Live Session #21: A Small Boost Of Confidence

Today at about 6:30PM I left for central London with £600 and with the intention of playing some decent cash game poker. First stop was The Empire but after looking around at just four or five very serious looking tables with lots of concentrated looks on the players' faces I decided the vibe was just wrong so I grabbed one of their poker magazines and left. Next stop was The Fox and this place was heaving, mainly due to the £38 donkament just starting which was jam-packed to the brim and with an alternate list as long as my arm. Lots of people were waiting around and the three or so cash tables were full but looked like the same old story- fairly short-stacked but serious minded players.

I passed on laying down my £160 for the Monday 3PM freezeout and decided a visit to The Golden Nugget was in order. This place is on Shaftesbury Avenue but is on the other side of the road to The Fox and is about a 7 or 8 minute walk from there. It's kind of the sister casino to The Empire and accepts the rewards card that you get when you join The Empire. It's a lot smaller and only has about half a dozen poker tables. Its freezeout attracts small fields and the cash game tables are only £1/£1. Tonight just the one table was running and after spotting a free seat I plonked myself down and quickly surveyed the stacks at the table.

As often is the case, the stacks were fairly small and after I found out that the maximum buy-in was just £150, I peeled off £140 (making me the big-stack) and settled in. Lucky for me, I started off well by getting some decent cards and immediately conveyed the image of being a loose aggressive player. This worked well as I got paid off nicely while holding pocket kings and then got paid off a sweet £40 for luckily hitting a gutshot on the river. After about just an hour's play I started  trickling away some chips and left with a £200 stack and £60 up on the session.

Now I know manufacturing small wins is not the thing to do but I decided to knock poker on the head for the evening right there and then just so I could get the feeling of winning consistently back again. This does now mean 3 profitable live sessions in a row; I know they're small wins but it's just nice to get a small winning run under your belt. It also means that I'm really starting to warm to these £1/£1 tables outside of The Fox. Yes, they take 10% rake, yes the rewards aren't as large and of course it's a ridiculously small sample but at the moment they just seem very comfortable to play in.

If you have faith in your ability as a player, then sitting down with the maximum at these tables is the thing to do. You can immediately tell, through body language and facial gestures, just who seems wary of you, who will therefore probably tighten up against you and who doesn't seem to mind tackling with you. Of course, it also allows you to use a wider repertoire of moves against your opponents. Finally, I stand 100% by the view that online players tend to be MUCH stronger and feel 100% vindicated by my decision to ditch the online game in favour of playing live. Why, indeed, sit down at a table where about 75% players know what they're doing when you can sit at a real table where only about 40% of the players know what they're doing? AND get a lot more information into the bargain.

Anyway, my next post will be the April update where the whole nightmare of my online debacle will be revealed, plus where a decision has to be made about how I am to proceed with the showing of profits and losses. With the time at nearly midnight it's probably a bit too late to do that tonight and it's probably best if I sleep on it anyway so that everything is clearer in my head come tomorrow morning.

Goodnight one and all!

Poker Tonight

Yesterday, I wrote about the end of my online poker career where days of depositing large sums and attempting to spin up the bankroll through the daily grind are over. This is not to say that I won't make the odd one-shot deposit for the odd juicy-looking MTT or for the occasional satellite or two, but the long-term grind at the cash game tables is a thing of the past (for now at least). As a "gesture of intent," I made a full cashout of funds from both 888Poker and Paddy Power yesterday.

This weekend is a long weekend due to the royal wedding and the bank holiday Monday - and I'm really up for some live game sessions. This evening, I plan to hit the town and to see which poker room my mood will take me. It will probably be a cash game session at The Empire but The Vic for some £1/£1 is also a possibility after the success of last time. On Monday, as I mentioned before, there is a tempting looking £150+£10 freezeout at The Fox starting at 3PM which gives the player a 15000 chip starting stack and a 30 minute clock. In fact, I may sign-up for this, over-the-counter, while I'm in town tonight.

Finally, I have a decision to make over whether I should continue to show full and transparent details of my profits and losses. I know that doing this makes my blog unique(?) compared to other poker blogs where players just show short-term winnings and don't reveal the long-term scoreboard but I'm really questioning whether I should continue doing this. I know it makes the journey much more interesting for all parties but these swings aren't fiction and a £1000 downswing in 6 weeks still hurts; if I get hit with a similar one over the coming months, I really don't know if that is information I want shared.  Rest assured though people I am still in a 4-figure profit this year (just) but that could easily change tonight.

In fact tonight's session is crucial, we're all a bit fickle by nature and a lot of decisions are made depending on mood. Tonight's result will, therefore, probably have a bearing on my decision; if it's a success I'll probably go right on ahead and keep the profit and loss score going but if I get a £400 wipe-out it will more than likely be game over with the scorecard as well! In any case, whatever decision I make, I will let ya know later today or tomorrow but I'll still make sure I post an update for April (cry). This way, I can then concentrate on the month of May and move onward, upward, round the corner with Bob being yer uncle and Fanny being yer Aunt.

Game Over: The End Of The (Online) Road

We're right near the end of April now and I'm afraid it's game over as far as the online game is concerned. The light started to shine at the end of March and the start of April, and fittingly the start of Spring brought a fresh new hope, but unfortunately it's been snuffed out and I've had the wind knocked out of my sails once too often over the last few weeks or so and it's time to sail off into the sunset. Sadly then, I've reached the end of the road with online poker.

I'm not going to wobble on about the whys and wherefores cos you've heard it all before but it's clear to me that online players are getting more proficient and the online game has just become too hard to crack; I certainly don't want to lose any more money trying to prove otherwise. Nowadays, to make online poker reasonably profitable, you need to put in the volume, you need to study the game in depth, you need training sites and/or a trainer to improve your game and you need to discuss the game with a network of supportive players. All of this takes massive amounts of time and massive amounts of effort and, needless to say, you'll need massive amounts of money as well (at least $15k-$20k); in other words, you need to be a pro.

Unfortunately I just can't compete with those that are able to go this route and I know I'm getting overtaken by increasingly more serious and better players as well. I also know I won't be fulfilled playing the low-stakes games either. It's true what they say, to make "good-time" money at online poker you either need to be incredibly lucky (short-term bink at a major MTT) or incredibly good (at the long-term grind) and I'm none of these.

Thankfully, I can refer to last year's profits to show that I'm not a losing player overall so I guess I can still hold my head high, BUT around 8 months of stagnation and break-even poker is proof enough to show that sitting on my arse and staring at a screen of avatars, cards and chips for hours on end each day is not going to make me significantly rich (in many ways besides financial). Additionally, huge amounts of my money in the form of rake (including $13000 to PKR) just goes towards making the online sites richer. Nope, it really is time to take my bow and leave.

I've withdrawn all funds from 888Poker and Paddy Power Poker back into my bank account where I can put the money to better use and have decided that real places like The Empire, The Fox, The Vic and The International is where I want to play my poker from now on. Hell, I might even try out some totally new venues. Yep, I'm going to stick to good ol' fashioned bricks and mortar, face to face, over-a-real-table combat - it's more social (obviously), gets me out of the house and is just how the game should be played! Also, playing zero online poker may even make me fitter and more healthy!!

As kind of half-promised I'll put up my April update to show the full sad and sorry story in my final post of the month. I still don't know whether to call a halt to revealing profits and losses, thereafter, but that'll be something I'll need to reconsider in the light of what's happened to my online game.

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P.S. I still have one ticket left for the PKRL6 final stage satellite and a very small rakeback payment from PKR due in early May but I'll probably use that for a double or nothing pop at blackjack. (Or I may just cash it out depending on how much it is.) I will keep the blog going and continue to twaddle on about my live poker exploits.

Until next time... wobble on and twaddle on.

A Four Day Break From Work

It is now my lunch-break at work and I thought I'd just bang out a few words for the sake of the blogalisation of the situation. After a parents' evening tonight I'll be looking forward to a very long weekend due to the royal wedding nonsense tomorrow and May Day bank holiday on Monday.

I'm tinkering with the idea of playing some live poker on Saturday although popping into town this very evening or even late tomorrow are certainly options to consider. (I'll definitely need an early evening nap though if I choose to hit the town tonight.) Finally, there is a very tempting, reasonably structured £150+£10 freezeout taking place at The Fox on Monday which I'm definitely considering as well.

Still, I'm 90% sure I'll be playing some form of live poker over the bank holiday weekend. Now to get this last lesson and parents' evening over with...

Still Slow Progress At The Online Game

After my emigration from PKR last week, progress at the online game at both 888 and Paddy Power has been fairly slow of late but, to be honest, I've not exactly been racking up a huge amount of cash game hands. After a promising start at my MTT regime there have been no notable scores MTT-wise. Consequently my resolution to stick to satellites and MTTs has been fairly short-lived and I've not been able to ignore the call of the cash game spirits.

Here, I've been playing quite safe and conservative and mainly at just $0.25/$0.50 although as I'm starting to get my confidence back I'm making more dips into the $0.50/$1 pool and I've even played a few $1/$2 sessions at 888. It's all tickety-boo really and I'm chugging along satisfactorily at a break-even pace. I know, I say it's "satisfactory" cos it's all about staying in a low gear, for now, until I ride out the downswing and I feel ready to change up into 4th and 5th with venom. Again, I know in past posts I admitted the online game was getting tougher but I guess I just can't resist a challenge!

Chuggin' along, just chuggin' along.

Live Session #20: A Visit To The Vic

Ok, my intention today was to play in the special £150+£10 freezeout at The Fox but after getting the bus down there and then being told that it was being held on the May Day bank holiday next week, I realised my mistake. Still, it gave me time to pop into a pub and finish marking all the Year 11 exam papers - done!

Next stop was The Empire but again, nothing doing. Just two very quiet and serious tables plus a few familiar faces and lots of big stacks - that was enough to tell me that this was not the day to be playing at The Empire. I checked back at The Fox and there were no cash game tables happening whatsoever. No worries, another visit to a quiet pub followed and, as it was such a gloriously sunny day, I made the decision to walk to Edgware Road and visit The Vic for my first visit to the place this year.

After just sitting down, looking the place over and realising that it hadn't changed a bit I put my name down for the £1/£1 or the £1/£2 cash games. As it happened, a place was available at the £1/£1 game soon after at about 5PM. Now the great thing about playing the mad games at The Empire and seeing all those wild £18 pre-flop raises and the calling of a £50 preflop re-raise with garbage, is that raises of £4, £5 or £6 pounds at a £1/£1 game just look pretty tame by comparison. Now by bringing £140 to the table (only one other player had roughly the same, others had less) and not really fearing the odd 5BB raise but happy to do a lot of in position raising, I played a pretty loose game and soon generated quite an aggressive image.

Now I don't think this had anything to do with my jackpot hand because the hand played out automatically and I don't think my opponent had much choice but my pay-off came when I looked down at 77 preflop and saw the beautiful 7 8 2 hit the flop. After an 8 on the turn and a 4 on the river all the money was in the pot and I was happy to see my unfortunate villain turn over 2 2 for a lower full-house. As he was the only other comparatively big-stack at the table I doubled-up nicely to around £300. (That's why we bring the big stack to the table kids!)

That was nice. But after this I just managed to play badly and spewed about £50 - which was enough to tell me that I needed to stop. I left the table at about 7 o'clock and with a £110 profit. After leaving and as I walked down a pleasantly sunny Oxford Street I was very tempted to check out my other haunts but after considering that this win puts my live game back in the green this month I thought I'd just bank the victory and head home.

I reckon I'll be visiting the £1/£1 at The Vic a little more often. Yes it's a pretty disgusting 10% rake but, judging from the play today, it seems to be more ev for me than the same game at The Fox where the players seem a tad better. As ever though, we'll see how things go.

Live Session #19: Rock Steady

Ok, so I have just returned from a live session in town and managed to return home with the £300 still intact plus a little extra. It started at The Empire at about 6PM on the wildest table I've been at in a long time. With our South East Asian friends playing as loose and as wild as ever and with the white British males pretty much sitting tight, it was an interesting table to say the least. (No stereotyping intended.) 

Personally, I felt no need to get tricky at all and just sat tight throughout the four and a half hours I was there. Basically, I got dealt AA twice and, after limp/re-raising with them pre-flop, just played aggressively with these two hands. Both played pretty similarly in actual fact. I limped both times in mid-position expecting, 90%, that it would be raised. Yep, they were raised about £18 both times and both times I re-raised by walloping in another £50 and BOTH times I got the call. On the harmless flops I fired out and got two folds. Just those two hands alone got me in excess of £100. Anyway apart from those hands there was absolutely nothing doing and I left at about 10:30PM, just £40 up overall.

After this I couldn't resist a cash game session at The Fox. Here, the table was so friendly the players were practically telling each other what they had! Anyway, after a nice spin up to about £50, I got caught for about £40 when I hit trip aces on the river only for my villain to show a full-house tens over aces! Ouch!! With just £10 up then and with the time at around 12:45AM I called it a night and hit the road with a profit standing at £50 on the session. 

A satisfactory evening then but a long way still to go.

Have Passport; Will Travel - To The Empire

While I was enjoying the delights of sunny Bournemouth, the New Forest and its surrounding area, my new passport arrived through the post at my home in London. Consequently, I thought I'd take it into town today and finally register for a proper membership at The Empire Casino. This way, if by some miracle I do bink their badbeat jackpot, they'll be no problems with them paying up.

Now I don't normally do The Empire on Sunday cos it just tends to have mainly good players on this day but, you know what? Sod it, I'm going to give it a go anyway and just hope I don't regret it. It's just gone 5 o'clock in the afternoon on Easter Sunday and I've just had a refreshing shower - and this really is the last time I'll be able to do a live session before work kicks in again come Tuesday. (Thank God for bank holidays eh?) I'll be taking £300 with me; that's the £200 in chips plus an extra £100 in cash.

I'll do a trip report either later today or tomorrow and let y'all know how get on. A win of £150 will get me to break-even point at the cash games but that's not really what I should be thinking about. I just need to make sure I play my A game all the way.

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        NOW LET'S DO THIS!!

No Live Session Yesterday

Mainly due to fatigue and just not feeling like it, I didn't play a live session yesterday after all. I still have a stack of Empire chips worth £200 sitting on my shelf and I'm keen to use them but I just don't know when that'll be. I want to do at least one live session before the end of the month because I'm still down £150, for April, at the live game (mainly due to the woeful way I played my pocket queens last time) and I want to give myself a chance of getting that figure back in the green.

The boring chore of marking a class worth of Year 11 mock exams hangs over me and that needs to be done before my return to work on Tuesday. I'm actually thinking of taking the papers into town today, marking them in a pub somewhere, and then getting down to a live session afterwards but I'm not sure. At least that gets the mind-numbing marking out the way first and will then give me Monday to think about and prepare what the hell I'm gonna be teaching my classes when I return. Still, even though I have a parents' evening to get through on Thursday, it's only a three day stretch for the week when I go back AND a nice bank holiday Monday to look forward to the following week - so that's nice. (With that bloke's wedding on Friday, it's nice to know the royal family have their uses.)


Ok - The Twaddle Factor was high with this one.

P.S. Ok, as it's a glorious sunny day, I'm sure you're all keen to know that I've decided to do my marking in the park instead. I may follow this up with a cool pint down my local and then I'll decide on a plan of action regarding poker. It's the last few days of the hols and I'm gonna enjoy it by crikey.

Goodbye PKR. Hello 888 and Paddy!

Ok, well I'm afraid the nail in the PKR coffin has finally been hammered in and I have (almost) emigrated to the two new sites. The last straw came after a cash game session wiped $90 from my bankroll. I held AQ and flopped Top Pair Top Kicker while my villain held AA and I just couldn't get away from the hand. Nope, I just aint clicking anymore on the ol' PKR so I've made my new home at 888Poker and Paddy Power Poker.

I say "almost" because I still have a few PKR points and the PKRL6 Final Stage Satellite ticket worth $162 in my account; plus a small rakeback payment due in early May. I know a continual cycle of depositing and withdrawing is bad so I've made my last withdrawal from PKR and will distribute that amount in my 888 and Paddy accounts. As I'm back in London (and looked up my forgotten Party Poker password) I had considered depositing the rest of the PKR balance in there - but I think the two I'm on at present offer me plenty of action for the time being.

Profit-wise, after swings and roundabouts at both MTTs and cash games I still have my initial "new" £2K starting bankroll intact so no change there. I know it's early days but, with a nice MTT final table and a few comfortable cash game tables, early indications show that possibly 888Poker may be where the main action is from now on. Tonight will be my last real chance to play a decent live game session before I have to get back on the treadmill so I think The Empire will be calling as we approach the evening. As long as I ignore the call of The Fox I think I'll be ok.

Maybe A Live Session Today

I'm presently enjoying a nice easter break away from the big city in sunny Bournemouth. Tomorrow I make my return to London which just leaves me one more evening. This afternoon, it's a five and a half mile country walk in the Dorset countryside which is just what I need to clear my head.

This means that I just may visit the Gala tonight on Westover Road for some cash game actions or maybe even a freezeout. The only problem is, when I joined up on my last visit, my passport was out-of-date. They gave me a membership card but asked me to make sure I renewed my passport on my next visit. Unfortunately, I've applied for a new passport but it's all in the post. I might phone them up and ask if it's ok this one time. If I make it tonight, I'll give a trip report.

Now for that long country walk...

P.S. No Live poker tonight. Too tired.

Another Final Table

I know, I know, it's only an $11 freezeout at Paddy Power Poker but it was two out of two final tables in my new MTT campaign and just the sort of pick me up I need. Come on, in these tricky times I have to give myself a bit of a cheer ya know. Here I am on the final table as Magic Mush at Paddy Power Poker:

Yep, my second MTT was just an $11 freezeout with 175 runners but an 8th place finish allowed me to pick up a $70 payout - I know, I said I'd go for higher entry MTTs and satellites but I just wanted a gentle start... you know. Here is the Paddy Power tournament lobby:

Onwards and upwards.

2 New Poker Sites

Following on from my last post, I've taken the plunge and deposited about £2000 across three poker sites altogether. My intention is not to deposit or withdraw anymore and for this to be my new starting bankroll for the rest of the year. As you know, I've felt that I've been stuck in a rut recently and as such I've changed direction a little bit. One change was to stop my attachment to the PKR forums, break away from PKR a bit and deposit on other sites. The second major change is to move away from cash games and to focus more on MTTs, including satellites.

My balance now reads like this:

888Poker (Pacific) = $1300
Paddy Power = $1350
PKR  = $850

Unfortunately, I didn't deposit on Party Poker because I'm currently having an easter break away from home and, although I have my trusted laptop, I forgot my Party Poker password!! Still, yesterday evening I played a $22 MTT on 888Poker just to get used to the software and I was really pleasantly surprised with how well they've developed their software since last time I was on there - it really was quite a pleasure to play on. Not least because of the relatively faster speed of the tables compared to PKR. This was my first non-PKR online poker experience of the year and I'm pleased to say I managed a final table finish and grabbed 7th place out of 112 runners for a $112 payout. Here is a screenshot of my final table appearance with the mighty 23o:

 

I can't believe I was up till 4:30AM playing this! Anyway it was a good structure really (3000chips and 15min levels - but lots of hands due to the faster speed.) Notice the lights around the edges; these come on with a little fanfare as you hit the final table in an MTT - a nice touch. Anyway, positive, positive, positive.

The Satellite Route

Following my 100-day break even run this year at the $100nl and $200nl cash games, I've come to realise that the online game is a lot tougher than it was a year ago. As players become more knowledgeable the playing field has evened out - so much so that, to my mind, the role of luck has become a bigger factor than ever. I think that luck plays an even higher role in the game than a lot of people would like to believe. 

To beat the game on a regular long-term basis you have to maximise your edge by putting in masses amounts of volume, playing extreme amounts of hands and games, and constantly reviewing and studying the game on a daily basis. For anyone with a full-time job, putting your heart and soul into the game in such a manner is just not possible - and as always winning a large sum of money will come in the form of a top 3 finish in a big one.

Taking all this on board, I've decided to stop breaking even at online cash games. I've had enough of sitting down to tables where over half the players are regulars and where it's so difficult to extract money form anybody. No, I've now decided to join the MTT brigade; at least for a little while. As I hinted at in my last post, I've decided to take the satellite route. This involves scouring about 4 sites and just sitting down to play satellites with the ultimate goal of going deep in a tournament where the money actually means something. Muckin' about in MTTs and freezeouts for $30-$50 a pop for the chance of winning a few hundred dollars can be a drag. NO, I've decided that my online game, for the moment, will be a satellite-heavy affair for the chance of playing in more meaty MTTs and the chance to win something significant.

I still intend to crack on with visits to The Empire and play the £1/£2 live cash games for sure, but my online game is now going to be taken up mainly with entries into $20-$50 satellites. Variance, of course, will kick in a lot more and huge slumps will be even greater than my cash game downswings - but I've come to realise that it's all lot more of a gamble than I originally thought anyway.

What does this mean for the blog?

Well, as I've realised that poker has a much higher gambling/luck element than when I first started the year, I'm more aware that the chance to increase my profits is more out of my control (particularly as I'm jumping into MTT territory). Let's come clean, one of the reasons I started the blog and thought that it was a good idea in the first place was because I "knew" I had an edge over my opponents and it was more likely that I'd make money than not. Now that I know online poker is more of a gamble (or I'm not as good as I thought I was) and that I'm now going to be playing a much higher variance game, I really don't know if I want to let all and sundry know how I'm getting on financially at the game.

What I'm going to do, therefore, is see how I get on short-term and then consider whether posting profits and losses is still a good idea come the end of the month. We'll see, we'll see. The sites I'll be playing on will be 888, Paddy Power, Party Poker and PKR.

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No More Exclusive Play At PKR

As y'all know, I've only been playing exlusively at PKR this year. However, after more reflection on where the hell to take my online game, I've decided that I need to stop restricting myself to this one site and to spread my wings elsewhere. I've been looking at the lobbies of Pacific Poker, Paddy Power Poker and Party Poker and it looks like these are the contenders to take some of my custom away from my beloved PKR. Their satellites all look good (all have juicy looking $20-$50 satellites to bigger events) and I'm considering just spreading my bankroll across all these sites and mainly just playing these satellites for the time being. I might, possibly, sprinkle in some $100nl cash games as I go along  but I'm not really sure at the moment.

I don't know how many of these sites I'll deposit on altogether (I already have accounts in all three by the way) but it'll probably be about 2 to 4. As far as PKR are concerned, at the moment, I just feel like entering their Masters Stage 3 satellites for now and to see how things go. Other than PKR, my favourite site is Paddy Power so I'll probably deposit on there for sure. One thing I'm considering is placing 4 equal amounts in each and to just take it from there - but we'll see, we'll see.

-- No poker played today either. All good, all good.

A Poker Free Day

No poker today. All good.

The Fire Has Gone.

So we're just over 100 days into the year now and I'm sorry to say, my poker game has completely fallen apart. I'm playing so bad right now it's not even funny anymore. Unfortunately, I'm thinking that the reason for this poor play may be due to something that's been lingering in the back of my mind for some time now - but it's not really something I want to shout about on my blog. A $77 online MTT yesterday and an ill-timed sneak back into a nl100 online cash game today was all that was really needed to show that my poker game is totally awful at the moment and probably isn't something I should be doing on a regular basis right now.

So... yes... you've guessed it, I've withdrawn the last few dollars from my PKR account with the intention of REALLY having a proper break from the online game. All I have left at PKR now is my one ticket to a final stage PKRL6 satellite and about 14000 PKR points. It's times like this, when you've had yet another bad day at the tables, that you realise just how difficult it is to sustain a long-term enthusiasm for this maddening game. 

Regardless of this, I brought home £200 in chips from The Empire the other day and they are standing on my shelf at the moment just waiting to go back to Leicester Square. Well, I'll probably be in town with the missus tomorrow so the question will be; "Will I cash 'em or invest 'em?" With the way I feel at the moment I should probably cash 'em and be grateful I've still got the 200 quid knockin' around.

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WHAT AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS BLOODY GAME!?

No Online Poker For US Players!

Well, I might think that I have it bad but yesterday was a pretty sad day indeed for US players. I don't know the full details but the FBI seem to have managed to prevent Poker Stars, Full Tilt and Absolute poker from providing an online poker service to US players! The excuse being that the sites flouted the law by continuing to place money in banks illegally which was - shock horror - gained from gambling.

To this day, I still find this whole anti-gambling thing to be bizarre. To my mind, every single country in the world has citizens who like the odd gamble. Loads of people throughout the world like to gamble - yet, as is so often the case, a small minority of powerful people in various governments seem to have this overwhelming desire to prevent operators from giving people that bit of fun!

Over the last twenty years or so, technology has taken off and the internet has exploded into an amazing source of communication and entertainment. Among the million and one amazing things you can do - you can actually play poker sitting up in bed against people from all over the world!! THAT is amazing. To disallow the luxury of giving people the freedom to do this is just madness in the extreme. No one should be able to disallow a person's right to do that!

While grappling with the reasons why governments do this, the only thing I can think of is that there is a huge amount of money being generated by the operator's cut - and that the government must be missing out in some way on the revenue. The excuse that they are preventing problem gambling is just laughable - as if we ALL need to be protected from squandering our money. There is only a fraction of a percent of compulsive gamblers out there who are really out of control - and if they can't get their fix online they'll just go somewhere else anyway. Also, by the same token why not ban alcohol to protect alcoholics? Ban the selling of cigarettes to protect heavy smokers from getting lung cancer? Or why not go the whole hog and ban cars to prevent people dying in road accidents!?

No, for me, I think the religious element of the government in the USA is strangling the down-to-earth right to have a gamble. Making money from gambling does not sit well with these people and so if the government can't do it - then no one can. (Or at least until how they can figure out how to get a piece of the pie themselves without being perceived to be the all new all-powerful rake of the poker industry.)

This whole thing stinks.

Live Session #18: Terrible Play From Yours Truly

Enthused by my qualification into the final stage of the PKRL 6 satellites, I decided to build on this cofidence and hit The Empire this evening. By 2AM, I really wished I hadn't - and it was all because of some terrible poker on my part. Here is the shameful story of 3 key hands:

Key Hand 1
This hand, I actually played fine and I just ended up getting donked. I look down at AQs in late position and raise it up to £20. Yep, I get two callers plus an all-in from the limper who decides it's the right time to put in all £25 of his last chips. We all chuck in the extra £5. The flop comes K x x and it's checked round to me and I check. The turn comes a queen and it's checked round to me so I fire in £40 or so. The previous callers all fold and the shortstack all-in guy is getting his coat on. BOSH; the river comes a jack and my villain is laughing away to himself as he flips over 9 10 for his runner runner straight. Lovely.

Key hand 2
Ok, that hand would have won me £100 but not to worry it's virtually the next hand and I'm looking at JJ. I fire in £15 and I get a caller. The flop comes blanks but with one overcard, as far as I recall, but I check and so does my villain. The turn comes an ace and I'm sure the villain has hit it as he checks it as well. He then fires out about £35 on the river. Muggings here calls and, of course, he flips over his ace. Not well played at all but I think I must have been slightly tilted from the previous hand.

Key Hand 3
Ok, that last one was badly played but you aint seen nothing yet. This next one is definitely one of my worst played hands at The Empire: I'm in the big blind and I look down at QQ and decide I'm getting committed to this hand. It's folded to the button who puts in £15. He's a good player, has a huge stack and he's done this a few times before so I raise to £50. He calls(!) The flop comes K 6 x. I check and he checks so I'm pretty sure he doesn't have the king. (What happened to being committed!?) The turn comes a brick and I FAIL to fire a bullet! (Stooooopid! What happened to being committed!?) This is quite possibly the worst move I've made in a LONG time. He checks as well and the river is a seven. I check and he immediately fires in £70! "Man, have I played this badly!!" I think to myself. And Jesus, yes I have. I make the call, putting him on a bluff and he flips over 67 for the rivered two pair!! I pick up my chips, totally disgusted with myself, and leave right there.

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On the bus journey home, I played that last hand over and over in my mind and was just shaking my head constantly with the woefully bad way I played it. What a schmuck! The session, by the way, stung me for £200. To really give myself a kick up the arse I'm going to post a mid-month update just to beat myself up a little bit more:

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ONLINE: MID-APRIL  -£200 /  YEAR: +£150

LIVE: MID-APRIL -£150  /  YEAR: +£1320

TOTAL: MID-APRIL -£350  /  YEAR: +£1470
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Ok, so we may not be talking huge amounts here but it still hurts; especially when I think of that awful hand. God, that's going to stay with me for a while - I'm going to need perhaps a longer break to get rid of the demons from THAT one! 

Set Alight The Satellite

So I chucked in £150 back into my PKR account this afternoon (that is the sum total of my profit at online poker this year) and then proceeded to take on a Stage 2 satellite for PKRL 6... and waddya know? After a titanic struggle to avoid 3rd place with a solid player called spudllew, I just managed to get qualification for the final stage:

This is a good thing but with the Stage 2 satellite consisting of a pretty formidable line-up, getting to PKRL6 through Stage 3 will be a tricky, but not impossible, task. Oh, here is the lovely ticket:

I know, it's only a fucking ticket, but I may as well have something to cheer about on this god forsaken blog eh?

Live Session #17: No More Donkaments

You know those little light-bulbs I was talking about in my previous posts? Well another one went off tonight as I made my way home from town - and it shone as bright and as true and as clear as the beaming sun in the summer's sky. It's very simple really. After plumping for a whirl at the £48 freezeout tonight at The Fox, and donking out once again after getting shoveled the same load of old tripe, it dawned on me: Why do I never see any of the decent cash game regulars or the really good MTTers playing in any of these £30, £40 or £50 donkaments!? And the answer is as clear the window I just turned to look out of: cos there just aint any bleedin' value in 'em that's why!

If there were value in them, if you could actually make decent money from them regularly, then I'm sure I would see a lot more decent players at the tournament tables in The Fox. As it is there IS no value in them, you CAN'T make decent money from them and there are VERY FEW decent players who play them. In a nutshell: THEY ARE LOTTERIES THAT ARE A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME!! And most probably a waste of money as well. So finally, not only have I learnt that I need to ease off of the online cash game tables for a while but I need to avoid the donkaments at The Fox altogether. Unfortunately, as the cash games at The Fox are not great either it looks like fewer visits to that place for me from now on.   

The main reason why this dawned on me with such resonance was because I took myself off after the donkfest and played live cash game poker at The Empire. I think I am actually starting to fall in love with this place. Here, you can actually stay on a table and get to know the players, you can fold for ages and it hardly makes any difference, and you can suss out players to your heart's content AND you actually have a chance of being rewarded for playing decent poker. Remember that? Getting rewarded for playing good poker in the right way? Ok, rant over.

As you've probably gathered, I had a successful session at The Empire this evening after my fated visit to The Fox. Not massive - I sat down with £400 and left with £538 for a £138 profit and a £90 profit for the night - but it was enough for me to see that there is a definite pattern going on here; namely, that I tend to lose money at the MTTs at The Fox and I tend to win at the cash games at The Empire. Weighing everything up, this little revelation seems to make my path a little clearer now. I just need to carry it through and play to my strengths and not get drawn away from the beaten track with little temptations.

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FORWARDS AND ONWARDS AND UPWARDS AND FORWARDS!!

Goodbye To The PKR Forum - My Change Of Direction

**NOTE** I mention PKR often because when it comes to rakeback payments, bonuses and a generous points system PKR wins easily, for me, over any other site. That is why I play exclusively on that site and why my considerations always involve the 3D place over any other.

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As a regular contributor to the PKR forum, but with my online game going up the spout, I've decided to quit posting on there in order to help my game move into a different direction. You can see my last post here. To be honest, I'm not quitting the PKR site or closing my account there for good or anything like that but I'm certainly taking a break and I think that leaving their forums is something I need to do to get my poker brain back in the right place. I'm also thinking of going to their live support to get a self-imposed chat-ban so I can remain 100% focused on the game.

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As I've mentioned many times recently, an 8-month break-even period has alerted me to the fact that things are not as they should be and I've realised I need to take a break from the online cash games. What I've decided to do, therefore, is to draw up a new plan of action and this involves easing in with an MTT heavy approach. When I do redeposit on PKR, the following guide will be in place:

1. Play the odd Primetime Events from time to time. These are $55 buy-in events with a fairly decent structure.
2. Enter the $30-$50 satellites for their more meaty MTTs. (Including for their High Roller, Masters, Fox Main Event(?) and PKR Live events.)
3. Have the odd pop at their more popular MTTs like Welllbet's Home Game, their PKR Open and/or their $30 Late Night MTT. There are a few more as well but all fall in the $20-$40 range.

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My intention is to only play these occasionally but I guess it's hard to put a figure on exactly how many of these to enter as I'm still in my cooling off phase and I just don't know for the time being.

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This leaves the live game. Fortunately, my live game results are much healthier and suggest that this is where I need to be. As such, I'm going to make it my goal to play live poker twice a week with my main focus being on playing £1/£2 cash games at The Empire over Friday and Saturday. (Well, the Saturday ONLY IF Friday goes ok and/or I'm feeling up for it.) Of course, I know I'll be drawn to The Fox Club every now and then so I'll probably turn up there every so often for their Friday/Saturday donkaments. (Although their £48 freezeout at 7PM today looks very tempting.)

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So there you have it - a little change of direction. Sometimes when you're on the journey you have to adapt to whatever terrain pops up your way so you just have to change vehicles once in a while. That's all I'm doing, the journey's the same but I'm just changing vehicles. Hopefully, by the end of this month I'll be able to say that I'm back on the right path. 

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With the time now at 4PM and with me sitting around on my arse all day, I think I need that trip into town. I'll either be going for that £48 freezeout or taking my place at The Empire - I guess I'll just turn up and see eh?

It Sums It All Up

Ok, I pay $45 worth of PKR points to enter the Masters Stage 3 Satellite. 5th place gets $45 while the rest get a seat in the masters. I get as far as this on the final table:

 

To end up as far as this:

It really sums it all up. Online poker? There's the nail in the coffin right there!

Talking Up The Live Game

Poker is all about little light bulbs going off (metaphorically speaking of course) and yesterday one particular light bulb got switched on for me which said; "Stop playing online and concentrate on the live game." Consequently, I'm feeling positive about my upcoming live campaign and in honour of this momentous occasion I'm going to list some of the big differences between the online and the live game.

1. It's More Expensive For The Recreational Player: A $100-$200 buy-in now becomes a £300-£400 buy-in. 

I suppose this one is a bit of a biggie, but as you do get dealt significantly LESS hands per hour during a live session it kind of evens out. Yes, I'm a firm believer in buying in for the maximum as not only do you get paid off big for your big hands but you also get more moves at your disposal. Also, you do actually scare some of the less experienced tight players. The downside, of course, is that other loose-aggressive players holding big-stacks can do great damage.

2. It's A Purer Form And What The Game Was Invented For.

You have a wealth of information and tells to pick up on that you just don't get online. It's far easier to identify the sharks and the fish - just by looking at how "at ease" players are. The oft-quoted phrase "Poker is a people game played with cards" really came about due to live poker and NOT the online game. Playing live is just more interesting - not only do you get out of the house and given the chance to socialise, you actually talk face to face with your opponents - more civilised don't you think? You're just not forced into that mechanical, robotic way of playing that you do online. 

3. A Slower Game Means More Patience And Tolerance.

With hands being super-slow and without the option to multi-table, along with being almost compelled to play for a longer period of time, the need for patience and tolerance is more pronounced at the live cash game table. Personally, I've always felt that my profession as a teacher has helped me develop these traits and consequently gives me that particular edge at the live cash games. Yes, I have complained in other posts about folding hands for hours on end but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

4. The Live Game Is Softer.

Ok, this is something that is often pointed out in all areas of the poker world and now that I have experienced both forms quite extensively myself, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is definitely the case; particularly if you play at a certain place in Leicester Square at a certain time of the week. My last few posts have covered this in detail also. Let's just spell it out: After playing for two years solidly at the online nl100 and nl200 games and likewise at the live £1/£2 games in London ONLINE PLAYERS ARE GENERALLY FAR BETTER THAN LIVE GAME PLAYERS.   

5. Cash In Hand

Ok, this last one is a minor point but is still a positive over the online game: there are no hidden exchange rate charges or cash-out charges and your winnings are immediately handed to you in cold hard cash! I know, call me old-fashioned but there's nothing like being handed over the readies directly after you have done the deed. It's that old idea of getting an immediate and palpable reward for all that hard work. What do you get online? A bad exchange rate cos you're forced to play in dollars, the winnings going into an account which then has to be put in your bank and which can then only be taken out of a cash machine if you want the cash in your hand - about 3 or 4 days AFTER the event. Rubbish.

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Oh well, there you have it. My excuses for getting out of the online game and moving over to the live game. This will stand, of course, until I start getting beaten up at the live game - in which case I'll start crying and saying that the online game is so much better!!

Until next time... Wobble on!

Reflections On The Online Game

Well, you know what they say; when you're winning everything is great and you feel fantastic, when you're losing you feel like shit. At the moment through the usual ingredients of bad cards, bad luck and bad play, my online game has fallen apart. It's true, many decent players have pointed out that short-term downswings are normal and shouldn't be a cue to start feeling sorry for yourself but I'm not really vexed at this per se, the long-term picture also has to come into the equation.

Last summer was the "golden age" of poker for me. My cash game results were going through the roof and I had back-to-back final table appearances in the $5K ADDED MTT for a relatively hefty payout. PKR did an e-mail interview with me for their profile feature and everything looked rosy. Then, from about September, reality kicked in. I went on a long break-even run and my results never really picked up.

This year, I started the blog and reset all results. The hope was that by starting afresh, I could build on my knowledge of the game and consequently build my profits up again. January saw a £520 deficit and put me in a lot of doubt from the off, February had me breaking even while March reversed my fortunes and restored the faith and had me up £810 for a satisfying winning month. Things were starting to look good in April as I rocketed to a £400 profit in the first week BUT I have since been given an almighty kick in the teeth and I'm now down £200 so far this month. Once again, I am in doubt.

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Truth be told, for a game I love and read about all the time, I don't think that a £150 profit for the year is acceptable for the stakes I play at and I'm wondering if a part-time application to the game is enough to survive at the $1/$2 online game. In fact, I suspect I'm getting overtaken and left behind by a majority of younger players who are much more attuned to the modern game than I.

Taking all of this on board, I have come to a few conclusions:

1. I'll just be using PKR points for a few MTTs/Satellites for the time being.
2. I've made a full cash-out, will be taking a break from the online game and won't be depositing any time soon. 
3. When I do make a return it will be to the $0.50/$1 games - unless there is an irresistibly juicy $1/$2 game going on.
4. My attention will now turn to the Friday and Saturday live games in town.

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To be honest, I hate taking breaks from the online game as it's an admission of defeat - but I think in this instance it really is necessary.

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Big Break From The Online Game

Yep, I've hit that moment where I've totally had it with the online game. After a £200 donk off today, I've done another one of my full cashouts and I just feel that I can't be doing with the online game anymore - I really have just about had enough. When you play online for hours and hours every day and for months on end - and ultimately end up barely breaking even for all that bleedin' effort then you have to ask... What the hell is the fucking point!? I know I'm starting to get very cynical but I'm really beginning to lose faith in the whole thing I really am. 

Fortunately, there is still the live game and it is to this that my attention is now going to turn. As a matter of fact, earlier today, I was in The Empire but felt the vibe was wrong and so I didn't actually play. However, it's going to be just live play for me from now on until I can, if ever, get the online demons out of my system. After I've slept on the matter, I may write up a more considered post tomorrow and explain more of the reasons for this decision. But the way I feel right now, I don't feel I want to touch the online game with a barge-pole.

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OVER AND WELL AND TRULY FUCKING OUT!!

Running Through Treacle

Yep, this month has been SLOW! SLOW! SLOW!

 
After a promising start and then throwing it all away to break-even, my progress this month, or lack of it, has been very painful indeed. Although the live session through Saturday night and Sunday morning (9th and 10th of April) offered a glimmer of new hope AND my online play on Sunday picked things up, yesterday's play and this morning has seen me shrivel back down to break-even again. 

Once again, this has had me questioning whether the mid-stakes online game has just become so shark-infested that it's hardly worth swimming in the waters anymore. But then again, over the last day or so I've had shockingly bad cards and the few shockingly bad players that are out there just continue to hit their outs - it's a tad frustrating to say the least. Yep, maybe for the pros who are able to spend longer periods studying the game, the waters are easier to traverse - but for your average Joe Schmoe it's just becoming progressively more difficult to navigate. I'm really starting to believe that live play is where it's really at now. 

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With the forecast being sunny today but with cloud and rain hitting tomorrow and the next day, I'm thinking of knocking the online game on the head for the day and getting out and about. I've already arranged to meet the missus in town for a few drinks and a meal in the early evening so maybe I should just head on down there right now and do some clothes shopping or something. There's a possibility that I'll be heading to The Empire for some cash game action much later but I'll probably avoid The Fox tonight.

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P.S. Well, it's now getting on for 4PM and I took the "stay at home to play more online poker" route. Unfortunately, with the usual demons still floating around, I've made matters worse and have dropped down to £50 in the red at the online game for this month. It just wasn't happening, and just when I thought it was (all-in with two pair and an 80% favourite on the turn) my terrible villain called the all-in and hit his gutshot straight on the river to pull the rug from under me. Well played my friend, well played.

With a live game deficit of £40 for the month it's going to be interesting to see how I fair over the next few days because this is the first time I have been down both live AND online during a month. I'm definitely going through a rocky patch at the moment so I think this evening's session at The Empire (should I choose to accept the challenge) will be a good test of character. If I do go ahead I'll be sure to write up a trip report as per usual regardless of the result.

PKR Live 6 - Need To Start My Campaign

I've just realised that I've hardly had any attempts to satellite into PKR Live 6. In fact, as far as I recall, I think I've only tried just the one Stage 1 attempt. What I need to do is to start a few Stage 2 attempts and see how I get on. The thing is, as big buy-in MTTs are not really my thing, I'm not really going to knock myself out qualifying for this. Just 3 or 4 pops at Stage 2 (for $36 each) will suffice I think. Then, if I still haven't made any progress, I'll try just the one effort at a final stage satellite followed by the very remote possibility of entering their last chance saloon satellite which PKR put on right at the end.

That's it.

Live Session #16: Bubbling The Final Table

Well, it's Sunday afternoon and I'm just recovering from an all-nighter in town. It all kicked off with the £38 freezeout at The Fox where I played from 7PM till about 11PM only to be the bubble-boy for the final table. I really shouldn't play these bleedin' donkaments at The Fox, it just seems like so much mental energy for so little reward. In fact, I remember looking at the prizes and seeing that 4th place would get you about £240; this equals just one good cash game hand at The Empire - is it really worth it? Probably not.

Still, after this debacle I headed on over to The Empire and sat down with £300 at a £1/£2 cash game table. Overall, it was a fairly straightforward table with its fair share of reasonable, average, poor, and the out and out clueless players. One loose aggressive, shark-like character joined the table with a £1000 stack after about half an hour but I was happy to see him take a table transfer after an hour or two. As it was, I wasn't really able to capitalise and won only the one fairly big hand when I value bet a calling station on each street with top pair good kicker.

In retrospect, I think I played a far too nitty game. I saw many boards that would have really hit my marginal folded hands big-time - I know it's all ifs and buts but I would have won A LOT MORE MONEY if I just paid the small price to see a few more flops. (And I really should have done this considering the table dynamic.) By 6 o'clock in the morning I was flagging and could barely keep my eyes open so left the table with £412 and a £112 profit for the session and a modest £74 profit for the night's work. It was a very pleasant bus ride home with the early morning sunshine rising up and clear roads for a change but I was very sleepy and didn't really enjoy it to the full.

Live-wise, this puts me on a £40 deficit for the month. However, at the time of writing, from being up about £380 in the first week of April, I'm up about £80 for the month at the online game so far. Swings and roundabouts and all that. Swings and roundabouts.

TILT! And My Biggest Pot Of The Year So Far

It's Saturday morning and I had a wild night at the ol' online poker last night. First off, as I pointed out in my last post ((Back Down To Earth With A Bump), I blew $300 pretty sharpish at the cash tables when I sat down to play yesterday afternoon. About 5 hours later, after getting knocked out, once again, by PirateNation (with my 77 losing to his AK after the king duly hit on the flop) I managed a massive mincash payout in the $55 Primetime  Friday Super Deep Stack for a huge $23.30 profit.

Smooth.

After this I did what I said I wouldn't do in yesterday's post and sat down to more cash games. Yep, with tilt-induced bad play and a B game which said I could SURELY win a few bob before turning in for the night, I proceeded to donk off ANOTHER $200 of my dwindling bankroll. Looking at a break-even online balance for April after being $680 in profit in the first week is a little painful and with the time at 1 o'clock in the morning and a fair few beers dispatched, I guess I should have done what any decent player would have done and hit the sack.

But here's the thing: I decided to have one last pop and sat down to a $2/$4 cash game table with about $310 and faced the most regular of regular players at the PKR cash game tables!! Genius or stupid? Well, probably stupid but as it happened, I did manage to bag my biggest pot of the year so far:

Now I know a few of you will question my passive preflop play but, as ever and always, there are variables to take into account and it's just not as simple as; "I have QQ therefore I must raise." Soccerboy was kicking me around big-time in this game and I was folding to him a lot of the time. There was no doubt he saw me as a soft spot and I knew this; that's why I feel justified with how I played the hand.

Soon after this I logged off and saw a small profit of £120 for the month in my PKR account. With a £110 loss at the live game this month, at least I can say I'm on the right side of the line. Tonight, I'm thinking of hitting The Empire with a £400 starting stack and seeing if I can turn my luck around at the live game. We'll see, we'll see.

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ONWARD AND BEYOND!!

Back Down To Earth With A Bump

In my "Keep On Chugging" post I was bragging that everything was rosy and that I was up a cool $680 for the month. Well, since I wrote my last post (about a day and a half ago) I have paid deeply for this crime of hybris and have donked off $500 at the cash tables!! Bad cards, of course, are partly to blame but I think bad play also comes into the equation.

This means that if I were to withdraw my funds from PKR right now, I would only be up a measly £75 for the month at the online game. Putting this alongside my £110 live deficit means I am down £35 for the month overall.

Bother, It was all going so well. I'm going to play the $55 Primetime Friday Super Deep Stack MTT and then it'll probably be best to call it a day with the online game for a while.

One More Get Up

With the sun shining, the poker going well and with one more day to go before I get the well deserved 2-week break from work, I'm beginning to feel pretty good about the way life is going at the moment. When you work in a school, you realise that students really start to push boundaries the closer it gets to that final bell on the final day  - so it's just a case of hanging on in there and making sure I don't take a big swing at one of the little buggers or tell one of them to fuck off in a fit of rage before that moment when we're all released.

At The Fox Club, they have their £300 main event starting today but unfortunately this is just beyond my bankroll. However, I may give this a go at some point during the year. What I would like to do is visit The Vic at some stage over the easter break because I just haven't visited the place yet this year and a trip report on a session there would be good and is well overdue for the blog.

Anyway, tootle pip and all that.

Keep On Chugging

We're approaching Day 100 now for the year 2011 and as far as the online game is concerned, April is going just fine. With the wobbly way reaping some good results over the last few days and helped, in part, by a rakeback payment of around $130 plus a reload bonus clearance of $193, my balance has picked up nicely to a $680 profit this month.

Here is my PokerOfficer graph for the cash games I've played on the laptop this month:

The chart doesn't show the hands I've played on my PC or the few MTTs I've entered but gives a general idea of how things have gone.

All good, all good.

Raising The Bar

With my graph-line beginning to move steadily upwards and with a stability beginnning to show in my online game, my confidence is now starting to grow nicely. I've decided that a step upwards is in order and although this doesn't mean a jump up to the $2/$4 game just yet, an increase in the amount of tables I play on is definitely what I need to lift my game. This increase in volume is something that I've been meaning to do in a long time - and the time is now ripe for me to take that step and to make the progression.   

This year I've been chugging along by mainly either single-tabling the 200nl game or double-tabling at 100nl. With my results picking up a little bit and with a definite feeling that the standard of my game has climbed a few notches, I've started to believe that one tabling the $1/$2 game or two-tabling 50c/$1 is just too safe and conservative. There is nothing worse than letting your game get stale and I need to mix things up for sure.

Unfortunately, one of the reasons why I play so few tables is circumstances. Free internet use comes with the cost of having a wifi connection that is used from someone else's router in another flat and restricts me to playing online poker in my own front room. (The signal is low and disconnections are common and unpredictable elsewhere.) Add the fact that I have two teenage daughters who are a constant presence in the front room on an almost daily basis - with TV use and PC use being in constant demand - and you can understand that it can get quite difficult to concentrate on a large number of tables.

Mobile phones going off left right and centre, visits from friends and the daughters' need to eat etc etc etc, all get in the way as well. Apart from those rare occasions when the daughters and the missus are out, quiet and uninterrupted PC use is a very very rare luxury indeed. It is because I'm restricted to laptop use and because I get so much bombardment of shite from the TV, that I can only really give 1 or 2 tables my proper attention. My laptop just about manages the running of two tables - and I can't really see the text while running more than this anyway.

Anyhoo, with both the daughters starting and trundling off to university outside London this academic year, peace will descend over the household. I am REALLY looking forward to firing up my quad-core, beefy-rig of a PC with the dog's bollocks graphics card to run some smooth, clear and creamy 4-table action - on a calm uninterrupted day by day basis! Not to say for the odd blast on some video games as well. (Man, I could even finally complete Oblivion!) Unfortunately, I'm going to have to wait until mid-September for this happy moment to happen on a long-term basis. Still, what I think I need to do is really start focusing on two-tabling a couple of 200nl games on a regular basis to really start kicking things off.

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LET'S CRANK IT UP AND STEP IT UP BABY FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!

Fox v Empire

Well, we're three days into April now and for the first time this year I'm in the unenviable position of being down at both the online game AND the live game for the month. I know, I know, it's very short-term and all that but it's still a first for the blog. Well, I suppose you'll want to know the figures: £110 down at the live game and $100 down at the online game. Bosh.

Nevertheless we learn mainly from our defeats rather than our victories and there's certainly something I've learned from last night. In my experience, cash games at The Fox tend to be fairly tough. I don't know why this is the case but The Fox just generally seems to have more knowledgeable players at the cash game tables and, hence, are just not as juicy as The Empire games. I've NEVER had a big major win at the cash games at The Fox. Not only, I think, is this because the players are tougher but also because a lot of players sit down with fairly shortstacks - and this obviously means winning less if I do actually crack 'em.

Last night, for example, in a hand where I lost about £60 the action went; limp, limp, limp, limp, limp, limp, raise 14BBs. Then it went fold fold fold fold fold back on me. I held AJs and should have insta-mucked them right there, obviously, but paused instead. I looked across at his stack and saw about £45. Now at The Empire a £45 stack is NOT a scarey stack. At The Fox it's a solid, middle sized stack held by someone who probably knows a little bit about what they're doing!! Anyway, like the mug I am, I incorrectly read this as a steal attempt and felt my hand was good and so re-raised all-in. But the main clincher that made me go all-in was that he "only" had a £45 stack. Needless to say he whipped over AQ and took down the pot. Apart from the fact that I played it badly I did get something from it:

Lesson Learnt: This £60 loss is payment for a MAJOR big lesson which will hopefully allow me to win bigger in the future. Rather than sitting down to a cash game at The Fox, I'm heading straight to The Empire baby!! 

When it comes to small buy-in MTTs though, you just can't beat The Fox and so, by amalgamating this fact with the lesson above, we've got the following rule:

1. For cash games go to The Empire.

2. For MTTs go to The Fox.

Simples (as they say).

Live Session #15: A Two Outer On The River

I'll be quick with this trip report and keep it concise:

4:30PM: Arrive at The Fox and pay for the £38 freezeout.
4:32PM: Play £1/£1 cash and lose £60. Mainly with AJ v. AQ all-in preflop (I won't bore you with details.)
5:30PM: Trundle off to The Empire and win £15 at the cash tables.
6:30PM: Head back to The Fox for the £38 freezeout and get knocked out at about 10PM after I get crippled with KK v. 33. (Yes; I got it all-in pre. Yes; he hit the 3 on the river. Yes; it would have given me a really nice chip-stack going into the final stages.) Soon after this I go out holding JJ v. 66 v. AJ. (Yes; the same villain spiked an ace on the turn. Even a win with this woulda given me a competitive stack)
10:15PM: I head back to The Empire and get the junkiest of junkie cards you ever did see in your entire born days but am amazed that I am only down about £25!
11:45PM: At £110 down on the night - I'm outta there baby!
1:00AM: Arrive home and blog about it.

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THANK YOU AND GOOD F***ING NIGHT!!

April - Bright And Fresh

Well, the summer months are fantastic and you really can't beat the month of August (which is a month where I just don't have to work and still get paid) but April comes pretty close. For a start, with the clocks going forward everything is so much brighter and full of life. It's actually still daylight when I look out of the window at 7 o'clock in the evening and I think it just cheers everyone up. Secondly, it's when the easter holiday arrives and so for those in the teaching profession that means at least two weeks off work - this year we even get an additional bank holiday and the royal wedding thrown in - hurrah!! Finally, it also heralds in five months of better weather and more sunshine all round - I really like April me.

This morning, I am sitting up in bed with my trusted laptop on my lap (it's given almost five years service and I've still only had to re-install the operating system once - although it's really overdue another re-install which I just haven't got round to doing just yet). The sun is shining and I'm contemplating what to do today on this fine Saturday morning. As far as online poker is going this April, early indications showed that my rocket was still heading well up into outer space when I had a £150 profit yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, things got a bit bumpy last night and this morning - I took a big dive and blew all £150 of that and I'm back to break-even. Sigh.

Still, this evening I think a visit into town is beckoning. I'm undecided whether it'll be The Fox for their £38 freezeout or whether a proper overdue sesh at The Empire for some £1/£2 is in order. If it's The Empire, I'm going to keep off the booze and go for a really mean £400 buy-in "A+" game approach. If it's The Fox, it'll probably be my usual get merry and tipsy "C" game style. I wonder if I should really stop doing this though.