Half Way There

Gonna try and be careful here, as my poker is going from strength to strength, and I don't want to come across as a gloating swine or that I'm being arrogant, as that is not the case. I almost feel a bit embarrassed, not sure if anyone else feels the same way in the middle (I hope, rather than the end) of a very good run, you almost feel that people turn off you or think you're just a lucky bar steward, but hell, we all talk about our bad beats, why not the good ones?
I am also not stupid enough to believe that this run will last forever, so just as as I would be describing things if they are not going well, I do the same when things are going well.

I even got incredibly lucky when accidentally calling a stupid bet from the table maniac, meaning to fold but my mouse jumped and I clicked the call button. He turned over QQ and I had KJ suited. Flopped a flush and I would never intenionally call a 17$ bet with any hand (except AA maybe), but when things are going your way, they go your way.

Can't quite put my finger on what is the root cause of the upturn. I guess, at the end of the day, it's just my turn, like it will be someone else's next. It would be nice if it was a baton, because then you could pass it to someone deserving, rather the random nature that luck obviously is.

The only difference I can see is that I'm carefully selecting the tables I play on, as per my previous post, rather than just looking for an empty seatg, and this is proving a lot more lucrative than I imagined. 'Play the cards, why bother about your opponents style of play' I used to think. Often heard Acorn talk about not wanting to play on certain tables, but never really understood why. I suppose, therefore, I must proffer my thanks to the Acorn Man for his helpful advice, and he may find a pint in front of him if I'm ever in Glasgow, or him in Cheshire.

Closed my Titan account at 210$ (125$ put in) and will now begin their long winded process of getting my money. Had I known this cash-out system before I opened the account, I would never had done so. (Poker Room lead the way on this for me btw.) This will probably make Inter look like Speedy Gonzales by comparison. OK, only 85$ I know, but everything counts.

Since Monday, my Poker Room is sitting at $705 (+42$) and my Inter challenge sits at 502$ (+99$), half way to the 1000$ target, mainly thanks to a run of 6 x 5$ SNG's where I won 3, came 2nd in two and out early in the 6th, as well as some nice cash table play. Not quite as good as Rosie's current run, which is mighty impressive if she doesn't mind me saying, but I'm pleased that this part of the game is becoming more productive for me. Ironically, I seem to do better when people I know are at the table, than playing with total strangers. This seems to be the total opposite of the rest of the Inter Challengers, can't quite put my finger on why though.

Opened up a new acount at CD Poker for 4 reasons. 1 - They put 50$ in your account if you deposit 100$ or more once you've been dealt into 500 hands on cash tables. 2 - They offer a 200% cash back, with relatively easy targets to achieve. 3 - They have offered me a sponsorship, and will pay me to play basing their calculations on my first two weeks play, so will be heading here a lot for the next two weeks. 4 - They pay me a rake back of 30% on a 2 weekly basis. (Anyone wants the codes or details, let me know and I'll forward them on.) Opened up the account on Monday with 100$ and am already sitting at $265 before they credit my 50$ which is almost achieved, so a profit of 165$ in the first 3 days.

I've never paid any attention to how much rake I pay (I look at my starting balance and my closing balance and am either happy or sad), so not sure what this will amount to, but at 60 hands per hour average, and 4 hours play most nights, .50c rake = a lot of money per 2 weeks, I think. The 50c rake will probably be divided between the number of players in the hand, maybe someone could give me a steer on how much they receive or correct me on this if I'm wrong. I'm gonna look at my rake contribution over the next two weeks to see what I can expect.
And, as the system is virtually the same as Titan, I sit on the same tables with players I sat with at Titan, hence the closing of that account.

So an overall profit on the last 4 days of $306 - so you can see why I'm so happy with my poker at the moment.

What's that? No, I won't lend you any money :-)

Off the tables, still waiting to hear on a couple of jobs, both should have let me know this last weekend, but have delayed the decision till tommorow, so hopefully I'll have some good news on this front on my next post.

And finally, I've been asked to do a kiddies party next weekend, for a bunch of 2/3 year olds - but this warrants a seperate post as I've been thinking of songs and games and stuff I can do with them for an hour to keep them all occupied, and want to try them out on you, my adoring public :-) It will be parent / child participation, as I'm not having Mum's and Dad's slope off to the pub whilst I babysit! It's a 3pm start, so should be all over and well rested for the 3rd/4th place play off in the World Cup.

Time to go, hope my next post is as positive as this one and apologies if my over-exuberance has offended anyone. Toodle Pip.

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?