Finally A Winning Session!

Took a break for a couple of days as was getting a bit sick of grinding out break even sessions and my head wasn't really in it. Played a bit of guitar hero, watched some tv and dvd's (gotta love Mr Deeds!!) and poker videos, and suddenly everything is rosy again. :-)

Played 3 sessions tonight totally about 4 hours, and despite one turn suck out by Carl on me that I paid off (loser Holmes!!) I ran pretty good. I lost count of the number of times I had aces, so just checked now.... 13 times in 1450 hands - one in every 110. You should get them every 220 hands so that's a pretty decent run of cards. This helped me win about £300 to put me back in profit for the month, and more importantly put me in confident mood to hit the tables again before Vegas.

September still not started!

I played for 6.5 hours today, logging 2500 hands on Ladbrokes. Net profit? $2!!! I'm awesome me. Time for sleep and I'll hit tables again tomorrow, hopefully with a slightly more profitable win rate.

September Starts Now

Ground my way back to even for September, including a 5 hour session this afternoon / evening for £200. I've now played 8k hands this month, not great but better than last month's rate!

I also have a new plan and will be moving some of my roll to PokerStars to allow me to play at different times of the day, hopefully against weaker opponents. Very late evening and early morning UK time (2 am - 10 am) are pretty dead on Ladbrokes, and full of regulars. Right now (2 am) there are 4k people online on Ladbrokes compared to 163k on PokerStars - odds have therefore got to be in favour of finding some fish on Stars! Lack of rakeback is a massive drawback but if I can win at a higher rate then sure this will cover it. Big if of course....

Funniest Thing I've Seen In A While

Not a movie, a stand up comedian or watching Katrina lose on Mario Kart - this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlT2UsY3rtA

Feel free to share as widely as possible to increase the embarrassment of our 5 a side goalkeeper

Friday Night

Didn't really happen. I got sidetracked and didn't end up playing much, although did win back about £60 in the short session I did play.

More grinding definitely needed in the next 10 days before Vegas

Bad start to September

Currently down £250 ish after 5.5k hands. I'm not playing well and paying people off with the second best hand -a lot! Sometimes I think I've been cursed when people hit miracle back door flushes or bink off trips on the river after calling 2 streets, but all part of the game I guess.

I'm just hoping Friday night fish help me out as desperately need a kick start to the month...

August P&L

A very disappointing month on the poker tables, where I ran like shit for MASSIVE spells, proving that you definitely need a decent bankroll management strategy AND the patience of a saint not to tilt off all of your bankroll. I think I'm pretty good at the first one, sensibly dropping down limits when I needed to, but still need a bit of work on the latter :-)

NL Cash: £198

(24k hands, 5 bb/100)

Rakeback / Bonus: £696

ONLINE PROFIT: £894

Live Tournaments: -£80
Live Cash: -£110

LIVE PROFIT: -£190

OVERALL PROFIT: £704

Luckily my good July means that this isn't a complete disaster, but I'm obviously hoping for a better month next month. My HEM actually says I'm losing £900 in EV from the cash tables, and as I was playing half NL50 and half NL100, this is about 14 buy ins. Grim.

Targets for September:

Play 40k + hands

Spend less time pissing about on the internet before / after each poker session

Do more poker reading / theory revision.

Maybe play a few satellites if running good and feel like I can afford to take a break from cash tables

Aspers £75 Freeze Out

Since I've started playing online cash tables, the lure of the casinos and the tournaments that I used to frequent every week with Azz / Cusworth / Carl / Ad has been diminished drastically, meaning that I hardly ever bother to play in them any more. Seeing as William Hill were throwing in extra money to the prize pool, and Brennan / Carl / Mark were all up for playing, I decided to make an exception for this and played on Friday. Probably the most important reason for playing though was to get more experience of deep stack play, which I will need if I ever get lucky enough to qualify for a big satellite.

Anyway, I sit tight for first 30 minutes or so, watching Sky Sports News in silent which Aspers considerately put on next to our table, and don't get involved in any hands. Once I saw the Mighty Spurs claim a deserved last minute winner, I thought it would be wise to go back to concentrating on the tournament. I get 2 streets of value with KT on a Kxxx board before checking back river to scoop pot versus a presumed flush draw, then lose it all back when my A7 2 pair is check called on turn and river - 567A2 - I thought I was value betting but alas his 66 slow play is good.

Break sees me even in chips, then more sitting tight before I hit a golden patch of hands. My AT limp sees me hit a 3 suited flop - me A draw - and my flop shove over abet and call is folded to me. I then pick up Ak which splits blinds with another AK, then AQ which I ship in versus short stack KQ (and hold). I then get magic double up, when after raising my 4th hand in a row I get shoved on by JJ - luckily my KK holds and I'm up to 35k with average on 19k and BB on 1k. Happy days at second break.

Carl and Brenos busto in trademark fashion - Carl running out of chips and good cards, with Brenos spunking his stack away after drinking too many shandies - before I join Mark 'Sensey' Suddes on his table. I get a couple of helpful tips - which I'll use in future - before I witness his BB defence with A6 fail to suck out versus a button 'stealer' with AK. Maybe he's not such a luckbox after all....

After losing some chips with JJ raise + cbet - then fold to check raise on Q84 board - I get back to my 35k stack level when I raise and check raise all in on a 889 two suited board. I'm not sure it was the optimal play with QQ, but I figure a cbet and a call leaves me in a shit situation on most turn cards, and I could appear to be on a draw myself leading my one opponent to call me with a pocket pair they figure to be racing - e.g 55-77, or a draw themselves which I'm in decent shape. It mattered not as they folded and I made it to last 40.

I get moved tables again and blind a few rounds away, before making a steal attempt with JT. My stack at this stage is down to 25k so I'm not looking great with BB of 1.4k shortly moving to 2k, so I know I need to hit a hand soon. Either that or pick off the blinds. Anyway, small blind calls and flop comes 78T. Small blind then check raises my cbet all in - leaving me 15k to win a 50k pot. In my early days I know I would consider folding here, as presume to be beat, but when I see the board and work out his hand range, a bluff or semi bluff here is his most likely holding - e.g. 9T, 89, A9, flush draw - and my odds dictate I have to call. He promptly shows expected A9 and he hits a jack on turn. My redraw fails and I lose my 66/34 'race' to exit in about 38th.

I was a bit gutted as if I had won that I'm right back in the mix with over average stack. I made a few mistakes in the tournament too though so can't pretend I'd have been a favourite against the strong field, but would have been nice to have hung around a bit longer - especially as first prize was over £3k. I'll play these again though and hope to run better next time...