Made a cheeky little compilation video of the sports day we had at the end of our uni careers in my spare time today. Not 100% sure how to get it on my blog but if its not here you can check it out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYkpGxjZlO0
Monday, July 09, 2007
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Overdue update
Haven't been playing much poker recently, mainly for one reason - the Wii. I purchased it on Friday and haven't really stopped playing it since. Took it round Jo's house and their family love it too so we've pretty much spent all our spare time playing it. The only problem was that it only came with one controller but today the other 2 I ordered have come through the post so fun shall soon be improved even more!
In other news my contract for my job with Atkins came through today so I have been reading that and it seems pretty good. I'll be working at Epsom so will have to travel into London then back out again. I also played golf today with Jo's brothers which was pretty fun. Only played a 9 hole par 3 course but was a good laugh. Jo filmed some of it and took some pictures and her little brother is a bit of a whizz with stuff like that and has put together a compilation of the day which looks well professional so hopefully I'll be able to put that up on here if I can figure out how too.
Also booked a holiday with the missus to a 5* hotel in Majorca and cannot wait to go as it's only in 11 days!
Playing cricket tomorrow down in Canterbury and then its back to the missus' for more Wiiing. I'm then playing cricket for my tour side down in Rye with a special guest appearance from the one and only CashyP! Should be a good laugh again and hopefully be able to fit in some snooker/golf action with him during the week aswell.
Playing cricket
In other news my contract for my job with Atkins came through today so I have been reading that and it seems pretty good. I'll be working at Epsom so will have to travel into London then back out again. I also played golf today with Jo's brothers which was pretty fun. Only played a 9 hole par 3 course but was a good laugh. Jo filmed some of it and took some pictures and her little brother is a bit of a whizz with stuff like that and has put together a compilation of the day which looks well professional so hopefully I'll be able to put that up on here if I can figure out how too.
Also booked a holiday with the missus to a 5* hotel in Majorca and cannot wait to go as it's only in 11 days!
Playing cricket tomorrow down in Canterbury and then its back to the missus' for more Wiiing. I'm then playing cricket for my tour side down in Rye with a special guest appearance from the one and only CashyP! Should be a good laugh again and hopefully be able to fit in some snooker/golf action with him during the week aswell.
Playing cricket
Thursday, June 28, 2007
PokerTracker and PAHud
I bought PokerTracker and PAHud yesterday as I've been wanting to get them for a while but never thought I'd use it enough to make it worth it. Now I have got it I can honestly say I can't imagine playing without them and I'd say they've probably already paid their cost back in winnings that I wouldn't have got otherwise. It is especially useful for me when I'm 4 tabling and watching TV or something as it means that I dont have to concentrate so much to see who the aggressive players are who could be opening with a wide range of hands. Obviously its useful to concentrate to see player's betting patterns but I have found that the programs have helped my preflop play alot. Whereas before I would probably just flat-call a raise in front of me with hands like AJ or KQ I now tend to either raise or fold depending on what the stats for the player are. This has led to me saving alot of money by folding marginal hands when tight players raise and win alot more pots preflop with reraises.
I'm currently writing this whilst playing a $3rebuy qualifier for the Party $300k where I'm average stack at 52k with 50 left and 10 getting seats. HOWEVER... the tournament has frozen apart from one table which carried on playing and is now down to 1 player who knocked everyone else on that table out and has 325k chips when the next biggest stack on any other frozen table is 125k which obviouosly would give him a huge advantage if the tourney became unstuck. I dont know how Party are going to sort this one out! Its just a wierd situation that one table was allowed to play whereas usually they all stop if something goes wrong!
On the poker front I've just been grinding the cash tables as usual, the previous couple of days I've had some decent sessions lost a couple of key crucial pots that make or break the night. I dropped about $50 over the 2 days which wasnt too bad. Since I got poker tracker however I've made that back plus another $40 to put my bankroll up over $600. This is despite losing a $64 stack with bottom 2 pair versus top 2 pair on an AJ4 board when I should never have got in so much trouble. In fact I kind of blame Poker Tracker for that loss as I had the villian playing 65% of flops and raising pre 34% of the time so there was no way I could put him on AJ in an unraised flop. Another factor was that I had already won about $35 of him as he was a bit of a mentalist...but I was still kicking myself for losing 250BB with bottom 2 pair.
I tried putting all my hand histories into Poker Tracker but succeeded only in deleting all my Party ones from the last month meaning I'm missing the hands where I was running good and made about $400 of my profit. However, I did manage to get some on plus all my noble poker hands since I've had my new laptop and a few off Sun Poker as well as all the Party cash games I've played since yesterday and in total now have 5.3k hands logged in the following games:
850 hands playing $0.25/0.50 on Noble for a profit of $38
1650 hands playing $0.10/0.20 on Noble for a profit of $65
2800 hands playing $0.10/0.25 on Party for a profit of $270
Overall I have a made a profit of around $380 at just over 14BB/100
Having read and understood alot more about what the pokertracker stats mean I can tell you that I am running at 24/9/1.5 which is pretty tight and passive but I see no reason to change at these levels because it seems to be a winning formula for me.
Position wise I have made a profit from every seat on the table apart from the big blind:
Big Blind : -$72
Small Blind : +$53
Button : +$162
Cutoff : +$129
UTG+1 : +$91
UTG : +$28
I think a major factor in my negative big blind stat is that one hand where I lost $64 and if I had won that I would have positive returns from all positions.
The tournament on Party is still frozen but I'm going to have to leave it and go to bed as I'm playing golf early tomorrow morning.
I'm currently writing this whilst playing a $3rebuy qualifier for the Party $300k where I'm average stack at 52k with 50 left and 10 getting seats. HOWEVER... the tournament has frozen apart from one table which carried on playing and is now down to 1 player who knocked everyone else on that table out and has 325k chips when the next biggest stack on any other frozen table is 125k which obviouosly would give him a huge advantage if the tourney became unstuck. I dont know how Party are going to sort this one out! Its just a wierd situation that one table was allowed to play whereas usually they all stop if something goes wrong!
On the poker front I've just been grinding the cash tables as usual, the previous couple of days I've had some decent sessions lost a couple of key crucial pots that make or break the night. I dropped about $50 over the 2 days which wasnt too bad. Since I got poker tracker however I've made that back plus another $40 to put my bankroll up over $600. This is despite losing a $64 stack with bottom 2 pair versus top 2 pair on an AJ4 board when I should never have got in so much trouble. In fact I kind of blame Poker Tracker for that loss as I had the villian playing 65% of flops and raising pre 34% of the time so there was no way I could put him on AJ in an unraised flop. Another factor was that I had already won about $35 of him as he was a bit of a mentalist...but I was still kicking myself for losing 250BB with bottom 2 pair.
I tried putting all my hand histories into Poker Tracker but succeeded only in deleting all my Party ones from the last month meaning I'm missing the hands where I was running good and made about $400 of my profit. However, I did manage to get some on plus all my noble poker hands since I've had my new laptop and a few off Sun Poker as well as all the Party cash games I've played since yesterday and in total now have 5.3k hands logged in the following games:
850 hands playing $0.25/0.50 on Noble for a profit of $38
1650 hands playing $0.10/0.20 on Noble for a profit of $65
2800 hands playing $0.10/0.25 on Party for a profit of $270
Overall I have a made a profit of around $380 at just over 14BB/100
Having read and understood alot more about what the pokertracker stats mean I can tell you that I am running at 24/9/1.5 which is pretty tight and passive but I see no reason to change at these levels because it seems to be a winning formula for me.
Position wise I have made a profit from every seat on the table apart from the big blind:
Big Blind : -$72
Small Blind : +$53
Button : +$162
Cutoff : +$129
UTG+1 : +$91
UTG : +$28
I think a major factor in my negative big blind stat is that one hand where I lost $64 and if I had won that I would have positive returns from all positions.
The tournament on Party is still frozen but I'm going to have to leave it and go to bed as I'm playing golf early tomorrow morning.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Having a CRACKing time...
The title is so because in a 3 hour session tonight I managed to crack aces not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times! I've got the hand histories somewhere but can't be bothered to search for them at the moment. The four hands I managed to crack the bullets with were:
33 - a simple set versus overcard scenario, all-in on a 3 9 T board.
KT off - Blind on blind battle, I raised from the small blind, he reraised in the big blind, i smooth called to see a KT4 flop. I lead out, he minreraises, I actually thought to myself "it would be brilliant if he had aces here" at this point before shoving all-in...
56 of clubs - I defended my BB from a cutoff raise. Flop of Q56. I check, cutoff bets 3/4pot, I call. Turn's a 10, I check once more, he bets 3/4pot again and I push and win.
and
89 of spades - I raise to $1 UTG, get reraised by the BB to $3, I call. Flop comes down 888...jackpot...he checks...I check....9 on the turn which I think is a bit of overkill. He bets $2, with $21 back. I flat call thinking he's got nothing and a reraise will scare him away. River comes a 2 and he pushes all in for $21 into the $10.10 pot. I insta-call...the rest is history.
Overall in the session I managed to win about $125 meaning my Party bankroll now stands at just over $500. I said in an earlier post that once I reached this figure I would move up to $0.25/0.50 but am feeling comfortable at the level I am at so may not do this. I've always considered there to be two main ways to increase your profit, moving up levels or playing more tables. However, there is a fine line that exists with both of these strategies. Technically by moving up a level because you're playing for higher stakes, the amount you win should go up in a similar fashion. But there are several other factors to consider, such as the standard of players invariably gets better. Also need to consider that my style of play may not be suited to the higher level and I will need to adapt it to maximise profits. Plus technically I will be playing well outside my Party bankroll and so this could affect my game and make me minimise the risks that I may usually take. Looking at the second option of playing more tables, again the theory is that the more tables you play the greater profit per hour you make as you are playing more hands. However this is not always the case as the more tables you play the less attention you are able to pay to each one and each player you are against. This means that it is harder to play the players and you end up just playing the cards, which can work against you. Generally when I have been playing at my current level of $0.10/0.25 I find I make about $15-$25 an hour 4 tabling. It will be interesting to see if this rate increases when I do finally decide to move up a level.
In other news I found out today that I'm going to be offered a job working for Atkins on their graduate scheme which is obviously great news. I'm unsure whether I will be at their Epsom office or their London office but either will be fine with me (although the London office will take about 20-30 minutes off my journey). As for my plans for the near future I'm meeting Marc for lunch on Thursday, playing golf Friday with my Dad, got a Jo's uncle's wedding on Saturday (where she is one of the bridesmaids) and got my Grandad's 80th birthday celebrations on Sunday so its going to be a pretty packed weekend for me. Then, if I carry on with the summer placement with Transport for London, I will be working from either the 2nd or 9th of July near Victoria.
33 - a simple set versus overcard scenario, all-in on a 3 9 T board.
KT off - Blind on blind battle, I raised from the small blind, he reraised in the big blind, i smooth called to see a KT4 flop. I lead out, he minreraises, I actually thought to myself "it would be brilliant if he had aces here" at this point before shoving all-in...
56 of clubs - I defended my BB from a cutoff raise. Flop of Q56. I check, cutoff bets 3/4pot, I call. Turn's a 10, I check once more, he bets 3/4pot again and I push and win.
and
89 of spades - I raise to $1 UTG, get reraised by the BB to $3, I call. Flop comes down 888...jackpot...he checks...I check....9 on the turn which I think is a bit of overkill. He bets $2, with $21 back. I flat call thinking he's got nothing and a reraise will scare him away. River comes a 2 and he pushes all in for $21 into the $10.10 pot. I insta-call...the rest is history.
Overall in the session I managed to win about $125 meaning my Party bankroll now stands at just over $500. I said in an earlier post that once I reached this figure I would move up to $0.25/0.50 but am feeling comfortable at the level I am at so may not do this. I've always considered there to be two main ways to increase your profit, moving up levels or playing more tables. However, there is a fine line that exists with both of these strategies. Technically by moving up a level because you're playing for higher stakes, the amount you win should go up in a similar fashion. But there are several other factors to consider, such as the standard of players invariably gets better. Also need to consider that my style of play may not be suited to the higher level and I will need to adapt it to maximise profits. Plus technically I will be playing well outside my Party bankroll and so this could affect my game and make me minimise the risks that I may usually take. Looking at the second option of playing more tables, again the theory is that the more tables you play the greater profit per hour you make as you are playing more hands. However this is not always the case as the more tables you play the less attention you are able to pay to each one and each player you are against. This means that it is harder to play the players and you end up just playing the cards, which can work against you. Generally when I have been playing at my current level of $0.10/0.25 I find I make about $15-$25 an hour 4 tabling. It will be interesting to see if this rate increases when I do finally decide to move up a level.
In other news I found out today that I'm going to be offered a job working for Atkins on their graduate scheme which is obviously great news. I'm unsure whether I will be at their Epsom office or their London office but either will be fine with me (although the London office will take about 20-30 minutes off my journey). As for my plans for the near future I'm meeting Marc for lunch on Thursday, playing golf Friday with my Dad, got a Jo's uncle's wedding on Saturday (where she is one of the bridesmaids) and got my Grandad's 80th birthday celebrations on Sunday so its going to be a pretty packed weekend for me. Then, if I carry on with the summer placement with Transport for London, I will be working from either the 2nd or 9th of July near Victoria.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sunday night session
Session started off with an outdraw:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204020
The theory I applied to this hand was that by betting the amount I did on the turn believing he was drawing he would be forced to either fold his hand or push all-in. Yet he showed what an idiot he was by doing neither and flat calling to hit his 18% shot and then pushing all-in knowing I have to call. It is of course unbelievably bad play on his part but im not too bothered as I know that in the long run I will make money from those sorts of situations.
Things then got a little better:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204132
My sexy check on the flop induced what I have to believe was a $7 bluff by this guy. The reason I think that was because two hands later this happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204145
Having the outdraw from earlier when I had a set fresh in my mind it took alot of energy not to reraise the flop here. Turns out that if I had done that I would not have got his stack on the turn so I'm very pleased with the way I played it as, in my opinion, if I play it any different I dont get his whole stack.
Then made a couple of stupid stupid moves. Firstly:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204173
My theory behind this hand was to call behind on the flop to see what he did on the turn and so when he bet less on the turn than he did on the flop I obviously presumed he was weak so min raised his turn bet with a view to raising big on the end...oops.
Then this happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204204
I thought I'd try to find out how strong he was on the flop and again his call made him seem weak. The turn then gave me the nut flush draw which probably got me in more trouble by encouraging me to bet the turn and then when the river hit I thought I'd probably sucked out for a split pot...his insta-call of my all-in shove proved me wrong however.
I then managed to stack the same guy as earlier again:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204223
Although this time he actually had an overpair and was unlcuky to run into my aces, but maybe still could have got away from it with 100 big blinds.
Once again I didnt think that I played too well tonight but found some good spots and truth be told if I hadnt made those uncharacteristic bluffs then I would have made around a $30 profit instead of being slightly down for the night. I think that it isnt the bluffs that will make me money at this level but maximising profits from my big hands instead which recently I have been able to do fairly well.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204020
The theory I applied to this hand was that by betting the amount I did on the turn believing he was drawing he would be forced to either fold his hand or push all-in. Yet he showed what an idiot he was by doing neither and flat calling to hit his 18% shot and then pushing all-in knowing I have to call. It is of course unbelievably bad play on his part but im not too bothered as I know that in the long run I will make money from those sorts of situations.
Things then got a little better:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204132
My sexy check on the flop induced what I have to believe was a $7 bluff by this guy. The reason I think that was because two hands later this happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204145
Having the outdraw from earlier when I had a set fresh in my mind it took alot of energy not to reraise the flop here. Turns out that if I had done that I would not have got his stack on the turn so I'm very pleased with the way I played it as, in my opinion, if I play it any different I dont get his whole stack.
Then made a couple of stupid stupid moves. Firstly:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204173
My theory behind this hand was to call behind on the flop to see what he did on the turn and so when he bet less on the turn than he did on the flop I obviously presumed he was weak so min raised his turn bet with a view to raising big on the end...oops.
Then this happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204204
I thought I'd try to find out how strong he was on the flop and again his call made him seem weak. The turn then gave me the nut flush draw which probably got me in more trouble by encouraging me to bet the turn and then when the river hit I thought I'd probably sucked out for a split pot...his insta-call of my all-in shove proved me wrong however.
I then managed to stack the same guy as earlier again:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1204223
Although this time he actually had an overpair and was unlcuky to run into my aces, but maybe still could have got away from it with 100 big blinds.
Once again I didnt think that I played too well tonight but found some good spots and truth be told if I hadnt made those uncharacteristic bluffs then I would have made around a $30 profit instead of being slightly down for the night. I think that it isnt the bluffs that will make me money at this level but maximising profits from my big hands instead which recently I have been able to do fairly well.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Things begin to click...
Have had a good week or so life-wise, having recieved a 2:1 degree last Friday this Friday I found out that I have a job with Transport for London to look forward to over the summer although I still am waiting to here about the other job I had an assessment for. If things stay as they are though I'll be starting work on either the 2nd or 9th of July at near Victoria which is handy as it's the train station that the lines from both my house and Jo's house go to.
Was supposed to play cricket for Hartley 2nds today but it got rained off so missed out. Next weekend I'm going to Jo's uncle's wedding so wont be able to play then either which is a shame and it looks like im only going to play about 8 league games this season again. Plus the fact that I'll be working means I wont be able to go on cricket tour with Bexley Wanderers either. By the iway I was written about in the local paper for both my batting and bowling exploits after last weeks game!
On the poker front I've been playing little sessions here and there and breaking even but sat down this evening to play a longer session and made about $40 in just over 2 hours.
It started off pretty badly when I overplayed my Jacks:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201021
I think that I should have been able to stop myself going broke here but got into the mindset that Saturday night players are absolute donks...as they usually are!
This was a bit of a weird hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201059
I checked the flop because I thought the short stack would continuation bet all-in and I could just call that and when he did that I was happy. When the other player called though I thought I had better try to define my hand to see where I was in the hand so I raised it up again and his flat call suggested he was drawing. So when I put him all-in on the turn after a brick hit I was fully expecting him to have a better Ace...but he had a flush draw and played it so bad by getting his money in when he was about 20% max to win the hand.
This was an interesting hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201075
The way I played it he would have had no idea what I had. My reraise pre would suggest a big pair and the way I called the flop and turn means I could have had the flush and I think it becomes very hard for him to call the bet on the end even with a King if he thinks about it because there cannot be much that he beats. On that particular table I dont think I lost a pot all night that I played to a showdown.
On another table however I couldnt buy a break with hands like this knocking me back:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201092
What he was playing at I have no idea...$44 on the miracle river for him though.
It's always nice when someone pushes all-in when you have the nuts on the river though:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201115
If he reraises the flop here I probably have to fold with just a gutshot and an overcard but instead he waits until I've made my hadn before showing any aggression.
Managed to outdraw a short stack:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201128
I think if he has a deeper stack here I would have got away from it. I was even going to lay it down when I had to call his $3 allin rereraise on the flop knowing I was behind. He cant really complain though as he got his own back getting allin pre with AQ vs my AK and spiking a Queen:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201135
I had the last laugh though when this cold deck worked in my favour:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201141
Was pretty sick for him and the other player in the hand claimed he had QQ and would have won when the Q hit the river, but he did well to get away from it on that flop if he did have that hand, although Im sure he was more worried about an 8 than the KK and AA that we had.
Also managed to find AA vs KK on another table:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201152
The thing is that on another day I could have the KK twice vs AA and it be me losing to the cold decks so I think I just got in a couple of good spots rather than played well tonight.
Was supposed to play cricket for Hartley 2nds today but it got rained off so missed out. Next weekend I'm going to Jo's uncle's wedding so wont be able to play then either which is a shame and it looks like im only going to play about 8 league games this season again. Plus the fact that I'll be working means I wont be able to go on cricket tour with Bexley Wanderers either. By the iway I was written about in the local paper for both my batting and bowling exploits after last weeks game!
On the poker front I've been playing little sessions here and there and breaking even but sat down this evening to play a longer session and made about $40 in just over 2 hours.
It started off pretty badly when I overplayed my Jacks:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201021
I think that I should have been able to stop myself going broke here but got into the mindset that Saturday night players are absolute donks...as they usually are!
This was a bit of a weird hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201059
I checked the flop because I thought the short stack would continuation bet all-in and I could just call that and when he did that I was happy. When the other player called though I thought I had better try to define my hand to see where I was in the hand so I raised it up again and his flat call suggested he was drawing. So when I put him all-in on the turn after a brick hit I was fully expecting him to have a better Ace...but he had a flush draw and played it so bad by getting his money in when he was about 20% max to win the hand.
This was an interesting hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201075
The way I played it he would have had no idea what I had. My reraise pre would suggest a big pair and the way I called the flop and turn means I could have had the flush and I think it becomes very hard for him to call the bet on the end even with a King if he thinks about it because there cannot be much that he beats. On that particular table I dont think I lost a pot all night that I played to a showdown.
On another table however I couldnt buy a break with hands like this knocking me back:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201092
What he was playing at I have no idea...$44 on the miracle river for him though.
It's always nice when someone pushes all-in when you have the nuts on the river though:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201115
If he reraises the flop here I probably have to fold with just a gutshot and an overcard but instead he waits until I've made my hadn before showing any aggression.
Managed to outdraw a short stack:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201128
I think if he has a deeper stack here I would have got away from it. I was even going to lay it down when I had to call his $3 allin rereraise on the flop knowing I was behind. He cant really complain though as he got his own back getting allin pre with AQ vs my AK and spiking a Queen:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201135
I had the last laugh though when this cold deck worked in my favour:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201141
Was pretty sick for him and the other player in the hand claimed he had QQ and would have won when the Q hit the river, but he did well to get away from it on that flop if he did have that hand, although Im sure he was more worried about an 8 than the KK and AA that we had.
Also managed to find AA vs KK on another table:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1201152
The thing is that on another day I could have the KK twice vs AA and it be me losing to the cold decks so I think I just got in a couple of good spots rather than played well tonight.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Quick Update
Havent played any poker in the last few days. Saturday I played cricket for Hartley 3's against Sheppey, we all out for 170, I made 31 having steadied the ship when I came in at number 5 when we were 49-3. I then opened he bowling and removed numbers 2 and 3 in my first spell and then came back and picked up a wicket later to end with figures of 3-30 from my 12 overs. We ended up winning by 7 runs as we bowled them out for 163 in the final over. It would have been slightly easier had second slip not dropped a dolly of a catch in my first over which would have removed their other opener who was the last man out having made 67.
Was very stiff on Sunday having used muscles that hadnt been used for 8 months to bowl and was even stiffer on Monday when I had my interview for a summer placement with Transport for London. Went ok though and I should here back by the end of the week. Got a 2 day assessment centre with Atkins tomorrow and Wednesday so will blog again after that.
Was very stiff on Sunday having used muscles that hadnt been used for 8 months to bowl and was even stiffer on Monday when I had my interview for a summer placement with Transport for London. Went ok though and I should here back by the end of the week. Got a 2 day assessment centre with Atkins tomorrow and Wednesday so will blog again after that.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Running good no more...
I've played a couple of sessions recently that have demonstrated that my luck is changing for the worse. It all started with this in the very first hand I played:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1175844
Obviously the turn gave me the nuts and at this stage I was thinking I'd probably just take down the 75 cents in it. Then the SB bet the pot so I reraised trying to build the pot. Was loving the limpers call but then the SB reraised so I thought, surely we must have the same hand, either that or he's caught a set of threes. Thinking the limper may be on the flush draw I pushed allin to get him off it and hopefully either win the pot there are split it with the SB if he had the same hand. He took ages to call so this ruled out the same hand and in the end I thought he must either have a set or had been overplaying his draw. When he eventually called I was whispering "dont pair the board...dont pair the board" and WHAMMY the 5 pairs the board so I'm now losing to a set...I then see his cards...Q5...sick. How this guy gets all his money in with middle 2 pair I do not know. I suppose I cannot complain as when I get in this spot I've got about 90% chance of winning so I'm glad there are muffs like this who call as the majority of time I'm going to win.
It doesnt happen often but after that I was on tilt a bit and started raising pre almost every hand on all three tables I was playing and then I pick up KK and think brilliant as I've created a loose, tilting image people are going to call with just about anything:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1175868
The funny thing was that today I had been reading the Warwick Poker forums and in particular this topic about how generally people only play back at you with AA or KK preflop at these stakes and this was actually running through my head at the time and I was thinking I may lay down KK pre for only the second time in my life...and then I thought what the hell am I thinking I've got pocket kings and a loose image...i'm all-in...welcome to Coolersville...
In reality there is no way I'm laying that down preflop with 100BB in play, maybe I could have flat called the reraise to see a flop but I don't think I would have gotten away from it then either. I stopped soon after having played QQ like an absolute moron calling station knowing full well I was miles behind just to prove that I had been outdrawn:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1175899
So I ended the 45 minute session stuck about $35 which wasnt too bad considering how bad I was running and eventually playing and hopefully I'll start my next session refreshed and running good...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1175844
Obviously the turn gave me the nuts and at this stage I was thinking I'd probably just take down the 75 cents in it. Then the SB bet the pot so I reraised trying to build the pot. Was loving the limpers call but then the SB reraised so I thought, surely we must have the same hand, either that or he's caught a set of threes. Thinking the limper may be on the flush draw I pushed allin to get him off it and hopefully either win the pot there are split it with the SB if he had the same hand. He took ages to call so this ruled out the same hand and in the end I thought he must either have a set or had been overplaying his draw. When he eventually called I was whispering "dont pair the board...dont pair the board" and WHAMMY the 5 pairs the board so I'm now losing to a set...I then see his cards...Q5...sick. How this guy gets all his money in with middle 2 pair I do not know. I suppose I cannot complain as when I get in this spot I've got about 90% chance of winning so I'm glad there are muffs like this who call as the majority of time I'm going to win.
It doesnt happen often but after that I was on tilt a bit and started raising pre almost every hand on all three tables I was playing and then I pick up KK and think brilliant as I've created a loose, tilting image people are going to call with just about anything:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1175868
The funny thing was that today I had been reading the Warwick Poker forums and in particular this topic about how generally people only play back at you with AA or KK preflop at these stakes and this was actually running through my head at the time and I was thinking I may lay down KK pre for only the second time in my life...and then I thought what the hell am I thinking I've got pocket kings and a loose image...i'm all-in...welcome to Coolersville...
In reality there is no way I'm laying that down preflop with 100BB in play, maybe I could have flat called the reraise to see a flop but I don't think I would have gotten away from it then either. I stopped soon after having played QQ like an absolute moron calling station knowing full well I was miles behind just to prove that I had been outdrawn:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1175899
So I ended the 45 minute session stuck about $35 which wasnt too bad considering how bad I was running and eventually playing and hopefully I'll start my next session refreshed and running good...
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Last couple of days
Been pretty busy since my last post. Had a mock interview with my aunt and uncle which was very useful and gave me a wealth of information to take into my interviews next week. Then Wednesday I went with Cashy to play a round of golf at Upchurch...and played so so bad. We were playing £1 per hole and thankfully Cashy started off playing as bad as I was so I was only £1 down through 11 holes, I think the first 4 holes were won with bogeys which was pretty embarrassing. Then Cashy started to find some form while I went even further downhill and I ended the round £6 down.
We'd gone round in a buggy and it had taken under 3 hours and it was only 5pm so we decided to play another round. I didnt want to play skins as I was playing so bad but Cashy convinced me to play for 50p a hole this time so I stupidly agreed. By the 12th hole I owed him £13 after a couple of side bets also. At this stage Cashy wanted to up the stakes and so I convinced him to give me 2 to 1, so he would pay £3 if I won and I would pay £1.50 if he did. Having only won about 3 holes out of the last 20 the added stakes made me up my game and I won 3 of he next 6 and ended up only £8 in debt to him. (Which of course I paid straight away after) I doubt I'll be able to play again for a while so it was a bit of a shame to play so badly.
Thursday I didnt do much and decided I would go to Hartley's cricket nets in the evening as I havent bowled a ball for 8 months, and I ended up being told I could play on Saturday for the 3rd team as a few people had dropped out (I had originally said I was unavailable as wanted to go to the Summer Ball at uni with my missus but it was sold out). So I've got a home game at the weekend in the 3rds to try to ease my way back into cricket and hopefully get up to the 2nds like last year and help them to try and survive in the higher division after we were promoted last year. I was suprised to find that I had only missed 5 games and, considering I missed 10 out of the 18 league matches last year I hope to improve on last years wicket tally of 24, although improving on the bowling average of 11 will be a tough ask.
I get my degree results Friday so shall be travelling down to Reading to pick them up and then take as much stuff back from my uni house as possible and pick up my missus for the weekend.
We'd gone round in a buggy and it had taken under 3 hours and it was only 5pm so we decided to play another round. I didnt want to play skins as I was playing so bad but Cashy convinced me to play for 50p a hole this time so I stupidly agreed. By the 12th hole I owed him £13 after a couple of side bets also. At this stage Cashy wanted to up the stakes and so I convinced him to give me 2 to 1, so he would pay £3 if I won and I would pay £1.50 if he did. Having only won about 3 holes out of the last 20 the added stakes made me up my game and I won 3 of he next 6 and ended up only £8 in debt to him. (Which of course I paid straight away after) I doubt I'll be able to play again for a while so it was a bit of a shame to play so badly.
Thursday I didnt do much and decided I would go to Hartley's cricket nets in the evening as I havent bowled a ball for 8 months, and I ended up being told I could play on Saturday for the 3rd team as a few people had dropped out (I had originally said I was unavailable as wanted to go to the Summer Ball at uni with my missus but it was sold out). So I've got a home game at the weekend in the 3rds to try to ease my way back into cricket and hopefully get up to the 2nds like last year and help them to try and survive in the higher division after we were promoted last year. I was suprised to find that I had only missed 5 games and, considering I missed 10 out of the 18 league matches last year I hope to improve on last years wicket tally of 24, although improving on the bowling average of 11 will be a tough ask.
I get my degree results Friday so shall be travelling down to Reading to pick them up and then take as much stuff back from my uni house as possible and pick up my missus for the weekend.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Deep again...
Went deep in another tournament on Sun today but failed to close it out falling in 4th out of the 137 runners in a £2 freezeout. Won a couple of 50/50's in the first hour to double up and played pretty well to reach the final table in 5th chip position. Was not to be though as I crashed out when my A2 push was called by KQ with a K on the flop. I had been lucky just before the bubble when my 99 cracked AA all-in pre against the eventual winner but didnt make the most of my luck in the end.
Also played about an hour and a half 3 tabling Party cash games and ended up about $35. Here's an update of my exact bankrolls on each site:
Party: £200
Noble: £720
Sun: $890
So about £1350 in total, which is pure profit as I have withdrawn the original funds I put in.
Reading that then made me wonder how much I have actually won from internet poker just under 3 years after I started playing and I was pleasantly suprised when I checked my emails for my withdrawal requests and found that the total profit withdrawals from each site were:
Spin Palace Poker: $1300
Pokerroom: $200
Noble: £1838
Empire: $160
So my total previous withdrawals is around £2.5k when I take into account the money I've put in other sites and lost and adding that to my current bankrolls I predict that I've made about £4000 in my time playing internet poker...
Also played about an hour and a half 3 tabling Party cash games and ended up about $35. Here's an update of my exact bankrolls on each site:
Party: £200
Noble: £720
Sun: $890
So about £1350 in total, which is pure profit as I have withdrawn the original funds I put in.
Reading that then made me wonder how much I have actually won from internet poker just under 3 years after I started playing and I was pleasantly suprised when I checked my emails for my withdrawal requests and found that the total profit withdrawals from each site were:
Spin Palace Poker: $1300
Pokerroom: $200
Noble: £1838
Empire: $160
So my total previous withdrawals is around £2.5k when I take into account the money I've put in other sites and lost and adding that to my current bankrolls I predict that I've made about £4000 in my time playing internet poker...
Monday, June 11, 2007
Same old story...
The same old story is that I seem to be running good playing poker at the moment, especially on Party cash games. I sat down for another little session tonight and once again loaded up 3 tables of $0.10/$0.25 and 800 hands and 3 hours later I was sitting with $70 / $55 / $30 on the tables for a tidy profit of $80. I didnt really have any tough decisions to make tonight, my opponents wernt really applying any sort of squeeze to me and were basically letting me get away with murder. Add to this the fact that I hit about 75% of my flush draws and thats where my profit came from. This session was different to the last in that I didnt pick up big hands preflop very often. I think I had AK twice, QQ twice and JJ a few times and that was it but my profit didnt even come from these hands but mainly from suited aces and suited connectors, as well as the fact that I hit 2 straight flushes (one was a royal) and also flopped a set of 8's two hands running. The only hand out of those that I really got paid was the 2nd set of 8's where someone else completed their flush on a turn that also paired the board.
My bankroll on Party is now $330 and I've set myself a target of at least getting to $500 before I attempt to move up to $0.25/$0.50. Most people say that you need at least 30 buyins to move up a level which equals $1500 but with my style of play I dont tend to go on major downswings and tend to limit my loses and therefore by moving up with just 10 buyins I still dont feel my bankroll will be in any sort of danger. Saying this however I am quite contented to stay at this level as I am enjoying it greatly. I had in the previous month been "going off" poker a little bit but that has all changed now, I think maybe because I have settled down a bit... i.e i'm doing sweet FA and the test will come at the end of this week when my schedule will start to become a little more packed. I thinked my relaxed mind has helped my game a lot in the last few days so we will see if that changes things.
As for the things I've got coming up soon on Tuesday I'm playing/destroying Cashy at golf and then having a mock interview with my aunt and uncle to go over a few things for a couple of job interviews I've got coming up. Then on Friday I get my degree results and find out whether my unnamed housemates did really drag me down far enough to get a 2:2. Then Monday I have an interview up in London for a summer placement with Transport for London and on Tuesday I travel to Epsom to have an assessment centre for a graduate job with Atkins Global which is a two day thing and I'll be put up in a hotel overnight. Unfortunately this clashes with the Uni footie 5's which I had been looking forward to playing which is a shame, but this is my future we're talking about...
My bankroll on Party is now $330 and I've set myself a target of at least getting to $500 before I attempt to move up to $0.25/$0.50. Most people say that you need at least 30 buyins to move up a level which equals $1500 but with my style of play I dont tend to go on major downswings and tend to limit my loses and therefore by moving up with just 10 buyins I still dont feel my bankroll will be in any sort of danger. Saying this however I am quite contented to stay at this level as I am enjoying it greatly. I had in the previous month been "going off" poker a little bit but that has all changed now, I think maybe because I have settled down a bit... i.e i'm doing sweet FA and the test will come at the end of this week when my schedule will start to become a little more packed. I thinked my relaxed mind has helped my game a lot in the last few days so we will see if that changes things.
As for the things I've got coming up soon on Tuesday I'm playing/destroying Cashy at golf and then having a mock interview with my aunt and uncle to go over a few things for a couple of job interviews I've got coming up. Then on Friday I get my degree results and find out whether my unnamed housemates did really drag me down far enough to get a 2:2. Then Monday I have an interview up in London for a summer placement with Transport for London and on Tuesday I travel to Epsom to have an assessment centre for a graduate job with Atkins Global which is a two day thing and I'll be put up in a hotel overnight. Unfortunately this clashes with the Uni footie 5's which I had been looking forward to playing which is a shame, but this is my future we're talking about...
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Sat down this evening to watch the penultimate games of La Liga (was especially impressed with Messi's Maradona goal) and thought I'd take a break from the cash games I've been playing to play a few tournaments. So I loaded up Sun, Noble and Party to see what they have on offer and decide on a $5 Headhunter tourney on Sun, the $4k guarenteed on Noble and a $6 tourney with 900 runners on Party.
I'll start with the Party tourney and now remember why me and the site do not get in as generally it was tourneys rather than cash that i used to play. 6th hand in and I get dealt QQ UTG+1:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1159974
My theory for pushing the turn is that I dont want one of the many scare cards to come as I figure the lack of reraise on the flop meant I was in pretty good shape against a guy who had minraised twice in previous hands with the nuts and third nuts. So I didnt expected him to be drawing at this stage and the blank on the turn meant that he didnt have the odds to call. Obviously he did call, without even a heart, and hit one of his 8 outs and that was me done. I'm going to try to restrict my Party play to cash from now on.
In the Noble tourney I lost half my stack when all-in with QQ versus a very short stack who had AA and a medium stack who had KJ. Obviously the K hits and I start to play the short stack. Then at 50/100 I pick up KQ on the button and after 3 limpers I put the squeeze on pushing for my last 970 chips and get 2 callers who both have 55. The flop comes KKQ and I'm back to average stack. I then manage to get it all-in against 2 callers again when I have JJ and the pot has been min raised and called preflop so I push and they both call with KQ and AQ. Q hits the flop and as I have them covered i'm down to 6BB's and looking to shove at any opportunity. I pick up AQ and get it all-in vs A7 to double up before pushing UTG for 9BBs with A9sooted and got called by the big blind who had 73off...hmmm...of course he spiked a 3. (Sorry for the lack of hand histories but I havent figured out how to get them for Noble yet.)
The Headhunter tournament is a new form of tournament that I enjoy playing in. Basically 50% of the prize pool is distributed as normal to the top finishers, but the other 50% goes in the form of bounties, so everyone has $2.50 on their head in a $5 tourney and when you knock someone out you collect 75% of their head and the other 25% gets added to your head. The first hour of the tournament was a tale of AQ, which featured in the 3 major hands that I played, amazingly all-in pre everytime:
Firstly trying to knock out the short stack that pushed to pick up his bounty:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160071
Then it was me who picked up AQ the very next hand against the same player, who had AJ:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160085
Obviously when the Jack hit the flop I wasnt too happy...
I then picked AQ up again and for the 3rd time it won again, this time knocking out two players to scoop me $3.60:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160095
Just after the break I then managed to knock another player out with 77 against his AT, again all-in pre and I had managed to get up to 6k from 1.5k without playing a flop. I then pushed a flush draw in a bad spot against 2 pair but got lucky to double up again. I then picked up alot of small pots when there was 1675 in the pot pre at 300/600 blinds with the antes to get up to 19k and by then cash started with 40 left with me in 15th chip position. I had already picked up about my buyin in bounties and so this was all profit from here on.
I then got moved to a new, very aggressive table that seemed to have an all-in every hand and a couple of levels later I had bled chips and was down to 9BB as we started the 600/1200/100 level with 20 players left. I managed to pick off a short stack with my 77 to get another bounty worth $3.50 and another soon after to add $3.66 to my collection and push me up to 40K in chips and 7th out of the 12 remaining players at the 1200/2400/300 level and when I reached the final table I was still 7th in chips with 20BB's. I then picked off the first short stack at the final table when his Jack Ten shove ran into my ace king for another $3.60 meaning I had already picked up about $15 worth of bounties. I then doubled up when my UTG shove for 10BBs was called by KJ but my 44 held and I knocked him out a few hands later when he yet again liked his KJ too much and reraised me when I had AK, I collected $7 for that knockout. Then this key hand happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160376
This happened after I had built my way to the chip lead mainly by picking up a lot of small pots and raising the guy who eventually played that hand with me when he limped or raised, hence I think he was annoyed and played the hand like he did. Playing 5 handed after that I pretty much raised every hand with my chip lead until the second chip leader played back with AJ when I happened to have AK and it held to give me about 400k of the 575k chips in play. When we got 3 handed I double up one of the short stacks twice in a row when my 77 ran into his 88 then my 22 into his QQ and at the 3rd break I had 280k with the other two having 160k and 135k with blinds at 4000/8000/1000 so still plenty of play.
At this stage I looked at how much the other two's bounties were worth and one was the same as mine at $15 having knocked out 9 people each, but the other was worth just $4 and had only knocked out 2 people. So he had come through a field of 387 players to get 3 way having knocked out that few players which I found pretty amazing. I then lost a huge 50/50 when my AJ failed to improve against the $4 bounties pocket 4's. And then lost another 50/50 against the same player when his AK outdrew my 99:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160423
So I finished 3rd for just $124 made up of $37 worth of bounties and $87 in prize money and am still looking for that first big win in a Sun Poker tournament. First prize in the tourney would have been worth about $300 to me and in the chip position I had when we were 4-way I would have expected to pick that up...but not to be today...
I'll start with the Party tourney and now remember why me and the site do not get in as generally it was tourneys rather than cash that i used to play. 6th hand in and I get dealt QQ UTG+1:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1159974
My theory for pushing the turn is that I dont want one of the many scare cards to come as I figure the lack of reraise on the flop meant I was in pretty good shape against a guy who had minraised twice in previous hands with the nuts and third nuts. So I didnt expected him to be drawing at this stage and the blank on the turn meant that he didnt have the odds to call. Obviously he did call, without even a heart, and hit one of his 8 outs and that was me done. I'm going to try to restrict my Party play to cash from now on.
In the Noble tourney I lost half my stack when all-in with QQ versus a very short stack who had AA and a medium stack who had KJ. Obviously the K hits and I start to play the short stack. Then at 50/100 I pick up KQ on the button and after 3 limpers I put the squeeze on pushing for my last 970 chips and get 2 callers who both have 55. The flop comes KKQ and I'm back to average stack. I then manage to get it all-in against 2 callers again when I have JJ and the pot has been min raised and called preflop so I push and they both call with KQ and AQ. Q hits the flop and as I have them covered i'm down to 6BB's and looking to shove at any opportunity. I pick up AQ and get it all-in vs A7 to double up before pushing UTG for 9BBs with A9sooted and got called by the big blind who had 73off...hmmm...of course he spiked a 3. (Sorry for the lack of hand histories but I havent figured out how to get them for Noble yet.)
The Headhunter tournament is a new form of tournament that I enjoy playing in. Basically 50% of the prize pool is distributed as normal to the top finishers, but the other 50% goes in the form of bounties, so everyone has $2.50 on their head in a $5 tourney and when you knock someone out you collect 75% of their head and the other 25% gets added to your head. The first hour of the tournament was a tale of AQ, which featured in the 3 major hands that I played, amazingly all-in pre everytime:
Firstly trying to knock out the short stack that pushed to pick up his bounty:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160071
Then it was me who picked up AQ the very next hand against the same player, who had AJ:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160085
Obviously when the Jack hit the flop I wasnt too happy...
I then picked AQ up again and for the 3rd time it won again, this time knocking out two players to scoop me $3.60:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160095
Just after the break I then managed to knock another player out with 77 against his AT, again all-in pre and I had managed to get up to 6k from 1.5k without playing a flop. I then pushed a flush draw in a bad spot against 2 pair but got lucky to double up again. I then picked up alot of small pots when there was 1675 in the pot pre at 300/600 blinds with the antes to get up to 19k and by then cash started with 40 left with me in 15th chip position. I had already picked up about my buyin in bounties and so this was all profit from here on.
I then got moved to a new, very aggressive table that seemed to have an all-in every hand and a couple of levels later I had bled chips and was down to 9BB as we started the 600/1200/100 level with 20 players left. I managed to pick off a short stack with my 77 to get another bounty worth $3.50 and another soon after to add $3.66 to my collection and push me up to 40K in chips and 7th out of the 12 remaining players at the 1200/2400/300 level and when I reached the final table I was still 7th in chips with 20BB's. I then picked off the first short stack at the final table when his Jack Ten shove ran into my ace king for another $3.60 meaning I had already picked up about $15 worth of bounties. I then doubled up when my UTG shove for 10BBs was called by KJ but my 44 held and I knocked him out a few hands later when he yet again liked his KJ too much and reraised me when I had AK, I collected $7 for that knockout. Then this key hand happened:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160376
This happened after I had built my way to the chip lead mainly by picking up a lot of small pots and raising the guy who eventually played that hand with me when he limped or raised, hence I think he was annoyed and played the hand like he did. Playing 5 handed after that I pretty much raised every hand with my chip lead until the second chip leader played back with AJ when I happened to have AK and it held to give me about 400k of the 575k chips in play. When we got 3 handed I double up one of the short stacks twice in a row when my 77 ran into his 88 then my 22 into his QQ and at the 3rd break I had 280k with the other two having 160k and 135k with blinds at 4000/8000/1000 so still plenty of play.
At this stage I looked at how much the other two's bounties were worth and one was the same as mine at $15 having knocked out 9 people each, but the other was worth just $4 and had only knocked out 2 people. So he had come through a field of 387 players to get 3 way having knocked out that few players which I found pretty amazing. I then lost a huge 50/50 when my AJ failed to improve against the $4 bounties pocket 4's. And then lost another 50/50 against the same player when his AK outdrew my 99:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1160423
So I finished 3rd for just $124 made up of $37 worth of bounties and $87 in prize money and am still looking for that first big win in a Sun Poker tournament. First prize in the tourney would have been worth about $300 to me and in the chip position I had when we were 4-way I would have expected to pick that up...but not to be today...
Poker Tracker
I downloaded the trial version of Pokertracker (max 1000 hands) and loaded the 643 hands of my last session into it. I however have little clue as to what to use it for but it churned out these stats for me:
Total Profit: $151.63
BB/100hands: 47.16
Vol. put $ in pot: 31.42
Pre-flop raise %: 12.75
Won when saw a flop: 39.91%
Won when went to showdown: 65.15%
Went to showdown when saw a flop: 30.28%
First action to raise on flop after pre-flop raise: 9.25%
Rather disappointingly I only pulled out the check-raise 8 times in the 643 hands.
Having read a few other blogs and forums I know people often give 3 numbers as an indicator of how they play, ie 28/25/9 and I'm just wondering what those stats are and what they mean? I'm guessing I'm a fairly tight player and call rather than raise too much pre flop but it would be interesting if anyone could post comments on these stats. I hear that pokertracker is an immensly important tool to have access to so am considering purchasing it if I can get an insight into using it to my advantage to identify leaks in my game and also allow me to select tables to play at.
Total Profit: $151.63
BB/100hands: 47.16
Vol. put $ in pot: 31.42
Pre-flop raise %: 12.75
Won when saw a flop: 39.91%
Won when went to showdown: 65.15%
Went to showdown when saw a flop: 30.28%
First action to raise on flop after pre-flop raise: 9.25%
Rather disappointingly I only pulled out the check-raise 8 times in the 643 hands.
Having read a few other blogs and forums I know people often give 3 numbers as an indicator of how they play, ie 28/25/9 and I'm just wondering what those stats are and what they mean? I'm guessing I'm a fairly tight player and call rather than raise too much pre flop but it would be interesting if anyone could post comments on these stats. I hear that pokertracker is an immensly important tool to have access to so am considering purchasing it if I can get an insight into using it to my advantage to identify leaks in my game and also allow me to select tables to play at.
"Running good, playing good"
It would seem as though me and Party Poker can be friends after all! Having 3 times deposited $50 into the site and blown it each time I finally have a half decent bankroll of $250 dollars building up, and all from a $10 free bonus I got. The latest episode saw me fire up 3 tables of $0.10/$0.25 while my missus and I watched Lost on the projector in my room. Half way through the first episode and I had already turned the initial $75 outlay into $150 and three hours later I ended my session sitting with $105, $42 and $79 dollars on each table for a tidy profit of $151.
So how did I get there? Well basically the players I was up against were mainly muffstations. An example being about the 3rd hand I played:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1157919
Obviously on Party you cant see your opponents cards when its all in until the result and when he called the all-in on a board of AK8A I fully expected him to at least have some sort of ace against my kings full...but no he had 77...muffstation.
I picked up kings a while later and thought I was getting paid off when i got all the money in on the turn:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1157938
But then came along the worst card in the deck, completing a flush if he was an absolute fish and drawing or trip queens if he was going broke with top pair...obviously he was a gigantic "Big Tony-esque" fish...he could have at least pushed the flop when he was only a slight underdog.
It was ok though as I felted him a little further down the line:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1157943
Having seen him re-re-raise on this flop I was fully expecting to be behind to trip 7's when he literally insta-called my all-in, seriously I swear his chips were in the middle before I pushed the raise button!
My one bad play of the session came against a pretty solid player whose big blind I had been raising relentlessly from the button. He had reraised me the previous orbit and I had laid down QToff for him on the button and so picking up KQ I raised fully expecting him to carry on playing back at me...which he did...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1157952
I was probably getting the right odds to call but he had only shown down AK, KK and trip 6's in the time I'd been playing with him so I thought his range to make this play would have to be QQ or better, maybe JJ at a stretch. Obviously the Cannon would have insta-called...but he plays so bad...
These hand have just been from one table and i might put up a few hands from the other 2 at another time but I'm pretty knackered now and want to get up to do some sunbathing with the missus tomorrow...what a life I lead...
So how did I get there? Well basically the players I was up against were mainly muffstations. An example being about the 3rd hand I played:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1157919
Obviously on Party you cant see your opponents cards when its all in until the result and when he called the all-in on a board of AK8A I fully expected him to at least have some sort of ace against my kings full...but no he had 77...muffstation.
I picked up kings a while later and thought I was getting paid off when i got all the money in on the turn:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1157938
But then came along the worst card in the deck, completing a flush if he was an absolute fish and drawing or trip queens if he was going broke with top pair...obviously he was a gigantic "Big Tony-esque" fish...he could have at least pushed the flop when he was only a slight underdog.
It was ok though as I felted him a little further down the line:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1157943
Having seen him re-re-raise on this flop I was fully expecting to be behind to trip 7's when he literally insta-called my all-in, seriously I swear his chips were in the middle before I pushed the raise button!
My one bad play of the session came against a pretty solid player whose big blind I had been raising relentlessly from the button. He had reraised me the previous orbit and I had laid down QToff for him on the button and so picking up KQ I raised fully expecting him to carry on playing back at me...which he did...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1157952
I was probably getting the right odds to call but he had only shown down AK, KK and trip 6's in the time I'd been playing with him so I thought his range to make this play would have to be QQ or better, maybe JJ at a stretch. Obviously the Cannon would have insta-called...but he plays so bad...
These hand have just been from one table and i might put up a few hands from the other 2 at another time but I'm pretty knackered now and want to get up to do some sunbathing with the missus tomorrow...what a life I lead...
Friday, June 08, 2007
A follow up sesh...
Played a quick session on Sun in the early morning which consisted of a cash table which I dropped $17 in, a $2 turbo tourney which I went out when raising from the button with AK after a reraise from a MP limper I bet out a K55 flop only for him to push with Q5. Also played a £3 10 seater SNG which I finished second in after hitting quads twice...
Quad jacks early on:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155470 (how the hell do you play this? - I think I got the max from ace high)
Then quad aces later:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155460
Before that result here is a graph of all of my SNG results on Sun, mainly at the £3 level:
Quad jacks early on:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155470 (how the hell do you play this? - I think I got the max from ace high)
Then quad aces later:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155460
Generally a pleasing view in that the graph goes consistently in the right direction, generally periods of break even poker followed by upswings with no major downswings present.
There are several elements I like about Sun Poker, firstly the fairly soft competition, then there's the wide selection of cheap tournaments that run throughout the day and take 2 1/2 to 3 hours generally to complete rather than the longer ones at other sites. Also they've introduced "headhunter" tournaments with bounties on every player that make a fun difference to playing as obviously there is alot more aggression shown by people trying to knock each other out and it generally just makes you think a little bit more about what's going on. However, my one problem with Sun is that they dont have resizeable tables like Party or Noble do and so it makes multi-tabling that bit more difficult which is often frustrating.The first sesh...
My first session of poker since I started the blog was not what I planned. I had planned to see what tournies were on offer on Sun and Noble poker and choose to play the best ones whilst playing a couple of cash games and SNG's on the side (i generally like to 4-table when i'm playing). However, I logged into Party Poker to see if a couple of my uni mates: Cashy and the Cannon (Ed "Wendyx25" Roger-see links for his blog) and saw I had a £5 bonus offer waiting for me. Now this was just free money with cashout restrictions and to my horror I discovered that I couldnt use it on poker until I'd met the restrictions in Party Casino. So i basically loaded up a slot machine, put the money in on the lowest stakes and ran autospin until I had wagered the £30 required. After that I had £6.32 which I was then allowed to deposit on the poker site. So i sat down on a 6-max $0.10/$0.25 table with what turned out to be $12.83 thinking I'll have a bit of fun and gamble the money trying to double up quickly and was not too worried about busting as it was free money after all.
It soon became clear that there was an absolute nutter at the table called Recessive who was playing pretty much every pot so I looked to target him as he kept showing his cards and never having hands. I looked to call his preflop raises when in position and then play flops rather than making moves preflop. An example is:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155248
Here I thought I was probably winning on the flop as he most likely had air but wanted to play it like a draw so that I could take it down when a scare card came...it duly arrived on the turn and the plan was executed suprisingly easily.
I think the fact that I wasnt afraid to go bust helped me make some brave calls against him like this one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155263
In the end I decided that my top pair was good and that he probably had some sort of draw and in my gambling mood made the call. Also added into the equation was the fact that this guy could literally have had anything although this is the first time he had re-re-raised me so I was a little worried.
Then came my favourite hand of the day:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155280
That's a hand played about as far out of my character as I could have got, but it got through and that's all that matters. I showed my cards at the end of this hand because the GriggLFC guy was on major tilt and i wanted to just push him that little bit further...by this time pretty much the whole table was steaming because of Recessive playing like a madman and also chatting a load of bs in the text and I was taking advantage. One guy even called me down with pocket 2's after i cheekily checked trips on the flop for a $35 pot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155300
And then he called me down with bottom pair in a $27 pot a few hands later:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155309
To make things worse I then busted him again a few hands later when he had a double belly buster with a flush draw which he hit on the turn only for me to make my house on the river:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155317
Things then slowed down as Recessive left and I ground my way to a finishing stack of $110 as the table broke.
All in all a pretty good evening's work. i think by only playing one table I was able to fully concentrate on the people I was playing against and play alot more pots and that helped me alot. Plus the fact that a few of the people I was playing with were absolute donkeys...
It soon became clear that there was an absolute nutter at the table called Recessive who was playing pretty much every pot so I looked to target him as he kept showing his cards and never having hands. I looked to call his preflop raises when in position and then play flops rather than making moves preflop. An example is:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155248
Here I thought I was probably winning on the flop as he most likely had air but wanted to play it like a draw so that I could take it down when a scare card came...it duly arrived on the turn and the plan was executed suprisingly easily.
I think the fact that I wasnt afraid to go bust helped me make some brave calls against him like this one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155263
In the end I decided that my top pair was good and that he probably had some sort of draw and in my gambling mood made the call. Also added into the equation was the fact that this guy could literally have had anything although this is the first time he had re-re-raised me so I was a little worried.
Then came my favourite hand of the day:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155280
That's a hand played about as far out of my character as I could have got, but it got through and that's all that matters. I showed my cards at the end of this hand because the GriggLFC guy was on major tilt and i wanted to just push him that little bit further...by this time pretty much the whole table was steaming because of Recessive playing like a madman and also chatting a load of bs in the text and I was taking advantage. One guy even called me down with pocket 2's after i cheekily checked trips on the flop for a $35 pot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155300
And then he called me down with bottom pair in a $27 pot a few hands later:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155309
To make things worse I then busted him again a few hands later when he had a double belly buster with a flush draw which he hit on the turn only for me to make my house on the river:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1155317
Things then slowed down as Recessive left and I ground my way to a finishing stack of $110 as the table broke.
All in all a pretty good evening's work. i think by only playing one table I was able to fully concentrate on the people I was playing against and play alot more pots and that helped me alot. Plus the fact that a few of the people I was playing with were absolute donkeys...
Thursday, June 07, 2007
In the beginning
Basically having seen that one of my mates (Ed) has started a blog about turning into a professional poker player as our uni careers have finished (although his technically didnt finish) I thought I may as well update people on what i'm getting up to as I move into the big wide world. This blog will probably focus on what poker i manage to play but i hope to write about all things in my life...so golf as well as poker then...oh and my missus...
Poker: A brief introduction
I play online when I can under the following aliases:
Party Poker: ben_w_2004
Noble Poker: MrPokerIce
Sun Poker: Joanne10
I am what is often termed a "grinder" when it comes to online poker. I think I am probably the best user of bankroll management I have ever met, hence why I have never played stakes higher than $22 for a tourney (not including satellites into bigger ones) and have only had a few dabbles at stakes higher than $0.25/$0.50 playing cash games.
My Party Poker account balance is currently $0, i just dont seem to get on with that site. The other two I have mentioned however I regularly make money on. I started playing Sun poker over the xmas period having seen my mum playing and winning on it and thinking if she could then so could I! I deposited $50 and my balance currently stands at about $700 (having taken the $50 back out). I mainly play $0.15/$0.25 cash games, £3/£5 SNG's and Multi table tournies from £2 to $11 buyins (yes the changing currencies are on purpose, Sun poker caters for all needs). It has been a grind, I mainly play the cash and SNGs to grind my way up whilst waiting for a big result in an MTT, one which suprisingly has not arrived yet. I think this may be due to the introduction of antes in the latter stages of tournies, an element does not suit my tight play.
The Noble account is the one I am most proud of. I started with £0 in that account, entered a freeroll and never looked back. I currently have about £700 in there (around $1400) having cashed out around £750 if not more from there. When i used to play regularly i used to make one or two major MTT cashes a month. When i mean major i mean for me which is a top three finish in a $5/$10 freezeout or rebuy for between $300 and $700. However I havent been able to play regularly or long enough sessions in the last 6 months or so to get these kind of results again due to uni commitments and girlfriend and family commitments. Obviously my chances in the future are also going to be restricted by work commitments. Damn commitments.
Anyway, thats a brief introduction, I hope to do a further post later tonight as a plan on playing a bit so i'll report on that plus in the future introduce other things such as golf and cricket...and girlfriend...
Poker: A brief introduction
I play online when I can under the following aliases:
Party Poker: ben_w_2004
Noble Poker: MrPokerIce
Sun Poker: Joanne10
I am what is often termed a "grinder" when it comes to online poker. I think I am probably the best user of bankroll management I have ever met, hence why I have never played stakes higher than $22 for a tourney (not including satellites into bigger ones) and have only had a few dabbles at stakes higher than $0.25/$0.50 playing cash games.
My Party Poker account balance is currently $0, i just dont seem to get on with that site. The other two I have mentioned however I regularly make money on. I started playing Sun poker over the xmas period having seen my mum playing and winning on it and thinking if she could then so could I! I deposited $50 and my balance currently stands at about $700 (having taken the $50 back out). I mainly play $0.15/$0.25 cash games, £3/£5 SNG's and Multi table tournies from £2 to $11 buyins (yes the changing currencies are on purpose, Sun poker caters for all needs). It has been a grind, I mainly play the cash and SNGs to grind my way up whilst waiting for a big result in an MTT, one which suprisingly has not arrived yet. I think this may be due to the introduction of antes in the latter stages of tournies, an element does not suit my tight play.
The Noble account is the one I am most proud of. I started with £0 in that account, entered a freeroll and never looked back. I currently have about £700 in there (around $1400) having cashed out around £750 if not more from there. When i used to play regularly i used to make one or two major MTT cashes a month. When i mean major i mean for me which is a top three finish in a $5/$10 freezeout or rebuy for between $300 and $700. However I havent been able to play regularly or long enough sessions in the last 6 months or so to get these kind of results again due to uni commitments and girlfriend and family commitments. Obviously my chances in the future are also going to be restricted by work commitments. Damn commitments.
Anyway, thats a brief introduction, I hope to do a further post later tonight as a plan on playing a bit so i'll report on that plus in the future introduce other things such as golf and cricket...and girlfriend...
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