Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Been a while since I updated and I've played a fair amount of poker, but I guess I've been too busy playing Warcraft or watching House (started on season 1 the other day, great program!) to update. This also obviously means I have nothing to brag about so there's nothing being missed.

The staking is still going, I'm not kicked out yet. I've taken some pretty sick beats, normally my kings lose to jacks, but it's all variance and one day it will pay off. Came close last night when I managed 4th in the 10:45 double stack on blonde. The exit was hard to take at 2:30 am - UTG raises to 8k and I repop with KK to 20k. He decided to shove and ends up showing A4o. The 4 on the flop wasn't that much of a concern, but the ace that followed really pissed me off. I'm just amazed that he though A4o was good here - I'd not shown one iffy hand and I'm not even sure I'd 3 bet before without ending up showing AK+, yet A4 it was that took me from 2nd in chips to 4 big blinds instead of propelling me to chip leader with a dominant stack. The $216 saved me asking for a top up though and 4th is 4th afterall. Another final table chalked up.

I've played 51 so far this month on blonde and it's getting close to if I'm going to rake $100 or not. I only need to rake another $16 but the 10pm+ comps are pretty much going to be out the window as I can't cope with 3am nights during the week and on the last day I'm off to Arsenal v Fulham so that doesn't leave a lot left. I guess if I take one down I may be forgiven for not raking what's expected, but I'm still a couple of hundred in make up so the small bonus would probably be welcomed by my backer.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Been having a bad time since the cashes the other day, I've not won a thing on Blonde and have gone from being $200 up to just about back in make up for a small amount. I came so close to a nice cash tonight but busted in 40th in the $30 7pm tourney. I was above average and went to take the blinds with AQ but the BB flat called. We both checked the flop and turn on a KTKT board, then an ace came on the river and he bet the pot of 2700. Obviously I called but it must be fucking lovely to call a pre flop raise at 200/400 with K8o and flop the doo dah's. This put me around 11 big blinds and the next hand I'm dealt AQ again, but my shove is called by TT and there's clearly no help coming for me and I've gone from around 12th to out in 40th for zip but a bigger hole in the bankroll.

Anyway, the good news is that the tournament structures on blonde have improved massively so I'm expecting some big scores soon enough, I just hope I don't have to ask for some more monies before it happens!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Thermos, French Truck Drivers, oh and a Poker Tourney

The weekend marked the new season of the APAT poker tour; a two day £75 freezeout in Walsall. I'd had the obligitory bash at qualifying online but failed as per usual so it made it a £100 or so comp for me! Packed up the usual bag of things I think I need but never actually use (lappy, ipod, 3 pairs of shoes etc) and headed off on Saturday morning for the trip to the Midlands. Mrs S had given me a thermos just in case of severe weather despite the bright sunshine, but I stuffed it in my bag nevertheless.

Made it to the hotel in plenty of time and was met by a couple of familiar faces. I like these events because I get to see people that I don't see that often and having little poker friends around where I live, it makes a nice and welcomed change. After a brief check in, we headed off to the casino. Couple of pints and a lot of hellos later and the game was under way. I have very little to report about the comp except from about the second hand where I was dealt KK. I'm paranoid about kings in the first half hour or so. Someone always always gets knocked out AA v KK and this comp was no exception,it took all of...the first hand for it to happen. As a result I tend to play KK safely for a short period. Anyway, there's a raise to 250 (5x) from EP, a min raise from the guy to my right to 500 (remember, this is 2nd or 3rd hand). I'm chatting to someone so casually call the 500 despite shaking like a leaf underneath with the view of it's ace high, I can get away and I can play it fairly passive on the flop otherwise. Q 4 Q flop (two diamonds) Check to me and I toss in 1000. The early checker raises to 2.5k and the other guy passes. Now, this is where I'm convinced that it's aces but I'm reluctant to give up yet so flat the raise. The river brings another diamond and again it's checked to me so I take the safe option and check back. River brings another diamond and thankfully I have the K but it's far from safe as there's a 25% chance of AA having the diamond too so I flat call the bet of 1k to be shown AQ no diamonds and I scoop a nice pot. Not sure how I played this to be honest, not the best. Had the C/R have been more, I'd have let go and had they lead on the turn, I'd have let go, so whilst I probably didn't play the hand that well, I think the other person played it worse.

Other than that, there was a guy who later on lost KK v AA and then the very next hand got KK again and lost to AA again! Two hands in a row, that's some cooler.

I made the second day in reasonable shape with just under average but the blinds were high and I was totally card dead and ended up busting in 25th for £75 back (5 alternates entered)

I didn't stay too long before heading home as the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was snowing quite hard. Just as I left, I heard a traffic report that the M42 south was closed due to a car fire so headed down the M6 to the M1. Things were ok at this point, it was when I saw a sign from the M1 to get to the M40 that it went wrong. There's about 17 miles of dual carraige way between the two motorways and it seemed to take forever. Visability was down to a minimum due to the amount of snow that was falling. I was moving along at about 30 mph and after a bit, the traffic became quite conjested. At one point, I went to go around a roundabout but despite moving about walking speed, the car failed to turn and I was sliding towards a lamp post. Natural instinct told me to brake, even though I knew it wouldn't work, and the crunching abs noise did little to calm my nerves. There was a small deep thud but the light was still on so I wasn't getting out to check and I carried on.

The next roundabout was a different problem. The road continued up a slight hill, nothing massive, but it had caused cars on the other side to spin around and there was plenty of problems with cars trying to get up this part. After about 20 mins of waiting for 'my go' I'm sat on the start of the incline, the car infront took off and then a French lorry came out the outside lane (thanks for waiting eh!) Just after he passed me, he jack knifed the truck and I had to watch in hope as it slid across the dual carraigeway slowly. There was nothing else I could do except hope that it didn't hit me and thankfully it didn't, but now I had the problem of an artic 5 yards in front of me and I now have to overtake it and get up the hill. The car behind wasn't waiting for me either so I had to wait for him to piss about as he'd already pulled out and was level with me. Managed to get out but was actually shouting "COME ON" to the car as it spun on the ice and was almost pleading with it when I started to slide towards the artic sat there, but somehow the car gripped and I pulled in in front and managed to continue at a steady pace. There was a while where I was regretting not filling the thermos up in case I was out all night! Thankfully there was only a few miles to go and I decided to take things ultra safe and just joined in the procession towards the M40. After a short while, Mr Frenchy steamed passed in the other lane going about twice as fast as everyone else, and low and behold, jack knifed again but thankfully rather than kill me or anyone else, he crashed in to the central reservation. I obviously gave the obligitory hand signal and called him a wanker, but it was dark and we both had our windows up so it was pointless other than making me feel better. I'm not sure what skills lorry drivers have that make it safer for them to go at high speeds during bad conditions like this but it makes it damn scarey when a 40 tonne lorry is sliding towards you in slow motion. It's no wonder you see accidents in the news in these situations, some people drive like total tossers with no consideration for others. I've been in snow like this before in other countries, but they're geared up for it, we're not, and it's damn scary stuff being out there. Thankfully from then on, it was a slow but safe drive to the M40, then it just rained all the way home. I made a quick drop in at Oxford services to check my car and thankfully that was ok, I guess it was the tyre against the curb or something, but no damange done. Moral of the story, if it's really bad, don't leave a motorway for a short cut home! It saved me about 50 miles, but it took over an hour to do the 17 miles or so and I could live without the worry of if I'm going to die or not, so next time, stay on the motorway!

So that was that, good weekend and came home to see Sky HD had been installed!

Thursday, February 05, 2009

I have a backer. I have a couple of reservations about being staked for poker, but needs must and I can't afford to play the stakes I want to play on a regular basis so having a backer actually comes in handy. I'm playing the guaranteeds on blonde that are around $30 and under, which is at a level I'd like to play, and whilst I do generally play at this level, I can't do 4 or 5 comps a night without getting a result first, so having a backer is good.

It takes a bit of adjusting changing from the Stars/Tilt structure to the iPoker structure, but I think I'm getting there. I started off fairly badly on my first day (Tuesday) having no cashes in 5, but yesterday went quite well with 3 out of 5 including a 5th place in my highest buy in of the day for $300ish which not only got me out of the small amount of make up I had to clear but leaves me up a couple of hundred.....so far. There's a long way to go till the end of the month, but I was feeling bad about being in make up straight away so it's good to get out. Nice to get my best result in the highest buy in for a change, it usually works the other way round!

As for the tennis betting, well I haven't really had that much time to look at it, but I'm off to a bad start. Not too sure about these events after the grand slam events, it seems like some have had a nice payday and don't give a toss at the moment. Perhaps that's just my excuse for the bad start. I'm not sure why I do sports betting, perhaps I have a small problem. I don't bet big, far from it, only a couple of quid a time, and I don't hide my losses and it's caused no problems, but I do like a punt. I think I have it in my head that it's an easy way to make some money, shame it's not working out really. Ah well.

Monday, February 02, 2009

I'm going to start with tennis betting again. Apart from a big blow up a year or so again when I lost so much on a game it made me feel physically sick, I've done ok with tennis bets so we'll start again with small sensible bets with a view of growing my Betfair roll.

Now, it's fair to say that I'm not starting with much here, only £25.52, so now and again, I'll afford myself the luxury of going all in but generally I'll try and stick to bets that reflect the roll. I would use points to try and sound like I know what I'm doing, but in reality, 1 point would be £1 at the best so there's little point, I'll stick with £'s

Todays bets are

£5.52 on Youzhny at 1.62
£20.00 on Ljubicic at 1.23

I'm not overly comfortable in betting my whole Betfair account but a) it's only £25 and b) early stages comps, should be safe enough! Famous last words.

GL me!

In poker news, made another final table last night in the Laddies $4 deepstack but spectactularly bust in 6th in two hands where I went from from CL to out! I did suck out a couple of times on my way to the final so I can't really complain about the bad beats. Broke even for the night anyway and had some fun which is all good.