Blog fatigue

I think I overdid over the last few weeks with the voracity of my blogging.

Five posts in fifteen days, on a blog which (going by the number of comments I get) is read by two people at best, was pushing it a bit.

The past few days have been more of the same. Still stuck in a bit of a rut. Playing reasonable poker but suffering from an unusually large number of cold decks. Letting it affect me too much though. Getting too emotionally involved in my losses. Made a resolution yesterday to be more philosphical about harsh beats - to try and maintain calm about the unavoidable top-two-pair vs bottom set hands and focus on playing well. Immediate results. Not least that it has made me much bolder - knowing I can control my temper after a loss makes me less afraid of losing. Can I keep it up though?!

This was one temper tester: Raise to $8 with AdKs in the cutoff. Button calls. Flop is Ah-2c-3c. I bet $18, he calls. Turn is Jd. I check, he bets $20, I call. River is king of hearts. I bet $32. He waits until time has nearly run out and then calls. Shows pocket jacks. I passed the test though - calm was maintained.

Won £70 in home game on Wednesday. Felt terrible though. Someone who hasn't played in the game for a while came round and lost £80. Doubt we will see him again. He has a bizzare self-destruct tendency when he plays in this game. He cannot stop himself from making horribly timed all-in bluffs, no matter how many times he gets caught. It looks like a problem with an insecure ego - he simply hasnt grasped the concept that most bets are not bluffs. For some reason he thinks people are always trying to bluff him, so whenever he misses with a decent starting hand and someone else starts betting, he just loses the plot.

Played an old man in the squash league the other day. Like 60+ old. Let him win a set and then he started cheating. lol. Had to whitewash him in the last set for good measure.

The Rollercoaster Continues

Wow yesterday's poker was stressful! I dropped $450 in the first hour and a half. Was one of those sessions. Everything seemed to be going wrong - kept running into small sets after raising with premium hands from late position. Kept missing the flop and making continuation bets that got called or raised. My bluffs were called by middle pairs. My good hands lost. Ugh.

I had been speaking to a friend of mine earlier in the day who is pro/semi pro and analysing my recently aquired pokertracker stats with him. We noticed that I was losing far too much money on the BB, and established that this was probably because I was not punishing limpers enough; ie: checking my BB too much. He said a pot sized raise here would need to be succesful only around 50% of the time to be profitable.

I decided to put this into practice last night - with inevitable results. The first hand I got AK and the button limp-called my $8 raise. The flop came A-2-2 and we got it all in (he only had about $35-$40 at the start of the hand). He had 5-2. Ahem. The next time it was the cutoff who limp-called my $8 raise. This time I only had T-2 but the flop came ten high with two diamonds and we got it all-in again (he also was short stacked with about $50 at the start of the hand.) This time I was up against J-7d. Ahem again. He missed flush but hit jack on river. Not a great start.

The hand that really sent me over the edge was about an hour later when I raised the cutoff's preflop bet with QQ and the SB re-raised all-in. I called (I had seen him make this play with 99 a few hands ealier) and he had J-9c . . . . . . Needless to say the flop came J-9-3 and I never caught up.

Fortunately I managed a good come back and finished only $80 down for the session. This was largely down to two big hands, the first of which I played to perfection. Ok, I did have aces, but that wasnt the point. Samobo, on my left, had just started bitching at the whole table because some guy raised preflop with 88? I told him to calm down so he started bitching at me. He was clearly steaming and had been playing awful for a while now, so when I got AA in the SB on the very next hand I decided he was probably keen to make a donation.

He limped from under the gun and I decided to raise $10 into a $6 pot - thinking this would prob piss him off :-) He called and the flop came down king high. I decided to bet $32 - thinking again that the overbet would annoy him. Sure enough he came over the top with K-4 and I collected the $300 pot. He piped down for a bit after that.

Then about two hands later I got KK and busted the BB who moved in with A-J. That put me up to about $420 on that table, and I was steadily building up to the $300 mark on my other table. I played on for about another 45 minutes and was in pretty much total control of both tables. It seems people had finally decided to stop calling my preflop raises with 5-2 and J-7 or if they did they were missing the flop and folding. Finished with about $470 on the one table and $340 on the other.


Today has been a case of deja vu. Started feeling good and ready for a strong session but found myself down $100 within about ten hands. Mostly from raising with pocket pairs or premium aces and missing the flop or seeing the flop come down with overcards. My continuation bets are called or raised and i have to let them go. Then this extraordinary player called MAPLE1 calls my $9 pf raise with T-8o. The flop is J-8-7 and he re-raises me all-in. I call with K-J and he rivers a third eight. Still, just as I'm about to start steaming I flop a set of fours and win a $320 pot.

Meanwhile MAPLE1 is quickly down to about $30 again and has not folded preflop for about 40 hands. Now all of a sudden he starts catching cards - its great to watch. Busting people after calling $16 preflop with A-3o. . . .lol. Its awesome. I'm still playing with him now, biding my time before I (hopefully) bust him.

(poker) bank error in your favour - receive £1000

How odd.

I finally discovered what happened to my Doyle money today, just shy of a month since i cashed it out. And whaddaya know - I got a free gift for passing go. Worth the wait as it turns out.

The saga began when my debit card was cloned in December, resulting in a new card being issued (sadly the fraudsters had only taken out £150 - meaning I really had spent the depressingly large sum of money my balance indicated).

Consequently when I made a cash out request with Doyle I informed them that they would need to change the details on may card before sending the money. They didn't seem to see a problem with this and someone from the accounting department even phoned me to confirm the change. All good.

Fast forward to a-long-time-later and I still havent got the money. Repeated calls to Doyle and my bank are getting me nowhere and I am quickly getting pissed off. Until today. It turns out Doyle have sent the money to my old card after all. The card which had been cancelled. My bank decided to keep the money in a holding account, and kindly declined to tell either me or Doyle.

So now I'm on the phone to my bank and the customer services guy tells me yeah, Doyle did send it to my old card, and yeah, they are holding it for me. Great! Now sure, it would have been nice to find this out without having to get Cracker involved, but they have my money and thats what matters.

But whats this? Now he's telling me they are holding two lots of money for me. Both from Aquapay. One for £1500 and one for £1060. Now the amount I had cashed out was $3326 - which, according to UniversalCurrencyConverter, is £1710. So where have these two figures come from?

There is only one explanation that makes any sense to me. They meant to send a total of £1660 (instead of £1710) - using that special 'magic' exchange rate common to poker sites. I'm guessing Aquapay can only send money in £1500 bundles, so they split it into a £1500 and a £160 bundle. And then some genius put an extra zero in the second payment. It seems the only logical explanation - though I still think its extraordinary that any of these financial processes could involve anyone entering anything by hand. Seems an absurd risk. But how else did this happen?

I wonder if anyone knows if I am right about Aquapay only being able to deliver money in £1500 bundles. Or has anyone else got a better explanation as to what might have happened?

Either way, obviously I'm planning on keeping stum about this and hoping no-one notices. Sadly I am led to beleive that if they do discover their mistake they will be able to demand their money back. Fingers crossed.

Back on track - but heart problems persist

Well. Finally got my Uncover bankroll back to where it was before that horrible run. $1150 at close of play yesterday.

It was another stressful day on the tables, though I kept my anger in check. Things started fairly poorly when I called a raise from the BB with an average hand (thought SB was stealing). I missed the Q high flop and he bet the pot, so I re-raised to $45 and he pushed. Oops.

On a different table, I flopped a set of nines on a 3d-Tc-9h board. I check-called the preflop raiser and then when the Kh fell on the turn I check-raised him to $40. He called and another ten on the turn gave me the boat. I bet $40 and he re-raised all-in. I called and he showed K-T for the runner runner boat. A $280 pot.

K-T was the order of the day it seemed, as I scopped the biggest pot of the night an hour later when I flopped trips with K-T and then turned the boat when a king fell on the turn. The button had A-T but even so, he should never had donated so much. There were two spades on the flop and the king on the turn was also a spade. I bet $50 on the river and he re-raised - a horrible play. I moved all-in and he called. Pot was about $540.

Still a little worried about the old ticker. Despite no outbursts, tantrums, wall punching or even shouting, I'm still mildly concerned. Perhaps I am being a hypocondriac. It is quite possible after all, that it is merely adrenilin that I'm feeling. Maybe so long as I dont get angry there is no probs. Either way - I'm getting my blood pressure taken at the gym this lunchtime! :-)

What's this? Two in two days?

Hanging in there at the expense of my life expectency

In celebration of the confirmation that someone, somewhere, has actually read my blog I have decided to break my six-monthly update routine and post again today. Deep breaths . . .

The rollercoaster ride of the last few weeks continues, but I am keeping my head above water, just. Yesterday put a real strain on my heart. First I lost a huge pot when I flopped two pair with 6-4 on a 6-4-A flop. Got it all in against A-5 and the five hit on the turn.

After pulling a few back I then found aces in second position, and re-raised the under-the-gun player to $18. The flop came Ad-Th-9h and I decided to slow play it. The dreaded heart came on the turn but I fired $25 all the same. The river was a blank and he fired $80 into the $90'ish pot. I had to call. He had 6h-5h.

I finished work and headed home at around 6ish. Straight back online. Within three hands I turned the nut straight and had to check call a huge bet on the river when the board paired. He had made his boat.

That meant I was down to about $350, having started the day at about $750. Not good. But I persevered. I was pretty sure I had a good edge on the table I was playing at, and to stave off the boredom from playing one table I also played a few heads-up tournies, one after the other. Won four $20 HU in a row, and then just before I stopped for dinner I won two big pots on the cash table. The first was a simple A-K v A-Q scenario, where an ace flopped and I got him to put it all-in on the turn.

In the next pot I flopped two pair with A-T after flat calling a button raise. I slow played it, check calling to the river when another ace fell. I bet and he re-raised all-in with middle pair or some shit like that. Back up to $600.

Went round to my mates for the weekly home game after that. Ran pretty bad - my first losing session in over six months (the standard is pretty poor). Was down £60 at one point but pulled it back to a £12 loss. Frustrating game though - very few cards and hit even fewer flops. Moaned too much. The players in our game are suicidal though. They play quite reasonably for a while, building up decent stacks, and then they just self-destruct, calling all-ins with hands like A-3 on a A-K-T board. Great for me - but its always a concern they may quit if they keep throwing away big chip stacks in the last hour of the night.

Ran well online today. Started poorly again when I made a button raise to $9 with K-T and was called by a first positon limper. Flop was A-Q-8 rainbow and I made it $16 - he called. Turn was a blank and we check checked. River was a Ten and I bet $32 - hoping he had busted flush - he called with Q-2o. Four hands later I flopped the broadway straight with A-T. Up against the same guy and he put it all-in with T-9. Fair enough - no complaints about that - but the river Ace was a bitch.

But things turned in my favour after that. I won a $160 pot when I pushed with Q-Q on a Td-6d-3h-Ks board and was called by 9d-7d. I then started to pick up a lot of small pots, building my stack to around $320, before hitting a monster. The button raised to $8 and I flat called with Ad-Kd from the SB. The flop was a dream - Ac-9d-4d. I checked and the original raiser made it $8 to go. I raised to $20 and he called. The turn made my flush, and I bet a weak looking amount - $10 or something, into a $64 pot - he called. The river did not pair the board, and now I bet $24, feeling fairly sure he was going to raise, either with nothing or with a smaller flush. Sure enough he raised another $50. I then re-raised all-in and he called. Didn't see what he had, but must have been a smaller flush to make the call. That put my roll back to $920, pending the arrival of my Doyle cash.

One thing I have realised this last week is that I gotta control my temper better. Its really not good for my health. Seriously. I joined a new gym the other day and took advantage of the free physical. I'm a pretty healthy guy and scored way above average in almost every category . . . . . . . except one. My diastolic blood pressure was diabolical.

For those of you who, like me, get more than a little worked up when things aren't going your way on the poker table I suggest you consider going to your doctor and getting your blood pressure checked. Its pure speculation, but I'd wager that having high blood pressure through poker-induced stress is probably as bad for your life expectency as smoking ten-a-day.

First comment wins a prize

July, August, September, October, November, December, January.....February.

Ok, fair enough. It is more than six months. But seen as I am the only person reading my blog it doesnt really matter does it.

Vegas was good. I didn't lose my life savings, although I did have a stupendously depressing session online, where I proceeded to lose the $2400 I had left in my bankroll after withdrawing $3000 before leaving england. It took slightly under 24 hours. -$100 an hour. Not bad. In my defence (although I may not be able to convince a jury of this) I did manage to avoid playing on tilt for most of the session, and lost mainly due to some sickening bad luck. But considering I was only playing online because I was too hungover to get out of bed I dont have much of an excuse. Why didn't I stop earlier?

I have just got a rakeback deal with Uncover poker, allowing me to stay in the gentle confines of Tribeca. I set up the account with $300 because I am still waiting (20 days and counting) for the $3300 I cashed out from Doyle last month. Within 8 hours of play (over three days) I had run that up to $1200, mostly in 1-2 hour sessions. Was simply crushing the tables, playing a much more agressive game than usual, and it was paying off.

Then it all went to shit. Had a few sessions where I dropped $600 and managed to pull it back to a $100 loss or less, but that was not going to last. Within a few days I was down to $350. Some sick beats. Two big losses with AA. The first one I made a $35 re-raise from the SB and got four callers! WTF. This is $1/$2 remember. The flop was Ks-Js-5d and I decided to just push anyway (for around $240). I figured anyone with kings would have either raised more preflop, or re-raised my $35 bet. And i was willing to take the risk with JJ. One caller - he has 4s-3s. Joker. Hit the flush on the river. Incidentally the turn was a ace so there was no getting away from that one.

Then an almost identical hand. I limped with AA because the BB had been raising every pot from the blinds. Sure enough he raised to $12. I re-raised to $35 and he called. Flop was 5d-4d-2c. He checked, I bet $100. He called. Turn was 9s. He checked. I went all-in for $160 more and he called with Jd-Td. Hit his flush on the river. ****. I later saw this guy donking off $200 in record time - and I noticed he was registered for 7 freerolls, including a $30 freeroll. Why did it have to be me he got streaky with. . .. . . .. :-)

But this is the best of the lot. Last night I sat down at a table having spotted a player who was on my buddy list (ie: fish). Within a few hands he raised to $7 and I re-raised to $16 from the button with A-Q. A small stack went all-in from the SB for $18 total and we both called. The flop came A-T-5 rainbow. He checked and I bet half his stack - about $65-70. He used up almost all his time allocation and then moved all-in. I insta-called and he turned over pocket queens. One out. Nice. I dont need to tell you what hit on the river.

Still - its not all doom and gloom. Today someone called my all-in on a board showing K-A-3-A-3 with K-9. Lol. No steak for him tonight.

Oh yea - and there's a prize for whoever posts the fist comment on my blog. It doesnt have to be nice. Just something to acknowledge my existence. Not that I do a very good job of that myself. But there we go.

Sven's a Conman, and a Damn Good One at that

Well how else can you explain it?

Blessed with one of the best international football squads that any country (yes, not just england) has produced in decades Sven contrived to produce a quality of football that Wimbledon FC would have been ashamed of.

And this from a man who won the Scudetto with Lazio. Now ok, he did spend an inordinate amount of money in the course of that pursuit, but the england football squad contains players of such value even chelsea would struggle to finance its purchase. So how did a man who saw off the challenges of Mila, Juventus, Roma, Inter, Fiorentina et al manage to make such a stupendous cock up of the england football team?

The answer? Its obvious isnt it? It wasn't really Sven. The Sven we had in charge of england was an Italian con artist and kidnapper - one of the world's greatest. Bored of the anonymous monotony of stealing paintings and ancient artifacts Giuseppe pined for something more glamourous, and less demanding. And then, after hearing that Sven was in line for the England job, he hatched on a plan.

£4 million-a-year for 6 years is a lot of money. £24 million to be precise. You need a good few Hockney's to clock up that sort of mileage. And the beauty of it is that you only need to work for about 6 weeks of the year. So that's almost $1 million-a-day. Intersting.

It didnt take long for Giuseppe to enlist the help of the stunning Nancy Del Olio. He would need bait, and he knew Sven had a reputation for being ruled by his cock. Before long she had lured the Lazio manager back to her Roman villa, whereupon Giuseppe garoted him with a pair of Nancy's lacy knickers, and buried him under the pool.

Don't tell me you didn't realise Nancy was in on it? Even money can't get you a bird like Nancy if you look like Sven. Imagine going home to that? Luckily for Nancy she didnt have to. Not for her that choirboy's body. No - the 'Sven' she knew would bumble meekly in through the front dorr, before, out of sight of the cameras, shedding his mask, Mission Impossible style, to reveal the olive skin and wild untamed locks of Giuseppe. Like a wild bull he would take her every evening, right there on the mable floor of the greeting hall, before heading off to satisfy his Swedish and English-Indian mistresses, one by one, whilst attending to the dishes. What a man.

The genius of this plan was that due to the imcompetence of past England managers Giuseppe knew all he had to do was to pick the players the media liked, plus one or two rubbish ones for good measure, and tell them to "express themselves". Then he could just sit back, watch the train wreck, and smile as the press bemoaned the "same old" failing england. No one had the slightest idea what was going on. Except me.

Poker Vs. the World Cup, and other stuff

I admit, I'm not exactly showing a great deal of dedication to this blog.

Still in its infancy, a shivering babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, it has been horribly neglected, desperately underfed and starved of attention, though I have stopped short of abusing it. Nevertheless, the NSPCB will have grounds for paying me a visit if I keep this up.

My poker has been suffering a similar fate recently. I haven't been playing on tilt, which is always nice, but I won’t pretend this is a reflection of my newly discovered self-control; the truth is it’s just a symptom of the world cup – I simply haven’t been playing. I suppose I can pat myself on the back for playing less poker at work – and this was a purely conscientious decision - but the most significant factor is that I have been rushing home straight after work to catch the second half of the 5pm game. And at the danger of being branded a heretic, it has really put poker into perspective.

As has the rapidly increasing severity of my fathers illness. Poker is terrific fun, a great sport and a great way to make money, but it can feel like an empty pursuit when other more important things are happening in your life. Perhaps it’s the combination of money and play, somehow creating a conflicting sense of purpose; is it for the money or the fun? On too many occasions it fails to achieve either objective.

Nevertheless, in the few short sessions I have had recently I've done surprisingly well. The hour-and-a-half time limit has focused my mind and over ten or so sessions I've averaged roughly $100-an-hour on the $1-$2 tables on VC.

Multi-tournament play has had to be completely sacrificed. Time constraints simply won't allow me to play them, though next week I may be back involved when I finally get an internet connection at home. I have missed them. Multi-tournies are good fun, and they have the promise of not only great financial reward, but also great psychological reward. It’s a wonderful feeling to battle through a field of 250+ players in a $20 re-buy and find yourself sitting on the final table, with a possible $1000-$2000 payout staring you in the face.

I haven’t, however, missed the entry fees, re-buys and add-ons. If you don’t see your way to a decent finish in a while they can really start to dent your bankroll.

Anyway.

Before I go here’s a quick hand to ponder. The last hand I played in fact, which was Friday, June 16th:

(NL $1-$2)
I have Ad-7d on the button. There is one call from middle position before the player on my right, fairly loose and apparently a little bit weak, raises to $7. I call. The blinds both fold and the original caller calls. With three players, the flop is Ac-6h-8d. The first to go checks his option before the pre-flop raiser makes it $7 to go. Sensing weakness I feel sure he doesn’t have an ace and so I re-raise to $24. First player folds before the pre-flop raiser calls. The turn is the 8h. This time he bets $10 and I raise to $40. He calls. The river is the Jh. He now immediately goes all-in. I ponder; there’s no way he could have called on a flush draw, he doesn’t have a set because he would have re-raised, and similarly I think it’s highly unlikely he has a better ace. I decide he’s probably got a pair of kings or queens. Besides his all-in bet is only $40 and the pot already had $152 in after the turn. I call.

He turns over……. 2h3h. Ugh.


Giving my current blistering blog-a-month pace I will probably be in Vegas by the time I next re-visit these pages. I fly out on the 24th July and return on the 14th Aug. Look out for gut wrenching accounts of lost bankrolls, jobs and girlfriends. Or something less upbeat……