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

To sign up for the new player offer and the 55%MAX rakeback deal use this link or the banner at the top of the page and e-mail me with your user ID to check you have been tracked correctly.

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?

A new Dawn

1st of all forgot to say if anyone signed up for the 36% Rakeback deal with Hills on the last post drop me a mail and I'll check if you are set up ok.

The 'Dusk Till Dawn' crew were in St Kitts all decked out in their new branded clothing. For those who don't know DTD is a new poker club that is being built in Nottingham, it's owned by a bloke called Rob Yong. Rob decided a year or two ago that it would be great to build a 'proper' poker club in the UK, and boy does this look like a proper poker club. From looking at the floor plans it's going to be the biggest and the best in Europe. It's also the 1st club in the UK to jump through the hoops with the authorities and actually apply for a licence.

I've followed the progress of the club on the Blonde Forum for the past 12months or so. It's actually quite scary what they have put on the line in terms of the commercial venture. I'd encourage anyone who's not had a look already to take an hour out and read his diary on the Blonde forum it's obvious that Rob is building this club as a poker player for poker players with commercial considerations coming 2nd!



The club is looking to open in April and today sees the launch of the online element. DTD is joining Crypto and has some interesting offerings in terms of promotions aimed at the high end and pro online players. The DTD $$$ club offers a graduated Rakeback scheme for all players capped at a max of 30% gross rakeback for those earning 5000 MPPs on Crypto a month.... about 1k gross rake a month I think.. not the greatest % I know.. but within a month or two this will be as good as it gets on Cypto plus there is added value on two fronts. DTD also allow you to carve up your rakeback and use some of it to buy into major live events as part of the DTD team... now here comes the value....

1: If you cash in the event you will be bought into another event at £5k
2: If you final table you will get £20k of events
3: If you win you receive a £100k sponsorship package from DTD.

This means that any half serious online player will be eating/drinking and playing rake free while playing live at DTD.

Now the value for the tournaments is loaded at the backend I know, you have to cash to get something back... but for the decent players who can go deep its a shot at a great lifestyle... even for just nosing into the cash at one event you get the next one free. It also looks like there will be benefits associated with the club ( club membership benefits and live promos etc) for the big online players as well, it's a good example of the extra value the card rooms are going to have to offer once they all adopt the same rakeback payments for all players. The big plus about Betfair was the way they engaged their player community with Team Betfair etc... DTD looks like it could take this to a new level.

Take a look at the DTD siteand have a read... you can also get a little extra (either bonus or freerolls to be decided) when you enter the bonus code wonky when you download the new online card room from the DTD site.

RIP Rakeback?

Interesting moves are afoot in the online poker world. It would appear that the rooms have had enough of being squeezed and cutting each others throats with higher and higher rake back offers in attempts to lure (or hold onto) the big players. With players playing one room off against another to squeeze a few extra % the average rakeback deal has increased significantly over the past few years... a line in the sand was inevitable sooner or later.

Last week I had an e-mail sourced from the Prima Network, they are capping rakeback across the entire network at 30% gross for all players. Anyone caught offering more than this will be shot at dawn. Further more, affiliates are only allowed to mention rakeback to new signings after they have signed up for the site. So no more dangling carrots. Now I don't play on Prima so not really a problem until it becomes a trend across more networks...errrm....!

A little bird told me about a month ago that Crypto were planning to do a similar cap. Surely not I thought at the time! But it looks like it's going to happen. Apparently, all the Crypto managers had a meeting in St Kitts and it's been agreed that a 30% cap will be applied to all Crypto players early in 2007. From what I was told it's not a 100% done deal yet but looks very likely. For the casual player this is not too much of an issue but if you are raking £8k a month and have a half decent deal at mid 30s% then this is costing you 5K a year... not a massive amount to some high rakers... but it's a WSOP main event buy in and I'd rather have it in my pocket than someone elses.

I've highlighted the benefits of avoiding the rooms that use $ accounts previously , it will be interesting to see where the best value poker room is for UK players once the dust settles with some new poker rooms coming onto the market, the rake changes and the shake up to the US market. What with everyone on Crypto at the same rakeback and BF still struggling to come up with a site that does not give you a migraine and allows you to play more than 5 hands without a disconnect it will be interesting to see what everyone can come up with now to keep their noses ahead of the pack. All the value will be in the promotions the skins run, I'm not talking about $50 bonus, I mean added value in terms of £X rake for an EPT /WSOP package etc.

The deal a group of us did with Hills last month after we jumped from BF was all good value for the player at 36% gross, but may be short lived in light of the news, if anyone wants to get on for a few months before crypto cap it then feel free, clear your cookies and click HERE....

Early exit but everything irie!!

Well St Kitts is fantastic, I managed to bring a faulty plug adaptor and blew up the baby monitor and the laptop but hey… in the Caribbean nothing gets you down. Even a day 1 exit from the main event didn’t dampen the spirits too much. It was a bit of a strange day to be honest. The table I drew was really really tough and I could not hit a flop for about 4hours, AK 4 times and missed everytime and QQ once with an AK flop. Still plenty of play left with 15k starting chips and only 155 runners in a 4 day event and even though the chip stack got down to about 6k I managed to dig in once again and get back up to about 20k by level 6 playing a little on the deserved tight passive image I’d done so well to foster for the 1st 4 hours.

20K was just a touch below ave when I was moved to table one. My 1st impressions were that it was a bit softer (then I spotted a WSOP bracelet on the wrist to the guy to my right! ) won a few then I managed to donk off a few chip with an ill timed move and needed to get busy when I picked up AsAc 1st to act and put my standard raise in. Two callers and I’m liking the 4d 4s 9d flop. Check – Check and last to act bets 3500 into a 6k pot. I tank in my last 11k and he calls with the nut flush draw…. Two diamonds later and its back to the pool for me in about 95th! Again not to worried about the play, get it in favorite and win and I’m sitting OK for day two where anything can happen… just not to be.

The hotel is great, the food is good and WH upgraded us to a suite so it makes life much easier with Jack having a bit of space. I’m about 1k up from the (wild) side action after getting paid in full with quad 8s buy TT!?!?! Me and the Mrs just going to chill for the rest of the week and maybe play a few STTs and a little cash…. Best to take it easy when the rum punch is flowing ;)

Cheers,

Jim

Singapore Report and off to Kitts

Got back on Saturday evening and legged it up to Manchester on Sunday as Michelle had bought us tickets to see The Killers at the Manchester Apollo on Monday… back down to Leamington on the Tuesday to let the guys in for having a new kitchen fitted and start packing for St Kitts …. Head of to Kitts on Thursday 23rd. I think I need to go back to work for a rest. The first few days in Kitts will be strictly R&R.

As for the look back at the Singapore Main event, it was relatively uneventful to be honest all very ABC for most of the time, I got into trouble early on day1. AK on a AKQ flop a fair chunk went in on every street until the river when a J fell…. I just didn’t have him for JT at all but checked the river, he value bet and I called and he shows a fairly disgusting QT!

From then on it was a grind back up from 5k (started with 10k) , I touched 3900 at one point but was not too worried as there was still plenty of play in that stack in the early stages. I worked it up to 15k and then dipped to about 10k as the blinds started to bite a bit, the table raiser made it 2.5k to go and I look down to find AA, it was just a question of when the chips go in, I flat call hoping he catches a piece of the flop and sure enough he bets out when the flop comes Q high… what I didn’t bargain for was the fact that he was holding QQ, I push to his bet and he calls in a instant ..as you do!

I walk away from the table when a collective gasp at the turned Ace has me called back to fight another day. I know I’m going deep from this point.

A little while later and I’m lucky enough to pick up AA again and get action again. A mid stack had pushed to my preflop raise obliged again and I’m somewhat surprised to see Scott Grey push all in behind him, automatic call and its AA v KK (Scott) and AQ. This sees me chipped up for day one in about 10th spot with 68k with 70 of 315 runners returning for day 2.

Day two was spent picking fights with the short stacks and mostly winning. The bubble came and went in a flash… so no repeat of a 4 hour bubble as in Estonia thank god! With about 30 left it was my turn on the TV table next to Tony G, sadly no huge hands on the TV table for me so I will prob end up on the cutting room floor… good fun though.

Eventually went out in 15th after re-raising all in to a Singaporean chap who’d been making some interesting moves all day. I’m hold AJ and more importantly the table ROCK image …. Still he calls with 77 for 80% of his chips. I catch the jack first off the deck but I’m drawing thin as you like when he hits his set on the next card. He finished 2nd for the best part of $300k and I picked up $15k. Better than a kick in the nuts I know but I win the coin flip and I’m on the final table with a shot at paying off the mortgage! It didn't do the confidence any harm...next time!!

Later that evening Rob ended up winning the $500 side event after receiving some very bad news from home, I can honestly say it was the strangest days I've had in a long time. And while the money is no compensation for what happened I hope it sets him and the Mrs up for the next year or two and whatever they may bring!

In St Kitts now, and finally managed to log on… will post an update in next day or two once I drag myself away from the pool. ;o)
Cheers Jim

Singapore Day 2

Out in 15th for about $15k... happy with the way I played and would not change much, but not so happy to miss out on the final table and a shot a being able to pay off the mortgage... will post a few details once I get chance but in the mean time here are a few pics...



Early Day two with Rob looking on.....


Tank in the tank.....



On the TV table :) ....



Tank cashes for 11kUS (18th I think?) , Noseyboy and Tankdad...




Bit crowded in on the final two tables....

More Pics from Day 1

More pics from day 1.....

1 of tank as promised...



Nice Outfit Flushy?!?!?!?!....

Singapore Day 1

Gawd im knackered... anyway just a quicki and some pics of the BF forumites Still very happy to still be in with 70 odd left from 313 starting and above ave chips. Sorry if i miss anyone out or get a name wrong!

Before the kick off... Doob, Tank , Matty , Rob the OEP , Ruru and Dibble



Ken Barlow and Deejay and Gus Hanson..




Matty at the end and Farrer with the nice head gear...




Waheey and Doobs...




Mandyloo and feck knows what sat next to him.. yank fish i was told :)




Pennick giving Tony G the eye on the TV table...




finally Tank stacked up in the biggest game of his life ordering 2 large brandys and 'diet' cokes!?!??!!? Ummm it wont upload... anyway u get the idea...BED! GN!

Singapore!

Well the play hard for the 1st few days in Singa def happened! Sat here in my room with a stinking hangover. Tomorrow is the main event and I’m feeling a bit crap…. Water and OJ today and should be ok though.

The trip has been loads of fun so far, the hummer was entertaining (although the booze they provided was a bit naff) Pic of Rob, Me and Hawko enjoying the ride....




The flight wasn’t too bad and we arrived in Singa on time to be greated by the BF team. The only bad news was that I (and 150 other players) had to swap hotels today due to some ‘over booking’. To be honest it’s probably a good idea considering the state of my head at the moment.

1st night was the BF welcome do few beers then off to Raffles for several Singapore slings. Met a few people who I know from the tables, 350BHP, Mikka plus loads of forumites.

Last night we went out for a meal that Martin Green booked…. Japanese…. So it was sushi and kobi beef all round and much fun was had trying to figure out WTF we’d just eaten. As usual Dubai was on form ordering everything off the menu.




Not played a hand of poker yet. May play a few STTs tonight to warm up!!

Cheers Jim


PS the winner of the 1st annual Singapore Dubai looki likey contests was.....


;)

Sort out the taxi will you...

True to form I've come down with a stinking cold a few days before we are due to fly off to Singapore. Hopefully it will be cleared by the weekend. Hawko and Kirk are coming down to Leamington to stop the night before we fly. Rob (Highstack) was in charge of getting half of Team Singapore Schlong to the heathrow from Leamington Spa... blinded by his new found fortune after his MTT win last week and no doubt egged on by Hawko I came home to find the details of our transport in my mail inbox....







Last I heard hawko was trying to persuade 4 strippers to make the trip with us was busy making sure we had enough bottles of plonk to entertain us on the way down. I can see the bank roll taking a hit on this trip already. I think the best thing to do will be play hard for the 1st few days and work hard for the latter half of the week. At the end of the day this will be the biggest buy in comp I've ever entered. The plan is to take the camera and update the blog every day or so from Singapore. No doubt there will be some entertaining stuff to report on.

Jim

The power of the collective

Well I decided to give BF a go… OMG I can’t believe they managed to get it so wrong. Not only did it have the basic design issues I listed in the last post but there were also problems with cash tables randomly closing down mid game, PLO games paying out to the losing hand and cash outs going walk-a-bout!! BF had such a good reputation and it’s going to take ages to rebuild it now. Real shame.

Anyway this left me and a few other players scrambling around to try and find a decent deal with another poker room. I approached a few rooms on behalf of a number of medium / high rakers I knew and managed to get a decent group deal out of a very reputable crypto skin who also offer £ accounts so no nasty exchange rates to deal with.

The deal included a seat in a major event for the mega rakers (and I mean MEGA) and very good % gross RB deal, in fact about as good as I’ve seen for a £ based Uk account. Just shows what you can do if you make a few calls and have a few people together. I’m not going to spam it on here cos it was aimed at people who rake a half decent amount a month and I don’t want to dilute it for everyone.. but drop me a mail if you a regular player and want the details.

On a side note I noticed last night that BF had me listed in the market for the APT. Mum will be sooo impressed! Congrats to Rob (Highstack) for his big win on BF this week… Good timing !! :o)

Good Luck..

Jim

Times they are a changin!

Today sees the launch of the new BF stand alone site. They have split from Crypto and going it alone. I had an advanced look at the new site last week for a freeroll tournie. I have to say I think BF have got it wrong here. The site looks ok but suffers from some fundamental flaws. For a start I will not play on a site where there are no hand histories stored, not only does this mean I can't use poker tracker but it also means I've got no easy means of auditing monthly progress.. hands played etc.

The screen format is also an issue. I do most of my 'work' laying on my arse on the sofa playing on the laptop and the screen resolution will only support two tables max on the new BF site as it does not allow you to overlap tables. 90% of the time I'm playing on 3 tables so I'm dropping 30% of my productivity by making the move. There are a few other niggles as well, the interface needs some work and it's a pain in the arse to try and raise by a specific amount. Software aside, I have had no doubts that BF now offer one of the best 'poker' packages to the serious UK player. Their promotions, support , RB deals and general sense of community are second to none. I also do genuinely believe that BF listen to their customers and will be updating the new site as soon as possible to correct these problems. I come from a business IT background and it's all too easy to say BF should have put these changes in before they launched the site. I think they would have liked to but I'm sure that things like severance notice with Crypto were also driving the deadlines and what they could achieve in the timeframe. It's also a concern that if they rush the changes in then the system stablility will be comprimised. They have some nice promos to keep people sweet as well but a few hundred quid is not going to swing the issue .... for the time being I can not play on this site.... at the end of the day it's business!

The problem I've got now is where do I play? The Mrs has hijacked my Hills account, it will be interesting to watch the player liquidity levels on Crytpo over the next few weeks to see how much the BF move hits them.. the big fear is that there will not be enough players to support a decent number of cash games on either site. This would be a disaster... it's my livelihood that's being messed around with here!! Add to the mix the turmoil caused by the Gambling bill in the US and it makes for interesting times ahead!

On a happy side note I played a £200 six pack on Friday... i never play sixpacks ! But I played like a looney in the latter stages and won, heads up i got it in with A8 (my lucky heads up hand) vs AJ and spiked two pair on the river! Whoohooo!

A nice problem to have

Keeping a decent P&L account and a careful eye on my bankroll is all well and good. But these sat wins have left me with a small dilemma. How do I account for a $8k package win on the P&L spreadsheet?

Do I stick the full value down in the + column? What happens if I don't cash? Do I then take it out? I don't want a big $11k loss in November because I didn't cash in Singapore or St Kitts do I? I could wait and just stick down any concrete returns from the events? But I want some recognition for what I've won each month... it's nice to look back and the end of each month/year and review the final figure, it gives me a warm glow... usually!!

And then what about all the odds and sods that come with the packages, the spending money, the flight money, the hotel money!?! Do I account for that or not? I'm guessing not but come the end of the year I will have won $20k+ worth of sats and could end up showing nothing for it on the balance sheet. That can't be right ,can it? If I were not taking the family to Kitts then I'd have to fork out a few £K on a holiday from savings and surely that saving should be recognised in some way? And what about the extra money I spend while on the trips on beer, stuffed donkeys and bottles of XO in duty free? .... does that come out of the poker roll or my (joint!!) current account !? Dunno!

I'm starting to see why the guys who play live a lot have such trouble drawing a line between poker bank roll and day to day living money to pay the bills/buy dinner with. I know… It's a nice problem to have, but feel free to let me know if you have a solution.

Another day... another seat!

Well last week was interesting! Lots of cash games with some moderate success and two tournaments, the 1st being a freeroll to the BFAPT in Singapore in November and the second being another BFAPT satellite using 4000mpps (reward points on crypto) to buyin. I've got more MPPs that I know what to do with so I thought why not?!

As with the previous weeks WH Grandprix I was feeling pretty confident in the freeroll and building up a steady stack, I look down to see AdKd and make a reasonable raise from an early position with 1 caller .

Flop comes 4d 9d 8d ... lovely! I lead off and get raised..lovely...i flat call... turn Jd .... I lead off with a modest bet and he calls... river As .... all the money goes in and he flips Jd7d for a turned straight flush!!!! LOVELY


Sunday comes along and there are about 80-90 runners in the MPP tournie all chasing 2 seats. It's not a freeroll as such and people have to play a bit to get 4k MPPs so there were a lot of familiar names in the line up and not too many muppets.

I tick over nicely without looking at the tournament window and after an hour or two I see the field has halved and I'm mid table. Again, i'm feeling pretty good about my play and only took one serious hit for about 40% of my chips when I pushed with a nut flush draw into a short stack who'd already flopped a full house and rivered quads... oops!

It didn't take long to recover and I'm sitting ok with 20 runners left, as one or two more get picked off I'm starting to dwindle a little in chips and decide it's time to move up a few gears... a double up with KK vs AQ helps me along a little but I'm still a little short. I pick up the monster that is T3os in the SB. Everyone folds to me and I push in for 9k to pick up the 2k blinds and antes... but oh no the BB whos also playing 9k decides that this is the time to make a stand and calls with A6!!!! Shocking call imo and he gets what is deserved with a 3 on the flop and a 3 on the river.

I work it up to an above average 26k by the time the final talbe is underway. I'm in the SB and pick up TT ... Mavis is on the button playing 13k and raises to 3k.... I push in (again!! ;o) ) and Mavis dwells for a second or two and makes call with his tournament life on the line with A8os! No help for mavo and im sitting pretty with 40k in chips (about 160k in play and 8 left) , again I don't like this call at all.

I decide to sit tight for a while and let the short stacks donk it out , I also went pretty card dead at the same time... about 6 orbits go by and I don't find a card. Funds are getting towards 30k and I've got Deejay on MSN thinking I'm starting to bottle it and dare not play a hand... as if!?

A Rag raise from early position looking for some respect and I can't call an all in for 18k... down to 25k. A bit of up and down and I'm still on about 30k with 4 players left.... a shortie pushes for 10k on my BB and I've got 2.5k in there already and make the call with pocket 6s. KT is shown and 5 cards later he’s out and it's 3 handed.

I'm on 40k, the guy to my left is on 90k and to his left 30k. This remains as the status quo for a long time, I'm struggling to get at the shorties BB as I can't afford to take the big stack on with a marginal hand. As such I give a lot of my SBs to the big stack uncontested, this is fine as the shortie is getting hammered on his BB and he wasn't attacking my BB much as I'd moved over the top a few times. The net result was I was bleeding chips... but he was bleeding them faster.

This was all fine and dandy until the big stack gifts him a double up and the situation is reversed and I'm on 25k and hes on 37k!! Time to find that gear again and before long i'm on 35k and he's on about 30k with the blinds starting to hit hard at 4.5k every 3 handed orbit.

It's wasn't going to be long until all the chips were in.... I look down to see Ad8d ... now I won the Vegas sat with A8 , i won the CPC seat with A8, karma was calling an I stick them from the button on the shorties BB. He calls in a flash and turns over AKos .... ooooops!

--- FLOP ----- [2d 2h Qc]
Paired board gives me a small life line!

----- TURN ----- [Qd]
Shocking turn for him..splits the pot unless he catches one of two aces or two kings, but I've still got 12 outs to win it...

----- RIVER -----][Td]
Rivers me a nut flush and a $8k seat to the BFAPT.... Had to feel for the chap! Ridding my luck a lot in this one I know, but fortune favors the brave!

Results in these sats are now getting silly.




Cheers,

Jim

‘Bangbus is not a clueless Twat’

I think I’ve had just about the most frustrating weekend of poker I’ve ever had, we had nothing planned for the weekend so I decided to catch up and play some hands. 5000 hands and £300,000 worth of pots later and I was £20 down on the BF account!

To be honest I’m relatively happy. There were some shocking suck outs and I still draw even so I can’t be playing that bad.. and I only tilted once (does not happen too often)

I’d been banging my head against a brick wall for a few hours when the following hand comes up..

dealt to DonkeyJim [6s 7s]
pescados: folds
PokaHunta: calls £5
Bangbus2: raises to £20
mag-c: folds
Isomerkii: folds
DonkeyJim: calls £15
PokaHunta: calls £15
----- FLOP ----- [6d 7h Ks]
DonkeyJim: checks
PokaHunta: checks
Bangbus2: checks
----- TURN ----- [6d 7h Ks][3s]
DonkeyJim: checks
PokaHunta: bets £50
Bangbus2: folds
DonkeyJim: raises to £216 and is all-in
PokaHunta: calls £166

He flips K5os!!!!

Of course the 4 gutshot rivers… well that was it! Bangbus2 makes some comment about ‘Should not have called the raise anyway’ …. I thought it was aimed at me and I went nuts… on reflection I think he was taking about Hunta, but I threw my toys big style. I told Bangbus I’d name this weeks blog entry ‘Bangbus is a clueless Twat’ …sorry Bangbus. It was a small pot as I’d not reloaded , but sometimes the pot does not matter.

Pot of the weekend was running AA into Mikka with KK…nice to see £1200 moving back in my direction. She seems to be bulldozing half the players on 2/5 5/10 at the moment.

With me now playing the on Betfair, the Mrs is using the Hills account, she’s got about £400 in there, so me nicking £110 to play the WillHill grand prix sat was out of the question. I could not be arsed trying to move money around so I decided to enter the poxy £13 sat and have it running in the background. 28 runners and 2 seats in the £110 entry sat on the sunday…. I get sucked out when someone catches a gutshot in 3rd place but still pick up £50 for the Mrs… I threw another tant and jumped back into the 22:15 £13 sat. This time it had 30 odd runners and an added seat… 4 go through and I win it easily. I’m starting to think that cash games are not my true calling.

Sunday night arrives and I make a cracking start in the £110 sat. Theres 2 x 6k seats up for grabs in the WH GrandPrix and the chance to make a total arse of yourself on the TV. I double up at the end of round 1 when some bets the flush draw into my 2pair and misses.

Level 3 and I’m sitting well on 5.5k I call a big raise with 99 in a 3 way pot. Flop comes

K 9 T ….

Lots of raising and re-raising and I’m all in heads up against another bigstack who I just have covered…. He flips AK os and I’m on my way to a final table with a big chip stack…. That is until the turn brings another Ten….and the river a King.

As you can imagine not impressed. I managed to spin a few hundred chips into 2k but was well behind the pace at that point. Running AQ into AA was a sorry end to the proceedings.

Needless to say the lucky sod (Jeff Kimber) who sucked out went onto win it… I checked him out on the hendon mob player database and he's had a few results .. hairy arms though! I told him that he had to tell the TV interview how fucking lucky he was in the sat and if it wasn’t for me he’d be BFH…wonder if he will??