A comment!

Ooh, a comment! And therefore a reader!! Who would have thought it. Anyway, to celebrate this momentous event I thought I'd respond here to some of the points raised:

I recommend that you not be so analytical and statistic based in your play, once I saw how you were betting, it was pretty easy to see how you were playing, hence why we generally never continued to a showdown after I put out the correct bet.

To be honest I can't remember any of the hands we played directly, although my pattern of hitting cards early, but not going to show-down did lead me open to be played back at. Maybe I should have tightened up for a bit.

As for the 3 way all in I asked for the TD to oversee the pot purely in the interests of fairness and possibly due to the fact i had the nuts.

I didn't say no-one understood it, but it was clear several didn't.

I would be interested to know how long you have been playing and whether it has been online or bricks and mortar.

About 3 years online, with a few tournaments in Vegas, and one in Newcastle. So the vast majority online. I stand my my statement though that the standard of play at that tournament was clearly the weakest of any I have played in.

It interests me that DI's antics managed to put you on tilt quite easily and would have thought someone of your standard would not let that affect you. You will see people a hell of alot worse than that if you decide to expose yourself to more tournaments private or not.

As I had an hour and a half drive home and the tournament started an hour late, I was keen to play hands, rather than wait for DI to work out what he was going to do. I rarely get upset about bad beats, but he did annoy me.

I would also like to mention about your comment of no-one playing the small stack, im amazed you can call this after seeing very little small stack play, after I managed to gift away a large percentage of my chips on the very first final table hand, partly to move some of the pressure off me, partly to see how DI was going to be playing the hands he got, i went down to a low amount of chips and subsequently went on to win the tournament.

There was plenty of small stack play on the first table, none of it any good. With respect, I'd have more respect for your small stack ability if you didn't give your chips away to "move some of the pressure off me" which is absolutely barmy, but you were appropriately aggressive having done that.

I look forward to facing you at the next one.

I'm afraid the long drive home in the early hours may put me off.

Weaknesses at the cash tables

The other thing I want to do on this blog is to talk about my weaknesses as a player. For that reason I'm going to try and keep my handle quiet, but if I forget to edit it out of a hand-transcipt, so be it.

At the moment I've moved away from the MTTs where I've made 90% of my money and am playing cash tables. I went through a run at the MTTs where I was a bit card dead - nothing too bad - but it does make them deadly boring. I've never really been able to multi-table them effectively, and folding for an hour, followed by a push/call/busto when my M fell got me down after a while. The other reason was the length of time I had to play them to cash meant I was always shattered in the morning (and hyped when I did go to bed).

So, I'm playing the cash tables now, with Poker-Ace HUD as my assistant and I started off killing the tables. I'm 3 or 4-tabling the $25 tables, and after 8000 hands I'm up >$300. Which is fine. Not great, but fine. The next 3000 have been horrible though and I seem to have one real problem.

I tend to call all-ins when my opponent has the nuts. These are often stupid over-bets that only an idiot would call, but at the moment I have that sign on my head. Small raises and I'm laying down AQo preflop if I know my opponent raises 2% of his hands, but there is this little demon at the back of my mind saying 'only a twit would play the nuts like that'.

Hand from earlier today:

CryptologicNo Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.15/$0.25
10 players
Pre-flop: (10 players) hero is MP1 with 6d 6s
UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls, hero calls, 5 folds, 5 folds, BB checks.
Flop: 4c 5s 6c ($1.15, 4 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+2 bets $0.75, hero raises to $2, 2 folds, UTG+2 raises all-in $24.05, hero ???

Yuk. A draw-heavy board, but I've got top set. Can I get away from this.
Equally, is someone with a made straight playing like this - possibly, if they are smart enough to defend against the flush. My best hope is that its someone with a large combi-draw, but no hand. Either way its not good. But I'm just not able to lay it down.

I've also ended up in situations like this with top-two pair, where I just knew I was walking into a set. Anyway, villian was holding 7c/8c and I was toast.

I never really thought that playing made hands so strongly was so profitable. I tend to value bet them for 1/2-3/4 the pot for fear of driving my opponent away, but it only takes an idiot to call occasionally with a poor hand to make up for all that. And at the moment *I* am that idiot.

There's this one player who I've twice seen open push aces. From nowhere, with no indication he's on tilt. And sure enough he was called both times from players without even a pocket pair. How often do you need to be called doing that to make it the right play? Not so many.

So I'm still doing OK, and largely playing good poker. I'll inch away for an hour or so, making good value bets, and even playing smart enough to induce bluffs from missed flushes on occasions, and then someone will push into me with the nuts and I lose a huge pot, gradually pissing away my bankroll. I'm going to have to change game back to the MTTs, get better or go broke.

A Live Tournament

The intention with this blog is for it to become a combination of an up-to-date poker diary, intermingled with the occasional background post not directly relevant to the day I am posting.

So far I've mainly been catching up (probably 1 or 2 more posts on that), but I need to record the poker tournament I played in on Friday night.

It was organised by a friend of mine as a charity fundraiser. £15 went to a hospice, and then it was a £10 tourny with rebuys for the first 90 minutes.
There were some costs for the event - hiring of the room etc - and I'm not sure if this money was deducted from the prize pool or the charity funds, and I won't know as I wasn't counting the rebuys. Unless I was in some way the best player there I knew with that juice it wasn't an +EV tournament, but it still seemed like fun - and he is a mate and all - so I signed up.

There were 24 runners, with the top 3 places paying. To be fair the venue was pretty good and it was organised and run well.

My biggest worry was the fact we were playing at 6-seater tables, and short-handed play is not my forte, so I was having to adjust to that.

We started off with IIRC 1500 chips, and I managed to treble that up within the first half-hour by flopping two-pair three times. The most profitable was holding A5 on the button. It was folded around to me so I raised 3x the BB, only for the small blind who I had been chatting to before the game, and seemed confident but not hugely skilled to min-reraise me. I called this (perhaps loosely) and saw a A85 flop.

He bet 1/2 the pot or so, I raised to 2.5 time his bet and he called.

Turn a K. He bets the same amount as previously. I think for a bit. I'm now behind a lot of re-raising hands (KK and AK are added to the mix) but I got the feeling he wasn't that sure and put him all in. He thought for a bit and called, turning over 99. He can only have put me on air.

Annoyingly I managed to piss away all my chips over the next 45 minutes or so - most annoyingly a 800 or so to a friend of mine who plays very tight, so I should have been wary of his aggression. I often feel people I know are targetting me, so called with KJ on a Jxx board and saw him turn over QQ.

I lost the last of my chips shortly before the rebuy period ended, and was considering not buying back in, but I was having quite a good time, and I wasn't at all worried by the opposition. In fact it was by some way the weakest live tournament I have played in, so, what the hell. (Evidence for general lack of experience was the few people who could understand the side-pots for a 3-way all-in, and the fact I was the only person who understood how to race chips. Nicely this happened at the start of the final table so I was able to imtimidate some of the players I think).

So I rebought, and added on and then started playing a small stack (2000, with blinds 100/200). It was clear noone knew how to play short-stacks, and were staggered when I opened pushed (with air IIRC). I inched up, then finally hit some hands (AK v KJ; A3 v K3) and soon it was final table time.

6 players, and the 1 to my left was either a brilliant actor or was incredibly drunk, a poor player and had hit loads of cards, leading to a sizeable chip lead (opinion was divided ).

Evidence that he was a poor player is provided by him not bullying his previous table, telling people what his cards were, folding when it was checked to him, and playing a rivered 2-pair appallingly (check-calling).
I concluded he was a drunken idiot (DI). He was indirectly to prove my downfall.

Everyone else was reasonable but not great.

Early doors I pick up AJs in the CO and UTG goes all-in for ~1100 with blinds at 2/400. He should be doing that with any two, and I am certainly good for a call (I've got ~6000). I'm well ahead of his range, but I think for a while and push to get it heads up. I'm not sure if this is correct play or not. I think so, as I don't like my hand if someone behind me wakes up with a medium pair and raises me. Anyway he turns over 99 (fine) I flop a flush and clear up.

Quite quickly we're 4-handed and I've a reasonable player on my right, and DI on my left. My blinds are getting attacked, and I am (probably stupidly) not attacking the DI's as I suspect he'll be calling very light. More annoyingly still, myself and the player on DI's left are the two shorties, but DI is just passing chips left, meaning I am struggling to stay afloat.

I make two mistakes I think. In the BB I make a big raise w/air when the SB completes. He calls and leads the flop for about 2/3 my stack and I have to let it go. He's never folded the SB, but the limp looked (with hindsight) suspicious. A round later UTG I should have pushed when getting very short stacked (8k, with blinds at 1/2k), but I decide to see what happens in the next few hands but my FE has gone down so much from then on I guess I'm better off pushing with the 84o I was dealt.

I end up moving in for the remaining 5k on the button with K3o, but while DI is thinking about folding (everything took him ages) I see the BB counting out the amount to call and I know I'm in trouble. He turns over A9, and I'm done. Out in 4th, where everyone else gets at least a ton. Sigh.

Actually I enjoyed my first live final table much less than I thought I would, largely because DI was playing so slowly, but the evening was very good overall.



The other point for me was a couple of people who were clearly not much cop poker-wise were at least occasional players down the gutshot, which I've been thinking about going to, but have never really summoned up the courage as I always suspected the standard was very high. Looks like I may be wrong.

I sometimes wish

I used to wish that on-line poker was around when I was younger.

My theory was the gifts bestowed on the young would have allowed me to seriously make a go of playing online poker for a living. As a young man (and a student especially) I had a lot of time, a reasonably sharp mind, and decent stamina - by which I mean I could have played long sessions without my play deteriorating markedly as I tired.

I used to dream that if only the opportunity to relieve less skilled players of their money was around then I'd have been able to attempt, probably succesfully, to live the life of a poker pro.

I wonder about these opportunities, but I've recently concluded that online poker could have really ruined my life.

Firstly, I doubt whether I would have been able to graduate with the additional distraction of poker to contend with alongside those of cheap alcohol and lively nightlife. As a student I was something of a lazy scrote, waltzing through exams without working too hard. I came a cropper a bit at Uni and realised I had to do some work, but typically didn't realise early enough and didn't do enough work when I had figured it out, so graduated with a poorer degree than I really wanted.

I struggle to believe the younger me would have been able to manage my time between the studying and this great game that I hoped would become my livelyhood, and I can't see how I would have graduated at all. I think its a miracle anyone graduates now to be honest.

Secondly I was given a single job offer when I graduated, that I accepted. This job has lead me into the career I am in now - one that I love and that pays quite satisfactorily. I suspect I would have declined that job, and opted for the mixed blessing of a year out - with, naturally, the year spent trying to cut it playing poker. This would probably not have been a disaster - I'm sure I'd make some money - but I have my doubts about whether I'd have been able to return to world of real work as easily as I would like, when I either went bust or got bored.

Both of which lead to what I've concluded would be a nightmare scenario. Actually making a small-ish salary (lets say £20k) playing poker and being trapped playing it. The more I was a poker pro, the less employable I'd be, without having had any years of real employment behind me to fall back on. And the more I'd be playing a solitary hobby, usually late at night (to catch the Americans) with the turn of the card deciding my income that month.

The longer I played it, the less I'd enjoy it, and the more like work it would become. The thought of taking poker and turning it into a terrible grind just fills me with dread.

I would also have struggled to maintain any kind of social life, 'working' online not lending itself to social networking.


I've been reading another blog recently (which I'm not going to link to) and this is precisely what seems to have happened to the author. He seems a nice young fellow who some time ago decided to play poker for a living. Hearing his tales of bad beats is heartbraking, because when he does badly he has to worry about paying the rent, and when he does well, he just has the same degree of financial stability as anyone else. Someone who has taken a superb hobby and turned it into a terrible job.

Some part of me may regret not having had the opportunity to play poker when younger, but the greater part of me thanks my lucky stars, as it probably saved me from myself.

Cashing Out

Aaah, the joys of winning.

On a small number of occasions now I've had the immense pleasure of cashing out my winnings - usually to the tune of a few hundred pounds. Nothing earth-shattering, and much less than many people win, but it does bring me some pride.

I'm incredibly lucky that what is now one of my main hobbies actually *makes* me money, rather than costing me considerable sums - as my other addiction (football) does.

I do have one rule about my winnings though - they must be used to buy something that I (or really my wife and I) wouldn't otherwise own. I'm not spending hour after hour shouting at the cards, only to have my hard-earned neteller cheque go towards a new set of brake pads for the car.

The first time I cashed out I (naturally) bought my wife a present. It was partly to demonstrate tangibly my new hobby was profitable, and partly to placate her for the reduced amount of time I was spending with her. I had recently sold some bits and bobs of mine on ebay to buy an ipod, and used my first winners cheque to get her a matching one.

Other objects purchased include, in increasing order of importance to me
* A camcorder
* A Nintendo DS
* One-half of a high-definition TV (I've promised to pay the other half with my next cheque)
* A holiday in Las Vegas.

Now I really want to be able to demonstrate how much I valued the last item. This editor allow me to put text in bold or italics. I really want to put 'a holiday in las vegas' in flashing pulsing colours, with animated fireworks launching around them.

That 4 days was amongst the most pleasurable times of my entire life. And it was free - well I paid for the flight and hotel, the food/drink/poker bankroll came out of my bank account. It was a stunning time, with 2 members of my family and was something I would wish to repeat one day. Sadly I suspect my recently-found global-warming-guilt will stop me taking any more unnecesary long-haul flights, but I did enjoy it.

I've also used my bankroll (twice) to take shots at higher level games. Once I had a bash at the Poker-Stars $55 games, and went on a disasterous streak where I was constantly out-played, and I had a crack at the Crypto £25 tournies where the standard was much higher, and I never cashed. I felt that I was able to play fine for much of the tournament but I suspect if I had ever got the the late stages I'd probably have struggled.

Comically Shark-scope has got those $55 games as my last games its recorded, so according to that I'm a terrible (and losing) player.

So I've got a few new electrical items and had a superb holiday, all on other people's money. Cheers!