Perfect, perfect.... but not in the good way!

This hand led to many a 'lol' in the chat at one of my tables earlier:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3387553
and, as it was 2c/5c, I couldn't help but join in (even at 5c/10c I probably chip in with a few 'ffs's). Ain't no way either of us are getting away from that flop though... standard cooler imo.

Lizard2412 said, "even had the feeling ur on aces". Hilarious.

All started well for the challenge in that I made it past the first level... I got stacked twice early on, though, when QQ < KK in an $8 pot and folded to me otb TT < BB's AA in a $15 pot. Did I need to be all in pre for 150 BBs with tens? Possibly not...

This left me with chips on only two tables, which made progress feel ridiculously slow (and is actually another unforseen problem that this challenge has thrown up). But I kept plugging away and when I'd built a stack on one of the tables, three different people suggested I stand up and open more tables. I was sitting on $31.50 and $3.40 at the time and really felt like carrying on to sit with the full 800bbs on the one table. But time was dragging, and when I finally stood up and got four tables going again, I reached my $40 target within ten minutes.

It took a lot longer than I'd hoped though... 2hrs 40mins. Obviously due to the fact that I was only two tabling for most of it. Running like a twat never helps, mind.

648 hands
$21.61 profit
33ptBBs/100
$8.10 p/h

Erm, suppose it's okay, looking at it.

This was the hand that sealed my place at 5c/10c:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3386407
'Well, that's what happens when you call with jacks'. Gold.

So, onto 5c/10c...

It took me only 1hr 40 mins to lose my two buy in buffer.

$0 p/h, through 4hrs 20mins.

So I'm back down to 2c/5c.

KK < JJ aip ($17 pot) and A6dd < 44 ai on TJ4Qdd board in what felt like a good squeezing opportunity three handed on the turn for another (in terms of the challenge) massive pot. A two buy in downswing buffer isn't very much when you're an absolute maniac.

Will probably try again over the weekend. I'm not prepared to scrap the idea just yet.

Verybored

Fucking hate Full Tilt. Took ten days to clear my $20 bonus, hate the software.

Managed to lose $25 in a mad rush to clear the final $2 of it 8-tabling on HUGE tilt (you know it’s bad when you get ‘lol’s at your play on three tables at the same time). Pg, you stupid fuck, just leave the $2 behind… Despite that, I cleared the bonus for a $346 profit, none of which I have left on FT.

Bit bored of poker at the moment so, to a new challenge…

Spoke to Keysie briefly last night (well, I spoke briefly, he nattered on in great length… standard) about short term swings playing cash poker and a bit about bankroll building so I have devised a mini-bankroll-build challenge for fun. Feel free to join in to see how far you can get.

The idea is to four table cash, starting with four buy-ins at the chosen level, and move up once four buy-ins at the next level is reached and drop back down should you drop under four buy-ins at the previous level.

My aim is to show that extreme bankroll nits are cunts.
My prediction is that I won’t.

For a winning player, this can only be a winner as you’re unlikely to lose four buy-ins at every level you’re forced to move down to, and the general move in stakes should be up.

And it can be applied to any starting bankroll. Obviously, you could start with $8 at $0.01/$0.02 and move up to $0.02/$0.05 when the mini-br reaches $20 (though this leaves nowhere to move down to should you fall at the first). Or start with $1600 at $2.00/$4.00 if you must, Ptevey, then up to $3.00/$6.00 with $2400… etc.

Perhaps, with only a two buy-in buffer and the swingy nature of cash, this form of bankroll building may involve too much moving down in stakes to make this +EV for the long term player. Take, for example, someone who is conventionally ‘rolled’ for $0.50/$1.00. If they decided to take this experiment on with a $1600 'mini-bankroll' at $2.00/$4.00, and started off with two drop downs (two buy-in downswings at $2.00/$4.00 and another two at $1.00/$2.00), which is very possible, it would see them back at their ‘rolled’ level with a serious dent to their ‘actual bankroll'. So, thinking about it, maybe my experiment would only be good for a quick bankroll ‘spin-up’ with some spare money (after an exceptionally profitable month, for example).

There must be something wrong with it because no one’s doing it. Except maybe Dickie.

To test the waters on something I could be horribly wrong about, I’m going to start at $0.02/$0.05 with $20 ($5 on each table) until the mini-bankroll reaches $40. Then, four table $0.05/$0.10 until $100 is reached… And so on… This is a slightly dangerous choice of starting stakes, I guess, as I only have one level to fall back on! The level is very, very weak though so it shouldn’t come to that.

I would be interested to hear any thoughts on this type of bankroll build from any ct grinders out there. Isaac, Gambon? Even Cheesio?

I have no work tomorrow (Thursday) and nothing to do so I’ll be starting the new experiment at 2pm our time on Stars, if anyone fancies joining, railing or sabotaging!

147, I've made bigger bets in the $3 rebuy

Ptevey, quite amusingly, challenged me to include the numbers 1, 4 and 7 in every raise I made in the $3r on Stars the other night. Looking back, that is the only thing funny about this hand for about the chip lead:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3327966

I think Dthestudentj, Sm1le and 147_star were railing, which explains the turn card. This was to come 266/3276 for $36. Villain in the hand went on to come 4th for $2.1k. The night before, I had AKhh < KK late on in the same tourn to come 29/3537 for $76. Skolsuper was railing this, obviously. Villain in that hand also went on to come 4th for $2.1k. I played shit to come 29th to be fair but well imo in the one I came 266th in and ran well to get where I did in both. But I really need to stop running badly late on in that tourn. Seriously, I'd rather the cooler happened first hand of the freezeout for zero money than this close to some real money.

I haven't played on Full Tilt for ages, not since I was staked to play a bunch of tourns a while back when I was playing shit. Deposited $50 the other day to clear the $20 bonus playing omaha h/l cash. Lost $25 in the second hand with $0 of my bonus cleared. WP Tilt.

But I grobbled through it and my Full Tilt bankroll is now up to $425 after some good 5c/10c o8 and a couple of tournament wins. $10 of the bonus cleared.

Work seems to be getting in the way of poker at the moment. Only played 35 tourns this month and a bit of cash (albeit for a $600 profit) compared to over 500 tourns in August and September. It's a shame not to be playing much when I seem to be playing well.

It's very hard to turn down work when I'm offered it but I'm seriously thinking about taking a couple of weeks off to make some money!

We'll see.
Peace,
PG.

Putting in the hours

At the fucking NEC...

The only good thing about working a 16 hour shift is that it makes the 12 hour ones seem short.

T’was a busy week, last week, for us agency staff as the NEC hosted the ‘Horse of the year’ show. Was booked for a deadly total of 84 hours from Monday to Sunday, which included a horribly illegal 29 hr spell over a 39 hour period on Tuesday/Wednesday. If there was ever a time to ‘accidentally’ fall and break my neck, or get ran over by an ‘orse, or get hurt by something in some way, 'illegal Wednesday' was the day. The NEC is sooo rich, I would have absolutely fleeced them. A bone-break of any kind would have absolutely slipped down, but, obviously I run bad, and the only things I broke that day was an expensive case of NEC crockery and the world record for most times caught sleeping at work without getting the sack. Some lovely big horses knocking about, there were.

FFS, the cunts. Bought a mug from some cheap shitty shop for a pound when I was on Bearwood high street about an hour ago, and the cunting handle’s just fallen off. Half a mug of coffee all over the laptop FFS. The cunts. I bet they did that deliberately the cunts. It’s still working, so all’s well. I should probably check all the letters though.

Have had two attempts at the $11 double shootouts to the million recently, failing in both. I’ve realised that I’m too immature to be playing shootouts atm. Losing heads up, as I have done in a couple, tilts me so bad. I challenge you to tell me of anything more annoying than losing heads up in a shootout. Not going to play one for a while now, may try again if I grow up ever.

Qwertyuiop[]
ASDFGHJKL;’#ZXCVBNM,./`1234567890-

Yep, running good.

Actually, maybe being the bubble boy in two multi table rebuy sats in a row was more annoying. Yeah, won’t be playing any of those for a while either.

Cheers to Fran for thinking about the AQ hand...more than I did at the time! It is a tough one pre with 15bbs or whatever. I think it's still a raise, just got to avoid getting all in on the flop drawing vvvvv slim in future...

I have another full week of work this week, including two days at Cheltenham race course on Friday and Saturday, which makes a nice change. Was supposed to be at the NEC at 8am this morning but given that I was still drinking Sambuca at 5, I figured that texting in sick was the +EV, though unprofitable, thing to do.

Not much to report on the poker front as I’ve been too tired/pissed after work to play. I have enjoyed railing for a couple of hours though before sleeping some nights. If it’s not 147_fish shipping some sat, it’s the $100r or the $50r I watch, or just whatever’s deep at the time. Reassuringly for the ‘poker isn’t all about luck’ crew, the same names are regularly cropping up late on in a lot of these.

Something wrong with my eyes I think, which is worrying me atm, probably should get that checked out. Then sue the NEC imo. Would love to see their faces if I did… though I suppose I probably couldn’t as that would mean I’m going fucking blind.

I might play something on Stars today and/or tonight as I have nothing to do. Bit bored of grinding the lower stakes but fuck it, I might as well. Wish I’d gone to work actually.

Well, this post has dwindled out as always… ah, saw a nice bit of vandalism earlier. If you can call it vandalism. Above the entrance to the foreign language centre in town is a big sign saying ‘Language Centre’, and some funny fucker’s nicked the ‘C’: ‘Language entre’. I do hope that this is the doing of a clever French vandal but, knowing Birmingham, it’s probably some chav looking to get started on graffitiing the word ‘Cunt’ elsewhere.

25k with ace high, nh

PokerStars Game #20964631980: Tournament #110966654, $3.00+$0.30 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (800/1600) - 2008/10/05 23:42:32 ETTable '110966654 157' 9-max

Seat #2 is the button

Seat 1: DWyobuzz (7965 in chips)
Seat 2: M.FUERTES (8332 in chips)
Seat 3: Parck (2330 in chips)
Seat 4: colts2129 (43569 in chips)
Seat 5: Bürobursche (14633 in chips)
Seat 6: pgchips (25851 in chips)
Seat 7: tcryder (62471 in chips)
Seat 8: powerchoke (38105 in chips)
Seat 9: SikaTrx (53369 in chips)
DWyobuzz: posts the ante 150
M.FUERTES: posts the ante 150
Parck: posts the ante 150
colts2129: posts the ante 150
Bürobursche: posts the ante 150
pgchips: posts the ante 150
tcryder: posts the ante 150
powerchoke: posts the ante 150
SikaTrx: posts the ante 150

Parck: posts small blind 800
colts2129: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to pgchips [Ah Qd]
Bürobursche: folds
pgchips: raises 2475 to 4075
tcryder: calls 4075
powerchoke: folds
SikaTrx: folds
DWyobuzz: folds
M.FUERTES: folds
Parck: folds
colts2129: folds
*** FLOP *** [8d 4d 9s]
pgchips: checks
tcryder: bets 1600
pgchips: raises 20026 to 21626 and is all-in
tcryder: calls 20026
*** TURN *** [8d 4d 9s] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [8d 4d 9s 7s] [Ad]

***SHOW DOWN ***
pgchips: shows [Ah Qd] (a pair of Aces)
tcryder: shows [4h 4c] (three of a kind, Fours)

tcryder collected 55152 from pot

My embarrassing exit just in the money of the $3 rebuy above. Not sure what I should do with that flop having already put 20% of my stack in pre, figured a cr would be the only way to get any fold equity, don't know if I should just give up on the pot completely... betting the flop might give me a price to call... Looking back, I much prefer trying to get it in pre with some kind of fold equity from hands like 88/99. A limp pre seems a bit odd but I think a limp/shove pre might be the play as an open fold surely isn't an option and making it 4/5k to go leaves an awkward amount back. Limping pre may also invite AT/AJ to go mad. Or do I have to raise here? Opinions on every street welcome.

Either way, another annoying $3r to go with these recent ones (might as well get the negativity out in one post):
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3165048
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3145219

AA runs bad for me at the moment as this was another beauty from today approaching the bubble of the $30k gteed with average stack:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3283893

Okay, bad beats are boring in a blog so I promise there'll be no more for a while. Working later so I'd better sleep, just thought I'd post the hand while it was fresh. Feel free to rip me to shreds.

Gotta love Kenny Rogers

Just stumbled across the lyrics for his song 'The Gambler':

On a warm summer's evenin' on a train bound for nowhere,
I met up with the gambler; we were both too tired to sleep.
So we took turns a starin' out the window at the darkness
'Til boredom overtook us, and he began to speak.

He said, "Son, I've made my life out of readin' people's faces,
And knowin' what their cards were by the way they held their eyes.
So if you don't mind my sayin', I can see you're out of aces.
For a taste of your whiskey I'll give you some advice."

So I handed him my bottle and he drank down my last swallow.
Then he bummed a cigarette and asked me for a light.
And the night got deathly quiet, and his face lost all expression.
Said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

Ev'ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away and knowing what to keep.
'Cause ev'ry hand's a winner and ev'ry hand's a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep."

When he'd finished speakin', he turned back towards the window,
Crushed out his cigarette and faded off to sleep.
And somewhere in the darkness the gambler, he broke even.
But in his final words I found an ace that I could keep.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kn481KcjvMo

Tune imo.

Another FT failure

I have won only one of my last twenty four final tables in multis and it's starting to get a bit annoying. 3rd in an $8 PLO8 tourn is my latest for $147 (loving that Paul...).

Standard race for my exit hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3267145
Think I'm a slight favourite actually but not by much. Fairly standard I think. Shame.

Also played a 4-handed shootout which threw up this hilarious hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3266271
Wonder what he put me on and why he called the turn? And folded the river?

I lost to him in the funniest heads up of all time.

My '100% flop' challenge continues to draw comments, some absolute knobheads sitting at the 1c/2c tables saying things like 'playing every hand, look at this fish, I'm gonna take his money'. It's 1c/2c, who gives a fuck who ends up with the money? And why you being such a cunt at these stakes anyway. It's making me quite sad actually being around these kinds of people. Not only at the poker table, at work and home too.

Hands: 1774
Profit: $20.69 @ 29ptBBs/100
Won without showdown: 496/1774 (28%)

Doing the work that I do, in the city I live, I happen to work with a lot of foreign people. The patience they have with and the understanding they show to some of the ignorant cunts that give them endless abuse wherever they go, no matter how hard they work is something to admire.

I sat during my dinner break today opposite a Polish guy and an Iranian girl, who I saw were forced to sit together as there were no other seats. Listening to two people from completely different backgrounds, meeting for the first time, talking happily and respectfully, in English, about England was not only inspiring but also something I found deeply moving. Especially after the shit they had to put up with during the shift. The UK has a lot to be proud of imo and the people (not just Brits) who try to ruin this, and the fuckers who look at me and smile, expecting me to smile back when they're dishing out their abusive jokes based on nothing but nationality, deserve a fucking good slap.

Shit, soz, dunno where that came from but some cunts just piss me off sometimes. I'm starting to sound like Travis in Taxi Driver ffs... if you know any young prostitutes I could help, just send 'em my way, I'll buy them some jam on toast or something.

By the way, steer clear of Spiceworld at all costs. It's real bad, man.

Peace, pimpshoota (my next poker name for sure).

EDIT: Very nearly deleted the second half of this post as it really isn't what this 'poker' blog is supposed to be about. It's what happens when you work an eleven hour shift with likable foreigners and English cunts. But, fuck it, I'll leave it there - might be funny to look back on some day.