Grinding it out

2010 Review; 2011 Goals!

2011-01-05T06:25:00.007Z

I stopped blogging for a long while but since we are just starting a new year now might be a good time to try to start blogging again.

2010 didn't go as well as i had hoped. I've settled into my new place now which is about a 30second walk from everything i could need/places i go (bars/club/sushi/chinese). The problem with this over my last place is that i seem to have a lot more things to do/people to meet and get far less free time to play. Last year i managed in total a little over 800hours of play, 15hours a week!! some of my friends work >50hours a week!! I know poker for a living is supposed to give you that free time but it makes me feel so lazy!

+$15,000~ fpp/bonus'
Total: $31,000~

So anyway here is my year. Was pretty upset about the last few months of the year, the swings mainly came from shot-taking at 200nl+ rather than just trying to grind out 50nl/100nl as i had the rest of the year.

2011 Goals
For 2011 i have set myself a goal of playing a lot more volume/hours than last year. My goal for now is 1500hours/1.5million hands but it will no doubt change throughout the year. Doing this would get me to about the 400k vpp milestone which would earn me $32,000 from fpp/bonus' alone not counting what i would win at the tables.

Goals for January:
[ ] 125,000 hands
[ ] +$6,000 profit /w rakeback
[ ] try to average 16 tables

6-max and real life!

2010-03-24T05:03:00.010Z

After a pretty bad start to the month i got pretty annoyed at my play at full ring. My play was far from consistent and it seemed like if i wasn't playing my best game i couldn't seem to win. I chatted a little to my house mate who has played both FR and 6max (probably more hands than me of both), he had just come off a huge downswing where he had crippled his roll playing 5/10 HU and PLO so had to move down to 100nl and grind. He recommended playing a really tight style at 6max, saying it was easy money because most players at that level are idiots!

For the past 2 weeks iv have only played 6-max and i have to say i am finding it really easy compared to full ring. The average 6-max player seems to be about 10 times as dumb as at full ring and even the big winners are probably on the same thinking level as the breakeven rakeback pro's of fullring. It took me a while and a bit of money to find out that people don't fold flopped pairs to 3 barrels but once i worked that out i stopped spewing money by bluffing and focused on value and it became easy!

Now you might also notice i have only played 22,000 hands in the last 2 weeks. This is mostly down to partying a lot. Last week we had a few nights out in a row and the last night my friend had to go back to uni in Blackpool (a few hours drive away) telling us about a party there that night. We decided to head off and got to the party around midnight, it wasn't great but we had a really fun time after round my friends house.

The other day i also went for a viewing on a 1 bedroom apartment in town i had been interested in, it looked really nice, exactly the type of place i was looking for. I ended up signing the contract, still have some more papers to fill in but should be able to move in in around a month, cant wait!

I also bought the canvas above off my housemate who has a display on at one of the bars in town this week.

That's about all. My next post should be my review of The Poker Blueprint but i haven't quite finished reading it yet!

The Poker Blueprint

2010-03-06T08:59:00.011Z

Tri Nguyen recently got in contact with me asking if I would like to do an impartial review of his latest book 'The Poker Blueprint'.

"The Poker Blueprint provides the infrastructure for micro- and small-stakes players to build their game on. It also offer advanced strategies that are vital to crushing today's online short-handed games up to 100NL."

I am looking forward to reading this book as I feel many of the things that I do, I do because I know that in the long run they are profitable, I don't, however know the exact reason I am making these moves. Perhaps this book will help me out in understanding why I am doing a lot of things.

Febuary Results, March Goals

2010-03-01T00:20:00.002Z

Goals for Febuary:
[x] 100,000 hands
[ ] +$5,000 profit /w rakeback
[?] win team prop
[x] work on raising my winrate over volume

= $4,400~

Started off the month really well over the first 2 weeks not playing many tables and consentrating on my game alot more than usual. Ran hot at 200nl early on but then proceded to lose all my profits and in the end dumped off $1k~ at 200nl :/

I feel my game has improved, which is good though, just no more 200nl swings!

Goals for Febuary:
[ ] 120,000 hands
[ ] +$5,000 profit /w rakeback
[ ] play only 100nl/pl and 50nl.

Running good

2010-02-12T08:52:00.004Z

Im not far off having my best month yet at cash games and its not even 1/2 way through yet!

Im currently entered into a Febuary Team Prop Bet which consists of 32 people drafted into 4 teams. The team that wins the bet at the end of the month is the one with the highest average winrate. My team consists of;

Team ****itIcall
Vanguard (Captain)
Tony Skaloni (6 max)
Ach Ja
Natisfinest
DaBomb
Alex0r
Danimal
Luka Allen

A pretty strong team, i think we have a good chance of winning this! Im obviously looking to win the individual best winrate prop (the prop is $100+10, ($10 for side prop for best w/r)).

Im pretty sure highest w/r will be scooped up by someone playing alot lower where really high winrates are possable, i don't think the difference in the 3.9x and 5.6x multiplier is really enough. Someone running at 5.8ptbb/100 at 25nl would beat me if i booked 4.0ptbb/100 at 100nl.

January Results, Feb Goals

2010-02-01T07:07:00.005Z

Goals for January:
[ ] 120,000 hands
[ ] +$6,000 profit /w rakeback
[x] win at 200nl!

I got off to a horrid start in january, i lost about 20buyins at 50nl straight away, it was as if i had forgotten how to play. After a few days break i focused a bit more and started playing a bit better. I decided to move upto 200nl to try and get a bit more used to and and it worked out ok. I didn't win at a decent rate but was glad i wasn't losing.

The last couple of days went pretty well and i was able to increase my winrate and make a bit more money from a 100k hands volume prop bet.

Total: $3651

Goals for Febuary:
[ ] 100,000 hands
[ ] +$5,000 profit /w rakeback
[ ] win team prop
[ ] work on raising my winrate over volume

PokerStars WBCOOP

2010-01-17T04:54:00.000Z

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 712483

Turned it around

2010-01-13T14:12:00.005Z

Tables were sooo gooood!! Finally back in profit for the month. Got a bunch of FPPs saved up aswell to buy $2200 worth of bonus' in the sale!

Running bad, new mods

2010-01-04T09:52:00.007Z

Running bad so far this month, and probably playing badly too. It feels like i have forgotten how to play poker all together. It's one of those runs where you get it in on a KJ8 board with KJ against his K8 and you say to yourself "ohh god the 8 is coming"... and then it hits. I'v never lost so many 1 or 2 outers in such a short space of time.

To make myself feel better i bought some new mods from tiltbuster. I loved the look of these cards and noticed the new coloured notes there too. Hopefully this will bring around a positive change and help my game. Incase it doesn't i also watched a couple of video's at bestfreepokercoaching just to sharpen my game up. Lets hope for the best!

December Results

2010-01-02T16:37:00.006Z

+$1640 MTTs/SnG's
Total: $5170

December Goals:
[x] 70,000 hands
[x] +$5,000 profit /w rakeback
[ ] 90% 100nl FR
[x] supernova

Goals for January:
[ ] 120,000 hands
[ ] +$6,000 profit /w rakeback
[ ] win at 200nl!

Good last few days

2009-12-13T00:20:00.006Z

As you can see i've had a good last few days and im looking on pace to hit all my monthly goals. I should hit SuperNova in a few days so i'll probably post again when i get there and do a little update for the month.

I've played close to 100k hands of 100nl now, when i first moved up from 50nl i didn't really get the hang of it and was pretty much breakeven. When i realised that most people at 100nl suck and stopped being scared of them my results have improved dramatically and im pretty pleased with them. here you can see my last 70k~ hands running at 4ptbb/100.

November Results, December Goals

2009-12-02T21:15:00.006Z

November Goals:
[ ] 120,000 hands
[ ] +$5,000 profit /w rakeback

= $4,100~

Goals for December:
[ ] 70,000 hands
[ ] +$5,000 profit /w rakeback
[ ] 90% 100nl FR
[ ] supernova

So November went pretty well overall i guess. I felt i was playing really well throughout the whole of the month. I increased the ammount of tables i was playing from 9-12 upto 18-20 so i was about to get a huge ammount of volume in. I think this is the most ammount of hands that i have ever played in a month.

About 40k hands in a started playing some 6-max and within a few days dropped a ton of buyins and went 20bi below ev. No 6-max next month! I also took a shot at 200nl which went really badly so i think i will avoid doing that again for a while.

A small recovery

2009-11-26T10:11:00.007Z

So after the failed 200nl shot i talked about in my last post i have been grinding hard to make back my losses. 100nl feels easier than ever right now. The other day all the 50BB min tables were packed with regs and i really wanted to play so looked at the normal tables and found there were hardly any good regs at them, just loads of shortstackers....

I won't repeat myself but rather link you to this post where you can see how i got on vs the shortstackers :) Of corse it hasn't been going that well all the time and i have had quite a few BE/losing sessions but heres a few pics of stats from the last 3 days.

Should be able to reach my 120k hand goal by the end of the month :D

Failed shot at 200nl

2009-11-24T02:11:00.003Z

So i took a shot at 200nl yesterday that failed quite badly. It played alot different than i imagined it would and i think i tried to adjust my game to compensate by 3betting alot wider than i normally would. This put my in tough spots in larger pots than i was used too. I wouldn't say i was too out of my comfort zone but i remember one hand where i lost the nerve to fire large on the turn into 2 people beacuse it would mean shoving $200 on the river as a bluff if i missed my double gutter.

I've decided to grind the remainder of the year out at 100nl where im feeling pretty comfortable and should be able to make back $1600~ there by the end of the month.

$1k day right when i needed it

2009-11-22T00:25:00.003Z

So Sexy :}

Took a break. playing shorter sessions.

2009-11-21T21:37:00.003Z

So after losing a bunch last week i dont think my head was on very straight. If i ever play a session where instead of waiting till the big blind comes before sitting out i just kill stars to quit, then i know i should take a little break from poker.

This 'break' didn't really consist of much. I played a bunch of HoN and went the the driving range with my dad. I hadn't played golf in a while and we got a jumbo basket each. Hitting so many balls really tore up my hands and i have about 3 blisters on each now ;/

Last night a started up some tables again and decided i wanted to just book a win to save me any stress. I played 1k hands and made $220 which i was happy with. Since then i've tried to carry on just playing short sessions. I know alot of pro's do this and i think the reasoning behind it is to keep fresh and on your A game. Anyway, its going well so far so i think i'll keep it up. The only downside of course is not getting in as much volume!

Bad Downswing!

2009-11-15T08:36:00.006Z

So the other day i lost around $1600 in 4000~ hands. I took a break and managed to get back on track and grind some of it back but it was still horrid. The first session was at 100nl 6-max and i think i was allin about 8 times in the session. I lost all but 1 flip and lost 3 times when i was 80% fav. At one point i was 16bi below EV over 3,000~ hands as you can see from the orange line on my graph.

Now i just have to grind alot to try and make $3,000+ by the end of the month.

Ended one stake, started a new one.

2009-11-12T07:25:00.007Z

People who read the regs thread in SSNL will have seen that WCG|Rider has decided to end his stakes.

"Over the course of the past week stakes have really bombed, and with my new house, I'm looking to somewhat lower my variance on the staking front, so I decided to begin to end my Staking program."

Well i was one of these horses and have been staked since August. It was kind of annoying to hear it ending as i had plans to move upto 200nl and maybe even higher and had really not saved up much money at all for my own roll (just spending alot on nights out, eating out & new clothes). Anyway i have managed to get a new backer at a better % split so things should be ok :)

The stake with Doug started at 50nl and didn't really go well at first. It didn't go badly i guess but i was breakeven for a long time. I hadn't really played full-ring before and it deffinately took a lot more adjusting too than i though. What i have learnt now has really changed my game up, for the best i should add.

Here's a graph and some stats over the duration of the stake;

Anyway, over the course of the stake i was only playing full-ring (except for 1 session when i chased a fish to HU) and have decided to try and mix in some 6-max again. I played 2 sessions of 6-max (50nl and 100nl) and did pretty well, so i might start mixing in some 6-max from now on, depending on my mood.

Long Grind

2009-11-09T09:24:00.003Z

I've been playing alot :x

And my month so far.. going to try and push for 120k hands!

Mixed thoughts on yesterdays session

2009-11-07T18:34:00.011Z

First off i have to say i had a great session yesterday! I made a decent amount of money in the end but was and am still annoyed at myself for not quitting sooner. There was a point where i was up $980~ and though to myself "nice, another $1k day" so carried on playing to try and reach the 1k mark. I was forcing the action to try and get up to the amount and wasn't playing my usuall game. Of course i dropped a ton of buyins and ended up stopping just short of $600~ ;/

I played a lot more hands than i normally would in a day. I lent my 2nd monitor to my house mate as his broke and i felt really bad for him playing poker on a 13" screen untill his new order from FTP comes through. Because of this i havn't been playing tiled but rather cascading. I think this has helped alot (mostly due to eliminating fancy play syndrome) and now i feel quite comfortable 16 tabling 100nl.

Sadly the last hand of the session was a deep pot where i turned a Q high flush /w QJdd vs his turned K9dd flush :( My month so far..

Re-starting the Blog

2009-11-06T21:39:00.002Z

This might not last very long but i thought i might start doing this blog again. I've re-read this blog from the start (from way back in Jan 2007 when i was playing 1000nl!) and it's quite fun and interesting to read and see how my game and outlook has changed.

At this time i have just started playing 100nl Full Ring on Pokerstars, moving up from 50nl where i had been doing quite well. 100nl is pretty breakeven so far but im thinking that once i put in some volume i should be able to get the hang of it. It's pretty tempting to move down to 50nl again so that i can just make some good money but i think im going to try and stick with it.

Thats all for now. I will probably update later after my next session /w graphs etc.

v.sick session this morning

2009-05-13T11:47:00.004+01:00

So i just played an hour long session and decided to quit and book a nice win, i usually dont do this and grind for god knows how long, maybe it had something to do with the place down the road doing an amazing £5 full english breakfast :)

After my horrid shot at 200nl my month is coming together again nicely and imbeating 100nl at a very good winrate, if only i didn't take shots! ;)

Bankroll: $5600

Why i should stick to 100nl

2009-05-12T06:36:00.004+01:00

I understand how grinders like XleprechaunX, mikey miz, eastern motors and Bagataway stay at 100nl forever now.

My month at 100nl so far:

My month at all other stakes: (failed shot at 200nl at the start)

Bankroll: $4800

Bad end to April, great start to May!

2009-05-02T04:23:00.006+01:00

So i went on a huge downswing towards the end of April and lost about 25 buyins! I think it has something to do with all the fish having run out of money by that time in the month so it's just the regs left to play against... but who knows.

Here's how April ended up for me;

May, however got off to a great start. I nitted up a little and stuck to the no-limit tables and the games all seemed great. I managed to stack one fish after he opened to 14BB and i flatted QQ and flopped a boat on TQT flop, he overbet shoved the turn for 200BB with his J7o which was nice :)

Bankroll: $5680

Pot Limit

2009-04-22T05:11:00.003+01:00

Tried my hand at the juicy pot limit 100pl tables today, play alot more LAG than normal... things went pretty well :)

Bankroll: $6280

April Update

2009-04-21T04:02:00.005+01:00

I think i got a little bored of blogging (it usually happens when im losing!) but i thought i'd update the site on my progress in April.

The start of the month was pretty bad, i started off playing Full Ring (9-man) 100nl and after 25,000 hands was still breakeven (i think i lost $100~ but made about $400 from rakeback).

After i got bored of full ring i moved back to 6-max games and changed my style from the way i had previously been playing. I tried to stick to mostly the deep tables and reduced the tables i was playing at to 8-10. For the last week or so i've been beating 100nl for about 3.8BB/100.

Bankroll: $5460

Lack of Updates

2009-02-21T00:12:00.004Z

Because of lack of playing... :(
But i did play a donkament... also i cashed out $3,800 this month :)

Day 3: Sick heater @ 50nl!!

2009-02-03T17:12:00.002Z

So i have decided im going to just stay at NL50 this month and grind like mad as my winrate and hourly rate at this level is massive in comparison to any other level i've played.

Yesterday i played a session and for the first time in about 2 months decided to use my HUD, i hadn't been before as my computer is pretty old and it slows it down like mad when i use the HUD but i was also only 6 tabling which i think it can just about cope with.

Anyway the session went really well and in just over 4 hours i had made $700 (14 buyins!). Today wasn't too different and i made just over 9 buyins. So heres my graph for the first 3 days of February.

Total Hands Played: 8,000 (660/hour)
Total Hours Played: 12 hours
Winnings: $1250 (+ $110 rakeback)
Pace: $540

Bankroll: $3000

February Challenge

2009-02-01T00:01:00.004Z

This month i think im going to set myself a challenge, my hourly last month was still $34/hour and my winrate 3.7ptbb/100 which suprised me, i guess i only put in 39 hours of play, which is nothing since this is my sole income! So next month im setting myself a target of making 100 buyins! Thats $5000 at NL50.

I think what this will do is encourage me to play, i want to try and stick to a pace so if i fall behind i will have to play more to catch up, i don't know how many hands i will have to play but heres some examples of how i could get to $5000;

25,000 hands @ 20 BB/100 (1070 hands/day)
50,000 hands @ 10 BB/100 (1780 hands/day)
60,000 hands @ 8.3 BB/100 (2150 hands/day)
80,000 hands @ 6.2 BB/100 (2680 hands/day)
100,000 hands @ 5 BB/100 (3580 hands/day)
150,000 hands @ 3.3 BB/100 (5350 hands/day)

The 'pace' that i will have to keep means making $250 a day (5 buyins) assuming i play 5 days a week. I'll try and keep this blog updated as much as i can.

End of the month wrap-up

2009-01-31T17:08:00.003Z

So it's the end of the month and i don't really consider how much iv made much of a sucess. The month would have been a lot better had i not lost ~$1000 on the first day of the month :( I felt i played really well at NL50 which showed by running at 9ptbb/100 over nearly 20k hands but i really need to be playing at NL100 in order to be playing better players and to try and increase my winrate at that level.

I moved upto NL100 again a few days ago and had a really good run straight away where i made ~$900 in my first session. I then took a break and had a really bad session later on in the day which pretty much wiped out my days profits.

Bankroll: $3560

My good run continues

2009-01-20T06:48:00.004Z

Im still beating NL50 at a huge winrate and have decided to keep playing it until i have a comfortable roll for NL100 (maybe $5k/50BI's). The only annoyance im having at NL50 is that the rake is so small (wait am i complaining?) and so im only making about 1/2 as much in rakeback, officially not a rakeback grinder anymore i guess :P

I have been playing about with my style of play too, i've been opening a lot more from the button and cut-off and also 3betting a little wider (trying not to flat as much). My winrate is still 16.5ptbb/100 and im close to clearing my end of year bonus ($290 out of $375, 1700FTP's to go)

Bankroll: $3050

Soo Pretty!!

2009-01-18T05:53:00.005Z

My NL50 graph so far this month. Yes thats 18.3ptbb/100 or $190/hour!! Shame NL100 play so differently.

[ ] Sample size

Bankroll: $2650

A bad day followed by a good day

2009-01-15T00:43:00.004Z

So a couple of days ago i put in a marathon session at NL100 and played about 8,000 hands. I started off ok and was up about $500 at one point but then i think tiredness set in after about 8hours and i lost a few big pots that tilted me. I should have stopped playing just then but of corse i didn't :(

So anyway today i moved down to NL50 and had a really great session that boosted my confidence alot, it seemed soo much easier than NL100 and i managed to win about 6 buyins in just a short time.

I also ordered my monitor the other day, woo :)

Bankroll: $2000

X-Posted from 2+2

2009-01-09T03:46:00.003Z

Iv just been looking through my last 3 months of results in HEM and found out some quite interesting things. (170k hands)

First off i filtered just my hands with 4+ players and >90BB Effective stacks.

Next i filtered....

Preflop Action Facing Player
Position (SB,BB)
Position of 1st Raiser (CO,BTN)
VPIP = True
Could 3Bet = True
Did 3Bet = False

So this was basically when i was in one of the blinds and was facing an open raise from the cut-off or button and just called the raise. -5BI, so a losing play for me, mostly lost from non-showdown (most likely folding to cbet/2-barrel).

Next i changed the filter to Did 3Bet = True.

From the graph you can see that this is definately a winning play for me as i made nearly 28BI's from it.

Obviously this is very dependant on the way i play post-flop and also the hand ranges that i choose to just call with and the ones i choose to raise with. ...However between the 2 graphs one thing that is pretty similar is the showdown winnings, i was breakeven when i got to showdown no matter if i called or 3bet. When i just called i lost alot at non-showdown, when i 3bet i made all my profits from non-showdown.

If any of you have bothered to read on this far does this mean that if i was to 3bet all of the hands that i just called with and play my normal post-flop game i would lose less/win more?

What i am trying to communicate is that my profits/losses in this small part of my game have both come from non-showdown so does it really matter what hand i have here? Assuming that i don't increase my 3bet % by a huge amount that makes calling down/4betting me light profitable.

Also please feel free to nit-pick as much as you like as i am no expert at this and could be way off on something or there could be some huge flaw (most probably).

(Posted at ***SSNL CHEESE THREAD JANUARY 2009***)

First session of 2009

2009-01-08T21:59:00.009Z

So im glad that the first session i played of 2009 was a winning one, it's a good way to start a graph :)

I havn't played poker at all in the last 2 weeks or so and today felt in the mood to sit down and play again. Obviously i didnt play a huge amount of hands, only 600~ but i was only 9 tabling and so it took me just under 45mins.

Also i have a small prop bet with my friend Awal on who can play the most hands this month. He only started playing last month but already has played alot more hands than me, playing at nl50 this month. It might be pretty close towards the end i think.

Also im just 650 FTP's away from this beast...

Bankroll: $2160 (still waiting on last month's rakeback)

2008 Results

2008-12-27T01:09:00.010Z

When i started this blog again i was going to start a whole new one but thought it better to just carry on with the old that i had written in since Jan 2007.

From Jan-Oct i was breakeven at cash games, i made some money from tournaments and a lot from getting rakeback but at cash, after 10 months of the year i was even, $500~ profit.

Back in October i started playing my best poker and since then have been a winning player. (even thought i had a 40k hand, 50 buyin downswing :O) So from October onwards, here is my graph:

Not the best winrate, but it beats being a losing player i guess ;)
I also managed to win $3,000 from MTT's aswell as another $4,600 through rakeback from Jan-Oct. Thank god for rakeback!!! So thats $15,600 profit for the year..... meh.

Bring on 2009!!!

End of 2008 Update

2008-12-27T00:20:00.005Z

So i stopped blogging around mid November, basically i hit the biggest downswing i ever had. 45,000 hands into November i was sitting pretty with just below $3,000 profit for the month (and another $700~ in rakeback) and then all of a sudden from the 15th nov onwards i was unable to win a single session!!

I had a solid month where i didn't win a session and i managed to lose 50 buyins!!! Obviously i dropped down from NL100 to NL50 but in total i managed to lose $3,500 ;/ (from the graph you can see i also ran horridly below EV also.)

So anyway this wasn't too much fun at all, i ended November breakeven (up $1,400 with rakeback) I guess it wasn't too terrible, i still managed $16/hour although i wasn't happy about it.

The end of my downswing also went mid way into December but i did manage to turn it around after that and have had a $1,800 winning streak after that uptill the present day.

I think i'll post a new thread for my yearly graph :)

An 'ok' session

2008-11-15T07:36:00.003Z

Just finished another 1500 hand session at nl100 where i regreted not quiting earlier. At one point i was up about $550 and feeling pretty good about my game. I lost a few all-ins, mostly flips but one KK vs AA that was unavoidable even though it was against the tightest nit ever. I think i ended up the session up about $220 which obviously i dont mind, but i woulda taken the $550!

Here's a funny hand i played which can only be described as complete spew by him. Remember this is nl100 so the stacks were 240bb deep effective!

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

yy1988 (MP): $97.00
Hero (CO): $358.10
roli57 (BTN): $68.35
mich_alumni (SB): $238.25
bigwheel77 (BB): $67.80
eastern motors (UTG): $130.85

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with A A
2 folds, Hero raises to $3.50, 1 fold, mich_alumni raises to $14, 1 fold, Hero raises to $36, mich_alumni calls $22

Flop: ($73.00) 2 4 2 (2 players)
mich_alumni checks, Hero bets $51, mich_alumni raises to $202.25 all in, Hero calls $151.25

Turn: ($477.50) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($477.50) 6 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $477.50
Hero shows A A (two pair, Aces and Twos)
mich_alumni shows Q K (a pair of Twos)
Hero wins $474.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Bankroll: $5100

Swongs!

2008-11-14T12:27:00.011Z

Had a swongy day today at nl100, cashed out $1000 too though :)

I also won one of my largest hands this level, a 570bb pot;

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

SB: $109.55
BB: $171.25
UTG: $262.80
MP: $81.85
Hero (CO): $332.25
BTN: $285.05

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with 7 7
1 fold, MP calls $1, Hero raises to $4.50, BTN calls $4.50, 3 folds

Flop: ($11.50) 3 7 J (2 players)
Hero bets $6, BTN raises to $12, Hero raises to $32, BTN calls $20

Turn: ($75.50) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $55, BTN raises to $160, Hero raises to $295.75 all in, BTN calls $88.55 all in

River: ($572.60) 5 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $572.60
Hero shows 7 7 (three of a kind, Sevens)
BTN shows 3 3 (three of a kind, Threes)
Hero wins $569.60
(Rake: $3.00)

Im still not really pleased with my monthly performance compared to last month. This month im playing pretty much twice the stakes and only making the same hourly amount, but i guess im still on track for a $5k~ month if things carry on as they are. Need to try and improve my winrate though!

Bankroll: $4875

Mid November Update

2008-11-10T06:16:00.004Z

I havn't really updated much in the last week or so as to be honest theres been nothing too interesting to say. At the moment im on a pretty big break even stretch. My little shot at nl200 turned bad after a while and the rest of the month has been grinding back up at nl100.

Today i also decided to take a shot in FTOPS event #9 which was a $300 buyin tourny. I did ok in it considering i didn't ever get above the average chip stack. I placed 1,100th out of around 6,000 players but failed to cash (top 750 cashed).

Heres a graph and stats of my "rakeback grinding" month so far:

Bankroll: $5450

Starting off November

2008-11-03T07:36:00.006Z

So as i hadn't played poker for a few days (mainly due to hangovers from halloween!) i decided to play a long session to gradually increase my bankroll. It went pretty well overall but only after putting in a ton of hands! After 3400 hands i was down $350 and another thousand hands on from that i had broken even for the day. From there onwards i managed to win 8 buyins and was feeling pretty confident with my game.

.....so i decided to take a shot at nl200, at this point my roll was about $4800 so it wasn't too bad of a thing to take a shot, i mixed in 3 tables of nl200 at first with 3 of my best nl100 tables. At first i was steadily going between being up a buyin and even then i took a 3 buyin downswing.

I won a couple of big pots towards the end of the session and so decided to quit while i was ahead, up $1100 for the day having played just under 9k hands (and made another $200 from rakeback :)

Here are a few of the hands i played today:

River the nuts Vs a slowplayed top set (view hand)
Coolered someone in i think my largest nl100 pot (view hand)
93% on flop... 89% on turn.... AA gets cracked :/ (view hand)
Had the 'tilted' image after getting coolered the hand before, i don't know what he was doing though? $650 pot! :O (view hand)
Finished the session off with this hand (view hand)

Bankroll: $5000

Sick run continues!

2008-10-30T00:25:00.006Z

I keep having these sick 10 buyin sessions, i love it! My hourly is upto $55/hour (inc $8/hour rakeback) which is pretty sweet as most of my month has been at nl50!

Today i also got it all in on the flop and turned a Royal Flush!

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): $142.00
CO: $101.00
BTN: $132.05
SB: $148.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with A J
1 fold, BTN raises to $4, 1 fold, Hero calls $3

Flop: ($8.50) 4 K Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $5, Hero raises to $16, BTN raises to $40, Hero raises to $138 all in, BTN calls $88.05 all in

Turn: ($264.60) T (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($264.60) 8 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $264.60
Hero shows A J (a Royal Flush)
BTN shows A K (a pair of Kings)
Hero wins $262.60
(Rake: $2.00)

Bankroll: $4780

Back to back 1k days!

2008-10-28T07:42:00.007Z

This time i put in a $1000 session, my best session ever in terms of buyins and how i played. I also played for less than 2 hours (1500 hands)! Also im gonna go out on a limb and say this session was down to rearanging my room so that i had my desk against a wall instead of pushed up against my bed where i used to lye and play, i borrowed my house mates chair :)

And a monthly graph and stats to show how im doing :P

Bankroll: $3900

Playing against "the" fish

2008-10-27T06:29:00.008Z

In todays session i was lucky enough to join one of those tables people dream of being on with one big rich fish spewing his money away. At first the table acted like a normal table untill it discovered what a fish this guy really was.

When i joined i noticed that one guy with the biggest stack (he had around $600) was bullying the other players around after the flop, if any pot was checked to him he would pot it and if he got a call would pot it again on the river, this made the pot very big and i don't think anyone had even called him down yet.

Then this hand came up..

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

UTG: $101.50
MP: $213.05
CO: $96.00
BTN: $100.00
Hero (SB): $100.00
BB: $564.35

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with 9 9
4 folds, Hero raises to $4, BB calls $3

Flop: ($8.00) 7 5 Q (2 players)
Hero bets $5, BB calls $5

Turn: ($18.00) K (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $18, Hero calls $18

River: ($54.00) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $54, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $54

Final Pot: $162.00
Hero shows 9 9 (a pair of Nines)
BB shows J 7 (a pair of Sevens)
Hero wins $159.00
(Rake: $3.00)

I called here because the fish was so polarised, he either had a monster and i was crushed or he was bluffing and i was ahead. Since i had seen him make this pot sized bet on the turn and river before i felt slighty more confident in calling him although it was still not easy.

Everyone congratulated me on a good call after the hand and this is when the game really got going!

An hour or so later this hand came up which was somewhat similar and confirmed to everyone else who wasn't calling the fish down that they really should be. Obviously there was a few pots where people called down way too light or the line the fish took was slightly different and people didn't realise, this kept him in the game longer than he should have been :)

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

CO: $388.50
BTN: $140.05
SB: $111.95
Hero (BB): $171.65
UTG: $578.40

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with T 9
UTG calls $1, 1 fold, BTN raises to $4.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $3.50, UTG calls $3.50

Flop: ($14.00) T A J (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($14.00) 5 (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $14, BTN folds, Hero calls $14

River: ($42.00) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $42, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $42

Final Pot: $126.00
Hero shows T 9 (a pair of Tens)
UTG shows 8 7 (Ace Jack high)
Hero wins $123.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Towards the end of the session the fish got involved in the hand below:

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

BB: $315.70
UTG: $289.70
MP: $117.95
CO: $153.05
Hero (BTN): $233.65
SB: $366.90

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with 5 J
UTG raises to $3.50, 3 folds, SB calls $3, BB calls $2.50

Flop: ($10.50) 9 2 9 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets $8, SB calls $8, BB folds

Turn: ($26.50) 8 (2 players)
SB bets $26.50, UTG calls $26.50

River: ($79.50) J (2 players)
SB bets $80, UTG requests TIME, UTG calls $80

Final Pot: $239.50
UTG shows 7 7 (two pair, Nines and Sevens)
SB shows 2 A (two pair, Nines and Twos)
UTG wins $236.50
(Rake: $3.00)

After the hand i think most people were sure that he would be tilted now and that there would be fireworks!!

The very next hand i pick up AsKs! I had to think quickly about the line i was going to take with it to try and get the fish's money. At first i thought i would limp reraise him causing him to shove but after i limped, the fish raised and everyone else at the table called i decided if i was going to play a 500bb pot i would rather see a flop with my hand disguised. Im not sure if it was the correct play but either way as the hand played out im pretty sure the money was going in anyway.

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

SB: $312.20
BB: $408.20
UTG: $117.95
MP: $153.05
Hero (CO): $233.65
BTN: $248.90

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with K A
UTG calls $1, 1 fold, Hero calls $1, BTN raises to $5.50, SB calls $5, 1 fold, UTG calls $4.50, Hero calls $4.50

Flop: ($23.00) K 7 A (4 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks, BTN bets $16, SB folds, UTG folds, Hero raises to $41, BTN raises to $243.40 all in, Hero calls $187.15 all in

Turn: ($479.30) 8 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($479.30) 7 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $479.30
Hero shows K A (two pair, Aces and Kings)
BTN shows A 4 (two pair, Aces and Sevens)
Hero wins $476.30
(Rake: $3.00)

After the fish lost the pot he left and everyone at the table chirped in with "that shoulda been my money" etc etc. The table broke and the 9 or so people on the waiting list filtered through and all left.

Sadly when i was playing i was really not in the mood to play poker, i lost so much on my other tables during this time and i was barely even playing my c-game! After winning the last pot for $480~ and leaving the table $370 up i think i was still a small loser for the session ;/

Ship the $1k/day!!

2008-10-26T23:13:00.003Z

A great session!

2008-10-26T19:21:00.004Z

I just finished a great 1000 hand session right now. When i was about 600 hands in i was down about $60 but was still thinking of posting how good my session was. To sum it up i think i played my best poker at every point i could.

I started out pretty aggressivly early on 3betting reasonably light with position and raising flop and turn bets when i thought i could take down the pot. Straight away i got it in on the turn with AK vs QK on a TJK2 board, the river came a 9 to ship it his way but i wasn't too fazed. I think i have learnt to look at the hand, smile and say "i got it in good, that is all i can do"-i think i started to do this after reading something similar by either Krantz or Tommy Angelo.

I had another hand come up which i though i played pretty well although maybe there was a better way to play it, im not too sure. I floated a 26s4 flop with QsKs. The turn came the 8s giving me a flush draw with my overs and he fired. I put in a small raise and took it down. Obviously the downside to how i played it is if he actually had a huge hand, maybe a set or a straight that i had pretty good implied odds to crack and win a big pot by just calling. (hand discussion).

Later on in the session i picked up JJ and 4bet called against an aggressive player OOP, he had AK and hit his A on the flop, i thought to myself "at least i got it in good" ...and then i spiked the J on the river :)

Shortly after that i got it in after 4betting KK against a decent thinking player who had AKs, he commented about how he couldn't fold against my stats. My 4bet stat was 25% at that point.

Another dream hand came up after that on a different table. I was in the big blind with QQ and the action went as such; utg+1 minraises and the button isolates. The button was allin48xx (changed slightly so he can't google his name and find his tells!) who is a very tight (14/11) South Korean grinder, i have about 8000 hands on him of nl50-100 and pretty much know his game and how he plays.
I 4bet about 3x the button iso and get called twice!! The flop comes 235r and i bet about 2/3 pot mostly hopeing the guy who minraised/cold called a 4bet shoves A high to win the $100 thats now in the pot, he folds.
allin48xx calls which i love as i know he's calling me to the river now with any overpair, he folds AQ on this flop for sure and shoves in preflop with AK, AA, KK 99% of the time. Turn is a good card pairing the board and we get it all in, he mucks TT.

One of the last hands of the session i lost but thought i played it ok, the guy was super nitty so i didn't want to stack off on the flop (maybe i coulda folded him out :P) but i had TPTK vs his AA and decided to valuebet the river after he checked back the turn. He thought for a short while and called, im not sure if he was nitty enough to think about folding but i actually like him just calling, i was just suprised to see he had me crushed!!

Bankroll: $3900

Elements of Poker

2008-10-26T12:16:00.002Z

Just seen Tommy Angelo's book; Elements of Poker on sale on amazon.co.uk for £20 inc p&p ($32) so ordered myself a copy, last time i searched for it it was £40! (yes $65!!) so i didnt really have the funds to buy it. Anyway all i have heard is good things about it and it doesn't seem like your normal poker book and seems to focus more on the mental and lifestyle of poker.

I've always read Tommy's blogs and articles and have also listened to him in the couple of deuces cracked video's he's been on and i find the guy really interesting!

Short Update

2008-10-26T02:08:00.011Z

Iv just passed 54k hands played in the last 19 days of this month so i thought i'd post up some stats and a graph. enjoy.

Bankroll: $3400

Long session of nl100

2008-10-24T13:28:00.006+01:00

So as you can probably see from the last few posts i decided to move up stakes today and take a shot at nl100. I had planned before to do this around the $2500-3000 mark but at the moment im very short of cash and really need to start making more money so that i can make a few decent cashouts and still be left with a roll.

When i started the session i decided on a stop loss of 3 buyins ($300) that i could lose before i had to stop playing for the night. I not sure if this helped me or not but i felt myself playing a little differently the few times i looked at HEM and it said -$250.

The first ~5k hands of the session were very back and forth, win a few, lose a few. I kicked it into gear at one point playing the high varience style that i used to play and managed to mae about $300 from non-showdown pots alone. After about 500 hands of that i reverted back to a nittier style and made sure not to lose too many big pots.

Towards the end of the session i was getting sucked out on and bad beats all over the place and at one point was running $600 below EV! I ended the session after hitting a few nice hands and busting the same guy on two of the different tables i was at, even then i was still $200 below EV having made $730 in the 9 hour session!

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

BTN: $101.50
SB: $80.00
BB: $100.00
UTG: $119.70
MP: $106.00
Hero (CO): $435.30

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with Q Q
UTG raises to $4, 1 fold, Hero raises to $13.50, 3 folds, UTG calls $9.50

Flop: ($28.50) A 4 Q (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $16, UTG calls $16

Turn: ($60.50) K (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $31, UTG calls $31

River: ($122.50) 6 (2 players)
UTG bets $59.20 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $59.20

Final Pot: $240.90
UTG shows T A (a pair of Aces)
Hero shows Q Q (three of a kind, Queens)
Hero wins $237.90
(Rake: $3.00)

I managed to call the river here as i had just busted the guy on another table (he was on 4 of the same tables as me) and i saw him leave all the others. After seeing this calling the river was a little easier knowing he was tilted but it still wasn't easy!

Bankroll: $2850

Snapcalled!!

2008-10-24T11:18:00.003+01:00

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

nsdclan (CO): $286.35
rrrraul555 (BTN): $135.90
ShipMeDullz (SB): $100.50
Hero (BB): $121.55
Pedro_BARDEFER (UTG): $113.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with K K
2 folds, rrrraul555 raises to $2, ShipMeDullz calls $1.50, Hero raises to $9, rrrraul555 calls $7, 1 fold

Flop: ($20.00) 3 3 K (2 players)
Hero checks, rrrraul555 bets $20, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $20

Turn: ($60.00) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, rrrraul555 checks

River: ($60.00) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $42, rrrraul555 calls $42

Final Pot: $144.00
rrrraul555 mucks 2 7
Hero shows K K (a full house, Kings full of Threes)
Hero wins $141.00
(Rake: $3.00)

UbU from 2+2 gave a little insight into the thought process ;D...

You mock, but allow me to allow you into my thoughts processes. Behold:

Pre: I min-raise 72 (suited, mind you) to disguise the strength of my hand. If I hit my hand hard no one will ever suspect. If I miss, I can represent another hand, a hand that does hit the board. (For all of you doubters, I saw this on High Stakes Poker, so obviously it may be a few levels above the typical SSNL head). BB raises me, falling into my trap. Obviously, I smooth call.

Flop: A great flop for me; it missed my hand (oh well, that's poker, right?), but now I can represent KK. He checks, which screams extreme weakness and I pounce with a bet.

Turn: Obviously my plan was to check-raise villain here, further selling the idea that I have KK. Unfortunately, I forget that I have position and we move on to the river (I was multi-tabling at the time; the other table had most of my attention).

River: Okay, so he bets out, but the fact that he checked turn and river SCREAMS weakness (or a slowplayed KK -- but since I was representing KK, this seems highly unlikely). I'm 95% sure he's bluffing, hence the call (a raise here only gets called by better). Unfortunately, I was just unlucky enough to hit the top of his range, instead of the bottom. Basically, I got coolered. It happens, we move on. But if the flop was something like, 229, this hand would have played out much differently.

Do you see why?

Made the move upto nl100

2008-10-24T06:59:00.008+01:00

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

STUPID TOURIST (BTN): $200.00
CasualCay (SB): $197.65
hotgirl76 (BB): $109.60
rrich508 (UTG): $636.50
Hero (MP): $201.50
booby_miles13 (CO): $226.20

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP with J 8
rrich508 raises to $3, Hero calls $3, 4 folds

Flop: ($7.50) 7 T 2 (2 players)
rrich508 bets $5, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($17.50) 5 (2 players)
rrich508 bets $14, Hero raises to $41, rrich508 raises to $68, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $27

River: ($153.50) 9 (2 players)
rrich508 bets $560.50 all in, Hero calls $125.50 all in

Final Pot: $404.50
rrich508 shows 7 7 (three of a kind, Sevens)
Hero shows J 8 (a straight, Jack high)
Hero wins $401.50
(Rake: $3.00)

Slowrolled!

2008-10-23T05:17:00.000+01:00

haha i just got slowrolled by some guy who flopped quads against my aces. I asked him after why he slowrolled me and he gave some answer obviously thinking slowrolled meant slowplayed.

When i asked him "why did you use up all your timebank before you called my all-in?" he replied "i had to go get my wife and show her i had four of a kind"

This month so far

2008-10-23T02:13:00.007+01:00

So im up 46 buyins for the month so far (well last 2 weeks) and its all going well. I might play a few more days of nl50 at the deep tables and try and get my roll upto $3000 (30 buyins) before i make the move upto nl100.

I guess he put me on AK?

2008-10-22T23:30:00.012+01:00

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

BTN: $146.25
SB: $55.00
Hero (BB): $100.00
UTG: $37.95
MP: $50.00
CO: $119.10

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is BB with A♠ K♠
1 fold, MP raises to $2, 1 fold, BTN raises to $6.75, 1 fold, Hero raises to $17.75, 1 fold, BTN calls $11

Flop: ($37.75) 6♥ 8♦ J♠ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $20, Hero calls $20

Turn: ($77.75) T♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $62.25 all in, BTN calls $62.25

River: ($202.25) 8♥ (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $202.25
BTN shows Q♥ Q♣ (two pair, Queens and Eights)
Hero shows A♠ K♠ (a pair of Eights)
BTN wins $199.25
(Rake: $3.00)

He obviously snap called so didn't have time to think through what it was that he was beating that cold 4bet him. Towards the bottom of my 4betting range TT got there, as did JJ, KK and AA both had him beat. As it was my AKss was the only hand he was ahead of although i still had 36% equity!! (view hand)

Lets just pray the fish at the deep tables keep making snap calls without thinking!

On another note i just made a big river call against a super aggro. (view hand)

Im liking the deep tables, +$580 (11.5BI's) for the day!

Bankroll: $2450

nl50 Deep Session

2008-10-22T22:01:00.004+01:00

I just finished a nice session 4 tabling the nl50 deep tables buying in for max 200bbs. It started out pretty crazy and i won a coinflip with AKs straight away as well as getting some big hands and getting my flopped set paid off by AA.

I only lost a couple of huge pots. One hand i raised AK and checked behind on a 667 flop. The turn came a K and he check raised me. I called and the river bought an Ace. I had top 2 pair on a 667KA board and he bet pretty big on the river. I didnt like it but thought for a moment and figured i had to call. He showed 46o.

A little later on another table i opened with 66 and got 3bet by someone i didnt have many hands on. He had around 140bb's so i called to see a flop. The flop checked through and the turn brought my 6 to give me a set. I wanted to get all the money in here so opted to check raise and im pretty sure he was betting the turn after i had checked twice. He checked behind. The river was a brick and i led out and overbet the pot a little. He insta shoved all in and i snapped only to see that he had slowplayed top set the whole way. (view hand)

Three hands later i got involved in a pot with the same guy. UTG limped in and i isolated from the CO with 6h7h, the SB called as did the UTG limper. The flop came 458r giving me the nuts and both players checked to me. I bet out just over 1/2 pot to give people a chance to float and try and catch a card for cheap as well as making the pot bigger. The small blind check raised me huge (hit pot, from my $4 to $19.25) so i was pretty hure he had a big hand and clicked it back (min reraising him). We got it all in and he had bottom 2 pair against my straight. (view hand)

Bankroll: $2300

Short Update

2008-10-21T23:14:00.003+01:00

So i had a good last 24 hours to cancel out my last downswing a few days ago.

This leaves my monthly graph so far looking like this after 35k hands:

Bankroll: $2150

Bit of a bump

2008-10-16T23:05:00.007+01:00

Had a horrid day of poker today, it started out alright and i went up about $200 this morning from playing well. I then had a break for a short while and decided to start playing 14 tables without a HUD cascading like i used too. It was pretty stupid as i wasnt sure what to do with JJ/QQ to peoples 4bets so i ended up just getting it all in vs there AA. If i had a HUD im sure there stats would have shown 3bet/4bet stats were super tight.

After losing a few buyins i also managed to lose 2 stacks with AA, one vs JJ all in pre and the J hit on the river and the other the flop came QcTc3c and i held AcAx. After he had raised utg and called my 3bet his QTo looked pretty good to him on this flop after i 4bet him all-in.

Anyway i took a lot of horrid beats and coolers today and ended up 5BI ($250) below -ev. Losing $450 (9 buyins) in 600 hands is not fun ;/

Bankroll: $1650

Feeling like a nit

2008-10-16T09:17:00.011+01:00

Not complaining though as that was my aim. Here's my last 4 days from nl50;

I cashed out $1000 a few days ago and have stopped looking at my cashier just so i don't see that i had a lot more and tilt :)

Also i played a few of the new Matrix SnG's that FTP have introduced with there new update. At first i thought they were really easy as i won the first 3 i played and came 2nd in the fourth one. Then i went on to not cash in 3 in a row. Think im still up about $250 from them though although i can't find out if stats from them are recorded anywhere.

Bankroll: $2050

After a week of playing tight...

2008-10-13T23:42:00.003+01:00

Heres an update of my results...

I pretty happy with this past week. I felt that i'v played really well and because of how low the stakes are not really tilted at all. On top of the very high $32 hourly rate im winning at theres also rakeback to add on (another $6/hour) bringing it upto $38/hour!! Lets hope this (heater?) keeps up till the end of the month or follows me upto nl100.

Bankroll: $2550

Good TAG sessions at nl50

2008-10-10T14:11:00.005+01:00

So i woke up a couple of mornings ago to find a funds transfer message in my full tilt client, rakeback had come a week earlier than i expected!! This put my roll upto $1500~ giving me a roll to play nl50 :D

Over the past 3 days i have just been grinding nl50, i have only had 1 losing session so far. I try to play around 1k hands per session (which takes me about 1h 30mins).

Here is a graph for the last 3 days i have played with my stats:

Obviously i played really well with a really high winrate over a lot of hands so im pretty confident in my game right now. When i first started nl50 i thought i would move back upto nl100 the first chance i got but right now im pretty happy grinding nl50 untill i atleast have a $3k roll.

Bankroll: $2250

Switching to TIGHT aggressive :)

2008-10-10T13:51:00.007+01:00

So my style as i have been playing more and more poker has seemed to get looser and looser i guess because i have more confidence in my game and feel i can outplay pretty much anyone at the stakes i play postflop.

I had been speaking to Jay (lipstickk) for a while about how i actually cant play tight because of the fact most players are so bad and so easy to take money off using a 25/20 type style. I also spoke to Virge who told me to read an article in HEM about VPIP and PFR being related to winrates. I decided to try and stick to an 18/16~ style.

Again the next day i woke up fresh and early ready to grind uNL with the $500~ i had in my roll. I started 6 tabling and consentrating on every move i made, also not opening buttons with a wide range (which is completely new to me!). The session went really well and i managed to stick to an 19/14 style winning 8BI's at 16ptbb/100, this game me a ton of confidence!

1 day freeroll grinding!!

2008-10-10T13:31:00.002+01:00

So last week i managed to bust the remaining amount of roll i had playing with horrid bankroll management at nl100 and nl50HU. I took a few days break from poker and watch a bunch of movies, sat in the house with no money.

It didn't take long before i started craving poker again so a few days ago i woke up fresh with the idea of playing the 1800ftp SnG's to win $26 tokens. I had around 80k in ftp's and still think im a winning SnG player even if it was been over a year since i put in any serious volume.

I ended up spending the morning grinding these out 4 at a time. I spent 50k~ ftp's and managed to win 12 tokens and a seat into the 750k GTD (worth $216), sadly i also bubbled 2 FTOPs sattys losing both HU (1 in a horrid badbeat). I ended up with $528 from that (in tokens and $t's) and started entering $26 tourneys and SnG's. A few hours later i had got a couple of small cashes in some of the GTD tourneys and managed to take down a 90-man turbo for $600~!!

Obviously with a roll over $1k i went back to playing nl100 and quickly got coolered and sucked out on for $400, whoops! I quickly stopped playing with my roll at around $400 plus i still had a bunch of tokens to use up in tourneys.

Woo came out of my slump!

2008-08-04T22:13:00.003+01:00

So over the past few days nothings really been working for me, i'v been trying to grind out NL50 with a bankroll of ~$350 after transfering my house mate some money that he gave me in cash. Every time i would just lose a few buyins and resort to making them back at heads up or the omaha tables.

So anyway, today i played a couple of tournaments for a change, one $11 rebuy and a freeroll. They both went really well, the freeroll was a winner takes all for $1k and a tourney entry in london to play for £1million. I wasnt really paying attention to it at all and ended up busting in 10th after losing a flip for a big stack.

The $11 rebuy i ended up winning!!

So who knows what i'll do now, maybe ill try my hand at tournaments but most likely i'll be back at .50/1 next week when rakeback comes through.

I cashed out $600 to cover rent and stuff :P

Bankroll: $1250

Thankyou

2008-07-31T05:47:00.006+01:00

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2972028

4.5BI @ NL50

2008-07-31T03:32:00.001+01:00

Just had a short 500 hand session where i made 4 1/2 buyins at nl50, a couple of the big hands where when i cbet a T9x flop with AQ and then check shoved the turn against a player who i have played with lots at NL100 and also seen play at nl200/400. He made a good call with 88 but unfortunately for him my Q hit on the river.

Another hand i get AA in the small blind, utg limps, i make it $2 (4x) and then utg min-reraises to $3.50. I pop it up again to $9 and he instashoves for $65 effective with......... QKo. I take down a nice pot of $140.

I felt i played a few hands badly in the session. Both were pretty similar and i think i just missed out on value on the river by betting and not checking and letting them bluff off when there draws missed on the river. Obviously they didnt have to have draws but the fact that they folded after calling big bets on the flop and turn believes me to think that they did.

My session stats were a lot higher than they usually are, i think this is mostly due to the fact that i played 6 tables rather than the 10-14 tables that i might normally play where i run at about 20/16.

Mid year update

2008-07-31T01:51:00.000+01:00

So i decided to start blogging again to keep track of how poker is going for me, i thought that it might help me get into more of a routine and help me grind it out.

I dont really want to go over everything iv been doing the last 4 months since i last updated but lets just say its been pretty up and down between NL25 - NL200.

April i had a good run at NL100 and made around $5000 in a few weeks, most of which i then cashed out and tilted off the rest between NL200 and NL100.

I was busto at one point in May and decided to use up some ftp points that i have tons off so played in a s&g and won a $24 tourney token. Anyway i played in the tourney and heres how it turned out:

June didnt go too well, i mainly just broke even and then lost a decent amount towards the end of the month.

July was a great month for me. I got in a lot of volume and managed to play around 75k hands in the month, most of them at NL50. I had to cash out a large amount of my roll at one point leaving me with just $150 in my account but even after that i managed to get that upto close to $2000. Towards the end of the month i decided i would take a shot at NL100. The shot didn't go well at all and i ended up losing just over 10BI's which was a horrid result. After that i took a break for the remaining week playing a bit of PLO every how and then.

Heres how my monthly graph looked;

So tomorrow were starting off a new month, i have a BR of $450 in my account after cashing out $300ish and just over $1000 coming from rakeback which normally arives on the 10th. I think my bankroll management is still ok. I will still be grinding NL50 and every now an then be taking shots at NL100 when i have around $2k.

Bankroll: $450 + $1000 rakeback

On a run from rakeback

2008-02-14T02:31:00.000Z

After getting back from the cruise i got an email through from full tilt telling me that my rakeback from last month had been paid into my account. This meant i could play online! :D

I took my $21.92 and played a few $2 sng's, within a few hours i was down to about $12, whoops!
Then i decided to sit down at a fixed limit game with $5, don't ask why as i have never played fixed limit before. The next morning i had $40 in my account. The next day i played .25/.50 FL some more... $75. I decided to move up to .50/1 and made some more just single tabling.

Anyway, 2 days ago i decided to move to the sng's which i hadn't played in a while. I loaded up 4 tables of the $6.50's. Amazingly i won all 4 and bagged a profit of $80.

My roll was at about $180 now and so i decided to take a risk and bought in for max at .25/.50 6-max table. I played super tight but also had a very good run of cards early on doubling from JJ vs TT all in preflop and then the very next hand picking up KK and raising it utg. The tilted guy who had just lost with tens just shoved all in for $50 (my raise was to $2) and i insta-called. He showed TT again and my Kings held up!!

I played a bit more .25/.50 yesterday, 4 tabling full ring and making a decent profit. One hand which was quite fun was when i had JJ. Utg raised and i re-raised from late position. The button shoved for about $18 total, utg thought for a while and folded. I insta call the $12 more and he has AA ;/ The flop comes Jxx and i shout "yes" at the screen, turn A, "FUCK!", river...... J "OMFG QUADS!!1!!! PHEWWW..."

I also played a few tournaments yesterday and did ok. I played the $24,000 gtd and finished in the money around 180th out of 1600ish. I wasn't too pleased though as i think towards the end i played more to cash than to built up a stack, although saying that i think nearing the end of the tournament i only had a couple of pushing hands (A2, 89 etc) which i stole with. All the other cards were complete junk.

I also played 4 90 seater Knockout sng's ($3 buyin's) I did well in all of these getting into the top 25 in 3 of them. Got bad beat a couple of times when my AK shove ran into the monster that is QK etc.. I managed to cash in one of them and came 5th busting on a really horrid hand.

I raised it upto 5,000 with 89o (blinds 1k/2k) and the small and big blind both call. The flop comes 668 with 2 clubs. Both players check to me and i fire out 11,000 leaving 18,000 behind. The SB folds and the BB goes all in. I insta call my top pair no kicker and he shows Jc3c for a flush draw (on paired board remember) Turn comes a J, river J. GG J3, nice call preflop nice shoving into a player completely committed on a paired board with a crap flush draw. He became a massive chip leader after that hand and bust out 3 hands later after making more very bad calls.

Bankroll: $335 +rakeback: $32

A much needed update!

2008-02-14T02:20:00.000Z

So i am currently still in New York for 5 more days after just coming back from the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise 3 in the Caribbean. We had a lot of fun on it although the poker didnt go quite so well. Was pretty hard to do well at the cash games with these crazy scandi's who were allowed to buyin to a $1/2 table with $5k and just completely steamroller each other.

I started off ok, got my starting bankroll for the trip of $250 upto about $700, lost most of if. Sat down at 3 card poker with my last $50 and got that upto $850, hitting 2 straight flushes and some straights in the period of about 45mins.

On the last night i check raised the last of my chips in with just top pair on the turn on a K high board. He obviously called the remaining $350 into a $200 pot with 79high and a flush draw and hit the flush on the river.

I ended the trip $100 down in total and gave the $150 i started with to my girlfriend as a start on what i owe her.

Runner runner sucks!

2007-08-07T10:15:00.000+01:00

So im sat at a table of .05/0.10 with a pretty loose image, raising good hands but throwing out a lot of big continuation bets.

And so this one hand happens where i know this guy has nothing and is gonna try and outplay me. So i flop a set of queens and make my standard continuation bet, he min raises. I know that if i reraise him here he will actually think i have a hand and fold - and with a set here i want the action.

So i call and check raise him on the turn. He calls having picked up a flush draw and of course rivers me making the flush with his 8Ts.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1341603

On another note i have had quite a few nice hands today and doubled my bankroll!
here are a few...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1341856
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1341878
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1341886
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1341890

Bankroll: $308

Update!

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

Ok so i know i havn't posted on this in forever but i thought i would update it a little bit. Im going to miss out a huge chunk of rather unexciting stuff which basically consists of me losing a little money (but not too much, mostly profits).

So at the moment I have finally got round to playing within my bankroll and sensibly!! I have been grinding the $3.40 10 player sng's on stars and finding them pretty easy to make a profit from if i play properly and dont get too involved with hands too early on.

The trick to them is to pretty much sit out for the first maybe 1/2 hour, playing only the premium hands where you know you can make chips on. Once the blinds get to the 75/150 level theres 225 in the pot to start so you can pretty much push with any resonable hand to pick up the blinds. As the blinds increase there is a lot more to steal so maybe around the 100/200/25ante level and beyond ill try and steal 2 pots a rotation. If i get away with a few of these i make a ton of chips and am usually in the chip lead about this position.

Obviously once you have such a lead in chips u can happily push all in every hand and even if you are called and lose you are probably left with more chips than u would have been if you wernt stealing.

So anyway my sharkscope is looking a little better, at least its on the up again!

I have also, today started playing cash games again, playing pretty tight and only at low stakes (.05/.10) even so today i have managed to make around $50 in around 400 hands.

Bankroll: $225

Update from Vegas!

2007-05-20T07:04:00.000+01:00

OK so i havn't updated this for a while but at the moment im out here in vegas playing some poker with Joe and Jay.

The first few days were a bit crazy and we didnt play much poker due to none of the cash machines working with any of our cards. After a few phone calls to banks we finally got it sorted and all made a bit of money playing cash.

The past few days for me have been a little bit crazy which i regret a bit. Yesterday we when the the Luxor hotel and casino to play some cash games. When we got there we found out there was a tournament just starting with a $65 buyin so we decided to play it. All three of us started out well getting some good hands and doubling up, later on meeting each outer on the final table.

When the blinds were high i kept up the stealing with marginal hands to take the chip lead and eventually winning the tournament for $700, also getting $10 from each Joe and Jay from a last longer bet :D

Joe finished just out the money in i think 8th place and Jay cashed for $120 in 6th.

After the tournament i went back to the Excaliber where we are staying to play some cash games. Jay was there playing $2/$4 no-limit so i joined him and quickly doubled up to about $550 after pushing with a royal flush draw and getting no call. Shortly after the table broke up so we went across to the $1/$3 tables to play.

Jay went back to the room as there was no space on the table and i continued to play a marathon session which went on for about 10 hours in which i went through about 20 vodka redbull's and about $400 :/ I wasnt getting any decent cards and was knackered and not consentrating at all.

...Anyway so after all that im pretty much even for the whole trip. After paying back both Jay and Joe, paying for flights and 4 nights in the hotel we are staying at i am $4 up!! wooo hahaha

No more vodka's and marathon sessions i think. Im finding it pretty easy to grind it out when i try so i think i'll stick to that.

Thats all for now :)

Kickstarting the bankroll on stars!

2007-04-04T16:52:00.000+01:00

So as of recently iv been playing on pokerstars. I started by depositing just $10 which i got upto around $30 playing .02/0.05 for a day, super micro limits!!! Neway then i started playing 6-max S&G's buying in for $1.50, turned out i actually had to win every other S&G for itreally to be profitably (which i was going) but still not really making much.

I then started playing $1.50 18player S&G's which i found i could still cash in pretty much 1 in 3 times. The payout of these are much higher and so to make a profit you only need to win 1 in 7, or just cash in about 2/3 out of 7. I had now got my bankroll upto about $70 and so decided to move upto playing the same structure but with a $6 buyin. It all seems to be going ok at the moment, with the exception of KK being cracked the only 3 times iv had them by 33, 33 and AK :/

At the moment i have about $100 from my origional $10 and i feel i am playing with great bankroll management, the next step up is playing the $15 buyin when i reach $250/300, this leaves me with 17/20 buyins, which i hope should be enough to not risk going broke.

Hopefully within a few weeks i should be back to playing the $55 buyins that i was playing last year.

Update: played in 3 more tourneys just now, got knocked out in 6th place in the first one where i got all my money in with KK vs QQ preflop with a Q hitting on the river. The next tourney i won comfortably after being very shortstacked on the final table with 6 remaining. I turned on the aggression, stole a bunch of pots, doubled up and remained aggressive to knock all the other players out taking first place!

The 3rd tourney was a $3 buyin with 45 players. I played pretty tight the first 30min gradually stealing chips then took the chip lead with 20 remaining and bullied right upto and troughout the final table. When we were down to 7 left myself and the other chip leader called a medium stacks all-in. I had KT and the flop came KKT, no bad hehe. So i checked and so did the other guy. The turn came a blank the the other guy bet out. I called and he pushed all-in on the river getting called quickly. I ended up with about 28,000 chips with 2nd place having around 14,000! I played really aggressive putting the pressure on by pushing all-in pretty much every hand and taking the blinds. Soon it was just me vs the 2nd in chips and after a while he pushed his last 20k in with AQ vs my TT. The tens held up and i took $40 for 1st place! :D

Update 2: Also just now i got my first Royal Flush!! I played it badly on the river not betting but i didnt think he would call down a bet and wanted to give him a chance to bluff at the pot :]

http://www.pokerhand.org/?965668

Still Grinding the HU

2007-03-26T17:40:00.000+01:00

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

2007-03-25T22:57:00.000+01:00

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

2007-03-22T02:06:00.000Z

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

2007-03-11T13:26:00.000Z

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!

2007-03-10T17:04:00.000Z

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

2007-03-10T02:04:00.000Z

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..

2007-03-06T20:31:00.000Z

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!

2007-03-05T21:59:00.000Z

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!!

2007-03-05T18:06:00.000Z

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

2007-03-05T07:22:00.000Z

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!

2007-03-02T17:26:00.000Z

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

2007-03-01T07:24:00.000Z

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

2007-03-01T03:27:00.000Z

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

Ladbrokes for me!

2007-02-28T10:45:00.000Z

So i've decided after losing all my money on pokerstars that i will play on ladbrokes for a while as im making ok money on it. I've been playing every $10-$50 entry MTT possible and have cashed in about 85% of them which i think is a really good record. Iv had a few 1st and 2nd place finished too.

Just finished playing a $10 quick blinds tourney with 100 people in, we were down to the final 7 people with 200,000 chips in play and i had 120,000 of them!! I was litrally moving all-in 3 in 4 hands and managed to knock all the other players out, when we got to the last 2 i had 180k in chips vs 20k, lost the first hand and won the 2nd to take 1st place and $288! Also i came 4th in another $10 tourny with longer blinds just before and picked up $70.

Also just won a heads up MTT!! all i had to do was play aggresively though :<
Bankroll: $605

Hands in the $25 freezeout

2007-02-21T07:17:00.000Z

Well i just buster out in 28th out of 140 losing going all-in with 88 to K9 making a higher straight.

When we were down to about 45 though is where i lost u huge chunk of my stack to somebody making a very strange play, here it goes;

http://www.pokerhand.org/?840906

So i raise before the flop and he calls with QQ. The flop comes K29 and i bet out $1000 into a pot of $1200, a decent sized bet, he calls. The turn comes an ace and i bet pot which is $3200, he raises another $900 into a $10,000 pot and i have to call with a straight draw for the $900 guessing he has an ace.
He shows QQ!!! Iv only had this happen once before where i had A high and he called my bet of about $50 in a cash game and raised all-in for about $4 more with an underpair. What i dont understand is what they are trying to do raising all-in? meh, guess he just couldnt get away from the QQ, its not like i made or showed any moves like that before.

*edit* Jay continued on in the tournament taking 3rd place for $400 :D

Bankroll: $740

Great tourney results!

2007-02-19T04:49:00.000Z

So iv been playing over at Ladbrokes the past few days as i had some money in there and the cash games are pretty tame at lower limits.

Yesterday me and Jay were playing cash games and decided to both join a tourney. We entered a $10 shorthanded tourney and both cashed in the top 12 to double our money (out of about 100). I entered another tourney afterwards but he didnt join in time. Neway i went and got a takeaway just before it started and came back 15minutes into it having only lost a couple of blinds, raised with 99 and managed to double up.

After 5 mins of playing a had a good stack size and got to the final table on a small chip stack.
Played extremly tight, at one point folding SB when i only had about 2times the BB, managed to win when i pushed with the best hands and then we were down to about 5. I think i got about 5 huge hands in a row, going all-in each time. Got called down by A7 when i held AK and won, went all-in again with QQ and took out 2 players each holding big aces. Then we were heads up and i had such a huge chip lead i pushed every hand and won after 3 hands.
Took dwn the $220!

Today i decided to enter again and again became the chip leader after just a short while, doubling up pretty easily early on. Remained chip leader for the whole tournament (about 3 hours) having nearly double 2nd place at all times and only lost 1 huge hand when we were down to 4 when i turned a straight only for him to make a flush on the river :( Final 5 lasted for about an hour as blinds were pretty low with longish intervals. But still got about $180 for that!

And..... i just finished playing a $25 quick blinds tournet with 88 people in and became chip leader after about 45mins and kept it down to the last 2 tables. I played SUPER SUPER tight for the first hour or so playing just 5 hands!!! AA, which i doubled up on to TT then i called 2 shortstacks all-ins with 55 and it held up as the best hand! (made me a full house infact, but they both had A high :P) KK and AA again and i think i knocked another shortstack out with AJ from the BB. Got to the final table in that and got knocked out after pusking with top pair on the flop (QK) and getting called by AA :( Even so i made $150 for 4th place :]

So to round it up in the 4 tournaments iv played in 2 days i have cashed in all of them;

9th (+$20)
1st (+$220)
4th (+$180)
5th (+$150)

Bankroll: $500 ish i think?

To the donk tables!

2007-02-15T09:26:00.000Z

So i lost a huge chunk of my bankroll again playing limits too high (pushing with the K high flush draw and top pair, missing & losing to aces) and so had to go down to micro to re-build. Gonna be playing REALLY small stakes uptill i get upto a resonable ammount now amd then move up slowly this time.

But when things like this happen i just wish i was back at 5/10 where it wouldnt in a million years.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?823716

I guess with 2 people all-in before him he knew his ace was good so had 3 outs, even though he was drawing dead to only a runner runner flush or straight (which he of course caught!) good call with 5% chance to win! Not that im complaining too much, he can do that all day, thats his 5% used up haha

Wait i changed my mind, STOP PLAYING BAD YOU FUCKING LOW LIMIT FISH, i love getting pushed all-in against when im holding KK, contemplating folding then deciding to call and losing to TT making a straight, joy!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?823769

Bankroll: $46

Playing vs fish

2007-02-14T07:01:00.000Z

Again the 1st hand i play i double up in!!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?820360

Love playing against fish like this.

Bankroll: $363

$60 -> $220 in 10mins :)

2007-02-14T05:39:00.000Z

So i decided to sit down at a 6handed .50/1 table on stars with $60. First hand im BB and dealt 83h, theres a raise and 1 caller and i decide to call and hopefully see a nice flop. The flop was nice, 7 2 2 with 2 hearts so i call the 2/3rd's size bet and there comes the Jh :D I put in a bet hoping somebody had a J or a decent pair and they both fold, im upto $81

http://www.pokerhand.org/?820228

8 hands later i pick up JJ and call a large 5times raise and bingo i flop a J making a set! Another 2/3rd's size bet of $10 which is called by the other guy in the pot. It comes to me and i decide with the strong raise pre-flop that one of them has an overpair, or atleast the second guy might have AJ or JK so i pop it upto $30. The first guy goes all-in for $37 more and i think yes, he must have AA.
No scare cards hit and i pick up a pot of $160!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?820244

2 hands on now and im dealt QQ thinking wow i do get some nice hands! :) I make a standard raise and get 2 callers. Flop comes Q 6 K !!! Another set haha... so now to try and make money on it. Both others check round to me and i bet out $8, sometimes i would check this but when u start betting out on the turn its a bit more obvious i have a hand. Even if i didnt have a hand i would continuation bet here normally. I get 1 caller who, after the turn comes bets into me for $10, obviously thinking i was trying to steal the pot on the flop.
I decide to min-raise him and he puts me all-in, i guess thinking i was still making a move. I call and he shows QJ. Another pot of $105 to me =]

http://www.pokerhand.org/?820307

I played a total of 15 hands and went from $60 to just over $220, awesome!

Bankroll: $310

Calling down with A high!

2007-02-13T01:09:00.000Z

Well the other day i made a great read in live poker and called my m8 joe down after he bet the turn and the river with just ace high, pleased me a lot. Before i wouldnt usually do that even if i knew they had nothing.

Anyway just now i did exactly the same playing 6 handed on pokerstars for ALL of my bankroll!!!

Heres the hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?816251

Bankroll: $100

All going downhill

2007-02-12T23:54:00.000Z

I seem to lose all my money in cash games to the most annoying things ever.

For example. I just lost a $90 pot when i was BB and called a 5x raise with 1 other called, there was betting on the flop (where i caught an Ace) and then i put another bet in on the turn, it was called. On the river i hit a K (top 2 pair with AK) and just checked it, he goes all-in for $30 more and i think for a while and call. He shows 63 of hearts for a runner runner backdoor flush (after calling all my bets down at every street, gj m8 :/)

I'v also lost 2 all-ins in the past few days after getting all the money in with a straight vs top 2 pair and then them pairing on the river, thats 8%!!!

So basically my bankroll is pretty much gone.

Solid Poker

2007-02-10T02:34:00.000Z

Staying round my mates house in there front room for a while where all 5 of us are poker mad, we got a table in the front room with chips and play tournaments all the time for £5 / £10 or whatever we feel like.

Most days we all sit in a bedroom with our laptops and play in tourneys and freerolls together, its pretty fun. :)

Neway in put some money back into fulltilt as the cash games on stars wern't going too well and i still have bonus to collect there as well as rakeback deal.

Lost $30 straight away after deciding to push with AK and coming up against AA. Played pretty solid for a while as we were playing a live game at the same time, although i kept on timing out.
Doubled up on one hand where i called a pretty big raise pre-flop with 35d and flopped a straight! He had KK and pushed after my min-raise ofcourse. I feel this is the best way to make money atm, cracking AA and KK =]

Bankroll: $567

A few decent size pots

2007-02-08T13:00:00.000Z

Was very up and down today, i've started playing a lot of NL $100 6-max tables playing very LAG style poker.

But yer there were only a few large pots that would determine if i was up or down $200 for the day. I did finish slightly up though, here you go;

http://www.pokerhand.org/?803834
http://www.pokerhand.org/?803837 (put him on 66 / 88 or similar, when he pushed the river i knew he either had nothing or quads hehe)

Bankroll: $576

An unlucky day for KK...

2007-02-07T15:25:00.000Z

So we all went out in Manchester 2night, Joe drove back and we got in at about 5am. I decided i'd play a bit of .50/1 and 20mins in was $40 up.

Saw that the $100+$9 started in 40mins so decided i'd get to $100 profit and use it to play the tourney. Reached +$120 just before it started and sined up. Played my last few hands before shutting down 3 of the tables and left the last one as i had KK.

There were 2 calls and a raise infront of me so i raised it up big to let them know i had a hand. The raiser flat calls. Now theres about $65 in the pot with the flop coming A4K, i put in a tiny bet of $25 and get min-raised, so now i push and he shows AA :/ ...great.

So now were 1hour 30mins into the $100+$9 and iv got an average stack size, i pick up KK and think how im gonna play it. I decide to just push and get 1 caller who isolates. He shows JJ. The flop comes all blanks and the turn a J and im out in 113th after playing a perfect game.

Bankroll: $543

Went a bit crazy

2007-02-05T12:49:00.000Z

Well earlier on i got a bit stupid and played quite a bit over my bankroll, i entered a $100 s&g and lost getting it in with the best (set losing to runner tunner straight) and also another smaller s&g.

Then i decided to enter the $200 late night tourney on stars with a prize pool of $168,000 and deep stacks. I didnt do that well coming in 414th out of about 900 and not cashing.

So after all this my bankroll was down to..... $200. As soon as i got home i hit 4 .25/.50 tables and was up about $100 after an hour, got rid of a couple and put up a .50/$1 instead and doubled up on that after about 20mins.

Bankroll: $471

8th in $30+$3 NLHE

2007-02-04T21:52:00.000Z

So i just got knocked out in 8th place of the $30+$3 tourney on Stars.

I was top3 in chips right from the get go with people seeming to go all-in against me when im holding the nuts. There was a prize pool of $10,710 so i picked up $283 for 8th. Was forced to push all-in with K5 as i was getting blinded out with just over 2 BB's left although if i had folded the other shortstack who went all-in after me would have been bust out b4 and i woulda picked up an extra $120 but im still happy and its still a good results.

Throughout the tourney there were only really 2 hands where i lost a decent ammount of chips, sadly the 2nd one was at the start of the final table that put me from above average to a short stack.

About 2 hands after i was knocked out 2 stacks both went all-in and were called down by the chip leader, they both showed AA and the chipleader had 88. Guess what the river was? Yup an 8 :D

Bankroll: $628

This is why i hate lower limits

2007-02-04T17:32:00.000Z

Because people make retarded calls like this and get lucky

http://www.pokerhand.org/?793042

There was $82 in the pot and i went all-in for $84. He had to assume i had a set so his 9 outs change to 7 as if the board pairs i make a full house.

So he has 14% to hit with 1 card to come so if he was playing correctly the max bet he should call there is $6. Of course he is justified in calling a $20 bet because you just do but calling an all-in with 7outs and only 1 card to come is how retarded some people at low limits are.

Stuff like this really isn't helping the bankroll.

Bankroll: $377

Cracking Aces

2007-02-02T19:32:00.000Z

Well after watching this video i got into the mood to crack some aces, calling down some big re-raises in hopes to get lucky. Guess it pays of if you only win 1 out of every 5 or so pots. I won a lot more than that though :P

http://www.pokerhand.org/?788172
http://www.pokerhand.org/?788053
http://www.pokerhand.org/?788178 (ok so i got lucky vs a shortstack here)

*Edit* Got upto $600 on a single .50/1 table (max buy-in $100) busting people with the nuts left right and center.

Bankroll: $930