blonde poker forum

I figure, for my first proper entry into the forums and my first diary/blog/whatever, I should start with a bit of personal background. I might move on to talking about the odd strategy point that has helped me develop as a poker player, but I certainly intend to keep this as a diary with weekly entries. If anyone has any comments or suggestions for future entries, please feel free to post! This one may be a little boring, but its a start I guess. I hope you guys like it!

I first started playing poker when I was 14, in Austria, on a school skiing trip. Everyone seemed to be playing, so I figured I'd sit down and try to learn. I started playing heads up with a friend, with another friend dealing, and for about an hour I won nearly every pot (little did I know, the dealer was fixing the cards for me basically every hand, if I'd know what a flush was I'd have won every hand!). From there, I went home, set up an account on Zynga Facebook poker, and played pretty avidly every day for a good few years, grinding up a good $5mil roll playing mostly sit n gos. By the time I hit my GCSE study time, I was regularly playing for my bus fare home, and consistently beating the game. This continued for quite some time, before A levels started to come along and poker took a back seat in my life for the next few years. Towards the end of this time, I managed to get a job as a technician at my local bowling alley. I kept this job for about 7/8 months, before ending up on massive life tilt with my boss over my hairstyle (I was, unfortunately, a grammar school boy. We were told we couldn't have hair below the collar, I was/am a bit of a rebel/wanker so I grew my fringe down to my chin) and handing in my notice.

In the meantime, I had discovered that a couple of local pubs ran a pub poker league, registered, and sat down to give it a go. I still play that league whenever I can, I owe the Champions Poker League an awful lot. The top however many percent of players at the end of this league go through to a finals day, which i achieved three out of three attempts, bubbling twice. Through this, I started to feel like I could see the skill edge in this game, and became pretty obsessed with finding winning strategies. My style developed fairly quickly, I started working out common tells and betting lines which correlated to hole cards, betting lines and board textures etc. that left me captured. Beating the luck became a priority. By the time I'd lost my job, I had played my first big live tournament. I won a seat to a satellite in a raffle, bubbled the satellite getting silly happy with 4's, and then used the overlay money to play a side event that was running that day. After busting the very first hand and re-entering, I played probably the most solid game I have ever played and final tabled. This would lead up to one hand that would define my poker over the coming months. Utg +1, who was tired and just about had me covered (I was about average stacked) raised, and it folded round to me in the BB. I looked down at QQ, and shoved it in, getting a somewhat loose call from 77 given how tight I was playing, but obviously I don't mind. Winning this hand was giving me very nearly the chip lead, and as I was busy checking the payout sheet, the guy spiked a 7 on the turn to take me out. Obviously, this is just one of those wonderful variance things that we all know and love, and obviously now that I've played a lot more, it's fairly easy to take and just move on. At the time, however, this was crushing, and very nearly ended my career before I even thought it was possible to have one.

After some time staying on the pub scene, and gaining a reputation for my pretty fiery temperament, I took another shot at a local poker festival. I bust out early from a side event, during which I layed down AKs preflop and got shown AA and felt like God for all of another 10 hands, I then sat down in their main event, made day two, and bubbled. I was starting to see a bit of a trend here, but over time my view had changed. I felt like I could recognise a few mistakes I had made during the tournament, and developed a real sense of "you aren't a champion, until you've earned it". Whilst still frustrating, I felt that I had now made some decent runs in some decent tournaments, and could see myself improving every time I played. I started to play the odd cash game and tournament at these places, and found myself having some success. I felt like I'd got a taste of the life of a professional poker player, and was hooked on that lifestyle. I will also point out that I have never read a book on poker, preferring instead to develop my own game and be influenced only by what I've seen work instead of falling into the common trends. Now, I am starting to look at some poker literature, but I feel like I've defined my own style and am now looking to understand how other people think a little better, as well as making a few adjustments to my game as I now have a roll to experiment with new lines and lose for a little while.

I didn't make enough to avoid coming to University, so I decided to apply and enroll at Loughborough, which is a short drive from Dusk till Dawn (what a shocking coincidence...). Up until this point, I had always viewed professional poker as more of a dream than am actual possibility. Then, I joined the poker society, and started to play regularly at DTD. The group that has come together really is incredible, the standard of player that I get to play with and learn from at this university is truly stunning. The core group are all proven winning players, and the discussions that we have about poker theory and spots on a daily basis are helping us all to improve to a level where we can all see ourselves spending a long time in this game. Grinding the 50/1 game at dtd to pay through university has shown us what it really feels like to play for a living, and I can only hope that I can live up to the standard that I expect from myself and make it in this business.

Right now, I have just come away from placing second to "lil" Dave Nicholson at the dusk till dawn £300 deepstack event, for £21,000. Not only do I feel like this is my shot at my dream, but I also feel like the group I'm with will make it with me. We can all feel a big year, and now that I'm sitting on a £25k roll, I feel like I can start hitting the UK circuit. I'm currently preparing for the GPS Star City, and having a bit of a sentimental moment, reflecting on how my attitudes to the game have changed, and how much our group have improved as players over the last few months. I know I haven't made it yet, but if this is my one time, I intend to take it.
 

This could be fun. Gl

Thought you had a chance but then you said you got beaten by lil D at HU holdem?

I lost HU in the deepstack over the weekend to Lil dave, but still came second, which got my bankroll up from like 4k to 25k.

Flushy (Royal Flush, a.k.a James Dempsey) is whimsically suggesting that only a terrible poker player could lose to me at HU nlhe, not a format of the game I'm known to excel in, you just happened to walk into me on the wrong day ;)

He's very old though so unsurprisingly comes across a bit grumpy :D

Matt played great all weekend (spesh on the final, if a little FPS'y at times - lose some of the OOP floats imo ;) ), struck me as a really nice kid and had a lot of fun playing poker, was laughing and joking and messing about on the final which is good to see too many of these finals are dreary affairs (so i've seen) sure there's plenty of money at stake but doesn't mean we can't have a laugh.

Also, mad props for this, i offered Matt an un-official £4k saver heads up and he turned me down like a fkn ballllllla! £16k 60bb HU sng lessssssssgo love it, man after my own heart :) there's an indication of the respect I had for the way he played as I wouldn't have offered that to someone I thought i was miles better than.

my two pieces of life advice would be;

1) try not to spunk all your money away, and

2) if you are going to, please do it on hookers/drugs/crazy nights and degen sports bets and not on playing poker tournaments :)

See you in Vegas :)up

Congrats on the result. Sub'd!

Played the first day of my first GPS today in Birmingham today, up to 163.4k where the average is in the high 60's. Played good, run good, pulled off a very sexy OOP float that I just know Dave woulda loved ;)

Possibly the best advice I've ever seen on Blonde.

lol.

Experienced with this cycle so i believe Mr Russel?

Pretty much every pay day :)

Thought you played brilliantly on the final. GL with the diary/making it

Classic Lil'Dave, brilliant!

Will be following this diary closely.

Glgl don't go after every pot.

GPS Leg One and the poker stigma.

So, after a days sleep, I feel ready to write my second proper blog entry. Over the weekend, I played my first ever tour event in Star City, Birmingham. Before I get on to the tournaments, I feel I have to talk about the place. The casino itself is wonderful, the service was mostly good and the staff/dealers did a fantastic job. I felt more at home than I ever thought I would, and found it pretty easy to settle into a rhythm and feel comfortable at the tables. Big thumbs up to Genting :)

The tournament itself went really well. I had a little ego problem at one point (Which Simon Deadman was on the receiving end of, sorry matey :p) where I made a play and showed the bluff, and spent the next half hour being annoyed with myself for letting my ego get the better of me. Thankfully, it was close to the end of the day, and we had a break just after, so it didn't have too much of an effect. I made day 2 with somewhere around double the average stack, and played really well all day (barring a play where my bet sizing on the river was embarassingly bad, put the guy on pretty much his exact hand and just levelled myself into a bad bet). That aside, I felt very comfortable, played some hands that I was very happy with, and overall feel encouraged that I could make a decent impact at some future events. I ended up running into someone who picked up AA two hands in a row, then made a BB squeeze with all of my remaining chips with A6, succumbing to KQ after a Q on the flop. I finished 28th for £1020, which I can't really be disappointed with as an entrance to the tour, although I guess we always hope for more.

The big story of the weekend, however, was Adiman, a member of the loughborough crew who took down the side event for a tidy £6.8k, his biggest tournament win to date. Made some great decisions all weekend, finally starting to get some of the results that his standard of play deserves, well played matey!

I want to talk about an issue that I'm sure everyone here has come across at various points in their poker career. Some members of my family insist that poker is never a viable career option, that it is gambling and a game where luck prevails. I don't even think of myself as a gambler. I have never played roulette, I have very little understanding of blackjack, have never played a slot machine, and only occasionally play back at a three bet with  5d 3d ;). I have tried many times to explain the concepts of E.V., of bankroll management, and of the sheer amount of skill that is involved in the decision making process that makes us long term winning players. I am constantly amazed by the amount that people claim to know about a game they have never played, and how they feel they can judge my life decisions as confidently as they seem to.

This subject has come to my mind after a recent experience with a tutor at my university, when I was trying to explain that I wanted to switch a module to give me the freedom to travel to three day events and play the friday session. After explaining this, I was met with the following response. "First of all, I would like you to understand that poker is not a career, it is just gambling." As I was readying a response, I was struck by the notion that I didn't need to get involved in this conversation. People very rarely seem to leave arguments with a different view point, or indeed in a positive frame of mind. All I could think was that trying to combat this statement would not achieve anything. I would leave feeling frustrated, and the tutor would leave with exactly the same opinion, and a rather more negative one of me. The stigma is something that I have come to accept as a player, and I would much rather let my bank balance defend my stance.

I used to think the same.  But poker IS gambling, even though you can have an edge over your opponents.

Matt, you must realise that poker IS gambling. Thinking otherwise is just incorrect, and will likely hinder your success since you will be thinking about poker in the wrong way - you will not fully grasp the essence of the game.

Just because something is gambling, it does not mean that it is not also skillful. Or that it is impossible to make a living out of it. You are (or are seeking to be) a professional gambler who specialises in poker.

Poker seems a really complicated game in many ways. However, it is actually pretty simple - it is about making good bets, and avoiding bad bets. This is, in reality, the essence of the game. Just like any other form of advantage gambling (sports betting, professional blackjack, playing the stock market etc). Start thinking of poker as a gambling game, and start thinking of yourself as an advantage gambler. Because it is, and you are.

Always nice to get some recognition from a big name such as yourself Rexas ;)

In all seriousness you played well all weekend and where just unfortunate to run into AA two hands in a row. But hey, thats poker :P

And in other news this is my first post here on Blonde, and I really hope to become a more active user in the near future.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I have a bit of a problem with the connotations of the word "gambling". When you say that someone is a Gambler, you conjure up all these images of roulette tables and crazy adrenaline sports and all that, but many people seem to struggle with seeing that there can be a skill edge. I don't see myself as fitting the negativity that many people seem to connect with the word, more that I gamble with a view to achieving the highest adge possible, and that's what makes it profitable.

You have your whole life ahead of you. Get a great degree Rexas and then try a year off as a poker pro as a gap year would me my advice. You students get plenty of time off and half terms. Good luck.

Hi Matt,

Just a few things on your previous post about validation from gambling outsiders about poker, I've actually struggled and struggled with this myself, as I come from a very religous family, who have very strong "anti-gambling" views. First thing to consider is that poker, like many other en-devours is a "non-linear" life choice, and the thing about non-linear paths in life is that firstly (and obviously) they are unusual and niche. This will lead to a lot of skepticism from others, remember society bring us up to think that the "stnd" path in life is to get an education, career, family etc - I used to despise this "unambitious brainwashing"  but now I'm a bit older I realise it's "standard" for a reason - like in poker the reason the standard play is just call KT on K74r against a C-Bet is because its just 9/10 times its just the best way to play the hand. Looking back at how arrogant and opinionated I was back in the early days of my poker career really does make me cringe, but was born out of resentment, I was young, successful, did whatever the fuck I wanted and had plenty of money - I couldn't believe that this didn't bring me the same amount (if not more tbh) of validation that someone who just qualified as a doctor would recieve.

Defo try not to fall into the same hole I did in this respect, as you'll constantly feel like you have something to prove and this will have very negative affects on your life inside and outside poker.


Let your the freedom poker gives you, and your inner happiness defend your stance, not your bank account. I used to be very proud of the story of when I was 20 and at a familly christening in Exeter, I was playing online sneakily whilst an elderly relative lectured me about the sins of gambling and won $23k during the lecture and stormed out saying "im off to buy a car" that story used to be to demonstrate how wrong they all were and how right I was, actually looking back it proves they were way more right than I thought they were (admitedly they were right for SLIGHTLY different reasons than they thought they were) but i was obsessed with money and thought that was how you get happiness/validation. Saying "gambling is bad you're going to hell" is obviously ignorant drivel (that's likely what you're encountering right now) but when people say "is this actually making you happy, or are you hiding behind the emotional swings" then that's something worth listening to. I nearly burnt a lot of bridges with people who care about me confusing the two.

The second thing about non-linear life choices is that they attract a LOT of jealousy, the truth is many, many people would love to have the opportunity and the courage to try something like you're going to attempt. Don't let those people get into your head because again your poker and your llife will suffer.

Stu's definition of the poker/gambling thing is spot on, that's just something to deal with - "gambling" is portrayed so negatively in the mainstream for the most part that it's become a negative buzz word, people who know nothing about gambling and poker feel qualified to comment on it because they've read a newspaper article about how a man lost his house betting on greyhounds. I long ago took the stance that if someone wants to have a grown up conversation with me about poker then I'll entertain virtually anyone, if someone wants to give me an ignorant lecture of how the house wins or ask me what i'll do when my luck runs out I just straight up ignore them (this has lead to some awkward moments at family gatherings in the past lol)

(rambling Stu B style now lol)

I think you have the emotional control, and self discipline to do very well in poker (I had none of the qualities when i started out and the amount of money it's cost me over the last 3/4 years sends me to bed in shivers) but that doesn't mean it's necessarily the best thing to do, I actually half agree with your uni proffessor, poker isn't a career (not for me anyways) it's a platform that provides you with freedom and opportunity, you're gonna meet a lot of incredibly interesting people in gambling, and if all your can learn from them is what range is good to 4bet vs a laggy CO btn 3bettor than, imo you'll have failed. 

I often feel like it's not really real isn't poker, you're not making a difference or doing anything meanwhile, you're really just treading water in a very expensive swimming pool, the real winners though stay in just long enough and come out much better swimmers.

Worry more about making yourself the best you can be, and taking real advantages of the opportunities that come along and leave what other people think to them, but as much as you won't wanna hear it DEFO do not do what I did and ignore and alienate people who do actually care by throwing them in the same catorgory as the jealous and the ignorant, you'll really need those people one day.

The advice above is great.

What I will add is that you should just go for the understated approach with everything to do with poker to your family members and anyone else.

Say to them it pays for your upkeep, you are making money and are making savings at a much higher rate than any other graduate job could provide, assumably.

Say that its a short term thing, hint at a year or two and say that the freedom it provides is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you are doing well and can prove it show it to parents with printouts of bank statements if needs be.

You are in control of your own route here, so do what you want to do. Would advise to finish the degree obv, as I assume you enjoy that anyway, and poker will always be here. If you get the degree done then I am nearly certain they would be so much less on ure back, especially if you go onto get the grades you were meant to.

Straight after graduation I would assume they would be fine with it and if not you need to just be as civil as you can while you still pursue it and the validity of the game will become stronger and stronger as you are not yet busto and grovelling back for money in a year or two's time, etc etc. And at the same time could even show progress on how you are doing better than you would be if you got a regular job.

Great advice from Lil'Dave.

I want to use the term 'non-linear' in a sentence at some point in my life.

Would you be looking to use it incorrectly?

Correctly, incorrectly... I don't really mind, since I don't actually know what it means. It just looks like a cool phrase to use ;)

Edit: Actually, I have just looked it up and I think Lil'Dave has used it correctly. He is meaning that there is not a clear and immediate causal link between input and output i.e. between one's play and one's results. Which is clearly true in any form of gambling. And is also one of the issues that non-gamblers have with understanding it.

exactly, output, input all that jazz - just what i meant.

As an english student, and a bit of a wanker, I can confidently say Dave has used the term appropriately :D

What you do in the back row of your English lectures is no-one's business but your own.

Without a doubt the wisest words I've heard in a long time ;)

gl Matt. If I can just ask one thing of you though, Can you stop busting me from tournaments please, twice in 1 week is unacceptable imo :p

Tom looks like the type of person who is difficult to eliminate from a poker tournament.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy3TB6ECBmM&list=UUtT7nkTZRERqGJ4V3cTJ-6w&index=1

why do you fold at 3:40.00?!

I think I misread my cards tbh, but at the same time, after playing so badly and losing two big pots, I really wanted some time to regroup and calm down. I was busy trying to think about how I should be approaching the game for a few hands, if I could have called a time out, I would have done :p But yeah, my heads up game isn't the best, and after three days with basically no sleep, I probably would have lost to a gorrilla having a bad day :)

that's not true Matt, defo a lil harsh on yourself here.

You played well, you let your head drop heads up after having all the momentum going in, and that's where you lost it i think, when i was thinking no thebreak before HU about it I honestly felt that if things continued in the same way they'd beeen 3handed you'd prolly win.

Some quick updates, and a bit of reflection...

I dropped out of playing some of the good weekend tournaments to go back home and see a friend of mine, who's been in hospital for nearly two weeks. It's nothing serious, he just wasn't very well, and by the sounds of things his response was to be a massive tit and not eat anything for a while, and lose more weight than is healthy. Lesson learned, eat more pies. Really, though, the whole thing got me thinking about the whole fragility of life thing and got me feeling all philosophical. I somehow got from here to wondering how I got into poker, and after all the things I've done with my life, why this one sticks more than any other. There are people, to follow on from my last big blog post, who are fairly insistent that I am wasting my life. To be honest, I'm not really sure I have an answer. I got into poker because it was something that lots of my friends played, and the psychological side and the whole idea of beating the luck had a real appeal to me. The more I played, the more I came to see the skill side. I know I'm still very much learning the game 6 years on, and I think it's partly because of that that I still play. When it comes down to it, I guess I'm happy when I play. Happiness seems to break down into two feelings, that sudden wave of excitement that comes when you feel like you've achieved something, and then that steady calmness when you feel that you belong somewhere. Both of those really apply to poker. I have friends in the game, and I feel at home on the felt. Then theres that feeling of achievement that comes with winning, or making a good call/good play, and also comes for me when I feel like I've learnt something, whether I've won or lost in the game. But really, I have no idea why this game has affected me so much. I don't think I'm wasting my time with it, and I think it will be worthwhile. Makes me wonder why anyone else plays, whether for enjoyment, money, the challenge it provides... I can't work it out for myself.

Quick updates, I'm now back to playing on ipoker, and will hopefully become a regular at the mid/low stakes tables playing pretty much any game they have on offer. Primarily, though, I am going to focus on my live game, and win lots of tournaments :D. I got crushed in our now infamous home game last night, and right now am looking forward to getting back out to DTD again, and wishing I could play in the live stream cash game on friday night, that I will definitely be railing. Good luck for that lil dave, float OOP for me :D

+ TL, it's an easy game when you always have the best hand ;)

I've been neglecting this page for a little while. I guess, whilst sitting in one of Europe's largest card rooms on the back of one of your worst ever sessions, this is a pretty good time to take it up again.

Over the last few weeks, I've been pretty up and down. I've been playing good poker, grinding out a profit, making good decisions and generally feeling pretty good about my game but struggling to have it in any big pots. Lots of big folds, not many big hands falling my way, we all know the drill. I guess a big losing day was coming, and it looks like this is it. At least, I hope this is it. While I was sitting here wallowing in self pity, I realized how fragile self confidence is in this game. I don't know whether it's variance or bad play. Right now, I don't feel like I'm good enough to sit in a pub game and hold my head up, let alone a mid stakes casino game covered in famous faces. Right now, I look at this game and I can't see how I can beat it. I look back over hands and think I could make better decisions. The guy's limping range smashes that board, 44 and 55 are definitely in his range. He looks so comfortable too. I should probably fold. Maybe I shouldn't have two barreled with my nut straight draw against the tightest player at the table. The more I think about it, the more small I feel. Why can't I sit in that seat, one time...

And yet, in my own mind, I know I can beat this shit. I've done it before. I've had great pleasure in watching some people who are very close to me grow as people and as poker players, and have often consoled them after a bad session. I guess I should take my own advice and cheer up a little. Even though I feel crushed, it's that one small part of me that can't quite give up that keeps me going. That little, arrogant Jimeny Cricket that knows that the best cure for a downswing is crushing the crap out of the next game I play, that won't let me forget that I am a winning player. It was pretty humbling to have support from people that I didn't expect it from today, and it was those people that allowed me to leave at least knowing that I have a place in this game, that I don't have to win every time to still belong at the felt. This game isn't about proving anything to anyone, it's about making good decisions and dealing with the outcomes.

Dealing with the outcomes. That's an interesting one. Anyone that knows me will see how that little statement is pretty damn relevant to me. My biggest "leak" right now isn't anything to do with three bets or raise sizing, it's entirely temperament. I don't actually tilt that much, despite appearances, at least not to an extent where my game is affected too much. I've been playing for long enough and with light enough pockets to know when enough is enough, and to have the self control to take myself out of games when I'm not in a fit mental state to continue. However, frankly, I'm an appalling loser at the table. I've always been a pretty angry guy, and I'm not averse to letting everyone know what sorta mood I'm in. At a poker table however, this is proving to be a major downfall. I don't make the tables fun to be part of, and more than once have I gone a little too far and left myself and someone else feeling pretty awful. Basically, I know this is a problem, I know that it's getting to a few people, and I am trying to do something about it. I guess it's just been a part of my personality for such a long time that it's hard to change, but believe me when I tell you that I am trying. Just bear with me a little on this one, k?

I figure now is a good time to take a few days off, get a little of that hunger back, and go to play with the sole intention of improving on this leak. So yeah, have a pretty miserable blog post. I'll be happier next time :)

Nailed it.

People take it all too personally at the table, losing doesn't make you a loser and winning doesn't make you a winner, that's just cards. It's how you deal with wins and loses that makes you a winner/loser.

It's gambling, win with dignity and lose like a man.

This.

It makes absolutely no sense to sit a poker table bemoaning your bad luck or loudly criticising the recreational players. Those guys are out to have a good time, not sit there red faced while someone tears them off a strip.

Well done for addressing the problem. The next time we share a table, I might even remove my earphones.  ;)

You've got a long way to go before you bring misery to your blog in the way blondites have become familiar with. ;)

You can't be too hard on yourself after your biggest losing day, but good work identifying and addressing some root issues.

I do want to see the hand history of that "one hand you could have played differently," tho

Did you not play the incredible 100. I saw you sat waiting and assumed you were an alternate but were probably waiting for the cash games to start.

Becareful at the tables. There are always bigger dogs with worse bites than yours.

I did play, bust out in half an hour, total disaster :p


To be honest, the biggest problem was bet sizing. I think I chose the right option in pretty much every hand, but my raise sizes were far too big. I could have bet half the amount I did in most cases and achieved the result I was looking for. Plus there are one or two spots that I managed to get myself into that I just hate. Really, I just generally didn't play particularly well and this was compounded by the fact that I didn't have the best hand very often. I think it was going to be a losing day, but it didn't have to be anywhere near as heavy as it was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5eKlFe6VVc

Next time i'm railing you, i'll do this just for you :)

You don't have a voice that high, or a chest quite so bouncy, so I would like to see you try ;)

I will prove you wrong, you have my word :)

Blog time!

So, Uni is out for Easter, and this meant coming home properly for the first time since my leap into the world of serious live grinding. I managed to drop by the pubs which gave me the enthusiasm for the game that I still retain. I know that I owe them a lot, and I hope I’ll never lose sight of where it all started. I came in for some pretty serious ribbing during their poker league, I can tell you. Lots of “Who’s the pro now!” and all that (getting it in with 10bbs QQ < AA was a particular highlight. “I thought you were meant to be good, how can you call there?”) Generally, the banter was wonderful and it was massively refreshing to be home for a while. Family time is precious time, which I hope I can have lots more of. I also took a trip down to the local (ish) genting club, lost a few flips, had a sick spin up in blackjack, and cursed at some macdonalds run bad when their 24 hour place was shut for one night only for some sort of maintenance/painting/holiday. Had to go home and settle for doritos and salsa instead, and to be honest, that’s not a bad trade off.

Whilst I was home, a nasty rumour was brought to my attention that I may have been missed while I was away. Naturally, this meant coming back almost immediately to verify/quell such nonsense. I was intending to drive back to Notts anyway, since a myself and a friend were planning on playing the student championships in Coventry, so we made the journey a little early, and after dropping him off at his place in Loughborough and my temporary accommodation, I jumped back in the car and was back home in DTD within minutes. What a line up those games had that night. Bunch of fantastic characters on every table going, and had I not been so tired from the day, I would have definitely stayed for a very long time. The round of each that we got going was a fantastic game, and with any luck there’ll be lots of games like that in the future. “Heroic” is a pretty good way of describing it!

So yeah, student champs. Coventry G Casino is a beautiful place, really fantastic. Absolutely loved going down there to play. The £110 high roller (I know…) was a bit of a ride for me. I was chip leader on my table for pretty much the entire day and for a little while in the tournament after two lovely little hands, which I think I’ll put up. In the first, I have 55 in the Hijack with a very aggro btn and bb. Early ish position opens for a just over min raise to 225, I call, folds to the bb who then makes it 650. Early position calls, I call, effective stacks are 180bbs. Flop comes A J 10 rainbow. Now, it is worth pointing out here that I had an interesting read going on the BB. He’d shown a bluff twice after tank raising, and had this weird habit of shifting his cards back and forth with his hands, a habit he had kept up after showing the bluff, but had not at other times when no hand had been shown. So, he c-bets to 650, early position folds. I make it 1600. BB shuffles his cards, stares at the board, tanks for a good 3/4  minutes, and makes it 4200. Now, at this point, I’m fairly confident that this is a raise so he can fold. After a little less than a minute, during which time he remains very rigid and refuses to make eye contact, I make it 9000, and he insta mucks. I smile, declare “I’m a genius!” and muck.

A little while later, we get hand no. 2. Blinds are still 50/100, and this happens. Utg, who has yet to play a hand and doesn’t really seem very confident in this 3 bet/4 bet/5 bet sort of young internet kid game, checks his cards, visibly shakes, and makes it 350. I’m sitting right next to him. I look down at KK, and raise to 900, and while I’m busy wondering whether I should fold to a UTG reraise, call to set mine, or set the guy in, I get a tank cold call from the hijack, at which point I feel his range to be limited to maybe 9/9, 10/10, J/J, possibly A/Q or A/K. Folds to UTG, who calls, which makes things an awful lot easier for me. Flop comes 8/Q/K with two hearts. Utg donks for 1500, and I pretty much wet myself and make it 4200. Cold caller folds, utg puts his head in his hands, shakes like a 5 year old with an etch-a-sketch, and shoves. I snap him off, he particularly triumphantly instantly flips over QQ, I table my KK, and sympathetically say “unlucky buddy, that’s a bad one”. He disappears for a while, comes back about a level later, and we have a nice conversation about how he’s going to rebuy, and how I’ll see him on the final table. Incidenatlly, I do see him on the final table. More on that in the next instalment of “from drinking to binking”!

Love the trip report :)

Do you find yourself a little disconnected from other students? Very few know about the stakes I play etc, but we had a trip to a sporting event in Dublin and on the way back a few guys played some blackjack. I span £40 into £190 and ran (thin  ::)), but everyone else was flabbergasted and just fist pumping around the room for me. I find it really hard to relate to friends that want to walk to the supermarket or the girls I lived with in first year who'd spend £8 on a night out.

Honestly, it's been pretty surreal for me. While I'm actually playing, I've always been able to play for pretty much any amount of money once it becomes chips, but ever since moving up to some higher stakes and having some much bigger swings as a result, I've found myself walking away wondering what the hell has happened to my life :p This month, I was close on 2k down by the 9th, and by the 12th, was like 500 up, and it really hit me in that time just how much things have changed. I was thinking about it in terms of wages from my old job, and managed to have like a 3/4 month swing in the space of two weeks. Pretty crazy :)

Student wise, I felt pretty little isolated at the student champs. Just little things, you know? A bunch of them went and changed up for a bunch of chips at the roulette table, then used their own deck of cards and found a table in the corner and dealt themselves a rake free cash game, which I thought was a bit out of order. I was watching people being very rude the dealers, drop drinks and food everywhere and sit and laugh about it... Just generally be very disrespectful. I know that this is only a minority, but that minority is so loud and so obvious that it feels like a lot more. Poker is giving me a life and an income right now, and to see people abusing my workplace was kinda tilting :p

I know what you mean about the stakes too, i've kept the poker thing reasonably quiet in terms of how much I play/make/lose now, but my blackjack shenanigans can get a few funky looks. Had one at the student champs where I was doubling to recover, got dealt 7/7 vs a 6, split, got dealt 4/4, doubled both, ended up with over 600 on a spin and got there, all the while wearing a uni hoodie :p embarrassingly, made more playing blackjack than poker #skilledge. Whenever someone does ask about what sort of money I'm playing with, it can become a little awkward. I feel like i'm being a little arrogant if I jump into playing histories and money reports etc, but at the same time I don't wanna be a dick and not answer them. Tough one.

So yeah, student champs, disaster. Busted shortly before day 2 in the high roller, played a hand badly. Busted two bullets in the ME too, although one was a very very late entry. All in all, poker wise, a disastrous weekend. Still finished in profit due to some proper blackjack rungood however, so cannot complain.

Interesting tale of the weekend however was our (me and my mate Dave's) journey to day 1b of the ME. Dave was awesome and let me stay at his place in loughborough with him, while we played the student champs together. Actually had an awesome time, but this was by far the highlight. Dave's house was, unfortunately, freezing cold. The heating was on a 3 hour clock, but it seemed to take the first hour to get going, and the last hour to slowly cool back down to freezing. We were running a little late, due to my inability to get up on time, and as I was going to the shower, I shut the bedroom door behind me. My logic was that, while we had the heating on, try and keep the door shut to keep the heat in. It was only when I got back out of the shower, that I realized that each door has a lock. Said lock requires a key. I don't have a key, it's not my room, and neither does dave. First time I've ever booted a door in.  Felt a little bad, tried to convince myself it was variance, ended up admitting that I hadn't paid enough attention and it was entirely play bad :p

After Coventry, I came back home, and grinded my local genting club, and took a ride down to Aspers in london for the first time. Disaster. I can't even remember how it all went at Southend, suffice to say that I had to adjust my calling ranges to account for some of the hand valuations that were happening, and ran into the top of several peoples ranges, including a guy who flopped a flush twice in the space of 5 hands, while we were 4 handed. Aspers could have been a disaster, but I was saved by some tremendous thinking, especially in this hand. I open 66 from the C/O, and get a call from both blinds in a 1/1. Flop comes 7/7/4 with two hearts. Checks to me, I c-bet, BB calls. Turn is our money card, the  6h. BB now donks out a little less then half pot, and we raise, believing that he cannot fold a flush or a seven here. He calls. River comes an offsuit 10. BB donks a little under half pot again, and we put in pretty much a 3x raise. He tanks, and eventually calls. I table my 6's full, he apologizes and tables 7/4 for the flopped nuts. As I'm staring with a kinda open mouth, he looks at me and says "I put you on 10s." I quickly regain my composure, smile, say nh, and spend the next half hour having the most wonderful massage I've ever had, from a particularly lovely Brazilian girl, all the while wondering what on earth just happened.

So all in all, we reach last Friday in a comfortably 4 figure hole for the month, having not had an actual winning poker session since mid march. I then decide to head back down to Southend, determined to beat the game before heading back to uni. Won a big pot with AA where I riverd a flush, then another one where i had KQ on a QQJ flop K turn vs QJ and somehow J10 in a three way all in. Then, these hands happen.
I have 2/2 on the SB in 1/1, playing about £500. Flop comes  Jc  9c 2c. I check, which I actually don't like very much, but either way, the old boy utg makes it £12. Folds all the way to the btn, who has been solid all night, who makes it 37. He is playing about 300, old boy about 120-140. Now, old boy is pretty loose, plays draws very strongly and tends to generally overvalue hands. I figure that if he has a flush, he has a flush, whatever. The other guy however could have anything from a flush, to J9, to 99, to a J with a K/A of clubs, maybe even A9 with the A of clubs, all are comfortably ahead of the old boys range. I believe that this guy will not continue in the hand without a flush, and my set is likely good against this guy. I plan on raise/folding. I make it 88, old boy flats with about 30 behind, btn tank folds. I put the old boy in on the turn, and he FOLDS and shows me  Kc Th. I announce "what a bluff!" and scoop the pot, only to be shown  7c  5c by the btn who folded. I love my life.
Little while later, a guy loses a big pot when a 4th flush card hits the river, and angrily mucks his hand. I've been playing with this guy for hours, and he has never straddled. He throws in a straddle, on my BB. It folds right the way through to the SB, who calls. I look down at J2os, and make it 12. Straddle unsurprisingly makes it 27, sb folds, I think that this guy is doing this very light, and I make it  66. The look on his face tells me that he wasn't strong, or expecting to be 4-bet. He thinks for waaaaayyy too long to be strong, and calls. i figure this guy is likely tilty, and just trying to hit a flop. The flop comes J94, two hearts. I make it 90 as a c-bet, he thinks for way too long again, and calls. At this point, I don't think I can put him on a made hand. Maybe a 9, rarely a J, maybe 10s, never an overpair maybe Q10, maybe some random flush draw. Turn card is a 10. I had literally no idea what to do at this point. I figure I have a good chance of having the best hand, but don't really know what I want to see from the villain, especially if I check. In the end, I put him in for 300 odd, maybe a little less. He tank calls, and im like ffs im dead here. The disaster  Kh hits the river two, completing literally everything. He looks at me, and I say I have a J, and table it. He then angrily states that he called me, so I have to show both. I'm feeling like this is a dead cert slow roll, but rules are rules, so i table the deuce. He calls me all sorts of names, then throws his hand into the muck and walks away. Again, I wonder what on earth is going on here. Ended that game up the better part of 1k, then spent the next day chopping a £30 comp for £510 4 ways (I had the chip lead, so does this mean I can shave @belton? ;) ) and leave for uni feeling considerably better about myself and my bankroll, and after a few other sessions, am actually up for the month, albeit only a little way. Swings, huh?

Feeling very nervous for tonight. In a "big" 1/1 game with a bunch of great guys and great players (and myself), which I'm secretly buzzing for and pretty confident I can have a good run. However, I have to show off my cooking skills tonight, and frankly, this can only end in tears and several unwelcome days in the loo. Many apologies to anyone eating anything I have to cook, even the brilliance of Melissa and Goulder (see fry up attempts) will struggle to compensate for me :D

Wonderful game last night. Spewed hard in one hand, but apart from that, felt like I made good decisions, found some good spots, competed with the field, and overall had a really good time. Had a few little epiphanies, which is always nice, feel like a better player now than I was a week ago. Nothing particularly special happened, except that for possibly the first time ever I was correctly "put on AK". Satellite into the Monte was a disaster, in all finished the whole night like 60 down, which all things considered was not a bad effort.

May will be massive for me. Intending to play the deepstack (if it runs?), the ISPT (for a couple of bullets) and the GPS Sheffield. I will also be selling action for both, will post soon as to how much. Likely to be 50% of the GPS and 33% of ISPT/Deepstack, with no mark up.

DTD has a £150 Deepstack running 4-5 May, not the usual £300 due to ISPT qualifying schedule

Thanks matey, in that case, will be playing/binking deepstack but not selling any. Hopefully those pesky omaha nutters will be staying away ;)

Sick 1/2 game today. Lost a bundle, sick downswing I'm suffering for right now, with a the odd bit of play bad mixed in. Losing a lot of money. Very disheartened. Wish I could learn the patented make it lots of money pre and literally always have the best hand by the end to win huge pots. Maybe one day.

It's a good trick to learn yes :)

Ahhhhhh it was you who was moaning about Alex tonight? :D I thought so. Cya tomorrow

I hope you step on a lego.

In the interest of balance and because having said it to you in person, I want you to be able to look back on this in x amount of time and chuckle.



You need to address your behavior at the table when something that isn't ideal, happens!




You know what I mean but for your reminder and anyone else that can help you (no saint here myself), when we played together in a tournament this weekend there was a hand where a guy raised  Qc Jc from 10-15bb's, had a call behind him and in the BB you found  Jh Js.

The chips quickly were in the middle and he said the magic word.

Both of us look at each other, smile and relish in the 63.011% of the pot you are about to earn no matter the result.

The board rapidly runs out a harmless

 9s 7h 4s 4c


Then the pain hits on the  Qs river card.

You quietly push your stack in the middle to be counted, confident you have chips left you say "nice hand" and then something snaps.
You look up a little slanted and glare at the guy as you quietly say "nice call..."  (understandable, not the best idea tho)

What isn't OK though, is that you then say it another 3 times every 5 seconds or so, waiting for a reaction; getting a little darker; a little more sarcastic each time.  I told you a little later how cringe-worthy it was, how the rest of the table noticed it... and how when you did go on to spin your 2bb's into a small stack over the next orbit or so, instead of the rest of the table now being happy for you - they all sat there wishing you'd bust already.
Unfortunately you did bust, but afterwards there were at least two comments about the hand above.

Really hope this comes across how I mean it, it isn't to be rude or harsh, its to just 'prod' you into making this part of your game a conscious decision and that you can pay a little more attention to it yourself.

John Black, the king of table manners.

really? I said I know I'm not perfect - but I'm the only one who witnessed it.

I might not be out of the forest, but at least I'm on the path and walking in the right direction.

First, to John -
I've had temperament issues for some time in every aspect of my life, and it is something I'm trying to address. On the whole, I feel like I'm much better now than I was, but I do find it pretty damn hard not to react in some way. I didn't realize how much I wanted to win a seat to the monte until that hand, when the shot was basically gone. Unfortunately, it looks like it will be a slow process getting myself to a point where I'm calmer in those situations. Hopefully I won't do too much damage in the meantime.

Second, little catch up -
April is still a bit of a disaster poker wise, but as always is the case for me in these downswings that last more than a week or so, I felt the need to evaluate the reasons behind the losses. I'm not a big fan of putting everything down to "it's just a downswing", when I go for a few weeks without a winning session. So, what have we learnt? So far, my ego seems to have returned with a vengeance, although in a different way to expected. My game has changed to try and mimic some of the better players that I have been sat with on a regular basis. This "big bet poker" rubbish has never really been a style I'm comfortable with playing, and getting involved in these cock fights preflop will only lead to me losing money in the long run, because I can't compete with the experience or the bankroll of that styles biggest proponents. I've started levelling myself into making bad decisions, basically. Hopefully, after realizing this, I'll be able to make the mental changes necessary to get back to competing on my own terms.
Yesterday was a whirlwind of swings. Lost a lot in the space of one round, and probably about 5 hands. Did the sensible thing and got up, took some time, went at sat back down in a better mood, then lost what i had left in omaha. Took even more time, and then went and sat on a hold em table, and within an hour was back to even and some. Crazy game, huh? Whoever thought it up really must have been a dick.

Why don't you tell us all what a disaster last night was.

It would be my pleasure, sir.
(prepare for some HH)

#1, I have   4d 5d in the cut off, raise to 7 over one limper, BB flats, limper folds. Flop comes  2h Kh 6c. BB checks, I c bet to 11, he calls. Turn is  9d or something like that. He checks, i bet 22, he calls. I plan on totally shutting down, until the miracle  3s hits the river. He checks, and I'm pretty confident the guy has a decent K. Was toying with making it 50, but decided to go for the overbet instead, so made it 120. He calls, gives me a pretty pissy look, and mucks.

I then pick up AA utg, make it 4, I get three bet from middle position to 18(?), then btn makes it 55. I make it 150, MP folds, btn shoves, I call and hold for a 900 pot.

Last one is an interesting one, and requires some history. This guy had been sitting for a while and been quite active. He was well up for the game, sat on about 700, but had shown down some big bluffs and seemed to have a bit of an ego. From the hands he had tabled, whether through showdown or just showing, I thought I had picked up a few bet sizing/timing/amount of chips used to bet tells. The hand before this one he'd put in a big reraise on the turn with bottom pair vs me, and made me lay down a big hand, but importantly had shown the bluff. As always with the laggy guys, I had to adjust my calling range. So, I pick up  Ks Kc in the BB. There is a MP raise, this laggy guy three bets the button to like 9, SB calls, I make it 32. Btn calls, everyone else folds. Flop comes  3c 4d 7c. I check, he bets 45, I call. Turn is  Qs. I check, he makes it 88, I make it 200. He tank shoves for 700 or so. I call. He tables  9h 7h, I hold for the biggest pot of the year, probably second biggest of my life. EZ game sometimes, huh?

Moaning it in ;)

sorry to tell you buddy but a week-long downswing is not a downswing, it's just a bad week.

+10000

I know, slightly sarcastic comment on my part, but if i fail to win for a session for a few weeks after playing every day, I tend to take time to look at potential reasons why, and try to change them. In all they tend to bring positive changes to my game

Felt for you last night Mate

What a week... Monster session on friday, almost entirely gone by now. Played about 20 hours of perfect poker until sunday evening, when my frustrations got the better of me. On Saturday, I ran a set into a flush draw and then ran 88 into A2 on A28. Yeah, don't ask :p

Followed that up with a session on Sunday that actually didn't start terribly, but very quickly degenerated and was the complete disaster package really, full of slowrolls and hero calls and people that you really don't want to fold, but you really don't want to hit either. Massive swing. Still actually feel reasonably good about my game, and am in profit for the week, albeit only a small one. Back into the negative for the month too. Baaaaad times.

Had some very interesting discussions with a few people recently, it constantly amazes me how little I actually know about the game. Today, really, I just wanted to throw out a little something which came up today in a conversation about levelling. There is always a whole lot of bollocks about levelling wars, and I can very confidently say that almost every time I've got myself into a "levelling war" the other guy has been sitting there thinking "I have a good hand, I call" rather than all this stuff about he knows that I know that he knows that I never bluff here etc. It's normally when I try and stoop into these little things that I have big losing sessions, because really the only guy I'm levelling with is myself, and badly at that. It's those moments that frustrate me the most, when I needlessly spew off money and turn a break even session into a train wreck. It's having that ability to remain disciplined and focused regardless of how long I've been playing, how long it is since I've won a hand etc that I really need to develop. Often I can even see it happening, and for some reason seem to lose control of my actions and am reduced to a spectator in my own mind, throwing away money that will take hours, even days to get back. What's worse is that I can have hours, or days, where I feel like every decision is good, I make the necessary laydowns and calls with confidence and am unfazed by the results. And then, for reasons I have yet to figure out, I will play one hand disgustingly badly, spew off a bundle, then either go back to playing well again or literally throw chips at everyone for half hour or so.
This has actually been a very positive week for me. After I monster session on Friday, I find myself break even, but I really felt for a few days like I was the player that I eventually want to become. I dealt with some very tough losses, overall made good decisions, and my general demeanour at the table was, in a positive way, completely out of character. Saturday was particularly appalling, and I ended up having a pretty monstrous losing session, but I was able to take confidence from the fact that I didn't feel like a made a significant mistake for the better part of 20 hours of poker.  So, despite some rubbish hands etc, I come into May with a renewed belief that maybe I can make something of myself in this game.
My personal goal for the coming months is to win enough money to make a suit out of more money than the head of my course makes in a year, and walk into my last lecture wearing it. Glgl everybody!

There is FAR, FAR, FAR less levelling going on between good players than most people realise.

Most of the levelling is between mediocre players who are trying to become good players.

Some of the levelling is done by the truly great players who really are out-thinking and out-foxing each other. This occurs much less than you'd think though.

The majority of (merely) good players do not bother with such nonsense. They play good, solid poker and let their opponents level themselves.

Good, solid poker (and by solid poker I do NOT mean tight, nitty poker... although as most people know I can nit it up with the best of them when the situation demands it) is surprisingly hard to play. And the vast majority of players who are getting caught up in 'levelling wars' are a long, long way from mastering it - they often do not even fully understand the basic fundamentals of solid poker.

Most poker players would be far better served concentrating on playing their ranges well vs their opponents' ranges rather than bothering themselves with any of this levelling nonsense.

Although far from a great player, I play poker quite well and have won nicely at it for many years. I rarely concern myself with levelling, and it has not had any detrimental effect on my ability to win (in fact quite the opposite IMO). The times when I do get involved in the levelling war are when it comes organically and forms part of the natural play/thought process of the hand. I don't force it at all. And tbh it does not even feel like levelling, even though I suppose it is. Really though, it is just an added variable that I include in my thought processes, often intuitively as much as anything.

Next time you find yourself going down the "He knows that I know that..." train of thought... just STOP. And instead start to think about what your range is in this particular spot, and what your opponent's range is. And then think about how these ranges interact with the flop/turn/river, and consider how strong your overall range is vs your opponent's range. And then look at the actual hand you have and work out exactly where it fits into your own overall range, and how it fares equity-wise vs your opponent's overall range.

Or just lift up your cowboy hat, stare your opponent dead in the eye, and ask yourself, "Does he got it, or ain't he?" ;)

There is some validity to this, and it shouldn't be underestimated in the right hands. I've transitioned from the most level heavy player around going ballistic all over the shop to mostly nitty with the occasional bit of craziness on the side, and I'm definitely downswinging through my transition, which never helps. Obviously I'm not going to give the bad beats etc but tonight is somewhere in my top 5 losing nights, but I'm at least marginally happy with all but 10% of the losses. 10% is inexcusable, twice i called on the river knowing I was probably beat, the first I couldn't work out how but obviously was, and the other I told the guy he had a backdoor flush, called and got shown a backdoor flush. Ultimately Sir Stu is right, but at the same time looking at your opponent and deciding he looks/feels/knows/wants you to do something, and this is an invaluable skill to have, but for the most part, play dem ranges.

As an aside I went into the DTD 1/1 game before MC deliberately deciding to play the vast majority of cards in front of me, and not to do any stupid shit. This was partly because Alex/Andy and others may know I am capable of such, but partly because whats the point. At some point playing the cards you are dealt is important, no matter what the tv tells you. However, in your overbet from the hand before (45 one) you know the guy has a king. I couldn't tell you why, and neither could you I presume, but your subconscious is a strong force, and I'd bet that if I followed my initial instinct rather than my thought process, at least in a good amount of spots, then I would have more money. My call when the backdoor flush got there tonight is inexcusable, and I really mean that. Don't be that guy, play the ranges, but find the balance between it too.

Easy game eh? :) Not trying to be preachy here either, Stu has 5x the experience I do, and I don't exactly have the credentials to match my post, but you know what I mean.

Beautifully put Stewart, if you don't mind me saying so.

Sometimes all the PHA in the world won't help you.

Soul reads ftw.

Enjoyed catching up on some of this and sorry to be an arse, but paragraphs would really encourage/help me to read the rest.

Developing nicely this one.

hm disagree and think levelling is v important, especially live more so than online.

Il play you HU then, let you level away while I take your money :P

In all seriousness though I think at the stakes mentioned leveling is irrelevant. As stu has said just play your range vs your opponents range. Often times your opponent wont even realise what your/his range even is, so when will he even be concerned with levels. Just my opinion of course

Can you explain why you think this in a bit more detail Patrick?

Not sure if level.

This post also a possible level.

Lil'Dave recently told me something funny that is relevant to this topic. Last week he had two back to back conversations about poker with two very different players.

The first conversation was with a much-loved poster on this forum. He gave a hugely complicated analysis of a hand, telling Dave in detail all about his opponent's perception of his perception of his opponent's perception etc.

The second conversation was with JP Kelly. JP is rather good at poker. Dave asked him why he didnt 3bet a decent looking broadway hand in a heads up PLO pot. JP said, "Only three betting small cards, cos he always thinks I have high cards".

And that's the difference.

#realjohnblackquotes perchance? ;)

Think this may be my new favourite poker quote

FYI you and Stu are talking about slightly different things, and you're both right.

Pads is saying using your image/reputation/read on game dynamic to try and level people is very important in live poker, and Stu is saying getting leveled in live poker is really stupid.

So that all makes sense really.

Sort of I guess.

Perhaps it is simply a question of semantics. I am all for using reads and dynamics to make skilful adjustments. If this is what Patrick means by 'levelling' then I obviously agree that this is an important part of poker.

But it is the ridiculous 'he thinks that I think that he thinks that I think' nonsense that I am talking about. I have noticed that many players always seem to arrive at the conclusion that they want to arrive at when they start going down this road to madness. Opponent makes a big bet on the river and Mr Levels thinks, "he just got caught bluffing so it's always going to be for value this time. Wait... he knows that I'd think that, so it must be a bluff. No, wait... he likely knows that I know that he knows that I'd think that... so it's definitely for value. No wait... Where was I?" In the end most guys just end up making the decision that they subconsciously want to make anyway. If they want to call they justify it through levelling. If they are inclined to fold they find a justification for so doing.

So, had my first attempt at commentating last night on the 1/2/4(8/16/32) streamed cash game at dtd, along with Nik, PJ and Adiman. Had a great time, learnt a few things, and got a bit more of an insight into how the big boys at the club play. Any feedback on my commentary would be  massively appreciated, it's something I enjoyed and would certainly like to do again in the future.
In other news, pulled off a hideous hit and run. Played for about an hour, and in that time doubled a short stack up, then got it in with top two pair, held, and literally just as I was being awarded the pot the stream started and I left to commentate. I had told the table that I would be leaving as soon as that game started, but I did feel kinda bad. As a result, finished the day up £200 or so. MUST start graphing.

yeh the commentary was enjoyable for sure, wouldnt mind having another crack at it at some point in the future :)

Matt. Why the late return to the £150 yesterday?

Bowling Match I Believe Tom. £12k or Bowling, difficult choice, got the lot last night.

Right, I kinda feel like my performance in the deepstack this month is due an explanation. I faced a pretty tough moral decision, and I kinda know I'm going to be judged by it for some time, and I know I'm going to face some stick from pretty much everyone for my decision.

Basically, I do quite a lot of tenpin bowling. I went mad about it a few years ago, took it very seriously, and ended up winning a bunch of stuff. One of the main reasons I chose Loughborough, aside from its proximity to DtD, was the fact that I had a few friends in the bowling club here and wanted to continue learning this game and trying to play at a higher level. I'm currently ranked in the top ten for the uni students ranking points, and play competitively a fair amount. Basically, on the uni tour calendar, there are two major events. One is the BUCS, which I'm sure many of you will know is the overall universities sports ranking points, and so is a pretty big deal both to the people playing in it and to the universities themselves. The second major event is the BUTBA cup, a knock-out competition comprising of a few rounds spread out over the season. The final of the cup was held yesterday, the same day as day 2 of the deepstack.

So, I had committed to playing for Loughborough in this competition some time before the deepstack was even announced. When I was driving home, having just bagged the second biggest stack in the tournament, I pretty much decided that I would have to honour this commitment. The tournament looked likely to finish at 2 ish, and there was a fair shout that I would be able to get away earlier than that, which would leave me able to get to dtd for half 2 at best. In my mind, I don't think I had a choice. There's money waiting to be had every day, but real friends can be damn hard to come by, and I don't think I would ever be able to hold my head up in any sort of competition knowing that I was needed for this day, and I had let my team down. Don't get me wrong, while I was there and even now, I would really have preferred to have had the full benefit of my stack and have put in a serious contention for a 12k win. But I can't put into words how shit you feel when you let people down, especially to the extent that I would have done had I not bowled.

I'm sure many people would wonder why I played in the first place, knowing that I couldn't make the start of day 2. Well, for starters I didn't think it would be a massive problem until the clock for the event changed and they pushed the start of day 2 forward, but that couldn't be avoided, but it was also a bit of an occasion. This was the first tournament where a bunch of my friends could afford to play, and to be honest, I wanted to be there with them while they played and enjoy the tournament with them. The dtd deepstack tournaments really are incredible, and I hope they keep the longer structure for the next £150, because that tournament will fast become the best value tournament in the country if it stays that way. Basically, I played the whole thing knowing I would probably be 2 hours late for day 2, so tried to build as much of a stack as possible to survive the blinding out and still be able to compete. This I achieved. Unfortunately, the bowling tournament finished some time later than I had expected, which screwed me up a little, but even so I came back to a 20bbs stack and got it in a little later with AQ into KK, and didn't bink. If I'd won that pot however, I'd have been very definitely back into contention for the win, but more importantly I was able to leave that tournament feeling like less of a dick than when I started. I figure I'd take a bunch of mates over a bunch of money. Any comments on this would definitely be appreciated.

On a side note, we did when the cup.

Probably wouldn't have played Day 1 if I was in your position tbh.

You cleaned up in cash later?

I kinda just wanted to play with my friends, if that makes much sense :p Mate of mines dad made the trip down just to play that tournament, so I wanted to meet him too, it was a bit of an occasion. Also bearing in mind that I thought Id be a few hours late, not 4, and had it been just a few, id have still had over the average stack.

Cleaned up to the tune of +£10 :D

think most people respect your decision rexas, just i think most people thought you blew the chance at another lucky bink.
on a side note, im sure your mate whose dad came up to play will be delighted that you wanted to play with his old man instead of him, i know i would be!!

I felt like I threw it away too, it was unbelievably frustrating to see the thing overrun and be basically watching my stack go down, it actually very nearly cost us the cup, i got pretty disheartened for a little while, certainly won't be doing the whole double booking thing again.

Plus, stop being a tit chris, you're included in the mates part lol.

ah well i feel honored, am glad thats cleared up. thought i was just there to make you look like a super high roller in comparison ;)

Was reading your post expecting you to say that you'd eventually had to dump your mates to go and play poker.

Glad to see that you got your priorities right in the end.

Definitely shouldn't have played day 1 knowing that you had a prior commitment on day 2 but well done in making the correct life decision in the end.

Shame you let the poker get to you during the bowling but you can't have everything.

Had to give myself a pretty serious talking to after one sub par game, but pulled it back nicely after that. I just had a few minutes where I couldn't get the poker out of my head, but managed to get over it and perform for the rest of the day. Despite the disappointment etc, the whole thing was a very interesting experience where I guess I learnt a fair bit about myself and about a need to make some better planning arrangements in the future :p Plan to plan!

evil
you seem to forget evil pie, that he dumped his mates playing poker to go bowling. seems very hypocritical to me!!!!!  ;busted;

Totally different. Poker's not a team sport so it's basically no more than a get together. You only see each other at the breaks anyway and even then you just waffle about bad beats and hand histories.

Definitely made the right choice.

was totally tongue in cheek! we discussed it on the drive back to loughborough, and as matts life coach i assured him the decision was the right one!! think most were disappointed to see his stack going down while he wasnt there, from such a strong position. well, apart from the others at is table who seemed quite happy that the large stack was being blinded out!

Definitely agree with you totally. I think his decision was solid, just unfortunate that the bowling ran longer than expected, just variance i guess :P

I also agree with matt playing day 1 for the reasons given. Its usually just me and him from loughborough that grind the tournaments but this time we had two other friends and one of their dads, so it was a very nice occasion regardless. So really he satisfied all sectors of his friendship obligations, the only thing that suffered was his chance to bink 12k, but for all we know he may have run AA into KK first hand of day 2 and guy binks a king and he is out a lot earlier than he was.

So kudos to matt on his decision

Ditto. the tips worked well last night pal ;tightend;

Bowling is awesome, def the right choice imo and rugby is a nice place to bowl ;)

think nothing of it mate, all been there trying to do everything. Yup  you effectively spunked about £750 worth of equity off but such is life just put it down to being a bit silly and move on.

Definitely made the right decision, and I like your reason for playing Day1.

Glad you didn't comment about the Scottish donkey on your table. Phew.

Sick rubs itt, not sure this was the best move Matt, commentary was good and I'm sure you want ROFL again :d

Thanks for the feedback everybody!

This week so far has been fun. Managed to find a properly incredible game at alea on Monday, where sitting down with the max £300 in 1/1 was basically a short stack, and money was jumping around the table like I've never seen before. Managed to lose for that day. One particularly interesting hand of note, that went up in the HH section of this. In writing, it looks like a very standard fold, but at the time given body language and previous experience of the guys play it seemed like a very standard call. So, I called a shove on  2h 3c 3d 5c 5h with  Aspades 4c, and got shown  Ad 9d. Ez game, sometimes.

Yesterday was another one of those days where you end up just wanting to smash your head against a wall. Was sat on a great table in a good spot, and adapted my usual style into playing much more of a big bet/raise to iso etc style as the table seemed to demand it, and really I don't think I made a mistake for the night. Just got it in with a  7d 7h on  4d 7c 9c  Ac after check raising the flop and continuing on the turn, only to get shoved on by  Aspades Jc who makes the backdoor flush, loving the 5% flop equity of that pure float that got there. Also made a fold in an interesting hand with a dtd reg, where I make it 18 over a raise and a call from the SB with  Ks Qs. BB peels the 18, and the other two fold. We see a  Kd 6d 5c flop, continue for 28, get called, see a turn  5d, are literally sick everywhere, check call (hate this call) a very quick bet of 50, and then see a  Jc on the end, and check tank fold to a shove. Really struggled to put the villain on a hand, seems like something didn't quite make sense about it. Ended up basically calling the clock on myself so I didn't make a very bad call, as Mr. 5.0 once said, sometimes they just have it.

Somehow, through all this, I was still up for the night by a fair amount, until we flop a set with  7h 7d again on a  5h 7c 9c board, and get involved in a three way all in against two people who have flopped the nuts for a pretty big pot. Sometimes I wonder what actually is my life. Very disheartening to have played another day where I don't feel like I made a proper mistake all night, save maybe the turn call with KQ, only to find the deck refusing to let me catch a break for more than a few hands. Hopefully will continue to play well though, as always the support from people at dtd while you're having a bad day is astronomical. Very disappointed that I let this get to me, especially after recent discussions with some very profound people. Apparently the action in the last hand was quite funny. On the flop in a limped pot, we see a lead out of 5 into a pot of like 7, a call, we make it 19 with 77, its made 51 behind me, original raiser makes it like 120, fold, we jam, call, call. "I have the nuts right now", "yeah, so do I" (slight pause...) "oh for fucks sake...." :p

Considering playing the ROE tonight, although I'm having very strong second thoughts about the value in essentially a £100 tournament with a 20 min clock that, given the structure that I assume it will be operating on, will very quickly descend into a £100 crapshoot. For all those fond of multiway omaha flips, head on down to dtd tonight! Seriously though, making basically all the tournaments reloads and then having such a short clock is really affecting the value for someone like me who is playing to make money more than just for fun. Even though the actual tournaments look very interesting, the price and the clock are just destroying the attraction for me. Will defo be playing cash long into the night, stacking dependant, either way.

Final note, I will be selling action for two bullets in both the GPS and the ISPT. ISPT is practically all gone save a % being held back on request, but details of the remainder and of the GPS will be going up here soon. I will be selling at face value, defo don't think I'm anywhere near proven enough to be selling at a mark up.

HAHAHAHAHAHA this is sooo funny, this is so you matt it's ridiculous ;)

So, played the ISPT satellite yesterday, very nearly played a perfect game (i think) and combined with that had a bunch of people get it all in against me practically drawing dead, good times :) Made some pretty crazy folds and made use of some good reads. Got it in with 88 on  3c 4c 8d vs QQ for a massive pot, pot was like 6 x the average stack and i still had chips behind. Had 66 on 6 7 10 vs a big overshove from a guy with nearly double average, which I called to get shown his Q 10. Last one, had 87 on 885/7/A and the guy basically shoved on me, and called off the extra, on the river with QQ. Ez game sometimes.

Was well on the way to having over 1mil for day 2, until we get to the last level of the day and I turn middle two, and get it in vs top and middle. He went for the proper slow roll too, wasn't best impressed, terrible etiquette. Have played with the guy before as well, sincerely hope he doesn't do that too often, else he'll find himself being very unpopular in this game. All in all, through to Wembley with an average stack, starting the day with 250bbs. Good times :)

Also, had to miss out on a ridiculous cash game, probably the worst I've ever seen but also the best, made up entirely of heros and proven winning players at one point. Think they needed me to come and throw some money at them :)

How did you react to this hand Matt?

 ;ifm;

Sigh....

I know... At least I walked away before I had a bit of a go. Wasn't so much the hand, was more the insane slowroll. My temperament is rubbish :(

Do you want to talk about it?

like last time mate, put it all here... for yourself.

HAHAHAHA this! Matt the "do you want to talk about it" has actually gone down as dtd legend now haha :respect:

    Any update on recent cash games coming?

i think hes been crushing online this week ian, rumour has it he chopped a tourny for 9 dollars last night? yet ive only heard it from the horses mouth, so likely to be complete bullsh!t!

haha rubs itt

Diary is a farce :D

Mainly for Ian's benefit...
Cash last night was a bit of a disaster, few hands of note.
We overcall two limps with 99 in 1/1, button makes it 10, gets a call from both blinds, folded to us, we look at the dead money and make it 48, folds to BB who calls. He check shoves a 7 high flop, we call, we hold, good start to the day.

Little later a few things happen. We get schooled by Mr. Gascoigne a few times, most notably when we bluff shove a 10/10/6 board and he calls with 56, then the last hand of the night where we make it 6 onto his straddle, he makes it 30something, we shove for around 150 total, he calls with A6 and beats our AQ.
Also got smashed with KQ on 427 with our FD and two overs versus 2/4, get floated two streets with bare A high who rivers the pair, run AKs into KK (AKx flop) and run two pair into middle pair that turns a better two pair. All in all, not a wonderful day. Actually kinda enjoyed it though, as company goes, that table was one of the best.

Went home and played a 2/7 triple draw tournament, which I chopped for my first ever online win, for a whole $9. I am such a baller, it's actually unreal. And yes, you read it right, CHOPPED. Decided to celebrate with practically busting my stars account playing 4 man HU sngs today, and running like... well, me online, which is a common euphemism for absolute rubbish :D

On the plus side, we have the GPS incoming :D I do have 30% left to sell, and since im a couple of hundred posts short of being able to post on the staking board, I will put it up here.

Basically, I'm selling at face value, because I don't feel like I'm proven enough to sell at a mark up, even though I believe I have a pretty strong skill edge in deep stacked tournaments. So, for GPS Sheffield, I'm selling 30% for two bullets @ £8.80 per %. I actually adore the GPS tour, the structures are fantastic, the fields and the prize pools are big, and the buy ins are within my tournament bankroll management. Ran deep last time, finishing 28th at my first shot, hoping to do better this time! :)

25% left to sell now! :)

dont pretend people are buying matt ;)  ;busted;

So I have to go to the GPS tomorrow on the back of a few pretty disheartening days. Lost a bunch on cash against a crazy guy who "knows how I play" and peeled a raise of mine with 94 os and flopped a house, and then did the same with Q2os and flopped a queen, got it in vs my pair and flush draw and held.

Bit of a new low for me at the tables though, had a fall out with a guy I've never met before. I know I can be a pretty massive dick sometimes, but in this tournament (the 25xl) I didn't feel like I'd said or done anything out of line, I was just generally being chatty, as I always am, and as far as I could tell the table was joining in with the banter, enjoying themselves, and certainly not bothered by me. Anyway, about 2 hours in, the guy suddenly tells me that I'm the biggest wanker he's ever met, and just goes off on one at me, swearing and shouting abuse. I take it, don't rise to it and just keep playing, so a few hands later he decides to start clapping and congratulating a guy who wins a big pot off me. What are we supposed to do in this situation? I should probably post this spot in the hand histories board :p I went with asking to get blinded out and playing cash, I just couldn't be bothered to get involved in a £50 comp in someone that wants to behave like that. According to a fair few people, there have been similar experiences with this guy, he's a bit of an all round bully, but still, its bothered me.

Finished the night by dropping another BI on cash after busting the tournament, got started on again by the same guy who started getting pretty aggressive, so I went with having a word with the floor and going home. Now to try and get some sleep and be in a positive mind frame for the GPS tomorrow. Lego :D

You have been known to go a bit ott at the table but from what I seen today you were just being friendly and chatty and just generally very matt :p this guy was way out of line, but many people did say he is always like that. Oh well, it was good to see you take it well and not react to him, one because it shows some maturity on your part and two if it came to blows he would have killed you ;)

As for the GPS we shall chop it HU cause we all know you stand no chance of beating me HU :p

Ding... SHIP IT!!

gl you two

rexas, looking at your previous XXL results at DTD, it looks like you just leave and blind yourself out every time anyway? ;)

Me and Adrian made day 2, both with a little over 100k, hopefully getting some binking done tomorrow :D Few HHs for everyone, and a side note about confidence, but more on that when I'm 50k richer, and considerably less tired :) lego :)

GL tomorrow Matt!!!

 ;kneelsucker;
this seems an appropriate thing to post. we do this enough already, imagine how much when you luckbox another 50k!!

So basically, the GPS sucked. Literally couldn't get anything going for the entire tournament. Day 1B was one of the most frustrating days of poker I think I have ever had. Picked up quite a lot of very playable hands pre, the sort that you kinda have to stick money in with, and was then forced to stick more money in post and then make very disciplined decisions on pretty sick run outs. Things like AQ on A44J, AK on A8998 and so on. Eventually bust with AK vs KQ against Julian Thew for a pot to have the average stack for day two. Then took my second bullet the next day, continued to hit some bad spots but this time had the hands in between to make up for the chips lost in those spots, and finished the day over average after getting it in with 10s vs JJ on 10/8/4 for a big double up. Came back for day 2, got moved tables a few times, and ended up on a certain Mr. Trumpers left. Then this happens.

We are in the SB. The cut off takes a look at his cards, tanks for a little while, and throws in some chips. Simon goes to muck pretty obviously, but pulls his cards back when he realises the C/O has just limped. I don't think this is ever an angle from Simon. Anyway, he then calls. I think that I'm going to want to squeeze here with pretty much any playable hand, the tank limper is never strong due to some previous HHs. Anyway, we look down, for the first time of the tournament, at AA. We go for a pretty big squeeze. The BB tank flats, the C/O flats, simon tells me this is the spot where he's supposed to go all in, and folds. Which really, really sucks. Anyway, we see the wonderful flop of KQJ. Which really, really sucks. We check call a bet from the BB, who seems pretty inexperienced and kinda weak, expecting him to shut down with any 1 pair hands like AK, 10/10, J10 etc. We see the wonderful turn of another K. Which, you've guessed it, really, really sucks. So we check fold, and get shown QQ, which in a bizarre kinda way is run good on our part, because really, that money has no right to not go in pre. Bust out a few rounds later to Trumper, when he flatted to create a spot that my short stacking strategy couldn't really not shove in, and he had the JJ and we had the 45 and we didn't bink. Bad times. Still, my deepstack record of never failing to make day two remains intact.

Had my biggest ever losing session on the thursday at the GPS, which has totally killed my hourly and put me firmly into the negative for the month. Nothing really to report, just losing some on cash coupled with the tournament buy in just killed me. Was told by a very good friend that I should take heart in the fact that I will definitely have worse days, one of the best bits of advice I've ever heard.

So, after bricking the gps, we decide to head on down to DTD and play some cash. We google dusk till dawn, we sat nav the result on my buddy adrian's Iphone, and we end up being taken to the dusk till dawn ghost hunting place, what the actual fuck. After that interesting detour, we got to dtd and immediately jumped into a pretty good looking 1/2. Initially lost a big one where i was behind the whole way, would rather not mention the board or my hand :p Then got coolered by alex after flopping the nuts and getting it in vs a flush draw, which gets there, and my redraw to the nut flush bricks. lolsigh reloaded, and then started to play very well and get the better side of the deck, killed the game for a good few hours making some very nice moves, getting some good hands, and using my positional advantage to exploit the shit out of a few guys and a few spots, finally finished the day up a bundle.

Yesterday was a lot of fun, and quite long, so I'm gonna go over it in a separate entry. Got seated in a 1/1 game, and instantly proceeded to win the lot in a very good game after finding the best possible seat. Then moved over to Omaha in preparation for the streamed omaha game in a few weeks, lost the lot to frankie, moved back to hold em, then semi tilt moved back to omaha, god moded the shit out of it for a little while, then left as a winner when the game got short handed. Moved back to texas for a few minutes, until we managed to get a very good ROE going, where quite a few interesting things happened.

First big hand comes where we peel with the  Jd 7d from the BB on a solid regs straddle, who also peels, vs a chinese frankie raise. We see a three way flop of  Qd 7h 4d. Frankie c bets, we raise, straddle repops, frankie folds, we get it in, and hold vs.  Ad Td. This was pretty sick, since a lot of the time on this sorta board I could be making a move against frankie, and even when im not, A10 is normally in better shape than it actually was.  The reg remarks that this is pretty sick, and from across the table, for very little reason, another reg who i get on pretty well with decided to comment on how this can be pretty sick, and essentially give out a rub down immediately after a £400+ pot at a totally unnecessary time. Understandably, this got to the guy who lost, kinda killed the atmosphere at the table, and was generally pretty shocking etiquette. I don't think it was intentional in the slightest, but still, didn't go down well.

Won a few big uns, lost a few big uns, and actually enjoyed the game a lot. Feel like im getting better at taking it when i lose, still need to cut out some of the moans, but generally its not actually hurting as much as it used to, which is definitely a positive. The big thing about the whole game though is that I feel like my understanding of Omaha has improved dramatically. I'm playing considerably more aggressively than I used to, and when i do pick up strong holdings, trying my utmost to get the pot HU preflop, especially in position. I find that a lot of the live omaha games get reduced to everyone limping pre, seeing a flop, and check folding unless they have the nuts, which makes the game not only ridic dull, but pretty damn unprofitable. By being more aggro and trying to force pots with less players involved, I'm starting to see how the same game can be made much more profitable. I still think I play too many hands, but my overall understanding has, I feel, come on massively as a result of mistakes made yesterday. Unfortunately, this week, I have a fuckton of uni work to do to get my first year finished by friday, so I'm unlikely to be playing much, if at all, until thats done. Plus side, after this week, I can hit the grind even harder.

always time for a uni home game rexas, dont forget us mere mortals! always time for a rexas  7c  2d bluff snapped off by the nuts ;noflopshomer;

Hey Matt

Nice to meet you all but briefly the other day at DTD, hope the wet hands were due to there being a que for the dryers!!

Did you get a ringer to play for you in the ISPT Day1 as if so nice sole Herbiemob entry  ;)

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/ispt/qualifiers.php (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/ispt/qualifiers.php)

Click on Matt Harris

As always, they try and credit that guy with all my hard work ;) Will definitely get that changed, thanks for the tip off :p

Was nice to meet you too, shame it was all in a bit of a rush :p and theres always a massive queue #hygienevariance

http://www.bluff.com/magazine/so-you-want-to-go-pro-1027/

Excellent article.

This is so true and well put

"There’s no shortage of people who want to be professionals. Most people won’t make it, not because it is impossible, but because they are unwilling to go through the pain. It’s not fun to run bad for months, nor is it enjoyable to own up to your mistakes every day. It doesn’t inflate your ego to move down in stakes when you’re struggling. But that’s what it takes. If you’re a true grinder, you will get through those times. If you’re a true grinder, you will even cherish those times. That is when your weaker opposition drops out of the race, and you just get stronger."

You need a gimmick mate. When I would tilt I would at least try to make others laugh and not just tap the glass :P

Post that PLO hand in PHA, think you will find the responses useful.

Gimmick? Wotcha got in mind? And sean, can you remember the board and the action? :p

That is the best article on poker I have read in many years. Thanks for linking Matt :)

Great article, well put.

That reminds me about Belton bingo! Could definitely adapt it to Mariss now that Sean is on a heater and doesnt tilt anymore.

It was a sort of cruel game, absolutely at Sean's expense, but I think it was good for him because he was made away of everything he was doing.

I still have the rules. You'd bet with someone over/under in a certain time frame.

Belton bingo

Cards off the table 5 points
Passive aggression indirectly towards fellow opponents 3 points
Aggressive folding 1 point
Stack knocked over / chips knocked off stack 2 point
Chair fallen over 5 points
Launching chips toward his vanquisher 8 points
Light hearted moaning 1/2 point.
Heavy hearted moaning 1 point
Leaving without saying goodbye 4 points

For Matt, it would have to include his personal favourites

Talking to self 1 point
Swearing at self 2 points
Swearing at opponents 4 points
Banging head against wall 8 points

alex, i love the ideas, however, do you not think there could be 'bonus points' for certain classic rexas catch phrases? an extra 5 points for 'thats disgusting', 'how do you sleep at night' and 'i run so bad' for example? just a thought

I have literally never said "how do you sleep at night". "how do you live", "what the actual fuck is your/my life" and "what a life" I think are the most common ones, although the last one is most often said in jest.

hahaha would adiman999 like to comment on this?
also would like to congratulate on rexas on his largest online cash last night in a SCOOP event. Doubling his previous best. Yes, he cashed for $23!!! #whyishesogood

Thank you for not mentioning that i fell asleep half way through, so someone else took over :D

that explains it. would still like to see adiman999's response to you never using certain phrases!

what about 'how do they do it?', 'how can they call me there?' , 'I just can't beat these guys' and 'how do they always have it?'

Had a couple of little breakthroughs over the past few days.

Managed to play when I was too tired to do so on wednesday, realised, and on the last hand I was playing for the night shat away my entire stack, including a fairly healthy profit.

Played yesterday in Gala, which was fun. Had a pretty bad run of cards, lost a flip or two and played one hand badly I think, where I should have flatted the guys 4 bet and allowed him to stack off on the flop. Played the hand well in a vacuum, just badly against that given player, although in my defence it was kinda early in the night. Then we get cold decked by adrian, when we turn second set and get it in vs his top set. Bad times. After two reloads, I finally win a hand or two, and am well on my way back to being even for the day. Then, after stacking a reg with a flopped set, we get pretty blatantly accused of collusion. This is the third time I've ever been accused of this, and I can assure you it's not very much fun. We were assured by various people that noone took any notice of the accusations, and tbh it's pretty obvious that we don't given how hard we go at each other in hands sometimes, but yeah, not nice.

The breakthrough has come in an attitude change. Over the last few weeks I've been doing my utmost to try and calm down as a person, and although I haven't fully eliminated reactions to big hands that I lose, I feel like I'm reacting considerably better and actually feeling considerably better about losing. Small personal victory I suppose, but with any luck, I'll be able to build on this and learn to take the swings that come as a major part of the game in a much more positive way.

Need some advice from some forum veterans. I'm frankly rubbish at this internet forum thing. Seems to me like peoples personalities, myself included, are way stronger online than face to face. Seems like a lot of things I say are taken in completely the wrong way, and vice versa. I pretty much stuck to just posting on the diaries section, mainly just on my own, for my first few months on blonde, and kinda wish I'd kept it that way. Probably will from now on, every post seems seconds away from offending someone and starting a pretty pointless argument.

Welcome to the Internet bud.

I found having to listen to these accusations after you guys had left pretty ridiculous tbh.  As you said just look at the last two days, the way that you and Adrian have been going at each other, although iirc the last hand on Wednesday didn't happen.  Nevertheless I made it clear that this would just never happen between you guys :)

Oh and cheers for the rubdowns Mr 6288 :)

What did they accuse you of btw? And who was it? Did dealer say anything? Call floor etc?

Basically, I stacked a well known reg, and he then got pretty pissy and made a comment about me and adrian always sitting together and whispering, which is funny in itself because he has said before that I talk too much :p I basically said we werent talking about the game, and he then basically went off on one about how we were obviously cheating together. I bought up the fact that Adrian has stacked me for the better part of 700 in the last two days, and he laughed and said that he would give it back in the car park. Apparently, when we left, he continued to discuss this with everyone else at the table. It is bothering me quite a bit, I think it's fairly obvious that we don't cheat and all that, but I really don't like the idea that even one person thinks that we do. Reputation is so important in this game, and mine is pretty poor with quite a few people as it is, so I don't feel I can really afford to have it tarnished too much more. The floor staff assured us that they didn't believe any of it, but still, the response of others at the table was certainly not in our favour. I wasn't there to hear what was said afterwards, obviously, which kinda makes it more frustrating that someone would go to that sort of length to get at me for stacking him, which is really what I feel this is about. Will also point out that I was still losing fairly heavily for the game at this point.

It's pretty standard to get accused of chopping it with friends in the car park, seems to happen whenever anyone frequents a gala.

Tell reg to proof or stfu. Floor's opinion is the one that matters, he's prob just bitter a fish stacked him ;)

(http://therapup.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/STFU.jpg)

its not nice mate, ive been accused of cheating in 5 quid pub game i was playing with my dad, i know outrageous right. only thing you can do when it comes to reputation is dont do something yourself to affect it. the guys who you know you best, myself included, aswell as all the others know that youd never cheat, and thats all that matters.
i can vouch for the guys here, i share the car home with them all the time and no money is ever exchanged, well i might lie a little bit. whoever wins the most has to buy macdonalds, but i think thats fair! i always get a free big mac!!

v standard at gala, esp when you're relatively unknown and new to the circuit. just humour them, don't rise to it. if its regs theyll soon stfu, if its randoms, meh, doesnt matter.

Shocker!

First game of Marris Bingo has commenced. I have the over on 12 points between now and 1am. He's stuck £600 so far so I like my side!

What is his life? ;)

He was too aware of it. Must do it in secret next time.

Also must not double Matt up anymore times this weekend.

Yeh he is never going to react like the true matt would when he is aware of the goings on of marris bingo

UNLUCKY ;)

Yesterday was fun. Sat in a deep 1/2, purely because I was waiting until a smaller game opened up. Then, we decide it's a good idea to raise with   Ac Jc and call a three bet, which eventually leads to a double up and kinda locks us into the game, which wasn't so much of a problem now that we're a little closer to the rest of the stack sizes at the table. Then, we decide it's a good idea to get involved with 66, three betting a raise to 27 and getting a cold call behind. We get all excited about having two pairz, and when we've calmed down, we make it 42. For some very very very odd reason, The cold caller thinks we have c bet to 22, and decides he is going to raise to 52. He says "52", puts in the chips, the floor is called, and it's ruled that this counts as a call. We are now not excited at all, and plan on check folding the turn, BUT..... bingo! 6 hits the turn. In our mind, we count out the chips we're about to win in this pot. Obviously we're going to check, he's going to bet, we're going to raise the perfect amount to get stacks in on the river. We check, as planned, he bets 75, we make it 200, he calls. Unfortunately, dealer regi feels like this is a good idea to lean over the table and punch my face with the  9h WHY REGI WHY... We check, we fold, we cry, we are glad marris bingo hasn't started yet.

Then a bunch of other stuff happens, QQ is apparently worse than AA, top two on the flop is obviously no good against the backdoor flush draw, and all in all, we move over to play DC at dusk for the first time with a heavy heart. We pretty quickly gift a double up, reload, then win a few omaha hands, go a little bit mental in the padooki rounds and end up winning for that game, and losing less than we really should have been for the day. My monthly for this month is pretty disgusting by now though, after failing to break even last month and looking like we're on the same road for this one. Not got very long now until my university year ends, at which point we have the ISPT and then no idea what we're going to do/where we're going to be. The plus side is we're going to win the ISPT, and Alex is going to win the ME, so we're going to be a millionaire within the next few months. Good times :)

I'm about to go and do something completely out of character. Laundry, in the day time. One of the positives of the degenerate sleeping pattern lifestyle for me, is being happily able to miss the queues for the laundry and just do it at 3 in the morning. Every now and then I get some pretty odd looks from the drunk people coming home, but they're drunk, so any conversation normally consists of "o hai BLEURGH WASHING BLEURGH odighawrid". Today, disaster. I have run out of socks. It's 2 o'clock, it's sunny, where the hell is the moon, there are people queuing. I guess I'm going to have to go for it. Wish me luck, blonde.

this is my fav post of yours

Have been following, fun read :)

Always did washing in the early hours, if I wasn't heading home anytime soon, rarely cared about socks though could buy a pack of 5 plain black from Primark for £2 or something silly and a fresh pair are so comfortable compared to an old pair of Primark socks washed in whatever value washing powder was left over

So, after getting the washing done with no dramas, headed down to dusk to soak up the cash game action over ISPT weekend. Beforehand, we thought it would be a good idea to hit up nando's. There has been a bit of a saga around this for some time, we've attempted to go and eat dinner there a good few times now, and every time been met with a MAHOOSIVE queue. Pretty much every nando's I've ever seen needs to be AT LEAST double the size it is, but hey. This time, we were way ahead of those pesky chicken loving families. Phoned them up, went to book a table, and was met with this response "I'm sorry, but we don't take bookings, we operate on a first come first served basis". What the actual fuck....

So yeah, no nando's. Ended up in Frankie and Benny's instead, where you order food, and they bring you over double what you expect, but it's actually pretty damn nice. As soon as the credit cards came out, I knew my pretty colours Santander card would be no match for the other two, and sure enough, the lovely waitress went straight for it. Good start to the day, basically cost me a shot in the super 50, although I'm certain I won more in the restaurant than I would of done in the tournament. Well, I "won" the dinner flip anyway.

Got into a 1/2 game at its inception, and it was instantly a very reggy game. Pretty much knew every face that sat down, and proceeded to a bit mental for a while, until some big guns started to show up. Won a few big pots, one with a set of 9's, one with AK on an A high board vs a smaller A and a flush draw, One against Ian "table of heroes" Gascoigne with AQ into A5. Then proceeded to absolutely butcher a hand against mitch, getting it in on the turn with two outs in the deck, was totally wrong about his range and all sorts of things really, shove was really mostly a bluff, but tbh I have no idea what I was expecting to happen. Either way, biggest pot I have ever played, and hit my two outer for my biggest session of the year, to get me out of the months hole. Seems like I learnt that lesson where if you screw up, just get lucky. Learnt a few pretty valuable lessons in this hand, and a few others, without having to pay for them. Not often you can say that in the world of poker.

My favourite hand of the night was this. I can't actually remember how the action went pre, but I had  Kd 9d otb, and called a raise, and we saw a flop of  Jd 6s 7c four ways. The flop checks to me, and I check back. The turn comes the 8s, giving us a straight draw. The small blind leads out 27, folds to me, I call. At this point, I think there is every possibility that the SB is on the same straight draw as me, or has just picked up a pair. Thinking A8 is very likely, potentially a hand like 9 x or the like. Don't believe he is particularly strong. Anyway, the river comes the  9c, putting a four card straight on the board. The sb checks, at which point I'm very convinced I have the best hand. I don't believe he has a J, can't really explain why, but I'm confidently putting the guy on a hand like 9x/A8/K8 etc. Instead of checking back, I go for a value bet, and make it 63. I feel like I can get called by this hand, as I think this player would expect me to be betting a 10 for the straight or an airball. We get tank called, flip over our hand, and rake in the pot. Felt very very good about my game at this point, was playing confidently and making good decisions. Now, I just need to cut out the occasional massively butchered hand, and I feel like my game will be in a very good place.

Off to dusk again pretty soon, although I will be writing coursework whilst playing. Going to rail Reg playing his ISPT day 1, and try once more for a nandos. GLGL Reg!

i will be severely on tilt if we dont have a nandos, not good walking into a poker room as a spewy donk at the best of times  ;whale; ;boltpp; ;booboo; which ultimately leads to  ;all-in; ;busted; ;stickaforkinme; ;dewi;

nandos in first come first serve shocker :D

And so we reach the end of May, my first month of documenting my poker results on a daily basis and my last month of my first year of university. I have absolutely zero motivation to get any work done, but hey, what's new. Quick overview of the month:

Bricked GPS completely
Had a record 3 hand cameo appearance in the DTD 6 max
Made day 2 of the ISPT with a comfortable stack
Luckboxed a two outer for my biggest ever pot
Played my first hand of DC
Met, and played poker with, Steve Davies

I'm starting to give the 2/2 DC a shot at dtd, and will certainly be looking to play more of this format. I know I'm still very much a novice, I'm struggling a lot to get my head round some of the Hi-lo games, mainly because ive probably played around 100 hands of any hi-lo game lifetime. I'm enjoying the challenge, working out how to play all the games and taking any advice I can be given, although actually implementing it is taking longer than I'd have liked.

Monthly stats:
CASH
Played 70 hours
Finished +1189
Overall Hourly of approx £17 per hour.

TOURNAMENT
Played 51 hours
Finished -£1474

Total Profit/Loss = -£285

it took me years to start beating any games but people now think they can do it in 3 months, impressive stuff.

you dont have to listen to the moaning though dave! haha, on a side note, glgl to rexas in the ispt. verndog the lucky rail bird is there in spirit!!

Slight update needed to the monthly figures, unexpectedly played an ROE game and finished 210 on the right side of the line, so practically a breakeven month.

Basically, in summary of the recent few days, IwemCRY. Or, Iwemberfuckmylifehowdoesthishappen. Struggled to get comfortable the whole time I was there. My table was 4 handed for over an hour, during which I had a pretty disgusting run of cards, and hit some pretty awful run outs. Then we became five handed for pretty much the remainder of my stay in the best value comp ever, until I committed a lot of chips with AQs out of the SB on the runout of A1023A, only to bet fold away a big portion of my stack on the river, after a speech and a shove which I don't think is ever a bluff, hence I can't really beat anything. Got the rest in with a gutshot, a pair and a flush draw and bricked out vs top set. Felt horrible coming away from wembley, late regged into the APAT masters too and ran AK into the kid with the hoodie and the headphones and the sunglasses and the constant button raises where he somehow manages to find KK. Basically, just hit on the wrong side of a whole bunch of factors. On the plus side, it's meant a week or so at home, which is very much welcome. Seriously considering playing the Luton 20k gtd 150 deepstack this weekend, and definitely playing the monthly £100 at my local tonight and the poker player main event thingy in brighton in a few weeks. Uni is now over with for the next few months, so I can hit the felt pretty much full time.

Had some fun down in the genting club last night. Played the £40 freezout, which was a disaster, then sat down in cash and felt very comfortable before losing the lot to a guy who called a big squeeze with 84h (they're suited alright, and he was in the SB so once you've had to put a pound in the pot, whats an extra 20 or so? Give the guy a break...) and flopped two pair, then flopped a straight with the 23h vs my two pair and a horrible river call on my part, and finally limped utg with AA, only for me to flop a gutshot and a flush draw and lose the rest. I actually had a pretty good time though, and I'm starting to feel very very comfortable with my cash game following some pretty good advice. I suppose the great thing about this game is that we are constantly learning, and even though I can't see the results at the cash desk, I'm seeing them in how I'm conducting myself at the table and how I feel like I'm making a lot less mistakes.

Had one of my favourite ever hands last night, too. I wasn't even involved, it was just fun to watch. Folds to the hijack who limps for £1, btn overlimps, both blinds check. Flop comes 567, and the sb donks for £3. This guy has been like super super nitty all night, had call/folded most of his chips away (mainly to me), and after making this bet, he looked super nervous. Anyway, folds to the btn, who makes the call. There has been a bit of a thing between these two as the night has worn on, with the btn being pretty insulting about the tight guys tightness, to the point where it was getting kinda offensive Turn is a monster brick, and the sb then makes it £8, with visibly shaking hands. The button folds, and the guy triumphantly flips over K9, with one of the biggest smiles on his face that I have ever seen. For a moment, I honestly thought he was going to pick up that guys £4 and shove it right in his eye. After overcoming our disbelief at what we had just witnessed, we turn to the button, and pretty much everyone at the table takes a moment to tell the guy how badly he just got owned/pwned/outplayed/murdered etc. Made me remember what poker is all about. It's the small victories that make you feel a million feet tall. Poker is a game where we are all equals when we sit down to play, and over the course of a game, any one of us could rise and become a champion, and any one of us could fall and be that sucker Matt Damon cleans out for a living. Sometimes, this doesn't even come down to how many chips we have in front of us at the end. Regardless of losing money, that guy left with his head held high, and rightly so. He's no push over, he knows it, and now so do we. He can play this game. That's poker, folks.

how did omaha go last night marris? ;)

Few highlights and lowlights over the last few days.

Made some pretty major edits to my tournament game after really having a think about how Julian seems to cash every tournament he plays, and it's paying off with me running a lot deeper in every tournament I've played so far. Unfortunately, this has been offset by the fact that I've been the biggest loser in pretty much every cash game I've sat in so far this month. I don't even feel that I've been playing that badly, I think I've been making good decisions and just falling on the wrong side of variance basically every hand I play. Starting to really test my newfound temperament, and I'm ashamed to say I failed that test yesterday. Found  2s 2c otb after a limp, and a raise to 6 from a 200bb stack, and a flat from a 400bb stack. We flat, playing about 400 ourselves, and the limper, playing a little under 300 comes along too. We see a  2d 6s 7s flop. Limper checks, raiser makes it 11 as a c-bet, cut off calls, we make it 40, then the limper just ships it for 290 ish. Folds to us, we call, he flips over  8c 5c, and gets instant reward in the shape of the  9s. Even now we still have like 40% to win, but brick off the end, and give up for the day. Of all the people as well, this guy is one of the rudest people I've come across at a table, very frustrating. Feels pretty awful to have worked pretty damn hard at calming down, only to face that. It was more the player than the pot. O well, I will continue to run massively below EV for the month and try not to lose too much, i suppose.

Had a very bad experience in the comp on sunday too. We organised a meal before it started, in honour of Melissa's first ever dtd comp, and we got a bunch of people to come play and ended up with a last longer worth more than a final table. Tournament was great fun, until a few hours in, where a man who I had never met before and had just moved to the table proceeded to win a big hand off me, and then just launch into me. I had said and done nothing whilst he had been at the table, hadn't reacted to losing the hand in any way aside from tapping the table and passing my chips across. Got called a whole bunch of names, was laughed at by most of the table, and it continued for a good few minutes until I reacted. This reaction only took the form of saying that he was being a bit impolite after winning a pot, and the response I got was another laugh, a few more comments, and then he got stacked and I moved tables. This is the second guy in the space of a month who I have never met before who has just laid into me at a poker table, and it made me feel ridiculously small. The fact that I took it with very little reaction almost made it worse, a part of me really wishes I'd given the guy a piece of my mind, it amazes me that people in a £25 comp can be such dickheads. This experience was followed by a bust out and a whole bunch of small comments that, given my frame of mind, I took the wrong way. Still didn't really react, just took it and moved to a 50/1 table where I didn't know anyone to just waste some time more than anything. I don't think I've ever felt so isolated in a card room before.

The night was capped off by moving to open up an omaha table, which I assumed would be 1/1. Sat down, got told it was 2/2, got up again, then got called back to be told they'd made it 1/1. Kinda didn't feel great about them changing the stakes just so I could play, but sat anyway. Very quickly got told it was going to be 1/1/2, and really just felt like fml. Resolved to stick it out, then became insta the big loser after flopping the nuts with a straight flush redraw and a blocker to anyone else having the nuts. Left the game pretty fast, the whole thing really got to me in a way I didn't expect it to. Probably the worst I've ever felt leaving a cardroom too, and I didn't really lose much for the day.

Followed the whole thing up with a trip to the zoo the next day, but more on that later!

Poker sucks, zoo is awesome

I've recently had another one of those random philosophical moments that I tend to have, and thought I'd share it with the people of blonde.

I've been getting asked to explain how to play poker by quite a lot of people in the recent months, and its made me think about what I was told when I first asked. I sat down with a group of mates in a hotel room in Austria, and was told some rubbish about flushes and straights and boats, which didn't really make too much sense. I dived in anyway, and eventually starting working it out for myself. I'm very much still going, too.

Anyway, I've been spouting this speech about boats and flushes and so on for a while now, and it struck me that it is complete bollocks. The question of "So how do you play poker?" is a very complicated one. To start, there's all this mathematical stuff about immediate odds, pot odds, implied odds etc. There's the concept of E.V., which is absolutely vital to understanding how to develop into a player that can actually win money at this game, and then theres all the other stuff about situational awareness, reads etc. It feels like I'm lying, when I tell people about hand rankings and leave it at that. Because really, that doesn't answer the question. Those are the rules, but don't even come close to actually knowing how to play. Basically, I suppose what I should really be saying is "I can't tell you, you have to lose a silly amount of money so you can start to work out out for yourself." Some advert, huh?

The straights and flushes and boats is just a platform to learn from. Remember when you were told, in primary school, that the atom was the smallest thing there was and everything was made up of atoms? Then in junior school they tell you that, actually that's nonsense and everything is comprised of protons, neutrons and electrons and they are the smallest things. Then they tell you about quarks and so on. Imagine your 8 year old brain trying to understand quarks and other quantum mechanics!

The same applies here. A handful of really smart people might sort of "get it" straight away, but most people just know that they have an ace and a jack and they're the same colour and they don't know whether that's good or not. Tell them it doesn't matter and what matters is your opponent's range, stack size, tendencies and reverse implied odds and their 8 year old quantum physics brain is likely to all but explode. To begin with, I think people just have to make straights and flushes and boats and learn to love the game before they start hating it. ;)

Word of the month - tilt. Comfortably biggest losing month ever, cannot win a hand, and cannot catch a break. Ended up becoming a total bluffing and calling station. Have said "you win" more times than I can count, and to cap it all feel pretty damn alienated from pretty much everyone. Biggest loser in almost every game I've sat in this month. Real glad I have a stop loss. Hate having a chart, looks like I'm going to have to just face being a losing player, wonder if I was ever any different. Thoughts?

Belton has gone through a decent amount of emotional turmoil in this game. Perhaps get his opinion, he seems do have overcome it these days.

Try to stop loosing !

Hi Matt, feel this diary needed a bump so thought I'd ask a few questions.

1) what's your favourite out of clubs hearts spades and diamonds?

2) if you knew you were never going to get dealt aces for the rest of your life would you carry on playing / do you think you'd still crush the games super hard? Do you think you'd crush them harder since you have a propensity to lose with premiums?

3) Who in your opinion are the other 9 players in the UK top 10?

I'll get this back alive then!

1) I've always been a sucker for hearts.

In relation to this, might as well tell the stories of my three favourite hands - My original favourite hand was  9d Td, because I flopped quads with it on my first final table in the pub and felted two people, and won the tournament shortly after.
It then became  Jh Th. In my first ever festival main event, which i ft bubbled in the end, I spent the best part of 6 hours trying to set up this one guy to lose a big pot. He was, and remains, the most arrogant, obnoxious wanker I've ever come across at a table. Constantly berated dealers and players alike, but conveniently liked to tell everyone how great he was and why, so it was pretty easy to work out exactly how he thought. The dealers where getting pretty upset with the guy, and the TD was in a pretty tough spot and didn't seem to know what to do. About 2 hours in, he practically reduced a dealer to tears, and I told the TD that I'd get him. That became pretty much the only thing I wanted to do in the tournament from that point on. So, towards the end of day 2, I picked up J10, raised, he three bet his button, I called, flopped top two, and donked for quite a long way over the size of the pot, knowing the guy wouldnt even count the bet and would just see it as weak, and put in a massive raise to get me to fold. He puts in the raise, and I shoved. I had deliberately sized the flop bet so that when he raised, I would have so little left behind on the shove that he would have to call and show, which he did. Think he had A6 os. He didn't say a word for the rest of the comp, eventually shipping the rest with some random hand and leaving. Won't ever forget how satisfied I felt, and the smile I got from the TD. Had to leave the table, I was actually shaking. Feels like a long time ago now.
Right now, my nut favourite hand is probably  7s 7h, because it's well pretty innit.

2) "I'd have so much money if I just folded premiums" :p Not one of my finest moments, I'll be honest! I'd keep on playing and hopefully keep learning to try and crush the games, right now I've still got a loooonnnggg way to go :)

3) Rehman, obvs. And Chris "people don't flop flushes" Vernon :D

Seriously though, the best like ten players I've played against would be (in no particular order) You, mitch, stato, PJ, Deadman, Julian Thew (I swear he must think that variance is for people that can't play before the flop, guy's just a sicko), Mr. Nicholson, Ben vinson, Jon Gill and Sean. There are defo a few others, but I've either not played with them enough to judge or the list just isn't allowed to be long enough. Like honeybadger and Laurence, for example, really should be on the list. And... yh, I'm gonna stop before this turns into a massive list. Soooo many good players....

That said, our little group at LUPS is pretty sick, bunch of fantastic people and fantastic players, I definitely wouldn't be half the player I am today without them.

Thanks for answering the questions Matt.

You misread the third question, I asked who were the other 9 players (as well as you) in the top 10. But doesn't matter much :)

Definitely not deliberate ;)

He did named u as one of the best player .

Cheers buddy.  If I discover any facetiousness on your part with regards to this answer, a fatwa for your impending doom will be issued.  Have a nice day  :)

Tonight/tomorrow morning, at 05:05, I will be taking a minutes silence in honour of the passing of Sean's diary, one of the most loved columns of blonde. Anyone anywhere is welcome to join me.

Someone left this world ? Sorry to hear that

The Last Few Weeks of Silence,

So, it's been a fairly eventful few months. I've moved into a flat, which come September will become degen central, with it likely that there will be someone in the house grinding at every hour of every day. This has unfortunately coincided with the biggest downswing I've ever encountered, losing a pretty disgusting amount of money in a month where I hit my stop loss almost every day, played awfully, and managed to regress a little in the whole "calm down" thing.

The Flat,

New place is great. Despite there being no hot water, no internet connection, and every now and then a cupboard door falling off, the place is starting to feel like home. I've scoped out the local takeaways, done my first every proper weekly shop (and frankly, felt ashamed at the results) and become properly addicted to game of thrones, and not just because of the tits. For those that haven't seen it, there are a lot of tits.

The Poker,

Yuck.

Everything else,

So, I've been working pretty damn hard on my mental game in the last few months, since it was brought very firmly to my attention that it needed to change. Honestly, I feel like I've made progress. Probably the worst part of the whole downswing thing for me, apart from the massive hit to my confidence, was how embarrassed I feel about how I handled it. Even then, I don't think I was as bad as I used to be, but this time it's cost me the friendship of a few people that I would rather it hadn't. Flipside is a few people have been fantastic in helping me get through it, and I really am very grateful for their support. Also, Rehman, darling, I love you. Not expecting anyone to read this far down the post, so figure it's pretty safe to throw that out there ;) Anyway, now that we are officially back on the up following a deep run in the Deepstack, I feel like, mentally, I've never approached the game better. I'm losing big pots and actually, genuinely not being bothered by it. I hope people have noticed the change, and it is still going to be an uphill battle to reach the level of control I'm aiming for (on the scale of Honeybadger - Helmuth, considering doing a cambridgealex style graph to document progress, thoughts?), but now that I'm seeing real progress, it could well happen.

I also had a few interesting experiences in the supermarket that I'd like to share with blonde. Firstly, I couldn't find any sugar. I take my tea with two sugars, always have done, and tbh a house can't become a home if you can't make tea in it, there's just something wrong there. I don't know what it was, but there was something in me that just couldn't go and ask for help. It felt like asking for directions when you've got a map, I'd feel like a tit after being shown the massive blue sign with Katy Perry's firework tits plastered all over it. I spent the better part of half an hour wandering up and down the shop, to the extent where I thought it would be a good idea to change the milk, before conceding defeat and deciding to get some southern comfort as a substitute. Prior to this, I had just assumed that sugar would be with the cakes, or the tea, or somewhere around that area, but no. There it was, pissing on my pride, next to the malibu. Obviously someone thought that the aisle should be called "things to make you hyper". Crazy store layout.

I also managed to guilt buy a whole bunch of stuff, like banana's and carrots and a whole bunch of stuff that I am never really going to eat, just because I looked at them, looked at my trolley, and thought it was for the best to at least try. Kept my head down as the biscuits and crisps and pasties went through the checkout, only once making eye contact with the cashier when the carrots went through. The look she gave me, at 6 in the morning, spoke volumes. "We both know you aren't going to eat that. Don't try and fool me. I've been working the early shift for long enough to know a food whore when I see one." Needless to say, my head went back down very quickly. There was a brief moment where it looked like she was going to try and give me those school vouchers that tesco seem to have been doing since before I was born, but made eye contact with the custard creams instead, and quickly thought better of it. I'm going to have to work on this shopping lark.

FORGOT THIS! Have another article :)

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/wsop/2013/wsop-2103-the-eleventh-hour-139260.html

This fantastically written piece is now responsible for making me wanna give vegas a shot in the pretty near future, enjoy!

Well, it's been a good few weeks from a poker standpoint. I'm back to winning ways for the most part, feeling reasonably good about my game, and generally enjoying myself at the tables a lot more. Had a couple of fun pots, all of which I've lost, over the last few days which I think are worthy of note.

First is in the last 100 d/s which ran over the weekend. In the last flight, on Saturday, I was chip leader going into the third level with about 80k from a 30k start. I pick up  Aspades Ks UTG at 200/400, open to 1000, get called by the cut off and three bet to 2600 from the button. Our friendly neighbourhood three bettor was one of those lovely chaps who had evidently read a book which had told him to raise every button, and never fold a flop in position. I decide to make the first 4 bet the table has seen, and make it a round 6k. Cut off folds, button calls (obvs). Flop comes  Ad 4c 8s. Bingo! So, we make it 8k to go, fairly confident that we aren't getting a fold. Call. Turn  5s, giving us the nut flush draw to go with our TPTK. We make it 15k, thinking that the decision was right here for our friend, who was playing roughly 50k to start the hand, so to call here would leave him with about 20 behind. Call. I have no idea what to make of this call, and plan to make the nuts on the river to make everything much easier. Unfortunately, this plan fails. We check, planning to call, but not really liking life right now on the  2c river. I have absolutely no idea how I should have played this hand on the river, my thinking at the time was he was going to jam absolutely anything that he continued with to this point, the lad had a MASSIVE river bet frequency, and was showing up with a lot of second pair/weak top pair hands. So, we check, he jams, we deliberate for a while and call, and win a massive pot in a standard AK to AQ semi-cooler/lose a massive pot because the guy is an insane sicko and has called the whole lot down with  5c 3c. Take your pick. To help with your choice, I was out before the second break. The guy has also, to my knowledge, never cashed anything beyond a standard "bowl" comp.

The second hand was at a 1/1 cash table on the very same day. We have been pretty active at the table, in part due to a very attractive run of people cards. Anyway, few hours in and we have amassed around £800. We find KK on the button to a tight regs utg open. Reg makes it £8 over a straddle, called by new player in middle position, we make it 35. Reg calls playing about 250, middle position calls playing about 200. We, casually, flop the nuts on K74. Checked to us, and we elect to check back. After receiving the 8 on the turn, utg decides to make it £90, which is called by middle position. We ship it, and get called by BOTH players. We flip our hand over, and the J on the river brings a rue smile and a muck from utg, who comments about picking a good time to slow play AA, and as the pot is being pushed in my direction, middle position decides this is a good time to expose 910. Off suit. #nhwpisrpleasedontleave.

Yesterday was only our third stop loss day of the month. I think I still played well, although running KQ into 22 on 972 Q K after the flop is checked round and electing to slow play QQ preflop and getting it in on the turn on J33 7 vs 33 didn't help matters. Still, things are looking much better for poker. I still feel like I'm improving pretty much every time I play, although  I do seem to have developed a bit too much of an affection for top pair/overpair sorta hands, which I'll spend the next few days looking in to. It may have to wait however, because I'm going to try and find some OFC games and start playing for some decent stakes, since it seems like a fairly regular crowd has developed around the game. Might also have to get an iphone.

Not sure why you would pick 6k as your 4bet size vs someone you don't think is folding.

Not sure why you would ever ever ever post the line that is italics. People do lurk blonde you know.

Gl in OFC, avoid Stato. Stoploss days are the worst :(

P.S, I don't want to sound like a jerk, this is the hard thing about blogging about games, something I pretty much stopped doing, as you can tell from my sig. Someone will always get offended. Even if they don't people will pick up on things like you saying your falling asleep at the wheel :P

Got a question mate . Who upset u on the table ?

Sorry to pipe up but feel I need to step in.

 I think this "standard bowl comps" line is massively OOL, pretty sure before the deepstack you were bowling around with the rest of us in the XXL, we can't all bink 22k scores and not all of us play tournaments anyway, hendon mob isn't a measure of skill level although I agree it's the standard go-to. Plenty of +EV players in that field will have shocking hendon mobs due to tournaments not being logged or them being predominately cash players or having to skip multiple day tournaments due to work commitments.

Regardless of how terrible the guy was I think it's a pretty shocking like to post on a public forum when the title of your blog mentions pub poker which isn't exactly played to the highest standard, when you first arrived at dtd imagine if people jumped on you saying "Look at this guy, he probably plays shitty pub poker, gtfo"

Not personally attacking you mate as I've said some pretty OOL things in the past myself, I just think you should take a little more care in what you post on your own public space.

Awks

Agree that those sorts of comments are out of line, sorry people. Need to think a little more before posting, was a very bad way of illustrating my point.

Do you have any more stories involving you owning Alex in the past? :D

Nice rubs !!

(http://weknowgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ha-gay-gif.gif)

Just wanna assure everyone that if and when I do post something ool/stupid, I will get the piss taken outta me for a good few weeks, so im always gonna know I've said something I shouldn't.

And Fred, I will make sure to mention every owning of Alex that happens from here onwards :)

Also, what are your thoughts on the  Th 7d hand in regards to reverse implied odds vs regs OOP?

Damn, I knew this was coming...

I thought reverse implied odds were for people that couldn't play after the flop? I was actually check folding the river, but I expected you to check back a reasonable amount too. I was also planning on making two pair if I wasn't sure of what to do, and that plan worked as well as I could hope.

Should perhaps ask Neil how he feels about peeling three bets with easily dominated hands too :p

Would like to add my opinion, and readers please bear in mind that i am a close friend of Matt, so you might think this is biased towards him, however, these are my views generally.
Whats the point of having a blog if your not supposed to voice what you really think. It isnt general forum as such, and it is entitled a blog, which is designed so people can say what they think. Id love to go through all the other blogs on here and pick out some things people have said about others that would be far worse than anything Matt has said, however i have half a life to lead. Also seems like some of the comments on here would never be posted on other of the blogs, just seems to me that as matt isnt as an established reg that hes more of an easy target, just seems like theres a lot of selective posting on here. He called it a bowl comp, jeeez, maybe we should chop his chip shuffling finger off?
Not sure hes got a lot to apologize for, he had a go at a guy for an awful play, and wasnt personal really, and if he cant voice his thoughts like that on his own blog, then maybe he should shut it up like other ones have recently. If thats the way its going to be and they all go then alot of people would literally have nothing to do with their lives.
Please feel free to give me as much stick back. I guess overall, i think that constructive criticism is fine, but just having a go? meehhh my advice to those guys would be that that their comments should be 'tight4better'.

I agree with Verndog. He knows what hes doing as well, rumour has it he once mincashed the sunday million.

YES DAVE :D

As a proper reply though, I think people forget that I ground these small comps pretty much for a living for quite a long time, back when there was no guarantee of a cash game running every night so the comp was often all there was. I also still play all the pub poker I can get to, and have so so so much time for what they have done for poker in this country. It's crazy that now, people can walk down the street and find a live poker game for £5, something which would have been laughable only a few years ago. This has done absolute wonders for the stigma around the game in this country, and is giving people an avenue to enter the game that we love. I think people would agree that, for the most part, poker is becoming something which is not linked solely to drugs and debts and seedy underground bars, and it is largely because of this.

I'm never going to think of myself as being "above" this sort of comp, because I don't think I really ever will be. 

This.

Let's stamp out awful play once and for all.

With a little effort, we could soon have all our opponents playing excellent poker  :P

Would also like to point out that I didn't have a go at the guy after the hand, I merely asked the dealer to clarify as to whether the gentleman in question had a straight. The sum of my "having a go" was the bowl comp comment, which I do regret posting.

I'm a lot calmer than I used to be :p

My tounge-in-cheek comment wasn't aimed at you Matt, but at verndog's statement, which I quoted.

Sorry matey, still getting used to this internet thing I'm afraid!

(With a sheepish grin) Maybe people could write down the expressions on their faces and put their intonation in stars before/after a sentence? Would save me making a tit of myself quite so often :p

and we all know u dont need any help with that rexas ;)

I picked on Alex for his falling asleep at the wheel comment. If a professional poker player can't see why writing derogatory comments about his opponents on a public forum is wrong then he also won't be able to see why people don't want to play with him all of a sudden. Unfortunately, I only have a quarter of a life to lead, but if you checked, and I'm sure Alex can assure you of this, he took a lot of stick when he started out too, and would take more if he wrote like that now as well. I like Matt, he seemed like a sound lad when we've met, but unfortunately finding someone on THM and posting about how he never cashes anything other than bowl comps is really poor form. What would Matt have said if the guy had one a bracelet? What about a smattering of London comps? It was wrong of him to post like that, and that is my opinion. If people don't express their opinions on diaries then they will also die out/not be as interesting. Matt is always free to tell me to piss off if he disagrees.

P.S Please don't judge me on my herbie mob, unfortunately the two times i reached the final 18 I couldn't win a flip :(

Guys come on, I've acknowledged that what I've said was wrong and ool, not sure what else I can do? I do see what the problem is and I do get that I need to learn how to write a little more diplomatically. I don't judge people on their hendon mobs, mine isn't anything special and a lot of the players I rate very highly (list on here aside) have very little in the way of hms. 

It wasn't directed at you.

I said i used to play them for a living, not that I don't anymore. I can tell you that I've played 17 of the sort of comp that I was referring to in the last three months, I definitely don't feel like I shouldn't play them because I'm "too good", I don't think anyone is ever too good for any form of the game.

Just trying to come out of this not looking like a total dick, evidently this isn't going very well :p

k :)

Matt the only way you come out not looking like a dick on the Internet is just shut up! This is obviously affecting you, you have made it clear you regret what was said and everyone has said there 2 cents and that's that. Just leave it now.

On an aside I feel this fiasco should be taking into consideration in regards to your work on mental game. You should be thankful players make "bad" plays. It's how we are able to make money.

If someone offered to flip a coin with you and give you £55 if its heads and you give them £50 for tails. You would never ever ever say anything that would make them want to stop doing it. You are grateful they haven't realised they are always going to lose long term. This analogy hold true for downswings as well, you won't be complaining oh man he had hit 20 tails in a row. You will keep playing with him knowing you will always come out on top remaining gracious throughout so they keep playing with you.

I know that is semi unrelated but I do think there are mental game lessons to be learned here as well

i agree with our irish fellow. you cant keep everyone happy, im sure if u called it a anything else, someone would have moaned at you. cant wait to see the next blog post when u call the super50 a 'beaker' comp ;)

The weather has cooled down a bit now, eh?

And this is news to who? ;)

Think he was referring to him being a mental game fish

I have no part to play in this little hoohah, but that analogy is brilliant. Everyone should print that off, laminate it, & stick it above their lappie. I try to help the newbies next door, & this "I lose because peeps make terrible calls" thing is the biggest mental obstacle they have.  My personal method is to suggest they are offered the chance to run the identical hands a million times, & see who ends up a millionaire, & who goes skint. My little seeds of "wisdom", as is so often the case, seem to fall on stony ground.

before adiman claims all responsibilty for that, i think he might have got that from some unknown bloke called fitzgerald ;)

He chris it is an Alex Fitzgerald quote. I don't deny he is one of the most profound poker minds out there IMO. He words things so well and I honestly can never get enough of his articles and videos haha :p

How can he be an unknown bloke called fitzgerald?

Note: This post is for amusement only.  :)

wpsir ;)

It has in Mansfield sir !

Acknowledgement Kudos to adiman999 WITHDRAWN. 

Kudos goes to the unknown bloke named Fitzgerald.

Good to hear, Frankie. It was just diversionary tactics really, there seemed to be considerable knicker twistage. I blame Red-Dog.  

Lol unlucky adiman

Hahaha I love how chris gets himself into holes like he does! "Unknown bloke called Fitzgerald" is classic verndog

I'm not an attention whore, I'm sure il live ;)

Once I've tracked tikay down and made him worship me of course  ;kneelsucker;

haha it was a joke comment of course!!

I know it's just your wording is funny, saying he is unknown but then quoting his name haha

Do you want to talk about it?

Haha this!!

Trust me, if I said anything like Matt said I'd get 10x the amount of hate Matt has. Belton got shit for saying stuff like this. It's nothing to do with Matt being lesser known.

I get people calling me out when I have had an hours sleep less than I've said I have. I got called out for saying a comp was soft!

2/3 years ago I was pretty naive / ignorant when it came to all this stuff and  I used to get all kinds of flack for it. And it made me quickly realise how bad it is. Yes it's Matt's blog he can say what he likes, but if he wants to be respected amongst the community (professionals and recreationals) then he'll quickly realise it too (and it looks like he has/is so wp).

Honestly I cringe sooo bad at the early pages of my diary how I used to write about people and disrespect them.

Posh boy speech !

WHALE ITT.

Alex, only the ones you win right?  ;)

(http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1777175.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/%C2%A3%C2%A3%20Smiley%20False%20Killer%20Whale-1777175.jpg)

Just whaling about ;)

Just read through this diary and I am enjoying it.

What I am not enjoying is the last 4 pages of constant, inane back and forth about one comment.

The comment was mildly derogatory.  No more, no less.  The vultures swooping and pecking at our hero was unwarranted and over the top.

I stop reading diaries if they get boring, if I feel the author is merely venting their frustration, or if I get seriously offended by something written.

This diary is not boring, it is well balanced and anyone getting offended by mentions of not cashing in bowl comps really must get some perspective in their life.

Keep up the good work.

Hi there Richard, welcome to the diary! Thanks for this, genuinely made my day.

Most action the diary has ever seen :D

I understand Alex, was just trying to get across my point. I havent followed the early pages of your diary, have had an obscene number of library books to return  ;nana;
haha, but did enjoy your vegas blog! i agree with a previous post, about how it has been all blown out of proportion in all honesty! blogs will get very boring if people become very scared of what people have to say. however, it seems general consensus is im wrong! ah well time to donk away this 8max micro mill! keep up the work rexas!! think you should call it a 'beaker'comp from now on!  ;yippee;

Matthew as one of the guys who plays these a lot, I'll be honest I didn't really take your comments to heart, and I whilst I can see why people may be offended I think that this has been blown massively out of proportion.  I think it is now time to move on.

Best. Photo. Ever. Also, love what you've saved the image as :p

Any interesting hands last night?

;bumwiggle;

On a non poker note, how was your first year at uni in general?

As per request, one or two ;)

Played a fun one with Nik an Alex where I called a squeeze with  Ks 9s, got it in on the flop and made a flush.

Played a somewhat less fun with with Fred where I click back three bet the flop with an overpair, he called, and I pretty much knew he had a set but the good old sticky to pairs thing happened again, despite promising myself it wouldn't. So I moved in on the turn. Like a fool. Meh, nhsir :p The mistake of clicking back the flop should actually have saved me for sure, if I didn't already know that he must have been very strong. Guess I am the worst :p

Played the least fun one of the night by some way with Mitch and a random. We make it 6 over a straddle with QQ, Fred next door makes it 20 pretty much right away, mitch calls next to him on the button, and everyone else left to act calls too. Gets back to me, I make it 125. Fred folds, Mitch shoves for like 300+, another guy calls for like 100+, we also call confident that we are ahead. The hands we are up against are AK and 910cc. Guess who has which hand? To help, he has to my knowledge never cashed more than a standard "baller" comp, and the flop came 678. Turn was a Q, just to rub it in. Nh, wpsir, gg. Left the game immediately following that hand, went to alea and proceeded to run over the table and minimise my losses for the day. O well, back to it tonight.

Must play better. Lots better.

I really don't like your use of the term "baller comp" I feel it alienates the smaller buyin players and is just completely ool IMO! Please refrain from such comments in your own blog from now

Kthanksbye

i dont want to sound picky, but i really hate you referring to those tournys as a 'baller comp'. i am a guy who can only afford to play in 'bowl' comps and therefore i hate you suggesting that i am not a 'baller'. some of us once min cashed a sunday million, we definitely count as 'ballasss' ;) sort it out, i am disgusted here.
 ;izimbra;

Dear troublemakers

adiman, verndog, rexas etc

playing the SPT six max at DTD this weekend?

Love

a rec whale bowl comp organiser.

Well, I feel like YOUR MUM alienates the smaller buyin players.

#whyamisofunny

Haha this!

I wasn't intending on it but I may well play it now just because of this :D

what a farce!

Of course she does! She is a very high class woman! One of the country's most reputable escorts obvs

Sir, I will absolutely come and have a whale about in the six max. Really looking forward to it, definitely hope to see you there!


Genuinely made my day :D


Lies.

id love to tighty, however i am home in kent now for the summer! i do apologize if we are causing trouble, we are 'lufbra gangstas', i cat help it ;)

Again with the cat, jeez, get over it! ;)

first pussy youve seen in a while rexas!  ;busted;

That is up there with the worst things you have ever said.

Post delivered.

Who is that directed at? And I see absolutely nothing wrong with anything posted? Seems all friendly to me

I'm so confused? :S

Has anyone called the police?

What??????????

Can someone please explain, in very simple terms because im kinda slow, what's going on?

Most of the posts from the last 4 or 5 pages are just good natured gentle ribbing and banter Melissa.

Jesus didnt realise this was a childs forum, jesus christ if you dont like that then just leave.

I gather you think she over reacted?

!

No, he is talking to someone named Jesus apparently.

Genuinely made me lol

My reaction was not just to the last 4/5 pages on this diary. It was a reaction to a lot more things than that to do with blonde.

LOL. wp.

wpwp.

lol bandwagon

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jp78zRItBvg/T0hJxGkkStI/AAAAAAAACDg/33v5RFzERNs/s320/DRAMA-LLAMA-NOTAWESOMESAUCE.jpg)

Genuinely lol'd pretty hard at this.  At least this has provided a destination for the grief tourists!!!!

Do you not think 90% of the comments lately have been bandwagony? Is that even a word? Doubt it.

Said Pontius Pilate.

(http://1humor.com/img/upload/10122012182620-jesus-christ-and-bike.jpg)

Hi, my name is Sean and I've been lurking admiring reading this diary (n. A daily record, especially a personal record of events, experiences, and observations) since it began. While outside of poker I am a very grounded and humble human being capable of normal conversation which includes a multitude of varying opinions; when I discuss poker I feel taking offence to be an obligation which I must express assertively and immediately. When I see something you have written, in your private personal private diary full of your personal private personal things, that I don't completely agree with, it increases my body's natural level of oestrogen and I have no choice but to become upset. I have chosen to take offence to the things you have said and my response is completely out of my hands. I am forced to read your diary every day, so in future please filter your content to please me whilst at the same time pleasing everybody else.

#confirmedgrieftourist

@ Melissa,

I'm really very sorry if I have, or my diary has, made you feel like you shouldn't be involved with blonde anymore. It's a fantastic community, and it would be a shame if it lost one of it's newest, but already most vocal, contributors.

@Rehman,

Uni has been... Interesting. I failed a module, which means I failed the year, but I'm retaking the module over the next few weeks and shouldn't really have a problem passing it getting back in. The weird thing about it is that I cannot decide whether I want to. Uni has given me a lot of friends and I've enjoyed it there, but the main point surely is to come out with a qualification that is going to get you somewhere. I'm not sure whether that qualification is something that I'm willing to put the time into to achieve. I'm pretty much just staying there because I don't know what else to do, and while I have enough from poker to begin playing properly professionally, i have pretty much the bare minimum for doing so, and my recent swing and some recent play bad on my part has really made me question my own ability and my own chances of getting there. Some poker coaching would probably go down pretty well right about now :p

As it stands, I am staying put and not dropping out for poker, as so many people have. Would be interested to here from some of those guys as to why they dropped out and whether they still think that they made the right decision. Don't get me wrong, uni's great, but I guess I've always had an aversion to education.

It seems like my life is changing fairly dramatically every week or so right now, so I'm looking forward to whatever comes tomorrow!

Finally, on a poker note, bleurgh. Shouldn't have played last night, too busy thinking about vegas and the fucking mirage that 9/10 hand how badly I played the day before. Still didn't hit my stop loss, but I've played like a tit for the last few days.

I think quitting uni would be a very bad idea, you have 20k, thats nothing. get a degree then you have that as a back up plan.

Rexas

I have no idea what your degree is, but if you can get thru just 1 more year a sit a few exams, then just finish it

There could, in your future be a point where you might want to tell (employer/whoever) that you have a degree, which will always sound better than you did 2 years of it!

They don't take much passing, just get thru it. I had to resit in my 2nd year due to the distraction that shooting (clays) had become to me. I didn't even want to be a surveyor (my degree). But I forced myself to finish, and eventually found out that those degrees can come in handy!

Hey with the highest respect I wouldnt think about playing professionally.

What is your degree?

whys that pleno?

Going professionally and looking at your cv at future job opportunities and looking like you gave up university and had a huge blank.

I dont know much about you but guessing you dont play online much, live poker, especially 100 and 200nl wont be an easy way to make a living, youre often up till around 7am in the morning and its very unsociable.

There seems to be a lot fo guys who want to follow in Alexs footsteps in regards to making it as a pro and trying to emulate this in DTD. Ive only saw Rexas once but he was on complete life tilt because Alex had been running good all nihgt. The 100nl game has Stato, Mitch,PJ and Alex in where youre probably not going to be close to plus ev and if youre not the best player in your local 100nl game where your hourly will already be super small then I dont think tis wise to follow this as a profession.

Carry on at university if youre able to beat 200 and 500nl zoom (I think I read you were playing 10 or 25 now Im not actually sure?) then yes maybe good shot to have a go, but right now it definitely would not be a wise thing to do and Id be surprised if anybody told you anything different.

Very tilting when anyone refers to £1/£1 game as "100NL" or a £1/£2 game as "200NL".

This was my thought straight away. Not sure if its for the same reasons though, but I think 100nl and 200nl make the games sound smaller than they are. Especially the £1/£2 game.

Although I do agree with plenos sentiment that making it professionally in these games will be extremely tough

ok post still implies exactly the same.

Yeah I know - it does not really matter, nor does it change what you are saying. It's just a bit like Americans referring to football as soccer, if you know what I mean?

yessir.

If your going to turn pro I'd move away from Nottingham. Definitely finish your degree first too, this is from someone who was in your exact position this time last year. Around March time I had all but confirmed my exit from uni too, but definitely get it done!

Matt;

Firstly the bowl comment thingy was just dumb, read things you write before you post would be my advice. Be-littling a guy for never having cashed a "bowl" comp is very silly, but we live, we learn on we go - social intelligence is so crucial for virtually any walk of life, and paramount for ones that involve a lot of contact with other people, if you have tendency to bowl off a bit, then just take your time and think things through.

The hole berating people for playing badly debate is pretty yawn, "don't tap the tank" is a stupid expression, it's not about "lets not educate the donks so they stop being donks" or w/e nonsense everyone comes up with, it's about UNDERSTANDING the game you're playing, the reasons other people play and showing them the respect they deserve.

A man sits down to play cash games, he plays once a week but might not be able to play next week half way through the night he defends against your CO open form the BB with T6o, yes this is not a winning poker play but the man might only get dealt another 40 hands in the next 12 days and having a good time and playing some cards is more important than playing "PLUS EEEE VEEEE" would be nice to have KQ sooted but I've got a Ten and a Six so lets play with these. It shows a worrying mix of un-warranted EGO and lack of respect when people berate these people for these types of plays. I've done a ton of money on table games obviously not a "PLUS EEE VEEE" thing to do but i wanted to gamble would be tilted if Gala casino wrote a blog about me and what a donk I was playing blackjack.

Saying "Don't educate them so they keep losing money to you" is slightly shrewder, but still not really "Understanding/Getting it" it's basically just a slightly cleverer and more cut-throat version of the EGO issue on this subject.

It's just cards, it's a game, as soon as people learn not to take anything the deck does personally then the sooner you'll stop feeling the need to justify your superier poker ability everytime you lose a pot. Me, I've played millions of hands I play hands terribly all the time, I just don't let the worry people might question my cardsmanship interfere with me trying to win money.

And Finish UNI ffs lol, gives you something to do that isn't poker which is pretty healthy! Great thing about poker is you can play whenever you want, so if there is every anything better to do you can do that, then i it stops being better or you finish doing it you can play more poker, you don't have to dedicate your life to the game to make money/be good at it, in fact those that don't are often better...

People are binking £20k and thinking of going pro these days?

It's not just a 20k bink, it the fact that I've been playing semi-pro for over a year now and my cash hourly seems pretty sustainable. Add a 20k bink to that, and I've got a bankroll which I feel is the minimum to start attempting to live off. I don't think I've got enough of a roll to go properly pro yet, but I don't think I'm that far off.

Yesterday, enjoyably, we won money. Yay! :D

Played a game which began as a 50/1 in dtd, in which I did my nuts (standard). Then we made it 1/1, because I'd donated a fair bit to everyone and they decided they wanted to straddle. Then, a couple of fun things happened, like peeling the good old  Qh Qs on the straddle where we can obvs never have a hand and getting shoved on by something random because I had to be at it.

Then this happened. We pick up my original favourite hand,  9d Td, in the cut off and call a £7 utg open, and see a flop four ways. This flop comes  9s 4s 9h. Utg makes a continuation bet of £15, and given our image/hoodie (mainly the hoodie) we make it £45, expecting to get called at least two streets with any A4 or any pair above a 4, barring a supposed scare card like an A hitting. Anyway, this is all pretty standard stuff, but then the guy asks with a noticeably quaking voice how much we are playing. We have about 200 behind, playing about 250 to start the hand, and show him this. He then makes it £90, giving off several little live read things which really make me stop for a while and think. He continues to give off a whole bunch of reads which all mean different things, and I couldn't really work out whether this was I HAVE NUTS or LOL YOU TRY TO BLUFF ME. So, we hit the tank. A couple of minutes in, im actually starting to lean towards folding, but then we see something which makes us think again. Back into the tank we go. After (apparently) around 6 minutes, we get a clock called on us, see one more interesting live thingy, and move all in. He doesn't snap, which is always nice. He asks for a count, takes a minute or two, and sigh calls. We win. We also get accused of "slow rolling", but I was in genuine pain in this hand trying to work out what was going on, I could really beat very little of what I would call a value hand in this situation, and he was pretty close to committed by his near-minraise. Very, very odd hand.

As the game wore on, and people decided to go home/ran out of money for the day, causing games to break around the club etc, the game picked up some more familiar faces, and became one of the most fun games I've played for a long time. Everyone was enjoying themselves, everyone was chatting and mocking each other at appropriate moments, the atmosphere was one of the best I've seen. We even had some fun with Ras, when we made a £35 bluff on the end, got called reasonably quickly, and thought it would be fun to flip over 8 high as if it was the stone cold nuts. Ras looks suitably downcast, goes to muck his cards, before doing a double take at my cards and returning to study the board very carefully. I was obviously not going to allow him to muck, and grinned sheepishly at him when he asked me what I actually had, evidently thinking I must have something good, but unsure as to how two cards that were in no way connected to the board could somehow beat his top pair. We proudly announce 8 high, and smile at the relief on his face as he smiles back and rolls over his top pair. Nh buddy ;)

Looking forward to the sky poker 6 max this weekend. It will be my last event in dtd for a little over a month, since I will be heading home to play the GPS in my home casino in Southend, and heading out on what may be my last family holiday. Should be fun :) Will be announcing how much I'm selling for said GPS in the very near future, there will NOT be a markup.

Il buy some if there is a mark down? :D

what is your current hourly that you spoke about, apologies I didnt realise you were crushing the games over a decent sample.

hope you dont think im being harsh but that 9t hand sounds pretty ridiculous!

I can't remember where I was playing, but I got into a bit of a situation like this where I couldn't work out dafuq was going on.  I tried to call the clock on myself and the dealer said I wasn't allowed.  I then asked the table to call the clock on me and that was fine.  Spent most of the clock thinking how rediculous it was, then called (wrongly).

:D

Not harsh

confirmed if anybody calls clock on me unnecessarily then I will use the whole 60 seconds.

What formula do you use for calculating necessity?

its usually pretty obvious.

You sound more like verndog everyday.  I hope you don't take too much offence from this comment.

haha, you mean hes starting to be funny? imagine how irresistible he would be if he started to look as good as me too ;) plus hes jealous of how much better my helipcopter fold is :D

SPT 6-Max,

What a fantastic tournament. The place was absolutely buzzing for the two days of the event, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Almost certainly the most fun tournament that I have ever played. I ran pretty deep, eventually finishing 13th after losing AK vs 88 AIPF for a lot of big blinds, hurt a lot to not make a final table of an event where I feel like I played some very good poker.

Had the pleasure of sitting on a table next to the one that Rasta was on, and thoroughly enjoyed watching him behave like a diva all weekend. Looking like a man on the verge of playing some serious tennis all weekend, he had cameras and microphones thrust at him all weekend, and seemed to lap up the experience. In the process, we both discovered a new form of tell. Camera tell. This became evident in one particular hand, where a gentleman's reasoning for calling preflop was that the camera crew had all seen Rasta's hand, and hadn't turned on the camera. His call on the flop was made for the same reason, and his check give up on the turn was made because as soon as the Q popped up, the camera's snap turned on. Pretty interesting stuff, as I saw Rasta's hand, and the guy was completely spot on.

My final table was a particularly exciting affair, where I think everyone barring myself was a name. I was sat, and I quote, "out of position to a pussycat (Ryan Spittles) and an online bot (Titaniumbean)". Although this meant I did actually have to be a nit (I had, as usual, spent most of the weekend proclaiming that I never played anything that wasn't AA or KK, but would occasionally show up with KQ if I felt like getting funky), it was a fantastic table on which a very high standard of poker was played. Had my money on James Rann to take the title from towards the end of day 1, and I think it was a crying shame that he didn't.

In the end, I won what amounts to a few hours with my own bouncy castle (a proper one, with a slide), but missed out on a paperweight for making an FT. Also met Tikay for the first time, who is a "top bloke" and an all round great emissary for poker. I may have been convinced to check out sky poker again, after nearly a year's sabbatical. Fantastic event, well run. Will certainly look out for more in the future.

In response to Pleno1, my hourly is around the £15 phr mark, playing mainly 1/1 and 1/2, although this is over a very small sample size (around 500 hrs of live poker, with gaps). I doubt I will consider leaving university until I have about 4 times this sample, with a similar win rate.

Also, the 9/10 hand was a bit crazy. I don't think I actually tanked for anywhere near that long, but it's hard to know when you're in that situation, time seems to move shockingly fast. Thinking about it now it seems pretty insane, but at the time I felt like I had a genuine decision.

I agree it was a very fun event :) although the highlight of the weekend for me was playing a 1/1 PLO table with tikay, Simon Trumper, frankie, Richard Milner and a few others. Was a very fun table :)

    Advice from an elder. Finish the course. You have the rest of your life to play poker. With just a little effort  over a short period of time you will have a degree from a good University which may just be useful one day if you don't make it as the next Phil Ivey. You are already in a position that thousands of young people aspire to. To 'drop out' to 'pursue your dream' is poor judgement when that dream will still be there in 9 months,18 months,24 months etc.   ok Grasshopper?

Listen to him . That's true

very disappointing, have come all the way from kent today to play the super 50, and the dear owner of this blog claimed he was too good to be playing it. at least theres more chance for us mere mortals then ;)  ;kneelsucker;

oops, am in the bad books, getting glared at from across the table!!

Catch up,

I've jumped in the car and gone back to essex to spend a little time with family, which mostly involves playing the GPS Southend and going away to Italy for a week the very next day. My last few days around nottingham were fun. I've realised that I am in no way good enough to play chinese with the regs, probably something to do with the fact that they play every day and I've been playing like once a month :p My first session ended in breaking my stop loss for the day, which doesn't happen often, so bad times.

Spent the last night in dtd playing a really good fun 1/2 game, in which Mr. Flannagan spent the whole time in fantasy land completely in the zone and winning every pot he played, always fun to watch someone god mode a table as long as it doesn't smash you up too. For the most part I managed to stay out of the way and book a win, to my knowledge it was only me and him that did so on a table that was full for a fair amount of the night.

GPS Southend

So, on to business. This, for me, is the big one. Possibly the biggest and most prestigious poker event every held in Essex, in my old home club. Been waiting for this for some time. I am intending to take two bullets if necessary, and will be selling for both.

Since I haven't made 300 posts yet,

<MOD EDIT: Not got 300 posts, so don't try to subvert the forum rules.>

Will take 5% of each bullet if req and cash in Saaaafend if cool as am there Thurs-Sun as well.

Booked :) Looking forward to seeing you there buddy!

This look like a very good investment .

Took a trip down to Southend Southend yesterday, to try my hand once more at their elusive Tuesday freezout, which unfortunately remains the only Southend comp I can't seem to win money at. Decided to drown my sorrows at the cash table, and proceeded to have a lot of good hands and hence win the money. Poker's easy when you tend to have the best hand :p

Am considering writing a little piece on how few people seem to love the game anymore, might well put it up later today. Currently trying to work out the wording so I don't sound like a dick :p

Note on the GPS, I've now only got 5% left of both bullets, anyone interested please feel free to get in touch!

that including my 3.23567% and adimans 7.3465%? ;)

I'll take the last 5 if still available? There today so can do real life cash monies.

Let me know if booked, ta.

All yours ed, ty buddy :)

 Good luck .. Don't go on tilt .

This! Crush

good luck hellmuth of nottingham

So I turn up, walk off to the bar, and what do I see? Half of eureka and Gascoigne junior having scampi and chips. Welcome to Southend, lads :)

We have currently seen 4 flops and won two pots to be a little over what we started with. In more interesting news, I've spotted someone who looks very much like a picken.

Good to see someone else repping the jewfro! Gl!

Starting to struggle a tad, not really anything worth a mention just a standard load of missed flops and blinding out, got 15k going into 250/500/50

Getting towards the 15bb territory, still grinding it out.

Well, unfortunately we are busto. Moved in playing about 15 bbs from the button with 87dd into eso kral's bb, he has two tens, we do not win. Back for the ride tomorrow, glgl to me :)

Well, second bullet cannot have gone much worse. Villain decides to peel a 4bet from the small blind vs my cut off with 86, and rivers a flush where I make trips. Got about 15k heading towards the first break.

As I already say before u start playing . STOP TILTING .

Haha I'm fine Frankie, guy next to me is trying to tilt me and it's had the total opposite effect :)

What happened ?

Sorry guys, evidently my update didn't actually send, been on the phone all day. Unfortunately we bust out fairly early, got it in with a straight draws, flush draws and overcards with AQ and didn't get there. Apologies to the backing team, shame this is the first GPS where I haven't made day 2.

Chhhjjkknkkjgufgkmjfjjggjjklbvfyijjljgu

Staking

Following my exit from the GPS Southend, an event which I have been looking forward to and pretty desperate to run deep in since it was announced, I decided to comfort-buy a car wash. This gave me a little time to do some thinking about what the event meant to me, and I ended up coming to a few conclusions about staking. Since there have been a lot of questions/threads on this topic lately, I'll share my thoughts on here.

In total, I sold 50% of my action for the GPS. I'm not properly rolled for this event, so financially, selling this much action made sense. I will never sell more than 50% of myself for an event. This is my cut off point, if I'm that under-rolled for an event then I simply won't play it. For me at least, a huge part of the learning curve for this game is grinding the shit out of it so you can afford to move up the stakes. This is why I didn't play the Monte Carlo this year, for example.

I've seen it written that being staked takes away some of the pressure. This, I massively disagree with. Frankly, it feels fantastic that people are confident enough in my ability as a player to put up there own money to allow me to play, essentially betting on me to succeed in the tournament. It's a very humbling feeling. When I then turn up to play, I want to affirm their belief in me. I enjoy going up to people after I've cashed and paying them their share, because it justify's their gamble not only to them, but to me as well. When I lose a big pot, I don't sit there and punt it in at the first opportunity, I do the very best I can to fight with the stack I've got left. Noone likes busting, but it feels a little worse to then have to tell the team about it, and this really is added motivation to think and play well.

In answer to those questioning why I'm not selling at a mark up, it's not because I don't believe my "edge" in the tournament is worth it. If I didn't believe I was good enough to win, then I wouldn't be playing. I do believe, however, that I'm not yet proven enough to sell at a mark up. I think it's much more sensible for me to keep selling at face value for the time being, until I rack up a few more results. I also think too many people expect too much from their backers, and I'd kinda like to start out giving everyone willing to buy pieces of me the best deal possible.

As such, I will be playing the side event today, and freerolling the GPS team in said event. First place should be somewhere in the region of 8k. Gl me!

Well, the side event has started similarly to the main, having the bottom of my range in a few yucky spots. Plus side, I just made someone fold a pair :)

Managed to secure a near double up to just under 30k :)

Read this first sentence and thought you'd actually bought a car wash business, breaking bad style. Now that would make for an interesting read :D

Going back after the second break with 23k going to 300/600/50 #grinditout

We have doubled with QQ to AK to a little over 50k :) going into the last level of 800/1600/200 soon, average 41k.

Just got two outed by a genius, lost half my stack. Things are not looking good right now, pretty card dead and our brief stint of safety did not last long.

Well, going into the last 10 minutes of day one we pick up KK, and naturally bust vs QQ. Bricked three attempts at two day tournaments, I think that's a first. Ridiculously frustrating few days, feel like I've played well and just been raped by the deck. Week in Italy now, then back to Nottingham in time for the 300 d/s. Hopefully we remember how to cooler people by then.

Only 6 more posts and you will be eligible to put up a staking thread.  ;)

Probably won't ask for staking after the stress at Sarfend :)

So, Southend didn't go so well, off to Italy to drown my sorrows/get a tan/go on probably my last family holiday. C ya :)

haah please have a week away, get some sort of tan, wont be too hard as u resemble casper at the moment, then shave the beard off. will look hilarious!

Back from italy, about to make the drive home to Loughborough. Write up of the holiday is pending, cliffs include some penis shaped pasta, an actual cliff, and a surprise appearance from Mr. Fred Wise!

Erm... what!?

I can't bear the suspense

 ;slavedriver;
this is the most boring blog in the world

Done your updates for this weekend.  Don't have to thank me.

Hello diary, it's been a while...

Updates on me before we get to the Italy stuff. Losing money, not playing particularly badly but there are a few hands I'd rather take back and start over with. Sets continue to be very bad hands for me, and my all in EV is running quite some way below average. Probably the most fun example being getting most of it in with K4 on a 442 board, getting the rest in on a J turn, only to find my opponent has QJ (no draw) and rivers another J. Seems like every time I'm ready to play 1/2 I lose a few big ones just before the seat becomes available, and my pretty strict stop loss means I can't then sit down. Looking forward to the upcoming heater.

Uni life is about to begin again. Had a bit of a sweat on whether I was actually going to make it back in, but thankfully we managed to pull through. I guess I'm a little apprehensive about my future there, but as it seems to be getting harder and harder to make money in poker and everyone seems to be broke/close to it right now, sticking around uni seems like a good shout.

Also passed my phase one tenpin bowling instructor's course over the last few weeks, which is pretty cool. Hopefully the Loughborough team can do a little better this year than last year and win both the big ones, instead of just one! #MVP

ITALY

I've always been a bit of a history nut. I took it for A-Level, nearly took it for a degree, and have generally always been fascinated by it. One of the things that got me going on this subject, especially that of the Roman Empire, is a series of books by Caroline Lawrence entitled "The Roman Mysteries". They're basically kids books, but their depiction of life in Roman times really captured me from an early age, and I can trace my love affair with this sort of thing back to these books. If you've got a child in their early teens, I'd definitely recommend them.

Anyway, the second and third books in the series were based around the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in 79AD. The characters travel through Herculaneum, Pompeii, Stabia and the surrounding region beginning just before the eruption, during it, and in its aftermath. My holiday began in Sorrento, and from there we travelled to several of the major historical sites mentioned in these books. Having researched and understood the history behind the place, this trip provided one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. If it's okay with everyone, I'd like to share some of the more important historical points with the people of blonde. With accompanying pictures, of course.

My journey started in Pompeii. Pompeii was a town which was overlooked by Vesuvius, then believed to be a mountain rather than a volcano. The Forum, or town centre, was the central hub of any Roman town, and in this case contained various courts where magistrates would sit and preside over the affairs of the town, shops, storage rooms, banks, and places of worship. Here, we have one end of the town. We can see an altar with a stone head clearly visible in the middle. This is the head of Jupiter, contained within his temple. The black thing that you can sort of see behind it is Vesuvius, to the left is a warehouse, and to the right are a bunch of shop type things.

(https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/602959_10151656116953231_1683787238_n.jpg)

This is the other end of the forum, containing the more shops, and at the far end the seat of the magistrates and town officials.

(https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/555443_10151656116943231_1532469212_n.jpg)

The site of Pompeii is absolutely enormous. There are several theatres, a Roman gym, an Amphitheatre, and the layout of the houses of the citizens are still clearly visible. There is simply too much to put into this blog, so I'm going to try and keep the pictures to a minimum.

Our next stop was Herculaneum, a seaside town which was again destroyed by the volcano. This site is significantly smaller then Pompeii, partly due to the fact that much of it still lies buried, because the modern town of Ercolano has been built over the top. However, the forum itself has been unearthed,

(https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1383916_10151656117118231_1360556993_n.jpg)

as well as many houses

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1239857_10151656117163231_1535067591_n.jpg)

(https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1383042_10151656117363231_1353015867_n.jpg)

several baths

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/563990_10151656117323231_916026452_n.jpg)

(https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/76103_10151656117288231_376812646_n.jpg)

and these rather fantastic things that are basically Roman McDonalds. It was custom for lunch to be eaten in a fast food restaurant such as these, making lunchtime a very social occasion. The doorways that you can see lead through to the eating area, and the pots would have contained fish, meat and whatever else was being served that day.

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1383122_10151656117248231_1684011413_n.jpg)

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1379206_10151656117073231_754079799_n.jpg)

Now we get on to the scary stuff. Here is an overlook of Herculaneum, showing the modern Ercolano and Vesuvius itself in the background. I am standing on what used to be the sea, but is now a 60 foot high wall of solid rock which came from the volcano and buried the everything you can see.

(https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1379931_10151656117428231_987943098_n.jpg)

This is a picture of a statue, which used to look out of the sea and mark the border of the town. Now, all it can see the wall which we were standing on.

(https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1234385_10151656117228231_868897621_n.jpg)

As we go down to the lowest level, we see something truly frightening.

(https://scontent-b-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/523548_10151656117178231_598767173_n.jpg)

Those arches used to contain the boats and fishing equipment of the townsfolk. Look closely. Now, they contain the bodies of 55 people who sought refuge at the edge of their world. This was the last place they could run to, and there they died. The grass used to be the sea. What makes it all the more harrowing is that we have spent the last few hours wandering through the houses of these very people, admiring their state of preservation and learning about their way of life. I have stood in their homes. The feeling of coming to understand this, while looking at the wall behind us and the volcano in the background will stay with me for some time.

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/64523_10151656117478231_1140859866_n.jpg)

When Pompeii was excavated, they found that the ash had hardened around the bodies of the people who had been caught outside in the eruption. Obviously now they had decayed and were skeletal remains, but one of the archaeologists had the idea to pour plaster into the gap left behind, and when they chipped away the rock, they were left with a plaster cast of the people in the exact position in which they died. There is a particularly poignant cast, of which I couldn't get a decent picture, of someone now known as the "Mule driver". He was found crouching behind the body of his horse to shield himself from the blast, and we were told by the audio guide that his hands where raised to guard his face. If you look at the picture (from google images), I think it looks a lot more like his hands are clasped in prayer. Food for thought.

(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2322/2489186113_f2737dd792_b.jpg)

We couldn't have visited all these places without taking a trip up the volcano itself, so that is exactly what we did. It was a hell of a trek, the climb was very steep and at altitude, making it pretty tough going. However, we made it to the top, snapped a few pictures a made it back down again. Vesuvius is now little more than a crater, albeit one that is overdue for another eruption. We can see where the mountaintop used to be, and look out over the region to see where it lies now, scattered. We spent a good hour trying to get a decent view of the area and work out where Pompeii and Herculaneum where, but unfortunately we got completely pwned by God, who sent copious amounts of clouds in a gesture not dissimilar to shoving his middle finger up my arse.

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1383896_10151656117508231_592662801_n.jpg)

(https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/65039_10151656117553231_1386853888_n.jpg)

Now, in an attempt to lighten the tone before I wave goodbye to a very long blog entry, here is some penis shaped pasta, and the promised appearance of Fred wise, as a prize for those who made it to the end of this post. Ciao!

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/960170_10151656117583231_160859414_n.jpg)

(https://scontent-a-ams.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1381354_10151656117623231_1634132939_n.jpg)

tl;dr

:p

Pigeon

Pompei looks deece. Been to a fair few historical sites around Europe but never even thought to visit Pompei.

Thought's on horrible histories books?

I loved the horrible histories, although in general I wasn't much of a history fan, in school anyway

A fantastic series, beautifully written. There was actually an animated TV series that was on like 10/11 years ago, maybe more than that, that I was very in to for a time. History isn't as stereotypically boring as it used to be, especially when compared to things like poetry (see rant on Tikay's blog) thanks largely to the huge amounts of TV programmes and books etc that have done a very good job of making it more fun and more accessible to everyone. I haven't seen a horrible histories book for years... Do people still read them?

Congrats on the weekend, btw!

Wiiiiiiiii, I didn't want to bring the tone down but yeah also loved horrible histories (books >>>>> the show) and tyty.

Nice reading Matt, enjoyed your post

im not a history expert, but im reckon that rexas is the first person to ever describe those places as 'roman mcdonalds' haha. nice blog, doesnt seem right, there was a distinct lack of material on how unlucky a poker player you were and how your wayyy to good for bowl comps  :goodpost:  ;gobsmacked;

Ever study latin?  It was full of all sorts of fun history ranging from Vesuvius going nuts to Nero going mad, the language stuff was rather hard though.  Nevertheless, it seems like something you'd probably enjoy having read this post.

Been to Pompeii and agree with what you said above really is an amazing place to go and see Herculaneum is on another level as the ruins were found much later and excavated much better the detail is amazing.

What was your take on all the Nobs in Pompeii? - Sure Fred would have loved them!

Ty sir :)
Izzit tho


Yes, i did study Latin, for 3 years. Cornelia et flavia sont puella romani or something like that. I also studied ancient greek for 4 years, and took a GCSE in it #grammarschoolboy.


Yeah, comfortably the best preserved "ruins" I've ever seen. Some of the houses still had roofs on them. ROOFS! And lol :)

Online Poker

I have decided, on the back of busting my stars account for the third time, that I'm going to have a serious shot at building a bankroll online. I'm actually going to work with some sort of bankroll management, and firmly seperate an online roll from a live roll. As such, I've decided to take all the money of all the sites I have some on, and deposit $350 and begin playing 10nl zoom. I'm going to play three tables at a time (this seems like the best level for me, bearing in mind I play very very little online), and aim to play AT LEAST 1k hands per day, which takes me roughly an hour. At this point I will stop, take a break, come back, review, and wait for at least half an hour before I allow myself to sit back down and play. I've also decided to post every big hand I play on the group chat of the "team" I'm a part of, so I can get some advice and some independent reviews on how I've played. Sometimes hands where I feel like I've not made a mistake will be pounced upon by these sickos, so yeah, seems worth doing, until they get annoyed with the constant posts. Also, they get to see how bad my account actually runs ;)

Played the first real session of this new regime today, and over 1024 hands I won $14.35. Played two hands particularly badly in that time, in my opinion. Will see what the team say. If I can find some time in the day to take a nap, I will probably show up at Alea tonight. Mincashed it last week, and I have a few HH's from that to share with my viewers. They do have a happy ending.

ALEA

First up, we have folding like the sickest mofo in the room that we are to just past the bubble. Unfortunately, we are now playing on a five handed table, with approximately 6 bbs, and the two runaway chip leaders directly on my left. Disaster. Anyway, I pick up QJos on my button and promptly announce IMALLIN, to gasps from my imaginary rail. Small blind folds, Big blind begins to tank. "Do you want a call?" he asks. My live HUD tells me this almost certainly means he has a suited connector, something like 56. I reply, in all honesty, "I've got to double at some point, might as well be now". He smiles, and calls. Sick read bra, he has  5d 6d. We casually flop the nut straight on  Ad Kc Th. The crowd cheers, we calmly announce "not a bad start for me", whilst fistpumping like Amir Khan on speed under the table. Not even a sweat. Easy money. Back in the game.  Qc Jh BOLLOCKS!

Very next hand we ship  Tc 3c into the only stack where we have fold equity, considering the blinds are going up A LOT next hand. We get instantly isolated by the guy on our left, and both blinds fold AJ face up. The btn rolls over A10, we bink a three, he turns the case A. Wpsir.

We take our min cash, and sit down on a recently opened cash table, making it 8 handed. We are utg +1. Utg limps, and we look down at  Ks Kh. We let out an audible gasp, and struggle to contain our excitement as we flick in an £8 raise. Fold, Fold, Call, call, call, call, call. Marvellous. SET PLS. Flop comes  Kc Kd Ahrt and we win all the money, obvs. Anyway, in the real world, flop comes  Aspades  3c 4c. Disaster. Check, check, utg leads for £15. We show our cards to the dealer, who clearly gives a shit, and begin loudly discussing how badly I run. Anyway, a minute or two later the hand get to showdown, and UTG casually rolls over AA for top set. My reaction is something along the lines of UYGIJUGIOUGFYDFYRDLUGVUKGJV nice hand buddy. I think this is the only time I've ever got away from AA vs KK, and it cost me all of £8. Good times :D

UNI

My course restarts today, in a few hours. This semester we are studying 19th century American writing, satire and British drama. I guess I'm a little apprehensive, the summer break is a long one and I'd got very used to not being on a timetable and enjoying life as a budding championship reg. Things have changed so much for me in the last year, mostly for the better, and I hope they keep moving in this direction. I guess today I'm mostly looking forward to the future, and the Indian restaurant I'm going to later.  

Loved the post on Pompeii! I might have to add it to my list. It looks incredible, and it seems like it would be surreal to visit.

Also, good luck with your uni course! Are you an English major by any chance?

I love a bit of Indian :p

Yup :) Second year :)

Well, I'm about to sit back down to another 1000 hands, but first I'd like to share a few things about my day, which was made by two things...

The first is that Adrian is currently going mental on facebook because he's locked out of his house. This is unbelievably funny, and I do hope it's raining. Friends like these, huh? ;)

The second happened on my way into uni. I drove, because I'm lazy and getting fat (two are obvs not linked), and as I made my way into the car park, I got stuck behind another car trying to find a space. To be honest, it didn't look good. The car park is pretty long, with a couple of corners and extensions and whatever, but it looked like it was totally full. The car in front obviously decided this before checking out the whole place, and made a big show of turning round and giving up. I was about to do the same, until I saw an older lady come running up to me, signalling at me to wind down my window. I did, and she asked me if I was looking for a space. I said yes, and she then explained to me that she was on her way back to my car, and I could have her space. I said thank you, and spent the time walking to my lecture in wonder at people. The fact that she noticed the problem, and had the courage to walk up to a complete stranger, bearing in mind I've got a fuck massive beard and was wearing a beanie and a hoodie, genuinely made my day. It's the little things, the small acts of kindness, that make some people absolutely wonderful. It's a shame they're so rare that they're worth blogging about. Thank you, ma'am.

Took her fucking time getting out the space though.

It's all good! I got in :) I traverse the wall and absaled in through the sky light ;) either that or George got home and let me in, I always get the two mixed up, I can never remember

gold

Cool! I almost took English in University, but I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the amount of reading. So, I took Professional Writing instead. How are you liking the course so far? I should run my novel by you sometime! 

I wouldn't mind running like dogshit in games 30x smaller than what you played yesterday and ran well in!

Edit: sigh you deleted. Rookie from me not to quote.

Runs bad online.... Gets hour massage.
First world problems.

This

life of a #bowla... sorry i mean #balla!

Well,  would be updating this, but I've gone to Barnsley for the weekend for a proper bowl comp.

haha i love this, and I know what your actually talking about!!

This.

Bowl comp

Every year, the best four tenpin bowlers in the USA go head to head against the four best in Europe, in a similar set up to the ryder cup. A good friend of mine plays for Europe in this tournament, and every year a pretty massive contingent of his friends and family make the trip up to Barnsley to rail him and support the team, whilst consuming copious amounts of beer. Unfortunately, the team got smashed (in more ways than one) 17-7 last year. After some reshuffling of the team, they came back this year to win in a proper nail biting finish 14-17. The atmosphere towards the end was absolutely fantastic.

This, coupled with my completion of my phase one coaching certificate and the rejuvenation of the Loughborough uni bowling team, has reignited my passion for the game. I've barely even touched my balls (lol) since june, but now I can't wait to get back on the lanes. The new additions to the team are improving and seem really committed to learning the sport. With any luck, by the time the big tournaments come round, we'll have an even stronger team than last year and win the double.

Poker

BLEURGH #doyouknowhowmuchmoneyidwinifineverhadpremiums

Ofc comp was fantastic fun. The banter was incredible, the slow rolls brutal, and I will definitely be attending this whenever I can. Hopefully we can build a player base over the coming weeks and make this a real success.

Anyway, I was going to write a little more in that last post, but internet explorer is shit, so it didn't let me. Have now switched back to chrome (which wasn't working half an hour ago) and we're away again.

Hair Loss

Time for a diary merge :D

Myself, Sir Sean of Belton and the hero that is Sam Powell, a well loved dealer at dtd, are shaving all of our hair off on the 21st of November.

All through the year, Sam's father has been battling with stomach cancer. Many families have been affected by cancer, and if you are a part of one of these, you will know how tough this battle is. The people at Macmillan Cancer Support do their utmost to make this fight as easy as possible, a job they are currently doing for the Powell family. We wanted to give something back to these fantastic people, and show our support for Sam's dad, the man himself, and his family during this tough time. Our response is to organise this head shaving and ask our friends, family, and anyone and everyone to donate to this endeavour. All donations will go directly to Macmillan cancer support to help them continue to provide the support that can make all the difference.

Here is the "before" photo. The crowd currently seems to want me to go bald but keep the beard, and of course if this is what they want, this is what they will get.


We will be fundraising over the coming weeks and trying to drum up as much support as we can. Please feel free to approach any of us and donate, or give us pointers on style etc. Personally, I have had long hair in some way for most of my life, so I'm a little apprehensive. Either way, lego blonde!

Gl guys, will donate next time at club.

They mean for their charity ;)

Lol Alex, quite the opposite last night, they all seemed to want to donate to me last night, and Matt sorry I forgot, please remind this old Fella next time.

Despite my misgivings, think I'm probably going to throw another bullet at the 6 max today. The fact that I'm struggling to breath may be a slight hindrance, but hopefully the poker gods will take pity on my ailing self and give me aces, lots.

Gl Matt, make sure the other guy does not have  8s Ts

Thankfully, I didn't play a hand against a guy who had the 8/10 today. As a result, I made day 2 :D Unfortunately we were very very card dead in the latter stages of the day, and lost a reasonably big one right at the end, to return with 63,200, which is a smidgen over 31.5 bbs. Gl us :)

Lol

31.4bb strat it leagues apart from 31.6bb strat! Whole different game.

I've been looking for an excuse to use "smidgen" in my diary for some time. Very proud to finally be able to.


Think there's a gap in the market for a book on said strategy difference.

Need to keep looking imo

Doubt you'll be able to find a better spot than that mate!

Eventually min cashed the tournament, crept past the bubble with about 10bbs, blinded myself down to like 8 and flicked it in with J4, didn't win vs QQ. Sat down on cash and spewed about as hard as I ever have. Need to get rid of this cold ASAP, really struggling to function on 0 sleep.

where did you get that hat? More importantly, why are you wearing it in public?

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xRNJgE4Msp4/UmvIUO7mi2I/AAAAAAAANs8/Gut7E1nWOmQ/w398-h597-no/IMG_4662.JPG)

haha tighty, i purchased that for him. the circa 1928 custard yellow tea cosy he was spotted in way too much recently had to go. maybe that piece of good charity/ karma will serve me well in the comp today!

<3 the hat. More Xmas stuff in public prior to December imo.

I heard Matt Harris once won an online tournament by using the chat box only.

More of these. MOAR

Actually, I did once secure a chop in a 2/7 tournament using the chatbox, so I suppose that could be considered a chatbox win?

Poker

A somewhat bleurgh period continues. I'm going to continue the trend of the nottingham diarist/grinders by saying that I'm a little under it right now, poker wise. Living expenses have shot up, and having 22 on Q2Q44 doesn't normally bode well for ones bankroll. Been making day twos for fun, but failing to capitalise on these runs through a combination of playing like a dick and not having that crucial hand hold up at the vital time.

I have now, properly, returned to playing online poker. After a session with Lil Dave, I realised that not only was I rubbish at PLO, but also that I don't ever want to get to his level, because then I'll spend an awful lot of time wondering if he can see my cards/has solved the game. He did that thing that Stu does every time he speaks, and blew my mind. Being rubbish, I decided that I'm going to give PLO a real shot, and make it one of my goals in life to one day get my ass kicked by him in a 5/10 game.

I've also come back to sky poker. I played a couple of their bounty hunter mtts for the first time, and I gotta say, I think they've done a fantastic job with them. I like the fact that they're mostly 6max, I like the guaruntees and the field sizes, I'm even beginning to get used to the software. I've been playing like a total fucking maniac for the last few days on these tournaments and have managed a couple of decent runs, with the occasional butchered hand along the way. I think more than anything I'm starting to feel comfortable at the virtual tables, a notion which seems very strange to me. Undoubtedly, I will soon go back to losing every pot because the bastards can see me hole cards, and its rigged, and people have huds which tell them that I'm a maniac and normally have bad hands when I post the blinds. O well, better enjoy it while it lasts.

Actual Real Life

It's my birthday soon, and to celebrate my family organised a meal for me and a few of the members of my rather extended family. We went to my favourite resturaunt ever (apart from Frankie's chippy), an Indian called Omar's. Very small, kinda strange place, but the food and the atmosphere in the place is truly outstanding. All in all, I had a very good time, got very drunk, and recieved a very cool cake. This will be coming with me to Dusk Till Dawn on the 21st for the grand head shave (DONATE PLS) and will be shared out among everyone who turns up on the day. Well, as many as we can.

To be honest, the real reason for taking this weekend off was for Alex. You know, the poor guy hasnt had any semblance of a heater for 4/5 months, and he's a little bit under it live tournament wise. This bad run coincided with my entrance to the Nottingham poker scene, so I can only summise that it's my fault. I figured I'd take a weekend off, give the guy a chance at winning something again, and by jove did it work. Needless to say, I have PM'd him my bank details, expecting a small % of pity tax.

That's all for now, folks!

I was on huge downswing then did our session and have won every day since :)

Perhaps you're a PLO run-good, bodes well for you if that's the case !

I've had a couple of sessions on sky since then and I've won 4/5, so this may be true!

Genuine question though Dave, have you found that doing this coaching has made you have a deeper look at the theory behind what your teaching and your own reasoning? There were times when you said "I'd prolly call this if you weren't here", so do you feel like you've... idk, maybe learnt from yourself?

I've passed the first level of the bowling coaching qualifications recently, and have been getting pretty involved in coaching the uni team, and loving it to bits. Not only is it fantastic to see the improvement that people make, their enthusiasm and their willingless to learn and ask for advice, but I feel like I've taken a good long look at my own game as a result. The problem I have with my bowling is that I will never be as good as I could have been. I started late, and have taken long periods off due to university. When I was still at secondary school, for the better part of three years I bowled nearly every day, and would like to think that I got pretty good. Now I'm at uni, I bowl once a week, and take months off at a time. Simple adjustments that used to take me a shot or two to make now take a couple of games. My experiences coaching people recently have made me take a long, hard look at my own game and the faults that have developed in it that I previously couldn't see, and while my physical game will probably never be what it was, my understanding of it has increased to no end. I feel like I'm learning from everyone that I am coaching, the other coaches, and myself. Feels good :)

typical rexas blog post... bowl this... and bowl that...  ;ifm;

Please remove that pot from my blog, it smells bad. I'm not sure what's in it, but i think we can all guess ;)

(http://gifs.gifbin.com/012012/1328724341_epic_bowling_fail.gif)

When was your last bowl comp?

There is actually a story behind this gif, if you will indulge me, that explains why this is not actually an epic fail, rather a combination of bad luck and good hands.

First of all, what basically happens here is that the guy (Josh Blanchard, former rookie of the year) gets his thumb stuck in his bowling ball. This actually happens quite a lot, as a very important part of being able to maintain a proper arm swing is not being worried about the ball falling off at the back, and an important part of a good release is a tight fit, so you are not actually gripping the ball at any point. Josh was forced to drill a new ball before this TV tournament, his first TV finals appearance, due to a rule preventing the showing of certain sponsorships (I believe he was using a ball bearing his college logo). He wasn't aware of this rule, so had to get it sorted at the last minute, potentially leading to a rushed fitting. This, coupled with the fact that he would have been very nervous and hence a little sweaty, is what lead to the ball sticking on his thumb.

Now for the reason for falling in the gutter - The rules of the sport dictate that if the ball leaves your hand and a part of your body touches the lane (past the foul line), then your shot will be declared a foul shot. This means that the pins will get reset and your first shot of that frame will count as 0. As such, it was paramount that Josh did not let go of the ball. This meant having to step onto the lane, which is heavily oiled, so as not to fall on his face (the momentum generated by swinging a bowling ball with the proper timing is considerable). Obviously, oil is pretty slippery, so he ended up on his ass in the gutter with a ruined shoe and a bunch of people laughing at him. In reality, he did very well to hold on to the ball and not do himself a serious injury. Kinda gotta feel sorry for the lad :p

Few weeks ago, in nottingham funnily enough. I was pretty terrible :p

How many 300's have you thrown?

None, the closest I've come is the first 8 in a row, and I've had that a fair few times. 279 is my best score, which is all strikes aside from one 9/.

Bastard, mines 269!!!!!

tomsom28 am i mistaken? its not a pot is it? looks more like a....

this made me chuckle, hes certainly done pretty sh!t in the 300s hes been playing, where he has chips to throw away and not a bowling ball. i thought you were referring to these!! :D

Way to murder a gif you gif murderer.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Marris!

 :birthday: :birthday: :birthday: ;cheerleader; ;cheerleader; ;cheerleader; ;cheerleader; ;cheerleader; ;djinn; ;djinn; ;sexybanana; ;sexybanana; ;letsparty; ;mexicanwave; ;mexicanwave;

EAT SLEEP BOWL REPEAT

Happy fella. You want to talk about it?

I'm starting to think I never put the story of that little line in my diary... Will have to look back and see.

For the information of anyone who reads this, I spent my birthday writing essays and losing pretty much every hand I played during several attempts at satelliting into the UKIPT. Maybe this tournament is not going to be for me :p Will be making an attempt at the big game later today, after some sleep and some handing in of essays.

Bowl comp pre big game today?

Happy birthday and that

Excellent, good stuff :)

Good question, and the answer is certainly yes. I think that everything we do in poker will provide opportunities to learn, when it's something that you are very very comfortable with (mid-stakes PLO for me) a lot of the learning you'll do is sub-conscious (small adjustments I make towards certain players, deviations from my general strategy etc) which, through experience you sort of "just do" so what I have found really, really useful during these sessions has been forcing myself to explain - primarily to the person im doing it with, but actually to myself as well - WHY it is EXACTLY I'm doing what I'm doing, and tbh I've found a few little holes in what I'm doing, or obvious improvements cos I'm taking more time to think over them.

Also it's impossible auto-pilot when someone is watching so you find yourself holding a LOT of focus which is obviously very good for your game, a lot of money is lost through silly little mistakes like losing focus and not looking at who is on the btn, or missing some reasonably important game flow things because you've been distracted by skype or your phone or w/e.

I've really enjoyed these sessions.

Dat grind

What is Sunday. Like, seriously, wtf. What is apparently a "Day of rest" turned into a day of me asking my computer screen, quite loudly, if it was about time I won a pot.

Entered all of the Sunday majors on sky, plus a bunch of smaller ones, in what was by a very long way my biggest online sunday (bearing in mind, previous to that, I'd never really been in for more than like £50 in any online tournament). Highlights include final tabling a tournament where I would have to win to break even for the day, taking a grand total of three bounties across the entire session, and pure bubbling the 15k primo, whilst watching it on TV, so I got to relive the moment several times. Never thought I'd get a personal rubdown from James Hartigan, but there it is.

Despite losing almost every significant hand, I will definitely be making this Sunday thing a regular fixture in my weekly schedule. Must be said, I'm thoroughly enjoying my foray into Sky poker. Please start winning at showdown, tho.

Birthday

What did everyone do for their 21st? Me, I spent it on my own, in my room, with a bunch of essays and some Limoncella. I saw two people all day, both of whom were my flat mates. Don't think many people can say that's how they spent their 21st. Plus side is that I managed to get all the work done and handed in the next day, so I guess I could say that my birthday present was being free of work for a few weeks. And a rather nice watch. Will almost certainly be going out this coming thursday, after the head shave (donate please! See the last 712 pages of "Degenerate Diaries" for details) to celebrate. Everyone is welcome, although I will not have Fred and Storer dragging me to a gay bar.

Bowling

Loughborugh Uni have developed a pretty fierce rivalry with Notts Trent. We just lost out to them in the biggest tournament of the year last time round, and I think it's safe to say that there was some definite tension by the end. So, as you do, we decided to hold a couple of "friendlies" this year, the first of which happened yesterday. I started out with possibly my lowest game of the season so far, with a 130 odd, and I spent the next half hour muttering about how much I hate bowling. Then this happened -

https://www.facebook.com/LSTPBC2012/posts/662497143770690 (I have no idea how to get this to show up in this post, techno fish fosho)

So, my new high score is 299. Weeeeeee... I had previously only got as far as the first 8 in a row, and managed to throw so really nice shots at the end of the game. Got a little lucky in the 7th, which wasn't a great shot, but hey. That second to last shot was real good too. I just can't explain how nerve racking it is, to be one shot away from sporting perfection. As you can hear, a bit of a crowd developed, including the league next door stopping for a couple of minutes to rail, and let me concentrate. I guess, more than anything, this is what brings on the nerves. I was properly shaking, trying to remain calm and breath properly, and everything went kinda ok till the very last step, where I just stuck a bit of muscle into it and pulled the shot left, only taking 9. Unlucky tomsom ;)

The most important thing, however, is that Loughborough swept all the prizes for the competition. Phil Clarke, if you're reading, this was for you.

299 is absolutely sick. Odds you achieve 300 in your life?

Were you pleased at throwing a 299 or gutted to miss out on that 300 ?

he was still muttering under his breath about the bubble in the Primo on sunday!

Honestly, I'm already past my best. I used to bowl basically every day when I lived in Essex, since there was a pretty good alley a 5 minute drive away, where could could play whenever we wanted for however long we wanted for like £20 a month. Now, I'm bowling a lot less and taking extended breaks because the nearest places are like a 45 minute drive away, and if I bowled as much as I'd want to, it'd cost me £20 a day plus petrol for conditions I can't choose. However, the uni team is moving along nicely, and we're starting to put in more and more practice. I didn't think I'd ever improve on 279, and pretty much everyone I know whos made a perfect game gets 299 before 300, so I guess its possible. I'll definitely be giving it a shot!


To be honest, I wasn't as bothered as I thought I'd be. Smashing Trent was more important :D Making a new personal best is always good too, and it's definitely nice to prove to myself that I've still got it.


*sigh* I was trying to emulate my hero and mincash a Sunday major... One day...

another thing, someone mentioned a 300 gets put on your herbie mob..... unlucky man, we know how much you need those ;) :D

If your average is 270+ u can be a pro bowler . I played lots of bowling last time and my average is only *** ! Can't say it here . It's horrible to mention . If I were u , I will turn pro playing bowling rather than playing cards . As I say u look better in bowling then playing cards ;p

easy lanes at nottingham  ;whistle; nice game  :)up I usually get nervous around 7-8th frame so hard to relax lol ul

Watched the video and am genuinely touched that you would dedicate such an awesome display to me, although I don't think I've felt so unworthy since I was 8 and turned up at my mate's birthday party in a Fila tracksuit, having forgotten that it was fancy dress and claimed that I'd come as a gymnast, only to win first prize because it was conducted by raffle as his parents were Bohemians who didn't believe in judging children.

I particularly like the way that after every stunning strike (and the miss at the end) you nonchalantly trudge back to your team-mates, like a slipper footed Grandad for a casual, and almost dismissive, high five, barely a flicker of emotion on your face. A skill that might come in handy if transferred to the poker arena?

The Times currently print great sporting photographs sent in by readers and I'm seriously tempted to submit this beauty. The combination of balletic grace, muscular agility and bold aggression, culminating in a sly V-sign at Nottingham Trent would surely win a prize, which I could then give to Dougal Swinfield, who'd gone as a cowboy and clearly deserved to win.

Why say Fuck U after realising the bowl ? Is that a split !! Nice style by the way

You most definitely deserve a spot on strictly come dancing with that swag!

Where can the fans watch this video?

https://www.facebook.com/LSTPBC2012/posts/662497143770690 :)


That was actually aimed at the guy taking the picture, because he had the flash on and it was very annoying :)


Only if you're my partner ;)

Terrible bad play, ultra rewarded.


I don't think I have, or ever will be, as nervous at a poker table as I was then. Except when I'm sat next to Mr England, but that's for an entirely different reason #bromance.

Congrats, you have officially made it into my top 54 favourite British poker players.

Thought you'd know more than 54 poker players on the circuit ;)

This, and I'm getting trolled by herbie on FB. Have now basically achieved everything I wanted to in life :D

Currently waiting for a taxi to dusk. Getting all the hair on my head shaved off within the next few hours. Sorta shitting it, tbh :p Please help me, sean and sam along with this by donating either on our just giving page, http://www.justgiving.com/Sean-Belton, or by coming down to the club. Thanks!

(http://i.imgur.com/fviiO5t.gif)

So, I now don't have any hair. Pictures will be coming online shortly, but probably not until next week now, will take a while to find them and wrestle with the demon that is the internet to try and make them available.

I decided to celebrate this in a number of ways, starting with:

The Event

I'm actually really glad I did this. I was very, very nervous initially. Especially when Sam turned up to nandos in a shirt and jacket and looked awesome. It took a while for us to get going, but as soon as the first little bit had come off and I realised how ridiculous it looked (again, pics to follow), I couldn't wait to get it off. We discovered that Sean will one day make a fantastic old man, I look like in 35 regardless of how I do my hair, and Sam looks like an awful lot of people from behind. I've got used to the change now, and I do kinda like it. It seems like every now and then I go through a complete image shift. I went through a stage where I had contact lenses and basically all I would wear was rugby shirts, then I got a very long fringe for a few years, then I lost the fringe and got a massive beard, and now I've got very little hair indeed. People I knew a few years ago will just never recongise me. So far the feedback on the new look has been mostly positive, and once I get over the shock of seeing myself in the mirror, I think this one will stay for a while. Will probably need to get a new ID photo for my driver's licence and my student card, though.

Sunday Funday

Can basically fuck itself. What a disaster. Bricked the few tournaments I played on stars, and bust very near the bubble in almost all of the tournaments I played on Sky. Highlights include being the pure bubble boy in the £55 speed bounty hunter losing AQ to 77, and grinding a bowl for hours in the “super roller” only to finally break the 30bb mark, find AA, go all in, and fail to do a win vs AQ. Did not cash a single event, busting in pretty standard spots basically every time. *sigh* was definitely the comment of the day.

UKIPT

I was not going to play this event. 1k is a ton of money, more than I can rightly afford for a single tournament. Flicked it in for a few of the satellites, which started out like a total disaster. Then I played the super satellite on Monday. Started the day being pretty close to freerolling the comp through Chinese, only to lose a few big ones right at the end. Still ended up a winner, and loving the game tho, so definitely no complaints. Regged at the end of late reg for the full amount, and sat down to play. Very quickly lost a few k, then got some back, then got it in with the nut flush draw vs the second nut flush draw for quite a bit, only to see that offsuit K pop up on the river, leaving me with about 5bbs. Shoved a few hands later and got it through, which was nice because I didn’t have a very good hand. Got it in on my next BB with a Q and a 9, and won vs A4 to have 10bbs. Won a few more pots from this point, including getting KK vs a UTG shove for a fair amount with 10s 7s, and flopping a house with A2 and having Raggy turn the wheel. Then someone tried to bluff me, which in the first place was a little bit silly because I’m a bigger station than Colchester (which, as one of the dealers told me, is the longest station in the country). Turns out he actually had way too good a hand to be bluffing with, but fortunately I had one better. A few nittylicious folds later, mostly of premiums in gay spots, I found AA utg and got it in against KJ for loads. This still wasn’t a locked seat by any means, but managed to fold my way through for the most part. I did end up all in with 10/10 on the pure bubble, which was certainly fun. Even more so when everyone folded.

With a seat locked up, I’m looking forward to playing this event on Wednesday. It will be my biggest ever buy in event by some way, but right now I’m planning to get AA a lot and win the easy way. Hoping to see a lot of blondes over the next week, gl us!

congrats! see you there

boss! best of luck buddy

this^

Knocking around all weekend, will have to get this bowl comp sorted.

Thanks guys, definitely in for some sort of social thing, although I have been slipping up a little with uni stuff lately so do need to sort that out.

Well, 6 max started very badly, then won a big one with AA to get over starting stack. Cruised for a few hours, then flopped a flush against Gordon, got it in and he riveted a higher flush. Then made top pair on 10/10/2/A/5 vs Q10 for quite a bit vs the guy who's second in chips and can't miss. Starting to go badly, still got just under average though.

(http://hongkietown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/breaking-bad-season-five-poster.jpeg)

Hair looks like it's growing fast!

Well that was an interesting experience. Played day one of the UKIPT today, and feel like giving a blow by blow account of proceedings.

UKIPT

The day couldn't have started much worse. I went to bed at like midnight, planning to be up at 10 and be nice and fresh for the start of the day. This time happens and goes past, and I'm still in bed, waiting for the alarm on my phone to go off, which always goes off every day and is impossible to sleep through. GG alarm/body clock/me, I guess. Get up, shit myself that my stack is in play, have a very quick shower and am out of the door within abotu 15 minutes. That guy who is in charge of roads/traffic etc from the Nottingham council then decides to prove what a complete shit he is, by continuing his frankly ridiculous obssession with speed cameras and roadworks, leaving the entire city permanently gridlocked any time before like 9pm, with multiple routes into the city closed every day. GG him.

Anyway, we finally get to DTD, register (thankfully our stack was not in play until we arrived and signed in) and get sat down. Snap lose the first few hands of the day, then station some guy down with A10 on a A44 board in a 3bet pot when he checks flop, only to be shown AJ. 12k. Few hands later, we have AA, and win vs KK. 28k. From this point on, we win loads of small pots (literally loads) and bully our way up to a high point of probably about 55k. Highlights include winning with A high on a KQJ95 run out after we bet flop, bet turn and bomb river, getting shown top two as they go into the muck.

This seems to be about the right time to start actually making value hands instead of doing things the hard way, and we duly flop a flush agaisnt the great Gordon Goodall. This does not go well, and we promptly donate him a 10k double up when we get it all in, and he makes a better flush on the river. From this point, we basically fail to win a pot at showdown until the tail end of the last level of the day. These include two value bets with the worst hand, prompting slight "Wow, what?" moments from me. We then make our first set of the day after calling a raise from the SB with 66, checking flop and turn and rivering a 6, only to find that our friend in seat 2 had flopped the second nut flush. Weeeeeeeeeee........ By this point, we've gone from our high point down to about starting stack, and continue to grind this for a few hours. After finding a double up with AA vs AK (I know, WAL), we have made day two of my first UKIPT with 31,200 in chips.

In all, the event so far was a massive grind, and very frustrating. I feel like on a different day, I could have had close to 100k. I am, however, very pleased to make day two in what is by far the biggest buy in event I have ever played, and even more pleased that I did not once feel out of my depth in this field. I will go into day 2 with confidence, and hopefully have a little heater for a few days and make a deep run. Legoooo :)

Nice write up, spinzzzzzzz

PUNTER!!!!!!

Dem Updatez

UKIPT

This was a fantastic experience. Picked up a few hands at the start of day 2, pretty much instantly doubled with QQ vs JJ which is always nice, and everything went pretty well from there. Got moved to a table with Brammer and Bedi on my direct left for a few hours, which was pretty disastrous, and ended with going all in with K10, getting called by A9, and binking a 10. This table broke shortly after, and began my stint at the new table by 3-bet shoving an 833 board with AJ in a 3 bet pot, because I was pretty sure the guy shouldn't have a legit value hand. Turns out I was right, which was fantastic for my confidence heading towards the bubble, especially after being legitimately shat on for a few hours previously to this. Eventually broke through the bubble, and then got it in with a straight flush draw against bottom set to bust, as you do. Made the decision to stop playing small ball once itm and start getting it in a little bit more, taking some more aggressive lines to try and build some momentum at this crucial stage. Unfortunately wasn't to be, but I feel that (save one or two hands) I played pretty good poker throughout and was rewarded with a cash in a very tough line up.

Cash the Money

Had a pretty awesome week in the cash games in the down time from playing the UKIPT. Most of the games I saw/played in were pretty fantastic, the sort you just don’t seem to get in Nottingham anymore above the 1/1 stake. Made a few value hands and got paid nearly every time by a variety of hand rankings, and for the most part (after Wednesday where I really shouldn’t have sat down) I feel like I played well, and ran well. This culminated in a three rack day on Monday of this week. Highlights involved flopping quad 3’s after raising a straddled pot and calling a 3bet, seeing a board of 334, raising the cbet and getting it all in. I’m not entirely sure what it was that shoved on me, but I have a feeling it was the nut flush draw. Anyway, this week was a much needed bankroll boost after struggling for recent times, and I left on Monday feeling pretty positive.

Cue inevitable train wreck. Hit my stop loss really very quickly on Wednesday, left, came home, slept, whatever, no problem. Turned up the next day in good spirits, and immediately got involved in a 1/2 that opened up pretty early in the day. I don’t think I’ve ever been at dusk where the first two games to open were 1/2, and it was pretty great to see a line-up that wasn’t just made up of ridic sickos. Took probably the best seat in the house, next to a drunk guy who was actually playing pretty well for a drunk guy, but was still doing his best to deposit his money around the table. Lost a few pots early, reloaded, still felt good. Then, I played one of the most insane pots I’ve ever seen.
 
Effectively, I check raise shoved a board of 9249 sss with Ak and the A of spades, after picking up a bit of a ninja that the guy probably didn’t have anything. Anyway, it was basically a pot sized shove for around 300, into a guy that had been pretty inactive for the last 3 hours of play and had seemed reasonable. Anyway, he thought about things for a while, and called. I announced good call, you’re probably winning, and he decided to contest this assertion, announcing that he needed a spade and wasn’t winning yet. This was great news to me, but I was still pretty sure that he must have had a pair to go with his spade, as I didn’t think he’d call with a bare flush draw, certainly not a non nut one. Anyway, the river falls an offsuit 8, and he announces two pair.  I tell him that this wins, muck my cards, and prepare to make the walk of shame to the cashpoint, and decide whether to break my stop loss for the game on my way. Anyway, as I’m standing up, said player tables the J8 offsuit, with the 8 of spades, as his hand. Needless to say, I was back at the table within a few minutes after a short break and a reload. Also needless to say, despite me barely reacting to the defeat other than to say “wow, yh that wins”, I don’t think I saw the guy play another hand for the remainder of the night.

The day pretty much spiralled downwards from then on. I made the nut straight fairly early my second period of play and managed to get a full double, but that was pretty much the only pot I won for the remainder of the night. Played a pot with Mr. Grummit where I think I rivered second pair on a paired board in a limped pot, bet £2, got raised by him to £4, and gave him an in your eye stare and made it £6. Who says you can’t have fun whilst showering youre brains all over the table. Value bet did not get paid.

Final pot of the night for me involved probably the biggest bluff I’ve ever run, after the game had died down and again, everyone seemed to be reasonably ok. Ended up inducing a very long tank from the gentleman I shoved on, who eventually called with a rather bad hand, sealing my biggest ever losing night by quite a margin. Left Dusk feeling physically sick, experiencing that whirlwind of thoughts that I guess everyone does after a total disaster of a night, where confidence hits rock bottom and you decide to take some time off the game. After reviewing my performance for the night on the way home, I decided that I had failed pretty miserably to utilise my ability to place varying amounts of multi-coloured betting discs over a line with a blank expression on my face effectively.

Anyway, next day I woke up and for some totally unknown reason, I really wanted to play again. Maybe I’ve started to enjoy the pain, I mean we are all pretty weird for spending so much time playing this game. Flicked it in for the 25, failed to win a hand, decided to take one bullet in a 1/1 game. Only games running were 1/2 and a very small 50/1, so decided to sit on 1/2 for one bullet instead. Ended up having a very enjoyable night with some absolute heroes and having a reasonable winning session #swings.

Apologies that this update was basically a long HH, got a bowl comp tomorrow which I’ll probably write up. I do unfortunately have to be up for 7 tomorrow morning, which could be a challenge considering I was up at 3 this afternoon. May need some help with that one!

i might have to start charging for the counseling sessions i have give you on the way home! then again, saying that, if i did, i dont think youd have any money left :D 

I'm about to go to bed, but there is one pot that I played today that definitely makes the diary, and the action went like this:

Two players limp, and a gentleman makes it £5 to go in a 1/1 game. Everybody, save one player, calls, so we are seven ways to a flop with a total of £35 in a pot. I have  8s Ts on the button, so fully expect to win the pot, as it's very hard to lose with this hand. Anyway, flop comes A 10 8 rainbow. Checks to original raiser who makes it £15 to go. Cut off calls, I make it 50. Small blind tanks, shoots us a look, and calls. Basically had the guy down as someone that would find it hard to fold pairs, as he was very rarely not seeing a turn card once he'd put money into the pot, so I was pretty sure his range was made up of Ax hands and 97/J9. Don't feel like this particular player can ever have AA or 10/10 here, and would raise basically every hand better than one pair on this flop. Anyway, original raiser calls leaving himself with like 40 behind, other guy folds. Turn card comes a 5, checks to us, and we put both players in (Sb for about pot, other guy for 40 odd). Small blind tank folds, which is disappointing, but leaves his cards in front of him, and the other guy shrugs and folds. SB then flips over A10, misses the pretty obvious double take I do at the board and his hand as I muck, and he asks me what I would do with his hand. I, of course, without a hint of irony, explain that my hand is a fairly face up set of 8's, and decide to take a strategic rest room break to find some way of preventing my jaw from dropping.

so sick,  Ts 8s is that good a hand, it even whens when its losing :D

Some (primarily life) updates

Get the poker out of the way

Not had a great few days tbh, attempted a particularly stupid bluff which was not only pretty expensive but caused me to tilt like the tower of pisa in an earthquake, so I'm gonna leave the live poker updates there until I've got something more cheerful to write. Online has been a little similar, I've pure bubbled the same speed BH tournament 3 times in a row leaving me somewhat vexed, but I will definitely be making a showing on sky on most evenings during the Christmas break as I will be back in Essex, and definitely need to start developing some semblance of an online game.

Bowling

Played two bowl comps in the last few weeks, which both went pretty well. Bowling for the most part has been very demoralising for me lately. I mean, back when I live in Essex like 5 minutes away from the local centre, where we got ridic cheap rates, I was bowling every day and getting to a stage where I was pretty good. Now, I've gone from bowling well over 30 games a week for 2/3 years to about 3, with some fairly extended breaks at times. Obviously, this isn't conducive to improvement, so I've seen my form drop pretty dramatically from my last league average of 206 down to the low 180s. More than that, adjustments that I used to make very quickly are now taking me over a game to make. Competing as part of a team, and not just for myself, seems to amplify every mistake, which is definitely not fun.

I'm not sure what has changed, but in the last week or so I've come back into some form. I'm not scoring dramatically higher since I'm still pretty low on confidence in some areas, and as such not throwing many good shots, but for some short periods I've felt like I did at my best. Nice to know it's still there. I had a solid, consistent run at the Loughborough sixes tournament over the weekend, and even though our team didn't win, I left feeling reasonably happy with my own performance. It wasn't anything special, but it was about the level I feel like I should be at but haven't been for some time. This culminated in winning a bowl christmas doubles tournament on Wednesday where every now and then I managed to throw a really good shot, and didn't make my partner's shoulders ache from the strain of having to carry me. Made a pretty big ball change/line adjustment early on which was definitely the right move and the fact that I was able to work this out very quickly and confidently make the change was very encouraging. Had a great time too, some of the banter is fantastic.

To continue with the bowling for just a second longer, a pretty good friend of mine is a guy named Dominic Barrett. Google him, and you'll find out that he has just won the PBA World Championships (which is definitely a big one) and the European tour rankings for what I believe is the third time now. He's also now won three PBA titles (yh, big ones) and is starting to establish himself as a pretty "dom"inant force in world bowling. Basically wanted to congratulate the guy on another sick year, and on his pending wedding in Oz to a beautiful woman. Well played, sir :). I also agree that he should probably have played golf instead.

F***ing Essay

Basically, I'm supposed to be writing an essay for uni at the moment, and have just dropped into the negative numbers on the motivation scale. I have just spent over 5 minutes strapping and unstrapping my watch to my wrist and procrastinating in every conceivable way. I mean, who actually gives a shit about the how the concept of "blood" is important in "The Winter's Tale". Me, apparently. FML.

(http://cdn.head-fi.org/7/7c/900x900px-LL-7c6efeb2_stormtrooper-hump.gif)

please keep posting my dear rexas, otherwise im going to have to start reading other diaries!

god forbid

lets start some Q&A sessions with rexas...?

Poker Ambitions?

Favourite poker player you play with?

Ever had any tilting problems/ blow ups at the table?

How many comps have you won?

Hmm... I guess I'll have to humour you here, won't I? I have no idea where the inspiration for these questions has come from...

Poker ambitions... Well, I'm not as good at setting targets as I should be, that's for sure. Long term, really all I would like to aim for is to be able to make a living from poker, whether that be live, online or a mixture of both. More specifically, this year I would like to play every stop of the GPS, and put in a significant amount of volume online in BOTH Hold 'em and Omaha. I'm really enjoying a bit of Omaha at the moment, and am finding learning this game very interesting. Not yet particularly profitable, I hasten to add, but good fun all the same :p

Favourite player to play with? In what sense, exactly? If you mean play poker with, tbh there are way too many heroes to list. Rest assured that you'd be near the top of the list, although I won't elaborate on why ;)

This is definitely a loaded question :p Again, I'll humour it, this time with a story from the early days of my time as a reg at the local pubs' weekly comps. I'm not 100% sure of the HH, but I think I three bet AK and got cold called by the BB with Qxss, I flopped a K, and he called the flop with backdoor spades, turned a flush draw and called my shove, only to river the bastard. I got up, walked out (and not quietly, I might add) and for some little known reason decided to throw my keys to floor in the alley on the way to the car park. The run bad continued, since my keys broke upon hitting the pavement (ford car keys seem to do be designed to do this and be put back together, no idea why). I then had to make my way back inside, and rather embarrassingly ask the barman if he had a torch to help find the keys. To add to the embarassment, the tournament was on a break, so everyone decided to come out and help. I don't think I'm ever going to be aloud to forget that little episode :p DISCLAIMER: I'm SLIGHTLY less of a tit nowadays :p

I honestly don't know how many I've won, and that's not a brag, just a general thing. I haven't won anything major, for sure, apart from that 2/7 sd online comp that I chopped for a tenner once.

looool love the car keys story. Incredible, could come straight from a TV sketch.

haha great responses rexas as per usual!

what the millions of readers of this blog don't realise is the time and effort some of us have put in being your councellor. car journeys home listening to you moan about how bad you run to only come 2nd in a deep stack, and only cashed out 2bags and not 3is quite disheartening for a 'lol' (as tomson so eloquently puts in) reg licking his wounds after a brutal, near bankrupting XXL where we were forced into using our reload card ;) thank god for biggest winner buying macdonalds eh? the tilt isnt needed!! less of a tit however? incorrect.
hmm seems to me that the 2/7 chopped tourny for 11 dollars is a #thinbrag. im assuming BRM was at the heart of this decision?
few blogs have recently spoke about fancy clothing being worn at the table, have you ever been seen sporting anything outrageous, skirts or headwear for example?

few more questions...
nandos order?
side youd pick to play with on FIFA?
live with/civil union with/play HU4ROLLZZZ : Rehman, Sean Belton, Tomson346432456  ??
when am i going to get the fulltime job of being your PR/marketing man?

I've never forgotten your tilt monster rage with about 15 players left of feb's deep stack when the crazy Asian guy jammed 55 in sb and you called with QQ in bb only for the flop to produce the 5. Haha you was chuntering on for about 10 mins after that talking about life changing money or something hahaha fun to watch I might add ;)

 rotflmfao

this could easily turn into  a whole show of Matt Harris, this is your life.The Tilt edition! then again the Binking edition would hardly be a long episode

Honestly don't remember that, was a while ago now :p


Nandos is currently a medium half chicken with chips, spicy rice and halloumi. Discovered halloumi whilst on holiday in cyprus and can't get enough of the stuff.

Fifa side... I don't really know, I'm leaning towards either Chelsea or Belgium at the moment, although the latter is mainly because their kit must be the best looking in the game,

Erm... what?

And never, because you're currently doing a fine job of making me look like a massive tilt monkey, which I'm definitely not anywhere near as much as I used to be :p

like snog marry or avoid, but with those options, one each for the people! you never got out!
haha, no im not, Liam started giving examples, mine was a genuine question!
on a more serious note? where does rexas come from?

 :o

Since when did Nandos do halloumi?! Is it grilled?

Did you not know this? It's incred.

clearly a nandos fish Melissa ;)

Yup :) It's pretty good too :) I'm feeling a Nandos trip coming on...

He dodged the fun question...

i know right, it took me ages to word that properly too, while i was watching Gill whale around on a final table last night.
Gonna answer it rexas?

Can I just put my answer as you for all three? <3

nope i gave yo the 3 choices!

Merry Christmas people!

The Christmas period has seen me take a bit of a break from poker. I've played very, very little serious hold em over the last week or so. I flicked it in for the super roller on sky on Sunday, and ended up finishing about five off the money after having a very seesaw stack for the last hour or so, and running very bad when it counted in those BvB shove/call/fold spots. Not very exciting really.

As a result of this break, I'm absolutely buzzing for the event in Southend starting later today. It's a two day deepstack freezout with hopefully a bunch of heroes making an appearance, including our very own kreso al. A bit of run good here would round off the year very nicely.

In terms of poker-related goals for next year, Omaha is definitely going to take a front seat. I've been experimenting with it a little for some time, and following on from the sweat session I had with Lil Dave a few months ago, I've come to really enjoy the challenge that attempting to learn this game is presenting. I'm currently reading through Jeff Hwang's book "Pot Limit Omaha" on Honeybadger's recommendation, and I can tell I'm going to keep coming back to it over the next year. Fantastic strategy guide. With any luck, me and Adiman will be able to pick up this game together and be bumhunting Gholden7 by august.

It's been nice to get home for Christmas. The big family do hasn't happened yet, and I'm not 100% sure that it will, which will be a shame. There are a fair few members of my extended family that only get together a few times a year, and when we do, it often turns into a fantastic occasion. Just about managed to get all the presents sorted out in time, always a bonus, despite needed a last minute trip into Colchester in search of a music shop.

Random Musings of a Young Twat.

I always find it very strange going back to Colchester. I went to school there, and came to know the town very well before I left. Christmas eve was probably the first time I've seen the place in two years, and it proved to be a little nostalgic, not least of all because I ran into a very old friend of mine. I now have very little contact with anyone I knew  from my school years. I never really fitted into the grammar school scene. I wasn't much good at getting my head down and working, which was certainly the norm there. I rarely did homework on time, and once I got a car I spent very little time actually in school. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a sob story about how everyone hated me or how I was miserable all the time, I had a fantastic group of friends and will always have some very fond memories of this chapter of my life. However, when it came to the end of school, I didn't want to go to Uni. I'd just about had enough of the oppression of living life by a bell, and as a rebellious twat by nature, I was sick of level of control I felt like I was under. Typical teenage angst, really, but hey. So, I became one of I believe three people out of my year group that left the school with no real plans to go to university. I had a real job, I was earning real money, had a fantastic girlfriend (ikr).

Very quickly, I came to realise that this wasn't going to last. The friends that I had, and was keeping in contact with, were all at various universities, and very rarely came back. When they did, I often couldn't make the socials, because I was busy at work. I made the decision to split with my girlfriend, since we were basically not going to get to see each other while she was at uni and I was working 65+ hours a week. Over time, I quit the job, moved on to poker, ended up at uni, and still feel like for the most part I'm heading towards where I want to be.

Going back really did make me think, though. Made me wonder what had happened to everyone, where they are now, what they're doing with their lives. I saw a few people I knew who definitely didn't recognise me, which is hardly surprising. I look completely different, probably am completely different, to how I used to be. One person did, though, and she's definitely one of the people I miss the most. Despite how much I disliked school, I kinda would like to go back, if only for a while. In the aftermath of the festive shenanigans, it saddens me a little to realise that I will probably never these people again, some of whom were at least as close as family for the bulk of my re-memorable life. And even if we did meet again, I don't think any of us would be quite the same.

To round off this rather sentimental and completely unstructured post, here's a somewhat phallic gift I got from a Christmas Cracker.

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/600656_10151836932098231_102342006_n.jpg)

Shuffle up and deal

Oh.... and GL today

Unfortunately I won't be bowling around in the comp at Saafend as I shall be balling in the Dtd online leg.

Glgl though bud.

What happens when you bust before the first break? ;)

Then I may have to resort to coming down the road and watching you in the cash game having bust both bullets and walked away from the table talking to yourself ;)

Which leg of the deepstack you in for? Saturday?

GL today though mate!

Did Matt like to mumble to himself while walking away from the table ? Ahhhhhhhh, can remember now , I saw it a few times . Not only walking away mumbling but kicking the toilet doors at DTD is one of the highlight! Lol

Sigh... Must sort out this reputation, it's deserved and it's not good :p

Currently on my second bullet, but I've actually won a few hands this time around so it's looking ok. In a pretty bad seat, but trying to make the most of it.

Bowling around in Southend, been sat on about a half average stack for ages, blinds have just put me into the sub 20bbs category. Time to spin and win :)

Poker Updates

Southend was a total disaster. Failed to make any sort of value hand for most of the day, managed to make three kings and get shoved into by 9high which was nice, but overall found basically no hands and basically no spots. Bust out in the second to last level of Day 1, and came home.

Got up the next day, decided to lounge about for a bit catching up on some quality ps3 time, since she's feeling a bit self conscious at the thought of the new PS4 being better in every way. Anyway, we get a phone call after an hour or so explaining that the family do that was supposed to be happening this weekend has been moved to New Years Eve, giving me a free weekend. Half an hour later I was showered, packed, and on the road to the DTD 500 with a staking thread running. I'll paste the trip report from that thread to here, suffice it to say that I made day 2 with over the average stack after a very swingy day. I trialed a couple of game tweaks which I felt really comfortable with, just got to air out the slightly too thin bets and the occasional FPS spew everywhere moments now. I can only remember making three 3bets through the whole day, felt mildly Canadian by the end of it.

I've recently been approaching these sorts of tournaments with a slightly different mindset, of a much more small ball-y style. Properly went for this yesterday, played loads of pots with a bunch of hands, with some mixed results. Certainly feel like I made some very bad decisions in the middle of the day, and there are a fair few hands worthy of note.

The first such hand involved us calling a raise to 500 @ 100/200 with  Qh Jh. The button, a somewhat spewy guy who seems to play a lot of the bigger buy in tournaments, three bets to 2200, gets a cold call from the big blind and two more calls, so we flick it in and see a flop five ways of   Jc 9h 9c. BB donk leads for 1100, we call, button dwells for a while and calls. Turn is a brick, BB checks, we bet 5600, and button tank raises to 11,200, leaving himself with about 12k back. We fold, although I am pretty sure this was effectively a bluff (potentially an unknowing one with an overpair), but I don't think this was a situation where we could do much about it. Very strange raise imo from this particular player, and a very strange spot.

Anyway, we chipped all the way back up from this low point of just under 20k to around 50k, and called a raise in the cut off with  67. We see a small three bet from the small blind, and two calls. We also call. Flop comes A96 rainbow, checks to us, and we bet 4k (about half pot). At this point of the hand, I feel the small blind will cbet any single A, and check call every pair from 10's up to AA. One of the other players in the pot tended to lead any board on which he flopped some sort of equity, so he was fairly clearly folding, so to my mind I was certain to get one fold, probably to get another, and pretty sure to get a check call and then a check fold on a brick turn from the small blind. We do get one call from the SB, and see a 9 on the turn. In hindsight, this is prolly the worst card to bet, but since the guy was left with a little under a pot sized bet behind, I decided to go with my initial thoughts putting his range on a pair between 10's and AA (against which we only get a call from AA, I do have significant history with this player to be confident of this). So we put him in, and he calls with AA, and we cry in the toilets for a minute or two during the next break.

I get moved tables after chipping back up to about 40/45k, and instantly lose a pot where a lady shoves a flop over my cbet for quite a bit, and we make a pretty loose call with one pair feeling confident that she most likely has a draw. She, unfortunately, did not. Cue sobbing in toilets.

We very quickly end up in a pot with Gascoigne senior, where we call in a limped pot with 22 otb, and see a flop of  2c 3c 5c. Checks to us, we lead for 2k out of roughly 22, Ian check raises to 8k, we move in, he calls, he has  Qc 4c and we conveniently bink a  5d for a full double. In the next hour or so we continue to chip up, losing a reasonable pot to Shola but continuing to win loads of small ones to stay reasonably comfortable. Then, we open AJos and get calls from Greek Jack and the BB, who is playing about 20bbs. Flop comes Axxhh, the BB shoves his 18bbs, we call, he has  Qh 4h (that hand was getting around a lot, for some reason) and makes a flush ott. We wail in the toilets  (I'm a sucker for a terrible pun).

We go back to chipping up, get ourselves back up to about the 50k mark, and play a hand with the Q4 guy from earlier where we flat our button. We float the cbet on  3c 4d 6d with a gutshot and two overs, fail to improve on the turn but pick up a ninja on the guy when he bets 6.5k so call anyway, river comes the  7d, he bets 8k and we jam. He folds, and we hit around the 75k mark. We sit back and watch Shola win the lot for a while, and then call one of her raises with A10, along with Greek Jack and one other. Flop comes  Ad Jc Qh. Checks to us, and we lead for a little over half pot. Jack calls, others fold. Turn is a brick, we check, Jack checks. River is a brick, we check, Jack shoves 30k. We dwell for some time and decide to make the call, and Jack turns over  Qd 5d to get us properly going in the tournament with a level and a half left to play.

In all, we won absolutely loads of small pots throughout the day, made some pretty poor decisions to cost us a fair few chips at times, but were able to pull it back. Certainly not my best day, but I was lucky enough to find some good hands and good spots when it counted, and played pretty well towards the latter half of the day to bag 125k. GL us!

STOP MOANING AND MUMBLING OR STOP PLAYING POKER , PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you whooooooo, anyone at home?

Well, the 500 weekend was a disaster. I've been a little under it for the last few months and it's starting to hit my bank balance pretty hard, and I certainly feel like I put way too much into having a weekend where I at least cashed one of the three tournaments I played. As a result, I don't think I played my best, and I certainly let it get to me, so I would like to apologise to those affected for behaving like a tit. Effectively what happened is I ran bad in Omaha, lost 3 flips on day two of the 500, and lost another 3 flips (one for the chip lead in the tournament) in the "incredible" 100. Nothing special, but it sorta ended up being accumulated frustration of the last few months which have seen me lose an awful, awful lot of key AIPF situations.

The Omaha game was a strange one. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite losing, and made a real effort to keep in a decent frame of mind. Lost with AA44 to A378 after I potted pre and jammed a Q36 rainbow board. Lost to a guy who jammed a flop blind where i flopped the third nut flush, when he flopped the second nut flush. Lost a few others with draws/reasonable hands to cash out a pretty heavy loser, but as I said, was able to keep calm and genuinely enjoy the game regardless.

Decided to go and play the Luton deepstack. I've never been to that genting before, despite the cardroom manager telling me to come down. So, I finally found a free weekend and went for it.

Very glad I did too. The place is fantastic, very well run, dealers and bar staff are very professional, atmosphere is great, tournament is great... What more do you want? Also, I FOUND JOHN BLACK! This alone made the trip worth it, and very nearly ended up being fuelled by jagermeister. Why do I have to drive everywhere... Also met the great welsh wizard that is Pinchop. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me he was a massive nit until he had quartered my stack, buy hey ho. Have a trip report...

Players start the tournament with 30,000 chips at 25/50. As always, things started pretty slowly, with everyone (including myself) getting acclimatized to the place and settling in for what will hopefully be a long stint at the felt. By 50/100, I've ground my way up to 35k after a making a small move against a rather telegraphed bluff. Middle position opens to 150, and button (who has been ridic active, clicking buttons all over the place and has to not raise a button) makes it 325. I look down at AQ in the small, and do a raise to 1k. Button calls. Flop comes down K52 rainbow, and I c-bet 1200. Pretty much as soon as my chips have hit the felt, its made 3k, and I don't have to look up to know that a stare down has begun. I make it 7k, am told how nice it must be to have AA, and win the pot. So, at 50/100, the same guy opens utg to 200. We call with JJ, and a bunch of other people call, leading to a 5/6 way flop of J810. Checks to us, and we lead for 600. One call, and Pinchop makes it 1500 from the btn. We call, other guy folds. Turn bricks, we check, Pinchop bets 7k. Sorta wish I'd known it was him at this point, but decide to absolutely hate my life and call. Really not sure what to do, pretty gay spot. Anyway, river bricks, we check, he bets 11k, we sorta have to after calling the turn given this sizing, and are shown Q9 for the joint, putting me down to about 14k. We then insta brick a straight flush draw on Q24 and lose 6k vs 99, taking us into the first break with 8k.

Over the next few levels, I get my stack over the line a few times in good spots (turned the nut flush draw on J458, for example) and sorta bully my way up to 16k. Then get moved tables, win a few semi-decent pots with simple c-bets and betting when checked to with some sort of equity, and get up to 25k. Then, at 300/600, two players limp the cut off and hijack. On the button, I look down at 63, and make it 2k to go. Get called by the SB, and both limpers. Not exactly loving life, but I decided that I'd rather be lucky than good and flop the nut straight on 245 rainbow. Checks to me, I cbet 3.5k, SB calls, hijack calls, cut off jams 30k, I call, fold, fold. Hold against 57 for a big pot to put us back to about the average stack.

I continue to win a bunch of pots simply by being in position and/or having the betting lead, including one very fun one where I have KQ otb facing a early ish position open. I call, BB completes, and the flop comes j94 rainbow. BB checks, OR makes cbets and we call, BB folds. Turn is another J, OR checks, we bet 4800. He tanks past the point where I think he really has anything, and makes it 11k with about the same amount behind. We jam pretty quickly, he mucks, we win the money. Also managed to knock a guy out with QQ to A5hh on 9549hh. Heading towards the last break, I chip up to 80k or so, then lose a few small ones plus a bigger one when I call a jam with 99 and fail to hold vs K6 to put me down to about 50k. Pretty soon after, I find JJ and manage a full double vs 99, and then win a flip with AK into 10s to comfortably break the 100k mark. Nothing of note really happens until the end of the day, leading to a total of 125,700 bagged coming back to 1k/2k tomorrow, with the average being about 100k.

As previously said though, I thought the venue was fantastic, and some of the characters more so. Had a lovely one when I was short at the start of the day, where a guy who's new to the table opens UTG, I three bet tens, Pinchop cold 4's, utg 5 bets, we fold, and Pinchop tanks. Utg then tells him that when he folds, he can see the 4. Pinchop says he'd love to see that, folds AK, and some great table banter ensues when utg duly turns over the 4. Also managed to have a great chat with a guy (who I unfortunately felted a little while later) about how I looked exactly like a guy he'd been to school with. Generally had a pretty good day, looking forward to another (#thin) day two!

Well, unfortunately, it looks like our time in this game is coming to a close, at least for the time being. Had another disastrous day two of lost flips, missed draws, failed bluffs and generally second best hands. Came home reasonably positive despite this and regged a Sunday schedule, running as bad as I ever have. Currently got one left, but it's getting to the stage where as soon as the cards get turned over I'm pretty much dead. Hopefully going to do a Goulder and bink 15k after a diary moan, but I suppose the coming few months will tell.

In other news, back at uni tomorrow. Got a bunch of deadlines due the week after the GPS, and then a small break before the second term properly starts. I've been meaning to start/restart writing a book for a while now, and the last few fairly long drives to and from lboro have been spent thinking about where to go with this. Need to work out a few character names and setting details as yet, but I'm pretty sure fingers will be going to keys within the next few weeks after uni has calmed down.

Question - Aside from the Nash charts, has anyone got any recommended reading/viewing on short stack shove/fold/call ranges?

OH HI DER.....

Currently sweating adiman deep in the stars.fr million, go get em!

GPS Nottingham

GPS Nottingham started in typical fashion for me. Walked in to the club about two minutes late, made my way through the sea of people to my seat, and instantly heard got a "Hello Sir" for a very recognisable Irish accent. Drawn on the same table yet again, me and Adrian proceeded to start folding our way to a mincash. I had a bit of an accident along the way before the first break, when after calling a rather large three bet with 66 I saw a flop of 567 rainbow, and accidentally won the lot vs KK.

Me and Adrian got back into our usual table banter within no time. Easily one of the loudest tables in the room, everyone seemed to be having a reasonably good time. Then, as Tighty was approaching, all hell broke loose. The guy who had been sitting next to me, and had been pretty much silent the whole way through, decided to take issue with the noise that we were making. Initially, I think we all thought he was joking around with us, as was the rest of the table. Rather quickly however Sinclair had appeared, and the guy started visibly shaking and directing threats towards me. I promptly shat myself, as he was considerably bigger than me and would pretty easily break my face with his little finger. Thankfully nothing came of things, we all shut up, the atmosphere sort of died a bit but at least I wasn't lying in a hospital bed.

The tournament itself continued fairly normally. The table wasn't really appropriate for a small ball strategy so I opted for a more TAG approach, which was working nicely. Took a bit too long to adjust for my liking, but I got there eventually. Chipped up pretty nicely to about 70k, lost a big pot where I called a min check raise on the turn with a flush draw against a pretty face up set that was never folding a river, but bricked out. A few hands later, I open AQos to 1200 @ 250/500, get a call and raggy makes it 3700. Folds round to me, and I make it 8500. Guy sat in between me and raggy then makes it 17200. Raggy folds, and knowing the player in question I'm pretty sure he can't have too much of a value range in this spot, so I pretty confidently jam. He starts tanking, and announces that he is definitely losing but it's his favourite hand, and eventually flicks it in. We are up against  Kh Jh and hold to move to around 100k.

Very next hand, we find the ol'  Kc Ks and open to 1200. Folds to raggy who again makes it 3700. We ram it in his eye by making it 8500, and he jams just shy of 60k. We call, and are up against  Ac Qd. The Q high ccc flop isn't exactly the best we could have hoped for, and are turned dead to be back down to just over 40. A few hands later we three bet AJ to 6k over a 1500 open and two calls, seeing a flop 3 ways. Flop comes A high, guy who flatted both raises donk leads for 9k, we call and jam over a 12k turn bet. The bad news is delivered when we are up against AK, and fail to improve. I was, and still am, fairly confident that the guy would get it in with pretty much any A in the spot and has a whole bunch of them in his preflop calling range, but what can do.

Side Event

Bit of a disaster, again. Am pretty card dead the whole way through, and lose a big one with A4 when we check raise a  Ahrt Qh 4c flop, get called and check fold a  Th turn. A few hands later I open  Ks Qh playing 22k or so to 1200 at 300/600. Both blinds call, and the BB donk jams for 25k on a  Kh 9d 2h. We call, and he rolls over  9s 7s and obviously binks the  7h on the turn. We fail to improve on the river, and wave goodbye to bullet #1. Bullet #2 consists of making a couple of marginal calls and being wrong, and jamming 11bbs with 22 and losing to A10.

Omaha

After busting the second bullet in the side and railing CV in the GPS main for a while, a 2/2 Omaha opens up and I pretty quickly decide to sit in. Gholden7 joins, and we get some pretty good banter going on what develops into a very relaxed, very loose/gambly table. Sean then sits down, we completely lift the straddle cap and the game turns in to comfortably the biggest, and most high variance, game I have ever seen. The banter is fantastic, the action is brilliant, and better still I manage to find  5h 3s during the 80 straddle and hold in a 4 way all in, making the second nut straight.

Highlight of the weekend however is definitely railing Chris Verndog158 in the GPS. He is currently in the middle of day 3 of the GPS, best of luck to the lad, always nice when good things happen to bad people ;)

your name on sky rexas?

Rexas / Rexas13 or something :p

okay okay you playing today?

May do after/if I bust the 100

Could you please list all the things you have broken/caused damage to through tilt

1 Phone
1 set of car keys
many poker chips
Several doors.
My pride ;)

What your Mumbling mouth ? U needed a steel made mouth soon incase it get broken ! Lol

how the hell can you damage a set of keys!?

Broken set of keys too !! Thsts bad dude

Not broken, a little damaged, if you read back a few pages I put up the story.

What's up guys :)

Poker has, unfortunately, continued to be pretty brutal. I managed my second winning day of the year yesterday, which was nice, but I can't for the life of me seem to have a winning day at hold 'em right now. I've been playing more and more Omaha, and it's starting to dig me out of some holes, which is pretty nice. There was a time a few months ago where everyone seemed to want to play Omaha or DC. When I first showed up at dusk, they were getting two 1/1 Omaha tables pretty regularly. Now, its becoming an effort to get a short handed 2/2 table going, and they seem to break pretty fast. When the games do run, the atmosphere has been great and they've been good games, albeit a little short lived. I'm continuing to run pretty insanely bad in tournament poker, with my last cash being last month's UKIPT and without that, it would have been a good few months since cashing anything. No limit cash has been no less unkind, where I seem to be completely unable to post a winning day, and as I said my only two winning days of the year so far have been from Omaha games. Lowlight of last week was taking a bit of a shot at what looked like a very good 1/2 game, and getting it in for nearly a 1k pot with AK vs Mitch's AQ and failing to hold. With any luck we're reaching the end of this run, since it's been happily settled in for close to four months now. I suppose this is my first taste of a proper downswing, and certainly puts everything in perspective, including a need to manage my finances a little better. If/When I manage to come back from this, I'm confident I'll be a lot better for it.

Unfortunately, this run has brought on a lot of "accumulated tilt" where every beat seems exponentially magnified by the thoughts of those that came before it. I think getting out of this mindset is going to help getting out of the downswing, and my aim for the last few sessions and the next few is to try and get to the end without tilting. I felt like I was making some significant progress on this front a few months ago, and it was fantastic (if a little embarrassing) to hear people comment that my temperament was noticeably improved. This relapse (from the last few pages of the diary) has obviously not gone unnoticed, and I guess I'd just like to ask people to bear with me a little while I get it sorted. The deliberate attempts to provoke it have also not gone unnoticed, but I do respect that this is a product of the problem.

Online Omaha has been great lately. I'm really enjoying getting to grips with learning a new game, and the feeling of actually wanting to log on and play online poker is a new and welcome change. For those that are interested, I'm starting pretty low down at 10PLO, using a 50+10 BRM system (so I will take shots at the next level once I have 50 BI's for my current level PLUS ten for the next, meaning 25PLO will start at a bankroll of 750 for example). I'm playing 6 tables of 6max standard (not zoom) cash, and am winning over admittedly a small sample size. Still obviously making some mistakes as my PHA posts will confirm, but I feel like I notice the bad decisions pretty much as soon as I make them regardless of the outcome. Hopefully I'll be able to sweat a few sickos and pick up some tips that way, along with going through a bunch of books/videos/articles. Either way, its fun :)

Everyone else seems to have hit some form recently. Adrian is booking some 4 figure online scores, verndog is cashing all over the place including a 7th place finish in the GPS and Reh booked a very nice score coming second in the GPS side. A bunch of other friends have been winning in various cash games and tournaments, so with any luck the scores will keep on coming. Gl guys!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAUMU3QQE6w

youve maybe mentioned this previously but are you a "professional" poker player?

It's a little bit blurred tbh. My only source of income over the last two years has been poker, and I have supported myself on that, so I suppose by definition yes I am. I would, ideally, like to continue to support myself on income from the game, as it does currently pay for uni stuff/living stuff/rent. I'm definitely not at a stage where I could drop everything and indefinitely live off the game, though.

Had a completely break even session playing just Hold 'em yesterday, which is as close to a win as I've been so far this year. Certainly felt like a win. Tournament was a bit of a joke, running 10s into  Qs 6s when we both got over an average stack in pre. I then won a few pots, and ran 88 into 55 and A8 which would have taken me to 1.5x average. This pot was particularly frustrating as it culminated in one of the players having a go at the dealer. Frankly, the guys comments/behaviour were completely disgusting and uncalled for, I can't understand why players feel the need to berate dealers as much as some of them do. It can get pretty close to bullying, and for sure they shouldn't have to put up with it as "part of the job".

Came home and hit the PLO for an hour or so, and had a pretty bad session. I attempted to push the amount of tables I was playing, but I think I did this a little too soon as my understanding of the game is not yet good enough to let me play more than 8 tables and not make many mistakes/time out all over the place. At the moment, I think 6 tables is about right for me. I've also realised that I'm playing AAxx hands particularly badly, and for sure I think these are the most difficult hands to play in PLO. Going through Jeff Hwang's PLO strategy stuff will probably be the best way to pick up some tips and get back on it.

Good luck to everyone playing the TCOOP this time round, I may play one or two events but at the moment this seems unlikely. Must get stuff sorted out for the APAT team championships next week ASAP, and I may also put up a package for the UKPC, the GPS Star City and the 500 d/s pretty soon if I can win a seat or two.

Well, for just a minute there I thought the downswing might have been coming to a close. Cashed a live comp for the second time in the last few months, and turned up to gala feeling pretty good, only to get it in for 300 each with KK on a Q85 board, which ran out 9 - 7. I announced KK, he told me I won, I flipped me hand over and then he tables the good old Q7.  Pretty sure I'm not going to get out of this with a bankroll, so unless I can find some sort of backing I'll be getting a job pretty soon.

(http://s28.postimg.org/6tfu8qs4t/Untitled.jpg)

Since everyone seems to be in the habit of posting graphs lately, here are the results of the last 10k hands of PLO that I've played this year. Pretty demoralizing start to the year tbh, I'm officially busto for live games and seem to be in a downswing for pretty much every general aspect of life. I'm surprisingly ok about being busto, I'd accepted it as a possibility some time ago and it looks like the game just decided it was time for me to take a break and rebuild. I won't be in Dusk until the Grand Prix, and from that comp onwards I'll only be in if I can bink a satellite seat for something else. I can't play the UKPC anyway, and the 500 is next week over APAT Stoke which is my last commitment poker wise.

I would be interested to go over some stats and learn a little more about navigating through HEM with someone that understands what they all mean in regards to PLO (In before joke sample size comments).

Does anyone here have any thoughts on standard 6max PLO vs 6max PLO zoom? I'm probably going to try zoom for the first time in a minute, but wondered if anyone had any experience and/or preference between the two.

Really can't stand the game right now, almost certainly going to shut this diary down pretty soon, doesn't seem to be getting any interest and I can't post anything but moans because I basically can't win a pot. Running absolutely fucking loads below EV for the last month and a bit, which is obviously a wonderful start for the year. Barely had a winning session since the start of December in anything, and it's starting to damage my uni work as well. Cannot believe how badly I've run over that time, obviously this is my first proper downswing but it would be fucking nice to get above an initial deposit on stars one day. Pretty tilting that everyone around me is winning the absolute lot, finding it hard to keep myself convinced that I actually am a winning player. Finding it pretty frustrating that I can't post anything but this ITT as well, since pretty much nothing is going well enough to be worth writing about.

move sites, drop down stakes, grind more or take time off and do some learning  would be my advice.

Post your 10 biggest losing hands in pha and see if there was anything you could have done differently.

Pretty sure microstakes plo is unbeatable because of the rake. I read virtually every diary on here with interest. Keep it up imo, although sometimes having to broadcast your emotions can make things more difficult.

I'm going to do a review of the last few thousands hands in my database pretty soon, may post some up on the PHA, although I have spoken to a few people off blonde about some hands I've played.

I've decided I need to sort out my sleeping patterns. Uni has suffered a little for the last few months, which is a problem, since I would quite like a degree, and the fact that I'm no longer playing live poker every night should give me time to work. My new timetable involves some early starts, and if I'm gonna make these consistently I have to get myself to a point where I can be awake and functional by 8am every day, without having just stayed awake from the previous night. Also, the biggest bowling tournament of the year is coming up in a few weeks, so for sure I need to be able to stay awake throughout the day to be able to compete in that. So, my two week challenge - Be in bed by 2am, be awake by 10am.

Intended to just stay up yesterday to get it reset, ended up going to bed at 3pm and waking up at 2am :p Must get that sorted!

You didn't tell me you had a new alias...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-02/238CE7B8-45F8-4D5A-9A72-EA320221C329_zpsgqarbn2r.jpg)

too stacked to be rexas

haha indeed gilly. whose going to be the one who has to explain the joke to rexas?

I think I wouldn't look at ev or even winnings if you're playing plo2 or 10 or whatever you're playign right now. The rake is so big and surely you're just playing so that you can learn the game. You're smart enough to just know if you're i proving simply from theoretical understanding. Ev, winnings to shouldn't be significant or matter to,you. Don't let it get you down.

I would disagree with posting 10 hands on the pha, it's too many and people will stop looking at the 6th. Make a video here you speak in love time about your thought processes for every hand no matter how minuscule the reason may be for 15 minutes I'm sure some PLO heroes will watch it and tell you if you're just approaching it in the right way or not. After that I'd move up to plo50 or if you need to (no idea your circumstances etc) get staked. It shouldn't be too hard and 50% of your action in a beatable 50plo game where the pots actually mean something to you and can make you happy when you suck out on the river will be way better than 100% of your action at plo10 with stupid rake and very little in terms of rakeback and at a stake it's almost impossible,to take seriously.

Hope you keep at it Matt. I believe you were in seat 1 on the Friday of the APAT cash game in Stoke? You played proper solid, and from our short chat (I was seat 3) you definitely approached it with the right mindset which is all the better given it would've been so easy to splash around in a jovial cash game. Know how you feel, but results will come - best of luck.

Obviously if you weren't this chap, ignore most of the above, but still best of luck and keep up the blog :)

hope everything is well GL in getting back on track. Everyone goes busto most people will do it many times. Many people are still doing it all the time (<<<< ME). Its definiatly never the end of the world!

Sorry I haven't replied ealier pads, genuinely didn't see this until a few days ago! I'm looking into the video stuff, although I'm totally terrible with technology so it may take a while to sort out. I also don't have a mic for the computer (which is what I grind on), so this seems like a pretty good excuse to get one of those too!

With regards to staking for PLO, before I do look for anything I feel like I should get a whole bunch of hands behind me, like 50k at least, before I can take it to anyone for staking purposes. I'm also hoping that I can work my way up to plo50 within the year if I grind it pretty hard, which I intend to start doing pretty soon. As it stands, I've only been able to record 25k or so hands, over which I'm losing a small amount. I've worked up from 4 tables to 6, which seems to be my optimal number for six max cash at the moment. I've also started playing zoom, and while 4 is still a little too much I've worked up from 2 to 3 within the space of a week without much trouble, so it shouldn't be too long before I can hit 4 and be churning out 1k hands an hour. Within this sample there have also been a fair few instances of experimentation, which is how I like to learn. So, for example, I read that it's not a great idea to call a 4bet with hands like A678, because the A is essentially a dead card (see http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=63234.0 (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=63234.0)). What I did with this, while I was going through some 3betting theory, was 3bet basically every hand I wanted to play IP so I could understand why doing that with these sorts of hands is going to get you into tough spots. I definitely feel this is one of the best ways to learn, and it seems to be working for me atm!


Yeah, that was me, that makes you the guy with the awesome orange hoodie then right? For the fans, I would like to point out that "solid" involved me cold 5bet calling with A10os for quite a lot of BBs, and 5bet jamming J9os (although this got through, so I suppose you wouldn't have known about that ;)). For the last few years I've basically made a living in games like that, so I'm used to being able to enjoy the atmosphere without it affecting how I play. Was pretty tough it that game though, it was a lot of fun! It's also a shame I can't seem to get hold of the recording of the stream for that game, really wanted to be able to go through it with a few people, but what can you do :p Hopefully I'll see you around!


I'm actually surprisingly ok with it. I had a moment that unfortunately everyone will remember in the 500 d/s where I basically realised I was likely to end up busto, and played pretty badly as a result, and ended up playing the incredible hundred after and lost a flip for the chip lead with like 10 till the money, which I found very hard to take. However, I pretty much reconciled it over January that it looked like it was going to happen, and that when it did I'd just have to deal with it. Obviously I didn't just give up and spew the rest away, but I recognised being busto was a possibility and now I'm left with a real drive to get back into the game. Watching the 1/2/4 running recently and not being able to be a part of it has been a little painful, and it is GG to live poker for a while until I can rebuild.

On that note, I have been considering putting up a thread on the Live Staking boards about some sort of 50/50 plus make up long term live tournament staking deal, but have no idea how to approach it. After Uni has got sorted out and my friends funeral (see http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=63224.0 (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=63224.0)) is done with I think I'll take another look at that and  try and get it going.

Made a pact with myself to try and post on the diary when I have something positive, or at least not ridic negative like the last few posts have been, to say. Hopefully I'll be posting a lot more in the next few weeks then!

People seem to be running features in their diaries at the moment, but don't seem to be very good at sticking to it. I would like to try and get people two appreciate something that I feel very strongly about, and that is poetry.

Poetry has been ruined by years of a terrible literary education system, which has made people read and analyse poetry at too young an age to be able to appreciate it for what it is. More than that, by being made to analyse every individual line, you, like many of your teachers, are completely missing the point. Every line does not have to be understood, things don't have to have multiple meanings and be clever allusions to things you've never heard of, but a poem should feel as if it means something, and/or instigate an emotional reaction in much the same way as music. You don't have to understand it, except to realise for yourself that it is there. Words are very powerful things, and there are a few poems that have managed to fit them together in ways that make the hairs on the back of my neck stand tall. I went through the education system hating poetry, and wondering how on earth someone could choose to sit and read it in their own time, let alone pay for copies of it. Luckily I managed to discover a few poems independently of the classroom, and upon reading them, discovered that I had misjudged them as a literary genre. For sure, there is a hell of a lot of crap that has to be sifted through to find the minority of worthwhile material, but with any luck I'll be able to sway the prejudice of some of those who read this diary. I'll try to give some contextual information with each poem to give you a bit of a feel for the circumstances under which it was written, and I will do my best to answer any comments anyone may have about them.

I'll start with the easy stuff - This one is probably familiar to quite a few of you, as it was the title of, and featured within, the film Invictus. Nelson Mandela quotes this poem is one of his sources of inspiration, and lines from it have appeared across various forms of media many a time.

Invictus (or "Unconquered") is William Ernest Henley's best known literary work. He suffered from tuberculosis from an early age, and had his left leg amputated at the age of 19, around the same time as the death of his father. Later, faced with the amputation of his right leg due to the same illness, Henley sought further medical advice and spent three years of his life in hospital receiving treatment, and it was at the end of this period that Henley wrote Invictus as a way of voicing his defiance of his disability. Interestingly, Henley was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson and James Matthew Barrie, and provided the inspiration for the characters of Long John Silver and, through the ill health of his daughter, Wendy from Peter Pan.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I'll also try and include a reading if I can find a decent one, and it's hard to get better than Morgan Freeman -

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVZ93lVN46I

Haha, that's me.

My hand recall is utterly dreadful, definitely the worst part of my game - I vaguely remember what must've been the AT hand, but everything else - into the deep recesses of my mind. I guess that makes you selectively aggressive over splashy right? :)

Yea, certainly softer 25/50p games in the world (i was seat 2 - the rose between you two thorns) but luckboxing the AQ v T6 hand helped.

I remember the AT hand, the J9 not so much.

GL on the tables sir

My hand recall tends to be pretty good, mainly because I tend to go over most of the significant hands I play. I assume we're keeping quite about the  6d 4d hand s4ooter? The J9os didn't get to showdown, just got 5bet shipped :p I've toed the line between splashy and "selectively aggressive" and imo I've spent time on both sides of that fence. Hopefully I'll be more firmly in the not splashy camp when I make it back to having a live poker roll!

I appreciate the honesty, otherwise the next time we locked horns I'd spend an hour thinking "Jeez, this nit's pretty active".

Invictus always makes me think of 'Do not go gentle into that good night' by Dylan Thomas, which he wrote for his dying father.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Hey Tom, thanks for that poem, I haven't actually come across this one before and it was certainly very well written. It's amazing the amount of power that can be conveyed with a few well selected words. I'll be putting up another poem within the next 24 hours, and I haven't forgotten this feature. It will be a pretty long update I'm afraid, covering the BUCS bowling tournament weekend, my friends funeral, my current thoughts about where to go with my poker, and a bit of poetry.

One of my all-time favourites.


TIM, AN IRISH TERRIER

It's wonderful dogs they're breeding now:
Small as a flea or large as a cow;
But my old dog Tim he'll never be bet
By any dog that ever he met.
'Come on,' says he, 'for I'm not kilt yet.'

No matter the size of the dog he'll meet,
Tim trails his coat the length o' the street.
D'ye mind his scar an' his ragged ear,
The like of a Dublin Fusilier?
He's a massacree dog that knows no fear.

But he'd stick to me till his lastest breath;
An' he'd go with me to the gates of death.
He'd wait for a thousand years, maybe,
Scratching the door 'an whining for me
If myself were inside in Purgatory.

So I laugh when I hear them make it plain
That dogs and men never meet again.
For all their talk who'd listen to thim
With the soul in the shining eyes of him?
Would God be wasting a dog like Tim?

Thanks Red, keep em coming! I hadn't head this in a long time, written by someone called Letts if I remember correctly.

BUCS

This is the big bowling tournament of the year, which is part of a wider BUCS league covering a wide variety of sports. Universities compete for BUCS points and get funding based on how many points they achieve, so this one does actually mean something in terms of club development as well as pride, as it's always the biggest turn out and the fiercest competition. Loughborough went into the tournament with our A team as pretty heavy favourites to win. We managed to field three pretty strong teams, with our B team in the mix for winning their division. We also managed to field two girls teams, which considering we couldn't even field one last year was a pretty good effort. The conditions were very, very tricky and the scores across all the competitors were pretty low, but as expected Loughborough A team won by a big margin despite a ropey start to the 5 man team game, which saw us drop nearly half our lead. There were a few big success stories however, and our B-team ended up edging a win in their division, and our girls A-team picking up silver. Even better, two of the girls made the Great Britain BUCS rep squad, and four of the 6 man A team did too. I didn't even go for it this year, but I reckon if I can sort out a few things and bowl a bit better next year, it would be worth giving it a go. It would be nice to pull on a jersey to represent my country, especially at something I enjoy. Very, very proud of the whole team, it's been fantastic to be a part of.

The Team -
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1/1901274_712214108798993_662917508_n.jpg)

The winning A Team -
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/t1/1618467_712216978798706_1321830492_n.jpg)

Isaac

For those of you that don't know, my best mate from secondary school became the first brit to die from a "necknomination" a few weeks ago. His funeral took place on Tuesday, which I attended, along with several of our old friends. The whole thing was very surreal, and got me thinking about a lot of things. Even though we hadn't seen each other in years, our little group got chatting right away, and what was probably the only laughter in the church came from us. I don't like the way funerals are set up, and the way the vicar/reverend/whatever talks about the guy as if they knew him. I wanted to celebrate the guys life, and the fact is a lot of the memories I have of him were pretty funny. I think it's an English thing too, to laugh in moments of this sort of tension. Gallows humour, I think it's called. Anyway, I thought it was fairly fitting that I was remembering him by using him as an excuse to miss a days lectures. He'd have approved of that. The walk out song was "Time of your Life" by Green Day, which is subtitled "Good Riddance". I'm not sure if the people who chose that song were aware of this, but again I think he'd have approved.

After the funeral, four of us bundled into my car and took a nostalgia trip round Colchester. We were all in suits for the funeral, and we wore suits to sixth form, so the whole thing was very surreal. We went through my old school, and the head of sixth form just happened to be free at that time, so we were given a tour. A lot of the place has changed, but enough of what it used to be is still there to trigger all the memories. It's strange how things move on, I guess when you aren't there any more you feel like it freezes in its own little bubble. I'm completely different to how I used to be, but a lot of things/people are very similar. Even the staff in the burger king on the high street seemed to sort of recognise us!

This weeks poem (I know it's late) is another very well known one that often seems to be heard at funerals. The story behind it is quite interesting. Mary Elizabeth Frye was an American housewife/florist, who was orphaned at the age of three. She was not a poet, and had never written anything significant prior to this poem. She did write after the one below, but to my knowledge none of her other writings have endured. I have certainly not come across them. This poem was inspired by a Jewish woman, who was left unable to return home to her mother in Germany to tend to her while she was ill due to the growing Nazi-related unrest. When her mother died, the conversations between her and Frye prompted the creation of this poem, which was originally written on shopping bags and was never properly published. In fact, the author was not confirmed until 16 years ago, which is remarkable given the popularity of the poem. Anyway, it was read by Isaac's father at his funeral, and was definitely very fitting for the occasion.

Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

This is quiet funny to be honest curtis hooper who you obv know but is top left in the picture went to school with me for years! But very well played matt, i didn't read the poetry though sorry.

Curtis carried the team through Tyler, he's a ridiculously good bowler, current England international. Good mate of mine too!

You only didn't it because you were afraid you might like it ;)

Or it just doesn't interest me don't really ever feel like i actually gain much from reading poetry,stupid people problems lol.

I remember he was just breaking into the england team at school.

Bowling

Post BUCS bowling has gone absolutely crazy. Personally, I had another 299, have found some motivation to properly get back into it and for the first time in a few years I feel like I'm throwing some good shots, and making some good, quick adjustments. That 299 I had with a ball I haven't thrown in a few years, and I'd brought it down to give to a friend of mine. The first two shots were actually with another ball I'd bought to give away, just showcasing what it can do. Then threw some good shots (except the second in the tenth), and made a last shot that I was pretty proud of. I'd noticed that there was some transition going on and I had to make a move, and I wasn't afraid to do so even given the fact that I was one shot away from perfect, and I had barely moved all game. I made the move, threw a pretty good shot and left a 4pin as it just crept high. Made the right move, just not by enough :p Either way, I didn't pull out of it this time, and that's the second 299 in the past few months, which is very encouraging. Following another one of our members getting his first 300 last week, I am now the only member of the A team to have never had a perfect game. Must set that right!

I've also been doing a lot more coaching, which is fantastic. The club itself is going from strength to strength, with everyone seeming to be enjoying themselves and continuing to improve. We've ended up bowling three days a week, now that myself and Curtis have decided to take a car load up to the bowl on Thursdays for some more intensive coaching, with no pins, a bunch of videos and a bollocks training manual. This in itself is great, and I'm enjoying getting to learn from one of the best bowlers in the country and learning how to coach effectively. I'm also getting a lesson from Jon Zadel in a week or so, a guy who is generally accepted to be the best instructor in the country. I'm hoping this will help get my game on track and I'll be paying attention to his coaching techniques, and trying to implement some of them into my own training. I will definitely be pushing for the GB squad next year, and I'll be hitting the uni tour and attempting to average at least 190 over as many events as possible. At the moment, I don't see why I can't achieve this.

By request, I'm going to run a second feature on here for a little while, since this blog is getting more and more devoid of poker as I find less positive things to say about it.

Most Butchered Hand of the Day

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7795507_C1EEB50B6A (http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7795507_C1EEB50B6A)

In my defense, this was right at the start of the session while I was still getting tables/music set up :p

Would definitely encourage others to post their most butchered hands, I'm sure in the coming weeks I'll be able to put up loads of poorly played hands for the enjoyment of the community :)

Poem

Another classic this week, but one of my all time favourites. Rudyard Kipling is a very controversial figure, being quite political and certainly very well known as a writer, even being nominated for knighthood, which he declined. Perhaps his most famous work is "The Jungle Book", which has been re-produced many times and is still going very strongly today. Born in India during Imperial Britain, much of Kipling's work featured colonialism and empire as a recurrent theme. He was a prominent figure during the first world war, producing literature in support of the allies cause, unfortunately ultimately encouraging his son John to his death at the age of 18. Kipling was particularly aggrieved by this as his son had been rejected for service on the basis of poor eyesight several times before Rudyard stepped in to help secure him a place in the Irish Guard. Rudyard Kipling does not have an involvement in the brand "Mr. Kipling".

The poem that we are looking at today is one of his most famous. It was written with a few people in mind. It is directly addressed to his son, and was first written in 1895 (although not published until much later), so this poem falls before the death of his son in the Kipling timeline. The traits that Kipling expresses as those desirable in a man were drawn from the character of Leander Starr Jameson, a political soldier who led the Jameson Raid which ended in defeat, and led to the second Boer War and Jameson's short imprisonment, despite his portrayal as a heroic and inspirational figure. You can almost see the words reflect the events of Jameson's life.

The poem itself is fantastically emotive and beautifully written. Such a command over language is rarely demonstrated, and as one of the first poems I discovered independent of a classroom, it is certainly partly responsible for my current views on poetry as a genre. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
 
If

If you can keep your head when all about you
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
  And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
  And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
  And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
  To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
  Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
  If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
  With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
  And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son

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

Don't really see the butchery, where would you do something different. Rivers rly annoying but such a good price.

My turn sizing is absolutely horrible, not great at 10nl zoom where you're pushing yourself into a corner where you have to call off with one pair on a four card straight board where you can beat absolutely nothing but a bluff. Not even sure this is ever a bluff :p

Want to shove? 7.35 back and 5.20 in, 3.8 seems fine, not sure if I like 2.7 more. Much more seems silly. Even betting 2.5 gives us too good of a price on the river to fold.

I would probably shove this turn as standard. This can't be that bad right just to get him to put the money in with all the pair+draw combo's that's if were never folding.

Blog updatez. Has anyone ever believed rexas when he says he runs bad?

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7952540_6B8AA3C3C4

Think its all a total lie.