Christmas greetings all !

It is the season of Merriment, although I have to admit things aren't all merry with me at the moment , but more of that another time perhaps.

Online I have continued to donk away a little by little at Pokerplex and yesterday morning took a hit for $200+ although I did lose one hand of $288 with trip aces going down to a runner runner donkey.
So I decided to have a break from the cash and play some tourneys. It was Suinday evening so had a blast at some DEEP,DEEP fields. I went well in all except the Full Tilt one. On Stars I played 2NLHE and a PLO8 one cashing in all, including the big $10 $200k g'teed with 26,517 runners!! 212th for $200 not bad and could have been better if my AJ had stood up. Must have played this tourney 10 times and think this is the first time I have cashed beyopnd the basic level.

And then my favourite of the night was on Virgin where I played the 15Euro satellite to their Virgin Festival at Newcastle on April 4th/5th. To cut a long story short and the fact there weren't any interesting hands and I never really got myself at risk here are the final positions :

So yee-ha off to Newcastle for a w/end. PsychoDave has already qualified in the AWOP league and I hope a couple of other guys will give it a shot too.......should be fun.

Geeksville.... I am there !

As you see from the above link, I have entered for the PokerStars World series of poker.
It has been running for the past 3 years and works out as a $60k freeroll basically with 3 live packages and a heap of online tournament tickets up for grabs. Seeing as I have been writing this since the start of the year, I've done nearly a 100 entries and probably had less than a thousand views ( think I must have been responsible for 200+ of the hit counter), I feel I deserve something for nothing as that qualifies me as a true geek.
Not been on the stars site for a month or so and a couple of interesting things I spotted.
1. They are attempting to break the world record ofr the worlds largest poker game ( I imagine they already hold it , but hey-ho always improving!), which is going to be a massive 35,000 entries @ $10 and they are gauranteeing $500k so a minimum $150k overlay. Ive already registered, but it does clash with a nice looking £50 local tourney on Sunday so will have to see.
2. They now have got a Russian poker tour to go with their European, Asian and Latin American tours. They sure know how to corner the market ! Only 2 dates so far on the tour and I'm not too sure if visiting St. Petersburg and Moscow in Jan & Feb when it is seriously freezing is the best way to start a new venture!

As for my live exploits, I have a few lined up over the newyear, which I will post later. First though to last Sunday where I played the B'pool night tourney which they g'teed for £3000 , turned into a £900 overlay. Ended up coming 4th for £300, with my penultimate hand the only one of note.
5 left Ive got 51k...Blinds are 6k/12k and I get 10,10 on the button, as I prepare to just push this in,, the short stack under the gun pushes his last 25k in. I am just thinking do I need to call or push here and came to the conclusion that 10s were too vulnerable against multi-hands so would have to push. But the dealer starts talking to the SB who is putting chips in over the line...he has called out of turn. The dealer says the bet will have to stand. I only have an extra 26k so he has to call if I push and thats not really what I want, my right to push and have some fold equity has gone. Figuring everyone will check it down I call as does the BB, flop comes down A,2,7 and SB pushes in! Fair enough as it happens as he had A2 and was protecting it. As it happens next hand Im utg with AQ and SB makes the hard call with AK, Im out for £300 and the last 3 then decide to chop it up for £700 each !
However if I had been given the chance to push I am sure he would have got out of the way and I would have taken down the pot and been upto 98k and we would probably have chopped it 4 ways for ~£600 each. So his out of turn move cost me £300, and at the time it was all smiles and "it doesn't really matter his call has to stand but you can bet if you want to" type of thing.

Back Online and live at B'pool.

Im still alive, call the search party off !

The new Dongle thing developed some mysterious glitch and just wouldn't connect at home. Everywhere else but not at home. Contacted 3 mobile (India branch) and they were very helpfull without actually doing anything. Then last night it has just started working again, don't know why but I hope it will stay good.

So I haven't played online for 3 weeks.

Did play live at The G in Blackpool in their monthly £100 deepstack. Great little tourney this with 15k stack and 45 min levels, starting at 3pm on last Sat. of the month, will try and make it as regular as possible.
I started soundly on a fairly solid tight table and then made a lovely little play just before the break, where i floated a call from a double pot bet on J94 flop with K9 of spades. The turn brought 2 spades giving me the flush draw so I re-raised to 2.5k on her continuation bet of 700. I expected her to fold, but she called and I braced my self for the decision of a big bluff or to just let it go. However the river brough the 5 of spades and I value bet 2.5k again and she was forced to pay me off with top 2 pair. The table then started chatting about the hand, and I could see they had me down as a wild dangerous canon, which I love, but as you all know by now I am a pretty tight nit.
I made one little loose bluff that cost me a quarter of my stack, but then got going and started getting back upto average+ and I hardly got a hand. AK, AQ and Q,Q
being the only good starting hands I got all day ...until... after 7 and half hours I got the bullets in SB and pushed over the top of an early raiser who duly called me with her QQ. First card out was another lady and I was out. 7 and a half hours without getting my chips in at any time and then when I get Aces I get it all in and get dealt what feels like an under the belt blow. Shouldn't be allowed, or at least I should get some back as compensation.
Hell, imagine playing the WSOP for 3 days just on the bubble and getting it in with Aces against some "atit" merchant who gets lucky and takes your large stack home with nothing! STUPID GAME
Gez was down their too and final tabled where they all decided to chop it 10 ways !! Gez a £grand better off. nice one.

Had gone down the week before and played the Sunday night games at the Castle 6pm start --> out at 7:45 so went and played the G game at 8pm --> out by 11:30. LOL

Got to post the November accounts next...not going to be good reading again !

Might be off to B'pool later tonight. keep tuned all.

Cracking Aces

Blue Square League game tonight and still on 1st level. I had to hit on the river but had that many outs , I was totally priced in, remembering it was PL. Think I played the hand great and I imagine the guy couldn't believe what was happening when the chips started moving my way after he had flopped Trip Aces. I even wrote in the chat box "OWNED" ~ I'm such a **$* at times!

Going well on Plex last day or so and back to almost even now for the month, which is a result considering the hole I had dug for myself. No progress up the Plex rake race ladder though. Going to have to have a mental night or two to get in those cash places now. It finishes on Saturday.

Rakerace is nuts

This rakerace is all a bit stupid. It is only $200 I'm after, but feel I have to get there now. I'm upto 26th just 3 off the cash and I guess I'm not the only one thinking the same. I suppose I should look at the fact that if(when) I make it I will also have earnt a heap of extra bonus and rakeback. So I guess it will be more like $400 I'm going to gain by playing so much.

Having said that I had another downswing the other day, losing about $500 over almost 1000 hands. The thing is I'm beginning to get the feeling as though I am going to keep losing, yet still play on ! I don't feel I am playing particularly badly and the players on the tables aren't all winners, yet after a while I sense I'm just unlikely to win and probably going to lose more. Maybe it is a balance of the players on the tables or my position to them that is creating this, but as it is happening across multi-tables I have to assume that I am getting unlucky or playing not well enough. I think it is a bit of both and that I should definitely introduce a stop/loss limit to avoid me possibly "tilting" at all.


Finish with this hand from a Party Poker tourney the other day (my EXIT hand)

Get it all-in preflop with JJ v KK...."OOOPS"

Flop J3K.............................."Ah JESUS"

Turn J..............................."Get in you little beauty"

River K..............................."HUH"


Couldn't complain really, but what a damn tease !

New Month...Same Rollercoaster

Quick post.

November has arrived and my bottomline has plumetted and come back up again.

Saturday played the £150 tourney at Leeds ALEA. Great game, great room and will be back to play it again. 15k chips, 45min blinds and every level going. Basic story is I was going well and then ran KK into QQ on a Q hi flop and then AJ got outdrawn by A7. Probably misplayed the KK hand by not re-raising, but hey-ho.

Online dropped $400 in 30 minutes when I decided the value was all at 2/4 PLO. I got it all-in 7 times with the best hand and lost 6 of them , including 3 pots of almost $300. No doubts here, I ran BAD, BAD !
Still made a whole lot back since and probably hardly down now.

I dropped out of the rake race table but back in today at 27 just out of the cash. Stupid idea these rakeraces and I should steer clear, but I will defo make the $200 places now, gives me more incentive I guess.


Blue Square League has started and I have donked out just short of the final table both games with two pieces of play suitable of a monkey.

Friday night going to go and play a local pub game and hopefully see some of the regular crew. Always enjoy these games no matter how I play.

October Accounts

Accounts for October

PokerPlex : down $580
Blue Square: down $460
Full Tilt: up $120
Playing live: NO LIVE PLAY ALL MONTH !!!
In total for playing down $920

Staking : up $240 (ty Aces)
Bonus this month of $240 and pokerplex rakeback about $320

So -$120 for the month.

and +$8420 for the year so far.

So another negative month.....not good !

Pokerplex play was so up and down, in particular 2 three day sessions where I lost about $1000 each time and at all other times I was creeping back up grinding away as it should be. LOL
Was I tilting for those little downswings, didn't feel like it but maybe just a little frustration leads to minor misjudgements or maybe it was just the high variance of PLOmaha. It has made me realise playing for an actual living must be so frustrating.

Blue Square this month was another "bubble" result in the league , finishing 5th again. Could have been very different as I bubbled again in 2 tourneys and 3rd in another two. Losses mainly come from Sneaks who had a downswing on the cash tables, which was fair enough as he had ran real well and we were talking about it being our little Vegas fund. We are still up tho and we have never really got going any month yet. It will just be the league games here from now on I think.

Not played live for two months now, but will be breaking that drought with a lovely little £150 game with 15k chips and 45min levels at ALEA Casino in Leeds today. Hope to have something good to write tomorrow.

Stay Lucky