The Boring Grind

Well not much to report this week. Very boring, no big pots only got stacked once when I raised to $3.50 to get rid of a couple of limpers with KK. got one customer, flop came K high but board was all diamonds. He donk led into me for $5, I put him on Ad x or lower set so decided not to fck about and pushed, he insta called and showed my fave hand, the mighty 36 soooooooted for a flopped flush, the board didn't pair and the $100 pot shipped his way. Ho Hum.

Getting very very bored multitabling full ring and it is showing in my stats and play, even playing 5-6 tables I am mooching around the net doing other stuff not watching the tables. Really can't wait until I have got this last iPod, so I can then move off this and do summat else. Even tried doing some MTT's again, but can't take them seriosuly anymore, just keep calling in positon and trying to push people off pots that I shouldn't even be in, although it was sweet when I rr all in in one Tourney with 95 soooooted and muffed someones KK. He was not a happy bunny, especially when I told him he shouldn't be playing that off soooted shite anyway. I think if it was live, he would of give me the old nut......

So, got about 1050 mpp to get before I can stop doing the full ring tables. Hoping to get this done in the next 10 days. Then time to knuckle down and concentrate on improving as a player for the next month or so. Forget about bonuses and all that, although knowin my luck, some other great promotion will come along and fck it up for me. Saying that, tempted to have a stab at the steps on stars to get into the WCOOP events, wouldn't mind getting in to the hi lo event. Seem to have a habit of making the money in big omaha events, so cashing in that could help the old bankroll.

Diet was going great till Friday, had lost 4lb during the week until then, however, I had to pop into my local to drop off some change I had promised to give the landlord. So 10 winonas later and I wobbling up the road, just looking for the food mecca, big curry when I got home online till 5 in the morning and all the good work during the week gone. Need a bit more discipline I think......

Prob gotta go into work this afternoon to fix a problem they have got, being on call is great until you have to go in on a sunny sunday afternoon !! Even more reason to get the fck out of the rat race........

Anyway enough whinging, time to get the blood running round the body and do a bit of stomping, there is not a better song than this one to get the old foot banging on the floor. Needs to be on real loud, so turn it up, annoy the neighbours and bang away.

Rammstein - Links 234

July Update

Well the astute amongst you would of noticed that I have not talked about how the poker has gone this month. There is a reason for it. I am running bad, when I am not running bad, I am playing like a twat, so I deliberately didn't mention it as not to try and create any negativity. But fck it. When I returned from me holiday, I dropped 6 buyins in the first 3 days to take me to over $300 down. I then grinded in back to be in a profit over the month with the bonuses and rakeback, but lost another 4 buyins over the last two days with some tough luck. But, I am not going to let it get to me, in most cases I am doing the right thing. Here are some of the biggest losing pots, I can't show the big winning pots, cos there ain't any !!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918834
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918836
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918838
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918842
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918846
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918847
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918850
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918851

One piece of good news is that I have qualifed to receive the free iPod touch from the rake the rake littlewoods promotion. So I have now moved on to the rakerebate betsafe promotion for the same thing. so I should have two. I should complete this by early August, I can then stop multitabling the full ring tables on Crypto and seriously start looking at playing 6 max again, which I have drifted away from. Looking forward to the change.

On the MTT front, I have played a few more this month because of http://www.wloponline.com/ and have enjoyed it, made the final table of the laddies 19:30 $4 high stack, was sitting ok with 8th left, found KK in the big blind. UTG who had me slightly covered pushed all in with AQ and I called, he spiked the A on the turn and Goth was on his way. If that would of held up, I would of been second in chips and would of probably run away with it then.

The Circle is going well however and lost a couple of pounds this week and still feeling very positive. Gonna dye me hair black this afternoon for the first time, so gonna be weird looking in the mirror.

I have also thought about doing a bit of dancing to help the weight loss, inspired by todays video, turn up the sound and get your dancing boots on.

Pendulum - Slam

Thinking Time

Been a while since my last post. Had a weeks break in Spain, which gave a lot of time for thought. Its amazing what goes through your mind, when you have enough time to day dream in the sun, without a care in the world and the only worry is whether the battery in your iPod will last the week cos you forgot your usb cable.....

So, after all of these thoughts, what conclusions did I come to. Well here they are.

1. I am a fat bastard.
2. I am not as good a poker player as I want to be.
3. I hate working on the 9-5 rat race (actually 24x7 as I do a lot of on call)

So, what the fck am I gonna do about it.....Well its obvious something has to change and it has to change pretty soon. In fact all 3 items are related in the fact, that if I fix number 1, number 2 will improve and if number 2 improves to where I want it to be by 2012, number 3 can then be eliminated, which in turn gives more time to spend on number 2 and number 1. In essence it is a self healing circle.

So, how to deal with number 1. Well, if you are unfortunate to know me fairly well, you would of been bombarded recently with pics of me in my youth, including the now famous "speedo" pic, which can be seen by all on my facebook profile, its there for all to see if you girls want some good "rabbit" material to get you going ;-)

So, the detox starts tomorrow. Along with a new fitness regime and positive thinking plan. Once the fat starts going and the body becomes toned, the confidence level will increase. This then in turn will help the poker, as I a am a firm believer that poker is very much a confidence game. Hopefully this will then see the flow of $$$ come in at a faster rate.

The ultimate plan is to then have 6 months living expenses in the bank by summer 2012 and then seriously look at giving poker a go full time, as the thought of doing a "normal" job for the next 20 years till I retire scares the shit out of me. Life is just to fcking short and I feel that I have wasted a fair bit of the 40 years I have spent on this planet so far. I reckon I need to be pulling in $4000 a month to match my current income, but if I can pay off some of my mortgage by then, I maybe able to live off less than that.

So tomorrow is the first stage of putting those daydreams into a reality and as we all know, if you give up on your dreams, you die.

Todays choice of song, to me, is fairly apt to this post. My interpretation of the vid is all about how times change. Look back for inspiration, but always keep your eye on what is ahead, as YOU DO HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE IT !!!!!!!!!!

Lost Prophets - Last Summer

June Stats

A little early, I know, but I am sneaking off for a week in Spain at the in laws in the early hours of Monday morning and will be having a complete week away from the tables. Bit annoying in the fact, that whenver you are have a nightmare at the tables and need a break, you never can. I am running ok at the moment, so don't really want to stop playing, but I am sure the break will do me good. Not leaving poker completely, as I intend to do fck all for a week, sit by the pool and read Harrington on cash 1+2. Hopefully, this will fill me full of enthusiasm when I come back on a learning spree. Also gonna start a mini detox on my return. Can't do a complete detox, cos I love me cider too much, whats the point in living longer if you can't have ya fave tipple now and then.

Overall a good month. Up on the cash tables, up on the on few MTT's I played, 1/2 decent bonuses, making a total profit of approx $780. Also only need another 100 or so points for the iPod classic on Littlewoods, but will prob multi table a lot when I get back to go for the iPod touch, as I promised the wife she could have it.

Don't forget the start of July the new league starts and there is free money up for grabs, so check out http://www.wloponline.com/ for futher details. I am off for the first week, so you can get a head start if you think you are good enough.

Only a short post today, as I gotta leave for airport at 4.30am, ffs, normally only ever see that time when I am still playing poker !!!

So to relax you, well, when I mean relax, this track is really one for you splif heads out there as most of Nick Caves tracks are, its from a great album called Murder Ballads, which as you can guess by the title of the album, is all about death. So, switch on, spark up, close your eyes and listen to one of the weirdest lyrical masterpieces out there.......

Nick Cave - Staggerlee

-------------

2008 Profit = $5565.62

Todays Weight 14st 11 :-(

The Comeback Trail

Poker is such a strange and wonderful game, last week I was on an all time low, seriously thinking about taking a long break from the game. This week, its a case of how can I give up my job and do this full time....My hands have been holding, the fish have not been getting paid off and the bonuses are coming in thick and fast. Over the last week, I have gone from being down overall to being currently over $500 up, it truly is crazy.

The plan of playing the 6 seaters has been put back on hold for a bit as I am mainly playing on littlewoods to get the iPod at the moment. So just plodding along on the 10 seaters, its amazing how profitable can be when you actually concentrate on what you are doing, which I think is the big difference in my play over the last 7 days.

Decided that I am gonna need a new car next year as my trusty MG ZS, is starting not to be so trusty anymore, so I have now set a new aim, of getting enough into my poker savings account to buy a new car next March, nothing fancy, cos i'm skint, probably just a Corsa or Astra, or summat of that ilk.

Other news, I have to mention my wife Amanda, who this afternoon, has just completed a 14 mile trek round the Brecons in the pissing down rain in order to raise some money for the British Heart Foundation. So a big pat on the back to her and I am very proud of her for this achievement, as it is a tough little challenge.

So all is happy in Goths little world at the moment, I even don't have a hangover after getting completed twatted last night, which I am again stunned at.

Time for todays music lesson. As you know I am a big Joy Division fan and I think it is criminal when people try to remake some of their songs, however, there is the odd exception. Nine Inch Nails did a remake of the classic JD song Dead Souls and I have to admit, I even prefer it to the original. Put this song in a film as dark as The Crow and you create an amazing atmosphere.

Nine Inch Nails - Dead Souls

Suffering

Hardly played any poker at all this week and when I did, I lost. No bad beats, just more plain simple cock play. The worst was losing two buy ins, in a two hour period. I was just playing one table BUT, I spent the whole two hours sorting out Poker Tracker 3 while I was playing, experimenting with the HUD and importing my old hand histories etc. What the fck am I doing. I can't even remember any of the play on my table, so could not have had any reads or anything. So I got exactly what I deserved. Also started playing on littlewoods to try and get a free iPod in one of their promotiosn, so been mulitabling on there in the background, without watching whats going on at all. Not good.

My body is also telling me there is summat wrong, been a bit slack with my eating habits lately and its starting to show. I think I am gonna have to go on some sort of detox, however, got a house party tonight for one of my best buds 50'th (old fcker) so it is gonna have to start tomorrow.

Got a week away at start of July, I never thought I would need a break from everything as much as I do at the moment, I want to get away from everything and just do nothing for a while.

For todays track, as I am so depressed at the mo, I thought I would put up one of my fave tracks of all time to try and cheer me up. Also I think this is one of the best vids ever made. RHCP - Californication........

World League of Poker Online

Right then peeps, so you think you are good at poker ??? Well now is the time to boost your ego and prove it. There is a new league been set up by laddies regular player Curly69. Check out http://www.wloponline.com/ for all the details you need. And the best thing is, initially to get the interest in the league it is FREEEEEEE AND there is free $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ up for grabs. So what have you got to lose. Once the league is up and running, there will be a small regular fee to boost the prize funds. Hopefully once the numbers build up the prize funds will get bigger and bigger and the community and rivalry will flourish. There are also real $$$ prizes for the yearly tournie. You can enter on a number of sites, some of which are yank friendly, so no excuses, so what are you waiting for check out http://www.wloponline.com/ cos if you play MTT's anyway, why not enter for $0 and win real $$ seems stupid not too. Hope to see you all there. PS, this is not an affiliate link of mine, just mentioning it cos its a great idea and should be fun.

So on to this months poker, not played that much so far, but I have been playing only 6 seaters and I am up overall on the month, so quite happy at mo after last months disaster. Definitely going to carry on with this till the end of this month, when I then go on Holiday for a week, can't wait. I have just bought Harringtons cash books 1+2, so looking forward to doing fck all round the pool reading those for a week, then coming back and muffing it up.

Played the Stars 17:00 deep stack again last night, I have made the cash the last two times coming 92nd and 42nd in 1000 runner fields. Last night it started great as I got dealt AA on the 2nd hand, with the blinds at 10/20, 30 minute levels and 5000 chips, I raised to 100 from ep, this guy goes all in for 5k, I obv call and poor sod has KK. So double up straight away and never really looked back. Plenty of room to make moves. So 10 hours later, yes 10 fcking hours. its down to the last 14 and I decide to make a move, when the serial raiser on my right raises again (he is raising 2-3 times per orbit) I repop him with my AQ and he instantly comes over the top, I still had 100k+ chips left with the blinds at 3k/6k so could of laid it down, but decided he was at it or had a mid pair so called and he flipped AcKc, no miracle Q for me and I went out 14th. I was quite disappointed to be fair, as I thought I had played really well, only making one mistake before that when I bluffed the river on a 9966T board with 22, hoping to push the initial raiser off his hand, but he was correct in thinking his QQ was good, does he not know I am a fcking rock lool. But happy with my MTT game. Will def be sneaking a few more of these in, especially with the league starting next month. Starting to enjoy the MTTs again, does make a change from grinding out the cash tables.

EDIT:- a big thanks to lexus for staying with me on msn till the early hours, he had even run out of beer by then, a truly noble gesture ;-)

On to todays track. One for the oldies, well peeps my age anyway. Every now and then you hear a track on the radio from the past which brings back good memorys, gets the blood going and the old foot tapping. This is one of those songs for me. We were all teenagers once.....

May Stats (Warning Steep Slope Ahead)

Well, glad to get May over with. It started off bad and got worse. I definitely started chasing it too much. I managed to grab hold of meself half way through, then hit the bad beats. First half of month, was def my fault, after that, things just didn't go my way. But at the moment, I still feel strangely confident, a new month brings new hope. So I am gonna put this month behind me and move on. Luckily rakeback and bonuses helped, so only finished about $375 down overall.

Reached a milestone during the month as well. Got 100k hands played now in my poker tracker db. first 100k split, 15k at 100NL, 79K at 50NL and 7k at 25NL, yeided $724 profit at PTBB 0.91. not the greatest stats ever, but winnning over a decent margin. 80k of these were at Full ring. Interestingly enough, I filtered out my 6 seaters sats, and these were about 18k hands played (nearly all at 50NL) and was running at PTBB 2.96. So I think it is pointing me somewhere, although this is not a big enough sample yet to be fair.

This month has however made me think about poker more in the long term. I think setting a financial goal of $10k winnings over the year, is not the right thing to do. So I have dumped that goal totally now. All that matters now, is building up the roll and becoming a better player. I have been guilty of being uber nitty and chasing bonuses and rakeback long enough. So for June, I am going to try and play soley on 6 seaters. 2 tables max at a time, and try and focus. I intend to post more hands on the CR forum and ensure I watch a lot more of the vids that are available. Definitely gonna be more qulaity rather than quantity. Playing 6 seaters will give me more hands and rakeback anyway, so that will help.

I have also, just got knocked out he 17:00 (GMT) Stars $11 Deep Stack tourney. I played this a couple of weeks ago and came 92/976. I do like the tourney, 5000 starting chips and 30 min blinds, gives great space for play. Tonight, I think I played some of my best MTT play for a while and eventually went out in 46th place out of 1052 entrants, when losing a race with TT vs AK all in pre. But I was happy with my game, made some great laydowns and one great bluff with 57 sooted, getting somone to lay KK down on a Q high flop, after I had 3 bet him pre....lol I told him it was AA and he was dead happy with his "pro laydown"

Really looking forward to Junes play, even after such a disasterous month, sometimes typing all this blox out, even if no one out there ever reads it, just helps ease the mind a bit..

Managed to get a $25 piece of that muff amatay, in his quest for $10k on FT sngays. Looking forward to getting $50 back ;-)

As its late, its gotta be time for some proper "wakeup" music. From what I remember this always used to be the kicking out song at the club I used to go to in brum (edwards) it was difficult to leave the dance floor after this song had been on without being covered in blood, pref someone elses, but quite often your own....Rock on

Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit (Dedicated to Dirk and Lenny to prove there is life after Neil Diamond)

-------------------
2008 Profit/Loss = + $4787.31

Poker Bankroll = $5533

Todays Weight = 14st 10 (Still !)

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

-------------------

2008 Profit/Loss = + $5163.98

Todays Weight = 14st 10 (Doh !)

Where to play

Decisions, decisions, decisions........Where to play my poker.

As much as I like playing on sun poker, the bonuses are good and the rakeback is great, there just isn't enough players to go around, most of the tables of full of regs, grinding out bonuses, so there is a fight for the fish, and when the fish get lucky, we all tend to just feed off ourselves when they scarper off into the distances. I have been off work this week, and have not really been able to play much at all during the day at all, due to lack of tables, which is very frustrating, so frustrating that I even found myself clearing the garage out at one point...ffs what is all that manual work about !!!!! def not for me, the only time I normally need to wash me hands is after a good scratching session on me farmers...........

Anyway, I have been scouring the forums and emailing various people for info on where best to play, but I still can't seem to find the right answer. A move back to iPoker seems to be one of the best options, but memories of horrendous beats of laptop smashing proportions are still fresh in my mind. Also, if I do decide to move back to iPoker, a decision where to play is still not an easy one. Rumours of under the table deals for players are rife, most of which are illegal, trying to sift through these is doing me bonce in !! NOIQ seems to be favourite at the moment, but I am still awaiting replies to a few emails sent out.

Had a decent few days on the tables, didn't play saturday/sunday as was on the piss both days, and in bed for 21:30 shitfaced, oh the joys of "when the wifes away" but the results from friday + Monday have put me well back in the black for the month and moved me above $5k profit for the year, which is always nice to see on the spreadsheet.

Will play for a few hours tonight to try an eek out a bit more profit and rakeback, but I have caught a cold and am sniffling like twat at the moment, so will have to wait and see how it goes.

Goth

Bad Beat Bonanza !!!

Well, you may think this is gonna be another bad beat fck off whinge post, well its not. The only thing I have to moan about is the fact that I won the hand and my opponent was short stacked.

As you can see by this hand, it was sooooooooo sweet.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1785464

Its the first time I have seen a bad beat jackpot hit, and even better I was one of the hands involved.

I was convinced my opp had KQ and thought they were trapping, but woohoo, even better. Was slightly annoyed that it was only $250, but I guess the bonuses go a lot quicker on Crypto as they can happen on any table including the omaha ones, and there is no contribution towards the rake.

Been winning on the tables a bit as well over the last few days, so with this bad beat jackpot I am back on winning ways for the month. Its fcked up me PT stats a bit, and I can't be arsed to go into it and edit the hand as it put the $250 as part of the winning pot, so me graph gonna look strange at the end of the month, but who cares as long as it is above 0$.

Also the good news is that I am now offically in profit more this year than I won in the whole of last year, so looking good at the mo to reach my $10k target. (Hope I don't regret that)

Weight also went down this week (fck knows how, was on the piss 4 nights out of the 7)

And to cap it all, we spanked the scum 5-1 to edge them nearer to relegation where they belong.

Loads more footy on this week, so gonna be another 3 nights down the pub this week. Then ManU vs chelsea on saturday lunchtime, which means 12 hours in the pub. AND then Villa on sky on sunday versus Everton, fck me I think I'm gonna need a new liver.

Off work all next week, so will be on a detox/training week.

Life is good at the moment, wonder what is gonna come along and fck it up.............

Goth.

Getting Battered

Short post, cos I am getting fcked from pillar to post at 100NL FR at the moment, can't hit a hand, as you saw on my last post, getting my monsters cracked. I am actually $400+ down this month at the tables and I am even down overall on the month after rakeback and bonuses, which really sucks. The only saving grace, is my nitty bankroll managment. Which hopefull will see me through. Gonna perserve with it though. Got a week off work at the end of the month to hopefully do some serious studying. But for now, this hand is typical of what has been happening to me, even when I trap perfectly, I get fcked....................

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1760008

Maybe tonight will bring some better luck after 3 losing days on the trot.

Goth

March 2008

Seems daft, I had my 2nd best month of profit ever, but I still feel annoyed. Adding up all MTT/Cash/Bonuses/Rakeback, I managed to finish the month $1580 in profit. Mainly due to the $1k Parbet win. The bit that pissed me off is that I only was up approx $100 on the cash tables. And the most bad spots I got into was my own bad play. Had a couple of coolers for large pots, but they are always going to happen. My game still needs a lot, and I mean a lot of work.

I am however playing 100NL quite regularly, only at full ring at the moment. I still can't decide between full ring and six max at the moment. I think until I get on top of my concentration levels I think I am going to have to stay at full ring and only play 6 max when I am really focused. Will prob still play it at 50NL until I can get about 50k hands in at the level, as I think I have only played about 6k at the moment.

I have finally tuned my bankroll plan to where I think I want it to be and will stick it up next post, it may help a few people who piss all their winnings away too quickly.

Diet went to cock last month and actually put a couple of pound on, managed to stay the same weight for the last 3 weeks even though, been going out to the pub more again lately, Mainly due to too much good footy on. This week, is champions league again, so might mean Winona gets bit of a licking this week, will have to get back on track again the week after that I guess........

Slightly down this month so far mainly due to these two hands. They happened within 5 minutes of each other. The first hand, the player is as nitty as fck and knew he had AA/KK/QQ and would call hence the push.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2390839

The second hand, the guy is obv a chimp, as the only hand that was calling him would have him beat. He proved his position in the food chain when after he scooped my chips, he typed in "owned" I didn't bother replying, but might have put a couple of his teeth in his chip pile had we been playing live.........

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2390840

Still feeling as tired as fck, relying on coffee to get my by. Working on changing this still as well. But for now, i'll keep on slurping me expressos.

Goth.

--------------------------------------

2008 Profit/Loss + $4546.88

Todays Weight 14st 9.25 (-14lb)

Energy and the Big 100

Or a distinct lack of it seems to be the order of the day at the moment and it seems to be affecting my play. I seem to be constantly tired all the time, def due to my lifestyle of little sleep and lots of caffeine.

Saying that, I have hardly played at all this week, I didn't play yesterday as I was on national Winona drinking duty, watching Sir David get his 100th cap, well done Sir, now onwards to 126 for the record.

Anyway enough patriotism for now, I think its time for a big lifestyle change and April seems to be a good time to do it. Mainly due to the fact that its quiz night tonight and also Villa are gonna spank Man U on saturday, so the pub beckons again. So the change can start "soon"

As per the title of this post, the main reason for the change is due to a constant lack of energy, this in turn makes everything I do seem like a great effort and I am a miserable grumpy old bastard till I get my first caffeine fix of the day, which is a pain in the arse, as I always need a dump when halfway through my first mug of coffee, highly irratating now that I don't use my lappie anymore so can't carry on playing poker while shitting for England on a Saturday morning.

The weight loss bet also seems to be going a bit pear shaped, as I have not lost anything this month, probably due to being a lazy twat and also gone back to eating bucket loads of crisps which are my main passion in life after my love of Winona.

So its more excercise, more veg, less beer. I am even thinking of doing some sort of mini detox cos my body feels like it is falling apart at the moment. I can't do a full detox, cos you can't drink on them, so what the fcks that all about, I want to feel better in life, not ruin it.

I am hoping that clearing some of the crap out of my body will help me concetrate more, cos I am having major problems doing. Even when I am 4-6 tabling, I still find myself fcking off and surfing the net, pissing about on all sorts of crap nothing to do with poker. This is having an obvious effect on my profits. I proved to myself in the parbet promos that if I actually do concentrate, I can read the game a lot better and make more profitable moves at the right time, rather than relying on a hunch and PT stats as a poker table pops up for a response while I am giving thehun a browse for the umpteenth time of the night.

The poker I have played the last week or so has been so so. I finally started play some 100NL and was in profit for a day or so, until I had my first KK vs AA. Luckily he only had half a stack, so only cost me $50. Strangely enough, before I joined cardrunners, I almost certainly would of folded the hand preflop due to the fact that I was pretty certain he had AA as I raised it up to $4 utg, and villain, re-popped it to 10$, his PT stats were 9/2/.5 so was nitty as fck, which to me meant AA/KK, when 4 bet it up to about $36 (to commit myself ffs) he pushed and I knew for def, but had to call.I guess, I should of 4 bet to about $18 and then if he pushed I prob could of folded, but almost all CR pros say to never fold KK pre unless you are way deepstacked and villain is too. With only half a buyin in front of him, I guess I was never gonna fold it. Still fcked my off that I was 99% sure of what he had and still had to go through with the hand.

Thats it for now, hopefully after the weekend I will have some more shit to write and be able to talk about how great Villa played in their 2-0 victory at old trafford. Hmmmmmmm

Goth.

PS Amatay, theres only room for one Claret and Blue Army in the prem, so get them cockerney muppets of yours back where they belong, Div 2 (old money) ;-)

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Well after the soppiness of last week, its back to good old moans about poker. My game is definitely akin to a crack whores pair of scutty knicks at the moment, so up and down its untrue, fck knows how the graph is gonna end up this month, but I guess we just plod on.

So its time for some for a few hands, so buckle up and have a laugh on me.

The Good - Played this perfect, go to top of the class.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2296857

The Bad - Got 20k hands + on villain, I know exactly how he plays, he only raises 2.4% of hands ffs, what the fck was I doing. Deserved everything I got.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2296886

The Ugly - Don't get much sicker than this - prob my own fault for not re-popping it back up preflop to get rid of the big stack....ho hum

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2270384

So, as you can see, its a rocky ride this month, still in profit on the cash tables slightly, $1.2k+ up on month overall due to MTTs and bonuses etc, so can't grumble, just would rather be earning at the cash tables a bit more, to boost the confidence. Still not played 100NL yet, but have moved back to Sun for a bit now. So hopefully will have a crack before end of month and I don't mean the one in my arse either.....

Think I might start a twat of the week post, got a hand from the current session to post, but might wait till after easter, so it might be a Twatsssss of the week section the egg filled muppet brigade are let loose on the bank holidays.

Keep on Muffing

Goth.

Graham Turner

I have got quite a bit of poker news to post, but i will do this the weekend.

Today is a special day. On the 24th Feb 1996, my father passed away, way way to early at the age of 48. Being in my forties myself it definitely makes you think about life and when the plug is gonna be pulled. Some people say you can do lots of things tohelp you extend your life, while I agree that a healthy living may help, I am also a firm believer in fate and destiny. When your time is up, its up. Sometimes the wrong people leave us a little too early.

The reason for mentioning this now, is my father would of been 60 today, and I am sure that I would not of had my normal night down the local down the quiz.

No one is perfect in life, but my father had a lot of values, which I believe he passed on to me, and was a good person. I know the difference between right and wrong and act accordinlgy, it is a value which I wish more parents these days would pass on to their children, which I honestly believe does not happen as much these days as it should.

So today, is not about poker, its about what could of been. Happy birthday dad, wherever you are, the beers are on me tonight, and I miss you.

Love
Mark.

Just like buses......

Well, you wait four years for your first $1000 poker win, then as if by magic you get another one within two weeks of you first. This time, it was a 2nd place in the last of the Parbet/rakeback.com promotions. 1st prize would of been cool entry into the Olympic Challenge tournie in Tallinn Estonia. but after a 2 1/2 hour 5 man sng I had to settle for second place when my 34 in the bb gave me a rivered two pair, but also gave him the nut str8, but I was more than happy with $1k for 2nd.

At the tables, had a steady weekend, but I am writing this now, in the middle of a bad session, had a mad 10 mins, where got outdrawn on a lot of big hands and had to stop for a while to calm down. Picked back up a bit now, and now a little calmer.

Not played as much poker as I would of like, mainly due to a couple of nights out on the piss and spending most of saturday in bed with a hangover, still, I managed to win the works bowling night, dunno how, cos I can't remember much of it. Also on a course for the next two days, so gonna miss even more.

Still can't grumble, looks like I might be on the way to beating last years total profit by the end of March, which can't be bad.

Goth

Feb Stats

Well, what can I say, Feb has turned out to be my best month ever since I started playing poker. The big win on Parbet helped a lot obv, but I was up on the cash tables and some good rakeback and bonuses bought the months total profit to approx $1920, which puts me well on target for my $10k for the year goal. I have looked back over the months hands and I can't help but notice the amount of money I donked off not being able to lay down big pp's on low flops when I know I am probably beat. I reckon that this has cost me another $400 over the month, a big leak.

This month, the plan (at the moment) is to carry on playing some 25c/50c 10 seaters on Parbet, then use Sun to start playing more 6 seaters (25c/50c) for the first week or so, then after the first week, if I am happy with game, start playing 50c/$1, both at 10 seater and 6 seaters.

Decided to do it this way, as Sun has now changed there bonus structure, especially for new players, but us "grandfathers" can still get the larger rakeback and the $1k bonus (out of my reach for now) only problem is, is that it now takes 1600mpp to clear the $200 bonus, which is the same as parbet. But I hope to clear at least the $200 from each site, which will take 3200mpp.

First day of the month, was a nightmare, getting stacked twice with donk rivers, the worse one, was when I didn't follow my instincts after I put my oppo on QT after a sick river on a board off TT6 4 Q and couldn't lay down my boat when he check raised my river pot bet. I am still not sure whether to classify these as coolers and I have to pay off, but its just annoying when I put him on the exact hand and call knowing I am behind. Maybe he has AA/AT enough of the time for me to call and make it +ev. I guess if I was bothered to run it through poker stove (which I haven't got) it would tell me, if any one reading this can be arsed, I would be interested to know if I made the right play there.

Overall a happy little goth for now. Weight loss didn't go as well lat month as the first, as I only lost a bit, but I guess it is stil going down. Gonna up the excercise this month as I have no rake races to chase this month, so don't have to dedicate as much time to playing poker. Still plan to hit cardrunners vids hard this month, hopefully this will help a lot with my 6 seaters, where ultimately, cos of the better rakeback, is where I want to play.

GL at the tables.

Goth

-------------------------------

2008 Profit/Loss + $2966.63

Todays Weight 14st 8.25 (-15lb)

A poker milestone reached

Well, I have achieved one of my first targets for the year. In the 4 years I have been playing poker, I have yet to win over $1000 in one tournament. And courtesy of the Parbet promotion via Rakeback.com (check out link at top left ofpage for more info) I don't think I was ever gonna get a better chance. Out of the 10 people who qualified for the $2k freeroll. Only 4 bothered to register and one of those sat out the whole game. It was quite a hard faught affair and I went into the heads up stage with 2900 chips to my opponents 7100. The blinds were only 75/15 at this stage and were 15 mins long, so was loads of room for proper poker. I managed to pull back the chips, then taken the lead, lose it again. The heads up went on for nearly 1/2 an hour, when the chips were not far off even and I limped with AK, he raised. I then pushed. He thought for what seemed like an age then called with 88. flop was 9 high, the turn bought another low card, I had even then typed "lost" to my buddies on msn, before the King hit on the river, to give me a good chip lead. Two hands later. I found JJ on the SB, limped again, he raised and the chips went in, he flipped over Q9 and my JJ held to give me first place and my first ever $1000 win. I must admit I feel on top of the world. But as we all know, poker giveth and it taketh away. So I am going to enjoy the win while I can and just hope it is the first of many big wins this year.

Goth

Oh well

Didn't take long for my hopes of winning the rake race were dashed. The results of day one were posted on the website and my fears were realised. I managed to get 198mpp on the first day, started off 10-12 tabling, but was rapidly disappearing up my own arse, so cut it down to 8, where I could just about concentrate without my game suffering too much. However one smart arse after day 1 is already on 850+ points. So that is the end of that..... Grrrrrrrr. Still, second is only on 260ish, so I will plod on and keep it going for a while, got another 120 or so points last night. Will keep going to ensure I get to 1600 points for the month, which will give me a $200 bonus, and hopefully at least 5th place in the rake race for another $75.

Monday night was also the Dream Team III, as I have said earlier, I am only playing the minimum of 8 to qualify to play in the live final if my team need me, I feel like I am letting the side down a bit at the moment, as I have only played 2 for a whacking 0 points. My team "The Crushed Nutz" are doing quite well, with a great performance by pokerkaz and plum12 who came 2nd and 3rd this week, especially as kaz came back from 400 chips at one stage to get back in it. Lexus and dirk also got well into the points to put us up about 7th or 8th in the league table. So at least we will have some chips to muff away at the live final before getting shitfaced at the bar.

Still breaking roughly even on the tables this month due to too much multitabling, but hopefully rake and bonuses should see the month ok before I change my play next month.....Well thats the plan this week anyway..............

Goth

Change of Plan

This month, I was mainly going to play quality 6 seaters and concentrate more on studying the game instead of chasing bonuses and multi tabling. However, it hasn't quite worked out like that. I have had quite a lot of things to do in the evenings lately, so I have mainly been playing the 10 seaters, so I don't have to concentrate much (bad I know) as a result of this I have been chasing the bonuses instead. Already cleared the sun $200 one and courtesy of a promotion on rakeback.com I am chasing some promotions on Parbet. The first part of the month, was entry into a $2000 freeroll for any rakeback.com members who joined this month and managed to get 100mpp in the first 18 days, which I managed to achieve quite easily, and the great news is that only 10 people will be in it. Not bad value. It would be nice if they spread the prize fund over all 10 entrants so at least everyone gets a piece. There is also a 3k freeroll for anyone who gets 1000mpp in the month, which again, I should do easily. The final promotions, starts today and is a $2k rake race, with $1k to the winner, so I think I am gonna play as much as I can on there for the next few days and see if I am in with a shout, there obv is not gonna be many runners, but if one of them is a higher stakes player, I am obv gonna struggle to get near them, but will 8-10 table the lower stakes games if they are available for the next 3 days and see where I stand.

Been a frustrating time at the tables and I am only slightly up on the play, which is partly due to me not really watching what is going on. This is def not the right way to play poker. So next month, I will force myself to play fewer tables and concentrate on my game a lot more. Will be dipping my foot in the water of the 50c/1$ tables next month as well, but might do this after the first week and just play the 25c/50c 6 seaters, just to get back into the swing of things first.

Also emptied my $$$$ out of all of the accounts that I don't play anymore, took 1.4k out of laddies and just left $50 in there for the odd MTT should I get bored. Emptied bet365 as had enough of iPoker for a while. Treated the wife to a treadmill out of the winnings as we have been talking about getting one for quite a while now. I used all my energy up building the damn, thing, so haven't had a go yet, but it seems ok for the price. Should help me get my weight loss back on course as well, as I have been static for the last week or so, cos I am a lazy pisshead.

Been reading the cardrunners forum a lot lately as well, it is by far the most informative I have read, with plenty of good advice, just think I should be reading not while I am playing as it does destract me. From next month, I think I am going to have to break my time up a bit better and allocated playing time and studying time, along with time for the wife and dog as I am finding it difficult to fit it all in, there seems to be this damn thing called "work" which fcking takes up 10 hours of me day 5 days a week, its just gonna have to go........soon.

Thats it for now, will prob be fcked in 3 days with no bankroll left trying to 12 table parbet, will let you know how I am getting on as soon as they start updating the leaderboard.

Goth

Playing like a big C@&K

Well as promised, more regular posts, but I have to say, I am playing like a huge cock at the moment, I am still managing to stay in profit for the month, but it should be so much better. Monday night was a classic example. Twice I raise with big pairs (QQ/KK) and bet out on low flops, twice I get called by the same player. Twice he calls by flop bet. So TWICE I bet the TURN. TWICE he calls. So what do I do ??? TWICE like the cock I am, I all in the river, and guess what TWICE he had flopped his set. Why the fck do I not learn that he is calling with something and to slow the fck down. The second time was even worse as the board was 5679x, so if he was chasing his str8 with a mid soooooted connector he hit the river and I still pushed my last $24 in to the pot.

At least later on in the evening, I found KK in the big blind and there was two limpers, including the guy from above. I raise to $3 and him and the sb call. flops comes down QJ x, it is checked to me, I bet $4, but already thinking I am shafted. Mr fckluckbox calls and the sb re raises, I am done with this hand and watch them all in each other, fckluckbox has QJ sooooooooted and Mr sneaky limpy small blind has AA. I guess I managed to get away cheaply from that one.

The big thing I need to learn in my game is when to get away cheap when I know I am beat, but I am still struggling to do this. I really do need to learn how to lay some big hands down. I know by doing this I am going to get bluffed off a few pots, but in the long run, I think it will be +ev if I can learn this skill. It is even more annoying, when I put the guy on a hand that beats me, but I still manage to instacall with out even stoppiing and thinking. I might try sitting on my hands to stop me doing this, or even chop the fckers off as it is costing me toooooo much money.

Diet took a hit last week as well, due to extra Winonas on the weds, along with a m8 coming over from Leprechaun land for another mates 40th birthday, which ended up in a big piss up. So expect to gain a bit this week. No great loss though, as this is gonna happen now and then, as long as the trend keeps going downward.

So back on the tables tonight, with a bit more discipline and get the bankroll moving up !!

Goth

Riding the Waves

Well, thats exactly what I feel I am doing at the moment, up down up down. Month started off great going $80+ up on the first day, then the weekend hit and I just could not dodge the weekend muppets sucking out on me all day long. I guess you want the fish calls, but why the fck do they have to hit !!! Still I guess it keeps the little plankton going a bit longer and keeps the pond fully stocked for a while. Eventually pulled the month back into profit on the tables and a nice rakeback payment on the 5th swelled the bankroll niceley. The first $200 of the sun bonus should be received in the next few days, so all is rosy at the moment.

Also my bankroll is now at a level where I can move up to the 50c/1$ tables, which should be interesting. I will leave it till next month however, then prob split the tables, so 2 x 50/1 and still play 2 x 25/50. Just so I don't go bust too quick. I still find the fact that I will be moving up quite daunting, but having the bankroll behind me to cover for the variance is at least slightly re-assuring.

I am also going give myself a big slap in the chops, this year I was determined to update my blog at least every two days, post interesting hands for people to help me with my play, but being such a fat lazy twat, I haven't bothered. So two slaps for me, SLAP SLAP. Hopefully, will do some more posting now.

Goth.

January Results

January has been a strange month, in a way, I suspect that this is a typical month in players life that plays cash a lot, the good start, the crash, then the slow grind back to a decent profit. A month full of if onlys, missed opportunities and of course the odd horrendous beat. Overall, taking into account the bonuses/rakeback and profit from cash/mtt/stt I have finished the month $1047.11 in profit. I finally got the last part of the Sun 3400 bonus last night and I have rewarded myself with a night off tonight, anyway its quiz night tonight, so I out on the piss anyway. I have attached my tracker graph for the month of Jan, it only covers the NL cash tables I have played, which has all been at the .25c/50c level, a mixture of 6 and 10 seaters. As you can see by the graph it was a pretty topsy turvey month, But at least I finished it in profit. I did also manage to find a leak in my roll. I have been playing a fair few 15c/30c hi lo 10 seater cash games just to crank up the points, just sitting with 10$ and basically playing hi lo foldem, but looking back through my stats, this hascost me over $120, which is over a fifth of the bonus. I have decided that I will not do this in the future, unless I am desperate for mpps, but will play the 10 seater NL games instead, which at least I can concentrate on a bit better and probably pull in a profit on by playing a basci TAG poker.

So, the decision is what to do for february now. The hours I have had to put in have taken its toll this month and I feel that I have neglected the wife and dog a bit. So for Feb, I have decided that I will not go for the 3400 bonus and try and concetrate on quality, rather than quantity. I might apply for the bonus, and if it looks like it could be worth chasing at the end of the month, go for it that way. Alternatively, do the 1000mpp $200 bonus on sun, and look at at playing another site as well and getting a new bonus on there. I haven't quite decided yet.

I will def be spending more time on the cardrunners forums and watching a few more of their vids, if I am paying for it, I might as well use it to my full advantage.

Not sure if I mentioned it previous post, but I have become a bit of a fat twat over the last few years, with a definite poker paunch. I had a small wager with a work colleague that by the end of December 2008, I will have weighed in, at least once at 11 1/2 stone. The starting weight in December at the time of the wager, I was 15st 12. So to win the bet, I have got to shed just over 4 stone. I have started off well and as of this morning, I was 14st 11.25, so 1 stone down. I am keeping a log on the pokergoth forum and I have put a link on the side of the blog, so you can all track fatboy goths progress on the slippery slope to buffness. But for now, its upstairs to get changed and off to the pub for 6 winonas. Cya

Goth

PS, for those new to my blog Winonas = Winona Ryder - Cider.

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2008 Profit/Loss + $1047.11

Todays Weight 14st 11.25 (-12lb)

How do you play

Been chatting to a few people about lately on what their setup is when they play, and inspired by Amatays joke Pc layout on his blog (still not convinced its not his by the way lol) I thought I would take a pic of my setup. I got some cash for my 40th buffday in august last year and splashed out on a desk and new chair, then treated meself to a new PC with a 24 inch monitor. I moved myself out of the lounge and into the dining room and now my setup looks like the above.

The setup consist of two PC's one is dual screened with a a 24inch monitor in the middle and 19 inch on the left. usually have 4 tables tiled on the middle one, and sometimes a further 2-3 on the left hand one, along with poker tracker/itunes/lesbo porn. I then have a 2nd PC with all my excel sfuff on and msn to me mates, + normally have whatever site they are on up to watch and cheer them on.

I think it has def helped my game, as I do suffer from lack of concentration, so being away from the TV is a big help.

This is the first year I am starting to take my poker a lot more seriously, I am approx $15k up since I first started in Dec 2003, I now want to move to the next level. This year I am just gonna concentrate on improving my cash game and build up my bankroll to a level where in the future I could seriously think about giving up work and playing full time. This will involve making a serious dent in my £180k mortgage which still has 23 1/2 years to run. If things go as well as I hope they will, I will review where I am in 5 years and if I can possibly move house and downsize a bit and have no mortgage, I will take a risk and take the plunge. We plan to move up to Yorkshire before I am 50 anyway, so hopefully the property prices will be a bit cheaper than where I live now, which should help the plan. To be brutally honest it is all a bit of a dream at the moment, and I know I am not putting enough effort in to the studying side of the game as I should as I am spending so many hours actually playing to get a small profit cos I am playing at such a low level.

This month has been a real topsy turvy month so far, with good winning days, which make you feel on top of the world, then bad losing days, which really question why the fck do I put the hours in that I do and is it all really worth it. Luckily the winning days are more than the losing days at the moment and I am currently about $650 in profit on the month, and it looks like I should make the extra $300 bonus on sun this month which will help the bankroll. Also I am building up a nice pot of rakeback which I will get next month, I reckon it should be $250-$300. So at the moment, all is rosey. Lets just hope the year carries on and I can increase my knowledge at the same pace my bankroll does.

Have saved a few key hands from the last few days, which I will post later during the week. If I can get off my lazy fat arse and post more often on this blog, might put up the days biggest winning and losing pots for comments and piss takes. Will try to put some more pics up of stuff as well, cos I know you lot don't like the big words and prefer the pretty pictures. :o)

As a starter for 10, this was a hand, where I thought my opponent could lay down his overpair, if I represented a monster and I got caught out big style. Oh but we do love the river sometimes don't we ;-)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1969763

Goth

Hmmmm

Well I was right not to mention the good start, as shortly after posting the last blog entry it all started going Pete Tongue. I managed to donk off most of the weekends $300 winnings over the rest of the week. A good Saturday put me back on course, but then sunday went tits up again, at one stage being $200 down on the day, luckily a large pot right on the death of the night saw me finish only $90 down. Currently $450 up for the month, but this is not through my expert play, as $300 of it is bonuses and rakeback. The only consolation is that I am in small profit in Cash, MTT and STT. Had another FT in one of the Sun Head Hunter tourneys, but really annoyingly came 3rd after dominating most of the FT, especially as my exit was sick. I raised from the SB with 66, got rr from the BB (I had been raising a lot, a real lot) so I flat called, flop came down T high no draws, he checked, so I pushed. We were the two big stacks of the 3 and he insta called with KQ ffs. Of course donk hits his Q on the turn immediately and an unhappy little Goth leaves the table. As I type, NH good game, I almost hit the backspace key to say what I really wanted to say, but a couple of omg from the rails said it all really.

The cash play over the week could and should of been a lot bigger profit. But I made a lot of "hero" calls that turned out "zero" calls as my chips whisked away to the other side of the table. Also lost a massive pot when I flopped a set with 77 on a x7A board. I bet it he called, turn bought the 2nd Ace to boat me up at which point the chips all went in vs his AK and the K dropped out on the river for me to sob. At least I could understand his call.

Can't complain to much as I did win one $100+ pot when it was folded around to me on the sb and I raised it up with 88, bb called. A great flop of 478 dropped. I bet it, got raised, I rr then he pushed. I actually put him on an overpair or a flush draw, but he flipped over 56sooted, to give him the nut str8 and an open ended str8 flush draw. Turn bought a blank and the lovely river bought me the fourth 8 to quad me up and stand up and scream "get the fck in" I cooly then sat down, typed in ul, then went to find the dog who had almost shat herself and ran out the room in shear terror.

I might struggle to get to 3400 points for the extra $300 sun bonus, but I am still gonna plod on and try and make it. The 25c/50c tables on sun are few and far between and are full of nitty regs, so its no wonder I am struggling to get the points and extract money out of them. There are also some very good players who I try to avoid if possible, but sometimes they are on all of the tables that are open so you have no choice, just have to make sure that you have position on them as at least you know they can make laydowns.

Laddies, however is much softer and there are more tables, also the added bonus of being able to data mine on there does help. I have the exact same profit on lads as I have on sun, yet I have played 10k hands less, but I have been running good on lads and only 2k hands doesn't really give a real feel. But I do try and play an hour or so on one table a day especially around 11pm.

Downloaded some graph software for pokertracker, so may publish the graphs at the end of the month, so you will be able to see what a topsy turvey month it is with all the ups and downs.

Dream Team III tonight and our team "The crushed nutz" are doing well, however its $100 buyin tonight, so we prob only have a couple of entries in it. I will only be playing the minimum 8 to qualify for the live final as its a bit too rich for a lo stakes muff like me. Maybe next year I will be able to afford to play them all.

So its back to the grind tonight, need to try and get at least 200mpp to keep me on track for the bonus. Sigh, if only I could do this for a living, maybe one day.

Gonna revamp the layout of my blog soon as well as I have found a few good links that might be of interest to you all. Hope you like it, feel free to comment if you want anything added.

Goth.

A Good Start

Well, i know i shouldn't say this, but all is going well on the poker front at the moment, currently about $380 up in the first week, mainly due to a good run on the 25c/50c 6 seater cash tables on sun and laddies. The new year seems to have bought a freshness to my game and and a new found calmness. For some reason, all of the anger I used to have has now gone out of my game and I just try to carry on playing good solid poker no matter how bad the beats are. Just say nice hand and move on. Theres nothing you can do about it, so why whinge and have a pop at your opponent, the more I see people abuse other people at the tables, the more I think it is pathetic, it is definitely something I now want to get out of my game completely and I hope I can pass this calmness on to others, there really is no need for it and its not gonna help you imho.

Played 3 MTT so far and made 1 final table coming 5th, should of been top 2 easy, but my TT got rivered on an all in pre by KQ and then my QQ walked into the mighty KQ again. I am starting to play my MTT's in a very different fashion than I used to, hopefully this will lead me to advance to decent payouts in the higher tourneys in the future, time will tell, but for now, will stick to cash mainly.

Had the years first royal flush, when I flopped one on a 15c/30c h lo cash table, and duly won a $3 pot with it Grrrrrrrrr. Still at least he called my river bet, so it got to be seen.

Someone anonymous posted a comment asking me what the attraction to sun poker is, basically it is because I get a basic 40% rakeback, and I am also doing the $500 bonus a month. All you do is whack in $500, which you can take out again half way through the month to use the following month, get 3400 mpp over the month and you get $500. Once i move up the levels, I hope to go for the $1000 a month bonus, but this needs 9000mpp to obtain, but this is tricky at the stakes i play at and working full time as well. They also asked about my experience with Bad Beat. I think the setup is very good, but i think it would more suited to students, or people who don't work full time, as the hours you need to put in are quite a lot (40 table hours) so unless you 4+ table, which affects your overall perfomance imho. You are pretty tied down. The mentoring sessions are weekly and are done by one of their pros via skype. So you play two tables while they are on the phone to you giving you advice, this proved invaluable and changed my view on poker a fair bit, especially as an STT/MTT player moving in to a cash game, I now realise how different the two are. I got paid 50% of my profits directly into my bank account every month. So overall I would definitely recommend it. My only criticism would be the forum on bad beat, the layout of it is appalling and I believe because of this it did not get used like it should. I have since joined http://www.cardrunners.com/ and the forum on there is incredible, with tons of detailed hand history discussions going on and players discussing tactics/hands and all sorts of poker related stuff. I hope that answers any questions you may of had, feel free to contact me by email (address can be found on http://www.pokergoth.com/ home page) should you wish to know anything else.

Hopefully thinks will carry on and I can stay as calm as i am at the moment. We shall see.

Goth

A good year

Well, it has come to that time where we all must look back on the year and say "where the fck did that go" cos if your like me, it only seems about 3 minutes ago it was new years day 2007. God time goes fast as you get older.

Been a big year for me really, I got married, had a 40th birthday and moved from being an SNG rock to being a cash muff. Quite an achievment for a 12 month period and I came out of it in one piece.

Unlike last year, I have had a good december, in fact, it is close to my best month of the year, approx $600 up taking my yearly profit to $5000, which is $500 more than the target I set myself, which considering my biggest MTT cash was only $340, I can't be any happier.

Next year I plan to concentrate on building up my bankroll. Due to the costs of the wedding, I have had to pull out about $5k of my poker stash to help get the mortgage payments back on track, which took a hit cos of the interest rate rises. But all is ok. The move to cash and the period spent with bad beat has taught me a lot about bankroll managment and I have now set my new targets and goals for moving up the levels. Hopefully, the time it will take to gain the required bankroll will be sufficient for me to increase my skill factor to cope with the "better" players that play at the higher levels.

So my goal for next year is a big jump. My aim is to finish the year $10,000 in profit. I am still going to concentrate on cash and have set the following rules for my bankroll management.

Level     Stake           BR to Play    Sitdown    FallBack
1             25c / 50c     $1500         $50            N/A
2            50c / $1        $3500        $100          $3000
3             $1 / $2         $8000        $200         $6000
4            $2 / $5         $20000     $500          $15000

The fallback figure is when I drop back down a level, should I go on a bad run. I intend to play mainly on Sun to get the bonuses and rakeback, which  hopefully will accelerate the bankroll plan and provide cover for any losing months that I have. Will be concentrating on 6 seaters, with maybe some 10 seaters and Hi Lo cash, just to get the extra MPP needed to get the $500 pm bonus. Current Bankroll on Sun is about $1.8k and I have about the same spread around laddies/stars etc, will play on them occasionally to try and break the boredom of playing on one site and add a bit of variety. The bankroll plan is a little on the conservative side, but I think it is a good starting platform and provides cover for variance. I am nor sure if I will go to the 2/5 level on sun should I be doing ok on 1/2, I may just stay there. I don't expect to do all of the above in 1 year, but it would be nice if I could get to that level asap. Unless my game improves dramatically, I think $1/$2 will be close to my limit, but I would like to have the odd stab at the higher levels, but at the moment I am a def TAG type player so my get run over by the LAG players at the higher levels, but you never know.

For MTT, I will probably play a few, but mainly try and sat into some of the bigger buyin events and def will go for WCOOP/ECOOP/LEOCOP events next year as I didn't bother this year and regretted when a few of my close online buddies made some decent cashes in them.

So that is it for me for the year, hopefully plan to do more with my blog next year and maybe develop www.pokergoth.com a bit more.

But for now its over and out, A big Happy New Year to you all out there and cya at the tables next year.

Goth.

Merry Christmas

And a big thankyou for Santa delivering all the fish early and not letting them hit.......

Apart from the mandatory case of man flu which sent me home from work on wednesday afternoon and kept me stuck in my bed Thursday/Friday, well, when I say bed, I actually mean my comfy armchair in front of my PC. And, if I happen to be stuck there, well, it it would be rude not to play poker !!

It turned out to be a highly profitable few days sick, approx $550 to the better. In fact it would of been a lot better, apart from one unreal player on Sun calling every raise and hitting runner runner on 3 occasions (one with 93os !!) to stack me 3 times. Sometimes I really think they know something that we don't.

My first day off sick on the thursday the cash tables on sun were pretty scarce, so I decided to play the laddies $10 high stack in the afternoon. Not many runners, but I tried to play a bit more aggressively than normal and try a few different things out. It seemed pretty sucessfull and was lying about 2nd in chips when a reraise from me with AK could not get Mr Scandi to fold his mighty AJ for which he duly pushed all in happily chimped his 3 outer, to drop me well down the field. I still managed to make the FT, where with 7 left the sb raised my BB for the 3rd hand running, I looked down and found K9, more than enough to try and teach him that this is MY BB and duly rr all in, without a thought, he insta called with his mighty K5 sooooooooooted and of course hit the 5 to take me down.

On the evening, I decided to enter the 20:15 laddies hi lo muff fest, being as tight as a nats chuff, I did not rebuy or add on. Shortly after the break, I managed to muff it up to about 6k chips and then never looked back, a couple of pieces of sound advice from hi lo Guru LANGERS and I was on the final table, but before long I could not outdo my hero and was muffed by Kunkuwap and went out 6th.  Interestingly I think I have only played this tourney 7 times this year and made the FT 5 times. Maybe I should play it more, but I guess if if I really knew 
what I was doing in the game, I would not make the final table. But 2 MTTs played and two FT's, can't grumble.

Cash has been going well, in particular on the laddies 6 seaters, where I have found the standard of play definitely lower than on Sun, if only laddies could match the Sun bonuses and rakeback, it would def be my home. Then I decided to play the Mansion seaters, now these are unreal, I could not believe the amount or rr all ins I saw with abs pants/fck all hands and called with 2nd pair shit kicker. These guys are sooooo bad, def gonna give these tables a dabble around the pub hours, seems like there could be a lot of value around on them.

Still plan to attack the Sun bonuses in the new year on the 25c/50c 6 seaters, but looking at the results on Ladbrokes/Mansion, it may be that the value is outside of the bonuses.

If I don't see you at the tables tonight. I wish you all a Merry X-mas and a Happy New Year.

Goth

Decision Made

Well, after a great deal of thought and anguish, I decided that it was time to pull out of the Bad Beat trainee trader scheme. After 6 months, I had made a profit, but as mentioned I was struggling to put the hours in that the scheme requires. Over the last two months, I was starting to play a lot of my sessions while tired and not in the right frame of mind just so I could try and fit in the hours. This showed in my results, with a first losing month in October and only a small profit in November. It was a tough decision as it really is a great setup and I think they are going to go from strength to strength. I would like to pay special thanks to Jeff Burke (nenobear) and Matt Myford (younghero2/Enterprise), who were my mentors during this time, these guys really know their stuff and I think improved my understanding of the game a great deal. I think if you are a student with a limited bankroll, the set up is perfect, but bankroll is not really my problem and I def have the discipline, it was just the time that caught up with me.

So my poker playing has now moved on to new ground. I have decided to give Sun Poker most of my business for the next couple of months or so, I am going to use december to realistically work out what I need to do to get the 3400mpp to get the $500 a month bonus, this + the rakeback should work out at about $750pm. All I need to do is make sure I am in profit for the month, or even break, this will then help me reach my new $10k goal for 2008. The ideal aim would be able to play at a level of cash where the 9000mpp was attainable, for the $1000 cash bonus, this along with rakeback would probably be $1700 pm just in bonuses/rake, now if that was sustainable without large losing months, that would be a very tidy sum over the year. Hopefully if things go to plan, I will increase my bankroll by mid 2008 where I can play at stakes which will make this a reasonable prospect, lets just hope that they keep these bonuses going. Just hope and pray the dumbass US gov come to the senses and open back up the big american fishtank again so that crypto can get some more numbers at the tables as it can be a little scarce. Come on Bushy, do us all a favour, fck middle america, we want the whales back at the table...........

Cya around.
Goth