Dusk Till Dawn 1st visit

A week last Friday I had the pleasure of going to the new Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham. The club is reputed to be the biggest poker club in Europe. It has to be said, it is fantastic. With it being the opening weekend we were met with champagne and canapes at the door then onto the bar for a few quick ones before the £100 freeze out started at 7:30pm. An intersting side note is that if ou play online at Dusk Till Dawn you can convert Crypto MPPs into tournie buy ins at Dusk Till Dawn, anyone who plays a fair bit can essentially freeroll in a few live MTTs a month using this feature. Nice option to have.

The club is owned and run by poker players and you can tell. The MTT structure was excellent and if anything may have been a touch... and only a touch slow. The 108 runner game ended up having to do a 5 way chip count at 6am when the time ran out.



I thought that with it being a dedicated poker club on a invite only opening weekend the field would be very good and while there were a few faces amongst the runners I was surprised to quickly assess my opening table as about 60-70% weak passive. With that in mind I didn't waste any time getting busy and had doubled my starting 5k in chips by level 2/3. There was some shocking play at my table from a few... some did not know what they were doing but I was surprised to find out that one of the guys was a big poster on the Blonde forum... goes to show you should not always believe what u read on the internet. He managed to pass his BB to an early min raise with 5 callers?!??!?! FishandChips was one of the few i rated at the table and it was nice to say hi to a fellow blogger.

My favourite hand from the opening levels was against a guy who had a really bad tell. He looked a little like Napoleon Dynamite which amused me no end.


Heads up for rollz Napoleon?

He'd already played and hand vs someone else where he was obviously on a overpair and obviously behind and i'd watched him and thought I had him pretty much pegged. Anyway I'd raised it in mid-late pos with As9s and get min reraised which I have to call. At this point in time I'm thinking AK / AQ for matey boy. He looks like he's got a hand, flop comes J T 2 . Just one look at him and i know he's missed it so I lead out. He flat calls, I'm sure he's got no pair but a touch worried that I'm not going to be able to get him off it. Turn comes a lovely 9 for me. All my money goes in and he obliges with a call for all his stack with AK... i had him well covered.

I managed to double my stack only showing one hand and as is usually the case managed to get dumped back down to earth with a total monster. I managed to flop a set of Kings in a raised and re-raised pot only to lose to 9T on a K T Q J board... how he managed to see a turn with me firing big at it was beyond me. I then floated up and down between 7 and 14k for a long time. A break came when I jammed preflop with JJ vs AK .... the A K 2 flop did not look good but a T on the turn and rivered Q pointed my in the right direction and I doubled up again the very next hand with AK on a KK5 flop. He picked a flush draw on the turn and decided to ask me a question.... he got an answer.

I was then chipped up and in no mood to muck about, a blind vs blind headbut but saw me making what was probably a bad call with QTs to the BBs all in. I'd raised to 4k and he jammed for another 13k extra. He flipped A9 and there were a few gaping mouths when I called with QT.... a ten obliged the river and matey boy exited muttering something about bad players.

We were down to last 17 or so and I was a comfortable chip lead at this point. Here the make or break hand came. I've already posted this on the Betfair forum and it managed to split opinion quite well. I think next time I may well pass but it has to be said ... getting them in is much more fun.

I'm stacked up on about 80k or so, the guy to my left is also on a chunk of about 45k. I raised it up to 4k with 5s6s. He flat calls and the flop comes a rather nice looking 6c 4s 9s. I check looking to check raise and he just sticks his remaining 40k into the pot!?

Now I dwell this up for a long time. Obviously I'm probably behind most of the time, the question is do I want to gamble on hitting one of my 13 or so outs in order to command 25% of the chips in play with 17 players left? :) I finally decide that WTF am im playing 56s for if I pass on this flop and stick 'em in. He sighs and say good call and flips 88. Running red Queens and I'm back in the mire. I make it into the money and then the final table but walk a A9 steal into the BB with Aces and that was my end in 9th place for £220. Oh well always next time, at least I have my second entry on the Hendon Mob results database now!

Dusk Till Dawn is fantastic and what's more it has it's heart in the right place! It deserves every poker players support and I would encourage everyone to give it a visit!

Back to the grind

Over the past 4 years or so most of my poker has been cash games. So i decided to go back and have a dabble last week... big mistake. I was playing fairly LAG (too much heads up) and managed to find myself 2nd best in a number of pots that I could not get away from AK on a KK2 flop where hes holding 22 etc. I then missed an up and down straight flush draw with two overcards to top pair. I then folded a up and down straight flush draw with two all ins before me... i held 2h3h so i figured one of them prob had a higher flush draw of course I was wrong and i'd have hit and would have won a huge pot. Anyway that put paid to the cash session and I left feeling a little bruised.

I've not had much luck in MTTs either. I've been playing low stakes 100-200 runners comps with added money or a decent guarantee. The best of which is the outstanding value in the William Hill Super Series MTTs. They run 4 of these a week and they are exclusive to Hills

Sunday 16:00 UK - £7,500 ADDED Buy-In £35 + £4
Monday 19:30 UK - £3,500 ADDED Buy-In £15 + £2
Wednesday 19:30 UK - £1,500 ADDED Buy-In £7.50 + £1 (requires 25 MPPs earnt in the previous 7 days)
Friday 19:30 UK - £500 ADDED Buy-In £2.50 + £0.50 (requires 20 MPPs earnt in the previous 7 days)

I've mainly been playing the £7500 added one, the prize pool is usually around £15000 and so it's fantastic value. Last week I was running really well moving towards the latter stages when I get it all in on a rag flop with Aces... he calls with Kings and the river obliges with a two outer. Was a bit gutted as I was playing well and though I'd have a shot at a win if I won that pot.

Where I have been running good is in Sat and STTs. I'm in the Monthly BF $150k on Sunday for $50 at the first time of asking and I've also qualified 3 times from 3 attempts for the weekly $3000 Passport game for $20, think its just matter of time before I win one. HU is going okish... keep grinding away then seem to hit a bad run of 4-5 on the bounce every few days. The success in the small Sats prompted me to play a few six handed STTs and I've won more than my fair share. I may dabble more in these over the next week or two.

On the live front Dusk Till Dawn opens next week and I'm really looking forward to it!! I'm bought in for the £100 Freeze Out on the Friday night and I'm really looking forward to playng live again.

On the work from I've decided to take a bit more work on. This is really to take the pressure off a small bank roll at the moment. We'll see how it's going and review again is a few months.

Cheers for the support on the comments,

Jim

Busto!

Whoops! Well I had been sailing close to the wind for a while. Running the bankroll down to the bare bones and spinning it up was bound to come and bite me on the arse sooner or later. I'd been running okish on the $200 HU games for a few days just showing a small profit from being up 3 or 4 games each day and managed to work off the cash loss from early October. Then the wheels came off, I saw a player that I'm well up against sat on the $400 tables and proceeded to drop 4 games on the bounce, I then went into freefall.... I could not win a game for love nor money and as the red mist settled I was looking at a £2k loss for the day and not an awful lot left in the tank. The next day started pretty much as the previous one had ended and I had to reserve £1k to pay the bills. By 7pm I had £53 left in Betfair, £2.50 in Hills and £1.73 in Bluesquare. So technically not bust :)

Now this left me with a tough decision. I've always said that if i lost the bank roll I'd go back to work full time. Having said that in the past 30months since I went 'semi pro' I've ploughed thousands out of the poker fund into the 'house keeping' fund. There's also the family aspect to consider. Jack is 17months old now and a total terror! I've spent so much time with him over that period and no one will ever be able to take that away. I've got friends who leave the house at 6am and return at 8pm monday to friday and never see their kids grow up. Shell is also still working 3 days a week, so income is low. Neither of us want to give up the lifestyle we have at the moment but the bills need to be paid.

I've had few quid rakeback come in for various accounts and this only adds up to about £1k from not much play in October. With the agreement of the Mrs (mainly cos she does not want to go back to work) for the first time ever I've nabbed £3k from our 'rainy day fund' to create a £4k bankroll starting November the 1st. I've started a new Profit and Loss spreadsheet and the aim is to keep the stakes low, focus on paying the bills while slowly building up the roll to is former glory.

So far so good.... not played much since November started but £600 up from solid play on the low stakes HU games (mostly $100 and $150s).

It's really is time to stop dicking about, get back to basics and earn some money. Failing that the Mrs will have to go back to work :)

Quick update on new improved Hills rakeback payments

Hills are improving their rakeback payment structure from Nov 1st and launching a new bonus promotion for new and existing players.

New rakeback will be based on the following MPPs earned per week and payed on a weekly basis...

MPPs Gross %
0 – 1199: 30%
1200 – 1849: 31%
1850 – 2499: 34.88%
2500+: 38.75%

The new bonus is based on MMPs earned per month and you are payed $100 for every 1000mpps up to a max of $500.

Click here to sign up for Hills rakeback.

Why is the beginning of the month always a struggle?

Been getting lots of stick for not updating so after a bit of a break I shall now endeavour to keep going with regular updates. Hope there's still people dropping in to read this!

Ever since i started playing poker I've noticed a bit of an annoying pattern in my profit and loss trends. I'd work my socks off to ensure that by my month end I'd show a decent profit for that period, then I'd breathe out, take stock and start working on the next month. Invariably I'd start the new month off by doing my total nuts. I've talked to a few other people and they'd say the same thing. The Mrs does it as well! You then spend the next 2 weeks trying to work your way back to a break even point.

Octobers start of month plummet was particularly spectacular. I'd been playing a bit more cash and started with an afternoon session on the 5/10 tables, I managed to donk off $5000 in about 90mins, the 1st two buyins went south when all in with 2pair and then a set... the hands were virtually carbon copies and was up against top pair top kicker both times. The 1st he catches a better two pair and the second hits a double gutshot straight on the turn and river. On tilt i then walked KK into AA and AA then KK busted vs low sets. Wonderful.

Fortunately things bounced back a little sooner than expected. I managed to win a big chunk of it back in the evening placing 3rd in the BF 16k MTT. I'm playing this once or twice a week at the moment and managed a 1st and 3rd in the past month or two.

I'm still border line in terms of my bankroll... I keep building it up taking a chunk out to spend on something leaving it a touch exposed and then having a bad run to put myself in dire straights.... then knuckle down and build it back up again. I'm curently on my 3rd or 4th cycle of this, it's bad BR management I know but I've got other priorities at the moment.

It's quite scary that 2007 is nearly over. Live poker has been a huge disappointment for me this year, not because I've lost, but because I've not played. No satellite wins and no real trips of any note other than a few excursions to the Broadway in Brum. With Dusk Till Dawn opening in Nottingham next month I'm determined to get up there at least a few times a month. One fantastic thing about DTD is that you can use your MPPs to buy stuff and tournament entries from the live club. Anyone playing a reasonable amount of poker can rack up some decent buyins for free within a month or two. Well worth a look!.

Target St Kitts

Well the HU experiment progresses. July has (so far) not been as kind as June and I'm currently looking at a £1500 loss to date, all of which can be traced to a rather ill timed tilt session on Saturday night. Me and the Mrs had a bit of a tiff and I sit down in no mood to mess about. I spot someone who I'm 8-3 up against sat at the $400 HU table on BF and decide to up my game from the usual $250 game. A few hours later and I'm 6-1 down for the session and in a $2k+ hole.... ooops! Apart from that its been a bit sideways, I think I need to work on my game selection a bit more. There are one or two people who I just can't seem to get the better of. Instead of avoiding them I look on it as a challenge and continue to donate! The funny thing is these people are usually not very good.. you can see from their BR leader board or Sharkscope data that they dont win much.... except off me!

I'm probably looking to widen my base in terms of poker rooms as well, I don't think playing HU on one site day in day out is a smart move. The players u can beat a lot tend to avoid you and the players that think they have the edge on you come and find you.

I've set myself two targets for the coming months. Crypto have now started St Kitts CPC sats and I'm under orders from the Mrs to win one. 2nd I've opened a Bluesquare account to take a shot at winning a seat in the GUKPT event in Luton in August. It's £1k entry but we'll see if I can get in cheap.

It's also worth noting that the long awaited rakeback shake up on Crypto has now taken place. Hills and a number of the other Crypto skins have adopted a weekly paid tiered structure based on MPPs earned on the following basis.


0 - 99 MPPs 15.50%
100 - 599 MPPS 23.25%
600 -1999 MPPS 27.13%
1,200- 1,849 MPPS 31%
1,850- 2,499 MPPS 34.88%
2,500 +MPPS 38.75%

All % figures are gross rakeback. Good for the smaller player as you dont have to meet a minimum spend to get something back. Bit of a reduction from the previous offering for the big player but 38.75% is still not to be sniffed at.


Finally a big shout for Deejay and Doobs, both top blokes and part of Team Betfair in LV for the main event. Both going very well at the end of day 2!!

Sunshine on a rainy day

Weekend saw an early departure on Saturday morning as me and the Mrs and a group of friends headed south for Ascot. Jack had chosen that morning to take his 1st tottering steps and so despite the slightly bleary eyes from a late Friday night and 6:30am wakeup on Saturday morning I was in good spirits.

Dodging the downpours at Ascot, me and the Mrs had already polished off one bottle of fizz before it was time to look at the card for the 1st race. I'd not had anything to eat and the legs were feeling a bit wobbly so while I went to get some food I left the Mrs to put some bets on.... she managed to put twice as much as I'd asked her and the nag failed to place. The double up on the red hot fav in the 2nd also went south and I was already staring at a £300 hole after two races. 3rd race followed suit. 4th was more disappointing as my pick was nosed out on the line after being in front for the last 300yds.

5th race saw a 10-1 shot come in 2nd and returned some money back in my direction. 6th bailed out the day and paid ticket, taxis and all 3 bottles of bubbly we'd consumed by this point , as another 10-1 shot stormed home. Can't remember what happened in the 7th as we had another bottle to celebrate not losing. After this the day starts to blur a little.

We got a taxi across to Basingstoke in time for the start of the now legendary Duffs home game. 53 runners at £100 a head saw a decent enough prize pool. A few more beers to top up the levels and we were off. I vaguely remember playing like a total headcase and bulldozing the table while yo-yoing up and down my stack. I've been assured that I was suffering from acute verbal diarrhea much to the amusement of most of the table. The cards went well and when they didn't I stuck them in and picked the pot up taking care not to put the stack in too much danger ( i think). Managed to upset one of the Bf forum guys with a KJ vs AK suck out but and i had him well covered.

Mrs Splash was also playing and went stage left early doors after walking into Ariston JJ with AK and no help. Quote from Mrs Splash on Ariston "Talks a lot doesn't he?"

Next thing I know (I may well have dozed off at some point) its final table time and Im chip lead with about 105k. 4 hands later I'm down to about 15k after highstack refused to lay down top pair decent kicker on a flush board. One double up with AK and another with a very lucky A5 vs QQ where i somehow managed to river three 5s and it was game on again. (On a side note I was going to title this entry "Sunshine on a rainy day... makes my fives trip trip waheyyy!" but decided it was far too naff!

The decisive hand of the night came via what i think was a mistake by the guy to my right when we were 4 handed. There were three big stack and one short stack. Blinds are something like 6000-12000 and the short stack jams for about 30k.... the big stack just flat calls and leaves me no choice but to call with K3os. Flop makes me 2 pair and him an up and down. He checks, I bet, he jams and i call. No help for mateyboy and I take two out to leave me heads up with about 75% of the chips.

By this time its 4:30am and Im cream crackered and in no mood for tactical raise pass play, I call an ALL IN with Ace Rag and he catches one of his two under cards to make it about 50/50 chips wize. Two minutes later and Js9d sees a Jd 4 d7d all the money goes in and he flips 6d 5c for an up and down. A diamond obliges on the river and it turns out I've got him covered by just 500 chips.

So Wonky is Duffs Homie Champ for 2007 :) £1800 plus a nice trophy for the trouble.

The HU stuff is still going very well. Still trying to catch Hawko on the BF leader board. Made up a lot of ground but may have to wait until next month in order to mount a full challenge for the top spot. Buzzer is currently 2nd and I'm pretty confident I can overtake him in the next week. Without a total tilt session this week, the month should be safely looking at a five figure +ive ....... boy it's good to be back!

Mojo returns!

Well so far so good on the heads up experiment. I’m sat here trying to figure out why I didn’t do this a while ago. In the space of two weeks I’ve managed to eradicate 5months of decidedly average cash games and build the bank roll back up to a decent level. To be honest it’s a big relief and feels bloody good to win a decent chunk.

I’ve really been working hard at it on the $200-$400 games on BF and Crypto and showing a very good return on both. Even though I had a bit of a late start in June on these I’m well placed on the Betfair High Stakes STT monthly league. I think hawko (Mr G Reaper) will take some catching in 1st spot but if I can put the hours in I’ll give it a go. The HU STTs on Crypto are gradually gaining more players but these sort of games are ideal for playing across multiple sites to ensure I can always get a game.

BF is now playable and they seem to be ironing out most of the bugs that were causing all those problems pre Christmas. The new resizable screens are good. I think the games are a touch softer than Crypto in places, there is some value in the MTTS but they still lagging a bit behind Hills on the rakeback stakes running at 30-36% compared to Hills 30-55%.

The prize for winning the Dream Team weekly league was an entry to a $750 WSOP sat on BF. It’s just about to start now so I’ll be off. May well post some pics from Duffs home game/ ascot over the weekend.

Good Luck

Jim

Two big chances go begging!

Well I'd like to say the holiday in Spain was totally relaxing, but 4 couples and 5 babies (4 of which were under 12months old) made for a bit of a hectic week. Jack, who usually sleeps like a log from 7.30pm to 7am was ill and very grumpy for the last 4 days and promptly gave it to me on our return. The 'break' seemed to work well for the poker though the last few days in May proved quite profitable with a £2k + and saw a nice bounce back from what could have been a very poor month.

The 1st week in June saw two golden opportunities to qualify for major tournaments, the first being the final of the BadBeat Dream Team league. Our team (ChipsMonkies) were hands down winners of the league and this translated to bigger starting stacks in the live final for the 4 team members playing. I was up in Manchester for Jacks birthday but Doobs kept me updated with progress. In the end we just lost out in 2nd place when Doobs jammed with Kings on the final table only to be called by QT! A king on the flop looked to seal it but running J and A sealed the ChipMonkies fate and saw the 8 EPT seats go begging.

Not all was lost as each team member picked up a few hundred quid for the two final table places and a complimentary entry to this Thursdays $750 WSOP qualifier on BF. I also played in a $7000 WSOP ten seater freeroll with Hills. Only 5 from 10 turned up and one of those was 30mins late!! I ran ok early on when it didn't matter and very badly as the blinds started to kick in. I picked up Jacks on a ten high flop and had to pass when I was re-raised all-in by the table rock. 10mins later and it's me and Mr Rock again. I'd told him that I didn't have enough to pass to a re-raise again and AQ on a Ace high flop looked good enough to me.... in go the chips and he flips AK. Very disappointing, but when it's not your day, it's not your day.

I've decided to have a bit of a change in June poker wise, Crypto have finally introduced Heads Up Sit and Go tournaments. I've played a few of these on Betfair recently with a few quid I had in the old BF account and i've enjoyed some success. I've decided to play little or no cash in June and concentrate on these HU games to see how it goes. So far so good, I'm mainly playing £100-£200 games and already managed to tilt a few of the better players with some quality nutcase play. The target is to play 400-500 of these a month and aim for a ROI of > 5% plus rakeback. I'm still finding it hard to put the hours in, it seems like every weekend we've got something on or somewhere to go. The house is finished downstairs now and we've just had 2 weeks of non stop parties for Jack and Shells birthdays. Hopefully I can pull my finger out and knuckle down. The good thing about the HU games is you can squeeze one or two into a spare half hour as opposed to sitting down for a few hours for a cash session. It also places less pressure on a depleted bank roll than cash games do, so hopefully it will suit.

The Mrs has booked some tickets for the Saturday at Royal Ascot (23rd) so I need to dust off the suit, it's on the same day as the legendary Duffs Home game in Basingstoke so me and MrsSplash will be making the trip across (half cut I should imagine) to play in the £100 Freeze out. I'll prob take the camera and post a few pics for the Betfair forum readers.

Cheers,

Jim

Slow painful death?

I saw a documentary about air disasters a few years ago. There were several crashes caused by faulty steering column on a certain make of plane. In normal operation it was fine but if the pilot jammed the stick hard right or hard left it would fail to respond. If the pilot let go and centred the stick and then gently moved the stick right or left it was ok again. Of course when a pilot was reacting to a sudden abnormal wind sheer he'd jam it hard left and nothing happened. The plane would go out of control and the pilot would be pushing the stick harder and harder when all he needed to do was let go.

I'm feeling at bit like those pilots at the moment, I'm playing a bit too much poker and things are not going too great. Had some shocking suckouts again in the past week or two. I then react with bad play and end up doing more money. I should know better. In the great scheme of things it's not a total disaster but I've never had a run like this before.... I've done huge chunks in a short period in the past but this is the 1st extended run of just losing a bit each month. It's almost laughable when you look at the figures, but it's exposed how fragile a £10-£15k roll can be when you a taking a regular salary out.

Jan: Lost 2k (no biggie right?)
Feb: Lost 1k (no biggie right?)
March: Break even
April: Break even

Now add to that £1k a month salary (plus some house spending) and it's a £9k down swing!

There's still a bit left in the bankroll, but any plans to go to Vegas for the WSOP have been canned (again!). As with each time I've had a bad patch in the past I find my mind turning to alternative sources of income. I put a few wheels in motion in this respect last year, some success but perhaps should have given it more effort. The trouble is when you are riding high at the tables on a fat roll it does not look like a worth while activity. So, here is a note to self! If I ever drag myself out of this slow painful bankroll bleed and get things back on course then I need to put a bit of effort into other 'non poker' income generating activity!! Please feel free to remind me of this the next time I post a decent win!

In the mean time I'm taking my hand off the steering column a little, reducing the hours and taking a break. A week of R&R in Spain should do the trick.

Good luck,

Jim

How to dump half the bank roll in two days

Well it's not quite as bad as it sounds! But it could be better. I was having a think about the roll and the house and all the other stuff that's going on at the moment. Having just laid out the best part of £60k on doing up the house I decided to liberate some of the bank roll to pay for some of the finishing touches... you know the essentials like a load of Denon AV kit, a new 40" Bravia, some Kef surround speakers and a new music server.

A bit of retail therapy always cheers you up, and with me spending most of my time on $2/5 at the moment the roll could handle it. Having just paid out for all this I decide to hit what looks like a couple of gentle £2/5 games. Now never let it be said that the poker gods don't like me spending the roll on frivolous items of consumerism but the cards that came off the deck had to be seen to be believed....

You think you a pretty safe on with Ah2h on a Jh Kh Th flop don't you? Erm not when matey boy is holding Qh9h! I was busy nursing the wounds and explaining to the Mrs how this was a 'once every two years hand' and not a problem when I rivered the nut full with Pocket aces (9 9 2 T A) only to see mateyboy flip over the stone cold coconuts of quad nines after all the money had gone in?!?!?!?!?!?!? Tilt-arama ensued as I had Kings cracked twice and aces cracked by a set of 2s in quick succession. £2k down the hole fast as you like!

Just had to pay the monthly £1k wage bill out of the roll as well! Oh dear! All this leaves the bankroll in need some TLC and replenishment from somewhere....the new improved rakeback due in the next day or two should help a bit I guess. But if I dont sort it out could be back to work in a few months time.... the irony being I'm only a few £k down on my high ceiling point for profit!

At least the house is finished and the sun is shining! May have to 'ring fence' the last few hundred for some patio furniture and a decent BBQ! Sausage anyone?

Adios,

Jim

Flamed!

Thanks for the 'anonymous' comments on the last post. Something had to liven 2007 up so I'll respond.....


Q: "For a pro you are raking NOTHING. why not jim?"

A: Raking about £3k-£4k a month at the moment... true it used to be a lot more, but with an 11month old and a new 'project' house there are only so many hours in the day. I think balance is important.



Q: "me thinks your getting skint ?"

A: Sorry to disappoint but ... no. I'll concede the Bank roll is a touch below where i'd like it to be, but it's still 5 figures which is enough for this level. Also a decent chunck of this is tied up as $ cash at the moment after the sucess of late 2006. This has impacted the online liquidity.



Q: "Even i am higher than you on will hill rake table and i only play 1/2. so JIM 4 a pro your shit "

A: Well done! But maybe try socialising more? I'm still a semi-pro by the way and since when did number of hands played decide if a player is 'shit' or not?



Q: "you should be creaming the whill and the superb rakeback"

A: Agreed, but rakeback isn't the be all and end all... 55% gross is a great deal though.


Q: "you say 2/5 pounds traffic slow. it aint at all. infact its never been so busy. so y dropdown lol."

A: It is much slower than 2/5$ .... although it has picked up in the past week or two a touch and I've had the odd dabble. But there's much more action on the $ tables, the same number of MPPs for the promos, less rake, and less risk for a depleted online BR.


Any chance you are going to reveal yourself from your anonymity? :)

Slow start to 2007 but 55% gross rakeback!!

No updates for a while, two reasons... the first is that I've had the builders in the house for the past 10 weeks and the place has been like a bomb site and i'm totally pissed off with it.

The second is that the poker has been dull as hell.... 2 steps forward and 2 steps back for all Jan Feb and March! Add to this that I've mainly been playing $ tables (the pound tables have been dead) and therefore the stakes are a bit lower .... nothing really exiting to write home about!

April brought some good news however. I won a chunk in the first week and then a new rakeback deal with Hills based on a tier system with a max cap of 55% gross rakeback! I thought it was an April fool at first but apparently not..and it's cheered me up no end. This has to be the best deal around for UK highrakers and its not too shabby for lower rakers either with the tiers being based on the following table..

Monthly Rake % RakeBack
£0 - £49.99 0.0%
£50 - £249 30.0%
£250 - £499 32.5%
£500 - £999 35.0%
£1,000 - £1,499 37.5%
£1,500 - £2,499 40.0%
£2,500 - £3,499 42.5%
£3,500 - £4,999 45.0%
£5,000 - £6,499 50.0%
£6,500+ 55.0%


They are also offering a $1000 new player bonus for all new players in April. This is tiered again and based on MPPs earned before 31st May. The key thing is here that there are no deductions from your rakeback for any bonuses earned!!! Aagain a great offer that puts the competition in the shade... fill your boots!

0 - 249 mpps £25 Paid To Play bonus
250 - 749 mpps Further $50
750 - 1,999 mpps Further $100
2,000 - 4,999 mpps Further $300
5,000+ mpps Further $500

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Looking forward to the rest of April and beyond I really need to pull my finger out and qualify for some big tournies. I'm doing ok in the WH MPP WSOP promo but prob will end up with a seat in a 6pack for a 7k package as opposed to a seat outright.

Looks like I will be at Duffs home game for the 300 buy in in a few weeks as well, there does not look to be much value in the field but the piss up will be fun.

Big sorry to Pokerqueen and Shaa... i told you weeks ago I'd link you up.. sorted now.

Whooops!

It was 12months since I wrote this article on my live debut at the Broadway festival. I thought I’d give the same comp a go this year and I had a trip to Birmingham last week to buy into the £300 double chance freeze out. I wrote a long trip report last year and the critical hand that busted me late in the day was a call with AK when I probably didn’t need to. Hopefully this year could see an improvement on last years performance and offer a chance to look back to see if my live game had improved much having played 3 or 4 big buy in comps over the previous 12 months.

There were plenty of familiar faces in the crowd, lots of ‘T.V faces’ and a few of the Betfair forum regulars, Rob (highstack) had made the trip and Ben Mayhew (Sunday8pm) was also in attendance being backed by RobYongs “Dusk Till Dawn” crew who were also in attendance.

I didn’t like the look of the table much, the draw had Paul Jackson, Bambos , Sunday8pm and Rob Yong all sat at one end of the table, the chatter was constant as Sunday8pm went into re-raise overdrive from the word go… with a 6k stack, 25/50 blinds, 124 runners and one hour levels…. I was asking myself the question “Why?” but it seemed to be paying off and irritating the locals and the more ‘mature’ characters sat at the table.

Now comes one of the funniest hands I’ve played in a long time. By about level 3 I’d worked the stack up to a healthy 10k…. Sunday8pm had hit about 20K at one point but had taken a couple of hits and had about 10k as well. Not many had departed and the blinds/structure were low and slow.

I pick up Aces in an early position and raise it up to find 4 callers. The flop comes a nice Ad 3d 3c …. and I’m thinking of how to get paid on a flop that’s hit me in the face and most likely missed everyone else. I bet smallish, two pass and Sunday8pm obliges with a call. Wonderful with any luck he’s hit the three with a cute pre-flop call or on the flush draw. The turn is a blank and I double my bet throwing 2k at the now 5k pot. Ben thinks for a while, stacks his chips (I thinks he’s about to pass) but no he re-raises all in!!

Now I must admit I did dwell for about 5 seconds… simply trying to put him on a hand. I make the call and he turns over 10 J os! Nice move.

Afterwards he said he was trying to push me off AK… that was almost as funny as the move itself. Paul Jackson looked none too pleased as he’d backed him for the event. I told Ben I’d have to blog this hand… sorry mate!! :)

Not long after that I picked up another big pot when I caught an up and down on the end and the bloke who’d flopped two pair jammed all in after letting me catch. I was a huge chips leader at this point with about 34k I chips with a few other people in the late teens. But the night was still young and as the hours progressed I floated up and down between 35k and 22k taking 2 steps forward and 2 steps back. I finally caught another big hand vs Bambos who was starting to get a bit desperate on about 8k when he jammed with 88 . I called with pocket tens only to see a KK8 flop and once again I was back down with about 24k instead of 40k+.

It’s about 3:30am with play due to finish for the day at 5am and I pick up AK and make a raise, a local bloke to my left jams and he just about has me covered. Now I’m transported back 12months almost to the minute and faced with the exact same decision. I dwell for a minute or two, it’s the night of the snow storm and it occurs to me if I’m going to have to face a horror journey to get back here for the final it may as well be for a chip stack worth playing. The clock is called and I pass face up and he shows QQ .

Another hour goes by and I’m still frustrated and starting to look a little low in chips now compared to the average. The snow is coming down and I make the decision to play for the double up or busto. I get involved in a pot with Jh8h with a big stack, I’d raised early and he’d flat called despite my tight reputation at the table. The flop comes 8 high (8 4 5) and I bet out, he reraises and I’m pretty sure he’s trying to bully me off the pot so I jam leaving him sighing and having to call for a relatively small number of chips. He shows 86os. I smile and flip over Jh9h…HANG ON A MINUTE!!! WTF!!! I’m sure it was J8 a few minutes ago!! Whooooops!

My only defence was that it was 5am and I’d been up for 23hrs. I did catch a 9 on the river by the way. The only problem was he’d turned the 7 for the gutshot straight!

All in all very disappointed. Think I got a little unlucky at key times that stopped me from building on the chips I’d picked up early doors. The exit hand was pure comedy… I’ll be checking my cards on every street from now on!


Promos are all happening on Crypto again, in response to various promos by other sites Hills have also come up with a WSOP promo for the players earning the most MPPs in the next few months. I’m currently in about 14th spot with the top 10 getting a WSOP package, the next 6 playing a 6 pack for a package and then further down the ladder playing tournaments with 10, 12 , 18 and 24 runner. So if you are in the top 80 MPP earners for Hills then you have a decent shot at a WSOP package.

Poker in this life...and the second

After not much poker in Nov/Dec I decided that i should play a fair bit in Jan. Out of the blocks at a fair rate of 1200 hands a day on average and within 2 weeks days I was playing like a total numpty and donking off money left right and centre. I guess I'm learning a little bit, while I played a bit too much and hit a bit of a short term burn out i at least had the good sense to spot this and stop playing at lunch time. The planned afternoon of poker went out of the window and I pondered what to do.

I'd just read an article on some bloke who'd made millions on Second Life. This is the online virtual reality life game thing that's had lots of coverage in the media in the past few month. I decided to see what all the fuss was about and downloaded it. An hour or two later and I'd created my avatar and figured out the basic controls in the training section and I was out and about in the 'real' world. After half an hour of pottering trying to figure out what to do I see an advert for a casino....DING!!!.

In the game you are given 250 Lindon$... the currency of Second Life. Now believe it or not these L$ actually have real world value and you can buy more via your Credit card or Paypal etc and cash them out when you wish. There is a proper exchange rate that fluctuates due to market demand and people can make things and sell them or offer services for money within the game ! So on my afternoon away from poker down I pop to the local casino. I make my way past the slots and the 1st table I see is a NL hold em cash game. 10 minutes later with the help of a very nice lady I've managed to sit down and buy in for my L$250 in a L$5/10 game. I've not idea how much these L$ are worth but 30mins later I've cleaned everyone out and I've got L$1200.... I then decide to look at the exchange rate and wooohoooo I'm 5 US$ up !! :) Most of the players were from the states and v poor.... I wonder where they stand in relation to the new legislation?




This prompts me to go in search of some higher stakes games and I manage to find a 100/200 L$ game and a L$5000 sit and go.. yeah right! High Stakes. Again I do ok in the games runnig up to 20000 L$ but have to pass on the sit and go as I'm a bit time restricted. All in all much fun... considering the rake the host charged I can see how people are making some money on this thing. Before I logged off the cash was burning a hole in my pocket and I needed somewhere to spend it after a fun night at the tables. Where should I go???.....



This Second Life may have more parallels with real life than I originally thought... how sad! ;o)

Review and 2007

The last post seemed to get the comments going, I'll have to be a miserable sod more often. Suppose it's time to peek out of the corner of one eye and look back at 2006 and then stare 2007 head long in the face and see what's next.

I'd say 2006 on balance was just about a success. I fell a little short of my set cash target of but still managed to exceed the basic criteria that I set out when I started playing for a living. That is, I covered the short fall in salary comfortably and managed enough on top to cover the new extension on the house. As anyone will know who's read my musings over the past 12months, things came very close to going tits up in March/April and but for a twist of fate I'd have ended back in full time employment. A month off and a new addition to the family proved to be the break from poker that was required. I cashed virtually everything out of the bankroll and started again.... with a bang! Almost immediately a 7k WSOP package won and converted to cash saw the much needed liquidity restored to the bank roll and from there it was onward and upwards, a 12K CPC seat, and two 8k BFAPT seats plus no losing cash months since May and everything was back on track, business as usual and hopefully a lesson or two learned. I was very pleased with 1st of all picking up the satellite seats and secondly my performance in each of the live events I played. It's amazing what you can do when your back is against the wall.

And so to 2007! Seeing as though I managed to miss my target of £50k I guess I may have to have another stab at it. Although I've managed to donk off 4k in the first week in Jan it would seem that I'm already giving myself an uphill battle. On the live front I'd be amazed if I manage to win as many sats in 2007 as I did in 2006..... I'm setting the sights on a WSOP seat a EPT seat and at least one other live major events either won or qualified via promos. I've got orders from the Mrs to make sure that at least one covers a week somewhere exotic for two people, she quite likes the idea of not having to pay for a holiday again.

I'm determined to keep the blog going. I'll be keeping an eye on the developments regards to rake caps etc (the crypto cap did not materialise on Jan 1st as many people had forecast but still may happen), I'll also be looking hard at trying to improve the edge further.....Finding the best deals, the best promos and searching out the value.

All the best for 2007....unless you are playing me!

Jim

The Poker Trap

When ever 'normal' people talk to me about my working arrangements they always focus on the risk of having to rely on the game for a slice of regular income. I don't really see this as much of a risk, if the worst came to the worst I could always go back to full time 5 days a weeks 9 till 5. Sure I'd most likely hate it, having tasted the freedom and flexibility that playing poker offers it would be tough to return to the hard slog. But if the chips were down (the pan) it's an option. Even if I were to quit work 100% and things went pear shaped I would most likely not have too many problems in getting a decent job on a half decent salary. I have nearly 10 year experience in the IT industry so I'm lucky I have these options.

There are a group of players that on one hand I envy and on the other hand I kind of feel a bit sorry for. I envy them because they are bright (many have or are getting uni degrees) , they are young and they have more disposable income than I could ever have dreamed of when I was 21. Of course the piles of cash of come from Poker. They travel the world stopping in 5 star hotels and want for nothing. Life is good for these guys.

But this lifestyle once discovered and tasted comes with a down-side. Once you've had the money it's tough to go back to anything else. A 2:1in Economics from Leeds Uni is all well and good but most graduate jobs start off on not much money. Sure if you do well you can progress in most companies within a few years, but having tasted such a life who'd have the patience to work 45hr weeks for a few hundred quid, half of which gets donated to Mr Brown?

Now while the poker is new and fresh, then great! But the trap is that you can't afford to do anything other than play poker, even if you want to. You don't have a fall back plan and quite justifiably can't be bothered looking one. Before you know it you could be 35 years old looking for something more from life and find yourself stuck on the shelf playing poker till the end of your days! Scary thought, isn't it?