Poker Den

Adams on Stars

2011-06-15T20:25:00.002+01:00

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

2011-06-12T23:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-05-31T00:03:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-03-10T13:52:00.000Z

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!

2011-03-09T13:01:00.000Z

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

2011-02-01T01:11:00.001Z

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:

Play 7k hands NL FR
Continue to review sessions, with written notes and summaries
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

2011-01-12T14:16:00.000Z

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

2011-01-12T10:34:00.000Z

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.

Been away

2010-07-08T11:21:00.000+01:00

I had almost reached my 10k hands goal then life threw up some stuff that was more important than my micro poker play. Here is a graph of my 9.5k hands

I would like to be back onto poker again soon, as I was actually enjoying it once again. I may have come to accept that I will never be able to make a decent amount of money from the game, which is somewhat disheartening.

Inspiration

2010-04-20T10:29:00.001+01:00

I have been floundering around looking for some, there are probably thousands of poker inspiration stories. One of my poker friends, one which I used to spend a lot of time sweating playing games with has recently done very well for himself. Pizzicato, used to play the micro stake games with me, donking around, at least as much as I did, he then decided to get a bit more serious about it. While he was getting serious, I kind of lost interest in the game, various reasons really, anyway he put in A LOT of hours. To give you an example of just how many hours he put in I will tell you how many $2.20 turbo 180-man games he played on Pokerstars, a whopping 9,000. I am sorry, but anyone that plays as many of those games, in the time that he did it deserves all the success they get. I think after 70 of those I would pull my hair out! Whether that says more about me or him, I am unsure. Anyway, Pizzi is now mainly playing MTT's and boy is he playing them, he just finished 51st in the Sunday Million on Sunday, well Monday for us. On the previous Thursday he also took down the Stars daily 90k, there were various other great results recently which I cannot remember. But I wanted to say well done Pizzicato, and long may it continue!

Anyway, recently I have been playing a bit of casual NL10, not really caring either way how I do. But the recent happenings above had made me really want to get up that poker ladder, so the first thing I have done is stepped down to NL5 FR and vowed to play 10k hands, and see where it gets me. With proper session reviews and everything!

Thats all I have to say for now, catch y'all later!

P.S Hope you like the banner, I was just toying so I made a quick one, not sure I like the idea yet. May have to look into changing the whole template and editing it etc. instead.

Little spraff

2010-04-13T21:48:00.000+01:00

What's going on?
Well, I have started playing some NLHE cash again, its quite fun, but I had a small blow-out, just one buy-in, but I REALLY hate when these happen. I would like to understand why, my first guess would be boredom, not but I didn't think I was at the time. But I think I wanted to create some action, for no apparent reason I wanted to be Billy big Ballocks and make someone else fold.
There have been many famous blow outs, I think the most famous one I know of is Andy Black at the WSOP, in 1997 I think, it led him to become a buddhist. Strange move, but I imagine I would need some shocking change after that experience, especially gauging how annoyed I get when I throw away a couple bucks! I have been playing on pokeridol, a new site on the ongame network it has been pretty fun, they have some good promotions, check out by clicking the banner above.

On another point, I have started reading the naked trader, book about trading on the markets, something I have always been interested in. At the start of the book, there is a section about mindset, and a lot of it is very similar to the mindset conducive to good poker. Anyway, if you are interested, here is a link to the book on amazon.

Guess what?

2010-03-04T12:15:00.001Z

Yes, I have lost my mojo again. I couldn't do it, other things are just more urgent/tempting than poker at the moment. Which is unfortunate as I was really starting to find my way in Omaha. Not even the new BADLY needed Ipoker software update has tempted me back as yet!
I will be back, you mark my words, I will get bored of something else pretty shortly and get back on the poker train :D

All aboard!

Few thoughts

2010-01-30T15:46:00.000Z

I have completed one of my goals by purchasing Omaha Manager, woohoo. I have also bought the Slotboom and Hollink shorthanded book, so I will be getting cracking on that. So far I have noticed that he "discussed this a lot in the previous book" which is quite annoying and also it seems to be quite shortstacked based which isn't me, but I will toddle on and read it. Possibly purchase the Jeff Hwang book after I have finished it.

Now onto actual poker, I started off quite well, but then I got a bit cocky and over elaborated a few plays and completely threw away a chunk or two. I will try and get back to basics and get into a session. I won't post any stats or anything right now as I have only played 1.5k hands or something.

GL

2010 goals

2010-01-23T18:13:00.003Z

I haven't played much poker over the last year or so, I definitely lost interest, as well as other things in life getting in the way. But the last few days I have been playing some 6-max PLO, and I must admit I have really enjoyed it. I also threw in a qualifier to the DS championship in Dublin, which I won, but I through away the chance in the next stage. I will have another crack next week as I think a weekend in Dublin could be really good craic! Just incase you may get disappointed I apologise in advance. I will set these goals, and try to hit them but if my interest in poker subsides again please don't hate me.

1. Get my roll on Poker770 from ~$50 to $500 using 6-max PLO
2. Qualify for a land based event entry fee over £200 (I know it is small but it gives me more scope and chance)
3. Read a poker book, hopefully get an omaha one to help me along.
4. Add Omaha to my Holdem Manager, should be done by Monday I would imagine.

That is all I can think of at the moment.
--
Sent from my mobile device

Blogger Tournament

2010-01-21T20:05:00.002Z

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 437375

Again?

2009-10-29T20:41:00.001Z

Am I going to play some online poker again? Well I am going to try.

To see if I have the testicular fortitude for this game, I am going to attempt to play 250 NL HU matches between now and November 30th 23:59:59.

No real bankroll goals, will be playing whatever level I have at least 25 or 30 buy-ins for, starting at $1. I will either pass with flying colours or die trying.

Money making

2009-07-12T01:37:00.005+01:00

Poker is a game in which random Timmy Mallets can win thousands or even millions of dollars, it's a game for dreamers. If you have played any amount of poker and tell me that you haven't thought of winning that one poker tournament that changes your life by injecting millions of dollars into your life, I wouldn't believe you. Even though I play micro cash and small tournaments, I still honestly believe that I can win the WSOP main event and become Poker's next big thing. I think this is one of the things that keeps me playing poker, the chance of making it big. However if I am honest I don't give myself the chance, there must be something wrong with me. The WSOP main event is happening right now, and I never even gave myself a proper chance of qualifying. Why would some one dream of winning that big score, and then not follow through on my dream? It is one of my big flaws, I am sure I am not the only one. In my life I have slipped into being a thinker instead of a do-er. I would really suggest you don't do that. When you see that satellite, enter it, whether it be for an EPT, WPT or that online big Sunday poker tournament! You may just surprise yourself and win, that is of course part of the reason we play! I know I will be playing more satellites and trying to attain my dreams, really doing it!

Now you have taken the plunge, what do you do, you are reaching out of your comfort zone, well great! If you don't push yourself your Poker skills will stagnate and you will revert to being a poor player. It has happened to me on numerous occasions. "Clicketty, click, click" The same monotonous beat and bets. My advice to you would be just relax, play your game, but actually pay attention to everything going on, you may not win this time, but make sure you learn from your experience. Many poker players, better than you and I will have paid for their Poker education, and most likely a lot more money than a few satellite entry fees. This is one of the main reasons why the game is so accessible to people. Previous WSOP ME winners have qualified for $20 odd, and won millions! i think the way to look at it is "someone has to win it, that someone should be me!" There are THOUSANDS of online Poker satellites so get on and go for it! Next time you are watching the EPT, do not sit there and think "Oh, I could do that better than him!" Actually go and prove it!

Good luck guys!

I am an eejit

2009-01-29T19:25:00.002Z

I did a very stupid thing, one thing I said I wouldn't do. I logged on to Ultimate bet while drunk, and threw away 2 buy in's. Not as large as it could have been, but I have been disappointed with myself and I had banned myself from playing, I am just about to play. Wish me luck.

First of 2009

2009-01-07T11:11:00.007Z

Well, Happy new year people! Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New year, I certainly did. I obviously haven't been updating the blog, but this time I actually haven't played any poker either, been busy with festive things and such like. Other news I am going to play snooker for the first time in a few years, looking forward to it as I am playing a mate I haven't seen in a while, should be good, if not to embarrassing on the snooker front :D

Well i have played my first session of 2009, well 20 hands. The player was hugely over aggressive and paid the price. Double up
He then re-loaded for $20, played one $1 odd pot, which I won, then he left. He is definitely added to my buddy list!
Not much to report just thought I would let ALL of my avid readers, which I am sure there are many, that I am still alive :D

Also, become a follower of my blog on the left hand side!

P.S Before the xmas period I played in one of the $5.50 GGE games with Annie Duke playing, unfortunatly nothing happened. I went to the bathroom, as I was finishing up this conversation occoured...
Girlfriend: You have a hand in the poker babe!
Me: What is it?
G/f: a Jack and a ten
Me: What colour? (Easier than what suit to her)
-Short pause-
I came through from the bathroom.
Me: what suit is it?
I looked at the PC and she had thought I had told her to call when I said colour. So she had dumped most of my chips in a raised pot with JTo. Was pretty much the end of me. Think I will sit out next time I need a whizz!

HU quest rules

2008-12-17T12:32:00.005Z

I thought I better lay some actual rules for my HU play or it will just be madness!

1. Sessions will be 150 hands MAXIMUM
2. A maximum of 4 sessions a day, as I feel after thet I will not be concentrating properly
3. 20 Buy ins to step up (100 BB's)
4. Dropping below 15 Buy-ins will force me to step down
5. 1 table at a time and no sneaky MTT's SNG's at the same time, I must fully concentrate as I want to get really good at this
6. Double my money, I really should leave
7. When I feel like stopping I STOP!
8. Have fun and makes some monies!
The next is a hope/ semi-rule
9. Post a graph and my thoughts after every 2.5k hands ish

I realise at UB you can buy in for 200BB, but I don't think I will, I shall always stick to the 100BB buy in.

Thought I would make a table of values for moving up/down.

Level-----Step up to----------Step Down from
NL10------Starting------------Starting
NL 25-----$500----------------$375
NL50------$1000---------------$750
NL100-----$2000---------------$1500
NL200-----$4000---------------$3000
NL400-----$8000---------------$6000
NL600-----$12000--------------$9000

I think that is far enough for now :D
The hardest part of this IMO is the begining as I am starting with like 5 buy-ins and it could go wrong all so very fast.
I took a slight hit last night after taking near a buy in off somebody I lost it and my original buy in to someone else. One bonus is that I should be getting rakeback, well when rakeback.com start getting rake reports from the network again, god damnit hurry up!

Christmas is coming!

2008-12-16T16:38:00.002Z

As christmas was coming up I decided I had to scrape all "spare" money together to buy some people some things for christmas, so I made a few withdrawals from poker sites. Normally I wouldn't mind, but its not for me :( I am not really that selfish... honest :D
I had not realised that I had left Ultimate bet untouched with $45 in it, yes its ultimate bet & Absolute now so I am two times as likely to be cheated. But honestly I am only going to be playing small so will it really matter? I am not a fan of UB tourneys because generally the small buy ins are sats or re-buys, and I'm not generally a fan of those. So I decided that I would play cash with my little find, not FR, or 6-max but heads up! Yes on CEREUS the cereal killer of online poker there are NL 10 HU games. I have a massive 4.5 buy-ins behind me what could posibly go wrong. I mean I never really knew the money was there in the first place, FREEROLLLLLLL HOLLA!
Taking a kind of challange approach(but not really as I am not setting any timeframe to this whatsoever) I will obviously just step up to the next level when I have 15 buyins, and back down when I hit 10. These rules may change, I may wish to make the move up number 20 buyins, I was also considering forcing myself to play 10K hands at each level, which isn't actually that much HU IMO so I think it would be a good move.
I should really be playing something silly like 0.1/0.2 HU but I can't see that being a great game. I bet NL 10 will even have its moments. Hopefully I will remember to come on and blog now and again.
The main thing about this is that I don't really know how to play HU cash, so I am going to be learning as I go so any help from my readers would be great. I will probably post hands on some forums and post feedback on here if it is useful so maybe we can all learn something.

So far I have played circa. 400 hands and I am up woohoo! Bankroll currently sitting at $69.89.
I had a look at my Holdem manager and my bb/100 was something crazy like 69, if only it worked out that way all the time. I may come back later with a few hands, but more likely I am going to fire up a table instead. GL

2008-12-08T14:42:00.002Z

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 843249

Some non-poker ramblings

2008-12-05T12:04:00.003Z

If you are only here for my sub-par poker performance and review this post sadly isn't for you.
I haven't been playing much poker recently due to other commitments and quite frankly not having the passion to play unfortunately. From a very young age I have always been confident in the fact that I will be successful at something, what that something is, to this day I am unsure. I feel that my people skills are extremely good and that my mood can very much be infectious to those around me, I have used these things to my advantage on numerous occasions. The problem comes is where I am unsure what I can do to take advantage of my natural skills, and deciding what would be the best thing for me personally. Many people have said things to me like "you definitely have the power in yourself to make yourself rich, if you wanted it" Well I want it and I'm not rich, that is for sure! I am never sure what they mean, is it a complement on my being and overall aura or is it an insult at my laziness/procrastination? At the current moment in time I am happy studying Civil Engineering and can half see a career in it, but will it make the most of my assets or give me the financial satisfaction I could attain elsewhere? Obviously I am still at an age where my next career may not be my last, in fact its rather unlikely that it is.

I am most definitely not the type of person that believes that money = happiness, but having money definitely helps life run more smoothly. In life I would like to be able to do what I like not have money as a restriction, I am sure many others are of the same thinking, and most will never achieve it. I don't want to be part of that group, I was never one of the many, but a leader of the few. There are things I would like to do, things that everyone dreams of, like being a high stakes poker player funding my life off the next poker bozo that comes along, or be a pop star, I have a good voice and I am able to entertain people singing, but I feel getting a record deal is a step to far.

I recently have decided to cut out shit things in my life that I can go without, lets be honest life is hard enough these days without outside situations/people making more shit. I have basiclly decided to cut a person in my family out of my life because I felt some extra shit previously and at the centre of it was this person. Many people are saying I should talk to them again, forgive and forget you are family etc. Am I wrong to not want bad influences/energy in my life, no matter who the person is?

Thanks for reading, the comments feature is there, please use it :)

First Step of a Month Long Journey

2008-08-28T17:26:00.006+01:00

Well this is the outcome of the first tournament in my little challenge, I will probably blog the latter tournaments in less detail as it wares off, but bare with me through this report. Obviously comments suggestions would be much appreciated.

Tournament 1: 103650909
Buy-in:$3+ 0.30
Runners: 1392
Finish:91st
Payout: $6.69
+/- = +$3.39
Places Paid: 243
Top 3: $783.01, 474.82, 275,62

I was placed on table 27, it was playing loose, players calling flop/turn bets with AQ high and no draws. Levels 1 and 2 were uneventful, I limped and folded to raise and re-raises a couple times. In level 3 I play the first hand, I open raise from Hi-jack +1 with AdKd, and Laggy on the button re-raises all-in for 993, I of course call expecting to be ahead and he shows KcJc. The board missed us all so I take down the 2k pot.
Just before the end of level 3 I was still on the same table, there were two tight players both of them were playing less than 10% of hands, both directly to my right. I could not believe the way one of them played KK, then made a set on the flop then proceeded to get the minimum possible, can anyone explain this play?

Poker Stars, $3 + $0.30 NL Hold'em Tournament, 25/50 Blinds, 9 Players
[url=http://www.leggopoker.com]LeggoPoker.com[/url] - [url=http://www.leggopoker.com/hh]Hand History Converter[/url]

CO: 2,136
BTN: 2,365
SB: 4,275
BB: 1,685
UTG: 2,702
Hero (UTG+1): 2,293
UTG+2: 2,523
MP1: 2,585
MP2: 2,150

[b]Pre-Flop:[/b] (75) 7:diamond: T:heart: dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG calls 50, 2 folds, MP1 calls 50, MP2 calls 50, 2 folds, SB calls 25, BB checks

[b]Flop:[/b] (250) 4:diamond: 7:spade: K:club: (5 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks

[b]Turn:[/b] (250) 9:heart: (5 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, [color=red]MP1 bets 50[/color], 2 folds, BB calls 50, UTG calls 50

[b]River:[/b] (400) A:heart: (3 Players)
BB checks, UTG checks, MP1 checks

[b]Results:[/b] 400 Pot
[i]BB showed T:spade: Q:diamond: (high card Ace) and LOST (-100 NET)[/i]
[i]UTG showed K:spade: K:diamond: (three of a kind, Kings) and WON 400 (+300 NET)[/i]
[i]MP1 mucked 5:diamond: 5:club: and LOST (-100 NET)[/i]

I was then moved to table 1, I hoped this was a good omen. At the beginning of level 4, blinds 50/100 I had 2,433 chips. I would like to have had a few more situations that I could have got involved, but I am still in the game and hoping to get a few hands to play.

I had made the first break with almost doubling my starting stack, 2743 chips with the blinds going up to 75/150 immediately after the break. I like the stars 15 minute blind structures, especially in the guaranteed tournaments where you start with 3k chips, so this was slightly faster than what I had been playing recently. Same situation as 15 minutes before, still alright stack-wise, but would definitely like some hands/situations to help build my stack soon. I was currently 301st with 520 players remaining.

The second table seemed to be of the same make-up of the first however it began to tighten up dramatically, especially after the first break. I did try to take advantage of this, but every time I made a move someone either had a hand or was just playing me. Then came a hand of small bets and calls that I never really understood the involvement of one of the players.

Poker Stars, $3 + $0.30 NL Hold'em Tournament, 75/150 Blinds, 8 Players
[url=http://www.leggopoker.com]LeggoPoker.com[/url] - [url=http://www.leggopoker.com/hh]Hand History Converter[/url]

BTN: 5,975
SB: 962
BB: 1,950
UTG: 3,785
UTG+1: 5,045
MP1: 3,065
Hero (MP2): 2,293
CO: 4,130

[b]Pre-Flop:[/b] (225) J:spade: 3:club: dealt to Hero (MP2)
3 folds, MP1 calls 150, 2 folds, [color=red]BTN raises to 300[/color], 2 folds, MP1 calls 150

[b]Flop:[/b] (825) 3:heart: K:club: K:spade: (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
MP1 checks, [color=red]BTN bets 300[/color], MP1 calls 300

[b]Turn:[/b] (1,425) 5:spade: (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
MP1 checks, [color=red]BTN bets 150[/color], MP1 calls 150

[b]River:[/b] (1,725) 2:club: (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
[color=red]MP1 bets 150[/color], BTN calls 150

[b]Results:[/b] 2,025 Pot
[i]BTN mucked 7:heart: A:heart: and LOST (-900 NET)[/i]
[i]MP1 showed 9:club: 9:heart: (two pair, Kings and Nines) and WON 2,025 (+1,125 NET)[/i]

The highlight of my level 5 was recieving a walk, seriously. The blinds were now 100/200 and I was floundering on 2143. The 10 BB push/fold situation is upon me. I got two Pushes through. Then The limits went up to 175/250/25 ante, I was REALLY strugling now with 2445. I was sitting 265th out of 306 remaining. I could play to scrape the money, but I don't really want to play that way, my range will be oppened and I will be pushing, hopefully with a chance of doubling up. There is a player on this table "trusty1" who runs the clock down EVERY decision, and accepts timebank as soon as he is offered, sometimes he uses it sometimes he doesn't. I would say it was because we were nearing the bubble, but he has been doing it since I sat at the table. It didn't annoy me personally, but I'm sure it aggitated some, plus it used his timebank on straightforrward decisions, seemed stange to me. It got folded to me on Hi-Jack +1, so I pushed with 54o, everyone folded, I had TT the next two hands in a row, the first everyone folded. The second hand I was called by a short stack all-in with JQs, the three hands gave me some breathing room and put me on 5111.

The tournament moved onto level 8 with blinds 150/300/25 ante with sat just a smidge over 5k and 158th out of 253, so I really should cash as long as I don't do something silly. I understand people want to avoid missing the cash this close and that is why they use their timebank, but what happens if they survive and are put to a real decision later on which is worth a lot more money. By all means time out, but why waste your 60 second timebank?

And the bubble has burst, less than a minute before the second break. Due to the payout structure I have decided to get really LAGGY and try and either get competitive chip wise or leave with a small profit. To get double 243rd prize you have to come 63rd, so there is no point, in my opinion playing around for a couple of dollars. I now have a smidgen of 4000 with the blinds at 200/400/50 ante, so again it is push or fold stage. With 1050 in the pot before any action has taken place it makes it most definitely worth stealing! I had pushed 3 hands, the I pushed KK under the gun, and was called by QQ and I caught the Full house, which put me over 10k. I was comfortable stack wise, but I still wanted to push on fast or go out, purely because of the structure.

Level 9 was upon us with 300/600/50 ante with me just a shade under 10k, the second hand of the level I was dealt KK again, unfortunatly it was folded round, but I was happy to pick up the 1350. The game is becoming very repetitive, which is as to be expected with the high blinds.
With the blinds at 400/800/50 I got involved with AQ against a big stacks AK and went out, it was unfortunate, but I am glad to get off to a small but winning start.

(Insert witty title here)

2008-08-28T13:57:00.007+01:00

To be honest I got a bit bored of playing STT's, this may have been down to the fact of me not winning enough to show anything or losing enough for it to hurt. After a few small couple hundred buck wins I decided to withdraw from stars and enjoy my poker winnings, something I believe everyone should do, it feels great, even if it is just a meal out with the bird or a night out on the razz.

I love setting goals for myself, so I am going to set one for the month september 2008.

***Increase my Pokerstars account balance from circa $150 to $1000 by Midnight Wednesday 1st October, playing MTT's and MTT SNG's (especially the 180 man SNG's)***

This will probably seem like a really easy goal for some, but I find it hard to get that consistancy, and I want to make that $1000 and buy me a new PC, Laptop or XBOX 360 Elite. I do however find setting Monetary goals for poker winnings a little strange, as I am unsure of the pressures it puts you under. I am not, hopefully, going to play cash with on stars in the next month, and play realistic sized tournaments, probably will be a 5% job. As I said before I think i will also avoid STT's due to them becoming a bit stale for me, I did enjoy playing them for a while but after 50 I got REALLY bored. I do have a problem of cashing but not getting deep in tournaments, which I hope to rectify. I have been given confidence by attaining a 1st and 2nd in consecutive 180-man SNG's, hopefully I can achieve that in a bigger field very soon. The one bonus to my STT challange, was that I seem to have lost the fish on my sharkscope, was finding it hard to shake off my learning/gash play.

I always say this but I will TRY update this blog a couple times a week, I will be placing a notepad next to me to note things throughout the month and update here periodically. I will need to get a few wins on the board fast so I can play the $11 $30K guarenteed on stars again, as I have cashed a few times, but the all to familiar story for me of getting 2-4 times my buy-in back. If I cam top 3 or four in this I would complete my challange in a oner :D.

I am still playing on Full Tilt, rakeback rules, there SNG's not so much. As I mentioned in a previous post there levels are quicker, but there are smaller jumps, I wasn't sure which structure is better suited for me. No I believe stars is much slower, therefore suits me better, Full Tilt's structure just jumps a little to rapidly, even with the extra levels.

EDIT: The challenge has just got a little more interesting, my good friend Pizzi will be joining me in "The Race To A Grand" You can follow his exploits on his blog, there is a link on the left, if he ever updates!

The bugger is back

2008-07-16T00:57:00.003+01:00

I haven't played much poker at all for a long time now, I'm not sure why, a number of reasons I guess. The main ones were probably just the fact I had completely lost interested in the game, not even wanting to read Pokerplayer mag, which I used to rip open as soon as it came through my door. Also the fact that the small stakes wins just weren't rewarding enough.

So now I want to get back into the game again, so I have decided to go back to my poker beginnings, 9-handed SNG's. I am just going to play a bundle(not sure how many yet)of $5 SNG's on Stars and FT. I am also interested to see how the two sites compare, as stars have longer levels, but FT have more levels stuck in there. The issue of no rake back on Stars is an issue as I am unsure how much I can gain from their benefit program only getting 3 FPP a game. I will, in the main be playing 2 games at a time which I hope will keep me busy but also allow me to get a little thinking time and get to know the players.

Well I have played 8 so far, with a small profit, bubbling 3 with 3 ITM finishes also, nothing to write home about. I will make an update when I have a slightly larger amount of games.

Spunkmonkeys!

2008-04-16T14:19:00.005+01:00

Yes again, I haven't updated in a while. Well anyway lets get down to the nitty gritty! I have been playing NL10 (6-max) on stars with some success, with over 6k hands I was running at over 7 bb/100 hands. But then I went on a 5+buy-in downswing, which doesn't sound like much but Fu*k me it hurts. Its not the monetary value I just hate losing to be honest. I am 99% sure some of it could have been prevented but I did have a few runner runner pots lost, which put me on tilt, the shame! So now my 7.5k+ sample (ok its small) is running over 3BB/100 hands, which just sucks. I also made a small move onto Full tilt to eventually try the software and get some rake back, I wasn't successful or unsuccessful, has been uneventful. I think I will move back to SNG's for a couple days just to steady myself again, I'm not sure about anyone else but I find in SNG's there are a lot more clear cut decisions and easier decisions than on the ring games. I want to get 30k hands logged in my PokerTracker so I really need to keep my cool. I will happily play the 30k all at NL10, but if I make enough money I will probably move up. So far in my PT I have noticed that I play more than anywhere else, in middle position, I think I can justify some of that by wanting to be first to act(i.e first to bet wins) I also discovered I am a losing player from the button, not quite sure why as yet, but I will be investigating!

Check the downswing! Definatly needing rectified ASAP!

Not much else to note, I did play my first Cards chat game on stars which I came 2nd in, which is obviously nice. In the past month I also came third in a HORSE MTT on stars, I only decided to play because I have really got into Razz and the low SNGs aren't very play friendly! When I get my bankroll a little more swollen I will definatly be hitting the Razz Cash!

Change of pace

2008-01-11T04:48:00.000Z

I have been playing mostly cash for the recent history, and fancy a little change, so while I am continuing my micro cash challenge, I will have a little run at $4 180-man SNG's. These games seem pretty soft, at this moments in time I have just passed the bubble and I am sitting 10th out of 18 remaining in my first of this challenge. Hopefully I will make something decent out of it. To be honest I am extremly happy that I have cashed at all, as tonight I was staying up to finish coursework, due in but a few hours, yes I am a shoddy excuse for astudent, well I suppose we all do this sort of thing... I think! I have around 20 BB's and I am card dead, its really tempting to just pull some moves, purely because of sickness I am whitnessing at the table, but I am managingish to keep my calm, just now.

Finaly we reach the final table, I am sitting a long way back in 7th, however I still have 20 BB. I managed to float around that level, then this hand happened:
Poker Stars, $4 + $0.40 NL Hold'em Tournament, 500/1,000 Blinds, 8 Players

LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

UTG: 50,599
UTG+1: 11,023
MP1: 52,558
MP2: 59,476
CO: 40,224
BTN: 17,854
Hero (SB): 16,321
BB: 6,745

Pre-Flop: (2,400) Js Jh dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to 4,000, 5 folds, Hero raises to 16,221 and is All-In, BB folds, UTG+1 calls 6,923 and is All-In

Flop: (23,746) As 2s Kc (2 Players - 2 are All-In)

Turn: (23,746) 9d (2 Players - 2 are All-In)

River: (23,746) Tc (2 Players - 2 are All-In)

Results: 23,746 Pot
UTG+1 showed 5s 5c (a pair of Fives) and LOST (-11,023 NET)
Hero showed Js Jh (a pair of Jacks) and WON 23,746 (+12,723 NET)

Im pretty sure the push pre-flop was the right move, obviously the right result! Another interesting hand:

Poker Stars, $4 + $0.40 NL Hold'em Tournament, 600/1,200 Blinds, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

BTN: 85,398
SB: 10,058
BB: 69,625
UTG: 49,420
Hero (MP): 23,444
CO: 24,255

Pre-Flop: (2,675) As Qd dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG raises to 2,400, Hero calls 2,400, 5 folds

Flop: (7,475) Qs 5h Js (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
UTG checks, Hero bets 3,600, UTG calls 3,600

Turn: (14,675) 2d (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: (14,675) Jd (2 Players - 1 is All-In)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Results: 14,675 Pot
UTG showed 7h 7c (two pair, Jacks and Sevens) and LOST (-6,125 NET)
Hero showed As Qd (two pair, Queens and Jacks) and WON 14,675 (+8,550 NET)

I know it was SUPER weak checking down but I really felt I could have been beat. The thing you don't see here is the Insta-check/call, and after the min-raise preflop, it just stank of a big hand, bigger than mine. Not much happened from then on in until:

Poker Stars, $4 + $0.40 NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,000/2,000 Blinds, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com Hand History Converter

BTN: 122,494
SB: 14,932
BB: 117,596
Hero (UTG): 14,978

Pre-Flop: (3,800) 8s Ts dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to 14,778 and is All-In, BTN folds, SB calls 13,732 and is All-In, BB folds

Flop: (32,264) 2d 9d 2s (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (32,264) Jh (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (32,264) 4c (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 32,264 Pot
SB showed As Qs (a pair of Deuces) and WON 32,264 (+17,332 NET)
Hero showed 8s Ts (a pair of Deuces) and LOST (-14,932 NET)

I had to push soon and I thought, no time like the present.... It backfired.
But never the less 4th is a nice way to start off!

Poker

2008-01-03T16:21:00.001Z

Its a wonderful and frustrating game isn't it? I still wouldn't change it for the world, even when things do go horribly wrong. As I stated in my last post I have started a bankroll cash challenge type thing, boy its tough to stick too! I was running pretty bad and I did decide to play a couple tourneys to get my confidence back, which was going to plan, until I decided to re-raise a maniac all in on the bubble with TT, his AK hit on the flop and never looked back. Even though looking back it was a brave and probably the correct move, it shattered my confidence to tiny almost invisible shards. At this point I decided t stop playing for a few days, and found a copy of Risk II and attempted to take over the world. *Cue Pinky and the Brain Theme tune*

I eventually turned back to poker and began to assess the damage, the outlook was bleak. I had lost nearly 7 buy-ins with no return, yes at $5 PL THE SHAME! In the cold light of day I had made some amazingly stupid plays at the wrong time, but I did have various set over set and even a house over house situation, what made the house over house situation worse was that I held the baninizer, and lost. Not only had I lost my dignity, self-confidence, but my all important confidence in the Bani. Things did not look good. Where could I go from here? Well here it is where the most amazing thing that has ever happened. I played like a self-confessed complete and utter donkey and WON! There I was playing away and I was dealt QQ, I'll just post the history, I still laugh at how I played it, and even more-so that I won.

Bakti [Hold 'em] (0.02|0.05 Pot Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- yanne72 sitting in seat 1 with $0.88
- bvp sitting in seat 2 with $6.97 [Dealer]
- UKPP sitting in seat 3 with $6.75
- LittleMage sitting in seat 4 with $11.85
- ujoty sitting in seat 5 with $5.00
- lioz sitting in seat 6 with $1.83

UKPP posted the small blind - $0.02
LittleMage posted the big blind - $0.05
** Dealing card to UKPP: Queen of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds
ujoty folded
lioz folded
yanne72 called - $0.05
bvp called - $0.05
UKPP raised - $0.25
LittleMage called - $0.25
yanne72 called - $0.25
bvp folded

** Dealing the flop: 8 of Diamonds, 9 of Diamonds, 8 of Spades
UKPP bet - $0.50
LittleMage raised - $2.30
yanne72 folded
UKPP called - $2.30

** Dealing the turn: 4 of Hearts
UKPP checked
LittleMage bet - $2.70
UKPP called - $2.70

** Dealing the river: 3 of Diamonds
UKPP went all-in - $1.52
LittleMage called - $1.52
UKPP shows: Queen of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds
LittleMage mucks:
UKPP wins $13.15 from the main pot

I mean come on! What did they put me on that they could beat. And the same goes for me WTF was I thinking? I have played a little with LittleMage (no pun intended) and they are an extremely loose and aggressive player, but not even that excuses that shocker IMO. I am however glad this happened, as it has pushed me somewhat in the right direction, long may it continue!

Update

2007-12-24T15:19:00.001Z

No updates for a while since I have been busay with uni as well as the obligitory christmas gash you have to do, so here goes.
Well I played that £30 game at circus whatever date it was, was a good day out, met a couple people from THMF, including Rob who was a godsend in a self-deal tourny! The very first hand I looked down at TT in middle position I raised to four times the big blind and recieved one caller from late position. The flop came KxT (excuse me for being vague on details it was a while ago) I checked-raised a fair chunk on the flop and was called, the turn brought a K to complete my full house, I think it went check check, and then the Ace on the river where I bet out and was re-raised all in and insta-called(I couldnt have really folded, so unsure why he re-raised). anyway I took that pot down and that was it for me on the winning front tbh. I had AQ and made a straight and got the guy all-in too, he turned over AQ. Later on I was dealt QQ and managed to raise enough to get the short-stack to push, he turned over QQ also. I think on another day I would have been at the final table with a cigar in my mouth (despite the fact I don't smoke)
Online I have decided to test my ability to stick to propper bankroll management and I am starting on 2c/5c PL Holdem 6max. I have made a few wanders up cash tables before but always under rolled and thats when varience comes and bites you on the testicles. I am sticking to 20-max buy-ins to play a level, and 30 to two-table it, hopefully these will stop me from losing all my cash! I have been up down and all around, but currently I am up, which is a bonus. I am going to be making a few videos and shoving them on pokertube, nothing too serious of course, more just to entertain and hopefully I can look back on them when I am sitting on $200/400 tables!
My username is hutchylad on there, but here is a link to one vid I have already made, enjoy!
http://www.pokertube.com/ShowMovie.aspx?MovieID=9a2ba442-b634-44d7-a413-37f99c1f8640

Also I hope everyone has a great Christmas and An even better new year!

MTT Final table

2007-12-03T12:17:00.000Z

Well I haven't played much poker at all, but I did play a $5 MTT last night, im sure you have guessed I Final tabled which is always nice. I had played pretty well all night tbh got unlucky, but I got REALLY lucky once as well. Not long after the bubble had burst, there was a small EP raise and a call from two loosey goosey short-medium stackers, for some strange reason I re-raised them all-in with Tens, my thinking at the time was I can either take it down or isolate. They BOTH called and turned over AA and QQ, so I was in for halfish my stack with roughly a 16% chance to win, thankfully I was smiled upon and granted a ten on the flop, sick but it was nice. At the final table I was up and down like a yo-yo with the high blinds and being outdrawn by short stack allins. I eventually went out in 7th for $64, pleased I made it but still disappointed it never went further. I am unsure of my play that chucked me out, I had roughly 12 BB's and with antes my M was pretty low, so I had decided to push in a position. I was on the button it was folded round to me with 78off (yes, I instantly thought Baninize, which probably didn't help) so I pushed my stack in only to get called by the Big blind with AQ. I hit a 7 on the flop, but unfortunately there was a Queen as well, and thats all she wrote. The play has been annoying me, but I am pretty sure it was right to do, because how often will the blinds have anything? I also picked up a small cash in the $3 $1.5K Guaranteed as well, which was 6-max so I was even more pleased with that. However this time I don't think my exit was my fault at all. An extremely loose aggressive Lithuanian (Not that this had anything to do with it, just at the time I wondered if he was a hearts FC fan) had raised UTG his standard 4 times the BB, I re raised all in for roughly 18 BB's from SB with AQ suited and he insta-called and showed A5, YES! The flop came 233, I was nervous now, and rightfully so because a 4 came on the turn and I was dead. But as I say I cashed, which was really good as I never seem to do as well in shorthanded MTT's or even when you are down to the last two tables waiting for one or two to get knocked out for the final, hopefully I have fixed or at least part-fixed my errors.
Well I hope to be playing the officepoker.net £30 freeze on Saturday at circus in Edinburgh, come along if you can. I think if I play the way I have been I am looking good for a result.

Regulation not prohibition

2007-10-26T13:05:00.000+01:00

I think it's time the UK Government stepped in and helped out the online poker industry. The Absolute poker fiasco was a big bombshell to drop on the whole community, if you don't know what I mean read here (UKPL) I obviously wouldn't be one necessarily in favour of the taxation of poker winnings, but if it stops the online game from becoming completely corrupt then I would opt in. All in all I would say the large majority of online players are not cheats, even though with the piles of chips in front of them it looks like it, this sort of thing enrages me to be honest. I play for fun and to try and pick up a little bit of money, being a student it always helps, but imagine if you relied on your poker winnings and some *insert appropriate word here* was using his "account 363" to take away my livelihood I would be extremely annoyed. Less than a couple weeks after the absolute poker scandal, Betfair have sent emails telling certain users that they have lost money to a cheat and will be refunded the total am mounts, however details of this scandal have been kept under wraps "due to legal reasons" In other words, they would be embarrassed if the truth were to come out in my opinion. The UK government will most definitely need to have some sort of discussions on the matter, I can only hope they decide to go with the side of regulation, rather than the seemingly insane step of the American government to fully ban online poker.

Neglect

2007-10-18T21:42:00.000+01:00

Yes, my blog is suffering severely from it, but so has my poker for the past month or so. This has purely been down to the fact that I have been busy with other things in my life, starting University for instance (BSC Civil Engineering, just for those who are slightly interested, and it's going well :D) The little bit of poker I have played is on gutshot where I started with my $1.50 I won from everyone's a winner( A piss-poor performance in the Sunday game prevented me from winning anymore) I have managed to build up to just above $20 with a mixture of a small MTT cash and Turbo(have stayed away from super turbo) 5-seater SNG's, mainly down to my time constraints. Even though the way the cards fall in these play a MASSIVE part I'm pretty sure if you pick your spots and play pretty much push/fold strategy you can make a small profit, and profit is what this game is about. I wouldn't call this a Jesus challenge because I have definitely not been sticking to any sort of bankroll management, nor have I set any goals. It would just be nice to build a little bankroll for myself and have the satisfaction of watching it grow. I have also been trying to get out and play some live poker but things keep popping up, like manflu, I really wanted to play but I knew if I played and made some silly mistake due to my ill state of mind I would have really been annoyed at myself. Still not figured out if my inability to accept mediocrity in myself is a flaw or not. Oh well, onwards and upwards, hope to be on the felt soon.

P.S the manflu is fading away

Bodog's Players Choice

2007-08-17T23:26:00.000+01:00

I fancied a tournament and there one of these sats going for 100 Player PTS in 10 minutes so up I joined. There were 212 runners which meant 12 people got the 29 tournament credits to enter a Quarter final satellite. Thankfully my first level was extremely uneventful. Halfway through the second level I doubled up through an AQ vs. QJ confrontation with a loose donk-like character, I was never behind.
With half an hour gone I had only played that one above hand, I was receiving semi-playable hands, but out of position, or in position but acting after a raise, it was somewhat frustrating. After forty minutes of play I play my second hand, Ace seven suited, I make a four times the big blind raise after one limper and the blinds plus the original under the gun limper. The board does not look good with the straight draw and a possibility of a made flush, I had to surrender. Do in position raises not mean anything anymore? I am most definitely moving over over to the school of thought which believes that “Under the gun is the new button.” Nobody respects a late position raise anymore, which is a real shame in my opinion as I feel this takes away a large part of strategic play, late position steals. However just because late position steals are heading towards being out of the question, Early steals are becoming run of the mill in games everywhere.
I lost around 1K chips in a pot where a short stack pushed on a board of Q44, with AQ I was happy to call. He turned over QJ, and the turn came J, so he made a better two pair. Within a few hands I was back in the action with KT, I managed to catch a full house when my opponent caught Broadway and picked up a 2K pot. The poker gods rewarded my play the very next hand with AK, I hit a king on the flop and never looked back, I eventually hit trips and knocked out a short stack. The pot took me to a shade below 5K. I was dealt pocket 9’s in middle position, so I put in a tester raise, two called, the flop came ten high, which is a pretty good flop for 9’s. The worrying thing was that the one player at the table who had me covered decided to bet half the pot, I thought and elected to call. The turn brought a and he repeated his half pot bet, this time I decided to re-raise to find out where I was, and he folded, there’s my answer. Pocket Kings were my next port of call, however I only picked up a small pot. It was then time for the first break, I was sitting pretty with 6.4K with the average was 3.5K and blinds at 50/100. Only 89 players remained from the original 212. The first half hour after the break was horrific, I had absolutely nothing, a few well timed steals maintained my stack around 6.5K. The most frustrating thing was continually being moved tables (the downside to MTT’s) From 45 minutes of boredom to sheer madness, My Jacks held up against a loose big stack nine ten, and stealing a lot of pots put me on 16.7K at the second break. Thirty Three runners remain, blinds will be 200/400/50, placing over one thousand chips in the middle before the cards are dealt. The tables went crazy, all-ins all over the place. My mindset going into this crucial period was all wrong, I began to remember bad times of the bubble period. I am a strong believer that half of the battle is in the mind, so there goes half the battle. After a long struggle I was eliminated in 18th place. This was so frustrating as my bad bubble period run continues. Anyway I will be playing again soon, I will try and sort this run!

Whats going on

2007-08-02T12:32:00.001+01:00

Well starting off with the tournament at circus on Saturday, it was a good day. There were 69 runners with top ten being paid. We kicked off about quater past two, had our first casulty within a ten minutes, thankfully wasn't me. Nothing too eventfull happened before the first break (2 and a half hours) I won quite a few pots, without showdowns, standard hands like AQ AJ etc. I ended up at the break with more than double starting stack of 7K and 5K above average. I was extremly happy with my play up to that point, hadn't put a foot wrong, took my oppertunities, I couldn't really have asked for anything else.
I was moved tables shortly after the break, I had pushed my stack up to around 23K and was a little upset about having to move because I felt I had the number of a few players and could have built my stack a bit more. I was sat across from a lady who had probably about 60K chips and a man to my left who had around 30K, the rest of the table were feeling the pinch with the rising blinds and now added pressure of antes. I tried to get involved once or twice with standard raises, hands like KQ AJ but was strongly re-raised on both occasions, but decided to fold. I played a hand against a shortish stack woman, who had me really woried about my top and third pair, but I had to call. which virtually eliminated her. She only had second pair, but I seriously thought I was beat. Then I was dealt KK in the cutoff, it was raised from early position, I decided to re-raise all in for another 12K, which was insta-called, I was covered just. Fortunatly my opponent turned over Queens and my Kings held up. I was then up to around 45K with the blinds 1500/3000 300 ante, I was moved back to my original table with a few new faces obviously as the field was thining fast.
There was a drunk guy at my table, giving a lot of chat and banter, and I watched him single handedly demolish one persons stack, who must have been among the chip leads in two decisive hands. I wasn't sure he was as drunk as he made out, definatly one to be avoided. We were fast aproaching the final table, with my tight image I was able to steal pots that I had no right being in at all in all honesty and I was managing to stay above 40K.
It was bubble time, eleven players left, and I was moved tables again and sat between two ladies each with big stacks. Every time I caught a semi raisable hand one of these two got in first, and the hands were definatly not re-raising material. Now with the blinds at 2000/4000 and 400 ante I was strugling, but there were a few worse off than me. But I had decided today I would comit poker suicide. I was in the big blind with KQsuited and there was a raise from a player who had been entering a lot of pots, it was folded to me, so I pushed over the top all in, She virtually had to call for her last 18K and did and turned over a A9off, niether hand improved and I was crippled. That was virtually the end of the tournament for me, I went out in 11th on the bubble. I was just more gutted that I had played for near seven hours then blow it on KQ, I hope to play these office poker tournaments again in the near future as I definatly can see myself winning one.

Since then I have had a few online sessions and have ran into a rough period playing 5-max cash games I ran into set over set and then my full house beaten by quads. And totally lost my attitude So I have decided to take a break and haven't played for a day or so.

anyway I hope to be back at the tables feeling good very soon

Saturday 28th July

2007-07-26T15:52:00.000+01:00

Well as I previously mentioned I am playing in a charity £30 Freeze at Circus Edinburgh for Cancer Research UK on Saturday (28th July '07) and there are still a few places left, there are 64 registered so far so be quick. Goto www.officepoker.net for more details.

Bodog $2500 Guarenteed

2007-07-24T16:08:00.000+01:00

As I said In the previous post I am feeling good right now about my poker so I entered this $10 Freeze. There are 214 runners which gives a small overlay of $360. In the first few hands I picked up AQ of clubs and I re-raised a small raise and a call to a pot sized bet and received 3 callers, the flop came 3Q6 rainbow and I was first to act so I put out a small 1/4 pot bet, unfortunately nobody called so I picked up the 600 pot right there.
We are now just over halfway through level 2 and I am chip lead on my table with 2,470 chips after picking up a small pot with the rivered nut flush, my opponent let me in extremely cheap and I was glad to hit it against what I believed to be flopped trip tens. Shortly before the end of level 2 I limped in late position with T7 of spades, the flop came 8c 9s Qs, a pot sized bet of 100 was made by a loosey goosey player and with one other caller I also called. The turn brought 6d giving me a straight, but obviously not the best one. This is where the pot got interesting, the third player in the pot bet 250, to find out where I am I decided to re-raise to 650(pot size) the loosey goosey player calls and the third player re-raises only another 150, leaving himself 700ish chips. This bet had me a little confused, but I decided if he had the better straight good luck to him, I obviously had the re-draw to the flush, so rightly or wrongly I pushed all in(an extra 1000ish) the loosey goosey player calls for her remaining 555 chips and the third player folds (WTF?!?!) My opponent turns over Q8 for two pair and is drawing virtually dead. The river is Jd giving me the Queen high Straight and a 3.8K pot, this lifted me just above the 5K chips mark. Obviously I am not complaining however that play by the third player confused me, he was eliminated shortly afterwards.
The blinds have just been raised to 30/60 for the last level before the first break, I am sitting with 4.9K chips and have just been moved tables where I am second in chip behind what seems to be a fairly loose player who has just doubled up with 43 suited hitting a straight against trip 6's. My observations of the player were correct as he was eliminated a few minutes later after losing 2 hands which were all in pre-flop where he lost with AToff against JJ then with QdTd against AK.
It is just after the break, there are 103 remaining from the original 214 and I have just picked up a 2k pot with AA and I am now sitting with 7.8K chips with the average around 3.5K. I made a pot sized bet with AK and I was re-raised all in by a short stack, I called and he turned over 77 and I failed to improve and lost about 1.6K on that hand.
I was dealt KsQs in middle position with no action before me and then Shortstack to my left re-raised me all-in just about double and a bit my original bet, I reluctantly call. My opponent turns over AcKc and we both hit the King on the flop so I lose due to my kicker problems. The very next hand I was dealt AA there were 4 limpers so I decide to put a pot sized bet out there then somebody made the insta-all-in move and I rejoiced! I made the call (obviously) and he turns over AK and again I rejoice, neither hand improved and the pocket rockets stood up! This is the unbelievable part, the very next hand (seriously) I was dealt KK, yet again, there were limpers, and again I made that pot sized raise. This time it was a delayed all-in however, made me think of Aces, but I couldn't possibly fold my Kings. Thankfully there was no Ace from space to save his miserable looking AQoff and I was up above 13K chips which put me right up near the top of the leaderboard.
I was then moved twice in two minutes and took two big blinds one after the other, which I was not best pleased about. However I saved my tournament life in the next hand, I was dealt KK and there was a short stack all in (2.6K) and a call from the only guy at the table who had me covered, so I decided to just call. The flop came 6 A 8, yes the dreaded Ace from Space, the other guy bet out 1K, which seemed a bit strange considering the pot was already 7K+, so I reluctantly folded my Kings. The short stack all in turned over pocket tens, but Waters the table leader had pocket Aces! So I had infact dodged an early exit, which would have been amazingly disapointing. A few hands later I was dealt AcTc and made a pre-flop raise, which was re-raised all-in by a medium stack, and swiftly called by the table leader again, I passed my AT and thank goodness for that, Waters caught trip Queens with Ace Queen, and I would have been out of the tournament again. I was begining to feel like a cat with 9 lives, I may have lost a few thousand chips but its a lot better than it could/should have been. I was moved tables twice again, which is getting slightly frustrating, I was sitting on 9.5K chips with the blinds at 200/400 and an ante of 50 I was begining to feel the heat.
We are now on the second break with 33 runners left, 27 of which get paid. I am really looking for back to back cashes here, I feel I deserve it also. The blinds have just be raised to 300/600/75, which puts 1,500 chips in the middle before any action happens, I am starting to feel the heat with 8.3K to my name, but thankfully there are a quite a few shorter stacks around. Finally the bubble burst and it was on my table, AQ getting out flopped by QJ which hit broadway. I really need a double up or two fast if I am to make it any further in this tourney, however hands like 48off are unlikley to help in that respect. I was dealt 99 on the button and UTG raised to 2k, I was pushing my 6K in whatever happened. He showed me Q8, and then proceded to flop two pair then the house came with the queen on the turn. I am pleased with the fact that I cashed, and dodged some big bullets there just prior to the bubble, which really pleased me. However I am still baffled as to what I need to do to get that big win.
Hopefully it will come on Saturday as I am playing a £30 charity freezeout for cancer research at the new Circus casino in Edinburgh. Should be good, hopefully I can come up with the goods also!

Bodog $1k Guarenteed

2007-07-24T09:08:00.000+01:00

This $2 re buy tourney sure isn't glamorous but a $300 first prize shouldn't be sniffed at. There were only 186 runners, so there would need to be 314 re buys/add on's to prevent some sort of overlay. The re buy period as usual for me was a bit rubbish it was a card famine for me took 2 re-buys, and I managed to some how scrape some chips together literally in the last few minutes before the break, this made it worth it taking the add-on which pushed me above average chips, which I was extremely pleased with considering the plight I was in 15 minutes previously. I always feel I have an edge in the freeze-out stage of a re buy tourney over the majority of my opponents due to rubbish play in the first hour that continues into the freeze. With a few in position pot sized raises I take down a few pots and elevate my stack a little higher. Then I receive pocket 8's UTG +1 I again elect to make a pot sized raise, and this time I receive two callers, one shortish stack in the cut off and the medium stacked Small Blind. The flop comes x J 8, with two hearts, The small blind bets half the pot, and I decide to make an all in shove which both opponents call. Fortunately neither were on the flush draw, as that hit the very next card, the short stack just called for the ride with ace high (which I would have done in his spot with the amount of chips in the pot) and the small blind turned over AJ and neither improved, that pot almost tripled me up. With the help of a few blind on blind confrontations with the player to my left, who called my preflop raises on his Big blind with ANYTHING and then folded on the flop every time but once, where he folded on the turn, I kept my head nicely above water. I hit a very shaky hand, the button limped in and I checked my blind with 8 6, the flop comes 5 7 8 rainbow, great giving me top pair and an up and down straight draw. I bet half the pot, and the button min raised me(as I have seen him do time and time again, I hate Min raises by the way) So i decided to push all in, I was insta-called. "Bugger!" He had slow played the straight with 4 6(Why he limped in with 4 6 when the chips were so precious is beyond me) I failed to improve with a 9 so he had doubled up through me and taking a third of my stack in the process. This happened at the wrong time, 26 remaining with 18 places paid. The signs were not looking good, I have finished around the bubble in the last 5 mtts I have played. In the end I just make it through and with 8 BB's I push in on the button with AQ only to get called by pocket tens which improved to a set on the flop, setting me out in 18th position. I was partially relieved to finally have cashed, although I felt the result should have been better.
I can really feel a big result coming soon, I am consistently getting near to or in the money, I think I just need that final push and a little bit of luck in the latter stages to get me that win.

New Game

2007-06-10T10:36:00.001+01:00

Well since we last spoke I had recived my $100 on pokerstars and played away happily, for a week or so at least, then a combination of varience and bad decision making has blown some money.
So I have decided to change my game for a bit and play 6-max NLHE cash, pretty much exclusivly. So far it has been good, which surprised me a little as I play pretty a tight solid game and didnt think that would be suited to Short handed. Although I have seemed to naturally loosen up, which is annoying in one respect, as I cant seem to loosen myself up when I want to. Its only micro stakes, so no great profits (but theres the word I like profit) I am enjoying my poker again, which is great because I was losing interest for no apparent reason.
The reason I said that I would play short handed cash "almost exclusivly" is that obviously if I fancy a tournament I will give it a go. Also if I get offered to play in tournaments for other people, like tonight for instance, I played the $100k guarenteed tournament on Mansion for Zebediah again. Well first of all I wasnt extremly impressed with the softwear, although the sounds are good(same as old Tony G site, brought back good memorys!) The tournament is a $100 buy in, although after about 1 hour and 30 minutes it becomes a little crapshooty. I know the tournaments have to end at some point, but I would have expected a little more play for my money. I have to be honest I made a rather large mistake calling a shortish all in with an up and down straight draw, but that was my only mistake, I think... I never really saw any hands, I had AK once which I doubled up with, and AA once which I managed to sweep up the blinds with. Anyway basically with the blinds at 100/200 I had T9suited in the BB and a big stack who had been raising more often than something that happens a lot, raised from middle position, so I pushed, and he turned over KT off. What can you do, I was out in 243rd out of 518. Not great, but not bad for my first attempt at a $100 tourny. There were a few things I didn't expect to see though, for instance an all-in push (4.5k chips) with only 350 in the pot. Im not saying that bad play gets irradicated at this level but I wouldn't expect strange plays like that.
Anyway I moved back to the cash tables, erase the disappointment of the tournament. I have been doing well, finishing up in the majority of sessions. I am enjoying short handed, so definatly going to stick at it.

On another note, I have added a link to Paul Sandells go and have a look!

So close yet so far

2007-05-16T13:47:00.001+01:00

I played in The Hendon mobs tournament at PKR last night, it was basically a freeroll, you had to buy in with $5 and them after your tournament you get the balance refunded. I have no money on PKR so I played in the place of Zebediah, who couldn't make it. I had great fun, the structure was a bit quick for my liking, but hey who complains at a $5 tourny structure! There were 29 runners in the game, I was feeling everyone out in the first few minutes, then I was disconnected(argh, bloody sky broadband!) for 10 minutes! I had lost a couple hundred chips. Everyone seemed to be playing tighter than a camels bum in a sandstorm, the only way I could really pick up chips was by getting in first for the blinds, so I did that. I made it to the final table with average chips, which was only about 15 times the BB. Again I had to steal the blinds to stay afloat, then I was presented with a few big hands and it seemed we were on the bubble in a flash, and I was fairly comfortable so i decided to sit back and wait for hands, which i got. I entered the heads up like a 3/1 chip lead over DaMatrix, but from then on the stacks were up and down like a brides nighty (thank Vicky C for that one!) And true to my heads up form I lost. No disrespect intended to DaMatrix, but with my chiplead, I really should have finished the job. Gutted I didn't finish the job but pleased I got there.

Start your own

2007-05-11T17:49:00.000+01:00

Here is a link to wingows where you can get $5 free to start a "Jesus Challange"

http://affiliates.wingows.com/redirect.php?Affid=51890

Once you sign up please start a thread on UKPL in the personal challange section to let us know how you are all doing!

http://www.ukpokerlife.co.uk

Good Luck!

A new day, a new challange!

2007-05-07T11:19:00.000+01:00

I have decided to give a Jesus Challange another go, this time not on "Jokerstars" but with Wingows poker, mainly because you get $5 free as a sign up bonus, but also because they do 25c SNG's! These games are extreemly easy and I should be able to boost my bankroll rather quickly. It started off with a win and a 2nd, then for some reason I thought calling All ins on the first hand was a good idea(twice!) To be fair, I did have AQ suited and JJ, both times ended in a last place finish. The second blip was when I had sub conciously decided to try and baninize at every chance I got for a screenshot (http://www.banincult.org.uk/) This infact cost me 3 or maby four sit and gos, but did get my screenshot!

If you take into consideration the six buyins or so I (stupidly) lost I think my finishing balance last night was rather good($6.46) Anyway Im back at the tables again!

I have a thread on UKPP/L for my challange...http://www.ukpokerpaper.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=443

Get over there!

Also try a Jesus Challange!

Update

2007-04-26T14:58:00.000+01:00

Well right at this minute I am participating in some freeroll sng's on full tilt, havent managed to come first in any as yet, have final tabled a lot, SERIOUSLY, too many. The chance of a free(litterally) package to the WSOP is something I HAVE to take a shot at. The new site is going great, loads of action on the forum, we also got a mention on Sky Poker, thanks to Tony K.

I am also hoping to be playing my second live tournament with a £30 freezeout at Stanley Cascades in Lieth. I have no idea what kind of level of play to expect, I know a lot of the players work in Scottish Widows, so it will be fun beating up on them. The tournaments are run by officepoker.net, I was told there will be 50+ runners so that makes for a prizepool in excess of £1500, which aint bad, hopefully I will get my mits on some of that come Saturday evening.

AA Vs 72

2007-04-13T10:24:00.000+01:00

I'm still undecided whether Hua playing the 72 was plain stupid or an act of genius. To be fair pre-flop no body had shown any aggression, with two limpers why not raise from the big blind and attempt to take the the pot there? Hua wasn't to know that Furst had pocket aces, when the flop hit 77Q Hua was in prime position. Both players were playing to trap the other, it was a great hand to watch. When the money went in Hua was a 95% favourite to win the hand, and then the A hit giving Furst the Full House. It just goes to show that any hand can win in NL Texas Hiold'em.

Our new site is born

2007-04-12T00:23:00.000+01:00

UK Poker Paper

This is our new site, the forum is up and running! UKPI members use your same logins and passwords. We hope to have the whole site up very shortly, on which my interview with Joe Beevers will be. hope to see you all there!

www.ukpokerpaper.co.uk

Full Tilt Freeroll

2007-04-10T11:24:00.000+01:00

I was sitting online, so I thought i'd give one a go. The tourny started with 2696 runners, 27 places paid, a MASSIVE $15 for first place. The early stages of these tournaments call for a tight-aggressive style I feel, there are lots of maniacs around, but remember maniacs can catch hands sometimes. I doubled up in the first few hands with a pair of twos from the big blind catching trips on the flop. I then litterally did not play a hand for half an hour, when again I had nines in the hole which caught trips on the turn, where i doubled up again. Five hands later I was dealt QQ, and I some how managed to dodge either of my two opponents catching, one had 66 and the other had KJ(?!) So after quickly doubling then tripling up, I was sitting on around 17K, which put me in 31st position out of 906 remaining at the time. With my large stack I was able to play a few more hands and picked up a few medium sized pots, which boosted me above 20K, with the blinds at 50/100 I was in pretty good shape. With less than 3 minutes to go to the break, I decided to play hard ball with a pair of 6's, i raised a medium stack all in on the flop(893 rainbow) he decided to call me and then proceded to catch a full house with an eight then an ace, thats life. Even with this mistake, I had comfortably made the break with just over 16K chips and being 52nd out of 729 freerollers remaining. For a freeroll there is still a massive amount of play left in the game at this stage, the average stack is 5.5 K and the blinds are only just about to go up to 60/120. Its good to see you can still get an ok poker game for free!

The second hand after the break I get 9T of diamonds in mid-late position, I am first in so I open with a pot sized raise, I recieve one caller. The flop comes Jd Qh Kd, So im on with a straigh draw, flush draw and an outside shout at a straight flush. I reckon I should have bet but I never, we both checked, then the next card was 8d, that meant I had hit my flush, so I put out a pot sized bet, which again Phatmama called, the last card was 4s which changed absolutly nothing and I put out yet anonther pot sized bet, and again PM called, all she had was a pair of Jacks. I picked up a nice pot which pushed me over the 21K mark. Phatmama was some player, cant believe she lasted so long, she played EVERY single hand, credit to her though, she just pushed me at the wrong time, I had caught top pair with my K9 and all she had was A high, so that helped me up to 26k in chips and in 28th position with 562 left. I had yet another slip up, I was dealt 77 in late position, so I raised pot sized, and was re-raised by the next player who had taken Phatmamas place. I felt compelled to call, so I did. The player Had AQ, an hit an ace on the flop, that was me bumped down to 18K but still well in the game. The blinds have been raised to 150/300 with an ante of 25, this has made play a little more frantic again, I have bumped up to 21K im chips again, so happy days! I have now reached the second break with 15K chips, I never really lost any big pots I just lost a few small ones and blinds and antes eating away at my stack. I am 95th out of 188 remaining, I still need to make a move or two, and I will risk going out to get up the ladder. The blinds have now been raised to 250/500 with ante of 50. At this point, I have to admit I was tempted to play AT off suit from mid position, but thankfully an early raise and a call put me off. A few hands later, I was really feeling the pinch, in the big blind I recived A6 of diamonds, so I checked, two diamonds came on the flop, so I pused my remaining 11K into a 6K pot, still recieved two callers, as it turned out one of the players caught a straight and i missed my flush, which was unfortunate. I finished 168th out of 2696, which isn't bad, but it isn't in the money.

A Very Sad Day

2007-04-10T09:59:00.000+01:00

Yesterday saw the closure of the best poker site/forum that I have seen, I am, as you can imagine, a little upset with this news. My life at UKPI started around a year ago, I stumbled in there as a matter of chance, and happened to bump into a really nice bunch of people, so I never really left. When I joined, I was not at all a good poker player, not that I am now, but with all the help and advice I recieved on the site, I can at least say i'm competent. There have been a number of events in the last few months that surely have contributed to the closure, which are all regretable, its now time to move forward. My final thanks to James W for setting up the site, and therefore introducing me to a number of great people, as well as everything else that came with the site.

The good news is that we are in the early stages of making a brand new site, details will follow....

Gala Report

2007-03-17T22:13:00.000Z

I have finaly got round to writing my report of my first live game, so here it is...

The day has finally come when I will be stepping into a bricks and mortar casino to play poker. The whole week I have been building up to the game, playing online multi-table tournaments and reading as many articles on live play as possible. I arrived at the casino an hour before the dealers shuffled up, relaxing in the lounge wasn’t so easy with the sound of the slot machines and this won woman who was clearly on a roll. I sat myself on the comfortable looking seats in front of the television for the football, with a drink I managed to relax for half an hour, thankfully I am not a Blackburn Rovers fan. I decided to stretch my legs before entering the card room, as I was walking past the entrance area I saw John Higgins enter the casino, Graham Dott was also already in the building, I was hoping I would be sat at one of there tables, the attention would be on them rather than me, the newbie.

As I noticed the players streaming into the card room I decided to follow. On first appearances the room was small with seven tables and a control area, above which was a screen with all the 120 players seating positions. I was sat at table eight, seat seven. I had a quick look to see if John Higgins or either of the other snooker players were sat at my table, unfortunately not. My table was in the other half of the room, it was separated by a wall with a gap at one end, this side was much the same as the first. I was one of the last players to sit at my table, so as I removed my jacket I used the opportunity to observe the players, nobody appeared to be nervous, but neither was I. Even though I had been building myself up for the event I defiantly appeared to be nonchalant. An older gentleman sat on my left, he put on what can only be described as an Oscar winning performance. The man was clearly a regular in the casino as he knew all of the staff by name as well as sixty per cent of the other players. He proceeded to create the image of a dotty old man, by continually asking what each chip was worth , the table had defiantly created a false sense of security towards the player. I had arranged my chips into 4 neat stacks, and had decided not to play with them incase I mess up and sill them all over the place and look like an utter donk. At this point the tournament was running twenty minutes late and the dealers were told to shuffle up and deal. Lots of thoughts were running through my head, all the advice I had been given over the last few days, it was time to put myself to the test. This may sound strange but I was ecstatic to squeeze my cards and peer down at an absolute horror of a hand, ten three off-suit, this just calmed me down and observe the table that little bit more before making any decisions. The table seemed to set its standard raise at four times the big blind pretty quickly, the older gentleman a previously mentioned didn’t hold anything back, he was firing in massive bets like ten times the big blind and was content at picking up any scrap he could. The one piece of advice that stuck in my head the whole time was “be patient” and I never played a hand for half an hour or so, not that I had any playable hands really. The time came when I picked up Ace Jack off suit in middle position there had been one early position limper, who was in a lot of the action, so I decided to pump it up to four times the big blind. At this moment in time my heart was pumping like there was no tomorrow, I could feel it in the side of my head, imagine if I went all in, but it was time to calm down as everyone folded. Obviously a poker players goal is to win the tournament, but at this moment, I have to be honest I was thinking I would really like to make it to the first break. In my first live tournament, I think lasting more than two hours would be an achievement, a small one maybe, but at least I knew I could handle the situation. In the next forty-five minutes I only had some semi-playable hands, which I limped in with then laid down to a raise. I was sitting on the button with Ace King of clubs, there had been one early position raiser who has been playing a lot and was chip leader at the table, there were two callers, I had decided to call also. The flop came down with a Queen and two rags, and two clubs, action was checked round to me so I bet out about half of the pot. I don’t know what made me do what I did next, but it worked, I made a deliberate move to lean forward and stare the guy in the eyes, the guy thought for about ten seconds, which felt about ten minutes and mucked his cards. I was so surprised and relieved that the players did not pick up any obvious fear out of me. The best part came when I was stacking my chips, the chip leader mentioned quietly too the player next to him “he’s a confident guy eh.” It may seem silly that I was proud of this, but if you had felt my heart going when I was staring at the guy, you would be proud too. It was now fifteen minutes too the break, I had picked my stack up too around ten thousand chips, which was above average at the time. I know there were still hands to be played but I was thinking that I have hit my goal of getting to the first break. Yet again I picked up Ace King, this time off-suit, there was only one other player in the pot, who was a solid Glaswegian who had raised to three times the big blind. I did actually consider folding, but I had to see what the flop brought. Unfortunately there was nothing too pretty for me the flop read six seven nine with two hearts, and the player fired out a bet, which may well have just been a continuation bet but I gave him the benefit of the doubt as he had shown down nothing but good hands up too now. To be honest nothing else of not happened until I had reached my goal of making the break. The last hand with Ace King had taken me back down to roughly my starting stack, so I was still comfortable with about sixteen big blinds. We had already lost 32 players by this point and I was seriously chuffed to not be one of them. I walked out of the card room and straight to the bar to get a glass of water, no alcohol for me tonight. I was also glad too see that my girlfriend and my friend had decided to stay, so I had a little chat to take my head away from poker for ten minutes. I have to say the seats in the bar area were not comfortable at all I was seriously glad to get back to the table, well after a quick pit stop. I remember walking into the room with my head held high and confident in myself, the next step was to go and do the business.

As I sat down I noticed that there were now antes in the game, which made my stack slightly less appealing, but still workable. Within a couple minutes I was in the action in late position with pocket twos, two middle position limpers, so I decided to see a flop. The flop came down with an Ace four and two, I had caught trips, and the action was checked to me, so I checked. Then a six hit, still no flush on board so when it was checked to me I decided to bet three times the big blind and everyone folded. It had picked my stack up a little bit, but I had wished for more. We had been down to seven handed for a while and then another player was eliminated, so two new players had joined our table. Both of them were keen to set the tone by entering a lot of pots and raising. I wish I was capable of doing such things, but I certainly was not going to do so with the garbage I was being dealt. Then one of the newer players raised to three times the big blind from first position, and it was folded to me, I looked down and I saw pocket nines, I looked at my stack which only had around seven big blinds and with the antes as well, I was short, as well as that the player had raised the two hands prior too this. So all things considered I think I made the right move in pushing all in. It was not much over double his original bet to call, I made myself look like I wanted to turn my cards over and beat him. I really believe he almost talked himself out of calling, then the brutal words came “I have to call” he turned his cards over to show King Jack off suit. I have to be honest my first thought was of Tony G berating Ralph Perry for playing King Jack, and I was extremely happy that he had called, then that King hit on the flop, and there was no help for me. It was “Goodnight Vienna” for me.

I was absolutely distraught and that may seem a little over the top but that is the best word to describe my emotions. I felt I had not made one mistake the whole night and I lost, I am sure every single poker player has done what I did, I went through EVERY single hand in my head over and over like I had OCD and still found no answers. In the cold light of day, well the light of the online poker room, I realised that it wasn’t my fault and it just wasn’t my night. On the whole the night was an amazing experience, and I will defiantly be back in a card room in the very near future.

Live Poker, Here I come!

2007-02-12T17:58:00.000Z

This month I will be making my first appearance as a live poker player. The website www.ukpokerinfo.co.uk are sponsoring me to play in the £100+10 tournament in the Edinburgh festival during Gala's UK tour. I am extremly excited with the prospect of playing live for the very first time, I am also aware that this will be a very different experience from which I am used to. I am planning to arrive at the Gala maybury 2 hours prior to the event to get used to the scene and settle in, so if anyone is going to be there, don't be shy come over and say "hiya"

Learning experiences

2007-01-23T19:24:00.000Z

I started a $5 Sng on Tonys on Monday night with a fellow UKPI'er, I played a pretty simple game I never moved much above the starting stack the whole game. I had played and won a few little pots which kept me alive, I had made it to the money and I seemed to be catching cards and switched up through the gears. The heads up began with me having a 3:1 chip lead, which unfortunatly I threw away to finish second.

Part of the reason I was playing little hands in the SNG was because I was also playing an PL Omaha cash game also against my fellow UKPI'ers as well as a few randoms. The game was fairly enjoyable, even though my play wasn't the best. Losing two buy-ins in any game is not good but the banter was good, and I enjoy trying to learn Omaha.

Sifting through the cash tables on the few sites I play on, there werent any that were looking good at all, except there was one 25/50 cent table on Tony G Poker that looked Very Juicy, almost a full ring with 70% of players seeing the flop. I decided to observe the table, and there were 4 players that I have seen play at lower limits, which I have noted as loose and rubbish. After 10 minutes of watching the table I had decided to Buy-in, that isn't something I Would do normally, but considering the players at the table i felt I had too. I sat down and again played a tight game waiting for hands, which in time came. The hour and a half at the table was good, had been up and down, I felt I had held my own at the table. Most important of all I had left the table with $20 odd more than I had sat down with. The first thing I am going to say, is I am most definatly not moving up the levels to 25/50 cent, and I would strongly advice people against doing so untill they have a big enough bankroll to do so. Also I have to add that the game was a good experience for me, hopefully will improve my game at the lower levels.

A few of you may notice I have added pictures on the left hand side of the blog, just thought I would make it look better.

After A break

2007-01-13T12:09:00.000Z

After having a break from poker, due to being in Benidorm, among other things I feel that I should try new things. The greatest thing about having a break is when you get back to poker you have a new found excitement for the game, which definatly helps if you lose. You get that mentality back that we all had when we were younger that nothing matters except that we get what we want.

With poker there are so many different ways to experiment, especially online. You could change your style of play, the game, the limit, but I have decided to experiment a little with buy-ins. Obviously I am not going to jump to $50 games, that would just be throwing money away. I have so far played two SNG's at a higher level one $5(6 players), which I won, and an $8(20 players) game which I cashed in also. With the different runners in each I am experimenting with that as well, although that was not deliberate, both games seemed pretty much the same level. I have found that a simple poker is all you need to play, just don't do anything "stupid" That was one of the things that I wanted too know as how high up the limits will "simple" poker win. Anyway I'm off back to the tables to try and get some more wins!

As you can imagine I haven't played poker a lot recently, and not at all played on tony's much at all, although I played a speed $3 today with 18 runners. I was chip lead with 7 players left when my Kings ran into Aces, you cant really do much. I was 1 of three players seriously short when we were on the bubble, fortunatly one of the big stacks took 3 players out in one go with two pair. I went on to finish third.

Balance: $122.41

Quick Update

2006-12-27T12:54:00.000Z

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?

2006-12-22T16:09:00.000Z

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

2006-12-19T17:35:00.000Z

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

2006-12-18T17:31:00.000Z

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

2006-12-16T15:56:00.000Z

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

2006-12-10T19:54:00.000Z

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

2006-12-07T19:48:00.000Z

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

2006-12-07T18:47:00.000Z

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

Hutch the Bounty Hunter

2006-11-26T19:23:00.000Z

Today I continued my challange on Tony G Poker, I was doing okay in the tournys just seemed to get knocked out on outdraws, still have a good record in the speed $3, I have cashed in 3 out of 6. Also in one of the tournys I failed to cash I managed to knock out GNOBY who had a $25 bounty on his head, okay i'll be honest, I got a little lucky and outdrew him, but a winners a winner. I have decided to stay away from ring games, they are the reason I have not kept my balance above $100, its a shame really.

Balance: $96.20

Challange Update

2006-11-25T17:46:00.000Z

I havent been able to play much, I was down a few dollars the other day from the cash games so I stopped playing.

Today has been a game of two halves. i sat down at the 0.05/0.10 cash game with $5, lost it within fifteen minutes. to be fair I don't think I did too much wrong, probably a few too many loose preflop calls which got me into trouble. Instead of re-buying I decided to try my hand in some tournys. Firstly i sat down in the $3 Speed tournament with 5 players, wasn't a big one but i managed to win it for $10.50. I played pretty simple poker, the main moment was when i had caught the nut flush against my opponents straight, I took most of his chips and never looked back.

I then decided to chance my arm at the $2.50 $50 Guarenteed tourny(16 runners). I had been chip lead for most of the tournament, got down to the bubble plus one. I then stupidly threw away chips on a reverse of earlier(Straight Vs. Flush) I guess its got to happen. At this point I was really nervous about bubbling, I managed to coast past the bubble but was short stacked. I was dealt QQ and raised 4 times the big blind and the other short stack pushed all in so i called. He turned over AQ and then proceded to catch the straight, not the nicest way to go out but i picked up $10, still cant help but think it could/should have been $25.

The most recent tournament I played was a $1 HU with a compatriot from www.ukpokerinfo.co.uk Chewymoose, was a good heads up comp, very backwards and forward. if im being honest I got lucky a couple times and managed to pick up the win.

I may take part in the $3 speed tourny coming up, hopefully CM doesnt get his revenge

Current balance: $82.11

My current challange

2006-11-20T22:30:00.000Z

I have been given $50 to play on Tony G's poker site, so I have decided to try and improve my non existant cash game skills. I have been playing 0.05/0.10 NL Hold'em tables. The first couple sessions I was throwing a way money and then scraping it back again. I am currently sitting with $79.56, which doesnt seem to bad. I am somewhat conscious of what levels I am playing at, especially when to move up a level. The figure that comes to mind is $150, i might give 0.10/0.25 tables a go then.

Takesport Freeroll

2006-11-20T16:27:00.000Z

The $1500 Takesport freeroll on PNL was my main game for Monday, and too be honest I wasn't really expecting to cash, which maybe had me beat. I was playing a pretty tight game, was comfortable for the most part. In the early stages I was dealt rockets, only managed to pick up 250 chips or so, which wasn't great. I probably only played five hands in total. The Blinds were at 75/150(and were about to be raised) I had around 1800, which equates to around 12 big blinds, was dealt 1010 in the BB, the action was folded round to small blind who had been playing a lot of hands, he raised around 3 X the BB, so I pushed all-in, expecting a fold. The player turned over 22 so I was a 82% favorite to win the hand, and nothing came on the flop, and yes the next card brought a 2, last card never brought my 10. That was me out in 191st place. My initial goal was to survive the hour to the break, I had missed that by a matter of minutes. It was a freeroll so I never lost anything, but I felt I had gained a little kick in the teeth.

I was also playing in a 5cent 10 cent cash game on Tony G poker, I had thrown away my chips(mostlikely because of the way I had exited the tourny a short while before hand) I was down to 20 cents, looked rather desperate. I was amazed, within 45 minutes I had built that 20 cents up to over $11. Yes, I know its not really dizzy heights , but I am builoding my bankroll as well as learning how to play cash games. And lets be honest from 20 cents to $11 is some jump considering.

Tonight brings another freeroll for me the $150 Ukpokerinfo Freeroll, not as much money in this one, but it is one tourny I definatly want to win!

WSOP

2006-09-24T17:50:00.000+01:00

I dont know about the next guy, but I would definatly want a WSOP bracelet. But now there is a question what one?
When there are more events than disciplines being played I think it becomes a bit of a joke. There are forty-five events in total, a large percentage of which are Hold'em. There must be a point where they have to draw the line.
OK maby reducing the number tournaments will make a lot harder for the average joe to win a bracelet, but when there are forty-five winners each and every year, does this not reduce the value of winning a bracelet? Even if it does, i still want one!

Pocket pairs

2006-08-08T13:23:00.000+01:00

You don't have to be a poker guru to know that a pair beats no pair. So when you look down and see your small pocket pair pre-flop your infront right? Wrong! Lets say you look down at a pair of threes, heads up against 9 10 suited, the 9 10 is a 54% favorite. Even when the 9 10 is offsuit the threes are still an underdog. Lets look at another example say 77 Vs AJ suited, The pair of 7's is then only a 52% favorite. When you think about overcards to your pair of 7's, an over card on the flop will come 92% of the time, and after all cards are down there will be an overcard a whopping 98.8% of the time. All I can say is good luck dodging them big cards!
Now don't get me wrong I'm not telling you to muck these cards as soon as you look down, you just have to play with a large degree of caution. The play that makes most sense to me would be to limp pre-flop, giving you a chance to catch a set, as well as not throwing away chips. I mean first of all just because there are overcards on the board, doesn't necessarily mean that your opponent has hit the board. After all that time your Pair turns into a set and your opponent has top two pair, your in the mix.

Bursting Bubbles

2006-07-22T02:19:00.000+01:00

Last couple hours has definatly been a good run, hadn't failed to make the cash in 10 tournaments, then had 4 wins in a row. I had been playing NLHE, on different sites, levels and sizes of tournaments. CDPoker was the next port of call, a $2 jackpot SNG, 12 runners, 4 places paid. We were down to the last 5, all of the stacks, were pretty much level, and close to ten or 15 times the big blind. At this point i was sitting third, as I was dealt JJ in the BB, action was folded round to the SB, who put in a minimum raise. This guy had been stealing all night, so i just pushed, he flipped over AA. The board was no help at all. There was me stranded on the bubbled, the good run of the past few hours felt long gone.
Hopefully will turn it round soon!
Im going to give Omaha a go for the rest of the night

Slow Playing in NLHE

2006-07-19T00:50:00.000+01:00

Quite simply, I see slow playing as a way to get more action from your opponents, the way to do this is to check to give them a free card. Obviously this gives your opponents a chance to catch up on your hand(which is what you want) or better your hand. The slow play is a great tool in poker, although should be used sparingly, i would advise to use the play when you have the nuts or very close to it. If your opponent betters your hand, you could be the one throwing away your chips. If you feel yor hand is not the strongest, put out a bet, try to win the pot there and then, remember a small win is better than a big loss. Another thing to remember, as many often forget, checking and calling are very weak moves, where as betting shows strength. I am definatly not discounting the slow play as a move, although I would say be "choosy" of when you apply it.

Tilt

2006-05-26T20:16:00.000+01:00

Tilt!

No, I know it's not the type of subject a poker player should be talking about, but it is something we all should be aware of, because at some point it will defiantly happen to you. "Tilting" or "going on tilt" are phrases used when somebody loses emotional control. This could result in shouting/swearing, or a player stopping for the night or even turn a player into a loose cannon and make him play very poor poker. Tilt can be caused by many things, or even nothing at all, it's a state of mind.

I can hear you all asking the same question as you read this "how do I avoid tilt?"

Well in my personal opinion I think it is pretty much impossible for any poker player to avoid tilt his whole career, let's be honest, we have a bad run of cards, it will affect most players attitudes. My first tip is to play well within your bankroll, there is nothing wrong with learning your game on micro limit tables, even if $0.01/0.02 won't win you much money, you defiantly won't lose a lot. Especially for beginners, most people go through a phase where they can't win anything, so why not minimize the loss? I know definitely know I would prefer a $5 bad beat compared to a $100 one.

Secondly, the main thing to do is to remain calm, look back at what happened, analyze your play, were you ahead then completely outdrawn? If you made an obvious mistake, learn from it! There is absolutely no point beating up yourself and in turn your bankroll over one mistake. However, if you had thrown the chips in while you were ahead, you did nothing wrong. Just remember you played the hand well, your opponent got lucky.

There is of course the other side of the coin, again an obvious question pops up "can we take advantage of tilters?" Yes of course we can. Its just a simple case of playing premium hands against the person, chances are they will try and raise you out of a pot, if you think you are comfortably ahead then call, if not lay them down. Simple! Eventually you will hit a big hand and the tilter will cough up.

When at the poker tables, keep your emotion in check, If you feel you are losing control, best thing to do is to stop playing. If you really need your poker fix for the day, move down the limits, to make sure you don't destroy your hard earned bankroll.

Position in Texas Hold'em

2006-05-24T15:00:00.000+01:00

Position in Texas Hold'em

This is one of the most vital, yet overlooked aspects in poker. Your position is determined by your seating position, in relation to the dealer button. You have position over the players to your right, as you get to act after them, therefore seeing their actions before you decide what to do. The last person to act at a table is in the strongest position, as they see everybodys action before they make their own. Being in late position (being last to act or second to last) can make marginal hands like AJo very playable, depending on the players actions before you.

Just a few points to note on position:

If a tight/passive player raises Under The Gun (being first to act) there is a large chance they have a strong hand.
If you notice a player making the same raises in late position time and time again, chances are they are just stealing blinds, think about playing those marginal hands.

Always be aware of your position, and the moves others around you make in and out of position.

Hubbles Hold'em (no limit) Freeroll

2006-05-23T18:15:00.000+01:00

Hubbles Hold'em (no limit) Freeroll - 23/05/2006 - 18:30 BST

Yes I know it's a freeroll, many poker players don't like them. But I think they are good tournament experience, nothing like fighting your way through literally thousands of players. The aim of this tournament is to reach the top 27, which has to be said, out of 10 or even 12 thousand players can take a lot of time and energy. Thankfully this is not peak time US for poker players, only 6118 people registered. However reaching the top 27 is still tough and can take a few hours. The players who make it get a ticket to a Weekly Round 2 event, these events can be many types of poker, there is a prize pool of $1000, with generally a first prize of around $220.

I start the tourney playing quite tight, avoiding the crazy players who go all in with anything, sometimes they get lucky. I have music playing in the background, Lemar's album Time to Grow... Yes I am singing along! First level was extremely slow, played one hand, which was only because I was in BB. The Tourney had been running 22 minutes, the best hand I received A7o, I may of played it if I was in late position, but defiantly not from under the gun. Level 3 was about to begin (blinds 25/50.) I had 1605 chips, so the blinds were defiantly not troubling me, although frustration and boredom were kicking in. We were down to 3197 players, the average stack was 2893, which was defiantly the main reason I was getting frustrated, I was so far behind it and couldn't do anything about it. The second hand of the level looked interesting, got dealt pocket 10's, although before I had a say I was raised all-in preflop, had to fold. Morale was running low.

Then came a very important hand... I was dealt AQo in mid-position.
Blinds: 25/50
Hutchylad first to limp in
Bodigs calls (Mid/late-position)
SIRZIMM raises 350 to 400
Hutchylad calls
Bodigs re-raises all-in
SIRZIMM calls
Hutchylad calls

Cards come: 36K27
Hutchylad: Ace high (AhQs)
Bodigs: One Pair, Kings (5cKc)
SIRZIMM: One Pair, Eights (8c8h)

Bodigs wins
Hutchylad Knocked out in 2109th

I will admit, I completely lost my attitude and probably should not of played the hand. I had let the frustration take over my game. The fact I finished 2109th after 34 minutes and only playing 4 hands, just annoys me even more. If I had stuck to my game I would be well on my way to a Weekly Round 2 game and a shot at the $220 prize. It may be due to the sour taste left in my mouth, but i think Bodigs made a move that was incorrect. Maby the "crazy" moves is the reason why lost of players dislike freerolls. However,I live to fight another tournament, even though that was a shocker.

Note Taking

2006-05-23T17:49:00.000+01:00

Note Taking

Ask yourself...

What kind of player is s/he? Tight, Solid, Aggressive, Tight/Agressive
What kind of Preflop player is s/he? Do they limp often with weak hands, blind stealer, or do they only play premium hands?
What class of player are they? An Elephant(constant caller) a Mouse (hardly plays any hands) a Jackal(very aggressive, unpredictable) or a Lion (good solid player)?
Does the player often chase draws?
Watch out for calling stations, take advantage
Keep an eye out for betting patterns e.g. always raises 5 times B.B with Aces

That is my quick guide to note taking while playing poker.

Recomended Poker sites

2006-05-23T14:31:00.000+01:00

Poker Forums

www.ukpokerinfo.com -
At the moment this forum has to be my favourite, it is growing in size, great info all over the site, great banter on the forum!

www.pokerscotland.com -
This forum is slowly building, for scottish poker comunity.

www.thehendonmob.com-
great forum there, lots of members who have good insight into the game.

Poker Freebees!

www.yourpokercash.com-
Everybody loves a freebee yeh? well this site gives you $50 money at partypoker (for new players)

www.pokerinside.com -
Well this site if you register sponsors you to play on CDpoker $20 ,
although if you prove yourself, you will recieve more money!
if you say hutchylad refered you, that would be great. Plus use the bonus
code: FLSPOKER.

2006-05-23T14:14:00.000+01:00

Beggining in Tournaments

This is a monumental moment. I am now not just the hunter gatherer of information. I am a giver. When I first started to type, I had so many ideas of what to write this article about - which hopefully means there will be more. Then I thought, "What would I have liked to know as a newbie?” Again, lots of things stood out in my mind, but to me one more than any other came top. How to play a tournament.

Being honest, I'm not a pro poker player, and also I'm not trying to tell you that this is "THE ULTIMATE STRATEGY!” However, it does try to give you, as a newbie poker player, some idea of where to start. This may sound obvious, but I think it's best to start with the strategy for the early stages. These this could be used in Multi Table Tournament (MTT) and Sit and Go (SnG) tourneys.

As I'm sure you are all aware, poker has received a lot of interest from Television recently, and if I'm being honest it's what got me really into the game. Anyone with satellite or cable television has access to a vast range of poker programmes. The first programme I took notice of myself was World Poker Tour (WPT). This show places a lot of emphases on fast paced, action with high stakes and, obviously, the excitement results in good viewing figures. After watching this kind of show, one big mistake “fish” (new players) make is assuming that EVERY hand is going to be full of action. However, we should never assume, because, as the old saying goes, this will make an "ass" out of "u" and "me." What the show doesn't show is the tight style of play the players have had to play for lengthy periods to enable them to make these outrageous bluffs or semi-bluffs*. The show concentrates a lot on the hole cards players are dealt pre-flop, showing the percentage chances of winning for each hand. Personally, I like to play the hands that give me the highest percentage chances of winning the pot.

*At first I never knew the difference between a bluff and semi-bluff, so here it is. A bluff is when you bet when you have nothing. Semi-bluff is when you have nothing but there are still cards too come that will improve your hand.

To do this all you have to do is “tighten up” or cut down the number of hands you actually play. We all know those marginal hands that we play, when we know we shouldn't, just because the blinds are low?... Throw them away! Even though the blinds are low, you are still throwing away chips, plus the chances are if you are calling the blind, I bet you will bet or call a low-medium size bet post-flop. This way you are compounding your error, instead of not losing any chips, you are losing 3 or 4 times the big blind, if not more, dependent on how long you hold onto your marginal hand. So you I would suggest playing tight early on in the tourney. I'm not going to list the exact hands, but certainly see the flop with suited aces, suited connectors and pocket pairs (beware of over cards.) when the price is right. Pocket aces is a great hand pre-flop, but if a flush or a straight comes on the flop, you have too be able too walk away from these hands. One question I suggest you keep in mind all times in a tourney is "do I want to risk my tournament life on this hand?" Even if you fold one hand which you would have one the pot with, I bet there will be many more you folded when you were behind.

Different online casinos have different tournament structures. You can even find different structures within the same site e.g. Turbo or Speed. Generally the starting stack ranges from 1000-1500, with blinds around 10 or 20 start with 100 times the big blind. That leaves for plenty of play, but beware the blinds do go up, sometimes seems like an increasingly alarming pace. This is why I set a goal, generally for the first two levels, I would like to have added 300-500 chips to my stack, and this can generally be done with one good hand. Now lets be honest for the first two levels that is between 10-15 minutes generally, in 10 minutes I'm sure you are bound to get at least one good hand. However, the main thing to remember is that this is a GOAL not a NEED. Even if you fall short of gaining 300 chips, blinds are still pretty low, still a lot of play left. To get comfortable, I like to be above of average stack, in larger MTT you have too keep watching this, because it can shoot up and leave you behind. When I am below average stack, I like to loosen up a little, catch up the lost time, although if you loosen up, ask yourself "Do I want to lose my tournament life on this hand?" As long as you keep your wits about you and don't play silly cards like 72 off-suit, you should be grand.

There is a great technique of avoiding being knocked out of a tournament, picking who you pick your fights with. One simple way of saying this is too attack the sort stacks, it's great, they don't have enough chips too knock you out, but if you knock them out, you have added to your stack and increased your chances of winning. The other way of saying this, steer clear of the large stacks, they have more than enough chips to knock you out, so unless you have a premium hand, just throw it away! I seemed to have drifted into general tournament play, so I might as well continue. You should always respect your players as good poker players, unless you know otherwise. For instance if a player raises in early position, give him credit, throw away all but premium hands. One thing to remember here is that "You need a stronger hand to call a raise than to initiate one." Also I would stay away from pots with more than one re-raise, even if you have a good hand, the other hands could be cancelling yours out!

That was just my rough guide to NL Hold'em Tournament play.

Cheers