Sunday 19 December 2010

Wednesday 15 December 2010

MiniFTOPS Update

Since I'm most of the way through my MiniFTOPS schedule I thought I'd update you on my progress:

Event #1 Wednesday Dec 08 21:00 ET
$20 + $2 NL Hold'em $250k GTD----------------------------2967/15328-----$0

Event #10 Saturday Dec 11 17:00 ET
$20 + $2 NL Hold'em Turbo $150k GTD----------------------2583/8693-----$0

Event #11 Sunday Dec 12 13:00 ET
$12 + $1 NL Hold'em Knockout $250k GTD----------------19449/26000+-----$0

Event #13 Sunday Dec 12 17:00 ET
$30 + $3 NL Hold'em $450k GTD-----------------------489/16,837-----$131.33

Event #19 Tuesday Dec 14 21:00 ET
$50 + $5 NL Hold'em 4xShootout $125k GTD------------------2166/2544-----$0

Event #29 (2-Day) Saturday Dec 18 13:00 ET
$200 + $16 NL Hold'em Two-Day Event

Main Event Sunday Dec 19 17:00 ET
$70 + $5 NL Hold'em $1M GTD

As you can see only 1 event went reasonably well and I busted that with trip Aces vs a better kicker.

On the plus side I cashed for $131.33 which by not entering the $109 6max event has allowed me to enter the $216 2-day freezeout event with 600k GTD. My backers have also agreed that any leftover cashes can be reinvested in either event #33 ($20r) or other MTT's. So 2 events 2 go with potentially more.

In other news, my Gran passed away recently. She was 90 years old and she had a good life. We are all sad to see her go but also happy that she is now at peace.

Friday 3 December 2010

Just a quick post to say...



Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Thursday 2 December 2010

Mini-FTOPS and other stuff




Managed to secure a $329 7 event Mini-FTOPS stake, playing these events:

Event #1 Wednesday Dec 08 21:00 ET
$20 + $2 NL Hold'em $250k GTD

Event #10 Saturday Dec 11 17:00 ET
$20 + $2 NL Hold'em Turbo $150k GTD

Event #11 Sunday Dec 12 13:00 ET
$12 + $1 NL Hold'em Knockout $250k GTD

Event #13 Sunday Dec 12 17:00 ET
$30 + $3 NL Hold'em $450k GTD

Event #16 Monday Dec 13 21:00 ET
$100 + $9 NL Hold'em $300k GTD

Event #19 Tuesday Dec 14 21:00 ET
$50 + $5 NL Hold'em 4xShootout $125k GTD

Main Event Sunday Dec 19 17:00 ET
$70 + $5 NL Hold'em $1M GTD

First I tried to get the stake on 'Part Time Poker' and failed due to having no rep and also because there's been a lot of high profile grims on there lately. So I posted on NPF with the same deal (75/25 in backers favour no MU) and it was snapped up immeadiately.

There are 6 stakers with various percentages of me. Looking forward to this series and have picked only events I feel I have a significant edge in i.e. no 6max, turbo, HU etc.

December is a make or brake month for me in the sense that I need to do well in order to consider going pro next year. Otherwise it'll be time to bite the bullet and find work. Obv if I do get a job then I will continue to play, but a serious MTT schedule and a full time job do not mix well if at all!

In other news: I've had great week away on Rottnest Island, just off Perth Western Australia. It's a nice place with loadsa beaches and not many cars etc. So I've been fishing, snorkelling etc. and generally taking a break from poker to get the downswing out of my system. But I'm ready to get back to the tables now! :)

Sunday 21 November 2010

Update from Down Unda!




Time for a quick update from Down Under.

Weather: Sweet as fook! :D

Stars staking deal: Not so grand, roll is down to around $850 from a starting point of $1.5k. To be expected when playing large field MTT's but still not desireable ofc, for me or the backer.

Full Tilt: Been going deep on a regular basis, but not getting there :( Most notable results were 10th and 11th last week in 28k gtd and 18k gtd... not fun but encouraging none the less! Also just got my first staking deal on PTP, it's only $55 for playing 10 45 man $5.50 sng's but it's the first step in building a rep on that site. Playing these later on today followed by the Sunday grind :)

Other poker stuff: Joined Poker Study Groups which is a site that appears to have potential but a long way to go yet. Am also giving one of it's members a couple of sweat sessions. Poker Pwnage is continuing to stimulate my game :) I have a 6 month membership there and intend to make full use of it!

Oz: Been getting used to my dads powerboat which I'm goin fishing on soon :) Spending time with the family and eating/drinking well.

On a sombre note: One of my best friends mother's has just passed away, it's a very sad time for him and needless to say I wish I could be there for him. My Gran is also v.ill and I wish I could be there for her and the rest of my family. But we can't be everywhere at once and the dietance is huge. Love to all back home.

Saturday 6 November 2010

Backing Decisions

I recently made a decision to seek out a backer. The main reason for this is that after paying off my loan my roll is running low for the stakes I want to play and I need most of it for future living expenses anyways.

The first thing I did was post on the NPF a thread asking for peoples advice where to look for staking. 5 different people showed an interest in staking me almost immeadiately, this wasn't why I made the thread but was a welcome bonus.

Out of the 5 people interested I recieved 2 firm offers and chose to go with the best of these. This offer was a roll of $1.5k to play $22f's and below as well as $5r's and below. The backer asked for a 50/50 split of profits and I agreed.

I am very happy with this deal. I did seek to set up a second deal with another backer on Full Tilt but the best offer I recieved was $500 and 60/40 in backers favour. Upon some thought I decided to stick with one backer on Stars and use the last of my roll on Full Tilt.

I did want to switch to being backed in 100% of my games so I could use the remainder of my roll as a cushion to live on for a while incase varience doesn't swing my way. However the deal I was offered was exclusively on Stars and therefore I would need another on Full Tilt. I may yet look into this but in the meantime I will make a compromise.

Friday 29 October 2010

October Summary

Below is a list of my deep/semi-deep runs on Full Tilt this month, not including tonights runs in the $3r and $50k gtd. I havn't bothered with the Stars results because they aren't v.good. But as you can see not bad considering I'm a bit patchy when it comes to volume atm.


29 Oct 10 $9,500 KO Guarantee * HENL $11 1978 185 $17
28 Oct 10 $33,000 KO Guarantee HENL $26 1780 26 $114
28 Oct 10 $10,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) HENL $11+ 750 36 $56
25 Oct 10 $33,000 KO Guarantee HENL $26 1841 174 $41
21 Oct 10 $10,500 Guarantee (Rebuy) HENL $3.30+ 1888 28 $54
21 Oct 10 $35,000 Guarantee HENL $26 1585 21 $126
15 Oct 10 $10,500 Guarantee (Rebuy) HENL $3.30+ 1723 94 $24
14 Oct 10 $18K Super Stack HENL $26 807 88 $35
11 Oct 10 $12,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) HENL $5.50+ 1056 50 $40
11 Oct 10 $9,500 KO Guarantee HENL $11 1866 173 $16

This must be the first, possibly 2nd, month in 6 or 7 that I haven't had a $1k+ score. So can't complain really. Woulda been nice to continue the run and it's a shame not to be on the 'Best of NPF's' 'achievemnt' bulletin again. I've been on every one, bar August, since May... 4 outta 5 aint bad and I think I might of been on April's if there was one! Anyways roll on Australia (leavin on Nov 2nd) and hopefully some more deep runs!

Monday 18 October 2010

The Plan



I have come to the conclusion that I need to organise my poker playing better. What do I mean by this? Well put simply I've decided that I will only play either 3 or 4 days per week. On those days I'm happy to put in 12 hour sessions if I feel up to it, but my days off must be maintained as poker free days. The reasons behind this are that a balanced life is important for both success as a poker player and general enjoyment of life.

I recently signed up to Poker Pwnage (a training site focussing on mtt's) and watched a video called 'Optimizing your play'. In this video, GhettoFabolous, a well known v.successful mtt player, talks about the importance of remembering why we got into poker. Freedom. The flexible lifestyle that can be enjoyed by a poker player is often not taken advantage of by many pros.

Over the next two months I will be visiting family in Australia. I will be playing poker during this period but will be using my new rule of 3 - 4 days per week only. I see the next 2 months as make or break with regard to whether I can become a professional. After paying off my Student loan and travelling for two months my roll is down to around $3k. So the next couple of months is gunna have to see a heater almost as good as the one I went on before I went travelling.

So in order to increase my chances of such a run I will be trying to put in more volume with the help of 'Table Ninja', initally playing 6 tables and hopefully more once I feel comfortable. Combining this with a more balanced lifestyle and watching 1 training video per day I hope I can build a roll big enough to officially consider going pro next year, if not, it's find a job time!

Sunday 10 October 2010

Back to Blighty

;
After 2 and a half months travelling in Spain and Morocco it's time to head home. I am flying back to London tomorrow to stay with a friend and maybe hit a few casinos with my m8 Vince before heading back to Newcaastle.

Although I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family back home it won't be for long as I will be goin to Australia on November 2nd. All in all the trip has been a success, and has whetted my appatite for more travelling. My favourite part as probably been Marrakech along with the myriad of crazy people we've met along the way!

As for poker I havn't played a great deal since my last win, however I have dabbled with a bit of 50NL and 100NL 6max cash... I made $200 but got very bored in the process. So despite it's convienience (v.handy when travelling) I will soon be back to the MTT's.

Saturday 11 September 2010

Bink Holiday




Today was a Bink Holiday! Two nights ago I won my biggest tourney yet, not in prize money, but in field size. It was a çn $11 freezeout with 2498 players. It was a challenging tourney, partly becaues of the external circumstances. These included:

1) Being tired after already finishing 24th in the 32k GTD earlier that day
2) Almost ditching the tourney as I was nearly persuaded to go out that night
3) Constantly having to move around the hostel to find powerpoints and free rooms
4) Being HU whhilst in the common room that I wasn´t supposed to be in at that time of night, with my drunken m8 asleep next 2 me and 2 ppl shagging in the kitchen to my left. However it was impossible to move though as my battery was low and I would´ve got blinded out!

These are the trials of a travelling poker playr I spose. Neways, as I mentioned today was a ´Bink Holiday´ so me and my m8 Tahti decided to ditch the traditional Kebab, Fries and Coke for lunch and headed for a nice resteraunt for a lush meal:

- Partridge Salad with Almonds, Dates and Parmasan.
- Iberian Ham Croquettes.
- Goats Chees, Grilled Bacon and Fried Onion on Toast.
- Baby Artichokes and Prawn Cassarolle.

Yesterday I moved into a shared flat in Malaga with some ppl we met at the Hostel. One is Danish, another English and there´s a Hawaian guy too. The English guy, who wants poker lessons, is training to be a bull fighter! He´s hopefully gunna find me some tickets 2 a fight as well! The flat has is 200 euros a month and has a class view, the only problem though is there´s no internet. So here I am in an internet cafe updating my blog and trying 2 work out if I can play poker here. Adios!

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Spain Part 2




2 weeks have passed and we find ourselves back in Malaga. If I were to sum up the last two weeks on the Theo's farm in a sentence it would be: 'Hot hard work in a beautiful scenic place interspersed with a challenging atmosphere'. What do I mean by 'challenging atmosphere'? Basically there were several arguments while we there including the owner having a go at us. Apparently this was commonplace though according to a family who lived on the farm. This put a bit of a downer on the whole experience tbh. However we gained a lot of experience from this this farm.

So far we´ve seen a snake, many lizards and lots of wasps. There was actually a wasp nest in our accommodation with wasps in it that liked to build cocoons in our clothes around dead spiders to feed their babies eggs on, harmless though.

One of the best things we did during our stay was go to the local village festival. It's an annual event called a ´feria´that every village has. There was singing, dancing booze and food, much fun :)

Our plan is to use the hostel in Malaga as a stepping stone to make plans about where to go next. A strong possibility is that we´ll go to the South of France to do some grape picking. The season for this begins very soon and we have a contact there to help us find work. In the meantime Tahti (my m8 who I´m travelling with) will be working part-time in the hostel and I´ll be chilling out and maybe playing a bit of poker :)

Friday 20 August 2010

Spain Part 1




We have only been here for a week and a half but it has been eventful! We arrived in Malaga on Wednesday at 8pm local time. A friend of mine who lives in Malaga picked us up and took us to a hostel. After seeing Malaga from a vantage point (beautiful!) we went for Tapas and drinks.

The next day we walked around the centre and had our introduction to Spain which included heat and the language barrier. This was swiftly followed though by an evening swimming in the sea and enjoying a beach bbq with some very friendly Spanish people.

The following morning it was time to move on and begin ourr WWOOFING experience up in the mountains. It took an entire day to travel there via 2 trains and lots of waiting but on arrival we were met by a friendly Belgian man named Phillip who drove us tot he farm. After days travel an early n ight was in order.

In the morning we began work. The job we were given was to shave the bark off of 30-40 logs using spades, 6y days on we are half way through. Most days have consisted of waking up at 7am and doing this job until midday when it becomes too hot. At this point we sleep, swim, eat, play games with the kids etc. until it cools down in the evening.

Some of the best points about the farm are (in no order):

1) The view over the valley
2) The pool
3) The Charecters
4) Cats and dogs (many)

Today we have a day off as we have worked 6 days straight so we are relaxing by playing games until it cools down and we can go for a walk, possibly to the river at the bottom of the valley.

Thursday 5 August 2010

'Liars Dice' (Drinking version)



I have been playing various games with mates recently including: 'Risk' 'Gin Rummy' and 'Liars Dice'. One of the most fun games we played though was a home made adaptation of Liars Dice into a drinking game. 5 of us had a mint time playing this game last night so I thought I share it with you. Be warned though, if you're a bit of liteweight like me then you can easilly end up drinking half a bottle of Whiskey to yourself in an hour or so = messy! :s

RULES:

The rules for Liars Dice that we used are pretty simple. We started with 5 players (any amount works), each of us getting 5 dice. All players roll their dice at once but conceal the dice they roll.

After choosing who goes first at random, the first player then makes a 'bid'. For example if 2 of his concealed dice are 3's then he might guess that there are 3 or more 3's on the whole table combined (including his). The next player then has 3 options:

1) Bid that there are 3 or more 4's, 5's or 6's
2) Bid that there are 4 or more of any face value (or any number above this)
3) Call the previous bidder a 'Liar'

Play goes on with players upping their bids until a liar is called. At that point the player who is wrong in this dispute must discard a die. After a player has lost all 5 dice he/she is out!

DRINKING:


Now the fun part. With 5 players we used thefollowing rules which can easiily be adjusted for different circumstances:

1st out - rolls 2x6 sided dice and drinks the number of shots they roll

2nd out - rolls a 10 sided die and drinks the number of shots they roll

3rd out - rolls 2x4 sided dice and drinks the number of shots they roll

2nd place - rolls one 6 sided die and drinks...

1st place - rolls one 4 sided die and drinks...

One final rule we added to this was that before downing each shot the drinker gets to roll a 6 sided die and if they roll a 6 they get to nominate someone else to drink that shot.

1 bottle lasted us 2 games but a second bottle is always handy ;)

ENJOY!!!

Friday 23 July 2010

Chopped $42k GTD HU Weeeeeeeeeee!!!



Varience is my new best friend, I know we've fallen out before but we're getting along like a house on fire again! I can't believe how the last 2/3 months have gone :s As I mentioned in the last post I didn't even have a bankroll very recently, instead I was treating each buy-in as an entertainment expenditure... now I'm paying off my student loan with my earnings :D

I choppped this for $6.9k (using ICM) he got $7.5k... Basically I did not want to play HU for $3k! Probably could have squeezed an extra cupl of hundred out of the deal but was too overwhelmed to bargin!!

UNREAL is definately the word 2 describe the past few months of poker for me UNREAL

Sunday 4 July 2010

Time to reflect and plan!

FULL TILT PROFIT GRAPH



POKERSTARS PROFIT GRAPH



IPOKER PROFIT GRAPH



After my recent success with online MTT's and because my blog posts of late have been poor, I decided to reevaluate my results to date. With the help of sharkscope I've been able to get together these 3 graphs that show the sites I have played the vast majority of my poker on. I have played on other sites but only for relatively small amounts and and few games. As for live poker, I have been keeping records almost since I began going to the casino and overall my results are about break even, mainly due to a couple of long l8 night losing cash sessions that were balanced out by tourney scores.

To cut a long story short I've played about 2000 online tourneys on the main 3 sites I play and am about $14,000 in profit. I'd say about half of these were SNG's and later on the other half were MTT's. If it wasn't for MTT's, something I gained a taste for whilst playing for Bankroll Supply these graphs would look somewhat less dramatic!

More to the point though if it wasn't for the handful of big scores I've had lately they would look pretty depressing! However, I wouldn't have played 1000 games at the stakes I do if I hadn't continually been running deep.

In acctual fact if it hadn't been for Paul Jackson at Bankroll Supply (the company who sponsored me on the basis of 500 SNG's at the $5 level and below) I would still be grinding small stakes SNG's for a tiny hourly rate! It was Paul Jackson who persuaded me in my first few lessons with him to move up and play $20 SNG's with the odd MTT, which is when I got the bug!

My roll is now sitting at around $10k, as $4k has been spent along the way :) As such the time has come to make some decisions about my next move. I woulld love to continue with my current plan of playing tourneys between $10-$100 (i.e. max buyin of 1% of my roll) with the odd shot at a Sunday major or medium live tourney, but...
I have just completed my degree and really want to do some travelling, for which I have some savings but probably not enough.

Thinking about it now I think the best move would be this: withdraw (reluctantly lol) half of my bankroll and put this in a savings account to keep me going on my travels and until I find a job. This would still leave me with a $5k roll which would be enuf to play up to $50 tourneys which tbh above which I'm probably punching above my weight at this stage! Any advice on this decison is, as ever, appreciated :)

In summary as tempting as it is to push up the tourney ladder as fast as possible, finishing uni is a rare oppurtunity to travel b4 I get tied down to a job. On top of this realistically I should probably not get too confident and start skipping levels just because I'm doing well atm. Instead the best decision seems to be to attempt to consolidate my recent sucess by staying at the same level and taking the oppurtunity of a lifetime to see the world!

Thursday 1 July 2010

Running like GOD!!!



Special thanx 2 the NPF rail who nearly made me pmsl!!!!!! :D

What next? More/bigger MTT's - sounds like a plan!

Tuesday 29 June 2010

1st for $2.9k again! C'mon!!!



This is the second time I have placed 1st in this tournament :D

Sunday 27 June 2010

7th in $15k GTD

PokerStars Tournament #317010207, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50 USD
1245 players
Total Prize Pool: $19490.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/06/27 5:15:00 ET


Dear DapperDan098,

You finished the tournament in 7th place. A USD 633.42 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 229.41 tournament leader points in this tournament. For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/



Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.



Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday 17 June 2010

My run continues!



6th out of 1248 is yet another result to be proud of! However I don't feel I played my best at several moments throughout this tourney so was lucky to make the FT :@)

It was one of the longest FT's I've played (around an hour just to finish in 6th) as everyone was still quite deep. Obviously a little dissapointed to finish 6th but $1k has softened the blow :)

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Are rules 4 breakin?

As I'm in London this week I decided to meet an old friend and play a bit of £1/£2 cash at the Empire Casino in Leister Square. I started well, by more than doubling my £50 buy-in with KK. I then played KQ a bit badly but rivered a Q to take me up to £200. Soon enuf I had £250 asnd was feeling very comfortable with the table.

As the night wore on though my recent lack of sleep began to tell and my play suffered as it always does. This combined with some horrible beats (won't go into those) meant I had to rebuy for another £50. More beats ensued and tilt/tiredness combined so that I finished the session at 6am down £200. Being down £200 is not a huge problem atm, but not stopping when I knew I was too tired to play is. Some rules were just not meant to be broken!

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Ship the $10k GTD!! :D :D :D



Weeeeeeeeeee!!! Shipped the $10k GTD on Stars last nite for $2.9k :D It was a $33 buy-in tourney with 500 players. I played a lot more conservatively than I have been recently mostly because I was on table with aggressive players for a good chunk of the tourney, but also because I feel my dicipline has been slipping of late.

I made it to heads up as an underdog by about 2:1. But after folding the first 6 hands I raised on the button with J8o. He called and the flop came 853 rainbow, he bet, I raised and he raised me all-in, he had k9o and I held up to take the lead. The very next hand he raises the Button and I ship over the top with A9s, he snap calls with KTs and doesn't improve Weeeeeeee!!!

The most interesting hand I played on the FT was this:

PokerStars Game #44558314612: Tournament #274587212, $30+$3 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXIII (8000/16000) - 2010/05/24 15:19:18 ET
Table '274587212 16' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: Specki76 (151472 in chips)
Seat 3: DapperDan098 (320140 in chips)
Seat 4: LordGamblor7 (753080 in chips)
Seat 6: cwirek1982 (275308 in chips)
Specki76: posts the ante 2000
DapperDan098: posts the ante 2000
LordGamblor7: posts the ante 2000
cwirek1982: posts the ante 2000
Specki76: posts small blind 8000
DapperDan098: posts big blind 16000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DapperDan098 [Ts Kh]
LordGamblor7: raises 32000 to 48000
cwirek1982: calls 48000
Specki76: folds
DapperDan098: calls 32000
*** FLOP *** [7s 2s 3s]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: bets 64000
cwirek1982: folds
DapperDan098: calls 64000
*** TURN *** [7s 2s 3s] [Qs]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: bets 80000
DapperDan098: calls 80000
*** RIVER *** [7s 2s 3s Qs] [8s]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DapperDan098: shows [Ts Kh] (a flush, Queen high)
LordGamblor7: mucks hand
DapperDan098 collected 448000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 448000 | Rake 0
Board [7s 2s 3s Qs 8s]
Seat 2: Specki76 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: DapperDan098 (big blind) showed [Ts Kh] and won (448000) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 4: LordGamblor7 mucked [5s Ac]
Seat 6: cwirek1982 (button) folded on the Flop

I called on the flop because he had been playing really aggressively short handed and I felt two overs and a 10 high flush draw was good against his range, even OOP. I feel I should have shoved the river though as I'm not folding if he puts me all-in, so I'm just giving him a chance to check back worse hands. Still pleased with it though I think :)

Sunday 9 May 2010

3rd in 20k GTD



This morning at 5:15am, 9 hours after I began playing, I finished 3rd in the 20k GTD on Pokerstars. This result has surpassed all my previous results in terms of the size of the tournmanet (3,473 runners) and the size of the cash $2,855. Needless to say I'm pretty happy with that!!!

Friday 23 April 2010

G Casino Online Poker Client Launched





G Casino launched an online poker client as part of the Ipoker network the other day. They asked me to review the new site and these are my thoughts.


Firstly I already like the Ipoker network because I think it's the biggest network that doesn't allow American players to have an account. Not that I agree with the American poker ban but it is generally accepted that American players are better overall than European ones. This is probably because Americans have to jump through certain loopholes that we don't to play so casual players are deterred. Also as a Nation they have been playing Poker for longer than anyone else.


Secondly I am fond of the relatively small sized MTT's, when compared with the likes of Stars and Full Tilt, at the $10-$30 level. The fields are much more manageable meaning less variance for a regular MTT player.


My experience of playing on G Casino Itself was overall a positive one. Apart from one thing which I will explain later. I liked the fact that the tables were resizeable, which I don't think is an option on some Ipoker clients. But most of all I enjoyed the fish! After losing my initial £20 deposit with the usual AA losing to QTo etc. I decided to enter a WSOP sattelite.


G Casino runs sattelites to bothe the Main Event and the side events, something I've been looking for... So anyway I entered a $20 R/A event with about 12 players. This qualifies you for a $215 Super Sattelite that has a prize package worth $5,500. The package includes the buy-in for 2 NL side events + travel & expenses etc.


The structure is unusual though in that your rebuy is worth 2,250 chips (starting stack = 1,500) and the add-on is worth a further 3,000 chips. So it seemed to me that to get the best value I should rebuy at least once and definately add-on. So I rebuy immeadiatley and get busted by a fish with Q4o vs. my JJ. The players on my table must of thought they had clicked on Facebook Poker because the standard was abysmal!! This prompted me to rebuy and I manged to reach the final 4 with first garunteed a seat (to super sat) and 2nd gtd. $185. Then came the add-on period and the bad news for me... I had already made 3 deposits that day (my first on the site) at which point they instantly lock your account!?!?! So I couldn't add-on. To cut a long story short I went all-in pre with AJ as I only had 9 BB's and was called by T4o... straight on the river omg etc. I'll be back to fish in that pond!! :D


Security informed me that this was a measure taken to protect players agaminst fraud and apologised so I guess it's OK just such bad timing! They will reopen my account tomorrow.

The site will also run a special gcasino.com £50,000 Multiplier Tournament on June 20th. The more players that enter the tournament the more added value gcasino.com will contribute – up to £50,000! In addition the overall winner will gain a seat in the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) £150,000 Champion of Champions tournament. Promos like this mean G Casino is definitely worth a look! http://www.gcasino.com/poker


Thursday 15 April 2010

Nice weeeee Score :)


I played a lot of $3.30 rebuy 180 man turbo SNG's in the past couple of days. This was the best of 3 final tables (2nd if you cant see the image). The other two were 4th and 8th. I was pretty chuffed to finish 2nd in this one, although £200 is not a massive score I feel I've been playing really well in these soft fields, exploiting the rebuy fish to the max :D

I feel that small buy-in rebuy tourneys up to $10 are some of the softest games out there. I really like getting the oppurtunity to regulary build a massive stack within the 1st hour of a tourney which gives you the chance to exploit weak players from there on in. Obviously gambling early has it's downisdes e.g. I played in the same tourney 2 nights ago and was in for around $40 I think (in a $3 rebuy). Becuase I had a crazy guy on my left who went all-in pre every hand! Everyone else had folded and I kept getting hands like KJ and A6, so I went in ahead almost every time and lost... c'est la vie! The 3 final tables though show that it's worth it to take some marginally +EV gambles early though imo.

EDIT: Just won 2 tourney seats aswell :D Sunday Million and daily $90k worth $270 in total. Weeeeeeeeee!!!!

Sunday 4 April 2010

Experimenting with Aggression 2




Following on from my last post I've had a few more thoughts about aggression. Whilst Playing in the Newcastle Poker Forum 2nd Birthday tournament I made an unconcious decision to play more aggressively than I usually do live. When I play live I usually play pretty tight and the times I've tried to get a little more creative haven't worked out for me overall. So I've been thinking why?

The answer is a pretty basic one really, but I've never been good at common sense lol. It's the old addage that you should play solid ABC poker against poor players and that you must get more creative against better ones, as they will spot this straight away. We all know this but I think many people, me especially, forget these basic rules from time to time and try and get creative at a fishy table or tighten up when they enter a tougher field than usual.

Going back to the NPF Birthday game, in the few events I've played with the NPF in the past I've been quite nervous and as a result my play has tightened up a lot. This time I knew I had to play differently given the table I was sat at, where basically people were just playing their cards. As a result I opened my preflop raising and calling ranges a bit and made a few steals that I normally wouldn't have. As a by-product I found that I was enjoying the game more! In a way that I rarely do when playing live. Because I was acctually getting to think about each hand in some depth rather than just playing ABC Poker.

Unfortuneately though this brings us back to the catch 22 that many poker players are faced with: playing fish is boring yet profitable and the reverse is true against skillful players. Causing us to question why we play this game? Is it for profit or for entertainment? Or both... As recreational players do we need a bankroll or can we just chuck on the odd deposit here and there? Do we have to play our way thru the mind numbing micro and low stakes to get to play at an interesting level or can we just view Poker as an intellectual persuit that we're prepared to pay for?

Anyways went off on a bit of a tangent there. This was just supposed to be a post to remind myself to play ABC against fish and more creative against better players... Thanx 4 reading.

Thursday 18 March 2010

Experimenting with Aggression




I've had this idea floating around in my head for awhile which boils down to this in NLHE how much do your hole cards really matter? I don't mean the old 'any two cards can win' argument either that croupiers love to tell you about 'Aces are useless, I know I see them get beat all the time!'. I mean this: how often do you actually see a showdown? Not very often in my experience, especially in tourneys where if u see a river it usually means someone's tourney life is in the balance.


Anyways, it's just an idea that's based on what I know about poker being a very situational game of incomplete information. Even when you read the HOH intro Harrington lists 10 factors that should be considered in a tourney hand before your hole cards! And he's not exactly considered the most flamboyant of players!

I think you get the idea that I have been wondering for a while about which is can you disregard your hole cards in many NLHE situations? I was a bit nervous about writing this and one of the reasons is I've never read a great deal into this argument so I'm not very sure of it's validaty or the issues surrounding it (COMMENTS APPRECIATED).

The problem is I'm at a stage in my playing career where I'm beginnning (belatedly) to experiment with a LAGGY style in MTT's and whilst this idea underpins the LAGGY style, it is not HOW it works (usually). I mean, good LAG's seem to be mindful of this idea but also mindful of the fact that you cannot 'soul read' or see your opponents cards basically. So because of this fold equity alone is not sufficient to base your game around. Instead a safety net of equity should be maintained in most situations unless you feel the situation is too good to pass up on.

This may all sound pretty obvious but it feels worthwhile to put it into words. Especially as I have a recurring leak which is this: I am a black and white thinker in many ways. I tend not to be half hearted. So when it comes to me experimenting with new moves in a tourney I often find myself taking this idea to it's limit i.e. ignoring my cards completely and focusing only on the stacks, images, board texture, relative positions etc.

In summary I think I need to use showdown value as a safety net i.e. not bluff with air because I feel the situation is 'right' too much. Therefore as I'm only really beginning to experiment with a LAG style, I should should pick spots that are less risky but still challenge myself and experiment in new situations.



Some comments from a friend:

-i think the key is that there'll be some spots where a bet is profitable purely from fold equity
and then you can do it with any cards
-but there are a lot of marginal spots where fold equity isn't quite enough to make a bet + ev by itself and then you need some hand value to back it up, but not neccesarily very much

Friday 12 March 2010

The night I ran like god, almost...



Last night I managed the following results out of 5/6 games on Stars:


I played two $55 tournies:

16th in 40k GTD (1,000+ runners)

40th in 5k GTD 500 cap ($15k pot)


And two smaller ones before that:

6th in $12 180 man

10th in $22 180 man

Obviously the big one was the $40k GTD. During the late stages my stack was like a yo-yo! As usual I'm going to do an analysis of what went wrong:

In this case it was a simple error on my part, I got people I didn't know to rail me from Newcastle Poker Forum. Although I'm very grateful for their support at 2am on a Thursday! It was a mistake of mine to ask them to. Basically I kind of knew it could affect my game but not how, so picking a crucial time in a big tournie to test this out was plain daft!

The effect it had on my game was simple, I tightened up and not even in a good way. I started to play only hands with solid showdown value and disregard many factors of the situations I played them in. Why? Because I was worried if I tried re-steals etc. with questionable cards I'd look like an idiot if/when it went wrong. So this meant I wasn't even able to steal blinds as effectively anymore meaning when I saw a hand like TT or AT I was read to get in no matter what, because I knew I needed to pick up chips.

Anyways enough ranting, I want to stress this was MY mistake, not the people from NPF who kindly railed me. Other than this I'm very pleased with the way I played last night :) My total profit for the night was around $250.

Thursday 18 February 2010

Bankroll it is :)

Just a quick update to say I've decided not to do Vegas this year. Partly thanx to advice from Rosco and Dan Trett, I decided my budget would be too low and that there is guna be other oppurtunites.

The good news is obviously that in 3-4 months time when I finish my degree I'll have a bankroll between ($1k-$2k) to play with, depending on how much I spend/save :)

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Decisions, decisions... Vegas or Bankroll???







OR





My recent win from which I have managed to save about $1.6k has left me with a decision to make: how to spend it :D

Basically I have narrowed it down to 2 sensible options:

1) Go to Vegas with 'Newcastle Poker Forum' gang during the WSOP or (I will have another $1k by then so $2.6k total)

2) Save it to use as the bankroll I've always wanted for online MTT's (when I graduate in June)

I'm torn between the two at the moment. Basically the trip to Vegas is a great oppurtunity as the NPF lads are renting a house, which would save a lot of money. Plus it's an oppurtunity to experience Vegas with a bunch of other poker players (last time was on my own). Plus it's during the WSOP!!! The only cons are I'd be on a budget (only $1k to spend over 2 weeks including buy-ins) and that I've been before so perhaps I should wait to go again until I'm not on a budget.

Option 2 however has it's own allure. Basically instead of pissing about hoying $20-$100 on now and then onto various sites and trying to guess if I'm a winning player overall, I could do it properly! I'm sure I could raise $400 to make it up to $2k which is a perfect figure for $10-$20 MTT's given that I'm not going Pro. TBH the reason (and this is very honest for me lol) I've never kept a decent online bankroll is because when I've had over $1k online I get scared and spend it on something concrete (and usually unecessary e.g. bike or TV).

What would you do??? Comments appreciated.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Stars Step 5 - double mistake




After my latest win I cashed out $2k from my Stars account so I can concentrate on study again for the last 4 months of my degree. This left $100 which I decided to use to sattelite into a Sunday major... I won a $39 turbo sat and unregged as I couldn't play that nite.

Then, stupidly, I decided to play a step 4 tourney on stars thinking I could cash in the $700 if I won!!! Half way thru it dawns on me that I can't do this, woops! However, I can't bring myself to lose on purpose in the late stages to regain my Sunday major ticket... So I win and advance to step 5...

5 hands in I'm dealt AKs UTG and 3x raise. One caller from MP and I immeadiately put him on a small pair for some reason... Flop: A43 two clubs... I C-bet, he raises, I check sharkscope and see this: he's played 1 $5 SNG on stars and that's it, SUSPICIOUS!!! Anyways I know he can reset his stats and do this but the other part of me wants to believe he's a fish with AQ or a flush draw. So I make a standard $10 SNG move and re-raise, he shoves and I feel commited so I call. If u haven't guessed it by now he has a set of 3's. Gutted.

I think the main two factors in this mistake were years of playing small stakes SNG's and my eagerness to believe what I wanted to, it was a painhful mistake that I hope I learn from. Of course $2k has softened the blow a bit :)

Friday 5 February 2010

1st for $1.9k Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night was my biggest cash ever. And tot top it off I had decided it was the last game I would play online for 4 months (probably lol). I just put a tenner on to treat myself after handing in two assignments.
I'm quite glad I did that. Seriously though this is the result I've been looking for, for a long time now and I finally got it when I least expected, extremely chuffed!!! :D

Saturday 9 January 2010

5 Month Break from Online

This might sound out of the blue for a few ppl but it's something thats been brewing a while for me. I'm in the last 5 months of a degree that I've been doing for nearly 5 years now, enough said on that factor. There are other reasons for the break too though.

Firstly, the more I hear about successful players on forums the more I realise that they are extremely hardworking people, I can't be with regards to poker atm.

Seconly, online poker has become a big escapiest tool for me in recent times that has prevented me from getting the most out of my life.

Thirdly, I can't afford a bankroll atm to play the games I want to play.

Finally, I need some time to reflect upon where I'm going with this game and how much time/effort I'm willing to give it in the future.

I will still be playing live (once or twice a week max) but the aim is not to play online at all until my degree is over. Good luck in the new year to everyone else!!! See you at the tables (live) :)

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