Hmmm interesting. Played a couple of comps on Thursday night and gave away the chip lead in both the 15k and 5k rebuy comps on Tribeca simply by playing really badly after playing really well. Decided i wouldnt do the same in the 20k and made the FT with a healthy stack. Then after a few players had been eliminated i made a risky re-raise in a battle of the blinds against a player who in hindsight wasnt good enough to fold the hand. Anyways, i thought he would fold all hands bar AK,AQ,AA,KK,QQ,JJ and 1010 but sadly he called me with 88 and the trash i had, 75 sooooted didnt perform miracles. Came 5th for $1k so not too bad.

Tonight was a different story, lost a lot in the cash games (but im used to the swings now) and then broke a guy for about $1100 before he made a sick outdraw on me on the turn and semi-tilted me. I lost about $1.2k tonight but i think i played well although should have probably not 4 tabled cash whilst 5 tabling tournies- bit too much computing even for an ADD addled brain like mine. During this holiday period im now going to play MTT's till about 2am then play cash 4 tables at once short handed being as loose aggressive as possible till i crush the weaker players who end up fighting back at the wrong moment. Had a beauty today, convinced a table (of non-regulars) i was a mug for about $80 (which is cheap advertising for me) before he walked str8 into me for a $700 pot with TPTK v my Top set. Sadly him runner, runnering a flush wasnt part of the plan.
Got a few new insights into cash games too. Raise with any pair in any position once you have an idea of how your opponents play. If the pot is contested HU always fire a 3/5th pot continuation bet unless the flop is horrid and has to have hit them somehow, for example 9d10dJh.
If you hit a set lead out every time.
Raise with any 2 connected cards or 1 gapper cards 56 or better if the 1st to voluntarily enter the pot in either the cutoff or on the button.
If the SB completes in a blind v blind contest, bet approx 70% of the time, up this to 90% of the time if he is multitabling as he probabaly will be focused elsewhere.
If in the SB in a battle of the blinds (hereby referred to as a BOTB) bet regardless of the flop 1/2 the pot nearly 80% of the time. In reality i sometimes bet 100% of the time if i have hit or have a draw to anything or if my opponent is tight. In reality most hands miss most flops and even if he connects your average online player is so focused on "tight is right" that he will only cal with top pair and often fold that. If you get called then go through possible hand holdings and take the pot off him if a scare card hits on the turn/river.
If you find yourself at a table full of ABC rocks (which by the way i love) then for christs sake dont play big pots without the nuts or something close to it. They are waiting for the big hands, whilst you can smash up the little pots whilst generating a fantastic image. They want to play long ball, you play short, they start check raising when you semi-bluff in position, theres nothing wrong with a free card.
Whatever you do, dont play their game. I rarely pay off these guys because its so obvious what they are up to. Consistent hammering and forcing them to fold is what enables you to get under their skin, get them playing outside their comfort zone and gets them slow-playing hands which arent strong enough to be slow played.


Anyhow tonight Aussie millions $200 satellite went rosy before KQ got beat by shorties Q10. Went into grind mode and played very astute poker, nicking pots postflop, preflop and ducking and diving well before KK fked me by running into AA. It really fucks me off because i occasionally see a premium hand and think "at last, i can get it all in pre" when actually the way i go deep in comps is by seeing flops in position and outplaying people.

Such is life. Im going to win the 20k gtd tomorrow night. Im not lying, i can piss on this comp if i dont watch the telly :)

Tip of the day, if you arent prepared to play loose aggressive and want to play solid poker, find the right table. A good way of finding out who the fish are is looking for a table where a number of players have a lot less than the maximum buy-in. That is in fact my tip[ of the year as it saves massive amounts of time and locates the donkeys effectively. Keep quiet about it.

Failing that, look for players who seem to always be on active tables and let them do the work for you by adding them to your buddy list. Table selection and seat selection are more important than bet sizing.

signing out till the new year, and wishing all of you a happy one, Alex

Had a superb Xmas. Got some cracking prezzies, including an ipod so ill no longer have to listen when a table has a couple of total twats yakking non-stop. Had a lot of fun playing poker too and think im due a big tournament win soon. Mt game has improved non-stop since i read a pocket fives thread discussing how a top top online MTT specialist got to 12th in the Stars million and only had to showdown a winning hand all-in twice. So iv started playing a bit more people poker once 2/3 of the field has been eliminated. Before then ur just playing with monkeys anyway, so you have far less ability to outplay them post-flop when they are numpties.

Played the £75 NL FO at Luton on boxing day and what a cracker. Got off to a flyer after cruncing Lalit Khajuria with A4 v 34 on a 44J flop. :) Good job he didnt have bobbies.
After that early start on a table i was very compfortable on, i sadly got moved to an altogether trickier table where there was a hell of a lot of re-raising and bluffing. I decided to sit out of harms way for a while, then made a shocking move after 2 late position limpers with A9 soooted only to get called by AA preflop, oops. Down to the felt, grinded back only to call all-in with Q9o v itght SB's raise. Didnt like doing it and regret it now and KJ held for my opponent and i finished a respectable 23rd out of 110.

Online im grinding well and have decided to have a go at the $20/$40 NL like Bluescouse.......only joking. Its $2/$4 for me till i earn another $10k then im off to the dizzy hights of $3/$6.

2007 goals.

I just had a couple of minor cashes in the 20k and 5k and have gone back to basics to get to the business end before making the aggressive plays.
Had a cracking result also, won UKgatsby's award for most improved player. Now thats got to be as good as a bracelet right?

OK, so the goals for 2007 in order of importance.....

Enjoy my poker
Not go Broke
Make £50k through poker
Play at least 7 main events at UK grosvenor festivals
Get a working bankroll (ie not withdrawn) of $100k
Live as healthily as possible given the vampiric (even a word?) nature of the task
Not have a single cigarette whilst in a card room
Get really fit
Beat the Artist in the six-pack challenge and earn myself an easy £250

I think these goals are what they should be attainable, but very challenging.
Ill be working my socks off in January as at long last my broadband is working on my new computer. This coupled with the fact that i have been able to transfer my old player notes on my new comp mean im in business.

Interesting tip. There is a great move you can sometimes make that i saw work to perfection @ Luton this week. I believe Doyle Brunson calls it the "post-oak" bluff, but i prefer the "value bet bluff". Even if it only has a small % chance of working, its a great bet in cash games as it need only work once in a while to earn money. Now thats value :)
A player known to us as fat Ian, a really nice bloke too....made the bet on the river with a board of As5s7h3sKs (ie 4 spades). He had A2 with the 2 of spades and the pot was 8k, he bet 1k and left back 3k in his stack....and the guy didnt call even tought he had the 5s. LOL.

Why dont i arrest the bleeding sooner?

Didnt appreciate how badly i did last night till it came to completing my records this morning. A pretty disgusting evening with a total loss of $1900. Not happy about that at all. I had a couple of sick beats but thats no excuse, i wasnt in the right frame of mind to play power poker and should have either player like an ABC machine (like 80% of the players out there) or (probably the better option) turned it off.

Bankroll back down to $9k and pretty sure thats not enough for $2/$4NL (i like 30 times the buy-in) so i guess ill drop down to an evening or 2 of grinding $1/$2NL (set-mining is i believe the correct term used for beating these tables) while i recover.

Still musnt grumble, this is nothing compared to BlueScouse- see UKgatsby's links.

Going to play some MTT's tonight too, iv dropped off the Tribeca leaderboard and im not happy about that. Also, i think my sample size is too small for me to write them off as a profitable source of income. Plus i enjoy them.

Had to happen didnt it, poker gods couldnt keep it up.
Had a sick night tonight and stopping before i tilt away any money.
Just lost a $1200 pot in the most ridiculous way possible. Holding KK in the SB i raise after a few limpers to $12 (Blinds $2/$4), 3 callers then mateyboy on the button re-raises to $100 to play.
Now against some players i might quietly muck but this twat is most likely on day release as he previously went all-in for $300 with AQ preflop.
I decide my kings are god and shove for $500 more. He thinks (if you can call it that) for a ful minute before calling with J9. Dont need to tell you he won the pot but i will.
Absolute fking joke and i think they have chat banned me on the VC now. I dont normally insult fish as its in all our interest not to but sometimes even i cant hack it. This came after a night of ongoing outdraws and suckouts, none of which i delivered.

On the plus side, the artist delivered in Luton last night chopping HU against some chap who seemed nice enough but who had some proper cunt of a mate. Looked like shrek with glasses and really rude at the final table. The guy had a 2-1 CL when they were HU and offered Dave a slpit so tyvm and goodnight. I had a % of him so got a little bit of cash.

Still fuming from tonights bad beats, going to bed in anticipation of my 1st journey to Ashburton grove and the Emirates stadium tomorrow.

gl all.

Fking J9!!

Cash game Crunch

Had a good week this week. Nice when things go smoothly. And nice when your form is just phenomenal. I havent been outdrawn in any majors pots in the past couple of days. Im beginning to get really happy as a loose aggressive cash game player. Consistency is coming through too. I made a huge laydown with 22 on a board of 2A9 rainbow after the action went preflop...raise, call, call, then i elected to call on the button. On the flop original raiser checks, bet, call, i raise, original raiser all-in, then tribeca shark "timc3405" re-raises all-in. I know i say that laying down a set is a long term loser but 99 is a definite possible holding here and i fold. Was drawing very thin as original raiser had AA and time did indeed have 99. Shorthanded thats as sick a hand as you are ever likely to see.

Made a few nice plays, namely, perfecting the art of not leaving cash on the table. We all sometimes get into the mentality of when you dont have the nuts, dont play massive pots. But against the right opponents, it is imperative that you stack themn when you can. Induce the bluff against aggressive opponents who you think have missed their draws. Against very good aggressive opponents inducing the bluff with a weak lead on the river is a great bet. If you think they have a missed flush/str8 draw and are thinking about checking, knowing (rightly) that they know the only way they can win the pot is by bluffing, make the pot bigger on the river so they have to put in a BIGGER bluff. Can go horribly wrong (like when you are betting into them when they have a monster) but in the right circumstances this can be a killer move.

Hows this for from too. Holding 4c6c i call a raise form late position player to $12. We both have $500 and as implied odds is the name of the game in cash game poker im more than happy to dance. Flop comes down 647 with 7c. I bet, he raises, i (hoping he has aces) re-raise, he goes all-in. In retrospect it was a bad call by me but i had been running over the table for a while and didnt know the player (until they prove it i bracket most player weak). So i call. He has 77 for top set so im drawing a little thin :) Runner runner club will get me out of jail free though hehe.

Made a crackig call also towards the end of a session last night with king high for a $60 river bet into a $100 pot. That felt damn good.

Tournaments have been a struggle for me lately. A real struggle. Keep coming unstuck later in the game when all the fish have been eliminated. But i do find them fun.
And i won a $200 seat to the $200 freezeout last night for $12. So there. ;)

Gl all, try inducing the bluff on the river a few times, when you get that nailed, try the weak laed+induce the bluff play on the river. Remember it must be against super aggressive players who raise a LOT.

Getting higher...........but a long way form the top of my game.
Still, best to not look down.

Played well this evening, did everything in my power to get a result, but sometimes you know its not meant to be. I have to learn to fold JJ preflop if a tight player raises deep in an MTT. Its just a losing play % wise to go with the hand. Made 2 minor cashes in the smaller tournies. All of the majors went tits up. In the 75k i made a real hash of it late on and am still kicking myself for a couple of my plays, namely a lay-down where i was getting 4-1 on a river bet. All i had was AK, but i think it could have been winning.
In the UB i lost back to back races, one with QQ v AK ai preflop and then lost with 55 v AK when i was semi-short stacked. One day i will win 50% of my flips in this comp and eat up the field (who for a $200 comp are pretty pathetic), but it will have to wait.

Just logged a 4 hour cash session clearing $1200 in profit. That should go some way towards forgetting the £7 a pint i paid in Copenhagen for beer! I dont normally give a toss about money but listen to this. 2 hot chocolates in the centre of CH cost 270 Danish Krona (sp?). Thats about £27. Daylight robbery (ironic, as they only have 5 hours of daylight in December).

Must also regale a mildy amusing tale. Woke up on Saturday morning, went into the bathroom for sss (shower, shit, shave) and caught a glimpse of my back. It was covered in some kind of funky tattoo, like a spiders web all-over. Upon closer inspection it was biro. Turns out the missus had got so peeved with me fidgeting/snoring that she decided to do dot-to-dot with the moles on my back. Cheers love.

Not sure what im gonna do this week. I should really forget tournaments as its cash where i make my best roi, but i love the thril of MTT's and (naiively) think im a good player. However, tournie after tournie is making me come round to the fact that maybe, just maybe, im not very good at all.
Having said that i could well be venturing to the Sportsman tomorrow night for their £250 Freezeout. It sounds like fun....and what do these old farts know about poker anyways?

Tip of the day. Infact, im not very tired so ill spoil you. When making a desperate last stand when short stacked in an SnG/MTT, dont go all-in. Reserve a small portion of your stack. This makes the raise look like it wants action and gets more respect. BUT PLEASE DONT FOLD later in the hand.

Also, read Antonio "theMagician" Esfandiarii's (sp?) piece on NLHE in WPT magazine. Real quality stuff that i thoroughly agree with. In particular is the idea that information should always be garnered asap in a hand. For example, say you call a preflop raise in position with 1010. The flop comes 67J and opponent bets into you. Now this could be a continuation bet with AK/AQ or it could be a premium pp and the bet is to protect the hand. If he is a cash game lag player, 89 or 45 could be in his repetoire. Raising NOW is the cheapest and most effective way of getting the information you need. He will fold most trash, you dont allow free cards..and (best of all) sometimes he will fold a winner (J9/J10) plus you define your hand. It also gives you the momentum in the hand, useful if you want to take the pot off him later if a scary card comes.

Also, for you cash game players out there getting nailed by super aggressive players who always seem to have posiiton/cards get this into your heads. Re-raising and check raising are techniques which work bets against super aggy players. Also, now and then try a check raise bluff, but make sure the amount is biggish (pot-sized). This will stop them from pegging you as weak/tight/passive and outplaying you every which way.

A really interesting fact that Antonio discusses is slow-playing and why he never does it. Without boring you on the detail look at this example. Say you hold 109 and the flop comes 678. Say an opponent has 88 in the hole. He bets into you. If you slow-play this hand post-flop there is a real danger that a danger card will come on the turn and totally kill your action. If a 4,5,9 or 10 comes on the turn, Mr.Set wont give you a dime. Also, a straight is not the nuts when there are 2 more cards to come ;)

A last note on keeping book on players. This is proving immensely useful. Watch how many tables they play. I play loose/aggressive on 4 tables at once, but nearly every other multi-tabler on the cash games i work on plays ABC solid. And around 90% check their monsters on the flop. If a rocky player who I see is multi-tabling 4 tables at once raises......guess what.....i fold unless i have top premium (no AQ hands here) or hands that play really easily post-flop (middle pocket pairs are easy as long as you adhere to no set, no bet). Dont EVER give these players action.
If a rocky player re-raises someone then checks on a rainbow board, top set is nearly always your answer.


gl all, keep grinding, keep reading, keep learning.

OK, back from Copenhagen and doing what i do on Sundays, the multi's.
Im feeling incredibly fresh in my attitude towards poker at the moment. After reading Harringtons second book and Vorghauses killer Online poker i feel revived. Not by the quality of material, to be frank i found Harrington very formulaic and Vorghaus writes like an American
ie badly.......but a huge amount of online players read their material and it pleases me to understand them.
At the moment im going deep in the Tribeca 75k and also running well in the UB 200, lets see if we can finally get a podium in a sunday major.

This game is so fking sick at times i despair. UBOC event 10, $500 FO $1 mil gtd. $300k overlay so im in. 1300 runners, i get down to 200 left. 180 get paid. Blinds 200/400 my stack 8k. UTG raises 3*BB as he has been doing regularly. I find AK in the SB and shove, he thinks for a bit (his stack is 11k) and calls with AJ. ? J on River. Marvellous. Its a $500 comp ffs.

20k never got going on a tough table with zzzrope, Claimer and SOXY on my table. Luckily moved but some donkey couldnt pass JJ to a re-raise and KK hit the dust on a J high flop.

In the 60k i re-raise all-in with AK. A special person insta-calls for 2/3 his chips with 55.
Shite night all the way through. Going back through my records and 9 sick bad beats last night.
Ah well, such is the way of MTT poker.

Cash games were similarly lacklustre. A sickening 1 outer when i flopped top set v bottom set lost me a $1600 pot. The pc nearly got smacked after that one.
Ah well, cant complain, the value is deffo there. Sadly Doyles room has overnight banned US customers. This unfortunately means no US players on the Tribeca network from now on, so less easy money on the cash games.

Looking forward to another break from poker, ill be returning from Copenhagen on Sunday afternoon, in time for the Sunday majors.

Nice Saturday evening. Played a few of the majors and went deep in all events. My game is really good at the moment, i just need some cards late on. Been ironing out a few flaws lately and its suprising how easy the game becomes.

As i write im closing in on my 3rd Final table of the evening, a $36 FO on Tribeca. Going really strong but need a win to cement the evening. Ooops, as i type i go all-in with A5, get called by KJ, end of.

Stil, not a bad nights work. Hopefully more of the same tomorrow in the UBOC biggie and the Grand slam.

Well, been a thoroughly disappointing week really. Not in terms of profit, iv made a few quid and should be happy. But i am annoyed that i didnt manage to play ANY events form the Luton Xmas Cracker. Ridiculously i didnt buy any tickets to the smaller events early on and they sold out quickly. I came close twice to a seat in the main event, but couldnt secure one. Then, i found out i couldnt even buy a ticket ot the ME. That had sold out too. Marvellous. Ah well, in retrospect £750 is a lot of money to me and directly buying in probably wasnt a great idea. Also, there will be other, better tournaments for me.

Returned from Amsterdam last night, it was shite. Non-stop rain and gloom, bat-blind cyclists everywhere and (i thought) an unpleasant undercurrent. Copenhagen next Thursday. Its gonna be absolutely freezing, dont know why im going there in December, ill blame the missus. This weekend im determined to play good poker. Im going to have a stab at UBOC event 10 $500 FO on Sunday. This can be my compensation for missing the Xmas Cracker @ Luton.

Bah, i screwed up the UBOC event 1. Got fairly deep then tried a move which i stand by, but player couldnt release TP/Shit kicker for all his chips (and i had been being a good boy).
Cash games were a grind for a long long time last night. Then i won 2 huge pots in quick succession before having a 10 minute break. Came back and the first thing i do is misread a board on the river where i think i have the nuts, but there was a flush on board. I cant even do a Phil Ivey and blame it on some expensive sunglasses the missus bought me. I just misread it. So that cost me $450.

I then went back to the grindstone and finished making a hearty $700 for the evening. Enough for me to go to bed feeling satisfied.

Absolutely loving cash games right now. Im being really ruthless. Listen to this hand, its sexy as hell. Im dealt 45o in the BB. 1 button raise (smallish) and the SB and myself call. Flop comes 55K. We check, original raiser bets, we both call. Now i thinks raiser has AK, SB has a 5 for sure. River comes a J. We check, he bets, SB raises a lot. Now having played with this guy a bit he has a 5 but is scared and is betting to protect his hand. I cant put him on a big 5 so i think its a split at the moment, ie 555AJ. I call and Button goes all-in for a tiny fraction more (dont really care what he has anymore,he only had about $100 to start with). River comes a 4. Now on the river the pot is about $300 and we both have about $300 back. I feel certain that he has a 5 shit kicker when he checks the river. So i go all-in. He types "56". And he obviously thinks its a split with the high cards and decides to call after a short while.

Shiiiiiiiiipppppiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttt.

So nice when you play with players that you can read well, seems that players are far easier to read at $2/$4 than $1/$2.

Oh and a little whine whilst im on here. Luton Xmas Cracker has a capacity of 90 this year. WTF??? And the £200 opening event has already sold out, marvellous.

Ok, things are moving forwards. Last night online was a bit of a shocker. Came 18th or something in the 20k on Tribeca after amassing a really threatening stack then donking it off with power plays on a guy not good enough to fold (but enough to outplay me ;) ). In the other events it went tits up also. Came really close to a major score in a decent UB comp but shagged it up at the final hurdle with fancy play syndrome.
Then i played cash games and spunked off $2k. And went to bed writing down a new plan.

Tonight was equally terrible in the tournies. After being dragged around Covent garden with the missus this evening i came back about 9pm in time for the 15k and 10k. No good in either despite getting set's 4 times in the 15k. Unfortunately no-one else hit anything so whilst my card luck (CL) was good, my situational luck (SL) was bad. So i decided (irresponsibly?) to put into practice my new principles. It was a conscious decision as iv been really applying my brain (not sure if there is a minimum cell requirement to classify it as one) power to cash game strategy. It all came about because i looked @ my stats in PT one night and found out this shocking fact. I lose more money with AA and KK than any other hand.

This got me thinking (albeit after it had cost me a couple of grand). The way to make money in poker is not through supernatural reads or rock-tight nut-peddling (at least not for me), but to make the fewest mistakes possible and minimise losses whilst maximising winnings. All very basic stuff im sure you'll agree but there is a point ill digress to in a microsecond. MARRYING HANDS IS CRIMINAL IN DEEPSTACK CASHGAME POKER. There i said it.

So i decided to polarise my strategy this evening. I would keep pots small preflop without huge hands- AA or KK in position against smallish/medium stacks. I would raise 80% of unopened pots round the back with any 2 connecting medium/low cards. Because i come into the pot with utter trash, i CANNOT marry hands unless i flop playable boards, straights, 2 pairs, oo str8/flush draws with a pair. With the big cards that EVERYONE plays, i played every hand according primarily to position. I folded AA on a board of K73 after i raised big preflop and someone came OTT of my bet on the flop. Now sometimes im going to get it wrong and fold a winner. But i dont mind. A lot of the time im drawing to 2 outs there.

Iv also really worked hard on stopping crying calls. If the board is unconnected on the flop and you are betting big on the flop and turn and elect to check TP/Top 2 P on the river and they go ALL-IN- think for a second. They had you on the flop and slow-played in position.

So my cash game has come on leaps and bounds. In 8hours this evening, 3 sessions, iv cleared $1700 profit, nearly eradicating yesterdays shocker. And boy does it feel good. When you keep hammering away at the small pots you get a whole heap of action when you actually flop something big.

And, sorry to waffle on but im so hyped up and its 4.53am but im flying....iv now got gears.

OK, so iv always been able to be loose and aggy, solid and tight...but those 2 gears have been replaced. Its like iv sold my metro and boughts a tiptronic (sp?) Ferrari. Sit at a table, go loco. Raise everything, show a lot of bluffs, base nearly every decision on implied odds. As soon as they start calling you down get tight with them. Make massive overbets, value bet every 4-tabling ABC twat watching the telly whilst he should be focusing. Then, occasionally certain players who have an ego will get upset. you can identify them as the ones who type "you fking donkey, 64o!!". Now you have them exactly where you want them. Turn into a passive, calling station monkey and watch it flow. With postion and application, using Hansen Hands Calling station, Solid, and aggy maniac are 3 gears that i gaurantee you will make you money.


So, there you have it. This is the 1st time that i have actually believed i am any good at theis poker game (deep down). Bring on Luton Xmas cracker, the whackers got his whack back.