Ship the loot . .

So I hope everyone had a good xmas, mine was good fun, well for the kids anyways - got a few pressies which is always nice and a fair helping of beer and food. I need to shove about 3 stone as a result I think lol.

Poker wise things are looking up

• 10nl - lost (-$4.40)
• 3.25 24/45 santa didnt bring me any luck got all in with a 3k stack blinds 100/200 on a flop of 2 6 9, with AA villain had 9 10turn 10! (-$3.25)
• 1.10 MTT 2179/2456 QQ>KK standard early cooler (-$1.10)
• 3.40 8/10 sigh all 10 remain at 100/200 turns into a monster luckbox. (-$3.40)
• 10nl - won!! ($4.95)
• omaha 5pl - lost (-$1.30)
• omaha 2.20 mtt 414/479 totally pointless lol (-$2.20)
• 3.40 8/10 (-$3.40)
• 3.40 2/10 ($5.60)
• 5.50 mtt 2216/2905 (-$5.50)
• 2.20 sat to 100k 21/36. (-$2.20)
• 4.40 34/180 - Shoved A10 pretty short into AK. gg (-$4.40)
• 4.40 3/180 - Hallejuh, I'll prob stick this into the FTR tourney trimmer, was pretty mental. ($81.26)
• 3.25 20/45 ended up all in with A6 vs QK he ended with 4 outs and hit no surprise. ($-3.25)
• 3.40 4/10 shoved at bubble with QK into 99 and JJ; 9s hit quads. (-$3.40)
• 3.25 1/45 wee, pretty standard - won a few races, heads up my QK beat 22, the hand below was a lovely way to get a nice stack. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1862655 ($38.75)

So overall a nice tidy profit since the break, I'll comment more on the 180 man at a later date, it's nice that the deal with Shane has worked pretty quickly in terms of numbers of game, I really probably should have won it but there you go. Laters . .

Have a merry Xmas

Not much to say, haven't played since Friday, prob won't play again till Boxing Day at the earliest.

Here's my aims for early 2008.

1) Complete the goal of this blog. Making $1000 clear profit.
2) Continue the blog, it's a good way of reminding myself where I've come from, mistakes I'm making what not.
3) Concentrate on a single game, be it no-limit, limit, omaha. Ring, SNGs, MTTs and absolutely kill it. For instance concentrate on playing solely $3.40 10 mans until I'm absolutely killing them or playing the $4.40 180 mans until likewise. I will probably decide to only play these on stars and stick to that, save for the odd MTT.
4) Look at increasing bankroll on CDPoker and using all the bonuses, free tourney tickets available.

That's it mainly nothing too difficult, the sooner these are completed the better.
Have a merry xmas everyone and catch you all laters . .

Cash does my freaking nut in . .

So I played for a couple more hours yesterday.

• $4.40 65/180. Got into a pickle chip wise ended up shoving 99 insta called (I mean insta like no thought) by A4 gg wtf. (-$4.40)
• $3.25 2/45. Wee - pretty similar to yesterday's 10/45 but alas I didn't shove into a monster, well actually I did shove AJ into QQ with 8 left but fortunately the flop peeled 235, turn 4, river alas an ace. However I pretty much played the final table aggro, picking off spots, heads up the chipleader had a 3-1 lead and my KJ shove with 2000/4000 blinds was beaten by Q8. ($26.75)
• 25nl. Start $25 - End $7.25 - Loss (-$17.75) That alas doesn't tell the whole story. My biggest three pre-flop hands all were shat on guess that's the nature of cash, the first two are pretty straight forward folds, although hand 2 I'm just aiming to set-hunt, the third hits a dreamy flop and well perhaps I'm playing it too cute, I dunno . . . all a learning process.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1839876

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1839878

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1839882

So overall not a particularly handsome session profit wise, although if that QQ hand holds up I'm looking at a decent $40 profit for a couple of hours play.

So I lied . .

Well kind of anyways, have got in some poker this week via the local Internet Cafe. It does cost 50p an hour but at least I can get some hands in lol.

Anyways not a great deal to report I've been browsing the forums mainly trying to continue learning which is something I'll spend a fair whack of time doing when I'm away from home. Both www.pocketfives.com and www.flopturnriver.com have a fair amount of strategy articles and hand advice type articles to pick up tips. Although P5's seems to have degenerated into a popularity contest more than an actual helpful resource, anyways this section here of FTR is a goldmine http://poker-strategy.flopturnriver.com/ and if you haven't read it, I suggest you do so, it discusses several different areas of the game but you can go in and read certain articles on different strategy in the Poker Forum itself.

As for the poker . .

Wed 19/12

• 25nl - start $25 ended at $16.45. (-$8.55)
• 0.25/0.5 limit - start $20 ended at $15.15 (-$4.85)
• $12 180 man 13/180 ($11.74) - Bit of a crapshoot and never really acquired much of a stack in the end it was push/fold mode and my 8K was demolished by A9, still cashing made up for the cash game antics.

Thur 20/12

• $4.40 180 man 152/180 (-$4.40) - Decided to play more aggresively early on than normal and my A 10 raise hit a dreamy flop 4 way of A 10 6 only to get sucked out on a 7 8 despite my pot size raise, so outdrawn by a donk without the odds!
• $3.25 18/45 (-$3.25) - Made a bad shove early with AJ following a mini-raise which was AK wtf! Then played short-stack dynamo before getting screwed over by Q9 vs my AK.
• $6.50 9/9 (-$6.50) - Say no more.
• $3.25 10/45 (-3.25) - Again looked to play hyper aggro and must have won 5 of 6 pots prior to shoving JK into JJ near final table bubble.
• 25nl - start $25 ended at $29.85. ($4.85) Wee a cash profit

So overall not great . . but I'm not too disheartened as I set out to play super aggro - I'm pretty confident the last 45 man if I'd played tighter I'd have cashed but hell that sucks at times, I'll discuss my goals for 2008 in the next post, one of which is going to have to be sticking to a set game, more than likely the 180 $4.40's as I'm determined to crack them and in the process deliver that promise to Shanetrain. Adios amigos.

Time for a break

So xmas is upon us and sadly work again. No laptop again this week so it will be no poker probably until after the holidays - other things dictate things this time of year. Played one $3.25 yesterday whilst browsing through emails and finished a pretty lame 9th of 45. Better than recent performances but a lack of cards and an agressive table on the final table bubble left me pretty short. Anyways I'll post some goals for 2008 before the break but other than that it's pretty much it for the blog. So merry xmas one and all . . . (that's if anyone reads this tripe lol).

Satellite stupidity

Pretty quiet since last update little in terms of volume.

• $3.40 6/10 (-$3.40)
• 0.25/0.5 Limit (-$2.95)
• $1.10 Rebuy to $55k Satellite. Qualified and unregistered for net profit, added-on no rebuy, more below. ($52.90)
• $6.50 6/9 (-$6.50)

Okay so all in all a pretty decent showing, mainly thanks to the rebuy. Few interesting hands in acquiring a stack and played pretty safely no real risks, lost AK twice to short stacks but aside from that cruised into the qualifiying. What made me laugh were these two hands, quite possibly the most ridicolous play I've seen esp in a satellite, both of the stacks that crashed here were top five with 34 qualifying there's about 38 left lol. More next week . .

I'll post hands when www.pokerhand.org decides to work.

14/12

An update . . ring has been well and truly discarded.

• Free $10 bonus at VC Poker. ($10)
• Limit Ring - pretty terrible at CDPoker, lost $18.76. (-$18.76)
• No-Limit Ring - Stars - better ($7.01)

So yeah a positively terrible run at ring, I'm dabbling with more than one level, more than one game and it's proving to be bad news. Moving on . .

• $3.25 40/45. (-$3.25)
• $2.20 Satellite 22/36 (-$2.20)
• $3.40 8/10 (-$3.40)
• 697/1149 $5.50 -AQ loses to AJ typical. (-$5.50)
• 123/1832 $3.30 A profit at last ($4.40)
• 636/2431 $5.50 turbo. 2431. 636. Pointless . . no luck lost my two big hands AK vs A10 and AK vs A7. And you ain't going deep without luck in that donkfest.(-$5.50)
• $3.25 43/45 (-$3.25)
• $3.40 8/10 (-$3.40) - fedup with this fucking shit, KK loses to AK. KK loses to AQ.
• $3.25 36/45 (-$3.25) - running so well in these KK loses to AQ pretty much pre low levels. The 45 man turbo's need to be discarded for a while
• $3.25 2/6 - A profit absolutely freaking amazing. ($2.20)
• $2.20 4/30. CDPoker Wahey. ($4.90)

Not much to smile about there!! Almost pains me to write it all . .

• $3.40 1/10 ($11.60)
• $2.20 8/36 - Satellite to 100k grand, 6 qualify. 8 left I have AA called by a donkey who shows 39 and hits obv. (-$2.20)
• $3.40 8/10 Why is it I tend to always get sucked out on but never suck out. AQ loses to AK. (-$3.40)
• $3.40 3/10 Annoying end - but two good competitors which makes a change lol. Nice hand to get me an early stack ($2.60)
  wee . . http://www.pokerhand.org/?1804903
• $3.40 2/10 - ($5.60)
• $3.40 2/10 - ($5.60)
• 70fpp - Worth $11 entry into 100k grand. ($11)
• $3.40 1/10 -These two hands summed this up. The guy with AJ I beat heads up. The A7 call well I'm still amazed the kings held for once. ($11.60) http://www.pokerhand.org/?1808981 http://www.pokerhand.org/?1808985
• $2.20 22/108. Another satellite to the 100k grand. Quite appalling push by me when I could fold to qualify, JJ loses to QK and a failure. (-$2.20)

So to quickly sum up the last few days, ring has been very unprofitable . . ditto the 45 mans. The $3.40s though have been going well lately and 4 cashes in a row has me somehow hot on Sharkscope. Adios for now.

Oh dear . .

Okay first off . .

CDPoker aside from having continual login problems, the site is quite nice, the layout isn't too sucky, the players are actually better than I expected and the tourneys look decent, time wise and payouts.

I've played some 400 hands at 10nl - made a profit of $6.24 wee.
I did however blow $5.50 on the $6k guaranteed rebuy. I didn't rebuy and chipped up nicely however with 341 left my JJ lost to JQ all in pre!! So that was a loss of $5.50.

Therefore I'm up a grand score of 74 cents so far.

Now the bad news . . .

Pokerstars - 10nl - down $19.85 yesterday. Several tricky spots - overplayed AA on a board of 7 10 10 - villain slow played 10 10 lol. Another bad hand was AK all in pre losing to A 10's 4 to a flush. So not great.
Also dabbled with a bit of Omaha and lost another $6.40 and finally lost $3.25 on a joke 45 man. So overall a grand loss on Stars yesterday of $29.50!

More later

11/12

Quick update -

• $50 added from http://www.pokerroomschool.com/ must be the easiest way to make money ever. The $50 gets deposited onto CDPoker, there are further bonuses which can yield a maximum of $150. $50
• Played one $3.40 sng. Came 10/10 lol. -$3.40
• Ring - played 10nl on Stars. Have put down some 500 hands - not too many interesting hands and am currently down $4.70. I'll post some hands below. Main thoughts on the session had QQ vs KK which in hindsight I could lay down this was the main loser, however I was pretty content and stuck to a plan to not tilt, not play crap cards, not play out of position with dodgy cards to put me in awkward spots. Anyways I was pretty happy overall. -$4.70

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1796280 - I'm thinking perhaps this was a bad call. But QQ at low limits is not easy to discard, meh.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1796295 - Standard, although in this situations I'm still not convinced whether it's safer to not lead at the pot so much.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1796302 - Pretty standard again, read villain as weak which he was.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1796304 - This one I'm not convinced my push was the correct play, villain could easily have had a set here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1796315 - Nice hand from the rockets.

So overall not to unhappy. More later . . . I'll also update from CDPoker.

This week's plan.

Okay here's the plan this week.

• Play only 3 nights - due to other family issues.
• Sign up for all of these http://www.flopturnriver.com/Online...Room-Links.html
• Stick to 10nl Full Ring at the above sites to a) clear bonuses and b) make profit
• Keep roll mainly on Stars, play the odd SNG slow blinds, perhaps 180 man, perhaps the odd MTT
• Make $100 in clear profit for the TV.

I've got the works xmas drink in the morning so Monday's a write-off :o)

The TV Challenge has begun!

I will obviously be updating the main to $1k challenge aswell but setting smaller goals like this should hopefully motivate me more, the fact I'll predominantly be playing ring is perhaps a recipe for disaster but that's all part of the fun.

I think we need some rules!

Oakey Dokey - I know I wasn't going to post before I'm back home but well I am. Due to other life issues I'm going to be cutting down the amount of time I'm playing and will probably come to an agreement to only play 3/4 days a week when I'm off, instead of the current 7. If I take the laptop away then obviously I may play more . . but although I really want to put in more volume, I've got a family and that is far more important.

Therefore I need to set some pretty obvious goals and targets for my playing time - MTTs are obviously my favourite little forte but the length of time for these with regard winning them makes them pretty much a no-go sadly. It may be that I'll play the odd one here and then but MTTs are being banished for the forseeable future. So that leaves ring and sngs - my ring is quite honestly dreadful and although it's something I do want to look at improving.

Now although I pretty much have exclusively been playing on Stars, ring on their is substantially tougher than on say Pacific Poker or Party. So what I'm going to look at doing is open up an account with a smaller room and go and play some 10nl full ring. Now this may be a complete disaster but with a distinctly shortened amount of time at the tables, I think it's worth trying out, playing ring at Stars frankly isn't worth my salt - because I can't beat it yet!!

I'm going to therefore divide my online bankroll up leaving some on Stars to play the odd SNG, 180 man when I feel like a change, but the rest of it I'm going to deposit on a new site now it's just a case of finding one, with ideally a decent bonus to net aswell.

The last thing I want to do is win $100 this coming week alone, if I manage that then I'm going to purchase a new TV in time for xmas and if poker pays for it then, that's something worth shouting about. (note - the TV is on offer in a local supermarket).

I will update when I've chosen a room more than likely Pacific and set some ground rules for full ring, adios.

7/12

Not much going down, still away at work, so no poker played. Have been reading SS1 to try and keep my eye in and I've also been looking at some forum posts on Pot Limit Omaha so it's possible I'll be delving into that on my return as well as some small stakes Heads Up SNG's.

I do however need set a pretty standard plan and stick to playing certain games, as a rough outline at the minute I'm playing a mix of everything aside from cash but I need to concentrate on a couple of games solely and crack them.

Next update will be next week sometime when hopefully the cash target will be on its steady climb upwards.

Good luck all!

4/12

Okay quick update.

Didn't play much Sunday due to other things going down. Played a bit Sunday evening . . .

• $3.25. 34/45. Wank. Thanks to 99 losing to that monster A4. (-$3.25)
• $6.50. 2/2. Hmm it was quick my Ace flush got stuffed by a full house here . . http://www.pokerhand.org/?1762042 (-$6.50)
• $3.40. 6/10. 33 lost to A9. It's a sign my shoves keep getting fucked by crap aces. (-$3.40)
• $3.25. 9/45. What can you do . . (-$3.25)
• Cash NL 0.10/0.25. Start $15. End $16.75 - Profit $1.75 - yeah ring sucks at least I didn't lose, but signs of beer and poker causing cash tempation is very bad. ($1.75)
• $6.50. 1/18. Standard = very weird game, played top of my game from 5/6 out. ($36.70)
• $3.25. 16/45. Standard rubbish haha. (-$3.25)

I'm working all this week and going to take a complete break from the cards, which will probably do me good.

Ciao for now.

So near but so far . .

• $3.40 3/10. Nothing sort of game yet a cash such a change from a day ago. ($2.60)
• $5.50 285/1393. Standard never really obtained a stack lost a race. (-$5.50)
• $1.10 735/2277. Uninteresting. (-$1.10)
• $3.40 2/10. Felt right back to my best in these, dominated totally from 6 out, heads up lost a marginal flip. ($5.60)
• $2.20. 1572/1678. Some smart alec dickbrained twat - decided to call my 6X raise with 54, my set of Aces was crippled on the flop of A23. What a cock. (-$2.20)
• $3.40. 8/10. Fun hand to die with . . poker for ya. (-$3.40)
• $5.50. 17/2643. A tale of the AJ. I'll explain tomorrow - either way some fucker doesn't want me winning big yet. ($93.50)
  

Some thoughts on the $5.50 turbo. This tourney plays very much like a crapshoot it's good practice for push/fold and you very rarely ever get above an M of 3/4 after after the blinds reach 100/200. Some key hands here . .

I call pretty much here because in this spot villain could be pushing Ax - low pairs and I've got to call 5.7k to win 20k so it's pretty standard http://www.pokerhand.org/?1770980

Again this is pretty standard http://www.pokerhand.org/?1770984

This looking back at the HH is a pretty piss poor fold from me, raisers range is quite easily any two high cards, if I lose in this spot I have 30k, if I win I'm up to 64k http://www.pokerhand.org/?1770989

Moving on, a few standard shoves/races won until these two hands with us down to last few tables, both are unlucky and I guess on another day I win them both and rake home upwards of $500.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1771003 and the final hand . . . http://www.pokerhand.org/?1771006

If anyone wants to comment on any of them go ahead.

I've run the whole tourney through FlopTurnRiver's excellent tourney trimmer, another great feature of this site http://www.flopturnriver.com/Online-Poker-Tournament-2317.html

Smile guys . . .

• $3.40 5/10. Suck out city my KQ loses to 10Q. (-$3.40)
• $3.40 2/10. A relief. I can still cash. Super Tilt is over!! ($5.60)
• $1.65 293/655. Silly tourney. (-$1.65)
• $5.50 1/18. Wahey at last . . the run ends. First time I've played one of the slow blind 18 mans and nailed it. Heads up pretty dominat and I feel perhaps I should stick to these babies. ($30.50)
• $5.50 1/18 Easy game eh ($30.50)
  
  I'll update tomoz bankroll, sharkscope etc ... some hands etc.