Still Grinding the HU

So im sat down most of the day with $200 at the $1/$2 HU tables on ladbrokes and a few people sit down with $30 or so who i really dont want to play against. For a start if i was to win all there money most of the time i am only getting about $25 because of the rake and also the fack that it is just too easy for them to double up when my standard raise is to $7.

I was playing HU earlier against a guy who bought in for $200, i had taken the $200 and made him top up another $200. Now i get him down to $35 and he goes into push mode with pretty much any hand. Its a pretty crazy game and i fold mostly letting him get back upto about $50.

Now im dealt AK in the BB and he pushes again. I think this time i gotta call him and do so.... flop comes K49 and then 2 blanks. Ohh he has K9 and just doubled upto $100! :/ I decide to leave right there with $300 of his.

Bankroll: $2,700
Savings: $0

Heads up play

The last 2 days i have been just playing heads up cash games. I figured out a style hat enables me to not lose much money at all once a have it and when i do have hands to get the most money out of them.

A few days ago i lost a bunch of money and was down to a bankroll of just around $1000 and playing heads up i have been able to get back upto $2,500!!

The first match i played i was on a .50/1 table on ladbrokes and knocked out 3 people in a row (each after topping up there money) so ended up on about $900 from $100. Now i have just been playing on the $1/$2 tables buying in for $200 and grudually building up. I often take a few big hits but manage to get back ahead relativly easy afterwards.

I think the only real problem with heads up play is the rake! I bought in for $200 and the guy who was already sat down had $720. After about an hour there was about $60 missing in rake! Now that is a huge ammount although as things are going at the minute i should easily earn the 25000PP needed to get %30 rakeback at the end of each month so im looking at about $400 rakeback there which is a nice bankroll booster :)

Bankroll: $2,491
Savings: $0

Back on track

So finally after some emails i got my $1,700 travel money through from ladbrokes. Even though im unable to access the cashier here in china i can still use the money to play with on the tables.

So early on today i played some $1/$2 and went up and down a few $100 buy-in's at a time. I joined a few tourneys, lost a couple of $20 and $29 tourneys, bubbling in the $29 sattelite to the $4k gaurenteed.

I was chip leader throughout the sattellite to the $50,000 freeroll, where the top7 went through. Without any trouble i got through, knocking a bunch of people out :)

At the same time i was playing in a $1k gaurenteed tourney with a $15 buyin. The blinds were pretty slow and it seemed to last forever. Going to the final table i was 1st in chips by a small ammount, i knocked a medium stack out to go a long way ahead in chips. Then i lost a huge pot with AQ vs KT where the flop came JKQ. Pretty stupid but i was then down to a medium stack.

I got through stealing the occasional pot and doubled up a couple of times with premium hands to become a chip leader and down to the last 3. I had more chips than both of the other 2 combined and then lost an all-in when his TT held up to my AK. Now i was shortstacked but i played tight and getting heads up i was slightly ahead in chips.

Played heads up for about 15mins and i was in complete control, picked up AA and was raised into. I min raised and he pushed with 44. AA held up and i took 1st place for $279. Also pleased about picking up the points as i want to try and finish in the top 250 to get into the cruise freeroll again as it is great value!

Bankroll: $2,142
Savings: $0

Sigh

Lost my remaining $250 with a few bad beats and bad plays.

Ohh well i should get the $1,700 Ladbrokes are sending me tomorrow so then playing 1/2 will be within my limits and i can even afford to lost a couple of buy-ins haha

*edit* why the fuck do people on ladbrokes love draws so much??? You re-raise them with top set and they push all-in, perfect... untill they make there 5 high flush on the river!!! Surely if both players are so willing to put there chips in they have to consider they could be up against a better flush and that there 35% to hit is now about 15%... idiots.

Bankroll: $2
Savings: $150

Grrr suckouts!

Sat playing with a guy who calls all-in's with just an 'ok' top pair is always fun.... but not when he calls an all-in and then sucks out on the river making a better 2 pair! bad play rewarded again!!! :(

Bankroll: $250
Savings: $350

Small profits in 1/2

So i was playing .50/1 and lost 1 buy-in of $50 almost immediatly then won some back, up and down small amounts.

In the end i got fed up and started playing 1/2. Made my $50 back and hovered around $220 for ages (deposited $200). I got upto $300 at one point but then went back down. Then i won a huge hand all-in on the flop of 478, i had 88 and he held 77. Took down $450 there, only to lose quite a bit of it a few hands later :/

Ended on $350 so still a profit of $150 for the day :)

Bankroll: $350
Savings: $350

AA just keeps getting cracked..

So im out of money again. Lost one huge pot where i got raised into was AA and so re-raised to $60 (15 times the BB). He called and the flop came JJK. I bet a smallish ammount and he re-raised me. I thought the only 2 hands that beat me were KK and AJ that can call the $60. I made up my mind and pushed. He called with KJ :/

Later on i got AA again and this time raised to $24, i got 4 callers. Flop was 45Q with 2 clubs and i had the ace of clubs. I decided to bet out and got folds. The same guy min raised me again to $120 so i pushed all-in with my aces and he instacalled with K2 of clubs!!! next card was the Q of clubs and the river a blank.

Now i have no money :(

Bankroll: $0
Savings: $550

Up and down ...and up!

These cash games are crazy on ladbrokes. Playing 2/4 my standard raise 6 handed had been to $16 with any resonable looking hand but all the others (when they do raise) make it $24 to go!!!

Anyway so iv had a few ups and downs already. I lost an $600 pot getting sucked out on on the river which wasnt nice. I was in the small blind with 67s and called the big blind. He raised it quite a lot and i thought why not, its one of those hands u like playing that is good vs AA or KK.

The flop came 267 and i check raised him to about $70. The turn came a 4 and i pushed all-in for about $215 (about pot sized). He thought for ages, used his time bank and finally called with what i thought he had, KK. The river came another 4 giving him a better 2 pair and scooping the $620 pot :/

http://www.pokerhand.org/?877994

Had to play for a while to make that back but most of it was just over 2 hands. The first i was dealt TT and it was raised to $21 to me. I called the raise as did one other. The flop came QKT. I was first to act and checked. The origional raiser led out for $20 and got min raised to $40. Now i was pretty worried that if i was to raise here i wouldn't know what to do to a push as there was a straight possability on the board so i flat called as did the origional better.

The turn came an 8 and i led out for $100 into the pot of $180, the origional raiser called and the other guy folded. Next card was perfect for me, another Q giving me a full house, he obviously could have had one too but i was pretty sure i was ahead at this point so bet out for value. The pot was close to $400 so i decided $140 was a good price as he would call that with a straight, a queen and a decent king. As it turns out he had AA and pair me off. I took down the pot of $660!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?878001

So far today im upto $2,200 in my ladbrokes account. I decided after last time when i lost my whole bankroll that i should take some out and keep it saved up, wasnt sure of a figue but i think maybe 1/4 of each days profits. This would still allow me to build my bankroll without buyins being too limited.

Bankroll: $1,650
Savings: $550

Cash games boost bankrolls!!

So i was just listening to the circuit @ cardplayer.com and there was an interview with Theo Tran who talked about how he got his bankroll up by bringing $2k to vegas and just playing 2/5 cash games. It got me thinking about when i got my bankroll to a huge level doing the same thing.

I jumped on Stars and put down what i had left ($88) on a 1/2 table. After about 20mins i was upto $120 and then after about an hour i had lost it after getting sucked out on once and playing shortstack badly :/

...On to Ladbrokes. I started by putting down $50 on a .50/$1 table and got pissed off that every1 was calling, lost a buyin, topped up and lost a bit more. So i left.

Next stop $2/$4! Ok so i found the only 2/4 table going which had pretty big stacks on (most had about $400). I bought in for $150 and got a nice spell of cards. Re-raised with AK and got called, flopped an ace and got all my chips in by the river, called by a low ace. Basically after 30minutes i was upto $1,500!! ....and i actually stopped there too!

I also called somebody down on a bluff when i held 77 and the board was 685TA, he went all-in on the river with 49! :D

Bankroll: $1,750

Ladbrokes Poker Cruise III

Wow, so on friday i checked my email and saw i won a place in the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise freeroll for being one of the top250 in the tournament leaderboards.

I was planning on going out and getting pissed so i took my laptop round to Jays and got pissed there and loaded up the freeroll which was about 45minutes in. I was down to 1200 starting chips from 2000 and the blinds were about the right level to steal at. I got my chips up to a reasonable level and at one point went down to about 800 but stuck in there and again got them back up.

After playing tight for a few hours we were down to about 30 and i thought i might have a good chance as i was above average in chips, then after some time we were down to the last 10 where i was garenteed entry to the $550+$50 Cruise Ticket Weekly Final! Before long players started to get a bit more aggressive, as only 1st place won the actual cruise and we were down to 4.

The chip leader had just knocked out 5th place so had a huge chip stack of around 100,000 and the rest of us had about 25,000 each. We played quite a few hands patiently, a lot of folding and the odd raise from each of us when i was dealt AK on the button. The person under the gun suddenly raised 20,000 of his 25,000 stack and i quickly pushed all-in. He called and showed A6 so i was in pretty good shape......untill the 6 hit on the river and i was sent packing :/

Ohh well atleast i had won my entry to the weekly final.


$550+$50 Cruise Ticket Weekly Final

This was some of the best poker i have ever played, and the most fun. The stacks were deep (3000 chips with 20minute blinds) so there was a lot of play. There wern't many raises at the start like i see in a lot of low buy-in MTT's and i think everybody respected everybody else's game a lot.

I got off to a nice start when i picked up 22 and just limped in, there was only 3 of us in the pot and the flop came 432. The big blind lead out wih a pot sized bet and it was folded round, i just decided to call. The turn came a 5, not the card i wanted to see. He bet out again just under the size of the pot. I was thinking about re-raising here but figured if he pushed i would be forced to fold so just called to see the free card. Now another 3 cam on the river giving me a full house. He bet out for about 1/4 of the pot and i re-raised him to just over 1/2 the pot, he called quickly.

I think my re-raise was pretty pathetic here, chances are he would have called for a lot more but i bet for value and didnt really think too much before doing it but either way i made about 1000chips from the hand. I played pretty solid for the next few hours gradually making more and more, risked going all-in 3 times. All quite risky situations.

The first time i called some'1 bluff/continuation bet down when the flop came 56T, he had raised a decent ammount pre-flop and bet the pot on the flop. I called him and the turn came a 9, he bet out the pot again (about 1,100 chips) i had 1,600 left at this point and was pretty sure he had an overpair but thought ha may have had a flush draw. After over a minute of my timebank used i clicked raised and he typeds 'ffs' in chat which made me feel a hell of a lot better, after a while he called with AQ and the board paired so i took down the pot of about 5600!!

One hand the blinds were pretty high and i was sat under the gun with J9h, i opted to call and the player after me made it 3x to go. The button called him and i felt with the 2 blinds going out i had a nice price to see a flop even if i was out of position. 2 hearts came on the flop and the pre-flop raiser raised enough to put me all-in. I was getting the right price to call so made the call. He showed AA with the ace of hearts, the turn came the Qhearts, phew! just no more! ...and there wasn't so i doubled up and some.

Later on we were down to about 15 and i picked up A9s in late position, there had been a 3x raise from early position so i called. The flop came 729 rainbow and he checked to me, i bet out just over 1/2 the pot which made me pretty much pot commited. He thought for a while and called. The next card came an 8 and he instantly went all-in. It wasnt much for me to call but it was the rest of my chips. I figured if he could beat a 9 kicked then so be it and called. He had 78 for 2 pair but the river bought a 9 and paired me up better. Now i had the chip lead :)

I went on to win the tournament, knocking out 4th place who took home $825 and ending up winning the cruise tickets and $1,700 for travel!!

Really excited now and recon im gonna play that freeroll every week. Should be able to win 1 more set of tickets by the end of the year then a group of us can cruise the carribean!

Tournament play really inproving!

Yesterday i saw a $30+$3 NLHE [$5,000 guaranteed!] taking place on pokerstars so decided to join it and also joined a $5 [360ppl max] at the same time. I got pretty deep in both of them, the $30 i got knocked out just before the money with a bad beat which sucked but the $5 i made the final table and ended up coming 5th for about $120 which i was kinda pleased with, i was chip leader (or in the top 3) throughout the whole bubble period (last 36) and still coming to the final table.

Something i did really differently in this tourney though was bullying at the bubble. I didnt have a huge chipstack, about average but i pretty much pushed all-in every hand and the big stacks didnt wanna risk losing there chips to me and the short stacks didnt wanna bust out. I had maybe 10,000 in chips with blinds about 300/600 so including antees i was making just over 1,000 chips every hand. I soon took the chip lead and carried on raising every hand.

Today i entered a $33 NL Hold'em [360players max] and this time didnt bust out for a while, i was again top5 in chips down to the last 100 people. I was sat on a table with 5 out of the top 9 in chips and they were flying round like crazy! I picked my spots and became chip leader after flopping an open ended straight draw and then turning and nuts against his AA to which he called my all-in!

I kept hold of the chip lead till we were down to 12 players and i got dealt AK, KJulius10 raised it to 4,000 which was a slightly larger raise than he had normally been doing and he was in early position to i decided to just call. Slugg7, who had really been playing like a donk went all-in again to try and steal the raises with AJo. This time we both had hands. KJulius10 just called the 30,000 so i knew he had a hand, i thought maybe AK or something like JJ. Figured he'd move all-in with QQ+. I decided to just call and see a flop as i was pretty sure that if i pushed he wasnt folding. Flop came 83T and KJulius10 pushed for 21,000 more to me, no way i was calling here with A high, i had him covered in chips so i knew he had a hand and folded becoming the short stack with just 24,000. He showed TT for top set which turned to quads on the river!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?868903

After that i picked a bad spot to steal the blinds and opted to move all-in rather than risk a few callers but ran into AA and was knocked out in 11th place for $120.

Bankroll: $740

Cold deck

Played 3 tourneys just now and in the 3 hours i was playing stayed alive by just playing around 3 hands in each. I was seriously cold decked. Anyway so i had 3000chips in the $50 and down to the last 27 people out of around 100 after only playing 2 hands!!

I get 22 and limp in, call, call, big raise so i much and a 2 comes on the flop. That was the 3rd hand i called! maybe 15 or 20 hands later i pick up AA and get a raise infront of me and a re-raise. I push all-in and get called by KK, river is a K, GG.

The annoying thing is i wasnt even playing suped tight, i would be happy to get dealt A8s so i could push all-in, all i seemed to get was K2 and J4, it was really strange! I had NO big aces in the whole 3 hours and only 3 paired cards (JJ, 22, AA). Now thats a cold deck. Soppose i did well to stay in as long as i did.

*Just joined a $20 quick blinds tourney, 2nd hand i get AKs and raise, some1 after me pushed all-in and i think for a while, AA and KK are the only hands that scare me and even then i have "some" outs straighting and flushing. I call and he shows AQ!!! I smile and then the Q hits the flop. That was a quick $20 i was donked out of :/

Bankroll: $700

Another win in the $5 turbo

Well i added another 1st place to my record after taking down the $5 quickblinds tourny placing 1st out of 171 players.

I always seem to make chip leader in these tournys now, i think my strategy of completely avoiding play when blinds are small unless i have a premium hand really pays off. When i get a great hand i push and it usually pays off for me.

About mid stage in the tourny im usually chip leader or somewhere in the top 10 and i steal blinds with premium hands (pairs and AJ+) People often think im just bullying and try n play back at me which i like :)

Getting to the bubble i really bully, tbh i would prefer to go out raising in 11th place than to get blinded off in 8th and maybe get double my buy-in back. I always play for the win as its the only decent spot that pays.

So anyway i picked up $260 which is actually not too bad for the $5 as the feild size was pretty large so im happy.

Bankroll: $980