Run Good / Run Bad - and another family photo!

I've been all over the shop in the past week poker wise, first winning £800 in 2 days then dropping about £350 in the past 2 days - including a grim £250 tonight. What's frustrating but also slightly comforting is that I think I've played better while losing compared to when I was winning and just been running my hands in to monsters or coolers. I'm hand reading better and tilting far less than I used to, which is good, so my dining tables and crockery are taking less of a beating.

In life run good, I've also spent a relaxing week at my parents house with K and I got to see loads of my niece, who's now 3 months old, but weighs more like a 2 year old. She's certainly got some podge on her - check out the size of her cheeks in the photo! Not quite sure about the outfit, she's either:

1 - just escaped from juvenile detention centre

2 - just performed on stage with N Dubz

3 - just won 2nd prize in a 'dress like a giraffe' competition

I'll be heading back down there for Xmas, so looking forward to seeing how much she's grown by then. In the meantime, I'll be hitting tables hard next week (after day off Sunday) with first aim of getting to 30k hands in November. I've played 28k so far, so only need 2k on Monday, so should be do-able. One last winning day for the month would also go down very nicely!

Update Time

Been a while since I updated this and although I really wish I could confirm Mark's nap, sadly it's not because I'm running good. On the flip side, I'm not running bad either - and to be honest I'm not really 'running' anything at the moment as been struggling to put the hours in (again). We've had an endless sea of visitors at our place in the last week, and now I'm down at my parents house visiting my family, including my baby niece. She's still really cute but did make me jump the other day when she farted on my leg - I nearly threw her across the room which didn't please my sister!!

My target of 40k hands this month is looking like wishful thinking, as I'm only on about 22k at the moment, but do hope to get to 30k by the end of the month. I'm also considering playing the £50 Aspers event this weekend, but it might be difficult to register if there's limited capacity. Brenos / Mark (welcome home) / Azz / Carl - if you fancy it let me know.

Reality Check

Well, I knew it was coming. My heater is over and now on a bit of a losing streak, dropping 600 euros in the last 3k hands. I'm also break even over the last 8k hands so my mojo has dropped a bit. I think I'm trying to play too many tables, 5 or 6 at times rather than normal 3 or 4, and also not fighting enough for non showdown profits - as Brenos would say I've gone back to being a showdown monkey.

Need to get my head back on straight then hit tables again tonight......

Impulse Buying At It's Best

I've been umming and agghhing for ages about getting some fish for the flat, as I think they are dead cool and also thought they would relax me when I get my poker anger problems, so yesterday me and K headed to an aquarium to check out the prices and see what the deal was with cleaning / caring for them. While we were there though, we changed our minds as soon as we saw this little fella, and instead decided to buy a turtle - how cool is he!?!?!

'Crush' is pictured in K's hand above, and is absolutely tiny at the moment, but will grow to be quite big. I splashed out a bit and bought him a £100 tank + filter + heater, and he's now swimming happily around in it next to the TV in our living room. He's dead easy to look after at the moment, and I'll only need to get a bigger tank in a couple of years time. We can also take him out of the tank any time we like and he can wander around on the living room floor happily for 20 mins or so too. He's my first ever pet and I'm shit scared I'm going to kill it somehow, accidentally of course, but K seems to be a natural so I think Crush is set for a long and happy life on the Newcastle Quayside.....

(poker still going OK - played a few more thousand hands since last post and no longer on the heater but not losing either - just better than break even from where I was)

A Losing Session!?!?!

I've waited a while to post this. I've just had a losing session, dropping $89 on NL50. I made a couple of loose calls and also got coolered on one hand, and I feel sick. Thus brings to an end my longest winning streak of online poker....... 14 sessions in a row where I either break even or win :-)

I've not put anything on the blog as I know it curses me, so I'm hoping that as I lost this one session, the run bad has been taken up already and I'll continue to run good for the rest of the month.

For the record I'm currently £1.6k up for the month. BOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!

Useful Links For Any Readers!

I'm not doing an Amatay and selling my soul, but instead putting on some links for people I know or have been introduced to. If there is anyone else out there trying to make some money or start a business online then feel free to send me a link and I'll add it on to here - using discretion of course!

Anyway, here are the first 2 links:

Cosmetics Fever - http://cosmeticsfever.com/engine/shop/index.html

For those of you lot that know Gary Johnson, this is his site. He's been off work ill for the past 2 years, without sick pay, so in between his morphine shots and trips to the hospital, he's set up a website to sell cosmetic products for extra income.

He's got every perfume and aftershave you can think of on here (not just from P&G!), as well as makeup stuff for women, at a fraction of the price you'll pay at the shops (he's wangled himself some supplier in Asia I think). Take a look through and get ordering for Xmas - get free UK delivery too if you spend enough.

In Running Odds - http://inrunningodds.com

Not sure if this link will be as useful to everyone, but if you like to gamble then this will be good for you. Paul Newton asked me to link his mate Pete's site on here, which shows the bookies odds on in running sports events from major firms such as Betfair, Ladbrokes etc. Therefore next time you are watching football on TV and fancy a bet, load up this site and see where you'll get the best price.

On personal front, poker is going OK. I'm not playing perfectly, making too many mistakes for my own liking, but been running good so getting away with it! I'm going to tighten up my play a bit and log some more hands this weekend - hopefully the run good will continue but I'll win some money that I deserve too :-)

October P&L

Not bad, mainly due to the fact that I am putting in the profits from the NPF tournament in October. I think it's fair as I did pay the entry fee and played the first day in October - even if I did cash on November 1st :-)

NL Cash: £668

(25k hands)

MTT: -£18

PLO Cash: £26

Rakeback / Bonus: £500

ONLINE PROFIT: £1176

Live Tournaments: £924

Live Cash: £30

LIVE PROFIT: £954

OVERALL PROFIT: £2131

Targets For November:

-Play 40k hands!!! This has been on here for 3 months now but illness, then pC illness stopped me last month aftera solid start to my new work routine. I'll get it right in November though.

- Keep on revising and working on my game.

Newcastle Poker Forum (NPF) Main Event - £50 freezout

I joined the Forum in the first few weeks that it opened, after it was set up by Dave (DC), who I met at the Caribbean Poker Classic 2 years ago. Although I followed it quite a bit to start with, I didn't get too involved as I wasn't playing live and didn't know what or who they were talking about half the time!! Having said that, as Brenos was about at the weekend we did decide to play the £50 game at the weekend as the structure looked good and we had heard rumours it was good banter too. I'm pleased I did now :-)

I managed to squeek in to day 2 at just under average stack despite sitting on a rock hard table from the dinner break onwards. I had an internet pro who I heard people say were in the top 30 in world on my right, who raised every hand for 2 hours as he was the chip leader and a little bit intoxicated (there for the craic), and a very very good player (fatfish??) on my left. I had to 3 bet light and squeeze - once to hit the nut straight on turn with 67s after an unwanted UTG caller - but wasn't too uncomfortable and always got my chips in good when I was all in:

K9 vs AJ on KJ72 board
QQ vs 99 pre flop
67 vs QK on K598 board
AA vs A5 on J88 board (he check raised bluffed)

I'll try not to go in to loads of details of the final day as there are loads of posts on the NPF itself - with pictures - so if you are interested in how the final table was made up and decided here is the best link to follow:
http://www.newcastle-poker.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=7209

The hand histories don't totally do me justice, as I do end up getting it in with some crap hands on the final table, but that was purely down to my aggressive pre flop game. I noticed there were a lot of people that seemed to be happy to play the waiting game, but as the blinds and antes were massive, I decided to take the opposite approach and go after them rather than sit back and wait. I doubled my stack before getting caught out by a short stack 3bet shoving all in, which I had to call with 'The Ultimate Cranston' (84 suited).

I lost that hand but didn't lose many chips, and my image worked in my favour when the small blind took a stand against my constant button raises by 3betting me with J9. Unluckily for him (Sean) I had QQ this time and although he has a fair few chips behind, he is getting odds for a call against my shoving range - I do have AK here a lot - so he calls but misses.

I make 2 tough (ish) calls with KJ after raising and getting 3 bet shoved by tight (ish) short stack, but after thinking things through, working out pot odds and knowing that everyone thinks I'm full of shit, do make the call to see KT both times. First hand I lose a monster pot that would probably have taken me to chip leader when he hits a Ten on the river (not in NPF thread), but second time a few orbits later I knock out the same guy when he misses.

I get to heads up without having to get my hands dirty, the chip leader (the aforementioned DC) knocking out a talented crisp by the name of Junior Bomber. I obviously wouldn't of had a clue about that sentence either before the weekend, but anyone at Circus over the weekend would certainly know who I meant due to the constant railing / cheering of 'Bomber' from his fan club behind him. My fan club was much better looking though - or at least one half was as Brennan had been joined by K with 8 players left - and I think her presence did loads to help unsettle the 100% male field - thanks for your stare downs K! :-)

Anyway, heads up was virtually over before it started, my 190k chips tiny in comparison vs DC's 810k (20k big blinds) and my third ship pre flop in 4 hands with A3 was called and beaten by JK. I was a little disappointed not to get a double up and play a decent heads up match, but I certainly can't deny that Dave was a worthy winner. He outplayed me in every pot we contested over the 2 days and used his chip lead to massive advantage from 40 players left to dominate the tournament. Mark had told me how good a player he now was, and I have to agree after the weekend. As he is the founder of the NPF, organises all the events and talks to everyone as a true gentleman, I also think I would have been the most unpopular winner of all time if I had come back from the dead to claim 1st prize!

As it was, £930 prize money was a decent pay day (even if £290 was shipped to Brenos as shares!) and I thoroughly enjoyed the the weekend. I'll certainly be looking to play more local events and maybe even start posting on the NPF - who knows - people might actually know who I am now!!

Last Thursday - reminder of a lost youth!

Due to continued laptop gremlin issues, my HEM has continued to be knackered, causing me to stay away from online poker until my IT help desk (Brenos) arrived up at the weekend. This meant that I spent most if last week lazing around / watching poker videos, feeling better about the fact I'm improving my game without actually having to put it in to practice to prove it.

As I was still unable to work properly, I was also able to have a few shandies on Thursday night to celebrate a flying visit by long lost Rogers - a true legend. Back in the day (2+ years ago), I spent a lot of weekends out on the town with the boys, before I saw the error of my ways and settled down with K. Friday and Saturday nights usually involved us lot watching a snake-hipped Rogers schmooze his way in to a girl's heart on the dance floor, before he'd kiss and run, the dirty dog.

As he's still a young 'un, he dragged me and Brennan with a few of his mates from Manchester to Digital for Stone Love, and Indie night I used to 'love' back when I was at uni. Alas, I'm not a student anymore. I'm 30. And everyone else in there was clearly a student, or under 22 at least. Although it was great seeing Rogers again, this was pretty much how I felt I looked:

As I'd only started drinking late doors after playing awesomely in a 20-4 win at 5 aside, I was sober enough to realise that I should probably leave the whipper snappers to it. As Brenos is also nearer 30 than 20, he was easily persuaded to join me at Circus for late night cash table action. We played until the wee early hours, leaving at 5:30, and I banked a tiny profit to cover my expenses for the night.