Kicking The Cat

Paradise no more.

2006-12-07T12:46:00.000Z

What on earth is happening at Paradise. I didn’t play many hands last night, but this wasn’t through choice. I had a spare hour so went onto Paradise. There was one $2/$4 game going and no, yep no $1/$2 games. From what used to be one of the busiest sites, they seem to really have shot themselves in the foot.

I don’t know how long they will survive, going on last nights games not long.

Bleak Start to December

2006-12-06T09:05:00.000Z

Been a strange few days pokerwise. Since the start of the new month I have a pretty torrid time. I initially cleared the will hill casino bonus for a quick £25 profit. Then went onto Paradise to see whether they had taken off the £5,000 bonus that they gave me last month leaving the prior bonus. To there credit they had. Though to be honest trying to get a table is a bit of a problem. At eh moment there are normally 2 $1/$2 tables and 2 $/$4 tables.

First night I got pawned…. It tried the $2/$4 table, and a combination of my bad play and no cards meant I went down $60 in a couple of hundred hands. Oops. Played again last night and got onto a $1/$2 table and made $40 back, so a bit happier about the site. From what I can see, the players that are left are the diehards. Those that have played a lot, and for a long time, all reasonably decent. What is it they say, if you can’t see the fish, then it…… I’ll be glad when this bonus is finished. Of course I could always leave it, but that goes against the grain, especially when I’m down at the moment. Call it stupid male pride if you like.

Plan for this month is to finish the last $30 bonus at paradise, Will Hill Bonus, Interpoker, and hopefully by that time I may have a small party bonus to go.

All in all approx $285 of bonus money.

I could really do with a good month, I wanted to clear that £950 visa bill over the 2 months. Cleared about £400 last month, but may well a struggle to get the £300 this month. Fingers crossed.

Good luck at the tables.

By the way are all the B2B tables linked? I played at i4poekr and found them pretty soft. Let me know.

H.

Ah So! Soko!

2006-12-01T16:08:00.000Z

So I broke my own rule last night. Well to be fair I’ve broken it that many times before I’m surprised I haven’t learnt my lesson. I watched the football, had a few drinks, then played poker, had a few drinks, and before you could have a few more drinks it was 2.30am and on a school night.

Only good thing was I made a little bit of cash, though I’m struggling at work today, thankfully it’s Friday.

So I fired i4poker, since I was going to play a few tournaments, and I find the site full of overly optimistic chaps, willing to chase everything. So got on fired up a 10 player SnG, and a couple of cash games, one limit, and the other a micro NL. Nothing like a challenge, playing 3 different types of poker at the same time. Anyway, I came second in the SnG, and was winning easily on the limit, and the micro I was up something like 40BB, in the first half hour. Yep, I wonder if I can keep winning $4 every half hour.

Anyway, since I was up, I played a heads up match, and won it. Everything was going well. Entered a MTT, now considering that this was late and I had been drinking it wasn’t a good idea. I’ve said before that the overlays on these MTT’s are great, however, the rub is that very few of them are freezeouts. Most of them have unlimited rebuys in the first 4 levels. Makes it such a long game, especially with 10 minute blinds. Anyway, went into a $15 MTT, and I finished about 28th or something. It was going well, but two bad hands, and the blinds getting big meant that it was good night Vienna.

Then fired up another MTT. I thought it was strange that there was a guaranteed prize, but hardly anybody had entered. Ah, it was PL Soko.

Fired up an internet page to get the rules, and off we went. For those of you that haven’t played this variant of poker don’t. It’s pretty boring. Basically you get one card face down one up, betting round, get a face up card, another betting round and so on until you get 5 cards. A bit like a cross between Holdem and Seven card Stud. Here the difference though, a pair is beaten by 4 to a flush, or 4 to a straight. Well, I was busy at another Heads up game (which I lost) to find out that I had made it to the money. I ended up going out in 4th, but I made a little cash.

At that point I put on my sensible head and wandered upstairs to bed, to dream about how I can make my fortune playing Soko.

GL

H.

Another fun night

2006-11-30T11:58:00.000Z

So I sat down to clear the Littlewoods bonus. Sitting down, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, I was up £18 and only had 25% of the bonus to go. A walk in the park.

At times though, my brain just goes into meltdown. I played horribly for the first few orbits at the 4 $1/$2 tables I played at. I tried bluffing when I didn’t have a hope, wow, I even called down with mid-pair to an aggressive rock. What was I thinking. Anyway, long story short, I ended up going down $40-$50, in a very short time. Goodbye, any playing profits, and goodbye, any bonus.

At this point though, I took a couple of deep breaths and starting playing poker again. Slowly but surely I rebuilt my earlier losses, and in the end, I closed off for a $4 loss. Taking into account my £25 bonus, and the earlier profits, I cashed out in the region of £40 / $75. It could have been o much worse, but luckily the poker gods have been smiling on me lately.

Had a spare hour, and a small irritating $15 bonus at Party which I decided to clear, since I haven’t played at Party for a while. I opted in to the bonus, and the bonus interface has changed somewhat at Party. Anyway, 130 hands later, I finally work out that I haven’t cleared any of the bonus. Luckily I was slightly up so all was not lost. I then opted in again, and made sure this time that the bonus was clearing, 300 hands later, the bonus was well and truly cleared. Scratch one insultingly low $15 bonus, and playing profit of circa $18.

Well at this point I tried to cash out the Party money, only to be told that I still had the game client open. Instead of rebooting Party, I took a quick break, and fired up a $2/$4 table. I haven’t played a lot of hands at $2/$4, but what I have played I have been losing at a rate of $4bb/100. Not great!

I was only playing 1 table, and was card dead. Absolutely nada. Though I did manage to lose $40 in the process. One bad play, and a few call folds, meant I bled chips. I suppose when you are used to Multi tabling, going back to one table seems soooo slow.

Ok, so I was card dead. So I decided to open up another $2/$4 table. It was then that my fortune changed. I started to get some cards, they held up, or I backed into flush draws, and I ended the night with a profit of $70-$80.

When you grind away at multi tabling, you kind of take the beats and the wins as matter of fact. After all, your winnings are just a function of the number of hands you play and your true BB win rate. I got that excited feeling at the table again. The one where you are willing a brick to hit, or a flush card to come up. Heart pumping etc, etc. How I used to feel when I first started out. You guys on higher stakes don’t laugh at me, it’s all relative after all.

By the way, once again I didn’t feel out of my league here. You can see how you can lose chips quickly, but it is no harder than say a normal crypto table. Main change that I can see is that people don’t get married to their hand so much.

Anyway, got to get going.

Final question though
Q. If you are 4 to a flush heads up, would you just call the opponent who bet into you, or would you reraise him.

Similarly if three handed what would you do. Is there value in reraising?

Good luck at the tables

H.

Still rolling along

2006-11-28T09:01:00.000Z

Wow, first off how long does it take to clear the Littlewoods bonus. I knew there was a reason that I didn't do it every month. Assuming 20% VIP, it taking me around about 1000 hands to clear this. I reckon that it is on contributed rake, as such if you are a tight ass it takes ages.

Happily though, for some reason I'm still going good on the Crypto tables. Don't get me wrong I see less bad players on the site, but with a bit of patience, and aggression you can push players about a bit. Blind Stealing, raising for a free card, reraise bluffs, continuation bets, are all things that you can use here to if not make money then at least tread water until your good cards come.

Lost a big pot, I limped in on the BB with QT, and flopped nut straight. I didn't raise the flop, and it was checked around. On the turn it was capped, and the boar paired. On the river myself, and 2 others called it down. Yep on the turn he flopped a FH and my str8 was no good. I was then asked why no bet on the flop, I just shrugged my shoulders. Which to be fair when you are [playing online is no good at all, and bordering on the insane. These things happen, if I bet out on the flop, then I would have folded the table, and won a small amount, I got greedy.

Getting rid of spam postings
How do you do this.... I tried before and all I managed to do was get any comments sent to my e-mail, where I had to improve them. All I want to do is be able to delete them. Any ideas?

How can I improve my game
I'm struggling to improve my game. I find that I don't read about poker so much. Wow, I've even had Harringtons books for about 10 months and haven't read them all the way through. I've just kind of hit a plateau where I'm making money but the continual improvement has ground to a halt. Lets face it, if you aren't improving you can sure as ell believe that the people you are playing against are.

Any ideas anyone. I reckon that if there were a few people who want to get together through e-mails etc, then taht would do it. Kind of a class, everybody takes the same topic, rights an article on it, then they are all argued about, and a definitive article taken from all of the different articles.

Post it on a website, and before you know it you have a really valuable site. just a thought.

Good luck at the tables

H.

Forgot as well, played 500 hands last night, for a grand total of about $35 profit. Not great but better than being in the black.

Leave a message if you read the site. Always good to know who is visiting if anybody

Why do we continue to play...

2006-11-27T09:00:00.000Z

That was the question I was asking myself last night. Followed quickly by the answer because I enjoy it, and I have the belief in myself that I make money at it.

However, I played 250 hands roughly last night, and was anything from $20 down to $20 up. At the end of the night I was a whole $4 up.

Lets face it, you have to move up the levels if you want to make money at poker. Grinding out a 2BB/100 profit at the lower levels just isn't going to do it. If it wasn't for bonuses, would I have made the move up the levels. Probably, but in no way certain. I'm not mentally prepared for the swings at the $2/$4, never mind anything even higher. I get all of that racing heart thing when I'm playing in an $80 pot. Mind you i'm sure at one point I was like that playing at the $1/$2. I suppose it's got to do with comfort zones, and safety nets. At the moment even if I have a losing night, I know that I'll get it back, and if I don't... well the bonuses will cover my losses. At the $2/$4 you don't have the luxury of the get out of jail free card.

I reckon though, I'll need to make the move soon. Even last night there was a programme on about internet gambling, and how it was wrong for sites to offer you incentives to play at their site, and 'encourage' you to play more. I reckon that we are in the twilight years of the gambling boom. Companies will merge, governments will legislate, and the larger corporate sites that remain will start to turn the screw and maximise profits. All to the detriment of the internet gambler.

Anyway, enough doom and gloom, I'm away to take my happy pills.

Good luck at the tables

H.

Oh and by the way, I played like a donkey last night. I've got an annoying habit of trying to win every hand, no matter what my hand actuially is. Soemthimes it works, sometimes I pay way to much to go to the river with a mediocre hand. Last night it was the latter....

Tonight is another night. I'm in 2 minds whether to complete the Littlewoods bonus or just call it a day with it. 70% of it still to go with only 2 nights available to clear it. I've got a small party bonus I may do instead.

Another fine night.

2006-11-24T12:49:00.000Z

Well I finished the interpoker bonus, for a grand total of $300 up, of which $100 is from bonus. I just seem to be on one of those runs, and I have also started seeing the tables not quite so tight. Although it is still a wait to get on one.

Loaded up Littlewoods poker, to see if I can get that one cleared before the end of the month.

It pians me to say this though, I'm no longer (in the short term) building my bank roll. Any cash I make over the £3,500 mark is now going to pay for past indescretions on the credit card. On the plus side, I paid £165 off this month, and I've probably got another £120 to go from the inter bonus.

Needs must I suppose :)

GL at the tables, Mattastic, thanks for the heads up on the Sun Poekr site, I will wait with baited breath.

Long time coming

2006-11-22T09:08:00.000Z

Ok, so it's been a little while since I posted so what have I been up to. Well not playing to much poker but have cleared a few bonuses, heres an update od where I am....

Golden Riviera
No bonus here, but when trawling through some of the sites that I haven't played at for a while, I found that I had $20 here. You have to have $50 to cash out, and with a bit of luck on my side, I quickly got to that level and cashed out $51.

Will Hill
One of my favourites, but I fear the end may well be close for this site as far as good bonuses go. As for the casino, I cleared the bonus in a matter of a few hours and ended £80 up. Went onto the poker side, and to be fair I was pawned. Even with the £25 bonus, I ended up only a few £'s. Not great but hey there is always next month.

Bet 365
Ok I did another casino bonus. The great thing about black jack bonuses is that you can completely go into automatic pilot mode. No thinking required. Well I cleared off this bonus for another £80 profit.

Interpoker
Inters bonus appears to have improved if you clear it through the poker side. As long as you are playing $1/$2 the it appears as if you get a full raked hand for every hand taht is raked. I'm sure prviously that this was one of those sites that you got a fraction of a hand if it was raked below 25c. Anyway, I had one great night on this site, cleared 40% of the bonus, and was up $90. Second time I played was one of these timese where I was $40 down on one table, $30 up on another, $10 up on another, and breakeven on the last. Breakeven in total. If it wasn't for a couple of hands where I hit at the end, I would have ended down. But another 20% of the bonus cleared, and a total of $12 up for the night.

Thats it. Things going well, but I'm not putting in the hours, due to other commitments at the moment. Must try harder.

Have fun.

H.

Bonuses going south

2006-11-04T16:31:00.000Z

Well it's been a strange few days on the poker front. Firstly I have to say I haven't played a huge amount. I was a bit worried about the state of affairs at i4poker, they seem to not have a large poker base, especially on the fixed limit side. Coupled with this, is the large numebr of guaranteed prize tourneys that they run. I just can't see how they survive. Theres loads of freerolls to, where the buyin is points based. Granted not huge, but they are consistent with couple every hour or so. All this made me a bit nervous leaving money in the site, so I withdrew a 150 Euros leaving just 20.

To be fair to them, they cashed out quickly, and no problems to report at all. It's a nice little site, loose play, and as I said loads of freerolls etc. A great little site if you are just starting out, with no bank roll. Anyway, after playing for a little while, I played the 20 up to 30, and thought I'd just withdraw the remainder, and go back there for the freerolls. Anyway, you cannot withdraw less than 50 Euros. So what does a man do, redeposit and withdraw, nope, I played for an hour, and built up the roll to 50 Euros then withdrew.

If you are a tourney player, then this site must be a little goldmine. Guaranteed prize pools and not many players (B2B network) must give you good odds.

Intercasino
Ok out of the goodness of Inters hearts they have reduced the win rate for the casino :) Of course the sting in the tale is, you can't withdraw your original deposit until the win rate is cleared. Yep sticky bonus.... Still not to bad, but I sure liked it when I could withdraw at any time.

Paradise
Sooo disappointed in paradise. After the initial excitement of getting a $5,000 bonus, I thought this was going to be my site for the month. Firstly went on, and there were no $1/$2 ring games going on. So made do with playing the three tables of 50/1. I made a bit of profit on them, nothing huge though. Checked the cashier and my bonus points aren't increasing. ???? Closer inspection of the T&C (yep I should have looked first) states that it is a 20X bonus, and you only get a point if it is raked over $1. Ouch, to rich for my low stake ass. I would be playing forever just to get 5 rakes that size, never mind clearing the 10,000 raked hands that I would have required for the whole bonus. Of course worse than that my original $70 uncleared bonus is now on this new system as well, goodbye paradise, until you reduce you clearance rate, and credit me a percentage of points for smaller rakes, I can't and won't play with you.

Good luck

H.

The $12,000 hand....

2006-11-01T13:05:00.000Z

Haven't been playing to much lately, been kind of hanging off for the next round of bonuses. I have played in the $12,000 freeeroll for a ticket to the Aussie $1,000,000 and it was a bit of an adventure.

I didn't know that I was entered into this one, but Paradise gave me an e-mail and told me to turn up. Things were quiet, so I gave it a go. 1,100 entrants, and probably out of that only 700 were playing.

I started off at one table and there was only 3 players, out of the 10 taht were actually playing. I went all in with 55 against AJ, and all of a sudden I won the 50/50 and it was heads up between me and this other guy, and 8 guys sitting out, posting and folding. Was going okay, one minute I was up, the another I was down. All the time though we were stealing everybody elses blinds. Then shock horror I got moved to a far bigger table.

Anyway, I played reasonably well, and was sitting in 5th position with about 2% of the chips, and it was down to the last 40. Only one person got paid that being the ticket to the Oz tourney. With dreams of kangaroos, Kylie Minogue and rising blinds, I got dealt one of the few decent hands that I had all night. AA in early position, blinds were high, but noone was short stacked as such. Why, oh why did I slow play them. I reckoned that somebody would take a shot at the pot, and I would smile gleefully, pat myself on the back and go over the top. Nope, I had a caller, SB called and BB checked.

Flop came 2x2 rainbow. I put in a pot sized bet, and everybody folded apart from the SB. Another bet. Another call. On the turn I checked, and then called about a third pot bet. SB turned over 52o, to win the pot. I was gutted, firstly by the way I played the AA, but secondly it was obvious that out of all the players, either the SB or BB would have been the only ones that might have held a 2. Then I donked off half my chips.

Well short stacked, and up against it, I finally pused with 5,6s, from th ebig blind, against 2 palyers. No joy and I was history. I may not have won the tournament, anf if I went out on a bad beat so be it. Lets face it you have to ride your luck if you are going to win a klarge tourney. But to go out on a horrible play is just soul destroying. It was a free roll, but after 2 and a half hours of playing, I had invested a lot in it.

B2B
Been playing at i4poker lately, they have a lot of freerolls going which I normally try and enter jsut for fun. All different kinds of poker which again is fun. However the SnG tourneys are ok, investing VIP's, but the full blow freerolls, where there is $20 on offer, being played by 700 people just seem to me to be about having fun, and you might as well donk off some of your freemoney chips at the fun tables than take part.

So many Eastern Europeans as well. Looks all a bit dodgy to me. Coople of players 'wolfi' and 'wolfi8' both from vienna, looks to suspicous.

Withdrew my funds from there leaving 20 Euros just for fun.

Heres hoping that they come through.

UK leading the Way
Well the gambling bill in the UK has been issued. Hey US poker players, how does it feel to be part of a non democratic country? The UK are basically legalising gambling, by issuing licenses to companies that want to set up within the UK. More regulations for them, more tax to the UK, but hey look on the bright side, you can get a Shepherds Pie on a rainy day down at the local nags head. Not sure if there will be a queue of companies forming up to sign up. I suppose though if you are currently a gambling company in the UK, the set up costs etc would be allowable against profits from other group companies, and you won't have to check your sleeping bag every night for the Costa Rican Red Back tax dodging Spider. So you never know.

Anyway, another month. Another $.

Crash bang wallop, there goes the wheels

2006-10-20T11:51:00.000Z

I think it's termed 'bloggers curse' no sooner you say that everything is great then bang, it all falls apart. Played 2 nights and got crushed. Lost $50 on a $2/$4 which isn't to bad, but also lost $50 on a $1/$2.

The $2/$4 I didn't plaqy that well, and called down with second hand a couple of times, cheerio $50. As for the $1/$2 that was just plain unlucky, (honest) I had a lot of pairs that I played for a little cash, and I hit trips 6 times. Out of that I only won once. Ouch. Also a couple of flush draws never came in, and a couple of times where I had TPTK, against someone with no resistance against me, yep the had 2 pair, and I was beaten.

Such is life, everything I won aq couple fo days ago is out the window.

Ah well, there is always the weekend.

H.

I'm now embarassed

2006-10-15T19:52:00.000Z

In an age of uncertainty in the poker world, I have to say I'm pretty embarassed to report that I'm still running good. in fact even better than that, I'm on a huge wave of upswing variance. I played Paradise just now, 211 hands for a poker profit og $100. Yep it worked out as 22bb/100.

On top of this I finished my I4poker bonus, for a whopping profit of $14, plus a 20 Euro bonus, plus a 5 Euro welcome bonus... Play there was chronic, in Europe NL is the main game, there was next to no Fixed Limit games, and what there was was all shorthanded, so I'm pretty happy to post any kind of profit.

Then finally I had a Party $15 bonus to clear up, only took a copule of hours (if that) I played 283 hands for a poker profit of $37.

All in all I've had a really nice couple of months. Sorry to all the US out there, it's only a matter of time until online poker is up and running again. But in the meantime, I'm going to try and surf the wave without falling off...

All in all I've played 4,000 hands for a poker profit of $300, 3.18 BB/100 to be exact. On top of this the following bonuses:

Inter $100
Party $15
Will Hill £25 (plus £20 casino)
Littlewoods £25
I4poker 25 Euros
Paradise (current $10)

Long may it continue

Gl
H.

i4poker

2006-10-13T07:54:00.000Z

Well signed up to a new poker site first in over 9 months. I went for I4poker, but just the little bonus. Something like 20 euros, for 100 raked hands, plus a 5 Euro signup bonus.

It's a B2B sigte, one of the first I've ever signed up for, and wow, not much traffic but the tables were loose. So Saying I only got onto 3 lower micro limit tables, so just really played for fun, and ended the night about breakeven. Mostly due to my bad play, missing a few draws, and the usual bad beats at a loose table.

It still amazes me what people will call down with, and that was my main problem, I ended up not giving anybody any credit for anything, and because I had the best starting hand I had to win right? :) Anyway, I dragged myself down to their level, and played a lot more than I should have. On the plus side, if you have the patience to wait for one of the two tables open, then I reckon that this site could well be a nice little earner, if of course you play patiently, tight, and don't go on tilt when your AA get burned by some guy playing K3o only to hit second pair on the river.

I'll keep you posted.

H.

Another one bites the dust

2006-10-11T21:28:00.000Z

Well it pretty much worked out exactly how I thought it would.... Finished the Littlewoods bonus. Not as well as I hoped though. 1000 hands exactly for a poker profit of $17.50, 0.88 per 100. Was really swingy the last days play, one minute I was down $17, then I was up $25, ended up down $7 over 400 hands. Only had myself to blame though. I was playing tired, and went into meltdown the last 40 hands or so. Things that I shouldn't have been playing, or were marginal at best, were getting reraised. I would draw for a flush, it wouldn't come in, and I was against several aggressive players. As a result I ended up paying them off.

Ah well, at least I had $17 profit, plus my £25 bonus, so can't really complain.

Not sure where I'll go next. Need to have a think about it, I see Grand Bay have a decent bonus, will have to look into that.

Catch you later.

H.

Heater is still on

2006-10-10T21:28:00.000Z

Wow, well I thought it was going to be a disaster tonight, but all is well. Thankfully! Played 342 hands at LWoods, and ended up $32, thats 4.75BB per 100. Out of that I never got dealt AA once, but I got KK twice. As a by the way my QQ and JJ's are all down in money. Yep I know it's variance.... I'm just getting greedy.

Cleared 39% of the bonus, so once again it is in line with yesterday. Looks as if I'm going to have to play 1,000 hands to clear the 200 raked hands bonus (at $1/$2). Biggest hand I lost was $8. AKo in late position, I'm first in, raise it up, Ace hits the flop, with 3 of a suit on the board (none of which is mine) Villain bets, I raise, villain calls and it's now heads up. A T hits the turn, and villain bets out, I call him down. He flips over TT for trips and his hand is good.

One of those things, and looking at it I really don't think I did anything wrong.

Ta
H.

Next bonus on the horizon

2006-10-10T11:57:00.000Z

Well I decided to give one of the old faithfuls a shot. Littlewoods Poker. It was just cluttering up space on the desktop, so when I read that 22 hands were needed for a £25 bonus I thought why not. Of course if you actually read the T&C, a raked hand is where it rakes over $1. But wait out of the goodness of their heart for us 'smaller players' you get part credits of 0.25 for every hand raked between 25c and 99c.

Anyway, played 4 tables and around about 220 hands, and was up in one, 2 were breakeven, and down in one. About par for the course, nothing that exciting, on the one where I was down, I just didn't hav anything hold up. Ah well, ended the night $7 down. Another one hand winning for me and I could have reported a profit, but it wasn't to be.

On a side note out of my 220 hands, I was credited with 44 raked hands, (or I should say full FPP's, or MPP's). What does this work out as, well:

I'm playing 5 hands for every raked hand, I require 200 raked hands therefore requiing me to play 1,000 hands. Say 60 hands per hour, 4 tabling, just over 4 hours of play, (16 table hours), for a bonus of £25, or $45. Not great considering that Will Hill is 5 table hours.

Ah well, I play for enjoyment.... and I've only got another 3 actual hours to play...

Catch you about
H

What bonus next...

2006-10-09T07:54:00.000Z

Finished up both Interpoker, and Will Hill over the weekend. Both went well for me, though I did lose some cash finishing up Inter.

I ended inter about $50 up, add to that the $100 bonus, and I can't really complain. Though I did have a couple fo losing sessions there which dented my poekr profits somewhat.

As for Will Hill, I cleared the casino bonus for a grand total of $30 profit, then went on to 4 table the poker, for an hour and a ahlf for the $45 bonus. Poker also went well, and I ended up $80.

Things jsut seem to be going well for me at the moment. I mentioned it before but I'm playing tighter, and more aqggressively. Though the aggression is coming from palying premium hands then betting out when I hit. Crypto tables are so tight that you can't really play your cards for draws. Or not often anyway, possibly if you are in the blinds, or if you are blind stealing and hit 4 to the flush.

Trouble I've got now, is that for once, I'm at the beginning of the month with no bonus to play. I may well have to go across to BW, t see what they've got to offer. It's been that long since I played the likes of Littlewoods, UKbet, etc that I haven't got a clue what there clearance rates are now. Most of them went onto FPP's, and if they did it kind of quadruples the clearance rate for someone at my limit.

Anway, catch you all about.

H.

Gearing up...

2006-10-06T11:46:00.000Z

The good wife is out tonight and tomorrow so I'm gearing up fir a couple of nights of poker. Normally I'm the one out on a Friday, and normally I'm the one where after a few drinks I'll play a few games of poker.

Be intereting to see if I'm still a donator on a Friday sober...

Talking about being a donator, played for an hour last night, (after a few drinks just as a test) and I can confirm that I lost.

Played 2 HU matches and won them pretty easily. While doing this I played a $5 5 player SnG, promptly busted out in last place. Played a $10SnG 5 player, and was doing ok, but busted out of the money in 3rd. Nothing to wierd to report, just blinds where getting large, and the cards fell for the short stack and not for me.

Finally played another HU matcg, and busted out. Net loss for the night...

Oh played a round at Interpoker, and promptly lost $10 there as well. Again I played a hand to aggressively, and went way to far. Only did this to fill in some time before a SnG became available.

So much for the new more patient me, but maybe again it had something to do with the Beverages. It's not fun, and it's not clever folks.

See you about

H.

Running hot

2006-10-05T11:33:00.000Z

There I've said it, now let the poker gods take their revenge....

Been playing at Interpoker, yep, I'm one of the few lucky ones, being from the UK though I'm sure many of you will disagree. Anyway, a third of the way through the bonus, and at the moment I'm $80 up.

What I'm finding at the moment is that, multi tabling 4 tables, I'm inevitably down on one, and up in 2, and even on the last one. Overall I'm turning a nice steady profit. Over the last 2 months of 3BB per 100. Long , may it continue. I'm finding that I'm beginning to become a lot more patient, and a little more aggressive. I'm now playing the people better to, folding when I'm behind, and betting out when I'm ahead. Interpoker with there tight tables, means that I'm a lot more aggressive than normal, and I'm winning a lot more hands without even getting to the flop. I'm a lot more aggressive, but my VIP is still at a realistic level.

Long may it continue. Not seeing much difference at the tables at the moment without the US contingent. Tables still as tight as ever, a table with VIP of 24% is about as loose as it is going to get. Play doesn't seem to be that much better from before, though with low VIP's I reckon overall play is pretty good to begin with.

Catch you (or some of you anyway) at the tables.

H.

US Hypocrisy rules

2006-10-03T07:44:00.000Z

Well, we live in interesting times. The US (government) have carried out their threat and made not internet gambling illegal, but have made it illegal for financial instiutions to deal with internet gambling sites.

Wow, just wow, how strange the governmental system is in the US. It all comes down to politics. I wonder if instead of receiving cash, whether the internet sites could accept cash via snail mail, and payout vie vouchers, or you purchase virtual credits and in turn can purchase goods with your winnings.

There is far to much money at stake for there not to be a get around to what on the face of it seems an archaic, crazy law.

Back to Poker
Well finished the Party $75 promotion on Monday, and it went well for me. I ended up (with bonus) at $195. Can't complain about that. I've decided that as long as you are patient, then these games can indeed be profitable. Though having to fold every hand for ages on four tables, doesn't make for a happy fun experience. Though it is for the greater good.

Started interpoker bonus again last night. I finished a whole 11% of the bonus, again 4 tabling, in about half an hour. 50 raked hands in little over 120 hands. Not a great %, but at least my poker is up by $18. Lets hope that is sustainable!!! I also played a bit of BJ, and ended up there by $21. Interpoker appear to no longer award bonuses but instead offer 'rewards'. Not so great if you ask me. From what I can see, any % the bonus is cleared within the casino is no longer crediting your win rate at poker. Also another little niggle is that the 'play left to satisfy requirements' box is showing zero. Now it could well be that the casino play has credited my game play, but there is no way for me to know.

Overall though, my poker is going well. I feel as if I have stepped up a skill level, but of course this is dangerous thinking because of course at the moment my pairs are holding up, though to be fair my flush draws aren't coming in.

Will no doubt go on a slide now.....

Take care across the pond, and GL with your poker quest.

H.

Been a wave of nothing much

2006-10-01T18:42:00.000Z

Strange how things go, I haven't played much poker lately, well not the every night kind of poker anyway. Cleared a couple of bonuses last month, Will Hill, which I already talked about, and Interpoker.

Firstly Will Hill went swimmingly, and I checked out pretty well. Interpoker, well I'm just plain dumb!

Cleared about half the bonus playing poker, and was down about $10, nothing huge, just the way it goes. Then I though ok lets play some casino BJ. Ouch, I keep thinking it should work but it just doesn't. The Martingale system (I think it is called) the one where you double up every time, cause you just can't possibly lose X amount of hands in a row.

Well, I did, though to be fair $45 was in the last hand. I split my whatever, against the dealers 5, held on one, then doubled up on the other. Needless to say, I lost the lot. First time for a while I had to reload, to clear the bonus. Was goingt o wait until this month, but received the e-mail saying I would lose it if I didn't clear it. Long story short, I played a bit of BJ, and a bit of poker. To end $25 up, (including bonus of $100) Just really goes to show you that it does take some dedication to be able to lose that much cash, and still be down after the bonus is credited.

Ladbrokes is normally my 'play' account where I play the SnG's, or heads up matches. Love playing there but after rake, I'm pretty much break even.

At Party, I am two thirds of the way through it, and am up $75 at the moment. I've got until next Thursday to clear this. The wife is working so once the kids are down in bed I'm going to hit this one up, and clear it either tonight, or Wednesday.

Plan of action for this week is:

1. Clear Party bonus
2. Clear Will Hill casino and poker bonuses
3. Clear the Interpoker bonus

It's just no fun playing at Cryptos. Would sooner be playing at Paradise, or Party, but I still like that saftey net of the bonus to be there.

On a side note, I've just taken out some more funds out of Neteller, just in case I find it difficult to withdraw to a bank in the future. Don't think it is necessary, but with over half my poker funds sitting there, I didn't want to see it held for any reason.

H.

Tracker and HUD's

2006-09-14T11:56:00.001Z

First off let me just say that I have tracker, pokerace, and Gametime+. Tracker especially is one of these applications that I put in the same category as SSHE, for changing the face of online poker.

In fact I have very little bad to say about tracker. I think it is great for keeping a record of your results, pointing you to areas or types of hands that you may be having difficulty with, and in general improving your game by reflection.

However, I reckon all HUD's should be banned. It takes away from the fundamental skill that is poker. It allows us, (and me) to play in a more mechanical nature, allowing us to multi table, and grind out bonuses. What it doesn't do is it doesn't improve your poker game. Far to much reliance is put onto HUD's data, and although we can increase our hourly rate by taking note of the data, it stifles us in progressing to higher limit games. We prefer to multi table instead, and eke out a profit, rather than playing one table at a higher level, and play to our full potential. Observing opponents, betting patterns, starting cards etc.

In fact I reckon HUDs actually go further and harm your play. In this internet age, where we can get all sorts of information regarding stats, and poker. We actually feel as if we are playing incorrectly if we have a high VIP, or indeed, low aggression, and for our opponents we label them based on these stats. Now I agree that over the long term the figures can give you a lot of assistance, but on online poker we do not play long term with anyone. A person could have a VIP in the 30% plus range, but just be hitting a run of good hands. A person could be in the 6% range, because it is a loose table, and he is folding a lot of fair hands preflop. I have played over 55,000 hands now over 850 sessions, and I have played over 400 hands with only 7 opponents. 'Bengtr' you have my record at 845 hands. Now 400 hands isn't a long enough run to base decisions on in my honest opinion, ignoring teh fact that people improve, are maybe drunk, or any other of the myriad of reasons that may skew the results.

HUD's I reckon stifle us from improving as a player, to much emphasis is put on them, and they generally don't help us in anyway, apart from giving you a snapshot of someones play. As such, please poker sites, limit there use, and once more get poker back to fundamentals

Good luck all,.

Tracker and HUD's

2006-09-14T11:56:00.000Z

Raising the bar on online poker

2006-09-07T09:27:00.000Z

Just my 2c worth here, (bugger '2c' I'm gettin americanised! please read tuppence) moving on from the discussion on SSHE.

The writing of SSHE was a pivitol point in many a poker players gaming venture. It showed what and more importantly why, and how you should play certain hands. It probably single handedly chaged the online poker scene if not overnight then over a short period of time, for the better I have to add.

However, it is now in my humble opinion outdated. Don't get me wrong the concepts are still correct, but it was written in a time when loose play was the norm, rather than the exception. How many of us have the 2 starting hand charts, one for a loose table, and one for a tight table. How many of us actually use the loose table strategy. Play, in no small fact due to SSHE has improved substantially since its' publication. Proof of this can be seen pretty much at any online site. Crypto for exmple with it's sub 20% table VIP. However, people only take it so far, they religiously use the preflop guide, but then haven't bothered to learn post flop play.

What we need is another book, that raises the bar. People love charts, and lets face it preflop play can pretty much be covered this way. In fact lets have charts for every position, and for a variety of table VIP's, say 15%, 20%, 25%, and 30%. Pretty easy to do, and to would be invaluable in raising the quality of play. Skill will still come into it, as you've still got to think about the makeup of the table, ie loose player may be behind you, but table is sitting at 15% VIP, so the good players will still win more.

Post flop, it gets more complicated, people have to learn the concepts, pot odds, impied odds, number of outs, discounted outs etc. However, once more, SSHE was written for looser, less aggressive tables. Lets get a book out there that not only tackles the concepts, but goes on to suggest ways to tackle different types of players. Loose player in front of you who raises, you in early position with AT, do you automatically reraise to isolate him? These kind of questions need to be discussed, and as far as I am aware haven't been in the past. Situations come up all the time, continuation bets for example, are they worth it. I do a contination bet into a small field a high percentage of the time, is it a winning play... I don't know. I reckon so, but am I only remembering the wins and forgetting about all the times it gets reraised and I call with a worse hand.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that SSHE is a great book, but times have moved on. Raise the bar preflop, with charts for tighter tables, and position, incorporating blind steals etc. Post flop, lets have the concepts, but reworked again for tighter more aggressive tables, and lets take a better account of individual players and number of players in the pot.

Tomorrow, I reckon I'm going to have a moan about tracker, and it's spin offs HUD's.

I reckon I may well purchase Turbo texas Holdem, and start working out the charts, and more importantly try them out to see if they work.

Pretty boring night at interpoker

2006-09-06T08:07:00.000Z

Only played 2 $1/$2 tables, 137 hands, what can I say, I ended the night down a whole $3. Started off pretty well, 2 full houses in my first 20 hands, but they didn't really get paid off. Then I missed a flush, and really that was about it.

Tables are just so tight, but in no way unbeatable. You just need to bide your time, and slowly increase your stack. Every now and again a freak hand will get paid off big, just make sure you are not on the wrong end of it.

Thing is with Interpokers new rake structure, it must be one of the best bonuses out there, but it takes forever to clear. Over the last 6 months I've cleared the inter bonus through the casino side, and have done very well out of it, thankyou very much. Last night out of the 137 hands, only 55 were raked. That means roughly seaking that we are talking about 20 table hours. Makes a lot of playing. In the casino, I can clear it in about half that. However, Blackjack is boring as hell, and the variance is a lot higher. I reckon I may well clear some more of it at poker then go onto blackjack to finish.

Started reading SSHE last night, (again...) not really to learn anything new, just to refresh my memory, and make sure I'm not wavering to far off the path of righteousness. Though to be honest, games are so tight at Crypto, I just wonder how correct SSHE is for these games. You get a feel for a site after a while, you know that if someone starts betting into you on the big streets, that you need to show down a decent hand. For those of you at play poker at crypto, a great little move to try out now abd again is the check, raise semi-bluff. Don't do it a lot, but I'm pretty sure it wins more often than it loses, player dependant etc, etc.

Anyway, going to try and get my blog away from being just a results blog, and for my own good try and get more substance to it in future weeks.

GL

H.

Back to earth with a flump

2006-09-04T20:49:00.000Z

Ok, variance is an ass and that is where it bit me. Didn't feel as if I played well tonight, which didn't help, but a lot of my big cards just weren't hitting. Raise, fold, raise fold.

I was deep in the hole at one point 3 tabling $1/$2, had a little flurry of hands that took me to $14 down, then lost a huge hand my trip Aces Q kicker, v someones fullhouse. Lost $15 on that hand, and played round to the blinds and called it a night.

Thing is, with the super bonuses going about, I still ended up the night $8. So disappointed in myself though, have been going well, and thought it was always going to continue. Taking bonuses though into account I am still about $240 up, so can't really complain, I just wanted to show at least a £50 profit at Will Hill, at the moment I'm showing £30, with £10 of bonuses still to play for.

Last minute update
Ok, I went back on after having the downer of the last session. I gained $17, and of course my $18 bonus. Final rsult $13 down for the night after 340 hands, but $54 bonus. Feel a lot better.

Final result for Will Hill (I was hoping for £50 profit) got $46.53, poker was a loser, but only just! Reasonably happy with that.

Tale of 2 Games

2006-09-03T21:49:00.000Z

Friday

Well so much for me not playing after having a drink.... As you may rememeber I left you with me being $100 up, and only a hundred or so raked hands required. Well I'll freely admit it, I was a luckbox. I played 200 $1/$2 hands, and cleared the $75 bonus. However, I ws $20 down, yep that would be 10bb per 100. Now I can handle that, after all variance is a wonderful excuse, to be honest though never drink and play. It's not clever, and it's not funny. You end up playing over agressive, that Ax s in mid position just becomes to tempting.

Anyway long story short, I got involved in a huge hand from the BB, 6 people entered the fray and I checked with Q6s.

Flop came down 8,9,T one of my suit.

For some reaon I bet out, you never know my back door flush, and back door idiot straight may just be good, and who knows I may just fold out the other 6 players in the hand ;), anyway it was reraised in late position I called and at this point there was a tasty $21 in the pot.

Turn came down 8 of my suit, giving me 1 to the flush, but also pairing the board. Everybody checked around to late position aggressor, who went all in $1.40, this was called round, 6 people left in the hand.

River came K of my suit :), I bet out, one caller, Mid position person reraised, and I 3-bet, which was called around. Yep I luckboxed my way into a 25BB pot.

This left me $25 up for the night, my third winning night on party. Ended up with $75 bonus, and around about $135 up in play for about 800 hands.

Sunday
Started off the Crypto tasty bonuses. Both inter, and Will Hill have raised the stakes in bonuses. Will Hill, £10 per hour, Inter $100 5X. Wowser, and thankyou.

Anyway, deposited £50, for the casino bonus, and although I cleared it, I ended up withh zero for my efforts. Onto poker. £50, let me buy in to 2 $1/$2 tables. Nothing much to report really. Tables were tight as anything, and post flop, people seemed to play fit or fold poker. For an agressive player, (not really me), you could steal the blinds, and play aggressively post flop, and probably never even get to a showdown. I played one hand terribly. With KK, I raised and had one other player in the pot, and I had position. Flop came down Rainbow, but with an Ace. EP bettor, bet into me on all streets, and I called, bugger. I knew I was beat, but those KK looked so pretty, and I never really had anything else up to that point. Anyway, played 2 table hours for $36, and ended up $11 for 144 hands. Looks as if my luck is continuing.

Going On
Ok, I reckon I see what has improved in my game, (now luck may still be a huge factor in it, I don't argue that) but I'm playing shorter sessions, and not every night. I'm fresher, and playing shorter sessions, and I keep playing tight. When I play for a few hours, especially when it was every night, I would start off well, but then as the session went on, I would end up loosening up somewhat, and once in a pot, I would take it way to far, and be far to aggressive. Now, don't get me wrong, I still sometimes take a hand to far, in a lot of ways, playing with imperfect information, I would be unhappy if I didn't make a wrong decision every now and again, it kind of lets me know that I'm not just peddeling the nuts, but those times I do go to far are becoming less and less.

Trouble is now, my poker world will come crashing down, and I will come to realise it was just lady variance playing her part, and I've just been talking rubbish tonight.

GL at the tables, looks as if September is the start of the poker rooms push for custom, so fingers crossed it all goes well for you.

H.

Wow I'm finally up 2 days in a row at Party

2006-08-31T22:18:00.000Z

Title says it all really. I was running hot tonight, seemed to be hitting everything, and my top pairs etc held up, or folded out the field before anything scary hit the board. Played 528 hands and ended up exactly $100, 9.55 BB/100.

Long may it continue....

All in all I played 2 sets of 4 tables at the 1/2, every table was up apart from one, VIP was sitting around about my usual at 18, so kind of suggests that I got dealt the same kind of cards, but as I said it seemed as if my draws came in, and my pairs held up. Such is the knife edge I walk along, between being a winner or a loser.

Anyway, Party bonus only reuires another 115 raked hands, hopefully clear that over the weekend, out for a couple of pints tomorrow night, so hopefully come home with the will power not to play!

Anyway, good luck at the tables. Rememebr those bad down swings soemtimes, just some times turn into an upswing. And thus, I have no doubt put a jinx on myself :)

Have you ever noticed how once you are a few $'s up how much easier it is to win more cash. People see you playing, and give you a bit of respect, at this point you've got to take advantage and play looser, not so much in your calling standards, but blind stealing etc. Even when I am playing 2 seperate tables, and one is down and one is up, it is always easier to play and win at the table where you are up. I'm playing the same hands, under the same mental conditions, but whereas my raise at the winning table is respected, and I can steal, bluff etc, at the losing table your cards are run down a lot more because opponents will play anything, and opponets are a lot more aggressive, thinking that you are bluffing, because you've lost a few $'s and must be a fish playing anything. I wonder how many people have Tracker, but don't use it other than to see whether a player is a winner or a loser, and base their decisions on this, rather than looking at VIP, psoition and the miriad of othe rfactors involved.

This has to lead to the conclusion that, if you suffer a couple of bad beats, and are down in $'s at your table then you have to tighten up somewhat. Forget about those blind steals, forget about bluffing. Play made hands. On a table where you are winning it is just the opposite. You won't get paid off as much when you have a monster, therefore you have to be more tricky, steal more, and keep your head above water.

Love to hear what you think.

H

4 tabling $1/$2

2006-08-30T08:14:00.000Z

Well a kind of strange night at the tables... I played 4 tables $1/$2, and did pretty well in my first session. 350 hands $30 up. 2 hands where I way overplayed them, was JJ against AA, on a low board, and AQ v AA, on a Q high board, but villain was reraising everything. I refused to believe that I was behind, and though I slowed down in the hands I still paid off the vilain. Oops...

Anyway, second session, I played another 200 hands, and lost $23, nothing seriously wrong, just didn't hit some draws. Nobody actually even sucked out on me, it was just the cards didn't fall for me. Ended up the session a grand total of $7 up, worked out at about 0.9 BB per 100, so can't really complain, cleared a couple of hundred raked hands for the bonus as well. Another couple of nights like that and the bonus will be history.

Got to say, as long as you don't do anything silly at party, (where the bonus was) you shouldn't get into much trouble. Problem is, maybe it's tiredness, or just getting cocky, but I usually start off well at the tables then I go into reverse. Of course I play or try to play, pretty much ABC poker, and possibly the villains are cleverer than I give them credit for, and they are starting to read me a lot better.

Anyway, enjoyed my time at the tables last night, though nothing to exciting. I have to admit though as well, I had loads, and I mean loads of small and mid pairs, only flopped a set once, though a lot of them I was binning in early position on a tight table. So maybe that had something to do with it.

Keep up the playing.

H.

New job, poker on the back burner

2006-08-16T10:06:00.000Z

Guys havn't been playing any poker of late, and even my studying of the great game has fallen by the wayside. I've just handed in my notice at my current job, and start a new job in 4 weeks time. A bit of a leap of faith, but I can't wait to be started to be honest. I'm an accountant to trade, and my current job has been stagnating over the last six months, as a result I kind of lost focus with it. Good thing is tough I recognised this and decided to move on. So new start in 4 weeks time.

Don't know where tis leaves poker, I've got a couple of things that i need to do over the next 6 months, as a result i reckon the poker has to take a back seat, much to my disappointment, but unless I reckon I can make serious money at it, other things have to take priority.

After the next 6 months, I should be in a better position to look at a couple of different opportunities that may or may not come off, which will hopefully mean I may have the opportunity to step away from the 9-5 grind. All pie in the sky at the moment, but the plan is formulating slowly.

I'll continue playing the odd game, but as for grinding out bonuses, I reckon it will be a couple of casinos, and possibly a few SnG's and the Will Hill bonus. Anyway, will see how it goes, and update the log as and when.

Take care, and good luck at the tables.
H.

I just don't know anymore!

2006-08-08T13:59:00.000Z

It's been a few strange days at the green virtual blaise. The month as previously discussed, started off well, and I cashed up in Stars, Ladbrokes, Inter, Party, and Will Hill.

Paradise is just to strange for me. I was on 3 tables initially, a $2/$4, and 2 X $1/$2's as per the usual, I went down in all three of the tables initially. I was card dead for longer than I care to remember, then gradually, I fought my way back and ended my first session, up $20 on the $2/$4, and about $50 on the $1/$2's.

All well and good. Logged back on later with the same combination, and thorugh a mean combination, impossible to recreate I ended up $60 down on the $2/$4, and $50 down on my $1/$2's. Luckily when I got down low in one table I cashed out, probably about $15 down. One of the last hands I played I was dealt AK suited in mid position. preson to my left bet, I reraised, guy after me reraised, and then I capped. Probably a tad aggressive, but hey ho. 2 of my suit came on the flop, and to cut a long story short, a third club came on the turn, giving me a Aflush. Problem was the board was paired, but rather than worry about monsters under the bed, I reraised the river, to find out that my hand was good. Ended up winning a 30+BB pot. Not bad in a $1/$2 game. Ended me losing $50 in the session.

Looking on the bright side though I ended up finishing the $100 bonus at Stars for a grand profit of $35. Can't really complain, as I've now played a good number of hands at $2/$4. Down, but relatively comfortable with it. I remember starting the Crypto bonuses, I was happy if I broke even after the bonus. I probably have the same mentality at the moment going up a level. My $1/$2 play, and bonuses are paying for my education at the next level up.

Why is it as well, that on the first tight table, I end up doing ok, but the second, (and previous tables) I get tanked. I can't even give you a difinitive figure for how much I'm down at the $2/$4, because I am having trouble importing Dise tables into tracker, something about unkown table name....

Anyway, Dise excepted, I struggle to see where I'm going wrong at these higher tables. Yep I call down with TPTK at times, when I reckon I'm beat, I possibly miss a bet here and there, but aside from this, I reckon I have a pretty solid knowlege of poker. I'm missing something, and I'm not sure what. I have the books, and the basics, I've logged 50k of hands, I reckon that the only way for me to improve now is to get a coach. Easier said than done.

Tracker question How can I print out my hand histories for a session, if I want to review it? Looking for something, that I can take away, then on the bus to/from work review easily, after applying filters. Oh and if you can tell me how to sort my Dise hands import into Tracker even better.

Take care
H.

A rather good night at the tables

2006-08-04T08:14:00.000Z

Well it turned out ok for me last night. I played a few $2/$4 hands at Inter, and ended up $27, better than a loss anyway. Better than that though, I ended up clearing the bonus, for a $120, so cashed out pretty quickly there.

Went through a lot of those accounts that you just don't play anymore. Guess what, Golden Riviera had a grand total of $24 in it, a nice little Brucy bonus.

Onto Party, and it was getting far to late at this point, (what was I thinking, 3am, and on a school night)I fired $50 into Party, to see if any bonuses were there for me. Unfortuneately Party seem to dislike me, bonuses are few and far apart. Anyway, played 3 SNGs, a Full NL table, and 2 Short hand tables. The full ring I went out in 5th, the 2 short hand tables, I got a win, and a second. Went in a huff with Party and withdrew, my $50, and $10 winnings, and thought where next.

Onto Dise, and this was where it went slightly wrong. Onto a $2/$4 table, and was pretty much card dead, or when I went into a pot, the flop never hit me at all, and a couple of bad plays / bad beats meant that I went down $60, played this back up to a £25 loss, so not to bad.

All in all, I was happy with the night, and my whistle stop tour of poker sites. Long may it continue.

Good luck on the River
H.

A quick bonus killed off

2006-08-03T08:09:00.000Z

Finished the poker bonus at Will Hill. Was going ok as well, well for Crypto anyway. Had a couple of bad hands, both played and results wise, meant that I ended up $20 down at the end of my 5 table hours.

I really enjoyed this bonus, got onto 4 tables pretty quickly, normally the wait at the Cryptos take forever. Once on, I was card dead for ages, tried a few steals, only to get reraised, and then bet off the hand post flop. In the end, I was up on 3 tables, but was down on my fourth table. Typical, I keep thinking that if I can do okay on 3 tables, then it's only a matter of time that my 4th should be ok as well, but no matter what I do, it always seems as if one table out of my set always lets me down. Never mind, it was alway nice knowing that every 15 minutes I was earning $10 in bonus. With bonus I ended being up by, approx $30. Can't complain.

Thus ended my August bonus hunt at Will Hill, started with £53, ended up banking £120, as I say if all my forays into poker / casinos went like this I could give up the day job. If I could keep up the hourly rate that is :)

Where to next? Well I've got a dise bonus to clear, but may well try Prima, if Bet365 still do there bonus. Will need to see.

Good luck at the tables.

H.

No Poker, but gadgets

2006-08-02T08:19:00.000Z

Ok, I haven't played poke since the last post. I tried to get into Will Hill, but for some reason I'm gettin timed out on it. I reckon it's a PC problem I've got, nothing serios, but serious enough to slow down my computer to a standstill. Got my friendly PC literate brother in law coming around one night this week to have a look at it.

Anyway, so sating, it's a new month, and I hit up Will Hill casino. Cleared the bonu, and ended £50 up. Not a bad start to the month. Also hit up Inter BJ, bit of a nightmare this one, always paid out well for me, then last month, I busted out after only clearing 20% of the bonus. Nightmare, means this month even if I'm lucky, I probably won't make anything off of it. What I'll probably do though, is wait until Inter do another $30 weekend bonus, and try and clear some of it off this way as well.

Gadgets
I've went over to the dark side, I admit it. I got myself a new graphics card for a dual monitor set up. :) I'm like a kid with a new toy. Reason behind it was simple really, 2 reason, firstly I do a lot of my photos on the PC, and it's easier, with Photoshop to have 2 monitors, one for the tools, one for the Pic. Secondly of course, it's for the poker. I can now play up to 6 tables, yippee, and clear those bonuses again. Though honest, I will take shots at the higher tables, just to keep you guys in beer money. Even if I'm not multitabling, it'll be handier to have tracker on a diff screen just to check up on players as they play. Now if only I could afford a Dell TFT monitor, rather than these 2 huge CRT's.

That's me,

Bye for now
H

Stars finished at last...

2006-07-30T20:37:00.000Z

Well, for a $100 bonus, having to rake 10X, or is it 40X when the rake is 25c, it was a bit of a slog. Going with tracker, it looks as if I played, dead on 3,000 hands. The good news is, I finished up including bonus $240. If you look at my hourly rate for that it sure doesn't look good, and thats with 4 tabling consistantly.

I know, I know, at some point I will have to make the leap up the limits, and yes I have had some forays into the $2/$4, and the $3/$6, but it would hurt, if I lost a couple of $80 buy ins at these tables. I do reckon I can hold my own at these tables, if I can get away from the $value, and just play in terms of big blinds.

I am down $95 overall for my $2/$4 play over a 1,000 hands, a loss of $2bb per 100. The only silver lining here is I'm up $90 over the last couple of months. Not disastrous, but not great either.

My worse hand ever
I was in SB, with a pair of 3's, and it was folded round to me, I raised, BB reraised, and I capped it. (Not great so far, but not disastrous)

K,5,2 rainbow flopped, I bet, BB called

An A dropped on the turn, I checked, BB checked

Q dropped on the river, I bet, (ok I'll explain later), BB reraised, I 3 bet, and BB called, turning over K,Q for 2 pair....

Ok, here was my thinking..... Up to the river, I don't think I made a mistake, Preflop, with one player to come, I reckoned I was 50/50 at worse, playing against 2 overcards. On the flop, I capped it, a K was there, so I did a continuation bet representing either AA, or at least KK. On the turn, I backed off.

Now, on the river, a bolt of ligthening struck me and I just flipped. I was multitabling, and had QQ on the other table, and for some reason I thought it was this table, when the Q flopped, I reckoned my trips were good, and bet hell out of it. I was slightly gutted with myself, and to be honest a bit embarassed as I flipped over the pair of 3's, though to give me credit, I didn't say anything in chat, let them think I'll play rubbish and bet out on rubbish, it may be of use later.

That ladies, and gentleman is why you shouldn't mult table, :)

$3/$6

2006-07-27T02:17:00.000Z

First time playing it and ok it's 3.30am in the UK, but I'm holidng my own up$70 at the mo. Not a great lead at 3/6 but hey I'm over the moon. Michael plaing at Dise...

STT night

2006-07-24T08:17:00.000Z

Never played much poker this weekend, weather just far to good. When you see the sun in Scotland, you've just got to make the most of it.

Played a couple of sets of STT's ($3+40) First set of 3, I played reasonably, getting a second on one table. Second set of 4, I fired up, and felt like a fool, when on one of the tables I got dealt 4 cards face up. Whoops, wheres my notes on Omaha Hi/lo again. :)

Anyway, I got sucked out on so much on my 3 NL tables, AA, v AQ, guy hits a straight. QQ v 88, 8 comes on the flop, etc, etc. We've all had those nights.

I basically saved all my luck for the Omaha table. Got to heads up with about 20% of the chips, and pushed, and pushed, and pushed. I had reasonable hands, but my opponent had better. He must have been gutted when I won all three hands, to win the tourney. Why push, well, I reckoned, I was the least skillfull player at the heads up stage, so I may as well, go for the killer blows, rather than dance about, and get bled to death.

So 7 STT, one 2nd one 1st, not great which was really disappointing, but pretty much breakeven, so could be worse.

Have a good one

H

Getting off lightly

2006-07-21T09:03:00.000Z

Ok, went out last night for a few drinks with friends. Those few drinks turned into a few more, and well you know how the story goes.

Got home, fired up the computer logged into stars, went onto the $1/$2 waiting lists. Of course I was alcohol fuelled, tetosterine raging about within me, and I needed my fix, so logfged onto stars as well. A $2/$4 table and an $1/$2 table was available so I racked up the chips, and gambled. By this time my stars tables were open as well, so I ended up multitabling.

There was no skill last night, it was just pure fate, and whether the poker gods smiled on me or not, as I played any 2 cards expecting to win.

I was $45 up at one point on the 2/4, which was then wittled that down to about $20, and I probably dropped £30 on the other 3 tables. I then somehow came to my senses, decided this wasn't a really good idea, and walked away.

Didn't have tracker up and running so to be honest, I don't know for certain what the end result was, but I reckon I got off light. It was one of those nights where, you looked at one of your tables to see somehow you dropped $20, and you couldn't even remember playing the hand. I think I enjoyed myself though :)

Anyway, new leaf will be turned over, I don't drink and drive, and from this point on I won't drink and gamble online.

As a by the way, sorry to hear that some sites are no longer accepting the US. contingent. It's a sad day, if other sites follow suit, but I still can't see it happening. Online gambling is to big a business, and you may see some sites, tighten up against the US initially, but I reckon there is just far to much cash coming into government coffers, for it to get banned.

H

Run continues

2006-07-14T13:19:00.000Z

I played for 170 hands last night on the 1/2 tables. Ended up about $15. I was particularly happy with this result because for once the draws didn't go my way. Nope, I'm not some sadist, who likes pain inflicted on me! What I mean is that I had about 3 or 4 hands where I was drawing to the flush, and my flush didn't materialise. These hands are expensive when they don't come in, (conversely you're laughing when they do) and can quite easily turn a good night, into a horrendous losing night. To come out ahead was particularly gratifying.

One of the tables I was on had 2 40+% VIP passive players at. I love these tables, but very rarely see them. You know that they can be playing almost anything, and if you hit you can normally hit them for more bets. Brilliant.

What I don't understand, is where, or where are the loose table? Very seldom do I see a table over 24% VIP, and more often than not they are sub 20%. Now, I realise that some sites are better than others, but you would think that every site would have there fair share of high VIPers (Vipers is what I'll call them from now on, rather than a fish) Anyway, I reckon it could have something to do with the way I'm calcualting table VIP. I just use Trackers figures. Does this exclude blinds, and as a result table VIP, as referred to by everybody else, is actually way higher? I don't know.

Anyway, might or might not play tonight, depends on the social life, and the Mrs. Hey forgot to say, I took out my first chunk of bank roll last week, to spend on myself. Went out and got myself a HDD recorder for the TV. The last few months, because I haven't been playing as much, and when I have been playing it's been SnG's my roll has stagnated a bit. I reckon though that I'll need to get my roll back up to the £4,000 mark over the next three months. We'll see how I go.

GL at the tables.
H

Playing Bullets

2006-07-13T11:10:00.000Z

Poker saftey warning - What follows are just my views on playing Aces. Not necessarily correct....

Ok health and safety warning out of the way. Recently i posted my views on playing aces, saying that I think it is correct to limp in at times, rather than the more conventional Raising every time. I want to further explain my view on this...

If you limp in, or raise Aces, lets face it they are both +EV, the question is which one is better

Like all good poker questions the answer is 'it depends'

I do believe that limping in is better with your aces in one scenario:

At a tight table, in EP, and if I have been playing tight to that point. I reckon you are best just limping in. When I play Aces, I reckon they are worth more than just the blinds. What I'm looking for is to get about 1 or 2 opponents to play against, and if I have been playing tight, my raise out of position just screams monster. What will normally happen is it is folded through to the blinds, who fold... pot won, 1.5bb

If you limp in, in the above scenario, then what you will normally see at a tight table is that, either everyone either folds to the SB, or indeed you get an MP/LP rasier with AJ, PP, etc.

Once you've got a raiser, yeah sure go ahead, and reraise. Play your Aces agressively. As favourite.

Now in any other situation I agree, raise and reraise your aces preflop, when you have the best of it.

If I am in the above situation, (tight table, tight image), and I am in MP/LP, then I am more likely to raise first in, as this more often than not looks like a blind steal, and you are more likely to get someone coming after you.

On a loose table, get your cash in whilst you are ahead, and take your chances. Aces are still a great hand.

I reckon it's just plain wrong, dumbly raising your aces whenever you get them. Way up the other factors, your table image, your position, others playing style. Then make your decision. This goes for all hands, but Aces are nice example to use, since your aces are +EV in any situation.

Quick burst

2006-07-12T08:09:00.000Z

The better half was watching TV last night 'Lost,' an hour long show and because I haven't been following it I went ahead to play an hour of poker at Stars. Well, I just got 2 tables up and running then the Mrs came through to tell me she's seen it before and we should continue watching the DVD that we were halfway through watching.

So after 30 minutes, I played out my hands to the next blind and, the poker gods smiled on me. Ended up a grand total of $10 on one table, and down $4 on the other. Variance was good to me, especially if you think that on the first round of poker I paid 'double' blinds to buy in, out of poisition. Not much more to say than that really.

H.

Business as usual

2006-07-11T08:15:00.000Z

just played for an hour last night, 4 tabling at Stars. I'm not sure how people find the loose tables, whenever I play there tables are in the range of 17% to 25%, which actually seems to suit my style of play.

On the 4 tables, I ended up $35, which is pretty good I think on the $1/$2 tables. Nothing to startling, I played reasonably solid, only blowing $10 near the end on my final 2 hands on my last table. Still feel reasonably good about the way I played though.

to round the night off I played a heads up $5 match as well, and pretty much controlled the game from start to finish. No big one off pots, I just raised, and he played far to passively. A big no-no in heads up. When we both hit a hand, he got fed up of getting pushed around, raised and lost to my two pair. Game over. Thanks you very much.

On a side note I reckon there has to be money to be made in heads up matches. I'm not sure if I prefer Stars format though, with the long slow blind increases. Everywhere else I play, blings go up after 10 hands. Makes it a lot more exciting, and fast. More of a gamble of course.... For me, Heads up matches are played for a change of pace. Something completely different from the grind of multi tabling fixed limit, and I keep telling myself it's great practice for the final table at a MTT. Who am I kidding, it really is for the thrill of the 1 on 1 gladitorial battle, and gamble. Gotta love it...

Off the end of the cliff

2006-07-07T08:08:00.000Z

A funny night at old Stars, I bought into 4 1/2 tables, with $40 and basically had a very swingy night. All the tables were tight and there was hardly a hand where it wasn't reraised pre-flop.

Playing 4 tables in the first session, I was up $30 in one, down $25 in the other and break even in the other 2. I took a break and fired up another 2 table in the second session replacing the one i was $25 down in. At this point my world fell in, and I did something that I haven't done in a very long time. I lost my whole buy in on not one but 2 tables.

Finished the night $67 down. Yep, and i tilted near the end, but thankfully I had enough sense not to go chasing.... Thats poker I spose.

Only good thing is, I'm still up $200 half way through my stars bonus, so I don't feel to bad. I've been running good lately. I'm trying to keep my aggression up, as and when I've got a hand which invariably leads to higher variance. It's just that I expect and hope to win every session, to take a $30BB down swing in one night, is just a bit hard to swallow.

Got a quiet night tonight, so will probably have a shot at Party. Party are running a bonus just now, player specific. So will probably try there. I never seem to win at Party though. Everybody says it's one of the easier sites on the net, but I don't see it. Heres hoping, lady luck, and Mr Variance are on my side.

Catch ya later
H

Ups of poker

2006-07-04T16:13:00.000Z

Things going pretty well on the poker front. Was Multi tabling at Stars last night and my hands seemed to hold up, in fact even better than that, my flushes came in. Amazing how small things / variations in luck can make or break a night. On the minus side though, late on, far later than was good for me, I played a few heads up matches, and got caned. Didn't play to badly, just a couple of mistakes, and then you are chasing, then I would hit 2 pair only for the guys flush to come in. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Yeah, yeah I know, in the sentence before I was just saying how good it was to make my flushes, but who said i was a fair man. I want lady luck to smile on me and nobody else. But wait..... if it wasn't for bad beats, then the novices wouldn't play, and thats where the money is. Poker is all about getting up the food chain. It's a pretty simple game, thats just made complicated by luck. Read, play, and play some more, hopefully I'll move up soon.

To be fair though I was the novice at the heads up table. Thankfully though I realised that at the time :) and I did get him low stacked a couple of times and lost the all-in killer coin flip. Ah well thats poker.

Catch ya later
H

$2/$4 foray

2006-06-30T12:33:00.000Z

Been playing for a few nights on Stars, clearing a bonus. Not grinding it out as usual (though I'm still multi tabling) but taking it nice and easy, trying to keep the fun in the game.

Doing not to bad either, 25% of the way through the bonus, and $150 up, though it is still early days. Had a good night last night as well. 4 tabling $2/$4, above my usual limit but it all worked out ok in the end.

My bank roll has stagnated over the last couple of months, partly due to me playing STT for fun, partly because I haven't put the hours in, I was bored one night and I even played a 2c/4c table. After an hour I managed to double my $1 to $2, and left happy. It was fun actually, high table VIP%, and it made a big change being able to play suited connectors, small pocket pairs etc. What made it even sweeter is that on this higher variance table, my big PP held up, and I got my fair share of them.

First time I had a quick check of my stats as well. You may scoff but I was well impressed, I've got another 2k ofhands to go and I've reached the 50k mark.

Also what impressed me even more, is that from when I started playing poker to date, my pocket pairs are now all making money apart from 2's, 3's, and 4's. This is a bit of a turnaround from what I had before, so that was a nice surprise. You've got to love any figure which turns green, rather than red. One thing I'm still trying to get my head around is if your small PP need to hit a set at 7-1 why does anybody play them. That needs 70% of the players around the table to put cash in. Before I get flamed, I know you're thinking implied odds, and you have higer odds playing from the blinds etc. but I reckon that there is very few people out there that religously folds PP because of pot odds. Admit it, you've all paid your cash to see if you can hit that set with only a couple of people in the pot.

Once I hit the big 50k, I'm going to have a look at my last years play. Will make interesting reading I hope.

Bubble trouble

2006-06-08T07:59:00.000Z

Well it's a funny old game as they say. Played 3 table hours of limit poker over the last few days, and was down $20, though up overall by £10 after bonuses. I just played pure bad poker for the first 2 hours. I found myself slipping into the old dark gambling ways, and was suitably punished.

Last night though, I played the final hour, and was as tight, as tight can be, though this was more to being card dead. I ended the night even, but had only played 6% VIP. Never mind, need to merge the 2 styles, and then I'll be rocking again.

Played in another MTT tourney last night, 300 players, low buy in, top 50 got paid. I was average chips all the way through, never in trouble. Won a couple of key hands, where I called all ins from smaller stacks, but luckily the didn't outdraw me. Came to the last 60, I was short stacked, but doubled up, and with about 7000 in chips, I could have just folded into the money. Got dealt pocket rockets though. Player on my left went all in for $2,200 (blinds were $600) a bigger stack called, and I went over the top hoping that I could force the big stack to fold, and get it heads up with the all in player.

Nope, the big stack called. My tourney life hung in the balance, but I was still comfortable that I only had to beat the big stack to make money. He turned over QJs, no big deal. Q hit the flop, ok still not a problem, turn brought the dreaded third Q, and I was history. Out in 53rd place.

I went for glory, but often wonder, whether I should have just accepted the kudos of getting in the money again.

Anyway, thats poker. Thing is you've got to get lucky in 4 or 5 key hands in MTT's and if you do no-one can beat you. If you don't then you play for a couple of hours, and have nothing to show for it. I'm only playing low value MTT's I don't really understand why pros play the big ones though. Seems to me that to get in the money at a larger event, just has way to much variance associated to it.

H

MTT tournament foray

2006-05-26T08:13:00.000Z

Well as you can see I haven't been playing much of late. I just don't seem to be able to get myself motivated to sit down at the computer and bash out the hands. I've been playing pretty much constantly now for over a year, but over the last month things just seem to have got stale.

Out of habit, or because I still enjoy it, I still read a number of the blogs out there, still get my poker player magazine as well, but as for putting things into practice, it's just not happening... Maybe it is the lighter nights drawing in that is stopping me.

MTT Tournament
Ok played in an interpoke MTT last night, for no other reason than there was only 25 players. £7 buy in, top three get free entry into a Friday night £15k tourney, 4th wins £24.

Well I played reasonably well, I have to admit some of the players were really bad, I just sat back, took a few shots when I had the best of it, and rode it out to the final table as chip leader. Though at $10,000 everybody was relatively ok for chips. Then I blew it big style. Got involved in a few pots where I had reasonable starting cards, but on the flop the cards didn't hit, and in the face of a raise, I was forced to fold. Really though I could have basically sat out and folded my way into the money at that point.

Nope, with blinds rising, and a lot of all ins from opponents, which hit keeping them alive, meant that I was pretty much down to the cloth, with 5 people left. Final hand I was in big blind with Q5s, not great, I was pretty much pot committed, so i pushed all my chips in against a raise. He turned over AJ, which hel up, and I was out of there on the bubble. Ouch!!!!

With blinds at the limit they were I think I was right about pushing. Looking back though, I made 2 huge mistakes. Firstly, when I was chip leader with 9 players left, I should have just sat tight, unless I had premium hands. Then secondly, when I was back in the dog fight, I was way to passive. At that stage I was trying to scrape for a podium place, when instead I should have been a lot more reckless. Blinds increasing, and I basically got blinded out, and those hands I did play, never hit. A lot to say for an all-in or fold policy, at that stage, especially when you are lowish on chips.

Anyway, was a bit annoyed with my play at the time, but may continue to play a few more MTT's. Will probably go onto Ladbrokes tonight, so if you see a guy from Edinburgh give me a shout.

Thankyou Interpoker....

2006-05-05T12:27:00.000Z

'I am writing to confirm that your account has been credited with $ 0.123 as rakeback for the month of April.'

Thank you Interpoker, that 12.3 cents will ensure that my positive run at your site continues :)

To be fair to them though they did give me a $20 welcome back bonus last month. So I shouldn't really grumble.

Poker has been good over the last couple of nights. I cleared the Ritz bonus. 2 hours of real time play, in excess of 5 hours table play and I netted £25 plus made another £50 in play. £75 for two hours work, maybe I should hand my notice into my work.

I also deposited at Party, I finally got abonus from them, first in months. $50, 500 raked. I started off playing 50/1 for a change, and went card dead, and those hands I did play got rivered. Lost about $30, then in true fasion, I went back up to $1/$2 and was up $50 in around about 250 hands. I've cleared about 50% of the rake requirement, so will hopefully get this finished over the weekend.

Where or where do you find the reputed >30% tables at party. The ones I played at last night, the highest VIP% was 24%, in fact the rest were bordering on the <20% mark.

Anyway, out tonight with work for some drinks, so vowing that I won't play later!!!!! I'll let you know how I get on. My aim for this month is to clear all the bonuses I enter without going negative in my poker play. Only problem I've got is that I've got Party to finish, then Will Hill, and at the momentthat is it. Well, I suppose I've got Doyles, but I seem to have played there for ages, and cleared only a 1000 points. Only another 109,000 to go before my $550 is released....

Catch you around
H.

Onwards and upwards

2006-05-03T16:11:00.000Z

Well, I'm back after a four week holiday. Well I say holiday but in reality only a two week holiday coupled with a two week hectic spell where poker took a back seat.

It's funny really before my holiday, I suffered a bit of a downswing. Was playing almost exclusively at stars, trying to clear a $120 bonus. Within a couple of days I was in excess of $140 down. Now thats a 70bb downswing. Not great, but not unheard of. I don't believe I played really badly, but who knows, I may have been just battle fatigued. I still need to get my head round value betting and saving bets. First and foremost, to realise that if I get check raised, (opponents love to do that) then I'm more and likely beat, and I should be reassessing my outs, to see if a redraw is profitable.

Anyway, as it happened, I clawed back $70 at Stars, to end up with a profit of $50 inclusive of bonus, horrid, horrid, horrid....

May.... I'm back into the swing of things. Back to studying poker again, and loving it.

More importantly, I've banked $250 profit on my monthly casino grind, and am currently up on Crypto, one hour played, three tables $50 poker profit, and $22 bonus money. A good start to the month, here is hoping it will contine.

Crypto
Is it my imagination, or do I make more poker money on Crypto compared to the other sites. I honestly have the perception that my play seems to suit tight tables. Or is it just lady variance tricking me into thinking that. Will need to look into it at some point. I just feel, that at Crypto, you always know where you are, with players, the tables are that tight, that you can wait for reasonable cards. In the meantime, you do a few blind steals, and one or two, check raise bluffs, and you are making money. Along with the bonus, it has to be one of my favourite networks...

I'm a fish

2006-03-21T11:48:00.000Z

Ying and Yang
Ok I got taken to the cleaners in the $2/$4 game last night, down $100, wouldn't care but I only played 5 hands. Yep, I went to showdown, but I had 2 AA that didn't hold up, and a couple fo Top 2 pair, that didn't come through as well. Rivered, and rivered again.

On th eother side though, I payed Heads up on Ladbrokes, and was up $100 so I guess I am lucky. Was playing $20 heads up games, and I scooped. My hands held up, and I only ran into a couple of big hands when I had a hand a couple of times.

Can't complain I suppose. I'm just a bit miffed at my $2/$4 resultd. My initial success is well and truly wiped out. If anyone wants to give me advice and review last nights $2/$4 history, then they are welcome. I think i'm almost there, but then a night like lat night comes along and kicks me in the teeth.

Play tight, play tight, play tight

2006-03-20T13:20:00.000Z

Ok played a few more hands over the weekend ended about $20 up for about $100 hands at $1/$2, so can't complain. I had to keep reminding myself, to play tight though, a couple of times I saw myself going to make a couple of rash bets. Thankfully though I curbed my enthusiasm and banked a profit.

I also got my first casino banning :) Damn it all, I though they liked me as a person as well, nope looks as if it was my cash they were after. Not very nice of them really, and if I knew that then I would have left them sooner....

I'm in a bit of a quandary at the moment, I love poker, but other things are taking precendence at the moment. Which is fine, but I've got time on the bus, and at lunchtimes at work etc, to put in a bit of studying. All my studying to date, has been through reading various bits of literature, whether it be books, articles or even blogs. This is all well and good, but what I seem to find is that I read it, a little will stick, and the rest, is forgotten about. Now this is fine, but also rather dangerous. After all a concept half learnt, can be even more costly than not knowing it in the first place.

My plan of study is going to follow, my plan of study when at college. Take the articles, write down notes, then learn those notes. I'll probably take one topic at a time, and plough my way through it. I'll also be ignoring starting hands, and to a lesser extent preflop play. I know that reasonably way, and even if I didn't I've got the charts to fall back on. Nope, post flop, is where your money is won or lost, and it is where I'll concentrate on.

The blinds, and playing the blinds is an easy area to pick off. Although you'll always lose money in the blinds, because you play them 20% of the time, any money you make/save here must be crucial

Small, Medium, Big Pairs etc, etc. You get the idea

General ramblings and a conceptual thought

2006-03-15T13:04:00.000Z

Well Haven't played any poker for close on a week. Well if you don't include one SNG at Stars for fun. How am I finding it. Well ot be honest, I'm not missing it that much, but I am missing the finding of time to sit down and study the game more. Strange huh, spose that is what comes from grinding multiple tables at low limits.

Anyway, was off to Prague last weekend. Wow, what a place, if you have the cash head across. It's got everything you could think of. Gorgeous women, good food, brilliant pubs, and beers for 60p a pint. Now throw in a 21 inch monitor, and access to a well known poker site, and I would have been in Paradise.

Concept thought for the week

This is for all you guys who are running simulations out there!

Lets assume a tight table, say Crypto, and lets assume everybody has a reasonable knowledge of starting hands, and post flop play.

There must be a point where trash becomes profitable. Now, not I agree in a Monte Carlo simulation. If you play trash from a late position, and religously dump it if the flop doesn't hit you then I'm guessing that you could make it profitable.

Someone work it out!

Assuming a percentage of your late raises will steal the blinds, otherwise you will limp in
Assuming that if a low flop hits, your opponents will have missed it completely, but will stay around and pay you off
You are only playing say MP2 - Button
The big hands that you have will get paid off handsomely because you are being loose PF.

Would the plusses cancel out the minuses. you decide!

Ok, I realise that the above is a bit far fetched, but if youpick your spots, and steal raise, and limp in now and again with rubbish and get paid off, then I'm guessing it becomes a lot closer.

Problems with Prima

2006-03-08T13:37:00.000Z

Ok March is here, and I'm clearing a few bonuses. The usual, Prima and Cryptos. CryptosI seem to do okay on. Not great but, just ok. Prima on the other hand just seems to whip me. There was a time about 6 weeks ago where I broke even on Prima, or even slighty up. The last 6 weeks though I just seem to hit nothing, or get bet off pots.

I played around about 200 hands last night, (don't have the exact stats in front of me) and out of that I just seemed to spend the whole night folding. Lost a couple of big hands, where my flush draw in a big pot just didn't materialise, so shouldn't complain to much, because I also hit a few biggies as well. Overall though I still finished about $20 down.

Now this wasn't me, tilting in anyway, well not that I'm aware of anyway. Just one of those things, small sample size blah, blah. Just infuriates me, I feel as if I should be winning all the time, and it's a downer when a session goes against you.

Anyway, withdrew my cash from one well know poker site. Played for a bonus of $150, $100 sign up, and $50 reload. Managed to cash out for a profit including bonus of $350. Love that site. Just wish they had more reloads.

Is Poker a game of skill?
I understand the concept that, in the long run everybodies luck levels out. I'm starting to doubt this though, and heres why. The key to a good player, is to minimise the losses, and maximise the gains. All well and good so far. However, if a good player can only win say $2bb per hour, then thats quite a knife edge that you are sitting on. Now, how do you go on and quantify that 2bb, how much of it was due to skill, and how much of it ws due to luck, luck being in the form of hitting you're river card in a big pot, or luck in the fact that the person who was calling all your bets, had just fallen out with his Mrs, and just wanted to blow some money. Luck, and Skill are hard concepts to define, and where one starts and the other finishes can be blurred beyond all recognition.

I was lucky....

2006-02-27T13:40:00.000Z

Well did my usual Friday night thing, had a drink played some poker, had another drink, played some poker, yep had another drink, and donated my money to the poker world.

It could have been sooooo much worse though. Only lost $30 overall, $60/$70 on the $2/$4 tables but was up $40 on the $1/$2 tables.

Hey on the plus side, looking positively amnd all that I've played >500 hands this month on $2/$4 and I'm still in the Green. Yep now a whole $9 up :)

Will update my stats over the next couple of nights. I'm in the green just, but lost about $90 on Prima, and the $70 down on $2/$4 tables made a big dent on what was looking to be a great month.

Paradise, and Bet365, Will Hill complete

2006-02-24T09:08:00.000Z

Well, a month of mixed fortunes on the above sites. Without looking at PT, my initital reactions are favourable. However, I spun the wheels at Will Hill, Bet365 was a disaster, and Paradise, was well, just Paradise.

If memory serves me right, I have now cleared the bonuses for the above three sites, at Bet365, I got pawned, down $100, (luckily I got a $50 bonus excl) , a combination of bad play, and bad luck. Paradise though was $350, (incl $150 bonus) up. So overall can't complain, I've posted another winning month.

I've had a reasonably good month, up so far, £400, equates to about $650. Nopt to bad for a part time recreational player, who hasn't been playing so much lately.

Anyway got to get going will update the stats at the side over the weekend. Got nothing on tonight / Saturday, so i'll maybe even be able to see what the Paradise tables are like at the weekend.

Oh I've put some money into the black side as well. Party Poker!!! I feel dirty.

Goals - to go

2006-02-18T13:25:00.000Z

Ok goal setting should be easy shouldn't it. Know where you want to get to, plan out how you are going to get there. I'd appreciate any comments on these. As I said mbefore, my poker playing will start to take more of a back seat over the next few months, so some of them may seem a little lacking in ambition but hey ho.

Last 6 months
Played 22,000 hands, mixture of 50/1, 1/2, and a few 2/4
BB/100 0.64 (bulk at $1/$2)

Looking at my stats, they are pretty much exactly where I would expect them to be, possibly marginally loose (19.06% VIP), but everything seems to stack up. PFR 9%, WTSD 38.14%, Won$SD 52.04% The only thing that sticks out is my aggression. I'm sitting at 1.49 overall, This should be higher on all streets. Something to look at, am I missing value bets, am I not isolating enough, am I just a calling station. Will see if I can get to the bottom of it.

When i first started looking at the stats, I was hoping that something would stick out, I would have a 'Eureka' moment, and I could instantly increase my win rate. But alas, no, looks as if it's going to be tweaking, rather than overhauling.

Pairs are looking ok, all pairs are making money, apart from pesky 2's, and 4's, BB/Hand are as follows, are these in line with what you'd expect, (outwith blinds)

AA - 2.36
KK - 1.91
QQ - 1.50
JJ - are the only ones that stick out, being further down the list, below 9's and T's, at 0.19

My AKo is doing reasonably well, at 0.73, slightly low, but acceptable. What on earth is happening with my AKs, I'm losing money with it. Will have a look at this, but if my AKo is doing ok, then my AKs, should in theory follow suit. Another one pencilled in for a look at some point. initial thoughts are that I'm either going to far in a hand, or it's just variance. AKs is losing 0.42

Oh and just by the way, I've been dealt 2 royal flushes, (with another one that I'm not counting, because I folded my T preflop, but the royal flush came in by the river) How much I hear you gasp did I win with my Royal flushes. Well one was in a STT, which won the game. The second won me a grand total of $10 Just to rub it in, there wasn't even any promos for these. Ah well, I can retire a happy man, shouldn't complain, many people don't see one, and I get 2 or 3 in my first 50k of hands :)

Goals - Over the next 4 months
1. Play 8,000 hands of $1/$2
2. Play 2,000 hands of $2/$4
3. Increase my win rate for $1/$2 from current 0.94bb/100 to 1.5bb/100
4. Keep in the Green for my $2/$4
5. Take at least 2 hours a week away from the tables to study specific areas of poker, (first being Michaels 'Counting my outs' AK articles, followed by Card players playing the blinds articles)
6. My $2/$4 is all going to be at the one site, so guys fair warning, I reckon that at $2/$4 it may well be worth keeping a book on the regulars.

Goals 5 and 6 are probably not actual goals, more like statements of intent, in order to achieve goals 3 and 4

Thats it, my short term goals. Longer term goals, are a bit more airy fairy, so won't bore you with them at the moment.

The beginnings of goals.

2006-02-17T09:10:00.000Z

Well, I'm actually having a reasonably good month this month. My poker is up, (will update the stats over the weekend) and if my poker is up then I know that the bonuses roll in. To be honest, I've cut down on the number of hands I've played this month. Though it has been a lot harder than I thought it would be. (Is this the first sign of an addiction?) You play at a site, get the bonus, but lo and behold there is always another bonus being offered somewhere else. A couple of days playing, and you clear that bonus, and then the cycle repeats.

I do love poker and everything about it. I love the theory, I love reading articles and books on it. I love sitting there in a big pot, and the way you feel when the chips get pushed your way. I suppose by now you know I quite like poker.

Anyway, I'm an accountant by trade. So I believe I can get my head around all of those figures, pot odds, and am pretty analytical in my way of thinking. Now tell me this, why am I struggling to increase my win rates.

A couple of answers come to mind:

Things to improve upon

1. I have to take time off to study and learn some of these printouts I have got. All the inforamtion is at my finger tips, along with a little luck, and hard work, there is no reason why I cannot increase win rates / move up the ladder

2. Get my head sorted out with regards to higher limits. I started (rather foolishly) playing $1/$2, and the pots appeared huge. I had to laugh, last night, I won and lost a couple of $30 pots. The thing was I didn't notice the size until the pot was finished. Now, before you hassle me about pot odds etc, I was ahead in the hands, and betting for value! Honest!

Frankly though, I have played a couple of times at $2/$4, and it gets the adrenalin flowing again, but I am 'cacking' myself at the size of the pots. I'm afraid that the accountant coming out in me and not the pure gambler. I've got to get comfortable with the swings and pot sizes at this limit, in short I have to start thinking about BB's and not $'s

That's it guys, thats all I need to do. Sounds simple doesn't it. I may not even play tonight, have a couple of drinks, look at the win rates and stats, and come up with some actual goals.

Quite excited about the weekend coming :)

Last few days

2006-02-09T22:06:00.000Z

Well I've only played 400 hands of poker over the last few days. I just seem to have a lot on at the moment. The poker as usual has been pretty up and down. Got a bit of a pasting on the $2/$4 tables. So much for my new found confidence. Down $50. All from a grand total of 43 hands. Just been looking at my hand histories, and I don't know what I was doing. Playing a bit like a maniac. I seemed to have been suffering from fancy play syndrome. Rather than play solid poker, I tried to play everybody off of the table, and quite rightly got my butt kicked. Though to be fair,I missed out on a flush draw that cost me heavy. Such is poker!

My other 350 odd hands have been played at $1/$2, and 50c/$1, and I went down initially, (same night as when I was playing the $2/$4 table, go figure!!!!) but have played my way back into a profit, and cleared some crypto bonus as well :)

Two last quick thoughts:

1. Michael, at the counting my outs blog, link at the side, has done a 2 parter on playing AK. A great read, and I can't wait untill the next installment. Michael if you're reading this a big thankyou, for that. Out of the 130 hands I played today (profit of $12, 4.4bb/100) I got dealt the big AK a total of 6 times. Now AKo was down 3BB, partly due to an AQ, drawing out on my top pair, but my AKs is a grand total of 10BB up. Now I know about small sample sizes etc, etc. But I do feel that over the piece I have played my AK to passively preflop, and on the flop in the past. So if nothing else, it has reminded me of the correct way to play these hands. By the way I also, play them to far, and do as well, so can't wait for the next installment.

2. On a slighty sadder note, I've just started a night class :) Monday and Wednesday evenings, with quite a bit of extra studying thrown in. May mean that this blog, and my poker playing will be slightly more eratic. I'll still make the tables, I just need to get my work/life/poker balance evaluated a bit. To be honest, I don't know how I'll cope not playing poker. It's been a 4 times a week hobby for me over the last 12 months or so. I can still see me doing that, but whereas I used to play for three / four hours. I'll probably only play for one. I've got about 8 articles in front of me to go over, and these are just the ones I printed off today... Michaels AK article, playing the blinds, and an analysis of unsuited connectors. All good fun. I've also got my Harrington on Holdem book to read, but since I've been playing mostly limit, I've put that joy on the back burner for the moment.

Who am I kidding, I can't see me cutting down on my poker, I'll just need to sleep less :)

Been having some time off

2006-02-06T19:08:00.000Z

Not been doing much over the last couple of days. I need to get into the swing of things again soon....

Going to stop posting my results in the title of the blogs as well. At the end of the day it shouldn't matter, it's the final result that matters, and the last thing I want to happen, is for me to play suboptimally at the tables because I start to become results focused, just for you guys out there.

As for last night, well played a little poker at Crypto, and did another casino bonus. Going to try out the £ tables at Crypto, as they are usually a lot softer. I just find that the $ tables are just such a grind. I end up playing at them, with one eye on the clock to see when I can log off. Lifes to short....

Bonuses at the hourly cryptos are sweet though. Just looks as if it's the beginning of the end for them. Never mind, I've had a good run at them, and they paid for my education at the tables, and some more.

Played a little variance is good :) +$115

2006-02-05T00:47:00.000Z

I'm having difficulty believing what is good play and what is bad... Just started playing on Paradise, and all is well. I'm not chasing, dropping my dodgy pairs :) but pushing when I am ahead. I seem to be doing this a lot more lately, and when the cards are running, they are running. The knife edge we all play with our overpair or TPTK. Sometimes they pay off, sometimes we make that crying call, sometimes we drop them. Last couple of days I've been calling and a betting and they have been holding up. $115 up for the month. I've played 372 hands and I'm running at 10bb/100, which in itself is impressive, but hey a third of those hands are at $2/$4, and at this level I'm running at $30bb/100. Oh if only it was achievable long term.

I don't know how you guys who play this full time can rationalise the swings in poker. Over the last week, I have been questioning everything I know about poker. Have I just been lucky over the last 8 months, have I been lucky with those bad plays I do, anybody can win long term with pocket Aces, but that mid pair call, and bluff raise!!!! Am I getting caught out, now where I got away with it before....!

It's one thing, where I know, if I lose it, yeah it will hurt. But you guys who do it day in day out, and have to pay the bills... Well i salute you. I hope you do well, apart from when you play me.

It's Saturday, and I've had a couple of beers. But whey hey, I'm playing a couple of MTT's at LAdbrokes, for in total $10. I'm slowly learning, not to gamble.

Mind you my first $2 MTT got dealt QQ, raised it to $500, got a call, and an all in. I called to find me facing KK, and AKo. Ah well. It was a turbo, people play a lot looser. Should I have folded. Nope I don't think so. He could just as easily been playing a lower PP, or AQs. In MTT's it comes down to a few hands. You've got to get lucky. I don't care whether you are the best MTT player in the world. That may help you short handed, but until that final table is reached, you need those key hands to hold up.

GL all, going to stay away from those cash games for the rest of the night!!!!

Should I stay away from Poker? $190 profit

2006-02-02T18:55:00.000Z

Yep, bit happier today, after my losing streak at poker, I'm happy to say that I've taken a night off from it. I kept myself busy though by clearing one of the casino bonuses, after clearing the WR, I cleared $190. Got to love online gambling :)

As for the poker this month, Cryptos, and might give Paradise a go. It's already shaping up to a busy month. At the moment I'm forecasting about $400 of bonuses. Some opf that is casinos though, which are relatively risky, but at least the month is off in the right direction.

Lucks a funny thing. In a lot of ways, you've got to detach yourself from it. 'It's one long game as they say' maximise the gains, and minimise the losses, and then you are doing better than most. When you do get emotionally involved, wow, it can be great! But you've got to remember that getting emotionally involved when your profits are going south, results in Tilt.

One of my biggets leaks, is sometimes playing at the weekend,whilst having, or having been out for a drink. Why do it, well, it comes down to emotions. Rightly or wrongly, I get more emotionally caught up in my poker, after drinking, I'm there for the gambling, and not the perfect playing. Not a great way to preserve your bankroll, or improve your game, as your are relying on the poker gods, rather than your fellow players mistakes.

Nothing wrong with it in my book, as long as you realise that poker is your recreational activity, and you're doing it for fun. Problem is when you are trying to incease your bank roll, it does put rather a dent in it. All is not lost for me though, I am getting better. When I've had a drink I'm more likely to play a couple of low buy-in NL STT's, or even the odd low buy-in MTT. As I said before it's all about minimising those losses, when you've got the worst of it :)

Postscript

Paradise - I'm playing 3 50c/$1 tables at the moment, Ia Decent night, a combination of good cards olding up, and people pushing hands to far. Nice profit for the night, and some confidence restored....

Well is the luck slowly turning? - ($15) loss $100 bonus

2006-02-01T18:38:00.000Z

Well it was better but still not great. 400 hands played for a loss of $15. At last cleared the Nordicbet bonus. Lost the bonus plus $8. Has to be my worse run on a bonus yet.

Never mind, January is over and my results weren't all bad. I wonder actually if the Prima $2/$4 is harder than normal, as there is only one table ever playing at this level. Well onto Paradise, so will guess I'll find out at some point.

Catch you all later.
H

The Spiral continues -$52 loss

2006-01-31T19:09:00.000Z

Another 215 hands,and I just can't seem to be able to do anything right. I'm starting to doubt whether this is variance, and it may be down to some huge leaks. The only thing that gives me some cause for hope is looking at my positional stats for last night. $37 of my £50 losss was from the blinds. I think it was a case of just hitting no cards, and any draws I went for just didn't come off.

Going to play, and clear my Prima bonus, 150 hands required, though already the bonus is blown. Ah well, it would have been worse without having a bonus buffer.

After, this bonus, I'll have a trip to Paradise, then back to the Cryptos.

If this run continues, I will have to take off a couple of days, run through my hands, look at a couple of books, and kick the cat.

Challenging Times -$42 loss (ouch)

2006-01-30T19:10:00.000Z

Well it has been a pretty horid weekend at the tables. I just didn't seem to get going at all, no matter what limit I played. Now my BB win rate isn't high at the best of times, so it probably doesn't take much to push me over into a loss making position.

What was it this time. To be honest I'm not sure. I had a couple of drinks whilst playing, maybe I wasn't as sharp as I should have been :) but at the end of the day it possibly was a combination of missing value bets, and definately overplaying some hands.

My results for the weekend read as follows:

50c/$1 232 hands loss ($14)
$1/$2 188 hands loss ($21)

Horid, horid, horid....

Yep I lost at both levels. So what do you think I did, did I think, oops shouldn't be playing tonight, something is wrong. No not I....

First foray at $2/$4
To give me my due, I only played one table:
87 hands loss ($14)

Even though thats a horrid BB/100, I didn't feel as if I was massively outplayed, or out of my depth. As long as I didn't think about the monetary value of the pots I was fine, though possibly overaggressive.

It's another one of my leaks, that I'm not sure how to correct. Overplaying overpairs.

I had 3 big losers at the table:

TT - I lost $34, first time I was against 99, and a 9, hit the flop. I was in early position, and bet, bet, bet, the guy with trips just called, and then reraised me on the river, which I called) Think I played this ok, apart from the river play. Lost $4 there, the guy wasn't going to fold, and I should have just check called, I think. Any different ways to play, or articles out there on overpairs, let me know.

The second TT I lost $16, unknown to me villain had KK. I was on the button, and it wa 3bet to me. What, what , what was I thinking. I'm embarassed to say this, but I capped, I reckon this was a fold. Way to over aggressive. Flop was rags, the KK bet again, and I reraised. Let him think I had AA. Please fold..... At that point he cooled off, and went into check call mode. I was toast!

But hey even with the 2 hands above, I worked my way back into the game, and won a $55 pot, to take me $8 plus for the evening. Decided to log off, and that rush of blood to the brain happened again.

I had K7s last hand for the night, flop was low cards,with a 7. I then bet, and nothing scary was showing. Villain showed TT, to take the pot.

All in all, disappointing. I could have just folded through the final orbit, and logged my first $2/$4 win, 3BB per 100, but no, but hey thats poker, and hindsight.

On the plus side, it's the first time for a while, that my heart was pumping with the size of the pots. It was great!!!!! But I have to log a few winning sessions soon. I can't suffer to many $50 loss weekends.....

On the plus side, and looking at the whole thing in a hugely optimistic view. I cleared 250 raked hands at Nordicbet, and as such cleared the equivalent of $50, so I suppose I made $8 for the weekend. Honest guv!

Crypto completion +$3, +$17bonus

2006-01-27T18:43:00.000Z

Signed onto Crypto last night, I had 2 X hour bonuses to clear. Well after everything that i was saying yesterday, I thought that instead of playing multiple $1/$2 tables, why not play a single £1/£2 table. These tables never fail to amaze me. Why is it that on a $1/$2 table, VIP for a table is anywhere between 17% and 25%, whereas for a £1/£2 table it can be in excess of 30%. Maybe it's true what our friends across the water say about us 'crazy europeans'. Us Brits gave them the English language, they gave us poker. Sounds like a fair deal.

Anyway, signed onto Crypto, for both the $1/$2 , and the £1/£2 tables. Let fate decide. It decided that the $ tables where going to be free first, so there we have it. Was playing 2 tables. Was doing pretty well at one point as well. Was up $25 on one table, $8 on the other.

The second table, was basically uber tight, and turned into a blind stealing competition. Needless to say by the end of the night I ended up $8 down. Nothing to disastrous, in fact the most lost on any one hand was $3, mind you the most I won on a hand was $3.25. As I said the table was over tight. My VIP for this table was 17%, Aggression factor over 3, which I'm happy about.

The first table, ended up $11 up. Was doing okay until one Mr Grinder came along. That was it, never had any cards after he appeared. Oh apart from a horribly played K9s when I was in the BB. I hit a K on a rainbow flop, and bet. Call, Raise from the remaining opponents. The raise came from an opponent who was playing everything (kind of 40bb/100 loser, kind of player, VIP 60%). Turn, was a 6 to pair the board. I went into check call mode. thinking my kicker was toast, with the 2nd caller dropping out on the turn. Villain turns over T6s, to show him hitting trips on the turn. I just kinda felt I played this far to weak, but probably one of those kind of hands that saved me cash in the end.

Anyway, this villain was the same villain who put in a call with 3 people in the flop already, with Grinder to follow. Grinder was betting, betting, betting. At the showdown, villain turns over 52s, to beat Grinder, hitting the flush on the river. To be fair to the villain, ok the original call was dodgy, but 2 spades came on the flop, so he probably had odds to call, if not to originally bet post flop for value against multiple opponents.

Overall then, I was a whole $3 up after 150 hands, plus my $17 bonus. Highlight of the night was saying hi to the 'semi pro' as they say at Full Tilt magazine, Grinder. Good to speak to him after reading his blog for so long. Hope you are feeling better m8.

Heads up displays
At the moment I use gametime+, which I find great, easy to use etc, etc, (and free). But how much do I lose by not having pokerace. The ability to see peoples cards mucked at showdown in real time, must be a huge advantage. I had a look at PA. but just found it to be information overload. 'What stats do you require Sir?' Well here, have a choice of anything and everything! I know all these stats are handy, and that would be my problem, I would end up having all these stats, so many in fact that I wouldn't be able to see the table. Then I would get timed out, because I'm to busy analysing the stats. I would then get in a mood, and kick the cat. My wife would the fall out with me. We would have a huge argument, that would mean I would get timed out on the only pocket aces that I had been dealt all night. How I laughed t the cruel fate that dealt me aces just at that time, as I ran outside, into the rain, dragging the computer with me. Sparks would fly, and yes, I would end up getting hit by a number 26 bus. That ladies and gentleman is why I don't have Poker Ace, but I will have to look into it soon.

Be lucky.

H.

Party Grind Complete +$18, +$75 bonus

2006-01-26T19:57:00.000Z

Party Grind is over
Well my $75 for 750 raked hands is now complete. How did I find it, well it took three days to complete, and required 1500 hands, 3 and 4 tabling, to achieve the raked hnds required.

What did I lose I hear you cry? Well it does seem like that at times, I believe I've hit the dreaded bloggers curse. Talk about poker and nothing good will happen to you ever again! Well I actually ended up a whole $18, yep 0.76 per hundred hands. Now in hourly table terms, say 50 hands per hour, that equates to a whopping 36cents per hour per table. Hey even in Scotland that hourly rate sux, I would have to play about 25 table hours just to buy myself a bag of chips and a deep fried Mars Bar!

On the plus side, at least it was positive, and at least I got my bonus.

Counting My outs post
Yep at least I got the bonus, but did I enjoy it? Three tabling say 5 hours over the three nights. Well to be honest, YES! Playing multiple tables means theres always something going on. Will I be doing the same thing in a years time????

I honestly can't see it, I've bought very little out of my bank roll, and to be honest I am in the lucky position where I am reasonably financially independent, (well I have a decent paying job taht covers the mortgage), so I have to be getting some other motivation for playing.

I suppose it is the learning, and theory that I enjoy. Now when I say the theory, I don't mean the high brow, working out odds to the n'th degree kind of thing. Well not yet anyway, who knows where this adventure will end up. What I mean, is continuous improvement - getting better at this little thing I enjoy. Not only enjoy but the sky is the limit to tthe opportunity out there, if you are good enough then it can make you very rich indeed, and a household name.

Continuous improvement - is not multi tabling the low limits. Yep I've been making a bit of cash, but I ask again will I, in fact should I, be still playing the same level in a years time. The answer has got to be a resounding No. Don't get me wrong here though, for all I know I may not be able to hack it, at higher levels, mayber $1/$2 is as high as I can go, but soemone once said, maybe even on one of these blogs:

'Reach for the moon, and even if you fail you are still among the stars'

(If anybody is reading this, and knows where taht snippet came from let me know)

To keep the game interesting, and to keep learning, you have to push yourself out of the comfort zone, if your bank roll can handle it. I'm not saying go gung ho into the fray, and never look back, but instead dip the toe in, test the water, who knows where it will end up.

Till the next time, I'm going away to think about some definable poker goals for the coming weeks.

A small pair dilemma?

2006-01-26T13:49:00.000Z

Well I know I'm overweight, and spend far to much time in front of the computer, cheering on the vagaries of some computer logarythmn and whether it deems me worthy of winning 2BB per hour or not, but lets discuss my small pair:

The theory
* All pairs should be profitable!
* Pairs have two advantages, one is their set making abilities, and secondly the fact that you already have a made hand
* If you have a small pair odds of hiting your Set is 7-1.
* However, odds of a set winning is approx 75%
* Therefore you require say 10-1 implied odds in order to make a bet profitable preflop

The strategy
*Limp all pairs upfront, unless in a tight / tough game, (remember your implied odds that you require!)
* Consider raising if you have 4+ limpers and loose blinds, or 5+ limpers and unknown blinds
* Remember if you limp in a 6 way pot and you hit your set then you will win say 10BB. If you raise, and then hit your set, then everybody will get odds to call/chase, and you will win more say 20BB People are more liable to chase their draws mistakenly. Also bonus chance to get free card if you have position.
* Someone raises, and 3 coldcallers, call with all pairs, again pot is large and you will get paid off if you hit your set.
* A pair also has value. If semi agg raises, or you suspect a blind steal, then reraise to isolate him. You are 50/50 if he has 2 overcards, but you have a made hand, if he is liable to fold post flop, you are then favourite.
* Open limping in mid position is BAD. If you call, then you are not getting the odds to flop the set, if you raise then there is no chance of forcing players out of the hand.
* SB and BB, rarely fold pairs, since implied odds are larger, for your discounted bet

I hope the above makes some sense, I just need to learn them myself now!

Just to let you know as well, this information was culled from a number of posts on the 2+2 forum. I'm sure nobody will mind me paraphrasing andsummarising it here.

Welcome to the Party

2006-01-25T13:18:00.000Z

Been a bit quiet over the last few days. Been playing through the Party bonuses. I really hate Party, and what it is doing to the online gaming world, hopefully soon, there will be other networks able to challenge Party, and steal some of the market share. Keep it competitive and keep those bonuses coming.

Anyway, after that little rant. I feel gutted. Been playing the 50c/$1 tables and wow, it's funny how you get numbed by the smaller pot sizes. No huge wins, nor any huge losses. Just a wave of mediocrity, and large swings, as more people are chasing there 1 outers, and hitting them. Though to be fair, probably hitting them no more than they should be hitting them.

At party I always get the feeling that I should be doing better, but instead what I see happening is me playing VIP10% on certain tables, whats that all about! Some run of bad cards, however again on other tabes I see my VIP running at 30%. The shocking thing is it's always the High running tables that I am making profits at. Just goes to show that I still rely on hittin the cards.

Yep I would sooner be lucky, than skillful!

Oh almost cleared my 750 raked hand bonus for $75, 100 to go so will give you a run down of the final position tomorrow.

Heres my goals until the end of the month:

1. Read up on playing samall pairs, yeah I know that this should be second nature, but I am still losing money on some of them, have a feeling it's linked to 2.

2. Stop calling with the worst of it, when you have only a pair.

At the moment I only play my Pairs if I think I can get odds of 10-1 once I hit my set. Where I think I'm losing the money though, is having pair preflop, which misses, then calling a post flop bet. Bad news, I need to see if no set, no bet holds water at some point.

One example of hitting trips was:

Me in MP holding 22, lots of cash in the pot, flop comes down 5,5,2
I go to war, and by the end of it a huge pot was built up, on the river another 5 drops, me and the villain turn over, he was calling/raising with a pair of aces, only a 5, or an A could have saved him on the river, 4 cards 10-1 shot. Now fair play to him, he may well have had pot odds, but I doubt it.

Take care

Spewing Chips

2006-01-21T11:24:00.000Z

Well, some people lose chips through bad play, some people lose chips through bad luck, me, I think my biggest leak must be playing under the influence.

One of the pitfalls/ and appeal of playing on the internet has to be it's accessibility. You want to play, well I reckon from making that decision, to actually playing, will take you all of 5 minutes, a lot less if you have already downloaded the software.

So, anyway, was out for a few drinks last night, came back in, fired up the computer, and was playing a 10 player $1/$2 game within minutes. But wait this wasn't enough excitement for me, (even though I can kind of remember my VIP being 50%) Nope, nope, nope, I fired up a short handed table as well. Now palying shorthanded has it's own skills, this is something I want to get into, but have had no experience so far.

To be fair my VIP was so high, because, I had a great run of cards. Or was it because I was drunk, and everything looked so pretty??? Anyway, I rememebr being up at one point. I also rememebr being down by the end of the night, how much I've no idea, just going in now to see the damage....

Well could have been worse. £6 down after clearing a £5 bonus.

Don't play under the influence guys, it's not good, and it's not clever!

Ended up playing 101 hnds for 35%VIP. I made money away from the blinds, but was £35 down from the BB. Biggest loss was calling a raise from the small blind, with K4s. Was raised by the small blind, and I guessed, correctly that he was stealing. Hit my K on the flop, on a KQ9 rainbow board, and he bets and I raise all the way through, Q comes on the River and he check raises me, (should have just checked through!) and sure enough he flips over a third Q, his hand is good, but at least I believe I played it correctly, apart from the river bet that is!

Thats poker.

Party has a number of reloads tonight, so will have to hit up some of these. I normally do these at the 50c/$1 tables, and do pretty well. Problem with Party is there 7 day limit to clear a bonus. The wife is working Monday and Thursday, so will have a bit of time, we'll see how it goes.

By the way if anybody reads this let me know where you are from, only my third day, but feels as if nobody knows I am here.

It is a funny little game

2006-01-19T22:13:00.000Z

January is always quiet for poker bonuses, or so the experts in the know say. So it is with some comfort that, I download Totalbet poker again, and reactivated the account.

5 hours at $1/$2, the wife working, kids in bed, what more can a guy wish for!

Anyway waiting for a table, (why is it that there is such a long waiting list on Crypto tables), I had a quick look over my $1/$2 stats.

Basically, over the first three months 3,875 $1/$2 hands played, VIP24%, Loss of $174, Agg factor 1.51

Last three months, 4,625 hands played, VIP17%, Profit of $109, Agg factor 1.73

So at least something must be getting better, and before you say it I know that it is a small sample size, but still glad I'm now in the Green.

Onto tonight, 2 tables opened, just over 1 hour played, 159 hands.

It is a funny old game my VIP was 16%, and I would have been down if it wasn't for one monster hand, I'll try and post it tomorrow, basically TT, flop was T77, with a full table palying, and it getting capped pretty much every street. Lovely, my best win off one hand, (excl NL) to date. In excess of 25BB, yep $55 to the good.

End of the night, I was zero on my first table, yep an hour playing, and ended exactly where I started. The secong table, ended up $48.50, (would have been down without the monster, ah well)

Oh and & $17 bonus cleared, not a bad hours work.

And so it begins

2006-01-19T14:33:00.000Z

Well actually it began about 18 months ago, and has been time consuming, brilliant, yet at times depressing all rolled up into one. I'm talking about poker, one of the best sports out there, and the only one where you do less physical exercise than Darts.

My kind of game.

I got into it when a friend, went to a home game one night about 18 months ago. Next morning, he came to me and said, it was great, you would have loved it. Your kind of thing. A few weeks later, I was invited along, was told the rules quickly, and through sheer beginners luck I won my first No Limit Single Table Tournament. For better or for worse I was hooked.

Some people are natural gamblers, some people are natural theoreticians. I lie somewhere in between, probably what you would term an advantage gambler. If money is at stake, even small amounts, then I want to win it, and to win it I want the wager on my terms, and have an edge over my opponent. After the first couple of weeks I ended up buying the first of many books that I now have, and started learning the game.

I signed on to Ladbrokes, for absolutely no bonus, zip. A rookie, not aware tat sites actually paid you money for playing a number of hands. At this time I was playing STT's and basically enjoying myself, learning the basics, and breaking even. I then had my eyes opened, with regards to bonuses. Wow, how could Ladbrokes be so mean!!! Well being a complete novice to poker, what better place to start than Limit $1/$2 on Crypto. (Not something I would recommend) Well I lost, and lost, and lost, but what about this then, I found that either through luck or skill, I didn't lose as much as the bonus. Thankfully, I paid my dues as they say, but thankfully the bonuses picked up the tab.

A bit more research and I became a fully fledged bonus chaser, still learning the game, but gradually building up a small bankroll. Only in the last 6-9 months, have I been able to make a little bit of cash over and above the bonuses. And, although poker tracker says I have made money playing poker especially at lower limits, I am only now starting to make consistent money playing the $1/$2, and with a fair wind the red figures that appear, should turn green in the next couple of months.

Out of interest, I started off with £200/$340, only started playing seriously since I started the bonuses, and the bank roll is now sitting at £2,400/$3,500 I find my bank increasing by about £200-£400 a month, small change compared to some out there, but hey at least it's going in the right direction.

You are welcome to follow my ramblings over the coming months, and I appreciate any comments/ questions/ criticisms