Ah! Another weekend of tournament poker in the books and shock horror, I somehow booked a winner winning both the $22 6max (for $2k) and the $27.50 360 cap (for 1.7k). Obviously not the big scores I'm looking for, but it certainly feels good to win two tourneys. I also made another deep run in the million last night, eventually finishing 250th or something. I'm afraid there's no interested hand history for this one, simply lost AK to QQ for all of the cheese. Despite 2 deep runs in majors in consecutive weeks, I'm brimming with confidence and feel that the big score is just around the corner.
For those of you who are not poker players, or just not tournament players, Stars is doing a really sick promotion for the December Tournament Leader Board (http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/passport/december/?utm_id=6), which in a nutshell means that if you finish in the top200 at the end of the month, you win a ticket to freeroll with 3 Stars Passports and cash prizes are up for grabs. I currently am sitting in 236th place with 3633 points. I figure if I max out on 12/180s for the rest of the month I should be close to a lock for top 200, but just to make sure, i'm going to play a ton of big field tournaments over the next few weeks just in case. Don't be surprised to see me playing a load of $1 freezeouts!
I suppose that's about it, I'd like to give a very loving shout out to Marty who is celebrating his 21st in Tally today, I wish I could be there to get wrecked with you sir. As for my birthday, obviously anyone who is around Cambridge next Monday is more than welcome to join, just hit me up on facebook/aim/skype for details.
Love you all
xx
Monday 14 December 2009
Saturday 12 December 2009
The morning after the night before
Yesterday was a messy one, just like the last time I went out with Ed and ended up with a huge cut on my gum from trying to drink out of a smashed Corona bottle (that really impressed the girls we were talking to) before getting kicked out of a cab for chundering. Last night was the 'GOSCARS' and as per usual it was just an excuse for everyone; especially me, Ed, Sam, Nico and India to get absolutely hammered. For those of you who aren't aware, the Goscars evening is the annual award ceremony for performances at the Gutshot, followed by a fun £50 KO tourney. All seemingly nice and fun, well that was until Ed and I came up with the idea of 'the tournament poker drinking game'. The rules are simple, all the players in the game have their chip counts taken at the end of each level and the player with the fewest chips has to buy the round of everyone else (the tournament had 15 minute levels by the way). There was an extra added bonus that if you busted out, upon leaving the game you buy a round of shots too. Despite never having to buy a round and lasting longest in the tourney, India was the first to go for a TC (tactical chunder), and I certainly wasn't far behind.
Apparently the tournament poker drinking game wasn't quite enough and Ed and I (who were tablemates) started on the double vodka/cokes and also managed to sink a few sporadic shots of Samuel Buca with Dhaam, JJ and Barry.
After I busted the tourney at about 11:45; which coincidentally was the last point I remember knowing the time, I went to the bar with Ed and Lou-Lou and as far as I can tell, in mid conversation with Ed, simply stopped talking and walked outside for my first TC. The wall to the side of the club was my first victim, swiftly followed by me trying to walk to old street underground only to stop 20 meters down the road to settle for about 10 minutes (this is where Phil saw me 'laying in my own pool of vomit').
As I slowly stumbled on, my next resting place was waiting for a tube to Euston, where I expertly found a good hiding spot to throw up in (especially sorry for whoever have to clean that one up) and I think some poor girl even came up to me and asked if I needed any help; to which I very politely declined. I managed to hold everything in when I was actually on the tube (which I think took almost all of my tactical knowhow), and the next place I remember being after that was Euston station toilets which funnily was the first time of the night I actually managed to throw up in a toilet or sink all night. After that I stumbled on the last train home and parked myself in the train toilet for the 20 minute journey to Watford; no prizes for guessing what I got up to. All in all, having left the club at 11:45, it took me well over 90 minutes to make the 7 minute journey from the club to Euston, and there are several things that are currently unexplained-like why I have a fairly deep cut on my thumb and bruises all over my body-that I'm sure will come to me in time. When I got to Watford, I stumbled home, threw up once more in my toilet before falling happily asleep in front of Eddie Izzard.
All in all, thanks very much to Barry for putting on such a fun evening, I look forward to making an even bigger dick out of myself next year.
Other than last night it had been a fairly quiet week. I had an awesome time out with Lizzie and Sarah on Monday, having dinner and predrinking and Sarah's before going to some club in Soho. I also managed to put in a winning live session on Wednesday to the tune of about £750. Im looking forward to putting in some MTT volume this weekend, hopefully that 6 figure score is around the corner.
Love and hugs to you all
xx
Apparently the tournament poker drinking game wasn't quite enough and Ed and I (who were tablemates) started on the double vodka/cokes and also managed to sink a few sporadic shots of Samuel Buca with Dhaam, JJ and Barry.
After I busted the tourney at about 11:45; which coincidentally was the last point I remember knowing the time, I went to the bar with Ed and Lou-Lou and as far as I can tell, in mid conversation with Ed, simply stopped talking and walked outside for my first TC. The wall to the side of the club was my first victim, swiftly followed by me trying to walk to old street underground only to stop 20 meters down the road to settle for about 10 minutes (this is where Phil saw me 'laying in my own pool of vomit').
As I slowly stumbled on, my next resting place was waiting for a tube to Euston, where I expertly found a good hiding spot to throw up in (especially sorry for whoever have to clean that one up) and I think some poor girl even came up to me and asked if I needed any help; to which I very politely declined. I managed to hold everything in when I was actually on the tube (which I think took almost all of my tactical knowhow), and the next place I remember being after that was Euston station toilets which funnily was the first time of the night I actually managed to throw up in a toilet or sink all night. After that I stumbled on the last train home and parked myself in the train toilet for the 20 minute journey to Watford; no prizes for guessing what I got up to. All in all, having left the club at 11:45, it took me well over 90 minutes to make the 7 minute journey from the club to Euston, and there are several things that are currently unexplained-like why I have a fairly deep cut on my thumb and bruises all over my body-that I'm sure will come to me in time. When I got to Watford, I stumbled home, threw up once more in my toilet before falling happily asleep in front of Eddie Izzard.
All in all, thanks very much to Barry for putting on such a fun evening, I look forward to making an even bigger dick out of myself next year.
Other than last night it had been a fairly quiet week. I had an awesome time out with Lizzie and Sarah on Monday, having dinner and predrinking and Sarah's before going to some club in Soho. I also managed to put in a winning live session on Wednesday to the tune of about £750. Im looking forward to putting in some MTT volume this weekend, hopefully that 6 figure score is around the corner.
Love and hugs to you all
xx
Monday 7 December 2009
Soul crushing weekend, but certainly taking positives
I'm blogging at 3:50 GMT, which means I've abandoned hope of Favre and his Vikings making a comeback and giving me 5 correct Sunday Night Football picks in a row, I suppose the run had to end at some point. I've also drunk quite a lot of beer in the last 90 minutes so forgive me if my blog isn't up to it's usual grammatical standards.
Basically this weekend reminded me why I quit playing tournament poker for a living and moved towards cash games, on each day I had a sick deep run in two huge field tournaments; on Saturday the $11/30 Guaranteed (with 6000 players) and on Sunday the $215 Sunday Warmup (with 4700 players) coming 18th and 25th respectively. Although retrospectively I can't really fault the way I played it's is extremely hard to go so deep in these tournaments and live with winning a few buyins.
Saturday's deep run was a bit of a joke (as you'd expect with such a low buyin), as the chipleader was a complete maniac (and not the good kind), the first spot I realised this was when he 3b/called my 30bb shove with 35 left HJ vs btn with K9s (and luckily my 77 held) but my AQo was not so lucky vs his K6s when I r/shipped UTG vs UTG+1 with 18 left 50bb deep. Having such a novice in the tournament really creates a strange dynamic, and I thought AQo was basically good to go with considering he'd 3b 7/8 of my opens since he'd been on my left and there was a decent chance I was at least a 70% favourite (with a small chance he may fold).
The Warm Up was effectively decided by one; what I think is a very marginal spot with JJ in MP2;
Poker Stars $200+$15 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t20000/t40000 Blinds + t4000 - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com
BB: t1553562 M = 16.89
UTG: t1105280 M = 12.01
UTG+1: t769303 M = 8.36
MP1: t1717114 M = 18.66
Hero (MP2): t1761736 M = 19.15
CO: t701846 M = 7.63
BTN: t1523630 M = 16.56
SB: t1285372 M = 13.97
Pre Flop: (t92000) Hero is MP2 with J J
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t99779, MP1 raises to t560000, Hero???
I had no specific reads, but the table had been fairly active and there had been a decent amount of 3betting going on (even if most of it was from me and one other player). It's a fairly complicated hand just to 'run' on stove because of the possible side pots and overlays created, but it seems that if MP1 is raising a hand he's willing to go with for 19bb but folding all but AK, QQ+ then we're making a decent profit, but if he's not 3betting much more than AK and QQ+ then it's kind of spewy. Retrospectively it seems to be somewhere exactly in the middle of those two, probably folding out AQ (which is awesome) and TT/99 (which is to be expected). It still seems really close and i'll run the numbers properly tomrorow.
Despite the feeling of shock directly after busting both tourneys, I'm feeling pretty awesome now. I've made money in the last month or so away from tourneys so it seems that every time I get deep in a tournament it's some kind of a bonus. I'm really happy I decided to focus on cash games, and as well as improving my game it's generally just made me a happier person.
I'm thinking I'm going to put a ton of cash game volume in over the next few weeks, up until my birthday weekend, where I'll go out with my family on the Saturday, maybe play MTTs on the sunday and hopefully do something in Cambridge on the monday. I love you all lots for following my blog and the constant support you all give me.
Loves and hugs xx
Basically this weekend reminded me why I quit playing tournament poker for a living and moved towards cash games, on each day I had a sick deep run in two huge field tournaments; on Saturday the $11/30 Guaranteed (with 6000 players) and on Sunday the $215 Sunday Warmup (with 4700 players) coming 18th and 25th respectively. Although retrospectively I can't really fault the way I played it's is extremely hard to go so deep in these tournaments and live with winning a few buyins.
Saturday's deep run was a bit of a joke (as you'd expect with such a low buyin), as the chipleader was a complete maniac (and not the good kind), the first spot I realised this was when he 3b/called my 30bb shove with 35 left HJ vs btn with K9s (and luckily my 77 held) but my AQo was not so lucky vs his K6s when I r/shipped UTG vs UTG+1 with 18 left 50bb deep. Having such a novice in the tournament really creates a strange dynamic, and I thought AQo was basically good to go with considering he'd 3b 7/8 of my opens since he'd been on my left and there was a decent chance I was at least a 70% favourite (with a small chance he may fold).
The Warm Up was effectively decided by one; what I think is a very marginal spot with JJ in MP2;
Poker Stars $200+$15 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t20000/t40000 Blinds + t4000 - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com
BB: t1553562 M = 16.89
UTG: t1105280 M = 12.01
UTG+1: t769303 M = 8.36
MP1: t1717114 M = 18.66
Hero (MP2): t1761736 M = 19.15
CO: t701846 M = 7.63
BTN: t1523630 M = 16.56
SB: t1285372 M = 13.97
Pre Flop: (t92000) Hero is MP2 with J J
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t99779, MP1 raises to t560000, Hero???
I had no specific reads, but the table had been fairly active and there had been a decent amount of 3betting going on (even if most of it was from me and one other player). It's a fairly complicated hand just to 'run' on stove because of the possible side pots and overlays created, but it seems that if MP1 is raising a hand he's willing to go with for 19bb but folding all but AK, QQ+ then we're making a decent profit, but if he's not 3betting much more than AK and QQ+ then it's kind of spewy. Retrospectively it seems to be somewhere exactly in the middle of those two, probably folding out AQ (which is awesome) and TT/99 (which is to be expected). It still seems really close and i'll run the numbers properly tomrorow.
Despite the feeling of shock directly after busting both tourneys, I'm feeling pretty awesome now. I've made money in the last month or so away from tourneys so it seems that every time I get deep in a tournament it's some kind of a bonus. I'm really happy I decided to focus on cash games, and as well as improving my game it's generally just made me a happier person.
I'm thinking I'm going to put a ton of cash game volume in over the next few weeks, up until my birthday weekend, where I'll go out with my family on the Saturday, maybe play MTTs on the sunday and hopefully do something in Cambridge on the monday. I love you all lots for following my blog and the constant support you all give me.
Loves and hugs xx
Saturday 5 December 2009
Live heaters, Parties...oh yeah and one of the greatest bands of the decade
Well it's been an interesting week to say the very least. Just over a week ago I essentially had a bit of a whine about not running well in November and apparently that's all I needed to give me a kick up the backside, actually play some hands and start making money. As well as being up 25 buyins in 7k hands online, I managed to come 5th in the £300 freezeout at the international on Saturday, and have two very profitable live 1/2 Omaha sessions where I really felt I was playing close to my A-game (as well as obviously running hotter than Usain Bolt).
Aside from poker I went to Nel's 21st Birthday shindig on Wednesday which apart from being the best girl-to-guy ratio I've ever seen (about 40 girls; most of whom were very attractive, to 4 guys; with me being the only one for about 2 hours) it was also generally a really fun night in which I made some new friends and happily drunk until I had to stumble on the last train home.
On my way home I just happened to get a text from Charlie T to the tune of, 'Joejoe, I happen to have 2 guest passes to go and see a Doves set in Leicester square tomorrow', to which I responded with an appropriate 'hell yeahz'. The venue itself; a small Church in Soho was quite strange but the band certainly didn't disappoint. The set was rather short but very enjoyable and I can tick one extra band of my 'top ten bands to see before they break up' (Blur and U2 still topping that last at the moment).
One funny situation I got myself in this week was being told to quit my job by a complete stranger. Well actually that one happens on something close to a daily basis but the strange part about this one is that I didn't even mention the fact that I play poker for a living. The Chinese Herbal medicine woman who I sought advice on how to cure my insomnia from was so distraught that I thought it was an early night to be getting to bed at 5am that she advised that I quit my job immediately. I thought her head may have exploded if I had told her I gamble for thousands of pounds each day.
Despite having a what is essentially a +£5k week playing live, I'm still pretty over live poker. I'd probably make the trip into London for an especially juicy live 1/2 Omaha game (perhaps when Wayra returns to London), but the prospect of sitting at a poker table all night playing 20 hands an hour really doesn't appeal to me (especially as i'm not getting as many FPPs as I do on stars).
Hears to hoping all you beautiful people had as much fun this week as I did
Later taters
xxx
Aside from poker I went to Nel's 21st Birthday shindig on Wednesday which apart from being the best girl-to-guy ratio I've ever seen (about 40 girls; most of whom were very attractive, to 4 guys; with me being the only one for about 2 hours) it was also generally a really fun night in which I made some new friends and happily drunk until I had to stumble on the last train home.
On my way home I just happened to get a text from Charlie T to the tune of, 'Joejoe, I happen to have 2 guest passes to go and see a Doves set in Leicester square tomorrow', to which I responded with an appropriate 'hell yeahz'. The venue itself; a small Church in Soho was quite strange but the band certainly didn't disappoint. The set was rather short but very enjoyable and I can tick one extra band of my 'top ten bands to see before they break up' (Blur and U2 still topping that last at the moment).
One funny situation I got myself in this week was being told to quit my job by a complete stranger. Well actually that one happens on something close to a daily basis but the strange part about this one is that I didn't even mention the fact that I play poker for a living. The Chinese Herbal medicine woman who I sought advice on how to cure my insomnia from was so distraught that I thought it was an early night to be getting to bed at 5am that she advised that I quit my job immediately. I thought her head may have exploded if I had told her I gamble for thousands of pounds each day.
Despite having a what is essentially a +£5k week playing live, I'm still pretty over live poker. I'd probably make the trip into London for an especially juicy live 1/2 Omaha game (perhaps when Wayra returns to London), but the prospect of sitting at a poker table all night playing 20 hands an hour really doesn't appeal to me (especially as i'm not getting as many FPPs as I do on stars).
Hears to hoping all you beautiful people had as much fun this week as I did
Later taters
xxx
Thursday 26 November 2009
Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most
Well that's it, I feel I've crossed the threshold into actual madness. The idea of winning money at poker for a sustainable period of time just seems a foreign concept right now. I'm aware that I don't do myself any favours by choosing games that are so high variance (traditionally turbo MTTs and now 6max and heads up PLO), but eventually the mental strain of the long losing streaks just tear your mind apart. Since the middle of October i'm winning something of the tune of $1600 (and that's including an $800 supernova milestone bonus). Considering the amount of time and effort I've put in during this period, it equates somewhere close to flipping burgers. Worst of all, I've begun severely doubting myself in terms of both raw talent and my ability to concentrate and play my A game for long periods of time. It seems that those are attributes aren't just something a player can work on, but is something someone is stuck with. I'm going to have a real think about how able I am to actually win enough at poker to sustain myself in the manner i've grown accustomed to.
As well as doubting myself, it's just about put out the faint flicker of enjoyment I once had for poker. I suppose the thing that most people don't understand about me is that doing anything that I can't defend as 100% perfect is nothing but a failure in my eyes and I end up beating myself up over plays that will still arguably make me money if in hindsight I can anticipate better lines. The only thing that still drives me to play poker is firstly my desire to be the absolute best version of me, and secondly my huge ego which won't allow me to stop playing before I'm rich enough and have accomplished enough to consider all this time a success.
Hopefully the second paragraph makes how tough this last month has been easier to understand; it's like every time I load up pokerstars I'm losing be it making the right play and getting unlucky or making bad choices and still losing.
It seems that right now there isn't much I can do but bite the bullet and keep grinding hard. I'm probably going to play the monthly £300 at the international on Saturday, then I'm going to have to put in a ton of volume in December and try and stop the rut.
Sorry for all the non poker players that read this, I love you all very much but this has been the major highlight of the last month (the only highlight in reality). Next time I blog i'll have something non-pokery to say.
Loves and hugs xx
As well as doubting myself, it's just about put out the faint flicker of enjoyment I once had for poker. I suppose the thing that most people don't understand about me is that doing anything that I can't defend as 100% perfect is nothing but a failure in my eyes and I end up beating myself up over plays that will still arguably make me money if in hindsight I can anticipate better lines. The only thing that still drives me to play poker is firstly my desire to be the absolute best version of me, and secondly my huge ego which won't allow me to stop playing before I'm rich enough and have accomplished enough to consider all this time a success.
Hopefully the second paragraph makes how tough this last month has been easier to understand; it's like every time I load up pokerstars I'm losing be it making the right play and getting unlucky or making bad choices and still losing.
It seems that right now there isn't much I can do but bite the bullet and keep grinding hard. I'm probably going to play the monthly £300 at the international on Saturday, then I'm going to have to put in a ton of volume in December and try and stop the rut.
Sorry for all the non poker players that read this, I love you all very much but this has been the major highlight of the last month (the only highlight in reality). Next time I blog i'll have something non-pokery to say.
Loves and hugs xx
Wednesday 18 November 2009
I may be the worst blogger on earth
Apologies to all of you guys who humour me by reading my blog. I have been absolutely terrible at updating despite some of you riding me about it (Ken and Lizzie, that counts as a shout out).
In short I suppose I've just been having a lot of fun relaxing and going out mixed with an insane amount of volume in the last few weeks (I finally got supernova on friday for my efforts). My last 3 consecutive Fridays have been house parties (with another this Friday), after the best part of a year feeling slightly old and out of place it feels good to hang with old friends in London (as well as the awesome ones who traveled from afar for Sarah's 21st).
In my poker life everything is going pretty well since the end of the EPT, just been grinding away at small stakes and im up like 2k in the last week or so. It's long work for not a huge reward, but it feels pretty good to be working hard and getting something out of it.
Sorry for the short update, but I will be a better blogger!
loves and hugs to you all xx
In short I suppose I've just been having a lot of fun relaxing and going out mixed with an insane amount of volume in the last few weeks (I finally got supernova on friday for my efforts). My last 3 consecutive Fridays have been house parties (with another this Friday), after the best part of a year feeling slightly old and out of place it feels good to hang with old friends in London (as well as the awesome ones who traveled from afar for Sarah's 21st).
In my poker life everything is going pretty well since the end of the EPT, just been grinding away at small stakes and im up like 2k in the last week or so. It's long work for not a huge reward, but it feels pretty good to be working hard and getting something out of it.
Sorry for the short update, but I will be a better blogger!
loves and hugs to you all xx
Thursday 17 September 2009
Reading TR Part 3+ WCOOP/General poker update
Lizzie has been constantly bugging me to finish this report which I said would be done about 10 days ago. The stupidest thing is that I do so little, there's no excuse for me to be as lazy as I am; but hey, you just have to love me the way I am.
Sunday
I woke up at midday on Sunday morning, slightly hung over and very disappointed by last nights 'headlining' act. It didn't help with my usual level of first-3-hours-after-I-wake grumpiness, but I somehow managed to put it to one side and drag myself down to the NME stage to see Frank Turner with Lizzie and my mood changed instantaneously. Having only heard a few of his songs before I was skeptical of how good a full set of his would be, but I had to eat my words as he gave a full 40 minutes of great acoustic tunes with really got the crowd going.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrkdYXJK6_A
This was actually taken from a short set he did at the BBC introducing stage shortly after his set (his full set wasn't on TV).
As Frank Turner ended I wandered around and tried to find Tom and Fiona, and after some half-arsed searching I wandered back in to see Deadmau5, who despite headling the dance stage, was playing in the early afternoon (I'm assuming because he had to go and play Creamfields or Notting Hill in the evening). I actually missed half the show because of a distinct lack of phone to tell me the time, but the parts I saw from the back of the crowded tent were pretty awesome. I definitely thought it was a shame I didn't see the full set, so I'll have to catch some sometime soon.
After Deadmau5 I headed back to the campsite to eat, drink and chat about how amazing the final night was going to be; the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, followed by Bloc Party then Radiohead.
At about 6:30 we rolled down to the main stage to see the band who Lizzie and Abbie had been really excited to see all day and they certainly didn't disappoint with their very own brand of weird rock, it seems that Karen O is; and has always been, everything Lady Gaga strives for, but does it while managing to keep credibility and put out good music.
I'm kind of tilted that this was the only performance highlight I could find;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/yeahyeahyeahs/
Bloc Party were next to hit the stage with their soulful styled rock anthems getting a slightly rained on crowd into the mood to jump around and sing along. This was the third straight year that this band had played at Reading (and according to the band, their last for a while), and they seemed as fresh and eager to please as first timers. Despite the fact I'd never really been into this band before, I really enjoyed their set and put me in a great mood for Radiohead.
Again, the good people at the bbc have decided to remove all but 40 second clips of all their bands, so this will have to do;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/blocparty/
As Bloc Party left the stage a nervous wait began as roadies started to set up for debatably the greatest band in the world, and I'm sure one that will be looked at half a century from now with the likes of your Pink Floyds and Led Zeppelins. Having seen them the year before on tour I know that they have a very liberal choice of setlists, ranging from random songs on EPs to their mega-hits from The Bends and OK Computer. Being such a huge fan I would have been happy with either Karma Police or Stop Whispering. What I was not expecting was them to open with Creep, a song which they didn't play in concert for 10 years from 94 to 04.
To be honest, it shows why a band like Radiohead are where they are today, they gave the people what they want. I'm aware that not everyone in the tens of the thousands watching the main stage that night was as bigger fan as I am, and wanted to hear their hits. Radiohead somehow produced the best setlist I think i've ever seen in;
* 1.Creep
* 2.The National Anthem
* 3.15 Step
* 4.There There
* 5.All I Need
* 6.Nude
* 7.2+2=5
* 8.The Gloaming
* 9.Climbing Up The Walls
* 10.Street Spirit (Fade Out)
* 11.Reckoner
* 12.Karma Police
* 13.Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
* 14.Just
* 15.Idioteque
* 16.Exit Music (For A Film)
* 17.Bodysnatchers
* 18.You And Whose Army?
* 19.Lucky
* 20.These Are My Twisted Words
* 21.Jigsaw Falling into Place
* 22.Paranoid Android
* 23.Everything In Its Right Place
Sitting here in front of my computer I'm having trouble finding the words to really express how awesome those 2 hours were, basically just singing/dancing and generally rocking out to some of my favorite songs around thousands of other people who were also near the front who were singing/dancing and generally rocking out to their favorite band. As Jonny finished the last notes to Everything In Its Right Place, I left the main stage almost shaken at how much I'd enjoyed the set. Definitely the best band in a really great 4 days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/radiohead/index.shtml
F U BBC for not having it all up.
As I think back about that weekend, it's certainly the great performances by the likes of Radiohead, Florence+The Machine, The Prodigy and Frank Turner that I remember rather than the child like attitude of the Kings of Leon or the general terrible set by the Arctic Monkeys. I'm afraid I had to leave a ton of stories out to keep this SFW (my parents read this blog), but if you catch me on facebook/IM then I'm sure i'd be able to fill you in.
I'm certainly looking forward to hitting up a festival next year. I feel slightly old for Reading, so that may not happen unless the lineup is amazing again. Might hit up Global again if people are going. I suppose it's useless talking about until the lineups are announced.
Just a quick poker update. I've basically bricked the WCOOP, cashing in about 1/10 events, but my non festival results have been okay so I'm only stuck 1/2k since the start. I also won a live £200 HORSE event last tuesday for £2500 or so, basically proving I am the master of all games.
The end of September/beginning of October will be pretty busy with all the yanks in town for the WSOPE/EPT London. As well as that, my good friend Marty MF Mathis is coming to stay for a bit before he hits up Europe for a few months; and who knows I may join him for a bit.
Thanks for reading this huge tl;dnr
xxx
Sunday
I woke up at midday on Sunday morning, slightly hung over and very disappointed by last nights 'headlining' act. It didn't help with my usual level of first-3-hours-after-I-wake grumpiness, but I somehow managed to put it to one side and drag myself down to the NME stage to see Frank Turner with Lizzie and my mood changed instantaneously. Having only heard a few of his songs before I was skeptical of how good a full set of his would be, but I had to eat my words as he gave a full 40 minutes of great acoustic tunes with really got the crowd going.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrkdYXJK6_A
This was actually taken from a short set he did at the BBC introducing stage shortly after his set (his full set wasn't on TV).
As Frank Turner ended I wandered around and tried to find Tom and Fiona, and after some half-arsed searching I wandered back in to see Deadmau5, who despite headling the dance stage, was playing in the early afternoon (I'm assuming because he had to go and play Creamfields or Notting Hill in the evening). I actually missed half the show because of a distinct lack of phone to tell me the time, but the parts I saw from the back of the crowded tent were pretty awesome. I definitely thought it was a shame I didn't see the full set, so I'll have to catch some sometime soon.
After Deadmau5 I headed back to the campsite to eat, drink and chat about how amazing the final night was going to be; the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, followed by Bloc Party then Radiohead.
At about 6:30 we rolled down to the main stage to see the band who Lizzie and Abbie had been really excited to see all day and they certainly didn't disappoint with their very own brand of weird rock, it seems that Karen O is; and has always been, everything Lady Gaga strives for, but does it while managing to keep credibility and put out good music.
I'm kind of tilted that this was the only performance highlight I could find;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/yeahyeahyeahs/
Bloc Party were next to hit the stage with their soulful styled rock anthems getting a slightly rained on crowd into the mood to jump around and sing along. This was the third straight year that this band had played at Reading (and according to the band, their last for a while), and they seemed as fresh and eager to please as first timers. Despite the fact I'd never really been into this band before, I really enjoyed their set and put me in a great mood for Radiohead.
Again, the good people at the bbc have decided to remove all but 40 second clips of all their bands, so this will have to do;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/blocparty/
As Bloc Party left the stage a nervous wait began as roadies started to set up for debatably the greatest band in the world, and I'm sure one that will be looked at half a century from now with the likes of your Pink Floyds and Led Zeppelins. Having seen them the year before on tour I know that they have a very liberal choice of setlists, ranging from random songs on EPs to their mega-hits from The Bends and OK Computer. Being such a huge fan I would have been happy with either Karma Police or Stop Whispering. What I was not expecting was them to open with Creep, a song which they didn't play in concert for 10 years from 94 to 04.
To be honest, it shows why a band like Radiohead are where they are today, they gave the people what they want. I'm aware that not everyone in the tens of the thousands watching the main stage that night was as bigger fan as I am, and wanted to hear their hits. Radiohead somehow produced the best setlist I think i've ever seen in;
* 1.Creep
* 2.The National Anthem
* 3.15 Step
* 4.There There
* 5.All I Need
* 6.Nude
* 7.2+2=5
* 8.The Gloaming
* 9.Climbing Up The Walls
* 10.Street Spirit (Fade Out)
* 11.Reckoner
* 12.Karma Police
* 13.Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
* 14.Just
* 15.Idioteque
* 16.Exit Music (For A Film)
* 17.Bodysnatchers
* 18.You And Whose Army?
* 19.Lucky
* 20.These Are My Twisted Words
* 21.Jigsaw Falling into Place
* 22.Paranoid Android
* 23.Everything In Its Right Place
Sitting here in front of my computer I'm having trouble finding the words to really express how awesome those 2 hours were, basically just singing/dancing and generally rocking out to some of my favorite songs around thousands of other people who were also near the front who were singing/dancing and generally rocking out to their favorite band. As Jonny finished the last notes to Everything In Its Right Place, I left the main stage almost shaken at how much I'd enjoyed the set. Definitely the best band in a really great 4 days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/radiohead/index.shtml
F U BBC for not having it all up.
As I think back about that weekend, it's certainly the great performances by the likes of Radiohead, Florence+The Machine, The Prodigy and Frank Turner that I remember rather than the child like attitude of the Kings of Leon or the general terrible set by the Arctic Monkeys. I'm afraid I had to leave a ton of stories out to keep this SFW (my parents read this blog), but if you catch me on facebook/IM then I'm sure i'd be able to fill you in.
I'm certainly looking forward to hitting up a festival next year. I feel slightly old for Reading, so that may not happen unless the lineup is amazing again. Might hit up Global again if people are going. I suppose it's useless talking about until the lineups are announced.
Just a quick poker update. I've basically bricked the WCOOP, cashing in about 1/10 events, but my non festival results have been okay so I'm only stuck 1/2k since the start. I also won a live £200 HORSE event last tuesday for £2500 or so, basically proving I am the master of all games.
The end of September/beginning of October will be pretty busy with all the yanks in town for the WSOPE/EPT London. As well as that, my good friend Marty MF Mathis is coming to stay for a bit before he hits up Europe for a few months; and who knows I may join him for a bit.
Thanks for reading this huge tl;dnr
xxx
Friday 4 September 2009
Reading TR part2 +WCOOP
Well it's been a long 24 hours since I promised i'd put part 2 up (mostly because it was closer to 72) but that's mostly because other than 2 short trips to the gym i've been glued to my computer screen. Last night I made the final table of the Daily 30k Guaranteed but ran Queens into Aces vs the chipleader to come 6th for a mere $1500. FML!
So back to Reading;
Saturday;
I woke on Saturday morning with the familiar headache and bad back that I'm now growing quite fond of, almost like I couldn't be having fun at a festival without them. I managed to resist the urge of Fightstar on the main stage and decided to accompany Lizzie, Abbie and Laura to Spinnerete on the NME stage who gave a good rocky half hour of songs that despite not knowing, I was more than happy to dance along to. Unfortunately, the BBC chose not to record this set for TV, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
After the set I left the girls to walk back to Tom's campsite to meet up with him, and we decided to go straight back into the festival and chill in the comedy tent for abit. It was pretty good to sit there and chill for a few hours, even if some of the comics were abit suspect.
Firstly we saw Jessica Delfino who, although showed some merit was stifled by a) not being very funny and b) because she wasn't very funny the crowd begun to talk so it became harder to hear her. She occasionally hit upon some genius one liners but finding a laugh seemed quite similar to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Then we saw Gary Delaney, who strikes me as everything you might find at a Jimmy Carr concert. He stood there for about 30 minutes and delivered roughly 150 simple buildup-punchline jokes, which were admittedly very funny in places. Although I enjoyed his set, I kind of felt cheap for enjoying such a basic brand of comedy afterwards.
Lastly and most controversially, Doug Stanhope an American comic who can only be described as a cross between Frankie Boyle and Jerry Sadowitz. If Gary Delaney made me feel cheap for laughing at his set, Stanhope certainly made me feel dirty for his racist/sexist/masochistic/narcissistic view of life. Tom's girlfriend Fiona did, however, not laugh and actually started heckling him (safely from the back of the tent) and got up and walked out before the end of his set. Luckily she returned after and we all went back to our respective campsites.
As I got back to the campsite, everyone was there getting food and tanked up for the evening bill of the Prodigy, followed by the Arctic Monkeys and as the time came nearer we slowly trundled towards the main stage.
In short it was an evening of incredibly ups and downs. We got to witness one of the really great live bands of our generation in the Prodigy, who made close to 100,000 people dance/mosh/sing along to their rocky dance tunes. The one small downside of the performance for us was that we were just in front of the second set of speakers, putting us in quite a quiet spot, making it a bit too quiet for our youthful ears that are used to music on full volume.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/prodigy/
(You may need to confirm you are over 16 to watch this video)
Unfortunately for us, whatever comes up must come down as we went from one of the best live bands of our generation to one of the worst. The Arctic Monkeys did not only have the same 'fuck you' attitude as the Kings Of Leon, but they couldn't back that up with a really good quality set. They played almost all of their new album which was released about a week before the performance (and in that week was completely panned by the press), leaving the crowd with not much to do but stand there and wonder how a band like this could ever headline a festival of this stature, much less win a Mercury music prize. I wouldn't really advise watching, but I may as well keep with the rest of the report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/arcticmonkeys/video3.shtml#emp
As it's 4:30 and my tournaments are just starting now, I shall have to leave Sunday until tomorrow. Good luck to all my poker people in the $215 Pot Limit Omaha tonight as well as the $200 rebuy NL Single draw and the $109 8 game.
Later taters xx
So back to Reading;
Saturday;
I woke on Saturday morning with the familiar headache and bad back that I'm now growing quite fond of, almost like I couldn't be having fun at a festival without them. I managed to resist the urge of Fightstar on the main stage and decided to accompany Lizzie, Abbie and Laura to Spinnerete on the NME stage who gave a good rocky half hour of songs that despite not knowing, I was more than happy to dance along to. Unfortunately, the BBC chose not to record this set for TV, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
After the set I left the girls to walk back to Tom's campsite to meet up with him, and we decided to go straight back into the festival and chill in the comedy tent for abit. It was pretty good to sit there and chill for a few hours, even if some of the comics were abit suspect.
Firstly we saw Jessica Delfino who, although showed some merit was stifled by a) not being very funny and b) because she wasn't very funny the crowd begun to talk so it became harder to hear her. She occasionally hit upon some genius one liners but finding a laugh seemed quite similar to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Then we saw Gary Delaney, who strikes me as everything you might find at a Jimmy Carr concert. He stood there for about 30 minutes and delivered roughly 150 simple buildup-punchline jokes, which were admittedly very funny in places. Although I enjoyed his set, I kind of felt cheap for enjoying such a basic brand of comedy afterwards.
Lastly and most controversially, Doug Stanhope an American comic who can only be described as a cross between Frankie Boyle and Jerry Sadowitz. If Gary Delaney made me feel cheap for laughing at his set, Stanhope certainly made me feel dirty for his racist/sexist/masochistic/narcissistic view of life. Tom's girlfriend Fiona did, however, not laugh and actually started heckling him (safely from the back of the tent) and got up and walked out before the end of his set. Luckily she returned after and we all went back to our respective campsites.
As I got back to the campsite, everyone was there getting food and tanked up for the evening bill of the Prodigy, followed by the Arctic Monkeys and as the time came nearer we slowly trundled towards the main stage.
In short it was an evening of incredibly ups and downs. We got to witness one of the really great live bands of our generation in the Prodigy, who made close to 100,000 people dance/mosh/sing along to their rocky dance tunes. The one small downside of the performance for us was that we were just in front of the second set of speakers, putting us in quite a quiet spot, making it a bit too quiet for our youthful ears that are used to music on full volume.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/prodigy/
(You may need to confirm you are over 16 to watch this video)
Unfortunately for us, whatever comes up must come down as we went from one of the best live bands of our generation to one of the worst. The Arctic Monkeys did not only have the same 'fuck you' attitude as the Kings Of Leon, but they couldn't back that up with a really good quality set. They played almost all of their new album which was released about a week before the performance (and in that week was completely panned by the press), leaving the crowd with not much to do but stand there and wonder how a band like this could ever headline a festival of this stature, much less win a Mercury music prize. I wouldn't really advise watching, but I may as well keep with the rest of the report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/arcticmonkeys/video3.shtml#emp
As it's 4:30 and my tournaments are just starting now, I shall have to leave Sunday until tomorrow. Good luck to all my poker people in the $215 Pot Limit Omaha tonight as well as the $200 rebuy NL Single draw and the $109 8 game.
Later taters xx
Tuesday 1 September 2009
Whoop whoop Reading TR Part 1
Wow, I've been the shittest blogger in the world recently, but life's been abit busy with poker and the like. That's the excuse and i'm sticking to it.
I thought I'd hit up the blog scene again because I just came back from a wicked weekend at Reading festival 2009, in which I saw some really good bands and had a really good time in general.
The weekend really started on Wednesday night when i decided to play a bunch of tournaments through the night, which proved to be a good idea because I somehow managed a 7k heater in about 100 games. I woke up the next morning with a spring in my step, knowing that I'm now well over half way into the huge hole that is my makeup.
Thursday;
I woke up lazily on Thursday morning to a call from my friend Lizzie who was already at the festival asking me when I was going to come, I told her 'soon', put the phone down and slept for a few more hours before finally slumping out of bed and plodding towards the train with a bunch of heavy bags/tent/sleeping bag. After 2 hours of napping on the train, I was in the beautiful city of Reading; just one of the tens of thousands of young, happy-go-lucky campers who'd came to see what was probably the best festival lineup in our lifetimes. The first thing we did when I arrived was go to Tesco for get supplies (by which I mean alcohol) with Lizzie's Bury friends, the guys I was camping with, and then go explore the campsite with cider and spirits in hand. Since there was no music until Friday, we just chilled around the fairground and had some bananas. I did prop bet Lizzie £100 to run across the dodge ems while they were going which she promptly snap-called me on and earned herself what she said for her was 2 days work. I think the stupidest part of the bet was that she probably would have done it for about 1/4 of the price, but at any rate it was a fun start to the weekend.
Friday;
I woke up on Friday morning with the familiar headache and bad back that is usually created by the combination for booze, bananas and sleeping in a tent, but I wasn't going to let that ruin what looked like a fine day of music. There was a slight drama at about 10am, when Lizzie went to withdraw some cash and she found herself with £2k less than she thought she had, after much nail biting and talk of identity theft and a 60 minute walk into Reading city center we found that Lizzie is in fact terrible with money and had simply spent about £1500 without knowing it in the last few months. At least the journey back to the campsite was much more fun than it's counterpart, with us taking the piss out of Lizzie for the absurd situation she got herself in.
We got back to the festival at about 2:30, just in time to be convinced to go to the arena and check out Little Boots, who I really enjoyed. Her girly brand of electro-pop was a great way to show the world my dance moves in what was just generally a really fun and upbeat set. I wanted to try and embed some video clips into this, but the bbc website is being rubbish and protecting against that, so I'll just have to give links;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/littleboots/video2.shtml#emp
We then headed back to the campsite for a quick half our alcohol refuel before going in for the rest of the evening. First up on the bill was New Found Glory, who Lizzie and I saw in honour of our friend Emo who couldn't make it to the festival despite having tickets. It was pretty good to rock out to abit of emo/pop-punk that I haven't really heard for 5/6 years, I think the last time I saw them when when they were supporting Greenday in 03.
After that we met the rest of the group of people we were camping with to go and see Florence and the Machine, the band I was most looking forward to that day. About a month previously, I had bought her album and had been slightly embaressed to admit that it was pretty much the best album I'd heard this year. After her performance on the NME stage, I'm certainly not ashamed anymore. She gave an amazing performance that could be confused with an aging rocker who'd given hundreds of festival performances. I literally can't give high enough praise about how good she was;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/florenceandthemachine/index.shtml#emp
edit; can't find a one song clip of that performance, so just watch as much as you want (the 30 minute highlights are well worth the watch fwiw)
After Florance I was pretty buzzed, and having met my friend Tom and his girlfriend we rushed over to try and check out the end of Placebo (which we just missed) so we hung around for abit checking out some random bands/comedy performances before eventually deciding to go and see the Kaiser Chiefs.
We obviously weren't expecting much, but I've got to say they were quite a lot of fun, we danced it away and ate some bananas while not so quietly asking when they were going to do the one where he predicts a riot. I liked that they didn't take themselves too seriously and just played some good rocky tunes;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/kaiserchiefs/
(go to about 22 minutes in for the best performance of the set)
Suitably pumped up, we waited for the Kings of Leon, who were the evenings headline act. The crowd really started to fill up and get tight, it seemed as though everyone at the festival had really wanted to see KoL and to be honest, the vast majority of them were bitterly disappointed, not by the performance which in my estimation was a very good, rocky show, but the 'fuck you' attitude of the band, who at 4 different points were complaining about seemingly nothing, only to end their show with no encore and the lead singer giving the 50,000+ crowd the V. Despite that, the music was pretty good, and I'd probably go and see them again;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/kingsofleon/
(watch from 16:55 for a perfect example of both a great musical performance and class douchbaggery)
Will hit up a part 2 tomorrow
loves and hugs xx
I thought I'd hit up the blog scene again because I just came back from a wicked weekend at Reading festival 2009, in which I saw some really good bands and had a really good time in general.
The weekend really started on Wednesday night when i decided to play a bunch of tournaments through the night, which proved to be a good idea because I somehow managed a 7k heater in about 100 games. I woke up the next morning with a spring in my step, knowing that I'm now well over half way into the huge hole that is my makeup.
Thursday;
I woke up lazily on Thursday morning to a call from my friend Lizzie who was already at the festival asking me when I was going to come, I told her 'soon', put the phone down and slept for a few more hours before finally slumping out of bed and plodding towards the train with a bunch of heavy bags/tent/sleeping bag. After 2 hours of napping on the train, I was in the beautiful city of Reading; just one of the tens of thousands of young, happy-go-lucky campers who'd came to see what was probably the best festival lineup in our lifetimes. The first thing we did when I arrived was go to Tesco for get supplies (by which I mean alcohol) with Lizzie's Bury friends, the guys I was camping with, and then go explore the campsite with cider and spirits in hand. Since there was no music until Friday, we just chilled around the fairground and had some bananas. I did prop bet Lizzie £100 to run across the dodge ems while they were going which she promptly snap-called me on and earned herself what she said for her was 2 days work. I think the stupidest part of the bet was that she probably would have done it for about 1/4 of the price, but at any rate it was a fun start to the weekend.
Friday;
I woke up on Friday morning with the familiar headache and bad back that is usually created by the combination for booze, bananas and sleeping in a tent, but I wasn't going to let that ruin what looked like a fine day of music. There was a slight drama at about 10am, when Lizzie went to withdraw some cash and she found herself with £2k less than she thought she had, after much nail biting and talk of identity theft and a 60 minute walk into Reading city center we found that Lizzie is in fact terrible with money and had simply spent about £1500 without knowing it in the last few months. At least the journey back to the campsite was much more fun than it's counterpart, with us taking the piss out of Lizzie for the absurd situation she got herself in.
We got back to the festival at about 2:30, just in time to be convinced to go to the arena and check out Little Boots, who I really enjoyed. Her girly brand of electro-pop was a great way to show the world my dance moves in what was just generally a really fun and upbeat set. I wanted to try and embed some video clips into this, but the bbc website is being rubbish and protecting against that, so I'll just have to give links;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/littleboots/video2.shtml#emp
We then headed back to the campsite for a quick half our alcohol refuel before going in for the rest of the evening. First up on the bill was New Found Glory, who Lizzie and I saw in honour of our friend Emo who couldn't make it to the festival despite having tickets. It was pretty good to rock out to abit of emo/pop-punk that I haven't really heard for 5/6 years, I think the last time I saw them when when they were supporting Greenday in 03.
After that we met the rest of the group of people we were camping with to go and see Florence and the Machine, the band I was most looking forward to that day. About a month previously, I had bought her album and had been slightly embaressed to admit that it was pretty much the best album I'd heard this year. After her performance on the NME stage, I'm certainly not ashamed anymore. She gave an amazing performance that could be confused with an aging rocker who'd given hundreds of festival performances. I literally can't give high enough praise about how good she was;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/florenceandthemachine/index.shtml#emp
edit; can't find a one song clip of that performance, so just watch as much as you want (the 30 minute highlights are well worth the watch fwiw)
After Florance I was pretty buzzed, and having met my friend Tom and his girlfriend we rushed over to try and check out the end of Placebo (which we just missed) so we hung around for abit checking out some random bands/comedy performances before eventually deciding to go and see the Kaiser Chiefs.
We obviously weren't expecting much, but I've got to say they were quite a lot of fun, we danced it away and ate some bananas while not so quietly asking when they were going to do the one where he predicts a riot. I liked that they didn't take themselves too seriously and just played some good rocky tunes;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/kaiserchiefs/
(go to about 22 minutes in for the best performance of the set)
Suitably pumped up, we waited for the Kings of Leon, who were the evenings headline act. The crowd really started to fill up and get tight, it seemed as though everyone at the festival had really wanted to see KoL and to be honest, the vast majority of them were bitterly disappointed, not by the performance which in my estimation was a very good, rocky show, but the 'fuck you' attitude of the band, who at 4 different points were complaining about seemingly nothing, only to end their show with no encore and the lead singer giving the 50,000+ crowd the V. Despite that, the music was pretty good, and I'd probably go and see them again;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/artists/kingsofleon/
(watch from 16:55 for a perfect example of both a great musical performance and class douchbaggery)
Will hit up a part 2 tomorrow
loves and hugs xx
Sunday 5 July 2009
No more live poker!
Yesterday I woke (at 9PM)to this on facebook;
Lizzie Gull; youre a total noob as blogs.
Yes Lizzie, I suck at blogging. The main reason for this is because I've been living a vampiric life in the last two weeks of June through to Yesterday, generally getting to a game at about midnight (where the games seem to be best) and leaving anywhere between 8AM and 5PM. To cut a 3 week story short, I run extremely good at the start and ran very bad at the end and have realised that I really hate live poker, and as much as I love Pot Limit Omaha, full ring £1/2 playing 20 hands/hour is putting me on extreme monkey tilt.
There was a festival at the international, and the cash games were so good I only actually felt the need to play 2 of them; the £100 HA for fun and the £500 Main event today. My bustout hand was kind of sick, but aside from opening pre from UTG+1 I don't think I won any money reciprocally;
£500 Live Freezeout, Blinds 100/200
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to 700 (20k), 3 folds, Hero calls in CO (7500 effective) with AcAs, sb calls (about 7k) and bb calls (10k)
Flop (2800); KcTc2c
UTG+1 bets 1500, Hero raises to 6800 (all in), 2 folds, UTG calls+1 calls and shows Qc9h
Being a 90% favorite is nice, them binking a 3 outer is not. So I decided to come home and sulk for several hours; which is very unlike me normally, I just think I was upset that my table was so soft and I missed my gaping spot to pick up a bunch of chips.
So as of today, Saturday 4th July, I have decided to play a bunch of hands online. I am boycotting live poker until I have played 100,000 hands online, and im showing a decent, sustainable winrate. So it means lots more blogging for all of you lucky people. I'm also going to get to the gym 3 times a week and shall be setting myself personal punishments every week I don't comply with this.
Probably gunna be up in Cambridge on monday for abit of Monday night fez, hopefully I shall see a bunch of you guys there.
Hugz xxx
Lizzie Gull; youre a total noob as blogs.
Yes Lizzie, I suck at blogging. The main reason for this is because I've been living a vampiric life in the last two weeks of June through to Yesterday, generally getting to a game at about midnight (where the games seem to be best) and leaving anywhere between 8AM and 5PM. To cut a 3 week story short, I run extremely good at the start and ran very bad at the end and have realised that I really hate live poker, and as much as I love Pot Limit Omaha, full ring £1/2 playing 20 hands/hour is putting me on extreme monkey tilt.
There was a festival at the international, and the cash games were so good I only actually felt the need to play 2 of them; the £100 HA for fun and the £500 Main event today. My bustout hand was kind of sick, but aside from opening pre from UTG+1 I don't think I won any money reciprocally;
£500 Live Freezeout, Blinds 100/200
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to 700 (20k), 3 folds, Hero calls in CO (7500 effective) with AcAs, sb calls (about 7k) and bb calls (10k)
Flop (2800); KcTc2c
UTG+1 bets 1500, Hero raises to 6800 (all in), 2 folds, UTG calls+1 calls and shows Qc9h
Being a 90% favorite is nice, them binking a 3 outer is not. So I decided to come home and sulk for several hours; which is very unlike me normally, I just think I was upset that my table was so soft and I missed my gaping spot to pick up a bunch of chips.
So as of today, Saturday 4th July, I have decided to play a bunch of hands online. I am boycotting live poker until I have played 100,000 hands online, and im showing a decent, sustainable winrate. So it means lots more blogging for all of you lucky people. I'm also going to get to the gym 3 times a week and shall be setting myself personal punishments every week I don't comply with this.
Probably gunna be up in Cambridge on monday for abit of Monday night fez, hopefully I shall see a bunch of you guys there.
Hugz xxx
Thursday 11 June 2009
Live or online?
Currently sitting in front of my computer in the nude, wondering if I should get dressed in a basketball jersey and shorts to grind tournaments online or put some more dignified clothes on to go and play live Pot Limit Omaha. I'm painfully aware that I've only been putting in one or two nights online in the last month or two and have only been breaking even. Live Omaha on the other hand has been freaking sweat in the last week especially, I think I'm winning £4100 in the last week in the regular £1/2 game, which basically boils down to being on the right end of a few 1k pots. I think I should be trying to play more online tournaments but its hard to stick at something you're having a rough patch at when you're running really well in a different area.
I've really not been playing too much poker in the last week anyway. Last week I visited Lydia in Birmingham for a cool houseparty; I got totally wrecked after drinking some bright green liquid which turned out to be a mix of all the spirits he had in the owners collection. I'm not usually too much of a lightweight, but Im afraid to say I fettled like a bitch and spent the early part of the next morning throwing up. I also went to visit Lizzie in Brighton for her 20th on Tuesday which was great, another night of getting drink and seeing one of my favoritist people in the whole wide world.
Sigh, I've missed the 20 cubed and the daily 80k so I guess I'll go play in London.
Later taters xxxx
I've really not been playing too much poker in the last week anyway. Last week I visited Lydia in Birmingham for a cool houseparty; I got totally wrecked after drinking some bright green liquid which turned out to be a mix of all the spirits he had in the owners collection. I'm not usually too much of a lightweight, but Im afraid to say I fettled like a bitch and spent the early part of the next morning throwing up. I also went to visit Lizzie in Brighton for her 20th on Tuesday which was great, another night of getting drink and seeing one of my favoritist people in the whole wide world.
Sigh, I've missed the 20 cubed and the daily 80k so I guess I'll go play in London.
Later taters xxxx
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Sorry for the absence
Wow it turns out i've been really rubbish at updating this. As it happens I've been running a blog on a different site, Blackbeltpoker.com.
At the beginning of April I had a conversation with my friend Nik Persuad who convinced me to do this 'grading' for his new company Blackbelt. It entailed 50 poker players grinding out the small stakes for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week (with 1 workshop per week). The first week was NL50 or PLO50, the second NL100/PLO100 and the third NL200/PLO200, and had to be played a minimum of 4 tables (or 2 for heads up). The best 8 of the 50 would get a $4k/month sponsorship package and $20k to play about 5 WSOP events. To cut a long story short I've had an immensely stressful and hard working month in which I managed to complete the 4 weeks (which only 31 players managed to do) and turn a small profit (which less were able to do). In the end I finished just shy of the top8 and qualified for a $1500/month sponsorship package (which I have dually declined). Obviously while it's a compliment that someone wants to spend $1500 every month on my poker ability, I'm very disappointed as I certainly thought myself in the top10 players of the 50 and therefore had a great chance of getting the better sponsorship deal.
I suppose that's about all I have to say as this grinding has literally been my whole last month. I played mtts every sunday (my day off) and keep on making final 2/3 tables of majors but can't seem to get that 5 figure score breakthrough. At least now I'm much more prepared to grind than I ever was before.
Thanks to those of you who have been supportive and berated me for not updating my blog. I love you all very much.
At the beginning of April I had a conversation with my friend Nik Persuad who convinced me to do this 'grading' for his new company Blackbelt. It entailed 50 poker players grinding out the small stakes for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week (with 1 workshop per week). The first week was NL50 or PLO50, the second NL100/PLO100 and the third NL200/PLO200, and had to be played a minimum of 4 tables (or 2 for heads up). The best 8 of the 50 would get a $4k/month sponsorship package and $20k to play about 5 WSOP events. To cut a long story short I've had an immensely stressful and hard working month in which I managed to complete the 4 weeks (which only 31 players managed to do) and turn a small profit (which less were able to do). In the end I finished just shy of the top8 and qualified for a $1500/month sponsorship package (which I have dually declined). Obviously while it's a compliment that someone wants to spend $1500 every month on my poker ability, I'm very disappointed as I certainly thought myself in the top10 players of the 50 and therefore had a great chance of getting the better sponsorship deal.
I suppose that's about all I have to say as this grinding has literally been my whole last month. I played mtts every sunday (my day off) and keep on making final 2/3 tables of majors but can't seem to get that 5 figure score breakthrough. At least now I'm much more prepared to grind than I ever was before.
Thanks to those of you who have been supportive and berated me for not updating my blog. I love you all very much.
Friday 27 March 2009
I've once again been really rubbish at updating, theres been a load of stuff going on and I've spent little time online (and when I have I've been too lazy). First things first, my grandfather passed away early Sunday morning, so it's been a really emotional week, which was unbelievably hard because I had to sandwich it between a £500 and a £1500 which I couldn't unregister from or anything. Now they're done and dusted I can take a week or so (before SCOOP starts) and be with my family. The Guardian wrote a really nice obituary http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/26/tim-brinton-obituary
I've been thinking a lot about the future recently, I'm certain I don't want to be grinding 5/10 or something equally depressing when I'm 40, so I've created a figure which I want to reach then I can finish with poker and go back to school. If I reach my figure and I either decide that the amount of money wasn't as much as I think it is now or I'm not yet bored with poker then I'll just put my whole roll into savings and become 100% staked. Even if none of this ever happens, it feels so much better to have a plan to be working towards rather than just 'tearing shit up 5 days a week'.
I've continued my trend of running like ass in tournaments but being 100% golden in cash, I shorted abit of 5/10NL at the Vic on sunday and won like £2k and have won £2.5k at the international playing PLO basically because im about 8 and 2 on huge set vs wrap+FD flips. I'm aware that I will not run this good forever but at some point I will start winning flips deep in online mtts.
I played a few GUKPT London events, busting in lv2 of the £500 PLO, losing an 18 card wrap vs an overpair and a flushdraw in a 3 bet pot (I do lose PLO flips sometimes), and I busted late last night in the £1500 main event, eventually getting it in with QQ vs KK. Kind of nice that in both spots it's all super standard and I don't need to sweat how I played too hard.
So i suspect I shall be off to sunny Kent for a few days for the funeral, and then i'll relax on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday is my dear Mothers birthday, and then the Spring Championship of Online Poker begins on Pokerstars on Thursday, so expect lots of blogging, I'm probably going to stay clear of the High Stakes events, just playing almost all of the low and medium ones.
Once again thank you to everyone who's been there when I've needed to talk about my Grandfather (Amy and Poppy again especially), your love and support has been really appreciated.
I've been thinking a lot about the future recently, I'm certain I don't want to be grinding 5/10 or something equally depressing when I'm 40, so I've created a figure which I want to reach then I can finish with poker and go back to school. If I reach my figure and I either decide that the amount of money wasn't as much as I think it is now or I'm not yet bored with poker then I'll just put my whole roll into savings and become 100% staked. Even if none of this ever happens, it feels so much better to have a plan to be working towards rather than just 'tearing shit up 5 days a week'.
I've continued my trend of running like ass in tournaments but being 100% golden in cash, I shorted abit of 5/10NL at the Vic on sunday and won like £2k and have won £2.5k at the international playing PLO basically because im about 8 and 2 on huge set vs wrap+FD flips. I'm aware that I will not run this good forever but at some point I will start winning flips deep in online mtts.
I played a few GUKPT London events, busting in lv2 of the £500 PLO, losing an 18 card wrap vs an overpair and a flushdraw in a 3 bet pot (I do lose PLO flips sometimes), and I busted late last night in the £1500 main event, eventually getting it in with QQ vs KK. Kind of nice that in both spots it's all super standard and I don't need to sweat how I played too hard.
So i suspect I shall be off to sunny Kent for a few days for the funeral, and then i'll relax on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday is my dear Mothers birthday, and then the Spring Championship of Online Poker begins on Pokerstars on Thursday, so expect lots of blogging, I'm probably going to stay clear of the High Stakes events, just playing almost all of the low and medium ones.
Once again thank you to everyone who's been there when I've needed to talk about my Grandfather (Amy and Poppy again especially), your love and support has been really appreciated.
Wednesday 11 March 2009
Lots going on in the live world of poker
Sorry I haven't blogged in a week or so. I meant to do a Paris trip report but the festival at the international kinda dragged on and little things have kept coming up, so i'll do a shortened version now.
Basically, I ran horribly at mtts in the last 10 days, blanking 3 500euro events, 2 250euro events, the £150, £200 PLO and finally going deep in the £500 before essentially bubbling it. Luckily for me, my inability to run bad at either cash holdem or pot limit omaha means i'm actually winning for the period (which is pretty impressive when you consider i decided not to take a shot at 5/10 PLO in Paris so i've not played any bigger than 5/5.
Away from poker Paris was a lot of fun; and I feel it was important for me to take a week or so away from London just to try and get my head around my current MTT downswing. Obviously it didn't work too well, and I literally do not know what I'd do if I wasn't on a 2000bb 1/2 PLO upswing in 2009. It's mainly because of that that I feel so good about poker at the moment, and I'm probably going to continue playing some live mtts over the next few weeks; theres a festival at the empire this week then its GUKPT london straight after.
So yeah, i'll probably hit up the empire tomorrow/thursday (I can't make the main event because im seeing an old friend again), spew off a bunch online on Sunday trying to get out of makeup then relax and wait for the vic.
As always, thanks for all the comments and support, I love you all.
Basically, I ran horribly at mtts in the last 10 days, blanking 3 500euro events, 2 250euro events, the £150, £200 PLO and finally going deep in the £500 before essentially bubbling it. Luckily for me, my inability to run bad at either cash holdem or pot limit omaha means i'm actually winning for the period (which is pretty impressive when you consider i decided not to take a shot at 5/10 PLO in Paris so i've not played any bigger than 5/5.
Away from poker Paris was a lot of fun; and I feel it was important for me to take a week or so away from London just to try and get my head around my current MTT downswing. Obviously it didn't work too well, and I literally do not know what I'd do if I wasn't on a 2000bb 1/2 PLO upswing in 2009. It's mainly because of that that I feel so good about poker at the moment, and I'm probably going to continue playing some live mtts over the next few weeks; theres a festival at the empire this week then its GUKPT london straight after.
So yeah, i'll probably hit up the empire tomorrow/thursday (I can't make the main event because im seeing an old friend again), spew off a bunch online on Sunday trying to get out of makeup then relax and wait for the vic.
As always, thanks for all the comments and support, I love you all.
Thursday 26 February 2009
Whoops, didn't blog in a while.
Yeah, i've not really been in this last week at all. Had a bad Sunday online, not running especially bad, just not shipping anything or getting especially deep in much. The other side of the coin is that my friend and fellow nitreg mr HotKarlMC shipped the Sunday 500 on stars, picking up a cool $91k. Very well done sir, the cream on the cake being that he satted in, plays on his own money and did not make a deal at the final table.
On Monday I decided to play the International's £50 HORSE London Poker Masters warmup event for abit of a giggle. There were 56 runners, creating a first prize of £860. Simon Hennessey and I decided to crossbook to spice things up abit (I busted him in razz in 15th place), as well as a 20 player £20 last longer, meaning the first place was worth more to me in prop bets then it was in prize money. To cut a long story short, I was very bored, the buyin was too small and I spent 9 hours coming 10th -_-
Tuesday arrived and I somehow found myself back at the International with my brother to play two £20 comps (I haven't decided if this is more or less tilting than playing a live low stakes limit tournament), but we had a really cool time, and I managed to drop £40 at Yo Sushi. I also met up with Baneris, Ed Marsh and his friend. The highlight of the tournament was me taking the term "hero call" to a whole new level.
Blinds 150/300
Preflop action; 5 folds, CO (7k chips) open limps, I open limp the BTN with 63s (7.5k chips). Sb completes, BB checks. They both cover us.
Flop (1200); As Kh 5s
BB;Check, SB;Check, CO; Bets 800, Hero;raise to 1600, 2 folds, CO;raise to 2400, Hero;call.
Turn (6000) 6c
CO;Bet 4700 all in, Hero;call 4700
Thoughts?
After I busted the tournament I went and played the juicy 1/2 PLO game and won about £1400 in an hour or so and decided to go home and get some sleep, despite feeling kinda bad for hitting and running.
I've kind of taken the last few days of poker, been up to Cambridge abit to chill and see people, which is always fun. Caught up with Nel today before somehow managing room for 2 deserts, then had my silly little operation (which went fine) and now i'm just chilling at home.
I'm glad to have taken a few days off, especially as i've got a large stake live poker tournament every day from Saturday to the 7th March. It'll probably be really draining, but i'm definitely looking forward to the challenge (as well as the glamour of Paris).
I guess that's about all. Thank you to both Poppy and Amy who were especially nice to me when they found out I was having my operation (even though as i said, it was nothing at all), your kind words were still very much appriciated.
Thanks very much xx
Oh, and a small p.s. My friend Kris posted a really interesting video on religion and game theory on his facebook. While I don't agree with his arguments, he forms them in such a smart and sophisticated manner. I think he's got the makings of an excellent poker player. I suggest you check the videos out and possibly subscribe to his blog; http://kperovic.blogspot.com
On Monday I decided to play the International's £50 HORSE London Poker Masters warmup event for abit of a giggle. There were 56 runners, creating a first prize of £860. Simon Hennessey and I decided to crossbook to spice things up abit (I busted him in razz in 15th place), as well as a 20 player £20 last longer, meaning the first place was worth more to me in prop bets then it was in prize money. To cut a long story short, I was very bored, the buyin was too small and I spent 9 hours coming 10th -_-
Tuesday arrived and I somehow found myself back at the International with my brother to play two £20 comps (I haven't decided if this is more or less tilting than playing a live low stakes limit tournament), but we had a really cool time, and I managed to drop £40 at Yo Sushi. I also met up with Baneris, Ed Marsh and his friend. The highlight of the tournament was me taking the term "hero call" to a whole new level.
Blinds 150/300
Preflop action; 5 folds, CO (7k chips) open limps, I open limp the BTN with 63s (7.5k chips). Sb completes, BB checks. They both cover us.
Flop (1200); As Kh 5s
BB;Check, SB;Check, CO; Bets 800, Hero;raise to 1600, 2 folds, CO;raise to 2400, Hero;call.
Turn (6000) 6c
CO;Bet 4700 all in, Hero;call 4700
Thoughts?
After I busted the tournament I went and played the juicy 1/2 PLO game and won about £1400 in an hour or so and decided to go home and get some sleep, despite feeling kinda bad for hitting and running.
I've kind of taken the last few days of poker, been up to Cambridge abit to chill and see people, which is always fun. Caught up with Nel today before somehow managing room for 2 deserts, then had my silly little operation (which went fine) and now i'm just chilling at home.
I'm glad to have taken a few days off, especially as i've got a large stake live poker tournament every day from Saturday to the 7th March. It'll probably be really draining, but i'm definitely looking forward to the challenge (as well as the glamour of Paris).
I guess that's about all. Thank you to both Poppy and Amy who were especially nice to me when they found out I was having my operation (even though as i said, it was nothing at all), your kind words were still very much appriciated.
Thanks very much xx
Oh, and a small p.s. My friend Kris posted a really interesting video on religion and game theory on his facebook. While I don't agree with his arguments, he forms them in such a smart and sophisticated manner. I think he's got the makings of an excellent poker player. I suggest you check the videos out and possibly subscribe to his blog; http://kperovic.blogspot.com
Monday 16 February 2009
Cambridge...Leicester...then oh yeah...FUCK SUNDAYS
Some day i'm going to ship a major. It will be a very happy day for all concerned, i'll win 6 figures and we can all have a big party. Before then i'm going to have to keep on going deep and losing big flips (absolutely redic flips in the case on the mill this week). I was so unbelievably angry that I didn't have time to pokerhand this, but the short story is that I have 12bbs at 5k/10k, utg limps, sb completes, I ship 88, utg folds and sb snaps JTo and obviously binks. I really really want to hurt something.
I also went deep in the $129 FTOPS knockout, coming 250/9000 for like $500 inc knockouts. That was just a fairly standard 4bet shove HJ vs BTN with 88 and losing to AQ for a huge stack. In general I havn't been running very well or poorly recently. I've just not been hitting the exact flops and the right time, but I'm sure that'll change soon.
Other than poker, I was in Cambridge at the start of the week and was able to catch up with Nel which was fun, I then mozied on down to Leicester for Thursday-Saturday to generally chill+celebrate Amyday. Although it was really great to see everyone again, it made me sad that going away, everyone else's life moves on; and even though mine has been taking me to really exciting places, it's been away from all the uni guys, which kind of had me feeling abit left behind. That aside, I had a really good time with a lot of people I really care about and am already missing them.
My schedule is kind of packed over the next month or so, I wanna play 2/3 nights online this week before playing live (probably Thursday), then I'm going to play the £250 in Luton at the weekend. The week after that I'm going to play the £50 HORSE at the int, go to Cambridge for 2 days (got a minor operation), play live again that thursday night (and hang with my brother) then be all ready for; Paris on the 28th-5th, The London Poker Masters 5th-8th and maybe the GUKPT at the Vic straight after that.
I'll be a very very busy Joe in the forthcoming month or so, but i'll try and blog at least 2/3 times per week (sorry ive been abit rubbish). Thanks to everyone whos been reading and chatting to me about it on facebook/msn/aim for your love and support.
Nighty night xx
I also went deep in the $129 FTOPS knockout, coming 250/9000 for like $500 inc knockouts. That was just a fairly standard 4bet shove HJ vs BTN with 88 and losing to AQ for a huge stack. In general I havn't been running very well or poorly recently. I've just not been hitting the exact flops and the right time, but I'm sure that'll change soon.
Other than poker, I was in Cambridge at the start of the week and was able to catch up with Nel which was fun, I then mozied on down to Leicester for Thursday-Saturday to generally chill+celebrate Amyday. Although it was really great to see everyone again, it made me sad that going away, everyone else's life moves on; and even though mine has been taking me to really exciting places, it's been away from all the uni guys, which kind of had me feeling abit left behind. That aside, I had a really good time with a lot of people I really care about and am already missing them.
My schedule is kind of packed over the next month or so, I wanna play 2/3 nights online this week before playing live (probably Thursday), then I'm going to play the £250 in Luton at the weekend. The week after that I'm going to play the £50 HORSE at the int, go to Cambridge for 2 days (got a minor operation), play live again that thursday night (and hang with my brother) then be all ready for; Paris on the 28th-5th, The London Poker Masters 5th-8th and maybe the GUKPT at the Vic straight after that.
I'll be a very very busy Joe in the forthcoming month or so, but i'll try and blog at least 2/3 times per week (sorry ive been abit rubbish). Thanks to everyone whos been reading and chatting to me about it on facebook/msn/aim for your love and support.
Nighty night xx
Sunday 1 February 2009
Live poker ahoy
Today is the first sunday i've taken off online poker in about 6 months. No mtts, no volume, no mirrion. Superbowl sunday seems reason enough to take the day off, plus Ed final tabled the £300 at the International (and I have 10% of him) so I'll go down and sweat him/play some deep £1/2 PLO then watch the superbowl there with my brother.
All this live poker madness started on thursday when after blasting about 11 mtts, I decided to cut my session short and head to the Vic to play some cash. After about 3 hours there and still being within £50 of my original buyin at all times, I decided to move on to the gutshot where the PLO games can get fairly big on a thursday. Oh boy was I right! After about 6 hours of standard 200bb PLO, we'd somehow managed to get about £7k on the table, and then Chen showed up, immediately losing 2 1K buyins to pump the money up to around £9k, specifically in one hand against me (sorry for live hand history):
This was Chen's exact first hand in which he straddles for £5. I opened for £18 UTG with ATJ8hhxx. Folds around to chen who calls.
Flop (£44): Jh5s7s
Chen: Bet £40
Hero: Call £40
Turn (£124) 7h
Chen: Bet £120
Joe: Call £120
River (£364) Qh
Chen: Check
Joe: Bet £225
Chen: Raise All-in (after a very long dwell)
Joe: Call (after longer dwell)
Chen tabled something along the lines of AKQT for a big bluff and I took down a 1000bb pot. I don't especially want to go into my thought process of why I played certain streets the way I did (namely 4th and 5th) as I play a lot with Chen and I think it would be harmful to both of us for me to post the reasons online, but basically, it feels great to make a huge hero call and be right.
I left that game after about 17 hours and went home to get some sleep (after phoning Mike to tell him he should go down and play) for the £300 freezeout the next day. Long story short, I busto'd it pretty quick. Got fairly well outplayed in one hand, and then eventually busting for my last 5k (25bbs) with JThh on a 972xcc board in which I was actually beating 45cc lol. Since there were 2 guys I had percentages with still in the tournament, I decided to stay for a few hours, and won about £460 playing cash anyway.
So yeah, this weekend reminded me how much I love playing live poker (when im running good). Im about to head back down to sweat Ed, play some PLO, watch the Liverpool/Cheslea game, crossbook Marcus in the £30 freezeout that im putting my brother in then watch the superbowl. Have a great superbowl sunday everyone.
All this live poker madness started on thursday when after blasting about 11 mtts, I decided to cut my session short and head to the Vic to play some cash. After about 3 hours there and still being within £50 of my original buyin at all times, I decided to move on to the gutshot where the PLO games can get fairly big on a thursday. Oh boy was I right! After about 6 hours of standard 200bb PLO, we'd somehow managed to get about £7k on the table, and then Chen showed up, immediately losing 2 1K buyins to pump the money up to around £9k, specifically in one hand against me (sorry for live hand history):
This was Chen's exact first hand in which he straddles for £5. I opened for £18 UTG with ATJ8hhxx. Folds around to chen who calls.
Flop (£44): Jh5s7s
Chen: Bet £40
Hero: Call £40
Turn (£124) 7h
Chen: Bet £120
Joe: Call £120
River (£364) Qh
Chen: Check
Joe: Bet £225
Chen: Raise All-in (after a very long dwell)
Joe: Call (after longer dwell)
Chen tabled something along the lines of AKQT for a big bluff and I took down a 1000bb pot. I don't especially want to go into my thought process of why I played certain streets the way I did (namely 4th and 5th) as I play a lot with Chen and I think it would be harmful to both of us for me to post the reasons online, but basically, it feels great to make a huge hero call and be right.
I left that game after about 17 hours and went home to get some sleep (after phoning Mike to tell him he should go down and play) for the £300 freezeout the next day. Long story short, I busto'd it pretty quick. Got fairly well outplayed in one hand, and then eventually busting for my last 5k (25bbs) with JThh on a 972xcc board in which I was actually beating 45cc lol. Since there were 2 guys I had percentages with still in the tournament, I decided to stay for a few hours, and won about £460 playing cash anyway.
So yeah, this weekend reminded me how much I love playing live poker (when im running good). Im about to head back down to sweat Ed, play some PLO, watch the Liverpool/Cheslea game, crossbook Marcus in the £30 freezeout that im putting my brother in then watch the superbowl. Have a great superbowl sunday everyone.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Tough week
I think i'm starting something of a downswing; after losing £1500 at the international in a particularly bloody PLO game, i've been firing blanks online in the last 3 days, I think im losing another $700 in MTTs. Obviously i've not actually lost a great deal of money but its very damaging to my ego and competative nature. As most of you know, I play extremely high variance poker and its just getting so hard to continue to play this way when its going against me; i.e. 3 bet shove light deep in tournaments when i'm getting called light. Obviously its crazily results oriented and I shouldn't be thinking things like this, but its hard not to let recent results dictate your life.
I was deep in both the $8 w/rebuys and $44/6Max today coming like 81st and 24th respectively, losing big flips in both for really decent stacks. No point in me posting the hand histories as it was just losing 88 to AK and then AK to QQ in each. I suppose the killer in the last few days is that ive been finishing outside 1st/2nd when ive gone deep in the 12/180s, which (considering the payout) really sucks.
Anyway, slight rang over. I know i'm awesome and everyone else knows it too!
I'll probably play tomorrow because i'll be taking the 3 days after that off from online poker. I'm gunna go see Nikki on friday in Peterborough then i'm going to play the £300 Freezeout at the international on sat/sun and round it all off by watching the superbowl (probably at the international)with my brother, Ed and maybe Mike (and anyone else who might be in london and wants to join us).
Thanks for reading again guys, i'll try and throw up some more interesting hand histories next time.
xx
I was deep in both the $8 w/rebuys and $44/6Max today coming like 81st and 24th respectively, losing big flips in both for really decent stacks. No point in me posting the hand histories as it was just losing 88 to AK and then AK to QQ in each. I suppose the killer in the last few days is that ive been finishing outside 1st/2nd when ive gone deep in the 12/180s, which (considering the payout) really sucks.
Anyway, slight rang over. I know i'm awesome and everyone else knows it too!
I'll probably play tomorrow because i'll be taking the 3 days after that off from online poker. I'm gunna go see Nikki on friday in Peterborough then i'm going to play the £300 Freezeout at the international on sat/sun and round it all off by watching the superbowl (probably at the international)with my brother, Ed and maybe Mike (and anyone else who might be in london and wants to join us).
Thanks for reading again guys, i'll try and throw up some more interesting hand histories next time.
xx
Tuesday 20 January 2009
Not running that well at MTTs...making up for it in Mtt sngs
Exactly what it says on the tin. 2 Days of MTT grinding, busting out of nearly every tournament real early (either through losing big flips/being coolered/getting it in good and losing/making bad plays). This doesn't really bother me in the slightest; I know I'm a good, winning tournament player, and I'm putting in enough volume that I won't be on the shnide for long.
That being said, my running bad at regular tournaments has been made up for by how lucky I've been getting at the stars 12/180s. In the last 2 nights my Sharkscope profit has gone up by about $2k just from these, which has really saved me. I'm not sure if its mostly due to luck or playing good (I did get some sick sng coaching from marty a few months back)which has really helped me beat stars sngs). I'll probably load up the usual mtts again tomorrow and once again start loading 12/180s if things turn to shit.
Last week Mike suggested that I play more live poker, which I thought was a smashing idea, so we headed down to the juicy PLO game at the International on Thursday. Long (12 hour) story short, I ran good in that game too, winning about £1100. One particularly sick hand was between a reg named Rob and I, in which I bluff CRAI'd KK44 on a AQ5A turn, he thought for about 2 minutes before finally calling only for me to bink a 4 on the river.
Another good hand was really late on in that game, in which I raised AT97ds to £11 from MP, got 4 callers, the board came Q42 two tone giving me a bare backdoor NFD. The action checked around before the 8s fell on the turn upgrading me to a NFD. The BB bets £42, which I cold call (effective stacks are deep enough for us not to worry about this call), and the value player in the game calls on the button. The river is the Ah, the bb checks, I check and the value player starts looking at the pot, then asks the dealer how much is in there before betting £126 (the pot was £171).
Before he made this bet I was fairly certain that I had the 2nd best hand, but I didn't consider for a second that the value player could ever have me beat. He was capable of making really weird bluffs, but was certainly knuckling behind almost every 2 pair combo (except maybe AQ, which he very likely raises turn with). In the end I went with my confusion as to his line and my live read and called, and then got berated by the value player for calling with AT (my hand was obviously good). I'd quite like to hear peoples comments on that particular hand.
I also played the £100 Freezeout a the International on Saturday. Not much to talk about, I played my usual laggy deepstack game, ground 8k in to 13k by the begining of level 4, before getting 70bbs in preflop with KK vs AQs, obviously he flopped a flush and it was goodnight Vienna.
Outside of poker life has been abit dull recently, which I intend to remedy by getting about with old school friends ect. As well as this its my Dad's birthday on Wednesday, so it'll be cool to see the family again.
Sorry if today's been abit rambley, just couldn't be bothered to stop typing. Get in touch with me on thoughts about the hand. Toodles xx
That being said, my running bad at regular tournaments has been made up for by how lucky I've been getting at the stars 12/180s. In the last 2 nights my Sharkscope profit has gone up by about $2k just from these, which has really saved me. I'm not sure if its mostly due to luck or playing good (I did get some sick sng coaching from marty a few months back)which has really helped me beat stars sngs). I'll probably load up the usual mtts again tomorrow and once again start loading 12/180s if things turn to shit.
Last week Mike suggested that I play more live poker, which I thought was a smashing idea, so we headed down to the juicy PLO game at the International on Thursday. Long (12 hour) story short, I ran good in that game too, winning about £1100. One particularly sick hand was between a reg named Rob and I, in which I bluff CRAI'd KK44 on a AQ5A turn, he thought for about 2 minutes before finally calling only for me to bink a 4 on the river.
Another good hand was really late on in that game, in which I raised AT97ds to £11 from MP, got 4 callers, the board came Q42 two tone giving me a bare backdoor NFD. The action checked around before the 8s fell on the turn upgrading me to a NFD. The BB bets £42, which I cold call (effective stacks are deep enough for us not to worry about this call), and the value player in the game calls on the button. The river is the Ah, the bb checks, I check and the value player starts looking at the pot, then asks the dealer how much is in there before betting £126 (the pot was £171).
Before he made this bet I was fairly certain that I had the 2nd best hand, but I didn't consider for a second that the value player could ever have me beat. He was capable of making really weird bluffs, but was certainly knuckling behind almost every 2 pair combo (except maybe AQ, which he very likely raises turn with). In the end I went with my confusion as to his line and my live read and called, and then got berated by the value player for calling with AT (my hand was obviously good). I'd quite like to hear peoples comments on that particular hand.
I also played the £100 Freezeout a the International on Saturday. Not much to talk about, I played my usual laggy deepstack game, ground 8k in to 13k by the begining of level 4, before getting 70bbs in preflop with KK vs AQs, obviously he flopped a flush and it was goodnight Vienna.
Outside of poker life has been abit dull recently, which I intend to remedy by getting about with old school friends ect. As well as this its my Dad's birthday on Wednesday, so it'll be cool to see the family again.
Sorry if today's been abit rambley, just couldn't be bothered to stop typing. Get in touch with me on thoughts about the hand. Toodles xx
Wednesday 14 January 2009
A couple of nights of close, then really close
Sigh, just busted the stars $109 FO in 4th for $5k which is a really nice pay but I had a real chance to ship it but my KK couldn't hold vs AT then I lost KT to AQ. Obviously I won an obscene amount of flips to FT, but it was just frustrating being so close.
I'm currently 1 tabling the $11 PLO FT (1/7), for a grand first place of $600 lol. Although it would be nice to ship something to do to fill my huge ego.
Ah well, I'm going to grab an early night ahead of grinding tomorrow. Thanks so much to all you guys that railed, big 5 figure score coming I promise =)
xx
I'm currently 1 tabling the $11 PLO FT (1/7), for a grand first place of $600 lol. Although it would be nice to ship something to do to fill my huge ego.
Ah well, I'm going to grab an early night ahead of grinding tomorrow. Thanks so much to all you guys that railed, big 5 figure score coming I promise =)
xx
Sunday 11 January 2009
I just made Raspberry Jelly...
You know youre a professional poker player when; You've had two nights this week in which you havn't slept, you're stuck 4 figures, you've t30'd 3 mtts in a night and only broken even and you're completely happy with your play and looking to the future.
Although, that may all be down to the fact that i've just made Raspberry Jelly.
Sorry it's been a while since I blogged last, I'd love to say it's been a bit hectic but it really hasn't. I've played live PLO at the International 2 nights this week and despite losing some important flips and getting my money in bad a few times, I was happy with my all around performance. It just so happened that the game was so ultra swingy, that short term variance did not smile on me those two sessions.
Tonight I went deep in the $8 w/rebuys (13th for $200ish), the $109 (30something for $300ish) and 20th in the 20 cubed for 270ish. While these results are very annoying when they come all at once, I was happy with my play in all 3, especialy my shorthanded play.
The 8 rebuy key hand was when I 4 bet shoved a 25bb stack with KQo 6 handed and got snapped by aces for the chip lead. It's very easy to look at my play as a big blowup, but my hand play well against his 3bet range and it's a big leak to be laying hands as big as KQ down every time we're 3bet when we have fold equity.
The 20 cubed was a fairly standard 3bet shoving 22 for 23bb and getting called by QQ. We were 7 handed and by virtue of the fact that my opponent thought for a good 10 seconds (not multitabling)before making the most standard call in the world makes me feel really happy about the shove. I guess we was only calling JJ+/AK, which is an obviously profitable shove.
So i'm looking forward to tomorrow and all it shall bring, might play the mill/warm if I fancy it, but otherwise i'll be expecting to play the standard comps and hopefully take something down.
lots of love
Oh and as a fun sidenote, I just played HUNL against a guy who started open shoving 45bbs (then +1 for each hand he won) every hand. Luckily I only had to wait 5 hands till I got aces. GG wp
xxxxx
Although, that may all be down to the fact that i've just made Raspberry Jelly.
Sorry it's been a while since I blogged last, I'd love to say it's been a bit hectic but it really hasn't. I've played live PLO at the International 2 nights this week and despite losing some important flips and getting my money in bad a few times, I was happy with my all around performance. It just so happened that the game was so ultra swingy, that short term variance did not smile on me those two sessions.
Tonight I went deep in the $8 w/rebuys (13th for $200ish), the $109 (30something for $300ish) and 20th in the 20 cubed for 270ish. While these results are very annoying when they come all at once, I was happy with my play in all 3, especialy my shorthanded play.
The 8 rebuy key hand was when I 4 bet shoved a 25bb stack with KQo 6 handed and got snapped by aces for the chip lead. It's very easy to look at my play as a big blowup, but my hand play well against his 3bet range and it's a big leak to be laying hands as big as KQ down every time we're 3bet when we have fold equity.
The 20 cubed was a fairly standard 3bet shoving 22 for 23bb and getting called by QQ. We were 7 handed and by virtue of the fact that my opponent thought for a good 10 seconds (not multitabling)before making the most standard call in the world makes me feel really happy about the shove. I guess we was only calling JJ+/AK, which is an obviously profitable shove.
So i'm looking forward to tomorrow and all it shall bring, might play the mill/warm if I fancy it, but otherwise i'll be expecting to play the standard comps and hopefully take something down.
lots of love
Oh and as a fun sidenote, I just played HUNL against a guy who started open shoving 45bbs (then +1 for each hand he won) every hand. Luckily I only had to wait 5 hands till I got aces. GG wp
xxxxx
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