Bankroll Update

Been a roller coaster couple of days at Inter and Poker Room, with very little play at Titan. Inter especially seems to be massive swings one way then the other. Last night was a great example with 3 SNG's saw me getting knocked out with my high pockets all losing to lower pockets after my opponent hit another on the table.

This continued for another couple of hours on the cash tables, and I could not seem to win a hand irrespective of what I held. Flushes, full houses, str8s and sets, all falling to better hands.
Time to change my game plan and, after a conversation with Acorn about table selection, I looked for a juicy NL table and found one at a 15c level. Sat down to a table that just did not know how to fold pre flop, and every player at the table was seeing a high number of flops.

Easy pickings were aplenty, players calling with top pair irrespective of the obvious str8 or flush draw on the board, and calling any size bet as well. They hardly ever raised pre-flop, but called any pre-flop raise of mine with almost any 2 cards. Just what I needed, and lady luck shone brightly on me in helping me find this table. Ample notes were made and I look forward to meeting these players again, especially the one who openly kept admitting how drunk he was (he reloaded 3 times!).

I admit, I played like one of them at times. I totally changed my usual game to fit in with the style of play at the table. Almost every flop could be seen for one bet (pot odds depicted a call most hands, irrespective of what cards you held), and whilst this does not breed good discipline, I adapted to make the most of my surroundings. I never saw one check raise at the table, which made it very easy to find out if someone had a hand. If they checked, they didn't, if they bet they did, so I was able to steal as much as I won with legitimate hands, and no one seemed to notice. Frequently I would turn over 2nd pair with good kicker and see it beat a pocket pair lower than any card on the table.

So, Titan sits at $209 (-$1), Poker Room $663 (+ $64) and Inter $403 (plus $48). The figures in brackets are the movements since my last update, so a general upward trend, despite the ups and downs of play along the way. Am getting close to clearing my 100$ bonus at Inter, and was thinking of cashing this in and splashing it on a night out with Cathy (bonus doesn't count to the challenge), but hope that I can receive it quicker than Acorn seems to be waiting. As I live in the north, we can still have a decent night out with food and drink for £60 here, though any southern readers may struggle to believe that :-).

Still enjoying the World Cup, depsite the negative tactics employed by England, who seem sure to come unstuck against a stronger team. And let's face it, no team that progresses as far as England will have played as many poor sides as we have. Germany showed Sweden's true colours, after England had made them look above average, and only their goalie stopped this being a record defeat for the Swedes.
The only advantage England may have against Portugal, is that our opponents had all their best players sent off in the Holland game, and the other left the pitch injured, so we may have a chance. Improvements are essential if we are to progress, and if I hear another England player say 'we need to cut out the long ball' and then promptly play the long ball for the next 90 minutes, I shall start supporting another country. Also, in keeping with the incompetent performances by our players, our sole referreeing representative managed to book the same player 3 times, and will probably not be selected for the latter stages after this howler.

Mexico showed how to play against a supposed greater power - have a go at them. In fact, I think I've enjoyed every team I've seen play at least once, with the exception of England.

Poker - long may this run continue. Football, long ball may we get it right?