Monday 17 November 2008

Sunday grind again

Hey kids, been a few days, just winding down from my mtt session with abit of PLO200. Been a cool week, handed in 3 essays, put in 3 nights of volume (except we're currently not talking about Saturday night lol) and went out on friday with Kristen/Hobie and the John Foster lot which was cool.

Tonight has been very weird; again I was deep in a few tournaments and didn't even make a 4 fig cash, but I was quite happy with the way I played. Went deep in the $11 Daily 30k Guaranteed, but had a chiplead to busto 5 mins and finished like 42nd. Also cashed in the mill with 2 very funny hands;

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3460143

And;

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3459992

It should be noted that the second hand was on the absolute bubble, hence the craziness. I don't really know why I went insane in the first one, just from the way he was playing I thought he'd be 3betting me light (oops lol). The funny part of the second one is that he slowrolled me, he actually used his timebank to call with KK, so its kinda cool that he got what was coming to him.

So ive roughly made $650 tonight, which isn't a terrible nights work or anything, its just the 5 figure score needs to come soon for confidence more than anything else. I'm generally very happy with the way i'm playing, i've been able to generally make correct decisions in all the tournaments i've played in the last few months (bar the first hand I just showed you and the occasional blip lol), obviously i'm still very young and have so much to learn about the game, but I feel I can hold my own in what i'm doing and make a decent $ while i'm at it.

Well I think that'll just about do it for the night, you guys just cost me $200 because in the PLO200 table im keeping up I just lost AA82DS vs AATTs allin pre. So much for winding down.

Gnight guys

Friday 14 November 2008

Gutting

Just busted out of the stars $55 Daily 80k Guaranteed 18th, im obviously very disappointed. Was 4th in chips but then ran KK into AA with 22 players remaining crippling me, thats poker I guess?

Also just busted the $3+r rebuys about 40th in sickly fashion, some guy with 15bbs limp/called with Q6s, outdrawing my AXs to cripple me. Im not writing this to complain about my misfortune because I know everyone hates to hear bad beat stories, but I think its an accurate indicator to how devastated I feel right now, winning only $300 or so tonight when it should have been a $3k+ night. I also went deep in the $22 at 5PM and busted about 60th. The good news is that im feeling more and more upbeat about the way im playing, and I know the 5 fig score is coming soon.

Only hand of note was in the first hour of the stars $20Cubed, note its still in the rebuy period and therefore keeping a stack and remaining in the tournament to take the massively +EV addon.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3445320

Do you guys raise the river here for value/play any other street differently? In retrospect I should probably have bet more on the turn, but other than that im fairly happy with the way I played the hand.

I think im going to try and put in some volume in on Saturday as well as Sunday this week, I just feel like I should really be putting the hours in and i'll be rewarded for my good play and good volume.

Anyway, aside from poker it's been abit of a hectic week; had 3 different essays in for this week, hence the lack of poker nights. All 3 essays are done and dusted now, feel abit nervous about getting them back as I don't think I quite did my absolute best, but luckily it's only first year and I need but a pass for next year. Ive got 3 more essays in for the first week of December, and i'm definitely not going to leave them as late this time (not that it was my fault I left them late this time). I'm gunna get cracking on one this weekend/week and try and average out one per week till Christmas.

That should just about do it, thanks for reading as always. BIG UP THE KENT HOUSE MASSIVE
xx

Monday 10 November 2008

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

Hey kids, hows it hanging, i'm in a surprisingly good mood right now considering I just busted out of my last tournament of the night. Just got a nice email from mummy who very nicely just emailed me a proof read version of the essay that I finished last night, I'm just about to touch up the essay before I hand it in tomorrow. Other than that just had a nice chat with Kate for the first time in a month or so which was nice, catching up and all.

The dodgeball tournament was yesterday which was pretty cool, we qualified from our group joint top but then lost in the semi finals which was very disappointing as I didn't feel I played very well. On the flip side I was really impressed with how well every member of the team played. Without sugar coating it, I wasn't expecting much at all and everyone showed me that they have a lot of heart and a lot of game, so well done guys.

As for poker, like I said; there was unfortunately no 4/5 figure score today which is obviously very disappointing. I played in 15 MTTs, including the Mill, both $55s and the early $22 freeze. I went deep in the $22, busting out about 42nd, the hand that crippled me was of note, I actually didn't save it at the time as I was 9tabling and had a few hands going on but the gist of it was;
Active CO 2.5x
I pop with A3o from the BB for 17bb effective
He snaps with KK.

A lot of people don't like the resteals with weak aces, but I think in this situation it was correct. I feel that 17bb effective is just about the perfect restealing stack, so i'm liking doing it with a wide range of hands, and the fact that i've got any ace whatsoever gives me at least 25% equity when im called by any hand (bar AA). So yeah, despite not winning that im fairly happy with the resteal, just a shame I ran into a monster.

I also made the final 3 tables of the $11 PLO, can't really say much about that, zig-zagged up and down before eventually busting with aces on a dry board having put 1/3 of my stack in preflop. Can't really complain too much.

Overall, I think i'm pretty much exactly breaking even for the day, I bubbled in 3 tournaments (including the mill), so it could have been abit nicer, but I feel nice and upbeat about the way I played and hopefully i'll be able to put some volume in one night this week as well as the weekend.

Cheers guys, may you be on the right end of variance

Edit: How did I not mention the november 9 who i'm currently staying up to rail. 1 TIME DEMIDOV! I put small bets on both CraigMarq and Ivan, hopefully he can take this bad boy down one time.

Friday 7 November 2008

Put in some volume tonight

Did it turn out well? No it did not.

What started off at the weekend of a little bit of running bad has started to turn into abit of a downswing which isn't nice for anyone involved. Tonight I played (on stars); both $55s, the $20 Cubed, Both $11 10 min levels, $3+r, $11+r, $5.50, $11 PLO and the early evening $109. Made t100 of the later $55 and the $11 at 8:15, but both had disappointing finishes.

There are a few hands from the $109 that I wanna talk about, both early on.
Firstly;
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3414297
Looking back on it, it looks like a pretty easy fold, at the time I remember agonizing over it. I dunno how my line is. I'm pretty happy with the preflop raise, and the check on the flop, I didn't really think I could possibly be ahead and I guess I wasn't. Maybe another nice MTTer could give me a line check cause it's always nice to et some feedback.

Secondly;
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3414748
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get away from this one, if i'm honest because i'd lost the AK hand a few earlier, and wasn't in the mood to lay down QQ preflop for a half stack. I dunno what else this guy really ever 4bet shoves with at 15/30 though. Abit spewy yucky yuck yuck

Most of the other tournaments were pretty standard, I ran shit into AA/KK so many times I was unlikely to go deep in too much. I'm fairly happy with the way I played, except this hand;
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3414832

I can honestly say that i'm embarrassed that I stacked off in this spot, I literally have no idea what I was thinking and i'm quite clearly nearly never good here, I just somehow managed to convince myself that he'd be shoving AQ since I checked the flop, so so stupid young Joejoe.

I guess to make matters worse I busto'd my online account because I took all bar 1k out because of the favorable stars exchange rate, my roll isn't hurt too bad, but its pretty demoralizing to keep on having to reload when I wanna put in a set of tournaments.

So yeah, this weekend will have to be different. I've got a 1500 word critical analysis to do on 'the effects of the north Atlantic slave trade on British industrialization' in for monday, but if I get that done hopefully I can get 2 nights of volume in (including sunday).

Other than that, going to the gym tomorrow which is good because I feel like such a fatass at the moment. Got the dodgeball tournament on saturday which will be fun im sure (would just be good to get a nice score first =D )

Thanks for listening to yet ANOTHER ramble, I feel I should tell a funny or something, urm I'm gunna win the mill on sunday. HORAY

Thursday 6 November 2008

New blog ahoy/tough live weekend

Hey kids, joejoe signing in with the new blog for poker and general life things. Thought i'd be a pretty decent way to self assess as well as keeping all my friends updated with whats happening.

Just got back from Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham from a weekend of extremely grueling live poker. As most of you know I really really hate having to single table and play about 11 hands an hour whilst simultaneously being abused, bored and condescended to by your standard idiotic, arrogant and foul smelling atypical live poker player. There were a few instances of this over the weekend, firstly in the £330 freezeout after I ran a bluff and got called, the small blind from the hand (who had folded preflop) decided that he wanted the dealer to expose my cards to the table. At first I looked at him in a "wtf?! are you smoking something?" kinda way, and asked if he was serious. Apparently he was and does infact not care about etiquette or the fact he is basically insinuating that i'm a cheat.

Another incident was in the £1/2 deep NL/PLO cashgame after the tournament, I repeatedly got into hands with what I can only assume was a drunk biggot, who repeatedly asked me if I am gay in a very aggressive manner, after the first time he asked me, I asked him if he was coming onto me...lol. It all kind of blew up in a PLO hand, in which I potted from the SB with AA34ddcc for £26 through several limpers, and he was the only caller from MP. The board came KdQc9s and before I could bet he moved in for roughly 3/4 of the pot, i dwelt up and eventually called (which is a terrible, money burning call by me, by the way) and he had some shit like KQ62 or something, which i proceeded to suck out catching running fives on the turn or some such. After the hand, for the first time that night I honestly felt like I could have been in some kind of danger, so Ed and swiftly made our exit.

While those 2 incidents were abit ridiculous, the weekend of live poker was dull as expected but the standard was so very very poor, I fear it shan't be my last voyage to Nottingham for poker purposes. Aside from the actual poker, Ed and I had a great weekend chillin' like villains, we created a new game named; 'what would you do to sleep with vicky coren', to which i think we're both a bit disgusted.

In other news im completely snowed under with essays at the moment, got 2 1500 word bad boys due in a noon on monday, which may interfere with my standard sunday night poker tournaments (the only night in which I really get to put any volume in), but hopefully it'll all be done and dusted by then.

Oh, and i'm gunna need your virtual sweats in the dodgeball tournament that me and a few housemates have entered in on Saturday, i recently joined the dodgeball club at college at im having such a fun time playing it, should be pretty gangsta imo

Anyway, first rant/ramblings over i'll write something of substance in a few days