Giving the finger to poker

Well poker in June has not been to great. A bad start... a partial recovery and then two days of disaster saw about a 2k loss... shocking, i'm almost embarrassed.

Off the poker table things have not been going much better either. The cut finger mentioned in the last post turned out to be a bit more serious than i thought and last monday I went into hospital for an operation to try and repair the nerve damage. Of course to do this they have to basically peel your finger like a banana.. so im sat here trying to type this on my right hand looking down at hand of Frankenstein to my left.

Fk this! It's time for a holiday. Few weeks in Spain is much needed!

Adios!

J

May Review

Started May with the best intentions to play low stakes HU for the entire month and see how much you could make... anyway after about a two of getting very bored and donking off a few hundred quid I got arsed off with low stakes HU. The £900 from the DTD win came in useful and gave a bit of a boost to the confidence. So much so that I went on a bit of a MTT rampage, playing 1 or two a day which is a lot for me. Within 10 days I racked up the following results...


Hills £1500 Gtd: 1st x 1, 2nd X 1, 4th x 2 , 7th x1 from 7 attempts.

Hills Sunday Super Series 1 x 4th from 2 attempts.

Plus a few others that I can't remember now. All this plus a return to the cash tables moved the early May losses into the green to show about £2500 profit by the close of play.


The Mrs desperately wants me to win a CPC package with Hills again this year. Hills are running a $40 Sat to the weekly $250 final so I'm trying to get in via there at the moment. I'm running pretty good and have not yet failed to qualify for the weeks where I've been able to play in it. I'm winning a $250 seat for every 2.5 times I play the sat at the moment so I may just keep playing them even after i win the seat and take the money :)

As i mentioned I've been playin a lot of cash at £1/2 and $1/2. It's amazing how much u can make at this level actually. I've been pretty comfortable playing 4 tables and racking up some rakeback and MPPs on Hills. See how it goes. At any given table there are 4 ROCKS and 1/2 nutters i think. I'm showing a decent + despite being over setted what seems at least once or twice a day. Having said that I had my usual nose dive at the beginning of the June and I'm once again in recovery mode.

On a social note we had a BBQ for Shell and Jacks birthday at weekend I was busy burning meat for 40 and managed to put the knife through my finger severing the nerve on my right index finger :) Happy days! The only good thing was that A&E at Warwick had me in and out in 30mins and by 7pm I was back on the brandy letting someone else take responsibility for the mass food poisoning.

Cheers,

Jim

Another DTD final table

Before last week I'd had 4 trips to DTD and made the Final Table twice only to finish a disappointing 9th on both occasions for not much more than double my money. Better than nothing but not much reward for hours or work.

Things improved the other weekend when a last minute decision to attend the Blonde Forum Game at DTD paid dividends. The entry was only £30 but the field was reasonable and the emphasis was on good fun and banter. With about 150 runners I did my usual trick of getting off to a complete flyer and then hitting a wall around level 6/7. Many of the players were pretty tight and keen to make a game of it and so the blinds started to squeeze the average chips a little early and I managed to pick my spots and make the most of some rag cards to keep my nose ahead of the game.

As we neared the money i got very lucky with KJ vs AK when a move on the BB backfired also managed to crack Kings with pocket nines. Made the final table in reasonable shape and continued to pick my way through the field playing some half decent poker.

I ended up heads up vs Jen Mason after about 11hrs of play. Now Jen works for Blonde and was there to enjoy her self. I think the definition of enjoyment for Jen is to make a move on every pot while having red wine fed in on a IV drip, by the time we were HU she was totally plastered and jamming every other pot preflop or on the flop. It was very funny and a decent number on the rail offering encouragement mainly to Jen and a bit to myself .... well I think several drunken verses of "You'll never Wonk alone!" and "Wonking in a winter wonderland" could be classed as encouragement! :)

Jen had about a 3-1 chip advantage so i was looking for a spot to double up and take it from there.... I lost a few chips folding and finally got it in with Ad8s and was insta called by Jen with 22. 3 diamonds and a deuce on the flop made it interesting and a 4th diamond on the turn saw me dragging the pot when the board failed to pair on the end.

It wasn't long before I'd jammed with AK preflop and Jen made the call with T4os ..... wasn't so lucky this time and a 4 obliged on the river to see me out in 2nd place for just shy of £900.

Here's a pic nicked from Blonde of Jen with me to her right trying to keep a straight face!





Great fun and congrats to Jen who was unstoppable. Very happy with my live hit rate 5 trips and 3 final tables makes me think I should play live a little more maybe.

I'm not even trying to make the WSOP this yea as I'm on holiday. However I've noticed that some sites are running good value qualifiers specifically for Bloggers. Bodog is running Tuesday night online poker tournament for Bloggers earning points for a final game, may be worth a look if you are looking to maximise your chances of a Vegas trip this July.

April Review

Well dropping the stakes seemed to do ok in April, made a modest profit of about £1500, beats a kick in the nads!! Most of this came from low stakes HU games and a bit of rakeback.

Again this was playing relatively little poker. I've always been a little impatient to put too much effort into game selection but with the game getting a bit tighter over the past year or so I'm starting to give it more consideration. I days gone by mugs abounded at most levels of the game no matter which table you sat at. These days you have to work a little harder for your lunch and seek out the fish... or more importantly avoid the sharks. There are players who i'm about even money against.. especially HU and there really is no point playing them, the rake ends up killing you.

On the MTT front again i've been dabbling low stakes on Crypto Head hunters, I quite like the concept, the players are very happy to gamble against you and taking a few heads covers the buy in even if you don't cash. The only down side is that unless you take a few head along the way the final table money can be a bit of a let down.

The other night i wasn't in the mood for a 'serious session' so I took a look at Sky Poker and had a play on the Open. This is the MTT that runs on TV live while you play, it's low entry fee and a bit of a donk fest but good fun non the less, plus you get to listen to Helen C pull all the plays apart. I managed to go out just b4 the bubble and will prob have another go for the sheer entertainment value.

Toying with the idea of a trip to DTD for the Blonde Bash this weekend. See what the weather is like i think. May I'm still taking it easy on the low stakes stuff ($100 HU max i think) see how it goes.

Get knocked down... but i get up again..and again ..and again

I really do need to start doing more regular updates i think! Appologies!

I've just had a read of my last post and had to laugh at the ....

" Time to increase the playing levels a bit in March … see if we can get the bank roll back up to £10k + in the next few months. I'm also dying for a trip to Vegas and really need to sort it out."


I think about 20seconds after I'd posted that I sat at a couple £2/5 tables and walked into a nightmare session. One of those that you inevitably get if you play enough poker, after you take a couple of beats you can almost name the river card every time the money goes in......

You flop the nut straight with a flush re-draw all the money goes in and he makes a bigger flush.
You make a straight and he has top pair and a gutshot draw hits the gutshot or runner runner full house etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

They seem to come in clumps, the 1st one leaves your head spinnin a little and before you know it you've shipped your money into the middle 8 times in a range of hands where you are a 60% to a 96% favourite and lost every one... it's not even like ur tilting and getting it in behind. I've played enough poker to take these on the chin but could have done with an even break from a timing perspective. But if you take a shot.... u know the risks.

The hit was about just shy of £3k and after the 1st week in March I was back to struggling a bit from a bankroll perspective and grinding away, managed to get about £1k back before the end of the month. Again I've been withdrawing money from the bankroll to pay for holidays and stuff which doesn't help (but it beats spunking it down the drain i guess) , both me and the Mrs are still working part time so any 'extras' tend to come out of the bank roll.

to be honest i'm not sure what to play at the moment, i'm stuggling to find a lot of time to put an major effort in so I'm playing fairly low stakes and low volumes.

I emptied the BF account (withdrew not busto) and the put £50 quid back in for a minor flutter on the Grand National, I made the grand sum of £25 and managed to turn that into £500 in a few days playing lowstakes heads up, think I'll keep that account going like that and see what happens.

Had another trip to DTD. I wasn't really in the mood for an MTT and bust out fairly quickly playing fast, loose and badly. The only thing of note was that the guy who took me out was John Kalmar of WSOP final table fame. I then spent the rest of the evening playing in a very amusing low stakes cash game and made a few quid as well as totally pissing off a local with a well timed over the top bluff on an ace high flop when he C bet with QQ. I had to show my rags and he was less than complimentary :)

Betfair are ramping up their WSOPE promotions at the moment, apparently they've set aside $1.5m in promotions to send a load of BF lambs to the slaughter :)

Betfair are usually pretty good at giving value seats away for their sponsored events so well worth a look.

Part of me thinks it's prob not the best idea to be chasin a WSOPE seat at the moment I'd rather have the cash than the $24K entry package. But if you can get in cheap with a shot to change your life for ever then why not! Speaking of the WSPOE, coverage of last years started on Sky Sports this week and should make interesting viewing.

Quiet Feb after a big win

No updates for a while. I decided to have a very quiet month in Feb. The main reason being that at the end of Jan I won the Sunday £7.5k added Super Series on Hills, showing a very nice £4.5k return for a £35 investment :).





As it turns out that was the last £7.5k added… there's still a super series game at 4pm on Sundays but the buyin and the added money has been reduced which is a shame.

The win came just in the nick of time as well, so I decided to take it very easy in Feb and just play small MTTs showing a small profit.

I also had another trip to DTD for the Friday £75 FO and once again made the final table but once again ended up a disappointing 9th for not much money. I seem to be getting off to a flyer in live MTTs at the moment… I'd taken 4 people out within 30mins on this trip. Things then went downhill a little and it was lookin pretty grim when with 19 left I had 1 big blind left after losing a race. A treble up and two double ups within 4 hands saw me gain some momentum and hit the final table with average chips only for everything to slow to a stop and go totally card dead. There were several all ins where the low stack should have gone but always seemed to hit… before you know it I'm in trouble and out in 9th.

On a side note I'm sure I must come across as a complete moron when playing live… the gobby live pros always seem to sit there having a dig at me fumbling through counting my chips or having a few seconds think before I pass… this has happened a few times and invariably a few hours later when we both still sat there chipped up I'll get some backhanded compliment … always makes me laugh.

Time to increase the playing levels a bit in March … see if we can get the bank roll back up to £10k + in the next few months. I'm also dying for a trip to Vegas and really need to sort it out.

Another DTD Trip

Went along to Dusk Till Dawn again on Friday for what I thought was a £100 FO but turned out to be the 1st day of a new schedule and a £75 FO. Not to worry as the event had sold out at 140 runners and the club was very busy... good to see. I managed to donk myself off in 28th after having on of the best starts to a live MTT i've ever had.

3 hands into the tournie i'm on the SB with the blind at 25/50. Early position raises to 250 and picks up three callers and I come along for the ride with 45os. Flop comes along 4 5 Q .... two of the callers had AQ and next thing you know I'm sitting on a 11k stack from 4k starting. Within 25mins this was up to 19k. No idea where it went wrong from here..... apart from maybe getting a bit over aggro with a big stack and a bit unlucky when 60/40 in front 3 or 4 times on the bounce. Oh well.

Simon Nowab (he runs the key accounts at Dusk Till Dawn) came across to say hello during one of the breaks and I mentioned to him that I'd been playing a lot of HU in the past few months, he commented on how it can kill your MTT and CASH games. I had considered this before and had come to the conclusion that it actually improved some aspects of the cash game for a tight player. But I guess it can go too far the other way as well.

This prompted me to take a look at my woeful MTT record over recent months. I not playing many... maybe 3 or 4 a week, but I can't remember the last time I cashed in one. I think I'm just a bit too keen to race off my chips preflop with a marginal edge.... this is fine in the end game of a HU match but the wheels are bound to come off sooner of later in a MTT with this approach. Must do better.

I'm no longer drawing a wage from my bank roll so there's no real pressure to play at the moment. Focus is on rebuilding the roll to it's former glory and using it to pay for a few fun things so a juicy MTT payout would be nice.
Good luck,

Jim

Thanks SmartMoney (OT)

A few months ago Smartmoney posted a msg on the betfair forum about a new series on BBC4 called Flight of the Conchords. He'd already seen it on HBO in the states. Its about 2 New Zealand blokes in a (very poor) band living in New York, it's based on their stand up act i think .. every 5 mins they burst into song and it very funny.

Anyway me and the Mrs turned it on and every Tuesday night laughing our asses off.

It's finished now but I found this on Youtube...

Bret has asked Jerome to help him write a love song for his new girlfriend... :)



Poker had two weeks off for Crimbo and NYear... done ok since then. Off to DTD this Friday if anyone fancies a pint?

Jim

Dusk Till Dawn 1st visit

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

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



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

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


Heads up for rollz Napoleon?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to the grind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers for the support on the comments,

Jim

Busto!

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

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

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

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

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

Quick update on new improved Hills rakeback payments

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

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

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

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

Click here to sign up for Hills rakeback.

Why is the beginning of the month always a struggle?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Target St Kitts

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

Sunshine on a rainy day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mojo returns!

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

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

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

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

Good Luck

Jim

Two big chances go begging!

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Jim

Slow painful death?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good luck,

Jim

How to dump half the bank roll in two days

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

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

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

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

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

Adios,

Jim

Flamed!

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


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

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



Q: "me thinks your getting skint ?"

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



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

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



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

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


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

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


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