A belated update......

Since almost getting to the $100 mark I my game has gone downhill, i am just not taking the tournaments seriously.

I keep playing multi table tournies and just messing around.  This saw my bankroll drop to just over $80.

Given that I have a young child and I am not home from work until gone 6 I dont really have time to play tournaments and think that my game would be better served by playing cash games in say 30 minutes bursts.  At least I can get away from the table if necessary (i.e when the wife tells me to)

So i gave cash games a whirl tonight, I am not sure what level of cash game my bankroll means I should play at so i just picked  .10/.25 because I have found in the past that if  i play too low i dont take it seriously and just leak cash.

Any way played for an hour or so and doubled my buy in which was $25 which means my bankroll is at $107.

Think i am going to concentrate on playing 1 table, 6 seat cash games for a bit and see how it goes.

Adios Amigos

Edit: just played another one hour session, on two tables loaded $25 into both tables.  Finished the session with $44 on one table and $37 on the other.

the highlight being taking the idiot to my efts entire stack, he was raising every hand up 3 * BB and then just betting at the flop, if he was called he would just bet harder the next round of betting until he eventually bullied his opponent off the flop.  He had already done this to me on a board i flopped two pair on and he represented a flush on the turn when the third club came down, i folded and it niggled me so played the patience game.

I was dealt pocket aces, he raised to his standard 3*BB, i made it $4 to go, he called.  Brilliant.  flop came down king high all the same suit giving me a on over pair and the nut flush draw, i went all in, he called chasing a gut shot straight draw and I took his stack.  Beautiful.

Almost reach my first major landmark - almost.

Again other things have got in between me and the tables meaning that I have only played two games this week.  I have played two 18 seat $3 tourneys and have finished first in one and 2nd in the other.

Played very well in the first one and equally well in the 2nd and would have won but for losing 2 big hands when comfortably ahead in both

roll $97 

Poker Update

I am back.

Played three STT's this week with payouts in two of them.  My first game back was understandably rusty and I was out pretty quickly after a few ill advised plays. 

I got straight back on the proverbial horse and claimed a third place finish in the next STT I played.  I should have really been in the top two and here is why; me and the chap who knocked me out had pretty equal stacks, his slightly more than mine, the other fella tho had only $800 chips left and was disconnected and had been for a while.  I was dealt queens in the hole, I raised and the other player re-raised and I had a decision, do i fold my queens or am i going to play them?  Folding them would mean a definite 1st or 2nd payout due to the other chap being disconnected. I figured this was the cowards way because what I saw was an opportunity to cripple the other guy and then have around 13k in chips playing two players with under 1k, one of whom was disconnected, I decided that bold is best and lumped them all in.  I was immediately called, my opponent revealing Anna Kournikova (not literally of course, although that would have been mightily impressive) and to cut a long story short he hit his ace and out I went, still, no guts no glory.......

Tonight I played another STT and won.  I was roundly abused by some chump that I knocked out.  He was short stacked and went all in, under the gun, at this point I was chip leader and had him covered six times over.  I had A 5 off and was the big blind, everyone else folded and I called.  I hit, he went out and stalked the table for ten minutes bitching at my every move.  Now I know he was favourite (he had pocket sixes) and I made a loose call but the reason I did and the reason he was so short was because he had been playing garbage and his stupid moves on really poor hands had already been exposed to the whole table, I honestly thought I was ahead or a 50-50 shot at worst.  I misread the situation which happens, he couldn't accept it, which is his problem really.  I politely and I mean very politely told him to 'fuck off', which for some reason seem to exasperate the the situation even further.  I went on to win the STT and my roll is now up to $74.

Slowly but surely I am getting there.

Keep it real

All Quiet on the Poker Front.

I have still not managed to play anymore poker online.  I feel this is because of a couple of reasons; the first being I have recently taken up golf which is equally if not more frustrating than poker.  However the main reason is that my wife has had a lot of work to do in the evenings for her job.  Its always busy this time of year for her so it pretty much means I cant get on the laptop, she has a deadline of this Thursday so I shall be returning to the tables after that point, so please bear with me during this 'lull'.

I was due to play golf again this morning but awful weather has put paid to that, so I am going to continue reading the excellent 'Friends like these' by Danny Wallace.  Now if you haven't heard of Danny Wallace he is an author and broadcaster based in London England and this is the 3rd of his books following 'Join Me' and 'Yes Man'.  I would heartily recommend that you read his works its genuinely funny and in some cases life changing.

Now this might be quite a hard concept for Mr Ross, as he can only have one interest at a time, so although these books aren't about poker mate, I would recommend them to you, after all its good to have some of your life that isn't either dominated by Poker or Work, lol.

Anyway here is a link to Danny Wallace's webpage 

Ps He has nothing whatsoever to do with the Danny Wallace who used to play for Manchester United.

Here's to my wife finishing her work and more poker related posts in the future.

Live Game!

So on Tuesday night me and three friends, Neil Ross, Jon and  Brian Ross all came round for a game of live poker.

We played no limit holdem.  Your original buy in got you 2000 in chips with the blinds starting at 5/10.  The first few levels were also re-buy with a final chance to re-buy if you had less than 500 left.

As it turns out I was the only person not to re-buy.  Neil and Jon both re-bought once and Brian twice.  Due to the low level of the blonds it ensured that you got good value in terms of game time for your investment.

My stack rose gradually through the night and I was unlucky twice against opponents 'all-in' after going in well ahead twice only to be outdrawn.  I eventually got paid on some big hands and was well in the lead when it go to heads up against Jon.  Now I had a massive chip lead and we had already decided to split the pot £70 for the winner and £10 for the loser.  However it was late in the evening and Jon didn't have work due to being made redundant from the same company I work for, so rather than grind it out I decided just to split the pot 50-50.

My profit was £30 and his was £20.  Jon has been a good mate and has pretty much given me a lift to work every day for the past 3 years without ever asking for any petrol money in return.  He has also helped me out a great deal at work before being made redundant.  So I had no qualms about splitting the pot with him.

I cant finish my post without mentioning my owning of my fellow blogger Neil Ross.  I was betting small into a flop that I had a tiny  piece of but there where potential flush draws and straight draws out and Mr Ross was just flat calling, I figured he was on a draw and I figured he thought I had top pair.  Anyway after the river card he put in  a slightly large raise.  I couldn't see why he had done it.  If he had the straight I figured he would want to get paid and his bet was too big for that, I figured he was trying to get me off the pot so I called with bottom pair and took it down.  

Sorry neil but just couldnt help but mention it.

See ya tomorrow lad for beers and antics round scouseland!

Not much to report........

Have not played much poker this last week, mainly because I have been away on a course with work.  The missus need the laptop so I couldn't even take it with me.  Leaving me bored and hundreds of miles from home.

Hope to get back to the tables this week.

Recovery

After my post last night i entered a $3 STT and got a payout in third which was a step in the right direction.

Tonight I played one of the best games I have played.

Entered a $3 stt and decided I was going to be very aggressive right from the start and it worked a treat, my stack built up nicely until disaster struck and I lost a massive pot against two overcards to my pair and my stack was reduced to $600 with 6 players remaining.

I built up my stack again and got to the final 3.  Noticed that every time it was my BB, the SB was making the same raise, it happened 4 times in a row.  On the 4th time I flat called with low connecting cards, got a piece of the flop and then lumped the lot in.  He paused for ages and then folded.  I then typed into the chat 'stop raising my big blind'.  It seemed to do the trick and he went into his shell before getting knocked out.

I was then heads up against a guy who I had lost about 4 smallish pots to on the river.  He had double my chips.  I quickly noticed that when I was on the SB, if I raised he was instantly folding i.e he had ticked the fold box.  I also noticed that he was only betting when he had something.  From then on it was easy, i raised every time from the small blind and he was just folding, no resistance at all.  The odd time he raised me, I just folded as it was obvious he had a hand.

I whittled his stack down to $2500, barely having to show a hand.  Then we both flopped top pair, I had the better kicker and I won.

Was very pleased with my game, made a couple of bad reads on hands that cost me some chips but most of my reads where spot on and I was aggressive throughout.

EDIT: bankroll now $62, could be almost $80 if it wasn't for my stupid play yesterday.