OCTOBER - UPDATE #10

Although I have pinpointed the reason why showing results is disadvantageous, I guess I'm going to have to just keep posting them until the end of the year for the sake of making sure both this blog and the journey is complete.

Online poker has practically been a non-existent pastime this month. I had a day where I lost £75 at PKR back at the beginning of the month and then a few days where I won £75 at Paddy Power Poker. I don't expect to make a deposit this year but next year I may decide to have a small online roll just to use to pay for some satellites for the bigger MTTs.   

Forgive the cliche but live poker really has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride this month. The first session started off wonderfully when I left The Empire £450 richer. The next two sessions, addled by alcohol, saw me throw away £570 but this was followed by a smooth £100 winning session and brought me on the brink of a break-even month. Two more less swingy live sessions followed: one where the table was a calm unthreatening rock garden with the other being loose, wild and crazy - but both were ultimately break-even affairs.

Then yesterday, the last river card dealt in the last session in the month dashed my hopes of October being a winning month when it turned out to be the two-outer my opponent needed to cripple me. Had I dodged the 22-1 bullet, the number next to October and under my live poker stats would be chalked up in green and it would be over £400. Still, 'tis a small setback in the wider scheme of things and we've all been there. 'Twill make me stronger in the long run.

MONTH--------LIVE POKER---------ONLINE POKER------TOTAL(MTH)---RUNNING TOTAL

January----------   + £960   ----------------   - £520   -----------   + £440   --------- + £440
February---------  + £740   ----------------   + £60    -----------   + £800   --------- + £1240
March------------   - £230   -----------------   + £810  -----------  + £580   ---------- + £1820
April---------------  + £70   ------------------   - £700   -----------   - £630   ---------- + £1190
May--------------   + £370   -----------------   - £90   ------------   + £280   --------- + £1470
June-------------   + £340   ------------------  + £440   ----------   + £780   ---------- + £2250
July----------------  -£220  --------------------   +£100  -------------   -£120  ------------ + £2130
August-------------  +£285  ------------------  +£240  -------------- +£525  ------------ +£2655
September--------   -£40  -------------------   -£340  --------------  -£380  ------------ +£2275
October-----------  -£180  --------------------    XXX  --------------   -£180  -----------   +£2095

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...So it's onto the month of November. Now, to be honest, I don't like this month very much. It's cold, wet and dark and signals the beginning of winter. What's more I get no break from work and the journeys back from anywhere (including from work AND Leicester Square) are often miserable. Now with work I have no choice about having to go in but with live poker, I do. But precisely because the weather is 'orrible and I have to travel in these conditions, I may end up reducing my playing time. 

Still, I'll keep ya posted.

Live Session #57: A Crippling Bad Beat

9:30PM was the start of play today at The Empire. I was happy to see that it was not nearly as busy as yesterday and there was an available seat straight away. I bought £400 in chips but after seeing that the players had relatively low stacks I placed just £250 worth of chips on the table.

Things started off very well when I decided to go all-in with a set of threes after a guy had raised £20 on the flop in early position. There was a flush draw out there so an all-in was a good choice of move in my opinion. He called for about £100 and, as I thought might be the case, showed the flush draw. He missed and I collected a good profit.

For about a two and a half hour stretch, I then proceeded to earn my stripes as the Table Captain. I raised the right amounts, folded at the right times, bluffed against the right players and was earning huge respect. With just over £400 of chips in front of me, the crash then happened.

Key Hand

I've just told me neighbour that I'll be playing one more orbit and then heading for home. Two hands later I look down at KK. A few hands earlier, the villain in this hand had told the table that he had laid down 10 10 which had proved to be a bad fold and I sensed that this annoyed him somewhat. In this hand, in question, I felt he was tilting. I raised pre to about £8 and got the call which put me in position against Mr Tilt. The flop came a fairly dry 7 9 2. The villain, from early position then put in about £45 which I just elected to call.

The turn was a harmless looking card and the villain put in a pink chip (£100). I felt the fella either had a set, which would have been just plain bad luck for me, or my KKs were good. I shoved the rest of my £400 into the middle and when he insta-called I thought he just might show the set. He didn't, when he flipped over 10 10  I did indeed have him beaten - until the river that is; when his 22-1 (two-outer) shot rescued him to give him the set of tens.

Of my £400 stack, £90 came back to me meaning that £310 - and all my hard work - was wiped out in an instant. I don't know about the pros but I can never put my A-game in after playing so well in a cash game and then losing such a large part of a stack to a bad beat, so I said my farewells, tapped the table and left the arena right there. Had my KK held to the end I would be writing about a £450 winning session; as it is I have to report that it was a £160 losing session on the night.

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As I mentioned in my "Attitude To Money" post, in the past this type of bad beat would have driven me insane; as it was, the fact that I had played great poker, had made all the right reads and made all the right moves - even during that last hand - stayed with me very strongly and the relative calm I felt as I left the casino and took the bus ride home actually brought to me a strong sense of hope. I really think I have the tools to do well at this game when I'm going to start with my fresh regime in 2012.

It's All About Attitude To Money.

At the end of my last post, I left a comment to say that I would like to write about how attitudes towards money relates to how you approach and play poker. A tight player may be over-cautious and conservative with his bankroll; a loose player can be wild to the point of being irresponsible. While a good player, who is able to adapt his play and is neither tight or loose but uses both styles dynamically and correctly is almost completely indifferent to his bankroll. It will grow regardless.

Prior to this evening, I felt that the tight attitude that had crept into my game was holding me back from fulfilling my potential as a player - and this really is down to the fact that I have always been so damned obsessed with my stupid balance and so preoccupied with whether I was going to be able to prove to people that I was a winning player. I lost over £300 on a bad beat tonight at The Empire but the fact that I was the Table Captain, playing great A-game poker and pretty much running the show before the fateful hand struck, has given me the confidence I needed and a great deal to hope for in 2012. I now think that I don't need to prove that I'm a winning player to anyone but myself. (And I think this may be both the blessing and the curse to winning players.)

I now understand that being honest in this blog about my balance, is the reason why my game has become stale. I'll even go so far as to say that displaying my results has probably had a stifling effect on my game without me even realising it. I guess the £160 that I lost tonight is a small price to pay for this extremely important lesson.

The reason for the blog is to highlight what the ups and downs are like for an amateur poker player in a typical year of his playing career. The updates and results are there as a kind of scoreboard but they really have brought a lot of pressure on myself and this brings me to the attitude towards money issue that I mentioned at the beginning: you simply cannot have an indifferent attitude to your bankroll (the ideal attitude)  if you are showing the profit and loss balance to the viewing public. You cannot "let go" if you are chained so much to your results.

This is something I guess I have always known subconsciously but have just not been able to articulate. I think this topsy-turvy night at The Empire this evening has helped me to identify this. I've had quite a few enlightening poker sessions over this last week and as we come to the end of 2011, I am confident to say that although I've not made as much money as I would like this year, I feel that my game has greatly evolved. Sometimes you've just got to take one step back before taking two steps forward. This is why, in 2012 my starting bankroll for the year will be greatly increased yet my attitude towards it will be one of total indifference. But I'll not be sharing those results with anyone.

As for the blog, well we are on a 12 month journey and it will carry on to the end. I'll post up the trip report for tonight's session tomorrow and I will be posting my results/update for October for the sake of consistency. I am very reluctant to stop doing the update thing for November and December because I think these updates are an integral part of our journey and it would be a shame if these were just simply missing. They'd be like missing parts to the jigsaw puzzle - so I guess I'll have to do those really.

Anyway, it's gone 2:30AM and I'm knackered.

Until next time, Uncle Wobble.

Live Session #56: A Break-Even Evening - Part 2

It's about 12:30AM and I wander back into The Empire in the hope of playing me some £1/£2. Problem is, the waiting list is still humoungously long and there is no way I'm just going to hang around The Empire for hours on end for a game of poker - this would only tilt me before I start! Consequently, I take off to The Golden Nugget and I'm pleased to see that there is a free seat at a £1/£1 table. I buy in for £150 which is about an average stack at this table. As things progress, the poker becomes almost secondary as the table is one of the liveliest I've ever sat at in a live game. I don't mind at all - it's great fun!

For starters, an inebriated young man is sitting to my immediate right and is proceeding to pour huge amounts of alcohol, in all sorts of forms, down his throat. He's having a merry time, for sure, and can hardly keep his eyes open but is playing super loose and is spewing chips left, right and centre. Soon, another highly drunk and vocal player joins the table three seats to my right and it's more like party-time than poker-time. Some people might think "Bingo!" at this point but for the entire three or four hours that I am sitting there I go entirely card-dead for the duration and am just not able to get involved in a pot with them. Nevertheless, for entertainment value alone, the three fellows sitting next to me (including a self-confessed out and out nit - who is also a very animated and excitable fellow who is sitting between the drunken pair) provide plenty of drama and fun.

To my left we have the complete opposite; a series of serious and relatively reticent fellows who just prefer to play their poker quietly. The drunks constantly berate the other side of the table for their "deadness" and lack of bantering skills. Interestingly, the left-sided group do get a replacement with an angry young man who proceeds to tell the whole table about his girlfriend troubles. Apparently she is a "9" or even a "10" but is also "an idiot" because after spending hundreds of pounds on her this evening, she went off with some other bloke in a night-club. He then tells everyone that he didn't pick a fight cos this guy was apparently a lot bigger than him. He is evidently angry and unhappy and is clearly playing "angry poker" but no one cares about that and everyone just laughs at his misfortune. He then picks out the only other female player, who is playing at the casino on another table, and says that he has played her before, hates her and just wants to take all her chips. (She is a Fox Club dealer by the way but had a reputation, at this table anyway, for being a good player.)

Anyway, after a few dramatic all-ins and plenty of fun and laughter from the spewtards to my right, I get involved in the one hand I decide to commit to - and it's against a fairly good and fearless player to my immediate left who has already shown that he's willing to commit all-in with marginal hands and coinflips against anyone at the table, drunk or sober. (He got very lucky with the two all-in hands, being pot committed with a straight draw on the turn both times - and hitting the straight both times on the river.)  

Key Hand #1

I've been hovering around the break-even mark all session and I reckon I should have mucked this hand on the flop when Mr Large Bald Australian guy showed strength. I look down at the A 9 of hearts in the cut-off but cannot remember the pre-flop action. (I think I may have brought it in with a small raise.) Mr LBA guy is on the button and is in the hand as is one other player. The flop comes down A 7 2 with two diamonds and it's checked round to me. Now it's quite late in the evening and my recollection of the hand is a bit fuzzy but Mr LBA guy showed a lot of strength and, as I recall, extracted value from me on all streets and show-downed A 7 for the two-pair, relieving me of about £50.

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Now it's interesting sometimes how losing such a fairly small amount of money, in the wide scheme of things, can mess with your head but I did feel a hint of pissed-offness about this hand. I had already told myself that I was there to get money from the drunken spew-merchants on my right but there I was getting involved with a marginal hand against a perfectly sober and competent player on my immediate left! It may well have been due to the fact that A 9s was the best starting hand I had been given for hours but still, on reflection I really should have been more self-disciplined and let the hand go earlier to save money.  

Soon after this with a clearly competent player joining the table and replacing one of the three crazy characters on my right, along with the fact that it was around 4:30AM, I thought it best to take my leave and chalk up the evening as a mediocre break-even performance. I did pop into The Empire just to have a look at how things were going but, of course, by this time, with the revelers and fun players out of the way, we were left with a lot of big stacks out there and I think it would have been suicide to sit down with my measly buy-in. I have never seen so many pink chips (£100 chips) in play at The Empire before. One guy, was sitting there with easily way over £3500 for crying out loud! 

Anyway, I soon jumped on the night bus to reflect on my break-even night and I hit the sack at just after 6AM. I still think I'm generally playing far too tight though, which is a slight concern considering I was only playing £1/£1. But I was also given a lot of food for thought regarding the subject of attitude towards money. This will definitely be a topic I'll consider in an upcoming post. 

Until then, with it being Saturday afternoon and another eating-out session with the missus on the cards tonight. I'll bid you all adieu. Another live session tonight however is still a possibility...

As ever, I'll keep ya posted.

Live Session #56: A Break-Even Evening - Part 1

With just a few days left before my week off work comes to its inevitable end, along with the fact that we're having our last few days of sunshine before the clocks go back and we're plunged into darkness, I took myself off to ol' London Town yesterday to try my hand at a bit of live poker. Without doubt, it was the busiest evening in London I've seen in a long time with Halloween celebrations kicking off big-time and the poker tables absolutely heaving.

First stop, at about 8PM, was The Empire but as they too were having some sort of Halloween promotion with a huge raffle to boot, the waiting list was the longest I have ever seen in my entire life. Later, when I went back I learnt that this list had reached an insane 60 players!! With The Empire being far too crowded I wandered over to The Golden Nugget but the opposite was the case here: zero cash game tables were in operation. This meant I had to pop into The Fox but I didn't really like the vibe. As it was a mild evening and the town just seemed to be a hype of activity, I decided to take the walk through Soho and along Oxford Street to Edgeware Road in order to give The Vic a short whirl before heading back to The Empire.

Yeh, I know their promotion, and their 50p drop on pots over £20, means it's a rip-off to those who don't visit the place that often but I was willing to pay this price just to get a bit of poker in. After about a half hour wait, and with the time at around 10:30PM, I finally played my first hand of poker at a fresh £1/£1 table that was just starting up. I buy £150 in chips which makes me the big stack. Furthermore, thankfully, the table was incredibly soft with absolutely no one stepping out of line and with the other players as easy to read as "Peter and Jane."

Key Hand #1

I started well but this was the only significant hand I played at the table: it's early doors and a few places to my right is a player who was on the same table as me as my last visit and who I constantly raised and who I won chips from in every pot I played against him. I'm in mid-position and I look down at A Q of clubs. I open for £6 and get a couple of callers. The flop brings three clubs right there giving me the flush straight away. Mr Whipping Boy pops in a £10 bet which I smooth call, the other villain folds. The turn brings a harmless low spade and Mr Whipping throws in another £15 which, again, I smooth call. The river brings another club which is not a great card for me and has Mr WB checking. I throw in another £30 and I'm pretty sure this villain hates me right now. He reluctantly makes the call and I take down a nice pot for a healthy ~£60 profit.

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I stay for another hour and a half or so and decide just to go on cruise control and not get tricky. I go card-dead for the rest of the session and don't make any more progress and I leave with a £205 stack and a fairly reasonable £55 profit. In fact, feeling no pressure, I was perfectly happy to just soak up the atmosphere of The Vic (which is easily the finest poker room in London for design, space and comfort by the way). After this, I felt there was more poker to be had so with the time at around midnight I jumped on a bus back to Picadilly Circus.

--Part 2 to follow--

Live Session #55: At The Vic With The Nits

As promised, it was a visit to The Vic this evening for a bit of £1/£1. I arrived at about 8PM and was happy to see that a seat was immediately available. I was also quite pleased to see so many £1/£1 and £1/£2 games running tonight BUT was then LESS than happy to learn why.

Yep, it's promotion time at The Vic - and what a great promotion it is too - IF you're a regular that is, which I obviously am not. Ok, so here's the deal: for every hand at every cash game table that gets to over £20, 50p is taken out of the pot and used to go towards the prize-pool of a "freeroll" at the end of the month for the top 100 players who manage to log the most days played at the club for that month.

Great news, of course, for the lucky 100 players who are able to play consistently at The Vic AND who are actually able to make the tourney on the Sunday which it is held; not so good for the poor sods who will no doubt contribute thousands of pounds towards the prize money - but who have absolutely no chance of competing for said money. Oh well, that'll be my last visit to The Vic for sometime. It was a nice little stint while it lasted I suppose but I think I'll stick with The Empire from now on thank you very much. At least there is some cat in hell's chance that I might actually hit the jackpot there.

The redeeming feature, it has to be said, is that those who come 101st - 200th get first refusal to buy a seat should empty seats be available on the day. I don't know how they work out how to implement this and in what order which seats are available to whom but there it is. Oh, but they have to pay a £100 entry fee! Kinda weird if you ask me.

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The session itself was about as different from a usual "Empire-type table" as you can get; it was a veritable swarm of nits, Rock Garden City baby! Unfortunately, for me, this proved frustrating - not because I wasn't getting any hands (I was) but because I just wasn't getting paid off. I was by far the busiest player at the table but that's because I really was getting quite a few premiums and hitting the board with pleasantly surprising regularity. Of my premiums, the three or four times I raised preflop with QQ+ hands, I saw folds and just picked up the £2 in blinds. The one time I DID actually slowplay KK, an ace hit the flop and the villain inevitably had the ace.

Similarly, I really didn't need to bluff tonight because I was hitting quite a few boards very nicely. I remember hitting two pairs, quite a few straights and at least two full-houses. Unfortunately, although I got a little bit of action on earlier streets, I just never got paid off when my raises went in on the river. Furthermore, as it was a £1/£1 table, the money going in was pretty tame compared to The Empire; I'd pick up £7 there, £10 here and maybe £12 over there but chicken-feed really in the wider scheme of things. ( An average single pre-flop raise at The Empire!)

Nevertheless, although I easily won the most pots at the table and, by appearance, was the loosest and wildest player at the table, I won precisely ZERO POUNDS!! Yep, the 10% rake along with the 50p drop on hands above £20 plus all the tips to the dealer didn't help matters but with all those hands I was making (none of which seemed to get to showdown) I still only managed to break-even. To be clear, I sat down with £160 and left with £160.

So with just that one small experience at the £1/£1 table, it does seem that there is some truth in the widely held belief that The Vic has its fair share of nitty regulars. I know I've said it before but, yes, I'll say it again: in my personal experience, The Empire is still THE place to go for low stakes poker in London.

Too Nitty And Safe

The therapeutic value of blogging away on a regular basis for nearly 11 months cannot be underestimated. Posting at various intervals on various poker forums is also a good way of keeping the mind active and checking to see how your views chime in with others' as well. But not only do you see how the minds of people work, you also sometimes catch a glimpse of how others perceive you. I've been referred to as a "nit" on quite a few occasions, my play has been labelled "passive" at times and I've also been classed as a "fish" by a few of the better players - and with good reason. Even one of the respected mods on the PKR forum gave me "free advice" by saying I was an "uber NIT" and my game "lacked imagination"!

The truth is, they're right!! Looking back at my results over the year it has become clear to me that over the last 3 or 4 months, variance has flattened out to a boring degree  - indicating that I've not only decreased the amount of volume of hands that I've played but that I've really tightened up to an unsatisfactory level. I know I've become a bit of a stuck record as well recently with my talk of never wanting to play online and then making a deposit later on, only for me to win or lose a little bit and then stop again - and this is petty and has got to stop.

In the last two months and five days of this blog, therefore, I have decided to go with my read. Yes, I WILL be ditching online poker for the rest of the year. (Although I do have one Masters Stage 2 ticket worth $9.05 left, which I will use in the next few days.) I will be playing live cash games only and will no longer play any freezeouts at The Fox or anywhere else. I will play good, solid poker and have even promised the missus that my maximum consumption of alcohol will not go beyond 3 pints of an evening. I really mean business now.

The start of the end begins tonight. With the time at 5PM, I'm going to have a nice relaxing bath. Then I'll be heading into town with the intention of kicking off with a little £1/£1 at The Vic. From then on... who knows?

As always, I'll let ya know how I get on...

NOW COME ON!!!!!!!!!!

Live Session #54: Lesson Learned - Part 2

In Part1, I twaddled on yet again about my failure to cash in a freezeout at The Fox. I also implied that if you keep doing x, and y invariably happens as a result, one day you're going to finally learn your lesson. Well, yesterday, I really think I finally learnt my lesson. It may have taken a year, and the best part of this blog for the penny to finally drop, but I really think that the message has sunk in. Sometimes, with poker being a long-term / life-long game, it really can sometimes take many months to truly discover big leaks in your game. To me, finally noticing these glaring metagame leaks is nothing short of a revelation. In fact the discovery is so important that I'm going to make a determined effort to stick to these following rules from now on - and certainly through the new year of 2012:

GENERAL ACTION PLAN FOR 2012

1.   Avoid playing freezeouts at The Fox Poker Club.

2.   Aim to just play cash game poker - preferably at The Empire on Friday and/or Saturday night.

3.   Avoid heavy drinking while playing poker.

4.   No more cash game poker online.

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Of course, this is only the rudimentary action plan for 2012 and it will need things added and a bit of tinkering but those rules are pretty good as a start. I think that I probably won't avoid the odd MTT at The Fox completely, for example, so will probably allow myself to play maybe one every 2 or 3 months. I'll probably play cash games elsewhere as well besides just at The Empire  - and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to resist making an online deposit (but I intend only to play satellites into bigger events).

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Anyway, enough of all that. Let's rewind back to last night...

So after that £58 bust-out, at about 7PM, I decide to visit my usual Chinese restaurant for my usual dish; crispy pork with bean curd on rice - yum! After this, it's off to The Empire. I've only had 2 pints through the day and actually feel refreshed and ready to take on my foes. I'm NOT feeling sleepy or tired - essential! I register at about 7:40PM and there are only 5 tables in action. My name rises to the top soon enough but I reject the table that's available as the players seem far too serious and their stacks are far too big for my liking - essential table selection. I patiently wait for the next available seat and I'm then asked if I'd like a seat on the central table. There are zero regulars and the stacks are small to medium which usually tells me the players are on the cautious side so I grab the seat and ask for £240 in chips which is just about enough to make me the big stack. 

Key Hand #1

Things start off badly. I am sitting there in the small blind with AK and about 6 or 7 players limp in round to me. There's no way I'm limping into this pot which has about £14 in it so I throw in a £21 bet. A short-stack, who has about £20 left, throws the rest of his chips in and a guy in mid-position also makes the call. The flop comes A x x so I throw in another £35 into the middle. Mid-position guy folds and the dealer deals out the rest of the cards to the board. A nine comes on the river to match the villain's pocket nines and I see the £75 pot go the wrong way. Thankfully, he did have a fairly small stack so it's a very small "ouch". I give off the image that the loss is like water off a duck's back to me but it still would have been nice to start off with a small win.

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Key Hand #2

I chug along for a bit and find myself down to about £200. I make a good call against a weak player who tries to take the pot away from me on the river with a £15 bet. I had second pair and just went with my read which proved good  - and showed the players at the table that I ain't THAT easy to push off a hand.

Key Hand #3

A young kid of South-East Asian origin sits to my immediate right and he's in a cocky mood. He mentions a few times how soft he thinks the table is (a few times after I make a few folds) and I get the impression that he is trying to tilt a few other weak players at the table as well with his table talk. He also comments, with provocative laughter, at the poor play of an obvious weak player. 

I am in late position and I look down at A Q of clubs and I make a £10 raise which gets 3 callers, including from Mr Cocky. The flop comes two clubs giving me the flush draw. It's checked round to me and I sense I'd get re-raised if I bet so I just elect to check to see the turn. The turn brings the sought after club but pairs the board. It's checked round to Mr Cocky who throws in £10 which I just smooth call. The other two fold. The river brings a blank but, through his talk and behaviour, I'm 95% sure he doesn't have the full-house (he's talking far too much for that). Nevertheless he throws in £20 and I duly raise by throwing in £100. He deliberates for a fair amount of time and I know I have him beat. I feel he will put the money in if only I say nothing and avoid eye-contact. (He's too smart to fall for the "talk to them if you think they're gonna fold" trick and I'm sure he'll see through this.) I manage to stare ahead, avoid eye-contact and keep my mouth shut and I'm eventually rewarded with the call. I show him the bad news and he's very annoyed with himself.

Key Hand #4

The final key hand was against the same villain. I look down at K Q of diamonds in mid-position and elect to raise £12. Mr Cocky comes along for the ride. The flop comes 9 8 J with one diamond and Mr Cocky immediately fires out £15. I have overcards with back-door flush possibilities and a gutshot so I call with a wry smile on my face. The turn brings a brick which is checked by our friendly villain. I choose not to disturb the waters and so check behind for the free card. The river brings the dream card, a ten. The villain checks again but I sense he's still interested in the hand as he's looking at me intently and I reckon I could extract a fair whack. I reckon £50 to be about right and throw this in. Again he makes the call and shows 9 10 for the two pair but again I show the winning hand (the nuts in this case) and scoop in a fair bundle of chips. He goes back to muttering about how he should have raised the turn and how annoyed he is for letting me get there, but I'm not too concerned about that.

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With the time at about 11:45PM, after about 4 hours of play, I get up from my seat with a £400 stack and a £160 profit. Due to my stupidity at insisting on playing the freezeout, I only made a £100 profit on the night. Nevertheless, I was pleased with the way I played and, as mentioned, left the place with nothing short of a revelation going on in my head. It all goes back to those 4 rules that I wrote at the top. However, I still feel that it's the attending of the freezeouts that's doing the main damage and it's that lottery ticket "it could be me" mentality that I should now eradicate from my thinking when I go out to play my live poker sessions. Besides, even getting to the final table in these MTTs and cashing just outside the top two or three gets the same amount as an ok cash game session - so there.   

I know I've rambled for ages over this and I know, dear reader, that you're probably finding this tedious and are getting sick of it but part of this blog is written for therapeutic reasons - and I've got to ram this idea home for the good of all that is right and not wrong about my poker game.

   

 

Live Session #54: Lesson Learned - Part 1

Finally, after yet another bust-out from a Fox freezeout event today, I think I've finally learned my lessons from the whole experience of entering their live MTTs through the year: (1) They're not going to make me a great deal of money, if any. (2) They're not gonna help me to develop as a player. (3) They're still the glorified lottery that I always thought they were.

On top of all of that I got one of the most bizarre rulings, against me, that I've ever heard at a live game in my life: the blinds are 300/600 with 50 antes. I'm looking at a flop which has given me a straight and a flush draw. It's checked round to me so I say "3" intending to bet 3000 but the dealer then makes the pedantic and bizarre decision that my announcement of "3" could have meant "300" and so says that my bet has to stand as a minimum bet of "600"!

I mutter something about it being obvious what I meant at this level of the tournament but I don't really feel that bothered, at first. However it's the other players at the table who call for a ruling. The floor manager comes over and upholds the decision by saying the bet has to stand as a 600 min raise!! As I say, I wasn't too bothered at first but then after a while, the more I thought about it, the more I just felt like the dealer and the floor manager were being a couple of arses.

All of the above negatives are just a few reasons why I really feel I should take my custom elsewhere, away from The Fox, on a more regular basis. The other reason became clear after my visit to The Empire afterwards. As I've mentioned on quite a few occasions before, apart from the fact that the ambiance of the place is far more relaxing and conducive to friendly chat, I reckon that if I can just keep myself sober and alert and on the ball (like I did at The Empire tonight) I think my edge at the cash games there just might be a bit more than I sometimes give myself credit for. And certainly better than any game The Fox can offer.

From now on, I really need to play to my strengths and stop doing the -ev stuff. I'm going to make an absolutely determined effort to avoid playing at The Fox Poker Club. I'm going to make sure I just play cash games - preferably at The Empire. And possibly most importantly, I'm going to avoid heavy drinking at the tables. Of course, the avoidance of playing online poker goes without saying. I reckon if I just put these things in place, I can really start to get my poker game back on track and start looking at a bigger, longer-term profit.


In my next post, I'll let you know what happened at The Empire after my routine bust-out at the £58 freezeout at The Fox.

A Little Cheer

First off, don't get me wrong; I still think online poker is one hell of a hard nut to crack and no longer think of it as the money-maker it was a few years back but as I was sitting here at my computer on this fine Saturday afternoon, I thought I'd take a little from my bank account and see what I could do with it on Paddy Power Poker.

I know, I know, I said online poker was probably best left alone but you know what? Once you've got online poker in the blood it's bloody hard to get rid of I can tell you. Anyway, as I say, after depositing about £280 into Paddy Power Poker and plonking myself down at a 50p/£1 table, I hit a few winners and was sitting there with this ( I play as Magic Mush by the way):

After donking off a few pounds I thought I'd skidaddle out of there and book a reasonable win. And all this means I've now got around £350 in the PPP account and another decision to make: shall I withdraw it and wipe out that £75 online poker deficit that I have for the year, or shall I continue to play and see what happens? I don't really know what to do.


P.S. - I decided to just cashout the winnings to clear that horrible £75 online deficit. I am now 100% break-even at the online game which is better than just plain being down I suppose.

A Week Off Work!

In the past, a week off work usually meant one thing: more time to play poker. The problem this time round is that, with work getting me down, I should probably ease off on the poker front for a while and wait until my mind is in a happier place. Making decisions involving hundreds of pounds at the cash game tables in this vulnerable frame of mind and with copious amounts of alcohol in my belly (which I guess I should avoid) is probably not a wise way forward. Furthermore, with online poker now being infested with far better players (and with a rant on the PKR forums explaining why I don't play on their site so much anymore) I think making an online deposit at the present time is riddled with problems as well.

At the moment, it's Saturday afternoon and I'm looking forward to a full week off work. That's the good news. The not so good news, in the light of what I have written above, is that the poker clubs and casinos are calling me so loudly that it's almost deafening! What makes it more tempting is that it's a beautiful and crisp sunny day - all the more reason to head on into town!

Therein lies the problem with live poker at the moment. I know I've been a long-term winning player over the last two years and the odd live session really should be seen as enjoyable and routine BUT I also know that I'm really not playing too well at the moment. On top of all this, with a week off work ahead of me, I know I'm liable to want to down the odd beer over the weekend while playing - and I've already mentioned countless times that this usually just makes matters worse.

The thing is, I often go into town wanting to start off lightly and not losing a ton of money straight away and so a £40 freezeout at The Fox is the ideal warm-up in this respect. Unfortunately, and as I say, I often find it hard to take a £40 event seriously and so end up buying a load of beers just to make the thing a little more fun and enjoyable and as an antidote to the straight-faced players who just seem to take the whole damn thing way too seriously for what it is. The real solution I guess (and it isn't rocket science), is to make sure I keep off the booze and to just play my normal cash game at The Empire and to avoid The Fox altogether - but, for the above reason, this is easier said than done.

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So what to do?

Well part of me says that as an amateur player, who is not "supposed" to approach the game like a pro, it should be perfectly fine for me to carry on as normal. The sums are not massive amounts over the long-term and the game should be about just having fun anyway - so why not enjoy a few beers while playing? But the argument against this is that if I drink like a fish, I'll start to think like a fish - and then be in danger of actually becoming one and losing a chunk of money - something I don't really want to happen at the end of the year. The other side of the coin says that I should avoid the drink altogether and only bring my A-game to the table at all times. The correct way to play, of course.

Well, the fact of the matter is, we only have just over two months to go until the end of the year. This is a very short period of time and I could just as easily lose a huge stash of money while playing my A-game as I can win a huge stash while being a little bit worse for wear - so sod it. This is a blog about "bringing something different to the table" and it's about "a year in the life of an amateur poker player" not some hot-shot pro. The game is about fun for me and this blog is about entertainment - so let's throw caution to the wind and carry on as normal eh?

I'm thinking of heading into town tonight for a live poker session. I don't know if I'll be playing the 7PM freezeout at The Fox or if I'll be playing at The Empire. To be honest, I don't know if I'll be drinking - but whatever.

Let's Play Poker!!

P.S. Here is the best opera tune ever which was played near the end of the best western film ever (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly). The sound quality is not great (set the volume to high) but it's the singer's best live performance of the song on YouTube. BEAUTIFUL and GREAT!

P.P.S. I didn't go into town after all. Will probably head on over to The Fox on Sunday.

Live Session #53: Down In The Dumps - Part 2

In the words of Hannibal Lecter, just as he was about to chop off his hand at the wrist with a meat cleaver, "this is gonna hurt..." I am talking, of course, about my previous live poker session in town which took place on Saturday night. It will not only hurt because of the loss involved but also because I'll need to recall the manner in which I went about losing it. It will also hurt because every single time I seem to get my poker results back on track with a good meaty win, I seem to go ahead and throw the money down the toilet.

First off was the 7PM, £40 freezeout tourney at The Fox. Apart from the fact that my depressing week at work should have been warning enough for me not to sit down and play poker at all in the first place, my worst move (needless to say) wasn't any of the bets, raises or folds that I made at the table (I busted out as standard) but the pouring of lager down my throat as I played. Once again, if I just went home there and then after I busted out, this would have gone down as a minor inconvenient loss with no real damage done. BUT this over-drinking at small buy-in MTTs really HAS just got to stop because of the sums I almost always seem to lose afterwards.

Yep, tanked up with quite a few beers, I headed straight off for The Empire in the mistaken belief that, surely, I had some sort of edge. In actual fact, with a buy-in of £300 in front of me, I could hardly keep my eyes open at the table and after about 40 minutes called off my entire stack after the loosest and tiltiest player at the table hit his runner runner flush to crack my turned set of jacks!!

Did I bet heavily enough beforehand? Of course I did. I saw this guy fritter away a HUGE stack just while I was sitting there for that 40 minutes. I bet a large amount preflop and remember throwing in £75 on the turn when the beautiful jack hit to match the two that were already in my hand. What I DIDN'T bargain for, of course, was that this guy who was steaming in early position had decided to call the preflop bet and the big turn bet with Q 4 of hearts!

In my sleepy drunken state, when I saw that jack of hearts hit the turn I had already decided that all my money was going in. It just didn't even occur to me that the last red card on the river had matched two others on the board and what was more - that there were now three hearts on the board which put a possible flush was out there. When he put all 180 odd quid in on the river I insta-called thinking it was payday time! It wasn't. It was, thank you, goodnight and goodbye to £300 time.

The only real consolation in all of this is that even if I HAD thrown all my chips in on the turn, there is little doubt in my mind that he would have called in order to see that last card. This, at least, would have made it more of a cooler than dubious play. Anyway, with the way things are going at the moment and with the dark days and cold nights creeping in, I just feel like going into hibernation with the whole poker and blog thing. I know I won't, they'll always be another card game around the corner, but that's really the way I feel.

I'll keep ya posted.

Live Session #53: Down In The Dumps - Part 1

Dear oh dear oh dear! I've had such a terrible week at both poker and in real life that it just ain't funny!! Let's start with work...(Brace yourself, it's a high twaddle factor on this one.)

Well, as regular readers will no doubt already know, I've been in the teaching trade now for well over 15 years. It isn't the easiest job in the world and in fact ranks as one of the most stressful so I count just being able to survive in the teaching profession for such a length of time as an achievement! Yes, the holidays are good but these holidays nowhere near alleviate the stress and pressure that teachers face day in, day out when they're in the workplace.

In most state schools you get your Senior Leadership Team (SLT) who, although are usually more experienced than other teachers, have a vastly reduced timetable in order to carry out their other "necessary tasks." Of the timetable they DO have, most of their lessons involve teaching the older kids and those in the 6th form - who are far easier to manage and who pose far less hassle to the teacher than the younger kids. (So it's no wonder they give themselves those classes to teach rather than the more challenging ones which, I might add, have 30 kids in them rather than the 10-24 students you get in those other classes.)

Anyway, one of those "necessary tasks" - apart from parading around the place and looking important from time to time - is to observe lessons and make judgements on the teaching and learning that is taking place in the classroom. To cut a long story short, my lesson was deemed not to have reached the standard that I myself felt it reached. I won't go into the technicalities as I felt their decision was based on petty and twisted interpretations and it would probably just make me angry all over again but needless to say, after slaving away and working my guts out in this job, this is not something I particularly wanted to listen to or accept.

The main problem with all of this is that if you work hard and feel like you're doing a good job during your day to day routine, being told by SLT that you're not up to scratch can only lead to one result: I'm left feeling resentful, undervalued and with my morale shot to pieces! But the REAL problem they have when they do things like this is that if positive contributions are not ever really officially recognised, I'm now left to wonder if it's worth putting in any extra effort into my work at all!! The fact that I am still in this job after a colleague in my department was recently made redundant makes this all the more awkward. Fortunately, I DO have a sense of responsibilty towards the students that I teach so the only thing I CAN do, as always in these matters, is to keep calm and carry on. 

---- A disastrous cash game session yesterday added to my woes which means that at the moment I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps, as they say. I'm off now to buy a new printer/scanner for my computer this afternoon but will blog about the hapless event later on when I feel up to it.

A Forum Post

Thinking through the reasons I don't play online anymore, I thought I'd post my opinion of poker tracking software onto the PKR site to see what sort of response I get from the readers.

Why I don't Play Online Poker Anymore.


The truth is, I do sometimes play online - but after a break-even period of epic proportions it has become clear to me that playing regularly online is just not that lucrative and thus not that much fun anymore. I've had a lot of conversations recently with live players and with those who used to play a lot of online poker in the good old days and the feeling is generally the same: online poker is becoming less and less about playing poker in the "classic sense" and more and more about who has the most expertise and mathematical skills in utilizing the ever-more elaborate and complicated poker tracking software.

Admittedly, I often use PokerOfficer while playing at PKR - but let's face it, this is a very crude and basic cousin of the far more sophisticated Poker Tracker and Holdem Officer Manager which are ubiquitously used by every single pro out there. PokerOfficer, by comparison, is laughable but it's the only one that I can personally use on PKR as I simply haven't got the expertise or knowledge to get the others working properly on this site. (And to even try to use PT or HEM while multi-tabling on PKR just sends my head into a spin.) Laughable.

The even more sinister thing that I am hearing nowadays is that there is even more highly developed software out there that is secretly being shared by the high-stakes pros. Soon enough, all poker players will realise that the greatest edge in this game (that is becoming ever-more tough to crack) will be had by those with a high degree of skill in the area of mathematics and computers - and those who can most effectively go about number-crunching all that data that is spewed out by the ever-more complicated software.

Online poker may have been a true "game" in the good old days. Nowadays it's becoming less of a game to the point where it's not really a game anymore! I don't want to be part of a system where 98% of the players are either big losers, hover around break-even or who are just able to make a few hundred or a few grand over a year - and where 2% pretty much just take all the money cos they actually work hard at it as part of their job! That ain't right.

In a few years, I really do think that the quality players will have taken pretty much all the golden eggs and while they may have not killed the golden goose, will certainly have maimed it so there will be very few eggs left to lay. As people gradually realise that they don't know how to use the poker software as well as the better players, more and more of the lower animals in the food-chain will just abandon the battleground. The stronger animals will then have to feed off each other until the battleground will be a barren wasteland of tyrannosaurus rexes roaming the world in search of the scant food supply left in a desperate attempt to stave off their own extinction.

This is what the poker industry is scared of and why they desperately try to entice us with riches and get us to carry on feeding the system. (Fair enough if PKR remove this post - I'll not be surprised - but it'll be interesting to hear what others have to say.) Unfortunately, it's a system I no longer want to be part of on a regular basis.

So I'm out!!

Live Session #52: Just Go Home!

Shortly, London is going to be plunged into that horrible time of the year we call "The Great British Winter" which means cold, wet and dark weather for about 3 or 4 very long months. As someone who usually walks the 2 miles to work, I hate winter with a passion - it means waking up to the cold and dark and trudging along in said weather in the fairly early hours of the morning while half asleep or (if the weather is particularly bad) hopping on the bus and sharing a confined space, while standing, with a bus-load of hormonally imbalanced and brain-dead schoolkids.

What's worse though is that when I get to work I have to try to teach these type of kids, day in day out, the beauty of the English Language and such things as why Shakespeare was such a great bloke and why his plays are so fascinating. If I'm down in the dumps and not "with it" my negative vibe could change their perception of Shakespeare for the rest of their lives. It really is quite a responsibility; maintaining an interest in the subject, through thick and thin, and trying to impart that enthusiasm onto the kids - who always behave badly in bad weather!!

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Anyway, all this leads to the point that I'm about to make - and that is that there are only a few more weekends left before this winter-weather sweeps in. It means, it'll be harder to drum up the motivation to go out into it to play some live poker. Presently, it's a little bit windy but it is mild and the sun is shining and The Fox Poker Club is calling and tempting me with its £50 + (£8) deepstack freezeout that starts this afternoon at 3PM.

I have plenty of time to get ready and to get out there so, buoyed by my success on Friday, I'm heading on out there this afternoon to try my luck. Yes, it's a bleedin' MTT and, yes, it's at The Fox - but surely it's not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

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I'll let you know how I get on...

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...Monday morning and I'm back to the grind of the work routine. The freezeout was a 5 hour affair and one of those tournies where I seemed to spend the majority of the time just hanging on with a fairly short stack. Getting AA once, 10 10 on the exit hand, 9 9 (which I had to fold), and 8 8 which I won an all-in with was the best the dealer could do for me in the entire time. But I eventually went out in about 23rd in a field of about 70 runners after going all-in with 10 10 and getting 2 callers who showed a variety of overcards. I don't really mind losing the £60 cos that was standard but it was my next move that was my main regret...

Yep, my worst move, after drinking quite a few beers and feeling a bit groggy after 5 hours of poker was to take £170 to The Empire afterwards. Almost as soon as I sat down a wave of tiredness came over me - not helped by the alcohol - and I really should have got up and left after half an hour when I was down to £120 after getting involved in too many hands and chasing too many straights and flushes.

The final donkey move came when I just decided to make a move in mid-position with K 7. I was first into the pot and made it £15 and got one caller. The flop came 7 5 2 so I just chucked the rest of my chips in. I got the call and we flipped over our cards and I saw the villain turn over 10 10. I got no help - deservedly so - and left to get on the bus with a very depleted wallet.

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Looking at the Sunday session there is good news and bad. The bad news is that I really did just throw away £170 in a session that I was far too tired and groggy to play in - and when I really should have listened to the voice in my head after I got busted in the tourney that said; "Just go home!" The good news is that I've finally learnt my lesson and from now on will definitely only play when I'm alert, free of drink and ready to play my A-game.

Tired Poker = Lazy Poker = Stupid Poker = Losing Poker!
And that's it.

Live Session #51: Back In The Game - Part 2

Key Hand #4
They say that the cards you get dealt evens out in the long-run and after many previous sessions at The Empire where premium holdings were indeed at a huge premium, I begin to feel that justice is being done when after about two and a half hours of play I get dealt my third AA!! This time, it's going to work out. I'm in late position and on seeing the aces I start to wonder how I'm going to go about extracting. Thankfully, it's all done for me before I have to make a decision as I hear a voice coming from the far left of the table saying "£200." I think my ears have deceived me but on looking up I see that, indeed, £200 has crossed the line from the stack of Mr Drunk City-Type guy.

Well, hearing one all-in while holding AA in late position is nice but TWO!? Yep, this is followed up by an aggressive player who also - at that beautiful moment - puts all his £200 chips into the middle. I do the necessary but I only have £186 of chips in front of me. (Mr Drunk City-Type Man is sitting there with about £500!) Fuck and bother. No auto top-ups here I'm afraid :-(

We decide to flip our cards over for the entertainment of the table (it's a great talkative table) and we're looking at the classic AA v. KK v. QQ situation. One of our hands connects with the flop - IT'S MINE!! The wonderful ace hits the board and the turn is a blank and I do a quick mental calculation working out what the sum of 186 multiplied by 3 is. After the rake has been extracted and a £6 tip is given to the efficient dealer, I'm sitting there with around £540. It was going to be a good evening after all.

Key Hand #5
I am happy to say that from here on in, I just kept adding more chips to my stack. Soon after this, I tangled with a player who I initially thought was quite solid but who, after losing a few big pots, self-destructed in no uncertain terms. He made no effort to conceal the fact that he was devastated, looked as if he'd just been told that a close family member had died and played in every hand afterwards in a resigned manner and in a state of what can only be described as deep depression.

I have position on him with Q 3 of hearts and we're at the flop which contains undercards to my queen but two hearts. He throws in a lazy £15 and I elect to call reading him for a nothing type hand. The queen hits the turn and I reckon I have him beat. I'm happy to call his £25 which he throws into the pot in a lifeless, couldn't-care-less kind of way. The river brings the jack of hearts and it's happy days. He throws in a tired £51 as if to say "I know you've hit the flush but here's £51 anyway." Something told me he still had an ounce of sense in him and that he was unlikely to call an all-in unless I was beaten so I just called on the off-chance he could have hit a higher flush. Of course my hand was good and in retrospect I should have just tossed in a raise in an arrogant way to get him to call but there it is. He still carried on gettting involved in every single hand where it was clear that he was beaten, got predictably felted and left a shattered man - it's strange how seemingly solid players allow themselves to get crushed like this but I guess it can happen to all of us on a day when we're just caught off-guard. 

Key Hand #6

It's getting on for about 3:30AM and a very wild and loose player, who has been getting louder and  progressively drunk as the evening has gone on, is in late position and is involved with myself and others in a 5-way pot. The preflop betting saw 5 callers call a £10 preflop bet and the pot contains £50. I have top-pair, good kicker on the flop in early position and decide to check (a weak move in retrospect). It's checked all-round and I'm disappointed to see an ace on the turn. However this is checked all round again and this tells me that judging from the table dynamics I don't think anyone has the ace and, what's more, that I've probably got the best hand.

The river brings a harmless four and I really think that my ten is good. Nevertheless I elect to check but sense Mr Loud Drunk on the button will try to steal it. Bang on cue he throws in £21 and I make the call. He shows junk and my K 10 is enough to pull in a good pot. He questions my decision to make the call and I tell him £21 was a cheap price to pay - but I felt I had a good read on him as well anyway.

Key Hand #7

The last key hand wasn't really a major score but an interesting hand which I may have won more money on. I'm in the small blind with J 9 and complete the round of betting. The old rock in the big blind (affectionately known by all as Mr Chew and the fella referred to in Vicky Coren's book as the guy with the extraordinarily long finger-nail) predictably checks. The flop comes 6 10 J giving me top pair which I choose to check - and it's checked all round. The turn then comes a 9 giving me two pair so I fire out £8 which is just called by the button. I read him for an 8. The river comes a blank and I'm 95% sure my villain has missed judging from the tell he's giving off. I also sense that he wants to try to take the pot away from me and so figure I should check to induce the bluff. I do so and he fires in £13 which I insta-call and I'm not that surprised to hear him say that he has nothing.

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Earlier, when I said this table was lively, I didn't just mean the way people played their cards. It really got pretty loud and heated at times and on more than one occasion the floor manager had to come on over to sort a few things out. It was really over petty rulings about who could show cards to whom etc but it was all in fairly good humour and was mainly the drink that was doing the talking. Nevertheless, the arguments and volume was serious enough that at 4:15AM the floor manager announced that he was breaking the table and that we were to play the final three hands.

For me, it was a very entertaining Friday night and proved to me once again how The Empire leads The Fox for sheer value in so many ways. Some may not like all the hysterics and drama that goes on but, as someone who has taught in all sorts of inner-city schools for nearly twenty years and experienced drama in confined spaces of all descriptions from the full social spectrum, I just find it great entertainment. The fact that I can look on as a spectator and observe the peace-keeping attempts of the staff rather than be part of it makes it all the more interesting and enjoyable. Yes, The Empire seems to attract all the usual bravado from a variety of folks but I would much rather sit at a table with all that energy and madness going on from all the, frankly, screwball characters than suffer in the silence of the more conservative and oppressive atmosphere of The Fox.

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Scoreboard-wise, this ended up as a very lucrative session and after sitting with a starting stack of £300, I got up from the table - after six hours play - with £752, meaning I made a cool profit of £452. This may sound a lot when considered in isolation, not so much when it just about covers my online poker losses since Vegas. Swings and Roundabouts, swings and roundabouts.

Live Session #51: Back In The Game - Part 1

Before relating the story of yesterday evening's six hour session, I just want to say "thanks" to Wongaman for responding to each of the points that I made in Wednesday's post about the qualities needed to make "proper" money at online poker. I appreciate the comments which still don't hide the fact that to really make it big at the online game, you still need to have certain traits, certain skills and to be of a certain character to properly crack it - and my hat goes off to anyone who can do this. Personally, after pondering my own attitude, approach and temperament, I have realised that it's best for me to just leave online poker to one side for the time being and to enjoy poker in the form of the occasional live cash game at the London casinos and poker clubs.

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After a short nap following a busy day at work, yesterday saw me heading into town at about 8:30PM for a cash game session at The Empire. This was to be my first live session in over a month and I was looking forward to seeing how I would handle it. The place was absolutely packed with all nine tables full to the brim and a waiting list which was soon to get as long as my arm. Luckily, I got in before the rush and swiped my card to put me 8th on the list. I got seated after a 30 minute wait but this went by fairly swiftly thanks to good ol' Depeche Mode who gave smooth aural nourishment through my Ipod while I waited.

I took my place at Seat 9 at about 10PM at a table where most players held stacks of about £100-£200 except for a slightly inebriated city-type gentleman who had about £600 in front of him. I bought in for £300 and settled down.

Key Hand #1

Bosh! On my very first hand, before the floor manager has even come back with my chips, I look down at AA!! I raise it to £10 and get two callers. The dealer brings a low and uncoordinated rainbow flop and I fire out £25 after it's checked round to me. I get one caller. The turn brings a harmless looking card so I look at my villain's stack, see he has about £100 behind so announce "all-in!" He folds. I jokingly wish everyone goodnight as I go to take my chips and leave - but I'm happy to start the session with an extra £40 in my starting stack after hand number one.

Key Hand #2

Needless to say, over the next hour and a half I get dealt complete garbage. It's a fairly lively table and there's no real need to get tricky but my £340 stack has soon been whittled down to about £250. Perhaps it's through sheer boredom but I then play a hand worthy of the table fish. I look down at A 10 of hearts in middle position and I'm seeing the flop which comes 2 9 7 with two hearts. It's 3-handed and Mr Drunk City-Type Man throws in £20 which I think is worth calling. However, before it's on me Mr Old Man, who's next to act, throws in his entire £75 stack. I'm imagining that were I to call this, Mr DCTM would come along for the ride to give me the right odds for my flush-draw and make my call correct (but still just as a bog-standard gamble).

Feeling it's worth a punt (I have overcards as well) I call the £75, start to realise that I'll have to commit all my chips if Mr DCTM goes all-in, and am ultimately quite pleased that he ends up folding - even though this now makes my call a dubious decision. The turn and river brings a king and an x but no heart and the villain shows K 2 for two pair meaning he went all-in, on the flop, with just bottom pair. Still, this takes another big dent out of my stack, not to say my ego, as I'm now looking at just around £180 in chips.

Key Hand #3

I've been chugging along (badly) for about 2 hours but feel a sense of hope as I look down at AA under-the-gun. The table has been very lively with almost a 100% rate of raises going in preflop. Therefore, I reckon a slowplay manoeuvre is necessary here so I just limp. You've guessed it - it's folded, yes FOLDED all the way round to the small blind who just completes and the big blind who just checks. For the love of my huge arse!! What the fuck is this!?

The flop comes 4 6 7 with two suits and Mr Old Man (from Key Hand #1), who hasn't played a hand in a while, makes it £7. I'm thinking maybe he has a 5 or the 7 so I min-raise it up to £14 expecting a flat-call. If I'm right about my read, I'll figure he'll call as I just don't think he's capable of re-raising on a bluff. But what the bleedin' blue blazes is this all about!? He goes and chucks in another 55 bleedin' quid!! Apart from Key Hand #1, this move is out of character from this player and I re-evaluate the hand - now putting him on two pair - and reluctantly have to let my AA go. Jesus Christ!

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With the time at midnight, and after a 2 hour session, I take stock of the situation and inject a bit of logic in the manner that Jared Tendler suggested... It is NOT a particularly tough table as I have identfied the playing styles of all the players and NO ONE is particularly tricky or hard to read. I figure that if I just sit tight and wait, I'll be able to weave the wobbly magic at some point and reap some rewards. Luckily, this does indeed happen and in Part 2 I'll tell you about one of my biggest winning pots of the year. Hurrah!

I Like Bouncing Boing Boing Boing

If you were old enough in the 1980s to appreciate the "Not The Nine O'clock News" show then you may remember this classic closing song sung by the inimitable Rowan Atkinson. There is so much to appreciate in the space of just over the one minute, in which it is shown, that I've put it up as a shortcut on my browser for when I need to cheer myself up a bit.

First off you got the random chuckle at 0:06 which has nothing to do with what is going on; then you've got the shot of the trampolining man at 0:20 to emphasise that it's a song about bouncing; then the ingenious "bird named Denise" line, sung to sound like "Dennis" so it rhymes with "tennis"; and then the bizarre revelation at 1:00 that the singer still lives with his mum! There is this and so much more besides, to enjoy, that I thought I'd just pop it up on the ol' blog.

It seems like it may have been a pastiche of the ska sound of the 80s but no ska sound touches this one by Harry J Allstars. Check out the bridge at 1:24-1:55, awesome!

Tonight, I'll probably be off into town to play me a little cash game poker. Thing is, I haven't played in so long I feel like I might need me a few beers to get into the swing of things - but it IS Friday night after all. Anyway, whatever happens, I'll let ya know.

LET'S GO!!

More Twaddle - Just Thinking Aloud

As I mentioned in my last post, I have come to realise that online poker is no longer the money-spinner it may have been and I have, therefore, decided to wind down my online operations once and for all this year. I have made this decision because in order for it to be "worth it", online poker requires a hell of a lot more effort than I am prepared (or am even able) to put in. The fact that the games are now far tougher and require a higher degree of skill makes it even less attractive for me now and one year of break-even online poker is more than enough to tell me this.

Concentrating more on £1/£2 live cash game poker, of course, is my way forward now and just suits my whole attitude and approach to the game just fine. There are less hands to play per hour certainly but this is not necessarily a downside for me. I actually prefer to mull things over, study real opponents and to take my time at the game. It is a "people" game after all - so let's look at people rather than a characterless avatar. Also, I was never much good at multi-tabling online either and enjoy single-tabling much more anyway.

There is also the social aspect as well and I usually don't mind having a chat with other players at the table; it also gets me out of the house and away from the computer screen as well! Hopefully, this new route will not only be enough for me to stay a winner at the game but will also help me enjoy the game a lot more as well - and give me time to work on other more meaningful projects in the new year.

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I know I've burbled on about this many-a-time before but as a final way of convincing myself that online poker is dead for me - here is what I've learnt you need to have if you really want to make serious money at the online cash games:

1.  A substantial bankroll of at least $10K (minimum) but probably more in the region of $15K-$20K.

2.  The time, ability, peaceful environment and sheer stamina to play around 25K hands per month. This requires regularly 4-tabling the $1/$2 cash games, at the very least. (Or, maybe, 6-8 tabling $0.50/$1.)

3.  The patience to use poker tracking software and to study it, in depth, on a regular basis.

4.  Confidence in your ability (ideally evidenced by a decent track-record of around 6-12 months) to beat the game in the long-term.

5.  A support group of players who can talk through hands and to discuss hands in order for everyone to improve.

6.  The mental strength to overcome short-term loses of four or even five-figure amounts - and to have the emotional power to carry on regardless and to play A-game poker.

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I reckon I've twaddled on more than enough now about how I'm going to set out my stall for the rest of the year - you're probably sick of hearing it but I just wanted to get it all clear in my head.

As I said before, this weekend will be my first live session in over a month and will be a great test for me (win or lose) to see how I handle the situation I find myself in.

Bring it on you bastards!!

I Really Do Mean It Now

With just one live session and only a few days of online poker played in September, I really did feel the need to scratch that poker itch over the weekend so on Sunday I made a one-shot deposit of £75 into PKR and played me a little poker.

Well, after about 400 or so hands of complete card-dead action later, the deposit has gone up in smoke. (I couldn't catch me a bleedin' beach ball if it was thrown softly towards me, I'm tellin' ya now!) Now, not only has the final nail been struck firmly into the online poker coffin but the coffin has been lowered down into the ground and the dirt well and truly piled in and flattened out. Even the gravestone, inscribed with the words "RIP - Online Poker 2011" etched into the stone has been plonked on top! That, is fucking IT!

Still, as is often the case when I give up online poker for a while, I now feel quite liberated by the experience and am glad to be freed from its grip and allure. To be honest, you really do need to have a particular mindset and apply certain skills properly to be a proper success at the online game nowadays - which really are quite different to the live game. I have to be truthful; I really don't think I have the skills, anymore, to keep up with the online game. Hell, I probably didn't even have them in the first place!

So that's that. Presently, I don't feel like making any more deposits into PKR or online poker until, at least, the new year which means that as far as this blog is concerned I really really really have reached the end of the road with online poker - that's it! Finished! The End!!

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All this means that I still have a £2.2K balance, made from my live poker exploits, to play around with until the end of the year - and I guess I'm happy to call this my bankroll until the end of December. I'll still, no doubt, be super-nitty with it and restrain myself by putting a stop-loss limit on it as usual but we'll see how it goes from now until the end of 2011 eh?

With the weather being pleasant and with a bit of new-found freedom from bothersome daughters clogging up the house and asking for money left, right and centre I'm really starting to feel keen about getting stuck in at the felt this weekend. As such, this Friday and/or Saturday, will certainly see me heading on into town to play my first live session in over one month. The only question is whether to play it safe at a freezeout at The Fox with a load of super-serious wannabes who treat their £30 buy-in as if it's their life-savings or just take 500 odd quid and dive straight into a £1/£2 cash game at The Empire. Or maybe I should just take the middle ground and play me some £1/£1 at The Vic or The Golden Nugget? I dunno.

Whatever the case, I'll be rolling into London town this weekend folks - Now let's go!!

3 Months To Go...

With just the last quarter of the year to go, this post is really about taking stock of the situation and to ponder over what has been and gone over the last 9 months and what is to come in the next 3. To be honest, I'm quite pleased that I'm still here and keeping the blog going. There have definitely been some touch and go moments (where abandoning the blog was a strong possibility) but the winning sessions and the run-goods always seemed to come at the right time and allowed me to get firmly back on the road.

Vegas was the obvious high-point and a big success for me. The trip report went well and I was pleased that I managed to keep the notes up-to-date AND to type up my experience through the blog. I'm also pleased to say that it appeared to be very well-received on the 2+2 forums and, at the time of writing, has been hit with well over 8000 views!! It's nice to see your own writing being appreciated by a more discerning and appreciative crowd than certain other poker forums. 2+2 is THE forum when it comes to poker and I was very pleased to get quite a bit of feedback from the regulars - both complimentary and critical. A few comments on my poor play were absolutely 100% justified and some (on my nitty approach to some hands and to poker in general) woke me up and helped me to open up my eyes to some of my shortcomings. (More of that later.)

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Unfortunately, regarding the blog, a few ideas have just not got out of the pipeline this year - and, I'm afraid, will probably stay there come the end of December: (1) The writing up of my 300 album reviews will NOT be hitting this blog thanks largely to advice from my editor, Nobby McNob. (2) "The Producer", my ultimate guiding light, will not be written about either. He can't really be explained in words anyway.

And this just leaves me with two items that I would like to include before 31st December. One is my playing card collection that I'd like to show (which I am quite proud of) and the other is doing a commentary, in real-time, while playing a few hands on PKR - and then posting up the results on YouTube, just for shits and giggles. But this will depend on my technical abilities and whether I'm able to set it up so we'll see, we'll see.

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So what about poker playing over the next 3 months?

Online Poker

Regular readers of my blog will know that online poker just hasn't been good to me this year. After playing mainly cash games at PKR this year, and paying over $2000 in rake (going from 7% progress to Diamond up to 22% progress to Diamond), I have still only managed to break-even. It may not seem like a massive amount to the pros and grinders out there but it means that while I have earned precisely zero at the online game this year, PKR have managed to extract a couple of grand out of me - and this is not to mention the hidden fees that I've paid through depositing and withdrawing via the exchange rate.

As such, online poker just doesn't appeal to me that much anymore. I had considered depositing just a little and playing a few MTTs and the satellites to the bigger events but even then I really resent these (R) MTT events that they have recently introduced. These (R) MTTs (almost all of them) force ALL players to pay a small percentage of their entry fee towards the prize pool of a "freeroll" event. This event takes place once a month, is open only to the "Top 5000 players", and gives starting stack sizes proportionate to the amount players have paid in the (R) fee!!

Yep, great for MTT regulars and grinders at PKR who can actually be at their computer on the day of the so-called "freeroll"; a TOTAL rip-off for those just wanting to play a few tournies or for those who play plenty of MTTs but are not able to play on the day of the "feeroll" (or even for those who simply don't want to play the bloody thing)! This is TOTAL bollocks, in my opinion, it may not be a great sum of money but it's the principle and really is another reason why I have steered clear of depositing on PKR recently.

Anyway, if I do have an overwhelming desire to deposit (it will be £275 to tide me over until the end of the year), I'll let you know.

Live Poker

By contrast, live poker has been fine and although I've frittered away quite a few hundred due to drunken play (as well as through sheer bad play), by some miracle I'm still in the black this year. Now that I'm finally free of family commitments, my plan is to try to get down to The Empire and The Vic for as many weekends as possible from now until the end of the year in order to try and spin up my £2.2K yearly profit into something a bit more meaty. The thing is, with only 4 live sessions played (in the UK) in the last two and a half months (since my rough patch), I hope I don't feel too rusty when I hit those tables.

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The Blog Dilemma

In all, I'm obviously pleased that my balance is in the black after 9 months but as I did a lot better in 2010 (particularly at the online game) I can't help but feel that I could have made more money had I not been so conscious of knowing that I was to report all results to the blog. As a consequence, I now know why the pros do not (or very rarely) publish their own results so regularly as they go along; it just puts added pressure on yourself and can make you play far too carefully and cautiously. I do not regret being so open with my results as I have enjoyed working on this project and know that it wouldn't be the blog it is had I been more guarded or simply blogged when things were going well; it was always my intention to be honest and to blog away regardless. 

However, it HAS become clear to me that such openness CAN be detrimental to your game on a number of psychological levels. As a result, although I will carry on with the blog in the same spirit until the end of the year, I have decided that I will definitely not continue with it in the new year. I still reckon I will probably play on the tight and nitty side until December (precisely because I'm laying my soul so bare and revealing my profits and losses so openly) but hopefully, by releasing myself from these chains - and knowing I don't have to answer to anybody but myself, I will become a new, more dynamic and better player in the new year.