Thank F**k it wasnt high stakes

Pre warning- this post will contain more moaning, but will end on positive note.

Went back on tonight to try and build on earlier profit. Last week was awful and a mixture of bad beats, bad spots, bad play and terrible roll management. Well tonight was just pure shafting time. Stuck to NL50, didnt tilt, played best I have done for ages but the poker gods well and truly had it in for me. Idea was to play small ball poker again but had about 6 full buy in all in pots within 1st hr. Atleast I felt I played them all well.

Me 45 on A23 rainbow flop (unraised preflop im in blind). End up all inon flop vs 22 and board pairs up

Me KK on 10 2 4 board (vs known fish who called me 3 bet pre flop), all in him K10- 10 river

Me AA vs KK pre flop all in, king trips up

Me 67 on 458 board, vs 2 other all ins on flop, both have flush draws and hit

Me 77 on 9 7 4 board vs kk who hits runner runner flush with his 1 heart

Me qq on qjj board vs kj and j hits ;-(


I did win a few pots in between but was $140 down since depositing this morning so nearly $300 down on the night session. Battled back and ended up $10 up since depositing. Was happy I didnt tilt, although was very close as all the above happened in a 45min spell across 4 tables

Im due to run golden, rakeback due next week, liverpool will smash everton tommorow, good ridance last week ;-)

Got to start somewhere

Ok the strength of Friday night didnt last. Deposited and took brennans advice and 4 tabled at NL50. Havent played NL50 for a long time but without a roll cant be fussy.

Played for about 2 hrs, ran pretty well and hit a few hands early on which settled me in. Not sure what other players had as they mucked (in showdown hands), anyone know if you can see a mucked hand on big slick? Just tried to play small ball and be patient but aggressive when i did play. Worked well but as I say I did hit hands. Finished the session about $140 up. Maybe the start of a bank roll builder......... hard to motivate self when just over a week ago had a roll of $2000 but what doesnt kill us!

Could have been better as had AA done at end when 80%fav when all in, however cant moan as my other hands held up in the session. Still dont think played great but had to start somewhere. The test at this level would be if it ran bad but we will see.......

No Play Friday

Must be the first time in months that when ive stayed in on a Friday I havent played poker, but I was sssoooo tempted. Was close to putting a few hundred £ in and having a game. However resisted as want to wait until have the mind set to deposit and grind, rather than spin up as would have done last night.

Boring post, hopefully will be back in the seat soon

They thought it was all over........

Realised last night that I still had a bit of cash left in betfair account, surprising bonus, enough for 3 buy ins at NL100, I could have dropped lower but to be honest at the stage where I cant see myself putting in tons of hours in next few week so just transferred it to big slick and played 3 tables

Was thinking this could be a great story in thinking BR was bust but finding a bit in old site and spinning it back up, In any case, surely the week couldn’t get much worse, done majority of my roll, dirty Everton sneaking a last min equaliser, man u and chelsea sneaking last min winners, this was going to be the turning point

Started really well, early on I am in bb and 2 limps, I check 10 7 off, flop 10 10 4, I bet out, one raiser, I call, turn is 7. NUTS. I check, he bets out and I pile in, thinking if he has a 10 he’s doubling me up. Sure enough he calls….. with AA!, not only did he limp but he then lost his full buy in. Brilliant! This is surely a turning point

Very next hand on same table, sat with $200, another big stack, raises, I call with 88, flop is 8 3 2. I bet out again, he raises, im hoping he has an overpair. We get it all in, him AA, hits A on river and my double up became 1 buy in down! That was pretty sick but we have all been there, cant moan too much just was painful that happened quickly after a double up that made had me feel a lot better plus it was vs another guy who had a double stack

I didn’t tilt, or at least I didn’t feel I tilted, it wasn’t huge money and I felt pretty calm, however only played for another 45 mins until busted. 2 big pots did the damage, I have Aks, one raiser, I re-raise him, he calls, flop kk2. I had a aggressive image on this table as Id raised pre flop lots, mainly had hands but think people were suspecting I was a maniac so perfect flop for me. We end up all in and he has 22!, at least it wasn’t a bad beat just a bad spot, im never folding in a cash game in that spot with only two hands (k2, 22) that beat me and k2 being hugely unlikely.. Majority of buy in gone

On other table im dealt KK and run into AA, I kind of knew as all the action was pre flop but couldn’t bring myself to fold. Again just bad spot vs bad beat. It left me with $60 between 2 tables so came off and put it on one, that went when turned a straight, vs a top pair + flush draw who hit, again not a horrendous beat.

Ive had better weeks. Im at that stage where don’t know if im just running bad (a few beats and a few bad situations) or if I am also playing terrible. Obviously above focuses on main pots I lost, I think the in between pots I didn’t play that great, not terribly but I know I can play better.

Busto

Well had another session today, played deliberately higher as knew I couldnt focus on NL100 or 200. Played NL400 on big slick. Played ok in parts but never great. However did run bad also, lost a few big pots all in on turn or flop, one I had 45s on 2 3 j 8 board (3 spades) and a guy makes a play with 99 one spade which hits on riv ($450 pot), other pot me ak vs ultra aggressive player on a 7 9 board, him a4 which hit ($560 pot) ;-(, most frustrating pot of night was actuall a split, me A7d him 73 on 776j (two d) and 6 hit river, that was actually $1000 pot which stung to only get half

The above was the running bad part but also were parts I didnt play well at all, I really think my game has actually got worse in last 8 months, I was a pretty solid player,worst thing that happened to me was running really well in Mar-May last year when made nearly £5k in 3 months, ever since then I have no long term patience, ive tried to get back to normal game which came a bit back in Nov/Dec but just hasnt happened to be honest which is my own fault.

Thats my roll done in 2 days, what a muppet, terrible BR management. rest of my roll went in savings last year, going to resist temptation to withdraw from there as think my game is cack at moment. May wait for rake back and punish myself with micro stakes! In any case with loss this month it takes may career profit down to £10k which seems a good place to stop for a while!

Wish I had the BR management that had for first 2 years I played, Brennan and Ben definitely have it and think they will make a fortune this year, maybe I'll just become thier full time supporters to get my poker fix ;-)

Short and Unsweet

LOL, My new focus didnt even last a day. Grinded for a few hrs on NL100 tonight, was going ok but made a couple of basic mistakes to loose a couple of buy ins. Kept focussed and grinded back to evens, then got a couple of 2 outers and the bad old habit of going up the stakes hit me again. Im so weak!! Played some NL500 and NL1000, played quite tight, didnt tilt but ended up doing a load. One big pot was my own mistake overplaying top pair but a couple of others was quite unlucky, got all in with ak on k26k board vs qq which hit on riv, then all in with ajs on j 4 6 (2 spades) board vs k10s and he hit king ;-( Cant moan too much as shouldnt have been at those stakes

I seem to have a really big problem in that I cant stay at NL100/200 for any length of time before getting bored. May take a break to refocus! so mucg for a solid start to year , ive already broke one of my own promises lol

I'm Back

Ok so I’ve been completely useless at this bluff stuff, I managed to make 8 posts and then zero for 11 months. My mate Ben has just started a blog and was encouraging me to start mine back up and I enjoy reading his Brennans and Soaps blogs so here goes, …

2008 as a whole was positive on the poker front. I ended £4000 up, building on the £3000 profit made in 2006. Since 2005 I’ve made between 20-30% more as a whole each year. However 2008 should have been a lot better, I made a flying start to the first 6 months and was up around £6000 at one point. Id got up to playing $2 $5 quite comfortably but to be honest wasn’t playing with enough of a roll behind me. I was also playing the occasional $5 $10, biggest pot I won was $2200 and biggest lost was $3000 (AA all in pre flop). To be honest the year was very swingy (i.e. winning and loosing £2k per month) versus previous years of consistently small profit. I sorted myself out by November and dropped back down to $1 $2 and started grinding like I should.

With the £ dropping in value I’ve also started playing more NL100, reason being that I took quite a bit of profit out of my roll and have left myself a set roll with the promise of no silly higher stakes session this year (see how long will last). Tilt remains my biggest issue, can’t believe I still haven’t cracked it. Still been playing Betfair but am changing to Bigslick this month to try and have a fresh start.

So far Jan has been ok and am about $580 up mainly from NL100, however not had time to play as many hands as id like. Ive still had massive temptation to play higher i.e. NL500 but so far resisted this to date in 2009. I’m going to try and keep the blog up to date as to help my control and hopefully keep me focussed. Work has been pretty busy last 6 months but hopefully will still find time to play equivalent hands to last year.

Some top line aims

- Make at least £5k from poker
- Dedicated some time to MTT and try to end the year in some profit
- Play more PLO (NL50)
- Minimise Tilt, ensure I write honestly on blog if I do tilt
- Try and qualify for a live MTT via a online sat