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

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.....


;)