From a generic Degree to a leading Poker Practitioner

[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

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

Never played cash seriously either online or live. Feel it is a little late for me to start from scratch learning a completely new entity, and would definitely want to avoid parts of my cash game leaking into my MTT game (although imagine it could help in a couple of aspects).

Just doesn't give me a real thrill, the same with sng's.

[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?

Never played cash seriously either online or live. Feel it is a little late for me to start from scratch learning a completely new entity, and would definitely want to avoid parts of my cash game leaking into my MTT game (although imagine it could help in a couple of aspects).

Just doesn't give me a real thrill, the same with sng's.

The main area it would help is post flop skills because most players are at least 100BB deep the whole time, but if that isn't a problem for you, which i doubt it is, then theres no need to switch. I mostly play cash on stars because i find it frustrating to go deep in an online MTT and still only cash for a few dollars more than the buy-in, ive only had one deep run that was actually worth while and that was one i used a satellite for.

[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

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

Never played cash seriously either online or live. Feel it is a little late for me to start from scratch learning a completely new entity, and would definitely want to avoid parts of my cash game leaking into my MTT game (although imagine it could help in a couple of aspects).

Just doesn't give me a real thrill, the same with sng's.

The main area it would help is post flop skills because most players are at least 100BB deep the whole time, but if that isn't a problem for you, which i doubt it is, then theres no need to switch. I mostly play cash on stars because i find it frustrating to go deep in an online MTT and still only cash for a few dollars more than the buy-in, ive only had one deep run that was actually worth while and that was one i used a satellite for.

Think the only real way to combat this frustration in MTTs is by putting a load of volume in, which is much easier said than done.

I think I need to start playing elsewhere as at the moment I stick to Stars only, fields are so huge it enhances the factor of variance. Think I've been lucky enough to be above variance for too long, this will no doubt catch up with me. In pretty much all MTT's only top 5 finishes+ have an impact on my bankroll, which is painful if you run bad on a few FT's in a row.

TBH post flop is probably the area I need to work on the most, although spending plenty of time focussing on it. I think a lot of the other low stake regs have the same weakness, with a wide cold 4bet almost being common practice in MTTs simply because it's a lot easier to run the figures on these spots, seeing if profitable or not since all players play preflop every hand. This is compared to players playing probably about 10% of flops (unsure on this figure). This means when using a HUD you have a much bigger sample for preflop poker as supposed to post flop.
 
edit: Apologies if the above is a little rambly

[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?

Never played cash seriously either online or live. Feel it is a little late for me to start from scratch learning a completely new entity, and would definitely want to avoid parts of my cash game leaking into my MTT game (although imagine it could help in a couple of aspects).

Just doesn't give me a real thrill, the same with sng's.

The main area it would help is post flop skills because most players are at least 100BB deep the whole time, but if that isn't a problem for you, which i doubt it is, then theres no need to switch. I mostly play cash on stars because i find it frustrating to go deep in an online MTT and still only cash for a few dollars more than the buy-in, ive only had one deep run that was actually worth while and that was one i used a satellite for.

Think the only real way to combat this frustration in MTTs is by putting a load of volume in, which is much easier said than done.

I think I need to start playing elsewhere as at the moment I stick to Stars only, fields are so huge it enhances the factor of variance. Think I've been lucky enough to be above variance for too long, this will no doubt catch up with me. In pretty much all MTT's only top 5 finishes+ have an impact on my bankroll, which is painful if you run bad on a few FT's in a row.

TBH post flop is probably the area I need to work on the most, although spending plenty of time focussing on it. I think a lot of the other low stake regs have the same weakness, with a wide cold 4bet almost being common practice in MTTs simply because it's a lot easier to run the figures on these spots, seeing if profitable or not since all players play preflop every hand. This is compared to players playing probably about 10% of flops (unsure on this figure). This means when using a HUD you have a much bigger sample for preflop poker as supposed to post flop.
 
edit: Apologies if the above is a little rambly

Stars tournaments with buy ins over $50 are not as bad because they usually get 2500 players at most, i know this is still a large field but compared to other low or micro stakes tournaments the variance will have a slightly smaller impact. Another thing that annoys me slightly is in online MTTs is people getting all in early on for more than 100BB with hands like AJ and AT etc. but i suppose players like to gamble in huge field tournaments.

I dont know if you have seen it but Stars are hiring in the social media department, not sure if you have found a job in that area yet but it could be good to look at. Also, what VIP status are you, or are you not that bothered about it?

[JGill_DTD]

Stars tournaments with buy ins over $50 are not as bad because they usually get 2500 players at most, i know this is still a large field but compared to other low or micro stakes tournaments the variance will have a slightly smaller impact. Another thing that annoys me slightly is in online MTTs is people getting all in early on for more than 100BB with hands like AJ and AT etc. but i suppose players like to gamble in huge field tournaments.

I dont know if you have seen it but Stars are hiring in the social media department, not sure if you have found a job in that area yet but it could be good to look at. Also, what VIP status are you, or are you not that bothered about it?

players getting AJ/AT in for 100 bigs is why we play! Spots like this help us make deep runs in tourneys.

Thanks for letting me know re: Stars SM, will definitely take a look (although am very happy with how it's going with PokerPlayer currently).

I actually dont play MTT's above the $22/$10r level. I'm Silver but would have to put soooo much more time in to even get close to Gold, it's a huge jumps when playing MTTs as supposed to cash, so not too fussed about it.

[mondatoo]

What was your experience of the Bigg Market ?

And Newcastle ?

GL with the grind, keep crushing.

[Luke Barradell]

What tournaments do you play on sundays? any of the majors?

[JGill_DTD]

What was your experience of the Bigg Market ?

And Newcastle ?

GL with the grind, keep crushing.

The Bigg Market was very, err, interesting. Think I saw more strange happenings living there than I have for the rest of my life.

As mentioned before I lived in a flat that was fairly high up, overlooking the main square of the Bigg Market. Sounded a bit dodgy and I was skeptical as to how many times I would be robbed during my time, but was actually relatively safe, and very fun. Almost every Friday & Saturday were fight nights, I'd be lying in bed, hear some noise, pop my head up to the window and see people fighting. It would usually be 3+ guys on one guy, very rarely were there 1 on 1 fights which is pretty disgusting. Quite often it was group vs group. I have 3 favoured fights that I saw in my time:

1. Couple vs couple
Both blokes were with a woman, and the blokes started fighting one another. Soon enough the women started fighting one another. The two blokes stopped as they noticed what was going on, decided not to fight but to shout on and support their woman as hair was being pulled, legs were being kicked etc.

2. Fight on the floor
At prime time (about 2a.m.) two blokes were fighting fiercely, and it eventually got took to the floor. Whilst fighting on the floor I noticed two women watching, a slim girl accompanied by a slightly larger girl. The slim girl decided to launch a tray of chips into the middle of the two men on the floor as they grappled. Her bigger friend shouted "HOWAY THERE'S TWO PUUUUNDS OF CHIPS THERE MUN!" and proceeded to retrieve the tray of chips out the middle of the fight.

3. Halloween Fight Night
All fights were great fights on halloween. My favourite was Luke Skywalker and Darth Vadar taking on captain jack sparrow and Ironman. Due to the lack of props jack sparrow and Ironman lost, with team Star Wars beating the crap out of them with their lightsabers, including one hit where jack sparrow ended up being hit over the front of a car.

Newcastle is definitely my favourite place in England. It all feels so homely and is so easy to navigate around, a place I will always love. It seems to tick all the boxes, honestly have no idea how to improve the place, other than the weather.

[JGill_DTD]

What tournaments do you play on sundays? any of the majors?

Unfortunately not, I just tend to play a longer schedule with similar tournaments due to all prize pools being bigger on a weekend.

On Saturday I play the $22 Six Max and the $27 Eliminator, both reaaaally good tournaments.

[Luke Barradell]

Unfortunately not, I just tend to play a longer schedule with similar tournaments due to all prize pools being bigger on a weekend.

On Saturday I play the $22 Six Max and the $27 Eliminator, both reaaaally good tournaments.
[/quote]

Ive played the eliminator before but only mincashed in it. Do you ever have problems with your pokertracker where it doesn't record some tournament cashes, Its done it for me a few times. How do you normally play Ace king at the start of a tournament, would you normally 3/4 bet or play it cautiously?

[JGill_DTD]

Unfortunately not, I just tend to play a longer schedule with similar tournaments due to all prize pools being bigger on a weekend.

On Saturday I play the $22 Six Max and the $27 Eliminator, both reaaaally good tournaments.

Ive played the eliminator before but only mincashed in it. Do you ever have problems with your pokertracker where it doesn't record some tournament cashes, Its done it for me a few times. How do you normally play Ace king at the start of a tournament, would you normally 3/4 bet or play it cautiously?
[/quote]

Suppose the AK question depends on opponent, always gets 3bet as people are opening worse hands 100bb's deep but are never 4betting that light. I don't like getting it in for 80bb's+ in a tournament where we should have an edge, if I can rule out the opponent jamming AQ- (if he's jammed) then it's typically folded.

As for PT - never had any problems with it, despite it being a nightmare on my old desktop and laptop where I could barely get it to run.

[Luke Barradell]

Ok, probably just my computer then, i don't really play too many tournaments at them moment, so its not that much of a problem.  If i have someone tagged as a weak player i am more likely to get it in for more than 50BB or so, but if its someone i have played a lot with before or not at all then i generally fold to a four bet. I dont like flat calling a four bet because sometimes i think it is difficult to know where you stand with some players. I was just wondering because i think too many people like to gamble with hands like jacks and ace king too early in tournaments.

[JGill_DTD]

Play better pleaseeee

Last night was a really frustrating grind, think I made about 10 mistakes total. Doesn't sound too much in the space of about 10 hours, but I should know/play better and think rather than occasionally clicking buttons and thinking it's standard.

These weren't necesarrily hands that cost me my tournament life, but definitely cost me a lot of value. Ended up finding 90th in the $10re to make up a little change as well as a top 100 finish in the $3rebuy (verndog supporting on the rail as ever. He definitely supplies runbad).

On it tonight before having Sunday off. It will be my first day off in about a week and a half/two weeks, perhaps I'm a little frazzled and need the time off to refresh. Think it's very hard to get the balance right when you are able to grind every night.

[JGill_DTD]

Blonde Love

My initial live bink came purely through being staked on Blonde. I managed to sell action after doing live reporting for a while through this website, and finally had a weekend to play. I think /am pretty certain all those that staked me backed me purely because of their good, kind nature having seen me helped Blonde, they wanted to help me.

Link to thread - http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=58010.0

I absolutely luckboxed an ICM chop HU with Blonde hero Eso Kral (Rich Blacklock). As I was finished I had Amjad saying to me "what are you doing selling on Blonde? I'd have put you in for a 50% return".
Obviously this made me pretty sigh as I received 35%, not 50% myself as well as having to put money towards it.

A little later after playing a few tournaments for Amjad (no success), I had Frankie approach me regarding backing. I really wanted Frankie to also back me as had always felt he was a very trustworthy guy and had always helped me whenever he could (in my first ever live report he probably did about 50% of the work for me whilst playing, with TD Ryan doing the other 25%). They decide to put up 50% of the buyin each, taking 25% each. I remember Frankie's exact words at the time, "I'm happy to help you play, but I definitely don't want to lose a friend in Amjad over this"

[JGill_DTD]

The Backed Binking

Thankfully in my time whilst being backed by Frankie and Amjad I was able to pick up a few decent scores, making money for the three of us. However whilst Amjad only really wanted me to play within the walls of Dusk Till Dawn, this is not what I wanted as I hoped to play elsewhere, especially being based in Newcastle at the time. Frankie was my main point of contact, and was never able to get through to Amjad due to him suffering from illness.

Frankie was always very honest, but I had to miss out on the occasional tournament due to not getting any response from Amjad in time. I remember a specific episode where the GUKPT Main was in Walsall, just a 20 minute drive from my home in Telford. I was very keen to play this event and all the sides to go alongside it, so I wrote out the schedule weeks in advance, showed Amjad and Frankie, both said at the time thy were happy to go ahead with it. However as we got closer to the time neither of us could get in touch with Amjad, with Frankie needing money from him as he transferred me all the money.

As it got closer to the GUKPT still no news from Amjad, with Frankie wanting to hear him confirm it through talking to him personally before shipping me the money. It came across like Amjad was trying to freeroll Frankie a bit as he always struggled to get money back from Amjad. This resulted in me going to DTD instead pretty disappointed I had missed out on the GUKPT being backed by some friends, the £100 Deepstack which I actually went on to win for £12.5k, which resulted in Amjad a month later saying "why didn't you come to me about it?" when I had tried repeatedly.

Eventually the staking had to come to an end because Frankie was understandably getting very annoyed, feeling like he was being freerolled for every single tournament, so we closed it and I started selling at 1.2 for various live events.

The sad thing is it resulted in Frankie and Amjad losing friendship. I feel very guilty that Frankie's earlier statement about not wanting to lose friends was broken, all because of arguments over me. I am so thankful to Frankie (as was Liam in his blog) who helped me to play as much as I do, as results lead to where I am. He went way out of his way to help me, including handing round CV's of mine round people he knew in the Poker industry. The man has a heart of gold and deserves a lot of praise.