Feb round-up

That was truly a testing month for me pokerwise. I worked really hard, but could just never ever seem to get anything going. Everytime I would do well and get ahead, a bit of shitty luck and sometimes bad play would come around and bring me right back to where I started and it was as frustrating as fuck if I am honest.

I seriously hope March is not a tough as this. I mean a breakeven is not too bad in reality, but when you consider the number of terrible players I have managed to get up against, i should have been raking it in, but the fact is that in reality I cannot control luck and this month it simply has not been on my side and I have got to accept that as a hurdle, get over it and move on with a clear mind.

So onto the stats:

CASH GAMES

Microgaming - 19,565 hands for $52.78 profit + $422.67 rakeback = + $475.55

Thank fak for rakeback IMO!

Graph:

As you an see I started like a train and then went on an almighty downswong, some really bad shit and frustration also caused bad play to be fair. It was pretty fucking horrible, but slowly and surely I dragged it back, but after that it was back and forward like a yo-yo.

Also played a little bit of rush poker on Full Tilt to clear a little of the bonus...

Full Tilt - 832 hands for a total of -$0.32 + the $10 bonus I cleared = +$9.68

Cash game Totals = +$485.13

TOURNEYS

Pokerstars - 132 touneys (inc MTT's + SnG's) - for a loss of $225.72

Full Tilt - 12 tourneys for $81.02 profit

Tourney Profitz = -$144.7.

OVERALL MONTH = + $340.43

I kid you not when I tell you with a little run good in there that could have been an awesome month. haha Such is life, time to move on and head into March with a smile.

Hell'uva night

I played a looooooong session on PL last night. I wasn't intending for it to be so long, but I don't think since I have played I have ever seen the tables that juicy. I mean you could sit at a table with a minimum of 3 fish if you table selected ok.

Throughout the session I played between 3-7 tables and it was insanity. I started off running really bad, but to be fair I wasn't playing great either, I wasn't losing big pots through bad play, just a number of small ones. The hands some of these guys were showing down was just incredible, I mean they weren't folding pre flop for no bet size, it was pretty great to be playing in a situation like that.

If I had run a little better it would have been a mammoth winning session, but as it stood I started off going down around $230, which was excruciating because my play definately didn't warrant that, but by the end I managed to get back to about just minus $10.

Me and Jon were on skype and just couldn;t believe how good the tables were. As usual that lucky bastard ran like god in all his big pots, smashign straights, flushes, sets for fun, I was just preying my luck would turn and I could run that good! (actually he was really unlucky in a huge pot with set over set)

Here is my graph for last night:

Thats what I meant about one step forward one step back, or vice versa in this case. All month has been like this, getting nowhere fast, it's been a real hard grind.

I am just going to stick at it though, I am here for the long haul and one breakeven month is not gonna be enough to crush my spirit just yet! :-)

ATB

BM

quietly grinding away

Not a great deal happening, just grinding away quietly. I am almost breakeven right now for this month, each step forward is met with a step backwards and a bit of bad luck or bad play at the wrong time. I am ironing out a few leaks here and there and generally just trying to play good poker. My all in EV luck is shit right now, I have been a little unlucky in races and even when I am getting it in good, but I know long term that will be profitable for me.

I'll play more cash tonight then probably have a pop at grinding some tourneys tomorrow night as it's the APAT Welsh Online championship, so I'll be playing that.

The weather is facking depressing and thankfully I am coming to the end of this stint of night shifts, meaning back with the land of the living again in a couple o' weeks.

Hope life and poker is treating you good.

BM

Steak

Well maybe not that type! lol

I was flicking through the blogs the other night and noticed Fenix35 was looking for people to buy shares in him so he could play all the Sunday majors. Having read his blog for a while and seeing how hard he works on his game I thought it would be a shrewd investment. I also preferred the fact it was over a quite a few tourneys rather than just the one, so I went ahead and purchased a few shares.

I railed his progress on 2+2 and he was going deep all over the place, obv I get a bit giddy..lol. Unfortunately his luck failed him at the crucial stages of almost all of them, including the FTOPS, $100 rebuy on On Game etc.

Depsite being super unlucky he still turned a nice profit of around 65%. So well done that man and I would recommend getting in there if he does this again, as I genuinely think it's only a matter of time before he binks a huge score.

On a more personal note, I have been thinking hard about how to improve my game. Been watching some training vids and listening to some strategy stuff and it's got the brain thinking.

I'll probably speak with Snake at some point soon and start discussing them with him because it's always better to bounce ideas around before putting them into effect. Hopefully it will have a positive impact on my game. We will see I spose.

OK thats all.

Hope you run good.

BM

Grinding hard

The last few days I have really got down to grinding, remembering I have a family there are quite a few time restrictions, but I have managed to get over 6k hands in.

It's been really really tough. Each time I take a step forward, I seem to make a mistake and drop back. I can't remember the number of times I have looked at my stats after a session and thought to myself "if only I hadn;t been a dick and done this or done that". One thing I am still doing is letting emotions make some of my decisions for me, especially when it's against spazzy players. Instead of making simple folds I'll make hero calls, or instead of slowing down when they show strength I will try and peel off one more street etc etc.

These are pretty major leaks in my game right now, but it's still a fine line for me from doing this and also feeling too passive about my play. I don't wanna just give up everytime I miss a flop, I know I have to balance my range by barrelling sometimes too.

For example today....

A really bad player limps MP2, so Isolate with A9s on the button. Flop comes down 9 high. He checks and I lead out, he mini raises, so I call. Another undercard comes, meaning there was the odd straight possibility, but if I remember rightly it would have been a gutshot. Anyways he open jams for like $32 into a $10 pot and I tank and ridiculously hero call with TPTK. I mean I didn;t have a clue what he had, but I just didn;t want to fold to him because he was a retard. How dumb is that? Obv he had flopped a set of 6's and milked me like a cow.

This sort of stuff insta pisses me off as soon as I have clicked call. I mean often I can almost tell you what they have and it beats me, but still I have this uncontrollable urge to call. I really havbe to master this, a lot.

Against decent regs, I can work out what their line means and it's much easier to fold, but against bad players I have issues.

I also had a beauty vs some really terribad  players:

I am on a table with 2 droolers, I mean there was one guy who just could not fold pre flop and one guy who kept making spewy bluffs and overshoves.

Anyways, I get JJ in the SB. Drooler 1 limps UTG, it folds to another reg who should isolate, but he limps behind and drooler 2 calls on the button. I pop it up to $3 (it's NL50). Drooler 1 and drooler 2 calls and reg folds.

flop comes 2x 8x Qx rainbow.

I fire out $7, drooler 1 insta calls and so does drooler 2. Pot is now pretty big and I am out of position. It's tough because I want to bet for value because drooler one is calling with alsorts here, but drooler 2 could easily blast and put me to a tought decision. Anyways I go for the c-bet and they both call.

Turn is 5x.

I again bet enough to put drooler 1 in and most of drooler 2's stack in. D1 insta calls and D2 folds.

River drops and Ace and I am thinking "FFS his ace rag got there"

Actually he had 28o for the flopped two pair. I mean wtf goes through these guys head to call a 6 xBB raise with 28o? Either way, I think I played it ok as he calls me down with many worse hands here often enough for it to be profitable long term.

Another hand that is giving me trouble right now is AK. The games have gotten ridiculously aggressive, I don't know why but the three betting is getting really light, so vs the regs I am struggling to play AK. Three times today, I have raised and been 3-bet by a reg. Is 4-bet folding really bad? Is it best to just 4-bet shove??? I 4-bet shoved twice, once got a fold and the other time he had AA. This is a hand I need to work on IM.

Right enough bollox rambled. Better get some work donew. Laters!

BM

Can't beat a tryer!

The 40 Billionth hand was dealt today on Pokerstars and I just happened to be around about 2 million hands before, so I thought fack it, I might as well go for it. So, I fired up 21 tables on NL25 full ring and away I went. Of course I missed the bloody thing, but at least I tried! I did actually watch the big hand go down and took a screen shot of the big hand:

There were TWO of the six guys who folded, so instead of getting between $12k-$15k (winner got $24k) they actually only got $1500. Sickness!! Their own fault for not taking the time to understand the basic rules of the promo IMO.

My own poker went to shit after my last brag post. I win about $300 that session and dropped about $225 of it back the following night, in about 1400 hands, with a succession of bad luck and coolers. I was still fairly happy with my play so I am not too worried.

Tonights session was about 800 hands for a measly $13 profit, but at least it wasn;t a loss. Fuck me were there some aggro tards at the tables tonight. The three betting was getting a bit out of hand IMO, almost everytime someone raised on some tables and me being me I got sucked in and started three betting the crap outta people..lol. It cost me once when  stacked off with JJ vs a nit who obv had AA. Made for an interesting game though.

Away from cash I have been testing out a new peice of kit. I can now use my Xbox controller and Stars Hotkeys AHK to play Poker!! weeee. It's quality and took a bit of figuring out to setup, but now it's working it really is excellent. Much easier than a mouse or the old hotkeys. I have just been playing some volume in the $6.50 18 manners and done pretty well. I did have one moment where it spazzed out and shoved me all in on two tables. One table i had AK and they all folded other table I had J3o and got two callers.. ahhaha. I had to quickly pull the battery and revert back to mouse until i had it re-sync'd.

Obv the buttons take a bot of getting used to and I did fold a couple of times when i wanted to raise and also called a few times when I wanted to fold, but as the sessions have gone on it's gotten more automatic.

Right oh, off now, gonna watch a film i think.

Laters

BM

Nice to run goot!

Finally some run good... some of the big hands:

€0.25/€0.50 No Limit Holdem

Prima
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by http://weaktight.com/
Stacks:

UTG trotyl_TT- €48.50
UTG+1 Hero €50
CO tommy111333 €79.67
BTN _poncho_ €23.21
SB trysnuliai €50
BB OmgMayhem €59.98
Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 6 players) Hero is UTG+1 2d 2h
1 fold, Hero raises to €1.50, tommy111333 calls €1.50, 3 folds

Flop: 2c 4s 5c (€3.75, 2 players)

Hero checks, tommy111333 bets €3.50, Hero raises to €8, tommy111333 calls €4.50

Turn: 9d (€19.75, 2 players)

Hero bets €12.75, tommy111333 raises to €35.50, Hero goes all-in €27.75, tommy111333 calls €5

River: Kd (€100.75, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: €100.75

tommy111333 shows
8s 3s
Hero shows
2d 2h
Hero wins €97.75 (net +€47.75)
tommy111333 lost €50

hand vs table spazz. hero call ftw!

€0.25/€0.50 No Limit Holdem

Prima
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by http://weaktight.com/
Stacks:
UTG mattelol €62.56
UTG+1 malimali €15
CO donkaprino €62.71
BTN Hero €50.50
SB junkie55 €67.17
BB Weybet €36.78

Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 6 players) Hero is BTN Ac Ts
3 folds, Hero raises to €1.50, 1 fold, Weybet raises to €2.50, Hero calls €1

Flop: 6d As 8c (€5.25, 2 players)
Weybet bets €0.50, Hero calls €0.50

Turn: Kh (€6.25, 2 players)

Weybet goes all-in €33.78, Hero calls €33.78

River: 7s (€73.81, 2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: €73.81
Weybet shows
Ks Qd
Hero shows
Ac Ts
Hero wins €70.81 (net +€34.03)
Weybet lost €36.78

$0.25/$0.50 No Limit Holdem

Prima
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by http://weaktight.com/
Stacks:
UTG mattelol $126.91
UTG+1 apex12 $43.50
CO osama__b $51.57
BTN Hero $52.25
SB null_org $50
BB snuce $50

Pre-Flop: ($0.75, 6 players) Hero is BTN Qs Qd
1 fold, apex12 raises to $2, osama__b calls $2, Hero raises to $8, 2 folds, apex12 folds, osama__b calls $6

Flop: 6d 7c Tc ($18.75, 2 players)
osama__b checks, Hero bets $12.50, osama__b raises to $26.50, Hero goes all-in $31.75, osama__b goes all-in $17.07

Turn: 3s ($106.57, 2 players, 2 all-in)
River: 6s ($106.57, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $106.57
osama__b shows
Td 7d
Hero shows
Qs Qd
Hero wins $102.89 (net +$50.64)
apex12 lost $2
osama__b lost $51.57

€0.25/€0.50 No Limit Holdem

Prima
5 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by http://weaktight.com/
Stacks:
UTG Hero €50
CO pinky135 €153.50
BTN kaisersoze33 €70.98
SB Lauriukas €84.16
BB CoffeeGrinder €50

Pre-Flop: (€0.75, 5 players) Hero is UTG 9h 9s
Hero raises to €1.50, 1 fold, kaisersoze33 raises to €2.50, 1 fold, CoffeeGrinder calls €2, Hero calls €1

Flop: 8d 9d Ts (€7.75, 3 players)
CoffeeGrinder checks, Hero checks, kaisersoze33 bets €7.50, CoffeeGrinder raises to €15, Hero goes all-in €47.50, kaisersoze33 folds, CoffeeGrinder goes all-in €32.50

Turn: 8h (€110.25, 2 players, 2 all-in)

River: Ad (€110.25, 2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: €110.25
CoffeeGrinder shows
Qd Jc
Hero shows
9h 9s
Hero wins €107.25 (net +€57.25)
CoffeeGrinder lost €50
kaisersoze33 lost €10

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

so finally moved back into profit this month!

Good news for online pokes?

Well it looks like Isildur is back on the scene, meaning tons of high stakes action going on because this guy will play absolutely anyone. Obviously it's good for the online players to watch and rail, but from an outsiders perspective it probably looks like gambling on poker has gotten out of control, especially with $1million + swings.

I have a feeling things like this probably won't help the case for repealing the UIGEA, that said it is incredible to see that Isildur has made over $1.1 million in just about 2 days after crushing Zeejustin and Durr.

Thanks for the comments on the last post, will address them here:

Bruce - I'd love to have the roll to buy into them all directly, but I simply can't take the hit, but you are right this week there was a few silver and goldstars at the FT. One day I'll get a good shot, but until then I'll just play the odd satellite and take the odd shot.

Razboy - Yeah it is a good show to watch, but it definately misses the crazy fish Sammy Farha!

Pud -  hahaha. I know Hellmuth can be a prick, but you can;t doubt the fact he is entertaining. He always gets crushed at those games, but this time he was just coolered. As for the leaderboards, yeah I know moorman and badpab are pretty good, but I was talking more in the terms of the Major Sunday events, apart from those guys we don;t seem to have many amatuer type players getting to those final tables, maybe because they all work Monday morning!!!

Rubbish - It prunes comments after a certain length of time. :-)

Trying to arganise a new challenge on the forum. It's basically a simple SnG challenge. You have one week to play 15 $6.50 45 player SnG;s, whenever you like, but you record your results. It's $10 to enter and your points are scored by the money you win plus 6.5 points for each final table.

NoCash fluked it last time, but it was good fun. If you are interested, join us and get your name down. It's most likely going to start this weekend.

Been reading that Failblog and some other FAIL images on the net and some of them are awesome:

LOLOLOLOL

Watching the Sunday majors

Last night I woke up at a daft time of like 3am, so I tried a bit of cash and did ok, finished $130 up despite three barrelling at what I thought was a decent reg who either read my soul or just could not fold his second pair of 9's in a 3-bet pot on a ten high board and me potting all three streets. meh. Game selection was a bit thin, but there were still some terribad donks to be rinsed.

When I finished up the session I started watching all the big MTT's on Stars and Tilt. The Sunday Million final table was virtually unknowns, most of them from the $5-$20 range game players, must be an awesome feeling to get that deep in the SM. That amount of dosh must be incredible after their biggest win was $500!

Also watched the Sunday 500 and that was a different animal. The level of meta game going on was unreal. 4 bet shoving over 3-bettors with A9 and getting the call off 44 etc etc. I mean I'd be folding AQ and lower and TT and lower to that kind of action. I guess these guys know each other, but it's definately one giant levelling fest!

One time I am gonna have to spend a saturday qualifying for them all and then taking a shot at most of them. One deep run in them and your set!

I noticed a few of the big names were very deep around the place, but none of them took anything down from what I saw. I also don;t see many Brits taking anything down, which is a shame, although that Gregior bloke from Manchester went very deep in a few. Would be nice to see more Brits crushing these things IMO.

I also watched a film at the same time, The Invention Of Lying and although my expectations were low, it was quite a good film. I was quietly impressed. The concept of it was clever enough, some pretty glaring mistakes, but Ricky Gervais was actually very good. Worth a watch IMO.


I had an hour spare this afteroon, so I watched the latest High Stakes Poker (season 6) **SPOILER DON'T READ IF YOU ARE GOING TO WATCH****and fuk me does Phil Ivey run goot!! He was flopping sets for fun and turning two pairs etc etc. Basically getting smacked in the face with the deck. I also think it was hard work for Gabe Kaplan on his onw, it was much better when him and the other guy were bouncing comments back and forth, even if the other fella did know sweet FA about poker!

I actually felt sorry for Hellmuth. it was pretty sick to finally make a play at Ivey and Ivey having the goods and also with the second nuts vs Esfandiari. Rough IMO, although I do think the rest of the table see him as the fish. Poor bastard.

Two more nights at work then 4 days off and hopefully back to the cash game grind with maybe an MTT night thrown in the mix.

Good Luck at the felt

BM

Cash game mindset

Talking to Snake Eyes tonight on the phone and he was rattling on again ;-) about this book he is reading, The Poker Mindset and how it's really making him think about the game in a different light and a s'pose he's already infected me and now I start thinking about what he is saying.

I mean we all know that poker is a long-term skill game, short-term luck game and that as long as we keep making the right moves then long term we should be winning players, but as you and I both know it ain;t that easy.

When I play I check my results either as I go along or at the end of the session  and tbh, it affects me every single time. If I am up am am happy and in a good mood, if I am losing i start thinking about my losing hands and the lucky bastards who outdrew me, which of course puts me in a bad mood, but I do know that poker is about the long run.

Surely then, if I know this why do I even look at my results in the short term as in reality it shouldn't matter a shit. I should just play each session as impartially as I can and not look at anything until the month end, where I can figure it all out.

I really want to try this, but not sure I have the self-discapline to actually do it. I wonder how it would affect me and mentality towards poker?? I am almost sure, as I type this, that it would be massively beneficial for me personally. I mean when I am running bad, I am reluctant to play, where as if I only "felt" I was running bad, but didn;t actually have the stats to back it up, it might be easier to return to the tables and keep grinding right??? I also wonder if it could help me with the tilt issues and stop me spewing?

This has got me thinking....

My only issue is how would you review your session and the big pots you lost and won to looks for reads/leaks??

I might try it for one week. Playing without looking at my stats. Just keeping poker tracker on the import page at all times.  Has anyone tried this or do they actually do it???

Think I might give it a go after this back-to-back is over.

think I'd rather be here..

Me, the wife and the little lad, just relaxing. The rat race sucks!!!

Well I got my lottery on for Friday night with the estimated top prize of £113 Mirrion pounds..muhahahaha.

The beauty of the lottery is that it keeps the dreams alive.

:o)

Avoided le cash

So having been on a bit of a downswing and the toll of nights completely fucking up my sleeping pattern and making me feel continuosly tired, I decided to stay away from the cash tables. I knew that if I didn't it wouldn;t take much for me to flip into uber tilt mode and piss away numerous buy-ins. Fairly sensible for me actually, I normally don;t bother too much about how I am feeling, I just hit up the tables and away I go.

Instead, I have been messing around in MTT's and some SnG's. I have been working hard on my MTT game, trying to plug leaks and to stop tightening up when the blinds get big, which i guess is human nature, and tbh I found a nice little style that suits me at the moment and has helped me run deep in a few MTT's.

My basic strategy is to play loose throughout. Not ridonkulously loose, but make sure I am opening a number of pots and working on my re-steals and the best situations to make them. With my cash game experience so far, I am feeling much more confident about playing post flop, although a lot of these donkament players are clueless and you see some facking weird lines taken. I often feel I can take flops in position and outplay them and this is something that is really adding to my chipstacks and helping me run deeper.

I managed a final table in a $5 MTT on full tilt. Think there were 600 ish players and I ended up busting an unlucky 9th. I also went deep in the 33k GTD, finishing 42nd of 2k+ players and deep in another on Stars, where i made the final 100 in another ridiculously huge stars field.

The only problem with this is, that getting deep is ok, but the prize pools are so flat that all your work is rewarded with hardly fuckall. i.e.  9th in the $5 MTT was $57. lol. The prize fund was over $3k. This is like not even 2% for finishing in the top 9, which seems fucking ridic. This is obviously a good thing for the sites. they want tournies paying as many places as possible, so that people don't lose their money as quick, but it makes it a real ball-ache when you do well, spend a lot of hours grinding and get such a small reward.

Meh, whatever, i will bink one soon!!

On a side note, Party Poker is shit. I have decided.

I also played a few SnG's, I did rubbish in the $6.50 45's, but did ok on my old stomping ground of the $16 18's. They are definately tougher than they used to be though.

Oh well, this is my back-to-back weekend at work, wed, Thurs, Fri, Sun, Mon, Tues nights, all 12 hr + shifts. It's gonna be a grueller. Means no more poker until next Wednesday, when hopefully I can make a proper return to the cash tables and tear up those god-damned fish!!!

ATB

BM

yeah, whatever.

Running bad everywhere. I hate poker right now it can just go and fuck itself. Peice of shit.


Played a load of turbo's on stars, got fucked up hill and down dale, then finally got a run in a $12 180. On the bubble and this pathetic BS happens....

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 12 Tournament, 600/1200 Blinds 125 Ante (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com



saw flop | saw showdown



MP2 (t17565)

CO (t11480)

Button (t9615)

Hero (SB) (t13909)

BB (t11375)

UTG (t2905)

MP1 (t12276)



Hero's M: 5.20



Preflop: Hero is SB with A, K

1 fold, MP1 bets t12151 (All-In), 3 folds, Hero raises to t13784 (All-In), 1 fold



Flop: (t26377) 8, 8, K (2 players, 2 all-in)



Turn: (t26377) 8 (2 players, 2 all-in)



River: (t26377) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)



Total pot: t26377



Results:

Hero had A, K (full house, eights over Kings).

MP1 had 8, A (four of a kind, eights).

Outcome: MP1 won t26377

Just get the fuck outta here. What a load of total and utter bollocks. Quad 8's when he deserved nothing but a kick in the nuts for being so retarded.

FML and fuk this stupid game.

Is it ever gonna end...

Thats 5 losing sessions in a row. I just can;t do anything right and it's unbelieveably frustrating. I was stacked by one absolute fucking donkey tonight, twice. Both times I had an overpair JJ, once he had called the raise with 64 and the flop was 235 and antoehr was a low flop where he flopped a set. He was calling down with all kinds of hands,so i was gutted to see both times when i had a hand against him he had the the nuts or as close as. FML. It;s all the usual bullshit and I just hope it comes to an end soon.

So it's time to look to the poker gods...

Please just make that RNG leave me the hell alone!!!!

Now down $236.87 for the month after starting like a rocket and being up like $400.  I think snake hs all my run good.

remember if you were here, a quick smile at the poker go could change your fortunes at the felt!!! (alternatively it could do sweet fuckall)lol.

Ready for it

Work out of the way, it's time for some play!

he runs good and don't do advice!

If only.........I could run as good as Snake_eyes!! I was working last night and getting regular updates from him as he played and he was absolutely destroying the NL50 players on PL. Every so often I'd get a text... stacked another!! lololol. Worst thing, he was at work too!! hahahaha jammy bastard. If only one of these motherfuckers hadn;t grassed me up.... sigh.

Good luck to snake, the way he is going it could be a huge month for him.

On another note I was browsing around the forums on Wednesday, when I spotted a post from Joppa Road, explaining he was at the final table of a small MTT on Ladbrokes. I posted that I would come a rail for a short while. He posted back asking me to add him on MSN, so I did no worries.

I sort of didn;t realise he was after advice at first, he started talking about some hands so I gave some opinions and then he was talking about some of the hands he was dealt, blah blah. Anyways bascially I encouraged him to play a hand that ultimately got him busted out of the tourney in 5th (It was perfectly standard the way it played out, you can read it here), but I felt pretty damned bad because he said as a rule he would have limped or folded that hand, now IMO that obviously wasn;t the way to play it, I mean the blinds were too big and it was 5-handed, limping in LP should be the last thing you do, but the point was if I hadn't been chatting to him about it, he would have still been in and in with a shout of winning.

I took my time to try and fully explain all the logic and thought behind this and other aspects of late MTT games, as well as providing him with a few MTT training vids that I thought would help him. I guess in a way to ease my own concience.

I learnt a valuable lesson from this tbh. From now on I won't be giving advice to others when they are playing, except snake as we have a pretty good understanding. The reason is I don;t want to feel responsible if it goes tits up.  I know I was only trying to help him out, but ultimately I might have cost him money and thats not right. Although he would probably never have said it, I sort of felt he held me accountable too, understandably.  The worst thing... the money was very important to him at that point. I was gutted tbh.

I will certainly be more cautious about this in future, of course I am happy to help anyone out, but I think my ghosting days are done. If I lose my own money I don;t give a flying fuck, but when someone else loses theirs through you it's a really shitty feeling.

If you are reading this, sorry Joppa.

BM

Deja Vu

New month and the downswong has begun!

It's sort of weird how I know it's here and it's coming, but all of a sudden none of my draws get there, my big pairs either run into sets or overcards on the flop and I meet resistance. All standard stuff, but it signifies the monthly downswong has begun!

It started when i was chatting to Snake the other night, a few bad calls didn;t help, but I guess the frustration got to me a little. The bad players in the hands with the weirdest cards, but always seeming to have just a bit better than me!

To be sure, i didn;t feel like playing a long multi-table sesh last night so, I just fired up one single juicy table and 110 hands later I am down over 2 buy-ins. All stuff that tbh I could'nt do much about. Hand one for about 120 BB's what where I turned a flush vs a set and we got it in only for the board to pair on the river. meh. Hand two I have AJ and I get it all in vs a monkey on a AA5 board. He flips A9 and ofc a 9 hits the turn. Sigh.  (btw the hand 2 hand was vs Hakkemail, remember him snake!!)

So, pissed off and knowing that there would not be much I can do I just closed the table down and called it a night. I won;t be able to play again now unil saturday anyway, so the break will do me good.

As it stands, despite starting off well, I am now down $35 for the month. Plenty of time to grind through it and I have been there before, only this time I have hopefully minimised my losses a bit better. Here is to hoping it doesn;t last too long!

I also had about $50on Absolute, so rather than fack about withdrawing it  I played a $40 6-max SnG. I ended up finishing 2nd, so I played a $50 one and got heads up in that. The HU was a good battle actually because we were still fairly deep, but how about this for the closing hand...

He opens button, I have AJs and figure I am going to see a flop as before this we were both 3-betting and being quite aggro pre, so this would disguise the strength of my hand.

Flop comes TAA.. weeeeeeeeee

I check, he leads out and I raise, he thinks then shoves. :o) Fastest mouse click call ever by me here?? lol

He only flips TT!! hahahahah FML

board doesnt bring me a J or A on turn and river and i get another 2nd. How about that for an action flop?

Quite enjoyed it actually and considering these are $50 SnG's the standard wasn;t much cop. Most of these guys were playing loads of pots early doors, basically playing a SnG like they play an MTT. I just bided my time and when i did move into push/fold mode my image was so tight that they were insta passing to my shoves..lol.

Anyways back to work tonight :o(

Hope you are all on a nice juicy upswing.

BM

January 2010 Roundup

January was a good month poker-wise. No yakking, str8 down to the nitty gritty:

Cash Games

Played 19,098 (NL50) hands for $656.44 + $437.59 Rakeback = $1094.05 Profit
Full Tilt Rush = 1,403 (NL25) hands for $19.87 profit

Cash Game Graph:

Tournaments (inc SnG's)

Pokerstars: 67 tournaments for $580.39 profit
Full Tilt: 7 tournaments for $57.10 loss


Totals: $1637.19 Profit for January 2010

Posted my February goals here