Monday, May 26, 2008

The nightmare continues

I think I am going to have to stop mentioning my good days on this blog, as soon as I do, I get a quick slap around the face and the poker gods turn on me. Not had a winning day since and the losses that I clawed back have all be lost again with interest, currently nearly $800 down at the tables and about $450 down overall, definitely my worse month ever since I started playing poker. So bad in fact I posted my stats on the cardrunners forum, for comments. A few educated replies came back and it looks like basically I am playing to nitty, so when I have big hands, I just don't get paid off and when I hit the 2nd nuts, I am always paying people off, or getting outplayed post flop cos of my nittiness. So yesterday, I dropped to 50NL and opened my game up a bit. I must admit, I think I was playing a lot better, I went from playing a 9/5/2 style to a 12/10/4 style of play at full ring, quite a big difference. I still managed to post a losing day, but this was not really down to my bad play, but down to beats and coolers, which I can live with. These are the biggest losing hands over the last few days.

Hand 1 - Maybe weak limping utg with 77, but was intending to call a small raise to set mine, perfect flop, I put the villain definitely on a king, so decided to push, so I didn't have a tricky decision on the turn should a dange card come on it, he called anway and spiked.

http://weaktight.com/210756

Hand 2 - Bad beat or bad play ? You tell me, must admit, I didn't notice the board pair on river when I called (fcking fish I am)

http://weaktight.com/210759

Hand 3 - Bit of a cooler on this one, however still can't understand why I pushed on the river when it was fairly obvious I was beat, in fact 3/3. Very bad play on river, I liked my turn play as I was trying to force out any flush draws if they had a set, so be it and I still had outs. But def should of checked the river and folded to a shove, any thoughts ?

http://weaktight.com/210764

So, its back to the tables tonight, try and keep playing what I think is right and maybe review where I am heading at the end of the month, good job I had those couple of 1k wins at the start of the year, otherwise I think I might be giving up for a while.........

So on to the music vid. One thing you can't do is limit yourself to only listening to one genre of music. If you like a song, be man enough to admit it, just cos your a big greasy rocker, don't mean you can't sing along to Madonna. Not sure where I first heard this song, but it hit me when I did and is one of my favourite songs of all time. It is quite apt, as at the moment, when it comes to poker, I am in a "world of it"

Hurt - Johnny Cash

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

More footy......

Well, what a night it could be ahead, gonna leave for pub in about 20 mins to watch the champions league final. Booked the next two days of work, which could give an indication of my intent to give Winona some serious stick. Hopefully it will be a great game, and even more hopefully the mighty reds will prevail. I have a pecking order when it comes to supporting footy. England over everything, then the Mighty Villa. Then it comes down to my secondary teams, if Villa can't win owt, i'll always plump for Man U, dunno why, but it annoys my mates, so thats a good enough reason in itself. Then it will probably be Liverpool, cos they were winning everything when I was a little lad, although I was at Villa Park in Dec 1976 when we spanked them 5-1, what a night that was ;-) Then I guess its Midland Teams, Northern Teams, all other teams in the country and finally and only if I have to the London teams ;-)

Poker picked up a lot lately, been 4 tabling iPoker 50NL full ring and have managed to pull another $200 back out of the losses and have had four winning says on the trot, not big winning days, but I still am making dumb hero calls. This hand was another small blind, big blind classic.

http://weaktight.com/204873

After he called my turn bet, there was only two hands I put him on, two pair or a flush draw. The river card bought possiblities for both of them to beat my my made straight, but I still call an all in river shove, I swear I am going to cut my mouse finger off one if these days.

But still plodding on.

Now for todays music lesson, for those of you have been reading my blog from the start, you will know I go married last year at Bellagio in Vegas. I also had a big pissup in England when I got back, where I had to have the dreaded "first dance" and it was not gonna be fcking Titanic, or whatever the song was.....After a long thought, I decided to beg my wife to let me choose and she eventually agreed. If you are anywhere near my age (40) you would probably have listened to the immortal legend that was John Peel between 10-12 during the week nights, it was on his show, I first stumbled across one of the most influential bands ever....Joy Divsion. Peely used to have a christmas top 50 every year, these were the top 50 best ever songs ever made, this song used to be in the top 2 for many years. So today I give you "Atmosphere" by Joy Divison. Oh, and don't ask me about the video, cos I haven't got a scooby doo.........

Goth

Saturday, May 17, 2008

The FA Cup

Today is normally one of my biggest piss up days of the year, the joy of Wembley watching two of the lands finest teams battle it out for cup glory. However, today is Portsmouth and Cardiff, what the fck is all that about......one team isn't even fcking English !!!! (mind you, neither are Arsenal if had got there !!)

But still, fck it, the pub beckons, so I am typing this full of coffee, buzzing like an Ann Summers Rabbit on the vinegar strokes. Ready to give Winona a good whipping.

Poker not been too bad last two days, managed to claw $100 or so back.

Also decided to try and take the bloggin a bit more seriously, well, make it more fun. I looked back at some of my original posts from when I first started and it looked quite fun, now it just seems to be all about poker and whinging about me luck, so no more of that shit, gonna try and spruce it up a bit, maybe someday even reach the mighty heights of Amatays blog, which i think is one of the best around.

I have also heard on the grapevine, that you are all a bunch of pussies, when it comes to the old music front, so I have decided to take it on myself to "educate" you all on what it is all about.

So here is the first helping, from a little known band called Rammstein, I have seen them twice in the last couple of years, and outside of the Pistols and New Order, they are the best live band I have seen.

You will notice that in this vid, there is a fooking amazing lady as Snow White, when I saw them at the MEN, this girl who looked even better than the one in the vid, walked up the steps towards me in her silk Snow White outfit, as my tongue hit the floor and I started gargling, I then suddenly remembered my wife sat next to me, staring at me in amazment, I braced myself to for the slap I knew was coming, but no, not pain, not even an evil look. She just looked at me with a smile and said "I know, I must admit, I would too" It was then, a two hanky toilet trip was immediatley required............

Crank it up the max and enjoy.
Goth

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Still playing like a muppet

I think this month has made me realise what a journeyman player I am. I don't seem to be learning from my mistakes. Overall I am a break even cash player at the moment, only making any money from rakeback and bonuses.

I think this hand says it all.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2608930

Looking back at it, it was obvious that I was beat. utg limper who it tight as a nats chuff and has a post flop overall agression factor of abuot 0.5. What the fck was I thinkin, my heart was hoping and telling me he had limped with Ahxh and had the nut flush, but my brain was screaming "Hes got a bigger boat !!! " get out of dodge. Unfortunately, the bit that controls my mouse clicking finger obviously is not connected to my brain. I guess the only thing I have learnt is that a year ago, I would of moaned about this as a bad beat, cooler type hand. I now recognize, this was just pure and simple fish play by myself. Please feel free to comment on the hand as you feel fit

Currently approx $590 down at the tables and $330 overall after bonuses etc. so a pretty poor month.

I keep spouting on about all the things I should be doing, studying more, training more, eating more healthy, the truth is, I am just not doing these things, its almost as if I think somehow its all gonna just click and fix itself. Well believe, me it ain't and unless I pull me finger out two things are gonna happen, 1. Lose the bankroll. 2. Leave the earth prematurely in a wooden box. Somethings got to change in my life and its got to change soon.

Ideas on a postcard.
Goth.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Oh Dear

Well, what can I say, it was only a few posts ago I was saying how good life was and that all was well on the tables. Well the poker gods must read my blog and have come and give me a smack on the arse to teach me a lesson. I currently am about $450 down on the month so far. A harsh lesson indeed. It all seems to have started after I found the perfect table, with the perfect player on my immediate right, a complete looney, a dream of a player to have position on, it was just wait for the hands then take his money. These were the two hands in question.................

http://weaktight.com/185731

Maybe I could of got away from that one, however, this one almost made me vomit on me desk.....

http://weaktight.com/185733

This was against the same player, and as you can see by the chipstacks on the 2nd hand, he had already blown the first chunk he muffed off me. He then proceeded over the next 20 mins the liberally distribute my money to all the players on the table except me, before leaving with $0.

Puds commented about variance on my previous post, and I really do now think that we invent our own variance. The next couple of days, has lead me to question my game and I have changed a lot of the things I used to to do to tick over the profits. I have been playing more pots, I have been double barrelling out of pure agression, rather than stepping back and trying to think why my continuation bets have been called, this has lead to a large leak in my game. I tried to then counter act it by tightening up a little, this corresponded with walking into monster hands. So then, I started calling down lightly when I had hit any part of the board in an effort th outplay my opponents on later streets, when I did this, they always had the goods. Hence the reason I am in the shit that I am this month. I have a couple of bonuses and rakeback to come, but this is not going to even halve my losses this month. And again the point is, I want to be winning at the tables, not relying on bonuses and rakeback to make the profits come in.

I have not had any winning sessions at all this month, and its amazing how it affects the confidence to make the moves that you think are right, this in turn makes me miss a lot of value when I actually do hit a hand. I'm also not sure I was psychologically ready for the bigger amounts that you lose when playing at a higher level. The nit in me wants to move back down to 50NL (although the hands above were at that level as a tester of iPoker) 100NL is where I should be playing with my bankroll, but at times like these, 100NL maybe is not where I should be with my level of skill.

A frustrated Goth.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

April 2008


Well, as you can see by the graph, April was a real rocky ride, my jump up to 100NL Full Ring, made a real dent at the start of the month with a couple of massive bad beats for full stacks, but I kept plodding on, doing the things that I know were right, hoping the poker gods would turn back and they did. The month eventually ended in a nice profit with the bonuses/rakeback, but yet again, I still am disappointed with the wins actually at the table, too many loose calls when I think I am beat, but my ego hates to think it is being bluffed on the river and makes me call....This is an area of my game I really need to work on.


Overall finished the month $617 up with everything added in, not above the magic $1k, but considering I was $500 down at the tables at one stage during the month I am relieved to say the least.


The other thing that stood out, was the fact that I only played about 11k hands, I guess I was out on the piss more than I thought. Luckly, this month there is not a lot on in me social calendar, I am playing live at Broadway Casino in Brum this friday, then there is the champions league final to look forward to (cmon the reds !) so I have no excuses for not getting the hours in this month.


I have also made my decision on where to play. I have plumped for NOIQ poker, as the bonus scheme seems quite attractive, I am only gonna play 6 seaters on there and I have a new nickname, which I am gonna keep a secret, so you muffs don't know who I am, so watch out ;-)

I am also dropping down to 50NL on their for this, until I build up some info on players and get about 50k hands behind me, as I have not played any short handed for quite a while and need to get back in to the swing of things, without worrying about the $$$


I will still play some 100NL full ring on Sun to get the $200 bonus, its a shame about the numbers, as I do like the site, if only the yanks would see some sense......


Also hope to use May to really buckle down and get some training in, I have read quite a few articles/blogs relating to fitness and poker, its hard work sitting on ya arse for 6 hour multi table sessions, so need to up the fitness levels to get there, + I don't want to look like a fat cnt at this years Dream Team Final in September, like I did last year, had enough stick as it is ;-) Therefore I aim to be below 14st by the end of May.....watch this space...cough cough.


Goth

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2008 Profit/Loss = + $5163.98


Todays Weight = 14st 10 (Doh !)