So, So, Slow!

That's how it feels at the moment. My bankroll is just static, my VPP's are just like accruing at a snails pace, and I just don't feel like playing a shit load of poker presently. Of course it has to do with the way I'm running. This is this mornings graph:




The day started out nicely, up just over 2 buy in's, then it was pretty horrible after that. This hand started the slide off.


I'm looking to isolate villain here as he's horrible. He limps/min raises, so I'm getting great odds to call pf here plus were deep. Well you can guess the rest.




Then I get Aces losing to a set of Queens on the turn, Kings losing to a flush yada yada yada!

Despite this variance, I'm actually enjoying my return to 6max (I doubt I'd be saying that if I have a 20+ d/swong like I did in Feb, but meh). I feel I'm playing really well, as you can see from the graph above, I'm actually doing well in NSD pots. I seem to have improved in this area whilst playing 6max. I'm floating more, I'm bluff catching more, and generally I feel I'm quite aggressive. It can get a little hairy at times, b/c your going to showdown a lot lighter than compared to FR, but you just have to trust your judgement.

I'll play a session later today and keep ya posted.

Busy Time at Work!

Well following a post I made earlier this month, about work being a bit boring lately. I think I'll keep my mouth firmly shut in future! Since then we've had 2 murders and a double fatal RTC.

Last Thursday night I was watching the TV with about 20 mins of my late shift left. There was a huge bang outside, so we all ran out to find 2 cars had been involved in a collision. One had overturned and was lying on the roof. It wasn't pretty and basically 2 of the occupants of the overturned vehicle died at scene and another was critical in hospital

Well I went into work this Monday to find out I would be attending the post mortems of the 2 deceased. Finished work on Monday night at 11pm after 6 hours at the mortuary, with my legs absolutely aching. Came into work yesterday to find out, yes you guessed it, another post mortem, this time of a man who had died somedays later after an assault. Got back to the office at 10pm last night after another 4 hours at the mortuary.

I'm so, so glad I'm off for the next 2 days!

GL all.

Weekend Bliss!

Been watching a shit load of golf this weekend. Just finished watching the last day of the Open Golf Championship. Unbelievably difficult week for the pro's in that wind. But a great champion imo! Padraig Harrington was rock solid in the last round and hit some amazing shots on the back 9.

Interestingly, when I went to the practice day on wed, one of the 1st guys we come across was on the par 5, 15th. He was practising on his own, but he was a huge, blond haired guy I hadn't seen before. I thought he was Scandinavian or something but noticed his name was Wood. Anyway he hit the ball beautifully into the wind. Little did I know what an impact he would have on the Open. He was an English amateur named Chris Wood, who had an amazing week, finishing a few shots off the lead and winning the Silver Medal.

Favourite Pastime

Seriously, I'm a huge couch potato. I'll watch any sport going. As a kid, if I wasn't out with my mates playing football, cricket, basketball, swimming, golf, whatever, then I was sat on the couch watching it. I played many sport's at school for the school teams, some at City level, but never progressing it further than that. I always thought I could have excelled in something, but it wasn't to be.

Anyways, this weekend has been great for me. We've had the golf, the Tour de France, MotoGP, Formula 1 etc etc. So I haven't played a lot of poker.

Just about to watch MotoGP, there at Laguna Seca in the states, which is one of my favourite tracks of the year. If you guys have played with me at Pokerstars, then you will have seen my avatar. That's me on my Ducati 748, hence the screen name. That was my pride and joy, but unfortunately I had to sell it due to financial reasons, hopefully next year I'll be able to buy another motorbike.

I also love watching American sports. I played basketball as a kid, and reached a decent standard by UK standards. But the game I like best when it gets to the Fall, is baseball. I love watching the final stages of the season.

So not much to talk about in poker terms. Sorry I didn't do the multi tabling video, I will do it some time this week, GL all.

British Open Golf 2008

Royal Birkdale

I'm gonna start today's post off in a positive way. Took my son to watch the last days practice round at Royal Birkdale today, the venue of this years Open Golf Championship. Royal Birkdale is situated a few miles from were I live on the North West coast line between Liverpool and Southport. It's a beautiful traditional links course with some really interesting holes, and I have to say its in wonderful condition. I swear the fairways are good enough to putt on.



Got to the course at about 9.30am and immediately watched Scott Verplank and Steve Stricker tee off the 1st hole. We decided then to walk the course backwards and try to catch the big named players as they were heading towards us. The 1st big named guys we met were Angel Cabrera and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Angel Cabrera was an amazingly humble guy, spending an enormous amount of time signing autographs between shots (probably to the annoyance of his playing partners), but this really impressed me.

Jimenez enjoying a fine cigar

We continued round the course when we came across Greg Norman getting some bunker practice in. The wind was blowing real hard today and if this continues over the weekend them I'm sure the bunker practice will pay off.

Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood playing alongside Big Earnie Els.

David Duval having a relaxed round with Big, Big John Daly.

As I mentioned the wind was blowing real hard today. The way these guys hit the ball into the wind really does need to be witnessed. They strike the ball so solid, it amazes me everytime I go to see them.

Had a really good time today, but I'm absolutely knackered with all the walking.

Poker Update

Tilt? Well I'm not sure if I am, but probably tbh. Last weekend was one to forget, for some f'kin reason I really wanted to play in the Sunday Million, so I decided to have numerous attempts to qualify for the thing. Well I probably could have bought in direct for 2 SM's for the amount of Fpp's and cash I spent in trying to qualify, WTF! I really don't want to dwell on that now as it's seriously pissing me off. Needless to say I was card dead and out shortly after the 1st break.

Congrats to CC member Zach who went quite deep for a nice little cash of $2.2k, well done dude.

As you guys know I'm running sort of bad. It's been like since I moved up to 100nl FR things just haven't gone well. I mean last month wasn't a disaster, I was still up for the month. But you can just sense when things are not going well, even though I'm not on a mega d/swong or anything. Mainly I win a buy in, then I lose 2, that type of thing.

So to break the monotony and to take advantage of the added Fpp's promo this week, I decided to revisit SnG's. Holy f'kin shit, WTF!!!!!! I must of played like about 20 in 2 days comprising of $38 6max and $55 games, winning 2, cashing in 3 and bubbling in about 10 (5 of which were 2 outers FFS). Seriously I run shitter than a shit thing in SnG's, now I remember why I left them.

So all in all, I'm not playing much atm, just slowly raking in the Vpp's to Supernova. Which leads me onto another Congrats, to CC member ChrisTC, who has just attained SN. Hope to join you soon m8.

One last thing before I sign off, Ninelions on CC mentioned he would like to see a video of someone crazy multi tabling. Well, I'm that bored I thought I'd have a go. I'm hoping to do it by the weekend and whilst it will more a fun type video, I will be showing you some of the AHK scripts I use and the different type of setup etc so hopefully it will be a little informative as well.

GL all, and for once GL me!

Be Careful What You Wish For!

Well, I don't know what to say. I'm actually a little numb tbh. I never actually considered for one minute that as I was writing my blog yesterday this happened:

BBC Local News

I walked into work this morning, and was told of the events that had unfolded last night. Yes, we cover this area and yes we had to process the scene. I was actually tasked with attending the post mortem and assisting the pathologist in the recording of the PM and collection of exhibits.

Seriously, I wish I could take back what I said yesterday :(

Unfortunately I can't, and I feel like shit!

Bored!

No not with poker. Pretty bored with work lately, tbh. The last few years has seen a major drought of decent (big) jobs in the area I work. So what constitutes a big job? Well, suspicious deaths, murders, serious assaults, major drugs operations etc etc. When I first started as a CSI, we literally had a murder once or twice a month. The unit worked great as a team, working long hours and many consecutive days to get the job done. Everyone contributed and it was all hands to the pump. It's been so long since our last big job, that I actually fear, we may have lost our edge so to speak. There seems to be so much bitching in the unit lately because management continuously ram individual performance figures down our throats at every opportunity. It has created a culture of 'cherry picking' and division in the office. Now I know our professionalism will see us through if a big job does come in soon, but I can't help thinking that management have contributed to the apathy within the office, turning a good team spirit into a unit that doesn't really care about each other any more.

I know it sounds really callous talking about looking forward to the next big job, so I apologise for that.

Poker Update

Played 5.2k hands since the last update, which is pretty lazy, but I have been working for the majority of it. Even so it's still way below the volume I usually play. However, I'm playing 6max now so there's no way could play the amount of tables as I did with FR. 8 tables seems optimal at 6max, at a push I think I could handle 12. Buth there's no need for that yet tbh.

So 5.5k hands for a profit of +$544. Still down for the month, but only just. Earned around 15k in Vpp's, only 14k to go before SN. Stars have just added another cash bonus to the VIP store, were you can trade in 250k worth of Fpp's for $4k, which is cool, as this works out at almost equivalent to their Concierge conversion rate. Now I have just on 180k Fpps at the moment, so I reckon by the end of Aug I should have the required amount for the new cash bonus.

6max is still providing plenty of fish. Yesterday I went on a nice heater early on in my session getting 5.5 buy ins up, then I went on a bit of a d/swing stated off by this hand.

Against this aggro villain, I certainly have enough equity to call this pf.




This hand seems to be a standard theme at 6max. I'm not sure I like stacking off so lightly if I were villain, as he is quite TAG for 6max at 16/14. I think maybe my flat call on the flop probably confuses him. I actually thought he had an overpair here, so if its a blank turn, I'm committing my stack.




This next hand is just so weird the way villain played it on the turn, he even delays slightly calling the river. But it's so gross ;).




I think I will be playing in some tournies at the weekend, make the most of the 2x guaranteed promo thats on atm. So GL all.

Stars Promo Week 1

Well that certainly wasn't the week I was hoping for. I was looking forward to this week so much, but it ended being a huge anti-climax. Apparently I wasn't the only one as there were lots of other guys who had 'their worst d/swing since playing poker' during this week.

Summary

Played 20.2k hands, for a loss of -$773. Earned 12.7k Vpps' for the week which equates to around 31k fpps.

Got nowhere near the amount of hands I had set myself, was hoping to get nearer 40k hands for the week, but meh! Started playing 100nl fr but I had a 13 buy in d/swing in the 1st 3 days. Went over to 6max, played around 5k hands and recovered just over 5 buy in's.

Unfortunately, I can't give a more detailed analysis of the stats/figs, because I have come across my first little glitch with HEM. When looking at your winnings on the reports page, it appears, that if your FR table, gets reduce to 6-7 players or something, then it classes it as a 6max table and all the hands you play at that table become 6max stats. Also if your FR or 6m tables gets as far down as 2 i.e you could have several players sitting out or w/e, then it appears to class it as HU. This is a little annoying, but hey it makes up in so many other ways.

6max

Gonna play 6m for the remainder of this month. As you guys may know, I'm originally a 6m player, but transferred to FR after a huge break even stretch. Now this seems to have gone the other way I'm back to 6m. In all honesty, I love 6m, your more involved, there's more fish and your going to showdown a lot lighter than at FR, which I suppose suits my style. Yes variance can be a bitch at 6m, but I just hope I can be a profitable proposition at 100nl and above.

Selected Hands

Unlike FR, pushing AK pre flop is uber standard!



6max is not really about set mining, so when you do hit your set, most regs will happily ship their stacks with overpairs.




This guy falls in love with his TP and beautiful kicker!

CC 1k Post

To celebrate my 1k post I had been thinking for some time to write a meaningful article on Bankroll Management. It's very important to me, the fact I have gained so much from CC (and 2+2 for that matter) over the years. There are some wonderful, knowledgeably guys there who contribute so much, that I wish I could have just a small %age of there skill and know how. Anyways, I thought that giving just a little back to some new guys just starting out in poker so here it is if you haven't already seen it Bankroll Management.

Haven't had a music vid for a while so here's one I haven't heard for a few years, but I just can't stop playing it atm, hope you like it.

Obsession

I was speaking to Vanq yesterday on AIM, and he actually made me STOP and THINK!

What are my goals? Why do I play so many tables, even though I'm playing shite and running even worse.

Yes Supernova has become an obsession and the double VPP promo isn't helping me atm. Well LDO I'm getting lots of VPP's, and SN is almost within reach now. But it's now at the detriment of my game, and more importantly my roll. As you guys know, last month wasn't great but I still made a profit. This month is just like a nightmare.

I'm actually at the point now were if I get AA, KK, QQ, I know my stack is gone. You see, when I get to the flop in a 3bet pot and the money goes in on the flop or whatever, I know I'm coolered or they have hit the top of there range big! OK, shouldn't I be folding?, Well seriously I have been making some solid folds as well, which I don't think I would have made under normal circs.

So as Vanq says, 'cut down on tables', and I hate to admit defeat here but I'm gonna have to take this solid advice. I definitely intend on taking some time off and studying once I get SN, I just hope my roll hasn't been decimated in the process!

Poker Update

Well it ain't pretty, played 3 days, 15,900 hands for a loss of -$1300.1st day I was actually in profit, but the next 2 days were pretty gross. I was hoping to get in around 10k hands in yesterday, but there was no way I could continue just shipping off stacks the way I was. Onlymanaged to get in 6.7k hands in the end for a loss of -$590!

Positives?

Well only the fact I made 9,722 VPP's this month, and I only need like 19k to SN. For the remaining days of this promo though I'm gonna cut down on the volume of tables by at least half. Hopefully get a little more focussed on making quality decisions.

GL all!

Monthly Summary - June

Stats

Played 61,700 hands around 13k of which was 6max, the rest at FR.

Run pretty dire at FR, thank god for my 6max heater, 5PTBB/100 and dragged my ass out of the mire.

Ended the month up $744 up. Earned 21,700 Vpp's which equates to 54k Fpp's and approx $800 when converted.

Summary

I started the month playing 6max and went on a mad heater winning over 10 buy in's in 2 days. This was followed by an equally brutal d/swing, and me thinking I'll return to 6max another time!

FR was pretty brutal for me in June. I never got going, constantly winning some buy in's then losing them, as you can see from my graph. I account the main losses to just being coolered on a regular basis. Yes there were times I should have layed down my king's on the flop or turn, but I was constantly getting coolered with kings. 4 times I was up against aces, and numerous times I walked into villains who hit set's on the flop. Well sometimes that just happens.

Towards the final week of the month, I was pretty much drained with FR and thought I needed to focus on something else. So I decided to play some more 100nl 6max and run really goot for the remainder of the month.

Bring on July!

OMG Double VPP's!

I've been waiting for this for a couple of months now as I had heard a rumour on 2+2 that it 'May' be in happening in May! Anyways Pokerstars is having a double Vpp week which is absolutley amazing as I will be able to really push for Supernova this month. But I just wish they would give a little bit of notice as I was really hoping to take time off work and grind the week out. Just so happens that of the 6 days the promotion is on I'm in work for 4 of the ...Doh!

Played last night, 1st day of the promo, and played 24 tables for the 1st time over a prolonged period. Managed to get in 2.8k hands and earned 1,400 Vpps as a result. It seems that there were a lot of regs pointing out that there respective Vpp/hand had dropped considerably since the promo. I know mine dipped from like 0.33 to like 0.25Vpp/hand.

I'm off for the next 2 days now so I will really be pushing now, playing an insane amount of volume, by my standards anyway. I hope to play around 30-40k hands between now and Sunday, so fingers crossed all goes well.

Updates are gonna be short and sweet for now until this promo is over, so GL all and enjoy the extra Vpp's!