Double Top

Yes it finally came. On Saturday the 25th August I officially became middle aged, hitting the big 4 0.........The day started with a serious hangover. As the previous 3 nights drinking finally caught up with me, so a long lie in before getting up out of bed to open a bunch of carefully chosen birthday cards which all took the piss as much as possible out of my new found age, including the best one from my mother which she had made up out of old photos of me, including a naked baby one, showing all my male prowess, I only wish it had got a bit bigger than it was then.....thanks mom.....

Out of the money I received from various generous sources and a special birthday jar that Amanda and myself keep for all loose change. I have managed to purchase a 500gb external hard drive, new leather computer chair and a new large desk which is due to be delivered this week. I am hoping these few items should help me take my poker more seriously and thus make more money.

Birthdays aside, I have not played much poker last week due to the partying. However I have been off work all this week so hope to catch up on the lost hours.

Been doing ok on usa for bad beat, steadily ticking along on the profit ladder, but very much a grind rather than a spurt. Would of been well up, if I had not had 45 in the big blind, 3 limpers, flop came A23, ended up all in against a limper with 33 and the river paired the board for a $100 pot down the pan......

Sun is a different story, I have almost lost all my initial $200 deposit, and I am about 130 points short of getting the full $200 deposit bonus back, so this along with the rakeback, I am only just gonna break even. The play there is really so bad, and I have lost so many pots when a massive fave, if only half of those hands would of stood up I would be at least $500 in profit rather than $180 down. I am going to stick with it though, cos I know eventually these muppets are gonna pay me off big style, and with the $200 a month bonus + rakeback, I am sure this site can make me some decent $$$ at the low levels I am currently playing at.

I have also manged to get a free entry for the Mansion $150k, courtesy of their current promotion to get 100 mcps in a week. Managed to make $100 getting them as well, which is a bonus. Looking forward to playing this tourney, will try and get the points for the next couple of weeks too, as the value is just to good to miss.

Overall, enjoying the cash games at the moment, even with the frustration of gettng shafted on sun. I still miss the thrill of making FT's in the Multis. I might try a few sats to the bigger ones and see if I really have improved my game at all.

Good Luck at the tables.
Goth

No Fun in the Sun

Ticking along nicely on USA on iPoker on the 25c/50c tables, however on Sun I am getting slaughtered, either completey card dea d, or getting dire flops for my good hands when I do get them. Currently about $100 down for the month and in danger of losing $200 to get the $200 bonus !!! I am playing the same basic way, but just don't seem to be getting anywhere. The frightening thng is, I don't yet know why or even work out if the players are better or worse that on iPoker. Hopefully I can last the month without losing my $200 deposit as I would hate to have to reload just to get the 1000 points to get the $200 bonus, which sort of defeats the object. I am going to stick with it though as I do like the site and the interface and the head hunter tournies are great fun.

Got another mentoring session tonight, have been on a good run since the last one, so hopefully can continue this, Matt (enterprise/younghero) had a good result in Luton playing live, bringing home a nice little chunk of bacon, so I think I am in good hands.

With the demise of laddies forum, I am gonna be doing some work on mine to try and get a bit more traffic going, so if you have not yet tried it, go to www.pokergoth.com and click on the forum links then on to Gothmans Poker Strategy forum, hope to see you their and hear your views on this wonderful game of ours.

Goth

All is ok

Well my fears about Crypto weren't as bad as I thought, I am managing to find enough 25/50c tables to be able to get the 1000mpp to get the $200 bonus. The only difficuly I am having is actually winning as well !! I seem to be hoverering around the break even point. But never been more than $40 up the month or lower than $30 down. But will be happy enough for the time being to be level at the end of the month and getting the bonus and the rakeback, at least this will be sticking to my plan.

The trainee trader venture is still going well, although due other comittments I have not been able to do many hours this week, so it means that I will have to hit the tables hard over Friday/Sat/Sun to make up my hours for the week. Had my 2nd mentoring session with Matt from bad beat, the session started off horribly when we called a raise with A5 soooooted, to see the loveley flop of Ax5, ended up all in vs AK, only to find the turn bring a 7, and another 7 on the river and we reload. Fortunatley I only sat with $25, so not much harm done. Justice was server later when Matt made me load to the max ($50) and was dealt A5 on the BB again, bunch of limpers so we just checked. Flop went one better this time and came AA5 and we ended up all in vs one of the other players with A9s, this time it held and a nice little double up.

Should be able to get an hour or so in tonight before I go out on the piss for the quiz, but the next few days will be grind grind grind.....

Goth.

Plans up the spout !!

Well today, being the start of a new month, always brings new hope. I had decided this was the month I was gonna move forward and expand my poker horizon. The plan was to continue as a trainee trader for bad beat (as long as they keep me on that is) two tabling on USA. But also, to start afresh on Sun Poker. I had set up a bankroll plan ready for this new venture starting steadily with $500 available at the 10 table 25c/50c tables, using the monthly bonuses and rakeback till getting to $1.5k and moving up the food chain to the higher levels until eventually reaching $8k and taking $2k out everytime it reaches that level.....Simple I thought. BUT I have hit one slight problem. Crypto seems to be rapidly going down the pan, the numbers there have been dwindling and every time I look, there seems to virtually no action on the 10 seater 25c/50c tables so getting the bonuses at this level could prove a nightmare. When there are a couple of tables open, they seem to always be the same players, I can't get any poker office stats on them yet it looks like you have to be sat at the table to pick up the stats. So, I have a dilemma, do I put $1.5k in and go straight to the .50c /$1 tables. Or look elsewhere. I think for now, I am gonna just suck it and see at the 25c/50c and see how it goes.

Thats the plan for the future out the way. As for the month just gone, it turned out to be my best month of the year. Finished about $350 up on the month for bad-beat, should of been more, but twice I just couldn't lay down KK again even after putting my opponent on AA and being right, losing big pots both times. Winning the MTT on absolute along with a couple of other final table finishes upped the wins as well as some decent results on the absolute 50c/$1 bad beat tables. I stopped keeping very accurate records at the start of June, but reckon I was probably about $800 up for July. Hopefully with extra tabling on sun this month and a few bonuses mixed in, August can surpass that even.

Got another mentoring session lined up for this weekend with one of bad-beats current top profit margin players, so hopefully will pick up a few more valuable tips to move my game forwards.

One thing I have noticed is some of my cash tactics sneaking into my MTT play, not sure if this is a good thing or not, but I managed to come 9th out of 544 in a $2k 500pp freeroll on laddies last night on my wifes account, so it can't be affecting me that much. So back to the grind tonight, hopefully two tabling USA and two tabling Sun Poker, if there is any action.

Goth