Long post. Dont let the boss catch you if you want that pay rise. My best bud Seb (+Matt incase he feels left out) qualified as a doctor last week and came up to see us all. We naturally took him out on the lash in a lads only old school pub golf routine. After donning appropriate attive some simpleton decided Southgate would be the ideal starting place. Not relishing looking like a twat in knife city i was pleasantly suprised when everyone actually wore the right clothing. Apart from Matt, sad git that he is. Starting early we lost Rob halfway to Winchmore hill on the 7th hole. After a marathon night it ended with myself, Seb and Oli winning the competition. Hole in one for every hole bar one for each of us. I struggled on the freezing cider and Kris informing me i look like a fish when drinking. Too much.
The next morning i woke up feeling pretty good, the diamond Zan had made us both neck 2 pints of water to prevent hangovers. Good girl.


Im slowly but surely getting going. Cash games of late have been very slow and steady, gradually grinding up and looking at weekly profits rather than nightly ones. Im currently doing some labouring for a plasterer during the day, then logging long session at night. It really is working out quite nicely. Im getting a nice workout during the day then getting home and playing quality SHORT sessions on crypto. I will be playing on ipoker on the weekend but the player pool is just right on crypto, about 5k players avery night enables you to target the fish better and also find tables where you have notes on them all. Thats always reassuring and helps get the confidence up from the off. On the crypto account iv had 2 losing days out of the past 12, losing -£100 and £-150 respecitvely. Best winning session was the 18th clearing £600. Currently up £1700 from the 17th June. Thats a comfortable standard of living for me, combined with some other earnings im just starting to get things back on track.

Played the £100 FO at Stanleys casino Luton on the weekend. Basically Turny (Ben Turnstill's dad- rookieITB)told me that the comp was juice free, a small field and you get a free drink on registration. This coupled with a soft field just got the nudge over the Luton £250 which is a bit of a lump. I was gifted a moronic starting table, 2 old guys who played 2 hands while i was there, got to love the old guys. Also there was a loose aggy decent player who i havent seen in a while and it was good to just watch him kill the table. I knew id get him sooner or later, just had to tone it down for a bit. He raise to 400 @ 50/100 and i flat call with 55, 2 clubs. He knows i make moves (he infact caught me re-raising with A high in a small Luton fessie event) so i thought id play it nice and basic when the flop came out 4c5c4h. I check raised him to 2k after he bet 800 on the flop. He flat called and the Qc came on the turn. Im looking at him as it hits and he just had that dont look at me look about him. Fuck i think, he has QQ in the hole. We check check. River is a K and after i value bet he ships it all-in after a speech. LOL. Hate to make big laydowns, i wish i could say i always went with the statistics, but i knew what he had and i trusted myself. I said he must have QQ and he showed me one, which reaffirms my judgement. Probably a terrible laydown but sometimes you just get a feeling.

Next hand im down to 6.5k from a 10k starting stack (i know, makes the WSODONKAMENTS look shocking) and i raise to 600 on the button with 1010 after lag limps in ep. The BB comes along for the ride and the J107 flop with 1 spade was as good as it gets. This young asian guy tries a feeble bet of 600 into a 2k pot. Just check to make sure the kids pulse aint going, his kneee isnt jabbering and that he can talk freely and im all-in for another 6k. Hero dwells up for eternity before calling with Q9 spades. Insta 8 and i know im gonna dodge my boat, which i do. I have to use flushies fav and mutter "neverends" as i calmy go to the bar, the loose guy opposite tells me its not my night. Really? Really? No.

So immediately afterwards im railing him annd he suffers a lovely donkament. He raises pre with AA, guy flat calls, flop comes KJ4. Guy checks, Rob bats out for 2k, guy min raises him to 4k, Rob decides he's a mug and ships all-in, guy insta calls with K7. A on the turn puts a 4flush out which hits on the end. Rob was a little harsh to the guy, i think donkey might have left his lips, but he apologised afterwards and we buggered off to play cash at Luton.

The holdem game was full of nits so i decided to wait until they got a bit pissed/tired and have a game with Snatty, the Judge, Damon D'Cruz and a couple of other guys. Omaha Dealers choice with 4,5 or 6 cards and hilo option. Loco game. I re-raised pre with As2sAdKdKJ10 after working up to 200 and had that wonderful feeling when the board came A26 rainbow. I led, well aware of the str8 possibilities, but despite even Alan Geddis's presence could not entice a caller. Made one bluff later with the bare Ace before getting 6-outered by Damon on the end for a quater of a big pot. Table broke and i saw a drunk guy i know in the holdem game and a few lags playing 6 handed, ideal. I sat with £150, raised to £12 the second hand with KK, drunk guy (who is very nice) called. Flop of J63 looked harmless and i led for £20, he rr to £75, he's drunk, im all-in he has J5, q 5 on turn. Marvellous. Live poker is most deffo rigged.

Good luck to all the players i know in Vegas, although none of you have done fuk all yet i know some of you are very good prospects in the coming events.

Next big one for me is the Newcastle GUKPT. I was really hoping BlueSQ might invite me to do the blog updates again. I reckon im at least evens as i owe Mike a few quid. :) Otherwise i guess ill have a bash at some satellites.

Currently the big news is me and Zan are starting to save for a place of our own. Not sure where yet but hoperfull Hertford or Ware, St.Albans having grossly inflated house prices. Next update on Thurs prob. Thankyou all for reading.

Just saw this and had to post it. Horrendous....

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1194225

Back in the world of reality. Holiday was great, really enjoyed myself and felt good to lounge by the pool beer in hand. Majorca and the Villa were very pretty, we stayed on the quiet side of the island where the nearby marina displayed an array of Sunseeker yachts that made me green with envy. We ate out on most nights, had a couple of barbies and had some marathon pool volleyball sessions where me and Suz were narrowly defeated by John and Suz's siter Sarah. In all 12 games. :(

One scary moment when some random fucker scared the shite out of Suzanne when Suz spotted him creeping round the villa from the kitchen window. Naturally she screamed and the cunt buggered off but it dampened the mood. The villa was miles from anywhere and was pure class, so no doubt the scumbag was planning on no good.

So feeling refereshed i came home and booked a weekend of magic. 2 nights, 7 hours work, 1 bag. If only it was always this easy. Crypto really has some of the most goddamn awful cash game players in the world. So many of them play deepstack cash like a tournament. Had a couple of beautiful hands. I called a raise from Centaur who is a massive multitabler at the $1/$2 level with 66. The flop came 662, he bet, i went all-in overbetting the pot by 9*, he called with AA. How else can you get quads paid?

Its that time of year again where all the really successful players bugger off to the big V for all the fun and action a gambling capital can muster. Weeks of playing craply structured competitions and sitting next to fat yanks. Just a touch of jealousy then. But realistically, i think its a good idea to recognise which events are going to give you real value for money and go with them. Pab, Andy Ward and a few others have the right idea i think. Go there for your own reasons for sure, but be selective. Good luck also to M3boy, sorry i couldnt come with you this year bud but thats life. I'll be out there by 2009 i told myself, and ill be bringing lots of $ with me.

Looks like Daniel Negreanu is going to lose his bet with the 2+2 poster regarding the bracelet this year. Cant wait to hear him whingeing about the structures. I cant see why you would play most of these tbh, surely if you are anywhere near competent then cash games should be where ur making hay.



Ill leave you with this one little gem, stolen from RED-DOG on blonde, but worthy of here....


Scientists at NASA have developed a gun built specifically to launch dead chickens at the windshields of airliners, military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.

British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains. Arrrangements were made. But when the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurtled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, crashed through the control console, snapped the engineer's backrest in two and embedded itself in the back wall of the cab.

Horrified Brittons sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield, and begged the US scientists for suggestions.

NASA's response was just three words, "Thaw the chicken".

Win some, lose some, win some more, earn your crust.

Played on the Strongbad991 VC account tonight, did ok. Im playing on the .50/.1 tables still, trying to work out where i went wrong this week with the nikinblinds BluSQ acount. Its such a different game to 1/2 and 2/4. Dare i say its tougher?

Not a bad night, not gr8 but not too bad. Made one error on 1 table where i think i should have passed. Strong solid skilled player limps in mid pos. Im in BB with 84. Flop comes 487 2 spades. I bet, he raises, i flat call. (mistake no.1?). Turn comes another 8. I check, he bets, i call. River, 2s. Board now showing 48782 with 3 spades. I bet the river, he goes all-in and we were both very deep for a .50/1 table $300. I seriously considered passing. He's not shite enough to overplay a str8/flush here on a paired board and he raises with all pp's preflop. That leaves 87 as the only hand i can put the guy on. I make the call, get shown the nuts and wish i'd passed. Needless to say i left the comp to chill. Sometimes its almost like playing omaha on these tables, ur literally looking for the nuts all the time. Bluffs dont really work on a big scale iv found, but i make a fair bit from small nicks and re-nicks.

Eneded up clearing 4 buyins profit for the night, which was acceptable seeing as i had the above fuck-up and (only) 1 KK v AA coup all night. Iv really tightened up massively for these 6-seaters. Open raising with cards down to J9s and (v.occasionally) the lower sc's ONLY from the cutoff and button and sparingly. Normally im just waiting for premium but il play these hands for deceptive purposes if i see a calling wally with a lot of chips in the blinds. Opening in any position with any pp and AK/AQ, AJ anywhwere else but utg. Im re-raising with JJ+ and AQ+, interspersing my play by only flat calling with big pps if they are the same colour (thank's Mr Harrington for that gem). 8-tabling is deffo the way forward when playing this way, very rigidly and aggressively. Cont betting most flops unless they are too likely to have his opponents hand, ie J10x combos are not ideal. Interestingly cont bets are succeeding almost without fail on Qxx and Kxx boards about 80% of the time id imagine. these are ideal flops for cont bets, 1 big card and no draws mean opponents fold a lot. If they call then i have to work out if they are passive enough to have a pp lower than said big card and fire again or give up.

When i come back from Majorca (im leaving tomorrow) ill be fresh and ready to take nikinblinds to a new level. Im going to write off the 1st load i lost as learning money and win it back in one week.

As ever the crypto grind is going well.

gl all, blog in 1 week time.

LOL. You have to laugh otherwise i think id cry. Dropped 4 buyins tonight. Tried cutting down the tables and just playing poker. 4-tables of playing my A game. Got off to a good start but then the callers started. My 2 favourites from the evening.
Im dealt 22. I raise pre, guy re-raises me minimum. OK, plenty of notes on the guy, ill try and hit a set or outplay him, i have good notes on him after all. Flop, 335. Good flop for my hand. Normally anyone who gives me action here has me beat but i know this guy is a donk so ill win this pot. I check to let him C-bet. He obliges, betting 2/3 of the pot. I re-raise by 2*, telling him im going nowhere. He goes all-in. Bollox i tell myself, wrong read, however, i trust my instincts due to great pot odds and call the extra. He flips AKo and of course it comes. Great.

Next super hand. Guy raise my BB, I re-raise pre with AdKd. Flop comes KcQd7d. I check, he bets, i raise, he calls. Turn another Q. I check as iv put him on J10/smaller flush draw/KJ. He goes all-in, i call the bet. His hand...........Q9o.
What am i doing wrong?

And the oddest thing? It only seems to be happening on ipoker. On crypto im running real good, playing nice poker and swelling the roll.

Welcome break from this fuckfest coming up. Is there a break even point when the long term catches up with you? You hear so much bollox about "dont call raises with trouble hands, hands like KJ get you in trouble" like fuck they do. Ill prolly start to get the variance upswing when im 60.

Fooking joke. Dropped a shite load tonight, doing nothing different but running into some really crazy hands. One hand in particular made me seriously consider switching to Omaha full-time for cash games.

8-tabling and playing really solidly whilst concentrating on a tourny i had to play, i get this hand come up. If this isnt dodgy i dont know what is. Mt notes on this guy say "solid, respect his game. Can fold a hand, aggressive postflop". So im not too excited when this hand comes up. I have Ac9d. I raise pre, he calls. Flop comes 9J4 all hearts. I bet, he calls. Turn comes 6h. I check, now he bets. Im thinking this might not be a bad spot to bluff. I raise to $30 into a pot of $30. He calls. River comes K. I bet $40 on the end, he heartbeat calls with 3c3h. I bluff about 1% of the time in these games. Joke. Did all my weekends profit and more, not playing on ipoker for a few days, the play is so fking solid at .50/1.0. I challenge anyone who plays higher to log 7 winning sessions at these stakes on ipoker. Sad pessimist in me thinks that if i were a bot programmer, this would be an ideal network for me to operate on. Multiple skins, lots of traffic day and night from europe and autralasia and if you keep the stakes low enough you shouldnt arouse any suspicion.

It becomes even more odd when you compare stats with identical stakes on Crypto where my % won @ showdown stats increase by about 18%. Given the number of hands i play thats a huge % statistically. Not happy. On a slightly brighter note i finished 3rd in a comp on D2D tonight, knocking out Dave Colclough in the process, :)

No poker tomorrow night, i need to recharge, might go see boeing boeing at the theater with the missus, she's been nagging for a while.

Old Strongbad991 account is growing which is handy. Im playing PLO and killing it to be fair. Only .50/1 but at least i feel like im playing human opponents instead of people who can literally see my hole cards and always pick the perfect moment to win that key pot.

Might have to start set mining sooner or later, even though that cant be a profitable strategy on 6-handed tables. Sigh.

Christ the swings in NLHE are scary.

Had some big sessions on a newly rolled account on BlueSQ this weekend. The account has been placed in my trust in a joint venture with a third party and is a cushdie little scheme. Being properly rolled really lets you relax and play your A game, but fuck me the swings iv had this weekend have been shocking. $4k @ $.50/1. 40* maxbuyin. You'd think it would be astonishingly easy to kill these games, but its not.

Im 8 tabling and have had some shocking beats as ever, but have also been totally outplayed on occasion and made way too many mistakes for me to feel happy about the weekends play. Outlaying $1000 a night, on the very 1st session i dropped $300 in about 1.5 hours. Not wanting to look like a spunking twat i stayed up till 2am grinding it back to even. Then won a bit and got to $1100 before the 1st session this evening. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. I lost one massive pot on a table where id doubled up already to a 1 outer in a set over set coup, where the blessed other hit quads on the river. Marvellous. I went from $1300 to $600 very suddenly after running the nut flush into a 6h9h str8 flush ($30 bet preflop!). I also made some horrendous crying calls with AA postflop in multiway pots. But after the second session (and a thorough talking to) i finished on $1260. I can live with that.

It must also be said that the relative standards in cash game between Cryptologic and ipoker are worlds apart. On crypto is really is a grinders paradise, lots of bluffing, lots of weak shite players. On ipoker its like a Japanse fishing vessel after a successful trip, full of sharks. I must have come across 5 total fish tonight, thats it. Lots of these bastards play so close to optimal that trying to multitable and outplay them is very hard.

Iv started to play far more defensively out of position than ever. Im becoming weak postflop but im certain that saves me more money than making long calls on completed draw boards. For example, if i have tptk on a flushing board and the flush card arrives on the turn, im giving up. Immediately. Out of position i know my more intelligent opponents jump on this weakness, but honestly im not sure how to combat it. If i flat call then they nearly always fire a big bet on the end. Iv picked off so few bluffs that i cant be arsed to play it that way anymore.

Sadly (and i know it goes against my principles) iv started to slowplay more when out of position with strong but non-nut vulnerable hands against good opponents. It just seems that they hit their draws when i lead out for the pot and sometimes i put the wedding ring on the hand. I now prefer to shutdown the action in multiway pots when the money is deep, rather than pray the board will pair on the river.

So there you go, its 3am and im totally knackered. I might go to Luton tomorrow for the £50 rebuy but ill have to wait. The ipoker action might be better on the big tournament day.