Thought I'd Better Update!

Well what's new?

Still haven't got broadband which totally sucks and has kinda put me on a bit of a life tilt. I haven't played that much cos of it but I am gonna make an effort to get a lot of hands in now. I'm so lazy and I don't really know why. Psychological things affect poker players a lot I think, for example if you value money a lot and pick up a few buyins then it can be hard to carry on. That's something I have to get out of my head. At the end of the day profit is only profit when you cash out and not something you should quantify at the tables. If I can get that into my head thats a start :-)

I thought I'd post up some hands. I actually feel I played very well over the last week and am running at >10PTBB/100 hands over that period (only about 6k hands cos I am so lazy...) Something I have focused on more is playing my opponent more than playing standard lines. This has worked pretty well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?947860
This hand was all about ranges. I felt opponents range (24/20/40% att to steal) was huge for his 3-bet in position, so I decided to call and checkraise allin if I flopped an overpair. I think 4-betting preflop is ok against someone who does it this light but I prefer my line.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?947861
Pretty standard from me. But what he is doing only he knows. Buddy list time :-)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?947865
I think some players need a course on how to play 99!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?947870
Tech house was playing 70/30 and was on monkey tilt. He had open shoved K3o and 94o preflop recently so I'm calling him down pretty light in position. He had felted ace high and bottom pair too. Not necessarily a standard line from me but playing the player and all that!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?947871
Opponents play with air goes badly wrong...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?947873
Nice when you can get AA allin preflop

http://www.pokerhand.org/?947874
Sticky spot with AA overpair and flush draw against top set. Even then I'm not that far behind, sth like 40-60.

I went out to watch the two England games and got bored to tears. We have to get rid of McClown. Oh and Lampard. The only good thing Rooney did over the international break was to hit Lampard's wrist and break it with a shot.

To finish, I just saw Chris Eubank on the news. It reminded me of the Steve Penk prank I found on YouTube the other week when he impersonates him.

Here's the link:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc_53vaWQ60

Good luck everyone,

Dan

More Live Poker

After the relative success on Friday, I decided to play live again last night. I thought I'd pop along to the Full House in Reigate and play the £50 1 rebuy tournament and then a cash game afterwards.

Tournament was actually fairly decent in standard with only several out and out donators/luckboxes.

I didnt have many key hands because I played pretty tight and then used this to my benefit when necessary and pretty much never had a showdown.

Here's a few though:-

Level 2 - 50/100 and I'm playing 4300. I havent taken my rebuy yet. I raise AQ behind 1 limper on the button to 400. BB calls. He seems pretty bad and I've seen him make some terrible calls preflop. Flop TT6 with 2diamonds. I'm happy with this and c-bet for 600. He calls. Turn is a Qc and he instantly lead for 2k. Wtf. I only have 3300 left so its clearly a push/fold decision. I tank it up for ages and I just dont know what to do. He seemed happy to call with marginal hands so it is possible he had Tx. I was listening to drum and bass music throughout and didnt hear them call the clock on me. I saw the dealer say 20 seconds left. Lol. I took my earphones out and quickly asked him how strong he was. He got very flustered immediately and mumbled a load of crap. I said 'There's only 1 way to find out' and shoved. He folded!!! For 1300 into about a 7500 pot. Lol.

I stole my way onto the final table in slightly below average stack. I had no premium hands until then apart from QQ once which flopped ace high and I took the pot down with a c-bet.

A few people knocked themselves out whilst I was just picking my spots. Blinds were worth a lot and most players didnt defend them enough so it was worth picking spots using my tight image. It only paid 5 and I got into the money.

Down to 3 handed and I picked up the chip lead when I shoved AJ and got called with KQ. I held. The only decent player then shoved KK and got called by the fish who held 89s. Seeing as I folded 75s he looked to be in trouble. But runner runner top end straight saw him home, so we didnt get to heads up yet. Then they both got a/i preflop with similar stacks so I thought definitely heads up this time, but no they both held AJ for a chop.

Blinds was an insane 10000/20000 by this point and with chip lead I only had 6 BB. It was actually a fair structured comp but it lasted ages which meant it was a crapshoot. SB (fish) shoved and I held A4c in BB. It was 43k more to me so a pretty mandatory call seeing as he'd been shoving a lot. He held Q2. 4 on the flop was good for me, but Q on turn lucked out for him. I then shoved with QJ to steal the blinds and I was back in it. Next hand, it folded to me in SB and I shoved KQ. BB called with AJ and we both blanked so I was out in 3rd for £350. I was pretty pleased with how I played but you do need luck to close these things out and you cant always get that. By this point it was late, and I didn't fancy the £3/3 cash game so I went home.

Overall, I'm beginning to enjoy this live poker lark.

FP

Big Slick Cash Game

Finally got back to the tables on Friday. I felt ready to resume. I played about 1200 hands online and picked up $415 at $1/$2. That was a decent re introduction I guess. I've been thinking about adapting my play a bit and what I implemented worked well, so thats promising.

In the evening I decided to go up to the Big Slick to play the £1/£2 cash game ($2/$4) with no max buyin. The game started at about 11:15pm and I sat down to start. I had decent expectations of how juicy the game was and I wasn't disappointed.

The very first hand, one guy who had a striking resemblance to Richard Bucket (Bouqueeet!) from Keeping Up Appearances had to ask the dealer what to do preflop. He was playing about £200. He open folded the flop. He soon learnt how to play and called every street (and eventual allin) with J3 on a JxxQx board. Not one to bluff then. Every time he called, he'd day 'I got to call'. Lol.

There was another guy who had a real problem with bet sizing. He'd try to bet like £80 into a £20 pot but we were playing pot limit. Dealer kept on having to tell him he could only bet the pot. Then he'd do something crazy like bet £5 into a £70 pot. He soon went busto.

Onto some hands I played. Richard Bucket limped in in EP, bet sizing guy minraised to £4. 2 other callers, I call from BB with Ts7s. Flop is good for me, 8 T Q with 2 spades. I lead for about £12 into the £16 pot. Only Richard Bucket called. He's only playing about £100 before the hand. Turn comes a 7 of clubs to give me 2 pair with the spade redraw. Opponent used to bet every time someone showed weakness so I decided to checkraise allin on the turn. He obliged and said 'I got to call' as usual. He said this when he called £30 river bet with queen high though, so I wasn't exactly concerned. Until he showed Q8. River blanks and I lose the pot.

A few hands later, I get dealt AA in early position. One guy guested for £1 (basically posting out of position) but only seems to cost £1, and I could only make it £10 to go. Richard Bucket (who was playing about 90%+ vpip) called, and the BB who looked pretty bad but probably was in the top 5 at the table, also called. Flop came 3 9 T. I can't remember if it was with a flush draw but I dont think so. I bet like £24 I think. Richard Bucket insta calls obv, and BB tanks for a little while and also calls. Turn J. I'm not liking this card much, now I'm torn between trying to control the size of the pot and protecting my hand. If I was heads up with the massive fish, I'm taking him to value town and he's gonna have to show me better. But I'm pretty concerned about the BB. BB checked, I decided to check and Richard Bucket checked. Which was a first for him. Usually he asked the dealer how much he could bet. Dealer would say 'Any part of £x' He'd bet exactly £x every time. If he had to do if off his own back he'd bet £10 or £15 on every street, regardless of the pot size. Anyway, river is a total blank, a 5. BB bets £50. I decide to call, Richard Bucket folded. BB shows KQ for the gut draw come good. Hmmm.

I then get a couple of good hands with no action, AK flops AKx against the inevitable opponent, he folds saying 'It's not his kind of flop', and J7 which I open raised button flops J7x against him as well, and again he insta folds.

Then, my comeback begins. I get Ks6s in the BB. Bucket is the only limper and SB completed. Flop comes 764. SB checked, I consider betting but realise Bucket will do it for me and check. He checks too. Odd. Turn is a 2. SB checks, I bet £4 into the £6 pot, Bucket raises me to £9 or £10. I have seen him do this with all manner of shit and call. I think I'm about 75% in front here. River is a 6, giving me trips. Immediately, Bucket says allin. Lol. He's playing about £400 at this point having luckboxed a ton of pots. Pot is about £30. Dealer tells him he can only bet £30. It's on me. I go into the tank considering whether I should be raising this. I'm pretty concerned about his insta attempt at allin. He then starts trying to needle me, he had never done this before and that struck me as odd. Telling me to call, saying he has nothing etc... In my experience, these speech plays usually are strength, and he had never done this before which was also a problem for me. Eventually I just call, and he shows Q2o. Lol.

I then get QQ in the blinds. Inevitable limp from villain, several other limpers and I pot it up. He then limp raises me to about £45. He's done this about 5 times but only shown down A9o in these pots. I decide to call but I'm felting any low flop. Flop is good, I think it was 9 6 2. I decide to checkraise allin, but he checks behind. Hmmm. Turn is another 6, I bet £100 and he folds.

A few hands later I get JJ. Ash (another CR member who was the only other decent player there) open raised his button to £9 behind Bucket's inevitable limp. He is playing every hand at this point. SB calls, I make it about £35 to go from BB. Bucket calls, claiming the dealer mislead him about how much it was to him and wouldnt have called if he knew how much it was to him. Everyone else folds. Flop comes 9 5 2 rainbow. I'm felting this against Bucket for about 1.7 buyins. All day long. I bet out £80. He calls pretty quick. Turn is a terrible card for me, the 9 of hearts bringing 2 hearts out there too. It's pretty possible he has the 9. I know I can get a cheap showdown as long as he doesnt ask the dealer how much he can bet. He doesn't. I check, he checks. River is a blank, I think it was a ten. I check (with the intention of calling a decent sized bet) and he checks. He shows 43h. Dodged a few river cards there :-)

I then get dealt KJo in the BB. Inevitable limp from standard guy, Ash completes his SB, I check. Flop comes K32 with 2 spades. Ash bets £5, I decide I'm way ahead/way behind with position and just call. Richard Bucket askes how much he can bet and dealer tells him £28. Ash folds, I call. I'm pretty sure I'm good here. Turn is another spade. I'm not too concerned as I've never seen him raise a draw. I check, he bets £10 (lol). I call. River blanks, and I check to him. He checks behind and shows A3 for 2nd flopped pair. I wish I could play this guy every day.

Final hand was pretty sick as I didn't get value when I thought I would. One limper (probably the inevitable guy), I complete SB with 33. BB (new American guy to the table) checks. He was pretty bad and seemed to be limping pretty much every hand. Flop 348 with 2 suits. I lead for £5 into the £6 pot. He calls. Turn is I think a 6. I'm not too concerned with 57 and bet £12 into £16 I think. He calls. River is an 8 giving me a boat. I'm getting paid off here with any 8 for sure, and there's a decent chance he has one. I bet £25 into the £40 pot and he tanks it up. I'm pretty sure he is gonna raise me, he asks how much is in the pot but after several minutes he folds. Pretty annoying.

Overall I did enjoy playing live cash for the first time in a while. The problem is it takes me about 40 mins to get there each way, and the rake is 5% of the pot uncapped. You also have to tip the dealers. So you need to have a pretty big edge to make it pay. Luckily the players are abysmal. Ash actually told me afterwards that they were better than usual last night. Lol.

Several things I learnt. Firstly, don't play live cash until 3:30 am when you have stuff to do the next day. I have to go to Spurs shortly and I'm gonna be tired. Secondly, I need to pay more attention in the live environment, i.e. focus more and talk to other players less. That's something I'll work on. Another thing was pretty annoying was that getting back late I wasn't able to get a residents parking space and had to park in a 1hr slot which meant I had to get up at 9am to move my car. Not good when you go to bed at 4:30.

I definitely will be trying to go there regularly. If you don't run bad you can make a fortune. I can't remember exactly how much I was in for but I either made £60 or £80. I lost a couple of £150-£200 pots so that's not too bad.

Had to break - tilt warning!

Basically, for the last week I have been on total tilt so havent been online. I actually havent played for a week due to this. Obv this is better than playing tilted...

I dropped 5 buyins at 100NL in the Challenge because of a few things. Firstly I can't hit for shit. That makes things difficult as it is. Secondly, about 75% of the time I got checkraised/raised on the flop. Either the deck is smashing my opponents in the face or they are making plays at me. Probably the latter mainly.

Finally, my broadband issue has multiplied this tilt in a big way. Here's an exerpt from my post I made on www.huset.co.uk which is a site devoted to helping people in my spot. Here's the link to it too:-

http://huset.co.uk/2006/07/17/remove-bt-adsl-line-tag-marker/

Here's my story:-

I moved into a new flat 3 weeks ago. It was basically brand new except that my landlord had lived in it for a few weeks. Unfortunately, he had broadband in it through a company called Mistral Internet Group/Utility Warehouse. This is where the fun begins…

I tried to get my existing AOL account to come onto the line. AOL said a ‘tag’ was blocking it and told me to phone Mistral to get it removed. I phoned them, they said they’d get rid of it but it would take a week. They didn’t. I phoned them again. This time they denied it was their responsibility and told me to email to Utility Warehouse about it. I decided to get my landlord to phone them to get the tag removed. He eventually phoned them and cancelled his contract with them. I phoned Utility Warehouse myself and they said they wont remove the tag until his cancellation period (30 days) is over.

This is an absolute joke. This would like buying a brand new car but finding that the garage has put petrol from Shell into it and that means I can only use Shell petrol. But I can’t use Shell until the garage organise with Shell to let me use their petrol, or to get Shell to let me use other brands. Obviously this wouldn’t be in Shells’ interest so they dont bother helping you, and put loads of obstacles in your way. You think this sounds totally crazy, well it is, and that’s what this phone line system is.

When a person moves into accomodation (particularly rented), it should be a given that all phone lines are clean and able to be used for the purpose of why they are there. It is clear to me that phone lines with ‘tags’ on are not fit for purpose and are of little use to anyone, especially in these days where people rarely use phone lines to make conventional calls.

I have contacted 'Watchdog' which is a UK consumer program on BBC. Hopefully they will get back to me as I'll do anything to ruin these companies which are basically, total and utter fuckers.

Back to the tables, challenge resumes with 7 buyins for 200NL. If I can't do this, lol.

FP

Challenge Update

Saturday - Played terrible. Dropped 5 buyins, the last of which was tilt when I checkraised the river all in against this guy I thought was floating me. I had 44. The board was 88JKK in that order. He called with T8 :-( I had to stop because I was playing terrible.

Here's my update from today which I just cross posted on the CR Forum.

Sunday - Focused better after a talk to myself (something along the lines of SBRugby's advice of being responsible for your results), and made $328.90 in 1,518 hands. I played much tighter, especially oop where I 3-bet a lot less, that worked very well.

I spent most of the day with my family and watched the best game of football of all time when Spurs basically relegated West Ham with 2 goals in injury time...Ship it!

Today, I hit some big flops and got severe action w/overpairs, which was nice obv, including getting put allin by a donk preflop with 66. I had AA :-) He was sitting with a 4 buyin stack. I relieved him of all of it. I left the table with almost 6 buyin stack...

My PT has been messing me about bigtime, so now I have all my results on different databases. Does anyone know how to amalgamate PostgreSQL databases into one big database?

I know the exact amount in my FTP a/c before the challenge as I withdrew some to make it an even number, so my 'challenge bankroll' now stands at $1529.75. I am gonna take a 3 buyin shot at 100NL tomorrow, the pace needs to be stepped up :-)

Here's some screenshots from today.
The first one is my PT stats for Sunday. The second one is my giant stack after relieving the 70/31 guy of all his money!

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/fruitypro/4thmarch.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/fruitypro/massivestack.jpg

Good luck at the tables everyone,

FP.

March 2nd Update

This day was not good for me in the challenge, for various reasons.

Firstly, I get up at 9:45 ready to play. Oh no, I can't cos FTP is going down for 'maintenance' shortly. Thanks for the advance email. At 2pm they get back up and running.

I pick up 2 buyins pretty fast and then lose them against short stacks who think they should be playing 65 to a raise with 40% of a buyin, and then flop 55T when I have JJ.

I have to go and pick my parents up from Gatwick at 5:30 so I stop playing and start datamining. I went back to their house and then they decided they were going to the local indian for dinner. Obv I said yes and didn't get home until 10.

Was tired, so wasnt gonna play any more and was just going to play a ridiculous amount Saturday. I look at my screens, and wonder why peoples stats havent been updated. I look at PT - Database Error. Treat. I email Pat, who says I need to repair database. It won't let me. Or convert to PQSL. It took 3 hours for me to download that on my shitty dial up connection. I havent converted it yet, prob will when I am at soccer tomorrow or tonight instead of datamining all night. At the moment I am using a different database as before but hopefully I can get that sorted.

Anyway, before a LONG day of playing today, here's my stats for yesterday, and the second link is overall so far for the challenge:-

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/fruitypro/2ndmarch.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/fruitypro/overallat2nd.jpg

I've only done 4.5k hands so far, but I'm aiming to get that up to about 12k by the end of Sunday. One good thing will come from this. When we are all burnt out by the end of the month, we can have next month of courtesy of the sick rakeback we will get :-)

$1k - $50k Challenge - March 1st Report

Ok...Here's my summary of the day.

Tight play was in order with an insane amount of pots being opened or a ridiculous amount of limpers. The standard, IMO, was far worse than the last time I played 50NL - highlight was a 94/52 player over 70 hands, seriously - and Gravastar had the cheek to nick his seat :-(

Other highlights included me, grav and sp00n on one table, and then tonight me, grav and olliepower on another table which had the lowest players/flop % and lowest ave pot $ across the whole level. Why the other 3 tight players stayed for so long, I'll never know. Value on that table was like getting blood out of a stone.

Overall I did pretty good, up just over 9 buyins for the day. I ran insane good for the first 30 mins before hitting a bit of a brick wall, but finished strongly to book a solid profit. I'll probably try to win a couple more buyins at 50NL tomorrow before a 3 buyin shot at 100NL.

Link to my stats (cant believe i really played this tight!):-

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/fruitypro/1stmarch.jpg

2 hands were the highlights of the day:-

Overbet shove works a treat v guy on tilt who had 3-bet shoved me preflop a few hands before:-

FullTiltPoker Game #1896864286: Table Stardust (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 7:57:01 ET - 2007/03/01
Seat 1: XleprechaunX ($291.15)
Seat 2: scorpioonn ($29.25), is sitting out
Seat 3: schampoo ($49.25)
Seat 4: herrgeneral ($49.70)
Seat 5: JustRiveredU ($72.40)
Seat 6: Rounders121 ($43.70)
JustRiveredU posts the small blind of $0.25
Rounders121 posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to JustRiveredU [Kd Kc]
XleprechaunX folds
schampoo folds
herrgeneral folds
JustRiveredU raises to $2
Rounders121 raises to $5
JustRiveredU raises to $72.40, and is all in
Rounders121 calls $38.70, and is all in
JustRiveredU shows [Kd Kc]
Rounders121 shows [3h 8h]
Uncalled bet of $28.70 returned to JustRiveredU
spwuinmk67 (Observer): wow, lot of action
*** FLOP *** [5d Th Ac]
*** TURN *** [5d Th Ac] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [5d Th Ac 5s] [8c]
JustRiveredU shows two pair, Kings and Fives
Rounders121 shows two pair, Eights and Fives
JustRiveredU wins the pot ($84.40) with two pair, Kings and Fives
Rounders121 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $87.40 Rake $3
Board: [5d Th Ac 5s 8c]
Seat 1: XleprechaunX didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: scorpioonn is sitting out
Seat 3: schampoo didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: herrgeneral (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: JustRiveredU (small blind) showed [Kd Kc] and won ($84.40) with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 6: Rounders121 (big blind) showed [3h 8h] and lost with two pair, Eights and Fives

QQ - Overbet shove preflop v 94/52 player who had just lost a $150 pot with 92o all in preflop v AA :-)

FullTiltPoker Game #1898921590: Table Bamber (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:27:43 ET - 2007/03/01
Seat 1: jevjun ($40.40)
Seat 2: weak_nit ($129.60)
Seat 3: Gajnos ($106.50)
Seat 4: JustRiveredU ($50)
Seat 5: PATN1TROF ($82.25)
Seat 6: TunaLic ($50)
weak_nit posts the small blind of $0.25
Gajnos posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to JustRiveredU [Qs Qh]
JustRiveredU raises to $1.75
PATN1TROF folds
TunaLic folds
jevjun raises to $3
weak_nit calls $2.75
Gajnos folds
JustRiveredU raises to $50, and is all in
jevjun calls $37.40, and is all in
weak_nit folds
JustRiveredU shows [Qs Qh]
jevjun shows [Kh 5c]
Uncalled bet of $9.60 returned to JustRiveredU
*** FLOP *** [3h 6h 9h]
*** TURN *** [3h 6h 9h] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [3h 6h 9h Ac] [5d]
JustRiveredU shows a pair of Queens
jevjun shows a pair of Fives
JustRiveredU wins the pot ($81.30) with a pair of Queens
jevjun is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $84.30 Rake $3
Board: [3h 6h 9h Ac 5d]
Seat 1: jevjun (button) showed [Kh 5c] and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 2: weak_nit (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Gajnos (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: JustRiveredU showed [Qs Qh] and won ($81.30) with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: PATN1TROF didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: TunaLic didn't bet (folded)

Good luck everyone.