Car crash of a Sunday!

My normal Sundays are spent with friends in our local social club, this week i really wanted to grind and try win some money and earn some rakeback, wished i had gone out now and got pissed. Played maybe 4-5 hr session on the afternoon and got poker raped, nothing work, no big hands held up, one draw hit giving me the flush against a set of aces, river gave him the full house, plus various other crap......sigh. Ended up dropping £60, which totally pissed me of big time. Reflecting back it was only 4 buyins, but at the time it seemed like thousands, i cashed out my roll enabling me to take a break from the game, the rest of the Sunday. To be honest i'm not loving Ipoker at all, i've played 12k hands on there, the software is shit, the rakeback (52%) is very little, so i dunno if i'll redeposit on there, may try Stars again or maybe Party, not sure, got a day to decide while i wait for my deposit to turn up. Loads of people seem to play Stars for the obvious reasons, but alot seem to do without the rakeback sites like Ipoker offer, surely there must be some decent returns for someone who 8-9 tables and puts in 20+ playing hours a week? If anyone reading this blog and can help let me know please!

Very little volume

Hardly played due to several reasons listed below:-
Baby daughters 1st birthday on Friday, cba to play on the night
Computer decided to blow itself up, resulting in me restoring it back to factory settings, spent the most of Saturday fixing it, restoring all my data and stuff, then chilled watching TV.

Since computer got fixed i decided to trial Pokertracker (never ever manged to get it working before, thankfully i did this time!) Trialed it seeing if it would pick up my hand history on Ipoker, which it did thankfully, played a little tester at 1 am to see if it worked properly, shame i lost all my previous HH pre computer crash, oh well i guess its better than PTR for tracking my data.
670ish hands played tonight against the drunks, need to get on with this grinding if i'm ever going to make NL50, may stay in tomorrow and grind all day when the house is peacefull, here's my tester session graph!

More grind

Struggling to fit in the volume i'd like to at the minute, family and my business taking up alot of time.......sigh.
3 hour session tonight playing 2.2k worth of hands for a buyin and a half profit........double sigh, out of the 3 hours i think i only got Aces twice, and hardly made money from them, nevermind any other big pairs, biggest pot i won was with K9hh when i flopped a flush against trip Jacks.
Longest session i've played 8 tabling since i started this 'another' attempt at poker, must be the first time i've ever played poker when i haven't tilted or tried win losses back by playing stupid higher limits, long may this composure continue!
So halfway through the week, heres the update:-
7k hands played
bb/100 = 2.9
Profit +£80

Guess i got to be happy so far, you think playing 8 tables you should be rolling in winnings but i guess your missing out on lots of spots to actually make money, might loosen up a little and see if the actual winnings improve, if it dont work can always return to my nit strategy.

Challenge!

Setting myself a challenge for the rest of this month:-
Play 20k hands this month at NL20
Show some profit from actual playing
Become totally comfortable 8 tabling

Should be all achievable, so far played 5.4k hands in the last 3 days, and still up 5 buyins.

Still waiting for week 1 of this months rakeback payment to be paid - sigh will it ever turn up, affiliate who set it up and Betmost support friggin pretty sucky, i'll give it a bit longer before i look for another deal!

EDIT - PTR not recording hands played properly so god knows where i am tonight played a hour and half session and PTR recorded only 400 hands, which utter jibberish, should really purchase HM or Tracker, so go knows where my hand total is now, also showed i lost $14 when i actually won a whopping £5, Big Mac meal on me!!!

Trying to be a grinder!

So since my last post i've failed at trying to 4 table PLO, could never beat the fish or maybe i was the fish, who knows, who cares, just know PLO is not my game anymore! So i'm trying to multi table (7-9 tables) NL20 on Ipoker with 52% rakeback, so at the minute aiming to be break even and try boost the old roll by bonuses and rakeback, not sure on what my approx hourly rate will be for rakeback, but i'm guessing its low, as i'm playing a real nitty game, also trying to clear a bonus on there too! At the minute the swings are small compared to PLO, and i can handle the beats, when they come along. Started this little attempt at making poker a money earner on Saturday, i've played 3k in hands in real small hourly sessions, and made $60 profit, due some rakeback payment tomorrow from when i was playing PLO so may boost the roll a little more.

Going to keep on doing this strategy for a week and see what rakeback i get from it, hopefully should be a ok sum, if not i dont know where i'll go from here pokerwise, really need a focus or some advice!

Good August! Hello September!

Playing for only 9 days in a total since i returned mainly at NL£4 turned my deposit of £40 into £530 with a little NL£20 thrown into the mix. So was pretty pleased, to be back playing, making a profit and getting used to the easy grind of 4 tabling NL£20, even with just a smallish roll i feel totally comfortable at the level i'm playing, looking at the long term results rather than just the beats which i'm remarkably handling quite well, unlike when playing PLO were i would berate in the chat box.

So whats up for September?

Well me sticking to Sky Poker didnt last at long (lol) After a little working out and comparison to other sites, it was the worst choice for me to play, for bonuses and rakeback, and action during the day, which to enable a decent bonus/rakeback i need to grind some long hours to help build my roll.

Had a few options but in the end i settled for a ipoker skin (used to hate the site for plo but thats in the past when my state of mind was not correct for poker.) I got a pretty sweet deposit bonus, points for cash system and future reload bonuses, a $3k rake race, and loads of free mtt entries thrown into the deal.

Just played a little session making $20, need to time a 4 table session to work out my average points/hour to work out how many hours a day i need to grind to clear this bonus.

Gl at the tables!

Back!

Wow its been a long time since i posted or in fact even played poker seriously - so if i have any readers left heres what i been upto since my last post!

Shortly after my last post (maybe a week or two) i came to the conclusion that battling PLO donks, regs and beats was annoying the hell out of me, i couldn't find a regular site i like to play and that i could succesfully crush, was basicaly a poker nomad jumping around from site to site trying to settle down, i was still winning just not comfortable on any site i played, would of loved to get on 888 skin but somehow i have no knowledge of my password at all and their crap customer services helped very little! So i basically quit the game with a decent roll which i spent on the family!

I found myself playing World of Warcraft (played it on/off for a few years) the game is the worse thing a obsessive addict like me can do the spend his spare time, anything i do and i enjoy be it poker or sport i get addicted to, and Warcraft was my new 'fix'. After spending nearly wasting a year playing that dam game, i came to my senses a month ago and just totally quit in one day and i'll never return to it, its so addictive it makes you forget the outside world, family - everything, caused so many arguments between with the wife its was unreal, i'm one of them people where when i do something i do it full throttle and try to be the best i can, and Warcraft takes up so much time if you want to be the best.

So i've returned back to poker, this time i'm really focused and playing the game properly. I took a good few weeks to watch videos, read articles and watch the best players i know trying to learn how to improve my game and make my return successfull, spending 2-3 weeks organising before i deposited, I'm in a better mindset and totally focused to achiev what i wish from poker. So i found myself depositing on Sky poker (UK site for only UK players) its very fishy, not great for bonuses, so they reg grinders kind of give it a miss. I've chosen to grind the NL cash games and maybe the odd mtt when wanting a break. I deposited £40 and started at NL4 (lol high stakes, but if i'm gonna do it right i'm gonna do it right) so far i've grinded my roll up to £530+ playing cash only and currently playing NL20, kind of happy at this level as the players are pretty weak, and the new aggressive tight game i'm playing works well. Would be very happy to stay at this level for good if i can make a steady second income from it (currently 4 tabling) will decide after a few months of seeing how it goes, definitely not interested in going above NL50 as thats where the regs seems to hang out above. Spending a bit of time watching the cash play on sky channel too, hopefully pick up a few things along the way and learning who to avoid! Aiming to be more focused in September and push up the workrate, looking at aiming for 7-8k player points a month which pays £150 a month back as kind of rakeback, would be happy with that as profit a month pays a small car payment off each month, something to think about.

Time to sort the blog links out seems liek alot of others have quit blogging too.

Gl at the tables!

The run continues.........feel like quitting!

Hate runs and in fact poker when its like this, pretty much pointless, was at one point close to quitting again for another few months, till i checked HEM and reaffirmed to myself i can win and the hands i was losing with i was getting my money in good! I can't beat the euro donks just not the software at the minute, got to keep focus and keep battling. Volume wise i've surpassed last weeks hands easily and may even double it if i keep on grinding, its just a shame i can't repeat last weeks winnings, as the cash would be handy! Not sure what to spend my whopping $14 profit on this week, maybe a paper, some bread and milk............what a balla lifestyle!

More volume but struggling!

Well i've increased my volume and have done two thirds of what i managed all last week but the results have been woefull, variance is really against me. Started off the week dropping 4 buyins and have been struggling to make them back ever since, finally breaking into profit in a hit and run shot at PLO200 when sat in half stacked, and doubled up after maybe 30 or 40 hands when i hit a set of 7's and didnt belive the aggro push with 4 clubs on the board, Euro donk had absolute air as expected. At my normal level of PLO25 i'm really struggling big time, as i said its variance that is killing me, and i know i can beat the level easily, just need some hands to hold and i'll take down a decent session soon. Euro donks with their 2 pair etc are the fools that are killing me, they just won't let go, and always seem to get there. After each session i've been studying my hands were i've lost big and apart from a few spews i've done very little wrong, liking HEM alot and i believe the $140 outlay is worth it for the end of session analysis, also good to track that i am a actual winner at the level i play, keeps me motivated and mentally strong!

Another Hitler parody takien from 2+2

Online poker rigged @ Yahoo! Video

Lazy Bones

Decent result i guess for the sheer lack of hands, had no real desire to play last week at all, including not even switching on the computer once over the weekend. Don't think i ran particularly hot just steady away with a few up and down swings, must try to increase the grind this week!

Holdem Manager

Whilst i have been waiting for my 48hrs to pass so i can withdraw my roll from Red Star, i decided to take a look at a few sites and tools that may help my game. I looked at various training sites like Cardrunners and Leggo, and i found most video's for PLO were directed at stakes far higher than the ones i play, and i don't see how their hand analysis would help me against the euro spews at the low grunt level i play, so i don't see any point purchasing a training package, then i took a look at Holdem Manager and downloaded the 15 day trial, after a while updating my old computer with Microsoft service packages etc, i finally got it to work, and after another incredibly long time downloading hands into it i finally got some data, and its nice to see i'm actually a winning player on Ongame, and its encouraged me to redeposit on there and atleast complete this month 100k rake race (+$8k race from rakeback provider.) As pointed out by Yorkshire Pud on my last post comments, yes the software ain't great (got kind of used to it) and yes its definitely full of Euro tards, but thats what i want, and the quality of player makes up for the lack of rakeback, and the juicy games keep it more interesting than playing $1-2 average pots of other sites. I feel PLO25 on Ongame plays like very weak PLO50 on others and the $10+ pots are the norm, i can earn a decent sum without having to have the PLO50 bankroll ........if that makes sense? Anyway heres my graphs from Ongame :-

Plan foiled!

Well i removed my roll from Betsafe and deposited on Red Star Poker, only to receive a email this morning saying because i have a rakeback account on Powerpoker i can't have one on Red Star........lol dam. One thing i did notice last night playing Cake again is how tight the games are at PLO20 you've got average pots on $1-2 when the average on Ongame is $4-6 at PLO25 sometimes higher, i may just stick to Ongame with my roll and grind the low stuff with 80+ buyins. I now have to wait another 30 hours before i can remove my roll from Red Star and deposit elsewhere! Boring post as always but there you go!

Operation Break Even - COMPLETE

My time on Betsafe has come to end, with me succesfully completing Operation Break Even, and actually surpassing it by $240. So i have cashed out my $2240 roll and have it safely sat in Neteller and will be moving it to Cake network and trying to complete another deposit bonus. I eventually got quite used to the crazy fish on Ongame and i'm hoping i'll be able to adapt back to how the Cake players play, who knows one day i may return to playing on Ongame, but at the minute the rakeback is pretty low on there, basically a third of what i can achieve on Cake. I haven't topped up my bankroll and i'm looking to make my $2k deposit on Cake grow to a decent figure and remove some winnings every now and again. Hope i run good!
Betsafe Results:-
22/4/10 Deposit $450
10/5/10 Withdrawn $2240
Profits : $1790

Get in there you Cockney twats!

The team i hate 2nd of most after Man Utd have won me £980 ($1400+) with them, Newcastle, Norwich/Leeds e/w bet and Notts County winning there respective leagues.................GET IN! Money won't be used for poker or anything online at all, just going to enjoy it spending on fine food, drink and other unimportant stuff! Just had a quick game of PLO25 winning $40 before realising i'm far too drunk to play!
Night night and sweet dreams!

Operation: Break Even

After the spin up on 5/5 the other day turning $500 into $1700 and another $400 sat in neteller, plus $120 won yesterday, my roll stands at $2220, and i'm 5% away from completing my $500 Betsafe deposit bonus, which would give me over the $2500 bankroll (if i stay break even till bonus is cleared) i was going to have without actually topping up like i was planning, which is obviously very pleasing, so thats my plan to play break even poker till my bonus is cleared, i'll be very happy to leave Betsafe with $2500 espcially since i only deposited $450 on the 22/4/10 after a disastrous tilt monkey spew at 2/4 on Powerpoker. Then i have a decision to make do i still actually top bankroll up from March's excellent month or not?
Once my bonus is clear i will be moving back to a cake skin and trying to clear another $500 bonus, then i'll jump to another skin and do the same, then will decide where i go from there depending on bankroll, would like to hop around sites for maybe a few months clearing bonuses and try boost the bankroll that way. If i top up i'll be looking at a $5k roll so will be able to play PLO50 full time, and would be looking at trying to reach the 10k roll target by the end of the year, and thus hit my goal to play PLO100 permantly and with a safe bankroll. Or i can just keep on plodding along and see where i get, hard to decide but i still havent touched any of March's $5k winnings so i could infact reload and have a bankroll of $7.5k+, but i'd like something to show from all these poker hours i've been putting in, but on the other hand, its a hobby i love which actually costs me nothing to do and actually earns me cash when i dont tilt it off!
GL at the tables!

Bad to Good!

Now i'm not proud of myself so this isn't a brag post!

I've ran like shit at PLO25 on Ongame the last day and a half, and when i say shit i mean real shit, 14 times i've had AA double suited or with connectors all in preflop and i've lost every single one, to utter garbage like Q863 (that was the last one that broke the camels back!) Also seemed to be getting rivered alot aswell when the fish can't fold there J high flush or even their AAxx when i have trips or 2 pair plus a draw. Having sessions like that can really destroy your soul and makes you wonder if this game is worth playing at all. So after another abysmal session this morning, i find myself enraged with the world, i'm banging doors, shouting at the dog, i even made the daughter have a bath (which she hates!) even though she had one last night, anything to try and relieve this whole i was stuck in. So after the bath, i decided to sod Betsafe off even though i have 10% to go to clear my $500 bonus, so i withdraw all my roll apart from $500 and decide to vent some steam and play absolutely donkey PLO on a 5/5 without a care in the world if i bust the god dam lot. 30 minutes later i find my self sat with $1200 and i've ran like god, why do i always run super hot at stakes i'm not rolled for and crap at the ones i am, i got my stack in with the nut flush draw (As,2s,KcQc) on a 10s 8s 4s against a wrap, i hit a King on the turn and take down a $900 pot, i limp on the button with Ah,As,4h,6s flop is 3h,5h,10s,8c i half pot it get one caller, turn is blank, and its checked, river 9h and i get paid $300 with a guy holding str and King high flush. Its weird how i run so good at large stakes, i just can't work it out, is it massive luck or maybe because i'm playing 1 table loose i'm getting paid off when i hit my big hands, i just don't know, everytime i tilt up monkey spew at rediculous stakes i always seem to come good. So the $750 odd profit has wiped all my losses away at PLO25 and i now find myself up around $400 for the week, which is nice, but obviously not the way to do it, but after the run i've been on at PLO25 i'll obviously take it, going to complete the 500 points i need for my Betsafe bonus then decide where to go to next, 75% sure i'm leaving Ongame, but a big thanks to Henrik at their online support who obviously turned the BOOOOOOM button on for my account, after i asked for details of Ongames RNG system and verbally abused him, LOL what a dick i am when i'm fuming!

She worked last time...................

Me being a superstitious twat like i am, have posted another pic of my fav babe Kim Kardashian again hoping she will give me a little mini heater like last time............i friggin need it!

May so far has been as horrible as April, today espcially when the cards did me over big time, continually getting it in good (espcially pre) and losing to two outers, if variance held i'd be flying this month, i dont mind the dumb scandi's thinking that the likes of QQj2 or KK93 rainbow is good against my AAK10 and AAQJ double suits pre espcially when i repopped their repop but when they are dominated it pisses me off when they hit the trips, this has happened like 12 times so far this month and i've had my AA hands hold twice...........work them maths out for running bad!

Heres my sessions so far this month:-

1/5/10 - 1.5 hours - +$12

2/5/10 - 1 hour - +$4

4/5/10 - 6.5 hours - +$29

and this mornings 1.5 hours for a loss of $48

As for the Wsop ME freeroll i played that i qualified through via Betsafe's top 300 rakers, sadly my AJ SB shove against a continual raiser in the BB was no good against his monster A9 when he flopped trips! and i went in 54th position with 30 paid.

I need a good session to restore my confidence, GL at the tables unless your playing me!

Bye Bye April!

Well that was a very tough month, didn't help by tilting off over $700 in one session at $2/4 trying to win back losses at my normal stakes. Been grinding Ongame since that blow up, and didnt run particularly well there for the first week basically being break even, but managed to pull it around this week and end up only $140 down for the month from actual poker playing, but up a massive $33 profit if you include Rakeback and rake race winnings. Really liking Ongame at the minute, espcially now i'm playing alot tighter, and being fairly passive preflop, its dam juicy and you can win some decent money even at PLO25, plenty of games running at most times of the day, so i can keep a steady schedule going. I've also qualified for a WSOP free roll where 32 places out of 320 runners receive a main even package, wish me luck it runs on Tuesday, and i got it free for being one of the top 300 cash rakers on the site.

Goals for May
1) Complete Betsafe $500 deposit bonus
2)No tilt monkey spews at 2/4 etc!
3)Reload bankroll to $2500 for 100 buyins of PLO25, then remove profits when they occur!
4)Try make a profit
5) Win WSOP package from the freeroll (Lol as if!)
GL in May

Mini Heater!

Been keeping my sessions real short since last post, and running pretty hot, up 10 buyins ($250) in around 3 hours play today. Tightening up has really helped recoup some of the daft losses when i went tilt monkey spew at 2/4 and the bankroll is getting somewhere near it was before, roughly only down $200 this month so its not been all that bad! I have to remember this feeling for when i run bad or variance slaps me in the face! Its probably the hardest part of a cash game player or infact any poker player, learning to handle the pressure when things are going right, its some i need to work on alot if i wish to progress as decent part time player, i've got to handle the beats and not go tilt monkey spew chasing losses at 2/4 (even though i'm quite succesfull at it!) I've also got to keep it tight, play position and i should do ok at this low level poker playing and earn a pretty decent side wage, $350 winnings this week (not including bonuses/rakeback) thats over £200 as a side income, which i'm well happy at, its like having a min wage weekly pay packet for a few hours work doing something i love (when running ok!) Sod playing mtt's and co, i prefer the balanced money a week/month than one big score everynow and again. Speaking of big scores i watched the WSOP 2009 Final table today - wow Joe Cada = one lucky donk! At least a froggie didnt win, that would of pissed me right off!

Non poker - I want to move to Sweden and live, pretty serious about it, watched Jamie Olivers show last night and it really does look a great place to bring a family up, a little like New Zealand (lived there when i was 10yrs old) but obviously closer to the UK to visit, not sure about the 80% tax thing though, wonder if that includes poker winnings.........going to look into it now!

GL at tables!

Maybe my new neighbour!

Has the tide turned?

Pleased to say variance is being a little kinder to me now after a terrible April, infact its nice to get a couple of winning sessions in a row, rather than win one, lose one i've had for basically 2 weeks now. Really tightened up aswell, and not so quick to shove my chips in the middle, maybe thats helping a little, up close to 8 buyins at PLO25 in the last day or so. Also spun my Powerpoker rakeback of $30 into $67 playing online roulette (total mugs game) and have withdrawn that back to neteller since i got over the $50 min cashout.
Found a great PLO forum and have been reading how the better players play through certain situations, think thats helping aswell, always good to learn from the better players, and read their thought process etc etc. Never to late to learn! 71% through my deposit bonus so should clear it maybe early May! Hope May's going to be a little kinder and i play a little better, could do with a half decent profit to boost confidence, still going to top bankroll up, as at the minute i'm playing under rolled for PLO25 as i never redeposited when i went tilt monkey spew at 2/4!

Another thing that bugs me at the minute, is sad keyboard warriors and their sad little circles, some people think they are greatest thing on earth (non poker wise and poker wise) when they have a sad group of fuck wits backing them up, and trawling 2+2 all day and night and pinching others peoples creativeness does not make you what you think you are, neither does writing a blog etc class as full time work, and benefits isn't a wage its there to help you whilst you look for a job, on the other hand those that play poker for a living, you have my respect, but it doesn't make you a better person than anyone else, so get off your high horse and stop getting a inflated ego from all your butt kissers!

GL at the tables!