[Insert funny and witty diary title here]

[AJR14]

Wow, not the best session to come back to after a few days break.

Target - £400
Last session - -£224
New Target –  £416

I’ve Just had a look through the hand histories and quite a lot of the hands are pretty big coolers and also quite a lot of hands where i planned to bet fold river but obv decided i had to call instead. Add to that having to fold big hands by the river quite a few times and thats the main 3 points of the session. From what i have just seen in my HH i am quite happy with how i played the majority which is unusual for me after a heavy loss. The 2 main hands i am not happy with are 2 very poorly played bluffs for stacks but the rest seem ok although i only scanned through them so may have missed some things.

One huge positive from the session was the complete lack of any sort of tilt. This session would have put me on pretty big tilt just a month ago so the work i am doing on that seems to be working.


Away from the tables, the legends match i went to the other day was really good and it was good meeting the players and having a laugh. Its been a while since i have seen that many smiles down at Ewood. One huge negative to come out of the day was the mammoth 2 day hangover i suffered. I haven’t had a 2 day hangover that bad for a long time. I must be getting old.

Rovers have announced Gary Bowyer as the new boss with a 12 month rolling contract. Do i think its a good appointment? I like him, and if Venkys are going to appoint another inexperienced manager i am happy that he is the one. I would prefer a more experienced manager but i doubt that many applied for the job. Bowyer has done a great job when coming in as caretaker on the 2 occasions during this season and managed to get a team that was playing bad and low on confidence to play better and get results both times. Whether he can now do that on a permanent basis we will have to wait and see. I hope he does succeed, he seems a really good bloke and has the clubs best interests at heart. The players really like him aswell, so hopefully that is a big positive.

Champions League Final tonight!! I would like to see Dortmund win it. I used to love watching Dortmund years ago but stopped watching as much foreign footy over the years so haven’t been able to see much of them. Should be a really good game. I cant mention a Champions League final without remembering this beauty.






Record of the Day: Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff. Great video of what has to be one of the best TV theme songs. 1:20 onwards is great viewing. I used to love that programme when i was a kid.

[AJR14]

Three brilliant records, two old and one brand new. Music is just brilliant, isn't it?!

Certainly is, with me finally being able to get my I-Tunes back and the discovery of Spotify i have become obsessed with music recently lol. I don't think there is anything better than when you hear a great record for the first time.

Is 6 music good then? I have been meaning to find a station that plays a wide variety, anything from the type of songs you posted up to newer stuff and different genres etc. Also like to hear Stations giving the not well known/unsigned bands/artists a go.

[AJR14]

Sadly, Ray Manzarek from 'The Doors' passed away a couple of days ago.

Yeah, was sad to hear to hear that. Been listening to them a lot recently.

I read a great post somewhere about his death from a huge doors fan. I cant remember where i come across it but if i find it again i will copy it in here. Was a good read.

[Tal]

Three brilliant records, two old and one brand new. Music is just brilliant, isn't it?!

Certainly is, with me finally being able to get my I-Tunes back and the discovery of Spotify i have become obsessed with music recently lol. I don't think there is anything better than when you hear a great record for the first time.

Is 6 music good then? I have been meaning to find a station that plays a wide variety, anything from the type of songs you posted up to newer stuff and different genres etc. Also like to hear Stations giving the not well known/unsigned bands/artists a go.

Stone cold nuts, IMO

One suggetsion would be to check out the tracklistings on a few of the shows to get an idea of what they play. If you recognise more than 50% of the songs, you know more about music than I.

[AJR14]

Only a quick update this time. Since the last update i haven’t played much. I’ve sat down every day but found my interest levels pretty low so quickly stood. The longest session i have played was about an hour. The shortest was 15 minutes where i spewed in spectacular fashion so quickly decided to stop. Not sure what the problem is, I’m not tilted or anything. Must be the weather, and i have recently bought a CSI game i haven’t played so that has took some of my time. Ive played a lot of the CSI games for the PC and they are really good. I really enjoy hunting for clues then putting them together. I would definitely recommend.

target - £400
Last sessions, - +24
new target - £392

I may play later tonight, i'm not sure yet.


Record of the Day: Happy Mondays – Wrote for Luck. Love the Mondays, seen them a lot now. Was gutted to hear Bez is retiring lol. Says his legs have gone. Anyway there are 2 great remixes of this record which i will put here aswell. Its really difficult to get one good remix of a song so to get 2 this good is a rarity.



W.F.L mix (The next one is prob my favourite mix)



Think about the future mix




Three great versions of the one song!!

Anyway, i'm off to solve some crimes!

[Tal]

All about following those stains.

That or the insects.

[AJR14]

WARNING! This post is going to come across as a brag post, that’s’ not my intention but when looking back through the thread i realised i haven’t  posted about my poker before i started the thread. I started this thread to document my push for the higher levels but i suppose you cant have a thread like this and not mention past results.

The numbers on sky:

Deposited: £34
Withdrawn: £9283.38

Add to that my roll now and we are over 5 figures. Im not exactly sure on when i joined the site but pretty sure it was 2 years ago.

I had to do a bit of digging from live chat to get them results so i wasn’t sure of the exact amount until now. My roll got as low as £3 when i was grinding 4nl and luckily i have never looked back. Looking at the results now it helps me realise what i have achieved in poker so far and shows any micro stakes grinder that you can beat the levels. When i was grinding away at full tilt playing $1 sit and gos and losing my deposits i believed i had the talent to win (which i didnt) but if someone would have said i would get the results i have i would have laughed at you, i would never have dreamt of it. I need to remember that when tilt starts to set in.

I do sometimes wonder what i could be playing now if life circumstances didn’t mean i had to withdraw the money. I probably would have lost it all at higher limits rather than withdraw but i could also be grinding away at the higher levels. I suppose i am a bit gutted i didn’t get these results when i was at uni and didn’t have to withdraw the amounts

Quite a bit of that amount will be rakeback though.

The levels

4/10nl i found pretty easy. The general rule is stay really tight at these levels, which is obviously right but i used to be slightly looser just to get into a lot of pots with bad players. Was higher variance but it helped me beat the levels pretty quick.

20nl is what i class as my base level. What i mean by that is when i play any sort of volume at this level i will pretty much always end with a profit. I use this level when confidence is low. I don’t believe i will ever drop below 20nl again. (i have now gone a tempted fate).

30/40nl I find these a lot more swingy but it is these levels that has made me most of my money since joining the site. Unfortunately  i do seem to go on some big downswings at this level unlike 20nl.

50nl This is where i started to struggle a bit. I was breaking even for a while but then had a big downswing. I suspect that the breakeven month or 2 may have been due to good variance but i like to believe the downswing was due to bad variance.

Tourneys I have mentioned my inability when it comes to tournament poker before. Only a couple of hundred quid has come from MTTs with two 3rd place finishes in the Mini event a long time ago. The second 3rd place finish was on the night the first jackpot was won on Sky. I remember being devastated that they knocked me out in lucky fashion but then i saw they had took down the jackpot and i instantly didn’t mind i didn’t win.

STT’s I used to play Sit and Go’s a lot when first started. My first ever win (and my biggest away from the cash tables) was my first ever proper poker game in a pub about 8 years ago and i took it down for £200 quid. Great night and was the reason i carried on playing.



Record of the Day: Jose Gonzalez - Far Away. on the gaming theme from the other day this song is from Red Dead Redemption which is probably the game i have enjoyed most for years. I would recommend to anyone who like wild west games.

[mulhuzz]

good thing that's not a brag then, because it's neeeeee where near being thin

[AJR14]

Only played a little session again yesterday. Ended about 40 quid down.

Couldn't be arsed playing much so ended up stopping and returning to the CSI game.

Did a live sweat session earlier with a few mates and managed to win £50 so i am actually up since last update.

Think i will be playing quite a bit later. Not sure yet though.

Target £400

New Target £394

[AJR14]

Well that’s what i get for the brag post. Haven’t had a winning session since lol. Last 2 sessions haven’t been great and finished about 5 buyins down all together. Nothing major but it is annoying. I can’t seem to get any momentum going for the push for 50nl. I’m not playing well and i seem to be getting punished by the reccy players every hand so they have been a couple of tilty sessions.

I think i am going to stop writing the target figures down on here for a bit aswell. When getting frustrated with results, writing them down doesn’t help lol.


On football news i have just seen Stoke have appointed Mark Hughes. I know a lot of people don’t like him but any Rovers fan will know why i rate him highly. I’m not sure what happened since but the job he did at Blackburn was unbelievable. He took a side struggling in the premiership and heading for relegation to Europe, FA Cup semis, League Cup runs and made some great signing along the way.  He got us playing great football and in 2 seasons we had the 2nd biggest scorer in one and the 3rd in another. If he can come close to what he did at Rovers at Stoke they will be very happy.

Seen Martinez being heavily linked with Everton as well. Not sure that would be a good appointment. I like Martinez and you can’t argue with a manager taking a club like Wigan and winning the FA Cup but i think he will get found out at a bigger club. I hope he does well, he comes across as a thoroughly decent chap i just can’t see it myself. Ive always wondered why he can get Wigan to play until they have their backs against the wall. Never a good sign.

Having said all that watched Wigan v Everton in the FA Cup this year and Wigan’s performance was one of the best i have ever seen in the first half. If he could get a team to play like that a lot, then he would be a good signing.


Record of the Day: Joy Division - Transmission. Great band cut way too short unfortunately, big fan of New Order as well

[AJR14]

Going to put a couple of hands in as i haven't for a while.

Hand 1

This hand was right at the end of a sweat session with friends, i said i will play the next hand for laughs. I pick up  . I know it's always a fold pre but as i said, i said i would play the next hand no matter what it was.

I raise to 90p at 30nl. Btn calls, everyone else folds

Btn is quite poor. Seems to be playing most hands, havent seen whether they passive or aggressive by this point. Seem passive pre, but not sure on post flop tendencies

Flop:          Pot - £2.25

I bet £1.50, villain calls

Turn:           Pot - £5.25

I bet £3.00, villain calls

River:         Pot - £11.25

I bet £5.70, Villain shoves to £22.20 and i have them covered, I fold

2 questions

1) River Sizing? At the time i felt the K was a bad card for their range so bet smaller. Bad thinking?

2) The river fold? I thought it was a pretty easy fold at the time but a couple in the sweat session said it was closer than i thought and they thought they may have called. I still think it's an easy fold but thought i would get others opinions.

[AJR14]

Hand 2 20nl

This generated a bit of discussion

i have   in the small blind 100bb's deep.

UTG very poor player open shoves £12

Tight, good reg re-shoves on the btn for £19.50ish

Do we call? I have no real reads on what range they do this with but at the time i was pretty sure they don't do it with AQ - 99/1010. what range do we assign to a decent tag reg when we dont know their range here?

i folded.

The re-shove is from a chap who i see as probably one of the best at these levels. They are tight though. I haven't seen UTG do this yet but i wasnt paying a great deal of attention. This just a case of range assigning and doing the maths? My math is extremely poor and unfortunately i have not been able to get stove for the new computer

[Lambert180]

Hand 2, I'd imagine we have to be splitting v another AK or flipping ALOT against the good reg which means we're mostly just chopping the poor player's money. I'd be calling, unless by tight-reg you mean one of the complete nit-regs. I think you're probably right that they don't do it with AQ, but I'd imagine most are likely to do it with 99+ or at least TT+ and AK.

If he's good, why is he sat with £19 @ 30NL? or has he just lost a hand?

Hand 1 is close and it's always a worry when the poor players stop C/C and find the raise button, but think he can still be over-valueing worse hands like KJ. I probably station off and get shown K9

[AJR14]

Hand 2, I'd imagine we have to be splitting v another AK or flipping ALOT against the good reg which means we're mostly just chopping the poor player's money. I'd be calling, unless by tight-reg you mean one of the complete nit-regs. I think you're probably right that they don't do it with AQ, but I'd imagine most are likely to do it with 99+ or at least TT+ and AK.

If he's good, why is he sat with £19 @ 30NL? or has he just lost a hand?

Hand 1 is close and it's always a worry when the poor players stop C/C and find the raise button, but think he can still be over-valueing worse hands like KJ. I probably station off and get shown K9

Oops, forgot to put this hand was 20nl Edited it now.

Opponent is tight but not the usual NIT reg at these levels. Guy will make the game difficult with aggression etc but mostly has it or picks his spots well, fairly tough to play at this level.

[Katais]

Call and call and call and call and keep calling there are no other options

Meh, hand 1 is  looking back.

Snappityyyyy Snap 2 tho!