Dave "Bruce" Lea

Xmas Shippage!!

2010-12-29T03:42:00.000-08:00

EDIT: Just had this bit of winnage after I updated blog...................

Oh I wish it could be Xmas everyday........................................

Then next Morning I thought I would try another $12 180 Manner Turbo, and recieved another late Xmas pressie, a Xmas Chop Chop!!

Merry Xmas to all, and to all a good night ;-)

Gutted Again!!

2010-11-24T14:44:00.000-08:00

FFS.......................................

FFS!!!!!

2010-11-22T09:55:00.000-08:00

I am getting increasingly pist off, im going deep as fuk time and time again, but can't get through to the final 9......................... 6 hours for basically fuk all.

Return to Blackpool GUKPT

2010-11-11T14:49:00.000-08:00

I hadn't been back to Blackpool G since finishing 18th last year in the Main Event. With work being so busy I just haven't had time to play live, so I was quite excited to be playing the £100 side event tonight.

Blackpool however had different ideas and punished me for my lack of recent visits, I was out by level 5 and I never won a single hand. I had 1010 and 99 once, both times I decided to call and try and hit and win a big pot, both times 3 overs popped out. I tried to get involved with 910 suited and K10 suited but blanked everything and didn't have the right spot to bluff. I managed to flop two pair but by the turn there was a str8 out and I had to bin it (sure enough 2 guys chopped it with str8s). I called an even lower stacks all in on the BB with A5 clubs as it was the best Ace I had seen all night, he had QQ, first card out A, unfortunately the next 4 cards that followed where all hearts to give him a flush. It was the most frustrating live game I have played in ages, maybe I am too long out of the loop and just didn't play well, or maybe I was just damn unlucky....When I finally pushed my bowl of rice in with A2 (after folding the 3 hands previously, all of which would have won if I had pushed FML) I was called by KJ and he binked a J. Ah Well.........

Its not all doom and gloom though, two good things came from the trip:

1) I met Steve Holden on my table who I have to say is a right nice bloke
2) I got home early much to the Mrs delight.

I also left good friend Kingo going strong in the comp who I have a % in, Nicky and Anna where still grinding away as well, and BigBills Devo was still alive in hte Main Event Day 1A.

Stay Lucky all.........

A Return to the Cyber Felt

2010-11-07T04:04:00.000-08:00

I have hardly played over the last 4-5 months since vegas as I have been busy with work, but over the last week I found time for a couple of comps. Good to know I can still mix it up..........

Can't Guarnatee there will be regular up dates.

Good luck all, especially BigBills, BurnleyMik, Snake, Amatay, Clarkatroid and a big WP to Jamboy Steve Davies for shipping the Liverpool £250 ( I taught him the game lol)

2010-05-31T03:56:00.001-07:00

Guess whos back? Back again........

Right here we go.

This will be brief, sorry for a complete lack of updates, I have run like absolute shite since start of March. I ended up just fukin the game off, and playing maybe 1 hour a week if that. I uninstalled every poker site off my laptop, apart from Stars, then I installed full tilt. I just can't bring myself to uninstalled stars, even though I have violently raped on that site since xmas.

Yesterday I played cash on Full Tilt, usual shite made a few buy ins and then lost the lot, just about to uninstall it this morning when I thought fuk it, I'll load up $100 and then thats it. BOOM!! chopped that little rascal heads up, granted its not a big win, but when you have been on a death run its a welcome result.

3 weeks to go till Vegas, I am just hoping that this might be the start of normal run for me before I get there. I don't want to mention a heater in case I jinx myself.

Been playing a shit load of golf of recent and loving, shot one of my best rounds on Saturday, knocking in 10 pars, however I played again Sunday and normal service was resumed with me playing like a complete TW@T!!

Good luck all, im off to try and ship something!!

Walking Away

2010-04-12T10:23:00.001-07:00

On Friday night everything came to ahead...

In the space of 3 minutes I lost $240 across 4 tables, AA lost to KK all in pre, KK lost to QQ all in pre, I flopped a flush and ran it straight into a higher flush, and then my top pair on the flop was beaten by a better top pair and kicker. I don’t mind admitting I fucking lost the plot, took a swipe at the laptop (half heartedly) the Mrs saw this and went mad at me, I in turn went ape shit at the Mrs. Then I thought to myself this isn’t right why am I having a pop at the Mrs she hasn’t done anything wrong. I logged out, apologised to the Mrs and told her that was it for the rest of the month NO MORE POKER!! At the end of the day I love my Mrs more than poker, that’s more important to me no question, but yet I am having a go at her because I am getting it rough on the cyber felt.

From there I went on the piss with a good mate of mine Jax, he isn’t a poker player so we often get leathered and end up talking a load of bollocks, but nothing poker related which was just what the doctor ordered. Next day the Mrs and I went to the Grand National and a wedding reception after. We had a great day, Peddlers Cross and Kyber Kym did the business for us, and we spent a lovely evening in a beautiful Stately Home celebrating a good friend’s marriage. When we got back to the hotel a couple of gay lads in the room above of us where having a cat fight, I complained twice to reception and received a full refund FTW!!

Sunday when I got home I withdrew $300 from my PokerStars account, leaving $61 in there, I have already achieved SILVERSTAR for next month, GOLDSTAR can get fucked!! I am 116 FPPs of my $50 bonus, I won’t play for the rest of the month and when I return to Stars if things don’t improve it is of to Full Tilt I go.

The simple fact of it is I just cant take losing, when I am winning I am on cloud nine and in a great mood, but when the downswing comes in, as it has for the last 6 weeks, I turn into a horrible fukin bastard.

How can you love and hate this fukin stupid game so much!!??

Operation “Walk Away” is in full effect for the rest of the month.
Best of luck to all of you out there, thanks for your support. But there comes a time when you have to be a real man and admit when something has taken hold of you, and the only way to stop it is to walk away.

OPERATION "Walk away" Is in ACTION!!

2010-04-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

PokerStars Game #42285302997: Hold'em No Limit ($1/$2 USD) - 2010/04/06 16:32:45 ETTable 'Tombaugh II' 6-max
Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: TheMartinet ($228.45 in chips)
Seat 2: HopDeHomni ($183.25 in chips)
Seat 3: minjx1st ($37.45 in chips)
Seat 4: Wuppert ($124.90 in chips)
Seat 5: qTTro ($200 in chips)
Seat 6: TillerMaN ($53 in chips)
TheMartinet: posts small blind $1
HopDeHomni: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HopDeHomni [6s 6d]
minjx1st: calls $2
Wuppert: folds
qTTro: raises $4 to $6
TillerMaN: folds
TheMartinet: folds
HopDeHomni: calls $4
minjx1st: calls $4
*** FLOP *** [9c 6c As]
HopDeHomni: checks
minjx1st: checks
qTTro: bets $14
HopDeHomni: raises $14 to $28
minjx1st: folds
qTTro: raises $30 to $58
HopDeHomni: calls $30
*** TURN *** [9c 6c As] [4s]
HopDeHomni: bets $119.25 and is all-in
qTTro: calls $119.25
*** RIVER *** [9c 6c As 4s] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HopDeHomni: shows [6s 6d] (three of a kind, Sixes)
qTTro: shows [Ad Ah] (three of a kind, Aces)
qTTro collected $370.50 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $373.50 Rake $3 Board [9c 6c As 4s 7s]
Seat 1: TheMartinet (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: HopDeHomni (big blind) showed [6s 6d] and lost with three of a kind, Sixes
Seat 3: minjx1st folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Wuppert folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: qTTro showed [Ad Ah] and won ($370.50) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: TillerMaN (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

One day in and its fukin started again, ran golden for about 30 mins on this table, was about 2 buy ins up across 2 tables on $0.50/$1, and then the poker gods decide its "Bumming Time"

OPERATION "Walk Away" Takes immediate effect.

Fuck You Poker!!

Time for a re-THINK!!

2010-04-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

I promised you all 3 of the sickest hands I have experienced over the last month, but I realise if I post 3 hand histories on here everyone will be board shitless and not read any of my other waffle, so I will make them short and sweet.

Deep in a comp just before bubble: I am 2nd in chips on the table, I don’t need to get involved but I want to win the comp, not pussy into the money. I have 1010, chipleader has limped out of position, I pop it up on the BB with 1010. He calls and the flop comes 6 10 6, I check, he min bets and I call, turn is a K, I check he min bets, I opt to re-pop, he re-pops, I push the lot, he calls and flips 6 6 FML!!!!!!

Cash: I have 1010 again against a fukin retarded tilting spastic mother fuker. He raises and I re-raise him, he calls, the flop comes down 2 7 10, straight away he bets out, he is a complete tit and I want all his money, so I min raise to look weak, hoping he comes over the top, he does exactly that and I snap his hand off!! He flips 10 K, turn and river K. FML!!!!!!!

Cash: Very similar scenario I have AA, long story short, the money all goes in on a
5 5 A board, he has 7 7. Turn and river 7. FML!!!!!!!!

That’s a snapshot of how bad I have been running, at one point I was over $1500 down, but after persistence, patience and I little turn in favour I have managed to finish march $649 down. So I still have profit for the year, thank fuck!!

I have managed several decent runs in comps, last night I played a stormer in the DNG 300k GTD, however fatigue took over at 1:30am and I made a do or die move for a 80k pot, which back fired big-time sending me to the rail in 425th out of over 6500 runners. I am happy with my game, especially in the MTTS, even cash has been ok over the last couple of days, I have only played very short sessions, mainly on $1/$2, and I am up around $100 so far for the month.

Now one thing I have realised is that in my quest to keep at GOLDSTAR, I have been forced to play quite a lot of cash to acquire the needed FPPs. After a lot of thought and dissection I have realised that it’s not worth it, what do I get for being a GOLDSTAR? I get a weekly, monthly and quarterly Freeroll, I have played the first 2, and they are shite. YES there is value of course, but it’s a shit structure, you get no chips, and you need LUCK, LUCK, LUCK!!! Stars really have been very clever with this, without even realising you get sucked into playing more games, more frequently to hit the needed FPPs. Before you know it your not playing you’re A game, you take a run of bad form and you can end up shitting half your roll away, if not worse.

So I have decided to keep it plain and simple from this road in:

Fuck GoldStar, and accumulating FPPs, if I hit it, so be it.

Play when and if I want, and what ever takes my fancy, MTTs, SnGs or cash. If I am playing good, I`ll keep playing. However when things go bad I am going to go into “Operation walk away!!”

Operation walk away: When the cash tables are beating me (and I have to start admitting when I am getting played off the table), the sick beats are being dished out in the MTTs and SnGs, I take the following 3 steps of action:

1) Log out of Stars and turn the lappy off.
2) Leave the apartment for either a walk or drive for at least 20 minutes to clear my head. (Probably a drive, I am a lazy chuffer)
3) Do not log back on until the following day or later.

This is a routine I need to get into, as I have pist away too much money through March by not having the discipline to walk away from bad sessions.

I have set the target of 1k profit for April.

I am also back playing 5 a side football, fuk me its hard work, but I am looking forward to playing regularly again.

Finally PMSL laughing at Snakes blog, and his rugby story, I am sure the bloke took it in good spirits.

Stay lucky all……..

Edging ever closer

2010-03-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

I have had a bit of a poker marathin this weekend, a good deep run in the 80k ended when I raised on the button with KQ, BB re-raises, he has a stack so I know he could be moving with anything, after a bit of contemplation I call, and see a flop of 9 10 Q. Top pair, decent kicker, and a gut-shot, its enough for me to commit 70k in a pot about 50k. He only had fukin AQ, do you set it up stars.....???? LOL

Im gonna ship something big soon, either that or Im gonna go fukin insane!!

Next post I have 3 of the sickest hands I have had over the last month.

Good luck all.....

What The FUCK do I have to do!!!!!??????

2010-03-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

The death run continues, and this one really fukin hurt. Was 10th overall and find KK UTG, I raise it up standard 3 x blinds, guy shoves all in and has me covered, we all know what he has AK, I call first card out A FML!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im ready for giving up, 6 hours work for that.......

Could this be a turn in the road?

2010-03-20T03:01:00.000-07:00

After yet another soul destroying session where in the $60k GTD $10 re-buy I was deeper than the late John Holmes in some sluts snatch, when I get 20k in the middle with AK on a 5 7 A board to be call by some DOGS DICK with A2, of course the river made him cream in his pants as the deuce hit........FFS!!

After 2 minutes of knocking the fuck out of the setee, I re-grouped, then busted out of the daily 30k, daily 80k, and the $5 2R/1A, all in classic situations AK v 88, JJ into QQ, AQ into AK..

So I had a can of stella and shot of Jack D, turned the lappy off and started watching the documentary on sky (I have pre-recorded the whole series) "The World at War" for some reason at the moment I am fasinated by the 2nd WW. I have recorded all the stuff on the Gestapo, SS, Hitler, Churchill, its really interesting stuff but also makes you realise what the old boys did for us all them years ago. How do we choose to re-pay them? We turn the country they fought so hard for into a complete shithole, and show no respect for our fellow man..Anyway I am going off on one of my rants again here..So after watching the boys literally go through pure hell at the start of the war before the Russians and Yanks pulled their socks up and jumped in, I was inspired, these boys never gave up why should I!!!!!!

With that the laptop was re-booted and I fired up this SnG as I didnt want to get involved in a poker marathon. I played tight as fuk and picked my spots well, then 1 crucial pot came along on the FT. In these turbo SnGs the blind structure pretty much dictates that if you have a premimum hand even though you believe you may be racing, the chips have to go in. So my 30k ended up in the middle with AQ diamonds, after a raise, then after me a larger stacked shipped his mountain in and the orginal raiser put his stack in, but for some reason I still felt good. Original raiser had AQ off and big stack had AK off, the flop dropped 2d ks 4d ONE TIME!! Turn 6d river 7d SHIP IT!!!!

From there I ran over the table and heads up lasted 2 hands, I just hope that the poker gods have decided this is the turn in the road I deserve and I can get back to winning ways..

Good Luck all and thanks for your support through this dark poker period..

Big Shouts to BurnleyMik, 1tripz1 and $1000 man!

CANT win a single race

2010-03-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

This month is the month from HELL, no matter what I do and just keep getting my skinny white ass slapped!! I managed to ship a 45 man turbo Sit n Go last Thursday for $154 and thought I might have turned a corner, NO SUCH LUCK!!

I am now down $1118 for the month FML!! My head is starting to wobble, I fired off cash and moved back to the MTTS last week but managed about 2 min cashes out of at least 30 tourneys. I just can’t win a race, my money goes in, in front but they are hitting runner str8s, flushes and bigger full houses. I even tried PLO and was chip leader in a comp with approx 300 runners for about 30 mins then I got violently bummed all over the felt, with trips running into better trips, the nuts on the flop being cracked on the river, its been horrendous!!

Last night I tried playing some SnGs 6/10/18/45 manners, every single one my money went in, in front and I lost every single race. Classic example blinds are getting big and the SB who has exactly 10 more chips than me shoves with K7 off, I snap his hand off with AJ, board runs out x x x x 7 JUST FUCK RIGHT OFF!!

I have been reading BurnleyMiks blog and I know he has been having it rough as well, but Ill be honest I just don’t handle the downswings, variance and bad luck well at all. I have spoke to the regular boys I play poker with and they all say I have run golden from October through till February I just need to take it on the chin and grind away. I often used to think (dream) I would love to play poker full time online, but Ill be honest just one bad month and I think id be ready for throwing the towel in.

Maybe I should stop crying like a little bitch, pull my socks up, suck it up and keep going, surely things have to improve. It’s just difficult though when you watch 2 thirds of your profit for the year going to a bunch of fukin lucky bastards!!

On the plus side I relented last night and went back onto the cash tables, I still need to get approx another 800 FPPs to maintain GOLDSTAR this month. After such a battering at the tables I have moved down levels from $0.50/$1 to $0.10/$0.25 that is how bad it has been. I have even stopped breathing as the cards get dealt when all the money is in, so last night when this run of hands came along in the space of 4 hands against the same player, the Mrs was on stand buy to perform CPR afterwards. Either that or help me pick up the pieces of the laptop if my AA got cracked!! I have AA cracked so many times this month, with a history of violence towards my previous laptops how my current one has not ended up in the grave yard I do not know!!

Anyway here we go let’s finish off on a good note, and pray to the poker gods for the heater back end of the month:

PokerStars Game #41256590681: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25 USD) - 2010/03/16 15:58:06 ETTable 'Prieska V' 6-max

Seat #1 is the buttonSeat 1: SpiritLife ($25.50 in chips)

Seat 2: HopDeHomni ($29.15 in chips)

Seat 3: Wilmotz ($19.40 in chips)

Seat 4: KommepC$$$ ($27.20 in chips)

Seat 6: visser55 ($11.25 in chips)

HopDeHomni: posts small blind $0.10

Wilmotz: posts big blind $0.25

jensen1323: sits out

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to HopDeHomni [Ah As]

KommepC$$$: raises $0.50 to $0.75

visser55: folds

SpiritLife: calls $0.75

HopDeHomni: raises $1.50 to $2.25

Wilmotz: folds

KommepC$$$: raises $3.75 to $6

SpiritLife: folds

HopDeHomni: raises $23.15 to $29.15 and is all-in

KommepC$$$: calls $21.20 and is all-in

Uncalled bet ($1.95) returned to HopDeHomni

*** FLOP ***

[3h 9s Js]

Wilmotz said, "88"

*** TURN ***

[3h 9s Js] [Ts]

*** RIVER ***

[3h 9s Js Ts] [7s]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

HopDeHomni: shows [Ah As] (a flush, Ace high)

KommepC$$$: shows [Ks Kd] (a flush, King high)

HopDeHomni collected $53.40 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $55.40 Rake $2

Board [3h 9s Js Ts 7s]

Seat 1: SpiritLife (button) folded before Flop

Seat 2: HopDeHomni (small blind) showed [Ah As] and won ($53.40) with a flush, Ace high

Seat 3: Wilmotz (big blind) folded before Flop

Seat 4: KommepC$$$ showed [Ks Kd] and lost with a flush, King high

Seat 6: visser55 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

2 Hands later same player

PokerStars Game #41256643118: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25 USD) - 2010/03/16 15:59:25 ETTable 'Prieska V' 6-max

Seat #3 is the button

Seat 1: SpiritLife ($25 in chips)

Seat 2: HopDeHomni ($55.35 in chips)

Seat 3: Wilmotz ($18.40 in chips)

Seat 4: KommepC$$$ ($25.70 in chips)

Seat 5: jensen1323 ($33 in chips)

Seat 6: visser55 ($11.25 in chips)

KommepC$$$: posts small blind $0.10

jensen1323: posts big blind $0.25

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to HopDeHomni [Ad Ac]

visser55: folds

SpiritLife: folds

HopDeHomni: raises $0.50 to $0.75

Wilmotz: folds

KommepC$$$: raises $1.75 to $2.50

jensen1323: folds

HopDeHomni: raises $2.50 to $5

KommepC$$$: raises $20.70 to $25.70 and is all-in

HopDeHomni: calls $20.70

*** FLOP ***

[Ts 2s 2c]

Wilmotz said, "oouuuuuu"

*** TURN ***

[Ts 2s 2c] [6h]

*** RIVER ***

[Ts 2s 2c 6h] [Jc]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

KommepC$$$: shows [Ah Kh] (a pair of Deuces)

HopDeHomni: shows [Ad Ac] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)

HopDeHomni collected $49.10 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $51.65 Rake $2.55

Board [Ts 2s 2c 6h Jc]

Seat 1: SpiritLife folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 2: HopDeHomni showed [Ad Ac] and won ($49.10) with two pair, Aces and Deuces

Seat 3: Wilmotz (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 4: KommepC$$$ (small blind) showed [Ah Kh] and lost with a pair of Deuces

Seat 5: jensen1323 (big blind) folded before Flop

Seat 6: visser55 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

FML I won LOL

Good Luck All ;-)

In the Hole

2010-03-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

Well it hasn’t started well; in fact I don’t think it could have started any worse. I have had a sick run of sessions where no mater what I do I get bent over and dry bummed, in some instances the beats have been so bad it almost feels as if they have thrown sand up my passage as well for good measure…..

Saturday’s session was the worse with QQ running KK 3 times, when I eventually hit a set of 3s on a low board and manufactured it so he put all his money in, he then hit a set of 8s on the turn. I still managed to avoid spastic monkey tilt, before the final 2 nails in the coffin came down. My aces where cracked when a player couldn’t lay down his up and down draw, and then a hand I played perfectly turned around and punched me straight in the bollocks. I called a raised with A5 hearts from an aggressive player, the flop came down 5 K A, I checked to him and when he bet out I re-raised him leaving it perfect for him to come over the top of me. I put him on AJ or AQ and he instantly put it over the top of me, I snap called and saw AJ, the turn drops a Q and the river a 10….FML…………………….

I managed to reframe myself from launching the lappy across the room in madness, instead I jumped in the shower and went out on a 10 hour bender with the lads, it was just what the doctor ordered.

Sunday I fired up x amount of comps but only managed 2 min cashes, unfortunately I can’t shake the bad beats, the cold run continues, but I remain positive I can pull it round.

It aint gonna be easy I am $818 down for the month so far…

Good luck all, god I am hope you are all running better than I am ;-)

Capable of a lot, lot more

2010-02-28T01:43:00.000-08:00

I have been lazy this month with my blogging, been extremely busy at work with project work, so the last thing I have felt like doing when I get home is re-engaging my brain and banging out a decent post.

It has been a good month on the cyber felt, I have played a lot of cash as appose to comps as I needed the FPPs to hit GoldStar level, which was something I managed with ease. To be honest I have no plans to move up to platinum with double points at GoldStar and frequent juicy freerolls and I more than and confident I can keep myself at this level. So the plan will be to play more MTTs this month as to be honest this is where I am strongest, I have had some sick runs this month smashing through huge fields over 5k of runners. My best run came in the $8 rebuy $30k GTD with 2201 runners finally finishing 24th when I pushed all in with QQ after a raise and a call, there was 500k in the middle and I was up against AK and KJ, the board ran out
x x x x K. It was hard to take and I don’t mind admitting it, with over $9k to the winner it felt as if I had been robbed. The guy with the AK went on to win it, I had said to myself before the hands conclusion if I win this pot I will win the comp as I was playing the best poker of my life. But alas it was not to be…..

I did however ship 1 of my favourite comps for the 2nd time at the start of the month, the $4 $2k GTD (1000 cap). I say ship with 3 of us left and my Mrs yapping in my ear I suggested a 3 way even chop for $558 each, the boys excepted and the deal was done.

So where am I against my goals set for the month:

Reach GoldStar on Stars: Done

$2k Profit: $1368 profit for the month – Not a bad month but I feel I am capable of a lot, lot more, I haven’t played as much as normal, and as mentioned my deeps runs although good have not taken me into the bigger payouts.

Play the Sunday Warm Up: Didn’t even attempt it

Sports Betting: Didn’t even attempt it

Have a more successful LIVE outing: I have played twice live, the first a £40 treble chance at Blackpool G, complete waste of time; you can’t get any of them to lay a hand down. I was out early but had a nice session on cash leaving me a £100 up and my buy in back.

Yesterday I played the £100 deepstack monthly event at Blackpool G, with a 149 runners it was set to be a good comp. I played a tight game and 2 hands before the break I raised it up with 99, a nice guy who I had been talking with about Vegas etc etc, re-raised me, I knew he had a monster AA or KK as it was the first time he had re-raised, I thought if I can spike a 9 all the money will go in. Flop came 9 10 4, he fired out 2.5k and I move all in for 10.3k trying to look weak as fuk. To be fair this lad was a good player and he though for ages, even said have you hit trips? Just when he picked up his cards as if to through them into the muck, he announced call. He shows KK. Wallop up to 24k.

Now I would like opinions on this my exit hand:

It about 3 hours later and I have 28k, I have been moved tables and have been on the new table for about 45 mins, there are 60 runners left, average chips is about 35k. I have made three moves with KK, QQ and A10 all got through, but all small pots, my image is tight. I am on the BB and get a raise from the button to 3.5k, blinds are 600/1200 RA 75. I look down at AJ and call, the flop comes 7h 10h Qd, I check, and he thinks for a while and bets 3k, I look at him and think he is weak, the bet looks weak so I re-pop it up to 9k, on the bluff, granted I have chance of the K for the nut straight. He thinks for ages and really does not look happy but eventually calls, the turn is 10d, and I announce all in for about 15k, he INSTA calls and shows QQ . Oh Fuk…… I don’t know what to think, yep I got owned. However is my move just madness? My thoughts were if he has a weak Q, flush draw, no 10 he has to fold. I like the move its just terrible timing. Any thoughts anyone?

Today there is no poker, which is a shame as I love Sunday on Stars but I promised the Mrs a day out together, sometimes there are more important things than the cyber felt. Next week I am in London for 3 days with work, I will be taking the lappy to try and get some poker action in the hotel room, and then I am off the following week for a week’s holiday. Nothing major planned, got new furniture being delivered and new fitted blinds being installed, got a party and a stag do to attend, and I dare say ill get chance for a few hours of POKAY ;-)

Goals for next month:

$2k Profit
Maintain GoldStar
Live Shippage

Good luck all……

Never play PIST!!!!

2010-02-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

https://www.pokertableratings.com/replayer/index.php?site=stars&id=37469521230&hash=4257936161

LOL this is me deciding to take a crack at $2/$4 after a fukin skimfull of ale at approx 3am in the morning. Luckily the result went in my favour, but I take it as a lesson learnt. I will be honest cant even remember playing it until Dev sent it through on email today. Luckily my pist up rampage only lasted 13 hands on $2/$4 before I either passed out or the laptop battery went.

I will fire up a full blog 2moz, as I have had a nice little bit of shippage on Sunday and I have had a few cracks at $1/$2, which to me seems easier to play than $0.50/$1, but maybe I am talking complete fukin shite......

Good luck all

A Tough Month

2010-02-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

Where to start……..

Blackpool was complete shite, I was knackered from the night before so shouldn’t have really played. When Jamboy and I got down there it seemed like the floor staff where arguing, then are dealer arrived at our table with 5 minutes of play on the clock with a face like a slapped dogs arse. She couldn’t deal, she couldn’t work the pots out properly, it was a fukin nightmare. Then I had to listen to the same guy from about 9 months ago, banging on about how the game doesn’t have as much money in it, and he runs so bad, but back in the day he used to make 15k a week at cash, how we were all amateurs and he knew exactly what we had. So I bluffed the shit out of him twice with fuk all before being moved to a new table with a good dealer. 3 hands in and I have KJ with 6 limpers, so I limped (big mistake) and the flop dropped Ks 4d 5d, I bet out the pot at about 6k leaving me 7k behind and a guy pushes all in, I said I cant fold this you are on a diamond draw and made the call. He shows me 6d 7d for an up and down str8 & str8 Flush draw and flush draw. I stand up and put my jacket on to which someone says you’re not out yet, I said give it 5 seconds, and the river drops J diamonds….. GG WP

So I jump on cash to kill some time, when Mr 15k a week comes over knocked out of the comp, strange I thought he knew everyone’s hands? He sits down with £20, where’s your 15k a week?? I get my money in with 5 6 hearts on a Q 5 6 board and get called by KK, turn 7 river 7 FML!!......... But at least it wasn’t against Mr 15k.

A bad night, I am in no rush to go back…

But on a plus note Jamboy came 7th for £130 of which I had 30%, on Friday I met Steve in the boozer where he £39 for me, but I said just give me £20, we eventually settled on £30. I don’t like taking money when I feel I have performed so poorly, but as Steve rightly said you always honour your deals Dave. 10 mins later I have shipped the fruit machine for about £50 after watching some geezer literally throwing money into it. We got shitfaced!!

It’s been a roller coater of a month on line, I did say I was playing no more cash but I just can’t resist it. Its to convenient, I can log on and off as I please and don’t have to donate 8 hours to a comp. But I am better at MTTs than cash so should really stick to them, but I love the buzz of cash, Jesus I am like a bloody women, never know what I want.

I was up as high as $1200 profit but alas a few poor sessions including yesterday in the Sunday comps with AA being cracked twice I can post profit for the month of $821. I should be happy that I have profit but I feel that I can do so much more, I have had some really deep runs in comps then shot my load to soon before the big cash. Last night and this morning when I woke up I was watching the Sunday Million, watching that final table filled me with motivation to get my shit red hot again. Build the bankroll up and start taking cracks at big comps with life changing money. The likes of Clarkatroid and Moorman1 spur me on, these boys rock on cash and MTTs respectively. To get to there Level will take some real dedication and guts, but that’s the long term dream…

I played the Blogger Main Event but to be fair my heart wasn’t in it, and it was an early exit when I called a push after my SB raise from the BB, my A9 clubs was no match for his 66.

Goals for February:

Reach Gold Star on Stars

2k profit

Have a more successful Live outing

Play the Sunday Warm Up: I bubbled 3 satellites on the bounce for the warm up and Sunday million on Sunday and was gutted, I am determined to play them but I don’t want to pay the entry fee.

I am also going to have a crack at sports betting, going to keep it very low stakes for a bit of fun, but also to see if I can turn a profit.

I will leave you with a quote that always makes me laugh after a bad session on the poker. Good luck all…

“I was so angry I could kill a fucking penguin!!”

Grinding the Bankroll Back

2010-01-22T07:17:00.000-08:00

After the madness of the cash tables, spinning in $400 profit in less then an hour and then spending 4 nights giving it all back, I took myself off to a quiet corner of my apartment, and gave myself a damn good talking taking too!! Why the fuk am I wasting time on the cash tables, I am simply not controlled enough for them, and my degenerate gambling bastard side comes out too much. STICK TO WHAT YOU KNOW DAVO!! Which is the tourney grind. As I have explained I don’t like to run up a huge bankroll on sites so when I get a decent chunk it gets withdrawn and put straight into a bank account. I have already made a withdrawal from Pokerstars this month, and had ran the remaining $50 into $480 and then pissed all that away leaving me with $48 in the accountL. So in a situation like this there is only one thing to do, hit the low stakes tourney grind. I hit Stars at 6pm last night and registered for 8 competitions ranging from $3 - $5 buy ins, normally I don’t like to play that low but needs must.

The play was terrible in a lot of them, with players not able to fold hands, calling all in with Ace high on the turn and then spiking etc etc. So it all came down to one competition the $3 1.5k GTD 6 MAX comp, 2354 runners and I will say now I was surprised with the quality of play. Now before I go any further a good poker friend of mine Phil Blackwell deserves a mention here. Over the past few months we have been playing about 1 night a week on Stars and doing a % deal on various comps, we are in constant contact on MSN and this has improved my game no end. We are constantly railing each other, he offers me advice, knows when I am about to go on spastic monkey tilt and gets me to sort my head out. But it motivates me to play well as he either watching or playing a different comp which I have a cut in or vice versa. Last night I was commenting on his hand history and giving my opinion and he was doing the same, he also stepped in a bout 3 times to give me a slap and calm me down. TY Phil top man.

So with out going right into the finer details, about 6.5 hours in and we are down to 2 tables, I take complete control of my table and go from 600k up to 1.8 million as we hit the final table. I am 2nd in chips and can afford to sit back and let a few players exited, but I was so much in the zone I went straight to work at it, at my own cost. I messed up yet again deep in a competition, I call a raise with A8 hearts on the SB out of position from the guy 3rd in chips, the flop comes down 3c 4 c 8d, He bets out about half the pot and I 4 bet him wanting to take the pot there and then. He tanks and eventually calls, I put him on a strong A and he is being stubborn, thinking I am at it from the outset trying to control the table. Turn comes a 6c and I jam the pot trusting my read….. Which is wrong and he INSTA calls me with Kc Qc, the 8 on the river was no help, I am down to 200k.. IDIOT.

I manage to re-group and get my stack up to 700k, the play is very, very good for a $3 comp and I know I have a real up hill battle. We lose a player and I then attempt another crazy bluff to accumulate chips, I have K6 in the SB and raise the BB calls and the flop drops 10 3 10, I bet and he flats, I don’t put him on a 10, perhaps 66 or something like that. Turn brings an A, and I decide to check slam it if he bets, to represent the A, so I check he bets and I slam. He calls faster than a speeding bullet and show me 10 7. BOLLOX!! 200k left and I ship it in on the chip leaders BB with AQ off, he calls me with Q9, 3 outs and the first card out is a 9, no ace for Davo time for bed. $289 for my efforts in 5th place, which is a good ROI off $3, but I would have liked to take the $1100 first place prize, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Normally I would be disappointed and dwell over this for days, but I am not, you live by the sword and you die by the sword, I made my moves and they didn’t pay off. $289 puts the bankroll back into a healthy place; I know I have made the right decision sticking to what I am good at “the tourney grind.” Plus my profit for the month stands at $913 so far, purely from tourneys. I am constantly having deep runs and feel as if another big score is on the cards.

Tonight it is the £50 F/O, 12k starting stack at the Blackpool G, myself and Jamboy will be attending, I will be free rolling as Steve owes me a buy in from all the way back in November at the GUKPT, and this will be the first live game I have played since then.

Good luck all……

NO MORE FUCKIN CASH GAMES!!

2010-01-20T13:38:00.000-08:00

PokerStars Game #38466102041: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00 USD)

- 2010/01/20 16:28:47

ETTable 'Janina VI' 6-max Seat #1 is the button

Seat 1: nekbar007 ($145.45 in chips)

Seat 2: AlexPles ($19 in chips)

Seat 3: DooM_DaYs ($112.70 in chips)

Seat 4: arghhh27 ($100 in chips)

Seat 5: HopDeHomni ($92.80 in chips)

Seat 6: slipperily ($100 in chips)

AlexPles: posts small blind $0.50

DooM_DaYs: posts big blind $1

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to HopDeHomni [Ks Kc]

arghhh27: folds

HopDeHomni: raises $2 to $3

slipperily: calls $3

nekbar007: folds

AlexPles: folds

DooM_DaYs: folds

*** FLOP *** [4c 8d 4h]

HopDeHomni: checks

slipperily: bets $4

HopDeHomni: raises $6 to $10

slipperily: calls $6

*** TURN *** [4c 8d 4h] [7s]

HopDeHomni: bets $18

slipperily: calls $18

*** RIVER *** [4c 8d 4h 7s] [2c]

HopDeHomni: bets $35

slipperily: raises $34 to $69 and is all-in

HopDeHomni: calls $26.80 and is all-in

Uncalled bet ($7.20) returned to slipperily

*** SHOW DOWN ***

slipperily: shows [2h 2s] (a full house, Deuces full of Fours)

HopDeHomni: shows [Ks Kc] (two pair, Kings and Fours)

slipperily collected $184.10 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $187.10

Rake $3 Board [4c 8d 4h 7s 2c]

Seat 1: nekbar007 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 2: AlexPles (small blind) folded before Flop

Seat 3: DooM_DaYs (big blind) folded before Flop

Seat 4: arghhh27 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Seat 5: HopDeHomni showed [Ks Kc] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fours

Seat 6: slipperily showed [2h 2s] and won ($184.10) with a full house, Deuces full of Fours

Thats my fucking lot!! I don't know why I play cash its the biggest leak in my game, I don't think I am a bad player I am just sick unlucky. All the money I have won has always come from Competitions. Its time to say goodbye to cash, and stick to what I know....

Mother Fucker called me all the way with 22, and then hits!!

GIVE ME STRENGTH!!

Tears before Bedtime

2010-01-18T10:44:00.000-08:00

Friday night and I gave myself a gruelling schedule of 8 tournaments to play on Stars, first tourney of choice was the Daily 30k. I get my Aces cracked straight off the bat about 10 hands in against KK. First card out K. Then my QQ gets cracked in the next competition by JJ, 5th card out J. The next 5 competitions followed suit and I was left scratching my head and doubting my skills. There was only one solution, time to hit the booze, so with that I pulled 4 cans of Stella out the fridge and got cracking, the results were immediate with me making a good run in the $11 60k GTD rebuy.

5am and I am rocking in the 60k, we are 7.5 hours in and there are 33 of us left from the original 3260 runners. I love deep runs in these massive tourneys, it’s a great feeling. With $14k for first place I felt like I had a good chance of getting close to it, and what a score it would be off just my $31 dollars spent, (buy in, rebuy and top up). But before I had chance to dream the unthinkable, I was brought back to earth with a bang……

I had just under 300k with the average being around 600k, I had a real mug sat to my right he was chipped up on 1.4 million how he got them I don’t know, he was playing practically every hand. I was slowly taking pieces out of him each orbit, when I find AQ UTG. I decide it’s too risky to raise and then get re-raised and then have to fold, I had a tight image so I blasted it all with about 15bbs. It all folds round to the mug who insta calls me with K9 off, GIVE ME FUKIN STRENGTH DICKHEAD.. The board blanks all the way and I am up to 600k, the adrenalin shoots through me like never before, and before I know it I have AQ the very next hand and raise it up to 60k, everyone folds, mug calls. And the flop drop 2 J 7, he checks and and I check instantly trying to represent I have a big hand. Turn card is a 2 and he bets a measely 20k, I re-pop this to 120k and he thinks and then eventually calls. The river is a 6 no str8 no flush on the board, he checks and I fire out 180, he tanks and then calls with K7 to scoop the pot. I can’t believe he called, I represented a huge hand, my image was tight, but sometimes you can’t bluff a fukin idiot. Or maybe I am a fukin idiot for trying to bluff him, or maybe he is a great player who made a great call. Before I have time to think about it, my remaining chips are all in other the top of a continuation bet on a 6 high flop with A 10, he insta calls with KK and that’s it the dream is over. Like a whirlwind I have gone from zero to hero to zero in less that 2 minutes, 7.5 hours wasted, I am completely gutted, DEVASTATED but what can I do its over, and the dream of $14k has gone with it……

I learnt some big, big lessons on Friday night, and I won’t be trying to replicate my mistakes anytime soon. Why oh why didn’t I just bin the AQ after winning the big pot, and walk off for a minute to regroup. It’s all easy to say now in hindsight…….

However Sat and Sun night I had a nice result to the tune of just over $200 in 10 mins on the cash tables, now this really did perk me up. I had promised the Mrs no Poker on Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday night and by 11pm she is fast asleep, I give her a quick elbow to the back to ensure she is in a deep sleep. No response from her, out comes the lappy and straight onto a $0.50/$1 table with $60, first hand is 4 7 off and I call a raise as does one over player, the Flop drops 5d 6d 8h BEAUTIFUL. We all check turn drops Kc, I bet out $6, guy flat calls and the other players shoves all in, I re-shove all in as I want to isolate the original all in, but the other guy is having none of it and pushes all in as well. River drops a 6s, and I cringe thinking please no one show me a boat…..They both muck and $136 comes my way, 5 mins later I am up to $180, when the Mrs starts to stir, I quickly exit the table and turn the lappy off. “Its ok love it was just a car outside making some noise, you get back to sleep”. Ha ha ha

Sunday night same situation but the Mrs is barely asleep, fuk it risk it for a biscuit, lappy out on silent. Str8 onto a $0.50/$1 table and get dealt 22, call a raise and the flop drops 2d Ks 3d, I check he bets $5, I re-pop to $10 and he shoves, INSTA CALL MOTHER FUKER!! He shows KcQs and it’s all over after a 4 on the turn. This time the Mrs Starts flapping about in bed, I exit the table with about $140 after a couple more hands. I quickly bring up my emails and she turns and say “Are you playing poker” I respond “No my Love just checking some work emails, you get back to sleep angel” Ha ha ha

Am I a degenerate gambler? Yep probably ;-)

Good luck all………

The Return of the Mrs, Toothache, Sledging, My opinion on the Great Snow, and if we get time a midgeys dick of poker action

2010-01-14T01:52:00.000-08:00

The Mrs went home to Slovakia for Xmas for the first time in 5 years; I was really chuffed for her to get to spend 3 weeks with her friends and family back home. The Slovakian people are the nicest you will ever meet, and I have visited the country with her several times and loved every minute of it. Its hard to describe but I imagine it was what England was like many years ago, a real community feel, everyone looks out for each other, nothing is too much trouble, you are welcomed in with open arms if you are visitor, and the food is old school, lots of meat, potatoes, vegs, casseroles etc etc LOVELY…The only problem is when the holidays over you have to come back to this shithole, where you can’t as much get a smile out of anyone, the service when you go out is terrible, everyone is out for themselves, community spirit died early on in the 1980s, and if you managed to get through all that without wanting to top yourself, don’t worry your friendly little scumbag chav and his mates will be round to kick your front door in and rob you blind. But hey look on the Brightside if you’ve had enough of it all and think fuk this I am not having this in my own home and knock the living fuk out off the little bastards as they deserve, guess what your going to be the one going to jail for it, not the fuking scum that has just tried to rob you in your own home. That for me sums this Country up to a tee, I could rant all day about the problems with this country but I am going off the track with this (rest assured there will be a blog coming soon where I literally blow a fuse about the state of the Country/Shithole)

So where was I, the Mrs returned happy as Larry (whoever he is) and we have been getting on like a house on fire, like when we first started going out over 2 years ago, we hadn’t had a cross word all week when Martin “BigBills” Devlin phones me up last night to tell me that the Blackpool G is now running a £50 F/O with 12k starting stack. After the phone call finished the Mrs turned to me and did the best impression of me with slight Slovakian accent I have ever heard, It went something like this “Ohh yeahhh, fukin hell, Ill have a bit of that Devo, just you let me fukin know, I will be there, never mind fuking Martina I don’t give a shit about her, if you want I could lick your arse for you Devo, I am sure Martina won’t mind……..” LOL I looked at her blankly for about 5 seconds before I completely pist myself. To be fair she has been a happy bunny as I have not been playing much poker, mainly because I cant be arsed, but sorry my love that’s all about to change, as I gear up for 2 x 6 hours stints tonight and tomorrow night. Plus there is Wardos home game coming up, plus the GUKPT and the UKIPT…..

At the start of this week I had the worse toothache I have ever had, it started off as a small twinge but then escalated into what can only be describe as a living nightmare, it took 2 x Emergency appointments at the dentists to get it anywhere near calming down, neither of these where pleasant experiences, and I have to go back another 2 times until the job is done. I even had to take Tuesday off work I was in that much pain, and I don’t ever take any time off work for any reason, I had it drilled into me from an early age by my old man that you don’t take time off work unless you literally cant drag yourself in. I suppose this is why I have so many old schools views, and why I get so pist off with this country and its thousands off fukin lazy bastard workers, who if aren’t off on the sick, or taking a Duvet Day (a duvet day, have you ever heard of anything so pathetic in your life, I wouldn’t have the guts to phone up work and say, Hi its Dave I can’t be arsed getting out of bed today so I will take a Duvet day, WTF) if they are in work they are doing fuk all of any use to help anyone.

Sunday me, Daddio and a mate of mine Steve went sledging down at a place called Avenham park, I say sledging we had a child’s car booster seat, a piece of old shelving and a bin lid as our tools of the trade. But we had some fun taking on all the hills that everyone was keeping well clear of, the result of our sledging was only discovered 2 days later.. Martina first noticed 4 huge bruises on my back and side of my leg, and then a text comes in from Steve asking if I can play footy tonight as he can’t as he has done his knee in sledging. Then Daddio's Mrs Pops up on Facebook and informs that he has cracked a rib as a result of our sledging excursion.. Maybe at 28 years of age we need to calm down a bit…LOL

The Great Snow which has brought the whole country to its knees, 27 billion pounds has been lost as a result. Now I won’t deny that in certain places it has been bad, and yes old people need to be helped, my Grandparents are knocking on and the whole family has been popping to the shops for them and looking after them. Personally I would be absolutely devastated if one of my grandparents went over on the ice, or anyone else’s for that matter. But a few things that have not sat well with me about this Great Snow is this: the week before Xmas its shits down with snow in the North, the council are caught unaware which is why the gritters have not been out on the roads clearing it up for us, so we can all travel safely. Well excuse me council, we were warned about this coming 4 days prior!! So how the fuk where you useless twats caught unaware?? With it being Xmas week people were still out and about it in as we had to get food shopping, Xmas shopping etc. Everything seemed to go along as normal but at a more careful pace, with drivers actually showing each other some respect, instead of carving each other up. Now fast forward to the start of the New Year, the snow has cleared and everyone is back to work, when the snow comes down again. But this time people don’t carry on as normal, as there is no Xmas shopping to get. Instead the new attitude comes out, the attitude where people couldn’t possibly get to work, the roads are to dangerous, we are snowed in, schools close, buses stop, airports close, the list goes on and on. Yes some places were really bad, but round me it wasn’t to bad, I got into work everyday on time and so did all of my staff, the only thing I had to do differently was set off 10 minutes earlier. I dread to think what would happen to this country if something serious happened, I honestly believe we would just fold, as we have no backbone and the system around us is a disgrace.

Off course these are just my opinions so please don’t take offence, this blog entry is more like a rant, which is something I like to do once a month to get it off my chest and keep my poker mind free from distraction.

If you enjoy listening to me rant then check the blog out next month when I will be tackling women drivers….

Poker I have hardly played but did managed to suck out with QQ v KK last night for a nice $140 pot hitting a straight on the river. Maybe I am a bad player but this is how it went, guy raises to $3 and I re-pop him to $8, everyone else is out, he tanks, then re-pops me to $18. I think is it aces? Why would he tank? Smells like AK, so flat call, flop drops 10 8 6, he pushes all in first to act, this looks weak, must be AK, I time bank it and think about the hand and decide its either JJ or KK, looks more like JJ as he has slammed the flop. I call and he shows KK, turn J river 9, and it felt nice to suckout for once!!

Good luck all……..

Start as we mean to go on...

2010-01-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

Its New Years Day and I am as rough as a rhino, been on the pop with some mates of mine on new years eve at the local boozer from 7pm till 2am, and my old friend Zammy Zambucka came out to play. I decided to try and get my head to stop hurting by booting up a couple of low stacks tourneys with (surprisingly) pretty damn good structures, 6 and a bit hours later the hangover had gone and iv shipped that little rascal above….

So it’s a nice little start to the year, I have played quite a bit over Xmas as I have A) been off work and B) The Mrs went home to Slovakia for 3 weeks over Xmas, so I have had to keep myself amused. I have played a lot of low stakes cash, spinning in about $500 profit and then losing it as per fukin usual, and I have had a lot of minor cashes in comps, notably last night my first cash in the daily 80k which I think I have only played about 3 times, but all in all its not been to bad.

So I need to get my head completely straight for 2010 and lay out my goals, last year was a good year for me and the majority of my profit came in the last 2 months, when I really got my shit together and played some of my best poker, I am hoping with this is mind it might (touch wood) continue in the start of 2010. Iv not been in a casino since November last year, this is certainly something I need to remedy, my skills have always been online but I showed in the GUKPT I can hold my own live, I definitely want a few more cashes live this year, but I have to stay realistic. So without further a do here are my Poker Goals for 2010:

Play with Discipline: This is something I have worked hard on over the last year, and I have started to stop playing when my head isn’t straight, I even turned down playing the Blackpool G Monthly £100 with Dev yesterday as I didn’t feel in the right frame of mind to play. Will this last?
Come back from Vegas in the Black: As I have mentioned I am going to Vegas this year for 2 weeks, I have been before but never when I played poker. I know I will get over excited and start throwing money round at every poker game possible. But I am really going to try my hardest to be semi-sensible, enjoy myself but at the same time go over there to make some money. If I can come back with what more than what I took I will be a happy man. But hey wouldn’t we all?

10k Profit for the year: That will be a 33% increase on last years profit, not unrealistic but I will have to be motivated and put in some hard work to achieve it.
Satellite into an EPT, UKIPT or GUKPT Event: I loved my experience in the GUKPT, I have heard the EPT events are fantastic, plus with the new UKIPT schedule, hopefully I can work my online magic and Sat into one of the big boys.
Cash at DTD: I have been there 3 times and never cashed in the events I have played, with the great Monthly Deepstacks, and the new 20/20 weekends I have to get my arse down there and get myself a piece of the action.
Get more Traffic through my Blog: I have as I look now 1087 visits to my blog pages, I want to get that up to 3,400 by 2011, which means I need to be regularly updating, hopefully with some shipage stories.
Play the online Satellites: As I mentioned in my last blog I have been approached by a few players asking me to play online Satellites for them to the bigger live events, and in return I get a % of their action. I am going to give this a real good dedicated go this year, you never know if I get them into the event they just might ship some big money.
Online Cash Games: Either I fuk these off completely or stop being so ignorant and actually learn how to master them, as this is where my major leak is at present.
APAT WCOAP 6 MAX Medal: Actually get in touch with APAT and ask them to send me the medal I won as still haven’t received it yet. Sitting round on my arse all day waiting for a ring on the buzzer does not seem to be getting it to me, so I better act pro-actively and sort it myself.

So there are my goals, all that’s left now is for me to get cracking!!

Best of luck to all you fellow bloggers and friends out there; let’s hope someone brings home a life changing score in 2010.

2009 Poker Round Up

2009-12-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

The time has come for me to try and make sense of what I have achieved and learnt whilst playing poker throughout 2009. I wont lie it has been a good year for me, the best since I started playing the game, but I cant help but feel it could have been better, and I could have made more profit, but then I am a greedy fukin git……

Over the last couple of months I have taken down a couple of decent scores and even managed my first piece of poker memorabilia. As I came out of the GUKPT Main Event I felt like I was playing the best poker of my life, something had clicked, and I was the most confident I have ever been at the tables. I was reading the game correctly, making the right moves, in the right position at the right time, had the discipline to be patient, and to make the big lay downs required to go deep in comps. Everyone I spoke to said I was playing excellent poker, but over the course of the last 3 weeks something has happened to me that has never happened before….

I have lost all motivation to play the game I love so much, I have never experienced this before, I am normally at the cyber felt 5 nights a week for 6 hours minimum, but over the last 3 weeks, I have played one comp and 20 minutes of cash, I just cant be bothered. I am starting to worry about it slightly, will I forget all of the valuable lessons I have learnt on my journey through 2009? Will I not be able to play as well now that I am not playing regularly? I’m I just all pokered out for the year? Or I’m I scared of losing some of my hard earned profit back? I honestly don’t know, so I have decided after talking with friends to take the rest of December off, and then re-invent myself in the New Year. I will play BigBills Xmas £100 F/O, which I am really looking forward to, and if the urge comes over me to jump on the laptop over Xmas so be it…….

I will say that the one thing I feel has been most instrumental in my successful year is the start of my poker blog. It’s so good to be able write down your thoughts and get feedback from fellow players. Read their blogs and hear their experiences, and it has really spurred me on to post some winning blogs. Anyway let me try and get to the bread and butter of my results and my thoughts about them.

I started the year with the following goals:

Get off my losing Streak!!
Stop tilting, stop playing pist, tired and angry
Build up another Bankroll
Take down a nice score in an online comp
Attempt to Satellite into a GUKPT or EPT Event
Cash in the DTD monthly Deepstack

The year started off hard for me and I really had to smash down some walls, relinquish my bad habits, my degenerate gambling tendencies, slap myself in the face and ask what I wanted from the game. I built up several bankrolls from nothing then shat them against the wall by being a complete prat, I couldn’t play live, and couldn’t keep my head straight for longer than 3 hours, without then thinking 9 7 suited looks good, lets call a re re-raise with it….. Then one person gave me a right good slap in the FACE, Martin “BigBills” Devlin, Martin has been a good friend for several years and we originally met through a poker game. He basically told me to stop crying like a baby, pull myself together, and recommended I started a blog, but first do it privately until I felt confident to publish it. This really has driven my success through the backend of the year.

Key Achievements for 2009:

Profit £7,400.00: (Yes pound not dollars) Now I made a big decision around mid year that I would no longer try and build a bankroll and leave it on the Poker Site. Whenever I took down a decent score I would transfer to the bank and put it into a separate account. This would stop me from tilting it off so easily. Now people say u need to deduct your expenses from profit, I have deducted all by ins from this. Any food & drinks I have had, all Hotels on my trips away I have paid for out of my own pocket. Can u class me spending £200 in the tit bar next to DTD as a poker expense? Plain and simple in my mind, NO u cant.
Vegas & IPOD: I have also paid for my 2 week holiday to Las Vegas next year and a new IPOD Touch so I can zone out with a touch of sophistication at the live events, (well u have to treat yourself for all your hard work) before leaving me with the 7.4k profit.
Best Live Result: I finished 18th in the GUKPT Leg 9 Blackpool, and at last feel like I have made my mark on a live event, this is the achievement I am most proud of. Mixing it with the Pros certainly was and is one of the best experiences of my life to date.
Best Online Result: PokerStars Daily 30k $11 buy in 5056 runners, 4 way chop on the Final Table giving me a payday of $3,976.37. Over the moon to at last have battled through a huge field and taken a decent chunk of cash out of Stars.
APAT Medal: Finished 3rd in the APAT WCOAP NL 6MAX taking a bronze APAT medal and a small payday. At last some sort of poker memorabilia.
Cash Online: Has been poor, as is responsible for me shitting 3 bankrolls of $600-$700 against the wall on crazy monkey tilt. After August I simply stopped playing it for hours each night, and just had the odd hour here and there.
Cash Live: A damn sight better then online, I rarely play, but over the last few months the odd couple of hours here and there have been profitable, with several £200 - £300 winning sessions.
OPR and SharkScope: I don’t know much about OPR; it seems to only run results for Stars, Tilt and Party. I have a rating of 98.11 for Stars and 88.51 on Party. SharkScope I like but it doesn’t seem to paint a true picture as there is approx $3,100 of profit not showing for me on Blue Square, but I have a Shark next to my name and a ROI of 113%. Party Poker unfortunately doesn’t show a little Shark but does show a ROI of 95%. I am pretty happy with those stats, considering I hardly have a fukin clue what they mean.
Playing the Sats: With my recent success I have been approached by 3 different players who will remain unnamed, and all have all asked me to play online Satellites for them at their expense, and if I am successful they will give me a stake in their action at the event. This is something I will look into in more detail next year.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to cash in the DTD Monthly Deepstack, I did go deep twice and nearly through the table over when I lost with AQ to A7 for a 90k pot before the money, but hey it’s all character building. I’d say up until my recent lack of play I am still playing pist, tired and angry, I think it will take me a while to eradicate them from my game. I will publish my goals for 2010 in my next post.

I will finish by saying that for me poker is all about friendship and in away building a community around you, a bit like the AWOP forums etc (which I really need to get more involved in) and its these relationships through bloggers and friends that have helped me to turn a corner in my game and given me the focus required to win. So I would like to thank the following people for all their support:

Martin “BigBills” Devlin, Daddio, Nicky, Steve “JamBoy” Davies, Phil Blackwell, Nicky G, Alex & Lydia, Kelv Sole, Handbag, Jackie & Adrianne, Big Mick, my Folks who sometimes worry about were my gambling will take me, but are ultimately happy that I am in the black and not the red.

But most of all my Girlfriend Martina, who completely fukin hates poker and everything about it, never wishes me good luck, and gives me the most evil looks when I announce I am hitting the casino. But because of this it spurs me on, it motivates me to greater levels than ever before, to win more and more, so eventually we can get married and start a family, and do it comfortably and in style.

And to all my fellow bloggers, who without their articles I would never learn, and without their comments I would never start thinking in different directions. God Bless you all and good luck at the tables….

APAT WCOAP 6 MAX NL Bronze Medallist

2009-12-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

I had had an up and down weekend on the Poker, mainly on Stars, chipping up early on, then either losing the plot or going deep before exploding before the good money!! Its times like these I turn to Blue Square a site I run well on, I managed to finish 13th on Fri Night in the 10K GTD $10 rebuys for $105. At one point I was sat 3rd in chips and was feeling like I might take it down, but alas a crap shoot ensued as we were so deep in the game, and it wasn’t meant to be as I crashed AQ Spades into AK.

Sunday night and I was in a will I or won’t I type attitude, and with only 3 mins to go Dev persuaded me to enter the APAT WCOAP 6 MAX NL. I thought to myself we are gonna be here all night with 10k in chips, 12 mins levels and blinds starting at 10/20. I said to Dev cockily “Right I will assume the chiplead by 11pm, then you can take over and finish it off, don’t worry you will be out by then mate!!” LOL Dev in true BigBills fashion called me a “Nodder” and we went to work.

By the first break I was as good as true to my word sat 2nd in chips, I had picked my spots wisely and maximised getting paid for my good hands. Things then started to take a turn for the worse when I re-raised a guy holding 7h 8h on a Xh Xh 10s board, he called and the turn drop Xh, the money went in and unfortunately for me he had the nut flush with Ah Kh. My head went a little bit mainly due to being tired and not wanting to grind it out, I made a move with AJ on 6 4 6 6 10 board, guy eventually called and showed 44. He then started to give me a load of shit, saying what a pathetic player I was, then the guy next to him jumped in. WTF? I fukin lost it, for those that know me I am the nicest lad you could ever want to meet, on and off the table, but I won’t take no SHIT at the poker table. I typed in “U shit yourself Hotshot, with 3 x 6s on the board” to which the other guy jumps back in saying I am a donkey and I have won fuk all. That was it Sharkscope got booted up and I brought both their stats up, then I advised them both to be quiet and go and check the hard facts, my stats versus both of theirs. Funnily enough I never heard another peep out of either of them. It really fukin riled me up and I text Dev saying that’s it I am it for the long haul, I’m gonna have it just to show those two who they are up against.

With new motivation and fire in my belly I set to work, making moves here, stealing there. I doubled up with a straight then doubled up again went I got 3 big hands on the bounce. Before I knew it I was back in the thick of it. With around 30 players left who ends up on my table, but Dev and Anna from the AWOP forum and a regular G casino player. I knew there would be fireworks and sure enough Dev and Anna locked horns, I was almost sick down my self as the hand unfolded. I won’t publish the hand as you will still hear Dev moaning about it around the G in about 3 months time….

We all made the money and Dev went from low stack to top 5 in chips, to chip suicide and out, whilst myself and Anna where steadily increasing our stacks, before I knew it I was sat on 150k with Anna just behind, literally within 2 mins we had gone from 9 handed to final table. It didn’t take long for us to get down to 4 and the medal bubble. Funnily enough I had said to a mate of mine, who gives a fuk about a medal I just want the cash!! But it was clear to see from the tournament, the players, the banter; everyone had turned up for the prestige of winning a medal not the money. At that point when we were 4 handed I was praying to the Poker Gods for that Medal, Bronze will do ill be happy with that I thought. Despite taking a few good tourney wins I have never won any sort of trophy or medal through poker, so I was hoping for one now. But I was in a dilemma I didn’t want to see Anna miss out on a medal either. She had really impressed me, a great poker player, aggressive, great instincts and picked her spots well, I never saw her with her chips in behind once. Just as I was about to sacrifice a goat in her honour (I do not mean sacrifice my tournament), she was all in with Ac 8c and called by AK, and unfortunately didn’t improve…..

I was low on 100k versus two monster stacks of 700k and 400k, never the less I gave it a good crack of the whip, and I managed to get back up to 180k, but then got pushed back down. Eventually the smaller of the 2 monsters raises to 40k on my BB, I have Ad Jd and shove all in, he calls with Kh 10h and turns the flush. Ah well, considering it was 1:30am and I was Cream Crackered, I was a happy man with another piece of poker history going into the accolade.

WP Dev and Anna, congratulations to the other 2 medal winners, GG and GL.

And a special TY to the two guys who decide to give me grief, and spurred me on to 3rd place!!

Ship that Bronze APAT WCOAP 6 MAX Medal………..

WTF!!??

2009-12-01T12:41:00.000-08:00

After my big score last Tuesday I have been cream crackered and just haven’t had the motivation to play, that twined with an almighty bender over the weekend in celebration, I haven’t had the mental strength to play.

The poker world is a funny old place; I have literally spent the last 8-9 months playing 5 nights a week for 6 hours a night, trying to win money. Then in just under 3 weeks I have made over £5k, and done the sensible thing put it straight into the bank. But now I have made a bit of money I just cant be arsed playing, when really I should be back on the tables trying to make more money, but then maybe I am scared of losing it all, or maybe I feel like I have done my job……..I don’t know maybe its one for the psychiatrists to figure out.

So tonight I was chilling out and Daddio popped up on MSN, we had a chat and he asked if I was playing any POKAY, I said I couldn’t be arsed, he mentioned he was playing the Daily 80k and I thought…well I can’t be arsed with another 8.5 hour grueller (obviously if I would be fortunate to go deep) So I thought I’ll just fire up a cheeky 180 man $12 SnG, nothing to heavy, nothing to lengthy. As it turns out there was to be no length at all, and I just had to post these 2 hands which I had the misfortune of being involved in…..The outcome has persuaded me to have another few days off, before returning fully refreshed and ready for action. I am still laughing at the Dumbass Mother Fuckers involved in the 2 following hands..

Hand Number 1:

I have just doubled up with AA to get dealt AA again 4 hands later, I am rubbing my hands thinking maybe just maybe my hot streak is still rolling. I am on the BB and get 4 limpers coming in for 30 chips; I raise it up to 240 and get one caller. The flop comes down Jh 8d 2h, I check the flop hoping for a bet, he takes my offer and makes it 180, I want to appear that I am at It, so push all in fast as lighting. He snaps my hand off with Kd 7d WTF!!?? Turn and river both drop diamonds, he types in sorry, I think I went into a state of shock as I don’t reply, when normally a torrent of abuse would have flown out……

Hand Number 2:

I have picked myself up, dusted myself down and doubled back up and pulled out a cracking bluff to get myself up to 4.6k in chips. I wait a while for a spot to present itself as I don’t need to go looking for one. I have JJ UTG and raise it up to 1k as blinds are 150/300, everyone else folds and the BB calls. The flop drops 2c Qs 4c, he checks to me and I set him all in for 2.3k, he like the last guy snaps my hand off, this time with As Jc. Just as I am laughing and shaking my head in disbelief the turn drops a 10, and I think don’t bring a K, no sooner have I thought it than its happens, the K drops on the river to give him the straight and the pot……

I suppose I want these Clowns to call, in fact NO I definitely want these clowns to call as it should be easy money. I could go on a rant, but I really can’t complain I have had a great run, I am going to take the rest of the week off and maybe return to the cyber felt on Saturday night, as I have planned an alcohol free weekend.

I hope the 2 hands amuse you all as much as they did me, I just wonder what goes through these players minds when they make the call……Good Luck all..

I take it all back...SHIP IT!!

2009-11-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

Hello HopDeHomni,
Congratulations on your finish in tournament #229110492! You agreed to a deal at the final table to adjust the payouts as follows:
Player
Official Payout
New Payout
cumgetsum71
USD 2,502.72
USD 3,084.40
HopDeHomni
USD 3,008.32
USD 3,967.37
chetmik
USD 4,525.12
USD 3,916.18
Nattehond
USD 6,475.12
USD 5,543.33
When the tournament ended, you were automatically credited with the official place 3 payout of USD 3,008.32.
The difference between this amount and the amount to which you agreed in the deal is USD 959.05, and this amount has been credited to your account. You will find this transaction in the cashier history at this time.
Good luck in your next event, and thank you for your participation.
Best Regards,
PokerStars Support Team

After ranting on in my last blog about PokerStars and saying I would probably fuk the site off, I ended up back on it last night. Maybe it’s because I am too lazy to find another site, maybe it’s because I like giving my money away, but I think the real reason is that that I am true British!! To stubborn to walk away from something when really we probably should, but last night my pig headedness for wanting to crack the site and get a decent cash, profit, deep run etc Finally Paid off!!

As you can see from above I shipped just under $4k in the Daily 30k $11 buy in, after battling through 5052 runners in just over 8 hours, the last 4 of us decided to do a chop based on the chips counts. I was sat 2nd in chips (Just), but with the blinds and antes so big I was glad to secure the $4k, as with a flip of fate from the Poker Gods 1 or 2 hands later and I could have been out.

Ill keep this simple and quick, I was picking up hands and they were holding, with 1000 runners left I held the chip lead all the way down to 14 players. With other big stacks throwing their chips at me when I had the stone cold nuts. One Notable hand I had a reckless idiot moving all in time and time again, and another big stack trying to knock him out. When reckless idiot pushed all in, and then big stack bounty hunter re-shoved I was pretty sure my KK was in good shape. It certainly was against 55 and A9, which took me over the 2 million chip mark, from there it was plain sailing until we had 14 players left.

I took two huge hits one holding KK against AQ, he hit a flush, and KQ against KJ where he hit 2 pair. When it was starting to look like I would bubble the final table I put a quick prayer into the Poker Gods and it was answered when I called a raise with K10 hearts and flopped a royal flush against the chip leader, that put me right back in the game. I made a huge lay down on the first hand on final table with AQ, and then made a big call for my tourney life the very next hand with AK and doubled up. From there a few well timed bluffs and a timely treble up with KK against a raise then re-raise, and we were frantically trying to get a PokerStars Administrator to the table to arrange the deal.

Lessons learnt:

Always keep the faith? …… To stupid to quit when you are getting beat up and losing cash? …… Keep chasing what u believe you are capable of achieving.

I don’t know, its one of the above….Good Luck all.

JokerStars

2009-11-23T12:11:00.000-08:00

Since the GUKPT week I have really struggled to get back into poker, I hadn’t even played a game of poker until the Wednesday after. I fired up the 5k GTD $33 buy in on PartyPoker, but something didn’t feel right, It didn’t feel like I was playing my A game, come to think of it not even my B or C game, more like a D game. I managed to finish 37th out 197 runners, 17 short of the money. I turned the lappy off and took the night off Thursday.

Friday came and I was in a lot better frame of mine, I had deposited £100 in PokerStars and had some 3 way action going with Daddio and Phil “KingKnowsley” Blackwell. We all played the daily 80k on Stars and agreed 10% of each others action. I was also playing the 30k on Stars and was flying, considering there is about 3-4k in runners I was in the top 20 for the first 2 hours. Daddio and Phil busted early in the 80k, and for me it was to be more painful. It went to shit in the 30k with bad beat after bad beat and I managed to finish around 450th for a min cash. The 80k came to a hilt with just 20 players left before the bubble…..

Guy raises UTG to 3600, I have Ad Ks and slam all in for 15k, everyone folds around to the UTG raiser and he tanks, I just know he has AQ, eventually he calls after about 60 seconds with AQ clubs and the board runs out…

7d 10d Jd 6c Kh he had 2 outs to hit and he hits

SURPRISE SU-MOTHER-FUKING-PRISE… he had me covered and that was it.

Through the course of the rest of Fri night and Saturday Morning I Manage to make about $200 playing $0.50 - $1.00 6MAX cash. Saturday night and we go out for a "couple’s night" to the new Comedy Club (The Frog and Bucket) in Preston and it was a cracking night, with me and Daddio finishing it off at about 3am with a few Jack Daniels and a nice cigar back at mine. Really recommend the Frog and Bucket for £12 you will get your moneys worth, all 3 acts where hilarious, the old venue was a complete shit hole, but they have done it up a treat. Nice friendly staff, good range of drinks, even food on offer which looked half decent to be fair.

Sunday I lied in bed till 3:30pm nursing a hangover, eventually I get up make me and the Mrs a full roast (Belly of Pork) and then get down to work on Stars. I played a 180 man SNG $22, $44 6Max comp, $22 $20k GTD comp, $11 20k GTD Comp. After a flying start a series of disgusting beats exited me out of all comps, the most horrendous being 6 off the money in the $44 6MAX comp. A guy who clearly didn’t have a clue what the fuk he was doing open shoves his stack over my 3 bet raise, I snap call him for 90% of my stack with 88, knowing I have him crushed as I have been watching the useless dogs dick for the last hour, he showed me 33. The board runs out like this, ONLY ON FUKIN JOKERSTARS

2 5 4 8 6 how do these people get so lucky!!?? How do they even manage to get out of bed in the morning without falling over, how do they even breath!!??

I then tilt off $100 on cash playing like a grade A wanka, before eventually having the sense to withdraw my original deposit, what a complete fukin waste of time!!

A series of questions just in case anyone is willing to take pity on me and give me a nudge in the right direction: (also to help me vent my frustrations and thoughts)

Why after a big live session am I struggling to get motivated to play online?

Is it correct to think that PokerStars is so big, with so many players, (approx 70% of them being clueless) and that’s the reason for me being continually shafted?

Should I be playing comps with huge fields? should I stick to cash as I seem to do better on cash than comps on Stars for some reason, Should I play SNGs? but whats the best way to approach it, or should I just fuk the site off completely and stick with my beloved Blue Square where I actually make money?

Am I answsering my own questions?

Can anyone recommend a new site for me to play other than JokerStars, Full Tilt, PartyPoker, PKR, DTD or anything IPOKER? (Don’t get me wrong I still love Blue Square)

Does anyone else fukin hate Gail Platt off Coronation Street?

Is this current blog entry more of a tirade than poker blog?

Is there a man alive that wouldn't pop one up Kym Marsh? (sausage jockeys excluded)

I will now leave you with one of my favourite ever poker quotes:

"Every time I put my money in some donkey piece of shit motherfucker has to come along galloping like a cock sucking donkey and anally penetrate me like a 16 year old virgin"

The best £30 I have ever spent……

2009-11-16T13:17:00.000-08:00

I Satellite into the GUKPT main Event and manage to finish in 18th spot winning £2,200, this is a long post which tells you the highs and lows of my whole week at the Blackpool GUKPT festival. I think (hope) it’s worth the read….

Finally GUKPT Blackpool week had arrived, I had spent a lovely weekend away in Keswick in 5* Luxury accommodation with the Mrs, Daddio and his Mrs. We had a bloody riot, eating, drinking, relaxing and setting off fireworks. The apartment was amazing, without a doubt the best place I ever stopped in, and for the price we paid, well let’s say I would have paid double for it. I returned home from the weekend fresh as a daisy and eager to get playing….

The poker started for me on the Monday in the £330 side event, I had 4 horses running and myself, it was a complete bloody waste of time, all my horses bar Daddio had been shot by level 5, I was having a torrid time on my table so had turned to the drink, I wasn’t being out played but I simply couldn’t get any hands, the only pair I saw all night was 88 and I hit an 8 on the flop, filled up on the turn, and no one wanted to pay me. I ended up shoving all in with A8 Diamonds for my last 2.5k after 2 people had limped early on in level 7, they both called and I was no match for 77 and AQ. I went to the bar with Steve “Jamboy” Davies and we proceeded to get hammered and have a right laugh with the dealers on the 5 card stud poker table. Later I ended up on cash, and turned £40 into £160, just as poor old Daddio crashed out of the £330 with only 9 mins to go of the day, he had pushed all his stacked in after calling a raise with KQ, on a flop of K Q J, he got snapped call by the original raiser with A10. Daddio drives my car home as I am completely smashed at this stage; we had a good laugh all the way home.

Tuesday only myself and Steve return to play a Sat into the main event, I already have a ticket but the plan was a 50/50 chop between me and Steve in hopes of getting him into the main event. Dev has had a terrible start to the week, going deep in the £150 but crashing out on day 2, then doing his brains in on cash, the £330 and a couple of STTs into the big boy, he had decided (probably wisely) to take a breather for a few days, after all there’s only so many bad beats you cant take. The satellite was a nightmare start to finish, still I couldn’t pick up a hand, the only saving grace was I had a chat with pro Craig Burgess; he was a really sound bloke. Steve didn’t do much better, I ended up back on cash and ran £60 into £170, but I was still really, really pist off, I just couldn’t get anything going in the competitions, and I had started to think would it be an idea to pull out of the main event and just bank the £1060 after all it only cost me £30…….

Wednesday and with some reluctance I let Steve persuade me to go back for another crack at the Satellite £30 re-buys, this time things go a bit better and I have a really deep run with 127 runners, I eneded up busting out with just 3 tables left when my AJ was no match to 66, the board ran K Q Q 7 4, how many outs….. Steve faired a lot better and after a bit of friction at the final table, a deal was done and everyone got a seat. Now Steve is on cloud nine and I am feeling a lot, lot better about my game, on the drive home I say to Steve I don’t want to take 50% off him, and say just give me £300 and I’ll take a stake in him in the main event. Steve happily agrees and we have a chat about the main event and I decide that I have just been a bit silly thinking about pulling out. I now have renewed confidence and I am chomping at the bit to get into the Main Event on Thursday. We pick up some chips and curry sauce on the way home and I take the worse bad beat of the whole week, the fukin curry sauce cartoon literally explodes in my hand as I go to the leave the car, all over the fukin place it went, and I spend 20mins cleaning the bastard!!!

Thursday arrives, Myself, Dev and Steve drive down to the G buzzing with excitement. We all have a piece of each other so hopefully one of us can cash, ONE TIME!! I get on my starting table and notice James Keys right next to me, after just 3 hands we have lost a player on our table, I just cant fukin believe the guy called for all his chips with just top pair so early in the comp. 5 mins later Michael Greco moves onto my table and someone points out to me I have Allan Mclean on my left, Fukin hell so I have Keys to my right, Mclean and Greco to my left. None of them bother me and I pick up a few nice pots building my stack to about 13k, every time I got called I had the goods, so they seemed a bit wary of me. Straight after the break our table breaks and I think thank fuk, wont have to worry about them 3 anymore, I get move to table 3 and I am sat in between Bambos and Ali Mallu, lol are you fukin joking me. I don’t play a hand for an hour not because I am scared of them, simply as I got dealt shite…. Bambos gets moved and next minute Mallu aggressive as ever gets knocked out, to be fair the guy that knock him out made a fukin terrible call but it was good and knocked him out to my relief. Now I relax and move my stack up to about 30k, I then get moved to Nick Slades and Adam (Clarkatroid) Clarkes table, it just gets better and better. We go on a break just as Nick Slades been knocked out in truly sick style but he took it like a gent. I have a quick chat with clarkatroid and he is a very nice down to earth bloke.

On the break I ask Stevo what all the commotion was on his table, people were laughing and screaming. Steve goes bright red and explains a hand that took place earlier on the feature table. The action folds round to him on the SB, he calls with 5 3 off and the BB checks, the flop comes K 3 8, he checks BB checks, turn is a 3, he checks BB checks, river is a X, Steve bets out 700, and the BB re-pops to 1650, Steve INSTA CALLS and tables 5 2 off, the table erupts with laughter and Steve puts his head on the table in disbelief, the silly prat had completely miss-read his hand…POOR BASTARD on the feature table as well……

Back from the break and we break the table to play one last hour, I am moved onto Mickey Wernicks table Great!! (But it’s nice to play against these big names) Straight away he has raised under the gun to 2.5k and I look down at AQ hearts so re-pop him to 7.5k and he folds. Before I know I am on 50+k, then with 15 mins to go, a shorter stack Wasim Akhtar raises and I find KK so re-pop him up to 8k, he pushes and I snap call only to find he has AA, Shit I am down to 27k……. I make a few moves and get back up to 33k for the end of day 1A. I am pist off about the KK but Dev quickly buys me a pint and calms me down. A young Asian lad who was sat right next to me who I am told won the GUKPT Newcastle this year comes up to me and says don’t feel bad there is nothing you can do about that, just imagine if he had more chips, its lucky it was a low stack. Very true words from a very nice lad, I go home and sleep soundly.

Friday I don’t bother playing, I am cream crackered and need some rest, shame that by 1:30am I am in a tit bar with my good mate bobby boy completely shitfaced, not the ideal way to prepare for day 2 of the Main Event, but its better than being sat at home worrying about what the next day might have install for me…

Saturday I wake up rough, lay in bed reading the AWOP updates for day 1B, I see that Julian Thew and Jon Kalmar have made it through and wonder if I’ll end up on their tables. I am still rough after a shower and breakfast so poor myself a shandy at home, neck it jump in the car and head to the G by the time I arrive I am as fit as a fiddle. Unfortunately Steve and Dev have not made day 2, Steves KK was battered all in pre flop by AK, first card out was an A. Dev fell with about 20 minutes left of day 1 when his AQ low stack shove was looked up by KJ… I have a quick chat with John H who has also made it through with a healthy chip stack.

It’s down to business I am on a starting table with no one I recognise, within 10 mins we have lost 4 players from it, I have increased to 40k, just as Jon Kalmar arrives at our table it breaks and I get moved onto a bitch of a table. I have Julian Thew to my right, David la Ronde (chip daddy) and another guy with a shit load of chips to my left. I have a chat with Julian who really is a cracking bloke, all the pros I have spoke to this weekend have been real salt of the earth, lovely blokes, no attitude, no looking down their noses at ya. Evening David la Ronde was having a good laugh and joke, until I doubled through him with trip 10s, we lose Julian and get down to 40 players, the money is in sight. With about 70k I get move to the feature table with Jon Kalmar, Jack the Greek, Ben Vinson, Mark Taylor and Steve Talbot, all these boys can play and I really get my shit together, with 27 left we go on a break. I have a quick chat with Jon Kalmar; again you couldn’t ask to speak to a nicer bloke. I speak to Daddio, Steve and Dev on the phone and the all wish me the best. When we come back you could cut the tension with a knife, 3 players need to go before we all get paid. Before I know it I am running low on chips, I call a raise from a bigger stack with Shite, the flop comes A high, he checks, my image is tight as fuk, I move my stack in and he mucks fast as fuk. 25 players left and a cry of all in, we all crowd round the table and watch as A10 loses to QQ and a cheer goes up the BUBBLE HAS BURST!!

Everyone shakes hands, and then all fukin hell breaks loose with players dropping left and right, before I know it I have 40k in chips and it’s the last hand before the break, Ben Vinson has raised to 15k and I push with K10 spades, he calls as he has about 300k behind him and shows JQ, the board runs out j 9 8 6 Q, BOOOOOOOMMMMM Ill have some of that, people on the rail cheer and pat me on the back, Andy Bradshaw comes over and shakes my hand which I thought was brilliant. I go on the break and have my first pint of the event, I text all my railers the good news, and get all the responses back, take it down fish etc etc etc.

I return from the break with 85k, but the blinds are big at 4k/8k and a running ante of 500, I know I have to move my stack to stay alive, but unfortunately all the way through the event I was never getting hot streaks of cards apart from fukin 22 every 20/30 hands or so, I cant play 22. The blinds go through me and I am down to 70k, I am next to the button and look down at A9 off, that’s enough for me I have less than 10 blinds and need to ship it, unfortunately Steve Talbot next to me finds AK and pushes all in, the board bricks and the dream is over, Jon Kalmar shakes my hand and says well played, a few pats on the back from the rail and I head off to collect £2,200 in 18th place.

I drive home and speak to all the boys on the blower, everyone says what a great performance, but me being me I let my mind wonder and think but what if…..????? Ah bollocks if someone had said to me at the start of day 1A I will offer you 18th spot money now I would have took their hand off…………SHIP IT!!!!!!!!

Without a doubt it was the best poker performance of my live career, and one of the best experiences in my life, mixing it up with the best of the best of UK poker players and making the money.

Thanks everyone for their support, Good luck all…..

A nice little bit of Business

2009-11-04T01:48:00.000-08:00

Monday night I was lounging around watching a bit of TV, trying to decide what competition to play on Blue Square when the phone rang. It was Nicky asking if I would play the DTD Deepstack Satellite for him, to hopefully win a seat for this weekend. Now Nicky is one of the best live players I have ever met, but when it comes to playing online he just can’t seem to get anything going. Of course I gladly agreed to have a crack for him, he offered me a % of his action should I win a seat.

Now I am going to be honest here I am not a fan of the DTD poker site, something just doesn’t seem right for me. Plus I had a terrible experience last month where I bubbled the same competition for a seat, the useless bastards running the site didn’t state how many seats were in the prize pool, didn’t even say the price of a seat in Euros so we could work it out. When we hit the final table people were saying WP, GG, Congratulations, while others were saying there’s only 5 seats, no there’s 8 seats and so on and so on. As it turns out there where 8 seats and about 240 euros for 9th, for me in 10th there was SWEET FUK ALL!! Never the less I will have another crack at it, especially for Nicky as about 2 months back he ended doing a deal on the final table of the DTD monthly Deepstack, and he walked away with 13k.

The first hour of play was terrible, I got no cards, didn’t even see a decent flop. So I re-bought and had a top up at the break, from there it went off. I pick up a few hands and built my way up the leader board, until a monster of a hand came along. I am holding 7h7c, mid position guy limps; I flat call, the SB folds and BB checks. Flop comes Down 7s 9d 6d, BB bets out 4k, limper calls and I push my stack. Both of them INSTA shove their stacks, in my mind the only thing I am worried about is a diamond draw…..The BB shows 7d 9s and the limper shows Ac9c, turn is a brick and river is a 2 to fill me up. SHIPPPPPP ITTTTTT!!!!!! 45k in chips, and sitting pretty.

We make the final table and I am sat 3rd in chips, there are 8 seats up for grabs, but for over an hour we fuk around until we are even remotely close to getting down to 8 players. But by this stage I am now as mad as a wasp, I was in danger of being knocked out in 9th spot, I sware now there was collusion going on (of course I am probably wrong), big stacks were picking on certain people, and folding to the low stacks. To the point were a guy with 60k had 6k committed on the BB and folded for another 5k to take a player out….what the fuk is going on there? Anyway eventually we lose a player in 9th and we all have a seat, JOB DONE!!

So today I tell Nicky the good news and we decided my % stake in his action this weekend, then I have a very interesting phone call with Martin “BigBills” Devlin and we discuss a few possibilities for the GUKPT Main Event. No sooner have I come to an agreement with Dev, when Daddio sends an email through regarding the £330 Side Event on Monday seeing if I want a bit of % trading. This is what I love about poker, if you get a good group of friends who all love the game, all playing the same events, there is always a bit of business to be done, and for me it makes the game even more exciting. If you have a stake in someone then you rail them wanting them to do well, and in return if someone has a stake in you they are keeping an eye on you, it’s a real moral booster, and gives me a real buzz to be watching someone I have backed doing well, or having people cheering me on.

Now I won’t disclose any information about the deals I have done, if anything should come to fruit I will include full details when I do my “GUKPT Week Report” blog. All I will say is it set to be a fukin great week, I am more excited than a kid at xmas, I am constantly texting the lads “We are gonna have this one!!” Maybe it’s a bit sad, but I think it’s great to be fully pumped up for something you enjoy doing so much.

As a little treat for girls me and Daddio popped into JTF tonight and pick up £100 worth of fireworks for our trip to the Lakes, it will be a nice little surprise for them. Plus us blokes like anything that you can set on fire and it then goes bang!! Let’s just hope there are some celebratory fireworks next week.

Good luck all….

"Never Show your Shows!!"

2009-11-01T13:33:00.000-08:00

WARNING: Long Post

Friday night and I had agreed to go to Lancaster for a home game at one of Daddios mates houses, but as the day arrived I was in the mindset that I really couldn’t be fukd, I really can be a lazy foooka at times. With about half an hour to go before we were due to set off, Daddio phones me to say he is stuck in traffic so will go straight to Lancaster. This means I will have to get a Taxi to the Train Station, and then the train to Lancaster where he will pick me up. I fukin Hate Trains!! I am not a happy bunny and now really really can’t be arsed, but I won’t ever let a mate down.

I get to the Train Station to find my Train sat there waiting, RESULT, I jump straight on it and it sets off early, RESULT, I get on and think Ill pay when the conductor comes round, accept no conductor ever comes round, RESULT!! It takes just under 15 minutes to get to Lancaster where I meet Daddio outside the station, we nip to the Pub for a quick pint and meet Mick (Later to be renamed chipmunk). He has a Taxi on route to take us to another Micks (Wardo) house for the game. When we get there we have the introductions, there are 2 x Micks, 3 x Daves, Ben, Wez and Ron, the game we are playing is a standard £20 Freezeout, 5k in chips and 30 minute levels for the first 4 levels, followed by 20 minute levels. I am a bit disappointed with coming all this way for a £20 game, but I am told some of these lads don’t play as often as myself and are not as quick to through their money away as I am. Fair point!!

We settle down for the game and within half an hour the beers are flowing and everyone is having a good crack, poker really is a game that brings complete strangers together. Now I have been watching all the players and for a £20 game the standard is very high, I have marked the player who I believe will cause me the most trouble Wez, it was clear to watch him play and from how he talked about the game he knew his shit. Certainly not to take anything away from the other lads they all had game, Wardo had the ability to diesect a hand with very scary accuracy.

As always when I am writing I try not to go into too much detail and start boring the shit out of everyone reading, but I managed to take down the comp down for £80. As many times before one key hand did it for me, I call a raise with Q9 of hearts from a lad called Dave and the flop comes 10 J A, he bets about half the pot and I call with my open ended draw, thinking depending on what drops on the turn, Ill have a crack at taking him off the pot. Turn drops a 4 of hearts, putting 2 hearts on the board. He bets again and there is no way I can fold with a flush draw added to my up and downer. The river drops a lovely 8 of spades, and Dave pushes all in, I snap call and show him the straight, he shows A8 of hearts and passes me all his chips looking gutted. Thank fuk the heart didn’t come on the river or I would have been the one looking gutted. From their I just bully the table, applying pressure at the right times and suck out in a couple of hands, the biggest one being 2 low stacks all in and I call with Qs8c(I was committed) and hit runner runner to make a flush and take them both out.

With the comp over some of the lads leave and 6 of us fire up a cash game, £50 buy ins 25p/50p, and now the beer and Jack Daniels is really flowing. Everyone is in high spirits; the banter keeps getting better and better to the point where I am in hysterics. Now as we are playing I also had some side action going which I am being updated on from Martin “BigBills” Devlin. As mentioned in my previous blog I won a seat to the $50 GUKPT satellite in the middle weight freeroll on Blue Square. I obviously can’t play it so asked Dev if he fancied playing it, if he wins the seat he can have it as I have already won mine through the same satellite. The deal was if he won the seat I would take a % of him and if he won any cash we would chop it up 50/50. So I am railing Dev via text whilst getting completely leathered and crying with laughter in what I can only describe the best cash game I have ever played in. Straight to the point Dev manages to finish 2nd for $1350 just missing out on the seat. Gutted for Dev as I know he really wanted that seat and I wanted him to get it, as I really fancy him to do well in the main event. But still $1350 is not a bad nights work, 50/50 chop every ones happy, RESULT!!

4am and we are in full flow, Wardo has gone out in a taxi to get 2 more bottles of coke for the spirits, Mick has been renamed “Chipmunk” for some funny reason I can barely remember, but the name seems to be sticking. Every time I play a hand everyone is saying remember "never Show your Shows!!” On account of me making a drunken tit of myself, I was trying to explain why I thought you should never show a bluff in a cash game, but instead of saying that I said “you should never show your shows lads!!” I can only really remember one hand I played, and it was the usual fukin madness from a drunken Dave “Bruce” Lea. I raise it up blind to £2, Wez is the only caller and I bet the flop of 8 9 10 blind again £3, Wez calls and the turn brings a Q, I bet out again blind £7, Wez re-raises me all in. I think shit I better have a look here there’s a straight on the board, hoping to see a Jack I look down to see QQ, fuk it I think, if the river pairs up I am laughing. I call all in for £36.50 (something like that) and the river brings down a 8, Wez shows me a J and I turn over the QQ, he goes white as a sheet and I try not to start laughing, but very quickly apologise for my terrible play. Wez starts laughing and reloads, but gives me some needle for it, and rightly so……

The big winner for the cash game was Chipmunk, just before mine and Daddios taxi arrived at 8am I counted his chips up and he had well over £200 in front of him, with Wardo riding very close to him on chips. Poor old Daddio had lost over a ton, but was in high spirits, to cheer him up I paid for the taxi back to Preston, as for the night I was over £500 up including my side action, granted very tired but a happy man.

It was a fukin superb night start to finish, WP Wardo, Wez, Chipmonk and Daddio GG.

Note to self: Don’t be such a miserable lazy bastard at times, I was thinking of not even going at one point, what a night I would have missed out on, not to mention a bit of profit ;-)

Good Luck all..

Daddio sets sail for warmer climates:

2009-10-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon, I am about 6 pints in, 1 Zambucka and 2 packs of cheese and onion. All the lads are out and Liverpool have just done the business over Man U…life is good, then the phone goes with a text message and it gets even better. Its my good mate Daddio, no sooner have I posted a blog which mentioned he is running colder than an Eskimo trapped in a fridge buried at the north pole…..and he has took a big score down on line. He finished 3rd in the Pokerstars 10k GTD $33 buy in netting himself a nice $1,851. WP that man! Lets hope this is the start of the good times for you my mate.

If anyone else would like me to mention that they are running cold in my blog please send me a message. HOWEVER!! I will require 10% of any winnings after your outing….

Back to Sunday, about half an hour before kick off I say to the lads I think Liverpool are going to get made an example of today, but it wasn’t the case, they looked nervous to start but soon found their feet with the almighty Torres ruling the pitch, Man U just didn’t look their normal selves. By the time the 2nd goal went in I thought there was real potential we were going to get kicked to f*ck by a band of 10 young lads who did not look happy as we screamed and shouted “Have that you Manc b*st*rds”

We hopped into a Taxi and fecked off into town for a few more sherberts. Needless to say I ended up completely leathered, came home, fired up poker and fell asleep. As I awoke rough as fuk and running late for work the next morning, I quickly fired up the lappy and discovered I had won £13.45 whilst pist, RESULT, normally it would be at least a £100 the other way. I was as rough as rhino all day but somehow managed to work through it, returned home and was in no mood for poker so watch Layer Cake and fell asleep.

As Tuesday arrived I had freshened up and got myself up to date with what had happened… Liverpool had beat Man U 2-0, I had won over $1000 at the weekend and withdrawn it from Party Poker, as well as shipping a 3rd place in the GUKPT middle weight freeroll on Blue Square, for a nice free entry into the $50 sat on Friday. Daddio had took down his nice score, Martin “BigBills” Devlin had been slowed rolled by some Southern fairy at the APAT thingy ma bob in Bolton, and was none to fukin happy about it. Nicky had been to the Twenty-Twenty weekend at DTD but hadn’t reported back, so I presumed he had not won a bean. Steve “Jamboy” Davies had also over celebrated the Liverpool win whilst in Thailand, but luckily for him his 7 year old son was with him, so he had been spared a Kickboxing, ninja, nun chuckin, kun fooing shoeing!! Apparently they love Man U over there. After catching back up I still wasn’t in the mood for any poker so ended up tidying the apartment, watching a bit of TV and railing Amatay lives blog and some of the FT on route to his $10k comp win. But the real result of the night was finding the porn links on his blog….fukin fantastic!!

Now tonight I am writing this and still don’t feel like playing poker, but a few days rest certainly won’t do me any harm….Good Luck all.

The Power of Positive Thinking…

2009-10-23T14:32:00.000-07:00

Despite having my balls tickled last night at the table I still felt like I was playing good poker, better than good really. So I remained in a positive frame of mind, and once I had got home from work I fired up Party Poker. Don’t get me wrong I still love Blue Square but I felt like I needed a little bit of time away from the site. This is something I often do when running bad on a particular site. I lobbed in a quick £50, had some tea and sat down to get to work with a trusty crate of 18 Stella next to me.

I started with a £11 SNG TURBO, silly move but I managed 3rd for $20, never again what a fukin lottery!! Then I entered the 3k GTD $33 buy in, within 5 mins I have gone down from a 3000 starting stack to 1125 and it was the slap in the face I needed. I had a quick word with myself, got my shit together, and before I knew it I was on 10k. Only one real key hand to mention, a guy pushed all in for around 2k, big stack calls and I call with JJ in the CO. Flop comes 9 high and the big stack bets half the pot. I thought I am sure I am ahead but if I push he is committed and don’t want donking out this early, either that or he has me well and truly beat. I folded and he shows me A9, It was the best fold I ever made and here is why……

Just before the final table the same player has a big stack and raises 5 times the BB for about the 4th time, after our previous encounter I don’t take him for much and I push all in with AK, he snaps my hand off with AJ... As we hit the final table I have the chip lead and my new best friend is sat 2nd, we eliminate a few small stacks, with 5 of us left he limps in on my BB. I look down to see AA, I raise from 3k to 12k, he flat calls and we see a flop of 4 J 6, I bet ¾ of the pot and he pushes all in. My arm almost came out of its socket when I went to click call, he shows me J10, the turn is an A and he is gone. Heads up I have a 3 to 1 chip lead and the guy asks for a deal, I say no chance. Next minute he is all in, I call with AK, he has A10, the board comes J 2 Q 7 K……..Ok DONKEY KONG lets deal. $940 for my efforts and he takes $911. I’m happy with that and very impressed with the deal making software on Party Poker, its the first time I have done a deal online, and I can’t understand why all sites don’t offer this service.

Despite a bad little run I have remained positive in my own abilities and it has paid off. Mike Matusow was always banging on about “The Power of Positive Thinking” and I would think to myself shut the fuck up Mike and get your chips in. Now I take my words back and think, “Mike your still one ugly fukka but you just might have something here mate!!”

How do they call.....?

2009-10-23T03:49:00.000-07:00

Well the unthinkable has happened and my beloved Blue Square has turned against me. No longer am I running like god, no longer does it say “HOT” next to my name on Sharkscope, instead it has been replaced by the words “SUPER TILT” lol even Sharksope can kick you when your down.

But despite my recent bad run I remain calm, focussed, in a good mood and the reason for this is that I don’t even feel like I am playing bad poker. I have just been unlucky and the reason for that is other people’s bad play, maniac stations, suicide bombers calling all in with fuk all, and of course the standard 3, 2 and 1 outers hitting home on the river against me. If I am honest I haven’t lost that much only $150 on blue square this week and approx $100 of profit so probably $250 total. But it still hurts when you are making the right decisions and not getting rewarded. But over the years I have tried to learn to walk away (which is a big, big challenge for me, and I normally never do) but this week I have, I have just closed down the laptop and jumped on the Nintendo Wii for a round of golf..

I laid in bed last night and thought for a couple of minutes about what had happened on the cyber felt that evening, and after 2 minutes I felt the crunch of my birds elbow into the ribs and a shout of “Stop Fukin Snoring” I had drifted straight into a deep sleep, and the reason for that is that I honestly thought I had done nothing at the tables. Normally if I have played like a Donkey and gone on tilt I would lay in bed for ages tossing and turning, visualising AK being cracked, seeing the flop being dealt out, generally feeling sick as a dog and sorry for myself. But last night was different, and I feel proud of myself for remaining calm and focussed despite receiving a good kick to the CREAM CRACKERS!!

Here are a couple of examples of what has been happening, I fired up 3 tourneys last night, first one I exit when I push early on in the comp in position on the UTG raiser with AK suited, he calls me with 910 off and flops 2 pair.. Then the clever fuker types in “Ha Ha Ha Ha” as I exit the table. I noticed he was from USA, so I typed back in response “GL, no wonder the whole fukin world despises u Yank C*nts!!”

Next Comp I have just above starting stack and call a raise with 99 from another UTG raiser on my BB, flops comes down 8 high all red, rather than messing around I’ll just take the pot down now so push my stack in. Unfortunately the UTG raiser had a different idea and decided to call my all in with KJ of clubs, and he was duly awarded for his excellent read with a K on the turn. At least he didn’t type in Ha Ha Ha Ha on my demise.

The final comp I played I have built a stack just above average and limp in with KQ hearts, guy who acts after me raises to 400 and the action folds round to me and I call. The flop is lovely 9h Qs 10h, and I ponder for a while how to play it, I am thinking he maybe has a big pair, but with a board like that I will happily put all my chips in and hopefully catch one of my 15+ outs. I decide a bet of 600 will do and he immediately re-pops me to 1400, and I SHIP the lot. He calls with KK and the turn and river are bricks.

I lick my wounds and move onto a 0.25/0.50c cash table, I sit down with $30 and double through with 99 on a 779 flop. Then I pressure all the low stacks add into the mix me picking up AA and KK about 5 times, and I fined myself sat on $110, Nice…… Now a New player sits down and is playing wild, loose, aggressive, bluffing like crazy and generally without any sort of care in the world about his money. He has soon amassed a stack of $140, and it’s not long before I become embroiled with him, needless to say I came of worse.

I am dealt QQ on the button and raise to $5.50 (I know it’s a big raise, but if he is fishing he is paying) He is on the SB and calls, BB folds the flop comes down 6 10 6 (no flush draw), I have already decided I aint taking any of his antics, and bet out 3 quarters of the pot, he immediately re-raises me. He has been doing this all night on this table to other players, and I think he is just trying to push me off the pot. In my mind at best he has A10, 10J, so I re-raise him up to $45, he tanks and then shoves his stack, FFS now I am committed and still cant believe he has a hand. I go with my read and call and he shows 3 6 of spades….. Question is should I have folded to his raise on my flop bet? Answer in my mind is as follows… I had watched him play, went with my read and instinct and was wrong. If a poker player doesn’t trust his reads then what’s the point of playing, yes I was wrong on this occasion but we all make bad reads from time to time, it’s the 9 times out of 10 we get it right that dictates why we should trust our reads… “3 6 of spades? WP Sir, don’t forget to set your alarm for Job club tomorrow morning!!”

Stupidity/Sensible

2009-10-20T12:19:00.001-07:00

Work has been tough over the last couple of weeks, business is booming, the busiest its has ever been since I became the Manager 3 years ago, so I can’t complain. Unfortunately though with this comes more pressure, throw into the mix staff going off on paternity leave and sick, and it soon becomes stress. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love my job, even when I am off work I like to stay in touch with what is going on. I will still be taking phone calls when I am at the poker table playing, because for me knowing everything is running smoothly helps me to relax which makes me play better poker. A nice clear mind, full concentration on the game; however last night I came home after a particularly stressful day and fired up the cash poker. WHAT A FUKIN BAD MOVE….I knew I wasn’t in the right frame of mind but felt like I needed to blow off some steam, so $100 and 1 hour later, the steam had been blown off. Silly really as on Saturday I played the 6k GTD $3 re-buy on Blue Square, 739 runners, after 5.5 hours I exited the comp in 9th spot for $100, a lot of hard work for not a lot back, but the winner did get 1.6k and at one point I honestly thought I was going to take it down. Alas it wasn’t meant to be and 4 days later I have took my hard earned $94 profit and shat it against the wall in less than an hour. But strangely now I have done it, I feel better for it, which must be the gambling degenerate in me……

However I do have some common sense when it comes to poker, in about 3 weeks times the GUKPT bus rolls into Blackpool and as you already know from my previous post I have my main event ticket secured. I have taken the whole week off work, with the intention of playing a couple of side events before the big one. So to make sure I am in the right frame of mind before one of the biggest competitions of my career I decided a little bit of relaxation is needed. I withdrew my £80 profit from DTD in last night’s £20 Head-Hunter comp where I finished 4th out of 83 runners. Jumped on line and booked a 5* Luxury apartment in the lakes for me, the Mrs, my good mate Daddio and his fiancé. For 3 nights Fri through to Mon Morning it’s costing us £280 (£70 each bargain) and this place is absolutely mint

http://www.keswickcottages.co.uk/index.php?option=com_pmanager&task=showproperty&properties_id=34&Itemid=28&villages_id=8&cid=0. Daddio and I had been discussing it for ages and trying to find the right place, as soon as I saw this gaff I knew it would be spot on. So the plan is we drive up straight after work on the Friday, load up with food, booze, Nintendo Wii, laptops, cigars, and have a right good laugh and chill out all weekend.

When we come back on the Monday we drop the girls off and head to the Blackpool G to meet Martin “Big Bills” Devlin, Steve “Jamboy” Davies and Nicky M for the £330 2 day event. I have already withdrawn $600 out of my Blue Square account to cover this expense, and depending on what happens will play one more comp out of my own pocket before the Main Event if I can fit it in (Hopefully I wont need to). There will be 5 of us down there all week and hopefully one of us at least will get a decent cash. Nicky has got previous form coming 4th in the GUKPT Luton main event for just over 24k, Jamboy has took a few big scores on line and always rises to the occasion when needed. Daddio was the first player ever to take down the 7.5k super series on the Old Will Hill crypto site (possibly the best value comp I have ever known, for £39 he walked away with just over 4.4K) Unfortunately since then Daddio has been running colder than Eskimo trapped in a fridge buried at the north pole, maybe just maybe the GUKPT will warm him back to previous form....

But my tip for the week is Martin “Big Bills” Devlin, being part of the furniture at the Blackpool G he now has to pay £5 Direct Debit to the casino each month, for that he gets the once over with the vacuum, a full wash and hung out on the line... For those of you that know him, he has the game and has good form in the £100 monthly Freezeout, I am hoping he will be able to transfer this into the GUKPT week, which reminds me I must arrange a deal with him…….lol

A lesson taught!!

2009-10-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well there’s been quite a bit going on of recent, Stag doooos, piss ups, meals out, some serious grafting at work, and of course there has been time for a little bit of poker. Since the GUKPT ticket win I have been up and down like a mother fukin YOYO on PKR, for the love of it I can not cash in a tournament on that site, but cash I can play!??! WELL I will re-phrase that, I play it…. I deposited $150 last week with the intention of playing a bit, then a hell of a lot more this week as I am off work for a week. Basically to make life easier than me banging on and on I will show you in an easy way what has happened on the cash tables: $150 - $32 - $110 - $248 - $330 - £385 - $495 - $315 - $185 - $256 - $330 - $405 - $317 - $276 - $217 and that is enough of bloody cash!! Withdrew $200 and fukd it off for a while as its pissin me right off, you need some serious patience with cash and resolve for the swings. But the only swing I feel like now is grabbing hold of a cat’s tail and swinging the horrible little over grown rat around my head. (I don’t like cats, but let’s not go down that road).

So I left PKR for the rest of the month and had a little bit of business with Blue Square customer support to attend to. When I won the GUKPT ticket it said on my screen print prize £1100, but the ticket value is only £1060, so when they e mailed me saying congratulations which GUKPT event do you want to play Thanet or Blackpool and which day etc etc??, I asked about the £40 I was owed… Now the lads have been giving me some real shit about this, you tight bastard they all say, its only £40 let it go. Now I want to make a point about this, the competition stated £1100 not £1060, yes its only £40 but its £40 I am owed, if someone played a competition and the winner was GTD £3k but was only paid out £2960 all hell would break loose. So today after waiting over a week for a response it finally came: After I logged on and harassed live support for over 20 minutes…

Hi David,
I can confirm that you have been entered for GUKPT Blackpool (leg 9), starting on day 1A (Thursday 12th November). With regard to the expenses, we recognise that the prize that you saw awarded was greater in value and so have credited your account with the excess in expenses ($63.79).

More information on the Blackpool leg can be found here:

http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/leg9.shtml

The tournament will start at 2pm and there will be a meal in the evening during the hour long dinner break. You are welcome to bring guests and there is usually no problem with them spectating as you play from an appropriate distance.
Good luck!

Fukin Magic, and I take my hat off to the Blue Square team, they must be busy but the service is always excellent, yes I had to chase a response, but it turns out the guy I was chasing was off work for a week.

Anyway and this is a lesson to all the lads that gave me grief over the £40, I log onto my Blue square account and fire up the $2k GTD $5 rebuy comp, I play tight and aggressive and pick my spots well, only top up at the break so have used $11 of my $68 given to me by Blue Square, 4 hours later I have took the comp down for $540. THIS IS A LESSON TO EVERYONE; "always get what you are owed as you never know what it will turn in to."

I Went to the final table lowest stacked as my KK got smashed all in pre against A8, Flop AA8, quick sick break and then managed to regaine composure very quickly, doubled up first 2 hands on the FT, then when 4 handed and 2nd in chips I went to war with the chip leader with AQ first, A on the flop he bet out and I re-popped him, he folded. Next hand AK hearts I raise it up, he calls, flop come Qd 9h 8c, he checks and I check, turn brings 10h, he bets half the pot and I am certain he has the str8 but have to call on the nut flush draw, river 7h, BEAUTIFUL, if he didn’t have the str8 he must have now, he bets half the pot and I push him all in, he calls and mucks. 5 mins later I have done the over 2 players and won, the last hand I have AA and guy pushes with A6 GAME OVER!!

That’s enough poker for today, I will return to the cyber felt tomorrow. Blue Square is rapidly becoming my site of choice, I like the software, I have seen sick beats but nothing like Stars or PKR. If you haven’t played the site, download it and check it out, I recommend it…

End of the HEATER!!

2009-10-02T01:38:00.001-07:00

What a way to end my recent good run of form, I was playing a small comp on Blue Square and managed to make the money when Steve “Jamboy” Davies suggests we play the $50 rebuy comp for a GUKPT main event of your choice ticket. I was umming and arring for a while but with 3 minutes to go decided to play it as I had just busted out of 2.5k GTD in 16th place netting $37 LOL… Anyway without going into massive detail around 4 hours later I have won the seat, I play well all the way through, and noticed something strange on my travels. As soon as we hit the 200/400 50 ante level with approx 12 players left things started going crazy and people started shipping their stacks. Now I thought to myself I have 7k in chips here, granted the chip leader had about 14k, but I am in no need to start panicking, 1 double through and I am chip leader. So I sat back and picked my spots wisely. Eventually we get down to 4 players and I turn it up a gear as I have 16k in chips and the chip leader approx 34k. I would say one key hand won me the comp not only did I win a big pot but it filled me with confidence, the confidence that gave me the ability to take it down…

Blinds are 600/1200 200 ante and I limp on the SB into the chip leader with KcJd, of course he re-raises me, and I am in the mind frame I know he will raise, so rather than me raise and he then re-raises we will control the pot. He makes it 3600 to go and I call, flop comes down 8h 10c jc, top pair for me and runner runner str8 and flush draws. I am still a bit uncertain about this hand so check to him and he bets out 4200, it’s a standard C bet from him, I don’t have enough info yet but I am sure I am good, I call the bet and the turn brings a 9c, giving me a Gutshot for the Q, any club for the 2nd nut flush and top pair J with good kicker, I jam the lot…….and he folds after a few seconds. From there I take complete control of the table within 20 minutes I have despatched the once 2 chips leaders of tournament and destroyed the other guy with a 4 – 1 chiplead in 5 hands heads up. SHIP the GUKPT Main Event Ticket and all for just $50, I had no re-buy or top up, a £30 investment and I have a £1060 ticket, beautiful…..

Next day I play 3 comps and run like dog shit apart from the 10k R/A, now normally after a good win things cool down for me and I get no where, but things were looking good in the comp. Best part of 700 runners and we are down to 53 runners and I have 25k which is around average, so with 3 runners to go out and I am in the money for $58 dollars I can sit back. But I think to myself I want to get a decent cash here so I will apply some pressure if I find the right hands. The Chipleader is sat right next to me on my right so as Long as he doesn’t act before me I can pretty much do what I like. I had a strange feeling though about AK, almost like a premonition I was going to bubble with this hand. Crazy I know but sometimes my mind works like that…….some guy who has been jamming pots in any position and generally pissing me off decides to jam when I am on the button, the chipleader folds, and I have AK diamonds, well I aint gonna fold to some guy who has been so active, yeah its for all but 500 chips of my stack, but I know he has a garbage hand, plus I want a really deep run in this comp, I don’t just want $58 back. I jam my stack, SB and BB fold and he shows me Q6 clubs, flop comes down 2 3 6, turn 6 river X, I DON’T FUCKING BELIEVE IT!! My premonition had been correct…… 1 hand later I am out holding 10 7 off on a K K 9 7 7 board, of course some chuff had the K. That’s it I’m DICK SNIFFED out of the comp with no money!!!!

Now I have run $50 into $800 4 times already this year that lost the lot and it aint happening again so I decide one more comp tomorrow, if no joy I am pulling out $700 and leaving approx $40 to play with…….

Sure enough my full house is done in by a straight flush in my first comp of the day and its time to fuk right off. I withdraw $700 and shit the remaining $30 or so away on cash. Not a bad run on Blue Square $50 deposit and $2450 out, that will do for me. What to do what to do???, I will leave it for a couple of days and then decide what site I will play next, after a winning streak on a site I like to leave it for a few weeks, play somewhere else and then come back.
£100 comp at Blackpool was a none starter as well, managed to slip and slide my way through to finish 68th out of 199 runners, but could never get anything started. Much was the same for Martin “BigBills” Devlin and Steve “JamBoy” Davies. Ah well, roll on next month……

An update at last you LAZY DICK SPLASH

2009-10-02T01:19:00.000-07:00

Well needless to say I ended up throwing all off my hard earned $600 away on PKR to a series of sick beats which ultimately tilted me to fukin high heaven and the lot went. Almost withdrew it out when there was $200 left, but I was of the mind set go on you chuffs have the fukin lot.

So I decided to chill out for a couple days, had a few drinks with friends, went and played a live game and took another terrible beat, but did scored a nice win on cash when some young kid came to table and ask for us to call him Bond, James Bond. “You what you fukin NODDER!!” I thought to myself, still easy pickings, he lost a few pots and was tilted to fuk, he raises a pot with 2 of us from £1 to £15, which he might as well announced I have AK off boys!!, I call with 88 thinking If I can hit I will have the lot of him. Flop comes down 8Kx, beautiful I check, he bets out £35, and I tank, as I am tanking purely for effect my mate comes over after being knocked out of the comp and asks what was happening, I explain so all can hear, and I say “but he hasn’t got any of it I am sure!!” To which I turn to Bond, James Bond and say “ You’ve got exactly fuk all of that I’m all in” and shove the best part of £180 into the middle, he insta calls, surprisingly with AK, turn and river are bricks, I show him the 888 and SHIIIIIPPPPP ITTTT!!!!!!!!

After such a bloody terrible few months on line I decided that on Friday I would do my best to get back into the right frame of mind. So I sit down for 16 hours of poker, I fire up 2 laptops and sky sports and away we go, by the end of the sitting I had the following:

PokerStars: Deposited $40, after cash play $158

Blue Square: Deposited $50, after a few tourneys I have $700

This is more like it, so through the course of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I have managed to get it to $900 on Blue Square and $9 on Stars, god I hate Stars it’s rife with fukin idiots. But my Blue Square run is going well (see below for screen shots of my 4 comps results) The latest being the 2.5k GTD $7 rebuy which I finished 5th after getting involved with the chip leader with JJ v AK, it all went in pre flop and he hit a bloody A on the river. FFS if I had won that hand I would have easily took it down for a cool 1k, why give it me on the river, if he is gonna hit give me it on the flop PLEASE!!

Anyway, it’s 2 nights off as I am frazzled for the minute; spend some time with the Mrs, then play a bit of Blue Square on Friday and the Blackpool G £100 comp on Saturday with Stevie “Jamboy” Davies.
For the first time in ages I am feeling good about my game, I have been playing well, great reads, maximum concentration and running pretty damn good. I am full of confidence for Saturday’s game, and I am actually being pretty sensible by taking a couple of nights off before playing. Rather than my usual effort of cramming in a shitload of volume the night before, and going on the piss the minute my feet touch the casino floor. Wish me Luck!!

Running Good only to get tripped up by 3 legged Donkeys!!:

2009-10-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

There is a lot to talk about but I cant be arsed, I have been to DTD in Nottingham for the AWCOP, completely let myself down, I know it’s the amateur championship, and I aint no pro, but when some idiot limps on the button with KK and it comes to me on the BB with AK you just know there will be fireworks. It’s like a scene from casualty, we (the viewer) can see the truck racing towards to the small family car and cringe, whilst the trucker and family are oblivious to what’s about to happen. So needless to say I raise, he calls, and the case king flops and BOOM!! Chips start flying. Anyway it twats my head big time, how the fuck can you limp?? Anyway couldn’t get back into it despite flopping quads, was all in against QQ pre flop (77 v QQ) flop 779. Despite that my head was gone and along with it my chips. Soon went out after that thinking I was invincible after the quads, but found out when I went all in again with 77 you don’t always get quads…… Ah well, had a good drink and won a few quid on cash.

Me and Martin “Bigbills” Devlin played a £15 rebuy on the Sunday at the Blackpool G, good little comp, but as usual another sick beat took me out in 8th spot for £60 BigBills finished 7th for £70. All I can say is if you have 3, 2 or 1 outs against me get it in you will win. On a board of 5 7 10 I push all in with Q10, get looked up by 910, SURPRISE, SURPRISE turn brings the 9.

So of recent I have been running terrible online, cash, MTTs, SNGs the lot, but over this month August on PKR I have turned $50 into $600, until tonight, quickly spin $50 into $120 and have a break for tea. I should have left it there, went back on and nearly puked all over my screen. The following 4 hands ripped my bankroll in half!!, I almost went on fukin mega spastic tilt, but somehow god only knows, managed to turn the laptop off and jump in bed with the mrs for a cuddle, which mad me feel better. Heres the hands:

Muggins: KJ off on the button raise to $4 BB calls

FLOP: 5 J K, I check, he bets $1 I raise to $4, he re-raises me to $28 WFT, what the fukin hell is going on here, I’m not having this im all in for $42, he insta calls with KK. I’m sorry but most of you are probably saying fold it, well fuk that what sort of re-raise is that $24 from no where, had only just joined the table so granted didn’t know how the guy played, but it stunk of FISH!! Went with my gut and pushed, was wrong, no worries ill reload.

Next hand:

On the button again with KK raise it up to $8 get 2 callers, flop comes Q 7 8, I bet $16, one folds the other calls, turn J, I push all in the board is dangerous, but I am confident im ahead, guy tanks and then calls with 56, open ended. Wallop river 4.

Here comes the tilt, I exit the table and move to $1 and $2 and load up with $100, and sit and play for half an hour observing the players, when I feel confident I decide to make some moves, flop a flush and get paid.

Now comes hand no 3

I have 10 7 hearts in SB, a nice hand for drawing, button raises to $8 I call and so does BB, the flop comes 5s 7s 10s, 2 pair I check, bb checks and the raiser bet $24, now for me I don’t give a shit about the BB he has fuk all of that im certain, the raiser in my mind had AK or QQ, JJ something like that. The board is scary for him, so I decide to push all in for approx $115, if he has a spade he might call to try and hit it, but im well ahead with my 2 pair, if he has already got the flush I have outs, but im sure he doesn’t. Before I know what’s happened he has INSTA called me, I think shit I am fukd here. He shows Jh JC, no spade, Ill have some off this. Now few people will know how bad I run but this is a classic example, the turn comes a 2 and I say to myself “here we go” river 2 for a better 2 pair. Now im fukin steaming and reload another $100, I know I shouldn’t but I just can’t control myself when on tilt. I swear if I could cool down after a beat walk away come back and refocus I would be a fukin dynamite player. I take soo many sick ass beats I should be use to it by now, but hey don’t we all? And shouldn’t we all?

I try to cool down a bit and get back into the swing of things and then the final nail comes down. I have A10 off the raise comes in from a real fukin fishy mug so I call as does another guy, flop comes 2d 6 d 10 s, I think I don’t like this. Anyway unknown guy bets and fishy fuk raises to $24 from $8. GET TO FUK im not having it, I call and so does the other guy, turn come a Ac, that will do for me, unknown checks, fish twat checks, I push all in for around $80 THIS POT IS MINE, unknown tanks and calls, my heart sinks, I must be fukd!! Then Fish mug calls, OH FUK!! Unknown shows K10 WTF?? Fishy shows 2 diamonds. WALLOP river diamond.

Did I play it wrong? Should I not get involved with unknown players? Not in the case I was miles ahead on the turn and he was drawing dead. Should I have not got involved with some wild idiot, of course I should 9 times out of 10 ill have the idiots money. Did I play the other hands badly, poorly, too aggressively, too passively, with inexperience? WHO GIVES A FUCK. I am off the bed to give my MRS some time, time that she should have had 2 hours ago, but I felt the need to devote it to this fukin game which I can only describe as “YOUR 3RD PINT” you no you shouldn’t start it, but once you have that’s it were on it all night!!

Why stand up to piss when you can sit: 18.07.09

2009-10-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

What the fuck are you on about Dave? Well in a nutshell it seems to me us poker players like to make life harder than it has to be. Personally I probably stack the elements against myself, I don’t use software, I hardly make notes on players, I never select the right cash tables, I just sit down with a “lets have a fucking bit of this” attitude. I often play drunk, tired, angry and after arguing with the Mrs., so all in all in a bad frame of mind. But when I get my shit together I will rumble with the best of the best, but its just getting my shit together that’s the difficult part. I love poker and will try and play everyday on line, but if I want to get better, and if I want to win more its time to start making life easier for myself.

I have been running like shiiiiiiiiittttttttttttte since xmas, ive managed a few quid here and there, but nothing of real substance, ive managed plenty of cashes in on line comps but nothing big, always the early stages of the money. Twice i have spun $50 dollars into $800 but then I will go crazy and lose it back on higher stakes cash tables, or enter comps which I shouldn’t really enter as I am not in the right frame of mind to play. I would say my biggest problem is playing too much when I am

1) Tired

2) angry or

3) pist,

however my biggest ever comp win came when I had been on the sauce all day, and I played like a pro, but the majority of the time I play like a clown drunk.

But on top of all this I am really unlucky at the minute, I wont bore you with the stories, I know when I am on my game and I am a force to be reckoned with, I just need to find my way back there, and all the bad beats, variance whatever you call it just aint helping me one bit. I keep trying to build a bankroll but get to my brick wall $800 and things go wrong, not like 3 years ago when I managed to spin $25 into $10,000 what a 6 weeks that was, couldn’t miss a flop, draw, even 1 outers lol.

So I am sat in the Blackpool G with a good friend of mine Martin “Bigbills” Devlin and we are talking about how shit we are both running and he suggests why don’t I start writing stuff down and then reflect on it, thats what he does. A lot of the pros do it to, as it helps them get over the bad beats, missed cashes, big loses etc etc, so here I am writing my first blog.