Monday, April 24, 2006

...They Say That Fortune Favours The Brave...

Ah well, AH WELL seems to have a nice ring to it? Or maybe it’s like that name you don’t like at first but eventually it grows on you. (Ah well) has been typed a lot by me of late alongside ‘mug’ and whatever derogatory comments I can make before chat is disabled on Betfair Poker as I see my measly AA busted by a four flush by the mighty K 9 off (AGAIN).

Don’t know what’s happened to me of late but I have become quite abusive online, a kind of keyboard warrior with a difference. This mouth wishes it was ‘live’ so he could leap over the table and strangle the Muppet that thinks my read and subsequent ‘push’ on a flop of 556 (I have 96 -Grimace-) should be called for all his stack (and mine) with Q 4 off suit. Obviously a Q pops up on the river I proceed to get my action man converted into a voodoo doll out ‘where are the fucking pins?’ and Villain types in chat LMFAO. By the time I respond raging the message ‘Observer chat is disabled while we try upgrading this shit site’ appears and my “you mutha fekker coca roach” disappears into the abyss of deleted text.

So I jump on the Betfair forum (Slightly Pished BTW) type something like (Betfair is a disgrace shite site) as a header and paste and post it about 20 x on the forum see how long it lasts……

Anyway, I’m banned off the forum for being a big baby basically, not that I really care most of the time it’s a load of bollox day in day out anyway. I browsed and posted basically because there are a few on the forum who enjoy a bit of banter otherwise I would have been long gone. The forum moderation is pathetic I’m getting nervous now even daring to think I can type pokerstars without it being published as ********** that’s how sad it gets. Maybe one day they’ll get contracts out on MS Word for typing I like ‘partypoker’ which I don’t btw its carp I mean crap (looks over shoulder again for the Betfair Police).

Playing other sites now more and more, Pokerstars & Full Tilt being the ones where I can get on with the software and don’t mind the interface. Stars has been mainly for practice with MTT’s and full tilt I have been playing the very VERY weak HU tournaments, very profitable and a good way to practice hand reading skills with the blinds at non crapshoot levels.

Six-pacs on Betfair I’m still playing plenty of them so even though I'm chat banned I’m allowed to pay rake LOL. The £300 from rake back has been up to 6k at one point now the account is at 4.6k with some real bad luck and CASH PLAY in the mix. I can take bad luck I just wish he’d dish it out a bit more evenly instead of all at once for a month then give me a day’s grace.

Normally as a cash player I would have 5k in my account to play the £5/10 NL on Betfair and (starting to reminisce now) when I got to 15k I would withdraw 10k and rebuild again to 15. Been a long while since I made a withdrawal but I feel my game has improved heaps and don’t think it’s many moons away now before I can continue playing for even more fun recreationally and earning a few quid in the meantime. Anyway talking about cash play I have popped back a couple of times over the last week or so with mixed results........................... - blushing here-

Here is a brutally honest account of my erratic play sometimes. Bring on the £5/10 6 seater Tables& RayVon is playing. Always a good aggressive action filled table when he’s about me thinks from past analysis. I’m in the small blind and limp to RayVon with AJ off he raises to £50 what do I do? Well I must think for a minute I’m not in the crapshoot stages of a Six-pack so call see a flop and see what happens from there but £50 bit of a raise here - he's teeving!!!??? I’ll put him to the test LMAO. I move All–in for 1k nick his blinds and tell him not to mess with me cos I’m back grrrrrr. He calls with KK [sigh] and takes my candy LOOOOOL what a mug I am. Well over the next 2 hours I knuckle down and play my ‘A’ game. Yes I have one sometimes! And manage to claw it all back with a few hundred on top.

Lesson learned – RayVon is playing some solid poker and he can play - don’t judge a book by its cover in future dogs arse!. Playing in the ‘NOW’ is fundamental and nearly; well did cost me! I don’t need telling it was bad/terrible/Muppet , play I am fully aware of that and anyone who’s followed my ‘Chronicles’ will know what play I’m capable of TY.

Right I’m finishing off by advocating Blondepoker.com as a great site to get excellent hand analysis from resident experts and Pro’s and here’s my last two cash hands and comments from one of the experts.

Playing £5/10 NL cash 6 seated on Crypto. Aggressive game and my opponent is loose/aggressive. The following hand occurs

Me:
I get deal As Js and make it £30 to go - Button (Aggressive) flat calls and we get to see a flop of 2s 3s 5d I’m first to act and I bet £40 which is instantly re-raised to £140. Ok here I think of the possible holdings of my opponent and my draw and I push all in for just over 1k which my opponent instantly calls and shows 10h 10c.My draw doesn’t connect and a couple of players LOL at my (loose play). I spoke to a few people about this hand and have their opinions as well as my own but as a new member to Blonde would like to here yours...

Totalise:
Push looks kind of drawy, but still, u are a likely favourite over his range, and you surely have some FE vs. the mid over pairs... I think for the benefit of deception you could make it £500... You still have odds to call on the turn if he calls flop and jams turn, it just makes his call a lot tougher if he has a medium pair, because it’s (probably) consistent with how you would play bigger pairs/sets... but that’s semantics. If you jam your big pairs/sets here as well as jamming your big draws, jamming is more then fine.

Me:
2nd hand that is here... Different player been LOL'ing at me I get Ad Kd and raise to £40 this time and see a flop of 5d 6d Jc I raise player re-raises and I push again, again I’m called and the player has Qh Qs turn brings another Qc river no help.Just unlucky or poor fish that needs therapy?

Me:
Thanks Totalise welcomed thoughts. The 2nd hand to be honest was Tilt induced but I still considered in hindsight that I was a slight favourite in both hands and the poker gods were not paying my draws. My thoughts were that in cash you need to take advantages of slight edges as you can always re-load not like in the tournament scenarios. However, definitely looks drawy and possibly the reason he called my all-in so in that case I should congratulate him. He wasn’t beating much IMO and on a different night I would hope to re-load and take it back somewhere along the line...

Totalise:
This is ok as well... you are getting a fantastic image as a result, and as long as you play sets/big made hands the same way, its going to be real hard for your opponents to beat you over the long term....the problems from this stem from you NOT playing the big hands the same way, as that is just throwing away the opportunity that your image has created.

Just a taster of some of the advice offered on here Quality IMO and I don’t intend on getting banned. Thought I was my normal polite self.

GL GG WP All the very best!

See you on the cash tables :)

Think my blog has gone a bit stale of late so any opinions would be appreciated you know a 'GOOD READ' here and there Mr KPNUTS !!!

Comments appreciated..

Saturday, April 08, 2006

No Cash for me please. . .

MrDigital is still on the Sit 'n' Go trail and still winning a few quid whilst I ponder whether to venture back to cash. I play £90’s and upwards to the odd £500 but in general £120’s & £200’s are what I look for. I tend to play 3 per day as mentioned in a previous thread depending on a few very basic rules i've set to allow me to play as well as possible.

1] If I have the time I will play
2] If I’m in the mood I will play
3] If there are no distractions I will play

I do practice game selection to an extent but I have found that in this format I am very confident and that is a major step up in my poker playing life. I read other bloggs and the confidence from players oozes out to sometimes Big Headed proportions. Now don’t get me wrong I’m not knocking them for their perceived abilities (justified or not) I have just never been able to relate to them in this way. You see I have always doubted my abilities as a player and the negative side of me has always infiltrated my consciousness whilst playing. When someone rants at a player or states someone is ‘Carp’ I’ve been a bit like ‘is he’? To dumb to rate anyone cos I was playing on autopilot-tilt-induced-muppetry.

Confidence is obviously a fundamental roleplayer in anyones success where poker is concerned and it's definately one area I hope keeps progressing. You have to be confident to be able to recognise there are players worse than you out there and to even dare announce it WOW (am i sounding bigheaded yet?) Hope not, it's not my style but quietly confident is an acheivement in my struggle for poker stardom so bring it on.

Leading me on to…
My attitude towards poker has been good and my ability to read the game improving all the time. Short Handed Sit & Go’s have a lot to offer foremost, as in the ability to play some real poker. As a recreational player that’s what I want, also the stakes need to be at a level where they mean something to players as my goal is to constantly improve, and you'll never do that on the virtual money tables! Have no fear my friends! the level of play on some of these higher stakes Sit & Go’s is a JOKE! Now take heed blogreaders because that statement is coming from ‘ME’ and the following is an example of play in a £120 six-pac that springs to mind.

I raise to 3 x BB with AA early on in a £120 6-pac Blinds are 15/30 and get one caller and a flop of 2 5 Q rainbow. I bet out pot sized, opponent re-raises so I have to assume that this player has something however, i'm not second guessing here I think my AA is good (famous last words on the cash tables) and proceed to go all in. This player (anonymous for future financial reasons) calls automatically with J 8 off suit ? ? ?. LMFAO the Turn brings an 8 and the river delivers a Tyson like blow to produce a Jack; ouch that hurt! but WTF was he thinking here? the re-raise was OK he could take a decent player off AA so early in an STT but calling the all-in re-raise, what was he beating? he did type sorry (bless his cotton socks). This is obviously an extreme example but the standard of many players on the higher stake Sit & Goes is very poor and any player with a keen eye and enough discipline will rake it in at these levels.

Has tilt disappeared out of my life?

Have I had it under control?

Yes to an extent but I think that the fact that I’ve been carving up the 6-pacs lets me allow a few outdraws cos I’m expecting them. However, I’m going through a spell at the minute where my chips are in when I’m ahead but by the river the ‘Oh well’ is now becoming ‘Oh this is a fekking joke’. In conclusion TILT is lurking and the last few games it has crept in to me calling from behind when I know I should fold which is more disappointing than being outdrawn in my opinion.

At the minute I believe in myself, my game, and my confidence yes you guessed it i'm brilliant :) . I have tilted a couple of times and instead of packing in for the day played another and gave my chips away. Suppose I can’t play perfect poker all the time but overall I have much more consistency. In fairness though I see ‘TILT’ and recognise the emotion when it arrives, that’s a major hurdle for me to jump and I intend to make bigger leaps in the future. I personally don’t think I’m ready for the cash games at the minute but I am now looking at moving up stakes on the Sit & Go’s and maybe looking at other Poker sites that offer these tourney’s.

Played this morning in a £300 six pac and down to the last 3. Made my move on the button with A 6 all-in and one caller who holds K Q off. Flop RAGSSSS Turn RAGGGG River (Just add that i could type this while the dealer decided what was coming)

River ACEEEEEARGHHHH. Finished for the day UL GG WP.

£300 rake back from Betfair and I’ve played the Sit and Go’s and turned it into a nice steady £6000.

Cant’ all be luck CAN IT ? ? ?