Took a Shot

It'd been a while since i last moved up the stakes but having had a few drinks I gave it another go, I was by no means arseholed this time but on the wrong side of tipsy and knew i didn't have it in me to grind at the lower stakes. I set myself a stop loss amount but god knows if i would have actually stopped if I had made it to that point.

Was a funny session, i was 4 tabling between NL600 and NL2000 which is well out of my comfort zone, but due to my recent winning sessions (and the alcohol) I was playing really confident and not letting any bad beats effect me. Played just over 2,500 hands and definitely played the best high stakes action i have done in ages. I didn't feel out of my depth at all, in the past when sober i've often been playing these stakes as a way of chasing losses or to get bad beats out my system and therefore not played anywhere near my "A game" and generally i have come off thinking i have been outclassed by a couple of opponents.

Don't think you can ever be disappointed with $3,300 win but equally its tough to be too happy with a session that you have ended over $4k down for ev. I know that I flopped hell of a lot of good hands which is why i kept getting it in ahead on big pots but the suckouts were very nasty. These included hitting a set of 6s on a 862 flop, i reraised the c bet but only called his next reraise as i felt he was finding out where he was (+ there was a flush draw out which i was representing) another 2 on the turn was perfect and was delighted when he check raised me all in with QQ only for the 2 outer to hit on a 2,600 euro pot. That only took me back down to evens after i'd made a good start so didn't let it effect me however not long after that i 3 betted my QQ pre to get 1 call, J high flop and i get it all in v loose opponents JK, this 5 outer for 1,500 euros had me reeling a little. The only time all night i half tilted was after this hands, KhKs v JhTh flop was low with 2 hearts and opponent flat called 3rd heart on turn he reraised me and i knew i was behind but pushed all in and got lucky on the river (for just shy of 1200 euros). If I hadn't hit this hand i fear i might have tilted but that calmed me down a lot and i realised i was being stupid, so from then on played well again.

After those hands I gradually won and despite 1 more terrible pot where i rose pre with KQ and flopped Q87 - i again bet but am against truly horrendus fish (plays 65/15) and he calls, turn is a K so i again bet and he goes straight all in, i've seen this move before was sure he had K8 / K7 or AA so instantly call, this time its actually AK he has and 3 outs for 1200. By this point i'd ran out of alcohol was still very happy with my overall profit and decided it was time to call it a night.

Delighted with the win and it continues my good run, and February at the moment is shaping up to be every bit as good as January. So all in all pleased to turn a profit in those circumstances as woken up with some very expensive hangovers in the past but also left thinking about what might have been. If my recent luck had held i could easily be posting about my largest ever win, $7k+ but i'm just being greedy really.

Another Happy Post

Warning: this post contains some truly sickening chirpiness, if thats not your cup of tea turn away now!
I know a lot of people don't like this time of year, a fair few suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) but i'm not having any of that, so far the start of 2009 has been great and while i'm not a fan of the cold i can handle it when you throw in some good quality snow too. There's a hell of a lot of reasons why everything looks good at the mo and here goes with a few:

Everton are on fire! We've had a horrible run of games recently but come out of them with some great performances and very respectable results:
Man U away = lost 1 - 0 to a penalty but there is no shame in being outplayed by probably the best team in the world.
Liverpool 3 times:
Drew - late equaliser by Tiny Tim but fully deserved the point
Drew - this time outplayed for long periods but was no surprise as we had taken an early lead, pleasing that they still created very little despite having all the possession and took a rare mistake from Howard for their equaliser.
Won - Excellent display completely deserved the win although felt like the goal was never gonna come after the earlier missed chances.
Arsenal Home - drew but took a late stunner from Van Persie and we should have taken all 3 points, lack of concentration at the end but it shows how far we've come when we are disappointed at not beating them.
If you had offered me them results 3 weeks ago i would have snapped your hand off especially as we are still playing with no recognised strikers.

As for poker since my last post I have had 1 session at the tables and logged a very tasty win, this time i'm not even blaming it on luck, think i'll take some credit for the way i played. Its true what they say about PMA, thinking positively and playing with confidence does seem to make poker an easier game. Granted you still need the cards to fall your way, I had some good hands against the poor players and didn't have many suck outs go against me but when playing well (and winning) you take the bad beats on the chin and don't let them affect your game or tilt you.

Also got a fair bit going on in my none poker life to look forward to, heading down to Liverpool to watch Everton take on Bolton on Saturday followed by a mates party in Manchester then the following weekend having a couple of days away in the lakes with the mrs. Throw in a 3 week holiday come the end of March and everything is looking grand. Even made it to the gym for the 1st time in god knows how long today and would like to make it a regular occurance but i'd be surprised if that resolution even lasts the month.

Still not really hitting the tables as much as i should be but i'm sure a bad run will come soon enough and that is when i will get my motivation back to play the long nights so at the moment i'm sticking with the philosophy of "Always look on the bright side of life..."

Cannot miss

Today absolutely everything went right, didn't play particularly well but was winning races galore (AK v TT + AK v 99 v same opponent both won well) and even had QQ beat KK for a decent pot too, won $1400 from 3000 hands and most of that was +ev. If my own sets could stand up to flush draws and overpairs it would have been an unbelievable win but you cant take every pot down.

This was my first day playing of the month and it comes on the back of an excellent January, ended up £100 shy of my record total for a month. Went back on for another long go at the tables on Friday night and turned in a nice profit considering how much i'd been down during the day (also made about $350 from rakeback) and was very tempted by having a go on Saturday to chase the record but last sessions of the month have a habit of being shite so gave myself a celebratory night off to hit the town.

So all in all today i've been a robbing bastard and long may 2009 continue in this way.

It was always going to happen

This is not going to be a whinging post as I knew sooner or later the cards would turn against me, it has been due for a while as been running ridiculously well of late. When the bad run happens it does however always do it in spectacular fashion. The standard of poker played this afternoon at times was ludicrous but flopped trips were just no good today. I had them done by higher sets and terrible backdoor flushes. The worst was probably AA v AhJh on As7h6d all in on the flop for $600 but thats by no means the only bad hand.


As you can see Ev was horrendous today and goes way over the +$1k i had been lucky with earlier in the month but im not too pissed off as recovered from being $2k down to a little over $300 down for now. (the figures in the graph are incorrect as it takes everything as $ and not euros).

Very pleased with how i played apart from a little rocky spell early on, often that kind of down turn in the past would have led to some loosening up and chasing but not this time as I did see it coming. Sticking Rocky 4 on for a bit of inspiration did me no harm either!

1 bonus from this session has been a bad run is all it takes to inspire me to finally put some hands in, I always play more when i'm losing and getting in over 3k hands by mid afternoon isn't bad. Having a couple of hours off but definitely gonna hit the tables big time tonight to hopefully win back that cash.

Piss poor post

Just wrote a long post but had to delete it as it was shite mindless wittering, gonna shorten it down instead to a few key points:

• Not played too much but still running well above ev and logged good profit,
• Still targeting raked hands bonus for end of the month but need to sort out sleeping / poker routine before i can put in long hours,
  
• Everton were robbed by late goal so not happy,
• Brighter note Liverpool continue to screw themselves over and Rafa is looking more like an idiot by the day,
• Very pleased to have resisted poker when coming home pissed twice over the weekend (long may it continue as would love to kick this habit full time)

I realise its a terrible post but its 6am and i'm knackered, if i cant write proper sentences gotta be too tired for poker so off to bed now!

Winner winner chicken dinner

Another day another 250 hands and another quick win. Never had a run like this before, was again intending on playing a few hours this afternoon but decided to come off after about half an hour. my heart wasn't really in it anyway and after 4 very nice pots decided to cut and run.

Only a few hands in i get trip 5s on a JT5 flop having been raised pre I get quite a lot in on the flop followed a perfect K on the turn v opponents KJ, this means i'm guaranteed getting the rest of it from him and i was off and running.

That was a nice start but i followed that up with 2 hands in a row versus the same loose aggressive opponent, firstly 3 bet him with AK - flop KT3 rainbow and i lead out which he flat calls, wasn't entirly sure where i was at so checked into him after a 6 on the turn he also checks, another blank on the river and i again check, he pushes all in for $150, his range here is slow played AA or TT, possibly AK but would be surprised by check on turn or nothing to be afraid of, turn out he has AJ and its happy days. Next hand he has reloaded and i have TT this time he 3 bets me, it comes 876 rainbow i'd already decided if it came low i'd go for it and was happy with this flop, he lead out and i reraised big which he pushed all in, not too happy as generally behind but with outs and already committed so called the last $50, delighted to see he has 8Tos and its another nice pot.

I finished this up with QQ 3 bet pre flop versus J9 on a J high board - he paid me off much more than he should have done which i'm very pleased to say has been the story of the last few days, keep waiting for the bubble to burst and expect to see trips on all these pots but so far they haven't appeared.

Wish poker was always like this

The running good in 2009 is continuing in spectacular style. Had another small afternoon session as finding it impossible to get back to being nocturnal and to begin with i thought my luck had ran out. After 250 hands found myself in a $400 hole when i should have been $600 up, the majority of this came from getting QQ all in v AK on the turn on a T622 board, miracle K on the river for an $800 pot.

As the title suggests however this is not a bad beat / whinge about negative ev post it is in fact another very positive story. I knew I was due some bad luck which I think is why I didn't let a few early bad hands effect me at all and played well for the next 500 or so hands grinding back to about evens which is when lady luck decided to shine.

The next 250 hands were a dream, it started off with Ac9c on a Jc9d3c board i ended up all in against unraised pre pocket Js and got a lucky river for $500. Pretty much simultaneously on another table i raise with AcTc and get 2 callers for a 3c3sJc flop, a well known awful fish lead out and the other opponent flat calls i reraise big to represent the overpair and i get 2 half stack all ins, for a $600 pot i was facing 5c7c (from fish) and JQos (from usually solid opponent), another lovely club on the river and i'm on a roll.

Those pots had me in a rather good mood and was feeling very confident especially after yesterdays win when the biggest pot of the day came up. A tight opponent pre flop raised and i call with 9hTh, a lovely looking flop of 2h4hTs comes up and he obviously has the over pair when he again reraises against my reraise, i'm always going all in there even if it's pretty obviously gonna be 50 / 50 and sure enough he turns over bullets, 6h on turn and he is drawing dead for a 300BBs pot.

I have known for the last couple of days against a couple of the regulars if I start hitting trips on any kind of a board with a draw i'm getting paid off big (case in point with the above hand, we had only invested $16 each pre I could just as easily have had pocket 2s or 4s and played them exactly the same and he is going bust). So pretty much final hand of the session hit trip Ts on the same table as before against pre flop raiser with JJ and he again paid me out large, he spat his dummy and left so I did the same.

I know a bad run is just around the corner as it can't continue in this vein forever, i turned a - $1k ev into a + $400 ev in just 750 hands and i'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts. One slightly negative part is I fancied a gamble and a game of poker without really having the concentration so deposited $200 on another site to take a shot at spinning it up. managed to get that original $200 up to $600 on NL1000 pretty much raising every other hand but the inevitible happened as 2 top pair shit kickers in a row against trips bust me, can't complain and it was fun to play although stupid too.

Thats now me done with poker for a few days as got a few mates coming up for the weekend so going to take a not too well earned break. Was planning on playing Friday night to catch the fishes but after these last two sessions can't really be bothered and the reload bonus will just have to wait till next week.