The Joys Of Online Poker

I know I've posted a few bad beats in the past but if I can't post the odd bad beat on my own blog then where the hell can I go off and cry to? The only consolation with this one was that it was "only" the $50nl game. The villain's chat in the chatbox was from a previous hand that was well before this one by the way. And, yes, I knew the villain was going to go all-in on the river come what may. (As I recall, I think I may have done an all-in on the turn but I can't remember - the chips were all going in any which way you look at it.)

Some might say that it isn't THAT unusual for your villain to hit one of his 7 outs on the river but the thing that is beginning to piss me off (just a tad), at the moment, is that everytime I get just a glimmer of hope that I might be starting to turn things around, hands like this come along and kick me right in the teeth. Am I ever gonna get off this slippery slope or what!?

To make matters worse, after a very pleasant week off work, it's back on the treadmill tomorrow as well.

Jesus H Christ on his bleedin' push-bike.

Where Did My Current Account Go?

While I was in Bournemouth last week I took advantage of PKR's reload bonus and deposited $193 into my account. The deal is that after clocking up 48250 points, the site will plop another $193 into my account. It's a nice boost and a no-brainer. The maximum you can put in for it is $200, but I put in the $193 cos I wanted my bank account to be on a nice round number.

The thing is, I decided that a further top-up would be nice but this time it declined. I tried again a few times and it just declined everytime. I thought nothing about it but this evening, after I got back from work, I checked my online bank account and discovered that my current account had disappeared! Yep, my current account was no more!! I phoned the bank immediately and after dialling my bank details in was told that my account balance was zero; even AFTER my overdraft limit.

A little concerned, I then got in touch with a person and after telling them the details was immediately put through to their fraud department. They then told me that the bank had frozen the account due to suspicious activity.  After confirmation of a few transactions it was all sorted out and I was told it all would be put back to normal. I think it must have occured because I was trying to get fairly large funds from my account while using a different PC. Still, it was a bit of a scare though.

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After playing quite a lot of satellites this month and slowing down greatly online, I've only totted up 3K cash game hands for this month bringing my total for the year to just 9K hands. This is really not very much; I'll try to step it up as we get to March.

Why Wobblebottom?

With a bit of time to kill before my coach leaves back to London, I decided to search the net to find a clip of Rowan Atkinson utter the word "wobblebottom" on the Not The Nine O'clock News TV programme which was a big satire/comedy sketch show way back in the 1980s. This is what gave me the idea to use it for my username. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the aforementioned snippet but did track down him saying it on Blackadder instead. It's quite amusing and if you're that way inclined you need to move the slider to 2:20 in this youtube clip to hear him utter the comical word.

Here's a script of the dialogue:

Blackadder: No, sir, it is not. It's the most pointless book since How To Learn French was translated into French.
Prince George: You haven't got anything personal against Johnson, have you Blackadder?
Blackadder: Good Lord, sir, not at all. In fact, I had never heard of him until you mentioned him just now.
Prince George: But you do think he's a genius...?
Blackadder: No, sir, I do not. Unless, of course, the definition of "genius" in his ridiculous Dictionary is "a fat dullard or wobblebottom; a pompous ass with sweatly dewflaps".
Prince George: Ha. close shave there, then. Lucky you warned me. I was about to embrace this unholy arse to the royal bosom.
Blackadder: I'm delighted to have been instrumental of keeping your bosom free of arses, sir.

FEBRUARY - UPDATE #2

With the month drawing to a close and with no plans to play a great deal of poker, today or tomorrow, I'm going to throw out my monthly update. For anyone who has been following the blog, it's clear that my live game sessions have been good overall with just one, Sunday afternoon, losing session at The Empire to report. In retrospect, in fact even during and very soon after that session, I knew I should never have sat down at the table. It occured the day after I had won £120 at The Empire but my mind was all wrong. Here are four reasons why I shouldn't have sat down:

1) I had just had quite a few bad losing sessions online the night before AND in the morning prior to leaving.
2) The tail end of the previous live session had me playing badly and I felt I had just thrown away £60 stupidly.
3) I left the house in a resentful mood and mainly because my family were driving me nuts - not a good reason to go and play live poker.
4) I bought in for £130 (my live session winnings for the month, at the time) which is shortstacked and not good.
5) I effectively told myself that it was "only" £130 and that I could "afford" to lose it if the worst came to the worst. (It's only going one way after this way of thinking.)

Needless to say, after a stale kind of session I threw in about £100 while chasing a flush draw and it didn't improve. Strangely enough, even while playing I kept telling myself that my heart wasn't really in it and that I should leave but I never listened properly to that voice.

NEVER put down a "disposable" stack at the poker table. It will inevitably soon be disposed of.

If the inner voice is very strong and is telling you to leave - THEN LEAVE!

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Thankfully, a very welcome 2nd place finish at The Fox in their £38 Saturday evening freezeout event swung my live bankroll back in the right direction. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of my online antics and there is no doubt that the online game has become a lot tougher. The good players, of course, are still hanging around and the newer players generally seem to know what they're doing. The survival of the fittest has certainly meant that there has been a decline in the number of casual and fun players coming in and as a result, my table-selection process has become super-fussy. But even then, it just aint no walk in the park.

February has been a frustrating, yo-yo like, but ultimately break-even month. Generally speaking, I gained $400 in the first week then lost $400 in the second week. Then I gained $400 in the third week but then lost around $300 in the final week. My balance presently stands at a $100 profit for the month but, with this including a rakeback payment and a return of $45 after bubbling a Masters seat in the Masters Stage 3 satellite, it's a fairly "hollow" kind of victory I can tell you.

Remember that the figures below might be a little out-of-whack when considering previous updates but this would be due to the ever-changing exchange rate. Therefore, the figures should be looked upon as being approximate: 
   

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ONLINE: FEBRUARY  +£60 /  YEAR: -£460

LIVE: FEBRUARY +£740  /  YEAR: +£1700

TOTAL: FEBRUARY +£800  /  YEAR: +£1240
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At the moment I'm still in Bournemouth so, shortly, it's a coach ride back to London and then tonight, it's a meal out with the family so I doubt I'll be playing online today. Let's just march on to March and see if we can turn that horrible red figure to green by the end of next month eh?

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ONWARDS AND UPWARDS AND BEYOND BABY!!

A Seat To The Masters: So Near Yet So Far.

The Masters is PKR's main event but at $270, a direct buy-in is a bit beyond my bankroll. For me, I buy Masters Stage 2 tickets with points and see if I can qualify from there. Tonight, I came very close indeed after playing in a Masters Stage 3 satellite (the one that gets you the $270 seat) but got knocked out after going all-in pre-flop with KK with only six players left. As the flop came down and I saw the ace, I knew it was curtains and so took a screenshot of it for the album: 

Lo and behold, the turn and river didn't help and the villain (not the SB mind you) showed A3! You really do get quality opponents at these satellites, you really do. I'm pretty sure I could have romped home and claimed my seat had my KKs held up. Still, I just grabbed a screenshot of the lobby screen to show that at least I got some dollars back for my efforts:

Hmm, woulda rather nabbed the seat though.

Live Session #8: Gala Casino - Bournemouth

It's about 7 o'clock and I'm on a yellow bus on a fairly dreary evening heading into The Square which is the town centre of Bournemouth. I get off the bus and wander along Westover Road for the Gala Casino. Tonight it's the £50 freezeout baby.

First off, the poker room itself has probably the best lighting of all poker rooms I have ever seen. There is soft lighting around the outside with a deep blue, brown and orange decor within creating a warm and cosy effect. The overhead lighting lights up the tables to perfection although the chairs and tables have certainly seen better days. As to the structure, it was pretty good for a £50 freezeout. (By 1AM I was fairly shortstacked but still had about 15BBs left.) What struck me initially was the zero charge to enter. Yep, it was a £50 freezeout with absolutely NO ENTRY FEE whatsoever. Nice.

In total there were 32 runners with 8 players to a table and, as you might expect, it was self-dealt which is still a bit odd these days for us spoilt London players. Virtually everybody was on first name terms with each other but I was made very welcome and people were very friendly. Anyway, I decide to play a steady ABC game, with the exception of an all-in bluff with 2 4s at one point, and by midnight end up on the final table - quite early considering. The top 8 get paid but a deal is struck for 9th place to get £50. (That means the top 28% of players get a payout!)

I'm fairly short-stacked throughout the final table and even though I double-up while holding AKs, I get a 6th place finish when my KJs raise in the cut-off is re-raised all-in by the BB (who I have to call) who then shows KQ. I'm dominated and I'm out. I collect £100 for a £50 profit and it's kebab time and a taxi ride back to base.

Strange, my live game continues to go from strength to strength, yet my online game is still a load of old pants. With just three more days to go till the end of the month I feel much more confident about heading for the Gala on Westover Road for some cash game action next evening rather than cracking on with my online game. The game they play at the Gala is 50p/£1 with a £250 max buy-in. I guess I'll just have to see where the mood takes me come Saturday night.

Don't Ya Just Love It...

When this happens...?

There is nothing much worse, in online poker, than holding a monster and then realising that you've just got disconnected. If you can't quite make out the screenshot, I am two-tabling the $1/$2 cash games and on the left hand table you can see that I hold KK but can do absolutely nothing with them!  The BB was fairly loose as well and liked getting involved in many hands with me so I was very annoyed with this disconnect. I'm still having a very inconsistent time online at the moment and so could really do without this bleedin' nonsense I can tell you.

Jesus.

The Currency Conundrum

As per usual, when I twaddle about the online game I'm going to talk in dollars ($) and when twaddling on about the live game I'll talk in pounds (£). However, when it comes to my monthly update I've decided that for convenience sake I'm just going to keep it in my own everyday currency of pounds (£) to make the calculations easier and to make it all a bit more meaningful. That's it.

A Trip To Bournemouth

As my online poker skills and bankroll continue to tumble down the toilet, I'm really starting to focus on the live game. Today, I'm off on a trip to Bournemouth and plan to play some live poker over the weekend. When I arrive I'll do some research as to the places to go and then I'll do a trip report after I have done the deed. Coach leaves in one and a half hours so:

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LET'S HIT THE ROAD BABY!!!
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P.S. Looks like it'll be The Gala Casino on Westover Road. According to their website it's a £50 freezeout on Friday and a £25 freezeout on the Saturday.  

PKR LIVE 6

PKR have just announced that PKR Live 6 will be taking place from May 19th to May 22nd. Let's have a little look at their satellite schedule:

As stated earlier in one of my posts with a mind-numbingly boring high twaddle factor, I'll be giving the Stage 1s a few goes first. After I get bored with these (which won't be long) I'll have a few pops at the Stage 2s come April time. If I've still not booked my place by May I might have just the one crack at a Final Stage and if I'm really desperate I'll give their "Last Chance Saloon" satellite a go, seeing as I was lucky in this last time.

Interestingly, the buy-in for this has gone right up to $1220 as opposed to the $700 entry for PKRL5 but I'm not sure if there is another event. They're also doing a Day 1A and Day 1B to stagger it a bit. I'm not entirely sure how the secondary event will fit in but I'm sure they'll be lots of poker to be had.

The Blackjack Demon

Way back, 2 months ago, I made a list of "Dos and Don'ts For 2011" and to a large extent I've done very well in sticking to these rules. I'm proud to say that I've stuck 100% to my "dos", but must confess to crossing the line with some of the "don'ts."

First off, I've broken the Don't Rule #5: not to play more than one live MTT per month. But getting 2nd at The Fox on Saturday night really gives you the taste to enter another one soon after. Oops.

The other one is Don't Rule #4. Yep, I've played a few blackjack hands. In my defence, I have to point out that it's always been for just 50c - $5 and I certainly can't recall putting in anymore than $5 - which is fine and shows that at least I'm not going back to my old ways; the days of blowing $500 and $600 bankrolls are well and truly over. Of course, we all know blackjack is -ev but nevertheless, hands like this really annoy me:

Just look at that! I'm dealt 11 versus the dealer card 5!! Apart from being dealt blackjack with the dealer getting junk it doesn't get much better than that; I've got the BEST cards to the dealer's WORST card. (In fact some might argue this scenario is better than getting blackjack because you have a great chance to get a double-up as opposed to a 3-2 payout with blackjack. Anyway, I'll let the maths experts work that one out.)

Still, as you can see, I "Double" with 11 and get dealt the worst card possible. Then the dealer turns a 6 to give HIM the MASSIVE edge and then, to rub salt into the wounds, he gives himself 21!!

For the love of my huge wobbly buttocks!

Live Session #7 (Part 2)

(Written the following day but in the present tense for effect.)

It's Monday night, 11PM, and after a quick pint at a nice pub I enter The Empire - and the place is BUZZING. Around 10 tables are in full swing and as I sit myself down I comment on the hype of activity to the dealer. I ask him if this is normal for a weekday and he says that it's like this EVERY day of the week! He says that ever since the word has got around about the badbeat jackpot a huge wave of fish are coming in to try their luck; he also tells me that many people still hang around till the early hours and go straight to work afterwards - madness. (All because of a badbeat jackpot!?) Anyway, I guess this is good news as I'm really warming to the live game and do feel a few midweek evening visits would be nice. (I don't think I could play too long beyond 11PM though.)

Anyway, I sit at what seems to be quite a quiet table with no one holding a particularly heavy-sized stack. I'm happy to plonk out the cash for £240 in chips. I give a little bit of my "drunk-guy-who-doesn't-know-what-he's-doing" routine but soon get bored of this when I go card-dead and opportunity-dead for a straight 2 hours. It's slightly frustrating because a pre-flop raise of £15 with two or three callers (let alone limpers galore coughing up the dough to see a flop) is fairly routine. This sort of thing just seems normal these days at The Empire. Still, after 2 hours of nothingness, I'm beginning to sense the huge "WEAK/TIGHT" label being branded into my forehead and so I ask the floor manager for a table change. 

He takes note and I play a few more hands. Presto! With around £140 chips in front of me and £100 down,  I look down at 10 10 and raise it up, mid position, with a £12 raise and get a few callers. The board comes junk, 9 5 2 or something and there is a £32 raise before me. I chuck all my remaining chips (~£130) into the middle and he folds. Nice. The floor manager then tells me there is a space on just the table I had my eye on and I'm there.

With my poor table image shaken off and my stack back up to around £200 I start to feel better and sit down to a new table and get nice cards. With 10 10 dealt to me again I raise it up £10 preflop and get 3 callers! Again the flop comes with low junky undercards and I pump £45 into the pot and take it down. In the final key hand I look down at AA (finally!) and reraise a £7 early bet (with 1 caller) to £35 and get two callers. The flop comes K 2 8 (two spades) and when it comes to me I just chuck 'em all in. It's fold fold and I take another £70.

At about 2AM I call it a night and cash out for £340 which puts me up £100 on the session and up £80 on the night which is not too bad considering I was down £100 at one stage and with a table image shot to pieces. I like to say that my online game is also going in the same direction but it's just not - I've dropped around $150 online since my weekly update. Sigh. Still, swings and roundabouts an' all that.

Live Session #7 (Part 1)

It's 3AM and I have just returned from a live session in town. I have one week off work so I felt fine about treating myself to a late Monday night session. I've just been reading about BrotherMuzone's bad run for the day and it really does put my crying to shame.

Anyway, first off I played a little £1/£1 cash at The Fox and left the table with £8 profit before taking my place at the £28 Semi-Freezeout. (Actually it was a £25 buy-in + £5 fee + £3 Dealer Bonus MTT with one 1 rebuy.) Usually I rebuy straight away but the floor manager initially said we had to be below 4K to get it. Then after 10 minutes he told everyone we could get the rebuy whenever we wanted to after all. For some reason I held back and even at just 6K chips at the break chose not to take the rebuy then either. My thinking was that instead of paying the extra £25 I'd just try to donk a double-up instead!

Luckily, soon after the break I donked a triple-up by going all-in with Q8s in late position after seeing a min-raise and a caller before me. I just figured that I had masses of value and my cards would probably be live as well. As it happened the BB went all-in and there was another all-in as well. The two villains turned over AK and 77 and I saw the beautiful 8 hit the flop and my hand held up! Still, I was out in 15th place (40 runners) when I went all-in with 10 10 and about 7BBs left and got a caller who flipped over QQ - Thank you and good night!

Before moving onto Part 2 just a quick mention to some peeps I met tonight at The Fox: first of all I met PKR's Tigerwing and Rattus but I also noticed a fella who seemed very familiar on one of the other tables and after asking at my table was told that he was in the film "Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels" and also appeared in the TV series, "Misfits." Anyway, after making some enquiries on the internet I found out that it was a guy called Dexter Fletcher, this fella: 

His hair was a little greyer and wilder by the way.

Anyway, at £20 down and with it still being very early in terms of live poker, I swigged down my bottle of Peroni and headed for The Empire which I'll twaddle about in my next post. With the time now at four o'clock in the morning, I really need to hit the sack!

Last Weekly Update

Ok, to get my mind away from short-term thinking and to keep myself focused on the bigger picture, I'm going to make this my last weekly update and just post monthly updates instead from now on. I'll admit it, I've had a very good winning week so it makes the decision to actually post this weekly update very easy:

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ONLINE:WEEK 7: +$300 (~£180) / FEBRUARY +$400 (~£240)  / YEAR: -$460 (~£280)

LIVE:WEEK 7: +£610 (~$960) / FEBRUARY +£610 (~$960) / YEAR: +£1570 (~$2480)

TOTAL:WEEK 7: +£790 (~$1260) / FEBRUARY +£850 (~$1350) / YEAR +£1290 (~$2020)
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As you can see, clearing my online poker deficit is a slow and gradual process - more like a two steps forward and one step back routine, but this dwarfs in comparison to my live exploits which puts me at nearly $2.5K (~£1.5K) up over just six live sessions. My overall profit for the year has just reached $2K and I suppose that really can't be bad.

Next week (or rather a week Monday) I'll be posting the monthly update for February.

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NOW COME ON!!

Live Session #6: 2nd Place Baby! (Part 2)

At 2:45AM came the last hand and, possibly the most annoying thing about The Fox, prizes had to be worked out based on the percentages of the chips held by the remaining players! Overall, I pinched 2nd place and although I'm not sure of the exact numbers, the chip count and prizes were approximately as follows:

1st place - 570 000 chips (approx) = ~£850
2nd place - 275 000 chips (approx) = £630
3rd place - 225 000 chips (approx) = ~£550 

Unfortunately, as they seemed to be in a rush to get away and with it being so late and with them taking an age to work out the numbers, they didnt take names or PKR usernames so no credit on leaderboards or what have you but that's no problem really. Buzzing from this good result (plus the effect of about 7 bottles of Peroni), I wandered into The Empire at about 3AM with the intention of sitting down to play a few hands but after circling for a bit, thought better of it and left for the bus journey back home.

Still, this result gives me a great boost and, with my previous small cash game profit, put me up £610 on the night. I won't mention how I'm doing online just in case I jinx today's sessions but will be posting my usual weekly update in a later post today. I know, "sing when you're winning" and all that - but one thing I will pledge is that I'll never threaten to stop doing the blog again.

With a full week off work ahead of me and my results picking up a little bit, I guess you could say I'm feeling a little smug and a little bit pleased with myself. Be assured though that I won't be reaping the full benefit of this success myself - it's my younger daughter's 18th birthday next weekend! Anyway, let's see how this day's sessions play out and I'll come back with that weekly update. In the meantime here's a song to express how I feel:

Beautiful Sunday

Live Session #6: 2nd Place Baby! (Part 1)

Last night, at about 4:15AM, I rolled home after a long poker session at The Fox. I took £400 into town with me and arrived at The Fox at about 6:15PM. I paid the £38 entrance for the 7PM freezeout and, while waiting for that to start, paid £300 at the cage for chips to play the £1/£2 cash game that had just opened. The dealer actually informed me that the maximum was £500 which is definitely something to bear in mind for the future. Interestingly, I was surprised to see so many players buy in for a very short £50 stack. Anyway, after about 40 minutes I got up from the table with a small £20 profit. Not a bad start I thought, at least that was half the entry fee for the MTT paid for.

The tournament itself was a great success and I battled away nicely to earn a place on the final table. The most notable key hand, I would say, occurred in the mid to late stages when I went all-in with 10 10 and got called by JJ. The turn served me up the magical 10 and I practically doubled-up at a good moment and was well on my way. At the final table, after a few players got knocked out but with my stack dwindling, I found AA at just the right time and got paid off by the BB. I also got paid off by the BB again when I went all-in with K7 in the cut-off and he called with 10 6!!

My last "get-out-jail-free" card came when there were 5 players left. A fairly small-stacked SB went all-in against me when I was on the BB. Without looking at my cards, I saw that my stack could withstand a small set-back and I said I would call him if I held an ace or a king. I regretted saying this when I peeked at K5! True to my word, but reluctantly, I called and he flipped over A6. Bosh - we both missed right up until I spiked a 5 on the river - bosh. After the 4th place player got knocked out (JJ v. KK) we were down to three but with fairly equal stacks and about 10 minutes to go to closing time things were a bit cagey and no one really wanted to commit.

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---Part 2 To Follow---

Green Green Green

Right, after a kick-ass Friday and Saturday at both the live and online poker tables, I'm well back on course and firmly back on track. There's nothing like a few profitable sessions to really put the wind back into your sails - and I'm floating merrily in the breeze baby! I guess the light has turned a very bright green.

Due to the short-term variance I previously doubted whether to post weekly updates but as I have had such a good change of fortune recently (see next post), I will be posting my weekly update at some point today. (I know, it's the "fair-weather blogging" syndrome but we poker players are incurable egomaniacs.) When we get to March, I'll reconsider the viability of posting weekly updates but, as I keep discovering, a lot can happen in a week in this crazy game of poker.

Before I twaddle on about my trip to The Fox, I want to thank those who commented on me crying over short-term variance. I know I wasn't actually called a "pillock", per se, but that's what I was being and I really appreciated the comments and advice.

Still On Amber

I have just made a small deposit on PKR and have some hard cash lined up for some live play this weekend. Through the week, I have just been playing Masters Stage 2 satellites on PKR so nothing major has been happening really so far this week. I'm still undecided about the openness of the profit and loss situation so I'm still at the amber light as it were.

However, I now have a full week off work (hurrah!) which will take me virtually to the end of the month. This is actually convenient as if I do decide to give profit/loss figures, I'm considering monthly updates rather than weekly ones. By doing this, I can give variance a chance to even itself out over a longer period before revealing the results to the world and it might prevent me from resorting to a knee-jerk (full cash-out) reaction every time the waters get a bit choppy, but we'll see.

The Amber Light Comes On

Ok, so I've not made any more deposits just yet but know what the problem is. I have been asking myself some questions and it's all about loosening up and just letting go. Life is just too short. The main issue, though, is whether revealing profits and losses on the blog is a good idea for my game. I started off intending to do this, to be "different", but I'm beginning to realise that the longer the journey goes on the harder it is to keep posting the exact details.

The interesting thing is that of all the poker blogs of the pros NO ONE goes into details of EXACTLY how much money they are winning or losing on such a long-term basis as yours truly...and I'm beginning to understand why. Nevertheless, I'll keep you posted on when, or if, the light turns green.

Here are some random songs that I like:

"Take Your Mama" by Scissor Sisters

"Meet Me OnThe Corner" by Lindisfarne

"Sweet About Me" by Gabriella Cilmi

"That's Not My Name" by The Ting Tings

"Not Fair" by Lily Allen

(The last one is a bit rude but I LOVE that video. Check out the continuity error with the presenter's green jacket changing to a red jacket at the beginning, the random shots of the chickens, the nerdy backing band, the bored drummer, the geeky out-of-sync dance during the bridge at 2:41, the kooky backing singers and Lily's "does-my-bum-look-big-in-this?" pair of trousers! Great Stuff!! )

Stopped At The Red Light

Random but important musings:

(1) Thanks to the wise words and advice of some top players, I have come to realise that the only way to take my game forward is to change attitude. As a player who has played almost solidly for about five years, I know that it's all about the long-term BUT the main problem still persists. ie. Burning off around 3 or 4 buy-ins in one or two days is STILL a big enough dent to my bankroll for me to put up the shutters. In this case I throw out the safety net, cashout my entire bankroll and stop playing for a while. The "stop playing for a while" bit is ok but the cashing out of the bankroll is lame and really needs to stop.

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(2) I have decided that daily updates on this blog may be harming my game at a sub-conscious level. Too much importance is put on individual hands which I feel compelled to twaddle about and poker hands should not be dwealt on in this fashion. At the same time, I don't want this to be a fairweather poker blog where I just post up details of winning sessions or just when things are going well. That's not what the blog is about.

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(3) Once again, I'm seriously starting to question whether this whole blog thing is a good idea and this, in itself, must be boring to the reader. Losing sessions are common, I know, but I don't really want to start questioning whether it's right or wrong to continue with the blog every time it happens. And I'm sure people do not want to keep reading about it.

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As such, as far as my poker journey and this blog goes, I consider myself stuck at a red light. While I sit here, I need to ponder over my options. Shortly, either as a post-script to this post or in my next post, I intend to devise some searching questions and supply the meaningful answers. Hopefully, this will sort out the issues once and for all and I can then give myself the green light to continue on my journey again, in a way which is right for me...

A Change Of Attitude? Change Of Site?

Part of the obligation I put on myself when doing a blog like this is the aim to post regular updates. Not only does this help me gather my thoughts but it's supposed to help me to keep my discipline and focus as well. By being open and honest, it's also supposed to help me play my best - but I'm starting to think that I may actually be putting added pressure on myself and , maybe, I need a change of attitude here.

Earlier, japete warned against being ruled by short-term results and this is very true; obsessing over short-term results is stupid. I responded by saying that I write about my feelings towards short-term results because I post short-term (daily) posts and it's hard NOT to write about those things. Yesterday, Rhymenoceros commented on the narrow-mindedness of my tilt-induced cashouts and my over-reaction to just a one or two buy-in downswing. All these points I respect and really need to be taken on board.

In my next post I'm going to write about the change in attitude that I think I need to bring to the game. This will also involve thinking about my attitude towards money.

What To Do Now?

Well, as I have no online bankroll to speak of apart from this:

And only these tickets to use:

It's going to be interesting to see what the hell I'm going to do to keep this blog going over the next few weeks.

Live Session #5: Horrible Horrible Horrible

Sunday night and it's all gone horribly wrong on all sorts of levels. First off, I've just got back from a trip into town where I sat down at a £1/£2 cash table at The Empire. There, I lost the £130 that I had made this month. Bosh.

Secondly, prior to this, I lost another $150 or so online. With all my online losses added up over the week, I have lost a total of $350 online this week. Consequently, I have taken out my $1100 bankroll (my default move when things get rough).

All in all then, a bit of a bummer. I'm now break-even at the live game this month and just $100 up this month at the online game. It was all looking so promising!

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ONLINE: WEEK 6: -$350 (~£210)  / FEBRUARY  +$100 (~£60)  / YEAR: -$760 (~£460)

LIVE: WEEK 6: -000- / FEBRUARY -000-  / YEAR: +£960 (~$1485)

TOTAL: WEEK 6:-$350 (~£210)   / FEBRUARY +$100 (~£60)  / YEAR +$725 (~£440)

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Rubbish.

Live Session #4: Chalking Up Number Four

Well, I've just returned from a trip to The Empire and am happy to say that I have come back from my fourth consecutive live winning session for the year. I arrived at Leicester Square at 2:30PM and entered the poker room but didn't like the vibe so I actually started striding out for The Vic as it was such a glorious afternoon. After popping into The Fox to see Betfair's event (and the brightest yellow felt tables I have ever seen) I got as far as Oxford Circus and decided a pint was in order. I then had a pleasant pint in a dark secluded pub near Carnaby Street that had just opened for the day.

As I left the pub, the pint had really lightened me up and I just felt right for a game of poker. (It sometimes takes a pint to really get into the mood for a game.) I went back to The Empire at about 5PM and was seated at a newly opened table after about a half an hour wait and was happy to see just one player buying in for the full £400. I plopped my £310 on the table and the rest of the players bought in for between £50 to £200. (A good sign.)

As is often the case, the action was loose from the start so it was just a case of folding patiently until something nice landed in my pocket. Needless to say, after about four orbits or so I looked down UTG at the beautiful AA. I put in a raise but, obviously, it wasn't enough and I got a string of callers. The flop came A 6 x. As it happens, I can't actually remember how the action went exactly but I think I re-raised when a king hit the turn, which was called. The river was a brick and, once again, I'm not sure, but I think the villain threw in £30 or so. I raised all-in and was happy to see him call as he showed K6 for two pair.

This elevated my stack to about £490 and a clear profit of about £180. My stack kind of hovered around the £500 mark for much of the session and I really thought I should leave with a £200 profit at one stage. However, I stayed, continued to play tight (which was probably a mistake) and watched as many of my folded cards hit many boards which would have made me many more £££s. I think this may have tilted me a little and I played two particular hands, one after the other, very weakly, losing around £60 into the bargain. One was where I checked with two pair on the flop hoping for a raise which never came, allowing a villain to hit trips on the turn. On the very next hand, I failed to push with a flush and straight draw and allowed an opponent to win with just a pair. It was at this point that I decided it was best if I got up and left.

At 8 o'clock, after a three hour session, I cashed out £430 in chips for a profit of £120 on the night. Yes, it was a win, but I'm actually quite annoyed with myself for not getting up and banking the £200 when I kind of told myself I was ready to leave. Nevertheless, this now has my live sessions at well over £1K for the year and I have to say that I'm very happy with this. It's just a shame that I can't say the same about my online game which I just can't seem to get together at the moment.

The Vic Or The Empire Tonight?

Saturday morning and I'm doing my usual sitting-up-in-bed-with-the-laptop routine. After a good start to the week, online poker has turned around and bit me on the bum yet again. The last three days or so have just not brought me much joy and the poor cards, poor opportunities along with the poor play, which this inevitably brings, has meant I am currently down $100 this week. The main thing that has brought the most frustration, I suppose, is the lack of hitting anything meaty or connecting with any board to really get the money into the pot. Anyway, la-di-da.

To be honest, I'm not too despondent about this little blip as I think I've minimised my loses like a true pro! I'm sure mere mortals would have tilted and thrown even more money away - and let's not forget that $55 of that loss went on yesterday's "Primetime" debacle. For this, I was pretty much card dead for the first hour and a half. I then lost a few marginals and finally took my leave when my exit hand involved me flopping the straight but with the villain catching quads on the turn! Anyway, there's still the rest of the weekend to go and I think my head is still in the right place to play solid poker.

This evening I need to get off my fat arse and head into town for some live poker baby. The Fox's tournament schedule has a Betfair thing going on so I'm going to assume it's out-of-bounds tonight. Which means either The Vic or The Empire awaits. I'll be taking £310 from my "live" bankroll into town tonight and will give my usual trip report before my weekly update in my last post tomorrow. Let's hope it'll be green green green eh?

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PUT THE SEAT BELTS ON BOYS AND GIRLS - WE'RE GOING IN!!

PKR's Best MTT

Every now and again, PKR throw out a series of MTTs called "Primetime." Each day of the week has its own, slightly differently structured MTT but the entry is usually around $55. Now as you may be aware, I don't really care much for MTTs but presently, on Fridays, they hold their "Super Deep Stack" event.

Now, to be honest, I don't think I've ever seen such a good structure in an online MTT; certainly not on PKR anyway and, as such, I'm going to give this one a spin tonight. The guarantee is put at $8K and it's your usual 15 minute clock per level. However, you start with 20000 chips! Not only this, but the blinds start at a low 10/20 and rise to 20/40, 30/60, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200 etc etc. This means that at Level 1 you have 1000BBs and by Level 6 (90 minutes in) you're still at 100BBs of your starting stack!! This can't be bad right?

Now I'm not sure where this ranks in Snyder's "Utility Factor" or where it falls in his "Skill Factor" chart but I've never seen such a tournament, at this price, with so much room for ducking and diving and wheeling and dealing - so I'm in baby!!

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LET'S DO THIS!!
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P.S. No joy :-(

Excitement At $400nl

Ok, so I decided to mess with the big boys tonight and tried my hand, for the first time this year, at a little bit of $2/$4 online. I really didn't play many hands at the $400nl game tonight but got my stack all-in twice. They were automatic, no-brainer all-ins really and there was nothing particularly remarkable about them but it was nice to get involved with the rhyming hippopotamus (Hand #2)...

Hand #1:

Hunky-dory, tickety-boo...

Ok, despite my unorthodox flat call on the flop allowing the possible flush draw to hit, it was all pretty much standard stuff. What about this next one?

Hand #2

Once again, flat calling may be the questionable play here but surely oneplaner's small, mid-position, raise was also a little suspect? Here's how it went post-flop:

I think this is fairly standard myself and after the turn there's no other move than to chuck 'em all-in. Oneplaner did mention my lead-out in the chatbox for some reason but I think he must have been just muckin' about. I just post these really cos this was my first shot at $400nl this year and the hands were kinda interesting as I put relatively big stacks on the line. All part of the fun though innit?

Hand Count This Month

As I finished my evening session tonight, I thought I'd do a hand count using PokerOfficer. Due to my reluctance to dive wholeheartedly into the fray this month, it's perhaps not surprising that I've only actually played just over 600 cash game hands so far this February. Although this lack of many hands may be, in part, due to my entry into a quite few MTTs, this is not many at all; much less than what a typical pro player puts in, in one day.

Still, things are not going too badly at all at the moment and I'm happy to report that my bankroll is still on the up (but I don't want to state how much, just yet, in case I trigger the doomswitch as I did last month). Tomorrow, I have yet more work commitments which will force me to stay at work till late and probably prevent me from playing much online poker tomorrow as well. I feel totally knackered at the end of a "normal" working day and so any extra nonsense tagged on at the end pretty much kills me off. It's typical of work getting in the bleedin' way.

Finally, as I have 3 out of 3 winning live game sessions thus far this year, I'm going to hit the town this weekend once again for some live poker shenanigens. The Fox has some sort of Betfair linked tournament going on so I will probably give them a miss. I still haven't been to The Vic yet this year so that place is calling me pretty loudly at the moment; maybe I'll get on down there this weekend for some cash game tussles.

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Keep on truckin' and a chuggin' along baby!!

A Sharkscope Update

As I'm mainly a cash game player, I've only played 8 MTTs this year so my sharkscope chart doesn't really tell much of a story. On a positive, though, as it does show me as a brilliant, winning player and, being the huge egomaniac that I am, I thought I'd post it up here:

 

I know, pride comes before a fall. Methinks I will pay most dearly for this.

Buying Tickets With Points

As you play online poker, most sites, if not all, give you points; the more you play on the site the more points they reward you with. The points can be used to buy products or, more usefully, tickets to their tournaments. As the points themselves do not really cost any money, and are essentially glorified rakeback, I'm not counting the purchase of these tickets against my balance and instead will view these as "freebies." The great thing with this system is that if I do cash something nice, it gets added onto the balance which makes this a win/win situation! (The value of any tickets in my account will NOT be added to my total - I need to actually WIN cold, hard cash for it to be counted!)

Thus far, all my PKR points have gone on tickets to either standard MTTs, satellites or "phase" tournies. This year will be no exception and I will mainly be using my points to buy tickets for the Masters Stage 2 satellites as I think these offer good value. (My only previous cash in The Masters was through the satellites after I purchased a ticket.) As I type this I'm doing rather well in one right now. Here's a screenshot I took of the lobby during the break:

If only I could end up in this postion at the end of the main event huh? Waddya reckon here? Fold to the seat?

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P.S. Ok, folding to a seat was not an option but I still managed to book my seat to Stage 3 with some ducking and diving:

 

HURRAH!

With enough points to get five more Masters Stage 2 satellite tickets, and encouraged by this little success, I think entering these is definitely the way to go. Masters Final Table - here I come!

Better - A Good Week

Thanks, in part, to a welcome rakeback boost of $170, it's been a good week overall with my online game finally gathering some sort of momentum. Even though I've suffered the usual setback of terrible villains hitting their draws, despite making it wrong for them to chase, I've generally managed to get rewarded with the big hands and have been playing quite well.

The real change in fortune came today where I secured around a $200 profit at the nl100 and nl200 online cash games along with another cash finish in the $5K ADDED MTT for Gold+ members for a $100 profit. All of which means that things seem to be getting back on track. But let's not get carried away eh? Here is my exit hand in that MTT where my lovely AA got cracked by 33. (I'll just put in the second part of the Hand History as the first just takes up space):

 

It's got a familiar ring to it don't you think? I can't remember the last time I actually won with AA! Still, it's nice to know that the villain in this hand, the plunderer of treasures, made good use of the chips as you can see:

Remember, with the fluctuating exchange rate being as it is, bear in mind that the following figures are approximate:

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ONLINE: WEEK 5: +$450 (~£270)  / FEBRUARY  +$450 (~£270)  / YEAR: -$410 (~£260)

LIVE: WEEK 5: +£10 (~$15)  / FEBRUARY +£10 (~$15)  / YEAR: +£970 (~$1495)

TOTAL: WEEK 5: +£280 (~$465)  / FEBRUARY +£280 (~$465)  / YEAR +$1085 (~£700)
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Of course, we all know that it's long-term and a long way to go and that anything can happen but it's nice to see my poker earnings touch the $1K mark for the year. I just need to work on the online game now to get that figure out of the red and into the green.Who knows what the next week will bring? 

Live Session #3: Back From The Fox (Part 2)

Cash Game Session At £1/£1

To be honest, I don't really like playing £1/£1 at The Fox due to the 10% rake; however, sometimes it's just nice to ease off from the wild £1/£2 games at The Empire and play a lower stake game just to steady the variance a bit. Early indications told me that there were no real tricky players at the table, which was nice, but my cash game session started off badly. Early on I got dealt AA and decided to go all-in on the K 7 x flop. My opponent called and showed his K7. (Before you ask, yes I did do a substantial raise pre-flop.) He also hit a king on the turn for a full house, just for good measure.

This put me down £60 early on so not a great start. Fortunately there was a maniac on the table who had no idea about the importance of position and played a very poor loose aggressive game; as such, I won about £70 off her with AK (see below). I guess you could call it my "key hand" but I did manage to spin my stack up to ~£300 overall (I reloaded £50) which put me up about £50 at the cash game and up around £10 on the night.

Key Hand 
I did my fair share of ducking and diving but there were two "key hands" really. The first I mentioned above where I lost about £60 with AA. The second was where I made about £70 with AK. I raised with it preflop and got called by Ms Maniac and Mr Confident. The flop came 3 3 7. Ms Maniac checked while Mr Confident hollywooded for a bit but ended up checking. Taking their style of play into account, this told me that I was very likely ahead but I checked anyway. The turn came a king. Ms Maniac pushed all-in for her remaining £60, Mr Confident folded and I snap-called. Clearly disappointed Ms Maniac just showed the king but, obviously, my kicker was good enough.

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I guess it's nice to report that I was up £10 on the night but one leak I really need to put right is tipping too much. To be honest, I was pretty much the ONLY player who did, but announcing at the table that I "always tip" didn't help. As a man of my word I then tipped £1 for EVERY hand that I won. As I won well over ten hands, including quite a few pre-flop, I really just gave away far too much money. Sort it out Wobble!

Lesson 1: Stick to live cash games and carry on limiting yourself to just one live MTT per month.

Lesson 2: Ease off with the tipping ESPECIALLY after winning hands pre-flop (you idiot!).

Lesson 3: Do NOT buy two pizza slices at the end of the evening when only one will do!

Live Session #3: Back From The Fox (Part 1)

Part 1 - The Nonsense Of The £38 Freezeout

First off, The Fox has gone the way of a few other clubs and popped in a hidden cost to their MTTs. Now, instead of the usual £35 buy-in plus £5 entry fee, they have added a £3 "dealer bonus" making the whole thing £38. Basically, this means you pay an extra £3 for an extra 1500 chips. To get the value, you should take the extra chips BUT that £3 does NOT go into the prize pool which kinda takes the value away when you think about it. (Talk about giving with one hand but taking with the other.) Effectively, this has now become a £38 freezout where you pay a 21% charge. It's fair enough that they take 13% to run the event but to siphon off 8% to go in their coffers is a bit much. I'm all for tipping the dealers (see Part 2) but I've always seen this as a bit of a rip-off to be honest. 

Anyway, once again, I seem to be playing these MTTs just to remind myself why the hell I shouldn't be playing these bloody MTTs!! Yep, this time it was a knock-out due to being on the wrong end of some set-over-set shenanigans. I held 44 my opponent held JJ and the flop came A J 4; you can guess the rest. Anyway, foregoing a trip to The Empire tonight, I decided to stay at The Fox to try my hand at the cash game tables. Fortunately, I managed to battle quite nicely and ended up winning back my £38 entry to the freezeout and then some (but only a very little sum). Details of this will follow in Part 2...

The Difference Rakeback Makes

It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting up in bed with my laptop. I'll be going into town today for a live session but I haven't really decided which venue to plump for yet. A gentle £35 freezeout at The Fox is certainly calling me so that's looking the most likely at present, although the temptation to play £1/£2 cash games at The Empire will be hard to withstand for obvious reasons. If I do decide on The Fox I'll need to get down there for 6PM cos last time they were queueing outside the door at 6:30PM and I never got round to registering.

Yesterday, I received a $170 rakeback payment at PKR thus lifting my bankroll up to $1180. On top of this, I have secured $50 profit by mainly playing $100nl. Nothing fancy but it puts my bankroll at $1230 and at least it's moving in the right direction. Now, although my online progress has been poor, to say the least, rakeback really does give you a boost at the beginning of the month; particularly if you are looking to repair the previous month's damage.

Unfortunately, you cannot secure a rakeback deal retrospectively after you have registered an account and this is a major headache for a lot of online players. Last week I was chatting with this guy at The Empire who told me that when he started playing online he just registered with loads of sites but never researched rakeback. Now, while registered with virtually every network under the sun he doesn't receive rakeback from ANY site whatsoever - bummer!

Moral: ALWAYS research a rakeback deal before registering with an online poker site.

Personally, I get rakeback from; PKR, Betfair, Poker Heaven and Full Tilt. But I'm still kicking myself for not investigating rakeback deals at other major sites, which I joined years ago, like; Stars, Party, Paddy Power etc etc.

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Still, there is one other thing I need to mention before signing off. In previous posts I mentioned my desire to post about short-term results and maintained that it made no difference to my state-of-mind or how I played at the tables. Well, I've decided to take japete's advice and I'm not going to dwell on my results so much in my posts. I will continue to post weekly updates on Sunday evening, cos that's all part of the deal, but I'm just not going to dwell so much on individual sessions. We'll see how it goes.

Twaddling On - And We're Off...

I have just placed the necessaries into my PKR account and so the wheels to my amazing new bankroll management strategy have been set in motion  - we're off baby! Yet again, of course, I have fallen victim to the exchange rate rip-off. A deposit of £650 sees me with a $1020 balance, yet if I were to withdraw that sum today I only get £610 back! That's another £40 disappeared and swallowed up in digital cyberspace; no doubt pocketed by some big fat cat. Anyway, at least rakeback day will supply some sort of recompense.

For convenience sake, and for the benefit of updates, I'm just going to see it as a £600 deposit for a $1000 starting balance for February, so there.

Let's remind ourselves once again of my fantabulous strategy:

For live poker, I've set aside £1000 which I'll use as and when I take a trip into old London Town for the £1/£1 and £1/£2 cash games as well as for a few MTTs. It's looking very likely, by the way, that I'll be heading downtown over the weekend (and I'll do my usual trip report for this). For the online game, the $1000 balance is what I'll use to play with this month. I'll probably start off with some low-limit games, like $25nl and $50, just to get in the swing of things before dipping my toes into the $100nl and $200nl every so often. It's all fairly experimental but we'll see how things go eh?

NOW COME ON!!!

Las Vegas - To Go Or Not To Go...

... That is the question.

As someone who has played a fair amount of poker over the last five years and who claims to be a keen enthusiast, it may surprise you to know that I have yet to make the trip out to Las Vegas. Recently I have been doing a lot of research on the subject and the urge to go is as strong as it's ever been before. The thing is, this year, the year of the blog, is probably the most appropriate time to make my first visit out there.

While researching all the possibilities, I'm drawn to the convenience of staying at Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon. It's not exactly state-of-the-art or 5-star but as long as I get a good night's sleep it seems fine. Its central location is ideal with there being easy access to all your favourites like; Bally's, Paris, Flamingo, Bellagio and Caesars Palace. It also seems you can get from your room to the main street in less than five minutes and without having to get your compass out or putting your hiking boots on. At the moment, I'm considering going for eight days from Tuesday to the following Wednesday (so I get a full jet-lag free weekend) and the price, at present, for both the flight and hotel is a not unreasonable £1058.

The other alternative that I've been considering, due to the favourable reviews of its poker room, is the MGM. This hotel is huge, more expensive but a bit out of the way on the south part of the strip. It also, apparently, takes an age to get from your hotel room to the casino floor. Hmm, not so good. This package comes in at £1285.

Something to think about. I might well just get this booked over the weekend but I still haven't got my passport renewed yet which is a slight annoyance. Still, I'll let you know how things develop with this.