Cold deck and collusion.


This is a belated post regarding Sundays trip to Luton which was a bit of a disaster. In the £50 rebuy i got a big stack early on after getting caught a few times then lost 8k of a 16k stack with AdQd on a Ac Jd 4d board after Pino (Walsall PL grand prix champ and relative donkey) re-raises me all-in with A7 on the flop. I obv insta and he spontaneously sucks out. Marvellous. I then lost a load more over-repping a hand into a station and finally shoved for 5k with blinds 400/800 with 97sooooted from UTG only for MP to dwell for eternity before caling with JJ. I have such a mixed image.

Played a little cash after and had an incredibly cold deck in a big pot that nearly made me puke. Table is utterly backwards, im opening with a £25 bet at £1/£2 and still getting 3 callers. Did this twice with cowboys, both time an ace is the very 1st card out. In the words of tony the tiger, grrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeaaaaaaatttttt. So i win a couple of smallish pots and then one a bit more substantial and suddenly im £400 deep in a donkey game where 4 donkeys have more. Happy days. I complete from the sb with 44 and see a sexy flop of Kd 7d 4c. I obv bet the pot and get 4 callers. Turn comes another K. OMG i love you god. I bet £140 hoing for action from the king, 2 callers, WTF? Is this the best result ever? River, 7. Fucking marvellous. Nearly choked on my sandwich. The others get it all-in, one with A7, other with K6. FFS its nearly a £1600 pot if the river doesnt touch perfect.


After a while the game started to really fuck me off. In a side pot, two freinds actually said to each other "what do you want to do? Check this down?" I got a bit cheesed and told em to stick it. Then a bit later, a guy checks behind on the river with the absolute stone cold kahunas. I went a bit off the rail at this point and fucked of to play DC, where PEP FONTANA pulled one of the sickest bluffs in 6 card Omaha. Wp. I got out of it on DC and went home a bit miffed as to how cunts can get away with collusion without having the whole table going nuts. I believe the expressin is alligator blood, these fuckers had replaced that with guinea pig piss.

Onlince iv been playing like a bit of a donkey this week, i cant really get into it unless 8 tabling at least. Does that smack of an ADD addled brain? I think so, so im having a break and going to Paris for a bit, i need to chill and get drunk with the missus, that'll sort me out.

Off to Luton tonight to hear M3 whine about his luck in the endgame of big tournies, donk off my chips and murder the HE game.

Saturdays are gooood. Best iv had for a mighty long time.
Also, i would like to point out that my brother will now be posting on here, he plays similar stakes to me, but you can obviously tell its me as my prose is far more impressive.

Bluegh. The day-job has been going pretty badly, the 1/2 games seem inordinately tough at the moment and im sadly breaking even so far this week. Not sure where im going wrong but since iv cut down to 5 tables its a lot easier, i think i was neglecting table selection for the past few sessions, its hard to beat a bunch 5 other players with 20/10/2.5 stats. One of the simplest techniques for gaining an edge on fellow tags (if ur not happy lagging it up) can be floating on the flop in position. Id estimate that only 1/4 Cbets is followed up by a good second barrel at 1/2, its so freaking nitty that they dont like to play poker, its more like a card-catching competition for the heavy multitablers.

The few 2/4 plo sessions iv had have been very good, and the 2 5/10 sessions iv had have been reasonable, although i cant help but feel im missing vbets and bluffs on the river. Iv seen some players vbet hands that i wouldnt dreas of (greenplastic for example) and i think i need to step up to the mantle. I also lost the minimum on a hand where i trapped a guy really sweet with AA preflop, i raise pre, 1 guy re-raises, another guy min re-raises (not the type to squeeze) and i flat call. Flop comes K6h7h and he checks, i check behind as im 100% this guy has KK and he bets weak on the 8h turn, i have Ah, call and he checks the river, hoping to induce the bluff. Made me feel a bit sick that hand, got the bugger right where i want him and that happens.

Off to paris soon for some r+r and might go to Luton this Fri/Sat to get drunk and rail the Apat lot. Off to do some work tomorrow as i need to get back into shape. To the gym i think for the next few weeks.

Been playing a bunch on ipoker, through BlueSQ and VC, also DTD are back up and running it looks like so ill have to start messing around with crypto again. Still got that fever, funnily enough glandular fever is a virus, so there's diddly squat they can do about it, bet you didnt know that! However, im doing all the sensible things and feeling ok during the day. Its just the sweats at night that kill me.

Played a couple of tournies on the weekend, the 500k giveaway and a sat on VC that was basically a 3k added tournie. Did shite in both but they reminded me just how bad online tournament players can be at times, it was horrible. I really am glad i got the MTT bug out of my system whilst i was young (lol). To play them for your living would be a nightmare, im sure it shortens your le.

Online cash is going well, im playing 1/2 and some 2/4 on ipoker on 2 different accounts, which is really annoying as my player notes dont crossover, but i dont mix levels so its ok. 8 tabling 1/2 is clicking now, went a while without any hit but iv had two 1.2k+ winning days in the past 4, shame i tilted off most of day one's, purely because of 1 hand. Im quietly confident ill be at 5/10 by December, which is far earlier than i thought possible. Im not putting any pressure on myself, the money is coming in slowly and steadily from my many fingers and i need to get the house money together by Jan at the latest.

I feel like im playing far better poker now, PT has helped me eliminate a few hands that just were'nt making the money, 22-55 for example, over a 60k sample size they are all losers. I know where my weaknesses are, i make far too many ego calls. I know exactly what a guys cards are, and im so frustrated the donkey luckboxed a 3 outer that i'll call just to see. I also can get way too overinvolved in pots where the hands someone has are limited and he almost certainly has you beaten. Example @200nl ws raise to $7 with AA stacks 100bb deep, 2 callers. Flop 10,5,2 rainbow, we bet, 1 caller. Turn, 7, we bet, min check raise from him. Now at 2/4 or v a nut i could assume A10 here, other overpair here, but in all likelihood he has trips here. Im slowly conditioning myself to take stock in these situations and recognise that a check raise on the turn from a nit is almost always the immortal nuts. Also lost a fair few huge pots making very audacious bluffs where my oppo could never fold as he didnt even realise what the str8 draw was. Iv been trying to get back some of that bet efficiency at the mo, it seems reluctant in returning.

One thing i deffo might be doing is playing another gukpt event this year ~(or 2). The structure is so good that the skil edge is a lot greater for the better players. I would like to play the finale but im not forking out 3k. We shall see, Plymouth or the Vic seem likely other main events.

Oh, and iv been informed that my article is in this months insidepoker magazine, get out there and read that bad boy!

Apologies for crapness of blog at the mo, i cant be arsed with entertaining writing as i now have the prospect of another sweaty night (and the missus aint even here du-dum). CYA all.




Im happy with my "me" management now aswell, if im tired i take a nap, if i make a big mistake, i take a break, row with the GF, turn it off. These little responses really do help and are almost as valuable as table selection.

Glandular mofoing fever. Thyroid (i think?) glands have swollen up like golf balls under my chin and im sweating out a good 4 seperate duvets a night. Disgusting, feel horrendous. GUKPT ME Luton was a non-event for me, i played 3 critical hands and a couple of minors which went as follows.

UTG+1 opens to 600 at 100/200 level, call call call im in the BB with 1010 re-raise to 2600 and take it down, my image utter granite and i reasoned it would be dominoes if i can get past obsevant tight utg player. Starting stack always hovered between 7k and 11k, 1 premium hands in 7 hours, QQ wins blinds uncontested. Made 1 resteal versus rookie with AJ coming ott with uber image and him folding AQ, might have stirred him up a bit sadly. Then massive mistake no.1 Nothern big bloke to my right (seemed gruff but ok, if you forgot about his "problem" downstairs- no idea but your opponent contantly undoing his belt is unnerving) raises to 700 on the button with blinds 150/300 25 ante. I have 9k as does he, and iv got a good line on his betting patterns. In the end i elect to flat call with 1010, let him cbet and take it off him on a non scary board. Ian woodley now jams from the BB for 6k and i have a shitty decision. I dont regret folding, but i wish i had taken longer over my decision, gambling earlier would have allowed me to play my real game. Should have called.

By now i had realised that there were lots of chips on the table and stacks were defining, i could not afford to miss out on the big implied odds portion of the tournie, where the stacks are still so deep that you can play stackbuster hands without affecting your stack too much. It was alos apparent that there were 2 guys on the table who were total dead wood, both with chips that someone was destined to get.


Exit hand, (rookie, let me whine for once m8 :) ) rookie raises utg to 1200 with a stack of 15k back. Folded to me in the cutoff with 1010 and im willing to chance he doesnt have it, with Ashby and another shortie in late pos he will be limping with monsters here a large % of the time. I shove 8k, trying to represent a big pair and he goes into the tank. After he goes into such a long dwell im going through his hands, cant be AA/KK. Might be QQ but im certain rookie cant fold that here. Could DEFFO be JJ or AK/AQ. I doubt he will want to race off half his chips so i try to confuse him into folding with "thats good, he's taken so long i must be infront". Wrong answer as wonderboy thinks he's definitely racing and calls off half his stack with AQ. Maybe im out of live tournament strategy circles but i cannot see how he can call here. The TIGHEST player on the table has a range that crushes this hand, and you want to CALL off 1/2 ur stack.
There, frustration vented, ill say no more.

Was going to go out on the lash with the players tonight, but realistically im going nowhere for a while. Im foul when im ill and luckily im rarely ill. But this fucking bug has meant i cant play online, so its me and Harry Potter at the moment. We have just got hold of the penultimate Horcrux and bashed it about with a basilisk tooth. Sounds fun.

With a little luck ill be back onto DTD next week and ill be able to play some proper sessions on BlueSQ where i need to start winning again sharpish. The next lump needs to be in soon for the house and the missus is whining worse than i whinge about losing a coinflip.

FFS. Still feel utterly rank, got a stinking bug and the sweats. Really not looking forward to a day of poker, ill try not to donk out early but i cannot promise anything. 3 nights now, surely it should have gone by now. so peeved.

Yukky, what a time to start feeling a bit rank. Playing the 500FO later, hopefully just to get some aggression and fancy play syndrome out of my brain, but obv ill be playing the a game. Off to go and get a screen tv in a bit, dont have a clue why, i hate tele in general but what the lady wants the lady gets. LOL Simon G, what a card rack, but tbh the guy is a good player (and nice to boot) and probably deserves a hit. Jeff Rogers gifted him a huge stack tbh, which is unlike Jeff.

Plan is to go shopping this morning, i want a couple of new shirts for this wkend and then go gym for a minor workout and a long chillout. Played a little online last night and got reminded of how dreadful the general standard is. Call call call, call call, call call call call. Thats most of ipokers cash players summed up. My fav was when i called a pf raise with 33, check raising the rag board, check raising the turn big and getting called, only for AK to hit on the river. Methinks i might be rolling in it this time next year.

Non-poker news, Evan Almighty is a good crack,but transformers is better. Im off to Paris with Suz and then off again in November for the aviation clubs tournaments, il prolly play a few of the smaller ones. Off to Bali around december time hopefully, 2 week chillout needed, poker is hard work. And just to top it off im off to Barca in September. Happy days. So glad i left that 9-5 bollocks behind.

Won a seat to the ME in Luton so will be playing most of the events at Luton this week. Also got my 1st ranking points last night, coming 6/150 in the £100 crapshoot event. Played really well from 4 tables out, then played a final where the average stack was 7BB. Got AA folded to me in my BB and pushed with 55 in the co and found card rack CL's AA. Marvellous, £600 instead of 5k. Oh well. Looking forward to this week, gonna get trashed a couple of nights with actionman and a load of the uk ciruit lot, so should be a good crack. My game feels really solid at the moment, you know ur running good when you are all-in against a dominated hand and dont get up ready to leave the table. Playing ultra-solid interspersed with big moves. When you only showdown premium you can get away with blue murder, ill deffo be using image more this festival.

:) Happy Days. Things are running really smoothly at the moment. Im a tad irked by DTD moving their Traders over to bad beat but i guess its in all our best interests. I shoudl really have more patience with regard to these things but i guess im relatively selfish at heart. DTD (crypto) really is a goldmine and every day that goes by makes me feel iv lost money at their tables. Itching to get playing on Crypto again soon though, finally got AHUD working and sussed out my PT database properly. Shame you cant use AHUD on the mini-tables on BluSQ but i guess you cant have everything all the time.
Moving up levels on the nikinblinds account from next monday so expecting big things, one thing i didnt realise was how much rake i generate multitabling. OMG these poker sites have it so good.

Luton festival next week, looking forward to this bad boy immensely. I know i said i wont play the ME but iv been working hard lately and if i get any kind of result in the run up ill prolly buy-in. Im certain that my game is good enough to compete and im up for the craic tbh. We shall see how it goes.

Just finished my second article for http://insidepokermag.co.uk. Amusingly its about bankroll management and the importance of having a bankroll. Whilst well aware of the importance, i couldnt smile at the irony of a recently broke player giving others advice. Still, do as i say and all that. I put a fair bit of effort into it, but due to copyright issues im not allowed to post it, you'll have to go out and buy it or grab one from your local casino, its a quality mag and seeing my mug in it makes it even better.

Anyway, got to fly, Luton needs me. This time, im winning in the cash game. Mistake free poker baby!

P.S. To the anonymous guy who wanted to know about HH for Tournaments in on Crypto, i havent bothered trying mate, i dont play online tournaments any longer. And to M3boy, cheers for reading you mug, and good luck with your new sponsorship deal with pokerheave.com/........lucky *u*t.

P.P.S while im online, Amatay when you gonna bring ur mug down to Luton m8? Been waiting to bump into someone other than Tom who calls me down with third pair ;)