blonde poker forum

I was going to start a new year diary at the beginning of the year but bottled it.  However, some recent factors have made me think what the hell, lets do it. 

These factors being:

1. introduction of the Blog board (which I think is pretty good)
2. my agreeing to a ridiculous physical challenge (for someone of my fitness) which has amended the terms of the diary somewhat
3. the "Ambler" effect, join a forum, hammer the keyboard for a name, start a blog and win $50k

I used to blog quite a lot when I was working overseas and I enjoy puting my thoughts down, even if it is all for my own benefit.

The reason for the diary are multi level, with various poker, gambling, physical and mental challenges.  I sit and read Blonde pretty much constantly but don't overly integrate.  I hope the diary will allow me to do that more and to feel comfortable commenting on this, that and tuther on the boards.

Introduction

My name is Chris Roberts, been playing poker since the day I turned 18, which was unfortunately 12 years ago.  I work in finance (pensions), nothing exciting, but it pays the bills etc etc etc.  I live in Edinburgh at present but spent around 5 years in Hertfordshire so will be known to some of the Luton G regulars.  I was also second WPIL according to the league a couple of years back, variance innit.  I plan to do various diary entries regarding aspects of my life, the purpose of the initial post is to set the challenges and to say hello  :hello:

Poker 2012 Challenges to commence Friday 25th January (pay day)

The purpose of the diary will be to monitor my incomings/outgoings through poker first and foremost.  I consider myself a winning live player but in the absence of records, I would like to now fully view it.  I will record a running total of live cash/tournament play seperately.  This is mainly for my own benefit, but I will also post annoying hands, stories and general table banter to keep it going.  My iPhone is usually on me at the table so I can provide some running cashgame commentry etc. My solitary Herbie Mob entry is shown below:

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=178987

The live goals are as follows:

1. ROI of above 10% in local donkaments up to £110 level
2. Show a profit on live cash - this is a weakest part of my game and keen to know if its +ve or not
3. Play at least one GPS, SPT, UKIPT, Scottish Poker Championship and DTD deepstack - I will record ROI on these seperately (including satellite costs etc) likely be -100% lol
4. Gain at least 1 flag (everyone loves a flag)

The online challenge is slightly different, I haven't played much online since about 2005-2007 when I was pretty regular on the crypto network (Hills). My OPR is below:

http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/pokerstars/Rab90/poker/results/DE73855261904DCDAB39932230BCBD63.html?t=2

I started playing stars a lot more last year, I had a very good June-July at the $1-$20 level but blew it due to horrendous BRM.  I ended the year pretty much break even, but think I spanked about $4k from mid July onwards which was more bad game selection and bad play than variance.  The challenge is to deposit £100 on pay day, and each subsequent pay day until I have a roll comfortable for $1-$11 MTT's on Stars.  Any mid month top ups will be minimal and depending on live results.  The aim is obviously to stop the monthly deposits and have a sufficient roll by the end of the year and to show a +ve ROI at this level.  Any Sateliite for live play will be excluded from the stats and attributed to the ROI on live.

I will post sweats, annoying hands and things as i go along, I only play up to 6 tables so tend to be reading Blonde as I play!

I need to stop taking shots above bank roll level and trying to spin up on HU hypers which is hugely -ve the way I play them.  Any ideas on forfeits for failing on these points?

Fitness Challenges

At the start of the year I weighed in at 13st 13lbs with a fairly yuky BMI/bodyfat.  I will go through the history of dieting/sport/exercise in a seperate entry, this may explain how big a challenge this actually is for me!

I have just agreed to do the Rob Roy challenge on June 22nd, details below:

http://www.robroychallenge.com/home/

The general jyst is this "The Martin Currie Rob Roy Challenge is one of Scotland’s most successful fundraising events. Covering 55 miles of the spectacular Rob Roy Way, teams or individuals walk or run 16 miles from Drymen, near Loch Lomond, north-east through the Trossachs to Callander, where they switch to bikes for a 39 mile cycle to Kenmore – all in around 8-12 hours."

The aim is to complete the challenge first and foremost and raise at least £500 for charity in the process.  In addition I would like to be doing the 16 miles as a run and suppress the thought of treating it as a walk! which would be very tempting! I also aim to be back down to 12 stone (my fighting weight) by the time I reach the starting line.

The challenge for later in the year will be to have selected the next challenge and to maintain the weight loss (major challenge, I have the metabolism).

Anything Else

For those of you unfortunate enough to have me on FB, you will know I have a habbit of waking up in random places and am not short of a story or two. I will post as many funny stories, my views on life etc etc as we go along!

I also have a habbit of random betting spin ups and I will post stories and updates from that side of things too.

Happy to answer any questions and will be as interactive as you like! I hope this is a reasonable start.  I will work on my first diary entry about me just now....to be titled "Gambling, the Early Years"

Chris

Donation to charity when you play hyper hu's ftw.

GLGLGLGL

Hi Chris.

As a fellow poker player and fitness enthusiast, I imagine I will be following this diary closely!

Is your fitness target simply weight loss and cardiovascular fitness? If so I think we're going in different directions, as I just reached 14st for the first time in my life and I couldn't be happier about it! Still definitely excited to see how you do.

What do you consider to be "good bankroll management?" Everybody has a different opinion on this.

I'm Sean btw. Good luck with your conquests and with this diary. :)

I like the sound of this.. im in for the ride.. and I love the "Ambler" effect...

Sean 14lbs... You must be huge! ;)

lol edited. I'm such a measurement fish.

I'm a fitness enthusiast too, Chris. Looking forward to it.glgglgl

^^^^^^^^  like

Sooooo, first diary post!

Gambling the Early Years

From my very earliest memory, very strangely (and worryingly for my teachers) my main aim in life was to be old enough to put a bet on!

From the ages of 6 till 9 my dad would take me to Powderhall Dog Track every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  It literally got to the point where I would cry if he didn't take me as I absolutely loved it there, the people, the atmosphere, the excitement and the unlimited polystyrene cups of coke and tunnocks tea biscuits!

We sat in the main stand on the middle row, we always had our own seats and would sit with the same people every time. We had a regular lift who would pick us up every time, my dad didnt even have his number, it would just be assumed we would be waiting to be picked up every time!  We sat with Bill Wallace, Hal, Ken Baxter and a few other semi regular faces, I know Hal was, and Bill still are fairly regular faces on the Edinburgh poker tour so some may know them.  Ken was a dog owner (and I believe semi pro Bridge player), he tended to have average graders A5 to A12 but he did pick up one very good dog called News Risk who was a regular on the Scottish OR scene.   I have photographs from those days of me collecting trophies with various dogs, as a constant feature it was common for me to be pulled up when it got to trophy time which was pretty exciting for a 7 year old boy! If I can dig out a photo I will! Still getting used to the updating business.

After the races we would pick up the advance copies of the next days papers and get a chinese if we had a lucky day! (possibly leading to my childhood obesity, we clearly won a lot lol) Coming home with our money and telling the stories to my mum and then off to bed, school tomorrow!  I remember the jackpot was always the win I wanted, I would do that at the start of every meeting and only ever got it once, but oh what a day that was, £17 lol my normal bet was 20p EW forecasts and tricasts if I had an urge! This was actually increased quite a lot as my dad figured out pretty early that I wasnt that bad at picking! I remember my aim was to take one pace dog and one finisher, which is still roughly the logic I use! My dad would go down 2 minutes before every race to place his bet on the rail, always a win, usually £20 unless we were on the bail out race at the end (so we werent ballers).  I occassionally would go down with him and help him spot the better prices along the rail! which I always find pretty exciting! I am still a big rail value hunter, its a nightmare at Cheltenham with so many, but I like to have a good scout before parting with my hard earned.

I was absolutely gutted when Powderhall shut down! Don't think my mum will admit her 9 year old son cried when the dog track shut but it is a true story ha ha even more annoyingly, my dad had agreed to get me a dog for my next birthday, my uncle had sourced a dog, and I was busy working on names when we got wind of the track closure :( to own a dog/horse has since been a massive aspiration of mine, I know it is -ve investment wise, but how much fun would it be?

Whilst I can understand my teachers concern when they did the weekend activity round up of my pass time, it did stand me in pretty good stead.  I could read an interpret all aspects of a standard dog card at the age of 7 and subsequently showed a high aptitude for maths and English!  I did actually pass the Scottish primary maths test with the highest score in the country (very thin brag), having managed to get 100% which was not overlly common I gather! I gave up on maths when they started mucking around with triangles, never quite got that although would challenge stato on the number game on countdown ha ha

My dad had always loved gambling he used to climb into powderhall on his brothers shoulders from the age of 10 and ultimately went on to own his own bookies in the Polwarth area of Edinburgh.  My mum tells me he was cursed with the luckiest regulars in the world.  These boys would rain in 10 team acculumlators like they were going out of fashion.  Ultimately when kids came along, my dad was instructed to get a more secure income and went on to own a succession of butcher shops.

Following the shut down of the track, my attention turned to horses, my dad would put bets on for me most weeks, usually a 30p lucky 15 and the placepots.  We used to go to golf at the pitch and putt which was code for bookies, sure my mum got it but it was our daddy/son bonding time and he has always been my hero.  I also attended various horse meetings, mainly Musselburgh, Hamilton, Ayr, Kelso etc but also went to Longchamp for the Arc when I was about 10 which was amazing!

When I was 11 I got my first trip to Vegas, this was on the tail end of one of these 3 stop American tours San Francisco, Anaheim and Las Vegas.  Strangely I was more excited about meeting the bright lights than Mickey Mouse.  This was back when MGM had a theme park in the back garden so it was easy to entertain kids.  We stayed in a suite which had two TV's in the room which was like the best thing I had ever seen! the joys of youth.  I was however more excited about the rooms with all the bright lights! I worked a system with the security guards that as long as I didn't stop moving, I was fine.  So I used to do laps round my dads blackjack table with my brother watching him play.  The whole buzz of the place was immense and I knew I would have to come back when I was old enough to enjoy it fully!

The pattern continued throughout my teens until I was old enough to finally place my own bets! I had officially achieved my objective in life and I was 16 with a questionable bum fluff beard ha ha so I had to then pick new life goals.

Just after turning 19 I had the best but worst possible break, I placed a lucky 15 on the 1000 guineas the year Kazzia was successful at 14/1.  I also had First Ballot at 12/1 with 9/4 and 15/8 winners on the same card.  I had been at a friends boxing show and had phoned home to ask what won the race.  Having known that Kazzia had won I was pretty happy with the treble odds return of £53 on my £15 stake.  It wasn't till I got home, checked teletext did I realise what I had got.  I asked my dad what it would pay and as a former bookie he said about £4,070 within about a few seconds of thinking.  It paid £4,058 so he was pretty close lol

Now, winning that much, that early and the feeling of entitlement to winning, leads to some of the issues I will cover in this diary.....there have been a LOT of highs and as many lows over the following 11 years on the gaming front!

I feel like adding whilst the exposure to gambling is probably not parenting 101, this was always my own choice, I loved it, and would be a nightmare if I was not taken.  My parents worked every day of their lives, always provided employment for others, never borrowed a penny and lived within strict BRM conditions.  My dad was never a degen, he just loved horses and dogs.  In addition from the age of 10 onwards I had to work in the shop to earn my money, so I did have a reality check! if you have ever spent your saturday mornings cleaning out tripe trays, you will know how horrendously bad that can be!

That was my thought, can you track them anywhere so I can be policed? maybe a £1 per game played above bankroll level (without staking) or £5 per HU hyper as they are soley used for degen purposes and I am truly awful at them.  Bill to be paid monthly on pay day

If bankroll improves, as will donation amounts.

Thanks Sean, I follow your diary also.

I think 12 stone his healthy for me.  I play Saturday/Sunday league football and a couple of years ago did a full pre season for the first time ever and found that that level of weight comfortable and felt good with it.  I also played better, was Tooting Bec Rovers POY in 2008 (thinnest of thin brags as they are pretty bad) and was part of a promotion winning Saturday team.  I am playing now for St Bernards in Edinburgh but am not making a good showing of myself.  I think the weight is a target aim but cardiovascular fitness is a must to complete this challenege!

BRM I am probably going to take advice on, the variance in these 1000-8000 runner tournies is huge.  My aim is to top up on a monthly basis and until I have a score the BRM will not be healthy as £100.  If I could deposit a £1000-£2000 in one go it may be easier to agree something.  My aim is to build the roll and get up the stakes but at a slow level and to build my game as I do, I think hand review on there will be useful as I have a very bad "spew switch".  My issue last time was taking a $2k score and spunking it on a Sunday session the next day.  That could have been a consistent roll at the games I think I can maybe beat.

Will be tracked on sharkscope.

Fitness Update

I tried to post the weigh in slip but my skills suck on here.

The start was 13 st 13 lbs BMI 27.7 and body fat 26.7%.  This is on the Boots weighing machines, weight myself at home today and a bit of progress so see what the official scales say on Sunday in "test" environment (same clothes and all that).  Went to the gym Tuesday just to check it still existed and almost died so fitness levels will need a severe kick!

Football restarts tomorrow hopefully.  I play for the mighty St Bernards who actually come with a fair bit of history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Bernard's_F.C.

Unfortunatley, recent years are less pretty:

http://www.leafa.co.uk/League-Tables/season-201112-tables.html

Had a really tough run of late missed most of the 2010/2011 season with a broken foot.  Moved back home and played Saturday morning football for a team last season before getting Glandular Fever and missed the season end including a cup final :( This year getting back into it, but unfortunatley fitness is totally off which is the reason for the challenge.  I love football and need to be involved and would not want to give in whilst I still have a chance of playing! Will do a match report Saturday evening! Last game they lost 17-0! to what was apparently the Fife Harlem Globetrotters...not gutted to miss that game!

Poker Update

Deposited £100 this morning so we have a balance.  This will only really last 2-3 fruitless grinds, as I would tend to play around 20-30 $1-$6 tournaments over a session depending on progress in the initial batch.

I am most comfortable four tabling, my standard game selection is to log in and late reg the four best (highest guarantee) at the stakes.  I then boot up a new game for every bust out based on the available games.  I usually stop reregging non turbos after 2-3 hours, after 3-4 hours turbos and after 5-6 hours Hypers to ensure the session is not going to be longer than 10-12 hours.  I would only go above 4 games if I would be missing a good game i.e. the $2 $10k guaranteed turbos.  I never play rebuys.

My only other criteria is I only reg games with a $1k or above guarantee as I do not concentrate if the 1st prize is below $400.

I also struggle in $1 games cause the play tilts me, which is something I need to work on, as the play is so much softer!

What do people think of this selection method?  is it an issue mixing hypers/turbos/Standard/KO games? I also occassionally do ante up as I find the play very soft.  I filter out Omaha as I am always tempted to play and it messes with my other games.

I will be playing tonight and will post any hands of interest or sweats.

Thanks for reading

In on page 1

That ought to give you the kick you need ;)

Seriously though, when I resolved to do something about my ever-expanding waistline about 18 months ago, I came away from my second gym session so close to unconsciousness that I nearly quit there and then. It's highly unlikely that your levels of motivation are as fragile as mine, but it's all about empathy and support so I apologise if it's a little trite, but keep at it mate. 2013 is the year to make it happen. :)



Sorry if this is none of my business, but why only deposit $100?

I will say this about game selection, as I used to have a very similar view to you. Don't stay away from rebuys. Set yourself an honest rebuy limit if you're afraid of knocking it all into one comp. For example, look at a $3 rebuy as a $9 freeze where you're guaranteed a $6 cash if you don't take any rebuys. Honestly rebuys are where the money is at, and I can't believe I stayed away from them for so long.

Also, I wouldn't recommend throwing in hypers so liberally. They're something fun towards the end of a session imo, to either take a quick shot at getting out of a hole or see if we can give our gin session a little tonic. The variance of these things is literally massive and you would have to put in some ludicrous volume to make them worthwhile. I think the standard turbo structure is good and some of those comps get some good guarantees. The KO tournaments get ridiculous guarantees and everyone plays like idiots so from personal experience at the micro and low stakes I would cram just about all of these into your allotted schedule time.

Just my thoughts. Hope it offered some insight.

Good luck tonight, looking forward to some sick sweats!

Thanks Sean, all comments greatly received and will be answered, hope to be as interactive as possible :)

On the fitness front, I need all the kicks I can get, I struggle to walk up the stairs to work at the moment lol my mates brother just started as a PT at my gym which is cool as I am hoping to agree a mutually convenient deal to get me in shape for this!

The deposit is £100 so about $160, which equates to only 35 games at max buy in which is clearly not enough.  Although I would estimate average buy in to be about $3 so maybe closer to 50-60.  The reason for the amount is life roll, I have a good job but debts means typical "money to play with" is around £900 to £1k per month and I have a penchant for nights out and kids gotta eat! I allow about £300 a month for poker which means at the start of the month £100 is a fair assessment of what I can afford to plough into online.  I will then play 4-5 live tournies at the £30-£60 range.  Any money won at poker, the plan is to plough back in, so results will dictate the increase in roll but without start up capital I am of course limited.  Clearly if you won the deepstack next week I am sorted ha ha the main aim is to eventually have it self sufficient in seperate rolls, but month 1 and until any material change the investment is life limited

Cheers JB, pretty sure we will have played each other at Luton, think you were starting there regular around the time I was leaving!

3 hours in all pretty dull.

Will do proper stats tomorrow but played about 13-14 games, still in 4.

ITM 56/139 in one $2k up top

Exit hands varied, some pretty cold AA<<99 AIP and a really strange hand 3b heavy pre due to original raisers bet size with AQ, button cold calls the 3b and raiser calls.  I lead AKx flop button raises I shove and leave equity to fold, calls with AJ and hits runner runner straight! sigh

Won't reg too many more and going to hand review which I have never done before! Start the good habbits! Some definite spew in places!

On the fitness front football is cancelled, the odds on getting an amateur game in Scotland started in January are usually high so not to be unexpected! Plus I woke up in a heap on the sofa as my bedroom was like the arctic so had enough sore muscles to make moving the last thing to do!

Now to figure out what to do instead! The challenge says gym, the heart says pub watch football bets loose! decisions!

Last night was a start, not a great one but a start.

Deposits:   -£100
Balance:    £79
Net:          -£21

Played 19 games varying from $1.10 to $11 ABI was $4.40.  Cashed in 2 (85/1033 and 102/2631) which is about right, I am aiming to keep my ITM% above 10%.  I also took about 5-6 $5 bounties in the KO tournie which helped.  I am going to review hands and have a think about a few things on the game selection front.  I took advice from Sean and delayed the hypers till later.  It comes in handy when you are single tabling.  The mix of games was a bit difficult at times, I probably need to concentrate more, and pick appropriate background on the TV, Geordie Shore was just too intense last night lol

The task will be a lot easier when I get a new laptop, I can't get HEM on this one, and I wan't to have better tracking etc! will be asking a LOT of questions when that comes up!

Tonight I am playing at Maybury, they have a £50+£20 game (15000+10000 chips) with a £3k guarantee and 3 added seats to the Scottish Poker Series (self deal :().  The clock is 30 minutes and that is pretty much the best monthly game we get in Edinburgh, you guys are pretty spoilt at DTD!!!!  The SPS looks a great tournament, ran over Easter weekend 30,000 chips, hour clock, £250 buy in with £40,000 guarantee which should get well exceeded! Plus some interesting sides! It is bonus month so I will be planning a big run at that!

Both my NBC players are still in! although Hastings has Durrrr next, Greenstein has the Mouth which gotta be a good draw! That would be a good addition to my roll!

Enjoy your Saturday, thanks for reading! (or click folding ha ha)

At final table £200 locked £1400 for win! Rebought pre so not much ahead lol

May have to change my name to ladder mcladder! managed to canter 9 big blinds through 4 bust outs! then double double to get right back in! Top 3 got added £275 seats so the 4 bubble lasted ages, finally burst and pretty happy to finish second for £910 plus the £275 seat, not quite an Ambler but fairly happy! £110 at least spent on cider plus the £140 entries so not a massive score but good start to the stats!!

Currently trying to find someone awake that wants to go to the pub and watch tennis with me.......

You're gonna have to repeat that.

Fitness Update

Woke up in a heap with a drilling feeling in my head, ate a dominos pizza with wings and a Galaxy milkshake/thread lol

Managed to drag myself to 5 asides tonight, hard fought 11-6 victory to go second in the league! pretty good considering what I had just eaten and 3 other players had come straight from a chinese buffet #athletes

Poker

Really good day yesterday all round, one of those days that ticked all the I <3 my life boxes!

Ran well to start with when football was cancelled, was not in a place for it! went to the pub to watch the scores come in with multiple bets! no luck! Did Bother teams to score all the championship games and Forrest could not find a consollation at home to scupper one bet! Second one lost by one also, these last 20 minute goal score bets may be ice cream but I gotta think there is value! the odds do not change so after 60 minutes its easy to guess the games a goal is more likely to be scored i.e. favourite behind, sendings off etc although yet again 6 teams on and 1 let me down :( my own team as well Hearts! they scored after 66 minutes, had I seen that goal I would never have put it on as at 1-1 would never have thought it was a game with a goal due! sigghhhhhhhhh

On the plus side we have a League Cup final to go to in March :) and double run good with Celtic getting done today we may actually win, with a joke poor squard and no money to pay the players ha ha

Went from pub to a mates and played some £2 a head darts tournaments! just got a board and been practicing loads, having watched BDO I fancy my chances! Arranged a tournament for next week 16 players, should be a great laugh! also beat 2 of the players on sat I had been told would be the biggest competition so confidence is high :)

Got to casino to play the £70 comp, was chipping along nice, then had a run of horrible hands, 3b pre with AJ, loved the spot and position getting 3 ways with position on both, get a AKx flop, pot it, call call, x turn and lead again, pretty large bet, call fold, river is Q I barrell and get a shove to which I am almost committed! I know he has KQ, I know I am beat but the fact he calls down that far tilts me so bad and I throw it in just to see! annoyed with myself but struggling to believe the turn call and steamin a bit! few hands later 4b shoved AKs called by AQ and spikes a QQk flop! leaves me down to fumes, see the K of parsley and shove without looking at the other card over a limp to try and bust and reenter, called by J10, my other card is the massive  4h and get a JJx flop! GG

The softness of the field and the shock of throwing away 25,000 chips in 2 levels makes me go back in!

Started to hold with hands, flopping sets like a don and generally being smacked in the face with the deck! get to chip daddy 3 tables out.  Get  Ks Kh on the button raise, call call,  Js 9c  8h flop, donk lead I raise fist pump shoves  Qc Js and rivers a ten ball to take half my stack!

Get moved table and have position on someone with quarter of the chips in play 17 handed! I 3b shove on 2 of his leads and he promises to call the next! Casino pays 12 players from 75 runners which is a bit mad but actually sped the game up at bubble and apparently it is what the regs want (they love a 9 way chop they do)

Get to final with about 20 bigs without really any sweating, get a dream position, position on massive stack and 3 nits to my left to get shoves through! lose 2 all ins to shorties getting it in good both times and down to 10 bigs.  Players getting knocked out and guy to my left folds to what must have been 7 blind shoves when it folded round and never called once! I always pretended to look but I know its a shove any two spot and I would rather not know!

Down to 6 handed, top 3 get £275 seats on top of prizes so 3 to 4 ladder is huge, £1400 up top.  Massive stack shoves blind on blind, I have 12-13 bigs, I know he hasnt looked as I havent taken my eye off him, I call blind, is that bad? the way I see it, I need a double and it must be 50/50 on a blind shove and if I look I may fold, with chips commited it seemed like an obvious thing.  I have the massive  Td 4d he gets ahead with  Js 6c and i turn and river 10 balls to scoop! pretty dirty but thats life.  3 hands later all in from late position, I get  9s 9d and call, holds versus Ace rag to get 4 handed! Nit to my left gets taken down and two other players then seem hell bent on taking each other out, I watch the carnage and get HU with best player at table (probs best tournament player in Edinburgh) with a 5:1 deficit and last 2 hands ha ha

Still good start and the seat is one of my targets for this year, recording all my poker wins and losses should tell me at the end of the year if its a money maker or a hobby, I have never known before, I am confident I am a winning player at levels but its easy to remember the wins and forget the losses so if this thread does anything, it will do that! been reading the start of Alex's diary again for tips on getting these started, off to learn croquet and the piano ha ha

Live Stats

Buy ins:    -£146
Returns:     £910
Net:           £764

Will get a googleshack sorted when I get a moment! also got some staking running and funking hard for Boba in TCOOP!

With the SPS seat locked up going to start trying to sat into the April deepstack when it opens, self barred from DTD online so gotta fix that! Had a disagreement over the Blackjack box which I think should have been blockable as I have a reall online Blackjack problem and I don't need the option when tilted from poker but feel in a better place now so will just put a deposit cap on it just incase! Would be good to meet some people if I get to DTD.

Good luck for all your Sunday grinds....

3/24 8k guaranteed KO, closest I have had to a sweat yet! fingers crossed! $2k up top

Insta Bok ha ha

PokerStars Hand #93195319613: Tournament #679197046, $10.00+$2.50+$1.00 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXV (2500/5000) - 2013/01/30 0:11:34 WET [2013/01/29 19:11:34 ET]
Table '679197046 29' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: xzone23 (198261 in chips)
Seat 2: hunt4you (55993 in chips)
Seat 4: smooke28 (158728 in chips)
Seat 5: xXDragonXx75 (108942 in chips)
Seat 6: Rab90 (237891 in chips)
Seat 7: RongVang86dn (129303 in chips)
Seat 8: im570rm (134707 in chips)
Seat 9: kartrid (74290 in chips)
xzone23: posts the ante 625
hunt4you: posts the ante 625
smooke28: posts the ante 625
xXDragonXx75: posts the ante 625
Rab90: posts the ante 625
RongVang86dn: posts the ante 625
im570rm: posts the ante 625
kartrid: posts the ante 625
im570rm: posts small blind 2500
kartrid: posts big blind 5000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [7d 7c]
xzone23: folds
hunt4you: raises 50368 to 55368 and is all-in
smooke28: folds
xXDragonXx75: folds
Rab90: raises 54632 to 110000
RongVang86dn: folds
im570rm: folds
kartrid: calls 68665 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (36335) returned to Rab90
*** FLOP *** [Th 8h 7s]
*** TURN *** [Th 8h 7s] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [Th 8h 7s Js] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kartrid: shows [Ks As] (a flush, Ace high)
Rab90: shows [7d 7c] (three of a kind, Sevens)
kartrid collected 36594 from side pot
hunt4you: shows [9d Ac] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
kartrid collected 173604 from main pot
kartrid wins the $2.50 bounty for eliminating hunt4you
hunt4you finished the tournament in 23rd place and received $50.14.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 210198 Main pot 173604. Side pot 36594. | Rake 0
Board [Th 8h 7s Js 4s]
Seat 1: xzone23 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: hunt4you showed [9d Ac] and lost with a straight, Seven to Jack
Seat 4: smooke28 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: xXDragonXx75 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Rab90 showed [7d 7c] and lost with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 7: RongVang86dn (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: im570rm (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: kartrid (big blind) showed [Ks As] and won (210198) with a flush, Ace high

From both pots, to side pot to no pots

Sigh 99<QQ

PokerStars Hand #93247723116: Tournament #679198276, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXVIII (3500/7000) - 2013/01/30 23:49:49 WET [2013/01/30 18:49:49 ET]
Table '679198276 88' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: vanspans (108370 in chips)
Seat 2: LUTREX (177699 in chips)
Seat 3: flaquita1234 (470848 in chips)
Seat 5: appelgebak (762492 in chips)
Seat 6: Rab90 (513069 in chips)
vanspans: posts the ante 875
LUTREX: posts the ante 875
flaquita1234: posts the ante 875
appelgebak: posts the ante 875
Rab90: posts the ante 875
appelgebak: posts small blind 3500
Rab90: posts big blind 7000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Qs Qc]
vanspans: raises 100495 to 107495 and is all-in
LUTREX: folds
flaquita1234: folds
appelgebak: calls 103995
Rab90: raises 404699 to 512194 and is all-in
appelgebak: calls 404699
*** FLOP *** [Kd Jc 4d]
*** TURN *** [Kd Jc 4d] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [Kd Jc 4d Kh] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
appelgebak: shows [Ac Ad] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
Rab90: shows [Qs Qc] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
appelgebak collected 809398 from side pot
vanspans: shows [5c 5s] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
appelgebak collected 326860 from main pot
Rab90 finished the tournament in 17th place and received $42.56.
vanspans finished the tournament in 18th place and received $42.56.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1136258 Main pot 326860. Side pot 809398. | Rake 0
Board [Kd Jc 4d Kh 6s]
Seat 1: vanspans showed [5c 5s] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fives
Seat 2: LUTREX folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: flaquita1234 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: appelgebak (small blind) showed [Ac Ad] and won (1136258) with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 6: Rab90 (big blind) showed [Qs Qc] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens

Was about to post a sweat aswell! 3/19 then this happens! Sigghhhhh

Had an 82/2705 and 18/1154 last night  so reasonably happy I am getting in the correct spots.  The massive field MTT's are a hard mistress.

Down to about £28 from the original deposit so probably one more session then top up time but that is the nature of the game!  Played around 50 games cashing in 5 so bang on the 10%.  Will do an OCR/sharkscope review at the end of month 1.

Fitness Update

Going to start a fresh tomorrow! been a hard month with meetings and health! always start a diet on the 1st! (and not stop on the 2nd I guess)

Took a bad beat on this fitness challenge, didn't realise there was a £75 sign up charge! sigh! read the small print Chris, READ the small print! Although for a good cause so cest la vie.

Poker Update

Off to the Circus casino tonight for a £30 23,500 chip affair, usually gets a bout 40 runners! run fairly well in these type of affairs (queue bok) so will update if anything interesting happens!

On the 1st I will review the short period of month 1 and set the bar for month 2! while figuring out the best way to monitor all this, its very much a work in progress!

Can't put a price on good health, mate. Good luck for February.

Calling this a month end review but its only been a week, just good accounting :)

Online

Deposits:   -£111
Balance:     £26
Net:          -£85

Played an £11 sat on Genting for a GPS which I bubbled for £3 lol which added to deposits! Played a few games, ran deep a few times, will be picking up the momentum on this in months to come! The Main thing I am happy with is not punting off the deposit on bigger turbos as I am annoyed at the end of a session, this is like seeing monkeys use tools for the first time as this is so not like me!

Live

Buy ins:     -£217
Returns:     £910
Net:           £693

Played last night and a joke £5 pub game Monday which I threw in for 100% accuracy! Last night was fun, bust twice (again), need to work on not punting off the end of stacks and wanting to reenter, the reentries will be killing my equity and it is a definite issue! Got done by AK twice to lose both stacks, first time A10 hit two pair on a fairly unscary board and got the max by taking a strange line! second time A4 pulled off the same trick! Got dusted off by our very own Forth Thistle in a  8c 8d vs  Kc Qc race, into Davies range it was probably a bad shove, might have found a better spot but they were parsley and parsley is parsley  ;surrender; on the plus side Davie did give me the free pint with the bar meal voucher he had so would rather my chips went there!

Live Cash

Buy ins:     -£120
Returns:     £328
Net:           £208

Played 50/50 after bust last night, cashed in for £120 and out for £328 for a decent session over 3 hours.  I drew light as it was all I had on me, I know its below -ve but so is punting £30 on roulette to try and get the £150 max sit down lol Had a great blackjack session with some Texans before I got a seat! fist pumping, face down doubles and great to play a shoe with guys who arent hitting 12 into a 6 or sticking on 14 into a 10 and all that nonsence I usually see!

The cash game was good but annoying, very drunk players, one abusive and one took an age to do anything! was on super tilt but persevered and quietly pretty much got the lot on a fairly narrow table, somehow nobody ever believed me, open to a £2 on the button with  5h 5d smooth a £3 donk lead on  Tc Td 4h get the bingo  5s turn, check raise a second lead from £7 to £20, overshove the river and get called by a hand without a ten! was loving the image, guy was an absolute station and knew the overshove would get paid.  Housed up again with J9 later on a  Jh Jd Th 9s 6h board and again managed to get a ridiculous overbet called on the river, again without a house.  Was just a game not to draw as every hit would get full payment.  Last hand of night opened  Tc  8s 5 handed from the button with all the 50p chips I had to get rid £3, get called in two spots, get a  Ks 9h 7d flop, smooth another donk lead of about £5, wasn't interested in giving away a chunk last hand by overplaying the draw, get the binktastic  5c turn, checked to me, lead for £13 and am called.  Fire in a £45 bet on the river and get insta called by KJ.  With that the table broke and I left pretty happy! Obvioulsy 2 good turns helped me out but made some fairly big correct laydowns and booked a win which is the main thing!

So all in all in the first month (or week lol) we are up £816 whic I am obviously happy with, tiny samples on all games but it is a solid start to my poker tracking, going to get an image shack going so I can be a bit more precise.

Pretty tough weekend on the old poker front, did not play too much but when I did it was in -ve circumstances, wiped my stars balance when punting off turbos after a night out which was NOT ideal! I did not have too much in it, so not a disaster and wasn't on the dreaded HU Hypers!

Same situation on the live cash, was out for a birthday on Friday night and ended up at a pretty dreadful club, gave it 20 minutes and decided to go play cash! Was never a good idea, had been out for the whole night, and was not in the frame of mind! Lost £160 on the session, did not even take that long. Tilted after one hand, guy 3b shoved £20 with   Jh 9s and I am committed with  Qd Js and lose to a trip 9 on the turn. Not sure why it annoyed me, pretty standard beat but I wasn't rolled to reload and an early hit wasnt really what I was looking for.  Then I get a spot I took some stick for, not sure of opinions, I am playing about £74, and it is only a 50/50 table, as I mentioned, had not taken money to reload so playing shallow, although table is not deep so not a huge issue.  Early position raise to £5 from frequent raiser (was actually scandanavian), called in 3 positions, I am on button with  Jh Ahrt.  So we have £21 in pot, I do not like 3b as I have very little fold equity and I am behind so little.  So I just open shoved! thinking process being raiser beats me low % of the time and the other players should be behind with flatting hands.  In the terms of the game £21 is a reasonable chip up pot. Thoughts on this? there was a lot of yeah your aces are good comments but I didn't see it as that bad.

Bust hand was pretty bad (I think), I flat a 3b in position from my £3 open to £9 with  Ac Ks off playing about £100.  I can 4b here but was starting to enjoy the table and thought better spots would be present that 3b player.  Get a  Qs Qc Jh flop, and I call a continuation bet of £12, we get an x turn, and I am pretty confident he doesn't have Q as he is not loving life with my call.  We get a £19 turn lead, and I float £81 in pot, I am left with about £50-£60 behind.  He checks river as I expect and I jam as I have him on AA/KK/AJ or 1010 of which I think he can fold all of those to me, he tanks for ages and sigh calls with bullets and its GG! daft spot to get in so shallow.  Almost worked out but way too reckless and reinforced the fact I should not have been playing!

Online

Deposits:   -£131
Balance:     £0
Net:          -£131


Live Cash

Buy ins:     -£280
Returns:     £328
Net:           £48

I just booked a hotel for the Grand Prix, definetly going to come down and give it a try, will probably try and play Friday and Saturday (if need be), if it does not sell out before I buy in.  Will be trying the satellites from as soon as they appear as a CPP prize would be nice! Hope to meet some people down there!

Good news on the fitness front! managed two days of healthy eating and gym which is a 2013 record  ;applause;

Have continued on the good eating but sacked the gym tonight, I got football on Saturday and need to be able to move and (more likely the real reason) I wanted to play poker! Feeling good after a healthy week, spoke to a Personal Trainer last night and going to pick up on a proper regime in the near future! diet, lifestyle the works (big SIGH).....

So late reg'd a £20+£10 23,500 chip effort tonight! SOOOOOOO wish I had not! did my usual special accounting to decide if I could play take A divide it by B to the power of C spend £1 a day on food and we can afford to play! the maths never works out as no we cannot play! Sat down and had not even unfurled my headphones when there was a 10k raise on the flop (2k pot) at 100/200 which made me laugh, shortly followed by another! seems we are in a nomadic land of interesting poker! sighhhhh (second of the night), played one hand before the break.  Called an open to 500 from the button with  Ahrt 4h called a continuation bet of 1000 on a  Aspades Kc 3h flop, 3 ways to the turn.  Called a 2nd barrel on the  6s turn for 1500 (probably a fold 3 ways), check/check on a  3c river.  I led for around pot trying to convince Ax that I had A3/A6 but he found the call with A something and choppy choppy time.

After the break I dealt out the goodness of my heart (we all self deal up Norf), very little action again, raised my button in a limped pot to 700 at 150/300 with   Kc 8c get an interesting  Kh 8h 7h flop.  Lead out for 1000, called in one spot,  4h turn, check check, get the magic  8s river and can't even get a 2500 value bet called by a player that literally never folded once! (another sigh), this leads to the wondrous exit hand.  This player has showed the  9c 2d ball in a raised pot and called down one pair until spiking the deuce on the river, called all streets with a gut shot to banjo bullets a few hands earlier.  I get 4 limps (yeah 4) including said player under the gun, I look down at  Ahrt  Ad and pump it up to 2200 in the small blind.  All limpers call.  Maybe I should bet more to try and scare off OOP but hey ho, live players do not fold.  Get a fairly unscary  9h Ts 2d flop, lead for 5000, get called by "my friend" and get a  5s turn, I have a bout 17000 and there is now over that in the pot.  I am totally bewildered by what he can have but with an under the gun limp it is hard to think I am behind.  I just open shove thinking he is bad enough to call off with 10x or 9x as it looks funky. He has the  Td 2s and fades the river wp sir! I can get out the hand with chips if I play it slower but that is life.

I guess that is Karma for not going to the gym!  Next week is a £50 4 day 1 game in Glasgow, £15,000 guaranteed which is pretty good! Last few times have got £25,000 ish in the pot so it is well worth attending! my work has a company flat in Glasgow so I can stay over which is a bonus.  Playing the Thursday and Sunday so allowing 2 bullets at it.  Also booked hotel for Grand Prix next month and got Scottish Poker Series end of March so all is moving on.  Going to try and satellite to April Deepstack, GPS Newcastle and maybe Monte Carlo...fingers crossed I get one of them! hate hyper spunking cash at satellites!

Live

Buy ins:     -£250
Returns:     £910
Net:           £660

Sunday is Day 2. Day 1's are Wed thru Sat.

Aye Davie, I meant Saturday lol I am working on the conclusion I wont be playing Sunday! you playing?

Yep probably playing Wed and Saturday for £110.

Such a good Value Tourney....

Well done on the APAT captain btw, well I hope to see you on Sunday not Saturday! can only be good news for both of us :) even better value for £55 ha ha

Will see you on Sunday.

May sell 50%...

Pm me if you do wanna sell anything :)

Wandered in tonight and somehow ended on final table :) 3/9 be live on http://videos.gentingpoker.com/edinburgh-live/  in a bit maybe, black cardigan with semi jls neckline lol

Was a £30 double chance tonight, managed to book the win for £660, tournament report of sorts tomorrow, will look like, turned up, ran bad, decided wanted to bust and go drinking, ran like god, win! ha ha

Live

Buy ins:     -£283
Returns:     £1,570
Net:           £1,217

On the down side spunked a £100 in cash trying to do a bigger spin up! :( big leak of mine, literally played horrendous, table joke soft and I was the softest of the soft! sighhhhhhhhh

Live Cash

Buy ins:     -£380
Returns:     £328
Net:           -£48

Bed time, good luck all those left in GPS, especially Alex, would love to see a jumpstart on the Prose for a Poshboy

The fitness challenge has actually started to look like it is happening now! Been limiting to 1500 calories a day, and been to the gym 3 times, which has been pretty tough as my fitness levels are appauling! Weighed myself and we are 3lbs from the start of January, although probably lost more than that this week as pretty sure we went up in the rocky January!  ;charmaine; quite worryingly I had lost 2 inches in height, gotta love boots dodgy machines, sure adult shrinkage doesnt hit that quick! I had my hair spiked, was kinda hoping I may hit six feet aswell :( was out with work on Friday to some ridiculous cocktail bar but managed to fade the hangover and be sensible for football on the Saturday!

Alas, I woke up on the Saturday to the "GAME OFF" (my manager can't work caps lock) text! first week I actually was not hoping for it! did start to wonder why I play football when 2/3 mornings I am praying the text comes ha ha got two games of 5 a sides tonight to make up for it, may even hit gym shortly!

Based on the appearance of a free day, I walked along the road to my mates sons party at soft play, I envy my friends with families in many ways, but seeing the horde of kids stompeding round gambados I started to <3 my life a bit too ha ha then wen't to pub to watch coupons get beat (again)! I backed walsall at 11/4 with 3 other teams and then a 1/2 shot is the loser for a fair chunk! Bad times! Also lost by 1 again in these last 20 minute bet affairs, my mission in life is to get one up! Swansea let me down, scored in 67 minutes, SIGGGHHHH! Walking out the pub, my mate put his pint down which toppled off the shelf, whilst saying good bye to someone we knew, then out of nowhere, Grant Mitchell's stunt double started claiming it was his mates pint who was at the toilet and we should buy another! As he was with a group including a guy we knew I assumed it was a level, then Phil Mitchell's stunt double starts and he had that "mad" look in his eye, and I was thinking! SIGGGGHHHHH I know my mate won't back down and I am pretty sure we could not take either of them between us! suddenly, another guy goes Errrrr his pint is actually round there! and they were like OH, Alright Sorry!  ;nemesis; 

After surviving a kicking from the Mitchell brothers we decided to go casino for dinner and a game and stopped at bookies on the way! me and my mate have an issue of not being able to walk passed them, we usually put a 5er each on a forecast at the next meeting, pick a dog each, winnings pay for drinks at night! Newcastle race, tight affair one of these 7/2 the field effort! My theory in dogs is to visualise the first bend, well graded dogs who hit the bends, should place, I picked the 2 dog at 4/1 cause the 1 had a habbit of dwelling, 3 more of a 4 or 5 dog than a 2 dog and unlikely to sharp turn the bend, with 2 having EP it seemed a good place prospect.  My mate picked the 5, not sure of thought process (I guess cause racing post picked it :) ) at 5/1! plan worked to perfection 2 and 5 got the bend, 5 got passed two for the better forecast and managed to clear the day and buyins for the tournament!  :)up

Tournament started well, table was pretty nuts, got loads of value, got one hand, I raised in mid position with 8c 9c and get two calls from button and big blind.  Raise was like 375 at 75/150.  Get a  Js 8d 3h flop, and lead for about 700, called on the button, big blind (who is awful) makes it 1700.  I know he is of the he raise pre he must have AK camp, hence he will do this with next to nothing.  With the button I flat to reassess.  Button comes along, next card is the  Jh he leads for 3000 and I fold although still not convinced.  He eventually shows  8h 9h himself after the button called his bet and check/check river.  Slightly tilted by knowing I could have had that pot if I had gone with my gut. I raise out 375 again with Ad 3d I get a caller, get a  4d 5c  8h flop, I continue for about 600 and again get 1700, I again flat, but pretty sure A high is actually good in this spot against this player (think he saw me forced off last hand and assumes I will be forced off all my raise, does he not know live players do not fold! I plan to check/raise most turns.  Turn is a blank and I check, he bets 3000 which only leaves him 2400 behind (plays shallow 6,000 chips, then the same for a second chance), I shove even more convinced he had zero! and he folds for the extra 2400, yes FOLDS!  ;angel;

I get moved table, and end up from being with a soft table to being out of position against a player I literally hate playing against! I started a thread about a player than criticised my shuffling, it was said player! First hand I open JJ at 150/300 to 625 from early position, he 3b to 1200 playing 4500 (thats all you get for coming in late on the first bullet), I am playing about 21,000 and am never folding JJ to his 3b range, too shallow to 4b fold, so I just set him in, see the  Ahrt Kc and we [  ] flip well!

After the break I bleed down to 10k, played pretty bad and decided I quite fancied going clubbing and was setting up places to go post bust! 3b shove Queens at 300/600 and double against AQ.  Then start chipping up really well! very drunk players, playing like very drunk players, raised  Qc Ac get various calls and drunk guy donk leads the Q high flop! I 4b he shows his  Qd 4s without folding and then has to play face up! he almost did continue which would have been pretty funny! (unless 4 hit).  Moved table again and chipped up to about 40k which is above average, open  Ks Qs to 1300 at 300/600 we get a  Jd Tc 2h flop, I am OOP to the player I dislike, who checks to me, I decide to small ball and not continue, just not comfortable in my position and would rather try to get to the river and see two cards at my draw!  raise of 3000 comes in, disliked player calls, I just smooth! turn is the  Kc check/check to raiser who shoves for about 16,000, disliked player dwells for ages (i know he is drawing by what he is saying, think he assumes I fold) and then calls! I look at it, I think caller has a flush draw, I have top paid and open ended, the original raiser may be protecting a hand.  I think about it, I am left with 10 bigs if I call, if I call and win I am over double average in a soft tournament and pretty confident! I find the call and see K10off and two low clubs! So I need a non club Ace or Nine, or a queen, or a jack! The Jack ball comes on the river for thre pretty sick counterfeit! I do not hate my thought process here, I think we are never dead here as neither flats AQ and the pot is huge!

Totally uneventful to final table.  Sit down OOP to a good player which means I am not going to play too much until the shorties go as I am sitting pretty comfortably and do not want to bleed 30k a hand with marginals! At one point I fold  4d 4h UTG, is that bad? 8 handed and with an active shoving short stack on the button who has an itchy trigger figure and the good player very likely to 3b light, I just hated the spot.  Get down to 5 handed pretty quick, playing back a bit, nothing major.  Sitting with 95k at 4000/8000 and UTG shoves, we have  Ac Js UTG has been card dead but only had 80k and I shove behind, I know he is shoving light with blinds due.  Big stack rubs his hands and thinks, I think OH DEAR! table is good fun, everyone laughing and joking, I am enjoying the game and do not wan't to go out! He finds the fold with AQ  ;hattip; Thanking you! I see  Ahrt 6c and flop two pair for zero sweat! AQ would have straighted up on turn and he dies inside! not sure it is a call there, I would have thought the ladderage of knocking out of two makes it a must call with a premium when he had 225k, he would still have been 2/5 if he lost that pot! but not complaining!

The good player who makes life difficult then clashes with the big stack, gets called down 3 streets and is outkicked leaving him with 75k, was pretty happy at this point! my big blind next and I am playing 170k.  I ask him how much the shove is from his button to my blind before we get cards, as expected the shove comes, I get A9, I will call him very light here and that is massive, as expected I see the  Td 2d and hold!  ;cupcake; not sure why he did not wait a hand, whilst a nightmare to play against patience in these spots is always an issue!

Then a pretty bad hand 3 handed.  I raise A8 on the button playing about 230k and the small blind makes it 80k with 40k behind.  I am not folding a reasonable ace 3 handed in this spot as he will be happy with any low pair and any face cards into my button raising range! I think and forgetting he is not all in put 100k on top of my 34k open and 8000/16000 but announce it as "Yeah I have to call" before it goes in, we turn our hands over he has A10, now the dealer quite rightly sayscause I announced call, his 40k is left behind the line and we play without the ability to raise! this was 100% not my intention and he accepted that, I have never angle shot in my life intentionally! We spike the 8 ball on the river, so as kinda Karma it actually saves him in this spot, whilst him winning the hand would have been better Karma I guess! Rumour has it he is starting a thread called "Ultra bad play, rewarded with bowl of rice" as I shockingly spiked a 3 outer when knowing I was not good  ;ifm; hangs head in shame :( next hand we get all in again, he shoves blind, I call as its only 3 bigs, I have 22 he finds the 99 on the blind shove lol 9 in the window, 2 next card, the quad out would have been disgusting but never came! Two hands later I knocked him out,  Ad 2d vs  Kh Js he hits flop, I flush river.

Get heads up £400 for second £660 for first.  I have about 420k other guy has a bout 320k, he suggests a deal, I am never taking that, A its not enough to worry about, B I am not working tomorrow and C how do people get better at heads up if they never play it! Does not take too long, I chip away at him and hit two paid when floating a raise with a suited Q, he has AKoff and has totalling bricked but still 4b shoved my 3b when I am commited to call, A on turn for a sweat but we take it down  ;first;

Gutted that I lost £100 playing cash for no reason! such a stupid thing, it is 4am I am in tournament mode, I call every hand trying to bingo a big pot in a table full of drunk scandies on a work conference! I would have been super confident playing deep at this table 3 hours earlier but not now, shallow and tired! I got a horrendous slow roll in my exit hand, I announce Q high having missed my flush, pushed my bowl on the turn, guy says, "well you have to show it", and is acting as if I am good, and then shows the J before the K in a slow reveal! dealer was pretty shocked, was pretty dirty, no history with the guy, literally had not said a word to him! almost snapped bought the table max to get him back but I decided I should be good for once in my life!

Well, that is a bit of a novel, so I am off to rest my fingers! Enjoy your Sundays, good luck to everyone at the GPS

Played last night, 2 bullets at a £53 game, short cliffs:

Bullet 1:

 5h 6h <<<<< AQo on  4h 4s 8h flop
AA <<<<<  Ts 8s
AA <<<<< J6

On the third one had spun up last 575 chips to 4k at 100/200, raised a limper, called and donk led J high flop and fist pumped them into my shove for 3000 chips into a pot of 2200.  J turn! Should not have rebought as was on hyper tilt but back we went!

Bullet 2:

Bad Table :(
Moved Table :)
 Ac Jc >  Aspades 6s AIPF (yes we won one)
 7c 8c <  5c 6c on  Kc  6h  9c 3h 3d despite a hefty river bet with the 8 high! Club one time :(
 Ac Qc< 4d 4s AIPF

Bad day at the office! played pretty bad, not happy at all with decision making!

Tonight is the darts tournament at casino (two of my favourite things!!!) Van Barneveld, Anderson, Fordham and Bristow!  I assume it will be the veterans in one match and Ando Barney in the other but either way, should be a great night out!

Live Poker

Buy ins:     -£389
Returns:     £1,570
Net:           £1,111

First ever trip to play poker in Glasgow, no idea how its taken this long! 27,500 chips, 30 minute level day 1s and £15,000 guarantee for £50! Should be fun, early observation, everything on menu is deep fried, vinny would be happy!

What football team do you play for?

Well done with the profits. Excellent set of results.

Stop making me jealous!

Good luck in the comp. tenner bounty on davie blacklaw, if he played.

Thanks mate, way too small sample, but good start!

I play for St Bernards FC, Saturday amateur, nothing spectacular but the team have a pretty good history! May even get a game tomorrow unless it starts randomly snowing!

Think Davie played Wednesday and was going to try Saturday! The menu is like a starter list from a Chinese/Indian combo, I was going to go for one of each, assumed that was a Vinny special!

Made it through with 46,000 which is not really ideal at 2000/4000/300 but I literally found one spot the last level, was playing 7 handed and most players would have been commited to a 3 bet shove so needed to have a reasonably tight range, and unopened spots always had utter garbage!

In for two bullets, first attempt, spent the whole level trying to bust a really bad player, who was just betting like a lunatic, unfortunately my eagerness to be in pots with him led to bleeding chips and in all honesty I probably was playing as bad as he was! Sigh, one day I will turn off that switch! Didn't have cash for the second bullet as I do not take money to casinos above what I need and didn't realise it was a reentry, took the £5 I had and spun it up to £55 on roulette (the main reason I do not bring spare money!) so we are kinda free rolling this and it saves going back on Saturday!

My work has a pretty sick flat in Glasgow near the casino which I stayed in, so got a pretty good set up for this and looking forward to shiving my 11 blinds on Sunday ha ha £9,000 in the pot thus far with 2 day 1's to go, busiest days so will expect at least a £20k pot!

GFY Vinny.

Playing tonight, got a good record in the Saturday competition, think a 1st, 2nd and 4th in the last 7 attempts so confidence is high, although day 2 of the £15k guaranteed starts at 1pm in Glasgow so I guess a 4am finish is not ideal but I am just going to shove 11 blinds so not sure I need to be fully awake ha ha

Had a pretty mental day off yesterday, way too much going on at bookies, out till god knows when and woke up in a pretty bad way this morning, had to spin up what little cash I had lying about for a crack at tonight, thankfully we managed it as its not about Saturday nights in! Will do an update when I am home, may even post some joke hands if I turn my spew switch, had to reneter early a lot lately so going to try and behave!!! watch this space!

Well that went well....cough

I did make my aim of not donking off my first (and only) bullet! Was a double chance 6k both chances, I didn't take the option early, I usually do but the need for one bullet slowed me slightly! one early hand of note, confuses me, guy raises MP to 350 at 150/300, one call and I flat with  Kc Tc on the button, seemed okay, position and a playable hand 3 ways.  We get a ten high flop, OR leads out for 500, caller calls, now, I am not going to smooth down here as this has missed a chunk of his range, so I bump it up to 2000, OR folds, the caller, asks me what I have behind, like 3,200, and then sets me in, I am never folding this spot versus this player, as he has shown some funky hands, I call, he has J9 for an open ender, and turns the Q! Sigh! Not sure if he ever thinks I fold in that spot, and if he doesn't how that can be a winning play when the open ender is never gettin the % to the pot to make it +ve

Managed to get my second bullet down to 10 big blinds after the break, 2 pair into a straight, followed by TPTK into a set, which I managed to put down for my last 2000 lol this was ideal as I am playing 10 big blinds today, probably good to get some practice in, so clearly this was all meant ha ha I shove with 99 over an open and get called by 22, to double, then get KK, I open to 700 as I actually want the call, guy goes all in for 800, one other caller and we are good to go! player shoves on a jack high board into the dry pot and I call and KK beats KJ although the small pot gets taken by the small stack with a turned Ace!

Got up above average with constantly raising the table and life was good, pretty comedy spot, guy never turns up for tournament and his dead stack is changed tables 3 times, he is playin cash apparently, he comes back at midnight when only 12 players left and calls the floor about him being blinded down LOL I was like "mate, surely if you could just leave your stack till the final table, we may just all do it?" he was actually serious! He got his last 2100 in at 800/1600 and went out, even more comedy, he called UTG and kept his 500 back!! Good Times!

Got hand for hand and I had a pretty frustrating pot, first time player to my left made doing anything pretty difficult and his complete unpredictability made me own my own soul! So annoyed with how I played last 30 minutes, some great spots to follow through on! Live and learn I guess! I shove over an open with  Ac Qc and can't outrace 9's and we are out on the bubble! I played pretty disciplined for most of the night, so I am still happy enough!

Back for the Genting today, see Forth Thistle is through despite Vinny's bokking, details from website below:

27 of 122 players from Day 1D join the other 66 survivors on Sunday for Day 2.
 Total Entries; 437
 Remaining; 93
 Average stack; 129k
 Prizepool; £21,850
 35 prizes (8% of field)

I have 46k so one double with blinds and I am on average, bit of a trek to play 1 hand if I fail though lol, 8% of field is pretty unusual I thought, will be annoyed if I finish 36-43rd (more so than usual), good tournament and will be trying my level best  ;pokergods;

Live Poker

Buy ins:     -£422
Returns:     £1,570
Net:           £1,048

The £110 for the Glasgow thing is not off that yet as it is not completed so we will be back to 00's ville if we bust today....

Safely (if not happily) back in Edinburgh, SIGH!

Got a huge break getting seat 9 with a 10 BB stack, then had that removed when they drew for button spot, drew seat 10 so got our advantage back! Managed to play 40 minutes (YES 40) without finding a spot to shove 10 bigs, literally not a single spot, my best hand was J9 off, and that was in an opened spot! patience paid off and we shoved 24k with 66 and get called by K5 in the BB and hold! I am then up to about 52,000 but after that it went pretty wrong, very next hand, I have  3d 3h UTG, I have over 10 bigs at 2500/5000/500 but having just got back in it, I elected to fold, which I think is pretty daft! It did end up 3b pre so I may not have been good, but I know I should probably be shoving that spot!

The I made a daft peel, guy leads out for 11,000, SB called, it is 6,000 for me to call and there is 30k in the middle, but that 6k is such a big chunk of my chips, the peel to hit anything and then shove play is just so bad its untrue! I knew it was bad, I even said "this is so bad" but then preceeded to do it!  8d 5d missed the flop as it does! and we have gifted a chunk! Next hand in SB there is a late raise to 11,000 I have 2,500 in and about 35k back, I have  7d 8d and with it being a frequent raiser, I took a stab that we were live and shoved, he nit slow roll calls AKo and although we turn and open ended straight draw meaning a 4,7,8 or 10 would win us the pot, we bow out in like 74th.  Pretty annoyed, was patience personafied for 45 minutes then went bananas in 3 hands!

Buy ins:     -£532
Returns:     £1,570
Net:           £1,038

On the plus side, I miscounted above and actually am still in 000 profit ha ha small mercys!

Going to do very little play this week, bit tilted and been punting loads on ill advised gambles off poker, so going to avoid casinos this week! get some perspective back.

Decided to play a few MTT's online following a shocking day at work, this cheered me up!  Villain had 3b my last 3 opens and already doubled us up with A5o vs our 99

PokerStars Hand #94258896046: Tournament #708010491, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (60/120) - 2013/02/18 20:18:39 WET [2013/02/18 15:18:39 ET]
Table '708010491 51' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Rab90 (4420 in chips)
Seat 2: HalukYilmaz (11581 in chips)
Seat 3: pek710 (11110 in chips)
Seat 4: fred5454 (2950 in chips)
Seat 5: marina040290 (1534 in chips)
Seat 6: g00dKat96 (3220 in chips)
Seat 7: ggrigorop (13236 in chips)
Seat 8: ToM RoX 420 (2180 in chips)
Seat 9: Pole_G_1958 (1745 in chips)
Rab90: posts the ante 15
HalukYilmaz: posts the ante 15
pek710: posts the ante 15
fred5454: posts the ante 15
marina040290: posts the ante 15
g00dKat96: posts the ante 15
ggrigorop: posts the ante 15
ToM RoX 420: posts the ante 15
Pole_G_1958: posts the ante 15
HalukYilmaz: posts small blind 60
pek710: posts big blind 120
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Ac Ts]
fred5454: folds
marina040290: folds
g00dKat96: folds
ggrigorop: folds
ToM RoX 420: folds
Pole_G_1958: folds
Rab90: raises 240 to 360
HalukYilmaz: folds
pek710: raises 840 to 1200
Rab90: raises 3205 to 4405 and is all-in
pek710: calls 3205
*** FLOP *** [4h 2s Qc]
*** TURN *** [4h 2s Qc] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [4h 2s Qc 8h] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pek710: shows [5d 9c] (high card Queen)
Rab90: shows [Ac Ts] (a pair of Tens)
Rab90 collected 9005 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9005 | Rake 0
Board [4h 2s Qc 8h Th]
Seat 1: Rab90 (button) showed [Ac Ts] and won (9005) with a pair of Tens
Seat 2: HalukYilmaz (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: pek710 (big blind) showed [5d 9c] and lost with high card Queen
Seat 4: fred5454 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: marina040290 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: g00dKat96 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: ggrigorop folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ToM RoX 420 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Pole_G_1958 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Didn't go well after that:

Online Poker

Deposits:   -£131
Balance:     £0
Net:          -£131

Top up required soon.

Been pretty quiet of late, mainly as I have done my nut on non poker games!

On the fitness front, I turned up for football today, for the first time in many weeks, to find my position was filled :( was a bit of a humbling experience and what you probably deserve for weeks on the sidelines but sitting watching 90 minutes of Saturday afternoon amateur football is still kind of fun! 5 games to choose from its like having sky plus but with meaty waist high tackles on every pitch! still sigh though, I was looking forward to my triumphant return! We did lose 9-0, it would have been 10-9 if I played :p

Followed that up with "Darts Night 2" at the house, prize fighter on the TV and a 10 man darts tournament, was incredible banter from start to finish, my group ended with a 3 way tie on 3 wins a piece and we played a 101 games 3 ways to decide the 2 that went through to the semi finals! it was tense but I managed to scrape through second with a solid double 10 off a wired miss.  Unfortunately second meant I played Dale who pretty much breaths darts as second qualifier! I didnt even get a shot at the double in the first game, and on the second I had 3 missed attempts before he took me out! Played the 3/4 playoff for £20 and from nowhere took out an 80 checkout to take it down, best finish of mine to date, and in a "pressure" game it was pretty funny!  The final saw Dale play my flatmates dad in a David (quite literally cause that is his name) vs Goliath task, and after Dale took down the first leg, David reeled off 2 massive sling shots to take out Goliath and scoop the tournament, incredible scenes! It was all that is good about darts ha ha the victors went accross the road to the strippers to celebrate but nursing my bowl I had to watch from the window :( try living accross the road from a lap dancing club in austentacious times :( not good!

Managed to blag a £100 and went to the casino with the boys, having watched the DTD live stream last night, decided to play Berridge cards all night, the table were going pretty bat shit over some of the hands.  Owned a drunk Irish guys soul, he 3b after I flatted an open with the ducks, flop came down  Tc 6c 4c and he bet out for £20, I am sitting with about £75 and shoved my  2h 2s cause I literally was sure he would fold, he shows a 10 and passes and I wonder why I get so lucky! Similar spot I have  4h 5h and turn a flush.  He bets out and I 3b leaving myself only £21.50 behind.  Knowing that he can only call with a high heart and should shove with a made flush, I throw the £21.50 in before the river which stops me having to think about folding, as I have no intention of, as I am stacked already (didnt push to rep ridiculous strength), he tank folds  6h 3h following the  Th river, I was literally shocked! it was a £125 and £21.50 to call, of which I had put in before the last card came down! after that I pretty much hit the deck in the face and cashed out for £330 over a 4 hour session, so a win of £230, was a high of £400, so not too bad exit point.  Annoying hand 2nd last, get  Ahrt Kh gets raised to £2 and called £4 ways, I make it £22 and get called by the only player with close to my stack and OOP! disaster with 2 hands left, we both check the  Js high flop, I really want to control the pot and not stack myself without time to recover as its 5am, the blank turn makes me bet out half pot, I get raised, I sense weekness but cant pull trigger and get shown  Kc high for rubs! sighhhhhhh! All in all though I cant complain to book a winning session having got so lucky early!  I have to say watching the online cash stream did inspire me slightly to make some plays, I picked up some bits and pieces which I liked, watching thinking players act can only be good for your game.

Live Cash

Buy ins:     -£480
Returns:     £658
Net:           £178

The very worrying thing about this is, having looked at my 100% honest stats for poker this month I am over a bag up over all  the variations played staking/cash/online/tournaments, I also get a good wage, and I am still scraping for coppers at the end of the month! I just wish I could quit other betting, I am such an ice cream punter its unreal, I have done the councelling, tried it all before but I dread to think what I have punted off this month on -ve bets.....sigh! will watch the Rugby tomorrow, play the evening comp and try and forget all about it.  Good luck to everyone on their Sunday grinds  ;goodluck;

Another impromptu poker effort last night, came out of left field! Woke up at 1pm to go watch the rugby, I do not get the game, but the invation of Irish makes for a fun day! Went to Murrayfield Hotel next to the ground to soak up atmosphere and watched the ritual mugging of a far superior Irish team, I do not get the game as mentioned before but I did figure out if you only have 26% of the ball, you should not really win!

After spending about 4 hours apologising to our Celtic neighbours for the mugging I decided to play the sunday night game £10/£10/£10 pretty bad runners only 30-40 but pretty soft as not many of the better players can be bothered with these tournaments.  I yet again ruined my first bullet, not quite sure how, but I shoved my last chips and got a comic rubs slow roll with KK, probably the worst slow roll you are likely to see, but it was done in humourous way from someone that appreciated I would find it funny.  I think he figured I was keen to bust and retry which is why I didn't throw my toys outwards of the pram.

Second try went better, chipped up rapid and got to final without ever really being in trouble, slow roller was at final along with a couple of players I am used to.  Also a player I played cash the night before who I accused of killing several baby pandas based on questionable play.  4 places paid and I got £90 for 4th which was a bit sigh, some pretty joke all ins, worst hand always won, runner runner chops and nobody getting knocked out! I was only player at final not to be all in behind once, several dodged million bullets but alas I got shot with my first risk! Still another cash keeps percentages good and confidence high.

Going to go tonight, special chinese free buffet (bad for diet) and prize draw which I must have a million entries for! So one time trip to HK please :)

Buy ins:     -£598
Returns:     £1,660
Net:           £1,062

Cliffs for Mondays live comp, turned up, got tilted, had to wait an hour to shove ten bigs (due to enforced chinese buffet break) and lost when ahead!

Wrote more but just lost a big message and now tilt posting a smaller report ha ha

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£653
Returns:     £1,660
Net:          £1,007

Now for the plus side, downloaded DTD online tonight, after good help from Nick in support managed to figure out what the hell was going on! unfortunately deposited into Genting skin by mistake and had to snap withdraw which had tied up a load of cash I could have done with....SIGH! then found I could not use card in two skins and had to go on a 8pm UKash mission! found a buyin for £100 and decided it was "Sat Night"

Bricked first attempt at GP seat, Late Regd due to log in debacle and did not get structure until maybe too late! Second attempt MUCH better! got to final table as chip daddy and bossed it home without a sweat, never in danger and we are regd for Friday live day with a Golden chip OI OI now to get a Saturday seat (just in case) and we are good to go! I do have a good record in iPoker Sats, which I hope long continues!

We then decide that the 50 seat DTD satelitte is too big to turn down despite no desire to play online leg and no idea how to get to Notts this weekend! We start with the intention of grinding the first buyin and adding on, not a 1 RB 1 AO! After a few bad hands we are down from 5000 to 3500, then we get  Qh Qs and find a 3b over an open which is called in 5 spots which is handy! the  Ahrt  Qc 4c flop is handy too! we get all in versus AK and a flush draw and hold and we are chip leader for most of the time pre break! We get  6c 6d the very next hand and stack the loser of the last hand on a 7 high flop putting him on tilt! he was not on tilt he had  Ac Ahrt but we miracle the  6s turn which is harsh but hey ho, it happens to me sometimes too! I am called names in chat box and I LOL

We have a decision to Add on or not as would remain on top 30 either way, decide to do it as it is so bad not to I guess! We manage to grind it down with minimal issues, had a bit of a spot blind on blind where we get min raised, we have AK and only 9 more to go out, we know we got to shove but it feels bad, as I just dont want to play a hand! and no idea what the play is with so many players clearly gone to sleep having locked up! We dont get called and literally never all in the entire time! We knock out the last player who is all in with 1 big, we flat with  Aspades Ahrt thinking no point commiting anymore and take him out!

So now we have deepstack trip :) snap booked 11am flight to East Midlands, no idea where I am staying or how to get home but buzzing for it! Will put the £100 in the live tournie stats for next month since its not really online losses, keep the accounting proper! But to reitterate buzzing for it  ;sark;

Anyone reading this coming to the deepstack from Newcastle/Edinburgh/Glasgow/Aberdeen PM me as I would be interested in getting home with someone Sunday/Monday for petrol split and such like.  Can swap 10% etc to make it worth hanging back both ways! trains are pretty bad and expensive and flights are so bad as its business time! Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Good luck at the weekend, chris. Ignore the message I sent you on fb, now I've read this thread.

Cheers Vinny, if I win, I will go with the limo idea!

Another good night for satellites (unless you are from the Sicillian isles I gather), managed to get my second Grand Prix seat at the first attempt tonight.  Had £10 left from the money I put in yesterday and managed it for £6 which is pretty good going! To be fair, after 2 crushing early blows when I was chip leader I then started flipping like a champion gymnast and pretty much knocked out the whole final table, starting 8/9 and finishing 1/4 by quite a way!

So that is 2 golden chips booked in for the Grand Prix, bought in to both live days and won't be trying for more as the online grind does not appeal to me in this format.  Managed 2 out of 3 attempts and told outlay of £22 which is good as I had budgeted the full £120 for the entries this month.

On the stats front will do a monthly review tomorrow.  Cant decide how to record the live satellites.  In my view I will take the money spent as live buyins and do it that way.  I think if you count it as online winnings and remove full tournament buyins it will not really record things how I would like as I am trying to find my poker leaks and if all my online wins are sattelite entries it seems a bit off key! So will carry the spend forward add to live buyins following tournament.  We also have the £275 SPS seat in the bank which was a live bonus and not recorded.  So two of my goals for this year already done and we are at month one!

Booked my hotel for Saturday and will worry about getting home when I need to.  Worst case scenario, jump on train, taken Monday off and we are good to go! had a tilt moment last night after releasing I had no ID for flight as driving license has been sent away for renewal! managed to dig my passport out of nowhere as was posted missing quite some time ago...PHEW! that would have been pretty annoying!

Hope to see some of the regulars on here when I am down at DTD  :hello:

Should probably do a quick monthly recap before I go to DTD and quit poker due to playing like a donkeys arse get the lot!

Online Poker

Deposits:   -£131
Balance:     £0
Net:          -£131

Pretty bad month although only really lost an extra few quid from 1st February position.  Also did win a number of satellites but not counting that on these figures.  Will deposit another £100 as in OP, and will look to grind a bit more.  Got my laptop fixed which should help, have been doing this on my work laptop which is always a worry in my head, can also now work on notes and perhaps a HEDM which will improve matters and assist in volume.

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£753
Returns:     £1,660
Net:          £907

This is profit from the previous month again and I am happy with how I am playing in most spots.  Probably running way above +ve in spots but early in tournaments I am busting way too often.  At the level I need to work on single bullets as the increased buy in costs are going to make breaking even an uphill task.

I have made a tough call and ended my running swapping deal with my flat mate, not spoken about that on here but it has been pretty one sided for a while and whilst I am sure he can get it eventually, for the time being it is not mutually beneficial.  This will mean a lot more freedom over cashes and playing etc.

I have removed the £100 spent on satellites from the profit and therefore next month we have a Deepstack, 2 GP Bullets and the Scottish Poker Series as free rolls so a losing March will be very disappointing! Not sure this is the good way to account for this but obviously shots like the deepstack will impact numbers and I would not normally play without selling, to be honest I should probably sell some for bankroll management but feeling good about things so letting it ride!  Also now added playing the IPST to my yearly targets following today's events! My hat is tipped  ;hattip;

Live Cash

Buy ins:     -£480
Returns:     £658
Net:           £178

Down slightly from last month and over the 30 odd days I have been running this we have 2 losing sessions and 2 winning! My main aim is to stop the post tournament spin up, if you have played a tournament till 4am, there is no need to take the cash to the cash table, tournamment final table mode is tough to get out of and it is a certain leak! That I will be trying to cut out although it means I have cashed a tournament so I hope at least the opportunity arises!

Going to play cash at DTD if I bust tomorrow which would be great.  Have a very mixed record at DTD, I either get the lot or nothing! Literally think I have two £1k plus sessions and two down everything I had and sleeping in car sessions! So it will be FUN!!!! degen's going to degen and all that!

Tomorrow

All sorted for my 10:50 flight, assuming no delays I should arrive bang on 1pm (touch wood).....The last time I cashed a big tournament I flew up in the morning and went out the night before and ended up smashed and lucky to make flight! Also played day 1 wearing the clothes I had on the night before as I had woken up in a heap on my floor with no time or inclination to change! So for that reason about to go pub and put the proper range of "practice" in ha ha My main aim tomorrow is not to play it like a one dayer and try and win the lot in the first few levels, this has worked in recent 2 day tournamenets and was a major issue in my last few attempts!

 ;sleep; ;pokergods;

Deep Stack Report part 1

Well, I made it down and home which was pretty much the aim! Unfortunately the trip home was not made with £35 bags in hand, but that is life!

Preperation went without a hitch, went out Friday night, woke up feeling like death, dragged my tired broken self to the airport and off to "live the dream".  Went into Nandos, didnt see Vinny so assumed he would not make it!

I got a pretty difficult starting table I would guess, with Tom Kugelstadt, Maria and Junior Senior all in a line.  I enjoyed the experience and the table was fun, however I struggled to get anything going all day.  I was value betting behind, not value betting when ahead and generally just finding bad spots.  I will not even dream of claiming I played well, I think a 6 pint limit may have to get placed on the next attempt ha ha Tom tried to join Blonde at the table but alas failed the "Bot are you human questions" ha ha

Managed to get to level 13, although managed to get to every break on 27k, which was pretty tilting, also fluctuated between 18k and 43k for the whole 9 hours.  If I had held in a couple od the spots when at my higher levels we could have got something going but it was not to be.  Hands of note as follows:

Flat a Maria open with  Qc Ad at 100/200 as we are in the SB and not really keen on playing OOP.  We get an ace high flop and simply low ball calling the raise, we check/check 10 turn and I fire at the 10 river to be met with  Kd Ts and call the min 3 bet on the river to be taken on a whistle top tour of value town!

Chipped back up with a lucky hand.  We have  8d Kd in SB at 100/200 and it had been min raised by Tom and called in 3 spots so we just decide to see a flop.  We get a  8c 6c 2h flop and check.  Junior Senior raises to about 1200 (I think) which is about 3/4 pot and Button calls.  I decide I am facing draws a lot here and hate 75% of turns so we check/raise to 3500, Junior folds and the button calls which seems like it has to be a draw.  We spike the  Ks turn for top two and carry on for 5500 and are called.  Now I start to wonder if he continues with the draw at this point and get a little worried, we also only have about 10k left at this spot.  We then get the rather good  Kh giving us the actual nuts! With a lot of his hands seeming like draws I decide to lead for 5500 again to give a chance of being called by any slightly made hands.  We get called by  6d 6h for flopped trips and find out we have been a very lucky boy!

Lost a big chunk of these with  Qh Qd vs  Ahrt Ac against Maria again.  We get 3b pre and decide to low ball and attempt to get to the river as cheap as possible.  Pay off three streets on  Jd on the off chance we are facing  Jc Ac but sort of knowing I am toast! Think Maria was a bit gutted not to get more out the hand as 9/10 times I play it a lot differently and can find most/the lot in the spot.

We got above a double up shoving 20k over an open and two calls and holding with  Ts Th over  Jh Ad in a fair race.  Dodged a lot of rivers.

Then my least favourite hand of the day.  We have  Ad Js in position and flat an open into a massive stack.  This should be a 3b into this player, still no idea why I didnt!  Get a  Qd Th 9s flop and call the raise.  Should probably raise here, we then check check the  Jd turn.  Now the  3d river seems perfectly innocent (in my 8 pint haze) and he leads for 10k, I dwell sigh call thinking I could be good and he is stack bullying! Alas the back door flush completely escaped my view which is a shocking mistake.  It made complete sense with betting pattern and would have made a sigh call a sigh fold in my thought process!

Managed to get 3 shoves in a row through to chip back up but at this point I am looking at 10 ish bigs.  Big stack opens and I shove over a suited king as he is opening wide and can fold or have worse and get called by A8 and get out flopped!  Sigh, the dream dies but fun was had and we have not punted off mad $$$$$$$ on roulette so its been a big weekend!

I will do a report of the trip home tomorrow, which is pretty funny, think Tighty mentioned my degenerate weekend stories and I had a pretty interesting day on the Sunday!

Been off this a bit due to doing the lot personnal issues....will do an update today but running a small Micro Millions Day Schedule as follows:

11am  $2  $15k Micro Millions guaranteed
1pm Bigger $5.50 $40k guaranteed
4pm $2.22 HU Turbo Micro Millions $20k guaranteed
5.30pm $11 Special Storm $300k guaranteed
7.30pm $22 Micro Millions Main Event $1 million Guaranteed

See if we get any sweats, GG first already with set over set! Got about $13 of change to splash about in small games too! May need it

GG the big $5.50 but shipped a Main seat in a 50 FPP rebuy so added the $5.50 1R1A $75k guaranteed, if anything interesting happens I will post

Sunday schedule, bricked pretty bad, need to assess play as I was just bad, proper bad!

Accounting needs updated:

Online Poker
Deposits:   -£166
Balance:     £0
Net:          -£166


Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£821
Returns:     £1,685
Net:          £864

Going to sort a spreadsheet pretty soon as the maths are pretty hard this way and I need to keep track!

Cliffs on this month:

Escaped Nottingham, was such a random experience, budgeted for train home and did not take a penny more than needed so I didnt degen off as I have a habit of doing at DTD, then forgot train prices double on the day and didnt have enough cash to get home, the bank of mum was out of town on her Ruby anniversary weekend and we be screwed! Decided to just spend the train money on drink and turn it into Monday's problem, went on a one man mission round the pub of Beeston, sold advertising space on myself for poker tournaments, sold a winning coupon at the bar, kept the fruit machine market going all day, countless people sent me £20 when required and woke up on Monday on the floor of my room with £20 in change on the floor owing a lot more than it would have cost me to just pay for the expensive train! I have this unfortunate issue of being Bi-Polar, it means life is either 1000 miles an hour or 0, which is why I will always be stop and start on blogging! what comes up must come down unfortunately.

Played 2 tournaments at casino....one of them was a bounty hunter, player shoved a 9 high HHH board for 6,000 into a 500 pot! I shoved with  9d 2h and was also called by another played with a gut shot straight draw and the  6h!!!! you could not make this up! As expected my 9 was ahead, as double expected, player B turned his straight and they both rivered the flush! I laughed and walked out! Second tournament, got a stack, both my phones died, had been drinking all day and donked off as I was bored without music/distractions! Won pub poker for £25 though lol #insearchofmylevel

Very very very disappointed to miss the Grand Prix, had two golden chips and was travelling down Thursday to play two live days! My travelling partners uncle took very unwell and obviously family came first so I played two online legs trying to bink Sunday but structure did not suit my game, did make 37th with 18th going through on attempt two but alas not to be!  Not impact on stats as already accounted for!

Main issue of the month is utterly done the lot on various -ve games! Have a non gambling wager on for the whole of April from now, if I gamble on anything other than poker for the month I have to buy my mate into GPS Edinburgh and vice versa, excited about this, interesting to prove if I am an addict or not! I really do not know!  Was out for drinks with a girl on Thursday (thin) and I am brutally honest about all my failings and she said "so basically, your life plan is, someday your ship will come in" and I said "yeah, pretty much" and she said "what happens if it doesnt?" I paused looked to the left, turned back and said "but it will" suppose that is the gamblers mentality! but all being said, that ship is comming :)

Today we have the SPS £250+£25, won my seat and super excited! 1 hour clock 30k chips, 40k guarantee with 60+ satted in should smash that! two day 1s, should be epic.  Last nights £50+£20 got 130 runners, so the volume is there!  Fingers crossed! I can see that ship on the horizon :)

Sigh, got from 20k to 50k+ in 3 levels, then raised button to 700 at 150/300 sb shoves for 8k I call with aq of parsley, he has j6 off , flop comes q 66 wp lol very next hand I raise 700 with kj d and bb 3b, I assume he tags tilt and flat in position, j high flop and I scoop 10k pot to recoup after barreling a check. Then very next hand get aks 3bet an open and get cold 4 from sb who is reraiser last hand, 4b is 6k, in game it looks like tilt and I could be weak here so I end up 5b shoving into aces to lose 26k had more than I thought, will post hand as sizings all bad and wanna know line! 23k so still in but need regroup

Played like a donkey, got down to 9k, got to 24k without showdown but bled down to 18k coming back for 400/800/100 with 3 levels remaining, bulmers count at 9 so ideal spin levels!!!! One time

Will report this tomorrow, but somehow bagged up 120.5k with a 90k average, 120 players, £30,000 in the pot with a day to go! Going back to 800/1600/200

Never touched roulette/black jack, caned the free buffet and drank bulmers like a pro! Good day!

glgl for day 2

Chip counts are up, so 12/36 from day 1A which is pretty good position.  Excellent early news is that day 2 and day 3 fall on weekday bar pricing, a saving of £1.50 per bottle of bulmers is practically a locked min cash saving ha ha

Such a great structured tournament but following on from my earlier entry, nothing was going right and I played in all honesty atrocious for a level, I did say it was like somewhat had painted a masterpiece and I decided to sh1t all over it playing like death.  Think this sums it up, early position raise at 300/600 to 1400, sb calls, I have  8h 3h and 14,000 in BB and decide to go fishing (truly awful), get a  Kh 5h 5s flop, this is where it gets worse, I have 12,600 or something left, I check he bets 2600, sb folds and I....wait for it.....this is pretty horrendous, flat!!!!! I mean WTF, my confidence is so battered I can't pull the trigger and want to see the heart, I have made a horrendous peel got the flop I wanted and committed a 5th of my chips cheaply, blank turn, check check, so I know he has no King, river is another blank, I should shove here, almost pot sized and he never calls, and again, trigger finger broken, it check checks and he shows  Qd Js for a hand I could have got rid of on any street! I was horrified with myself and had a proper good talking to myself!

Then, I went on a run, playing proper poker, managed to get up to 24k without showdown, picked some nice spots, exploited the mid stacks that did not want to take the hit, pushed in +ve spots and did pretty much everything right, then table gets broken, I am at 20k ish after a shoveless orbit.

I get sat next to utter maniac, got 130k, can hardly see as he is that drunk and 5-6x pre every single hand, so double ups should not be hard, plus when he is bluffing constantly he keeps high showing me his cards, which I did warn him against, as when I do make my move do not want to think I cheated to get it.  Lose another orbit picking my spot, then fold to button who flats, maniac just makes up which is pretty suprising, I take my option, blank flop, check check check, turn is a 5, I have  Qd 5c, maniac bets 2600, I just flat, reason being I want to know buttons folding before I commit them all which I have every intention of doing with 3rd pair! he folds, river is a 10, now meaning I have 4th pair, he bets enough to leave me 2,200, like 10-12k from memory, I decide to just call, reason being, I only beat a bluff, and if I am wrong, I still have 4 blinds to spin so whats the point! and he does indeed have 9 6 for no pair no draw!

Up to 28k I then have to raise/fold  Ahrt Jh to a 3 bet with maniac out pot it seems pointless when double up so easy to get next door.  Then disaster, maniac loses 3 pots in a row and is out like that! all of a sudden, table is not leaking chips, his losing hands are so LOL, I had to walk away, 5b shoving  Td 2d into bullets, and 4b shoving into a house on a  Jh  Jc  Ts 9c  with  Ac 6s !!!!

After this I have about 20k ish, early position raise to 2000 at 1000/2000/200 button calls, I have  4d Aspades and think the raiser is aggro and both stacks have difficulty calling this shove due to sizings, get original raiser to fold, button finds the call with  Ks Js, 2 spade flop but we fold to get to over 40k.  Then 2 hands later, caller in last hand shoves for 6-7k, I have  Tc Ac and shove to ISO (not sure if thats needed but think flatting is pretty bad), and SB wakes up with  Jd Jc ....WOOPS! shover has  Qd 8d but we spike the aces and are all of a sudden from 10k to 90k in a level! Played very solid after this, had a regular to my left who was tilting bad which threatened to upset things, at one point I had a word with him about something that had happened a few weeks earlier when he was drunk and how bad it was for his game, he went into his shell and rode out the last level as well, he came up to me after the game, and said I know what you did there, and thanked me! To be honest I did it for me too, as him on tilt in position would narrow my play range but also he is a good guy and it wasn't nice to see the spew.

Only one hand after this I didn't like pulled max value everywhere.  I raise with  Tc Ac and get a call from luck box who tilted guy above and button 3b, button is very aggro reg on second bullet who has let himself blind of 30k by playing cash for 3 hours and not appearing post break! so clearly on the spin, but he still has 60k and I just do not want to commit half my stack in a spot where I will never be crushing, he is more likely to have  7c 5s than a hand, but even if he does, I am not crushing and we still have a station to get through, pretty sure I was bluffed but only lost a standard open and better spots to be found.

All and all, loved the game, hated my play at times, really need to find a way of keeping focused for the whole period, I have too many bad patches when I get involved.  Didn't help that wifi didn't work in the room I played in for most of the day, worked everywhere else in casino, very odd!

Looking forward to Sunday and off to pub as bookies is banned for the month :(

Been to most of the pubs that Edinburgh have to offer, got home and decided to do a small micro $40 schedule tonight just to keep the mind interested, will post sweats, but will probably throw up bricks (confidence)

Could post a million of these thus far, but Saturday nights seem so much more mental than others at the low levels:

PokerStars Hand #96408883824: Tournament #708199710, $2.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (125/250) - 2013/03/30 22:12:42 WET [2013/03/30 18:12:42 ET]
Table '708199710 209' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Argyle_DK (12080 in chips)
Seat 2: conteiner78 (14723 in chips)
Seat 3: ursobolav (2580 in chips)
Seat 4: YouRush25 (6799 in chips)
Seat 5: mijarilopez (27171 in chips)
Seat 6: Czechnemec (12662 in chips)
Seat 7: RafiLaFigue (8117 in chips)
Seat 8: Thommiloser (11553 in chips)
Seat 9: Rab90 (12270 in chips)
Argyle_DK: posts the ante 30
conteiner78: posts the ante 30
ursobolav: posts the ante 30
YouRush25: posts the ante 30
mijarilopez: posts the ante 30
Czechnemec: posts the ante 30
RafiLaFigue: posts the ante 30
Thommiloser: posts the ante 30
Rab90: posts the ante 30
conteiner78: posts small blind 125
ursobolav: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Qc Ah]
YouRush25: folds
mijarilopez: folds
Czechnemec: folds
RafiLaFigue: folds
Thommiloser: calls 250
Rab90: raises 1250 to 1500
Argyle_DK: folds
conteiner78: folds
ursobolav: folds
Thommiloser: calls 1250
*** FLOP *** [6h Qs Jd]
Thommiloser: bets 250
Rab90: raises 1750 to 2000
Thommiloser: calls 1750
*** TURN *** [6h Qs Jd] [8d]
Thommiloser: checks
Rab90: bets 8740 and is all-in
Thommiloser: calls 8023 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (717) returned to Rab90
*** RIVER *** [6h Qs Jd 8d] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Thommiloser: shows [Js Kh] (a pair of Jacks)
Rab90: shows [Qc Ah] (a pair of Queens)
Rab90 collected 23691 from pot
Thommiloser finished the tournament in 1165th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 23691 | Rake 0
Board [6h Qs Jd 8d 5d]
Seat 1: Argyle_DK (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: conteiner78 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: ursobolav (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: YouRush25 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: mijarilopez folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Czechnemec folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: RafiLaFigue folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Thommiloser showed [Js Kh] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 9: Rab90 showed [Qc Ah] and won (23691) with a pair of Queens

I guess he has an awful tag on me....

PokerStars Hand #96411428123: Tournament #708199732, $2.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XX (700/1400) - 2013/03/30 23:06:37 WET [2013/03/30 19:06:37 ET]
Table '708199732 138' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: FAPTOBblN (50572 in chips)
Seat 2: Rab90 (31134 in chips)
Seat 3: buracapower (11900 in chips)
Seat 4: HelgeESC85 (31739 in chips)
Seat 5: Graversen90 (6114 in chips)
Seat 6: Maxim Moscow (38650 in chips)
FAPTOBblN: posts the ante 175
Rab90: posts the ante 175
buracapower: posts the ante 175
HelgeESC85: posts the ante 175
Graversen90: posts the ante 175
Maxim Moscow: posts the ante 175
Graversen90: posts small blind 700
Maxim Moscow: posts big blind 1400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Kc Qd]
FAPTOBblN: folds
Rab90: raises 1400 to 2800
buracapower: folds
HelgeESC85: calls 2800
Graversen90: folds
Maxim Moscow: folds
*** FLOP *** [Th 9s Jh]
Rab90: bets 1400
HelgeESC85: calls 1400
*** TURN *** [Th 9s Jh] [6c]
Rab90: bets 2800
HelgeESC85: calls 2800
*** RIVER *** [Th 9s Jh 6c] [3c]
Rab90: bets 23959 and is all-in
HelgeESC85: calls 23959
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rab90: shows [Kc Qd] (a straight, Nine to King)
HelgeESC85: shows [Jc Qh] (a pair of Jacks)
Rab90 collected 65068 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 65068 | Rake 0
Board [Th 9s Jh 6c 3c]
Seat 1: FAPTOBblN folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Rab90 showed [Kc Qd] and won (65068) with a straight, Nine to King
Seat 3: buracapower folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: HelgeESC85 (button) showed [Jc Qh] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 5: Graversen90 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Maxim Moscow (big blind) folded before Flop

and again............

PokerStars Hand #96411616360: Tournament #708199732, $2.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXI (800/1600) - 2013/03/30 23:10:39 WET [2013/03/30 19:10:39 ET]
Table '708199732 138' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: FAPTOBblN (52622 in chips)
Seat 2: Rab90 (63693 in chips)
Seat 3: buracapower (8550 in chips)
Seat 4: igrok$148 (11456 in chips) out of hand (moved from another table into small blind)
Seat 5: Graversen90 (14008 in chips)
Seat 6: Maxim Moscow (31236 in chips)
FAPTOBblN: posts the ante 200
Rab90: posts the ante 200
buracapower: posts the ante 200
Graversen90: posts the ante 200
Maxim Moscow: posts the ante 200
Graversen90: posts small blind 800
Maxim Moscow: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Qd Qc]
FAPTOBblN: raises 1600 to 3200
Rab90: raises 4800 to 8000
buracapower: folds
Graversen90: folds
Maxim Moscow: folds
FAPTOBblN: calls 4800
*** FLOP *** [8h Jd 4d]
FAPTOBblN: checks
Rab90: bets 9600
FAPTOBblN: raises 34822 to 44422 and is all-in
Rab90: calls 34822
*** TURN *** [8h Jd 4d] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [8h Jd 4d 5d] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FAPTOBblN: shows [9s 9h] (a pair of Nines)
Rab90: shows [Qd Qc] (a pair of Queens)
Rab90 collected 108244 from pot
FAPTOBblN finished the tournament in 338th place and received $4.92.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 108244 | Rake 0
Board [8h Jd 4d 5d As]
Seat 1: FAPTOBblN showed [9s 9h] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 2: Rab90 showed [Qd Qc] and won (108244) with a pair of Queens
Seat 3: buracapower (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Graversen90 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Maxim Moscow (big blind) folded before Flop

been reading these blogs and came across this

good luck days 2/3

Cheers vinny and red fox.

Yesterday's small $ schedule ended about even, min cashed all over the place and got pretty deep in a $2 turbo so will leave me some for another day.  Did not deserve a win as I was just clicking buttons, was watching boxing and not concentrating, probably need to forget everything that happened there for today.

Seat plan is up for today:

Table 1
 65,600 1 1 Johnstone, John
 141,300 1 2 Mcneill, Gareth
 225,300 1 3 Donoghue, Peter
 38,900 1 4 Larrainzar, Julian
 184,500 1 5 Cummings, Bob
 54,800 1 6 Johnstone, Brian
 69,700 1 7 Wallace, John
 82,000 1 8 Millar, John
 
Table 2
 151,600 2 1 Appleby, Simon
 53,100 2 2 Paxton, Will
 44,700 2 3 Milne, Chris
 100,600 2 4 Pilkington, Graham
 120,500 2 5 Roberts, Chris
 99,200 2 6 Harris, Gordon
 33,300 2 7 Wilson, Chris
 51,300 2 8 Hutchison, Dean
 
Table 3
 99,000 3 1 Mackenzie, Andrew
 23,800 3 2 Gray, Val
 46,400 3 3 Sneddon, Neil
 19,400 3 4 Wilkie, Norman
 87,800 3 5 Snow, Raymond
 135,000 3 6 Thomson, Jim
 158,000 3 7 Starrs, Phil
 236,600 3 8 Bangham, Steve
 
Table 4
 83,900 4 1 Shearer, Daryll
 61,700 4 2 Burns, Sally
 207,700 4 3 Feenan, Andrew
 86,300 4 4 Campbell, Robert
 233,200 4 5 Bull, Robbie
 80,100 4 6 Elliot, William
 77,700 4 7 Davidson, Andrew
 165,400 4 8 Duffy, Jamie
 
Table 5
 54,000 5 1 Hansen, Craig
 92,600 5 2 Brown, Martyn
 54,100 5 3 Grey, David
 120,700 5 4 Dziurdzia, Robert
 163,900 5 5 Mcconaghy, Colin
 80,100 5 6 Bertram, Gary
 109,600 5 7 Yuill, Ricky
 43,700 5 8 Leckie, Wullie
 
Table 6
 117,000 6 1 Campbell, Gary
 68,000 6 2 Nicol, Davie
 63,500 6 3 Sharkey, Chris
 79,400 6 4 Alavizadeh, Cameron
 123,100 6 5 Ofarrell, Gerry
 35,500 6 6 Wright, Ian
 83,500 6 7 Clarkson, Graham
 83,900 6 8 Rehilhu, Sunny
 
Table 7
 212,800 7 1 Kerr, Mitchell
127,900 7 2 Wessels, Johan
 49,400 7 3 Convery, Steven
 65,600 7 4 Stewart, Dean
 215,000 7 5 Parton, Andrew
 63,200 7 6 Leishman, Marc
 66,900 7 7 Grant, Andy

Playing 8 handed all day, absolute hate my table draw, got two of the better players, both of which have a habbit of puting me off my game.  Will have the ear phones at the ready as the verbals will not take long.  Disappointing day 1b turnout but payouts still looks as follows:


1st £14500
 2nd £9400
 3rd £5650
 4th £4100
 5th £2750
 6th £2000
 7th £1350
 8th £1000
 9th - 12th £700
 13th - 16th £550

Paying less than 10% which is odd, queue a 18th finish ha ha play down to an 8 handed final table which is on tomorrow so fingers are firmly crossed.

Think I have also worked out picture uploader so here it goes...

#Fail

If anyone can explain how to get an image from photo bucket to here without an iPhone App, I would be eternally grateful

Gordon Harris will talk your ears off as well! Good luck

Get them in good and Hold.....
Easy game.

Good luck.

Thanks all, some form of updates here:

http://pokerinedinburgh.com/category/scottish-poker-series-live-blog/

Off, I go

Give big Brian in seat 6, table 1 a man hug from me please.

Sat to his right for 5 hours Friday too, poor lad.

We all got tournament numbers for updates, mine is 13....great omen

146,000 ish at first break, on average with 40 left was as low as 80k couple of cold spots and one bluff that should have got through! Bust 2 players and ran ok, bulmers count at 4, out of original and on to pear which is a blow

130k at next break 27 left and 200k average

Bust 2nd hand back after break, shoved  9d 9h into  Kh Ks whoops, next time

Pretty mixed day yesterday, yo yo'd stack over 4 levels before busting early in the 5th about 8 from the money! Did not realise until after that there was lots of lower stacks on the other table which may have edited my decision making.

A few hands of note:

I raise at 800/1600/200 to 3400 with  Ac Tc and get called to my left and in small blind.  Flop comes down  Ahrt 8d 8s and I am suspicious about small blind who thinks for a bit before checking, I bet out aroun 8000 get called to my left and by sb.  At this point I am not in love with the hand, turn is a blank, it checks round as I am basically trying to get to show down, I intend to call most river bets.  River is a queen, check check and player to my left bets 15,000 sb folds, I sigh call and get shown  Ad 8h for the flopped nuts! Not in love with calling that pre at the levels but hey ho, you play your cards.

Few hands later I defend the blind (stupidly) into same player with   Ks 9s flop comes down  5c  6s  7c and I float a continuation bet, turn is the drawtastic  4c check check, river is a  Th and I fire out 15,000.  I am somehow called by Ace high, soul read maybe but not entirely sure what I could have missed on that board, thought it was a good bet, but not this time.

I chip back up shoving my 90k with  Ad Kd over a raise and a call, then stacking a short stack by calling a button shove with  Ad 9d versus  6s Aspades and then another where I raise  Ahrt Jh get 3b shoved for 25k and obviously call.  Raiser had not realised I had bet when he shoved and had  Ks Qh and did not improve.

Next action player limps button out of 60k stack, we have  3d Ac in sb, last time limper did this he had  Ks Kh and I audibly reminded the bb of this before making up in hope of stopping a squeeze. He does check and we get a  2s 3c 5c flop, check check check, turn is  Ad and I lead for 6000, fold, call from suspicious limper.  River is the fantastic  3h and I throw a 25,000 plate in, he dwell shoves and I of course call to see AK, as expected limping monsters.  Wish this was a bounty as I would have 3!

Up to about 190k at this point but got real dymanic problem as I have very aggro massive stack to my right and literally can't find a spot to open.  Very hard to predict and will make life awkward down streets.

Do not play a hand for ages, eventually raise  Kd Qs and get 3b, this tilted me as I had been so tight for so long and I got stubborn.  Ended up costing me 60k repping a flush on a river, he played the hand like KK and it was an A high flop so felt I could bluff river and yet again picked off, last time I put my hand in the cookie jar!

Bust hand is hugely frustrating, 2nd hand back after dinner, aggro player raises at 2000/4000/500 to about 10k, I have 130k on button with  9s 9h which does not play well down the streets with a thinking player 30bb deep imo.  I shove and BB wakes up with KK, flops a K and it is GG.  I can 3b fold here probably into kings villain as his cold 4b range is pretty polarised and I am never good with 9's here but just a cold spot I guess.

On the plus side, went straight accross town to play the £110+£50 game at Genting, late reg'd and made day 2 playing pretty jokingly bad for the lot.  Spent the first 4 levels hating my life, very hard to adjust to having loads and then having nothing! every pot I wanted to stack everyone! Got as low as 3k (4bb) from 25k starting and then shoved  Qh 6h late and got lucky against  Tc Ad then very next hand shove my 6kish over an open with  Kh Ahrt get an isolation shove on button with  Ahrt Qd (WOOP) but then original raiser finds the call with  Jd Jh (BOO) but we then get a K high flop (WOOP) and hold.  Very next hand again we open   Kd  Ad get a 3b from aggro reg, we insta shove and he calls with   Ahrt Qh and we end up sweating a flush on the turn and then getting a chop on the river on a double paired board! pretty sigh as it was a 40k plus pot for average stack at the time.  On the flip side if he hit the flush I would have thrown up.

Blinded down getting no hands, was on about 10 pints but had found a zen centre and was so passive it was untrue, I was like MY SPOT WILL COME, not defending blinds, not shoving light, felt a bit proud of myself! then I got a button open, I have   5d 5h and get called by the best possible hand  4d 4h, that put us to 40k, won a few further points, all the villains I had issue with had busted and the table was a dream, wished it did not have to end.  Anyways, we make day 2 with 41,200 chips.  Full counts below, looks like about 30/40

William Leckie- 212,100
 Richard Goldberg- 144,000
 Doreen Levine- 135,400
 Ian Laird- 134,800
 Simon Appleby- 126,900
 John Carty- 124, 000
 Elizabeth Murphy- 119,900
 Alan Davdson- 104,500
 Andy Mackenzie- 105,400
 Neil Feenan- 96,600
 Kane Duffy- 87,200
 Dan Coll- 79,800
 John Angus- 77,400
 Brian Tannerhill- 77,300
 Michael Henderson- 76,600
 Lisa Ferris- 71,400
 Andrew Stalker- 69,900
 Marios Grekos- 68,800
 Davie Nicol- 62,100
 Anne Chisholm- 61,300
 Stephen Prandstatter- 60,500
 Gordon Sloan- 60,100
 Stuart McDonald- 58,700
 Stuart Paterson- 58,500
 Malcolm Stewart- 58,500
 Mark Hanlin- 49,900
 Peter Ford- 49,800
 Chris Wildig- 45,300
Chris Roberts- 41,200
 Maggie Clabby- 40,600
 Sally Burns- 35,900
 Paul Johnson- 35,400
 Campbell Foggo- 33,700
 Nick Kimbell- 33,400
 David Ho- 32,200
 James Douglas- 30,300
 Steven Nicholson- 27,300
 Steven Murray- 27,200
 Tommy Noble- 21,000
 Krysztof Sobecki- 20,700

Coming back to 800/1600/200 with 25bb so still got a chance.  £19k pot £5.5k for the win and 13 paid.  Happy to have made day 2 on single bullets in all the big games this year thus far.  I shall be going back at 4pm and trying my heart out.

Pot below:

Managed to blank another day 2, pretty tilting to make both and not convert!

Not really much I could do, opened once uncalled and then two limps followed by a 11k shove from Button.  With the limpers we ISO shove  5s 5h for 43,000 and get folds and are up against  3s Aspades, fade the ace but get counterfeited in a  6s 6h Js 8c 8d board for a pretty tilting loss!

We get a raise defended by button with the 30k remaing, and he folds to a continuation bet.  We then find a raise/fold with  9c 9d out of a 35,000 stack.  Seems okay to me as it left us with 18BB at 800/1600/200 and I struggled to see how we were ahead of villain, at best a flip as not a known 3 bettor.

Table breaks and we fold for two orbits down to 24,000 at 1000/2000/200 and a serial opener makes it 4200 we shove 24k with  8s 8h and he insta flips ace ace for GG!

Sigh, but seems an unavoidable problem, cards were just not running my way.

Played a small session with the online $$$ tonight and turned a small profit.  Lost  Ad Th into  Ahrt 6d deep in a $8k turbo which was pretty tilting! Will try again, last two sessions online have been a lot better, patience is up and we are min cashing all over the place which hopefully I can convert soon enough.

Online Poker
Deposits:   -£186
Balance:     £20
Net:          -£166


Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£981
Returns:     £1,685
Net:          £794

A very welcome profit turned on staking via Monda which has helped what is a pretty bad month! Was meant to get bonus in March which had been spent and has now been deferred to April so post Easter play is going to be limited.  I will keep a small amount on Stars and will be playing the ISPT sats but unlikely to get much live play in which is pretty annoying! Although come April I should be balling out of control and playing everything, good bankroll management FTW.

My $$$ used to be cursed on staking but that is the second return this year so I am starting to feel a bit better about it.  I like to stake players, it builds good feeling and players have been good enough to stake me in the past and I think the poker community wealth is best shared to keep everyone playing and the world going round.

I have a few $$$ on stars and will play another micro session later and see how we get on.  Will post some hands of interest, got a few spots from the weekend events I am tempted to put up but details are foggy now so may just commit those to the back of my mind.

On the fitness front still been doing pretty appaulingly, got about 10 weeks to the challenge and may join the "Blonde will get you thin boys" to motivate my weight loss and fitness gain.  I find it all pretty hard at the moment and it impacts all areas of my life is the lethargy does not make you keen to leave the house and get back on the social scene.  Healthy body healthy mind and all that.

On the plus side my "bet not to bet bet" is going very well.  Been two weeks plus of no fruit machines, roulette, horses, dogs and what ever else I would normally have punted on, missed some cracking T4T bets but unlikely to have masked the other losses so this is positive news for me.  Having previously doen the whole GamCare business and falling off the rails it is good to know I still have the level of will power required, especially with having been based at the casino all weekend.

Would love a FT for tonight, would boost my confidence no end!

Hopefully this continues.....although only 2 tables on the go:

PokerStars Hand #96659155712: Tournament #714010554, $2.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2013/04/04 20:34:05 WET [2013/04/04 15:34:05 ET]
Table '714010554 80' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: felix-moritz (6355 in chips)
Seat 2: Zolnce (1921 in chips)
Seat 3: NikSmirnov84 (2243 in chips)
Seat 4: MarcelA199 (10909 in chips)
Seat 5: Rab90 (8875 in chips)
Seat 6: ondras024 (6946 in chips)
felix-moritz: posts small blind 50
Zolnce: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Ad Ac]
NikSmirnov84: folds
MarcelA199: raises 400 to 500
Rab90: calls 500
ondras024: raises 1000 to 1500
felix-moritz: folds
Zolnce: folds
MarcelA199: calls 1000
Rab90: raises 7375 to 8875 and is all-in
ondras024: calls 5446 and is all-in
MarcelA199: calls 7375
*** FLOP *** [6h Qh 2c]
*** TURN *** [6h Qh 2c] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [6h Qh 2c 3s] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MarcelA199: shows [Jh Js] (a pair of Jacks)
Rab90: shows [Ad Ac] (a pair of Aces)
Rab90 collected 3858 from side pot
ondras024: shows [9d 9s] (a pair of Nines)
Rab90 collected 20988 from main pot
ondras024 finished the tournament in 1058th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 24846 Main pot 20988. Side pot 3858. | Rake 0
Board [6h Qh 2c 3s Kh]
Seat 1: felix-moritz (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Zolnce (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: NikSmirnov84 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: MarcelA199 showed [Jh Js] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 5: Rab90 showed [Ad Ac] and won (24846) with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: ondras024 (button) showed [9d 9s] and lost with a pair of Nines

Do we call this?

PokerStars Hand #96661649835: Tournament #714010554, $2.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2013/04/04 21:13:15 WET [2013/04/04 16:13:15 ET]
Table '714010554 128' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: PoPerze04 (5018 in chips)
Seat 2: zezinho30 (15901 in chips)
Seat 3: totooo53 (14499 in chips)
Seat 4: Rab90 (28966 in chips)
Seat 5: mesaka13 (14485 in chips)
Seat 6: karper221073 (18528 in chips)
mesaka13: posts small blind 100
karper221073: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [8c Kc]
PoPerze04: folds
zezinho30: folds
totooo53: folds
Rab90: raises 200 to 400
mesaka13: folds
karper221073: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [8d 5d 3d]
karper221073: checks
Rab90: bets 600
karper221073: calls 600
*** TURN *** [8d 5d 3d] [Jh]
karper221073: checks
Rab90: checks
*** RIVER *** [8d 5d 3d Jh] [8s]
karper221073: bets 10400
Rab90 said, "really?"
Rab90: folds
Uncalled bet (10400) returned to karper221073
karper221073 collected 2100 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2100 | Rake 0
Board [8d 5d 3d Jh 8s]
Seat 1: PoPerze04 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: zezinho30 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: totooo53 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Rab90 (button) folded on the River
Seat 5: mesaka13 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: karper221073 (big blind) collected (2100)

Was considering value raising a river lead but thought this may be a bit thin, did not see that coming, villain only has 13 games on OPR, including a 1st at a 180 man, so could not peg him as utter whale!

Getting beat up pretty bad, not sure how this is not Q10 as played, at best a chop or stone cold bluff, but....should i call?

PokerStars Hand #96661994125: Tournament #714010554, $2.00+$0.20 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250) - 2013/04/04 21:18:21 WET [2013/04/04 16:18:21 ET]
Table '714010554 128' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: PoPerze04 (4168 in chips)
Seat 2: zezinho30 (16326 in chips)
Seat 3: totooo53 (13899 in chips)
Seat 4: Rab90 (28516 in chips)
Seat 5: mesaka13 (14310 in chips)
Seat 6: karper221073 (20178 in chips)
PoPerze04: posts the ante 25
zezinho30: posts the ante 25
totooo53: posts the ante 25
Rab90: posts the ante 25
mesaka13: posts the ante 25
karper221073: posts the ante 25
Rab90: posts small blind 125
mesaka13: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [td Ks]
karper221073: folds
PoPerze04: folds
zezinho30: calls 250
totooo53: calls 250
Rab90: calls 125
mesaka13: checks
*** FLOP *** [Jc 8s 9h]
Rab90: checks
mesaka13: checks
zezinho30: bets 500
totooo53: folds
Rab90: calls 500
mesaka13: folds
*** TURN *** [Jc 8s 9h] [7c]
Rab90: checks
zezinho30: bets 1250
Rab90: calls 1250
*** RIVER *** [Jc 8s 9h 7c] [2s]
Rab90: checks
zezinho30: bets 14301 and is all-in
Rab90: folds
Uncalled bet (14301) returned to zezinho30
zezinho30 collected 4650 from pot
zezinho30: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4650 | Rake 0
Board [Jc 8s 9h 7c 2s]
Seat 1: PoPerze04 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: zezinho30 collected (4650)
Seat 3: totooo53 (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Rab90 (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 5: mesaka13 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: karper221073 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Time for an update a guess, been splashing around the $1-$5 games with limited luck, current situation as follows:

Online Poker
Deposits:   -£201
Balance:     £0
Net:          -£201

Can't even call it a downswing, just lack of volume, playing 2000+ runner tournaments I can likely go far further down hill than this, as I did last year.  Got about $1k in the hole in first 6 months, then made $8k in a month, its all about puting the numbers in, I am getting into positions to win games, the luck should come at the right spots.  Think I need to work on my ITM strategy though, think I am picking bad spots and ranges need some tweaking which I will look at.

This is the OPR for 2013:

$297 -56%  140  10%

So only played 140 games which is pretty poor for this level, returning -56% looks about right based on my deposits above. I will be aiming to increase volume following April, this had been a tough month due to matters outwith my control.  This has meant zero live play post Easter which is irritating!

Will be doing my all to find 30 euros for the 200 runner ISPT sats, just seems wrong to miss them. Was trying to work out if offering 50/50 tournament equity or similar for the entry would be OOL for these.  I would have thought you would have a very good chance of picking up a stake worth 150 euro for  30 euros but guess the zero risk for staked player is pretty bad.  I have a pretty good record with Satellites (GPS Edinburgh 1/3, deepstack 1/1 and Grand Prix 2/3 only examples on iPoker) and think its a good punt at a million, but I may be wrong and as nobody else is asking, and am afraid of flames ha ha

Just found out the Glasgow £50, 5 day 1 £15,000 guaranteed game is on next month, so that will be my next raiding trip tournament wise.  Have one eye on the May deepstack also.

The second type of run good I often forget about....

Been a really really good week for me, had one of those Eureka, you are a pie fix it moments on Friday, since when I have been at the gym daily and eating like an athlete not a Japanese Sumo Wrestler.  I am working hard on continuing this, will do a weigh in soon, and post the results, based on my 13 st 13lbs starting weight for the year, and perhaps crosspost on "blonde will make you thin" for extra initiative, be good to join the boys that seem to work very hard!

Managed to get a bike, which is being left at my sisters 13 miles away, the aim is to walk there, and cycle back, should be a good test if I am ready for this challenge or miles off, will be doing this in the next 2-3 weeks, so best get my finger out!

Going for another small $$$$ schedule tonight, probably 10-20 tournaments, will post any sweats, not as bad sweating as I did at the gym last night! I now realise why I never previously attend "classes"

Strange thing to restart my diary but this is from the big school of 1 outers, I would feel for the kid if he hadnt J4d my aces earlier (Sausage look away)

PokerStars Hand #98073203054: Tournament #803010775, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2013/05/04 1:09:32 WET [2013/05/03 20:09:32 ET]
Table '803010775 21' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: francachon (7240 in chips)
Seat 2: Rab90 (17315 in chips)
Seat 3: BasmBrazil (15250 in chips)
Seat 4: Chernetskyy (8737 in chips)
Seat 5: M4mbaNegrA (9060 in chips)
Seat 6: spuc77 (15990 in chips)
Chernetskyy: posts small blind 100
M4mbaNegrA: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Qs 4d]
spuc77: calls 200
francachon: folds
Rab90: folds
BasmBrazil: calls 200
Chernetskyy: calls 100
M4mbaNegrA: raises 600 to 800
spuc77: calls 600
BasmBrazil: calls 600
Chernetskyy: folds
*** FLOP *** [6d 2s 4c]
M4mbaNegrA: bets 899
spuc77: raises 8501 to 9400
BasmBrazil: calls 9400
M4mbaNegrA: calls 7361 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [6d 2s 4c] [4s]
spuc77: bets 5790 and is all-in
BasmBrazil: calls 5050 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (740) returned to spuc77
*** RIVER *** [6d 2s 4c 4s] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
spuc77: shows [2c 2d] (a full house, Fours full of Deuces)
BasmBrazil: shows [3h 3d] (a full house, Fours full of Threes)
BasmBrazil collected 12380 from side pot
M4mbaNegrA: shows [As Ah] (a full house, Fours full of Aces)
M4mbaNegrA collected 27380 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 39760 Main pot 27380. Side pot 12380. | Rake 0
Board [6d 2s 4c 4s 4h]
Seat 1: francachon folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Rab90 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: BasmBrazil (button) showed [3h 3d] and won (12380) with a full house, Fours full of Threes
Seat 4: Chernetskyy (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: M4mbaNegrA (big blind) showed [As Ah] and won (27380) with a full house, Fours full of Aces
Seat 6: spuc77 showed [2c 2d] and lost with a full house, Fours full of Deuces

Need to update this, have been getting back in the game and its a good record keeping tilt aid!

Live Cash
Buy ins:     -£660
Returns:     £988
Net:          £328

Online Poker
Deposits:   -£506
Balance:     £0
Net:          -£506

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£1,080
Returns:     £1,685
Net:          £605

Online not as bad as it looks I have two ISPT online tokens in my pocket which I have chucked a few euros at!

Will do a full update post later, off to play a live tournament.

Well last night's poker was a bit of a non event! 32 runners for a £25+£5 bounty tournament with the casino adding £5 a scalp.

I safely took 3 bounties so no change on stats but bust on final table bubble.  Was utter joke slow and £280 up top, was looking like a 4am finish which I cannot justify for that amount so made a questionable call.  I knew it was bad, most annoyingly into a player I find smug and difficult, who snap thought he was the nuts but I tried not to let that bother me.  Same player had showed a bluff earlier to another player and probably guessed this had worked in my thought process.  Which was actually more thinking is money worth sleep deprivation? lol

On the poker side in general, I have taken a lull following Easter.  Ran deep in two big tournaments which is super frustrating, first tournament back, played bad and decided to have a breather and concentrate on the little things in life.  In the meantime I have been working on ISPT seats.  To be honest, I should not play it but I feel the urge to support Rob and the team at DTD so have been grinding the feeders as much as I can.  So far have 2 day 1 passes and will likely try for more.  The time is provisionally booked off at work, would love to come to DTD to play them but overheads mean alas it will be online which is not gonna suit my game! On the plus side got some good notes on the frequent satellite players which will be useful I would guess.

Big tournament in Glasgow tomorrow, £15,000 guaranteed £50 games with 4 day 1's.  Made day 2 in the last running of this and will be going for it again today.  Even meeting a girl there for a semi-poker date lol (in before #thin) said girl is ridiculously out of my league and I have been putting this off for sometime as in all honesty the world is a happier place when I think it is still a possibility, but got loves a trier so off we go! Swapping 40% equity in someone I haven't seen play too....but I am working on the assumption with my day 2 record that 40% of £0 is still £0.

On the fitness side, I have joined fat club at the gym lol the thought of being weighed in front of 9 women every week should push me to the levels required! or I will just not turn up ha ha so second session was today, and we had a solid week!  Results below.  Improvements in all areas although not sure how I managed to shrink ha ha

Will update more over the weekend.....

How did it go with the burd?

She made day 2  [X]
I made level 2     [  ]

Just about sums it up Vinnie!

I have this damn challenge on Saturday, weight is down to 12st 12lbs from 13st 12lbs so just about fit enough!  Also managed to sort some pretty mega financial shizzle I was in so will probably start updating again!  Been playing fair volume of MTT's online recently and starting to get better results. Full update to follow

When you say you didn't make level 2, do you mean with the burd or the comp? Or both?

Both! all and all, I brought my A game on both fronts and was home before last train! all part of my master plan to save taxi/hotel money

You're only 30, Chris      .....         the mean average for Scotchman to lose his cherry is 47 years and 7 months.

Plenty of time yet!

Is that Cherry or Marbles? think you have it wrong way round

Going to be starting going on this again following sorting my financial woes.  Got two reasonably large blogs to write up:

A:  Successful completion of the Rob Roy challenge and related fitness update
B:  How I got myself in and out of a financial mess (understatement), hopefully will be informative to fellow degens with low common sense thresholds

Starting Balances Below

Live Cash
Buy ins:     -£660
Returns:     £988
Net:          £328

Online Poker
ROI:          -40%

Going to start tracking this as OPR ROI for 2013, as the previous method was a bit fiddly!  I have cash for $1,363 and with that -Ve ROI I guess I am down about $900 on stars this year if my maths is correct. Not overly concerning with average field size of 4000, all to be expected!  Made 5 finals this month and went out early in each and numerous deep runs.  If one of them converts we are back positive so I wont be disheartened although plenty of leaks to plug.

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£1,138
Returns:     £1,685
Net:          £557

Upcoming Highlights

Got a trip down to Luton next week, will play both the Saturday competitions at the G if need be.  I will be starting a run at GP golden tickets without delay.  We have the Scottish Poker Series and Genting Mini Festival in Edinburgh July/August.  I will be looking to play both although may have to try and shift some at spot, July result depending.  Also will start trying to get GPS seats for later in the year.

Playing tonight, first live game in ages and may update some hands for comedy value as I blow off the cobwebs.

Good luck to all in Vegas, get the lot.....OTB

Im gonna be in Edinburgh on and off for the next 8/9 weeks can you send links or point me in direction of info for the Scottish Poker Festival and the Genting mini series.

Cheers

Links below, good luck to you :)

https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/520667184647522/

https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/350634791704668/

Hopefully they work, if not go to Genting Fountainpark Cardroom and Poker at the Maybury on facebook and look at Events.

SPS is a £250+£25 game with a 1a and 1b, day 2 and day 3.  £50k guaranteed
Genting is a £150+£75 (top up)+£15 with a 1a and 1b and a day 2.  £15k guaranteed but should obliterate that.  Estimate around £30k

Excellent many thanks hope to make both events.

Cheers

I was not in Vegas but I have managed a Thursday night of gym, multiple poker games and strippers....Wazz eat your heart out

I guess I must be at the gym too much now, the instructor asked me after a class what else he could do! I was thinking yeah, ask the guy with gut and man boobs how to exercise...concerning!

Well my "love affair" with Live Poker continued.....

Played the £20+£10 "deep stack" (there will be lots of inverted commas) where everyone seemed intent to get 25k in every single hand.  I just did not get in pots, thinking when you have it, you will get paid.  Was up to about 30k ish at the break, not playing much, low balling looking for people to commit suicide into me, rather than trying to beat stations. 

Was put on life tilt shortly before break, was due out for drinks tonight (friday) with a girl and casually mentioned I was at casino, having put in a considerable amount of "ground work", I was provided with War and Peace about her ex, gambling and how she did not want to go there....so that will be Friday night cancelled then!  I could have played it down, but decided to be honest and said "yeah, I probably make your ex, look like a 7p yankee merchant, so best leave it" ha ha

Anyways, back to poker, shortly after break, Italian gentleman who plays 1/2 & 2/5 cash and is ridiculous in tournaments has come in at the break.  He clearly wants to get back to cash.  Previous hand he has trebled up with 9 7, having raised blind, and got a  8h Th 6c flop! not only that, players had  Ahrt 5h and  Td 8d so action galore!

I open  Js 9s he to 800 at 200/400 and he min raises to 1600 without looking!  As I am so far down my range I cannot see the top and knowing he could easily call all in without looking I just slapped it in after the BB also came along.  Flop comes  9d 8s  3h checked, he bets 4000, having only looked at one card.  I assume he has seen a 9 or 8 and therefore know I should be good, I make it 12,500, he goes all in without looking and I call.  He shows  9h 4h and goes on to hit runner runner flush!  Alex and his Why do you Do Dis? phrase sunk in my head, as I kiss bye bye to my buy in!

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£1,171
Returns:     £1,685
Net:          £514



Manage to escape without hitting Wheel or BlackJack #winningatlife and off home to fire up some late night turbos on stars, that is where it got interesting!

I am sitting in my shorts grinding turbos a la Rick Trigg and my flatmate comes in about 12am with a young female who is, shall we say, beyond mildly attractive!  :respect: turns out she works at his work, and has been moonlighting as a stripper at the club accross the road!  He saw her leaving and she decided to come up for a drink whilst swearing him to secrecy (clearly I am allowed to blog it)....they have been drinking, I am sober and in shorts...

So, next I get asked to go to a club at 1am, whilst balls deep in a hyper turbo, to meet her and her stripper friends, she is literally trying to drag me out the door and somehow I managed to refuse...WTF is wrong with me!!!!!!  I think I am getting results orientated on the women front, assumed I would crash and burn with her pals and would miss out on winning bowl turbo competitions.....

Still to hear the outcome of all this, all I have is a 2:30am text saying "Big Man, never in my days!!!!! you have no idea!!!" so I am guessing I missed out on something quite spectacular!  Off to stick my head in oven  ;marks;

On the turbo front cashed twice to book a small profit, but all pretty meh, got to the round of 32 of that ridic HU hyper competition, such fun ha ha

ROI =   -38%
ITM = 11%

Going to record ITM, trying to bring it nearer 15% and try to stop punting off tournamenets bored!

Good News:  First day of pre season training today
Bad News: I wont be there

Not sure if the good/bad should be other way round there! I am awake and ready for it but having some achillies problems which will likely mean 2 hours of shuttles will not work!  Going to a spin class at the gym instead.  Will do a weigh in so I can update my fitness challenge, will try and do my Rob Roy blog afterwards too!

Got a darts nights at my house tonight, 10/12 player £10 a head tournament! Should be fun, finished 3rd last time, hopefully improve although my flatmate broke my favoured flights so need a lot of fine tuning before it starts.

Enjoyed the Friday night grind last night, played 27 tournaments, over 9+ hours and cashed in 5.  That is 18.5% ITM which is positive based on my aim from yesterday!  Got joke deep in the $1.35  KO, beat 8061 players and get $17, I <3 Pokerz.  Got up to 8 tables at one point which is the max on my set up, felt pretty comfortable but will try and limit to 6, not sure how Monda etc do so many!

ROI =   -38%
ITM = 11%

Went to gym, forgot  money for weighing machine lol whoops

Just sat down at cash post darts, may not go well, short handed and patience low! Also didn't make semis for first time ever at darts ;(

Seen Limp raise jacks pre at 50/50 already, shaping up to be a barn stormer

Cliffs: we played bad...the end

Live Cash

Buy ins:     -£810
Returns:     £988
Net:          £178

As promised (to myself anyway), going to write a blog regarding the Rob Roy challenge which is successfully completed last Saturday.

The challenge itself is described below:

"The Martin Currie Rob Roy Challenge is one of Scotland’s most successful fundraising events. Covering 55 miles of the spectacular Rob Roy Way, teams or individuals walk or run 16 miles from Drymen, near Loch Lomond, north-east through the Trossachs to Callander, where they switch to bikes for a 39 mile cycle to Kenmore – all in around 8-12 hours."

When this idea was muted back in February, I was at a pretty low ebb, self confidence was low, fitness lower and I needed something to get me out of the rut.  I decided the commitment needed to attempt this would be the ideal driver to improve on a few aspects in life and would be a really good day out in the countyside.

Since February I have been working very hard at fitness, managed to get down from 14st to 12st 9lbs, all done the correct way, no crash dieting like I have been guilty of in the past.  Although, I have to say come 7pm the night before I had serious doubt if I had done enough, whilst I had less bulk to haul round, I was still not bouncing up the stairs in the morning and most importantly had done 0 hours on the bike.

I have never cycled off a gym bike in 15 years and had no idea if I could even do it, but as they say, "its like riding a bike", this saying is pretty much all that got me to the start line.  Incidently the last time I had cycled those 15 years ago, I fell off my bike doing my paper round ha ha

We arrived to register at 9pm the night before in Drymen, was pretty jokes as I turned up with 6 litres on strongbow in a spar bag as I was ensuring I had my carryout for the next night.  Not sure the organisers seemed too thrilled at my clear athletic nature ha ha everyone in our team joked about the posibility of my death and the general lack of chance of me completing.  I have a fairly self deprovating style of humour, so I played to this a lot, lower expectations is the key :)

The start line was a good old fashioned Midgey fest, I still look like a plague victim, I have about 120 bites, without exaggeration! despite having top of the line "Smidge" applied throughout.  The trek was not going to phase me at all, just the week before I had trekked 7 miles in primark plimsoles through Muirhours (where trainspotting is set), so this would be a walk in the park (quite literally I suppose).  I banked the first 8 miles without issue, lovely scenary, ambled down hills pretty quick and I think people started to realise I was fitter than perhaps thought.

The next 8 were a much greater test, the conditions were boggy, the rocks pretty slippy and I saw a few spectacular tumbles.  I did say if I fell in the bad mud, I would be calling my mummy to pick me up and not playing anymore.  I had one comedy, this puddle cannot be that big moment, turns out to be a semi lake and was "balls deep" but not in the good way ha ha arrived in

Start - Drymen  Sat 08:22:42  -----  -----     
CP1 - Aberfoyle  Sat 10:06:50  01:44:08  01:44:08  278th (501) 
CP2 - Callander   Sat 12:33:41  04:10:59  02:26:51  280th (501)

The above is from the official website, so we got to Callander in 4 hours 10 minutes, not a fast time, but we were not running and did the first half as a team.  There was a lot of slowing down to let people catch up and I think I could have comfortably done it a lot faster.  I was feeling pretty fresh in this point, the clear country air is amazing motivating, I was actually starting to feel pretty good about the whole thing.

At Callander was the moment of truth regarding the bike, got on my hire, wearing my fetching new cycling shorts which were busy cutting off the circulation to my lower leg, and pushed one foot in front of the other!  BINGO, we did not fall off! on the down side we could not work the gears, back in my day you had a 5 speed Shimano single gear box, Why the Fuck does this thing have 2 gear levers?????

We set off and quite comically my friend was insturcting me with gear changes for the first little while, when he stopped the whole thing went a strange pear like shape!  I had not quite figured out steering yet, misjudged a corner went to put my foot down out of fear and found out it had nowhere to go.  Queue a spectacular fall down a 3 foot ditch into a pile of rocks!! OUCHIO! my mate come round to see the trees rustle and me appear, laughing on the inside but a mix of scared and hurt on the inner.

After this, I decided I would be very careful going down hill!  Pretty sure my hire bike break will never be the same again! only the right one mind, as the left gear/break scared me and was never used!

I began to get into a rhythm, my left gear never moved from 2, and I just worked the right gear up and down to navigate hills, I know this cost me but I just could not figure out what the hell was going on! Aroiund 4 miles in we began to go on our own pace, so there was no longer support, it was me against the road.  Myself and my friend Fiona tended to get into stops at the same time, as I could go up hills well, and she could go down them, so we kept crossing, was getting a bit like, FFS not you again!

CP3 - Balquhidder  Sat 14:34:18  06:11:36  02:00:37  274th (476)

Reached Balquihidder have made up, although I had thought this was half way, turns out it was actually only 10 miles! FML when I discovered this!  The next stage was utter hideous, 7 miles without a decline, one particular zig zag hill was just an impossibility, other cyclists stopping meant losing momentum and I eventually had to take my bike for a walk, which is just so bad as the legs are like jelly and so much better to be cycling! Got to the water stop thing we had 9 miles to go and this was the FML we have 20 moment! This was the closest to the wall that I got! I just did not know what to do.....

...the feeling of passing people who looked like keen cyclists while clearly not having a clue what I was doing was hugely motivating, this pushed me on, the feeling that you are doing something that nobody thought you could and the fact it was such a good cause pushed me through! Plus the girl at the water stop told me it was all down hill to Killin, that helped :)

CP4 - Killin  Sat 16:00:26  07:37:44  01:26:08  249th= (473)

Felt great at Killin, the wall was over and we had 16 miles to go, being passed half way is such a good motivator, you feel like you have broken the challenge before it has broken you.  I was very pleased when I saw the above to see I had made 30 places + over the toughest stage, I am blessed with rugby player legs, so the hill climbs were very good for me, as mentioned previously though, being shit scared made me less swift on the downslopes! I really did not want to die out there ha ha

At this point I made my getaway from Fiona, there was 6 in our team, 3 runners and 3 trekkers, I was now leading the way for the trekkers and it was a good feeling to know I was not dragging the team down and was actually cometitive on this cycle.  The last 7 miles felt like an utter breeze, I was so happy to know that the end was coming and I just kept plugging away.  The event staff were incredible, always smiling and willing you on, it made for such a brilliant day.  Also county people and outdoors pursuit enthusiasts are so nice and welcoming, never said good morning/afternoon/evening so many times in my life! amazing all 3 in one challenge!

When I got to the finish line I was delighted, we had an amazing support team who had met us at each stage and willed us on as well as keeping us fed and watered!
 
Finish - Kenmore  Sat 18:07:27  09:44:45  02:07:01  252nd (448)   

So, I managed to finish 4th in my team, and 252nd overall.  Very pleased with that, doing the challenge was the main aim, but amazingly I felt okay afterwards, it was a moment of realisation that maybe I was fitter than I thought!

The evenings entertainment was also top class, massive tent with a Cailleigh (bad spelling), I have never been a great highland dancer but as my older friends were dying I was basically the designated dance partner for all their wives!!! was getting pretty dizzy by the end, also doing it in Timberland boots meant there toes must have been hurting as I am not Mr coordinated! The final strip the willow was almost the second time I hit the wall, it literally lasted an age!  but I powered through, mainly as I was busy trying to chat up the massage girls and could not show weakness!!! ha ha

Our team managed to stay up till they turned the lights off and were the only competitors still drinking #winning  camped out over night and woke up with a great feeling of acomplishment!  Ironically my sorest injury was my achillies which appears to be from Highland dancing in tims! was a long old journey home but loved every moment!

Already talking about what to do next year, this has been muted:

Now in its thirteenth year, the Kindrochit Quadrathlon combines four tests of your strength and endurance:

- Swim 0.8mile across Loch Tay
- Navigate and climb 7 Munros
- Kayak 7 miles
- Cycle 34 miles round Loch Tay

The clock only stops when you take the sword and slice a watermelon in two, before a fabulous post-event party feast and fireworks on the banks of Loch Tay. After all the sweat and tears it is a chance to finally kick back and celebrate what you have achieved yourself and for others.

My mate said the scariest thought of that was someone giving me a sword! I said "can you hire one, or can I bring my own" ha ha

We managed to raise £3,000 for the charities as part of our team and personally I conquered a lot of demons! Still a few to conquer, its like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in my head.  Thanks for reading, token picture below (assuming it works)

ROI = -42%
ITM = 11%

Played another 33 tournaments yesterday but all and all was not happy with my play for periods.  I think in reflection, if your grinding lower stakes on a Sunday best to start at about 5pm, I have noticed this before, as by the time the really good games get going, you are not at your freshest and if you were to get deep in something like the big $11, the session size is huge if you start at lunchtime.  If you are doing a majors session, then starting from the KO makes sense but at my level, it is just a slow grind to start and I was off the boil by the time the important games kicked in.

On the plus side I made Silver Star on the last day of the month, will be trying to maintain that and up the levels as the year progresses.  Would hope to be minimum gold by the end of the year.

Saturday nights cash session is still playing on my mind, no idea why it happens, but sometimes I just lose the plot.  I had a dream table, it was like Monopoly with 4 stations, hands being played face up.  There was no reason to be trying to bluff stations, although I think the main issue was time constraints.  I was always around starting stack and with an hour to go, was not sure if my spot would come.  I need to learn to accept a break even session and not go chasing a win.  Probably one of the biggest leaks in my game.

Exit hand was just ridiculous (probably only 6-7 hands to go), somehow a straddes had gone 50/1/2/4/8 as it was getting splashy near the end, I blind shoved my last £60 from the cut off, although feigned looking at my cards, so was not an announced move.  Snap call by small blind.  Flop comes down A107, SB mumbles something, I say have you got an ace?  he says "you have an ace?" I said "dont, know, have not looked", he shows KK and to be fair, better for me than Ax I guess, turn comes a 10, and river a 6.  I do a one at a time check, first card 9, so now interestingly an Ace, a ten, or an 8 all scoop the pot for me.  Baring in mind the odds are aces are not in play as nobody else got involved, I had a reasonable suck out chance! alas it was a King, so I got exactly what I deserved!

Slight tilting thing was the casino brought a new dealer with 25 minutes till last hand, it was his first ever time dealing!  I know people need to learn, but surely that time of a session when everyone wishes to maximise hands and gamble is not the time?  Probably meant instead of getting 6-7 hands we got 3-4.  Bring the kids in at the start, when A people are sober and B not trying to get out of it.

Will probably play a small session tonight, after some ridiculous boot camp session arranged through my gym, pretty scared as to how bad that will be.  Good for me I guess!

Joke week thus far, had my laptop nicked on train! Not a popular guy with work now as lost office keys with it! Sigggghhhhh, played some online, joke tilted and played as someone tilted usually does!

On the plus side on a trip down south and lining up a day of Luton pokerage tomorrow! See if I can live up to my tag of 2nd wpil!

So jealous of Vegas heroes, I got to make it next year, no excuses!

Was at the opera last night at glyndebourne, will do a review when I am back to my laptop (non stolen one) and not on my travels!

Theatre of dreams today, Luton g casino! Can't wait, pub poker is on so evening game will be lollajokes

GL at Luton... Hardly the Venetian or Rio :D

Solid start KK vs AA all in pre and we have successfully re entered comp one!

Successfully bust comp 1 twice, drinking at pace and looking forward to double bulleting comp two to stay consistent

Only one entry to comp two!!! Half way into grimming pizzled out a drink too! Had pizzled, Celtic and scilian on my first table....was fun while it lasted

You look sober.

Kinda won the evening comp, flipped like an Olympic tosser

Well done son.

So yesterday went well:

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£1,271
Returns:     £2,485
Net:          £1,314

Online
ROI = -44%
ITM = 11%

Will do a report of weekend antics after tonights, session, we are throwing amazing BRM and shot taking like a clown

3b overshoved flop 3 times versus me.  Had enough!

PokerStars Hand #101097444299: Tournament #812020010, $200+$15 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (80/160) - 2013/07/07 20:39:37 WET [2013/07/07 15:39:37 ET]
Table '812020010 159' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: marcotorino (7366 in chips)
Seat 2: DonKaleone (7534 in chips)
Seat 3: golbwmalmwtd (9300 in chips)
Seat 4: Rab90 (7960 in chips)
Seat 5: GannyAK (9130 in chips)
Seat 6: solothurn (14715 in chips)
Seat 7: pigw (9015 in chips)
Seat 8: Mr.Bittar (14335 in chips)
Seat 9: kiely199 (8445 in chips)
DonKaleone: posts small blind 80
golbwmalmwtd: posts big blind 160
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [9c 8c]
Rab90: raises 160 to 320
GannyAK: folds
solothurn: calls 320
pigw: folds
Mr.Bittar: folds
kiely199: folds
marcotorino: calls 320
DonKaleone: folds
golbwmalmwtd: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ts 3c 8s]
Rab90: bets 480
solothurn: calls 480
marcotorino: raises 6566 to 7046 and is all-in
Rab90: calls 6566
solothurn: folds
*** TURN *** [Ts 3c 8s] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 3c 8s 5s] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rab90: shows [9c 8c] (two pair, Tens and Eights)
marcotorino: shows [8h 7c] (two pair, Tens and Eights - lower kicker)
Rab90 collected 15772 from pot
marcotorino finished the tournament in 4547th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 15772 | Rake 0
Board [Ts 3c 8s 5s Th]
Seat 1: marcotorino (button) showed [8h 7c] and lost with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 2: DonKaleone (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: golbwmalmwtd (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Rab90 showed [9c 8c] and won (15772) with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 5: GannyAK folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: solothurn folded on the Flop
Seat 7: pigw folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Mr.Bittar folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: kiely199 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Shot taking almost went pretty well, booked a winning session but like most of my year, pretty frustrating!

Only played 6-7 games and went:

499/6247 in the Million
501/32250 in Storm
11th in $16.50 turbo with $4k up top, sigh run out to bust in double average pot

Won about $370 so see how that helps the ROI tomorrow.  Second million cash in 4th attempt so felt pretty good.

Weekend Review

Glyndebourne Opera

Had a very good weekend, all and all, enjoy my trips down south, I tend to get down once every couple of months and mix things up as much as possible.

Friday went to see the Opera Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne.  Whilst I have been to a lot of opera  ;topofclass; I do tend to go for the spectacle/day out more than for what is actually going on.  Glyndebourne itself is an Opera venue set in a country estate and the grounds are full of sculptures and sections of interest.  The day itself involves a champagne picnic both before and during the extended interval at which time I ensure maximum consumption of wine to heighten my operatic senses. 

The opera itself was by Schwartz I think and is meant to be a contrast of styles between Burlesque and Opera.  It seems more set up for slapstick and comedy but this telling was set during WW2 in a country estate which had become a war hospital by act 2.  Whilst staging was excellent think the subject matter and period did not translate well and pretty sure this will have been done a whole lot better.  Usually relatively modern operas lack some of the depth of story that you get with the classics. The first half was excellent, the script good and the music easy on the ears but the second half dragged terribly and the female lead lacked conviction and made it a pretty disappointing finish.  Also basing the Burlesque in 40's meant it was less risque than perhaps one would hope (Sighhhhhh). 

I am back down in two weeks to see Marriage of Figaro, hoping it is a new version and not a revival of last years, as I have seen this pretty recently.

Standard Degenning

Saturday, got up early to see the Lions and slow cook myself in a beer garden.  Saw China Mug at 12 off to get his pre poker Coffee and breakfast to be in peak shape, I decided 5 pints would work a little bit better.

Got to the G, which resembled the Sahara somewhat due to the lack of air conditioning!  Late regd the afternoon comp and bullet 1 lasted about 7 hands.  4b shoved KK into AA, pretty standard.  In all honesty, I had actually picked up a shake in my opponent which my thought process likened to that "aces shake", however A we had tagged him as aggro over 7 hand sample lol and B I will never fold KK in a £30 comp with a reentry possible.  It will just not happen!

Bullet 2 and I was getting beyond tilted.  I have a nostalgic recollection of the standard at Luton being better than I play against in Edinburgh, not sure why, but this always was my opinion.  Although, I started to reconsider with some truly mind blowing things I witnessed.  We were 10x ing pre for fun, over shoving and generally just spannering any chance I had of getting a game together!  Chipped up a little to about 15k from 10k starting and slightly competent (appearing) player limped, and next to act also limped at 400/800.  I make it 3200 with AK, not going to min click as to be honest I want a shove/fold in this spot as not deep enough to play streets.  "Com petant" player thinks (and thinks), then flats the 3200 out of a 10k stack! so we are limp committing 3/10ths of our chips OOP into a bigger stack. 

Flop comes  Tc 8c 9s and he shoves.  I am well versed in the old call to hit shove OOP move, it is a thing of extreme ugliness but alas a hazard of low buy in games.  His flat pre had slightly tilted me and as he can do this with a bare Jack, or clubs, I feel tilt indebted to call this off.  Probably can just sigh fold but I was pretty steamed.  He had made the move with the courageous  Jh 9s and without even having suited for reasoning he wins the pot on a  Td 8d run out.  WP sir.

Next hand China Mug shoves 4bb and I just chuck my 3bb in with Ducks, BB is priced in to 3x me or China up.  I am up against  Qd Ts and  Aspades 5s so just 4 overs, flushes and over two pairs to dodge.  Door card is a Queen, we flop a 2, only for the fantastic  4s to give China a flush draw/gut shot which is duly hit.

I go off for a tour of Luton town centre watering holes before the evening comp.  Heard the afternoon heros split it 5 ways for £200 a head, I LOL'd.

The evening comp went pretty well.  Was good fun with Celtic, Pizzled and Scillian in and around my tables most of the night.  Not going to bore with hands, cliffs are, we won every flip, we made one questionable fold into Gruff Cockney John which I think made reasonable ICM sense and we won the tournament.  Cashed for £800 about £700 up on the day as was in the £30 twice and £40 for evening comp. Also managed to walk back to hotel in Luton without getting mugged which was touch and go for a while!

Favourite hand 5 handed.  at 8000/16000 I make it 40k with J10 off on the button, would have shoved but tight spot in SB and I was comfortable she would not be peeling OOP and BB only had 77k total.  BB swell flats 40k out of 77k with  7h 8d and shoves the  9c 5d 2d flop! Yeah, I am folding! and goes on to hit the 8 on the river! Genius sir, just genius.  Never have I seen the flat, practically brick, shove into committed player BB special! this was new ground.  I explained in great detail how many baby pandas die everytime he did that, seemed to hate pandas so it was lost on him.

Heads up was fun, we had Pizzled playing Scottish songs and the braveheart them whilst doing my chip stacking and working his way through the menu.  Sicillian was crushing a 25/25 cash game.  Pizzled also tried to orchestrate a chop for the entire final table whilst appending himself to the numbers despite finishing 48848488484th but alas his number game never tricked anyone!

Sunday Stars

Decided to take some shots based on my previous luck and deposited a few quid on stars.  As mentioned above had the following:

499/6247 in the Million
501/32250 in Storm
11th in $16.50 turbo with $4k up top, sigh run out to bust in double average pot

Whilst deep in the 3, I have to say the ending was pretty disappointing.  Especially the turbo as I was well positioned throughout.  The million bust in a standard spot but still mulling it over.  I shove Button with  2d 2c playing 52k at 2500/5000 plus ante.  SB had 30k and BB was large stack and picking pots well and thought he would not call here superwide as he was making a lot of chips playing pots without showdown.  SB calls with A7 off and rivers the ace.

I think it is a shove, I am not going to click fold a pair in late position.  Would welcome thoughts if anything to the contrary.  BB has 3b me from button 3 times and probably sees me as a spot which was in my thought process.

We get our last 3.5BB's in a few hands later with Q10 and river a 10 in a check to the end pot with KJ already on board.  Unfortunately BB has a J and we are done!

Playing again tonight, after a boot camp gym class.  Will just play the big $11 and back to my low stake grind.  Will post ROI later as comps are not included from yesterday yet.  Probably moved nearer -30% for the year at a guess.

Signed up for some bootcamp at my gym, £3 a session ran by some former Army commando.  Was not sure what to expect and was certainly doubly not sure when he said we would not do it at the meadows (flat) anymore but would be going up Arthur Seat (NOT FLAT) Quite a fun session though, my friend Emma came along who is 19 and somehow less fit than me, so that made me feel better!  Did shuttle spints up the hill, played Casualties, plank tunnels, tug of war and lots of intereactive and fun exercises.  Think my street cred is at an all time low as we had to chain run high knees through town!  ;surrender;

Got home about 9 and booted up a turbo session.  Plus points, we finalled a Hyper, was going to post a sweat but did not want to jinx, cashed 6th for $341 having been 1/8 but hypers going to hyper.  Made one questionable decision calling off 4 bigs with  5h Js in the BB it still kept me chip leader but think it was bad in game decision based on dynamic stacks.  Had two lives cards as it happens so mathematically turned out okay, but think I should give it up.  Frustrated as per usual, all the short players refused to lose hands ha ha

ROI is up, although BRM is now an issue as I have a wedge in my account.  I flicked in a $51 hyper, no idea why, I just wanted to play and it was the only hyper about.  Having bust while ahead, I tilt opened a $60 HU Hyper to reclaim this.  Thankfully I won it, but if I had gone on monkey tilt, the $$$$ would all be gone.  Got about $1k in my stars, will take it down a bit, for that reason, and leave a $500 roll for grinding $1-$11 games, as per the plan.  Is there anyway of self barring yourself from higher stakes? apart from learn self control.....

Will post the Roll updates over next few days and any blips!  My ITM has creeped up a point too! Slow and steady for the win.

Online
ROI = -18%
ITM = 12%

Played 508 games this year and prizes of $2,646 so still about $600 down, but only 1 win away at the games I play.  Aiming to up the volume in the second part of the year.  Hopefully keep the $500 going for quite some time.  About to release a $10 bonus too, MUCHOS EXCITEMENTOS

Played last couple of days, Tuesday almost repeated the hyper final table, went out an annoying 18th.  Set the tone for a losing day.

Yesterday was a bit of a farce, played two sessions I should not have played.  Session 1 whilst waiting for my work laptop to be fixed, bad idea as timings wise I was never comfortable I had the time to dedicate to the game.  Interestingly watching some of Dan Carter's play made me think I need to work on this aspect.  He posts his gf is turning up at 1, at 11 he is deep in many and all of them are done and dusted nicely in time.  Clearly has a pure understanding of how long each game takes and plans his sessions to fit his life.  Me on the other hand, reg anything with a first prize of over $500 as a general rule, and do not game select, although clearly end with hyper/turbos knowing I cannot do 15 hour sessions.

Went for a spin class, then off to pub, multiple double vodkas later decided to play turbos and played like an utter dog.  Think I played 20 tournaments yesterday and cashed in NADA, I suck at dis game

On the positives (well depending on BRM viewpoint), I had a little look at ZOOM, never tried it.  Booked a $90 profit to just about cover the days play.  Seems pretty soft to me, was never in too much trouble and some pretty spewy play.  I may try again at it but at a lower level as clearly not rolled for $0.50/$1.  Lost a $100 in a few hands before figuring out what was happening and then ground the next $100 to a high of $370 before cashing out at $290.  Addictive as hell, struggled to turn off laptop.

Got a personal training session straight after work, and then off to an SPS live satellite.  Would really help next months bankroll if I can sat into that.

Following Vegas all week.  Good luck all still playing.

Er... crushed a 50-1 game actually :) they wouldnt play 1-2 PLO.... + 6 buy ins all whilst on final table Clan watch ...

Sorry Dean, if I had known would have donated my tournament winnings to the pot lol

So yesterday was frustrating, stone bubbled the SPS satellite, was pretty comedy run, spun up from 1.3 bigs, to be 2/9 with 3 seats and £100 for 4th.  I run like death on final, card dead, then get interesting spot, I open to 9000 with  3h 3d at 2000/4000/500 playing about 95k, small stack shoves for 20k, button reshoves for 40k, now I am getting ridiculous odds and there is a good chance they could have similar hands, so I sigh call and see  8d Ahrt and  Ad Kd which is almost as good as I can hope. If we win we are down to 4, K ball hits and we take a hit and chip up other player.

Playing 60k I shove over an open from chip leader, get a fold, we only looked at  Ahrt to make the move, ended up being with  4h but guess it was ahead.  Then a spot which probably cost me most as it tilted me.  cut off opens to 11k we are playing 70k and in SB with chip leader in BB and with a look like he wants to peel.  We have  Ad Ahrt, now my issue is, I doubt due to sattelite dynamic 5 handed my shove will be called light.  If I peel it looks fishy, we likely go 3 ways, and I am pretty sure the raiser will continuation bet.  Min raise looks way too fishy due to chip stacks.  I just shoved and fold fold, pretty sure based on players I could have taken a higher variance fishy line and got much more.

Then the horrid hand, UTG 5 handed see  Kd Qc, playing 85k at 3000/6000/500 I just shove, to be honest I think that was awful.  I can click/fold as I am 3/5 with 3 seats, and of course BB has bullets and we do not even see a sweat....SIGH back next week.

Pretty funny hand, I am dealing and half way into my 1.5BB spin up, it goes raise, 3b and I am playing 25k, I tap my cards and say audibly 5 times "Be Aces" "Be Aces" etc and it actually was, I shove fold, call with AK for a massive double, queue much hilarity and questioning of my dynamo abilities ha ha

Played some zoom tonight again, similar results, stacked first $100 and got it back and change with second.

Time for bed, birthday this weekend,  loads on and zero poker, probably need a a little break so ALL be good :)

We have a mixture of good and bad news, was my birthday weekend, so things got a little hazy  :dontask:

We firstly done most of what we had online at 3am on Saturday night, after donking off £100 in live cash with a ill conceived triple barrell bluff with Jack high! Happy Birthday to me  :birthday:

Sunday was an utter right off of a day, out with friends and over celebrating, woke up to find some questionable football bets had been made at 2am, sigh, I need a breathalyser on that laptop!

On the plus side, we have found green for online MTT's WOOP

Online
ROI = 5%   :cheers:
ITM = 11%

Day started pretty bad, played an afternoon session and lost a 5 times average pot with 15 left in a hyper :( he raised, I go all in with 10's and he decides to call off with K10 and hits....MBN!  Later had a similar 3 way all in for the world and lost with QQ against AJ and A7, must be a lot of aces in that pack!

Last tournament of the night managed to take down the $3 7pm $5k gtd game for over a bag, months of getting shafted on final table bubbles have been avenged, managed to overturn a 9:1 deficit heads up too! Pretty happy, and will be working on keeping that going, although the bank roll needs to be removed somewhat to avoid another Saturday style incident.....

Also managed a 30 mile cycle on Saturday morning, feeling pretty good about a lot of things in life right now :)

Curse of the no breathalyer on laptop struck again last night, managed to escape with minimal damage but some pretty disgusting things going on, think there was a $200 hyper at some point. Was out for a few drinks, turned into a lot, and it all got pretty hazy!  Withdrawn a chunk so that seems to be the best mitigator as opposed to perhaps just growing up lol

Will play playing another SPS satellite tonight after yet more personal training! FML this stuff is hard! Quite fancy a good run at the Micro Millions although back down to London tomorrow so will not start in earnest till Sunday night.  May do a day session tomorrow as I am off but timings wise it will not be much fun.

Nothing major to report, SPS is next week, got Friday off for that and playing regardless, super excited for it, toying with trying to sell a small% coupled with the Genting festival the following week but I may ride out the sats first as I LOL at BRM and hope for the best ha ha  ;busted;

Just caught up on this, decent read.  In.

See you Tonight mate.

Maybe Davie, I am edging towards a micro millions online schedule, it is too hot to put trousers on......if your playing and want to swap 5%/10% next week, shout me.  I am playing a single bullet Friday regardless

On route back from London, was going to post a pretty big blog, but east coast wi fi sucks an absolutely bucket full of ass ;izimbra;

Home at 715, going to do an evening session based around storm/big 11 and micro millions, suppose I best play some since mr pengwinz is min cashing like a boss

Will post sweats or conformation I have done the lot cross betting Mexican cactus wrestling....exciting week upcoming with pay day and Scottish poker series...just the one time please

Session Cliffs:

Ran like death, literally obscene, closest I have been to breaking a laptop in a long long time!  Cashed in 1 hyper HU tournament (Love em I do), then spunked off $100 in Zoom on 4 J Q K with A10 into 44, which rivered Quadzilla, just for LOL's

We then took our last $20 dollars, won a Hyper 6 seater, then two Big $162 6 max Hyper single table sats (banked tournie $$$$), followed by 2nd in a Hyper 9 seat $60.....so now we have degend our way to a $170 session profit and are going to bed knowing fantastic BRM has applied once more  ;dingdell;

Made my 3rd staking profit of the year, well done to Tomsom87 (no point getting it wrong as he is out of space), clearly saving the big score for next week though :) I am actually probably borderline ahead on the stakes I have taken this year, although had zero vegas action, which is a shame, as would have enjoyed ze rail.

Bed time ZZzzzzz

Think I have some house keeping to catch up on:

Live Cash

Buy ins:     -£910
Returns:     £988
Net:          £78

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£1,294
Returns:     £2,485
Net:          £1,291

Online

ROI = -1%   Norrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
ITM = 12%

I think this means I am making money at poker this year which is all important, could be a lot more if my BRM was not bad and I did not just LOL punt off cash when drunk!

Fairly quiet weekend, designated driver at the Opera, I tend to prefer drinking, I am good at it, seems a shame not to do something you excel at! Marriage of Figaro is one of the best operas you will see.  Saw it last year and did not mind sitting through it all again! Highlight of yesterday was seeing Sophie from Geordie Shore in Nandos. Coincidentally is being in Nandos at 1130 acceptable? seemed a bit early for Peri Peri but I went with it...Vinny?

Got boot camp tonight, fitness is going pretty well, assuming the wild fires sweeping Edinburgh do not make it cancelled, who'd have thunk that?  :dontask:

My flat mate continued his run of filling my flat with strippers finishing their shifts! I was lying in bed railing Dan and Steve Swift on my laptop whilst 4 adult entertainers are drinking jaeger bombs (made with sprite as we have no red bull) in my living room! Pretty sure that is a major life fail lol what a life he has!

Tonight will play a little online, probably based around spunking more money at micromillions, do not have the time or patience for them at the moment, will concentrate on the turbos I would think.  Some of the lads posting some decent scores so may have set fire to that $10, wont be the first or last time that happens!

Wrote a work blog last week, will post for shameless attempt to boost views (from 1 to 2 maybe): ;spam;

http://www.dalriadatrustees.co.uk/archives/is-a-rare-bird-surplus-to-requirements/

Everyone loves a good pension tale, my writing tends to be sporadic and slightly off topic, but they gathered that when they got me!

Buzzing for SPS on Friday, got day booked off, money available, personal trainer booked for Thursday night, so will be fresh and ready to go.  Toying with not drinking, I worked out over the tournament last time I spent £140 on Bulmers, not sure my ROI can cope with that level! I prefer drinking in bigger games as I have some nerve issues which do not appear in bowl comps, decisions decisions  ;angel; my friend KellyAnn is coming through for Glasgow, been talking poker a bit, so will be good to have some company at breaks etc, assuming I make the first one!

Another frustrating evening on the grind, had decided to do it wearing my wonderful pokerstars flat cap which I had impulse bought drunk from the VIP shop, I mean how can that fail?

I think this sums up my recent play:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5S-p1_Sc0Q

Broke my Micro Millions cherry, although not sure you can count a cash to the value of less than your total rebuys as a good result? ha ha cashed in another couple, the $3 5k I got proper deep but was never really stacked for it.  The $3 2x rebuy, I finished 56th losing JJ<55 for utter stacks! gutted $5k up top and that would have been handy!

Thinks I probably managed a break even session balanced wise, $20 up on Zoom and finished off with a 2nd in a 9 man $30 hyper.  The end of sessions spins do not seem to be stopping....  ;dingdell;

Off to play the SPS satellite, got to try and play day 1 thurs now, Thursday being the day before pay day, so got to try and find a win.  My flatmate playing too, if he wins, I get the seat, will attempt to keep him from passing out on £2.50 Becks.  Failing that stick with the Friday plan.

Will attempt to offend as many people as possible in my review to create diary traffic...unpolitically correct FTW

Last nights sat did not go well, I cannot mock my fellow players as I was worse, so no controversial posting can follow.  Highlights were calling a 5x pre raise with 4 high, and fist pump 3b jamming a flush draw and paired 4, and masterfully getting there.  Lowlights were unmasterfully flatting out of a 14bb stack on the button with Ducks, SHOVE DAMN YOU SHOVE.  Then an inexplicable flat of a raise with 99, followed by what can only be described as butchering off 1/3rd of my stack.  My dad was a butcher he would have been very proud.  Finally, shoved the BB with 12BB with AK, reshove from A9 who rivered a flush, cant blame the dealer, as it was me! GG, will be forced to part with £275 of my hard earned come Friday....sigh

Not sure how to pick the words to describe this, but something I noticed yesterday did pick up a very very good reason for not using unPC language to describe poker issues or any for that matter.  In the game we had a dad playing with his son, who was disabled, I was not at the table and was assuming he was not playing and was merely spectating his dad. I did notice he had cards, but the first time I saw this they were  Kh Ks and assumed that perhaps he was given these to "play with".  I suppose it is human nature (and my bad) to make sweeping assumptions regarding the inabilities of others based on physical perceptions.  Had the cards been  4c 7d off maybe I would have thought differently but unlikely none the less.

However, he was playing, seemed to be very much enjoying himself (lasted longer than me) and the whole table made sure there was no issues.  Cards were folded for him, the flops were confirmed verbally and apart from that the table continued as if nothing was out of the ordinary.  I do wonder had he been on a table of Hoodies as opposed to "rec bowl comp dwellers" if this level of patience would have been shown as a couple of hands per hour were sacrificed.  I was genuinely very moved by seeing it, although I guess seeing it as anything other than ordinary is not what is wanted, but just thought it was a particular touching siite to see someone beating adversity and being out enjoying a father/son bonding evening.  I would not have dreamt anyone would have used the derogitory terms used in poker which refer to mental handicap whilst he was at the table, it just reminded me how out of place this sort of thing is.

* was not 100% sure how to articulate this and hope it is taken in the spirit meant.

Yesterday was a pokering non event, got home and regd the micro millions $1 rebuy, was cashed for 600ish for $40 for a small profit on a mini session.  Tillted off two tournaments near the money, was actually beyond spew, just did not have the patience for non turbos and decided to just go fruity.

Micro Millions cashes up to $50, but Steve is going deep and Pengwinz cashing every tournament so that $10 has safely been set on fire!

Going to be tweeting tomorrow for Scottish Poker Series, dusted off my Twitter, never really used it @el_raberto if anyone fancies following

I decided not to sell for it, was not sure if post Vegas it would and I can borderline afford it.  BRM FTW lol there is a £100 2 day game on the Saturday if this fails and again I will be chucking that in too! There is a thought of not drinking this weekend, will be interesting to see how that pans out, and if I can even lift cards sober! Scary times  ;pokergods;

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEOOZDbMrgE

Plan for this morning is to listen to this for 2 hours solid before heading to casino.  Was up early, healthy breakfast, currently trying to download "smooth grooves" for my MP3 player! something to calm the tilt.  Personal Training session booked for 930am.  My friend KellyAnn is through at 11, looking at her weekend travel costs we may have to finish second to break even lol considering she is getting a taxi from Glasgow to Edinburgh not sure I will convince her to get on the number 100 bus to the Maybury ha ha

Standard this year seems a lot higher, players through from last night include Rupert Elder, Nial Farrell, Robbie Bull, Dean Lyall and a few other decent players.  Today I think Boba will be back, Gordon Huntly is over and who knows who else.  Not the soft reg fest the last one was! 90 players yesterday and expecting 100+ today, so should be £60k prizepool I would guess! Pretty much All in for my August poker here.  A blank in this and the hundo tomorrow would mean a quiet quiet month! Sigghhhhhhhhhhh

There are updates on pokerinedinburgh.com (its a blog not forum so hope its okay to quote) and I will probably chuck some stuff on twitter @el_raberto followed by a post on here explaining how I went out running an ill conceived 4 stage bluff with 4 high on a wet board :)

GL_TODAY

Good luck chris, from what I've heard from boba, the standard isn't very good. Think David Blacklaw playing too, so you should be fine.

Lol second bullet already!!!! Not a good day to be alive

U crazy boy! Love the diary and actually hope u get the lot haha 😉

Too Good.

Cheers dreenie, shit got worse, I have lost count, dog biscuits for tea this month

Still goin davie?

yes.
77,700
lost 120K pot AKvQJ AIPF on 2nd last Level. QJ called off.

Think it was a player of Vinny's capabilities.  ;)

Dreenie? You wish she could bothered to post in this diary.

Good luck davie, learn how to hold before tomorrow. Thanks.

Look 4 up Vincent :p I am rackin up the comments while you play hide the flip flop in Brighton lol

Well done Davie, be there tomorrow for the £100 game once I have sold a kidney!

Hopefully see you doing well! Going to zoo in afternoon, planned to play poker all weekend so were lost lol

She musts thought it was another diary..

Got thrown out of Brighton for being too camp :(

FFS did dean out diamanté the queens? To be fair, saw. This coming! Did you actually meet Cheryl? Is she as stunning in real life? Lol

Was more of a case, she met me. Incredible woman, was happy to pose for her picture, thought it was the least I could do. Amanda was jealous.

Here's a pic to add some colour to your diary. Free of charge.

Ha ha that is just quality, I seen Sophie from Geordie shore in nandos last week, your type of celeb spotting place

Hmmm, I don't watch that, yet. Saw two or three people from east Enders today, I'm on a roll.

Didn't spot anyone in nandos tho :(

Could be worse, it was shut when I left circus

Weekend Cliffs:  Done our nuts in tournaments, won some on cash, spent £1001030300303 on taxis and incidentals! Will do a full report soon.

Some pictures

Picture A:  the look of a man who has bet 3 barrells on a  Td Th Ts 4c 4d board and gets clicked raise on the river playing Ze Board
Picture B:  start of the day, bullet 1, filled with hopes and dreams and a pocket full of money
Picture C:  the look of a man who has just turned two card broadway into a maniac, and failing to get paid like a boss
Picture D:  stacked up on bullet 2, 67k at 1k/2k and comfortable (until shortly getting pogod out)

Weekend Blog: Cliffs Done Nuts

Friday

Friday I prepared myself to play Day 1B, Kellyann arrived (via taxi ballin) at about 1130am and I met her at her hotel realsing swiftly we would need to finish about 3rd to cover her expenses alone.

Made our way to the Maybury, after buying chewing gum and mini cheddars, as apparently, if you eat mini cheddars at the table, you look like you just dont give a fuck, was pretty happy with this logic.  So we would be playing like a couple of cheddar eating bad assess! Go Figure  ;carlocitrone;

Upon entering the casino and removing most of the money I held in the world to chuck at the cash desk, we arrived about 2 minutes late and got shoved on a newly opening table, right next to each other.  Was not ideal, especially as she proceeded to win like 10 of the first 18 pots, and I swiftly realised I could not avoid pots with her, as she would be in them all!!!!

Kellyann got moved shortly after when the new table opened (thank the lord) and the table opened up a bit more as pretty much nobody knew how to play her for the first 45 minutes.  I did very little till level 2 and then found myself in a complete joke spot, which in hindsight I messed up.  raise from EP to 300 at 50/100 (3x FTW) call from mid position (player has not been in many pots, unknown to me, although have seen him about) and I make up the BB with  8h  7d as we are joke deep and OR is likely to play very face up.  We get an 8 high flop,  8s 6c 4d with a gutshot also.  OR raises 500, MP calls and I just call.  I really want to pot control at this point, likely to check/raise blank turns.  Turn is an  Ad which is not what we wanted, OR bets out 800, MP calls, we call, thinking we have bingo outs, and if he does have the AK style hand expected, he is likely to pay us on an 587 river.  The river is the magic  5c leaving us with the second nuts.  We lead for 3000, OR is ABC and will never fold an Ace and we are happy this will get called off.  He calls, then MP jams for 27k! FMEL we go hard into the tank and think and think and think.  Chatting out loud we get no emotion or tell.  77 makes a lot more sense than 79 as the player is not in many pots so is he going to junk call that way! Can he have it?  the chop is only worth 6k but the equity if he has gone loco with A8 or a set of having a double average stack with my game was very tempting.  I may have levelled myself but as my hand is pretty much face up, I wonder if he is considering this.  In hindsite, obviously 79 is more likely in my range than his, but such a yuky spot.  I call as I can reneter and we find out he has 79.  I have not posted this in PHA as I think it probably is actually a fold and perhaps even a trivial one.....any opinions? clearly I am results orientated here.

We buy back in after explaining to Kellyann that we are tez and the game is rigged.  The second bullet goes a lot better, I am at a table behind her and she is literally yoyoing between 30k and 90k in some pretty comedy hands.  She is on the very side of attractive and I spent most of the weekend being "that" guy, who everyone asks "WTF is she doing with him" its quite a good feeling ha ha my favourite hand is a 3 way all in with her sitting with trip 77s, an all in player having KK and a third with nut flush draw, the river brings the flush but houses Kellyann up, the player fist pump jump WOOPS before realising A he is a bell end and B he has lost! was pretty funny, and certainly poker Karma

anyways, we get a seat with Kyle MacGuire (fresh from 3rd in Sunday Million) and his Glasgow mate who are utter lunatics, we are 3b/4b/5b every hand but it is so much fun, clashing with these guys, and certainly good for our game.

After numerous skirmishes, we defend a raise from Kyle with A4, flop comes down 2, 5, x, we call a continuation bet as we have gin outs, and he plays super wide, meaning Ace high is even maybe best.  Turn comes the binktastic 3, we insta come/check and he fires, we raise, he shoves, we call and we hold versus 23 for a full double to 60k  (told you he was pretty wide) ;sark; shit just got real! Kyle reenters and finished second by the way!!! Lolz

We get Kyle replaced with Richard Sinclair, frying pans and fires spring to mind.  At one point my BB got cold 5b, I mean WTF, this is Maybury!  It was absolute nuts, Richie and this button clicking lunatic to his left were 3b/4b most of my opens and I was setting up nicely.  Won a big pot off a lunatic, bluffed him off QQ on a J high board by click raising a blank turn, looked joke strong leaving only 20k behind and he let it go.  He has just folded KK pre and I knew he would love to make a hero fold in that spot.  Then I tilted him by not saying a word about what I had and he ended up stacking himself on life tilt....BOOM!  Richie then asked if Kellyann was my Mrs, to which I responded "I have done too many bad things in my life to get that lucky" lolz, wish it wasnt true ha ha

Next big pot was against GPS winner Makka, we raise 3b ace king to 4,100 in a raised pot with 2 callers.  Makka calls the 3b from button after OR folds.  We get a QJ flop and we lead out for 4k, knowing Makka is a lunatic and cannot be given control of this pot.  We then get the 10 turn :) we turn well ha ha should probably have checked but bet 4k again, probably too low ball and Makka folds.  Think I could have made him go loco in this hand as he was pretty close to it, but missed out.

We got moved tables, back to our original bust table with the guy who knocked us out on our direct left.  Two pivotal hands, we 3b the BB with QQ and take an AAx flop, SB donk leads the flop, he is capable but we have not played much together, well known in the local venues, no idea his perception of us.  We just smooth this as I am not keen to go hyper here.  We fold the blank turn, I would have loved to click back, but think he likely peeled with AK, as he was OOP and I do not think it was a good spot.  We are left with about 59k and raise  Aspades Qc from EP, the SB (same player) 3b and we call (sizes I forget), flop comes down 995 with two spades.  He leads for 10k which was fairly big, we call, mainly as we can still have 2 overs to 1010 JJ and we have the nut flush blocker.  i think this is okay.  Turn is the  Qs which is obviously what we think about the best card in the deck, as we have now coffined AK, and are only realistically worried about QQ/KK/AA and we block QQ.  He bets 25k which seems massive on a flushed board when he cannot have the nut flush.  If he has QQ/99 why so much?  we have 45k total and get them in after a pause.  He has  Ks Kc and we fade flop.  Thoughts on this hand?  not folding AQ in position pre are we, dont think we can fold flop, and turn is such a horrid spot but cant see its a fold?

So, the dream died! Shortly after (yes she outlasted me on a single bullet) Kellyann was out, after hitting 666 on 3 card brag, like the bosses we are, we head to Circus and play some cash.  Some utter comedy pots, I lose KK>88 on 1 1088 board and AA<K7 on a flushed turn.  #escape!!!!!!  She does a fair bit too and we give up for the day! Probably should not have played as we were both pretty tilted.  Went for a late night walk and some nice Italian food at Darios on Lothian Road, and being the gentleman I am, I walked her to the hotel and made my way home....pretty sure I am now classed her gay best pal FML

TBC........will do Saturday/Sunday later!

Thoughts on two SPS hands would be welcomes, 1 I think fold, 2 I think is just cold, would be welcome of thoughts

Need to do some housekeeping soon.  Genting Mini Festival, sold on here, actually sold 40% not 50% hopefully backers are comfortable having a hero that cant count!  Tomorrow is lady boys of bangkok (festival staple) followed by karaoke and bum hunting drunks at cash.  Sounds all gravey to me! Kellyann is stayin in Sheraton this weekend which has an amazing spa I hear so that is Sunday day ticked off.  So will be turning up relaxed and ready! Going to leave it all on the floor this week, to come out these two weeks with a blank would be pretty bad  ;all-in;

Short version of remaining weekend:

Saturday

Highlight of day was being in Nandos, and probably Kellyann pointing to the castle and askin "what is that?" I lol'd pretty hard, lived in Scotland forever!  Also found out make up is expensive but seems to come with free shit, who knew....

Evening - played the £100 competition, and lost a flip, the END.  Won about £150 on cash, pretty funny game, enjoyed the play.

Sunday

Day highlight, being used as a make up consult (not in the poker way) god only knows if I helped or not!  Also had a pretty good steak in casino restaurant, will be doing that again!

Played the evening competition, was awful, blind all ins for giggles and £50 side bets, I got killed in crossfire.  Then myself and Kellyann played cash both booked a profit, think I made about £280, so the weekend hole ended up being about £500

This does not count attempts to hit number 5 on the roulette wheel, which were frequent and rather inventive, normally taking what we need to break even and dividing by 35, pretty scientific stuff

Final of $8.80 $8k gtd on stars, $1500 up top 8/8

This would be handy!  ladder like a boss

good luck if you're not already out :)

846 A 5 and u have 89 how have u got 2nd nuts?

Fold pre, fold turn and 100% fold river!

2nd one u have A4 on 25x and hit the gin card 4? Wtf?!

Fold pre A4 defo vs someone who will send u giddy, wait for a decent hand?

What are the blinds with the AQ one???

I maybe call pre depending on stacks & blinds but if ur saying 10k otf is a bigger bet than usual then I'm folding. Stop being a station IMO.

Also wtf is Celtic going on about??

Gl fishcake

Cheers Dreenie, will answer your other ones later, I got the top hand wrong, I had 87

PokerStars Hand #102240132360: Tournament #816010635, $8.00+$0.80 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXX (6000/12000) - 2013/08/03 3:03:00 WET [2013/08/02 22:03:00 ET]
Table '816010635 25' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: cebolleta87 (272794 in chips)
Seat 2: Peggle88 (148904 in chips)
Seat 3: Natek258 (224020 in chips)
Seat 5: Rotbert83 (173658 in chips)
Seat 6: PokerRus.Kor (846941 in chips)
Seat 7: Rab90 (135840 in chips)
Seat 8: fred_volpe (160578 in chips)
Seat 9: Tolstuy1984 (1112265 in chips)
cebolleta87: posts the ante 1500
Peggle88: posts the ante 1500
Natek258: posts the ante 1500
Rotbert83: posts the ante 1500
PokerRus.Kor: posts the ante 1500
Rab90: posts the ante 1500
fred_volpe: posts the ante 1500
Tolstuy1984: posts the ante 1500
fred_volpe: posts small blind 6000
Tolstuy1984: posts big blind 12000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Ah Jh]
cebolleta87: folds
Peggle88: folds
Natek258: folds
Rotbert83: folds
PokerRus.Kor: folds
Rab90: raises 122340 to 134340 and is all-in
fred_volpe: folds
Tolstuy1984: calls 122340
*** FLOP *** [8h Qd Kd]
*** TURN *** [8h Qd Kd] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [8h Qd Kd 7h] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Tolstuy1984: shows [Jc As] (high card Ace)
Rab90: shows [Ah Jh] (a flush, Ace high)
Rab90 collected 286680 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 286680 | Rake 0
Board [8h Qd Kd 7h 3h]
Seat 1: cebolleta87 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Peggle88 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Natek258 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Rotbert83 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: PokerRus.Kor folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Rab90 (button) showed [Ah Jh] and won (286680) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 8: fred_volpe (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Tolstuy1984 (big blind) showed [Jc As] and lost with high card Ace

Down to 5 of 7

6th for $350, better than a kick in the nuts.

Dreenie, will reply about those hands tomorrow, I ninja edited the post as I had obviously had a brain freeze that day!

Think Vinnie was surprised I get traffic in my diary and made a "Vinny" of himself ha ha

Didn't want it to sound like a rub, if you had just bust. Well done fish.

This shit better not go down for the liveament, mrs tomsam will do her swede, and ill kill myself and then you!!!!!

Gg, wp, gl, ul etc, please do the win next time, no pressure :P

Oh yeah, that was just for Lols last night, if I fist pump jam a cold ace of spades with a duck kicker tomorrow you can enact the mummy vouch lol kellyann's uncle is friends with Charlie sheen (true story) so considering tiger blood (tough to get through customs) duh winning

Probs going next deep stack so if I finish 6th you have express permission for a free kick in nuts.....gl us

kellyann pictures..
update on intention towards said kellyann..
does she read this?

Done some fb investigating re kellyann.

Conclusion: he has no fkin chance.

Glglglglglgl

Cheers Vin, I knew I could count on you :)

Dean, intentions are to be her gay best pal, the one she moans to about other guys, workin like a charm thus far, don't think she does, if I do a ninja edit you know she has started

link please for 2nd opinion

do your own investigating.

confirmed abs no fucking chance..go with the ghey thing and ask her to cure you only chance imo..

jesus christ shes fit

u get above the chest yet?

On the live feed at Genting edinburgh now, me watching clearly

link?

lol i feel like a stalker.. dream job

tell the web cam team for zoom option please

sigh she just my type too ffs

ha, is that deano supremo in seat 1?

Think i've played poker v kellyann in Glasgow.

Pulse, hopefully coming deep stack next month

ill wash my pants

Is indeed, just bought boba nandos

tell that sneaky boba he still owes me a nandos from april.

so ninja dinner getting is actually a scottish thing?

Learned at school mate

Along with standard issue trousers with long pockets?

She's gonna be devastated when she finds out you have a burd.

Donating left right and centre here lol

Get on the stream.

Poor kids gonna be devastated

Ha ha na, dont wanna cramp her style, she is through with 99k, thank fuck we swapped, weekend is not completely over!!

Morale ended last night on a huge low.  Tournament was a non event (see report on staking thread). We played cash and lost 70 quickly, then having got down to £50 with a player continually 3b our £2 opens on 50p/50p we announce that we will shove everytime a 3b gets opened, an then actually do.  Was pretty comedy seeing him fold to it 4 times and made £50 in the cross fire!  We then try to play JJ cute and get it all in on a 442 dd board.  Quite funny, we donk lead, raise, call seat 4, we 4b, 5b, call seat 5, now we have £50 back an an over pair, we are pretty sure seat 5 has the flush draw and the raiser, just does not have 2 he has looked more like folding each time he has raised.  I ask the dealer if it makes me a bad player if I shove all my chips in knowing I have the worst hand?  he admits it probably does, I LOL do it anyway after hearing the competition has finished. Raiser dwell calls so we know we beat him, and seat 5 calls.  We are right about raiser (1010), but seat 5 has the  Kc 2c ball, it turns a d, which gives us a flush out but we fade and its GG £150 cash money baby! Sigh, tilting attempt to work out side pot before realising the prize is £0 ha ha

Kellyann finished day 1 with 99k which is 5th of 28, £25k pool and we have 25% so we are now living off the earnings of a women, lol, I am hustler baby, that aint no lie.  End is quite funny, she gets quad aces 2nd last hand and busts someone, then bust Stevie Ng by pogoing a K in the last hand! We go for Italian food and I go home to lose $100 on Zoom with AA vs KK AIPF, snap close laptop and we are done!

8 hours of her play interspersed with chats about aliens and nicknaming all players:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTbAYSE8vAdc&h=fAQGtgiXp

Today has been a morale builder, had a spa day and chilled on the roof top pool in the Sheraton hotel which is immense on a nice Sunday, went accross and got really good mexican food and ate it in the room while debating Galway sats on Tilt.  We manage to Satellite Kellyann into Galway, one tabled a 8 seat guaranteed and laddered likes bosses to victory, holding 10BB for about 45 minutes, some massive panda looking guy kept us alive by folding to all our raises :) Gotta love pandas! amazing for "team" morale and all of a sudden I have 5 days to win a seat, FML, best start swimming now......

watched the first few mins. A woman refused a seat on the streamed table because she had to show her cards. How is that allowed?

She unregistered completely, did not get moved, thats James Gray (jambo22 on here I think) wife, she registered infront of us then unregistered before I was even sat down, not sure the reason behind it until I saw on stream, but she was off, James was playing today so maybe she decided to come back today (Sunday)

Ahh, i'll ask James, seems strange. I take it the final is streamed?

Yeah, and table 1 tomorrow, kellyann's on 4 though.

I will be in bar playing Galway sats on laptop! Just left flat at 2am to play PLO at genting, degens going to degen

hows getting cured going?

What was wrong with me? not sure there is a cure

getting Kellyann to cure you of your gheyness

Ha Ha, na the only cure for that is Jesus

Operation get to Galway has commenced with a win in the £50 feeder, 1 and 10 get a seat in the main! Playing it in the back of the casino bar skanking electricity like a boss  ;slavedriver;

Failure here and we are  ;technolog;

Gl for Galway, can u answer my questions now please?

Finished 14th, pretty ashamed of a couple of spots, actually never been this gutted about poker exit, lost a lot bigger packages but this one had a lot riding!

Promise to give you answers tomorrow off to head butt a wall for a bit

Think u may be sexually frustrated

If anyone can spot it...

your day will come son

Ha ha Deano, who knows you could be right! or maybe I am just tez at the pokers innit

Question time :)

I have ninja edited the post, I had 87 on a 8465A rainbow board, I seem to have had my dyslexic head on hand recall.  77 made a lot more sense then 97 based on his position call but in hindsite the massive overshove is polarised towards nuts as my hand is pretty face up by leading river with a practically pot sized bet, and he must know I am going to struggle to fold a 7 and he should also know 97 should be closer to my range than his, unknown player so he could not guarantee how wide I would defend a BB.  Rating 10/10 on the Spewometer

The second hand, Squires is a lunatic, note his 3b open was 2 3 off, the table is clicking buttons and there was a 3rd player involved who was a station (like me :) ) and would likely keep the action in check as he is smart enough to know that Maybury players do not fold.  It was a bit of an Xmas hit, but we had a plan in the hand and I had done minimal play back which I think allowed me some rope in this spot.

I believe the blinds were 600/1200/200 the bet on the flop was probably pot sized but in my experience in the Scottish game, it is a large lead, especially with stack sizings.  My main issue is that I have come from a table of extreme aggression, I have just been forced to fold QQ by the same villain and I am probably steaming a bit as the lead on the AAx board made little sense, if you have the Ace, it was just an odd lead that vexed me.  2 hands later you are 3B my open, unfortunately I am sensing I badly assigned the player tag and perhaps he was not aggressive but more a nit on a run of cards, unfortunately against a run of cards I am having.  I think with the nut flush blocker, and JJ/1010 perhaps being in his range, calling the flop cannot be terrible?  Fair enough we have caught him at the top of his range, but he will have to slow down AK/JJ/1010 on the turn, and he cannot be loving his hand.  He is never nutted on that flop as only 99 is tentatively in his 3b OOP range, and that is pretty unlikely based on his OOP peel in the AAx hand. Leading 25k into the pot on turn rules out QQ IMO as that is just ridic, on balance my hand  could easily be AQ with the nut blocker or even suited tbf, as AK would likely have clicked back pre in position so after the event the two hands seem pretty readable, do we fold the turn? does he play 1010/JJ with the 10 s Js much different? or AK with the Ks could also play the hand this way.  I think that JJ and AK are pretty possible here.  I cannot see the turn as a fold having got here.  I think had I known the player better I can fold pre and on the flop.  Rating Spewometer 5/10.  I dont hate the hand, I didnt get them in coffined, and I think I can be good here, and win a massive pot.  It is all a learning process I guess, I hit patches in tournaments of bad play, guess its tilt and is someting I will be working hard on, I actually have an MP3 player filled with smooth grooves!

I hope this answers the questions, I have a lot of work to do on some processes and appreciate all feedback.

So u have about 44 bigs when the AQ plays out.

I don't mind the peel IP, but From what u have said about him betting big (10k) otf, just give him benefit of doubt, no need to float here in a 3 bet pot just cos he has donk lead or w/e on AAX & u have QQ?!!

The turn u r literally always behind, like what can he have that u beat by bettin that big?, live players don't tend to bet potish on turn unless they have it, also most don't have it in them to be capable enough of over thinking the way u seem to be throughout all these hands. Like 1/10 u might be right here but 44 bigs I just don't see the need when there will be PLENTY of other easier spots later on that requires much less thought process and doesn't risk ur entire stack?.

The 1st one again is just ridiculous IMO, u seriously can't beat anything here and although u have the straight there is literally not a cat in hells chance this guy doesn't have the nuts by the river.

Ill give u an example, last week I was playing some bowl comp down my local, I had built up to 85k from 30k 15min clock,  this was after the first break so prob about 2 hrs, 3 limpers I'm in the small with A7o I complete and bb checks. Flop :

A 7 6 rainbow, check check, 1 bet of about 1800 me and bb call.

Turn 5, brings 2 spades now, I lead for 4100, bb instant jams 20k on top, other guy dwell folds, I just fold he shows 34. He's usually not gonna shove the nuts on turn, cos wants to induce other guy into the pot, he's the bb, so realistically what can he have to over shove that big?

Has to be 34, maybe he's a fruitcake with A5/A6/67 type hands but these live players don't seem to go mental like that(not this one anyway), even if he had bluffed me plenty of EASIER oppourtunites for me later on.

2nd example. I have JJ this is in 1st hr so early levels I have above avg stack but not sure on excat stack sizes and blinds at the time. Guy limps I think 400, other guy limps 400, I'm otb and make it 1400, limper now makes it 2100, other guy folds I peel. Flop 9 5 3, rainbow.

He bets 3800ish, I peel, turn is the 10, he bets 15k which is a slight over bet I just sigh fold, seems all too weird at the time, I know the guy knows what he's doing and don't see any reason for him to be making a weird move like this once he's limped, u really think he's taking off with 88 etc here for example? Cos that's the only sort of hands I can be and  I think folding is the best option cos I can smell a rat.

The 3rd hand is with 2 tables out, blinds have now increased to 12 min levels, this is the structure. 2 limpers one of which is a HUGE fish, I look JJ, I make it 2800, 400/800 blinds, the star who has limped calls as does the bb, I have position. Flop :

8 2 2, 2 hearts, bb check, star leads for like 4500, I make it like 11,000 I think bb mucks and the star snap jams.

Now this pot is to put me on 120kish at 400/800. The way he plays gl if he has overpair, and if he has a deuce which he will have IMO, 1/100 times then he will check call to induce the bb in, and try to get me to do all the betting, they know I'm aggro and the fact he leads suggests he has either the 8, or a fd, I don't put him on the 8 at the point of him going all in as he wouldn't risk it IMO, but I've seen him play draws this way, specially if he has 2 over cards.

So after some thought I feel I'm happy to take this on, it's against one of the hugest fish in the room who I feel I have locked up, and it puts me nailed on for final table and should be able to run them over with this stack so with all this information I decide to call.

He has the mighty 63hearts, and can't hit the Jack of hearts cos that will house me up so I fancy my chances. I do end up losing but I'm not trying to get at that point I still feel I took the 'big pot' on at the right time against the right player and made good folds vs the rest. Had the hand held I would probably had a deep finish with a few ££ in my back pocket, that's my point.

I feel in a lot of your analysis you are trying to make excuses for all the various hands he can have that u can beat at that point and I feel that's a bad way to start/continue to think about players.

In live poker I don't think many people have caught up, and feel the games are SO SOFT u just don't really have to do that much to get ITM, obv still need luck but if u keep playing optimally u will soon get consistent results, try not to let it get personal, if some guy has 3/4 bet u 5 orbits in a row, f them, let them have it, give them the benefit of the doubt and rest assured u will soon find spots where u don't have to 2nd guess urself, chase cards or in general just be a non believer to what hand they are telling u they have.

I feel so annoyed I've done my money, cos if I still had it I would be playing most of my poker live, there is SO much money to be made, and because I've taken so many months to try and curb the bad losing side of my game, I feel that I am a much better live player for it, but unfortunately I have to wait patient.

P.s - sorry if this comes across patronising, I re read my previous post and it did seen quite abrupt, but I want u to know if I didn't give a shit or I wanted u to lose I wouldn't say anything to you, hence me tryin to put examples in this post as to why I think u should change. I honestly feel if u took some of this advice u would see your results flourish.

GlGl

I am grateful of all feedback and discussion, I dont speak to people about poker much on a strategic level rather than listening to hours of bad beat stories from non thinking players bemoaning the fact they had an Ace and a King, or they were suited, or they had value ha ha

We are agreed on the first hand, I have rated that 10/10 on the Spewometer, on twitter villain commented that I tanked for ages, which shows I almost let it go, I think I just levelled myself, post rebuy period and I snap fold.  My hand is face up, and I think I indulged in a game of, he should know what I have, but if he knows that I know, that he knows, then he would know that I could and should fold.....if you get me!!!! Levels much :(

The AQ hand I really struggle with,  I think we probably start the hand with 59bb (so even worse ha ha), although 44bb on the turn, if we assign him a range of AQ+ and 1010+ knowing he doesnt have the Ace of spades, we think we can take control on a number of turns, in a huge pot potential.  The board is a turkey for my peeling range, which is likely to include mid pairs, and broadway combos, no 9s bar 99, or tentatively A9s (I wouldnt but Ben Jackson smooth called a 5b of mine with said hand, when I had KK, on a 99x board, so it does happen ha ha.....we run good) so I am not surprised potting that flop, as he has control of the pot.  I perhaps overvalue the nut blocker but I fancy he has to slow down a huge amount on many turns knowing I have 14 of my 59bb in a 32bb pot.  The 25k on the turn I believe rules out 99/QQ, why would he be chasing out my draws with the goods, he could have hit his AQ, and we have the nut redraw, he could be going hyper with JJ (single spade), he could be going nuts with AK (K spade blocker), or he could have AA/KK, KK we are drawing to spades Queens and Aces, Aces we are drawing to queens and spades, I would look to rule out AA as we block the nut and I dont think he would go this heavy with zero spades as he should know he could be coffined, we beat conceivable hands, and we have two possible hands of which we have a reasonable redraw against.  He was not loving life on the turn, his demeanour was off, stack sizings werent too different at the start of the hand, clearly he cant love the turn, and I think I picked up on this, as I can have AJs A10s in my range very easily.

I can agree floating flop is on the stationy side, I did not fist pump jam turn, I would have folded turn with a non spade queen, simply the one card in the deck which gets this response.  I think the AAx QQ hand is admissible here, I would say leading into a 3b on an AA flop is a high variance line, it shows aggression, as my 3b range includes a lot of A combos, unless he has housed up set mining x and is looking for AK to take flight.  In addition on a 10ish hand sample this is my 3rd raise, villain and myself have limited history although he will know of me, so my range to him could be anywhere.

Certainly I do not bring this level of thinking to local comps, this table was tough, in context to the field, I had my friend Squires back, my 97 friend from earlier on, and some hoodies, only 1 spot had been identified (bar myself ha ha). 

I agree with the sentiment, I think ocassionally I overthink myself into high variance spots in the larger compeititions, perhaps giving too much credit to other players thought patterns and the fact the spots of which I am used to plenty, do not materialise as often. In the regular "bowl" comps, for which I have a good record, I tend to work with a more chip utility strategy, keep chips, get further and then outplay when stacks begin to get bigger, and find the spots for which you always get paid.  Perhaps in these tournaments I look too hard to find these spots.  I am aiming for next months deepstack so hopefully can present a tournament report without "but he could have had" and concentrate on winning :)

Hopefully we get the chance to talk poker at the table some day.  I spend a lot of time railing yourself, Dan and others on Stars, as I don't do enough training research on the game, and I am looking to improve from (self proclaimed) decent local player, although the step up is a markable one, and perhaps a bridge too far, who knows.  I like your examples, FWIW I probably go broke on hand 1, with the but I have 2 pairs mantra and he could have ha ha, I think I can give up 2, and 3 I lose with you.  Interesting to know that people can fold 1, I would have flagged that as cold and assumed its a sigh call.

You can make a decent amount of money in live poker by just doing the basics well and sticking to them.  IMO, at least.

Decent money doesn't by lambos....just sayin :) I need ice round my neck and a solid gold pitbull

Now for the painful part, this was my results pre festival madness:

Think I have some house keeping to catch up on:

Live Cash
Buy ins:     -£910
Returns:     £988
Net:          £78

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£1,294
Returns:     £2,485
Net:          £1,291

Online
ROI = -1%  
ITM = 12%

Now for post :(

Live Cash
Buy ins:     -£1,310
Returns:     £1,783
Net:          £473

We had 3 out of 4 winning sessions, -100, +120, +250, +125, total buyins 4*100 bullets.

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£2,236
Returns:     £2,485
Net:          £249

Now this is fugly, we done an SPS sat -£24, 2*SPS -£550, SPS side -£110, Genting Sunday -£43, Genting Tuesday -£27, Genting Wed Sat *2 -£48, Genting Festival -£140 (taken off staked proportion) so a total loss of -£942  Oucho! that is a load! Variance I guess, not played very well in a lot of these spots, will be taking a break, coming back fresh.

Online
ROI = -2%  
ITM = 12%

Zero change really, not played much, should really track my online cash, will have to factor that in somehow! JOY

Outlook ahead, Kellyann is off to Galway today, I am insanely jealous, my blow up in Satellite was pretty spectacular,  I got a massive double to 86k with 20ish left, puting me 4th.  I am SB, there is a 14k stack in BB, we see  Js 2s, now my thinking was, I do not want to give the shortstack a walk, so I shove, Why? I do not know, he calls, and wins, we now have 70k and needlessly given away 14k, we then get AJ on the button, and we raise a ridic amount, on the button like 5x to basically say, meh, I aint folding, then the 2 blinds both shove, the first is callable the second, is bigger, we can be left with 23k if we call, we have 55k if we fold, the pot is mahoosive, we call, pretty sure that is truly awful satellite play and we lose versus 99 and AK for both pots.  It is just inexplicable, I have a great record in DTD satellites I get the theory, I just blew up completely! 

We then get the 20k in bad and double to 60k to be 8 of 14, with 10 paid, then mid position shoves 20k, we have AJ again, I think based on stack sizings and proximity this is a fold, I folded 1010 in similar spot earlier when head was not mush, as really looking for others to make the moves, and AJ does not play great against a shoving range, 1010 was probably a better spot.  We iso shove, cause we are imploding and SB wakes up with AA, leaves us with 2BB which we get in good, turn trip kings and then lose to a straight on the river for GG.  Pretty appauled with the whole thing, wish the best of luck to the DTD team.

Aiming for the deepstack at the start of the month, then the 25/25 series in Glasgow for September and the GPS Edinburgh in October, we shall not be deterred  :dontask:

Cliffs : I'm terrified some Irish charmer is gonna get Kelli

Ha ha, I lol'd, admittedly I did try and book her into a hotel 20 miles from Galway to escape the 'hustle', but that was sheer coincidence :) but excellent cliffage

ur welcome..seriously..u not asked her out yet ?

Thought hasn't crossed my mind.....she is a very happy nice person, I like having her around, if I complicate matters, I probably join a long list of 'yeah, we were friends but it got weird cause he....' Coupled with the fact I would probably commit multiple felonies to try and keep me sane/her happy, I guess it's best where it is....

True... as a wise man once said 'Bitches Be Crazy Hoss '

Poker free day yesterday, tried to fix the economic black hole by questionable European Ice Cream Football betting, how can Burpaspor be beaten 3-0 at home by a team of whom I have never heard, sounds like a fix, in the later, dig me out the deeper hole accumulator, Club Brugge masterfully managed to come from 1-0 and then 3-1 down to last minute draw when we needed a win, they exit europe like the big belgian bet buggerers that they are...merde

I have people round tonight and bar a last minute casino mercy mission when they are gone, I will be on another pokerless day, these mercy missions have happened before, so we will see....going to spend most of the weekend at rehab ("my mums"), not the best place to escape gambling as my parents both have laptops which they sit and trade betfair on all afternoon.  However, I will be treating it as a superman style solace cave (pretty sure thats the word) and planning my next pokering moves.  Probably involving winning the Sunday Storm and hand jiving my way out the hole with a thrilling rendition of "nothings going to stop me now".

I heard Kyle Maguire got second in a Galway High Roller, richly deserved, was great in the SPS (apart from getting pogo'd on his first buy in by my dirty gut shot) and a really top lad! The Glasgow players seem to have been getting the lot recently Makka GPS Sheffield, Ludo UKIPT Marbella and Kyle SPS, UKIPT, 3rd Sunday Million, enjoyed playing with some of them recently, although worryingly the Edinburgh young talent (not including me as I am old and tez) does not seem to meassure up!

Seem to be playin 1/2 who knew, we seem to be winning right now......

Don't worry too much chris, for every Kyle McGuire or ludo Glasgow has, there are a dozen boba fetts :)

Watch anything good on the telly recently?

Cashed out 1/2 for 425 from 135 after game died, sat at 150 max in 50/50 feeling good about tonight

Ha ha lol best thing about the live feed from last week is me nippin boba for money at first break

Do you like phone shop? That and Cajun pawn stars for me at the moment

Ha, no I don't watch them, I was teeing you for the granny grimming..

Lol swoooosh true story, she popped down tonight to tell me how good the picture was :) pwned

Brilliant.

And she told my pal Natalie bout her son in Canada before declaring she could wait till Monday to deal with her $5 freebies box, siggghhhhh

You sir defiantly #lovethegame haha :)

Lol I really do :) #degen+proud

Last night was pretty comedy, probably in a WTF sort your life out kind of way but fun never the less! After my first drinks in 3 weeks, I was suitably hammered as my house guests left, I followed pretty close behind heading for the casino (never seen that coming) armed with the £150 I had left I sat at 1/2 as no 50/50 was about.

First hand made up blind with K4 off, guy made it 12, I LOL called, then check raised his 17 lead to 45 on a J88 board, looked joke strong and was a LOL ridic hand but after getting beaten up last time I played 1/2 I thought feck this, I am going to click buttons like a lunatic! Ended up spinning from £130 to £420 in less than 30 minutes and then the game broke which was pretty tilting as the pots at 50/50 suddenly seemed a bit meh, and I could only sit £150 having been sitting comfortably!

Long and short of it, I played absolute awful, lost about £300 over the course of the next 2.5 hours, was an utter disgrace, stacked off with 88 on 422 (second week running that board has done an overpair for me), that was one of many over played hands and general just bad play.  Then last hand of the night managed a spectacular £78 all in blind coo, was promised one under caller and the BB said he was game, then two other players, decided to call not ISO having looked (I mean WTF), and the BB folds not playing with people that have seen cards, so we are now in a £270 day clearing pot with no idea what we have (degens going to degen).

Flop comes down a fantastic 99825 with 3 clubs, which is great for their calling range to miss and my blind range to smash, best hand we see is 77, we flip one at a time, first card  Qc hello sailor, we gambit flip the second and the  Jc hits the pot, and BOOOMMMM we have masterfully orchestrated a get out of jail free card! Skill game innit, we end up £140 for the session and continue to play blind like a boss, if only I could play with my eyes open!

Left the casino at lights off time, having done everything with a last blackjack hand involving the contents of my pocket...sigh, such a dick!

Woke up this morning for a festival day, put my last £50 on a questionable football bet, and headed off to see free (thank feck) shows at the fringe! The comedy show I saw was pretty good, on the top of a double decker bus in the courtyard of the "Free (three normally) Sisters", the compere was a friend of a friend and it was a thoroughly enjoyable hour.  Really reminded me I should really do more of this stuff! Saw an advert for Out the Blue, might have to go see them, saw the videos David put on Alex's blog and fancy it will be a great show!

Got home to head to my mums to find the hard working men of Peterborough (go on the Chompy army), Bradford, Milton Keynes and Watford have turned my nifty into £600 and good is back on the menu OIOIOIOIOIOIOI  ;yippee; I am a master at both getting in holes, and getting back out of them!

Kellyann is surving in Galway

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/blog/updates/

Been mentioned a few times in the blogs levels 7 and 12 and strangely gets more pictures than the pros (go figure), she learned that KQ shove move from me (see tournament report from last week) alas she holds better :) she gets shit signal so not really getting updates but keeping my fingers crossed! Make sure we get our deepstack trip at the start of the month!

You're like a scottish pizzled.

I take that as high praise indeed :) I respect both his pokering game and his outlook on life, even if he does look like Mc Chow in most of Scillians facebook photos

Kellyann finished 124th for 20 off the money, as a master day 2 semi bubbler, I am very proud.  Although clearly gutted for her, as the rate they were dropping probably only 30-40 minutes from min cashing! Next time.....

Currently stuck in "sunny" Leven, with my mother attempting to feed me at 20 minute intervals!  Its her birthday today and in exchange for raising me and bailing me out on several occasions, I have blessed her with my presence! Lunch at the Golf Club carvary today, the club gold medal is on so it should be buzzing down there.  Leven Links is a pretty good course, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood are formal gold medal winners, Justin clearly not playing as he did yesterday! May even dust off the clubs myself soon, probably best ignoring central Scotland that weekend FORE.....Whole family down today so looking forward to it.

Will be playing a Stars schedule of some kind tonight, applied for Pads kind offer, failing that will do a Storm, Big $11 and low ball combo to keep me off the streets/out the gym

Good luck everyone with their sunday grinds

Had a really good family day today, now back on stars, got some photos I will put up tomorrow, get the personal touch!

Unfortunately team pleno false started, I linked my tilt and stars accounts last week but somehow still need to do identity verification sigh!  Double sigh that I put £20 of the £40 I had in my bank in there before it locked! Thank you Tilt ha ha

So far I have stone bubbled a million hyper sat and playing 4 tables.  Got some chips in Storm/Big $11 will give pads a 10% freeroll in those since it would be pretty ugly to hit in a tournement that would have been on the schedule we had planned.

Chasing run good down -ev lines certainly makes for an entertaining read.  WP.  I don't hate this diary.

I may change the diary title to that, was actually going to canvas opinions on a new title ha ha

"Wall Pissing for Beginners" or something of that ilk, to be fair, I am a LOT better than I used to be!  I had to quit my Gamcare sessions as the counsellor refused to high five my awesome gambling stories, she left me hanging, was never going to work, being left hanging leads to emptyness and a feeling of unfulfilment, that leads to sadness, which leads to playing pitch and toss for £20's round the back of an Italian restaurant on a Tuesday evening, for reference purposes that is not as dodgy as it sounds, I have made my peace with not being pretty enough to be a gigalo and being too old to be a rent boy, so we need to find new ways of making money.

Yesterday's session was short and nothing but sweet, was chipped up in Storm and Big $11, unfortunately was watching Wall Street Money Never Sleeps at the same time, so basically tried to Gordon Gekko my way through the fieild by LOL shoving and got my arse handed to me by half the population of Brazil and Russia combined, go figure!

Just found out the £50 £15k gtd game is on in Glasgow this week, so my poker sabatical will not be lasting! may need to invest in Chilean football tonight to try and make some bullets for this! I will be aiming for Thursday/Friday and then back to bubble Sunday.  I don't think I could play Wednesday while watching my beloved national team being unstuck by Ricky Lambert, and I have people round Saturday so I will be aiming for a 2.4 bullet strategy, depending on how quickly I can throw away 23,000 chips on each day!

You seen Kelli...

She gets back from Galway tomorrow, assuming she hasn't married and settled down to tend crops with her Irish charmer, sounds like she will be down playing the Glasgow tournaments with me this week, thank you kindly for your interest :) ha ha

as your own personal troll its my duty to enquire  ;)

next Luton visit?

Lol it is touching

Next month probably, having saw ageing festival bandit Dave Johnson chopping your deepstack, I feel the time is right to swoop, as well as china mug being crowned player of the month!!! Lols me and vinny plan to play heads up blind next time, looking forward to it

Incred.  I have my own counsellor in the form of my GF who literally doesn't give a fffffff what I win/lose.  I'm pretty sure she still thinks online gambling is imaginary.  If I started leaving the house to play Quoits round the back of Frankie and Bennys for £10 a go I'm pretty sure some serious questions would be asked. 

Yeah, I used to have one of those, its easier to manage your gambling when someone spends all your money, alas when left to your own devices its somewhat more challenging!  What you need is a co dependant relationship, those work a treat, I met a girl in Vegas a few years back and degenerated pretty badly, she visited the UK and in the 7 days we did 5 casinos, Newbury Races, Stevenage Mecca Bingo and a couple of bookie days! Oh young love  ;booboo; that and 2 vegas trips! Oh, good times

Quoits seems like a game designed for balla's, is there money to be made there? the pitch and toss markets are a bit stagnated up here, it is difficult to find a good game, bum hunting italian waiters outside Bar Napoli restaurant has worked in the past!

My search on Quoits led me to the Bagel Blogs, my bagel seems non plussed by whole ordeal

Yesterday was one of those days that remind the importance of non gambling related activities to balance life. I say this loosely as my dads influence does not help!

Spent Saturday night watching golf with my dad, its pretty funny as everytime my mum leaves the room, my dad switches to American racing and backs another race, its so obvious, I know when he is picking his horses, as he frantically clicks refresh on betfair until his price is taken! Apparently team Roberts has been doing well this week, crushing betfair ha ha

Sunday my brother (+fiance), sister (+husband) and my nephew all came round for my mums birthday.  We are a very close family, but we tend not to spend much time all together, so its nice when it happens! We also have a golden rule that not all the siblings can be happy and settled at the same time, so I am pretty much fecked until we have a divorce pending, not sure I can funk for that, so will just have to continue to live with my somewhat questionable morale compass.

We had lunch at the golf club, atmosphere was great and we got a table overlooking the 18th green, as it was the gold medal, the standard of approaches was a lot better than a usual day, in which the window at the front of the club would be more in danger than the green.  Food was good, chat was flowing and my nephew continues to amaze, my parents look after him a lot so he dotes on my dad which is pretty good as not sure he got much of the fun stuff when we were growing up so he loves it!  My mum is ladies captain at the moment, so she has a parking space and her name in gold...Ballin

We then had a walk along the beach, an ice cream and a muck around on Leven's new outdoor gym! weirdly, actually works pretty well! followed by some playpark hijinx using the guise of my nephew to allow us full access! Home and a family day was safely completed!

Picture 1:   Scottish diets FTW
Picture 2:   The sign that was put up for me playing golf
Picture 3:   My brother showing how its done at the gym, and more worryingly, what will happen to my hair soon....sigh, I run bad with genes

Aim for today = Zero poker

We managed this yesterday, although seriously tempted to flick in the £55 for the GPS satellite, we now have 2 months to qualify for the Edinburgh leg, and I sense we may need some bullets!  I also see the deepstack satellite's are up, I am really wanting to come down this month, so will likely play at least two of the Monday games, my life roll is not great at present so will be feedering like a mad man!

This evening I am going round to review my mates dads pension stuff (excitement) the joy of working in pensions is you can even bore yourself.  I do enjoy giving seminars or member presentations and people asking me what I would do if I was them?  LOL, what I WOULD do is not any way good financial advice, probably involve Jet Ski's, -ve gambling and a barrell load of stories but wont lead to long term financial security, quite the opposite actually!  The real question is what I SHOULD do?  I do like helping people out though, done a lot of good turns for people in the past and I will see what can be done, as my mates dad is a diamond!

Whilst doing this, will be watching the greyhounds on sky sports, so we will be punting whilst trying to save money, before likely playing rounds of darts for cash! normally starts of at £1 a leg before it escalates to HU4ROLLZ when someone has done their wad! I try to stay calm on "away" grounds, as I am not happy with their set up and my darts are at home! This venue in particular involves fading the computer desk, his wifes constant intrusions and a height level designed for borrowers, not PDC levels.  I have complained several times but it has fallen on deaf ears, they claim it is all regulation but I aint no mug!!!!

Anyways, that is todays plan, see how it pans out! looking forward to the £50 £15k game Thursday/Friday.  Been playing joke bad recently, likely to revert to a lower variance playing style to make day 2, see how it goes, if confidence comes up, we will start clicking buttons again!  The Glasgow boys came and bossed the Edinburgh festivals so I guess its time we go and bring the noise (queue coming back defeated on the train £X lighter).......

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WDQetso2cQ

This made me LOL

Continuing with my aim for zero poker, updates are somewhat sporadic....

We booked a small profit at dog betting Tuesday and managed to avoid getting hustled at darts, so it was a win/win night! After all my early bets looked like bricking we fired up the mobile and picked an ice cream forecast in the next to save the day! Oh how we love mobile betting services!

This profit was eradicated using carefully planned unorthodox football betting and random baseball which to be honest I really do not get! Home field advantage is key in betting terms it would appear, even if the oppostion is gash, we just took the enhanced treble on offer and masterfully managed 1 out of 3, on the plus side, I will never get an account restricted! ha ha

Managed 3 days in a row at the gym and also managed to sort my upstairs neighbours TV, for those unfortunate enough to be on my facebook, they will know how long I have been trying to get this thing sorted.  The kind old dear let me keep the change so I made £1.50 for my efforts of sourcing, fixing and installing her new TV box, as well as a loan of my TV for a week! SCORE  ;tk;

Tonight we are back with cards in our hand.  The Genting £15k gtd game, £50 entry (in before bowl).  Day 2 is on Sunday, shall be keeping my fingers and toes crossed.  Going to attempt to mix things up a little tonight, I think I have developed a couple (hundreds) of bad habbits in last few games, going to strip it back to basics and nit my way to day 2....I can envisage a tournament report tomorrow which is at completely at odds with this but kid can dream I guess.

Tomorrow is a festival day and hopefully comedy drinking levels! I need a good day out, would be a lot easier if I was safe in the knowledge that day 2 was secured as otherwise I will probably be back in Glasgow....sighhhhhhh

The aim for next months deepstack remains alive although cant start the satellite trail till pay day, so that is a bit of a bind!

Shall update tales of 4 high draw chasing and implied odds under limp to jam dry turns or whatever else I fancy tomorrow....PEACE

How did this pan out?

It involved an Ace and a Six, it was far from pretty....

Will do a tournament report when I stop throwing up in my mouth, gag reflex is overworked due to some horrors I witnessed

Suppose I should update for Friday's debacle

We buy in, get a good friendly table, guy to my left likes to chat poker, I had sat him at the GPS last year and we tangled although I was not planning to be as splashy as that this time, so it looked pretty good, as he was likely to expect a maniac.  Liked my early play, folded correctly, even when connected did not go stationy with marginal hands and generally just traded around.

Then, we open AQ, we get called in two spots, had done earlier with AK and led an A board to fold/fold, same lead bet as before, 600, on a A 7 4 no flush draw out.  We get raised to 1600 from a player we know of, but not too well.  Now, my thought was, I am going to get down to showdown as cheaply as possible as knew he can have a bare ace here as he is likely repping me as aggro, but I dont really want to stack here, as it looks off.  We check call 2200 on the blank turn, and we check/call 3600 on the 7 river, as it felt good as now we beat A4 which is one of the hands that concerned us.  He has errrmmmmmmm 87!!!!! Sighhhhhhhh, that is lack of confidence if we ever I saw it, should have just 4b the flop although results orientated I guess

We are down to 15k and steaming a bit, we then open 55 from the button, a shortstacked BB makes the call out of 4k, and check/shoves when we continue on a 4 8 9 board, we just fold as we are never good here, but the call out of the stack was pretty woeful.  down to 12k we then open 1010, we get an 8 high flop, we continue, same player calls, now with 8-9k, we get the banzai 10 turn, we raise, he shoves, we insta call and see  9h 5h he has called our flop bet with a gutshot, and picked up a flush draw on the turn, which he hits! we are now at 4k

We double to 8k, then we open AJ get a caller from someone who is pretty awful, we continue on a Q high board making it 1200 he makes it 2100 before being told its 2400, I LOL shove and he folds, we have no pair, no draw but I am just exasperated and pretty surprised by the lines this guy had been playing and decided to jam it in his eye.  Instincts correct for once.  We get up till 12k and are 10 minutes from the reentry point, we shove over 5 limps with AQ and win, next hand we open to 1000 with a suited ace (a bad one ha ha) and another very interesting player makes it 2500, from the button, we LOL shove as he just plays anything, and he calls the extra 9000 (ish) with J10 off and wins, even fist pumps the club turn which gives him a 4 flush WP sir WP owned my soul there you did LOL

There was a second bullet, will report that and the tales of non Karma tomorrow

Bullet Two report from Friday:

We started off with 25k in level 7 which I think was 200/400/50 shortly going to 300/600/50

We played ultra tight, old gentleman raises to 2400 at 300/600/50 we fold AJ on the button, thinking being, looks like he hates Jacks and we dont really just want to give away a chunk for no reason.  We fold A10 to a raise as we are OOP and we dont really want to 3b/f although having seen the players range, we regret this.

To evidence the table, we get a limp from old gentleman on button, a make up from small blind, and a squeeze from BB, call/call.  SB open ships for like 25k on a 7 high board, BB tank calls with 97, shipper has A7, and BB rivers a 9, this was the care that people had for their chips at this table!

We finally open AJ, get a call in the BB, who then donk leads and A high flop, we LOL 3b and he folds his gutshot whilst asking to rabbit hunt, we wonder how our patient image is rewarded with such skullduggery.

We then open AJ again, to like 2100 at 400/800/100, and BB who is 97 squeezer from earlier makes it 4700, we are playing 24k and in view of the percentage of hands played and his general LOLness, we jam it in his eye, and he folds.  No idea why he would decide to 3b me light when I am playing like utter granite.

Next hand we are not in but is pretty crucial, seat 3 opens, and is 3b by seat 4, called in one spot, there is a  Jd Td 3d flop, seat 3 open shoves a shedload and seat 4 calls.  Seat 3 has opened, then peeled the 3b with J10 off for effectively a 1/5 of his stack and seat 4 has 4b with  2h Ad, seat 3 holds, and both now have about 40k.

Seat 3 then opens later, seat 4 peels, it was 2100 at 500/1000/100 and we are in the BB with  Ac 6d, we make it up and see an Ace high flop, we check, seat 3 makes it 4000, in view of his range and the fact we only have 24k, I think we either raise or fold, as our hand cannot improve, villain was all over the place open wise, we make it 11k, he think shoves, we know we are coffined but to be honest he probably thinks A2 is the nuts here.  So sure enough he has AK this time and we go home.  Hate the hand, fold pre, and on the reraise making it 11k means we remove a lot of our fold equity, making it 8k would give the same result and I probably sigh fold.  Having played so conservatively we just lost it, would have been better just to click battle in these spots as there was a lot of exploitable spots, but again we messed up.

Another £110 down so we are scraping towards even on tournaments which is a real ball ache! Played our first bit on Full Tilt at the weekend, had some fun, will probably play a little more to see what it is about.

Almost had a real fairytale story, used my last $1 to entry the $20k $1 rebuy and thought we would spin, got up high and realised we needed a $1 for the 30k add on, shipped the $0.60 from full tilt to stars to get the add on balance required and was sitting with 80k, average 50k with a shot at 11k for only a 2 dolla outlay! It was set up to be the impossible dream until we realised we flip like unmoistened pancakes and we went out in 7000th LOL cool story braarrr

I will be hibernating for the next 7 days, I have spent the last of my money on frozen food and have planned to watch my mates football team Saturday and go cycling Sunday, course it is bank holiday weekend, sighhhhhh, will probably work that too as I get paid on Tuesday!  #livingthedream

And now your going to tell me buying frozen food is cheaper right? Sigh sigh sighhhhhhhh!

And I don't like the exit hand, think 24 bigs u can preserve it and wait for a better spot. Peeling Ace rag oop is just committing  suicide IMO if u really think he's opening That wide 3 bet pre and take it down there and then?

Soon gonna know if u are behind but I prefer defo to fold as it sounds like u have a massive edge over these fishcakes.

Yup, hate the whole thing, was actually listening to your station advice till then! Followed by Kaboom! Equity BBQ lol

The frozen food is a cultural thing, Scottish people need E numbers to survive, either that or batter :) picked up a game of football tonight but gotta walk 4 miles for the 9pm KO as i cant afford bus, sometimes when people tell me their broke I laugh and say you don't know what broke is lol

Taking a tentative step into live poker this evening, secured funding for the £30 double chance tonight, aim is to turn up and play well, dont really care about winning, although it would be handy.

Played a few online last night, probably the most ridiculous mini session ever! Played and burst 8 MTT's in 30 minutes, of which 7 I got it in ahead, and not even marginally....if its not meant to be, its not meant to be.

So we lost last night....

Playing online now, seem to have stumbled into million, satting like a dream! Had Monda on my side on the bubble and now at my table, so a reasonable sat for blondes, even gave him a walk on the bubble, wasn't risking anything! Fingers crossed, got a good record in the comp

I have been meaning to update my figures for a while, so we are looking as follows:

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£2,379
Returns:     £2,485
Net:          £106

I am not too disheartened with the above, I took some shots and these things happen.  I am confident I still beat the local game and my results in £30-£50 competitions remain good although can't help thinking I am lacking confidence at the moment.  I went out Saturday in a race, at the moment when racing I never feel like I am going to win, I think I played pretty well throughout.  I was not spewing chips and lost the minimum when required.  The bust hand was fine, we get an open, and 3 callers, we ISO shove 6's with 15BB and OR has AK and we do not win.  Them be the breaks.

I may play at the casino tonight, the Wednesday night games have a league in place with GPS seat prizes.  I was pretty close to this last time despite only playing 3 competitions so will likely flick it in.  Saturday is the monthly "big(ger)" game at the Maybury, £50 + £20 and a £4k prizepool gtd.  I finished 2nd last time I played this, so again, we can go in with a degree of confidence (trying to scrape what I can).

Online
ROI = -5%    
ITM = 12%

Looking at my OPR I am currently running at a -ve ROI of 2% over 1700+ games on stars with an ABI of around $9.  I think I am beating the games at the lower level although really need to start working more on note taking and hand reviews.  I have never really looked to "plug leaks" I play by feel, I always have done.  I also change around a lot, mix things up and I think this assists where people have notes as my ranges could be fairly skewed depending on when they have played me.

I really want to see this ROI in the green by the end of the year.  I am happy that poker is not costing me much money and I am working with a relatively free hobby but ideally the hours spent should translate to $$$$ and I will be looking at improving that side of the game.  A couple of near misses yesterday both with pretty sick rivers deep.  I currently have enough in my stars account to be playing for a while which is good news for volume and morale.

Anyways, onwards and updwards......

Tournament tonight was pretty LOL, only 17 runners and reentry not allowed due to league point issues!

I had about 35k from a starting stack of 25k and open UTG AK, player 3b button, we 4b, he smooths, Queen high flop, we rep strength and bet heavy, call, we shove J turn and he has QJ, just had to LOL, 4b pre was 8k, I made it 1300, he made it 3100, I make it like 7800 and he smooths QJ off, my 4b range is AK+ JJ+ so its pretty awful, can probably check fold turn as played but had a chunk in, and he wasnt sold on his Q on the flop otherwise he shoves, got the river K for rubs.  Bigger game I dont go frantic but was pretty much chip up or go home based on runners.

Live Poker
Buy ins:     -£2,407
Returns:     £2,485
Net:          £78

Could be into Red by the weekend FML

On the degen side took my last £10 put it on 5 neighbours by £2, hit 5, then hit another 3 neighbours bet to book a £140 roulette win #winning which was probably 3rd place prize in the comp ha ha maybe I should track my wheel results

Got home and booted up a turbo session, finished 3rd in a $15 180 man to book a profit on a short session.  May start playing more of them, was 1/3 but ran like ass 3 handed but can't complain as I won every flip earlier! Probably a $200 winning session which may edge tomorrows ROI closer to the green green grass of profit......

Homework for tonight, stay off Zoom, stay off Zoom, Stay of Zoom

Homework was successfully achieved, we did not play Zoom, Hyper Turbos or any other fast turnaround $$$$ action.

Online
ROI = -2%   
ITM = 12%

The ROI improves again, got about $5k of cashes this year so I assume we only need $100-$200 more profit to hit break even and see that Green.  Playing with a little more confidence in turbos, quite happy with shoving ranges although slower tournaments I am having some game issues I need to look at.  In view of the traffic at 7pm when I tend to start I can only really reg non turbos till about 8ish as otherwise the session is too long with working 9-5 (trying to make a living).  I play a bit more of these at the weekends but I tend to find weekend games are harder or probably more accuately crazier.  I find 3b/4b rates increase markably with weekend traffic, may just be as better players flood the lower games but I always find myself changing around.

This evening we are back to the gym, determined to get down to 12st (currently 12st 2lbs) from the 13st 13lbs highs posted a few months ago.  Following that we will be back on the grind.  Then will be repeating the homework from last night.

Jealous following twitter feeds from Barca but hey ho, got to beat the home games first! ha ha

Think it sums up my want to play "the game" at the moment that I am currently 3.5 hours into a session having got home at 1230am from drinks and dived straight in! Unfortunately the one slow tournament I played is the one I am still in 6/19 in a $8.80 500 cap, if I dont fall asleep we have a shot ha ha

Hope your sig isn't accurate!

I think if we had fell asleep we may have done better ha ha finished 9th, went into final table 5/9 and got it in on a flush draw and missed

Been a quiet week after some pretty horrendous sport punting took a few days off! Apparently the Danish reserve league is not as predictable as I hoped, this put pay to my deepstack ambitions which is somewhat upsetting! also just realised about SPT Newcastle would have so done that if I had known last week! Sigh at lack of Tikay spam.

Playing a small session tonight, had a fairly nothing week on virtual felt

Online
ROI = -6%   
ITM = 12%

As pay day approaches it seems a good time to update!

Cliffs on last two weeks, not played any live poker, been playing some small ball online, had mixed results, will post ROI etc later.  Managed 50th in the Storm last night which is pretty tilting to beat 35,000 players and be presented with a bowl :( the joys of MTT poker!

On the life front, put on about 8 stone eating pies so will be back on the healthy living kick as hard work should not be undone!  Outisde poker punting has been ridic, lowlights being back an AAB vs Brondby game without realising it was the reserve league, HYPER punt....and a similar coup on a Espanyol game which transpired to be their ladies team! Just call me cornetto, pretty sure I will never ever get restricted at any bookie! Notts Forrest missing an open goal cost me a monkey in a BTTS and Win 4 fold on Saturday! was heart breaking as those bets are pretty hard to get close!

It does mean I can play more this week, will see if I can get a sweat going! Think my play has been picking up and I feel something is brewing, likely to have a big Sunday next week for the final WCOOP weekend, looking forward to it!  Had some yuk spots in the storm last night, some of them probably worth posting but I didnt get the HH at the times so lost forever!

Probably should not mention the word HUD on here, as I am not a TomSom style grief tourist but a few times last night I wondered if I was at a disadvantage.  I have never used them, I never will as I am not that technical minded and am habitually lazy but having watched Alex's video it is the first time I have ever seen them in action.  I have played over 2000 games on stars now, so pretty sure people will have a number of hands on me, in counterbalance I have zero notes and a goldfish memory! It does make me wonder how well I could do if I built at the studying of the game!

The main aim for this month is the GPS!  I have taken the week off and will sell a kidney (again) to play, if I need to! loved this tournament last year and will be satelliteing like a bear all month! Ideally aiming to raise 2 bullets! I am swerving the 25/25 in Glasgow as all roads lead to Edinburgh GPS!

Will also be attempting not to spunk my pokerstars monies on zoom and/or hyper turbos.  Chances of success....zero!  Been really wanting to try and do a Lucky_Scrote style stake for $1-$11 MTT's.  Start a small roll and give a decent sweat for low stakes.  Main reason behind it is the wish to have a sustainable continued roll.  With my own money it is too easy to take shots and use bad BRM where as pooled money I would never touch.  However, I need to up results to get this off the ground as I need to have a saleable product.  Also need to consider the HUD/Notes (fixing the messages above on my laziness) to get this moving.  This is a long term aim and therefore short term my job is to build bankable stats to show this.  Probably need to stop talking about degenning too so people would actually send me money ha ha

Anyways, all just pie in the sky at the moment....Peace

Taken some horrendous shaftings tonight but think this may make up for them all!

PokerStars Hand #104545516921: Tournament #791396350, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXIX (4000/8000) - 2013/09/24 0:20:06 WET [2013/09/23 19:20:06 ET]
Table '791396350 53' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Rab90 (276750 in chips)
Seat 2: ildar0365 (206132 in chips)
Seat 3: derbyfav (392783 in chips)
Seat 4: Kjernekar (143299 in chips)
Seat 5: Sou Colono (305500 in chips)
Seat 6: Maauro.10 (209481 in chips)
Seat 7: Benyfox (63953 in chips)
Seat 8: polderjongen (309605 in chips)
Seat 9: 22:22clock (202956 in chips)
Rab90: posts the ante 1000
ildar0365: posts the ante 1000
derbyfav: posts the ante 1000
Kjernekar: posts the ante 1000
Sou Colono: posts the ante 1000
Maauro.10: posts the ante 1000
Benyfox: posts the ante 1000
polderjongen: posts the ante 1000
22:22clock: posts the ante 1000
polderjongen: posts small blind 4000
22:22clock: posts big blind 8000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rab90 [Jc Jh]
Rab90: raises 8750 to 16750
ildar0365: folds
derbyfav: folds
Kjernekar: raises 46500 to 63250
Sou Colono: folds
Maauro.10: folds
Benyfox: folds
polderjongen: folds
22:22clock: folds
Rab90: raises 212500 to 275750 and is all-in
Kjernekar: calls 79049 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (133451) returned to Rab90
*** FLOP *** [Jd Ts Kc]
*** TURN *** [Jd Ts Kc] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Ts Kc 9h] [Js]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rab90: shows [Jc Jh] (four of a kind, Jacks)
Kjernekar: shows [Ks Kh] (a full house, Kings full of Jacks)
Rab90 collected 305598 from pot
Kjernekar finished the tournament in 26th place and received $24.61.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 305598 | Rake 0
Board [Jd Ts Kc 9h Js]
Seat 1: Rab90 showed [Jc Jh] and won (305598) with four of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: ildar0365 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: derbyfav folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Kjernekar showed [Ks Kh] and lost with a full house, Kings full of Jacks
Seat 5: Sou Colono folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Maauro.10 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Benyfox (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: polderjongen (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: 22:22clock (big blind) folded before Flop


Gross

Final of the $3.30 5k gtd 2 of 9, $1k up top

Would say I have played well but more like god mode ha ha

Good luck Christopher, I'm in Glasgow later this week. You around?

When? out with work in Glasgow Friday night, gimme a shout, workin in Glasgow Thursday too

Heads up, got a 5:1 chip lead! there sheeeeeee blows coming up I sense! ran like Usain Bolt on crack!

On the plus side ROI = GREEN tomorrow

I'm up Thursday, prob head to gentings at some point on Friday. Seems the easiest place to meet.

Congrats mate.

casino on pay day day, what could go wrong :) see you then

Somehow finished 2nd, 3 pretty cold hands, happy though, another day another dollar

Last night went pretty well bar the heads up debacle!  I had a 6.5m to 500k lead at one point, was probably a bit over eager to finish it as it was 230am

ROI 8%
ITM  12%

Cashed 4 out of 24 tournaments, had a really good run going and then took an absolute beasting over multiple tables.  My fav was going from 1st to out in a Hyper losing 5 flips in 7 hands! was pretty nuts!  I was one tabling for quite some time and did pretty well not to keep it level.

Plans for this week have now amended slightly, looks like we will try the 25/25 on Saturday, throwing a bullet at it, since we feel pretty good about shizzle!  I have heard pre registration is off the chain so could be pretty interesting!

Back on the online grind tonight, ride the wave since results have been reasonable of late.  Homework as always is to stay off Zoom!

More GREEN :)

Chopped a hyper for over a bag, so ROI is flying! Would have posted sweat if it wasnt over so quick!

Pretty pumped just now, said Monday I thought things were moving, hitting the correct side of variance!

Another good day at the office:

ROI 23%
ITM  12%

Cashed only 2 of 32 yesterday which is pretty poor, although I think I lost focus and should not have regd anymore after winning one, as I was in massive stack mode and not really in the mood to build from starting.  Plus I used all my positive variance to win a hyper as they are so swongy, had mega premiums on final table which makes life easier!

ROI for the last 120 days is 49% which is obviously a lot better than I would expect to be normal.

I have continued to withdraw winnings as I do not like having too much online due to tilt related hyper heads up disorder (thats a medical thing)!

I am not playing a schedule tonight as I am off to the cinema, White House Down, dont think it will change my life but it will kill a few hours!  When I get home going to try the DTD cash room, see what its all about, not too heavy, sounds like fun so why not!

The weekend is now confirmed as 25/25 on Saturday flight 2, was tempted to sell for a 2 bullet strategy but could not ask anyone to stake me live based on current confidence, so not going to do it.  This could go very well or very bad, not sure there is a middle ground! Also meeting Celtic/Forth Thistle on Friday night maybe, so see how that ends up, at a guess, in me paying for food

Well played on recent results fishcake!

Gl at the weekend, IMO sell 40% of 2 bullets at zero mark up, ppl love the sweat anyway :P might make u play tighter 😉 ha

Cheers Dreenie, just bought in for Saturday Flight 1, aiming for a single bullet on my dime! Going to try alcohol, played last couple of big ones sober, my record with cider is exceptionally better

Not played much last few days, did dust a hundo off in the Dusk Till Dawn cardrooms, annoyingly not in the Cash Room as there was no tables during the day, did play some time on them previously though, breaking evening, will be better when the pictures go up!

Hopefully meeting Vinny/Forth Thistle at Genting this evening, if all goes to plan, have no plan for how to actually get home and 12pm start in Glasgow tomorrow, this could epicly well! what could possibly go wrong! think my lack of phone charger and contacts make going home a necessity, be interesting to see how this pans out!

Then sticking with a one bullet strategy for 25/25 but again god knows what that will change till tomorrow, will probably machine gun four bullets at 2 flights and jump straight back in that hole I live in...Ack Well

Weekend was pretty horrendous poker wise.

Played the Friday night comp, two bullets, did manage to outlast Vinny but that is hardly a huge poker accolade! Actually felt I was playing pretty well, lost a flip with 88 for stacks! we adopted a "Jam it in their eye" strategy, with that old addage, most of the time they gotta fold, worked a charm for ages, including a ridic bluff with A high in diamonds on a 3 parsley board.  The float with air check jam was a thing of beauty!

Went to play cash and ran over the table for a while, got up from £200 to £800+ and was really getting going.  Lost a £1000 pot, where player peeled an open with 4 high, called the continuation bet with a gut shot to the bottom side of a straight (which hits), which was pretty frustrating "calling for stacks" was the rational, done it myself so cant really complain! pretty disgusting turn which gave me top pair and the K high flush draw, into a player who had loads of bluff.  Could have got off cheaper....sigh! Got back up to £500 3 barrelling AK into A10 but then lost another cold pot last hand of the night.  Raise peeled K10 suited in position, K high flop, K turn, all looked good, J river followed by a donk lead was just rank! I knew he had JJ, nothing else made sense but we had to take our medicine and throw £88 away, so ended up with about £350, I say we loosely as the tilt meant the Pit got most of that.

The 25/25 was equally rank, lasted a whole 2 levels, chipped up to 35k early, table was soft and I was LOL'Loving life.  We then get caught by the 89 ball on 10Jx when we hold JJ, he called the streets which is fine, thankfully only called our river bet when the Q hit, pretty safe on his part, but cheers! We then get down to about 20k, and find 99, "8-9" player raised, called by one spot (new to table, pretty good).  I just flat as he barrels A high loads and fancy we can play this hand cute.  10 high flop, we call a street as does other spot.  We get the 9 turn, Bingo, player bets again, called, we raise.  He calls, other player then raises we shove and he has caught a dirty gutter (de ja vu from last year) and we dont improve on river.  In all honesty, I did not even see the straight, line is joke strong but doubt we are ever folding here.

Did well to get out of dodge and not refire as we were not mentally in it at this point!

We got into the WCOOP 8 max and were chipped up for ages before finding some pretty yukky spots!

Anyways, onwards and upwards.  Pretty excited about getting this staking off the ground.  Almost had to delay it after stone bubbling the GPS 5 seat Sat last night.  The laptop almost got broke! Was 1/9 with a 15k chip lead.  Go to bed, one time lol I lost the head a little, players knew each other and the small stack was getting a lot of cheap folds and I was dwindling.  I should have enough funds to play next week, but small staking request may be imminent if I brick the sats.

Anyways, onwards and upwards.

Good to see you Friday chris. Thanks for not standing me up. Nice to meet your wife too.

I tried to get someone to fold aa pre, but he just wasn't good enough and my ak couldn't hold. Terrible play ultra rewarded as they say elsewhere. Was only a 150 bb pot too lol.

See you soon, and good luck with the staking.

Ha ha my "wife" has a blonde logon, you may goad him into a first post lol

Excellent, what's her name on here?

DM69 I believe, not sure if even my "wife" reads my diary lol

Doubt it, I think it's just me and Sicilian. And occasionally dreenie, when she needs cheering up.

Was there at 2 and you were out.

Should have known it was more than 2 hrs into a tourney...

I was there till closing....I never saw you lol

Bandit was there til 2.30 too I think.

Sounds like Davies been rumbled!

More GPS sat fun this evening! Busted 55£ on first hand AK < KK quite the contrast to bubbled! Then won the 5er feeder to get my token back so total outlay not too bad!!! Will get there if it kills me

Off to Belfast with work in 7 hours....gotta love the red eye zzzzzz

Got a frantic week to update so will use daily cliffs.

Friday

Got back from Belfast, straight to casino, two bullets at Maybury comp and £100 donked at cash! spun to £400, hyper aggro player sits down and gets aces first hand.  We double, we spew, the end!

Saturday

Play the 10 seat guaranteed live GPS Satellite.  Get up to 65k, 14 seats and 70 left, blind down to 43k playing zero hands with 35 left.  Min raise AJ UTG, call in mid position, and BB, shove A Q 7 flop.  Mid position caller had A7, horrendous peel out of smiliar stack and player who has played zero hands but thems the breaks.  Smile, nod, move on! turn was an out tastic K, so any broadway for win/chop but home we go.

Sunday

Play the 10 seat online satellite and get to 10k chip leader pretty quick.  Sick hand 20 out Q7 vs Q4 on a Q high flop all in, catched 4 on turn to go from comfortable to uncomfortable that was a lock if it holds.  Sigh, and shortly after we lose a flip.

Monday

We have an exam on pensions law, we havent read book, we dont do very well, we hear how badly in December! guess online satellites the night before was the -ve life EV choice!

Then we miss the 10 seat gteed satellite to have DVD's and pizza with a female, likely saved £55

Tuesday

Beginning of one week holiday, spend day living the dream playing poker in our pants! Play the £55 satellite again, get chip lead again, donk it off again! pivotal hand AJ vs KQ AIPF to go from comfortable to mega comfortable back down to MEH.   Pretty sure Alex knocked me out whilst I entered monkey tilt mode.  That is the 4th chip lead I have spwed in mega sattelite week! FML bad play mainly so can't really complain! We should have been firing ten bullets at this!

Wednesday

Poker in pants, rinse repeat, run like god in $1 games until money gets noticeable then bust! Woop, going to moan one in soon!  Off to play last chance GPS satellite, skank in £30 rebuy at break for £63 quid, 9000 chips when average 13k and 55 left with 13 seats.  Seems  like a pretty good strategy to be fair! especially as £65 was my net worth at the time.  We meet pads and eso, eso kindly allowed me to hit my set when AIPF with 77 vs 1010 blind vs blind and we actually get our seat! Proper pleased as I would have spent today pawning my soul trying to play Friday! plumped for playing day 1B as would rather not bust the first day and then want to reenter! Excited! as this whole week off was meant to be for GPS.  Not sure if Kellyann is through her qualifying attempts went worse than mine and Sheraton suites are not cheap! Not going to estimate how much I spent getting this seat.....

Today

Rinse repeat poker in pants, local Greigs and Subway are finding booming trade! actually love lazing about house, I really should have been born a sloth!  Football shortly and then back on the evening grind! Just seem the MTOPS e-mail  and going to make sure I get into some of those!  although I seem to be away the weekend of the main event!  Pretty sure I am due a live score, either that or I am just really really bad as recent form is woeful! One time activated! sold a bit privately so will update on here! Catch up complete....lets get this done!

Wifi really bad, got 30kish first break, down to 20k early lost minimum QQ vs KJ on K board, got them back AK vs KK on A high board although probably won minimum! Fingers crossed, table not that great, lot of circuit regs no locals

pretty disappointed to log in and just find stuff about poker after FB announcement...

Same old story get a girlfriend blow us all out :)

Tell us about your Burd, chris.

ha ha only just seen these!

Well she is happy to sit and watch DVD's whilst I sit shouting at my laptop, guess thats pretty rare! she cuts hair so she can help me hide baldness and she leaves me alone on a Saturday night with crisps, popcorn, cider and pizza + a laptop! dont think I am going to top that......

clock.........................

Lol dreenie, you have my fb, I spend my Saturdays at the bingo, all my poker is online, it's hard to update my crazy mad cap life!  Things are pretty good right now, not proper degening, doing different things, mixing stuff up, find my staking therapeutic, seems to distract me from LOL punting! Might start recording again from January, new year, new start, probably new title :)

Hopefully playing Luton on the 21st so may update that if I knock vinny out a comp or grim dean for a drink :)

Ukipt January so lots to look forward to, delighted DTD are doing Sats, I hate Pokerstars UKIPT sats so fingers crossed

You may as well then every scotchman I know will have grimmed me....vinny even got me with the old 'i need to find a cash point' as we are walking into the kebab shop

Ummmm, what is going on here? ......

Not much dreenie! I just play words with friends and feed my cats ha ha living the country life

On the plus side Vegas is booked for November so one of my usual targets have been met :)

Played 2 live poker tournaments all year, quite scandalous!