Any better 12 months on ... ?

I've been taking a break from Poker again and thinking about what I was doing differently from this time last year (and have I progressed?) ...

This time last year;

1) I was excited to be part of APAT and to be playing against guys I considered to be a class well above me in their Online Events and Live once a month in the APAT Regionals

2) I didn't have 'poker pals' like Derek, Joe, Jim etc. - guys who help me over-analyse hands and plays and listen to my success and bad-beat stories

3) I was enthusiastic about learning about NLHE knowing that I still had soooo much to learn

4 i) I was playing $0.25/$0.50 cash games on iPoker (overplaying and losing big pots with small hands mostly). I had taken a couple of shots at 50c/$1, had some short term success but ultimately failed and stepped back down shortly afterwards somewhat scared to go back

4 ii) I was playing $10 SnGs, STTs and MTTs on iPoker (with limited success)

5) The currency exchange rate was almost $2 : £1

6) I was depositing regularly with no concern for bankroll management. I could afford to dep around £30 once a month and have fun with it before the inevitable reload the next month

7) I wasn't as busy with work / life and it was fairly easy to find 2 or 3 hours at night to play to play for fun - no expectations, just high hopes of a modest return.

8) I had very little experience of Live Tournament Poker

Although I've recorded some very decent results and cashes since and feel I'm a better and more knowledgable player through my friendships with Derek, Joe etc., through being more involved in APAT and RTR, through reading strategy articles in PP / IP mags, 2+2 etc., from having played at higher levels Live in Edinburgh, Paris & Dublin and online as part of our deals / syndicates, I know I still have a long way to go - almost an unsurmountable way to go - if I'm to make it 'worthwhile'. By worthwhile, I mean to consistently grind up a bankroll from any future deposits, to study my past results closely enough to find a game and limit I feel most comfortable playing remembering that I should be playing in the hope that I can step up and back down when I need to. First off, I need to find the enthusiasm and the 'correct' mindset to make it an enjoyable hobby - the way I was enjoying my times at the tables on Oct 07. It's not going to be easy considering that I know, having written this, that I may not have realistically made any progress as a player over the past year as I haven't been able to grind the paltry deposits into a reasonable bankroll.

I know myself that I'm just not at 'that place' just now but it's with help from the exchange rate and with it being as poor as it is, that I'm able to refrain from re-depositing into my poker accounts. Online Poker and especially 'Losing Online Poker' has become so much more expensive recently.

I don't mean to bring anyone's mindset down to my level and this is far from a moan - more me just facing up to a bit of reality.

GL at the tables.

Lost Passion

I post this with as little passion for poker as I think I've ever had. It's basically just a copy > paste from two emails I've sent to Derek over the past week or so. It makes me feel happy that I'm so busy with work and I've hardly had a minute to myself (when I'd end up playing online).

(from Sun 19th Oct)

lol, (I laugh but could easily cry)

I've just played the £2.65 Sky Qualifier and come 8th of 10. With an M of 9 and with QQ I call from UTG (I've played KK and TT strongly so I'm mixing it up). SB makes it up and BB min-raises to 400. I pop it up now to 800, SB folds, BB calls. Flop comes AAA and SB checks it to me. With 1600 in the pot and with 2000 behind I'm shoving with my FH. BB calls with ATo - obviously! This is NOT a moan. I got them in bad, was outplayed by my opponent and was well and truly violated by Sky Poker but they were gettin shipped in here 100% of the time.

...

I'm keen to get back onto some proper felt but work is hectic and lack of free time / family time is annoying me. Life tilt in some ways I suppose.


(From email sent moments ago, Thurs 23rd Oct)

I don't know how you get HHs on Sky but I could give you a laugh if I can find out ...
I just played a £2 sat (5 players, 1 sat seat) ...

2nd Hand I'm dealt AA. All folds round to me on SB so I make it up. BB raises to 150, I reraise to 320, he shoves for 60BBs, I call (correct play? ;) ) and he has A8o. My As hold up and he's down to 80 chips.

Blinds 50/100, I'm dealt KTs on BB I call SBs raise to 300. Flop comes 47T and SB pushes for 2,200. I call and he shows 44 for trips. WHO PLAYS TRIPS THAT WAY??? If I can bring myself to ever take to a poker table again, I will!!

Last hand of my tourney, QQ with 2,700 behind. I raise UTG to 600, button shoves, I call. He flips over A6o. Board runs AK6 A x

No poker passion taken from that game at all. The guy behind me who had 80 chips after his donk-shove on 2nd hand was CL.

Ye just cannae buy entertainment like that!

I'm just bad!

Having withdrawn all but £16 of my roll from BetFair, I took to the 25c/50c tables to see if I could run it up - targetting the £30 mark. Through frustration, lack of patience and general bad play, I managed to get it up to £25 within 20 mins or so until the inevitable swing. Frustrated at one or two hands I played REAL badly, my play got even sillier and the patience went all together and took my £25 with it. I / no one should ever play when not in the mood. Unfortunately doing so has cost me a good bit of my roll over the past couple of weeks.

Since I returned from Glasgow at the weekend, where thankfully I didn't find a poker game, I decided to load my SkyPoker account with £25 and try to qualify for the SPUKT Leg 3 in Edinburgh on 31st January 2009. I played the first of my games last night (a £12 Semi) and was going great in the first hour. I made some great decisions against the right players at the right time and had one suckout - a gutshot straight (Q) hit him on the river after he bet all the way out of position with JTo on the K92 5 board with me flat-calling all the way with KJs - which knocked me from 8k to 3k.

Then, sitting 2nd in chips (12k) and with 18 left, I knew I just had to keep my head on a new table. With 5 seated and with TT in the hole, I raised pf, and faced my first re-raised of the game from the SB. I min-re-popped it up to 4k and was shoved on for his last 4k. For some dumb reason I called even tho I knew I had to be 54/46 at best and was left praying for a two outer against his KK which not surprisingly didn't arrive.

I have nothing to blame but myself and hope that I can put this behind me for the £2.65 Satellite to tonight's £12 game that kicks off in 10 mins.

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BetFair Challenge

A challenge on BetFair was brought to my attention by Mair. Sit n Go Leaderboards for three categories of player - Lightweight ($2 to $10 BuyIns), MiddleWeight ($10 to $99) and HeavyWeight ($100 +) - with those who finish in the top 20 of each being awarded a cash bonus at the end of each week.

So how hard could it be ... ? Having played SnGs and experiencing how little traffic there appears to be, top 20 might be quite straight forward. Not so! Traffic increased promptly and after a poor Day 1 I was sitting around 30th. After good Days on 2nd and 3rd, I was sitting 32nd. I knew I had to maintain some of the good form and play and I held my own during Days 4 and 5 but Day 6 was just plain grim - a suckout-tastic day where I just couldn't win a race and rather than tilting and blowing off more, I quit knowing my challenge was over for the first week.

After Day 4 and 100 games, I was sitting with a quite acceptable SharkScope chart; (a plus ROI etc.)



My chart now looks like this though;



My expenses were paid back into my BetFair Gaming account and I have now withdrawn them along with the remainder of my Annette winnings (as you'll see from above, about £100 down).

Where will I go from here ... ? Dunno really. I now have around $100 in my Stars account after staking Mary on BetFair (Stars transfer was easier) and breaking even staking Amatay (edited 19th Oct after his 3rd place for $840 in the 4k GTD). I'm considering doing the long haul games, $20 MTTs and the likes but will have to sit down and work out where and when I'll be able to do so.

I'm going on a Stag weekend in Glasgow tomorrow and Saturday during and will no doubt end up sat at a Cash Table in the early hours. I'm also considering debuting the OfficePoker game on Saturday afternoon rather than watching the Scotland game but I'm not totally sure yet.

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"Still Running goot!!"

The above is what Mary's WLM tag line reads. And thankfully it's still true. Having completed the last 10 games in profit she's generously given me 50% rather than the agreed 40% and is now using our equal shares in a new and longer 15 game stint with me now on 40%.

I got back into playing again recently and played well enough to turn £190 into £250 on BetFair's 25c/50c tables in a little over 3 hours of play. Variance popped it's ugly head up again though and with my AA losing to KTs on a KJrag board where he was happy to get his $90 in, he hit his T on the turn to wipe out a lot of my good work. That, with a poor and probably tilted call with ATs on a T high board into a pre-flop re-raiser with QQ, was enough to again leave me questioning my poker temperament and attitude I bring to the table.

So yesterday I hit the $10 SnGs and played a more patient game - something I've learnt from watchin Mary over the past week or so and something that was made a lot easier by having 3 tables open at once. I'm still generally nowhere near as tight as I probably need to be to achieve the results Mary has but in all honesty, I don't think I could / will ever be. When short stacked I very often think Mary is too tight in the closing levels but I would never suggest she change her ways - she's won far more than I have and I consider her to be a better NLHE player partly due to her superior patience. I try to play as all the training sites / books / pros tell you to - with an M of less than 5, push with any two rag and hopefully 'live' cards and hope for a 60/40 race. It's thanks to this tactic that I was able to bluff my way to two wins from my 4 SnGs last night but also why I bombed out just before the money in the other two. Some you win ... thankfully.

Amatay starts his 6 part-staked games tonight on Party (I think it's Party anyway - I must check).

28th Sunday $300k gtd - $215
28th Sunday 7pm - $109

29th Monday Super - $162
29th Monday 7pm - $109

30th Tuesday Super - $162
30th Tuesday 7pm - $109

GL Fella.

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Staking Mair38 / A piece of Amatay

Some of you will have seen this on Mair's Blog or on the RaiseTheRiver Forum ...

For those of you who haven't, RTR have a Staking Section where folk who want staked / have money to stake others can post their requests / proposals. On Tuesday with my Annette winnings safely in my BetFair account, I posted a proposal and Mary (Mair38) almost instantly applied. With a successful staking history with Mary and with her quite frankly 'awesome' recent results, I was obv happy to buy her into 8 x $5.50 SnGs on BetFair - where she's always wanted to have a bankroll.

In these 8 games she ran the $44 investment up to $85.64 with a remarkable three $22.50 wins and two $9 3rd places. So, in the hopes that I can further help her build a very decent bankroll from here, I have withdrawn $30 and re-invested the $27.50 winnings back into a new series of 10 x $5.50 SnGs of which I will receive 40% of all winnings.

I'll prob keep you updated on here but for regular updates on the new set of 10, see here


I've also taken a stake in Amatay from RTR in some higher buy in games. This fish has been runnin good recently on PartyPoker so I'm keen to see what kinda dough he can make for us lot. So far I've calculate that he's sold 27% of himself so with 50% up for grabs, there's plenty more to be got folks. C'mon over and join in the fun!

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How I stand in 2008 (so far)

I received a PM on the APAT website from Kenny 'THEGUY84' who had been reading this Blog. He made certain assumptions that I was 'in profit' from this year's poker exploits and I was happy to tell him;

In Online Poker / Poker Betting / RTR Staking I'm down for the year (not including the big win obv). Since January '08 I've had some turbulent times (like very recently) but none thankfully that I can't now afford. Online I've deposited £1,221, have withdrawn £1,000 and currently have £110 in play atm for a loss of £111. Given that I only play well above my bankroll and have had some serious brain-dead moments in cash games, I'm not too unhappy at this.

In Live poker, including the trips to Paris, the Edinburgh and Dublin Nationals with APAT, the APAT Regionals and my various home games, I'm down £250. The flights, accommodation, food etc. have come off my bankroll (Julia wouldn't let me take it out the joint bank account ;) ) so it's really not as severe as this.

I've almost always enjoyed spending the £400! Almost always ...

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