blonde poker forum

 I've toyed with the idea of creating a diary for a while so here it goes...

I became immersed in the world of Poker from my Grandad, a bookmaker. The first card game he ever taught me was 7 card brag, which in turn led to poker. When it came to secondary school, it was common practice to see at least 2 full tables of teenagers gambling their lunch money, to the ignorance of any authority. These games were usually as crooked as they come, and seemed to defy the statistical odds of the game, with around 2 straight flushes every orbit, creating some very well-off and obese children. Unsurprisingly i was a very thin child, the principle however was my introduction and fascination with the game.

Like most people who are <18 i continued to play home games with friends and grew to learn to love the sweats and fun that can be had when a group of mates are playing whats inevitably a leveling war. At this point in my life i took poker as a bit of a laugh on the occasional weekend, and usually involved consuming sufficient amounts of alcohol. So it was only when i came to uni and turned 18 did i realize the unaccountable profits that can be made and lost from the game.

On the 31st September 2010 i played my first ever live poker tournament, a £20 freezeout at Dusk Till Dawn, which at this point in my life, may as well have had the same amount as pressure as the WSOP. I was accompanied by 6 friends from uni and included a last longer bet of £5 a man. Now at this point i might add i am a very competitive individual, and a very sore loser developed from years of playing county basketball, yet finds its way dispersed into a lot of my day to day life. So it was this that inevitably made me run GHolden. The same tournament was played two weeks later with the exact same line up...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/DiaryPic_zpse49d22cb.png)

So at this point in my life i was 18, having won ~£1000 in 2 nights worth of poker and wondering, why don't more people do this? It's an easy game right?

Subbed. Gl kid.

Support for this diary from a fellow debutant.  Gl with it.

Great to see you've finally decided to diarise your poker life.. Your 48 hour benders are somewhat legendary.. Good luck will be following

degenerate confirmation [X]

Gold Don. This will be a class diary. Great lad and a fine fellow degenerate.

A++

Will read again.

oooh a long long time since I played 7 card brag.

Great game imo.

GL.

Yessss gl with this

Degenerate stories plssssssss

After spending most of my first year at uni playing the occasional tournament at DTD, i soon realized that tournament poker was not for me. The idea of grinding away at a comp for 6-7 hours to bubble or min cash for little more then the petrol it cost to drive down was about as appealing as playing the lottery. Being a practical kind of guy i decided to jump straight in and try the cash games. My first ever session involved me getting AA the second hand and having no idea how to play it. This was a cash game, this was a new dynamic, what should i do...... "Tea on cash games is free you say??"... and i was hooked.

The following few months saw me playing 3-4 nights a week (this was sometimes a minimum) and making steady profits and losses which just about evened out weekly at a profit. To say the least i was 'tez', a word used to describe someone who is utterly terrible. I knew about as much about the strategy and fundamentals of the game as to go "oooh Good Hand  £££.....and doh Bad Hand £££". It was only when i became a regular face and was surrounded by regular faces that encouraged me to get "better", which would probably be down to the likes of Belton and PJ. This was probably around the point i joined blonde and found myself in some of the occasional diaries much to my amusement...


When DTD introduced the cash race i made it a personal challenge to get to 100 hours and secure the £500 deepstack seat. After all, i was technically getting paid £5.50 an hour here, on top of any profits / losses i made in the game. I finished the month with just under £1600 worth of profit and 100+ hours of hilarious hands and some familiar new faces. I think i went through a spell of selling all of my seats to Deadman. Unfortunately the steep at the end accounts for the seat sale.

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/FebuaryPokerGraph_zps46cc9287.png)

So these cash races saw me maintaining some steady profits. I'd learnt quite a lot, improved my game, made new friends..... "Whats a downswing?"

Played with you Saturday night Gary, gl in your venture 77 rivered set rotflmfao

Cheers pal, still need to write the TR from the weekend

"So at this point in my life i was 18, having won ~£1000 in 2 nights worth of poker and wondering, why don't more people do this? It's an easy game right?"

Wow this sounds familiar.. I guess your shack was just as big as mine haha!

Looking forwad to more content dude keep it up!

So this weekend saw me returning to Nottingham. I'm currently living in London on a placement year between my 2nd and 3rd year at uni.
This weekend was the second time i'd been back to DTD since moving last July and its always entertaining. I planned to play the Super 50 and the Incredible 100 as despite saying tournament poker wasn't for me, London's tournament game is awful (despite the bigger events), with no guarantees on anything.

Friday went off to a good start with the Super 50 field being pretty standard. I had a guy 3bet shove the flop of  Kh 7s 5c while i was holding  7h 7c and slam down  Ks Qs like it was the stone cold nuts, (which is always a bonus,) and some other spewy players enough to get an early chip lead. The pinnacle hand however came down to a dealer slow roll which saw me exiting in 33rd place,  Ks Ts <  Kc 9c.... on a  Kd 4d 3c board...... the fumbled turn the  Th..... "oh whats that you say... that was meant to be the burn card?"..... oh hello  9d, and off to the cash tables we went.

The 1-1 is somewhat a joy after a super 50, with around 5 full tables and some tilted early exiters hoping to claw back their £58 pound buy in, in the most extravagant of ways. To say the least there wasn't really any particular hands of interest, aside from holding in what i thought was a non sweat hand... oh and running like god in props (Sorry Sean).

Hero calls £5 raise...  7h 9h....
flop  2s 7d 9d

In on the flop.... iya villains over-pair.... oh wait you have  8d Td....
Turn  Qc  River  2c
(Ironically we would of lost to the over-pair)

Saturday i went in feeling relatively confident for the incredible 100 based on Fridays field. I was however not running GHolden and exited within the second level.
Hero...  flats 7s 8s....
Flop  3c 7c 8d

All in on the flop again....iya villains overpair....
Turn  9s River  9d
.... GG..... WP.....
(Ironically we lost to the over-pair)

So once again we found ourselves at the cash tables. To say the least it was a grind and we ended up even after a mix of 1-1 and 2-2 PLO and having our mind boggled by watching Ed Gascoine call in the 7s river to win a rather large flush draw vs set hand. We then took our name off the 1-2 list (butterfly effecting Alex's cake winning) and exited DTD to play at Gala. When i arrived it may as well have been a DTD dealer home game, aside from one gentleman. Gentleman does not refer to him in his correct form though, said gentleman had the nervous disposition of Shottinghams finest coke addicts and what do these afflictions invoke? 100x blind preflop raises... Oh hi der. I believe he's been aforementioned in Alex's diary

So we continued to not run GHolden when  Ad Ac was beat by  3d 7s on a 4spade run out.... and  Kh Ks was less then  7d Qs on QxQxx.......
The spade dug us out when we peeled  9c Qc to see a board of  8d Td Js vs an over-pair and a flush draw and hold in a large 3 way pot. Peeling  Qc 9c is not advisable might i add, but when said villains continuation bets are in the region of 5x pot... you sometimes take your chances.

So the weekend was a bit of a roller-coaster but we came out with a profit of around £200 after everything was accounted for.

Heading to the vic tonight, TR to follow. It's probably going to be one of the hardest fields with the GUKPT exiters, but likely to play 1/2 PLO or 1/2 NLH.

So tonight's TR...

Did a win [ X ]
Played lots of hands [   ]

Tonight i was pretty much torn between the Vic and the empire, after seeing the Vics twitter feed saying the waiting lists were deep. Mr & Mrs Deadman were at the Vic though and it seemed rude not to go and pay a visit. My 1/2 NLH table was placed straight away with Shola, so i was already at a disadvantage and in fact we played about 6 hands at best before being called for 1/2 PLO.

Hands of interest... Numero 1
 Ac 4c  5h  Kh     on  2d 3s 5c

checks to us in the cutoff and we lead for just under half pot... called in two spots.
Turn Qs
checks all the way round
River  8d
MP donks for half pot, for anyone who plays in the vic the guy was Lalit... who should have missed draws in this spot a bunch.... however he somehow slow plays the 46xx.... GG

Numero 2
We then beat 'Mr Bond' (probably the best player at the table) and get it in on the turn with  Ahrt Kh Js Tc   on  Ad 3s  Kd  Ks... vs his bare K with straight draws for ~£120 each.

Numero 3
We then isolate wth  9d Kh Kd Ahrt vs a guy who's been opening frequently, he calls 42 pre, with 75 behind and donk leads the remainder on a  Qc  Th 8c board...
We sigh call it off and bink the offsuit J to take down the lot.

I called it a night with £290 profit and a pretty decent massage. The train journeys home are always pretty tedious back to West London and i was starving to say the least.
The night ended with a subway to which the following happened...

Just about to enter subway at the same time as a posh hot brunette, a rare sight at 12:40 at night. The ques surprisingly long yet after a short wait the eastern European guy then asks the girl what she would like. With a resounding sound the girl then asks for "a 6" please". At this point 'the moment' happened, the moment where you are both in sheer appreciation of what you have just witnessed, and irregardless of multi-cultural barriers you both know to pull a little smirk and give each other acknowledgement that you have just both thought exactly the same thing, and are both trying to keep it together and not give the perverted game away. Unfortunately i did not receive any special discounts for such appreciation however i felt that me and Mr Eastern European sandwich artist now share an affinity.

...The rest of the weekend should see me playing in either the Vic or the Empire, so likely more TR's to come...

Mr Bond the best player at the table....? Lol... More stories of being an Englishman in London please...

The line up was him, lalit, fernando, gassan etc....

Last nights TR...

Green figure for the start of the month [ X ]
Played lots of hands [ X ]
Won at holdem [  ]
Won at PLO [ X ]

So last night i intended to play in The Vic, but after a short GL to Simon and Shola the list was about a 40 minute wait for anything.
I ended up going down to the Empire where there was about 5 1/2's, 1 2/5 and a list for 1/2 PLO... Marv.

The 1/2 game here is pretty nice, with 1/2 being the lowest buy in, and only the few occasional bum hunters that sit with the minimum.
I got sat on a table with three guys sat next to a table with several empty pint glasses and all functioning at a sound level of someone inebriated.
These are the moments in poker where i feel everyone shares deep appreciation for ipods / mp3 players etc... and the incredible technology behind noise cancelling earphones, because no "Maaaayyyyyte", I don't want to hear your Australian voice whining how that was "So Sick" every 2 minutes.

I was happy with my game in both NLH and PLO. My variance for the night was ~650 and grinding out of a £400 hole felt like a win in itself regardless of the 250 profit. I'll post one hand on PHA.

Something that is becoming tedious though is the degeneracy of Live Cash in London, even more so then Nottingham, mainly because the tubes end at ~12:30am and the games are juiciest at 3am onwards. All of this wouldn't be so bad if i didn't have a 9-5. Tonight i'm going out in Shoreditch so no TR's to follow, may play a nice sunday schedule though and still virtually railing Nick "Tight4Better" Flanagan after buying a small % of him in the deepstack.

Last night Shoreditch got cancelled so i used my degenerate sleeping pattern to my advantage and went to play at the Empire again...
Mini cliffs is won £100 however at one stage was winning 700+. Ended up losing a BI in Omaha, then got coolered in one orbit with top two vs a straight and backdoor flush vs backdoor flush, where he must of thought it was Xmas when i value jam the river.

The hand that was most tilting was the PLO hand. We're holding  7d 8d Ts Js and 3 bet pre to 27 from the SB after a raise to 7 from MP, called in two spots.
The flop:  8s 9h 4d

I pot and get tank called in both spots.
The turn is the  9s.

I've got ~£110 behind after the initial pot of £83 on the flop, and put the remainder in. I then get a tank fold and some arabic guy reaching deep into the tank. He then gives me a speech play saying have you got a 9?
After someone calls the clock on him he calls. The river is the 7h and i announce a straight.

At this point the guy goes "oh you've got a straight" and is looking like he's mucking. After what seems like about 10 seconds he then slow rolls pocket 4's.

Anyway over 3 days we're winning ~620 for the start of March which is a step in the right direction.
Sundays today, GL Heroes

Not sure about the pot on the turn? you got to be putting these guys on either similar hands to yours to hands that have 89 in them like 89JT double suited or even hands like KK89 QQ89 etc... Think you might get a check down there, depending on what position you're in, no point in turning your hand into a bluff when there's not enough in the stacks to get a fold from both players, plus it's the Empire.

Oh i'm not justifying the pot on the turn, but i think vs the guys that it was, they're more likely to iso if they have top two / a set on the flop. They both had ~600.
If they did have a 9 etc... then yeah i'm effectively burying myself but on the odd occasion they're floating with straight draws etc... especially after tank decisions we win with no showdown, and even if they do have 9x we still have a nut draw and some outs.

It was more the fact it was a tank decision with a full house that tilted me.

Having a pretty good day so far, Nick cashed the £300 and i've just free rolled the sunday million for a $16 satellite.... $1,000,000 ftw...

Confirmed GHolden

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/2296598_82C794D666

<3

Had my fourth winning session for March last night continuing the mini heater...

I played 1/2 NLH at the Vic pretty late, around 4am. The table was pretty weary and we made the game when we started playing pretty loose aggressive with some cold 4 bets and putting an end to the preflop limping.
Pretty standard wins, and didn't even have to luckbox anything, happy enough with my play, and managed to get one guy to spazz it all in after we limp Kings pre for balance. I've posted one hand to PHA...

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=60534.0 (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=60534.0)

Ended up winning £1205, making March's graph even healthier...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/MarchGraph_zpseed76ed7.png)

Unsure what to do this weekend, still debating what to play and where.

Sick heater, mbnnnn

upward graphs! wadda life :P

gratz. where did u get the graph to record results from?

Looks like excel.

Grats on the heater Lad. Come and donate in DTD one time?

Confirmed Excel, PM me your email if you want the template.

Alex FYP.... Being GHolden vs being Goulden.... Could be interesting

Great results...

A few questions...?
1. You sticking to NLH this month or are you dabbling in some PLO action too?
2. What are you buying in for at the Vic, Empire, Hippodrome? Is it game dependent or do you have a set amount?
3. When are we gonna hear some stories about moving to London and general life...?
4. You've some how luck boxed your way to a £20k stack from 1k, playing £2-5 NLH you're in the BB, UTG (£22k Stack) raises to 70, MP shoves for £13k Cut off shoves for £8k and BTN shoves for £15k SB folds, you have AA. WWYD?

Last nights TR...
Played a lot of hands [X]
Got out of a hole [X]

So last night i went to the Vic, where what appeared to be half of London were, along with some Nottingham heroes with the likes of Mitch, Stato, Deadman and Keith.
After free rolling dinner from the richest mondeoman man in Poker we all went our separate ways.

The night started pretty shockingly with me losing a BI at 1/2 PLO in the first orbit with 78910 double suited to a 5 way all in preflop. Last to act with £12 already in their and about 8-900 to win, fairly easy call. Surprisingly AA held up after a board of  3s 3h 7h  Kc  Aspades.... and to see a hilarious guy slam down KK on the turn and then see his face melt as the 2 outer fell on the river :')

Anyway to reduce variance i went to play some 1/2 NLH as the PLO was that splashy and it was too much of a lottery.

Clearly gamblers anonymous were having a meeting in the Vic last night as  Kd Ks was beat by  7s 8s after he cold calls my £30 3 bet and flats my £54 c bet on the flop for him to then donk shove the board of  Kc 9s 4s 6c....when his starting stack was £190... and the OR had a bowl stack of £100
The river the  Td.... i turn over Trip Kings..... oh you have  7s 8s.... Well played Sir..... NOT.... EVER....

He later did a similar thing and got there after calling £10 pre with  8s 4s. We did not get any money back off this free willy and he left in God mode to take away a sizable chunk from the table. I may have berated his play a tiny bit though and I should definitely try and find some self restraint at berating the fish's play sometimes, or they are unlikely to come back to the aquarium.

Anyway £400 in the hole, but pretty unphased, we finally got out of it, after a solid 4 hour grind and some of the best poker i've played. I found a couple of correct hero calls, got max value from pretty much all of my holdings, and held KK > AKs on a flopped flush draw for a BI back. We got out of the nights hole by hero calling...  Ahrt 2d on a....
 6h 7h Aspades Ts 3c board, after we'd called both streets and he then bombs the river. I asked how much he had behind to which he then said "enough for you to double me up".... After a dwell i then said "but is it enough for you to try and bluff me".... more dwelling... and call to scoop the £300+ pot with Top pair No Kicker.

One of my highlights of the night was also calling out the guys set of 10's on  Aspades Tc  5c  Js.... when i had  Th Jh.... in a 3 way pot.... when he check calls the flop to OR and then donk leads the turn for like 70%..... for some reason i tabled my hand and called out his pocket 10's to which he then showed... asking how did you know.

So we left the night break even after they broke the table at around 4am. To be refreshed to play today i left with a morale high, and a lot more confidence in my game as late. Sticking to NLH for a while, and no graph dip yet wiii.

How did u know?

Last nights TR...

Started at the Vic, lost a BI at 1/2 PLO. Despite saying i was going to stick to NLH this month, the list for the 1/2 NLH was about 40 deep so was the only game i could play.
Anyway after an hour and a half i went to go to the Empire.
Randomly as i walked off the tube two american interns were right behind me that i knew, and in an uncanny sense of "in all the places in London" moment ended up meeting up for a bit before finishing the grind.

We got out of the hole in a hand i pretty much detested...

We 4 bet  Aspades Ks and get called by the OR (dealer at the vic, pretty solid) and MP (asian kid, seems okay but has been doing a bit for the past half an hour). First to act on a board of  Kc 6h 4s we lead for 60%, we get called by the OR and then min raised by the MP playing £360 at the start of the hand with me covering.
He seemed solid but i'd been 3 betting a few of his opens and cold 4 betting light to some of his limps so it seemed like he might be pushing back. It was kind of a, fuck it moment and GG if you've limped KK, flat called 44 / 66 etc...

Anyway he dwell calls after about 3 minutes, with me still not liking it and expecting to be chopping. The board runs out and AKs scoops to get me out of the hole and into a profit.

March winnings are now just shy of ~2000.

So I've not done a background post in a while...

I'm currently 21 and working in London but originate from Derby (, as you can probably grasp). I study at Loughborough University and moved down to London after getting a placement year as a Business Analyst at a large pharmaceutical company. As you can probably work out from some of my posts I've been accustomed to a lot of card games and play both PLO and NLH at live cash. I'm still pretty unaware of how i fully got into PLO, aside from winning a PLO tournament at the Ricoh G casino a couple of years ago and taking a fondness to it from then on in. It's actually getting quite annoying to see it's growing in popularity though, as it's normally one of the softest games when introduced to casinos and card rooms and i'd rather not have the competition =). Side note: I once described PLO as "that game you play when your in a hole in Holdem".

I think a lot of people have varied reasoning for playing poker, and i'd say mine has stuck pretty true to my word. In likeness with the poker economy there are only few reasons why a perfectly sane human being would continually come back to one place gambling at degenerate hours whether winning or losing, and this is because it is made enjoyable (most of all). Aside from the bad beats, the downswings, and the times when morale practically hits rock bottom we live for the sweats, the bragging rights, the banter, the self worth we get from making those hero calls or correct plays, the networks of friends we've created through late hours and shared memories, but mainly the underlying factor of having the ability to 'make' money tax free (, apart from maybe Ian Gascoine). So this is why we I play.

I'm currently still debating on goals for 2013 as my entire year will be pretty varied. I'm currently in London until ~ end of July in which i'll return to Derby if I don't partake in any Summer Internships. I'll then return to Loughborough in October. To say the least i'm going to have to evaluate some kind of mobility and sustainability to play with a temporary online transition in the pipeline. For now though i'll remain playing most weekends in London. I'm still waiting for (rbc_) Mike to finish at Imperial so we can get some proper degenerate stories in this diary, our grinds are normally pretty tale-worthy.

Can't really play this weekend as i've got some prior arrangements, however i'm planning to return to Notts for a weekend again soon.... DTD action.

7 days till exams over mate, can't wait to get back on the grind!

Managed to get two mini sessions in this week, one on Wednesday and a little on Saturday. Somehow i'm still running pretty GHolden and continuing an 8 session in the green heater. This week was tiny profits, 85 and 127 respectively.

Saturdays was actually really tedious and one of the most swingy games i'd played. I managed to hit sets about 5 times and only won with one of them on pretty dead boards.
I think i was in big profits and then back down to winning a bowl so many time i lost momentum as well as some morale, when it's days like them you should be holding and winning 1k+.
Still i'm thankful to still be winning for March and it's without the luckaments that we wouldn't get paid in this economy at all.

The worst of the session was  7h 7s vs  5d 5s on as flop of  7c 5c 3c. I'd 3 bet preflop in position and we'd seen the flop 3 ways. Checked to me and I cbet 30 into 50 and get raised by the villain to 80 playing 180 total. The money all goes in after he gives a speech of do you only ever play clubs. I turn my hand and he's instantly disheartened. You know the rest.... Unfortunately the guys miracle came on the turn. If anyone's ever played in the Empire you'll know they have a pretty healthy bad beat jackpot and at this point the entire cardroom stopped dead while 15+ people were trying to moan in the 7d ball for me, but it did not prevail. Sigh....

I celebrated St Patricks Day in Trafalgar and the rest of London today. Pretty good to see some faces and had a decent night out on Saturday to Movida.

March Graph so far...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/MarchGraphUpdate17th_zpsfe30f32d.png)

Blue line oh my days.

X asis labels are a mess kid

Study Business & IT [ X ]

but yeah pretty tilting x-axis

Interesting stuff, I'm thinking about getting in the live scene and am scouring blogs to see just what s people can make, if it's worth the grind etc. What is rake like where you play, hourly or %?

For most 1/2 you'll find that it's 5% capped at £10. There's reduced rake at the empire in the mornings and most clubs operate reduced rake or no rake at <4/5 players..
Anything above 2/5 is normally a table charge per half an hour, you see this a lot more at the Vic. Dusk till dawns a softer game but more rake, with their 1/1 being 10% capped at  £5, their 1/2 is the same 5%.

lol can't help but notice that graph doesn't go in the wrong direction once :P

There's a new dynamic to my decision making processes in my sessions now. Maintaining upwards graph EV haha.

So Rbc_MIke has finally finished his exams and we've just arrived at the hippo to find 7 cash games and a father Gascoine. I can already tell this is going to be an interesting night. GL Us.

It pains me to write this but first losing session for March, i was enjoying an upwards graph =(
Mini TR:

Said the words "all in" a lot [X]
Manged to hold a lot [  ]

The session ended -500 with the biggest loss coming from a flopped broadway (me) to a flopped set (Villain) and the board running out consecutive offsuit 3's to pair the board. Sigh.

I'd argue i took the loss quite well though and still looking at marches graph i'm up around 1,700 so i can't expect to be in god mode forever, i just hope this isn't the start of a downswing though. I managed to play some interesting pots, and liked the majority of my reads and plays, but towards the end of the session i was getting really tired and should have probably just mitigated the loss and paid for a taxi.

Last night me and mike headed out to Covent Garden, both sporting some degenerate panda eyes from the grind on Thursday night. We went to a club called "Roundhouse" and had a pretty good night with some mates from uni. There was about 9 of us in total with some interesting shapes being thrown, seriously wish i'd have taken a video. Some pics to follow.

In the meantime here's a picture of mike last time he finished his exams. It was around 10pm, and he met me in Putney already off his face saying the words "Unay" a lot and stumbling round. Like the good friend i am, i got him a chinese to sober him up...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/photo7_zps53cd094a.jpg)

The first spoiler pic from last night was this guy, who showed unbelievable sleeping tekkers on the nightbus...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/photo8_zps91e295a7.jpg)

It's nearly the end of the month.... Hurray!

Since the £500 loss i've not managed to play any live games however i've put in a bit of volume online. According to my HEM stats i'm currently winning ~$500 for the month however that only takes into consideration NLH, and i primarily play PLO online. I'm still yet to flick it in for a PLO HUD, as so far i haven't found the need for one.

I've decided to end the month in style and as of Friday-Tuesday myself and Mike will be off flag hunting in Nottingham for some of the APAT events. For any blonde heroes feel free to say hi.

I'm also now off work until the 8th April so will likely start April with some big cash sessions, hopefully having a similar start as i did in March.
I'm still undecided on Goals for 2013, however i'd be happy to make ~1k a month as it stands, especially seeing as i'm a student and will unlikely get enough time to put in enough volume to level out the variance.

I really want to start playing a lot more tournaments and will get back into that when i come back to Uni in October. It's pretty apparent that DTD probably have the best value comps in the UK.

I'm also looking to book a holiday soon as i'm sick of this bloody weather. My last holiday was Ibiza and probably one of the best i've ever been on.
For anyone wondering what the typical "Derbylad" looks like, it's very much like this (from Ibiza), much to the misconceptions of a certain Mitch Johnson...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/Ibiza20132_zps44fd6fc4.jpg)

So yesterday was mine and mikes return to Nottingham. We arrived in Nottingham at 14:02 and were playing the APAT 6 max by 14:30 thanks to NFlanagan for picking us up.
The 6 max was actually pretty good value and we were running double average for most of the tournament. I exited in ~60th though after Ali wouldn't fold anything and i had to bet bet fold twice with premiums on rotten boards.

After my exit i joined a table of heroes on the 1/2. By 12 o'clock there was the Goulden one, belton, scott, myself, mike, liam and what seemed another reg. There was literally one value player at the table but the table dynamics were getting ridiculous between the regs, with some pretty big leveling wars.

Managed to somehow survive and won £470 for the session to negate my previous live loss at the Empire. Currently winning ~2.2k for the Month with 2 big days left.
Sausage sandwiches currently on the go. Morale high.

Good to see you yesterday. <3

Just lost the food flip vs Belton and mike. Definite Sean Belton angle shoot putting my card in the middle, psychological.

Now I know who's gonna be on tilt! I'm waiting for you lads, slackers!

 Getting the run bad out the way now.

I know some one who always does this on purpose scummy fucker

I can see I will have to keep an eye on this diary. Thanks for the rub downs.

Good to see my creative writing classes haven't gone unnoticed.

Full Nottingham trip report to come. Of to the hippodrome tonight after arriving back in london.

Nottingham Trip Report...
Good - Bad - Ugly...

Good:
Had a great start on the Friday. Really enjoyed the 6 max format and was running pretty deep but I had to bet bet fold two pinnacle hands and then lost a flip for the rest.
The cash game on Friday was great fun, with a bunch of heroes at the table even managing to lockup a £470 win.
Saturday i faded the APAT day 1 and went to play cash again. After a morale boosting nandos we joined the 1-2 game where i was introduced to Richard Berridge. After watching numerous pre flop all ins vs the guy i finally find  Jc Js and get re-raised to £2,000 pre flop after i make it £25 after the double straddle. I call and make a flush with the  Ac Kc already out.

Sunday we won a bowl, somewhere around £80

Bad
After the 1-2 broke i joined a pretty deep omaha game and lost a multi way pot for a BI. This later then broke where i rejoined the 1-2 after Berridge and Alex had left. Got coolered a bit then the 1-2 broke as well..... Ended the night with 1-1 omaha....

Ugly
The cliffs on this hand have already been stated on NFlanagans diary however my hand wasn't taken into account.

I find  8s 9h Th Jc in a straddled and potted flop IP. Nick makes it ~22 and i isolate with a repot to roughly ~70 (effective stacks are around £360 each and i'm under the impression Nicks never getting it all in pre unless he has AAxx, and my hand draws pretty well versus this).
The board comes down  2d 9c Ts and gets checked to me, where i pot and get it in vs a wrap. turn  5c river  Kd..... SIGH


Nottingham: Profit / Loss: Lost ~ 50

All in all a great trip just a shame i couldn't hold in some pinnacle spots. Full March Stats to come...

March Stats:

Games played: 1-2 NLH & PLO
Live hours played: 82
Total profit/loss: 1617

Hourly rate: 19.71

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/MarchFinalGraph_zps1377c88b.png)

Didn't see your hand in big pot fwiw.

Having  pretty good start to April. I've played twice since being back in London, both times at the Hippodrome.
To say the least I've got a lot of time for this venue and i'd say hospitality wise it's probably the nicest in London.

I had an issue there on Thursday night where a player who was rather drunk and OOL mucked his cards and they landed on top of mine. Even though it was preflop action at the time i was holding  9s 9d and would have obviously opened. The floor was called and my cards were declared dead. As an apology the cardroom manager at the time stated that i could go down to the Helliot restraunt and send the bill upto him as at this point i'd said i was going to take a break. Real nice touch on their behalf, and good customer service.

Anyway back to the poker. Tuesday night saw a £750 win through PLO mainly and then a small double at NLH both 1-2.
The PLO field was real soft with only one or two competent players who seemed to be staying out of each others way. One young Chinese lad seemed to be having a laugh but loved the word pot. The two pinnacle hands for the night were finding  Ahrt Aspades 8d Td and flatting from the SB to his £12 raise pre. 4 ways to a flop of  3s 7d 7s. I check and the Chinese lad bets out 30 into ~50. I flat call from the SB and ping an  Ad on the turn. I check and he bets out 55 into ~110. At this point i assume he definitely either has a 7 or QQ as he'd be pretty likely to double barrell vs me. I thought the best option would be to flat call then bomb the river, repping any 7. So i flat and put the remaining 115 in on the river. He puts his whole stack in and insta turns over QQ. Kind of felt like a slow roll as i turn over AA.

An orbit later i find  Ac Aspades 9s 4h in the SB again, and make it 15 pre with 2 callers. We see a flop of  Ad Qh 6s. I lead out for 35 into ~55. MP mucks and an iranian guy in position calls without any thought.
The turn is the  4s. At this stage i presume the guy either has QQxx or more likely broadway cards. From his quick call on the flop i'm presuming more broadway. I decided to bet 80 into ~120. The iranian guy just covers me, with us both having around £450 at the start of the hand. he counts out the 80 and looks at the rest of his stack, at this stage i was unsure if he was reluctant to call or whether he wanted to pot, but he swiftly put in the 80 to see the river. The river card is the  2s. The remaining stacks were just over the size of the pot. around ~£300 with a pot of about ~£280. At this stage i'm assuming the guy definitely has broadway draws and hopefully a hand like  Ts Jd Qh  Ks etc...

I therefore decided to check the river. Something about this player just made me think that he never assumes i'd check the second nuts on the river and it also allows him to open up his bluffing ranges. If the player was semi competent he would recognise if he does put me on AAxx that 66% of the time i'm going to have the  Aspades in my hand however i wanted to give him the oppurtunity to hang himself, sometimes a potentially risky stategy, never the less the guy tanks and then pots. I never saw his hand but i just put in the rest and rolled over the  Aspades 9s.

Thursday night i had a gin table. I felt like i was playing in Macau being the only English player at the table, and a bunch of leveling war Chinese people with a bunch of slow rolls. I managed to win around £200 without any showdowns to grind upto a stack of ~£400. I then found my one gin hand of the night....

Dealt to hero  6c 6d. Young Chinese guy, pretty solid player, who i just cover makes it £12 from MP. two callers and i complete from the button.
The flop....

 Kh Ks 6h..... [ Oh Hai Der ]

It checks round to me where i bet £15 into ~45 knowing someone is about to go crackers.
The young Chinese guy makes it 45 instantly. Folds to me where i make it 110. He then insta shoves, the board bricks out and i turn over 66 to see him showing his friends his cards and shaking his head.

Starting April now with a ~£1400 heater over 2 sessions.
Please continue....

Make ALL the sets

Diary Rejuvenation
Life updates...

So my life's been pretty hectic for the past few weeks meaning I've only played live 3 times in April aside from a lot of online punting. Work life has been pretty busy and i've got a lot of projects on so it's been hard to get anything done during weeknights and the weekends have been saved for nights out and seeing some heroes.

For the next 29 days though my life's taking an uber health shake up. For background i'm pretty active anyway, come from Loughborough uni, used to play county basketball etc... but for the months of my placement my cardio fitness has been synonymous to that of a couch potato. So on the 22nd May I've elected to raise money for the British heart foundation and take part in the 10k Canary Wharf run. This will be my first ever race for charity, or long distance run. Full credit goes to RBC_Mike for asking me to take part.
My training programme is being absorbed into my already existent weight training plans and i'm hoping to put in a decent time on the day. For anyone interested i'll go into details upon request.

My nutrition plan is also now similar to that of someone cutting however with a significant carb load during a working day.
My standard day is now:

Breakfast: Cereal & Scrambled Egg on Toast + Large Brew (Standard Northener)
10-11am: Protein Shake + Fruit/Yogurt
Lunch: Vegetable Rice & Tuna/Chicken/Turkey
Post Gym: Banana & Oats + Protein Shake
Dinner: Salad & Cod/Salmon/Chicken/Turkey
Pre Bed: Milk

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/431927_10151557738929446_242760585_n_zps60d1bf01.jpg)

As part of my job i also got to go to the marathon exhibition on Friday as part of Team Lucozade. For anyone unaware i work at GlaxoSmithKline.

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/photo-1_zpsf562c85c.jpg)

I managed to get some good training tips and meet some celebs among getting to make the most of the discounts on offer.
I bought some new running trainers... Nike Zm Structure Triax. The Structure Triax is for people that over pronate, as i'm unfortunately flat footed.

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/120415570-260x260-0-0_nikezoomstructuretriax15men_zpse39a296b.jpg)

Anyway i'll attempt to keep this updated, and feel free to ask if anyone has any questions.
For reference my just giving page is here... in case anyone would like to spare a few Big Blinds.

http://www.justgiving.com/Gary-Holden1 (http://www.justgiving.com/Gary-Holden1)

No updates.....? Come on Derbylad...

He tries although his solid ROI and stable mental state mean that not enough gore shock or horror
are included, Fortunately.

Will have to come down for a London visit and liven things up pokerwise. Will no doubt end with GoldDon
winning all the moies though. Wal.

Non-Poker Related:
Still really busy at work. Our team this month has had the hard launch of our Enterprise Social Network solution, something that's been present since 2010.
I've not really had any spare time and my weekends have been pretty hectic. I'm kind of in limbo at the minute on where i'm going to be this summer. My placement is meant to last one year so therefore my contract should end in late June. There is the potential to stop on throughout summer however this is dependent on the budget of our department. I've also asked for a pay increase compared to my standard placement wage, as an undergrad wage is pretty disgusting for living in London.

I'm still on track to run the 10k for the British Heart Foundation next Wednesday and have been trying to keep a balance of weight training and cardio.
http://www.justgiving.com/Gary-Holden1 (http://www.justgiving.com/Gary-Holden1)

Poker Related:
My live earnings in London have been well above EV, however for the last couple of months i've been attempting to transition more to online to adjust to less degen sleeping patterns and the additional bonus of home comforts. In absolutel honesty though a combination of shit BRM and some steam sessions have seen me knock it in a fair bit.

As a result i've set myself a challenge of winning at 10c/25c (zoom) over 100k hands. This has started as of today and I've just completed my first milestone of 1k hands.
As it stands i aim to make 6bb/100 over 100k hands meaning earnings of $1500.

I've just had a pretty erroneous first day, managing to bag the following...

Total hands: 1000
Net Won USD: $174.81
BB/100: 69.92
VPIP: 14.7
PFR: 9.91
3 Bet: 5.0

Hopefully when this challenge is complete we'll have some healthy profits, and my BRM will be a little less sporadic. I've not really worked out what rewards i'll earn in the meantime from playing 100k hands with an expected 6bb/100, for anyone that knows how to work this out please let me know. Anyway GL Us.

I've also sat'd into the ISPT Day1 and will be playing live on the 25th at DTD. Fingers crossed i run good all the way to wembley.

Right i've been mulling my challenge over with a couple of mates and want to see peoples thoughts on...

would people play full ring / 6max?
zoom / ring games?

Intrigued to see what peoples thoughts are on the development differences between 6max and full ring.

Had hoped a few other members would weigh in on this as we have already gone over this through PM
will add here why I think 6Max or even HU would be more beneficial then full ring or playing zoom with the intention of
getting some other opinions.

Playing 6Max/HU cash is the absolute best way to learn and anybody who has solely played MTT's
in all likelihood sucks especially postflop. The reason I don't like full ring as opposed to shorthanded
is mainly to do with the fact all you will be doing is folding well over 80% of hands preflop and mainly
taking pots down pre this is not an efficient use of time.

When you play 6Max you get to see the flop far more often and in the case of HU it could be as much
as half the time. Being a better player at the given stakes you play you will be able to put the other players
to difficult decisions a higher percentage of the time, more spots to 3/4bet too.
Tommy Bingham made I great point to that we touched on that playing 6Max(not ZOOM) we will be
able to build up a dynamic between multiple players. For me that's one of the joys of the game some levelling wars.

So basically we are improving our postflop play at a greater rate and there is a correlation between hands played
and ability I'm sure some would argue.

Good luck with the challenge think its a great idea and with some luck you will kick my ass into gear and I may even
attempt the same myself.

I tried to comment on this yesterday, but was having problems with my phone. As mentions, spoke to Will about this, but cannot find the message I sent him.

I watch alot of regs/supernovas on Stars, that 4 table Zoom Six Max. Their 3Bet% is through the roof and works out to be very, very profitable.

Personally though, Standard Six Max is always my choice.
Being more focused and less robotic will pay massive in the future. I just believe being comfortable with the same players will always pay off.
Why snap take $50 flipping vs a random Russian on Zoom, when you can sneakily destroy someone for $10 an hour?
Online once you have a solid tell, spesh at low/micro stakes you can destroy them.

Something that can be brought into live tourneys too.

Great stuff here Sulphur Man.  Potential diary merge is on.

I am going to start some form of Speed poker challenge on ipoker with a lad I know through another forum/ipoker skin.  My volume will be less than his as I continue to play two nights per week of MTTs upto $10 level on that site and 888.

I certainly agree with your observation about post-flop skills of MTT/STT players.  I am one.

I am really wanting to play Speed, over standard 6-max, for added Reward Points. I would be happy breaking even for the immediate future, ldo, and building my post-flop experience.  I want to build a stronger all-round game and continue with tournaments over the medium-term, building my roll, playing a little higher, sats to UIK tour events, and local live casino donkaments.

glglgl in your own challenge Derbylad.

Bump...

Granted this diary took a bit of a derail, so apologies to anyone who was in for the ride.
The past few months has seen me concentrate a bit more on life goals, accompanied by the lack of financial positioning and being a lavish student living in London.

What's been happening?
At the start of July my years placement as a Business Analyst came to an end however i was offered a new role over summer as a contractor.
The past months therefore seen me pretty hectic in finding a new house, handing over my old role and starting my new one.

and what about Poker....?
"Even the best go broke..." Well it's a pretty SNORE tail to tell, but attempting to transition to online instead of playing live just saw me doing my bollocks in online cash games.
The tactical maneuver to free up time and allow me to play when i want rather than battle with the degen lifestyle and working life took it's toll in the form of an almighty downswing in PLO.
The tilting thing is that my live cash was stable, creating steady profits and brought confidence into my game even when against the more non recs in London. There was enough dynamics in both the Empire and Hippodrome games to grind it out but the 9-5 Monday-Friday was a pretty unbearable transition.

Going forward...
Aside from potentially getting backed for the London live games again i'm just sticking to finishing out my contract before heading back to Loughborough for finalist year.
I'll be back playing at Dusk till Dawn where the stakes will allow me to grind out a bankroll again when i get time away from studies.
This week did see me seeing a few of the heroes again when i met up with Fred, Mitch, Stato and PJ to have a Gambol at the Hippodrome.
After grinding out some profits and entertaining the in position annoying South African guy for around 6 hours my attempt to finally catch him ended in Kh Kc being no good vs his mighty  Aspades 7s which he 4 bet shoved in.... MARV. < insertcomment about Long term Variance>. Fred may well have taken down the degenerate title though, after still wanting to head to The Vic at 8am after what must have been a solid 14 hour session, hats off to that guy.

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/blocks_image_0_1_zps3abb09d0.png)

Anyway that's the round up, and apologies for the slack posting.

And how has OFC been going mate? :D

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/988273_10151754089979446_303083819_n_zpsf610f89b.jpg)

Box.....

Is that Photoshopped....? fml..

Confirmed not photoshopped, he even binked the 7 for the middle straight too, what a morecambe.

I played it perfectly tbf ;)

Threes on the top looking strong though gaz

Big set. The only person I'm beating in OFC is Flanagan

Only because I fucking brick EVERY fantasy land.

QQ
KK
A to start

ANY BARRY'S ABOUT DEALER?

NOPE SORRY TEHEHE, LOTS OF 2 and 3 THO.

ENJOI MISSETTING.

TROLOLOLOL.

Fuck off. #foulcity

Btw very rookie move putting small pair up top, 6's+ or gtfo. #pointsplz

He couldn't hit any more 9's so I was just negating him winning all 3 ;)

And I'm tez... I said i'd play £1 a point degenerately not knowing the game.

 :)up

More degen stories pls

One of my favorite stories to this day was in the Empire. Now the player - dealer bond that occurs between the 'regs' of the game is a pretty fun one, when after all they spend hours of their life either pitching you the lot or cold decking your bank roll away. Now one dealer, i'll mention no names, had persistently told one of the older regs, who spent each betting round trying to keep his eyes wide open, to go home as he was drifting off and slowing the game down for the more caffeine eyed among us.

After the fourth or fifth time, said dealer decided it was his time to have some entertainment. Spreading the deck out as if to shuffle the dealer picked out the  Aspades Ac unknown to the sleeping gentleman. With a cheeky 'you know' look to the rest of the table the dealer slid the rolled up aces to the snoring senior and pitched the rest of us the cards.

The player UTG was a young guy who dealt at the Vic and was happy to play along. He raised to 7 UTG at 1/2 and UTG+1 limped. It was folded to the unsuspecting victim in MP who was ushered by the dealer as normal to wake up. He looked down at his cards, took a steady gaze towards his chips, then to his left and then.... flatted, flicking in a red and two yellow discs.

The table erupted in laughter and the dealer gave the player a final warning as well as a rub down asking him "Did you forget to add a pony to that bet".

Anyway, a shout out to the heroic dealers that keep the nightly grind that little bit more entertaining, as well as those that participate in 'Lodden' prop bets.

This.

Poker updates....

Aside from a few online punts I've not been playing live recently which is a refreshing change.
I finish contracting as a Business Analyst on the 27th September and then it's straight back to Loughborough that weekend for the dreaded finalist year.

It was interesting to read Alex's wright up of Barca stating that while he had everything around him he still had those demons in his head from something that can be so addictive, and i think that's a situation for a lot of us, so it's been nice to try and switch off for a while. Despite this, i know that i'll still find myself grinding in Nottingham a lot in finalist year and truthfully it's one of the things i'm looking forward to about going back; hopefully i continue to run good in the Nandos flips.

One of the things I've missed through only playing online lately is Live tournaments which gives full credit to Dusk for having what's likely the best tournament structure in the country, especially considering the constant guarantees. I still find it funny that you can regularly walk into a card room in the UK and find somebody that you've previously played against and i found it even stranger for players in London to recognize me from Notts.

Some life news...

I've got through to the fast track for the graduate scheme of the company I've been working for throughout this year, so hopefully i perform well at the forthcoming stages. My dissertation is set to be in Neuromarketing, also operating for the same company.

I've been asked to coach basketball in Final year which i'm pretty happy about. It's nice to have achievements recognized and it's always in good spirits to give back to the game that i used to play so often. I actually did get through to play for Hammersmith this year in London but turned it down due to the work commitments and the times of training and games.

One of the more funny things to come is driving again. I've not had my car in London and therefore haven't drove in about a year and 4 months, so it'll be interesting to see whether my muscle and cognitive memory can still work it out, or whether i spend the next few weeks stalling away and getting people waving at me with only 20% of their fingers.

Anyway, my next trip report should hopefully be my return to Dusk / Gala with hopefully some Degen stories for the diary.

Congrats on getting through the fast track thing...

I recognise that 20% statistic :)

Sick work with the coaching gig, lad. You'll have to use your new status to sneak me into the Loughborough gym. ;)

Looking forward to Nando's flips/diary merging. Feels like ages since you were a DTD reg.

Haha it was some time ago, but it was a pretty memorable quote.
Looking forward to it. The two most used cards will soon become the DTD black card and the new and improved Nandos loyalty card, hopefully the bank card not so much (running GHolden at flips since 1991).

So as of last Sunday I've returned from London to Loughborough to finish off my Final year at University.
I've so far played twice this week and the game in London and the amount I've been playing online has started to pay dividends in my overall decision making.

On Tuesday myself and Will Lillejord decided to go to Alea to play the 20+4 1r/a as there was £1k added to the prize pool and a fair amount of value to be had.
I was pretty happy with my play staying balanced and managing to pick up an effective stack early on. After winning 2/3 flips i was the CL for the table and what seemed the tournament.
Myself and Will then got put on the same table and we both grinded it out to the FT.
When it got to 7 players a short stack offered a deal of 500 for everyone and play for 1300 while i was CL with 450k. The payout for 1st was 1650 and the top 3 prizes were all above 500. I therefore declined much to some disgruntled looks and some whispering breaths. When we got down to 4 i lost a flip vs the guy who had suggested the deal and was hovering on 200k with 1.8million in play.
After a short break they came back and offered 710 for me and 3rd position and split the rest between 1st and second. 4th prize was 420 and 3rd prize was 660 so i wasn't going to turn it down.

Last night i returned to DTD to witness some pretty brutal hands at 1-1, however locked up around a £200 win. We took an early lead after getting AK in vs two opponents on a K high flush draw board and held.
I was playing pretty well and in a variety of spots extracted value or folds from what i perceived as pretty weak ranges.
There was a pretty interesting hand where i had  Aspades 3s and 5 bet a Villain who was intending to limp and then raised to 9 UTG+1 with the straddle on from Fred Wise.
Something just told me he never has it in that position and his stack size allowed him to make an easy fold as he didn't seem the type of player to get it in with anything but KK or AA.
My disgusting hand of the night i've posted to PHA...

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=62334.0

Unsure if i'm playing this weekend yet, i've been feeling a bit ill the past few days so it depends how well I can recover. Damn Freshers Flu.

Didnt realise they added £1k thought it was £1k gteed. Might pop in next week. Chuckled when you said shortie suggested deal though, cheeky sod :)

i do hope you resisted the urge of poker last night and hit up returners FND. wasss sickkk!! much better than tanking for 10mins and folding the nuts ;)

Confirmed, resisted the urge (hated the queue though). May play tonight though, you about?

yep, coming down for the xxl i think and some cash potentially. depends on how tired our poor taxi driver rexas is!
chins on the queue, got a queue jump with towers!! never been so sweaty in one place before, worth it though!

Are you playing the £300 today....?

Not playing the 300, just down for some cash. May even go to gala later on.

Ended up reg'ing the 150 deepstack yesterday mainly due to the 14k overlay.
I'd spoke to Will and a few others previously and it seemed that the target was 100k which I got to at around level 7, loved my table and was making timed plays and good decisions.
I was therefore pretty bitter when we ended up practically stacking off with Tc Td on   3d 7h 8c 2s Th where villain check jammed the river with  9s Js, i can only assume he planned to bluff any river anyway and then just got there. Flipped a 45k stack blind on blind at level 12 two hands before the finish which me and the BB had discussed would do it blind so one of us could have a shot at day two. Hilarious  Ts  2c vs  Th 7s and the  Th 7s high miraculously held.

Our night then turned into the epitome of degeneracy where we lost a negligible amount at a 1-1 PLO game; that we pretty much had to make as everyone else was just limping every hand regardless of strength pre flop. We should have got the lot when Duncan plays face up and repots AAxx pre, in hindsight i should have isolated vs his range with my hand but instead we went four ways to the flop for £44 each and see a board of   4h 8h 9d while i'm holding  7d Td Jc Qc, we miraculously all have a piece and get stacks in....The  6c came on the turn (wiiii) but we couldn't hold on the river. We snap went to Gala when last hands were called at around 3. Mini cliffs was got AA vs KK and won 150 while i witnessed the Fred Wise and Nik Flanagan show unveil.

Tanking the decision to play tonight as i'm still pretty tired from last nights antics, but with 281 runners in the pub poker comp I should probably capitalise on some dorrraaa on the tables.

;o

To say the least it's been a while. It's been a fair few months off the poker scene lately but after finally finishing my first semester of final year I felt I needed to give the boys a spin.
I've got to say I'm pretty impressed with Dusk for attracting enough players to meet the 'Giant' tournament guarantees they've ran in the past few days, and it's really given the cash game economy a boost as well. I reg'd the super 50 yesterday with a guarantee of about 6k up top which for the buy in is fair to say the best value tournament in the country.
Managed to play pretty well without showdown until i had to check down vs Frankie with  Jc 6d after isolating from the button vs Frankie's open and a weak passive players limp and winning with a pair of 6's. Major brain teaser of the day was this... http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=62826.0 (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=62826.0), still debating how i played it.

After we bust around 60th with 99 < KQ we managed to get a pretty timid 1-1 PLO going and managed to get some decent table banter and a small win to end the night.
Likely reg'ing the Sundays today and then potentially back to Dusk if we brick the lot. Unsure how busy dusk's cash will be though and the drive from Loughborough gets a little tedious when the games are bad.

Well done on your best finish  :)

How's it feel to be back up north after a year in the big smoke...? Which do you prefer...?

About 2-3 degrees colder? ;)
Unfortunately to say i'd grown quite accustom to being a cityboy and the 24 hour games in London were pretty nice.
I couldn't quite keep up the degen sleeping pattern while working though so it's nice to be back to being a student for a while.
The atmosphere of the hippodrome (and the delicious club sandwich) were really nice though, still one of the nicest casinos i've played in décor wise, accept maybe walking into the Ricoh in Cov.

Yesterday we bricked every comp aside waiting out a Mitch in the Omania when 122/124 with 117 paid. Pretty standard routines and just didn't win any crucial flips despite running deep and having effective stacks in the hot 16.50 and 8.80 2x etc...
Decided to flick it in for Dusk at around 11 and beat my personal best in getting there with the 'Sunday traffic'. The drive from Loughborough to Nottingham is actually quite enjoyable if you take the back roads and has the grand total of 0 speed cameras to spoil the fun.

We managed to start a 1-1 PLO which they wanted to turn into a 1-1 DC. I swapped with Sean to 1-1 NLH to let them play, which consequentially broke within half an hour, so i was left with the decision to pick up DC rather than play 50-1. I think i actually had one of my most enjoyable evenings in Dusk despite a tiny loss. Having the chance to learn something new and adopt new tactics just made the night a bit more enjoyable. I think i folded the vast majority of super stud and Padooki for a while but managed to get to grips with hi/lo and super stud by the end. Managed to make a few timed bluffs and got a guy off a chop after bombing the river with the same hand. I definitely need to take a step back and calculate my true equity in a few of the spots but i think in the right line up i could potentially hold my ground and make a profit.

One thing that i did find mildly annoying is when it's the last 3 hands people with shallow stacks from the broken tables coming to effectively spin it up. Now i know there is nothing wrong with the concept in theory but when the consequence is two big stacks getting it in after the short stack limp pots it in the final hand it's pretty unfair on the victims. In my eyes the last 3 hands should only ever be between the active players at the table but i'm sure countless people will disagree with me.

Anyway I'm potentially stopping in Loughborough and Notts for a few days to continue the Xmas Grind. Likely tonight will either be Gala or Riverlights. With the Rob Yong bounty comp on it might attract some people for the cash games.

Finally back home for Xmas after a pretty sigh few days of poker. To not bore the world too much it's the standard KK < AA and then a heap of bad beats and lost flips.
I've been attempting to get some sort of consistency going online and play a similar schedule but my HEM graph looks a bit like a car crash for MTT's. Every tournament I've got relatively deep in I seem to bust close to the bubble lately; mainly in spots like this...

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/6530968_E32FD2B861 (http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/6530968_E32FD2B861)

The only thing i seem to be running good at lately is Chinese and it has managed to get me out of the hole a bit in the past week.
Yesterday i finally took the time to reg for Winamax after hearing some good things about the eurosites but i think I've got to definitely incorporate some time into my online cash game if i'm going to beat this MTT variance. Fingers crossed i'll get some time away from revision and January exams to try and bink something to fill the Christmas cheer.

Big schedule today starting from around 7pm. Managed to luckbox a milli satellite for about $8 so looking forward to having the biggest event on my schedule as well as my first online 2dayer. GL to all the heroes.

milli is 2 day???

If you go to tourney info the scroller in the top right said something about 2 day-event. Could have read it wrong though?

to be fair Gary, unless you run as good as Gilly and Rexas combined, whether its a 2 day event is something your not is not something your going to have t0 worry about ;)

Have you not heard i'm gHolden?

you could be called Chuck Norris, wouldnt make any difference ;)

I'll keep you off the celebration night out guest list then? ;)

Ridiculous comment. Rexas doesn't come remotely close to running as good as me

Only Rasta holds those records

true that. My inspiration <3

debatable, rexas runs insanely. if any of us hard half the run good, we would have ticked off all the goals on Ice Shades ambition list by now ;)

When I grow up, I want to be half as cool as you <3 :)

 ;kneelsucker;

Getting a bit sick of online now. After a day of tournaments that actually evened out to a small profit i continue to get absolute battered on cash to some pretty sickening beats.
The tip of the ice berg is this one...

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/6556948_081D985E69

Could definitely do with some backing to stop taking these brutal swings. Off to sleep off the rage.

Moaned in the Xmas bink. 1st from 201 in the $4.40r PLO 6max.

can you just ask Gilly who railed the final table? where you started with 10bbs?
any thpughts gilly?

You watched me last night where I bricked the absolute world running bad everywhere.

Nothing but a curse ;)

Good Going... Winning becomes habit, so keep it up...!!

Congrats

Erghhh just been grimmed out of a big one again... =/

5th in the 44

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/6610247_FC3BCF644C

Mistype win... http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/6622626_E45CF6CEC2

Mini heater continues, just can't seem to break through at the FT though... 3rd in the $15 180man

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/6623627_B6D4B0E19F

Just sat'd the milli now on first attempt too...
http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/6624415_A2857F8CEA

Thanks to Steve (bangbang) for the idea... two weeks in a row

Now take it down.... A big win is definitely on the horizon.. 

Slightly gutted, 28th of 12,235 in the Saturday splash. Good ROI but just couldn't find hands in the final 4 tables.

Good session all round yesterday, made a profit online then headed to Dusk around 12.30-1am to play some live PLO.  It's pretty rare to find any PLO running when not at the Vic or Broadway so was worth the drive. Line up was pretty nice and made some profits but the table broke ridiculously early after it seemed most players were locking up. Couldn't really be arsed to play 3 handed especially when it was me, Frankie and one other guy so we were forced to play with half as many cards.
Managed to do a miraculous fade vs Phil in the 1/2 with AQ vs KJhh on Qh10s4h. Table banter was as good as always when Mitch and Stato are together and i've never seen more inventive ways to use the word 'Leicester' in a sentence.

Likely playing at gala tonight before having a big new years night out tomorrow.

Good to see you running well and playing well bud; nye tomorrow is gonna be largeeeee.

wheres the real Gholden gone then?  :o

Just not stacking off with full houses like a pro apparently ;)

still think you owe me 200 quid for that pot :D

Faded the 4th attempt at winning a deep stack seat after bricking the Super50 again yesterday. 3rd time this week I've got AJs in vs 1010 for the world and lost. My statistical deviance for not winning at least 45% of these is mind boggling, especially after i'm meant to run 'golden'. I feel George was giving me a rub down too after dealing me AA the very next hand with < 1k chips remaining. Managed to put in a solid 7 hour Grind on 2-2 PLO though and thankfully we tend to do better with 4 cards. Lots of hands of interest and enjoyed some of the tough spots and trapping to finally get to a well needed green session.
Think i'll be taking a break until the end of January now with my January exams coming up, which is a shame because my morale is at a high after knocking it in during December.

you not mean, you run 'gholden'? ;) :D

Seems a lot of people are doing a Favorite Song of the week etc... for the new year so i'll join in the hype to delve into the musical mind of a Loughborough student.
This weeks playlist...

Current favorite house track...

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5-prMoJJf8

Inspired by Alex trying to name 10 rappers... Childish Gambino - 3005

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG35R8F2j8k

Ended up playing live last night after Steve wanted a lift to the club and a shot at the DS seat. I ended up coming 7th in it after being card dead at the FT and running JQ into AK. Had a tonne of interesting hands but i can't deny i flopped pretty well a bunch of times. After giving the boys a spin on 1/2....4/8/16 we lost 1010<AK to a splashy Korean and then headed to GALA/Grosvenor. To say we ran the table over is an understatement and i ended up killing the game in about half an hour due to some solid run good. 7s7d > Qh8h on 9c7h9h then QQ > JJ > 77 AIP for a chunk. Rounded off the weekend nicely and a good start to the New Year.

And we luck box the comp by getting AA 5/6 times on FT table ! Wp

Yeah bit of a crazy tournament. Some V. strange folds pre flop.

A day in the life of Fred Wise....

Yesterday was the most ridiculous session I've ever had at OFC. There comes a certain morality of letting people try and 'PLAY' out of it, but after spending far too many hours in Grosvenor card room i ended 2200 points up.... (rounded  down). Play was 4 handed with 2's Wild with some pretty crazy swings going around. The hand of the night...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/1509025_10152138052724446_357518443_n_zpsdc24fac3.jpg)


In other news...

Congratz to Verndog for satelliting the GPS seat. Bring a flag home to Loughborough please.

I felt ill looking at this picture BEFORE i even knew it was deuces wild....with that information....holy christ...

Ha thanks GHoldem, i shall certainly try. Seems like the poker Gods want me to have a good shot at it, only binked another seat at the club tonight the 25 rebuy! #thin

Terrible play if deuces aren't wild...

(http://silkstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/tumblr_mezy08dbze1qbm00wo1_500.gif)

2000 word report on Google Analytics and Search Engine Optimization done..... time for cards.... preferably 4.

Anyone who's a fan of Route 94 time to take a step back and relive one of their first understated releases...
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oCVRm1BeMM

Gratz to verndog in bagging up 130k for the GPS and Matt's flying the flag for the Loughborough lads today too.
I might flick it in for the £150 side today however the cash games will likely capture my attention.

Hoping to see some of the London heroes I've not seen in a while as well, with some big names in the lineups.  

I've definitely been lagging on my own diary as of late, but my exams have been taking a front foot over poker. I've finally got my last exam on Thursday and it's the one I've been least looking forward to.... 3 hours.... 3 essays all encompassing "Strategic Management". Why educational institutions still provide these exam formats is a bit beyond me, particularly in your Final Year of study. Most of the knowledge you acquire at uni should be about applying your skills however these memory test style exams really don't show replication to industry; more who can memorize a textbook and write quicker then everyone else. To give a broader context to the exam it's a 100% exam worth 20 credits which is 1/6th of my year. So this exam alone is worth 12.5% of my entire university career.

Poker wise i'm looking forward to the next few weeks. Planning to play a lot of the tournaments at Dusk starting with the incredible 100 on Saturday. Hopefully i'll find a means to satellite into the deep-stack and then a few friends are coming down to play the Grand Prix during February. All going well i'm planning a London visit too, so February is likely to be my biggest volume month in a long while, which i really am stoked for.... the last time i planned to put this much volume in was when Dusk ran the "goldmine" that was the live cash game bonus.

Other then this I cannot wait to get back into the Gym. I genuinely feel a shadow of my former self without sounding to arrogant as pretty much 4 years of Gym progress has been diminished over a 2 month break due to exams and coursework.

Song of the week. Fresh new track from Bondax...

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2BHeEP15dE

No more exams in 31 hours.... not that i'm counting or anything.

Morning bud.

We've removed your Post in which you were selling 50% of your action in today's Incredible 100 - you need 300 Posts before you can sell via blonde, sorry.

Quality > Quantity ;)

Cliffs on the DC last night....?

Real good game. Ran pretty well / actually held in multi way pots, which always helps. Let the post exam heater continue.

Hey young lad sorry about my reaction to that paddoki hand ;madasahatstand;

No need mate, we all have our moments. I won't be that lucky next time haha =)

Bit of a rollercoaster few days of poker. Had a 3 day heater, made profit for our first backing, followed by our biggest ever losing session on Sunday. Today I decided to play online and cashed the 5Card PLO TCOOP in 51st and came 7th in the 5.50 2x turbo. Pretty annoying to come 7th when 1 player had 1bb, but I wasn't folding an A UTG with 4 bigs.
My sleeping pattern at the minute is back to super degen. I've just woke up, so likely going to wear it out until tomorrow now. More online today, can't remember what the TCOOP events are today but I kind of wish I'd played a lot more of them, great value.
Still undecided on how I'm playing the 550 deepstack. I've not tried to satellite yet, but if not should have a deal sorted out. Big scores around the corner.

Roller coaster start to the day again. Ran like absolute shit at my usual 25/50c PLO grind, then bricked every comp within a 5 minute window in some shitty coolers.
Managed to pull out the God Deadman mode at 1/2 to get us back to a winning day though...

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7159592_7FE00B0ACE (http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7159592_7FE00B0ACE)

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7159747_11442C16E1 (http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7159747_11442C16E1)

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7159935_A2BF07D0A7 (http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7159935_A2BF07D0A7)

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7160075_C3687BE1A3 (http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/7160075_C3687BE1A3) - Didn't actually know how to get the money in on this one. Thought it was likely to go check, check, check on the river so thought we'd jam the turn. Hilare coolers

Might go to ALEA tonight for the 1k added. Heard there's a regular 1-1 DC after too, so should be fun.

Where abouts in derby are you from?

Originally from Burton. I live in Loughborough right now though.

Snore losing session at ALEA. I seem to be doing a good job of cancelling out profits with losing sessions at the minute which really isn't the 'balance' i'm going for.
Was going to play the arranged game tonight, but really not feeling it after consecutive live losses. Might play the XXL and try and bink a 550 sat.
Big TCOOP day ahead though hopefully, if i can keep my eyes open.

Following on in the footsteps of Deadman we lock up a 2nd place in the $77 6max for a $2.1k morning.... wiiii
Definitely need some HU coaching if theres any offers about.

 ;indestructable;

Preferably someone with HU experience....

Think we just about broke even / did a small profit on the week after some brutal live sessions. Lost 1.4 on Sunday and 800 on Tuesday but managed to maintain a steady online profit most of the week. Just completed my point allocation for platinum star. Might take a run at supernova if I manage to maintain volume, but it's obviously year dependant.

Tonight I'm taking my last shot at satelliting the deepstack in the XXL Giant. If not I'm either going to play it and sell half or just play the 150 deepstack and have 100%. Probably all dependant on how tonight's session goes.

Planning to download Omaha manager soon, so I might start posting some end of month graphs, currently been tanking buying a new laptop though, so I may just wait until that happens.

550 deepstack day1... A lot of Heros playing it today. Hopefully we accumulate a lot of betting disks.

Good luck boss. I'm swotting up on Deuces before I return to crush  ;snoopy'sguns;

Deepstack:
This February's deep-stack was the first 500 i'd played. Day 1 i had the same table for the entire day which started to become a bit tedious when Lalith Sheena 3 bet every single opener to my direct left. I really didn't know if the guy was continuously getting hands or just had my number, but it was pretty hard to re-assess and 4 bet him when the biggest hand we had all day was AJo. I ended the day with 72k which i was somewhat happy with after what felt like my biggest grind at a table.
Day 2 i met Deadman early for a run good Costa so obviously it was fate that when we get to DTD i was sat to his direct left, closely followed by Millidonk to my left. While it was good to have a few faces on the table I continued my card dead stretch from Day1 and watched everyone shy away from playing against Deadman as he picked up the blinds. I finally busted after shoving 49k from the SB at 2k/4k 500ante with A2s to the CO open and a Deadman limp. Deadman called off with AJo and took it down. Pretty sure this is still a profitable shove a bunch of the time as the CO was opening pretty wide and relatively passive and i know Simon would likely play him down the streets with any two IP.

Cash:
Such a swingy weekend. I won't bore people with the full HH's but i managed to get it in on DC as like an 80%+ favourite a bunch of times and got sucked out on, then lost all my marginal flips. Got out of a hole on the 1/2/4 after just finding a bunch of cooler spots (; Sorry Phil Clarke). Monday i went to Gala and continued to give my stacks to Sean "Run Good" Belton when we 3 bet pre out of the SB to his 7 open and one limper, C-Bet the flop and get it in vs an SB flop raise -> 4 bet shove with....

Aspades Qs <  Ks 8s on....   4s 5s Th

Online:
Still going strong. Cashed out a bunch of my 1/2 PLO roll and we're currently $2.1k net Profit for the year in MTT's not counting any PLO tournament winnings.

i assume this counts here too right?

Febuary Poker: The Month of the Bad beat??

As the title suggests February's poker has been a bit of a shit one. Today i bust a UKPC seat 6 away with A9 < A3 when we both had relatively big stacks Button v Blind, Saturday i bust the incredible 100 in an orbit after coming back with 235k with an average of 135k and in the Super 50 Giant last weekend i lost AQ < AJ for the Chip lead with 13 left, along with Goulder stacking me last night with KK < 88 AIP for ~400. If it wasn't for online i genuinely think i'd be near busto recently as it's been the only thing keeping me going. Anyway this isn't so much of a rant more just a plea to the live poker gods to let my variance even out sometime soon and let me actually get a piece of the cake.

Thankfully online is going okay. We're around $3.5k up in MTT's on the year and 1/2 PLO has become my break and butter stake recently. Still fading buying a new laptop, mainly because of doing chunks live, but I did treat myself to a new TV the other week, so Pokerstars on a 32" Samsung is a lot easier to multi-table. I think i'll probably be sticking to online for a while now and probably just play online satellites into the bigger live comps. GPS Sheffield may be the next one for moi.

Been having a rough couple of weeks at live cash and definitely been seeing the shittier side of variance.
We have however just got the better end of a deal in the $33 Omania 3 ways for a nice 4 figure Tuesday.
Still #LoveTheGame, no matter how cruel =) 

Nice... Love the Omania...

You playing the main this weekend...?

Hopefully, might involve me selling a greater % then i'd normally like if i don't satellite it tonight though

March Poker - The Summary

Played lots of Poker [  ]
Finished 1st in a comp [X]
Winning Month [X]

April Poker - The beginning

Bricked the Deepstack [X]
Played the worst hand I've ever played [X]

Here come the details...

So March was possibly the least volume in poker I've had in a longggggg time. After losing chunks at the end of Feb I took a bit of a break and concentrated on some real life stuff. As a result I've got two final round graduate assessment centres lined up for London, one this week and one postponed until later this month / next month. Poker wise, Mike (RBC_Mike) came down to visit last weekend, which could only result in a weekend of degeneracy. Played live Friday and Saturday and managed to bink the Super 50 for a score and a 275 seat.

Cash has been going alright the past week and I've put in a fair amount of Volume at the live tables. I did however do the most uncharacteristic thing ever yesterday and misread the nuts on the river in PLO to grant somebody a stack of 5-600. My thought process being, must be a chop, I can't flat call the nuts though when in position.... "Pot", oh, that is a bigger straight......

(http://i.imgur.com/zkwv0.gif)

The deepstack cliffs were pretty dull. It involved 6 bet shoving AA and not getting called by a CO vs Button war who apparently had AQ. We then get in AKhh < AA for the lot after blinding down with 0 hands and Ben Vinson to my right taking all my blind steals.

I've got a lot on for the rest of the month with my dissertation due and these graduate interviews. I'm looking forward to a relaxed May and hopefully a lot of Poker volume with fingers crossed a guaranteed Grad Job.

Also... for any Breaking Bad fans.... enjoy this doppelganger. Apologies in advance if this is a blondeite or someone people know...

(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h230/Phonia/1458419_10152321319154446_716872011_n_zps72c234ff.jpg)

Please get Red Dog in the thread to confirm this is Dingleberries from his Hank story, that would just make my day. The thread is in the Rail, have a read if you haven't already. Story of the century.

Dingleberries!!

good luck with the Interviews today.....

TTD...

Pleased to announce some life news that I got the Grad Scheme.... (In before thin brag)
Back to London in September

Not a HH.... Generalisation

PokerStars Hand #115314836307: Tournament #898794988, $50+$5 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (500/1000) - 2014/04/26 5:43:37 WET [2014/04/26 0:43:37 ET]
Table '898794988 21' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: maninshed (33279 in chips)
Seat 2: GHolden7 (29137 in chips)
Seat 4: turner019 (6141 in chips)
Seat 5: Psych0P4th (31557 in chips)
Seat 6: martan308 (23275 in chips)
Seat 7: 1chiban (12248 in chips)
Seat 8: Giovani_1985 (10929 in chips)
Seat 9: slyca (8464 in chips)
maninshed: posts the ante 100
GHolden7: posts the ante 100
turner019: posts the ante 100
Psych0P4th: posts the ante 100
martan308: posts the ante 100
1chiban: posts the ante 100
Giovani_1985: posts the ante 100
slyca: posts the ante 100
Psych0P4th: posts small blind 500
martan308: posts big blind 1000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GHolden7 [As Js]
1chiban: folds
Giovani_1985: folds
slyca: folds
maninshed: folds
GHolden7: raises 1000 to 2000
turner019: folds
Psych0P4th: raises 1500 to 3500
martan308: folds
GHolden7: ???

I've seen more and more players adopt this trend of min raising a bunch of hands preflop rather than choosing a regular 3 bet sizing whether it's IP or OOP.
In this exact spot the villain is playing 13/9/4 over 78 hands. After OPR'ing him he seems like a general fish but he's already taken some pretty weird lines.
It seems like far too many times in this spot i'm folding / C.Folding and losing 3/4bb's but then a wide variety of players still use it as an induce with their major holdings.
Is flatting here the generic option? and are we only pulling out the 4bet when we've noticed it as an abnormality?

That's him! He's totally unmistakable. The likeness is uncanny isn't it?

Seems a really easy call to me.