Quiet

Ok, so I admit that I've gone a bit quiet on the blogging front lately. I've still been playing poker on and off and been doing ok. I've recently started playing ring games a little more on UltimateBet and although my start has been slow it has been steady. I've made about $8 on it so far, not bad. I think patience is the key in these games, also coming in with a big stack helps, but you must remember not to get too cocky. I'm no where near making a million, but at least I'm trying.

Fortuitous Friday

With my money standing at £20.20, almost a five pound loss from the start of the month it was time that I did something about it. As I failed to warm up properly yesterday I decided to start on a £3 + £0.60 table. My luck was shocking and I rarely saw an AKQJ or 10 so eventually I bailed with a perhaps badly played or unlucky bluff. Oh well, maybe next time. I was patient, I was careful - perhaps too careful at times.

Having lost more money I decided I should go for the plunge and try to win some back. I entered a £5 + £0.50 single table tournament and sat back waiting for some better luck. It couldn't be as bad as last nights and the previous game! I sat tight and rode the bad cards, persuaded people to pour chips at me and got myself into a strong position.

When there were only 5 players left I got A+K suited and decided that I would bet large. The pre-flop betting was pretty time consuming and eventually we flopped. There was nothing to support and so after the eventual winner of the tournament went all in there I assumed he or she had a flush as all the cards were hearts on the board. I did not want to go out at this stage, I wanted a tenner at least!

I struck some luck at one stage when I thought I was going to come fourth and out of the prizes, fortunately for me the river gave me a flush this time and I won the hand knocking out a player. Ten pounds, awesome. I needed it for repairs to my profit and loss account! That move also put one of the other players in bad shape until eventually his chips ran out, now it was just me and "Saddam".

First deal I was given A+10 which I figured was pretty good considering it was wits against each other. I risked an all in before the flop and to my suprise he followed me in. He had about twice as many chips as me, so he could without fear. The river came out and supported neither of us, the turn supported neither of us and the river supported neither of us. "Saddam" must have had two sixes stored in his nuclear bunker somewhere. I lost the game to that. Rubbish. At least I won £15 though.

The pot returns to a more healthy £26.30 - I'm not exactly breaking any world records here.

Back on the Game

It's been a short while since I logged into my Betfair Poker account and in the first game that I played it didn't exactly welcome me back. I was on a tight budget the whole way through the game until eventually my chips depleted completely. I was a little silly perhaps as I decided to join a £5 + £0.50 game on my return. I lost this money and didn't enjoy it at all.

Things couldn't continue like this could they? To find out I entered a £3 + £0.60 as I figured if my luck was still rotten, I would lose less. Initially my luck was pretty dire, until suddenly I had a good hand and lots of amateurs were throwing chips at me when I had what I thought was probably the best hand, possibly the only strong hand available. Slap!!! That's the sound of my hand beating the newbies into a pulp.

From then on, the game was much easier as I had better control of the table. In the end due to another baron spell of luck I eventually crawled out of the game with £9 in my pocket and a 2nd place badge to go with it.

Overall my poker winnings for the night was a total of (£0 - £5.50 - £3.60) + £9 which if you do the maths is a whopping -£0.10. Bollocks. It was ten pence of good poker though. At least I didn't spend zero pence watching Charlton and Middlesborough cancelling each other out.

Minor loss

I played a game tonight and had horrendous luck it seemed. I played a £1 + £0.20 game and came out of the top three spots and therefore made a small loss of £1.20. After that appalling luck I decided to hit the sack instead. I was really annoyed by then! My whole £1.20.

The River Runs Red - With My Blood

I cannot believe my luck. Not only were my cards pretty awful tonight, but they were spot on for at least two of my opponents at the all important time. I played two more multi-table tournaments and did not fair as well as last night. Again the buy-in was £2 + 0.25 and I got 1500 chips to start.

My cards generally were awful, I didn't get a pair higher than 5's dealt to me and when I got an Ace it was always accompanied by a 7 or lower. I rarely saw any royal cards at all. Never the less some very tight playing let me survive for a decent period in the first game. I don't remember exactly how many players there were, but it was upwards of 450. I managed to come 134th in this game which I felt was fairly respectable considering.

The annoying thing was that it was the river that dumped me out again. Full house, Kings over Aces. An excellent hand, but not compared to an Ace High, Straight Flush. Would you believe it.

The second game was not quite as painful as the first, this time I didn't have too much of a hand and was a little too gung ho. I had Queen, Jack and the flop looked good for a straight. The turn came and it didn't appear, I figured that at worst I had a pair as one card supported it and so I went all in hoping that they thought I had something. The pot was fairly big as a result of this and I thought maybe it would scare people off. Alas it did not and the card I wanted never came. Someone else got the straight I was looking for and I walked away in a miserly 300th place. At least I didn't come in 500th place, which was last.

The pot falls to £21.50, so I am now £3.50 down from the beginning of the month. I am now considering if I should revise my big pot high hopes and return to the single table tournaments for now. At least until my new order from Amazon.co.uk from which I can finally order from after over a year of complaining to!

I have ordered two books on poker "Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments: Strategic Play" and "Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments: The Endgame". Hopefully after some reading of these and a bit of digestion I might be able to improve my plays and compete a little bit better. I know there are certain weaknesses in my game during certain scenarios and I hope that by reading these I can attempt to patch them up.

Next time my aim is not to end up slain on the river. Losing is definately not as much fun.

Multi-Table NL Texas Hold'em Tourney

Today I decided that I would enter a multi-table tournament for the first time. This was a No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament that cost only £2 to enter and 25 pence went to the house, Betfair. First prize worked out to be £231.03 so it's definately worth a go if your poker is good, 41st to 50th prize was £2.72.

The tournament started with 453 players equally given 1500 chips. The number of players fell to 220 after 40 minutes of play, which was pretty quick! It started well as I led the field for a good ten minutes with over 10,000 chips after some excellent luck in the beginning.

My luck went downhill for a good while and so I just sat there playing tight, keeping my chips. After 55 minutes of playing I had moved down to 14th in the rankings and 147 players were left playing on 16 tables.

At the 1 hour break period I found myself sat in 34th place in the rankings out of 128 players on 13 tables. My cards had not been kind to me for ages, and they didn't improve over the next seemingly endless amount of hands I was dealt. Certainly nothing up to the high standards I came to expect from when I started the game when I was dealt lots of Ace King, Ace Queen, Queen King combinations!

After a while I had to get a decent hand and I received King Jack, not before time too, not invincible, but much better. The flop was all low except for a King, so I had a pair. I figured that everyone else didn't have anything much as the bets were pretty low, so I ended up going all in. My luck didn't really change though, the river blew me off the water. My only opponent who was left in the betting managed to pull off a 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 straight on the river and I had the hand won until that card. I'm totally gutted.

I finished 80th, 30 places outside of the prizes. My pot sinks to £25.75, certainly not a disaster - but it could be better.

World Series of Poker

I noticed the other day that there is a new poker game out on the PlayStation Portable called World Series of Poker. I figured that if I am going to make money I need to do some ‘research’ to try and teach me the best and worst ways to play. Although this is a game, my hope is that it is a good simulator and it will teach me to be more patient and a better player. The advantage of this is it enables me to be more aggressive in my play without actually losing out big time.

Being the card shark that I am, I managed to limit my credit card dent to only £17.99. £12 cheaper than play.com! Hurrah.

Quick Lessons Learned

I decided to play a couple more games of poker after my successful streak of luck and skill earlier today as I thought I was on a role. This time my luck was out and a few silly errors of judgement left me out of both tournaments. Each were £5 buy-in and 50p to the house so my new total is a less impressive £28.

According to my rules I am not allowed to play again today to prevent major damage to my bank account and so I have left my poker playing for today. This should allow me to enter the game next time in a clearer state of mind hopefully.

I shall instead focus my attention on Transport Tycoon Deluxe and the high stress environment of public and industrial transport management.

Mixed Fortunes

Today was my first go at making wads of cash and it was both positive and negative. I ventured onto betfair poker for what was only my second online poker experience. Previously I had come second, again on betfair and made a profit of approximately £3-4. This was small stakes and a long time ago. It was pretty harmless fun.

To my delight I noticed that my betfair account had £20 in it. I think this is free money from betfair as I don't remember leaving it there. I haven't used betfair for a long time, so I can only presume that it is a welcome back tempter for me. I will not regard this as winnings, but just as £20 from my £25 pot. Therefore I need only put in £5 this month, if required at all. Let's hope not.

My first game was pretty cruel, I never really got a good hand and when I had a reasonably high hand the flop never supported it and people were going in with big bets. This kept on causing me to fold until eventually my patience went and I commited poker suicide with a pair of 3's. This was a very stupid move looking at it in hindsight. Needless to say, I was eliminated from the game and lost my £5 buy-in and 50 pence house fee.

I entered another game at £5 buy-in with a first prize of £25. This time I felt I was in a better frame of mind and the cards were slighty more generous to me. I had a strong start and a bit of a wobble in the middle of the game, but I never ventured below the 1000 chips that I had to start with. I managed to recover with some strong hands and realised that there was a lot of bluffing on the table. Using this knowledge to my advantage I managed to claw myself back into the lead and won the game.

So, overall I have spent £11 and won £25 which means that I am up £14. My pot stands at £39 - excellent.

My Rules

1. I should lose no more than £25 in a single month, if I do, then I have to wait until the next month to come by before I can put any more money on the line.
2. I can never buy-in using more than 50% of my money. This includes winnings. Therefore if my available money for the month to buy-in with is at £30 then I can buy into a game using no more than £15. Then, if I should lose then I can only buy in with £7.50.
3. I shall be restricted to playing Texas Hold'Em rules as this is what I am used to playing. This should prevent myself from losing money through confusion.
4. If I lose two games in a row, I cannot play again that day. My definition of a loss is a loss of money, whether it be a single penny or five pounds.
5. If I should make a habit of losing then I should move down a buy-in level.
6. I shall not play more than 5 games in any single day.
7. These rules will be regulated by my owning authority, my most excellent girlfriend Laura.