Booked a W.

up $72 on the day, for around 2hrs. Would have done more, but just decided to book the win.

Hit like 4 sets, in that time, so that was nice. Possibly should have stacked someone when i flopped bottom set in a large multiway pot, but oh well.

turns out im not getting my tuition paid, so erm poker profit= tuition money now. that sucks.

I'm too tired now to post anything profound, but I think this bad month has been real good for my patience, and has helped me lose a major aspect of my degenerate gambling tendencies, ie my BJ weakness. BJ is only for casino whoring.
I need to log around 4hrs on absolute soon, then i think i'll just stop there. I'm really not a fan of their software, adn need to look at a new skin. the one Im using is WAY too cluttered.

PT Sent me on TILT

ffs. was up $15. Dropped about $50 in last 2 hrs cos PT sent me on tilt. Stupid thing kept showing an error, so nothing worked, PAHUD included.

Sent me on tilt big time, started playing very weak tight.


total on the day is -$40. this is ok, its only 1 stack, but still it really doesn't feel good.

This month has been really killer on my patience, but thank God I have the self control not to resort to the BJ table. I'm writing today off from my memory I hope, and if I don't drink later I'll come back to the tables a new player.

I gotta shower now and then go see Sonum's play, its her West End Musical debut, or something like that. It's meant to be important.

I'm breaking even and its breaking my balls

Well, sort of. I played 2hrs yesterday before dinner, and ended up losing $5 (my A/B game was running). I didn't really mind, but I dropped about $19 at 6-max LHE, but made it up on the 10-max tables.

Then I played an hour and a half after dinner. Played about 20 mins on Absolute, lost a $50 pot (my own fault, i read the guy for a made straight yet still bet). Ended $7 down there (i cant win on absolute) then went to the NL tables at crypto and made $18.

All in all i was +$6 for 3.5hrs (plus another $7 i guess cos i played the penny tables stoned on friday, but the UB account doesn't really count. It smy 'fun' account to blow off steam)

How much do u weigh tufat?

I always crack up when I get this question. Depending on my mood I'll give a range of weights, from 8 stone to 20. Last time I weighed myself (about 4 months ago) I was 10 stone.
At 5ft7" thats about right I guess.

Anyway. I booked another small win of $40. I also really did take a beat, with a guy whom I can only assume was trash.

He had a stack of £10. I had him covered. NL£25
He UTG minraises. I raise to £1.50. He moves in. I call. I have AA, he has 9c8c and flops oesd and flush draw, which actually made him a favourite from then on (15 outs).

I also misplayed AA on a TT4 board, when i should have gone for a checkraise rather than betting the pot against a really crap LAG.


Here's some strategy:

people are calling too much with the wrong hands.

If a strong player raises 4x the bb from EP or MP, it is not a good move to call with AJo, unless you have seen continuation bets a lot from this guy, and know he can give up.
This is because hitting either the A or J really leaves you in a dilemma. If you hit your A, are you outkicked? If you hit your J does he have an overpair? In both cases its gonna be expensive to find out.
Why not save your money for 'better' opportunities? I love calling from the CO or button with 22-JJ. 99-JJ you may want to play post flop, but definitely 22-88 are gold. Set value is huge, and if you hit it, you can pretty much assume you are good and play it hard.

Calling when you are the only one is marginal, but with 1-3 callers you have absolute gold.
I much prefer seeing 87s on the button than AJo. This is because I again have huge value. I really want to flop a hand hard , or have a big straighflush draw. Two pair is dodgey, but if I feel the guy has an overpair (say 10,10-AA), again I'll play it strong. However I will slow down if the person taking the heat is not the original raiser. This is because he could have hit even harder than me, in which case I'll look for ways to shut the pot down there.

Shutting down the pot in my book is not the same as taking the down the pot. Taking down the pot is betting when you either don't have a hand, or betting to make sure no draws can play.
Shutting down the pot is trying to stop your opponent cold. For example if I led the flop in position and got called with a two pair. I'm interested to see if he has a set, but I want to do it cheaply. This means I'll be firing on the turn about 60%-80% of the pot.
This is a stopper bet. If he has a very strong hand he will tell me now by raising. A trash hand will fold. A hand of similar strength to mind might do either, or he may just call. Many times drawing hands will call too (this is usually the one you are most scared of).
The aim of the bet is basically to get checked to on the river, so that you can check behind.
(note. the whole point of this play is when you have a medium strength hand, like A10 on a A,6,4, flop which could turn dangerous)

erm...

i ended up 6 tabling today! i couldn't get into any of the LHE games on crypto that i wanted, so i played some NL whilst i waited. In the end i didnt close the NL tables and just played all of them.

3hrs and up $16. uh. lost £10 on river when i misread the board- then i knew i was tired.
Also lost a £4 pot when i got d/c with QQ. the dude hit runner runner spades with K2s to make a flush. That was just confusing. He called £1 with K2.

LHE went well, whilst NL when bad. Didn't stack anyone, and hit a set like once, although i did get AA like 6 times.

Not really my day, although i wona big pot with AA that stood up!

3.30am

Its 3.30am and I am doing nothing. Was meant to tidy my room but thats been a massive failure.

Tomorrow I desire to get my references sorted, AND TIDY MY MOFO ROOM. paper everywhere.

Found out hotspots are free in USA- great! all i have to do is sign up to t-moible hotspots and then I can play free internet in starbucks all around america (or at least the states that allow it).

My ucl addy for some reason cant receive mail, i forgot to get something off my mum and my room is a tip.

factoring in my £10 STT loss at betfair and travel, i have $2563. However I'm spending a total of £127 ($222) on new a 1gb ram stick and a 1gb mp4 player (which i hope is sweet)
got both off ebuyer.com.
I'm deducting this from the BR cos the ram is specifically poker related and all 'technology' expenditure will now go on the gambling account. This means that my playing will actually mean something, and also I'm more than funded for my LHE exploits. Hopefully I'll get started tomorrow, I want to play around 40-50 raked hands on interpoker tomorrow (so like 300 raked hands on any other site).


Although I've not said much about it, I sold a pair of medicoms the other day. SO thats good. The lunars and EIRE dunks are in, so i'll be moving those soon. I'm gonna sell my bape hoodies and hopefully pick one up in either red or green. Prices are sick right now, and I'm looking at £60-£70 for a good fape, or £300 for a real one. The shitty fapes are around £50 which is crazy.

I've found myself in a spend happy mood, so I'm curbing it. I am NOT buying a new monitor, because that money will go to the new laptop.
I customised one on alienware which was sick to the tune of $1300. Might be worthwhile, but I'll wait cos a couple of months really affects prices, and i really dont have any use for a laptop right now.

This blog really needs strategy posts and I'm gonna come up with one soon. If anyone actually reads this blog, pls post a comment on what topics you want and i'll try my best with my limited poker knowledge. Otherwise I'll just pick.


p.s. laffytaffys rock (and are only 25cents. i'll be living off that sugar rush this summer)

Change of Direction

Quick post since I have a test tomorrow which i'm waiting to copy (no not by cheating, its a pre release one).


NL rocks and I'll keep playing it, but I will definitely be moving to LHE. My next few sessions at the table I'm gonna 4 table the LHE0.5/1 and 1/2 ONLY.
I'll play it fast, so every 10k I think I'll be moving up limits. If I get to 3/6 in 30k hands then I'll go back to 20k hands as an assessor. Its a bit of a move down in terms of profit levels, but I shouldn't jump in too high, and I'll be playing 6-max NL a too, just to keep the BR moving fast.

I might spend £330 on another monitor, I'm still deciding. If i go travelling I'm getting a new laptop to play poker. So whilst this would be useful for now, I could wait and buy a new monitor when I need it in september, and hopefully it will be cheaper.

Exams are comming soon, and I also need to check out jobs. Screw it I'll just apply to a few jobs and see what I get. Since I have a lot of 'free time' I'm gonna set myself a time table.
Poker only in the evenings and weekends.

A day is split up into 3 periods via meals, i.e 10am-12, 2-6 and 8-11(!? - more like 2am).

I'm gonna try and extend the morning session and stick to 11pm as the end of the evening session. Then if i play poker only in the evening session i might pass my exams.
If I miss a session in the day, then no poker is allowed and I work in the evening session.

odds on i cant stick to this
Anyway time to study. I got this test and all

So I didn't win...

I actually felt I could. For one thing i was the only chink in town, also everyone was on beer. So much so that the dude behind the bar was actually shocked that I ordered water, despite the bar being free (maybe i should have insisted on tap water too).
Even funnier was that everone looked at me like I was lost. It's cos I look 15, which I reckon is gonna be an advantage when I start playing live in casinos.
Well that didn't last long since it turns out that I was the ONLY punk to do a chip trick of any sort. I couldn't believe it. So these guys play mostly online, but seriously no one can do even just a simple twirl? I did get a little respect for that, which was funny cos I picked up a few nice starting hands. 4 of the first 5 hands were pockets.

Also I thought my reads were spot on. The_Math pushed in on the flop on the first hand with a board of AJx. I knew he had nothing and that s all he had J10. He pushed a guy off AJ which I thought was a terrible laydown, because of what I knew of The_Math. He had come 2nd in the Betfair Xmas 500k guaranteed, and had come last in at least 3 of the qulifiers, so fancied making 'clever' plays. No chance he had a set.

I went out when I pushed from sb with about 2800 chips at 250/500 blinds with J8o. Dude calls with A9o and neitehr of us improves.

The played an STT which I really cant believe i didnt win. I crashed out third with only top 2 getting paid.
£10 buyin and 60/20 payout 1st/2nd.Eh no biggie.


Today I dropped $20 before dinner, after a dude who hit 15% chance on river for a $93 pot. I'd turned my straight, put it all in and got called by trips that filled up. But still i did well to only be $20 down (stupid called about 50 away. all due to what i call 'in a hurry' tilt)
Came back and won $77 after dinner, but omg it would have been a $150 day had I not got unlucky. Sucks, would have really done my hourly rate good.

Poker Player magazine tomorrow.

Gonna be good and i feel confident. I think my aggression factor needs to increase to like it is in cash games, but apart from that i'm fine.
Played a few S&Gs and really just plain got unlucky quite a few times to bubble. I felt really good and think i can do well tomorrow.
I'm nowhere near as advanced as i'd like to be, but I got a good feel for the game.
Also its gonna be STT strategy i reckon, cos we start with 5K chips but its only gonna last 3 hours, so I'm sure an hour in 10% of the field will be out and we'll start the move stage.

I got a lot of running around to do, like trying to get references whilst going to class, and also figuring out exactly where the hell i'm meant to go for the tourney.
£5000 pirzepool amongst 40 people. Great overlay and whilst I'm not gonna be the best there I'm sure my game is good enough to hold, if the cards don't follow the month so far.
I'll donate 10% to the church of any winnings.

Below is an ad for a freeroll i've entered.

I am registered to play in the Online Poker Blogger Freeroll Win your share of $25,000 and a set of Nevada Jacks poker chips. Hosted By: Absolute Poker Sponsored By: Poker Source Online Registration Code: 47723421

Cut out the TILT


dropped $22.29 bonus chasing on party, but could have easily saved $30 had i not tilt called when the dude had to have had a set.
Played pretty weak tight, and did get sucked out on bad.
Then played some PLO8B and sucked out on some guy for a draw, then hit the nut flush and nut low and took 3/4 of a semi large pot. Won $15.

so down $8, but plus the $100 bonus, a good effort. Espcially since i was 5 tabling. Got sucked out on bigtime, twice to put me out of the vcstudentpoker tourney, which i was feeling really good in.
I'm actually feeling pretty comfortable in MTTs, much more than STTs.

No schoolwork done

Being a complete douchebag i did nothing all afternoon (but it wasnt my fault), then killed the tables. made $70 at NL$25 on party, but would have been a lot more if i had managed to stack one of the two terrible players at my table. One was playing very passive preflop and on flop, then chucking in big bets on river with shit all. The other took around $25 off me by going for runner runners 3 times. It was crazy.

Still made profit there, and for a bit was 'tilting', well kinda, i figured since i was the ONLY one raising preflop, i call with any two suited cards, and then rep TPGK, because they would not have creditted me for it, so i could have stacked them by playing possum on river. Unfortuanately two suited cards were not to be mine.
Oh and an AA sucked out on my trip JJ, i got away from it (flush) but i again would have stacked someone on $50, which really hurt. Gotta stop complaining about the bad beats. Party poker is always really fishy, and i gotta sort out some kinda rakeback deal so i can play there, since multitabling is eaiest on there.

All in all my luck held today and i got only 350 raked hands left. Thats pretty fast going, but its cos i'm 4 tabling.

I really need to do schoolwork, and figure out how to apply to york and a couple other unis.
I'm gonna be a bum next year otherwise, although preferably i'd really like to work in central london doing something or other.

Finally, my student loan looks like it is finally gonna be resolved, and im looking at £1k fees rebate and £3.5k loan, so my bank balance will swell.

Variance Sucks

Ok my first variance sucks title ever. Normally i don't complain, but today was just ridiculous. On top of that its compounded by my $116 loss and $50 loss the weeks before.
today i dropped $100 in about 6hrs.


In one hour i hit a set 3 times only for it to either lose to straights or flushes. So fustrating. Evertime i had a big or reasonable hand, someone else hit better.

My BR is now down to $2350. This is still pretty healthy, but I kinda need some cash. Just for my peace of mind.
It doesn't help that I'm having my bi-annual "i'm bored of my old clothes, lets by a new wardrobe" state.

I must have generated a sickening amount of rakeback, and I'm now 61% through the WR for the interpoker bonus. I REALLY need to be playing STTs and MTTs. Its just hard because I don't generally make money from them.

I will now be simply reviewing HH tomorrow morning, and then tourneys in the afternoon. My eyes are so tired, I'm just gonna go watch my new series of the month called supernatural, which is kinda buffy the vampire slayer without buffy.

Lets Get Busy

Had a bit of a break, but will be playing tomorrow.
Need practice for the tourney next week, so i'll continue reading the 2+2 forums.
I'll be playing cash tomorrow to try and get back to winning ways. I'll just play the NL£25 and maybe a LHE table too.
After that I will be in 'full' tourney mode, and will be 3 tabling 1 MTT and 2 STTs on saturday, for at least 3 hours.
Last 2 weeks have been pretty tough pokerwise, and I'll be aiming to lock a steady W. Not gonna play absolute poker till easter holidays, where i will just finish the PSO bonus then stop. Not totally convinced by the site, although I may play a couple of tourneys there on sat.

OK i am shattered. Today took a lot out of me and i got class in 8hrs.

Downswing Baby

Lost $116 yesterday on absolute. Tilted for about an hour, didnt really cost me. What did cost me were 4 big pots that just sucked. Really bad play in a couple of cases, by me being on tilt and not being aggressivr enough. I lost one to a flush draw which just baffeled me (i knew he'd bluff the turn no matter what, so i slowplayed the flop)

I'll post them at the end. I've not had a big downswing like this before (and it was worse at one point). I'd managed to go from $130 down, to $20 down, then back to finally at $116 down.
Maybe my experiment with the girl name isnt paying off. I called away around $80 in stupid calls where i felt beat, so if I could get rid of this and have won one of the big pots i would be up.
I also got next to no action on any of my big hands, which i find interesting. Means I must be winning at least my fair share of small pots.
Last week was $50 down on poker, and also STTs aren't going well. So all in all a downswing. Funny I actually went on a tear in LHE where every one of my big hands held up (pretty much) and i went on like a 25BB tear.

BJ for $58, but i think i am finally over it all.
Spent like around £125-£150 this week. In the midst of my biggest downswing ever too! I'll get over it. Gonna chill and stuff. Sort out my uni work, of which a lot is due this week. Sort out my uni apps, and generally catch up on waht i've been missing.
Canadian Dave is around, so he's bumming for another night. He's sleeping at some girls house tomorrow and leaving on thursday.

The HH below are just a rant. I've analysed them and rated myself at 2/10 for them. It's pretty unlucky for me not to pick any of them up, I have myself to blame there, and really 2 pair is an easy fold for me.
However on the run I'd had its tough to dodge bullets, but when on a burner I'd have won every single one of the below hands and be posting about how much a poker god i am.


Week

-$116 poker
+$58 BJ
+$60 last months rakeback
+$10 100 raked hand bonus
Total: +$12 - possibly my worst month so far since october. Happy to be at the level that breaking even is a terrible week.



HAND 1

No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
Hero: $94.20
UTG+1: $97
CO: $8.90
Button: $32
SB: $51.83
BB: $70.62

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG with A♣ 9♦
Hero raises to $1.5, UTG+1 calls $1.5, 4 folds.

Flop: 2♥ A♦ 2♣ ($3.75, 2 players)
Hero bets $2, UTG+1 calls $2.

Turn: K♦ ($7.75, 2 players)
Hero bets $2.5, UTG+1 calls $2.5.

River: A♥ ($12.75, 2 players)
Hero bets $12, UTG+1 raises to $33, Hero calls $21.

Results:
Final pot: $78.75
UTG+1 shows 2,2 for quads. DOnt think i could get away, would have lost less by not potting on the end

HAND 2

No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $31.68
UTG+1: $81.02
Hero: $52.70
Button: $49.25
SB: $11.70
BB: $39

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is CO with 9♠ 8♦
UTG calls $0.5, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to $2, 3 folds, UTG calls $1.5.

Flop: 10♦ J♥ 7♠ ($4.75, 2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $2, UTG raises to $4, Hero calls $2.

Turn: 9♥ ($12.75, 2 players)
UTG bets $13, Hero calls $13.

River: 2♥ ($38.75, 2 players)
UTG is all-in $12.68, Hero calls $12.68.

Results:
Final pot: $64.11
UTG shows A♥3♥. SHould have moved in on turn, but i think he's calling anyway. That's sick 25-1 backdoor flush.

HAND 3

No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $12.30
UTG+1: $31.40
CO: $88
Button: $41.71
SB: $72.20
Hero: $50

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is BB with 10♣ A♣
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $0.5, CO folds, Button calls $0.5, SB calls $0.25, Hero checks.

Flop: K♥ 10♥ A♦ ($2, 4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2, UTG+1 folds, Button raises to $4, SB folds, Hero raises to $12, Button calls $8.

Turn: 5♥ ($26, 2 players)
Hero bets $10.5, Button calls $10.5.

River: J♠ ($47, 2 players)
Hero is all-in $27, Button calls all-in $18.71.
Uncalled bets: $8.29 returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: $84.42
Button shows 10,10. Not raising with 10,10 hmm, he's lucky i really hit my hand but couldn't release.

HAND 4

No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.25/$0.50
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $11.03
UTG+1: $16.50
CO: $35.03
Hero: $81.20
SB: $19
BB: $76.84

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with Q♥ Q♦
2 folds, CO calls $0.5, Hero raises to $2, 2 folds, CO calls $1.5.

Flop: 7♥ 4♦ J♠ ($4.75, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $3, CO raises to $6, Hero raises to $15.5, CO calls $9.5.

Turn: 9♣ ($35.75, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $6.5, CO calls $6.5.

River: K♦ ($48.75, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero checks.

Results:
Final pot: $48.75
CO shows KJ! wtf was this. can't believe he played that. There was no way he was ahead of any conceivable hand here apart from a total bluff, AND i mean total. My turn bet was good i thought, as it kept action. Still cant believe he thought he was good. oh well

Febuary Review


Was pretty tight, and I proved to myself again that i can make some serious money from poker.

Reading week was very good, month was:

+$402 according to PT, at all holdem
+$10 from PLO
+$380 from bonuses
+$200 gambling on BJ (sick i know)
-$30 STTs and MTTs.
+$60 rakeback.
-$20 costs. Not sure about this really but must have cost me some money in the transfers due to the fluctuating exchange rate.

so $1000. nice.

Holdem graph below. End part was a $190 downswing where i was on serious tilt.




Today:

played 2 hours or so, i realise i cant 4 table STTs yet. Either that or variance is sick. Lost 4 STTs in a row on party, again losing the coin flips when on the bubble.
Havent managed to get SnG tracker running yet. Will figure it out soon.
Won a ministep on party, dunno what thats worth, but it cost me $6 to play.
Then bubbled a £1.20 at crypto, AK vs 77? dunno wtf he was doing. Lost one, where a limper with K7 called my reraise allin with K5 from sb. How the fuck was he playing that, i'll never understand.
Then entered a £5.50 and won it for £25 im up $1.84 plus a ministep level2 entry.


Honestly not interested in profit margin, I expect my ROI to be around 10%, or at least i hope. Its not great for my profit levels, but its just the experience