Bink

Only a $2.50 turbo but just feels good to win something:



I was on my last buy in and had seriously been considering having an extended break from the game, not because of the huge amounts I am losing as I am only playing small stakes mostly, but because it is time consuming and I was getting bored of the endless bad beats as I neared the money. I was just thinking to myself last night, WTF am I doing, I could be doing something much more useful with my time. When you add up the cumulative sessions playing poker, and for me this is probably at least 5 years playing on and off, it must add up to a huge amount of time playing, weeks/months, I don't know. All I do know is I will never get this time back. The more annoying thing is I don't have much to show for it, If I had a huge bank balance from winning endless tournaments it wouldn't be a waste of time at all.

I know, I know, how morbid. Now I have a dilemma, 49 buy ins at the $2.50 turbo's... I had 3 buyins this morning and if I hadn't won anything that would have been it for a while, but to actually win one, and convincingly too showing huge amounts of aggression... These could be a good game for me, I haven't played that many but I have done OK in them from a small sample, and there is scope to play higher if I do well. The problem as always with me is sticking to one game and that is what I need to strive to do. Maybe it is fate that I won when I was going to quit, we will just have to wait and see, only time will tell...

Read Read Read Read Read Read Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Learn Win Win Win Win Win Win

Lots of deep runs as I mentioned in my last post, and nothing has changed, but I am aware of my passivity late on in tournaments. Whilst others are getting bigger stacks, my chips are dwindling away. I am aware of it at the time, but I am sticking to my game, nice and solid. If I get short I know how to play. It's all dependant on cards really, if I get the cards I might cash as I have a couple of times recently. I need to start playing more hands and start winning more uncontested pots in the latter stages to take me to the next level. I remember doing this in the past, raising suited aces, suited connectors, small pairs, various other hands from late position when there has been no action. I can remember having near double figures in final tables in the month, I was playing regularly and getting my rewards. This is a long time ago now, my game has been on a steady deterioration really for years, or maybe the players are just better?!? Either way, the cashes have just become more and more less frequent. There is nothing stopping me from making a killing really apart from my ability, I have the time to play, I've no wife, no kids, work is drying up and I have the hunger to play but there is one big thing I am missing - the desire to learn. I am one lazy bastard, I lack motivation. I am not stupid, with a bit of application I could become a competant player again, I just don't seem to have this at the moment. I haven't really had any desire to learn since university, I got so sick of exams and revision that it seems to have left a lasting impression on me and transferred to everyday life. I remember saying to my mates in year 3 after my final exam that I was never going to do anymore exams again, I'm done with learning!

Well it seems I wasn't wrong, that is years ago now and I haven't learnt anything since of note. I am stuck in a dead end job because I can't be arsed applying for anything else. I just got used to the money every week and happy with my lot, no motivation to improve myself at all. I can't stick to any fitness regime or healthy eating, I just have no motivation or dedication at all. Poker is just the same, I can't be arsed to learn and improve myself and deserve everything I get, which is fuck all lately. I mentioned a couple of posts back about reading Dan Harringtons books to improve my endgame, but I think I read one page. I make myself sick sometimes.

The problem is I get all these negative feelings at this time of night after winning fuck all again and sinking a few beers, but in the morning I forget how angry I was at my predicament the previous night. If I could just bottle up my anger at myself that I feel now and have a drink of it tomorrow morning, I might actually get the books out and have a read, and get back into good habits. I think one of the main problems is that I don't need the money, I have nothing I want to buy. I have a nice car, my own house that is mortgaged but I am managing the payments fine. I could do with a new drive and the back gardens a mess but tbh it's not like I want to grind the poker to earn money to pay for it, it can be done now or it can be done in a few years time I'm not really all that interested. If I won a few thousand dollars, I wouldn't know what to do with it. I still don't like wasting my money though and it is upsetting me that I keep depositing and not getting anywhere. I guess I would just like to win money and save it because you never know when you are going to need it!

Probably just been waffling but fuck it, here's a couple of things I've been listening to recently to leave ya with, first a live version of Birdy's new one:



And this is fucking awesome, Queen from live aid:



Laters

Just when you need to run good...

Still playing when I can really, and still having lots of deep runs. I have had 1 final table since my last post, but had to leave the game because I had agreed to go and meet someone at a certain time which was kinda frustrating. I know you shouldn't start a game if you are not going to be able to finish it, but it just went on foreverrrrr, I am sure an hour passed at the final table and nobody got eliminated... think I finished 6th or 7th.

Anyway, I just had another deep run finishing 51st/1239 running my measly AA into Q8, I should know better to play such poor hands and of course he flopped trip 8's and I was gone. Serves me right, I shall fold it pre flop in future.

I shall keep persevering anyway, I think my best chances are on ipoker with the smaller fields. I can definately sense a big cash coming!

Laters

Wasting my time

I am not wasting my time playing poker, hell no! I am wasting my time playing poker incredibly badly. People are making a killing playing the tournaments on iPoker, I just looked up a couple on sharkscope that I had seen on my tables, one had $40k profit from around 4000 games, another had $16k profit from a measly 300 MTT's. There is no reason that cannot be me, absolutely none at all. All I need to do is sort out my endgame as it continuously lets me down. I have just bubbled two MTT's after getting myself in great positions once again with solid aggressive poker. It is a recurring theme finishing just short of the money, or minimum cashing and I know myself that I am playing badly. I fritter away my chips, play too many pots out of position, get my chips in bad too often, etc, etc. I just don't know what I am doing in the latter stages these days, I've forgotten everything I ever knew. So it is time to sort it out and get studying instead of being lazy, I am wasting a great opportunity of a substantial second income. Dan Harrington's books seem as good a place to start as any...

Trying something different

My last couple of poker sessions I have been playing the 180 player turbo's on Jokerstars. I deposited a meagre $25 to give me 10 games at the $2.50 games to try them out and I must admit I am really enjoying them. One minute your a big stack, then your a small stack, then your a big stack again, the way your fortunes alter in the latter stages in these is quite mind boggling, because the stacks relative to the blinds mean it is generally just push/shove poker. You obviously need to suck out quite a lot to win one of these, but I have done OK, with 3 good runs in my short sample, with 2 cashes, a 16th and a 6th. The thing I like about these is they are cheap and aren't damaging my life bankroll and there is scope to move upto bigger buyins if I do well, as traffic is good at higher buyins unlike some of the European sites where traffic can be shit.

So I guess I shall just persevere with these for the timebeing and try and enjoy them, and hopefully I can make a few $'s also!

Keep your head up, keep your heart strong.

I have a really depressing post written down on my word processor but I feel in a lighter mood now than I did earlier. Poker hadn't been going good (too much tinkering with my game after a couple of none cashes, when there was nothing wrong with my game) and life in general isn't great with work drying up and probably going to have to look for another job. There are plenty worse off though, I shouldn't be all doom and gloom all the time. I am striving to get fit and lose a bit of weight (about a stone hopefully) and I feel better for going to the gym, even though I haven't lost anything yet I feel much fitter. I also seem to have got my game back together in the 6 player turbo's, turning $5.50 into $52.50 single tabling $5.50 games, just concentrating on playing well, probably around 8 to 10 games or so in total. At the end of the day I don't need to multi table these if I can consistently win in them, for example if I had been playing the $22 games and had the same win rate I would have won $200 today. I would be delighted with this, or even half of it per day!! Looking back to a couple of posts back I wrote how I should stop playing these games because I am rubbish at them, but seriously, they should be beatable if you can play consistently solid poker. I realise this now, stop moaning and get on with it John FFS!

I'll leave you with this lovely song. Positive mental attitude!

I need to stop posting drunk

Sober post coming tomorrow, as I am drunk again.

I want to be a Multi Table grinder

I want to make money from playing lots of poker tournaments over the internet. I have the game, I think. I make some bad decisions but you can't get them all right. What I need to do is start playing at around 5 or 6pm and start registering for the $5 and $10 games, and get a few on the go. My game is not that complicated that this should be a huge burden on me, at the moment I am just lazy. I would rather play 1 table and bang out the music and get pissed, or do something like champ manager or angry birds on my phone on the side. I guess to summise, I need to get more professional. I can manage 4 tables, I should do this regularly when I am not working (which is quite a lot recently). I just need to crack on really. I have gotten into so many great positions recently, only to lose a huge pot with the best hand and get sucked out on. My game is there, I just need to up the volume to reduce the variance. I also need to stop playing the 6 player turbo's!!!! I am shite at them...

I have a question, for anyone who may be reading. You (me) raise in lateish position, and the SB says 'I've had enough, cya later guys' and goes all in. You call and the wanker bastard bitch shows AK, is this cheating? This is a hypothetical situation of course...................

If Carlsberg did river cards

Never really been one for folding Kings pre flop. And what a river! Lovely

Where one should focus ones energies:

Sharkscope of ones Donkament and Sit and Gay results:



As can be seen from the image above, dear readers, all the energy expended on SNG Turbo's has been a big fat waste of time. I may or may not be in slight profit due to rakeback only. MTT's though are an altogether different kettle of fish:



As can be seen from the graph above, one cashes with some regularity although I dread to think of the amount of games I've donked out of when playing poorly. They are obviously (to me anyway) the easiest way to make money from the game. The big problem has been volume, it has probably taken me years to play 281 tournaments on this account, prior to donking SNG's on iPoker I had been donking out of them on Full Tilt, only stopping when it ceased to exist. If I could just focus my energies into playing them more often I might actually make some money, the results are there in black and white. It is just so soul destroying when you get donked out on after hours of perseverance which tends to set me back a bit, for example the 7 2 hand in my previous post. It sent me on mini tilt in subsequent tournies and I have hardly played for a couple of weeks. I managed 2nd/107 today though for $171, which was nice. I was poor heads up but I shall put it down to rustiness.

Must play more tournaments!

Laters

A bit frustrating

When you get to a final table and this happens. It had all been going wonderfully till then, chip leader as we hit the final table and out in 6th eventually. WTF is he doing, 1 to call raise and 2 - go all in with 7 2 after I C bet on the flop. This shit always happens to me, makes me wonder what's the point. Big fat waste of time.

Why Grind?

This is the question I asked myself earlier today, whilst I was grinding two tables. What I mean is, why am I playing poker like someone who is playing 20 tables when I only have two on the go? I was playing ABC poker and enduring a run of 8 winless games in the 6 player turbo’s, when I came to the realisation that I should be exploiting the players that are playing ABC poker, instead of joining them. I decided to loosen up a bit, played more smaller pairs and marginal hands like suited connectors and weaker aces than I usually do, and shock horror I had a massive improvement in fortunes. I am not even sure it is possible to grind these games on iPoker, you would think it would be but every reg I look up on sharkscope is very marginally either side of break even through hundreds or thousands of SNG’s. One of the guys I have seen a lot and has won more money than most is some Russian geezer who is just over $1K up from a mind boggling 19599 SNG’s, average stake $8, ROI 1%. I mean, WTF, what is the point. Maybe he is on a huge rake deal or leaderboard thing where he makes his money in bonuses, I dunno.

Anyway, my new strategy is just to play my own game and actually enjoy myself stacking these regs. I just won one stacking someone with 4 2 suited when I flopped two pair in level one and got the chips in against his KK and held, and actually won the thing in 17 minutes, some record for me as they usually take between 25 and 35 minutes...

In other news, there was a dead body in a skip at work this week...

Todays Betaroonies

I've gone for 5 premiership and 5 championship, two separate bets:

MAN CITY, STOKE, ARSENAL AND CHELSEA WINS, AND MANURE DRAW WITH BOLTON £5 ON FOR POTENTIAL £185 ON BILLY HILL

BURNLEY, WEST HAM, LEEDS, SOUTHAMPTON AND CARDIFF TO PICK UP HOME WINS, £5 ON FOR £101 RETURN

I am looking through rose tinted glasses expecting a Burnley win as we have been pretty poor, but I gain a little encouragement after our win away at Derby in our last match.

Loving this at the moment:



Laters

Championship Manager, the bane of my life

Not the new Championship Manager though, a really old one, season 03/04 infact, where Thierry Henry is by far the greatest player in the world, and every game he gets 2 goals (minimum) and the man of the match award. I have been playing on this loads lately, I'm in the year 2021 and the players are all computer generated. Ben Blake and Andy Pearson are awesome!

Back to real life and I have been doing OK on the poker, although I seem to have hit a brick wall. From an $11 deposit I got my bankroll to $400 playing $5 and then $10 6 player turbo's, but I have been fluctuating between $300 and $400 for a while now. I just can't seem to string a few 1st place finishes together, something that I was doing plenty of as I seemed to rocket to $400. I guess I was running really good and didn't realise it, and now I'm running a combination of bad/average. Hopefully I can grind out of this rut because I want to have a crack at some $20 turbo's if I can get my roll upto $500. I am in no hurry, just a few games when I am in the mood, nice and relaxed mindset for the poker these days.

Hope y'all running good, laters

WEEZER FTW

Graft

Wow, it's been a while! I really haven't had too much to post about, I haven't been playing too much poker at all. Just the occasional $5 SNG(ay). Oh yeah, so Americans can't play poker online anymore? This is pretty sad, I really feel for those that played professionally. So what have I been doing? Well thanks for asking, I shall let you know now....

WORKING

I have just been ploughing in 55 hour weeks and selling stuff on Ebay, after moving into my own place I wasn't sure how I would cope financially but I'm fine really and don't actually need to work like a dog, 33 hours a week would do me but we are busy at the moment and the money does come in useful I suppose. With regards Ebay, I have just been going charity shops and car boots and banging stuff on the net for a profit, Amazon also, books and stuff. I am no expert but I'm not bad :) Got £500 in my Paypal account now anyway. I was thinking about putting a decent sized deposit on a site with the money but I am not sure if I have the game to make a profit :(

Just as I wrote this I am playing a couple of games and have just seen my 10's crushed by donko's 3's on the river. Poker sucks! It's a mugs game...

Anyway, that's where I'm at, to deposit or not to deposit, and where.

Take care guys xx

Getting killed

I have started playing cash and I have a rather big problem. Everything appears to be going along swimmingly, I am winning a few little pots, racking up my Ipoints and then when I get the big hands I am losing my stack, it's really demoralising! It started off yesterday when I lost with QQ against a small paired flopped set, then I managed to get all my chips in with 777 on the flop against opponents AA (turn A!). I then got drunk and played some hands badly and deserved to lose my money...

So, I had nothing left of my deposit on Betmost and decided to play a few rush poker donkaments on Full Tilt this morning, but nothing materialised, my best finish 37th/245. Unpeturbed I decided to try the cash table on Full Tilt. It was all going well again, winning a few little pots until the following hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #29469950384: Table Amhurst (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - No Limit Hold'em - 06:55:00 ET - 2011/03/30
Seat 1: WillyC1978 ($19.22)
Seat 2: jerkY56068 ($10)
Seat 3: Brown Jenkin ($9.96)
Seat 4: brianmoss6677 ($13.36)
Seat 5: janverbe ($6.80)
Seat 6: penpenatraded ($7.40)
janverbe posts the small blind of $0.05
penpenatraded posts the big blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Brown Jenkin [Ks Kc]
WillyC1978 folds
Brown Jenkin raises to $0.30
brianmoss6677 calls $0.30
janverbe calls $0.25
penpenatraded raises to $0.60
Brown Jenkin has 15 seconds left to act
Brown Jenkin raises to $1.60
brianmoss6677 folds
janverbe folds
penpenatraded raises to $3.60
Brown Jenkin raises to $9.96, and is all in
penpenatraded calls $3.80, and is all in
Brown Jenkin shows [Ks Kc]
penpenatraded shows [9h As]
Uncalled bet of $2.56 returned to Brown Jenkin
*** FLOP *** [2s 5c 5s]
*** TURN *** [2s 5c 5s] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [2s 5c 5s Ac] [9c]
Brown Jenkin shows two pair, Kings and Fives
penpenatraded shows two pair, Aces and Nines
penpenatraded wins the pot ($14.38) with two pair, Aces and Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $15.40 | Rake $1.02
Board: [2s 5c 5s Ac 9c]
Seat 1: WillyC1978 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: jerkY56068 is sitting out
Seat 3: Brown Jenkin showed [Ks Kc] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 4: brianmoss6677 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: janverbe (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: penpenatraded (big blind) showed [9h As] and won ($14.38) with two pair, Aces and Nines

I honestly don't know why I play this game.

Oh FFS, this wasn't supposed to happen!!

I was all set for my cash jaunt, I had emailed Betmost poker on the iPoker network and told them to sort out my account. I used to play a lot of tournaments on there and did quite well but when my credit card expired the shitty site wouldn't let me add a new card and so I couldn't deposit. I emailed them about it at the time and they never got back to me, so I thought I would play elsewhere if that's how they treat their punters! I was on a very good rakeback deal though, and entry to some nice freerolls each month so I have decided to go back now that I am going to be playing cash as the high rakeback should come in useful.

They got back to me, they are going to sort it apparently. I was bored waiting for them to sort it though, so I deposited $11 on Full Tilt to play a couple of SNG's (I just can't help myself). Anyway, 5 45 player SNG's later and I've had a 1st and a 2nd and turned my $11 into $116



The cash poker will have to wait, I have to keep playing these until they flick the doomswitch now.

Laters

My Blog Died, 2011 update

Good evening all, as the title suggests I couldn't post or anything on my old blog, I wrote quite a few rubbish posts but it wouldn't let me publish them (what a shame). We are approaching the end of March 2011 and so far this year my poker has been a farce bar one decent MTT success. After this I went on a bit of a downswing and decided that it would be best if I withdrew my roll and spent the money on something more worthwhile. I have kept depositing in dribs and drabs but haven't been able to get anything going unfortunately, I find this all extremely frustrating and wonder why I bother even trying.

I just don't have the funds anymore to go blowing it willy nilly, I have moved into my house and hence have my mortgage plus bills to pay every month, and work has dried up at a bad time. I am just scraping by at the moment, I have savings but I want them to stay as savings and am not looking to use them, especially not on the poker. So as I sit here writing this garbage I have absolutely no money in any poker account and am not really looking to deposit anymore at the moment.

I am clear on one thing though, I have had enough of SNG's and MTT's. When I do decide to start playing again I will be having a do at 6 max cash. I played a bit 10c/20c on Pokerstars the other day and won $10 in no time really. I am not looking to play on Pokerstars though, the software is excellent of course but I will be looking for a nice little European site with good rakeback/deposit bonus or both, if anyone knows of anything let me know. I know this won't be easy to make money either but I have had that many sick beats in the MTT's recently that it has killed my motivation to play them, if there was no river card I would be quids in! At least by playing cash you can win your money back when you get sucked out on, and you can play more actual poker being so deep stacked, the push shove donkeys are tilting me to fuck sucking out all the time when I'm dominating.... It tilts me just writing it down and thinking about the beats! No more SNG's and MTT's!!

Burnley have a new manager after replacing that useless bastard Brian Laws and Eddie Howe has done an excellent job since taking over, and everyone is much more optimistic. He tends to stick to a winning team which is nice to see and rewards the players for doing a good job, I never knew where I was with Brian Laws, players would be playing well and he would take them off, and then they wouldn't even be in the team for the following match - absolutely clueless! We are going through a poor spell the last few games but the international break has come at a good time, we can re-focus and push for the play off's. If we can get in the play off's anything is possible, we could be back in the big time next season!

Working tomorrow missing the England cricket and football matches, gutted isn't a good enough word to describe how I feel about that!

Laters