Poker Stars $10 R&A -

I knew playing poker yesterday was a stupid idea but I thought it might take my mind off things. Getting quite close to the money and then having AA beaten by JJ after the action went (P1) raise - (P2) reraise - (P3) huge reraise and then me (SB) allin and still getting called by JJ who hit an 88J flop briefly took my mind off the cat, but even a beat like couldn't elicit the usual response. I just shrugged, thinking "That really sums it up today" and shut down the pc.
Jack Daniels - Bed - Fitful sleep.

A shock

"Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water" - Antoine Rivarol

We've just had a phone call to tell us that our cat, Beaumont, died at about 6pm after coming round from the anaesthetic after a simple operation at the vets this afternoon. It's a big shock. There was little sign that anything was wrong with him this morning when I left for work, and of course not thinking he was particularly ill, none of us really got a chance to fuss over him particularly or say goodbye. Anyone with a pet will know what a part of your life and family they become, and when you suddenly are told they won't be there anymore, with their distinct personalities and tendencies, its a very sudden feeling of shock and loss.

It took a good half hour to sink in, I spend so much time trying to be logical, fair and rational, that I didn't know what to feel when I first heard (though depending who you ask they may or may not tell you I'm any good at that) I end up bottling stuff up usually and then blow up completely disproportionately to some minor event that triggers a release. So, I came up here, logged in and typed the first sentence on this blog and let it all out, and now I feel a lot better. Obviously lots of thoughts about life, death, making the most of the time we've got and the people we've got close to us will visit me over the next few days, and I hope those thoughts help me change to be a better person, god knows we could all do with a little push to help us change and be better people from time to time.

I hope he that didn't suffer when he went, and that we gave him a happy life.
Rest in Peace, Beau.

frustration

Yesterday was a marathon good poker day, albeit frustrating but if I'm gonna play for a 6 hour session there's bound to be few frustrating moments. The worst of these was 10 minutes into another of the 180 SNG's on stars where I raised 7x the BB with AsKs and was called by the guy next to me and the Big Blind, the flop was 5dKh8h and I bet out 200, which was about 2/3rds of the pot. The guy next to me pushed, BB folded and I thought for a minute, doubted he had trips and called. He flipped over KdJh, happy days, until the turn came 4h and the river 2h, giving him a runner - runner monkey flush and knocking me down to 160 chips left. I just typed "clever!" into the chat box but got no response. Fortunately I caught some good hands over the next 30 minutes and got even again, back up to 1500 chips, and then converted that into reaching the bubble. Along the way I beat pocket 9's with AQ and was told by the guy with 99 that it was "daylight robbery", he was so p'd off about this that he railbirded me for an hour after getting moved to another table and when I finally busted - on the bubble btw - he was there to say "bye". He busted the very first hand ITM.

In the other 180 SNG I played I made the money but couldn't convert to a final table finish so only got a small profit.

On the cash tables I made about $260 overall spread between ladbrokes and pokerstars so it was a nice day to be up overall.

Oh, I started using the rowing machine to take out the frustrations of bad beats. It works. I also tried to give up smoking this morning but was ready to kick small cute puppies by midday and cracked. I'm sadly addicted, and can only hope I find some way to give up soon before it becomes a real problem

Smooth Sunday

Boy, I was really off-on-one last night when I wrote that last post huh ? Guess I really needed to get it out of my system. I feel great today though, apart from the dull thud of a mild hangover which I can live with. Just want to make it clear it was entirely My Fault that I busted in that tourney, no-one told me to throw those chips in the pot, I just let myself be affected by the spectator aspect, something I will try and stop myself from doing ever again. If I cant play properly when my freinds are watching imagine how crap I'd be at a TV table in the WSOP ! (like that's gonna happen !)

So back to today. I'm gonna play some cash games and tourneys on Stars, try and qualify for the big one on stars tonight, and probably play some tourneys on ladbrokes too, seeing as I've built a bit of a b-roll there playing the cash tables.

I'll let you know how I get on in the next post, so far I'm up to $130.60 at the $50 NL table on stars and I've only played 5 hands, a good omen, just hope it lasts.

Wish me luck !

Blind Stupidity

Good News -

Hatton won in the 9th by KO, one of the best KO's you're ever likely to see, the man's a machine and should be given his next fight in America to show the world how good he is and allow him the chance to unify the 3rd of the 4 belts in his division.

More Good News -

I finished 6th in one of the 180 SNG's on Stars, netting a tidy profit and playing pretty good poker.

Bad News -

(The next paragraph has a large frequency of explicit words - be advised)

Sometimes when I'm playing poker with friends around I let emotion creep in and I'm a fucking idiot. I played in the $10 rebuy in stars, played ok, then bad, then good and got deep in it, 3 hours in, 160 left 99 pays. Then my friend who's been watching a while is sensing it's getting boring, I'm folding for 25 minutes, the blinds aren't a worry, i'm average stack and can bide my time waiting for a hand, like you do, easy. Piece of piss. Except there's a friend watching asking why you're folding A5 SOOTED, saying "I'd have gone with that", "look you'd have won that hand if you'd played it", "are you going to go allin" - and the seed is set. Self control, all that fucking hard work you've done to your brain for the last 3 hours telling it NO, Don't throw more chips in after that pot, You're beat get away and wait for another chance, patience patience patience - it's all fucking worthless cause you want it to be entertaining now, you want them to enjoy it and be right for a change on a hand, you completely forget that they haven't got a clue about playing the kind of good poker it takes to win a tournament, that it's not there fucking money we're playing with. And you turn into a moron in the space of 10 seconds, raising under the gun with a crap suited ace, betting the ace high flop and then coming over the top of a check-min raise from the weak tight player in the small blind who's clearly fucking hit the flop better than you did.

It's idiotic, goes against everything I've spent two years sitting in front of computer "studying" for, and I'm really fucking angry with myself. I had a good shot at that tourney, and I fucked it up for the sake of making someone else feel entertained. That's not the point of playing. Winning and being the best is the point of playing. What a fucking prick I can be.

Goddam that feels better to get that out.

Now I can finally stop thinking and get some sleep.

More More More

Another fun night at the tables, the $$ game on ladbrokes was rocking as usual, and I was lucky (?) enough to get the table sucker sat on my immediate right. He was reraising preflop with hands like K9 off, at first I thought it was a ploy to trap us, but it became pretty clear it would only be a matter of time before he went bust. I got some good hands early on against other players at the table and was soon up from the $50 buyin to $134. Fish on my right managed to get lucky too and got his stack up to $86. He kept raising preflop, I kept telling myself to wait. Then, finally i get KK on my big blind and he raises one limper as expected, I reraise to $8 which is a pretty big PF raise in this game. The limper calls and fish calls too. The flop comes down Qc5h4s - not too dangerous right ? The limper bets $2, fish raises to $7 and I reraise to $20. The limper folds and the fish min reraises me to $40 - I hate min reraises - in a game this low it usually means you're completely f*cked and the guy is scared of betting and scaring you off - not heeding this advice I pushed hoping he had AQ, unfortunately he had QQ and screwed me over for the gains I'd made so far - back down to $44. I started hacking on him and acted like i was on tilt telling him what a bad play it was (even though it wasn't) and how he wouldn't have my money for long with the way he played cards. He was up to $165 and most of it was my money. I wanted it back.

About 15 minutes later I get 67 off on the button. I had good odds to call a $2 preflop raise that 5 others had called also, including Fishy. The flop was 335, good but not great, unlikely to have hit anyone else. There was a $1 raise which everyone called. The turn was the miracle 4 that i needed. There was a $2 raise when it got to me and I reraised to $7, only the fish called - :o) - the river was a Q, fish bet $10 I reraised allin, he called pretty quick and mucked. I was back to $114 and had most of my cash back.

There were a few more small exchanges until fish called off most of his gains and got back down to $60ish, he quit then so at least he could say he'd made a $10 profit for the night. I left soon after, the action had gone and the tightened right up after that.

I made it deep in the $10 R&A on Stars again too, but misplayed two hands of pocket 5s and busted when I was short stacked just 10 from the bubble - 93rd out of around 700. I'm still making mistakes, but I can see them clearly, and rarely repeat them. I'm just happy to consistently make it deep in these tournaments.

It's gonna snow today and this weekend, which is kinda rare for here so there'll be lots of chaos and car crashes, should be a fun weekend. Oh and don't forget to watch the Hatton belt unification fight tomorrow night live from Sheffield ! It should be a corker !

Bonzer

The last couple o' days have been bonzer. I finished 5th in a 180-sng on Stars, but totally botched the final table. I got deep in another MTT on betfair picking up a few quid in the process and I started playing cash games again. I think I learnt enough in the last 6 months to go back to playing NL cash. I used to get bored at cash tables and have desperate urges for the blinds to be raised like they were in tourneys. I couldn't keep the same tight frame of mind that I had at the start of a session all the way through for 2 or 3 hours. But now I can last that long and play decent ring game poker. If I have a tourney table open at the same time to take away the aggression urge from the cash game it helps to, as long as I remember which is which. I made $120 on the $50NL table I was at on Ladbrokes poker last night and $160 on the $50NL table I was at on Stars, which pays for my latest few tourney entries.

I kinda donked my way out of the $10 rebuy on stars last night too, after finding an ATM in the last 15 minutes of the rebuy period, I had stacked my way up into a good position, as had everyone else at my table. One guy tilted when his AcKh was beat by Qs3s and pushed EVERY hand for the next ten minutes. Everyone else just took it in turns to call his allins, after 12 allins, not one of them hit and the guy quit having spent at least $240 in 10 minutes. It was a free lunch, and we weren't complaining !

The second hour I literally got dealt one playable hand, QQ which only picked up the blinds, then I stole a few blinds in the 3rd hour when everyone tightened up and we approached the bubble.. until.. the chip leader two to my right raises it up 4x on my BB. I made a bad read and thought he was just trying to pressure me, so I pushed KQo and he immediately called and flipped AA ! lol. I felt like a donk but nevermind. I finished 140/723. 83 got paid.

Oh and I played limit and actually enjoyed it for the first time in my life over at PokerBlue, thanks to Iggy for the headsup on that site, the play is most unusual there to say the least ! I think I'll enjoy putting in my 4 hours a week there to get into the weekly freeroll :o)

Tuesday

I play goot last night, I made it deep in another 180-man SNG on stars, busting in 30th, yet again my KQ was beaten by KJ when a J turned a Kxx flop into a complete nightmare for me. Still we continue to play the odds and know it is only a matter of time until several successive good decisions go my way. I also made it deep in the £3k GTD on Betfair, I busted in 29th, which didn't bring much cash but it was nice to beat a field of 370, especially after only calling two hands in the first hour and not winning either of them ! I had T900 with blinds at 100/200 when the second hour started. Just goes to show patience is the name of the game. I was getting tired after all that but played and finished second in a quick £5 SNG on betfair.

So, I'm playing good poker now, but of course I'm totally gutted that i live thousands of miles away from the Mecca of Poker and therefore will miss what sounds like the biggest gathering of like minded poker players ever conceived, the World Poker Blogger Tour, in Las Vegas. I was in Vegas earlier this year and loved it, and if it didn't cost £700 to cross the atlantic at the moment I'd be trying to get there again. Still, good things come to those who wait, and soon enough I'll be back there and the Twister & I can spend another 5 hours straight playing Sega Jockey Master in the Luxor !

Seriously, if you ever go upstairs in the Luxor, stick 5 bucks in that machine and you wont be able to walk away !

Tournaments

As planned, I qualified and played in the Absolute Poker $75K GTD on Saturday, I ran into AA in the very first hand of the tournament but only lost a third of my chips so it wasn't too painful. Then I played AJ and made top pair top kicker on the flop, one of the FTR guys, who shall remain anonymous tried to make a move on me when a second 5 turned and he min raised me, but the bet just wasn't logical so I called and was happy to see my hand hold up against KJ. Eventually I busted after pushing AJ preflop and getting called by KJ which made a straight. That's the way these things are going lately, allin with the best of it, and other people hitting their cards. I busted in the 500k qualifier AGAIN when QQ was called by KJ on a Jxx flop, the turn was a king and out I go again.

Oh, what a night

Tough tough tough poker night !
I played in the $3 rebuy satellite on stars for the 500k on Sunday, and busted in 32nd out of 440 when my aces were busted by KJ off - No I did not limp them - everyone's playing tight at the table, I made it 3x UTG, folded round to the BB who calls. The Flop is K 4 7 rainbow, the BB bets out 1/2 the pot, I go allin, BB thinks for about 20 seconds and then calls. The Turn is the J of clubs and my bullets & balls are busted.

Then I played another $20 180 man multi. With about 120 players left and after chipping up to about 3800 chips I get aces on the button with the blinds at 50/100. UTG player raises to 150, it's folded round to me and I make it 450 to go, the SB (with 4,400) calls, the big blind reraises to 1000, UTG player folds, and I push allin. The SB uses up 30 seconds of his time bank and convinces himself that his 9's are good and calls and the BB folds. The flop is 10-5-6, turn 7, river 8. Making the straight. No, I do not need you to remind me that idiots like this are what makes poker profitibale. I just needed to vent that.

It's one sleep and 12 hours later now, and I still can't get that one out of my head. I always try and think "what are they thinking" so I canlearn but this one is just plain, simple stupidity. I'm guessing the thought process with 99 here by him should be... UTG raise - thats bad, button reraises - that's really bad I should fold, BB reraises again - f*** that's a nightmare, button goes allin - oh f*** me there's no way my 99 is good here I had better fold I will still be way ahead of most of the field with the chips I have. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Yeh, bad beat stories, so sue me.

On the bright side I did successfully complete the target i set for myself last night which was to qualify for Absolute Poker's $75k Guaranteed which is on Saturday night. Should be interesting.

Close

You finished the tournament in 16th place.
A $43.20 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Another night of MTT's on stars, I was really tired tonight after not much (any !) sleep last night, so I was playing donkey poker in the 180mtts on stars, it showed and I knew I was being an idiot, sometimes I need to play like that for a game or two just to shake it off and get it out of my system. Anyways the final game i sat down in I focused properly and played good, but not great poker. I finished 16/180, ITM but only just, still its nice to feel that I'm doing something right at least, I caught the SB stealing and pushed Jh9c - not a standard good move obviously but the steal was clear, he was priced in and called with 7d4d, paired his 4 on the flop and made the flush by the river, gg. Didnt sleep well again last night (after being that knackered !) and so I am shattered again today, think I'll just go home, play 2 or 3 MTT's and pass out early tonight :-)

MTT's and Improving

Yup, I haven't been bloggin much, sorry. Been playing too much poker to blog, but here's a general recap of last week. Early in the week I won one of the $3 rebuy sats to the $500k gtd on PokerStars, a good start to any week I think you'll agree. I then played only MTT's on Stars all week, I think I placed ITM in about 20% of them, and accumulated around 600 TLB Points :-)

Those 180-man SNG multi's on Stars are the best thing to happen to poker since the first guy said "I'm all in"
I havent won one yet but I've had 4 final tables in 10 attempts now, which should give you an indication of how fishy they are. Seriously, if you aint tried one yet and you can play decent aggressive poker get in there.

Sunday's 500k gtd saw me make it to 463rd in a field of around 3,400. 350ish paid. I was really happy with my play, I made some good laydowns and the two times that I was allin I was a favourite and got unlucky. I also folded pocket 10's twice preflop to bigger hands, and both times would have made a full house, I was (correctly) happy about those decisions, but could have had a much higher finish if I'd been willing to gambool on those perfect 10's.

Last night I played some more MTT's, and did ok again, I took 5th in another 180-sng (note to self : I should have done better and busted on a donkey play) I also played the $11 rebuy with 765 entrants and took 33rd in that when my QQ in the big blind was busted by the button's KQo... when a King arrived on the river, ouch !

Its ALLLL GOOOOD though, my b-roll has been nicely padded and I can safely say I am playing the best poker of my short lived career. A win is just around the corner, I can almost taste it.

Pro Evo 5

Crikey ! Yes, I am still here. A whole week later since the last update, oops, slap on the wrist for me. The truth is I've been a complete games geek for the last week. I bought Pro Evolution Soccer 5 for the xbox last week and quite simply it's the greatest football game ever made. The touch, control and feeling of scoring a goal is just brilliance, and makes you feel like its real football, rather than the who can do the most pass-pass-score style of FIFA.

I also finished watching season 1 of Lost and got up to date with season 2's happenings, man that series is the best thing on tv in many moons. Oh I started watching ROME too, looks like it'll be decent later on but it's a slow burner for the first few episodes.

I haven't won any MTT's but I've only played 2 and I've only played 5 SNG's this week, placing ITM in 3 of them. Maybe this week the lure of 25 yarders with Lampard will wear off and I'll get back to doing what I'm supposed to, like playing 25+ hours of poker a week.

I'll let you know how that goes....