Mia's Dad - Poker and Daddy-Hood

Just the One!

2007-10-13T22:06:00.000+01:00

A trip to the maternity unit at the local hospital yesterday for the 3 month scan dispelled any thoughts of twins coming in 6 months time! The scan showed a 'normal' baby, wriggling around like the preverbial pig in shit. Can't help being amazed sat watching our little baby - just 3 months 'old' (or should that be -6 months old?) - on the screen wriggling around in mummy's tummy, waving arm and legs, heartbeat clearly visible. Amazing what technology can do these days.

Anyway, mother and baby appear to be doing very well, all tests came back spot on where they should be - so we look forward to the due date of 20th April (10 days after Mia was born - odds on being 10 days early?) and now have to decide on a name. Which is not proving easy.

Poker has continued in the same form as my previous post, a few downs, but mainly ups and my balance has crept to the £550 mark with about another £60 in my poker account. I've gone back to Ladbrokes, one of the first sites I played at, and stuck to the 10/20c BB level.

Things have been going well overall, and last night was a pretty roller coaster night, losing 2 buy ins when I flopped a str8 and saw the two cards I was holding hit the turn and river and my opponent had the high card to make a better str8.

Feeling a bit 'tilty', I headed to a 50c BB table, and was dealt AA early on. A raise and call before me so i raise it up 4 x the original raise- 3 players call!

We see a flop of J J 10 so I pot bet and all 3 call!

Turn was an A so I bet half my original bet, attempting to show weakness. One player pushes, 2nd and 3rd call, as do I. I push on the river and everyone calls. 3 Full Houses and a Str8 and I profit about 150$ :-).

Shut down the 50c tables and snuck back to the 20c and, apart from the above, have stayed fairly disciplined.

Anyway, off to Biddulph Gardens tomorrow, so let's hope for some nice weather!

Oh Happy Days

2007-10-02T21:17:00.000+01:00

Another succesful night on the tables (although only at the 5/10c levels) and after doubling my Joker Stars BR on Sunday, I doubled it again last night. Oh happy days.

Trying to stay away from the higher limit games, where variance can bite your ass much harder and hence longer to recover from. Once my total BR gets to 500£ I'll have a peek at stepping upto 25 & 50c BB level, where I have played comfortably in the past. I'd not looked at my overall BR for a while, just been putting a little away here and there after seeing it depleted from almost £800 8 months ago to just £200 8 weeks ago. The 50 and 100$ here and there I'd put in have added up quite nicely and I was very surprised to see £435! Oh happy days.
Combined with the 110$ I've got in Joker Stars at the mo, close to £500. Oh happy days.

At home, Cathy continues to grow and the twins are looking a distinct possibility. She's a slim lass, so maybe it just stands out more - but she's much bigger than when carrying Mia. The scan is middle of next week, so all will be revealed in time. Oh happy days.

Mia is not the little baby anymore, and started her pre-school nursery this last week. Mummy and Daddy took her for her first day and she took to it like a duck to water. Some kids were crying and refusing to let go of the parents - and there was almost as much the other way round. She had her uniform on and looked much older than 3! I warned her about boys at school, and not to let anyone push her around. Whilst she should never be mean or unkind to other children, she should stand up for herself if the need arises.
Basic translation: left hook and drop kick to the balls.

Anway, just finished watching United beat Roma 1-0 in a fairly cagey game (oh happy days!) and sitting 10$ up at my cash table, so a pleasant evening overall.

Toodle Pip all.

They Don't Like It Up 'Em!

2007-09-30T23:36:00.000+01:00

The Scots fell by the wayside.
The Welsh were put to the sword.

And the English? Well, they won again.

Not Rugby.
Not Football. (Yet. )

But the Blogger Tourny. Happy to do it for my country.

Bollocks to that mallarky - it's all about me, me, me!!

Really enjoyed the game and felt really focused and patient (something that has been missing from my game for the last couple of weeks!). Got some good cards at vital times and generally, my decision making was pretty good.

A few hands stand out:
A 6 x BB raise in mid position from Res Evil and I was holding 10 10. Blinds were 50 and I think I was in the SB. Did consider putting him all in, but as there were 2 more players after me, decided to just call. Flop was A Q x and Res took a while before betting (I thought, at the time) weakly. I just didn't put him on an Ace - though JJ was an option. Overall, I thought he was weak, so I called. He checked the turn, as did I and he made another small bet at the river. Again, I thought about pushing here as I thought I sensed weakness, but just decided to flat call as I still had the possibility of JJ in my head. He had 99 and this put me to CL for a short while.

Also had a big hand against Dan (Portdeco), whom I would later go heads up against. I check / call holding 77 on a 7 5 2 flop. turn x, again I check call and the river was also a blank and this time I check/raised and he called with pocket 5's - also flopping a set. Unlucky for him, but he recovered really well and became CL himself for quite some time!

Did think I'd knocked him out with my Q10 against his 6 4 on a K Q 4 flop when we were down to 3 - but a 6 on the river almost put me out - down to less than 3k. From here, it was push with any decent hand and after a few folds, Dan called my A8 with KQ (I think) and neither improved and I was back!
Dan took out Hammerheid for 3rd, then a battle that seemed to go on for ages was fought. First I was CL by a mile, then he was, and there were more swings than on general election night!
It came down to final hand when my 78 came against his 94 (i think it was a 9?) on a J 8 4 flop. I bet at it, he called, and when another J hit the turn, I was confident I was ahead. I bet and he pushed all in. He'd made a comment a few hands earlier about being tired and 'time is getting on' and I thought he was trying to steal. I called and the river didn't help him and I picked up my 2nd Blogger victory.

That's mostly the way I remember it - don't think I sucked out once or made that many bad decisions and really enjoyed getting back into Blogger game after an absence of several weeks. Came back 3 weeks ago and was out early, managed 7th last week and now 1st.

I'll be back to defend the title next week - where I am sure Burnley Mik will be one of the more vocal challengers!

Proud to do it for country and Queen, Mik :-)

Nightmares and Dreamland!

2007-09-17T19:39:00.000+01:00

Had a bit of a session at the tables last night, the longest session I have played for some time. Cathy was in bed, feeling the effects of the several dozen babies she is carrying (ha ha) and the possibility of twins is increasing as much as her waistline. We both seem to feel the opposite, she is in dread, whereas I think it would be fantastic. We shall see, scan in 4 weeks when all will be revealed!

Anyway, poker. Began quite brightly, taking my $130 up to $160 and I felt I was playing well, stealing a lot from the 2 passive players at the table. Them got dealt KK 4 times in about 40 hands. First time I folded to a big re-raise on an A high flop, then the next 3 occasions, ran into AA each time. Not sure what the odds of this are, but getting dealt KK 4 times in 40 hands must be high, seeing 3 of them run into AA on a 6 seater table must be substantially higher.
To make matters worse, the flops were low making me sure it was high pair v high pair - alas I was the underdog each time and 2.5 buys-in were gone :-(

Then, making the sensible (not) decision that, if I stepped up to the 50c BB level, I'd make back the money I lost much quicker. Why do these things seem so sensible at the time, yet so stupid when you think about it afterwards?

Anyway, not sure if this is the biggest pot I've been involved in on cash games, but certainly up there! Maybe there was one poor call on my part during this, but anyway, it went like this:

I'm on the BB with Q 10 sooted. First player to act raises it to 1.50 (3x bb) and everyone round the table calls. My decision, I think, is an easy call. $8.50 in the pot already - another $1 to me seemed good odds, so I call.
Flop is Ah Kh 7d. I'm first to act and did consider taking a stab at this - nut flush (and royal) and nut str8 draw - but worried that AK is out there and could get a big raise that I couldn't call.
Anyway, I check and a player in mid-position bets 5$. 2 callers and I think for a while before making the decision to call. 5$ into almost 20$ with (assuming no cards in hands) with 13 outs - and at the time I thought this justified a call, certainly the implied odds if one player had trips or 2 pair (as I suspected). Thoughts?
Anyway, one more caller after me - and I get a bit hazy on the bet sizes from now on (apart from the final pot!) so these are approximates.

Turn was a Jc - I'd hit the nuts.
Problem here is I had a feeling one player had AK, one AQ - but possibly trips. If I push and get a caller and the board pairs on the river, I'm fucked - and my notes on these players indicate that they won't be folding 2 pair let alone trips, so I check. 1st player bets 10$, one folds and 2nd player raises to 20$.
This is getting tasty so I flat call and see player 1 raise another 20$, one caller and I flat call also.
River was a 2c.

At this point, I'm pretty happy a heart didn't hit the river, as I doubt the following would have happened if the obvious flush was out there. But, more importantly, the river doesn't pair the board so I have the nuts. I decided to bet 10$ here - hoping to look a little weak and maybe a feeble steal attempt, player 1 pushes all in, player 2 calls.
I have the most chips now, so I push all in and player 2 calls after some thought.
One player had Trip 7's and the other had AK. My reads were spot on, which I was quite pleased about - but not as pleased as the 233$ pot that came my way!

This pushed my BR up to 301$ - which I'm chuffed to bits about, especially with my mood over recent weeks. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a good run and the knowledge from the 4 poker books I've read are having an effect.

Or am I just damn lucky?

2007-09-15T09:18:00.000+01:00

Morning readers, hope the weekend is as bright and sunny as it is here in Cheshire!

Life is very busy in my household at the moment. The office is contnuing to grow and I now have over 40 staff in the office, and business is running about 25% ahead of budget - with September's achieved in the first 2 weeks of trading! Our financial year starts 1st July - so with the first quarter almost over, we've had a great start to the year.
Staff are stretched with workloads very high, this being our busiest month of the year usually - so really trying to keep everyone happy, calm and motivated. Lots of cakes and chocolate on Friday, and lots of my stupid jokes!
It also means I'm getting to the office earlier, and leaving later, and then taking over when I get home for the last hour or so before Mia goes to bed. Not played a great deal as I've been too tired, but managing to steadily build my BR, even though I'm playing at the 10c BB level.
My 50$ stack of a couple of weeks ago now sits at around $130 - which ain't bad at the 10c level!
The problem is at this level, is the general standard is just so bad, it's hard to put anyone on a hand. You raise with AK (e.g.) hit a K high flop with 2 suited cards and your opponent (who you know has done this several times already with either a flush or str8 draw) pushes all in with his smaller stack. You're pretty confident you're ahead at this point, but can you avoid the flush or str8? Sometimes I fold, sometimes I call. Last night, after calling a particularly bad player,he shows a flush draw, a gutshot (neither hit) and trips. Then, on the 4th occasion, he had lowest pair with top kicker, so my hand won 3 out of these 4 confrontations - but the moral of the story is you just can't predict or second guess what your opponent is holding, so it's just a lotto at some times. Guess you've just gotta keep playing the %'s. Trouble is with online poker, %'s don't mean a great deal!

Anway, Cathy is still upstairs, not feeling too great at the moment so she is having a morning in bed, and I'm taking Mia out shopping (for colouring and reading books) and then off to the park to give Mummy a bit of peace and quiet.
Beacuse of this, no live poker this weekend, so will have to play online if the urge takes me!

Good luck all.

Pokery fun

2007-09-10T20:18:00.000+01:00

The fun bit refers to some live play I participated in over the weekend. Certainly not at the blogger game where a combination of an afternoon's drinking, serious tiredness and, at times, a distinct lack of knowing what was going on!
I logged on to a few blogs to see where I could get the monkey from, and was pleasantly amazed to see the finishing table and see that I wasn't last - someone beat me to it by a couple of hands! So, that pleasure awaits me for another time, or hopefully not!
The hand that did me was my KJ running in to Amatays KK, on a J high flop. Bad read on my part, I put him on an AQ or AK hand - and got it really wrong when I raised him and then pushed on the turn. Hay-ho, ces't la vie and all that.

Anyway, back to the nice bits. Played in another live tourny on Saturday and feel that this is real poker. The stuff online is like Texas Hold 'em on LSD by comparison.
Anyway, played in another £5+1 and there was about 60 in when we kicked off around 3pm. Don't think I played a hand for the first 50mins, lots of new faces and I tried my best to watch the different styles and methods in play. Didn't have an aggressive player at the table for this first bit, but met one a little later. The players at this table were playing the cards, and after almost an hour of me being incredibly tight, I got dealt KK and this seemed to spark me into action. Got a couple of callers to my 6 x bb pre-flop raise, one folded to my half pot bet on the raggedy 10 high flop, and the other fold to my bet on the turn, which I think was a Q.
I told him as I bet I put him on AK, and that he'd never call past the flop, not sure if this put him off - but if it did, I had an advantage I may use later on.
Anyway, this seemed to give me a bit of impetus, and after raising next hand with A 10 suited, and everyone folded, I turned on the aggression almost every hand, from position, for the next 6 or rounds and took advantage of the passive table I was at.
My stack was about 4 times my starting amount, when I was moved to another table and boy, what a difference. 2 seats to my left was a maniac like I haven't seen in a live game before. Unfortunately, sat next to my right, were 2 more!
I never had a hand to challenge for ages, and my stack was dwindling, and AK came my way. I flat called, hoping for a raise after me, and sure enough, maniac 1 raises and maniac 2 calls. Back to me and I just push. There is something quite satisfying doing this live. Calling 'All in' and pushing your chips slowly to the middle. Anyway, after a few mins, maniac one calls and maniac two folds. This was a huge pot, the biggest I have contested live. He turns over AQ sooted.
I flopped a K, but he flopped 2 more hearts and after a slow motion turn and river, there was no runner runner trips, nor a flush on the river, and I won a huge pot!
I'd lost track of the rest of the tourny by this point, guess I was in the 'zone', you hear sports-people talk about. Being an athlete myself, cough cough, well, compared to dart's players I am!
Anyway, lost track of time and other tables and I was moved away to another table about 10 hand after my AK v AQ hand. I was a bg chip leader at this next table, seemed to be all the stragglers here, so I took full advantage and pushed my big stack around!
Feeling good, I was moved again and was about to ask the tourny director how many times I could be moved, when I realised it was the final table! No more moving now.
I think I was about 2nd or 3rd at this point, but with no electronic scoreboard or chip counter, it was just guesswork looking at other players stacks. After a break we resumed, and I was able to portray a pretty aggressive table image after getting AQ, JJ and KK in the next 5 hands. The next hand I had the mighty 7 2 on the button, and had decided to raise if here was no raise before me. Alas, someone pushed and I had to fold. The table shortie pushed and I was in the BB with 10 8 sooted. With only another blind and a half to call, and no one else in the hand, I thought I had good odds, so decided to call. He had AK but I spiked an 8 and he went out.
A period of card-deadness hit me and before I played another hand, we were down to the last 4.
For the first and only time, I got AA at this point and fortunately for me, ran into the 'shortie' with JJ so was probably chip leader as we went to the last 3.
The other 2 then seemed to go on some sort of personal battle against each other, and I was happy to sit back for a few rounds and see what they did without me involved. Before too long they were both all in and we were down to heads up.
It did swing back and forth a bit, finally ending when I re-raised with AQ and ran into his 88 - and with no A or Q to be seen, he won and I got 2nd.
Nice payout, another really enjoyable live experience and I feel my live play is strong and I'm looking forward to trying to get a regular involvement.
Best we forget and I not talk about my game the previous weekend, when I busted out 5th. Unfortunately, 5th from the start, not the end.
Can't win 'em all, eh?

Hand Analysis

2007-09-01T20:24:00.000+01:00

Evening chaps and chapesses.

Almost finished reading Harrington, and after finishing Greenstein last week, I'm trying to put some of my new found theories into place. The biggest thing I have learnt, I think, is that I don't watch enough of what's going on around me. I make notes, and read them regularly, but there are things I ain't picking up. Maybe my recent bad run has made me concentrate too much on my losing hands, and I've lost some focus on my opponents and my other hands.

So, I played a 5$ NL $1000 added tourny last night, 350 were in, and whilst I only managed to hit 46th (money paid top 30) - I felt my game was spot on. I didn't have a premium pair all tourny, and had it not been for two hands out of the blinds, where I flopped monsters on unraised pots, I'd have gone out much earlier.

This hand, was a pivotal one in the mid stages, and prolonged mty participation until I went out later.

Maniac sat two spaces to my right, and has been raising about half the time. He's shown a range of hands from trash to slighty better. Most of the table, including me, have been folding to him pretty much all the time. In my defence, I had nothing better than 9 high almost every time he raised, so could not do too much.

So, I'm on the BB and am dealt KQ sooted, the best hand I'd had so far. A couple of limpers and Mr Agressive puts in his 4 x bb raise. and it folds to me. My thought process here involves several things:
We have pretty similar stacks
2 players after me have yet to react to his raise

I'm out of position whoever says in.

If there were no one after me, I'd consider re-raising here, but the 2 latter players may be holding a strong hand, but relying on Mr Maniac to do the raising for them.
With the bets in the pot, and my BB already in, the odds were favourable, so I just flat call (good decision?).

The other 2 players flat call, and we see a flop of KQ7.

So, what to do here? It's impossible to put the maniac on a hand seeing his play so far, and there are 2 other players in the hand, so I check (right?) and the other 2 check to maniac - who also checks. This confused me, as he's always put a cont bet - yet doesn't this time.
Has he realised he's been playing loose, or does he have a monster? In the time I'm thinking about what he has, I almost time out as the turn brough another K.
I bet 3 x bb (enough?) trying to tempt in a caller.
2 fold and maniac raises me 3 x my bet.
What does he have? He can't have KK, could have AK, or even QQ crosses my mind. I don't think he checks the flop with AA, so I'm pretty confident it's either AK or QQ, but can't dismiss a JJ or even 10 10 hand he thinks is good with me checking on the flop.
Now, a decision. If he does have QQ or AK and I reraise him, he ain't gonna fold. But if he does have JJ or 10 10 I don't want to scare him away.
I flat call (right?) and we see a 2 on the river.
I have the nuts, and have a decision of what to do on the river. If I bet about qaurter the pot, he will flat call unless he feels he has the strongest hand and I won't make any more. His raise on the turn indicates he thinks he has me beat, or he want's to scare me away, so I decide to check (right?) and he bets about half his stack.
He's not going anywhere, so it's an easy re-raise to put him all in. He calls and turns over QQ.

The irony, he bets with such trash on almost every other hand, and the moment he flops a monster, in position, he checks and lets us all have a free card. Guess he can't have envisioned those cards, and hitting a FH on the turn, must have thought he had the nuts!

Anyway, I (more than) doubled up and he was out. Maybe the hand plays itself, I was interested in getting as much as I could out of him, but with his hand and mine, I guess he was always committing everything, as I would in his position.

I feel ready for the bloggerment tonight - look forward to joining in again after several weeks absence!
See you then - Poker Stars / 9pm / Private Tourny / password Bloggerment.

Mia's First Joke

2007-08-29T16:41:00.000+01:00

Mia told her first joke this week. We’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out where she heard it, but haven’t found out yet.
It’s not quite a Yorkshire Pudding joke – but it was quite funny from a 3 year old!!

Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana
Banana who?

Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana
Banana who?

Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana
Banana who?

Knock knock
Who’s there?
Orange
Orange who?
Orange you glad it’s not another banana.

Well, funnier than losing 3 buy-ins with 3 flopped full houses, but lets not go there!

Onwards and......sideways!

2007-08-26T09:21:00.000+01:00

Sunday morning.
9.30am.
Been up for 2 and a half hours already.
Only the online newspaper to read.
Thursday night - no sleep at all, got called out to the office to oversee BT and telephone engineers after a fault on the system, and ended up getting home at just past 6am.
Out for a few beers tonight to celebrate a friends 40th birthday.
(gulp - this means I must be getting close!)
Then, tomorrow, we have ALL of Cathy's family round for the afternoon.

So, I'll be very tired and hung-over.

Care to guess how many I'll upset before the afternoon is out?

----------

Cathy is starting to show quite early, quite the opposite when she was carrying Mia. For the first few months I kept asking her 'are you sure you're pregnant?'. Now I'm asking her if she's having twins!
Whilst carrying Mia, I used to refer to the 'bump' as Titch. We didn't know the sex beforehand, and 'it' seems wrong, so titch caught on, and before long the whole family were using it.
Now it's Titch II - The Revenge!
(quickly followed by Titch III - Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the nursery!)

We've only told immediate family so far (and you lot) - so doubt we'll keep this a secret for too long if she keeps growing this early!

-----------

Poker has been a bit up and down. Probably not in the best frame of mind to play, but managed to keep a steady uphill climb before a bad night last night took me back to where I was 4 days ago. Still just over 100$ ahead since my 'return' - so happy overall.
Been playing a pretty tight strategy and after just finishing Barry Greenstein's book - I'm trying to put some of the things I learnt, into action. Didn't really enjoy the first part if I'm honest - it was too biographical , and I want to pick up tips on how to play, rather than Barry's life.
Still, it was informative and the second half got better and I think there was some good advice and strategy.
Started on 'Poker for Dummies' - which is reasonably OK so far but maybe more targeted to the new starter. Not a bad idea to go back to the beginning sometimes, but it is a little basic early on. Just getting into the 'advanced strategy' stuff now, so will do a review once finished, if anyone is interested.
I got a disc with about 40 books on, and have got quickly in to reading from my laptop screen - sold a few copies on E-bay, and made a tidy profit, but have stopped now, as I guess it fringes a few copy-right laws so don't want to get booted off! May try again in a couple of months as it's a bargain for the buyer and easy for me.

Anyway, off to play in the garden. It's a bank holiday weekend and the sun is shining. Something's wrong.

Good Days Returning

2007-08-19T23:17:00.000+01:00

I hope this isn't one of those comments you make, and then look totally foolish a few days later, but had 2 great nights on the poker tables and am seeing my confidence levels returning. I've been lucky in finding (then following) 2 players of such awesome stupidity, that have gifted me 50$ between them. This hand may give you some idea.
I'm dealt AA on the BB, and with 3 players in the hand, I raise about 4 x bb. All fold but one of my new friends and we see a flop of A 10 2.
Hmmm, what to do here, I have a monster, and with a bit of luck, he's got an Ace and he's never yet laid one down, whatever his kicker. So I bet 1$ and he calls. Turn was a 7 (no flush or str8 on here) so I bet another 1$ and he calls. Turn is another 2. I want to try and get more than 1$ - but at the same time don't want to scare him off, so I bet 2.50$ and he raises me to 7.50$!!
Wow. What the fuck has he got. Surely not pocket 2's. No, he would've raised the flop if he had that. So I re-raise and he pushes all in. I call and he turns over.....
.....
.....
.....
Queen Two
Ha ha ha - nice pot to me, he must've 'sensed weakness' with my low bets :-)

This went on for about half an hour, and I managed to get a good few $ from him and another before they both signed off.

It sounds horrible, following someone to take money from them (legally, I hasten to add!) but someone is going to do it - so why not me?

Anyway, seems like the old magic is returning, and I am 100$ in profit from 2 nights play. Hope this is a sign of things to come, rather than the quiet before the storm. With my recent run, I've dropped down to 10c or 25c BB NL, but my BR was only $100 so I'm trying to stick to 10c and slowly build back up. A few more nights like the above and I may move up quicker than I expected, but for now - I'll stick to the 10c levels.

Anyway, getting late, nice to post some positive news for a change :-)

2 Blue Lines!

2007-08-17T12:26:00.000+01:00

“I’ve seen the needle and the damage done
A little part of it in everyone
But every junkie’s like a setting sun”
Neil Young

After 2 – 3 weeks away, my return to the game after what can only be described as one of the most frustrating periods in my life reached a head. Reading back over the last 2 posts, I was considering deleting them, as some of the comments were made at this peak, and being the emotional guy I am, it felt right at the time to express them this way. But, diaries are meant to portray feelings and things that affect you, and this sure did, so I'm leaving them where they are!
Anyway, I’m back and hopefully it has made me a better player. As Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) once said, that which does not kill you, makes you stronger. Let’s hope so.

Played a few more live games since, with mixed success. Went out in 8th (out of 42, but 1st money place) and 20th (out of 45) places in my local club, and actually left a casino in Glasgow (was there on business) after very strange behaviour from the dealer, who was also playing in the game.
Tried to bluff a pot, it failed, and when my opponent turned over his cards, I said ‘It’s yours’ and pushed my cards, face down, back to the dealer. He asked me to turn my cards over, and I said, no, I’ve acknowledged he has won the hand. He took the cards from me and turned them over! I told him that was wrong and would be grateful if he didn’t do that again.
Few hands later, a player bet, was re-raised by another player and after a few minutes thought, he folded. The re-raiser pushed his cards, face down, to the dealer, who looked at them before putting them in the deck.
Hang on, I say – you can’t do that – show the cards to the rest of the table now you’ve seen them. He refused and shuffled the deck! Along with another 2 players, I objected to the tourney director and he asked the dealer to tell the rest of the players what the cards were, as he was gaining an unfair advantage. The dealer told us, but who knows if that was right?
Anyway, it was a rebuy, I went out a few hands later with top pair v a set and refused to re-buy on principal!
Still, enjoying the live experience, and my local club has 3 nights of tournies a week, so looking forward to playing a bit more regularly. The game is massively different to the online game, but I guess I’ll have to adapt accordingly.

Another major thing in my life happened last week, when I came home and was met with a weeping Cathy, and some small white object in her hand. The title of the blog entry may give some of you with children a bit of a clue – but it was a pregnancy test, and it was positive! We’ve been trying for a couple of months and she’s caught pretty quickly so we are both over the moon and looking forward to an expanded family!

Now I need to re-think my name, as I won’t just be Mia’s Dad anymore!

Bye

2007-07-30T22:55:00.000+01:00

Thanks D, but not a chance of me discovering the faith, the way I feel now is that there is something seriously wrong with online poker - this many bad beats are just so unlikely, it is bodering on the criminal.
Thats my view anyway, maybe i'm talking absolute bollox (won't be the first time and sure won't be the last!) - but i've had enough.
My VPIP tonight was 11%, flops seen 18% (6 max table).

Highlights of hands tonight included:

AJ v A9 on a A 4 8 flop. river 9

QQ v K6 on a 10 4 9 flop. river K (how does he call!?!?!)

AA v 2 4 (yes 2 4) and a convenient flop of A 3 5 to make sure we both knew we were ahead.

Then, last hand 78 on a 5 6 9 flop - he called with 9 something and hit runner runner full house.
You couldn't pick these cards any better if you tried!
So, enough for me, good luck in defending your crown next week, I'll be checking blogs for the stories!

Goodnight, and would the last person to leave please turn out the lights.

I Hate Poker

2007-07-30T13:59:00.000+01:00

Yes, normal service has resumed. A few bright days of 90% hands winning 90% of the time. Now it's back to the most head shaking disbelief as a combination of 'How are you still in this hand?' and 'How can a 1 or 2 outer hit so regularly?' have all but destroyed my desire and faith in online poker.

Blogger (I am there now for the craic, rather than the poker) was another 80-odd % favourite losing (10s v 4s) to the eventual winner in Dremeber (well done mate!!) and a runner-runner str8 that is becoming so regular now, I play in training shoes and Cathy stands by with a large piece of silver foil to wrap me in.
I wonder what I need to do to get back on track. I've been very close to giving up in the past, and am back to this very same crossroads again.

A night of the most unbelieveable cards ended when my pre flop raise with AJ saw a flop of AJ2. I checked and the one caller put a 3 x bb bet in. I raised to 10 x his bet and he called. The turn was an x and I pushed - he called and turned over 10 10. Guess the river? (x this 9 more times)
Holding QQ on a 10 5 2 flop, I bet 3 x pot, he calls. Turn 3 so I push - he calls and turns over AQ. No draw of any kind, but he/she is quite happy to put all their money on a 2 outer hitting the river (another opponent folded AK) - and the RNG said a big well done by giving him his A on the river.

Does online poker deliberatley reward these fools? Last night I lost with 17 hands where I was 90% or greater to win (this has become a regular occurance my poker calculator is steaming!). 17 times in 52 flops seen.
15 of those, my opponent should not have been in the hand after my flop bet. WTF is going on? If this happened on your first visit to a poker den with real people, any normal, average intelligent person would wonder if he was being conned.

I now have 30$ left in a Microgaming site and this is my last money I will ever play with online. I have no faith anymore that this is 100% genuine (can any computer program ever be?) or honest - and how can you continue to play if you feel this way?

'Bad Runs' and 'Long Run' have ceased to be a factor.

Do I play perfectly. No, probably not. Do I play trash. No.
The worse (non paired) hand I paid to see a flop with last night was 9 10 sooted on the button (next was AJ). I ain't gambling on low pocket pairs anymore - used to call raises with any pocket pair, have stopped that.
Are these feelings all because of one bad night? No, try 9 months. Ever since the USA law change, I've noticed such a big change online (maybe this is in my mind, or coincidental) but I've heard other bloggers mention similar things. Recently, I accidentally caught a Poker Site lying about the testing of its RNG - and I intend to put that story on this blog in the near future - once I have checked the legalities of doing so. Why did they do this? No idea. Maybe this is playing on my mind?

So I've had enough - my local poker club is running a Monday & Wednesday night session and Sunday afternoon tournies/games and I'm sticking to this as and when I feel like playing. I can see them, touch them and watch them - and that's something I can't do online. Will these beats happen live? Of course they will. Will they happen in 40% of hands? Unlikely, in my view.

I will still keep updating, and reading other blogs, with my progress and stories, but tonight could be my last night of online poker. Unless a run of premium hands actually start winning and somehow, in a stark reverse of current happenings, things take a massive change of direction.
I find this unlikely, but you never know.

Ciao.

All Work and No Play!

2007-07-27T16:23:00.000+01:00

Apologies gentle reader, I planned to pull up the hand history of the last blogger and do a write up - as it is the most I have enjoyed a blogger game for some time (in terms of my play rather than the banter!). Silly boy that I am, sometimes - I didn't save the hand history, so lost it. Doh!

Anway, from what I remember, pushing all in with 88 after a raise from the overly aggressive Kennl and taking down his 10 J. Then my AK took down Acorn's 10s (shock horror!) and I was sitting about 3rd on the leader board. Few steals and re-raises with AA twice and KK once saw me flirt between 2nd and 3rd, and before I knew it, it was bubble time.
I don't remember a 'bubble period' lasting as long as this, with chips moving from one player to another fairly regularly. Odds were being taken on who would win/bubble and it seemed to change a lot!. MSaban raised and I re-raised with AA - he tried to pry out of me what I had, telling me he had KK and would fold if I told him i had AA. Not sure if he did - but out of respect to other players at the table, I couldn;t answer and he finally folded.
Then, i called in the SB with 56 sooted and Mike Saban checked his Q6 and we saw a flop of 5 6 2 (I think). When I 2 x bb bet, he pushed all in! Thought for a few mins as there was a str8 possibility, but decided to call and took his chips to put the remaining 3 players fairly level.
The lead stayed with Hammerheid for a while, adn Kronsdat and I took from each other, then came the hand that I thought had won it for me.
I raised to about 5 x bb with KQ sooted and Hammerheid called. It was a lowish flop and I bet about 3/4 of the pot, and he called. Oops, I'm in trouble here, methinks. Another low card hits the turn, and I'm thinking if I check here, I've lost and am seriously depleted. So I push about 3/4 of my remaining chips and Hammerheid thinks for a while before folding. I showed my bluff (I think) and was now the chip leader.
Kronsdat then took out Hammerheid and we were heads up. The hand I've blogged previously killed me and a few hands later K took down the pot for the win.

Overall, a good game, some great play on the final table - I got the feeling a few players were on the top of their game, and I was pleased, no honoured, to have taken 2nd :-)

Not played too much since, as work is so, so busy at the moment - seem to have a million things to do a day, get some of them done, only to find more at the end of the day. Need to get to grips with the Pareto Principal (80% of your results come from 20% of your time), but it does remind me of that very funny line from David Brent in The Office:

'I thought I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it was just a bloke with a torch carrying more work for me'

Looking forward to a night on the table tonight, feeling like I'm actually looking forward to playing.

Toodle Pip!

Another Bridesmaid at the Bloggerment

2007-07-22T23:45:00.000+01:00

3rd time as a bridesmaid (cough, cough - one time winner, of course!!).
First up, big up, massive respect to Kronsdat for winning.

It could have been very different, if my 99.6% favourite on the flop hand had won! But the way I've been running recently, I'm please to have gotten 2nd place -I felt I played well, tight, patient, aggressive at times, and one particularly brave steal when down to the last 3 that put me in a big chip lead. Sometimes the deciding factor is a little luck going against or for you - I experienced it myself when I won - so no complaints.

Report to follow tommorrow, it's getting late.

So I have to settle for posting this:

Thankfully, Acorn has washed it, though quite what those stains are around the 'rear' I don't know!!

Help if you can

2007-07-21T10:39:00.000+01:00

Mixed Week

2007-07-17T07:26:00.000+01:00

Morning all.
After one of the worse nights sleep in a hotel room, ever, I've been up since 5am and hardly any sleep before this. A combination of noisy neighbours and car alarms going off so often through the night, I wondered if we were under attack from all the countries car thieves. Will be driving back home after a meeting this morning so will be dosing up on plenty of coffee to keep me awake in the 3 and a half hour journey back home.

Poker has been improving since my last post, apart from the usual at Joker Stars. Went out to a 3 outer heads up against TripJax, who needed an Ace to beat my pocket 10's - and the way I seem to run at this site - out it came. I had put the minimum 10$ into my account, so decided to see what I could do with the remaining 4.50$ after I'd paid my Blogger entry fee.
First hand I get J8 sooted and check to see a flop of 688 - whoopy!! I bet the flop and turn (K) hard, pushing my remaining few cents in as a 10 hit the river. His cards? Pocket 10s.
So, just one hand at Stars and seems I'm jinxed at this site!

This contrasted very nicely with my play at Poker Room, one of my original poker homes. Depositing 50$ and playing the lowest PL limit, I've managed to build my stack since mid week to $195 - so my game hasn't totally disintegrated - just at Joker Stars!
Been playing a tight strategy that involves playing only premium hands and pocket pairs - and I think the biggest difference for me, is folding AK/AQ to pre flop raises. These are seen as premium hands and watching reading poker offline, the are highly regarded hands. But for me, either I'm playing them wrong, as at the low limits I play, they just don't stand up against a table full of 2 random cards. So I'm chucking them away to any pre flop raise of 4 x bb or higher, and this seems to have plugged a leak in my BR so far. With position, I'm raising, but other than this, no action. To give you an idea, last month Poker Office shows that AK/AQ wins about 32% - therefore 68% of my money is dead here so folding is actually making me money!

Anyway, off to the office - happy pokery all!

Live Pokery!

2007-07-11T12:01:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the delay – didn’t realise my pages were being viewed with such anticipation!

I was intending on writing up my live pokery report as I played in the Bloggerment, but go so pissed off after losing yet another hand when over 90% favourite on the flop, I shut down the laptop and haven’t been online since – I don’t even know where I finished or who won!
Thankfully, this was such a contrast from my first live tournament – I’ve played a few home games with friends, but never in a ‘controlled’ environment.

Anyway, on to the live game. Not sure about so many things before the game, when to turn up, what to wear (some places have a dress code), how to behave, what to say, what not to say, nervous about going out early and looking like an idiot etc. I tried to prepare myself mentally – Keith Jarrett’s Koln Concert was a great soother – read a little of Vorhaus before heading off to the venue about half an hour before start time. Most were already there, and there was about 55 in total for a £5+£1 Freezeout, with 7 making the final table and the money. I didn’t do any calculations, but noted that about 33% went to the winner, so this was my aim.
Sat down with my 1500 chips and stared intensively at the other 7 players on my table, trying not to look nervous or out of place. Dealer said hello, the manager came round to lay a few ground rules (this was a ‘beginners’ tourney – though how they know who is or isn’t, I don’t know!) and wished us the best of luck.

First hand I was in mid position and there was a 5 x bb raise before me. First player trying to stamp his authority? Folded to me and I look down at 10 10. I think about this for a few minutes and keep looking at the guy, thinking what to do. I flat call and it is folded around the rest of the table. We see a flop of 6 2 2 and I am confident I am ahead in the hand. He bets about half the pot and again I wait a few minutes thinking if I could put him on a hand. No reads here, just a gut feel I am ahead, so I flat call. Thinking back, this was probably a mistake and I should have raised, and may have a got a call when I learnt what he had.
The turn was dealt, and a nice 10 was shown.
I reached down for a drink, and tried to do what I was doing before so he doesn’t get a read. He bets the same he bet the flop, and again I use a few minutes to think what to do. I raise double his bet – hoping he may feel this is a steal attempt, but also to try and win some chips without scaring him off. He flat calls. River was a K. He thinks for a while and bets a small amount (can’t remember the exact amount now). I re-raise him, putting about half my chips left in the middle. He calls and shows 7 7. Nice pot comes my way and this gives my confidence a real boost!

The next 45 mins was pretty much fold, fold, fold with the exception of one hand I called and didn’t hit on the flop, then checked the BB and folded to a bet on the flop that I didn’t hit. One piece of great discipline (I think!) saw me fold AQ in mid position to a raise, then the BB re-raised all in and after a call, they turned AK v JJ – and the JJ held up (No A or Q so I would’ve lost a lot of chips if I called). Half the field had gone within the first hour, though I didn’t see any real donk calls or play. There was a lot of calling, then folding on the flop – which may be donk play not knowing what they held – but if this was really full of beginners, it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have a maniac or aggressive player on the tables I sat at, but didn’t watch what was going on around me, keeping my concentration on what was going on in front of me.

There was a bit of commotion on another table, and later I learnt that it was an AQ v A10 confrontation (not joking!) – with an A on the flop, AQ had pushed and A10 called. As the 10 hit the river, I heard ‘How can you think you’re ahead there?’ and the reply ‘shut up, bitch!’ created a little tension at their table! He later apologised and they had a beer at the bar afterwards so I don’t think there was any real harm done. I didn’t see the hand, in fact, I saw no real ‘bad beats’ as such on the tables I played. The contrast against online poker could not be more obvious. AK held up against AQ in a confrontation, AA beat JJ in another, and a flopped straight held up against a flush draw – all seemed to go the way of the favourite – but that was just my table.

So after about 2 hours, we were down to about 12 and the money was getting closer. I get KK on the button, and with 3 limpers already in, make a 8 x bb raise and they all fold. Maybe this was a little excessive, but my ‘online’ experience with KK is that an A will hit the table, so I didn’t want an A rag hand to call and hit lucky. After being amazingly passive, I decide to ramp it up a little at this stage as the blinds were increasing. QJ suited on the button next hand, and my raise isn’t called around the table. 2 go out on the other table and I was moved for the first time to accommodate 2 x 5 player tables until we are down to the final 7. 1 player from each table is eliminated and my table went ultra tight as we waited to see who would be bubble boy. I took this opportunity to steal about 5 pots (just blinds) and after about 30 minutes, a player went off the other table, and we were down to the last 7.
After ‘well dones’ were exchanged, and a 10 minute break, we began. I was about 4th in stack size, with 2 players having a pretty hefty pile in front of them, and 2 players with hardly any. One of the small stacks went out when his mid pair lost to a flopped straight, and we were down to 6. I called from the SB with 9 10 sooted and semi-bluffed with a half pot bet after flopping a flush draw, to which the BB folded. Then I was probably too passive for the next few rounds, folding when I could have been more aggressive, but we were down to 5 when the small stack pushed with K10 and ran into QQ.
With the small stack on the BB. I put him all in holding A2 and he called with 44. No A saw him double up, but it didn’t deplete me too much. Got my revenge the next round, when my 88 knocked out his AK and we were down to 5. A few hands later and it was 4 with AJ v 10 10 and the J on the turn knocked out the pockets. Another period of passiveness from me, but I made it to the top 3 when another player fell by the wayside. I was now a huge shortie and went out shortly after when I pushed with KQ sooted and ran into AQ and neither improved. I stopped to watch the heads up battle and after about half an hour of pushes and folds, there was a confrontation and the winner was crowned and £85 was his prize. 2nd place got £60 and 3rd (me!) got £35

Looking back, I was really happy to have made the FT and the money, pocketing a profit of £30, but feel that I played way too passive throughout. I folded hands where I could have made an impact – but I was still a bit nervous, and again conscious of making a move that made me look a donkey. I was learning as I went along, and played a really tight game, which paid dividends, but may not get me too much action on premium hands in the future as opponents pick up my game. I learned a lot about playing live, pissed the dealer off no end by constantly asking ‘how much’ and apologising for having to be prompted all the time to put my blinds in – but he accepted my apology at the end with a smile – I am a beginner after all!

Next one is in 3 weeks time as they shut for refurbishments, so looking forward to it already!

Live Pokery Fun!!

2007-07-08T12:07:00.000+01:00

"It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens"

Life on the felt continues to amaze and depress me. Just played a few hands now, whilst I'm typing this: first hand AK on an A high flop. 2 players call. Turn 4, river Q. One has A4 the other AQ :-(
Been playing really tight, only premium hands see a call/raise, but it's tough playing ABC poker, and the only hands you play are the best ones- but they never win. So I tried to play with confidence Friday night and managed a break even nights play, which is a positive right now.

Received an Email from Bodog advising that player points can be converted to cash for a limited time only - and I had 50$ worth!! Cashed those in and am playing between there and i4 poker at the moment. I4 poker has hammered me, and my balance is down about £40 with some horrific beats, as per my previous blogs. But I'll soilder on, knowing the good run is just around the corner.

Trying to prepare myself for this afternoons live pokery fun - a £5 freezeout tourny at a new, local club. Just called to see what the form is, when to be there etc. and they told me there is about 40 playing, and last months went on for just over 3 hours. Been reading 'Killer Poker' to get me in the right frame of mind and just hope that I play my hands and my opponents well.

May get back to play in the Blogger tourny at Stars - as I also have a lot of points there, and may be able to play SNG games to convert them to cash (hopefully). I've said I won't deposit there again, but I enjoy playing and being involved in the blogger game, so may make an exception for this game. It's worth the 5$ entry fee just to hear Mik!!

Anyways, good luck all, may catch you at the Bloggerment at Stars (you'll find it in the 'Private' section of Tourny's) -9pm UK time password DONKAMENT.

Can't happen again? Right?

2007-07-07T10:31:00.000+01:00

Wrong.
Please turn off my fucking doom switch, PLEASE!!!!!!!

794357036 Start Date
2007-07-07 05:28:43.0
End Date 2007-07-07 05:29:44.0
Pot Size $18.02
Rake $0.05
Game Type Hold'Em
Play Mode Real
Table Name Albuquerque
Structure NL Table Stakes
Inforcor
1
$56.59/$56.59
$0.00
$0.00

shtnaces
5
3 K
$6.31/$10.63
$6.31
$4.32

mundigity
6
$7.27/$6.52
$0.75
$-0.75

Mias_Dad
7
A A
$18.88/$12.57
$6.31
$-6.31

dmen
9
3 K
$4.70/$7.40
$4.70
$2.70

Mias_Dad
Raise
$ 0.65

05:29:12
dmen
Call
$ 0.65

05:29:15
shtnaces
Call
$ 0.45

05:29:17
mundigity
Call
$ 0.45

05:29:18

Card dealt to table
K 7 7

05:29:18
mundigity
Check

05:29:20
Mias_Dad
Bet
$ 2.45

05:29:29
dmen
All-in
$ 3.95

05:29:33
shtnaces
All-in
$ 5.56

05:29:35
mundigity
Fold
$ 0.00

05:29:35
Mias_Dad
Call
$ 3.11
05:29:37

Card dealt to table
8
05:29:39

Card dealt to table
K
05:29:41

Betting round completed
Last active pot = $-0.01 Side pot 9 = $14.81Side pot 5 = $3.22
05:29:43
Mias_Dad
Showdown
Show card: Two PairA A K K 8
05:29:43
shtnaces
Showdown
Show card: Full HouseK K K 7 7
05:29:43
dmen showdown
Show card: Full HouseK K K 7 7
05:29:44
shtnaces
Hand result
$ 10.63
05:29:44
dmen
Hand result
$ 7.40
05:29:44

99.2% favourite......

2007-07-06T23:33:00.000+01:00

Seems even this isn't enough online:.

Hand Number 793309989
Start Date 2007-07-06 17:28:16.0
End Date 2007-07-06 17:28:46.0
Pot Size $7,005.00
Rake $0.00
Game Type Hold'Em
Play Mode Real
Table Name $3,000 Guaranteed
Structure NL
Community Cards
Hand Number
793309989

Mias_Dad
1
A A

chalis
6
A K

Mias_Dad
Raise
$ 480.00
17:28:23

chalis
All-in
$ 3,390.00
17:28:33
Mias_Dad
Call
$ 2,910.00
17:28:38

Card dealt to table
8 5 7
17:28:40

Card dealt to table
K
17:28:42

Card dealt to table
K
17:28:44

Betting round completed
Last active pot = $0.00 Side pot 6 = $7,005.00
17:28:46
Mias_Dad
Showdown
Show card: Two PairA A K K 8
17:28:46
chalis
Showdown
Show card: Three of a KindK K K A 8
17:28:46
chalis
Hand result
$ 7,005.00
17:28:46

Save The Exile!!

2007-07-03T16:45:00.000+01:00

I recently met 'Exile57' over at Cell's blog, and just read that she is stopping her blog!!

Maybe if we all stop by and leave her a few words of support and encouragement - she'll reconsider. Although I have only just started reading her blog, I enjoy reading various different takes on the game and how to play it - and it saddens me that someone thinks they aren't noticed! I don't always leave comments on blogs, but that doesn't mean I'm not reading them!!

Hope you don't mind this Exile - I have the best of intentions - and I wish you the best for the future (but how will we know how things are going if you're not blogging?!).

Do you realise that you will need something else to fill the void of not blogging and will either:

Start eating loads of chocolate and other comfort food put on loads of weight, making you depressed and generally unwell until you become an old spinster with lots of cats and a faint smell of wee.

Maybe you'll start talking to the walls as a release of the feelings you used to get rid of by blogging, and the lack of this anger release will make you become embittered. Before you know it, your employer has sacked you, your friends have disowned you and without the funds to pay your mortgage, you'll quickly descend into a state of total madness and end up living in a cardboard box outside Bloggers HQ - shouting obscenities at the employees as they pass until the police move you on.

Maybe you'll take up another hobby like smoking or drinking and end up being a social outcast as more and more of these types of activities are being banned by our government.

Or, worse case scenario - you get taken in by the Google Hairy Gymnast Cult!!!

All because you stopped blogging.......

:-)

It's a Cat!

2007-07-02T17:19:00.000+01:00

“Your Joy is your sorrow unmasked. When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.”

Poker continues to frustrate, but I’m trying to maintain a positive mental attitude as I fight the fishes at the low limit tables on the IPoker Network.
Really am not sure what’s happened to me or my game over the last few months. Played for a while last night and eventually turned the tables off and spent an hour or so going through my hand history looking for faults.
When 80% of your losses come from:
AA v KK (twice)
My JJ v villains KK on a J high flop (he rivered another K)
Getting frustrated as my AK v 67 on a KK6 flop lost to runner runner flush in a 10$ SNG on the bubble
The final straw was my AK v K8 on a 226 flop, and when he called with K8 – there was utter frustration as the 8 hit the turn and I bubbled another 10$ SNG

So, I’m not sure where or what I can do to change my current form. All these hands were just damn unlucky, I know. But there have been so many I’m getting real depressed with playing – as you will probably have guessed from recent posts.

Sorry for the depressing tone, I do try and keep it upbeat usually – but I guess it is eroding my confidence and desire and I really feel I will benefit from not playing for a while.
Having said this, I love the game, and playing and I guess the losses are bedfellows with the wins – as the Kahlil Gibran quote above so eloquently puts it.
I am cutting right back on my online play, to the point where it may well not play a part in my future poker play. I have cut back my accounts and will not play another hand at Joker Stars again after suffering in the blogger tourney where yet more 2 outers hit the river in the only 2 hands I played a flop with. I have £50 left on the Crypto network and this will be my only BR for the foreseeable future.

On a positive note, I have bought a few poker books to read and look forward to tucking into Harrington and Gordon. I’ve found out that my local Rileys Snooker Club have branched into Poker and are licensed to run tournaments and have a growing base of members. There is a beginners Tournament night on Sunday so I have booked myself in and will try out the small SNG type format and see how it plays. Although I am no beginner, I am relatively inexperienced in live play, having played only a dozen or so home games with friends.

The weather added to my woes over the weekend, and as it’s my main time with Mia, it’s tough sometimes to be stuck in the house with no park or outdoor activities possible. We had some fun drawing – she is getting really good at doing pictures of Mummy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandad – and her colouring in is getting closer and closer to the lines! She is also really into her Playdoh – though Daddy is not very artistic and the cat I made for her promptly had her running round the table doing cow impressions.

‘It’s a cat, Mia – they go ‘miaaaooowww’ I said.
‘Silly Daddy’ she replies

She is still insisting on sleeping on the floor, but has allowed a blanket and cushion – so at least is more comfortable. I finally got out of her that she thinks her bed is ‘broken’ – not sure how she has come to this – but made an effort to dismantle parts of the bed and rebuilt it showing her it can take Daddy’s weight (just!) and said ‘Daddy fixed it’ a lot. Didn’t work last night, but will keep trying.

Anyway, good luck at the tables – apologies for the downbeat nature – hoping that normal service will be resumed shortly :-)

Disillusioned

2007-06-29T12:47:00.000+01:00

I’m finding myself becoming very disillusioned with poker this year. It’s been hanging over me like a black cloud the last few months to be honest, but it seems to be growing into thunder clouds of epic proportions. It started to look a bit brighter with my recent SNG run, but that has proven to be a minor blip.

Reading a few blogs, it seems the RNG is being very unkind to many players at the moment, and with me it’s got to the point of thinking about whether to continue. Hands win, hands lose, I know these things happen, and I know the odds. Trouble is odds aren’t meaning a great deal right now.
For example: in the space of 5 hands at one 50c BB NL table, I get dealt KK twice. 6 x bb raise is called by the same player, holding the same hand 9 7. The flop on both hands is 9 high. I bet it hard, he pushes and I call. River is a 7.
Twice in 5 hands.

Over the 8 sessions I’ve played this week, I have lost 58% of hands where I am 80% or greater to win. Go figure?
What is going on at the moment? I read Yorkshire Puds blog and his very funny letter to Joker Stars. Then I read Cell’s blog and he is going through the same thing. People left comments about going back to basics. How is the above KK hand played wrong? I had a good read on the player (he was awful, but winning) and these reads were proven to be correct both times. What am I doing wrong?

Cell mentions getting AA, raising and hitting another on the flop – but still coming 3rd in a 3 horse race. What can you do? He raised pre flop, and got three callers and flopped a set. Crucial hands are going the way of the poor judgment way too often right now. My good SNG run saw 80%+ of my 80%+ hands won, as the odds depict. To try and even the balance, I tried to find a similar run of hands where I was 20% or less favourite to win, and won 53% + - but I can't find one.

So, let’s say you can see all the cards dealt. You raise with AA and flop another. Knowing that one player has 4 to a flush draw, and the other has an open str8 draw – what’s the correct move here, a) you are first to act and b) you are last to act?

A) Would you get your money in? To hit a full house, you have 6 outs by the river (7 if you count the case A left for quads) assuming the turn is not duplicated by the cards seen. This would negate their hands even if they hit – but it is enough? One has 6-8 outs, the other has up to 9 (assuming no outs folded or held). No one hits an out, and you win.
B) Someone puts you all in – is it right to call? Even knowing what your opponents hold – I think a call is the right decision.

Interested to hear your thoughts.

I think with the KK v 97 – and you could also see his cards - you would call 100% of the times – so therefore you have no control over the profit/loss, it is down to the poker sites RNG. Just seems to be way too many dogs winning races this year.

I’ve pulled my hand history and looked over it, and can’t see a huge amount of leaks if I’m honest – most of my losses come from premium hands, (flopped sets, str8s, two pair) where I am a good favourite, but lose to limited outs – so I feel I’m making the right decisions.

On a positive note, I qualified via a freeroll to the £5k guaranteed on Ipoker network at 9pm this evening, currently there are 450 runners, so there was a glimmer of a smile in the week.

Even tried my hand at Omaha and managed to lose my first two hands despite flopping full houses, but then hit quads twice to claw it back.

I have to admit to one thing. I stupidly sat down at my first Omaha table without a proper understanding of the rules. Believing the game was about the best hand made from all cards, rather than two from the pocket and 3 from the table. Imagine my (misguided) delight when dealt 4 clubs and seeing a 5th hit the flop – I thought I had the nuts and could not believe when I lost the hand. Idiot L

Anway, smile on my face, onwards and upwards and remember – my pen is mightier than the sword (Thanks Mr Edge).

BS

2007-06-24T20:26:00.000+01:00

"Paradise is not a place, it's a frame of mind"

Mia is really into her Dora the Explorer at the moment, so imagine our (well, her) delight when we saw an advert in the local paper that she was appearing at a nearby amusement park (like Alton Towers but much smaller, and all the rides are for kids, not adults). Quick gasp when I looked at their website to find it was £10.50 each to get in, and no reduction for children.
Cathy suddenly remembered that we had a niece that worked their at weekends, so she rang her and managed to waggle some comp tickets.
Actually, I managed to blag some comp tickets, but I'm trying to build up her involvement.

So we turned up at the theme park, packed lunches made (which turned out to be a master stoke on my part., when you saw the burgers were £4.99 each!!) and after a brief 'discussion' with the man on the gate, he let us in and we began to wander around.

Mia wasn't too impressed with the rides, once she realised it involved sitting down, and still, for several mintues at a time, she was not impressed. Other than this, she was really enjoying her day after meeting Dora and being allowed to run free for an hour or so. Cathy and I had already commented on the run down look of the place, and the distinct need for a lick of paint before we decided to stop for a snack.
As we were sat on a wall watching the log flume, which Mia was enjoying tremendously, a rustling in the bushes caught my atention, and out popped 2, then 3, rats.

Big, wet, furry rats. So we left the area quickly and found another spot cross the other side of the stream. Guess what? More rats. So we headed (away from water) across to the 'parade'. The outfits these people were wearing were so horrible, I actually didn't want Mia going anywhere near them. There was an Elephant who looked like he had mange. His fur was dirty and the outfit didn't fit him/her properly. The music system kept jumping and the dancers did not have a clue what they were doing.
It reminded me of a Simpsons episode where they go to a 'Duff Beer' theme park. It was awful.

Nearly as bad as getting knowcked out of the Blogger tourny with top pair, top kicker on the flop, and being called by someone with nothing, who then hits runner runner str8 flush! Amazing. But then, this is Joker Stars.
This is the 4th str8 flush I've lost to today - 2 when I had the nut flush, and the other when I flopped a str8. All on Joker Stars. I suppose anything can happen on a 'random' system.

Anyway, enough from me, I'll only get bitter.

Sitting and Going

2007-06-18T20:41:00.000+01:00

Hello readers, thanks for coming back - may I start with a little story I heard on the radio, driving down to Taunton at 6am this morning?
Basically, there is a guy on death row on Texas and he has been scheduled in for executuon 16 years after being convicted of a double murder. He has been allowed to set up a website asking for people to leave a joke that he can tell when asked for his final words before receiving his lethal injection. He will review what is posted, and use the one he considers the best at the appropiate moment. Very bizarre, actually surprising that he was allowed to do it in the first place, to be honest.

Being stuck in the car, on my own for nearly 4 hours on the drive down, I got to thinking of some. Then I thought of something even better. What if they would allow you to sing a song instead of 'final words'?
I thought for ages before deciding on:

234,507,908 green bottles hanging on a wall
234,507,908 green botles hangin ona wall
and if 1 green bottle should accidentally fall
there'd be 234,507,907 green bottles hanging on a wall

All together now........

Sorry, back to poker.
Joker Stars has been a huge upward turn with me winning 5 SNG on the run as I headed into the Blogger Tourny. Feeling confident, or a little too over confident as it turned out, I was going pretty well until my nemesis Amatay busted my JJ with his 10 10, hitting another on the river. (Was going to post the history - but does handposter.com ever work?)

Still had enough chips to make an impact, and then played a hand horribly, which resulted in my elimination. Don't want to talk about it, I played it badly, and it was totally out of character from the way I have been playing. Why do we do these things?

Well done to dD/Res Evil for taking it down, I like to think that the few SNG's Mik and I made him play the night before gave him some well needed practise and experience. Please dD, no thanks or offers of monetary reward - your friendship is enough!! Seriously though, well played.

Anyway, other than the Blogger game (it was great to see a lot of new-comers as well as the familiar faces), I am running very well right now. So well that I broke my promise of not playing cash for the rest of the month. I'm glad I did, as I added 50$ to my roll at Joker Stars, before sensibly deciding to bank my profits and not get too greedy.
So, Joker Stars (I am now 3rd on Google for this phrase!!) now stands at 160$ before tonights play, and Virgin at 295$ - a total profit of almost $300. Amazing turn of fortunes, long may it continue.

Anway, stuck in a hotel room in Taunton on my own, with Rocky 3 the only thing on the TV so firing up Joker Stars as I type. Helps pass the time!

Happy Days

2007-06-17T10:59:00.000+01:00

"Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons"

My SNG efforts have put a new lease of life in my game, and boy is it working. Joker Stars BR now $80 (from $25) and Virgin now stands at $295(was $130), so a nice 220$ profit in 5 days!

I tell you something though, the beats still come thick and fast, but they just don't have the same impact than on a cash table.

Last night, I played loads of SNG and hit a nut flush twice only to be rivered by full house. Then ran 5 flopped sets into a flush or str8. Some of these knocked me out, others just depleted me and I was able to recover to 2nd place in 2. If these hands had been on cash tables, I would be bust by now. The wore case scenario - I lost 5 or 10$ - much less than the cash table equivalent.

Hope you can all make the Blogger Tourny tonight, numbers have been dropping lately, and I wonder what shelf life the tourny has. I enjoy the game and the banter, so hope it continues.

See you all there, I hope!

PS - Ass is fine this morning, thank you for asking.

Sore Bottom

2007-06-16T13:33:00.000+01:00

"The only thing in this life that is certain, is that nothing is certain"

Thanks dD for your insightful comments on my last post. Prison and the inability to sit down, all thanks, of course, to the 16 mile bike ride I did in the week. Considering my lack of excersise for the last few months (well, years actually), I feel fine. My legs worked properly the next day, I didn't have to stop every 5 mins doing an impression of an ashtmatic needing help.
Where I did suffer, was in the bottom area. Maybe the bike seat wasn't comfortable enough, maybe the ride was too bumpy. Either way, it is very uncomfortable, and I think the less said about that, the better.

My SNG challenge is progressing nicely at the moment, especially at Virgin. Well, only at Virgin, as my Poker Stars run goes along the lines of: win, lose, lose, lose to basically break even. Better than losing though!
Virgin is proving very fruitful, and my 100$ profit target has been acheived. I think I'm going to stick at 5$ for another few days, just to safeguard my roll. I did play in 2 10$ ones and bubbled in both, but 5$ are proving of a poor standard, so I might milk them for a bit longer.

Just playing in one now, and this makes a great example. I get deal AA and raiseup to 120. One caller, then another player raises up to 350$, I put a raise up to 1000, one folds the other moves all in. I call and he turns over A6. Not even 'sooted'! The flop came out 7 8 9, and I thought for a minute his stupidity was going to be rewarded, but my aces held firm, and I'm currently chip leader. Some just can't fold an Ace!

Anyway, half an hour more, then it's off to the park, walking like I've been horse riding for the past fortnight. Wish me luck.

Mixed Night

2007-06-14T09:55:00.000+01:00

“It is not enough to possess a talent: one must also possess your permission to possess it - eh my friends?”

Continued my Sit and Go run last night, kind of.

I played 6 x 5$ at Joker Stars where I bubbled 3 times and went out before the money in the other 3. Decided to try out a 13$ 6 max game and got 2nd. Although a minus for the evening, I was about 21$ down, this basically wiped out the 23$ profit from the previous night, so back to where I started here.
Played a few at Virgin, where I seem to be having better success and increased my profits from $31 yesterday, to a total of 70$. Played and won 4 on the bounce at PL rather than NL (entered the first one thinking it was NL), where the standards seem to be pretty poor. One lasted about 20 hands, even with the restricted betting! Nothing I did in most of them, just let the others knock themselves out. The last one I played would have seen the profits increase further, but I went heads up with the chip leader when I had AA and he, for some reason, called with J8 (????). When the flop came out 4 5 6 – I had a feeling what was coming and bubbled when the 7 hit the river. Very annoying, but no complaints overall.

So the profit stands at 70$ overall in the first two nights, and I’m pretty pleased with this so far. If I can be 100$ better off by the weekend, I can try out some 10$ in between the regular 5$ ones.

Not been playing for as long as usual as I am soooooo knackered it is untrue. Mia is continuing her desire to sleep on the floor by the door, with no blankets or cushions, and every time she turns over she hits the security gate and cries out in her sleep before nodding off again. Being woken up 3 or 4 times in a night is not great over a 3 week period, and it is starting to take it toll on all 3 of us. She was up at 6am this morning, and her usual 12/13 hours sleep a night is down to about 10 – so she must be due some catching up. If we could get her to stay in her bed, she would probably sleep for a week – but for some reason, she is not having it.
Done some research and I don’t think it is an unusual occurance, lots of kids go through strange sleeping habits, but the general consensus is that, if she is sleeping, leave her to it, she will go back to her bed when she’s ready. Maybe a spell of cool weather will do it?

Anyway, 16-mile cycle ride with a group of kids tonight, so I probably won’t be sitting down for a week!

Wash and Go

2007-06-13T14:46:00.000+01:00

“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you”

Following on from Mik’s comments on my last post about me needing a new challenge, I think he is spot on. At work, I am constantly setting goals and objectives to my staff as well as myself, and I could do with taking a leaf out of this book when it comes to poker.
Constantly setting targets allows you to gauge your success against these objectives, and I think I need a bit of a focus, maybe I have lost my way. I did consider Tan’s comments of playing a bit of heads-up poker, and see how this suited my game – but I am sticking to my promise of not playing a cash game for the remainder of the month and am starting a Sit and Go challenge. I’m not taking 2 bottles into the shower, I’m going to Sit and Go (groan).

So, my plan is to play a set number of SNG’s at various levels and track my progress to see what profits / losses I can achieve.

First nights play was pretty successful.
Played 6 SNGs (5 x 3$ and 1 x 5$) at Joker Stars and cleared a $23 profit
Played 6 SNG’s (3 x 3$ and 3 x 5$) at Virgin and cleared a $31 profit

54$ up so far with a starting bankroll of 160$, so a nice start. Once I’ve built up my profits to 100$ I will play at 5$ level and drop the 3$. Not sure what profit level I should have achieved before I move up to 10$ buy ins, but the play is generally pretty soft at the above levels, not sure how big a jump in class it is at the 10$ level? Any advice would be welcome.
My play was much calmer, and I saw few flops with my patient play. Seems to come naturally on a tournament table, but for some reason doesn’t transfer to the cash table play. Strange. Maybe need to get Mulder and Scully on to this one.

One more thing - more MTT’s as well. I’m going to start with freeroll qualifiers and see where I go, and have also downloaded CD poker where I have over 6000 points and will use these points in entering satellites to get free entry to some $3 and $5k tournaments. Hopefully.

And, I’m going to remain positive at all times.
No sulking.
Positive Mental Attitude.
Works wonders.

Another Bridesmaid

2007-06-11T09:07:00.001+01:00

2nd again
Heads up with Amatay again
Rivered 5 or 6 times, again
(he has some kind of hex on me!)
Final hand, 67% favourite pre flop, but twas not to be

Ces’t la vie, again

On another note – was it just me, or was A 10 shown sooooo many times last night? :-)

Was kind of expecting this, Poker Stars had not been playing nicely (as I say to Mia). I had Amatay a few times but he rivered a K against my 88, rivered a str8 against my TPTK to name a few – but he played his hands well, and I can only say well done on being the first back-to-back winner since the tourney began. This game is as much about luck as it is skill (well, at Joker Stars it’s mainly luck!) and I’ve been in his position before, so congrats again on the win.

Headed over to the cash tables in a pretty bad frame of mind after the day, and should have shut the laptop down and gone to bed. But no, I chased those ghosts and hit some incredible beats.
Ad Kd v my 22 – flop came 2 x x (2 diamonds) so I bet 3 x pot. He called, turn x – so I put him all in for another 50 or so $’s. He calls. Despite this poor call, he rivers his flush and I reload. Few hands later, I get 77 and raise it up about 5 x bb. One caller, flop has 2 colours with a 7 – This time, I push all in, totally eradicating any possible call for the flush. But no, he calls, turns over 2 of the same colour and again rivers his miracle card. Believe it or not, this happened twice more so I was not best pleased, to put it lightly. I behaved like a 3 year old and had a sulk.

Then, I emptied my Poker Stars account of all but 24$, enough for the next 4 Blogger tournies, and (in true 3 year old style) am seriously thinking of giving up online poker. Been thinking this for a while, tbh – this isn’t a knee jerk reaction to one days play. Just getting fed up with the most ridiculous events that seem to happen on a daily basis.
‘Flopping a set is like gold dust’ so Mr Harrington says in is book. He’s obviously not played online poker at this level before, as my Poker Office shows that if I get called to the river when holding a set, I lose about 42%. Hardly gold dust. And, for the record, I never slow play a set, because of the reasons above, unless a very scary board and a caller.

So, it’s time for a break from the game, and what I plan to do is withdraw what I have online, and play a few more live games. I’ve seen a few statistically unlikely cards in live games, for sure, but nowhere near the number of times I’m seeing at the moment.

Probably shouldn’t be posting in this frame of mind, but the break is definitely on, and apart from the Blogger Tourny, I do not intend to play any online poker for the remainder of the month. I’m going to read a few more poker books, re-read the books I have already and see where I’m going wrong. This year has been a bad one for me, and although I have clawed things back these last 2 months, I’m now back in a minus for the year and I don’t want to lose control.

I’ll keep posting and certainly keep reading the links to the right, amongst others. Who knows, after a week I may find I am back at the tables like a junkie wanting his fix – who knows?

Joker Stars

2007-06-10T19:39:00.000+01:00

This must have gone through my head so many times today. In my various sessions at this wonderful poker site today, I was dealt KK 8 times - 8 times! On the first 7, an A flopped and my single opponent had one every time. Then, the 8th time - I flopped another K - nice! Not. Runner runner flush stole it from me.
So I was pretty gutted - as well as minus 100$ from my BR.
Moved to a 1$ NL table - which was probably not the best thing to do in my frame of mind, and 2nd or 3rd hand in, won 65$ when my AA ran into KK (on, the irony) and he couldn't fold.

Seems Burnley Mik's curse has headed my way -just fired up a table to get into the groove, and hit trips to lose to higher kicker, then another set losing to a rivered str8. So mixed feelings as I head towards the Blogger Tourny - and I hope Joker Stars treats me better or I've a feeling the monkey could be on these pages next week......

Also, has anyone ever seen this before? At a cash table, a player uses his 'time bank' if he does not act in time. One player wasn't acting and had a time bank of 320 seconds. So me and the rest of the table had to wait 5 minutes for his time bank to work it's way to zero before the game. I had already raised with pocket 10's so had to wait, otherwise I'd have left the table. Seems ridiculous to me.

Anyway, hope we have a good turnout for the tourny tonight - 10 already with a few familiar faces missing.

Good luck to one and all (especially me!).

Poker Smiles

2007-06-05T18:12:00.000+01:00

Evening all - hope you are all making the most of this lovely sunshine. Knowing our Great British weather, not sure how long it will last! Spent an enjoyable weekend in the garden, playing and tidying up the garden, taking full advantage of whole days out with the little one!
She was so tired Sunday night, she fell asleep on the bedroom floor (we have wooden flooring, rather than carpets!). Well, we thouight it was because she was so tired - but after moving her back to her bed, I got up for work and found her back on the floor. Every night since, she has curled up in the most uncomfortable looking position, and fallen fast asleep by the door to her room!

Poker was equally sunny on Sunday, starting off good as I won 5 and came 2nd in the other - in 6 consecutive SNG's. This put me in a great mood as I moved to cash tables and found a coupleof players who just could not shake off top pair as I flopped a set and a str8, which paid off handsomely.
So, as I waited for the BritBlogger to start, my spirits and confidence were sky high. This seemed to rub off on the game and I played probably the best I've played in this series of tourny's. Played my hands very selectively, used my position well and re-raised stronger hands off pots a couple of times. I got very unlucky in 2 hands that could have sealed a win, but also hit a couple of lucky rivers to win pots I should have lost. Guess we can all relate to this at some point since we started playing these games.
The heads up battle seemed to go on forever - and I think dD got it spot on - we both wanted not to lose, rather than to win - as we were both far too passive, if I'm honest. The banter from the players that stayed on was good, and Amatay took down the final hand to win the tourny. Well played mate - I'll be after you on Sunday!!

Played a little bit Monday night and added the 30$ that took me into a positive for the year. After my horrendous start to the year, I'm glad I've got this behind me, and hopefully these sunny times will be with me for the future, and allow me to post another yearly profit.
I'm writing this from a hotel room in Taunton, where I am visiting our head office for a couple of days. The time here is enjoyable, as I get to see the people I talk to regularly as well as catch up with directors and other managers for various workshops and idea sharing. It's a great company to work for, the directors tend to leave me to it - just asking for a brief report every Friday, and only calling to discuss new opportunities and business, or if they know I face a particular challenge or problem. Great to have bosses like this, and I've really enjoyed the (almost) 9 months since I joined and seen the office grow.

Ok, off to some souless harvester type palce for a bite to eat and drink, then I'll hit the tables for a couple of hours later.

Bring me sunshine.......

Sigh

2007-06-03T23:44:00.000+01:00

Blogger 11 was mine for the taking.

First this

Then This

And I got 2nd. Gutted.

Actually, I played some good poker most of the way through, and did hit a lucky 10 on the river to take out Juice's AQ, which upset him immensly (sorry J).

Best I've played since winning it, so overall not to upset. Wll done to Amatay, even if he does have a horrible looking woman on Pokerstars avatar!

Nite all.

Lazy Buggers!

2007-06-01T15:27:00.000+01:00

Is it just me, or have you noticed the increased number of comments being left on your Blog during the day? I used to get a few comments during the evening by bloggers who, like me probably, read blogs whilst they are playing (or in between playing). But now, I am regularly getting comments from 9am – 4pm (never after 4pm strangely).

What’s the reason for this?
Are our blogs more interesting, so people are reading during the day?
Are there more bloggers out there, so therefore more time reading them?

Or is it because you are a bunch of skiving sods, and have nothing better to do during the day? Do your bosses know how much time you spend reading and commenting on blogs when you should be working?
Also, I can’t see a comment left on my blog after 4pm, so not only do you spend most of your working day reading and commenting on other peoples stories – but you knock off early as well!

(Thinks to self quietly……’I see a blackmail opportunity here……’)

So, would you all mind commenting below on where you work and the name of your boss – and I’ll Email him/her and tell them that you never take part in this type of activity and are far too busy working to even consider the possibility that blogs even exist (what is this internet thingy anyway?), let alone read them in works time.

OK – Just been out to the shop, as my blog wants to send Clouds blog a birthday card. With no expense spared, here's the one it chose:

PS - Can’t wait for the party.

Never Never Never

2007-05-31T16:59:00.001+01:00

The more romantic of you guys will know the above headline is a Julio Iglesias song.

Come on, I know you guys, under that tough exterior you like to portray on the poker tables, there’s a little bit of Julio in you.

The lyrics went along the lines of:

‘You treat me wrong, you treat me right
You let me be, you make me fight with you
You make me high, you bring me down
You set me free, you hold me bound to you
I hate you, then I love you
then I hate you, then I love you more
For whatever you do, I never want to be in love, with anyone but you’

And on it goes. Quite a nice song actually, in a late night, smootchie, grab your girly kind of way. But before I perforate your eardrums with more of this luuuuuurrrrrrrvvvvveeeee music (Luther Vandross does it so much better, anyway), this is actually a poker post.

What drives us to play this game?
The highs?
The lows?
The realisation that the two are actually the same thing, or at least one doing an impression of the other?
The addiction?
Or it is just because it makes us feel exactly like the lyrics above.

We all love the game - that much is obvious. We spend enough time playing it, talking about and even writing it down on virtual paper for the world to see. This love hate relationship I have with poker could fill the columns of any gossip magazine in ways that Brad Pitt and Angelia Jolie would struggle to compete with.

It treats me wrong (KK losing to KJ)
It treats me right (88 taking out 10 10)
It lets me be (AA wins over KK)
It makes me fight with it (AA loses over KK)
It sets me free (How the f**k do you call that, you idiot!)
It holds me bound (I have AA and 5 players have called my raise)
I hate it (Why do you let these fish play?)
I love it? (Why do you not let more of these fish play?)

But whatever you do, I never want to be in love, with anyone but you (AA stood against 5 players and won me a 100$ pot!!)

What a game!

Ups and Downs

2007-05-29T10:10:00.000+01:00

Another weekend over, where do they go?
The rain fell, the only chance we had to get out was Monday morning and Mia was straining at the leash to get to the park. Got back for lunch as the heavens opened, so it was indoors most of the weekend, which does not lead to a happy Mia. She needs to run free and burn off the excess energy, or she is up early and late to bed. Still, we managed to have some fun with plasticine and felt faces.

Takes you back, huh?

Poker was a mixed affair, hence the title. On one site I dropped 100$ due to some amazing cards. Hands where you think you must be ahead, and are amazed when someone raises or bets into you, and you stop and think ‘the only hand I can lose to is…….’. And guess what the villain has? Grrrrr.
The most noticeable one was holding 8h 9h and seeing a flop of 2 9 9. I bet it hard and got a caller. Turn was an A and again I bet it hard, and the river was a 6. He had pocket 6’s.
Looking back, I think these hands you cannot get away from. When there are only 2 of you in the hand, I think it’s fair to assume it is unlikely he has the other 9 (though this is online poker!), though some players refuse to believe they are beaten, these miracle cards happen, so why not this hand?

So I licked my wounds and moved over to another site where I managed to turn 100$ into 274$ in 2 nights. Placed in a few SNG, but mainly this came from cash games, going against what I’ve been blogging the last few times, where most of my successes were coming from MTT or SNG.
I folded KK on 10 7 2 flop, with 2 suited cards and 2 opponents, after betting the flop and seeing a raise and a call. One player had a set of 7s and the other the flush draw, which hit the river, leaving me 3rd in a 3 horse race, had I called. Saved myself a few quid here, and I was pleased with my discipline and sensible-ness.
A spectacular run of cards saw 2 particular sessions turn a 25$ buy in to 100$+ and despite losing a buy in with a set to a rivered str8, I still put in a good profit. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.

The BritBlogger was another disappointment for me. This time I actually had some hands, but Kat always seemed to have better. She raised before me when I had AK, and perhaps my call was a mistake, I should have pushed, especially when I saw what she had. The flop (I think) was JJK and Kat bet about half the pot. I was tempted to push, but there was another player in the hand, and I thought another J could well be out there. So I folded, and Kat showed her 10 J. Raised early on with Aces and Kings, but got no callers so unable to cash in on any strong hands.
I busted out when I matched a J with 3 hearts on the flop, and saw a weakness when Pok3rMonkey reduced his turn bet somewhat, so I pushed all in. After using up most of his time-bank, he called and showed KK (no hearts) and out I went. Such a fine line between success and failure sometimes, as I know he was very tempted to fold. It was a good call on his part, and I’ve linked him up to the right so stop by his T’ai Chi blog and say goodbye to the Monkey as it moves over to Dudley/Dd/Resident Evil’s blog (what do we call him??) for the week.

The biggest surprise came when I check the leader board the next morning and saw position 3 – Burnley Mik. I Emailed Poker Stars support to advise them of the obvious mistake, he surely finished 13th not 3rd, and there was a basic programming error? But no, he did finish 3rd and made good on a promising chip stack for the first time! Only kidding Mik, good stuff – maybe the start of a roll?

Anyway, time to do something better…….

Nearly Weekend!!

2007-05-25T10:29:00.000+01:00

Still no word from PKR, so after posting a thread on 2+2 with the story, cashed out and uninstalled from the laptop. It’s a real shame this, last week I made 220$ profit at this site, thanks to 4 high placings in tourneys and a high % in the money on the SNG’s.
It’s a nice place to play poker, you can have a bit of fun with your character, making him laugh and jump around, as well as shout ‘Loser’ at other players etc. A lot of players seem to spend more time focusing on this than they do the poker, which has had a great impact on my BR. But, if they can’t treat people with basic respect, and respond to queries raised by their players, why should I play there? There’s plenty more fish in the sea.

2+2 is some place. I’ve heard it spoken about in the past, but never really read too much. Spent a while there last night reading the many posts of varying intellect and interest, got stumped at some of the mathematical formula’s there (never was any good at Algebra at school) as well as some idiots posting anything and everything for their 15 virtual moments of fame.

Downloaded Party, not played there for some time, thought I’d see if it was still as brutal as it used to be. First 3 SNG’s I was out first (my AK v QJ – lost to 2 outer on the river) 2nd in the 2nd (was leader but lost 2 hands on the run to – 2 outers on the river) then busted out on the bubble in the third to yet another rivered 2 outer. Then went on a good run in 5 consecutive SNG’s – winning 4 and 2nd in the other to make a nice profit for the evening. Slight dip on a cash table with the hand below, but still ended the night positive. Fired up PokerStars and played a SNG there at 5$ and won, then closed down for the night as I was getting pretty tired.

A few blogs seem to be discussing the SNG v Cash Game debate – and I seem to be having more success at the Tourney tables than the cash ones, and I guess some players are more skilled at one than the other. Cash tables I see the variance much more, especially at the lower levels I play at. I think this hand sums up what would happen on a cash table, but less likely on a tourney one:
I check 9 10 on the BB and see a flop of 9 10 2. Bet double the pot as 2 suited cards there – only 1 caller. Turn x, bet double pot again and he calls. River 2 (no flush) and bet the pot – he calls and shows 2 4. No flush draw, no str8 draw – calls all this with lowest pair and worse kicker. He could beat no hand at all unless he hit a 2 outer on the river, yet calls anyway. I don’t believe you would see this at a tourney table SNG or MTT. I politely tried to engage him in chat, but wouldn’t answer. Maybe he was a robot.
Cash players (generally) seem to be more erratic and call more often, pretty much the opposite of the average tourney player, where patience is vital and the standard seems to be higher.

Looking forward to a long weekend off, work tiring me at the moment, though I am my own worse enemy by staying up too late and not getting enough sleep. Mia has settled back into her sleeping routine after her recent illness so looking forward to a weekend of sleep and then fun. Weather forecast is good for Saturday but Sunday and Monday are not looking good – so looks like Saturday will be an afternoon picnic in the park.

Have a great weekend!

Disgusted!

2007-05-22T20:50:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, with myself, not anyone else. Even I cannot blame another for this.

I was 'in the zone'. Tourny started with 387, and we are down to the last 7. I've played some of the most patient, strong poker as I've played in some time. I have a chip lead of a few hundred over 2nd place, and 1000's from 3rd and below. I glance at the payout structure and see that 3rd place pays out over 150$, 2nd over 250$ and 1st almost 500$. I was thinking one of those 3 was well within my grasp, instead of the 50$ or so I ended up with.

Then I was deal AJs in mid position. And for some reason, I thought this was a premium hand. And played it accordingly. 3 hours of previously solid, patient poker, and I ruin it all in a few seconds. Refusing to believe the other guy had a hand.
What an idiot, and I was so disgusted with myself for playing this the way I did, throwing away a real chance at bigger money, over a lack of concentration and such stupid play on my part.

I hope I learn from it, thats the positive thing I'm going to take away.

The poker is going well, and my poor first quarter is behind me and things are looking brighter as I look at my various poker accounts. The winning player I was last year and before, is creeping back, and I, for one, am damn glad about that.

------------------------------

PKR have still not responded to my Email regarding the 'cheating/collusion' from last week. I sent a chaser last night (and have had receipts that all have been received) saying that I expect a response within 24 hours or will publicise the fact that PKR seem to be, in some way, condoning what took place or surely they would act against it? Their rules quite clearly state that anyone caught doing this would be disqualified and banned from playing at their site. I have seen both players several times since, so know that this hasn't happened.

They also haven't upped my payout so I'm guessing they weren't disqualified either. Not sure if I should just let this go or keep on at PKR - or what I can do if they advise they will not do anything? Any ideas would be gratefully received!

------------------------------

Finally, just started playing and had this - think it could be a good night. Nearly ran out of time trying to get the Screen Shot on!

PS - Check out newly added link to the right for Mr Dudley, or Dd or Resident Evil - he's gotta blog!!

You Shouldn't Laugh

2007-05-20T18:12:00.000+01:00

I know, I know - I shouldn't find this funny at all.

A vulnerable person in a sticky situation. Possibly through no fault of her own. But something about this photo had me in creases.

So, we shouldn't laugh.

Sorry, but I did.

I also had to laugh, opening up the papers this morning and seeing a full page advert for this company. Not making any comments at all Gary.

Good luck at Blogger 9 - see ya there!

Gutted

2007-05-19T18:26:00.000+01:00

What a horrible afternoon. So disappointing. Congratulations to Chelsea, this seasons FA Cup Winners, for their 1-0 win earlier.

Such a shame that with all the talent on dislay; Ronaldo, Drogba, Rooney, Makele, Giggs, Terry, Vidic, Lampard et al, that the difference between the two teams was this man.

The game was not the exciting game many expected, but these two teams are so evenly balanced, they were always going to cancel each other out for the bulk of the game. Vidic and Ferdinand kept Drogba and Cole (and later Robben) quiet for almost all the game, as did the Chelsea defenders with Rooney and Ronaldo. Fergie got his tactics wrong playing a far to defensively minded team from the start, and Fletcher in place of Smith was a poor decision on his behalf.

The referee got most crucial decisions in this game wrong. He missed the penalty, he missed the first goal scored, and not given, in a game where one goal would be enough. A booking (deservedly) for Scholes that kept him subdued for the remainder of the game, yet not for Ferraria for an almost identical tackle minutes later, leaving him free to make crucial tackles later. Joe Cole's unpunished ugly, two footed lunge early on, that didn't warrant even a talking to. A perfectly timed tackle by Smith given as a free kick which led to the only allowed goal, with this man stood 5 yards away. It's not just footballers who cheat.

It's hard enough to lose a Cup Final, but to lose as a result of the referee makes it even tougher. Maybe being a referee makes me more critical, but Mr Bennett's performance was well below par.

But hey, we were there and there was nothing between the two teams, and consolation can be drawn from that, even though we didn't win. Penalties would have been a lottery, so anyone could have won that. And, overall, United have overachieved (in my opinion) this season, by winning the league, so today's result should bring things into perspective for the fans and players alike.

Bring on next season!!

Cup Final Morning

2007-05-19T11:48:00.000+01:00

My mood is high after a great night on the tales last night, adding 110$ to my BR. Mainly thanks to 2 wins in 10$ SNG's and my 10's beating Jacks on a lucky river.

It was my turn for lie in this morning - so I'm feeling refreshed. The lads will be knocking on my door in about an hour for pre-match bacon butties and discussions over the team sheets.
Who's in for us, who's out for them. What formation, will our top players perform on the day?

Confidence - they could only draw with our 2nd string team last week.
Bravado - Ronaldo and Rooney are the best strike partnership in the world.
Realism - Chealsea are not a bad side, a few of their players can cause us problems.
Predictions - Close game, possibly extra time, United to win by 1 goal.
Confidence agin - nah, 4 - 0 like the last time we met them in the FA Cup Final.
Wembley Memories - My first cup final, Altrincham v Enfield in the FA Trophy many years ago, with my Grandad.
Good memories - Lucky to have seen quite a few wins at wembley in both FA and League Cup Finals, Cantona's strike against Liverpool in a dull game (but who cares after?).
Bad one's too - Alan Sunderlands late winner, Kanchelskis getting sent off and losing to Villa. Horrible journey home sometims.

Then it's off to the pub with a big screen and lots of atmosphere.

But before that,

Fear - what if we lose?

Apologies to any Irish Readers

2007-05-18T16:44:00.000+01:00

But this is very funny.

Two Irishmen walk into a pet shop and head to the bird section
Gerry says to Paddy, "Dat's dem."
The owner comes over and asks if he can help them.
"Yeah, we'll take four of dem dere little budgies in dat cage up dere," says Gerry.
The owner puts the budgies in a cardboard box, they pay for the birds, leave the shop and get into Gerry's truck to drive to the top of the Connor Pass.
At the Connor Pass, Gerry looks down at the 1000 foot drop and says, "Dis looks like a grand place."
He takes two birds out of the box, puts one on each shoulder and jumps off the cliff.
Paddy watches as the budgies fly off and Gerry falls to his death at the bottom.
Paddy shakes his head and says, "Fook dat. Dis budgie jumping is too fook'n dangerous for me!"

THERE'S MORE...

Moment's later, Seamus arrives up at Connor Pass. He's been to the pet shop too and walks up to the edge of the cliff carrying another cardboard box in one hand and a shotgun in the other.
"Hi, Paddy. Watch dis," Seamus says.
He takes a parrot from the box and lets him fly free. He then throws himself over the edge of the cliff with the gun. Paddy watches as half way down, Seamus takes the gun and shoots the parrot. Seamus continues to plummet down to a splattering end.
Paddy shakes his head and says, "And I'm never trying dat parrotshooting either!"

IT IS NOT OVER YET......

Paddy is just getting over the shock of losing two friends when Sean appears. He's also been to the pet shop and is carrying a cardboard box out of which he pulls a chicken. Sean then takes the chicken by its legs and hurls himself off the cliff and disappears down and down until he also comes to an abrupt end.

Once more Paddy shakes his head. "Fook dat, lads. First dere was Gerry with his budgiejumping, den Seamus parrotshooting........ and now Sean and his fook'n hengliding!"

Tagged!

2007-05-15T20:44:00.000+01:00

Not the electronic type, I promise.
OK, after posting the last piece, decided to catch up on reading some blogs and found I had been tagged by Acorn, and have to write 7 things about myself that no one knows. So, here goes:

1 - I am a qualified football referee. Not at all interested in refereeing 'grown up' football after witnessing so much fighting and violence, as well as uncomplimentary statements about me. I figured it was a matter of time before someone punched my lights out, so I now referee under 11's to under 16's on a Sunday.

2 - I used to work for Bobby Charlton. He has a travel agent near where I live, and I worked there for 3 years.

3 - I was in a choir as a youngster until, well, that thing that happens to boys around a certain age. And spoilt everything.

4 - I was incredibly accident prone as a youngster and have broken my arm on 5 seperate occasions, including once when it was in a plastercast from a previous break.

5 - Walking home from a club late one night after not being able to get a taxi, I passed an alleyway and intervened in a 'situation' between a woman and a strange man. I pushed him over a wall, knocking him out, she ran off and I never saw her again.

6 - I still miss my grandparents, 12 years after they died.

7 - I always wanted to be a daddy.

So I get to tag someone else, and there doesn't look like there is anyone left, so I will tag:

Resident Evil (Dudley) - hopefully giving him something to do with his first post!!

I'd also love to hear the thoughts of 88% Concentration, as his blog is compulsive viewing, if a lot scary as he depicts a man out of control - but I doubt he will read my blog.

OK, off to play the 750$ Added at PKR (They still haven't replied to my Email, which is a little surprising considering the content) - anyone care to guess where I may finish?

7th & 8th!

2007-05-15T00:31:00.000+01:00

Delighted to see a much improved Mia over the last 2 days, back to her old self again. She remembered not to get up too early on Saturday and Sunday morning, obviously realising that Mummy and Daddy needed some sleep after a wedding on Friday that ran into the wee hours, and a dinner party of Saturday which was even later. She made up for it with a 6am start this morning, but hey, you can't have everything.

Both evenings went well, had a great laugh and it was good to catch up with old friends not seen for a while. Plenty of good food, wine and music - and even a few smootchies on the dance floor towards the end!

Poker has been a steady reward tonight, entering the 5$ - 750$ added tourny at PKR. Tonight was the third time I've played this on, and I've managed a 7th, another 7th and then an 8th tonight.

Bizzarely, I'll probably end up 7th again, as 2 players were constantly cheating throughout the tourny, telling each other what cards they had whenever in a heads up situation. Not sure if they were friends or knew each other (they seemed like they did) but I saw it myself 3 times, and other players commented on it. One particular hand, one was the SB and as it was folded to him, he raised. The other player was the BB and she was thinking about it and he typed in the chat 'I have AA, please fold'. She folded, after saying she had JJ and sure enough, he turned over AA. More than likely, she calls, goes out and we all finish one place higher (another 11$ for me!).

I got the live chat up after reading the rules on their website, and pointed out that both should be disqualified as they promise. The rules are not clear what happens with the cheating players winnings, so I have asked for a response once they have checked out my claims. I'll post their reply once I've got it.

By the way, if you play at PKR, the 2 players concerned sandwich me on the leaderboard of the image here, so be wary if they are at a table together.

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Well Done to Dudley, aka Resident Evil (just two of his many guises!) for taking down the latest Blogger Tourny, he did say in the chat that if he won, he would start a blog, so let's see if he is a man of his word! Mr Cloud managed 2nd place (for the 2nd time if memory serves me), so unlucky and well played at the same time! The walk of shame went to Juice, closely followed by the Milkman, Tan earned probably as much in bounty than he would have done if he won the thing, for taking these two out!
Anways, off to bed, have the monthly senior management meeting in the morning, and I've not even written my notes yet!

Sleepless Nights

2007-05-10T14:32:00.000+01:00

I am so tired, I think I could sleep on a washing line! Mia has not been well these past few days, temperature still high and whilst the Calpol gives her a few hours relief, she is still really unsettled at night and has been waking up every 3 hours or so, crying and wanting some company. She saw a doctor yesterday who said the rosy cheeks, temperature and general lethargic way are all signs of teething and it should pass in the next few days. She is much chirpier this morning and although waking up only twice last night, managed to sleep in till 11am. This was good for Mummy, who also managed to catch up on sleep, but not for me as I left for work at 8am this morning.
Still, we’re off tomorrow to a friends wedding so may catch a little lie in before I’m up, suited up and ready for the day ahead.

Apart from one memorable hand, had a frustrating night on the tables. Crashed out of my first 4 SNG outside the money with the same scenario - my flush beaten by a higher one. Hit the cash tables for a while and could not seem to get any momentum going. None of my premium hands were standing up and then the memorable hand happened.

On the BB / 50$ NL table, dealt KK. The table maniac raised from early position to $4.50, there was then a raise to $8.50 by player 2 and a flat call from player 3 before getting to me.
I was a bit confused here, the first player could have any 2 cards, his last raise I saw was with K4s, and he’d lost a 50$ buy in already, and was aggressive in his chat. Player 2 called a 60$ all in bet the previous hand with nothing but a flush draw, and hit the river to beat a set of Jacks – probably thought she could do no wrong. Player 3 had just joined the table, so no read on him.
Already at this table, I had twice seen KK v AA confrontations, so was pretty confident that this couldn’t happen again so quickly (not sure now if this was justified!). I decided to push all-in with my 40$ or so, with the idea that this would scare them all off.
Not so, all 3 call! Ouch, I’m f**ked here, I thought. 4 way pot with KK. Hmmmm.

Player 1 turns over Q5, Player 2 AK, Player 3 AQ.
Flop was a low, rainbow, raggedy type thing. Then a Q hits the turn.

Nooooo, please no 5, please no 5, please no 5

River 7.

The two red kings stood proud on the table and $140 came into my pot.

The banter afterwards was amazing, Mr Q5 got really annoyed – especially after I questioned how he calls a 40$ bet with those cards. Mr AQ was quiet, Mr AK got into an argument with Mr Q5, which went on for the next 20minutes, when I left the table. Very amusing, though the comments made were very unsavoury!

Anway, BR continuing a steady growth, despite my SNG setback. Out tonight with the groom, then his wedding tomorrow, and Saturday night I’m out at a friends dinner party – so I face the prospect of 3 nights without playing poker!
Wonder when the shakes will kick in ;-)

MTT Seventh Heaven

2007-05-08T19:47:00.000+01:00

Been staying way from the cash tables these last few nights. Can't take the variance at the moment, and seem to be getting better returns from the SNG's. Was scanning over the PKR tournies and found a 5$, 750$ added MTT with only 200 or so registered (254 at the start) so decided to have a go.

Top 30 paid and I played the tight conservative game that I should have been playing on Sunday night at the blogger game. Very few premium hands came my way over the next 4 hours, AA the only high pair I had, and got them on 2 occasions. Both times fell at a perfect time for me, with a few people in the pot pre flop already, my raise scaring all but 2 away, and the Aces held up for 2 big pots.

The big difference was my premium non paired hands, AK & AQ, wich stood up against weaker hands and pocket pairs every time bar one when into a confrontation. At the end, I was in 4th place in the last 7 when I got AQ and pushed from late position with 2 previous callers limping in (blinds were 6k at this point). Unfortunately for me, the BB had AK and called to leave me with enough for 1 small blind. Dealt K4 and for a brief moment of seing a flop of K 4 x, I thought I may scrape another postion. Alas, one player had JJ and it was checked to the river when another J fell, and out I went in 7th and a 44$ payout.

Happy with this, especially as I was so knackered after 2 nights of disjointed sleep. Mia has a temperature and has been up a few times in the night, which means we get up a few times in the night too. Got home from work tonight and she was red-cheeked and very lethargic, even sat and cuddled up on my knee for 45 mins, which for her is the longest I have ever seen her awake and still! She was so tired looking so hopefully the Calpol will kick in and help her get a good nights sleep, which is probably what she needs the most.

Finally, congrats to Richard for winning the Blogger tourny, beating Acorn into 2nd place for his 2nd win. I had incorrectly blogged there would be a new winner as all previous one's were out, but must have missed his name. Apologies sir. Acorn was my pre-tourny tip to win, and think it will be a matter of time before he grabs the first place.

OK, enough from me, got some work to do and maybe a few SNG's. Good luck all.

Mixed Sunday

2007-05-06T22:00:00.000+01:00

Championes, Championes!!

Chelsea's poor run of recent results continued, and handed Man U the Premier League title earlier this afternoon. Although Chelsea played pretty well, especially the 2nd half they just couldn't score the winning goal that would have made Wednesday nights game much more fiesty than it will probably now be. Both managers may rest key players as they look forward to a much more improtant game a week on Saturday. Still, it's good to win it, and I think, if you're totally honest, the best team this season won.

It was good to see Jose's reaction after the game, making sure his players and fans know they haven't let him or anyone down. That they did their best. In the post-match interview he congatulated United's players, managers, staff and fans for their efforts in securing the title, and reminded them that Chelsea would be back next season.

Shame that a certain poker player can't be as gracious and seemed to delight in my early exit from the Brit Blogger tourny earlier (it is still going on now), praising opponents for their winning hands everytime I lost, and never once when I won. Shame really, but hey, we are all free to be the way we choose.

This tourny was a bit disappointing for me. Built up a nice stack early on, and tried to steal at the wrong time on 3 occasions. Firstly, with AK, tried to push Cadmunky off a pot on a low flop, but he had 10s to cut me in half. Then, when I was the bigger stack, tried to steal the blinds with QJ and ran into Simonjj's QQ. Then, when my stack was less than 500, pushed with A7 and ran in Juice's KK. On some day's I'd be sat with a nice stack, today it wasn't to be. I'll be back. Maybe a little more conservative next time!
Looks like there will be a new winner, with 3 previous winners going out in the bottom 6 - good luck to all left in.

Anyway, off to the tables, hoping my recent good form on the cash tables continues.

Almost There....

2007-05-06T17:15:00.000+01:00

Half Time, Arsenal 1 Chelsea 0

Can almost taste it......

Winning and Hairy Gymnasts Play Football

2007-05-04T15:16:00.000+01:00

Had a great night at the tables last night, ending up almost 3 x buys in up and added another 62$ to the BR. These success were mainly down to 2 hands, one where I got very unlucky, then lucky, and the other where a great read and notes on an opponent paid off.

First up dealt AA and a 4 x bb raise in front of me. I re-raised to the max (Pot Limit table) and he called. Rainbow flop of Q 2 7, my opponent bets 3$ so I pushed all in. Opponent thinks for the maximum time, then calls. My AA is shown, and he has Kc Qc. My head hit my hands as another Q hit the turn, but then I look up and see the A on the river and I double up.

Few hands later a new player joins the table. I’ve played with this guy before and have quite a lot of notes on him, especially his playing of low pocket pairs. He raises before me and I’m on the button with 10 10. Reading his notes, the amount of his raise is pretty standard for indicating he has a low pocket pair. I re-raise him and he flat calls.
Flop was 8 9 2 and he bets half the pot. I think about this for a while, notes are great for getting a feel for how players play, but even bad players get good hands, and they may not think about how other players have picked up on their habits. So, my notes suggest low pair, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got him beat, but notes are a guide, not a statement of fact. Also, his low pair may have been 2s or 8s, but my notes show he check raises a flopped set, so I was pretty sure he put me on an AK type hand.

I decide to put him all in here, and he thinks for a while before calling and turning over 3 3. No one improves and my tens take down the pot and another buy in up! Played on for a little longer, lost a medium pot so after checking and seeing my BR was up 172$, decided to call it a night.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a good run, and the dark months of the year so far are right behind me. No further commenting on the United game, they were crap, I’m depressed and I’ll bet a team of hairy gymnasts would have put up more of a fight than we did. That would be an intersting concept, and I can already see the newspaper stories:

'Team of Hairy Gymnasts get to Champions League Semi-Final'
Fan Club President Nick 'The Cloud' Cantwell said he was delighted with the team and had worked hard to get them recognised nationally with an online PR campiagn, which resulted in their qualification to the Champions League this season. Although they knocked out Spurs in the Quarter finals, a team he has supported since he was a boy, he was still full of pride in his team.
'This makes life worthwhile' he said, putting on his kagoul.

Now, that was believable until the Spurs bit.

Just read Clouds blog and he has put a bounty on my head! Not a chocolate bar, but a 5$ reward to whoever knocks me out at the BritBlogger7 on Sunday. Only 5$!! What a cheapskate and I think there should be an official complaint.

I mean, does he know who I am?

:-)

Ah Well

2007-05-03T00:47:00.000+01:00

It was bad enough I couldn't watch the semi final tonight. It was even worse as I received text messages with updates on the scoreline. But hey, you can't win them all. Just worse when you are convinced your team will win, and they lose convincingly. Playing well, scoring for fun and confidence was high, especially after the Roma result. Just hope this doesn't put United on tilt and they end up winning nothing.
This weekend is the Manchester derby, and working in an office 50/50 split between red and blue, there will be plenty of banter flying around, especially from the winners.

Anyway, it was the company's senior management meeting today/tomorrow, so I get to spend 2 days here. Things are going well at work, my area is way ahead of budget and with 2 months of our financial year to go, Life could be worse I suppose!

Poker is beginning to get back to winning ways. Poker Stars continues to frustrate, so I have cashed out my BritBlogger winnings and am concentrating on Poker Room, where the 25c Pot Limit tables are proving to be as fruitful now as they were a while back.
My BR is 110$ ahead so a focused effort on staying at this level for a while, until the BR has seen a continued growth, is my immediate plan. It's tough to ignor ethe temptation to step up a level, when you are used to higher levels, but BR management is the key so a few more weeks and I'll see how things go.

Anyway, off to bed - posting after a bottle of red wine and several pints of guiness is never a great idea!

Happy as a Pig in Muck!

2007-05-01T09:27:00.000+01:00

Mia is really into a kiddie programme called Peppa Pig. For those without children, it is all about a cartoon family of Pig’s. A little girl pig called Peppa, her little brother George (who carries a toy dinosaur everywhere he goes), Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig. There are occasional appearances by Grandma and Grandad Pig too. Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig do not have names just Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig. So Cathy and I are no longer Mummy and Daddy, we are Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig.
As I open the front door coming home from work, I can hear the cries of ‘Daddy Pig, Daddy Pig’ as she runs up for her hug. Quite what the neighbours think is beyond me. When we play in the garden, I am prone to do silly things, and am now prompted with the words 'Silly Daddy Pig'.

Anyway, Isn’t it nice to wallow in the glory for a few days? Playing poker last night and anyone not respecting my raises was prompted with a comment ‘Do you know who I am? I won the BritBlogger6 Tourny you know? Show me some repect!’
Only kidding of course, but there is something very pleasing about finishing top of the pile, when up against the quality of opposition playing the Tourny.
Cathy thought it was a great achievement, but this was after finding out she wasn’t getting a new pair of shoes with the winnings! It’s an honour thing, as Juice put it last night.

This tourney has inspired a lot more conversation between an ever expanding circle of friends. OK, maybe not real life friends, as many of us will never meet, but still friends who look out for each other and are quick with praise and congratulations as well as concern and best wishes when things may not be going so well.
I think back to about 18months ago, when I was first introduced to Juice and The Edge by Rosie and Acorn – and their first comment was ‘Welcome to the Family’. Well that family has expanded ten-fold by now, and it is nice to see more and more people joining in the fun and banter. I hope that new players are made to feel as welcome and at home as I have always felt.
So stop by the Tourny on Sunday at Poker Stars. The banter from Mik is worth the 5$ entry fee alone!

I would like to start a campaign to coerce Mr Edge into joining the next Blogger tourney. A regular at the tables for a while, I get the feeling he has lost the love for poker, so maybe if we stop by his blog and offer him words of support and enthusiasm, he will join us on Sunday. His banter and one liners were legendary, and I for one would love to see him do his stuff at the Blogger Tourny.

Come on Mr Edge!!

BritBlogger 6

2007-04-30T08:57:00.000+01:00

You probably guessed already, from the last post, that at last my amazing poker skills have been deservedly rewarded with a sweeping victory at the BritBlogger 6 tournament last night!! Only joking, of course.
I actually had a strategy! This may come as a surprise to many, but I had actually thought out a plan. These Blogger tournies have been pretty tight, most players have a good regard for each other, and raises are respected and good play expected. I began a period of raising from late position with any two cards, if there was only 1 caller before me, and the blinds to come. I showed a few of raises with 6 2, 10 4 and K4, stealing quite a few from Resident Evil, who by the 6 2 hand, I think realised what I was doing, and commented in the chat. It was pretty tight from then on.

It started well with winning a couple of hands early on to double my stack. I hovered around the 4k mark for a while, dipped down to the 2k mark and then back up to just over 5k as we hit the final table.
I’m not one for remembering every hand, but there were a few that stuck out. My A9 taking down the Milkman’s Q2. Mik had been in the top 3 for a while but ran into Kat’s flush (I think) which severely depleted him, and I took his remaining chips when he pushed on the BB. I was thinking at this point that, at least I got my money back, as I was sure there was a bounty on his head. Alas this was not to be, but better was to come.
After building my stack quite nicely with a few steals and re-raises, it was down to 4. Cloud, Acorn, Kat and myself were left – and there was going to be a new champion, whoever won.
I was on the big blind, Kat and Acorn folded and Cloud pushed. I had AJ. Hmmmmm. Fold. Then, next BB the same thing happened. This time I call and Cloud turns over 77. The J on the flop meant I was in the money and poor Cloud was the bubble boy.
To his credit, he stayed around till the end, and even had a ‘Bubble Boy’ banner on his blog within minutes!
Then it was 3. And this was probably my worse hand of the night, and luckiest. Kat flat called, Acorn folded the small blind and I checked with 8 5.
The flop came out 8 high. I put Kat (with no pre flop raise) on a higher, unpaired hand and bet about 2k in chips. She had about 5k and pushed all in. I thought for a few seconds, checking my stack (12k) and hers before deciding that a call was almost inevitable.
The 5 hit the turn as Kat’s cards were shown. KK. Oops.
I took a bit of stick from Kat for this, and observers too, but a little luck is needed in these tournies, and looking back over previous winner’s blogs, there seems to be one or two of these along the way. By way of another apology, I've added a link to her blog :-)

So, it was heads up. Acorn v Mias_dad. Actually, it was Zagga v Spid (Mias_dad was already taken at Poker Stars). A few observers added to the tension by making it an England v Scotland game, and reminding me that last time at Wembley, Scottish fans made off with the goalposts. Previous winner Al Eleven turned up towards the end to wish his Countryman ‘good luck’ and I felt a little unpopular as his many hoards of fans cheered him on.
After a lot of backing and to-ing, the first confrontation. I was ahead with around 17k in chips, Acorn about 7k and he pushed when I was holding 66. Was this my moment, or did he have a genuine hand. I wished him good luck and called. He turned over Texas Dolly, 10 2. A brief moment passed my eyes before a 10 hit the flop and I thought this was the beginning of the end.
Next hand I had KQ sooted and raised about 4 x BB, Acorn pushed and I called. I don’t actually remember what he had, think it was a mid pair, but I was delighted when the K hit the flop and I was back where I was a few hands earlier.
After a few more pushes from Acorn, uncalled, I finally had a hand I could call with. Acorn pushed with 5 6 and I held AK and called. The K on the flop secured it for me, though the 6 on the turn meant for a few nervous moments before the river hit.

Overall, a great game and I look forward to defending my crown next week! In fact, after a few more weeks – maybe we should have a ‘Champion of Champions’ Tourny?

Yes!!

2007-04-29T23:37:00.000+01:00

Get in there!

More to follow.

Made Me Laugh!

2007-04-26T22:57:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine in America sent me this Email today, he says this actually happened. Not sure if that is true, but it made me laugh anyway!

Bill Gates vs. General Motors

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX ), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, 'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

Made me chuckle!

What a Difference a Year Makes

2007-04-24T12:07:00.000+01:00

I had such great hopes for 2007 after 2006 and 2005 being winning years online. I was just reading my posts back in December and was really looking forward to another successful year. Maybe I need to manage my expectations more, and I have expected to carry on winning, rather than working on improving my game and looking for ways to progress.

Anyway, the year hasn’t been great and the last 2 months probably rate as the worse run I have been on. Spent a lot of time reviewing my hands and can see a few holes that would probably account for about 10-15% of the losses, but overall just can’t seem to shake not knowing when I’m beaten.

My game pre-flop is fairly good. I vary my raises with hands so as not to become predictable. I re-raise strongly with premium hands. I also vary my starting hands depending on the table I am playing. This shows that I am watching and noting opponents and their style of play – which is all pretty positive. I guess one of my big flaws is getting away from flops when I believe I have the strongest hand, when in fact I don’t. Some of them I was obviously behind, but called anyway, many were hands like my AA v the villains 77 on a 7 Q 3 flop. Can you ever confidently believe you are behind in these circumstances? A % of times I have called raises in these situations and been shown AQ to take down the pot – but not sure how you can confidently predict when you are ahead or miles behind in a hand.

At the blogger tourney, I folded AK on a K 8 9 flop to a huge raise from Acorn. 2 weeks ago I would have put Acorn all-in without a 2nd thought. I thought about what he had, and was confident he’d flopped a set. He said he was bluffing after, but I’m pretty sure he had a stronger hand. Hopefully my read was right.

I know I have taken a high number of incredibly unlikely cards on turn or river – but I understand that these things happen, maybe they’ve not happened for a while and lady luck is just evening up the odds.

So, in a nutshell, the £500 in winnings from November and December have dwindled to just less than £60. I’m trying to remain positive, realising that these losses are from winnings, rather than next months mortgage payment and that I was a winning player and therefore can be again.

For the immediate future, I’m back to basics. I’ve read Bluescouse’s blog and can see how addictive the game can be, and how you can be severely depleted if you don’t keep control of your BR. 25$ Pot Limit games at Poker Room and 5c NL games at Poker Stars that were relatively fruitful for me 18months ago, as I was at that ‘afraid to step up a level’ stage. So I’m back there again and starting from scratch and beginning the process of the game again.
Another area is MTT & SNG games, which were profitable (I was a shark on Sharkscope for a while!), but lacked the speed and excitement of cash games. Maybe I’ve lost discipline and become complacent. So I’m going to focus on SNG for a while and see if I can re-find that disciplined, patient player that I was, but am no longer. Maybe life off the tables has also had an effect, and I’m hoping that stability at home will also bring stability at the green felt.

This should also make my blog a bit more interesting to read, as it has got a bit depressive recently. Having said that, these online diaries are suppose to reflect your ups and downs and feelings as we walk through our lives, and are I want to capture these thoughts and feelings, if only to learn from when I re-read them in future months.

Time for a new start.

I'll be there

2007-04-22T17:40:00.000+01:00

If you're lucky, a hairy gymnast may play!!

Probably win, too.

Brighter, Happier.

2007-04-16T22:37:00.000+01:00

The sun shone all week I was off. My little girl is not so little any more, as we saw her 3rd birthday come and go. Did time go this fast when we were kids? Can't believe she is 3.
And she spent her birthday party wearing out every member of the family. She started by dragging me around the park for 2 hours (whilst Cathy got the food ready), then dragged poor Grandma, Grandad and Grandad Bob (my dad) round the garden with equal vigour. She never stopped running, bouncing (castle or trampoline) or general trampling over every inch of the garden.
She even brought me and mummy some flowers from the garden. They were actually Dandelions, but what do we care!

Work was far from my mind (until today) and I couldn't have picked a nicer week to have off. Now, when's the next one?

Enjoyed the blogger tourny again last night despite being picked on mercilessly by the Rottie, who hadn't forgotten my flush from 2 weeks previously. Another lady who never forgets ;-).
The last tourny was summed up in 2 hands, and this was no different. My pocket 4's hit another on the flop to win me a 650$ pot early on, and after briefly leading the field didn't hit another hand till i had 800 chips left and decided that A4 was about the best I was going to get and pushed all in. Got a caller with K10 and the 10 on the flop about summed things up as far as poker goes at the moment.
Not played too much this week with being off and preparing for Mia's birthday and party, so at least my bad run hasn't continued. Managed to squeeze in the United semi final and was chuffed to see them make the final for about the 100th time in their history.
The referee then did everything possible in the Chelsea game to ensure the FA got their dream final for Wembley's first Cup Final. Could be an interesting 2 weeks with the possibility of Man United playing against Chelsea 3 times - one for the FA Cup Final, one for the Champions League Final and then for the Premiership. and if United win 2 of those, it will be 2 more than I thought they would win this season!
My 'other' club, Altrincham FC, continue to struggle against relegation from the Conference and currently sit 2 points off the drop zone having played more games than some of their rivals. Going to be a nervous finish for Alty.

Anyway, off to the tables to see how lady luck treats me - good luck with yours.

Just Sick

2007-04-10T11:55:00.000+01:00

10/20c NL table

Dealt KK, raise before me, I reriase 3 x his bet he calls. Low flop so I push all in, he calls and shows QQ.
Guess the Rver?
-50$

2 hands later.
AK on the button, raise it to 3$ (very fishy table)
2 callers
Flop Ah Kh 5s
I bet 20$ - 1 calls 10$ and is all in, the other flat calls
Turn is 9c
I push all in for my remaining 25$ or so
Other player calls
River is..... want to guess?

Yep - a heart,

Player turns over AQ
Other player 3h 4h
All those bets with 3 4 (same player with QQ) and he wins against AK and AQ.

- another 50$

Next hand
66, i flat call.

flop 6 K 7, I check, bet before me and I re-raise to 8 x his bet. He calls!!
turn is x and I push all in, he calls!

River is a 9.

Guess what Mr QQ/ 43 had this time?

Pocket 9's

- another 50$

Last night I lost with 7 full houses in less than 100 hands. The odds of hitting this many are remote, let alone losing with them all.

I know these things happen, but so often? Poker Office now has AK and AQ against 2 random cards (non paired) as a huge underdog. Answers on a postcard please.
Well, I'm starting to believe this may not be quite fair.

Looks like it's the casino from now on.

Same old, Same old

2007-04-09T12:41:00.000+01:00

Britblogger Tourny can be summed up in two hands for me. My 99 standing up against AK, then my QQ running into AA. That was it, think I was dealt into about 10 hands. The only positive thing I can say is that I wasn't last (thanks Acorn!). I hung around for a bit after, but I just don't have the enthusiasm for the game at the moment. Wel done to Miami Mark for winning 2nd time in 3 (does he have a blog?).

I'm on a bad losing streak at the moment and can't put my finger on what is going wrong. I'm not playing trash, my VPIP % is low, along with flops seen. In fact, after looking at my hand history for some time last night, all losing hands over 2$ I was favourite when the money went in just over 80% of the time. Seems like if you flop 2 pair online, and there is a possible str8 or flush on the table - it will hit the river a huge proportion of the time.
The bulk of the other 20% I was behind, but in understandable circumstances (my flopped set v a flopped str8, or 2 pair v a set etc etc). Not sure what I can do in these circumstances, as I feel I've done the right thing almost every time.
Anyway, it's back to micro limits for a while (10/20c tables) till I re-find my form or luck. Speaking of micro limits, I've added a link to a blog I just found - Micro Limit Donkey - he's a Leeds fan, but don't hold that against him!! Stop by and have a read when you have a minute.

Looking forward to the week ahead off the tables - I'm off!! It's my dads birthday today, Mia's 3rd birthday tomorrow - and then her party on Sunday. Sandwiched in between is our first night away from Mia together. I've booked us a night at a country estate/hotel type place on Friday night and Mia is staying with Grandparents. I've stayed away and so has Cathy, but never both together, and Cathy is already getting nervous!
The party preparations are in full swing, I'll be erecting a marquee tent in the garden, putting up the bouncy castle and general tidying up of the garden for the next week, then preparing the food as we get closer. I think we have about 30 people round for the afternoon, so hopefully this nice weather will hold up.

Nice to see Altrincham put in a thumping 5-1 win away at St Albans, and pull about 5 points clear of the relegation zone in the conference. It's still pretty close down there, and with many teams with games in hand, it's going to be a close run finish. United lost away at Portsmounth, and confirmed my suspicions that they will falter and allow Chelsea to win the title. I don't think Chelsea will drop points for the rest of the season, with the exception of the United game, which I think will end up level. If this is the case, United can afford to lose one more game and still pip Chelsea to the title, assuming Chelsea don't claw back the massive goal difference. Another close run finish - and at least it's pretty close at the top this season, and that's not happened for a while.

Anway, I'm off to make Mia's lunch - enjoy the rest of the bank holiday.

Doors and Poker Points

2007-04-07T19:35:00.000+01:00

Sat with laptop on knee, watching poker balance dwindle as yet more staggeringly unlikely cards hit the river. I started playing at a place called i4 poker (on the B2B network) - and if you want some advice, steer well clear of this site. This is not whining or sour grapes, but I saw 2 players there over 3 nights and they were raising and re-raising on flops without even a draw and hitting runner runner. One did it so many times at the table I was at, he turned 50$ into 436$ in about 45 minutes, almost every hand he played was so far behind, even the fishiest of fish wouldn't have stayed. It all seemed a little dodgy to me, so I emailed the poker site to advise, but to date they have not replied. Maybe it was my current mood, but I thought, if this was a live casino, you'd do something about it. You'd had to have seen it to understand I guess, but it was very
I made sure I never went heads up against him!

Anyway, there was a crashing noise, followed by Mia crying and I flew up the stairs to find the door hanging on by one screw. She had been banging the door against the door stop (I put in earlier in the day to stop the door banging the bed) and this had basically acted as a lever and her repeated banging had prised the screws out of the door frame. Anyway, made it safe and put Mia to bed, then have fixed it properly this afternoon. She was crying at the shock of the door falling, rather than it hitting her.

Closed and emptied my i4 poker account and was debating where to go next, when I recieved an Email from Poker Room, telling me I had 1200 player points. Not sure what I could do with them, I logged on and found I had enough for 2 5$ SNG's (and some left over). OK, this is free poker, so I fire up a 5$ Turbo and after being a clear chip leader when heads up, managed to finish 2nd when my AK fell to his A2 and then my AJ fell to K10 in consecutive hands. So 15$ profit. Fired up another 5$ turbo and tis time got heads up marginally behind. My raise with AJ was call adn we saw a J 7 2 flop. I pushed, he called and turned over K 10 (????, I thought) but sure enough, the K hit the river and I came 2nd, but at least another 15$ profit.

So this has got me thinking, how many points have I ignored over the last 2 years? CD POker has over 9,000, Titan has over 4,000 and I haven't looked at any other sites. These 2 sites only offer satellites to tournies for points, rather than cash prizes, but I'm going to try a few and see how far I get.

Anyway, no more money is leaving my online account for the foreseeable future, untill all these points have gone, and I can be sure this run I'm currently in, is over.

Good luck all.

BritBloggers III - Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back to the Table

2007-04-06T16:59:00.000+01:00

I'll be there. That's as good a reason as any to play, as Poker Stars loves giving my money to other players.

Nah, only joking. Well, kind of. They do like giving away my money.

Still, the sun is shining outside, it's a bank holiday, and I've booked the week off next week, so there are many reasons to be happy. Not least as I spent the morning in the garden and the afternoon in the park with Mia. Frolicking and playing in the lovely sunshine, whilst Cathy paints the bathroom. Something wrong with the roles in our household, but as I said to Cathy, the bathrooms fine, it doesn't need painting. Yes it does, she replied. Well you paint it then.

Actually, I painted the living room once, and it was so streaky, she's never trusted me to paint another room. I'm allowed to do undercoats and exterior painting (she doesn't like ladders), but that's about it. Creosoting fences is OK as well.
However, to redress the balance, I do most of the cooking, becasue, well, I'm good at it and she isn't. She could burn a cup of coffee.

Anyway, back to the tables for a quick hour. No doubt more monsters will be flopped and then taken away from me with the unlikeliest of cards. Unfortunatley, thats the way things have been running for me recently, my last 5 full houses have cost me a few buy ins, all to one outers on the river. My hand history over the past 4/5 weeks would give the conspiracy theorists enough to keep them going for a long time.

Things are getting strange, I'm starting to worry
This could be a case for Mulder and Scully

I'll stop now.

Unbelievable!!

2007-04-04T21:41:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine plays at Poker Stars, he's just Emailed me this hand history. I really have sen everything now. Anyone know the odds of this?

PokerStars Game #8892567085: Tournament #44757897, $150+$12 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (300/600) - 2007/03/13 - 23:38:17 (ET) Table '44757897 24' 9-max
Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Radicalguy (15758 in chips)
Seat 2: DFGrizwald (10528 in chips)
Seat 3: basebalman (5730 in chips)
Seat 4: RandALLin (11550 in chips)
Seat 5: BadcardsAA (33967 in chips)
Seat 6: richcondo (7236 in chips)
Seat 7: wandd (14544 in chips)
Seat 8: ComeOnPhish (11200 in chips)
Seat 9: rosseg (12734 in chips)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
DFGrizwald: folds basebalman: folds
RandALLin: raises 900 to 1500
BadcardsAA: folds richcondo: folds
wandd: raises 1900 to 3400
ComeOnPhish: raises 7770 to 11170 and is all-in
rosseg: folds Radicalguy: raises 4558 to 15728 and is all-in
RandALLin: calls 10020 and is all-in
wandd: calls 11114 and is all-in
rosseg said, "my god!"
*** FLOP *** [Tc 2c 6h]
rosseg said, "so sick!"
rosseg said, "JEEEEZZZZ"
*** TURN *** [Tc 2c 6h] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 2c 6h Jh] [6c]
RandALLin said, "CLUBS"
ComeOnPhish said, "OMG"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Radicalguy: shows [Ks Kd] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
wandd: shows [Ad As] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
Radicalguy said, "OMFG"
rosseg said, "never seen anything like it jesus christ"
wandd collected 5988 from side pot-2
RandALLin: shows [Ac Ah] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
RandALLin collected 525 from side pot-1
wandd collected 525 from side pot-1
ComeOnPhish: shows [Kc Kh] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
ComeOnPhish said, "wtf"
RandALLin collected 22625 from main pot
wandd collected 22625 from main pot

He assures me he saw this happen, I have no reason to doubt him.

Lifes Big Experiences

2007-04-03T13:28:00.000+01:00

We were sat listening to a Counting Crows CD, in the kitchen as I was cooking meatballs and a tomato sauced to pour over some pasta. A song called 'Have You Seen Me Lately'came on. The song is about finding fame, and coping with the changes, but can be related to 'normal life' too.

Basically, as you go through life, you build up lots of big and small experiences. Working in the travel business, I've been fortunate to see some of the worlds most outstanding areas of natural beauty like the Grand Canyon, Nepal as well as the UK and Europe. Conversely, I've also been to man made structures and cities like Hong Kong and New York, Eiffel Tower, the Colloseum in Rome, which, in different ways, are also impressive.
We've also had a child, which is obviously the biggest experience, yet also the most simple. In effect all you do is plant a seed, let it grow for a bit, then bring it into the world, though this is all done because of the love and respect you have for each other. Almost anyone can do it, whether you are a genius or an idiot.
Some people let the big experiences take over their lives, forgetting that the most enjoyment can be had from the simple things. The guy in the song mentions travelling the world (in effect, his work) and singing in front of hundreds of thousands of people, yet misses watching his loved one breathe in and out as they sleep. Just as he launches into a song, it will start raining somewhere, for someone. (Though, as Bruce Springsteen sings 'I work down at the car wash, all it ever does is rain').
So what's the biggest and smallest of lifes experiences? Watching Mia complete a jigsaw puzzle that she has been trying to do for days, the look on her face as she gets that final piece in place and realises she has completed the challenge? Watching your football team win the European Cup? Sat in a bar in Spain watching the news channel and seeing two planes fly into New York's skyline, knowing you have friends there?

Interesting conversation followed as we talked about our big and small experiences. We are very lucky in many ways, our biggest and smallest experiences have come together, yet we still have many individually, which has made for a pretty rounded relationship.
Worth remembering that many of them cannot be bought and sold, for any price.

Obviously, the conversation was brought on by what we faced this morning, and we were both very happy to learn that the lump was a cyst, and that within a few hours, it was drained and Cathy was given the all clear. Not a very nice procedure, but better than some of the alternatives. The staff at the hospital were excellent and processed all the mamograms and ultra sound with the minimum of fuss. The time it was all done in was also fantatsic and we were back home in half a day. NHS do get somethings right.

So, hopefully, it will all be back to some form of normality from now on.

Maybe I'll even start seeing KK win? You never know......

(PS -thanks for the comments and well-wishes, both in the comments box, by Email and by phone - it is very comforting to know you are surrounded by people who genuinely care, no matter how they know you.)

BritBlogger

2007-04-02T11:43:00.000+01:00

Enjoyed the Blogger Tourny last night, congrats to Richard for winning and Nick for coming 2nd.
From a personal perspective, I thought I played quite well early on, and built a nice stack in the first stages, thanks to my flush taking out Rosie's str8 (sorry R). There was a death threat shortly afterwards, but I know she didn't mean it!!
Was top of the pile for the first few rounds, then hovered between 2nd and 3rd as Richard built a nice early lead. He had a memorable hand when his KQ v Mookie's JJ saw a flop of KQJ. Another K on the river knocked Mookie out and Richard had a commanding lead.
I did hit another flush later on when I was given a free card and hit on the river - can't remember who this was against, think it was AlCantHang, and moved back to 2nd place.
Then, the bane of my poker life at the moment, my first and only high pair of the touny fell to me. QQ on the BB and there was a 4/5 x bb rasie before me. I re-raised 3 x his bet and he called. We saw a flop of 10 9 3 and I pushed all in. The villian called and showed A 10. As per the way things have been running for me recently, the A hit the table and I was severly depleted. Don't think I could have done this much differently to be honest, maybe pushing all in after his pre-flop raise, but my read was that he would call anyway, so the outcome would not have changed. My chip stack down to 3 figures, I never really recovered from this.
Managed to steal Kat's last blind just before she turned up and stole a couple of blinds for 2 rounds before pushing with A9 with just 800 chips left, and ran into A10 and neiher improved, so out I went.

Overall, don't think there was much else I could have done - but I enjoyed the banter and look forward to this being a regular thing, and I improve on my 10th place finish next time.

Off the above table, had a good night on the cash tables through the evening, making back my losses from the previous night thanks to my AA standing up against KK and JJ. A low flop helped everyone think they had the best hand and I made a good few Euro's on this hand. Shortly after, my nut flush beat a Q high flush and I was sitting pretty and a little happier.

No poker tonight as we 'look forward' to the hospital visit tomorrow morning at 9am. I'll cook us a nice, light meal tonight and maybe open a vintage Perrier (no alcohol allowed 24hours prior), still,obviously. Hopefully there will be a good movie we can curl up to and keep our minds off what may happen tomorrow.

Luck needed in a different way...........

Sick

2007-04-01T17:02:00.000+01:00

#['p;,lol

Mia wrote the above, can't really delete it, these being her first words on the information super-highway that is the internet. Funny how 'lol' got at the end, maybe she thought the first 6 characters were so funny, she had to laugh out loud.

Poker and life are mirroring each other quite amazingly at the moment. The ups and downs of anyone's life can sometimes make for fascinating reading, however, I don't think mine falls into this category.
The mood in the house seems to swing at the drop of a hat. I don't talk about 'lumps' as I'm trying to change the subject and lighten the mood, rather than talk about it every 5 mins and make us think about it more. This is sometimes interpreted as me not caring, whch is not the case. The difference between men and woman never more apparant.

Anyway Cathy has gone shopping to the Trafford Centre wth her mum (who doesn't know a thing), so at least we both have some breathing space. I spent the afternoon in the garden with Mia, playing and weeding.

Had the most amazing run of bad luck on the tables last night, dealt KK 9 times and not one won. I was staggered, 4 ran into AA, another 3 flopped an A and a str8 and flush meant it was a very depressing night. I don't think this could happen anywhere other than online, and just what I didn't need with my current mood.

On a more happy note, looking forward to the Blogger tourny later, hopefully should be a bit of fun and lighten my mood a litle. Sorry,this is probably a depressing post, so I'll tell a joke o lighten the mood somewhat.

Why do women wear make up and perfume?

Because they're ugly and they smell.

Funnier from a 10 year old though.

Lucky Tilt

2007-03-29T21:59:00.000+01:00

Boy was I lucky last night. I was on lucky tilt - ever been there? You make stupid calls coz your tilting, but you hit great flops?

I was finally getting back into the swing of playing again, and ran into a series of bad beats. I got so unlucky and all the signs of me going on tilt where there to see (except to me, of course).
I was really angry that my cards could lose (how dare they!).

Calling any raise with anything. I really wanted my chips back. I really wanted to get that bloke back for hitting such ridiculously lucky cards.

Firstly, I flop an open ended str8 flush draw. Player 1 bets 5$, I call. Turn nothing, Player 1 bets 10$, I call (yes, I'm cringing now, but it seem so right at the time).
River nothing, but player 1 checks, I push all in and after the longest time ever - he folds, typing in Top Pair Top kicker. I show my bluff and he tells me I'm an idiot. I couldn't argue.

Then I call a raise of 5 x bb, I'm the BB with 9c 7c, 2 other callers plus the intial raiser already in the pot - I think 4 x bb (1 x bb in already) gave me good pot odds. (I had 9 7 for christ sake, what was I thinking!).
We see a 9 high flop. I check. Raiser bets 4 x bb - both call, so do I.
Turn is a 7. I check. Raiser bets about 10$. 1 caller, 1 folder and then I raise to 20$. Both call.
Uh Oh, am i up agaisnt str8 or trips - never even crossed my mind.
Can't remember what the river was, but I pushed all in for my remaining 40$ or so. Both call.
One turns over KK, one turns over QQ. I do the hula round the living room.
The players were giving me some stick.

I shut down the laptop knowing if I carry on playing, I will lose it all just as quickly. I know I got as ridiculously lucky as my opponents had a few hands earlier.

Funny old game.

Stag Do's and Other Stuff

2007-03-26T15:21:00.000+01:00

Firstly, not sure what has happened to my last post. Wrote and posted it last week, and then haven't been online since and switched on last night to find it had been removed. Very strange and have asked blogger to investigate. Thanks to those that read and left their comments, it's always reassuring to read them.

Things weren't going so well at the time of writing, and it's never a good time to write when at the peak of your frustration, however, these pages are intended to portray things you feel as well as things you do, even if those feelings change so regularly. I see it written that no one wants to read about bad beats, which I partly agree with, but blogs are supposed to convey your feelings and bad beats are all part of those, therefore shouldn't neccessarily be ignored. Anyway, I was getting some on and off the table and the straw had definately broken the camels back when I posted.

Things have changed a little since I last wrote, and it appears Cathy wasn't being herself and when we sat down to talk, it came to light that she had found a lump and was getting very worried about it, till she had reached snapping point. No call to the doctor, no second opinion, just the inevitable consequence that she has breast cancer.
After eventually calming her down and pointing out the several dozen other things it could be - and that without a Doctor, how the hell were we to know either way, she calmed down and she was at the doctors 48 hours later. The Doc is fairly sure it is a cist, but is sending her for a scan to be on the safe side. That is a week tomorrow, but she seems a little more comfortable now things are out in the open. Fingers crossed, and this has brought many things into perspective.

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Spent the weekend in Edinburgh (hence missing the blog tourny, which I would otherise have loved to have played in) on a friends stag do. The usual stuff happened, drink, late nights, silly games and (for some, but not me) lap dancing bars.
The groom had treated himself to a brand new Armani shirt which he wore on the Saturday night and was dragged by 6 of the guys to a lap dancing bar. They set him up with a couple of dancers, who teased and tormented him for several minutes, stripping him to the boxers and whilst thrusting her private parts into his face, the other girl wrote their names in lipstick on the back of his shirt along with 'I Love Cock'. Try explaining this to the missus when you get home!

I had an very strange conversation with the chap who was enthusing about lap dancing bars (he was married, there were no single blokes of the 20 attending). We were sat in a very lively bar at the time, with a live band on doing Irish stuff. The dance floor was full of young ladies with very little on, dancing and writhing to the music, partly drink fuelled, partly because they were enjoying themselves. I asked this chap why he would pay £20 to get in, £20 for every dance, and then 3 times the usual drink prices at a lap dancing place - when it is all in front of you now for free (and probably more sexy if you ask me). Ahhhh, he replied, you can do more with them afterwards if you pay a little.
Ahhh, I replied, if your chat up lines are good enough, there are probably girls here that will want to do it for free, rather than because you are paying them. He just couldn't grasp my point, maybe he had little confidence in himself and lap dancers made him feel more of a man. Very strange conversation and very soon after he left for a lap dancing club on his own.
I'm not for a minute suggesting that all these girls were out for a shag, but a proportion were, as we saw later in the evning.
The 2 nights were very enjoyable, a very good laugh without anyone going too far, and Edinburgh was full of Hen Weekends also, which made for a great atmosphere everywhere we went. Highly recomended for a lads weekend away.

Anyway, I'm off to work in the garden with Mia's help. The sun is shining nice and warm and its time for a different kind of silly dancing!

When it rains, it pours

2007-03-19T21:42:00.000Z

Any Two Cards 2 - Revenge of The Poker Gods

2007-03-12T21:25:00.000Z

Well, the Poker Gods were obviously upset at my last post, and seem to be proving that 5% chances can actually happen 30% of the time. So depressing when you re-raise the table maniac with a much stronger hand, leaving him/her only 3 outs to win, and the very first card on the table is the one you need to avoid.
My KJ v 77 on a flop of KJx and he still calls bets to see his 7 on the river. Or Mr 'I've got 6 3 sooted, and I'm calling any size raise, even an all-in' and hitting his flush. I know these things happen, but seeing so many these last few weeks.

I don't really want to go down this route as I know where I'll end up, but I need a realease for my frustration and I don't have a dog. so instead I'll tell you about a little 'claim to fame' - my only one on the poker tables.

I took out a model.

Before you jest, it's not a car, or a new cooker - but a real page three one with attractive looks, big boobs and long legs. She's even got 11 GCE's and 3 A Levels, apparantly. Not just a pretty face. And I took her out. (If you so desire, you can read more about here HERE)

Unfortunately, it wasn't to a local pub or restaurant, but on the green felt. She called my raise holding only K7 and when she hit her K on the flop she tought she was ahead. The two 10's on the board didn't frighten her off calling my large bets. Nor the flush draw.
Bless her little cotton socks, she kept calling till she had no chips left and I turned over my A10 to take her out.

Then 'Mr 6 3' ruined my night on the bubble, calling my all in.

One bright light in an otherwise miserable evening. Again. Ah well, at least I still have my health.

Cough.

Any Two Cards

2007-03-10T17:37:00.000Z

That pretty much sums up what I've been losing to these last few days. Raise 4/5/6 x BB with premium hands and no matter what 2 cards my opponent call with, I'm beat.
OK, I'm a little pissed off an have obviously not lost every hand, but I'm angry and want to rant.
What posseses someone to call a raise and reriase (up to 11$) with A4, then 89? Someone raises to 5.50 with QQ on a 50c BB table, and then someone else (me) reraises with KK to 11$ - it's pretty wise to fold almost every combination of hands other than AA and maybe KK.
But no, they call, and are rewarded for their stupidity with an A 4 x flop or 8 9 x. KK has been dealt to me 17 times since I last posted. 16 raises were called, 1 saw all folded. Every single flop bar one contained an Ace. Hence my rather agitated mood right now.
Look up the odds of that happening. It's a very large number.

I'm currently sat in a hotel room in Bolton (hence my even greater agitated mood!) awaiting the start of our Xmas do, watching Man U on the TV. My company arranges it Xmas do in March, in the belief that more people attend, and that we have enough to do in December as it is.
So it's raining outside, I'm in a strange place but fortunately I remembered to bring my laptop so will just settle down for an hour before the 'festivities' start.

The evening has a 70's theme, and I'm being a miserable git by not dressing up. My response is that I can already dance like John Travolta and dress like I live in the 70's - so why buy a costume? I had suggested a theme of 'Grease', selfishly hoping that all the girls would wear that outfit that Olivia Newton John wears in the final scenes. Apparantly, it was so tight fitting for ONJ, she had to be rubbed down with talcum powder to help get it on (that is true,btw).
Looking at some of the girs in the office, I'd bought a car full of the stuff and was hoping to offer my services, but alas, they chose Saturday Night Fever.

So I'm off down to the bar for an over-priced pint of Guiness - well, several actually - and watch United finish off 'Borough (already 1-0 up thanks to Rooney) and then, especially to please The Cloud, draw and beat Chelsea in the next round.
Then I'll wow them on the dance floor and hope no-one brought a camera!

Hope your luck is better than mine at the tables.

Back, Calmer....

2007-03-05T20:51:00.000Z

Funny how things can look and seem so different after a few days break.
Just re-reading my post below, and boy was I frustrated. Maybe I'd been playing too much. I probably had been playing too much, and we all know the more you play, the more chance you have of these things happening. Still, I don't think I can go on a run like that again, and it did hit my bankroll a bit.
Played again last night for the first time in 2 weeks, as I actually wanted to play, rather than felt like I had to. It did test my strength of will when, first hand, I was dealt JJ, only to lose to 33 who hit another on the turn. Fortunately, I hit a couple of big hands that held up and managed to clear 25$ profit for the evening, so not a bad start to my return. (I say fortunately, but I was the favourite pre-flop, so nothing really lucky about it!)

So, anyway, a break was needed if only to dampen my frustration and get me re-focised on the game. I have a lot going on away from the tables at the moment, my job is getting more demanding and I've spent 8 nights away in the last 3 and a half weeks, which does not please the missus too much. She's seen far too many US slasher movies and thinks the worse when I'm away, but fortunately (for the slasher - I've seen my missus angry!!) all was OK. New business is coming in thick and fast and my £21m target for the year is looking like being increased as we look £31m is achievable. Great for me, but keeps me moving around the country a lot.

Mia is rapidly approaching her 3rd birthday, and we have spent the last 2 weeks redecorating (or, in Cathy's case, re-designing) the 2nd bedroom ready for her move.
I'll probably post some piccy's in the near future, as it does look very impressive considering we bought and did everything ourselves, to our own thoughts, rather than any design or pictures we had seen. I'd love to take the credit, but I was justdoing as I was told, rather than the thinker behind it, and Cathy did most of the painting as she didn't trust my 'straight lines'.
Was really enjoyable doing it, all, the more so when I remember that poker winings paid for the bulk of it!

Nice thought to remember as I head to the tables for a session :-)

Of Course

2007-02-20T21:25:00.000Z

I defy anyone to beat this.
Online poker has been frustrating the hell out of me for the past few weeks, so much so, that I a giving up for a while. There are bad runs, we all have them I know, but I ma seeing so many unlikely hands, especially heads up, and I'm giving up faith.

My hand first:

AA v 77 - flop 7 3 2
KK v 33 - flop 3 9 10
KK v 99 - flop 9 Q A
QQ v JJ - river J
QQ v 10s - river 10
KK v JJ - turn J

It goes on, you know where I'm going.

But it is now 12 out 15 times JJ or higher has lost to lower pocket pairs. All bar one, conveniently low flops that would make anyone think they were way ahead in the hand.
The only reason the 3 hands won is probably because everyone folded to my raise.

Enough is enough.

No!

2007-02-13T21:04:00.000Z

Mia's latest and most overused word of the moment. I can see why my dad says 'if I'd have known grandchildren were so much fun, I'd have skipped having children and moved straight to grand-kids!' He just sits on the sofa and laughs at us, with that look on his face that says I've been here before - about 30 years ago.

Mia - time for fruitee
(why do we add -ee on to the end of words when talkin to kids? It's like speaking loudly and slowly to a foreigner.)
No
Alright then, time for bobees (bed)?
No
Repeat as neccessary for the next 15 minutes.
Apparantly, it gets much, much worse when they start with 'why?'

Anway, poker, this is a poker blog. I've not posted for a week or so, and to be honest, I haven't had much to say. Now, anyone who knows me will read that last sentence in disbelief - but as no one I know, per se, reads this, I guess it doesn't matter.
Sometimes you go through that phase of 'same old, same old'. Days on the poker table blend into similar days. The bad beats come thick and fast, then the good days come faster, and then you meet the most stupidest poker player you have ever seen, every day. Blog it? I blogged that last time, what else can I write? So it's easy to get out of the routine, and then it's harder to write again. But if I feel like writing something, I will. If I don't, I won't and that's no problem.

Left Tony G poker last week 40$ worse off, but very lucky it was not much, much worse. I must say, I've been at some poker sites and seen such unbelieve hands on such a regular basis, that I have questioned whether this is another con to drain people's money (similar to Million Minds, but in a dfferent way), or I've just seen an extreme run of extreme hands. There is a very small number of players at the site, so maybe other people have also left, or maybethey are just crap at marketing the site. Don't know, but after already seeing for myself that not all poker sites are reputable, I decided not to chance my money with them any further.
Maybe I need to qualify the above paragraph a little more, or maybe you understand what I'm saying, but if you get a gut feeling something isn't right - it's not a bad thing to act on it.
So I've landed at Trident Poker, after www.CasinoMeister.com recommended it. They tried to help me get my MM money back without success (but they tried), and seem to have the best interests of the online gambler at heart. Seems a nice place to play and if they earn a few $ from me, it's a thank you for the efforts they made to help me out.
Things have started very well and after January finished almost 240$ up, I'm hoping I can increase this for February.

Enough from me (glad I didn't have much to write about!!), good luck at the tables.

Various

2007-02-04T19:37:00.000Z

Being a Man U fan for many, many years - I've got used to the hatred shown to the club, players and fans by opposition clubs, players and fans, many without any reason at all. I've escaped Elland Road very lucky to escape a serious beating, Anfield, Maine Road and other grounds where I've listened to Neanderthal thugs sing songs about people that died in an airplane crash. Don't get me wrong, United fans have sung songs to opposition fans that have equally disgusted me, and on one occasion, almost got myself thrown out of Old Trafford trying to shut some of them up.

So it doesn't come as a great surpirse to me to see and hear the 'up in arms' fans phone-ins and biased BBC reporters (Alan Green in particular) being massively critical of Ronaldo after United's 4-0 win at Tottenham this evening.
Did he dive to win United a penalty? Possibly. Was he the only player on the pitch to dive to gain an advantage over his opponents? Absolutely not.
Where is the criticism of Dawson for his incredible dive to get Larson booked? Or the right back to get Rooney booked (can't remember his name)? Or of the Tottenham striker trying to get a penalty later in the game? Or of Scholes attemps to get himself sent off and not even getting a booking? Not a mention on BBC radio 5 after match phone in, or of www.football365.com. And before anyone trieds to justify the effect of the individuals actions, Rooney misses an FA Cup tie because of his unwarranted booking.
Football has a problem with diving, yes. But please don't drop it on the shoulders of one player -that is very, very blinkered and it sure won't help solve the problem either.

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Spent a very enjoyable evening last night at our local amaetur dramatics theatre watching their version of Alan Bennet's Habeas Corpus. Very funny sex-farce, details can be seen HERE. Cathy bought them me for my birthday, so a nice surprise.

Poker continues to slowly add to my bankroll, have joined up at Tony G poker as my next port of Bonus Whoring - though this is a tougher one to achieve than usual. Low traffic may mean I don't complete it all before moving on, initial reaction is that I don't like it at all.

Anyway, enough from me - good luck at the tables.

Photo Sex with Jennifer Aniston

2007-02-01T20:12:00.000Z

Bet that got your attention. Well it sure got mine about 5 minutes ago when I found it on google right next to my name. Yes, apparantly I have done 'photoshoot sex' with Jennifer Anniston.

A little context is required here, I feel.

Earlier, at work, I overheard some of the guys talking about googling their own name to see what came up. So I just did and apparantly my name-sake in California is a well known photographer and has shot loads of pictures of very famous people including Britney Spears and, of course, Jennifer Aniston. His pictures of Brad's ex were so evocative (so the article said) that it was like he was having photo-sex with her.

I feel I have achieved something in life now.

Laughs, Sickness and Poker

2007-01-28T11:47:00.000Z

Spent last night at an 18th birthday party. Yes, you read that right, I was invited to an 18th Birthday party. How cool am I? How in touch with today's youth am I? Lol, I'm milking this for all it's worth. I'm not going to mention what some of the girls were wearing.
It was a good night, though having Mia all day today while Cathy works is not a great hangover cure. Even more so when she throws up all her breakfast all over her high-chair, her clothes, basically everywhere. Even in her hair. Got her cleaned up, then spent 20mins getting it all off the straps on her high chair - all of this when I wanted to just curl up and sleep.

It's 12 noon now and I am just starting to come around. God bless coffee.

Anyway, spent an enjoyable night Friday playing poker and surfing You Tube for some comedy poker clips. Most involved Phil Helmuth - and I got some wierd looks from Cathy sat on the sofa watching me laugh hysterically - especially at this one HERE.
Also found a helluva bad beat in a High Stakes game with Negranu (pocket 6's) v Hansen (pocket 5's) on a 8 6 5 flop. The turn threw another 5 and it cost Daniel nearly 300,000$. I think he can afford it though.

Poker for me is going OK, nothing great, but nothing bad either. Seem to be building up a nice stack at a table only to drop back down when a 1 or 2 outer hits the river to wipe it out. Seems these bad beats hit you online about 20% of hands, looking at my Poker Office stats. I'm not talking about pre flop raises not improving on the flop, but when you make a hand. AK v 45 on a K 2 5 flop, and he calls and hits runner runner str8. Or my 66 v the villian's 10 J on a 6 9 Q flop.
I make the call very difficult for him on the flop, and again on the turn, a ridiculous double pot size bet - but he still calls and gets rewarded for his madness with a K on the river and I'm back where I started. I'm at the point now, where I am factoring in runner runner hands into my calling/betting strategy, as I see so many.
Not sure what else I can do in these situations. If I check, I've given him free cards, but I bet it hard and I lose more. We talk about odds of various types, but what's the use if no one else at the table pays any consideration?

Anyway, no complaints overall, January shows a profit for the month with 3 more days to go. It's my birthday on Monday, and I'm heading over to Nottingham for 3 days (I'm coming home Monday night, but staying over Tuesday) to help with a few issues in our new offices there - so hopefully I'll earn some 'gold stars' if I can sort them out.

Good luck at the tables.

Sit and Go King!!

2007-01-21T21:20:00.000Z

Just shows you what I know about football. Narrow win for United. After that performance, narrow chance that Ferdinand and Neville will play in the enxt England game.

Anyway, decided to have a Sit and Go session, as I've only played one in the last few weeks (and spectacularly knocked 7 players out and crippled another before winning!). My return showed an instant profit as I won my first, came 2nd in 2 on the run and won the 4th. Feeling supremely confident, I signed up to a 5$, 3 table 30 player SNG and took that down for a 70$ prize.

I just wish my cash game would mirror this after another night of more swings than the biggest collection of swings in the world. The biggest hand was holding 77 and seeing a flop of J J 7. 'Surely you can't lose that' I hear you cry? Managed to get a call to my huge reraise and saw the final J hit the river, costing me 50 euros. Similar thing happened about 10 hands later, but didn't commit so much to the pot, but still lost a bit. Then, this hand, probably the single most stupidist player I think I have ever seen:
Raise to 3 x bb by 1st player, i'm on the SB with K 10s and decide to call (history of player raising led me to believe low pair) and player on BB calls also.
We see a flop of K 10 2. Player on bets 3$, I re-raise to 7$ and both BB and raiser call.
Turn 7 (no flush draw possible now)
Original raiser bets 5$, i re-raise to 15$. BB calls and original raiser types in A K before folding.
River was a 2
I put SB all in and amazed for the third time to see him call.

And turn over 5 2

Yes, he turned over 5 2

I went ballistic. Could not believe that:
a) he calls pre-flop
b) he would call my flop raise cold
c) and again on the turn
d) and was rescued by one of only 2 cards in the deck

Something that you would only ever see online.

Variance and Swings

2007-01-20T21:58:00.000Z

Coping with the ups and downs of poker can be tough at the best of times, the last week has been one of my most 'roller coaster' times I can remember. After the good run I had in December and first bit of January, I suppose a bad run has to be expected, but I managed to keep things to a minumum.
Then, last week, a string of bad beats had a very depressing effect on my bankroll, before a string of fortunate cards have me back on the winning trail and January is back in the plus. I'm playing at Celebrity Poker, and there is very little folding done here. I've made the move up to $1 (100$ buy in) No Limit, and the bad beats hurt a lot more at this level. The standard isn't that much better either. Regularly, all 5 at the table will call my 5 or 6 x bb raise, so the strong hands have even less chance of holding up than usual (add to this the most astounding % rate of flopped sets I have seen). And, because there are so many callers, everyone hits something every hand (a conspiracy theorists dream, this place) so it's really tough trying to get a read and know if you are ahead.
But I look at the graph of my play the last two weeks and it is up and down more than a whore's knickers.
I can't take the variance and nerve racking calls so am moving back to 50c (50$) and build my BR back up (hopefully). Once the bonus has cleared, I'm moving away to my next target.

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Funny reading Cloud's blog about his little girl and the 'bath' comments - Mia has just discovered the phrase 'What's this for?' and is running around the house picking up anything she can, running over and saying 'Daddy, what is this for?'
The only trouble is, she doesn't understand my answers - 'it transmits an infra-red signal through the airways, which is picked up by the remote sensor in the visual display unit, enabling us to move programmes without getting up from the comfortable sofa.'
Blank look.
Pause for 3 seconds
'Daddy, what's this for?'

Anyway, speaking of swings, hope this weather calms down a bit and we can head for the park tomorrow. Took me 2 hours to get home from work on Thursday (usually 20mins), though at least I got home safely, as I know some weren't so fortunate.

Looking forward to the Man U v Arsenal game tomorrow, especially after Chelsea losing to the scousers today. The game doesn't have the pre-match battle between Fergie and Wenger that is usally so entertaining (probably as Arsenal aren't the threat they used to be), so doubt it will be the highly charged game it was. Keane v Viera was always a great battle on the pitch, and off it sometimes, and I have some great memories of going to Old Trafford and Highbury and watching those two great players.
I'm going for a narrow Man U win.

Skill? Not A Chance.

2007-01-15T21:35:00.000Z

Apparantly, the game of poker is more about skill than just luck according to the many players I talk to and books I read about the game (written by players, in the main). So a case is currently hearing in London as they decide whether a gambling den needed a license to operate. If the game is mostly about luck, it is gambling and therefore needs to be licensed. If the game is made up of a skill factor, then it is not gambling and therefore, no license is needed (this was roughly the gist of the piece on the news). This den never got a license and I am watching very intently to see how the court decide.

Obviosuly if this was online, there would not be a shadow of a doubt. Anyone playing the lower levels of online poker will know there is not a cat in hells chance of this standing up in court. Skill? Where?
Any average online player (like me) would only have to show their hand history and the evidence is plain and clear. People are happy to put all their money in a pot with A3, knowing they are probably way behind (unless they are even more stupid than I think), but happy to take their chance that they may hit a couple of 3's or maybe 2 pair. It means not a jot that you hold AK or a high pair as online, essentially, every hand is a coin flip.
Mr (or Mrs) A3 will think, it happens, why not this time? I've blogged previously about the fact that AK or AQ can rarely stand up against hands like A3, and another 5000 hands in Poker Office show this stat to be very true.
So how can we, as players of online poker, justify how skilful we are? Getting your opponent to call your massive re-raise when he only holds KQ to your AA? Then, getting him to commit the rest of his chips on a Q high flop, still thinking he has the best hand despite your huge bet? If so, I am one of the most skilful players online, as I have managed to force my opponents in exactly these situations on seven occasions so far this week. Unfortuantely, the most skilful does not make me the most richest as the K or another Q hit the river every time and saved the luckier player against the more skilful. I could throw you several dozen more examples, but no one wants to hear them, they happen to us all. At the end of the day, my hard earned profits from January were erradicated in a dozen hands of incredibly unlikely hands hitting their incredibly unlikely outs.

I try to make the right decisions at all times, and think I succeed most of the time. Having said this, even when I make the right decisions, it is still in the lap of lady luck as to whether I win or lose. Also, when I make the worng decisions, I may get paid. So where's the skill? OK, making the right decisions in the long run will make me a more profitable player than not. But it does not take away the fact the over riding reasons between winning that hand and losing it, is luck and nothing else.

I await the results of this court case and will be very interested to hear how they decide, in the meantime 'good luck' at the tables.

Back to Poker

2007-01-09T20:08:00.000Z

So, I'm part Evil, part Angel - isn't a combination of the two perfect? Half of me will help the old lady across the road, the other half will steal your money in a flash at a poker table :-)

Well, the last bit has proven to be true so far this year, and my good run that started in December has continued into January. I played for a week at Laddies and despite a good % of my premium hands getting screwed, I hit two memorable hands that paid off nicely (quads v full house and str8 flush v A high flush), and cashed out 110$ in the positive.

After a bit of research, I decided upon Paradise Poker for my next spot of bonus whoring and cashed in $177 to my account. The bonus seems quite easy to reach at the 50$ buy in tables, and in 5 days I've cleared 80$ of the 100$ I can win. Add to this my 300$ winnings so far, and I sit at a very tidy profit for the month.
It's a frustrating place to play poker in many ways, is Paradise. The standard at the 50$ buy in tables is very mixed, but overall incredibly fishy. Pocket pairs are highly valued here pre and post flop and even if the board is full of overcards, I've regularly seen calls to the river with under-pairs. A good example of not wanting to let go, is this hand:

I'm on the button with AQs, and raise to 4 x bb, all fold to the player before me, who raises double my raise. He just called a few moments earlier, rather than raised, so I put him on a mid-pair, thinking he fancies this hand if he's put me on AK/AQ. So I just call, and we see a flop of Q 2 3. I think my hand is good here, and raise his half-pot bet. He immediately calls. Turn is another 2 and he moves all in, about 3/4 of the pot.
I still think I'm good here, and my read on the player, I feel, is good - so I call and he turns over pocket 10's. The river didn't help him and I profited over 40$ on the hand. Bizarrely, about 10 hands later, the almost identical hand with the same player took place, and my AQ again took down his 10's, but he kept calling on a Q high board.

My biggest focus this month is to get my '% seen flop' down, Poker Office shows this as far too high - though it seems my style of play suits this approach and the profit surely speaks volumes.
The main reason for the above, is that I wish to move up the levels and try out, consistently, higher buy ins. I played at 100$ level last night and came out well from my first 2 hours, but I know I will be more heavily punished if I maintain this high % of flops seen.
I also need to build a bigger bankroll, and am aiming to move up as soon as I have built my bankroll to double what I made in December. If I can hold my own there, I want to keep moving up, and see how high I can comfortably play, but all in good time.
Finally, one last thing I wish to do this year, is play live more often, so my first trip to a casino may be on the cards (no pun intended).

Enough from me, good luck at the tables.

Thanks Cloud

2007-01-08T23:03:00.001Z

I am 50% Evil

Apparantly, I am evil, but I haven't yet mastered the dark side. Fear not though - I am well on the way to world domination.

http://www.blogthings.com/howevilareyouquiz/%22%3E

How Evil Are You?

Not sure if I am cool with this by the way, except at the poker tables.

Sigh

2007-01-06T21:21:00.000Z

You hold AK and raise 6 x bb, one caller.
The flop is A 2 7 you bet double the pot, he calls.
Q on the turn, bet double the pot, he calls.
Check the J on the river.
He turns over AJ.
5% chance of winning, but he wins.

Now times this by 36 hands in almost identical situations so far this year.
AQ virtually the same, another 44 hands.

Poker Office now shows Ax beating AK and AQ almost 70% of times over 10,000 hands?

Really pissing me off now.

Fortunately for me, I've been paid off on a couple of flushes and sets v 2 pairs, so showing a 50$ profit for the month so far. Had I won 70% of AK and AQ hands (as the odd and probability depict) I would be over 400$ up.

So are the odds wrong or the online poker sites, as one surely must be?

Not Always What You Think

2007-01-02T21:09:00.000Z

Amongst a few interesting Xmas pressies, was a book about 'General Ignorance'. With a forward by Stephen Fry, it is full of the real facts that disprove some of the most accepted stories we know. For example, goldfish can be trained to push a lever for food reward, and even pressing it only at certain times of the day to get fed. Thus dispelling the myth about 7 second memory.

So, I am now full of amazing facts that I will use to impress my friends and colleagues - but I would like to share one with you: What's the most interesting thing about Scottish kilts, bagpipes, haggis, porridge whiskey and, I am sorry to add, tartan?

Well, not once of them is Scottish. Not one single thing.
Kilts (Danish word) first came from Ireland, Bagpipes (mentioned in the First Testament) are Asian, Haggis was an ancient Greek sausage, Porridge came from Scandinavia or possibly central Europe, Whiskey came from ancient China and was introduced to Scotland by the Irish and finally, that stereotypical Scottish cloth of Tartan (look away now Acorn) was actually a English thing.

Only a bit of fun, and to even up the balance it is only fair to report that Scotland can claim: Chicken Tikka Masala (!! but true, Chicken Tikka is Indian, the Masala was added by a Glaswegian restaurant owner), bovril, the cure for malaria, bicycle pedals, colour photography, the lawnmower, marmalade, tarmac and, to address the 'tartan' balance somewhat - the Bank of England.

Anyway, quite what this has got to do with poker or daddyhood I'm not sure, but one thing you can never say about Mias Dad, is that he is predictable.
Made a return to poker tonight after a few days break and have closed down at USA Poker, where my run seemed to have come to an end after turning my 860 to just over the 1030$ mark when a few hands started going horribly wrong. I cashed out 958$ profit from December and am delighted with that. I have just broken into USA Poker's 'gold club' for the amount of hands played, so I'm going to wait and see what they will do to tempt me back :-).

Decided to wait a few days before looking for my next target, and have deposited at Ladbrokes, my first ever poker site, to see if things have changed any there since I last played.
The quick answer was no, as my first hand was my AQ losing to the villians AJ on an A high flop - his J hit the river - and this reminded me of why I left there all those months ago. I now have software, so am going to stick it out for a while and see if my memory stands up against the stats Poker Office provides.

Anway, enough from me, hope your New Year celebrations were enjoyable and memorable!!

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T10:09:00.000Z

I'm not really one for making resolutions after a night of red wine and guinness, but like Cloud mentioned in his blog, I've got a feeling that 2007 is going to be my best at the poker tables.

Hope you all had a good night, and best wishes for a succesful 2007 in whatever you do.

Happy Days

2006-12-28T21:52:00.000Z

It's funny how, when things are going bad, you want to tell everyone about the bad beats and incredible suckouts that seem to be clinging to you at certain periods. I know I do.
But on the other hand, I find good runs harder to talk about. Not sure why, but right now I am in one of my best ever runs since I started playing about 2 years ago.

So, as we approach the end of December, Poker Office shows (for the month of December):

Hands 4578
Won 17.45%
Saw Flop 38.23%
Won per hand 0.19c
Won $860.36
BB/100 hands 22.13
Won flop seen 36.19%
Showdowns won 49.38%

Obviously, I'm delighted at a return of 860$ in 4 weeks, and hope this continues for as long as possible, but I'm going through my stats to pinpoint the cause of the upturn. Not one single tournement entered, not even a SNG, so can't say a final table finish has contributed.

One thing that stands out is that 85% of the above hands have been at the 50$ buy in (50c big blind) rather than the 20$ (20c) buy in that dominated the rest of the year. Maybe this level is a bit less fishy, which helps the stronger hands stand up much more often than at the lower levels where a 5 x bb blind is called (a 5 x raise is only 50c at the lower levels).
I'd like to say that my play has really tightened up, but my flop seen % does not back this up. I am playing at 6 or 8 max tables, and 2 hands of SB and BB make up a big part of this %.
Position doesn't seem to be a problem, as Poker Office shows every starting position in profit, except place 7 (the button is break even, surprsingly).

What I am picking up a lot, is the way my opponents play their hands, and Poker Office excels here. Knowing how your opponents play their open or gutshot str8 draws, flush draws, 2 pair or made str8s/flushes makes a massive difference. Which players slow play their big hands, who likes a check raise and who bluffs when a flush draw is on the table - all this information is at your fingertips, if you take the time to explore.

In all this good news, there are only 2 negative things to report:
AK - I am staggered at how often AK can't stand up against Ax or any two random cards. Poker Office shows AK v Ax will win 36% of times. Love to understand how this works so if anyone can explain, I'd be grateful?
QQ - Another surprising anomally, every time my raise has been called by a lower pocket pair, it has gone on to hit a set. 26 times this has happened, though I have hit a Q on 4 occasions to take the pot.
Strange quirks, but I guess over virtually 4500 hands, there's bound to be the odd few weird things I suppose, and overall, I have no complaints.

Anyway, I'm off to the tables, where I hope I can keep my run going and post similar results for 2007. Good luck, and best wishes for 2007 all.

They think it's all over....

2006-12-27T10:40:00.000Z

It is now.

The day starts so well, seeing your children excited in ways you couldn't believe possible. The eyes open in such eager joy as they see the presents lined up on the living room floor and can't believe they are all for them. Running after them with camera trying to capture that moment that stays in your head forever, but never really gets caught on print. Then, sharing a few minutes as you exchange presents with your loved one, before the kids want to show you how their newest toy laughs when you squeeze it's tummy or can fly across the living room when they let go.

All that time spent deciding what to buy for our loved ones, and will they like it. Queueing up at Tesco's in those mad few days to get fresh ingredients for the dinner you are cooking for all your family. Slaving over the stove all morning and fretting about whether everything will be ready in time, and at the same time. The potatoes are overdone, and the brussel sprouts need longer.
Then, everyone turns up and the 2 days you spent cleaning your house because you want it to look gret for everyone has been wiped from the memory as 12 pairs of dirty shoes walk through every room in your house.

Then you open up presents from your family and realise, from what some have bought you, that they really don't know you at all. But at least they are here and thought to buy you something at all, quietly thinking, thank God for Ebay.

All that time, and then it is over before you know it. Memories of funny things said and done, especially by the kids, embarrasing their parents, linger. Listening to funny stories that people had heard recently and relayed in true 'comedian' style with bottle of beer in one hand and the other swaying to and fro in descriptive meaning.

Then, the worry and stress that had your hair turning grey at 11am is a distant memory as the last roast spud goes down your uncle's neck (then you worry if you made enough!) at 2.30pm and all the food is gone. All the fuss and it's over before you know it. And did you sit back and take it all in, watching your kids play with their presents (later crying their eyes out when you take them off at bedtime)?
Then, hearing a story on the news and realising just how lucky you are. And how easily things could be so different.

We then grab a coffee and remember that in about 2 hours time, there are another 15 people coming round and it all starts again.

One day, you'll miss moments like this so much, you wish it was Xmas every day.

Christmas Shopping

2006-12-19T19:06:00.000Z

I'd booked this week off work a while ago, when I first started with my new job. Most people were clammering for the 3 days in between Xmas and New Year, which doesn't appeal to me as much.
Being daddy to a 2-and-three-quarters year old, this is going to be our first 'proper' Xmas, one where Mia knows what's going on, and will love her presents and have a better understanding of what they are. So, the week before Xmas is much more appealing to me and we get to do all the shopping (I started today - how early is that!!) and Santa's Grotto and all the 'being a kid again' stuff. Then, in between Xmas and New Year, I like going to work to get away from that 'what do we do' period when Xmas is over but New Years Eve is still a few days away.

So, all we need now, is to light the real, coal fire we have in our living room, dim the lights and put on 'It's A Wonderful Life' and Xmas is truly upon us. Ahhh, if only life was as ideal as this film. Actually, it probably is, if we want it to be.

Really getting stuck into the stats on Poker Office, bouyed by the great night I had at the tables last night. AQ won me a huge pot when 2 more hit the flop and my opponent had Q 10. The irony is that this was the first time I didn't raise it pre-flop, and the BB was a very tight player (21% seen flop over a couple of hundred hands), so he just checked his hand and would probably have folded to my 4 or 5 bb raise.
AQ is still in the negative as a stand alone hand, but the gap has been cut somewhat.

AK continues to frustrate and as my biggest single losing hand, I cannot continue raising 4, 5 or 6 x bb pre-flop, only to lose to much weaker hands that hit their 3 outs almost each time. My stats show that the only statistical chance I have of winning, is if my opponents fold pre-flop.

Other than AK, my game has improved with the statistical knowledge that Poker Office provides. I find where my weaknesses are, which position I'm not playing properly, opponents that will consistently call any raises with such regularity - there are plenty of ways to take advantage. And what's great - it cost me nothing. Well, I deposited and played at Empire for a week to get it, but breaking even and withdrawing my initial deposit (never liked playing at Party), I basically got it for free.
The biggest improvement has been my % flops seen, which I had no idea was so high. I'm correcting this and got my last 3 sessions down to between 23-25% - a big improvement on the 48% it was during the first part of the month.

For the record, my Overview stats for December show:

Hands 1573
hands won 17.61%
Flops seen 39% (but coming down!!)
Won $175.87
Won per hand 0.11c
BB/100 hands 15.61
Won flops seen 35.7%
Showdowns won 50.2
Pre flop raise 5.34

With nothing to really compare this to, it's difficult to try and picture a perfect score. If I'd lost money, I could be critical of my flops seen % being too high, and my pre flop raise % being too low. But the fact that my profit for the month is very high, I guess I have to be pleased overall.
Any comments or comparisons on these stats would be gratefully received.

Anyway, Cathy is working tonight, and I was looking forward to watching the Liverpool Arsenal cup game, but that's just been postponed, so looks like a movie for me.

Not sure if I'll post again pre-Xmas, so I hope all my readers have a fantastic Xmas and Santa brings you all you hope for. I also hope your 2007 is everything you wish it to be.

Bye for now.

All I want For Christmas

2006-12-18T15:19:00.000Z

Christmas is nearly upon us, and as a new year approaches it's a natural time for reflection on the old one and hopes for the next.
I've been chasing my tail a bit these last days trying to find someone to take responsibility for the Million Minds debacle (apart from myself). It appears that the site was allegedly set up by a well known Scandinavian con man called Perter Rudbäck, which beggars the question that if I can find this out so easily, how was he allowed to get:
a) on the Tain network in the first place (OK, they did kick him off, but made no effort to remove their endorsement and logo from the MM site)
b) Be allowed to trade with Neteller despite the number of compliants received about non payment
c) also be credited by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission
d) be owned by a company called Parabol Ltd, who also have connections with Carlos Poker - incidentally, another poker site that have not answered an Email for the last week. They have removed all reference to Million Minds on their site since my first contact, an indication of guilt?

The only company that have tried to help me out from the above list is Tain directly. They have set me up with an account at Expect.com and put 100$ in as a gesture of goodwill.

Neteller have still to reply, but have advised that there is nothing they can do other than keep contacting MM and remove them from future use if they do not reply. Not a great help to me, but at least stops any future loss at this site. (Though if it is this easy to set up, what's to stop a con man setting up in another name?) So why exactly do we use Neteller? If I'd paid via a credit card, I would have some protection.

Parabol Ltd have said they will investigate as they were not aware of any complaints or issues (yeah, right) but have not responded to a single Email since, nor returned any phone calls.

The worst of the lot for me is the K. Gaming Commission. Their home page states: Integrity, Security, Accountability and Community. They have failed with me on every single point. Not once have they replied to my several Emails (two left on their comments section online).
They provide no security, no accountability, no integrity aand sure don't promote a feeling of community. If anyone knows of a way of getting through to them - maybe a 'well read' poker forum that may put pressure on them?

Anyways, just thought I'd update you as you may feel that one of the above bodies would give you some kind of protection should a company behave this way. The simple answer is no. Be aware.

Not played too much poker, I wasn't feeling to great about the game to be honest, and after getting Poker Office at the beginning of November and reviewing the stats last night, I discovered AK and AQ are the biggest leaks in my game, costing me the most and only winning on 33% of occasions over the past 2 months On almost every occasion, they appear to lose to any two random cards, Ax being the most popular. Very frustating to get your money in at around 70% favourite and losing 67% of times. Some were against already made hands, but the Ax is damn annoying as I have the villain exactly where I want him/her.
The positive thing about the last 2 months is a 80$ profit, but this profit does not come from where you would most expect.

My biggest winning hands are:
KK - 72.39$
QJ - 32$
A6s - 31$
88 - 29$

AA placed 10th in the league (Mainly due to flopping a set with one only to lose to a villian's runner runner str8) with 20$ profit. QQ showed a -17$ (bizzarely QJ through to Q2 all performed better) due to an overcard being on every flop I saw.

For the record, my biggest losing hands are:
74s (flopped a str8 and also flush draw so moved all in, villian called with just a higher flush draw and hit the river)
K6 (two pair both times losing to higher two pair)
QQ was third as mentioned above.

So, a little time off over Christmas, hopefully a little cheer will find it's way through to my game at some point. Cathy's mum is quite ill at the moment, so we are all hoping for a recovery in time for Xmas, and puts my issues into perspective.

Losing Interest

2006-12-08T20:16:00.000Z

It's been a while since I last posted, and it has been a funny 2 weeks.

Work is very busy and the team of 16 I inherited are now at 30. My target has been set for 2007 at £22million and things are looking really good. The sales guys are bringing in business really quickly, and we are converting this into sales really effectively. I'm really enjoying it, and the wait and temp work of a few months ago were well worth the hassle.

Poker has been getting me down a bit lately. My Royal Vegas experinece has put me off ever playing on that network again, and maybe I was just unfortunate, but I have no faith or belief in their system at all. Did a bit of research online on them, and found a forum with many similar comments, though some were a bit over the top.
Then, I found another site to bonus whore (from bonus whore dot com) and put 300$ in to get a 100$ bonus. Unfortunately, the people operating this site seem to have dissappeared of the face of the earth and will not credit my refund nor return any Emails or phone calls. Steer well clear of the Tain network then, www.millionminds.com in particular.
I have Neteller and bonuswhore dot com on the case, but if they won't answer phone calls or Emails, I'm not sure what they can do for me. Sure, they will be removed from Neteller's merchant list and hopefully BW dot com also, so at least no one else will fall for it. Doesn't get me my moeny back mind you.

So the combination of the above two events put me over 400$ out of pocket, and should be kept at the fore front of any poker players mind. We may love the game, we may love the players online - but we are also very easy targets and have very little protection against disreputable criminals if they decide to shut down and run off with your money or stage the cards to, basically, do the same thing. Think twice before opening up that next account.

Not the greatest time to do a review of my hand history of the last 2 months - which added to my 'no longer trust any online poker site' feelings. Sure, a 2 month run of seeing AK and AQ beaten by any 2 random cards almost 70% of times when I should be 70% favourite is one of those things - but two months seemed a long time for this unusual stat to hold up.
Realising that I probably wasn't in the most constructive frames of mind, I shut it down and decided that a break from the game was what I needed.
So, with no poker distractions, Mia's new bedroom was plastered, new skirting boards put in and then cleaned out ready for painting. Loads of stuff taken to the charity shop and we feel like we have a new room in the house. More stuff went up in the loft ready for Mia's sister or brother if we can/decide to have another so there is always the reminder of how profitable poker can be (the loft and Mia new bedroom decorated came from poker winnings).

Last week was our work's Xmas do, and I was hoping to post a few pictures - but I think I can get some good money for some of them - so I'll think this over a bit first. I managed to stay out till just before 3am before tiredness got the better of me and I hailed a cab home. They stayed out til just past 5am, and boy did I feel old that night!

Cathy has braved the Trafford Centre with her mum this evening, so I'm just off to the tables now to see if I've re-discovered the hunger.

Wonders Never Cease

2006-11-27T18:34:00.000Z

I've just checked my Email and seen a message from Royal Vegas Poker.

They have asked their people to look into my comments and after passing the details on to their fraud department, they can find no evidence of any collusion or attempts to deceive by other players (no kidding!!). They have also checked the hands dealt and acknowledge that the run of hands was extreme and as a gesture of goodwill on their part, they have refunded half my initial stake.

So I've got 100$ back.

Unfortunately, they won't allow me to cash it out, so I have to play and win some money and cash out winnings only. Maybe there's a method in their madness......

Late Mornings and Dodgy Cards

2006-11-26T11:40:00.000Z

I sit here on my couch at 11.25am on a cold Sunday morning. Mia is still fast asleep. Normal bedtime last night, but sometimes kids need to catch up too. I've been in and checked, and she is a) still there and not escaped and b) breathing. Well, she was snoring actually, so maybe a cold is on the way.

A pretty bad night at the tables, and I'm actually stunned at some of the things I saw last night. My search for a new bonus took me to Royal Vegas Poker and I signed up with 200$ of my hard earnd winnings on Friday night. I played about 300 hands on Friday and was amazed to see 3 flopped quads and 2 more four of a kinds on the river. I wasn't involved in any of those hands, but 5 in 300 hands is a bit strange.
Logged on Saturday night and played on 143 hands.
Dealt AA and raised to 10 x bb (very loose table) and got one caller. Flop of 33x and he called me to the river before showing 33. ON buy in gne.
9 hands later dealt QQ and raise 10 x bb - same guy re-raises me so I call and see flop of JJQ - I move all in, he calls and shows pocket Jacks. Anopther buy in gone.
12 hands later get KK and called by 77 on a flop of 77x - different player this time, but another buy in gone.
Then, checking a BB with 89, I see a flop of 10JQ and move all in. Player calls and shows QQ. Guess the turn? Yep, another Q and nother buy in gone.

Somewhat concerned that something very dodgyu was going on. I see quads quite a lot online, something I've commented on in the past - but 9 quads in less than 450 hands was a little extreme, even by online standards. The odds of flopping quads if you hold pockets is 16,000 to one according to my calculator.
Anyway, not a great deal I can do other than a) Email the poker site to investigate, which I have done and b) not play at their site again, which I will also do. They have accepted tht the run of hands was extreme, but promised to look into it and let me know.

Anyway, other than this 200$ loss, things are going well, and should show a small profit in November unless the above is the beginnings of a bad run.

Looking forward to the Man U v Chelsea game later today - got some friends coming round, so hopefully Mia will still be asleep and we can watch in peace!! Uh oh, I spoke o soon, I can hear her singing - best go and feed her.

Good luck all!

60% Rakeback!!

2006-11-15T12:47:00.000Z

Was trawling the Internet looking for my next poker site to bonus-whore and found an offer of 60% rakeback. Seemed a bit high to me, almost double the normal rates offered - so I did a bit of research and found the results very positive.
I downloaded the software and have played for 5 days and have earned 52$ in rake back! They pay directly into your account every week so you get your money quick.

The site is called Battlefield Poker ('d never heard of them before either) and if you download by clicking here you can also qualify for the 60% rakeback. OK, you don't get the new player bonus - but if you play fairly regularly, 60% rake back is a sizeable return on a regular basis, rather than a one off bonus. (If you download directly from their site, you WILL NOT get the 60% rakeback - you have to do it via the link above.)

What's the site like? Well, it's on the same Microgaming network as Crazy, Vegas & Gaming Club to name a few and seems to have a good reputation on the chat boards I viewed. The players at the 10/20c NL level are pretty loose and the average table at this level last night shows 63-70% of players seeing the flop and average pot sizes around the 9/11$ mark. The design is almost identical to the Ladbrokes layout, which I think is one of the best. The only thing I've not done is cashed out yet, but they tell me it is instant wih Neteller.

I'm an average poker player and have turned my 100$ opening balance into 168$ via table winnings, and a further 52$ in rakeback - so will be playing here for the next couple of weeks and see this as a sizeable impact on my BR. Not sure how many people take advantage of the rake-back deals around, but if someone wants to pay me 60% of the rake I generate - thank you vey much, I'll take it.
Also, the bonus at some site are so ridiculously time consuming to clear, I'm now seeing rake-back as a more viable return.

If you do download and decide to try it out - let me know as I get a very small $ for introducing you!! :-)

Our NTL box blew last night so I have arranged for their engineer to come round and repair it. This means no TV or Online until Friday - assuming they turn up. My experiences of NTL are not great, so if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know why! Maybe I should set up a sweepstake on when they turn up........

Right, what can I do for two nights without playing poker - any ideas?

Mia’s Dad’s Protégé!

2006-11-14T11:43:00.002Z

It’s Children in Need week, if you hadn’t noticed, and everyone is trying lots of humorous ways of raising money for this very deserving charity. The company I work for have set up an ‘E-bay’ type auction site, and every member of staff has to put something on that all the other employees can bid for, and all money raised is going to CIN.

The idea was that a few would put the talc and toiletries you get at Xmas but never use, but what they really wanted was a lot of ‘money can’t buy’ type things.

So, for example, one girl has put up ‘I’ll do your ironing for a week’, another ‘I’ll be your taxi services for a weekend’ and other similar things. There’s also plenty of wine, chocolates, hotel weekends and electrical items that people have given, and a few silly ones like ‘£1 to throw a custard pie in my face’. If your item doesn’t get sold, you have to buy it back for £1.

All very good, done in the right spirit and should raise a shit load of money for CIN as we have over 300 employees.

So, what do I give?

Well, could I get away with taking someone out for a meal (only the ladies to bid, obviously), a drink in a quiet country pub (ditto) or a romantic night in a luxury hotel, complete with double poster bed (even bigger ditto). Surely a night out with me is priceless and would attract thousands of £££’s in bids?

No, I decided to spare myself the embarrassment of only my mother bidding and after a girl at work asked me if I would help her online poker game (she heard I’d just bought a new laptop with poker winnings) – I have decided to give poker lessons!

Surely the only time in my life that someone will pay me to show them how to play Texas Hold ‘Em. I’ll set them up with an online account, put 20$ in it and teach them how to play.

Maybe I should encourage them to call ‘all-ins’ with 96os and never fold. Then I’ll strip them of everything they have, always telling them to keep reloading until the house has gone!!

Ha, ha, only joking of course – it’ll be a bit of fun and if I raise a few quid in the process – all the better.

Ladies Needed

2006-11-07T21:49:00.000Z

There I was, bragging about my jetsetting and it all came down to earth with a bump.
My trip to Bristol has been cancelled.
Before you start writing your words of consolation and heartfelt sorrow for me, worry not readers, it has simply been delayed by a week or two. Instead, I have a trip to Wakefield to look forward to on Friday.

There was, however, some great news for me today, that more than made up for the Bristol dissappointment. My request for more staff has been approved, and I have the OK to recruit 4 more.

You know what this means?

More attractive young ladies that have to sit in my office and impress me for an hour in an effort to get a job working for me! Little do they know the talents they will need to get the job.

It's a hard life sometimes.

PS - Poker, average.

Jetsetting!

2006-11-06T23:03:00.000Z

Been away for another couple of days, this time down to our head office in Taunton, which is a helluva drive from most places in the UK, especially Manchester. Still, nice to meet all the directors and senior managers and see the way they do things. Wednesday, I head off to Bristol to meet some clients (I'll wave, Rosie) so I'm certainly racking up some miles these last few weeks.
Things are going really well in the job, I've managed to increase efficiency in the office by 25% in October, and got rid of some of our deadwood without too much effort, so looking forward to getting my teeth into some of the mid and long term projects I have set.

Life on the tables has been going great also, and the first week to this new month has seen a positive start, following on from a good October. Bizarrely, I think the less time I am spending at the tables is having a positive effect on my play. I didn't play for 3 nights last week, and 4 the previous, so a big reduction on my normal hours. Maybe the re-focusing is good, and I don't seem to feel as tired.

Decided to re-start a bit of bonus whoring so have emptied my Laddies, CD and Bodog accounts and taken advantage of a seemingly easy 50$ at Sun Poker.
And, being on the same platform as Inter, where I had a good SNG record, I have decided to revisit a couple of SNG's a night and see if I can re-discover the magic. It's been several months since I last played a SNG, so was delighted to win my first 5£ and place 2nd in a 3£. Add this to a nice few hands on a cash table, and a 58$ profit for the night saw me happy at close of play a few minutes ago.
Can't remember too many specific hands, but I'm trying to play a bit more aggressively. I must be an easy player to read, as I play the strong hands strongly and fold the crap (mostly!), though this led to me getting some grief from an opponent. I was on the SB with 72 (it was suited, this still the hammer?) and with one caller and the BB, I decided to raise it up to 6 x bb. Both called and saw a flop of KK4 and a flush draw for me. The BB had AK and was not best pleased when my flush hit the turn and he didn;t raise the flop.
He called me a clown and wasn't having it when I told him you gotta mix up your game sometimes :-)

In one of my last sessions at Laddies, played with Kronsdat, one of the few bloggers I don't remember playing with before, so was nice to chat, and I wish him luck with his personal challenge before Xmas! Always good to spend a bit of poker winnings on the missus - keep her on side etc when you're playing them late nights :-)

Good luck all.

Reasons to be Cheerful

2006-10-27T20:41:00.000+01:00

Just returned from the company Operations Meeting, with the 3 Ops Managers, the HR manager and a couple of directors. We talked about Operations, funnily enough. I had to spend the last 2 days here. It's a tough life sometimes.

This meant that I had 3 days off the poker tables. 3 whole days. Happy to report no shakes, no shivers and no cold sweats. I love this game and am very happy.

Two reasons. I had great feedback from everyone at the meeting and I am being moved on to the Senior Managers Forum in January I am led to believe. That means more responsibility (and accountability), but more money :-).

Also, I cleared a bonus at Bodog, so decided to empty my account back to Neteller, along with other current poker accounts so I can reload and do some bonus whoring. Netellet shows a profit for the month of £240 with a few more days to go. Another reason to be happy.

Finally, its my parents 40th wedding anniversay on Sunday. Big family night out for meal and drinks etc. at a local Italian restaurant which is very yummy.

Best get practising that Ciao and Prago......

'Diamonds and Babies and Cars

2006-10-24T20:27:00.000+01:00

Don't add up to anything, at all.'

So goes the lyrics in a song by group call The Himalayans, some of whom went on to form Counting Crows a few years later. They were talking about babies in the 'young ladies' sense rather than infants, but hey, there's a link and I'm using it.

What the heck has this got to do with a poker post? Well, firstly Diamonds saved my ass last night. OK, maybe not my ass, it but turned a nasty, losing night into a winning one in just 3 hands. And the winning card that changed everything in all 3 hands, was a diamond. There I was, about 40$ down, getting rather unlucky on a few occasions, thinking, I need to stop playing and go to bed. One of those nights, nothing I could do etc etc. Cathy said, I'll just make a cup of tea and then it's time for bed.
Unfortunately for me, there was no glint in her eyes, she meant sleep.
And in the time it took her to make and drink that cup of tea, I went to 15$ up. My nut flush beat his nut str8 (and he re-raised me despite the 3 diamonds on the table). Then the 3 of diamonds on the flop hit my pocket 3's very nicely to beat my opponents KK (he only raised 2 x bb pre flop!) then finally the A of diamonds hit the river to give me the nut str8 against his Q high str8. Oh how quickly this game can change.

In between bouts of fold, fold, fold, I read a few poker blogs, including The Cloud's. Seeing the impeding birth of his 2nd child reminded me of the night little Mia made her appearance. Well, she was actually born at 10.30am, but it all started at 4am when an elbow to my ribs as I lay fast asleep in bed, along with the words 'I think it's started'. I actually felt like it was time for me to get involved. Other than the conception, it's nine months of HER doing everything, and when them hormones take over, boy does she remind you of this.
Actually, Cathy was really good throughout the whole 9 and a bit months, no banana and tunafish pizza's and no massive mood swings. She has enough of those when she wasn't pregnant, so I was well prepared. Only joking, darling!
So it came as a bit of relief to me that I could actually get involved in this baby thing other than putting my ears to her tummy every night and feeling the kicks. No funny stories to report, no embarrasing slip ups - the whole thing could not have gone smoother. In the hospital at 5am and Mia was born at 10.30am.
'Textbook' the nurse said.
'Easy' I replied
'Best not use that word if I was you' She said, then left us to our new life as a family.

Work is still going well, and I've been asked to go to the quarterly management meeting down in Vale of Glamorgan, despite being told I wouldn't be involved until the January one. Long drive, nearly 4 hours I think, for just one night, but I get to meet all the key people in the business from Taunton, so I suppose it will be worthwhile.

Anway, off to feed the fish.

Murder on the Dance Floor

2006-10-23T22:18:00.000+01:00

All those years visitng nightclubs, delivering my spiel to the lovely young ladies, and now I learn that they hated every minute. Well, according to the lovely Rosie, aka The Rotweiller.

Well, now you mention it Rosie, there are a few things that us blokes don't understand about you women. I've only got so much space in this virtual world, so have cut it down to a short list.

Just answer me one question. Why?

1. Oprah, Dr Phil, Trisha et al
2. Interior Decorating TV Programmes
3. Salad as a main course
4. Bathroom Crap
5. Shopping
6. Talking
7. Shoes / Handbags
8. Crying
9. Musicals
10. Those tiny, useless dogs
11. Going for coffee
12. Visiting YOUR family
13. Diets / Fad Workouts
14. Gay blokes
15. Soaps
16. Flowers and Chocolates

I was going to add 'commitment', but maybe we don't like that either.

Anger Management

2006-10-21T23:35:00.000+01:00

When you have a really bad day on the tables, and you just need to take it out on someone, don't take it out on someone you know, take it out on someone you don't know.

I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a phone call I'd forgotten to make. I found the number and dialled it. A man answered, saying "Hello." I politely said, "This is Mark. Could I please speak with Robert Campbell?"
Suddenly a manic voice yelled out in my ear "Get the right f*kin number!" and the phone was slammed down on me.
I couldn't believe that anyone could be so rude. When I tracked down Robert's correct number to call him, I found that I had accidentally transposed the last two digits. After hanging up with him, I decided to call the 'wrong' number again. When the same guy answered the phone, I yelled "You're a C*nt!" and hung up.
I wrote his number down with the word 'C*nt' next to it, and put it in my desk drawer. Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up and yell, "You're a C*nt!" It always cheered me up.
When Caller ID was introduced, I thought my therapeutic "C*nt" calling would have to stop. So, I called his number and said, "Hi, this is John Smith from BT. I'm calling to see if you're familiar with our Caller ID Program?"He yelled "NO!" and slammed down the phone. I quickly called him back and said, "That's because you're a C*nt!"

One day I was at my local Shopping Centre, getting ready to pull into a parking spot. Some guy in gunmetal grey Land Rover cut me off and pulled into the spot I had patiently waited for. I hit the horn and yelled that I'd been waiting for that spot, but the idiot ignored me. I noticed a "For Sale" sign in his back window, so I wrote down his number.
A couple of days later, right after calling the first C*nt (I had his number on speed dial,) I thought that I'd better call the Land Rover C*nt, too. I said, "Is this the man with the gunmetal grey Land Rover for sale?" Yes, it is", he said. "Can you tell me where I can see it?" I asked. "Yes, I live at 129 Well Street, in Torrington. It's a terraced house, and the car's parked right out in front. "What's your name?" I asked. "My name is Steve Hansen," he said. "When's a good time to catch you, Steve?" "I'm home most days as I'm currently unemployed." "Listen, Steve, can I tell you something?" "Yes?" "Steve, you're a C*nt!"Then I hung up, and added his number to my speed dial, too.
Now, when I have a problem, I have two a**eholes to call.

Then on one particularly bad day, I came up with an idea. I called C*nt #1.
"Hello?" "You're a C*nt!" (But I didn't hang up.) "Are you still there?" he asked."Yeah," I said."Stop calling me," he screamed. "Make me," I said.
"Who are you?" he asked."My name is Steve Hansen.""Yeah? Where do you live?""I live at 129 Well Street, Torrington, a terraced house, with my gunmetal grey Land Rover parked out the front. "He said, "I'm coming over right now, Steve. And you had better start saying your prayers.
"I said, "Yeah, like I'm really scared, C*nt," and hung up.
Then I called C*nt #2. "Hello?" he said."Hello, C*nt," I said. He yelled, "If I ever find out who you are.....".
"You'll do what?" I said."I'll kick your a*se," he exclaimed. I answered, "Well, C*nt, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now."
Then I hung up and immediately called the police, saying that I lived at 129 Well Street, Torrington, and that I was on my way over there to kill my gay lover. Then I called Channel 5 News about the hoodie war going down in Well Street, Torrington. I quickly got into my car and headed over to Well Street. I got there just in time to watch two C*nts beating the crap out of each other in front of six police cars, an overhead police helicopter and a News crew.

What's that about anger management? This is great anger management.