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

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

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.