The Iron Blog

Still got it!

2010-10-24T18:16:00.002+01:00

Not bad for a mornings/afternoons work!

2010-04-18T14:27:00.004+01:00

Yes I am still alive and playing poker. Blogging just got kind of old. However, today was a good day! I woke up unusually early for a Sunday and logged on to PKR. The Aussie Classic was in late registration so I played that. Shortly after I registered for the Deep and Steep. Well I shipped the Deep and Steep 1st/43 for $370 and a couple hours later came 2nd/146 in the Aussie Classic for $934 - so close to double shippage, argh!

Obv just small brag post as it's always nice to do well in MTT's. I might start blogging again properly, but it just got boring, it seems a lot of the blogs I read are following similar trends too. We shall see.

Sigh

2010-02-21T23:33:00.003Z

So I played the Super Sunday Million, over $1.1mil for first! Was playing well, nice and solid, then this happened....

This would have put me top 20 at the time!

Can I ever fold this hand? I pretty much knew what I was gonna be shown, fml!

Oh well, no million dollars for me, annoying cos I felt like I was gonna play really well, next time.

Not done yet...

2010-02-19T05:22:00.011Z

I still want to keep this blog up but recently I haven't wanted to blog at all. There is lots poker related I could talk about, but for some reason I don't want to put up details of my finances for anyone to read any more (not that many do but still).

I will be posting an update soon, poker is going well, that's the main thing. I aim on playing the $4 million guaranteed Sunday Milly this weekend, at least $1mil for 1st, omg one fucking tiiiime!!!

My sleeping pattern is so messed up at the moment, (writing this at 5:45am), I'm pretty much nocturnal these days it's not good!

I'm going to leave with one of my favourite videos of my time in Vegas. The Bellagio fountains epitomise Vegas for me, I think they are awesome! This was the first time we saw them and what a great song to kick off with! Every time I watch it I just wanna go back...

OK so I can't get the vid to upload right now it was taking forver, but I stumbled across this on youtube whilst I was waiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XCl2feM7gs&feature=grec. I had to stop watching after 2 minutes, I can't stand animal cruelty, how can people be so fucking heartless to these poor creatures all for the sake of 'entertainment'. It makes me so sad and angry, horses are lovely animals, hope these cunts burn in hell.

A reindeer won a poker tournament!

2009-12-19T23:46:00.007Z

Yeah so I update my blog for the first time in about a month simply to post a small win. Well it's my blog and I do what I want! It may have only been 27 runners but it took about 4 hours because it was deepstacked. I went from chip leader with 11 left to short stack with 8 left to win.

I just haven't been remotely motivated to post at the moment. I still want to write up my Vegas trip. I guess I go through phases of wanting to blog a lot and not.

I'm still playing poker on nearly a daily basis. I'm withdrawing $100 every day for a wage since I'm not working. Back on PKR, span up from nothing as usual, but that site has sooooo many bad players it's unreal. Also, I am sticking to $100NL, I have not played higher in about 2 weeks, no matter how bad the swings! To me this is turning a new leaf. I even had an 11+ buy in day the other week, probably my best result in terms of buy ins in a day in my whole poker career! The roll is healthy but not gonna disclose that kinda shit anymore. Anyway my small brag post is over, I might get the big bad blogging bug back before bad beats befall me.

Back home

2009-11-19T17:51:00.003Z

Well made it back in one piece. Will do a proper post soon. Jet lag really taking it's toll, man England seems so dull and boring now!

Vegas, wow...

2009-11-13T00:22:00.004Z

This is not gonna be a detailed Vegas post I think I will write about it more fully when I get home but I had my first live cash game last night so thought I should write a few things.

Firstly, wow, Vegas is amazing. Check out tree man above from the Bellagio, this thing moved and spoke, lol. We flew in at night which for your first time in Vegas I think has to be done, the city is a different place at night all lit up and is just amazing. There is loads I could talk about but that will have to wait.

So last night I played my first bit of poker here in Sin City. I'm staying in the Mirage and after kinda passing out for about half an hour owing to drink and serious lack of sleep and body clock all over the place I went downstairs to the poker room to see what was going on. I was a bit nervous at first I have to admit but the staff are very friendly. I initially put my name down for a $70 sit and go as I didn't wanna risk too much but this never got going and I got bored waiting so chose to sit in a $1/$2 cash game. Min buy in $100, max $300 so I opted to sit with $150. I took the 4 seat and was dealt cards before I had even sat down and got my chips sorted, not sure if I was supposed to post a blind or whatever I looked at 910o and quickly mucked. The flop came 99x...

I was a bit nervous at first, this was my first live cash game ever so I played very tight to begin with, folded KQo UTG for the flop to come KKx, lol. After about 15 mins of bad cards I pick up 2 red aces in position, the game was quite loose and it wasn't uncommon to see a pre flop raise of between $10-$18 get 2 or 3 callers. So 1 limper and I throw in $15 with my aces and everyone folds, great. Very next hand I get AhKh and make it $10, this time I get 3 callers... The flop could have been worse when it came 7h8h10h, was anyone playing my favourite hand of J9 suited? Anyway two checks to me I bet $25, guy behind me folds and the two checkers both call, nice, please blank the turn I think. Turn 3 non heart, sweet. Two checks to me again and by now my heart is pumping a bit and my hand is even shaking a little. I'm a bit rookie at counting out my chips compared to everyone else but somehow manage to fumble $50 and throw it in with my may-as-well-be nuts. First guy who is very loose but had a big stack and was a decent player now makes it $100, other guy folds and I can't believe my luck and ship the rest in which he duly calls with 6h4h, he misses his 2 outs and I scoop a massive pot. I can't tell you how great it felt to scoop in all those $5 chips, soooooooo much more satisfying than playing online. I tipped the dealer $5 (more than anyone else ever did, in fact I tipped them more than anyone did frequently, karma ftw). So it was fun to stack those chips and I felt a lot better with a stack and gradually relaxed into the game.

Two other hands of note, I am basically in a 4 way raised and 3 bet pot with Ad3d (don't ask). The flop comes xQQ, checked round, turn Q, checked round, river Q giving me the nuts, checked to me and I maybe a little too excitedly push forward one of the $50 stacks I have my chips divided into. Everyone folds and Mr.Loose asks me to show the ace so I oblige, there was quite a bit of showing going on, the game was friendly and relaxed with no one sitting there with hoodies and shades thinking they are Phil Ivey so it was all good.

Finally, I am dealt the 7d UTG but the dealer flips it so the card is dead. Next card 2, so I would have had 72o, great. Because of the misdeal however I'm obvioulsy given another card which is of course a 2. So I limp and a couple of others do and we see an AK9 flop with two diamonds, checked round and the turn brings the 2d for my set. I bet $10 and get raised another $45. Everyone else folds, I'm not sure I can put him on a flush but I just call half-hoping the board would pair. River is non diamond Q and I check. To my surprise he checks as well and shows A9 for two pair, (bet the flop maybe?!). So I scoop another nice pot, thanks for the mis-deal dealer!

I played for 2 and a half hours in total and left the table $264 up - not bad for my first live cash game! I wanted to leave with profit and a couple of people had left the table and I didn't wanna play too long. It was great fun though, the Mirage card room is really good and one of the better ones from what I have seen of the other casinos and I have seen a lot now! What's more drinks are free when you're playing! All people did was give the waitress a $1 chip as a tip so you are basically getting drinks for $1! I didn't have any though as I was just drinking my big bottle of water trying to rehydrate and wanted to observe how things worked. Next time though it's endless drinks for me!

Well, this has already been a lot longer than I intended. It's quarter to 5 in the evening local time here now and the sun is setting and the lights are coming up, this place really transforms at night. I can see the Bellagio fountains display from my 19th floor window, such a great view of the strip it's really something, quite magical in a way.

So I'm off to Vegas...

2009-11-05T14:32:00.005Z

...more on that in a bit.

I haven't felt remotely compelled to blog recently. My poker playing has been typically erratic with some huge swings. I've been busto, span back up, busto again, span back up etc. Played a few sessions at $5/$10, initially successful until Monday night when I played heads up and proceeded to get raped by the deck having all my big hands cracked by the loosest fishiest opponent ever. End result was I did a load of money from my bank and felt the familiar feelings of desperation and despair and will I have to be going back to a shit job sooner than I thought?

I have such a huge psychological problem with poker and it's only when I have a big losing session that the value of the money really hits home and I sit at $100NL with $50 nursing my small stack like it's the last money I have in the world. Where days before I was 3 betting pre flop to $120... When I lose I feel the uncontrollable urge to win it back right now, this couldn't be any worse of an attitude towards poker when we all know it's a game of patience. I guess it's tilt at the end of the day, tilt has many forms and it rears it's ugly head with me far too often. I just don't know what I can do to overcome it, I probably never will in all honesty.

So after some awful sessions playing way over my bankroll I deposited $100 and have proceeded to play sensibly with a couple of semi deep runs in a few MTT's, a little bit of nitty cash play and now have a $500 roll again which only took me two nights to win. I ran like absolute shit in MTT's for weeks, losing every flip, losing huge pots on the river to opponents with a couple of outs, it all could have been so different. This seems to have changed somewhat in the last couple of days and I ran a little better, I ran ridiculously good in an MTT last night which I will write about in a minute because it really is unbelievable, it seems all my run-good was being saved up for this one tourney.

Notable results since last post have been:

5/389 for $1167

5/80 for $560

12/355 for $165

8/700 for $252

So I have over $2K of MTT winnings in October, maybe I should just stick to them and avoid cash? I honestly think if I didn't run so fucking awful in plenty of other MTT's for huge pots I would have made many more final tables too, and slightly deeper runs in any of them would have meant a great score. Anyway on to last nights tourney where I finished 8th of 700. This is ridiculous. I was all in early on with OESD and hit on river, not too amazing. Then about 4 from the bubble, totally card dead and without about 10BB's someone makes it 4000 and I am in the BB with QQ and a 10K stack, obviously all in but my opponent flips AA. The A10x flop doesn't really help matters either but I call for a Jack and the turn delivers with ease, do I hear a King on the river? I sure did! So from 2% on the flop I double up and at least cash. Then a bit later I am card dead again then finally dealt KK. EP raises I shove he calls with A10, flop KQ10 and I'm thinking uh oh, of course the turn is a Jack! But then my run good continues and the river brings another Jack and I'm still alive. Fast forward a while to when I have about a 60k stack. Some guy just raised everyone folded and he showed AA. Very next hand I am dealt 1010 in the BB, same guy raises and I decide to flat. Flop comes J high and I check call his bet, turn another low card I check again this time he bets very big about the pot. I decide to put the rest of my chips in which is not much more to him and to my dismay he flips AA again. But what's this? The river is of course the 10 and I double again. So fucking sick. Not sure I can ever complain about running bad again? But like I said I was more than owed some.

Anyway on to other news my laptop arrived and it's brilliant. Playing PKR on a fast computer is soooooooo much better. Oh yeah, so I'm off to Vegas on Tuesday!!! Since I had money I was like fuck it let's do something, I was originally gonna go to Australia but that was just too expensive so settled on Vegas instead. We don't have direct flights which is a bit shit but it means I get to go to Chicago and LA as well so at least I can say I have been to those places! The fact that I seem to have developed this fear of flying doesn't really help matters especially as I keep having recurring nightmares about plane crashes, fml! But in all honesty it's a stupid fear cos it's so safe so I'm just gonna look at it as an adventure and stop being such a pussy, it's not like I've never been on a plane before! We're gonna be staying at the Mirage which I heard is really nice and from the pictures it looks awesome, I can't wait! Not sure how much poker I'm gonna play out there, it's not gonna be all about poker, there are plenty of other things to do and it's my birthday on the Saturday 14th so to have my birthday in Vegas is gonna be awesome and such a nice change from going to a pub in St.Albans. I'm sure I'll play a tournament or 2 and probably some pissed up cash games at 3 in the morning when I can't sleep. Gonna be awesome to just be able to walk out of the hotel room, down the lift and step into a bustly poker room to play some cash!

I'm going to my sisters house this Saturday for a fireworks party, not at her house her garden is tiny but she lives at the bottom of the hill near Alexandra Palace and they put on a fantastic display every year. She is good mates with a solid poker player better known as grazza, most notably known for taking down the Ladbrokes European Online Championship of Poker Main Event or something for a cool $230,000. Apparently he's up for playing on Saturday so I look forward to some drunken limp/3 betting 72o and taking all his money!

I'll probably do some sort of post from Vegas but until then, let me run good and travel good! Good luck in whatever you're doing, and good luck to Phil Ivey and James Akenhead this Saturday for the main event final table, it sucks that I am just gonna miss being able to see this live but I really hope one of them takes it down. Right that's all for now this post is already long enough, here's to Vegas!

Temporary Pro? (Again...)

2009-10-01T16:57:00.005+01:00

I suppose I should update but I can't really be arsed of late. Not gonna be a long one so I'll sum up. Since last post I got my PKR roll up to $1700 then lost the lot mostly on $5/$10. I put $200 in on Sunday which I have since withdrawn and have a roll of about $1100 now. Some of that thanks to a multi I played on Monday, 38 runners, $66 buy in, and I got to heads up with about 140K to my opponents 10k and still managed to lose! I was proper pissed off as you can imagine and had to settle for $548 for 2nd, 1st paid $912, fml etc. I finished work last Friday so I guess that wasn't to bad as my first day as a 'pro'.

I say this cos I want to go to Australia in November, so there's not much point getting another shite job before then, so I'm just gonna play poker instead! Poker has gone so well recently, (as long as I don't play $5/$10). I have withdrawn somewhere in the region of £5k to my bank in last couple months, which is a lot to me! Oh yeah and I bought my laptop! It's worth £820 but I got it for £670, can't wait for it to arrive, gonna be so nice to play PKR on a fast computer for a change!

I am all too aware now of how much I overuse exclamation points it makes me sound like some sort of excited poker elf or something! yay!!!

So yeah, poker's going well, I love not having to go to a shit job every day and going to the gym when it's quiet during the day. Have so much more free time in general. No idea what the long term solution is but for now I'm more than happy just playing poker. Need to find a cheap flight to Aus tho.

I'll try and update about once a week to track my progress, I'm playing $100nl and a few multis here and there, good game!

edit: I almost forgot, a very happy 15th birthday to my dog Rosie, 15 years old and still going strong, she really is something, big woof!

re-edit: Just played the Thursday night primetime on PKR. $60 buy in $15K guaranteed terminator. I bust 19/408 for $220.56 including heads taken. Obviously my QQ is no match for 86o FUCK OFF!!!! This shit life tilts me so bad, it was $3916 ftw. Arghhhhhhhhhh I hate it :-(
Bankroll - $1440, whatever.

Grrr

2009-09-14T00:35:00.003+01:00

Just played that $120 tournament on PKR. Just over 6 hours and I bust in 12/245 for $382.20. My KQo losing to JQo AIPF with a lovely Jack on the river- piss off! It was $7.3k FTW, ah well it only cost me $16 to get in so not bad I guess. Withdrew another $580 leaving me with a $400 roll, got work at 8 tomorrow and I so can't be fucked, but I leave in 2 weeks, oh how I can't wait! Good night.

Sick day

2009-09-10T19:25:00.005+01:00

So yesterday morning I woke up and after a few too many late nights etc I was just not gonna make it in to work so I took a sickie. Obviously played poker; a couple of multis on stars to no avail and of course some PKR. Well I won about $900 in cash games on PKR, the vast majority coming from some guy heads up. Compare this to what I earn working a boring job all day and it really is just laughable. I also won a $16 satellite for a $120 tournament ticket. Also went to Chiquitos for the first time and it was lush and we even got 50% off the entire bill because they took so long to bring us our mains - result!

I withdrew about $670 but with Stars deposits this came to $602.42, leaving myself with a $500 roll.

So a sick day in more than one sense, I think I should take them more often!

100th Post!

2009-09-07T19:12:00.006+01:00

I noticed that this is the 100th post of my blog, it's hard to believe I have been writing this thing on and off now for over 2 years, but I'm happy that I have it and it's always good to have for poker memories and whatever. It is with great pleasure therefore that my 100th post is a positive one!

Ok so in my last post I had a PKR roll of $1007. Well, this now stands at about $200... but only because I have withdrawn $2109.47! I was playing just cash games for about a week then last Friday I got home from work to a relaxing free house and thought I would settle down for a joint and the $5 rebuy. Now this was probably about the 3rd or 4th multi I had played on PKR since my recent win and a couple of hours later and with a $10 investment, this was the result -

- another first! Ok so the money wasn't massive but it really is the winning that is important and feels so good. I played a very different game to my usual, I had been chatting about poker with my mate all week at work and tried a lot more moves which basically came down to being a lot more aggressive, I guess it worked! I played a few more MTTs on PKR over the weekend but failed to even cash, often building a big stack but then losing a big coin flip or whatever. I'm happy with my game at the moment though and my confidence is high so I feel more decent results are on the horizon.

Which leads me to talk about the WCOOP on Stars, because lets face it where else do you want a sick deep run/decent result than in one of these bad boys. Most people who read this will be aware of these tournaments, last year I managed to qualify for 2 events via step satellites, the $530 two day event and the $215 4-max event. So I thought I would have a go this year, played various formats and in a $530 qualifier where I was in for $10 I lost a huge pot near the bubble with JJ against K6 AIPF to guarantee a seat, and in one for a $215 event the same thing happened with my AKd against J7o AIPF for again a huge pot to guarantee a seat. The guy who decided to shove with J7 and won the pot was about 2nd in chips after this point, 19 got a seat and with about 27 left he still manages to bust out in 22nd or something, he just kept shoving pretty much every hand, what a twat!

So after getting seriously pissed off with satellites I just thought fuck it and decided to buy in direct to the $215 event last night - only 11,000+ runners, why not! I bought in late towards the end of the first hour and was playing solidly then after about another hour I lose a biggish pot with AKo to 1010 AIPF, this leaves me with about 2500 and shortly after this goes when my AQc fails to get there against JJ AIPF, waste of £130 that was!

One satellite that I did however manage to win was the $10 buy in to the $77 final on Sundays for UK players only. The final basically awards a $600 package to a side event in the EPT London later this month with a £330 tourney buy in and expenses etc. It's a great value tournament because there is 18 guaranteed packages and only had about 55 runners in last night! Despite this however, you only get a 1500 starting stack and with blinds at 100/200 I shove my 1500 or so chips with 88 in late position when it's folded to me, I get an insta call from a guy in the blinds with about 1000 more than me and he shows AJs and I know already that I'm gonna lose another race so I bust in like 30th! It's a great value tournament though with so few runners so this Sunday I think I'm gonna just buy in direct because it would be really fun to play a side event at the EPT I didn't even know they did them. Just let me win next time dammit! I'm pretty confident in my satellite game so fingers crossed.

So what with depositing on stars over the weekend and that stupid $215 buy in waste my withdrawings since last post total $1664.17, still pretty good for me, actually having something to show for playing poker rather than losing all my profit like I used to usually do. I hope I can keep this up; win a bit, withdraw a bit etc etc.

So I'm not sure if I will play any more WCOOP events, I'm certain I won't be buying in again, despite the lure of big scores I have to accept that I can't afford it, and playing satellites sometimes you feel like you may as well have bought in anyway because of the amount you can spend on them especially rebuys!

Goal for 200th post - to have a 5 figure score in a tournament!

Update

2009-08-31T20:59:00.009+01:00

Well I haven't exactly been very active on the blog front recently, the main reason being that I just can't be arsed! However I'm in good spirits poker wise so I thought it's high time for an update.

Let's see what I can remember. Firstly - The Challenge. Now I did my very very best in order to stick to $50NL, honest I did, but I can say, without exaggeration, that I ran the worst I have ever done in my entire life. I lost buy in after buy in despite being a huge favourite, I saw some incredibly disgusting beats. One outers for a straight flush to beat my made one? No problem. Runner runner straights to bust my sets? Of course! I guess this is what they call 'variance'. Well bah, I call it the withdrawal curse! So I inevitably moved up levels and eventually bust my account. This led to me re-depositing, spinning up in a big room, withdrawing what I had deposited, getting a roll again, then losing it. This whole process repeated about 3 times 'til I thought 'enough is enough'. I guess I have finally come to terms with the fact that I will probably never be a bankroll managed winning player, I can't cope with the ridiculous beat after beat, but hey at least I tried!

I was feeling shitty, I had to pay out over £400 on my car which sucked, I had a holiday to France coming up and my money was dwindling rapidly. I was also smoking too much weed which is something I haven't done since my school days, call it boredom with my job and the fact that it is so readily available from my co-workers, it doesn't take long to get back in the habit. Being stoned can help with poker sometimes however, thinking on another deeper level or something...

So anyway a couple of weeks ago I had popped over to see my Dad after work then back home, I knew I was staying in that night so fancied playing the Daily $17K on PKR. I registered for it, then took my dog out for a walk to have a joint before getting back just in time to see my first hand dealt. Well as my previous post showed, I went on to take 1st place and I was over the moon, I withdrew the lot, my money issues were sorted just like that! It was funny cos I was telling my mate at work that very day that 'I think I might take down the $17K tonight', I might have to start positive thinking more often! I even made it to work the next day despite me telling myself that I would bunk if I took it down, I'm glad I did, money is money after all!

So that Saturday I went to stay in my Dad's place in France. Really really needed the break especially from the boring job, and I had a fantastic time. There is even a new casino literally a 2 minute bike ride from my Dad's place in Lacanau-Océan. We went there a couple of times, it's a pretty small affair, but upstairs they had live cash games! The only problem was the stakes were €2/€4 and despite my recent win, and the fact that French players are often huge donks, I resisted the urge to sit, I'm so un-degenerate!

The break did me the world of good, Lacanau is a nice place, and the waves in the evening get fucking mental right up to the shore I lost count of the amount of times I got taken clean out and slammed into the sand, span upside down with water all around me, shooting up my nose (I hate that) thinking I was gonna drown, it's kinda scary especially the first time! No wonder my step-mum has seen a body being taken out of the sea there once! I have drunk far too much as well, every day for over 2 weeks! I think I need a detox!

On a side note, I finished watching Prison Break season 4 whilst I was away, I love Prison Break it's such a great show and they ended it perfectly in my opinion, although really sad! Also, I read The Time Traveler's Wife, I used to love reading but really don't read anything these days. However I'm glad I read this book 'cos it's fucking brilliant. I strongly urge anyone to read it no matter what your taste in fiction is, it deals with a very complex subject matter so well you just have to go and read it, it's in my top 5 books definitely. I know the film is out right now but it looks gash and lets face it what films are ever as good as the book?

I digress, so back to the poker. Last Tuesday I decided to play again so deposited $500 on to PKR and played some $100NL. I have since withdrawn that $500 and the roll now sits at $1,007. So I've made $1000 in a week, woo! I'm very tempted to just withdraw this because it's not like this is the first time I've won a decent amount, only usually I go on to lose it. This amount 'should' probably be in the region of about $2K owing to some of the horrible fucking dirty beats I've had; one that springs to mind today is me with A10 against some donkey with A4 on an A104 flop, all the money in on the flop and the 4 hits the turn with ease, bye bye $250. You have to laugh really, I've done well not to tilt, toooooooo much... However I know that if i go on a bad run and lose 4-5 buy in's the rest will probably follow, so withdrawing the lot does seem like a good option right now, only I will want to play again, and so the circle continues.

Finally, I want to buy a laptop, always wanted one and I want to treat myself, budget of about £500-£600. I am leaning towards the Dell Studio 17, but have heard mixed reviews of Dell computers. Also I don't know if a 17" screen will be too big, there are so many out there I can't bloody decide! So if anyone has any good laptop advice I would be very grateful to hear it. That's about it for now I think, I'm gonna try and update more frequently if I can. Back to work tomorrow after 17 days off, I so don't wanna go back! Take care people.

SHIIIIIIIPPPP ITTTTTTTT!!! (Happiness is a poker tournament).

2009-08-13T02:23:00.008+01:00

What better way to make a comeback to posting than with this little beauty! Man I have a lot I could blog about but for now I'll just say I'm so fucking happy to win this tourney on PKR, on about my 10th attempt which included one other final table finish.

Great tournament, I really played some of my best poker, made some imo great calls and was never all in behind the whole game (I think). I would like to do a report on this tournament if I can be arsed to find the hand histories cos there were some interesting hands.

I even got a brutal runner runner beat when I was 95% on the flop to make me short stack with 15 left, but I battled back.

When we got down to 3 handed on the final table the fucking batteries in my mouse went! This happened recently and I was only able to change one battery with a half used one so this time i thought the game's up, fml I thought as I had no other batteries. I fiddled them about however and thankfully they held up :) LOL.

This is my 2nd biggest tournament win ever, and I am really buzzing right now despite the fact that it is 02:30am. I'm supposed to be in work in 5 and a half hours but I think I might do a bunk :)

This couldn't have come at a better time as I had to spend bills on my car last week and I'm off to France on Saturday so the report might have to wait. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I love this feeling, 1st place one time whoooop!!!! Yessssssssssssssss!!!

1st target reached

2009-07-12T16:08:00.006+01:00

I'm pleased to say that I have reached my first target of $1,600! So as I said I would do I have withdrawn the $600 original deposit so now it is all profit I am playing with. The next target is $3,000 when I can move up to $100NL...

It has been a topsy turvy week, after writing my last post I dropped nearly $200 that night which was not nice. The roll dropped to just under $1,000 but I battled back without tilting and without moving up levels despite running very bad at the beginning of the week. I just left 2 rooms on nearly $300 stacks in both which was really great to be doing so well.

I have been playing quite a bit of heads up too and beating most people, I left one room yesterday with a $430 stack :-). The only problem is a lot of players only sit with $10 or $16.48 or something so I request that they sit with at least $30 to play, is that wrong? But I'm not gonna risk $50+ to win $10 am I?

I will probably update on my little challenge once a week at the weekend, unless I take down a nice multi or something and want a brag post ;-)

Trying to work off this $600 bonus but it's taking a while, I need to up the volume as I haven't been playing much at all and I only have till the end of August to do it and am on about 20% now.

Oh yeah almost forgot I went to see Bruno on Friday and I thought it was fucking hilarious! That guy has some big cahunas that's for sure.

I guess my blog won't be too interesting for a while (has it ever been?!) but it's all about the challenge right now I need to prove that I can do this. I'm up over $1000 at $50NL in 2 weeks and 3 days so my confidence is high, I just hope I can maintain it.

Grinding FTW.

Bankroll - $1,051.91

So far so good...

2009-07-05T12:00:00.003+01:00

I crossed the $1000 mark a couple of days ago so things are going well so far! This isn't with rakeback however as my deal was only activated on the 1st of July so I am only now starting to earn rakeback.

So I'm up just over $600 and all at $50NL! I haven't even been tempted to move up at all, although I did accidentally sit in $100NL once as I was choosing room based on average pot size but as soon as I realised my mistake I left straight away after like 2 hands lol.

I want to play the $100 Super Series $35K main event tonight as it's 6 max which I am far better at and deep stack too. Although obviously $100 is not in my bankroll I might try and sat in, whatever I dunno.

I'm really enjoying playing at the moment, there is a certain calmness in being bankrolled properly for a level, it's refreshing.

So just a short one, I hope I can keep up the winning and reach my first target of $1600!

Bankroll - $1,202

Challenge

2009-06-28T09:11:00.005+01:00

It's time to get serious. I have set myself a challenge that I am going to try my hardest to stick to. The premise is quite simple, bankroll management.

PKR are doing a reload bonus, up to $600. So I thought I would take advantage of this and deposit the full $600. I need to earn something like 150,000 points to clear it but I will get this eventually and I have a couple of months to do it.

So anyway, here's the plan. Play NO HIGHER than $50NL. OK I know starting with 12 buy ins is not the best bankroll management but I'm confident at this level especially at $50NL. So, as a rough plan, play $50NL until I reach $1600, then withdraw the $600 I originally deposited. Continue at this level until I reach $3000 (lol) then move up to $100 and move back down again if I fall below $2000. Further withdrawals might come into it but I'll think more about that later. Getting rich quick is just gonna have to wait, it's all about the grind!

I know this sounds a little optimistic, but I neeeeeeeeeed to try this for my own sanity and to prove that I can win in the long term. It's gonna be hard not to tilt but of course it wouldn't be a challenge if it wasn't hard would it?

So here goes, $50NL for ages probably! I hope to be able to move up to $100NL by Christmas. Rakeback and the $600 bonus should obviously help a lot. I will play 2 rooms max because my computer has enough trouble dealing with that anyway. As for tournaments, as a general rule play no higher then $20 games I guess, but there might be some good value higher ones every now and then, I will have to see.

A little example of some of the players on PKR at this level. I raise KK pre to $3 on a loose table and get 2 callers, flop is 653 with two hearts and I overbet the $9 pot with an $11 bet or something, get one caller, turn is another 6 and I put the guy all in, he insta calls with A5o and I river the K anyway, lol.

So anyway, here goes, I really hope I can do this!

So far...

Thursday +$114
Friday +$47

Bankroll - $761

Déjà Vu

2009-06-21T22:09:00.004+01:00

To hell with it.

How many times have I been here? At this moment in time I'm giving serious consideration to just giving up poker for good. Let me explain.

After my last post I built up my PKR roll to $1700 at peak, a nice sum of money by any standards, mine especially. At this stage I was even sticking mainly to $100NL. However if I have a losing session, something happens to me and I just move up levels. This I did last weekend, I went down to about $200 at worst, then back up to $1400, phew I thought. Later though it all went, I even played some $5/$10. So later in the week I deposit $500, start again. Friday night just gone I sat in a $1/$2 room at 20:30, by half past midnight my stack read $1,231 and I left the room. Over $1000 made in 4 hours at $1/$2, I impressed myself. I then withdrew the $500 and got the rest up to about $1070 at peak, back in the game.

Last night however I didn't listen to the voice inside my head and play $5/$10 again, it's not long before it's gone. I reach for the deposit page and try to deposit $800 but I can't as I have weekly deposit limits set up. So $500 is all I was allowed. I sit back in, get down to about $390. Then clearly on tilt I call a $40 raise in position with J3s. Three of us to the J high flop with two spades, perfect. It's checked to me and I decide to shove, then the first to check moves all in and has the pre flop raiser covered, he folds. I know what he has with this play, I know 100% what he has and I'm not happy about it, the nut flush draw, sure enough he shows A8s. No spade no ace I think, as you do. Instant service on the turn as the spade drops and my flush is no good to his, an ace on the river just to rub it in that if he has missed the flush, he still beats me. I can't deposit any more and I'm done for the night.

Today then I try and deposit more but I have a $1000 weekly deposit limit, I try and change this but you need 3 forms of documentation and it takes 2 days anyway, fuck that. So I avoid playing all day and decide to register for the Sunday Warm Up on Stars. It's only the equivalent of £130, who cares right?! I'm out within 15 minutes when I slow play KK and lose to a flopped set of 3's. I couldn't get away from the hand, maybe I'm not good enough?

So, a bit later, I decide to give myself a roll on Interpoker simply because of rakeback (oh yeah I lost the £150 or so I had in here earlier in the week). I play heads up for a bit, win a bit, then move on to £50NL 5-max. I win a bit then lose a bit, and in the end I just think, fuck it. I left the rooms and withdrew £516, I cashed a win of £16!!! I was not having any fun whilst playing, and the thought of losing it just depressed me further. I felt like my soul was being consumed by poker, respect to anyone who does this shit for a living, it's just too sick.

So, as the blog title suggests, I'm getting the slightest feeling of déjà vu here. How many times have I been here before? Am I just a really bad player? I just don't know anymore, I think I'm probably average at best but I seem incapable of banking a win. Every time I win I am reluctant to withdraw, wanting to build my roll more and more, getting greedy and wanting more money. Maybe that's my downfall. The prospect of another boring week at work for shit money is not particularly great, I feel poker is my only means of escape, the only way I'm ever gonna have money, but it hasn't happened yet, am I just kidding myself? Probably. I have A levels and a degree in English but I spend my days weeding and cutting the heads of dead roses with people who left school at 16. I don't mean to sound like a snob but is this really all there is for me? Why did I bother with education if this is where it has got me? My sister has moved out to Sydney and I want to go and visit her, but flights are so expensive I just can't afford it. Am I destined to live this mundane existence with drink and weed being the only escape?

Ha, listen to me rattling on like a moron, whatever I just needed to say how I felt, I love this sick game, but maybe I have to finally accept that I will never be a winning player. This could well be my last post in a while, good luck to all those out there who play this insane game, and I wish myself luck in whatever it is I decide to do, God knows I'll need it.

Reckless

2009-06-01T21:41:00.004+01:00

I need to learn respect for money. I have been playing on PKR a lot recently. At first I was just dabbling in a few tournies here and there, going for a big score. Nothing came of it though, so I made the decision to deposit enough money to make it as though I had put down one deposit of $500 and had just lost a few tournies, this equated to about $330. I fucked around in cash games, spinning up to something like $800. I then withdrew the $500 so I was playing with just profit. I played lots more cash getting up to about $930 at peak with money still in play. Dropping to $500, back up to $800 etc etc this went on. Playing first $100NL, then $200 and some $400 too, my brm skills are second to none.

So yesterday I have about $700. Playing $1/$2, I build a stack, things are going well, then I proceed to get royally butt fucked by the deck. A couple of examples; me 99 flop AA9 her AQ all the money in turn an A for $400 pot. Me 79 flop 79J both all in her 10J turn is an 8. I cleverly move to $2/$4 and lose another biggie with 58h on a Q746 board with 2 hearts, he has Q7, river a 7. Dirty beats kept happening but whatever, my account was soon $0. By the way the amount of bad players on PKR is not even funny, if you can make a hand you can get paid off big time.

I go away for a bit, get some breakfast, come back and deposit $300. Sit in a $3/$6 game. Make some great calls in a fairly aggressive game and leave the room on just over $600. I then withdrew the $300 and sat in $2/$4 again with the lot. I lose all but about $24 when I stack off with K9h on an AhJhx flop against a set of jacks and I miss (yeah I'm a fish). Feeling pretty shit about almost busto again however I get KK and more than double up. Then I get 77, flat a raise to see a 78x flop I check raise all in and he has a flush draw with KQs, he misses. The only other hand I remember is limping UTG with 33, BB makes it $14 and I call. Flop Qd3d8d, he bets $30 and I call, turn a blank, he bets $65 ish and I flat call again. River is the disgusting 4d putting the 4th diamond out there. He bets $100 in to me and I do the standard '/grr' emote and get ready to fold before my brain kicks in and I give it a quick think, go with my gut and call, he shows AKc and somehow my stack has grown from $25 to over $700 in about 3o mins! I'm a lucky? shitbag sometimes, I just wish I could do a nice spin up without having lost a load first so it's actually profit!

Earlier I sat in a $5/$10 10 handed game and just sat out and watched for a bit. Temptation getting the better of me though I sat in after a while for my BB, as soon as I had done this I regretted it though lol. One short stack limper and it's folded to me, I make it $50 with AQh, give it the '/bringiton' and the short stack folds. I immediately sit out with my $15 profit. What the fuck is wrong with me why do I feel the need to play so high?! Cos I fucking love the heart pounding rush of getting all the money in with a set, hoping it holds and winning a massive pot. That's why.

I head off to E-game's house later to play a home game 5 handed. Some interesting hands, only one I'm gonna mention is when I have 86s in the SB, one limper, I complete, E-game puts in a small raise from the BB, both me and the limper call. Flop is a fairly pleasing 6 10 6, I check, E-game bets 1000, next guy min raises, and I think for a while about how to try and disguise the fact I have a 6. Kinda hard, I think flat calling here is just as strong as raising really, but maybe slightly weaker, so I flat the 2000. E-game then decides he wants to move all in for maybe 6k ish more. Other guy folds and I of course call, E-game shows AA... turn blanks and river is of course the A of diamonds. The burn card was also an ace it was revealed. So I essentially got 1 outtered for a big pot, fml I am so rigged. Luckily I had chipped up to about 15K before the hand so I was far from out, but also far from a huge stack. It was getting late so we made a deal that 3rd got their money back and I went out very shortly after in 3rd, woo!

That's all for now, I got asked if I would stay on my job over the summer, and I agreed, not really having a choice, so I will be working their until September unless anything better comes along, I need to actually look for this to happen though...

Good luck out there...oh yeah one more thing - I got 96Euros rakeback on Interpoker, let's see where this leads!

I'm rich!

2009-05-16T17:19:00.004+01:00

Well, sort of. Not through poker though, I'll explain in a minute. First though, after the success of my last post the inevitable happened and I lost the £350; a couple of coolers and it's all over with only a couple of buy ins. I couldn't find a fold with K6 on a K67 rainbow flop out of the SB in a limped family pot for example, he had 77 of course. Losing this didn't really bother me that much it was likely to happen and I knew that, and it's not like it's the first time I've lost that amount of money! I just wish I could bring myself to withdraw more when I win nice sums of cash, but no I always tell myself I want to build a roll and end up losing it, countless times I could have withdrawn decent amounts. Oh well. I went on to lose another £90 from my bank, but stopped there, which I thought rather disicplined. I still managed to bank a win of about £150 or so over the week or so period, and of course made some rakeback, so not all was lost!

So I've not played poker in nearly a week, owing to lack of funds and working overtime at my job, coupled with gym and having some sort of social life doesn't leave a lot of free time. But anyway on to the rich bit. I think I mentioned in a previous post about the money I am owed from my last job, just under £5,000. I have been owed this for nearly a year now and never thought I would see a penny of it really. However some meeting occured with their accountants and we were told we should get something, I filled out some form they sent me and thought no more of it. Well on Friday morning before work I go to check my online banking to see if I had been paid my wages (I hadn't, surprisingly) but to my shock/joy there was an automated credit for £1896 gone into my account!!! I had no idea this was coming and was a little taken aback, but it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day, despite spending all day weeding! I was hoping it wasn't some error my boss had made because the transaction didn't say where it was from at first, I found out when I got home however it was indeed some insolvency money so happy days! They owe me more of course but that should come at a later date.

All it really means though is that I am no longer overdrawn and just slightly in the black with regards to my bank account for the first time in aaaaaaages. But when it says I have over £2,000 available it does look so nice and tempting! I have to remember I have a £2K overdraft though, bank's money not mine! I haven't put any into poker yet, I'm hesitant to, although having money in my bank makes me feel strange and I feel like I need to spend it on things so that I don't waste it playing poker. I will see how it goes, please let me stay away from £10/£20 one time!

Some action

2009-05-07T22:13:00.010+01:00

I haven't been playing poker as much as I once did, owing to having a full time job and bit of a lack of funds. I built up a roll on Stars from a $100 deposit. Withdrew the 100 and was left with 270, but I lost it playing mainly HU games I think. Last Sunday I deposited £50 on to Interpoker and played some £50NL and managed to win some. I withdrew £75 for a small profit and played on with the rest. As of Friday night I had got up to £279, and after a hard week at work I settled down with a few beers to see what I could do at £100NL. Frustrating session however, not being able to hit hands, getting pushed about a bit by aggressive Europeans which worked as I was playing scared money. I ended up losing it all.

I had been paid 2 weeks wages on Thursday so as soon as I lost the last pot I automatically reached for the deposit page, ignoring the voice in my head telling me I was gonna lose all my hard earned money, it was impossible to not re-deposit. So I put £100 in, got up to £193 and then lost the lot, again. So again I deposit another £100, I knuckle down, I can beat these clowns I thought, just play good fool! This is getting bad now I was thinking, I can't afford to be losing this money, have debts to pay, but tilt is too strong. I finished the night on roughly £150.

Saturday - play some more, I win a nice pot with AA. It goes like this. Folded to the SB who makes it £3, I make it £14 (a little large but I did this same raise to this same player a few hands before so I know he thinks I'm at it and doesn't wanna get pushed around. Flop 333, so ideal for aces, he checks, I check, gotta look weak. Turn a K, he checks, I bet £15 and he insta-shoves for another £83 or so to me! I can't call quickly enough and ship the pot my way as he shows K8. After this I have about £293 in my account. So I do something sensible for once and withdraw the £200 I had deposited and leave myself with £93. I play more later, super loose and super aggressive on a table with another even looser player who called 99% of my raises pre flop. I get down to £38ish at worst but leave the room on about £200 I think, not entirely sure.

I play a bit more here and there and bank a couple of £50 wins. Want something to show for the money so withdraw £100. I play again today, two rooms of £150NL this time. On one table I make over £200 and leave, I stay on the other though, because it was ridiculously loose. I raised to £9 on more than one occasion pre flop and got calls from all 4 other players. Almost every pot was a family pot regardless of pre flop raises. Lots of the players on the Boss network are crazy Europeans so it can be very profitable! Here is a nice pot I win with Aces, it shows dollars but I'm playing in pounds. Another ideal flop for my hand, I wonder what he had? Annoying that the hand history doesn't show what they had when they muck. I had been raising a lot pre flop quite large with good starting hands but having to check missed flops because the entire table would usually call, so I think my check here is the right play. At best I'm up £150 in this room but leave £80 up. I withdraw £122 to leave me with exactly a £350 roll. So I make it that I'm up £625 since yesterday morning and about £550 on the week, not entirely sure and I can't be bothered to work it out. Of course I'm earning rake back all the time as well.

So I guess it worked out well this weekend, it could have been a different story of course, I need to be careful. At least I have won a bit of money to pay for things like my car tax which is due and over £100 for 6 months! I need a set of new wheels for my car because one of the alloys is totally cracked, not gonna go for anything flashy though I'm not that bothered, no idea where to get them from either and what size etc? Anyway I have a £350 roll now! How long will it last?! I should obviously play lower, but I just have no interest in grinding right now, I don't have the time to put the hours in and it just bores me. I like the feeling of winning big pots, lol.

Will leave with this hand that I played sometime mid week (£ not $!). It was a turbo room and I literally had what felt like about 6 seconds to make a decision on the turn. The hand just confused me and to be honest I didn't really have a clue if I was ahead, if I had had more time to think about it perhaps I would have folded but the turboness got to me!

I plan to play the $20,000 guaranteed tonight on PKR for $22 buy in if I have had dinner in time. It starts in an hour so not looking too promising lol. Might have to play another on there instead, it's been a while.

Edit: This just happened, what a lucky fish, ouch.

Sigh

2009-04-13T22:05:00.002+01:00

I just spent the last 8 hours of my life playing a $5 MTT on PokerStars. The $10,000 guaranteed became $17,145 when registration ended and there was 3,429 runners. I finished 7th for $360.05, 1st place was $2314.58! These things are so top heavy. Final table I was completely card dead and when I did pick up something mediocre I got 3 bet huge and had to lay it. Ended up blinding away before shoving the button with J9 and being called by the big blind's A10h - jack on the flop but also an ace and it's all over. Bit demoralising as I was playing a great game up until just before the final table and then being card dead. Oh well, $360 is quite welcome at the moment but when you play for soooooooooo long and get close to a (for me) very nice score it's hard to not feel disappointed. I was thinking of how I was gonna spend the money if I won lol. Another time.

Oh well gonna go and make myself some food now it's been a while since I ate! Back to work tomorrow after the 4 day weekend, ho hum!

About time!

2009-04-05T11:34:00.004+01:00

RIGHT! It's about time I updated my blog! I'll see what I can remember from when I last posted although I'm sure I'll forget loads. OK, so I was totally broke and couldn't find a job so I did what I always told myself I wouldn't and signed on at the job centre. The process was fairly easy, have a little interview about what sort of work you want etc, then you turn up every two weeks with your 'work diary', show it to them, sign something and get £120 every two weeks. It's a fucking joke to be honest - the work diary, which is supposed to show everything you are doing to look for work is so easy to fake, and they don't seem to give a shit. I used to fill mine out the night before, don't get me wrong I was looking for jobs, but I would make a lot of it up too. It really is too easy to be out of work, and if £60 a week is enough for you, then what's the incentive to get a job? I read in the paper once about a guy who worked on an oil rig who said he had to be drug tested so that he could earn money. And whilst he said he had no problem helping to pay the dole to help get people back on their feet, he did have a problem with people sitting on their arses and using the money to fund their drinking and drug habits. If he had to pass a drugs test so that he could earn the money he is taxed on, why, therefore, shouldn't those claiming the dole have to pass a drug test too? I couldn't agree with him more, and I have a sneaky suspicion that a hell of a lot of people would all of a sudden be losing their dole if this was introduced. Anyway, £60 a week wasn't enough for me, and I wanted to work, I wanted money, not least so I could play some poker again. Also I was borrowing more and more and things were getting a bit desperate, I had to borrow money from my sister to pay my direct debits and god knows what I would have done without my Dad, he always comes through for me and I'm very lucky.

So I was looking for work with little success. It's a cliche right now but there really is fuck all work out there at the moment, even the most basic office positions are getting so many applicants, it's not a good time to be looking for work. A friend of mine used to work for Ocado and I thought this seemed like a job I might enjoy. I checked out the website and they had positions locally for drivers, I hesitated though, wanting to find out a little more before I filled in the application. Joppa went through the process and I was waiting to see what he wrote about it before I went ahead and did it, cos I'm such a fucking pussy sometimes and I wanted to avoid scary group interview type situations, I thought I would let someone else do it first, taking the easy route again. Alas when I decided to just go ahead and fill out the online form, the job had gone, fml.

So this went on, looking for jobs on the net, going into agencies etc, but I was getting no where. It came to a head when my step dad had had enough of me and launched into a tirade about how I take the piss shouldn't be taking food from the house not paying rent bla bla, and that he would make my life hell if I stayed there. I took that as a hint and moved out to a friends house that night, things weren't looking too good. I was in e-mail correspondence with my Mum whilst I was away and I think he was getting grief from her so we arranged to have a meeting and sort out our differences.

It just so happens that whilst I was 'moved out', I got a call from a mate of mine offering me work. About 2 months working as a gardener in some rose gardens. I said yes, of course, and I have just finished my third week there. The money is crap, £45 a day take home, and it's hard work as you can imagine, especially this last week cos I have been pretty ill, puking and shitting water on Monday night, only now just feeling better, too much info? tough haha. However, I'm working with my mates from school and we have a laugh, when the weather is nice it's great (I got sunburnt in my first week!) and it feels good to actually be working again. Something happens when you work, despite how horrible it is to have to get up early enough to start work at 8, you feel good for it. I'm a much happier person than when I didn't have a job. I had been out of work so long, I was sleeping too much and feeling generally depressed a lot of the time, I can relate a lot to what Joppa and Would-Be write about, I believe it's healthy to be working, and you sure as hell appreciate your weekends more!

So, now I am earning money and getting paid weekly, £225 a week, not great but beggars can't be choosers and in the current climate I am lucky to have work and I certainly appreciate the value of money more! I owe quite a bit obviously so most of what I am getting is going straight to others, but it feels good to pay it back, albeit slowly. The rose gardens open in June so when this job is over it's back to the hunt, I can't wait lol!

ANYWAY, I have rambled on far too much, there is more I wanted to say but this doesn't need to turn in to my life story and it's a poker blog anyway. So, poker. I didn't play for a long time because I was broke, I borrowed some money from a couple of mates on Stars, but it never really went anywhere. When I got hold of a bit of significant money though I wanted to play on Interpoker because of rakeback which I can't stress enough is the most amazing thing to happen to online poker ever, rakeback that is. So crypto is dead, it will always have a good memory for me because it was on crypto that I went on the best spin up of my life a couple of years back, turning £20 into about £8,000 in about 10 days. I won't forget the night I came home drunk after bragging about how I was gonna make millions at online poker, only to lose the lot in a few short hours at £10/£20. I didn't feel anywhere near as depressed as I should have about losing such a vast sum of money, easy come easy go, I thought, oh to have that money now!

So Interpoker is now on the IPN (Independant Poker Network), the software is a bit sucky, instead of 6-max they have 5-max which I actually like, and you can still play in pounds or euros or dollars, and I'm still getting rakeback! So it's all good really. I currently have a roll of about £140 and will see what I can do with it, I still don't have any BRM so I will as easily lose it as spin it up.

Couple of other things I want to mention, I bought Street Fighter IV for my PS3 and it's brillllllliant. Also, I went to see Marley and Me a couple of weeks ago at the cinema, being a dog lover and all. Pretty good film, not remotely the slapstick comedy type film you would believe it to be by the way it is marketed. So I really wasn't prepared for what has to be one of the saddest endings to a film I have ever seen. The sadness is eeked out for about the last 25 minutes of the film and boy do they do a good job! I was actually trying so fucking hard to not cry seeing as I was in a cinema and all, but my god, I defy anyone, dog lover or not, to not shed a tear at this film, practically everyone in the cinema was crying! Seeing as I have an old dog it just made the situation worse! Good film though lol. I would like to end on a quote from the end of the film, this is gonna make me seem like a total dog loving saddo but I don't care cos I thought it was just a great quote and in the context of the film is really quite touching. OK I do sound like a saddo but I don't care, so here it is:

"A dog has no use for fancy cars, or big homes, or designer clothes. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart, and he’ll give you his.

How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare, and pure, and special? How many people can make you feel...extraordinary?"

Big update coming...

2009-03-19T21:15:00.005Z

It's been far too long, a lot has happened. A big update coming this weekend. I know you have all been waiting with baited breath, your patience to be rewarded all 3 readers.

Edit: OK so it's gonna have to wait a bit, I've been too busy and can't be arsed right now!

Fell at the last hurdle

2009-01-25T14:34:00.004Z

Firstly lol at this picture! I haven't posted in a while because I haven't played in a while because I have no money to play with! I bust the Stars roll obviously so since then have had a break. Wanting to play however I used up my points on PKR. I had about 95,000 and used 40,000 to enter some $25 multi which was uneventful. The other points I used on their Heads Up phase tournaments - 5,500 points for a level 1 ticket which is worth $4. There are 10 stages in all with the winner of the final stage getting $380 and the runner up a meagre $95. If you lose stage 3 you go back to stage 1, lose 5 go back to 3 etc. To start with I ran bad and never got past level 2 or maybe 3. I got all the way down to when I had enough points for just one more crack....

...so I used it up, and ended up winning 9 games in a row putting me all the way through to the Final Phase! Of course I lose this though, ffs! My AA got cracked early on by KJ when the guy called a big pot bet on flop to hit his gutshot on the turn with ease. I fucked it up though whatever. I so wanted to write a post about being a 10-wins-in-a-row-heads-up-king, but alas, such is my life! I then went off to tilt a away a buy in at $50NL and sat with my last $45 which is now on $86, I doubt it will last long. I'm job hunting right now so I look forward to a mundane life, not!

Edit: Yep, it's gone. What a fucking waste of time, so demoralising, fuck my life!!!

A little more positive...

2009-01-08T19:37:00.002Z

Ok, so I'm back a lot sooner than I thought and that's cos some money randomly appeared in my bank, so I put it on Stars... about £24. I played a wee bit of $50NL cash earlier for a small profit and just now played an 18 person S&G for $11 and finished 2nd. Now this is by no means on par with winning a WSOP bracelet but it feels extra good because I was down to 188 chips within about the first ten hands. Now usually most people, myself included, would simply give up at this point and shove the chips in on the very next hand. However, I was determined to fight back, play well and a few well timed shoves and I somehow got back in the game. I would have won it too I had a huge chip lead HU and I was one card away but he dinked a 9 on the river. I was also playing $50 NL cash at the same time to stop me from getting bored and sat with $25, this time leaving when up, on $80.

This is all pretty small time but it's just the fact that I didn't give up and played my best to come back from being almost out to one card away from winning the thing. It's just a confidence boost really and I thought I would come and write down how I was feeling, a world apart from the last couple of days, I guess it's just nice to win a bit.

I was also reading an article in some magazine called Stacked that PKR randomly sent me about people feeling that they have the worst luck, especially when it comes to MTT's. A good quote from the article to think about - "Surprisingly few poker players seem to really understand the nature of variance and the maths that underpins the game they play. Yes, they may understand odds but I'm talking about long term expectation on the table... I hear a lot of players moan when their AK doesn't hold up against AQ. They believe they are cursed because they lost a hand when they felt they should have won. Even when someone has a 7:3 chance of winning they could lose five times in a row without it being too uncanny. There are many players that don't see the poker Matrix and simply believe that they are the unluckiest players alive". How true is that? I guess until you can accept that you will get sucked out on again and again you will always have a problem as a poker player, it's something I am definitely going to try and work on, deep breaths...

I have now got $145.15 on Stars, I wonder what will become of it?

More of the same

2009-01-07T18:25:00.005Z

Only played one tournament today, span up the buy in required to play by playing some $0.25/$0.50 HU, then my bust out hand, standard.

I'm so used to it by now but it doesn't hurt any less, when will my hand hold up?

Are you serious? I mean are you really fucking serious!?? Exact same thing happened to me yesterday on PKR, top 20 paid, 10 from the money, DONK min raises UTG, I shove 1010 she calls with 66, pot was for 3rd in chips, 6 on the flop, SIGH.

Man this blog sucks, it's likely I won't be playing for a while now, oh well, I'll be back one day...

Fucking fucking FUCK OFF!!!!

2009-01-06T23:09:00.003Z

My luck is so fucking shit everyone and I mean EVERYONE gets lucky against me yet I can't get a bit of luck against anyone else I am so fucking wound up right now it's unbelievable it's all I can do to not smash the fuck out of my fucking monitor, fuck fuck fuck!

This hand just sent me over the edge I called the fucking river it's so obvious it's not even funny FUCK OFF!!!!!!!!

I know I shouldn't get so wound up but it's been all day plus I need to get a fucking job and the thought of working some mind numbing 9-5 doing the same shit every day making small talk with the same mindless morons everyday is not helping my mood, FUCK MY LIFE!

Lol PKRaments wooo!

2008-12-24T18:42:00.002Z

LOL aces

2008-12-04T02:02:00.006Z

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...

2008-12-01T13:55:00.004Z

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!!!

2008-11-18T13:09:00.002Z

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+.....

2008-10-07T18:18:00.004+01:00

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...

2008-10-03T16:34:00.003+01:00

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

2008-10-01T17:28:00.004+01:00

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

2008-09-27T13:52:00.006+01:00

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??!

2008-09-11T21:13:00.007+01:00

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

2008-09-08T07:07:00.005+01:00

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!

2008-08-31T18:10:00.002+01:00

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

2008-08-28T15:30:00.003+01:00

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

2008-08-25T12:16:00.004+01:00

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...

2008-08-18T19:14:00.003+01:00

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!

2008-08-06T14:26:00.003+01:00

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

2008-08-01T16:47:00.005+01:00

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

2008-08-01T12:48:00.001+01:00

Shit.

PKR fun

2008-07-26T17:42:00.006+01:00

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

2008-07-22T10:25:00.004+01:00

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

2008-07-04T14:19:00.005+01:00

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

2008-07-02T11:48:00.004+01:00

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

2008-06-27T10:54:00.003+01:00

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

2008-06-03T00:23:00.005+01:00

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

2008-05-28T19:05:00.005+01:00

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!

2008-05-25T21:14:00.003+01:00

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

2008-05-21T10:01:00.011+01:00

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.

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

2008-05-16T09:56:00.004+01:00

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

2008-05-15T10:15:00.016+01:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

2008-05-13T00:04:00.002+01:00

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

2008-04-29T15:52:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-23T12:29:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-18T11:22:00.002+01:00

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

2008-04-13T17:40:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-04T00:32:00.001+01:00

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

2008-04-01T10:36:00.004+01:00

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

2008-03-25T15:38:00.002Z

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

2008-03-19T00:31:00.002Z

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!

2008-03-18T09:14:00.002Z

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

2008-03-12T15:08:00.002Z

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!

Crazy times

2008-03-06T09:57:00.002Z

The night before last I played poker till 6am. I was tilting after a couple of coolers and ended up busting my whole roll. The final hand I was playing £2/£5 heads up against a maniac in a 6 seater room, I raised with 10Jd and pushed on a KdQdx flop, he insta called with Q6off and I couldn't hit. Time to go to bed! Earlier in the night I had tried going to bed but I was buzzing and couldn't sleep and all I could think about was playing more so I did. Lots of hands, lots of tables but ultimately I was busto.

So the next day, after little sleep and letting work know I wouldn't be in because I was ill, which was partially true cos I have been feeling like shit recently. I get back on the tables. I deposited £500 and played some £2/£5 still trying to build back losses quickly. I moved on to £1/£2 and $2/$5 heads up play and got very unlucky losing to 3 outters a few times to eventually lose it all. Tilting, I put another £200 in and lost that too! Feeling like things were beginning to spiral out of control, I put another £55 on so I would have the min $100 buy in for $2/$5. I got up to about $240 then my opponent sat out for ages so I left and did the only sensible thing which was to join a $5/$10 room :-). A couple of hours later I cashed out on about $1900 reaching $2K at peak, I was playing very well in this room, making good value bets and not being a fish, it was also a lot of fun playing these stakes and I don't think the players are particularly amazing it was pretty easy really. I pissed about a bit more then stopped playing and withdrew the £755 that I had deposited that day leaving me with a little over £100.

I took a break then donked off that £100 in £2/£5 raising with 910off then pushing an open ended on the flop, got called by a Q high flush draw and his Q high was good for the pot! I deposited another £95 and had dinner. I played again at about 11pm and sat with $199 in a $2/$5 room. By the time I cashed out at 1am I was sitting on a stack just shy of $1000 so I withdrew the £95 which now leaves me with a roll of £400! So I basically managed to turn £50 into about £1400 yesterday, I seem to always get myself out of these scrapes somehow, just wish I didn't get in them in the first place!

Soooooooo, obviously I have had a big hit to my roll but I have enough to rebuild with if I can keep playing well, I always seem to play better when it is my last money. I haven't lost anything from my bank so I'm not that bothered, £400 is plenty to play with, until it all happens again!

+ £1000

2008-03-03T09:55:00.003Z

My bankroll currently stands at £1,003.16 - I have passed the £1K mark! On top of this I have been making regular withdrawals and think I have withdrawn about £650 or so which means I should be able to concentrate on building the roll now because my living bankroll is for once healthy. I'm still playing mainly £1/£2 10 seater, so many soft players at this level on the 10 seaters who buy in short and seem to be on a spin up attempt and they are usually very bad :-)

At work now feel fucking ill thrown up already this morning can't eat shit why the fuck am I here for the tuppence I earn should be in bed lol.

Edit: I got my rakeback for February through today and was pleased to see that it was about £159 which is great! So the roll is now £1,162.37.

Poker is better than working

2008-02-27T10:41:00.003Z

Am up £850 since my tourney win and have barely played. £550 of that I have withdrawn to keep my bank looking healthy so I now have a £600 roll. Been playing a lot of £1/£2 full ring on crypto and find the game to be incredibly soft. I really wish I was properly rolled for this level because I would quit my boring job and aim to make £100 a day which is £3K a month tax free, yes please!

The last two days I have been 'sick' off work, played about 4 hours and made £650... This would be a better existence than grinding this shit 9-5 for £7.50 an hour, plus I would have so much free time! I realise with just a £600 roll I could easily go bust playing £1/£2 but I'll risk it, I've been playing well recently so hopefully this will continue.

Get in!!!

2008-02-08T01:39:00.000Z

Sooooo I decided to play the crypto Lucky $13K tournament tonight for $50 entry, 248 runners annnnnnnddd... only managed to take the bloody thing down! Ship that $3640!!! When it went to heads up I had 60K to his 420K, good effort me thinks! Proper happy now more than made up for what I lost recently, got £2K in my account now, gonna withdraw £1700 I think to leave myself with a £300 roll.

Best get to bed now its 1:45am and I got work in the morning, but I'm buzzing, my 2nd biggest tourney win ever and the biggest field I've ever taken down, man I fucking love poker :-)

$2/$5 and £2/£5

2008-02-06T16:21:00.000Z

In my last entry I posted a hand history of a +$1000 pot that I won. I had built up to $1700 at peak from a $200 starting stack in that room. Enough to have made back all that I had deposited from my overdraft and a decent chunk back into the £550 I lost prior to that. But did I leave though? No I didn't, and I proceeded to tilt and get outplayed and outdrawn until it was all gone, and then another $200, then another $200, then finally the last $135 dollars that I had in my bank, which meant my account was at -£1000 and maxed out. I couldn't believe I had tilted off so much money in such a short space of time. In one hand I called a $300 river bet with just AK high only to find that the guy had rivered a straight holding JQ, I was ahead the whole way with AK and went with my read that he was trying to outplay me on the flop but in hindsight it was a stupid call and testimony to why I should have left the room when I started to play bad. (I had been playing for about 4 hours and concentration obviously waning).

£660 of that £1K overdraft had gone to poker and the rest on buying stuff, and paying for my car which died on me again. I had to join Green Flag, pay them to come out etc. Needless to say on Sunday evening I was feeling mega depressed and empty, with no money left in my bank to play with and knowing I wouldn't be able to play again until i could borrow some cash, and playing again was all I could think about. I didn't have to wait long however, the very next day I had booked off work which was a lucky coincidence because I needed to get my car seen to that day and would have had no way of getting there anyway because my Mum and step Dad are away. I borrowed £180 from a mate which I put straight into my bank so that i could deposit it later, and a further £180 from my Dad which I kept in cash for petrol, food and general stuff to last me till I get paid next Friday. When I got home I arranged for my car to be towed to the garage then got to playing. I deposited £150 and sat in one room of £0.50/£1 with £50, leaving after about an hour roughly £83 up. Had something to eat and came back and again sat in a £0.50/£1 room with £50 and left the room this time about £140 up, I was playing well and quitting whilst ahead and it felt good. I withdrew my profit both times so £222 was going into my account leaving me with the £150 still to play with.

Later that night however, I proceeded to lose that £150, then the £30 I had left in my bank shortstacking £1/£2 and playing far too loose, impatiently and shite. So my profit for the day was only about £40, better than nothing but it meant I had nothing to play with until that £222 cleared! Had to hit the sack then which was a good idea seeing as how it was about 2am. Checked my bank the next day and somehow it said I had £318 available to me which often happens when previous transactions temporarily go back into my bank allowing me to spend it, but not actually having the money - not good. When I got home I therefore resisted the urge to deposit the lot and instead put £222 in because I knew that was money I had going in anyway so I wouldn't be charged or anything. Just like Sunday, I started the $2/$5 10 seater table going again by being the first to sit in. I quickly lost $60 and stopped playing.

I went back on at about 12:30am to discover the $2/$5 table still going strong and with one free seat. Naturally I filled it. I sat with $200 there and whilst I was playing I was looking for another room to sit with the final £100 I had in my account. I finally noticed that the £2/£5 10 seater table was running which is a rarity on crypto so I thought fuck it and sat in the last empty seat with £100, the min buy in. Not long into the game I got dealt A6s in mid position, being far too much of an impatient fish I found myself making it £15 to go. I got one caller behind me and checked the A high flop with 1 spade. He bet £15 which I called, turn was the 9 of spades and I checked with the intention of check raising all in with my nut flush draw, whatever he bet. He bet £75 however and I only had £77 so my raise didn't exactly give him much of a decision although he took forever to call I thought he was bluffing. When he did eventually call however he had AQ and I lucked out hitting a spade as one of my 12 outs. The very next hand I got dealt AA in early position and made it £25 to go hoping someone would see it as me being gusto after having just doubled up. Too my delight someone re raised to £80 and the person next to him called! Now I didn't wanna get clever here so I timed for a bit before pushing all in. The re-raiser thought for ages before making the call and the other guy folds, I'm up against, you guessed it - AK and my aces rightfully hold and now I am sitting on a £520 stack in just 2 hands.

I carried on playing in both rooms before cashing out at about 1:15am with £650ish and $375ish respectively. I wanted to bank a win. In just 45 minutes I had made about £650, more than half a months wages! Its times like this that get me wishing that I had the roll to play these levels properly, but where am I gonna get £40,000 from? I could realistically see myself winning £500-£1000 a day at £2/£5 playing standard tight ABC poker without putting too many hours in. This is what I earn in a month at work of a boring 9-5 slog. If only I could get my hands on a bankroll instead of taking these wild stabs and losing money that I need then winning it back later! I still have about £560 more to win to make me 'even' from before I had the bad -£550 weekend. I withdrew £728 last night leaving myself with a £100 bankroll to work with. I haven't felt the need to play since that win, it has left me feeling somehow satisfied and has quenched my thirst to make some money back quickly; finally I can relax and work on building that £40K roll, £0.03/£0.06 anyone?

Edit: Just got back from seeing Cloverfield and it was awesome!

Big pot

2008-02-03T15:27:00.000Z

Just scooped the biggest pot I have won in quite a while :-)

Game #5269773683: Hold'em NL ($2/$5) - 2008/02/03 - 15:12:43 (UK)
Table "Trinidad" Seat 3 is the button.
Seat 1: GrandXx sits out
Seat 2: pokerrush ($493.99 in chips)
Seat 3: ironmonk ($679.67 in chips)
Seat 4: Ultgamb ($614.40 in chips)
Seat 5: roojabaa ($445 in chips)
Seat 6: Ada011019 sits out
Seat 7: esperanza ($292.66 in chips)
Seat 8: Chavinder ($206.40 in chips)
Seat 10: Dr_Ace ($1382.70 in chips)
Ultgamb: posts small blind $2
roojabaa: posts big blind $5
pokerrush: posts big blind $5 + posts small blind $2
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to ironmonk [As Ac]
Ste130681 joins the table at seat #9
esperanza: calls $5
Chavinder: folds
Dr_Ace: folds
pokerrush: checks
ironmonk: raises to $30
Ultgamb: folds
roojabaa: folds
esperanza: calls $25
pokerrush: calls $25
----- FLOP ----- [5d 3s 6h]
esperanza: checks
pokerrush: bets $55
ironmonk: calls $55
esperanza: folds
----- TURN ----- [5d 3s 6h][Qh]
pokerrush: checks
ironmonk: bets $100
pokerrush: calls $100
----- RIVER ----- [5d 3s 6h Qh][6d]
pokerrush: bets $306.99 and is all-in
ironmonk: calls $306.99
----- SHOW DOWN -----
pokerrush: shows [Qc 2s] (Two Pairs, Queens and Sixes, Five high)
ironmonk: shows [As Ac] (Two Pairs, Aces and Sixes, Queen high)
ironmonk collected $1019.98 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $1022.98 Main pot $1019.98 Rake $3
Board [5d 3s 6h Qh 6d]
Seat 2: pokerrush (big blind + small blind) showed [Qc 2s] and lost with Two Pairs, Queens and Sixes, Five high
Seat 3: ironmonk (button) showed [As Ac] and won ($1019.98) with Two Pairs, Aces and Sixes, Queen high

Am I a total fish?

Cars are shit!

2008-02-01T09:30:00.000Z

On my way home after the gym last night my fucking car decided to spaz out and basically completely die on me at the traffic lights of a busy roundabout. I had to ring my step dad for some emergency assistance and he towed me back to work where I left my car for the night and it was bloody freeeezing! All in all a bit of a nightmare so when I finally got home got fed and warmed up I had to relax in a $50 MTT on crypto and a bottle of red. I managed to come 7th overall for $230 but was obviously dissapointed as first was $1400 and I busted in a big pot AIPF with KK against AJd. The flop came A high with 2 diamonds giving me a whopping 1 out, unlike the other day when I hit it with ease however, I failed to this time. Incidentally it was one of the longest bubbles EVER, there was 11 people left for seriously about an hour, and only burst when some guy who had a huge stack got disconnected for forever and was eventually blinded out. I fucking hate long bubbles!

Have made £140 in 2 sessions now since my 3am stint. Hopefully I can continue the winning.

On another note, just read bluescouse's blog on 88percent, he's got into debt and is now selling his house that he basically bought through poker. This really is a new low for him and it is worrying to see what online poker can do to people as young as he is. He is at least a deterrent from ever playing way, way beyond your means.

Sick hand!

2008-01-31T15:43:00.001Z

Played till 3am on Tuesday night managing to lose £300 after having been £60 up at one point- great. I was playing £0.50/£1 mainly 3 handed being soooo aggressive against some guy called omfg who was calling 99% of my raises and seeming to wake up with an ace or pair every time, it meant I did get paid off on my hands though. At about 2:15am with about a £90 stack I said that I would leave the table either at 3am or when my stack got to over £200. It got to £215 but did I leave? Course not, I stayed till it was all gone, which conincidentally, was 3am. Finally I could leave the room!

At the same time as I was playing I railed bluescouse play $250/$500 3 handed on Betfair agasint Ram Vaswani and an online pro. I watched him dump $50,000 in about 20 minutes and I had not been railing him from the beginning. Watching this made me feel better about losing just £300, the guy is insane.

I won £50 back in a 10 minute session last night in this sick hand:

Game #5217483403: Hold'em NL (£0.50/£1) - 2008/01/30 - 18:30:24 (UK)
Table "Ludwig" Seat 6 is the button.
Seat 2: ironmonk (£50.25 in chips)
Seat 5: andiwins (£92.87 in chips)
Seat 6: h2theizzo (£91.50 in chips)
ironmonk: posts small blind £0.50
andiwins: posts big blind £1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to ironmonk [5d 5s]
h2theizzo: folds
ironmonk: raises to £3
h2theizzo sits out
andiwins: calls £2
----- FLOP ----- [Ks Kh 5c]
ironmonk: bets £4
andiwins: raises to £11
ironmonk: calls £7
----- TURN ----- [Ks Kh 5c][Qd]
ironmonk: checks
andiwins: bets £12
ironmonk: raises to £36.25 and is all-in
andiwins: calls £24.25
----- RIVER ----- [Ks Kh 5c Qd][5h]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
ironmonk: shows [5d 5s] (Four of a kind, Fives, King high)
andiwins: shows [Qc Kc] (A Full House, Kings full of Queens)
ironmonk collected £98.50 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot £100.50 Main pot £98.50 Rake £2
Board [Ks Kh 5c Qd 5h]
Seat 2: ironmonk (small blind) showed [5d 5s] and won (£98.50) with Four of a kind, Fives, King high
Seat 5: andiwins (big blind) showed [Qc Kc] and lost with A Full House, Kings full of Queens
Seat 6: h2theizzo (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

At one point in the hand I actually said in my head I bet he hits Kings full and wouldn't it be mad if I quad up on the river, and it happened! If anyone reads this I would be interested to know if you think I played the hand OK, I think with my stack size this was the only way to play the hand. Will play more tonight I think, a big multi and some cash games no doubt, hoping to bank a win.

Back

2008-01-28T14:03:00.000Z

Well, its been a long time since my last post. That is partly owing to the fact that I did not play poker for a long time because it was December and a very expensive month and I basically had no money to play with, and partly because I really didn't feel like playing. I managed to play in January, spinning up a £5 deposit into over £300 and withdrawing about £270 of this. However, things turned for the worst. I lost what i had left and on Thursday night lost about £60 which really, really annoyed me. So on Friday I deposited £140 in order to make a total of £200 to build a roll or whatever. Things were going well, but on Friday night I got drunk, and started to play at about 2am, I was playing this guy at $0.50/$1 heads up and he was just owning me so bad, I couldn't get my head round him so I left and had to deposit another £100. In drunk frame of mind I went and played some $1/$2 Omaha and went down to $90 ish, somehow however, in not very long this went up to about $680 and I really cant remember how. I then had £340 - but all in the one room, this is the point I should have left, £40 up by a miracle. However, I of course got greedy and ended up losing the lot in about the next hour, Omaha is a crazy crazy game. A guy next to me had just done a $600 stack in no time so I just followed suit.

Well, I then called it a night at 4:30am, mega pissed off. Still on tilt Saturday I managed to donk off another £250 or so, playing various games and limits. Never in the frame of mind to turn temporary wins into permanent ones. Well all that left me with about £22 in my bank account and I don't get paid till the 16th. So I had to ring my bank and arrange a new overdraft, that I had worked so hard to clear. It's funny how it can all turn around so very quickly. I wonder if I will ever learn? Probably not, especially after reading sites like this.

I just got off the phone to the bank and have arranged a new £1000 overdraft, I'm somewhat frightened about receiving this money as I can easily see myself losing it. Already I am making plans in my head of what to do with it: I will put £200 into PokerStars and another £200 into InterPoker, and see where I go from there. I've had enough of the ugly Betfred, although I might try to qualify for the $2,000,000 guaranteed they have coming up soon. I plan to play mainly MTT's. Nice idea but lets see how long it will last.

I have got to thinking recently, how many of my kind of player are there out there? I remember reading that only 5% of online poker players are winning players...5%. That means that 95% of us that enjoy the thrill of the virtual felt, huddled over the monitor for sometimes hours on end, clicking the deposit page over and over are losing our money. Sure we have a few wins here and there, the game can seem so easy sometimes, and it's for this reason that so many people will remain trapped in the endless cycle of winning a bit, but ultimately losing more, always reaching for the same heights of the likes of Brian Townsend and the shipitholla boys. How many people are thinking that if they can do it, why can't I? - I've read just as many books, have put in just as many hands, have made just as amazing river calls with bottom pair, I deserve to be a winner... and no matter how many setbacks I have, I WILL make the kind of money one day that will enable me to do this professionally and live out the dream that so few people actually have. We've all thought it at some points, right?

To escape the daily grind is such an alluring prospect that I don't think I will ever quit playing poker, sure I will have breaks here and there, but like so many others before me, Ed Hollis, Luckyjimm etc, we will always keep coming back as long as the sites stay in business, and most likely always lose, I wish my fellow degenerates the best of luck, they need it as much as I do.

I plan on winning the Sunday Million before this year is up, wish me luck?

Plasma

2007-12-15T14:49:00.000Z

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

2007-12-05T10:30:00.000Z

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...

2007-11-27T12:49:00.000Z

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.

2007-11-12T13:08:00.000Z

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!!!

2007-11-07T01:31:00.000Z

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!

2007-11-01T23:36:00.000Z

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+

2007-10-29T10:00:00.000Z

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

2007-10-26T09:15:00.001+01:00

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

2007-10-24T09:25:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-10-22T09:01:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-10-20T13:04:00.000+01:00

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...

2007-10-12T09:29:00.000+01:00

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...

2007-10-10T13:49:00.000+01:00

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...

2007-10-05T11:15:00.000+01:00

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...

2007-09-27T13:28:00.000+01:00

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

2007-09-19T13:07:00.000+01:00

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!

2007-09-10T15:49:00.000+01:00

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...

2007-09-03T20:11:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-29T10:25:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-17T10:16:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-12T20:12:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-08-11T20:34:00.001+01:00

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...

2007-07-30T13:19:00.001+01:00

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

2007-07-28T13:26:00.000+01:00

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

The Iron Blog

Still got it!

Not bad for a mornings/afternoons work!

*Sigh*

Not done yet...

A reindeer won a poker tournament!

Back home

Vegas, wow...

So I'm off to Vegas...

Temporary Pro? (Again...)

Grrr

Sick day

100th Post!

Update

SHIIIIIIIPPPP ITTTTTTTT!!! (Happiness is a poker tournament).

1st target reached

So far so good...

Challenge

Déjà Vu

Reckless

I'm rich!

Some action

*Sigh*

About time!

Big update coming...

Fell at the last hurdle

A little more positive...

More of the same

Fucking fucking FUCK OFF!!!!

Lol PKRaments wooo!

LOL aces

Funny hands...

I'm alive!!!

£2K+.....

So close...

4 figures

Temporary pro

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

Bleary eyed

Arghhh!

FFS

Annoyed

A bit of success...

Stupid bloody alcohol!

Long story short

Disaster

PKR fun

Life bad beat

CoD4

Down not up

To hell with it

Up not down

£54

Phew!

Rolling steady

Good night

Profit

This made me laugh...

GTA IV

Jazzy

Playing again

Update

Bust

Grinding away

Need a plan

Starting well

BRM BRM BRRMMMMM!

Bad times

Crazy times

+ £1000

Poker is better than working

Get in!!!

$2/$5 and £2/£5

Big pot

Cars are shit!

Sick hand!

Back

Plasma

Can't get rolling

Not in the mood...

Sigh

Sigh