Lol PKRaments wooo!

LOL aces

Within 2 mins of each other in different rooms, £ not $....



Nice
Not so nice

Serves me right for slow playing, although he's calling a raise so probably inevitable.

Ha ha don't you just love aces?

Edit: More funny hands as I'm playing -

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/165454

Cindy tilts - http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/165455

Yes she does - http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/165456

She keeps reloading :-).....

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/165458

And with that she's gone, sigh. Hope to see you again, Cinders!

Funny hands...

A quick 2 funny hands that just happened. OK so I think I tilted this guy with this hand because in the very next hand this happened. How the hell did I dodge all those cards I don't know, what a sick flop to sweat! These are £ tables again not $ I wish this thing had the option to change it.

In other news, I have started to make a withdrawal every single day to give me a wage. At first it started as £20, then £35, then £40 and after a bit of maths I settled on £50 every day. This is not a large enough amount to make any noticable difference to my roll but it equates to £1550 a month, or £18,250 a year. By my reckoning thats equivalent to say a £24/£25K a year salary, which will do me for now seeing as I was on £15,600 in my previous job, and I enjoy poker, have tons of free time and don't have to crawl out of bed every morning to be bored all day :-). Also this still allows me to hopefully build the roll whilst still having money which is obviously crucial if I ever wanna make more money. I got £300 rakeback today as well, and I could easily put double hours in this month I have been a bit lazy - rakeback is brilliant!

Haven't really got much else to say for now, I guess this blog is pretty boring when I'm not doing my bollocks on £2/£5 or $10/$20 etc. Oh well there is always bluescouse to read for things like that...

I'm alive!!!

It's been a loooooong time since my last post. In that time I have become an old man and turned 25, got the new Call of Duty game which is as stupidly addictive online as CoD4, and moved from Betfred and the horrible ipoker software back to my beloved crypto with rakeback, a small field of nitty players, and sterling.

I had ups and downs as can be expected, too much to go into really, I guess I should have updated more regularly but the short story is I am doing OK and playing £50 or £100 NL comfortably. I definetly however need to put a lot more hours in, although sometimes playing for too long I just start messing up and losing concentration. There is nothing worse than playing for 6 hours straight, being up 3 or 4 buy ins within the first couple of hours, then slowly giving it all back to have nothing to show for 6 hours play, except of course rakeback. So where do you draw the line? Is it good to stop after winning a couple of buy ins, if so, stop for how long? Cos you're always gonna come back then possibly just lose it back a few hours later, same story! Lol it's a tricky one I guess I will have to take it as it comes.

Right that's it for now just a short one this time and somewhat boring I guess, I need to get my lazy arse back in gear with this blog! More frequent updates to follow.

£2K+.....

I reached over £2,000 today. So I have made over £2K in just under 2 weeks as a 'person who is playing poker for money for a bit'.

Yesterday I played the most hours since I started by a long stretch and it was a pretty frustrating day. I started up but then was down to about £1,700 at worst - a loss of £190, I kept winning some back, then losing it back again and repeating this process. However I made it all back and then some to put me nearly £100 up for yesterday. In contrast today I played for about 6 minutes and made about £65, lol.

I think yesterday was a good indication of the new discipline I have and the benefits of being comfortably rolled for the level you are playing at. Not once was I tempted to move up to regain losses more quickly; I simply accepted it as variance and played on, taking a break whenever I felt like my A game was slipping. It paid off. This is sensible poker. I feel like I am a decent player when I'm playing my A game but too often in the past I have succumbed to tilt and implemented E game which although works for my mate Ed, is not a winner for me.

Why didn't I play this sensibly starting a few years ago? I would be loaded by now... possibly.

I treated myself to a new PS3 game today - Pure, its a quad bike racer with crazy tricks and is good fun. Luckily for me with my 'job' I have plenty of free time to play it. I really hope I can continue this success, the sky is the limit! Good luck at the tables!

So close...

Just came 2/238 in the $5000 guaranteed $10 rebuy for $1049, 1st paid $1837. I was in for $20 cos I didn't rebuy just an add on. Heads up got it all in with A8 vs K10 for the win, no K no 10 one time!!!...but he hit a K and a 10 lol. Then I doubled up and then shoved with QQ he calls with A2, standard A on flop and turn, sigh. Still, not bad for a few hours work, that site is full of donkeys if you can get cards you can get paid off! In the rebuy period I held the Jh in my hand and the board came out x Ah Kh Qh 10h giving me the royal and I shoved into a 120 pot and got called by A10, lol.

That win and some decent cash results brings my roll up to £1837.57, long may the winning continue!

4 figures

I started my journey as a 'pro' last Wednesday so it's been a week and I just now crossed the £1000 mark, wooooo! The roll is £1010.06, not bad for my first week! Think I will leave it for today now so at least I can say that I made over £1000 in my first week. That's all for now, long may this continue, onwards and upwards!



P.S. I would like to wish my gorgeous dog Rosie a very happy 14th Birthday today! She's doing pretty well for an old girl! Many happy woofs.

Temporary pro

Well, time for an update I've been very lazy on that front. Since my last post I was dabbling in multis here and there, trying for another big score. I cashed plenty of times, but wasn't really getting anywhere and was getting frustrated. I got a letter from work confirming that we had all been made redundant, so there was no question of going back. Right I thought, time to do something about not having an income! I looked online for jobs, but quickly realised that all the decent jobs I am not qualified for and I don't want to work in London and I wasn't about to rush in to another boring low paid job when there is 'easy' money to be made playing poker, if one can keep discipline. I decided I couldn't keep fannying about with depositing for a multi on this site, a multi on that site, so I thought the only choice I had left was to play cash again whilst I decide what the hell I want to do with my life... (no idea!).

My site of choice was Betfred because I know how soft some of the players can be. I put £250 and began to dabble about. My roll went up and down and I almost bust it because I had no real structure. At one stage it was down to about £75! However I battled back and when I got back up to about £430 I withdrew the £250 deposit which was always my plan because I didn't want to lose £250 which is a lot to me right now. So this left me with about £180, not great. That night I got pretty drunk at a mates house and probably stupidly (definitely stupidly, had I not learnt from previous posts?) logged on to Betfred at about 2:45am. In my inebriated state I played a bit of $1/$2 heads up and made a quick $50. Then my opponent left so I made the questionable decision to play some 6 max $1/$2 Omaha... Now I know the basics of this game, try and only draw to the nuts, try to have nut re-draws, bottom set usually ain't good by the river etc etc. but in the past when I have played Omaha I have been a total fish finding it hard to lay down a hand pre flop especially since the flops are often 4 or 5 way in juicy pots, and getting stacked with a full house against a better one. However, despite being three sheets to the wind I somehow managed to play very very tight, eventually leaving the table with about $750 at 5am! Amazing I managed to not only win but also leave whilst up, maybe drunk is the new sober? Maybe not.

This was great and gave me a cushion to play $100NL (Hold 'Em, of course) and I haven't looked back since. The roll is currently £800, so I have basically made £800 in 3 days since Wednesday and I haven't actually been playing that much; I tend to leave tables when I am up now, because in the past I have often got greedy and donated all my profits back leaving me feeling deflated on an afternoon spent playing and nothing to show for it. Am I finally showing the discipline that has so far been lacking in my game? Only time will tell. What I do know though is that there is a long line of clueless Euro donks on Betfred and every time I stack one of them when they call me down with 2nd pair and no kicker I mark them as my 'buddy' so as they are instantly findable in the search facility and I can join their tables quickly. Ha, listen to me I think I'm some sort of fucking shark or something! Well I ain't, but I am a damn site better than some of these players, there are some decent regs of course, but enough fish to keep me coming back for more. Incidentally, the standard in the low to medium buy in multis is shocking, you really need a hand though because no one ever folds, something I haven't been able to get so far but my time will come I'm sure.

So! I guess this means that for the time being I am a poker 'pro', laughable though that sounds with just an £800 bankroll and my past blow ups. However, I still live with my mum and step dad (although I would love to save enough to move out, I'm 24 ffs!) so I only have to pay £100 a month 'housekeeping' and other expenditures are petrol, gym, mobile, car insurance, food and booze and the £5 a month I now give to the Blue Cross! :-D. So for the time being at least it will do and I can focus on building a roll and not need to withdraw too much.

The lifestyle suits me perfectly as well; I play poker when I want, I can hit the gym in the daytime when it's not busy and full of twats, I have plenty of time for playing PS3, walking my dog and generally dossing around. I don't have to feel knackered, sitting in depressing, cold, grey, rainy gridlock traffic on the motorway every morning, feeling like Bill Murray in that film, to be greeted by the same equally bored, tired faces to start yet another day that was the same as yesterday for just enough money to pay my way, get pissed and be broke by the end of the month. Sure I may blow up and go bust and have to get another job like that, but just writing this reinforces my determination to not let that happen. I like playing poker for money, please please please me don't let yourself tilt and lose it all, make it work one time!!!

P.S. I went to the Empire casino in Leicester Square last Saturday to rail the WSOPE for a bit, saw loads of pros and Hellmuth standing next to me at the bar, meh, old news now!

How do I get money out of Full Tilt??!

OK so I deposited $109 on to full tilt to play a multi, finished 18th out of 193 for $193, not great but... how do you get money out?! The only withdrawal method I seem to be able to click is local bank transfer and that is all American bollocks asking me for swift numbers and shit, wtf is that? And didn't you used to be able to transfer money between Tilt and Stars accounts? Arghh i'm gonna end up tilting the money away in cash games, stupid full tilt!

EDIT: Bollocks to it I did my nuts in expensive multis instead!

Bleary eyed

Well its 7:08am and I just busted out of my WCOOP event in 239th place out of 7351, it started at 21:30 and I got $3,307.95 for my efforts, nearly 10 hours of play! Not bad for a $7 investment I guess, I'm a little dissapointed but also pleased as well, would have been so nice to go all the way in this one, few nasty rivers though and it wasn't to be. I didn't get dealt KK once the whole time, nearly 10 hours without the cowboys! And I think AA once maybe twice early on, was pretty card dead all game really it's a wonder I got as far as I did. Guess I should go to bed now it's probably gonna be hard to go to sleep though...

EDIT: I satellited into another WCOOP event today, the $215 4-handed NLHE $400K guaranteed. I was chip leader at the first break! But just busted 508/3290 - just short of the money, sigh. Gonna try and satellite for this Sunday's $1050 tourney, not gonna be easy though.

Arghhh!

Just came 2nd out of 36 in a Sunday Million double shootout satellite, my AK can't beat A2h AIPF with a K high flop, rivered flush.

And 8th out of 69 in a Sunday 40K satellite on Interpoker, top 6 get ticket, £37.80 for 8th. No bad beat just pushed as short stack when folded to me on button with K3 and of course the BB had aces, I keep getting so fucking close and it's really beginning to piss me off!!!

FFS

Just came 11th out of 387 in a $33 multi on pokerstars, this lovely hand sealed my fate, I was in much better shape on the turn didn't even realise the 7 had made me lose for a few seconds. I hate people who play so bad and get so lucky! So 4 and a half hours play for a measley $106.33 profit, it was over $2K for first, arghhh so annoying, my blood is fucking boiling let my hand hold up one time!!!

Annoyed

I qualified for the Sunday £40K on crypto yesterday for £12. I ended up coming 21st for £280, one place off £400 and I'm still really pissed off about it! Partly because my last hand was losing with AKc to AQs to a river flush, then someone else going out about 5 seconds later losing out on £120 which is a lot to me right now! But the way I played one hand (10,10 from the big blind) when I had a comfortable 26K stack. You can't afford many mistakes when the blinds are big and this cost me about half my stack. I feel I played really well up till then. I'm still really annoyed at myself because I so wanted to make that final table and I think if I hadn't donked up that hand I stood a good chance, and of course the £10,200 for first was looking quite appealing! Oh well I will play it again next week if I can satellite in again.

On the steps front on stars, getting pissed off with them, haven't progressed past level 3, my luck always seems to run dry there! The other day I started the day playing 1 level 1, never fell below the requirements to at least try the level again, made level 3 eventually, had I think 2 attempts then bubbled with AK vs AA. The one before there was 3 left (top 2 get a $215 seat which is what I wanted), short stack pushes with A9 off, big stack calls with AK off, flop comes 3 spades, shorty has As, you know the rest, and of course it's me who comes 3rd, grr! Can't be arsed with these things for a while, I'm in 1 event at least! Think I will stick to the tournaments for now, I'm half decent at them.

A bit of success...

Currently I am being more sensible and have stuck to playing tournaments when I do play. The Pokerstars WCOOP is running next month and I am using their S&G step system to try and qualify for some events. So far I have managed to qualify for Event #6 - a $530 buy in, 2-day event with a $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool! Playing a 2 day event is going to be pretty hardcore, assuming I make day 2 of course, the event will probably have shit loads of runners but it will be fun to give it a shot anyway.

The steps satellites run in 6 levels, levels 1-3 are turbo and 4-6 are standard. Level 1 is just $7.50 to enter. At level 4 you can choose the level 5 satellite or a satellite to a smaller buy in WCOOP event which is what I did to qualify for the $530 tourney. There is a $1000 buy in event that I am going to try for; this is an 18 man level 4 satellite, and of course the main event, which is the level 6 sat. The main event ticket is worth $5200 so to reach this would be quite an achievement, to fall at the last hurdle though (ie. level 6) would be pretty demoralising as it takes quite some effort to get there.

I'm really pleased that I have qualified for at least one event though, and for just $7.50 too. I played so damn tight in the last sat and when we were 4 handed (top 3 get a seat, 4th gets about $215) I even folded AK to a standard raise cos I was coming 4th and I couldn't take another sick outdraw on Pokerstars - that's if I even did have the best hand. This is fine though as satellites are all about survival, I think it's the correct play. My patience was rewarded in the end, I hope I can repeat this for some more big events!

Stupid bloody alcohol!

So everything was going really good until Tuesday evening. After withdrawing that £1100 odd I had a plan to withdraw £100 a day for some sort of pretty decent wage! This was going fine, I think I withdrew a further £500 this way and still had a roll of about £700. I would play every day until I made at least £100, then withdraw £100, and let whatever else build the roll. The plan seemed foolproof, until I got drunk of course.

So Tuesday evening I went round a mate's house, had a couple of drinks and played poker for about an hour. Feeling a little bit over confident, I sat in $2/$5 with a full buy in which was a mistake. It didn't take long for me to call a raise with KJc and go 4 way to an all club flop. I got check/called by one guy, he check raised the turn all in and I couldn't call quick enough, of course he had A6c. All in all I only had about £130 left after this session. Went away, got pretty fucking hammered and logged back on at about 1am, playing till about 4 in the morning. I don't really remember too much, but I lost what was left of my roll pretty quickly and began to play £2/£5. I eventually moved on to playing £2/£5 HU with BIMBO. This was my final hand in the early hours of Wednesday morning, (it was in £ not $). I was starting to get the hang of this biatch and felt I trapped perfectly here, but alas he/she sucked out and I was done with losing money so went to bed.

In total I lost the £700 roll plus a further £1250 from my bank that night- shocking! I thought I had learnt to not play when pissed! But of course when you are pissed you don't think sensibly. Oh well, I'm sure I will win some if not all of it back eventually. It's pretty disappointing though I ain't got much cash left, well you live and learn I guess, or in my case, you just don't.

Long story short

I'm mad. Got my PKR roll up to $2200. I played $3/$6 and $5/$10, played good, then last night, played bad, lost it all last hand got rivered for a $1.3K pot. Tried to deposit more, had gone over limits. Had previously in the week extended overdraft. Loaded up crypto. Played $10/$20, tilting big time now. Lost a bunch more money, felt like I wanted to kill myself, the difference bewteen the elated high of winning a lot and the depressing low of losing is unbelieveable. Woke up this morning, lost a bunch more, moved to $2/$5, lost again, after a while checked bank, saw I could just about do 3 min buy ins on $2/$5. Kept getting rivered, once for a $700 pot. Pissed off, thought OK fuck it just one last min buy in, leaving me with just £44 of a £2000 overdraft, another £51 deposited. Maybe the angels were looking over me because I have just logged off having turned that $100 into $2500. If I had lost that I would have lost not only my PKR roll but another £1119 from my bank. So I just withdrew £1119 and that leaves me with £236 on crypto, which is actually profit.

I'm fucking lucky, and fucking crazy, I was on the verge of losing about £2200 and as it is now I haven't actually lost anything from my bank, just winnings, although about £850 worth, it sucks, but not as bad as it could have sucked. I can't believe I actually left the room when I did, but there were a couple of $1K+ stacks around me and I knew that 1 cooler and I lose a huge chunk of my stack and very probably the rest to tilt. Well I have a bit of cash to spin up on crypto now, although I wanna get a roll back on PKR it's full of donks. I should thank my lucky stars, because work have STILL not paid us, not sure if I even have a job and I now get charged interest if I go over £500 withdrawn, I have a bite on my ankle that is driving me insane I swear I got bitten by a fucking black widow or some shit. I need to calm the fuck down!

Disaster

Shit.

PKR fun

I've somehow managed to amass a roll of $1233.27 on PKR since Wednesday. I started with a $50 deposit playing $0.50/$1 and lost it, so I deposited $50 again, which had to be my last money cos we still have not been paid from work. I managed to win this time however and left the table, withdrew the $100 I deposited which left me with $70.

I started on $0.50/$1, moved up to $1/$2 before long and then $2/$4, I'm not a BRM freak, this was merely a spin up. Thing is, a LOT of the players are very very loose and bad even at $2/$4 and will call you down with top pair no kicker. Here is an example of a funny hand, I pasted it in this format so you can see all the emotes that went on during the hand which just makes PKR the funniest site to play on:

Table #9340308 - The Nook
Starting Hand #467726816
Start time of hand: 26 Jul 2008 12:10:38
Last Hand #467726433
Game Type: HOLD'EM
Limit Type: NO LIMIT
Table Type: RING
Money Type: REAL MONEY
Blinds are now $2/$4
Button is at seat 5
Seat 1: bazoolie - $1,322.65
Seat 2: Rottisen - $394.40
Seat 3: MattHubb23 - $421
Seat 4: forbzy - $515
Seat 5: Goldeneyehd - $513.50
Seat 6: qvark789 - $302
Moving Button to seat 6
bazoolie posts small blind ($2)
Rottisen posts big blind ($4)
Shuffling Deck
Dealing Cards
Dealing [9s 9d] to forbzy
MattHubb23 calls $4
forbzy raises to $16
Goldeneyehd folds
qvark789 folds
bazoolie folds
forbzy acknowledges his own nice hand.
bazoolie says thank you.
Rottisen folds
MattHubb23 calls $16
forbzy thinks MattHubb23 made a good call.
bazoolie thanks himself.
Dealing Flop [2h 8s 5h]
MattHubb23 checks
forbzy bets $35
MattHubb23 calls $35
forbzy tells MattHubb23 he can't believe it.
Dealing Turn [5c]
MattHubb23 checks
forbzy bets $65
MattHubb23 raises to $250
forbzy tells MattHubb23 he can't believe it.
bazoolie congratulates himself.
forbzy raises to $464 (all-in)
bazoolie can't believe himself.
Goldeneyehd laughs his *** off.
Goldeneyehd laughs his *** off.
bazoolie calls MattHubb23 a loser.
Goldeneyehd laughs his *** off.
bazoolie laughs out loud.
MattHubb23 folds
Taking Rake of $3 from pot 1
forbzy doesn't show
forbzy wins $605
bazoolie says well played.
Seat 1: bazoolie - $1,320.65
Seat 2: Rottisen - $390.40
Seat 3: MattHubb23 - $120
Seat 4: forbzy - $819
Seat 5: Goldeneyehd - $513.50
Seat 6: qvark789 - $302
End Of Hand #467726816

And look at this idiot here with the AQ!

Table #9340308 - The Nook
Starting Hand #467743449
Start time of hand: 26 Jul 2008 12:32:48
Last Hand #467743170
Game Type: HOLD'EM
Limit Type: NO LIMIT
Table Type: RING
Money Type: REAL MONEY
Blinds are now $2/$4
Button is at seat 1
Seat 1: mayotacker - $394
Seat 2: Rottisen - $519.40
Seat 3: player13985 - $388
Seat 4: forbzy - $827
Seat 5: Goldeneyehd - $379.10
Seat 6: qvark789 - $647.70
Moving Button to seat 2
player13985 posts small blind ($2)
forbzy posts big blind ($4)
Shuffling Deck
Dealing Cards
Dealing [2d Ad] to forbzy
Goldeneyehd raises to $16
qvark789 raises to $64
mayotacker folds
Rottisen folds
player13985 folds
forbzy folds
Goldeneyehd raises to $208
qvark789 calls $208
Goldeneyehd laughs his *** off.
forbzy can't believe it.
Goldeneyehd can't believe it.
Dealing Flop [Qd Ts 6s]
Goldeneyehd bets $171.10 (all-in)
qvark789 calls $171.10
Goldeneyehd shows [Ah As]
qvark789 shows [Qs Ac]
Dealing Turn [5c]
Dealing River [Kc]
Taking Rake of $3 from pot 1
Goldeneyehd has One Pair: Aces
Goldeneyehd wins $761.20 with: One Pair: Aces
Goldeneyehd says thank you.
Goldeneyehd laughs his *** off.
Seat 1: mayotacker - $394
Seat 2: Rottisen - $519.40
Seat 3: player13985 - $386
Seat 4: forbzy - $823
Seat 5: Goldeneyehd - $761.20
Seat 6: qvark789 - $268.60
End Of Hand #467743449
PKR is a very funny site to play on with all the emotes to just take the piss out of people especially when you stack them or beat them in a big pot. I can't even multi table cos my computer is too shite to handle it with any decent speed, so luckily the banter keeps me from getting too bored. I am not earning any rakeback or bonuses which is a bit shit, although I am getting PKR points, not sure what I can do with them, buy a PKR poster or dress my character in a new suit or something lol. I should probably withdraw some of that money seeing as how I'm not even sure if I am going to be paid at all for 6 weeks work so I am very broke and might have to find a new job. But I just wanna keep spinning, $5K or bust?

Edit: Soon after making this post I sat down, quickly jizzed off $200 in my 2nd hand, reloaded, then this hum dinger of a hand happened. Note I was BB in this hand the replayer thing went a bit wrong. I know he has the bullets but I'm obviously set mining for a flop just like that, ouch though! So I was down half my roll in 2 hands! I managed to win a bit back then this little beautay happened, glad my opponent can't lay down a hand here. The positions are wrong again here I was SB for this hand. So now I'm sitting on $1,160 in that room as I type this - about $160 up for the session, I gotta be more careful or it's bye bye roll, I should probably drop a level or 4, but where's the fun in that?

Life bad beat

I'm sitting here on Tuesday at work and only 5 of us have bothered to show up because we still haven't been paid when we were supposed to get paid last Wednesday- bad beat. Our pay better come in and the company best not go bust cos I am pretty broke right now!

Last time I had £203.55 in my crypto roll. I played here and there a bit, various limits, even dabbled in Omaha with great success and also played Pot Limit Hold 'Em for the first time which was interesting. Anyway, at peak I got this up to just under £700. Then I started to lose a bit and got scared so withdrew £272.24 to cover what I withdrew from by bank last month. Inevitably I lost what I had left however. Deposited again, spun up again, withdrew, lost, deposited, spun, withdrew, lost etc etc. So I don't have a roll right now but that money I withdrew is safe, I bloody needed it seeing as we haven't been paid and my overdraft was maxed out!

I'm not sure where to go from here, it's likely I will need to be looking for a new job, but what? I have no idea what I want to do, I have a degree in English but I don't want to be a journalist or a teacher which is what everybody seems to suggest. I need some direction in my life but right now I'm just not getting it from anywhere. I was speaking to a friend the other day who was telling me about a Freudian theory that we self punish in order to have some justification for our misery. I told him this was very true and can be applied to the blasé way that I threw away £250 the other day very quickly at £50 NL raising nearly every hand preflop to at least 5x the BB and calling every 3 bet; in one way tilting my tits off because of a JJ vs AA on an A J x flop cooler (he flatted my standard raise pre) and in another, wanting justification for the despair I often feel about working such a boring low paid job and getting nowhere in life. In some ways it felt good, almost refreshing - to rid myself of my roll yet again and along with it the false aspirations of spinning a large sum of money and escaping the daily monotony of this shit life. They must have loved me on that table as I have loved similar maniacs; I can just see their notes now - 'LAG fish, no concept of position, will call all in with any draw, never folds to a 3 bet pre flop, raises nearly every hand, donk.'

I realise this sounds quite morbid, but it's hard to be optimistic when faced with the reality of this life and a ridiculous poker pipe dream for someone with too much compulsion to gamble it all away and say "See, I told ya, my life is shit, I just lost a months wages in 3 hands!"

CoD4

This is the new poker - Call of Duty 4 online play for the PS3. Since I got in to this I have barely touched the virtual felt, it's sooooo fun, poker sucks!

Down not up

Managed to win a bit and get rakeback so roll is £203.55, giving me a £415.59 loss for the month which was mainly my crypto roll. This gives me a loss of £14.69 since I started to actually keep record last month. Losing £14.69 in 2 months is not terrible I guess. Plan is to play $50NL for a while this level is pretty soft on crypto, have to try and tone down my aggression though. Wow this blog is dull, laters.

To hell with it

It's been a long time since my last post, that's cos nothing much exciting has happened and I haven't played an awful lot. I'm gonna cut a long story short. I lost all I had in my crypto roll and a further £272.24 from my bank.

Crypto now have an instant play version of the software meaning I can play at work, it's a shit version and frequently disconnects me but I used it none the less. This week I deposited £25 on Monday, got to £45, withdrew the £25 then span that £20 into £210 by Wednedsay. Yesterday however because I had more than 1 buy in behind me I played like a twat and lost it all. I'm proper broke now, living off an overdraft and it's over 2 weeks till I get paid again. Also I'm fucked off with my job, it's so fucking boring, the pay is shit and doesn't look like going up any time soon, and I have had enough of clicking fucking buttons on a computer screen all day long and some of the people I work with do my fucking head in!!!
I need some new direction but I have no idea what, wish I had some money so I could fuck off round the world or summat.

Can't see myself getting a roll now, can't afford it really, shit month, shit job, help me someone, fuck poker!

Up not down

I am going to calculate my monthly profit or loss as soon as I have received rake back from the that particular month. I got my May rake back a couple of hours ago (2nd June) and so the figures from May are £54 withdrawn and £346.90 in the roll, total profit = £400.90

I guess that is actually not bad, at least it's not a loss!

£54

This is how much I am now up for the month. It was £1604, but I lost the £800 I had in my poker account then a further £750 from my bank account (I had withdrawn £804 in poker winnings this month). The £800 went to about £325 playing £1/£2 all day and not leaving when I started to play bad. The rest went trying to recuperate the losses in £2/£5. I had a couple of unlucky beats along the way; here are the most interesting hands and biggest pots.

All the following hands are in £pounds sterling not $dollars.

• In this hand I think my opponent must be psychic, I labeled him as a donk after this and I wanted revenge which partially explains the later AA hand against him.

• Here I get lucky but my opponent didn't raise enough pre flop.

• In this crazy hand I wish I had called but of course I couldn't. It's not that clear but the guy with A10c shoves pre flop for like £300+ so of course I can't call, some people r such morons, let me see a flop!

• An example of why fast playing is often profitable

• This hand was just sick. Against the same player as earlier, I wanted to bust him, but I genuinely hated that flop so bad and was 99% sure I was beat, I mean what else can he have here? But ego took over I guess and I bet the flop far too quickly without thinking then was priced in to call the raise in my opinion, this pissed me off so much though cos I played it so bad, knew exactly what he had, but went with the 1% that this is a donk AK or something, sigh.

• Here my opponent shows me no respect whatsoever, I thought I was ahead on the flop if I'm honest as this guy was very aggressive and the turn just sealed the deal I was obv only folding if a heart came out, this guy went crazy aggro after this hand 3 betting me so often and I didn't keep the stack for long :-(

• Onto the £2/£5 and this seemed like a great spot to get a triple up, I put one of these guys on a set to be honest, didn't really like what I saw, one time I didn't wanna make my flush! Luckily I double sucked out anyway :-)

• This hand was just brutal, I think I make a good flop call here, these people either just want to give me money or have no respect for me at all (I believe its the latter) anyway if my hand had held here I would have got out of the room, withdrawn the £750 back and had a £600 roll again, how much can change on the turn of a card!

• Last but not least, people again wanna give me money the villain here actually typed into the chat box "Please suck out, pleeease" whilst the cards were dropping which I found to be very low and not what I needed as the river fell, maybe he really hates me or maybe he's just a prick? I think the latter again! Never recovered from this.

Its funny I was very high on life when I was winning this month, I had given up drinking for a while in a bid to be more healthy, hitting the gym more and I felt good. After this loss I slacked off the gym for 2 days and went out and got pissed on vodka! How quickly life can change, all at the turn of a card.

Nevertheless, I am still up for the month even if it is just £54, so I really can't complain it could be much worse, being up is being up! Plus I have rakeback coming in a couple of days which should be around £250, so that will be £300 profit from poker for the month, so it's good to look on the bright side! I hope my 2 or 3 readers enjoyed the hands I posted, let me know what you think in the comments section!

Oh well here's to repeating it all again next month, can't fucking wait! (drinking vodka again ;-).

Phew!

My roll has been up and down like a tart's knickers all weekend. At peak it was about £1200 with money still in play in 3 rooms. I have been playing a quite a bit of £1/£2 10 seaters with mostly success. I played on a mate's laptop the other day and I am now thinking of investing in one, playing poker on the settee in front of the telly was pretty fun! I also withdrew a further £102.64.

My roll dipped to just £150 a few hours ago.... I sat with £250 in 2 £2/£5 rooms and lost in both, leaving me with £150 (roll was £650 before that). So I put in the rest and managed to get up to £900! I fluctuated around here for a while before counting my blessings and getting the hell out of there. This was the biggest pot I won on my comeback - note the table was in £ not $ but this thing only seems to show it in dollars for some reason. This hand replayer thing is good I think I will use it more often in future cos there are often crazy hands I want to share. If anyone knows of one that shows the correct currency I would love to know thanks. Also how is my play here? Fishy and lucky? Probably right! But these tables are often very aggressive you can't wait for aces you have to be creative, mix up your game and be a step ahead against these very astute players in my opinion. An example of how aggressive they are (and in my opinion mental!) - I guess they are deeply rolled for the level and a grand £ pot ain't that much for them, crazy.

I was playing a £20 multi earlier then this hand happened for the monster chip lead and we were down to about 17 players and £375 for 1st, grr opponent. I was first or second in chips at the time, why this guy wanted to get so involved with the one person who could bust him is beyond me, does he really think I am running a bluff here against such a big stacked opponent? Meh.

Went to see the new Indiana Jones film last night and I thought it was crap! What the hell is that ending all about?! Anyway I'm currently riding well in the £7K on crypto, good luck all.

Rolling steady

I have played a fair bit of heads up play recently, mainly on £0.50/£1 but I dabbled in $2/$5 and £1/£2 winning in both my short sessions at these stakes. I actually bust my roll a couple of times and had to re deposit, £500 in total but I have since withdrawn this again; so is the nature of playing heads up under-rolled.

One particularly sick session was in the early hours of Sunday morning, I had managed to get my roll back up to £200 and it was all in one room, then this guy who is a weak player came along and sat with £40 and basically busted me.... so I deposited £100 and lost it! Deposited another £100, lost this too. Now I was really pissed off cos I know I am a better player than this guy, so I did another £100 and that's when I turned it around and took his whole £400+ stack off him and then he reloaded and I won that too. Took about 2 hours in all but it was a great fun session and I'll be clocking up loads of rakeback! I have had a few lengthy heads up sessions usually managing to bank a win with each.

Last night there was a maniac playing in a 6 seater £0.50/£1 room, he had a big stack, much of that thanks to me. He liked to open raise for £17/£35 etc pre flop, and bet £20+ on the flop into pots of £3. Call all ins with A8 high on the turn drawing dead against a set of QQQ for £200+ pot etc etc, that sort of player - the sort I love :-) He stacked me for a full buy in with one hand where I raised to £8 pre with AK (not something I would usually do of course) the flop came down 10A10 and I bet and he raised and this was not unusual for him so I pushed and he called with 10 2 off, nh! I was £170 down in this room but I got my own back on him and so did everyone else in the room it was just a matter of time, I left the room on £325ish, I hope he comes back again! Also played 10 seater £1/£2 for a bit and won £22ish.

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My current bank roll is £640 and my withdrawals have been £576. So I am up £1216 for the month which I guess is pretty good. I have yet to add this months rakeback to that and I still have a £50 monthly nuts bonus which is very nearly cleared. The month isn't over however so this number could go up or down quite a bit yet. Nevertheless £1216 so far this month is good stuff, I think I am playing very well at the moment, and loving the heads up cos without sounding too big headed, I feel I have an edge over some of the smaller stakes players there. Oh yeah I have 5 days off work starting Friday can't fucking wait!

Good night

Last night I was about to play the £7K tourny on crypto for £33 when I got a text from a poker-comedy duo named A-Game who said they were about to play a $20 multi on Stars and whether I wanted to join them. I of course jumped at the chance and the game of choice was a $20 45 man sit and go. It took ages to fill so I went ahead and played the £7K anyway, busting to AQ when some donk called my all in on the turn with AQ high only to river an A (I had KJ and top pair, he had no draw).

So anyway the Stars tourny was fun, I happened to be on the same table as A-Game but they busted in about 3 hands and I went on to win the damn thing, cheers for the invite! I got lucky early when I was all in as a short stack with KK against AA, rivered a K! When final table time came down I steamrolled my way to 5 handed, it was so easy just stealing blinds etc no one put up any opposition so I amassed a huge chip lead and also busted a couple of dweebs. 5 handed however pissed me off, now I am not one to say that online poker is rigged otherwise I wouldn't play it but what I saw last night was just unbelieveable. Again and again and again the short stack would double up with some outflop, suck out re re re suck out etc etc it seemed like whatever card they needed they hit no matter the outs. Then my aces got cracked by the 2nd in chips with K9c for a big pot. I was getting really pissed off!

One hand which sums up the sickness when the donk min raised the button and I re raised with A4, he called leaving himself 2k behind. Flop was 2 3 5 I put him in he calls with JQoff. Turn A river 4, fuck offfffffffff! Nevertheless I managed to battle through and take it down, despite being all in for the win with AA against 99 he spiked a 9 on the turn. The amount of set up hands was just crazy, never seen anything like it. Anyway ship the $280.

At the same time in this tourney I played a £0.50/£1 on crypto sitting with £70, left after not too long with £300, the table was crazy loose I loved it. So a £330 profit last night which means monthly winnings are nearly at £900 and I still have nuts bonus and rakeback to come, I will work it out later, long may the winning continue.

Oh yeah the laser cosmos arrived yesterday and it's great!

Profit

The last time I updated was when I was about to receive rakeback. Well this was to the tune of about £239 so I immediately withdrew £200 to cover my losses. I played with the rest won a bit and then withdrew £38 to cover another deposit I had made previously to play 2 tournaments. Now I went on to consistently win playing $0.50/$1 usually 2 tabling and buying in with $80 each time.

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I made regular withdrawals because I wanted something to show for my winnings and these have totalled roughly £325. The bankroll currently stands at about £205 so this means I have made about £530 so far this month which is pleasing because I have not played very much at all and only at smallish stakes. I have the £100 'monthly nuts bonus' which I am currently working on as well which I should soon complete.

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I might stop withdrawing for a bit and try and focus on building the bank roll again but it does feel good to cash in regularly and with the money this month I have already spent £100 on protein shakes to aid my gym efforts and help me on my everlasting quest for supreme henchness, and also £100 on a laser cosmos! I know I'm a saddo but I have wanted to buy this for ages and it has great reviews and sounds wicked so I thought fuck it poker paid for it and bought it! I also have to pay a hundred and something £ for 6 months fucking car tax this month so that just about spends all my withdrawals, but at least I have something to show for winning this time.

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In regards to the last post with that £1/£2 HU hand, welllllll I was bad. I had a roll of £150 after all my withdrawals and I got this down to £75 so I thought I would go for all or nothing and sat in £1/£2 heads up with the lot. Now this fish came along and stacked me, so I deposited £40 cos this guy just sucked! However I lost that too...... hmmm just one more £100 I said, lost this too! How could it be this moron was beating me?! Cracking my KK with hands like 9 6 off suit despite making it £8 pre etc was how! I can beat this bastard I thought, "one more £100, fuck fuck fuck what am I doing?! I feel the tilt! I can't control myself I'm about to lose all my money!!" were thoughts I pushed to the back of my head and started to concentrate. I played with controlled aggression and got up to £150 odd then that quad 8's hand happened. Ahhhhhhhhh finally I got the bastard - felt good even though it was all my money haha. I took his last £15 then I left the room and told him to follow me, lol.

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I of course withdrew the £240 right away and sat in £0.50/£1 and proceeded to stack this guy a bit more, leaving me with £111, phew! I felt kind of bad cos this guy seemed like a nice bloke and didn't mind that I left the other room. He didn't even react badly when I berated him for cracking my kings and queens with filth etc etc. He just finished by saying "It's not my night I'm off to bed" or something like that. Still I hope I have the chance to play him again.

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So played last night for half an hour heads up again against another fish and won about £100. Playing heads up can be verrrrry profitable cos there are so many bad players and once you have a feel for the style they play it becomes very easy to exploit it and induce bluffs and know when they have the goods etc; sometimes it's worth a call just for information that pays dividends later.

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Oh yeah I am gonna have a crack at the WSOP step Sit and Go's on stars, seems like a piece of piss although it's probably not, its a crack at a seat for fuck all money nonetheless. Well I think I have rambled on enough for now, 5 week pay day tomorrow, woo! Who knows what will happen with this £200 roll, I would like to emulate royalfire's recent success, only time will tell.

This made me laugh...

This hand just happened so I thought I had to post it it's a classic! I will update more at a later date about what I have been up to recently and why it was I came to be playing £1/£2 heads up! For now though check out this little beauty, opponent is weak fish who has been cracking my kings queens etc with trash so I just can't wait to bust him...

Game #7083343684: Hold'em NL (£1/£2) - 2008/05/12 - 23:59:21 (UK)
Table "Zaragoza" Seat 1 is the button.
Seat 1: christus9 (£174.37 in chips)
Seat 2: ironmonk (£156.90 in chips)
christus9: posts small blind £1
ironmonk: posts big blind £2
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to ironmonk [As 8s]
christus9: raises to £4
ironmonk: calls £2
----- FLOP ----- [8c 8h 8d]
ironmonk: checks
christus9: bets £8
ironmonk: calls £8
----- TURN ----- [8c 8h 8d][4d]
ironmonk: checks
christus9: bets £8
ironmonk: raises to £26
christus9: calls £18
----- RIVER ----- [8c 8h 8d 4d][7s]
ironmonk: bets £118.90 and is all-in
christus9: calls £118.90
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ironmonk: shows [As 8s] (Four of a kind, Eights, Ace high)
christus9: shows [7c Ah] (A Full House, Eights full of Sevens)
ironmonk collected £312.80 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot £313.80 Main pot £312.80 Rake £1
Board [8c 8h 8d 4d 7s]
Seat 1: christus9 (small blind) showed [7c Ah] and lost with A Full House, Eights full of Sevens
Seat 2: ironmonk (big blind) showed [As 8s] and won (£312.80) with Four of a kind, Eights, Ace high

GTA IV

I have decided I will probably never be a long term winner at poker, so I'm gonna tone down my play for a bit and try to play a lot less. Thankfully I received Grand Theft Auto IV for my PS3 in the post today so I am going to have something to keep me occupied for a good while, can't wait to play this game the hype has been unreal and apparently completely justified!

On Thursday night, I had £200 left of my roll, I got it up to £300+ playing £2/£5 then lost it all, then a further £100, then £100 then £100 then a last £100 before I went to bed at about 3:30am £600 poorer and text work to say I wouldn't be coming in the next day; miserable. Since then however I have managed to win £200 of the £400 I lost from my bank back, and I get at least £200 in rakeback on Thursday so I will withdraw this too at least putting me even with my bank but I won't have much of a roll if at all, but I'm not really bothered.

So I don't think I will play as much, and certainly won't be touching the higher levels, I just can't afford to lose at these levels, and losing a few min buy ins doesn't necessarily mean I am crap, it's just too much for me to afford seeing as I earn about £900 a month after tax :-(

I will probably play a few £20 multis here and there and hope for a big score, and at least get more poker for my money, but I think I will be playing far less. I played a €20 multi the other day; top 5 got paid and I was 2nd with 6 left and still came 6th, this is how: I am 2nd and raise big when folded to me on the button with 77. The BB who is tilting like mad makes the call and pushes the 8c 8 10c flop which I snap call cos I knew he would do this cos he has been pulling this stop and go all the time, also I still had a lot of chips if he wins the hand. He shows 95c for the flush draw and hits on the turn. The very next hand I raise up AQs and the BB pushes all in, I have him covered and again snap call, he shows A10d, the flop is Q9x and I think I'm safe, of course the turn is a K and when I say no jack no jack it was inevitable that it would come on the river. This really pissed me off and now I'm down to 2K and nearly out, I almost mounted a comeback but it wasn't to be, and it was €400 for 1st, annoying.

Oh well I have booked tomorrow off work to get some quality GTA IV time in, sad I know but I don't care cos this game looks awesome, I also have barely played Call of Duty 4 since I bought it cos I keep prefering to play poker in my spare time ;-p. Seeing as I don't have to get up early I might play the £20 NTX on crypto, who knows!

Jazzy

I'm bored at work so I decided to muck about and jazz up the colour of my blog a bit, it kinda hurts the eyes but fuck it, I'll change it up again another time. I have been playing a bit and have withdrawn the £500 I put in the other day and have also withdrawn a further £320 leaving myself with a roll of about £325.

My plan was buying into £0.50/£1 with £50 each time and was having good success. On Monday night however I played for too long and started to get bored and very very loose, topping up my buy in and seeing lots of flops. I went up and down and this culminated in me losing a £340+ pot with something like 56d to AA where all the money went in on the turn where I mis read him for AK he played it well. If I can find the hand history at home I might post the hand. I had started the night with £585 (this was before withdrawing the £300 but after the £500) after this tilty session I was down to £175 so at about 1:30am I joined £2/£5 with the lot.

A few hands in it's folded to me on the button and I make it £17 with J8c which seemed to be the standard table raise. The BB re raised to about £52 and of course I call. The flop comes J 7 2 or something and he sticks me all in, hoping he has AK or 1010 etc, and not really caring, I of course call and he shows QQ. However the poker gods were shining down on me and I rivered another J to double up to about £300 - one card away from having no roll, phew! Shortly after the same opponent raised to £17 from UTG and I called on the button with 55 and the big blind called also. The flop was a pleasing 5 10 7 with 2 diamonds. BB checks, original raiser bets £35 or something, I raise it up big to about £110, BB folds, original raiser thinks then pushes which is exactly what I wanted. I insta call and he shows Q10s, the turn was a Q and the river a 10!!!! Just kidding, it went blank blank and the fishy doubled me up again to £600! All this in about 20 mins of being in this room.

A bit earlier as it was getting late I had said to myself the next time I hit a set or get back up to £600 I will go to bed cos I hadn't hit a set in like 100 pocket pairs. Well this hand which was my first and only pocket pair in this £2/£5 room not only gave me a set but also got me back up to £600 and it was like 2am so I took this as a sign to count my blessings and leave which I did.

Yesterday I withdrew the £320 like I said and played a bit of $2/$5 before going out, winning $60. I cant be arsed to grind with this £325, I'll most likely buy in half stack to £1/£2 and $2/$5 and attempt some sort of spinnage so I'll either bust it all or make a nice sum. In future I think I am going to withdraw more. Like if I get to £1000 then withdraw £500 and carry on from there because the amount of times I have won a decent amount then lost it is ridiculous so if I was to keep withdrawing I would have something to show for it at least. Good luck at the tables and Jack, when is SAPS night?!

Playing again

I took out a £500 overdraft and deposited it onto Inter last night. I started by playing 2 tournaments costing £55 combined and got close but no cigar in both. I played some £0.25/£0.50 and started well but ended up losing a bit. In annoyance I short stacked £1/£2, bust a couple of times then built a £100 stack into £300+ which was cool. I also decided to min buy in £2/£5 and turned my £100 into just over £400 then left. Feeling crazy, I railed bluescouse for a bit watching him short stacking £5/£10, he span £200 into £2500 pretty quickly! So I thought it would be fun to sit next to him, I sat with £400 and got dealt AA in my very first hand but annoyingly on this loose table everyone folded. I only stayed in this room for about 8 hands altogether I got a bit scared and left with the exact same £400 I bought in with! Total profit for last night was about £275. I will withdraw the original £500 as soon as I hit £1000. Might take some more shots at £2/£5, might just play £0.50/£1, who knows! Fun to be playing again.

Update

I'm gonna try and do all this from memory so it might not all be 100% accurate. Starting with how I lost my roll. Welllllll its kinda funny really in a sick way. The roll was approaching £1300 but I had taken a few hits and it was on something like £1,060. This happened from 6 tabling and constantly topping up my stack to maximum in all rooms if I lost a pot, this all adds up cos there was a lot of sick pot losing going on! All the usual nasty crap kept missing the flop bad beats probably playing bad and too loose too etc etc. Playing 6 tables might not have been the best idea!

Anyway I played another night plus a couple of multis and pretty much the same shit happened till my roll was at about £860! I took a break and played some Tekken online, now I'm usually pretty good but I got my arse kicked! This really pissed me off so I logged back on in a bad mood and searched around for a table to play. I noticed someone sitting in $5/$10 Fixed Limit heads up room with $200 so I decided it would be an excellent idea to play a game in which I have no clue about the strategy and that is about 50 times above my bankroll. I managed to get him down to $60 quickly winning with hands like middle pair etc. I had watched a bit of FL before and knew that sometimes rubbish hands were good at showdown. Easy money I thought this guy is a fish. How wrong was I, he topped up and proceeded to beat me in pot after pot after pot, so many times he would raise me on the turn with absolutely nothing and hit on the river, gutshot, over card whatever it was so so so so sick! Anyway I dropped about £760 in about 40 mins to this guy, I knew I was gonna lose it all yet I couldn't come out of the room, I literally could not stop myself, like some form of self punishment or something I couldn't be happy till I lost the lot, wtf is wrong with me?! I somehow left with about $200 left and played in £1/£2 HU with the whole £97 knowing I would probably lose it all. Someone sat with the same amount as me and I quickly lost it. It was all i could do to not reach for the deposit page instantly, luckily he left however and I wrote that post feeling like shit and went to bed in a depressed mood.

However it's not like I was gonna quit or anything so I deposited £300 and played £0.50/£1 the next day I think! Well I won about £170 so I withdrew the £300 and played with that. One night I went on a sick run starting with £50 and leaving on about £370. The roll was back up to about £570 in just a couple of days. However the next day I lost it all bar £75 with some sick coolers like Q high flush vs K high flush on a 3 diamond board with A of diamonds showing. Lost when I accidentally raised 23s to £5 - flop came J 2 3 turn 9 river 3 - he had 99 obv my pot bet on the flop wasn't enough. Well it started with coolers such as that then turned to tilt, the only reason I managed to salvage my last £74 was because my friend literally wouldn't shut up till I logged off, I could not leave! Something in my head was making me stay till I lost it all it's chemical I swear - I need help!

Anyway the next day I got home from work and lost it quickly. Since then I have been depositing and not winning. Playing lots of heads up with no roll trying to spin and failing, sigh. My bank account now reads £0.00, however I do get paid on Wednesday, not good though is that I have already lost about £150 of my shit wage because I deposited money when my bank did that thing when transactions temporarily sort of reverse allowing me to spend the money but its not really there, sounds weird I know. Not really sure where to go from here, I should probably quit I can't keep hold of a roll, thing is I'm addicted and I have shown I can win money at this game, I just don't have the right mind for it and something takes over when I tilt that I just can't control. I will probably go on with the same win/bust cycle however until that huge tourney win I know is coming lol. If all else fails I can always get an overdraft again. Aarrgh irontwat!

Oh yeh someone came into my heads up room yesterday to say he reads my blog! I didn't think anyone read it really so that was cool, he's a good player too I have played him before, so shout out to royalfire - donate me some buy ins sometime mate eh?

Bust

Fuck! It was probably always gonna happen, guess I'm not cut out for this poker lark I just can't control myself. All those hours of work in the last couple of weeks gone to waste. Fuck life I'm mega depressed right now.

Grinding away

I have played a few sessions recently and have started to get to grips with multi tabling. I have been playing 6 tables maximum using crypto's 'proview' mode which took some getting use to but I am getting better at doing it. It means I play tighter because you need to fold so many hands as I still find it a little tricky when I am dealt 3 or 4 good hands at once, hit the flop and try to work out how best to play the hands all at once! I still have not played higher than $50 or £25 and I am very proud of this despite being slightly tempted last night....

My roll was £960 at the start of last night and I decided to have a 'quick' session of heads up play at about 9:30. I dropped a buy in to some guy who said he was on a train in Belgium and had to change trains! So I changed rooms to someone who had a $270 stack in $50NL. Things just went awful against this guy, starting when I stacked off with a turned middle two against a flopped top 2. There were so many set up hands and it felt like I couldn't win a thing, he kept pushing pre flop to my raises and I kept calling because I was tilting and he kept having the better of it! A $200+ pot really sent me over the edge when I re-raised JJ pre flop and he pushed and I called he had AQ and of course hit not one but 2 aces.

I ended up dropping about 7 or 8 buy ins to this guy before making one back before he left. Most players at this level are pretty useless in the heads up rooms but I gotta give this guy credit he played a blinder and tilted me like a gooden, he also ran like fucking god but hey such is poker. I stayed in this room and opened up another and then I started to run better! In my original room I stacked a couple peeps and got up to $200. In the new room I stacked everyone who sat opposite me including the same person 3 times; my KK held up to AQs AIPF despite the 2 spades on the flop for a $170 pot. My set of 7's held up against the nut flush draw on the flop for another $100+ pot. So at 1am I cashed out of one room with $200 and the other $300 leaving me with a £3 loss for the night, felt like a huge win though! Kinda reminds me why I both shouldn't play heads up, and why I like it so much ;-)

I keep having crazy losses followed by huge wins to make it all back and I just wish I could do the latter and forget the former! On Saturday night I came home semi-drunk from a wedding and got stacked a couple of times, then went on a crazy run turning my £25 into £150 in £25 NL in about an hour! I ended that night break even! I was also playing some $50 PLO spinning up to $150, busting it all, reloading and spinning back up to $130 before leaving lol, gotta try not to play drunk it can be very swingy indeed.

Having said all that though things are most definitely going well, I feel like a proper grinder when I'm sitting there playing 6 tables but I really enjoy it, being rolled allows you to make decent bold plays that often get paid off and I am very comfortable with my game at the moment. The roll is now £957 and I am due rakeback any day now which should take it comfortably above £1000, which has taken me 2 weeks to earn, I hope I can keep up the success, I just wish I could play all day instead of working some boring job!

On a side not I'm gonna add amatay's blog because it is a good read. He just had a bad tilty session which just goes to show that even the most level headed and decent players can blow up and tilt like maniacs, poker is not easy, despite what anyone says.

I wanna say hi to Tom and Jack I know you sometimes read this - we need a home game soon big time, and Tom - start a blog!

Edit: I got £293.20 in rakeback! Far more than I expected, great thing it is! Just played a bit of HU too so the roll is now £1263.69.

Need a plan

So the roll is now £850 and I have been a good boy and stuck to BRM playing no higher than £25 or $50 NL and so far things have been going well. I have still had my share of bad beats for big pots but have not let it tilt me, perhaps I am learning. What I would like is some sort of plan. I have no idea if anyone even reads this blog but if you do I would love to hear a plan to stick to for ideal BRM, when I should move up levels, what level tournaments to play etc. I am determined to make this work and one day be playing £5/£10 with a sufficient bankroll, who knows!

Starting well

Well that was nice, I played 2 tournaments tonight - a £5 multi and a £20 HeadHunter multi. I lost in the £5 one but managed to come 1st out of 114 in the HeadHunter giving me £375 for 1st place and taking £171.41 worth of Heads along the way giving me a total prize of £546.41.

It was a pretty amazing comeback as well because when we were 4 handed I was down to 2,453 in chips with the blinds at 1,200/2,400 and in my SB with 55, lol! Heads up I had 25K to his 200K so another great turn around. I can now withdraw the £400 I deposited the other day leaving me with £560 odd bankroll which is excellent news to be withdrawing this early. Hopefully now I can stick to BRM and just build it up slowly. Time to hit the sack too many late nights, great to win another multi!

BRM BRM BRRMMMMM!

No not the sound of a car, bankroll management! Yes I have come to the realisation that unless I adpot it I will always lose my roll, sooner or later. It's taken me long enough but finally the light has come on! I have attempted BRM in the past but always got bored and if my roll took a hit I would instantly move up levels. I am DETERMINED to stick to it this time, it's a complete mind game and I need to get control of my emotions. I would love to quit my job one day and make £100 a day playing poker, which is £36,500 a year tax free which is the equivalent to like a £50K salary or something, pretty good! Then £200 a day etc etc! Pipe dreams? Maybe.

Anyway I have deposited £400 with which I am playing £25 or $50 NL. I need to withdraw that £400 at some point though cos I kinda need it. One thing I need to do is tone down my aggression; I raise far too many hands pre flop, and continuation bet and bluff far too much. This is because I have so many buy ins behind me the money sort of means less. In a couple of sessions so far I am up to £450 but this would be a lot more if I could tone down my aggression. I need to somehow pretend that the blinds are £5/£10 or something lol. I will design some sort of plan on when I move up levels etc later.

As the old proverb goes - slow and steady wins the race, and this is one race I plan on bringing home.

Bad times

Had holiday to use up from work, got that £400 up to £600 playing £2/£5, but bust it all, then bust another £250 from my real bank account, then £350, then £100, then £300. I tilt so bad. Put another £75 on and got up to £230 after having withdrawn the £75 playing HU £0.25/£0.50. Had a big stack in one room, some guy came along and I proceeded to donk the whole £200 or thereabouts I had left to him, wp ironmonk, twat!