Going... Going...

Tomorrow evening I leave on the boat for St Malo with Twister & Hooks. I don't mind telling you I'm pretty nervous about this trip. I'm a planner, I like to know where I'm going, what's happening next, where I'm going to be sleeping that night. You know, the basics. Twister & Hooks on the other hand, are both intelligent guys but they like to fly by the seat of their pants, explore and find somewhere to sleep when you get somewhere. It is for this reason that we only have a hotel for Saturday night. From then on we're trusting to luck. In a country where we marginally speak the language. We're going to need a little luck !

I'm taking the lappy and hope to get some Wifi access somewhere along the way so I'll update if and when I do find some. Mostly I'll be using it to try and find places to stay I think. If I get decent connections then I'll play some poker too.

Last nights results on Stars :

$5 45plyr 15th

$5 27plyr 1st for $50

$5 45plyr 13th after me and the other big stack go at it, my AK v his AQ. I raise from the CO, he reraises from SB, I push, he calls. Board 6KQ-Q-8.

$5 27 4th for $14

Profit for the night : $42

Another decent night for bankroll padding and confidence building

Finally, just what we always wanted there's another poker forum on the net. I predict great things for this one though, so please join and get involved in some poker discussion, talking about hands is one of the best ways you can improve your game.

Holiday Soon

Read this
So True.

Tonights results anyway :

$5 45 Stars - 32
$5 90 FTP - 27th KQ v TT flush draw + overcards on the flop but didnt hit
$5 45 Stars 44th trying to play a long ball nut flush draw on the first hand ! Doh
$5 45 FTP - 3rd $36 TT v AK allin in Preflop
$5 27 Stars - 14th basic error with AQ PF due to 4 games + an IM chat
$5 9 Betfair - 1 $22.50
$4 180 Stars - 18th $8.64
$5 45 Stars - 26th
$5 9 Betfair - 3rd, $9 not only did I have AK beat by KQ, I also had my KQ rivered by JJ after the money was in on a K high flop. I still managed 3rd but if those two hands went my way it was mine to take down.

Profit $27.74

Any winning night is a good night and after my initial "warm up" period of about half an hour I got into the groove and started playing good poker for the second night running. Amazing :o)

No bloggerment for me this Sunday, I'm off to France on a roadie on Saturday and return next Sunday morning. Should be a fun trip and seeing as I'm the navigator we may very well get a detour to Deauville Casino on the way to Rouen. Does anyone know how to say Hammer! in French ? :o)

A Beautiful Day

I woke on Tuesday morning with the mild thud of a hangover due to the "one beer in the sunsheeine" that we'd gone for after work on Monday night. Inevitably we ended up having 6 or 7 beers and I was now regretting it. Not only had I not been disciplined enough to go home earlier, todays lunch appointment was one I had been looking forward to as the highlight of my week and now I was feeling pretty rough when I wanted to be on top form. Still, I got myself up and dragged myself into work. The morning passed reasonably quickly and then I went to lunch with a beautiful, intelligent girl. I ordered a glass of water and tuna & mayo sandwich. I needed the water with every mouthful of food and could only eat half the sandwich. My conversation during lunch was awkward and dull, but thankfully she is smart and kept feeding me subjects to keep the talk going. If it had been a date I can guarantee it would have been difficult to secure a second one, luckily it was just friends having lunch for the first time, so in a couple of weeks we'll do it again and I'll hopefully be back to my charming best. I gently drifted through the afternoon thinking of all the things I should have said, witty one-liners coming to me 2 hours later than they should have.

When I got home I decided to sit down and play. I read through all the notepad docs I've got sitting on my desktop that remind me how to play well. Then I registered for some SNGs and had 3 games on the go at the same time during most of this. My results were as follows :

PokerStars - $4 180, busted 75th after my flopped second nut flush got runner-runnered by trips making a full house -$4.40

Betfair $5 9 man SNG - 1st +$22.50

Betfair $5 9 man SNG - 2nd +$13.50

PokerStars $5 27 man SNG - 1st +$50.00 - Special mention to Yorkshire Pud for IM-ing me with 7 left and convincing me I was going to win it. It gave me confidence just when I was starting to waver. Good timing mate !

Betfair $5 9 man SNG - 4th - terrible game, really weird play by everyone, no PF raises, no pushing by players with just 2 BB's left -$5.50

PokerStars $5 45 man SNG - 1st after an Epic HU battle +$69.76

PokerStars $5 27 man SNG - doubled up early, then got AKs v AQo allin PF, flop QKQ put me back to starting chips
recovered to finish 2nd +$36.00

Profit for the night $154.36, chuffed to bits. I needed the boost badly, but I played good stuff too. Small ball early then long ball when I had the chips to pressure people. It felt great, my hangover was gone, even lunch didn't seem like a disaster anymore.

Highlights from the 45 man game are here

Most "Eww I don't know where I am" Hand -

-----Hand 11-----
TanOrpheus's M = 32.67
PokerStars Game #10517457642: Tournament #53278693, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2007/06/19 - 17:11:02 (ET)
Condensed history provided by the Tournament Trimmer (v1.1.2w) from http://www.FlopTurnRiver.com
Table '53278693 3' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: badabing777 (1485 in chips)
Seat 2: stewfrance (1450 in chips)
Seat 4: MaxNow (1405 in chips)
Seat 5: carli29 (2250 in chips)
Seat 6: tsdub86 (870 in chips)
Seat 7: Bores03 (1695 in chips)
Seat 8: JakePokers (1345 in chips)
Seat 9: TanOrpheus (1470 in chips)
tsdub86: posts small blind 15
Bores03: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [7s 7h]
JakePokers: folds
TanOrpheus: raises 60 to 90
badabing777: calls 90
stewfrance: calls 90
MaxNow: folds
carli29: folds
tsdub86: folds
Bores03: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [4c 7c Kd]
Bores03: checks
TanOrpheus: bets 120
badabing777: folds
stewfrance: folds
Bores03: calls 120
*** TURN *** [4c 7c Kd] [9h]
Bores03: bets 120
TanOrpheus: raises 210 to 330
Bores03: calls 210
*** RIVER *** [4c 7c Kd 9h] [Jc]
Bores03: bets 450
TanOrpheus: calls 450
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bores03: shows [Kc Qs] (a pair of Kings)
TanOrpheus: shows [7s 7h] (three of a kind, Sevens)
TanOrpheus collected 2175 from pot

Most "I'm happy I sucked out and busted you" Hand -

-----Hand 13-----
TanOrpheus's M = 35.40
PokerStars Game #10517505774: Tournament #53278693, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2007/06/19 - 17:14:10 (ET)
Condensed history provided by the Tournament Trimmer (v1.1.2w) from http://www.FlopTurnRiver.com
Table '53278693 3' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: badabing777 (1345 in chips)
Seat 2: stewfrance (1010 in chips)
Seat 3: bartje82 (2545 in chips)
Seat 4: MaxNow (1880 in chips)
Seat 5: carli29 (2150 in chips)
Seat 6: tsdub86 (855 in chips)
Seat 7: Bores03 (743 in chips)
Seat 8: JakePokers (1332 in chips)
Seat 9: TanOrpheus (2655 in chips)
badabing777: posts small blind 25
stewfrance: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [As Qs]
bartje82: folds
MaxNow: folds
carli29: folds
tsdub86: raises 100 to 150
Bores03: folds
JakePokers: folds
TanOrpheus: raises 150 to 300
badabing777: folds
stewfrance: calls 250
tsdub86: raises 555 to 855 and is all-in
TanOrpheus: calls 555
stewfrance: calls 555
*** FLOP *** [Qc 2c 6h]
stewfrance: checks
TanOrpheus: bets 200
stewfrance: folds
*** TURN *** [Qc 2c 6h] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 2c 6h 8s] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tsdub86: shows [Ac Kh] (high card Ace)
TanOrpheus: shows [As Qs] (a pair of Queens)
TanOrpheus collected 2590 from pot

tsdub86 [observer] said, "nice raise donkey"
tsdub86 [observer] said, "terrible"
tsdub86 [observer] said, "way to make a good read and raise"
tsdub86 [observer] said, "o wait no that was a dumb move and u lucked out my bad"
TanOrpheus said, "m8 i've just exactly the same happen to me on another table"
TanOrpheus said, "diff between u and me -"
TanOrpheus said, "I said NH and got on with it"
tsdub86 [observer] said, "difference is i wouldnt re raise w/ AQ"
tsdub86 [observer] said, "actually almost nobody would cuz its stupid"
TanOrpheus said, "in that case you can play me anytime"
tsdub86 [observer] said, "lol u were dominated when u called all in so how is that good?"
TanOrpheus said, "sigh"

Hand that turned the tournament -

-----Hand 21-----
TanOrpheus's M = 21.68
PokerStars Game #10517799831: Tournament #53278693, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2007/06/19 - 17:33:10 (ET)
Condensed history provided by the Tournament Trimmer (v1.1.2w) from http://www.FlopTurnRiver.com
Table '53278693 3' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: badabing777 (1035 in chips)
Seat 2: Got2nutz (2320 in chips)
Seat 3: bartje82 (3290 in chips)
Seat 4: MentalFloss9 (6710 in chips)
Seat 5: carli29 (1800 in chips)
Seat 6: Zouille (885 in chips)
Seat 7: Bores03 (3336 in chips)
Seat 8: godbolt10 (2305 in chips)
Seat 9: TanOrpheus (4879 in chips)
Zouille: posts small blind 75
Bores03: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [Ah Kd]
godbolt10: folds
TanOrpheus: raises 300 to 450
badabing777: folds
Got2nutz: folds
bartje82: folds
MentalFloss9: calls 450
carli29: folds
Zouille: folds
Bores03: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [6h As 9d]
Bores03: checks
TanOrpheus: bets 750
MentalFloss9: calls 750
Bores03: folds
*** TURN *** [6h As 9d] [7c]
TanOrpheus: bets 1500
MentalFloss9: calls 1500
*** RIVER *** [6h As 9d 7c] [4c]
TanOrpheus: bets 2179 and is all-in
MentalFloss9: calls 2179
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TanOrpheus: shows [Ah Kd] (a pair of Aces)
MentalFloss9: shows [Qc Ac] (a pair of Aces - lower kicker)
TanOrpheus collected 10283 from pot

Worst played hand by an opponent -

-----Hand 47-----
TanOrpheus's M = 17.44
PokerStars Game #10518759130: Tournament #53278693, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2007/06/19 - 18:34:11 (ET)
Condensed history provided by the Tournament Trimmer (v1.1.2w) from http://www.FlopTurnRiver.com
Table '53278693 2' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Spiderman477 (5454 in chips)
Seat 3: bartje82 (13547 in chips)
Seat 4: TanOrpheus (25289 in chips)
Seat 6: frenchgana (12298 in chips)
Seat 7: tuor1 (10912 in chips)
All players post the ante 50
Spiderman477: posts small blind 400
bartje82: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [Jc Kd]
TanOrpheus: calls 800
frenchgana: folds
tuor1: raises 800 to 1600
Spiderman477: folds
bartje82: folds
TanOrpheus: calls 800
*** FLOP *** [Td Ac 7h]
TanOrpheus: checks
tuor1: checks
*** TURN *** [Td Ac 7h] [2s]
TanOrpheus: bets 1600
tuor1: calls 1600
*** RIVER *** [Td Ac 7h 2s] [Qd]
TanOrpheus: bets 4000
tuor1: raises 3662 to 7662 and is all-in
TanOrpheus: calls 3662
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tuor1: shows [As Ah] (three of a kind, Aces)
TanOrpheus: shows [Jc Kd] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
TanOrpheus collected 23174 from pot

We're not arrogant, we just believe we're the best band in the world - Noel Gallagher, Oasis

I have less and less for time for poker lately and it makes me feel like an amatuer when I do sit down. When I haven't played for any great length of time in a week it means that I end up overvaluing medium pockets, not being able to make any good lay downs and creating the kind of hopeful reads that I've seen other people make and shaken my head at it. Maybe I'm being a little harsh on myself, I've suffered some silly beats along the way this week, like being called by JJ on a A77 board when I held the A and he turned a Jack. I asked the guy if he was f'ing psychic in the chat. That response alone probably shows you the kind of tilt my poker personality is experiencing at the moment. Last night in the bloggerment I even pushed my 99 into a reraise from the blinds and got bumped with KK, overplayer that I am.

There's been good stuff this week too, of course, I FT'd a $5 MTT on Doyles room and turned $90 profit after a fish put me out in 5th. At the same time I won a seat to the $200k GTD at the same site in an MTT satellite, I couldn't play in the actually tourney but it still felt good to book the wins. The problem, it seems, is that right now I feel I NEED to win. I suspect that it is due to having a mortgage, more bills, less disposable income, that the winning has foolishly become more important than playing well. It feels like I've gone backwards a year in maturity on the poker front.

My proposed solution to this experience is to play more cheap games. I'm going to step way back and play NL$10 max buyin cash games, and $4 and $5 MTT's, even some freerolls. Until I still feeling like a poker player again instead of just a gambler.

How to get to Vegas

Been thinking a little bit about this, but there's plenty of time on our side and that's the best part.

The easy way

Just before I started this blog I made my first trip to Vegas, and it was paid for by a lucky run 5 months before I left with my friends. We weren't sure we'd be able to afford it, and I owed a mate £20, so I told him look, I'll keep the £20 and play with it, we'll see how far we get. One SNG, two MTT's and an important suckout with 88 v KK later and we'd gone from £20 to £900 in 48 hours and were booking our flights.

The hard way

You could satellite into the Sunday Million, or a WCOOP event in October and have all your eggs in that basket, praying that you don’t get unlucky 26 away from the money, like this -

PokerStars Game #6493356249: Tournament #40000018, $2500+$100 Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (1000/2000) - 2006/10/01 - 22:34:10 (ET)
Table '40000018 245' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Joffster (59715 in chips)
Seat 2: 500 SL (82766 in chips)
Seat 3: pokerpoopy (111720 in chips)
Seat 4: TanOrpheus (32837 in chips)
Seat 5: Huskie76 (22566 in chips)
Seat 6: kielbax (66172 in chips)
Seat 7: BMW_Wookie (61951 in chips)
Seat 8: ZULEH (73939 in chips)
Seat 9: 45202Kid (72170 in chips)
Joffster: posts the ante 200
500 SL: posts the ante 200
pokerpoopy: posts the ante 200
TanOrpheus: posts the ante 200
Huskie76: posts the ante 200
kielbax: posts the ante 200
BMW_Wookie: posts the ante 200
ZULEH: posts the ante 200
45202Kid: posts the ante 200
kielbax: posts small blind 1000
BMW_Wookie: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [Kc Ac]
ZULEH: folds
45202Kid: folds
Joffster: folds
500 SL: folds
pokerpoopy: folds
TanOrpheus: raises 4000 to 6000
Huskie76: folds
kielbax: folds
BMW_Wookie: raises 12000 to 18000
TanOrpheus: raises 14637 to 32637 and is all-in
BMW_Wookie: calls 14637
*** FLOP *** [4s Kh 8s]
*** TURN *** [4s Kh 8s] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [4s Kh 8s 6c] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BMW_Wookie: shows [Ks Qc] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
TanOrpheus: shows [Kc Ac] (a pair of Kings)
BMW_Wookie collected 68074 from pot
pokerpoopy said, "yowzaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 68074 | Rake 0
Board [4s Kh 8s 6c Qd]
Seat 1: Joffster folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: 500 SL folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: pokerpoopy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: TanOrpheus showed [Kc Ac] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 5: Huskie76 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: kielbax (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: BMW_Wookie (big blind) showed [Ks Qc] and won (68074) with two pair, Kings and Queens
Seat 8: ZULEH folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: 45202Kid folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Yeah, some days I still think about it.

The fast and loose way

Separate your bankroll, play SNG's which are out of bankroll management guidelines. Eg play a $10, win it, step up to a $30, win it, step up to a $100. This might not go too well since any bad beat could send you back to $10.

The slow way

Make $50 a week playing .25/.50 on your favourite site. With rakeback deals you'll make pocket money for the trip too, this to me seems like the easiest way to make the money needed, but it will take commitment and time time time.

My way

A combination of the above, depending whats running when the mood takes me, mostly though just playing a lot and playing well. I'll use the small cash wins to keep the tourney entries ticking over and occassionally maybe try the "fast and loose" way.

Your way

You know how to win at poker, and you know the game you do best at. The main thing is having a target and putting the hours in. The more hours you play the less chance variance has to kick you in butt and make you want to quit forever.

New Site & Rakebacks

I need your help chaps, I'm looking to sign up to a new site specifically for this vegas challenge and I'm leaning towards Virgin Poker. What I want to know is if you find their software ok and wheres the best place to sign up for a decent rakeback deal but still get the air miles bonus points.

Your opinion / advice is really appreciated

Thanks
Tan

..and don't forget this :

"Young poker players should take a page out of his playbook. Just shut the fuck up, leave the sunglasses at the pool, and just play cards."

- Dr Pauly

Amen to that. If only I were able to do that all the time I'd be a better player and better person. Can't manage to be perfect all the time though so for now I'll just have to try and keep upping my percentages. You've probably noticed, especially if you were kind enough to read this blog last year, that my poker playing and thinking has recently hit a limbo. I haven't played for any long stretches since November last year, and I keep wavering between "this is easy" - "I want to win every pot" - "I want to play brilliantly" - "I can't be bothered" - "I'm bored". For the last week I have been of the "I want to play brilliantly" mindset. That doesn't mean I have played brilliantly, but I've done ok. I doubled my bankroll on Stars playing .25/.50 which had taken a knock from many tourney entries and no cash games to keep it ticking along. I love playing tournaments because of the scope for creativity, and promise of a pot of gold, but cash games are bread-and-butter in the real world even though they can be boring.

Ok so where's this post going ? We've heard about how my motivation dropped off in the last 6 months, well one of the traps I feel into was thinking "it's the bloggerment on Sunday, I'll just blog after that". That's lazy. I know some of you aren't as lazy as I've been and blog mostly whenever you play, you know who you are, good stuff ! The rest of ya, we're interested in what you do day to day between Sundays, especially if it involves poker, but mostly just for voyuerism or escapism. So please blog during the week, so I have something interesting to fill my days with past Tuesday lunchtime !

And finally, our more experienced cousins in America are getting together for yet another WPBT event. I'm jealous. I'd love to join them. So I hereby laydown the guantlet. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it is to get a respectable bankroll together by 01 May 2008, so that together we can fan the flames of international bad beat stories. Beg, steal, borrow, throw bankroll management out of the window. Do whatever it takes. It's high-time we planned to put faces to names and make our mark on Vegas, after all why should they have all the liver damage and not us !! If we really soar beyond expectations maybe we'll even get 'rolled for the WPBT Winter Classic in early December !

Who's Coming With Me ?!!

We're just a bubble in a boiling pot - Jack Johnson

Yes, I'm the bubble boy this week ! I don't have the hand histories here for the tourney and don't remember a lot of the hands I played but I do know I busted when my AK couldn't beat Amatays 99. At least he took it down so I was busted by the champ ! Fourth FT in the bloggerments for me and first time I've been at the FT and not taken it down. GG everyone it was another good time !

Back to playing Counter-Stike now, my accuracy needs improvement.

Geek !

OK, I'll get the bad beat out of the way first, I played 2 hands in the bloggerment last Sunday. Re-raised 6x with AK from the Big Blind got TWO callers, one of which was Kat with Jack-Ten ! Flop had 2 Jacks and I lost about 600 chips. Then reraise Juice's UTG raise by going allin when I had QQ in the BB on the next orbit. He calls and turns an Ace to send me home. You see weird statistical stuff in poker sometimes, that's why people claim it's rigged, in our tourney this Sunday you could have been mistaken for thinking the same, in the first hour that I played/watched for people were dropping like flies and it was all big hand vs big hand, no donkey stuff just a dealer with a off sense of the statistical norm !
Anyways, I'm over the shock of that early exit now, as Kat said "Holy-pushfest-batman" sometimes tourneys just go that way.

Suffolk Punch asked how you put the flags on your links, well in your template where you keep all your links you just put it in like this Suffolk Punch
. Ah, of course my post is rendering the HTML, ok, just on this post click view source at the top and then search for Suffolk Punch and you'll see the code that creates the link with a flag, hopefully. If I was a better geek I'd be able to show HTML without having to tell you to do this !

My excuse for the bloggerment by the way is that I was around at a friends house having a LAN party. It only took 3 hours to get 7 PC's set up and we had a good time getting wasted at Counter Strike. Being a bank holiday weekend this was pretty much all we did and it's probably pretty much all we're gonna do this weekend in between watching the Derby.

Good luck with your bets on teh weekend!