blonde poker forum

Hello Blonde! The reason im posting this thread is ive recently hit a bit of a 'stale' patch playing, and aswell as amassing a fair bit of make-up.. ive also lost alot of motivation to play so hopefully this thread will aid me in keeping on track with my goals.. hopefully until i accomplish them!!

Ive currently been playing poker for a little over 2years now (possibly closer to 2.5), the majority of this however has been playing live cash games £.50/£1 - £1/£2, which i am a decent winner at overall, although very inconsistant!!! Around November '11 i decided to give online a 'crack' after a couple of decent live MTT scores, and honestly havent really looked back to playing live since (except on the odd occassion)!

Im currently up around $20k-$20k 'online lifetime' and by the end of 2013 intend to be around the +$50k mark! (Im currently playing MTTs up to $55's / $11r's / + Occasional shots).

My goals:

#1 - Improve my game (Im happy with my game at present as i feel it is very solid... however i always want to improve and be the best and therefore this will be my #1 goal)
#2 - 5 figure score (closest to date: $9,717)
#2 - $100k profits (sharkscope) by Dec 31 2012
#3 - Supernova!! by Dec 31 2013 (Although i realise this will be fairly hard to achieve)
#4 - Get out of make-up asap and earn enough $$$ to be rolled to play med stakes MTTs  on my own dime by 2014.

Thats basically it!!!! Hope this diary is interesting to some of you!!!!

Good luck, what sites do you play? Aliases?

Majority of volume is put in on stars atm under: gaggleokings (same for FTP however i haven't / won't put much volume in there as my HUD doesn't work for some reason - have tried literally everything). Previously played on ipoker under: Paul1x (BRS account) and more recently again with little voldume as: AM11BLR. Other Euros (Party / 888...etc) sn: demkingsgagg.

Will give a little bit of my background / poker history later on :)

good luck gambler! ;)

Give us a shout on skype today at some point fella! I plan to play a bit before mabye heading off to DTD for Incredible 100 if im not deep in something! Plus were still due another afternoon of pokers! Let me know when you fancy it!

For the aide of the diary Tom is in my opinion a very good poker player massive potential to do something big. Bit sick that most of his big scores have come when staked and then when he is on his on dime can not do the business.

As long as you keep working hard fella the win will come its a matter of time! Just dont splurge it playing 2/5 when it does come!

U got the plate AM11BLR?

Nope but thats where the name comes from!! ;) Was about to buy the plate at the time! It was only £400 but my cars a bowl car from 02 so wasnt allowed it on, also had to pay some charges each year if it wasnt put on a car so i just passed, really regret it now though. Pretty sick reg for me. (Real name being Tom Ambler)

Also am on skype atm Callum if your coming on.

Yeah I know what u mean
I have PA11 LHO


Gl with the mtt

Blehhhh such a frustrating day or two in regards to poker...... Seem to go fairly deep in alot but still cant seem to make that final step. (Deepish in big 109 ~50th / $22cubed - 17th / couple of $27ko ft's like 9th... / $11r action hr - 15th) as well as more i just cant be bothered to list.... Really gonna concentrate on the 'deeper' part of my game from now on, seem to be unable to close - especially recently. Although to be fair i have ran a bit dirty when deep in the past - not using this as an excuse mind, just think this could and has possibly affected my thought process and has maybe led me to become more passive then i should be -  who knows?

subbed, come across as one of the good guys :)

Cheers for support guys :) and i do try pleno ;)

Gonna cut reg short today i think, the girlfriend is round and is moaning that im ignoring her - its actually tilting me lol. Also bust pretty much everything in the last hour or so other then TCOOP #10 ($11r 3xT) and the $215 ante's FTOPS (30 min levels ftw) so will try concentrate on these and hopefully get a result (was going to say daysaver however im surprisingly b/e today, no idea how as ive regged for like 8 hours, been playing slightly higher then usual and not really had any spectacular results.... i'll take it though ;) ).

Gf and mtt grinding do not mix well

Currently 11/166 in TCOOP #1 and 40/1495 in FTOPS #31... running well, hope it continues ;)

Picked me up on the rail in the TCOOP!! Keep it up! ;)

Will try mate, ty! :)

Hero is 3/115

76k ftw!! Common take this down!! :)

1/77

field is dropping like flies....

10 10 > AK

BOOM!!!!

KK> Ax, Ax nice!

1/51!

1/51

Another big hand KK vs A9 and AJ

board ran out 10 J Q x x

something like that... cant remember exact details...

heros stack is 25million

Going to have to start a thread myself.  GL OP

 i was thinking the same!

4/36

BIG HAND

AK > A5

BOOM!!

1/29

BIG HAND ALERT!!!

So jel! On the rail. Would love to know what you c/shove

PokerStars Hand #92635404252: Tournament #2013010010, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level LI (600000/1200000) - 2013/01/19 16:47:30 ET
Table '2013010010 341' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: selinantis (12859164 in chips)
Seat 3: 1BigAceHole (29676745 in chips)
Seat 4: katya0071 (7428324 in chips)
Seat 5: GaggleoKings (30147215 in chips)
Seat 6: massiliimo (13479306 in chips)
Seat 7: Kimbalance (19382950 in chips)
Seat 8: tgrigoletti (16318095 in chips)
Seat 9: copernic67 (12320320 in chips)
selinantis: posts the ante 150000
1BigAceHole: posts the ante 150000
katya0071: posts the ante 150000
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 150000
massiliimo: posts the ante 150000
Kimbalance: posts the ante 150000
tgrigoletti: posts the ante 150000
copernic67: posts the ante 150000
GaggleoKings: posts small blind 600000
massiliimo: posts big blind 1200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Kimbalance: folds
tgrigoletti: folds
copernic67: folds
selinantis: folds
massiliimo said, "i call"
1BigAceHole: raises 1200000 to 2400000
katya0071: folds
GaggleoKings: raises 2455555 to 4855555
massiliimo: folds
1BigAceHole: calls 2455555
*** FLOP *** [Jc 7s Ks]
GaggleoKings: bets 2777777
1BigAceHole: calls 2777777
*** TURN *** [Jc 7s Ks] [8s]
GaggleoKings: checks
1BigAceHole: bets 6850000
GaggleoKings: raises 15513883 to 22363883 and is all-in
1BigAceHole: folds
Uncalled bet (15513883) returned to GaggleoKings
GaggleoKings collected 31366664 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 31366664 | Rake 0
Board [Jc 7s Ks 8s]
Seat 2: selinantis folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: 1BigAceHole folded on the Turn
Seat 4: katya0071 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: GaggleoKings (small blind) collected (31366664)
Seat 6: massiliimo (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: Kimbalance folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: tgrigoletti folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: copernic67 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

OUT PLAYED!!!

1/23

NEARLY A 2/1 CHIPLEAD on 2nd!!

what do you think he had?

 Aspades and any K

That would be my shout!! :S

2/15

On the break!! FT awaits!!

This has been incredible!! Would love to see you take this down!!

True true! $76k is always nice!

what do you think he had...

grrrr lost a massive hand in ftops

Full Tilt Poker Game #31926732598: MiniFTOPS Event #31 (2-Day) (243423193), Table 166 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:54:23 ET - 2013/01/19
Seat 1: gaggleokings (41,536)
Seat 2: ClaudiaS1 (14,065)
Seat 3: Machinguer (12,932)
Seat 4: SaintAngerCZ (33,220)
Seat 5: ich_der_tremper (6,637)
Seat 6: Berkyy (14,862)
Seat 7: seonkett1 (27,516)
Seat 9: accuss1ty (33,793)
gaggleokings antes 25
ClaudiaS1 antes 25
Machinguer antes 25
SaintAngerCZ antes 25
ich_der_tremper antes 25
Berkyy antes 25
seonkett1 antes 25
accuss1ty antes 25
SaintAngerCZ posts the small blind of 120
ich_der_tremper posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to gaggleokings [Kh Ac]
BetzPH sits down
Berkyy folds
seonkett1 folds
accuss1ty raises to 504
gaggleokings has 15 seconds left to act
gaggleokings raises to 1,355
ClaudiaS1 folds
Machinguer has 15 seconds left to act
Machinguer folds
SaintAngerCZ folds
ich_der_tremper folds
accuss1ty has 15 seconds left to act
accuss1ty calls 851
*** FLOP *** [Jc Qd 6h] (Total Pot: 3,270, 2 Players)
accuss1ty checks
gaggleokings bets 1,377
accuss1ty has 15 seconds left to act
accuss1ty raises to 4,252
gaggleokings calls 2,875
*** TURN *** [Jc Qd 6h] [Tc] (Total Pot: 11,774, 2 Players)
accuss1ty has 15 seconds left to act
accuss1ty bets 6,004
gaggleokings has 15 seconds left to act
gaggleokings calls 6,004
*** RIVER *** [Jc Qd 6h Tc] [Js] (Total Pot: 23,782, 2 Players)
accuss1ty has 15 seconds left to act
accuss1ty has requested TIME
accuss1ty bets 22,157, and is all in
gaggleokings calls 22,157
*** SHOW DOWN ***
accuss1ty shows [6s 6c] a full house, Sixes full of Jacks
gaggleokings mucks
accuss1ty wins the pot (68,096) with a full house, Sixes full of Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 68,096 | Rake 0
Board: [Jc Qd 6h Tc Js]
Seat 1: gaggleokings mucked [Kh Ac] - a straight, Ace high
Seat 2: ClaudiaS1 folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Machinguer (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: SaintAngerCZ (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: ich_der_tremper (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Berkyy folded before the Flop
Seat 7: seonkett1 folded before the Flop
Seat 9: accuss1ty showed [6s 6c] and won (68,096) with a full house, Sixes full of Jacks

such a gross river, so hard to fold....

(Also i've been fucking with this guy alot)

I have inside info sadly so would not be able to make an impartial guess!!!

FTOPS is no TCOOP!

Dont worry about that take this down!!

Tom any chance of telling us what you c/shoved with on the 3 spade board?

id imagine not now mabye afterwords you dont know who is watching :D

Lost a huge hand...

AQ < 33

I didnt mean now I meant after when he is done!

Doubled up...

A8s v 99

hit the flush on the river!! BOOM!!!

BACK UP TO 50+MIL

DOUBLED UP

KJ>33

4/10

final table awaits!!!

BOOM just put on my final table jacket for him 3/9! only 76K up top!

Stars prize pools really are obscene!

Good seat, at this speed of play, a few will be gone before BB comes around.

73k diff from 1st to 9th!!

Its crazy!!

huge pay jumps

hero is calm cool and collected though and more importantly girl friend and his pet dog are quiet!

Brilliant!!

Laddering FTW

HERO MINIMUM GOT HIS 5 FIGURE SCORE!!!

BRILLIANT!!

lol at QT play

too good! i think #4 is probably done as well ;)

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Decent start to the diary.

Hello.

GLGLGLGL

Huge hand with 88

I was sighing when I saw the K on the turn then the 8 ball on the river!!!

Class!!!

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

DEEEEEEEEECE

CONFIRMED LAD¬!

Witness the sickness !

THIS HAS BEEN IMMENSE... IM BUZZING!!!

and its nothing to do with me...

Been watching since he posted earlier when there was a chunk left!! loved every minute of it!!!

ASSURED 40K

This is huge!! What a score this is!!

get 55?

have to leave 8k for winner

Was that other player OOL by the guy to say wait, take the blind in the confusion then say "See numbers" seemed to benefit from the deal talk

I dont think Pama will agree... he was reluctant for the numbers!!

was probably speaking to backer?

Very well played! lets all set diaries up ha ha

50k score playing for the 8k now!!!

WELL DONE BUDDY!! GREAT WORK!!! NOW TAKE THE 8K DOWN!!!

8k heads up match hero now has chip lead

get the fuck in!

OOO MY DAYS!

yes he won the 8k

A3 > AJ

INCREDIBLE RUN!!!

58k

oioi wp mate

Oioi wp!

Caught the last few hands wpwp

Timing is everything in diary starting.  WP

buzzing for you fella! WPWPWP!

Anyone would think id won it... lol I am smiling and buzzing for him and I dont even know the guy... never spoke to him before tonight!!!

Incredible...Really happy for ya!!!

PokerStars Hand #92638510613: Tournament #2013010010, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level LX (4000000/8000000) - 2013/01/19 22:43:27 WET [2013/01/19 17:43:27 ET]
Table '2013010010 915' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 2: GaggleoKings (206718908 in chips)
Seat 7: massiliimo (166544092 in chips)
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 1000000
massiliimo: posts the ante 1000000
massiliimo: posts small blind 4000000
GaggleoKings: posts big blind 8000000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
massiliimo: raises 8000000 to 16000000
GaggleoKings: raises 189718908 to 205718908 and is all-in
massiliimo: calls 149544092 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (40174816) returned to GaggleoKings
*** FLOP *** [Qc 8s 3c]
*** TURN *** [Qc 8s 3c] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 8s 3c 9c] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GaggleoKings: shows [3s Ah] (a pair of Threes)
massiliimo: shows [As Jh] (high card Ace)
GaggleoKings collected 333088184 from pot
massiliimo finished the tournament in 2nd place and received $56595.01.
GaggleoKings wins the tournament and receives $58737.00 - congratulations!
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 333088184 | Rake 0
Board [Qc 8s 3c 9c 5s]
Seat 2: GaggleoKings (big blind) showed [3s Ah] and won (333088184) with a pair of Threes
Seat 7: massiliimo (button) (small blind) showed [As Jh] and lost with high card Ace


for the memories fella and when you moan about running bad ;) winning a 3x turbo you have used up a lifes worth of run good!

swishhhhhhhhh nice start to the diary hehe, thanks for support all really appriciated! Really helps me out as i was flat broke at the beginning of the day with £3k in debts to uni, can get myself softed a bit now :D

Dont know what else to say!

:D

 ;tightend; congrats

get changed and box of a couple bottles at assosiation

Wow incred start to the diary.

Well well, what a start to the diary!

Many congrats.

Lets hope I havent used up all of my good vibes and I run like you in event 13 in an hour!! ;)

This should set you up nicely!! like action man said... go out and celebrate!! ;)

Wow, huge huge congrats!!!

Ty so much again all :)

Will be back on the grind tommorow (probably) and will continue the diary then!

Peace :)

You have my permission to use my rungood for the night ;) gl mate!

Best diary ever.

It's all about starting a diary!!!

Sick score mate. What a life! Very well done.

Saw there'd been 6 new pages today or something so knew something must've kicked off. Was a sweet sweating squeezing the pages out!

Grats again.

ps. How many times did you fold kings pre in this one?

If carlsberg did starts to diary's.....

Ps Chelsea boy is such a hero! Hope you have the same fortunes on your diary mate!

It was incredible to watch... still buzzing now for him!!

Lol cheers mate!!!  just enthusiastic mad for the game and good to see other people from on here win!! and win BIG aswell!!

Still moaning?

Probably is right actually...:P

haha he ended the skype chat so im going to go odds on on this....

I had  Aspades Qh here vs 1BigAceHole btw.

I wasnt far off then... I said As with any K... :)

Great move... I think it was a tourney changer!!!

Nice life, congrats.

Haha, incredible stuff. Hope this helps with the motivation :)

Many Congrats.

oioi wp

Incredible result.....let's all start a diary, let's all start a diary, la la la la

Road to MTT domination? Thread finished! Haha, congratulations.

Funnily enough, last time i started a diary (on 2+2) i ended up final tabling (finishing 6th) in the big 109..... might start one every day ;)

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/174/poker-goals-challenges/road-mtt-domination-100k-profits-1226251/

 Aspades Qh

HERO raises 15513883 to 22363883 and is all-in
1BigAceHole: folds

Must be nice

nice one wd

Back to the old grind! Gonna try and forget about yesterdays score and focus on today :)

Have just regged a few TCOOP sats and managed to brick all so far, was put in a pretty gross spot (or i feel it was atleast)

PokerStars Hand #92678006373: Tournament #673723606, $30.00+$0.60 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (400/800) - 2013/01/20 17:43:36 WET [2013/01/20 12:43:36 ET]
Table '673723606 13' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: Anton210189 (1485 in chips)
Seat 2: smok1nho (4025 in chips)
Seat 3: vecchio cane (4480 in chips)
Seat 5: sup-sport777 (10000 in chips)
Seat 6: roaden (4325 in chips)
Seat 7: A2theriver (4225 in chips)
Seat 8: vqenpp (2970 in chips)
Seat 9: GaggleoKings (2880 in chips)
Anton210189: posts the ante 160
smok1nho: posts the ante 160
vecchio cane: posts the ante 160
sup-sport777: posts the ante 160
roaden: posts the ante 160
A2theriver: posts the ante 160
vqenpp: posts the ante 160
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 160
Anton210189: posts small blind 400
smok1nho: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [ Qd  Qh ]
vecchio cane: folds
sup-sport777: folds
roaden: folds
A2theriver: folds
vqenpp: raises 2010 to 2810 and is all-in
GaggleoKings:

We are 11/16 with 11 paid; 10 seats and 11th = $280

fkn commitment to grind the next day AND playing satellites!

think i call with QQ there.

Riding the heat mate ;)

I think i call QQ but pass KK here.

:D

Probably the best start to a diary ever.  ;tightend;

THIS!  Nice result fella.

Posting in thread hoping to pick up some run good.

dont work doobs! tried that!

bit of an uneventful first few hours ended up 25th in a $2r 2xt with $4k ftw... if only i flipped better!  ;whistle;

Just bust the $109 1r1a TCOOP like 1200th (didn't cash) so thats a fail on the tcoop leaderboard points front....

Also whilst typing this update i managed to time out with aces pre in the FTOPS main.... marvelous

(http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/6007/ohsnapz.jpg)

That's the run bad you get after winning a 3x turbo ;)

Think your all contaminating my heat.... im actually losing flips atm - this shouldnt happen.

heat is confirmed back.. just doubled on the bubble(ish) of the bigger 109 1010 > KK

Just the quads ;)

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tcoop/2013/tcoop-2103-thomas-gaggleokings-ambler-am-126144.html

Read more about the "hero" of this thread here!

It was Heroic!! I was telling my mate about it today!!

So fking tilted, just spent 20mins writing a massive post only for the battery on iPad to run out... The heat is gone already.. Sighhh.

Will re-do update when I get back from gym (abso determined to get in good shape for this summer!!!!)

Peace all!

this definitely isn't allowed after winning 50 bags and a TCOOP  :redcard:

haha fair ;)

Anyways back on topic...

Decided to take a few days off from online recently, I'd really been putting in alot of time from the start of January - In the 72 hours from last thursday to the saturday i won the TCOOP i played 51 hours of online poker, and thats after a couple of weeks of grinding normal 6-9 hour sessions every day (probably had one day off since Jan 1st) so i figured i deserve a small break from the 'stress'. The gf was also getting slightly pissed with the lack of time i spent with her, so it also makes my life much easier if i do this.

Saying that i did play live for the first time in what felt like forever last night (at Genting Sheffield). There was a £40 GPS Star City satellite on with 2 seats GTD, so i decided as i wasn't doing too much I'd flick it in. After a bit of play we were down to a 9 handed FT where i had 1/3rd the chips in play - there was then a 30min break (well too long - should be 15 mins max imo) where i decided to sit and play some £1/£2. Was about £110 up after the 30 mins then obv had to retake my seat at the sat (in before 'lol hit and run for £110' as i told the table before i sat down i only had the 30 minutes). By the time i sat back down i totally forgot it was a satellite and started splashing about in loads of pots like the massive whale i am - ended up spewing the whole stack (we were actually pretty deep as well) and busting 6th so was pretty annoyed with myself.

Playing the satellite actually made me realize how much i have missed live poker, so i figured since it was still early (1am ish) I'd head down to the G and see if there were any decent games running (the Cash games always seem to be much softer and deeper at the G for some reason). Got down there and the table was incredible, not meaning to be rude / cause offense but there were probably two people who knew how to actually play the game, the rest were just the reg gamblers you would often see at the G, and who would gamble on pretty much everything, so obv i was in heaven. I ended making around £800 in just shy of two hours (when the game broke) so all in all it turned out a pretty good night for me.... Maybe the heat is not gone after all ;)  ;letsparty;

Nice one Tom!!!

I hope this time you do not treat money like you have done when you have had decent scores in the past. You seem very sensible here, for once :D :D

PS - VEGAS!!!!!!

Thanks Aaron :)

I'm proud to be able to say that I've seemed to have 'matured' as of late, and also seemed to have gained a new respect for the value of money (probably through being skint for so long). Hopefully we'll continue to see this - although for the sake of the diary, it probably makes a better story if i go and spunk it all on the death wheel - but sorry folks, thats a no go! ;)

Back on track...

I've taken a few days off recently (since the day after the TCOOP win - would have been since the day of the win however the next day was a funday so i couldn't miss it!). Took a few trips down the the local G / Genting casinos and have amassed a profit of £700 over the 3 trips, so not too shabby! Also managed to book my 1st ever holiday with the gf to Cyprus in late July - not that i planned to, it just saved the constant nagging! The hotel we're staying in is situated on Nissi Beach (Amazing place) and is very close to Ayia Napa (where i went with 7 of my mates on a lads holiday for 2 weeks last year) - so i know the area well-ish :). (Will post a few pics of the place later).

Just started regging for the night - have decided it's not going to be a long one - i just plan to ease myself back into it and hopefully be regging full sessions again by weds / thurs. Planning on playing the TCOOP main later today - a $700 buy in which is pretty damn expensive for a turbo, but the field shouldn't be very tough at all, especially with the amount of sats they are running into the main.

Will update as the session goes on :)

What a life

PokerStars Hand #93081345113: Tournament #704010447, $100+$9 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXI (800/1600) - 2013/01/27 22:34:37 WET [2013/01/27 17:34:37 ET]
Table '704010447 11' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: DJFr@nsie (32363 in chips)
Seat 2: NEE_JIJ (31514 in chips)
Seat 3: SwedishRules (40898 in chips)
Seat 4: GaggleoKings (46413 in chips)
Seat 5: Pardal77 (55964 in chips)
Seat 6: jus2awsum (30795 in chips)
Seat 7: mastifman (105697 in chips)
Seat 8: bally29 (15685 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: Stev0L_ (61281 in chips)
DJFr@nsie: posts the ante 200
NEE_JIJ: posts the ante 200
SwedishRules: posts the ante 200
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 200
Pardal77: posts the ante 200
jus2awsum: posts the ante 200
mastifman: posts the ante 200
bally29: posts the ante 200
Stev0L_: posts the ante 200
mastifman: posts small blind 800
bally29: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Stev0L_: folds
bally29 has returned
DJFr@nsie: folds
NEE_JIJ: folds
SwedishRules: folds
GaggleoKings: raises 1600 to 3200
Pardal77: folds
jus2awsum: raises 27395 to 30595 and is all-in
mastifman: folds
bally29: folds
GaggleoKings: calls 27395
*** FLOP *** [Ts Th Qs]
*** TURN *** [Ts Th Qs] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [Ts Th Qs 2s] [Js]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GaggleoKings: shows [As Ks] (a Royal Flush)
jus2awsum: shows [8c 8h] (two pair, Tens and Eights)
GaggleoKings collected 65390 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 65390 | Rake 0
Board [Ts Th Qs 2s Js]
Seat 1: DJFr@nsie folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: NEE_JIJ folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: SwedishRules folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: GaggleoKings showed [As Ks] and won (65390) with a Royal Flush
Seat 5: Pardal77 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: jus2awsum (button) showed [8c 8h] and lost with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 7: mastifman (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: bally29 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Stev0L_ folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Mmmm bit of an annoying night, ~10th in a UKIPT Cork Package sat with 6 paid (4 packages) - managed to get into the 160euro qualifier for 33e though so it's not all bad (although i was own diming). Bust the $700 TCOOP Main with A9 < A2o as well for ~av chips with 1500/5000 left (600 paid) so that was also a bit frustrating but oh well, there's always tomorrow (or tonights big 109 / 22cubed :) ).

Currently left with 2 tables of the 8 or so MTTs i regged today:
38/201 - (ITM) Big $109
178/270 - 22Cubed

Will give further updates if i go deepish in either of the two above, if not - Gnite Balonde!

9/131 - Big $109
8/171 - 22 Cubed

PokerStars Hand #93084044341: Tournament #704010537, $20+$2 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XV (1000/2000) - 2013/01/27 23:27:34 WET [2013/01/27 18:27:34 ET]
Table '704010537 71' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Freak1ooo (61084 in chips)
Seat 2: IKnewwwIt (49400 in chips)
Seat 3: Glyu_M99 (26517 in chips)
Seat 4: Kuli4 (51978 in chips)
Seat 5: GaggleoKings (105046 in chips)
Seat 6: eamonn2009 (67896 in chips)
Seat 7: klauniq (29369 in chips)
Seat 8: sophia sp (50288 in chips)
Seat 9: Bastoonas (52891 in chips)
Freak1ooo: posts the ante 200
IKnewwwIt: posts the ante 200
Glyu_M99: posts the ante 200
Kuli4: posts the ante 200
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 200
eamonn2009: posts the ante 200
klauniq: posts the ante 200
sophia sp: posts the ante 200
Bastoonas: posts the ante 200
klauniq: posts small blind 1000
sophia sp: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [Qs As]
Bastoonas: folds
Freak1ooo: folds
IKnewwwIt: folds
Glyu_M99: folds
Kuli4: folds
GaggleoKings: raises 2000 to 4000
eamonn2009: folds
klauniq: folds
sophia sp: calls 2000
*** FLOP *** [Ts Ad Ah]
sophia sp: checks
GaggleoKings: bets 4117
sophia sp: raises 4117 to 8234
GaggleoKings: raises 5547 to 13781
sophia sp: calls 5547
*** TURN *** [Ts Ad Ah] [8s]
sophia sp: bets 10000
GaggleoKings: raises 10000 to 20000
sophia sp: raises 12307 to 32307 and is all-in
GaggleoKings: calls 12307
*** RIVER *** [Ts Ad Ah 8s] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sophia sp: shows [Js Th] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
GaggleoKings: shows [Qs As] (three of a kind, Aces)
GaggleoKings collected 102976 from pot
sophia sp finished the tournament in 148th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 102976 | Rake 0
Board [Ts Ad Ah 8s Jc]
Seat 1: Freak1ooo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: IKnewwwIt folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Glyu_M99 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Kuli4 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: GaggleoKings showed [Qs As] and won (102976) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: eamonn2009 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: klauniq (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: sophia sp (big blind) showed [Js Th] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 9: Bastoonas folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Lol such a gross spot on the turn (obv love life just how to get him to spaz his remaining stack in).

14/109 - Big $109
8/140 - 22Cubed

28/64 - Big $109
12/66 - $22Cubed

Sweet cold 4. On the rail

Just cooled someone Big $109, 33 > A9dd on 10 9 3 A 6

helps to be on the right side of em ;) - i would say for a change but who am i trying to kid at the minute!

24/37 - Big $109 (Lost a big flip JJ < AKo for top 5-10 stack)
10/43 - $22Cubed

lost another big flip 88 > AKo for a top10 stack... bit annoying.

KK < AQo for top 5 stack in 22c sighhhhh

now:

32/33 Big109
19/37 22c

$53.4k and $11.1k up top respectively.

32nd 22c... AK < 55 gg.

24/33 big109 A9 > AQo just for a double :)

20th or w/e big109, made 2 massive mistakes in the last 2 hands.

Horrible fold by me followed by a horrible horrible jam - amazing how ~90 seconds of brain not working 100% can possibly cost you 000's of $.

(was actually 28th - and quite possibly the worst two hands of poker i have ever played - whilst having some kind of clue).

Morning Blondeites! Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the lack of actual 'diary' enteries so far. This has seemed to turn more into a sweat thread recently than a diary, however I will try and change this - though I will try and keep the sweats as this probably means we a running fairly well!

After reading Alex's diary, I've decided to follow his lead; instead of immediately posting about the session I've just played, I'm to leave it a few hours / sleep on it, and therefore shouldn't sound like so much if a whiner - as I'd usually rant out of frustration and therefore make myself out to be abit of a jerk! Now, on to yesterday...

As I said in a previous post, I've took the last week or so off playing online poker, I did say that this was due to me putting in a lot of hours since the new year began, and neglecting some other things in my life, however this is only part of the reason. As many of you know (if you've been following this thread at least), that I've recently had a decent score, which not only got me out of make-up with my backer, but actually put me in one of the best positions I have been financially, so far in my life. Obviously the amount I actually made for myself isn't a massive amount in relation to what some people on is forum would deem a lot, but for myself it was pretty substantial, and left me with a few choices in my life:
1. To be comfortable and remain playing backed online.
2. To play using my own dime.
3. To turn poker back into a hobby and use the money to try and start up a business with - something which I've tried and failed at before when I was 19 (bought a couple of 'punch machines' / 'bandits' with the intention of placing them in pubs on a profit share basis - and also with the intention of buying more) - obviously I failed to do sufficient research and rushed into buying the machines, the punch machine ending up in my garage for 12months before finally getting sold and taking a fair loss and one of the bandits ending up in my kitchen and being used as an expensive money box and occasionally to quell boredom. (Although I did manage to get both in a venue for a couple of months before it closed down!).

After taking time out to weigh up my options, I decided that poker was and is still what I want to do, at least for the foreseeable, however I decided I couldn't risk living how I have been for the few months previous to my score (totally broke) and therefore made the decision to keep playing for my backer.

Yesterday was the first 'proper' mini-session I have played since making the decision, and even after yesterday's disappointments I must say I think I played pretty well - and until the final couple of hands of the night - possibly one of the best sessions I have ever played! I felt very confident when making decisions and wasn't scared to follow my thoughs to the fullest - which when in the midst of my downswing was my biggest problem - especially in the later stages of tournaments when FTs are very few and far between, and although the night ended somewhat in disappointment, I'm still fairly happy with the outcome as I feel it has given me the confidence to keep playing to best ofmy ability!

(The last couple of paragraphs In this update are pretty badly written but have been in quite a rush, will fix them properly when I have more time a little later!)

Good decision to keep playing staked. The variance is unreal...

Are you more mature with the money though Tom? You seem to be going down the exact same route as last time when you had a decent streak live. You have started playing more live cash again, sattying in to events, offering to buy % on here and a holiday! It seems very samey to me Mr Ambler!

I suppose the decision to keep on getting staked is a good one though.

HH for "horrible horrible jam" ?

you could quit MTT's and join my stable which for  NL100+ has incredible amount of coaching from 2 very big proven winners and has some great players in.

#teampostflop #cashisking


edit: can do business together too

#shrewdies

When i grind up to 100nl (currently grinding 25nl to try and learn) i want in please pleno <3

The problem i had with playing live cash before before is i was playing drastically under-rolled. Obviously now i have enough money to play these games comfortably this shouldn't be a problem as - without meaning to sound arrogant - I'm pretty confident i can crush the game (£1/£2 @ Sheffield) - the same goes for trying to satellite into events. As for offering to buy %'s, I've only looked into buying small amounts of shares in two people, both of whom i thought to be a very good investment - its not exactly like I have my net riding on them either! On the holiday front - we were going to go somewhere irrespective of me getting a score or not - but paying for it now just seemed the most sensible option! :)


Probably not actually the worst jam in the world in hindsight.... Jammed 15.5bbs from CO over a HJ min open with A4o - had him noted as fairly active as well, but he'd just quad'd up within the previous orbit or so and hadn't been opening that much at this particular table - just didn't seem like he was ever raise/folding at the time either - i was just major tilted from the hand before where i folded the best hand pre to 2 all-ins, that was super close decision imo and i chose wrong.


Mmmmm that was my thoughts + wasn't sure if i could handle a big downswing (if i had one) straight away on my own $$ after being broke for so long.

It does not take much to "crush" the live cash game at G to be quite honest, but your downfall is that you do not know when to quit. I've sat there with you when you have been chasing. also when you are plenty up and you say table has plenty of money on so you stay, instead of quitting and also I don't see you happy to just about break even, meaning you stay on the table. I also remember you going to play 2/5 when they got a table open with Mehtab & co, when in reality you shouldn't, with regards to BR. You are also a cash player who can win chunks or lose chunks, so therefore you are perhaps not crushing these games.

I can use an example of Steve who is a good money manager, he knows when he is going to arive and leave casino regardless of how much he has won or lost.

SO, therefore money management is critical here, you seem to up stakes so quickly, that I and others come to assumption that you will once again be bust in a few months time, which is a terrible shame because you are a decent enough player. In my previous post I gave you examples of you not having money management when you are offering to take 2% of someone when it will cost near enough £200 & it really is a high proportion to pay out when you don't have that much in the bank. I don't think I would take 2% of someone unless I had £50k+ in the bank, never mind not having half of that. Plus, as I write this reply I have also just seen the post you made in the Facebook poker group for a $700 TCOOP!

You have to manage it a lot better, you do not need to up stakes straight away & I know you will take absolute no notice of me, but it's what you need to do, imo.

I hope you sort it out & have much money money to become a 'pro'

Fwiw i now have a stop-loss therefore cannot lose 'chunks' at a time. Also the most i have ever lost at G Casino Sheffield in history ,in one night is £600 (which has probably happened like 3/4 times ever). I have always been a pretty consistent winner there and have had countless £1k+ winning days - so therefore yes i am pretty confident that i am crushing these games.

In regards to the % - '...you are offering to take 2% of someone when it will cost near enough £200 & it really is a high proportion to pay out when you don't have that much in the bank. I don't think I would take 2% of someone unless I had £50k+ in the bank, never mind not having half of that..' - Lol what?

On the subject of TCOOP main - I only had 20% of myself, 50% was sold and 30% was on stake, its not exactly like im own diming it all lol.

I was mentioning with regards to the 2% I would not take that much or any at all unless I would have a significant amount of money in the bank, I am assuming you made somewhere between £10-£15k of that bink, which £200 for a 2% stake is pretty significant.

When you posted in the group about selling 50% I can only assume that you have 50% of yourself at that point.

It's Chris brammar tho!!!!

Just started reading this thread, pretty much doing a similar target setting, and WTF is it with HEM as at the 6 max tables on FTP I can't get my HUD to work either..?

Agreed if you were backing me that would be pissing the money up the wall

Evening all! Again - I'm sorry for the lack of content in this diary so far, there's not really a particular reason for this, I've just not been playing much recently due to a couple of things going off in my life / not really feeling motivated to play.

I've only played once since my last update; the DTD Deepstack - which turned out to be a massive fail on my part, i think i lasted until around level 3 before basically giving away all my chips, and have since come to the conclusion that i really don't have the patience for live tournaments anymore.. Sitting there for hours on end, only to be dealt 9 high hand after hand after hand (not even the nice 9 highs either, I'm talking total garbage...)! In fact i was feeling so sorry for myself sat bored in the club, i actually counted how many top tier hands i got in the entire night (AA - 1010 / AKs - AJo - at least thats what i classed as top tier)..... anyway in the whole 11 hours i was there i got dealt: 1x 1010 / 1x AKo / 1x AJo.... So as you can imagine, i didn't have a very fun day in Nottingham! (At this point i would also like to point out to you all the car sharing sucks. If i had traveled on my own, i would have been back for 6pm, not 1am).

Anyway moving on.... I'm currently finishing off the rest of the mini session i decided to reg today... Still feeling pretty unmotivated however i really need to get back into playing as I've been incredibly lazy these past few weeks! Even though I've not really had any results as of yet tonight, i can safely say that I'm playing the best poker I've ever played, and that's actually made me really enjoy tonights session.

Am currently only left in the Super Tuesday on stars; (36/380 atm). Didn't even intentionally register, misclick regged a $109 f/o Sat whilst rofling about in the lobby and managed to scoop a seat. Would usually snap unreg for tournament $ but it had already started so meh - however 1hr 45mins in have above double starting stack so i guess i'll have to deal with it ;)

and thats gg like 300th...

AQs < AKo for a pretty huge pot SB v CO then made a pretty bad call with AJ high otr for 90% of stack. Got the bowl in with A5 > KJ and held then K9 < AJ to bust.

Pretty annoyed with myself for calling the river with A high tbh, convinced myself he was bluffing and pretty much snapped the river. Really need to take a lot more time when making decisions in the future, especially when 1 tabling, if i had taken 5 seconds to think then it was a pretty obv fold. Can't find HH as snap closed everything down but will post tommorow when i have time / can be arsed.

Morning all. In today's entry, i actually have something to talk about other then poker for once - well, at least not directly about the game! I've been meaning to get some advice on how to handle this for quite a while now, and have no idea where to go / look for this - so what better place to post about it then these forums...

Recently (I say recently, however i actually mean over the last 6-9 months or so), I've started to feel quite anxious / nervous when playing poker (The majority of this anxiety is felt when playing live, however occasionally happens online) . Not only is it making the game less enjoyable for me, but is also leading to me making bad, rushed decisions - which obviously results in a loss of both my own money and potential profits. I've noticed that these feelings only seem to come on when there's players whose games i respect sat at the same table as me, e.g. I'm totally fine when playing at my local G casino and can easily play to 100% of my ability however if i venture to DTD and sit with a couple of regs who i think are decent down there, i seem to become a peely, spewwy whale. It's as if i subconsciously get intimidated by them and this causes me to go against my instincts and play pretty terrible vs these people as i don't want to be judged as a bad player by them (when in reality i really don't care! - as long as I'm winning).

The same thing happens online when I'm playing with people i know. If i see anybody with the blue tag (people i know / talk to in real life), I seem to play much worse as i don't want to make mistakes in front of these people and be judged.

I know it sounds silly, and it really is silly. Like I've said before i really don't care too much about what people think (at least in respect to my poker ability), however when I'm playing with someone who i think has an opinion of me, it's like all my thoughts become clouded and i feel as if there is a lot more pressure on me to do the right things. I've actually no idea how to sort my head out in regards to this other than to keep telling myself not to care, so any advice on how best to approach this problem would be gratefully received!

I know exactly what you mean, I folded A high in EPT to a big river bet when I was sure I was good on 55672 5 way to the flop, but Brammer was on the table and I ended up folding and got shown K high. Also been in the situ a lot of other times too.

Mmmm it really sucks especially when you know in your head what you should do, but end up doing completely opposite. I've honestly no idea how / why it started either. It seems the more i learn about the game, the more i know what the 'correct' thing to do in each spot is, and straying from the 'correct' line will make me look terrible to the people whose games i respect. It's really something i need to work on as I'll never be truly successful with this mindset, as how will i ever progress....

I've had this problem against one guy, and its the most tilting thing ever. I think You need to work on your own self belief. I 100% play my best when it appears like i dont give a fuck, but this is really because I'm 100% content and happy with my mindset and therefore trust my play from there. At the end of the day, who really cares what you think, your long term play/attitude/work ethic mean more than any one hand you can play.

Interesting post Tom.

As I have played quite a bit of poker with you at G, I get a decent enough opinion of you. But I don't think this nervousness that you speak of has just come into your game over the last 6-9 months as you say. I seemed to sense and see it quite a lot in you, you do generally have that nervous look about you to be fair, but sometimes not sure you will agree, you have an awful "swagger" and "arrogance" at times which actually goes against it.

Also understand where you are coming from regarding being out of your comfort zone etc.

I don't like to be on certain people's tables who I know well from time to time. I'll give you an example... Ken Billups! I'll play some of the local games with him and venture to DTD with him & believe me he will give me a mouthful if I have played a hand wrong, therefore always a general nervousness when being on same table as him, thankfully does not happen that often.

Also would like to see hear your thoughts on playing with close friends at poker table? I have a close relationship with people at the poker table & I don't like getting in pots with them as I feel it would hinder a friendship I have with that person, an exaple of that would be me folding a pretty hand as I see who the raiser is & I am thinking, hmmmm shall I get involved!

Would be good to hear if that is similar to what you have mention here.

Do you get this issue when on skype and im railing? Never seems to have affected you! you have quite a good ROI when i am! You know i never really berate you when you do something stupid i just search for some logic behind it!

I think tom has a good attitude to big pots with friends. He plays hard in the pots. If he wins so what im still going to be his friend afterwords and if you would fall out with your friends over them beating you in a poker game either dont play with them or dont be there friend. Often we will just try and run it twice etc if its possible. Iron out some of the variance. If im playing in a ten handed table at G and tom is on the table. I may not get involved in pots with him but thats not because hes my friend its just because he will probably the best player on the table and there will be 8 other spots to go at with people want to give there money away for an evenings entertainment. So i have no need to go after tom.

I totally agree with this. The problem i often has it that some days I'm full of confidence and others I have absolutely 0 and i have no idea why. There are days when i will happily stroll up and chat with anybody at all for an age, however some days i can't even maintain eye contact with anybody, even people i see on a regular basis. Again i know this sounds really silly but it seems to have a lot to do with my diet over the previous weeks or so. I'm somebody who really struggles to keep weight off, no matter how hard i try (I do a lot of exercise, every day, and always have) - my problem is self control with food. I seem to go through fads of either eating extremely healthy or going on a total binge. I really need to find a balance otherwise I'm probably going to carry on having periods of both extreme and extremely lacking confidence.

Edit: As you can tell from above, I'm a little bitch when it comes to my weight as you can probably tell haha.


To be honest it's totally person and situation dependent - I don't avoid playing friends in pots however i don't specifically target them. I have a lot of people i would consider to be friends down at the G, and I'm pretty sure / hope many of them would consider me one. If one of them wins a pot off of me, I have no ill-feelings towards them, as I'm certain they don't towards me, and haven't ever. It's the nature of the game after all. To be quite honest with you i think I'd end up losing a bit of respect for somebody if they got angry at me personally for winning a pot off of them. OK it's understandable if somebody is frustrated for a while after they lose a big pot, however for it to 'hinder a friendship' would be pretty wrong, however it would probably show their true colours and if this is the case, they wouldn't be worthy of friendship - at least in my opinion.

(In fact i have lost my biggest pot ever to a very good friend - a pretty substantial amount - we made the journey home together and talked about the hand, even joked that he was buying McDonald's because he had the $) - Every hand is a learning curve so why not play with somebody who is willing to let you know if you made mistakes / willing to talk strategy.


No never. You know i respect your game, and you also know i know you won't judge me if i make mistakes. Your actually about the only person i feel 100% comfortable playing properly with on the rail. Obv can tell that with the huge ROI in the Morgan household / presence. :)

Was planning to do a proper update today but nothing of note really happened.

Ended up making a small loss on the day with a couple of sweats... 15th in the $8r (2x Turbo) $30kGTD on stars with $10k ftw. Also managed to get into a 162E UKIPT Cork Package satellite (was in for 11E total) and come 28th or so with ~15 packages which was a bit annoying as I've been wanting to go to Ireland for a while now.

Other then that had a pretty boring day.

Will give further updates when something interesting actually happens!

GN all!

Soooo... I was planning to put quite a lot of volume in online recently, however this becomes slightly difficult when you have no Internet connection for ~1 week so AGAIN I haven't really had too much to say, hence the gap in the updates. I have however played live a couple of times in the 'Mini Genting Series Festival' in Sheffield - reports of which are below:

Thursday - £75 freeze out:

So, even though this isn't the biggest buy in event, there was still a fair few players who weren't too bad who decided to flick this tournament in for some reason, coincidently - all of who decided to late reg around the same time as me which meant we all got sat on the same table (which was pretty jokes hard compared to the field with the likes of; Tom Jones, James, Steph...etc - for all of you who know the Handful of half decent players from Sheffield, along with a couple of other guys who are unknown to me but seemed like they knew what they were doing). Anyway, we decided to spin our 15k starting stack to around 50k on this table, the majority of which came from a weird hand between me and a guy who seemed half decent ( although he was drinking at the time). He opens to 900 @ 200/400/25 from the HJ, we peel  Ks Kh from the blinds and 3bet to 2300 (both playing 20k), he 4 bets to 4200, we call. Flop  Qc C5   4h we DONK, yes DONK for 3700, he flats. Turn  9s we check, he sticks his remaining 11k in the middle, we snap. He rolls over  6h 2h and we fade the 4 outs on the river.

We then get moved to another table and completely run it over from the start. Spin the stack to about 70k @ 800/1600 then get pretty brutally coolered and slow rolled... Short stack goes all in for ~15k in the CO, SB calls after a slight dwell, we peel  Qd  Qd and go all in for 55k effective.... SB tanks for well over a minute then says: 'I knew you were gonna end up knocking me out but I've got to call... I'm sat there thinking he has 1010...etc and he rolls over  Kh Ks... GG lol... Tbh I just laughed it off though (usually I'd be pretty annoyed but the guy genuinely looked nervous and a relative noob to the game so I just said nice hand and smiled.. After all its only a 75 f/o).  Time for PLO.

Thursday night - £2/£2 PLO

Ill be the first person to admit that I'm not the greatest PLO player in the world - far, far from it in fact, however as I was exiting the casino after the £75fo I walked past what was quite possibly the best game I have ever seen. There was a couple of Asian gents who were very deep and were seemingly giving money away, and a couple of other weaker players from Sheffield who also were also deep. So I decided to stop off for a while (though it really sucked hard that I only had £100 on me at the time as I'd only brought enough for the 75 + re entry (bust after the re entry period had finished). Within the first few hands I was in the BB with  Qc Th 8h 3s, limps round to me so we check, flop comes  Qd Qh 3c and some guy decides he wants to get £100 in vs me with  Qs  4h 7h 7s... We fade all the remaining 4s to hold. I then picked a couple more small pots and that's when the game decided to get a bit silly, with the 2 Asian gents deciding to start straddling, and coaxing others into doing the same.... We got £64 straddles on a number of occasions ( at this point I was only £500 deep) and was the only person refusing to straddle as the game was playing HUGE. I decided to call it a night after a I had to b/f  6h 4s 4h 3s on  5c 7h 8d (which may not be hard in normal games but vs this lineup who were playing £1k pots with one pair...etc was really annoying, but it was so obv he had it - which he did as went to showdown s a shorty and rolled over  6c 9c for he nuts on the river. I then decided to leave as I was getting pretty tired. I'd made a few hundred and was happy enough at that, the game was pretty wild but was playing miles too big for my liking.

Friday £200 f/o (main event):

30k starting stack, 45 min levels - pretty decent structure to be honest. Had an OK starting table,  where I dropped to 20k after losing a couple of pretty annoying pots. Then got moved to a pretty tough table in comparison to the field, with Ben Vinson ( I think ) a few other younger guys (unknown to me but seemed to have a clue) and Ken Billups. Ground the stack to around 45k then got it in  Ad Kd >  Aspades Qc although he did flop a Queen on   Qh Jh 3d, however we turned a  Ts for some justice. Ended up grinding the 90k into 120k or so (with average@ 60k @ 600/1200) then the table gets chopped . Get moved to the absolute best table in the place bar none and run it over from the get go within an orbit I take  6h 7h to the flop of  4s 5d 8h, I check, guy bets 8k, I raise to 17,200 (yes I know this usually isn't a spot for a raise however it just felt like this guy was going to blow up) which he did and stuck 70k in my eye. I snap he's pretty furious and slams  Aspades Kc on the table for no pair, no draw and no back door draws. The turn and river come running  6d 7c which was so brutal, I could only laugh. That was a 150k pot @ 600/1200 with the av being 60k - I get it in as a 99.54% favourite (according to poker calc so a 1/200 shot.. And DON'T win... Lol such jokes, so brutal). Blinds then move on and we pick up a few more small sized pots - but to be totally honest, had pretty much lost our mojo and was just treading water and trying to make day2 with a decent amount.  Moving on, it folds to us on the Button at 800/1600, we open  Ks  Jh to 3500, BB peels (I've just been told a story about how spewwy the BB is by a guy next to me as we'll for more fun). Flop comes  Kc Jc 3c, he checks so I continue for 5100, he raises to 11k (playing 70k total) so I 3bet to 20k and he flats. Turn is  5h and he sticks his remaining 55k in the middle (into 40k) I call and he flips  Kh 9c so I'm now in Another 150k pot with 80% equity and he rivers the  5c... Marv. So we're now down to 70k. Pick up a few more medium size hands then get 3 streets from  Kh Jc on  Jd 9d 6c 3h 2h and end the day on just shy of 100k with the average being 90k and returning on Sunday to blinds @ 1200/2400/200.

Hopefully ill learn how to hold when ahead by Sunday!

Decent last trip report, gl on day 2.

at least you seem tobe better at poker than cod4 ;)

Cheers mate :) assuming you played cod4? What was ya alias?

I never played seriously since you started I don't think, but was part of many Nye vent antics :p

prob played vs you but don't think I've played with you

XBL? <3 cod4

Don't be silly :)

Its all about Haxball anyways.

Without wanting to jinx myself, 'touch wood' and all that - things actually seem to be changing! I've been running pretty well since the start of 2013 - after a miserable 12 months or so previous to this.. Long may it continue!

Have played a fair bit of live poker recently due to my net being totally unreliable and therefore not being able to put in any volume at all online recently, this has been slightly annoying but a welcomed change to be honest, and I think I've finally got the 'live bug' out of my system, and have started to realise its actually quite boring, especially when your relying on it as a sole form of income (was much funner when playing poker as a hobby and donking ££ off with no thought).

Anyway on to the actual sessions...

Day2 of the £200 Genting f/o started pretty well and I have almost doubled my stack within the first two levels of the day. No real hands of note other than one i raise/called a 22bb jam with A10o and held vs A5o CO vs SB, other than that I'd jut chipped up by being pretty active and playing pretty well (for those few hours possibly as close to perfect as I ever have played). The table I was sat at then got chopped and that's when things started going massively downhill... I went totally card dead for the following two levels or so, which meant that instead of having a very healthy stack, I dwindled below average, then when I finally managed to find A10o, I was 'forced' to call half my stack off (12bbs or so) open jam from a fairly active player and didnt get there vs his AQo. Blinds went up again and ended up getting my final bowl in with KQcc and didn't get there vs A9o even though I managed to flop 2 clubs and had both my overs live... Sigh. I finished 34th with 25 paid, so that was a massive waste of time.

On my way out of the casino I managed to find £100 in one of my back pockets which was a bit of a bonus as I didn't think I'd taken a penny as I intended to win the tournament, so sat and had a spin at 1/2. After an hour i Managed to bust this but the game was absolutely amazing, so I decided to go home and actually get some money. (I only live about 10/15miles away from the casino so the round trip only took me <1 hour.) sat back in the game with £200 (though I had brought a fair few reloads as the game was that good!). After an hour or so I was up about 200 then the game took a turn for the worse. The three 'spots' decided to leave within a few minutes of each other and in turn were replaced by 3 very good, young Chinese lads (one of whom I think was called Tim Cheung?? -who I seem to recall either posting on here or having seen the name on some updates...etc). Although the game got harder I ran pretty well and played pretty well and ended up winning around 700 (even after POWing a hand near the end of the night on the river - I was really confused after the guy took a really strange line and admittedly got talked into calling the river).

Moving on to last night.... I was really desperate to put in a good session online yesterday but the net was playing up yet again, Witt the connection constantly dropping, so therefore I headed out to play live again. Playing 1/2 bust my first buy in when an absolute maniac decided to put his stack in with  Aspades 6s and get there on me. Then reloaded and basically ran over the table. It was literally the table you dream about when walking into the casino. Very deep, with a lot of people who would get their house in when they made top pair, but also loved to c/f everything else. The main hand of was when I straddled to 4, UTG makes it 12., 6 callers so I flick it in with  2d 3d (playing 700), flop comes  Kh 3c 2s. Check to the opener who bets 35, gets one caller (her husband - who is playing 110 total and loves trying to best her in pots for some reason), so we c/r to 137 and she moves in for just short of 700 total - her husband folds after telling her he was gonna call me if she didnt. She Never has KK here as this villain specifically would NEVER do this, and obv we block both other sets ( which am 100% sure shed just limp anyway) so we make the easiest call ever and hope to do a hold, which we do as the turn and river roll off a  6h 7c and she slams AK down on the table telling me 'that was a VERY BIG call with 23' and looking pretty angry. I just say unlucky and keep quite as I don't really want to offend the woman as I actually quite like her as a person, and also she's good for future games. End staying for a further hour or so in which we make another 100 or so and leave the game with around £1k profit. Not a bd past few live sessions for me ;)

Actually managed to put a few hours in online yesterday after the net decided to sort Itself out. Only managed to break even for the day but really felt good to get back into it. No great sweats other then a top 50 or so in the 8r 2xt with ~$10k up top but I can't really moan about not winning it as I've used up a fair bit of run good as of late, and lets face it - they are massive shit shoots lol.

Been meaning to do the post below for a while now but haven't really have much time to sit and do it (at least It didn't seem I had the time,  however when I actually think about it, it won't take that long, I've just been being lazy). Am about to take the girlfriend out for a meal somewhere so instead annoying her whilst she's getting ready, ill just post here ;) makes my life much easier not getting moaned at for 5 minutes ;)

As I mentioned in a previous post - I sometimes have 'confidence' issues when sitting down to play in games with people I know / with games I respect, however lately, before playing a session - particularly live - Ive tried to avoid as much stress as possible (a.k.a. avoiding the girlfriend for an hour or so before) also, I've been taking a few minutes to watch a couple of motivational videos on YouTube. As silly as this sounds, it's helped no end. It provides the perfect mindset for the game ahead, and also makes you focus more, as it makes you think about your goals - not only for the night but long term as well, and makes you realise that If you want this lifestyle then you have to believe you can achieve.

Sorry the post above is a bit rushed, will edit it properly tommorow before I start my session - however as rushed as it may be - I feel the content will / could make a difference for a lot of people if they'd try it!

Examples of motivational videos? Would like a bank of them for pre day2/3 pump ups!

In before thin

What motivation vids u watch

can guarantee your sundays have not started as badly as mine... updates to follow @ breaks

I was gonna do this update at the break following my previous message, however i just knew that it was a sign for what was to follow so i thought I'd wait until ~the end of the session so i could do one rant instead of a few smaller ones.

Today actually started pretty good. I went to the gym in the morning, followed by a chill watching the final of the Haikou World Open (Snooker) where i had a small financial interest (although that lost), then took the girlfriend out for some lunch. Pretty decent morning / early afternoon. I then arrived home to find the dog (German Shepard - so not a small dog) piss wet through and absolutely caked in sludge - turns out my dad decided to walk it through what must have been a swamp - and obv being the excitable moron it is, it decided to jump up all over me and ditch me. So i go upstairs, get changed and then the girlfriend manages to bang her nose and have a nosebleed, marv. Sort her out and then start regging up for a grind. 30 Mins into my session she decides to go to the toilet, which is filled with toilet paper from her nosebleed earlier. She tells me its blocked, so i tell her to flush the toilet. She tells me shes already flushed it, to which i reply 'Ok well don't flush it again...', Obv she flushes it again and floods the bathroom with toilet water - thank god it was tissue from a nosebleed which was the problem rather then actual sh*t!

Anyways mid way through my session, this really isn't what i need, however the bathroom was pretty flooded so i had to sit out everything for a minute and sort her out with a mop and bucket. 5 minutes later she walks back up to me complaining that she cant unblock the toilet, so can i sort it out. So AGAIN im forced to sit out in order to stick my hand into the U-Bend. Finally get that sorted and then 15 minutes later get into another arguement with her over why she can't use the shower (as apparently its not been properly grounded or something and therefore keeps giving us small electric shocks - which seems pretty dangerous - although she didn't seem to understand this). Arguement ends up spiraling and we both end up really pissed off - again just what i need when starting a Sunday session....

Other then these problems, both me and my money seems to have ran fairly horrifically today. Think I've cashed like 1/30 so far (Big $109 where i finished 230/4500) for like $280 - and have took pieces of multiple people in different things - all of who seem to be having as tougher time as me - pretty unavoidable though, just seems to be one of those things (would definitely take pieces of all i invested in today again - i just think my money is cursed today)..

I'm still one tabling the Milly however (8114/13443 - 6309 Paid) so a daysaver here would be much appreciated if only the poker gods would care to oblige!

$1.24Mil + Change for 1st... It's still on the cards ;)

nvm bust.. nn gl all still playing.

Hard to believe anyone ran worse than me today but I think you win!

:(

FT $11r.... Villain in this hand is a supernova lol - $4k FTW / $265 for 9th... so am a bit annoyed

PokerStars Hand #95219278874: Tournament #710010265, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXII (4000/8000) - 2013/03/08 19:05:17 WET [2013/03/08 14:05:17 ET]
Table '710010265 45' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: KOSTASx10 (135278 in chips)
Seat 2: capotinha (317768 in chips)
Seat 3: VictorAlv. (166600 in chips)
Seat 4: HERO (413212 in chips)
Seat 5: light_rk (387397 in chips)
Seat 6: philgrim69 (440214 in chips)
Seat 7: grigorq77 (552233 in chips)
Seat 8: calin-poker (395821 in chips)
Seat 9: alejandrin50 (476477 in chips)
KOSTASx10: posts the ante 800
capotinha: posts the ante 800
VictorAlv.: posts the ante 800
HERO: posts the ante 800
light_rk: posts the ante 800
philgrim69: posts the ante 800
grigorq77: posts the ante 800
calin-poker: posts the ante 800
alejandrin50: posts the ante 800
light_rk: posts small blind 4000
philgrim69: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [As Kh]
grigorq77: folds
calin-poker: folds
alejandrin50: folds
KOSTASx10: folds
capotinha: raises 8000 to 16000
VictorAlv.: folds
HERO: raises 29555 to 45555
light_rk: folds
philgrim69: folds
capotinha: calls 29555
*** FLOP *** [7c Ac 5d]
capotinha: checks
HERO: bets 34777
capotinha: raises 93223 to 128000
HERO: raises 238857 to 366857 and is all-in
capotinha: calls 143413 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (95444) returned to HERO
*** TURN *** [7c Ac 5d] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [7c Ac 5d 4c] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
capotinha: shows [5s 5c] (a full house, Fives full of Fours)
HERO: shows [As Kh] (two pair, Aces and Fours)
capotinha collected 653136 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 653136 | Rake 0
Board [7c Ac 5d 4c 4h]
Seat 1: KOSTASx10 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: capotinha showed [5s 5c] and won (653136) with a full house, Fives full of Fours
Seat 3: VictorAlv. folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: HERO (button) showed [As Kh] and lost with two pair, Aces and Fours
Seat 5: light_rk (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: philgrim69 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: grigorq77 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: calin-poker folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: alejandrin50 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

The peel pre is so lolbad grrrr Marv... just the way i wanted today to go.

(P.S. love having a diary to moan in - apologies for venting blonde hehe)

Just catching up with this diary.

Motivational videos on youtube include:

Rocky I of course
Al Pacino's 'Inches' speech from Any Given Sunday
closing scene of Karate Kid 'You're the Best Around'
Alec Baldwin's speech in 'Glengarry Glen Ross'

I intend to build a bigger list than this overtime.

Nothing silly about this approach at all - Jared Tendler suggests a pre-game routine to include reviewing session notes/training notes, setting session goals, and getting motivated.

Ahhhh cheers VBlue will definitely be giving them a watch! :)

Apologies Alex, didn't notice the comment - the main video i watch (every time) is YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pEBz6PzF50

Pretty good imo. Also really need to get Jared's book 'The mental game of poker', few friends have read it now and said its been very beneficial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NQREuc7JX8

Bleghh... (Didn't know how to start this entry therefore this seems suitable)

The opening word also pretty much sums up my online poker experiences over the last few days / weeks, it's been going pretty damn awful. I've still been putting less volume in then planned - however the sessions I've actually played have been long, focused ones which I'm pretty happy with, and although as you can probably tell I've been losing the $ - my long absence followed by lower amounts of volume has actually seemed to make me play better. I don't seem to be spewing half as much and a lot more thought seems to go in to making my decisions - whereas before my break - i was basically robotic. We've had some really good sweats and really near misses this last month, pity none of them managed to materialize into something, however hopefully it'll come soon!

I've been playing a fair bit of live cash since my last couple of updates, some of which I've mentioned previously, but not all. Since the beginning of January i've played 15 sessions in total - the majority being £1/£2 in Sheffield however sometimes there's no game so a couple have been £1/£1. The games are really quite soft to be honest and has a good few 'regular' donators, however in Sheffield there's not actually that many good players (not who play live cash at least) therefore it's not that hard to win. My session results so far:
#1 +£700                 #9   +£350
#2 +£210                 #10 -£150
#3 -£400                  #11 -£330
#4 +£150                 #12 +£500
#5 -£300                  #13 -£400
#6 +£300                 #14 +£55
#7 +£650                 #15 +£150
#8 +£820                 
-------------------------------------------------------
Total = +£2305

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the greatest live cash player in the world - wouldn't be too confident playing in a standard 'reggy' £1/£2 game at DTD (however I've improved tenfold since last time i played any game there + last time i had what was possibly the worst mental state ever when playing poker - being 'intimidated' by players at the table whilst on the worst downswing of my life so who knows) - but would also say that if i became a proper 'reg' playing live cash in Sheffield then i would possibly be one of the biggest long term winners (yes the games are pretty soft).

Away from poker, there has been quite a few fun things going off in my life recently - however I'll have to get to that later as I've promised to take the girlfriend out for the day seeing as it's our One year 'anniversary'.... More to follow....

Going to play day 1 of the DTD deepstack today which will kick off the package I sold on these forums (deepstack along with the Monte Carlo and GUKPT didsbury).. Will be giving updates throughout the night on the package thread which can be found at:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=60660.msg1749227#new

Will write a summary of each event on this diary as well, hopefully just after I win the things!

Well the Deepstack didn't go to plan. Think i finished 31 of 123 who started Day 1B, busting minutes before the last level of the day - not very fun - especially not to make Day 2 after being there close to 10 hours. I've not got a problem with how i played - on the contrary, i actually think i played well, just got unlucky in spots and went fairly card dead (although i did make two mistakes - one of which cost me chips i could ill afford to lose, when double barreling someone i perceived to be a station... turns out he was however i did think he would fold this time).

Anyway moving on. Today i played my first online session in what seemed like forever - although it's only been something like 10 days. I've had a fair few ups and downs and a few brutal finishes; 9th $11r action hour - $2k+ ftw / 10th $54TKO - $5.8k ftw / 18th $44Turbo - $4.4k ftw - to name but a few however bust out spots were pretty standard / unavoidable so not too disappointed - and again, am happy with how I've been playing.

Just finishing my session now (1 tabling the Big $109 which I'm really short in; 166/186 - 180 paid) so if anybody is ridiculously bored - your more then welcome to jump on the rail, watch me probably fold my way into the $ and more then likely bust moments after (although i may get lucky, ya never know!). Other than finishing my session - the plan in the near future is to put in as much volume as possible as my backers have been on to me (understandably so) - noticing my volume has been low as of late - and although i have been slightly busy, i must admit this is also down to laziness, which i plan to fix - these people have had enough faith in me to provide me with a stake in order to make a living playing this game, so i feel its only fair to them to get my arse into gear and play...

Moment of truth in the Big $109... we are ITM and have  Kd Qd and are shortly to be all in....

Other guy has  Qh Qs , board runs out bricks for us and we finish 169th for $185... Gg.

Gg buddy. What is your live strat? Loosely gooey or nitting it up?

Totally depends on table tbh (and what i get dealt ha). Played pretty few hands at the Deepstack just gone but that was more down to being totally card dead rather than the table itself. Don't necessarily like to get into those leveling / dickswinging contests but if needs must ;) More patient then i used to be though..

If i could find the update where you 6 bet Q5 or something similar in the nottingham leg of black belt live it will explain a lot ;)

PokerStars Hand #96976722952: Tournament #714719976, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXVI (17500/35000) - 2013/04/10 23:59:30 WET [2013/04/10 18:59:30 ET]
Table '714719976 50' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Sebbecenter9 (1296499 in chips)
Seat 3: GaggleoKings (1988122 in chips)
Seat 6: 4chrisdim (741379 in chips)
Sebbecenter9: posts the ante 4375
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 4375
4chrisdim: posts the ante 4375
4chrisdim: posts small blind 17500
Sebbecenter9: posts big blind 35000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [Ad 9s]
GaggleoKings: raises 35000 to 70000
4chrisdim: folds
Sebbecenter9: raises 107755 to 177755
GaggleoKings: raises 157800 to 335555
Sebbecenter9: raises 956569 to 1292124 and is all-in
GaggleoKings: calls 956569
*** FLOP *** [8c 6h 5d]
*** TURN *** [8c 6h 5d] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [8c 6h 5d 2s] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Sebbecenter9: shows [Ah 2h] (a pair of Deuces)
GaggleoKings: shows [Ad 9s] (high card Ace)
Sebbecenter9 collected 2614873 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2614873 | Rake 0
Board [8c 6h 5d 2s Th]
Seat 1: Sebbecenter9 (big blind) showed [Ah 2h] and won (2614873) with a pair of Deuces
Seat 3: GaggleoKings (button) showed [Ad 9s] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 6: 4chrisdim (small blind) folded before Flop

followed by:

PokerStars Hand #96976789724: Tournament #714719976, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXVI (17500/35000) - 2013/04/11 0:01:23 WET [2013/04/10 19:01:23 ET]
Table '714719976 50' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Sebbecenter9 (2684873 in chips)
Seat 3: GaggleoKings (503498 in chips)
Seat 6: 4chrisdim (837629 in chips)
Sebbecenter9: posts the ante 4375
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 4375
4chrisdim: posts the ante 4375
Sebbecenter9: posts small blind 17500
GaggleoKings: posts big blind 35000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [As 9c]
4chrisdim: folds
Sebbecenter9: raises 2645498 to 2680498 and is all-in
GaggleoKings: calls 464123 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (2181375) returned to Sebbecenter9
*** FLOP *** [5d 2d Jh]
*** TURN *** [5d 2d Jh] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [5d 2d Jh 4c] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Sebbecenter9: shows [Qs 6s] (a pair of Queens)
GaggleoKings: shows [As 9c] (high card Ace)
Sebbecenter9 collected 1011371 from pot
GaggleoKings finished the tournament in 3rd place and received $1368.84.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1011371 | Rake 0
Board [5d 2d Jh 4c Qd]
Seat 1: Sebbecenter9 (small blind) showed [Qs 6s] and won (1011371) with a pair of Queens
Seat 3: GaggleoKings (big blind) showed [As 9c] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 6: 4chrisdim (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Fucking marv...

Payouts $2.6k / $1.8k / $1.3k..

GUKPT Didsbury day 1B today, just waiting for a mate then gonna set off (around a 1 hour 30 min drive) so should make it with plenty of time to spare. We're probably gonna be playing rock, paper, scissors to see which of us lucky lads gets the honours of driving there and back (bowling for it was offered but snap declined by my opponent). I've got a pretty solid game plan in order for the battle ahead, so it shouldn't be a problem (it's probably massively +EV if I win, as driving towards Manchester tilts me so much - I absolutely hate the drive from where I live).

Again, will be updating through staking thread:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=60660.msg1754278#new

Made dDay 2 of GUKPT Didsbury with 25.3k. Report below:

Late regged about 10 minutes into level 1 and had what was seemingly a very good starting table (with the exception of Ben Jenkins). First hand I play I'm UTG and find   Ahrt Ac @ 25/50. I make it 150. Button flats (woman aged 30-40, very loose passive but I was yet to know this) and blinds both come along (SB is young ~21 wearing Grosvenor Patches and BB is a Didsbury local aged ~45). Flop  Kh 5h C5. SB check, BB bets 200, we raise to 550, Button flats, SB makes it 1000 (Lol?), BB folds, we sigh peel to try make our 2 outer (it feels like), Button peels. Turn  Qd - SB now checks (from his flop raise he's already got the bad player tag in my mind), I check (possibly a mistake, i should be bet/folding), Button bets 2500, SB flats I fold. River   5s - SB checks, Button bets 2500 and SB tank calls. Button flips  Ad 5d (So I've literally got no idea what SB made the ridiculous raise on the flop with obv some wired K /  Qh xh).

Played a few pots since then - mainly taken down pre but did fire a couple with a flush draw vs the woman and got a fold out f her on the turn. Next hand of interest was with Ben Jenkins. We have 22k to start the hand and he has ~13k (it's the first hand back after the dinner break so going into level 5 - 100/200/50). We are CO and make it 450 with  Aspades Ks. He peels SB rest fold.  7c 7d Ts flop he checks we bet 425 he calls. Turn  Ahr and we ponder for 30 secs before betting 725. He C/Raises to 2300 and we tank for 6 minutes and make it 4050 (pretty sure he sees me as competant even though we have 0 history previous to this tournament just by the way I've been playing - my plan was to get him to spaz in all his 89 s / flop floats e.g.  Qd Jd ...etc. he thinks for 30 seconds, was so close to putting all his chips over the line - went back into the tank and then folded... Sigh).

We then become table captain a bit and build our stack to around 30k and change. Then play a and vs Julian Thew which I would like to post in PHA before posting results here if nobody minds. To send me back down to 20k. Grind back up to 28k then get dealt  Ahrt Ad open to 450 still @ 100/200/25. Fishy Manchester reg to my immediate left (who lost a massive chunk last hand) goes all in for just short of 8k we call. He flips  Qc 9h and the board runs out  7h Jc Td 8d 6d .. Lovely 80 bb pot lost there with ~80% equity. Break is basically next hand so we go regroup. Come back with our 20k and peel  Ks Qs a couple of times in position and whiff so down to about 15k @ 200/400/50 when our table gets broken.

Go find my new seat on table one to find that it's literally the table of death. To my immediate left is Scott Margereson ( Aggro Santos on stars), two to my left is a guy called Andreas (best £5/£10 reg in Manchester as far as I'm aware) and Luke Reeves ( Bit2easy on stars) is also on here for good measure as well as another competent couple of lads.I had 0 hands. It got folded to me ONE time in 7 orbits. Where I opened CO with  Ks 4s and got it through. Was then blinded and ante'd down to 9.6k @ 400/800/100 when I finally got my spot. Luke Reeves opened to 1600 UTG. Guy called Robert Boon 3 bets to 3600 from MP. I find  Ac Kd in the HJ and go all in for 9.6k. Folds to 3bettor who tanks for like 3 minutes before calling (I was being nit rolled with  Kh Jh - and even got the speech 'I'll give you a spin' - he must have thought my range was literally  Ks Kh+ lol). We both flopped a  Kc and he even turned a flush draw but we faded river to more then double up to 21k. Managed to chip up slightly more to end the day on 25.3k going into the 500/1000/100 level on the restart today.

Quite happy with myself about yesterday. Never before have I been so disciplined and folded continuously for 3 hours. Didn't 'panic' when I dropped below starting stack or when I had like 1/5th average. Just waited for the spot which was inevitably going to come up on this table. Now have another 1 hour 30 minute journey to return with 25 bigs. Hope we flip well and hold.

Confirmation:

Returning for day 2 today with 25,300 chips going into the 500/1000/100 level. Glancing at chip stacks I expect average to be around 50k with 62 of 155 returning for day 2 - 15 of those being paid. £22,570 up top with 15th receiving £1150. Gl to us.

with a 3 hour round trip would it not have been worth flicking it in for a hotel porobs cost you like £30 for a cheap one and even better if scott was around!

Just picturing what "literally the table of death" would look like :D

Gl today,  hope yr still in

Cheers for gls guys, unfortunately only managed a 34th for £0, but was to be expected as i went into day2 very short...

Today has been proof that sunday is NOT funday. 34th in the hotter 11 when KK < AQ for 2nd in chips.. $15k ftw would have been pretty nice. Just lost a pretty huge pot in the milly vs the table spaz aswell which was a bit annoying:

Table '715020010 238' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: Respek66 (62313 in chips)
Seat 2: michalki34 (45026 in chips)
Seat 3: latenthreat (49957 in chips)
Seat 4: IADTTMax (43199 in chips)
Seat 5: GaggleoKings (99967 in chips)
Seat 6: RaulDyuk (35793 in chips)
Seat 7: lili1286 (8984 in chips)
Seat 8: Tanoushka (21136 in chips)
Seat 9: FR0NT2BACK (113757 in chips)
Respek66: posts the ante 150
michalki34: posts the ante 150
latenthreat: posts the ante 150
IADTTMax: posts the ante 150
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 150
RaulDyuk: posts the ante 150
lili1286: posts the ante 150
Tanoushka: posts the ante 150
FR0NT2BACK: posts the ante 150
FR0NT2BACK: posts small blind 750
Respek66: posts big blind 1500
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [Ad Kh]
michalki34: folds
latenthreat: folds
IADTTMax: folds
GaggleoKings: raises 1500 to 3000
RaulDyuk: calls 3000
lili1286: folds
Tanoushka: calls 3000
FR0NT2BACK: folds
Respek66: raises 59163 to 62163 and is all-in
GaggleoKings: raises 37654 to 99817 and is all-in
RaulDyuk: folds
Tanoushka has timed out
Tanoushka: folds
Uncalled bet (37654) returned to GaggleoKings
Tanoushka is sitting out
*** FLOP *** [9d 6c 7s]
*** TURN *** [9d 6c 7s] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [9d 6c 7s 6s] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Respek66: shows [Jh Jc] (two pair, Jacks and Sixes)
GaggleoKings: shows [Ad Kh] (a pair of Sixes)
Respek66 collected 132426 from pot
Tanoushka has returned
*** SUMMARY ***

That was for a top 10 stack sighh.. Still have 16bbs tho and 218 off the money so hoping to still do a win.

Remaining in:
Big 162 (246/419)
55 50k (451/473)
sunday mil (945/1388)
5r / 55 500 cap / hotter 44 just starting...

gl every1 still playing

stack updates:
big 162 (27/159)
55 500 cap (46/63)
5r (618/666)

really feel like playing more but have let myself drop to 3 tables so unsure whether to reg more or not.. will see how the 162 goes.

gl all

big 162 (21/68)
55 500 cap (3/22)

big 162 (25/37)
50 500 cap (8th = $210..)

Just been put in the sickest spot ever in the big 162... so unsure so folded river... If i call it off and am right i have a top 5 stack... Kind of regretting the fold now but it just felt so disgusting...

Table '715011257 125' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: piper_kl88 (122947 in chips)
Seat 2: RichieRichZH (250582 in chips)
Seat 3: apostolis20 (139112 in chips)
Seat 4: Le Pedra (101074 in chips)
Seat 5: DJG1989 (55289 in chips)
Seat 6: ActionFreak (239704 in chips)
Seat 7: GaggleoKings (155300 in chips)
Seat 8: theNERDguy (98060 in chips)
Seat 9: Skämmes (49752 in chips)
piper_kl88: posts the ante 400
RichieRichZH: posts the ante 400
apostolis20: posts the ante 400
Le Pedra: posts the ante 400
DJG1989: posts the ante 400
ActionFreak: posts the ante 400
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 400
theNERDguy: posts the ante 400
Skämmes: posts the ante 400
Skämmes: posts small blind 1600
piper_kl88: posts big blind 3200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [Ts 9s]
RichieRichZH: folds
apostolis20: folds
Le Pedra: folds
DJG1989: folds
ActionFreak: folds
GaggleoKings: raises 3200 to 6400
theNERDguy: folds
Skämmes: folds
piper_kl88: calls 3200
*** FLOP *** [Qh Tc Th]
piper_kl88: checks
GaggleoKings: bets 8777
piper_kl88: calls 8777
*** TURN *** [Qh Tc Th] [6h]
piper_kl88: checks
GaggleoKings: bets 15777
piper_kl88: raises 17723 to 33500
GaggleoKings: calls 17723
*** RIVER *** [Qh Tc Th 6h] [8c]
piper_kl88: bets 73870 and is all-in
GaggleoKings: folds
Uncalled bet (73870) returned to piper_kl88
piper_kl88 collected 102554 from pot
piper_kl88: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***

Guys running 25/21/5.3/7.8 over 150 hands - no other history.

bust 33rd, bust out hand was annoying aswell where i spazzed 18bbs in over an open with KQo... super pissed off with myself atm.

Saw the river tank ingame, was going to ask your hand. Pretty gross spot.

Bustout pretty blurgh, ul mate.

cant be that bad to jam 18bb over an open with KQo in pretty much any situation, wouldnt worry about it... ul

Cheers guys and gl stato.

Nice run again bud, ul.

cheers man :)

Bit of an annoying start to the session today with a 20th in the $8r 2xT with $8k ftw... seem to be getting really deep lately and then just either going so card dead or spazzing out. Really need to start working on this bit of my game...

Stacks today in:
big 55 (522/801)
3r 2xT (289/1041)
hot 55 (28/280)
big 162 (169/415)
22 cubed (17/234)
33E T (56/76)
11r (rebuy period)
109 fo Party (41/54)

Will post more updates if i go deep in any

just gotta know how to make it work mate:

PokerStars Hand #97221535778: Tournament #801011251, $150+$12 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (125/250) - 2013/04/15 22:49:31 WET [2013/04/15 17:49:31 ET]
Table '801011251 3' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: T3TR15 (10260 in chips)
Seat 2: triantafill (7842 in chips)
Seat 3: TeddyKGB7334 (4225 in chips)
Seat 4: rebelwinner1 (5223 in chips)
Seat 6: lulu.pk70 (14126 in chips)
Seat 7: stato_1 (4572 in chips)
Seat 8: WithoutFishS (7295 in chips)
Seat 9: MaltLiquor40 (12773 in chips)
T3TR15: posts the ante 30
triantafill: posts the ante 30
TeddyKGB7334: posts the ante 30
rebelwinner1: posts the ante 30
lulu.pk70: posts the ante 30
stato_1: posts the ante 30
WithoutFishS: posts the ante 30
MaltLiquor40: posts the ante 30
MaltLiquor40: posts small blind 125
T3TR15: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to stato_1 [Qc Kd]
triantafill: folds
TeddyKGB7334: folds
rebelwinner1: raises 250 to 500
lulu.pk70: folds
stato_1: raises 4042 to 4542 and is all-in
WithoutFishS: folds
MaltLiquor40: folds
T3TR15: folds
rebelwinner1: calls 4042
*** FLOP *** [td 9c Jh]
*** TURN *** [td 9c Jh] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [td 9c Jh Qd] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
rebelwinner1: shows [Ah Qh] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
stato_1: shows [Qc Kd] (a straight, Nine to King)

haha teach me stato ;)

Another sigh day to be honest, just had a 50th in the hot 50, lost a huge pot in the 22cubed to bust and got it in AA < KK for the chiplead in the big 55, still have 40bbs tho.

only 3 stacks of note..

big 55 (73/307)
3r 2xt (94/140)
109 fo Party (25/28 - 25 paid)

130th in big 55
15th in 109 party fo...

ended up still making a small loss on the day even with a decent amount of sweats for decent scores.. ahh well try again tomorrow!

My next door but one neighbour drives me absolutely wild GRRRR. Constantly moaning to me about something or another. I think their dislike of us probably stems from when we moved here (about 10 years ago now) - their daughter was also attempting to buy the house which we now live in, but it got sold to us. There's been a few incidents with them in the past... e.g. When i was 12 i was outside playing on my skateboard, he came out and took it off me and got the police round. When i was 13 and playing with a BB gun in my back garden, he got the police round AGAIN...etc. Now I'm older he doesn't do such outrageous things but still looks for every excuse to moan; e.g. if i park my car outside his house he'll come round and moan... i mean seriously does he really not have anything better to do. The little spat we had today was because i let my dog out on the back garden and it dared to bark a couple of times. I really try and stay calm when dealing with the guy however I'm not proud to say that today was one of the few times i totally blew up at him. He's so obnoxious.

Anybody else ever had troubles with their neighbours?

absolute nut line is to be ueber-polite without being condescending, it'll drive him fucking mad.

Haha ill give it a try next time. To be honest I'm probably not totally blameless as although i didn't start this 'feud' he sometimes winds me up so much that I'll deliberately go out of my way to fuck him off e.g. by parking smack outside his house...etc. When i was a kid i just took his shit but now i just find him pretty hilarious and pathetic.

Misclicks FFS :@

*** RIVER *** [Qs 7s 4h 8h] [3h]
tnapoleao: checks
GaggleoKings: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tnapoleao: shows [Ad Qh] (a pair of Queens)
GaggleoKings: shows [Kh  Ahrt] (a flush, Ace high)
GaggleoKings collected 9293 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***

Pretty annoying start to todays session; busted a 109t close to bubble A9 < K9 for ALOT of chips. bust the 33cubed 88 < J10 on 893...5Q for ALOT of chips... etc

Got a coaching session now so keeping myself down to 5 tables atm, currently have:
75 5k (14/52)
11r 17.5k (42/66)
55 10k (144/184)
33 500cap 7.5k (1/62)
big 5 (grinding hard lol) (453/801)

plan on putting in a big session today although already losing a chunk.. will update as night goes on if decent sweats.

So, ended up firing two bullets at the Monte Carlo instead of just the one I planned too. The first one went absolutely horribly, I just kept getting set up over set up, was pretty gross and we busted around level 4....

On the second bullet however we actually managed to make day 2. Ended up making day 2 with 55.5k going into 1600/800/200. Really happy with the way I played yesterday, was very patient and managed to adapt really well to the maniacs getting seated to my left ( Jake Cody and Aggro Santos had direct position on me all day lol.. What a set up - though it ended Ambler 1 - 0 Cody and Ambler 2 - 1 Aggro Santos ).

Table draw up for day 2 and only have Trigg and rastafish on my table who are known to me.

So we ended up min cashing the monte carlo for £2k so basically broke even from the 2 bullets fired. Over the course of the weekend i won £200 odd from bowling and last longer props with Aggro Santos so that counts for the reg fees ;)

Sunday online was a massive sigh of a day. Only half sweat of the day was a 30th in the 22cubed with $12k up the top or so.

Just took a pretty sick beat on the FT of the $55 $10k... pretty annoying - especially when I'm determined to get a triple crown ;)

PokerStars Hand #97590534637: Tournament #721347581, $50+$5 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XV (1000/2000) - 2013/04/23 19:38:27 WET [2013/04/23 14:38:27 ET]
Table '721347581 13' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: GaggleoKings (168711 in chips)
Seat 2: vovo_leo (44240 in chips)
Seat 3: testo30 (49031 in chips)
Seat 4: VC VEM!! (50620 in chips)
Seat 6: wpRenat (121044 in chips)
Seat 7: bastet2004 (24652 in chips)
Seat 8: gs08bjohnson (131488 in chips)
Seat 9: husajn54 (145214 in chips)
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 200
vovo_leo: posts the ante 200
testo30: posts the ante 200
VC VEM!!: posts the ante 200
wpRenat: posts the ante 200
bastet2004: posts the ante 200
gs08bjohnson: posts the ante 200
husajn54: posts the ante 200
wpRenat: posts small blind 1000
bastet2004: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [Ks Kh]
gs08bjohnson: folds
husajn54: folds
GaggleoKings: raises 2000 to 4000
vovo_leo: folds
testo30: calls 4000
VC VEM!!: folds
wpRenat: raises 7200 to 11200
bastet2004: folds
GaggleoKings: raises 12355 to 23555
testo30: folds
wpRenat: raises 12445 to 36000
GaggleoKings: raises 13555 to 49555
wpRenat: raises 71289 to 120844 and is all-in
GaggleoKings: calls 71289
*** FLOP *** [4c Jd 8d]
*** TURN *** [4c Jd 8d] [7s]
vovo_leo said, "lol"
*** RIVER *** [4c Jd 8d 7s] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
wpRenat: shows [Qd Qh] (three of a kind, Queens)
GaggleoKings: shows [Ks Kh] (a pair of Kings)
wpRenat collected 249288 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 249288 | Rake 0
Board [4c Jd 8d 7s Qc]
Seat 1: GaggleoKings showed [Ks Kh] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: vovo_leo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: testo30 folded before Flop
Seat 4: VC VEM!! (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: wpRenat (small blind) showed [Qd Qh] and won (249288) with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 7: bastet2004 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: gs08bjohnson folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: husajn54 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Grrrrr.....

Sigh got 3rd in the end for $1.4k... no triple crown sweat as of yet.. Would have taken 3rd if offered after KK < QQ tho. Tilt unregged everything else.

Tom, would like to hear your thoughts on were you are now compared to where you was 2(ish) years ago?

Sure mate.

Around two years ago I was fairly new to the game(had been playing around 6month - 1 year) but even back then I thought I was better then I am now (if that makes sense). Obviously like quite a lot of people , I went on a pretty sick heater when I first started playing and thought It was an easy way to make money - in essence I thought I was the best (or close to being the best).... Oh how wrong can somebody get....

Now that my horizons have broadened somewhat - I now realise that there are much better players then myself out there - with far more experience, and that this game isn't such an easy way to make money - the saying 'its a hard way to make an easy living' definitely applies to poker - after all there is always somebody looking to beat you, become better then you, demotivate you, make you feel shit, play bad...etc not out of spite - but for the one thing they want from you - money. The game is constantly changing and adapting - however now I understand this - whereas a couple of years back i wouldn't have. I now understand the variance in the game - again whereas before - I didn't. The mindset you have to adopt when facing a downswing - before I would have lost all my confidence and started making catastrophic errors in relation to the game by doing this such as peeling and calling down when I know I shouldn't - now I just review some hand histories to ensure I'm playing correctly, and I strive to fix the leaks I have - whereas before by doing things I know I shouldn't, I would have just created a bigger hole for myself.

The one thing I'm worse for - two years on - is my passion and motivation for the game have died down significantly. I used to get quite excited to play the game - now it's just something I have to do - and at some points it feels like a chore (which is fair enough as at this moment in time it is 'my job'). The one thing that keeps me playing the game however is that in theory I can only get better. I've always had a knack for mathematics and statistics therefore shouldn't get left behind - after all the game is only about making the right decisions from a mathematical point of view.

So to answer your question - I think my ability when playing the game has increased tenfold when compared to what it was two years ago - however I'm now more of a realist and have more respect for other players (whereas before I was blind to others own abilities). A final thing I now have which I didn't before is respect for money - before it was easy come very easy go. Nowadays it more - comes when it comes but it WILL come in time - don't blow the fucker when you have it. In truth as well as being better at the game - I thnk I've just grown up a bit.

Nice playing with you recently mate. Look forward to playing a longer sesh again



Good post. Not meaning it for you specifically but as a general rule having some respect for other people's games will keep your bank balance in the green IMO.

Yeah was a pleasure mate, will probably be down for the next deep stack if your about?

And thanks - totally agree it does. End of the day there's no point dickswinging with good regs when there's so much free money about.

Yeah I'll deffo be there, agree 100%

oi oi gogogo tonight Tom! best of luck

the bossmannnnnnnnnn.

Tell me moar.

Edit: actually don't,  just in case I'm causing a day2 bok or w/e :)

Cheers everyone :)

Made day 2 on the SCOOP #2 Med. Am 3/106 and have just shy of 2mil going into 10k/20k... First day I've ever played SCOOP events and structures are amazing. Will do full write up of yday + recap of last month playing poker after breakfast! :)

Sick, glglgl

Sooo.. the last month playing poker has actually been quite profitable for me personally. Sheffield has been hosting the World Snooker Championships - which is always good for the poker scene. You get the likes of; Stephen Hendry, Ken Docherty, Steve Davis, Mark Williams (usually however i didn't see him this time), Willie Thorne and Matt Selt, sitting in the games. This really causes quite a buzz in Sheffield as there are a lot of inexperienced players / players who are willing to sit at bigger games then usual - just to sit with their snooker heros - which is pretty nice - and therefore I've put a lot more time into playing the live cash games then i usually would have! I've played 10 live cash sessions total and make myself around +£5k which isn't too shabby for a 'part-timer' - with the majority of games being £1/£2 with the occasional £2/£5.

As for online MTTs - again i know i say this a lot but I've really not been putting in as much time as i should have - though the times i have played I've had a few decent sweats. E.g. Over the last 2 sundays I've played, I've had a ~25th in the Bigger $162 with $60k+ Ftw and last Sunday i came 23rd in the iPOPs main on my own dime with $92k ftw... Ahh well just means i need to close during SCOOP!

.....SCOOP. Was pretty disappointed with the schedule i was given by my backers... Am not going to say exactly what I'm playing / how much on I have on stake / have personally but i was expecting a lot more. I do understand their reasons for caution however as my volume has been really low - this was the reason they gave me for not giving me everything i wanted during the series but at least it gives me room to win a lot more money for myself....

...However on the flip side - it COULD go badly. I have a lot of money (relative to my net at least) currently invested in a lot of people during the SCOOP series (as well as myself). Also with GPS Sheffield this coming week i have a fair bit of action in that too so therefore really hoping to be on the good side of variance these coming weeks!

Anyway on to today - currently due to go back into Day2 of SCOOP #2 Med with 100bbs (just under 2m @ 10k/20k) and am 3/106. It restarts @ 7.30pm GMT, however I've already started regging for today - even though i didn't manage to get to bed until ~7am and have been up since 11am...

...#NOBREAKSDURINGSCOOP!

Gl to all others playing today!

Sorry for falling asleep! Was 100% sure you had busted before I fell asleep this morning! Sorry if I wa snoring on Skype!

Will be home at 4:30 and call then

So sick that the text this morning was not a wind up!

Haha np man and there was no snoring! Deffo could do with the call tho! Catch ya at 4.30!

Good luck Tom, will rail if I remember and phone battery allows.

Are you in the GPS?

Got about a million myself, was me wishing you luck at 7am.  Was up past 1.5m but butchered or made good lay downs late on in a couple of hands. Got to sleep at 9.30am after been up since 7am the day before.  Managed to get 5 hours kip before picking the oldest up from school. 

Am not doing much of a schedule tonight, would be too much to be up late to get $100 in the big $55.  Probs add a few turbos though.

Gl tonight, see you at the FT.

Yeah i thought it was, didn't see it straight away but i did reply in end (not sure if you'd cloesd the table by then though)! Saw ya stack man, VBOL to you today mate and deffo be seeing ya at the final - hopefully to chop HU ;). Think i ended up getting to sleep around 7.45 then got woken up at 11 so not much sleep here either - ahh well maybe theres upsides of being tired - i know when i play slightly tired it eliminates all 'scared money fears' if you get what i mean!

@Aaron - not brought it yet but think I'll be playing 1B + 1C if required. Thanks for the rail support - hopefully give something to 'cheer' :).

Glgl guys!

274k trip aces < 66 after turn.  77< AK after flopping set.  v good.  long way from 2 milly now.  glgl

Good Luck in the scoop Doobs-and same to any other Brits still in. ;goodluck;

Just seen Doobs double BvsB.

From memory you did alright last time I bumped into you during a comp ;)

Moaned it in 88 > AA.  1.8m

God speed to you both

:)

<3

GL both, got u Tom but Doobs what is your UN?

Steve

bullstopper. (I think)

GLGL

got them both up!

Can confirm its bullstopper.

VBOL to you both.

good job ive not been railing the wrong guy then! Both for FT can chop it up haeds up and go vegas

gg Tom :(

Very well done on such a deep run!

ul mate, sick run

Raging isn't the word.

Ty for rail n support guys, another close one we failed to close for ALOT AGAIN.........

ul Doobs :(

VBOL for the rest of the series to you both.

Thanks Ed

77 < 88, just got horribly card dead in the last hour and blinds were pretty nasty. 

Can't see me playing too many more, structures are great and that, but got kids.

sigh vul doobs... was close to seeing you on the ft!

Next time!

gl in the rest of the series Tom.  Was a good run for us both, was dreaming for a while.

Whats the Tourney ID

Is over, both just gone, was SCOOP 2 Medium

Gl for rest of series doobs!

Was slightly tilted yday after busting however feeling really good now - had a word with my backers and decided to play the $1k SCOOP tonight though will be selling a bit. Feeling super motivated for the rest of the series and after a few near misses for $50k+ scores im surely due to close something soon!

Selling for the $1k SCOOP today at:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=61115.msg1773275#new

Well the $1k didn't really go to plan!

A hand very early on cause the damage...

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/3155155_EB92740725

His river bet was really fast and we tanked for like 90 seconds before calling.. felt like such a gross spot but i think we beat enough to make the call good.

Then had around 2.5k Open   Qs Qc to 150, flat from button.   4c 7d 8d  we bet 250 he calls.  7s we bet 400 he calls. Lovely  6d river we check / fold when he effectively sets us in.

Busto hand was pretty meh... UTG opened playing heads running 24/20 with high ep open, percieved whale running 25/10 flats from 35bbs from MP. We find AQ with 20bbs and stick it in. Guy has AA...

Other then that online has been pretty dirty over the last few days - I've been busting in pretty brutal fashion when fairly deep. One period stands out clearly in my mind when i managed to go from 8 tables (deep in 5) to 3 tables within 5 minutes - needless to say the 5 tables i was deeper on were the ones i busted. (11r AH - AJ < KK JJ6 ai on flop for CL with 20 left) (SCOOP med ante up KK < AQ on Q36 ai on the flop for alot) (11r 1010 < 77 on 8 6 3 ai on the flop for top 3 stack vs the table with 30 left) and lost 2 flips AKs < 1010 both times - both times they flopped me dead. So that was pretty annoying.

Also on Thursday gone by, i decided that I'd take a shot at the GPS. This didn't turn out very well at all for me as i managed to bust 2 bullets in pretty quick sucession - first when i turned topset into a bluff on a 4 flush as i literally didnt think he could have the nut flush then way the action went - he did. The second bullet i got  5d 8d ai on  6d 8c 9d vs  Ks Kc and bricked for a pretty massive stack (1.5x average at the time). Then went and played some cash where i dropped a decent sum total. There were 3 key hands.  Ad 4d <  2d 2c on  2s 3d 5d for £700 (which relative to my worth is a pretty decent sum).  Ad Qs <  3s 6c (yes 63o) on  Ac 5c 6s when a maniac took off vs me... it ran out  Kh ......... 3c ......... for ~£1.2k then i bricked with  9s 8s on  Js Ts 6h vs  Kd Kc for just shy of £1k... This was actually the most I've ever lost whilst own diming live poker in one day - the car journey home wasn't particularly nice as i was probably over - analysing slightly and looking for things i did wrong - however the majority of the day was pretty standard (other then the 63o hand - and possibly when i turned topset into a bluff on a 4 flush - but tbh I'd do the same again lol...).

So all in all I've actually had a pretty brutal week since the SCOOP sweat. I've also managed to tick two boxes i really didn't want to be ticked;

• Biggest ever losing day live.
• Biggest ever losing week live + online combined.

(Oh forgot to mention i did actually play the 215Med Turbo SKO last night aswell as the 27Low Turbo SKO - and although i didn't cash in the end i did make 4 bounties in each of them - so every cloud and all that!)

Tom, what was your thoughts about putting the two other players in the GPS? You said something briefly, but definitely confused about why...

19th in Sunday Mil SCOOP last week 113th this week.

25th Hotter 75 gettin super cold decked for CL JJ < KK i even turned a jack and he re-got-there on the river. Rofl poker.

ffs, didn't see u in there, been railing it for a bit now, ul so sick to bust now :(

Wheyy just managed a 3rd in the Hot $16.50 for $5k and change... lost a big flip to go into HU aswell. Woulda laddered to $7k... 9.5 ftw but i guess i'll settle for it ;) Only 2nd Hot I've ever ft'd. :)

Only 1 table left running atm which is the SCOOP Event #24 Med - $109 Mixed NL Hold'em / PLO. Currently ITM (54/175) will update futher if we get any sweat from it :)

LOL any1 think i should play hand different / call river?

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/3236260_8CFF9B3144

Glad to hear about the results mate, shame about checking those boxes...

on the plus side, I've found that every time I've broken my 'biggest losing' record I find that the pain of normal poker lessens.
:)

best of luck for rest of the scoop mate.

 

I might just be calling river, don't see any need in raising river, struggle to see what calls u if u are in front. I don't get that far, as I would have got it in on the turn, so same outcome. Ul

haha every cloud and all that JB ;)

cheers for the gl! you too if you play any!


Tbh dreenie really thought his turn 4b was fos and he pinged a pair on river. e.g. KQ...etc seemed far more likely then quads. only realistic house i was thinking was 6s full as think he 3b's 9s a fair % - still flatting river may be much better!

Todays really not going very well. Just bubbled the big 162 after a car crash in the big 55 when we have alot of chips only for a moron to peel my utg open from utg+2 with 78s from 25bbs and pings the world vs me.

Currently left in all 3 SCOOPS ($11 / $109 / $1050 - where this just happened... http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/3249883_14159FF776 - villain was a supernova - hand was readless - his sizing made me felt like it was Ac / QxKc....etc) / 33 quad / 55 500cap / hot 44.

Woud really like to win one! :)

sigh - 2 points

A) U seem to get Aces a lot :P

B) He's supernova, what else can he have LOOOOOOOL :)

glglgl

Haha dreenie i get aces a fair bit - can't complain on that front ;)

Todays been kind of mixed to be totally honest - On 1 hand I'm +$3k on the day however this could have been a lot more!

Came 108th in the 8max WU MED ($215) for ~$700 and 245th in the $1k Med Main for $2.4k (JJ < AK - however can't complain as on the pure bubble of the sat i was 35/35 - 34 seats and all in on my BB and won so basically freerolled!).

Still in the $109 Low Main (67/390)... has $230k ftw so lets have a good end to SCOOP.

Will summarize SCOOP tommorow.

SCOOP Results:

SCOOP 2 M - ($215 $1M GTD) - 19th for $3724 ($250K FTW)
SCOOP 18 L - (10 Max Shootout $100K GTD) - 916th for $70
SCOOP 22 M - ($215 $1M GTD) - 113th for $1362 ($250K FTW)
SCOOP 24 M - ($109 NLHE / PLO Mixed $100K GTD) - 88th for $322
SCOOP 31 M - ($215 Knockout $500K GTD) - 149th for $680
SCOOP 41 M - ($215 4Max $350K GTD) - 175th for $540
SCOOP 42 M - ($215 8Max $600K GTD) - 108th for $978 ($170K FTW)
SCOOP 43 L - ($109 Main Event $1M GTD) - 176th for $1083 ($230K FTW)
SCOOP 43 M - ($1050 Main Event $2M GTD) - 245th for $2625 ($635K FTW)

So... This years SCOOP has been a mix of emotions. On one hand, I feel I've played really well in my first ever SCOOP - the event structures were incredible and i ran pretty good. However it's been slightly frustrating going so deep in a lot of events only to bust close to the big scores. I guess i can only gain experience from the series though and can take comfort in the fact i can actually play poker to a decent standard when the structures are so slow - Just need to go one better in the WCOOP later this year and win at least one of the fkers!

Hope everyone else has done well this series!

End May - Present (12 June 2013)

Well it's been an interesting few weeks - starting with the ISPT.

I had no intention what so ever of playing ISPT Day 1's - A lot of the time i wasn't regging MTTs when they were starting / If i was regging i already had too many clients up and the pc was lagging...etc so therefore made the decision not to play. A couple of days before i realised the overlay would be pretty massive therefore decided I'd buy in Direct (however i would flick in the last regular online Day 1). Sold a package for the Direct buy in and then ended up making it through the online Day 1 with 120k in chips (2.4x average stack of a DBI).

I traveled down to the ISPT with a friend (Scott Margereson / Aggro Santos on stars) and made it in good time even after all the messing around with the hotel / trying to find parking (nightmare). Starting table was absolutely incredible. We were playing 5 handed + 1 short stack sat out. 2 of the Guys were french / nobody really seemed to have a clue other then a guy who seemed competent to my direct left (however he bust pretty early on getting his chips in, in a pretty surprising spot vs top set). My table then got slightly tougher mid way through day1 when Jenbizzle (a guy who has previously backed me) got seated to my direct left along with Matt Perrins (i think). After 2 orbits I had already been cold 5'd by Jenbizzle. We both just burst out laughing because we knew each other was FOS, i folded and showed my 4 high and he showed a 9... marv. We then got a lot of chips via a woman who didn't really look too much of an experienced player with  Kc Js vs  Ad Js on  Kh Jd 6c 2s Jh to take our chipcount up to 200k or so towards the dinner break. Went for dinner at a restaurant around the corner from Wembly stadium with Scott, Jenbizzle and Carpediem200 on stars (forgot his real name but a real nice guy). Flipped for it - which turned out to be pretty damn expensive and i held which is always nice!

After the dinner break i was moved table and was seated to the direct left of Peter Eastgate and on the same table as Tim Chung other then that a pretty dreamy table. Was pretty surprised to see Peter Eastgate 3x +ing (opening to 3700 @ 600/1200/200) as standard...etc. We only really played one pot where he fired 3 streets on  Ac Ks 8h 6h 6s and i tanked the river for literally 5 minutes eventually called and was shown  6c 5c . Suppose that's how u win the Main Event. (Gotta say to Eastgate's credit hes a nice guy - really down to earth and was chatting away). Oh and i managed to bluff Tim Chung a few times as well as playing one hand with  Kd  Kc really strange where i open, get 2 callers (Tim Chung being on the button and other guy in BB -  i check call on 7c 3d 2c flop and  4h turn and lead 2/3 pot on  9s where he tank folds. - Simon Deadman came up to me at the end of the day and said Tim Chung thought i had JJ so pretty close). Anyway we ended the day on 185k and went to the hotel (Scott unfortunately had bust and planned to leave in the morning).

Before going to Wembly for Day 3 I went to book a hotel room for the night with Jenbizzle seeing as Scott was leaving. We then headed to Wembly where again i had an amazing table. chipped up within the first 20 mins to about 210k then the hand happened. 385 left 380 paid. I open  Qc 2c to 3500 @ 800/1600/200 (was just opening everything on bubble) from the Low Jack. Get 3b from an aggro button to 9000. I decide to 4b to 24100 (this size on purpose so he has a decision on the bubble...etc). He flats - immediately think this is pretty strange and feel like he has AA / KK a fair % of the time here as he only looks to have 140k to start the hand. Flop  Qh 4h 2h (pretty good for my hand) we lead for 17200 (to try induce a raise) which he obliges by making it 37k. We announce all in for ~200k and he calls within 5 seconds and all of a sudden appears to have 250k. He rolls over  7h 8h and we don't improve to send me to the rail on the bubble for a pot for 6x average chips. Kinda felt like i got angled a little bit as the guy really wasn't displaying his big chips properly but i took it on the chin as its my responsibility to make sure how much he has. The tilting thing was I'd missed Scott leaving by about 45 minutes and therefore had to get the tube / train home which not only took ages cost a chunk as well (oh and I'd just paid for a hotel room).... grrrrr.

Anyway can't complain as it was an amazing experience and although it wasn't a true £3k field - i really felt that it was similar standard to the Big $55 or similar online.

Moving on..... PLO!

Recently I've started getting into PLO a fair bit. Around 5 days ago i decided to load some $25 PLO purely out of boredom. Soon had spun the initial $25 into $200 so decided to play some $200 Zoom PLO. By that night and from the initial $25 i had moved up through $400 ($2/$4) PLO and was playing $1k PLO ($5/$10) ..... not bad for an $25 Spin! The dream lasted for 3/4 days where at peak i was +$2.7k from the $25 start. My demise was actually pretty gross where i got it in for a ~$2.8k pot  Ahrt   5h 6c 8c vs  Kh Qh 4s 5s on 4h 7h Js and bricked everything. Board ran out  9s   2d so pair of 4s was good to lose the biggest pot I've ever played online. I then went on to lose the remaining $1k or so i was in profit. (Obviously to spin up like this i was so golden in the first place!).

Still over the 4/5 days i made near 10k VPPs to help me on the way to becoming supernova by the end of the year so it's not all bad. Also learned quite a lot about PLO and that I still have degen tendencies which i thought I had got rid of....

End June / July 2013.....

Ahh well even though i was gutted about my dream ending i still have some holidays to look forward too! Am going to Ayia Napa with 5 other lads on the 19th of June for two weeks so am pretty excited about that! We went to Napa last year and it was pretty amazing so my friends decided they wanted to go back. We'll be staying in the Tsokkos Apts (basically a hotel with massive pool parties everyday - looked amazing last year although doubt we'll be getting much sleep!)

Then, funnily enough 10 days after getting back I'm going to.... Ayia Napa again however only for 10 days this time with the girlfriend. The accomodation we've got it a bit 'nicer' then the place I'm staying in with my mates and cost a lot more.... grrrrr (i would have been happy with a nice standard hotel but i was nagged into booking this one)...

(http://utazom.com/sites/default/files/hotel-szallas/19767/ciprus-utazas-hotel-atlantica-aeneas-resort-spa-ayia-napa_2.jpg)

(http://www.santour.ru/Cyprus/images/hotels/ATLANTICA_AENEAS_RESORT/ATLANTICA_AENEAS_RESORT16.jpg)

So all in all the end of June / July should be a pretty good time! After i get back poker is getting my full attention for a while!

Bringing diary back for the WCOOP run good. Will be posting sweats here. Hopefully will encourage and motivate me a little as my work ethic as of late has sucked.

Smash it lad

Get the fkn lot plz.

today has honestly been the most tilting day ive ever had playing poker. no specific reason im just getting ironed and either bubbling everything or getting owned near the scores.

on a brighter note am currently 14/41 in the $700 PCA sat with 12 paid and 3 $15k packages. only in for $10 so lets win that!

Bust 25th or w/e.

lost A6 < K10 for a top 10 stack with 30 left. Made some back then got 20bbs in BVB with AQ < KK (lol he found kings what a life).

Done chunks on the day. Just managed to bust big162 ~80th. Was 12/85 before these 3 hands:

AJ<K9
1010<AK (for top 5 stack)
99<KK

Worst / most tilting day of online poker in my life.

So much for re-opening diary for rungood! pfft :(

(Moaning it in!!!!)

eweatherall: wow gaggleokings you can tell your an ace rag player
eweatherall: no skill at all
eweatherall: explains ur stats a lot
eweatherall: pokerstars needs donks like u

Seat 1: big_frae (1919 in chips)
Seat 2: GaggleoKings (7311 in chips)
Seat 3: eweatherall (6811 in chips)
Seat 4: drago1989 (2495 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 5: Dutch_Znix (6752 in chips)
Seat 6: gorgasm666 (4010 in chips)
Seat 7: mossberg1988 (5689 in chips)
Seat 8: benchmarking (2250 in chips)
Seat 9: luckybm2 (3901 in chips)
big_frae: posts the ante 50
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 50
eweatherall: posts the ante 50
drago1989: posts the ante 50
Dutch_Znix: posts the ante 50
gorgasm666: posts the ante 50
mossberg1988: posts the ante 50
benchmarking: posts the ante 50
luckybm2: posts the ante 50
GaggleoKings: posts small blind 200
eweatherall: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [Ad 2c]
drago1989: folds
Dutch_Znix: folds
gorgasm666: folds
mossberg1988: folds
benchmarking: folds
luckybm2: folds
big_frae: raises 1469 to 1869 and is all-in
GaggleoKings: raises 5392 to 7261 and is all-in
eweatherall: folds [As 5s]
Uncalled bet (5392) returned to GaggleoKings
*** FLOP *** [Qd Js 8h]
*** TURN *** [Qd Js 8h] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Js 8h Ks] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GaggleoKings: shows [Ad 2c] (a pair of Aces)
big_frae: shows [6h 5d] (high card Ace)

think hes mad cos he folded a chop haha

PokerStars Hand #104604508287: Tournament #790798338, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (1500/3000) - 2013/09/25 11:38:52 WET [2013/09/25 6:38:52 ET]
Table '790798338 3' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: panettox (8998 in chips)
Seat 2: neesam1405 (19338 in chips)
Seat 3: flpro157 (37055 in chips)
Seat 5: Talerric (55113 in chips)
Seat 6: GaggleoKings (12026 in chips)
Seat 7: driss832 (10495 in chips)
Seat 8: Jed-Forest (5092 in chips)
Seat 9: Dollysz (16883 in chips)
panettox: posts the ante 300
neesam1405: posts the ante 300
flpro157: posts the ante 300
Talerric: posts the ante 300
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 300
driss832: posts the ante 300
Jed-Forest: posts the ante 300
Dollysz: posts the ante 300
Jed-Forest: posts small blind 1500
Dollysz: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [Ks Kc]
panettox: folds
neesam1405 has timed out
neesam1405: folds
neesam1405 is sitting out
flpro157: folds
Talerric: raises 51813 to 54813 and is all-in
neesam1405 has returned
GaggleoKings: folds
driss832: folds
Jed-Forest: calls 3292 and is all-in
Dollysz: calls 13583 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (38230) returned to Talerric
*** FLOP *** [6d 6s 7h]
*** TURN *** [6d 6s 7h] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [6d 6s 7h 4c] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Dollysz: shows [Ac Ah] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
Talerric: shows [9c Tc] (a pair of Sixes)
Dollysz collected 23582 from side pot
Jed-Forest: shows [5c 5s] (two pair, Sixes and Fives)
Dollysz collected 16776 from main pot
Jed-Forest finished the tournament in 8th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 40358 Main pot 16776. Side pot 23582. | Rake 0
Board [6d 6s 7h 4c Jc]
Seat 1: panettox folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: neesam1405 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: flpro157 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Talerric showed [9c Tc] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 6: GaggleoKings folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: driss832 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Jed-Forest (small blind) showed [5c 5s] and lost with two pair, Sixes and Fives
Seat 9: Dollysz (big blind) showed [Ac Ah] and won (40358) with two pair, Aces and Sixes


Wow direct bubble of WCOOP 52 sat.

Yet again I find myself super pissed off after a session of online poker... Probably time to quit but I love the game too much!!

Today started out pretty well with a 4th in a $109 for ~$1k. Then managed to lose chunks all day long since then, until the $2.1k PLO sats started. I entered 2 sats and won a seat in the 33rebuy and came 4th with 3 seats GTD in the 11r (had already won entry so would have been $TD) still cashed for ~$550.

Just ended up busting the $2.1k PLO WCOOP in ~85th with 60 paid. Pretty annoyed as I feel I played pretty well for the most part (what makes it worse is that I 'own dimed' the sats (played them on my own money not on stake) and therefore woulda got the lot ($180k ftw woulda been noice - woulda settled for the $3.8k mincash :( ). Atleast it was an adventure.

Really hope I manage to sat into the main...

The last two days have been days of mixed emotion tbh (in regards to poker atleast).

Came 2nd in the $109 $12.5k on stars for $2.5k after having a 9-1 chip lead and having the guy all in crushed 3 times (heads up). JJ < 1010 aipf / 56 < J5 on 5610 / A10< J10 aipf, also just managed a 6th in the Hot $33 for ~$2k (had AJ < AQ button vs BB for chip lead which had 8k ftw :( ).  However we had our 'soul crushed' a few times along the way. KK < AA aipf when 3/10 vs 1/10 in the 109 turbo (~6k ftw) and QQ < AA in with 15 left in the 33 turbo (~4k ftw). Also just had KK < AA in the $700 WCOOP Super Knockout. As for satellites we managed to make it into the $700 [2x chance] sat to the WCOOP main although we did have a brutal start to the day. Came 4th with 3 seats GTD to the $700 PLO HU WCOOP and 6th with 4 seats GTD to the same event. Both times I expected to have seats locked :(.     

Could really do with winning a main event seat here!

busted 117th with 69 seats when  Ac  Jc couldn't get there vs  8d 8h . If we won the flip we would have been looking likely for a seat :(

GaggleoKings: raises 18075 to 51193 and is all-in
mandza17: calls 18075
*** TURN *** [8s 7d Ts] [As]
*** RIVER *** [8s 7d Ts As] [2s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mandza17: shows [Qd Qs] (a flush, Ace high)
GaggleoKings: shows [Ad Ac] (three of a kind, Aces)
mandza17 collected 148676 from pot
GaggleoKings finished the tournament in 140th place and received $245.16.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 148676 | Rake 0
Board [8s 7d Ts As 2s]
Seat 1: mandza17 (big blind) showed [Qd Qs] and won (148676) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: Emilohlsson folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: A1701 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: cre0x folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: liadmo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Ric@rdo$V folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: GaggleoKings showed [Ad Ac] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 8: rkruok (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Pokerro (small blind) folded before Flop

every time I go semi-deep in something with 10k+ ftw atm :@

Wheyyy in the main from a $215 sat. lets win this and forget everything else for the minute!

Main is gg'd....

Starting stack 20k, was up to 44k within 4 hours but unfortunately this was our peak. We then ran a huge bluff down 4 streets (with straight and flush draws on the flop / turn) to go down to 25k. Then had  Jh Js <  Ad Td on  Qd Jd 3d ... board running out bricks. Finally had  Qc Jc vs  Qd Qh on  Qs 9h 4c Jh for the rest. GG pretty annoyed with myself for running the bluff, doesn't seem to great looking back.

Surely time for an update!

Update

(http://alfa.gifs-planet.com/new4/711.gif)

Domination confirmed!

Quick Christmas update whilst the girlfriend is bathing (and to stop me eating chocolate!):

December (up to now) has been the wildest month of my poker career so far by a mile! Not only have I had my second most profitable month, I've had the my most consistent month, It's been the month I've played my best poker in, and I've taken my biggest equity beat of all time:

PokerStars Hand #108991862918: Tournament #823266939, $2000+$100 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXX (8000/16000) - 2013/12/23 22:25:58 WET [2013/12/23 17:25:58 ET]
Table '823266939 107' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: GaggleoKings (458557 in chips)
Seat 3: DEHELLHOUND (343050 in chips)
Seat 4: goleafsgo41 (1439692 in chips)
Seat 5: jobetzu (848061 in chips)
Seat 6: s00tedj0kers (1308703 in chips)
Seat 7: Face333X (566510 in chips)
Seat 8: Dimon_77_rus (703852 in chips)
Seat 9: lasagnaaammm (1116952 in chips)
GaggleoKings: posts the ante 2000
DEHELLHOUND: posts the ante 2000
goleafsgo41: posts the ante 2000
jobetzu: posts the ante 2000
s00tedj0kers: posts the ante 2000
Face333X: posts the ante 2000
Dimon_77_rus: posts the ante 2000
lasagnaaammm: posts the ante 2000
lasagnaaammm: posts small blind 8000
GaggleoKings: posts big blind 16000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GaggleoKings [Js Jc]
DEHELLHOUND: folds
goleafsgo41: folds
jobetzu: folds
s00tedj0kers: raises 16000 to 32000
Face333X: folds
Dimon_77_rus: folds
lasagnaaammm: calls 24000
GaggleoKings: raises 93559 to 125559
s00tedj0kers: folds
lasagnaaammm: raises 989393 to 1114952 and is all-in
GaggleoKings: calls 330998 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (658395) returned to lasagnaaammm
*** FLOP *** [8d 3s 7s]
*** TURN *** [8d 3s 7s] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [8d 3s 7s 2c] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
lasagnaaammm: shows [7h 7c] (three of a kind, Sevens)
GaggleoKings: shows [Js Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
lasagnaaammm collected 961114 from pot
GaggleoKings finished the tournament in 31st place and received $10632.90.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 961114 | Rake 0
Board [8d 3s 7s 2c 9c]
Seat 1: GaggleoKings (big blind) showed [Js Jc] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 3: DEHELLHOUND folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: goleafsgo41 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: jobetzu folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: s00tedj0kers folded before Flop
Seat 7: Face333X folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Dimon_77_rus (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: lasagnaaammm (small blind) showed [7h 7c] and won (961114) with three of a kind, Sevens

^ This was in the $2,100 WCOOP series main event, for a top 5 stack with 31 left. $515k for the winner! Really annoying! Safe to say the punch bag which I have hung up in my room took a hammering for that (thank god that's there!).

Moving on the the good stuff however; this month I managed to take down my first reg speed major, in the form of the $200k GTD Sunday Special on iPoker for $34,500. Other notable results this month include (My 1st session being 15th December):
- 1st iPoker $10k $50 Re-entry - $2.3k
- 2nd (Chopped HU with chiplead) hot 100euro Stars.fr - $3k+
- 1st iPoker 50 euro turbo - $1k+
- 89th WCOOP series $215 Turbo Rebuy - $2k (Lost KJdd < Q3ss aipf for top 10 stack with $300k ftw)
- 4th iPoker $320 $15k GTD - $2.1k
- 13th .fr Highroller - $1.2k (AQ < 88 for double average)
- 31st $2,100 WCOOP series Main event - $10.6k ($515k ftw - JJ < 77 aipf for top 5 stack).
- Irish open 3.2k euro package won via ipoker.

All that totals a $46k profit for the month of December - making it my second winningest month of all time - and with Christmas here, it couldn't have come at a better time!

Will update in a few days to summarise year and look back at my goals for 2013 as well as my next ones for 2014!

Oh and also Merry Christmas to all!

Well done and Merry Xmas to you n your family . May 2014 bring u more wins

Goat

Sick month, wp. Pretty brutal HH there :(

Thanks Frankie! You too mate! Have a great new year too!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Year 2013 in review~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Life:

2013, for me has been the most uneventful year of my life so far I'm disappointed to say. The three remotely interesting things I have done this year outside of poker were the three holidays / breaks I went on; twice to Ayia Napa in Cyprus (once with my friends and once with the girlfriend), as well as my trip to Prague earlier this month. I feel like I have actually 'wasted' one of, which are the supposed to be the best years of my life, and for that I'm pretty ashamed of myself. Next year will be different - that is a guarantee!

Poker:

Poker, on the other hand, has been pretty exciting this year in regards to me feeling like I've achieved so much. I set myself some clear goals at the beginning of this year - as were detailed at the start of this thread - and I'm happy to say that I managed to achieve the Majoity:


#1 - Throughout 2013 - particularly towards the end of it - I feel like I've dramatically improved as a player. I've been working hard both studying my game - as well as putting much more volume in then I did previously (although still not huge amounts compared to some 'grinders'). I look back at how I was playing when I wrote my #1 goal and there's no comparison to the way I'm playing at the minute, and although I do still make mistakes - they happen no where near as frequently as they did before, so for that, I class this goal as being achieved. [ x ]

#2 - 5 Figure score - At the time of starting this diary, I was at a really low point in regards to poker. I was playing really badly (in comparison to what I knew I could at the time), and my confidence within the game was at an all time low. I remember being nervous when playing live poker - particularly in what I felt at the time were intimidating places / environments (in poker aspects) such as DTD (as well as other places which weren't my home casino). This was something I thought that if I achieved - would help me break the mental barrier and become a lot more confident within myself when playing; therefore this was a very important goal to me - which I can happily say I managed to achieve a total of 4 time this year! [ x ]

(http://s29.postimg.org/wsvx6la9z/5figscores.png)
The above are prizes for finishing positions: actual results are - TCOOP was chopped for $58k and Big $109 was chopped for $17k

#3 - $100k Profits on Sharkscope by December 31, 2013. Today.

This is the goal which although wasn't the most important to me at the time of setting, in hindsight should have possibly been my first or at very least second most important goal - as barring some incredible 6 figure bink - meant one thing; consistency. Again, it's to my great pleasure that I can say that this particular goal was achieved within the last two weeks. Now, I've no doubt in my mind that I'm good enough to make a living, for the foreseeable at least, playing this game that I love but hate so much! [ x ]

(http://s22.postimg.org/ebosno0oh/31dec2013_SS.png)

#4 - Supernova by December 31, 2013. Today.

This is what I feel to be the most unrealistic goal I set. I'm not one of these mass multi tabling wizards like so many of the online grinders are. I prefer to be able to play comfortably and take time to think about my decisions and therefore have made a conscious decision to never have more then 8 tables open at the same time. The buyin level I played at (particularly at the beginning of 2013), was nowhere near sufficient when coupled with the volume I play in order to achieve this goal - and with the additions of other sites I have made recently - this was totally unachievable. [   ]  

#5 Get out of makeup ASAP and be rolled to play med stakes MTTs on my own dime by 2014.

Looking back I feel the above was a pretty silly goal of me to set, as what it basically means was I needed to either bink or be super consistent over a long period of time, and then make a conscious decision to put that all back on the line after being broke for so long, and playing for myself. I think I need to face the reality that whilst playing MTTs full time, it's very unlikely that I do off my own back as the swings are too harsh to cope with (for myself at least) - I don't think I could handle that mental pressure at the minute - I'm not ready for it. On the plus side to this goal, I'm currently in very little makeup - virtually none - and if I really wanted to I could afford to play low/med MTTs on my own - however I'm not going to as of yet. I therefore feel I have achieved this goal. [ x ]

...2014 Goals coming soon...

Happy new year bro!

Happy new year mate!

Also happy new year to everyone!

Good stuff, will check out this diary throughout 2014.

toms currently on the FT of the 25/25 series event in blackpool. 16k i think for the win.

Seat One - Thomas Ambler - 995,000

Seat Two - James Colley - 933,000

Seat Three - Terence Etin - 2,042,000

Seat Four - Kerry O Connor - 279,000

Seat Five - Howard Plant - 804,000

Seat Six - Lee Tatters - 341,000

Seat Seven - Phil Pearson - 1,003,500

Seat Eight - Jason Barton - 816,000

Seat Nine - Yusuf Erdum - 1,560,000

gooooooooooo

So, a bit belated but I have finally decided to set some goals for 2014. I will set goals for both poker as well as life in general, in hope that I can become that 'well-oiled machine' we all strive to be.

Poker: 
Goals will be ranked in order of importance

#1 - Improve - A friend just asked me why I am not yet playing on my own money and still being backed for MTTs online as I can now afford to go solo; not at the ABI I currently am, however enough to make a reasonable hourly. It took me a few minutes to think about it, but I gave him the honest answer - that I still don't feel that I'm where I want to be in the game - and in order to speed up the learning process I need to play at a higher buy-in level (which I can do backed). At present, I feel I'm at about 80% the way to where I want to be when going on my own.

#2 - 6 figure score (closest to date: $58.8k) - It only seems fitting I have this as my 2nd most important goal, seeing as though a five figure score was my 2nd most important goal for 2013 (and was one which I managed to achieve 4 times!). The bigger scores have really seemed to be eluding me in the sense of the amounts of sweats I have in comparison to the amount of conversions I make. This year I plan to change that!

#3 - $250k profits (Sharkscope) by 31st December 2014 - My tracked player group currently stands at:

(http://s22.postimg.org/ebosno0oh/31dec2013_SS.png)
Total game count is now 6.5k due to my SS being unlocked (I was ~+$5k over 2k games at the time of locking on stars), have lost a similar amount to that since the turn of the year to compensate therefore profit figure is correct.

#4 - Top 100 Worldwide / Top 10 UK on Pocketfives - This will be a super hard goal to achieve as it will require not only dedication to the grind, but a big % of the time; me playing my A game and as well as improving a fair to great deal. My all time high is 624th Worldwide. I'm currently ranked 667th Worldwide and 64th in the UK. (I'm also looking for people to lay me odds on me making this in 2014 so hit me up with them guys).

#5 - Win a major live tournament - My definition of 'major live tournament' is probably different to other peoples, but basically I want to win a tournament with a prizepool which exceeds £50k. If this happens I will consider this goal a success!

#6 - Play an EPT - The WSOP is well out of reach for me at the minute due to the immense cost / time... ect. Therefore the EPT will have to do. Since I gained an interest in poker, I've always viewed the EPT as one of the most prestigious tournaments out there, it would be an honour to play one.

#7 - Travel to at least 3 countries to play poker - This is a really strange goal for me to set as, as a child, I was never one to enjoy travelling / holidaying. I was content in my life and happy where I was. However as I've got older, I've learned to love exploring; seeing different parts of the world / other cultures. I now find it fascinating, therefore my goal to travel to at least 3 different countries to play poker is very exciting to me! (I currently already planning to attend the 'Irish Open 2014' due to winning a satellite via the Titan Poker skin on iPoker - so 1 down 2 to go!).

Moving on...

Life:
Again; goals to be ranked in order of importance.

#1 - Be happy - This is as simple as it gets. I want to be happy; in my relationship, in what I do (poker), in myself. The second I'm unhappy in any of these, I'll reassess and from whatever happens from then on, happens!

#2 - Get fit (again) - Throughout my life, I've always been one of those people who do things to excess and possibly obsession (which probably isn't a good thing but not one I'd change about myself as it allows me to focus on what is important to me at the time). I've just this second hopped on and off the bathroom scales and if correct; I weigh in at 12 st 7 lbs. Not too bad but not great either. Throughout my childhood I was always in and out of fitness (the majority the former), and up until my mid / early late teens was playing football to quite a high standard (for Nottingham Forrest Academy). I've now decided to get back into football (although in a more fun environment over serious) as me and some friends have just created a 6-a-side football team - which should help with the fitness. I plan to get to the gym 6 days a week, as well as going on runs after my MTT grind (something I used to always do when I first started playing MTTs full time.

#3 - Have money put away / Have investments outside of Poker - The year will tell how successful I have been at achieving this goal. I'm not going to put a public figure on the amount I want saved / in investments (although I know myself) however come the end of the year I will be totally to whether I have achieved this or not.

That's about it. It seems very strange to have 7 goals for Poker and only 3 for Life, but that's just the way it is!

Brief 2014 Update:

Up to now, not a great deal has gone on in my 2014 in terms of life, however poker has got off to a pretty good start as I managed to FT a 'Major Live Tournament' on the 4th Jan (25/25 Series Blackpool) which had a prizepool of £75k (Finishing 8th) - so could have notched one of the goals up before I even properly started! I also managed a 6th in the Stars $109+R Sunday Rebuy for $13,000 and change which again, was pretty nice to start the year. A final thing is that I've also hit my Pocketfives rankings peak, being; rank 596 Worldwide and rank 58 in the UK - Getting closer!

P.S. I've decided that; during 2014 I will only be updating this diary by doing month by month summaries. However a few brief updates may work their way in. 

Have fun guys!

Well done mate in FT few comp in January . Hope that last Friday commotion between seat4 and seat6 at DTD not effect your live poker . ;p

Cheers Frankie and hahaha no! Was really bad tho!

January Summary:

All in all January has been an OK month regarding online poker as I finished around the +$3k mark, however at one stage I did manage to peak at +$10k which means during the latter stages of the month I dropped around $7k (which is fairly understandable seeming as TCOOP was a complete disaster!).

Live poker also went pretty well, as I had a few deep runs in tournaments: 8th in 25/25 series Blackpool (£20k FTW), 10th in 25/25 series Sheffield (£13k FTW) and a 28th in this months £500 deepstack at DTD (£32k FTW). These runs are all well and good, however I'm really disappointed in the finishing positions having been 3/8 in Blackpool and 2/10 in Sheffield only to finish 8th and 10th respectively, needless to say I had two 'blow-ups', which I guess is not uncommon due to the style I play (I tend to chip up a lot in / around bubbles / FT bubbles - otherwise 'blow'), I suppose sometimes I just need to take my foot off the gas and win those 60/40s every once in a while. The Deepstack exit was fairly standard however, lack of spots and loss of flips coupled with bad timing. On a positive note I had good %'s of my friend who finished 1st and 3rd respectively in the 25/25 Sheffield and £500 deepstack so that helps!

As for life in general, it's actually gone pretty well. I've started playing football again and got myself back to the gym and must say I feel miles better within myself already! Hopefully the motivation is long lived and the fitness keeps increasing!

5th in big 109 for 18.6k 

blondes on fire

i  even won a 3.50 45 man earlier

congrats

Haha cheers mate!

Totally forgot about doing a February summary, will get on it at some point this evening!

February / Early March Summary:

Since 1st February, I think we've been experiencing what is called 'heat'. Ok it's not been anywhere near as hot as Pleno has been - but still pretty damn nice!

Before I start with my personal poker exploits, I'd like to take a chance to congratulate a good friend of mine on him winning the Sky UKPC Main even for £125k (we also had swaps so good times on that!), but yeah can't say I know a guy who deserves it more so congrats Alex!

Anyway - moving on.... At the start of this post, I did say we had been experiencing heat - well that is actually only true in part. This month I have managed to final 3 'Sunday Majors' - this may sound ridiculous, however my finishing positions have been; 9th (Stars Sunday $109r - $4.7k), 8th (iPoker Sunday Major - $3.3k) and 5th (Stars Bigger $109 - $18.6k) - which again may appear to be great, however those of you who play MTTs will appreciate how frustrating it is to have such near misses in things this big. (To put it into monetary terms: Had I placed 1st in each of the above I would have cashed for over $200,000 combined, however placing 9th, 8th and 5th has lead to a combined total of $26,600 - which whilst being great - is a big difference!).

(http://s3.postimg.org/nnvlykwj7/playergroupfebmarch.png)

Above is my player-group graph from 1st February to Present. Pretty happy with the way the graphs going (up is always good), however it's a really poor show in terms of volume, have gotta say my heart just hasn't been in it this past month, as well as having a few live poker commitments!

(http://s29.postimg.org/s7x2bpgdz/yearlystatsuntilmarch.png)

^ Yearly stats up till now. Again really low volume. Really hoping to change this!

Do you play on your own $ Tom? Or have a backer? Good start to the year btw!

Play backed at the minute mate, considered going on my own at the start of the year but was offered a decent deal so decided to stay backed. Cheers man :)

Cool. Good luck binking enough to go on your own

Didn't even know you had a diary! You never mentioned it. I'm in! GL tonight in super bowl tuesday

Cheers bud, also run one on 2+2 :) glgl if playing!

March / Early April Summary:

So far so good! Ok the heat may have cooled down slightly but I still managed to make some green last month (not as much as I have previous months), but as an MTT player, having 3 winning months in a row is pretty damn nice! I also made the biggest purchase of my life so far during last month:

(http://s2.postimg.org/lmjmd0lnt/audi.jpg)

Which is a world of difference in comparison to the old Corsa!

Poker wise, its been a kind of mix of emotions. Like I said I did manage to make profit, but yet again I lacked the final push required to get me to the stage of CHUNKS. One huge sickener which sticks in the mind is this past Sunday. I was 1/25 in the Sunday 500, had KK < AJhh for 1.5mil of 9mil in play, followed by AQ < QQ (BTN vs SB) and AQ < KK the next orbit vs the same guy to bust 22nd! Either I'm terrible at the end-game or I'm running pretty bad in the latter stages... One of the two!

Below is my yearly Sharkscope to date:

(http://s18.postimg.org/wd3r9nqyx/1stjan2014to8thapril2014.png)

Again, disappointing volume, but feel like I'm still playing really well and the elusive 'HUGE' bink, is somewhere around the corner (I hope!).

In other news, we have the Irish Open in 2 weeks time! That would be a good one to win!

Sure you won $70k odd in a 3x turbo last year.

What can I say, I just outplayed everyone ;) hahahahaha.

Swapsies in st tonight?

Sounds a plan mate will sort it via Skype soon

photo of newly waxed eyebrows please...

Ha

Haha sorry mate I didn't see the request! I'll have to do it again and get a pic up!

Irish Open 2014:

So, we wake up at 9am on Thursday morning and ring our travel buddy Alex Spencer to ask him what time he was picking me up - about 10.30pm . He informs me our flight is at 1.15pm and we need to be there no later than 1pm. He also asks me to print off the boarding passes for our Ryanair flight.. cool can do. About 9.45 I go to print off the boarding passes; flight time: 12.00pm... Marv. Now, my house is around 2 hours away from Manchester Airport and Alex lives 45 mins away from me, so him picking me up is no longer an option - we agree to meet there. I ring the airport carpark - who informs it is too late to prepay, and that paying on arrival means I will be paying £50 per day. The woman on the phone eventually agrees to let me have the prepay rate of ~£10 per day so thanks to her for the money saved. I managed to arrive at the airport desk with 3 minutes to spare. Result! (It's also a really good job I've got a new car as there was no way on earth I would have made it in the corsa).

The venue of the Irish Open was the Hilton Double Tree in Dublin. Possibly a little too 'posh' for two youngish lads to stroll in wearing joggers. Still everyone was really friendly, and the room we we're given was absolutely amazing. (Picture doesn't do it justice).

(http://s1.postimg.org/dzidyu8b3/hiltonroom.jpg)

The room where the event itself was being held was absolutely huge. Around 100 tables all surrounding a boxing ring with a single table in the centre (the feature table). The picture below, again doesn't do it any justice at all but its the best I could find. Anyway, cliffs for Thursday night; Alex won a seat via the super satellite into the main event and we managed to make a buyin @ 2/5 so pretty good!

(http://s27.postimg.org/9g51ttlir/irish_open_day_1.jpg)

Friday marked the start of the Main Event, and also contained the only blip of the entire weekend, which was me receiving a wrong starting stack and only being given 29,925 chips instead of 30k, even though the dealer was insisting I was counting wrong, which I argued (the principal more than anything). Anyway it turned out a player on my table (Chris Dowling I think was his name), had been given my extra 75 chips and quickly flung them across the table to me so problem solved! Day 1 of the main event dragged quite a bit and finished around midnight where we bagged up 70,500 going into day 2 when average was around 47,000, so another pretty good result there!

(http://s2.postimg.org/n81vmw5qh/day2irishopen.jpg)

Saturday was a pretty eventful one in terms of poker happenings. There's too many hands to list so will just give cliffs; however theres one hand I'm pretty 'proud' of, but also pretty disappointed in. At 1500/3000 we're in the big blind playing 150k when CO opens to 6k playing 110k. We defend with  7d 8d . Check Check on a flop of 6s 7h  Th . We lead the  2s for 7100 for protection and value to be called. The river is  Kc which we check, in order to allow him to barrel all his missed draws and also to allow him to bet all his one pair hands for value (I feel he's pretty capped to one pair hands at this point). Anyway he complies with a bet of 16800 and we think for around 90 seconds before cutting out and raising to 45800 (Choosing to turn our hand into a bluff as I would check raise hands e.g. sets / straights / two pairs for reasons stated - allow him to bluff and make him always - or so I though - bet / fold one pair hands). Anyway after a tank of 6 minutes he sigh calls with AK. Before his chips hit the felt I told him AK was good. It was really annoying as I really felt I took a really good line. The only problem was it was vs the wrong opponent (we had no history and I kind of based his ability on his look). Around 2 hours later, after chipping back up quite significantly, we then had to effectively call off our tournament life with  Aspades 9c after 3betting the SB vs a button open, getting peeled. Flop going check check, then check calling two bombs on  Td 9s 8h 7d 2s . We would have been left with 11bbs had our river call been wrong but I don't think he ever has a Jack in his check back range other than J9 suited (which I have a blocker too), as he doesn't peel J8 often and bets J10 for protection / value on the flop, he also barrels most Jacks with no pair / bets a made straight. In my mind he had J9 s (which I blocked) or 66 and a lot of total airballs. He quickly mucked A5 and we bagged up 237,000 to go into day3 with. We then had a few drinks with Alex and played some 2/5 cash where we won a 2500euro pot (one of the biggest I've won). Cliffs: Playing 2/5 with us Mississippi Straddling the button to 10euros (for those of you who don't know, the action then starts on the small blind), who makes up the 10euros, as does the big blind and one more player, before a middle aged lady playing fairly loose (I was surprised too), makes it 30 from my direct right. I make it 100euros with  9c 8s , everyone folds and she peels.  9h 8c 5h flop. She checks, I bet 165, She raises to 375, and I go all in covering her 1.2k euro stack, to which she declares what the hell and puts it in. I ask her if she has an overpair and if she does, would she like to run it twice (before I reveal my hand), to which she pretty 'nastily' snap declines, at which point I tell her her queens are losing. The board bricks and we scoop and end up winning around 3 buyins on the session, heading to bed pretty late.

1pm Sunday marked the start of day 3 with 59 remaining and 47 paid, so having woke up at 12.50pm was a bit worrying. Luckily after 10 minutes of rushing around I just managed to make the first hand noticing I was sharing the table with fellow 'Sheffielder' (I'm actually from Chesterfield but hey close enough) Fraser Bellamy. We had a good laugh for 4 hours or so until Fraser got kind of coolered A10 < AQ SB vs Button for 20bbs each. We quickly chipped up to near the 500k mark coasting into the money (in and around the bubble was golden for chipping up as we didn't meet too much resistance and opened nearly every hand). At 7000/14000, playing 6 handed. UTG opens to 28k. We 3bet  Aspades Ks to 67k. UTG 4bets to 125k to which we 5bet jam a total of 434k. UTG tanks for around 5 minutes, asking me if I'd show if he folded to which I was silent. After another 30 seconds he flicked a chip in to call and as soon as I tabled my hand he said exactly: 'Yes, that's the best I could have hoped for' and tabled his  Jd Jc. The board bricked for us, even though we turned a gutshot and 2 overs and after counting stacks, he had me covered by 3k. Meaning we finished ANOTHER somewhat disappointing 27th for 3,800 euros - minus 20% which I swapped with Alex, (somewhat disappointing in the sense of losing a flip for 900k of 9mil in play with 27 left and 200k euros for the winner), however I guess had you offered me it at the start of play I would have probably taken it! Anyway after a few drinks at the bar, we played some 5/10 which was pretty slow, so me and Alex decided to take the night off and see what kind of nightlife Dublin had to offer! It turned out we both got pretty wasted pretty quickly and the night was kind of a blur, however the brief memories I have of it:

(http://www.cyclesmaximus.com/pedicabsmallDSCN4526.jpg)

- We got taxied about in one of these ^. And was inches from death as we nearly got hit by a bus in it.
- 90% of places were closed due to it being Easter Sunday.
- The club we did find, Alex got refused entry to as it was apparently 'over 21s only' and Alex is only 20 - I'm calling BS. After the bouncers declining to let us in for 20 euros, they snap took 50. They saw us coming a mile off, however it was the only half decent place open and we'd both had a really profitable weekend so I guess it was worth 50 euros to save us being bored in the hotel.
- Chasing Alex, (him clutching a wad of euros) down the corridor of the hotel at 4am, as he was going to try play 5/10 (and was in no state). Him slipping and skidding down half the length of the corridor on his back and getting a huge carpet burn (I've actually got a hilarious video of this on my phone and will upload at some point when I get chance).

Monday kind of sucked. I was hungover, Alex was really really hungover with a sore back and absolutely no idea until I showed him the video. We wondered down to the 'poker room' at around 5pm to play for a few hours before our 10pm flight, and jumped into a 2/5 game. Where I only won 200euros... and that SUCKED. I'll let the status I put on facebook sum up why:

(http://s4.postimg.org/9zo6issjx/1fb.png)

And that's that! Irish Open 2014 over! Must say I really enjoyed the weekend. Oh and by the way Dublin is an amazing city, but if you do decide to go for a night out...etc, make sure its not over Easter!

Have opened the SCOOP schedule package found below for sale:

4/5/2014 - Event 03 - H - $1050 [Turbo, Progressive Super KO]
5/5/2014 - Event 06 - M - $382 total - 4 Buyins, 1 Add On. [$82 Turbo, Rebuys]
6/5/2014 - Event 09 - H - $1050
7/5/2014 - Event 11 - H - $2100 [Super KO]
9/5/2014 - Event 16 - M - $509 total - 4 Buyins, 1 Add On. [$109 Big Antes, Rebuys]
13/5/2014 - Event 30 - H - $1050
14/5/2014 - Event 32 - H - $2100 [Progressive Super KO]
16/5/2014 - Event 37 - M - $615 total - 2 Buyins, 1 Add On. [$215 1R1A]
18/5/2014 - Event 44 - M - $1050 [MAIN EVENT]

Can be found at:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=63643.0

Just read this.  Awesome!  Good luck this year with poker and life goals

Thanks a lot mate :) Best of luck to yourself!

Tom, your mate "Alex Spencer", is that the young lad who won the Sky Poker UKPC?

The very same :) lucky git!

Ha!

He struck me as a lad with a great future in poker, seemed to play with great courage & conviction, lovely demeanour too. Only been playing (Live) 5 minutes, too. 

He played a remarkable hand when he had Kings v Sevens on an A high board, & the 2 of them were 4 & 5 betting each other. Extraordinary.

Give him my best regards please, I never got much chance to chat to him after the prize-giving, photos, interviews & everything.



(http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o541/tikay2/tikay2103/Sky_Poker_UKPC_zpsfcb94125.jpg) (http://s1147.photobucket.com/user/tikay2/media/tikay2103/Sky_Poker_UKPC_zpsfcb94125.jpg.html)

I'm sure he'll go far!

I remember chatting to him in quite a lot of detail about that hand. We came to the same conclusion that he had to call when raised on the river as it was near impossible for the guy to have a better hand the way it played out, although him putting it into practise in what has been the biggest final table of his life is totally different!

I'll make sure too, I'm 90% sure I'll see him tonight, as the snooker players are about in Sheffield, a lot of them love to play poker and the games always get big, so its most likely he'll be there!