Adams on Stars

I was listening to the Pokernews Podcast from the WSOP, the one from Tuesday 14th June and they were interviewing Brandon Adams. The interview started out fairly standard, talking about him getting pumped at tennis by PA and usual poker chat. The Black Friday issue obviously came up, Adams made a few good points about how Full Tilt have acted in good faith previously and had never lurched on any responsibility financial or otherwise. He continued talking about how FT had given back to the poker community, through sponsorships etc. Which is all well and good. The interview then took a slightly different turn and he lay into Pokerstars, for raking the life out of the game and barely giving back. In a way he does have a point, FT did give back a little more, sponsor about 5000000000000... players(OK I exaggerate, but that list of red pros is huge) where Stars only handed out sort of marquee signings that will help their business. On one hand I can see his point, but is the tight-Scotsman character Adams painted Stars as the thing that has allowed them to cash-out US-players then I think they have played it correctly.(Despite me missing RB at the micros)

If there is a choice between FTP silence or Brandon Adams raging over a competitor, then I think we should be looking for silence.

Full Tilt, I'm out

I'm out!

After the Ivey incident I really couldn't bring myself to play on FTP any more, I would have hated it if I had become good at poker, grinded up a bit of a roll to find I couldn't get my grubby mits on it. I cashed out just over 48-hours ago, my withdrawal still hasn't been approved, so I may not even see the small amount of cash I did have on FTP. If I do see it, I will add it to the money I have on stars and play there for the foreseeable future. Earlier on today I thought the sky was falling in on that as well as it had been rumoured that stars were pulling out of the Ausie market at the beginning of August. Obviously this wouldn't have affected me directly but after the poker market losing the American money, the last thing that was required was another country to pull out, and a fairly big one at that. As it turned out the rumours, were just that, thankfully!

I have only played one small session on stars, was nice to be back on there, will still take a while to get used to it again I think. My volume has dropped due to being a bit ill, however I hope I am passed that and I can pick up where I left off. IF I get my FTP money back, and move it onto stars, I will be rolled to play NL5, but I am going to make sure I have played 30k hands of NL2 first, which is another 6k hands. Two reasons for this, firstly it will get me back into the swing of stars, secondly, I hope to at least maintain, if not improve my winrate of 5.9 bb/100 over the 24k hands.

Good luck

Update

Well, I promised one, so here it is. I had been taking an un-planned break from poker, but this month I dived right back in, been playing quite a bit, was tough going at the start, but I turned it round.



Basically when I hit that recent down turn I realised a few things:

• I was playing on auto-pilot, and poorly at that!
• I definitely wasn't being positionally aware
• I was spewtarding far too often with weak-ish hands, I still am, just not as much
• I was playing too tight (I always kind of knew that, but felt I could still win)

I haven't just come to these conclusions myself, I have actually been reading a lot of stuff on 2+2, had been a member for ages but never really took notice of the site due to the bad reputation of the forum regs. I think you have to realise that there will be dicks everywhere, and there are A LOT of posters on 2+2 so obviously that will include aforementioned phallic members. There is a huge amount of great info there, you just have to go find it, and of course use it. So if you are like I was, just get on 2+2 and give it a try! Oh and definitely listen to the pokercast, I have been listening for a while now and I enjoy it every week.

Now obviously I haven't mentioned Black Friday, and I'm not really going to, there are plenty of other sources out there to get proper BF info. I will say that at the moment, I am still playing on FTP, but I am actually a little nervous about losing my small bankroll, I was close to moving completely over to Stars, but I think I'd miss rakeback. I have been thinking about this for a while and I'm still on FTP, but there has always been a niggling little doubt in my mind. I may even try somewhere other than stars, so I can get rakeback, but traffic is always an issue for me and stars wins hands down. One more thing on BF, FUCK YOU, AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES!

Virus almost had me!

Today I fired up the laptop with the intention to play in that same Happy Hour that I had done yesterday, then my virus software revealed a rootkit, had to restart and it scanned, took ages. I was on tilt! I was angered that it had stolen my Happy hour, I ended up going downstairs and playing World Championship Snooker on my Xbox 360 and listened to the end of the TwoPlusTwo Pokercast that I had started yesterday. After beating Shaun Murphy in a couple frames and a couple randoms in qualifiers to Wembley I had calmed down. I ended up catching the last 10 minutes of the morning Happy Hour, I only played the best part of an hour, but the tables seemed fairly juicy, well I would say that after my introduction. It wasn't my first hand, but it was the first on one of my tables:


Full Tilt Poker $2.00 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 1224581
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $0.91
Hero (SB): $2.00
BB: $2.47
UTG: $1.93
UTG+1: $0.77
MP1: $1.61
MP2: $6.38
CO: $2.49

Pre Flop: ($0.02) Hero is SB with A A
1 fold, UTG raises to $0.04, 4 folds, BTN calls $0.04, Hero raises to $0.18, UTG calls $0.14, BTN calls $0.14

Flop: ($0.54) 5 A Q (3 players)
Hero bets $0.35, UTG calls $0.35, BTN raises to $0.73, Hero raises to $1.82, UTG calls $1.40 all in

Turn: ($4.77) 5 (3 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($4.77) 3 (3 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $4.77
BTN shows 9 Q
Hero shows A A
UTG shows K J
Hero wins $1.91
Hero wins $2.55
(Rake: $0.31)

I expected at least one flush draw! But to be up against the straight draw and 2nd pair, I was over the moon. Anyway, that's me $0.26 short of covering my losses from the start of the year, infact, with rakeback I am positive, hopefully now the only way is up!

February disappeared!

I played 200 hands in the whole month of February, oops! It was a busy month for me with family and girlfriend commitments, including a long trip up North to watch my football team get pumped 5-0 by Aberdeen, on a crappy windy day, I was not a happy bunny! Well lets just say I never hit any of my goals! Lots of travel, birthday celebrations also hit my personal goals, so lets just say February was scunnered! I did play a couple tournaments, nothing major, I did win one of those 70FPP sats to Sunday 1/4 million, I am yet to enter that, tournament dollars sitting in my account. I may play that this Sunday, we shall see.
Not going to set any goals this month, but after a virtual months break, I hit the cash tables today with a renewed vigour. Previously I have had mixed experience of happy hours on Full Tilt but this mornings one seemed quite juicy, I did need a lucky break on a big hand to turn a profit though. Made a few mistakes, but that's expected when you are rusty from a break. I think I will look to play at this time again, it fits in well with my schedule at the moment, so hopefully my good results and motivation can continue.

Looking at January and towards February

Well, I have been playing some poker and hitting my goals, sort of. I haven't done a written review directly after every session as I have been playing a lot of shorter sessions, so I save them up and do a bulk review. Basically I started off at 5NL with ~$70, unfortunately lost a few buy-in's and decided, grudgingly to step down to NL2. I  will say I felt unlucky to lose at NL5, I did take a few beats, but I also thought I made a few incorrect decisions that walked be down the road to taking the sore one. After I stepped down I felt a little resentment towards the stakes, never really having played NL2 for any length of time before. However, after a few thousand hands I 100% believe I made the right (no matter how tough) choice.
Well, I guess I should post a graph of my hands in January 2011


Basically what you are seeing is me getting myself into tough spots, throwing away money, then I literally win almost every day at NL2. The trough is really when I stepped down, so looking at the graph, the correct decision was made. I have almost scraped back all my losses from the month, not looking to move back up yet, I'll see what happens. Anyway, wanted to post this up the now so I can get my Feb goals in, I may post a more in-depth look at my play using my notes etc. at some point... but don't hold your breath!

In February I will set a couple poker goals, but also I am going to add personal ones too:

1. Play 7k hands NL FR
2. Continue to review sessions, with written notes and summaries
3. Spend at least half an hour reading articles, posting hands, taking part in discussions to improve my game.

Now for the personal side, I want to fight off some flab, to be precise, I want to lose a stone in the month of February. This may seem extreme, but I do weigh *runs and jumps on scales, although not too hard* 19 st 8lb, at 6'1 I have a chunk to lose. I don't want to give the impression that I am a lump of marshmallow, I do have a strong base from previous sporting days, but, how shall I say this, added padding to my core. In the past, I have lost this amount of weight, in fact, it was pretty simple, it was keeping it off that I found difficult.
Right now I am at a stage where I want to improve my health for my life, but I also it will have a positive effect on my poker, I hope, so I shall include it here... Until I fail and become 99% fat. The plan will be as simple as eat less junk + more exercise= healthier me! Simple exercise like walking works a treat, but I hope to be playing footy again soon, as well as doing some weight training when I get the space cleared!

What I'm up to

Well not much at the moment, I keep attempting to get into it and failing, but hopefully the leatherass book has given me some ideas that will help push me. I am going to concentrate on NL FR cash, I was going to only play that, but I think I would miss tourneys, so I will allow myself some tourneys, mainly if they are included in some sort of league, I had read about the 2+2 pokercast league which is affordable buy-ins, think it's pretty short and congested timetable though. I heard the next one starts in February, hopefully they run often, will change my pace.
I have set myself a couple goals, not too hard, although one is something that will take a lot of getting used to, but it should be a part of everyones game, but I'm glad it isn't.

• Play 6,000 hands on NL FR cash by Feb 1st '11 (started today)
• Do a written review after every session(I will do it in my notebook, I may put some stuff up on here)

That's all at the moment, told you it was simple! Getting myself to do the review will be rewarding if I stick to it, and do it properly! Just a quick mention on the update on FT(don't know how new it is) I love how you can sit out next BB at all tables at the click of one button now, the best, yet a simple addition IMO. Anyway, off to start my review of my first session 2011, wish me luck, it wasn't the best session, hopefully that means its a learning session!

Happy fishing.

Treat your poker like a business

I saw this title and the book instantly appealed to me, it is something everyone should do, and I expect many would like to. The author of the book obviously has an excellent pedigree, grinding a living out of poker for over 6 years, during 2007 he achieved Pokerstars elusive Supernova Elite status.
This book will probably mention things that many of you will already know, but still need to do or take heed, from personal experience anyway. It is split into two main sections, treat your poker like a business and strategy, the former being packed with short sharp chapters on almost any topic you would expect to crop up on your poker business radar. The topics range from the poker rooms chat box to multi-tabling even to a small section on dealing with taxes. There are two guest writers in the book, Jared Tendler adds some insight into the psychology of becoming a poker pro and Dusty's wife writes a chapter about maintaining a relationship with a pro poker player. The strategy section is clearly based on higher stakes than I would be currently playing but basically outlines some very common mistakes and gives a line or two for common situations that will pop up time and time again during a grind.
Overall I would recommend this book, it does come with a fairly high price tag, as most poker books do, but if your poker is stuck in some kind of rut, this book could give you a helping hand into seeing why. Must take heed of the information!
I believe the sequel to this is out sometime in 2011, I will be keeping an eye out.














Anyway I haven't done much poker recently, just read this and thought I would write a tiny bit about it.