Adios Betfair as we know it...

My poker playing volume in 2010 has been woeful. I've had months off here and there, never really got going and suffered from severe bouts of poker lethargy.

I finally got my act together in July with a concerted effort to try and win something and was promptly rewarded with two 2nds in the Betfair 10k within a week for $4k total (just to prove i can still do it when i put my mind to it) plus a few other minor cashes here and there to keep things ticking over.

My regular comps now seem to be a few on Betfair and a few on DTD most nights but this is all set to change today when Betfair merges with the Ongame network. I'm a bit sad really. I quite liked the dinky little betfair nightly comps... well I liked the overlays and a few of the fish to be honest. Not sure what Ongame has to offer but if it's anything like when Hills moved to IPoker it will mean stopping up way past the current requirement of 12-1am for a 1st place finish and I'm getting too old for that shit.

I do like to keep an eye on various promotions that are being offered across the various poker rooms. Every now and then you spot a fantastic opportunity to make a few quid. There have been a few of these in the past. Getting 15 friends to join BF was all that eventually was required to win an entry to a WSOPE side event two years ago. I did very well out of a Hills points race promo last year that no one else seemed to notice as well. I've got my eye on another one at the moment and may well have a stab at it... seems too good to be true on face of it. Don't want to promote it here as it may spoil the opportunity but watch this space.

Finally I feel I must post some form of comment as to the nature of my last post that has prompted a few comments and e-mails. Bingo is the future... plus they paid me shed loads :)

Bingo or Poker

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The £150 at DTD on the Sunday was a bit of a waste of time. Had a high stakes cash player at the table on tilt who insisted on calling down every preflop bet and hitting some real obscure hands.

I missed a few flops and lost a race and finally exited with a big blind shove into a button raise...i had KsQs vs 73 all in preflop for about 18BB ...... like i said he hit some obscure hands. It did allow me to make it home in time for a betfair freeroll which i managed to win for $800 that managed to pay for the weekend anyway.

I've been playing some small beer heads up to keep things moving for the past month or so. To be honest I've no idea if I'm any good at heads up or not. I seem to go on a run of 150 games where it's a constant up on the P&L graph only for it all to come crashing around my ears in about 50 games. No idea if this is me tilting, variance, me being crap at HU, crap game selection or what. Here's my roller coaster of a sharkscope graph. If anyone can make more sense of it than I can please feel free to comment.



Also think I may have upset some chap in the dim and distant past. Everytime he sees me playing HU he comes in and calls me all sorts of names. Most amusing and breaks the days up... Hi if you are reading :)

It's only in the past few years that I've played much heads up poker. It really is something any serious MTT player should do. I used to be really really bad HU. I had no clue with regards to starting hands, strategy ... nothing. When you consider the leap in money from 1st to 2nd in most MTTs a small/medium stakes decent MTT player can find himself playing in what is essentially a 2k or 3k heads up game at the end of a final table. The number of people who have no clue heads up amazes me. Even at a high level. With that sort of money involved it's worth investing a few hours and $ playing some HU STTs and just getting a feel for for it.

Just be careful not to let it impact your normal MTT game though... there's been a few nights recently when I've found myself making very dubious loose calls in the BF 12k purely because I've been making marginal calls all evening in HU games.

After the last DTD trip itching for another decent trip out live. Can't play the June or July DTD Deepstacks but I'm toying with the idea of playing a GUKP £300 side event in Coventry next week.

Have fun!

Jim

80k DTD deepstack... different river card please

The wife and kids headed up north for a Christening first thing Saturday morning. I got the whole weekend to myself.

I'm pretty sure half of you degenerates have no ties and live foot-loose, fly-by night, devil may care lifestyles? Let me tell you, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LUCKY YOU ARE!

I've got to book a weekend to play poker 6months in advance and even then it clashes with something critical nearer the time.

While a I love my family and would not change a thing. A whole 2 days to myself to do nothing but play poker is a rare and chesrished thing indeed.

So up the M1 to Nottingham it was with £500 in my back pocket for buy-ins. I have to say I was feeling pretty good and very confident as we sat down.

Think the best hand I saw in the 1st 3 levels was QQ but buy the time I'd picked the ladies up i'd managed to push onto about 16k from my starting 10k stack. Of course the ladies walked into KK and saw me back to 8k but not to worry. Half the table had me pegged as weak passive and tag teamed trying to push me off pots firing 3 large barrels with air into my maringal holdings. What they failed to take into account was I can't lay a hand down for shit so I happily check called my way to a 35k ish stack by level 6.

Then we had the 1st set back. I managed to find my self holding AcKs on a Tc Js 2c Qh board. Matey boy is betting for England and I close the door on the turn... he snap calls for his stack holding QcJc urggg .... 9c rivers and a 45k pot heads in the wrong direction.

Not to worry I'm still feeling really confident and nip a few decent pots in good spots to get up from 6k to 12k. Then a double up to 24k with AK vs AJ on a Ace high flop.

3rd set back of the day (and the fatal one) came Vs Peter Charalambous . He makes a modest raise from mid position and I flat call on the BB with KsQc. Qc Ts 4s flop sees all our money go in. I must admit he flipped i was happy to see AsJs.... but alas it was a case of replay the river as 9s drops to see me packing.

Very dissapointed to be honest. Felt really good at the table and was still doing ok despite a cooleer and a beat... but you need to win those to get anywhere. Just looking at day 2 chip counts and Peter Charalambous sat well with 100k+, wish him well as he seemed like a really nice fella.

DTD £150 Sunday game kicks off in 25mins so I'm off for a beer to get warmed up :) Wish me luck :)

Back after a break!

Hmm been a long time since i last updated. Mainly due to the fact I've not played much poker. A few days after my last post I took down the nightly 18k on Betfair again and then played a few weeks with just a few minor cashes. Round about the end of November I decided to take a break for Christmas and New Year.

Quite enjoyed the break and managed to extend it for January and February and it's only in the last month or so I've returned to playing a few MTTs. I have also been having a dabble with trading on BF with mixed results. Was doing quite well on a certain market that I'd researched and then got a bit greedy. Managed to blow 2months profit on a bizarre in-play cricket cock up trying to get out of a bad position at 1.12. Of course it all went tits up and I did my nuts. Oh well lesson learned.

In the middle of all of this Tom (who's still doing well) ended up in hospital for a week with meningitis and works gone a bit mental at the moment. So not much time for poker.

Been playing the $12k , $3.5k and $5k on BF and a little low stakes HU. Managed to win the $5k back to back during the 1st week in April which was nice. Managed quite a few other final tables that have kept the $$ coming in but seen to have developed a nasty habit of getting a made hand dicked by runner runner gut shots in the $12k and still waiting for something better than 6th in April. Will have it soon though.

Got a live trip planned to DTD this weekend for the £80k deepstack .... its been about 6months since I last played live and I'm really looking forward to it.

Good to be back :)