The Great Poker Adventure

2009-06-08T16:37:00.002+01:00

2009 - Still grinding, still not blogging!

June 2009! Where does the time go?

I am still grinding $50NL, still winning, but not at the rate that I would like. I have taken the occasional shot at $100NL, but it has not generally worked out too well.

My game has certainly improved, but not perhaps as much as I would have liked.

In just over 3 weeks, I will be headed to Vegas for my annual pilgrimage to the WSOP. This year will be the fourth renewal for me, and will be the biggest and best trip yet!

I have originally scheduled to be in Vegas for 8 days, but fate has intervened to the extent that I have been summoned to Boston for a Sales Meeting during the week before my scheduled trip, which means that I will get an extra 3 nights in Vegas tagged onto the front of my trip! (The alternative would have been to fly home for just 24 hours, before heading back across the Atlantic).

This change also means that I will be in town for the July 4th weekend, which was super-fishy last year at the poker tables! I will also be able to attend the 2+2 Party at the Hard Rock Poker Lounge, which should be a good crack!

I am staying the first 4 nights at the Four Queens Hotel on Freemont St, followed by 4 nights at the MGM, ending up with 3 nights at Ballys. I am very pleased with this plan. I have been meaning to stay downtown for several years, and I had an awesome time at the MGM last year.

Last year I played 47.5 hours of NL cash-games during my six playing days in Vegas. I would hope to come close to 80 hours of table time during the 10 playing days that I will have this year.

2008-10-16T09:42:00.007+01:00

It's been a while...!

14 months to be exact.

I had been spending too much time playing, thinking about and blogging about poker, so I cut out the thinking and blogging!

In Aug 07, I started a new job and had (by my standards) a heavy losing month (-$500). So I decided to focus a bit more on my new job, and a bit less on poker.

I didn't, however, stop playing, although I did drift for about 6 months, playing barely breakeven online, hopping from 6-max NL to 6-max NL SnG's, to 6-max LHE, before finally settling on Full Ring NL. The latter decision was made a couple of months before my 2008 trip to Vegas for the WSOP, so that I could maximise my chances in the soft live NL cash games.

I had quit my Cardrunners membership in about Sept or Oct last year, and I had no training subscription until July this year, when I joined DeucesCracked. Almost everything about DC is superior to how CR was last year (although I concede that CR has no doubt improved in the mean time). The main benefits that DC have are no DRM, iPod compatible videos, more class-room oriented content in ppt format, less arrogant instructors etc etc.

I began to focus on $50NL Full Ring in May 08. Although I was under-rolled at that time, with only $500 online, I figured that I could reload if I needed to.

I have been extremely pleased with my results (with the exception of a nasty 10-buyin downswing in July), with total winnings approaching $2k in 5.5 months. I feel that my game has improved dramatically over this period, though a combination of playing an average of 300 hands/day along with some moderate studying.

I recently withdrew part of my BR to cover a few incidentals, so I am still slightly under-rolled for $100NL, but I am certainly hoping to be able to move up at some point in the next month or so, once my online roll reaches 20 buyins at $100NL.

I don't plan to get back into the habit of posting every day, but I certainly will try to keep the blog regularly updated, entirely for my own benefit, to track what I hope will be my continued progress through the Great Poker Adventure. I am certainly still just as enchanted with the game as I was when I first started playing in May 05.

2007-08-28T08:44:00.000+01:00

Variance?

Is something that I have been avoiding this week, by moving temporarily down to $20NL, but I got to thinking about it whilst commenting on Ricci's blog this morning (http://riccinas.blogspot.com/).

Having looked closely at both $20NL and $50NL on Prima this month, I would say that the main difference is that there are more aggressive players on $50NL.

This is to be expected, of course, but it strikes me that it does very dramatically increase the variance that you will experience.

Apologies for the extremely over-simplified maths that follows(!), but as the stakes are 2.5x higher, and there are perhaps twice as many aggro players, I think that the $50NL game could easily result in swings that are 5x greater (in pure dollar terms) than at $20NL.

I think it is possible to imagine that people are slightly less likely to push all-in at $50NL than at $25NL, simply because it is more money to risk, but I think that this is very significantly more than offset by the fact that people are willing to 3bet and 4bet either very light, or with complete air.

I know that this is a grossly simplistic line of thought, but I am thinking that a session "running good" at $20NL might result in a win of say $20 in 200 hands, and a session "running bad" at $20NL might result in a loss of say $15.

By applying the 5x multiplier, this could mean that running good at $50NL I could win $100 in 200 hands, whilst I could expect to lose $75 in 200 hands when running bad. Does this make sense?

Also, when considering $100NL, I assume that this game is a further degree more aggressive, and so could result in even more variance?

I am not sure where this line of thought is leading, except to reinforce the need to be properly bankrolled for a given level, and to ensure that one sets stop-losses when moving up, to make sure that the variance doesn't consume you whilst you are finding your feet at the higher stakes.

So, when moving up, it is perfectly possible to imagine that you string 4 or 5 sessions of "running bad" together, add in a a bit of tilt at your "bad luck", and before you know it, you have lost 7 or 8 buyins or nearly half your bankroll (assuming that you started with the 20x minimum for the new level).

Food for thought...

2007-08-26T06:44:00.000+01:00

Weekly Report - Sunday 19th August 2007

NL ($0.50) - 1,320 hands - VPIP 18.89 - PFR 15.33 - Lost $326.55 - BB/100 29.40

NL ($0.25) - 451 hands - VPIP 18.40 - PFR 15.52 - Won $31.20 - BB/100 13.84

NL ($0.20) - 661 hands - VPIP 18.91 - PFR 14.07 - Won $92.21 - BB/100 34.88

Weekly Totals 2,432 hands - VPIP 19.00 - PFR 15.09 - Lost $203.14 - BB/100 1.38

Monthly Totals 11,334 hands - VPIP 18.09 - PFR 14.65 - Won $92.77 - BB/100 2.31

Weekly Rakeback - $22.70 + $23.07 = $45.77

Monthly Rakeback - $127.11 + $127.77 = $254.88

A rough week, with the signs of green shoots of recovery after I had the sense to drop down a level.

I certainly ran badly at times early in the week. I had sessions where it seemed like I couldn't hit a flop, or complete a draw to save my life. I also had sessions where it seemed like every villain seemed to play back at me every time when I had nothing, and folded every time I had the goods! Weeks like this make it easier to understand how some people manage to convince themselves that poker is rigged! However, I also played some really poor poker along the way. Several times I caight myself tilting and walked away to save myself from any more punishment!

Having decided to step down to $20NL on Prima, I immediately got things back on track. I have also played some $25NL on Full Tilt over the past couple of days, as something strange was going on at Prima, as the non-turbo $20NL tables all had wait lists in double-figures, and no new tables seemed to be opening.

Having jumped between Prima and FT, It has been extremely clear to me just how much better the average player is on FT than Prima. On Prima at $20NL, there are hardly any players who have PFR stats at all close to their VPIP numbers. Your average player at Prima $20NL plays something like 40/10. However, on FT $25NL there are many more players playing decent numbers in the vicinity of 20/15 or so. In fact, I would say that judging things purely by VPIP/PFR stats, the $25NL tables at FT are actually tougher than the $50NL tables at Prima.

Now, I know that this is not all that it takes to be a winning player by a long chalk, but I was still very surprised that this was so apparent.

I plan to play this week at $20/$25 NL and then I have a week's vacation in Portugal. I will then reassess which level to play when I come home refreshed from a week of no poker.

2007-08-25T12:23:00.000+01:00

Not Very Clever

It has been an insanely busy week. I have been to Holland twice this week for work, which has limited my poker quite a bit.

However, I still found the time to drop half a dozen buyins at $50NL, dropping me back down to level on the month, with a combination of running bad, playing too aggressively, and donking off stacks with poor calls/bluffs etc!

So, I have decided to drop down a level (to $20NL on Prima, as they don't spread a $25NL game) to rebuild my confidence. So far I am up 4 buyins in 650 hands at $20NL and I am enjoying my poker again. I will probably hang at $20 NL until the end of the month, before assessing whether I am ready to move back up to $50NL or not.

2007-08-20T08:02:00.000+01:00

Breaking the Law(s), breaking the law(s)!

Anyone out there old enough to remember Judas Priest from the late seventies? I very much doubt it!

So I have started the week with one solid session, where I followed my own rules to the letter, made on pretty big lay-down and finished down just very slightly (offset by rakeback, back to break-even).

Then I played another short session, where I seemed to come under lots of pressure from all villains, good players and bad players alike, and I ended up felting myself with Aces against a pretty obvious flush, and then being somewhat tilted, I ended up getting over-busy with TT and dropping another 1/2 a buyin.

What a moron I am, sometimes!

So, I am even more committed now to getting away from 1-pair hands in the face of aggression, Oh, and not overplaying pocket tens! lol

So anyway, here is the big "Rule4" laydown :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1390081

Villain plays 77/4/0.3, which are pretty incredible stats, but in fairness to him, over 126 hands that I have on him, he is only slightly in the red, so he obviously plays pretty well post-flop.

I thought for a long while about making this call, but I decided that whilst he could well have a worse King than me, I think that he shows up with a set or a raggedy 2-pair much more often.

I will post the AA debacle on my Big Hands Blog if anyone is in need of a laugh at my expense this morning!

I am so committed to getting away from 1-pair hands from now on, that I can't wait to get back to tables this evening, to prove to myself that I have the discipline to make this work!

2007-08-19T06:10:00.000+01:00

Weekly Report - Sunday 19th August 2007

NL ($0.50) - 3,849 hands - VPIP 17.10 - PFR 14.37 - Won $43.49 - BB/100 1.13

Monthly Totals 8,902 hands - VPIP 17.84 - PFR 14.52 - Won $295.91 - BB/100 3.32

Weekly Rakeback - $45.40 + $44.57 = $89.97

Monthly Rakeback - $104.41 + $104.70 = $209.11

The greatest comeback since Lazarus last night, saw me get hit by the deck in spectacular fashion, to post a winning session of nearly 4 buyins in 350 hands, to actually post a profit on the week!

Suddenly it was me instead of the villains flopping sets and trips, completing flush draws, getting paid off with big pairs etc...

I was playing strictly according to my new rules (from yesterday's blog) but I only really faced one tricky spot, where I made a "Rule 4" laydown.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1386202

As it happened, the villain, who plays 35/15/1.2, was pushing his draw hard and I folded the best hand, but I am thrilled by this laydown, as I think it shows a new maturity in my game. I will be making this laydown all day long from now on.

I have posted 2 more hands in my Big Hands Blog if you should care to review them, although they both pretty much played themselves.

2007-08-18T18:15:00.000+01:00

(Somewhat of a) Bloodbath!

I have been playing like an uber-donk for the past few days.

I am down 3 buyins for the week in 3.5k hands, and quite honestly, the way I have been playing it could easily be more.

I have just spent a couple of hours penance, posting 20 (yes, TWENTY!) +/-65BB hands on my big-hands blog, and it doesn't make pleasant reading! The score was Hero 8 - 12 Villains, and it could have been worse! I don't expect anyone to slog their way through all twenty hands, but I would welcome any comments that anyone cares to make.

I have certainly had a fairly cold run of cards, running into set after set, and trips after trips, but I also seem to refuse to lay down TPGK, when I run into serious resistance.

So, it is time for some new rules!

1. The rules for playing TT and JJ still stand. (See last week's post) I do seem to be sticking to these rules pretty well.

2. Be very wary of AQ OOP. This hand may be raised if there are limpers, but it should never be 3bet OOP, and it must be played cautiously postflop.

3. Pay close attention to the villain's stats when considering a Cbet. Never Cbet with air, without first considering the likelihood that the bet will be called.

4. Fold one pair hands where I have no decent draw in the face of any significant postflop aggression. (Caveat : this doesn't include where I am donk-led into. ) I know that this will mean that I am folding the best hand as much as half the time, but this is OK. Even if I am folding the best hand 3/4 of the time, the money that I will save by not repeatedly felting myself when I do in fact have the worst of it will make this a +EV play overall.

I know that rule 4 above is pretty radical, at least it will be for me(!), but I do feel sure that this will significantly contribute to my long-term winrate. I guess that this approach will make me somewhat vulnerable to villains who decide to bluff raise me repeatedly, but I think that this is OK, because they will pay heavy price on the occasions when I do have a decent hand/decent draw.

I am particularly looking for comments and suggested refinements to rule 4. Please help!

Good luck,

robracing

2007-08-16T19:00:00.000+01:00

Yo-Yo Poker...

I have played quite a bit in the past couple of days, and I am almost exactly break-even for my troubles.

It seems that, no matter how a session starts out, I manage to end up even! I start off by donking off a stack, and then I manage to grind it back. I start out with quick double-up, and then I find new and imaginative ways to give it all back!

I am playing too much, and I am not thinking enough about the spots where I am getting my money in.

I definitely have a tendency to always think positively about my position vis-a-vis the board and my opponent! I am far too quick to assign an inferior hand to the villain, or put him on a bare bluff.

I thought that DodgyKen's blog yesterday was illuminating where he had a bunch of situations where he had a decent 2-pair hand, ran into serious resistance and he folded each time.

If I am ever to become a competent poker player, I have got to be able to release hands more often in situations like this!

Hand 1 : http://www.pokerhand.org/?1377714

Villain plays 36/0 over only 11 hands.

Hand 2 : http://www.pokerhand.org/?1377720

Villain plays 48/6. Repeat after me, "do not go broke on one-pair hands!!!"

Hand 3 : http://www.pokerhand.org/?1377746

Villain plays 43/31. Here is one that I did get away from, but I wasn't thrilled with the hand!

There are plenty more where those three came from. I suppose that I should be glad that I ended up even, after a couple of days where I feel like I played like an idiot for a good chunk of the time.

At this rate, I will need at least another month at $50NL, before I even think of taking a shot at $100NL. On a positive note, I am on target to clear more than $300 in rakeback this month!

2007-08-14T08:02:00.000+01:00

Wild Swings, You Make My Heart Palpitate ...!

648 hands so far this week, has seen me run into pocket Aces three times in one insane 5 minute spell, blow through 2 buyins with hands I should have gotten away from, get cooler'd by idiots calling with rubbish and getting rewarded etc etc. However, I have also picked up some decent hands and so I am only down half a buyin (and plus a few grey hairs!) through all this insanity.

I have 3 hands to post on my new Big Hands blog, two of which are the aforementioned stack-dust-offs, which I am not proud of!

A couple of times yesterday, I was pushed to the brink of insanity when I saw the trash that these idiots have been calling with, only to get rewarded when they made a hand on the river. At these times I desperately try to assume an air of zen-like calm and remind myself of Howard Lederer's advice, which is to say to myself, "Ah yes, calls like that are the reason why I am playing here!"

It isn't easy though...!

2007-08-13T15:36:00.000+01:00

Dedicated Follower Of Fashion...!

Never being one to see a bandwagon passing, without jumping on it, I have followed DodgyKen/noeledge/CTS etc. in starting a new blog where I will analyse every hand that I play that results in a swing of at least +/-65BB.

Click on the link to the right, should you care to view my incoherent ramblings!

2007-08-12T23:49:00.000+01:00

Weekly Report - Sunday 12th August 2007

NL ($0.50) - 2,642 hands - VPIP 18.28 - PFR 14.69 - Won $338.02 - BB/100 12.79

Monthly Totals 5,053 hands - VPIP 18.40 - PFR 14.64 - Won $252.42 - BB/100 5.00

A very satisfactory week, particularly as I had a bit if a wobble early on, and blew off a couple of buy-ins playing TT and JJ far too forcibly, hence my new rules for these tricky hands.

I feel like I have a good feel now for $50NL. I am now comfortable playing two tables and taking notes on every significant hand that gets shown-down on both tables.

I am very hopeful that I will be ready to take a shot at $100NL by the start of September.

2007-08-10T08:36:00.000+01:00

The Sun is Shining!

And I am feeling much more positive, having snuck in a crafty little 120-hand early morning session today, where I won a solid 2 buy-ins.

It is amazing how clearly one can think about the game, when things are running according to plan. (The concepts below are not new to me, or at all groundbreaking, but as I was walking to my office this morning, they really took shape in tremendous clarity).

It struck me that a huge part of my success or failure whilst playing poker depends upon getting well paid-off when I have a big hand. The whole reason that we strive to find sufficient spots to PFR around 20% of the hands we are dealt, is to disguise the spots where we have monster hands, and so increase the likelihood that we do get paid.

As usual today, I was splashing around, getting involved in a few pots, "giving some action", and generally running at about even, until I picked up the following hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1353883

Now, I know! This hand could not possibly have worked out any better. My slightly tricky call preflop was rewarded with the perfect flop. I had the luxury of being able to check the flop without fearing the flush draw, and the villain's flush presumably completed on the river, so allowing me to get it all in.

As this hand played out, I probably could have played it almost any way postflop, and got paid. However, I had been putting this guy to the test with a few aggressive plays, and so my apparent passive line on this hand, combined with what could have appeared to be a weak lead on the river sucked him in perfectly.

The point to this ramble, is that I think that if one can just show a break-even result on all the image-building splashing around, then that is an absolutely fine result. Most 200-300 hand sessions will likely have one or two big hands that will define the results for the session, hopefully in your favour. Sure, there will be times when you only have the 2nd best hand, your monster draw doesn't quite get there, or you suffer a horrible beat.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be clear about my new "unbreakable" rules for JJ and TT.

I will always open for a raise in any position (as I do with any PP).
If I am 3bet, I will fold. (Unless the 3bet is a min-raise and the villain is deep-stacked, in which case I will call)
Facing a raise, I will coldcall for set value, only if the raiser has at least 10x the size of the raise behind.
Against decent players, I will 3bet, particularly if the villain is OTB/CO and I suspect he may be stealing.
If I am 4bet, I will ALWAYS FOLD!

----------------------------------------------------------------

PS : Marc(Disconnected); In a feeble search for a humour, I butchered Albert King's Born Under a Bad Sign - "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all".

2007-08-09T08:26:00.000+01:00

Sometimes I wonder ...

...whether I have learned anything about NL at all!

I am still treading water for August, up a miserable half a buy-in over 4,300 hands.

A few days ago, I said something to effect that I would get away from hands like TT and JJ 98 times out of 100, when I ran into serious and sustained resistance preflop. Well, I can now report that that was 100% prime bullshit I was spouting right there!

Last night I dusted off full stacks twice, once with TT, and again with JJ. You know that you are in trouble, when you get it all-in and you are praying that the villain flips over AK, rather than the monster over-pair that you know he really has!

I have a new goal to add to my others for August.

Do not overplay TT or JJ preflop! These hands may be 3bet in certain favourable spots, but must be pitched when they run into a 4bet, or when they have been opened and run into a 3bet.

If I had been playing to this rule yesterday, I would be at least 2 buy-ins better off.

On a more positive note, the rakeback is rolling in! I have so far cleared over $100 this month.

To badly paraphrase the "Velvet Bulldozer", the late, great Albert King, "If it wasn't for rakeback, I wouldn't be making no money at all!"

2007-08-07T14:37:00.000+01:00

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

I played about another 1k hands over the past two days, and I am now up a buy-in at $50NL for the month.

Three hands that I want to highlight.

Hand 1 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1343033

This hand is my biggest winning pot online to date! (I have won a couple of bigger pots live). Most annoyingly, the Prima software didn't show me what the villain had in defeat, maybe something like AJd for top/top and the nut flush draw?

Hand 2 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1343044

Villain plays 19/14 with an AF of only 1.14. How do you like villain's C/R on the flop? He has seen me open from UTG, so he should be giving me credit for some kind of hand. I thought about 4Betting the flop, but I figured that a big part of his range must be AA, KK, JJ, 33 and AK. I couldn't see him making that play with too much that I was beating here. Having said the above, I clearly should have slowed down and just called him down, although he was clearly going to ship it in on the river, as it turned out. When I saw what he had, I was outraged at his flop play!

Hand 3 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1343058

This hand was dealt at my other table, about 30 seconds after hand two (above) completed. I was still reeling from that experience, and so I tilt-pushed, which I am extremely ashamed of. I am certain that I pitch this hand 98 times out of 100. (Villain plays 33/11, not that I can honestly say that I even looked at his stats, before I insta-pushed!)

In summary, I am more or less treading water for the month, earning more in rakeback that I am in winning so far! I do feel comfortable at $50NL anyway.

2007-08-05T07:53:00.000+01:00

Weekly Report - Sunday 5th August 2007

NL ($0.50) - 2,898 hands - VPIP 18.88 - PFR 14.98 - Won $52.77 - BB/100 1.82

Weekly Totals 2,898 hands - VPIP 18.88 - PFR 14.98 - Won $52.77 - BB/100 1.82

Monthly Totals 2,486 hands - VPIP 18.62 - PFR 14.68 - Lost $10.68

It has been a tough week! Had I not gone on a bit of a tear over the last 150 hands and won two and a half buy-ins, I would be staring at a significant loss on the week. I have made a few bad decisions along the way, but I have also run into some vicious spots (like losing a buy-in and a half yesterday with set-over-set).

I am still playing with confidence, and I am generally happy with my play. Yesterday, I decided to switch back to playing a single $50NL table for a while (rather than 2) so that I could concentrate on taking proper notes on the other players, particularly the other decent players, who I am sure will be around for a while, at this and future levels. (The rakeback deal is so sweet at Battlefield, that I am sure that quite a lot of these guys are locked in for the long-haul on Prima, like I am.)

When I get time this week, I will write a summary of my approach to note taking, so that I can get some pointers on how to do this better.

2007-08-04T18:29:00.000+01:00

Suicide Kings!

I have done a bit better during my 2nd thousand hands of August, and I am now down just under half a buy-in.

However, the pocket kings nightmare continues! I have now been dealt KK 16 times in 2,100 hands, which is almost twice as often as is statistically likely, and I am showing a splendid overall loss of $59 with the hand.

Dodgyken suggested that I post a few of the hands, so here goes with the three biggest KK train-wrecks so far this month, in reverse order :

Hand 1 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1333444

Villain plays a splendid 66/0 game! I guess I should have been able to pitch this on the river, but villain priced the bet just low enough to tease a crying call out of me.

Hand 2 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1333453

Here villain plays a slightly better game, at 59/20! Are you happy with my lead on the flop? I figure that half-pot is about right, to be consistent with my holding AK or maybe AQ. I hate to just check here, conceding the initiative tamely to my opponent.

Hand 3 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1333648

The piece de resistance! Villain here is a decent player, at 16/16. What do you make of his min-3bet? I put his likely range on TT to AA, plus AK and perhaps AQ. When he leads the flop, I am happy enough. When he comes over the top on the turn, I am still feel I am ahead, as it was tough to put him on a 3, or 88.

One footnote. Today is a sad day. I have just finished reading the final Harry Potter book! I have read them all, of course, and it seems like I can relate a good part of the last decade to where and when I was reading these wonderful stories. On the bright-side; I now have more time to devote to reading some of the many poker books that I have stockpiled, that are either unread, half-read, or not at all well-understood, so need re-reading!

2007-08-03T15:18:00.000+01:00

Poor start to August

I have made an inauspicious start to August, losing just under 2 buy-ins at $50NL over 1,100 in the past couple of days.

No major crisis. I have run into a few maniacs who got lucky on the big hands when the money went in, plus I can't seem to win with either Aces or Kings, except for when the table folds around to my open raise! (I have had KK 8 times in 1100 hands, for a loss of $30, comprising six small wins and two big losses!)

I am running at 17/13 which is a bit tighter than I would ideally like to be, but I think that this is mainly down to the fact that I have been tightening up whilst waiting for a nice spot to punish the maniacs.

I should be able to get a couple of thousand hands in over the weekend, so I hope to be heading in the right direction come Monday.

2007-08-01T15:38:00.000+01:00

Objectives for August

I played one further short session on July 31st, although I played on my desktop PC, and therefore without the support of PT. I played two tables of $50NL for just over an hour, to complete my bonus at PokerRoom. I won just under $50, so I ended July winning about $550, which I am absolutely thrilled with!

I feel like my game has progressed a long way in July, so it is time to set some goals for August :

Increase my BR by $1000 (including rakeback). (I anticipate earning around $250 in RB in 10k hands of $50NL in August)
Play 10k hands
Post lots of suited connector hands on my blog (My PT analysis, prompted by Dodgyken's link last week indicated that I am losing money on suited connectors!)
Watch 3 CR videos per week, and take notes on key points raised
Focus on making better player notes - colour coding alone is not enough!

If I can achieve the above, I will be bankrolled to take a shot at $100NL by September 1st.

Good luck to all for August!

2007-07-29T07:30:00.000+01:00

Higher Stakes means Bigger Swings!

I took the decision to kick it up to $50NL yesterday morning, and after a pretty wild day, I am glad that I did.

I started out by digging myself into a 2 buy-in hole pretty quickly, but I ended up the day up slightly over 2 buy-in's.

I am very pleased to say that I saw very little in the 700 hands that I played yesterday at $50NL that caused me to be afraid at this level. The players are just as bad, they still play too many hands, they still limp all the time, they still try to run crazy bluffs, and they still pay me off!

A couple of hands to illustrate the point.

Hand 1 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1311257

Villain plays 23/8 over 77 hands. Here, I don't believe the villain has a flush. He could have 2 pair or a set, but he insta-pushed the river, and I just didn't believe him.

Hand 2 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1311265

Rinel plays 48/24, thelastgame plays 77/0(!). See if you can guess what Rinel is holding, to justify his overpush?

2007-07-29T06:49:00.001+01:00

Weekly Report - Sunday 29th July 2007

NL ($0.50) - 699 hands - VPIP 20.46 - PFR 17.02 - Won $119.19 - BB/100 17.05
NL ($0.25) - 3,091 hands - VPIP 19.57 - PFR 15.6 - Won $15.69 - BB/100 8.01
NL ($0.20) - 766 hands - VPIP 20.89 - PFR 17.36 - Won $61.99 - BB/100 20.23

Weekly Totals 4.556 hands - VPIP 19.93 - PFR 16.18 - Won $305.03

Monthly Totals 12,521 hands - VPIP 20.29 - PFR 15.95 - Won $438.13

Another very satisfactory week! I made a successful foray into the world of $50NL, which will hopefully be my game of choice now on (for a while). I certainly ran extremely well at times this week.

Compared to last week, I managed to add a whole percentage point to my PFR stat whilst keeping the VPIP almost identical, which I am pleased with. I know that I will need to open up my game several more percentage points on both of these stats in due course, but that can certainly wait until I have a few more tens of thousands of (hopefully winning!) hands under my belt.

Here's my graph for the week:

2007-07-27T06:43:00.000+01:00

What are the odds against that happening...?!

Another solid winning day at $25NL with a profit of $68 from about 750 hands.

Interspersed within the day were two more mind-numbing one-outer river situations. The score for the week so far, is hero 1 : villains 2.

I am guessing that throughout my poker career, I will be on the wrong end of one-outer's far more often than I will benefit from them, by virtue of the fact that I will be the one with the strong hand, playing it for maximum value, most of the time.

Still, these situations are always pretty stunning.

Hand 1 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1305209

Flshman1 was playing 18/9 and S.Manconi was a superfish playing 60/7. With a raise and a (fishy) coldcall in front of me, I figured that my tens were about 50/50 to be the best hand at that point, but I decided to just call and evaluate on the flop.

My check/call on the flop was risky, with two hearts on the flop, but I wanted to keep both villains in the hand, until they were pot committed.

The 7c on the turn figured to be a good card for my hand, and with a raise and a reraise following my check, I figured that I had trapped them pretty good, and so I put in a pot sized reraise.

Can't fault the villain for calling all-in as he had turned his set. I loved the 7 on the river, as it completed my boat, but it also completed his quads!

Hand 2 :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1305573

Villain (weakish 31/10) min-raises from the button. Big mistake(!) as this prices me in to call from the BB with J8s. I flop trips and check to the pre-flop raiser who bets as expected (why wouldn't he; he flopped a boat!) and I called, thinking that I had him in bad shape!

The turn comes the 7s which was a moderately threatening card, as it completed an unlikely str8 for a T8 hand, and also put a spade draw on board. I wake up check raising here, and I am reraised all-in!

At this point, I figure that the villain had a likely overpair, or a possible flush draw with AK or AQ spades . I almost beat him into the pot with my call (if that is possible online!) and I am delighted to see the case Jack on the river to seal the deal.

I am thrilled/horrified to see that I was way behind at every point until the end!

2007-07-26T08:03:00.000+01:00

Ouch! The bruises ...!

I am running very well this week, and I have the bruises to show from where the deck kept hitting me!

I have won just over $100 in the past three days. Yesterday, I played just under 1k hands at $20NL and $25NL, and I won $75.

I have signed up for a sweet rakeback deal at Battlefield Poker (Prima skin) (Thanks for the tip, Pkr_Brat!), so I think that they will see the majority of my play from now on. For those that are interested, I earned $6.04 in rakeback for 766 hands of $20NL. There are a few niggly things that annoy me about the Prima software (notably the process of reloading up to a full buy-in whilst you are at the table) but I love the pace of play there. I am sure that they deal considerably more hands-per-hour-per-table than any other site.

I am currently reading several books at the same time, which is normal for me! Whilst trying to find time to read the final Harry Potter book, I am also reading Online Ace by Scott Fischman. This is a pretty well-written book, although it has a major focus on SnG's which are not (currently) my thing. One tip that I internalised from yesterday, was where Scott was talking about the fact that you really should be bluffing hardly at all at low levels (I know that this is Standard advice). The interesting part for me, was that he said that you will be making a good percentage of your money by picking off other people's bluffs, especially if you setup your play to present then with an invitation to bluff. (Checking the river to them, being an obvious example).

So a few hands from the past couple of days, focusing on pocket 7's and pocket 8's, which are hands that I never really feel comfortable with:

Hand 1.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1301893

Nice check on the turn by the villain (20/12), set me up to make a weak call on the river. I probably should have given him credit for a 6 here, and "pitched it"! Damn-you, pocket 8's! I should have listened to Seebok! lol

------------------------------------------------------

Hand 2.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1301919

Here the villain (52/15) gets lucky with the freecard that I presented him with on the turn. Doh!
It is easy to say in the cold light of morning that I should have fired another barrel, but would you have done so?

------------------------------------------------------
Hand 3.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1301928

Here I raised the flop to find out where I was at, and I discovered that the aggro villain (58/16) liked his had quite a bit!

-------------------------------------------------------
Hand 4.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1301931

Here the villain obviously has a pocket pair, but is it better than my 7's?? I am quite surprised that I made this call, actually! Villain played 100/55 for the 11 hands that he survived, before I felted him!

2007-07-24T07:20:00.000+01:00

Rollercoaster Session, ends up more of less even

Pretty wild session on PokerRoom last night (where I play as gunnerrob)!

I won and lost some huge pots (for $25NL!), highlighted by this one:

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1294369

The ultimate BB Special! Villain was a typical fish playing 31/0, so no reads to be had there, then.

If he had held pocket 8's or pocket 10's for the better boat, he would surely have raised the turn? Nice one-outer Sir!

----------------------------------------------------

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1294386

This hand I am not proud of! I am better than this! Villain was playing 59/19 and had already come over the top light a couple of times. I very rarely push or call all-in with flush draws.

----------------------------------------------------

3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1294392

However revenge was extracted in the sweetest of fashion from the Villain in hand 2! It is so rare that you get a spot like this!

2007-07-23T13:53:00.000+01:00

Very Good Couple of Sessions!

Since posting my weekly report yesterday morning, I have booked a couple of very good sessions, posting about another $100 in profit at $25NL on PokerRoom.

I downloaded Poker Grapher yesterday, and I have just figured out how to get it working, so here goes ...

I will have a chance to play quite a bit over the next few days, so I will carry on at $25NL until the end of July, and then take a shot at moving up to $50NL on August 1st.

I am amazed at how much more of a feel for the NL game I have now than I had at this time last month!

2007-07-22T08:49:00.000+01:00

Weekly Report - Sunday 22nd July 2007

NL ($0.25) - 532 hands - VPIP 18.98 - PFR 15.6 - Won $14.65 - BB/100 5.51
NL ($0.20) - 2,217 hands - VPIP 20.3 - PFR 15.07 - Won $68.05 - BB/100 7.67

Weekly Totals 2,749 hands - VPIP 20.04 - PFR 15.17 - Won $82.70

Monthly Totals 7,965 hands - VPIP 20.49 - PFR 15.82 - Won $133.10

Really very satisfactory numbers!

I have also cleared a $100 bonus, and I am well on my way to clearing another $50 bonus.

2007-07-22T08:21:00.001+01:00

Cardrunners saves my poker career!

Let's start this post with a confession!

Since the start of 2007, my online game has (or more accurately, had) collapsed in a heap. From when I started playing in May 2005, until the end of 2006, I had been a consistent winner at Limit Holdem at low stakes. I was consistently winning a few hundred dollars a month, and coming close to doubling that figure by working off deposit and reload bonuses.

However, the change in the law in the USA, has wiped out the vast majority of clueless American limit holdem players online. These guys were my bread-and-butter, and now they are gone.

So for the first six months of 2007, I had been dabbling with the still-numerous NL games online, with fairly miserable results. I had lost money consistently, month over month, and I was becoming a bit despondant.

My trip to Vegas for the WSOP 2007 was my first attempt at playing live NL, and I must confess that I was pretty short of confidence heading into the trip. Therefore, I was absolutely thrilled to find that I was a pretty solid favourite in these extremely soft games.

Whilst in Vegas, I read and heard several references to both Cardrunners and PokerXFactor. These two competing web-based video poker schools, have both had some very good press over the past year.

I returned from Vegas with a conviction to sign-up to one of these two services to really get my online NL game into shape.

A little more research led to my choosing Cardrunners as my saviour. I signed up on July 2nd, and I have been absolutely thrilled at the results!

Cardrunners posts a training video every day except Sundays, and the focus is heavily on 6max NL games, which are by far the most popular games these days.

I have been trying to discipline myself to watch at least one video every day, as well as playing for a couple of hours at a minimum.

I have been amazed at just how little I understood about how to play NL! I was playing far too loose, making far too many crazy moves, was far too unwilling to lay down big starting hands, was far too willing to go broke with one-pair hands, etc etc.

I am now a consistent winning player at micro-stakes, and I confidently expect to be documenting my progress as a winning NL player moving up through the limits in this blog over the coming months.

2007-07-22T07:26:00.001+01:00

WSOP 2007 Report

So, my trip to Vegas for the WSOP came and went, and I didn't get my act together to post a single blog entry!

My trip was extremely enjoyable, and almost extremely successful.

I stayed for free at the Candlewood Suites, which was absolutely ideal for my needs. I will certainly stay there, or somewhere similar again.

At the tables, I played exclusively 1/2 NL, and I won money every single day or my trip, for a total profit of just under $1,300 for my six day trip. I played 5 sessions at MGM, but also at Mandalay Bay, Tropicana, Excalibur, Monte Carlo, Planet Hollywood, Ballys, Harrahs, Luxor, Flamingo and Golden Nugget.

I found the games to be consistently soft at every casino. I played mainly tight, made a few dumb moves, and never looked like losing!

The weather was consistently between 110 and 115 degrees every day, which was pretty overwhelming!

I came and went entirely as I pleased, ate lots of crappy food at odd hours of the day, and had an absolutely brilliant trip!

2007-04-28T16:00:00.000+01:00

Countdown to WSOP 2007!

In exactly eight weeks time, I will be in Vegas for the 2007 World Series Of Poker.

My flights and accommodation are booked. This time I have opted to stay at the Candlewood Suites to the East of the Strip. This has multiple advantages compared to the IP, where I stayed last year. It has free WiFi, so I won't waste at least an hour per day heading to the Starbucks on Tropicana to update my blog. It is right on the intersection of Paradise and Flamingo, which is a far more convenient location for zipping from casino to casino, without having to sit in the 24 hr traffic jam on the strip itself. Best of all, I am staying for 6 nights for free with my Priority Club Points!

This year, I have decided to play in the $1,500 buy-in Mixed Holdem Event of the WSOP on Sunday 24th June. Mixed Holdem alternates between 30 minute session of first Limit, followed by No-Limit at each blind level. The 24th is also the day that the $50k HORSE Event begins, which is the highest buy-in event in world poker. This will mean that the very top stars will not be playing in my event, but it will be fun to be playing in the same room as the HORSE Event, with all of the media circus that will go with it.

On the poker front, I am playing mainly NL these days. I had a period playing sit'n'go's for a while, and these days I am mainly multi-tabling 50c/$1 NL full ring games, with a very tight style, which seems to be solidly profitable, albeit with wild swings.

2007-01-01T09:53:00.000Z

Happy New Year to all!

Since I last posted to this blog, I have changed my game a couple of times online.

Following the WSOP, I switched to playing short-handed limit, either 5 or 6 handed. I started out at .5/$1, and then moved up to $1/$2. Over a period of around 4 months I played around 4k hands/month (less than I was playing earlier in the year, as my new job prevents me playing so much in the mornings). I enjoyed these games more than full-ring limit, but I was only a marginal winner over this period. The swings are particularly vicious in short-handed play!

Then, in the autumn, the leader of the free World(!), George Dubya, decided to forget the lessons learned from the last failed attempt at prohibition in the USA, and attempted to ban online poker!

As all of the poker sites are off-shore companies, they couldn't actually target the sites themselves, so they decided to go after the banks instead, making it illegal for US banks to conduct transactions with poker sites. This was achieved by scandalously attaching an amendment to a completely unrelated bill covering ports security.

This led to the publicly listed poker sites like 888.com and Party Gaming, taking the safety-first approach of banning US players, whilst the privately-held companies including FullTilt and PokerStars decided that the law didn't apply to them, and carried on as normal.

The net result is that traffic at all poker sites is down at least 50% compared to 3 months ago, more at the smaller sites. Fewer players means fewer games to choose from, and more worringly, fewer weak new players coming to the game for the first time, and losing their money.

This had a particularly dramatic effect on the Limit Holdem games, which is a variant played almost exclusively in the USA. Suddenly, there were far fewer Limit games, with those left being populated mainly by much better players. My win rate in these games suddenly plummeted.

It was time for a change of focus. In november, I quit Limit and began to play Pot Limit, and then eventually NL. (I actually prefer Pot Limit, which arguably requires more skill, but again, the games are scarce in off-peak hours)

So far, so good. I still have a lot to learn about NL, but I posted a solid win in December, and my game has improved dramatically over the past few weeks.

I may even play in a NL event at the WSOP in June, rather than Limit as I played last year. I won't decide until the schedule is published, which should be any day now.

Only 5 months to go until WSOP 2007! I can't wait!

2006-07-19T08:27:00.000+01:00

Reflections

On Monday night, I went to see "Love", the brand new Beatles Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage. It was a truly spectacular production, right up to the point where the incredibly complex mechanical stage broke down just under an hour into the 90 minute show! After hanging around for 20 minutes or so, while they tried to fix it and thanked us for our patience several times, the show was eventually cancelled.

This was actually a pretty satisfactory result, as I saw 2/3 of the show, and got my $150 back!

After queuing for my refund, I decided to play at the Mirage, which prior to the poker boom of 3 years ago, was the only significant poker room in Vegas.

I joined a 3/6 game and played for a couple of hours, before concluding that I had no edge against this bunch of off-duty dealers and locals. I cashed out with a small loss to end my poker play for this trip.

Net result for the week saw me win just enough to cover my hotel bill for the trip, which I am pretty satisfied with.

Two key lessons learned on this trip.

1. If you don't like the look and feel of the table you are at (ie if you can't identify the fish that you are targeting), cash out and move on.

2. There is a much greater potential for maximising my advantage in skill level against poor players at No Limit, rather than at Limit tables. Far greater win rates per hour are possible at NL.

I will certainly now focus on playing NL cash games online. I have quite a bit of reading to do to bring my NL play up to the standard of my Limit play, but I believe that I already know enough to be successful at the low buy-in tables (based upon my recent success at NL sit'n'gos online).

This was a extremely enjoyable and reasonably successful trip to Vegas.

Now, back to the real World...!

2006-07-11T01:10:00.000+01:00

Football disgraces itself, again!

What is it about the World’s top footballers that seems to encourage them to believe that they can behave with total disregard for common standards of decency and the laws of the game?

Yesterday, Zinedine Zidane, arguably the finest player of his generation, managed to ensure that his memory will be forever tarnished in the eyes of football fans worldwide, by getting himself sent off for a bizarre head-butt in extra time of the World Cup Final.

This one act of madness will overshadow the memories that we all have of the genius that claimed two World Player of the Year titles, as well as scoring arguably the finest big-match goal of all time, in the Champions League Final for Real Madrid a few years back.

But then we might have known that this would happen.

Maradonna, who many people regard as the greatest player of all time, finished his career as a cocaine-addled cheat. Wayne Rooney is already well on his way to being hated in the game as a short-fused psychopath. David Beckham has repeatedly got in trouble for petulant behaviour, even though he hasn’t got the balls to actually kick anybody.

Even our own beloved Thierry Henry will return from the World Cup with his reputation for fair play slightly tarnished. (Although I am convinced that his reaction to the foul by Spain’s Carlos Puyol was an act of well-timed revenge for the kicking that Henry took from the Spanish thug at the Champions League Final.)

Anyway, I for one am delighted that the World Cup fizzled out in controversy and with an anti-climactic Final. The tournament got exactly the champions that it deserved, in the deathly-boring Italians. Thank goodness that the biggest non-event in World sport is now over for another four years.

On the poker front, my education at the table progressed on Sunday, and it didn’t cost me any money to learn a very important lesson, which is always good news.

It has finally sunk in that there are two ways to win money at poker. Either you can sit at any given table and wait for a run of good cards which you then turn into a profitable session, (assuming that you play the given game well enough to capitalise on your good hands). Alternatively, you can carefully select games where you hold a clear advantage in ability over at least some of the other players at the table, in which case you don’t need the best cards to win, you just need to pick the right moment to make the moves that ensure your success. (Actually, there is a third way to make money, which is to play loosely with poor cards and hope to get lucky. This works for some of the people, some of the time, but is a certain route to going broke in the long term.)

The above theory is not rocket science, but it has taken until this poker marathon for me to finally grasp the importance of good table selection.

The problem with putting this theory into practise is that you typically don’t get to choose your table in a casino. You add you name to a waiting list when you arrive at the game, and when your name reaches the top of the list, you are directed to the next available seat.

Prior to the last couple of days, I have always had in my mind a preset number of hours that I have intended to play, and I have always remained in my allocated seat for that period of time, and let the success or failure of the session be at least partly determined by the run of hands that I am dealt.

(This is actually not THAT bad a strategy. I am now a good enough player that I am extremely likely to emerge as a long term winner in this situation, as I do, as a rule, take good advantage of the decent cards when they arrive. However, I was at the mercy of the dreaded theory of variance, which means that there is always the potential that I will experience a much worse run of cards than average, that will ensure that any given session can turn out to be a losing one. Sometimes a big losing one.)

So, on Sunday, I spent the day sitting down for brief periods in a number of different games, none of which I liked the look of. So each time, I exercised my right to stand up, cash out, and move on. The difference in the quality of player in the Luxor NL game compared to the previous couple of days was astounding. I guess that all the drunken weekend crowd had left.

I actually finished the day $1 down overall, from four separate sessions totalling 5 hours, but I did get comped for the buffet at the Wynn, which is worth $35 and was absolutely exquisite!

On Monday morning, I had my usual swim and then headed to the Peppermill restaurant for breakfast, which is something of a Vegas institution. After this, I drove to the Gamblers General Store and bought a few odds and ends including Sklansky’s new NL book.

I then decided to try out the poker room at Treasure Island, and I am very glad that I did!

I sat in a short-handed 2/4 game and began to accumulate chips quite nicely. Soon the game filled up with an assortment of pretty weak players and I enjoyed my most profitable ever 2/4 session, cashing out after 2 hours with a healthy 3 figure win. As I was cashing out, I enquired about the comp balance on my MGM card, and I was kindly given a comp to the TI Buffet. This was not quite as spectacular as the Wynn buffet from the previous evening, but I must say that it was fantastic value at $16 for lunch. Of the all the buffets that I have seen recently in Vegas (Orleans, IP, Bellagio, Wynn, TI), this one is certainly the best value for money.

As this is my last night in Vegas on this trip, I decided to spend my winning from today on a ticket to see the brand new Beatles Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage this evening, which opened last week to rave reviews.

Just time for a couple more poker sessions, before I head home tomorrow afternoon.

2006-07-09T18:32:00.000+01:00

No Limit is the Future!

I headed downtown to Binion’s and bought into a 2/4 game. The contrast between the current home of the WSOP, the Rio, and Binion’s where it all began, could not be more stark.

Binion’s has a dark and dingy pool-hall feel to it. There are about 25 poker tables occupying the back part of the casino, the centrepiece of which is the “Final Table” with a modest rail around it. It is difficult to imagine that this is the poker table where every WSOP Champion has been crowned dating back to 1970.

I played for about 90 minutes and enjoyed a good run of cards and cashed out a decent win.

I decided to treat myself to a good steak, and so I rode the elevator up to the roof-top restaurant at Binion’s to eat in the steak house. This was the traditional location for the celebration dinner at the conclusion of the WSOP Main Event each year, and it is an excellent restaurant with outstanding views and very good service.

I returned to the IP and got my head down for a few hours. I actually slept for a bit longer than I intended and woke up at about 1.30am and decided to walk over to the Bellagio, home of the World’s highest stakes poker games (and some 4/8 games as well!)

In the Big Game in Bobby’s room where they usual play a $4000/8000 mixed game, were Gus Hansen, Phil Laak and Freddy Deeb, as well as 4 or 5 guys that I didn’t recognise.

I played 3 hours of 4/8, and recovered from a bad start to book a modest win, to round out by far my best day of the trip so far, in terms of profit.

On Saturday morning, I had a quick swim and then drove over to World’s largest Hotel, the MGM Grand.

I sat at a 2/4 game which was slow and uninspiring. After an hour, I cashed out almost exactly level, before I died of boredom.

I decided to head back across to the Luxor to take another shot at the $50 No Limit game.

I got there just as they were opening a new table, which is perfect, as everyone starts out with $50, which means that nobody has a large stack with which to bully the table.

The play was just as weak as the previous day, and I quickly ran my $50 up to $200 before running into pocket aces and giving some back. I cashed out another nice win after two hours, with the firm intention of returning to this game later that evening.

I returned to the IP for my usual evening nap until I was awoken at 9.30pm by some idiot phoning my room on a wrong number. This turned out to be serendipitous, as I was in a very deep sleep and I might well have slept through and not got out for any late night poker.

I drove back down the Strip to the Luxor in a bit of daze to get back in action.

I am quickly becoming a No Limit convert, as tormenting the fish at the Luxor is quite addictive!

For the second time in a day, they opened a new table as soon as I arrived, so I got to sit with a table of equal stacks. I picked some good spots to bully the table and also had some nice hands held up, with the net result that I cashed out another 3 figure win in the space of 2.5 hours.

I have time on this trip for another 5 or 6 poker sessions. The way that I have run in my first 3 NL sessions at the Luxor, I would be a fool to play anywhere else.

I know that the horrible standard of play at the Luxor is not really representative of live small-stakes NL poker, but I feel that my NL game is improving significantly anyway.

I will give some serious thought to switching to NL online when I get home.

2006-07-08T00:28:00.000+01:00

No Limit – Egyptian Style

After sulking briefly after crashing out of the WSOP, I had my usual early evening siesta and then headed to the Venetian for the 3rd night running.

This was a very frustrating session where I couldn’t find a flop, and when I did, my hands just wouldn’t hold up. The standard was generally pretty decent at the 3/6 game, with the exception of one elderly guy who was donating generously to everyone except me!

The only consolation from a disappointing losing session was another excellent comped meal at the Grand Lux Café, this time BBQ Chicken Pizza. Delicious!

Friday morning I decided that I had better expose myself to the sun for the 1st time on this trip, on which I have been keeping mainly nocturnal hours. I hit the pool at the IP at 8.30am for a 30 minute swim and about 15 mins on the sunbed. It must already have been 90 degrees, and was very pleasant. I must try and do this each morning for the remainder of the trip so that I return with at least something of a tan!

I then made a quick trip to Toys R Us to get Anthony some Power Rangers Mystic Force toys, which won’t hit the shops in the UK until after Christmas. (Anyone who doesn’t have a 4 year old boy, won’t understand the significance of this!)

I had read before I came out to Vegas that the No Limit Holdem game at the Luxor has a reputation for attracting very weak and inexperienced players, because the buy-in for the game is only $50, which is half of what it is anywhere else in town.

Sure enough, there were several horrible players in the game, as well as several sharks circling. Having identified one from the other quite quickly, I built up my $50 to over $250, before losing a couple of close pots, and cashing out for a nice 3 figure win.

I will certainly return to this game one evening over the next couple of days, to see how bad the weekend crowd play!

After hitting Starbucks to post this blog update and check out the WSOP results, I am going to make a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of the WSOP, Binion’s, in downtown Las Vegas.

I rather fancy playing a low buyin no limit tournament if there is one available.

I am still having fun!!!

2006-07-07T01:46:00.000+01:00

Not a bad debut, but I will do better next year!

I busted out of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Event at the 2006 World Series of Poker about 30 minutes ago.

As best that I could tell, I finished in about 160th position out of 701 entrants. The turnout was a little lower than I expected, as there was also a $5,000 Omaha event starting today. The first prize is about $350k and I needed to make seventieth place to finish in the money.

The event was packed with Pro's, although the only one that I recognised on my table was Aaron Bartley, who was a lot of fun to play with.

Pro players that I laster longer than included, Roland De Wolfe, Alan Cunningham, Kathy Liebert, Kenna James, Greg Mueller and TJ Cloutier!

I survived about 15 minutes into the 5th hour of play. Starting with $1,500 in chips, the highest that I got was to $3,200 after the first 2 hours, where I would have been amongst the chip leaders.

However, I took a couple of heavy beats shortly afterwards, and then never really got much going after that.

It was a fantastic experience, and I am now much more confident that I can hold my own in decent company at Limit Holdem.

I am looking forward to next year already!

Now I need to make some money from the tourists over the weekend...!

2006-07-06T16:25:00.000+01:00

Some wild swings, and some great food.

On Tuesday afternoon, I played at the Wynn. In a city that specialises in super-luxury hotels and resorts, the Wynn is the most exclusive and luxurious of them all. It opened in 2005 and is reputed to be running at a monumental weekly loss, despite close to 100% room occupancy.

The poker room at the Wynn is only half the size of the rooms at Venetian or Caesars, but it is beautifully decorated and has great furniture. The lowest limit game they spread at the Wynn is 4/8, and so this (in theory) is where all the fish are to be found. This worked out very well for me on Tuesday, and I spiked my first 3-figure win of the week. One elderly lady of non-specific European origin is worthy of a mention, as she was by far the worst poker player that I have ever seen at a live table. She played any two cards, repeatedly played out of turn, and frequently asked the dealer how many more cards were still to come! She won several large pots (fortunately not at my expense) where her crappy hands completed on the river, but she lost about $500 in a couple of hours.

After a brief siesta, I headed back to the Venetian, and booked my second 3-figure win of the day. The Venetian has a promotion where poker players receive $2/hour in food credits (comps), so I had earned enough for dinner at the noodle bar when I had finished, which was very good. I retired at about 4.30am

On Wednesday morning, I again awoke after far too little sleep, at about 7.30am.

I decided to return to the Wynn for another early session, to see whether the previous day was representative of the general standard of play there or not.

Unfortunately, I proceeded to have a nightmare session, where everything that could possibly go wrong did so. The lowlight of the session was where I was deal pocket aces, in a hand where three of us were all raising before the flop. The board came Jack-high with no straights or flushes possible and we all continued to fire at the pot. At showdown, it turns out that one of the other guys also had pocket aces, and the winner had pocket 10’s and flopped the set! This pot cost me about $75, and the session saw me give back almost exactly what I had won the previous day.

I headed back to the IP at lunchtime to get my room changed to one on the other side of the hotel, that wasn’t overlooking the rock stage(!) After watching the France v Portugal World Cup semi-final, I actually managed to have a proper sleep for the first time on this trip.

I awoke after 4 hours sleep feeling much better and I decided to hit the Venetian again. This hotel is rapidly becoming my favourite in Vegas. The place is truly spectacular, the poker room is the nicest I have played, and the staff are consistently attentive and courteous. (This last point is just a matter of degrees, as staff are always attentive and courteous in the US service industries. It just seems that the Venetian do everything just a little bit better than elsewhere).

They have just begun construction on an adjacent hotel tower that will add another 3,500 rooms that will make the Venetian the World’s largest hotel at almost 8,000 rooms. It will really be quite something when this is completed.

I played for just over 3 hours, and I saw my fortunes reversed from the morning nightmare. I saw some good hands and some nice flops, and I won 3 figures for the second night running at the Venetian.

I quit at 11.30pm and decided to spend my comps on dinner in the Grand Lux Café. I had the BBQ Pork sandwich, which doesn’t sound like much, but might just have been the most delicious thing that I have eaten this year! Everything about it, from the crusty bread, to the crispy fries, to the amazing marinated salad, to the accompanying peanut coleslaw was just exquisite. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, which I am sure helped the experience!

Do you get the idea that I like the Venetian?!

Oh, by the way, a quick weather report. The first couple of days that I was here, there was clear skies at the temperature was 110 degrees. The last two days have been heavily overcast and a much more pleasant 90 degrees.

Tomorrow, I am playing in the World Series of Poker. I can’t wait!!!!

2006-07-04T17:30:00.000+01:00

“So, I said to Phil Ivey…!”

No, really. I had a chat with Phil Ivey this morning!

This is 5-time WSOP Bracelet winner Phil Ivey, who many people rate as the best all-round poker player in the World. Phil Ivey, who is a permanent fixture in the Big Game at the Bellagio, playing with Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese and the others in the 4k/8k mixed game, where millions of dollars are often won and lost every night. The man who in February of this year, won $14M in a heads-up match with Texan banker Andy Beal, which was perhaps the biggest poker game of all-time. Tiger Woods look-alike Phil Ivey, who has the most intimidating poker-face stare imaginable.

I went over to the Rio to get a feel for the WSOP venue and to register for my event ahead of Thursday. As I queued up at the cashier in the Exhibition Hall to had over VCPoker’s $1,500, I spotted Phil Ivey at the window towards one end of the line of tellers. As luck would have it, as it was my turn at the head of the line, the window next to where Phil was standing became free.

The most famous face in all of poker was trying to convince the cashier that he had already been entered for today’s Omaha HiLo Split Event by his friend, but that he had mislaid his receipt! He then got on his mobile to his wife to have her search through his trouser pockets at the home. Eventually, to his embarrassment, he found the receipt in his back pocket and all was cleared up. I joked with him about his predicament and then wished him good luck. He was extremely charming about the episode.

As I was wandering around the main hall, I also spoke briefly to veteran TJ Cloutier who is an absolute giant of a man. (not surprising as he was a pro Canadian Footballer for 5 years).

The main hall has something like 220 poker tables spread across a cavernous room. All of the lights and staging area around the final TV-table takes up a good chunk of the room. In the network of corridors surrounding the main hall, there are hospitality suites for some of the larger online poker rooms, Pokerstars, UltimateBet, Paradise Poker, Doyle’s Room etc. (unfortunately, not including VCPoker!) It is a mammoth operation.

After this excitiement, I couldn’t wait to get into action myself, so I dumped my rental car back at the IP and walked across the street to the legendary Caesar’s Palace. The new poker room that Caesar’s opened 6 months ago is vast and somewhat isolated from the rest of the casino. I got seated in a 3/6 game after a 30 minute wait and I played for 3.5 hours, catching a couple of hands early to be up perhaps $100, but then I ran cold for a while and cashed out a small winner.

I then returned to the IP to try and grab some sleep, but this proved to be really difficult, as my room balcony overlooks a live music stage between Harrahs and the IP that has live rock bands playing from noon until 3am every day!

Having dozed for an hour or so, I headed over to Venetian to try out their new poker room. What a classy joint! This is to my mind the best poker room in Vegas. Luxurious, spacious, with very plentiful and very attentive staff. I think that I may have found my home for most of the next week.

I played for 5 hours and booked another small win, before heading home to bed via breakfast at the 24hr Dennys at 3am! Only in Vegas!

2006-07-03T16:36:00.000+01:00

Vegas at last!

Singularly uneventful flight with Air Canada from Heathrow via Calgary to Vegas.

Worth noting for future reference is that one is first obliged to clear Canadian customs and immigration and then clear US customs and immigration at the point of departure. Both of these lines were very short and very fast. Much, much easier than entering the USA via a direct flight from Europe.

Upon arrival at McCarron I collected my cheap and cheerful Dollar rental car and headed for the strip.

Check-in at the Imperial Palace (IP) was smooth and I decided to hit the IP poker table for a couple of hours, before the 8 hour time difference drove me to my bed. At this stage I had been up for 28 hours. I ended up playing for 4 hours and finshed very slightly down, without hitting any cards to speak of.

I then had a pretty good reuben sandwich at the 24 hour coffee shop and went to bed!

2006-07-01T20:15:00.000+01:00

England get what they deserve!

Well, that is the end of that. It is official. The Swedish moron has wasted the best group of individual players that England have had for over 30 years, by singularly failing to ever get them playing like anything that remotely resembled a team.

As 10-man England predictably crashed out on penalties again, I want to give an honourable mention to 3 players:

Wayne Rooney - spectacularly let England down when the pressure was on, as many of us suspected that you would
Frank Lampard - conducted a one man cows-arse/banjo experiment throughout the tournament, which he carried right to the bitter end in the penalty shoot-out. No bottle.
Paul Robinson - kept goal like a pub footballer from start to finish. Never looked like saving a penalty. What was he doing for the Portuguese 4th kick?????

It's a good job that I don't care about International football, or I would be rather depressed this evening!

As soon as the game finished I popped out to grab a Chinese takeaway, and witnessed the mass-exodus of the bandwagon-jumpers from the pubs in the High St. As the young lads and their girlfriends, all dressed in England shirts, trudged home with faces like kites, it was as much as I could do to avoid bursting out laughing.

I bet most of these imbeciles don't even realise that the World Series of Poker is taking place as they cry into their pints!

I am off to Vegas tomorrow lunchtime!

I very much doubt if I will even bother to watch the World Cup semifinals or the final now, as they kick off at around noon in Vegas, which will be prime sleeping time for me.

2006-06-29T10:34:00.000+01:00

Almost There!

In less than 100 hours from now, I will be in action at the poker tables in Vegas.

Today is my last day at the Office in Swindon. When I return from Vegas, I will be taking up my new position in Central London. There is a great deal to be said for taking a holiday between jobs, particularly one as much anticipated as this trip to Vegas! I can completely unwind and clear my mind of all things work related, returning in 2 weeks time refreshed and ready for a new challenge!

I am also looking forward to escaping to the only country on earth that isn't totaly obsessed with the World Cup! Sure, I will take a passing interest in the semi-finals and final whilst I am in Vegas, but it will be a pleasure to escape from the overwhelming media hype.

My predictions for the remainder of the tournament are as follows:

England beat Portugal
France beat Brazil
Germany beat Argentina (somehow!)
Italy beat Ukraine

France beat England (again)
Germany beat Italy

Germany beat France in the Final

Not that I particularly care what happens or who wins. Roll on the end of the World Cup and the start of the proper football season. I hate it when football becomes kidnapped by the general public every second summer. I want my exclusive sport back. You have to pay your money and earn your right to become a football fan. Sticking a couple of crappy England flags to the roof of your car and then going down the pub to shout at a big screen TV just doesn't do it. They even let women in to watch the games, for goodness sake!

If England do win this World Cup (which they won't, of course) I may need to emigrate, to get away from the endless hype that we will be subjected to.

2006-05-29T16:35:00.000+01:00

Five weeks today, I will already be in action at the MGM Grand!

The last 3 weeks have been absurdly busy with a combination of business and pleasure. Actually, mostly pleasure.

Both the highlight and the lowlight was probably my trip to Paris for the European Champions League Final with Arsenal. A fabulous, slightly beer-blurred trip, that was only marred by the actual game itself, which was ruined as a spectacle by Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann getting a red card inside the first 20 minutes.

I had a meeting this week that might have a dramatic influence on my life in general, but I don't want to potentially jinx it by writing about it before I know of the final outcome.

This weekend has been a real poker marathon, as I have been catching up with my 1k hands per week commitment to VC Poker. Due to the manic-ness of the past fortnight, I was a good way behind.

I continue to see more poor players than average at the 1/2 LHE tables at VC Poker, although more traffic would be welcome. At certain times of day, there isn't any full-ring 1/2 games at all, and the most that I have ever seen in play at one time is 3 tables.

I will now try to post more frequently, in the run up to July 2nd, start date for the Great Poker Adventure!

2006-05-07T08:52:00.000+01:00

Eight Weeks Today!

Shocking lack of posting so far on my blog. I have been pretty busy with work and totally wrapped up with the end of the football season here in the UK.

Today, I am going to the last ever game at Highbury "The Home of Football" where my beloved Arsenal have played for the past 93 years. Starting with the new season in August, Arsenal will move to a brand new 60,000 seater stadium. You can see from the picture looking from the old stadium across to the new one, just how close they are to one another.

Although today's match is important (with qualification for next season's Champions League at stake), it pales into insignificance compared to the next match I will be attending. I have a ticket for the Champions League Final in Paris on 17th May, where the two finest footballing teams in Europe, Arsenal and Barcelona will meet.

After May 17th, I will start to post on here regularly, as I get fully into Vegas WSOP mode.

Until then, COME ON YOU REDS!!!!!

2006-04-15T06:55:00.000+01:00

Poker Magazine Circulation Wars

Very interesting debate on 2+2 this morning, that started out as a shameless plug for Bluff Magazine, and ended up being a fascinating expose on how Magazines boost their own circulation figures.

href="http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=5400841&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1

I really am amazed at the depth and quality of debate that can be found on 2+2. It is hard to imagine anywhere else on the web where a discussion thread such as this could attract the Publisher of the World's leading poker books, various senior staff from one of the leading poker magazines, and an expert from the publishing industry, all at odds with one another, but contributing to a lively and informative debate.

I would happily pay a considerable monthly subscription to be able to access 2+2 in it's exact current form; although this is never going to happen, as to charge would be to substantially reduce the quantity of contributors.

2006-04-08T15:52:00.000+01:00

Twelve Weeks and Counting...!

This is my first proper post on my new blog. I am still trying to feel my way around
the various options on Blogger.

Twelve weeks from tomorrow, I will be heading to Las Vegas for the Great Poker Adventure. Judging by how quickly the last few weeks have passed, the trip will be here in next to no time!

On Friday I received a package from VC Poker containing my Poker shirts. They are really nice black polo shirts with subtle VC Poker branding on the left breast and the sleeve.