blonde poker forum

This is a thread to vent my tilt of life in the low stakes.

I haven't played much for a couple of years since switching careers, thus starting the most swingy of general life sessions since birth.

After 8 years in IT i decided to leave my career and find a job that I actually wanted to do. Could I see myself in IT in 20 years time? Hell no. I was only in it because I got offered a job in a start-up company owned by a cousin of mine. I'm a fairly bright fellow and can seem to do pretty well in everything I put my hand to, the problem is that I lacked the drive for IT sales or the studious commitment to keep up with the technical side. The fact is that IT moves so fast that you have to be permanently studying in order to keep up. Again, did I want to keep at it for 20 years? No. I'm a fairly decent saleman with a knack for being able to speak to people, but I get tilted that If I do £6000 GP a month I only keep 20% of £6000 minus my salary as commission. It a healthy amount but I seem to be working REALLY hard to line the pockets of others. Again, not happening for 20 years.

I posted on here a while ago and got some great advice. http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=45561.msg1092009#msg1092009 - but I never followed it up.
 
So after leaving IT I found myself adrift but supported by a wonderful girlfriend and her 3 year old son. After 3 months of general couch surfing and CV submitting on Total Jobs the only progress was learning a lot about "How Stuffs Made" (Chanel 144 9am mon-fri). That was the bottom of the first downswing. Then, whilst casually walking past an Evans Cycles I saw an add, they were hiring. Remember I have a knack for talking to people? I walked in and asked about the job, Bink - Insta-hired!! Wiiiiiiiiiiiii - Cycling is "my sport" so it was perfect. I now have a job selling something I actually care about. (UPSWING) Doesn't get much better eh? Well, for the first 10 months it doesn't. But remember we have a 3 year old? He's about to start school mon-friday. I'm working in retail so have to work most if not all weekends for the most part. Our Tuesday-Thursday day off work/nursery adventure sessions have abruptly stopped and I literally don't see him for the next 6 months (DOWNSWING). So now I have a job I love, don't ever really go to "work" as such so work stress is at an all time low. The downsides are the hours and practically never seeing the family all at once. Even after a couple of promotions the negatives outweigh the positives and we agree that it's time I got a "proper job" - so back to IT sales it is as it's my only real experience on a CV in a market that is not exactly brimming with opportunity. (Further downswing)

I Bink a job on the first interview selling general IT hardware, software, anything else you can think of IT related - (neither up nor downswing) - and I have 2 weeks break in between my notice and my start date, right in the middle of the summer holidays. Whilst on minimum wage I couldn't play poker, it just wouldn't have been fair. But then I saw the Gala had a 100 FO in celebration of their new cardroom, I speak to the missus and she says that I should enter and a reward for me getting a new job - Wiiiiii. So off I pop on the Saturday lunchtime - arrive at Gala at 12:50 for the 1pm, start. I receive a phone call at 12:55, "Mark, you're Grandad's just died in St. Gemma's Hospice" - FML. (Downswing). To be fair we'd all been to say our final fairwell but now the world was one legend down and my Poker Tournament was seeming insignificant.

After an hour or so of nothing but junk and general sulking I look at Kings, player to my immediate right announces all-in, "what, seriously" CALL. He turns over 94os and I double up. Apparently he was bored. So with a nice healthy stack I call off a min-raise in the SB and the BB completes. I have 34cc Flop comes A25 rainbow. "All-in" by the initial raiser - I call and Big blind is baffled and lays it down. villain turned over trip 5's and I get grief for calling a min-raise in the small blind as big stack against the short stack. Some people!! The general run-like-theirs-someone-looking-down-from-above-to-keep-your-chips-accumulating lasts for the whole two days and we leave in 2ND with a deal done and I take £2.3kish (UPSWING).

I use the winnings to pay off some bills and book a trip to Disney Land Paris. Not many things are better than seeing a 5 year old's face when you tell him we're going to Disney Land, thanks Poker (and whoever was looking down on me that day).

So we have the most amazing holiday paid for by poker and I pop the question whilst we're watching the fireworks at Cinderalla's castle. She says yes, never in doubt and falls pregnant that night (dates unconfirmed but highly likely). (bigger UPSWING)

So now we're in a new job, engaged, expecting, earning more money and future Mrs. is now supportive of my poker playing having seen that a) I'm not degen and b) it Pays for stuff.

If you've made it this far you're doing well. I wouldn't have posted so much but I'm in the office on a bank holiday catching up with some work and watching Hellmuth blowups on You-tube. Thanks for staying with me.

So, I deposit £20 on sky poker to play a bit of poker instead of leaving preggo Mrs. at home while I'm at the pub. Play a few low-stakes cash tables and then see that there's a £5 bounty hunter starting soon. Hmm, I'll give that a go for a £5. Wiiiiiiiiii ship it for £130+ into my account and I'm loving the game. I did the £12k bounty hunter and Mini-Bounty hunter yesterday and got £0 returns. So now I've decided to "do it right" and adheer bankroll management rules. BUT, I know I'm stating short with circa 25 buy-ins for the 02/04 games. This is what I'm going to do, I'm going to grind 4 cash table at a time (Laptop doesn't seem to handle more that that without throwing a wobbler) but it's just sooooo tilting at those levels with people calling off anything - good when you hit, bad for bluffing. I'm new to the Sky micro-stakes but am I right in thinking that playing tight on there is the best way, or is it even more swingy at those levels with people playing all sorts of crap?

Poker has changed in the last 5 years and I'm on a steep learning curve it seems. I'll keep this thread (NOT a diary) updated and may use it to find out about what people think in strategies, levels, BR mgmt etc and all those things.

Thanks for reading, congrats on getting to the end - and no, you may not have those 5 minutes of your life back...

Congrats on finding time to get the Mrs pregnant ;)

Good start to the diary, look forward to more.

Lots of upswings which is good m8 so congrats and best of luck going forward :)

Gl sir, look forward to reading this.

gl, looking forward to this.

Glad to see Im not the only one who writes insanely long posts! :D

BRM is absolutely paramount! and it will allow you to always play 'comfortably'. 

Nice start to your diary   Gl with it!

Well, I've found something even more tilting than grinding low stakes for hours on end... Tournaments at Grosvenor Leeds - standard is beyond tez. Both players ave stack, both MPish. Min raise and a call. Flop comes  8c  Jh 8d - player 1 checks, player 2 goes all-in. Player 1 dwells for a couple of minutes and then calls with - player 2 flips over Ac Js and celebrates his dominating hand and player 1 mucks his hand... oh no no no, this is Grosvenor Leeds where poor play is rewarded. Turn  Aspades River  8h. Dealer then turns over player 1's hand to reveal Ahrt 4s for the split pot. Chip[s get divvied up evenly and I quietly have a word with myself for even blowing £20 on this waste of 4 hours.

I went out of the tourney with flopped top 2pair vs flopped straight. Everyone is going mad at the the "beat", I say well that's a 50p moment and walk off, someone even said that it was "brutal" - I don't think they've played much poker.

Preggo Mrs. is up in Newcastle visiting her parents so I fully intended to play the cash games but with £100 in my pocket I decided I was under-rolled and hadn't been feeling in "the zone" all night so returned home to watch channel 865 and neck a bottle of Berberana Rioja - half price from Tesco (nit-tastic).

If I get felted at the cash-game like in the last hand I played then I can't really justify waiting 3 weeks to get paid before I play live again. It looks like my Bankroll Management is off to a flying start!! :)

Thanks for all your replies, haven't hit the V-Felt tonight due to aforementioned Rioja so will be hitting it tomorrow and will update in due course...

You write really well, look forward to reading more.

Well peoples, after building a shed, painting the whole of the house downstairs and then painting previously built shed I got zero low stakes grinding done this weekend. I currently have a £100 roll on Sky Poker (Beaver8080, please don't play me - I'm not very good).

So my question is this - what should I do with the money as it increases? Should I transfer it to an online money holder such as Netella, Moneybookers, Paypal? Or just leave it in the Sky account, teasing me to move up the stakes quicker than I should?

I used to play on Tilt before Black Friday, I have a 'Stars account but haven't deposited yet. What are the best skins/networks these days? And what's the score with Rakeback, has it killed of the industry yet or can we still make a fairly decent chunk by grinding for hours on end?

Thanks in advance..

These Sky Poker Double you money tourney's are a lot of fun!!!!

I withdrew a few quid and left myself with exactly £100 last friday - after putting a couple of quid on the Grand National for the family, I was down to £80 d'oh!! Oh well, I haven't had time to grind properly so can either a) top it up or b) spin it up knowing that I'll be getting the money back after scrapping my old car for £130. So with £80 we obv fire up a .20/.40 and buy-in for the max £40

• we went for option B :)

Hero is in the BB with 100+ BB
Villian is SB with 100+ BB also

No reads or stats to add.

Folds round to the small blinds who calls for .20

Hero raises to £1.20 holding 3s 8c

Villain calls

Flop  Ahrt Qh  8s

Villain Checks

Hero bets £2.40

Villain calls

Turn 7d

Villain Checks

Hero bets £4

Villain Folds


How's my line looking? I was trying to perfect the art of bluffing, it's just lucky that we hit the 8 on the flop...

Just reg'd for a £2 +.25p DYM tournament NLHE - tournament launches and I appear to to have 4 cards in-front of me... FML Omaha FTW!!

Wiiiiii terribly overplayed AJcc>KK but hit an Ace on the flop, the poor chap went mental!!!!! - We have now run our bankroll up to £160 from £80 this week... we will now be back down at the micro stakes grinding like a MO-FO and keeping bankroll management under control... I hope :)

So, judging be the weight of my eyelids combined with the bumping in my head and knot in my stomach it would appear that playing poker after 2 bottles of wine and a glass of Cognac is not advisable - no wonder I overplayed the AJ hand; lesson learnt!!

Oh dear god... Epic fail!!

Watched NCIS, winner
Watched Rizzoli & Isles, Winner
Drank bottle of Crabbies Ginger Beer, Winner
Drank bottle of red wine, Winner
Drank glass of Cognac, Winner

Took a shot on the .50p/£1 table - my roll went up to £200 then my two pretty red AA got crippled by J9o "puke" - my roll now stands at £43.44


Lessons learned:

• Do NOT play after drinking
• Do NOT take shots when dramatically under rolled
• Im an ass
• Losing at poker hurts so much more when you're under rolled

After drunkenly spunking out bankroll of the other night we've taken on the £750 Bounty Hunter that built our roll a week or so ago... Updates to follow

we busted... meh just 1.88 for our troubles :(

Well well well.... just had a quick 20ish minutes on the SkyPoker HU .02/.04 tables - I stacked my very unlucky opponent after hitting two full houses in succession and getting paid off for both. So, we both bought in for £4 and after stacking him 20 minutes later I seems to have earnt £2.34 - the rake to play at those levels is just stupid expensive!!!!

/end rant

I'm all for bluffing, but please choose a hand with at least some good post-flop playability, Dwan and Ivey would struggle to play 83o profitably! Good read though, keep it up!

Thanks Mike, Too much High Stakes Poker on YouTube makes Beaver a jaded bluffer... won't be trying it again soon!!

Now this is a story
all about how my night
got twisted upside down
and id like to take a minute
just sit right there
ill tell you how i became the DYM player
Broke with an Over Pair


So we're in a little 6-Max DYM - raising a lot due to my good hands AK, A10 and AJ in the first 5 hands and then on I get the dreaded JJ...

Blinds are 25/50 no reads on anyone.
Seat 1 2000ish
Seat 2 1800ish
Next player is our Hero with the dreaded JJ 2450
Button 2000ish
SB 1550 ish
BB 2200ish

Folded to Moi, I Raise to 150, Button Calls, SB Calls and BB Folds

pot 500
Flop  2h 5s 6c

I bet 375 into 500

Button folds

SB calls

(1250)
Turn  3c

I bet 975 into the pot and the small blind shoves all in for an extra 400 or something

Has he really got a 4?? Maybe he's bluffing the flush draw.

Oh well, if he's got a 4 then gg wp and I should have folded. I call and he shows the absolute pre-flop nuts of  9s 4d

Ah well, sigh should have folded but never mind...

THEN in the chat box comes...


Well yes I agree but thanks for highlighting it.



I'm so glad these high-stakes mega-winning table-crushing pro's are so eager to give me advice - makes me feel really happy ;)


I doubled up through him the next hand and then ended up busting with Ad 9d vs limp/called  Td Tc


Do you know what? It's a good job I #lovethegame

/end diary entry

So, we had my sister in-law (the hot one) staying this week. Her BF is a lovely chap and works for William Hill - figured he'd be gambling savvy but I was very wrong.

We were talking about the Manchester derby and he tells me he has £10 on Man U to win and £3 on 4-1 to Man City, fair enough. 90 minutes later he's back from the pub broke and comes to sit with me as I'm 4-tabling the micros at .02/.04 blinds...

[ ] high roller


Remember the plan to not play after drinking? Well I've stuck to it very well but it would appear some people just don't have my will-power - esp after losing a footy bet  ::)

10 minutes later we've done 3 buy-in's and are down to the low £30's in the account - I would be upset about this but all 3 buy-ins were done to prove the point that he was wrong. "Fine, if you think you're right just click the all-in button and give me a fiver, if you win I'll give you a £10 back and you can keep the profit"

[ ] he was ahead on any of the 3 all-ins
[ ] he binked
[ ] he paid up


So tonight's schedule looks like this...

6pm - pick little boy up from Fun-Zone club
6-7pm - Crush at Skylanders and Mario Party 9 on the Wii
7pm - feed little boy
7pm-8pm - watch Kids Cartoons
8pm - put little boy to bed
8.45pm £400 SKY Bounty Hunter
8:45pm £2000 SKY Bounty Hunter
10pm - Possibly the Thews at 10 if we have any money left in the account at that point (doubtful)


On the plus side I scrapped my car for £160 so can either a) reload and grind properly or b) go play cash at one of the many Leeds casinos...

Can't make claims like 'hot sister in law' without photographic evidence, forum rules.  :D

I'm on it... www.spycams.com hasn't responded to my emails but I'll update as soon as... :o)

We've ended up in the Thews at 10 and the £300 bounty hunter, will update as and when....

11 of 44 in the Thews at 10 after doubling through QQ vs AK - we held for a big chip boost.... YAY!!! :)

Nothing happening at all in the bounty hunter, very dull so far as far as HH are concerned - Blow up obv. immanent in Thews at 10 :)

wow, just luckboxed  Ahrt Ks vs  7h 7d aipf - board came  9c 5s 3h 2c 4d

Oh FFS - bust AK vs 55 - should have checked the river... we busted 16/80 having played solid all the way through bar the AK vs 77 hand and then had a rush of blood and f*cked it up... epic fail :o(

Will defo be playing this event again as it seems fairly soft

***UPSWING***

You may have noticed I haven't posted for a while, well here's why....



(http://www.bigfatfattyfat.co.uk/Upswing.jpg)


Now I just need to learn how to play whilst feeding him at 4am and I've cracked it!

Congrats man, 4am doesn't sound too nice though.

Congratulations, if he's good at sleeping already that's a bit of a touch. My brother was on the verge of a nervous breakdown the first 6 months with his little girl :D

Congratulations... !!!  :)

Well, well, well.... it's been a while since I posted in here. As you can see on the previous page my life got pretty busy after my little boy was born. I've still been playing a bit here and there until I last week when I took up 888 poker on there free £12 offer for downloading their app (or something along that amount of ££'s).

4 weeks later and we've run our BR up to £113 by playing both NL and PLO @ 1c/2c, 2c/4/c and a few shots on 0.05/0.10.

I'm going to Vegas at the weekend thanks to a surprise birthday gift so need some info on where and what to play in with a v.limted bankroll of around $1000 for the 4 days I'm there. Will update with more info this evening but if anyone has any info that would be great.

Can someone with the appropriate privileges pleas move this thread into the "Diaries" section?

-Many thanks,

I sense a big win story coming... ☺️

I wish!

I've made some good progress with my businesses IRL though and now have some time to devote to the felt both online and at the local donkaments.

I'm roughly £3.5k up in £10-£100 BI tourneys at the local casino but "invested" my money in a trip to Disneyland Paris - it yielded a wife and child so seems like a wise investment tbf.

I've decided to resurrect this diary for two reasons.

1: I've always thought i was "good enough" to be a winning player long term and I'm keen to see over what stakes I can play at profitabley.

2: It's always good to have something to keep a record of thoughts, results, mistakes, feedback and moans.


Today I installed Hold 'em Manager 2 for the first time, at long last I'll be able to easily keep track of whats going on!

There are loads of "Goals & Targets" threads on the net so I'm going to start with a fairly simple one. 888 gave me $10 free as I hadn't deposited for a while. Goal number 1 is to run it up to $100 playing micro stakes of $2nl (& $4nl when my BR hits $80) - It's something I've done many times before so here we go....

Ok so I decided to mess around getting on Pokerstars getting used to my new HUD in HM2 - I didn't play particularly badly but was perhaps a little looser than normal. Is losing 5xBI over 1500 hands within "variance" allowance for 1 3 hour session?

What happened to this diary? Just found it at the bottom of the pile and thought I would give it a read. Good stuff but feels like a half written book! Be good if it is continued!