Sick and tired....but....

The poker has picked up.....

Came home from work on Monday ill, first time I have been off sick for over 5 years and the last time was 2 weeks off with a knacked ankle play footy.

So since monday evening, I have been wrapped up in a blanket all fires and central heating on and a box of tissues by my side (a normal practice I know, but these ones were for blowing my nose)

The good thing about the sport of poker, is that not being able to physically move cos of illness, actually helps. So laptop has been on non stop as I have struggled to sleep at night due to constant coughing and the odd throw up session as I can't keep any food down, prob due to the antibiotics for me chest.

Managed to make two final tables, 1st one in the farce that was the disco affected Monday night laddies hangover tour, I even let my timer run down every hand for over half an hour to allow people to get back in, while some of the twats with the bigger stacks tried to raise every pot, some people just have no class at all. Eventually went out 8th with AK vs QQ for a 90k pot, laddies cruelly gave me the A on the flop, then the K on the turn, before dropping the Q on the river to make my heart jump and send me packing. On the final table was angel1975 and angel deserves a worthy mention too, as she was getting a lot of stick cos of her massive stack early on from some of the railbird idiots, who clearly thought, that she had stolen them from disco'd players, they obv do not know her and the class and etiquette she brings to the game, shame on them I say. Maybe they should watch angel play more often, they would then know how she gets those large stacks.....

The other FT was when I came 2nd in a $1 tourney against one of the worst players I have seen, the phrase "don't send a message to someone who can't read" should have stuck in my mind as he ignored every move I made and called down with bottom pair everytime and hit everything. Shame leaguenutz site is being upgraded as that would have extended my lead this months league by a good margin. We are not sure when or if the site will be back, but thats another story.

Managed to break my 17 sng run on Full Tilt out of the money, maybe the tide has turned on this site for me.....but I doubt it.

2 sng wins on stars in a row this morning have now put me back in profit for the month, the 2nd time I have come from over $100 down.

Looks like I am going to be off work for the whole week cos I still feel bolloxed, I also do not want to be risk being ill over xmas with my family and after 5 years in work every day, I think maybe I am owed a day or two.

Goth

All time poker low

Well, it seems that I have lost the plot totally. No matter what I do I can't win at poker anymore. My sng results have been absolutely appalling, I moved back to laddies to play them after a stinking run of 4ths on stars, so bad I withdrew half my roll out of stars. However, my run of 4ths has carried on to laddies as well, 5 out of 8 sngs yesterday ended in 4ths, with most of them the short stack keep doubling and me getting almost blinded out. When I am agressive, I get called with shit and get muffed. I really am at my wits end with sngs at the moment, I have even put some money back in full tilt to try the sngs there again (which I said I would never do !) Also bubbled in 11th in the 23:15 omaha on laddies last night, just to cap a wonderful day off.

On a funnier note, I played live poker twice this week at the broadway casino in brum, very good setup I must say. Now as most of you who know me, I am a $10/$20 max player. So on wednesday, on my yearly xmas shopping day/piss up (first pint of winona at 09:30) drinking all day, I land in the casino at about 8pm. Struggle to fill in the membership form as I have lost the ability to write !! So when you are so drunk you can't see the cards, what do you do. Yes, you got it, you enter a £100 f/o tourney. Fcking great idea I thought.....only 17 entrants, top 3 paid. Amazingly enough I managed to come 6th (no idea how) put lost a few of my chips twice when the dealer looked at me and I thought he wanted to put in my BB, only to find I had flat called with 94 os (sounds familiar lex lol) Also button raising on steal not realising two people are in teh pot !!! Doh.....

Friday night was my works do, so again, drinking starting at about 13:00, fast pace, a £20 rebuy just seemed the thing to do.....6-7 rebuys and 1 add on later, I managed a solid 95th out of about 110, when I button raised with 66, bb called, and I pushed on an AJ2 flop, to find him with AJ. Not quite my normal rock like play lol.

Oh well, maybe I need to play some live poker when not smashed out me brains. I guess beer and poker really do not go together.

Anyway, back to the daily grind, playing sngs at the moment, 4 playedtoday , only 1 2nd, with 1 on full tilt going out first hand with JJ vs 88. The story of my week I guess

The end of year goal is out the window, just gonna try to keep the yealy profit above $3.5k, might take a gamble at the end in of the month and try a couple of the $50 tourneys just to see what happens, I have only ever played it once and made the final table, so might be worth a gamble.

GL at the tables.
Goth

Muffs Revenge

This time its my turn.....

PokerStars Game #7365486387: Tournament #37666980
$10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2006/12/09 - 08:34:20
(ET)Table '37666980 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: BrazilianEye (7355 in chips)
Seat 4: GothmanUK (2025 in chips)
Seat 5: ausdaryll (4120 in chips)
BrazilianEye: posts the ante 25
GothmanUK: posts the ante 25
ausdaryll: posts the ante 25
BrazilianEye: posts small blind 200
GothmanUK: posts big blind 400

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to GothmanUK [Ad Qd]
ausdaryll: raises 400 to 800
BrazilianEye: raises 3200 to 4000
GothmanUK: calls 1600 and is all-in
ausdaryll: raises 95 to 4095 and is all-in
BrazilianEye: calls 95
BrazilianEye said, "gl

"*** FLOP *** [Kh 7s Tc]

BrazilianEye said, "oops"

*** TURN *** [Kh 7s Tc] [Js]

*** RIVER *** [Kh 7s Tc Js] [8c]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

BrazilianEye: shows [Qs Qh] (a pair of Queens)
ausdaryll: shows [Ks Kc] (three of a kind, Kings)
ausdaryll collected 4190 from side pot
GothmanUK: shows [Ad Qd]
(a straight, Ten to Ace)
BrazilianEye said, "hehe"
GothmanUK collected 6075 from main pot
GothmanUK said, ":-)"

Went on to win it as well....We all need a bit of luck now and then......
Goth

Sick 1 outers !!

I do not normally post bad beats on my site, thats lodgers job...hehe
But after about 3 1/2 hours on a stars deep stack, this happens...and Goths on his way..

PokerStars Game #7285117798:
Tournament #36701669
$10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2006/12/03 - 16:07:45
(ET)Table '36701669 20' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: p3rcy (46090 in chips)
Seat 2: ttmm (16436 in chips)
Seat 3: SillyNutz (19118 in chips)
Seat 4: GothmanUK (7100 in chips)
Seat 6: jcnk22 (19975 in chips)
Seat 7: snoopie72 (15245 in chips)
Seat 8: mobstyle (46627 in chips)
Seat 9: wvbuckfan(8369 in chips)

p3rcy: posts the ante 25
ttmm: posts the ante 25
SillyNutz: posts the ante 25
GothmanUK: posts the ante 25
jcnk22: posts the ante 25
snoopie72: posts the ante 25
mobstyle: posts the ante 25
wvbuckfan: posts the ante 25
GothmanUK: posts small blind 200
jcnk22: posts big blind 400

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to GothmanUK [Ac 6d]

snoopie72: folds
mobstyle: calls 400
wvbuckfan: calls 400
p3rcy: folds
ttmm: folds
SillyNutz: folds
GothmanUK: calls 200
jcnk22: checks

*** FLOP *** [Th 6s 6h]

GothmanUK: checks
jcnk22: checks
mobstyle: bets 400
wvbuckfan: raises 800 to 1200
GothmanUK: raises 5475 to 6675 and is all-in
jcnk22: folds
mobstyle: folds
wvbuckfan: calls 5475

*** TURN *** [Th 6s 6h] [Ad]

*** RIVER *** [Th 6s 6h Ad] [Tc]

*** SHOW DOWN ***GothmanUK: shows [Ac 6d] (a full house, Sixes full of Aces)

wvbuckfan: shows [As Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Tens)
wvbuckfan collected 15550 from pot

GRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But Two posts on my blog in one day......gotta be value :-)

GL at the tables
Goth

November Stats

Although November was another profitable month, I have to put it down as a bad one. The % wins and FT's this month were quite bad and the profit for the month came down to just one decent 2nd place which changed my whole month from a loss to a profit.

The month could have been a very good one except for the dreaded AK. 4 out of my last 7 tourneys, when in good position, I have gone out with AK vs AT, why the hell people call preflop all ins for nearly all their chips I just do not no, and of course laddies leaves the T till the river to give me that glimmer of hope that I will win the hand. Then my laptop goes flying across the carpet and the dog goes running up the stairs to hide under the bed......makes me soooooooooooo mad.....

A big disappointment was the sngs, I had a terrible start to the month on them and was well down, a good run on stars pulled it back, but this was for only $7 profit, which is very poor.

Only played a very small amount of cash, so can't really judge any performance on that.

Still, mustn't grumble. Here are my November stats.

Total Profit = $286.11
MTTs Played = 55
MTT Final Tables made = 3 (5.45%)
MTT in the Money = 6 (10.9%) - NB Includes FT's
MTT Total $ won = $660.83
MTT Profit = $311.23%
SNG Played = 46
SNG Profit = $7
SNG ITM = 39.13%
Cash Profit/loss = -$7.65

Need to be $390 up this month to hit my yearly target, which I only have done twice this year, so a good mtt finish is needed, may chase it on the $20 on the last week of the month if not getting any joy on the mtts. Lets just hope santa brings some poker luck for xmas and a nice mtt win for Goth.

Been a while

Since I last updated my blog...still gotta put more effort and time in..Lazy git that I am....

First thing to mention is to wish Graham (aka themoffman) a speedy recovery in his battle against his ill health at the moment. Our prayers are all with you buddy, keep up the fight.

On the poker front, managed to claw back a reall bad start to the month (was $250 down at one point) which for me is a lot. The turnaround was mainly due to a 2nd place in one of the UKBetting payday events, £7 entry, 70 entrants, top 50 paid and £2k guarenteed...£300 for 2nd changed my whole month from loss, to a decent profit so far.

The next bit of luck, was poker poka going tits up and changing platforms, I was getting a hammering on the sngs there. While the site shutdown, I took all me dosh out (just in case it did not come back !!) and moved back to stars, where I have started a decent run of form on the $10 sngs to pull the month back on track. Currently about $310 up on the month, which will give me a good change of hitting my $4k target for the year. One good MTT result should do it....unfortunately, its my mtt's that are letting me down this month, apart from the one big money 2nd above. I have played about 40 this month and only made 2 FTs and 1 money finish.....not good, most exits I have been well in front when the chips have gone in, but its not to be. Still it has to change I guess.

Anyway thats it for now, short and sweet I know...but off to pub now, then down to the villa to see another glorious victory on the mighty O'Neill revival :-)

GL at the tables
Goth

PS Jat, if you still read these blogs...don't be a stranger matey, me games account is running low, need to win some backgammon ;-)

Bad Patches

The yearly goal seems far far away at the moment. Currently about $140 down this month after hitting the sngs hard over the weekend, played over 20 and only 1 one, with no 2nd places and a a fair few 3rds, just can't seem to get a break on them at the moment, either no cards, or walking into monsters when on the rob, always the same story.

Also on laddies, had two bubbles in the high stacks in 6 days, this is a real bummer, especially as one was the monday night 5000 chip hangover tourney, 5 1/2 hours to get bubbled and fuck all is no laughing matter.

Still I am going to plod on with the sngs, played about 30 this month so far, tempted to not play any multis till I am in profit on the sng, but trouble is I enjoy them to much...ho hum...what to do.

Big congrats to Tom (Banqo) by the way who managed a fantastic 2nd in the laddies $50 double chance (no rebuy either...tight fucker)

I am sure I will get through this bad patch, I just hope at the end of it, I will still be ahead of what I was in profit last year, or it shows I am not improving as a player......Which I believe I am, but still very aware of my weaknesses which need to be ironed out.

But for now, call me with anything, cos at the moment you will be able to outdraw me or push me off the pot cos I am a wimp.....But beware, my luck may change.

Goth

October Stats

The month did not go truly to plan, I had intended to give the sngs a real push this month, for some reason, I played less than ever. In fact I did not play as much poker as I had liked. I did spend a lot of time railbirding, cheering on the nutz boys and girls and getting a good piss take in wherever possible, its the law you know ;-)

Also losing a whole weekend due to getting shitfaced at the dream team live event at Canary Wharf, did not help the tally...but well worth it

The stats would have been a lot better, I was expecting to get over $500 up as I had a good start, but a bad last week, took over $100 off the profits.

But here are my stats for October

Total Profit = $357.11
MTTs Played = 65
MTT Final Tables made = 5 (7.69%)
MTT in the Money = 13 (20%) - NB Includes FT's
MTT Total $ won = $585.50
MTT Profit = $199.50
SNG Played = 21
SNG Profit = $49
SNG ITM = 38.10%
Cash Profit/loss = $92.91

Not many final tables in the MTT's but winning a decent entry tourney helped ease the pain and the cashflow. Had a limited amount of success on the cash tables this month, mainly playing .25 / .50 on Poker Poka.

This month, I do need to start upping the sng's, gonna try and play at least 100 of these this month, pref 2 tabling on Poker Poka.

A bit less chat and a bit more poker is hopefully going to be the order of the month. This then, all being well will help me hit the magic $4000 profit for the year.

GL at the tables
Goth

In the Bunker...just like me golf...

Saturday saw me travel to only the 3rd live event I have been to, it was the Dream Team Final at the poker bunker, although I was not playing, I was there to support my adopted team "the leaguenutz muffers" as my original team "the northern muffs" folded after week one. I was so looking forward to meeting everyone I have been chatting to online over the last year, I was literally like a kid on XMAS eve.

The travel down to the big smoke was an event in itself, after managing to codge a lift with MADV and pokerkaz, two of my good online friends, as a token of goodwill, I bought Vad (MADV) a full breakfast at our chosen pick up point which was the services off J2 off the M42 (2 miles from me gaff) This proved to be a massive mistake !!!! I am not sure if it was a slightly off egg, or it is a normal bodily function for someone from Halifax, but MADV started farting like something you would not believe, and trust me, roses it was not.....

Apart from the mist in the car, the journey went well until we managed to take a wrong turn off the A40, no problem we thought, we will do a U turn and get straight back on.....over an hour later we were lost with no sign of the A40, no signs to anywhere...It had gone into thin air. We pulled over a couple of times to ask a friendly cockney or two as to directions, or even where we were, but as I was driving, it was the flatulent northerner who poked his head out asking for directions and this was enough to send even the toughest cockney gangster running for the bushes saying "sorry san, I caaan't help you".......We eventually had to admit defeat and bite the bullet, MADV jumped out, flagged down a cabbie, jumped in cab and we had to pay £33 to follow him to our hotel just around the corner from the bunker. We were there and in time, that was all that mattered.

It was then time for a few beers in the hotel bar, meeting up with the gang which consisted of Rob1973 (flew over from his home in copenhagen to watch, great effort matey), LEXUS2, LANGERS, BANQO (just off a plane from Canada ffs) and also the nutzers top scoring dream teamer fryern (didn't even see your mom drop you off m8) We were then off the bunker where we joined up with our leaguenutz boss moffman.

The first person we bumped into outside was stanford, who had just found out there was no sky in the building and was planning an exit to watch the villa vs fulham game which was on at 17:15, he duly vanished after giving the free bar a bit of stick.

Walking into the building, I was wondering if anyone would remember me from my two previous meet ups with laddies players at spixworth in Norwich, I was not to be disappointed as I bumped into strummer straight away, who immediatly set about taking the piss out of me, stating I now look more like a fat surfer than a Goth....sometimes anonomity would be a better option.....but it was all in good spirits.

The tourney got off almost on time and I must admit was a very well run event, the nutz muffers railbirds found a very convenient spot leaning on the bar with a direct view of monkeyjulies table, I think a couple of our group had some serious ideas above there station, ie outplaying a far superior poker player, or did they have something else on there mind ;-)

Davy Lang was unfortunate on the old bar front in the early afternoon as he managed to find a two minute period where the bar was not free when he bought a round, when he found out the beer was subsequently free, being from north, he was not too pleased.

There was a little dog with a ball that kept most of the drunks amused (lexus2 more than most. hehe) I had visions of someone getting a bad beat and watching the poor little fella flying across the room, but luckily he was safe. The muffers team, did not have the best of time with it, with moff getting caught by benny early on and banqo/fryern not getting much help from the dealer. Vad had a very tough table for most of the tourney, but managed a very creditable 25th, one of the higlights being when he managed to get hamsterboy to get all his chips in the middle with 62 when vad had AA, timing is so cruel sometimes.

The lack of STT's and cash tables, meant to get a poker fix, I had to enter a singapore satellite, just to get my hands on some cards, which I was not really interested in playing. The one good think that came out of it was that I had the pleasure of being seated to another online friend of mine angel1975 who was celebrating her birthday, she was even more of a pleasure to talk to in the flesh than she is online, how ariston could muff angel with 77 vs her JJ to knock her out the tourney, I do not know, I hope he feels ashamed of himself, I also had the pleasure of meeting rugrat, who I have admired from afar on laddies, but he seems like a real nice guy too. In the Sat itelself, I managed to get short stacked and walked my 55 into QQ, with angel calling with 23 sooted for value as well and the board gave a Q and 22, so I was stuffed from all corners.

My next venture was a £20 sng, this turned out to be be an adventure in itself, with ShaneMcg Reraising all in with 62 sooted and getting called by KK, Shanes sober screams of "how the hell can you call with KK off suit" had the table in stitches, unfortunately he failed to muff and he left the table almost as quick as he had sat down.

The tourney seemed to go on forever, and was quite a tight affair, I believe I owe a big apology to p0kerwid0w, for muffing her AK with KQ, then when shortstacked on the BB announcing I am all in blind, which did not stop her raising me all in anyway with JJ, I flipped my cards only to find KK (blush)

I then had a good run of cards, which left me heads up with person X (sorry, can't remember who it was) I had a fair chip lead but after a couple of gambles to finish it off, we were almost level. It was then I realised that we were the only two playing and that they were shutting the bunker around us, so we did a deal and took £80 each, which I was more than happy with.

It was then back to the hotel, straight to the bar for a round of drinks, then up to robs/davys room armed with a pack of cards and one of MADVS many laddies chipsets, for a £10 rebuy tourney. I think I managed to ruin my rock image during this tourney after re-raising Vad all, then hearing the dreaded words of vad "I know I am way behind Goth, but as it is a rebuy I am gonna gamble and call" chuckles rawed out as I then went bright red and had to show my 6 9....My rep is in ruins...lol

But the luck of the cards prevailed and at the end of the night, I was left eads up wiith lexus2, while the rest of the room were either snoring or filling the room with obnoxious gases, or in davys case both at the same time !!! . I got Dealt AA and a 3rd A flopped, a check and a sigh from me, saw lex move all in and the mini tourney was mine.....It was 5.30am and it was time for bed for a well earned sleep.

Tom (Banqo) and I were the only two to make breakfast, and following a couple of beers and watching the Manu vs liverpool game in the hotel bar, it was the long journey home. I managed to land home about 19:30, Vad I believe, eventually rolled in about midnight in halifax after surviving the torrid trip from the saarf to the North, thankfully in one piece.

A big thankyou to everyone I met over the weekend, especially pokerkaz and MADV, as we spent so much time together. I was shocked to find a few of the people I met even mentioned they read this blog (you can leave comments you know..lol), so I hope a few of the stories of the above bring back some good memories and I can't wait till the next event and to meet you all again.

Goth...hic..hic..

Bunker Time

Well the week has not been to bad, making a slight profit over the week, with the odd MTT money finish paying for the weeks entries. Amazingly enough, I have not played any STT's for over a week, just not been in the mood. I have only been playing my normal MTT's on laddies + a couple of value ones on UK Betting, courtesy of a nice little tip from lodger, Only made £17 there in the 3 tournies I managed to get in before they stopped the $3k guaranteed, 50 places paid only 50 runners approx !! But still, free money is always nice.

Been dabbling in cash a bit more this month, not a serious amount, managed to win a $35 pot (big for me..lol) with KK when pushing all in on a flop of QJ9 and managing to find another player with QT and him not hitting, which was nice.

Been a bit lazy on my pot check on bad beat lately, not filled it in for about 10 days, so need to get that sorted.

But the big event this weekend is the Dream Team live final, although I am not playing, I am going to cheer my leaguenutz buddies on. Also being in London, will have to paticipate in the odd shandy, to fit in with the southern softies.....Or to put it another way, drink the cockney puffs under the table....

Can't wait to meet a lot of my online buddies, share a few bevvies and tales of bad beats and monster pots. Sure to play a few sng's and hopefully come back with at least the same amount of money that I am taking. I also hear there is going to be a longest drive competition.. I intend to win this, hopefully will be a nice big prize :-)

Good Luck at the tables and hope to see some of you there on Saturday.
Goth

The long and the short

Sunday night was a tale of tourneys a short one and a long one.

First off the short one, the leaguenutz special was on pokerstars this week, now bearing in mind my last post regarding conspiracy theories (incidently, I won the sng I was playing while typing it up, so not too sure)....I took out $200 from my stars account to put into poker room and absolute, there are lot of theories regarding cashouts and losing. 3 hands approx into the tourney, wildrick raises minimum from early pos, langers rr min, I look down and have KK, I decide not to fck about (ie don't even think what they could have) and go all in, rick folds langers flips over AA and I am out......incidently had rick stayed in the hand, he would of hit 2 pair with his 98 and took us both out, so it was an all round stitch up.

As for the long, laddies have at last listened to the demand of its non bingo players (us rocks) and have put some decent high stack tourneys into the schedule, one of which being a $4 +.40c 4000 chip 15 min blind at 19:45, this is perfect for me as a leaguenutz tourney.

I played my normal game for most of the night, had a few good hands at the right time and eventually went into the final table in 5th place, with 290 runners, I was almost just happy to make the final table, sat back and played my good hands strongly to pick up chips and slowly watched everyone else knock each other out and moved up the money. Down to last 3 and I was by far the short stack, it was at this point I laughed at a railbird (allinkev) wishing me good luck, and said that I needed a miracle, then as if by magic, I had all the confidence in the world to just go for it and I started playing more agressively than ever, it was almost as if I had an angel looking after me ;-)

Got heads ups with Gamblor, with about 280k to his 800+ but after watching him when down to the last 5, always felt I had a chance, kept plugging away raising like a madman, trying to not let him breath....managed to claw back a good lead then a small raise with TT, he came over the top all in, called str8 away, he flipped over 55. A T on the flop brought the bacon home and made little Gothman a very happy bunny. The tourney lasted a whopping 5.75 hours, which for a $4 tourney is a long long time, but the $319 first prize, made it worth wating for.




Goth

Conspiracy theories

There is always talk of conspiracy theories within the online poker world, but sometimes things happen that make you wonder.

I have recently started playing on Poker Poka a lot for my sngs, only at $10. But I must say, Ihave had a great run. Lots of good cards and hitting my hands, also giving out a few bad beats.

Before this morning, the last two games there seemed to be a change, no cards and eventually getting muffed to go out, not in the money. Then this am, I play another 1, get dealt KK utg blinds 10/20. I raise to 100. Chip leader on 1.9k calls, short stack goes all in for 550 chips. I RR all in to elimate the flat caller but he calls immediately. Short tack flips over AK (fair enough) the flat caller turns over 36 sooted. The flop drops a 3, as soon as I saw this I knew I was done for. The river dealt the mandatory 3 to give him a the 3.5k port and after about 8 hands I was out in 9th position. WTF would he do that, his name was turbotilter, but maybe my starters run is over and the balance has to be redressed. Going to see what happens over the next 10 sngs on this site. But at the moment, I am treading cautiously.

September Stats

Stats for September are as follows:-

Total Profit = $199.33
MTTs Played = 60
MTT Final Tables made = 8 (13.33%)
MTT in the Money = 11 (18.33%) - NB Inlcludes FT's
MTT Total $ won = $342.13
MTT Profit = -$14.97
SNG Played = 33
SNG Profit = $240
SNG ITM = 60.61%
Cash = -$16.70

The rest of the balance was made up syndi share money/in out and a few ladders games played, but no money.

Last month, I flew out of the blocks to get up about $500 very early, this month it was the total opposite, I went about $200 down and managed to pull most of it back during the last week, mainly due to a great run of $10 sng on Poker Poka, I just can't seem to go wrong on there at the moment (prob gonna regret saying that)

The leaguenutz monthly league was won by rob1973, very well played to him. But the achievement of the month has to go to Omaha god Jat7065, who in the LEOCOP event 3, p/l omaha event, played one of the finest games of agressive omaha I have ever seen to win the event outright taking home a cool $16.5k and the prize laddies gold bracelet. A huge big handclap for jat on this achievement, it could not have happened to a nicer bloke. Hats off to you m8. Also well done to MADV who managed to finish a very creditible 22nd in the same event ;-)

Profits for the year currently at approx $2970, so it is gonna be nip and tuck as to whether I can make my 4k target for the year. Hopefully get a couple of good MTT results and this should see it through.

Although saying that, I am probably gonna concentrate on the sngs a bit more this month and just play the mtts for leaguenutz entries. Most of the nutz players are currently on a big laddies downer at the moment, mainly due to very piss poor customer services, with at least 3-4 of them moving on and not playing laddies any more, have to say I agree with them, after all the moans over the last 2 years, they are still struggling to keep up with the opposition with regards customer service, lets hope they sit up and listen soon. Hopefully Graham can sort something out on one of the other sites so we can keep the leaguenutz monthly entrants high and satisfy everyone as to where they want to play and still compete in the nutz league.

GL and see you at the tables.

New Fave Site

For the time being, I have a new fave site, Poker Poka. I only dropped $100 odd in the site in the summer to play the Bad Beat WSOP tour and this was the site I was lucky enoughh to chimp my way to winning one of the events and $800, but to he fair have never gone back. In a desperate bid to get back into the black this month, I sat down and started to play some $10 sngs and I was stunned on just how poor the play was. They just seem to go all in with any old shit, as long as you don't get muffed, this should be a profitable place to play sngs on.

In the space of just 13 $10 sngs I have managed to get myself back in profit for the month, albeit only about $35, but as I was $200 down at one point it is a bit of relief. Out of the 13 entries, I have made the dosh 10 times, with 2 wins 5 2nds and 3 3rds. So I think I might give this a shot for a while. Hourly rate is currently at approx $14, but with such a small sample it is not wise to judge it on, but if stays like that, might dump the mtts and play them a lot more :-)

Leaguenutz had two specials on Sunday on stars, 1 NL and 1 FL, Managed to get 3rd in the NL to cover the entry costs and some good points, but Fixed Limit Holdem, what the fck is all that about. It was a real muff fest with people calling all draws and hitting everytime, I found myself not being able to let go of bottom pair as I did not know what the fck I was doing lol, Still some good muffing still managed to come 5th and some more points.

Leocop has started and I am now disappointed I did not try to qualify in any of the events as there looks like a lot of money up for grabs and with some decent players playing for a change, it may be possible to make some moves and get respect for them rather than the mupps on the $5 tourneys who call me with anything when I do my 1 bluff a week, I am a rock remember :-)

GL to all the leaguenutzers in the Leocop events, would be great to see one of them make a big finish.

Goth

Pulling back slightly

Still down this month overall, but I have had a couple of decent results. Managed to dodge all the muffers in the leaguenutz weekly special on sunday night and take first place for some well needed nutz points. This week it was moved to Poker Stars, although the numbers were slightly lower than normal, I hope we can move around a few of the other sites, it is always good to have a change of scenary and get away from out "spiritual" home we call ladjokes.

On Sunday night the barrowpoker boys had invited the leaguenutz members to play in a $200 freeroll on a new site call Thirdbullet (checkout www.thirdbullet.com)

Third Bullet is like no site I have played as there are some animated characters and if you type in lol you actually get a laugh sound and depending on your chosen character you get a girly giggle or a deep manly laugh. Some of the female characters have some great breasts as well, so well worth a look in :-)

With only 17 entries it was good value and some great poker was played, I unfortunately managed to knock out me best mate pokerkaz when she hit her flush and I had a higher one, luckily she forgave me, so I did not get too much of a roasting. After a couple of hours play and a couple of top muffs. I ended up heads up with our glorious leader moffman. After flat calling with AJ sooted managed to trap graham to get all his chips in with A8 and took the first prize of $70, which for a 17 man freeroll was great value. The site does not have many players at the moment, but might try a couple of cheap sit and goes to evaluate it a bit more. Will let you know what I think in a month or so.

Nothing else of note to add after that really. Made the final table of the 23:15 omaha a couple of times this week, including a 3rd last night, so slowly getting back to level for the month, would of been better, but spent $3o on the the 10K added PMV which did not help a small player like myself and got no hands at all, so a bit of a waste really.

So GL at the tables and don't forget to muff the muffers
Goth

Bad Months

Sometimes, you know you are just gonna be in for a bad month. This is gonna be one of mine I reckon. I am currently $83 down on month so far. My $20 sngs have gone down the pan, after 51 tournies, my hourly rate is now less than my $10 ffs. I just can't seem to get a break. I have only won 3/51, which, to be frank, is a fucking joke. I just don't know whats happening. I think I am just going to have to give stars a break for a while. Will prob move on to Poker Poka and play their STT's for a while at $10 until I get my roll on there up to $1100 (currently at $880)

Still playing laddies tourneys for leaguenutz points, played about 20 this months so far, with 2 FT's and one money finish so breaking even approx so far on this front.

Also played a bit of cash on Titan to try and get my bonus, but after 1 1/2 hours for $1.65 profit and only 44 points (need 1000 for each $10 to be released) it could take while I reckon lool. So may have to either move up a bit or forget it.

Still getting bollockings for not updating my blog more, must make a bigger effort, been saying it for ages though.

Off to pub this afternoon to watch the Villa, so cmon you mighty Villains.................Will back to laddies for the 20:30 no doubt to try and dodge the muffings.

Goth

August Stats and Stars SNG horror show

Around about the 25th of August, it looked like it was gonna be a really good month, was about $550 up at the time, then I hit a horrendous run on the Stars $20 sngs, going 7 on the trot without making the money, with only one 4th as well. It was a mix of bad play from me, poor cards and my big hands running into bigger hands, everytime I tried to steal I had AA/KK etc sat right behind me. This has knocked my stars hourly rate down to $5 p/h from $10. But still that is poker and I am sure I will bounce back, just has a 3rd while writing this, so hopefully the bad run has ended.

Anyway as promised, stats for August are as follows:-

Total Profit = $314.49
MTTs Played = 65
MTT Final Tables made = 11 (16.92%)
MTT in the Money = 14 (21.53%) N.B includes final tables
MTT Total $ won = £1083.94
MTT Profit = $315.84
SNG Played = 27
SNG Profit = $17 (lool)
SNG ITM = 37.04% (piss poor, I know !!)

The MTT prize money is out of proportion to the profit due to my biggest payday being the $50 2nd chance, which I did as a share with some of the nutz guys so had to give them an equal share. Only had 1 MTT win, which was in the 23:15 Omaha on laddies and 1 2nd. But I am pleased with making the final table almost 17% of the time, just need a few more top 3 finishes to boost the profit margin, might grab MADV to give me a few more tips on this, but more agression required on the FT rather than hope other people drop out to move me up the money.

As you can see, it was the sngs that let me down this month, I really do need to start playing more of these, but it only needs a poor run on the $20's, like I had last week to really put a dent in the profits. The 4k target for the year looks miles away at the moment, but lets hope it picks up again and the $ come rolling in.

Also came 3rd overall in the August Leaguenutz, which was the 2nd time I have finished in the top 3, had a bit of luck with this as rob1973 could not play for over a week, or I am sure he would have took 3rd or higher. Would have had 2nd if LANGERS had not found out that the 21:15 hi lo on laddies is his own private tourney and won it on a few occasions with many final tables, watch out for him in LEOCOP in this event, unless he gets muffed, he has gotta be a tip for the FT in this and hopefully win it, keep it up fella. Congats also to LEXUS2 for winning it for the 2nd month running, top performance.

Thats it for today, found me digi camera following the house move, so might put some pics up soon to brighten the blog up, but I hate to disappoint all those drooling female poker groupies I have, there will be no topless photos of me, you will just have to see Davy Lang for that fix (see langers blog link)

Goth

Stats - I'll show you mine, if you show me yours !

I haven't been able to link a s-xheet into my blog. But I know you are all dying to know how I have been getting on on my move up to the $20 sngs on Stars, so here is a sample of my stats so far. Main concern is the alarming amount of 2nds compared to 1sts, any theories on why, let me know, cos I'm stumped, but it is a small sample so I ain't worred yet.

Pokers Stars $20 STT 9 Seater.

Played:- 31
ITM:- 58.1%
SNG Profit:- $326
$ p/h:- $10.40
Avg Fin:- 3.32

1st - 3 - 9.7%
2nd - 11 - 35.5%
3rd - 4 - 12.9%
4th - 5 - 16.1%
5th - 4 - 12.9%
6th - 3 - 9.7%
7th - 0 - 0%
8th- 1 - 3.3%
9th - 0 - 0%

Will update stats when at 50/75/100 and then every 50 from then, hopefully a few more wins, but can't say I am to unhappy with the results so far.

Getting Lazy

You may have noticed that I am getting a bit lazy updating my blog and to be honest, I have. Fat lazy uninteresting twat springs to mind. But, its my birthday tomorrow and I have vowed to use this event to kickstart my life into shape. It will be my last year in my thirties before the big one next year (I'm not 50 ya fcking cheeky twat Stanford !!!!)

The weight loss was put on hold while I moved house, but luckily it has not gone back up and still hanging in about 14st 10. Aim to be at least 13 1/2, hopefully less by the time I go to Walton to muff it up live.

Poker wise, not having a bad month, currenty $420 up on the month, $2.8k up on the year. So on the way to meet my $4k target I set myself at the start of the year.

Also won my first Omaha MTT last night, the 23:15 on laddies, only 70 runners, but I seem to be making more final tables in this particular event than anything else at them moment. As I still do not know what I am doing in omaha, there must be some poor players in this.

I am going to try and start to publish more poker stats on here soon, including my STT stats, will attach my x-sheets if I can work out how to do it !!

So watch this space and come back and visit for, hopefully, a more informative, witty and updated blog........

Goth

Weekends

Was a good weekend both home wise and on the poker table. At home, managed to find a great dining room suite at a reasonable price.......................errrrrrrr fck......help meeeee. Bought two nice new scatter cushions for the sofa to brighten up the lounge....................no stoppit...........aaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Its official, moving house has turned me soft. If anyone meets me at Walton, give me a slap and say...."No" "Goth" weekends are for playing poker and drinking with ya mates, not trawling through homebase, looking for a bargain nest of tables that go well with the carpet and curtains..........

Enough of that, was in decent profit for my low level at the weekend, mainly due to a 2nd in the 00:30 $5 on laddies, which I should of won as I was a 2-1 chip leader going heads up. Still, can't moan, got some decent league nutz points as well which is also a bonus.

Having a little bad run on Stars $20 stts at the moment, with my hourly rate dropping below $7, this was mainly due to a run of 4 4ths, which makes you sick. But I played one just before writing this blog and won it, which helped.

Will try to post more poker results here in future.

23:15 omaha started on laddies, so must go muff someone.

Poker.....Too much fun ?????

I have a big problem with poker at the moment......I am enjoying it too much....

How can that be a problem ? you may ask....Well it is. Up until the last couple of months I got in to a routine of a daily grind of playing my $10 stt tables striving hard to keep up a $3-$4 p/h profit, while playing the odd MTT to alleviate the boredom and hopefully get the quick "big win" to boost the bank roll. Recently I have become more involved in playing on laddies with all the leaguenutz lads and lasses and I must say, I am having an absolute scream. The chat and the piss taking (and also the support) is 2nd to none, consequently, last month I only played approx 12 STT's, where I would normally be nearer 100 (although moving house cut it down a bit too)

I am finding chatting to everyone is improving my game no end. In a bid to get respect from my peers, as I do consider myself one of the more weaker players in the nutz, I am finding I am making moves and playing better poker as a result. In turn my MTT performances of late have been getting a lot better. I have also found myself branching out and playing different forms of poker, ie omaha. Interestingly enough I have made more final tables in omaha than I have done in No Limit Texas, amazingly enough, I played my first Hi Lo multi last night on laddies in the 21:15 $10 rebuy and made the final table coming 6th. I have only ever played the odd 15 mins or so on a hi lo cash table before, so I was well pleased.

To cap it all off, a couple of nights ago, 5 of us nutz lads chipped in $11 dollars so we could enter the laddies $50 22:00 2nd chance, which I played. This was the highest buy in I have ever played and although shortstacked for most of the game, managed to make the final table and come 6th for a very nice $454 to share amongst the lads. It gave me a lot of confidence to know that I can play at the higher buy in levels and get some success. I know I still have a hell of a lot of learning to go, MADV still thinks I play like a big girlie and need to get my chips in more to get the 1sts rather than the 5th/6th/7ths. I know he is right, but I am just not quite ready for that yet, maybe once the bankroll is up above 5k, I can be a bit more aggresive and mix it up more.

So the question is what do I do ?, I have moved up to the $20 STT tables on poker stars and I am currenltly making about $11 p/h on them, so I know, if I was to concentrate on these tables, I would make a decent sum over the year if I put the hours in, however what about the fun ?

Can't say it is the worst dilemma in the world, make more money ? or have more fun. For the time being, I think I am just going to carry on as is, maybe squeeze a few more STT in to keep the flow of cash coming in. Either way, I am sure I will be doing it with a smile :-)

Almost Settled

Well it will be two weeks since I moved house tomorrow and we are almost unpacked......

BT did not do too bad and I was back online on the Tuesday evening following the Friday move, however in their infinite wisdom and customer service, they are now trying to run my broadband line at the highest rate possible, they will do this for the first 10 days and then "settle" in to what they think as acceptable speed/reliability........FUCK OFF BT, I do not need 6.2 mb that discos 6 times a night for 20 seconds.....GIVE ME BACK MY TOTALLY STABLE 2MB..........I tried to tell them this when I was on the phone to their call centre (probably in fucking Delhi by the sound of the YTS I was talking to on the phone) He persisted in telling me to turn my router in, even after for the 5th time I told him, "I AM AT WORK, MY FUCKING ARMS ARE NOT NOT 15 MILES LONG !!!) he then got the jist and said "when you get home, can you turn your router on !!) I told him to forget it. I will wait until the end of the 10 days and see what it settles at, I guess then I will have to go through there testing procedure...Switch it off, wait 10 seconds, count the filters, how longs your cock and all that blox. I am a fcking Cisco engineer and I have to listen to their bollocks, although when I talk to my dumb users, I do the same...but thats different ;-)

Well thats the end of that rant.

Will try to post some poker stuff over the next few days...but I had to get that off my chest, I bet this does not post as I have probably been kicked off while typing this and it will not submit......

Moving House

This could be my last post for a week as I am moving house on Friday, BT have promised me a seamless transfer of my Broadband when they transfer it over to the new address on Friday at 14:00, I strongly suspect that I will not be playing poker again until at least next wednesday after umpteen phone calls to BT trying to find out what the fck is going on.

I have been off work packing all day and my nads must have sweated a gallon of water into me pants over the course of the day. I felt like a hippy on the last day of glastonbury and that stinks maaaaan......

Managed to break to play the 20:30 on laddies, didn't really get much but was sitting ok with about 60 left, found QQ utg and put in a comitted raise, chip leader called and two after him went all in. I could not put myself all in to get rid of the leader as the underraise rule kicked in, wo I could only call, flop came down T high, I went all in. The chip leader actually folded and the other two turned over KK and AA, thanks laddies. This left me with just over a 1000 chips and the blinds were 150/300, managed to get back up to 2500, when it was folded around to the SB when I had AT, min raise off him, so I pushed and he flipped over AK and Goth left the building in 35th place, no dosh.

Gonna enter the 23:15 omaha to get one more fix. Will miss my online nutz buddies while I am off the air, but hopefully will come back hungry and more focused in my new, more comfortable surroundings, cya all soon.

Goth.

Water water everywhere !!!

And I found most of it.

Played at West Midlands Golf Club today on a golfing day out. A course full of water and now also full of my golf balls at the bottom of it. Years ago when used to work shifts I used to play a lot of golf and managed to get my hadicap down to 11, regularly shooting scores in the mid 70's. Now I only play a few times a year, I managed to wangle it so I played off 18 and still only scored 22 points. Lost quite a few balls, but it was a good day out, sun burnt me face, so I look like a beetroot, reckon its gonna sting like fck in the shower in the morning.

Was gonna have an early night last night, but entered the 23:15 omaha on laddies as I was having a good laugh with the nutz boys and girls, even though I was 21/21 at one stage, I managed to come 5th lol, jat7065 was robbed heads up with a muff river, but always good to see two leagunutz members on a final table. I can blame this for my poor show on the golf course today.

Got back home and missed entering the leagunutz weekly special by two minutes. Shame as Graham was offering a years entry for next year to the winner, well worth winning, and Jat played a good game and took the first prize. It was good to see a regular player win it. One funny moment had to be when prince01 called pokerkaz's all in (AK) with K7 suited, hit his flush and then proceeded to blame kaz for his call as he refused to be bullied by her !!!!! Good job it was not a live game, I think he may have been picking chips out of his arse if it was ;-)

Gonna play the omaha again tonight, like the game, still don't know really what I am doing, but 2/3 final tables in 3 nights, I must be getting lucky at it at least.

It is also weekly weigh in today, good news this week. Last week my average was 15st 1/2lb this week my average was 14st 11 3/4lb, even with a shed load of beer on Friday and another chinese, so its heading in the right direction for a while at least. Hopefully, I can keep it going this time........

No vegas for me

It was the last night of the WSOP tourney and it ended with a bang, poetically my AA got cracked by triple8s' 99 to knock me out and hand him the seat, it is probably just as well as I would not have been able to go and I was advised that I would not be able to sell it, even for 50p lol (you drive a hard bargain Sandy ;-) ) I managed 14th place though for some more points, which left me 3rd place overall, 1 off the seat for Vegas and 10th in the overall leaderboard. At the start of the series, I would have laughed if you would have said I would make a final table, let alone 4 of them and win one, so I can't really complain. The tour has been a great success and I really hope they do it again next year, as I have learnt quite a lot by playing with better players.

On another note, it was great to see Decision get a seat for the WSOP through Bad Beat, and then he goes and qualifies on laddies on the same night lol, some people are just too greedy. But it is very well deserved.

Not had much luck in the MTT's but as usual my STT's are paying for the entries, the $20 stt on stars that I have moved up to seem to be going too well at the moment as I am currently 80% ITM after only 10 games, I am sure they are not all that easy, but lets hope so. I did manage to muff my way to a pot limit omaha final table without really knowing what I was doing, which was nice.

Been supporting the leaguenutz guys and girls a lot the last few days, it really has become a great little community and we are all hoping to meet up in November at Walton, hopefully we can all play a live STT together, to try and prove who really is the king muff. lenny_dawn did try to prove he was the best on Sunday night in a small all in or fold tourney, but he just did not have what it takes when he got heads up against the darkest muff of all and the Gothman crushed him took his crown, the muff is dead, long live the muff. hehe

No poker tomorrow as it is Quiz(pissup) night. No drinking friday either as I have to work on saturday....and I am on a corporate golf day on sunday. I'll have poker withdrawl symptoms by Monday.....is there a help line I can call ????

A long week

Well its been a long week, and poker wise, not a very productive one. Apart from a final table in a $1 tourney, I have not won a penny on Ladbrokes for well over a week. The outdraws are still hitting like mad, or my big hands are walking into bigger hands.

The only good poker moment was on the Bad Beat, WSOP qualifier where I managed to sneak into the final table for some more well earned points (no money though as only top 5 got paid) this puts me in 3rd place going into the final week behind Nordicstone and triple8, Nordic has already won a seat, so I am not sure what happens if he wins it. triple8 is ahead of me courtesy of an incredible call when Decision went all in on his BB with AK, and for some reason triple8 called for 3/4 of his stack with 97s and with a 99 on the flop and 7 on the river, hit a boat to send Dec sailing. Sometimes I guess I will never understand why some people make the decisons that they do, but everyone is entitled to play any two cards when they want I guess. It is almost certain that if I do win a seat that I will not be able to go, I can only hope if I do win, I can sell the seat on, but still with 2K added and only 40 odd players now, it is still worth playing for the value alone.

I have been steady on the STT's, doing ok on the $20 on stars, had a few 2nds and 3rds, but still haven't won one. Played one today, heads up. Equal stacks, blinds 100/200 25 anti. I call his minimum raise with 87. Flop comes 872, I think happy days. He bets, I raise, he flat calls. Turn brings another 2, he bets, I go all in. He calls straight away showing the mighty 32 that he had raised with to put me 2nd. Guess heads up is a different game.

Today was also the final day of the weekly weigh in....gulp. I have been keeping track everyday and decided to take a weekly average. The starting weight was 15st 2 1/2 and my average for the week was 15st 1/2. So an average weight loss of 2 whole pound !! or to put it mildly one good shit.....Not really what I was hoping for, but I guess I did have a large chinese + approx 27 pints of cider over the week (mostly on 3 days only) Will try to be better this week. I did go back to the gym 3 times so a routine has been started at least. Next weeks will be better....I hope.

I have had a few bollockings off the Nutz lads for not updating my blog more, so I am will try and update it a minimum of every two days. With at least how much I have won/lost at poker.

Hope thats ok lenny hehe.

A New Era Begins

Well I woke up this morning, life has changed.......

We are out the world cup, the swede, at long last, has gone, and David Beckham steps down as England captain.

It is also official that I am a fat fcker.........The world cup has taken its toll, constant drinking, takeaways and the only excercise is the moving of the slide bar to the far right to go all in !!

Like England, its time for a change. No more takeaways, a lot less beer and a lot more excercise and healthy eating.

It starts tomorrow morning, and I am going to post a weekly weigh in every sunday. The starting weight is 15st 2 1/2 pounds. Hopefully posting on here and maybe getting some abuse, will drive me to do what is needed, to become a fit, more focused, poker player.

Poker today has gone ok so far, made 1 final table in a $1 f/o on laddies, for some well needed leaguenutz points. We also have the "walton special playoff" tonight, which the winner gets sponsored to play in pokemaniacs tourney in november. Would love to win it, will probably go anyway, but always nice to go on a freebie.

Will let you know how I get on later.

Bad Beat WSOP Survival

Today was the 3rd leg of the last section of the Bad Beat WSOP tour, which I was leading before tonight. It was on Full Tilt, which used to be one of my favourite sites, but no matter what I do, I can't win on it anymore, it just seems to hate me at the moment.

And guess what, I struggled. With only 48 entrants, I really needed to make the top 20 to try and keep in touch with the herd of good players chasing up my rear. I got no cards what so ever for the first hour, I eventually get dealt KK, which, as I was playing so tight, a small raise sent the whole table cowering behind their chairs. I literally was playing the short stack for whole tourney, I never got above the starting chips ! However, luck was with me, and I did manage to protect my blinds a couple of times and steal a couple of pots to make the top 20 (god knows how, I even quadrupled up when I had to go all in with Q5 on my small blind with only 500 chips left and the board duly dropped out 2 5's on the flop, this at least managed to keep me alive while another couple of players bit the dust and I eventually went out 15th for a well earnt 14 points in total. This may keep me in the lead, but meds played another terrific game to make the final table again, so it will be close. With 2 legs to go, I am still in with a shout, but I won't hold my breath.

If by some amazing feat of luck I do win the seat, I may not be able to go as I am moving house in the next few weeks, if I can't I will be gutted, I can only hope I can do a deal with Bad Beat to sell the prize to someone who can go for less than the face value, with hopefully a stake in the player buying it. We shall see, but I will give it my best shot.

I played a STT after this on FT, just to see if it had changed and again, I was all in preflop with TT against AQ, the turn came, I was still ahead, then the long pause and boom, the ace on the river. Bye Bye Gothman.

Decided to get rid of the rage on the Laddies $10 crapshoot, and guess what, all in with AQ against the chip leaders A7, 7 on the turn, boom boom.

Did I mention my lose switch was on ? Haven't won a penny on laddies for 10 days now !

Gonna play the 00:30 on laddies and try to play calm and proper, cos I can't sleep. I'll regret it in the morning when I have to get up for work, I always do, but as for now, its Kerrang on the telly, laptop on me gut.....And poker for hopefully another 3 hours.

The long pause !!

Well I just managed to last to 87th in the 20:30 on laddies, shortstacked on the BB with 1500 chips, dealt 88, blinds 300/150. Folds round to the button who has big stack. He raises to 900, I go all in he calls instantly and shows A 10 sooted. flop x QJ. Turn rag......Then the spooky bit, there was at least a 3 second pause, before the K drops on the river to give him the str8 and I am out.

Now, his raise was good, his call was good, after the flop, he was prob a fave, with so many outs, but.so not really a bad beat...the question is.....why the PAUSE......

As I said, my switch lose switch on laddies is on, come and get me, I bet I don't score any more nutz points this month.

My lose switch is on - come get me !!!

Yep, the switch has been flicked, I can't win a big hand.

After all my bead beats in the last few days, it still continues. Yesterday I had registered my 3 LeagueNutz Tourneys, my first one the the 20:30 freezeout, I flat called a min raise with JJ. the flop came down 466. I did not put him on a 6, so I was first to act and put in a 3/4 pot sized bet, he flat called, this to me ruled out him having AA/KK/QQ. The turn brought a Ten, due to my losing streak, I thought to myself I bet he has TT. I only had 600 chips left, so I put them in, he called straight away and turned over TT........I did not bother entering the other two, what was the point.

I have also just been dealt AA in the BB in the 18:45 Turbo. Two limpers, I went all in, one called and turned over 66, the 6 duly came out on the flop and bye bye Gothman.

I guarantee I get outdrawn in the 20:30 tonight. Watch this space.......

Has the tide changed ?

I have been having a very good run recently and a lot of this has been down to my good hands standing up. When I have been getting my chips in the with the best of it, they have held up, with very few outdraws. Even my races have been winning. My steals were not walking into monsters and everything in the garden has been rosie.

Over the last few days, it has been the total opposite, my AA's KK's and QQ's have been smashed almost every time I have played them I have lost nearly every race.

What has changed, I am still playing my same solid poker. Although to counteract the change, I have started playing more marginal hands out of position. Maybe this in its self is the problem

Confidence is a key thing in poker and at the moment, I have none, it is spooky that only a week ago, my confidence was at an all time high. It just goes to show you can never be complacent in this game.

I think I will use this weekend of footy to take a short break and go on the piss for two days.

Hopefully I can then sit down on Monday night with the confidence that I had only a short time ago.

Bad Beat at Bad Beat

Tonight was the 2nd Leg of the final Bad Beat WSOP tour and it was at my spiritual home, ladbrokes.

I got absolutley no cards at all for the first hour and was on about 1450 chips, so I took the rebuy and the addon to get up to about 4.5k. Won a a few pots after that and was sitting steady on about 5.5k with just over a hundred left.

I was then dealt AA in mid positon, the blinds, were 100/200. UTG went all in for his 1500 or so chips, halemaster to my right, with slightly more chips than me flat called. I made the correct play I believe and went all in. Everyone else folded around and hale called my all in and the cards were flipped over. the utg had TT, halemaster had QQ. I was happy, until the turn slapped the Q down right in my fat face and I was out. I was gutted, This pot would of put me in the top 10 and in good position to go on and make the top 20 for some more important points, but I guess it was not to be.

Oh well, always next week.

Stars England Vs Sweden

Well it just had to be done, my country called for me and I was there, and what a wonder victory it was England 8 - Sweden 1........

No I am not day dreaming about tomorrow night (I wish) but tonight is was the Poker Stars 1K added $5 tourney to celebrate England Vs Sweden. The tourney was only open to UK and Swedish players, and amazingly enough, not another countrys players were in it, laddies should take note on how Poker Stars managed to do this, rather than the UK only farce events laddies run with 1 million scandis playing in them.

I don't normally play multis on stars, but unfortunately the server that housed the leaguenutz site was down, so I could not register my entries, so I thought I would give this a go, with 1K added for a $5 event and only 231 runners, it seemed like good value.

I am glad to say I did not let my country down and after some dodgy steals and a couple of muffs, managed to get to my first Poker Stars final table. The final table consisted of 8 UK players and 1 Swede......Get in !!! The swede went out 8th to make the top 7 players all british. Unfortunately with the blinds and 2000/4000 and 200 running antes it became a bit of a crapshoot and I went out 7th going all in with A5 on the button and getting called by 88 on the small blind and not improving.

There was a fair bit of scandi bashing going on and they did seem to be outnumbered, lets just hope the same result happens tomorrow....

CMON ENGERLAND.....

The weekends over

Well the weekends gone I am back to work tomorrow. God I wish I could play poker full time, but I guess like any job it would then become boring.

Had a steady weekend, played 6 Multis, 4 money finishes and one final table. The final table was the LeagueNutz weekly special, which was a great tourney and due to some serious spamming by pokerkaz got 80 runners this week. I managed to eek my way in to 6th place by the skin of my teeth. Hopefully the extra runners will mean more people playing in the league proper next month, which should make for some good competition.

Interestingly enough, I seem to be concentrating more on my MTT's at the moment rather than the sngs, on a weekend I would normally play 10+ a day, sometimes playing two tables at a time, but because of LeagueNutz, I seem to be trying to concetrate on getting into the top 20. I think this has been why I have been having better results lately. Hopefully this will coninue, I just need to learn to be a bit more agressive in my play when I have chips to bring that edge to my game, its horrible sitting back, knowing what you should do, but just not having the courage to do it. I am sure that this will come in time.

After the good results this week, I am back on target to be $4000 in profit by the end of the year. I did fall behind, but some good results this month (1.4k up) has put me on track.

Also, I am also almost at my bankroll level on Poker stars of $1100 where I have said, I will move up the $20 sit and goes, so if my ITM is at the same ratio, my roll should increase faster, should I fall below $1k I will drop down to $10 again till back up to $1.1k, not sure if this is the best way to do it, but it will do for now.

I am going to draft up a bankroll plan for myself for all of the sites I play regularly and stick to these without fail, I may publish them on here once complete to see if any who reads this has any comments.

I plan to take 20% out of all of my poker sites at the end of the year and put away in a seperate account, that I will only dip into in 2010. Although with all of the hack scares I may take some out and keep in a virtual area for poker use only.

I would love to hear anyone elses comments on what they do for the various limits, or comments on the way I do things, feel free to reply on here.

Well thats it for the weekend, back to work and daydreaming about Royal Flushes and slo playing flopped boats.

Best poker day of the year so far

Yesterday, I had my biggest net gain in a single day this year in fact, I think it is my best day ever.

My first big MTT win of the year, could not have come in a better tournament as far as I am concerned. Somehow I managed to muff my way to victory in the Bad Beat WSOP qualifer on Poker Poka. The tourney only had 42 runners but with 2k added from bad beat it was very good value. It was a $5 buyin, with 1 rebuy and 1 add on allowed.

I started off quite well, managing to pick up a couple of pots, then I joked about having to get rid of my chips so I could rebuy, well it didn't take long before I had too. I limped in with 9d8d and the flop came 9 high with two diamonds. I bet out and got rr by bigadzc, at this stage, I thought, well I have top pair, flush draw and a gutshot to boot, so went all in. big called and showed A9, I didn't improve and had to rebuy. I got to the add on period with just 1200 chips and took the add on.

I didn't get any hands for a while and then my run of luck started, I decided to go for a button steal all in with A8/7 can't remember and walked into bigadzc QQ on the BB, the ace on the turn gave me a welcome double up. I later dodged another bullet when I was all in with 10/9 soooooted on a SB steal walking into 88, a king on the river gave me a k high str8 and I knocked the unfortunate BB out of the tourney (sorry, can't remember who I muffed)

It was survival then, until all of a sudden it was down to the last 4 or so and I was happy as I was in the money. Then the defining hand came.

I am not that familiar with Poker Poka and I am not to keen on the layout, but when I attempted a button steal with Qc9c I had not noticed that knockknock had already min raised. He then flat called my RR. The dream flop of x 9 9 came down then. I had hit the lottery. I decided to check, so did he. I think the turn bought a K. I put a small bet out to look like I was fishing and he flat called. The river then bought the last 9 to give me quads, I just had to check and hoped he took a stab at it, I was right to do so as he lead out with a 20k bet. I obvisouly pushed all in, then he realised he was shot and folded, this was an 80k + pot and put me in the chip lead. I then just sat back and played my hands when they came and ironically ended heads up with bigadzc who I had muffed his QQ earlier to survive.

big had been slow all and quiet all game, he then started to talking and it turns out that he had just lost a heads battle up on laddies in the weekly wsop final and had lost a wsop seat. I was gutted for him until he mentioned he got 10.5k for 2nd, which is not a bad.

The defining hand came when I pushed with AK and he called with QJ sooted, no cards helped either of us and my AK took down the pot and the $800 first prize, which is my 3rd ever biggest total. I could not of been any happier to win a tourney of this quality. Although I do think a lot of the players were concentrating more on on the dream team event, which helped.

While this was going on I also managed to come 3rd in the 20:30 $5 f/o on laddies for $177 dollars so a very profitable day.

I also have to mention the magnificent performance of the LeagueNutz boys in the Dream Team, as a proud member of the LeagueNutz site, it was great to see 6 of my fellow Nutzers play so well, in particular fryern and Jat to come 1st and 4th, truly a great performance and a great Bad Beat WSOP/Dream Team for the LeagueNutz players. Hopefully this will bring more attention to the site and get the extra players that the site deserves and especially as it was Graham (moffmans) birthday yesteday, so it felt like a nice present from us to him for all his hard work and effort he puts into the site on a daily basis. We all owe him a big thank you.

Anyway, no poker today as its ENGLAND day and another massive hangover in the making.

A great day out in sunny Scotland

On Tuesday, I had a break from work and poker and went Scotland to play Golf. We flew up to Edinburgh on the 6.55 flight from Birmingham, unfortunately one numpty in our party decided to not bring any photo ID with him, so they would not let him on the plane, so our party of 10 became a party of 9 !!!

Once in Edinburgh we taxied to Craigelaw golf course which was a couple of miles away from Gullen, so I am told (Geography is not y strong point !) where we sat down for a full scottish breakfast, yum yum......

After loosening the belt a notch, set off for the first tee......now bearing in mind, I have not played a round of golf since september and only one visit up the driving range I was a bit nervous. Especially after the usual rows about handicaps and bandits, I was made to play off 15, which I thought was a bit unfair. My fears were soon put to rest when my drive went through the back of the green, well it was only 291 yards, easy game golf ;-)

We played 9 in the morning and then played 18 after lunch and had a great laugh during the game, with the normal betting frenzy that goes on. Considering I hadn't played ince november and only normally play 9-10 times a year anyway. I shot 44 on the 9 in morning for 17 points (took 3 to get out of one bunker...grrr) and the 18, I shot 91 for 30 points. So I can't really complain. My driving kept me in the game really, with the win behind, I drove at least 3 of the greens, one of them 350 yards+

I think we got off lightly with the wind, as it was right on the coast, if it was blowing like a proper links course, we could off been in all sorts of trouble.

This was my first trip ever to Scotland and I was very impressed. The scenary was beautiful and much to my amazement, the hospitality was second to none. I will definitely be spending more time up there.

We got back to the airport at 21:30 and I was in my local in back in Birmingham at 22:59 for last orders, which didn't really matter as the landlord organized the trip anyway and was with us so beer was not going to be a problem.

Truly a great day out.

Its here at last

Well poker is going to pay a backseat for the next five weeks, cos its here.....The World Cup....nothing else matters (except for a golfing day out in Edinburgh next Tuesday)

The timing is a bit off, as I seem to on a good roll at the moment. I have had my best start to the month this year with 4 final tables already inlcuding 3 in the laddies 20:30 $5 f/o, with the best result being 2nd, although I was robbed in this event, when the down to 3 players, I had a large chip lead, I was dealt QQ in the BB, the only threat out of the other 2 went all in, I called, he showed 22, a Q hit on the flop and I smiled. Then confusion hit as all the chips went to him after the river.......I checked the board again to see a 6 5 4 + 3 to give him a 6 high straight.....Gutted. Still a nice payday of $288 for $5 stake.

But enough of poker, in 1 hours time, I will be in the pub Winona in hand (check old blogs if you don't know what that is) The might ENGERLAND are going to bring the cup home and they are going to do it in style. This is really what life is about, being in a packed pub watching the greatest event on earth. I can't really say any more.

CMON ON ENGLAND.....COME ON ENGLAND......COME ON ENGLAND

Later........

Cash Games and my Fave Tourney

I have spent a lot of this last week, playing the micro limit cash games on laddies in order to play in the Saturday freeroll. The play I have seen at this level, seems to be truly awful with any two cards being played from any position calling any sized raise. The freeroll on Saturday started well and I built up to about 5k playing my normal game. I made a massive mistake then. There was an early raise from someone on the same stack as me, I sat there with KK, I decided to flat call, so did the BB. The Flop came down 9 6 2 rainbow, great I thought. However with about 1500 in the pot the BB bet 450, the early raiser immediatly went all in. I thought for a while and decided, one of the two had AA or had hit trips, so I layed down my KK. The BB called and they flipped over JJ and A9.......I was gutted, I would have took down a 12k+ pot which would have put me into the top 3. But I was still sitting ok, until about half an hour later, I was unable to get an early raiser to lay down his AQ, when I came all in over the top with AK, he called and hit one queen on the flop and another on the turn and I was out................I ain't going to bother next week as England are playing on the afternoon in the World Cup, so I will be too pissed to play.

Later in the night I played the 20:30 $5 f/o, which for the 4th time in 5 attempts, managed to make the final table, which helped finish the day in profit.

I also managed to come a creditable 46th in the Bet 365 $5K freroll which with 9633 runners, was not bad, the massive payout of $10.50 was probably not really worth the effort, but hey, its free money.

Looking forward to the Leaguenutz special this evening, although I am sure I will have to dodge a few allins from Jat and MADV as I have a bounty on my head tonight, but I am sure it will be fun and good poker played as ever.

Not to be

The BB wsop tourney was not to be tonight, after getting my fingers caught in the till early trying to bluff Punk out of a pot, I lost 1/3 of my chips. But then 3 hands on the trot changed everything. I got Dealt AcKc and raised to 600 and got called by taff. The flop came king high and I went all in hoping taff had QQ/JJ and thought I was bluffing, but taff made a good lay down and I took the pot. The next hand I got dealt AsKs and raised the same, it was the lovely angels BB and she came over the top all in. I almost laid it down, but decided to call, it was the right decision as she had AQd and my hand stood up. This put me well above average chips and looking good. My ver next hand I was dealt 77, Punk minimum raised and I flat called. The flop came 5 high, I was first to act and put in an overpot sized bet, hoping Punk had AK/AK and being the good player he is he would lay out it down. He immediately RR me all in. Without thinking I called straight away. I guess in my mind, with me having AK twice on the trot, I had put him on this hand. Of course, I was totally wrong and he flipped over AA and I was out 37th for an early bath. At least you know if you give your chips to Punk, you know they are not going to be chimped away, which is a small consolation for my poor call. Punk did go on to finish 2nd even after strum muffed his KK with JJ and I believe he has won the 3rd seat for the WSOP, so well done Punkfloyd. I am sure he will give me a cut when he lands the big one.....hehe.

Anyway gonna play the 23:15 PL omaha on laddies now, I really wish I knew how to play this game, it looks like so much fun ;-(

Hat Trick Hero

I know you all saw the title and immediatley thought "Peter Crouch" in the world up final in July.....but no.....it was me !!!

On Monday night I came 6th in the laddies 20:30 $5 f/o.....this was the 3rd night running I had made the final table of this tourney coming 3rd/4th/6th , with 298/347/398 runners, I felt I had played some good stuff. In fact my worse result 6th, should of been my best...The amount of "marginal" hands I laid down, ie A9 sooted on the button with 2 limpers when the blinds were quite big (I folded, god I am a such a rock) I would have won 3-4 massive pots for a cheap limp. If I had gone into some of these hands I would have had a dominating chip count, but hey we all can't be perfect.

Anyway enough of blowing my own trumpet. At work today, I had a "team meeting" with by boss in our local and I polished off 4 pints of old rosey (7.2% scrumpy) and we got some good ideas going. I have a few issues at work which I will discuss in future blog entries, but not tonight.

Also tonight is the Bad Beat WSOP tour, if I win and get 4+ bounties and the top 10 come no where, I will make get a seat to wsop !!! FAT CHANCE, although it is one of my favorite tourneys of the week and tonight it is on Crazy Poker and I have made the final table on this site before, so, you never know. Although I do feel quite pissed after the scrumpy lunchtime, so I amy be a bit more agressive than normal, which may help ;-)

I'll let you know how I get on......

Just like buses

Well, I guess it is like buses, I haven't had a decent MTT finish for ages, then I get one two nights running. In the same tourney as Saturday (Laddies $5 20:30 f/o) I managed to finish 4th last night after coming 3rd the night before. Although this time, I did have a rather large slice of luck. The field was down the last 15 or 16, when it was folded around to me one off the button. I had K9 Soooooted and decided to raise, erlingmark19 was on the BB and Reraised me. Now I had raised his last two blinds and took them down, so this time my thought process said to me he is just pissed of at me and is protecting his blind, so I rereraised him, this left me only 500 chips. He then put me all in, I then new I was in trouble, with 500 left I had to call and he flipped over the bullets, but the muff was with me and after a JT came on the flop, the river bought the loveley lady to give me a king high str8. He was not a happy bunny and gave me a fair bit of stick, although he did make me laugh when he said I should have known after his 2nd raise that he had a big hand, which I did, but if he thinks I am laying down my last 500 chips when there is a 30k+ pot out there, he is sadly mistaken. So I just said sorry and unlucky and all that, what else could I do, it was just the "wrong move at the right time"

The stars freeroll was dead for me, when I went down to 200 chips when my KK walked into AA. I did get back up to 1400 chips, but made a stupid all in call with K9 sooooted (must be the hand of the day) and failed to crack QQ.

Still, another $100 + profit on the day, which takes my profit for this year through the $1k barrier for the first time. I hope the next barrier is broken shortly.

From Bad Beat Bubble Boy to Top 3 Finish

It has been an up and down week. On wednesday, the biggest disappointment came in the Bad Beat WSOP Tour at Littlewoods on. Interestingly enough, a friend of mine was over, and he stayed for the first hour to watch me play, what a difference this made. He was asking all sorts of questions and I was having to explain what I was doing and why. For the first time, it seemed to make me think about my game more and concentrate. I actually think I played my best poker for a long while in this tourney, this along with some good cards put me in the top 10 with only 12 left, I felt if I could keep tight, make a couple of steals, I could comfortably make the FT. However, luck was not on my side, with the blinds at 400/800 and antes at 75, it was folded down to me and with 7500 chips approx and looking down at A5, I decided to push. Unfortunatly for me, triple 8 was sat on the BB with AK and called immediatley, I had a little hope when the flop dropped a 4 and a 2, to give me 8 outs, but they didn't come and I was down to 1200 chips. Eventually pushing with A4 Sooooted and getting knocked out 11th when Diane called with J9 and flopped two pair. It was not meant to be, it would have been my 3rd final table in the tour, which considering the standard of the opposition, I would have been very proud of.

Anyway the rest of the week then seemed to go well, my new found confidence seemed to help me in my sit and goes, although I was still getting muffed in the few multi I managed to fit in. The week ended with my 2nd best result of the year, when after scraping into the final table as the short stack in saturdays 20:30 $5 MTT on laddies, I looked down and found AK on the BB. There were two all ins in front of me, and I thought "what the hell" and called, they turned over JJ and QQ, I spiked my K on the flop and tripled up to 45k. I sat back then and watched the field knock each other out until it was down the final 3. I was on about 48k the other two well over 100k. My demise came when the blinds were at 6000/3000 and I pushed with K7 from the small blind for a steal, the BB found 33 and called, with no improvement I was out 3rd taking home $176, which is a good result for me. Being $50 up on the sng at stars, it was my 2nd most profitable day this year so far. So a happy Goth for now.

Tonight sees the Poker Stars 500 FPP freeroll for the WSOP qualifiers, so I am going to give that a go tonight (thanks fasteddie667 for telling me about this) I will let you all know how I get on later.

Off to the cinema now to watch X-men 3, gotta do some boyfriend stuff till late this afternoon, just to keep the peace, you know what its like lads.....grrrrr.

A different day

What a difference a day makes. After my little rant yesterday, I played a further 2 SNGs on stars and got two 3rds.

Tonight, I thought it was back to normal after having to lay down QQ and JJ on a A high flop and being put all in, eventually finishing 5th.

The next game, I thought I was gone after being all in preflop with QQ and finding AA, but hey the muff was with me, with the river giving me a 10 for a Q high straight. After that I hit everything and went on to win easily. The 3rd went well until heads up All in AQ, called by K10 and the river bought a king, but still 2nd.
The 4th and final game was easy, and won this comfortably.

So today......I love fucking poker !!!

Shit and go

Thats what it has been like for me on stars today, the sunday muppets are out in force and they are fucking hitting everything.

9 played today so far, 1 1st, 1 3rd, the rest OTM, including two 9ths, with AA getting cracked 3 times......

Flush chasing, gutshot drawing, bottom pair calling all in mother fuckers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate fucking poker !!!!

Playing with a hangover

Well, what can I say, I did not get to play any poker on Friday as my friend from Ireland had popped over to old blightey on his way to wales to watch Munster in the Heinekin cup. Boy does he like a drink.....I eventually got home at midnight after surviving a one foot in the canal incident walking home along the towpath, when the bank gave way under my unsteady gait, how the hell I did not go in head first I do not know.

Saturday morning I felt rough as fuck, but as I had ruined the weekend before cos of the FA cup final, I had to get up and take Amanda to the cinema to watch the Da Vinci Code, which, I must admit, I enjoyed immensely, even if I did almost throw up twice into my sprite soft drink cup.......

When I got back home, I decided to try and play some poker. I entered my Leaguenutz tourneys, which were the 18:15 high stack, the 20:30 f/o and a $5 turbo. I was playing an sng on stars, eagerly waiting for the high stack tourney to start, when 18:15 came and went, I flipped to Ladbrokes, only to find I had forgotten to enter....what a muppet. At least I was able to concentrate on the sng, which I came 2nd in. I did play the 20:30 eventually going out 79th after not too spectacular poker.

Hangover was still giving me jip, when I decided to play another sng on stars. So I enter the tourney as normal and sit down and wait as usual. The table fires up, and I am sat there with one opponent opposite me. What the fuck !!! I had enter a $10 dollar heads up, shit I thought, oh well, lets give it a go. Then the best bit, I got dealt 3 cards !!! I looked up and I was playing a heads up game of 7 card Fixed Limit Hi Lo Stud.....Oh my fucking god, I have never played this in my life. I had not got a clue what to do....and guess what ? I fucking destroyed this bloke, blew him off the table. I am not sure if he was a poor player, but I bet out of every pot, I called him down chasing lows, and raised him out of every pot when I got a chance. I may have played really poorly and got lucky, he did actually say "gg monkey" when I beat him, so I guess I may have chased a few too many lows ;-)

Lets see what today brings, although I will miss most of the day as I am taking Amanda to Hay on Wye to have a mooch around the book shops.

The hangover has gone and thank heavens for wireless, cos I am righting this on the bog while having a dump.

PS, I also forgot to enter the turbo tourney as well....grrrrr

Out of the Bad Beat Laddies WSOP Q

Well what started off quite well, when within the first hour I got up above 9000 chips and was even chip leader for a few hands. I then never got a hand for ages. By this time the blinds were 800 400 and I was down to just over 5k in chips. I was determined not to get blinded out this tourney and at least go out fighting. So from mid position I found QJ and decided to push. Sandy on the small blind thought for quite a while then announced a pp, but folded. Spud was on the BB, he thought for a while then called and turned over AQ, I thought I was a gonna....but hey the flop came J44, but the big grin on me face soon went, as the laddies river delivered the mandatory Ace, to give the chip leader even more chips and knocking me out 37th.

I can't really complain, earlier in the tourney, I got a bounty when I knocked out sum1 after I spiked a Q on the river when all in with AQ against his JJ, but it is uncanny how the bigger stack seems to win more often than not.

Fish of the day.....

weejohn, for calling my all in when I came over the top of him for nearly all of his stack (and no he was fucking no where near comitted) with QJ suited. My AK hit the K on the flop. Then of course hits runner runner for his flush. Why the fuck do I bother playin MTT's when knobs like that get continuosly rewarded.

A rather fucked off Goth. Over and out.

The FA Cup !!!

Not sure if I will be playing poker much today. I did play one SNG at 06:30 this am when I had to get up to feed the mutt. It was a $10 on stars which I managed to get 2nd for a small profit, which is always nice.

One thing I love about the FA cup is fans who have bets who know nothing about gambling. I have an idiot west ham fan who sits opposite me who I have had a £10 bet with. I have Liverpool, he has of course west ham, the odds he gave me, Evens of Course.....what a muppet. I immediately went on to laddies and put £3.00 on West Ham at 4-1. A nice littler earner, unless...........the dreaded result of Draw at full time and West Ham then go on to win. Then me dosh goes the swanny, and even worse the little twat gets to gloat on about west ham winning the cup, which is far worse than losing £13.00. Some CMON YOU REDS !!!

I will be leaving the house in about half an hour to spend the day down the pub, hopefully getting in some cards in as well (normally shoot with £10-£20 starting pots)

If you see me playing poker later on, sit down and take my money as I will be shit faced.........

This should be the last big piss up for a while until the world cup, which will be one big month on the piss. I even brought my St Georges Cross tie from Tescos this am. £3.00 - what a bargain.

Any time for some food to fill the belly before the onslaught.

I tried

Well I did as promised. It started well in the Bad Beat Tourney when I doubled up early when I raised with AK had one caller, flop came AKJ, put a pot sized bet in and got rr all in, I called fearing the worse and happily found he had AJ and my hand stood up. After a few more good hands and one good bluff I managed to get up to about 7000 chips at one stage. I eventually lost most of my stack when I raised 666 chips (GOTHman) from mid position with KdJd, got minumum rr from stickortwist, I felt I had to call cos of the odds. Flop came bout 7high with 2 diamonds. I bet the pot which was about 2.7K, he then reraised all in making it about 1.4k for me to call, I then knew he had AA or less likely KK. But again felt I had to call which I did. He did have AA and no diamond came taking me down to about 1600 chips. I eventually pushed with AT and walked into stickortwist having KK and no river for me and I was out in 42nd. I then played a $10 sng on FT stragight after, I lost most of my stack with AA against K10 when I was RR all in on a 10 high flop when another 10 came on the river. I then pushed with 88 for my final 360 chips (blinds still only 25/50) and got called by A5, 5 on flop, 5 on river...OUT

The laddies $5 was a similar story. I raised 4 x BB utg with AQ sooooted, 1 caller until it came to the BB who is short stack. He goes all in, I re-raise to get heads up with short stack and get called by the original flat caller, only to find he had called a ReReRaise with AT sooooooooooooooooted. The Q high flop made me feel confident and put my last 180 chips in and he called, of course he hit his flush and I was out.

And I sit here wondering why my confidence is in shatters.............

Confidence and Concentration

I think are two of the most important things in poker. Unfortunately, my confidence at the moment is at an all time low. I remember not so long back I would be speeding home from work screaming "come on you fcking scandies, give me your fckin money" and just couldn't wait to fire the laptop up and start playing the 20 dollar sit and goes and a host of multi's. At the moment, I seem to be drifting home from work and think, "well I suppose I better try and make some money tonight" and then just hoping a get some good cards and don't get muffed. Everything I do at the moment seems to be going wrong, when I make moves, I get re-raised, when I think I am making a good call, the other guy has the nutz. I am almost at the stage where I am frightened to play for fear of eating in to my yearly profits. I don't know that much about poker, but one thing I do know, is that playing scared, is a prelude to disaster. I am not sure how I am going to get out of this rut at the moment, but something has to change, any advice would be appreciated.

The other factor is concentration. I play at the moment in my lounge using a wireless laptop. At times, I am watching telly, eating my dinner playing ball with my dog and also trying to act interested in what my girlfriend is talking about. I am also doing emails, reading forums, playing backgammon and surfing for porn. This is while playing in a sit and go and an MTT ALL at the same time......I am probably playing against a bunch of spotty unwashed students who are tucked away in an attic, frantically making notes on every move during the game and concentrating fully. As you can see, this IS a problem and has to be addressed. Starting next week, I am going to try and alternate days from playing in the lounge to playing isolated on my own and compare the results. I will publish my findings at the end of June.

As for tonight, I am only going to play two MTT's the first will be the WSOP tour qualifier on Full Tilt and the 20:30 MTT on laddies as my only LeagueNutz event of the day. Although I will still be be watching the footy, I am making a pact to myself to not do anything else on the laptop while these tournies are running. Lets hope this will help turn my recent run of bad results around.

Watch this space.

Not playing enough poker !

At the beginning of this year I had set myself a goal of making a profit this year of $4000 dollars. This seemed a reasonable figure at the time, as in 2004 I was approx $1900 in profit, followed by $2900 profit last year. However we are now in May and I am currently approx $700 up on the year. I think to reach my target I should have been slightly higher than this at this point.

I think that there are a few reasons for this. The first reason is that I don't think I am playing as much at the moment as I did last year, which has an obvious effect on income. Over the last couple of months, I have a lot on my plate with work and at home, plus a lot of piss ups that I have just "had" to attend. The second reason is that I have effectively dropped back down a level. I have strict policies on playing within my bankroll. Last year, I was playing all my Sit and Go's at the $20 level and playing multi's also up to $20 as well. But then, I decided to use some of my profit and took out a few thousand dollars to pay for some new golf clubs and a golfing holiday in Ireland. My determination not to have to put any money into a poker account after I have made the initial opening deposit has thus made me drop down to the $10 sit and goes (mainly on stars) and lower entry MTT's until I build my bankroll back up. As my ITM is normally between 45-50 % this can be a slow process if I don't get the chance to play as often as I would like. This is very frustrating, as I know I can make a profit at the higher level. But I will stick to my guns and move up when I reach my targets in the relvevant accounts.

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has comments on this sort of bankroll management. I do want to be playing at the $100 sng in a few years time, then when at this point, I would love to live my dream of doing this full time, but I have a hell of a lot to learn first. Any comments would be much appreciated.

Goth.

The ups and downs of the last week.

Its been a while since my last post, this is mainly due to the amount of beer consumed over the last week. It started as per normal with the Thursday Night Quiz, the usual amount of beer and the usual stupidness of playing the 00:30 when drunk and having to go to work the following morning, especially as this time I managed to stay awake all the way through it and actually made the final table, but getting muffed and going out 9th.

Friday started the "proper" session. Amanda dropped me off at my local so I could have a couple of beers and unwind after work. I arrived home at approx 00:15 carrying the mandatory family sized chinese, for my sole consumption of course and passing out mid scoff and waking up at 3am, with said chinese firmly still in lap.....

After a bit of early morning poker, still battling it out on the 10c/20c cash tables on Crazy Poker, it was off to the pub for midday to watch Chelsea/ManU. If I had to choose I would rather ManU win the league, but I guess it didn't really matter to me, however, as Rooney went down injured and the cameras zoomed in on my face, I felt my whole summer go up in smoke. I really honestly thought we were going to win the world cup until that moment, now I fear just more heart ache.

The sheer frustration of this was only saved by the mighty portsmouth winning on Saturday and thus putting Birmingham City back where they firmly belong.

Eventually left the pub at about 19:00 after another 7 hour session, arriving home with.....errrr....guess what....another chinese. This one was polished off with a bit more vigour and stuffed and pissed, fell asleep on the bed at about 21:00 with no poker played.

Up early sunday and managed to get a bit of poker in before setting off for a bit of Quad Biking to celebrate my mates 40th Birthday. 16 of us went and amazingly we all came back, although there are a few less baby trees in the worcs countryside courtesy of me losing it a few times. If anyone has not been, I would highly recommend it for a boys day out. Of course afterwards, it was food and off to the pub. So no poker was played on the evening as I had an hours walk home after midnight and deposited most of my beer in someones front garden.

I woke up Monday morning not feeling too bad, which I was stunned at, and managed to play a bit of poker, I wish I hadn't bothered, as my muff meter was broken and everyone elses seemed to be firing on all cylinders.

The highlight of the day was the League Nutz monthly special, which 3000 chips and 20 minutes blinds turned out to be a really good game. The game was the tightest nutz tourney that I had played, this was probably due to lenny_dawn going out first, so the amount of muffing that went on was considerably reduced. I eventually went out 7th, so no money this time.

If anyone has not yet registered for LeagueNutz, I highly recommend it, for £11 a month, it is worth it just for the laugh that can be had. Especially if you play sub $10 multis anyway, you may as well get a chance of winning more money, there are also syndicate games starting to be run to gain entrance into the bigger tournies, so do it......

Gonna concentate on the 20:30 multi laddies as I have just played and lost a 10 dollar sng on Party Poker, when I managed to enter a fixed limit one by mistake......grrrrrrrrrrrr.