Quick Update

Well it is now after christmas, thank goodness, and now back into some propper poker.
The story with my heads up chalange is looking fairly average I have won ten games, and lost nine, which has put me down a few dollars. To be honest that is what I had expected, it is more about the learning, although winning is nice! My cash game is going pretty well, I haven't had a losing session for a while, but as well the wins haven't been that great either. While my cash game has seemed to take an upshot, my tournament play has lost it's direction, the most annoying thing is, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. At the moment I have been cutting back on tourny's and building my bankroll's through cash games. I do have the current challange of building my Tony G bankroll, which I have been doing, i have been playing on pacific as well, due to the small numbers on Tony's.


Bankroll: $133.82

Blackjack anyone?

I was sitting in a $1 30-seat SNG on Pacific poker, going onto the final table with a good chip lead and I was sitting comfortably. With only four places paid I had decided, rightly or wrongly, to sit back and wait for hands. Doing nothing at the tables frustrates me, I didn't have time to start a new game. There is a world of distractions on the internet, which is often my poker downfall. For the first time ever I click on the little "blackjack21" button on the bottom left corner of the screen. I've got to be honest I have never played the game for money before. I do have memorys of playing pontoon as a kid on rainy days. The minimum bet was $1, I dug deep into my pacific poker account and flashed a massive $2 on the table. After 10 minutes of play I was up around $10, just sticking to the minimum bet. At the same time the poker wasn't going so well, my pocket Kings had been quite frankly buggered by pocket 7's which enevitably caught trips on the flop. The blinds and my opponents were catching me, the bubble was fast approaching. I had somehow came up with a "strategy" on the Blackjack table, when I lost 2 hands in a row I would place a $5 bet. In total I did this 6 times, catching Blackjack once and only losing once. For the record I am not saying this is a great "strategy" or even a good one.
In my poker tourny I came fourth, which I was very unlucky to do so. I made a massive $0.25 profit on an hours good work. On the blackjack table however I had crept uip to $30, sticking to my "strategy" of minimum bets. At the end of my hour and a bit session I had made a profit of $53. That doesn't mean I will be changing games, for me poker is a much more skill based game. This brings me onto the subject of the online poker bans in America and more recently France. I for one think it is completly wrong that people go out and work, pay taxes on that money, then with the money they get to keep, cant even do what they like with it. Not for the first time the people in power make the absolute wrong decision. The next step is for government's across the world to take taxes off of peoples winngings, I wonder if they will be paying taxback on losses? If only! You may be thinking "what has this got to do with blackjack?" Well, I feel a lot of negativity surrounding online poker is to do with the gambling aspect of casino games. Where games like blackjack or online slot machines you are playing against the house, which enevitably wins. In poker you are playing against other people, of course the house makes some money, but in the long run if you continually make the right decisions, it is more than likely you will make a profit. For the reasons above I ask that online casinos should seperate casino games from poker totally and then, it may be possible to look for the revokation of the online poker bans.

Plan of action

I have already started shooting for my goals. For my Heads up goal, I have made a spreadsheet with space for 100 match records, so I will be able to see how sucessfull my 100 matches were. I will stick to Tony G's $1 HU matches I reckon as you get 2000 chips and the 10 minute blinds start at 10/20. There is plenty of play, or room for mistakes lol. I played my first match and won(starting how I intend to continue!) However things took a slight downturn, I made silly mistakes and lost two games on the bounce. I decided to change sites and move down to 50 cent matches to win a couple and gain confidence. I won three in a row, then the icing on the cake was having a winning return back on Tony's. So far it is 5-2, so going well.

As per usual I am playing at my 5/10 cent cash game, I had a moment of madness and lost a buy-in. I went away and have bought in again and I am up a couple dollars, so almost level for today.

Balance: $115.87

Poker Goals

As it is coming up to the new year, i felt the need to make myself some realistic goals with a timescale which I can reach my goals.

Short term (March '07)

Improve my cash game
Play 100 HU matches
Play 500 raked hands within a week on Tony's too play in the tourny

Mid-term (end of '07)

Earn an online bankroll big enough to sustain a 10/25 cent cash game.
Win a $5+ MTT
Play in at least one live Tournament

Long Term (2010(?))

Qualify for a large tournament e.g WSOP,WPT, EPT...

Cash games

I play cash on Tony's at the 5/10 cent level. The maximum buy-in is $20, although due to my bankroll level, I buy in with $5. I am pretty new too cash, and I feel I'm getting a hang of the way to play. The ABC poker, with a few moves, seems to be the best way at this level. The thing that I have found, which goes against general concensus, is with the number of players per flop. When selecting a table, most people look for a high a percentage as possible, which does seem logical. Although I have found that at lower limits, such as 5/10cent, going to tables with 70%+ players/flop, isn't the best idea. When the percentage is so high, I seem to get outdrawn again and again, yes you can say, whnen the players play like that I will make my money back and some in the long run. Many people will disagree with this, but I have found looking for tables with 50-65% players/flop(on a 9 handed table) has been profitable, as there are a lot less random cards being played, while there are still some poor plays/calls being made pre-flop. In the cash game I am currently playing in with the players/flop within 50-60% I have more than quaded my buy-in, can't complain at all.

balance: $101.85

Back in the game

I started today with a $1.50+50 Re-buy, wasn't very good, just got tired of getting outdrawn by silly hands. I still felt I had to take a stab at it, took 2 re-buys then decided too call it a day. I was already playing in a speed $3 tourny, with 16 runners, it was going pretty good sitting in the top three chips all the way through the final table, when we got to the final three I stepped up a couple gears, and managed to take home the win. That had taken up an hour or so of my time, but it was worth it, I had felt. Then I turned my aim towards the cash tables, there wasn't much action at all, ended my short session even. There was another $3 Speed tourny in a few minutes and I was feelin good, so I hit register! There were 17 runners in this one. I hadn't been doing as well in this one, when we hit the FT I was only about average stack. Again I had reached the last 3 and again, stepped up the gears, I was the bottom stack less than half the other two. I will admit I got lucky, but who doesn't get lucky in poker sometimes? I came across a player called GrindKING, we were heads up, he had been slagging my play off for a while. I just had to beat this guy, and I opened the can of "whoopass" on him, he was not happy one bit. Ah well thats his problem, he can find a way to deal with it. Going to now try another re-buy, lets hope I can take my Speed form into it!


Balance: $81.90

Just too add on, There were 23 runners in that Re-buy, I was a massive chip leader goin into the final 6. Bullied the hell outta the table(I needed to leave) ended up coming third, which is officially my first re-buy cash! Still should have finished first. Only took two re-buy's and the add-on. Will definatly try another one, hopefully when I have lots of time.

Balance: $91.05

Another Hubbles NLHE Freeroll

The following post is an "as it happens" presentation sponsored by www.ukpokerinfo.co.uk the best poker forum going!

I fancied a bit of large MTT action, which you definatly get with one of these. Ten thousand runners looking for one of the elusive top twenty-seven places, which gets you into one of the weekly round two tournys with a $1000 prizepool. It does take quite a few hours and all-ins to get there. The best I have came is something around the 50th mark, which aint to shabby. The play in these things is terible at times, people go all in with all sorts of junk. I got dealt Aces in the very early stages which tirned into a Full house, should of really doubled up, didnt quite manage it. I have also been dealt Queens which doubled me up nicley. Half an hour into the tournament I am sitting pretty on 8,775 with the average at 3,169 and 4686 runners left. I'm only playing good cards, no point trying to bluff these guys, really impossible, trust me! It still amazes me as too how quickly the field cuts in half. In the big blind with Q8 off, no raises so I check, pretty much a miricle flop with a queen and an eight both hitting, I made a series of raises and ended up picking up around 2K, with Q8 off thats a damn good return. I'm currently sitting 246th out of 3974, going as planned so far. Just threw away just under 2K, I made a 4 times the BB raise with 66, and someone re-raised all in for not that much more and I called, they turned over queens, nothing hit, cant and won't complain. I lost another pot, then won another in quick succession. Then I went all in with AK against my Opponents AQ and he rivered a Queen. Down to 5 K, its a tough freeroll, il give it that. At the break I am sitting below average chips, but i'm still workable with 42 BB, as you can tell it has been a usual up and down freeroll, but the main thing is i'm still in. With just over a quater of the original field left, I would like to now aim for the top 100, if i get there, hopefully the top 27 is still in reach. In the morning I will definatly kick myself in the nuts for losing 500 chips on QJ off. Just one of them hands, nobody raises and you feel you have to take a stab, don't know why I bothered. That sent me in a negative mood, played 77 late position i raised, 5 callers didnt like that, I felt i had too push so i did, one of the players caught there queen and thats all she wrote. 2334th... Seems a waste of time really, im sure i will be back for more.

The lonely road that is poker

The past week in my poker world has been miserable, much like the scottish weather I guess. I hope that my play won't be dictated to by the weather, because if that is so, im in for a long one. I just cant seem to catch anything, and when I do I get done over by a better hand. I was playing in a Tony G 5c/10c cash NLHE and I had flopped a full house, i thought I was quids in, only to be rivered and the opponent catching the better house. I don't want to make this blog a moan session, thats why I haven't posted any updates, don't really see the point in you lot sitting reading my beats, when I'm sure you have your own. As I speak, I feel a turn around, I have tightened up my play and stopped multi-tabling, I am currently sitting at a Tony G cash table, having doubled my stack, enjoying my poker once again. Lets hope it continues that way for a very long time!

Current balance:59.90