Ornate Push

As your deed is, so is your destiny

2011-07-20T15:48:00.000Z

It's official, I can't decide what I want to do in life. I know what I don't want, next week I'll pass the 15 year anniversary of working in an office. Though I've done different jobs in that time I've basically set at a desk helping people to move virtual money and make more of it. It doesn't contribute much to the world or give me a lot of satisfaction, it's just something I found myself doing when I left school and was reasonably good at. It certainly wasn't the plan and I can't imagine looking back in another 15 years and thinking "that's it. That's all you did when you had all the choice to do anything you wanted".

I'm not a decisive person, I can usually see both sides of every story and I've got a fairly high level of patience so I don't decide to do things easily. I need to make a decision soon to leave everything I know and take a leap of faith else I fear I will regret it for ever. I don’t think I want to try and play poker for a living or anything, for starts I doubt would be good enough and even if I did scrape a win rate that I could live off I don’t think I'd be able to motivate myself to put enough hours in. I just want a simple job that feels worthwhile, making a small difference to world. Conservation or something like that would probably be my ideal but I know that'd be very difficult to get into other than as a volunteer.

I just needed to get that off my chest. I recently had an awesome weekend in Lisbon, it's jumped in right at the top of my favourite cities. Nice open spaces, excellent transport, everything not far away and the people we met there were beautiful in every way :) I would love to go back really soon, it felt like a very 'liveable' place, and there aren't many capital cities which feel that good.

Bad Beat Blog

2011-03-31T14:57:00.002Z

Well may as well use this corner of the internet for something eh ! Played for first time in 6 months ish on Tues night - AQo was the cursed knockout hand. Played last night KK was cursed - ran into AA twice and AQo once. Tonight I will move up a level to AK being cursed and then on Friday I plan to hit the nosebleed beats of AA getting cracked :)

I won't be going to america this year, instead I'm going to Lisbon in July and Santorini in August for a stag do and wedding. Really looking forward to those but in the meantime so bastard is making me work an unreasonable number of hours doing an extremely unsatisfying job. Such is life. Might be around a bit more, but I keep promising that and not keeping it so don't hold your breath please. Hope anyone with me still on their list is keeping well.

Movember !!

2010-11-02T15:58:00.003Z

As you probably know we're now in Movember so for the whole month I and many others are growing our Mo's in support of the Prostate Cancer Charity.

The Charity seeks to improve the experience, treatment, care and support of people affected by prostate cancer and supports the right of every man over 50 years - and younger men at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer - to make and informed choice about the PSA test.

I am taking Mo inspiration from the great Mo once seen on scrapheap challenge…

Please use the link below to donate a small percentage of your poker winnings to this very worthy cause
http://uk.movember.com/mospace/652496/

Thank you

P.S. Played 2 $4 180 tournaments last night, got aces cracked in both. Fantastic to be back.

Re-entry

2010-10-27T10:27:00.002Z

I'm back. Vegas was the poker peak for me this summer and since I got back I was too busy or just not feeling in the mood to play online. A trip writeup will follow. Now winters here, the clocks go back this weekend and there's little to do on my island when it's wet n rainy I expect I'll get back to playing pretty soon.

Watch this space, the wheels are turning again.

Tantalizing

2010-06-10T13:39:00.001Z

"So close I can almost touch it" we be a good way to describe just about everything thats happening at the moment. I'm sure on a much bigger scale that's what Tom "Durrrr" Dwan felt like earlier in the week when he was just a few deals away from changing the landscape of the poker economy. If you haven’t got a clue what I'm talking about you should go and read the Durrrrr and WSOP Coverage over at the free and fascinating Tao of Poker.

My tales of close aren't nearly as big as the Dwan story but in my world they're still worth blogging about.

Tomorrow the World Cup kicks off in South Africa, the greatest sporting tournament on earth that we have to wait every 4 years for is back and we get to marvel in all it's controversy, emotion and beauty. It's easy to forget how good a World Cup is, especially during the first uninterrupted 20 days of football. One can reach the 10th straight day of football feeling completely saturated and exhausted. But the World Cup is rare, special and to be savoured so plan your appreciation of it carefully. It's becase the World Cup begins tomorrow that I know the last time I was in Las Vegas was 4 years ago this summer, waking up each morning at the Mirage, turning on the TV and spending the first 6 hours of the day watching the competition taking place in Germany and laughing at the US commentary. We watched England play badly but win their group, then on our return to home saw them get as far as the quarter finals before losing with 10 men to Portugal. In two weeks and one day I'll be back in Vegas. It's so close I can taste the scented air conditioning.

A lot has changed in the time in between. Englands expectations of their team winning the competition are perhaps lower than they've ever been, which one hopes will actually help the players have a better chance of getting further than last time. I've become a long-time blogger and better poker player. English commentary on one of our channels (ITV) has become worse than US commentary. I've bought a flat, and got a 'family' of two cats. The USD-GPB rate has tumbled as has the world economy. My hopes for this trip include seeing the WSOP mayhem for the first time and maybe even taking part in it. Meeting bloggers for the first time and learning to play craps. Avoiding exotic bets on sprint horses that don't even know they're in a race and avoiding the sucker bet of the 'private' dance in strip clubs. Older and wiser this time, but get a few too many beers in me and I'll still think a quick pop on a roulette table is a genius idea.

Last weekend my friends and I flew to London for a glorious day at Epsom watching the fastest ever time recorded in the Derby. It was incredible. The day before (Oaks day) I had a little exotic bet on the results that day. I selected a horse for each of the 6 races that day and did a combo so that if any 5 of them came in I'd win an obscene amount of money for a £2 bet. I was looking at 17-20k if this lottery hit. Bushman won. Tartan Gigha won. Fame and Glory won. I was beginning to hope. Thin Red Line streaked to the front two furlongs out but had gone too early and finished 3rd by a length. Aviate was a favourite for the Oaks and did absolutely nothing. My wager was dead. I still went to watch the 6th and final race on TV, just to extend the anguish. Shakespearean won. Meaning I'd successfully predicted 4 out of 6 winners for the day but not bet those combinations. A Shakespearean tragedy.

I've returned from that little trip feeling refreshed and revived and so online poker has made a welcome return. My first attempt back at the $3 rebuy saw me finish 340th for a cash, the second attempt last night a very similar 323rd. An attempt at a Sunday Million ticket which payed 2 tickets and $12 for third with 60 runners saw me finish as close as you can get without winning the seat, 3rd. Everything is so close lately I can taste it. Only the future knows if it's a mirage getting closer to reality or something just out of reach and slipping away.

Fresh

2010-06-08T15:53:00.002Z

I feel poker fresh. A long break and now I have the itch again. Recently the gym or recovering from it took over my evenings but I'm feeling the groove today and tonight after my workout I'm going to be playing again. With only 2 weeks & 2 days till the bright lights of vegas I think it's the perfect time to get back into the action.

I'd say wish me luck, but we all know it's a game of skill don't we ;o)

England & Lost

2010-05-24T11:55:00.001Z

Tonight England will play there final friendly on home soil before the world cup starts in just 17 days. Unfortunately the Wembley pitch is still in such a shocking state that we can almost certainly expect one of Englands players to pick up an injury bad enough to prevent them from playing in the finals. I will be watching nervously. The best outcome tonight would be a very safe and boring 0-0 where no one runs around in order to prevent any chance of injury. (and no you can't bet on a player being injured tonight, I already checked) so instead I've gone for the 0-0 at 9/1

Weather has been fantastic here all weekend and I've worked on the boat to get it ship-shape for more of the same. Just spending a couple of hours there made me feel more sane.

Lost finished this morning. I didn’t watch it but having read the "spoiler" write ups I'm glad I didn’t watch for 6 seasons to just have it confirmed in the final episode that the island was exactly what we pretty much guessed it was from the end of season 1. I know some folks enjoyed it and at the start I loved it, but really did it have to go on sooo long !

Sunsheeeiiiiiiiiiine

2010-05-19T13:16:00.001Z

Mondays clouds have lifted thank god and I can see the future lit in the bright sunshine that has followed them. Summer is finally going to be here come this weekend and I can get to work on making sure our boat is seaworthy and maybe get a nice coast cycle ride in too. The USD-GBP market is doing it's best to put a downer on vegas but the rate is fighting a losing battle and nothing can dampen the vegas spirit ! Warm up for Vegas in two weeks when we head over to London for the weekend and then 5 weeks tomorrow, ash permitting, we'll be in the air and on our way. The best news of all, in just 22 days the greatest tournament on earth begins in South Africa and we can spend all day every day obsessing over football !

Mirage

2010-05-17T10:45:00.002Z

My future is a mirage at the moment shimmering some distance away. Current events are keeping me so busy on a day to day basis that I'm finding it hard to even take steps toward whatever future lies out there. Work is like a pressure cooker. The Cable rate is getting worse and worse making vegas more expensive, but any winnings more valuable. Gym time has gone up which is good, but only to relieve the stress of work.
I know times like these don't last long and will soon pass to reveal something brighter. Just wish it would happen sooner rather than later.

Hangover

2010-05-12T10:29:00.000Z

Slightly hungover
My head is beginning to clear
Had review of the first half-year
Very disappointing messages repeated
Need life changing wins in vegas
Brightside is a cute girl from Hungary

Marks for effort : C-

2010-04-28T13:53:00.002Z

Sorry for the lack of update recently. I've gone and got myself sick, so haven't played. In fact the last game I played was last Tuesday, my second time live at the local club and then online when I got home from there. With any luck I'll be playing and posting again by the end of the week. I have been twittering here and there so hopefully that's worked like a drip-feed for the 3 of you that still read this ! (you're so kind) !

Deeper Degeneracy

2010-04-09T09:15:00.001Z

Since booking this years Vegas trip in January it has somewhat unbalanced everything else, every time I spend or decide not to spend some cash, my first thought is 'how's this going to effect my Vegas bankroll?'. I don't necessarily want to spend a huge amount while I'm in town but I really don't want to be worrying about how much I'm putting on the table either. And so this brings me to my recent expense, last night I bought a new vehicle. New to me, not new to the world, in fact it's nearly 20 years old.
Before we carry on I should explain that I am not a 'petrol head', and I rarely have need for a car at all. Since my previous car broke down in November I have learnt that almost everything I did with a car can be done with my bicycle and I am far fitter because of it. There is however one critical task that can't be done without a 4x4, moving my speedboat in and out of the water. In winter it was no concern but with potentially the hottest summer since 1976 just over the horizon I had to buy something that was capable of moving my boat whilst at the same time not being so new/nice that I didn't want to get it covered in sea water / sand. So last night I shelled out £1000 on an old Shogun that runs and will do the job, at least for a season.

I don't feel happy that I've got a car again.
I don't feel happy it only cost 1k
It's a necessity more that a luxury
But I'm pleased that part of my cashout from Stars paid for it
It'll be worth it when the summer fully arrives
I'll be happy about it then

But right now I know I'm a degenerate because I'm just thinking it's $1500 less gamblin money in June !

Shock run-good of the week… I emailed the Mirage and their poker room still had copies of my ITIN record from 2004. So now I am a number not a man !

"It's all about pot control, right?" - Peter Eastgate to Joe Hachem, WSOP2009.

2010-04-07T10:22:00.000Z

The above quote is one of my favourites from the coverage of last years WSOP, which is currently airing on ESPN over here in the UK (and by the way I don't know what Everest are complaining about, their marketing is in my face every 5 mins during the broadcast). Another quote I like is "why do the pushin' when the donkey will do the pullin'"

The previous week, when I hit a couple of final tables in 180's my pot control was getting really good. I was improving at small-ball, helped by Daniel Negreanu's section on the subject in his book Power Hold'em Strategy. Since Saturday my attempts at pot control have been failing and I'm not entirely sure it's my fault. Pretty much everytime I've had a big starting hand I've been forced into a decision for all my chips. Even when I've got a decent number of chips I've been running into the guy who's had a horseshoe up his ass for the last 20 minutes and has an even bigger stack. After a raise from me he reraises forcing me to call half my stack or push, I push with QQ get called by 88 and the board runs out 567-7-4. I raise with KK get called by the BB and see a Q73 rainbow flop, the BB check-raises allin and I call to see Q8 hit an 8 on the turn. I know what this sounds like. It sounds like bad beats AND it sounds like I'm being results oriented. If there's a point, other than just having an outlet here, I guess it's that even though I am not a believer in the get-them-all-in-there-with-any-edge strategy sometimes my opponent will force me to do that. Sometimes they'll get lucky regardless. Sometimes it'll happen more times in a row than you thought possible. If anything it reinforces my belief that small-ball is better than long-ball.

The trick is to keep playing well, and not let the mind/ego get tricksy with the best possible play at this moment.

Just writing this post helps me do that better.

Proof

2010-04-01T00:35:00.003Z

Guess that last post was true. Still, if posting = winning I'd be more than happy to post more often !

If you're going to stay up till 1.30am on a 'school' night you better make sure you win the damn thing :)

You only sing when you're winning

2010-03-29T22:52:00.002Z

There's a chant sung at soccer grounds by opposition fans "You only sing when you're winning", and now the chant for this blog could easily become "you only post when you're winning". In my defense I played not a single hand between 5th feb and 15 march because work/life was getting me down and I knew I wouldn't play well. Since then I've gradually got back into things and now am back on my game.

You can see from the graph what a downswing looks like, most of which was in the last two weeks of getting back into practice. It just goes to show how important playing regularly is. The recent upswing is from two 3rd places yesterday and today. Frustrating not to win them but sometimes the cards refuse to cooperate !

Tournament of Champions

2010-03-17T11:32:00.001Z

For the first time ever I'll be in Vegas during the WSOP this year. It's only one of the earlier weeks of the tournament and gives me a chance to play in one of these events. It's a tricky decision which one to play in as on the Friday I'll be jetlagged, Saturday I'll most likely be up and drinking at 7am when England play their first knockout game in the World Cup, Monday looks pretty good but I could be broke or broken by then !

45 Friday, June 25, 2010 12 Noon No-Limit Hold'em $1,500
47 Saturday, June 26, 2010 12 Noon No-LImit Hold'em $1,000
49 Monday, June 28, 2010 12 Noon No-Limit Hold'em $1,500
Does anyone know how long these donkaments last ? ie. 1-2 or even 3 days ? It would help me plan a bit better. Am considering selling a share or two but I'll warn you now I have very little live experience and could easily panic !
I played a few tournies last night, usual stuff, got QQ & AA cracked etc etc. I finished 9th in one of the 180s but really I could have done better. It was only towards the end of the night that I started to find the confidence to make the moves that should be standard such as restealing the stealer cutoffs raises with ATC. At least they came back though, back into the groove tonight… if they ever let me out of my cubicle !

Go cast your votes now http://www.wsop.com/TOC/ for the tournament of champs. My picks are thus

Phil Hellmuth - Doyle Brunson - Phil Ivey - Layne Flack - Chris Ferguson - Ted Forrest - Scotty Nguyen - Huck Seed - John Juanda - Barry Greenstein - Howard Lederer - Sam Farha - Humberto Brenes - Dan Harrington - Annette Obrestad - Donnacha O'Dea - Greg Raymer - David Benyamine - Rafe Furst - Phil Gordon

Better to be lucky than good

2010-03-16T11:10:00.001Z

It is quite telling that a sequence of events IRL yesterday gave me an overwhelming urge to play last night and bring my "A" game. Actually I brought my "B" game but it's the thought that counts. I can't retell the IRL events for a while but it just further proves to me that I wouldn't have the drive or fortitude to play poker for a living so lets park that bus and leave it where it belongs. As I said "B" game was played and stats weren't great. Some well played hands, some bad, mostly good. I'm back in the zone where I know it's good to play so I'll ride it until the drive goes away again. If only I could learn to maintain it, but I don't think I'm built that way. I feel lucky, so I'll see you at the tables.

Not that I'm counting

2010-03-04T13:42:00.002Z

But 16 weeks to go till Vegas heaven !

The way the last few weeks of no poker and lots of work have flown by I will be in the lazy river at the MGM grand before i know it. I'm still not smoking which makes over 2 months now and it's slowly getting easier I think. Today I feel like I might have enough energy to get back up and play again tonight. The rest was good, but I finally feel smart enough to play again now.

Tournament trickery tonight :)

Freshened Up

2010-02-15T11:42:00.001Z

Thanks for the comments on the last post, it's nice to know I'm not the only one. I took the end of last week off from playing all together and feel much fresher and less tired now. I'll get back in the saddle this week. I don't know if it was the tiredness or work stress but last week was the most difficult so far of not smoking this year. It was probably down to work, although the cravings didn't occur during the 9-5. Not an evening went by when I didn't think about having a smoke. Hopefully it was a turn point and getting through it will be the making of success. It's been 6 weeks since I last smoked.
See you on the felt...

NoMojo

2010-02-04T15:19:00.000Z

Have found it very difficult to be in the right headspace when I sit in front of the computer since the weekend and therefore have only played a couple of games with nothing good to report. It's good that I can recognise when I'm not feeling it, but I do sometimes wish I had a trigger activity or routine that gets me into the right place to play. Maybe I can work on that. I think a lot of it is to do with a very busy week at work so some fairly long days and I've been knackered when I get home. Hopefully the work situation is getting under control now so things should've improved by the weekend.

A little rest

2010-02-01T11:11:00.002Z

I didn't play much poker over the weekend, instead having my first real downtime of the year, which was perfect timing. Saturday night was a really nice family evening with my godparents who I haven't seen in a year, mum, dad, brother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and nephews best friend. We had dinner and a snooker tournament and it was a lot of fun. We had a handicapping system for the snooker that gave everyone a fair chance. My brother and I made it to the final, but I finished runner up after committing about 6 fouls in the final game. I blame the wine ! It was also the 4 week mark of giving up smoking and the first time I've been slightly drunk since quitting. I managed fine and didn't crave too much even though my godmother was still smoking. She's got a give-up-date this week and is on some of the pills that are supposed to work their magic by blocking the nicotine receptors in the brain. Hope she can do it this time, I offered my support any time she needs to just call someone to talk.

I'll leave you with this since it made me think, and that's enough ;

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1902)

2 more FTs

2010-01-27T10:07:00.002Z

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!

Playing the Rush

2010-01-25T11:00:00.001Z

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….

2010-01-24T19:14:00.003Z

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.

Here's the latest graph of 180 progress.

Another cash

2010-01-22T10:14:00.002Z

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 !

43/7560

2010-01-21T01:19:00.003Z

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)

The Good, Bad & Ugly

2010-01-20T13:44:00.002Z

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.

Countdown to Vegas

2010-01-18T00:04:00.002Z

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 !

Just need to win a load of spending money now.

A perfect opponent

2010-01-13T00:48:00.005Z

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.

Cowboy Up... again.

2010-01-10T22:42:00.005Z

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)

Have a shot

2010-01-10T16:41:00.001Z

Ticket to the Sunday Million... don't mind if I do !

Actually will change it to the warm-up since the million usually finishes about the same time I'm supposed to start work in the morning.

$3 Rebuy Hand Review

2010-01-10T11:58:00.013Z

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.

I'm in, are you ?

2010-01-09T01:27:00.001Z

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

Registration code: 576498

WPBT Summer Gathering ?

2010-01-08T15:25:00.002Z

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.

Thanks !

Repeat after me

2010-01-07T01:32:00.004Z

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 ?

Test flash

2010-01-07T00:26:00.003Z

Can you do me a favour and let me know if you can see the flash movie in this post
Cheers, Tan.

$4 180s part 1

2010-01-06T01:19:00.003Z

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 :(

Records

2010-01-05T13:53:00.000Z

2005 week of 12-19 December

3 $3,293
4 $1,080
5 $700

2006 friday 22nd September

1 $5,710

2009 January 5th

2 $4,585

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.

Exhausted

2010-01-05T10:57:00.004Z

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.

Now that's what I call a good start :)

2010-01-05T02:44:00.003Z

Details of all the mistakes and one sick bad beat to follow :)

Vegas in the summertime baby !!

Setting the target

2010-01-04T01:53:00.002Z

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.

Wish me luck...

Ready... Aim.. Fire !

Unltilted

2010-01-03T19:35:00.002Z

Universe back to realistic expectations today.

Still busting from tourns but to 55/45 rather than 80/20s :)

Got my cool hat back on and haven't smoked for 43 hours

Tilter

2010-01-03T00:27:00.002Z

2nd January 2010

Something is broken with the universe. So much so blogger just ate my post about it and saved you. Solar flares or something.

Wtf is going on !

Normal service might be resumed tomorrow if my brain can recover or erase the memory while I sleep.

Stars is rigged because my UTG tilt shove with 9d 6d just cracked Queens & Aces.

Tweeting

2010-01-02T18:20:00.002Z

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 :)

That moment when you think you're gonna throw up

2009-12-31T09:52:00.002Z

No, I haven't been sick this morning, though I'm not far from it. Another couple of pints last night and I'd be talking to the porcelain god instead of working today. The moment of which I speak is that which comes from getting allin with the best of it only to see the monkey who called you add to his monster spew stack.

Yeah, I got bad beated out of a live tourney last night. I was allin UTG with 10BBs holding Ac7c, I got a good player in MP to fold A9, but a bad one on the button called with A4o and flopped a fuckin' four. That was the last bad beat story of 2009. It won't take long before I'm typing the first of 2010 !

Happy New Year to you, may all your dreams come true

The i8910HD

2009-12-30T15:09:00.002Z

I am trying to get a twitter client installed on my i8910HD. Apparently www.tweets60.com is really good. Either because this phone is a pain in ass to use or I am too stupid to work out all it's 'features' I am unable to give my own report on tweets60 because I can't get the bloody thing to work.

BBC iPlayer also only works about 20% of the time because the phone can't make a connection and it defaults to the network provider instead of WLan. Either because this phone is a pain in ass to use or I am too stupid to work out all it's 'features' I haven't been able to force it to select WLan by default.

Same for Youtube, Fring and Googlemaps.
I should really RTFM. Or have bought an iPhone instead.

When drunk I still haven't managed to add contacts to the phone without accidentally calling randoms in my list. Not good when the random is the bosses secretary at 2.15am.

I do love a challenge though so I'm not giving up yet.

In 2010 I hope

2009-12-29T16:48:00.002Z

to hear less people at work saying

"I knew it would cause a problem in the future but that's what I was asked to do"

Where the problem is always something I have to fix

*****

Expect this post to grow

Adventure

2009-12-29T11:30:00.001Z

Firstly, Merry Christmas and apologies for the delay ! I've been too busy to blog which is a mixed blessing. I played in a simply brilliant cash game last Wednesday with some insane hands and a grandstand finish. More on that later.

Time to look forward now, I prophecise 2010 is a going to be a year of adventurous beginnings. I have a few big aims next year if I can just keep navigating the same course.

New Year Resolutions / Aims for 2010

Quit Smoking
Complete Canuck Visa Application
Refurbish bathroom and kitchen in my flat
Visit Vegas during the world cup
Be successful with the largest project I've ever undertaken at work
Resurrect my blog by posting at least weekly
Continue to visit the gym twice a week
A girlfriend would probably be useful addition
Play poker for a minimum of 7.5 hours a week

The last one was going to be 10 hours a week but I decided to go easy on myself.

Somewhat concerning as I look through this list are the odds I'm giving on completing each item. It says something about me, but I'm just not sure what !!

**************************

The cash game

I was invited to join a group who have played regularly for going on 4 years. 2 of the players are colleagues from work and one guy I went to school with. Usually they meet at one of the players houses and self deal but last week they decided to play at the pool & poker club here and pay for a dealer at the table. It was a nice way to get into the game without the added worry of dealing. Our dealer looked a little dissappointed at the start of our session when we decided the game would be .25/.50p NLHE with a £20 buyin, but he soon changed that attitude when the chips started flying.

This is the point where I should regail the details of all the incredible hands that went down in the first hour, but I can only remember 3 of my own. I cracked Passive Phil's QQ with QJ when he allowed me to hit a straight on the river and doubled up. Then I beat a bluff on a JJx flop holding QJ again. Almost immediately I lost what I gained on that hand trying to win a pot with 72-off, as that is the law. A little later on I was up again when my KK flopped a set and I was soon up to £75. A few exchanges later including Aces that didn't get paid and a good bluff and I was up to around £120.

So we're getting late on in the game and that's when it happened. We had about 25 minutes left so the play was getting looser with people chasing losses etc. There were quite a few big pots flying around. I raised to £3 (as had become standard) in MP with KsJs and was called by Loose Colleague A and Tight Namesake B.

The flop
9h Th Kc

What fun !
My first mistake was checking this flop to see what action came after me. LC-A paused just for a moment and then went allin for £18
(at this point I'm thinking easy call)
TN-B then umms and ahhs for what must be close to 5 minutes before flat calling LC-A's push.
(and this is where the problem arises)
* OK so my read at this point is that LC-A could have anything and is just as likely to have me beat or have some crappy draw. TN-B does not have a made hand, else he would have called much quicker. I and TN-B have the largest stacks at the table and he just about covers me. The table saw me rush with QJ earlier. There are 20 mins left of the game.

The pot is now £45 and I have £100 behind. If I push here the pot will be £63 and it'll be £82 to call. Is that enough to get TN-B to give up his hand ? What range would he fold and what would he call ? Should I just get out of the way here ?

On the up

2009-11-16T10:32:00.001Z

Feeling better after the pain and man flu that I picked up last week. Worked Saturday to try and make up for having Tues/Weds off. One hour of peace on a Saturday easily beats 3 hours of interrupted work during the normal week. Got much more done than expected. Have next week booked off as holiday so I'm really looking forward to that. No major plans apart from some proper grinding hours and will probably do the christmas presents online.

As I was feeling better yesterday I played 12-table cash at $.25/$.50, I had a rush which put me up $80 within about 30 minutes and then got one bad beat followed by one questionable play into a squirrel which brought me back to even. I think I finished the day about $7 up after around 1300 hands. It felt good to be doing that again.

One request… can people stop putting porn on their blogs ! I will be forced to remove you from the links if you carry on cos I can't risk accidentally opening up your obscene blog while I'm at work through google reader !

Battle of Pain & Hunger

2009-11-12T10:44:00.002Z

Seriously in crappy shape at the moment. I've an infection in a rear molar tooth which has stopped me eating almost everything. Yesterday I managed soup & yoghurt. The right side of my face is swollen from antibiotics (even though google suggests antibiotics are generally useless for teeth infections)

Finally today I will have the pain and fear from the dentist to address the situation after which all will calm save for the pain and fear of the dentists bill and the revelation that I need a "3 year plan" to acheive dental perfection.

Quite keen to play poker but there's no way I could concentrate

test blogging

2009-11-09T14:08:00.000Z

from my new phone on the move !

New Mobile

2009-11-05T13:48:00.003Z

My phone is crap, people can't hear me properly on it and it's about 3 years old.

So I'm thinking of getting one of these...

Has anyone got any experience with Samsung i8910 HD ? It looks like a pretty cool phone to me

Mookie Day replaces Hump Day

2009-11-04T09:36:00.002Z

I very likely won't be awake when this kicks off but for those of you who will be I think you should go play with some like-minded bloggers. After all it is Take Your Kids to The Mookie Day !!

I might register and just fold my way into the money :)

Tell a friend and pass it on !

Clock ticking

2009-11-02T09:06:00.000Z

Time is running out on my island. Every recent change reduces the quality of life here and in a couple of years I can see it being no better than most of the UK.

This morning I started looking into a Canadian visa, it looks like despite being over 30 now I still qualify on the points scale, so I might as well go to the trouble of submitting an application. Nothing to lose after all !

If anyone's got any advice about this sort of thing I'd love to hear it !

Danger Danger !

2009-10-29T13:01:00.002Z

Look out ! I can access Poker Pwnage and their videos from my desk at work.

Workplace productivity is about to hit an all time low if I'm not careful.

That's if I signup, I've never signed up to one of these before because to be honest I would rather be playing and learning than watching some other guy play. But since I can't play at work this might be the next best thing.

Now I just need to get over the fact that "Pwnage" makes me think "m0r0n"

....

Ok. Over it. Getting annoyed at words, dough. I mean doh. Doh !

Still working at it

2009-10-29T10:52:00.002Z

Played again last night ! Who'd have thought ? No overkill or anything, just a $4 180 in which I was knocked out around 40th place. I didn't get many cards and was too distracted or tired to find spots where I would normally be winning chips without cards to back it up. I still enjoyed it though. Went to be soon after getting knocked out so I'm feeling pretty energised today so far.

Work shouldn't be too full-on today either as the boss is away so the plan is a quick trip to the gym after work and then back home for some shake-n-bake :)

Still catching up on everyones feeds. There's actually been less to catch up on than I thought there would be.

post two

2009-10-27T09:17:00.002Z

Played quite a lot last night, but had trouble staying in the moment. There were lots of slow players and i found myself constantly looking to the next hand instead of the now. Still finished about even for the night and 'stars play-dough is looking as healthy as it has in a long time.

Going to the gym tonight but will probably still have a game when I get back. Planning to take either next week or the one after off as holiday to get christmas shopping done online and play some longer lasting tourneys.

Don't hold your breath, but with the onset of winter the blog might be back.

P.S. Dd I'm amazed to see anyone still checking here for updates, thanks for saying hi !

Poking fun

2009-10-26T10:55:00.001Z

This blog is really stuttering isn't it ? I play a bit, do ok then get go back to real life. Did poker become so unimportant ? The irony of course is that this attitude of it not being so important is what makes me play better when I do sit down. How to find a balance between motivation to play and the emotionless reaction to results ?

Another consequence of this attitude is blog being quiet. I don’t need to shout about winning at poker or excuse losing at it anymore. Whatever is, is.

Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience.
It isn’t more complicated that that.
It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is,
without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
Sylvia Boorstein

I'm still going to the gym at least twice a week, sometimes more. I'm still playing poker at least twice a week. I'm playing the occassional live poker game.

So far today I haven't smoked or been emotional.

I am practicing accepting the present moment as it is.

I am not sure why I'm posting this as it is enough to write it, it does not need to be shared.

Ah well :)

Playing again

2009-09-08T09:14:00.002Z

Finished 2nd in a $4 180, then 40th in another. Like riding a bike. Felt good to play.

I was back to poker because my car has finally died and so has my gaming rig, it only lasts about 20mins before the graphics card overheats and the whole thing shuts down. Maybe the side effect of these seemingly negative events will be a positive poker push !

Admiration

2009-07-16T10:23:00.001Z

Nice work Mr Ivey, you make doing your day job look so easy.

Stars must be rigged

2009-07-15T22:42:00.002Z

If you don't play for 5 months at stars and then enter a $4 180 apparently you can crack Aces with Eights and then win HU with Aces vs Tens.

Did I enter a parallel universe ?

...enjoying the moment... they don't come often enough

:)

5 months, 2 weeks, 3 days

2009-07-13T09:12:00.001Z

That's how long it had been since I played an online MTT at PokerStars. Time flies when you're not pushing all-in. So yesterday afternoon whilst watching the 5th day of the Ashes 1st test and England trying to hold on whilst being battered by the Aussie bowlers, I signed up for an $11 MTT with 2,309 runner-runners. After updating PT3 and reminding myself what everything meant on my HUD setup I quickly fell back into the groove.

Nearly 5 hours, 2 suckouts and one poorly played hand later I finished 41st for exactly $41. A nice welcome back to the game of masochists. I know it's only teasing me, but as a man of freedom next week there is now a good chance I'll be putting a bit of effort into turning and burning :o)

2 months work

2009-07-09T11:28:00.002Z

It's two months since I started going to the gym every tuesday and thursday night. The attached image shows the improvement made so far. I have no idea if this is a fast or slow rate of progression, just that I feel happier, healthier and more confident.

My only regret is not doing it sooner :o)

Wagon Wheels

2009-07-08T13:29:00.003Z

Because the WSOPs on and I'm even catching up on my google reader posts I'm probably going to jump on the bandwagon tonight and play online poker. First time in months, should be fun !

Disclaimer : Won't be fun, and will have a bad beat post tomorrow no doubt. But in a perfect world online poker should be fun.

Theft

2009-07-06T08:31:00.001Z

Took a well earned day off on Friday to go out in my boat. Some cheeky little so-and-so decided they liked the look of my Prop and stole it sometime between Monday evening and Friday morning. Was suprisingly disappointed rather than angry about it. Forked out £350 for a new one, still managed to get some boat time that day.

Faith in the rest of the human race continues to diminish.

Enjoy

2009-06-30T13:31:00.002Z

I'm alive, just letting anyone who still checks here and cares know that. I'm not a poker player and haven't been for some months now. This is not a crisis of confidence or faith in simple mathematics, I just don't feel like playing. Instead I feel like going cycling, or to the gym and have been sculpting myself into a less-rounded individual for the past couple of months.

It feels good, and now the sun is finally here I am enjoying my days more than recent memories can recall. I am sure I'll play poker again, maybe in the winter and maybe sooner, but for now I am just enjoying everything else far too much.

Take care of yourselves and Enjoy !

Wolfram|Alfra

2009-05-18T12:24:00.001Z

Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input

Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input

Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input

Wolfram|Alpha isn't sure what to do with your input

I get the feeling that Wolfram|Alfra and Lost are connected somehow !

Drinking on a school night !

2009-05-14T09:15:00.000Z

Hungover. Only myself to blame. Sat outside the pub on a school night… like my legs were incapable of carrying me home or something. Gym tonight to make amends.

No Poker this week, Bravery still in Oz.

Mmmm bacon !

What's better than discovering a bad player at your table? A bad player with lots of chips. -DrPauly

2009-05-06T13:33:00.002Z

We have a "bad" player in our home game. He's not very good at poker but he is brave. Our game used to be arranged in a SNG format but I would try to get a lot of play out of them with small blind increases. It didn't really work because 4 of us would always rebuy if given the opportunity and 2 would never rebuy. Rebuys put so many chips in play the game would never end. The last 3 weeks we've played a cash game, £20 buyin and blinds of 10p/20p. Rebuys allowed and anyone can cash out whenever they like. Our brave players weaknesses are fully exposed in a cash game. When we played tourneys he would always be there in the final 3, partly due to luck and partly due to an endless supply of rebuys. I'll admit in the early days it annoyed me, until playing online I learnt to accept my fate gracefully. Now when bravery beats me he gleefully talks up how I don't like losing to him, but I can take the talk with a grin. Because I know in a cash game I'll always have a shot at winning it back.

Bravery's strategy is along the lines of -

Never raise preflop, ever.
Rarely fold to a single raise preflop, regardless of other action.
When you think you could be ahead, or the other person has not much, bet everything you have.

The net result of this play over the last 3 games is as follows

TanOrpheus + 100
Hooks + 57
Twister + 17
Bravery - 174

This is made all the more satisfying because in our last session Bravery was up +85 for the night and I was down -50, I ground my way back to a £40 stack and then talked Bravery into making a crazy call when I had Q9 on a 499A7 board. I can't quite remember but I think he'd paired the 4 and I remember all the talk was about whether I had an Ace or not. He decided not and called my allin.
Trust me, you'd love to have him in your game.

*******

Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby in the most ridiculous horse race ever run. All the Jockeys in the race bar one were apparently on something nice and speedy and had no idea what pace a 1m2f race needs to be run at. Imagine lining up the ten best 400m runners in the world for a race but 9 of them run it as if it is only a 100m sprint and are then spent for the rest of the distance. The 10th best guy pacing himself blazes past the rest in the final in the final stretch and wins.

This is made all the more clear by the overhead shots if you get to catch a replay of the race. By my reckoning Poineerof The Nile was the best horse in this race, but he blazed away with the rest of the field and was left for dead at the end when you see Mine That Bird running at almost twice the speed of the exhausted field and come from dead last past them all to win. Mine That Bird was not a better animal than the other horses in this race. The horse did have the only sensible jockey in the shape of Calvin Borel, and he should get all the plaudits for finding victory where others were idiotic.
One shouldn't bet on horses and sports, there are too many variables involved. I am yet to learn this lesson.
*******
Ricky Hatton got decked 3 times by Manny Pacquiao and dispatched with 8 seconds left of the 2nd round. Pacquiao proved again he's the best in the world, Hatton proved he never learnt to change his brawling style. Hatton was a exciting fighter but never had the technical ability to adapt strategically to win a fight.
*******
The IT Dept I work in is being downsized, I am very fortunate not to be one of those culled for now. This is partly thanks to natural wastage in my area of expertise (two people left before the bad news started coming) and partly thanks to the extra effort I put in during the time I wasn't blogging earlier this year. I originally started that extra commitment as a push to gain promotion and was disappointed when that didn't happen, now I'm relieved I got my arse in gear when I did and made myself look more like the kind of person who should stay. I'm lucky for now. Many others aren't. I'm counting my blessings.
*******
And finally, if Barcelona beat boring Chelsea in the semi final of the Champions League tonight they will set up what would be on paper the most exciting final in years against Manchester United. Come on Barca !

14.64

iPoker

2009-04-27T13:02:00.002Z

I played poker on Friday night !

When you have picked yourself up off the floor I'll tell you all about it :o)

Existence

2009-04-21T12:57:00.002Z

Still here, and trying to keep up to date with google reader (failing miserably) I haven't forgotten about you boys and girls. I will return from the wastelands as soon as possible, the journey has been less fruitful than anticipated but still worthwhile.

Chat soon

All work and no play

2009-02-27T10:10:00.003Z

Just checking in. My job has changed rapidly in the last month, it has become more interesting and varied but there is a lot more to get done every day as well. Whilst i am really please about it and especially grateful for the opportunity it's something I want to make the best of while I have the chance.

That's why I haven't been around here, or around poker & my pals lately. I hope to be back when things get a little more comfortable, in the meantime I am mostly working, sleeping and eating !

See you on the felt soon !

Life Imitates Art

2009-01-29T15:54:00.002Z

14 January 2009 - Czech government EU sculpture shows France as a nation on strike

29 January 2009 - France goes on strike… again

It's Le National Sport, apparently !

Sick ?

2009-01-28T14:08:00.001Z

I feel like crap at the moment, last night about 7.30 I started feeling a bit light headed and I've been weak since. It's nothing to do with getting my KK cracked by AK again either ! I'm either not getting enough sleep or it’s eating all these salads for lunch is making me all girly, perhaps both !

The tournaments are kicking are my butt in the middle stages. Push-monkeys who think a coinflip or worse is a good situation to be in keep hitting against me, and there is little I can do to stop it. It's frustrating, but there are times when you are forced to play for stacks preflop, though I would prefer to make moves on the board where I can actually put a little style into it and work my reads. Not sure I have the energy to play tonight, depends how easy I can make my day at work.

Update : Had lunch, feel better, I'm having a very quiet day making up words to fill in project documents for those above.

Game On !

Fail

2009-01-26T11:04:00.002Z

I said in my last post that I'm immune to bad beat tilt, I've been to an place with bad beats that makes all others irrelevant, what I didn't say is that I am sensitive to self-destruct tilt. This form of tilt occurs when I play a hand quickly, stupidly and for many or all of my chips. Yesterday it occurred in the 4th hour of the 3582 entrant $5 tournament on Stars.

I had been playing well, finding some really good spots to win chips my cards didn't deserve and then, SLAM!, complacency or carelessness saw me throw chips away and myself out of the game in a snap-call when I HAD to be beaten. The maddening part of course was that I didn't even think about his history or any of his stats before making the call.

In the cold light of today I can see this put on tilt, I went from playing really good to just playing my cards. It was like a fog had descended over the table. I couldn't see my opponents cards anymore and I was full out doubts about my own. I played another 6 tournaments feeling like that. Muppet ! My final attempt at winning something on Sunday was a $5 SNG. We got down to 4 players. I was allin with 10 10 and got bubbled by A Q.

I watched the start of the new series of LOST, if you've never seen it, the following explains why you never should -

"Hurley tells his mom they all lied about what happened after the crash. He tells her about the island – the crash, the smoke monster, The Others, hatches, the button every 108 minutes, the Dharma Initiative, the freighter, the boat, the six of them left."

Say WTF ?

"Hurley: "The rest of the people who were on the plane. They’re still on that island."
He cries.
His mom grabs his arm. "I believe you. I don’t understand you, but I believe you.""

Nobody understands you LOST, and only a few still believe you, please leave now. I feel dumber everytime I accidentally see you on TV.

At least we have action-packed 24 to entertain us tonight.

Cowboy up, Tan, Cowboy up

2009-01-24T20:56:00.003Z

Warning : this is a bad beat post.

Just an example of how bad I am running about 2/3rds of the way into any tourney I play at the moment, I'm fine with this because as you know I am immune to bad beat tilt, but some are a little harder than others to suck up and move on !

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: mikller ($17348)
Seat 2: itgetsme ($16165)
Seat 3: jsinte ($9615) -
Seat 4: !Walhalla024 ($8289) -
Seat 5: TanOrpheus ($12305) -
Seat 6: bacu7 ($8398)
Seat 7: kifinas33 ($21385)
Seat 8: tikatika2727 ($31816)
Seat 9: seasquirrel ($7410)

PRE-FLOP:

!Walhalla024 posts small blind $400
TanOrpheus posts BIG blind $800
Dealt To: TanOrpheus

ANTE mikller ($75)
ANTE itgetsme ($75)
ANTE jsinte ($75)
ANTE !Walhalla024 ($75)
ANTE TanOrpheus ($75)
ANTE bacu7 ($75)
ANTE kifinas33 ($75)
ANTE tikatika2727 ($75)
ANTE seasquirrel ($75)
FOLD bacu7
FOLD kifinas33
FOLD tikatika2727
FOLD seasquirrel
RAISE mikller ($2400)
FOLD itgetsme
FOLD jsinte
RAISE !Walhalla024 ($8214)
RAISE TanOrpheus ($12230)
CALL mikller ($9830)

FLOP:

Pot: $34549

TURN:

Pot: $34549

RIVER:

Pot: $34549

SHOWDOWN:
TanOrpheus:

mikller:

!Walhalla024:

TanOrpheus collected $8032 from side pot 1!Walhalla024 collected $25317 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $33349Main pot: $25317
Side pot: $8032
Rake: $0

Final Board:

Seat 1: mikller showed [Qc Tc] and lost with high card Queen - Net Gain/Loss: ($-12305)

Seat 2: itgetsme folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 3: jsinte button folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 4: !Walhalla024 small blind showed [5d 7d] and won 25317 with a straight, Four to Eight - Net Gain/Loss: ($17028)

Seat 5: TanOrpheus big blind showed [Kh Kd] and won 8032 with a pair of Kings - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2673)
Seat 6: bacu7 folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 7: kifinas33 folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 8: tikatika2727 folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 9: seasquirrel folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

!Walhalla024's push isn't as bad as this looks, mikller had been donking around a lot, and we both had 'history' with him, the push-back was presumably intended to get him to fold.

Next hand - Dealt to TanOrpheus [9c 3d] - TanOrpheus: folds

Then -
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: mikller ($4968)
Seat 2: itgetsme ($16015)
Seat 3: jsinte ($9465)
Seat 4: !Walhalla024 ($25242)
Seat 5: TanOrpheus ($7557) -
Seat 6: bacu7 ($9323) -
Seat 7: kifinas33 ($21235) -
Seat 8: tikatika2727 ($31666)
Seat 9: seasquirrel ($7260)

PRE-FLOP:

bacu7 posts small blind $400
kifinas33 posts BIG blind $800
Dealt To: TanOrpheus

ANTE mikller ($75)
ANTE itgetsme ($75)
ANTE jsinte ($75)
ANTE !Walhalla024 ($75)
ANTE TanOrpheus ($75)
ANTE bacu7 ($75)
ANTE kifinas33 ($75)
ANTE tikatika2727 ($75)
ANTE seasquirrel ($75)
RAISE tikatika2727 ($2300)
FOLD seasquirrel
FOLD mikller
FOLD itgetsme
FOLD jsinte
FOLD !Walhalla024
RAISE TanOrpheus ($7482)
FOLD bacu7
FOLD kifinas33
CALL tikatika2727 ($5182)

FLOP:

Pot: $16839

TanOrpheus said, "KK no good tonite :("

TURN:

Pot: $16839

RIVER:

Pot: $16839

TanOrpheus said, "gg"
!Walhalla024 said, "jsus"
!Walhalla024 said, "why learn poker"

SHOWDOWN:
tikatika2727:

TanOrpheus:

tikatika2727 collected $16839 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $16839 Rake: $0

Final Board:

Seat 1: mikller folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 2: itgetsme folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 3: jsinte folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 4: !Walhalla024 folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 5: TanOrpheus button showed [Kd Kc] and lost with a pair of Kings - Net Gain/Loss: ($-5257)
Seat 6: bacu7 small blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-475)
Seat 7: kifinas33 big blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-875)
Seat 8: tikatika2727 showed [Ks Ac] and won 16839 with a pair of Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($9282)

Seat 9: seasquirrel folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Play goot, run not so goot

2009-01-23T12:54:00.000Z

Played OK last night, ran bad. Was never allin as worse than a 50-50 but everyone else got there and I didn't. Called it a night early when I got allin on a K-9-3 rainbow flop with KQ and the slightly shorter stacked BB called with K8 - the 8 on the turn was a sign to stop :)
It may have done me a favour in the long run though as I caught up on a bit of sleep and should be much the better for it when I play this weekend.

I didn't deserve to win anything last night anyway, I have bad karma for laughing so much at the guy we've got with us on work placement until June. He's done 2 years of an IT degree and doesn't know how to reformat dates. Actually he doesn't know anything. At first I thought they just didn't teach him much but he's not listening to the things we tell him either. Even googleing "reformat date with .Net" seems to be a stretch. We get a lot of laughs out of it but I do feel a bit cruel about it sometimes, I have to claim I was being cruel to be kind.

There's a live Jersey game at a local bar tonight, can't decide whether to go or not. It would be nice to play live again but somehow I feel like I'm being shafted when I'm paying rake & having to deal for myself. That is more to do with me hating dealing than anything though I guess.

Out with the old....

2009-01-22T11:07:00.001Z

Seeing as there's been a clear out in the USA, I've spent a little time dropping some of the many many many links on my sidebar again. There are a couple of new ones in there too. The blogs that got deleted are either not updated often enough or get a lot of posts that I just skim over when they pop-up in my reader. If I aint reading it there aint much point in linking to it huh !

One new blog to highlight is Chardrian's. When I had my "year of playing religiously" in 2006 Chard was one of those who'd just started knocking on the door of big tourneys. Since then, while I've been playing very little he's been practicing good bankroll management playing MTT's and has got his roll up into the $60k stratosphere. It's great to see someone I "knew" a few years ago doing so well. I wonder what he'd say to his 2006 self now if he had the opportunity ?!

Despite being absolutely knackered this week I've started playing some good tournament poker. How do I know ? Because I'm picking up chips I don't deserve with my crap cards, laying down losing hands with my good cards, and most of all smiling at the 'bad beats' with calm acceptance. The calm has always been sign for me playing my best poker.

Watch this space, a victory is just around the corner. . . !

"The world has changed, and we must change with it." - President Obama

2009-01-21T10:51:00.002Z

It was an incredible day because the hopes of millions of people on this planet were focussed on one man. More people of the world shared a feeling yesterday than ever before. Obama's speech was a reminder to all the individuals projecting their hopes onto him that they have a responsibility to do their part in improving the world we live in.

When you look at the civilizations that have thrived throughout history most have had a common goal that unites their people. I don't know if a common goal of wanting to fix things for the common good is tangible enough to unite our civilization, even if it is history shows that no unity lasts forever despite how noble the cause might be. But at least for a short time the majority believe in one thing, and are a little less selfish today.

We would do well to hold on to that belief for as long as possible, and change ourselves for the better with it.

A ton of poker

2009-01-18T23:33:00.002Z

I have played more hands of poker this week than ever before. 12-tabling the $10 buyin .05/.10c NL cash games on pokerstars, which is fun but tiring ! In a 3 hour session I get in an about 2,000 hands. Obviously it's pretty hard to get any reads with tables popping up one after the other so I've also been delving a bit deeper into PokerTracker3's capabilities.

The most awesome thing I've found so far is that you can colour code one stat based on a basic query of any other stat. For instance I have one set up which shows how often a player calls a raise preflop, and this number is colour coded by how often the same player folds to a C-bet on the flop. It's fracking awesome when you're trying to make quick decisions.

As brilliant as this is, an unlucky day yesterday of suckouts and coolers mean the results are somewhat less than stellar. Just shy of 6k hands seen this week and I have turned a peewee profit of $17.78 ! On friday night I was up $60 !

After the little downturn I didnt fancy cash games today so played some tourneys instead, won a seat for the Sunday Million, which I played and finished around 4000th when the big stack at our table called my PF allin with 9c 10c. I had pocket 8s but he hit his 9 on the river to send me out. At least I got to play the $215 buyin game for only a $9 investment.

I also cashed in the $8 rebuy with 2088 entrants, finishing 300th for $47.77 and made money in the $10 crapshoot that is the $200k guaranteed with 10 min blinds. I lucked my way into 1546th place for $29.32. Its such a mad tourney with 29323 entrants !

The hand in my last post finished like this

TanOrpheus: raises 1250 to 1750
sw1974: raises 5140 to 6890 and is all-in
TanOrpheus: folds

Justin played it in the comments exactly as I did in the hand. Pretty clear by this stage that he's sure he has me beat, probably with an overpair. I am playing Ace-Ten a lot less now though, it looks from PT stats that its a hole in my game which needs plugging. So stupid that I am more careful not to overplay AJ than AT !

Have a good start to the week ! I'm going to try and stay up to play the TuckFard game tomorrow night so I can say hello to the Canucks and thank Bam for his latest post!

How should I play (Pt 2)

2009-01-12T10:21:00.001Z

First bad beat of the week - blogger ate this post once already.

Thanks for the responses on the hand in my previous post. I hope it was clear from the hand history that we're on the button and the player who was UTG limped in. I think raising here is usually best to try and narrow down his range a bit and filter out the blinds. The hand continued like this -

TanOrpheus: raises 450 to 700
freezou: folds
ironhorse122: folds
sw1974: calls 450
*** FLOP *** [8s Td 3s]
sw1974: bets 500
TanOrpheus : ???
How would you continue here ?

***

Didn't get any bad beats all weekend because I didn't play a hand. J helped me with the floor and it looks great and only took about 10 hours from start to finish including all the trim and fiddly bits. I'm thinking of extending it into half the lounge to make a nice dining area and then getting a cream carpet or similar around the sofa's & tv. Biggest win of the weekend though - J's missus' cooking. Sunday roast was fantastic, I'm still salivating over the delicious gravy-laden chicken and veggies now. More more more please !

***

I'm making a new music collection so go ahead and suggest some tracks I won't have heard in the mainstream media if you've got any great suggestions.

Please tell me how to play

2009-01-09T13:14:00.002Z

Put this on a forum recently and got some replies that surprised me

Chip leader with 40 left in a 180 - Do you fold, call or raise this with no read on UTG player ?

Table '132183731 5' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: TanOrpheus (20565 in chips)
Seat 3: freezou (2595 in chips)
Seat 4: ironhorse122 (4140 in chips)
Seat 5: sw1974 (7615 in chips)
Seat 6: Paetzi69 (3780 in chips)
Seat 7: gutshotqueen (8265 in chips)
Seat 8: noeschi (3585 in chips)
Seat 9: Kaiag (3315 in chips)
TanOrpheus: posts the ante 25
freezou: posts the ante 25
ironhorse122: posts the ante 25
sw1974: posts the ante 25
Paetzi69: posts the ante 25
gutshotqueen: posts the ante 25
noeschi: posts the ante 25
Kaiag: posts the ante 25
freezou: posts small blind 125
ironhorse122: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [Ah Th]
sw1974: calls 250
Paetzi69: folds
gutshotqueen: folds
noeschi: folds
Kaiag: folds
TanOrpheus: ??

Poker heaven

2009-01-07T12:09:00.002Z

When the day comes in the future that I can't get motivated to play, someone please remind me of this post and the pleasure that comes from moments like this...

PokerStars Game #23639960778: Tournament #132183731, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2009/01/06 16:58:12 ET
Table '132183731 5' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: pato4k (12109 in chips)
Seat 2: TanOrpheus (12585 in chips)
Seat 3: freezou (5215 in chips)
Seat 4: ironhorse122 (2940 in chips)
Seat 5: sw1974 (6345 in chips)
Seat 6: Paetzi69 (8160 in chips)
Seat 7: gutshotqueen (9865 in chips)
Seat 8: noeschi (4260 in chips)
Seat 9: Kaiag (4015 in chips)
pato4k: posts the ante 25
TanOrpheus: posts the ante 25
freezou: posts the ante 25
ironhorse122: posts the ante 25
sw1974: posts the ante 25
Paetzi69: posts the ante 25
gutshotqueen: posts the ante 25
noeschi: posts the ante 25
Kaiag: posts the ante 25
freezou: posts small blind 150
ironhorse122: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [Kd Kh]
sw1974: folds
Paetzi69: folds
gutshotqueen: calls 300
noeschi: folds
Kaiag: folds
pato4k: folds
TanOrpheus: raises 800 to 1100
freezou: folds
ironhorse122: folds
gutshotqueen: raises 8740 to 9840 and is all-in
TanOrpheus: calls 8740
*** FLOP *** [9d Ac Ad]
*** TURN *** [9d Ac Ad] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [9d Ac Ad 6d] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
gutshotqueen: shows [9s Ts] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
TanOrpheus: shows [Kd Kh] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
TanOrpheus collected 20355 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 20355 | Rake 0
Board [9d Ac Ad 6d 7s]
Seat 1: pato4k folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: TanOrpheus (button) showed [Kd Kh] and won (20355) with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 3: freezou (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: ironhorse122 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: sw1974 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Paetzi69 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: gutshotqueen showed [9s Ts] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines
Seat 8: noeschi folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Kaiag folded before Flop (didn't bet)

09 = OK :)

2009-01-06T13:29:00.002Z

Didn't take the carpet up last night but did play two $4 180s and finished 3rd in one of them for $85.68, under the terms of our little deal it means that with 6 of the 12 games played, I can now play in the knowledge that anything earned in the remaining 6 is a straight 50/50 split.

Confidence boosted. Motivation upped. Satisfaction guaranteed.

The Beginning

2009-01-05T12:06:00.001Z

I can't do long-term projects. It's the worst trait I have when it comes to work. Give me anything that’s urgent or a crisis and I can generate code and bug fixes as quick as anyone here. Make it a juicy project that needs my attention for a year and things have to broken down into short targets or I get bored with it very quickly. Not ideal when long-term projects are the road to promotion. As with life, so with poker. Having an aim to make X amount by the end of this year won't enable, empower, or invigorate me to achieve anything new in 2009. Therefore I will try to Keep It Simple Stupid and make small steps in the direction generally known as Up.

Step 1. Tonight - Remove the carpet in my hallway and WC and prepare the surface for laminate with a damp proof membrane and underlay.

Step 2. Tomorrow - Plan position of laminates on floor plan. Play the remaining $4 180's that I have to complete under my stake-deal. Prepare casserole for Wednesday.

Step 3. Wednesday - Lay floor with help from J. Bask in glory of a job complete.

Step 4. Thursday - Contingency day !

Step 5. When floor is complete get back to grinding the cash games, only play one tournament at a time while cash games are running.

Step 6. Win ?

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008-12-31T12:11:00.001Z

I wish all of you a happy and successful 2009 !

2009 -

Begin 4 years of countering republican arguments about politics with the sentence "It was Bush's fault, Obama's just sorting out the mess" as payback for 8 years of "It was Clinton's fault, Bush is just sorting out his mess".

Decide whether my poker should be just for fun or something better, which is mainly dependent on how much time I want to give to it.

Decide what games I should be playing. Cash games are boring but profitable, SNG's are profitable but lack a real feeling on satisfaction, MTT's are satisfying but not profitable this year due to lack of time to play.

Give up smoking for more than 10 weeks.

Blog more often.

Watch my friends get married.

Go to Vegas, preferably at the time of a blogger gathering.

Get some up to date qualifications for work.

Get laminate flooring down in my flat.

Plumb in new bath / shower.

Sleep better. Eat better. Exercise. Get a girlfriend.

Spend more time with my parents, siblings and godparents.

Remember to enjoy the moments

Choices

2008-12-18T11:39:00.000Z

Just seen a mate "O" in town who I went to school with, he was one of my best friends back when we were 17. He crashed my first car 3 weeks after I got my driving licence and it didn't matter. Our group got wasted together, chased girls together, and generally pushed the boundaries of life. O was one of the really intelligent guys I knew, unfortunately that meant that he got bored with a lot of things and would do stuff just to make his life less boring. Whenever we got really drunk on a bottle of JD he'd tell me that none of this really mattered and life was just a game.
The few choices we all made as young adults then took us down different paths. Some of us worked hard and partied hard and shone on the career & qualifaction path. Others like me did what was required but never went the extra mile to excel at anything in particular. O got juvenile detention which led to further bad choices and a prison sentence and addiction to heroin, now I think he's on methadone. He's out of prison and looks much better than the last time I saw him, he's running a small business organising building projects, has a girlfriend and is going on holiday in January. It always amazes me when I look back at specific moments how one decision or one outcome could have changed my life completely, and how easily it could have been anyone of me or my friends that was in Os shoes now. Its great to see him doing so well now and we're going to meet up when he gets back from holiday.

I played the Jersey game last night and got my JJ rivered by AK. I also played the $5 15k gtd & a $4 180, kindly sponsored by BurnleyMik of the raisetheriver forum fame but had two tricky (?) hands early and went out. I have another 9 180's and one shot at the 15k to play on a stake + 50/50 profits agreement, keeps me ticking over anyway and hopefully I can make a little bit of cash for Mik with some luck.

Tonight's free blogging crapshoot is NLH and I'll be at a friends house so I'm probably going to shove and go big or go out early.

No Limit Hold’em December 18 14:00 ET (7PM GMT)

See you there.

Lottery

2008-12-17T15:50:00.000Z

I didn't win the lottery, but I did get outdrawn by a group of 20 people working on the floor below me. Each persons share will be 27,500 Sterling. Nice return for a 5 pound investment.

This is unlucky for the following reason... they bought their tickets from the same booth we did. When you buy the tickets you get a block of 100 and in that block you are guaranteed twenty back from the scratch bit. So everyone gets their 20 back and buys another 20 random tickets (not from a block of 100 which run consecutively. The winning ticket wasn't from the block, it was from one of the random 20 they got back after trading in the scratches ! Could so easily have been us !

PKR Trnmnt

2008-12-17T11:40:00.000Z

I'll begin with the slightly depressing and surprisingly honest announcement that I've blown my roll down to busto at both fulltilt and pokerstars now. Fulltilt's been empty for months but now pokerstars has joined it. This means friends that on friday some of my paycheck will be going towards a reload. The first reload in approx 2 years. I'm ok with that. The bust was due to bad bankroll management and after withdrawals I'll still be slightly up.

* I might be a long term losing player, but we don't have the stats to prove it just yet *

Because the 2 busy sites are empty I fired up PKR.com (that's the 3d, footprint heavy software in case you've never seen it) It's a different experience though a lot of the 3d stuff is wasted if you actually want to play. For instance they have a first person perspective view of the table but because you can't see to your immediate left/right it makes it difficult to follow where the blinds got to and position. I end up playing on the overview mode so I can still see the whole table at one time.

Anyway, after waiting 10 mins for a download and install update (they added santa hats and festive graphics) I regged for the next decent looking tourney. It was called the $15 Deep and Fast - Yeah, I know. Sounds like something you get from a crack-whore coming to end of her shift at 5am in a Vegas carpark. Fortunately this lasted a little longer but was just as dangerous. Players start with 5k chips and blinds of 10-20 but the blinds go up at a rocketing 5 mins per level, and because of the 3d stuff hands get dealt and played slower than at a standard site. We were lucky to get 5 hands in per level.

I managed to double up early which bought me time and the other players seemed to be terrible. I don't know if it was the advancing blinds or that they were just plain bad. No hands really stood out and I havent worked out hand histories on the site yet even if they had but when all was said and done I cajoled my way through the 182 player field to finish in 19th place for $40. A very noticeable thing was that many of the players pushing and calling ranges were way off, with short stacks letting themselves get to 3 BB's before shoving and big stacks folding even in the BB even when they should have been calling with just about any two cards.

I enjoyed it though and I'll play there again but next time will look for a Deep and Slow structure instead.

Tonight its the Jersey online game at Uncover Poker with $500 added to the prize pool :o)

Omaha wbcoop

2008-12-16T08:59:00.003Z

Easy tournament, self inflicted defeat

The standard of play was pretty awful, I was able to add 7k chips to my 2.5k starting stack in the first hour (remember this was a POT LIMIT game) everyone was desperate to ship 'em in.
Then half way through I took a crappy beat against one of the loose guys who was hitting the deck :

Dealt to TanOrpheus [9s Qh 8h Qs]
jrmriga: shows [7s 7h Kd 6d]
Allin Preflop
*** RIVER *** [4d 2c 2d 5c] [3s]
jrmriga: shows [7s 7h Kd 6d] (a straight, Three to Seven)
TanOrpheus: shows [9s Qh 8h Qs] (two pair, Queens and Deuces)
jrmriga collected 10290 from pot

Sickly but it only busted me back to an average stack, unfortunately I then went card dead and couldn't get the chips back. I crippled myself with this hand which has been bothering me since the moment I played it. The hard part is not knowing if there's anything I can really do here.

78 left, an "M" of 3.6 and people not really going out quickly. I think I have to play this hand preflop, and in an ideal world we get it all-in preflop so then I don't have to worry about anything else. Guess really since I wanted to be allin I should ship my remaining 1500 chips in on the flop anyway. Arrrgh, just a really annoying, crappy hand played poorly. I do not think I could have folded into the 72nd spot though and the decent prizes were far higher up than that.

PokerStars Game #22949087585: Tournament #124189658, Freeroll Omaha Pot Limit - Level XVII (500/1000) - 2008/12/15 16:58:22 ET
Table '124189658 19' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Tom Bayes (28005 in chips)
Seat 2: Artanis11 (28784 in chips)
Seat 3: marc_26 (5245 in chips)
Seat 4: hawaian15 (12550 in chips)
Seat 5: raunoo (18121 in chips)
Seat 6: TanOrpheus (5460 in chips)
Seat 7: Arvid2k7 (23500 in chips)
Seat 8: BurnleyJoe (13762 in chips)
Seat 9: AlexFSK (22280 in chips)
TanOrpheus: posts small blind 500
Arvid2k7: posts big blind 1000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TanOrpheus [5s Ks Kc 6s]
TanOrpheus said, "ruhroh"
BurnleyJoe: folds
AlexFSK: folds
Tom Bayes: folds
Artanis11: folds
marc_26 has timed out
marc_26: folds
marc_26 is sitting out
hawaian15: folds
marc_26 has returned
raunoo: calls 1000
TanOrpheus: raises 3000 to 4000
Arvid2k7: folds
raunoo: calls 3000
*** FLOP *** [Ah Qd 2s]
TanOrpheus: checks
raunoo: bets 2000
TanOrpheus said, "ruh roh again :)"
TanOrpheus: folds
Uncalled bet (2000) returned to raunoo
raunoo collected 9000 from pot
raunoo: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9000 | Rake 0
Board [Ah Qd 2s]
Seat 1: Tom Bayes folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Artanis11 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: marc_26 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: hawaian15 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: raunoo (button) collected (9000)
Seat 6: TanOrpheus (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: Arvid2k7 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: BurnleyJoe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: AlexFSK folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Finished in 77th place

I did have some great support from Professional Railer BamBam so the night wasn't a complete waste of time ! Thanks Bam

Tonight is our local christmas lottery draw so all things being even I should be about 400k richer tomorrow morning (you won't believe me if the next post is me describing winning on my one ticket that I've got) Ha!

Blogger Lotto Starts Here

2008-12-15T16:15:00.000Z

Pot Limit Omaha December 15 14:00 ET (7PM GMT)

I'll be gambling it up in this UK-friendly time tourney tonight, see you there ?

Weekend had it's ups and downs, changed a tyre in the rain on Saturday, but then had a birthday meal for my sister so ended on a high :o)

Omaha content to follow.... !

The Edge of Tilt ?

2008-12-12T14:15:00.001Z

"Apparently we will be drinking @ the MGM should anyone wish to join us. Yes, I realize it's 4:30 in the morning." about 2 hours ago - thisisnotapril

"grubby getting texts from strippers he fingered at the rhino. lucky man." about 4 hours ago - taopauly

"Couldn't wait for @bobbybracelet. BJ cherry thoroughly broken. Awarded $100 for my stellar effort. No ball cuppage occurred. G'nite." about 6 hours ago - maudie

I am going to have to gamble a lot tonight :o)

Torture

2008-12-12T10:53:00.000Z

Getting into work at 9am UK time.

Logging in.

Reading twits posted 30 minutes ago such as

"uh oh kat sucking face with chicks again. donkey puncher popped a woodie" - TaoPauly

"just won $100 from iggy playing paper-rock-scissors" - ProKenoNeilF

"they are making me go to the IP... Booo. But glad to start the party!!!" - thisisnotapril

Weaker degenerates might go on tilt from such things, not me !
For me it's motivational stuff !

Instant Variance

2008-12-12T00:27:00.001Z

Finished just inside the money again in the $5 15k last night 413/4176. Got allin with QQ vs AK and doubled up. Very next hand got allin with QQ vs KQ and was sent home by the King on the flop. Tournaments are so enjoyable !
Played the fishhook poker "local" game for "local" people online last night. I don’t think I've ever seen a game with so much ABC poker before. Like straight as a die - if I bet I've got something if I check I don’t, no bluffing, no calling when people are short stacked, very straight play. There's money to be made if I could ever be bovved to go out and play live. Having to deal ourselves and the screwed up rebuy structure kinda puts me off though.
It doesn't make sense to me to have a rebuy tournament with a £20+2 buyin (for 3k chips) but only £10 for rebuys of the same number of chips. Anyone ever played in a tourney with a buyin like that ? It just doesn't sit right with me, though I can see the appeal of it encouraging rebuys.
*** Intermission ***
WTF is going on in Europe…
*** /Intermission ***
Good job I didn't book flights to vegas yesterday. Gatwick was frozen over this morning so I wouldn't have made it from Jersey to London and wouldve been stuck ! ( Yeah at one point last night I was craving it so much I actually worked out the connecting flights ! )
dD - Yeah the wbcoop has a week of qualies which you can play all of, top 72 I think go through to a "main event" wbcoop final. It's not the sale of the century but anything free is worth a shot :o)
Bam - Love the diary from the last trip, now I wanna go just to bust some moves at the slot machines :o)
Have fun in vegas y'all, I'll try and win something big in the meantime...

Vegas Dreams

2008-12-10T13:31:00.001Z

I was allin with A-Q vs Q-9 on a Q-T-3 -5 board in a $200 cash game last night when a 9 hit the river to felt me. The villain apologised saying he thought my allin was a bluff. I felt sick, the poker room seemed bigger, the casino emptier and I felt small and insignificant. I stood up to walk away from the table, and then I woke up.

That was the last part of the dream I had last night about being in Vegas. I was gutted about the bad-beat, but I was really gutted when I realised I wasn't waking up just 5 minutes away from a chance to make it all back.

I have been bombarded with thoughts of Vegas in the past 3 weeks. One colleague is soon going on the road trip that Hooks, Twister, Peacock and I went on in 2005. Driving from SF to LA to Vegas. Another colleague is spending Christmas in Vegas, it's his first trip but he's a fine poker player and will certainly make some money there if lady luck isn't in a foul mood. Finally there is the peak of posts from every blogger who's off to the WPBT Winter Gathering this weekend. If you cut me I'm sure there would be a tinge of green in the blood there is so much envy in me right now.

There is one illogical and one logical solution to all this.

I could illogically max my credit card get on a 'plane and be in the MGM Grand in about 24 hours, jetlagged and regretting my impulses.

Or I could go for the logical solution of target setting, with the target being June next year. Any tips on images, stories, etc to keep me focussed on the goal will be greatfully received ! Two of my best friends, Action Rich and Tension Girl are getting married next year. If I can just convince AR to have his stag do in Vegas…..

And finally,

I am lucky. Sometimes I forget.

In the midst of the current financial crisis we've had our end of year results at work and the impact on me is a definite tick in the win box. Christmas and more importantly next year are going to be a much easier ride thanks to this piece of news. Working for the same place for so long does have its benefits.

Oh, and finally P.S.

Scott has launched www.tilteddreams.com, a friendly new poker forum, so if you like forums why not sign up and be part of the birth of a new one :o)

Resistance is futile (pt 3)

2008-12-05T14:41:00.000Z

couldn't resist...

I'm a Lotus Elise!

You believe in maximum performance and minimum baggage. You like to travel light and fast, hit the corners hard, and dance like there's no tomorrow.

"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

A Lesson in Aggression

2008-12-05T11:56:00.001Z

As suggested, last night I sat down and played some $4 180s with the main aim of finding spots to be stealing/restealing from. I had mixed results on various hands with no chashes but at I definitely learnt some things. The most obvious of which are it has to be read dependent, as I've said before many times, always have a good reason to put chips out there. The next most noticable element was that I do have a very hard time applying these moves when I've got trash cards. Even when I *know* the move is likely to be successful.

I'm considering playing one of these with my hole cards covered up just to force me through the mental barrier of making the right play with J2o or whatever. That'll be the lesson for tonight.

End result was 5 games played with no cashes so -$20 and I then ended the night with 2 SNG's, one of which I won and one 3rd place, which paid for the education.

Acceptable

2008-12-03T22:55:00.001Z

$4 180 : Dealer: TanOrpheus finished the tournament in 32nd place - Booo

$6 $15k gtd : Dealer: TanOrpheus finished the tournament in 347/4383 place - $15

$4 180 : Dealer: TanOrpheus finished the tournament in 173rd place - with an allin preflop on the 3rd hand, my KK v TT v A8 - the TT was the worst call since there was a ton of action culminating in 2 allins before him. But he spiked a T on the flop so meh

$4 180 : Dealer: TanOrpheus finished the tournament in 7th place - $25 - with 12BB's or I shoved from the SB with 99 over the buttons standard raise, unfortunately the button had JJ

Dealer: TanOrpheus finished the tournament in 14th place $8 - classic race but got outflopped.
TanOrpheus: shows [Qd Qc] (a pair of Queens)
grimmace420: shows [Ac Kc] (a pair of Kings)

Below was my most enjoyable hand of the night, my preflop and flop play aint amazing here but before the turn hit I had said to myself that thumbsmawho would bet 3k and that his 3k bet was a bluff which I would reraise. Still baby steps but lots of little moments like that breed confidence.

Today I will be mostly re-reading Hoy's posts about resteals and then tonight I will be mostly trying to get a resteal to actually work !

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: thumbsmawho ($24224)
Seat 2: jbarn ($12374)
Seat 3: TheGreenBox ($16041)
Seat 4: buttonrazor ($2220)
Seat 5: crane all ($6276)
Seat 6: beckstr2 ($31594) -
Seat 7: TanOrpheus ($20254) -
Seat 8: DICKBURLASKY ($33610) -
Seat 9: zimo54 ($19456)

PRE-FLOP:

TanOrpheus posts small blind $500
DICKBURLASKY posts BIG blind $1000
Dealt To: TanOrpheus

ANTE thumbsmawho ($100)
ANTE jbarn ($100)
ANTE TheGreenBox ($100)
ANTE buttonrazor ($100)
ANTE crane all ($100)
ANTE beckstr2 ($100)
ANTE TanOrpheus ($100)
ANTE DICKBURLASKY ($100)
ANTE zimo54 ($100)
CALL zimo54 ($1000)
CALL thumbsmawho ($1000)
FOLD jbarn
FOLD TheGreenBox
FOLD buttonrazor
FOLD crane all
FOLD beckstr2
CALL TanOrpheus ($500)
CHECK DICKBURLASKY

FLOP:

Pot: $4900


CHECK TanOrpheus
CHECK DICKBURLASKY
CHECK zimo54
BET thumbsmawho ($1000)
CALL TanOrpheus ($1000)
CALL DICKBURLASKY ($1000)
FOLD zimo54

TURN:

Pot: $7900


CHECK TanOrpheus
CHECK DICKBURLASKY
BET thumbsmawho ($3000)
RAISE TanOrpheus ($9000)
FOLD DICKBURLASKY
FOLD thumbsmawho

TanOrpheus collected $13900 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $13900 Rake: $0

Final Board:


Seat 1: thumbsmawho folded on the Turn - Net Gain/Loss: ($-5100)
Seat 2: jbarn folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-100)
Seat 3: TheGreenBox folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-100)
Seat 4: buttonrazor folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-100)
Seat 5: crane all folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-100)
Seat 6: beckstr2 button folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($-100)
Seat 7: TanOrpheus small blind collected 13900 - Net Gain/Loss: ($11800)
Seat 8: DICKBURLASKY big blind folded on the Turn - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2100)
Seat 9: zimo54 folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-1100)

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Sign Up!

2008-12-03T21:21:00.000Z

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.

Registration code: 117573

Baby Steps

2008-12-03T15:01:00.001Z

Not a bad night for shaking off the cobwebs. 522/4212 in the $11 $30k gtd on stars meant I got my buyin back +$6, I was just inside the money. I should have gone deeper in this but bottled a read when a shortie shoved and the LAG on the my right reshoved. I had pocket 6s and figured I was at least ahead of the LAG but folded and he had Q-10.

Busted 12th in a 45-man $6 game too, when I pushed the nut flush draw on the flop, was called by two pair - turned my flush but got rivered by a full house. Damn river ! It is not a finish inside the money, but was satisfactory for a first date in a while.

I have a new trick for my alertness too. I have stopped drinking coffee before 5pm. Tea with no sugar has replaced coffee with 1. Then at 5/6pm I have a coffee and instead of the old evening coffee crash I have a coffee high that gives me the kick to get me through a poker tourney.

And finally thank you for the kind words in the comments. The kindness of you folks who I've never even met always amaze me.