30am - 10pm on school nights so, no matter what hours I'm working, it'll be hard to justify not finding time to go. Only laziness should keep me away and, given that I live so close, that would be pathetic.

Golfing trip was great fun, nh and ty to Paul for organising it all, I had an amazing time. But my golfing was shit. This also needs to be sorted imo. I need to start putting in some volume! Me and Ptevey (Ptevey and I?) live fairly close to each other and have talked about playing a round every couple of weeks or so. I would love for this to happen. I spent some decent dosh on golf clubs a few weeks ago so it really would be disappointing if I stayed this bad at a sport I enjoy and have spooned out some decent dosh buying equipment for. I refuse to let my clubs gather dust, rust and spiders.

As usual, I'm bored of writing this shit again so not gonna write even half of what I wanted to talk about, not even going to go back, reread it and correct it,



(anaverageof)threeputtbarrett.

Peace, Brothers.

Bubbles and other losses

September has been a good pokering month for me so far. I have been playing almost entirely holdem multis, which I'm glad to say I've started enjoying again. I was +$1200 for the month before I started playing yesterday thanks to a couple of wins. But last night, I had my first real setback. Spazzed away a shitload.

It started badly with the O8 WCOOP where I played well in the first few levels and felt comfortable with an above average stack despite running pretty badly but made that awful river call (third hand of my last post), which I'm still a bit pissed of at myself about. 10k stack if his two outer misses but whatever, no excuse for me playing the river like a cunt, just got to forget about that now...

But what happened afterwards pissed me off even more. I decided to experiment with the $5 rebuy sats to the $55 80k gteed, so I quickly registered for four of them. The first one kicked off, I was in for $15 (started with double stack and an add on) and was looking good for a seat when the freezeout started. 45 paid, I unavoidably came 46th. Standard. $15 loss.

By this time the second one had started. Again, I looked good for a seat when the FO kicked off. I was in for $25 and came 26th with 25 seats up for grabs (I was forced in with QQ in the small and the BBs T6 held up). Pissed off at that one. Got $16 for another $10 loss or some shit. I also failed to cash in the other two. A fairly unsuccessful experiment, you could say...

Ran KK into JT on a 489 flop (he stop and goed for about a million big blinds and I was prepared to take the gamble) which couldn't hold for double average heading into crunch time in the 50k gteed $5 rebuy. That pissed me off too.

Built a stack in the $11 30k gteed after a nice set vs set but then AK couldn't hit vs KK in a massive pot so I had to hold out for a small cash.

What else? Oh yeah, splashed out on a $22 deep stack tourn where I limped 44 in the second level, few more limpers, BB checked and bet double the pot when the flop came 642... wtf? I flatted, everyone folded. Turn blank, pot, call. River blank, pot, call. I'm beating nothing really and losing to everything, he shows 66 and scoops it, nh. Lost most of my stack in the second level and I didn't fare much better after that.

Had a couple of small cashes last night but overall I lost $100, which is exactly what I missed out on in those shocking $5r sats... Oh well, ran really bad and could have broke even.

In other news, I'm really looking forward to the golf trip to Bournemouth that Paul (or 147_star to give his 'real' name) has arranged. Looks amazing, £75 for two nights bed and breakfast and as much golf as your body can handle (about seven holes, if my footballing is an accurate indication of my current fitness). Going with a great group of lads so it should be an amazing trip, and I'm really looking forward to spazzing my roll out to all the old Durham lads in the cash games too!

I really want to play as much golf as my body allows me to. I think the current plan is three rounds but I'm sure I could convince a couple of them (or maybe just Ptevey, the nutter) to play at least a couple more. I want to squeeze in at least five rounds on this trip, especially if I've got to buy my own set of glubs and other golfing-related shit.

I'm interested in getting in a practice round of golf before the trip so if anyone knows of any good cheap (doesn't actually have to be good) courses near them let me know, I'll try and get down there. Or if anyone fancies coming to lovely Birmingham for a few days for a couple of rounds, you're more than welcome to stop here. I know Paul, the cheating fucker, has been putting in practice rounds right left and centre so I must get in at least one round before this trip. So let me know in the comments or on MSN when I'm next on if anyone's interested in shipping some pre-trip holes and pints.

I have plans tonight and tomorrow so I don't think I'll be playing any poker and I think (though I can't actually remember) that I'm working most of next week so, unfortunately, I might not be putting in quite the volume of poker I have done so far this month before the golf. But then again, after last night, that may be a good thing...

Run well all,

Teadrinka. xxx

WCOOP PLO8 $320

Here're a few of the more interesting hands I played in this:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3173535
Always annoying to miss a freeroll...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3173525
I felt I could have taken it on the flop if I had bet but I was hoping for a low card to fall to get a few people interested. It did but I missed. Sigh.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3173501
Don't mind me semi bluffing this flop, hate his call, betting the nut high on the turn is okay (though I could have kept the pot small by checking incase his low was freerolling me with two pair or the river paired the board as it did), hate his call. River is horrible but I shouldn't really have check called for that much. I much prefer bet, puke and fold.

Went out shortly after with some kind of A2xxs. Highly annoying as I was really looking forward to it.

Broke

Don't worry, the bankroll's fine, it's my body I refer to!

A severe lack of most things even vaguely physically strenuous over the last best part of a decade really did come back and fuck me today. It felt like such a good idea as well as I finally got round to doing something I have wanted to do ever since I got back to Brum.... I signed up with a football team.

As I turned up at the park today for my first training session with the team I fully expected to pick up where I left off five years ago when I left my old Sunday league team to 'go to University'. But I was in for a big disappointment. Today I waved goodbye to the days where I could seemingly run forever without ever breaking sweat, muscles or bones and panted a big 'hello' to creaky bones, muscles and sweat. Seriously, I can't believe how unfit I have become. I once beat everyone in my year at the bleep test ffs, how quickly lungs forget...

Two minutes in, I was gone. I'd already rushed off twice for gulps of water, Lucozade and oxygen before I half-heartedly (the half that'd sensibly packed in at this point) went in for a 50/50 challenge with their fifteen stone striker. I lost fairly comprehensively and was down on my arse as my right knee felt the full force of Robbie Coltrane's size-12 Pumas. Yep, after just two minutes of the first half, I was off the pitch for the third time. The looks of disappointment from my team mates were perfectly just in my opinion, though I thought the sniggers that rippled around the park were a little unnecessary. If equally just.

When I finally came back on, I asked if I could go in goal for a bit to rest my knee. I let three past me in as many minutes and was swiftly replaced.

Truth be told, as the game went on, I did get better. I made one great goal line block early in the first half (mainly because I was sprawled across it gasping for air at the time) which got me a hard slap on the back and a whack in the arm from a couple of guys (at least one of them was congratulatory, I'm sure). But there's no doubt that I was by far the unfittest and most out of practice 'player' on the pitch. It was embarrassing at times. I have only ever once seen a football player cover less distance in a game than I did today*.

It was absolutely pissing it down in the second half so we decided to cut the game short with a 'next three goals wins'. A few of their players were a bit pissed off by this point and wanted to make it a next goal winner but first to three was the decision, much to their annoyance. It was no coincidence, I suppose, that we went two goals up veryquickly. It all looked over so our skipper sent me up front to finish them off. Needless to say, four golden chances, at least fifteen minutes and a good 3mm of rain later, it was still 2-0. So we called it a day. It's fair to say that I was not the most popular player on the pitch:

"Oi, Curly (an amazing bit of obs. com. referring to the current state of my hair. Why the fucker isn't wowing the crowds of Edinburgh at the moment, I don't know...), my dinner's going cold because of you."

"Yeah, soz, mate."

"Fucking Cornish pasty and chips, as well," he added as he turned to an equally peeved and genuinely sympathetic team mate. The team mate said nothing, but gave that unmistakable look that effectively said, "I know what you're saying mate, that curly-haired cunt right there is a right useless cunt." I'm pretty sure that was the jist of what he was thinking at that very moment. And he spoke for every rain-drenched fucker there. Including me.

It's about four hours later now and I currently feel that there is about a 50% chance of me surviving the night - a vast improvement on an earlier estimate. Worryingly though, I have won more than my fair share of races recently (ignoring the pre-game shuttles earlier) so I'm due a loss at some point... So, as tired as I am, I guess I'd better stay awake long enough for that 50% to become at least 80%. I haven't been losing many 80/20s to be fair...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3105322
... okay, let's try 90%.

* Emile Heskey - 13 yards, Birmingham vs Arsenal, Summer 2005. He was offside.