Let's try... 2c/5c PLO8!!

Monster stakes, eh?

Since the 1c/2c thing went okay with a profit of about $140 I have decided to step up to 2c/5c to see if the standard is just as bad. It's a $10 max buy in which isn't quite as deep as the $5 at 1c/2c but is still pretty deep at 200 big blinds.

So what did I find out about full ring 2c/5c?

Well, it's much the same as 1c/2c really. Few familiar faces, some of the rocks of 1c/2c, but the tables seem to be filled with just as many idiots as 1c/2c (perhaps just an ever so slightly richer breed). Guess I shouldn't be surprised given how ridiculously small these stakes are, a lot of them are probably playing the game for the very first time. And I suppose the rest of them just don't give a shit win or lose.

So I banged in a decent sized sample session of about 1800 hands which brought in a profit of $56 at a rate of 62 big blinds per 100 hands (verysimilar to 1c/2c).

I can't help but think I must be running very very well at the moment because making money just shouldn't be this easy. I decided to test just how well I was running by taking a dip in the relatively deep waters of NL $25!! Pretty reckless but why the fuck Stars don't have a PL or NL level between 2c/5c and 10c/25c is beyond me. That is a long spell at 2c/5c before you're 'properly rolled' for the next level up. Anyway, fuck 'properly rolled', I took a spin.

Given my BR I decided to stay out of trouble preflop, try to get to rivers cheaply and just push a three quarter in my favour but it didn't turn out like that. One idiot at the table kept stacking people luckily and then every time he lost a pot he'd shove next hand. Well, he lost a pot and shoved next hand which forced me into this good but very scary call. Nearly folded but decided it was pointless me sitting at the table if I was going to fold an edge so I shipped them in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2713553

His hand just does not deserve half of that pot! Cardplayer has me at 65% expectation pre vs his hand but not a very interesting stat given that he could have had anything (don't know how to find out how good my hand is vs a random hand - would be a very useful programme for NL). I left after that hand as there's just no point in gambling my BR away but fully rolled that game would be brilliant.

Well, that was all yesterday and today I started off with another 200 hands of 2c/5c but again I found the 10c/25c games far too tempting. I 'sit out next blind'-ed the 2c/5c tables and put myself on the waiting list for four PL $25 tables (none of this dangerous NL business for the time being).

I'm just a beginner at omaha hl and so I can't say for certain, but the standard at these tables felt okay. The average pot sizes are generally pretty low, as is the players per flop percentage.

There have been times over the last two days where the 2c/5c table I was playing had a larger average pot than some of the 10c/25c tables I was watching. This is partly because I was on them but it does also demonstrate how much tighter these $25 players are.

I played 500 hands of PL $25 and ran pretty well, I felt very comfortable at the tables though which will no doubt tempt me back.

So, a quick summary, in the last two days I have played about 2000 hands of 2c/5c and 500 hands of 10c/25c for a $115 profit (felt like I ran above expectation in both games though).

This brings my total Omaha high low profit to $254.33 for the last seven days. Let's hope it continues...

Next...

I played 955 hands overnight which finally brings to an end this thoroughly pointless, I mean, enjoyable mission.

Session stats:
Hands... 955
Profit... $23.62
Rate... 124bb/100 hands

I ran pretty well with both cards and opponents tonight (some absolute cretins knocking about), it was hilarious.

So my overall stats:


TOTAL HANDS PLAYED... 10,000
OVERALL PROFIT... $139.05
WIN RATE... 70 BIG BLINDS/100 HANDS


Not bad I guess for a fun little challenge where I wasn't sure whether I'd even make a profit or not (now that would have been embarrassing). 10k hands took a lot longer than I thought though, I honestly thought I'd be done in a couple of days but even 8-tabling as I was at times it took nearly a week. Ridiculous use of time.

If you enjoy poker and have never tried Omaha h/l I really would recommend it. I don't think I've played a less stressful week of poker in my life. But I guess, as always, the stress comes at the higher levels.

Must stop getting 'Phoenixed'

Downloaded the fuck out of Stand By Me (1986) the other night and watched it for the first ever time this morning. Really enjoyed it, despite having to wait until the end credits to hear the song! Was really impressed with one of the boy’s performance in particular and I privately tipped him to be a star of the future/present. I didn’t recognise him so I Wikipediaed the lad only to find that it was River Phoenix who died of an overdose five years later. Great tip, Nathan!

Was due in to work at the NEC at 5.30pm today but I waited for a bus for 45 minutes which then sat in the rush hour traffic for another 30 so, not atypically, I turned in late - got there some time after 6pm. By then they had someone else in to do the shift so the fuckers sent me packing.

It was only a four hour shift but it still pissed me off a little and I didn’t want the four-bus round trip to be a total waste of my time (unlike the 9k+ hands of 1c/2c Omaha I’ve played in the last four days!). So, with zero dosh in my pockets, I decided to use my charm and my agency ID card (preferably just the card) to find me some free fun at the NEC.

First stop, canteen. As I entered, the first thing that hit me was the noise. The place was full of the public, ‘Must be a concert on, I wonder which one...’ I looked around for clues. It was busy, full of smiley, laughy teenage girls most of whom were accompanied by, and were desperately trying the hide the embarrassment of, their doubly excited mothers. ‘… Ah, Westlife!’

As temporary staff working a full day at the NEC we sometimes get a hot meal for our troubles but we usually get pointed towards the huge pile of sandwiches labelled ‘dry’ which are lovingly tossed aside for us slaves. So for the short four hour shift I had been shipped in for today I wouldn’t have expected even a ten minute drinks break. So, literally five minutes after being effectively sacked before even starting a four hour shift, I naturally felt a little cheeky as I impatiently stood in line for a free public-worthy hot meal.

My conscience had its doubts as I stood in and amongst the honest, money-paying customers and considered backing out, but as I shuffled closer and closer to the food I could see it, I could smell it, I could almost taste it and then my brain finally understood what my stomach had been rumbling on about. The beauty of it was that I had no money on me and so there was zero danger of me crumbling to guilt at the tills and just handing out dosh to save any possible trouble. I literally had nothing to lose so marched on, tray in hand, towards what was quickly becoming dinner time.

I had fish and chips with peas, a side salad, two bread rolls with butter, a healthy (well, deadly…) slice of chocolate gateaux, a diet coke and a coffee. The animal rush of excitement that the sight of, and the smell of and the thought of eating this wonderfully overflowing tray of food had created, easily out powered the weak, human guilt and worriment of moments earlier. And so there was no holding back when it came to till-time and the much anticipated portrayal of a full-time hard-working NEC grafter taking a quick ‘fifteen minutes’ out of his long busy day to grobble down some grub before rushing back to the grind.

I finally reached a very miserable looking till-woman and decided to only show my agency card if I really needed to. My natural wit and charm will win her over, I thought. ‘So…, do you enjoy being a… till-woman here?’ Shit, I panicked. She looked up, bemused, ‘I’m a fucking cashier. And no.’ I quickly pulled out my card and she waved me along in silence. Always go for the card first for fuck’s sake. One must speak only as a last resort.

Finished the food which was amazing (usually is when it’s free - bargain). So, not a wasted trip after all, £11.50 worth of food for a £3 bus ticket. But then I got greedy...

People started heading towards the seating area. Clearly the show was about to start and now I wanted to see it. Well, the food was a piece of piss, how hard could it be to smuggle myself into a Westlife concert? I took a quick look and the security looked worryingly tight. And muscley. They were looking at everybody’s ticket on the way through but fuck it, I've got a magic agency card and not to mention my charm to fall back on…

I walked up to one of the giants guarding the entrance and proudly (and silently) whipped out my card. He looked at me and all I could nervously manage was ‘catering staff’. He laughed, ‘no mate!’, and went onto check the next ticket as I swiftly headed towards the bus station. And home.

So no Westlife for me then but I can’t really complain, I had a good run. And I’m back working there tomorrow as well so I'll have another go. Just hope that same ticket-checker isn’t there. Or the till-woman. Or Westlife.

So, to sum up, good day. No work but free grub. (Actually I could have just said that to start with and spared everyone the details, but oh well, if you've read it all, fair play).



Played another poor session last night which leaves me with the miserable figures of:

Hands… 9045
Profit… $115.43
WR… 64/100

Seem to have tailed off a bit in the last 5k hands but as always I have no idea what I’m doing differently. May actually plot a graph of my progress if I can remember how to use Excel (is that where graphs are made?). I know the general shape will be upwards but it’ll tail off miserably into the shape of a sideways frown towards the end instead of the planned and expected smile.

I need to win $84.57 in the remaining 955 hands at a rate of 9c per hand! It’s impossible but as a disappointed friend of mine told me on MSN, ‘impossibility is no excuse for failure’. He’s right and I’m ashamed.

I’ll do a rundown of every 100 hands from now until the end just in case I get anywhere near.

Not quite sure what to do once this experiment is over. Guess I should probably start living again at some point. Or maybe I could try the same thing with Hold’em and compare the profits made/losses lost and experiences had/hadn’t.

At current rate I’ll have made about $130 in a 10k hand week. Nothing to write home about (well, nothing to even blog about really) but if I could put in a couple of thousand hands a week every week just playing whenever I’ve got a spare minute it could soon add up at the end of the year. And if I did that every year until I’m eighty it could work out to be a nice little pension of a couple of hundred quid or so.

Anyway, can’t be arsed to write any more, I’ll let you know what happens (if anyone’s still reading).

I'm no better than them

Got to episode 5 of Frasier before cutting the first session of the day short after just 465 hands. Played terribly and got stacked for the first time in over 5000 hands... and then for the second time. And then the third. One of them was a bit of a cooler, flopped house vs flopped quads. Knew he had me on the turn but by then I had a cheeky low draw so was forced to call for my 57 low! Was live but missed.

Made a nice fold a bit later on though which cheered me up a little. I had 77JJ in the bb, flop AA7, I bet and found a reraiser. A7xx is unlikely but possible and something like A24Q gives him a monster to be fair, so out of position I just let him have it. He showed A237 the sicko! Obviously no one at the table could understand my fold, and even after an explaination some of them still couldn't see the obvious precariousnessness of sevens full with no low draw there. (35% expectation against A24Q for example.) Never thought check-folding a flopped house might be the right thing to do...

Got stacked again with A234 on a dream 442 flop vs A4QQ. Turn blank, river Q gave him the scoop but, anyway, enough of the bad beats...

Lost over $6 in those 465 hands which was another big blow:

Total hands... 5986
Overall profit... $89.27
WR... 75/100
Flops seen... 39%

Had some food, potatoes and peas (it's all I had in the house) which was horrible and tried to watch Vicar of Dibley on BBC one. It was shit so decided to get back to the Omaha. With Blades Of Glory on repeat in Media Player I started my longest session to date.

I played pretty poorly again, couldn't seem to make a fold.

[Everyone can and does bet the pot with the nut high in this game and so the winners come from the group of people who make the right folds. The most important example of this is being able to fold the nut low in multi-way pots when you're dead for the high. Similarly, drawing to the low with no high draw in multi-way pots is not good.

There aren't a great many crying calls going on to be honest, not on the river anyway (it's usually pretty easy to spot the nut high) but players lose a lot of money because of their inability to fold the bare low at any stage of the hand and especially for a big bet on the river.]

For the reason above I have found myself folding the nut low a hell of a lot, sometimes even check folding the nut low on a flop if my hand has no high prospects. Basically, if there's a chance I'm getting three-quartered I'll get out. (most of) My opponents at this level do not get away when I'm three-quartering them which is what makes me the winner!

Unfortunately, today I couldn't seem to get away. I got three-quartered a number of times when I really should have been out on the flop. It's stupid really because theoretically I only break even if I make exactly the same calls as the others. (I actually think I make better checks and bets than them as well so I'll still win, just not as much!)

Played 1845 hands and made a relatively small profit for such a ridiculously long session of poker.

Total hands... 7831
Overall profit... $100.63
WR... 64/100
Flops seen... 41%

$200 profit after 10k hands is very unlikely after that session, guess I'll do well to make $150 now but never mind, there's always the next 10k hands!!

Notice the 41% there. Loosening up my range only made for some very difficult decisions post flop. Got excited by flopping some nut straights on lowwy and flushy flops which are just not that good. Will go back to playing as I was but hopefully, this time, with the addition of the 'fold' button.

Peace.

Setback

Real hungry and proper tired after a long and painful 1k+ hand session. Was forced to fold a lot of rivers early doors and could only break even over the first 500 hands. This sent me stumbling over the halfway mark of 5k hands showing a profit of only $85, $15 short of target. The next 500 hands were a bit better but I still couldn't bring myself back on target. I didn't run particularly well this session and feel I was lucky to show any kind of profit at the end of it.

Total hands played... 5521
Overall profit... $95.33
Win rate... 86 bb/100

Still about $15 short but I'm sure I can pull it back with a good run. Interestingly (well, vaguely...), I saw exactly 37% of flops again. I have played twelve spells of poker in this experiment and in two thirds of them I have seen 37 or 38% of flops. I guess this is the magic number at full ring 1c/2c plo h/l, though I wonder how drastically different the profit would be were I playing 3% looser/tighter... Perhaps 37% is the peak of EV pre flop at these tables. Fuck knows.

Anyway, I think I'm doing okay despite not once hitting my 100/100 target. I'll stick with it and try and find a way to squeeze out that extra little bit of EV. Most of my opponents' post flop play is so poor I'd probably choose to widen my pre flop range before I tightened it. That's something I'll think about and probably gradually introduce.

Some kind of Omaha pokertracker software would be unbelievably helpful here as well. There are still some preflop hands I have questions about but there is a danger that knowing the answers would make the game a bit too mechanical and dull and, dare I say, easy (at this level anyway).

To be fair, in these games, common sense post flop is infinitely more important than pre flop hand selection. I'd say that any player with a bit of brains about them could show a profit playing 100% of hands. (Hello, next experiment sorted!)

Dangerous Minds was the background media for this session. I watched it three and a half times and loved every minute. It failed to produce the results though so I guess it'll have to take a seat on the bench next to Elvis and Inertia Creeps for the time being.

Tomorrow we'll see how Season six of Frasier fares.

Inertia Creeps me out

Only managed a short 423 hand session where I had some of my worst beats to date. Couple of beauties in there actually. Still, made more progress and I think Massive Attack have put me back on track after the Elvis problems of the last 2k hands.

Total hands... 4010
Total profit... $76.69
Win rate... 96/100

Flop percentage was down to just 31% this session, and is dropping all the time. This is probably partly due to me tightening up my sb limping range. I don't have pokertracker or anything but I would imagine my sb hands have been a leak so far.

Annoyingly my mouse is all Omahaed out, completely fucked so six-tabling is proving very difficult. This, along with Inertia Creeps, started to tilt me in this session.

Taking a break now, partly because of the mouse-tilt but mainly because Coyote Ugly starts at 11.15. Bye.

Mass Atta Omah

I opened one table pissed but (fortunately, me thinks) fell asleep during the first hand. My SSC was Have I Got News For You on BBC iplayer. Sadly, Clare Balding pissed me off pretty early on and had to turn off.

So with exception of my heavy breathing and the sound of my heart bashing against my ribs at a rate of 1.2k bpm I was left to play the first hand in silence. Instant sleep was an inevitable and not wholly disappointing result. I heard the buzzer reminder and tried to open my eyes to look at the hand but my eye lashes were harder to prize apart than Velcro so I gave up on it.

Total hands... 3587
Total profit... $66.80
Win rate... 93/100

I plan to put in some serious hours today having missed yesterday through no fault of my own. I was blinded by a bright Red Stripe. I'll post later where I hope to have 6k hands under my belt.

Album choice... Mezzanine Massive Attack.

Drinking

No Elvis.

I woke up at 8pm today/yesterday, whatever and went straight onto the booze. It's horrible, worst decision ever. I haven't touched the Omaha pissed yet but I'm thinking about banging open a few tables now. Would be a bad idea of course as I'll completely lack any kind of dicipline.



On a vaguley serious note I am never touching alcohol again. That's a promise, you can take it to the smoke and bank it if you want. I've had some great times drinking in the past but recently, time and time again, it feels like my heart is going to explode. Seriously. No more of that thank you very much. Not for me. Before I die.

Total hands... 3586
Total profit... $66.82
BB/100... 93/100

Cheers.

One third down... just over half to go

I have hardly stopped playing since I posted the challenge on Wednesday and have clocked up over 3k hands of omaha and and at least 15 plays of Elvis's greatest hits album. I am verysick of both.

It all started rather slowly to be fair. Heartbreak Hotel is not one of my favourite songs for a start and the choice of a $15 BR at $5 buy in tables was cretinous to say the least as it meant I could only really two table to begin with.

The first 700 hands took an age. And I didn't play particularly well either. Saw 51% of flops, which is prolly too many at H/L, and spooned home a small profit of $8.52. Tales of woe.

At the end of session one:
Hands... 700
Total profit... $8.52
Big blinds/100 hands... 61/100

Some way off target but a profitable warm-up session which at least allowed me to four-table from then on.

This helped.

My flop-seeing percentage dropped significantly and by the 1800 hand mark I was down at 37%. I had rediscovered the form which had made me famous amongst the 1c/2c regulars in the past (though they pretend not to remember me now) and by hand 1800 I had churned out a healthy profit of $32.67.

At the end of session two:
Hands... 1800
Total profit... $32.67
Big blinds/100 hands... 91/100

I remember the next thousand or so hands being pretty tough going. It was still world class but I just couldn't seem to keep my concentration.

And Elvis started to fuck with me...

I was happily 5-tabling, plodding along, but then listening to In The Ghetto plunged me into a moment of deep depression. Of course I know better now, but at the time I thought that betting the pot on every table might perk me up a little. Not so... One of them was a stone cold bluff on the turn into six players which did not get through.

The song was blatantly at fault here in my opinion, ITG is by far the most tilt-inducing song I've ever heard and I clearly had no choice but to pot the fuck out of every table. No regrets.

End of session three:
Hands... 2960
Total profit... $40.81
BB/100... 69/100

It was looking good until the last 250 hands here where I needlessly dropped over $5 with no bad beats to speak of. Not sure quite what happened to be honest but I'm guessing Elvis had something to do with it. Or maybe I just went a bit mad.

I grobbled down some dinner, beans on toast with a cup of tea, banged on Can't Help Falling In Love and settled down to a nice little 6-tabling session. This turned out to be an inspired starting-song choice ('SSC' from now on) as I slapped home a $17.10 profit in the 404 hands. Promising.

End of session four:
Hands... 3364
Total profit... $57.91
BB/100... 86/100

So that's where I'm up to so far, guess I should probably get some sleep.

All in all it was a pretty good day (and a half), I'm just a little gutted that I can no longer listen to one of my favourite songs without the horrible image of PGchips reraising the pot with 75KT at PLO H/L.

I did turn the nuts to be fair so I guess sometimes, as Elvis once said himself, even the worst reraises preflop can have a happy ending, or at least turn the nuts.

The '1 bb per hand' Challenge

With tournaments off the menu for a while I've had to come up with a new challenge for myself. It's mainly for fun but I'm not working much at the moment so could do with winning.

As the title suggests, i am going to see if it is possible to win an average of one big blind every hand in my chosen game over a 10k hand sample. After the 10k hands i'll decide whether it's worth carrying on or not (though if i'm losing after 1k i'll just fuck it off obviously).

The game... Pot limit omaha high/low.
The stakes... 1c/2c.
The site... Stars.

I have absolutely no idea what a good win rate at this game is but it doesn't really matter, 1bb per hand seems pretty reasonable to me and anything less is frakking pointless.

The sample... 10k hands.
Intended profit... $200. (Sounds like a big ask actually at 1c/2c but, fuck it, I've said it now).

If I were to play 1k hands per day, this would equate to a $7300 annual profit. That's almost certainly impossible at 1c/2c plo h/l. Oh well.

$7320 on a leap year.

I start with $15 in my account, wish me luck...

Massively overbetting the best hand

This amusing hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2573365

led to my reckless-looking exit in a $2 multi on Stars:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2573360

After seeing the first hand there was no question i was getting a call from the lad, AQ with no fold equity again anyone?

4-handed shootout on Stars,

Was playing very lively early on as two of the players were too tight. It was effectively me heads up vs villain already. Showed him a bluff the previous hand so knew he was snapping here with any part of the flop:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2573251

Shoved deuces into AK and AJ with 8BBs at 50/100 which didn't hold up to regain the CL. Just checked i was 40% fave pre which i didn't expect... 81% after the turn! Not to be.


The two big overbet hands are quite interesting. It isn't really poker but i find it hard to turn down chances to overbet all in like this when these players are willing to call so light. I have no problems with this play in SnGs (and especially the 4 handed shootout, as above) but if i continue to take 60/40s like this in 1000+ player multis i'm not going to win very many. It's tough to win races consistently so i wonder whether it'd make sense to just peel one for cheap then check fold a flop. Who knows...


Only other tourn today was a boring $1 multi, pretty standard right through to the exit hand AK vs TT to come nowhere, 579th out of 1701.

If i start winning 50% of my 50/50s and 60% of my 60/40s (maybe 50% of my 20/80s!) i'll be fine...

The 'Mikey H' got me!

Nearly made it three cashes out of three for the day: after the earlier 'success' i decided to play the $20k guaranteed on Stars, 2538 runners, 378 paid.

Been sat at a new table for about ten minutes watching the player to my right massively raising every hand. Then with 402 players left and average at 17k decided to take a gamble:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2568598

No fold equity, I'm effectively calling all in on the bubble with AQ vs two random cards. Dangerous, but i'm happy enough with it. Well, not the result, obviously...

He played it well to be fair to him.

Two cashes out of two

Just came 61st in a 1613 runner $3 on Stars. As always, only dosh is at the FT in these so it's slightly disappointing. Few hands of interest below:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2565949
Full house paid off very first hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2566204
Raise more pre flop?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2566268
KQ vs 88

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2566798
77 fold?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2566811
Bust out

Played okay, Q9 shove felt a bit wrong at the time but there were worse spots to push in. Always a little unlucky to run into a hand and miss, but good run.

Also cashed in the only other tourn i played in today. Just a very small win in a $1 multi on Stars again where all the money was for 1st-3rd really.

Will start playing some proper tourns when i feel up to it.

Bad decisions, often costly

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2545954

Having played at the table for a long time, being a deep and slow tourn i knew i was 'probably' ahead of the shover but there was a very real danger of the original bettor being very strong here. Though i do feel a little unlucky that it was a set, i think on very top form i would happily get away from these situations (especially having limped pre) confident i can get my chips in in better shape elsewhere.

Every decision is important in this game, and at the moment i don't think my game is up to scratch. I complain a lot about bad luck but i think you only do that when you're not 100% happy about your game.

No doubt i'm running bad but i feel i'm making some bad decisions at key moments in tourns (prime example above) and i think this is probably costing me more than the bad beats and coolers. I think i'll take some time off to watch the snooker and then sort out some work for the next few weeks to keep me away from the computer...

Good luck all.

Another cooler to moan about

6-max, 970 runner $5.50 on Stars:

Seemed to have the table under control, make a good river call with 99 on an AJ3 4 2 board when QTs tried to steal it (he did river a flush draw to be fair to him). Then the poker Gods reward me a few hands later by dealing me AKs and someone else AA to send me packing. Just shouldn't happen 6 handed...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2545599

All i seem to be doing at the moment is complaining about losing coolers though i do seem to be losing a lot of them.

On a different note i have really enjoyed the snooker this week, there's been some really good stuff and it's pleasing to see my value pick of the tourn, Joe Perry, is in with a decent chance. He was 140/1 at the start of the tourn and is now 9/1 having set up a semi final match vs Ali Carter.

I was especially chuffed to see Ali Carter make a maximum - there's something i find very moving about seeing genuinely nice people doing something they really care about brilliantly well. And the fact that O'Sullivan, the cocky twat, now has to share his dosh is a nice bonus as far as i'm concerned. Both maximums were world class though.

More Fun...

$2.50, 2528 runner multi on stars:

Structure always seems very good early on in these tourns so just waited for hands as usual. Doubled up a short-stack very early on when my AQ was no match for his J2. Small pot. Then i doubled when my AK somehow held up AI pre vs some lad's AJs.

Then folded for fifteen minutes before:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2540778

and

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2540808

finished me off in xth place (where x > China).

My turn bet looks a little small in the first hand and not sure whether i can fold getting 4/1 on the river but guess it wouldn't have made much difference given the hand that followed. Good call.


$11, 1152 runner on stars:

Came 148th in this with only 99 getting a prize. Only action i had in the first hour was me taking out a shortie with something, can't remember. Started to get blinded away after break until, with about 8bbs shoved K9s and got lucky, then took out another short lad with 99 in the BB vs his KQ.

Folded away again for a bit, blinds 300/600 and some kind of ante. I shoved from the small for 5.3k with a weak ace, A6 i think, and got snapped by KJ (why not?) who rivered a J. No regrets, i add 35% to my stack without a showdown most of the time.


I think confidence plays a big part in poker and, at the moment, i could really do with a couple of result to get me back on track.

WASP, not WSOP

Standard in the Midnight Madness seemed very poor tonight, 1700 runners, top 261 paid, just waited for hands. 1st double up came with AQ, one limper calls my raise and flop bet, then all in on the J turn which made the board read Q74J. He had J8 and thankfully missed. Would not have been chuffed with that runner runner. Neither would i have been surprised tbh.

Then the biggest wasp i have ever seen flew into my room. Honestly, i've seen smaller dogs. This instantly put me on tilt.

It just hung around the light in my room which is just above my bed where i was playing and every now and then went mad and flew all over the place. 5am for fuck's sake, what creature in their right mind is up at that time?...

At one point it was hovering around the computer so i just had to wait for it to go. I couldn't kill it (it was more than a match for me), so just had to let a hand time out until the light grabbed it's attention again. I was horrified to see the hand i had missed: utg had shoved and utg+1 had reshoved and i had timed out KK utg+2... AJ vs A9. Luckily the board by the river was A9xxx and i would have lost it all. But still, EV wise, this wasp business was all very minus.

I soldiered on, got a nice double up with AJ on an AKK flop vs A8. Against any other player on the table i would have played it a bit more cautiously but this lad would have called all in with deuces so i rereraised all in before the turn scared him. 6k at the break, average about 4.5k.

The sun started to come up during the break of the tourn so i turned the bedroom light off and opened the window in the hope the wasp would leave the room. But no, another badly thought out plan as the light from my laptop was significantly brighter than that of a grey Birmingham dawn. So, ever the prat, i spent the whole of the break cautiously edging the laptop towards the window.

He was far too wiley to fall for that old trick though and admirably stood his ground. So, as the end of break loomed, i was forced to concede. I switched the light back on and just had to accept the fact that this massive animal with a suspected itchy sting finger would be hovering inches above my head for the next hour. [You know you're a fully-blown multi-tabling degenerate when you're prepared to risk literal wasp death in order to stay in the game.]

Folded to me on the button with 6k, blinds 100/200, i raise to 600 with 88 and sb pushes for 3.3k. Why me? I call and lose the race. Is that a fold?? One round later i shove for 2.6k after some weak looking limps and sadly get one caller. His deuces hold up as i lose another 6k race and exit the tourn in 470th place.

I threw a pen at the wall which came straight back at full pelt and hit the lampshade. Just my luck. Worryingly this disturbed the wasp who zig-zagged randomly around the room briefly before, thankfully, finding the open window.

Finally, a result i can bee happy with.

Tough Going

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2507260

Average at the time was 15k and with top prize the only one worth going for took a gamble which didn't pay off. Turned about a billion outs as well!... Good for 202nd place in the 2100 runner $1 fo for exactly $1 profit.

Was in with a good chance in the $16k gteed ($24 buy in) on tilt. Won a couple of early pots then had a big double up with AA vs AK on a J84 flop. Went to the break with above average stack and folded for the first half hour after the break. Then comes the idiot hand i seem to throw into every tourn. Folded to me on the button with 6k and JQss at 100/200, i make it 600 to go. bb, playing a 4k stack, calls. Flop comes AQx with one spade, he checks i check. Turn is As giving me a flush draw and two pair. He checks and i bet 650 expecting to take it down (no real danger in checking so i think this is the first mistake). He raises to 1800. WTF?, i can't seem to play a hand without getting into trouble these days. After folding for the last half an hour i now find myself in a tough spot. 1150 to call, he has about 1600 back with 3800 in the pot. Fold, call, shove?

I deserved to be outdrawn shortly after calling all in with A9 and losing to A8 to bust in 261st place of the 742 runners.

$8, 1240 player on stars:

Was very patient early on as always, played one hand before the break when my flopped trips in the bb with 67 was paid off by a limped aces. No cards after the break until, with 1700 in the sb with blinds at 50/100 i shoved with TT over a cutoff's raise to 400. Lost to QQ and out in 661st. Another cooler against.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2507455

To go out of the $20k g'teed in 549th place, top 378 paid. My stack felt a bit big to be shoving at the time but with over 1k in the middle to take figured i may as well add 20% to my stack or, at worst, see all five for the double up. Just a shame to lose another race at a crucial time.

So another four tourns there with all my luck coming in the $1.10 multi for a monster cash of $2.10

Good times.

Midnight Madness

$10 buy in 1400 runners, top 216 paid.

Played quite well, with a couple of mistakes, went into the break with just above average after flopping a flush and busting a shortie drawing dead. Second hand after the break i make a nice double barrel with Q high to make me comfortably chipped.

Then i play a hand like an idiot. Folded to me in the small, 56hh, blinds 100/200, raise to 600, bb calls and we see a flop of 459. Looked pretty safe so bet out 650 or so. bb minraised to 1300 leaving 2.2k back. I thought he may have left so much back as he was willing to fold so i foolishly set him in, he snapped with J9 and i miss to double him up. Should have just limped from the small and kept the pot manageable or, having raised, folded to the repop but never mind.

Won a race to double up and then doubled again with aces on a JT4 flop vs QT. Cheers. This got me back to about average with 290 left.

Get dealt AKhh in mid. Utg+1, playing a 4k stack, pots it to 1350, i set him in and his kings hold up. Argument for folding? Prolly not. This puts me down to 1700 with blinds at 150/300, antes 50. Fold a couple of hands before shoving J9s utg and losing the battle with KQ.

Out in 286th.

So three tourns today with nothing to show, i seem to be getting unlucky but to be fair if i hadn't have played that 56 like such a retard the AKs that followed wouldn't have been so important to my stack and the J9 push wouldn't have been neccessary. I need to keep my focus at every stage of the tourns i'm playing to keep the mistakes to a minimum and my stack as big as it should be. This will mean the coolers aren't so fatal should i lose them.

Sorry if this is all a little boring but i think it's bound to help me. May play some more tomorrow, if so you'll hear about it.

Running bad but maybe i deserve it...

Hi back again,

Mainly to help myself, i'll be blogging every tournament i play (cricket and poker). I'm currently playing under the name 'pgchips' on tilt and stars. After some success a few weeks ago the last couple of weeks have been very losing. So hopefully talking through every tourn i play will help me see why.

Played two tourns today on tilt, the first a six-handed 220 runner $2 buy in tourn. I was going well in this one thanks to an idiot open pushing tens for 1200 with the blinds at 30/60. Somehow my kings held up. Steadily built up from there until:

55 left, 24 paid, average 4.5k.
Button limps for 100, sb makes up, i check A4 o bb. I check raise the A45dd flop and just button calls. Turn blank so i bet 2100 into 1800, he calls leaving himself 890 back (don't know why i didn't just put him in). Anyway, river was a pretty ugly 2, i put him in and he shows 34dd for the straight. Fair dos. Miss a flopped flush draw next hand drawing very slim vs a higher flush draw to finish in 53rd or something.

Next tourn was a six-handed $3 buy in tourn, 200 runners. First hand i get dealt AK on the button, cutoff limps for 30 and i shove for 1500. (First hand of a tourn people often like to gamble as i could be shoving any two as far as they're concerned. So i thought i'd test this by open pushing.) I get snapped by A7s. Flop comes a nice JJ4, though turn 7 and river 7 sent me out in 200th place.

Now the first hand here is unavoidable i think, could argue he should have folded the turn but nothing i can do about it but the second hand didn't have to be AI pre. If i had played it properly we would have been heads up to a flop and i would have taken down a small one with very little danger and on with the game we go. But should i turn down a chance to double up against someone willing to gamble like that??

Anyway, two tourns no cashes, just the midnight madness on tilt still running, and with someone pushing every hand on my table this could be very good or very bad... i'll let you know.