Back home

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...

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...

...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...)

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

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

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!

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!