Being a Lolpro for dummies.

[Evilpengwinz]

I've barely played since Monday. My only session lasted exactly 1 SNG (Which I won) on Sky Poker software started playing up. Then spent all day on Wednesday waiting for some builders, who didn't turn up until Thursday morning, more than 24 hours late. As a result, I spent most of the day on the Xbox instead.

They've also removed the entire floor in the bathroom, as water was getting underneath it, and won't be back until next Tuesday (So I expect to see them next Thursday afternoon)

Looking at 750 Poker Points a day on Sky to get into Priority Club, which I haven't managed once this month, but I now have to manage it 8 days in a row. There's a cash promotion on for the first 4 of those 8 days, so hopefully playing loads to try and bink that will get me within a couple of thousand points of my 10k target, then it'll just be a case of grinding out the last few points in the final 4 days of the month.

Results 23rd May
Since last update: +£18.00, +$19.80
This month: £1,030.55, +1 SPT Seat, +$22.50
Sky Poker Points: 4,036/10,000 (= £65.24 rakeback)

[Evilpengwinz]

I haven't posted in here for a few days as there really hasn't been much to write about. I didn't even make the top 20 of the promotion that Sky were running over the bank holiday weekend as my volume was rubbish, and it was based on the number of raked hands you were dealt into. A lot of people were grinding 4NL for this promotion so they could be dealt into as many raked hands as possible when people limped everything, which for me was never an option as it would've been a waste of my time. I'll leave that to the other Lolpros instead

In that time, we managed some small tournament binkage and ran terrible at cash, which means my win rate doesn't look quite as pretty on my spreadsheet Not the end of the world, though. I need 29 more points to reach 5k on Sky, which I will manage tonight barring my computer blowing up or something. This means a 33% increase in my rakeback for this month (2p per Poker Point instead of 1.5p). Realistically, there's almost no chance of me getting the 10k points required for Priority Club on Sky now.

Also withdrew £1k from Sky Poker to take to SPT Birmingham with me. I don't know what the lowest cash games are at Broadway Casino, but I should easily have enough money with me no matter what.

--------

My Cricket bet on Nick Compton not making the first Ashes test is looking like good value right now. In 4 innings vs. New Zealand, he's only scored 39 runs at an average of 9.75, including not very many off about a million balls on the 3rd evening after we didn't enforce the follow on, which along with Trott's awfully slow batting, meant there was a very real possibility that if it rained more on the 5th day, we could've drawn the game. By contrast, Root scored 253 runs in as many innings, and Bairstow managed 136 at an average of 45.33

I felt it was an awful decision to not enforce the follow on, and I wanted us to draw the game in the hope it would encourage Cook to be more positive in the future with his captaincy. Unfortunately, it'll go down in history as a 247 run victory and we'll get the usual "Captains and coaches are judged by results" crap.

There's no way any other top test team would've batted again in that spot. I can understand Zimbabwe and Bangladesh batting again there because they wouldn't be good enough to bowl a team out cheaply twice, and it's more likely for them to collapse in the 4th innings. But we're better than that. If we care about being #1 in the world, or anything other than winning the Ashes then we absolutely HAVE to enforce the follow on. It's New Zealand ffs. We've just bowled them out for 68 last test and they were 120/9 in the first innings of this one. We don't need to set them 450+ to win, especially when it's forecast to rain on Day 5 anyway!

Most teams in sport tend to be far too negative for my liking. Another example is American Football. 4th & 1 at the opposition's 40 yard line - Too many coaches would punt the ball away here. Remember that 260lb full back who you probably signed as an undrafted free agent because he'll only get the ball once or twice all game anyway? Of course not, you'd rather have field position than try to pick up a 1st down and kick a field goal at the very least. No wonder the full back position is dying. But the other team can't score points if you keep possession. Do whatever is optimal, don't call the punt team onto the field because you're scared of what the newspapers will say on Monday Morning if you make a brave (but correct) call and it goes wrong. Just because far too many people in the world are results orientated doesn't mean coaches in professional sports should be too just to appease them.

If I was Bill Belichick, I'd call a 2 point conversion after almost every touchdown.

Rant over.

Anyway....

Results 28th May
Since last update (5 days ago): +£264.33
This month: £1,294.88, +1 SPT Seat, +$22.50
Sky Poker Points: 4,971/10,000 (= £74.57 rakeback)

[Magic817]

I don't mind the decision to make them not follow on but bat with intent and purpose. We bat low and have good aggressive players so you can take calculated risks and score quick runs. Trotts innings and us batting on after lunch made little sense and we had a boundary rider on the off side when they needed a record score to win.

[rmathews1]

Hi,

Been reading your diary with great interest and I'll certainly be following it in the time to come as I feel I can relate to your story in many ways. I am a very keen poker player (obvs, as I'm on here), but only really play micro stakes, mainly on Sky, more for the enjoyment of it. I too am also 19, but I have taken the alternative route through to you and am currently in my first year of university, so poker is on the backbench atm during the exam period haha! I also follow cricket with keen interest and completely agree we should have enforced the follow on and even after we hadn't I think our batting approach was terrible. If we were going to bat I think we should have been doing what Bairstow and Root were doing at the end and just going for it... the way that Trott and Compton played was completely non-nonsensical imo.

Cheers,

Rory Mathews

[Lambert180]

Hey Andy,

Great to see you've got your diary back up and running. It's tempting to move mine over here tbh just so I can post pics/vids without waiting years for them to be approved... and you get a lot more traffic/input on here.

I've been proper lazy recently, hardly playing any 30NL and just donking off loads of money in donkfest high variance MTTs and shit like £3 all-in sats which is just stupid... unless there's overlay :p

Gonna be ditching the MTTs for a bit and get back on the grind for June. Maybe succeed this time round at a Priority run, but it's pretty sigh that they've changed it to Rewards now, no 3+ month bonus etc.

Possible prop bet on who will be rolled for 100NL first?

[horseplayer]

as shane warne once said

the follow on the most overrated "on" in the world

[Tal]

Who's your american football team?

(Don't say the Pats, please!)

[Tal]

Or the dolphins

[Tal]

And obviously not the jets

[Evilpengwinz]

Who's your american football team?

(Don't say the Pats, please!)

Or the dolphins

And obviously not the jets

None of those - Raiders I assume naming every other team in the AFC East means you're a Bills fan? Really looking forward to seeing EJ Manuel in the NFL next season.

[Evilpengwinz]

I don't mind the decision to make them not follow on but bat with intent and purpose. We bat low and have good aggressive players so you can take calculated risks and score quick runs. Trotts innings and us batting on after lunch made little sense and we had a boundary rider on the off side when they needed a record score to win.

I don't understand why we still opened with Compton and had Trott at 3. If you need quick runs, Root should open, bring Bell in at 3, move Bairstow and Prior up, then you've still got Trott and Compton if everything goes wrong.

Hi,

Been reading your diary with great interest and I'll certainly be following it in the time to come as I feel I can relate to your story in many ways. I am a very keen poker player (obvs, as I'm on here), but only really play micro stakes, mainly on Sky, more for the enjoyment of it. I too am also 19, but I have taken the alternative route through to you and am currently in my first year of university, so poker is on the backbench atm during the exam period haha! I also follow cricket with keen interest and completely agree we should have enforced the follow on and even after we hadn't I think our batting approach was terrible. If we were going to bat I think we should have been doing what Bairstow and Root were doing at the end and just going for it... the way that Trott and Compton played was completely non-nonsensical imo.

Cheers,

Rory Mathews

Yeah, totally agree. Compton I can understand as he's out of form and probably feels his place in the side is under threat, although it was still a poor innings in the context of the game. Trott's innings just seemed selfish, as though he cared more about his average than the team.

Still toying with the idea of going back to College at some point, probably September 2014, once I've (hopefully) moved out, but idk for certain yet. Depends what I feel like doing this time next year.

What's your alias on Sky?

[Tal]

Who's your american football team?

(Don't say the Pats, please!)

Or the dolphins

And obviously not the jets

None of those - Raiders I assume naming every other team in the AFC East means you're a Bills fan? Really looking forward to seeing EJ Manuel in the NFL next season.

Absolutely. I don't follow college football, so everything I know is anecdotal. 

We need a better secondary and I'll be interested to see how our new offense takes shape.

[rmathews1]

My alias is rmathews

[Evilpengwinz]

May Results
Considering my disappointing volume, not helped by a 4 day period where I played about 1 hour of Poker, and the level I'm playing, I'm really pleased with my profit at the end of the month.

My profit is about the same as my withdrawals for the month, although that includes £1k which I intend to take to SPT Birmingham to play live cash, which will go back into my Sky Poker account assuming I haven't lost it all.

Profit/Loss: £1,375.34, +1 SPT Seat, +$6.18
Sky Poker Points: 5,686/10,000 (= £113.72 rakeback)


Next month
At the moment, I'm not really sure what the plan is for June. I want to try to get into Priority Club on Sky again, but I know I'll not be playing for at least 3 days because of the SPT, and this month is a day shorter anyway. It's probably still possible, but unlikely, because my volume is usually rubbish.

Therefore, I'm going to set myself a slightly lower, but more realistic target of 7k Poker Points on Sky this month, which is still an improvement on last month, then try for Priority again in July. If I get there this month instead, it's a bonus.

There's also a cash promotion, although it's 7 days long and overlaps with the SPT, so I have very little chance of getting on the leaderboard. Might be near the bottom of the top 20, idk. I'm really not sure why Sky have chosen to do another "Play as many hands as you can" type promotion within a week of the last one finishing. It's going to mean even more reg filled tables for another week, and I'm worried that'll scare away people who won't have a chance of putting in enough volume to win anything, which probably accounts for 95%+ of Sky's customers.

Equally worrying is the lack of encouragement for lower volume players to play on the site as a result of the promotion. The first cash promotion of this nature on Sky that I can remember being involved in, in October last year, had a random draw where playing a certain amount would get you a ticket. You could accumulate tickets for more chance of winning in this random draw, and there was 100 x £20 awarded randomly which everyone had a chance of winning, alongside the £10k in prizes to whoever raked the most, if I remember correctly. That is all it would take, IMO, to give lower volume players encouragement to play.

Personally, I'll just be playing my normal volume next week because of SPT. If I get on the bottom of the leaderboard and get an extra buy-in or two, then so be it. If not, meh.

Will be running a cash hand counter this month so that people can laugh at how bad my volume usually is, too :p

Results
Profit/Loss: £0.00
Sky Poker Points: 0/7,000 (= £0.00 rakeback)
Hands Played: 0

[Young_gun]

How about a view on playing freerolls 

Get ur bleeping grind on!