Monday, October 30, 2006

The Bad Run Has Arrived!!!!

Knew it was coming which is why perversely I haven't been playing much poker lately but you can't avoid it, you just have to get on with it. No need to bore myself by listing every bad beat but I think I was massively ahead in 4 of the showdowns and lost them all and I lost a race in the other STT.

Also took a complete spanking in Omaha numerous times, remember 1 hand where I pummelled all my money into the pot with the nut low and the 2nd nut flush (unpaired board) and promptly quartered the pot to my opponents nut low and nut flush! That just about summed it up.

Decided not to tilt, took a break for a few hours and played the Flashmob game. Was an enjoyable game, played it tighter than I've ever played a game of poker before, got myself up to approx 4000 at one stage but with 12 players left took a chance with KT suited when Dests raised 3*BB.

Prepared to look at the flop and keep hold of my last 2000 chips if the flop was nasty. Flop was very juicy 9TQ with 2 of my suit (So I had a pair, gutshot straight and flush draw) smashed all my chips into the pot and was called instantly by Dests AQ. I was about 60% favourite I guess but I don't think I've ever won a big pot in the Flashmob and no change here. Dissapointing because not only did I miss my 17 draws but Dests also had a hand to call me with but calling raises with KT suited is a bit fishy so no complaints.

neilg, aj, sillyfish and Dests all once again doing very well in this tournament. All obviously excellent poker players but I saw 3 of them get exceptionally lucky at times and I just wish I could get a little bit of that luck myself in the flashmob now and again.

Had a quick 10 minute look at the new Betfair software this morning, it really did look appalling. Hopefully it will improve but the freerolls and added bonus tournaments should mean that it remains popular in the short term.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Even More Flashmob Woe

You see I'm going to be struggling for titles soon for the Flashmob because it is always crap. Going to record the hands and try and work out what I am doing wrong.

1. Raise with AJ on the button, called by big blind who fires a half pot bet out on a board of KJ9. Easy call and lets see whether he will try again, turn is nothing much and he fires out a pot bet. No point getting involved this early so I let it go.

2. Call on the Small blind with 63 suited, flop gives me a flush draw so I call a smallish bet and the turn now gives me an outside straight draw as well. Bet out 200 into a pot of 300 and get called. River is utter garbage so I have 6 high. Dither about having another go but bottle it, Sillyfish bets 300 and again I let it go.

3. KQ Hearts in middle position, I call, callataxi raises to 90 in the small blind and I'll have a look at the flop. Flop J54 (2 Hearts), taxi checks and short stacked McGahern moves all-in, hoping I have 15 outs I call and am disappointed to see he has AT Hearts. I hit a Queen on the turn and get lucky.

4. Injured my right hand playing squash (yes playing squash, honest) and was therefore using a key logger to play poker so that I didn't have to use the mouse. Got dealt JJ UTG and meant to flat call, looking for a raise, pressed wrong button and folded them.

5. Couple of hands where I called raises with 77 and 99. At the early levels I like to play these and look for a nice flop. Both times 2 overcards flopped and I had to let them go out of position.

6. Final hand, KQ in the small blind. Called for 50 and flop KT8 (2 Spades). I check looking for a bet that I can re-raise all-in. Everybody checks :-(. Turn is a Q (not a spade) and I decide I'm committed here with 800 chips so bet 300. I get a caller and a spade comes down on the river. I'm beaten, I'm certain but I'm so fed up I chuck my last 500 down and lose to a made straight on the turn.

And that was it, if anyone wants to rip my play to pieces please do. I'm desperate to learn what more I can do in the Flashmob. Can't keep moaning about bad luck, I must be doing something wrong to continuously lose in an MTT containing the best players.

I don't know, maybe I need to be more aggressive early on but it's never been my strategy. It's worked very well over the past 2 years in STTs/MTTs but in the Flashmob everyone is tight so if I don't get any premiums or shit the flop then I get myself into trouble by getting bored and tilting my chips away.

Oh well always next week.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Momentum

So you open up a couple of Cash tables sit down and start of nicely, win a couple of nice pots and feel totally indestructable, all our bluffs are getting through and you're getting paid with the best hand. You start thinking how great a player you are and that you can probably double your bank in no time at all.........

........And then suddenly you lose a hand........

........Not neccesarily a big pot, you're probably still up overall but it's really annoying. Suddenly these people are raising you, your raises are getting called and the flop is as dry as a bone. You keep getting straight/flush draws and missing every one. You get dealt QQ and an ace and a king flops! It's like someone flicked that switch and now you cannot win a thing.

It's so difficult going from winning to losing, you want your profits back and start playing hands out of position. Suddenly you are calling raises with Ace Rag, an ace flops and somehow your amazing annoyed warped mind convinces you they have KK. Your head is now gone, you must stop playing but all you can think about is the profits that you had and that you must at least break even before you leave.

YOU ARE ON TILT TURN THE FUCKING PC OFF YOU UTTER MORON!

Doesn't happen very often but need to write this to remind myself.

Other than one stupid tilty session, I've won a few Omaha STTs on my Zen account and things are currently running very well. Which makes this blog a bit dull, I'm sure I'm due a bad run of cards soon though so normal service will be resumed.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Yellow Card

So there I was on Saturday browsing the Betfair forum so I notice someone asking about rakeback, so I post a link to Dibble's blog and all is good. Until some retarded admin guy from Betfair sends me an e-mail telling me that my forum rights will be revoked if I do this again. It appears every fucking day on the £2 thread you complete and utter pleb. And the tone of the e-mail was like being back at school. It's just an internet forum for fucks sake, it doesn't matter!

Flashmob was once again all a bit stupid. I will get involved in table talk and then make a move which in a standard STT/MTT I would never make. To be fair McGahern called like a shot with his AT which was a bit surprising but I normally would not re-raise all-in with A9. I was just trying a resteal but it is a pointless exercise if people cannot fold mediocre hands. Perhaps A9 is not the hand to try this with, suited connectors maybe better.

Finally Doob has played his 500th STT on Betfair, it was a £1 STT which I lost when I was minimum raised on the turn and the guy then hit his gutshot on the river after I just called. Can't work out if it is genius play or mental. Anyway I digress, each STT has earned me a profit of £1.01 with an average stake of £4, which even if I do say so myself is quite tidy. Although Sharkscope tells me that over the past 150 games I have made an overall loss, which is crap.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Super Hot?

So ZenZenZen is super hot?
What a load of crap, that includes 1 win in a bloody $5 Blackjack game, 4 seconds (2 of them in 6 paks so they don't count) and 2 3rds. That's rubbish, that's 7 times I have got into the money and I've only won once. Super Crap.

However had a nice 5th in the 10:45 Thunder which got me approx £50, you do need a lot of luck to get this far because you have to see showdowns in Thunders, there's no raising, re-raising, stealing, it's stick everything in the middle and hope your slight edge against A-Rag and ATC suited stands up. I do enjoy them though even though the last 2 I've played have involved Pocket Pairs losing to Ace Rag. And they don't push, I do and they call. Marvellous!

Cash has been poor this week, many awkward situations which I haven't managed to get away from means I've donked away $50 and my rakeback has paid for that :(

I shall probably update again after I finish 23rd in the flashmob on Sunday when panama makes his standard appalling call and gets lucky ..... or I play like an utter retard!

Monday, October 02, 2006

Playing Less and Less Recently

So stuff my boring poker life, very well done to Dibble for winning 5 STTs in a row and going to Singapore. For fucks sake if the challenge was win 5 in a month I would fail, fantastic achievement.

Played Flashmob and quite enjoyed the game, so much so that I got up to 6,000 chips and then started to donk them off with silly calls rather than rock up and ante away into 3rd. Finished 9th but should have been higher but when you call an extra 700 chips with K4 when small blind snap has gone all-in you deserve nothing more.

My main aim for October is to start winning STTs again. I have a theory that since my game has improved I am bluffing to much on the lower levels (pushing/raising with position) and this is not a good idea.