Plasma

I bought myself a Christmas present - a 42" Samsung plasma TV :-)

It was thanks to my success at poker over the last couple of months or so and good saving that allowed me to not only clear my £1000 overdraft, but also be able to afford this TV. I got it for £660 online which is £240 cheaper than Currys are offering for the same model. Only thing is I had to pay £49 to guarantee getting it delivered before Christmas! It would have been free if I was prepared to wait up to 10 working days, but I must have it on the 27th because that is when I am getting my PS3 and I have been looking forward to it for ages, so I paid up. Buying that coupled with buying endless Christmas and birthday presents means I'm pretty broke for the next month, but I'm sure I will cope and will hopefully be able to win a bit at poker to help.

On the poker side, I have hardly been playing recently, and when I have played I have had a couple of hair raising sessions which only serve to remind me why I am currently in a poker lull. Last weekend I deposited £100, lost it, then £25, lost it, the £75, lost it then finally £100 again. This went down to £40 and I couldn't believe I was on the brink of losing £300 in a short space of time through sick sick coolers and of course a little tilt, I wasn't playing badly though. I knuckled down and played HU and 6-max and managed to somehow make the money back over a couple of days plus about £18 or something. Once I had got back to over £300 I withdrew £250 and had a roll of £68, I lost this however, so in all I lost £50 - not great but it felt like a win after being on the brink of losing £300.

Then the other night I decided to play again. I deposited £40, played a £20 tournament in which I failed to cash, and lost the rest in a cash game. I then moved to HU and someone with £20 managed to stack me a few times when I was buying in for £40 etc. This guy was a complete fishy moron though and so I just had to keep playing him to get my money back. I sat with what was gonna be my last £40 and shortly doubled up with KK when he called my all in with middle pair on the flop. Then I doubled through again with QQ when he raised me on the flop with nothing, called my re raise, then called my all in on the turn which had given him a flush draw - he had 10,2h or something, like I said he was useless. He left immediately after this hand so I couldn't berate him which was somewhat annoying cos he was being a fucking twat to me the whole time we were playing. This left me with about £120 from the £180 deposited. I then sat in 6 max £1/£2 with £100 and only 1 person playing. We played HU for a while and I was down to £80, but more people joined the table and he soon doubled me up when I called a raise from him in position with KJ and the flop came J high, I called his continuation bet and the turn was a K, he bet about £35 and it was a no brainer push. He calls and flips Q10, aggressive bastard! No 9 or A for him on the river and I double through, my aim was to get to £160 in this room then I was gonna withdraw everything, and this is exactly what I did. I withdrew £182 for a £2 profit!! Get in!

So the moral of the story is to sort of not play for a while, because I have proven to myself how easily I can throw away a few hundred quid. I have been lucky to have only lost £48 in total in recent weeks, it could have been far worse. I will soon have other Saturday afternoon entertainment however in the form of high-definition gaming on a 42" plasma, happy days :-)

Can't get rolling

On Saturday I deposited £135 onto Interpoker because that was the amount needed to gain a £400 bonus when you earn enough points. I immediately withdrew £35 and played with the £100. It wasn't long before this was down to £25. I went and had dinner then came back and won all my money back plus an additional £22. I withdrew the £100 and went out. Next day I played and got up to £40 before losing it all on the worst play ever which can only be described as boredom.

Last night I deposited £100, won £55, withdrew £105, then lost the £50 pretty quickly in £0.25/£0.50 in a sick manner. Final hand I make it £2.50 with QQ. 2 callers cos of my image, flop is 5 5 7 with 2 hearts, I bet £5, next person raises me all in, back to me I obviously call. He has 67 no heart, turn 4h river 8h, nice runner runner straight for him and of course I don't have the Qh.

So I keep winning a bit then withdrawing my deposit to make sure I'm not wasting money, then failing to spin up! At this rate I will never get enough points for my £400 bonus either, at least I am getting rake back though.

Not in the mood...

It's been 2 weeks now since I played poker. Here is a brief account of what's happened since and why I'm not playing.

Well, on Tuesday the 13th and going into Wednesday the 14th which was my birthday I lost the roll I had on PKR, I wasn't particularly bothered because I had withdrawn more than that in previous weeks and I knew it wouldn't last forever, especially with the way I was playing that night lol. It was fun tho, I was playing so loose, this one guy and me were berating each other and I went down to $13 at one point before getting back up to $60 somehow. Then I get dealt KK and want my image to pay off so push all in, no one calls. Very next hand I get AA and raise big, stupid guy calls, flop is J J 8 I think, I bet big he calls, turn is a rag, I push he calls with Q9s lololololol, THEN starts laying into me about how lucky I am etc, when he makes that call with Q high and a gutshot on a paired board, LOL.

Anyway, I turned 24 which sucks cos I'm getting old and still in a shittly paid job. Had a great birthday tho, went to London then out at the weekend and saw people I hadn't seen in a while. Anyway, on the Friday, I took my car in for its MOT. It failed, but when I had to pay for the MOT test the transaction had to be authorised by phone and the woman told me my card had been blocked! wtf?! I was feeling pissed off that they were quoting me £400 on the work plus this, (incidentally I took my car elsewhere and got it got half that - rip off merchants!) Anyway I ring the fraud hotline and it appears someone had cloned my card and used it in a cash point in Australia!!! So it was blocked and it took till the following Tuesday till I got a replacement card, hence no poker that weekend.

However even when I got my card I didn't feel like playing, I have done so well in saving recently that I managed to clear my overdraft and still have more in my bank than I think ever, poker wins helped me achieve this. Also I want to buy a 42" Samsung Plasma to go with the PS3 I'm getting which is about £680. That with all the expenses of my car, birthdays and xmas has made me think twice about playing even a $10 game. I don't want to try and deposit myself a mini roll, say £50, then lose it, cos money is important right now.

Maybe I am seeing sense I dunno, but I do know that I have been almost too scared to play, one tilty session could see me lose a couple of hundred quid, something which would just piss me off so much right now! I might wait till after I have paid for all my things and my TV before playing again, and to be honest I haven't even really been in the mood, and like I said a little scared of what could happen if I lose. I could really do with some poker winnings right now though...

I'm not sure when I will play again and therefore update this blog again, but when it happens as I'm sure it will I will update again to keep my loyal maybe 3 readers of my blog interested, lol, laters.

Play. Win. Withdraw. Repeat.

I have been playing PKR over the weekend, 1 table of $0.50/$1 sitting with a full buy in with a $200 roll. Every time I finish a session and have over $250 I withdraw whatever I have over $200. I did this over the weekend and withdrew $20.16 (before my over £250 rule came in), $85, $75, $86.10 and $89.71 for a total of $355.97 won and withdrawn since Friday night, not bad. The play is generally weak on this site, with people unable to fold JJ to me pre flop against my KK and AA for example. It's also a lot of fun to play and not stressful as I am rubbish at multi tabling anyway.

I also played a $10 sit and go and lost all in pre flop with KK against QQ and AA! I don't think I have ever seen these three hands against each other in one hand and whats even stranger is that the AA held up, wonders never cease.

I qualified for the $20,000 guaranteed in a 1 handed satellite for $3! Everyone is automatically all in and my K4d made a flush on the turn, whoop. Only problem was the site fucked up and the tournament was cancelled, oh well I hope to get a refund of the full $30.

I am going to continue to make regular withdrawals when I win because I need the money at the moment, my car is having its MOT this Friday and I am praying that it is not going to cost too much. It's also my birthday on Wednesday and I will probably be spending a lot in London. I have Wednesday and Thursday off work, yippee!

About bloody time!!!

Its 1:32 am and I'm very happy! I have just made the best comeback of my poker life no doubt taking first place in the PKR $1500 guaranteed and $750 along with it, despite being down to 350 chips at one stage with blinds at 75/150! :-)

Quick update. Lost the $100 on stars, no surprises there. Very nearly span up £1.80 to £28 on crypto but lost the pot on the river. Put £50 onto Betfred, went up and down, withdrew £20, lost the final £30. So tonight I was not going out, loaded up PKR again cos I remembered the $55 tournament that I came 3rd in last time.

Well I played the same again tonight, its $1500 guaranteed and this time there were slightly more runners, 50 in total, but still a small field. So I deposited the $55 and got off to an OK start, then I had KK and made it 240 with blinds at 30/60, one caller flop 678, he check raises all in I call he has 77, ouch, still leaves me with 1300 however. Shortly after with blinds at 50/100 UTG pushes for 600, I have 1100 left and call with 33, tiltily. He has AK and wins that one. Left with 500, this soon becomes 350 after the blinds. This was the lowest my stack got, but with blinds at 75/150, I find 99 in early position and push for 350, get 3 callers and somehow manage to quadruple up despite a 10 and a Q coming out. Very next hand I get JJ and limp UTG. Couple of callers to an 8 high flop. SB bets, I push, everyone else folds he calls with A8, I double again.

From there on in I played the tightest game probably ever, was just trying to make the money for a while, played solidly and was on the final table in about 5th place. Top 8 got paid and it took forever for the bubble to burst. However I played my tight A game and took that puppy down, took 4 hours and it wasn't easy but I'm very pleased right now, it's one of my biggest tournament wins, in the top 5 I think (best being $5000 for 5th out of 1250ish in the Betfair $100,000 freeroll). Have just withdrawn $550 to cover the buy in, the £30 lost on Betfred and a couple hundred for my bank account. Have $200 on PKR now but I doubt it will stay there for long because I will withdraw it most likely. Now very tired and off to bed because i have work in 7 hours, about time I took down a multi though!

Fuck you poker, fuck you!

I'm pissed off right now. Just busted out of the $25K on Stars. Card dead all game, get dealt A9s on the button with blinds at 300/600 and my stack a little over 4K. Total donkfest, people all in every other hand and sucking out everywhere. So someone whose stack has been going up and down like a tart's knickers pushes his last 5K from early position, he doesn't need a hand to do this. I call as quick as I can and so does the BB....uh oh. They both show AQoff, not good for me but whats this the flop brings 2 spades and better yet the turn brings a 9, however, against all the odds, despite them both holding AQ, a Q falls on the river just when my hopes were high of winning the 15K pot. Why does this fucking game do this to me!!!!

Better yet, I sit in a $1/$2 cash game at the same time, was so card dead in the tourney, and within the first 10 minutes I have been dealt JJ, QQ and AA. Shortly followed by 1010, KK, 1010 again, 88, 88. In my tourney nothing but rags. Sounds good for the cash? Well no, my JJ loses to 89 despite me raising to $12 pre flop because of the limpers and a harmless looking 8 9 3 flop. Luckily he only had $60 behind. All the other cards win either the blinds or get outflopped.

I decided I can't take this anymore. I had $601 after starting the evening on $700 cos I cashed out $57 yesterday. So I did the most sensible thing I have done in fucking ages, I withdrew most of my winnings, yes I took $500 out before the inevitable happens and I lose it all again. I am good at building from nothing so I am going to leave myself $100 to do this with. How many times have I built up a 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 hundred pound/dollar roll then lost it all with nothing to show? Well now I am going to withdraw that damn money and start again, and repeat this pattern until I'm the richest man in the world. So fuck you poker, I won!

$850+

Roll over $850 now, it was over $900 at one point tho. I withdrew $100 also, so I have basically made back all I lost on Betfred. Loving the 9 seater $1/$2 game on PokerStars, plenty of bad players who have been paying off my big hands. Keep playing turbo tournaments and not winning, really shouldn't they lower my bankroll.

Going well tho hope it can continue.

$510

Since my last post I sat with $100 in $1/$2 full ring and left on just over $200, whatever i had a $249 roll. Didn't play the following night. Played last night, a $20 180 man S&G on Stars, came about 23rd, top 18 paid. Played a $10 27 man S&G and did awful. Played the $11 rebuy $45K guaranteed with no plan to rebuy. Managed to get it all in pre flop with JJ against 66 when the board came Q 8 5....4.....7 - no rebuy. So with just over $200 i sat in $1/$2 full ring again. Played well, hit some nice cards (but not amazing) other people played bad and I left that room 2 hours later on about $503 (had been $550 at peak). Roll is now $510. I feel the players in full ring tables are a lot weaker. Might post some hand histories if I can find them later. Can't keep a poker player down.

Bankroll - $510

Got a mini-roll

I had to wait until last night before I was able to withdraw the $415 that I had put into PokerStars on Sunday night. I didn't play at all on Monday, but last night I had a dabble. I had about $450 in my account so I thought the only sensible thing to do was to play a bit of $2/$4 9 handed. I sat with the max $400 and had $630 when I sat out to take my dog for a walk, when I came back I had been kicked out of the room which is probably a good thing because if I stayed I might have thrown away my profit.

I then withdrew $500 - to cover the £250 I had deposited into InterPoker and PokerStars after losing my Betfred roll, so I am even with the bank again. This left me with $170 which I had sort of regained from my Betfred roll. I played a little 6 max $0.50/$1 but lost about $40 overall, I think I play better in bigger stakes! So now I have about $130 on PokerStars, I might transfer that roll to another site or maybe just leave it there and play some decent tournies or something. At least I have a small roll to play with again and who knows I might spin it up big again, I've done it before :-)

Cashed in the Sunday Million!

Bit of a party at my house yesterday, was a bit drunk, thought it wise to deposit $415 onto PokerStars and enter the Sunday Mil for $215 and use the rest for 2 $0.50/$1 tables. Soon got bored of the cash games and focused on the tourny. Well roughly 4 hours after it started I finished in 747th place out of 6800ish for $260. Pretty good considering it was probably the worst run of cards I have ever had, had KK twice the whole time and only won the blinds, AK once which missed and lost, QQ which lost a big pot. So, $45 for 4 hours work is pretty balla, ship it.

Inevitable?

I have lost my entire roll. Since my last post my roll fluctuated and I was down to £75 at one point before working it all the way back up to £450. I managed to download Betfred poker at work, which I didn't think I could do, and play whilst I was working. Probably a big mistake, its not the ideal environment to play in, although on the first day I made about £130, the 2nd day about £75 and on the 3rd I was up £80 and had £450 in the roll, then it all went wrong. A combination of playing like a tilting fish and bluffing too much and I lost some. Then at lunchtime I played $1/$2 HU and lost a lot, got unlucky a lot too. Managed to get it all in pre flop with AKo against his AQo and he made a flush for a $360 pot. A lot of coolers etc and by the time I went home I had just £50 left.

Time to dig my heels in I thought and work it back. At home I played a guy $0.50/$1 HU, he was insane and kept pushing pre flop for $60+, I quite easily took him for $100. I got my roll back up to about £120 then played the same guy who had got lucky against me earlier in $1/$2 HU and sat with $100, left on $50 however.

Saturday morning now, came into the game with £83 roll and sat with $175 in a HU $1/$2 game. Managed to play very well and took someone for the $190 they were sitting with. They left, so did I with £170 and feeling good about myself knowing I could work it back again. Then I made my most fatal mistake, more stupid that playing limits I was not rolled for, I sat in a 6 max room of $0.50/$1 OMAHA... It was HU for a while and I was playing solid and was up $20, then the room filled and it all went wrong. So many fishes and outdraws and I started becoming a reckless gambling fish myself. On one hand after I had lost a lot I called a raise and a re raise for $28 with something trashy like Qh6h4hX and the flop was 3 5 x with 2 spades, so I needed a 2 or a 7 for a straight, anyway we were all all in, so much value in the pot, and the turn was a glorious 7, however I was up against a set of 7's and a flush draw and the river brought the inevitable spade to see the $265 pot that was mine one card ago ship the other way. I quickly lost the remainder of what I had holding A92x on a 9 3 2 rainbow board, the guy hit a 4 on the turn for a straight when we were all in on the flop, happy days.

Remembering the $25 I had on PKR, I logged on and withdrew it, then deposited the equivalent £12.50 onto Betfred in an attempt to spin it. Sat with it in a $0.25/$0.50 HU room. Was winning then this guy decided he liked to go all in PF if i raised all the time. I called him with A4s and his KJ won, back to even, then same thing happened and I stupidly called him with K8s against his A8. The very next hand he pushes and I call with 1010, he has J9off, the flop comes a nice 10 high with 2 hearts, Q of hearts on the turn however and I can already see how this was ending, needing a K, an 8 or a heart on the river he promptly hit an 8 to completely bust me, nice way to end it with a runner runner against top set. Is somebody trying to tell me something?

Well, it has been a fun couple of months of trying to build a roll. It was all going swimmingly for a long time, but then a lapse from BRM and the inevitable happened. My roll at peak reached £550, how I wish I could go back to how it was then, I would surely drop down the levels. Maybe I am not cut out to be a successful poker player? Mabye I just have too much gamble in me, the bigger stakes seem so alluring, especially with a half decent roll behind me. I guess it all stems from when I turned £20 into over £8000 in 10 days 2 winters ago by moving up the stakes quickly. Once you have tasted how easily it can be done its very hard to stay disciplined, of course that money didn't last long however, losing most of it in a drunken £10/£20 session in a couple of hours in the early hours of the morning. How cruel this game can be at times.

Well i made a fair few withdrawals over the last couple of months, probably up about £200 - £300 or something in that time. However, if I want to play again I need to make a proper deposit which I really do NOT want to do. I have been doing so well on saving money recently; not really going out, buying cheap food for the week, withdrawing bits from my poker roll to cover my spending etc, and with Christmas coming up, my car MOT and tax due, I need all the money I can get. Yesterday I had an extra £450, which probably would have paid for the lot, but there is no point dwelling. Its possible I may not post in a while, I'm not sure if I am going to continue playing. Depositing £50 or whatever will seem like such a small amount on the tables, yet in real bankroll terms it is a lot and I need it, have had better days :-(

Bankroll - £0.00

edit - just lost £50 on Interpoker, played for hours and lost it on the last hand with my AK against some morons A8, ffs.

Running bad...

Played last night; stupidly played 2 rooms of $0.50/$1 and ran very badly. I was getting sucked out on all over the place when I had the best hand and making shit calls when I had the worst hand, serves me right for stepping up the levels too early. Anyway had dinner, 2 nurofens and a hot toddy (got a cold at the moment), sat in my room with the heater on high and my hood up to try and sweat the cold out of me, and play some poker. Might not have been a good idea to play whilst feeling shitty these last few days, they have all been losing days, but I did nonetheless.

Anyway after dinner things continued in bad fashion, so I entered a $109 double stack multi with 123 runners and sat in a $50 cash game at the same time. Had got my stack to over $110 before my aces lost to ducks, I knew he had made a set yet couldn't stop betting. Feeling tilty, I sat in a $100, 10 seater room and quickly lost my buy in, topped up, left the $50 room and concentrated on the tournament and the $100 room. I ended up placing 25th in the tournament, top 20 got paid, about $3.7K for 1st. Final hand i had AJ on the button, a serial pre flop raiser made it 2,400 with blinds at 400/800, this was my first remotely good hand in a very long time and I figured he was weak so I pushed for about 8,600 total. He thought for a while and called with 33, the flop was K 10 K with two hearts actually making me a favourite on the flop, turn K and river blanked however and I was out, 5 off the money, I can't hit :-(

Whilst I was playing this tourney however I ran good in the cash game, playing aggressive and fairly loose and hitting a few flops eventually cashing out on $420 (only cos everyone left the room in sheer fear of my de-stacking ability). So my roll is now £350, which could have been worse, need to retain my discipline.

Minor slip up...

Last night I played poker till 3am. I was stuck about £260 at one point. It all started when I met some idiot HU who managed to beat me for 2 buy ins. I then had dinner and came back and 4 tabled and continued to lose bits here and there. So, stupidly I decided to buy into $1/$2 with $40 and lost that, think I might have done it again, then started to buy in for $80. Things were going crap and I was getting pissed off. Took a short break at about 1 then sat back in the room. Was sitting on about $200, this quickly went down to $80 and I could see myself losing the lot. However, I topped up to the full $200, dug my heels in and gradually began to outplay the table and build my stack, a lot of players left and I was HU with a guy who had been playing for hours and had sucked out his gutshot on my flopped set for a $260 pot earlier, then beaten my JJ with AA all in on a low flop. I managed to outplay this guy tho, before the table became full again. I left at 3 with a $600 stack and had made a great comeback, meaning I was only down £33 for the night, nothing to worry about.

I then sat in $5/$10 for about 2 rounds lol, was scary and I lost $10. Was just fucking around there lol and wasn't planning to stick around, lucky for me I didn't get dealt AK or anything!

In hindsight, it wasn't a good idea to play $1/$2 in order to make back what I had lost seeing as I was steaming a bit, it was hard to not tilt and play well again. But i managed it and luckily managed to make it back. I just hope something similar doesn't happen again cos next time I might not be so lucky. I began to feel like I had so many times, with the reckless abandon for the value of money, only in previous years it had ended a lot worse. But I want to keep this a thing of the past.

Steady as she goes...

Not too much to report really but I thought I should update. My roll on Betfred now stands at £450, I have withdrawn about £100 since I deposited that original £50 tho, so I am doing well and considering that I am not finding much time to play at all, building steadily. I am being more conscious of money in general and trying to save as much as I can, and the casual withdrawals I am making help to keep my real life 'bankroll' in check, clearing my overdraft is my main priority.

In my last post I said I would steer clear of Heads Up play. Well I didn't, but I have had a lot of success there, probably more than anywhere else. I think I have an edge over a lot of the HU small stakes players on ipoker and my aggressive strategy often causes people to play tiltily and what feels to me like they are out of their comfort zones ,because they have to call me with the same mediocre hands that I am raising with. Heads Up play is also good when you are keen for a quick 20 minute session or something and just want to play a lot of hands rather than grinding the fuller tables.

I have played quite a few multis recently. Ones to note: a $25 rebuy 6 max tourney where 1st was $1700 and I came 12th for $58. A $2000 freeroll on Inter (through rakeback) which I came 40th in for $60 (1st was over $2.5k!). Cashed in a few more but nothing of any significant interest, still hoping for a big first place soon and I know it is coming.

An interesting point, I have noticed that I don't tilt nearly as much as I used to when using bankroll management, I feel like I have turned over a new leaf and I am a different player to how I was just 2 months ago. If only I had realised how important BRM was from the beginning I could have saved myself a lot of cash, hopefully now that I am on the straight and narrow however I will be able to make it all back, slowly of course but slowly is better than losing everything, watch this space.

Bankroll - £450 + $25 on PKR

Slowly building...

My Betfred roll stands at £390 now, and that's with not really playing that much. I like to 4 table with two 6 max and two 8 max tables, pleeeeeeenty of fish and my roll would be a lot higher if it wasn't for the horrible rivers I have been getting lately. Like J3 beating my KK on a JQ7 flop, AK making runner runner straight when i held JQ on a 9 10 K flop, all in on flop, turn J river Q. That's just a couple of examples but luck evens out and these donks are paying me off in the long run.

I started playing this guy Heads Up quite a bit, an uber aggressive luck box who crippled my roll at one stage leaving me just £83 in the roll and $50 that I sat with, however I made it all back calling his big bluffs with marginal hands like 3rd pair, we have had a few crazy sessions with huge swings. I don't think I am properly rolled for heads up play though, the swings are too huge and its VERY easy to tilt so I will steer clear for now I think, it was fun though, our average pot was $65, in a $50 room! Where most of the others were just $4, shows you how crazy our sessions were, both being very aggressive.

I feel like I am playing well at the moment, and like being rolled for a level for once, almost every session I play is a winning one. I will move up to $0.50/$1 only once I reach $2000 (£1000), this will probably take a while, but at least I am not spending my wages :-D, things are good.

Running well

Since my last post I have amassed a roll of £263 on Betfred and that's after withdrawing £20 to cover the cost of a t-shirt I bought online. The games are loose and there are fish a plenty. I now mostly 3 table $50 when I get the chance to play. I mixed up the rooms/stakes before I got to where I am now however...

It could have all gone wrong at one stage... I was getting fed up with grinding and decided to spin up, so sat with $200 in $1/$2 which was all i had at the time barring £7. I got off to a crap start and was down to $90. However, I battled on and played well and caught a few fish, leaving the room with $465. That was my only blip tho and other than that I have been fairly sensible. I like multi tabling the $50 rooms, cos you can make a lot of money in there, especially because a lot of the players are so bad.

In other news, I played some live poker at Riley's last week, came 5th of 18, 2 off the money. I think I played very well, and decided I don't like live poker that much, especially with loud obnoxious people and chavs. Playing live with friends however is fun, but I definitely prefer playing online, and far more cash to be won.

I haven't touched my huge $25 roll on PKR yet, might use it as an emergency source if it all goes horribly wrong on Betfred, but it hopefully won't come to that. I also haven't yet cashed my last wages cheque, I'm trying to hold out as long as I can that way I can't spend it and I should be able to save more, I'm getting so sensible these days :-)

Bankroll - £263

Star spotting!

It's Monday afternoon at work and I had a great weekend. I went up to London on Saturday with some friends as I do quite often to go on the piss etc. As I was walking through Leicester Square I noticed the new casino that has opened there had the posters for the WSOPE (World Series of Poker Europe) and I remembered that it was on at the moment and thought I might see someone famous, but then thought I probably wouldn't because they were most probably inside and London's a busy place. Anyway, after getting some food I made my way to the theatre to see Les Mis for the third time lol. So I was round the back streets of Leicester Square and who did I see standing there? None other than Phil Hellmuth! He was in all his UltimateBet gear and wearing dark sunglasses on a non sunny day and he stood out quite a bit, I was a bit shocked at randomly seeing Phil Hellmuth wandering around the back streets of china town but I said "Hellmuth" to him and he completely ignored me, LOL!

I thought that would be the end of my star spotting, however, at about 9pm, already pretty hammered we decided to see if we could get into the casino, and we could! All you had to do was register there and then and that was it, we were in! So I snuck into a type of players lounge bit and started seeing so many famous poker players! Marcel Luske was first, followed by Devilfish, Scotty Nguyen, Brian Townsend, Patrik Antonius, Doyle Brunson and many many more! They were all playing a PLO event and they were dotted around various places in the casino and anyone could just watch them I ended up getting extremely drunk and having my photo taken with some of the pros and generally had a wicked pissed and somewhat surreal time. I also got to try on someones WSOP bracelet, what a great day!

Anyway, on the poker side of things, I withdrew $100 from PKR which I put on to Betfred to try out that site cos I heard its a goldmine with all the shit players. This leaves me with $25 on PKR which I am just going to use for fun cos it really is just too slow. On Inter, I played some Omaha and made about $55 in a $0.25 room so that was pleasing, giving me a roll of £66 roughly. Last night however, I lost the lot in less than an hour playing Omaha and Hold em, Omaha is awesome when you run well but I played so shite and tilted it all away. This loss really pissed me off more than usual and I was very angry with myself, I was playing very late and I was tired and half drunk so I put it down to that somewhat, but I shouldn't have been playing in bad conditions so only have myself to blame.

So now I have £50 on Betfred and $25 on PKR, which has all come about from that tournament win on PKR a few weeks ago. Not deposited in a long time now, long may it continue.

Been a bit bad...

I lost the £36 on InterPoker in one evening. It started when I was testing out the 'proview' tables, allowing you to play more rooms. I played 4 in total, 3 x £3.60 sit and gos and a £2 multi and failed to cash in any of them. I think when the tables are small and I am playing more than 2 rooms I play worse, its impossible to watch players and get reads and everything is based on the cards.

Nevertheless, I decided to 4 table £0.05/£0.10 cash games after this sitting with £5 in each room, was playing like a bit of a moron really, managed to double up a couple of times in different rooms but inevitably lost it all. When I was down to my last room, I had £7 and just played shit almost on purpose, raised big with trash and pushing on the flop. 2nd time I tried this (which was almost my last hand I had unchecked the 'autopost blind' box) I raised big with 106s flop gave me a gutshot with 2 hearts and I pushed and got called by QJh, he hit a J. It was like I wanted to lose, playing shit on purpose, which was reminiscent of previous behaviour of mine which however had cost me a lot more than 20 odd quid (more like many hundreds). Well the insane moment was over and I went to bed not really caring too much.

Over on PKR I have played cash as well, I even played Omaha $0.25/$0.50 HU in a 6max room, managing to make $30 here. My roll on here is something like $80 now, so at least I have not gone bust which is probably because I am playing small stakes, although one bad beat at a cash game would have seen me cripple my roll (and donk off the rest no doubt).

I was tempted to cash out $50 again on PKR when I had about $95 and deposit £25 on Inter again, however it was approaching the beginning of a new month and I remembered rakeback so I thought it sensible to wait. I didn't expect to get much cos I really haven't been playing much on Inter however I received £43.54 today which was very pleasing as it was a lot more than I expected. Will continue to play the small stake S&Gs and probably small stakes cash as well.

Ignoring where I did a $50/£25 switch from PKR to Inter I haven't deposited in 18 days...

Bankroll - £80ish

Sit n' Go.......no where in particular

Well, it has been a long time since my last post in which I made a vow to play tournaments only, and yes I have stuck to it, almost.

So I started out with the $50 roll on PKR, at my lowest I went down to $17 but managed to get it up to $120 at peak playing $5 and $10 SNG's. I played mainly $5 6 seater speed games and had mixed success, I actually recorded a tally chart of all my tournaments and placings and the amount of times I came 3rd in this game was too many; mainly because of the turboness of it and the luck that therefore ensues. I did dabble in cash the other day for literally about 10 mins and made a profit with a set of 7's. But I have been keeping to my plan very strictly and for me that is impressive. PKR did a promotion where you had to win 7 SNG's in about 5 days, I managed to do this despite playing very rarely and being busy over the bank holiday, so now I am entered into a $2000 freeroll with (hopefully) not too many runners so I hope to do well in this.

Playing PKR is fun but it is still a bit slow so last night I withdrew $50 from my $107 roll. I then deposited the equivalent £25 into InterPoker using a double deposit code that will earn me £50 when I reach it. I aim to stick to tournaments and played my first last night; £3.60 and I came 1st for £15. So now I have a £36 roll on Inter and a $57 roll on PKR and am going to continue with tournaments for as long as I can avoid the lure of cash games. If only I had more time to play...

I have hundreds of pounds sitting in the bank but have not even been tempted to deposit and play bigger stakes. It feels good to have not deposited in so long and come next pay cheque I might actually not be broke. The reason I seem to have turned over a new leaf is partly owed to a guy called 'luckyjimm', whose blog has dissuaded me from continuing the way I was when I see what it can do to someone. I would actually like thank him for his well written and deeply personal and insightful blog, it made something wake up in me and I realised that spending money on things other than poker is a far better existence. I will add his blog to my links on the right.

So, I managed to turn out a profit, I haven't played as often as I would have liked, but the slowness of it all is not even bothering me that much. The slowness is counteracted by the fact that I am not wasting my wages, it makes me feel good and I am still getting a lot of fun out of playing poker, something which can be lost in the endless thrill of raking £200 pots. So I have small rolls on 2 sites and will keep trying to build with small buy in SNG's cos I know I am a fairly decent tournament player (when I'm not bored). Not sure how interesting this blog is going to be now however but I hope to build a roll big enough the hard way to be able to play bigger and bigger sit and gos.

Bankroll - $57 and £36

Tournaments Only

Have I reached a turning point? My wages cheque cleared on Wednesday but instead of rushing home to deposit half of it and sit in £1/£2 I actually didn't play at all, in fact I went out to see The Bourne Ultimatum which incidentally is very good as you would expect from the Bourne franchise.

Last night however, I felt like playing, however I was not in the mood to blow my hard earned cash in the cash games. I don't wake up early every day, work for a week only to give that money to some fat geek sitting there in his armchair and catching his 2 outter on me. Not any more. Instead, I decided to see if there were any decent multis running on PKR cos it's always fun to play multis on there. Well I noticed a $55 buy in with $1500 guaranteed tournament with very few runners so I thought seeing as how the players are so bad on this site that this is guaranteed easy money no bad beats ensuing.

So I deposited the $55 and entered, with 41 entrants in total I managed to finish 3rd for $307.50 - a good result but I was a little disappointed when I went out with AJd to Q10d because I felt I had an edge over my opponents and winning that would have given me the stack I needed to make moves with. Nevertheless it was pleasing - I withdrew $257.50 leaving myself with $50 on a new PKR bankroll. I thought it would be a good idea to actually BANK a win rather then just withdrawing what I had deposited and losing the rest.

So, a new idea has come to me and it is by no means original. Play tournaments only. This way, I minimise my losses and won't be able to donk off hundreds of pounds in an hour. I know the lure of cash games is going to be very hard to avoid but I know I am a much better tournament player and have had many good results in the past, so it makes sense. I don't need to worry about playing on Interpoker as rakeback on tournaments is not really worth bothering about. I will mainly stick with PKR and see what I can do with this $50 bankroll playing only tournaments, S&G's and Multis. The players are generally bad so standard ABC poker should see me turn over a profit. I might well deposit on Inter tho and try and further improve my sharkscope stats.

So, it starts here, no more cash games, I'm sick of throwing away my wages. Lets see if I can do it, I wish myself luck.

Bankroll - $50

Busto

The whole £300 went today, played £1/£2, £0.50/£1 and £0.25/£0.50. Lost most of it in £1/£2. Final hand I made a shit call for the rest of my chips when I knew i was behind cos I was tilting slightly. Now have nothing to play with until my wages cheque clears but really don't want to be spending that money on poker, might have to put in £50 and see if I can do another spin up.

What is bankroll management again?

Firstly, had a great holiday, it was lovely to get away and do nothing but it went all too quick. Was also good to have a break from poker, although I bought Poker Player mag on the way out so it wasn't completely gone from my mind.

Well, its Saturday right now and I have averted disaster! I will start from the beginning of when I got back from my holiday. I logged into my Interpoker account and was pleased to see that I had been awarded about £60 in rakeback for July which was nice, this meant my bankroll was about £210. Since then I played lots of £0.10/£0.20 and £0.15/£0.25 in an attempt to attempt some sort of bankroll management. Although not ideal because I still didn't have enough buy-ins it was the lowest I was prepared to play.

I had mixed results with these stakes, I would win a lot in one room then lose in others at the same time, and I never really got anywhere and began to drop £10-£20 every time I played. I would be running over one table but losing in others and it was very frustrating, alot of the players at these levels have very small stacks and never top up and it can be very annoying. This hand here made me laugh tho so I just had to include it, an example of how I sometimes owned the table (note my stack size compared to the others and my username is ironmonk).


Game #5361205464: Hold'em NL (£0.10/£0.20) - 2007/08/09 - 23:13:30 (UK)
Table "Euristi" Seat 1 is the button.
Seat 1: Janos0703 (£5.94 in chips)
Seat 2: ironmonk (£77.63 in chips)
Seat 3: Mindgame (£23.89 in chips)
Seat 4: Pau141159 (£6.17 in chips)
Seat 5: _ohfuk_ (£9.92 in chips)
Seat 6: ric1000 (£35.69 in chips)
ironmonk: posts small blind £0.10
Mindgame: posts big blind £0.20
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to ironmonk [Th Ad]
Pau141159: folds
_ohfuk_: folds
ric1000: calls £0.20
Janos0703: folds
ironmonk: raises to £0.80
Mindgame: folds
ric1000: calls £0.60
----- FLOP ----- [7c 7s 3s]
ironmonk: bets £1
ric1000: raises to £2
ironmonk: raises to £3
ric1000: folds
Returned uncalled bets £1 to ironmonk
ironmonk: doesn't show hand
ironmonk collected £5.51 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot £5.80 Main pot £5.51 Rake £0.29
Board [7c 7s 3s]
Seat 2: ironmonk (small blind) collected £5.51
Seat 3: Mindgame (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Pau141159 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: _ohfuk_ folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: ric1000 folded on the Flop

LOL. Anyway, this morning I started with about £130. I had 2 huge coolers that cost me pretty dear, one hand where I had 55 and the flop was 4 5 9, he ended up having 99 for a £78 pot, at a £25 room! Then later, against the same guy I had K10s flop had two spades, spade on the turn, he had A5s for a £50ish pot - what can u do?!

Anyway my roll went down to about £110 or so and it was then that I got fed up and moved to $2/$5 and sat with $200. When I was doing this I was telling myself it was a bad idea but I just didn't care and did it all the same. Well, needless to say I eventually lost it all when my AKd was no match for 67s despite re raising massive pre flop. I was mega depressed then but still wanted to play, and luckily I had my last £50 in my bank. I deposited this and then lost £12 straight away in £0.50/£1. Deciding I was bored I went to play heads up at £0.50/£1. I sat with someone who had £20 and stacked him, someone else sat down and I stacked him then a girl sat down and I stacked her twice. However I was down to just £6 at one point, my last £6, before pulling it all back, phew! At this point I was up to £105 and then someone with a £100 stack sat in. We were pretty even really but i was up about £20 off him. Then I started getting bored with the tooing and froing and was raising a lot more. I made it £4 with AQ on the button and he pushed all in (which he had done once before). I was fed up with him so I called the raise and he had 77, the flop bought a Q and a 7 and I lost the big pot and was down to £22 roughly.

The very next hand I got dealt AJ and pushed pre flop, he called with KJ and a K hit the flop along with 2 hearts, this pissed me off but then the turn came a heart and a miracle heart came on the river to go with my Jh and I doubled up. I later then doubled up agaisnt him with JJ against his 88 AIPF. He suddenly became massively aggressive raising to £5 pre flop frequently. He made it £4 and I had JQs and called. Flop came J Q x rainbow, I checked, he bet £8 and I went all in. He called with 9 10 and missed, he then left and I was left with £175. I left the room as well at this point and withdrew the £50 I had deposited earlier to make myself even. I then sat with £100 in £1/£2. I did OK, then made a mega call with a pair of 3's on the river for a £100 pot ( I had a veeeeery good read). I soon left and joined the 10 seater £1/£2 with £100 room where I still sit now. These following two hands against the same person happened:


Game #5382107474: Hold'em NL (£1/£2) - 2007/08/11 - 20:08:37 (UK)
Table "Mildura" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: vortex49 (£80.90 in chips)
Seat 2: luckbox (£220.80 in chips)
Seat 3: who_the_h (£212.90 in chips)
Seat 5: Jose_pipe sits out
Seat 6: animalgod (£198 in chips)
Seat 7: Rob100540 (£200 in chips)
Seat 8: ironmonk (£98 in chips)
Seat 9: fiveaces (£83.37 in chips)
Seat 10: Shark23 (£225.45 in chips)
animalgod: posts small blind £1
Rob100540: posts big blind £2
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to ironmonk [Td Ts]
Jose_pipe sits back
ironmonk: raises to £6
fiveaces: folds
Shark23: folds
vortex49: raises to £10
luckbox: folds
who_the_h: folds
animalgod: folds
Rob100540: folds
ironmonk: calls £4
----- FLOP ----- [9c 5h 6h]
ironmonk: checks
vortex49: checks
----- TURN ----- [9c 5h 6h][9h]
ironmonk: bets £8
vortex49: calls £8
----- RIVER ----- [9c 5h 6h 9h][6s]
ironmonk: bets £10
vortex49: raises to £62.90 and is all-in
ironmonk: calls £52.90
----- SHOW DOWN -----
vortex49: shows [5c Qc] (Two Pairs, Nines and Sixes, Queen high)
ironmonk: shows [Td Ts] (Two Pairs, Tens and Nines, Six high)
ironmonk collected £161.80 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot £164.80 Main pot £161.80 Rake £3
Board [9c 5h 6h 9h 6s]
Seat 1: vortex49 showed [5c Qc] and lost with Two Pairs, Nines and Sixes, Queen high
Seat 2: luckbox folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: who_the_h folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: animalgod (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Rob100540 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ironmonk showed [Td Ts] and won (£161.80) with Two Pairs, Tens and Nines, Six high
Seat 9: fiveaces folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: Shark23 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Then shortly after:


Game #5382108994: Hold'em NL (£1/£2) - 2007/08/11 - 20:23:40 (UK)
Table "Mildura" Seat 2 is the button.
Seat 1: vortex49 (£211 in chips)
Seat 2: luckbox (£241.55 in chips)
Seat 3: who_the_h (£214.60 in chips)
Seat 4: Kaiser004 (£60 in chips)
Seat 5: Mr_thyr (£80.98 in chips)
Seat 6: animalgod (£230 in chips)
Seat 7: Rob100540 (£212.70 in chips)
Seat 8: ironmonk (£155.90 in chips)
Seat 9: fiveaces (£69.37 in chips)
Seat 10: Shark23 (£203.55 in chips)
who_the_h: posts small blind £1
Kaiser004: posts big blind £2
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to ironmonk [4d 4s]
Mr_thyr: folds
animalgod: folds
Rob100540: folds
ironmonk: calls £2
fiveaces: folds
Shark23: folds
vortex49: raises to £4
luckbox: folds
who_the_h: folds
Kaiser004: folds
ironmonk: calls £2
----- FLOP ----- [9c Kd 3h]
ironmonk: checks
vortex49: checks
----- TURN ----- [9c Kd 3h][3c]
ironmonk: checks
vortex49: bets £2
ironmonk: calls £2
----- RIVER ----- [9c Kd 3h 3c][4c]
ironmonk: bets £149.90 and is all-in
vortex49: calls £149.90
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ironmonk: shows [4d 4s] (A Full House, Fours full of Threes)
vortex49: shows [8c Tc] (A Flush, Ten high)
ironmonk collected £311.80 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot £314.80 Main pot £311.80 Rake £3
Board [9c Kd 3h 3c 4c]
Seat 1: vortex49 showed [8c Tc] and lost with A Flush, Ten high
Seat 2: luckbox (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: who_the_h (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Kaiser004 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Mr_thyr folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: animalgod folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Rob100540 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ironmonk showed [4d 4s] and won (£311.80) with A Full House, Fours full of Threes
Seat 9: fiveaces folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: Shark23 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

And I now sit on a £300 stack with £8 in the roll. So it worked out for me but I think I will go back to some sort of bankroll management now, I have had a lucky streak. Although I could just try and spin up even more.....lol. This brings me up to date, sorry if anyone reads this that this post was so long. I now have a bigger roll than I did on Wednesday tho so for the time being at least I am happy.

Bankroll - £310ish.

Mondays...

Mondays at work suck. So here is a quick update. I played a bit on Saturday and made about £30, played for about 15 mins yesterday and made about £10, all in 10p/20p and 15p/25p; trying some sort of bankroll management out, will hopefully be motivated to keep at these stakes so I don't have to redeposit. Getting rich quick will just have to wait. Off to France on Wednesday for a much needed break and I can't bloody wait, haven't been on holiday since Faliraki in 2001 so it's gonna be nice to have a week off work and get some sun. :-)

Bankroll - £175ish

Friday night

Last night was the first Friday in ages that I just stayed in and didn't drink any alcohol. I was so knackered from a tough week that I just wanted an early night and a nice lie in. I wanted to play some poker and just chill so I deposited £100 on to Inter. I played the $20 headhunter tournament and came about 48th, taking no heads, lame. I then attempted some sort of bankroll management and played £0.05/£0.10 cash games, I proceeded to lose £23, that's more than 2 buy ins in not a very long time; at these stakes people just don't fold, you really have to hit a hand in order to win pots and as this doesn't happen very often, it wasn't too successful for me. People were literally calling all ins on the flop with K high etc.

So I had £67 left from the £100 and was a little disheartened so decided to play £0.25/£0.50 with the full £50 buy in. Now I played so so sensibly and very well too, caught a few fish and eventually left the room on £206 at about 1am. So a £156 profit for the session, very pleasing. I cashed out the £100 I had deposited leaving myself with £135ish bankroll to work with.

I feel I was just playing much better poker, like I used to months ago, totally in control of the table and making good reads, keeping pots small with mediocre hands etc. I even laid down 1010 on an 8 high flop and the guy had QQ. Something I would usually just not do, I was actually not playing like a moron and thinking things through with good results.

Hopefully I can keep up this level of play, only time will tell, at least I have some money to work with again.

Bankroll - £135.11

Why do I bother?

DIS-FUCKING-ASTER. So last night I went home, sat in three rooms, 2 of £0.25/£0.50 with £50 in each and one 10 seater £0.50/£1 with £50. Well, cooler bloody city ensued; twice I flopped top 2 pair and someone else had flopped a straight and I couldn't lay it down. I flopped a set and someone had flopped a straight, my AA beat by KQ all in pre flop with a Q x Q flop. I raised with 1010 and some fish pushed so I insta called he shows J6 flop is 5 6 6. It was just the sickest run of crap and I moved up to $2/$5 cos I was tilting big time, made a little then had dinner then came back and lost it all. So major tilted I deposited £100 in £1/£2, cooler city again it was like the deck was out to get me. Lost that, put in another £40, was tilting so bad, i called an all in with K7d and made runner runner flush, just didn't give a shit. Final hand I raise A10 and get re-raised, flop comes 10 9 8 and I hope he has AK, I check intending to call an all in cos I'm tilting. He puts me in and has 88. Nice hand. So lost a total of £424 last night, another PS3 out the window, when will I learn? Pissed off now cos I only have £350 left till I get paid again and I am going to France a week today and need spending money, also need to pay direct debits too. No doubt I will put most of it in tonight and attempt to spin it up then I can withdraw again, risky but I need to play.

A winning weekend!

Well its Monday morning at work and I actually banked a profitable weekend despite a drunken session! I basically played 3 sessions, winning about £50 each time. Each session was sitting with £50 in £0.50/£1 rooms. First session was Friday before I went out, sat in a 10 seater room allowing me to play tighter. I lost a bit by doubling up a couple of short stacks with marginal calls. Then I got lucky I guess, I made it £4 in EP with QQ, only the SB called. The flop was a pleasing 7 10 Q with 2 spades and the SB bet £4 into me. This was a little confusing and I put him on a flush draw and seeing as I had the nuts made it £9 to go. He then doesn't hesitate in pushing all in which I obv insta call expecting to see a flush draw but no he had KK no spade and my hand held, guess I got lucky there.

A little later i have 77 in the SB, LP min raises it to £2 and 4 of us see a flop. Flop comes A 7 5 with 2 hearts which is again, pleasing. I check and everyone checks to the PFR. He bets £3 which I smooth call and the person next to me raises it to £12 or something. Everyone folds to me and I push expecting a call, he does and shows A7 and misses his 2 outter, all about sets!

Then I went to my mates house to get drunk on vodka and logged on about 2 am....uh oh! I managed to get my £50 up to £130 in one room then cant remember how but managed to lose most of that! However at the same time I was sitting in a £1/£2 room with £100, went down to about £75 then doubled up with AA against some fishes flush draw. That room then broke up, I planned to stop playing at 3 and I did just that, banking a £50 win overall (although I had been up £100).

On Saturday I went shopping and spent quite a bit! I bought 2 tops for £45, some jeans and some shorts for half price in the Next sale for £24! And I went to Game to buy a PSP game I wanted called Crush, and it was in the buy one get one free section - bonus! So I chose Grand Theft Auto as my free game and had a quick go and its very good, also swapped an old game so got 2 brand new games worth £50 for a tenner! - trips on the flop!

Then on Saturday night I went out and got hammered, and felt like shit all day Sunday, played a £5 HeadHunter multi, bubbled on a huge bluff but took 3 heads in the process giving me my buy in back. Had a little sleep then sat with £50 in a £0.50/£1 again. Managed to lose my first buy in with 83h on an 8 7 4 board, it was a (bad) read I had against a serial PFR and he didn't need a hand to go all the way with, but I should have folded it. I bought back in and managed to get up to about £75 then this hand happened. I had AQ in LP and the person to my right makes it £3.50, 3 of us take the flop of Q Q 5. 1st position checks, PFR bets £6 and I smooth call hoping that he makes some sort of hand, other guy folds. Turn is the A of spades putting 2 spades on the board and completing my boat. He checks, and I get sneaky and check behind hoping this will make him bluff the river or think his AK is good. The river comes a blank and he bets £14 into me, I think for a while about how much to raise and decided the over raise all in is ideal - if he has a Q or strong Ace he is gonna call, I think this bet looks like it could easily be a bluff or a naked Ace. Anyway he insta calls with KQ - thankyouverymuch!

Left the room shortly after for a £55 profit. I am getting good at actually leaving a room when I am ahead which is something I often don't do, and boy does it feel good to do this; any winning session is a win so I think it is vital for confidence to have repeated winning sessions. My confidence is high right now. Well, a good weekend, risky BRM but I feel I am playing very well and very TAG and so far it has worked, I think I will drop down a level now however cos I have a workable bankroll to do so.

On a side note, I was e-mailing Sharkscope on Friday and also whilst I was playing drunk at 2am about getting one of my usernames blocked, the woman was uber quick at responding so I kept replying which was quite amusing, so thought I would post the banter here:

Me: Can you please then unblock them both then! sorry to be a pain i'm sure ur very busy, but would appreciate it thanks x

SS: Hi Jon,I have unblocked them both for you; I am sorry we could not block the one you wanted only.Best Wishes,Isabella

Me: wow u guys, or should i say girl, are very quick at responding! What's it like working for sharkscope Isabella? I'm currently a bit drunk and playing £0.50/£1, in which I doubled up in the 1st hand! woo! x

SS: Hi Jon,Be careful, playing cash drunk can be lethal! Working at SharkScope is great.Isabella

There was a bit more with asking what sort of office it was like etc and she said it was small and that she was going home, lol. I think I must have deleted this though.

Also on a side note, went to see Transformers last night, it was AMAZING! One of the best films I have ever seen and just seeing those robots transform is ridiculously cool beyond belief. So so good I wanna see it again! I also have the new, and last Harry Potter book and so far have only read 2 chapters, really need to read it before someone spoils the ending!

Bankroll - £284.34

Quick update

Well, I shall try and make this as brief as possible. Following last post I stuck to £20 rooms on crypto. First I shall explain what happened to my stars money. Well I played Omaha cash games and lost about $150, played hold em lost some more. When I could I eventually cashed out about $230, covering the weekends deposits then I ended up losing the rest playing purposely stupid. So cos of PokerStars new rule I couldn't withdraw the lot like I wanted to so didn't really make any profit out of it, great.

Back to crypto, well I was running ok on the £20 rooms, then on Sat night this happened. Basically I was playing 2 rooms with a £55 stack in one and a £20 stack in the other. In the £20 stack room this guy started raising to like £2.60 pre flop regularly with trash. I had position on him and he did this to me and I went all in with AK he INSTA called with 56off and won that one. I therefore knew I had to reload in this room, so I left the other room to free up funds and sat with £20 again. It was about 4 hands in that he made the same stupid raise and I pushed with 99 and he insta called with A5s and he missed so I was on about £38. Then literally a couple of hands later I had 10 9 off and called a massive raise from him again hoping to hit a pair and the flop came 10 high, he bet about £5 I pushed and he insta called again with AK off and missed. this put me on about £70 or something. Then he reloads for £20 and makes the same raise, this time I push again with AK and he calls with some useless trash and I win, so I went from £20 to £90 in about 10 mins courtesy of this maniac, unfortunately he left after this so I did too.

Then I went out and got drunk and played at about 2 am......I had a roll of about £120 and somehow lost the lot in £20 rooms. I can't really remember what the hell happened but I know I lost with KK and AA about 5 times, on one occasion I was all in on flop and called by 22, only for the turn and river to come 2, 2 - he said he "didn't believe me", lmao. Well, Sunday came and I realised I had drunkenly deposited another £100 but thankfully not played with it so I withdrew it immediately cos I still had the money on my Stars account.

Well as you/I(?) know that all went and then I deposited £40 on crypto, lost it all when my QQ lost to 67 or something. So then the other day I put £50 into crypto and sat in £0.50/£1, I ran and played very good and managed to make £160 for the evening. So I withdrew the £90 from last 2 deposits to keep myself on top of things and played again last night, lost a bit but played very well (in my opinion) and made it all back and a £10 profit. The roll now stands at £130 on crypto but it IS the weekend so will have to see what happens then! Thank god its the weekend cos I'm so tired and bored of work and am going out to get pissed tomorrow which is always fun. Must not play poker drunk when I get back.

Bankroll - £130 ish

Good result?

Firstly Harry Potter was pretty good, and I only thought about poker about once all the way through lol! Well, I came home from work on Friday night and lost the remaining £50 in my bank owing to some seriously shite play (from other players) and nasty rivers on crypto. One example I raise KK and get a caller to see a flop of JQx all hearts and I have K of hearts, i bet - get called, turn a blank, I push and he thinks and calls with AJ no heart, river a J for £37 pot, ho hum. Well then I only had £6 on my card so no more playing for me on Friday night so did the only sensible thing and went round my mates house and got pissed.

So Saturday came and my work cheque had cleared so obviously I wanted to chill all day and play some poker. Deposited $109 onto Stars to play the $100 + $9 multi on there, and £50 on to crypto to play there. The $109 multi was a bit of a risk cos its very expensive but the reward is worth it so I thought fuck it why not. 150 runners and I came 7th for $637.50. Its very nice but its still a bit disappointing because its not often you find yourself on a final table where the first prize is $4300!

However, I should feel lucky cos I was short stack with 18 people left, so to even make the final table was an achievement, don't think I have ever been so patient in a tournament, even folded A high on button when folded to me as short stack and the SB showed JJ! Also folded 88 with a raise before meas short stack, just played uber uber tight and managed to work my way to final table and so I am happy with the much needed $630 after Thursday nights fiasco. Tried to cash the whole lot out but forgot you have to wait 48 hours after depositing, so will try and resist the urge to hit $5/$10 ;-)

On the crypto side of things, played a £10 multi and lost when I made a good call, it got folded to the SB and he completed, I had A5 in the BB and made it 900 with blinds at 150/300. He then pretty quickly pushes, and I pretty quickly saw straight through this and called, he had 67s and he rivered a straight, I may not have been that far ahead but I knew he had nothing but oh well what can you do.

Think I may have found my niche on crypto. The £0.10/£0.20 cash games. I have started playing my usual pretty aggressive style in here and find the players at this level pretty abysmal who call me down so light that my style really works. I have been doing very well on this level, (as i write this i just flopped a set with 44 flop Q 4 Q! - first set in sooooooo long). Just won that pot and I currently sit on £75.66 in there and max buy in is £20 so I think I may stay at this level for a while. One example of how lame the players are, i had AA and bet every street and finally pushed the river and got called by AQ no pair. Just one example of the standard.

Well I'm in a $6 18 man turbo on stars now as well as the cash game so I better get off back to it... and I just busted out of it in 9th, dammit! Well now at least I have an OK roll on crypto again and will continue at £20 cash games, will withdraw the whole poker stars roll ASAP to replace the money I lost earlier in the week. Must... resist... the cash games.

Bankroll - £???

FFS!!!

Well all that bollocks about bankroll management just went out the sodding window. Came home from work tonight and sat at $2/$5 with $250, lost it all, bought back in for my remaining $180 or something then got bored so went to a 6 seater, ended up losing it all. Deposited £100 - lost that, deposited £52 managed to double up with AA then lost it all with AK vs AA. Didn't get any hands for so damn long then when AK comes along someone has aces, typical.

Anyway feeling pissed off I go make myself dinner, then I just came back up and deposited £50 and played someone HU in $0.50/$1. I sat with $50 then lost that with JQ on a J 7 x flop where he had J7. Then put my other $50 in and lost it first hand with J8 on a 9 8 x flop to his K9. Then feeling even more pissed off deposited another £25, my last deposit. Got it all in pre with AK vs his 1010, flop 10 x A all spades and I am spadeless and its goodbye me. So I lost the £210 odd that I had in my roll and a further £227 from my bank tonight - £437 - I could have bought a fucking PS3 or something, when will I learn? Only have £42 in my bank now till my cheque from work clears which is a whopping £841 - so need a new job, pretty glad it hasn't cleared now actually or a large chunk of it might have gone. I need to sort myself out.

Well off to watch the new Harry Potter film tonight - should be good hopefully it will cheer me up, but I'll probably just be thinking of spinning up in the poker rooms all the way through it, lol.

Back in Business!

Well, its been a looong time since my last post and the reason for that is basically I haven't played much poker really (apart from the weekend just gone). So time for a bit of a recap on what I have played and what I can remember.

Well after my last post I went to Riley's again on Thursday night and played the £15 FO in which I did shite and got no cards. I think I only won one pot where I pushed pre with JJ and got no callers - so all in all a lame effort. Hung around tho and the bustees started up an 11 man Sit and Go for £10 each, now the majority of people seemed like they just didn't want to be there so people were playing with shite cards and tight patient play saw me chop 1st place with this old guy who said I was "wearing him out" heads up, for £50 each, which was nice - and I think my largest ever 'live' win with strangers - which is kinda pathetic, lol.

Think I dabbled a bit in online pokes with like $10 here and there, couldn't really play cos I had no money and had direct debits to pay. Well, my £2K loan came in, and so I paid £1000 off my overdraft so now I won't get charged interest :-)

Have used the rest of the £2K to pay off a couple of people that I owed, and of course I deposited some to play poker with.
I first lost my rakeback for the 2nd half of June on Inter Poker which was about £30. I can't remember the exact figures of what I deposited so this is roughly. I deposited about £25 and managed to lose it Heads Up. Then I think last Friday night I lost another £25 Heads Up so I deposited £100 and played the same guy some more. He had me down to my last $46 from the $200 or so I got from the £100 - but this guy was simply awful and way too aggressive and I managed to outplay him all the way to about $230. I then had to go out and went to my friends house and got pissed, not before playing a little bit of £0.50/£1 HU in a 6 max room. I sat with £40 cos that's what my opponent had, first hand i have 10 4 off in my BB, we see a flop of 2 4 10, i check, he bets £1.50 and i just insta push and he insta calls with 55 - lol plus £40 for me, I played a bit more then left about £40 up.

I can't remember exact figures now but I know i withdrew all the money I had deposited in the last couple of days so that I was playing with just winnings and by Sunday this was about £100 (can't remember how I got it). Well, I was uber-hungover on Sunday cos I went to London the night before and spent about £70 - mostly on booze - lol. Well on Sunday I sat there and I was just getting bored of all this small stakes shit. Thoughts of Bluescouse's mega spin ups took over my thoughts so I thought fuck it I'll go on a mini spin and see what happens. So I noticed the 10 seater $2/$5 game was running on Inter. I sat with $200 out of my $230 roll. The table filled to max pretty quickly, I lost about $30 so I topped up my stack with my last $30 and just played uber tight. Well a nice hand came up when i was in the SB with 74 off, there was one limper so I thought I would complete for value. The flop was a pretty standard 4 4 7 with 2 clubs so i checked and next to act bet $25 and then the pre flop limper called! I thought prob one of them was on a flush draw - so I min raised to $50 which is kinda obvious I had the 4 but oh well, well the next man knew this and folded but to my delight the PFL went all in! I snap called and he showed 4 6 so was drawing dead to a runner runner split pot at best. He missed and I was up to around $400 or so (can't remember exact). Not sure what he was doing limping in middle position with 4 6 off but I'm glad he did.

The next hand I basically played at all came when I had AKo on the button. It got folded to me and I made it $20. The SB then insta raised to $60 (not sure how he did it so quickly). I basically thought he has QQ or maybe KK or AA - but i figured KK or AA far less likely seeing as I had AK - so I just wanted to see a flop and if an A or K fell I was not gonna get away from it. Well I called and the flop came 4 9 A which I was more than happy with cos I can't see him 3 betting me pre flop with 44 or 99 and if he has AA well then cooler city eh? He bet out about the pot I don't remember, so I pushed and he insta called with A5 off?? He turned a gutshot and I shit myself for a bit but my hand held up which put me up to about $650 - glad I came across such morons - what the hell was he doing with A5? I then went up and down a bit cos I always loosen up after winning a big pot and getting a big stack. But I did the sensible thing and left on $550 - so a good session all in all and my mini spin up worked. I later played a £5 STT and took it down with I think the best comeback ever, i had 87 chips left with the BB at 400 with 4 people left and I still won - I so rock. I withdrew £20 just for the hell of it and that left my bankroll at about £240.

Played last night and lost about £10 but I was tired and couldn't even be arsed to play so I got an early ish night. I also watched Jambon's video (player from Warwick Uni) of 4 tabling and he is a good player and basically very aggressive with lots of 3 betting pre flop and not a lot of flat calling. I started to try out his method but didn't play for long so I hope to practise it more in a good session soon on £25NL which is good BRM for me lol. I have added 2 links to the side of my blog - one of my mate Jack who is nothing like me when it comes to poker - ie. sensible with highly disciplined BRM skills, the other is someone who is somewhat similar - Ed 'Bluescouse' who wins and loses ridiculously sick amounts of money from scratch and has no BRM skills, both worth a read!

That's about it I guess, now have a bankroll of over £225 which I made in a couple of short sessions which is more than workable, will see what I can do!

I'm an idiot

So on Saturday I barely played, a bit on Skypoker but accepted that the software is dirt so just withdrew the £21 I had in there which was all profit. Went to see Shrek 3 on Saturday night - pretty good but not as good as number 2 and no where near as funny. I didn't play at all on Saturday night but on Sunday I did.

I didn't have a roll anywhere so decided to play a couple of $10 tournaments on Stars, did shit in them. Then moved to Interpoker - min deposit here is £25 however so I did that, then I went down to £15 ish so i decided to play a £10, 10 man STT, i did the rest on first hand of a cash game so I was down to this tournament or be -£35ish for the day. Well I ended up coming 2nd (although should have been 1st I got unlucky), for £30. So I just withdrew this £30 and didn't play for a while.

I had an early dinner which was good because I wanted to play the PokerStars $10,000 guaranteed at 5pm. So I deposited the $22 and played it - 1350+ runners and I ended up getting 108th for $50. I was very disappointed because I feel I played well and lost the bulk of my stack with 1010 to AK all in pre flop, one of those coin tosses I lost when it mattered. Oh well, I then went to withdraw the $50 but PokerStars have changed their policy so you have to wait 48 hours after depositing before you can withdraw! If it wasn't for this stupid new rule I wouldn't have lost it all playing like a donk in a couple of tournies then tilting the rest off in a cash game.

So now I'm pissed off, slightly tilty and eager to play - bad combo. So it was getting late now, about 11:30pm, but I deposited £90 anyway and sat in 2 rooms of £0.25/£0.50, one room was pretty much Heads Up and the other was 6 handed. On the 6 handed game I lost a £57 pot almost immediately when I had AA against QQ all in pre flop. He spiked a Q on the turn. I eventually lost everything in here and so concentrated on playing the other guy heads up. He managed to take about £20 off me when I made some tilty loose calls against him when he had the goods, then he said he was going to bed and I left the room and sat in £0.50/£1 in a tilt attempted spin mood.

I won a bit and had about £40 at one point but then the inevitable happened, i raised 5 10s and was all in on an A high flop with 2 spades against AQ, I didn't hit my flush and that was that. So I ended up losing about £105 yesterday which is not good cos I don't get paid for ages. I have about £95 left in my bank, and about £50 on its way in from Skypoker and Interpoker. However I have £100 worth of direct debits to pay on the 1st June. Thank god I have a £2000 loan coming my way very soon....