It's been a while!

So its totally been too long since I posted.

Not been playing mega ammounts really. I gave up 6 max as a bad job after a couple of horrible weekends where I lost half my bank roll about 6 months back.

I dabled at tournament poker going back to my roots but realised why I gave that up as a bad job.

So where am I now you ask?

The answer I guess is HU (Heads Up) cash poker. Mano o mano. Just you, your opponent and a deck of cards. The main part of HU is of course Psychology as you really can't make hands enough HU to win without pickling your opponents brain. It's the rawest form of poker and you really need to get in your opponents head. I trained up on Full Tilt playing against some real HU pros, however some indescretion regarding my rake back caused me to stop playing there.

So its back to old faithful, the Ongame network. Where I have propably won and lost the most at poker. To be totally truthful, the opposition is very weak, they are exploitable and extremely titlable. I love it.

But I guess that's not it for me, i'm on a journey at the moment. A very important journey. The journey to find life balance and harmony. I have this real bad habit of getting emotionally and psychologically balanced and start playing the best poker of my life. This causes me to play more poker than I should which in turn ruins my life balance. I start playing long sessions, chasing losses, getting unfit and putting on weight. Which ultimately ends up with me losign at poker and getting annoyed with life. Then repeat.

So what am I doing wrong here? I love poker, I love life balance, I love being fit and I love playing the best poker of my life. So what's the answer you ask? I guess the answer is maintaining life balance, not becoming obsessed with one thing. So that is my goal now, attain balance and then retain balance.

How am I going to do this? I'm going to become a great climber (hobby), i'm going to cycle to work (fitness), i'm going to play less poker and go out more (socialise). Sure I will play less poker but the poker I do play will be focused and balanced. The poker I play will be more winning sessions and less losing sessions. This should hopefully turn out to be greater profit and on the path to being a pro.

Life throws curve balls every day. I always think I have everything worked out, but the day you think like that, is the day where life throws you that curve ball. So I guess the attitude to have is that there is always something to learn in every situation and you never have it figured out. Even if you think you do.

I went a bit deep there but I guess it needed to be said. Now for some key hands from tonights session.

The below had opitiomises heads up play, if you have a great read on your opponent the cards don't even matter sometimes. Here I play a standard raise and 2 barrel on a pretty dry flop. I believe after the turn call this guy is performing a standard 2 street float. From what I can tell he is a very straight forward player, not got in any tricky spots yet. When he thinks on the river then pots it I just know he has at best A high and is trying to represent and 8 or T but there is no way he has one. I just go one level higher and represent a 2 barrel T or 8. There is no way he can call here. I then show it and rub it in to see him go on monkey tilt.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3563378

This match was pretty epic and it saw me at one stage go down by 5 buy ins -$250. However I knew I had an edge on this guy and he had been extremely lucky. I will post the final hand below where I take the most standard line ever with a floped straight, fortunately for me he wasn't giving me a lot of credit at the time. A river shove with the second nuts tops off the hand to make it look like I turned it into a bluff, getting called by second pair just made me rofl for such a large pot. GG!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3563404

Let this be the first blog post of many. :)

May review

Ok this might be a long post. :)

Gonna review this month, the good, the bad and the silly.

So all in all its been a good month. I've killed $100NL full stacked. I've been owned at $50NL full stacked and I took a shot at $200NL today and ran so bad I wanted to die (i'll post some hands later so you can see how bad I ran).

So here are my month stats. A nice + $2000 ish and I cleared a $1000 + in bonus. So not too shabby.

I manged to loose $871 today over 1100ish hands at $200NL. I was half stacking and too a shot with 25 buy ins for the level. Somehow I managed to still be + $350 today. Maybe cos I ran like a god at $100NL and managed to win $1021 and I cleared $200 in bonus. Its all a bit of a blur now as i'm sat here eyes nearlly bleeding on the back of a 12 hour session, played 4650 hands. But I love it. :)

Here are some hands from the dreaded $200NL.

This first guy was a total donk. I 3 bet him once already this orbit and he clearly didn't like it and shoved on me with 55 and made a back door flush. I owned him, the board owned me. GG me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693495

Here I get owned badly by slow played aces. My hand is virtually the nuts 50BB stacks and I feel I have him, then he turns over AA. Doh. I'm always going broke here 50BB deep.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693510

On further review I guess I played pretty badly. Must have been playing bad cos I was scared money. Guess i'm not ready for $200NL just yet. :)

I also made a nice graph of this month.


My fav hands from $100NL today.

These are 2 hands that happened 1 after the other. I played 3 hands at the table in total and left with 3 half buy ins. :)

I think I tilted this guy.

I nicely slow play the nuts house on this flop and get him to pay it off with A high.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693556

Then the very next hand I get dealt QQ. i decide to jump on him as I feel he's tilted. I get him to put hims money in with mid pair a a gutshot. GG, owned.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693560

Here the guy is a total donk. With the rivered A he thinks its less likely I have an ace and thinks his 8 is gd. As you can probably tell this guy was a total donk. I fast play the TP and get maximum value.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693566

This next hand shows that sometimes history matters. We had been having a bit of a battle and I played this as if I was playing a scared AK. This guy is not a bad player. He thinks very deeply about the game as I do. I represented that I had the AK and I was trying to drive him off it. He hits a 4 and thinks he has the nuts and enough to make me fold. Surprise, I don't have AK I have trip Ts, GG.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693574

Here I flop 2 pair with a mediocre blind hand, I fast play it and turn a house. I put my opponent on a rivered flush and take him to value town. I can't remember what he had now, but I think it was either a flush or maybe a very silly played 99. :)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693594

Here is a lesson in why you don't slow play your overpairs. Because donks like me take you to value town with 2 pair. GG

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693601

Here a donk mini raises his AA instead of pumping it like a champ. I take the cheap flop and get my money in as a 55% fav with my monstor draw vs the overpair.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693613

On thw final hand of the day a big stack raises his AK small, I take a cheap flop. Suck him in with his A high and take him to value town when he hits is A on the turn and gets his money in drawing dead. I love donks. :)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693623

Some pwnage there for viewing pleasure. Here's to a better month next month. I may also finally crack into that $200Nl properly and not play like a donk.

A momentous occasion on all fronts!

Bank holiday weekend started nice. A trip down to London to watch Chris Rock with my mate Tony to kick of the good times. The show was pretty awesome. Chris Rock was obviously a funny mother fucker and good times were had all round. I managed to bore Tony to death about poker, but he kept asking and I kept talking. I can talk forever about poker as anyone who knows me can vouch. I dunno if you were being polite Tony, but you got what you deserved for asking. :)

When in Rome they say do as the Romans do. When in London, I gamble at my favorite haunt the Vic. So after good old Chris Rock I made my way by night bus to the Vic. With a plan of all night poker then the first coach home. I came, I saw, I conquered, £100 good English pounds to Mr Shales. Thank you very much London. I played some great spots, made some great plays but missed value in a few spots by playing too weakly. Folding the best hand twice. I ran a very nice post oak bluff on a guy that decided he was gonna come after me from the second he sat down, calling his flop bet with no pair, no draw with the intent to steal it later in the hand. I convinced him that I had a full house when in fact I had J7 high. I showed him after he was very impressed with his amazing lay down, adding "Great fold" as I showed him the pain. He was so disgusted he unfortunately left soon after.

Unfortunately my careful planning was not so careful. I thought they shut at 6am, they in fact shut at 5am. My coach was at 8.30am so gg me. I did have a nice peaceful slow walk through London city centre to Victoria coach station. But only mananaged to kill 45 mins. So I pottered about and had some maccy Ds brekkie. Then slept most of the way home.

So on to my momentous occasion. I haven't only had the best week this year, I haven't only had the best session this year, I have also got my bank roll to an all time high. GG me.

Here's today's best session of the year stats.


For those who don't know 6BB/100 is a nice solid big win win rate. 16BB/100 is phenomenal.

I've picked my fav 2 hands from the session below.

This first hand is just amazingly funny how badly this guy played his hand. He deserves no money. Its usually best to get your money in pre flop with QQ and stop short stacking penises playing shit hands and catching. :) GG him

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2665174

Again here is another hand where clearly flat calling a big hand is just silly. I call the flop knowing I am behind and have to catch. I have implied odds and I know he has something. I know if I hit I have a chance to felt him. Obviously the turn is my nut card. He also massively telegraphs the size of his hand by his turn bet sizing. I opt to make the raise just big enough to either to get him to shove over or enable me to shove the river if he flats. the river blanks and I have the stone cold apart from QT which I find highly unlikely given how the hand was played, I shove for value and get paid by top 2, tyvm donk.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2665184

I also cleared over $150 in bonus this weekend. :)

Pokerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! :D

How to win at poker - The short staking penis way

Ok the story continues. I'll kick off from when I was playing cash. Man I sucked at first. I was up and down like a whores draws at $50NL when i started. Then I read "Sklansky - No Limit Hold em, Theory and practice". One section stuck out. How to play as an effective short stack in a cash game. The theory sounded awesome to me. I'll go over it a little below.

If you have 50BB your options become limited. You cannot play speculative hands, you cannot set mine, you cannot chase draws on the flop. So you have to tighten up, plus, aren't the last 3 things I listed every poker players biggest 3 leaks. Suited connectors, small-med pairs and A rag. They just aren't clever, most people loose a lot with them and short stackers literally can't play them. So you remove bad leaks from your game. Great. :)

But that's not all. You also remove your opponents odds and you remove their weapons. You also pot commit them much more easily. You opponents cannot set mine profitably against you in a pot with any size raise, they cannot 3 bet or 4 bet bluff you pre flop (most of the time, some donks do), because you will shove and once you 3 bet, you ain't folding. They cannot chase draws against you profitably, they just don't have the implied odds. Basically the good players have an absolute nightmare against you if you are a good short stacker. You will frustrate and annoy them, they will raise AK, you will call TT or even 3 bet, then what do they do on a low flop, they can't fold, you just haven't got enough left and they have pot odds with 2 overs for 6 outs. So you mostly get your money in good.

The bad players are a different story, but that's better. They have no idea your paying tight. They will call you light left right and center and stack off time after time.

Short stacking also makes you tilt less. Your generally in a lot on the flop, opponents don't chase miracle draws and hit and you are the one dishing the pain. Even if you do tilt, you can't tilt properly because if you raise 67s and you miss the flop, it checks to you and you bet and someone calls. What the fuck do you do, you can't scare them, so you check/fold the turn.

I started short stacking and within 3 months I turned $900 into $6000 and another month into $9000. I was good at short stacking, I was great in fact. No one could play against it. I was unbeatable, I ran awesome and times were good.

Then i tried to beat the game full stacked. That wasn't so good. I did tilt, I tilted lots. I still tilt now full stacked.

So here's where my story hits today. I cashed out my bank roll before and took a break. I came back and again i'm stuck at $50 NL. Up and down, up and down. Like a yo yo, always up and down.

So what did I do today? That's right. I busted out some short stacking at $100NL. I made $166, 8 BB/100 (pretty nice win rate) and i enjoyed it. For the first time since my break I felt good about poker again, really good. Maybe i'm just destined to be a short stacking penis all my life (short stacking penis is what wota calls short stacks when he can't fold his 2 overs on a low flop to a short stack), maybe I was meant to be a shortstacker.

Fuck it makes money, so why not? :)

I'd rather be a rich short stacking penis than a poor full stacking donk. Amen to that.

The Vic, where my love of live cash poker began

The Victoria Grovsner London. The first place I ever sat down, glassy eyed, nervous, £100 in chips in my sweaty palms. It was the most i'd ever sat down with. Sure, I know how to play. I'd played for 6 or 7 years online tournaments. Loads of home games. Casino tournaments. Online cash. But this was my first live cash.

I held on to the chips like they were the last I would ever had. I was nervous in every pot. I had a very good LAG player to my left who put pressure on me at every opportunity. I was bleeding chips basically. Then fortune smiled upon me. The player to the left of the aggro guy says he's too cold from the air conditioning, does anyone want to swap with him he asks. I jump at the opportunity. The aggro guy doesn't look happy. I mutter under my breath as I sit down "lets see if you raise me every pot now", he smiles.

So i get into a rhythm. A loose aggro thinks 8To is the nuts on an 8 high board and I do him for his full £50 stack with JJ. He asks "Have you got a pair?", "Of course I have" i reply. Then I get AA UTG. I make it £7 (blinds are 50p/£1). The guy next to me says "I was gonna do that". "I've got a good hand though, I think" I say back as I look back at my Aces nervously. They obviously all think i'm a total donk at this stage. I get 4 calls and the flop comes K high. I check nervously and my friend who was going to raise makes it £35. The other callers fold. We are both £150 deep and I pick up my chips and announce all in. He looks distraught by this but makes the call. The turn and river blank out and he shows K4 nervously, he looks like he half hopes it's good. I turn over the aces silently and he looks like he's gonna cry. He stands and just stares at the aces for a good 5 minutes and leaves.

My love affair with live cash begins with a bang. I leave my week in London, £700 in cash stuffed in my wallet. It hardly closes.

Fast forward to this week. Where my current day story continues. The Vic is pretty busy. I think they have 3 or 4 £100NL games going. All the regulars are there. Me and Wota sit with £100 a piece. I proceed to bleed chips like i'm some degen gambler. My style these days is very loose aggressive. I limp a lot of pots. I slow play and fast play big hands and bluffs. I generally miz it up and i'm very hard to play against. However I am on no form at all tonight. Then we have a firs alarm about an hour in, to top off our week and prove live poker is indeed rigged for me and Wota. When we stand outside Wota is over £100 up and i'm over £100 down. I lend £100 off him for top ups and we go back in after around 30 mis. I proceed to bleed more chips, play badly and generally get pissed off.

Then I limp AT from UTG. I flop the nuts when it comes down KQJ. I check, wota bets £7, a loose guy calls and I call. Turn is a blank. I check, wota bets £25 and the guy folds. For some reason I go soft on him and flat call. I check a spade river that brings a flush and he turns over 2 pair. I turn over the nuts and wonder if I should have value towned him. I just don't like taking money off him live for significant cash i guess. Then 2 hands later I limp Q7o UTG+1. An aggro good player raises to £4 and gets 5 callers and me. Flop brings Q72 with 2 clubs. Gin flop for me and exactly the type of hands i get paid on. I check and the aggro guy bets £10 and gets 4 callers. Not exactly what I want. So I have 1 move and 1 move only. I say raise, £10 and all in. I monkey in my £150. Aggro guy folds. An Asian guy calls for £50 and another guy who can't lay flush draws down calls for £75. They run it, blank turn (4 I think) and a Q on the river which gives me Queens full, the Asian guy trip queens and the chaser a flush. I announce queens full and rake the pot. Good times. I play for about an hour longer. Play shit and manage to end the night £57 up. God knows how. GG!

Wota gets pissed off and goes and plays blackjack and wins £100. Proving he is actually the luckiest man alive. Fucking luckbox. :)

Live poker is rigged!!!

So the last time me and Wota tried to go play at Dusk Till Dawn. My sat nav packed and my clutch went. We had to wait 3 hours for the AA tow truck and ended up playing online at Dave's house. Then I was stuck in Luton for almost a week and my boss got pissed off at me because my car was in the garage. When I returned I was £650 lighter for the pleasesure. A blow that was softened with one night of live poker down the Vic (Victoria Grovsner London on Edgeware road), where I managed to come away £100 up. Bad beat live poker number one I guess we call this.

Fast forward to last night. My car is going into the garage this week so I opt for the safer train option. Wota meets me at the train station in Nottingham. We get directions off a taxi driver to the illustrious DTD. We actually find it no issues. Everything seems to be going good. Although the gates look half shut and their is a sign on the gate "Dusk Till Dawn is closed tonight, re opens again normally Wednesday", RIGGED!!!

So we drive back to Luton, arriving at 10.30pm. We hit the G casino. Grab some food and sit in a £50-£250 game. It looks pretty juicy but we get split onto a larger table leaving the fishy table behind. Its an hour of complete bordom where I think 2 pots get raised and the action is so slow. So we leave and come back for some online play. I'm still down on the day with my 5 buy in $50NL spew earlier. I loose another 2 buy ins HU and loose faith in HU poker. I open up 5 tables of 5 max and vow to grind it up. I grind for a good 4 hours and manage to break even for the day overall, which is pretty good considering.

I guess my lesson of the day is. If I can make it to 2am playing my A game and not tilting then I have much more chances of making money off the uber donks. I sat with one donk playing around a 92/16/1 with 5 buy ins at the table. I ended up leaving with 4 buy ins and so diod another good player, the donk actually had to reload twice. I'll post some hands below. It was value town on any pair or any made hand. :)

5 max stats (better!)

Hands : -

So this first hand is pretty standard. My whole aim in the hand is to get all his chips in the pot. My bet sizing on every street is designed to get him all in on the river comfortably.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2575251

So this next hand is pretty interesting. Both guys in the hand with me are loose passive calling stations. I figure that my hand is good quite a lot of the time on the flop. I figure that either or both will chase with almost any raw diamond and considering how bad they both are pretty much any pair or draw. I guess for me when I have the money in on the flop and get 2 calls the pot is big enough for me. The check behind on the turn is for pot control and for information to see what they do on the river. The river is obviously a brick unless he called me with 86o, which is very possible with this donk. He makes a pretty good block bet on the river which I can't raise, although i'm not sure that is his intention, I think he's just value betting his straight weakly.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2575260

This next hand is a pretty standard agressive way to play a Flush Draw in a raised pot when you have the initiative. You can usually take the pot down on the turn quite a lot with the semi-bluff and you generally get to draw to your hand at the price you want. Also if you hit your hand it is adequately disguised. Good players may be able to put you on it but your average/donk players this is a great way top play. Obviously this gut thinks his T high flush is the nuts on the river and I know my second nuts is the nuts pretty much most of the time and would be stupid not to push the river. If he has the A high flush it's a cooler and you move on. By just calling his bet we are loosing value when we are ahead of the majority of his range and protecting ourselves from the very small chance he has us beat. So the protective call is -ev in the long run.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2575348

GG, GG! We are giving the live poker another shot tonight. Down the Vic i think. Lets hope we have some better luck this time.

Never content with a loss

Sometimes never being content with a losing session can be dangerous. Chasing your losses could end up losing you more. I've done it a lot myself and it usually costs me a lot.

Anyway I wasn't happy with the 5 buy in loss at $50NL. If I went back to play at 50 I'd immediately become frustrated in the first pot I lost. So I though i'd lower the variance and the on average competence of my opponents and go play so $25NL HU before I have to go get my train. I ran like a god and sat with the 5 biggest donks of all time. GG I guess!!! :)



I guess it limits my losses for the day and now I have a more positive mindset about tonight's poker. Gonna go catch my train, it's live donk scalping time. Yeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaa!