MTT Sunday

Played a bunch of small MTTs this Sunday, around 10 or so. Even though I did not get the results I wanted, it was definitely enjoyable if not frustrating at times. Managed to build a number of large stacks in various tourneys but then ran into a brick wall by not getting cards or running into hands. That was the only disappointment I had but I know that is just tourney poker.

Overall I am happy with how I played but there were a few heart in mouth moments. One such occasion was betting something like 6245 into a pot of 1345 with my stack at just over 9k. This happened to me twice and it does make you panic a little. Thankfully on both occasions the villains folded. My intention is to play the same schedule of tourneys on Sundays from now on if I have the time otherwise I will stick with the 45 mans.

In the month of November, I am aiming for 1000 $7 45 mans but should I exceed 750 games, it will make me just as happy. Also, I am hoping to continue reviewiung as many HHs as I can to improve further.

Until next time, happy fishing!!!

Poker Study/Review

For a few months now and prior to Black Friday, I somehow got away from reviewing HHs on a regular basis. My play was not bad and i was making money so why bother? This is probably common for all players and all have gone through this phase. I looked at the Sharkscope stats for the "regs" in my games and over a larger sample they had ROIs between 10-14% in 45 mans. Most people would be happy with this and so would I... until I realised that because i cannot put in as much volume, I want to play better than them.

Over the last few sessions, I have reviewed 75% of the games I played. This takes a few hours but I tend to do it before I play (after getting back from work and before dinner) or lunch times at work. It seems over the top as I play around 50 games a session. However, I am finding some spots where I am missing shoves, realising mistakes, also defining the regs and Joe Bloggs ranges much better. This has allowed me to collate a bunch of notes on regs and randoms.

I have also gone over a lesson from a year ago that taught me a few things but over time have forgotten or too lazy to implement. Going over the video also showed me how far I have progressed but there were a few take aways from the video I was not using and that is a big mistake on my part.

Also, I want to start playing a bunch of tourneys, so taken to watching a few MTT videos on PokerVT. I especially like those by JCarver and Devo. I get a lot out of them and even if I have viewed them before, with the increase in my knowledge over the past year or so, the videos are now easier to understand and make a lot more sense then they used. Before it was all overwhelming with stack sizes for 3betting, 4betting, shove spots with ATC, placing people on hand ranges and so on. Tons of information for a novice but as you improve you can work out the best plays before the video even says it.

Anyway got to run in the middle of wstching Devo crush the member of PokerVt in the weekly bounty tourney.

The Long Blog Hiatus

This is the first blog post in over 5 months and a lot has happened since then. Everyone is aware of the Black Friday situation but being European I had the freedom to play on Stars and Full Tilt for an extra 2 months before FTP closed down. The only regret I have is that the day before the FTP shutdown, I had decided to withdraw most of my funds but unfortunately the closure occurred the very next day.

The money owed to me may seem small in comparison to what is owed to the high stake grinders but the money I had could have helped fund a few luxury items. I am not bitter in the slightest; I never see my bankroll as real money since I have withdrawn more than I ever put in and I see it as a point score. Every session is about putting more points on the board.

In terms of poker, the closure of FTP gave me an excuse to have a break from MTT SnGs and played decided on playing around 60k hands of 10NL. I could have played higher but making sure my fundamentals were correct seemed more important. The experiments is on-going but have recently moved back in the MTT SnG realm by playing the 45 man turbos. I found that the cash game experience has helped me to read hands better.

There has been a “poker league” set up at work. I may have mentioned it before but there are around 6-8 of use every two weeks putting in £10 each. We play a SnG format which is lucky for me since I have more experience of them then the other 7 players put together. I have won 3 out of 10 and another guy has 4 wins. Apart from the other winning guy who also makes a ton of mistakes but runs better then Jason Mercier the other players are not great. I get to see them make a ton of mistakes and for the first time can say, I am exploiting their weak tendencies which I never really understood about how to exploit someone before then. Have another one this week and going to take it down. Will try to post some intersting hands if I remember the details correctly.

I am intending on blogging more frequently but who knows, many have said the same and many have failed so will have to wait and see.

No Longer a Live Poker Virgin

I embarked on a trip into central London today with the sole goal of playing live poker. This is all very new to me and even went into a "poker club". I have talked about going to a few people so many times and failed miserably. My live experience before this was a few home family games and a few games with friends but drinking beer and been sociable was the primary objective.

What I didn't know when I turned up that there are some terrible players, even the online fish seem to know more than the bunch of fools I was playing with today. They guy to my right, young guy who plays regularly, said it was the weirdest table he has ever witnessed (thank god he wasn't talking about me).

Here are a list of calamitous things that I saw today in order of the funniest/stupidest:

1) We have just had a break and the clock ticked down for the cards to be dealt, it was 9 handed, I fold from UTG and everyone folds to the button that turns over his cards and folds face up. Now this is not funny in itself, except the SB and BB were not even sat down at the table so their hands would have been auto mucked if he even min-raised! Label OLD FISH!!!

This caused a bunch of debate as the other guys on the table said the SB and BB should chop, I pointed out that the BB would win and so the floor man was called over and ruled in favour of the BB who had not won a pot all day and had only 5BB left. Live Virgin is 1 up on the table! You kid opposite, you say you played online... where did you play fish cake... UB? Don't know how he though that it was going to be a chop! Label Oriental Fish Cake

2) The UTG+1 (Oriental Fish Cake) limps UTG+1 9 handed, everyone folds to the BB who instant mucks! Sorry dude, you can check, now that you have folded, you cannot have your cards back! WTF is going on, I thought I was the live virgin!

3) Another situation involving Oriental Fish Cake who was in the SB, Old Fish decided to limp UTG+2 and its folded to the SB who completes and the BB checks, the flop comes down and it checks to Old Fish who bets 50% of the pot and the SB tanks. Oh.. I think he is tanking, he is staring at the flop for about 2-3 minutes, shuffling his chips, looks like he is going to call stacking chips then asks the dealer... Is it on me?! CLOCK PLEASE! UNBELIEVABLE!

4) The guy to my right, NEVER raised once the entire time he was there. Every bet he vocalised, call, bet x, fold, it was getting annoying so the guy to my left started vocalising his actions to mock him but he was clueless to what was happening.

I am sure there was a string raise at one point that I pointed out to the dealer, the guy was lucky as the guy next INSTANT shoved and showed KK, you my friend can buy me a drink later!

Can someone who reads this is this the state of Live play???

It was pretty eventful in terms of watching the randoms playing. I am fairly sure that I was at least the 3rd or 4th best player sice there were 2 very good regs, guy to my left and the guy 2 to my right. The rest... OMG.

Here are a few note worth hands:

1) The 2nd good reg raised from the CO and I was in the SB, he raised 2.75x and I had 15BB behind and shoved my A7s. He was raising a bunch and I had not played many hands due to being between the only 2 good players. What was a little odd, that I was nervous as hell. I had a plan that if I was all in I would stare at the chips in the middle if I was all in to try and avoid giving off tells. I could see him counting down his stack and he had me covered by 3BB. My heart was racing and my palms were sweating (yes live virgin), not sure why I was so nervous as I shove hands online all the time without the slightest bit of nerves. Hopefully that will be eliminated the more experience I get. Eventually he folds and I am relieved but pretty sure I was behind.

2) I am in the SB with 9BB and its folded to me so I decided to shove. The good player in the BB tanked and started talking. When the guy folds, he explains he he folded ATo and wanted to know my hand. What do you tell a guy when he asks what you hand is, the only problem I had was I didn't look at my hand but just pretended by flicking them up in my usual manner. I thought it was a little funny. Sorry dude!!

3) The best hand I played all day was whilst on the button. Blinds are 300-600 and I have 8k in chips, Old fish limps in MP, the guy who limped every hand called in the CO, me on the button with JTss... hmm fold or call... decisions decisions, ALL IN!!! SB and BB insta folds, Old guy grumbles then folds, habitual limper gives a speech along the lines of, all in with 8k preflop, this is not poker and folds! Guy to my left looks at me and I think he knew what I did, it was pretty good feeling, even better than when I have done it online, only difference is now I can see the disgust on their faces!

Anyway I busted in standard fashion, 6 handed the CO shoves for 12BB, I call off my 8BB with KsQs and then insta knew I was in trouble when the the SB said ALL IN! CO had QJo so my read was right, the SB woke up with AK and I was drawing pretty slim on a AKx flop. The board ran out giving the CO a straight on the river!

I really enjoyed it and might try to get there on a regular basis since games online load even slower on a Saturday than they did before Black Friday!

Happy Live Grinding!!!

First MTT Win

And biggest online score to date!

Yes the title of this blog is correct; I won the $3 Turbo Multi-Entry $4k GTD tournament on Full Tilt Poker. The winner would take home $1.3k; however, I took a chop with a slight chip lead for $1.1k negotiating a $100 more than ICM dictated.

It was insane; I have played many final tables of 90 mans without so much as breaking a bead of sweat and had nerves of steel! This time was very different, I was feeling extremely nervous, not wanting to make a mistake and all at the same time super focused. I had a similar feeling when I came 5th in a $3 1R1A during my time at Vegas, but this was a lot worse as I had built up a massive lead and did not wanted to throw it away.

There were a few key moments during the tourney, one hand just before the bubble burst, I got it all in against two very large stacks with AK vs their 55 and JJ to triple up. From there my stack only grew with a few minor blips. I was small balling it up and the fish were just donating the chips.

The most telling hand came on the final table, I was on the button. The SB just lost a huge pot, then sucked out and was on super tilt which was key in the hand I will describe. At BB 20k, I just over min raised the BUT with 98o and got called by the SB, BB folded. The flop was 567 two diamonds, the SB ships in 720k into a pot of about 100k, well... I have the nuts after double checking and called, he had 43dd and I faded the flush draw for a massive chip stack, nearly three times that of 2nd place.

Thanks everyone who wished me good luck. A big thanks to Bodeye and Nestarasta who encouraged and kept me focused throughout! Also they both helped in the negotiating the chop, but as I am Indian, I was destined to get the best deal possible!

Since one of my goals was to win a large field mtt (2235 fish), I am considering quitting poker for the rest of the year! Not!!! I want to play more but I am stuck in the office writing this blog!

Untill next time... Good luck y'all!

March Recap 2011

The simple fact for this moth is the same as the past few months; that is that I am just not playing as much as I should be or wanted to. This will change this April where I aim to hit at least 750+ 90 mans or be sick trying!

So a quick summary of my 90 man efforts, not much to really say other than to show you a breakdown.

Summary

Buy In	Pld	Profit	ROI
$6	193	$511.50	40.8%
$12	137	$276	15.5%
$26	3	-$78	-100%
Total	333	$709	22.8%

Unfortunately, I lost a 1/3 of my 90 man profits to playing in MTTs. There were a few miniFTOP events that I entered and got burnt pretty badly. I felt I ran a little bad but then there were definitely a few spots where I needlessly donked of my chips. My game has come a long way but there is a ton more to learn and a ton to improve upon.

My main focus this month is 90 mans, 90 mans and some more 90 mans. Sprinkle in some $10 deep/superstack tourneys that fit into my schedule of play. Like I previously mentioned, I am aiming for 750+ games and if I do that then I will be purchasing an iPad 2! Incentive!!

Live Poker is RIGGED

I have read a few funny and interesting articles on people’s discussions of online poker being rigged. After a little research there is “software” tools that can help you avoid being exploited by online sites rigging games... only suckers would pay for such tools. Having been in software development myself, it is definitely possible to have code that can rig games. Do I think that the main sites employ such code... 100% not. They would not risk coding such capabilities just in case it got into the main software.

Live games are a totally different kettle of fish, these can be rigged pretty damn easily. Just look at the latest Sorel Mizzi John Racener saga with Sorel dealing the joker off the bottom. A decent card magician can set a deck exactly the way they want with you sitting in front of them without you knowing. I recently saw an episode of “The Real Hustlers” where the hustlers took on 3 members of the Hendon mob and cleared them out dealing from stacked decks.

Now my experience of live poker is limited to the few family games and one or two with a group of friends who do not know how to play. I recently started playing in a monthly game with work colleagues, all who claim to play regularly either online or in a few casinos round London. I saw this as a good way to start my live poker career (lol). The games are a sit and go with 2000 starting stacks and 5-7 players playing.

In my first game, rather than stick to a tight SnG approach I was trying to steal post and out play my opponents after the flop. What I realised only a little too late that these guys were not folding ever pre and I would get into tricky spot. So one hand came up 4 handed, blinds at 50/100, I started the hand with about 16BB and decided to 2.5x UTG, I got 3bet to 800 total by the BB and I shoved over getting snapped called. I had KK vs AA – what can I say RIGGED!!!

Second time round I was playing tighter than the previous game so I tightened up my range to play only monsters and then employ a push fold strategy late on when the blinds were high. Unfortunately, I did not get to the high or even medium blind stages. I was dealt AA on the button 5 handed with blinds at 25/50. Utg limped, CO limped, and I decided to raise 300 from a stack of 1600, getting called by the BB and UTG. The flop came down perfect based on the hands that I saw these two player playing, 245r, the BB checked and the UTG player (someone I have given advice to before) donk bet 500 in the pot of 1k, so I shoved the rest of my stack, the BB said good bet and reluctantly folded. I got called by the UTG play and he showed JJ to my surprise since I was expecting 66-99 or even Ax. The turn was a J and I was out – RIGGED AGAIN.

The funny thing about the second time round was a novice player asked why I shoved for all my chips on the flop. Then the others were giving him a hard time while I sat there thinking, I could have made more money online. The others did try needling me but I wasn’t bothered, I just referred them to a little book called “Fooled by Randomness”. I did remain till the end and think I picked up a few tells which might come in handy although you can never be too sure.

Hope this little tale was enjoyable, if not, unlucky, you got to the end and didn’t find the punch line!

Good luck y’all.

Ps: I don’t actually believe live poker is rigged but always watch out in those self dealt games!

Reflection on MTTs and MiniFTOPs

Every poker player has dreamt about winning a large field tournament with big bucks at the end. Some are lucky and good enough to have done so. Also there are those that are not one hit wonders and repeat the feat a number of times over their career and even multiple times within a single year.

When I started playing poker I never understood how someone could win a 45 or 90 man let alone a field of 10,000. I was always in awe of someone who won and wondered whether I could posses such skill to accomplish the feat. Playing 90 mans has taught me how to win that form of poker and in some ways has given me some insight into approaching MTTs. Also, I have started to really focus on the MTT videos that are produced at PokerVT, especially the content from Jason “JCarver” Sommerville, Jon “Pearljammer” Turner and Bryan “Devo” Devonshire. I have even resorted to reading “Poker One Hand at a Time” during lunch breaks at work – just so I can try to improve my game. Unfortunately for me, I do not put in enough volume of MTTs to realise that dream anytime soon. What people don’t realise when starting out in this game is that those that win have probably been playing for a while, refining there skills and studying to improve.

My bankroll does not allow me to play large buy in tournaments such as the Sunday Million or the large FTOPs events. Plus I am honest enough to say that I would be burning money like so many donkeys that think that poker is easy. Thank god FTP introduced the MiniFTOP series which I have a sufficient bankroll to play in. I see this as an opportunity to get lucky and run like god one time... I am still waiting having played a few events in the current series and past.

This Sunday I entered Event #22 which was a $12 multi-entry Super Stack Knockout Bounty tournament. This is right in my wheel house as so many people over value the bounties. If definitely opens up opportunities that you may not otherwise get such as more loose calls by larger stacks “bounty hunting”. Having played solidly for a number of hours I did bust out to mainly standard hands in standard spots. However, every time I built a stack I ran into some bad luck and lose a bunch of chips. Still working on how to play these events consistently well and not make mistakes that damage my stack. I obv have a ton of work to improve but it’s a work in progress. With over 50,000 people entered it was fun while it lasted.

I will be entering a few more this week so look out for another post when I ship a big score! ;-)

Good luck y’all!

Lost without Poker

There is something that has been missing recently and looking at the blog title you can tell that it's poker. I have not been able to play due to my Dell pc having a fault. The hard drive has blown and waiting from an engineer to come to replace it. This put me on inst fire tilt as its only a month old!

It's funny because I thought that I could get by without playing for a few days. However, that has not been the case, I am just itching to grind those 90 mans. It's probably the fact that I can't that makes me want to play more. I think that if you are told you can't do something then you instictively want to do it more. So what have I done to fill the void of not playing... well... I have been watching the PAD Cash Game and Poker VT videos. There is a PearlJammer series where he takes down the 500 on Stars. It's ridiculously long so has definately kept me occupied but it's never the same as playing.

I am now facing up to the fact that I have to go through the pains of re-installing the likes of HEM, FT Ninja, poker clients and so on. Also the added pain of importing my 90 man HH since Nov 2009 because I did not get round to backing up the database before the crash! To those that are reading this... I suggest you back up that database right now.

The engineer is due in today so hopefully I can muster a few games. If you are wondering how on earth I am typing a blog without a pc... I am using my work laptop which I refuse to install poker clients since I may get fired but even worse I may actually be tempted to play during office hours!!!

Good luck at the tables!

Jan 2011 Recap

Wow, this month has gone faster then I had expected. There were a couple of nice things that happened this month in relation to poker which I will detail.

The first is that I managed to win my little prop bet. It was not all plain sailing as I went on a small downswing and my closest rival went on a small heater. This all made it too close for comfort with around 50 games to go. It looked like I needed to 2-3 wins for me to get a head. Somehow, I pulled it out of the bag; winning the bet with a win in the final 3 games. I am not a type of person to gloat and make fun when I win bets so I will not further mention it. Also, 500 games is a small sample and therefore who ever runs hot over that period will win in general.

Summary

Buy In	Pld	Profit	ROI
$6	299	-$710.50	-36%
$12	201	$1519.50	58%
Total	500	$809	17.8%

What started to bug me a little was getting crushed in the $6 games which I always excel in generally. It was only a little annoying since I was crushing the $12.. thank god!

Secondly, having played enough to qualify for Iron man status (generally Bronze or Silver)for the last 6 months I had a small bonus to clear which is a nice addition to the bankroll. I am all in favour of getting free money! Something that JRB needs at the moment!!!

Only played a round 16 mtts which was covered by the Ironman bonus so overall a good month for a part timer like myself. Still disappointed I did not make 600+ games and it will be even tougher in the month of Feb so 500+ is the aim.

Thats all for now!

Good luck at the tables!

Small January Prop

I have somehow got myself in a prop bet against two very good SnG grinders, Fried Liver a 180 man expert and Chip210 a former 180 man grinder but has switched to FTP 90 man KOs. The only explanation of accepting this was that I must have been drunk or having an egotistical moment where I felt I was a clear favourite with my new found confidence/success

The prop:
Most profits from the first 500 SnGs in January
Games to be Stars $7/$12 180 man or FTP $6/$12 90 mans

The Wager (small stakes only):
The two losers pay the winner $50 each

The only way I could compete with these high volume grinders was to set a first 500 game cap.

Mr Liver was off to a flyer playing on Stars after about 20 games being up over $1k but fortunately for me went on a sick down swing and is in the minus after his 500. Being a high volume grinder he finished his 500 games a little while ago.

Chip210 on the other hand is only 170 games from completing his 500 and is in the profit. He was clearly crushing the games before he hit a rough patch and another bit of fortune came my way. He looks to be getting back on track.

Me, well I am pretty useless having only played 180 games or so and with half the month gone somewhat behind pace on the volume. My profits are steady but nothing that will set the world alight. I think some long sessions will be due in the next few days.

Better be off, writing this whilst at work is not such a great idea after all!

Good luck y'all!!!

Reflection on 2010 Goals

In the previous post I literally pasted my results without really talking about them against my goals. So here are the goals I set for 2010:

1) Achieve Iron Man status and maintain for 10 out of 12 months in a year
I actually thought that this would be hard as I felt that at some point I may actually be force into not playing because of family or work. However, I grinded every month this year so gained Iron man status for every month of the year. Let's hope I can maintain this as there is a nice bonus at the half year mark as well as an end of year. With my "medals" I did purchase the 3 in 1 Jacket they have on offer, my once that was similar was old so it was nice to get a new one! Next Iron man purchase will be the Binoculars that can take pictures as well.

2) Move from the $3 KO tourneys to the $12 (a must) and possibly $24 (stretch target)
I moved up in stakes pretty quickly and was playing the $24's in no time. Nick was pushing/encouraging me all the way and Bodeye even asked Nick to easy up on me and not to give me a heart attack at one stage but it was all good. Although, currently not playing many $24's as it is now only for extra income so did not want to handle the swings that come with the $24's. Nick will call me a P***y but he is write, the day job is stressful enough without the thought of losing thousands of dollars. I will go back once I grow a pair... I promise!

3) Feature at least once in the FTP leader board top 200
I actually featured a few times which was a surprise. At the time, I did not know that I would be on my way to Vegas and play 1000 games in 2 weeks! What I also did not realise that unlike Stars, FTP leader board rewards high volume high stakes grinders. So even if you played 2000 $3 90 mans you may not break into the top 100 if the other guys are playing less but at higher limits. Only featured 4 times in the top 100 so nothing to write home about.

4) Play 500+ games a month for 11 months of the year
Utter fail here, only managed this for 8 months. To make consistent money I need to be grinding regularly. Maybe initiating a prop bet with someone will encourage me to keep going every month. I did however, average 500+ for 12 months but that was largely due to the fact that I went to Vegas and put in 2 months worth of games in 2 weeks.

5) Make $1k in 5 out of 12 months
Now here is where being not specific will catch me out. In terms of 90 mans I did make $1k 5 months of the year but I suspect that this was not the case if I included all the MTTs, 45 and and other games (satellites mainly).

Overall it was a good year in poker for me as I mentioned in my previous post. I will look to set some specific ones for the coming year in a few days. May speak to a few people and see what they think I should be trying to achieve with my game. Guess there will be a volume related one along the lines of number 4, may be continue the Iron man run, try and aim for a total profit figure broken down into 90 mans only and overall target (cos I is going to ship at least 1 mtt - lol).

until next time.. good luck at the tables!

End of 2010 Analysis

I was going to write an in depth and detailed analysis of the year but rather then using words, I have found the pictures to help.

So this first one is all the games on Full Tilt that I played. It includes all the 90 mans, MTTs, 45 mans and some other minor satellites. Overall happy to make a profit on the year.



My 90 man performance for the year at all buy ins:



Summary of all 90 mans if you are to lazy to count it all up:



The graph to back it up:



A little fun statistics about how my performance was like for each day of the week and a monthly breakdown of profit ville!



From the top graph, can you guess which month I was in Vegas for?? Can you seen the stretch where I was struggling/breaking even? All I can say is that at least I had a real job otherwise I may have been struggling!

What was always funny during the course of the year, was the fact that I struggled to have a good performance on a Sunday. I am not sure what was the cause but at one stage I was down a great deal of money on Sundays but a few good Sundays righted that ship. Obviously, love playing Tuesdays and Wednesdays!

The final graph/picture is my results in MTTs, I could not let you all think that I was simply having a great year:



It's a small sample but the last few months my MTT play has improved and understanding a bit more on the ways to approach them. My play in the 90 mans have helped with the learning but I rarely get a chance to play with more then 20BB unless its the early stages. Hopefully this year will be a good year for MTTs.

I left out the graph for my 45 man play, lets just say, I will not be playing them anytime soon! I was crushed in them however, it was during the breakeven/bad patch of the year so who knows what the future lies. With my new found patience maybe I will tackle the $10 level games and see how I fair over a thousand or so games.

Overall I am happy that my poker has improved dramatically over the course of the year. My game has completely changed from this time last year to now. I am a totally different player and it's all thanks mainly to Nick "Mi_turtle" Rainey, Bodeye2 and Aaron "Johnny_Hilldo" Hill. I also need to thank some of the poker players I have spoken to over the past year and you know who you are.

Here is looking to a better 2011!!!

December Grind Complete

Unfortunately, I will not be able to grind my regular 90 mans until next year! So it is with a sad hearth that I post my results for the month. In fact, I should not be sad at all, I had a good month and after a relatively flat patch I have finally come out of it.

The breakdown of games is as follows:
$6 - 288 games @ 3% roi for $55.25 profit
$12 - 172games @ 52% roi for $1175.50 profit

Total 460 @ 30% roi for $1230.75 profit

Now this was not my best month nor my second best month in terms of profit but it was the first month in a little while where my bankroll increased significantly. I put it down to hard work and listening to friend's who encouraged me all the way.

I played a few more MTTs this month with little success, however, having watched a few videos on PokerVT again, I am accumulating the chips, now all that is required is a little run good and hope we can ship one in 2011! There was one deep run where I was around 10th in chips with only 150 let (147 get paid) and Full Tilt decided to crash for everyone! They did give me a nice chip chop of the prize pool but I am pretty sure I could have had a chance to make more by final tabling or even binking it!

I will keep this one short as I want to do a larger statistical breakdown of the year in a few days time.

Good luck y'all!

Fun with the Railbirds

Before I get on with the main topic for this blog, I thought I might as well post some of the results so far this month.

In terms of 90 mans I played just under a hundred having only time to play 3 times this week. The coming week will be no better but with just over a hundred more to reach 500 should be attainable even with Xmas festivities. I made a decent profit over the period with a dollar shy of $400.

The damage to my roll occurs when I try to dabble in those stupid mtts. Maybe I am not just able to master them, running bad in the small sample I have or just need to study more on mtts (probably this) but they definitely are NOT adding the dollars to my account. I will persist and eventually ship one in 2011 (goal for the year???).

Now for the main reason for the blog; Saturday night after watching Green Zone (Matt Daemon film - pretty good), I decided to log onto FTP to see if the Durrrr Challenge was happening or a few top level pro's playing, alas there was none of the sort so I was reduced to railing Bodeye ;-)

When I rail Bodeye, there are two things that occur, one he seems to start getting monster hand after monster hand and generally reaches a final table. He is a good friend, ex coach, and so he lets me know his hole cards to get a better understanding of mtt strategy which I really appreciate. We then also have a discussion which is invaluable information. Now yesterday there was a railbird, initially heaping praise on Bodeye about his game, wishing him luck, hoping for a run of good cards, praying for the suck out, you know the thing. As I was watching these messages, I wondered when the begging would start and within a split second of the thought, there it was, "can you stake me in a $2 tourney?". At which point I started begging Bodeye in the chatbox, stating that I would give him 10% of all my losses, to which he then stated to the rail he was transferring me $600 because of the great deal I presented him with. The railbirds were going wild at the thought of Bodeye sending the rail some money. To have even more fun, I declared that I would stake one of them $200 from the $600 Bodeye had sent me. I was having a good laugh and so was Bodeye. Unfortunately this was all after Bodeye finished 7th pr 8th when KK < AK when the villain spiked an A on the river.

I had my own railbird for the first time, he apparently likes the way I play, so much so that he felt that I could stake him $20... hmmm... I think not LOSER! I didn't catch his name because I was too focused on playing rather than begging! Not sure what I think of railbird beggars but they seem a little desperate at times so I don't mid messing with their heads if I get the opportunity.

Anyhow, this is probably the last entry before Xmas so wishing everyone a Happy Christmas.

Good luck y'all.

Incredible week

WOW.. that sums up my run from Monday til today! My thoughts before this week (for many weeks) was when will this breakeven stretch end. Well, it may be a little early but I think it has finally come! Not much has changed in the way I am playing but all I know it that I am winning and may it last forever. All I now want to do play day in and day out. Those bad beats are back to not effecting me emotionally in the slightest. It is an AWESOME feeling.

Played a total of 158 games since Monday making just under $1k in the 90 mans. If it was not for my damned Sundays (seem to lose on Sundays) I would have been up a little more. Cannot complain though as it's just nice to be playing well and confidence. Those abusive chats in the chat box have returned, you know you are playing well when that happens.

Currently playing the $12 Super Stack KO MiniFtops - lets ship an MTT one time!

Friday Dilema

For the last few months I have been in a little dilemma. It is basically a decision on whether I should play poker with friends at the local pub or play online. The choice is a tough one as I should make more money online than the live event but with the live event I can have a few drinks whilst socializing with friends.

Not so long ago, maybe two weeks or so, I was down at the local pub but rather then play the lame looking poker game, I decided to watch the rugby. Having witnessed the fishy play made me want to join the game next time round. The guys playing look at their cards and then make betting decisions accordingly so should be a faily easy game for someone who has some skill.

During the game I saw that my brother was down around the 10BB mark so on the break I gave him a few tips. When I say tips, I said, if the BUT min rises again, just shove on him and if it is folded to you, dont look at your cards and shove. He is a monster fish and was arguing the merits of such a strategy. On the very first hand sitting in the SB, everyone folds, the IDIOT looks at his cards and folds! So much for listening. On the second orbit the same happened in that everyone folded to his SB, I signaled the motion to shove blind and because he had like 8BB left he reluctantly shoved and ran into QQ. He was NOT a happy bunny, telling me off for a stupid play, I tried to explain why it was correct but you can teach fish to breathe out of water!

So after "getting" my little brother busted, I see that my girlfriend is on final table bubble. She has played a few sng/90 mans and understands that she needs to shove with not so good hands in some situation. Even though she knows, she is always gives me a hard time about it when she gets knocked out. This time was no different as I motioned her to shove UTG 7BB with 87s She got knocked out running into AQ. OOOOPPS!

The next hour was the most pain I have suffered, I rather have bad beat after bad beat than listen to the pair of them whine how I got them knocked out. I sat there smiled and drank my beer.

On reflection, the game was played by a bunch of simpletons and sure that I have a massive edge even with my limited skill. After watching it for 3 hours, I came to the conclusion that I may slit my wrists listening to the idiots talk about poker as if they are experts and playing one hand every 5 minutes! BORING!!!

Online is the way forward for me for now but will consider trying it out one time!

Good luck y'all!

ps: Check out Nick's attempt to get Supernova Elite by playing some crazy volume! Read all about it at www.rainmanusc.blogspot.com

November Ends

My work this month has really made sure that I had very little time to play poker. I mean there was one week where I had slept for only 10 hours in 4 days. At least the project is now live and I received some praise. Not that it means much from a bunch a people who know nothing yet insist on telling people what is best!

Back to the poker update, basically only managed to play the last week of the month and managed a mere 297 90 mans. It is the lowest volume I have achieved throughout the year and somewhat disappointed. There were maybe a few days where I should have played more but the past is gone and can only look forward.

I managed to play a few MTTs and although I did not win one, my game is coming along There were two tourneys where I finished 61 and 78 out of 2000 or so runners. Both equally brutal bust outs where if I had won the hand then it could have been another story!!! However, when I do bust I think of the words Nick told me on my visit to Vegas... Who would want to be a MTT grinder.. you have to be sick in the head (similar words to those effect). I can only explaining by the statement: You were so close yet so far. Its just very frustrating at times. He is right though so I sticking with the 90 mans for the most part.

With the MTTs and 90 mans I made a little money so that is good. I hate losing, and being of Asian background, losing money is the worst! Yes I can make fun out of myself and culture... no you cannot!!!

There are a number of blogs I read and one that always is entertaining is Jammenplyr. He has started blogging about his exploits at 10NL 6max so I decided with very little time to play 90 mans that I would try my hand at a little cash myself, knowing he is a fish (only messing) and having success, I cannot help but feel I can make a little profit in the games. So this month I have completed 2.5k hands and made a little money, $45 at 9ptBB/100 (yes very small sample).

Initially, I just sucked, playing too many hands over compensating for the tightness of hand range I employ in the 90 mans in the early going. My hand reading skills have greatly improved and that sort of helped me get out of trouble spots that I should not have been in the first place. Jammen sent me a spreadsheet he used when he started as a good starters guide for opening ranges, I was not to far off from the onset but definitely opened two many from UTG/UTG+1. Having tightened up my game a touch and watched a few John Ettinger vids on PokerVt, I have definitely plugged some leaks but know that I am still making a few mistakes here and there. I guess its all part of the learning curve. Definitely enjoying it and will only improve my 90 man games in post flop situations.

My aim in December is to play as much poker as possible whether that be 90 and/or 10NL cash on Stars. The problem with December is all the Christmas parties and socializing before Xmas just get in the way of a solid schedule so I will do what I can when I can.

October in the books

Very disappointed in myself for how October turned out. My aim was simple enough, to play 600 games, not only did I fail to get there, I also failed to get to my standard 500. I said no excuses but my internet has been extremely unreliable and playing with unrealistic internet is like getting a wad of notes together, pouring petrol on it and setting alight to it with a match.

See graph below for the ups and downs of the month. One bad spell wiped out the efforts in the middle of the month. All I can say is stuff happens and I will come out of the funk at some point.



I have been playing with a new sense of confidence and belief that I lost a little while back. Even though I came back from being up to nearly break even does not worry me in the slightest. I may not be crushing but I am not losing as having to re-deposit would actually make me cry.

Having played a few small MTT's this month has really dented the monthly income from 90 mans but this is a way to break up the grind a little. I have been dabbling mainly in the $10 super stack tourneys which allow for a lot of play and have had a few deep runs without really cashing. I will bink one of these soon enough!

On a totally un-poker related topic, I have somehow added a few pounds to my weight that was not in the overall life goal. So to put things right I have put myself in a spot where I now have to attend the gym 4 times a week and ensure I complete 2 sessions of cardio training on top of the 2 standard cardio/weight training sessions. Each cardio session needs to be at least 30 minutes long in total training eg 20 minutes running and 10 minutes X-trainer. There is money on the line so need to focus.

November Goal: Enjoy Poker and play every hand the best you can!

New WBCOOOP

I played in this series last year and they give you tickets for SCOOP if you cash so worth entering as a freeroll for a chance to win big!!!