Just added my photo album! Forgot I had a Picassa account so if you're wondering what the picture in the links section is, it's the photos I've taken

Hungover. Not so good.

Went to Reading to watch the Premier League Darts with a few mates last night. To many beers for a work night for me and rolling in at 3am really didn't help. I couldn't get up until 9am, I was awake (I always wake up really early after a night on the beers) at 8am and couldn't get back to sleep, but felt so so ill.

Rolled in to work at 9:30 and forgot that someone was popping into see some plaques. Anyway, they came in at 9:45 which was nice. I can't have looked or smelt too bad as they ordered a few. Then I had a few more people in and all the time I'm just wanting to sit down and close my eyes!

No more due in now for a while so I'm in the clear for a bit, but I'm feeling a bit better now anyway, amazing what a couple of cups of tea and some toast can do for you.

Early night tonight, no 'updating Poker Tracker' later on, early night, must be an early night. I'm off to West Ham tomorrow for a thriller against Middlesborough. We usually go once or twice a season to West Ham. Someone Rich knows is a ticket holder and we get together for a day out, always a great day and it's good to see everyone that goes, but I need to be on top form.

Gutted to report the end of my bankroll challenge is over. After a wicked run of consistantly running into better hands, I'm down to just $4 in my Stars account so that's about it. I'll probably go on a small cash spree with it to tilt it off but bar miracles, that's the end of my challenge.

Bit of a shame, but not really a biggie as I never had the roll to do it properly anyway, getting from $7 to $130 was an achievement for me but I think I lost focus after doing that and became too confident and lost it all.

Back to basics, I need to have a look at the hands I'm losing the stt's with. Something isn't right. I can't be that unlucky........can I?

Need a day or two off I think. Not sure if I can manage that or not though. I fired up Stars to get some HH's and Tournament histories to import into PT and before I realised, I'd fired up a sng and registered for an mtt on Blonde!

Back to mtt's and limit cash for me I think, just on other sites. Going to do the Full Tilt bonus and get some nice rakeback for that too.

Was going to play the $5k on iPoker today but for some strange reason the tourney never started so that was that. The only other tourney that was going to start with a reasonable time was the £8k on Crypto so I signed up for it. All was going well until I got 88 on a 9 high board. Agressive caller/raiser was in the hand so I checked and called his all in and he rivered an ace to knock me out. At least I went in with the best hand. My mistake was checking and not pushing, he'd have probably called anyway with his AQs but at least I'd have gone in first.

My drought on the $6 18 mans has come to an end with a 2nd. I'm a mug though for checking down a 5k pot when 3rd was all in. Checked down with KQ after hitting a king on the flop. He's bet 800 on the river and I've called and he's hit a 6 on the river to match the 2 he hit on the flop. Gutted, I can't believe that I still let people check down, I never get similar respect, someone always bets out on the river and I regret it. The pot was pretty key as he then had a 4/1 chip lead on me and when I pushed with K9s, his T4s hit the 4 on the river but I didn't have enough chips to take the hit. Played ok, the real thing that let me down was checking down to get the 3rd place out.

Lesson learned and I'm never doing it again if I have a decent hand on the flop. If you're on a table with me, let me know you're happy to check it down cos I ain't doing it otherwise :)

Will update stats another time.

Well to say I'm on a bad run at the moment is just a bit of an understatement. Perhaps I've been playing to tight or to lose, but something hasn't gone well at all today. I've been on lousy cards all day, when I get a hand, everyone folds, when I push, someone has better or hits with worse. It's just been one long losing streak today. I guess it all averages out soon I'm due a fantastic streak. I just hope my first day on the challenge wasn't the good day and this is the balance out.

Anyway

Overall stats in brackets, todays outside them

Out of 21 games played

Profit -$43.50 ($57.90) ROI 42.4%

1st's - 0 (2)
2nd's - 0 (1)
3rd's - 2 (3)
4th's - 1 (1)
Bubble - 2 (2)
Worse - 11 (12)

Not going to let the bad run worry me too much. I know I'll overcome it soon enough.

Back on the 18 man $6.50 turbo sng's on Stars. I don't mind these sng's as the payout is pretty good.

This is why I love playing at this level sometimes. I just can't work out what he's calling with. Raising is one thing but calling an all in with nothing is just crazy, he's only beating a bad bluff at best.

Another key hand was this one (different game). Obviously I don't usually call with Q7o but it's only costing me 1100 chips to get involved with a 4k pot and also knock someone out. At the end of the day, most hands are only ever 60/40 so I'm getting pot odds to call here, plus the value of knocking someone out makes it a definate call with any two cards.

Anyway I'm not here to gloat about others bad play, I'm here to post results

Played 5 so far. Total profit $107.90 ROI 332% :D

1st's - 2
2nd's - 1
3rd's - 1
4th's - 0
Bubble - 0
Worse - 1

Clearly a 332% ROI is pretty good and if I can keep that anywhere near that I'd be pleased ;) I really don't feel this game is any harder than the single table games though and recommend anyone wanting to build a roll give them a go. The payout is so much better and you just have to avoid early situations. Even the game I didn't cash in I was a bit unlucky, went in with AK and was called by A5 and he hit 4 diamonds to give him the flush. OK, he did hit the 5 too, but that's beside the point ;)

Happy so far, $7 to $130 in a day. Have to take a day off tomorrow but I'll be back Sunday night. Weekends are going to be the best time for these due to numbers on Stars and people like a drink which has to help. During the week, I expect the games to be a bit tougher, but not overly hard.

More entries for me into the Mansion $100k this week. I guess that either there's not much competition for the spaces or I actually play above average stakes these days without realising it. Can't see that really though so I'm going with the lack of numbers in the scheme. Sadly they've changed the times of the tourneys again so that they are now at 11am on Wednesday and Friday and 8pm on Thursday and Saturday. Why they have to stick us in ones when we should be at work I'll never know. They also included a bit of text in the confirmation email that any unregistering and taking the money would result in the money being withdrawn and a ban from further entries - so that's out the window too.

Managed to sneak the 11am one in yesterday as it was quite quiet and despite a few early interruptions from customers, I was left pretty much alone when it mattered and got 30th spot for a nice $450. I'm considering changing my live game date for now from Thursdays to Fridays so I don't miss out on one of the two the evening $100k's. Haven't played there much this week so it may not be a problem for much longer, although I will try for it again. My Mansion account is looking great, I've made a bloody good profit there (for me) So thank you Mansion for the opportunity, it's really appreciated :o)

Rub downs

I've been taking stupid losses badly at cash tables. I had a bit of a go at someones play tonight. I'm on the button with pocket 8's and raise to $2 ($1/$2 LHE), blinds fold and the caller in position 1 raises to $3 so I call. Flop comes Queen high but has an 8 on it and two clubs. I bet, he raises. Turn brings a club but I bet for the question and he calls. River brings another club so I best check, he bets. I have to call now and he shows Ad Tc!! I was amazed that he was so agressive with such a bad hand! Anyway, needless to say I asked why he was so agressive with it and called him a fish, he took a while to come up with the witty reply, "why are you such an ass hole - is that a better question?". Clearly I said no, not really and called him a donkey.

It's not that I mind losing hands, but just damn lucky play like this is annoying. It's more annoying when they get lucky then piss off! Damn that does annoy me. Luckily I made a note on him so I'll get him one day :o)

Anyway, it's not ment as a doom and gloom post, I'm ok for the night, just an observation at me giving some chatter to people that get lucky!

The $4 turbo rebuys on Stars are crazy. From the off, people are pushing with nothing, which during the rebuy I can understand - I did it myself tonight, but they do it during the freezeout and more importently, at the end stage. I'm watching guys on 35-40k, easily in guys, going all in against each other with JT, 8T, doesn't matter, they just can't lay it down - amazing to watch really.

Anyway, I've just won a seat in the $109 Monte Carlo sat. I would actually like to play this but sadly it doesn't start till 3am which is a bit late for me tonight.

Quite a nice night.

Decided to play the $25 rebuy on Stars satellite to the WSOP $650 ME satellite and won a seat. Took a really nice pot early on for 21k when the average was only about 7k but it was a turbo and the blinds soon become to sick to play with. Managed to hang in and did eventually win a seat (which I cashed in) but it came right to the end. Ended when the blinds were on 15k/30k and antes of 2k, I had 1900 left but was ok from the blinds and thankfully managed to avoid the next hand. I was in position 55 and they were paying 54 (53 seats and $450 for 54) for what seemed a long time but I managed to get away with it and am $650 better off for it!

I may have a bash at the $160 DS to qualify - bit nervy about spending that much on a game but I have the money from the win and I would love to go to the WSOP. Trouble is I don't expect they are easy! That said, the satellites to them are $5 rebuys so the quality may not be that great, but then it could be superb! Who knows. I'll have to try - perhaps I'll give one a go and see how I get on!

Still managing to lose money on cash games though :( Thank God I'm getting rakeback from these on Blonde, I may just break even with the rakeback but I really need to look at the hands I'm losing with.

Good night though, pleased with the Stars result, I think I have some good mtt's in me, I just wish I could do the cash as well.

Arseholes

There are some right arseholes at the tables sometimes. OK, I'm saying this because I've just lost two big hands in a row - obviously there's a reason.

First one, I'm with KK on button. Position 3 raises to $3 (0.50/$1 NLHE) I reraise to $7. He calls. Flop comes 8 9 J. He checks so I fire $14 in to the pot and he reraises me to $34. Trying to think what he's got and I can't put him on TQ as he called the preflop raise, trips he'd have bet out because of the straight and Aces I'd have been reraise preflop, so I figure my Kings are good here so I reraise all in for $62ish and he calls. The turn sadly brings the ace that nails my coffin down. Now, I've taken to having a go at people recently who I think have played bad but I expected to see AJ or something and at least he had top pair but no, he had AQ. His defence - two overcards and a straight draw!! Wanker, gutshot straight and 1 overcard to me so he had 7 outs at best, clearly not a calling hand yet alone a reraise then calling all in!

Anyway, then wanker number two. Dealt pocket aces on a $2/$4 LHE table and obviously raise, one caller, flop A 3 5, I'm thinking I'm good as no 24 would call the raise surely! No no no, he did call the raise, but not only that, he took the cash then pissed off! Wanker number two only stayed for one hand on the table!

Quite honestly, the cash games on Mansion suck. I've scrapped by ok and thankfully the entry to the $100k for four nights makes up for a lot, but the player numbers on the site are so bad. I'm amazed I got a $2/$4 game, it's the first time there's been numbers there and even then they were only there for an hour or so. The 0.25/0/50 and 0.5/1.00 NLHE have a few players but that's it. The standard is generally pretty poor. I know I'm not really one to talk but there's always mugs that call and whilst that's ideal and what you want in the long term, to be honest, it's not what I want, they get lucky and I'd rather not deal with that amount of variation - it's going to be a long slog for me to get my losses back from tonight.

If I don't qualify for the $100k's this week, that's it for Mansion, I'd rather play on the sites I'm going to get at least rakeback from. In fact, I may just win the $100k this week and cash another couple of times and call it a day anyway :)

After nothing in the last couple of weeks in the Mansion $100k, I finally made the money and came 32nd for $450! Very happy with that but it's always a shame to go out. Ended up making a move with KJo as it folded round to me, but the BB had AQ and the ace on the flop really didn't help me. Nevertheless, I'm quite pleased with that. It makes up for the suckout someone hit against me in the $20 HI/LO Omaha tournament earlier!

Very happy.

Despite my resolution to stop playing cash on Stars, I've been playing there. I'm going to have to stop now though, I just can't win there. Today I lost all my sit down mainly on two hands, one with KQs hitting two pairs to mateycallerboy who called with 73o preflop and hit trips with the 7 and also with my pocket 7's making a full house on the flop, someone ships it in with trips and I'm laughing until the river brings him a better full house! I just can't get hands to stand up on Stars at the moment and it's cost me about $200 in the last couple of days. I did manage to build my account from the $96 to $300 but then playing cash and I'm back down again. Shame really, I also made 5th spot money in an omaha tourney the other day so that makes the loss look even worse.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not overly fussed. On Mansion and Blonde poker, I'm going well. My initial investment on Mansion has quadrupled, and I'm small amounts up on Blonde so I can cover the losses ok, but that's really it on Stars cash games now, I'll stick to the profitable sites.

Last nights live game went okish from the view that I didn't really make any mistakes. I was always lowish after the first break. Last hand before the break, I only had 1500 chips and the blinds were 400/800 and obviously going to go up. Didn't want to hang around only to be out straight away so I lumped them in with Q8s, hit and managed to treble up. First hand after the break I was dealt KK - lovely, raised to 3600, matey in SB puts me all in and flips pocket 7's but sadly a 7 came on the flop and that was it. Shame really as winning that would probably have seen me through to the FT, but alas it wasn't to be. Good night though, I enjoy going there. If it were closer, I'd go more often probably.

Mansion $100k again tonight. Hoping for a better performance again. I'm determined to make the money once at least.

Not sure where I'm going again with my poker. Last night I just missed qualifying for the WSOP $650 ME sat by about 3 spaces. Was pretty gutted to be honest but I only had 19k left and the blinds were 6k/12k and only4 goes from me being the BB so when I saw KQ, I shipped it in and was called and beaten by pocket 7's. In hindsight, I should have just waited and hoped that people folded when it was my bb but if they went up before they got to me, it was all over anyway. Getting to the $650 final is a my goal. Last night I'd have played it. They usually give loads of seats to the ME and I think it's a great opportunity. I'd like to say it's easy to qualify for that but it's not. In an ideal world, I'd qualify two or three times and cash in before having a bash, but I'm yet to make it.

Played a few more stt's but I'm getting bored with them. It's a slow slog building up a bankroll with these and the fold fold fold stratagy in early stages is doing my head in. Decided, at 11pm, to play in the $11 one rebuy/one add-on mtt on Stars and ended up coming 16th for $222. One event that's pissed all over my stt attempts to build a BR.

I think I'll stick with mtt's for now, I appreciate there's a lot less cashes in these but I sure as hell prefer playing them and when you do cash, it's well worth while. I was only 15 people from $5.5k last night! I may give a few stt's a go from time to time, but I think the main thing is that I avoid cash games and general giving my money away on Stars for now.

Oh, I made the Mansion promo again this week! 3rd week in a row and I'm determined to cash in it this week. Made my best finish of 180something last week after changing a few things but was pretty card dead all night. Hopefully this week, I'll get some hands and make it into the money.

I've finally taken some photos that I feel fairly comfortable sharing with others. Constructive criticism welcome, but please be kind, I'm still learning afterall.


Taken from the gate in the garden looking out on to the street at sunset

Took a trip to Bognor yesterday and grabbed this picture of the pier

Again from our trip to Bognor yesterday, a couple of fishing boats that were on the beach

Heather spotted a butterfly in the garden today and I managed to grab this before she frightened it off completely!

The only real money games from my actual cash on Stars I've been playing recently is the $5 stt's. So far it's not going so bad, although I realise why I got so fed up with the $6 turbos I played last year, it just takes so bloody long to build up some nice cash. However, I prefer building slowly to losing quickly so I'm quite pleased at the moment.

Results so far

Played 18
1st - 2
2nd - 3
3rd - 4
4th - 2
other - 7

Total profit $22.50 which is a ROI of 22.7%. It's pretty easy for me to 4 table these too but I need to get some hours free for that. It's not going to happen playing on the laptop watching tele, but a good session on the main pc where I can concentrate a bit better, and 4 tables isn't a problem.

I know the dollar profit isn't great but the ROI is there and like I said, I'd rather just be up than down so I'm quite pleased. It's also making me focus again which I think I lost my way with.

My Mansion account is looking healthy though. I'm still playing NLHE cash games there but playing my stt's on Stars is improving my cash game and I'm doing well over there. I still can't do anything in the $100k though, some of the calls that get made are shocking and for some reason they hit. I'm tempted to withdraw from all the tourneys and pocket the money to be honest, $400 a week for not much is a good offer, but I know the idea is to play, but I'd rather play a few $50's on Stars I think. We shall see. If I make it next week too, I may well do that if I don't cash in it tomorrow!

Well the $5 stt got off to an ok start with a 3rd in my first attempt but then 4 games in a row I failed to make the money. I was a bit miffed and as I was playing a stt on blonde poker, I decided to have another bash on the $5's and my first win came :)

Happy days, only a $1.50 loss for the day. 5 stt's played so far. Glad I'm not showing a bigger loss for the day to be honest, I'm quite pleased.

This just about sums up my WSOP qualfying attempt. In the prior hand, he'd called my 3xbb raise preflop with K3 of hearts. I'm not moaning, if they're all like this, I'm as good as in the WSOP main event, just a little frustrated that all of my WSOP attempts in double shootouts have been twarted by twats like this so far.

I'll get there.

I think I'm going to have to move into SnG's for a while. I'm tempted to try limit hold em again and see how I get on, I seem to have more discipline in limit cash games so maybe this is a good idea, but at the moment it would mean playing quite small stakes and really, I want to be playing at least 0.50/1.00. I was playing 2/4 limit not that long ago and going lower than 0.50/1.00 would be almost painful.

I'm swayed to be sensible and start with $5 stt's for a while, probably 3/4 at a time and try and be good. I have accepted it's my own fault I've been giving money away recently and I need to try and get it back. I'll sort out a wee spreadsheet to log results and see how we get on. If I can get to $500, I may try the limit cash games for a bit but if I have a bad session on those, maybe it's back to stt's.

I should probably have a night off but I expect I'll start tonight!

Well the Stars project got off to the worst possible start with me losing two buy in's of $30. Lost one fairly early on when I ended up folding a decentish hand after some caller all the way could have made a straight or a flush on the river and he reraised me, then I called a small all in with AK to pocket 7's and he hit trips. The other buy in was lost to some guy calling my nice preflop raise with KK and him calling with TKs and two tens flopped.

I'm thinking I'm either playing to lose for cash games or am maybe not cut out for them.

I think I'll re-evaluate how I'm going to turn $97.63 into $1000. I may even have to go back to sit and go's, not something I really want to do as sitting for an hour for $25 isn't that attractive although I have to admit, it's better than sitting for two and a half to lose $60!

Discipline

I'm a fan of posts on forums where people set themselves goals. It's interesting to see how people can start with $5 and end up with hundreds and once you've got a few hundred, sky's the limit.

I tend to just donk along. I'm doing ok, but I always hover between $40 and $300 in my Stars account. If I'm at the higher end, I'll play a few $50 mtt's and bring it back down, when I'm on $40 or so, I'll play tight ring games for a bit and try and build it up. I need to get some decent money in the account so I'm going to be disciplined and try and play good 0.25/0.50 NLHE ring games for a while. If I don't get off to a good start, I'm in trouble as I've only just over $130 in the account at the moment, but I'm comfortable at this level and will hopefully be ok. The aim is to try and get to $1000 playing nothing else on Stars. I'll probably two table for now and buy in for around $30 which will allow me another go if things go tits up.

When I say nothing else, I mean no other hard cash events. I'll still play the fpp mtts as I do ok out of them and I'm going to continue having a bash at WSOP qualification with my W$. What I really mean is that I'm not dipping into other cash tournaments :)

Ah I've missed playing cash games on Tribecca

Mar 1 23:47:37] : Hand Start.
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 1 : Looter.52 has $71.75
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 2 : Graham0573 has $87.12
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 3 : patrick3331 has $78.75
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 4 : hegs10 has $56.03
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 5 : desperado2 has $24.50
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 6 : Billum222 has $120.25
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 7 : Alf1e has $10.25
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 8 : melanie5 has $36.75
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : Seat 9 : emmett52 has $33
[Mar 1 23:47:37] : emmett52 is the dealer.
[Mar 1 23:47:38] : Looter.52 posted small blind.
[Mar 1 23:47:38] : Graham0573 posted big blind.
[Mar 1 23:47:39] : Game [105647] started with 9 players.
[Mar 1 23:47:39] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Mar 1 23:47:39] : Seat 2 : Graham0573 has As Jh
[Mar 1 23:47:41] : patrick3331 folded.
[Mar 1 23:47:42] : hegs10 called $1
[Mar 1 23:47:45] : desperado2 called $1
[Mar 1 23:47:51] : Billum222 folded.
[Mar 1 23:47:51] : Alf1e folded.
[Mar 1 23:47:54] : melanie5 called $1
[Mar 1 23:47:55] : emmett52 folded.
[Mar 1 23:47:57] : Looter.52 called $0.50
[Mar 1 23:47:59] : Graham0573 checked.
[Mar 1 23:48:00] : Dealing flop.
[Mar 1 23:48:00] : Board cards [5h Ad Js]
[Mar 1 23:48:03] : Looter.52 checked.
[Mar 1 23:48:09] : Graham0573 bet $2
[Mar 1 23:48:10] : hegs10 called $2
[Mar 1 23:48:13] : desperado2 folded.
[Mar 1 23:48:14] : melanie5 folded.
[Mar 1 23:48:16] : Looter.52 folded.
[Mar 1 23:48:17] : Dealing turn.
[Mar 1 23:48:17] : Board cards [5h Ad Js Ah]
[Mar 1 23:48:20] : Graham0573 checked.
[Mar 1 23:48:23] : hegs10 bet $8
[Mar 1 23:48:25] : Graham0573 called $8
[Mar 1 23:48:25] : Dealing river.
[Mar 1 23:48:25] : Board cards [5h Ad Js Ah 3h]
[Mar 1 23:48:38] : Graham0573 bet $10
[Mar 1 23:48:42] : hegs10 called $10 and raised $35.03 and is All-in
[Mar 1 23:48:46] : Graham0573 called $35.03
[Mar 1 23:48:46] : Showdown!
[Mar 1 23:48:46] : Seat 2 : Graham0573 has As Jh
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : Seat 4 : hegs10 has 6s 6c
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : hegs10 has Two Pair: Aces and 6s
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : Seat 2 : Graham0573 has As Jh
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : Graham0573 has Full House : Aces full of Jacks
[Mar 1 23:48:48] : Graham0573 wins $112.06 with Full House : Aces full of Jacks
[Mar 1 23:48:58] : Hand is over.

I'm going to have to take a break from WSOP qualifying. I just keep getting my preflop raises called by shocking hands then they are hitting two pairs and generally that's me done. I may try again in a few days. It' a bit disapointing as I was looking forward to giving them a go, but I think I've played about 8 events now and I've taken bad beats in some form or other in all of them. Maybe not bad beats as such, but hands that you wouldn't dream of playing preflop yet alone calling raises with are beating me.

No good again in the Mansion but in the $25k $5 rebuy I've hit quad Jacks to move me up to 9k and the average is only 5k at the moment. Amazing how a nice hand like quad Jacks can cheer you up!

Bad night again! I'm in one of those periods when you get a few bad beats at the moment. I couldn't shake off J4 in the $100k and he hit two pairs against my AQ on a Q high board, then I ran into KK with QQ, that was that tourney over. I spent a while in the $8 omaha tourney to lose all my chips to a draw that hit. I think that was probably my fault for commiting but mateyboy was pretty stacked and I'd have ended up folding to his bet on the draw if I didn't move in.

Spent about 3 hours in a double shootout only to get short stacked on the final table. Raise 4xBB with JJ, 2 callers, rag rag rag board and I move in and matey that called with 84 preflop hits his two pairs then in the $5 rebuy on Stars, I'm below average on about 5.5k and am dealt TT, raise preflop, flop 6 6 5, move in, 77 calls, turn 8 river 7 and I'm out. OK I could have lost to 66 here, can't see much else calling the preflop raise, 55 maybe. Just a bit unlucky perhaps.

Anyway, tonights good night of poker never happened and it's been shit again. I don't think I'm playing well though, need to sort it out, it's costing me a few quid at the moment. The game is there somewhere though, on Saturday just gone, I came 13th out of over 1000 runners in a mtt. Sadly only got $35 for my troubles, but 13th is pretty good. I really could do with making the most of these Mansion entries because the money in these really could change the level I play poker at. Must do better tomorrow night, must do.