Trying a new approach

Hey!

I decided to pull a mamoth session today as it is now 8am and I started playing 12 hours ago! Anyway, today was quite sucessful however I'm still down big this week from live shot failings! Today I managed to final table bubble the $55 fifty-fifty on full tilt but I'm getting closer and I think I'm starting to fix some of my end game leaks in these large field tournaments. Tonight was an interesting night as I hadn't previously played any of the late night stuff on the US sites, but there were some very interesting and slightly different plays which made me laugh.

The first is in the $5 rebuy after the rebuy period had finished. I liked the limp/call all in for 35bb's with Q7 there. Expert play lol!

PokerStars Game #25428054212: Tournament #142279604, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2009/02/28 1:49:27 GMT [2009/02/27 20:49:27 ET]
Table '142279604 15' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: F3nix35 (8970 in chips)
Seat 2: uzi2008 (10325 in chips)
Seat 3: dimitris70 (11451 in chips)
Seat 4: Quaxxx (5725 in chips)
Seat 5: liljim43 (12325 in chips)
Seat 6: RistiKunn (8312 in chips)
Seat 7: joeberg86 (14975 in chips)
Seat 8: rscholes83 (4596 in chips)
Seat 9: XXXLeChiffre (31856 in chips)
F3nix35: posts the ante 25
uzi2008: posts the ante 25
dimitris70: posts the ante 25
Quaxxx: posts the ante 25
liljim43: posts the ante 25
RistiKunn: posts the ante 25
joeberg86: posts the ante 25
rscholes83: posts the ante 25
XXXLeChiffre: posts the ante 25
RistiKunn: posts small blind 150
joeberg86: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to F3nix35 [Ad Ac]
rscholes83: folds
XXXLeChiffre: folds
F3nix35: raises 500 to 800
uzi2008: folds
dimitris70: calls 800
Quaxxx: folds
liljim43: raises 700 to 1500
RistiKunn: folds
joeberg86: folds
F3nix35: raises 7445 to 8945 and is all-in
dimitris70: calls 8145
liljim43: raises 3355 to 12300 and is all-in
dimitris70: calls 2481 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (874) returned to liljim43
*** FLOP *** [5s Jc 6c]
*** TURN *** [5s Jc 6c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [5s Jc 6c 4c] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
dimitris70: shows [Qh 7h] (high card Queen)
liljim43: shows [Kh Ks] (a pair of Kings)
liljim43 collected 4962 from side pot
F3nix35: shows [Ad Ac] (a pair of Aces)
F3nix35 collected 27510 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 32472 Main pot 27510. Side pot 4962. | Rake 0
Board [5s Jc 6c 4c 2s]
Seat 1: F3nix35 showed [Ad Ac] and won (27510) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: uzi2008 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: dimitris70 showed [Qh 7h] and lost with high card Queen
Seat 4: Quaxxx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: liljim43 (button) showed [Kh Ks] and won (4962) with a pair of Kings
Seat 6: RistiKunn (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: joeberg86 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: rscholes83 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: XXXLeChiffre folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Another little gem which I'm not sure what this guy was thinking.

PokerStars Game #25428195534: Tournament #142279632, $25.00+$2.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2009/02/28 1:54:07 GMT [2009/02/27 20:54:07 ET]
Table '142279632 163' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Wolfhands (3407 in chips)
Seat 2: stetsonknndy (4148 in chips)
Seat 3: F3nix35 (3152 in chips)
Seat 4: BBware (5510 in chips)
Seat 5: V.P.L. (2142 in chips)
Seat 6: anygiven (3101 in chips)
Seat 7: stringer_33_ (6947 in chips)
Seat 8: Daveyboy_197 (4878 in chips)
Seat 9: shgammellll (3905 in chips)
stringer_33_: posts small blind 50
Daveyboy_197: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to F3nix35 [Kd Jd]
shgammellll: folds
Wolfhands: folds
stetsonknndy: folds
F3nix35: raises 200 to 300
BBware: folds
V.P.L.: folds
anygiven: folds
stringer_33_: calls 250
Daveyboy_197: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [8h Jc 2s]
stringer_33_: bets 200
Daveyboy_197: folds
F3nix35: calls 200
*** TURN *** [8h Jc 2s] [4s]
stringer_33_: bets 300
F3nix35: raises 2352 to 2652 and is all-in
stringer_33_: calls 2352
*** RIVER *** [8h Jc 2s 4s] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
stringer_33_: shows [Ks 5s] (high card Ace)
F3nix35: shows [Kd Jd] (a pair of Jacks)
F3nix35 collected 6604 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6604 | Rake 0
Board [8h Jc 2s 4s Ac]
Seat 1: Wolfhands folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: stetsonknndy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: F3nix35 showed [Kd Jd] and won (6604) with a pair of Jacks
Seat 4: BBware folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: V.P.L. folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: anygiven (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: stringer_33_ (small blind) showed [Ks 5s] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 8: Daveyboy_197 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: shgammellll folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Go for it K high is good :) Would have been an amazing call if i was bluffing with worse lol!

I also got very close to the big money in the $22 rebuy on full tilt where I think I misplayed KK pretty badly. As a result I think I'll be trying to stick to 6-tabling tournaments for now on as tonight all of my decisions were alot more optimal than the typical rushed ones that I get if 12 tabling+. As a result of this I got deep in quite a few big tournaments. I'll give this a go on Sunday choosing the key tournaments I want to play and filling the rest up around this.

Mark my words, I will final table something big soon!!

First win in a while

Hey,

Tried some of my new schedule today. I don't think I will be able to play all of the tournies every night as I was struggling as it was not timing out at peak times without playing any pokerstars tournaments. I bought a 15meter wired connection today to see if my pokerstars disconnect problems would go away but alas, to no avail. It's not a huge bother really as to be honest I could do with staying away from the 1000+player variance filled fields.

Anyway onto this win!



It's not a huge tourny, more of a multi-table sit n go, but the money all goes in the right direction. Not even sure if I'm unstuck for the day on this but who knows I'm certainly not complaining. I've taken down most of the tournaments on crypto now one time or another apart from the two main ones (partly because I havnt played them for that long due to lack of bankroll). So I really hope that before they change with the crypto move I get a good shot at taking them down. I bubbled the £33 rebuy today coming 22/190 loosing a big flip. Then again I shouldn't have been at that stage if I didn't bluff a good portion of my chips away to a calling station 10 minutes earlier haha!

Anyway, I've just got the $33 rebuy on party that I accidently registered for instead of the $33 freezeout (honest!!). The quality of play is better than the usual party garbage but hey, at least there is still some dead money in play! This was outside of the rebuy period that made me chuckle:

***** Hand History for Game 7837718743 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny: 44521634 Level: 6 Blinds(200/400) - Thursday, February 26, 19:00:06 EST 2009
Table $10K Gtd Rebuy (1627722) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 9: OlafvanDriel ( 15,666 )
Seat 3: OnionHealer ( 14,782 )
Seat 2: RacingMX5 ( 37,097 )
Seat 8: bliz1603 ( 20,420 )
Seat 1: f3nix35 ( 8,079 )
Seat 6: forextiger ( 23,088 )
Seat 4: lara1610 ( 15,327 )
Seat 10: nikitka777 ( 21,850 )
Seat 7: pacorman ( 10,690 )
Seat 5: trusoldieruk ( 9,950 )
Trny: 44521634 Level: 6
Blinds(200/400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to f3nix35 [ Ad Kd ]
OlafvanDriel folds
nikitka777 folds
f3nix35 raises [1,000]
RacingMX5 folds
OnionHealer folds
lara1610 folds
trusoldieruk raises [4,000]
forextiger calls [4,000]
pacorman folds
bliz1603 folds
f3nix35 is all-In [7,079]
trusoldieruk is all-In [5,950]
forextiger calls [5,950]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, 3c, Jc ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4d ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ac ]
trusoldieruk shows [ Qs, Qd ]a pair of Queens.
forextiger shows [ 2s, As ]a pair of Aces.
f3nix35 shows [ Ad, Kd ]a pair of Aces with King kicker.
forextiger wins 3,742 chips from the side pot 1 with a pair of Aces.
f3nix35 wins 24,837 chips from the main pot with a pair of Aces with King kicker.
Player trusoldieruk finished in 68.

Not quite sure what A2 was doing there but who knows!

Well it's the last tournament I'm in. 45 left, top 16 paid and I have 20 bb's. Let's hope we can have another nice cash to finish the day in the black for sure!

Laters all!

My new online tournament schedule!

7:15pm: Pokerstars $3 rebuy ($40k gtd)
7:30pm: Full Tilt $22 rebuy ($17k gtd)

8:00pm: Full Tilt $26 ($13.5k gtd)
8:00pm: Crypto £55 (£10k gtd)
8:15pm: Pokerstars $11 ($10k gtd)
8:30pm: Full Tilt $55 ($20k gtd)
8:30pm: Crypto £27 (£800 gtd)

9:00pm: Pokerstars $11 rebuy ($70k gtd)
9:00pm: Full Tilt $75 ($22.5k gtd)
9:00pm: Party Poker $55 ($20k gtd)
9:10pm: Crypto £33 (£6k gtd)
9:15pm: Party Poker $11 rebuy ($5k gtd)
9:30pm: Party Poker $9 rebuy ($10k gtd)

10:00pm: Crypto £33 (£1.4k gtd)
10:30pm: Crypto $22 ($1.3k gtd)

11:00pm: Full Tilt $26 ($21k gtd)
11:00pm: Pokerstars $5 rebuy ($50k gtd)
11:00pm: Party Poker $33 ($7k gtd)
11:00pm: Crypto £15 (£2.5k gtd)

12:00pm: Crypto £22 (£1500 gtd)

Total Buyin $: 517
Total Buyin £: 185

Total Buyin: £547
Average Buyin: £27.35

Preliminary Thoughts: The average buy-in is below 1% of my bankroll and I have factored in on average 4 buyins for the rebuys (and 6 for the lower ones like $3rebuy as they are wild). There are 20 tournaments in total which means I will be multitabling and as such I may have to start cutting down on a few tables if I believe my game is suffering. I think I will have the most trouble around the 11pm mark as the 8pm/9pm tournaments that I’m in I will be getting deep in now and will need to concentrate more on them than the early stages of these other tournaments.

I think I will use this tournament structure for a week and see how it fares and how my bankroll handles it and re-evaluate next Sunday to see where I am!

Woops, it's back to the grind!

Hey!

I had really good fun participating in my first major tournament series, the GUKPT Walsall. Unfortunately, my shots didn't pay off as I failed to cash in the two events I played. It was however really nice travelling to a series (apart from the actual travel part) particular a ranked series. However, it's time to face up to reality and realise that although I think I still have an edge in these tournaments from travel expenses and the buy-ins I'm still not quite rolled yet for the various of larger field live events just yet. So it's back to the tables for the grind to rebuild my bankroll. Unfortunately I'm still failing to win flips at the crucial times but this is all standard tournament variance which I'm fully aware of and love playing the deepstack events.

However, in future I think I will stay a bit closer to home to keep the costs down and try and hit the GUKPT and other series harder when I can afford the variance. Don't get me wrong, it was not a totally degenerate shot I took, but it was still above my average buy-in level that I should be playing with this bankroll. As a result, I'll get back online and continue grinding out for the next couple of weeks and re-evaluate. I'm a little off my easter target which I aim to meet in two weeks, and it would be a really nice achievement to regain that £5k bankroll mark by Easter. Lady luck wasn't with me in Walsall but I must move on and put that behind me keeping optimistic for the future.

I decided that I will play the £55 locally at DTD this week then start again online next week coming up to the DTD deepstack and try to sell shares again like I did last time for the main event. I'll keep you all updated with how I do!

Reading Series of Poker Weekend! Fun Times!

Hey,

Reading really impressed me. Such a nice town and seemingly nice people. After coming back from a 15 hour day in London at 12am, then leaving for Reading at 8am the following day I thought I'd be really tired and have a bit of crap weekend. How wrong I was!

After we found our hotel and the casino the play started. Suprising for £55 it was an amazing structure (despite being self dealt) with 12,500 chips and a 1 hour clock with a good blind structure. It was a scheduled 2 day event with plenty of play for your money. And I was genuinely suprised at the quality of play. I guess now the poker booms gone and that there weren't any rich business men/drunk degen gamblers the amount of dead money in the tourny decreases alot. I think for the typical home game player who might be much less skills £55 is a bit too much money. On the other hand, it was really fun playing skilled opponents and continuously levelling each other and trying to outplay each other (which seemed to happen alot). In the end on the second day, one of the Nottingham lads we were with, Farid Daim took 2nd for £750. His aggressive play was really paying off with a good mixture of 3bet bluffing/folding.

The rest of the weekend was not spend idle either. The tournament finished on Saturday with the remaining players (myself included) taking forward their stacks to day 2. It was about 8pm, so we were all pretty hungry and decided to head into town to grab an all you can eat. Myself, Ant, and the other Nottingham guys found an all-you-can-eat Chinese which went down VERY well. We then hit Reading town to see what it had to offer. The night started off with pints in the Chinese, then onto after-dinner Brandy followed by large volumes of whisky and beer in the clubs. We finished off in some pub place at about 2am doing drinking games with pints, some of which were really funny that I'll have to play again.

The sunday was a late start due to the previous night, but thankfully I didn't actually have that bad of a hangover which is really suprising. Well, nothing that a sausage bap and a cup of tea couldn't solve anyway. Unfortunately, I didn't last long in the tournament loosing a couple of races. And typically after busting a big tournament, I'm not in the best of moods so wanted to get out of the tournament and see some daylight. Luckily there was a golf-course opposite the casino which after Andi arrived from a trip up to London for the day, we hit some golf balls on the course. I havn't played golf in years so was really nice to go out and hit some balls. Ant joined us too and even though my technique was terrible it was actually a really fun afternoon. After we went back to the casino to rail the final table, do some degenerate roulette gambling (which i suprisingly went on a bit of a heater and managed to turn my original £20 to £150 which wasn't too bad ;) ) and played Andi heads up on dealers choice.

We started the heads up with a round of each (NLHE and PLO) but after quickly getting bored turned it into a pretty action packed dealers choice game including some really weird games we made up. My favourite were some of the 2-7 triple draw games which i managed to luckbox the most profit from. After the first hour I was up 3 buyins against Andi, then we raised the stakes and the next 3 hours I really think he outplayed me and pulled back the profits, largely in PLO games. Andi does play very well in these games and I called way too much out of position but it was all fun :).

We then found THE juiciest £1/£2 game I've ever played. I would say 6/9 on the table were COMPLETE fish, and 4/9 were so drunk they were calling pot bets with under cards to the board stating out loud they need runner-runner to improve. I mean some of the pots were so crazy, like player 1 min-raises utg and the whole table calls. The flop came kq3 and there was basically a 3-way all in with AJ, 86 (yes i know) and a muck (who stated he didn't have a king or a queen). It was so so juice. So i sat down as soon as a seat was free with £100 but then realised that wasn't enough and I had to cover the main fish at the table (who played every hand, and just would not ever fold even if he had too under cards to the board!) So I borrowed an extra £100. Unfortunately the table didn't last too long when the two drunk fish decided they'de have more fun on roulette. Luckily i managed to end the short session £55 up so it wasn't a disaster! Every hand I was seriously like please hit this board hard, please hit this board hard lol! I mean if you hit a set, bottom pair would stack off to you with these guys. It was great!

Anyway, it was such a good weekend. I arrived back in Nottingham at 8am Monday morning (woops lectures+tutorials today) pretty nackered. This week I'm playing the £330 GUKPT prelim tommorow, £110 GUKPT prelim on wednesday and a £85 freezeout at DTD to finish the week off. Let's hope I start winning some races and take some serious tournies down! Woop woop :)

Slansky, you owe me big!

I continue to run ridiculously bad in showdown pots and just can't seem to win a flip these days. Or have a hand hold. AA continues to be my biggest loosing hand of the month in cash games and they're not holding up in tournaments either unfortunately! Oh well, such is the game we play!

I seem to be getting in situations where I can almost cash for a lot but my hands don't hold up. Twice today in big tournaments I've been in a situation with good equity where if I had won the pot I would have become chip leader.

This just happened in the £33/£1500 gtd where top 5 paid and unfortunately my hand couldn't hold:

Game #7285715233: £1500 GTD (ID9217223) £30+£3 - Hold'em NL (400/800) - 2009/02/19 - 00:55:25 (UK)
Table "9217223 - 1" Seat 1 is the button.
Seat 1: Fenix35 (23335 in chips)
Seat 8: AAalert (29205 in chips)
Seat 9: catD10 (34619 in chips)
Seat 10: Vimes2208 (32841 in chips)
AAalert: posts the ante 100
catD10: posts the ante 100
Vimes2208: posts the ante 100
Fenix35: posts the ante 100
AAalert: posts small blind 400
catD10: posts big blind 800
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Fenix35 [Ts Qc]
Vimes2208: calls 800
Fenix35: raises to 2800
AAalert: folds
catD10: folds
Vimes2208: calls 2000
----- FLOP ----- [Ks Ac Jc]
Vimes2208: checks
Fenix35: bets 3700
Vimes2208: raises to 7400
Fenix35: raises to 20435 and is all-in
Vimes2208: calls 13035
----- TURN ----- [Ks Ac Jc][2c]
----- RIVER ----- [Ks Ac Jc 2c][Kc]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Fenix35: shows [Ts Qc] (A Flush, Ace high)
Vimes2208: shows [Kd Jh] (A Full House, Kings full of Jacks)
Vimes2208 collected 48070 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 48070 Main pot 48070 Rake 0
Board [Ks Ac Jc 2c Kc]
Seat 1: Fenix35 (button) showed [Ts Qc] and lost with A Flush, Ace high
Seat 8: AAalert (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: catD10 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: Vimes2208 showed [Kd Jh] and won (48070) with A Full House, Kings full of Jacks

This is from the £55 just outside the money bubble with 21 players to go:

Game #7284947903: £9K GTD WED (ID9178139) £50+£5 - Hold'em NL (600/1200) - 2009/02/18 - 23:11:31 (UK)
Table "9178139 - 2" Seat 8 is the button.
Seat 1: Fenix35 (29272 in chips)
Seat 2: Torghelle (25577 in chips)
Seat 5: Chupa20 (7200 in chips)
Seat 6: Gaughan (22667 in chips)
Seat 7: YsoCruUs (15949 in chips)
Seat 8: Billy1234 (13790 in chips)
Seat 10: Lennie1 (34935 in chips)
Lennie1: posts the ante 150
Fenix35: posts the ante 150
Torghelle: posts the ante 150
Chupa20: posts the ante 150
Gaughan: posts the ante 150
YsoCruUs: posts the ante 150
Billy1234: posts the ante 150
Lennie1: posts small blind 600
Fenix35: posts big blind 1200
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Fenix35 [Ad Qh]
Torghelle: folds
Chupa20: folds
Gaughan: raises to 4200
YsoCruUs: folds
Billy1234: folds
Lennie1: folds
Fenix35: raises to 29122 and is all-in
Gaughan: is all-in 18317
Returned uncalled bets 6,605 to Fenix35
----- FLOP ----- [Kh 7c 9d]
----- TURN ----- [Kh 7c 9d][3h]
----- RIVER ----- [Kh 7c 9d 3h][Th]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Fenix35: shows [Ad Qh] (High Card Ace)
Gaughan: shows [Jd Js] (A Pair of Jacks, King high)
Gaughan collected 46684 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 46684 Main pot 46684 Rake 0
Board [Kh 7c 9d 3h Th]
Seat 1: Fenix35 (big blind) showed [Ad Qh] and lost with High Card Ace
Seat 2: Torghelle folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Chupa20 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Gaughan showed [Jd Js] and won (46684) with A Pair of Jacks, King high
Seat 7: YsoCruUs folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Billy1234 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: Lennie1 (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

This would have propelled me into the chip lead and allowed me to have a good go at taking the tournament down, but unfortunately I can't seem to win flips when they really count!

Of course these aren't really that bad of beats, just loosing the most important in terms of monetary flips of the day! I did have my share of some brutal beats such as the nice one outer on party poker:

***** Hand History for Game 7813763792 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny: 44406198 Level: 2 Blinds(30/60) - Wednesday, February 18, 16:29:36 EST 2009
Table $20K Gtd (1623197) Table #10 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 4: Methusalix64 ( 3,190 )
Seat 7: arto1333 ( 2,990 )
Seat 10: blanketyblnk ( 4,520 )
Seat 6: casscan222 ( 1,840 )
Seat 3: clinxy ( 2,310 )
Seat 5: f3nix35 ( 2,830 )
Seat 8: fennellie111 ( 4,220 )
Seat 2: fishbone77 ( 2,250 )
Seat 9: iikori ( 4,925 )
Seat 1: scrony ( 3,735 )
Trny: 44406198 Level: 2
Blinds(30/60)
** Dealing down cards **
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to f3nix35 [ Th Td ]
iikori calls [60]
blanketyblnk calls [60]
scrony folds
fishbone77 raises [180]
clinxy folds
Methusalix64 folds
f3nix35 calls [180]
casscan222 calls [180]
arto1333 folds
fennellie111 calls [120]
iikori calls [120]
blanketyblnk calls [120]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6h, 9d, Tc ]
fennellie111 bets [540]
iikori folds
blanketyblnk folds
fishbone77 calls [540]
f3nix35 calls [540]
casscan222 folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
fennellie111 bets [1,080]
fishbone77 folds
f3nix35 is all-In [2,110]
fennellie111 calls [1,030]
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ]
fennellie111 shows [ 9c, 9h ]four of a kind, Nines.
f3nix35 shows [ Th, Td ]a full house, Tens full of Nines.
fennellie111 wins 6,950 chips from the main pot with four of a kind, Nines.
Player f3nix35 finished in 283.

As well as set over set in the $75, highest buyin tournament of the night which is never nice!

Well onwards and upwards, I don't think I played badly, I just need to find my way out of this downswing! I won't be playing online for a couple of weeks as this week I shall be heading to Reading which will be a nice break for a £55/10,000 chip deepstack event and then next week I'll be taking some shots at the GUKPT Walsall prelims. Hopefully all my run good is saved for there! Who knows!

Terrible finish to the week

Well the week started very well, but I finished the week £410 down which really sucks. I think today I have had the worst luck imaginable. It's pretty unreal, including 21st in the $109 on party poker (bubble), 10/573 in the $20rebuy on full tilt loosing a 60/40, 25/1150 in $75 freezeout and loosing AA to KK in the $215. It's really really demotivating loosing money when getting so so close to huge scores. But one day I will crack that elusive final table on one of the big ones. Many times this week I was just a coinflip away from having a huge UP week but alas such is life.

In review I feel as if I have played well this week but have just been extremely unfortunate. I was 1-outered in the $75 freezeout on tilt for chip lead with nut full house vs a guy who hit a straight flush and if that held would have certainly made the final table where first prize is over $15k. Sigh.

This coming week I am going to stop taking shots at the $109 on party poker. Although I have consistently placed in the top 1/3 and was a coinflip away from a large prize today, the buy-in is having too much pressure on my bankroll. As a result, I will continue to grind the £55 buyin and less on crypto, the $33 $8r and $55 nightlys on party and may well continue playing on full tilt. I hope that this week turns out to be more successful than the one just passed as the following week is the GUKPT which I hope to play a few prelim events for. Maybe all of my run-good is saved for then? Who knows.

This week I'll probably play online 2-3 nights then chill ready for some live pokers at the weekend and onwards!

The Big Sunday!

Having missed last Sundays online grind by playing (and not cashing) in the DTD monthly series, I am quite looking forward to hitting the tables on Sunday night. My bankroll has dipped slightly below the £5k mark again and after running pretty bad the last few days, but everyone does and I doubt anyone wants to hear the stories anyway! I'm trying to keep this blog optimistic ;)

So the plan is to load up every guaranteed tournament on DTD that I usually play and similarly with Party Poker. It's a real shame, but lately I have been having bad connection issues with Pokerstars so can't play there it seems until I go home from uni in Easter. I was planning on taking a shot at the Sunday Million this week with a direct buy-in, but I'll save my $215.

Lately I've been taking shots at the midnight $109 on party poker, which seems to be OK. I have yet to cashed (in the 2 attempts - standard), but think if I start to mix this in with the regular schedule I can be quite successful in it. There is certainly a lot of bad play in it. I was thinking of playing a major on full tilt, like the $215 Sunday Mulligan, but I'm leaning away from that now, as not only am I taking an underrolled shot, but it gets a sick amount of runners including the best online tournament players in the world. So to begin with I'll stick to just shot taking at the £110 crypto major and the $215 Party major. I am underrolled for these but mixing in other tournaments like $22 freezeouts and $3rebuys, my average buy-in decreases so that the average buy-in for the night is still less than 1%.

I think tommorow is going to be a make or break night. I really really hope my internet doesn't play up like it did last night whilst I was on the grind, as not only do a loose a bunch of equity being sat out as the internet kept disconnecting, but it caused me to tilt a bit which very rarely happens.

So tommorow is going to be a big day, after the session I'll update with my cashes on the blog and re-evaluate for the following week what tournament stakes I'll be playing!

Just to quickly finish, congrats to Ant for taking down the £55/£9k gtd for £2.7k last night. Awesome score, and by the sounds of things, a much needed bankroll booster! I managed to min cash it for £90 myself but came 12th after being 1/15 by first calling a 5bbs stack all in with K10 from the BB but unfortunately ran into the top of his range: JJ. Then calling a 10BB's stack all in with AQ to run into A10 who went on to river his straight vs me leaving me with like 1BB. But there's always another day! So good job to mr Ant. Hopefully he'll donate someback my way on Sunday when i crusify him headsup in the £110/£35k :)

On a lighter note...

Last blog entry was a bit pessimistic so now that I've ranted and got back to having grind on the mind again, I'll leave a bit of a more optimistic note!

Today, I've just been chilling, going to the gym and browsing the internet. I found this really cool video today on Youtube. So so so sick. I can't tell if this is fake or not. But one thing is for sure, they have SKILL.



I was reading PeachyMer's blog on cardrunners today as well where she posted this song by the All American Rejects. I used to love the whole teenage-American pop-punk scene like Blink 182, Sum 41 etc. but have drifted off it a lot over the past couple of years. This song just reminded me of my teenage years, it's a real grower. Check it out!



I think I'll play some tournies tonight. Probably won't play on stars/tilt tonight though. I'll save that for Sunday. Wish me luck!

Full TilI Poker: What a Fucking Joke.

I think last night was the single most frustrating poker night I think I've ever had. I really thought I would finally break that big buy-in cash and actually make some decent money on one of the bigger sites. But time and time again I got fucked over by beats on this crappy site.

On the money bubble with 108 people left, I was 7/110 and this pot would have put me in the chip lead:

Full Tilt Poker Game #10595644208: $21,000 Guarantee (79796662), Table 60 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:59:41 ET - 2009/02/12
Seat 1: POKAPANTS (17,136)
Seat 2: greyghost1971 (29,926)
Seat 3: Rod432 (28,550)
Seat 4: khurtique (7,305)
Seat 5: f3nix35 (29,646)
Seat 6: 4UNoName (27,902)
Seat 7: nzsaandi (22,263)
Seat 8: El Mangler (35,612)
Seat 9: w00ter92 (17,565)
POKAPANTS antes 100
greyghost1971 antes 100
Rod432 antes 100
khurtique antes 100
f3nix35 antes 100
4UNoName antes 100
nzsaandi antes 100
El Mangler antes 100
w00ter92 antes 100
POKAPANTS posts the small blind of 400
greyghost1971 posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to f3nix35 [7c 7h]
Rod432 folds
khurtique folds
f3nix35 raises to 2,000
4UNoName folds
nzsaandi folds
El Mangler has 15 seconds left to act
El Mangler folds
w00ter92 folds
POKAPANTS calls 1,600
greyghost1971 folds
*** FLOP *** [Js 7d Ad]
POKAPANTS checks
f3nix35 bets 2,900
POKAPANTS calls 2,900
*** TURN *** [Js 7d Ad] [Kh]
POKAPANTS bets 12,136, and is all in
f3nix35 calls 12,136
POKAPANTS shows [Ks Jh]
f3nix35 shows [7c 7h]
*** RIVER *** [Js 7d Ad Kh] [Kc]
POKAPANTS shows a full house, Kings full of Jacks
f3nix35 shows a full house, Sevens full of Kings
POKAPANTS wins the pot (35,772) with a full house, Kings full of Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 35,772 | Rake 0
Board: [Js 7d Ad Kh Kc]
Seat 1: POKAPANTS (small blind) showed [Ks Jh] and won (35,772) with a full house, Kings full of Jacks
Seat 2: greyghost1971 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Rod432 folded before the Flop
Seat 4: khurtique folded before the Flop
Seat 5: f3nix35 showed [7c 7h] and lost with a full house, Sevens full of Kings
Seat 6: 4UNoName folded before the Flop
Seat 7: nzsaandi folded before the Flop
Seat 8: El Mangler folded before the Flop
Seat 9: w00ter92 (button) folded before the Flop

Sighh, down to 10bbs, time for the comeback. So that wasn't a good start. I honestly thought I was going to be the next bubble boy again as just placing in the money is like $44 which would no way help me be unstuck for the day and I'm not going to fold down for a min cash like this.

Anyway, I somehow managed to claw myself back some chips through steals, resteals and winning one flip (ok ok i can't overly complain!). But I just can't seem to win the vital flips that allow you to take these tournaments down.

With 12 people left vs an aggressive opener I run into:

Full Tilt Poker Game #10598228814: $21,000 Guarantee (79796662), Table 60 - 5000/10000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:26:20 ET - 2009/02/12
Seat 1: POKAPANTS (256,910)
Seat 2: Donkey Shortz (64,389)
Seat 3: Darwish (140,132)
Seat 5: f3nix35 (195,964)
Seat 6: Jureist Ginger (284,496)
Seat 9: ste32bud (642,000), is sitting out
POKAPANTS antes 1,000
Donkey Shortz antes 1,000
Darwish antes 1,000
f3nix35 antes 1,000
Jureist Ginger antes 1,000
ste32bud antes 1,000
Jureist Ginger posts the small blind of 5,000
ste32bud posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to f3nix35 [Kd Ah]
POKAPANTS folds
Donkey Shortz folds
Darwish raises to 139,132, and is all in
f3nix35 raises to 194,964, and is all in
Jureist Ginger folds
ste32bud folds
f3nix35 shows [Kd Ah]
Darwish shows [Qs Qc]
Uncalled bet of 55,832 returned to f3nix35
*** FLOP *** [4s 6d 7c]
*** TURN *** [4s 6d 7c] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [4s 6d 7c 2c] [6s]
f3nix35 shows a pair of Sixes
Darwish shows two pair, Queens and Sixes
Darwish wins the pot (299,264) with two pair, Queens and Sixes
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 299,264 | Rake 0
Board: [4s 6d 7c 2c 6s]
Seat 1: POKAPANTS folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Donkey Shortz folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Darwish showed [Qs Qc] and won (299,264) with two pair, Queens and Sixes
Seat 5: f3nix35 (button) showed [Kd Ah] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 6: Jureist Ginger (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: ste32bud (big blind) folded before the Flop

Which was probably the most important flip in terms of potential $ I've ever had. Cool, cool, still had 10bbs on the bubble of the final table. 2 hands later I think wow, you know today may actually be the day!

Full Tilt Poker Game #10598320169: $21,000 Guarantee (79796662), Table 60 - 6000/12000 Ante 1500 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:31:43 ET - 2009/02/12
Seat 1: POKAPANTS (240,410)
Seat 2: Donkey Shortz (223,778)
Seat 3: Darwish (175,043)
Seat 5: f3nix35 (105,164)
Seat 6: Jureist Ginger (245,996)
Seat 9: ste32bud (593,500)
POKAPANTS antes 1,500
Donkey Shortz antes 1,500
Darwish antes 1,500
f3nix35 antes 1,500
Jureist Ginger antes 1,500
ste32bud antes 1,500
f3nix35 posts the small blind of 6,000
Jureist Ginger posts the big blind of 12,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to f3nix35 [Ad Ac]
ste32bud has 15 seconds left to act
ste32bud calls 12,000
POKAPANTS folds
Donkey Shortz calls 12,000
Darwish folds
f3nix35 raises to 103,664, and is all in
Jureist Ginger folds
ste32bud has 15 seconds left to act
ste32bud calls 91,664
Donkey Shortz folds
f3nix35 shows [Ad Ac]
ste32bud shows [Qd Qc]
*** FLOP *** [7s Kd 9c]
*** TURN *** [7s Kd 9c] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [7s Kd 9c Qs] [6h]
f3nix35 shows a pair of Aces
ste32bud shows three of a kind, Queens
ste32bud wins the pot (240,328) with three of a kind, Queens
f3nix35 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 240,328 | Rake 0
Board: [7s Kd 9c Qs 6h]
Seat 1: POKAPANTS folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Donkey Shortz folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Darwish (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: f3nix35 (small blind) showed [Ad Ac] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: Jureist Ginger (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: ste32bud showed [Qd Qc] and won (240,328) with three of a kind, Queens

No final table bubbled for $240. Top 6 places all pay over a $1k with first at $6.5k. FML. I just seem to run like absolute shit when I get within 100 runners in these 1k tournaments. Really really annoying. Gahh i guess it's just variance but this was the closest to a big final table I've got on this site and time and time again I was just getting fucked over by the cards. I hope one day I make one of these final tables for some serious money.

I don't know how the yanks do it just playing on those two sites, it would actually kill me. I'm still -ROI on full tilt (and slightly positive pokerstars). At least I had a bit of luck and took down the £1k GTD on crypto for £378 for a slight profit on the day. But it could have been a whole lot better :(

Bring on Sunday..

Final Tabled the £9k! :)

Finally I've managed to get a decent run in the £9k. Although I didn't take it down I'm really happy with the result as I did suckout in the final 2 tables with 22>AA all in preflop. Well I guess you need a bit of run-good to get there don't you :)

It's been a really nice finish to the last few days of online poker. My bankroll is now over the £5k point, so I think this calls for a bit of celebration. And I just hope the inevitable downswing won't cripple me too much! Good luck at the tables guys!

I run good at lower buy ins!

Continuing my run of failering the larger buy in tournaments I continue to run well at lower buy-in tournies on crypto. I guess its a good thing in a way as it allows me to keep a steady flow of income as the higher buyins can take nasty hits to the bankroll. I really hope i final table the £6k or £9k on DTD soon as I'm down on both big time. I just can't seem to win flips there! Not that I should be whining with how 2009 has shaped up too far. I think optimism is key to sucessful tournament poker as the beats can be very mentally straining and discouraging in online tournaments which in turn lead to tilt and bad play which worsen the matter.

Anyway I was unfortunately bubble boy on the $33 and $55 party poker tonight, so that wasn't too good but managed to take down the $22/$1.3k gtd and came 7th in the Late Action $27/$1.8k gtd.


Playing online again tommorow night so i will final table one of the bigger buy in tournaments! Come onn!!!

One huge weekend of poker

After my massive (and unsuccessful) run at Dusk Til Dawn in the monthly £330 and £165 tournys I felt like the online grind was needed! So i loaded up about 28-30 tournaments from 7pm-midnight on a few networks.

Somehow I managed to luckbox my way to taking two down on crypto so that was a really nice result. It's the second time I've taken down the £33/£1500 gtd. I took a shot at the £110/£35k gtd tonight but unfortunately luck wasn't with me as my aces got cracked for a nice large pot vs kings. But hey, what do you do eh ;). I was slightly dissapointed on Stars tonight though as I had a really really nice run in the $55/$80k gtd and was like 6/550 but then lost two HUGE flips with AK in the same orbit and ended up bubbling it. One day i will make a decent final table on pokerstars or tilt i swear!! It's alot harder on these sites as not only is the play alot better but dodging the minefield of 5000 person tournaments is ridiculous variance. But maybe one day ;)



My plan is to now have my "online" nights as Sunday/Monday/Tuesday and "live" playing £55 tourny and £1/£2 cash on Thursdays and Saturdays. But this depends on other factors like social life/work/family events etc.

The £330 deepstack!

This week has been pretty busy for me on and off the felt. I took a bit of a break from poker coming up the £330 as I was starting to feel a little burnt out and wanted to be on my A-game rather than my Spew-game when the time came. So to keep myself busy its been a mix of lots of chilling with friends and getting out and about! On Thursday I went over to my Thai friends house, Art, with my girlfriend and flat mate. He cooks so so good food its hard to describe. I think now officially Thai is my favourite kind of food. To me, it's like a mixture between Indian and Chinese, although im sure most will disagree massively.

Anyway, onto the £330 deepstack. Well i was SO SO pumped to go and play it as it is the highest buy-in event that I've played with a sick structure. So i sat down with my 10,000 chips and within the first hour i was down to 2400ish. Sad sad times indeed. No don't worry i wasn't on some sort of mad spew-tilt but took a pretty brutal beat from this rich-business man looking guy. He raises from mp and got a call from the button. I looked down at KK and pumped the action up. He called and the flop came J82 rainbow. Not a bad flop at all for my Kings. After a series of raises and reraises which confirmed that live donks can't fold top pair, he managed to get it all in with AJ and unfortunately rivered an ace against me.

A few hands later, I'm sat with my diminished chip stack and see a utg raise and another cold call from a later position. With 15bb's and 10 10 i think there is only one way to play this, so in they went. I got snap re-raise isolate by UTG who shoved up with QQ but somehow i managed my only luckbox of the day by making my straight.

From then on it was back to the grind, and the grind it was. I built my 5500 stack up to 32,000 without showdown by the 2nd break. That was a nice feeling as i was getting on to 2.5x the average and the field size diminishing rapidly.

But then the Poker gods thought i'de had enough fun for the day and came down and bitch slapped me back to where i belong! The rail...

A decent online tourny grinder raised from the CO at 300/600/50 and i looked down at 10 10 from the SB and 3-bet him. He pondered a few moments then elected to call. The flop came 789 rainbow giving me an up-and-down and overpair. I continuation bet and he over-shoved. I called and he flipped over JJ. The turn was the inevitable 10 for my set (which gave him a straight) and unfortunately I didn't improve. Down to 28BB's :(

2 hands later, it folds round to me at 400/800/100 and i 2.5x open the button with JJ. The SB reshoves just covering me for about 30bb's and i snap call. He sighs and flips over 10 3offsuit. Finally my comeback? Nooope. He goes on to make a 4 card flush on me and that was my day!

I have to say it was really fun and I can't wait to play the next deepstack game again. You really start to get a good feel for the table and the conditions and build up nice reads on the players. Its like a 4th dimension to poker that you just don't get as much online or in the regular casino comps. It was also really nice seeing some other friends playing the tourny today too including Ant who travelled up from London and I met for the first time.

Regardless, tommorow is another day and that means for me the £150+£15 freezeout at 3pm! This is the one for me to take down! If i bust early i plan on playing cash until im hungry then be back home to grind the sunday online tournaments. On the road to bustoville...but loving it! :)

On the comeback!

Hey,

I decided to load up the tables for the last time before the big day on Saturday. It was a nice session. I was pretty break even on pokerstars and full tilt but got decimated on Dusk Til Dawn. So let's hope my DTD run good will be on Saturday.

However on Party Poker I managed to get a nice break and came 2nd in the $8 rebuy. I came into the final table 3/10 and then managed to be chip leader going into heads up. Unfortunately lady luck wasnt quite on my side as i was pretty badly cold-decked with aq vs his ak. Then with 15bbs getting it in with A10 vs a3 and my opponent spiked a 3 on the river knocking me out!

Regardless, I'm happy with how it went and can't wait for Saturday with my bankroll being at its highest point ever so far!

A review of January!

Hey,

A quick blog today. Just to sum up January. Well, it went really well at the start and in total i netted a profit of £748. This included roughly £200 from online cash games which was nice as I managed to play 5000 hands and it can help to slowly reduce the variance that tournament play brings with it.

On the other hand, the end of the month was a bit more sucky and the BR has dipped below £4k again. Never fear, i withdrew some and maybe got over-cocky with my game.

For February, i plan on:
-£1000 profit
-Playing my A-Game in the monthly DTD Deepstack
-Watch at least 5-6 videos this month
-Take a few shots at the prelims of the GUKPT Walsall
-Get into a good grinding pattern online to help get good volume which will in turn help me to afford taking shots at some of these live deeper stacked games.
-DO NOT play live cash at my C-Game but just quit when I'm not feeling like playing!

Hope you all had a good January and bring on February!