Sick sick sick

I am running worse than Sogelau Tuvalu in the 100metres at the moment, losing EVERY showdown and unable to win despite the HUGE statistical advantage I have when the cards are flipped. This isn't to mention of course people who call 4bets with A3 suited for 2/3rds of their stack only to hit a flop of T33 vs my AA. Poker sucks balls.

Here's my graph - 2500 big blinds behind EV this month. Awesome.

September so far

Been pretty rough to be honest.  Firstly one of my old football buddies sadly died at the age of 26, having been suffering for almost 3 years with a disease I will only spell wrong so will just say it wasn't nice. Not only was it a sad loss but also actually unexpected, as he had been on the road to recovery before he suddenly died of heart failure following a routine surgery. His funeral was immensely sad but his family were amazing - welcoming everyone and giving a moving tribute at the ceremony. RIP Gary.

With this in mind, my troubles on and off the tables are all pretty small time, but as this is my poker blog I guess I better update it anyway.  I'm running badly on BOSS network at the moment, but grinding through it on the low stakes still. Currently around approx. £300 up for month on 6max cash games, so still a little short of the £500 target I wanted before moving up to NL100 again. Also crashed out of a £1k freeroll STT  through Virgin, losing a race with 77 vs AQ all in pre - very standard but if had won that I fancied my chances as there would only have been 6 left, I would have been chip leader and there was even a guy sitting out who forgot it was on presumably!  Amazing value from Virgin though so looking forward to qualifying again this month.  Rakeback is totting up though so not in dire sorts at the moment, and apart from the odd brain fart I'm actually playing pretty well, getting my money in good a lot but being shatfed by the cards a lot too. Still optimistic for month though.

Running bad also in house buying. Had found an apartment that me and mrs were looking to buy in Battle Hill, and although historically not the nicest of areas the new build estate did look safe enough and a good investment. Even though I can't get a mortgage and count as a 'dependable adult' - i.e. need to be looked after by my mrs do to no official income - we were all set to go ahead under her name only until the building group started being arsey and demanded we move in within 2 weeks. If we were in the same situation next year I'm pretty certain we would go ahead, but with Vegas wedding not too far off now (April next year) we decided to play safe and save our pennies. 3 months double rent / mortgage + bills is no way to prepare for Vegas honeymoon, and despite expert bargaining on our part we could not get building group to give us £2k cashback to help the move go ahead.  Understandable but annoying.

That's about it so far - will try and keep this updated weekly from now on til rest of year at least.

July and August 2011 P&L

Been a long time since I posted anything on here, mainly because of denial of a continuing bad poker trend in the last few months. I've bitten the bullet now and decided to stick on July and August results though, and will have a bit of chat afterwards.

July 2011

6 max: -£134

PLO: -£2

Full Ring: £15

Total Online: -£121

Live Tournaments: -£44

Live Cash: £99

Total Live: £55

TOTAL LOSS: -£66

August 2011

6max: £1,076

PLO: -£18

Full Ring: -£45

Rakeback / Bonus: £409

Total Profit: £1,423

As you can see, a bit of a contrast between July and August. I feel like I've relearnt 6max poker having not really played it for 10 months, and actually really enjoying it at the moment. I'm still on bankroll rebuild mode at the moment, playing NL50 and below, but been CRUSHING on the Boss network so my aim is to continue this and hopefully get back to playing NL100 this month.

With the upturn in fortunes online I've somewhat abandoned Aspers and the live games for the time being. I was winning a sizeable chunk in July but 2 losing sessions of £185 and £307 - the last while trying and failing at a shot on 1/2 - meant that a reasonable live month was ruined. The games are still soft so I will be returning a bit this month I think, but nowhere near the volume I put in over the summer. I will miss the Asperes points though as loved eating at Freyas for free!

Plans for this month:

- Crush NL50 and below to get to £500 profit for month

- Once hit £500 profit, take shots at NL100

- Watch 20 cardrunners videos - ten on 6max, ten on PLO

- maybe buy a house?!?!

June 2011 P&L

A little bit more upbeat since my last post as I've been hearing some positive noises from a few sources about the likelihood of me getting my money back, so I have decided to err on the side of optimism (strange for me) and NOT write off my Full Tilt account as a loss just yet.

Rush Poker: -£100

STT: -£15

MTT: £931

Rakeback / Bonus: £56

Total Online Profit: £877

Live Tournaments: £199

Live Cash: £1,085

Live Profit: £1,283

Total Profit: £2,160

Unfortunately July has started badly wth a loss of £185 last night. I played for 9 hours and saw one pair above 6's, but was still on course for a small profit at 4 am. Unfortunately I then tried to double barrel someone when I really shouldn't of, then shoved a turn against a decent reg who made a hero call with 88 on T637 board - I showed A6s with nut flush draw - but miss my outs. In hindsight I looked tilty so probably should have just flatted the turn, but also expected him to fold most of his range as he'd raised pre. C'est la vie.

A busy July ahead with stag weekend in Newquay, a 5 night stay in Prague for K's birthday then my birthday at the end of the month.

Run Good --> Run Bad --> WTF Do I Do Now??

Another crazy last few days on poker front.

Run Good

Ran exceptionally well in a 420 player freeroll on Full Tilt on Sunday, playing well and being comfortable - getting it in twice with AK versus AQ for monster pots helped - and then sat tight at the final table waiting for mega aggro players to busto. Got to 4 handed then hit the biggest 10 minute heater of my life:

1. open shipping 10 big blinds from small blind with 56 to beat AQ big blind with river straight

2. open shipping 12 big blinds (after losing some blinds) with 55 to river a straight versus KK

3. 3bet jamming 20 big blinds with T9s heads up to beat KK again with river 2 pair.

Was delighted with the result - probably the biggest single tourney win I've had online - netting $1.6k. Not bad for a nights work!!!

Run Bad

Been pretty much destroyed online since I got my laptop back from the knackers yard (Brennan's PC laboratory), taking way longer than it should of to get used to multi tabling. When I finally figure out how to play again - I started to run bad too - and currently tracking at £100 loss for the month - although this is 6 buy ins short of expectation.

Run bad hasn't been restricted to online either, and I haven't been able to win for a while at Aspers either. I'm not taking big losses, only £100 a time max, but I'm losing all the monster pots. I can't get there with any big draws, and I can't hold with made hands versus tilt shoves either. Biggest sick hand of the week though was when I got £100 in on the turn with 77 full house - J799 board - versus obvious AA/KK - only for 9 to bink on river to lose me another £220 pot. Not been a good week on that front...

WTF?!?!

All the run bad on the tables though pales in to insignificance when I wake up at 1pm yesterday to find out Full Tilt has lost it's gambling licence, and therefore all rights to operate in the world. Crucially for us mere players this means no games AND NO CASH WITHDRAWALS - a bit of a fucker when I have $2.3k sitting online in their coffers.

I was mistakenly hoping that FT were going to be operating normally in Europe after Black Friday disaster - after all, there's a tonne of online sites that do pretty well having never been in the US market - but alas my misguided naivety has come back to haunt me. I wouldn't have minded too much normally as I was only keeping a small(ish) roll online, but 2 days before I take my month end wage out (including tournament bink) the poker client and their website go down, with no likely date to return.

I'm keeping fingers crossed, worshipping my lucky poker buddha and praying to my poker pope - both of which sit next to me on my poker laptop - hoping that the hearing set up for next month in London will grant them a licence again - or at the very least let them get back online so that players can get their money back. At the moment though I'm probably just going to write this off as money lost though, as with US players still without their funds I think the chances of UK players getting theirs back first are even slimmer. I just wish the whole online industry would sort themselves the fuck out so I can figure out which site is safe and which isn't.....

..... which leads me to the initial question - what the fuck am I meant to do now? I can't play online really, as have minimal bankroll and wouldn't even know where I could safely play in the future - maybe Ladbrokes I suppose. I might have to start looking for work again, as not sure 50p / 50p games at Aspers can really sustain me in the long term. Or I might sign on and claim all the benefits I can before axing it all and going to live in Thailand doing TEFL / scuba diving instructing!

Decisions decisions......

UKIPT and June review so far

UKIPT

After bubbling the big £50 rebuy satellite at Aspers last Sunday, I somehow managed to run good and get myself qualified the very next night in the £10 + £10 + £10 game, meaning I got to play the main event this week. Due to huge number of runners and the fact the buy in of £550 was a bit bigger than my normal game, I decided to sell some shares in me meaning I'd get back £190 ish even if I failed to make cash.

Was a bit nervous when I arrived but after a couple of rounds of blinds was pretty happy with the standard I was up against - a few decent players, a few average and some obvious internet qualifiers who were pretty naive. I managed to chip up fairly early from my starting 15k to a healthy 32k, with the biggest pot being my trip 2's holding versus a medium stack shoved flush draw. I was then card dead for the rest of the day, losing a few small pots and making one hero call that was wrong for 2k but basically not playing a hand for 3 hours - meaning I'd made it to day 2 but with only 18 big blinds and 15k.

I was still mildly optimistic going in to day 2, knowing that a double up would put me back in to average stack territory but also knowing I'd need some luck to get it. As I'd been so card dead I was sure I was due, so when I shoved over a raise with AK I was certain I'd win the pot - even after he tank called with TT. Alas, it was not to be and I bricked all the way to the river, sending me home after a mere 20 minutes of play on day 2. My woes were not as bad as Brenos though, and my 5% stake also sank when his KK ship pre ran in to the mighty 56 suited which made a miracle straight to send him home 7 places from the cash. Gutted for him obviously, but also for both our sets of investors who we let down without being able to show them a return! Loved the experience though and will be looking to qualify for some more of these as did feel comfortable and would like to test myself against some of the better players who play these...

June Review

As my laptop has been completely dead, I've been forced to grind the live 50:50 cash game at Aspers as my only source of income. I started like a house on fire, but had a couple of iffy nights to lower the unrealistic target I set myself for the month. I am still nicely in profit though, winning over £800 in the ten visits I've made so far this month. With my laptop now back I will probably play there a little bit less but as it's been going well I think I'll still head there 4 or 5 times a week, just for less than the 10 hour sessions I have been putting in so far this month.

May 2011 Results

Been unable to post on here for a while as my laptop has been dead for 3 weeks and not been able to see my May figures until now, as Brennan has thankfully managed to save all my vital files and I haven't had to buy a new laptop - thank fuck.

Here are my results anyway....

Online cash + rakeback ~£540

Live Tournaments -£55

Live Cash £555

TOTAL Profit £1,040

These are only rough estimate results, as I can't get concrete online cash results but I think this is a pretty close reflection. Pleased that live cash continues to go well and will continue to keep plugging away at this as still think the live games are softer than online at the moment...