GK's Poker Blog

On a Rush

2006-09-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Half way into the month and it's already my best by quite some way. Even after withdrawing over HALF my bankroll at the end of last month £1,300 to keep the bank happy, i've gotten my roll ABOVE what i had at the end of last month, so i'm pretty pleased at how things have been going to say the least.

Again i have really gone to town on casino bonuses, just when i thought i was running out i find a BUNCH more to do, and have been running really well pretty much everyhwhere i've been! I'm also doing Hollywood Poker bonus ($250 5x) but i'm so bored of cash games that i really havn't been clearing it very fast at all. Also Will Hill Poker, at £10 per hr, too good to pass up, even if the tables are so full of whores it hurts. 4 tabled and a quick easy earner there. Plus still going at the turbo SnG's on stars but not getting any cashes recently, i did get 72nd in the $3r though which had almost 2,000 entrants, all without seeing a pair above Tens for 4 HOURS! And that's all the poker i've done.

As for casino's.....the results for the end of the month will be a loong list. I even did a Casino that doesn't allow blackjack to be played to clear the bonus this month, it was a low wager and small bonus (£50) so i thought i'd see what it was like. Played some Monopoly slot and started winning on it without fully understanding how, just keep hittin spin! The cool little sub games and stuff are what are really the entertaining part of these slots, for me at least. I can definitely see how people get addicted to those things. Anyway after sitting there clicking spin for 45mins or so i'd cleared the bonus and made about £60 profit too, which was nice considering i half expected to either go bust or break even.

PokerRoom was REALLY nice to me again this month, a $250 reload just after the sign up was too good. I cleared it at BlackJack again and again managed to build a big stack there. I've been putting a lot of hours in this month, maybe i'll start to slack toward the end of the month knowing i've made plenty, but i plan to make more withdrawls from my roll so i do need to make as much as possible.

Results for August

2006-09-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

-Aug 2006-

-------Casino--------

Will Hill
Profit: £50 (withdrawn to bank)
Bonus: £25 (withdrawn to bank)
+$142

InterCasino
Profit: $5
Bonus: $100 Bonus
+$105

Red Lounge
Profit £0
Bonus: £50
+$50

Ritz Club London
Profit £0
Bonus £0
+$0

Casino Euro
Profit €15
Bonus €0
+$19

Cherry Casino
Profit: $242
Bonus: $111
+$353

Golden Palace
Profit: $200
Bonus: $300
+$500

Everest Casino
Profit -$25
Bonus $0
$-25

Extreme Casino
Profit $0
Bonus $0
-$200

-------Poker--------

Paradise Poker
Profit:$128
Bonus: $50
+$178

Doyle's Room Poker
Profit: $2
Bonus: $70
+$72

Poker Room
Profit $2,471
Bonus $200
+$2,671

Money in Poker room $3,351
Money in Neteller £490 ($932)
Money in Stars $690

Profit for August $3,865 (£2,028)

Current Bankroll $4,832 (£2,535)

--------------------------------------------------------

So all in all a pretty good month, or to be honest a pretty average month with a huge boost thanks to Poker Room. As i said previously i did more casino's than poker this month althought i doubt the same will be said next month as sign up bonuses are running very thin for me now i'm just not finding any more decent ones.

To be honest i could have a much bigger profit figure had i not donked off my VC balance, and not gone to extreme casino. I went to extreme casino as the WR was pretty low for a $200 bonus. However with minimum bet size $5 variance quickly got the better of me and i failed to recover. Also i havn't added money i've made on Stars to the monthly figure, partly because i'm not sure how much i've made (approx $2-300) and partly because i don't play there to increase my monthly earn, if that makes any sense. It's just static money i dont really plan on moving anything in or out of Stars, maybe i'll add any money i make there to next months results now i know exactly how much i have at the start of it though.

Speaking of stars i had a pretty nice month there, as i said a few hundered dollars profit. Was on a high of $780 now down to $690. Mostly due to a $11r which went bad. Ialso played the $3r the other night and MY GOD is that thing a waste of time if you place say 30-200th it just takes soooo long and if you place in that region it REALLY isn't worth it. i got 80th which took about 4 1/2hrs and netted something like $44.... If you final table it it's GREAT value though with $4k+ for first. Also had some pretty good success at Turbo SnG's on Stars. Found a site that tracks your progress in tournaments and sng's over a few sites, here's the results for me on stars:
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/745/sharkscopenp6.jpg was taken a few dats ago, so i've lost a little since, and obviously i havn't played anywhere near enough games for the stats to really mea anything yet, but a promising start.

As for Poker Room...wow i was on the sickest rush i've ever had, poker, blackjack, and even roulette! (i was extremely cautious on roulette too!) Once i found i could clear the bonus playing Blackjack i gave it a go and never looked back. Went from ~$700 to $1,400 in 1 day, and then from $1,400 to $3,351 today, so yeah, quite a rush! It was just as i was finishing the bonus i thought i'd make an extra $25 and make a few roulette bets to see if my rush was still on..i hit 2 straight ups in a row, only betting 3 numbers! finally having some gamble in me pays off!
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/6551/lucky7gp9.jpg

The unfortunate thing is i'm going to have to extract a large portion of my roll to the bank since i havn't made a payment into it for so long. I havn't decided exactly how much yet but i will be working with a smaller bankroll than listed above for Sept.

Casino Blog?

2006-08-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

This months results are coming along pretty well but....it's all casino bonuses! 7 casino bonuses and 2 poker bonuses to be exact, i might have to change the name of my blog if this continues! There's been some new casino's i've discovered that have just been too good to pass up though, namely Golden Palace. $100 deposit $300 bonus, a pretty big WR ($8k) but since i ran well there it turned into a GREAT bonus. I've done a bunch of other smaller casino bonuses and while BJ is brain numbing, it is easy money which i really need to build the bankroll back up.

On the poker front i only did 2 small bonuses, Doyles room and long overdue Paradise. Doyles room wasn't a fantastic bonus but the $55 bounty tournament is free* to play for new users which seemed pretty good too. (*you have to pay but it's rebated to you in full) But while i havn't been doing much in the way of poker bonuses i have been playing a lot of MTT SNG's on Stars, I love the Turbo SnG's there, 5min blinds is just enough for it not to be a crapshoot but they dont drag on for hrs like with 15min blinds. I've been doing pretty well and it's actually a lot more enjoyable than grinding out cash games.

In other news i travelled to London to play at the Gutshot club. Just a £20 Freezeout on a monday afternoon so it wasn't very busy. It's my first taste of playing a "proper" live game and i was actually pretty intimidated! you only get $1,500 in chips and blinds are at 20mins so it's quite speedy. On a whole table of rocks myself included, so no suprise when i raise for the first time pre flop with QQ people are racing each other to the muck. Waiting around for hands and having that happen clearly wasn't an option then. Instead i lossened up and called a raise with Jd-8d , flop Jc-2h-3h, which i lead out at but get re raised all in instantly, great.. there like the only 2 hands i had action in for what seemed an eternity since i was getting dealt absolutely nothing. Play started to loosen up as the blinds got to 75-150, i had 3-5 in the BB and flopped 2-4-6 dream flop! i checked with 2 other people in the hand who also checked unfortunately, turn comes a 3 which i didn't want to see, i decide to put a small bet in and again it's folded to me with a player claiming "oh he has to have a 5 for the straight" i didn't bother telling him i flopped it. Back to being card dead, blinds eating away at me i tried a steal from the CO with As-Ts by pushing only to have the button instacall with KK, K arrives on flop and i'm out.

Felt a little dissatisfied with the experience and my performance but i think i learned from it. Won a little at the hard rock casino, won some more from a fruit machine, then blew loads on online roulette later that night in a moment of intoxicated stupidness. Made it back with my big Golden Palace cash luckily or would have been a nasty dent to the bankroll. What can i say? i'm a poker player but i'm a gambler!

Back on Track..Kinda

2006-08-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

After a few months of not really doing anything other than playing cash games on VC whenever i felt the urge i'm starting to build the bankroll again and play more.
I've started all new records of my bankroll that i had depleted down to $500 due to lack of funds for slightly more important things, like living. The month has started ok, i finally got my neteller up and running (omg i was a bonus whore for like 7 mnths without it and now i dont know how) and the roll was around the $1k mark for the start of the month from the little wins i was recording while playing low limit ring games on VC.

The roll is divided up, i'm keeping funds in both Stars and VC, since these are my 2 main/ favourite sites. I also have a few hundered in Neteller which i'm using to do casino and poker bonuses. The start of this month has been ok so far, a few good casino scores a few i've busted at. Just finished Paradise poker which was real easy and made a satisfactory profit on top from the $25NL and $50NL tables. Also had a good score (which was almsot so much better) on Stars in the $5 reload. 1st place was like $6k+ and when it was down to 70 from 1400 entrants it got really exciting. I was around middle of the field before catching a few hands and going up to CL and staying there from like 50 down to 14 left. Then to cut a long story short AK doesn't hold up against KT and i lose a lot of chips, Blinds go up and i try to get going again but end up gettin FT bubble :( still a $231 pay off for the $15 i used, but like i said, almsot soo much sweeter. I'm glad i know i can get deep in those tourney's now though, i've only done like less than 10 and most other times busted out on a bad beat or cashed quite low down.

I've got somewhat of a mentor now too, a well experienced 2+2er who's had some very impressive MTT wins. So i've been railing him and discussing a LOT of his plays and i think it's really helping my game. Also i've been watching a bunch of High stakes poker season 2, easily the best poker show by far i'm addicted to it!

So anyway now i'm kinda back into the swing of things, i say kinda cos i'm still at home and not able to be on for as long as i could before for various reasons, i'm realy working on managing a building a decent bankroll up again. The monthly results will continue fom now, which i've actually really missed!

The end is nigh?

2006-07-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

First Eurobet a Skin of the poker room network, now the whole B2B network is enforcing the no US customers rule, its a tad worrying. Honestly i thought it wouldn't come to this for quite some time yet but with sites already shutting out US customers i'm left pondering whats in store for the online poker industry.

Being in Engalnd its not a HUGE worry since i can still play, but if more sites follow suit i can see there being negative effects for everyone in some way or another. Not looking good at all.

Meanwhile i've been making good progress on building the bankroll, found a couple more casino bonuses to do, which while a drag, are pretty easy money. The only dilemma i have is what to do with all the money i'm making at casinos in regard to my poker bankroll. Do i add it all? some of it? none of it? Right now i'm leaning towards using most of it while padding the bank account a little with the rest.

I've split the poker bankroll up between Stars and VC currently. I'm clearing a bonus at VC which is taking a long time since i'm being cautious with what stakes i'm willing to play with my BR. I had a horrible downswing which last about a week which was tough but i was glad i was playing low enough that it wasn't hurting me too much. Been playing a few MTT's on stars, namely the $3r $5r $10r now and then. Should have got real deep in a couple but lost to stupid stuff. Cashed in a few random 180man/ 45man SnG's though so i'm almsot breaking even there and my MTT game is coming along nicely i feel.

Gonna finish VC and probably do paradise which i've been meaning to do for the longest time. It's so damn hot at the moment though, i don't know how much sitting at the PC i can take!

MTT Win/ EPT Thoughts

2006-07-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

So i shifted £80 ($147) out of my VC account over to Paddy Power Poker. Still on the Tribecca network but offering a $101 bonus for just 5,000 points. Working out at 200% rakeback this 1 was just too good to pass up, and boy did i have a fun time there!

I was just 4 tabling it at $.10/.20 short handed and making decent enough profits on my play, then on a whim decided to play a $5 +.50 MTT with 375 entrants and managed to win it for $506! My biggest MTT score yet and for the petty sum of $5, needless to say, i was happy. It wasn't all good though, i had a horrible run for a while dropping around $80 which is more than i've lost for quite a while now buying for $20 a time. Although i did lose $40 when i bought in for max and my KK ran into AA, not much i could do there though. I thought i would make it to $1k but my bad run stopped me from getting there so i ended up with $855, ($708 profit) which i was more than happy with for less than a weeks play just in eveenings now since i'm working 7:30am - 4:30pm currently in a crappy job.

I crashed and burned at most of the monthly casino's except the best one, ritz club. £100 match bonus which i cleared with £310 (£210 profit) which works out at another $385 or so. I've been contemplating what to do with my casino wins from now on though. I could just put it all or most in VC to add to my poker bankroll but i fear i would be getting too much and would start moving up limits quicker destroying my currently steady pace. Meanwhile i've been thinking about trying to qualify for a big live event this year and since i'm not old enough to go to a US event it narrows me down to europe pretty much and what better than the EPT i thought. So EPT London has been a big thinking point for me recently and registration has recently opened on Stars to qualify for a seat. $200 +15, while considerably more than i've ever bought in for a tournament before i think it's worth a shot. I've made $500 from my last MTT score anyway plus the casino money so it really wouldn't hurt me to take a shot even if i miss.

Maybe it's just a stupid idea and i'm wasting my money trying, but thinking of what could be, winning a £3,500 seat keeps me going at the moment, especially during my monotinous shifts at work...

Oh and i just noticed i didn't really say a thing other than i won that MTT, I managed to get a big stack mid way through although i'm not quite sure how it just kind of built up. I managed to steal a hell of a lot especially around cash bubble/ final table bubble and also picked up a lot of decent hands which always helps too! Went into final table as a massive chip leader (like 4to1 on 2nd) so would have been pretty embarrasing to lose! I was too aggressive to start with, i forgot all the relatively short stacks are just happy to have made the final table and will call me now so i donk off quite a lot of chips to the table, luckily it keeps my image as a super loose player and i manage to trap with a few greathands because of it. Got sucked out on heads up on the river losing my chip lead for the first time, got it back within a few hands and won a few hands later. the blinds were pretty huge and the guy i was against heads up was really aggressive so not much of a battle to comment on. Overall i was really happy with my play and defintely learned a lot about big stack play on a final table.

The EPT qualifier isn't until next month so i have plenty of time to think it over. For now i'm 99% sure i'm going fo it though, and i can't wait.

Progress Update/ Bonus Whoring Lesson

2006-06-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

Turned my $160 into $430 in roughly 2 weeks of playing at $.05/.10 and a little $.10/.20 which i'm pretty pleased with. I'm feeling confident with my game again and plan to cut out $.05/.10 soon. I have the money for 10+ buy ins of $.10/.20 which should be enough to recover from variance.

I actually had a pretty bad run yesterday, starting with $450, dipping to about $390 before making it back to $430 which i'm at currently. This was half due to an annoying MTT where i played solid but had a maniac suck out on my AQ with KQ, it was a $12+.60 rebuy and while i didn't use a rebuy i did take advantage of the add on so that was $25 blown. Then a little pissed off i went to play some ring games and just got owned especially at this 1 table for like an hr. I felt i was playing well though and kept getting the money in when i had at least 60% edge, but man the things people were willing to risk there stack with and hit was so sick for a while. Then i made a comeback and would have liked to play for longer, 3 of the 4 tables i was playing i was making money on and was going from strength to strength but i had to leave. Still i was pretty pleased with my recovery play after not having to deal with that for a while since i've just been making steady profit in sessions 90% of the time.

In other news i've just read a great column in WPT magazine on the subject of how bonus whoring can hurt your play. It's something i always feared was happening but was hard to really worry about when i was making money. Of course i could be playing break even or slightly losing poker and still be making money with most bonuses though which presents problems(taken directly from the mag with my own input added):

1. There is no incentive to improve my game

A player who doesn't play well enough to beat the game will lose money or at best break even and so are forced to improve if they want to be a winning player. I learned this the hard way playing $1/2 long before i was ready. If you are getting a continuous stream of bonus money flowing though this no longer holds, you can steadily build your bankroll playing break even poker and are never forced to improve your game. It's then very easy to slip into a mentality of complacency where you consider your game "good enough" when in reality it contains huge holes.

2. You will move up limits too quickly

Yep, been there done that, wish i had read this column a few months back! I havn't been learning the skills to play the current level before moving up to new limits which potentially turns a winning player into a losing player. Learning skills is a cumulative procedure so while working through each limit you should be learning new things and honing existing skills. When dedicating play to bonus whoring it's all too easy to move through the limits without actually "winning" the money or beating the level which becomes a huge problem when you reach a level where the standard of play is much higher.

3. You are shielded from the reality of poker

Bonus whoring smoothes out downswings, big swings become little swings, little swings become break even and break even becomes winning. While this is good for the bankroll its not good for your game at all. It basically removes/ lessens two of the biggest two of the biggest issues players have to deal wit, coping with variance and managing your bankroll through downsings. How to cope with variance is something players have to learn, while bonus whoring you are rarely forced to cope with much variance. It should be learned at as low a stake as possible to avoid it hurting as much learning at a lot higher limit. Unfortunately i didn't learn it until $1/2 so the downswing was a shock to the system that i was ill equipped to deal with.

4. Your true ability is clouded

Some losing players chase a lot of bonuses and manage to make money as a result but underneath they are still a losing player but if they don't keep good records of what they are winning/ losing in each session they could easily be deluded. All they see is profit at the end of the month which makes them think they are a winning player rather than a losing player propped up by bonuses. When the bonuses dry up or when they move to a limit where they are less influential they will start to lose money.

5. You start to play in bad games at bad times

Another problem with playing for a bonus s that it propogates different objectives at the table. Rather than just trying to make the best decisions in terms of game selection, poker decisions and time/ length of sessions you are also trying to clear a bonus.
As soon as you introduce objectives into your game you start to get conflicts. Maybe you know you are tired or on tilt but need to play a certain amount of hands by the end of the night to clear a bonus. Maybe your stuck at a site with terrible games but are playing because a juicy bonus is on offer, or maybe you know you should drop down a limit but don't because you know it would make clearing the bonus a lot harder. The thing is, sometimes you are correct in making these decisions, what you lose in expectation you gain from the bonus. However it make poker a hell of a lot more complicated and you can pick up bad habbits.

Eventually you will hit a certain limit where bonus money no longer covers the cracks in your game, all the problems you have managed to avoid will suddenly catch up and hit you all at once. You are suddenly playing tougher games but your own game is still full of holes. You start to experience downsings that the bonus money can't hope to cover. the problem gets worse when you are staying in these bad games, refusing to quit when you are tired, bored or on tilt just so you can clear those last few hundered hands.

The article may come over as unduly negative about bonus whoring but it's not the message that is meant to be portrayed. All the problems with bonuses arise from the players chasing them rather than the bonus itself, more so the attitude and behaviour of these players. Bonuses are infact great as long as you avoid the mental pitfalls of doing so, the following mantra's are what is needed for this:

1. My primary goal will be to play good poker

Your goal is not to clear the biggest and best bonuses, it is to play good poker. at all times try to make the best decisions both at the table and away from the table, and concentrate all of your energy on that. If it transpires that you can clear bonuses at the same time then so much the better

2. I will never be satisfied with my game

You should be improving your game constantly. Read, study, discuss, post, anylyse. Never be satidfied with your game, even if you appear to be winning a lot of money. There is always something to learn and something that needs improving. Remember it will get harder as you move up in limits.

3. I will not get carried away with bonus fuelled results

Keep good records of how much you are winning at the table and a seperate record of how much you are making through bonuses, if you are breaking even or losing money at the table but still making money this is cause for alarm not satisfaction.

4. I will beat every limit

Don't move up a limit until you have proven you can beat your current limit. You shouldn't move up a limit until you have played a large number of hands (10,000 plus) at your current limit and proved to yourself you can beat it, even if bonus money means you have the bankroll to move up faster.

5. I will not take bonuses for granted

Bonuses are exactly that, a bonus. Dont assume they will always be around or that they will be as good as they are now. As the poker industry shakes out, it may well be that bonuses become thin on the ground or even dissapear altogether. You must be prepared for this time and one of the best ways to do this is to be able to beat the games legitamately. And certainly don't do anything as stupid as giving up your day job based on how much money you can make from chasing bonuses.

Make the most of your time at the table using bonuses to maximise your win rate, smooth out your downswings and hasten your advance through the lower limits.
Free money is good but only as long as you don't abuse it.

This article really opened my eyes as to the progression my game has taken in the last 6 months. I fell guilty to nearly everything bad bonus whoring does to players and am glad i can recognise this now. Hopefully when i start bonus whoring again i will have aq whole new approach and be even more successful. I'm not posting this to preach to others, i'm hoping people might find it as helpful as i have but it's mainly for me. I want to be able to look back on this post when i start whoring again or when i'm well into it again and start slipping back into old habbits.

This must be my longest post yet, kinda makes up for me not updating the blog as often as i should!

I'm Hitting Again!

2006-06-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

The "switch" has been flicked and i'm hitting some hands again and the suckouts are being minimized! It's about time i got through the rough patch that seemed never ending. I'll admit it's not all down to the cards that i've been having winning sessions again though. For one i've re discovered how to lay down marginal at best hands/ situations. I'm shaking off the fear of laying down a winning hand when i'm faced with tricky situations and its working in my favour, but i've also been working on avoiding being faced with these tricky situations which i'll talk about later.

Bonuses have been put on hold more or less as i want to concentrate on my play first. I did take advantage of the VC reload where i've been playing though. I've stepped down to the micro's to multi table short handed, i really enjoy this kind of play as opposed to 1 or 2 tabling full ring, my concentration is better, i play more sensibly and i really seem to suck at full ring play, something i plan to work on soon. Also sticking religously to the micro's so far ($.05/.10) and only buying in for half the max buy in $10. I don't plan to do this permantly as i understand it can be -EV since you are minimizing what you can win and if your at a table you have to expect to be winning. But its good for me right now, i play it like a challenege to see what i can turn $10 into, it makes me play aggressive because the money is so small and i don't mind losing $10 if i get sucked out on but also helps me lay down the tricky situations where it's usually better to fold since if i'm putting my money in when i'm behind and having to reload i've lost the "challenge" It sounds weird but its a mentality which is doing me well so far.

I've also managed to play really long sessions and still play well which is nice, where usually i would get tired and sloppy after 1-2 hours play i've recently been playing 3-4 hour sessions (late at night) and usually tripled up or better at each table. It's also suprised me how much easier it is to play when you get a good table that doesn't fall apart, i've had great reads on most players at my tables and adjusting my play accordingly and it's working. I was thinking of leaving a game yesterday having almost doubled up but i noticed one guy who had a big stack (for the limit) of $40+ but it was starting to go down and down and i could see him playing sloppy so i decided to stay a while. After a while he was down to around $25 and still playing sloppy so i decided to stay until he went broke. It took a while but he eventually lost all his money to me and the rest of the table, its always fun when you know someone is just destined to go broke in a matter of time!

I watched howard lederer's more secrets of no limit holdem and it provided one or two useful bits of information i hadn't been thinking about also. A lot of it was more or less common sense but value betting the river was covered which i've been having trouble with recently and i think will help me a lot. For example if i had top pair with an ok kicker but an over card or 3rd card of a straight comes etc. i might check even if i'm pretty sure i have the best hand just for safety and i'm thinking that i'm only going to be called by a hand that has me beat. However, now value betting seems a much better option as it provides information and also extracts value from situations where i'm fairly sure i have the best hand or with the right size bet, induces a bluff. Checking is providing my opponent with an opportunity to bluff me and potentially puts me in a tricky situation, i'm relatively sure i have the best hand but i'm now facing a pot sized bet for example. However if i stick in a small bet on the river it makes it much harder for my opponent to bluff or if i'm re rasied now i can fold more comfortably than i could if i checked and my opponent bet strong at me but priced me into a call due to pot odds combined with the chance that he is bluffing at my sign of weakness, so it saves me money when i'm beat also. If i have the best hand and i get a call then i'm getting extra money too and obviously since i'm sticking in a bet i have fold equity as well, a simple but effective play and i think will help one of the ares where my game has been weaker.

Also i have trouble knowing what to note about a player, unless its something pretty obvious (prone to check raise, rock, LAG etc.) But lederer suggests taking notice of players who value bet the river with marginal hands. I hadn't really thought about this at all and had never payed too much attention of opponents value bets until now. It was mentioned that people who don't value bet their marginal hands on the river will either have a big hand when they do bet it or be bluffing. It's not so hard to tell when someone will have a big hand so watching out for this will also increase my chance of catching bluffs/ avoiding big hands i think so long as i use the information given to me correctly!

Blackjacking

2006-06-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

In my last entry i forgot to add that there's no results for the month of may, it was a pretty uneventfull month anyway, i think i covered my poker losses with my casino winnings so probably about an even month.

Looking over my last post its kinda embarasing, i'm just going over a slight change to a basic play but sometimes i think i need to just work on my fundamentals to improve the more complex aspects of the game. I havnt't played any poker this month, i was away visitng family for 5 days and the start of the month is now somewhat traditionally blackjack season! Lots of casino whoring.

Starting with will hill, the monthly $25 is kinda hard to meet the wagering requirement since a fairly small downswing and the bonus money is gone, needless to say i crashed and burned there pretty quick.
Intercasino was next and i always seem to do quite well there. This month being no exception i cleared the WR for the $100 even (was about $50 above even but nasty luck at the end) An easy $100 always nice.
Just finished Ritz club london casino with £50 profit on top of the £50 bonus, no easy feat considering the WR is £2,000! did quite a bit of coverplay too since i was running so well.

I've got 1 or 2 more casino sites to do then i'll see what i feel like doing this month poker wise.

My New Play

2006-05-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

As i've mentioned i've dropped way down in limits due to getting beat on pretty hard recently. I'm playing so low that the money, win or lose isn't so much of an issue anymore and i can instead work on patching up my game and trying to find my flaws and fix them. A pretty standard hand came up but i decided to play it a little differently, i had so many thoughts about the hand and saw so many angles to it and eventually think i played it pretty well. I also stopped buying in for the max for a while, i think i can be too reckless when i have too much in front of me so its just a little test for me using half the max buy in, anyway:

Holdem No Limit
$0.05/$0.10
[May 23 15:11:55] : Hand Start.
[May 23 15:11:55] : Seat 1 : Bodieuk has $12.91
[May 23 15:11:55] : Seat 2 : JOKERJON has $8.43
[May 23 15:11:55] : Seat 3 : GregK2 has $10
[May 23 15:11:55] : Seat 4 : cat320 has $2
[May 23 15:11:55] : Seat 5 : ed4mi has $2.75
[May 23 15:11:55] : Seat 6 : pete85 has $18.55
[May 23 15:11:55] : Bodieuk is the dealer.
[May 23 15:11:55] : JOKERJON posted small blind.
[May 23 15:11:56] : GregK2 posted big blind.
[May 23 15:11:59] : cat320 posted big blind.
[May 23 15:11:59] : Game [52579] started with 6 players.
[May 23 15:11:59] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[May 23 15:11:59] : Seat 3 : GregK2 has 7s 8s
[May 23 15:12:02] : cat320 checked.
[May 23 15:12:02] : ed4mi called $0.10
[May 23 15:12:03] : pete85 folded.
[May 23 15:12:40] : Bodieuk called $0.10
[May 23 15:12:43] : JOKERJON called $0.05
[May 23 15:12:44] : GregK2 checked.
[May 23 15:12:45] : Dealing flop.
[May 23 15:12:45] : Board cards [Qc 4d 8d]
[May 23 15:12:50] : JOKERJON checked.
[May 23 15:12:35] : GregK2 bet $0.80
[May 23 15:12:50] : cat320 has 10 seconds to respond.
[May 23 15:13:36] : cat320 did not respond and is folded
[May 23 15:13:38] : ed4mi folded.
[May 23 15:13:39] : Bodieuk folded.
[May 23 15:13:42] : JOKERJON called $0.80
[May 23 15:13:43] : Dealing turn.
[May 23 15:13:43] : Board cards [Qc 4d 8d 3s]
[May 23 15:13:45] : JOKERJON checked.
[May 23 15:13:52] : GregK2 bet $1.60
[May 23 15:13:54] : JOKERJON called $1.60
[May 23 15:13:54] : Dealing river.
[May 23 15:13:54] : Board cards [Qc 4d 8d 3s 4c]
[May 23 15:13:58] : JOKERJON checked.
[May 23 15:14:00] : GregK2 checked.
[May 23 15:14:01] : Showdown!
[May 23 15:14:01] : Seat 3 : GregK2 has 7s 8s
[May 23 15:14:03] : Seat 2 : JOKERJON has 5d Kd
[May 23 15:14:03] : JOKERJON has Pair: 4s
[May 23 15:14:03] : Seat 3 : GregK2 has 7s 8s
[May 23 15:14:03] : GregK2 has Two Pair: 8s and 4s
[May 23 15:14:03] : GregK2 wins $5.04 with Two Pair: 8s and 4s
[May 23 15:13:42] : Hand is over.

OK, to start with i really like 7-8 suited, 1 of my favourite hands but i don't like it so much with the flop that was presented, but it was still playable. The hand was a fairly standard hand i'm just glad that i was having reasons for my actions and actually thinking it through, i think i've been lacking concentration recently and making bad plays because of it. The pot was $.48 and i was feeling to put a bet in of about 2/3 of the pot so about 30 cents. This is the way i would normally play it, and if a queen was out there and raised me more than minimum i would fold. Anyway this time i decided to over bet the pot, $.80 into a $.48 pot. My thoughts behind this move were that i'm only going to get called by a weakish queen (based on limp pre flop) or a flush draw since fishies love their flush draw and the players on this site are among the fishiest i know at any stake. I even think i may be able to get a weak queen to fold at this point, which is fine, i'm more than happy to take down the pot there and then with my mediocre hand.

So i'm called, i have position which helps tremendously and he checks to me. this has me thinking either that check is saying "I have top pair but no kicker, you made a big bet on the flop and i don't want to get too involved if your hand is as big as your bet says it is, so i'll see what you do now" or "darn no 3rd diamond for me there and he looks aggressive so i'm not going to bluff it" I think my play so far is profitable play for multiple reasons here, although i have invested $.80 to try to pick up $.48, on the turn, in position it means i might not get weak queens to bet out and i'm less likely to face a bet from a drawing hand who thinks i may be weak based on a small bet on the flop, it also allows me to narrow my opponents hand down quite considerably so i'm happy with the play up to here.

The turn, obviously a blank means i follow through with my game plan of representing a stronger hand than i have in hopes of either getting a weak queen or flush draw to fold. But i don't feel the need to overbet the pot this time, i stick in a fairly aggressive bet of $1.60 into a $2 pot. If he calls here i'm thinking i'm probably behind and only hope he misses his draw should he be on a draw. The bet is big enough to mean if he calls on a draw he's making a mistake albeit not a huge 1, getting more than 2 to1 on his money with a 27% chance of making his flush. On reflection a pot size bet would have been better here. $2 bet forcing him to make more of a mistake calling. So not a perfectly played turn but i feel it wasn't too bad either.

Since he calls i'm now thinking he cant let go of that queen no kicker, he's slow playing an over pair (highly unlikely) or set or possibly 2 pair, but no diamond comes up so if he was on a draw i'm in good shape. He checks yet again and i figure i'm only going to get called by a hand that has me beat, if he cant let go of a queen he's not going to now. I check and am delighted to see someone that didn't hit against me!

It restored my confidence somewhat after losing all the time, and i was really pleased with the amount of thought i put into the hand and all the options i considered to make a winning play. Althought it was the 1st hand i played and i think my concentration goes after a while which could be a problem, guess i just have to play shorter sessions.

More good news, interpoker are giving me $20 for 1 raked hand! as a welcome back to our site kinda thing. That was nice. But it hasn't all been good, yesterday i took some more heavy beats.
My AA sees a flop of K-x-x where x = rag and i manage to find a loose player to get all the money in with, he has AK and river is a K. Aces beat by Ace King..it about sums up the run i'm on. Also someone called my 5x BB raise pre flop with 7-2 and hit two pair against my 10-10 obviously it looked like a great flop but ended up losing quite a lot. and to top it off my KK manages to get a horrible 8-10-J-K-Q board with my opponent having 9-9 Yuck! although i played it too passively so i can take some of the blame there.

Rough...Rough Times

2006-05-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

Maybe i'm not the cash player i thought i was, or maybe this is the worst run i've had since i started playing, either way it the most frustrating thing in the world.

Every session for the past 2 weeks i've been losing. I just cant get the wins i used to and i cant fully work out why. I've ran into so many hands, had a stupidly abnormal percentage of people chasing their draws and hitting, it seems like if i'm ahead on the flop i'm still an underdog to win the hand against a drawing hand no matter what type of draw. I'm not hitting ANYTHING. I've had periods where i can't hit draws, or forget what its like to flop a set but recently it's just been ridiculous. AK must have lost me so much money, suited or not becuase i will so rarely hit and if i do i will be outdrawn 75% of the time. I've lost count of the times where i've tried to prevent drawing hands from staying in but they call anyway, normally not such a bad thing but when everyone is running so good against me my blood just boils after a few times.

I've been dropping down limits but to no avail, i lose at every level. i can't win races, hands i manage to get up against when i have them dominated pair their kicker while i'm left with nothing and i've had more than my fair share of 2 outers hitting. Just this morning must have played for about 20mins, someone flopped a set over my set, i had AQ beat by A-10 and the very next hand AK beat by A5 both with the money in pre flop, i've had my fullhouse beat by a straight flush and not really a bad beat but my AA runs into a horrible 9-10-K-9-10 board and i think i ended up making a good but highly annoying fold having invested a lot into the pot to see where i was before he goes all in. Also my KK is cursed, an ace will flop 80% of the time i have it and someone WILL have an ace everytime. If i don't lose with QQ,KK or AA it will be folded to me or will be folded after my raise even on the loosest of tables to a standard raise that i've been getting called on everytime before.

All in all i'm in a moaning type of mood (had you not noticed) I know thats poker, beats happen, bad runs happen but for how much longer?? i'm down to $220 in VC of the $500 i started. The only saving grace was winning a $1,000 freeroll, 350+ entrants for a cool $270 while i went into the final table as the short stack. But as you can see i've blown that and more. Maybe i used all my luck in that MTT, although i very nearly lost that MTT due to some insanely bad luck, like splitting huge pots where i was well ahead and had i won i win the tournament a lot easier, and my AJ losing to A-5 but luckily by then i had a good enough stack for it not to affect me too much.

So the put money in VC and just play there isn't working. I miss the cushion on a bonus and might have to start whoring again. I'll try VC for a little longer but if my run continues i'll soon be broke! Don't get me wrong its not all been bad beats, i've been outplayed a fair bit and also made some donkish moves that have cost me money like moving in on a 7s 8s-10s with QQ to a limp raiser, he's got aces at LEAST you dumbass! was screaming out from his play but i didn't want to listen beacuse i hadn't had a decent hand in about a million orbits, i was beat by so many hands but donated all my money away regardless, i blame my bad beats for casuing these kind of plays though!

Maybe i'll take a break from poker, do some reading, try to improve my game and iron out flaws.

Money Management

2006-05-12T04:51:00.000-07:00

My VC mission is going well so far, made it to $700 from my original $500 playing almost exclusively $.10/.20 in about 5 days which was nice. Yesterday though, my flat mate wakes me up about 2pm (man i've been having some late nights) and informs me he wants to go get a psp and wants some advice choosing the best offer. I figure why not i want to make sure he doesn't screw up on his game selection after all.

While looking in various game shops i start eyeing up xbox 360's that i've wanted since launch but not bought beacuse i'm in debt. Meanwhile my flat mate who just last week spent £300 on a new guitar is spending £200 on a psp while being in about the same debt as me! After thinking how much i had made on casino bonuses (approx £370) and poker (£105) just this month i decided to treat myself. I withdrew the £105 profit from VC to soften the blow to my bank. So now i've got the premium xbox 360, 2 wireless pads, PGR and Oblivion, for a cool sum of £372 I'm pretty pleased, the console is great, however i did a couple of donkish things..

I tried to plug in the network cable to my xbox 360 whilst playing PGR and wasn't looking at the console when i pulled the network cable closer it pulled the xbox which was standing vertically. It fell over and made a pretty ugly sound and it scratched my game :( It still works but has a big ring shaped scratch around the disc and causes some tracks not to load, i'm gonna take it back and see if i can blag a new copy.

Enough about that, this is a poker blog after all but there isn't much news on that front. Since withdrawing money from VC and leaving myself around the $500 mark i've made it back to $580. I wasn't gonna do any bonuses this month but since theres a 10x Party reload it's too good to pass up.

New Plan

2006-05-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

Time for change, No records for April since i left my results at my home and i'm now back at uni. I finished up but not as much as usual, about $500+ i think. Problem is most of that is stuck in the casino's i whored. 888.com want verification and starluck and planet won't let me withdraw back to my visa (yes i still havn't got around to setting up neteller, long story)

However while i built up a nice amount in VC poker i later realised i wasn't ready for the swings at $1/2 i took some horrendous beats, got cold decked and then my play suffered. At the top of my game i could make it at this level but i don't have the confidence in myself to stick to my A game at all times. So i won big then lost big at VC and it really made me doubt my game. I was attracted by the fishiness of a lot of the players at VC but i think my play is suffering playing these players, as weird as that may sound. I think it's a combination of the fact that after playing a couple of maniacs i don't give respect to anyone, everyone is bluffing me or trying to make a move on me in my head which just isn't the case a lot of the time. Also i deviate from a TAG style and end up playing like the other fish, playing too many starting hands and calling down when i know i'm beat or bluffing at the nuts.

As a result i havn't been playing much recently, i just havn't got the confidence that i can win anymore. I'm not quitting, just taking a moment to reflect and sort out my problems and devise a new game plan. I'm done bonus whoring for a while, I'm limited to Crypto's and Prima's pretty much and while Crypto's are ok there monthly isn't brilliant and if my play suffers from multi tabling there i'd rather leave it for now. Prima's suck so thats an easy choice to avoid.

Also on my list of problems is my bankroll management. It never has really been a bankroll as such, just money going to and from my bank account. I've decided to start a fresh with $500 take advantage of the reload bonus at VC and progress through the stakes. This time i'm goin to try my hardest to stay disciplined. No stupid moves, no buying in above my head, and taking proper breaks when i see my play is not at it's best whether winning or losing. It's gonna be tough but to start with i'm going to be playing $.10/.20 Which on a $500 bankroll seems pretty ridiculous but i need to get my game back first and foremost and play some relatively pressure free poker again. I can blow the maximum buy in of $40 and my bankroll can take the blow easily enough, i can't do this with a $100 buy in.

I think i'll try to make it to $600+ before i move up to $.25/.50 and move down again if i dip below $500. I'm gonna need some serious discipline to keep to the system but after blowing hundereds of dollars at limits i'm not ready for i think i can stick to it. My target will be to build a bankroll basically, maybe i need the fear of going broke to make me play better again, if i go bust there's no more money going in, this is my bankroll if i lose it it's gone. I'm still gonna whore monthly casino's but wont add winnings to my poker bankroll, any winnings from them will just go to my bank.

Uneventful Times/ Lazy Me

2006-04-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

I havn't been keeping up with this blog much, partly due to the fact i've done 1 bonus this month and partly beacuse i'm just too damn lazy sometimes.

Betfred wasn't so successful, i started reading Super System 2 and i blame that partly. Reading that basically says be aggressive...really aggressive. At least thats what i got from what i've read of the NL section so far. There's two problems with this for me, at $.25/.50 people will call anything so a general TAG style is always gonna be profitable, but so dull after a while! So yeah i tried mixing it up a bit trying new things and, well, got punished for it on the most part. Luckily the bonus is big and meant i still made $127 for my efforts. Dissapointing though, i should have made at least $100 through my play and been making $350 instead of $127.

Since that bonus i just did what i always do when i'm not whoring, play at Victor Chandler. I love this site and the maniacs that flock to it! The buddy list helps a bunch too. I was just playing the juicy looking $.25/.50 short handed tables whenever they cropped up and was making a tidy profit from a few short sessions. Then i was talking to my friend who started me on poker and he's saying i should be playing higher. We started playing online at the same time and although my bankroll is bigger than his he has been playing $.50/1 and even $1/2
Now $.50/1 isn't a problem for me it's just the swings i've taken at the level on will hill worry me a bit. I argued my case that i was finding $.25/.50 tables with the same avg pot sizes as good games at $.50/1 but after thinking about it decided to dip my toes in $.50/1 and shortly after $1/2. I'm glad i did, i've been making as much money if not more than i would be getting whoring a good few sites. Also i can play for as long or as little as i like and only 1 or 2 tables without the pressure of having to play for hours for raked hands.

So i've managed to find some loose players willing to give me money and i've done pretty well at guarding mine from the sharks for the most part. Getting stung at this level hurts but i've managed to keep suckouts and avoid other people's monsters mostly. I did get stung bad when a super LAG player hit 2 pair on the flop against my top pair King kicker on a 4-7-10 board. I could have put him on a set or overpair but not 7-4 after raising 5x BB pre flop! I had seen him make the strangest calls and felt confident that even top pair against him was good, not that time though. But oh well i think both me and him made pretty bad mistakes in that hand. So i think i lost almost my full $100 buy in on that hand, a hurtful loss. I reloaded for another $100 which is something i rarely do at a table where i go bust but i really felt i could get my money back and more fairly easily. I did, it didn't take long at all before the LAG guy fed my chips back to the table and i managed to get him to feed it back to me for the most part which was nice. 20 minutes after i had reloaded i was back up to $250 before the table started breaking up and i called it a day.

I've had some good sessions at $1/2 also and as a result have turned the $40 or so i had at the start of the month in VC into $600+ I was suprised how easy i got into $1/2 i'm not playing weak tight like i thought i might. But i have been avoiding playing short handed since i don't think i quite have the aggression and confidence at the level yet.

I've found a cool little blog related to building a bankroll which i have have added to my links, lists some really easy casino bonuses to do so i've also been doing some of them. Managed to meet the 20x WR at 888.com casino with the $200 bonus intact +$10 profit which was nice, problem is i have to send them a bunch of documents before i can cash out :( There CS is pretty useless there too and don't seem to have much of a clue what was going on with my account after they put it on soft block until i produce my documents.

Speaking of Casino CS i had an unusual question from them at starluck casino:

GregK2:when will my bonus be credited?
Tulsi:Would you like me to add the bonus to your account?
GregK2:yes please
Tulsi:Please note that the wagering for the sign-up bonus is 8 times the deposit and bonus amount and the invalid game for wagering is Roulette.
Tulsi:Please confirm if you want me to add the bonus.

Would i like my bonus? hmmm thats a toughie, i opted for yes this time. I even get a second chance to decline the bonus, i'm feeling nervous now is this bonus cursed or something? It seems it was, the dealer was running in god mode and i lost the $100 bonus pretty quick.

More of the same for the rest of the month i think, more tribecca play. I'm on target for my best month yet suprisingly, i have to decide whether to abandon bonuses or just play higher stakes whilst clearing.

Oh and 1 more thing (wow i actually have a few things to talk about after my blog drought) If anyone has seen Bill Filmaff episodes before http://www.billfillmaff.com will know some of them are pretty damn funny since is just a blatent piss take of phil hellmuth. Anyway UB have now set up a tournament between the two http://www.billvsphil.com it looks set to be pretty funny!

My Slow Month

2006-04-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

As expected i've got off to my slowest start of the month yet. Started with some quick and easy casino monthly's interpoker and will hill but crashed and burned at both so no money made there but none lost either.

Been playing around on VC now and then and actually had a really good day on there yesterday. Managed to find some complete maniacs around the $.25/.50 level and managed to get the cards against them. think i played 3 short sessions (15-20mins) and made $140. Not bad considering i was just playing a single table just out of boredom now and then.

Today i signed up to Betfred which looks like a really great bonus $250 for 2500 raked which is ok but the beauty is pots are raked at $1 so playing my comfort zone $.25/.50 any hand that see's a flop is raked, nice. The players seem prety loose there too i did sit at the highest avg pot tables there was though. Having a fairly nice run up about $40 despite being down on 1 or 2 tables of 4 i was seated at until lady luck decided to own me for a while:

GAME #380202959: NLH .25/.50 (6 max) - 2006-04-07 09:14:29
Table Cappaghmore (6 max)
Seat 1: GregK2 ($27.9 in chips)
Seat 2: Cec83 ($33.19 in chips)
Seat 3: npr34787662 ($30.2 in chips)
Seat 4: genco ($41.05 in chips)
Seat 5: Jerico ($49.68 in chips)
Seat 6: bucky22 ($5.58 in chips)

Cec83: Post SB $0.25
npr34787662: Post BB $0.5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GregK2 [Ad As]
genco: Raise $2.05
Jerico: Call $2.05
bucky22: Fold
GregK2: Raise $7.20
Cec83: Fold
npr34787662: Fold
genco: Fold
Jerico: Call $5.15
*** FLOP *** [3h 9c 10d]
Jerico: Allin $42.48
GregK2: Allin $20.7
*** TURN *** [3h 9c 10d 10s]
*** RIVER *** [3h 9c 10d 10s 10h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GregK2: shows (mucked) [Ad As] (Full house)
Jerico: shows [Ac 10c] (Four of a kind)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $77.48 Rake $2.90
Jerico: wins $77.48

I was almost ready to vomit after seeing that. The worst part was betfred don't reveal hands when players are all in, only the winners hand is shown after all cards are out, so i sat there watching 3 tens come out thinking great i have a full house all i have to do is a avoid a 10. He flips up A-10 and my heart sinks. I'm not sure how he called my raise pre flop but hell it paid off for him that time. I'd bought into that game for the maximum $50 so wasn't doing great anyway but that pot would have turned it around for me instead i just blew the $50.

Soon after i get AK suited on 1 table and AA on the other and manage to lose with both! With AK flop comes A-10-J i bet strong get re raised all in i decide to fold he shows JJ, a good fold at least but still the hand cost me $10-$15. Then Aces got cracked by J9 again who called a big raise pre flop (6x BB) when he flops a straight. Finally i'm dealt 55 the board is something like A-J-2-J-5 it was checked down to the river so i get to catch my boat for free and made a stupid move. He bet fairly strong i re raised much stronger and he came over the top calling me all in. It wasn't much to call so there was no option of laying it down and from pre flop play i couldn't put him on AJ but sure enough he had it.

All those hands happened in the space of about 15-20 minutes it was sickening. I was now down and decided to take a break. I went back and 3 tabled full ring games, it went pretty well and i repaired some of the damage i had done earlier on. Currenty done approx 1000 of the 2500 rakes and about $40 down. I think i should be able to turn it around as long as the cards go my way a little more and i don't make silly mistakes.

On a side note the betfred software is pretty good and the CS is amazing! Went on live help and had admin racing to help within seconds. I asked how to get my hand history from a table i had already left and they said i had to email them and state table number or hand number, i didn't have either of these but thanked them for their help anyway when they then told me they could search for it right now if it was a specific hand! It was, it was the 1 posted above where i lost to A-10, i left the table quick like i do a lot when i take a beat but then wanted to see the history to review how the hand went down and to post here. after a while of searching they found it and when i asked if i could have it emailed to me they did so almost instantly.

Depending on how much time i get this weekend i hope to have this bonus cleared by tomorrow and maybe start doing some B2B sites.

Results for March

2006-03-31T05:52:00.000-08:00

An average month thanks to my MTT win, and no thanks to my tilt early on in the month where i blew $200 in frustration...

----Mar----

$20 From Feb in VC $140 out (+120) $120 poker profit

$200 in Intercasino $275 out (+75) $75 bonus

$200 in Spin Palace Poker $0 out (-200) $0 Bonus -$200 poker/casino

$228 in will hill $158 out (-70) $45 bonus -$115 poker profit

$200 in poker plex $490 out (+290) $50 bonus $240 Poker profit

$200 in Sun Poker $200 out (+0) $40 bonus $-$40 Poker profit

$500 in Party Poker $668 out (+168) $75 bonus $93 Poker profit

$200 in Interpoker $457 out (+257) $257 poker profit

$100 in Wild Jack Poker $150 out (+50) $50 Bonus $0 poker profit

$20 in Spin Palace Poker $300 out $75 remains (+355) $355 poker profit

Mar Profit (£598) ($1,045)

Current Bankroll: £1,771 ($3,094)

I would be kicking myself for not really making more but for the last 10 days of the month or so i didn't do any whoring. I was tired of it and decided to play mostly MTT's and low level cash games just for fun. The mistake i made this month was trying to play through too many bonuses in a short space of time. After taking the $200 hit early on i worked my ass off to get back into positive figures for the month, almost as if i was embarrased at myself for losing. It worked in the short term but after a while i stop playing my best and my results suffer.

Also i think i would be much more successful at bonus whoring if i had acess to more sites, i really want to be doing B2B and then poker room skins but alas i am restricted by this damn network.

Spin palace disaster should be a huge slap in the face to stop doing stupid things, While i took a lot of stupid beats there i shouldn't have donked off my last $70 without a care, I won't be doing it again. Poker plex went amazingly well again, I did actually finish sun poker monthly +$50 but i played more there and got involved in a few set over set situations which cost me my profit. Interpoker whilst taking some swings there i finished well on top however with no bonus... Always read T&C's damnit! (cant do casino bonus and poker bonus, has to be 1 or the other) But with the money made off my play there i wasn't too mad at myself.

It's easter holidays for me, 3 weeks i think which seems like a hell of a long time. So i'll be home, limited poker time and i will probably have to start real work again :(
Expect April results to be seriously low. In all honesty though i could probably use a break from poker, hopefully i'll come back ready to play my A game for longer hours.

MTT Success/ I Broke My Blog

2006-03-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

Somehow when posting my last entry i managed to mess up my blog, the links and stuff got moved right down to the bottom on the right when it should be up the top, i have no idea how it happened or how to fix it, it's quite annoying!

Yesterday i turned my results right around from being a below average month to being a pretty good 1 again! and all it took was 2 MTT's.

I won't go into deatil with hands or anything because to tell the truth i really dont remember much of it. First off was a little $2 + .20 MTT on VC. I do little MTT's like this on VC quite a lot since its kinda my have fun account so i just play around with tourneys there. I somehow managed to get a pretty big stack fairly early on which rarely happens to me. It's so much easier getting through a MTT with a big stack, all the short stacks are scared of you and you can make big raises comfortably and pretty much just pick up blinds/ knock out the short stacks going all in with junk. So after a few hrs i was on the final table (460+ entrants so it took a while!) with amedium stack and managed to pick up 3rd for $101 although i almost doubled up when i did bust out which would have put me 2nd in chips but it wasn't to be (see screenshot)

So that was nice and all, $2 netted me over $100 but the best was still to come!

I sometimes watch a live feed of a poker channel thats shown on sky called poker zone. A show called poker night live is shown from 10pm -2am and they broadcast a bunch of tables from the prima network. They have a televised MTT every night, $10+$1 so i decided to give it a go and who knows maybe get on TV. I started out well, won a big hand with QQ after a maniac semi bluffed all his chips away with A7o after hitting a 7 on the flop. That hand was actually televised and it's fun to hear the commentators talk about you busting someone out! I won a few more big pots and was cruising through the tournament mostly in 1st place.

There were only 113 entrants so i figured i would make the final table pretty easy. It took a long ass time to get from 12 to 8 but eventually i made the final table (only 8 seats per table) Obviously there is a delay between the action at the table and the broadcasting of it on the show so they didn't start showing the final table beginning untill i was down to the last 2 or 3. I actually went into the final table with someone having a 3 to 1 chip lead on me in 2nd place, guessing he double or even tripled up just before making the final table. But i played solid, stole blinds when i felt they were there for the taking (as pretty much everyone was doing for a good 20mins) and eventually i knocked out 3rd place to bring me heads up with about a 2 to 1 chip lead.

He was a really tight player so i was stealing and stealing until i found 10-Q hearts, i raised he re raised all in, i figure he's getting fed up of folding and if i lose i'm still fairly comfortably in it. I call he has K-Qo doh. No help for me he doubles up and now has the 2 to 1 advantage over me. However he is way too passive for heads up and i steadily increase my chip stack before he gets fed up again and goes all in however this time i have QQ, i dont remeber what he had but it wasn't much, i take the lead back and it ends a few hands later. Don't remeber the final hands i was too busy leaping around having won my first MTT! $339 was a nice prize too!

Then i get to watch the final table again as it's broadcast, Interesting to see everyones hand and what people were raising with, I frequently saw i was raising pots pre flop and hands that had me beat were folding due to my stack size. The commentators seemed to like my performance, and praised a lot of my plays which is always nice. Hopefully i will have a video of the final table soon, it's repeated and i have software that i can use to record. Right now i have to get ready for a friends birthday, going to a big club in a limmo! never been in one before so i cant wait!

Mashed Season!

2006-03-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

While i started off the month eager to make more than the previous, i've now changed down a gear, not playing as much and just having some fun with the game again.

Having already done more sites than last month i'm kinda in need of a break from bonus whoring. I signed up to Wild Jack after running seriously low on new places to play, small bonus just to test the waters after my horrible expierience of previous prima's. It went ok'ish. 250 rakes so i cleared it in a day but only made $4 from poker play, yuck. Plus, 3 days after i finished the 250 rakes they havn't given me the bonus yet, fired off my 3rd email today probably wont get a response again guess i'll have to ring up, sigh. Automated bonus payout should be in place everywhere.

The fact that my birthday was this month (now 20, and hate it!) meant i didn't play for a few days, going home to see friends/ family, going out with my flatmates/ coursemates etc. So i had a few nights off. Also i finally managed to get my xbox pads that had been stuck at a friends house across town for a long time, bring on the "mashed" sessions that went on last year. I've got a little box of a room and i don't make much effort to keep my room tidy yet once i have 4 pads and the game mashed ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000289WBS/qid=1143133189/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_11_3/026-4209937-1568463 ) somehow i manage to fit 4, 5 even 6 people in! It's easily the best party game i've played, the amount of hillarious shit talking/ rivalries is half of what makes the game so fun! Also the simplicity means no one is ever able to get amazingly good at it and vice versa. Although i will admit i usually manage to get 1st ;)

So yeah all the distractions add up and cause me to have a pretty weak month. I found myself trying to play too much in one session trying to make back lost time which just isn't a good idea. My play suffered at a lot of the sites and i was getting myself into somewhat of a hole. So i'm just gonna take it easy for a week or so. I've also noticed i'm not really improving or adding much new to my game at all. I aim to fix this, do some reading, try out a few new things and hopefully gain more interest in the game which i seem to be lacking a bit of recently.

Also just downloaded Poker Tracker trial to see what it's like. I like it, seems like a pretty essential tool if i'm going to improve my game and patch up holes. Put my most recent party hands into it and most of the numbers seem to be in place, a few suprises came up though such as AKo and QQ losing me quite a bit of money however these stats cover ~1000 hands so the data isn't very useful but it is a nice little insight as to how i'm playing/ what hands i'm winning with and losing with. I think i'll buy the full version soon so i can anylyse more than 1000 hands, i could download it but to be honest i think this program deserves credit and $55 isn't that much for the amount of things the program does.

My VP$IP is a little low but better than being too high i guess. PF Raise % is also a little lower than i would have expected/ wanted. So i've got stuff to work on.

Back on Track

2006-03-18T20:25:00.000-08:00

After the shaky start to the month i've finally managed to turn it around and i'm at the mark i feel i should be at for this point in the month, which is good.

Interpoker took longer than i expected and as such i took quite a few swings but ended on a great upswing which was nice, to give you an idea of the swings i took there check out the monthly statement figures:

03/01/06 $200.00
03/06/06 $200.00
03/06/06 $194.92
03/06/06 $217.23
03/07/06 $255.59
03/08/06 $260.46
03/08/06 $286.11
03/09/06 $348.41
03/09/06 $341.51
03/09/06 $334.16
03/09/06 $371.51
03/09/06 $350.63
03/09/06 $370.13
03/12/06 $316.39
03/13/06 $307.33
03/16/06 $306.74
03/17/06 $206.98
03/17/06 $261.48
03/17/06 $303.77
03/18/06 $293.62
03/18/06 $365.33
03/18/06 $407.55
03/18/06 $457.50

So yeah i was cruising at first then when i hit a high point of $370 i crashed and burned for a while for some reason, i got out drawn a lot and ran into a few monsters which didn't help. but business resumed as normal after i hit the $206 low and i finish with a few great sessions for a tidy profit.

Party reload also came along and took my attention away from inter for a while. While my poker play suffered clearing the sign up at party it was good to get back there nonetheless. I minimised my bluffing to adapt to the typical party fish style of never fold a hand and got paid off on my good hands which i should of done when clearing the sign up but figured out the gameplay style to use too late back then! So a nice easy $168 made at party in 2 days or so, boy do 750 rakes fly at party. I could have stuck around for the further 15x and 20x bonus both up to $75 but the raked hand counter doesnt keep track of the bonus for you and the problems i was reading people having over on Bonus Whores forums regarding party paying out the 15x and 20x bonus put me off, plus i had inter to go and i really wanted to get that one out of the way.

Now while i'm making money at the crypto's i'm gettin a bit tired of playing on them now, having done 4 this month already i'm in need of somewhere different to play, while i hate the prima skins with a passion i may end up on one again if nothing else to remind myself how much i prefer crypto's. Really want to do B2B's or even Poker Room skins but alas, the network says no go still.

On a side note scrubs is quite possibly the best comedy ever, i knew i liked it a long time ago but having just been given series 3, 4 and half of 5 i've been watching it a hell of a lot and reminded myself how good it is! The style of the whole show is just genious! I've still got plenty episodes to watch so i think i'll watch a couple before i hit the sack tonight, its a great timewaster thats for sure.

Random Update

2006-03-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

Currently still working through Interpoker sign up, half way there with $170 poker profit so far so it's going fairly well, although i should really be up a bit more but i lost 1 big hand earlier today. I occasionly play the GBP games on the crypto's, gotta say a lot of the brits are terrible players and some of the easiest games can be found on GBP tables, its when they suck out that it hurts...

-----HAND 17------
Game #1823097783: Hold'em NL (£0.15/£0.25) - 2006/03/09 - 20:57:59 (ET)
Table "Khaen" Seat 9 is the button.
Seat 1: Jami13033 (£25.15 in chips)
Seat 2: Wrong_Way (£20.70 in chips)
Seat 3: aaron22 (£5.70 in chips)
Seat 4: GregK2 (£45 in chips)
Seat 5: a'm-lucky (£19.35 in chips)
Seat 6: zlatan87 (£31.35 in chips)
Seat 7: Pipini (£6 in chips)
Seat 8: blqd3q (£25 in chips)
Seat 9: Squishy (£33.55 in chips)
Seat 10: Dabble (£28.29 in chips)
Dabble: posts small blind £0.15
Jami13033: posts big blind £0.25
Pipini: posts big blind £0.25
blqd3q: posts big blind £0.25
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to GregK2 [Kd Ts]
Wrong_Way: folds
aaron22: calls £0.25
GregK2: calls £0.25
a'm-lucky: folds
zlatan87: folds
Pipini: checks
blqd3q: checks
Squishy: folds
Dabble: raises to £0.75
Jami13033: calls £0.50
aaron22: calls £0.50
GregK2: calls £0.50
Pipini: folds
blqd3q: folds
----- FLOP ----- [Ac 7d Jh]
Dabble: bets £0.75
Jami13033: calls £0.75
aaron22: folds
GregK2: calls £0.75
----- TURN ----- [Ac 7d Jh][Qd]
Dabble: bets £3
Jami13033: raises to £23.65 and is all-in
GregK2: raises to £43.50 and is all-in
Dabble: is all-in £23.79
Returned uncalled bets £16.71 to GregK2
----- RIVER ----- [Ac 7d Jh Qd][Ad]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
GregK2: shows [Kd Ts] (A Straight, Ace high)
Dabble: shows [Ah Qc] (A Full House, Aces full of Queens)
Jami13033: shows [Qs Kh] (Two Pairs, Aces and Queens, King high)
Dabble collects £6.28 from Side pot #1
Dabble collects £73.70 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot £82.98 Main pot £73.70 Side pot #1 £6.28 Rake £3
Board [Ac 7d Jh Qd Ad]
Seat 1: Jami13033 (big blind) showed [Qs Kh] and lost
Seat 2: Wrong_Way folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: aaron22 folded on the Flop
Seat 4: GregK2 showed [Kd Ts] and lost
Seat 5: a'm-lucky folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: zlatan87 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Pipini (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: blqd3q (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Squishy (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: Dabble (small blind) showed [Ah Qc] and won (£79.98) with A Full House, Aces full of Queens

So yeah that 1 hurt, although i had taken down a $125 pot earlier on in the day to counter the loss, hence me still being in a decent amount of profit so far. So half way there making a steady profit with only the 1 major bad beat so far, i should finish this bonus within the next few days with a decent amount made.

In other news, i got to sit at a table online with Tex Dolly himself Doyle Brunson! He and Mike Caro are frequently on the tribecca network since Doyle's Room uses that network. Since Victor Chandler also uses the same network i get to see him online now and then. I see Doyle often playing low stake games for a few minutes before a bounty tournament starts which seems to be a weekly occurance. So i see him sitting at a $.25/.50 Lim and i get a seat! Unfortunately i dont manage to take a pot off him and he leaves after just a few hands but still pretty cool.

Rollercoaster

2006-03-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

This month has been action packed with upswings/ downswings and its only 5 days in!

I started the month with some casino whoring, william hill casino i always seem to go bust really fast at blackjack but its a risk free bonus so i can't complain. Intercasino however is a different story i seem to do really well there and have met the wagering requirements for the bonus in 2 consecutive months now.

The Intercasino bonus while i ended up making money on it was a bit of a dissapointment, i was well up with about 80% wagering requirements done before i started getting greedy & unlucky at the same time. Lost a few big bets and ended up meeting the requirements with $75 profit. Dissapointing as i was up about $200 but again for a risk free bonus not too shabby.

Next was Spin Palace Poker. While i decided no more prima's for a while i gave in as the bonus looked easy and i was looking for new sign up bonuses to do and running low on sites left i can do with the network blocking a LOT of new sites i've been trying. Big mistake anyway to cut it short my downswing continued from the last prima i did, same run of awful cards coupled with getting beat with my good hands, i dropped over $100 of my $200 deposit FAST. too fast, i said fuck this place and put a bunch of money on roulette, i was gonna double up with 1 big bet and leave or lose and never return. I could have walked away and cashed out $70 or so i had left but was in serious tilt mode and i'm too stubborn to cut my losses without taking a win to soften the blow first, so yeah, $200 gone. Worried and annoyed at the same time here But determined to turn it around.

I followed that with William Hill poker monthly, it went pretty well for me last month but this month wasn't so good. I grinded out mostly break even poker untill right at the end where some big pots lost cost me. For a few hours poker, going from being in a profit to being in quite a sizeable loss in the space of a few hands is hard to deal with but thats what you get with NL. I was faced with a few situations that i would be comfortable with at lower stake but at $.50/1 were costing me a lot of money when i made the wrong descision, i decided to post 1 of these hands over at the poker thread on shoryuken forums (http://www.shoryuken.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2986776#post2986779) Some really knowledgeable players there always on hand to give advice, point out mistakes etc. The hand raised some pretty heated discussion which turned out to be a good informative read, while i lost the pot i definitely learned a lot from this hand.

I took onboard what had been said about my plays over to Poker Plex and feel i played some of my best poker for a long time, coupled with a good run of cards and i was set. Poker Plex was really good to me last month and i made a bunch of money there, this month was no different and i made my $200 into $490 (incl $50 bonus) in no time. I had effectively canceled out my stupidness at Spin Palace and got back to + figures for the month, but only just and i had spent a LOT of time playing to be $50 up or so for the month.

Sun Poker was my target for today, a little better than break even poker means i end up $50 up. An easy bonus though and i seem to have broken the losing string at least.

So after a few days of heavy poker/ casino playing i'm up $145 for the month so far. The rollercoaster has hit a high at the moment and i'll try my hardest to keep it climbing although i fear this could be a disspointing month. Running out of new bonuses to whore so it'll be mostly crypto's this month, Interpoker is next on the list, 500 rakes could take a while though.

Sun Poker Finished/ February Results

2006-02-27T10:56:00.000-08:00

Since i finished sun poker sign up bonus today and wont be playing any more poker tomorrow i figured i would post results for the month today.

$87 from jan in VC $541 out $20 remains (+474)

$100 in Poker Plex $381 out (+281)

$220 in William Hill $277 out (+57)

$100 in Inter Casino $140 out (+40)

$200 in casino.net $150 out (-50)

$400 in Poker Rewards $330 out (-70)

$100 in Sun Poker $343 out (+243)

Feb Profit (£560) ($975)
Current Bankroll: £1,178 ($2,049)

So not a great month but also not a terrible one either. The casino.net loss was just stupidity on my part not understanding the wagering requirements system on the casino side so thats an unnecessary loss which won't be happening again. Really regret doing poker rewards now, it took so long and i ended up losing money but at least the bonus cushioned my loss.

Sun poker went pretty quickly and i had a great run throughout, i really like playing on the crypto sites, nice software and lots of fish. Problem is Ecash sucks and wont let me withdraw to my Visa so i'm having to use cheques until i get around to setting up Neteller.

So practically all my money came from Crypto's and MTT wins at Victor Chandler. Didn't play anywhere near as much poker this month as i did last month so the result of making a little less money was to be expected, but the bankroll is pretty strong now so hopefully i can move through the stakes and not rely on bonus money so much to make me money.

I've also realised simply looking at how much i put in and take out of a site may hurt my gameplay in the long run. I want to be a winning poker player and have bonus money as a nice added extra rather than forcing myself to play with the sole intention of earning a bonus. For example my results from party last month show a +$50 result but in reality that means i lost $50 in poker play and the bonus saved my ass, not good. Starting next month i will track how much i am making through poker play as well as bonus money, i'm sure the results will be interesting and more useful to me.

Grinding out Losses

2006-02-24T05:39:00.000-08:00

I mean, its one thing grinding out a profit but grinding out a steady loss is really depressing.

Finally finished poker rewards, 2000 raked for $200. I had a horrible session everytime i played especially between 500-1800 raked hand mark. I just couldn't get any decent hands, couldn't hit a flop in what seemed an eternity and when i hit something i was getting out drawn every single time. After i've waited for an hour on maybe 3 tables for a decent hand only to have it cracked by 6-8 off suit after he calls a bet he didn't have the odds for to hit a straight or flush on the turn/river and my play spirals out of control and i lose even more.

I've had downswings but this was just ridiculous, I couldn't work out why i just couldn't turn out a profit anymore, the cards were incredibly cold, and my good hands weren't holding up was part of it but i had to question my play also. Have i become an easy read? are the fish calling all of my bluffs with nothing because they KNOW i'm bluffing or just because they're maniacs? Am i still not ready for $.25/.50 even though i've had success at $.50/1? Is multi tabling more than 3 tables affecting my game? Am i not aggressive enough to get rid of drawing hands? Some of the many questions i've had to ask myself while playing at poker rewards.

I realised i was going to make a loss even with the bonus at poker rewards around the 1500 raked hand mark, where i had crashed and burned in every session. That is the worst thing i've had to overcome mentally so far, grinding out 500 raked hands which are going really slow when i'm on a big downswing and am trying to just minimize how much i'm going to lose clearing the bonus.

I did however have a pretty good run in my very last session and ended up $70 down overall when i was looking at making a $150 loss before. I had about $40-50 of my $400 deposit around the 1600 raked hand mark so to cash out $330 was some pretty good damage limitation.

I was so relieved to just cash the bonus of that site and i won't be doing a prima again for a while at least, the beats i've taken have given me nightmares!
Onto Sun Poker, immediately i have a nice suprise waiting for me, i've already got $102 dollars in there! I totally forgot about it so not having to deposit was good since the bank account is looking a little small at the moment. 2nd hand i played at sun poker i get KK and lose to K-3 as he calls to catch a flush, i bet quite strong but feel if i had bet just a little more i would get him to fold which i should have done so i can take some blame for that.

It doesn't look like i'm gonna get anywhere near my target of $1,500 for the month however it is a short month so the target was a bit optimistic. And with me wasting a lot of time losing at poker rewards it looks like i'll have to settle for making less than last month, Luckily my early success with pokerplex and my MTT wins at VC have kept me well in + figures this month. I also won my weekly game on campus (woo hoo!) Knocking this 1 guy who hadn't lost for like 5 weeks. That felt really good and i feel i played some great poker especially 3 handed.

70 raked hands done last night on sun poker of 250 target so i should have that done by tomorrow hopefully in a positive figure this time..

The Curse is Broken

2006-02-17T04:24:00.000-08:00

I said yesterday i was leaving MTT's for a while but i saw this 1 starting last night and just couldn't help but join. $3,500 Guart'd Re-buy Speed. $18+0.90 130 entrants. The amount of entrants being that low is always great and i seem to fair well in speed tourneys as i have the patience to wait for hands and let other people in desperation mode bust out along the way.

I actually had to re buy after the very 1st hand which was not a good sign at all, I had JJ and only faced a small raise behind me, with the amount of maniac you get in the early stage i just decide to push and plan to take an early lead with the comfort of knowing i can re buy if i crash and burn. I crashed and i burned but after that i didnt re buy or add on and didn't lose another hand until the final table.

Didn't actually get a premium hand until the final table either which is very odd, not even QQ but i managed to get through with what i had. Top 18 got paid and i have a habbit of tightening up so much just to make the money that i almost get blinded out on or near the bubble especially in speed tournaments. This time was no different i was in the bottom 3 with 20 left with the BB being 90% of my stack. Luckily others got eaten up by the blinds before me and i made the money and was able to play properly again. Made it to the final table as i think the 2nd lowest on chips and didnt expect to get far at all. However a few nice hands inclusing AA helped me survive and actually go to chip leader, albeit for 1 hand. The swings are huge by this time since blinds are so big, when i had the chip lead i got A-10 so i pushed all in thinking i had a very good chance of winning if i take someone else out here. It wasn't to be he has Q-8 and hits a pair while i hit nothing. Soon after i bust out along with someone else but i got 4th, i probably would have got 3rd if i had folded and let the other guy go out before me but i had a good hand A-J (a monster at this stage) but someone else caught two pair with A-8 and knocked us both out. I regret not folding a little but i think i had the right attitutude thats gonna win me my 1st MTT someday, go for gold.

In other news i played a $10 9 seat Sit n Go, had to leave my university halls near the start due to a fire alarm (god damnit!) come back 15 mins later having dropped a few 100 chips and ended up coming in 2nd place which was nice!

As i said i was going to do some poker rerwads bonus clearing i did just that too. Although i didn't get much done, i made $70+ over 2 tables in 20 mins - 1/2 hr, and yet felt so bored and really wasn't enjoying myself which was worrying since i was making money?

Anyway i went down to $16 in VC about 4 days ago and now im sitting on $474. The tournament player in me is alive again, just need to get the desire to play cash games again.

I Must be Cursed

2006-02-16T09:39:00.000-08:00

I must have one hell of a fucking curse on me.

Yes it's another post with me moaning, i won't go into great detail. MTT $12 buy in i had to rebuy and i decided to use the add on. So a shaky start but i got into the swing of things won a few hands and had an avergae chip stack with 60 - 70 left. I got dealt AA a lot for once, like every other orbit for a while 4 times total. I went all in each time since the blinds were high even the 1st time i got them so i didn't mind too much just picking them up.

First 3 times everyone folds, it got a little annoying by the 3rd time as i did want to make something more than the blinds off them at least once! 4th time i get a caller he has AK suited and you guessed it i bust out in exactly the same way as before....runner runner flush this is getting ridiculous.

This wasn't a speed tourney either so i was playing for about an 1hr 1/2 for nothing and i lost $36+ in the process when i shouldn't have. The guy i lost to managed to donk off nearly all the chips i gave to him within the next 2 hands as well grrrrr. I bust out in 46th of 200 with top 27 getting paid 27th through 19th was $58 which would have been nice and i think i would have made at least that. 1st was $1,577 but yet again i'm denied my shot at it.

However not all is bad, i went out with friends from my course last night and had a great time and went to the casino rather drunk and managed to make £50! and nearly losing it as i got out of the taxi home after dropping my wallet (containing £175) , boy would that have been fun!

Bad beats in MTT's are really pissing me off now so i think i'm gonna try and work solidly on poker rewards for a whille as i need to clear the $200 bonus.

Tilt, Cause & Effect

2006-02-14T05:47:00.000-08:00

I am banning myself from playing blackjack online.

I havn't really talked about any time i've been on tilt and for good reason, fortunately i'm mostly able to keep tilt under control and have been getting better at doing so as time goes on. However when i do get tilty and i'm unable to just leave the game its not pretty.

It was never really a major issue when i went on tilt say 2 months back as i didn't have the money in my bankroll and wasn't playing high enough stakes to lose any serious amount. Fast forward to today and I have hundreds of dollars in various poker sites and tilt can lead to disaster. Funilly enough poker isn't my main source of tilt it's blackjack. Embarrasing really. Since i'm doing poker rewards bonus at the moment where they have blackjack available within the poker software at the touch of a button it's all too tempting to donk off some money there all too often. So my balanace has been yo yo'ing as i grind money out of the poker tables 4 or 5 tabling then proceed to blow it on blackjack in the space of 10 minutes. I don't know why i even bother with it, i do turn profit on it sometimes but more often than not i lose and the losses are almost always bigger than the profits. I'm just addicted to it, maybe its the fact you get a lot more action than in poker? who knows.

So yesterday i was in a $5,000 Guart'd Rebuy MTT and was going relatively strong, 11,000 or so in chips putting me in the top 20 with 65 left in. With rebuys and add on period gone players were dropping fast and the prize pool had risen to over $6,000 top 27 in the money.
Then it happened, i get dealt pockets aces which is incredibly rare in my MTT's for some reason where as i get QQ at least twice per MTT usually. The blinds are getting big someone raises 2x the BB before me which is about 25% of my stack, i re raise to twice that leaving me about 3,000 left, original raiser has me covered by a few thousand and calls me all in, not ideal but obviously i cant fold, i guess he has a big hand, KK or QQ. He turns over AQ suited hearts, somehow i knew before the flop even went down i was going to lose this hand i had a really strong feeling he would make his flush and i had no hearts. 1 heart on the flop of blanks making me a 93.64% favourite to win the hand. the turn is a heart as is the river. I almost double the guy up and he moves into chip leader position eventually winning the tournament for over $2,000. I can't help but feel that hand cost me at the very least $125 which i would have got for being on the final table. and the buy in ($18 i think) cost me most of the money i had left in VC after the $27 + $1 re-buy disater a few days ago.

I took a break after that hand as i knew i was in no fit stae to play more after that beat. So i kicked back, read a book but couldn't help but replay that hand over in my head wondering how much i would have won if it went my way. I went back onto poker rewards after i thought i had recovered from my tilt but clearly i hadn't and as i lost money partly through bad plays on my part i started getting stupid and lost a fair bit of money. I then stupidly went to blackjack made some pretty hefty bets which i lost nearly all of and my balance went from $415 ($400 deposited which went down to $340 which i grinded back up on poker) down to $250. Ouch. This was a big hit for me and a big wake up call to stop screwing around with my money as it stands i'm halfway through clearing the $200 bonus but if i play break even poker thats only $50 profit and if i play less than break even then well, i just wasted a lot of time.

As punishment I'm forcing myself to play just 2 tables short handed $.25/.50 so i can concentrate and play to the best of my ability. Off to a steady start today made $30 in a quick 20minute session. Hopefully i will be able to make it above the $400 mark again and remind myself how hard it was to scrape back the money i spent on blackjack.

I did however place 2nd in a $5 Sit n Go and then 20th out of nearly 300 in a $3,000 Guart'd Re buy ($6 entry plus the add on i used) yesterday giving me $45 or so, so i've made back some money in my VC account to play about with.

Good & Bad News

2006-02-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

I'll start with the good news. I finished poker plex in profit. Since i played about 50 raked hands of the february bonus when i thought i was clearing january i decided to finish it since i had earned the money to be able to play $.25/.50 and $.50/1 so thats what i did 2 tables. It went quickly and i was in seemingly invincible mode with about 1 noteable suckout and the rest pretty much all good! So my $100 which stooped to $25 which i grinded back up to $75 ended up being $381 including the $50 bonus, a great turn around and i can stop feeling like i wasted my time at pokerplex since this is my biggest profit made from a single site yet. It was quite amazing how much looser the games were at $.25/.50 upwards compared to $.15/.25 it was so much easier to get paid off on hands!

The bad news is i have $100 of it STUCK there, as in i cant cash it out. They use Ecash interface to deposit and withdraw funds which i have been fond of..until now. Since i don't use neteller yet i've just been using my visa to deposit and withdraw funds but Ecash have a stupid rule that says i cant withdraw more than $500 using the same method and that i have to use a different method to withdraw the remaining $103 in my poker plex account. If it was site specific it wouldnt be so bad as i would rarely cash more than $500 from 1 site but it isn't and i've accumulated $500 worth of withdrawl cash through will hill and littlewoods which sucks.

The alternative methods only leave me with 1 option really which is Neteller. I would have started using this earlier but to sign up they have to put a deposit into my account and i have to verify how much it is. Bank statements aren't sent to my term time address and i dont get into town much to go and find out there. Couple this with the fact that i've been fine just using my card so far and i just didn't bother with it. So i finally get my ass to town get a mini statement find how much Neteller have deposited and go to verify it. "The account you are trying to log into has been closed due to certain circumstances. Please call the following number: " urgh, i emailed them with no response so i'm gonna have to ring today some time.

I also managed to do the intercasino bonus and made $40. Problem is they also use ecash meaning i have $140 stuck there too! Bonus whoring has been pushed aside for the time being until i can get a neteller account sorted as it really is essential i now know.

I placed in the next 2 MTT's since i last posted (18th and 10th) before losing badly in a $15,000 Guar't'd rebuy $27+ $1 which i had to rebuy in, that sucked.

Right now i really want to do the sun poker site which i should have done before poker plex as it has a better bonus for 1st time users but i'm not gonna do it until i'm sure i will be able to cash out from there so i'm gonna be messing around on VC for a while since ive still got about $120 in there.

MTT Success!

2006-02-05T18:38:00.000-08:00

So hyped right now, just placed 5th in my first proper Multi table tournament. i say proper meaning not a free roll or $5 or less entrance. No, this was a $25 + $2.50 entrance $1,500 Guar't'd speed. I have no idea why i entered, i've been playing pretty much strictly cash games for the last 2 months now. Maybe i've been watching too much of the poker channel's live feed online recently and seeing so many MTT's has subconciously (sp?) made me want to enter one? What initially drew me to it was the fact it was $1,500 guaranteed with only 50 entrants within 4mins of starting time. So anyway i entered 1 min before start and there was eventually 71 in with top 9 getting paid.

The chip leader who has doubled up maybe 3 times in the first 5 hands is moved to my table and is going all in every hand. Freeroll style. However it's expected on a speed table i guess. I'm begging for a premium hand to bust him with as i'm not willing to bust out so early to a maniac on a streak. It doesn't come but i do catch AK suited and manage to more than double up to 6,000 or so from the 2,000 starting chips. not long after i get pocket 9's and decide they probably wont be up against much else with short stacks pushing all in everywhere. 1 Caller has A-10 luckily he doesnt hit and i go to over 14,000 in chips and 3rd place. I pass the blinds not being able to see a flop and lose about 6,00 in blinds, ouch, but i'm near the money and not about to bust out now. within the end of that orbit i manage to cruise onto the final table in 4th place. 3 people bust in the first 2 orbits and i'm unable to get a hand before blinds swallowed me up and forced me all in and i'm ultimately up against AA and that puts me out the tournament in 5th and cash out $142! Not even a HUGE win but it feels 10x better than earning a $142 pot in a cash game for some reason.

The thrill of this MTT reminds me of why i started playing which is good becuase grinding out cash games for bonuses kinda made me forget why i play, i love the game. I was shaking with my first 2 all ins with AK and 99 it was insane i'd be a terrible live player with these hands it really was insane.

I've also managed to turn the poker plex disaster into a great situation. I've made the money back i lost through play back to $190 from my original $100 deposit and i've alomost completed the 250 raked hands for the monthly $50 bonus oh and i made £20 at the casino after being down £20 which was nice too. So yeah i'm pretty happy with how everythings going now.
Probably should have waited till tomorrow to post this cos its late and i got an early lecture but boy does that MTT get my adrenaline going!

A Sign of Things To Come?

2006-02-02T06:58:00.000-08:00

A pretty poor start to the month. After william hill i decided to jump onto poker plex, another crypto site. I foolishly read a topic in bonus whores forum telling of how it was 300 dealt hands for $50 bonus, i jumped straight on that after all if was such an easy bonus. anyway i played just over 300 hands and actually lost $50 so i figured i would break even and run with my tail between my legs.. Oh no that would be too easy i wasn't to be afforded that luxury.

So i go back to bonus whores and read the REST of the thread about poker plex, oh now i see they changed the requiremnts to 250 raked about 2 weeks ago, doh. i earned 70 raked hands while doing my 300 dealt at $.50/1 and being the stubborn idiot i am i decided to finish the bonus. Only i didnt have enough to multi table $.50/1 and didnt want to risk depositing any more of my own money. So i played $.15/.25. Big. Fucking. Mistake.
The way the raked hands work on poker plex is 1 raked hand for pots that reach $20 ($1 rake) or 1/4 of a rake for pots that rake between $0.25-0.99 so thats $5 pots and above. couple that with the fact that the play was unbelievably tight and you get some long ass sessions to earn raked hands, im talking 10-20 an hr here with me needing 180 for the bonus. I eventually got there last night the longest grind ever because im too damn stubborn to just leave when i'm beat. Almost all my sessions were played while friends were in my room playing xbox so i had entertainment while i grinded at least, but still, it was long. So i go to check my balance quite happy since i made my balance back to $75+ mark after going down to $25 at 1 point affter some huge downsings. So i expect to be $25 up which is appaling really but i'll take it. My bonus hasnt been credited automatically like CS told me it would be. what. the. fuck.

I fire off an email to CS asking them where my bonus is and go to bed. today i recieve a reply from CS:

"With reference to your email regarding the monthly match reward program I canconfirm that the wager requirements are 250 raked hands within the calendarmonth."

OH MY GOD! I totally forgot about the month changing and didn't think it would affect me. how wrong could i be? as a rookie bonus whore i have learned a lot from this at least. but damn, such a grind and i finish down $25 and cant even withdraw til i get this stupid pin no. The picture sums it all up pretty well.

Results for January

2006-01-31T05:50:00.000-08:00

Well i'll let the results speak for themselves, a far better month than i could even imagine about a month ago.

Results in GBP:

---Nov/Dec/Jan----
£10 in VC £30 out £50 remains (+70)
£25 in Littlewoods £40 out (+15)
---------------------

-Jan-
£23 in Casino.net £100 out (+77)

£12 in Sportingbet £103 out (+91)

£12 in Sportingodds £100 out (+88)

£12 in King Solomon £127 out (+115)

£280 in Party Poker £308 out (+28)

£40 in Bet365 £97 out (+57)

£100 in William Hill £172 out (+72)

Current Bankroll:
£611 ($1,082)

That wraps up my first month of bonus whoring which has gone amazingly well i think! I hit my $1,000 for the year target after finishing william hill which was my quickest bonus to clear to date at a little over 2hrs. I also won my biggest pot there ($157 before rake) in spectacular fashion, gotta love rich maniacs:

------HAND 3------
Game #1548927254: Hold'em NL ($0.50/$1) - 2006/01/28 - 15:34:38 (UK)
Table "Emerald" Seat 3 is the button.
Seat 1: Random Maniac ($76.12 in chips)
Seat 2: Gregk22 ($82.25 in chips)
Seat 6: Player 2 ($114.54 in chips)
Player 3: posts small blind $0.50
Player 4: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Gregk22 [Jd Ad]
Player 2: calls $1
Random Maniac: raises to $4
Gregk22: calls $4
Player 2: calls $3
----- FLOP ----- [6d 3d 5d] (=D omg!)
Player 2: checks
Random Maniac: bets $12 (wow its pay day!)
Gregk22: calls $12
Player 2: folds
----- TURN ----- [6d 3d 5d][Kd] (Damn he's gonna be scared by that 4th diamond)
Random Maniac: bets $23 (whoah maybe not! maybe he has Q high?)
Gregk22: calls $23
----- RIVER ----- [6d 3d 5d Kd][4d] (A 5th diamond!? not what i wanted to see..)
Random Maniac: bets $37.12 and is all-in (fuck fuck fuck open end straight flush he has it i know he does!!)
Gregk22: calls $37.12
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Random Maniac: shows [Ks Jc] (A Flush, King high) (!!!???!!!!)
Gregk22: shows [Jd Ad] (A Flush, Ace high)
Gregk22 collects $154.74 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $157.74 Main pot $154.74 Rake $3
Board [6d 3d 5d Kd 4d]
Seat 2: Gregk22 showed [Jd Ad] and won ($154.74) with A Flush, Ace high

I have no idea what his thought process was when i called his $23 on the turn with 4 diamonds out there....but i was damn lucky to be up against him or i would have pretty much broke even at william hill!

A new month tomorrow, i aim to make $1,500 although with no easy boss media's i could struggle...

Bet365 Finished

2006-01-28T02:57:00.000-08:00

Frequent bonus whores would be crying whyyyyyyyyy right now if they knew i went to Bet365 for the next step in my bonus chasing. Since they decided not to pay out their christmas (or was it new yr?) bonus to people that they thought were not legitimate players. Just folding from the SB seemed to be enough to deem you as a bonus "abuser" and as a result they got blacklisted from a number of sites. Why did i go there? i dunno, a combination of getting fed up looking for better and curiosity of how bad Bet365 bonus payout really is.

The software is abysmal. I can safely say that for a start. I've said that boss media's was bad but i actually got quite fond of it after a while. I didnt like party but its useable. Bet365 is just horrible why don't they put a number next to your chips to show how much you bet/ raise? like EVERY other site does? Why cant i click next to the slidey bar thing that controls my bets/ raises and have it increase in increments of 10 cents or whatever like Boss media/ Party poker? Nooo thats too much for them i have to manually type (yeah right!) or slide the bar really carefully untill i find the right amount to bet or raise. Or as i found out when i had like 20 hands to go you can right click and raise some pre set amounts. right click the slidey bar? who even thinks of doing it? To cut a long story short it's ugly, buggy and has so many anoyances that i won't be looking forward to going back.

I went on a downswing almost instantly and was getting sucked out on left right and center which definitely didnt help my already annoyed state at the software being so crappy. I was playing NL $0.25/0.50 which is a new limit for me and i didn't deposit enough to counter the swings i took early on ($70 deposit) I won my biggest pot to date within a couple of orbits $61 or so with 4 of a kind i think. But i soon after lost a $65 where i lost on the river after being a huge favourite to win on the turn when i called all in. That hurt bad. I went down to like $20 with 150 raked hands so i requested some bonus $$ to help me get back into the game. No response to my first email. 2 days later i send an angry email and tell them no bonus = no more play from me. Almost IMMEDIATELY i get a response confirming they have just credited me with $30. Nice. I got back in the game but played most of the remaining 350 hands at NL $.10/.20. While this made the raked hands go slower (minimum of 0.25 rake) It's a level i can beat relatively comfortably without risking having to deposit more money. Then another 1 of Bet365's annoyances slows me down. 3 tables max. What the hell? i played 4 tables and it was going ok then get informed that i have basically been kicked off 1 of my tables because 4 is too many, it was quite amusing and annoying at the same time. Anyway i finished the bonus last night and seem to have some bonus money automatically credited to my account but i didn't even ask for it this time! and its confused me now since i dont know if they gave it to me once i hit 500 or earlier so i send an email to find out if i have any more bonus money to claim....No response yet.....god why cant they have live support, i hate Prima Network, especially bet365.

*Edit* Ok i was a little drunk when i logged on to play my last 20 raked hands last night and looked at the email they sent me again and its actually pretty clear, they credited me a further $60 when i had 467 raked hands so i do infact have $10 bonus to come.

Deposited: $70 Currently: $162 Bonus pending: $10

Party Sign Up Done

2006-01-24T09:57:00.000-08:00

So i went to party poker in the end, i wasn't entirely happy with having to deposit $500 to get the $100 bonus, it's a bit of a leap from the $20 i've been depositing at the boss media's. But i'm glad i did, the bonus which needed 700 raked hands went so fast it was like playing 200 on boss media speed. I think this is the difference between contributed and dealt hands. However i did have to step up a limit to $25 NL which is 0.10/0.25 blinds which while not a massive jump took some getting used to.

I also took some horrendous beats along the way. 1 notable hand i'm dealt KQ on the button i raise 4 or 5x BB a few callers. Flop comes 9-10-J rainbow, tasty. i bet half the pot i don't mind callers at this point obviously and feel fairly safe, turn is a 7 which i figure can only help me if it improves the other guys hand. i bet what i consider to be fairly strong but on reflection probably not strong enough bet as i was still adjusting to suitable size bets at this stake. I bet $5 at an $11 or so pot, he goes all in for $25 (we had both built up a fair bit from the $25 buy in) i call but am shitting myself as this is the biggest pot i've ever been in and theres a card to come. The party poker showdown scenario is similar to boss media sites, as in it happens really quick and before you even work out who's won you see the chips moving towards the winner. The river is a J and the chips start moving toward him....Nooooo what on earth did he have?? Pocket Jacks, making his 4 of a kind on the river. $65 pot lost on the river. Gutted. I also went bust on a table after im dealt AA and the card i think secures my win (a 3rd Ace on the river) actually fucks me over as another fish calling all in on a draw hits. So while my poker play took a heavy beating luckily the bonus cleared lighting fast and i ended up with $550. Saved by the bonus. Not something i wanted to rely on but i didn't have the amount of time to even out my winnings as i cleared the bonus in like 3 short sessions over 2 days.

Looking forward to party reloads next month now. While i dont like the software much and the maniacs who suck out are annoying, i know i can make a lot of money off in the long run and the bonuses clear so easily.

Another Day Another...$200!

2006-01-21T06:29:00.000-08:00

yesterday i finished my 4th and most likely final boss media site (King Solomon Poker) and cashed out my biggest sum yet, $227. I was expecting this to be my biggest cash out yet since i had to play double the raked hands i had to on the other 3 sites and the games are really quite soft there. I did actually set a target of $250 and thought it would be achievable and i would have hit that mark too but my pocket kings didn't hold up against pocket jacks in my last session in a $25 pot and i got rivered. Still i can't complain too much i went through a fairly long stage of minimal suckouts early on and made $107 poker profit as a result. ($20 deposit $100 bonus)

I think i cleared the 1000 raked hands pretty quick, partly because i played some longer sessions which suprisingly really take it out of you i cant imagine playing poker as a full time job. Also after 3 tabling for quite some time now i decided to add another short handed table. 4 tabling was a bit hectic at first but i soon got used to it (see image bear in mind max buy in is $10) and made some pretty good money on most tables and when i ran bad at 1 table my winnings on the others would keep me in the good mostly. Then i got to 750 raked hands and decided to add another table to finish the last 250 in 1 session. Boy what an exhausting expierience. Especially when a friend is sitting on the bed behind me asking me what to do everytime he gets stuck on ninja gaiden... "look just jump through there, yes right there through that wall and then jus...FUCK look i need to concentrate here i just timed out on a table where i had the nuts!" it goes something like that trying to play 5 tables while trying to recollect my ninja gaiden knowledge from when i played it like 18months ago and guide someone through it. While i didn't make quite as much 5 tabling my raked hands were going pretty fast but after an 2 hrs+ of that 5 tabling session i didn't want to see any more cards for a long time.

i'm now looking for a new place to play, i have the bankroll for party now so thats a pretty strong possibility if i dont find anywhere else soon. Current bankroll is £436 ($771) considering i wanted to make $1000 this YEAR and have almost made it in january alone i'm really happy with how its going.

Slowing Down But Going Strong

2006-01-17T07:33:00.000-08:00

So now i've finished my 3rd Boss Media site, www. sportingodds.com and cashed out a cool $177 for my $20 deposit. Loving these sites and it seems a lot of other people are too, a few of the sites on the boss media network are changing the requirments for their bonus to something a LOT harder to get, including sporting odds so i just hit that 1 in time. Sadly all things must come to an end and such is almost the case for my bonus whoring on the boss media network. I played my 3 sites which is the max they let me play on 1 pc, so i signed up on a friends pc in my halls to king solomon poker. Currently 200 hands or so into this but it requires 1000 raked hands for the full $100 bonus, double the 500 hands i did on the previous 3 sites.

So inevtiably i have slowed down a little, 1000 hands for $100 is still pretty good, i'm used to the software (even though i dont like it much still) i have a good solid play which ensures i reach raked hands while usually coming out with poker profits also. It's showing, my profits should have increased after each site i hit as i should have been cashing out at the $200+ mark from sporting odds however my last 25 raked hands i had to clear were in 1 of the worst run of cards i've ever had. The cards were literally fucking me every time maybe sporting odds knew i was about to hit the 500 hands, take my $70 and run and decided to make my last session a miserable one. At least that's how it felt at the time. Still, i cashed out $177 none too shabby at all.

Currenly looking for new sites offering good bonuses that i can clear at $0.10/0.20 or below but i'm not finding much good at all. I have built quite a bankroll though so i might have to move up the stakes to continue making money.

Current Bankroll: £321 ($567)

Another Day Another Bonus

2006-01-11T15:40:00.000-08:00

Today i finished off sportingbet's $100 sign up bonus for 500 raked hands. It went really well from start to finish, i got off to a great start doubling up my $20 deposit withing 10 minutes of play. I soon hit the 100 hands to release the first $30 of bonus and had a good amount to play with to reach the 500 from there. Same format as before, 2 short handed tables and 1 full ring on the go simultaneously. It seems to work quite well for me. Had a slow period around the 200-350 hand period playing break even poker or slightly dipping into a loss which wasn't to be totoaly unexpected after my big upswing early on. The final stretch 350-500 hands went amazingly well. Had donks left right and center wanting to call my strong hands with nothing, which was fine by me.

So i made about $30 in poker profit clearing the last 150 or so hands and the bonus was released leaving me a nice sum of $183. Slightly more than casino.net but with half the deposit going in (as i went bust at casino.net and had to deposit more) i'm really happy with the result.
I wish there were more Boss Media sites for me to do but i think i can only do 1 more at most as i hear they only let you sign up to 3. Plus some of the other Boss Media sites require 1000 raked hands and there's only 1 more left that only needs the 500 i have been using. If i can sign up to others at a later date on a clean computer i might, 1000 hands isn't so bad since the play is so bad i've shown i can make a pretty nice profit through my poker play alone.

The current bankroll stands at $429 after taking the $177 and $183 shot in the arm. Thats a massive increase and suddenly puts me WAY ahead of my $1000 for the year target which now looks do-able in just 3 months. However once this bonus chase on Boss Media finishes i predict my bankroll growth will slow down considerably. I have to either find another site with a bonus worth me doing that works on the uni network or put my bankroll earned back to my starting place www.vcpoker.com and rise through the stakes with the safety of my $600 or so i should have by the time i finish the 3rd Boss Media.

I'll sign up to my final Boss Media tomorrow, its my day off so i have plenty of time to play i'll probably get 250 hands in. Right now the party poker european open is about to be televised so i'm gonna kick back and watch that maybe even learn a thing or two, you never know!

Money Money Money!

2006-01-10T05:44:00.000-08:00

My first bonus chase was a success! I cashed out the $177 i made ($100 bonus) so i have a half decent bankroll at last. While the play on casino.net took a shaky start i quickly adjusted to a style of play that would speed up the raked hands process while still making money off my play.

I say a shaky start because i actually lost my initial $20 i deposited within about 80 hands of the 500 target! This was worrying and i was considering just making it to 100 hands for the $30 bonus and running at that time. I wasn't used to the software, i ran into an insane amount of full houses, i was multi tabling 2 tables which i wasn't used to and i was limping waaay to much just to make raked hands which all combined got me into a lot of trouble fast!
Luckily going broke that fast made me realise i was going about the bonus chase all the wrong way. I deposited another $20 and played good solid poker. I soon hit the 100 hands for the $30 bonus which gave me a good $60+ to play with. I decided to multi table again. getting to 100 hands was pretty long even though i was playing short handed. impatience and the feeling it would take a long ass time to make another 400 hands on 1 table without donking my money away on hands that shouldn't be played caused me to do this.

However this time i didnt go on a limping spree, i decided to play 2 short handed tables and 1 full ring. I figured i could speed up my hands on short handed tables so i dont get impatient and play stupidly. And the full ring was there because i make more off my play there than short handed generally plus any hand i limped was almost guaranteed to be raked there. It went swimmingly! i had about 3 or 4 sessions of playing this way and i was making money on at least 2 of the 3 tables each time while generating the raked hands at a comfortable rate.
So thats $40 in $177 out in 2 days play, my most succesful 2 days poker in my short career!

In other gambling related news i have been making some good money at the casino too! Unfortunately there is no card rooms in my gala casino so im forced to play roulette blackjack or brag pretty much. the card games against the dealer don't appeal to me much and i know roulette is a mugs game but its my game of choice there. Sunday i made £45 ($80) profit fairly quickly and managed to stay up without throwing it away on more bets like i have been known to do in the past! and yesterday after almost going down £20 i managed to turn it around and walked out £35 ($60) in the good.

$177 poker profits
$140 casino profits
$1800 student loan yesterday (99% of that goes on my accomodation but hey its money in my account right now!)
$320 on the way on friday for working last week

coupled with the 2 other boss media sites i hope to get completed by sunday and i am rolling in it! (although still heavily into TWO overdrafts :/ ) when your a student, minimizing the the massive amount of debt your in is rolling in it...

Bonus Hunting

2006-01-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

Just got back to uni, all is good freedom again! and the student life of playing poker getting drunk and sleeping as long as i feel like returns! Oh yeah and assignments/ lectures and stuff..

So, onto the bonuses. I figure bonuses can really help me boost my bankroll that stands at £33 in VC and £46 in littewoods, so its miniscule. Although thats all from my initial £10 investment and i cashed out £30 from VC to put £25 into littlewoods. So onto make some real money, i've read a lot about the various bonuses out there and for low stakes there isnt a lot of choice since a lot require at least $1 in rake from a hand for it to be counted as a raked hand. Bring on the Bossmedia network. This network has a $100 sign up bonus for 500 hands and the rake can be as low as 1c! Add to that the fact that it's 1 of the few poker programs that works on the uni network and its a pretty clear choice.

I'm starting my bonus quest at www.casino.net i'm not sure how long it will take but the bonus is released in increments so when i get the first $30 for 100 raked hands it should give me an idea. Not too long i hope, i'm planning to play the lowest stake $0.05/0.10 short handed. I know limit is the best way to clear bonuses but i tested some limit poker out today and just hated it, hitting top pair and seeing there is potential for others to have drawing hands but not being able to force them to pay a good price to see the next card just kills me as they always seem to hit. So it'll be NL and i'll have to see how it goes.

Promoted

2006-01-06T03:15:00.000-08:00

No, not at work i'm still the lowest of the low there but its my last day there before i return to uni so like i give a care. Yes i have promoted myself to $0.05/0.10

It didn't start so great, i had this guy bluffing at nearly all the pots and when i catch AK against him bet at him hard. the board pairs up my Ace but leaves 2-4 rainbow, leaving a straight draw on. The maniac is betting as normal i raise him, confident even a pair of aces will hold up compared to what this guy has and figure he was on a draw at best maybe a low Ace. turn is a blank i keep pushing, the pot has reached roughly $9 now. River is a 5 and maniac pushes his last $1.50 or so in, great he's probably hit it but with my read on him as well as pot odds i have to call and sure enough he has A-3 and yet another idiot drawing to a straight (not even open ended) hits the river.

I win a $4 or so pot a few hands later and decide to call it a day, only played 2 orbits in that session. This morning i went on a $0.02/0.04 that looked profitable went up then down then ultimately up $1.60 and decide to leave as the table is getting cold. So then back to $0.05/0.10 6 player. 1 maniac at the table over betting the pot in most cases means i stay out of hands until i catch something. 77 is dealt to me i hit a 7 on the flop for trips and confidently call his bets before re raisng him on the turn and re raising him all in on the river. Board was 8d Td 7c 5h Kh i put him on top pair on the flop. he turns over 7-10 for 2 pair and my 3 of a kind is good for $13.89
He says "encule" which i believe is a swear word of some sort in french or something and leaves immediately, the rest of the table are all tight players so i'm glad i got to take the maniacs money before he bled it to everyone else.

On the STT frenzy front it didn't go to plan. Aiming for 5 consecutive 1st and 2nds was going well i had 2nd, 2nd, 1st then...4th i played solid poker untill i hit top pair (Jack) on flop bet too hard and was re raised all in, with a 7 kicker, straight, flush on the board coupled with my read on this guy i had to fold leaving me seriously short stacked and bust out soon after. While i failed this time at least i made $5.50 ($2.70 + 2.70 + $4.50 minus buy ins) trying. Think i'll leave STT alone for a while again.
Current bankroll is $54.69 or £31.79 Recovered from my downswing quicker than expected and reached a new high point. I'm taking things with caution this time for a while at least, i don't want to have to demote myself again.

STT Frenzy Month

2006-01-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

Just as i'm escaping STT's they run STT frenzy month on Victor Chandler my main site i play on. Its mainly based on consecutive wins and the stakes i play (< $5)would mean i only get 25% of the advertised amount of $20 for 3 wins, $200 for 4 and $2000 for 5. So that pretty much makes it pointless to chase as the only 1 i make serious money off at my stake is for 5 wins which just isn't gonna happen, i think the best ive ever done is 3 in a row.
However reading more into it was something that interested me, $100 for 5 consecutive 1st or 2nd places. I can consistantly make 2nd places im just usually too short stacked to win. So i think i'm gonna give this promotion a try. I got off to a good start, two games two 2nd places so far. No doubt i will stumble at the final hurdle and realise this was a stupid idea but at least i wont lose money giving it a shot.

Ring game update: i'm up to $36 from $0.02/0.04 play, im gonna make it to $40 or $45 before i go back to $0.05/0.10 again so im not too far away.

As you may have noticed i'm having trouble deciding wether to post results/ the situation of my bankroll in £ or $. Since i'm playing in dollars i think it would be best if i used that more now.

My favourite fish

2006-01-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

Well i pretty much made my £20 before i went to work today which was nice, a great session at the $0.02/0.04 put me there quicker than i expected.

So, i come home log in check the buddy list, oh look 1 of my favourite fish is playing $0.05/0.10 i watch the first hand, suprise suprise he's in the hand with 1 other guy, board has two Aces a king and my favourite fish is calling all bets thrown at him to be beat ultimately by JJ. I'm sure your getting the picture as to why he is my favourite by now. I'm doing ok at the table not been in a pot with my buddy yet but im up $3 after just a couple of hands so im happy. Then it happens, i get dealt AA on the button, finally! i figure i'll just call my fish all in he has about $4 or so he's bound to call and i'll make myself an easy few $ right? wrong!! he calls, (of course he does) problem is he has QQ and manages to improve his hand on the turn (almost made a flush too i might add) damn i doubled him up, oh well i'm sure i'll get a chance to win it back i'm thinking. Wrong again, again i'm dealt AA in late position, 2 people raise 5x BB i re-raise, 1 of the original raisers goes all in for just short of $10, tasty. I call, my fish calls (of course he does) turns out my rockets are up against KK by random raiser and A2 suited by my fish i figure this is gonna be a pretty nice $25 or so pot for me...wrong again!!! this time my fish catches runner runner flush to take roughly 60% of the pot, i could say i was lucky to only lose $1 or $2 this pot but i really dont feel so lucky to be down over $3 from my $20 buy in at this point having my AA cracked by 1 guy twice in the span of about 20 hands.

Luckily the play at this table is so bad anyway i'm currently sitting on $27.50 from my buy in of $20 in the space of about 15 minutes after the last incident, my fish has left, probably right proud of himself and his poker awesomeness which led him to more than triple up with his fantastic calls.

Stop complaining, these guys are where my profit comes from in the long run..have to keep telling myself this.

Losing...

2006-01-02T15:09:00.000-08:00

Well what a great start to the year, and my blog. I'm losing. Its been pretty ugly i was about to say i've had a cold run of cards and forgot what it looks like to hold QQ KK or AA and then i'm dealt AA right now..problem is my losses have caused me to drop down to $0.02/0.04 luckily 1 guy seemed to catch a pair of kings at least though so a $3.42 isn't all that terrible i guess, could have been a lot more in a $0.05/.10 though.

So yeah, losing, all while playing pretty solid poker, i'd say only 1 pot i lost due to stupid play on my behalf (slow played my flopped nut straight and let him catch his flush what an idiot i know) I've been losing pots quite a lot by raising 5x BB with my strong hands only to be called by donkeys who cant fold any face card or 2 suited cards who always seem to make 2 pairs/ flushes etc. Its frustrating to say the least. Today my AK was beat by A3 off suit in this way. I called some other donkey's all in bet pre flop with AK...he had AQ i congratulate myself on a good call ($13 pot) untill the Q hits that is..this is starting to remind me what playing low stake STT's is like, i thought i had escaped this kind of play! to top it off my Aces full of queens run into a royal flush, the first time i've seen 1 at a table i've been on and i run into it. So yeah not a great start to my poker year at all im down to £12 in my VC account down from my high of £30 so i'm £2 up from when i came home from uni before christmas.

I'm gonna build up to £20 to regain some confindence and to have enough money to play my A game at $0.05/0.10 again, hopefully my fortune will change somehwhat, im sure im due a nice upswing now. I have to work 2pm-10pm this week so wont have a lot of play time but hopefully i will reach my £20 this week some time.

Uni and Poker

2006-01-01T05:52:00.000-08:00

So here's the deal, im 19 studying business computing at university and have recently become an avid online poker player. How did this happen? a few home games within halls residence at uni which turned into money games which have now turned into a poker society run by a friend and take place once a week. But thats live poker you say, well after a few games and once i knew the basics of how to play i set up a money account on Victor Chandler poker, (www.vcpoker.com) well, first i watched a friend set it up to see how it was done and to makesure it worked on the uni network! I also watched him play his first game, a 9 seat STT for the measly buy in sum of $0.10 it was pretty much just to see what playing online was like. Anyway as i watched and he played we discussed how to play the game together and ended up placing 1st (omg wow $0.37 or something!!11!!) it wasnt about the money though it was just good to see we could compete at all. So next i try a game on his account, same 9 seat $0.10 and i get off to a bad start, losing about 1/3 - 1/2 of my stack in the early stages. bear in mind at this point in time i had played about 3 games of poker in my life and was just getting to grips with the basics so i wasn't very good to say the least.. Anyway i ended up making a comeback and winning the tournament! (woohoo another $0.37!!) Again, it wasnt about the money, this was the first taste of poker success i had ever had and my first game online, i was thrilled....i went straight back to my flat and made my own account after this.

And so the bankroll was made, i deposited £10 ($17) and started playing $.10/.25/.50 9 seat STT's. I was having good success, placing in the money (if you could really call it money) consistantly and more importanlty improving or should i say developing my game. i pretty quickly turned my bankroll from £10 to £15 (no easy task considering i was winning penny's) and decided to hit $1 STT's it seemed like a big leap back then lol. I had initial success and was playing a silly amount of poker as this was my most addictive phase and i had nothing better to do. Soon after came my first downswing i got cocky started playing above my limit and got lazy with my game, these things combined = nasty turn of events. i very nearly went bust, i was down to about $.50 and i entered a freeroll with the action points i accumulated ($350 IIRC) i placed in that somewhere like 12th/300 with top 27 getting paid so i took my $4 or $5 whatever i won and started playing more STT's but i tightened up my game a lot more and made sure i placed in as many of the games as i could. It worked, i built up again and by the time i had the bankroll sufficent to play above $1 games i was ready for it this time. I had done a lot of reading up on the game online and learned a massive amount to make sure i never got close to going bust again.

That was the story from early Nov 05 - early Dec 05 i built up to around £70 ($120) all from that free roll money plus the few extra penny's in my account (pretty pleased with myself at this point) playing mostly $2/$3 and $5 STT's at this stage until i hit my next downswing. This one hurt me, i wasn't doing anything particularly wrong i was just getting plain unlucky most of the time. I read more and tried to improve my game more but it just couldn't stop my flopped straights/3 of a kinds or similar being beat by some idiot going all in with nothing only to catch runner runner boats/flushes etc. tedious times indeed and it was 1 long swing which even caused me to eventually doubt the software i was playing on, game after game i would bust out of a tournament in a hand i was at least 80% favourite in. But thats enough of the moaning thats just how low stake STT's are i figured. And for the record i dont believe any software is fixed to make players lose but on massive downswings it just seems like it wants to kick you when your down.

So come the xmas holidays i come home and start to play ring games instead, my friend who i started playing online with in the first place had already made the transition from STT to ring games and was enjoying success. While i was reluctant at first (when i was actually making consistant profit from STT's!) i reaslised after all the BS i was losing money to in STT's that ring games were the way to go. I had played ring games before, just $0.02/$0.04 9 or 6 seat. i wasnt losing but i didnt win much either and wasn't as comfortable playing ring games as i was STT's. However when signing up to littlewoods poker to (my first attempt at winning a bonus!) my suprise was that i had to deposit £25 minimum and the lowest stakes were $0.15/0.25 which was a pretty big jump up in stakes for me. So thats what really got me into ring games this was about 2 weeks ago.

Oh and the bonus on littlewoods? i didnt get it, i didnt have time to play enough and the stakes i were playing would require a hell of a lot of hands to be put in. i did make about £11 (£36 something total) profit still though so far even though i was down to my last £6 at 1 stage. It was a good learning expierience though and i've learned a lot about playing ring games and feel a lot more at home playing them now.

Enough background already. I've been planning to make a blog for a while now, i've really enjoyed reading various peoples poker blogs and i think its a great way for me to keep track of my progress and set targets. I figured what better time to start then now, the very beginning of 2006! Well it didn't seem such a good idea with my hangover this morning but i've got it done now at least.

My ideal target is to earn $1000 in 2006 on online poker, hopefully progressing from $0.05/0.10 to $1/2 by the end of the year. the goal may change if things go better or worse than expected but right now it seems like a fair target to me. This would be a lot easier if a) my uni network didnt block 90% of poker software running and b) i wasn't a broke ass student. The fact i'm limited to what software i can use in term time limits my options for bonus whoring, Plus the fact that VC dont offer anything than a sign up bonus also sucks, especially as i didnt take advantage of it when i did sign up.

Wow what a wall of text, i'll cut it there this will probably be my longest post for a good while. Now, lets go fishing in the $0.05/0.10 games!