MrMoves Poker

Moving house

2006-07-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

I've decided to move my blog to my Poker Heaven one:

http://www.pokerangel.blogspot.com/

At least, whilst I'm sponored by them.

So please change your links, bookmarks, etc.

Delightful Dublin

2006-06-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

No joy in Barcelona. Great city, very warm.

I returned from Dublin yesterday. I was close in the last side event, 15th with 9 paid but I lost a race with a small pocket pair vrs AQ.

Ireland was great. Very friendly players and a nice location at City West Hotel. I felt some form returning in the last side event - I'm certainly due a run of good results!

Lots of Irish Poker Tour news on UK Poker News - http://uk.pokernews.com

Hola!

2006-05-20T03:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Barcelona.

It was very hot here yesterday, about 27C. I haven't really been on a sunshine holiday for years now. The whole experience of arriving in Spain, going through the airport, travelling to the hotel, etc really felt like the tacky package deal holidays I used to go on as a kid. Of course, I'm not here for a break. There is a tournament at Casino de Barcelona starting in 3 hours + change.

So, I'm sat here in my hotel room in limbo really. There isn't much time to go out and see anything plus I haven't eaten yet and I'm starving! The restaurant opens in 40 mins, until then I will chew on the desk in my room.

A 4pm tournament start time is a little unusual. I note on the schedule the heads-up draw takes place at 9pm. It'll be interesting to see how that goes, assuming I'm still in after 5 hours, that is! I'd really like to cash in this one. I'd like to cash in every one, but I don't often play buy-ins that are €1000+. It would be great to leave the sunshine for rainy England tomorrow with a few extra Euros in my pocket.

Enjoy your weekends.

Sorry, it's been a while...

2006-05-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

...since the last update.

I haven't had a great deal to write about on the poker front. I haven't really played a great deal either. Until, that is, this last weekend.

I had a pretty lengthy session on Cryptologic which finished in me hitting a straight flush and getting paid from a guy holding a flopped set. I had the flush on the flop, it got better from there with the SF on the turn. It was one of those moments where you pray the board won't pair! That gave me a healthy profit for my efforts on Saturday.

On Sunday, after watching Top Gear - one of the few TV shows I like to watch, I had a crack at the $1,000,000 guaranteed on Stars. 5200 played with 750 paid. Good match practise, you might say, for the WSOP main event. For the first 2 1/2 hrs I was running pretty well. I had double the average and never really felt any pressure to gamble any chips. After midnight the deck turned against me. I was 220th when player 750 went out. It was good to cash in such a big event. Cards and position made it impossible to play without gambling from here on in. At 2am I was out in 260th. An $830 pay day. I really felt that even if I saw the occasional hand I would progress much deeper. They just never came, my stats read 11% of hands played.

If I finish in 260th in Vegas, you can expect a very happy bunny.

Next stop on the B&M tour is Barcelona on May 20th. €1000 buy-in. Hope I can take some tournament form into it.

Ohh Bo***cks

2006-04-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't quite hit my $4k target, infact I dropped a good chunk of my roll and withdrew whilst I still had a healthy profit. Hence the title of the post. It hurt more at the time than it does now in the cold light of day, as I still made a large amount of money in 5 days of play.

I moved a few hundred into a new poker room called Poker770. It's one of the Playtech sites, so I thought I'd give it a shot for the review on UK Poker News.

I managed to get $500 ahead after 1hr and 4mins and that eased the pain of the $4k chase going Pete Tong.

I'm off to sunny Vilnius tomorrow for the Lithuanian Open. One or two Brits are already there and it should be a sell out. Fingers crossed for a good result.

Almost a ten bagger!

2006-04-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

Had a good session today and finished up on $3680. Almost at my $4000 target.

I made the $400 deposit last Wednesday. I played that evening and the following day. Then again on Sunday, Monday and finally today. It would be nice to collect the last $320 in the next two days to cover $4k in a week.

Now I'm off to the dentist to almost complete the work started on my teeth 3 months ago. It's been costly but not too painful. Today is root canal day and I'm not overjoyed at the prospect. One root canal and a couple of small fillings. After that the really expensive cosmetic stuff starts.

At least I'll have a healthy mouth to go with my healthy bank roll.

Brighton bubble

2006-04-18T00:38:00.000-07:00

To follow on neatly from the 'Horse bubble' post, I conveniently bubbled in Brighton too. With 12 paid I managed to go out in 14th. I have put up a full report on my website - link on the left.

My guard slipped, I lost my aggression and it cost me at least £250 in winnings (12th), maybe 6 grand (1st). Who knows? One thing is for sure, I've chewed the tournament over in my head ever since Saturday night and when I get to Lithuania later this week, I will not give an inch, I will pressure everyone I feel I can. I'm going to Vilnius to win this tournament, anything less will not be satisfactory.

As is the norm, after a festival event, I ran over everybody online. I'm trying to turn a small-ish $400 deposit into $4,000. So far I'm up to $2,600 after 4 days of play. Most of this came yesterday. As I was running very hot, I took a crack at a $300 heads-up game, beating some chancer called DPommo with T,4 (second pair) after he committed with AK (A high) on the turn of a scary flushy board. (Just joking Mr Pomroy)

It's been a so-so Easter at Chateau Moves. Had I cashed in Brighton it would of been a great weekend. I had three sports bets with two winning, the third losing out due to poor goal kicking by the rugby league team I backed. Online poker has been very kind to me. Over the 4 day long weekend I am well ahead money wise. I guess I'm just greedy, there is no such thing as "enough".

I do feel my tournament game is very good right now but not as fearless as it was in mid-2005. Players have improved, in general, in the last 12 months. The first time I played live poker I could not believe how poor players were, I felt I could make serious money by taking them on regulary. I must step up my game now and rediscover that feeling.

My goal for the rest of 2006 is to cash in the WSOP and win another Euro ranking event. I don't think I'm too far away from achieving those.

Horse bubble

2006-04-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

I took part of the Roy "the boy" Brindley invitational last night on Ladbrokes.

It was a mix of sports people, celebs and journalists. 52 runners in all, 12 paid (with lumps for charidee). The first two won satellite entries to the Poker Million. 3rd and 4th a $1,000 share in a race horse.

Naturally, I was 5th. It was a nice event though, lots of chat with the odd stupid railbird. You can read more about it at UK Poker News

I've had a pretty steady week all in all. I played like a complete muppet at Broadway in the £250 dc freezeout. Online made up for that though with a couple of K from various sources.

I'm working hard on my tournament game, analysing everything post-event, I want to get to Vegas in July and feel like I'm playing the best poker of my life. I have the cash games cracked. I can play X amount of hours and know over the course of a year I will have X amount of profit. I accept the losses, which simply have to occur from time to time, because I know I am a long term profitable cash game player. I'm not satisfied with that.

My tournament record is not as impressive. In 2005 I made a profit from B&M and online tournaments. In 2006 I am behind in B&M and only a recent spate of results on Poker Stars have put me very slightly ahead online. So, until Vegas I will be playing every MTT or B&M tournament that time and bank roll will allow.

Tonight I'll start with the $55 PLO on Party. I really hate this platform but the Omaha players are terrible.

100 runners, 99 paid

2006-04-07T01:12:00.000-07:00

I read earlier this week that Luton paid 18 runners in a 100 runner field. Many supported this by stating that lots of players had to return for the second day and that they deserved something. Perhaps this is true, I know it sucks to play for 8 or 9 hours and get nothing. To come back the next day and face maybe 3 or 4 more hours and STILL get nothing is a real slap in the face.

But... and there has to be a "but"... isn't that part of poker? Part of what makes it a tough game, a rewarding game, a game that makes you tear your hair out and a game that makes you smile for a week? It seems the poker rooms are trying to keep everybody happy, credit to them, but this is an impossible task.

I'm of the view that 10% of fields are paid (rounded up/down to the nearest 10 runners), no more, no less. Why this cannot be a standard rule everywhere, I do not know. Bubble deals should be banned. Simply because a bubble deal moves the bubble further down the field, it does not eliminate the bubble, it just passes it on to some other poor sod.

That said, I'm off to Broadway Casino tonight for their £250 dc freezeout. Their payout structure? Over 100 runners = 20 paid! 16th - 20th getting their money back.

I won't complain, of course, if I go out in 20th but c'mon guys! It's not funny anymore. Can we get back to proper poker, where the final table(s) are paid and not half the field? Is it any wonder the Americans and Scandies crush us at poker? We're turning into a nation of soft players, more concerned about getting a few quid back than looking at the bigger picture.

One thing is for sure. If I make the final here, there will not be a deal.

Have a good weekend.

Before May...

2006-04-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

...I'd like one more B&M cash. I've had two reasonable results so far this year, final tables in a £100 DC Freezeout and last month in the €500 Freezeout in Paris. This gives me 5 finals from 16 festival events. I was sure I'd played more that this but apparently not. I guess when you play internet poker day after day this gives the illusion that B&M tournaments last longer than they really do.

3 or 4 tournaments in April should give me one cash at least, fingers crossed.

A new Poker Whispers came out today.
http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2006/4/poker-whispers-april2006.htm

Off To The Gutshot...

2006-03-28T04:15:00.000-08:00

... tomorrow evening. I've been invited to a media super satellite by Paddy Power Poker.

More here:
http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2006/3/irish-open-satellite-media.htm

No buy-in, free booze and free food. "RSVP" said the email... I nearly set the keyboard on fire with the speed of my response.

Latvia was an interesting trip. It isn't the prettiest place on earth, all rather grey to be brutally honest, but the people are nice enough. The cards, like the weather, were ice cold. I had AK twice in 4 hours and after the second time I was getting my coat. I've written about it briefly in my official Poker Heaven blog.

I have a little break now. I intend to use my Westcliffe buy-in at Luton in early April. Then Brighton is the next stop on April 15th. Lithuania follows that and finally Blackpool. That takes me into May and the end of my Poker Heaven deal.

I don't want to go into my deal with Poker Heaven in too much detail. They have been very good to me and I'm hopeful they will extend until 2007. I have sent a lot of players their way from my website and tournament promotions. I enjoy all the aspects of my sponsorship. I've always been a salesman, so to combine that with poker is pretty much my ideal job.

I have everything confirmed for my WSOP trip now. Out on July 26th, two days before the big one. I'm very excited to have the chance to play in this event. I am determined to play at my very best and progress deep into the tournament. A cash would be something I would be very proud of.

Where is Laffia?...

2006-03-22T02:52:00.000-08:00

...is what my mother asked as I wished her Happy Birthday today. I'm not sure if she's going deaf or I'm slurring my sentences even more than usual.

So, off to sunny Riga it is tomorrow. Daytime temp' -1C. Night temp' -12C. This means the only time I'll be outdoors is when getting in and out of taxis.

I managed to charm my way off the main event waiting list to the main players list. Apparently the casino in Riga is not very large, 5 days before the event the waiting list had started and I was 3rd. A little miffed at having already paid for my hotel and flights, not wanting to miss out on this event, I fired off an email to the poker manager, Julia. A little begging and grovelling later and I'm in.

I've neglected my poker charts updates for the last week or so. Nothing exciting has occured, I'm probably $1,500 ahead of the last chart. Must be more disciplined in future.

Table finale à Paris

2006-03-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

7th in Paris for €1800, or there abouts.

I played some great poker. I got lucky on one hand with 14 players left. I felt I should have/could have won this. However, it's nice to have some ranking points again.

Now I'm over the cashing hurdle, I desperately want to cross the finishing line in 1st again. I know it's easy to play 50 tournaments and not win, easy to play a few dozen and not cash, etc. That doesn't stop a burning desire I have to win again. It's been 11 months since I won the first ranking event I ever played, in Lithuania. I don't play every single tournament like some of the circuit guys. My sponsorship doesn't cover that and it would quickly become tiresome, grinding out result after result.... or at least trying to. I have 7 or 8 tournaments left betweeen now and May 4th when my Poker Heaven deal ends. One win would go down very nicely.

I have some WSOP news. I'm off to Vegas this year with Team Poker News. I haven't been to Vegas since 2002 and then I didn't play any poker. I can't wait!

Deal or no deal?

2006-03-11T08:59:00.000-08:00

Heads-up, $100 PLHE this afternoon. it's a 55/45% chip split in favour of my opponent.

Equal deal is offered, I take it, $1080 each.

I know, I know... I'm so weak!

Another final, though. WTF is going on?

In the tournament poker groove

2006-03-11T04:56:00.000-08:00

It's been a hell of a week for tournament poker over at Chateau Moves.

Last night I finalled in the Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo $55 on Stars. Eventually chopping it 4 handed for $702 - an equal split which the leader was happy to agree to, despite having 10k more than everybody else! I was 4th at the time and said no to any deals, assuming they would be based on chip counts. It didn't take me long to change my mind when an equal split was tabled ;-)

I played in, what I consider, a "for fun" tournament on advfn poker. It's only a $10 buy-in, 13 runners, I lost out when heads-up. Had my opponent all-in pre-flop with 5,3 vrs my A,6. He hit runnings threes. Better players registered this week. Although it's not a financially positive use of my time, even if I win, I enjoy the banter and fun aspects of this game.

Since last Sunday, 6 days ago, I am nudging $4,000 in winnings from online tournaments. I should really have cashed in another $100 tourney but blew up 5 from the money. You won't hear me complaining about that. The last 6 days have been great in regards to tournaments. Several chops meant I was never officially an outright winner, that said, each deal seemed fair or MORE than fair in my favour. I feel next time, assuming the amounts are not too huge for me, I will play to a conclusion.

One bet for today: Everton to beat Fulham. Hopefully not too many goals as I've taken the home match result, the 1-0 to Everton and the under 2.5 goals.

Have a good weekend.

Yet another one

2006-03-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

No final table today, booo!

Amazingly though, I cashed again. 18th in the $100 NLHE on Stars for almost double my money back. That's four cashes from six tournaments on there now.

I have GOT to transfer this to B&M. The muddy waters of tournament poker are clearer. I can't explain it very well, so I'm sorry if this post sounds like crap. My decision making is much better suddenly. I'm protecting my chips and attacking others at the right times.

Today I was on the felt. With 62 players left I was 62nd with a grand total of 505 chips. Miles from the money and a mountain a climb. I didn't cave in as I have previously, I scrapped and stole and picked my spots until, with 22 to go, I was 12th! 18th from there was disappointing but I was over the moon to cash after being last of 62 only an hour previously.

I've collected over $3,000 in tourney winnings in the last 4 days. I'm enjoying tournament poker again. I feel a big result is on the way this year. I hope it's in Paris next week.

Running hot... at last!

2006-03-07T06:59:00.000-08:00

I just spent the last 4 hours in the tournament above. I could do no wrong here, winning 14 out of 14 showdowns, only losing one when heads-up, after a deal had been agreed. I took $1800, the winner took $1900. A fair deal at that stage really.

Most pleasing was the fact I was on the felt when 6 handed. Yet, was chip leader by a few K when heads-up.

That's three finals from three on Poker Stars. I am indeed running very hot.

Bring on the French!

Keeping up the momentum

2006-03-07T00:14:00.000-08:00

I had a long hard think about the value of tournaments last night. My Poker Chart is showing an hourly rate of $220 back to December 2005 for cash games only. Before this, in the $200 per day challenge, I was on an even higher rate back to August/Sept 2005.

With this in mind, any tournament will have to return a rate of around $250 an hour to make it worthwhile to me. Even in smaller rebuys, like the PLO Hi/Lo from yesterday, that rate is possible IF you reach the very latter stages. Of course, you can't always get to the tail end of tournaments and scraping into the cash, or not cashing at all, is a more feasible conclusion for most events.

I'm not giving up tournaments. I'm going to play events of $50 buy-ins and upwards only from now on. This will mean little or no tournament play during the day time, as buy-ins are generally pretty low until the sun goes down. Cash games are just too lucrative for me to sacrifice, however, a good tournament result does wonders for the ego as well as the bank roll.

I'll be in Paris this time next week for the €500 NLHE. Due to my good run recently I'm taking an extra day off in France and bringing the wife with me for some sight seeing. I enjoyed Paris on my last trip back in November last year, I found myself speaking French on many occasions for the first time in about 15 years, only very basic stuff of course, but remarkably I was understood nearly all of the time! Tres Bonjour! As Delboy Trotter would say.

After Paris, literally straight after too! It's Westcliffe for a couple of NLHE's, a shootout and a standard freezeout.

The following week I'm off to sunny Riga, Latvia..... brrrr!!! For their Open and a side event.

Then I'll get a few weeks off the Poker Heaven tour until mid-April. So, a very hectic few weeks are ahead. I'm not complaining :-)

Have you tried the new Party Poker software? I'm actually impressed!
http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2006/3/new-party-poker-software.htm

Positive Mental Attitude

2006-03-06T11:05:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I played in the $100 PLHE tourney on Stars. I cashed in 5th in this event and felt I'd played something like my old form. I then moved over to Poker Heaven for the BPO qualifier and had a solid game there despite a blow up at the end. After these events I felt my form was returning. I used to be a good tournament player, somehow, in the last few months, I've lost the ability to get in the money. Today, as you can see from the screenshot, it returned in style.

Although I'm listed as 3rd there, we did a three way chop for $1169 each. So all-ins ensued and I went out in 3rd place. The deal was a good one for me, I was 60k off the leader yet the chop was equal, needless to say I agreed to it pretty quickly!

My focus on this game was 100% and I felt positive I could do well. Now, to transfer this good feeling over to Paris for next week!

Love/Hate 30

2006-03-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

It's been a good start to March, as you can see from Poker Charts. The $3k win from the last 4 days has pushed me up over $15,000 for the year. That's 30% of my annual target and we're only just into March. Needless to say, I'm delighted with my cash form.

I played the ADVFN traders game last night. It was great to see Skyfella on the table and in good spirits again. It was set-up for an MTT, however, only 10 joined and it played out like an STT but with 4 paid!. Fair enough. ADVFN added $100 to the prizepool, so that made it a value event even if it was only a $10 buy-in. I cashed in 3rd.... yes that's right, wipe your beverage from your screen, I cashed in a tournament!

Off I went to Natwest this morning with my Poker Heaven buy-ins for March. I hate going into the branch of this bank, the staff simply do not understand the concept of privacy. Despite THREE complaints from me over the telephone and face to face, they continue to attempt to sell me loans, credit cards, review my accounts, etc etc. This aspect of going into the branch, I can tolerate, what I cannot is the disregard for privacy, as figures are openly discussed for the entire branch to hear. I'm generally a private person and I live in a small village next to a small town. I'd rather the general population of this town be unaware of what amount I'm depositing, what my current account balance is or what my credit card balance is on. If it happens again I'm going to stand there and demand the commission seeking staff member be flogged in front of me... or, then again, I'll probably move two doors down to Barclays.

Oh, the topic? Love 30%, Hate the approaching 30 years old :-)

Have a good weekend.

A two day yo-yo

2006-02-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

I finally made a loss! Woohoo!!.... wait a minute, I mean "D'oh!!"

Take a look at that lovely big spike on session 58 - 64. Then the horrible dip that followed! That was a handful of sessions on Poker Stars. Why I continued there after such a great profit I do not know. I know Poker Stars has the toughest games around in general. Maybe it was an ego thing? That I thought I could beat them up for $5k instead of $2k? Whatever it was, it's not happening again. Everybody bangs on about Stars and how great they are. It's true, they have some nice tournaments, but this attracts the best players. I don't want to play the best players, I want to play crap players who like to give money away! My sessions on Stars resulted in a positive of around $1,000. I'm still angry with myself though.

So, I return to Poker Heaven with a $500 starting stack. Home sweet home. Today that's just shy of $1,500 after almost exactly 24hours. One guy paid me off when I held a set of 7's which turned into quad 7 on the river. He had top and bottom pair but was happy to push his $250 stack into the middle. That might sound like I'm slagging him off.... and I suppose to some extent I am, however, I think I played the hand beautifully as I slow played my set (somewhat dangerously) into a flushy looking board. My calls probably looked like a flush chase to my opponent and to his credit he tried to make it expensive for me. Little did he know *I* was the one with the made hand. The river just rubbed a little salt in for him.

That's exactly two months since I began my Poker Chart. A nice round 70 sessions have produced almost $13,000 from the cash tables. I am negative for tournaments, though. I haven't kept tournament records, but I know that despite a few cashes and some nice STT wins, I'm down for tournament play online, somewhere between $700 and $1200 from the last two months. This is worrying. I used to be a good solid tourney player, I still am in STT to some extent, but MTTs are killing me, especially re-buys. I'm going to plug this gap though. In the next two months I am determined to pick up some B&M results and win an MTT online or B&M. God knows if it kills me trying, I WILL do that.

I hope you all had a good February. If my cash game stays strong I could be nudging $20k by the time we reach April.

No losses for a month

2006-02-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

I'm having trouble uploading the poker charts screenshot. However, I'm showing a 24 session winning streak over 30 days right now. Alright, I haven't played a lot for the last week or so but even so it's been a hell of a run.

I'm allowed to play 20% of my games away from Poker Heaven, so I've been playing a little on Betfair and, today at least, on the newly launched ADVFN Poker. There are a couple of financial sites that are jumping on the bandwagon. In my opinion they will never take off unless they devote a large amount of money to advertising. I'm sure they will tick over for a nice profit but the poker ship has already sailed and, sorry boys, a 50 quid bonus doesn't cut it today.

ADVFN Poker had a whole 130 players on today, eventually I found a game at $3/$6 NLHE. Dario Aiolito (spelling!) who finished 7th at the Barcelona EPT was in the game. As was some other crazy guy who was raising too much. Dario is a good player, for an Italian ;-) His friend, was very aggressive but easy to trap. Others came and went but we were the main three for 2 hrs and 30 mins.

I turned the $600 sit down into $1760 and left. A little confidence booster to take a few hundred from an EPT finalist, but most of the gain came from the other guy.

Brighton was terrible for me. I was sick for two days prior to the event and almost never went.

Read more about it on: http://www.paulsandellspoker.com
You can also get rake back at Poker Heaven on there and read my official Poker Heaven blog.

Cardiff

2006-02-07T04:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a typical few days really. I went to Cardiff, thought I was running well, played good patient poker for 4 hours and crashed out. No big deal, the field was very tough and I can't expect to cash in every tournament. I think if I can cash once in every four or five then I'll be quite pleased. I'd like to win at least one tournament from my Poker Heaven schedule in this quarter.

Cardiff was ok, nothing special really. An open plan casino, handful of machines and tables, couple of bars, etc.

What is typical about the last few days is my online form post-festival. If you read through my blog you'll see after an offline tournament I nearly always beat up the online tables. Yesterday was no different. I had three sessions over 1hr 45mins... hardly tasking, but I came out well ahead. I'm now certain that offline tournaments sharpen my game, that I focus more when I return and that there is very little to fear from bleedawaymychipsopolus after playing the toughest in Britain and Europe.

So, my poker chart is up to $8,300. 20% of the target is now in sight. It's been a great start to the year for me.

I've got rake back to give away at Poker Heaven still. I just don't understand why players insist on staying in cash games on very tough sites. Why play cash games on Stars, Crypto and Paradise and get 0% rake back vrs tough opponents?

Boss media, where Poker Heaven have their tables, is swimming with the good stuff, yet players get all snobby about layouts and stats and colours and all that crap. Who cares!? Play for money, not cosmetics!

Join Poker Heaven from my main site below:
http://www.paulsandellspoker.com
Then email me for a rake back deal.

Alternatively give all your rake to the toughest poker rooms on the net.

The Independent

2006-01-30T00:47:00.000-08:00

The journalist at The Independent called at the weekend and interviewed my wife. I've no idea when this "poker wives" thing is going out or how it will portray us. They want to send a photographer round at some point too. "They" say you're famous for 15 mins at some point and I suppose there are worse newspapers to be featured in.

I picked up around $450 at the weekend. I didn't have much time to play poker as I fancied a number of football bets. Eventually seeing a profit after backing Liverpool @ 1.74 then laying them at 1.06. As the money was in Betfair, and Poker Heaven do allow me the occasional game on other networks, I sat down with $200 at $1/$2 Pot Limit Omaha. These tables used to be a source of good income for me many months ago. They are tougher these days, as many players have advertised the ease in which you can extract money from the fish here in their blogs. I still managed to more than double up, exiting on $480 after an hour.

A satisfactory weekend. I should really ease up on the football exchange bets though. I'm well ahead there after a few months of good results, I've been pushing my luck recently, just getting out ahead after betting in-running. It's always fun to win but it's time consuming. I'd hazard a guess that I'm at £20 an hour profit for exchange betting recently. Compare this to $182 per hour average from online poker. Alright, both are way above your burger flipping wages, but it makes sense to concentrate on what works out the best. Poker.

Have a good week.

The temptation of $23.15

2006-01-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

I've just registered for a year on pokercharts. That means I've had a calender month of free charts and, quite frankly, it's been a pretty good month.

For on-line cash games I'm ahead by $5977.85. Very close to $6,000, which is way above my original target. I won't go chasing it though, it's just a number like any other.

I've played at Broadway once and came out with £720 from my £100 buy-in.

I have a good deal with Poker Heaven starting in a few days.

UK Poker News is growing rapidly. I've had articles published in a number of places including a lucrative feature for Cardiff University.

The Independent have asked my wife for some comments for a 'Poker Wives' piece they are putting together, which should be... err... interesting, if nothing else.

Away from poker I've finally done something about my dental problems and I'm already seeing improvement thanks to those red coloured notes that dentists love so much.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this year like no other. So many challenges and so many potential huge rewards.

Enjoy your weekend.

Over fishing

2006-01-24T00:16:00.000-08:00

Almost a month of poker charts under my belt now. $6,000 is approaching on the chart. At this rate I'll hit my target figure in September-ish. What surprises me is the 40 sessions have produced such a straight chart. Of course, there are ups and downs but overall you could draw a smooth line from session 7 to 39.

This number of sessions over this length of time is not very accurate, I admit. So I'll subscribe to pokercharts.com and run it for a year.

I'm all booked up for Cardiff on Feb 4th. It looks a fair old drive to Wales but hopefully it'll be worth the effort result wise and for promoting Poker Heaven. This tournament doesn't appear to be a European ranking event, surprisingly. I have no chance of troubling high ranking positions, for this year at least, but even so it's nice to have a few points by your name. I know I'll be gutted if I get a high cash and no points.

I've seen a few posts on blogs and forums about Boss recently. Boss are the network Poker Heaven run their tables on. It seems a few people have noticed how easy the cash games are here. I just hope that nobody pays too much attention, but feel it's too late. It's taking longer to select a table these days, the fish are lesser in number now the real players have moved in and hoovered up the cash. I suppose it was only a matter of time really. I am guilty of promoting the fishy side of this network myself, I've been saying for months how poor the general standard is, this was shrugged off by the blind idiots as my promotion for financial gain, despite the fact I wasn't paid for any referrals at the time. Fingers crossed that the fish are larger in number than the sharks for a while yet.

Poker Heaven

2006-01-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

The chart, as you can see, has topped $5,000 now. I can remember 4 or 5 losing sessions from the last 35. I'm very pleased with that level of progress. I'm sure I'll hit a sticky patch and have a run of losing sessions, until then I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Poker Heaven have signed me for another 3 months. Mostly for UK exposure but the odd Euro trip is throw in to the mix too. Sadly, they have dropped Tony and The Sterling Cartel. I can't really go around calling myself a "group" so I have started my own personal poker site. Just for reports, results, the odd photo and to help pull in more press jobs. I might even put my blog on there eventually.

I'm also allowed to give away $20 to new Poker Heaven players. You have to join up here:
http://www.paulsandellspoker.com/freemoney
Then send Ali an email and he will send you the free cash. No catches, just a gift. If you like Poker Heaven then email me from my site and I will arrange a rake back deal for you.

My first Poker Heaven tourney is in Cardiff on February 4th. After that I have a stack of dental work that needs to be done. I have neglected my teeth for a while and now I'm paying the cost, pain wise and financially. All the work will cost over £900 but I need to get this done so I'll have to pay up and forget about it. Fortunately I've just picked up $900 from $5/$10 NL in a 50 minute session, so part of the bill is already taken care of.

Tomorrow my wife is out for the evening so I'm looking forward to some longer poker sessions online and hogging the TV. Whatever you're doing, enjoy the weekend.

The tax man cometh

2006-01-12T05:33:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year again, that every self employed person in the UK loves so much, tax return time! Whilst awaiting the damage from my accountant I've taken a chunk out of Poker Heaven. I pretty much know the figure due and easily have it covered, but I took a few grand out to ease the pain. Withdrawing therapy ?

I have played 15 mins on-line since the last post, for a whopping return of $40. That's taken me to 27 sessions in 15 days. Around 19 hours played. Nothing like enough poker. I know when I've been less busy I could of played 45 - 60 hours in that number of days. $4,100+ on poker charts is pleasing though. Since my return from Helsinki, which is around 25 days ago, I've put my Poker Heaven balance up to $5,500. So my form has been good since mid-December.

Have you read the Poker Whisperer yet? Very funny stuff.

Racing the milkman home

2006-01-09T05:54:00.000-08:00

You know you get days when everything hits for you? When everything you play/bet turns into a winner.

I had one of those days yesterday.

Whilst waiting for Tony, who was caught up in traffic, on Sunday afternoon. I thought I'd have a pop at Poker Heaven for an hour. I came out around +$900 for the session thanks to my Aces running into Kings. Not a bad start to the poker day ahead.

We arrived at Broadway in the midst of the Blonde Poker quiz. The noise of cogs turning was deafening! ;-) so, I played a little blackjack and doubled up a £50 stack. Then a little roulette and took a small £10 positive from there too. Then a few sessions of roulette on the video machines which resulted in small positives there too (£30). Time for dinner, salmon and salad, all very healthy. Followed by cod and chips, not quite as healthy.

Eventually we sat down for the 9pm kick-off in the £100 freezeout. The deck hit me in the face until the break, 6,000 was up to 16,000 at one point. I bled a few grand away but was still in good shape on 13,000 when we returned. I dropped to almost out on just a couple of thousand after this. It felt like every recent tourney I've played. I'd dominated until the break and then blew my stack in the next session, in several events in 2005. But, things went the opposite way this time and I built my stack back up to average chips. At 3.30am it was final table time.

I took a beat here with 6 to go and it crippled me. I'm not complaining, I take beats almost every single day, so I'm not going to detail it, it's part of poker. I eventually went out in 5th for £720. A very tough British field was taking part so I was pleased with the result. Although with 10 to go in the final I felt good enough to win it.

So, the first B&M cash of 2006 for TSC. Let's hope for a few more this year.

Ohh... the title? We left at 5am and saw a number of milk/dairy vehicles on the M6. I think we just beat them :-)

Don't be sad... two out of twenty four ain't bad

2006-01-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

A slight adjustment to the famous Meatloaf lyrics for the title, to reflect the poker charts stats above. Two losing sessions from twenty four in the last ten days. I really couldn't of asked for much more to start this year. I was aiming for $2,000 before this coming Sunday (tomorrow) but somehow this has crept up above $3,100.

I'm not sure where I got the 2% figure from in the post a few days ago. $2k is actually 4% of my annual target. Now, my bank roll on Poker Heaven is $4,400. So, I'm up to nearly 9% already. Perhaps $50,000 is in reach!? I don't know, I'm just going to keep chipping away and see where I finish up. I'd be delighted to reach my revised figure of $35,000.

You can see in the chart I've had a losing session (booo!) this was actually a relief. It was at the lowest stakes I've played for a long time. 25c/50c NLHE. I built $50 up to $82 through bullying, blew $40 after catching a Deuce with Q2 (I know!) and then lost two further $50 buy-ins after being ahead. The last with AA vrs KK vrs Q9. Yes, Q9 won the hand. Why was I playing this low? I wanted to see what these fish were like after Tony had been taking a beating down there... I concur with his analysis. The poker Gods are especially cruel down there.

I'm done with internet poker now until next week. Off to watch the FA Cup scores on the box. I've had a treble on Bolton, Birmingham and Blackburn. Nearly 3/1 if it comes in. Broadway tomorrow, better take plenty of cash for the side action :-)

Enjoy your weekends.

It can't carry on, can it?

2006-01-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

I'm probably in the midst of one of my best runs right now. I've played 17 sessions in 8 days, over around 12 hours. In that time I have had only one losing session of $300. I have made $2199.32 profit according to Poker Charts.

I was hopeful of reaching $2,000 before Sunday. So, after a tough day sorting out my accounts for my tax return, with a dodgy wisdom tooth and a head full of painkillers, I'm pretty pleased to be way beyond that mark already... and it's only Thursday.

I don't think I'm doing anything special. I just feel "in the zone" - like I'm going to win every time I sit at a cash table. I'm relaxed about the cards, I don't create the action unless I feel there is a need for it. Everything appears clear to me at the poker table.

God only knows what my tournament form is like right now. It seems ages since I played anything like a competitive tourney. I suppose I'll find out on Sunday. It should be fun if nothing else. I'm looking foward to meeting a few people from Blonde, snoopy and Junior especially.

That's about it for now... another "I've won this" post. Must try and remember to note a few interesting hands for next time.

Paul.

One week of Poker Charts

2006-01-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

It's been a week since I registered at pokercharts.com. My second chart is above and as you can see, things are progressing well so far this year.

I've played very little really, not even an hour, in the last day. I've taken over $350 in hit and run sessions. I'm not intending to hit and run. Work, dinner, toothache and the like have conspired against me. I'm hopeful I'll reach $2,000 before Broadway on Sunday.

Although I've progressed well so far this year, I feel $50,000 for 2006 may be too high a target to reach. Maybe something around $35,000 is more realistic, given my spare playing time currently.

My last session was 25 mins between 5.55am and 6.20am here. I've been awake with toothache since 4am, finally gave up on sleep at 5.20am, got up and took pain killers then fired up Poker Heaven. +$230 has cheered me up slightly. Now at 6.45am the tooth still hurts but it's not agony right now.

The day is about to start, I have accounting to sort out and I'm already knackered. Whatever you're doing today, rest assured it's more fun than what I'm doing.

2% already, woohoo

2006-01-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

In my last post I wrote that I'd like to earn $50,000 from playing online poker this year. So far, so good. The last 5 days (alright it's not entirely 2006 stats) have produced over $1,000 profit, $1272 as you can see from pokercharts above.

I know, it's not an accurate reflection on my overall performance. It's only 11 sessions over nearly 10 hours. I'm not judging what may come in the next 363 days on the last 4. I'd really like to accumulate 500 hours or 500 sessions and see where I am after that.

I'm delighted with the start I've made to 2006, though. Only one poor session from eleven is very encouraging, I hope I can continue in this form for a while.

I'm enjoying pokercharts.com - I can see this developing into a handy tool for the next 12 months. Entering the losing session is painful, of course, but I've found it focuses my mind whilst playing. I reckon it's the fear or shame of entering a poor session that keeps me on my toes.

So, Happy New Year. Back to the grind tomorrow.

Blonde tourney, on Sunday, at Broadway is in the diary. After that, nothing has been arranged. I hope I can continue to play around Europe for a few more months. I feel Tony and I have promoted Poker Heaven well, introducing several players from the UK and Europe to their site and playing there exclusively ourselves.

Have a profitable 2006.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2005-12-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

It's been an amazing year for me really.

Back at the start of 2005 I was winning minor amounts online but was profitable, averaging around $18,000 a year (for 2004). At this time I'd just started working on some poker websites and was making reasonable money combining my regular self employed job, poker playing and poker websites. Certainly enough to be comfortable.

In April I played my first European ranking event in Lithuania. By some fluke of nature I won it. Pocketing €6,000 give or take a few cents. This started my B&M tournament addiction. I then played in Blackpool and cashed (£600) and Brighton and cashed again (£3,200). At this time I agreed to manage UK Poker News which was to launch later in the year.

During the summer The Sterling Cartel was formed and gained sponsorship from London Poker Club. Despite us being pretty much unknown they put up the money for a number of events and we feel we represented them fairly. The sponsorship ended and we quickly signed for Poker Heaven, a UK poker room. UK Poker News launched at almost the same time. Jetting off to foreign lands and managing UK PN meant I was pretty busy, so I paused the trading of my old self employed job.

Poker Heaven's poker room is on the same network as London Poker, I knew how poor the players were here in general and fancied I could make regular returns. It proved to be the case when I ran $300 up to $3000. I blew most of it in a fit of red mist but have since played there exclusively and I'm now showing good profits.

My online record keeping is poor these days. I think my profits for 2005 online are around $25,000. They are certainly over $22,000. Split the difference, $23,500 ;-) - I'm very happy with this, it is an improvement on 2004 and I feel without interuption I could play online for a living now. Offline tournaments have returned around £8,000 or roughly $14,000. That gives me around $38,000 for the year. Tax free income on top of my regular salary and ongoing concerns.

I feel lucky to be in this position. I work for myself and earn healthy money from playing a game I love. I don't feel "well off", I have high outgoings and expensive tastes, but I'm comfortable. (Not trying to brag) I sleep at night, I drive a large car, live in a large house and I'm pretty happy with my lot. There are people far worse off than me and it's at this time of the year I give thanks for what I have.

For 2006 I have some goals:

To incorporate a poker based business and get it off the ground. Our idea is sound and proven but financial restrictions could make it a slow burner to start with.

To win another Euro ranking event. The win in April was the best I'd felt this year, it is truly something else to take 1st place, have the poker room applaud you and shake your hand and collect a wad of cash. The money is great but respect from players who actually understand the game, and not just quote written bile and re-discuss events about as likely as Elvis walking on the moon, is surely the holy grail of every sportsman.

To earn $50,000 playing online. My time is restricted but I've moved up to levels of 2/4 through to 4/8 NL now. The prizes are bigger (so are the beats) so I think I should trouble this figure, at the very least, in 2006.

I'm not interested in the WSOP and WPT and EPT titles. Of course, I'd take them if I could but it's unlikely I'll play in those events and I'm certainly not good enough to compete that high yet, maybe 2007? :-)

So, that's it for 2005 from me. I'm doing the family things for the next few days, I'll be online but playing very little. I hope everyone reading this has a great Christmas and New Year.

Here, take my money, please

2005-12-18T02:43:00.000-08:00

I was racing around yesterday, trying to get home to play a $10,000 freeroll. I got here with 15 mins to spare and was knocked out within an hour. D'oh!

Still hungry for action I went into the 2/4 NL on Poker Heaven with all guns blazing. It was a very tight table, I stole $130 early before dropping back a touch. I then showed a K high bluff for a $200 pot and all hell broke loose. My opponent stated "NH" and called me down with Ace high on the next two pots, he went from $500 stack rock to $160 stack wreck in three hands.

I was too aggressive, truth be told, and got lucky for one $100 pot. The rest was down to non-believers, keen to give me their money. All because I made one outrageous bluff and showed it. The big one came when I held K,5 hearts in the BB. It was raised x4 UTG and called around to me, I would of called any two cards here for value.

Flop: K,3,6. Two hearts. Great flop for me but could also be a danger flop if AK is out and I miss my 5 or heart. UTG bets 1/4 the pot, very weak. One caller followed by me.

Turn: J spade. I know I'm behind at this stage. UTG checks and the other guy bets the pot. I should fold, I know I should fold but the pot is getting big now. I'm certain the bet is stinking of AK. I call it, UTG folds.

River: A, heart. HELLO!! Guy bets half the pot, I should of moved all-in here. If he had AK he would of been very strong to lay it down. I simply doubled it, he called and mucked. Had I moved all-in and he called it would of been a $1500 pot. Instead it was around $550. Satisfying as it put me on $1027 for the evening, a $600+ profit. It was worth racing home afterall!

I'm 29 today and I really don't like it. I feel this is my last year of youth, that when I'm 30 I can't really be considered young any more. The next 12 months is going to be hectic. I have huge business plans that will, fingers crossed, leave me retired in the next ten years. I have an idea involving poker that has already worked well once. The next time we'll be moving things up a notch and investing for a bigger return.

24hrs Of Poker Fun

2005-12-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

Since returning from Finland I've been on fire, in a poker sense that is.

In the last 24 hours (over two days), I've played for roughly six hours and I'm ahead $1400. I felt determined when I logged on for the first time, determined I was going to do some damage, it's been a hell of a ride.

I've played at 2/4, 2.50/5, 3/6 and despite a blow at this level a few months back, 5/10 - all NLHE.

I have now retired for a week. Tomorrow I visit my family to collect birthday presents. I'm at a frightening age on Sunday, 29. Then I have a lot of work to get ready for next week, as I'm going away from a few days with the family.

When I get back it'll be almost Christmas and I won't have played for a full week. I'll be hungry for those Christmas fish though, new computers, poker chip sets, lots of time on their hands. I have a target of $1500 in mind before January.

Happily I've now cracked $10,000. The $200 a day challenge ends here. I'm making more than that comfortably now and will set new goals for 2006. Of course I'll waffle on about them here :-)

A little more patience in Helsinki and I would of cashed. This fact has sharpened my mind and game as B&M tournament play nearly always does.

2006 will be a big year for me, I'm positive and upbeat about my future in poker. Playing and working in poker is one of the best jobs around. I think in 2006 it will make me wealthy rather than comfortable. I'm sure that will really piss a few people off who want to see me fail.

Helsinki Freezeout (Rebuy) Festival

2005-12-15T03:55:00.000-08:00

I think I've found my new favourite casino. Grand Casino in Helsinki is modern, clean, spacious and full of characters.

I played the €100 NLHE rebuy first. The term "maniac" doesn't do the players here justice. I picked my spots in the rebuy period and had a healthy 10,000 when the freezeout started (starting chips were 1,000) I then cracked someones Aces with a set of Deuces which he took very well. The table broke with me up to around 13,000. A new, more menacing looking table was my home, almost straight away I took out my nearest rival with TT vrs his AK. I told myself I would go for it with one coin flip. Up to around 26,000 I picked up more small pots and went into dinner leading the table and pretty high up the field on almost 30,000.

After dinner I had a rush of blood with small pocket pairs. I managed my stack badly in comparison to the blinds and rather than pick my spots I was reckless with 7,7 and 4,4 (or 5,5 I don't remember exactly). This cost me over half my chips. I then bled the rest away down to 7,500. At this stage the blinds were 700/1500. I pushed with K,Q and ran into 8,8. That was the end for me. Out in 40th from 154 starters. I was angry with myself for wasting a strong position, for wasting my stack on coin flips and for wasting 6 hours of good poker on 1 hour of rubbish. The blinds made this a crapshoot but even so, I had the chips to start thinking about a cash finish.

Next day was the €200 PLO. The guy opposite me bought in 10 (TEN!) times, he eventually knocked me out after I saw an open ended straight draw and top pair, I was low stacked at the time. I enjoyed the PLO more than I thought. The players were friendly and very chatty.

I was confident going into this festival and was pretty disppointed not to have cashed in the NLHE. Clearly I need to try and remain focused for every hand, not let my advantage slip because I have moved into the lead. This is something I'm going to work on. I have got to stop being a tough opponent for 90% of the time then an idiot for 10%.

Finland was fine but cold. The hotel, SAS Radisson Plaza, was excellent. I liked the whole place, I like Lithuania and Iceland, I guess I just like north European nations! I hope we will go back in 2006, I feel my business is unfinished in Helsinki.

Almost $10k

2005-12-09T11:55:00.000-08:00

I'm within touching distance of $10,000 now on the $200 per day challenge. With a day before Helsinki remaining I'm hopeful I can pick up a couple of hundred more to reach this milestone.

My Spanish friend was online again today. Sadly, he was playing at a poor time for me, just before I had to collect my son and right through dinner. I managed to get 15 minutes in with him whilst he had $150 left. He had stepped down from $2/$4 NL to $1/$2 NL. He shipped around $30 to me but then released the rest to another player. He then left and logged off the network. I was $50 up so left it there. No point in playing when the dead money has gone.

Tomorrow I'm going to be hugely busy. As I won't be in the UK until Wednesday afternoon from Sunday, I need to arrange work for those days. I've already done a good proportion of it. I noticed my car is absolutely filthy too. The damn farmers around here trawl half their fields on to the roads, caking them in mud. Quite frankly it's very dangerous as it's very slippery but it makes a mess of your car too. So a car wash tomorrow afternoon, assuming it's not raining, is in order.

Then an early night. I've been forunate to get a lift from Tony into Heathrow via his father. But it's still a 2 hour journey to his house. That means a 6am start on Sunday.... at least the roads will be quiet!

Flight from Heathrow is at 11.30am-ish. I'm looking forward to playing in Helsinki a great deal. I feel confident TSC will return with a cash.

Biggest ever cash pot win

2005-12-03T05:57:00.000-08:00

The title says it all. Naturally this was satisfying due to the amount I won but more so because it wasn't a quick session, far from it. I spent two hours playing a big stack, with a few others, in a short handed game of $3/$6 NLHE. This guy, from Spain, is very predictable but he is also tricky once he has a stack in front of him. For some unknown reason he had $4000 on a $600 buy-in table. Clearly he'd be running hot before I arrived. In the first two hours I managed to build up to $1002. Then the dinner gong went and I reluctantly left, thinking that'd be it for the day against my Spanish friend.

On return, he was still there. He still had $3500. Great, I'll take a double to $2,000 if I can and leave. Within 5 hands I was up to $1350 - this was going superbly, then I hit a rutt. For the next 3 hours I slid up and down between $850 and $1500. Then this hand occured.

I have $1270 in the BB and 7,7.
UTG folds
Spain raises to $27
Seat 3 folds
Seat 4 in SB folds.

Normally I wouldn't call this but this was Spanish guy, I could get paid here if I hit.

I call.
Flop: 4,Q,3
Not great. I'm likely to still be leading though.
Spain bets the pot.
I figure another low card on the turn and I'll raise him. I call

Turn: 7
A seven from heaven! Unless he has top set or some bizarre straight draw, I've got him by the balls.
He bets $122
I pause and raise to $344
He takes almost all his alloted time and re-raises me to $700
I go all-in for the rest of my stack. He calls

River: 8

No flush draws are out. He mucks and $2500+ slides over to me. Got him at last!

After over 5 hours of play against my mark, I got what I came for + $500 on top. He still had just over $2000 himself and didn't say anything. Probably because when I've tried to engage him he states "no Englis"

This was my biggest ever cash pot win. I've won much more in tournaments on and offline but for ring games this leads the way right now and has really made my week.

I'm in great form. I'm not going to push my luck though. I withdrew my entire balance last night whilst I consider my week ahead before Helsinki. I feel some tournament practice is now in order. If I cash in Finland that will really put the icing on the cake for me this year.

30% Rake Back

2005-12-02T00:25:00.000-08:00

[Blatant Promotional Post]

Poker Heaven are now allowing us to give away 30% rake back to new players. So if you play a lot of cash games then you should join Poker Heaven from our website:

http://www.thesterlingcartel.com

Remember to email after you've joined and we'll upgrade you to the rake back deal.

[/Blantant Promotional Post]

Things have been progressing nicely on the playing front. $10,000 seems to be nearing. I've taken $2,800 out of Poker Heaven in the last 10 days, leaving a small bankroll in there. I had ambitions of never withdrawing, after all that's really the fastest way to step up the limits, but after the ugly start I had to November I've decided to profit take at every opportunity until the New Year.

I can't stress how bad some of the Poker Heaven players are. I've created a nice list of terrible players in a short space of time. Sadly they are not all regulars, which is only to be expected as a regular player would develop a clue at some point, but a number do play occasionally with pretty decent stacks which they're willing to cough up.

I got in touch with the Helsinki casino yesterday to try and blag a free taxi transfer to/from the airport. They were not as willing as the same chain in Vilnius, sadly. It looks like a €30-€40 fare each way. France was equally as expensive.

I'll be playing the €100 NLHE rebuy on the 12th and the €200 PLO rebuy on the 13th.

Every time I check the weather it seems to be getting colder. I expect the Finns can deal with a bit of snow unlike us here in the UK, where a few inches grinds everything to a halt. Everything has melted away now with the rain, even so, yesterday there was a little sludge around on the roads - dirt mixed with melting snow, real pretty! - and drivers were still unable to cope! On a national speed limit highway, in the middle of the morning a young lady felt she could not go beyond 30 MPH. Ok, fine, if you want to drive at 30 in a 60 zone I can live with that. Please pull over though every once in a while! We sailed passed several lay-bys which she totally ignored, meanwhile a queue stretching back to Wales has built up behind us.

I used to get annoyed by these drivers. I'm much calmer these days, now I just lean on the horn for 30 seconds or so rather than until they submit ;-)

Amazingly, feeling peckish, I went out for some chips last night and the same thing happened again. No sludge this time, it'd been raining all day! Still, it was dark and it was raining.... so best stick to 30 MPH, despite the long irrate queue of motorists behind me. Why do these people have licenses? They are a hazard, they cause impatient motorists to take chances by over taking, resulting in accidents which needn't have occured if the idiot at the front of the queue would at least get within 10 MPH of the limit.

I'm not saying people should speed everywhere. I hate it when people speed through my village. Just be aware what the speed limit is and how safe it is to travel near that limit. Rain and night fall is not an excuse to crawl along!

I overtook the idiot last night, my chips were getting cold, he or she decided to test their main beam as I went passed. I decided to test my brake lights until their main beam had been tested for long enough :-)

Road rage is alive and well and living in Leicestershire.

Toughest decision of the month

2005-11-30T04:28:00.000-08:00

$2/$4 NLHE

I hold AQ spades in SB
Maniac x2 raise (his usual) I call
BB re-raises to $24
Maniac calls, I call
Flop: Q,7,2 - 4 spades.
BB goes all in for $1700
Maniac folds.
I have $970-ish left.

Whaddya do?

I folded. He showed KK, one spade.

I was pleased with my play last night. I'd built $400 up to $997. If I made the call above I had a potential for almost $1500 profit. Or a $400 loss.

...not dwelling on that though :-)

So a good end to the month really. Since my return from France I've taken around $2400 from the cash tables. I'm keeping my roll small(ish) for now, to keep losses down should I hit a dry patch. So, I've made a few withdraws. Handy Christmas money :-)

It's strange that after I've been on a poker trip my online cash game becomes very solid. It happened post-Italy, it happened this last week post-France, it's happened after other trips. I don't know what causes it but I like it! I should go away more often.

12 days until I leave Heathrow for tropical Helsinki. I'm determined to cash in Finland.

Where's my big coat?

2005-11-28T05:59:00.000-08:00

I just had a look at the 5 day forecast for Helsinki. The Finns are struggling to get into positive figures even during the day right now! Maybe Poker Heaven can send me a nice big coat for my trip over on December 11th.

It's come around surprisingly quickly. Seems like only a few days ago I was getting the back of my neck burnt in the sun in Italy.

I've got little to report. I had a yo-yo weekend on the sports front. Saved by Rooney scoring and Utd winning yesterday, which I lumped on, on Betfair.

I destroyed a silly cash game player on Poker Heaven a day or two back which gave a welcome boost to the roll. He was in almost every pot and would only back down when raised. I trapped him with the nut flush for a €400 pot then later cleaned him out for his remaining €120 with KK vrs QQ. About time the curse hand returned a profit!

So, I'll update my $200 per day challenge figure today. I'm over 30 days but also over $7000 so I've nothing to complain about really.

.... oh yes I have. I forgot I need to tax my car this week. £165!!! Alright, I know I've got a big car and I know it's probably creating a new hole in the ozone layer by itself but this seems a bit steep. I hardly use it during the week, it's mainly for popping to the shops/bank/nursery with the boy. I occasionally drive to airports like Gatwick and Heathrow but not to the extent that I'm damaging roads to the tune of £165 every year. I'll pay up, I like this car more than any I've previously had. It was stupidly cheap to buy due to the MGR collapse. It's quiet. The heating will burn your toes which is handy in this weather. It goes like stink, around 135 MPH, pretty handy for a big car with no turbo or supercharger.

Anyway... off to the post office to hand over my hard earned.

Freezing and foggy in France

2005-11-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

I got home on Monday... eventually!

Leaving Paris was a nightmare. They changed the gate twice, unlike normal airports where you go through security and you're in the gate area, at Charles de Galle airport you go through security at each and every gate! As you enter the airport to depart you have to show your passport and ticket info' BEFORE check-in and before gate security and each time at those two subsequent points. Jeez! I'm all for safe travelling but these guys were taking the p...

Then there was the fog! 35 minutes delayed in the gate, which had no refreshments and, as far as I could see, no toilets. There were plenty of Russians though... all in the same gate for Kiev and Moscow. Finally, we get in the air and after forcing down an ice cold (I really do mean ICE cold) bacon and tomato croissant we are up over Birmingham International and the pilot announces "There is a lot of fog around, but we have lots of fuel so don't panic"

I REALLY didn't like the "don't panic" part. "Panic" is not a word you want heard on an aeroplane, whether coupled with "don't" or not. We circled Brum for 30 minutes and as I looked out of the window I imagined we were at 10,000 feet. Infact we were probably at 500 feet... that was how low the clouds and fog were! As we descended white instantly turned to black... no, not grim reaper black, runway black.... thud! We were down.

Anyway, no joy on the playing front. I was out good and early in the main event after having Kings cracked and despite loving the short handed game was about 40 places short of the cash.

The Aviation is a cracking place. no smoking in tournaments and some of the players were even friendly!

I need to update my $200 a day thing as it's desperately out of date. Sadly, despite a few good sessions, the average is probably roughly the same as it is now due to a few poor sessions. Still, I'll take $200 a day for now happily.

UK Poker News finally launched:
http://uk.pokernews.com
So far so good.

A rough two weeks beginning to smooth out

2005-11-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

I'll make no bones about it, I've had a shocking start to November at the cash tables. I'd go for hours without a sniff, or be outdrawn when clear favourite, or try and buy a pot from the nuts. Everything, or pretty much everything, went wrong.

It's unlike me to not play poker for more than two days, but that's what I did. I took a good break, probably four days in total. I returned with a $400 deposit on Saturday and ran that up to $900 by Sunday evening. $120 came from an outstanding bonus which I cleared, so I don't count that as winnings. In effect, I doubled up. Alright, that's no big deal, but let me tell you that after ten days play resulting in 7 or 8 days of losses, it felt fantastic to show a positive for a couple of sessions. Needless to say I withdrew and topped up my hungry backroll.

I've since played a number of heads-up games. I'm not a great H/U fan, I think you need to be playing really crap players regularly to show a positive in the long term. If not, the higher degree of luck involved + rake fee will make it very tricky to get ahead. Just IMO. Anyway, I won 4 from 6, including a lovely $200 game which lasted all of 5 minutes. Maybe the poker gods are smiling on me again?

So, tonight it's the Blonde Poker PLO tournament. Only $10 and should be fun. Buy-ins at this level should be fun and used as experimental tools to improve your game, I don't play PLO that much but I'm registered for a €200 PLO in Helsinki next month, so I'll be playing these a little more to brush up. At the same time is the advfn 'challenge' tournament. I haven't played this for a few weeks now, since I left advfn, and see no point in joining in again. That points system, based on the Poker Stars system which works on a large scale, makes it impossible for players lower in the league to catch up and new players will find it difficult to play the required games to qualify. This coupled with the old ladies who like to swing their handbags at me, kind of takes away any fun element. Now, if it was a $100 STT I'd be there with bells on. You work out the reason why ;-)

I fly to France on Thursday afternoon. At 7pm they have a €500 PLHE tourney. Pot Limit is a little off putting for me, I've won PLHE tournaments online but find them a bigger grind than NL. Still I might give it a crack. If not, I'll play the €1000 main event on Saturday followed by the €250 short handed game on Sunday. Both NLHE freezers.

Simon Trumper has kindly agreed to sell me Euros at a better exchange rate than anywhere else, so I should already be in the main event when I land, just a matter of handing a few quid in Sterling over to Simon.

I'm looking forward to this trip. The Aviation Club looks great, I'll have Thursday evening and Friday day to myself to relax and prepare, then the missus gets the Eurostar on Friday evening to watch the tournament on Saturday. If my form from October was still running I'd quite happily back myself to cash at this festival. The cool period has knocked me down a rung or two but I'm trying to focus on the good stuff I've been playing all year. Three cashes from six (I think) events. Winning a European ranking event on foreign soil. Getting v.close in Brighton. Getting close & unlucky in Blackpool. I beat Woody Deck heads-up in Lithuania for Christ's sake, this guy won a huge heads-up event a few weeks ago. I know I can play! If I get chips early the French will see some fireworks.

More nightmares, more recoveries

2005-11-08T00:29:00.000-08:00

Ever have one of those days when you miss every draw, or hit it only to be second best to the nuts?

That happened to me on Friday.

I played out of my league at silly stakes. I wasn't outplayed, just took a few beats that wiped me out. I didn't have the bankroll to be playing that sort of poker, I was in for a hit and run, maybe 400 or 500 bucks. It cost me much more, as you can see from the running total.

I've done this before. Probably twice in the last two years. I've played my A game and cleaned up at the comfortable stakes. Then, something takes over. It could be greed or just a desire to compete as high as I can, but I move up too high, too fast. I either get out played or unlucky and finish up losing a chunk of cash I'd spent a few weeks building up.

This stops here! I had a good two hour "getting my head together" session on Friday evening. I have no need to play higher up. I can make around $6,000 a month at the stakes I'm currently crushing on Poker Heaven, why put that in jeopardy? I have banned myself from anything over $3/$6 NLHE.

So, with a fresh mind I took my crippled bankroll to the sit & go tables on Saturday and won two in a row, a $20 then a $30. The sun was shining in my poker world once more!

I also had two football bets come in at the weekend. A nice double on Newcastle and West Ham followed by Man Utd at 2/1. I've watched United since I could walk, and yes I do get to see them play now and again!, so I know that when their backs are up against the wall they come out fighting. I felt a draw was the likely result but couldn't resist 2/1 for them at home. Fortunately a 1-0 win was the result and suddenly the world ain't so bad any more.

Yesterday it was back to the cash tables. It wasn't so much the deck hitting me in the face, more the players! I ran into several terrible cash players in the day. Most notably my Turkish friend from late October who, once again, coughed up a wedge into my lap.

I finished the day + $360 - A little recovery from last Friday's nightmare.

No more messing around from now on, no more high stakes nonsense, every time I sit at the cash table I'm going to be 100% focused and ready to run them over.

The recovery

2005-11-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

I played a little in the day today. It was satisfying enough, collecting just over $100. There are no hands worth mentioning, so we'll skip forward to this evening.

I watched the $3/$6 NL table for 5 minutes before joining. This is something I do regularly before playing guys I don't know. They were really poor players. After seat 1 left, the other four had around $1200 between them at the table. I joined with $600.

I quickly built this up to $740. When I pocket Kings in the BB. Perfect, these guys were not folding pre-flop, so a medium raise will get called by at least one. I make it $30 to go, I wouldn't usually raise x5 but these guys were certain to call. Two did, the rest fold.

Flop: T,9,2

UTG bets out $24, he's called by the other guy. He might have a piece or a draw, J,Q? but he wasn't seeing a turn card cheaply. I make it $90 to play. They both call. I figured a set would re-raise all-in here due to the size of the pot. I'm liking this already.

Turn: 6

No flush draw is out. 7,8 is now the worry. I've gone too far to put these down though. It's checked to me. I make it $254 to go. $2 more than the biggest stack of my opponent. UTG folds. After a long pause the last guy calls. He shows 9,J.

River: 3

I'm up to around $1200. Double my starting stack. 9,J mans runs for the hills, probably due to embarrassment.

I could sit and think why 9,J is in the hand. I made a good raise pre-flop. I made a big raise on the flop. I set him all-in on the turn. On each occassion he could of got away from his hand. So, I won't analyse, he was just utterly rubbish and got what he deserved.

I played a little further and skipped between $1050 and $1200. Eventually getting out on $1220

A healthy +$740 today

November nightmare

2005-11-02T01:46:00.000-08:00

How do you get out of this?

You raise pre-flop with AK. It is re-raised. You call. The board shows AK and rags.

I didn't and it cost me €800. My opponent had AA. I lost a few hundred more after this just to really kick November off in terrible style.

I had a break and got myself together. I don't see how I could of got away from the AK disaster, I could of re-re-raised pre-flop to see where I stood. Another raise there would of been a big clue and I may have folded, thinking I could be 50/50 at best.

I came back on $2/$4 and did some running over, building $400 up to $1120. That's more like it! I was $700 down by the evening and despite more play couldn't make any significant dents in that total.

-$700 for the day

Today is a new day. I'm not down about yesterday's loss. It could of been much worse and indeed was at one stage.

Back to $2/$4 with a fresh mind.

Nothing really happened for an hour, I was around $80 up and was thinking of running if I hit +$150. Then I found JJ and made it $16 to go. One caller.

Flop: J,7,7

Woohoo... Unless he has pocket 7s I'm getting paid here. I check. He bets $32. I'm hoping he has A,7. I smooth call.

Turn: Rag

I check again, he bets a strange amount. About $60. I pause and call.

River: Rag

I check, he bets $110. He has $230-ish left. I have just under $400. I raise him the rest of his stack and he calls straight away. I expected a 7. He shows KK.

This put me up to $875, I bled away $50 for 10 minutes and left.

KK guy went into a sarcastic rant after this, trying to mock myself and another player who happened to say "nh" when I cracked his KK. There was no reason for it, other than him being upset about losing to an under pair. I lost a hand yesterday and was met with "nh asshole" What is wrong with these people? KK has every right to be upset but not towards me, I did nothing wrong but milk him for his entire stack. The other guy beat me and still wanted to abuse!

I'm stopping right here today. I'm only a few hundred short of getting back yesterday's loss but there is no hurry. These guys will pay and pay and pay for a long time yet.

+$420 today.

Gobble, Gobble

2005-10-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

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!...

2005-10-29T13:24:00.000-07:00

...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!

2005-10-28T06:53:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

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...

2005-10-08T02:39:00.000-07:00

...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...

2005-10-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

.... 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

2005-10-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

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

More of the same

2005-09-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

Variety is the spice of life, so they say. So today I decided to leave NLHE alone and play some Omaha. $1/$2 PLO High to be exact.

Had a terrible start and things were looking like a -$200 day. I regrouped and got ahead after about 45 mins, then flopped two pair against a real loose cannon. He pot bet (again) and I figured him for Aces and raised him all-in. He called and to my horror he had the nut straight. The Gods, clearly in the jovial mood, turned the full house for me. Queens full of Nines. Woohoo... felt sorry for the other guy, although, that's Omaha!

So, I ran after that... $140 up and pretty pleased to be ahead (you can't beat luck can you?) but still wanting that last $60 or so to complete the $200.

Just now I finished a $50 H/U. I joined the game, was very nice and said hello, how are you, good luck, etc. To be met with silence. Maybe he was chat banned or something, but if not, a simply 'Hi' is polite enough, isn't it? Anyway, he was far too aggressive and I cut him in half on level one. On Level 2 he caught AK vrs my 88 and it was all over. Just $10 short of the $200 for today. Yeah, I know H/U STT isn't cash!!

I'm not going to hunt it though, I've been on a good roll recently and I'll put the brakes on for today right here.

That makes 3 in a row since I started here on the blog, previously to that I was doing quite well too. The bad run is sure to bite at some point!

I love the grind

2005-09-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

I've had a hectic, non-poker playing week, apart from the odd session here and there and a trip to Broadway Casino on Sunday.

I played the Blonde Poker Heads-up event last Thursday. Drew a player I'd seen posting in their forum and was comfortable but, sadly also a little bored. I suppose the quality of the opposition was apparent if comparing the time it took for most matches to complete vrs standard H/U games elsewhere. I pushed in when ahead with 6,7s vrs A,Qo - I missed everything and fell behind, then pushed again with AK and ran into his AA. Before the 6,7 I don't recall being behind, although I would of lost a big chunk with AK vrs AA.

We launched Freerolling this week. First tournament is $1,000 guaranteed, only 7 players so far so plenty of value and a max. of 50 runners. Come over and join up!

Back to the grind today on the '$200 per day challenge' - I had $500 in Pokerstars and thought I would chance my luck at $2/$4 NLHE. This game is really too big for the $200 a day thing but if you can stay tight enough and pick off the crap players you can make $200 pretty quickly. I was in for an hour and within 10 mins was up $120, no real hands of note just taking down raised pots on the flop. I then gave most of that back but there were two real idiots on the table with small stacks - obviously trying for a quick hit n run!

The first idiot was to my immediate right, he would not lay down a blind unless you were raising x8 the BB or more, with this in mind I didn't try anything clever when the big stuff arrived. QQ, KK, just raised into him twice in a row quite heavily and got paid. Then straight after, we had a 6 handed pot. It was raised to $12 from UTG, everyone called, I held 7,7. I felt if I hit my set it could be a pretty big pay day. Flop was a dangerous looking 7,8,J with two diamonds. I checked and it was made $8 to play by idiot #2 (to my left) everyone called. I couldn't afford to keep 5 players in here, the turn could be really painful. I made it $64 to play to clear out the drawing crap and over carders. Idiot #2 called for the rest of his chips and everyone else folded. He had J,Ko and didn't improve.

This put me $326 ahead for the session and I left 5 mins later. So the $200 a day grind goes well still, pleasing to finish ahead of target rather than under.

Lots of work to do today whilst I await the arrival of a boiler service co. (no time specified, just today!) and our cleaner.

They all ran away!

2005-09-21T04:53:00.000-07:00

Today I was awake pretty early. Nothing stirs you in the morning better than the delightful rants of a 2 year old at 6.15am.

Checked the forums today for anything interesting. Nothing worth reading apart from complaints about 11 seater tables at €4000 EPT events. I've twice had the pleasure of being squashed on an 11 seater, once in Napoleons in Sheffield, which was so smokey you could cut chunks out of the air. The other time in the much nicer venue of Broadway in Birmingham. I'm inclined to forgive Broadway this as they are still new and on the £20 rebuy nights it is a 10 seater tournament.

Tables should be limited to a maximum of 10 players, even then things can be a bit cramped if Jabba the hutt is occupying enough space to fill Wales. In Brighton we were treated to a 9 seater, this was luxury, non-smoking too. Room to move and oxygen to breathe, what spoilt brats we are demanding such things!

I started the $200 a day challenge earlier and was sailing along nicely, up $130 and just needing a few more medium pots to walk away, then the table departed one by one, I lost $20 and then it went to heads-up and even he left! Now I have far too much to do to continue today, to settle into a new table and find the pace, etc, so I'll put the brakes on here at $110 which is a really ugly amount to add to the two previous days (which also fell short of $200). A profit is a profit though and $110 added on is better than $200 taken off.

Wednesday is a non-poker night for me. Yes, I watch LOST, but to be honest, it's all gone a bit slow since the opening episodes and there seems to be incredibly long and frequent ad' breaks. I've started watching it now so I'll have to continue! Trapped on the river with too much in the pot to fold to the raise all-in, d'oh!

Thursday is the Blonde Poker Heads-up tournament on Stars, most of these guys can play and I'm looking forward to testing my H/U play against them.

In the beginning...

2005-09-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

I find myself wittering on, on poker forums and the like, about general crap that really nobody can find very interesting. I thought, in an obvious moment of inspiration (or madness) to start a blog (like every other poker player) to keep on my witterings and moans collected in one handy website!

So, a little about my favourite subject first. Me:

I'm married with one son. I live in Leicestershire in the UK. I spend my days playing poker, writing about poker or working on websites about poker. You could say poker dominates my life to an extent. Rarely a day goes by without poker influencing it.

I'm part of The Sterling Cartel - basically, three guys trying their luck at B&M poker. We've had some good results recently and are currently negotiating a new sponsorship package for the next 6 months or so, after London Poker Club kindly supported us for the last couple of events.... stay tuned!

I've been playing online since around 2002, B&M since Easter 2005. Amazingly, I've remained profitable for the duration of this time (must be some world record length fluke, surely?) and have stepped up the limits gradually.

So, right now I'm playing a little game called "Make $200 a day" The rules are simple. You start with $200 and try to turn it into $400. Lose $200 and that's game over for the day, hit $400 (or as near to as possible) and that's game over for the day. I only play in cash games and do not count tournaments wins or losses towards the days figure. As the blog is new, I'll start the game from scratch (despite playing it for a few weeks now) and we'll see how it goes.