Boo Boo Mr Juice :-)

Seems like Mr Juice didn't like joining in with our sing song boys and girls. My blog is a Poker and Daddy-hood view, and I try and entwine the two as I put my thoughts to virtual paper. I play a lot of poker, for sure, but spend more time as a daddy than I do on the tables. Occasionally silly activities with the kids are a nice distraction from the poker world and I just wanted to share a little of that side with you all.

Anyway, the party was a great success, the weather held on for us till just as we were finishing and the heavens opened as everyone headed home. There was laughter and tears, there was joy and happiness and I've not seen Mia enjoy herself this much before. So much so that when she was put to bed at 8.30pm last night, she was fast asleep before the door closed behind me and didn't stir until 10am this morning, giving mummy and daddy a lie in for which we were grateful.
The animal birthday song was a particular favourite as well as the 'dressing up show' we put on for the other mum's and dad's at the end.

Daddy was almost as happy on the tables as well. SNG's are going from strength to strength and Sharkscope shows my profit at Inter breaking through the 200$ mark after placing in 6 of the last 8 played. Contrasting, last night, was my cash table play and I could not seem to win a hand for a couple of hours and most of my SNG profit had vanished when I shut down at 1.30am (ish). Fortunately for me, the last hour at a £1 limit table has seen this returned so, at the time of writing, my Inter account sits at $551.

For the record, I cashed out 500$ from my poker room account as I don't seem to play as much here, though an hours play earlier saw me increase my remaining 200$ to 245$ thanks to some bizarre play by an opponent who called my all in (40$) on an A high flop, holding JJ and my AK was enough to take the pot.
CD Poker is also going well, and my account balance here sits at $434 where I am currently in a 20 seater SNG, my second at this site. (hit 2nd so up to $444 :-)

Overall a good week, and my lengthy spells at the SNG tables are paying off very nicely for me at Inter. It's an interesting thought process as you play these games, so different from the way I play at cash tables. Earlier on, I try and see more hands than usual while the blinds are so low, as it can make a massive difference to how long you can stay in if you manage to hit a couple of hands and double up, or increase by 50%, early on.

Conversley, not playing a hand early on can be quite profitable, as the fish are at their most stupid-est early on, and will regualrly call with suited cards or mid connectors, and even poor players get lucky. Often 2 or 3 and more will be out before you've played a hand. Patience is definately the key here.

However, I've played in some where I've been card dead for the first 4 or 5 blind levels and it's hard to make an impact when your stack has been reduced by 30-40% and the blinds creep up over the 100 mark (especially at Inter with a 1000 starting stack). After this point, it's pretty much all in or fold mentality, and if you get a caller, it's sometimes a coin flip on who progresses. Many times my AK/AQ has run into a pocket pair, and if you don't hit, you're out. Lady luck plays a bigger part here than we care to give her credit for.

Sometimes, you see players hit a big hand early on, and then sit out for a while and let the fish knock each other out before rejoining as you get close to the money. I've joked about doing this before, but can't do it. You give your opponenets an advantage if you fold stronger hands than they are playing with, and also not fair on other players at the table, though if you get in the money, who cares about anyone else? Some might say, 'This is war'. But, if your sole objective is to just get in the money, I suppose this could work.

I also have to make a quick comment on Sharkscope, which is an invaluable tool for the regular SNG player. It is amazing to be able to see the stats on all your fellow SNG players before it starts, picking out the fish, the really poor players and, of course, the good ones, or sharks as they are called. I found out to late in one SNG that I was at a table almost full of sharks, and should have got out of that one before it started, but ran the Sharky scan too late.
It also tells you the last 10 or so SNG's they've played in, and the outcome, so you get a feel for how their current form is running.
It also amazes me the standard of opposition at some of the tables. Sharky regularly points out players that are several thousand dollars down at SNG's ($10,800 is the worse loss I've seen so far), and you have to wonder why some of them keep playing, losing as much as they do, but I for one, am glad they do.

Anway, time for a few SNG's before bedtime - extra time is coming to an end in a cagey World Cup final, so the prospect of penalties is looking very likely. Zidane has just tarnished his reputation with a stupid head butt, then had the gall to argue with the referree for sending him off!!

And no, I refuse to comment on England's World Cup, we missed a great chance and the overpaid and over rated Sven ruined it for us all. Enough said.