Gobble, Gobble

Unbelievable.

I think that sums up the play of one guy on Poker Heaven. Not in a good way, either!

I've had several short sessions today, probably six or so spread over three hours. The last four I spent following around one guy from Turkey (hence the subject). The term "maniac" is banded around losely on the internet. Never, seriously, never! have I seen this level of maniac style play before. In the first session I removed $150 from him, he even cracked my Aces with JT, not a bad play he just hit a lucky straight, otherwise it would of been $400! He ran after this and I had to wait for my turn to make a withdrawal from this cash machine again.

It came on $2/$4 NLHE. I took two reloads of $200 from him here for a healthy +$400. His last stand was to push in $100 with 2,3 vrs my T,T - He missed and ran again.

I caught up with him at $1/$2 this time he joined with $135.something - Clearly all his remaining money. I didn't get a chance to take the rest as the table filled to quickly. He busted within 10 minutes.

I could detail why I think he was crap, pointless really as I don't intend to publish his name just incase he returns with another wedge of money to give away. I'll just say, on Poker Heaven, he was sent from the Gods.

Today was been awesome in terms of the $200 per day challenge. I'm $765 ahead, thanks mostly to my Turkish friend. Sometimes I love poker.

Edit

He's still there! I just scooped another $120 from him, he's really lost the plot now and started tilting at $5/$10 NLHE.

+$885, what a great day!

God, u suck!...

...Not God, the almighty. This was an insult directed at me after I made a good call with 2nd pair for a $470 pot. Strangely it came from a Dane. Scandanavians are not people are usually associate with hot headed behaviour, I certainly don't recall another instance of abuse, albeit very mild, from that nation of people.

I couldn't help myself last night, I had to find that $20 to reach $5k. I took a few minutes but I picked up a reasonable pot which left me on $5027. A small milestone, the first rung on the ladder, you might say. All the same it is a hefty chunk of cash in anyones book.

+$47 added to yesterdays total.

Today, I was on a nice flat bankroll figure on Poker Heaven. $200 was the target and $200 I got in two sessions lasting about 80 minutes combined. I feel the opposition is stronger at the weekends. Perhaps the good, part-time, young players just have more time on their hands at the weekend? This $200 was no walk in the park, 5 handed on Poker Heaven. 3 were rocks and 1 was the "God u suck!" guy from the title. He was very aggressive, but IMO, too much so. He was in too many flops and it really was just a matter of time before he busted.

On the hand in question, which resulted in the insult. It's $2/$4 NLHE. I have A,9 suited UTG. and raise to $12. Denmark calls, the rest fold.

Flop: 6,9,Q

I bet out $24, Denmark raises to $48. I felt confident if I re-raise he's going to fold, unless he has AQ. The flop could give him several draws, it had two hearts (no good for me) and I'd seen him raise with the draw, holding connectors before. If I call and he moves all-in on the turn, I'll probably fold and assume AQ or better. I call.

Turn: 7 - no heart

This is a danger card if he's drawing but a great card if he has something else, as I can represent the draw and still have outs even if he holds the Queen. He bets $72. A strange amount, about 3/4 the pot. I discount AQ, I have $175 left and only the all-in might push him off this hand. I raise all-in. He pauses for half the alloted time, I'm sure he's drawing to the flush or straight now. He calls

River: J - no heart.

Showdown, he has 8,9 offsuit. He was drawing to the straight with 2nd pair.

I read him pretty well I reckon. He fired off his insult and carried on playing. Exactly $200 up was enough for me.

+$200 today.

$5,000 - Well... almost!

It's been an incredible October for me at the cash tables. Probably my best for cash since I started out, although I do remember big tournament wins combined with cash exceeding this month, cash alone has never been this positive.

As you can see from the $200 per day challenge, I'm now just a whisker shy of $5,000 since I started the blog just over a month ago. This is largely due to a run of winning sessions on Poker Heaven in the last 10 days or so.

Alright, you're going to say I'm biased because they sponsor me. But, really, the players here are the softest I have ever experienced. I'm not just talking of 50c/$1 NLHE games, I've played up to the $5/$10 NLHE level and almost without exception the standard is horrific.

I only wish I had more time. I think I could easily play 10 hours a day here instead of the odd one or two.

Today I hit $200 + 12 cents (!?) after only 30 minutes. Yesterday was more challenging, the fish caught a few flops and it took me around 6 hours to get +$140 - Irritatingly I was $140 ahead very early in the day but dropped back, it then took the rest of the time until arond 10pm to get that back. Probably because I was working + playing at the same time, not a great idea!

So, the two days are +$340. No intentions of withdrawing from Poker Heaven, I want to see how far this roll will go, the biggest table here is £10/£20 NLHE. That is the target (why settle for anything other than the biggest?) but it's a long way off.

Poker Heaven

The disappointment of Italy has passed. Simply because I've been hoovering up cash on Poker Heaven today.

I've stopped on +$900 for the day. I lost $120 in Sit & Gos, but they don't count towards the $200 per day challenge :-)

It has been an awesome month at the cash tables for me, I really feel on top of the game at the moment. I don't intend to withdraw from Poker Heaven, the money is too easy to get right now, hopefully I can build a roll to take on the higher stakes.

Get yourself an exclusive $125 bonus at Poker Heaven:
Visit The Sterling Cartel

The Italian Job

Just back from Amalfi, what a total shambles! The event was cancelled due to the organisers having no gambling licence and the police raid that followed.

We were refunded but very disappointment to have gotten up at 5am, travelled to Italy, taken a taxi ride over a clifftop road for 90 mins and never got to do what we went out for.

So my Poker Heaven sponsorship has started well :-)

On the bright side, I am now up $1,000 from cash play on Poker Heaven in 3 days play. Having a heavenly month you might say! I really feel I'm playing the best poker of my short career right now. Poker can be a murky stream at times, difficult to see through. Right now it's a crystal clear lake and I can see all the lovely fish swimming around me.

So, next stop Paris. I'm going to play two events there to make up for Italy and also stop by Broadway in Birmingham soon to do a little networking/promotion and finally play some live cash NLHE.

Arschloch

Yesterday was grindy, very grindy (is grindy a word?) right until the last half hour of play.

I played almost two hours during the day at £1/£2 NLHE. I spent most of that slightly down on starting stack and eventually left +£18. Now, I'm not knocking £9 an hour jobs, many people struggle by much less, but at 1/2 NLHE that's not the sort of return I'm looking for. So, I had to search around for a table that would satisfy my money lust.

+$32

I tried the fixed limit Omaha hi/lo game on Crypto - NEVER, EVER AGAIN! This is such an horrific, boring, yet fishy waste of time. I won $7 in 5 hands and left, feeling quite depressed that people will grind out a little income here on a regular basis. Pot Limit is more exciting and skillful. Fixed seems to get capped pre-flop on EVERY hand!

+$7

Back to NLHE. $80 in and $115 out in a 3 handed, 10 game sprint. Nutter with position on me wouldn't fold his pocket pair, end of story.

+$35

After dinner, feeling confident I could claim another $130 for the $200 a day challenge, back to NLHE $1/$2 - I blew the first $100 after playing like a idiot, there was a fish calling x4 and x5 raises with crappy hands, sadly he was catching flops at the same time I caught a piece, sadder still his hands held up. The next $100 went on a turned straight, not the nut straight though, my opponent has that, he'd limped UTG with 7,5o - I was in BB.

-$200

So, +$200 isn't looking likely right now, I scan around to try and recognise any bad players in the £1/£2 PLO game. Like guiding lights, three of them lured me in.

I worked my £200 up to £250 early on. When this hand occured:

10 handed table, I'm in mid' position with: K,Q,T,9 - double suited. I limp. As do 7 others until it's brought around to the button who makes it £8 to play. Two fold and one calls before me. This guy had been making small raises like this too frequently, I admired his aggression but felt it was time to put him to the test, I re-raised the pot, trying to represent Aces. Then, after a re-raise of such nature, something I wasn't really expecting, fishy player re-re-raises all-in with his bingo money. Everybody folds including the original raiser. I have to call another £50 or so into a £140/£150 pot (not very accurate figures, sorry). I know he has Aces, I know if they are paired up with two high cards that counterfeit mine I'm in trouble, I know if they are double suited in the same suit as mine, I'm in deep trouble. I also know this player and his penchant for over playing Aces. I've no doubt he's ahead but I'm pretty happy I'm not a 3/1 dog for the call. So I call him. He has Aces (of course) one suited with 6,3 (!) and not in my suit. I'm in good, well not as bad a shape, as I could of been in.

The flop hits my Ten. The turn is a rag, leaving me any Ten, King, Queen or Nine to take the pot, the river is a Queen and I'm up to around £400.

My German opponent responded to my "UL" comment with "Arschloch" - the subject for this post. Even if you can't translate that, I'm sure you can make a pretty good guess at what it means. He also delighted in me losing a £100 pot 20 mins later. I thought the Germans were good at controlling emotions? Maybe they just "don't like it up em?" Captain Mainwaring!

One more hand occured before I got off the computer. I made a good raise with A,9 on a board of J,A,A,9 - Opponent called all-in before the river with AK,XX - No King on the river and my boat floats! Putting me on £470. Thank you and goodnight

+$470

Total for the day +$350 - very satisfactory after hours of grinding, followed by running into the nuts with 2nd nuts.

9 days until Amalfi, Italy. €750 main event. My biggest buy-in to date. I'm feeling very confident.

It's a little bit funny

A few days of rollercoaster cash but a good number of tournament results has left me bouyant about the forthcoming Amalfi Open in Italy. Party were offering a free cash bonus deal, $125 I believe, so I went and lost $400 there in a 2 hour spell of nightmare out draws.... Pah! Party Poker.

I really can't put my finger on it, Party is crap, the majority of the players are clueless and the greedy sods have now introduced Blackjack, to soak up more money from the hapless gambler. I'm sure players can make a profit here, perhaps at higher levels, I know overall I cannot!

-$400

Back to a sensible network, I tried Prima with the aim of doubling up a £200 deposit. I withdrew on £401 and enjoyed the 90 mins play incredibly. Not because of the money, it was down to two scandanavians who were getting very wound up by my antics. The game was $2/$4 PLO - I was mixing it up like a food processor on high speed, raising crap, limping with monsters and generally getting paid for my efforts. One guy (on his 3rd rebuy) decided I was a fish and bluntly told me so before stating he and his friend would take all my money within 2 hours. I could just imagine the steam coming from his ears each time I took a pot from him and was laughing loudly at his every comment.

+$360

Inspired by this I moved over to William Hill after dinner. Again a £200 deposit with the aim of doubling, this time I fell short but only by £8, withdrawing on £391. The game was £1/£2 NLHE. All of my profit came at the end of a 1 hour session when I rivered the nuts, one of my 17 out cards. This sent a Parisian into a rage, so much so he was typing gibberish in the chat, a sort of "dgjd" - "dtikuiob" response to the beat, maybe he was head butting the keyboard?

+$345

I left, bang on 8pm. Just in time for the advfn Monday challenge game on Poker Stars. This was a small $10 NLHE game with a nice mix of newbies and experienced players and is generally pretty soft. The regular group is split into 3 players who have a game and can mix it, 3 players who are easier to read than a pop-up book and the rest who are quite new and still finding their feet.

For reasons I won't entertain, I am chat banned on Poker Stars for the time being. This has had a surprising effect on my game. I am more focused and relaxed about playing. Yes, I want to respond with side splitting witt at times but I'm coping strangely well with the enforced silence.

As this blog is read by some advfn people, I won't describe my plays in this tournament or my thoughts on others. To cut a long story (and this tournament is pretty long) short, I won it for a $55 profit after being heads-up vrs someone who can play a strong game. I've no idea where this puts me in terms of league tables and I don't really care, I play online poker for money.

'What about the title of the post?' you're asking. No, I'm not a huge Elton fan, I've never laughed so much in one days play than on this day, the characters, the ranting, the swearing were at their hilarious best.

Cash profit, $305 over 2 days.

When I'm good, I'm very good...

...but when I'm bad, I'm horrid!

I managed to ignore my $200 stop loss/win this week and to start with it was looking like a bad error of judgement. I went clean through $400 on Stars after building up a nice profit. The big stack made a x4 raise on $2/$4 NLHE. I had 9,9 and as is my liking for small/middle pairs that make sets, I saw a flop rather than re-raise. The flop was a rainbow 6,8,9. Big stack comes out firing, I raise him, he re-raises. I put him on J,T or a big over pair, Kings or Aces. I move all-in creating a pretty nice looking $1000 pot. He, worryingly, instantly calls. He shows 5,7o! The board didn't pair and I was toast. Obviously my mistake was to call his pre-flop raise rather than x3 it to see where I was at. Credit to the big stack, he got two callers who, quite naturally, assumed he would have none of that flop. -$400

Into the middle of the week I hit the Party cash tables. Party has the ability to provide the worst players in history at reasonably nice stake levels ($1/$2 & $2/$4 NLHE) but with that brings about horrific out draws. Fortunately, I had none of that. On Wednesday I picked up $120 before time ran out and work called, Thursday $240 and Friday $540 for a lovely round figure of $900.

Clearly in a "bit of a run" I had a crack at the $200 sit & go on Friday afternoon. This is a pretty reasonable buy-in yet Party see fit to structure as follows:

1000 starting chips
10/15 blinds
10 hand clock

Incredibly, this is not the worst structure on Party. The lower stake sit & gos have only 800 starting chips. The more I think about this, the more I realise how greedy Party are and how unplayable these structures are in the long term as luck plays a bigger part.

Anyway, I scooped a 2nd in the sit & go for a further $400 profit. That was enough for me and I withdrew everything from this account. It's hard to complain about a poker room when you have a spell of good results but, I really dislike Party Poker. Now with shareholders demanding profits, which they will surely get for the time being, perhaps Party will realise how far behind they have fallen in comparison to other poker rooms?

Just to finish off the end of the week. Last night I played the Blonde Poker tournament. Finished 3rd for £155 but also removed Keith 'The Camel' Hawkins quite early on for his $250 bounty. I gave half of this away to Poker4Charity. However had the same thing occured on Monday after my stars battering, I'm not sure I would of been so generous!

Cash games this week for 4 days showed a $500 profit. Damn that set of nines!!

Wow what a start...

.... to October.

The football bet came in, Ipswich scoring twice in the second half to turn a 0-1 around and Blackburn scoring twice late on for a lovely 10/1 four timer.

A few pence change short of £300 returned.

Now I'm off to buy a lottery ticket! ;-)

Omahahahaha October

A new month has started unexpectedly well.

I put €200 into a €1/€2 PLO game on Hills. Alright, so it's not $200 but it's close enough!!

Over the last hour and a half I turned that into €1044 before exiting on €980, feeling naturally very pleased with the beatings I just dished out but, at the same time, disappointed that I put down drawing hands on flops that hit on turns which would of resulted in €600 more to the bank. What can I say? I'm a poker player and that makes me greedy!

So, a €780 profit is roughly $940. Somewhat over my $200 a day target. Of course I'll put the brakes on here and try to build up again tomorrow. This gives the daily average a huge boost, I just hope this is not the peak and I don't start a downward trend tomorrow! - I'll update the stats on the right shortly to reflect this win.

I've had a little football bet today.

Blackburn
Man Utd
Sheff Wed
Ipswich

Mixed fotunes at half time, two up, one drawing, one losing. Bet pays 10/1

Enjoy your weekends