Poker and ting

I know you say you only blog when you win...

2010-12-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

But unfortunately that isn't the case! Going to be blogging reguarly now ( i know i know) after some inspiration from LilDave (David Nicholson) who is my fave blogger. http://lildaveslife.blogspot.com/ check it out yo.

Life

Recently went for an interview in Gibraltar, had a really good time out there although would have been nicer to stay for a few more days as when I returned England was 10inches deep in snow. I was very well looked after including flights from Manc/4*Hotel so was a pretty toasty couple of days. The guys I met out there were mainly German and it impresses me so much how well they can speak English. I'm almost embarrassed as there is like 5 of us around a table, 4 of them German and we still speak English. They even know English humour, just little things that I would never ever pick up if I was studying their language. Also really enjoyed being in the company of super intelligent people and think I rub off them pretty well :) Really really hope I get the job and can start a new period in my life. Have had a good job since I graduated and this will be the next stepping stone for hopefully a very successful career. Please all give me your one times :)

LMS

Last Man Standing is a competition ran on lots of forums, I entered the Blonde Poker one and after going out early doors in the first stage luckily I was back in after a rollover, I got to the final two this week and basically I needed Celtic to win and Bolton not to win to win over 1k and more importantly the pride. 20 minutes to go, Bolton 0-2, Celtic 2-0 against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Don't need to say what happened. Sigh. I did have a nice little wager on West Ham to beat Man United this week though at 5.7/1. Posted on my fb so not aftertiming :)

Teh Pokers

Although haven't played a schedule in over a week been playing so good. Really do feel like I'm playing sick good atm but just need to convert when deep. I had so many 7-20ths that it really pisses me off. I have a style that means I either win or bust then, its so frustrating as I have full control of the table and usually get someone making a really bad call where they are flipping at best (they are usually flipping) and I obv don't get there. Nevermind though, 2011 is a new year, hope I'm not bokking myself here but think its going to be huge.

glglglglglglgl

To mondatoo (Ray) at the Monte Carlo this month. Got a little %, he never struggles to sell out and is genuinely a really nice guy, he's also going for supernova so good luck again Ray.

PokerPlayer

Enjoying doing writing for PokerPlayer, I've done a few articles now and I love the role that I have atm as it is based more around strategy that I think suits me best as face it I'm abit of a poker geek.

Live Cash

2010-08-31T06:28:00.000-07:00

Live cash

Been playing a tonne of live 50nl taking shots at 200nl from time to time, up 40 bi's in last few weeks so obv sick heater/playing best I have.

One funny pot from last night, 3 limpers, Gary Robinson (Aspers Reg) makes it £9 otb, we are 350bbs effective, I flat with 45cc, 3 other callers. Flop is A67ss, checks round to Gary he bets £20, I call 1 other caller. Turn is another 6, checked to Gary who tank bets £40 I look down before mucking and realise I have 56 not 45. hiiiiiiii der. I shove for lotssss(I have loosest image ever at live cash showed down all sorts tonight) guy tanks for like 7 mins and folds 45ss and Gary snaps me off with A9. Somewhere along the line somebody else went all in with KQdd for another bi, no idea when untill after the hand another £50 shipped my way.

I've been winning lots recently, and whenev a new player comes to he table have always posted for them, especially if they are buying in for less than 50bigs, was a busto degen last night who was like grinding £10 stacks for an hour and eventually going busto, I was paying his blinds for him every round and even straddled for him a couple of times (I was on his direct right) I complete the straddle and he shoves! cheeky bastard, I spite snap him of with K3 and obv get there against AK. He takes it in good spirit and I give him £4.25 which lasted him another hour or so (with me posting his blinds again! KARMAAAAAAA.

Live donkaments

Only played one live tourny in ages. £40 tourny on Sunday at circus. 80 runners iirc, I get it all in on first hand with 89hh against q7hh on 7610hh board, obv I don't win. I then decide to own and crush the tourny. I have a super aggro image and whenever I have the nuts people are ike 4x pot shoving! Heaven. Get in a pot with Joe Peel for over half the chips in play with like 13 left with qqvkjv77(shortstack) kxxx wins. NH Joe. sigh. Final table I make some silly raises as I'm commited to callig shortstacked shoves, they are women and busto teenagers so I thought they'd just keep folding. [ ] worked well. Anyway came like 4th for a decent cash.

Writing

Bubbled sickest job for me. Obv I'm playing poker alot, but I am a journalist 9-5 (just graduated) 100 people or something applied for a job for the biggest UK poker magazine, obv after few interviews I get to the last 2, runbaddddddd bubble. sick lol. Anyway they want me to be involved in the mag and were impressed so hopefully will do some freelance stuff for them finishing in me working in vegas for whole of WSOP where I will grind cash as much as possible and really treat the whole trip as WORK and not PLAY. glglglgl with that! When I get back from there will reassess what I want to do with poker and whether or not I'm going to take it super serious. Might do a taster for the whole thing trying to work one of the EPT's or something for some experience as it will obv be pretty competitive with all the sick railtards wanting some action.

Online

Online I havn't played too much, won alot at 100nl HU, won alot at 50nl/100plo rush, won alot at 100plo HU and then lost ALOT at 100plo HU, really starting to read hands alot better, might sound stupid but obv prefer playing worse players. In the past I never really knew why, but now it's because I know they can't value bet thinly and I can pick off bluffs that just don't make much sense. Also trying a few other plays that seem to be working v.well upto now, discussed a couple with James Howard last night at Aspers.

Upcoming

Not playing the nifty monkey tonight at Stanly as I just really cba. Will probably be at Aspers next Saturday or Sunday. I am planning a trip to DTD possibly for next month and asked like 10 NPS regs to come with, anyone interested hollllllllla.

HU Tourny / New Job

2010-08-03T06:16:00.000-07:00

So I've finally left uni. For good. Wow, those three years went super fast. I was intending to travel around Europe with a few good friends who left last Friday, but somehow persuaded some guy to give me a job! I'm working at a independent financial advisers called Reeves Independent, who are based in Jesmond, Newcastle. www.twitter.com/reevesifa. Only been here for 2/3 weeks, but enjoying it so far.

Played my first ever live HU shootout this week. Was at circus and had 42 runners, which then went down to 21, then to 11, then to 6, which were going to play a roudn robin to get a winner.

I was initially drawn agaist Paul Nixon and the another older gentleman, so I thought my route was goign to be pretty easy towards the cash. Last minute the tournament director changed the structure and I was facing Coral sponsored pro Mark Trett.

The game started pretty slowly, both of us adopting to min raise our buttons and most cbets were taking pots down. I adjusted and started to check top pair/over pairs on the flop, then lead big on turn and river, which saw Mark call me down thinly a couple of times and increase my chip lead. Our final hand was at blinds 25/50, Mark opens fr 125 on the button, I 3bet to 375 with AA and Mark 4bets to 1225. It's his first 4bet of the game so I'm pretty sure he's light, so I'm facing the dilemma of shoving or calling then c/s - c/c his flop bet that would 100% leave him commited to the pot. I play about with some chips, try and make myself look weak, Mark tank calls with J high and doesn't improve.

I go onto play Mary and comofrtably beat her to go through to the "semi final". Some notable hands were Mary limping the btn with 4bbs, I shove kqcc for value and she folds a10, I was literally like WTF? I think se was a 7/1 shot to progress against me and I completely controlled the match. Between games I chatted to Chris Wood from teeside about MTT play and think I picked up a couple of pointers that I will look to introduce next time I hit the felt.

My semi final match was against Paul Hepworth, a nice studious player that takes time over every decision. He is very deliberate with his plays and is pretty aggro. Saying this I still thought I had an edge and won the first game where I 4bet jam 810cc into his JJ and get there, mbn etc i know. I control the second game with some good value shoves/bets, using similar tactics to those I used against Mark Trett. He won the 2nd game when I missed the absolute world. The 3rd game I limp the btn playing 20bbs effective with KQ, he raises 3bb and i call. Flop 99k he jams, i snap, he has 66.

I eventually chop the tournament with Chris Wood and a couple of others and get back home for work at 9am on Monday morning.

Played one hand of cash that I thought was semi interesting. It's my first hand at the table. 4 limpers including Chris on the button. I look dow at AKo and just check, with the ntention of going broke on A/K high flops, but not wanting to inflate the pot OOP. Flop is Q102 I don't want c/c because I don't think my hand is good enough, so I lead with the intention of barreling if needs be, or getting it in on a J and considering my options depending on who calls etc if a Ace or King comes. I bet les than 1/2 po and it folds to Chris who 3x raises my bet. I'm pretty sure he never has a Queen here, and he can't have 101010, so he either has 222 or some kind of straight draw with back door flush, we are now heads up and I make the call. The turn is an offsuit 5 and I check and he checks behind, river is a Q and I lead out 3/5 pot. He quickly folds, I'm really unsure about my river bet, but I def like how I played the first 3 streets

Start of 6max grind.

2010-05-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

First of all, just like to send my congradonlances to Gaz Walker who just came 8th in UKIPT Nottingham, well played mate.

As talked about in previous blogs when I finished university I was going to join the "Philli Stable" ran by Jon Lundy.

I started about 10 days ago and we started right at the bottom at 20nl. Basically the plan is to get used to 6max cash and hopefully break even/win abit. In the past I saw alot of the previous players in the stable had lost alot to start/found it hard to adapt so I didn't take my usual cocky style when starting. The first day I played a 21 hour session which was abso sick as everyone was snoring their heads off but I just kept grinding, grinding, grinding. Whenever I had a tough spot I'd ask Jon and usually the answer was a point to his eyeball directing me to go arrrrrrin. I eventually won about 8 bi's so was pretty sick.

I went home and just continued to grind, I was really tired and lost all the profit + a few more bi's I was pretty gutted as I'd worked really hard to be up that much. Anyway I thought fuck this, I'm going to play as much as possible and as well as possible and between tues-friday I had won back and more of what I'd lost.

I went to Jon's again this weekend and played a few more longer sessions with Andy Harrison. Ran pretty horrificly -13 bi's below ev. For people not understanding what that means, basically I should of been winning 13 bi's more than I actually was.

There are 10k hands missing from the graph where I was a winner, but hands played on Jon's laptop and havn't had chance to import them yet.

I am still up over 10bi's in my first week which is great news and I think I'm playing really well, if there was no luck I'd be up over 20 bi's which is sick for my first week of ever playing 6max cash.

The plan is to move up tables after I have been profitable at a certain amount of tables. So for example, I was a big winner at 4 tables so I am now playing 6 tables, once I am comfortable and crushing I will move up to 8 tables etc etc. I will stop at 16 tables where if I am constantly crushing I will move up to 50nl where I will start 4 tabling. The same as above I will move to 6 tabling, 8 tabling and ultimately 16 tabling, once I am crushing there I will move up to 100nl. If I can beat 4 tables I will move up, if I can beat 6 tables I will move up, etc etc etc, untill finally I can comfortably crush 100nl 16 tables.

It's a long way away, but it's something to look to, I know that

1) I have the potential to be able to do this

2) I can put in the volume, other people have mentioned how sick I've been volume wise

3) I have the desire and hunger to succeed.

Hopefully my next update is that I am beating 6 tables easily and I've moved up to 8 tables.

PL.

NPF Team Game/ Staking

2010-05-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

Before I talk about the fantastic weekend spent in the Grosvenor casino at the NPF team game, just a quick mention to Chris Gillott A.K.A Machine. Everybody knows our history and somehow he has persuaded me to stake him. I've given him alot of trust and he's repaying me already. He is crushing the smaller stakes SNG's with a strategy I have pushed in his direction. Anyone else wanting to be staked for micro SNG's who have a willingness to learn and accept that in the short term they might not make alot but in the long term will definitely make money, holla.

So like I mentioned before, this weekend was the NPF Annual Team Game. I am captain of The Cubs and this year we had a really really strong team. We met up for a bite to eat at nandos where we sorted out the teams attire for the weekend, as you can see by the picture we looked dappa. Onto the poker, we did dreadful! We only had 2 players reach the cash, although Chris Waugh managed to final table and win some $$$ and much needed points to ensure we didn't come home with the wooden spoon. Sensation crushed the game getting lucky when he needed to and having cards hold when he needed them to. His final table finish secured 1st place for the sensations with the dobbas a very close 2nd.

I started the table with Mark Trett on my left and Gordon Wright and Dave Steohenson on my right, I know all 3 players games pretty well so was pretty happy as everybody else on the table was awful. I lost some chips on a AK10 board bet folding after a lady had c/r me, I table k10 and she shows me q9. Hm [ ]wpwpwpwp. I go down to 4k, and then pcik up some chips when I defend my blind after Mark Trett had raised UTG+1 to 2.5x. I had seen him make it 3/4x previously and usually when somebody 2.5x's for the first time it's never strong so I flat with j10 with the intention of c/r any flop. I get a perfect k56 board and c/r after some deliberation he folds. Dave Stephenson then opens and I flat out the bb with QQ. All undercards and I call his flop bet and valuebet the river and he looks me up and taps the table.

Before the break I move table and get moved to a table full of fish with the exception of Mrs Stumpy who I can't comment on as never played with her before, but going by her award last week at the NPF Birthday game I guess she is decent. First orbit, 2 limpers and I limp behind with 33, I can squeeze here, but we are relatively deep so I think flatting in position is fine. Flop is a ugly qj4ss. Checked round to me and I sigh check giving up on the hand. Turn is a beautiful 3 and it's checked to me again, I bet half pot hoping for a couple of callers, I get my wish with Mrs Stumpy and another lady calling. Turn is a 9x, I think this is apretty safe card and could possible give some people 2 pair. I decide to bet 3100 into 1700 making it look like missed spades or some spewy 2 barrel bluff as people know I'm well capable of this. Mrs Stumpy insta shoves on me and I have to sigh fold. Losing half of my stack on this hand tilted me as I thought when I was betting I was for sure good. NVM, went into the break with around 3.5k desperately needing a double up.

I get moved onto a new table and have the pleasure of sitting next to Teamdobbs, Sean Mcguigan and Andy Carlin. Teamdobbs raises and I flat for around 1/3 of my stack out the sb to do a stop and go with J9 I think it's a perfect hand for the situation. Anyway flop is j92 and I shove my stack in for a 1.75x pot shove and TD insta calls with AJ, I fade his 2 pair outs and double up. I now go super aggro looking to build a stack, I reshove and then shove twice and I now have 30bbs and a decent stack.

I get moved table again and this time I am on Daniel Trett/Simpa and Mr E's table. I sit really tight as I have an awkward stack, the blinds bite me a little bit and I move to about 25bbs. In this time MR E had picked up AA and JJ, both times putting in really big raises. Next hand he min raises so straight away I assign him to a range of 33-66 kq/aj. Simpa flats behind which I think is pretty weak and I shove from the button with 22. MR E has a stack of about 11k IIRC and this call would be for 45% of his chips as Scotty Hocking quickly worked out, so I know he can't call with his cards and I think I'm going to pick up a nice pot as antes has kicked in by now too. So I would of made about a 30% increase on my stack unless Simpa had called behind to induce a shove from me, but I think this is highly unlikely, no offence.
Anyway, MR E tanks and tanks and somehow makes a call with AJ and we're at the races, two players say they had an Ace so I'm relatively confident until he binks a J. He later went on to tell people he had raised to 2k with 20k behind and I had 5k otherwise he would of folded, so I must of been looking at a different hand.

Anyway I move onto cash and play really well for hours and hours, making the best call I've made in a long time for the rest of my stack against Mullet with Ace High on the river and folding AK on K23hh board to be shown 333. Anyway lose all my money late in the night on KJ7ss board with 9sqs10c2c, sigghhhhh.

Nevermind. Great weekend. Thanks again to Mr E, CGK, S2C and TD for organising everything.

Crushing, end of uni and team game

2010-04-29T03:55:00.001-07:00

Since binking a tourny last time out I have been focusing my attention on HU SNG's. I love the fact that you are playing 1 on 1 and can crush the other player. In full ring although it is possible, it is quite hard to exploit the fish as all the sharks are trying to get in on the action and I always get into wars against regs who isolate the fish and always come agains tthe top of their range. Sighhhh, hu I can just own the fish and grind them out. Obviously it's hard to have a really good ROI and many of the top pro's have rois between 10-15%, wioth 15% seen to be very good.

At the $10 SNG's I have a 24% roi, so obviously that is really good. I am going to continue to play them on my own roll when I join the philli stable and hopefully build up $$$ to take shots at UKIPT events.

This Saturday is the NPF Forum Team Game, 20 teams all come together to a very well ran event by S2C, Teamdobb and CGK. The standard is pretty indifferent, you have some very good players, who play £1k events and then you get lots of bad players, who are just on their forum for the social side. This is fair enough, S2C has formulated a good structure, with 7.5k stacks and 45 minute blinds, so hopefully my team will do really well and we'll get some lads on the final table and TID.

Outside of poker I'm obviously at Uni, I leave Sheffield on Friday forever and it's been a rpetty quick three years, I'm def a very different person now to who I was when I came to Sheffield as a 18 year old fresher, I used to care alot about what people thought about me and I didn't really say exactly what I thought. Since then I've changed completely, I think I am alot more judgemental than I used to be and this stems to the poker table where as soon as I sit down I make immediate assumptions about the players on my table, usually pretty accurately.

This month is also UKIPT Nottingham, hopefully I will play the £200 6max side event and depending on how well I do online before hand/if I bink a seat, I'll play the £500 main event too. Reportedly it's going to have over 1000 players so this obv means a sick prizepool, the standard is supposedly very high, especially comapared to normal high buy in live events, this is because the onlien community win seats and come out wheras normally they will just not bother playing GUKPT's etc. I am really confient in my poker atm, so don't fear playing against almost any competition.

I said before about not caring what people think anymore, well maybe I'm wrong, I want to prove to everyone exactly how good I am, and I won't do this till I get out and start playing some bigger tournies. You can't make serious money unless you take shots slightly out of your bankroll. Last year, Mark Trett took a shot at some tournies, after a slowstart he binked a Coral Masters and then secured a £10k package for live events for 2010, he really is an inspiration as he was a low stakes MTT grinder who had the balls to take a shot and it payed off for him, hopefully I can do something similar.

I'm going travelling in August/September around Europe with a couple of close friends and I'm really looking forward to that, should be going for 4-6 weeks, before that got a few beach holidays planned in Spain and Ibiza. Finishing uni is scary, but only if you let it be, I'm looking forward to a prosperous future and 2011 should be an awesome year for me.

PL.

I won? norrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

2010-04-18T23:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, been playing MTT's for the past month or so. It's been such a ridic month, I'm playing fields of thousands so it's sooooo hard to get a final table finish, and if you don't get a final table finish, the money is usually shite. In the big, crucial pots I have been absolutely fucked over. Anyone who knows me recognises that I am super aggro, i bet/3bet/cbet myself into really good positions and the fish just call-check/fold. Then in the huge pots where I induce massive overplays they hit their 20-30%'s, mehhhhhhhh. But that's what tournies are about, lots of sighhhhhaments followed by a big ship and you forget all your run bad.

Guess the difference between variance in tournies and variance in cash is that in tournaments you have lottttttts of runbad then one big run good, but in cash you have big downswings which may last for 10k hands, and then your upswing is just as much if not bigger.

I won the $22 deep antes tournie on stars yesterday for $1.1k, I have a roi of 58% and since I been playing MTT's abit more seriously (last 6 months) 96%, so looking good.

My long term future in poker lies in 6max cash games, I'm joining the Philli Stable when I finish uni, so I really hope that brings my game onto the next level, I will continue to reg play tournies and binking a few is always nice.

Outside of poker I am sorting plans out for my gap year. I am going to spend a month going around Europe, travelling to Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Scandanavia and a couple of other smaller countries, going to be going with one of my best friends, Arun so should be quite a big eye opener. I'm also going on holiday with my rents (free holiday ftw) to Ibiza for a fortnight and then going to be grindingggggggggg, untill January when I move to NYC for 6 months or so. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

2011 is hopefully going to be a huge year in my life, where I not only mature alot, but I experience the world and make some $$$$$$$$.

MTT's?

2010-03-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

This has all come about pretty quickly, but been offered a good deal to play small-medium MTT's on Full Tilt and Stars. Although I am still going to be learning 6max cash and see that as my way forward in poker I believe playing MTT's can definitely be beneficial.

The guy who is backing me is one of the best MTT players in England and has had a sick year, I'm really looking forward to learning from him and hopefully winning us both mad mad dimez.

Will update more after the weekend, but I am starting tonight. so glglglg me.

Cheltenham was a disaster, although I had a 14/1 winner and a 20/1 winner I still finished down pretty big, lumping all my winnings on Rite of Passage, Dunguib and Master Minded. FML. Lost the rest of my acct balance with J8hh on 10h9h2c board in a 550bb pot HU and he had Q6hh. gg me.

Sweating/dossing

2010-03-11T23:25:00.000-08:00

So since I was informed by Jon that I would infact be starting grinding on 26 March, I felt it was my perogative to go out and find out alot about 6max cash games. I have been doing lots of sweats with members of Eat My Stack (www.eatmystack.com/forum/forum)

Palmer2k6 (nice screen name bud) is a student in Manchester, but is from Birrrrrrmingingham. He has recently moved up to 200nl on stars and is beating the game for fun. He has kindly let me watch him play and explain his thought processes. He has been a coach for a couple of years and he really puts his points/thought processes across well. I try and contribute as much as I can, but with my limited 6max experience it is sometimes a little difficult, however I think I'm really starting to get used to it and find it a fascinating game, just like I did when I first started playing HU. Anyway, to conclude Palmer has had a winning session everytime we have done a sweat and we both get on really well and have a good laugh. KUTGW mate.

Moving onto the NPF, I failed miserably in their 500-1500 challenge and thought that I owed alot to Davey and Steve. I have tried my best to get involved as much as possible in all 4(5)'s threads and in particular I gave Trev alot of feedback, unfortuately Trev was removed from the challenge. I was hoping that my HU background could of really helped him come through the challenge successfully, but in truth it was always going to be a fucking grind. Huge props to Machine, a former cyber enemy of mine who used to be an obvious degen, he has since knuckled down and is now crushing the low stakes SNG's. KUTGW mate.

Life has been a doss really, had friends from home come up for a night out, and went out for beers after the Man United/Milan match. Don't have too much uni on, but all my work is in for like April and then after that I am completely finished uni. Scary times. No idea exactly what I want to do, I think I am going to take a year out, make abit of money hopefully, go traveling, most likely on interrail then the year after do a teaching degree which will be a one year course and make me a qualified teacher. I will then reassess if I want to play poker seriously and I think this is definitely the best way to go about it as I have something stable to fall back onto if I epically fail.

That's about it for now, hopefully the blog will keep updated.

Pads.

Philli Stable...

2010-03-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

Ok, so Jon has asked me to give the Philli Stable a months trial. Basically I will be playing a minimum of 6 tables, probably 8 tables of 50nl on ipoker. I have to play a minimum of 35k hands for the first month. The initial trial is not about making money, although that would be an extra bonus. But it is more understanding Jon's concepts and taking on a style that he thinks is best suited for me. Lot's of people will think that getting staked for 50nl is pointless, so below is my pro's and con's.

Pro's-
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Coaching from Jon - One of the main attractions, I think my game is actually alot better than 6 months ago, but there is still lots of leaks that hopefully he will be able to help me with.

Incentive to grind- I have had problems with putting in volume in the past, but I am really motivated to succeed in this. If I don't put in a certain amount of hands then I am going to be given the boot. I know this and hopefully I can rise to the challenge.

Enviroment/House- If you havn't checked the blog out yet, then go do it. Jon purchased a 6 bedroom house in Houghton Le Spring, with war rooms, jacuzzis, huge bedrooms etc etc.. Inside will be all the grinders, being in an enviroment where everyone will be bouncing ideas off eachother/helping eachother out will be so beneficial to my game

Con's-

The main con is giving up rakeback, but being put into tournies reguarly softens the blow for this.

I have spent the last 2 weeks kinda preparing myself, I am not going to be grinding in bed, lying down in the dark. I am going to be mentally prepared before each session. I will be up at my desk, fully fed/washed and ready to gogogogogo. I have subscribed to decues cracked and hopefully that will also aid my progression as I continue to improve and move up the stakes. If the trial is successful, then joining the stable will be a long term move. Having a backer is definitely the way to go in poker imo, as you can't just tilt your money off and you are always spurred on to put more volume in.

Outside the stable, I have been grinding on betfair quite alot, playing a mixture of 20nl-200nl and it's been pretty fun. Here is a couple of interesting HH's.

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 659699498 *****
NL $0.25/$0.50 Texas Hold'em - Monday, March 01, 00:53:20 GMT 2010
Table Neon 91 6-max (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of active players : 6
Seat 1: Maggie777 ( $46.51 )
Seat 2: Mateown ( $107.15 )
Seat 3: TO PAIDI ( $47.03 )
Seat 4: nohedidnt ( $123.96 )
Seat 5: lattlay ( $53.23 )
Seat 6: docas ( $43.10 )
nohedidnt posts small blind [$0.25]
lattlay posts big blind [$0.50]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to nohedidnt [ Ad, Kc ]
docas folds
Maggie777 folds
Mateown raises to [$1.75]
TO PAIDI folds
nohedidnt calls [$1.50]
lattlay folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, Td, 6c ]
nohedidnt checks
Mateown bets [$3]
nohedidnt calls [$3]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jh ]
nohedidnt checks
Mateown bets [$7.50]
nohedidnt calls [$7.50]
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
nohedidnt bets [$7]
Mateown raises to [$26]
nohedidnt calls [$19]
** Showdown **
Mateown shows [ 8d, 7d ] a pair of Fours
nohedidnt shows [ Ad, Kc ] a pair of Fours
** Hand Conclusion **
nohedidnt wins $74 from main pot with a pair of Fours
************ Game 659699498 ends

and to balance my range..

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 659738901 *****
NL $0.50/$1 Texas Hold'em - Monday, March 01, 03:35:28 GMT 2010
Table Fluorine 189 6-max (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of active players : 3
Seat 1: nohedidnt ( $121.13 )
Seat 4: ParaOdyssey ( $99.50 )
Seat 6: sisoss ( $91.65 )
sisoss posts small blind [$0.50]
nohedidnt posts big blind [$1]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to nohedidnt [ As, Ks ]
ParaOdyssey raises to [$3.50]
sisoss folds
nohedidnt calls [$2.50]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4s, Ac, 9s ]
nohedidnt checks
ParaOdyssey bets [$6]
nohedidnt calls [$6]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2s ]
nohedidnt checks
ParaOdyssey bets [$15]
nohedidnt calls [$15]
** Dealing River ** [ Td ]
nohedidnt bets [$3]
ParaOdyssey raises to [$43.87]
nohedidnt goes all-in
nohedidnt raises to [$96.63]
ParaOdyssey calls [$31.13]
ParaOdyssey goes all-in
Returning uncalled bet [$21.63] to nohedidnt
** Showdown **
nohedidnt shows [ As, Ks ] a Flush
ParaOdyssey shows [ Ad, Ts ] two pair, Aces and Tens
** Hand Conclusion **
nohedidnt wins $197.50 from main pot with a Flush
************ Game 659738901 ends ************

WBCOOP

2010-01-09T15:07:00.001-08:00

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

Registration code: 023054

Lolgrindaments/tiltaments

2009-12-12T22:50:00.000-08:00

Decided for one week was going to play loads and loads of small stakes donkaments on stars basically to just practice playing lots of tables again.

Would log onto stars at 6/7 every day and reg for everything between $1 and $22 meaning I was well overrolled and could enjoy/gamble for stacks without feeling scared etc.

First day went well with a good few cashes, 4/13 i think. Day two saw me come 2nd in the $22 deepstack on stars where I make a really good call hu in a 400bb pot, very deepstack for hu and he binks the river, sighaments.

Still moved on for the next day and decided to just play 7 games but really really try hard at them, 4/7 cashes was good and on I went..

The week started to slow down however I was still profiting every day, averaging a roi of 350% per game for the week, which is really good considering the volume I put in.

Then came Saturday.... I decided to reg for 21 tournies between 4 and 10, and grind like a mfker... 10 tournies in and I had been bad beated or super coolered in everyone. For example bubble of the 4max( that I always own, they all play so so so bad, and just dont adapt and have obv never played 4max before. I get really aggro against laggy bb. We both have 4x average and I raise from the sb 2.5x, he flats. The board comes 1023 I have A10 and I bet, he raises I overshove for value, a huge huge overshove and he snaps me with KK, for a huge huge huge pot, which would make me 1/105 and a very good chance to TID. I then get coolered QQvKK, lose a pot with K3 on a K32 board against QQ/KQ, QQ hitting a one outer on the river for a 20k pot at 20/40 with an average of 3100 in a 15k gaurentee.

So, I tilt shove the rest of the tournaments I am currently in and unreg from the tournaments that havnt started. I take my money to full tilt and decide to open 3x $24 games.

First game - 45man - 8 Players left, 2nd in chips, chip leader opens and is bullying the table, I 3bet shove JJ and he finds QQ and coolers me for 4x chips of anyone else and I hit the rail

Second game - 24k $$$$gaurentee, I have big stack, c/o raises, btn flats, I squeeze AQ from sb, c/o gets out the way and btn shoves, doesnt make sense I call and he has KK, flop A high, K behind it, gg.

Third game- 24$ 90 man, 10 players left (bubble) I find A6hh in the sb, folded round to me, I shove, BB calls with J9ss. Flop is Ad 2c 3c I go for a victory dance and a good shot to win a good amount, come back to the computer and it sais I finished in 10th? Er what full tilt? Check back and he turns a 9 rivers a J. I go on crazy monkey tilt playing 100nl losing a buy in, playing 50nl 200bbs deep lose a buy in.

I have calmed down abit now after playing a $50 hu sng match, I regged for all the ftops tomorrow so hopefully I can go deep again in one of these.

HU- I had a convo with Milo about HU probabilities, he said it was 1024/1 to win 10 hu matches in a row, and 1 mirrion-1 to win 20, I went out and straight away won 14 in a row, wish I had a $$$$ on that. I have a really weird hu style but it works well, tomorrow is the $50 ftops hu tourny, so will be hoping to go deep in that.

Pads.

Update

2009-11-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

Havn't updated the blog in a while due to the fact I was keeping a daily diary on NPF. Since October I havnt played much at all, been abit pokered out.

I did play the NPF championships though.

Got there early doors and had drinks with Middy, Tingate, Bosshog etc etc was lots of laughs and alot of anticipation of the upcoming game.

Get the call to go to our seats and my table consists of..

1) Koyte - Very drunk, gave me a barrel of abuse all day, I didnt take it very well, but he gets lots of laughs so whatever.

2) Stumpy - First time I had the pleasure to meet him, played very well.

3) Cowhead - Good player, used abit of msn metagame raising me when I was sure he was full of shit but nevermind

4) Jimmy - Never met him before, but a very nice guy, very abc getting his money in good usually

5) Portanus - COGB Dad, tricky customer, check/call/lead etc, was pretty tilty when I really want to stick it in his eye, but scared he'd hero call me

6) Jamsadonk - Kitted out in Pokerstars gear, very nice guy and looking on stars a very good sharkscope too. I was raising most pots and he was flatting me alot in position and causing me problems.

I enter deepstack poker tournaments with the mindset of accumulating chips, I'm a good post flop player so like to play lots and lots of pots, value bet thin and check call alot of turns/river to pot control and let the fish spew their chips to me.

I start opening almsot every unopened pot if I had anything like a hand, connectors ++, chip up to about 13k, then drop to 9.7k when the next hand pops up.

Blinds 50/100

I am in the hijac and it's folded round to me/

I'm dealt AKss, and I make it 325
Jamsadonk flats in the c/o, Cowhead flats on the btn and Jimmy flats out the blinds

Flop comes - Kc Jh 2c

I lead for 1100

Jamsadonk 3bets for the first time to 3800

Folded back to me and I tank shove, I thought Jamsadonk was priced in and would have to call with K10/KQ for Value, I'm behind JJ/22/KJ and I'm ahead of flush/straight/combo draws and also just spewy plays.

Jamsadonk kinda slowroll calls with AQcc, one over, gutshot and flush draw, he prices himself in with raise so can't really fold, I somehow hold and have doubled my stack in level two.

I chip up alot, 3betting all the weaker players opens and end up getting moved table with 27k.

Next table is full of onknowned apart from JuicyOranges/CGK who both bust pretty early. David Minchella a.k.a stall85 is on my left a good player, I scout him for the cubs weeeeeeeee.

I'm playing aggresive, raising, cbetting, 3betting and end up with around 40k. Lose one biggish pot, one 14k pot with 44 against Farmer Dave's QQ and then comes the next hand.

I'm in the sb with a stack of 37k

Farmer Dave opens 2.1k utg+1
2 flat callers
Frisby shoves the button for I belive 13-17k
I look down at KK and ISO shove.
All fold

Frisby flips 99 and this is a huge pot with all dead money, antes, blinds etc, Frisby binks a 9 and fades my flush draw, sigggggh. If I win that pot I think I final table and have a good shot at winning the tournament, although there was a few good players left there was definetely some of the weaker players in the tournament left who I think I would be able to double through.

Come back for day 2 and Mcguigan/Minchella (both on my left) tell me they will call my shoves with any picture when I shove from late, next hand I look at an Ace and shove from the Hijac, they both fold, sigggggh, but herbie wakes up with AQ in bb and holds. gg sir.

I get bantered into the side game, a £20 bounty.

I play uber aggresive form the start trying to get to 20K asap so that I can crush the bubble when the blinds are huge. I double up early from Jimmy Chipmunk when I shove like 5k into a 1k pot on a board of A J 2 7 J and he calls with KK.

Cruise onto the final table and me and Brenos are the only ones playing aggresively and winnning chips, we end up HU with Brenos running like god.

I keep things small HU and he doesnt seem to squeeze/punish me, I trap him on a K6610 baord with K9 and he gets it in with 10x and binks a 10 on the river. gg me. Come 2nd with about 10 bounties though so weekend paid for+ abit more.

Big shout out to teamdobbs who crushed the tournament 20 players in. wp sir.

Challenge

2009-11-11T22:12:00.000-08:00

So it's 30th October and tomorrow and Sunday are fully booked up for what looks like the best NPF bash of the year. This means I'll not be playing anymore for the rest of the month so going to do my summary tonight.

In the middle of September I decided and declared to the forum that I was going to give up poker for a long time as I felt I really needed to take a break and refresh my mind. Jon Lundy then put stakes up for mini ftops m/e asked me if I wanted to play so I decided to as I was starting to get the urge again, I finished 60/14000 and was so close to a big big score, nevermind though I was back hooked, a few days later TD messages me asking if I wanted to take part in the first ever NPF challenge and I quickly accepted. Alot of friends that either post on here or that i talk alot of poker with outside of the forum questioned by decision and these were the following reasons for accepting..

1) I have struggled to put in alot of volume online as I couldnt get the motivation to sit for hours infront of the screen grinding my arse off, I would much prefer to play a zonal cash game with rich buisnessment, or play a bigger tourny

2) I am yet to find my neish game, I have a good understanding of poker and concepts of poker. But because I am not a specialist in one form of poker, it means I make mistakes when I play. Posting tonnes of HH in this thread would hopefully get the help I needed from SNG experts to develop my game as much as possible and make me a big winner in the game.

3) I have a good live bankroll that I use to play tournies/cash and also use to do sports betting etc with, however I havnt atm got a online bankroll that is seperate, if I impressed enough this month it could lead to future staking opportunities that would be very worthwile

IMO the negatives for me doing this challenge are..

1) I am going to be putting in soooo many hours, why not just do this and keep 100% of my winnings?

2) If I dropped off below 300$ with 2 weeks to go, there is not much chance of me making any money, I would still be required to grind though meaning that I would be putting in 10's of hours for absolutely nothing in return

3) I have a good job where I get paid alot, playing so many hours here would cost me and the buisness quite alot of money.

So, off I started, the first thing I needed to do was decide what I wanted to play and how much I intended to play. Well this is what I should of done, I went onto full tilt and had a quick glance through different options and saw that the 6$ games looked quite good. My planning was absolutely diabolical and this was the first and perhaps most crucial mistake. If I was to go down the SNG route again I would do something like the following.

30 days, on average 20 games a day, = 600 games, I need to make 1000$

Therefore I need to make a profit of around $1.50 per game which playing $10 games would be an roi of around 20% when you took into account rake. I would then start trying to always play 20 games a day, and try to compensate for days I missed etc.

So off I went and the first day went absolutely horrible, after a day I was down around 60-80$ I didnt realise the variance that these turbo 6max games were going to cause and started doubting myself after 1 day! Stumpy a guy that I knew nothign abotu before the challenge (apart from the fact he stacked me in a 8 card omaha cash game in stanlys with AAxxxxxx against my QQKKJ1022) alongside TD suggested that I change my game quickly, from what they saw in me and what they knew about different kinds of sngs, they suggested I started to play the $10, 6max normal structure sngs. I quickly had a look at the games and thought why not and off I went on my first game change.

The first week was amazing I was absolutely crushing the games I was running to expectation and I was winnign SNG after SNG I had something like a 400$ upswing almost doubling my bankroll and I thought I was unbeatable, alot of my "old self" came flooding back as I berated people in the chat box and started to think I was alot better than I was. My stratergy in these sngs were alot different to all of the best sng players in the world, I believed that chip accumulation was more into than chip preservation and I strived to get to the bubble as the dominant stack so that I could win as many chips as possible thus nothcing alot more 1st's than 2nd's up.

I would just like to point out at this point I was getting alot of good advice, both on the forum and from friends about what/how I should be playing, perhaps I didnt listen enough. Members like Longy were offering really good info and quite immaturely I just shrugged it off. Thankyou for every single person who commented in this thread and if anyone does this challenge again I will be heavily involved in posting in the threads as it's something which is really close/familiar to me now.

On came the dreaded downswing - I peaked my account at about 850$ I thought this challenge was going to be over before the third week I was playing in my room at uni with a friend that was playing sngs too and we discussed alot of stratergy and I was getting extremely cocky, I was playing 4tables of $10 sngs and 2 tables of $20 sngs, I was usually either breaking even or winning, then came a session where I didnt cash in any. $80 disappeared from my account and then another session came and I had only cashed like $20, fuuuuuuuuuuck I've lost like $130 so quickly. All I could think about was the $850 that used to be in my account and I went on a rampage trying to get it back. I was loading more tables up of $20 games and basically tilting money off. I was still playing pretty decent and the next 3/4 days I have never ran as bad before. My mate was in amuzement/bemuzement at how I was running. IMO the worst thing you can do when this is happenning is think about how much you have won/lost, being able to see your cashier can actually be -ev. Changing my game amounts, obviously fucked me over the best piece of advice I can give is to just stick at one game and load another table up when you get bustod, keep doing this, dont look and think right, I'm playing 8 tables I need to win 3 and come 2nd in two to get back to even, it sounds achievable, but it brings your game waaaaaaaaay down as you start devising stratergies for each individular tables opposed to just general SNG stratergy. At this time I had started to add 45 man games into my schedule, I was getting close but no cigar and was steadily losing $5 in most games, these games are definetely beatable but I advise to play a session of all mtt, or stt, mixing them is a no no in my books.

I took a day to think what to do? I read the other guys threads and the main main thing which was seperating us was Mark Tretts organisation, myself and Junior Bomber were really enthusiastic and both playing alot of games, we both updated our threads alot, posted hands for people to comment etc but we never stated major details such as; Games played, starting day bankroll, money spent, profit/loss. I started to look at how many games I had played, I really couldnt understand it, sharkscope was saying that I had 200$ more than I should of done, I looked and looked through things and eventually found out I had cleared a bonus of 165$ and then had 50$ rakeback, I took this out of my account as it wasnt valid in the challenge, my bankroll was now around $200 and I was fucked. The challenge had became almost impossible and I didn't have a clue what to do.

I got alot of sympathy from members, a few emails saying to keep my chin up and keep going, mentally I was shattered, I had put in sooo many hours already and was down 300$, all this time invested and for what? Nothing, I started to change my mind and play cash, why? I have no idea, I was desperate I wanted to make cash quick. I decided to play deepstack cash games where I would be sitting with 200bbs++ against big fish who would donate buy ins. 1st mistake was to udnerestimate players, shouldnt really just expect to win money it's hard work no matter what you play, you need to be at your best and be mentally switched on. The main thing I was doing was calling 3bets super light and stacking off super light, I thought calling the 3bets were standard because we were so deep but I should of been prepared to fold once I hit top pair and not stack off because i"ts 10nl and they always bluff." I went all the way down to 140, then back up to 270, then back down to 200 in about 24 hours where I put in soooo much volume and it was basically for nothing, another wasted day.

After this had finished my volume dropped down for a couple of reasons;

1) We had a huge night at work and so much preperation was needed, straight after that I was away running a night in leeds which took up a few days

2) Honestly I was totally dejected, I thought I had shown myself up infront of the forum as people started criticizing my plays, getting alot of lols and alot of unconstructive criticism which made me feel abit silly.

For the next week or so I played $5 sngs and just kept on losing, I was thinking that I couldnt beat $5 sngs and I had no idea why? I had changed my game completely and was playing really really tight poker, I guess this just doesnt suit my game and I continued to lose. I was now approaching the 100$ mark and was seriously thinking that I was going to go busto and lose TD all his money. This kinda made me cut right down on my volume as I thought that losing everything would be seen as an absolute disaster and that I would look so stupid infront of everyone, I guess if someone else was in this position I would just tell them to play with deep bankroll management, always playing with 100 buy ins the it would be impossible to go busto. I really want to say thanks to Cowhead, during this period he was constantly onto me to get grinding and was trying to motivate me to put in really good sessions. He's a good man who knows his poker, so thanks again Dave.

This last week I havnt play much at all, my bankroll has been around 70-120$ and I will be shipping TD the remaining balance on Sunday night. I would love to do this challenge again, so that I can prove to people that is IT POSSIBLE, I would do things probably 100% differently. If I had been in the 2nd lot of people to do the challenge I think i would of learned alot from the first guys and achieved alot better.

At the start of my post I put out the reasons why I wanted to do the challenge.

1) I have struggled to put in alot of volume online as I couldnt get the motivation to sit for hours infront of the screen grinding my arse off, I would much prefer to play a zonal cash game with rich buisnessment, or play a bigger tourny

I have now convinced myself that I can put volume in, for the first few weeks I really stuck by it and I think in the future I will be able to put in really good long sessions. One thing that I would change is the enviroment that I play in, at times I was playing in bed with the laptop, it's hard to be 100% concentrated like this, I think you should always be sat up, with a drink and being mentally prepared.

2) I am yet to find my neish game, I have a good understanding of poker and concepts of poker. But because I am not a specialist in one form of poker, it means I make mistakes when I play. Posting tonnes of HH in this thread would hopefully get the help I needed from SNG experts to develop my game as much as possible and make me a big winner in the game.

Although I havn't found out what I do wat to specialise in I have learned that I dont think single table SNG's are the best for me, I much prefer to play deeper stacked poker. I like big rewards and the most you can win with SNG's is 2 bi's at a time. I would love to start playing MTT's properly again as I have a good roi in them both live/online and think it is where I could become most competant at. There are alot of good MTT players on here, people like Joblin could really really help me get alot better, so that's definetely something I will be looking into.

3) I have a good live bankroll that I use to play tournies/cash and also use to do sports betting etc with, however I havnt atm got a online bankroll that is seperate, if I impressed enough this month it could lead to future staking opportunities that would be very worthwile

This thread hasn't really been a good advert for me wanting to get staked. However I put myself in the shop window to be shot down too I guess, all my play has been scrutinised and if it shows anything it is that I want to learn. If somebody did want to start a longer term staking deal then I hope they would know that I would put in alot of effort and that I am a great student of the game who always wants to get better.

Other things I have learned..

1) Keep focused, play the same games. Find the game you can beat and then beat it, continue to beat it and dont deviate.

2) Find a good amount of tables that suit you, personally 4 isnt enough because I get bored and make stupid plays, 12 is too much, 6-8 is a really good number for me.

3) Keep all your games logged. It really doesnt take long to do, but it can benefit you so much. You can find patterns when you are winning/losing money

4) Post hand historys/talk to friends/ learn/ read/listen/ watch etcetcetc, every player improves after every session imo, you always learn or pickup something that you didn't know before.

5) Play at the correct level. If a level 2 thinker went to the EPT they would ever ever win the tournament, however if Elky went to $1 sngs and started floating/ doing stop and go's and other technical plays he wouldnt do anywhere near as good if he just played one level above his opponents, which I really really do think is the key. I came out the blocks trying to use advanced plays on dummys and although it worked for a while in the end it was my BIGGEST DOWNFALL.

I would also like the add that although PhilMc can come across as abit of a wanker at time (sorry phil) and although I have never met him to make a proper judgement, his contribution to all 4 threads were imo superb and I really thank him for motivating me to play when I cba, trying to drive me on and offering strategical advice. Thanks mate.

Tomorrow is the NPF annual game, I am looking forward to meeting everyone that I've not met yet and to see people I've not seen since I went to uni. I hope I can update this thread on Sunday saying I've binked.

Thanks to TD and his backing team for putting the money into me and I am genuinely gutted I couldnt of sent you back at least your stake. Thanks for everybody contributing/getting involved and I hope this thread has been entertaining if not educating for everybody.

Thanks again

Patrick

Expectation

2009-08-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

Going to the Newcastle United match tonight with my old fella. Had season tickets for about 14 years together, and he is about a die hard Newcastle fan as anyone else. However he has the biggest hate ever towards Mike Ashley, I think Ashley gets alot of unfair criticism and I often argue with him about the direction the club is going. But one thing I can't argue with is lots and lots of the older fans are boycotting the club because of him, I think a sale is in the best interests of the club and St James' could sell out week in week out even in the Championship if a manager is named and we have a chairman that has the FULL backing of the club.

Really hope Houghton plays Gutierez on the right wing today, if he plays Barton as a "winger" it should be on the left as he will naturally come inside, allowing Enrique to gallop down the left. Enrique is really really good offensively, so if Barton comes inside it will give Enrique the freedom to go forward. Hopefully Shola will play with condfidence and it will be nice to see Andy Carroll open his goal scoring record for the season.

Mini FTOPS

2009-08-16T21:34:00.001-07:00

Ok so I chose today what games I'm going to be playing in Mini FTOPS. They are underneath, some really good gaurentees.

event date buy in gtd type

1 09/09/2009 $22 200k mtt
4 11/09/2009 $62 150k 1r1a
8 13/09/2009 $26 100k 6 max KO
9 13/09/2009 $55 75k hu
10 13/09/2009 $33 300k mtt
12 14/09/2009 $109 250k early ante
15 15/09/2009 $22 100k 6max turbo
20 18/09/2009 $22 100k 6max
22 19/09/2009 $216 400k 2 day event
me 20/9/2009 $55 500k main event

Although not all the buy ins are huge, the prizepools are and there are some sick scores to be made. In the $216 2 day event, last years winner took home $120k! Very nice.

I'm looking forward mostly to the $50 hu tourny which I think I have a real chance in if I can run anywhere near normal, the main event also has a very sick structure and obv if I cash in the $216 event for anything close to good then it pays for all the other tournies. The $109 is an early ante tourny with a good starting stack, I expect alot of action from the fish who cant fold once they have put a cent into the pot as they are "priced in" so hopefully that should go well too. In the $22's/- $60's I'm expecting alot of runners, alot of dead money and alot of action early doors, so hopefully I can accumulate some sticks, get a stack and quietly chip up. GL everyone else playing these events.

FTOP2 120K/O

2009-08-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

James Howard a.k.a Brickontheriver is currently verrrry deep in this tourny.

He is sitting at 6/82, with 135k maddddddd dimez up tops.

glglglgllgllglgl sir.

EDIT: Just gone busto, 2m pot. qq v aa. erghhhh so sick. Ul mate.

Table manner..

2009-08-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Last week on the William Hill $500 added, I had a few drinks and ended up having a go at a few of the players, it was made in good taste but people took things seriously and thought I was out of order. Sorry if I offended anyone but was just having abit of banter.

Go to Grosvenor on Thursday and play really well, I have around 6k from my 4k stack pretty early, then make a really good A high call on the flop for just under half my chips, she had KJ and went runner runner flush. My table draw was really good actually, I had the guy with the limp on my right, three women on my left who are all truly truly awful and the teacher who is soooo com. Much has been made of it on the NPF this week, but I love having women on my table, they are sooo passive, they limp so much and I can pick up so many chips from squeezing. They value their tournament life sooo much. I pissed off one of the women making her show both her cards when she thought she only had to show one to win the pot. She then called any bet I made and I successfully value bet 3rd pair no kicker against her to call me with bottom pair which was nice.

Then came the teacher, alot of people know him and I've never heard anyone say a good word about him, the guys a joke. He talks sooooo much inbetween hands and he was supposed to be dealing, in the day I had been grinding 4/5 tables on WillHill, and then here I am playing in a £10 rebuy playing literaly 15 hands an hour. Max. He ends up getting really pissed off with me telling me I have attitude problems and he refuses to deal untill I apologise, I obviously tell him to jog on and then for the first time say ; hu4rollllzyo? Which amuzed me. At this point I had like 9k and effective stacks were 5k max for everyone else, he kept limping in for like 200 and I just kept shoving. He was getting pretty tilted. Then..

4 limpers to my button, I limp with 34

Flop is 334
checked to me, bet 400
folds to teacher who c/r me to 800
I shove for 10k

He is getting very angry at this point and tells me to keep playing my childish games. He gets knocked out with A high before the break and doesnt rebuy/addon. I end the break with 9k and have a double rebuy for a total of 17k.

I get a reallllly good table draw after the break with lots of tight players on my table including Xenocode, Mag1892, two playrrs who I rate highly but I am happy to be on my left as I can raise alot and if they put up ay resistance I can shut down.

I win the first few pots and people are starting to get abit annoyed at me again..

folds round to me otb, blinds 200/400

I have 10d10s and raise to 900
sb calls
bb (mag) calls

flop is

As 7s 10c

sb leads for 400
mag raises to 1200
I want to play for stacks so raise to 3600,
sb folds
mag folds AJ

My raise basicaly sais I have the nuts, I'm not raising KK here, I'm only raising a10, aq, ak, 1010, 77, all hands which are beating mag. Nevermind, I have about 22k now so a good healthy stack and probably 3rd in chips in tourny.

Very next hand.

UTG limps 400
limp
limp
limp
I limp on c/o with J9dd
sb completes
bb checks

flop is a lovely
2d3d4d

UTG retard leads out for 800
utg+! raies to 2100 (he was drunk and kept outplaying everyone so reraising here dindt really scare me)
hijac flats
I overshove for 21k
folds round to utg, who insta calls.
utg+1 folds

I'm like errrr, Akd? I was praying for Ad x, but no UTG who is chip leader of the tourny with 25k with the blinds on a average on 13k, has the monster that is K8dd, and I get ggd. Win that pot and I win the tourny. NVM.

Go to the cash table and nit it up as usual, end up getting KK all in and I suuuuure hold up.

Potential Investment..

2009-08-10T06:20:00.001-07:00

Neil Blatchly is a professional sports trader on betfair, he lays matches off to make a good regular amount of money. He has offered members on blonde forum to make a "syndicate" where everybody pools together money and he will negotiate this money trying to make a good win. He is super super confident about the whole thing and suggests that he should be able to make 6x your bi. He is accepting anything from £10, to £10k so it really should be fun to get involved with, with the new season approaching quick I suggest you get yor skates on, but it's an open account and if you want to see the immediate success before you put any money in I believe he is fine with that. You can read more details of the arrangement on this thread ... http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=43354.0

glglglglglglg

FTOPS

2009-08-10T06:16:00.000-07:00

Full tilt poker have a series of events I think twice a year now. There are about 20 events, ranging from, 100r to 2.5k main event. I am obv not rolled to play all of these events, so instead took a little % of a good friend of mine who is hopefully going to win mad dimez, he went pretty close yesterday getting one round away from the money in the HU game when his KK was no good against the monster that is J5, but it was sooooted, yeah fu gg. I'll let you know how he does and if he makes me rich or not!

Face the ace

2009-08-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

Face the ace is an American tv program backed by Full Tilt, to get on the show you had to beat thousands of runners in freerollls and competitions. Local player Gary Wilson managed to win one the seats and went over to the states to play. Last week saw a guy win his first HU match against Phil Ivey, he was giving the decision whether to play on and play another HU match against a unknown pro for 200k! or take his 40k. Like the pussy he was he took the 40k. The next guy was a guy who lived at home with his "Mom" still, he won his first HU match, decided to gamble for 200k and ended up winning that. His salary as a truck driver was around 50k a year, he then went out to gamble this 200k to win a million. 5/1 against any pro is good odds imooo. Watch the links below to see how well he did.

http://www.pokertube.com/Movies.aspx?movie=10987&KeyID=1&title=Face_the_Ace_S01_Ep02_1_4

http://www.pokertube.com/Movies.aspx?movie=10987&KeyID=1&title=Face_the_Ace_S01_Ep02_2_4

http://www.pokertube.com/Movies.aspx?movie=10987&KeyID=1&title=Face_the_Ace_S01_Ep02_3_4

http://www.pokertube.com/Movies.aspx?movie=10987&KeyID=1&title=Face_the_Ace_S01_Ep02_4_4

Start of the season.

2009-08-09T06:26:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was the start of the football season and Newcastle's opening game couldn't of been any harder imo. WBA are the favourites to win the league and we were playing at there place, with no manager, no chairman and no confidence. Before the game I think most fans would of took a point so pretty happy with the result.

Gutierrez - This guy is a fantastic athlete, the foreign right back yesterday was by no means slow, but Gutierrez left him for dead time after time. All Newcastle fans complain about his final product but I think it's more Keegan/Shearer/Houghtons fault. Modern day managers insist on playing their wingers on opposite wings so that they can "cut inside" and create better angles. Guttierez isnt this kind of winger, he runs in direct straight lines, i.e straight to the corner flag, if he was on his favoured right foot he would be able to at least get the ball near our two strikers, but when he has to use his swinger the quality is never going to be there. He could be a huge player for us this season if we used him to his strong points imo.

Smith - MOM yesterday for me, his workrate, aggression and teamwork was unreal and he kept everything simple when he had the ball at his feet giving it to his nearest teammate. He was made captain yesterday and I think he should keep the armband and we should rebuild our team around him.

Carroll/Shola - To do well in the Championship you need to have more than just ability, you need to be able to battle, to be fair to both strikers I think they both battled pretty well, however I think they are abit too similar, for me they are both target men and would do alot better if they had somebody like Kevin Phillips playing off them. Carrol won nearly every header yesterday but was abit frustrating at times when he was very deep crossing into the box instead of being in there himself.

Future.. I think we are good enough to get out of this league quite easily, however the main problem will be the depth of our squad, if we pick up 3/4 injurys which is very likely playing more games than you do in the premiership then I think our squad will just be too thin. I think we need to get a couple of loan signings in, perhaps a couple of the Arsenal youngsters would be good. I think I am the only supporter that like Mike Ashley, I hope he stays, I hope he appoints David O Leary as I really don't want Shearer in charge and I hope we go onwards and upwards.

The GUKPT London is on the final table now, no local interest unfortunately, but you can watch the final table on. www.thenutztv.live

Interesting video...

2009-08-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

http://www.deucescracked.com/robusto

This video is a documentary made by Krants, feautring regular 2+2er Captain Zeebo. It basically talks about his social life away from poker, how poker has really affected him mentally and how it nearly broke up his relationship with his girlfriend.

It seems kinda weird to me, I can't work out if his g/f is really loyal, or whether she knows that she won't be able to attract anyone with nearly as much money as himself.

Zeebo, lives in a pretty standard house and everything around him seems pretty standard. He is a true grinder and a stereotypical geek. I would love to one day be a online poker professional, but if this is the end result then I guess I will stick to journalism for now..

This is the first in a series of documentarys made by Krantz, featuring different kind of poker professionals, I believe another "type" he is going to be following is a "baller" which should be pretty fun and definetely contrasting to this somewhat miserable episode.

I really love watching poker documentarys and will post them up on a regular basis on this blog.

Three mile and Zante

2009-08-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

I have worked in the Three Mile pub in Gosforth over summer. I didn't really need a job but after a couple of weeks of nocturnal sleeping patterns and unconstructive days after returning home from uni I decided I would go and find a job to bring some routine into my life. I now pour pints in the lovely establishment that is The Three Mile, so if your ever about the Gosforth area, pop in and have a drink. Happy hour is between 5-7.30 and its basically free drink unless you run soooo bad like me.

I've booked a holiday with my best friends from home and we are due to fly out to Zante and stay in Laganos on the 30th August till the 6th September. We went to Magaluf last year and didn't really enjoy it, but I know all the lads are desperate to get away for some sun and sangria.

No poker recently as I've been bogged down in Uni work.. I have to do a couple of assignment that I never did last year because I was ill.

Over and out.

Cubs!

2009-08-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

On the NPF, their are different groups of "teams" that come together and play in the team games. Their is The "Dobbas", The "Radgies", Walkers Sensations and then the team that I formed - The Cubs. There has been many comings and goings, but this team defs has what it takes to challenge, The Shrewdies, dobbas etc etc.

Team is as follows :

Myself
Full Tilit a.k.a Craig Tumility.
Jon Lundy
Scotty
Madasawasp
Gottilt4 a.k.a Chris Waugh.
Avkid
Neil Barron
James Howard
Paul Hart
Roscopiko
Omahahaha
Laker
Jonny Tingate

Anyone wanting to challenge etc just leave a comment!

Luton GUKPT

2009-08-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

Most people on here will know I post frequently on www.newcastlepokerforum.com and a couple of the guys have made the very long journy down to Luton to try and win some mad dimez. glglglgl Jon Lundy and Richard Whitmore a.k.a madasawasp.

You can follow their progress along with the likes of James Akenhead and Chris Moorman on.

Stanly £50 game

2009-08-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

I have played this game once before, bubbling with a sick beat courtesy of the lovely Carlo Citrone... It is a really well supported game with alot of the teeside contingent making the short journey to Newcastle. The overall standard is still pretty poor, but there are some good players aswell.

Sat down at my first table which was an absolute dream, 4 women who were really tight, two older guys that loved to limp into every pot, mr entertainment and the one player that I was really concerned about - Thomas Dunwoodie, he was to my right so wasn't really too bothered.

I had gone into the game with the mentality of playing tight and getting three streets of value against the older players who I didnt think would put a hand down against me. First orbit and..

Dunwoodie opens utg+1 to 150
I 3bet on the button to 625 (with qq)
Old guy in the sb cold calls and Dunwoodie flats too, I'm putting both players on pairs at this point and maybe dunwoodie on a aj-ak kind of hand.

Flop comes 7d, 6d, 2s
Old guy donks out 1k
Dunwoodie flats (he nearly always had 88-jj here)
So I 2bet to 2645 giving myself enough money if somebody 3bet shoves and I want to fold
Old guy insta jams all in
Dunwoodie folds
And I tank and tank and then fold, thinking that the old guy has a set here alot of the time. He mucks his cards and I see the Ad, siiiighhh.

I keep plodding along, chipping up winning small pots and not showing many hands down, get to the break with 12k, then get reseated on a really limpy table, I end up chipping up to about 30k just basically 3bet shoving knowing people would only call with jj+ but are opening far wider. I make a weird fold when the tightest player everrrrrr raises to 7k utg at 1k/2k, effective stacks were 40k and I mucked as I saw another player lining his chips up to ship and I really had no idea where I was and was certain the rock had 99-aa with AK throwing in there.

I get moved tables against and 3bet shove a really good player with KQ from the Sb and he tank calls with k10 and I double through to about 40k.

Make a couple of steals resteals, as the antes were just getting really high and my M was pretty low, I end up getting it in against Ricci Special Kebabs trying to rep two pair as I knew he had a top pair but thought I had more fold equity than I did. I exited in about 28th/ 130. Meh. Was really impressed with Chris Woods who came seocnd last year in the irish masters for a sick £106k. First place took home £1400 with 2-5th getting a nice £950 for their efforts.

Start of an era!

2009-08-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

First post of my new blog. Uni sent me an email suggesting to write a blog about anything that interests me, at first I was abit sceptical as usually people who have blogs never update them and they become shit. However I guess it will motivate me to actually stop being lazy and to start grinding/being productive.

I'm a student atm in Sheffield, studying Journalism which is actually pretty interesting and in my spare time/instead of going to Uni, I play poker. I am a very analytical player and always trying to disect my game, I have never found a format that I have loved though, I have dabbled in sngs/mtts and cash but my new found love is HU cash.

I will be blogging hand historys on here aswell as rambling on about non poker stuff, so any comments would be greatly appreciated. Anyone wanting to swap links, just let me know.

Pads.