From a generic Degree to a leading Poker Practitioner

[paulhouk03]

Are you a windows 8 fan?

[JGill_DTD]

Are you a windows 8 fan?

Yeah big time. Only let down is the lack of apps (probably a big area for it to be a let down, but find the interface very smooth)

[JGill_DTD]

Also I had a really interesting conversation with James Atkin regarding his recent Tournament Leaderboard challenge on Stars.

He raised the issue that there are so many mid/high stake regs grinding tournaments like the big $2.20 due to them wanting to pick up on TLB's. Surely this is bad for the PokerStars economy since it will generally mean new recreational players lose money quicker due to a shark tank effect in tourneys as low as $2, putting them off the game in the long term. If the current TLB point scoring system is detrimental to the experience of new/recreational players, then surely this is bad for poker, and should perhaps offer more points to higher buyin MTT's, which on contrast may persuade some regs to take the occasional punt a little higher up to try and battle for points.

[JGill_DTD]

In the Beginning...

Had an interesting chat with Rexas last night/early this morning, regarding how we got into playing poker.

I think I was one of the 'last generation' so to speak where I learnt poker in a pub as supposed to online. I was in a snooker hall and invited to play poker for £3. I explained I hadn't played but was interested due to those incred PKR adverts on TV (where graphics looked better than any current console). I was 17 at the time so snapped up the opportunity, I got shown the basics whilst playing and picked the game up from there.

This resulted in me going about 2/3 times a week, playing £3 sng's including a pub poker league at the time. There were a few drunken regs who pretty much never made any money. As silly as this sounds I thought they must have been minted to lose £20 or so a week playing poker in a pub. I suppose I was a bit of a bumhunter way before I had even heard of the term, as I was genuinely gutted when they didn't turn up for a drink and poker session. I very occasionally took a shot at the £5 sng's which consisted of the same players but more chips, but I understood I wasn't necessarily going to cash every time, again having some sort of understanding of variance before understanding the word in regards to poker.

I always found it quite funny that if you were to bluff the landlord or his wife they would be really quite angry with you, say it's not in the nature of the game and all that. There were a number of people who were new and came into the game and did so, to the eventual point where the landlord banned them from playing poker and suggested they were only allowed in the snooker area. Funnily enough there was plenty of rudeness to the vast majority of customers (which I was safe of as my mother was a close friend of the landlords wife), and came no shock to me that the place eventually got sold due to lack of business.

I actually met the landlords wife a couple of months ago in the G in Walsall as they are still local, and she absolutely adores poker. She mentioned she saw me on the GPS Final Table where I finished 7th, basically told me I played atrociously and that my game had changed for the bad because I bluffed on occasion to occasion. Pretty funny, but reminded me of my roots, although she basically said any success I have is entirely down to her (which I guess is partly true, but I imagine I would have played sooner or later as I couldn't resist those sexual PKR adverts).

[theprawnidentity]

Also I had a really interesting conversation with....

Oh this should be good......

James Atkin

Massive sigh!

Had an interesting chat with....

Surely you wont let me down again....

Rexas

[JGill_DTD]

Oi! You keep that slander away from James Atkin. Matt Harris however....

[JGill_DTD]

New schedule, new start!

Yesterday I started a new online schedule. Previously registration ran 4pm-9pm, however the way the tournaments fell it meant the last tournament ($5 2r1a) was usually a one or two table job. Despite this being great value I could never be bothered with 1 tabling up until 4am so usually just didn't bother playing it.

However the new schedule is 5pm-10pm, with 4 tournaments starting between 9:30pm-10:15pm. This gives me much better morale, and actually managed to find 3rd place in that specific $5 2r1a that I usually wouldn't bother with for a cheeky $1.2k.



Reallllly enjoying play at the moment. I find online play so intriguing, I'm grinding a fair few hours away simply studying the game, watching videos and listening to podcasts on new trends within the game. One key area I want to work on is snapping out of my b/c game. Find it really hard to get in the groove when I'm not playing optimally and I'm getting smashed up by the deck, hard to try and battle through this, although I keep telling myself how things are good, got tournaments coming up, we run great in flips etc etc.

[tight4better]

Is anyone better than you?! <3

[JGill_DTD]

Is anyone better than you?! <3

Downswing still (very occasionally) happen though!

Last night ran the worst. Despite playing 15 tournaments I managed to find KK<99 pre a total of FIVE times over the period of the night, As well as getting one outered twice for 50bb pots when in the money.

Hopefully I've moaned it in enough to find some sort of win tonight.

Just did a search for "moan it in" gifs. Unsurprisingly none of them were suitable for a public forum.

[tight4better]

Post anyway, fuck the po-lice.

[JGill_DTD]

Had a long painful grind last night. Over the course of 15 tournaments I played (including two 5 cubed and 2 standard rebuys) I only managed to get above a 10k stack in one of those.

Thankfully it was the nicest tournament I could have wished to have a deep run in. The $11r 40k GTD. With Verndog on the rail I seemed to be winning all flips, finding a lot of nice spots to accumulate chips and momentum.

19 left, dealt AA. Player before me in MP opens, table has been reaaaally aggy, so from 22 bigs decided to peel. Unfortunately as did 3 other players behind me, going to a:
flop.

Checks to the OR who bets 4/5bb. Feels really quite spewy but felt then only play I could realistically make was a jam. Folds all the way round to the OR which is great news, calls with   and inevitably finds the turn to let me bubble the final 2 tables in a 55bb pot for $150 or so.

Sounds like I'm whinging about it, but actually not really fussed (despite the bad beat story). Feel like I'm going deep enough regularly enough to find more wins in the closet (ego) and am starting to pick up on some of the leaks most regs have in their game, which is a really promising development. Still studying plenty, and more importantly enjoying every aspect of poker. Feel like I'm finally able to knuckle down and put the hours in to get better and better, a desire that I've previously lacked.

On the job front it is still going nicely, on target to hit the first months goal so hopefully that can be continued.

[Luke Barradell]

What's your HUD setup?

[JGill_DTD]

What's your HUD setup?

I use PT4.

Key stats I have shown are:

vpip / PR / 3bet / call3bet (BBs)
3bet vs late open / check-raise flop / cbet / late open % / #Hands

Always consider playing around with this setup, but if required I can obviously open up detailed stats on each player.

I'd say I use late open % the most to decide on 3bet spots, don't use check-raise flop much at all so may swap that with something else

[JGill_DTD]

What's your HUD setup?

Glad to see you've dedicated you're second ever post on Blonde to this diary greatly appreciated

[Luke Barradell]

What's your HUD setup?

Glad to see you've dedicated you're second ever post on Blonde to this diary greatly appreciated

No problem haha, do you ever play cash online or live?