Bonus

Well last night I took the advice as left by dD and decided to play some 18 mans, my old old stomping ground and I actually ran ok...ish.

Didn't make much, but Stars roll is around a measly $28. I am not gonna give up, despite my last rant (get used to those, I tilt like a crazy bastard!).

On a bonus front I managed to log into Full Tilt today (the revitalised Pokerstsars owned version) and found I actually have $100 in that account, not $50 like I thought. So when they finally move back to real money games I will have a bit of a bankroll to try and build there.

A very kind poker colleague (he knows who he is) lent me his Deuces Cracked account and so I downloaded a shedload of videos to watch. I am on nights the next 3 nights so hopefully if we are quiet I might get some time to sit down and study them and maybe learn something.

"Knowledge is power" - Sir Francis Bacon

It's actually good to be back in the poker circles. I missed you guys.

Right gotta shoot,

Cheers

BM

Why bother?

Started really getting the idea of playing more and decided to hit the $2 180's with my measly $100 bankroll, but Pokerstars soon scuppered that by absolutely fucking brutalising me straight away.

As you will see in the graph below it hasn't been much fun. I haven't had any huge stacks, it's just been losing every all in last night (or almost all of them) and then tonight I start off running very hot, even hitting a royal flush, but as soon as I got deeper the old luck returned and just fucked me up hill and down dale.

Horrible fucking start, almost knocked the stuffing out of me at the first hurdle.

Top line is what I should of won, green line is what I actually won.  Why fucking bother?

bankroll is now at $21 and the motivation has completely fucked off.

I haven't deposited using my own money for a long time and times are tough right now so i am not sure I can justify it.

Might just be the quickest return ever.

Going for a spin up now, it's either double or fuck it.

cheers.

4 months on....

Wow, where has time gone?

Tonight for the first time in a very long time I played some poker. Only a tiny bit of Zoom and a few micro MTT's, but I played. Actually going pretty deep in one of the games. Fairly enjoyed it too.


Life has been hectic for the last few months. Really lost interest in poker, the games were getting tougher and tougher and the player pools smaller and smaller, meaning ridiculously small ROI's for average players at best. I ended up drifting away.

I did a few things, I did quite a bit of matched betting. It was ok, but once you get through all the sign-up offers the easy money is gone. You then have to put in the leg work to find offers and then find the best way to exploit them and it can be pretty heavy going at times. Very simlar to poker in many ways that you are always looking for an edge that is within the rules. I got tired of the 'grind' of it pretty quickly.

I had a go at football betting, trying to find good matches and placing lots of small accumulators, doubles and trebles etc, whilst also trying to find the value in the matches. I failed, the games are just too unpredicatble.

I tried some horse trading and using trading software, it was good, but the potential for a big loss if you made a mistake worried me too much to properly enjoy it.

I tried the system of laying the draw in footy. Basically the odds of a draw usually start off somewhere between 3-4 in decimal, you lay the draw and then when one tream scores the odds of the draw normally push out and so you can 'green-up' on the exchanges. Once again it had its pitfalls and wasn;t worth it.

Finally and just recently I have been punting horses using a points system based on the info I can get about each race and the horses competing. This actually went ok, but the margins are ridculously small for the amount of work you have to put in studying. Also there are days like today when silly priced horses, with no form at all come bolting in and piss a race priced at 66/1.

The problem was poker gave me a nice little side income that paid for Xmas and Holidays, when the games got so much tougher and my passion for the game wained I was basicallylooking for something to take it's place.

I have finally given up.

I now have a small bankroll and am considering a comeback...... watch this space..

hope you are all well and good.

BM

It's alive Igor!

I is not gone just yet, innit!

Not sure how it will go, but I have slowly but surely been recapturing the poker bug. I have been playing a few hands on Betfred, on the rtr deal and also been playing some 6-max zoom on stars.

I certainly feel rusty at the tables, but not uncomfortable, I can still hold my own. This is in cash games btw.

I have to admit I do worry a little bit when playing Betfred that I could be bumping into Poker Bots as I read it is absolutely infested with them, but to be honest right now I am not sure what to look for to identify them quickly.

I am unlocking the bonus at a decent rate, I just need to get back into the hang of being able to multi-table effective. Right now I am only comfortable playing one of two tables, but that will change as it comes back to me.

I am also toying with the idea of learning a completely new variant, maybe working on Razz or Stud, not sure yet. There seems to be tons of action at PLO, but I have history at that game, as all the forum guys know. LOL.

To be honest though last nights exploits by the Forum guys have really livened my appetite back up, when grindmoreplz went and chopped the Sunday million for a sweet $127k! How can that not inspire you as a player?

So, I will take it slowly and see how it goes.

Cheers for reading.

BM

ZOOM

Ok, I have to admit it, Zoom is great! It's the replice of Rush poker, except the player pools are fkin huge!

2000 players in the Nl10 games last night, I was highlighting the blind 3-bettors and out of about 20 or so I highlighted I think I only re-sat with one of them. This is really gonna fuck up the multi-tabling HUD botters (inc me) because it's gonna take years to collate info about most players and lets be honest thats the best thing for the game IMO.

Keep this zoom simple, allow the hands to be imported for results and for reviewing your own play and stats etc, but don't allow HUD's to be used at the tables because:

1. It will slow the games down whilst people wait for the HUD to catch up.

2. It keeps it on a level playing field for the fish.

Remember this is coming from someone who has used a HUD for a long time. Just for once, in online poker, I'd like them to keep it a level playing field.

So I have played a little bit, just to test the waters and I have to admit it is good fun. I was just one tabling last night along with playing the APAT National League game and finished up around 3.5 buyins up, despite a sick beat vs a moron, but lets be honest it was nice to see people stacking off with A8 on a 668 board vs my QQ. (8 on turn).

As for the APAT game I played alongside.... disaster. I gave some of the players too much credit. I basically lost a majority of my chips on a 7h8h3s board, when I had opened in LP with 9h10h. Guy in BB flatted. He check-called flop bet. Turn was 10c. He checked again, so I bet almost pot. He flatted again. River was Qc. He checked and I decided not to fire the third bullet as that river didn;t change much and my hand had a little showdown value, plus it didn't seem like he was folding whatever he had.

He turned over Qh 6h.. what??? horrible wanker got a majority of my stack. Fucking river saved his stupid ass. I just tilted after that limp-shoved 88 from UTG with about 14BB's and ran straight into JJ. gash.

I'll prolly play again for the next couple of weeks, but I am gonna have to adapt my game for it I think as playing my loose style doesn't seem to be working right now. I do prefer the new structure though as it's more like a turbo.

Righty, off to do some matched betting, maybe a little Zooming and some Battlefield 3.

Laters

BM

APAT league game 1

Representing the North West of England. Not really played much poker for a while, but 1 tabling is gonna be slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow, so I'll prolly live blog it, if I can be arsed.

Stay tuned.....

18.19 - 41 mins of registration left, 371 players. Wonder how we are gonna work out who is playing for which team seeing as though all the locations are the default "United Kingdom". No way I am gonna keep trolling all the way through the huge APAT thread where each player has posted their ID.

19.05 - get a text of bullmeist telling me to hurry as most on my table are sat out. Reply telling him he is still a donko who won't last ten mins, but cheers for the heads up.. muhahahahahaha

19.13 - ran into a player called "fishy1977" - definately lives upto his name after calling a flop check-raise and turn bet with a bare flush draw, only to catch his TP on river. lolz. starting stack $5k. Already down to 4.5k

oh FWIW fishy is in BB to my button...could be fun...

19.29 -  decent sized hand.  I raise Ep with AKo. SB 3 bets for 2nd time in 2 hands. he either has monster run of cards or likes to 3-bet a lot. I flat his 3-bet IP.  flop was 3Q8. He checks, so i check behind. turn 2. Check check. river he checks, i bet like half pot for value, he snap re-raises.... hmmmm. Line didn;t make much sense as flop was 2 hearts, why would he check a set down like that? I decide he is bluffing and call. He was, he had AJss. If the flop wasn;t a drawy one I would have prolly found a fold.  Anyways upto $6.5k.

19.39 - I just noticed...

19.46 - FML little lad decides he wants me to read his story tonight. Out of game for a short while...

19.58- back.

20.08 - flopped the goods with J8s, didn;t really get any action. All is quiet on the western front... although just realised also in is kronsdat, Mair, No Brains and Yorky Puds. gl guys.

20.23/ fk me one-tabling is like pulling teeth. This is painfully slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Card dead ATM too. One horribad player at my table has a juicy looking stack.

20.25. Nice re-steal spot. fishy player limps, button, an aggro player raises to iso. So I three bet him with my 38o and take it.  ez pz.

20.27.. ut oh AA now.. lets see it get cracked... as it happens.... guy to my right raises (same guy who iso'd earlier). I 3-bet him... again. He 4-bets... I 5-bet shoved. he snap folds. FML. I really reallt considered flatting that 4-bet and letting him stack off on flop. damn. upto $10k chips now.

20.33 -  |Moved to a new table. open raise 1st hand A3hh. BTN calls. flop AT5 two spades. I just lead at it. He folds. 11k now.

20.43 - took out a shorty with my 77 vs his A6. upto 13k. blinds 125/250 w 25 antes.

20.48 Couple of weird hands. both vs same player. very strange. Anyways won one and lost other. Currently sat on $12.8k.

21.13- going slowwwww. Only raised 1 hand and was shoved on, had to fold. trying again now....FML. shoved on again. can't call with A5s. Will have a hand one day....

21.30 - FML. guy shoves from MP into my BB again. 3rd time straight. He is a 8BB stack. So this time I have A2o so call. He actually has a hand 8 and makes a set first card out. thanks stars. next hand I get AA and everyone folds.

21.31 - Stars strikes AGAIN. two limpers I shove my stack with Ajo. one shorter stack calls, I have him slightly covered. He only has AA. FML. Ace on flop for anotehr set.

21.32. OUT. ROTFL Pokerstars = wankers. I have 2 BB's and shove K4s. Villain has 66 and flops quads. GTFO.

So, in the last three hands I was in there were two sets made against me and one quads. Mwhahahahahaha yeah sure pokerstars, perfectly normal. hahaha.

random

Unfortunately this won't really be a poker post, so if thats what you are after reading, stop now and don;t waste your own time. :o)

Life is very tough ATM. With the wife still not working and with two children under school-age we are in a bit of a tough spot. We looked into her going back to work, but the costs of childcare (£35-£40 PER DAY, PER CHILD) would mean we would be looking at the best part of £350+ per week. Unfortunately the wife has always worked in Admin and Call centre jobs, most of which don;t really pay much above the National Min wage and as such she couldn;t even earn enough to get back to work. Sigh.

So we are painted into a corner and a tough one financially. Everything around us is rising in price very quickly, Diesel is flying up, insurance took a huge leap, gas and electric, water bill has risen, food costs are ridiculous etc etc. Most of you know what I am talking about.

Now, to add to all that the company I work for has been trying to lay people off, after lots of Union consultations it's been worked out that to save compulsory redundancies every worker will have to give up 1 paid day of work per month.

Don't get me wrong I want to save jobs, but this is gonna hurt even more.

I have also just found out that they will be taking the working tax credits off us because the threashhold for a household has been lowered from £40k to £26k, so I am now over this. We have no recourse, no chance to appeal this, it's just a case of tough shit.

It's going to be a very very tough financial fight for the forseeable future. Horrible feeling not being able to see an end to it either, especially with all the government options being just as shit as the other IMO.

So, at the moment we are feeling pretty tender and I guess it could be much much worse, but it's my blog and I felt like having a little moan about how all this recent economic shit is affecting me personally.

**poker alert**

if this had all happened a few years ago I reckon I could have put myself into a position where I could have easily subsidised our household income through poker, but these days even that has been squeezed to within an inch of it's life.

ok, sorry for that just wanted to have a little moan about shit.

Cheers

BM