The was one big difference last night, I felt really good about playing before play began. I told The_Unc_III, who I also work with, that I was going to win two tourneys before I left work. I fell ever so slightly short of that mark, but two 180 FTs was close enough. 8th in one when A9 couldn't fill out a flush vs AQ allin on a Axx twotone flop, and 4th in the other when my 68 paired the twotone flop but after getting allin on the turn couldn't avoid a third crub on the river. Crubs always get there, I've heard. The 4th was more disappointing than the 8th place. I had big reads on all 3 of my opponents and their play was generally telegraphed and poor. Despite being the short stack for much of that final table I was convinced I could go on to win if the cards held up for me.
Of course I still made a huge mistake in one game, the $3 rebuy. I was quite nicely swimming along when I got dragged into a rag hand on my BB. Min raised with 4 callers, I called the extra 1bb with 10d 3d. 2 diamonds on the J high flop gave me some interest and it was checked round. First position bet small on the rag turn and I was the only caller. The river was another J and I shoved without thinking about whether that made any sense or not. The other player was extremely tight, my shove did not fit at all well with how I'd played the rest of the hand, and after a good long think he called with 99. A silly mistake and my excuse is I had tables popping up all over the place by then (WBCOOP had started too), thankfully I do things like that less and less these days.
Monday night I had a decent run too, finishing 281st when AK couldn't beat KQ. I started re-reading Elements of Poker by Tommy Angelo at the weekend. The way I played better and felt better last night is directly linked to picking up this great book again.
And finally congrats to CK for finishing ITM in the LAPC O-8 event. GG!
Spent about 40 mins on Rush Poker last night and turned the $9 I had left on FullTilt into $40. At the moment the game is very very easy. I played a simple strategy of good cards or good position. There are a lot of people raising in LP trying to take the blinds without a fight so defending blinds with a reraise has a very high success rate. Also a lot of people simply raising and then potting any flop and folding to either a raise or a float and bet on the turn. I won a lot of pots with no showdown simply by doing this, at least a third of my winnings I would say. Busted out of my last $4 180 yesterday when a Frenchie decided to defend his BB to my MP raise holding J2, which was good enough to beat my AK thanks to the J high flop. Genius. I continue the good fight….
It's been a tough few days of bad luck, there is a recurring pattern of Germans suckout on me, and KK being cracked. But you don't want to hear the details do you ? I took some shots at a couple of slightly higher buyin tournaments today ($20) and saw no noticable difference in the players or my luck. I'm going to carry on and play through a couple more $4s this evening, try to keep my head in the right space. On a more positive note I'm up to 8* rating for the year on OPR which nice, I just need to keep it going in that direction.
I finished around 250th in the 7000+ $3 monkey rebuy last night for another small cash. I was playing much better than Wednesday, stealing in more easy spots and not folding AK worked out for me as I won a few races. I still got done over by the German with JackAce who took half my stack that my QQ was trying to protect. Once we got ITM I thought I'd just go for it to try and get a decent stack, since the payouts aren't hugely different between 800-100th place. I should've made a shove with my own JackAce but raised and folded to a good players push, that left me with 13BBs and I pushed 33 into KJ which knocked me out on a JJA flop. I'll take it, I was really pleased with the way I played last night.
I've hit a bit of a poor run of form on the 180s, which I think is due to not finding steal spots because I'm paying too much attention to the $3 rebuy instead. Tonight I'll probably play just 2 tables at a time to see if I can get back to sorting out the 180 results.
Work has been tough this week, due to being forced to 'collaborate' with individuals who would not be offered their job back if they had to go through the interview process again. I am trying to work out how I can coerce them into sackable offenses to make out lives easier !
Finished 43rd in the $3 rebuy last night, a decent finish but I played too nitty in the mid-late stages. I got a big stack with the beautiful hand below and then on two occasions folded AK preflop. The first I'm not too bothered about, I was moved to a new table and on the second hand got AKo. There was an UTG raise from a player I know to be decent and big reraise from an unknown, I don't think there's a problem folding there with 40BBs. The second time I was dealt AsKs in the first hand after moving again, another unknown the same stack as me (about 40BBs again) raised 10x in EP. I later discoved this guy was a german who played poorly and overbet every time, wish I had pushed when I had the chance, then I might have run a little deeper.
You should have a read of Otis' experience of paying for a baby in America, http://www.rapideyereality.com/archives/2010/01/19/st-francis-hospital-the-real-cost-of-having-a-baby/ . It's so easy in the UK to take the NHS for granted, and while it is by no means perfect, I would rather have an imperfect system that is cheap and accessible to everyone (and yes can be abused by a few layabouts) than a system which is abused by those running it to those most in need.
And finally it's the long awaited return of
See you there !
PokerStars Game #38469164357: Tournament #278910513, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (1500/3000) - 2010/01/20 22:25:36 UTC [2010/01/20 17:25:36 ET] Table '278910513 484' 9-max Seat #2 is the button Seat 1: TanOrpheus (126800 in chips) Seat 2: kracher02 (151517 in chips) Seat 3: BonitãoRJ (149179 in chips) Seat 4: akseli1 (78979 in chips) Seat 5: Totti1974 (70306 in chips) Seat 6: hce5353 (42605 in chips) Seat 7: rocket_ron22 (49479 in chips) Seat 8: sam2price (84034 in chips) Seat 9: StanP720 (15330 in chips) TanOrpheus: posts the ante 300 kracher02: posts the ante 300 BonitãoRJ: posts the ante 300 akseli1: posts the ante 300 Totti1974: posts the ante 300 hce5353: posts the ante 300 rocket_ron22: posts the ante 300 sam2price: posts the ante 300 StanP720: posts the ante 300 BonitãoRJ: posts small blind 1500 akseli1: posts big blind 3000 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to TanOrpheus [8c 8h] Totti1974: raises 6000 to 9000 hce5353: folds rocket_ron22: folds sam2price: folds StanP720: folds TanOrpheus: calls 9000 kracher02: folds BonitãoRJ: folds akseli1: calls 6000 *** FLOP *** [8d 5h 2d] akseli1: checks Totti1974: bets 12000 TanOrpheus: raises 18000 to 30000 akseli1: raises 39679 to 69679 and is all-in Totti1974: calls 49006 and is all-in TanOrpheus: calls 39679 *** TURN *** [8d 5h 2d] [Td] *** RIVER *** [8d 5h 2d Td] [Qc] *** SHOW DOWN *** akseli1: shows [5s 5d] (three of a kind, Fives) TanOrpheus: shows [8c 8h] (three of a kind, Eights) TanOrpheus collected 17346 from side pot Totti1974: shows [Ah Ad] (a pair of Aces) TanOrpheus collected 214218 from main pot *** SUMMARY *** Total pot 231564 Main pot 214218. Side pot 17346. | Rake 0 Board [8d 5h 2d Td Qc] Seat 1: TanOrpheus showed [8c 8h] and won (231564) with three of a kind, Eights Seat 2: kracher02 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 3: BonitãoRJ (small blind) folded before Flop Seat 4: akseli1 (big blind) showed [5s 5d] and lost with three of a kind, Fives Seat 5: Totti1974 showed [Ah Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces Seat 6: hce5353 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 7: rocket_ron22 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 8: sam2price folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 9: StanP720 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Interesting week really, I've booked Vegas. Good ! Played lots of poker and had decent results. Good ! Managed to get back into a zone at work where I care about what's happening. Good ! The last few nights online I haven't been playing as well. Bad ! Concentration has dipped slightly and it's noticeable when I play my hand, because that's all I can do, see my pretty pair or whatever and bet, without a clue whether my opponent will call or what it means if he does. That's Bad ! I did get quads twice last night though and doubled up both times. Good ! Then I got too aggressive post-bubble and shot myself in the foot. Bad ! The last time I smoked was 18 days ago. Good !
Last Thursday I played live with some old and some new friends. It's a curious game, notable mostly by how tight all but one of the players play. Whilst this is quite boring, it's also quite good as I'm sure a game full of rocks can be quite easily beaten by someone learning to play SLAG. The rockiness of the game is exacerbated by the most vocal player, who is also the table captain. Twice in my life I have felt uncomfortable being at a poker game. First time was playing a $60 SNG in the Mirage against a moron from Atlantic City. We split a pot where I had been ahead but fearful of a flush until the river. I was pretty pleased with the split and said as much. AC Moron said "You, Sir, have no idea what you're doing", I went on to win the SNG. This was the second time. Winning or losing, playing the hand or not this guy would comment on the merits of every action at the table. For a while I thought it was just me being the nooby player at this table, but I started to notice other people apologise to this guy if they got their money in good and he was calling on a draw. At one point I'm sure someone actually said "I hope you win mate, I'm sorry" when the cash went in on the flop with 2pr vs captains flush and gutshot draw. As the wine level in the bottle dropped the whine level for each hand grew. It was getting Ugly. So much so it got to the point where there were comments made on every hand I played, some I overhead some I didn't. One was "F**k I was ahead, F**k, F**k." after I made a fairly standard c-bet to isolate a short stack with two overs to a low flop. He'd have lost on the river when a Q hit. Ugly ! You would think someone that good at poker would want a player as bad as me in the game. Eventually with about 20 minutes left of game time I had decided to start playing every hand just to try and put a bad beat on the guy. Not big and not clever I know. I called one of his raises after limping in EP with Qs6s. The flop was 2-6-9 rainbow. I checked, he bet 3/4 pot, I called. The turn was a K. I thought, had about the same as the pot left in my stack and shoved believing he couldn't call without a K. I had not accounted for the spite-call. He practically beat me into the pot with the words "Gimme your money" as he showed pocket Jacks. "I knew you didn't have a King". I elected not to rebuy after that, instead I dealt for the last 20 minutes, which only caused increased confusion for everyone as they had no dealer button to pass round. I was annoyed I lost solely because I couldn't later discuss this attitude with anyone else without sounding like a really bad loser, and now I have mixed emotions between wanting to return because I know the game can be beaten and not wishing to spend an evening feeling uncomfortable when I should be enjoying playing cards.
Tonight I'm going to have a crack at the new software, Rush Poker, on FullTilt with my last $9.18 on there. I'm also going to turn off the TV and concentrate on the game.
Booked it ! Arrive in Vegas at about 2pm on Thursday 24th June following 16 hours of travel. We got a great deal staying in bungalow rooms @MGM for half price so the money saved on the room went on upgrading to premium economy for the 10 hour flight. I've flown premium economy once before and it made the journey a whole lot more enjoyable. Only staying a week, so won't be around for 4th July, but looking forward to it more than anything in a long time !
Despite a tiny amount of snow and a much larger amount of freezing rain, I still made it up the gym last night, and will be going again tonight. My body is now aware that I'm going on holiday on June and doesn't seem to be complaining too much post-workout. I haven't booked the trip yet as the four of us that are going are still trying to work out where to stay. We've got the following options (prices include premium economy flights from london) Wynn - £1178 Encore - £1394 Caesars - £1209
One of our party really wants to stay at Encore so it looks like we'll be going for the most expensive option.
When I got home I fired up the $3 rebuy and a few $4 180s. The rebuy went great to start with and I built up a decent stack but dumped it in the second hour when I was allin with Queens vs Kings. You could say cooler but really I didn't need to go gambling for stacks when we were 50BB's deep and should have folded to the preflop allin. I FT'd two of the 180s, finishing 8th in one to a gutshot on the turn. In the other I was short stacked with 8 left then was dealt AA, KQ and AA again in a 3 hand rush all of which got paid off and moved me into the lead. As is often the case when you've got a big stack I doubled up two short stacks, one unlucky hand and one doubtful call 5 handed with KJ vs a tight players AK. When we got down to 3 handed play the table was set something like this ;
TanOrpheus : 22,400 chips Player A : 130,000 Player B : 75,000
SB : 1000, BB : 2000, Ante : 100
Fortunately for me, Player B was the perfect opponent. On my BB it was his SB and he would complete every time. He told me exactly what he had by checking when he missed or bet when he had any pair or draw. All I had to do was fold when bet and bet when he checked, and he checked a lot, maybe 80% of the time. He never trapped and as far as I am aware never bluffed. He let me back into the game completely from only having 22k when we started to the point where I had a large enough stack after 20 mins to knock him out with AK vs his A5. In all that time of chipping back up not once did I go past the flop until his A5 allin.
That hand made me chip leader by about 18k and the first hand of heads up play I raised with 88, Player A shipped it in with KQo and I called. The King that fell on the flop looked like he'd sealed the deal but Pokerstars shined on me tonight and I rivered an 8 for the 2nd win of the experiment.
My entry to the Sunday Warm Up was hacked to pieces by a bad beat reproduced at the bottom of the post, you can skip reading that bit if you like. After a great start losing that 80/20 put me on the short stack and no-one would allow me to double up and get back into the game. Disappointing but I was happy with my play at least.
If you were watching the PCA run down to the final table live on pokerstars.tv like me then you'll have seen a lesson for us all in class when Tyler Reiman with QQ and John Duthie with AA were allin preflop with nearly even stacks. A Queen flopped and Reiman took the pot. There was no screaming, no brash celebrating, just calm acceptance from both players that there was nothing they could do, it's just the nature of the game. It may not have made good tv but I thought it was great to see two players being gentleman at the table.
The $4 180 experiment continues at a pace and results are good with 79 games played, 16.4% ITM and a 92% ROI.
It looks like we're going to book to stay at Encore in June. I had preferred Caesars but lost at paper-rock-scissors so Encore it is. It's slightly cheaper anyway with the deal we've got but I hear everything else there ie food/drink is more expensive so not sure how much time we'll actually spend in the complex.
One question though, CK maybe you can advise me here, is it easy to pick up a cellphone each that we can use whilst we're there to stay in touch ? I don't know if I can just get a temporary SIM to fit in my UK phone or just buy a cheap throwaway one at the airport when we arrive ?
OK, leave now if you don't want to see a bad beat :)
Table leader to short stack in a heartbeat.
PokerStars Game #37955798934: Tournament #252020016, $200+$15 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (200/400) - 2010/01/10 19:33:32 UTC [2010/01/10 14:33:32 ET] Table '252020016 145' 9-max Seat #5 is the button Seat 1: rondom_hello (19256 in chips) Seat 2: dalmicsek (8433 in chips) Seat 3: ayking001 (13400 in chips) Seat 4: timkrank (8980 in chips) Seat 5: Charliegore8 (10090 in chips) Seat 6: GreekToni777 (12350 in chips) Seat 7: elmerixx (19849 in chips) Seat 8: TanOrpheus (27597 in chips) Seat 9: Guitou64 (25175 in chips) GreekToni777: posts small blind 200 elmerixx: posts big blind 400 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to TanOrpheus [Kh Kc] TanOrpheus: raises 700 to 1100 Guitou64: folds rondom_hello: raises 700 to 1800 dalmicsek: folds ayking001: folds timkrank: folds Charliegore8: folds GreekToni777: folds elmerixx: folds TanOrpheus: calls 700 *** FLOP *** [Ts Jd 3s] TanOrpheus: checks rondom_hello: bets 3200 TanOrpheus: raises 5200 to 8400 rondom_hello: raises 9056 to 17456 and is all-in TanOrpheus: calls 9056 *** TURN *** [Ts Jd 3s] [4h] *** RIVER *** [Ts Jd 3s 4h] [Ah] *** SHOW DOWN *** TanOrpheus: shows [Kh Kc] (a pair of Kings) rondom_hello: shows [Tc Ac] (two pair, Aces and Tens) rondom_hello collected 39112 from pot *** SUMMARY *** Total pot 39112 | Rake 0 Board [Ts Jd 3s 4h Ah] Seat 1: rondom_hello showed [Tc Ac] and won (39112) with two pair, Aces and Tens Seat 2: dalmicsek folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 3: ayking001 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 4: timkrank folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 5: Charliegore8 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 6: GreekToni777 (small blind) folded before Flop Seat 7: elmerixx (big blind) folded before Flop Seat 8: TanOrpheus showed [Kh Kc] and lost with a pair of Kings Seat 9: Guitou64 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Welcome back, this is going to be quite a long post as I look at some of the late stage hands I played earlier in the week. Hopefully we'll find something of interest for both of us and you can help me find ways of improving by adding any thoughts in the comments.
Edit : Takes a few minutes for all the vids to load up but it's worth the wait I hope.
Hand 1 : Pocket 3s in the BB =
I think this was a little wasteful as it was difficult to know where my opponent was at, having only seen him play 18 hands. You can't see it too clearly but the bottom left stat under his name is STL:43 which means he's attempted to steal the blinds 43% of the times he's had that opportunity but with so few hands the stat is not exactly reliable. We can also see the grey stat in the middle at the bottom shows CBF:N/A so we can't gain any insight into his flop c-bet as this is the first time he's had the opportunity to do it.
My gut was saying he was stealing, but I think the best option here would have been to fold preflop and wait until I had better information.
Hand 2 : KsQs in the BB
One orbit later and we get into a very similar situation with same player. This time though I hit a dream flop and think I extracted the maximum by allowing him to follow the same betting pattern from Hand 1 putting some extra chips in the pot before folding to my reraise.
Hands 3a and 3b : KQo and AKo
Ghostbusted is at it again raising but this time from UTG+1, I flat his raise with KQo but then the SB, who has only played 2/29 hands shoves and it's a very easy fold. It's immediately followed by a shortish stack pushing and a standard call with AKo, unfortunately we end up splitting the pot.
Hand 4 : KJo in the BB
Ghostbusted makes yet another play for my big blind but now he's got me covered. KJ is fine to defend my BB with so it's an easy shove just hoping he hasn't got enough to call. Really by this stage I should be able to make this move with any two cards but I don't know if I'd have the heart to for it.
Hand 5 : 8d9d stopngo
I get a table move and the blinds are really pushing on now. I've only been at the table for 5 hands so this time try to use lack of information to my advantage. I call a raise in the BB with the intention to shove any flop, as it turns out J2J is a great flop for this move anyway. The beauty of online play is your opponent can't see you closing your eyes and praying for a fold.
Hand 6a, 6b + 6c : 3 hand sequence
Finally a big pocket pair ! QQ in the BB and Parshukova has raised UTG so I have to give him credit for something decent. My preflop reraise was hoping to get him to push but he wanted to see a flop. I think I should have then checked the 9 high rainbow flop to try and get something out of him but at the time I was thinking that would look even more suspicious than shoving and given the previous few hands he has seen me go allin quite often recently and might think I just wanted to take the pot.
Then I allow him to take some of the chips back by playing KTo from the SB. If I bet out first here as I did the previous hand perhaps I win it there, instead I gave him the chance to bet and let him take the pot.
Finally KhJh on the button. Call deshotas 4xBB raise and see what develops, when he checks the A-high flop he's either trapping or scared. I can just about get away with betting 80% of the pot and still fold if he shoves, even though I'd be very short stacked again. He gave me a worrying moment but folded eventually.
Hand 7 : 2 easy decisions
Nothing special about these, an easy call with AKo to bust a shorter stack and then get moved table to face an easy fold with KJo against all that action.
Hand 8a, 8b + 8c : 66, A8o, KJo
Really wanted to call the 66 and see if I could hit the flop, especially as degrr's VP is 47 (loose) but something about Bosshog5's limp didn't smell right and if I called degrr's raise I couldn't call Bosshog5 if he decided to go allin. I was pleased when I saw the action on the river.
On the following hand with A8o in the cutoff I think it's a pretty standard steal spot. I have the button covered, the SB looks really tight and Bosshog5 is unlikely to be too bothered about defending his blind after his double up on the previous hand. Lastly fold KJo to a raise then get moved again.
Hand 9 : 77 double up
Lucky for me exorbitant had a slight tendency to defend his blind, the FBB (fold BB to steal) stat showing he defended his blind approx 1/3 of the times there was a late position raise. Fortunate as well that he had a lower pocket pair rather than two overcards.
Hand 10 : Jh9h mistake
I really shot myself in the foot with this hand. Calling out of position with J9 and missing the flop, when I check to Slyme1003 and he bets 600k into a 1.1M pot I think his bet is weak and reraise. When he flatted my reraise I was done with the hand because I thought I was being trapped and any other bet from me he has to call given the size of the pot. Would he have folded A-high if I'd gone allin on the river ? Probably not. A better way to win this hand may have been to flat call his flop bet and then bet the turn, but the easiest way to play the hand would have been to fold to his flop probe bet.
Hand 11 : A7o allin
After a bit of blind swapping I take my chances going all in with A7o and Slyme1003 has plenty enough chips to call and give me a double up. Then get a run of 3 or 4 easily playable hands which let me chip up back into the game.
Hand 12 : JsTs catching cards
5 handed and I raise JT on Slyme's BB again. When he calls and forces me to a decision with an OESD on the flop I decide I've got to get lucky at some point and I might not get a better chance to double up. Call and hit the straight on the turn to put me in decent shape for the final table.
Hand 13 : AsTs
12 hands into the final table and pepetanga has been fairly active, attempting to steal the blinds at every opportunity. Reraising here with AT is standard.
Hand 14a, 14b and 14c : 3 pairs define the game
This is the critical group of hands that changed the tournament, first with 55 in the SB again I'm able to reraise pepetanga's steal attempt. Then with 44 I'm able to pick up a pot when Slyme checks to me on the flop. This all leads to pepetanga's limp and I raise again, this time with KK. The previous action leads him to reraise me preflop as he's had enough of me reraising him. When he calls my allin I've got exactly what I wanted but the cards are cruel and instead of finishing the hand as chip leader I become the shortest stack at the table.
Hand 15 : Ah6h Lucksack !
I was just trying to pick up the blinds with my shortish stack and ran into QQ but got extremely lucky when the cards were kind this time.
Hand 16a and 16b : QdTd and A4o
Interesting hand with Sylme, I call his raise with QT and we both check the all club flop. When I paired the Q on the turn I still had no idea where I was at, I was either miles ahead of him if he had nothing or being trapped. I found out it was the latter when my river bet was reraised. I really really should be happy to fold here, especially given I even tryped "wp nh" in the chat before making the grudging call.
Then with A4o not really sure I should be playing that at all there. I could have shoved or just folded, I still had enough chips to play hands without trying to push things there. It was folding to the reraise here that led to my bustout hand...
Hand 17 : A3o busting out
After being forced to fold I didn't want to get into the same situation again so shoved all in on Slyme's BB. His call with KhJh is standard and hits the flop to send me packing.
If you made it this far well done, give yourself a pat on the back ! Any comments about ways to improve my play on these hands is very welcome. I hope you enjoyed watching them as much as I enjoyed playing them.
That time of year again when Pokerstars give away more free stuff to the best people on the planet... bloggers :) You don't even have to be a poker playing blogger, you can still join in the fun and maybe have you first taste of online poker absolutely free !
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers, you too can take part by registering on WBCOOP
Hi, I know this is probably way too early but does anyone out there know when the WPBT Summer will be this year ? I'm definitely going to be in Vegas from 24-30 June but if it's likely to be either the weekend before or after that then I'll try to fly out earlier or leave later than my friends so that I can meet up with bloggers ! Not sure my body can cope with 2 weeks in Vegas but I'll never know if I don't try and given that I have around 5500 miles to travel, the earlier I get it sorted out the better.
I will not overplay TPTK against the table rock on the bubble ! repeat 100 times
I felt quite silly after that n00b mistake. On the plus side I hit the first win of the $4 180 experiment last night so P/L and ROI figures have soared in the right direction.
I'm 4 tabling these by the way so I'm getting 7 or 8 in a night and I'm really feeling the psychological benifit of a) being properly bankrolled (300x buyins) b) not having 3 or more hours of effort riding on just one tournament hand
I used to think of a lot of decisions in tournaments in terms of "My tournament life is on the line here" but when there is always another tournament starting soon it is a lot easier to make correct decisions rather than pressurised ones. Tournament life is obviously still a consideration, but it has far less bearing on the decision. All good stuff.
It would be a lot harder to keep that frame of mind in less frequent tourneys such as the sunday million, or a once-in-a-lifetime shot in the WSOP main event. Even with 300 buyins.
Question : If 300 buyins is a good roll for tournaments is it still that high for the WSOP main event given that you'll never be able to play it 300 times ? If not then what would be the right number ?
Here's the graph so far, a very small sample size but a good start to this experiment. 40 tourneys played and though no wins I'm showing a profit. Tonight could have been so different too (2 x 2 outers that I won't bore you with the details of !)
Got the video highlights from last nights score sorted out, just need to find a new place to host them cos google pages doesn't do it anymore :(
The numbers above are either the random distribution of someone who's average at poker getting their share of luck or are the results of someone who is quite good not playing poker as much as they could. In the next few months I'll find out.
Works a bit of a blur right now, as is last night. When you do see me in Vegas please remember I am a complete amateur and need a minimum of 7 hours sleep to be fully functional. I turned on the screen capture with about 2hrs of the tourney last night so I'll try and remember how to get the embedded flash vids working again tonight and if it works for you, you can see how the business end of things went down. I twittered about 2 hideous split pots and there's a doozy of a bad beat with KK v AT, so I'll owe you at least a dollar. Put it on my tab.
I still won't be stepping up or anything after this. As I said yesterday I need/want to show if it's possible for me to turn a profit in $4 180s and that is what I'll carry on doing.
As we'll be seeing a lot more of each other in 2010, lets begin on the right foot with a bit of honesty. I don't know if I'm a winning poker player, or capable of being one long-term. What I know is that thanks to a couple of large MTT wins on various sites over the years I have made a little money and it's been spent on holidays and such. But I have never properly tracked results and been brutally honest with myself or you about what that means for me as a poker player.
Knowing that I had won a little was also the reason I stopped playing so much. It was easier to have won a bit and end it there than actually play a decent sample size of cash or tournaments and honestly say to folks "yeah I'm a winning player" when friends ask me about poker I tend to just say "i win a bit" and try to change the subject.
So to be grown up about this I am going to confront hope with reality this year. I will start by playing $4 180s on Stars as I am used to them and at the end of each month I will look at the results here so you can see if I'm a winner or if poker is destined to be something I just do for entertainment in the future.
I finally figured out twitter on my phone so I'm following most of the bloggers now and if you want to follow me I'm @TanOrph
Looking at flights / hotels for vegas at the end of June now so we can watch the world cup there like we did last time. Hard to believe it's been 4 years !
First poker result of 2010 - 8/632 in a $5 ante-up tournament on Stars for $75. I like this year already :)
Ornate -
adj.
1. Elaborately, heavily, and often excessively ornamented.
2. Flashy, showy, or florid in style or manner;
Push -
1. To exert outward pressure or force against something.
2. To advance despite difficulty or opposition; press forward.
3. To expend great or vigorous effort.
Ornate Push - The messy ramblings of a troubled poker player and tilted mind.
