WHAM BLAM!!!

2 Weeks ago.... made 2.5K... it was 'banked'

Last week...got rakeback of 90$, turned it into 6500$

Have now blown that 6500$. Enough said(no need to talk about the bad beats and sporadic moments of sheer lunacy). I have to end this madness...

I'll start at .25/.50c NL with a 500$ bankroll. I'll play a 20 buy-in strategy for the first few levels. In practice this will mean uploading 500$ and playing at .25/.50c NL (I'm happy with 10-buyin roll for these stakes) when I reach 2K I move up to .50c/1. When I reach 4K I move to 1/2.

By the time I reach that level I will probably be compelled to play at a site with 100BB buyin rather than 75 so my next target will be 8K...although I may actually make it 10K to give myself more security at the higher levels. If I lose three buy-ins on any given day I must stop playing.

I never cease to amaze myself with how reckless I can be when it comes to this game. Maybe russian roulette is the real buzz I'm after... who knows... anyway fuck it theres always a better tomorrow. In one year I will be playing 25/50NL somewhere... that is written.

FRUSTRATED

This entry will be very brief as I am really pissed off with online poker at the moment. I took a break from online play altogether in early December as I wasn't really motivated enough to play it. Lately I cannot seem to stop losing when I play online. Ever since that 4k pot last month I don't think I've recorded a single winning session of play. I'm guessing that the reasons for this is its a combination of impatience, fatigue, bad play and bad luck. On the flip side of this my live play has been excellent and I registered significant profits over the past three weeks which were squandered(and then some) at tables online.
I need to get my head together and start accumulating cash at the online tables(with the kind of ease I once did) or else I'll have to consider taking a prolonged break from it altogether. The latter is a terrifying prospect as my current job is rather painful without playing poker. Anyway December has been a misery... I'm down somewhere around seven hundred euros for the month...... here's hoping the new year sees me rediscovering my form as well as my competitive edge.

EVEN PAR

I went to the Sporting Emporium last Wednesday to get in a few hours of live cash game play. I arrived at the casino in good spirits and saw that there was one PL Hold Em game on the go. I recognised a few of the faces seated around the table and to my delight I saw an empty chair to the immediate left of the biggest CLAM (chasing-loose-aggressive-muppet) in the cardroom.

I plonked myself next to him and ordered 200 euros worth of chips. Within 5 or 6 hands its pretty apparent that the game is as soft as shit. The play is extremely loose and ridiculousing passive. A hyper aggressive stealing strategy wasn't going to be too effective though. Most of the players at the table seemed quite happy to call pot-value raises with all manner of trashy holdings.

I was quite happy to bide my time and try to find a spot where I could squeeze maxmimum value out of a big hand. Meanwhile my CLAM friend has assemled a goliath stack to my right. The guy couldn't stop hitting the flop hard: two pair here, a flush there, river gutshots.
Eventually in the BB I look down and find AcKc. The player to my left has bet 7E without even looking at his cards. There are a number of calls and the action hits the big man to my right.
"Pot" he announces.
I'm delighted This guy is liable to do this with a lotta cards. He is in the SB and wants to snatch the money here and now. If he gets one caller he will be first to act on the flop and will have no hestitation in delivering a big bet. I decide that I'm not going to mess about, I am gonna tank this baby here and now. There is around E100 in the middle. I repot it for another E100 or so and the action folds back around to my friend. He ponders for a moment and asks how much I have left.
"65 euros or so" I tell him.
He deliberates and then calls. The flop lands J 7 3 rainbow. And he sticks 65 euros into the pot. With 315 odd euros already in the middle I have to call him and hope that he hasn't got better than a pair. I stick my chips in and he promptly shows me AJ offsuit. I don't get any help and I reload 150euros.

I suffered beat after beat (top-two-pair got cracked by the CLAMs bottom pair wedding with a high card on the river to give him a better two pair) and I began t get the feeling that it really wasnt my night. In spite of the misfortune I was still in profit on my reload and was sitting with about 370euros in my stack when I picked up Ah9h in the cutoff. The clam raises it, I call, the button folds and we get two more players to see a flop. The flop lands Q 9 6 rainbow. The other two players check and my friend makes it about 35 to play.
I elect for a call. I'm certain that my opponent is betting fresh air or a draw here and if either of the early players is bagging a monster at least I'll dodge it cheaper this way. The other two guys fold and the turn brings a harmless deuce(albeit a second spade). My opponent cant get his pot bet in quickly enough(about 90euro). I am strongly considering a raise here, but my logic is that if I am ahead my opponent will almost certainly fold to a raise and he is at best about 14% to make a better hand on the river if he hasnt got me beaten already. I also know that he will probably hammer a huge bet on the river irrespective of what card falls... to my mind the profit here is made by running the fine margin.
I call and the river lands another deuce. He stacks six black 25euro chips and shoves them forward. I waste little time in calling the 150e. He grins and reveals 82 offsuit for trips made out the back door.
About 4 hands later I manage to get my last 100 allin with JJ in the BB preflop, I am up against KK and AA. I dont get any help and I grab my cot and begin to make my exit. I happen across an ATM on my way out and have a change of heart. I withdraw 200e and go back to the table.
Somehow(and I barely remember any of the details) I manage to tear the table apart. I still get the odd filthy beat but I come unstuck(almost) and leave 160euros down overall for the session.


The following night at 3am I return to the casino and buyin for 200euros once again. Its Thursday night and the place is littered with drunks and donks. I go on the rampage and have registered over 600 euros in profit by 445am. I plan to leave at 515am and even have my alarm set for that time. I've slowed down considerably and am just relaxing and enjoying the table chat when I pick up 66 under-the-gun. there is a small raise from late position and I call along with many others. The flop lands 6 3 2 with two diamonds on board. I bet 30 and the guy to my left makes it 75. I repot it and the guy to my left repots it again. Anyway the upshot of it is that we get it all in. I cover the guy to my left by about 190 euros and the other guy by about 400 euros. The guy to my left turns over the Queen-7 of diamonds and the Big Blind to my right has the 9-5 of diamonds.
The turn comes an ace of diamonds an I'm crippled.
At that point my alarm goes off but I decide to ignore it and stay in the casino until the bitter end. I kept my composure and on the final hand of the night I got AA on the button and won 490 euro pot that had six contestants showing down at the river!
Over the two sessions I made a small bit of profit and really would have made a lot more had it not been for some horrible luck, but I'm pretty unhappy on the whole. I wasn't my usual self I played very passive poker and I tended to be fortunate in hitting a lot of flops with mediocre hands like QT and K9. I need to regain my awareness of poker as a table game rather than an individualistic war between myself and one or two select others at the table.
I also need to second guess every call I make, when I play online in either tournament play my call percentage is amongst the lowest of my table actions, the opposite has been the case in my recent live games.
On a more positive note my instincts are still pretty good when it comes to pegging my opponents on certain hands.
I don't have anything online at the moment. I'll probably start playing again later in the week on either Wednesday or Thursday. I also plan on playing some satellites to the Irish Poker Championship that take place in the Citywest Hotel in early January.

JADED

Well its been a hectic few days and not much poker has been played since I lost that big pot early last week. I went and invested in a top-of-the-range PC which set me back around a thousand bucks and did some heavy drinking with my mates over the weekend.

When Monday rolled around I had an itch to get a few hands under my belt and I thought that the 25 euro rebuy tournament in the Sporting Emporium would be a good place to get my groove back. My live play had been superb of late and I was hoping to log another solid performance. I won’t reflect on the tournament too much as it was an out-and-out disaster wherin I played so bad that I was actually embarrassed to be sitting at the table.
I was playing hands in my usual style preflop however once thee flop hit I mutated into a weak-passive-fish. By the time the top-up period arrived I couldn’t even purchase the 3000 chips on offer as I had already reloaded the maximum number of times for the game. Needless to say I made a swift exit shortly after the break.
I then sat in a cash game and did considerably better. In the end I registered about 160 euros profit for the evening.

This evening my 200euro Neteller lodgement finally hit my account and I went to Party Poker and played some cash games. They didn’t go at all well and I’m down to roughly 80$ in my neteller account. I’m not actually all that pushed on playing too much at present, I’m actually feeling pretty exhausted and I really don’t want to blow the healthy amount of cash I’ve assembled whilst I’m in my current state. I think I’ll restrict myself to low stakes HORSE games online as well as the odd live game for the next two weeks.
I will abide by the strategy I outlined earlier later in the month when I feel that I’ve regained my desire to win.
For the time being it’s the gym, work, movies, videogames and Christmas shopping for me….

MONTH IN REVIEW

November has been a volatile but ultimately successful month for me. I enjoyed great success early in the month in live cash games registering a little under 2k in profit from 2 sessions.
I lost around 400 euros playing online poker with two separate lodgements to my online accounts as well as another another 150-odd in smaller deposits here and there.

On both occassions I ran very well getting 1.5k in the first session only to blow that away in a moment of madness that followed a row with my girlfriend. I actually accrued the $2500 that would have afforded me a small roll to play at 1/2$ NL.
I decided to withdraw 1500 for a new PC and play around with the rest. The entire roll went south due to my own greed and stupidity once again.
My win in the UK Poker Tour event in Banbridge brought in the sum of 5000 euros(1000 of which went to a mate who had an interest in me).

Discipline is still the biggest flaw in my game and I see little point in trying to progess any further until I have eradicated this problem.
My Permanent TSB account is now open so hopefully when I resume play I can adopt my regular cashout policy wherin 60-75% of my roll will be inaccessible for a 48hr period at any given time. I will be playing STTs and MTTs as well as the occassional live game over the next 2 weeks so I will lodge 500$ to my account and will register the first cashout when I reach $1000.

LACKING DISCIPLINE

I had a belting week at the cash tables and had run my account up to 2.8K - I ordered a withdrawal for 1500$ last Friday and played a few more cash games on Friday evening. Two sick beats in two different 3/6 games(one 3-outer and a runner) all but put paid to the money beyond the withdrawal. But I was happy enough this little spell at the cash tables was more of a treat than anything else and I still had the price of a computer winging its way to my Neteller account.
When I returned from home I opened Neteller to find that the transfer had not been processed. I contacted the customer services department of my gaming account and discovered that they would require money laundering documentation from me before processing any further transactions. When I totalled the sites withdrawal time along with the length of time it would take for me to acquire and submit the requisite documents I realised it would be at least another week before I saw a single red cent of my cash in my Neteller account.
Thus the "Fuck it" philosophy came into play and I bought into a 10/20NL game with the whole 1500 hoping to crack 3k before calling it a night. If I went busto I went busto...I'd be out 200 quid(what an inane point-of-view, I really need to treat profit with as much respect as I do deposits).
Anyway as things turned out I played well but still went busto...

Ok its 10/20$ NL and we are six-handed I have about $1400 and I am in the cutoff with the 5d6s. UTG($1500...a player on tilt who has been losing all morning at a number of levels) limps. The player to his left(Stack is circa 3.5k...he isa very capable but somewhat loose player) limps also. THe action is on me and I smooth call. The button folds and the small blind pays the extra $10 and the BB dutifully checks.

Flop

[5 players-$97]

3d 2h 4d

Bingo for me! The action is checked around to me and lead for $100. The two players in the blinds both fold and UTG smooth calls. The decent player(Villain) reraises to $300. A checkraise from late position seemed very suspicious to me so I decide to belt the pot and reraise to $900 - There is something going off in the back of my head telling that I don't want a threeway allin draw to the river here...but at the same time I have the stone cold nuts at the moment....
UTG then raises allin. I'm not overly surprised or worried by this.
The villain then deliberates for a while before shoving his chips in the middle. I didnt expect this and I decide to call.UTG has the Kd7d for a flush draw and the Villain has 4s4c for top set.

Turn[3 players-$4193.46]

2c

Balls Balls Balls....... the villain has hit one of his outs to fill a house and have me drawing dead to the river.

River

[3 players-$4193.46]

6c

I apppreciate that I was a slight favourite in this spot and that its never really a bad thing to tank the nuts if you're getting action. However I'm wondering whether it would have been more prudent to have simply called Villains reraise...after all I wasnt guaranteed to keep either player in unless they had substantial racing material.... and even with the nut straight I was aware that it was quite possible that someone had flopped 2 pair or a set in that spot, especially with it being an unraised pot...I suppose at teh end of the day I did get great value on my hand, however part of me feels that a degree of caution may be warranted when you may be treading a very fine racing line...
Having said all that these issues wouldnt be of any relevance had I been sufficiently bankrolled for that level...so it brings me me back to my reasons for starting this blog.
I'll move to 50$ Stts and develop a bankroll of 2500$ at which time I will begin playing $1/2 NL and then work my way up. No more 'reward' play.

After the success in the tournament on Monday I afforded myself a chace to play a little 2/3 cash with 250$. I have since run that up to $2K. Things are looking good. I also opened a Permanent TSB account to manage 75% of the bankroll while the other 25% remains online.

I'm now weighing up whether I should keep using the 2K as my bankroll or whether I should upgrade my workstation. A new workstation would afford me the chance to multi-table and datamine my opponents with relative ease -- so it is an inevitable move in the very near future.