Monday, September 25, 2006

A Semi Somnambulant Trance!

Well what can I say other than it’s been a funny old last 6 weeks and if I could understand what on earth the heading above meant it would probably describe my state of mind at present to a tee. I’ll check what it means later but I told someone it was the heading of my next update so there goes…

Ok, as previously explained my 30k profits (online) have been donked back into the poker economy and I’m back on a level playing field as far as P&L is concerned. Live play sees me in a tidy profit however, and it’s definitely an area where I will be focusing more for the future.

Six-pac Erghh what can I say other than they no longer interest me and I find them quite boring. Too many players seem to have the same strategy in these things and the variance is ‘wild’ to say the least. In my opinion they are not worth playing unless you play high stakes and focus intently or multitable like some of the pro’s and over-ride the variance. I will still play them but I always get this feeling of bad value – probably cos I have more second placed, but when you enter a £500 six-pac you have to make it pay in the next 45mins. Personally why not stick it on a cash table and take your chances as there is much more value to be had if you select professionally your victims. Even if you don’t make victim selection a priority I think there is more money available long term by edging your money on cash than the pacs especially on Crypto. On other sites there are better STT structures but you need to analyse them and alter your game accordingly, it’s all about knowing your enemy.

On shark scope at one time I was a shark finned assassin on a mission. However, now I don’t know what it is but I walk round opening and closing my mouth and bubbles keep coming out of it. I don’t feel pain any more and my girlfriend keeps telling my I am cold blooded. To top it all I can swim underwater for huge periods of time without coming up for air and my eyes shoot side to side like that action man (eagle eyes)– it’s scary. I really shot through though when I heard a player say when he re-raised me live I went in to the tank for 3 or 4 minutes… Yes send the men in white coats round I have turned into a fish!

Why leave a profit based style and become a Donk? Because I have this compulsive nature that makes me strive for perfection. I always try to get to the bottom of things by hook or by crook and six pacs to me are one of the best ways to develop poker skills. My spell away from cash has been a positive one although mostly negative but I have seen all the combinations from every angle and more turns and rivers than more dare to see because that is the nature of them games. Inevitably you need to gamble, you have to select your moment and pounce. Your position on the table is vital your stack % fundamental and your emotions need to be hardcore emotionless. Ruthlessness becomes natural as you see how cruel the game can be and take measures to stamp out the variance. Ultimately your card reading skills become fine tuned and inevitably as a result your beats become more prominent. Your chips are going in the race ahead only to be sat scratching your head time and time again, and you hear people say they play STT’s to avoid the variance and Tilt that cash games are prone to offer.

Here is where I disagree completely with the masses. Yes variance on cash can be cruel and harsh but if you can play and can accept it the profits can’t be matched. Anyone who can play six-pacs successfully up to crap shoot levels can become a great cash player and should have pop see how they get on. I have concentrated the last year on trying to develop tournament strategy at the expense of playing no cash whatsoever and I go on about having no discipline. Yesterday I thought how disciplined is that just taking myself away from cash for 6/7 months? My edge now is my new sober style of play, since BFWCOP I haven’t had a drop and I am razor sharp again on the tables. In fact I have been so sharp I am really disappointed in the fact that some of the states I have played in are an embarrassment to me personally.

So back to cash, I have been playing £5/10 NL and some 10 seated £25/50 NL starting originally disastrously. I found a maniac one night and decided to join him in his all-in fest of any two cards. He went all-in with ATC and I had the opportunity of selecting mine. Needless to say that night cost me 6k 4 of which was my own and other that I had won off him previously. Every time I had my money in with the best cards and every time he kettled me it was unreal. Hawko joined the table and left with 9k that I was glad about, for me it was at least consolation that it had gone to someone I knew other than one of the prey mantis’s sat on the table.

I’ve been back playing cash for 2 weeks and can’t believe I ever left it in the first place. The variance is back but it’s so easy to handle now it’s untrue and I have managed over the last couple of weeks to accumulate 12k of profits negating all my bad luck and shite of late. All I can do is thank the six-pacs for bringing me on as a player and a person. Now I just need to become the assassin when I play and get some proper dough earned.

I haven’t left the pacs completely as my intention is to get my FIN back so watch out there’s a -

----Semi Somnambulant Fish About----

BTW the BetFair do was a blinder… Great to meet everyone again…

Friday, September 08, 2006

More Shit, Different Day!

I’m on the train at the minute on my way to Croydon for the BFWCOP tournament knees up extravaganza organised by Mandylou. The GNER trains 1st Class is excellent value @ £70 return to Doncaster, it would cost me £150 in juice + hassle with my motor so it’s perfect. Wireless broadband as well what more could you ask for? I’m sat here typing away whilst all around me probably think look at the executive typing up his documents.. LOOOOL

Tough for me to make it today and if it wasn’t for the amount of effort ML puts into these events I’d 100% be swerving this one as I am full of cold and feeling real shitty. In addition to having a cold I am severely jet-lagged and since I came home from my jollies I have tilted away another 7k of my extremely hard earned cash.

Tilted is probably being a little to hard on myself or (honest) but I have this feeling that I don’t know how to play poker anymore. My previous successes mostly came from cash games online however, now I’m apprehensive about playing cash as I feel my game is too loose at present and I’ll bluff to much as a result. You see the 6-pacs really improve your game as a player in my opinion and I feel like my game has taken huge leaps forwards although comically in results terms it’s gone backwards. The point is the more aware I am of the game the worse my results have been

As I make progress in Poker I have integrated new things into my game and my thinking has changed as a result. There are so many facets to this game it is mind boggling but at the minute I wish I could turn back the clock a little to when ignorance was bliss, (I might win a few quid then) instead of blowing it… Basically it feels like I’m going through a phase of all that is bad in poker and can’t find my feet. I have tweaked my game a little and possess bursts of clever play every now and then but predominantly I need to either pack in or sort my head out. Add to that some real bad outdraws when I play clever in the six-pacs I indulge in more hand history analysis, and send a couple to Hawko cos he loves reading them so much. I seem to start turning it around but it doesn’t last, it's just not sustained anymore.
(I have played the wrong way I think for a good while now and the formulae I had is long gone unless for some reason it’s a ‘Live’ event). Mmmmmmmm where have I heard that before?

So as I get to this stage of my update and have a little look at what’s been wrote I know what I need to do to bring my game back. I answer the question to myself every fekking time

---DISCIPLINE MYSELF TO MAKE CHANGES---

OK no more depressing shit on this blog I have the answer. Every time I say I have a game ‘live’ why do I not have a game online??

'Live' I believe people a lot more maybe that’s a sense of mine when looking at an opponent. There is room for improvement available cos online in my mind they’re always bluffing and if they’re not then my cards might at least be Live and I’m only a 6/4 dog LOOOOOOOOL.

When ‘Live’ I don’t play pissed, online I regularly play pissed and I think I’m brilliant at controlling my self whilst loading up another table.

When the house is empty I play my best or when I’m not constantly sat on my PC all day loading tourney after tourney. I have all the answers they’re looking right at me saying sort it out fool and this is my ultimate test.

Get my drift yet?

I believe I know all (well not all) the answers but I (know) how to win at this game so I have no more excuses for not doing so and....
------------- My statement as from today is 'I MUST not SHOULD' -------------

When I first started playing I lost 12k online then spun it round to winning 30k. That has gone back into the poker economy and I am basically starting from scratch. I have had over 2yrs of free poker training and now I must prove to myself I possess the self discipline to make a success of my chosen recreation. This blog is full of what I should do and I repeat the same things over and over. However, SHOULD has now become MUST and in order to improve I MUST implement these changes, END OF...

The BFWCOP is my time to chill and meet fellow players from the poker forum at Betfair. When I return home I have some big changes to make in my life and I’ll keep you posted on them. However, now it’s time to get back into the real world and away from the confines of this blog where the skeletons definitely come out of the cupboard for a couple of hours.

All the best of luck at the tables...

Endnote:
Whilst playing comfortable in the day with no distractions I play in 3 x games with Buzzer and in 3 of the games I see him wipe players out in every game by hitting a miracle river card. One of the victims was me with blinds at 200/400 I had just managed to steal my way back from the dead after the table fish got lucky on me and found A 5 in the BB three of us left. Buzzer raises on the button all-in and I call instantly knowing with him it could be any two he shows 10 4 off suit and the flop comes K 5 Q the turn is an A giving me two pair and the river a Jack to make buzzer the winning hand sending me to the rails…

Why is this game so fascinating???

Just arrived at Kings X!
This was one productive and hopefully profitable journey...