Day of the Jackal

Has it really been 6 months!

2010-08-12T22:30:00.002Z

Cant believe looking back that my last post was 1st Feb. At that point id built my roll back up to £2k. I cant remember how soon after that but I took a shot at higher stakes and blew the lot while waiting for Friends to come around one friday night, pretty impressive as was inside 50 mins. First 50% were sick luck the rest, well that was just standard tilt.

Since then I havent played much at all, being a Dad plus busy job have made it tough. In Apr/May time I did build a £1k roll from a £100 deposit. I built it playing like a loony toon and lost it in the same fashion, but it was fun.

Didnt play at all in June. Went back on at end of July, one night just for a bit of fun with a £90 deposit a was going to play two MTT. Unfortunately got disconnected and couldnt register in time. So took the £90 and started playing cash. 4 weeks later that stands at £2.2k. Theres been no strategy in this or consistency. Played everything from NL50 to NL1000. Its been pretty swingy, Ive played really loose, using no stats/tracker and generally spaz poker as Brennan would say, had a lot of fun doing it. Roll would be alot higher if I hadnt stuck around a few sharks on the higher tables a couple of times. Also ran KK into AA atleast twice for 4 fig pots.

Ive took a grand out to make myself buy something with, like the good old days where id do positive stuff with profit.

Now lets see how high the remainding £1.2k can go or how quickly it can go busto.....

Jan Summary

2010-02-01T19:32:00.006Z

As Im just a social player dont usually go for end of month updates but am going to try to this year

Jan ended £720 profit, bankroll now at £2.1k played around 6800 hands but as we know at various levels

Even managed to do the same again on the last night Sunday. Played loads of different stakes again, was up at start but swang down to £650 down before getting almost back to level. Again quite a bit under ev, but mainly due to one big pot ($800) where got AK in vs jj on K 2 10 K board for the J to hit

My blips with higher stakes didnt make much difference to overal month. My main profit and volume came at NL100, My profits at NL200 and NL600 were evened out by losses at NL400 and NL1000. Doesnt take a genius to work out far more +ev to stay at NL100 but I just never seem to get it, just seem an aler ego comes out a few times month and wants to gammmmble

Tempted to switch back to laddies for Feb but havent 100% decided yet. Not sure of my plan regarding stakes either. I can feel a huge crash coming if i continue to dabble higher. Soap is spot on in the fact if im gonna do it, to have a session where feeling positive and go big from the start. We'll see.

No discipline

2010-01-31T13:42:00.002Z

Havent played for nearly 2 weeks so was gagging for a game on Friday night, managed again to play allsorts of stakes, starting at NL100 right up to NL1000 (all $). Really swingy, was £1.1k down at worste point and ended up about £200 down. When your playing different stakes really hard to judge how you play but just looked back at hold em manager at big pots and seemes I did ok. 5 bigget posts I won, was huge favourite in all of them and 5 biggest post I lost , 3 of them I was racing (slight underdog each time)

About $1k under ev for the session, mainly due to those races.

It was in smaller, not all in pots where I leaked some cash and played worse. Love to say back to grinding but its just far more exciting higher up ;-)

Heads up

2010-01-18T00:00:00.002Z

After the epic session on Friday I have just had 2 smaller sessions. Rather than ring games I played some heads up but at NL50, didnt want too big swings after my mentality on friday (I really wanted to play at least NL400 again!). So I brought myself back to earth with NL50 HU

Won a few buy ins and roll now sitting at a healthy £2100

Reviewed my hands from friday, was pleasantly suprised that in most big pots I played it ok, and that was with calm eye looking at it next day. However the jumping around stakes still looked stoopid, esp on my holdem stats!

Anyhow my NL100 stats still good and all over higher levels around break even which doesnt give justice to the huge swings on them on Friday, but also shows how crazy it was to risk big chunks of my roll.

Am off to Cincinatti with work on wednesday for a week, have to stay the weekend so no poker for me for a while. Got a meeting in new york on thu but couldnt manage to hang on there till weekend as need to be in Cinci on Friday so its the weekend there rather than big apple ;-(

Jackal...... we have a problem

2010-01-16T16:15:00.009Z

I wasnt going to post this, I thought maybe I could do with just not posting last nights update and no one would be any the wiser. However it would be wrong to just pretend I had managed to keep the discipline ive had since Nov

Last night I logged on at 11ish to will hill, just too see who was on. To my delight a couple of my fish list were on same table with seat available. So sat down to play NL100 (ps Ben, I know you asked if id be moving up but I already did at end of Dec, see prev post)

Anyway they were as bad as normal but I didnt get any action from them, they busted out pretty quick and other players were quite solid so I was planning to log off. However saw one of them went to a NL200 table (he was in a particular loose mood) so I followed. Then the other fish also sat at a different NL200 table so I followed him too. Obviously this would be a good plan if I could guarantee not mixing with other players on the table but we all know the cards might not let that happen

Anyhows, at this point im 3 tabling, 1 NL100 and 2 NL200 (all $). And my expected/due bad patch hits (not all bad beats as 50% of big pots I was already behind and run into bigger hand). Cant moan at this as it was due. I start flopping set under higher set, nut flush draws vs sets, where my flush hits but pairs the board to house up. These were all vs the better players and not the fish. Looking back at HH some big pots-

My AA looses to QQ, all in pre - $400 pot
My 88 flops 8 j 2 vs JJ- $340 Pot
My AKd, hits flush on 6 9 2 2 board vs 66, $300 pot
My 22 flops 2 5 8 Vs 55, $350 pot
My KK looses to QQ all in pre when he hits 4 to a flush- $320 pot

During all of this the fish had been getting killed also and was playing very bad. However he gets lucky vs a couple of ppl and builds a stack, he leaves and goes onto NL400 table. At this point I know I shouldnt risk big chunks of my roll, but I follow him! Nice logic jackal.

1st hand at NL400 I lose about $300 when I pick up AK raise, guy 3 bets I 4 bet and he pushes, he had A10 and board runs out Q J 2 2 K. At this point I am definitely feel tilt kick in, I reload and fe hands later makes me realise I need a break (well I should have had it about 2hrs ago). I had 3 5d and raise in early possy and get 3 bet by the Fish, 1 caller and I call (the tilt mist was starting at this point). Flop 5 8 10 (2d, gives me pr anf fl draw). The 3 better bets big, other fold, I decide im going for this even before he has bet. I think a big raise will push AK etc out and even if he has a over pair im still 50 50ish, plus he has been playing all sorts and could just have any 2. He pushes and I have to call. He has K10 and im 55% but miss. I dont mind my play after flop but I shouldnt have been in that pot as my strategy was play strong hands vs him only.

Anyhow been playing for about 4 hrs at this point and obviously had won some pots aswell but am about $1000 down. Nice going for my normal $100 roll strategy. I have a break, then go back on and decide Im sticking to NL400, I couldn't face grinding again at NL100 and felt like luck me change. I still have a up and down time but start to pick up some good spots, like 66 vs KK on 6 flop, a Flopped straight vs flush draw that I make him pay big and misses. Still continue to lose some big pots, I was playing how I hav been on NL100, very agressive, example when I try a big squeeze play that I thought would get through with Q5s, however initial raiser call and I flop fl draw, proceed to miss vs his overpair etc etc. However this agro style did get me paid off a few times

Played for 6 hrs in total, ended about $100 down. Once again showing I can grind for 2/3 months and win but always reach a time when I lose the plot and play bigger, and am often outclassed

For once it wasnt going up the stakes to chase loss but rather to chase fish, however cant moan that a had a bad spell at this point as it was definitely due, the jump to NL400 although at the time was to follow the bad player was mainly driven by chasing losses

There you go, I have shown again that long term discipline isnt there. Im lucky however to not have lost big, but tbh Id accepted that I might loose a chunk once I went up to NL400, Id atleast been clever enough to withdraw £1K of my roll but who knows if id have reversed the withdrawal if id continued to loose! Plus staying up till 5:30am not good prep for baby waking up!

Sorry long post and ps roll now stands at £1945

Rolled up

2010-01-15T00:59:00.002Z

My roll hit £2k tonight, very satisfied to build that just from profit, all from a £150 deposit in Nov which ive since taken out. Reason £2k is significant is the last time I played with a proper roll was summer last year when I managed to bust a £2k roll in one day. Happy that I built it back up rather than dipping into savings taken from previous years profit

Anyway hoping this doesnt affect my focus as even since I got up to about £500 Ive had the £2k mark in my mind

Better

2010-01-13T00:24:00.002Z

Played much better tonight, came on for a quickish session but stayed on for 2.5hrs as two big fish on one of my tables. I focused on isolating them and playing as many flops as I could as they were very poor post flop. Was frustrated early on as I couldnt get a read and leaked chips to them but once I did it was easy, made easier as they kept showing thier hands.

Managed to get away from KK and QQ post flop vs them on raggy boards after big 3 bet by me pre flop, when thier betting pattern strongly suggested they hit more than a pair (and they were showing all the time, love that). Was happy that I managed to fold overpair as always tempting to play them for full buy ins vs bad players on mid range flop, but folded and waited to keep taking medium size pots from them and wait for spots I knew I was way ahead to play big pots

Also played a solid player to my left well, he was also trying to isolate them so just kept squeezing him and he folded more often than not

It worked well, ended up $250 up after initially being a bit down while I figured it out.

Nearly made a big miclick in one pot with 7 5 sooted, hadnt realised there had been a 3 bet, and $70 4 bet, I was chatting to brennan on facebook and screen popped up and nearly hit call. Could have been disastrous as we were both quite deep and If id hit flop or fancied a flop that hed missed I may have gone for it chasing the misclick money! Lesson learnt, close facebook down while playing!

Roll now £1950

Maniac

2010-01-11T00:45:00.004Z

Continued with high varience poker tonight, raising lots and pushing all my draws. Mixed in there were a few awful hero calls where I just didnt believe the person (when in hindsight it was v obvious they had hit). You know the type, when your on a run of winning session, feel invincible and feel anyone betting into you is weak and your bottom pair is good, I did a few of them and looked foolish

Again quite a few swings and 150bb-200bb pots. Hit a few hands late on when my reputation was very fishy, including flopping a straight flush with 23h on A45 flop, the person with 45 paid me off till river for full buy in even though 4th heart hit on turn,

Looking back at session I played awful, made some good moves in spells but mainly awful. Definitely worse session since Nov, even though still ended up in profit. Wont have much time in next few days which is probably good thing as feel myself getting looser!. However, defintely a few positives

- I was atleast an agressive loose (in past ive played loose limp/caller style in patches
- Still havent ventured up the stakes and today was very tempted when a few hundred down
- Im not getting angry when loosing big pots, think 2night I was definitely tilty but it wasnt my full blown angry tilt it was just im bored of grinding lets gamble and push the action a bit tilt, a fun tilt ;-)
- If id just grinded like normal, I wouldnt have lost the big pots but wouldnt have won the big pots late on either, so atleast it was a fun session that balanced out

Awful poker mind, think I was lucky not to have a big downswing in roll last 2 nights

Swings

2010-01-10T02:05:00.002Z

Felt like tonight passed my first major test since restarting in Nov. Had a high varience session and a few patches where big pots went against me. One particular sick patch saw me loose 2 150BB pots within 3 mins

1) I raised with 99 and was 3 bet, called and flop was 9 10 2 (with 2 spades). The guy bet pot and im sure he has overpair. We get it all in and he has 10 10

2) I 3 bet big with KK vs the weak player at table who is a caller. Flop K J 2. I bet pot on flop and 3/4 pot on blank turn, only for 10 to hit on riv and he has AQ

At this stage I was $350 down for the night. Felt myself get a bit worked up but comforted self in the fact there was not much I could have done. Grinded on ready to accept my first loosing session for Jan then won a 160BB pot, I raised with 44, 2 callers, flop 4 10 10. I bet out and guy called, 2 clubs on board so im hoping he has draw that'll get there. Blank 3 on turn and he starts raising me. He has A10. So that was a fortunate situation in my favour

Was up and down all night and ended up in small profit. Thought I might get big payday on my last hand. Id left other tables and unticked auto post and was my last hand when dealt 99. I raised and got 3 callers. Flop 9 8 8. I bet out half pot, 1 caller. He has $360 I have $320. I'm hoping he catches something to pay me off. Turn 5 putting 2 hearts on board and he calls me again. River a blank 2 and I check as put him on draw and think he may have a pop at a bluff, he checks, with 10Jh. He had a lot of draw outs to hit and get in trouble. Never mind, cant complain after run ive had recently and even tonight the poker gods somehow found a way for me to come from quite a bit down.

Busted set of kings= Tilt

2010-01-09T01:44:00.008Z

After winning about £100 in this afternoons session I had a few hours on tonight. First 90 mins wasn't great, I had a couple of guys river me in near full buy in pots, which has not happened much recently so was definitely due. To try and combat tilt lately I have prepared ared myself for these pots and promised myself I would a) take a deep breaths and b) immediately fold next hand unless it was premium (as in the past my tilt is usually to raise the next 10 pots regardless which starts a spiral). Did both of these but to be honest never felt to flustered as realise been on a good run lately

Anyway was able to stay focused as there were a couple of genuine fish around, especially a couple who played 90% of pots but never raised, I love those type! Another fault of mine in the past has been a refusal to stop a session down and playing on until im atleast even. Again that wasn't really top of mind tonight as had set myself a end time of about 1am. In the next hour grinded back to even, helped by fact hit a couple of sets, They never won as much as they could as boards got scary but still decent size. One was my own fault as should have got more chips in on flop but decided to let a turn come off and just call a flop bet (he was v aggressive), turn was a scare card for him when he actually had top pair on flop, my mistake

Late on I got ahead with a full buy in pot, 67s I raised in cut off and button 3 bet (not a big reraise and he 3 bet in position alot). BB (was a big fish) called so I decided to see a flop, came down k 5 9, the k and 9 are my suit. Gives me a fl draw and gut shot. The fish bet $1! (thats how he was all night). I just called as had a plan for button guy.

I'd played with the button guy all night and felt he would raise regardless of his cards in this spot. After 3 betting and the ridiculous $1 bet and my simple call there was no way he wasnt betting at this flop. His 3 bet range was actually quite wide from what id seen (hed 3 bet with things like 9 7, q 10). My plan was for him to raise and i'd re-pop it, thinking i may take it down there and then and if not (if he had AK AA etc) I was prepared to gamble. He duly raised, the BB fish folded, so I re-raised. He then went all in, doesn't take a genius to know 7 high is behind but I call the last $30 or so to try and win the $230 pot. He has the nuts, KK, I hit flush on river. Harsh for him, but he goes berserk at me, very foul mouthed chat abuse. He then proceeds to reload $100 and go all in pre flop every hand strategy, unfortunately I picked up a load of trash but he manages to loose 4 more buy ins in next 12 mins (after grinding for 3 hrs). YES the tilt meltdown wasnt me! thats no real tilt blow outs since start of Nov, amazing what a string of wins does for your mentality ;-)

Anyway won a couple more pots after this and ended session £100 up, £200 for the day

Roll now up to £1700

Holmes style

2010-01-08T18:31:00.003Z

By that I mean I havent played many hands lately. Got Modern Warfare 2 on PS3 and found myself playing that in spare time, even though i'm really shit and just get murdered on-line. A group of lads from darlo play, they let me in thier team but I hear the occasional "For fuck sake Jackal" over thier bluetooth head sets. I have no idea how some people get so good, they can pick me out anywhere and put one in my forehead over and over again. Im not really a gamer so think that fas will pass in a week or so just like it did last year when I actually bouth the PS3

Have played a couple of sessions, still steadily growing the BR which now stands at £1.6k. Would love it to be £2k by end of Jan but am due a bad run so when that happens main focus will be no tilt

55 48

2010-01-01T19:17:00.003Z

Just got round to re uploading holdem manager and imported my HH from last 2 months. Was intersted to see my stats from winning the £1400 since Nov. NL$50 was where big base of hands and £1k profit was from. My VPIP and PRF were 55 48! I knew id been agressive while winning over 30 buy ins at that level but didnt realise I had been that high over 2 months. No wonder I was getting paid when I hit

I also thought I must be running golden but still was running behind ev (I know I promised myself in Oct that I'd never look at that stat again but I couldnt help self!)

My stats were a bit lower on NL100 but not by much, around 45 41. Obviously over time the good players who were using trackers would suss me out I think and start reraising, 3 bet more etc (already feel people doing it at NL100 vs 50 so will have to adapt) but no wonder Ive been having fun!

Not going to make any aims for 2010, life with a young baby means poker will always be down the list, so going to do what I did from Nov onwards and play when I can and for fun and see how high I can build the role

NL100

2009-12-28T19:51:00.003Z

Once bankroll got to £1k, started playing NL100, but in $, so just under 20 buy ins, as im only 2 max 3 tabling and not tons of hrs felt it was fine. Have alo taken my initial deposit out so only playing with profit/ Played a few sessions overs xmas and roll now at £1300. Still got same old leaks in my game that I notice alot more at NL100, mainly calling a opening raise a bit too often especially out of position. Especially hands like QJ, KQ, KJ, J10, AJ etc etc

Last session I made a decision to try and start plugging that leak once and for all, only flat call to a raise on very limited occasions, mainly if situation (stacks, action around me etc) was right with small pairs or soooted connectors in good position (and depending on action sometimes these were 3 bet). Anything else was to a opening raise was folded or 3 bet. Definitely means for a few bigger pots but definitely feels like im more in control of pots and table.

Lost a couple of full buy in pots and still havent tilted, so far so good. Am happy with £1300 profit since Nov and over xmas havent been tempted by spin ups which I thought I'd fall victim too. Especially after being back at the wifes parents on xmas eve when my brother in law built up to £18k profit before dropping back down to £4k profit at end of night, pissed,, playing gradually higher from NL600 to NL5000 euro (and he calls himself a pro ;-)).

If anything was going to tempt me to have a gamble it was that kind of sick action but I passed the test. I still blame my gambling mentality on the time he came to live with us and I watched him playing his normal high stakes for a few nights running, that was back in summer of 08 and looking back thats when I started trying to do some quick fire NL1000 spin ups, which went well at first but by 2009 became my downfall. Lesson learnt in that its fun to watch bigger stakes but dont try and get there yourself with short cuts!

As Expected

2009-12-23T19:12:00.005Z

I was definitely due a bad session, it came this afternoon, logged on for a shortish session and quickly lost 4 buy ins, 2 beats and 2 coolers,

- AK on AK2 board, versus flush draw, all in on flop, pretty standard cant moan
- KQ vs AA on a KQ6 board vs a slow played preflop AA, all in on flop river an ace
- J high flush vs ace high flush, jack was second nuts on board
- Set vs set

Nothing horrendous and definitely due, it was the speed at which they happened, 15 mins across 2 tables. This was the first real test of tilt. Maybe as its xmas and im in a good mood but more likely as Ive been playing more for fun meant that I didnt tilt anymore off. Although there was one questionable button 3 bet with J5 sooted, that flopped second pair and flush draw that lost me a bit (well a 90% buy in) more but I'll ignore that one ;-)

Logged back on after tea and won a few buy ins back, with hands that were ahead and held up. The poker gods have started to re balance it pretty soon. I know that in the rest of the year after 4 quick full buy in hands like the above I'd have jumped up stakes to chase it back asap

Not been a good year at all, after years of steadily increasing yearly profits this year has seen a big drop, looking back I have played like a numpty gambler from Jan-Sep. Two -£2k sessions and one -£1k session at the stakes I play is quite ridiculous and all were while tilting/chasing

Think going back to playing for fun and not expecting to make a load of quick dosh has helped put it back in perspective, shows how hard the game can slap you as soon as you stop respecting it. So the positive of the year is think I've come out a bit better after seeing how bad I can really play over a long period, and how the game doesnt reward a quick big win mentality

Anyhows, just over a week left of the year, aim is to get there without blowing the roll I've built on one big spin up. Perhaps best strategy for that is not logging on ;-)

Onwards and Upwards

2009-12-13T02:08:00.005Z

Bankroll is now up to just over £1k, around £900 profit since start of Nov. Still managed to only play NL50. Quite satisfying to build the BR from scratch rather than taking the option of just deposit a couple of grand that I had put in savings when I emptied my roll at end of last year. As I havent had much time Ive just been playing for fun as I know I cant put in volume to win huge amounts. Think not taking it as seriously has helped as havent tilted when things ran bad at points this week. Still boring down at NL50 so not really any exciting things to post.

With limited time think just going to keep seeing how much I can get up to in these shorter sessions. Plan was to try and get retaged at laddies in jan as will have 3 months inactive account on the site. If that gets through then I'll get back on there as been a while since I targetted 2 huges fishees on my list, think the names were check_lol and 666tuna,

Long overdue

2009-12-05T01:26:00.004Z

Been a ridiculously long time since updated blog, mainly because I just havent had the time to play a large volume of hands. Having a baby tends to have that affect as doing the old fashioned stay up till 3am doesnt work when you know at 7am you have a energy packed boy wanting to play

Therefore been playing shorter sessions here and there. After my last post I sacked off Laddies when they turned down my retag request for 5th time and took the smallish roll I had and banked/spent it. Didn't play for a month then decided to deposit £150 on will hill and set myself a $NL50 challenge to build a bankroll. That was 5 weeks ago, that £150 is now £900 and all profit is from $NL50. I haven't been using tracking software but think ive ran very well as haven't exactly played a huge amount of hands.

The only blip I had is when I got to the £600 mark, I got kinda bored and on a Friday night decided to whack the whole lot on a $5 $10 table (nice strategy after slowly building it up), sitting down with $988. I wasn't tilting though so played quite solid. Went down to $820, however then suffered a horrid bad luck story while still winning the pot. I have $820 and was dealt 10 10, I raised to $30 on button. BB pumped it up to $70 (he has $1.2k stack), I called. Flop was a beauty of 10 9 3 (2 spades). BB bet out $80, I raised to $220....... at this point he disconnects. On will hill some tables have disconnect protection, this table did and so his hand is classed as all in with the $150 he has put in so far. Cards are flipped and he has 99. I dodge the one out and win the pot. However gutted as would have definitely doubled up, as turn was a 2nd 3. The guy reconnects and starts moaning that he got cut off (dont even think hed realised he had lost the pot until someone else pointed out how lucky hed been to disconnect)

I sensibly logged off after that as felt tilt creep up and that pot got me back to the £600 mark, so no change after my higher stakes adventure

Anyway since then played a bit more $NL50, 6 table and HU, few small ups and downs but had one hot session where couldn't miss any O/E straight draws. Now upto £900 from initial £150 at start of Nov. Not bad but now I have money to play higher again so may not last. My only wish is that if I do it I want to do it when am feeling positive and not when tilting

Steady Away

2009-09-06T21:32:00.003Z

Got back to basics this weekend. Wife had a mate staying so I got to put in some hrs. Not hugely profitable but stuck to NL50 and over 3k hands. On Saturday I had a 5 buy in dowswing, mainly coolers or huge draws that I pushed and missed. Managed to stay at stakes and grind it back

Holdem manager really helping ID leaks in my game, working on a few today and think it will up my hourly rate. Huge one was playing too loose out of position, managed to fix that in todays session but not sure I have the discipline over long term. Also trying to 3 bet with a wider range which is working as my AA/KK are now getting paid off more than they were. Although I maybe picked a bad time to do that as my KK lost 3 all in pf pots over the weekend, one to AK, one to QQ and one to AA

Turned that daft ev tracker off my graph, it was just tilting me and theres so many hands it cant take into account plus I'm well down on ev over 12k hands so dont want too look at it anymore. Maybe im due to run golden, hope so!

Anyway about £100 up for month not incl rakeback, so same as last month, bankroll steadily going up, even if nothing spectacular.

Old Habits!!

2009-09-02T16:29:00.001Z

August ended as expected with about £500 profit, not bad for grinding at NL50, only the one blip where I tilted early in the month but nothing major. Uite please I showed myself I could play properly like the last few years where I was averaging £400 profit per month before my gambling at higher stakes took hold.

Played last night hoping to start Sep off with a bang. In hindsight I shouldn’t have really played as was quite tired plus a couple of things already had me in a tilty mood

1- Ladbrokes had again refused to re-tag me, I had tried to escalate the request through VIP club but got a reply back basically saying “no way”. I also looked on RTR and saw if I had been through them I would have had atleast $400 more rakeback- DOH

2- I was analysing HEM for Aug and happened to look at the EV stats which Id purposely not looked at much during the month as knew it had potential to tilt me. Over 13k of hands at NL50 I was missing 600euros, I knew Id been running quite bad in spot but that is crazy.

Neither of these things had me on tilt, but added together with fact I was tired I should have realised all it would take would be a couple of beats for them to all add up to TILT

Anyway decided to open up a couple of tables of NL100, within 30 mins Id lost 2 big pots, both about 300euro (as id built profit and were both vs another big stack) where I was all in on turn with 90% equity. It happens and in Aug I hadn’t let this type of thing affect me but after this I did start to play loose again. That was me about 200 down and after 3hrs of play of swingy play I was about 400euro down at NL100. The latter part through bad play

Old habits resurface and convince myself to gamble 150euros (basically all I had left from Aug profit) on NL400. There was an element of logic in the plan as had been watching a few tables and there were loads of short stackers basically pushing all in. Decided if I was lucky enough to get a hand it was easy quick cash. I also promised myself I wouldn’t gamble rest of the money that Id deposited in Aug, if I lost this gamble Id just start grinding again with that (is what I told myself!)

Anyway 3 hands in I loose 75 euros all in preflop to small stack with AK vs AJ who hit flush. I then double up pushing with A8h that is called by KJ. Back up to 150. Pick up a few blinds by pushing then about 15 mins later pick up AK, a guy raises early pos and I push, he folds. Very next hand I get AA, same guy raises, I push again and he insta calls with AQ , despite a scary looking KQJ flop I win. So theres about 170 of my cash back.

I then take that 170 and sit onto a NL600 table!! as same thing with 3 short stackers plus two normal full stack players. I sit patiently but don’t pick up much. One of the big stacks is bullying the short stacks every hand where someone limps and playing us all very well. I’m up to about 200euros from winning a few spots where I raised button. I then pick up J10h, I raise up to 18 (as it’s the only way to get involved as if I limp this guy just over raises us) and he doubles me. I decided to call which went against my “only play hands you can push preflop stretagy. Flop 2 4 10 (2 and 4 are diamonds). He bets 40 which looks like a standard C bet, I think of folding but then figure if I play J10 pf like I did I may aswell push my last 160 as he may have ak/aq/aj/99 down. He insta calls and I think im done. Another 10 on turn and blank river and I ship it. Think I have cracked an overpair but on the history I see he had 3 5 diamonds so had a o/e straight flush draw. He was actually 56% fav I think.

Anyway I’m not proud of the above as its terrible gambling poker which I really wanted to avoid doing. However I promised myself if I did slip back into old habbits I would write it up. Basically ended a break even night so can try and start fresh for Sep, perhaps grinding again, perhaps not!

Break Even

2009-08-29T10:05:00.002Z

Played Thu for about 4hrs, break even night that felt like profit after being down at one point. I played cack when down but at least I didnt run up the stakes like I felt like doing

Most of the damage done on one table, after my last post promising to keep away from brennan, I found myself sat on his table by accident after reg on all waiting lists. Decided to stay, this time it wasnt him that did the damage but another guy who later claimed to be drunk and normally a high roller (they all say that!). To be fair he wasnt bad at all he just hit a load of hands vs me, stuff like where Id hit a set on turn that would also make him flush, in effect a 1 outer that is only card that gets me in trouble etc etc

Then I had a hand that kinda tilted me, his betting pattern was such that if you fired flop and he liked to take it from you, if you called then hed really go for it on flop. I waited and got AA, raised he called, 885 flop, I bet he raises, I call knowing that with air he'd give up to a raise. Turn a 5 and as expected he fires, I call, pretty sure hes not got 5 or 8. Then a 9 comes, puts 3 to a flush plus poss straight and he bets all in, I talk myself into folding but get extra time to decide. He could have got lky on riv but after taking 90 secs extra decide to call, hit the call button and Ive disconnected, my bloddy virus scan had started and took me off internet. Maybe it saed me money, but no, apparently he showed 34 (no flush). More tilted by fact every time I had called him up to that point was behind , the one time I set him up and caught him I am ahead but stil cant win! Thankyou virus scan, cost me 110 euros ;-)

After that I did definitely play worse, played more hands etc. Was 4 buy ins down at that table, re grouped after 30 mins or so and eventually got everything back.

Off to play Aspers £75 deep stack tonight, mainly for the crack as I suspect I'll play my normal MTT style which is, sit and play tight, get blinded down after a few hrs, wait for AJ, push with less than 10 BB and go out. Actually its deep stack so should give time snd stack to play some speculative hands early so will try and see if I can build a stack, if not im sure it'll be fun anyway

Update

2009-08-27T12:41:00.003Z

I’ve continued to grind the last couple of weeks. Had a bit of a hiccup just after my last post where I was 4 tabling NL50 and had 2 or 3 sick pots simultaneously where I lost full buy ins to draws. That tilted me and affected my play for about half an hour where I lost another 150 or so away. I have to admit at that point I only had about £250 or so of my initial £500 deposit left and went up the stakes to double up. Promised I wouldn’t do it, but I did and got back to my initial £300 and started again. However managed to refocus and get back to grinding the next day and have rebuilt profit for the month. Ive ran bad a couple of times since and resisted chasing them as felt embarrassed by my inability to have discipline, hopefully that is truly lesson learnt, we’ll see!

Currently on course for about a £500 profit month which I’m quite happy with as my first month back grinding and dropping down to NL50. I still haven’t played a huge amount of hands, mainly when I can fit it in (when baby and Vicky are sleeping) so often at the expense of sleep.

Have also dropped about 100 to Brennan over the month, one intersting pot where I had QQ and not sure I should have stacked off, raised up pf which he called on the button, flop 589, I bet pot, he calls, turn 5 (which I thought was a good card as was a little worried about 89 or J10), I bet again he calls, river 3, I bet (as didn’t want to check and let the cheeky fella betting all in and stealing off me, only hand I thought he may have that beat me is 67 and don’t think he’d have slow rolled as not his style), he raises all in and I realise im probably behind but not much left to call, he flips over 56. nasty turn as think if it had been a 6 that he hit it would have slowed me down on 5689 board) Just goes to show no soft playing between friends which is great as I think if you sit at a table vs. someone you know you should play properly vs. them. However it’s still noted brengun and next time I bust you ;-)

Feel the NL50 are very easy to beat as long as I play consistent/focused…….. and stay away from brennan, who to be fair is the best player ive seen at the NL50 stakes so far. If I start getting over loose it goes pear shaped quickly. I have popped up to NL100 a couple of times, usually just one table alongside my NL50, in profit there a bit but not many hands so far.

On a down note, tried getting ladies to agree and retag me through RTR, tried aND promise them more play and no play if they didnt etc but it didn’t work. Makes me a bit sick to see the extra $ could be getting from RTR rake races. However in light of the recent BetonBet/Eurolinx collapse I won’t be changing sites. My brother in law whos a pro lost £16k of his roll which he had deposited on these sites when they went into liquidation, owing players about £5m overall (some people had their full rolls on the sites), sick and if you read the history something very dodgy has gone on, so I’ll be saying on mainstream sites even if I feel cheated out of extra rake that others are getting.

Small Steps

2009-08-16T23:44:00.002Z

Logged another small win tonight, was an ok session, started off running well, hitting a few big flops. Then gave a full buy in away when 4 bet with AKc, flop A 2 6, Guy bets so I raise, he pushes and I call, was fully expecting to be ahead but he had a6h. Fair play, Im behind when 80% chips go in. Looking back at hand I think mt 4 bet was slightly too small but I think he may have come along anyway. That put me about to evens

Was on a couple of good tables with one or two real fish callers. Unfortunately they hit vs me. Then I had about 35mins of pc issues where my virus scanner kicked in and I couldnt stop it. Stupidly tried to play on to catch these fishes but kept timing out. Really need to get a new pc soon!

Once I was back up and running I won a few pots, including one where im all in vs a 70% stack with 45 on J45 board. He also had flush draw but I held up, thats the ev evening out!

So far so good on my NL50 challenge, just over 4k hands for 220euro profit. Ran quite bad at the start but think real test will be when next bad run hits

MTT End game- How not to guide

2009-08-16T00:28:00.004Z

Played the Laddies MTT VIP Freerole tonight, 280 runners. I started off with intention of busting or getting a big stack right from the start. Doubled up within 5 hands mainly firing at flop and turns and ppl folding. Wasnt even really looking at my cards. Then lost a big chunk when raised with a10, flop A102 and im versus 10's. Left me with 600 chips. I then proceeded to push all in pretty much every hand, everyone was folding but I did get a treble up at one point where I had best of it going in

I actually had one run of about 20 all ins in a row not called, even had AA and KK in the middle. I then got caught with 37 vs aj but I hit, that put me on 7k. I then slowed down but was raising , just over raises not all ins. Started folding occasionally amazing how many chips you can pick up that way, got a guy all in with my ak vs his kj and it held, 12k in chips

I then started to play properly rather than reckless, although still aggressive, had a few nice spots and decent reads got up to 35k, top 2 in chips with 70 or so left.

This is when I reverted to timid boy again, should have carried on with aggression, my logic was to tighten right up as I had a horrible image, just wait for big hands and pick smaller stacks off. Decent plan but problem was I then went on a trash run of cards, in the next 100 mins I only had a few hands that were even slightly playable, just looked back at my HH's and only starting cards that stood out were 88, 66 and AQ in a full 100 mins of play. Anyway blinds were low so didn't affect me too much, still was top 6 when we reached top 30 cash.

Problem was my starting cards remained awful, this is where I played cack, money never really went up until last 9 so I should have used my stack to steal alot more, however had 2 "callers" to my left and so bottled it and decided to keep waiting for decent hands, they never came

Got chipped down to about 19k, pushed 2 times and took blinds to keep my about the average stack size, even then they were just with mid connectors. Down to last 20 and about 20k in chips, average about 30k. I let myself get blinded down and no decent cards hit me, at this point I just wanted to push, cards shouldn't have mattered but I had a run of 8 3, 2 6, 9 4. Plus ppl started raising b4 me so I ran out of options. Blinded down to 10k, feeling mad with myself for not changing gears, while still convincing myself I was due big cards

Classic example of how not to play end of MTT,

Eded up limping in sb in a 4 way pot with J6s, flop JKA, 2 spades, good enough for me, all in vs A10 that held.

Would have been great bankroll boost to get top 4, instead 14th, paid cacky 31euro (1st was 1k). Didnt deserve higher as after I had so much success with aggro style should have carried it on, instead tightened up and played the cards not the situation. Never mind, good MTT experience

Also ground out another 50euro proft at NL50, Bankroll on the increase need to keep focus as playing grinding style is def profitable at these stakes even if a little boring

So far so good

2009-08-15T02:22:00.002Z

Managed to keep grinding tonight, feels wiers playingthis many handss at NL50 after been gambling away hundreds ££ a time in recent months. However I definitely needed to start from scratch and get back to basics.

So far played over 3k hands for 170euro profit, running at about 6.5bb per 100, My ev did catch up today which helped as my all ins held when ahead. Still about 70euros short but it was like 200 yesterday.

Slightly dissapointed didnt make more as there were some awful players about but never managed to get hands vs them. One guy was playing 85 60 stats , I picked up QQ and figured they'd be good only to run into his kk. Even the loose players get dealy hands apparently ;-)

I'm happy to log these small profits as in the last few months if I logged any profit under 200 in a night it just got gambled in a spin up, its not as exciting but when you realise you have nursery fee's starting in 5 months and wife going to part time figured its time to get back to profitable play

Grinding...Plumber needed

2009-08-14T02:37:00.004Z

ok, so I started regrinding today, set up hold em manager (havent used tracking software since nov when deleted it in a huff with all things poker). Played just over 2k hands at NL50, Ending up with 50euro profit. Not great but I actually saw it as a big achievement as haven't played that low for that long for ages

Was also about 160 down at several points, normally id race up stakes to win back quickly but stuck with it tonight and won it all back at NL50. I always said id ignore ev graph but my curiosity got better on me, it actually tells me im short about 200euro, makes sense as I lost a lot of all in races, plus worst beat of night I was all in on turn with qj, on qq82 boards vs kk who hit his 2 outer. Im sure the ev will even out eventually

The tracking software has made me realise just how many leaks are in my game, especially for long term grinding. Felt I played ok in parts but awful in others. I know several areas that I ned to work on

Closest I cam to tilting, I was sat on brennans table, there were two really agro players, very loose and had both shown down with cack all but had big stacks from when they did hit. I tried to start 3 betting one of them but he called me down with 5 3, bottom pair which was better than my nothing. I then pick up ak and 3 bet again, he goes all in, I call and he actually had qq which holds, was annoyed with myself as could have waited for better situation than race. Anyway he left so focused on the other big stack loose agro player. Brennan had just doubled up on him when the guy pushed with air. next hand Im i sb with 69, he min raises, I call, didnt really think about it, just seemed cheap to hit big hand and he may be steaming, up until that hand id been folding sb 90% of time. I flop 66Q, he bets and I raise he calls, turn J spades putting 3 spades out, he insta pushes all in, I 100% believe he either has nothing or maybe j/q with one spade. I call but he has 7 2 flush. Again was bit mad with self and felt tilty at this point

However glad to say i cooled down, at that point i was 160 down and could have tilted more off chasing, but thankfully I stuck to grinding and got out of it......for now

Anyway will have a look at stats with view to start plugging some leaks, god im bad at poker these days, that's what happens when you don't take it seriously for a while

False starts

2009-08-12T10:33:00.005Z

Well since the car crash where I did about £2k over course of a saturday night and sunday afternoon I have really cut back on play. Have been playing cack all year and just leaking money. Havent wanted to deposit big chunks as that 2k was all I had in a back up bankroll that i'd put away at end of last year after a decent end to last year (never had intention of actually playing with it). Actually down for 2009 now after 3 previous years of solid profit. Just goes to show that you have to have respect for the game and play it properly. This year I've basically tried to win big and quick, hopefully lesson learnt.

Have only been depositing very small amounts lately. The odd £10-£20 when I fancy a tourne. Actually turned one £10 into £500. Did this by winning a $10 satellite into a $60 MTT, where I cashed for $250 (1st was $1.5k and I lost a monster pot in last 5 to go chip leader when my kk caught a guy with 85 pushing but he made straight). After that I Played HU NLH and 6 seat PLO properly and olidly and got that up to near $900. I then spotted a big fish (although that is also what I'd call me also this year) on betfair HU $1 $2 , just had to play him, he is so bad and Im sure very positive ev decision long term.

Ran horribly v's him, he's the type who just bets and once in pot doesnt give up, so if you hit hands you win big and he'll keep reloading. You just need disciplined hand selection and be prepared to trust your hand is good when you think it is and go with it. Unfortunately he ran well vs me (he hit very big hands vs my big hands) and I did most of that money. Dont regret it and id play him for as much money I had in my account any other day, sure I might bust but you got to take shot if you feel you truly have clear edge,

Since then been basically playing bits and bobs more for fun when get a bit of time. Apart from if i've had a few hrs spare where i've tried playing sats into MTT and qualified for a few.

Actually been deep in a few of these decent buy in MTT, think reason being that I have been playing with small amounts of cash think Ive tried harder, a few cashes but bit frustrating as keep just missing big money, my end game needs some work as dont move chips quick enough late on. Been trying to spin up whatever cash Ive won. Havent won big yet but been close a few times. Had quite a bit a fun without loosing this month, however still only just above even which is bad considering what can be made grinding properly

Tried grinding last night on .25 .50euro and .50 1$, played ok but I was very bored, im think of trying to make grinding exciting, maybe set self a challenge. I know grinding is the real way to make cash as thats what I did for 3 yrs. The way I have been treating the game will just leak money, I'm aiming to get focus back in Sep and the challenge may be starting at small stakes and build a bankroll the proper way like in the old days

Car Crash

2009-07-12T18:52:00.004Z

Even I saw it coming, lost an absolute load over the rest of the weekend. Played everything up to $5 $10 NLH & PLO, Plus 3 6eur on laddies. There was definitely a big risk of this happening. I cant really feel sorry for self but I can still dwell on the big pots I lost! Just looked back over last 2 sessions and all the big pots (which im counting as $750+) Ive had it in best most of the time, not everytime but majority, hands just havent held for me, to be fair ive usually only been in for 50-65% of buy in so the other player has been willing to gamble vs me,

$5 $10 table on BF summed up day, Lost 3 $1k pots, 2 when I had set vs flush draw who hit then the last one I had JQH on 10h kh 2 board vs kq and I missed the lot. That'll tech me playing higher stakes than I should be

Even tried a last gasp spin up on $2 $5 PLO to try and salvage something, got my $160 up to $360 twice only to loose two double up pots, both all in on flop, one with AAJX on J 8 4 (2diamonds) board vs AT36 (3 diamonds) and he hit d, very last pot me 10 10 9 2, vs 6647 on 10 5 6 board, he hit a 3. The other $160 buy in I lost on that table was to soap but he had me crushed, him 1010xx vs my A3QX on AT3Q board, so cant moan vs that one, I think 3 pair should be a set ;-) This really was a desperate last gasp as no idea what im doing in PLO, but atleast I pushed all in with best hand twice in my 2 big pos

May not play for a while as im incapable of playing at normal stakes and incapable of winning higher, bad combination! Did enjoy the gamble but horrible when you run slightly bad when cant afford to

Good Luck everyone

Mental

2009-07-11T01:53:00.004Z

Friday, late night is the only time I get to play these days, but I make the most of it. Logged on at 11pm tonight with only intention to play $5k GTD turbo on Betfair. Started well doubled up AK vs AQ. Won some smaller pots and was 5th with 25 left. Then got AA in sb, 2 limpers and button pushes, hes 3rd in chips so would give me chip lead by long way. him q9, 2 9's on flop and goodnight.......well not quite

Decided to try play a bit of $2 $5 cash with full buy ins, put my mind to playing properly and no looseness or tilting. I then proceeded to run horribly, recently ive played pap but thought i played ok tonight. Had cack stuff lie all in QQ vs j10 on 10 high flop who hit etc etc (vs half buy ins). Top set done by flush draw etc Suddenly im £600 down, easily done at those stakes.

Decided to risk another £600 on laddies, 2 half buy ins on 3 6 euro turbo tables. Started bad loosing £230ish through loose play, also as playing two tables hit flush on one by river, aggro guy bets 70euro, im thinking of how much to raise and time out (u only get 10 secs! doh) that was v annoying, but maybe he had higher flush ;-)

Anyway stuck with it, i never tilted, cards eventually hit me and won everything back, big pots with 78s, on 4 7 8 board vs jj and I filled up. Also KK vs AJ, who I played perfectly to entice all in shove pre flop (based on previous hands), was actually a ace on flop but with 2 kings. Another few decent size pots won and lost, end up logging off about £100 up for night

Its car crash poker, definitely not +ev in long term, it isnt pretty but fun to play, I just need a session where i run hot or lucky at the start and i'll make a fortune, but theres always that element of going bust that keeps it exciting!

Return to the tables

2009-06-21T00:51:00.006Z

Havent played much recently, tough to find the time with a new baby, played today and boy was I awful. Played all sorts of games, cash, MTT, ST, HU, all sorts of stakes. Was soon $700 down on laddies. Went onto betfair to play 11pm $5k crapshoot and nearly cashed but again I was poor. Some more cash and soon found myself down to my last $28 in betfair account and $900 down for night. Stuck the $28 on NL200, 1st hand all in with A10 which held, next hand all in with AJ which held and thus started a roll. Just came off with it span up to over $800.

Pretty mental, my only saving grace tonight was a maniac who would fire 3 pot bet bullets after flop no matter what, I was lucky to hit some hands vs him

Still ended up £50 down overal, but when it was £600 with about £17 before ending, it feels like a huge win. Especially when I played so bad.

Jackal23 will be on even more fish lists now ;-)

Frustrating

2009-06-04T23:35:00.004Z

Had a bit of time to play last 2 nights, tried a few multis. Got quite deep in 2 where 1st prizes were $13kish. Lost monster pots in each, one with AA vs JJ on a 7 8 2 board, hit J, then AK vs AQ on A 10 2 board, hit q. Very frustrating as played both for 3.5hrs and built up good stacks without ever being all in. Both pots would have put me top 3 in chips in both tournes.....never mind

Took cash profit from each and tried spin up. 3 hands in I get AK, 3 bet, flop 7 a k, all in vs 77 ;-), no profit to show from effort

Also played some normal cash, played quite spewy and wierd but managed a small profit

Championi

2009-05-25T17:21:00.003Z

Ok so I might have lost a huge chunk of my roll Friday on-line but forget all that as managed to win the Azz invitational home game on Sunday. Althought when taking into account rebuys (and there were a few!) I probably only made £20, however it was the presige that counts

Was a fun few hrs, the re buy period I think would have been even messier but Brennan managed to only re-buy once before then building a massive stack, after that it was left to me to be the donk re buying every few hands. Ben managed to only play 2 hands in the first hr, first of all spiking a set vs brennans top pair plus flush draw, then getting it all in vs me pre flop in another set up spot....... when I say set up he did have JJ and I did have J4d, I just wanted to be all in vs him, thinking id be live, I did hit a flush draw though but missed, hes such a luck box.

Brennan managed to take the biggest pot of rebuy period vs me (after id just doubled up), my AK no good vs his 10 6, it was a big pot pre flop then on a k 9 q flop it was all in, j on river, which I couldn't moan about the junk I was playing in rebuys. Think I re bought 5 times, all with junk. Anyway re buys went, Ben lost all his chips in one of the last hands of re buy period, only the 3rd hand he had played, but did have a straight flush draw, vs brennans top pair plus ace high flush draw.

After the rebuys it all tightened up, Azz went out early doors after Briggsy had took most of his chips calling down his bluff. I managed to knock ben out with 87 vs his 64 when he was short. Ian was knocked out 4th I think. Me Briggsy and Brennan then played for ages 3 handed. Lots of smaller pots, Briggsy definitely played the best, making some great lay downs and good calls. I managed not to go broke with AA vs Brennans 6 rag on 10 6 6 board but only as tyhe board ran out 4 to a straight at the end. Briggsy ended up short after about an hr and went out to me in a race.

Therefore left to me and Brennan heads up, pro vs amateur. Both had a mountain of chips and promised to be a long hu battle. First hand I pick up A3d and limp knowing he'd pop it up which he did. I then push all in and he calls...ooops, he had A10. However 2 4 5 board gives me the nuts. Hes down to hardly any chips and next few hands are all in blind pretty much.

Was a fun day, I know nobody cares about this long winded write up but I wanted to do it anyway to remind myself of a time I won at poker. Think Brigsy or Brennan may have deserved to win, it was probably the fact id spent a load in rebuys that made me determined to hang around at the end

Where is my higher stake get out of jail card?

2009-05-23T12:23:00.006Z

Done a load tonight, didn't really run bad either, think its been coming all week as been loosing at NL100 popping up the stakes and winning it back. Same thing happened tonight except when I popped up the stakes the cards didn't save me this time.

Lost just over a few buy ins at NL100 over a couple of hrs, main big pots were with QQ which lost a couple of all in pre flop races vs AK, plus another QQ which i bet3 bet pf, then bet on a 2 5 8 two heart flop, ace on turn which I ended up all in v's AKhearts, I could have got out on turn but carried on betting into him and shouldn't really have lost a full buy in. There were other pots but nothing I can moan about as it was all just standard stuff

Ventured up and played bits of NL200 and 400. This time I got what I deserved and cards never fell in my favour, couple of bigger pots I lost had Q10h vs A2h on a 3 heart board which also went 4 to a straight, also another decent size pot where had 810c on 9732 (2 clubs board) vs 99. Definitely cant moan when you get your money in vs the nuts!

Was also in a $20 $20k GTD rebuy that I went quite deep in, card hit me towards end of rebuy period, had my AA vs AK and a KK vs AK and had decent stack. However when blinds went up 3hrs in I didn't really step up at all just made school boy error of sitting and waited, eventually did try a 3 bet big raise with J10d vs a guy who'd been raising a folding to reraises but this time repopped and I was commited, he had QQ, I did hit a J plus flush draw on flop but failed to improve, so there was no recue act there either ;-)

Had some fun playing but expensive night of about £750, puts me a few hundred £ down for month but to be honest way ive been playing this year I'm suprised its not alot more! Never mind sun is shining its a long weekend and an exciting day of football tommorow, adios

Brennan, all is forgiven

2009-05-22T17:04:00.005Z

I used to wind Brennan up about going on about his knee all the time, what a short memory I had as when I was 18 I had misfortunate of having a pretty bad knee injury which ended up requiring surgery to fix cartlidge and ligaments. From then although it was better it used to reguarly "go" evvery 6 months or so, used to be so frustrating. Anyway had last 5 years of no breakdowns but on Monday night it went again playing 5 a side. Havent been able to see my kneecap since which is hidden under the mass of swelling. Brought back the frustration of years ago and now feel a connection to Brennan and his "knee updates" posts that we all like to mock!! Its nothing serious, just used to do this all the time, swell up, out of action until get get it down again then hopefully back into it. Im not going to go into any huge detail, its just fucked at the minute, thats the technical term!

Not played much poker this week so thought perfect time to post my one and only, no more from now, knee updates

Hoping our mate Azz has his home game as planned on Sunday, fancy throwing a few rebuys around and raising Benny boy at any opportunity, he'll fold everytime!

A win but not with style

2009-05-19T21:42:00.004Z

A winning session is a winning session I suppose, just logged a small profit but at one point was £300 down. The pathetic part is I was down at NL100 over 3hrs so moved up to NL200 and won £300+ in 30 mins. I haven't been beating NL100 at all this month, was just about breaking even on it before tonight (months profit came when upping the stakes last Thursday)

I think when I look back over last couple of yrs, its whenever I play more than 3 tables, I just don't have game for it, as soon as card run bad across a few tables my games goes really bad

Tonight I kept missing draws, getting check raised when I had nowt and people folding when I hit. It shouldn't wind me up but it did. Didn't really get any huge beats, ran KK into AA twice for full buy ins,

Mr Ben Holmes took just over a full buy in off me with 66 vs my 22 on 2 3 6 3 J (3 diamond board), although it was a cooler I even wasted $30 on this hand when pushing to his $35 river bet rather than just calling, was 90% certain he must have bigger house but the fact the 3rd diamond hit the river and he had just called me down all the way convinced me put him all in and thus donate another $30 to Benny boys roll, NH sir ;-)

Recovery and Responsible Gambling

2009-05-17T22:14:00.004Z

Over the weekend won most of the £350 I lost in my donk session on Thu. Stuck to NL100 and some NL50 HU + PLO. While it wasn't exciting at least it was profitable. Still didnt play that well to be honest just hit some hands that held and kept discipline when I did get some beats. Not rocket science, I think the problem with grinding is it seems so mechanical. Im 99% sure I know the right grinding strategy in terms of what hands and when to raise c bet etc, however I dont have discipline to do it over a session. So after a short while I start limping into more pots, min raising in some etc just to get a bit more exciting. They are definitely leaks and less profitable than standard grinding play but hey I get too see some flops and fold ;-).

Thats why I couldnt do it pro, you need that mental discipline, the likes of Brennan and my bro in law Richard have, to have a strategy and stick to it. I'm sure if you looked at all my stats via hold em manager and took each table/session seperately my game would be completely different on each depending on my mood/mind set that day, Id love to say it was dependant on the other players and sound like a genius but im afraid it differs depending on how I feel and has 0% to do with table selevtion, player observing etc!

If I had bigger cahooners I'd play higher and just see where it took me, im positive id be a long term looser on the cash tables NL600 and above but at the min the only time I venture up is when tilting so at an even bigger disadvantage. That logic is just twisted, only play higher when your playing really bad! Would be interesting to do it when in positive mindset, did a few times last year and made decent profit. Reason I don't......due to risk of running bad and blowing roll and not being able to play at all (=pathetically soft, just go for it you girl!)

For now i'll be sensible as a few hundred £ up for month (not spectacular at all) but also got decent rake to come. It all comes in handy as just bought big TV today, plus want loft conversion done and baby on way (which will be here inside 4 weeks definitely one way or another), therefore I should really gamble responsible (its not gambling its a skill game so just do it!)

Its official I am a Donk

2009-05-15T01:06:00.008Z

Strange but not unheard of night, played poor in a lot of parts, was grinding along on NL100 up and down but quite steeady, not playing great but then lost a few big buy in pots across 4 tables

AJ on j 2 5 j board all in turn full buy in vs j10 river hits 10

99 all in on 9 high flop Vs AA who hits A

AK all in vs AQ on AKQ flop, runner runner diamonds to mmake him flush

45 on k367 board, all in turn for 1.5 buy in pot, guy has kk hits 7

Then the normal happens, red mist, chasing, playing loose and moving up stakes. Always happens if im grinding and get a run of big pot bad beats quickly. Went to a NL200 HU table where was completely outclassed by a HU regular, lost 1.5 buy ins there. Won some back on NL200 6 seater.

Somehow ended up on NL600 and at one point was £700 down for night and had my current roll on one table. Lost a couple of pots but then doubled up all in pre flop with AK vs a blank j high board, thought that was me done but he had AQ.

Then moved down to NL400 and played for 90 mins or so,

Ended the night £350 down, could have been bust again. One of these nights happens every couple of months, I clearly cant grind over a long period, but hey its fun and exciting and I live to fight another day

All in all played crap, tilted, chased, went to high, complete donk!

Set up City

2009-05-10T23:16:00.003Z

Put in alot of hrs this weekend, definitely the most in 1 weekend session since I was playing big volumes in 2008. Was inconsistent in my play, in patches good in patches awful. Finished the weekend a little down but genuinely ran bad in parts, not all down to that though as definitely donated quite a bit playing loosely at times.

Tonights session was going great as I hit some big flops early. Looked like I was going to finish weekend on a high but just had KK run into AA 3 times inside 35 mins, pretty brutal, twice AI pre flop and once I saw a 226 flop and then pushed. Pretty sick as all either full buy ins or slightly more. Was logging off and unticked Post BB box on last two tables, last hands on both ended up with some action

1- Me Q10 clubs, raise pre on button, bb calls, flop 3 clubs, he bets, I raise he pushes, I call, him pair plus ace clubs and hits

this point Im fuming as on back of KK vs AA hands, then other table cheers me up with full buy in

me KK (scared at this point), I raise, 1 caller, flop k 2 6, I bet he calls, turn 9, we end up all in, him 99

Seemed like a good spot to log off

A lot of effort this weekend for no profit, Im not as good at grinding as I was in the past, but felt good to put alot of hrs in without risking my roll at any point!!! I tilted a couple of times but nothing major

Trying to tighten up my leaks, I know what the big ones are and suprisingly never tilted in tonights session, was also 4 tabling comfortably (in past when ive 4 tables it has often lead to meltdown when quick sussesion pot got against me) so some positives, also must have racked up some rake!

Pap

2009-05-09T01:43:00.004Z

Poker can be so frustrating!, came on for a shortish session at 7:30pm tonight, just logged off at 2:40am, only leaving desk for a couple of toilet breaks, I finished £10 up and it was the only time in the entire 7hrs that I was up, had been down from very first hand.

During the session I;

- Played pish poor in long spells, embarrisingly bad in periods

- Ran terribly in short bursts- I dont have EV tracker but I lost so many all ins when miles ahead

- Tilted after running badly in short burst (although never jumped the stakes like in the past.......slight lie as I did venture to NL200 for a bit but not like NL1000 in bankroll busting days)

- Played well in patches after calming down

- Reconfirmed I have a mental problem in stopping while loosing, cant seem to shake that habit. Meant to play for 2hrs max!

£10 for 7hrs! but like a few of the lads say......think of the rake!

Could do better

2009-05-04T17:06:00.005Z

Havent been able to play for a week or so but got in a couple of hrs today. Am back up to NL100 since my good run a couple of weeks ago boosted my roll. My criminal error is to still not have the tracking software on since deleting pokertracker last year in a tilt induced strop. Keep meaning to register hold em manager.

My mate Ben spotted huge leaks in my game when I was sat at his table last week, he confirmed what I sort of knew but hadn't admitted to myself yet, I was playing CACK! Its been good enough to beat NL50 but will definitely loose on NL100. Basically since going busto my game has gone to pot, limping in too many pots, giving up on flop and generally too loose-weak.

Therefore as of 10 days ago I decided to try and get back to basics, back to tight aggressive old ways. Last session last week id ran really hot so couldn't judge if I was playing better as everything played itself. Today was pretty similar, I hit alot of good hands. My main test will come in normal sessions, however at the moment enjoying boosting roll a bit more.

Today hit a run of hands early, think I played some of them badly and didnt get as much as I should have, I should have bet out a couple of times when hit sets but didn't. Main pot I won I wasnt even sure I was winning, had JJ, vs a guy who's 3 bet pre, flop was 9 high 2 spades, he bet 3/4 pot and I pushed all in, no insight to why, it was just a AI or fold move, luckily he had 10 10 and doubled me up. Wasn't happy with how id played it but happy with pot that got me going

Biggest pot of the day I lost but got lucky to win small side pot, unfortunally 3rd best hand (when all in) won main pot. Basically sat with $110, AA, one guy bets $4, 1 caller, I pop it to $14. Flop 2 3 8 two diamonds. First guy bets 3/4 pot, other calls. I just push, bigger stack pushes all in (ooops) and other guy calls (he has $85), turn ace (wohoo), river diamond (boo), big stack has 88 so I robbed him for side but, smaller stack 6 9d takes the $250ish main pot. Cant moan but a blank river would have put cherry on a good session.

So NL100 has started well, but think ive ran real good, still think my game isnt great. Ben outplayed me on one table today, kept 3 betting me and I kept folding! Although I did play a little better and limped into fewer pots, in the main when I was VPIP I was raising, more like the good old days! Although still a load of leaks to fill.

War, Dogs, Beer and Casino

2009-04-25T09:43:00.002Z

Off Paintballing today for stag do, the smart money is on me spitting my dummy out after 1 hr in pain. Then off to the Dogs, hopefully I run similar to last night, I usually run like adam king in a race at the dogs so fingers crossed that holds

Been thinking more about the folding set last night, agree with Bens post that hardly ever fold a set on that board, just looking at the hand history Id get it all in for sure every time, however at the time I really felt this particular guy had it, against any random Im all in everytime. Promised myself Id trust reads a while ago when ive gone with stuff even though im sure im beat. So guess I need to be content (so why am I still going on about it!) Right i'll shut up now

May see the boys at the Casino later, Brennan behave yourself, I was told about your antics pre thialand, brightened up my Friday that story!

I run like Ben Holmes

2009-04-24T20:59:00.004Z

Sat down tonight with a long session in mind but have just logged off after 75 mins 2 tabling NL$100 after running sickly hot for first hour, hands played themselves and it was always in my favour.

Within first 10 mins id hit 3 sets, that housed up and were vs straights, one vs a full buy in and two vs between 50% 75% stacks. Also hit straight vs overpair with 46 sooted, plus quite a few other pots where I hit hard vs other decent hands. Didnt play well, they just played themselves.

Reason for logging off was a cowardly (or smart one), had a few pots go against me in last half hour, 2 buy ins lost. First one had Q10d on 10 j 2 (two diamonds) board, betting into a guy, K d hit river and he had Ace high flush, also me 10 9 on 9 8 7 2 6 board vs 10 j.

Felt the tide was turning and was happy to stop with my biggest one session profit for since I went busto earlier this year.

Folded a set on one of my last hands, had potential to be my biggest pot of the night. Convinced it was right decision at the time but still cant help feeling I left money on the table. Me 44 in a 5 way limped pot. flop 3 4 7 (two spades). Blinds check, First limper bets pot, I raise and BB re-raises. Hes been at my table all session and a few sessions before. He rarely looses a showdown hand and is very tight, his raise isn't huge and I call (think I should raise here but im already thinking he has 56). Turn is 2 and he bets 3/4 pot. He started hand with about $150 to my $350 (NL100). I really think it long and hard, I'm either commiting to it by putting him all in or folding. I fold after letting my extra 2 mins run and now that decision is killing me. Maybe I left a $300 pot out there to add to my hot streak. I went with my gut and read but he never showed and I hate the uncertainty not knowing if he had a raggy 2 pair or a 7 with flush draw! If he hadnt been in the blinds I'd have gone for it as I dont think he plays 56 (generally has big cards when volantry enter the pot). Think I should have just went for it on flop, maybe id have housed up on river anyway. Who knows, maybe Im just a pu55y!, Ive told myself so many times to go with my read so guess just need to be happy I made a decision (trying to convince myself here, but bet I get a load of abuse for that fold). Last week when I folded a similar hand vs a over set (also detailed on blog) atleast he had the decency to show me the nuts and feed my ego!

Anyway decided may aswell log off for a bit as cant run as hot as I did for that much longer! Wish poker was always that easy

Baby Spin up?

2009-04-22T22:04:00.003Z

Play a little more tonight, won a bit back from earlier weeks losses, still grinding away so nothing exciting unfortunately.

Baby is due in 5 weeks, Im guessing my time to play will be very limited (and he could come anytime). Therefore maybe I should whack all my roll that ive carefully built up over last couple of months onto 2 tables on NL1000 soon and just see if I can spin it up, that would atleast be woth a decent post. I played with idea tonight but reasoned with myself that if it went wrong I'd kick myself with no roll to play with till the time comes

Grinding doesnt lend itself well to exciting blogging!

Nutttttzzzzz ..... I call

2009-04-19T22:32:00.002Z

Frustating weekend of play, 2 long sessions, ended up down overall. Played awfully in parts but ran like a dog also. Was close to full blown tilt several times but managed to hold it together to avoid blowing roll! Same old problem emerges when I grind for long period and hit a bad run, although this time I managed to control it better and never once chased it up the stakes, which is progress!!

Most frustrating parts were when times I'd build up a horrible image by tilty play but then calmed down and managed to get players stacking off vs me when they were down to between 2-6 outs. So many rivers hit, definitely made the pulse rate rise and tilt monster raise his head a bit more than he should! Think if id ran well I'd have been several hundred £ up but instead have to make do with a couple of hundred down. To be honest I have thrown quite a bit away (if you ever see me min raising every pot you know im tilting! its such a girly way tto tilt!!)

After a decent run a couple of weeks ago cant moan too much, aslast 4 session have been kind of brutal so should be due a decent spell!

One pot actually turned the night around a bit for me tonight even though I lost it also. I raised up with AA, 1 caller. A 6 9 flop 2 diamonds. I bet 3/4 pot he calls. 5 turn no diamond. I fire pot bet, bit worried about 78 but im not folding as at this stage I was already a few beats down (but had started this pot with over full buy in vs other big stack). Riv was a blank queen. Only hand that beats me is 78. I fire a river bet and he calls, flips over 78, the nuts, Leaves me with $60. Thank you sir!!!, I ask him why he only called with nuts, he says he never had nuts! (COCO alert) That calmed my tilting down and played better after as I know id have pushed on the river to any raise at that stage!

Just come off as lost my last $60 on one table after raising with AQ, flop AQ2, get it all in vs the caller who hasd ak and river hits him, grrrrr. Deciding to call it a night and wait for my next golden spell

Queens my Ass

2009-04-13T17:59:00.002Z

Im not happy with QQ today, lost 3 decent size pots, two when top set the other vs a top pair (J). Think I played the top set hands ok, to be fair the other player had decent draws, my bet sizes were about right (although on one pot maybe not, he had a wierd draw that I didnt pick up on a maybe my bet sizes were alittle too small as felt I had such a strong hand), they both got there on the river, the hand vs AJ on J high board tilted me a little which is why I've come on here to moan!

Im going to log off while a little down, havent done that in a while as usually try to stay on until evens or a lot more down!

Also there was a guy on the tables called Benos, absolutely cack, for a while I thought it was a wierd mixture of Ben and Brenos just playing a dummy account just to annoy me ;-), he was any 2 cards, especially if sooted. Unfortunately never got a big pot vs him, always next time!

Where was my double up Benny Boy?

2009-04-12T21:54:00.003Z

Have managed to log more time than I was expecting at the in laws this weekend. Had one more session tonight, played 2 tables of NL50 and one of NL100. Was really tight on the 100 table and played like a spaz on NL50, far too loose. Was quickly 2.5 buy ins down on NL50, calling a couple of all ins with draws but not the odds, deservedly missed

Realised Mr Holmes was on my NL100 table, so kept away from that shark. We managed not to tangle, but as I was playing so tight he'd have probably run a mile if I'd have got into a big pot. Ended that table 25 euros up

Refocused on my NL50 tables as now had a terrible image so kept raising, the hands eventually came and started to build up decent stacks. Ended with a flurry of hands that I was paid off on. Kind of like Brannan put on his blog about like playing a few pots bad early to get paid off later. However this wasnt an intentional tactic I just was playing awful early on. Ended up session about $160 up. Definitely have roll for NL100 now (as I dont tend to play lots of tables). After having min £2k in my account for so long over last couple of years (then blowing it quickly) it been a experience getting it back up to £1k from nothing, it has been tough but got there eventually

In the Zone

2009-04-11T10:53:00.003Z

Had chance to play for 90 mins this morning, best ive played for ages, apart from the fact I did play a little heads up vs a player who I knew was better than me after 10 hands, but competitive streak kept me at table, another leak to plug

On the 6 seaters played well, it was probably just luck but everytime I was in a big hand I put the other guy on a an excact hand and made a few big calls that were right, also one big fold with a set vs a guy Ive playwed a few times recently, board was A Q 6 7 with me 77, hed checked flop (after 3 betting pre which he only does with AA, KK, QQ as far as ive seen, then reraised me big on turn, no way he does that with KK (he has a pretty set betting pattern and nearly always has best hand in big pots hes in) so I could only put him on AA QQ, never normally fold in this spot, but went with my gut and folded and he showed QQ, that felt like a double up on its own. Although it did still take me running my extra time right down as couldnt bring myself to fold, it feels good when you do make right call!

Think it was just one of those sessions where you convince self you are great but next time every gut feeling will probably be wrong! Still was only about a $100 profit as I lost a bit with my stupid hu session (so im not that great as the right call there was coming off after 10 hands). Still bankroll is increasing nicely and should move up to NL100 soon

EDIT: also played for 45 mins a bit later, only one table and played a bit cack (as was just doing it while watching tv seeing if I could get dealt any hands, wasnt really pushing anything and wasnt looking to play a lot of hands), made a bit of cash but made some dubious looking calls (that I felt were right on river), but as soon as I left the table i had 3 buddy invites from randoms, just goes to show what an image you can get even from a short session. I will accept these inviteds and let them come and get me

Bumbing

2009-04-10T01:38:00.003Z

Apologies in last post where Ben rightly pointed out I'd used the word bumbed vs bumped (twice), its edited now. All I can put it down to is the thought of Brennan and Brigsy together and bumbing comes to mind...............

Ran badly tonight, cant moan too much as first time in about 7 sessions. Was down $270 at one point but ground my way back to only finish $60 down. First hour was terrible, had AA done twice on big all in pots once with nuts set that lost to another ace with q who hit runner runner straight and one AA vs top pair on flop who hit his 2nd pair. Also had kk done by a 2 outer jj on 9 igh board. Thesee pots tend to come in quick succession but for once I didnt tilt. Overall played decent if not spectacular.

Cant play much more at weekend, pity as there seemed to be loose players about. I cant believe I'm still at NL50, very disciplined! pat on the back and goodnight

Cant think of a title

2009-04-08T18:05:00.006Z

Havent been able to log much time so far in April, work been pretty busy plus was out at the weekend so didnt get chance for a Fri or Sat night session. Good to see the boys back from Thailand, bumped into a few of the lads in the toon on Saturday. However for a man like Brennan who chooses his tables so carefully the venue we bumped into them was definitely -EV. Also from what I heard Azz had definitely had to reload.

On the poker side the 1 session I have managed so far in Apr was a winning one, managed to stay at NL50 again and log a $200 profit. Favourite pot of the night was a double suck out, me 67s had raised on button 1 caller, flop 66K. Guy bet out at me (very solid player who only seemed to play top range hands) so I raised him 3/4 pot bet. He called and a k hit turn. Hated this as with no draws on flop Im pretty sure he had the k after calling my raise on flop and it went check check. Beauty of a 6 on the riv and he bets, I push all in and he insta calls with AK. I honestly have no idea if id have called his river bet with a blank last card, I like to think not but one leak in my game at NL50 is calling on the end even when sure beat as it doesnt feel like much cash. Need to plug that.

Anyway seem to be running pretty well, pity im at micro stakes and with no time! Brennan asked on my last post if im using tracking software.....

I was on Poker Tracker until Jan when I got the hump after busting my load and deleted EVERYTHING poker related off my pc. I reloaded poker software within 1 day (obviously) but have not yet got back with poker tracking. I know I should and keep meaning to load up holdem manager. Now Ive won a bit back think I'll sign up as I am playing pretty blind at the moment but on the positive side it has made me concentrate!

Lucky 7

2009-03-31T21:25:00.003Z

Decent end to the month with 7 winning sessions in a row after having my worse ever run, didnt keep track but think I had about 17 out of 20ish loosing session at one point (at higher stakes than my recent good run). At that point it felt id never win at poker again, amazing what a few small winning sessions do for your mentality

When I see some guys (brennan, my brother in law) playing professionally I dont know how they do it. On my bad run I was clearly running bad but my mentality made it far worse. If I had been doing it for a living it would have been even worse! Poker feels easy when you are running well, as normal its the bad times that test me and I'm not up to it at certain stakes. The positive about going bust is it got me back to basics and have ended Feb about £400 up (was down £600 at one point). Still down for the year after the Jan busto meltdown.

Atleast I dont tilt so much at NL50. I clearly beat NL100 & 200 over last 3 years but when I run bad I loose more than I should. However with Febs small profit and rake back etc I will be nearing the bankroll to play NL100 again. Its been a grind getting back up but is also a sense of achievement rather than dipping into savings where a lot of last years winnings went

Busting the bankroll is horrible and hopefully I dont do it again for a long time............ its probably even money that I do it again next month but am going to try real hard not to!!

Grinding

2009-03-28T18:13:00.003Z

Been a few weeks since my last post. I was having trouble getting a bankroll started and was really trying to do it with spin ups. Was breaking even and getting frustrated so decided to do it properly and get my head down to some NL50 grinding. Apart from the copuple of short sessions in Jan when I was bust havent really played NL50 in a LONG time (if ever actually as I started at NL100 I think). Anyway needed to get some pattern and discipline back. Grinded for last 2 weeks, only time I ventured up stakes was to NL100 to follow a fish so been happy with discipline.

Anyway I've managed to grind up a bankroll and am now in decent profit for the month. Played between Betfair and Laddies but going to stick with laddies as Betfair has had major connection issues.

Also bought a car this month plus baby is getting closer which means big £ on baby stuff, they were reasons for cash flow issues and the need to grind! However has done me good and feel I'm back to basics. Tilted once or twice but nothing major. Think i've run pretty well also but now should be able to have a proper month in April as have a decent Bankroll again. Will play between NL50 100 and see how it goes

Slowrolled in $6 pot

2009-02-22T01:34:00.002Z

Since last post played several sessions without gambling too much cash, been depositing £100-£200 and playing STT/MTT and a bit of HU cash to see if I can get any run or confidence going. Well its been truly boring hence no updates. Either been loosing at start and grinding back to evens or starting well and then coming back down to evens by bad play or bad luck. Cant seem to get a decent run going.

Thought last night was going to be turning point. Entered a couple of MTT with 150+ runners and went deep. However lost a race in one when just in money to put me 3rd in chips and lost in other just out side bubble when my top two done by straight draw plus gut shot. Took the cash and played a STT which I won which left me about $150 up for night. Decided to try and spin it up. Got it up to $300 and was dealt AA, reraised a guy pre flop and saw a q high flop, all in him qq, ouch. Back to evens. Thats the story of Feb. I have ran bad at times but tbh I am playing poorly, Confidence is zero which is why im not playing proper NL100/200 cash as normal as I can feel it will end in tears

Well, the title of the blog is from tonight. Ive been playing $25 STT all night, about 20 in total and have been a bit up a bit down and even...zzzzzz snoozfest. About evens andl I was playing my last $25 tourne and withdrew the rest of my cash as my play was getting worse. Accidently left $1 in my account so while playing went for a $1 spin up challenge. Min deposited on NL10 and doubled up. Put the $2 in NL20 and got up to $3. Few hands in I get dealt an ace, bet $1. Flop q33, Check to me and I push, the guy thinks for ages, Im ready to collect and be upto $4+ he calls at last second with 33, QUADS. Slowrolled on NL20......Even those guys are taking the piiiiissssss out of me ;-). Funny part was that soap had just got in after night out and started giving the guy a load of shit on observer chat, a fun end to the night

Thank F**k it wasnt high stakes

2009-01-25T01:40:00.003Z

Pre warning- this post will contain more moaning, but will end on positive note.

Went back on tonight to try and build on earlier profit. Last week was awful and a mixture of bad beats, bad spots, bad play and terrible roll management. Well tonight was just pure shafting time. Stuck to NL50, didnt tilt, played best I have done for ages but the poker gods well and truly had it in for me. Idea was to play small ball poker again but had about 6 full buy in all in pots within 1st hr. Atleast I felt I played them all well.

Me 45 on A23 rainbow flop (unraised preflop im in blind). End up all inon flop vs 22 and board pairs up

Me KK on 10 2 4 board (vs known fish who called me 3 bet pre flop), all in him K10- 10 river

Me AA vs KK pre flop all in, king trips up

Me 67 on 458 board, vs 2 other all ins on flop, both have flush draws and hit

Me 77 on 9 7 4 board vs kk who hits runner runner flush with his 1 heart

Me qq on qjj board vs kj and j hits ;-(

I did win a few pots in between but was $140 down since depositing this morning so nearly $300 down on the night session. Battled back and ended up $10 up since depositing. Was happy I didnt tilt, although was very close as all the above happened in a 45min spell across 4 tables

Im due to run golden, rakeback due next week, liverpool will smash everton tommorow, good ridance last week ;-)

Got to start somewhere

2009-01-24T16:39:00.002Z

Ok the strength of Friday night didnt last. Deposited and took brennans advice and 4 tabled at NL50. Havent played NL50 for a long time but without a roll cant be fussy.

Played for about 2 hrs, ran pretty well and hit a few hands early on which settled me in. Not sure what other players had as they mucked (in showdown hands), anyone know if you can see a mucked hand on big slick? Just tried to play small ball and be patient but aggressive when i did play. Worked well but as I say I did hit hands. Finished the session about $140 up. Maybe the start of a bank roll builder......... hard to motivate self when just over a week ago had a roll of $2000 but what doesnt kill us!

Could have been better as had AA done at end when 80%fav when all in, however cant moan as my other hands held up in the session. Still dont think played great but had to start somewhere. The test at this level would be if it ran bad but we will see.......

No Play Friday

2009-01-24T15:12:00.002Z

Must be the first time in months that when ive stayed in on a Friday I havent played poker, but I was sssoooo tempted. Was close to putting a few hundred £ in and having a game. However resisted as want to wait until have the mind set to deposit and grind, rather than spin up as would have done last night.

Boring post, hopefully will be back in the seat soon

They thought it was all over........

2009-01-22T18:53:00.002Z

Realised last night that I still had a bit of cash left in betfair account, surprising bonus, enough for 3 buy ins at NL100, I could have dropped lower but to be honest at the stage where I cant see myself putting in tons of hours in next few week so just transferred it to big slick and played 3 tables

Was thinking this could be a great story in thinking BR was bust but finding a bit in old site and spinning it back up, In any case, surely the week couldn’t get much worse, done majority of my roll, dirty Everton sneaking a last min equaliser, man u and chelsea sneaking last min winners, this was going to be the turning point

Started really well, early on I am in bb and 2 limps, I check 10 7 off, flop 10 10 4, I bet out, one raiser, I call, turn is 7. NUTS. I check, he bets out and I pile in, thinking if he has a 10 he’s doubling me up. Sure enough he calls….. with AA!, not only did he limp but he then lost his full buy in. Brilliant! This is surely a turning point

Very next hand on same table, sat with $200, another big stack, raises, I call with 88, flop is 8 3 2. I bet out again, he raises, im hoping he has an overpair. We get it all in, him AA, hits A on river and my double up became 1 buy in down! That was pretty sick but we have all been there, cant moan too much just was painful that happened quickly after a double up that made had me feel a lot better plus it was vs another guy who had a double stack

I didn’t tilt, or at least I didn’t feel I tilted, it wasn’t huge money and I felt pretty calm, however only played for another 45 mins until busted. 2 big pots did the damage, I have Aks, one raiser, I re-raise him, he calls, flop kk2. I had a aggressive image on this table as Id raised pre flop lots, mainly had hands but think people were suspecting I was a maniac so perfect flop for me. We end up all in and he has 22!, at least it wasn’t a bad beat just a bad spot, im never folding in a cash game in that spot with only two hands (k2, 22) that beat me and k2 being hugely unlikely.. Majority of buy in gone

On other table im dealt KK and run into AA, I kind of knew as all the action was pre flop but couldn’t bring myself to fold. Again just bad spot vs bad beat. It left me with $60 between 2 tables so came off and put it on one, that went when turned a straight, vs a top pair + flush draw who hit, again not a horrendous beat.

Ive had better weeks. Im at that stage where don’t know if im just running bad (a few beats and a few bad situations) or if I am also playing terrible. Obviously above focuses on main pots I lost, I think the in between pots I didn’t play that great, not terribly but I know I can play better.

Busto

2009-01-18T00:17:00.002Z

Well had another session today, played deliberately higher as knew I couldnt focus on NL100 or 200. Played NL400 on big slick. Played ok in parts but never great. However did run bad also, lost a few big pots all in on turn or flop, one I had 45s on 2 3 j 8 board (3 spades) and a guy makes a play with 99 one spade which hits on riv ($450 pot), other pot me ak vs ultra aggressive player on a 7 9 board, him a4 which hit ($560 pot) ;-(, most frustrating pot of night was actuall a split, me A7d him 73 on 776j (two d) and 6 hit river, that was actually $1000 pot which stung to only get half

The above was the running bad part but also were parts I didnt play well at all, I really think my game has actually got worse in last 8 months, I was a pretty solid player,worst thing that happened to me was running really well in Mar-May last year when made nearly £5k in 3 months, ever since then I have no long term patience, ive tried to get back to normal game which came a bit back in Nov/Dec but just hasnt happened to be honest which is my own fault.

Thats my roll done in 2 days, what a muppet, terrible BR management. rest of my roll went in savings last year, going to resist temptation to withdraw from there as think my game is cack at moment. May wait for rake back and punish myself with micro stakes! In any case with loss this month it takes may career profit down to £10k which seems a good place to stop for a while!

Wish I had the BR management that had for first 2 years I played, Brennan and Ben definitely have it and think they will make a fortune this year, maybe I'll just become thier full time supporters to get my poker fix ;-)

Short and Unsweet

2009-01-17T05:48:00.004Z

LOL, My new focus didnt even last a day. Grinded for a few hrs on NL100 tonight, was going ok but made a couple of basic mistakes to loose a couple of buy ins. Kept focussed and grinded back to evens, then got a couple of 2 outers and the bad old habit of going up the stakes hit me again. Im so weak!! Played some NL500 and NL1000, played quite tight, didnt tilt but ended up doing a load. One big pot was my own mistake overplaying top pair but a couple of others was quite unlucky, got all in with ak on k26k board vs qq which hit on riv, then all in with ajs on j 4 6 (2 spades) board vs k10s and he hit king ;-( Cant moan too much as shouldnt have been at those stakes

I seem to have a really big problem in that I cant stay at NL100/200 for any length of time before getting bored. May take a break to refocus! so mucg for a solid start to year , ive already broke one of my own promises lol

I'm Back

2009-01-16T17:06:00.001Z

Ok so I’ve been completely useless at this bluff stuff, I managed to make 8 posts and then zero for 11 months. My mate Ben has just started a blog and was encouraging me to start mine back up and I enjoy reading his Brennans and Soaps blogs so here goes, …

2008 as a whole was positive on the poker front. I ended £4000 up, building on the £3000 profit made in 2006. Since 2005 I’ve made between 20-30% more as a whole each year. However 2008 should have been a lot better, I made a flying start to the first 6 months and was up around £6000 at one point. Id got up to playing $2 $5 quite comfortably but to be honest wasn’t playing with enough of a roll behind me. I was also playing the occasional $5 $10, biggest pot I won was $2200 and biggest lost was $3000 (AA all in pre flop). To be honest the year was very swingy (i.e. winning and loosing £2k per month) versus previous years of consistently small profit. I sorted myself out by November and dropped back down to $1 $2 and started grinding like I should.

With the £ dropping in value I’ve also started playing more NL100, reason being that I took quite a bit of profit out of my roll and have left myself a set roll with the promise of no silly higher stakes session this year (see how long will last). Tilt remains my biggest issue, can’t believe I still haven’t cracked it. Still been playing Betfair but am changing to Bigslick this month to try and have a fresh start.

So far Jan has been ok and am about $580 up mainly from NL100, however not had time to play as many hands as id like. Ive still had massive temptation to play higher i.e. NL500 but so far resisted this to date in 2009. I’m going to try and keep the blog up to date as to help my control and hopefully keep me focussed. Work has been pretty busy last 6 months but hopefully will still find time to play equivalent hands to last year.

Some top line aims

- Make at least £5k from poker
- Dedicated some time to MTT and try to end the year in some profit
- Play more PLO (NL50)
- Minimise Tilt, ensure I write honestly on blog if I do tilt
- Try and qualify for a live MTT via a online sat

More Lessons Learnt

2007-02-12T13:29:00.000Z

I was away this weekend so no long sessions. However played the night before I left and seems I spoke too soon about the record start to the month. I had a nightmare. Played mainly cash but also two multi tables, mixture of horrid luck and awful play resulted in a really bad night.

Multi table’s - Entered two $55 MT and picked up some decent hands early on. However went out of both in the mid stages by making two almost identical amateur mistakes. Both times involved me hitting a hand and slow playing it. The best example on my second MT. Blinds were at 100 200. I had KQ on the bb. There were 4 limpers, also the sb limped and I checked. Already 1200 in the middle, I had about 3.6k. Flop was a lovely 2 K Q , Rainbow. I checked the flop when I definitely should have bet. I figured that there were 4 more people to act and one must had a K or a Q and would fire out a bet. Instead it checked all the way round. The turn is a 8 so not too bad as none with i.e. J10 AJ etc has hit a straight. The small blind now bets 400 and I raise, everyone else folds and the sb pushes in. It seems a good chance to double up as he could have anything on sb i.e. q 8, k8, k2, q2 etc, a lot of hands that my 2 pair beat. He could also have a king and was also trying to check raise from sb on flop. In the end I call and he has 88 and I am out. Great example of always betting flop in a multi way pot if you think your ahead. It was big enough to take the 1200. Even if I get a caller I get info i.e. straight draw, 1 pair etc, by checking I let a lot of potential hands hit i.e. straight draw , pocket pair etc. My first instincts were to feel unlucky at being hit by a 2 outer but it was definitely my fault, a huge error, one I will try hard not to make in MTT again. I was frustrated with myself as I know a lot better than that!

Cash- This was just a train wreck all night. I had a couple of horrible situations early on, its those types of situations where you don’t feel you played bad but that the situation shafted you. Good example, I had QJspades. I raise on big blind to $4, the sb calls. Flop is great, Q 4 8, the 4 and 8 are spades. I bet the pot which is around $10. The sb calls (after his initial check). I now put him either on a straight draw, flush draw or maybe second pair (from my notes I think he’d raise with top pair. The turn is a J, so I have top 2 pair and flush draw. I bet $17 now, im a bit worried he could have 9 10 but hope that this bet will let me find out. He just calls, now I really put him on a flush draw or a trappy straight. I think he’d have given up on a pair now. The turn is a spade, think a 3. He now bets all in $68. This is tough, ive made my q high flush, however theres a range of hands I have him murdered with, he could have hit straight on turn and doesn’t put me on flush as ive been betting since pre flop, he could have trips, he could have a smaller flush. He could also have not much but figures he played it like a draw and the 3rd spade scares me. The two hands that beat me are ace and king high flush. As he was on sb he could have any of these hands so I definitely call as I beat the majority of them. To my horror he has AKs, he never raised or reraised pre flop. It worked perfect for him. He made a loose call on flop but guess he figured his A and K were good as well as draw. I don’t think I did too much wrong but the cards fell perfect for him.

I also got a couple more similar to this where I was done on a river. After that although I didn’t full on tilt my game went down hill. I played too loose, made several calls I shouldn’t chasing draws and pretty much played badly. I was due a run of not great cards ad the start of the session I had these 3 situations that cost me $130ish, there was no need to tilt but im afraid I did to an extent, rather than play solid and win it back. It s not like I got horrendous beats either, just bad situations where I had to loose money. I could have dome off at that stage but I carried on and lost more through poor play. The only thing I’m proud of is that I wanted to move up stakes and chase losses but I stopped myself doing it.

In total I ended up around $500 down for night, if I hadn’t played so bad on multi’s and then hadn’t semi tilted after some beats on cash I reckon I should have limited this to $200 at most. It just shows how quickly it can turn around in this game and how much I have to learn. Still $600 up for month but time is limited to play at the moment.

Record start to a month

2007-02-06T22:18:00.000Z

This is by far the best start ive had to the month. Played cash again tonight for a few hours and made $360. Im getting the occasional bad beat but for the most part my hands are holding up. I also seem to be finding loose players who like to call ;-)

Trying not to kid myself though as ive been through these good patches before and they are usually followed by a tougher patch. I think I heard Gus Hansen on TV last night say, 'your never as good as you look when winning and never as bad as you seem when loosing'. Thats defintely true, In December I suddenly thought i was better and made the mistake of playing above my means. I am happyn at .50 $1 at the minute and so far $1100 (about £550) up for Feb from 4 days play.

I have been watching my mate 'soap' Suddes on higher stakes, mainly $200 6 pacs where he has had a great run. Watched him win three on the bounce and make nearly $2k in under 2 hrs. It was exciting and made me want to jump up the stakes. He plays a variety of games such as NL, FL, MTT and STT where as I stay mainly on cash and the occasional MTT. I think I do need to add some variation to my play and next month I may try dabbling in FL. Watching him on the tournes made me realise how much my tourne play is lacking these days. He kicked ass on the 6 pacs, made it look very easy which im 100% sure $200 6 pacs arent!!! In terms of the stakes though as ive said before at the moment im happy banking profit and keeping my roll at a level thats right for the stakes im playing. If I decide to move up, instead of banking profit I will start building my roll to cope with the variance.

2007...Getting back to Normal

2007-02-06T13:20:00.000Z

After the lessons learned in December I went back to grinding at .50 $1 in Jan. I felt a better playing from the bad experience in December and was handling the bad beats a little better (though I still tilted occasionally ;-) ). I ended up £480 up for the month on NL cash which nearly made up for losses in December.

Feb has started really well. I am limited to how much I can play this month as Im away most weekends. However I had a big session this weekend and made around £400 through the 2 days. These weren’t through huge puts but basically grinding away on 2 tables at $.50 $1 NL. As I knew I had time I was waiting for the good situations to come up. Other than that I was taking lots of smaller pots. My biggest pot of Saturday was from calling a $4 raise pre flop with 77, flop cometh 2 4 7 and I get KK all in for a $230 pot. That had took 3 hours at that table where I was at that point $50 up from grinding and just shows sometimes that patience is the key.

The weekend could have been better but I lost a few big pots with the hands where we always loose the most AA. 2 times io was up versus top pair and a flush draw so couldn’t blame the guy who beat me, Im proud that I never tilted!. However one donk really got my blood boiling, for a 45 min period he kept catching 2/3 outers on me after chasing with under pairs, gut shots etc. I had to think long and hard back to December to try and not tilt. I decided to keep playing how I was as he would give me it all back. Then this hand came up. I had J10s. He rose to $4.5 and 3 of us called. Flop was 2d 8s 9s. Giving me up and down straight flush draw. I led out a made a weakfish bet of $6 as I felt I could get the donk to raise and I was favourite verus anything he had pretty much apart from maybe a higher flush draw.. He did raise to $20, everyone else folded. I felt the time was right to gamble as I didn’t want to call and get a blank turn. Felt I could win the pot there and then, so I raised to $120, he called all his chips with AK Off!!!! Crazy call with ace high no draw. Luckily this time I hit. Maybe some will argue I should have waited for an even better situation but that seemed a great flop to me. The great think is he slagged me saying I was the fish and lucky t*#t!, after he had been catching 2/3 outers and id kept quiet ;-). Brilliant at how little some of these donks do not know about the game and another reason I’ll be staying at the stakes for a while.

Most of the time I played pretty ok and am happy with the profit. I set myself a target of £300 per month minimum which I surpassed this weekend alone. This eases the pressure a little and hopefully I can play the rest of the month with same success. One thing im happy about is slowly im starting to develop a better ability to stay emotionally stable and not tilt every time a donk hits. Hopefully this can continue although its not always as easy as it sounds

Christmas Greed

2007-02-06T13:17:00.000Z

Well I didn’t keep up my posts in November but am going to try to from now on. I had my first really bad month in December since I started playing 19 months ago. I ended the month £550 down but at times during the month it was far worse. I finished 2nd in a couple of multi’s just before Christmas which saved me somewhat as my cash play had been truly awful. I would love to say it was all down to bad luck and a horrendous run but the truth is I was my own worse enemy.

I moved up the stakes to $1 $2. After months of grinding out profit I think I started to believe I was a better player than I actually am. I took on this higher level and tried to run over tables. I got a couple of nasty suck outs early on where big pairs got done by raggy cards and basically tilted. I panicked as my bankroll was vanishing much quicker than it had done on .50 $1 (because I was playing higher stakes but with the same roll). Suddenly any bad beat was magnified and I tilted far easier. ThenI found myself on $2 $5 NL chasing my losses. The hand where I hit rock bottom was when I was sat at the table with $580 and was dealt AK. There was a very loose player on my table so I rose to $25 and got callers. The flop came Kd 7d 5s, A good flop. The 1st player (a tighter player) bet $30, this looked like a feeler bet so I raised to $100. The loose player then rose to $200, the tight player folded. I was sure I was ahead as he was the type to flat call me with trips so went all in he called with 56d. The flush duly hit on the turn and I lost biggest pot of my cash game life. At this point I was playing so bad that I convinced my self this was very unlucky and the guy was a donk…. This put me $1.5k down for the month

I cam off and took 2 days off. When I analysed this hand I could see it wasn’t a bad play by him, he figured he had any diamond 5 or 6. Plus he was probably playing within his bankroll and could gamble, where as to me loosing a $1300 pot was huge on the back of a loosing few weeks. I was not playing great and was playing above my roll to cope with the swings I was getting.

I made a promise to myself that if I was to move up the stakes I would build my roll. For the last year I have basically been keeping the roll at the level to play .50 $1, anything I make above that I take as profit and bank. This has worked and I am going to stick to this for a while. If I ever have the urge to move up again I will no bank profit but build my roll to cope with it.

The problem in December was that I was putting 30% of my betfair account on a table at anyone time. This caused to much stress when the cards went against me. I don’t think I got a lot more suck outs than previous months but whenever I did I felt it more as it panicked me, where as in .50 $1 I would reload with the comfort of my roll and win it back over time from the numpties.

December taught me an important lesson; I got too greedy, believed I was better than I was and paid the price. It showed me the importance of bankroll management and the month taught me a good lesson

Lazy Poker

2006-11-15T09:59:00.000Z

The main point in this blog was to honestly analyse my own game and keep me focused on playing the best I can. Well I had a 2 hour session on $.50 $1 NL cash last night and played pretty bad for the first time in a couple of weeks. I tend to know within the first 5-10 mins if I’m going to play good poker. Last night I felt quite tired and I’ve found on these occasions my patience is much lower, my game loosens up and the poker I play generally slack. However I still haven’t mastered the discipline of walking away when I feel like this! Luckily I only lost about $90 as was playing two tables and managed to pick up a few hands on one table that played themselves and I was always going to win.

However on the second table, I definitely didn’t play my ‘A’ game. One hand in particular showed I was playing poor LAZY poker. I have KQ suited in position, a guy raises to $4 before the flop, I call this which may be questionable but I would make this call a lot of the time in NL cash as you can hit a nice flop with this sort of hand and judge where you are on the flop. I’m accepting that I’m most likely behind pre flop. Anyway flop comes K 6 2 (2 clubs). Decent flop for me but remember the guy had raised pre flop so could have a variety hands that has me beat, AK, AA, KK are all possible but I’m still feeling ok at this point. The guy bets $7 which looks to me like a continuation bet, however here I make my first big mistake and just call. Normally I would raise here, if he re-raises you then have more info and can decide to fold. Anyway turn comes 9. He now bets $20, again I just call. This is LAZY poker. I should have found out where I was on the flop, now at this point I have no idea and am calling like a blind fish hoping I am ahead rather than having any real knowledge to base this upon. The river pairs the board with a 2. This doesn’t worry me as he’s highly unlikely to be playing a 2. However I’m more worried about the real possibility of him holding AK, AA or QQ or maybe even trip 6’s. He bets $48 on river. Even though in my mind I’m 95% sure I am beat, I convince myself as I have just been calling, maybe he has me on a flush draw or a weak pair and he has a hand I can beat i.e. QQ, JJ, 10 10, AQ, KJ etc. I call and he shows the inevitable AA.

I know I played this bad, I even know this by the turn on the actual hand. I have found when I am tired my game sometimes develops this bad habit, LAZY poker, just calling all the way, not finding out where I was. When he bet $7 on flop I can put in a $10-$15 raise to find out if I’m beat. Rather than calling all the way to river. The way I played this hand is not my normal game and I need to cut these little lapses out. You can get lucky occasionally (like if a Q or K had hit on turn, river). You see that often with weak players but what you don’t realise is how much of their money they call away without hitting.

To Tilt or Not to Tilt?

2006-11-13T21:54:00.000Z

As you saw from my previous posts I tend to make a consistent profit on NL cash. However the biggest weakness in my game is when the tilt monster kicks in. When I started I tried to convince myself I was always in control of my emotions. However through analysing my game there are definitely certain situations where I loose control and play awful poker. This is always a period after I loose a pot where I cant believe the guy was in the pot to make the beat. For example a few nights ago I have KK on the button, I get 3 limpers, I raise to $6. The small blind calls me. Flop 4 8 J. Pretty good flop for me but there is 2 hearts and I don’t want o muck about. He bets $1 (weak bet) so I make a pot size bet of $15 as his $1 looks like a stopper bet to make the flush, He calls, the turn is 10 spades. He now bets $1 again, I bet $26 and he raises the minimum, no I’m a bit worried by trips but I have played this guy a lot and he’s a bit of a fish, I still put him on a weak pair or a draw and this is his effort to take the pot (weak min raise) so I put him all in for another $67. He calls in an instant and turns over A 8!!!!! Sweet. The river brings the obvious A and im sucked out. This is when my blood boils and for the next 40 mins play so aggressive and loose that I steam away more money. If a guy makes move and gets lucky or has a good hand and gets lucky then I generally can accept it, when a numpty just plays bad and hits I loose the plot. What I should do (as stated in previous post) is accept these guys will hit occasionally and be thankful they keep playing bad as its how we make the easy money.

However this post was not meant as a rant, I have realised something in the last few weeks that part of my tilt play is actually quite good!!. When I go on tilt certain parts of my game improve. T he extra aggression I show especailly pre flop and on the flop often means I can at times dominate a table. The only problem being on tilt I do this from any position and also don’t back off if I meet resistance and my hand is weak. If I can add the discipline of position and laying down hands in my 'A' game to the the aggression part of tilting, my game definitely goes up a level. You can develop an image to get paid off when you have a hand and pick up lots of small pots when in position.

For example during my last ‘tilt’ I built up a aggressive image but was on a passive table and met little resistance. Slowly I came out of the tilt but kept my aggression up as I was dominating the table. A few new players came to the table and I kept the same aggression but without the recklessness of not folding as in my tilt play. Suddenly my game felt more complete, I was taking lots of pots in position and getting paid of when I had a hand. One example being me dealt QJ, my normal raise pre flop, flop comes JQQ, I bet again as I had been ($8). A guy re-raises me so I move all in, he calls me with 10 10! He typed in the chat box that he figured I had nothing and called me a maniac. I am generally a tight aggressive player but at times my normal game lacks some aggression especially pre flop, through looking at my game when tilting I have seen how I can move my game up a level and found I’m controlling more pots as a result

Tilting is definitely bad and I haven’t mastered the art of avoiding it yet, the main reason I loose when I tilt is the recklessness of not folding or playing out of position too often letting people trap me. On tilt I will call when I know I’m behind I the hop I bust someone and feel better, that’s just BAD poker. I will post next time I tilt in an effort to control this bad habit I need to eliminate

Yum Yums

2006-11-13T18:23:00.000Z

I’ve had a very good start to Nov playing my normal $.50 $1 NL. I am playing on the new betfair software, originally it received a lot of bad press but I don’t think its that bad. I’ve also found a very high number of fish compared to the traditional Crypto network. This may be because Betfair is attracting new players or just that on the old network the better quality of players were from Willhill or Interpoker. In any case I’m about $900 up for the month already without playing that great. I heard daniel negreanu describe Phil Helmuth as a 'Yum Yum' in high stakes poker (AKA players he loves to see at the cash table) and so far I have found 2 main type of players in the cash stakes I play.

1- Non aggressive Calling stations, those who will call anything right down to river, can be dangerous but if you keep giving them the wrong price to pay you will end up in profit even if they do hit occasionally. Even if they have a hand they don’t raise and let you catch cards which they then pay you off on by calling big bets at the end ;)

2- Mr Maniac aggressors, you need a hand as they play so aggressive and wont put down their hand but you can pick them off if you have patience.

These are two weak type of players, they can be difficult as you often need hands versus both but patience is the key, just playing ABC poker, sticking to the basics and you can catch them. I often try to spot these types early as you will play each slightly different.

For example versus Mr Maniac I know he will be aggressive on flop so although I often wait for decent starting hands I don’t need to hit the nuts on flop to play with him (if i do hit nuts I want to slow play as the more you call the more aggressive he gets). Example recently I have KQ and call his pre flop bet, hit q 7 2 flop, here he bets his normal $12 flop bet, I’m not slow playing here, I’m sure I’m ahead but its not a premium hand by any means (versus him its ahead 90% of the time where as against a normal rock you could be worried about aq, kk, aa or even trips) I don’t want mr maniac hitting 2 pair so here I would raise and take him on but i know I may be committing a lot of chipss he rarely gives in and folds, if I think I'm ahead I'm accepting I may get all my chips in on this hand. I cant wait for the nuts versus him as it'll cost me too many chips to wait and call pre flop. Against this guy you will get into big pots and occasionally he'll have a big hand or get lucky, this you have to accept as if you play him enough you'll come out on top by picking your best moments (top pair is often best, even 2nd pair will often be good)

Mr Caller is great as you can control the size of pots, when your drawing keep the pot low by betting into him and if you hit bet big he calls you off. If you have hit the flop bet enough to give any draw bad odds and watch him call his money off. Again he'll get lucky occasionally but as you control the pot you'll win over time. Lets take an example I had last week. I have AK and raise to $4 pre flop, he calls, flop is AK7 with two hearts, a good flop but very draw heavy. There is now $8 in pot, I can bet the pot here knowing he'll call with any pair or a draw and making sure hes not getting odds to hit a flush or straight. Turn and there is $24 in pot and 3spades hits, again I bet pot, he calls. River 9clubs, I’m only loosing to trips and I can make a good bet on the end which he calls with k 4, second pair awful kicker YUM YUM

The real big bonus is when you catch the hand versus both of them at once.
This happened last night when I had one of each Yum Yum on my table. I had 6 8s, not a great starting hand but I was in decent profit for the night and when Mr maniac raised to his normal $5 and Mr Caller called I decided to gamble and call to sit if I could catch a flop, its important to note both players had decent stacks, maniac ($100) caller ($70), me $95. I know if I catch a flop I could win a big pot, if both were short or medium stacks I may prefer to wait for bigger starting hands versus this type of play, as mr maniac will bet any flop and you cant bluff with mr caller in there as he calls. Anyway flop comes 4 5 7 with 2 spades, giving me nuts straight and a flush draw. Mr maniac bets his normal $12 flop bet (could have anything), mr caller calls as expected, I would raise with this versus just the my caller as i know he will call and i want max value, however i want mr maniac in there as I know he will bet turn whatever comes and I have such a strong hand (where as he may fold to a flop raise). Turn was a non threatening q, mr maniac bets $26, mr caller calls, Now I decide to raise and hope mr maniac has a piece rather than wait to the river to make my move (I'm not worried about them drawing as I'm sure I know I have best hand and also flush draw as back up but I need to raise sometime and found turn often best as if they do have a draw like a gutshot straight with a queen they will call here), I get both all in, maniac with qj, caller with k7. Lovely hand YUM YUM

I love these players, unfortunately I am known to tilt in the times when either of them get lucky versus me in big pots, rather than listen to my self as above and know I need them to hit occasionally to keep them playing. I'll cover tilting in a separate time. If you identify either type of player at your cash table hopefully you'll be thinking YUM YUM

When it all started!

2006-11-06T22:07:00.000Z

It was in May 2005 who my friend told me him and a few of the lads were playing poker reguarly and he thought I would love it. My first reaction was to mock him for being held up in his room for hours sat in front of his pc, gambling money based on a game of pure luck!! "Cards is a game for mugs, completely down to luck" I proudly said, happy with my non gambling lifestyle (apart from the occasional football bet). Well later that month he had convinced me to play a game on line one quiet Sunday afternoon....... here we are 17 months later, god knows how many hours of poker later and yes I’m just like the rest of you, completely in love with this game. I never really knew it existed apart from seeing the occasional scene in a movie with some gangster bluffing all his money (or Delboy cheating in Only Fools & Horses!!). Yes I've pretty much played non stop since that day in May!! I started off only playing on the internet, betfair poker on £5 STT, I had to much ego to start any lower as my friend (sheff1979) was playing that level. Luckily I picked the basics up pretty quickly, after a first month loss of £80 ive made a steady profit ever since (see monthly profit & loss below). I played this format for a few months along with the occasion £2 or £5 MTT (those £2 MTT with 500 runners were crazy maniac style playa lot alot of fun in the beginning to learn the format etc of MTT!). I progressed to £10STT by Aug 05. Then in September I found the game that would become my main source of profit, NL Cash. Starting on 25p 50p I couldn't loose and my profits suddenly rose dramatically (for new player playing I couldn’t believe I could make £400-£800 per month and have fun. I quickly progressed to 25p 50p where I stayed for a while, I also discovered it wasn’t all rosy and had the natural swings but usually ended up ahead or even at the end of the month. The best thing I ever did was start to keep records from didn't I didn’t want to lie to myself and in terms of on line ive been very good at tracking exact profit losses. I did progress to 50p £1 and even £1 £2 NL cash by 2006, however I think this was a mistake as I didn’t really have the bankroll and I suddenly found the swings stressful and it affected my game (loosing a £450 pot when I flopped the nuts with 9 7 on a 977 board, getting A7 all in and the A hitting on river still makes me shiver!) Luckily I still made money on these higher stakes but the swings definitely effected my game, also I still have a lot to learn and am no where near the standard I want to be so have dropped back to 25p 50p as I find I can try things I wouldn’t dare on higher stakes and develop my all-round game as a result.

Internet Monthly Profit/Loss 2005 Profit (bold)/Loss (red) (£)
2005
May £-75, Jun- £+55, Jul £+55, Aug £+94, Sep £+445, Oct £+816, Nov £+232, Dec £+10
2006
Jan £0, Feb £+160, Mar £+630, Apr £+302, May £+1!, Jun £+450, Jul- £+310, Aug £+554 Sep £+396, Oct £-135, Nov to date £+250

I have also played quite a lot live in local Casino's mainly on MTT's. I have to admit I haven’t kept as detailed of records in live events (I will do from now I promise), Ive had a couple of big wins but no where nearly as I should be aiming. MTT's are definitely not my strength, I spent a week in Vegas playing live last month and ended up £250 up which I was proud of (loosing £650 on casino games we wont talk about ;)). In general in live play do ok but nothing spectacular, I’m working hard to specifically improve this part of my game specifically MTT where most live action is and will talk about that more in a future blog.

Well in a very top line nutshell that’s a quick background to my game. As my title in my blog says I really believe the biggest risk to making a profit is yourself, I know I have a lot to improve, Ive been lucky enough to make a steady profit since starting but I see better players every time I play on my tables and I want to be the best I can be. Hopefully this blog will help me analyse my game and others even more as that’s the key to getting better. I hope I haven’t bored you enough never to visit again, I thought this would be a good starting point but I promise my entries wont always be this long winded!