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.

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.

18/27/45/180/360-man SnGs

I twenty tabled the 10c 360-player NLHE SnGs last night. (Well, I loaded up twenty of them but busted a few before a lot of the others started). But I played 20 of them in total for a 20c loss. Ran bad at the only ft I made (ran AK into JQ pre for the chip lead 8-handed). Came 8th. Only other nice run was 15th where I ran two overs and a fd into top pair and couldn't improve. Was surprisingly fun to be playing for such small amounts of money again. Though I wasn't taking it lightly, I even folded the best hand once just to make the money. Ship it.

Just tried something similar, but upping the stakes a little. I 18-tabled some $1.20 18/27/45-man tourns with a couple of 10c 360-man ones thrown in and an expensive 180 player $2.20 one for thrills. This last one was sick. Great tourn, $100+ first prize. Came 7th despite being comfortable chip leader 7-handed. This sick hand for a massive chip lead with 7 left did most of the damage and I tilted out soon after:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3017304

I minraised because my computer was being slow and it's all I had time for but, given how crapshooty it was by this stage, I'm not sure I mind the minraise much. Anyway, standard river.

About $20 profit in the 18 Sngs I played but should have been more obviously, can't remember anything much interesting happening (guess tables were always popping up over the top of the horrendous outdraws I was putting on people).

Really don't feel like playing any Omaha at the moment. Think I'm scared of losing. Will probably just 18-table these sit and goes until it gets boring.

Inabit.

tannigreythompson

well i was bound to start playing shit after that last post wasnt i. been running shit too. anyone who shows that amount of hope/optimism/arrogance deserves to get cunted over imo. in the two days after the post i had an 8 buy in upswing followed by a 17 buy in downswing. then spent $65 in a NLO8 $5 rebuy where i didnt win a single hand during the rebuy period. ridiculous. things started to look up at the start of the freezeout when somehow split a pot with a moron but departed shortly after. winning zero hands in an hour and a half of a rebuy depressed me. my desire to play seems to completely disappear when things arent going well so being the bad loser that i am i havent played very much since. definitely a bad loser. $300 down since my last post. guess it happens. worked some long hours out in the sun at the cricket last week which was probably the saviour of my sanity and my roll. was good to be out of the house having fun with friends and other people instead of in the house losing money to enemies and other people. not sure what my plan is now to be honest as my omaha libido has gone through the floor. got about $500 in the roll just 18-tabled some small stakes multi-table sit and goes where i ran bad and broke even. it wasnt fun. downloaded loads of films recently may carry on just watching them instead of playing poker or maybe ill get out of the house a bit. tv is shit only things i watch now are the secret millionaire which makes me smile and mock the week which makes me laugh. millionaire is in ladywood near me next week which should be interesting. drive by shooting there the other day. money well spent. rented a couple of french films, the brilliant amelie which was nominated for five oscars in 2002 i think and a fucking hilarious film called le diner de cons. fucking hilarious. watch it if you can. loads of foreign films i want to watch some for the second time but have been struggling to download them with the correct subtitles if anyone knows a reliable way of downloading foreign films please tell me. though renting them from the library gets me away from the computer if nothing else. my total profit since the $15 deposit 72 days ago now stands at $1196.03 and is getting less impressive by the day.

Ambitious Ambitions

Sup?

Well, I’m well past the 2c/5c level now, and I’ll probably never play there again. I moved up to the $25 level on Wednesday and I’ve been 9-tabling the 6-max PLO8 tables at this level ever since. It’s gone quite well overall and my game has come on a hell of a lot in that time.

But it didn’t start well.

In fact, it started terribly. I went $90 down within hundreds of hands and was probably lucky to break even over the first 6k. It wasn’t all bad beats, and I was certain that there was a leak or two in there somewhere, some nasty habit I’d brought with me from micro micro maybe, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Now, I am quite proud of the fact that I have taught myself how to play this game and have twice built a bankroll of hundreds of dollars from tens of dollars playing the micro micro stakes of the game. But, after 6k hands of break even 10c/25c I had to concede that there were some things I was doing very wrong and, what’s more, I had no idea what they were.

So I finally got over my stubbornness and read some literature. I started with the 2+2 forums. It felt like cheating a bit to be honest but I’m a bit of a prick for not doing it sooner. I spent a good six hours reading every page of the O8 section of the forum and it has helped an unbelievable amount. There’s a lot of crap on there, as I’m sure there is on every forum (except maybe Dur Pok Soc) and some terrible advice, but what was good was unbelievably helpful.

I didn’t realise how shit (well, at least how unoptimally) I was playing before. Even some of the hands I have proudly posted in my previous posts are embarrassing to look over now tbh. But anyway, it worked for the micro micro levels but not for $25. But, now I think my game is okay for the $25 level and have finally been winning a bit of money. It does help that I’ve been running sick good recently as well.

I have played 17 hours in total for a $510 profit over 11.5k hands. This is about $30 ph at 8.9ptBBs/100. Obviously if I ignored the first 6k hands these figures would be sick at like $60 an hour or something. But those first 6k hands happened, were important, and so are included.

So having played over 10k hands at this level now I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of where I stand at the tables and what I think I can achieve.

I believe that with a lot of discipline and a lack of tilt, a win rate of 10ptBBs/100 is possible. This will be my main aim from now on. Playing 9 tables at a time I get through about 600 hands per hour and if I was to achieve my targeted win rate this will bring in $30 per hour. I have a lot of debt to pay off and I desperately want a holiday (I hear Malta’s pretty cheap…) so I want to put in enough hours to make $1k per week at 10c/25c.

Hence, ‘Ambitious Ambitions’! Impossible? We’ll see. Anyone for a prop bet to incentive me on?

$1k, at my target rate of 10ptBBs/100, will take 20k hands, which, at a rate of 600 hands ph, will take about 33 hours. I will continue to work for the agency (unless there is a bit of prop betting going on) as I think it’s important for me to have something to force me out of the house every once in a while and also something other than poker to pay my rent. But for the next few weeks, possibly months, I will be trying my best to fit in a big number of hours of Omaha around work.

If I get anywhere near 20k hands a week, winning at anywhere near my target rate, I’ll be earning well and paying off debt quickly:

I hope to pay off $500 a week in debt and keep the rest of what I make in the roll. I don’t intend to move up from these stakes until all of my debt is paid off so there is no pressure there. And anything I make over $500 in any week will probably eventually go towards a holiday.

That’s all for now, sorry nothing even mildly amusing to report at the moment. I’ll probably be posting my progress or lack of it in this blog. Peace.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2941703

Facebook bowling is -EV

Dickie, if you're reading this, thank you for introducing me to facebook bowling - you owe me a new mouse you houndrel.

My mouse has caused me a lot of trouble recently (I'm sure I've lost at least $50000 in 'mouse tilt') and I think it's been on its way out for a while. So, I guess it should have come as no surprise that my full-blooded attempt to bowl the fastest facebook bowl ever recorded finally finished it off. There was a loud crack and a fat chunk of plastic flew across the room. It was an explosive end to a troubled life.

Luckily it was the mouse I broke and not my computer or my arm but now the pointer thing doesn't point exactly where I want it to point every single time. With a 'fold' button and a 'call' button and a 'raise' button all in fairly close proximity, it's quite important that the mouse points the pointer to the button I want the pointer to point at. Otherwise, it's just pointless.

So I guess 6-tabling is out of the question until I buy a new one. I just tried to 4-table but I was far too slow between tables, sometimes it's important to make bluffs instantly or they don't get through so playing without a mouse would almost completely take away my bluff. Actually, this would probably be +EV thinking about it...

Anyways, had a nice couple of hit and runs since my last post:

17 hrs 15 mins
6336 hands (367 ph)
$92.38 profit
$5.36 ph
14.6 ptBBs/100

Will need a few more sessions like this in the next couple of days to bring me on target for $1k by August. Over $600 short at the moment with only 12 days to go. (It doesn't really matter when I reach $1k of course, but it would be nice to meet a target for once).

Bye.

Stress ball for sale!

Plugged away at the tables for a good few hours last night. My play was very on and off and had mixed results as I went through several really bad spells in the six or so hours I played. The tables were full of action though and it was great fun, losing didn't even bother me.

Progress to date:

16hrs 30mins
6091 hands (369 hands per hour)
$68.88 profit
$4.20 per hour
11ptBBs/100

Few winning and losing hands here if they're of any interest to anyone:

Nuts and a redraw takes quarter:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2912350

Bad turn in $30 pot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2911656

Big flop:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2911586

Nut low and draw to high miles behind:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913571

Love the turn:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913471

Don't know about this one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913429

Jam it:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913382

Missed wrap:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913358

Hate his call on the turn but whatever:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2913347

River:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2912857

A set just isn't good on this kind of lowwy flushy drawwy flop (without the fd, that is) when faced with serious action but I'm sure he's happy:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2912610
My hand has 63% expectation vs a bare set on the flop. That's why this game is so tricky sometimes.

Everything misses in a $25 four way all in:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2912610

In the 2.5k hands I played today I earned enough FPPs to play another 210 FPP sat. I took one of the 6 seats without much trouble and unregistered from the tourn as usual and had to decide what to do with the $11. Last time, I played and won two heads up matches but they were really boring. So I decided to spread it out between a $6.50 9-player PLO8 SnG, a $3.40 10-player PLO8 SnG and a $1.20 10-player NLHE SnG. Was nice to chill out after all the poker and there was some good banter at the tables. Crashed out of the holdem one in an unnecessary way:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2914191

but won the two Omaha ones for a $42 return on my 210 FPP investment. This means that my 400 FPP stress ball is worth $80. Anyone want to buy it?