Thursday, April 26, 2007

no better, $22+2 turbo, utg with AK, raise pot, folds to BB who reraises to 800, I push all in and he calls with 23s and hits with the 3.

That's enough for me tonight.

Did manage 18th in an omaha tourney on Stars though.

Cashed in one after playing 'one more' game! Came 3rd, went out with KQ against 77 when the flop came 9 7 7, what can ya do? Well, call it a night happy in the fact that at least I cashed. There's a reason I didn't do better tonight. I think I probably played too many weak hands early on that got me into trouble. That and not playing enough cheap hands too. The turbos need a different sort of tactic and sometimes I have it and other times I don't. There's not much in it though I don't think, but get it wrong and it sure goes wrong.

Nighty night.
Been running nice on the $11 and $22 turbos on FT recently - managed to build up over $300 in the last couple of days but tonight, well, I guess they call it variance. Haven't cashed all night. 7 games, 0 cashes. Every time I move in, people call with QJ off suit and hit etc, I can't get people to lay down average hands.

Can't complain too much, it's been a good few days and hopefully it will get better soon.

Off to Luton tomorrow for Blonde Bash 4. Should be good - I'm playing football for Wales on Saturday morning followed by the main event, a £30 double chance shootout. Report to follow.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

My Thursday game went absolutely terrible last week and I managed to get a worst ever performance in. At the second level, I'm on the button with A5, couple of callers round to me, SB completes, BB checks. Flop comes A 2 5, check to me, I bet about the pot (300 or so). Small blind calls, rest fold. Between the flop and the river, I manage to get most of my chips in and am a bit disapointed when he shows trip 2's. Chips!!

Next level, I'm in fairly early position with pocket tens, raise 3xBB to 300, same guy as before to my left calls, rest, bar one who only has a couple of hundred of his first lot of chips left, all fold. Flop comes 8 high, no real danger execept a flush draw but I bet 1000 into the pot to chase him off. He flat calls. I'm only left with 525 so when the turn brings another under card to my pair, I ship it in and he shows KK and I'm off home before the first break!

Clearly I was a bit disapointed at this. I've seen the guy before but never been on his table, at least I know he's quite a passive player now! Still, I had my camera with me and I took off to London and took some snaps. Wembely was my first port of call as it's only round the corner. WOW is all I can say, that's one impressive building. Off into town but parking in London isn't that easy and I was struggling to find anywhere. Didn't fancy ditching the car and then wandering round at night down alleys with a nice camera and my tripod, but I drove over Waterloo bridge and spotted my shot and thankfully you can pull up on it. Quick shifty onto the other side of the bridge brought shots of St Pauls, but they are a bit blurred, possibley due to me not working out how to do mirror lock in the force 5 winds that seemed to be blowing into me on that side. The London Eye side wasn't too bad, I think given the kit lens, it's probably the best I could have done.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Bit of a disapointing night overall. Played ok in the cash games but lost a bigish pot to lose all my winnings and put me back to the starting level - just ran into a bigger pocket pair on a raggy board. Played 3 turbo sit and goes and bubbled in two, both with pretty sucky outdraws and then ran into big hands every time I made moves in the other. It's just not my night. It does even out the night where I played 3, cashed in 3 the other day though.

Better grind out some more cash in the next few days to make up for the sng losses I guess!

Edit cash not going well, lost another nice pot with AA after making a 5xbb raise preflop and about 6 people called! Needless to say someone had both the J and the T that appeared on the flop. Don't blame him for calling, he certainly was getting the odds.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Played my first tourney on Stars for a while and all is going okish, I'm on 4.5k but the average is nearly 9k. Folds to me with KTs, and I raise, BB calls, crappy flop and I push all in, he has 88.

Why do I do this? Two hours wasted because I wanted to bluff a pot :(

Must stop. Still, never mind.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Managed to make 6th last night at the Western Club. I nearly went out early when I called an all in from someone with AJs and he held pocket queens. I thought he had something less than that but obviously got it wrong. Thankfully it's a double chance so I got to call for chips and from there did reasonably ok. Went to the final table pretty short stacked though and never really got an opportunity to push in. With my stack, someone would more than likely have called - there were two guys that seemed to have most of the chips between them so I tried to wait but the cards never came. Few players went for it, including the two big stacks so one person ended up with what must have been about three quarters of all the chips, and I ended up squeezing a 6th spot out of it for £74.40.

Quite pleased overall, but would have liked to get to the final table in better shape. Some people have the ability to move in with anything, sadly I'm not one of those at the moment. I guess having chips in the first place helps and I don't seem to have enough to command that respect.

One day.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Oh and I'm officially selling my bass :(

http://www.bassworld.co.uk/pn/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=25080

Gutted really but I don't use it and could use the money to either pay off my camera or buy a new lens - can't decide which yet ;) Hopefully both though to be honest, it's a nice bass.
Not updated for a while but I have been playing. I've kind of avoided mtt's for the last few days with the exception of the Mansion promo ones (which I somehow qualified for again) but have had no decent results. I've tried to concentrate in working off the Full Tilt bonus. I started off with limit poker, playing $2/$4 but I seem to be very poor at limit and I ended up losing about $150 before I got fed up and moved back to $0.50/$1.00 NLHE. Things improved a bit here and I managed to win back my losses which I was over the moon about. Then I played $0.25/$0/50 yesterday and managed to win a whole dollar for about two hours playing, but I wasn't that bothered as I had earned points towards my bonus and I'm happy to just be playing. Plus, even a dollar profit is profit! Anyway, today I played $0.25/$0.50 again and made $135 profit! Best night yet for me I think. Hit a few flops which helped, but I think I played better, the most I lost in a hand was only $5, I just didn't take many risks. The biggest pot of the night for me was when some guy tried to make pot sized bets after he hit two pair on the flop, but I had a flush draw and a straight draw and felt that the risk was worth it. Thankfully I hit on the river and took the $80 pot. It was only $40 after the turn, but he called my bet to put him all in, despite the flush being obvious. I think he may have tilted as he's down $170 ish for the time I was on there.

Pleased playing cheap NLHE at the moment, I don't think I'll bother moving up to $0.50/$1.00 just yet, I'm happy playing at the lower level and there's certainly the pots there for it. Also, the next level is technically out of my bankroll, but to be honest, I've never let that stop me before!

Also been playing a few $10 stt's which I'm quite enjoying - fire one up and a cash game and I'm sorted really. Good for the bonus requirement and good for the bankroll at the moment.

I'm still very very tempted to join Cardrunners. It's just the sign up fee putting me off. I'd happily pay a year up front if they would waiver the sign up fees. We shall see.

Very pleased tonight, showing a profit on my initial deposit - it's about time. Now I need to not get over confident and just play as I have been.

Oh rakeback, got just over $40 for playing on Blonde last month. Better than nothing, but I guess at my levels, it's not really worth worrying too much about rakeback if you prefer other sites. Be interesting to see what I get for April on Full Tilt. I quite like FT, it's suiting my game at the moment so if I can get a nice amount in cash back too, I may well stay here.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

been playing some stt's on FT recently and tonight after a night out, I fancied my luck on some more $10 games. Anyway, first one, I kind bet myself out, maybe pushed at the wrong time. Second one, AKs against AKo and he flops the flush!

Mofo, I guess that's why they call it variance.

Not to self: shouldn't really be playing after drinking lots!

Friday, April 06, 2007

Not much happened at my live game last night. I think I need to be making a few moves earlier but I really was card dead. Had aces once when I was short stacked and in the big blind, but everyone folded around to me! Gutted!

Not a lot else to report really but it was still good and I enjoyed myself.

Forgot to post this little story from a couple of weeks ago. I didn't make the Thursday due to the Mansion promo, but went on Friday instead. Anyway, few hands into it and some guy raises it up to 600 (blinds at 100/200) and gets one caller. On the flop, he announces that "that's not a flop he really wanted" and bets 400 into it looking pained. Anyway, he's raised and just instantly folds. Made me chuckle a bit anyway.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Got to give up limit. I prefer the game in theory, but my results are way better in no limit.

One $0.50/$1.00 NLHE table before bed, took $40 to it as that was pretty big stack for the table, am currently on $123.

I've also been considering joining Cardrunners recently. Was concerned about it being more NLHE, but looking through everything, I'm better off with that. If I can get my money back that I've lost in the last couple of days, I'll seriously consider joining. Working off bonus is all very well, but I need to make money and not go skint!

Going to bed happier
I'm either running standard dry or playing bad. My Aces are getting cracked all over the place to the point where I don't know how I should be playing them. Being beaten by J2 Sooted was a bit disapointing but when the flop came J4J I guess I should have known. What is annoying is seeing pots of $50 going down and winning with a pair of 5's - often the lowest card on the board.

Not a lot is going my way at the moment but I did make the Mansion $100k's again this week so that's nice. I'm thinking my patience is getting stronger so I'm hoping for a good run this week. They've changed the format so you can pick any four tourneys now but you have to pay up front then they refund you. First one for me is tomorrow night. I'm going to be patient, solid and do ok in it. Ideally, I could do with two cashes this week, be nice if one could be a win :o)

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Lost the rest of my buy in on FT when the mighty-cannot-be-laid-down Jc 4c hit a flush :( To be honest, it was probably my fault for calling with the flush on the board. My stratagy of playing strong hands and hoping to hit isn't working. I may try buying in for less and seeing more flops, seems to work for most people.

Not giving up yet. I may call it a day if I lose half my deposit money though. It's not worth losing it all for.
Pain in the arse night. I'm working on the Full Tilt bonus and it's not got off to the best start. I'm going to be down about $100 at the moment. Every hand I get just isn't good enough, trip queens beaten by dodgy flushes, King high flush beaten by Ace high flush - usual sob story. Also tried to rake some more for the Mansion promo but after losing $40 in about 10 mins when my AA failed to beat some idiot who couldn't lay down KQo, I'm giving up there too. He raised to $2 in early position, folded to me and I raised to $6.50. He calls, checks the King high flop. I bet $13 (the pot) and he calls, then the Queen on the turn and that was that.

I am pleased with my FT a bit though, I managed to get down to $8 but back up to over $50 and am currently on $46. Don't want to play for too much longer though, need to get some sleep at some point today.