15 months...50 posts...

I suppose this is a time for reflection. I have been blogging for 15 months now (on and off) and my initial feeling is that I have not achieved much in poker terms. In terms of money I'm probably up a little bit in this period from poker, although my overall poker bankroll has probably shrunk due to cashing out money and moving it about.

On 07 June 2007 I mention that:

1. I had a £5 bonus in Party - My Party account now sits at £430 having just cashed out £225 from it.

2. I had about $700 in Sun Poker - I recently cashed out $701 having been informed by their customer services that I was soon going to be charged a "dormant fee" if I did not use the site soon.

3. I had £700 in Noble Poker - I withdrew £400 later that month and currently have just over £200 in there I think.

Further to that I have around $350 in Full Tilt poker. In fact I'm going to side-track a bit and talk about my roller-coaster at Full Tilt as I played briefly last night there. Last time I blogged my Full Tilt balance was at $520 (from an initial $400 and high of $650, well since then it's been a bit of a disaster. My roll went down to a low of about $290 but last night I sat down for the first time in a while and played a bit to get it back up to $350.

Basically I haven't been able to play much due to a lack of internet in the new flat but now that is all sorted so I should be able to play a bit more now. Last night was my first chance at a session, although I only had about an hour and a half, so I fired up 6 $11 sit and go's and managed to win 3 of them! I played solid and ran good too. In 2 of the 3 I didn't win I busted out OK, (a flip when short and 66 vs JJ when I was short for 5th place both times) although the other one I made a stupid play to finish 4th where I had 8BB's in the BB and button raised to 2.5xBB and I shoved with A9, he called with 99 and the board didn't help. That wouldn't have annoyed me too much except for the fact that the guy to my left only had 6BB's and I hadn't realised when I shoved so I really could have waited for a better spot I think. It does feel good to run good for once as well, after I lost the first flip I was involved in I won the next 4 I got in and even managed to come from behind a couple of times when all-in preflop. I was very confident when it got heads-up as well, even though I had a chip deficit in 2 out of the 3 games, I always felt as though I was in control and it was nice to close out all 3 games.

My Full Tilt SNG stats are pretty impressive thus far:

I've played 2 x $6 games and came 1st and 6th for $11 profit.

I've played 12 x $11 games, finishing 1st x 4, 3rd x 2, 4th x 2, 5th x 3 and 6th x 1 for $84 profit.

So $95 profit from 14 games so far with a ROI of 66% is very encouraging (although unsustainable I think).

A further side-note on my Full Tilt games, here are a few figures to illustrate how bad I have been at cash games recently:

Starting balance: $400
Rakeback Received: +$45
Bonus Received: +$80
SNG Games: +$95
End Balance: $350

So that means my cash game figure is -$270 which isn't too bad...until I factor in that I was sitting on $250 profit in cash games when I first started so recently have actually been down over $500!

This is why I am now going to make a conscious effort to stick to SNG's, and try to fit in some MTT's at the weekends when I have a bit more time.

So that's poker out of the way... now on to other stuff.

First of all the flat is still awesome, with the internet now set up and Sky coming this weekend to install the Sky box everything is falling into place. The new pool table and table tennis table are amazing and have been well used in the 2 weeks we've had them so far, and long may that continue.

Secondly, and much more importantly, the 4G's Annual Okehampton Invitational occurred last weekend so I thought I'd write a little trip report for it.

Nine of us travelled down there, Cashy drove me the 4 or so hours it took which I am very thankful for (we were of course last to get there). First bit of gambling I took part in was a putting contest with the Cannon, won the first round for £5, won the second round for £5 and was in the process of destroying him in the 3rd match having even given him a headstart when we decided to stop as it was too crowded on the putting green.

So, after a bite to eat and the placing of a few wagers we went out for our first round. Everyone agreed to put in £10 for the main competition with £60 to first and £30 to second, whilst myself, Cashpoint, Dog and Cannon had a £10 sidebet just on the first round. We played stableford from these handicaps:

Brenty: 16
Dog: 16
Cashy: 16
Cheese: 18
Liam: 19
Cannon: 20
Reevesy: 24
Brad: 28
Big Tone: 28

After the each round a few calculations were made to adjust people's handicaps whereby for every point you shot below your handicap 0.4 of a shot was taken away and for every point above your handicap 0.2 of a shot was added to your handicap.

At this point I should probably mention that I thought I had done myself some serious damage the night before when lifting the table tennis table and was in pain just swinging the golf club. My first tee shot did not help as I smashed it out of bounds. My second ball from the tee ended up a few feet short of the green (it was a short par 4) but I still got zero points for that hole. Things picked up for me though and I strung together 9 holes of bogeys or better and was feeling a lot looser than when I started and ended up picking up 34 points. This left me in 4th position after the first round, although already 8 shots behind Brenty (42) in the lead, with Reevesy (41) and Cashy (36) between us. Brad and Big Tone both shot low 30's to keep in touch whilst Liam, Dog and Cannon (21) had pretty much thrown their chances away early on. We played a bit of snooker that night, although the "tournament" turned into a bit of a shambles and I don't think it was completed in the end.

On to round 2 and a very solid performance saw me card 38 points and included only one blob on my card. I managed to birdie 2 of the holes as well which made a huge difference. Cashy shot a 30 to fall 6 behind me in 3rd place whilst Brenty card a 36 (now playing off 14) to lead me by 6 going in to the last round.

A good start to the last round was essential to try and close the gap to Brenty early, and I got it with a bogey and birdie giving me 6 points from the opening 2 holes. Combine this with Brenty blobbing these 2 holes and we were tying for the lead already! He blobbed the next as well, I parred it and all of a sudden had a 3 shot lead!!! Some exceptional golf follow and I had 22 points at the turn despite blobbing one of the holes. After 11 holes my lead stood at 2 points but then Brenty completely blew up and ended up with just 18 points for the round. I parred the last hole to finish with 37 points for my round to beat him by 13 points and it was Cashy and Big Tone who finished joint second, 7 points behind me.

I must say I probably played the most consistent golf for a long time in those three rounds, and was the only person who was correctly handicapped in the end as my handicap didn't deviate from 18 all weekend. My overall score was equivalent to one under par for my handicap! So I pocketed the £60 for first as well as taking home the outstanding trophy that the Dog had provided! It is now sitting proudly above the TV in my flat.

On the Saturday evening I teamed up with the Dog to take on Cashy and Big Tone in a greensomes/£2 skins/£5 matchplay competition that proved to be a brilliant format. Things were looking bright when we won the 4th hole to capture 4 skins and move one up in the match play, they then won 2 holes out of three to take the lead in the match play whilst they still trailed by a skin. I then sunk a huge putt on the 10th hole to move 7-3 up in skins and level the matchplay before we halved the next 2 holes and were forced by the light to call it a day with an £8 profit. We then raced back to the clubhouse with Cashy and Big Tone taking a short cut, imagine my surprise when I stop at the top of a steep hill to suddenly hear Cashy shout "Big Tone"... cue me rolling forward a bit to see a buggy overturned at the bottom of the hill and Cashy shouting for us to get down there quick. Turns out Big Tone was trapped underneath it with the buggy digging in to his ankle. Dog turned out to be the hero, sprinting down the hill and single-handedly lifting the buggy off Tone... who's ankle was very swollen for a while but was fit enough to play the rest of the weekend's golf.

That wasn't the end of the excitement for the weekend. Myself, Cashy, Dog and Cannon also played 2 lots of 9 holes in a "World Series of Golf" format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series_of_Golf), stumping up £25 each for the pleasure. In my rich vein of form I thoroughly trounced the opposition and by the time I had won on the 17th green I must have won or split around 11-12 of the holes! The highlights included Cannon and Dog fighting it out around the 9th green having gone all-in after their tee shots on a par 3. The hole was eventually won in 5 by the Cannon which crippled the dog. I sank a huge bending pressure put on the 13th to avoid doubling Cashy up and then knocked him out a couple of holes later sinking another 8 footer before finishing off the Cannon having got it all-in pre on the par 3 17th for all the tea in China, allowing me to take the £100 first prize!

Overall the place and the trip was amazing and we are making it an annual event. The rooms were nothing special but literally all we did was sleep and shower in them so they didn't need to be. The food was ok and plentiful, not gourmet but I'm not one to complain and we never went hungry! The courses were top-notch considering the amount of use they must get throughout the year. The evening activities were abundant and more importantly free too, we played snooker and darts but also one afternoon we managed to fit in a game of bowls! Which myself and Big Tone excelled at although did not get to play our final in the end.

Wow, this has been a lot longer than expected...over 2,000 words...should probably do some work now...