blonde poker forum

Hello Blondites, Matthew “Yorkshire Pudding” Pitt here. I’ve been a long time lurker of the Blonde Poker forums and never seem to get involved in what is a great community. Me hosting a blog / diary on here is my way of getting into the Blonde Poker spirit!

So who am I? I’m a 32-years old (33 in April, FML) dad of three (all boys) living in Huddersfield but originally from God’s own city of Leeds. Yes, I am a Leeds United fan, please don’t hold that against me!

By day I am the editor of the UK & Ireland PokerNews site who also writes the odd article for the Betfair Poker and partypoker blogs and by night I donk around in online MTTs in the hope that one day some other sap spends their Monday morning writing about me for a change!

2012 was a great year for me pokerwise, it was a year that saw me bink my three largest scores ever. I won the mini-GSOP event for $5,369.32, finished 11/594 in a $500 buy-in GSOP event for $3,566.76 and chopped the PokerStars $3r four-ways for $3,300.

2013 was then a big pile of shit. I chopped and changed the games I played and the sites I played on more often than I change my undies, went on a 200 buy-in downswing in the 180s that I was playing at the time and had to use the vast majority of my bankroll for live stuff – I was running bad both on and away from the tables.

I made the decision at the start of the year to focus solely on MTTs in 2014 with my main goal to build a substantial bankroll that would see me play a lot more live events – I want a Hendon Mob flag but hardly play live due to family commitments – and basically be a bit of a micro/low/mid-stakes boss!

So far in 2014, I’ve played 336 of the 180-man turbos (mixture of $2.50s and $8s) and have a less than stellar 18.5% ROI in them. I’ve also played 220 scheduled MTTs (mainly on Stars and some on FTP) and have a 130.66% ROI (my average buy-in is a mere $5.70) thanks to a 4th place finish in the $3r ($1,459.38), a 4th place in the $5.50 2R1A and a 6th place finish in the $3r ($821.38).

I’m not the greatest player in the world, nor do I proclaim to be, but I love this fucking game and clicking buttons is fun. Here’s hoping this little piece of the internet is full of brag posts and you guys can help me out with a few hands that I have trouble with during my journey through the various stakes.

Feel free to ping me any questions about how awesome it is to be a Yorkshireman or anything that takes your fancy. Until next time…..

First.

Matt!

Good to see you here, & I look forward to seing you next Thursday.

Part-timer.

damn you milli, was going to get there but actually read his post first!! haha good luck with the diary sir, hope it goes well

glgl

Post then read. wax on, wax off.

GP from a fellow Yorkshireman  😊

In before Tal.

A Yorkshire man with a diary...  It'll never work.

Hi sir, will be good to see you. Hopefully will still be seeing you by the time the final table comes around!


You know me too well, sir.


Cheers, old cock


Aye up!


As long as it's free here, it'll work for my Yorkshire bones.

YESSSSSS. Mad love for the yorky. look forward to this

Blast from the past!

I was an avid reader of your original blog, way back in the days when Amatay and Kris used to blog too.

Glad to see things are going well, and good luck with everything.

Welcome.  See you sometime next week!

In good luck!

Welcome....

Yorkshire ftw

Really wanted this first entry to be a brag post, but alas it is not. Don't worry though, it is not going to be a post where I moan about my bad luck, even though Stars have changed my "attention" alert to Duelling Banjos due to me being screwed continually by the river.

Quite a disappointing night at the virtual felt, yet one that could have been oh so different. Final tabled one of the Daily Double's at Full Tilt (7th, meh) and went deep in a few other comps only to run into some bullshit hand!

I'd love your opinion on the following hand as it gave me a little trouble.

Blinds: 2k/4k/500a

UTG folds, Hero playing 74,865 raises to 8,000 with  8d 8h , next player folds. Villain three-bets to 17,675 and everyone folds to hero.

I wasn't quite sure what to do in this spot. Villian is a supernova and ha the 1m VPP badge next to his name. He playing 22/22/inf over 40 hands with a three-bet of 21. Ironically, a large slice of those have been against me.

The table has been relatively tight -- even though we're just in the money -- and I have started opening up. Three times villain has three-bet me (once BTN vs BB) and each time I folded.

Folding eights seemed weak, I can't call because what flop do we like that doesn't have at least one eight on so I jammed it in his eye.

I know we only have 19/20bb so this is probably straight forward. Is there a case for open-jamming? I just felt that with the table being so tight that a min-raise fold to the non-competent player was the best move. As played?

Hello. Don't know you from Adam but everyone else seems delighted you've joined the ranks, so that sounds just swell.

What was villain's stack?


I sometimes do Tal questions for new diaries, so here goes:

1. Favourite TV villain?
2. Best item in a salad that isn't lettuce?
3. Heinz baked beans/Posh baked beans/Aldi 5p baked beans/Beans with sausages?
4. Top three headline acts of your ultimate music festival?
5. Favourite form of cricket? (As you're from t'white rose, please note that 'I'm not really a cricket fan' is not an acceptable answer. Would be like asking me if, as a Brummie, I didn't like moaning)

Sorry, should have mentioned villain covers and has 117,000 (can we edit posts here to put that info in?)

1.) Not sure if we can call him a villain but would go with Dexter until the final couple of seasons which were complete gash.
2.) Would have to go with red peppers followed closely by a fight between cherry tomatoes and a cucumber.
3.) HP beans FTW
4.) This would completely depend on what mood I was in at the time, mainly because I still think I'm 18 and love dance/techno/hard house music the most.  Off the top of my head, let's go with Radiohead, Stone Roses and Metalllica!
5.) Watching  live on the piss would have to be test cricket, but one-day or 20-20 for sitting at home on the TV.

Only took you what, eight years, to start posting on here?

Just so you know Puds, I'm the Yorkshire poker media guy round here. If you want to challenge the big dog I suggest a heads up match, poker media rules (ie the player who loses is clearly the more poker media-ry and keeps the title).

Tbf to the lad, he's gone two posts without mentioning Breaking Bad, so he's in the lead, IMO. #catchinguptodo

(http://thenosebleeds.nextimpulsemedia.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/family-guy.png)

In.

Grinding 180 man turbos I see, what's your SN on stars if you don't mind me asking?

Do you own a flat cap?

Drink of choice on a night out?

If you were a shape, what shape would you be?

Had an account for ages but never really used it, read some of the blogs on here and the advice etc has been spot on.

Is Sheffield even Yorkshire, I mean really? :)

I had double check, but this article confirmed it

Sheffield Wednesday 6 Leeds United 0 match report: Owls smash Yorkshire rivals for six to continue rise up the Championship table

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/sheffield-wednesday-6-leeds-united-0-match-report-owls-smash-yorkshire-rivals-for-six-to-continue-rise-up-the-championship-table-9053383.html

I'm Yorksh1rePud on Stars and Yorksh1re Pud on Full Tilt, only two places I play at the mo although considering heading back to 888 where I play as Manb00bz!

No flat cap, in fact no hats at all. I have a big head in the literal sense and they don't suit my fat face.

Drink of choice varies between Guinness and many different ales/bitters. Spirit of choice is malt whiskey.

If a sack of spuds is a counted as a shape then that is me.

touché

and they still 17th....Sheff = poor mans Leeds. They even objected we built our own arena. gg ~Sheff council.

Hi Matthew - If the bubble has just broken I would probably just jam, especially on Stars where the pay structure is so flat and then steep at the final. Not sure if that's right though, 88s obv easily dominated and no blockers etc though and I can't imagine he is folding to your shove very often.

Do you like Rugby League? I used to live in Leeds and went to watch it a few times. I just didn't understand the appeal at all!

Ha, not really a football fan but was invited into a Sheff Wed box for that game and took a couple of Leeds fans with me. Could have been 10 in the end as Wednesday hit the woodwork a couple of times and could have had plenty more.

Blog number 134 Matthew? One of the originals and one of the best for sure.

Finally Matt, took your time ffs. Vegas this year?

As for the hand, I think I jam it in his eye then bink a A88 flop.

What a pleasant surprise  to find this thread.
subscribed.
Win it all.

I was born in  rugby town (Bramley) and have lived in Hunslet and Dewsbury, also places where rugby league is dominant. I've just never enjoyed it and was always into football instead. I was really quiet and shy (and super skinny) as a kid so rugby league scared me to death!


It's at least that. This one should be good fun though. You need to blog more sir, you seem to be more mincey since getting a bird ;)


Not sure about Vegas. I did 5.5 weeks for PokerNews last year and it was a tough slog. If I manage to bink a seat to something or have a good few months I may head out for 7-14 days. Would love to play a WSOP donkament, maybe if I win the UKPC Main this week I will play a few -- we can live in hope!

18.5% roi in 180s long term is good, not that many good regs over 20% these days (in b4 a Tomsom chirp).

GLGL with the grind.

Last three days have been LOLtastic and I know you're all jealous of my minus 72.05% ROI. I could fall head first into a bath full of tits and come out sucking my thumb at the minute, poker's not fun when the Gods (amen) are against you.

Blah blah suckout/resuckout blah blah f**k this game blah blah sample size.

Thinking of forgetting about scheduled MTTs for tonight and just blasting out a ton of $2 and $8 180-man games, anywhere in the region of 50-100 to see if this pleases the Poker Gods.

Non-favourite hand of the past couple of nights (I wouldn't mind but the little twat didn't even cash after bagging this massive pot).

PokerStars Hand #111985262306: Tournament #866158800, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (30/60) - 2014/02/17 20:24:41 WET [2014/02/17 15:24:41 ET]
Table '866158800 5' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Yorksh1rePud (5695 in chips)
Seat 2: DavidSutiL (5810 in chips)
Seat 3: choeli (3310 in chips)
Seat 4: ruud_fox (3155 in chips)
Seat 5: SoCloseCall (3400 in chips)
Seat 6: Mohamett (8935 in chips)
Seat 7: dibelt (5277 in chips)
Seat 8: first panda (6275 in chips)
Seat 9: sweet778 (3273 in chips)
DavidSutiL: posts small blind 30
choeli: posts big blind 60
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Yorksh1rePud  Ac Aspades
ruud_fox: raises 120 to 180
SoCloseCall: folds
Mohamett: folds
dibelt: folds
first panda: calls 180
sweet778: folds
Yorksh1rePud: raises 540 to 720
DavidSutiL: folds
choeli: folds
ruud_fox: raises 2435 to 3155 and is all-in
first panda: raises 3120 to 6275 and is all-in
Yorksh1rePud: calls 4975 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (580) returned to first panda
*** FLOP ***  5s Jh 6h
*** TURN *** 5s Jh 6h Kd
*** RIVER ***  5s Jh 6h Kd Tc
*** SHOW DOWN ***
first panda: shows Ad Qc (a straight, Ten to Ace)
Yorksh1rePud: shows Ac  Aspades (a pair of Aces)
first panda collected 5080 from side pot
ruud_fox: shows Ks  Ahrt (a pair of Kings)
first panda collected 9555 from main pot
Yorksh1rePud finished the tournament in 540th place
ruud_fox finished the tournament in 541st place

Will be doing similar games tonight good luck and hopefully see you heads up :)

Oh hi der.....

Stars names, gentlemen?

Tomsoms is his blonde name and mine is P4k3R Face

Yorkshire Pud and Would Be were my first port of call once plotted up at the PC for the day.

You even got a look in, when you weren't regaling us tales of ginge's wank socks...

Pretty rough session and by rough I mean badger's arse kind of rough.

Was aiming to play 100 of the 180-man turbos, mixing $2.50s and $8s, but I gave up after 51 because I wanted to punch a baby in its milky face. Logged off, sulked and went to bed. Meh.

I'm passed moaning about it, instead I'm knuckling down and going to fire a few of these bad boys up and grind through the variance. I KNOW that I am playing well, it's just someone forgot to tell the Stars RNG about it!

Here's a quick hand to show how things are at the mo, I mean how the fook does the SB wake up with the bullets here; Lick my balls Stars! Win this and I am sure I bink the bitch.

PokerStars Hand #112041412542: Tournament #868273734, $2.28+$0.22 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XIII (600/1200) - 2014/02/18 21:24:58 WET [2014/02/18 16:24:58 ET]
Table '868273734 2' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: fckthplc (8227 in chips)
Seat 2: pogrebnoi777 (24288 in chips)
Seat 3: tsivras (14162 in chips)
Seat 4: Yorksh1rePud (18475 in chips)
Seat 5: adamjanko (9082 in chips)
Seat 6: Peter.tjo (17878 in chips)
Seat 7: huge.fishh (11699 in chips)
Seat 8: mowiejakjest (7790 in chips)
Seat 9: Big Molumba (12496 in chips)
fckthplc: posts the ante 125
pogrebnoi777: posts the ante 125
tsivras: posts the ante 125
Yorksh1rePud: posts the ante 125
adamjanko: posts the ante 125
Peter.tjo: posts the ante 125
huge.fishh: posts the ante 125
mowiejakjest: posts the ante 125
Big Molumba: posts the ante 125
Peter.tjo: posts small blind 600
huge.fishh: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Yorksh1rePud [ Kd Kc]
mowiejakjest: raises 6465 to 7665 and is all-in
Big Molumba: folds
fckthplc: folds
pogrebnoi777: folds
tsivras: folds
Yorksh1rePud: raises 10685 to 18350 and is all-in
adamjanko: folds
Peter.tjo: calls 17153 and is all-in
huge.fishh: folds
Uncalled bet (597) returned to Yorksh1rePud
*** FLOP *** [8s Qd 4h]
*** TURN *** [8s Qd 4h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [8s Qd 4h 2h] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Peter.tjo: shows [ Ad Aspades] (a pair of Aces)
Yorksh1rePud: shows [Kd Kc] (a pair of Kings)
Peter.tjo collected 20176 from side pot
mowiejakjest: shows [7h 7c] (a pair of Sevens)
Peter.tjo collected 25320 from main pot
mowiejakjest finished the tournament in 17th place and received $3.89.

Busted 91st in the Sky Poker UK Poker Championship Main Event with 81 places paid, was so wanting my first Hendon Mob flag -- wanted it more than the monies! Here's the cliffs:

• Played Day 1b
• Had Anton Wigg to my right all day, Richard Milner (GPS Stoke champ) to my left and Steve Watts to his left. Zimnan Ziyard joined to my right and when he busted he was replaced with Ludovic Geilich!
• Somehow ended with c.34k
• Day 2 had Barny Boatman to my right -- bloke's a true legend
• Doubled through Barny with 77 vs AQ
• Won a big pot with TT vs AJ
• Won another decent pot with TT
• Lost a decent sized pot with AhQh when I opened from the button and called a three-bet from the BB. BB leads queen-high flop, I call. Turn completes a flush, he bets again and I call. River is a blank, he asks how many chips I have (85k) and he bets 36k which is more than pot. I tank fold and he shows KK.
• Next hand after the one above, I open CO with JJ and BB jams all-in for like 60k! Says "I think you're on tilt." I call and he shows AJ with the ace of hearts. Board fucking four-flushes and I'm left with 10 bigs.
• Manage to get a few 3b shoves through and am sat with 25bb
• Drop to 10-15bb as bubble approaches
• Habitual limper woman limps UTG, Bulgarian guy who has isolated her everytime isolates as per and I 3b jam 12bb with pocket sevens. Limpers sigh folds, Bulgarian checks his cards -- I think he may have a KQ / AT type hand when he does this -- and calls with KK! Not even a sweat from board, FU.
• Hung around DTD for a bit drinking cider
• Went back to hotel around 730am!
• Got kicked out of room at 1:10pm as check out was 12:00pm
• Some how made it home without dying
• Slept from 5:00pm until 7:00am

Learned so much this weekend that you wouldn't believe. Made a few mistakes, but I am aware of them. Also managed to hold my own on a difficult starting table on Day 1b. Had the JJ vs AJ hand gone my way, I would have sailed through the bubble and beyond. Such is life.

Going to bink something online to make up for it!

Hi Matt. Good read so far. Also a fellow life long Leeds united supporter/sufferer. Subscibed :)

Played my first session -- if you can call 12 tournaments a session -- since playing in the UKPC Main Event and really enjoy it. Being seated with some legitimate stars at the UKPC made me realise how nitty I have been in some spots, so I opened up my game last night and really enjoyed myself, despite it being fruitless.

Had my QQ held against AK for a top 25 stack, I may have had another $3r final table to my name, but alas 298th was all I could muster.

I'm in two minds whether to ditch Stars and focus on smaller sites. I love everything about Stars with the exception of the ridiculously large field sizes. That said, I think I'm being a little results orientated as February has been completely ballbag in terms of results and I'm getting owned left right and centre, even in the 180s.

LOL Variance -- Or is it?

The 180 man turbos are starting to royally piss me off, actually that's the wrong term to use because I'm not angry at all, more frustrated by how things have been going in 2014.

I grinded quite a few of these in April and May last year in an attempt to build some funds for my Las Vegas bankroll as I was heading out as a reporter for a month. Everything went to plan and I made some moolah, which is always nice. Towards the end of 2013, I had a minus 10% ROI over 500 games, took a two month break from them and started mixing them into my schedule in 2014.

So far in 2014 I have a minus 14% ROI over 630 games. I've been going through key hands and I am sure it is variance because had a couple of hands actually held or villain not had the top 1% of his range when I shipped in my stack then this post would not even exist. For example, last night 4-handed at the FT an an $8, guy shoves 9bb from BTN with K7, I call A7, both flop a seven and he rivers a king. The way the stacks were I would have essentially locked up second place, instead I bust out soon after in 4th.

It seems every crucial spot has been like that for the past couple of months. What do I do? Just grind through it? My average buy-in is about $4 and I have over 500 buy-ins so I'm not afraid of going broke just yet, but would like to stop bleeding money at some point!

Operation Build a Vegas Bankroll

Until today, I hadn't really made any plans for Las Vegas and the WSOP. I went to Sin City for the first time in 2013 and spent five weeks there working as a live reporter for PokerNews. Since the 2013 WSOP, I've only done one live reporting gig and that was in the godforsaken place of Milton Keynes.

Today I emailed my boss and asked if I am in his plans for reporting at the WSOP and he replied to say I am. After clearance from the Mrs, it looks like I will be heading to Vegas this summer -- well in a couple of months.

I have two choices:

• Hope the reporting deal is good and spend six weeks in Vegas
• Go out on my own steam for 2-3 weeks

The first option means I will be working an average of 5 days from 7 and having to do my other PokerNews work. Last year I rarely started work before 7:00pm so I had plenty of time to do my "normal" work and play some cash games on the strip. This option also means that my flights and accommodation are paid for, which is a huge cost for a fish like me.

The second option means that I would have to stump up some money for flights and accomodation, but I would be able to spend 2-3 weeks playing low buy-in tournaments and cash games in Vegas and be able to get the odd day's work if I wanted. This would also mean I would need a much larger bankroll as I'd be playing more.

Regardless of what option I end up with, I need to get my grind on to build a roll for crushing the $1/$2 and $1/$3 cash games and to play in a few of the low buy-in tournaments out there. I'd love to play in a WSOP event too, but unless I sell plenty of the action or manage to bink something online before heading to Vegas this is unlikely.

Which of you fishes are heading out this summer?

5%

Sigh, wish I was. Lucky git. Got any jobs? ;)

This fish has his gills crossed.

Might just see you out there, Matt. It's touch & go at the moment, but I'd LOVE to be there again.

Kind of neglected this little corner of the internet, mainly because I've not been playing much poker.

After a relatively standard downswing, I lost all concentration and focus and started to play like a total tool and dicking around in games where I had hardly any edge at all -- think the Expresso games at Winamax and Twister on iJoker.

The mental side of things, and not just in poker, has always been an area where I struggle so I will be going through the Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2 again, stopping moaning about downswings and losing and getting back to doing what I do best and that is donking around in micro and low stakes MTTs.

Viva Las Vegas

So I have provisionally accepted an offer to go and work at the 2014 World Series of Poker with PokerNews. It's going to be a long, hard slog because in addition to the live reporting work I will have to maintain the UK site too. I'm going to be there from May 27 through July 7, which the Mrs is delighted about. She actually is. I'm sure she has wild parties while I am gone.

This means I am probably going to fly out May 24-25 and that gives me around 2 months to get my arse into gear and build a Vegas bankroll. The amount of work I will be doing leaves little time for anything else, but I still want to be able to go on the lash or play some poker on my days off without the cost affecting the Mrs and my boys back home. So, I guess the plan is the same as 2013 and that is to grind the titties off the 180 man games, throwing in some other MTTs at Stars and Full Tilt in the hope of a bink.

Which of you fine people are confirmed to be out there?

Will be there around the same dates so see you there for some drinks or a dinner somewhere!

Not confirmed, but everything crossed that I'll be there.

Have you applied for Media Creds yet? Accreditation opened 2 weeks ago. Guess Poker News do all that for you though?

It's on my to-do list for tomorrow. That and make sure my Esta is still valid!

Defo up for that.

Yorky, living the dream in Vegas......


http://yorkypuds.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/10-things-i-wont-miss-about-las-vegas.html