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.