Friday 29 February 2008

Wired

I was going to go to bed but I'm too wired on caffeine to sleep. I'm currently going to bed when my wife leaves for work and gettting up just before she gets home. This was a habit I was hoping to break as I'm going out on the piss tomorrow night and didn't want to feel like I was drinking first thing in the morning.

I had another coaching session tonight and danzasmack sweated me while I played a mixture of hold em and horse. Again I got a lot out of it even though I ran horribly at hold em. I managed to recoup some of my losses at horse though so it's all good. I was able to get some of my noob mixed game mistakes out of the way so it was a very productive session. I really enjoy horse but I'm relatively new to it. Luckily the games are so soft you could probably turn a nice profit just by playing tight. I'm pretty shit at stud and stud/8 but I do ok by just nitting it up. I've got a pretty good handle on O8 and razz though and horse is where you find the worst limit hold em players on the net.

After the session I played some O8 on stars for a few hours and the games were phenomenal. I'm going to start playing this regularly and try to figure out how to play it well. These games are a like license to print money. What gets me is that it is relatively easy to play well but people seem to play really badly post flop. I invested in Pokertracker Omaha tonight and I'm currently running at 6.5bb/100. I was really surprised by this as I didn't think I was running particularly hot or anything. After 100,000 hands I'll let you know if it's sustainable or not.

Another shit blog post but a decent one is coming soon. I need to recap on all of the fuck ups I've made this month!

Thursday 28 February 2008

Another Boring Poker Post

I have quite a lot to write about but I can't really be arsed tonight. I'll probably do something decent at the end of the month as it's been a tough one. I think I've been to the highest and lowest points in my poker career over the last 4 weeks. More on that another day.

I'm still trying to mix things up when I'm playing at the moment as it relieves the monotony of sitting on your arse playing poker all night. I've noticed that I'm much more aware of what my opponents are doing now. Before I would fire up some tables and pretty much switch off and autopilot my way through the session. I suppose trying to learn new games has got me used to concentrating when I'm playing.

I played some Razz last night and tonight as this is one game where I'm particularly clueless. That game is just fucking sick. Imagine capping preflop with pocket aces in hold em then having to instamuck your hand on the flop. That shit happens all the time in Razz. Raise Raise Raise on 3rd street with the nuts and fold 4th street when you brick and your opponent doesn't. It was fun in a frustrating and not very profitable kind of way.

I'm still forcing myself to play busto stakes no limit for a couple of hundred hands a day too although my initial hot streak has slowed to a steady trickle. My no limit bankroll is still heading in the right direction though.

Limit is still treating me like a bitch as usual but as long as I feel like I'm playing well I'm not going to let it bother me. I had a hand tonight that made me laugh but I can't find it in pokertracker. Basically I turned the nuts after being check raised on the flop. The other guy goes absolutely apeshit in chat for a full 15 minutes. I've been berated before but this was something else entirely. Obviously I don't respond because I'm above all that nonsense (lol) which infuriates this guy further. Anyway his parting shot was "I can't believe you didn't even say sorry after sucking out on me like that".

I was laughing too much to think of a witty comeback.

I have another coaching session tomorrow night which I'm looking forward to. I have a few particular situations which have come up recently where I'm not entirely sure what my line should be.

In non poker related matters I bought a wii for my son's birthday next month and obviously had to test it tonight to make sure it's working properly. My arms are fucking aching and I've lost about a stone I reckon. Tick off "get more exercise" on my to do list :D

Tuesday 26 February 2008

Best Day Ever

I have played an absolute shitload of poker today and have had my best day since I started playing for a living. Not necessarily in terms of money earned but the best I've played and the most I've enjoyed poker since the beginning of the year.

I didn't play at all for the past few days as I was feeling pretty shit after one of my accounts was locked. I watched a load of videos on Deucescracked had a few beers and chilled out. I knew it would be a bad idea to sit at a table and I'd probably spew. I watched all of the limit hold em videos, moved on to the mixed games videos and finished off with the beginner No Limit content.

I got up today planning to play a little bit and see how it went. I downloaded a few of the sites I used to play on to see what the games were like as I might have to rethink my strategy if the worst happens with the site which will remain nameless. To my surprise I found $500 that I had completely forgotten about on a Cryptologic skin. I was planning to throw $500 on to Full Tilt next month to try my hand at busto stakes No Limit. I decided to sit at a couple of tables of full ring NL25 to get my feet wet. I didn't really know exactly what i was doing most of the time but i managed to win 4 buy ins in about an hour. This was despite the fact I got cooolered twice with set over set and AK < A3 AIPF. I've played less than 200 hands of No Limit in my life so I was quite happy with this. Most importantly I actually enjoyed playing poker again. It was fun.

I then hit up some 3/6 limit on stars for a couple of hours and had a great session, making good decisions and winning about $400. I also cleared the last portion of a $1500 bonus. Suddenly my bankroll is looking ok again.

This evening I spent a couple of hours grinding a bonus on Prima, playing very solidly and had another winning session. I was a bit pissed off with hold em by this time so I decided to play some low limit HORSE on stars armed with my newly acquired mixed game knowledge. I played 1/2 for about an hour and took down another $100.

To cap off my night I played some more NL, quickly going up another 2 buy ins but quit after half an hour or so.

Up about $730 I think but it feels a lot more with the bonus. All in all a good day and hopefully tomorrow brings more of the same.

Friday 22 February 2008

Dodgy

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting us.

We would like to inform you that your account is locked due to an undergoing investigation for chip dumping involving yourself and a couple of other poker players .

The moment we get an update to this case we will contact you. We apologise for the inconvinience.

Thank you for your cooperation and do not hesitate to contact us once again if you require further assistance.

Best Regards,
Nikola

Fuck fucking fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

I finally got hold of their customer service people on the phone and it all sounds pretty shady to me. The guy wouldn't really answer any of my questions, changed the shubject when I asked for the hand histories that were being investigated and told me that I was probably being investigated because I was winning! Obviously you aren't meant to win on this site.

Thursday 21 February 2008

WTF?

This afternoon I logged into a poker account where I had been whoring a bonus. I was a little bit concerned as it had taken them 36 hours to credit said bonus compared to other people being credited in 5 minutes. I had cashed out a few days ago as this was supposed to be my wages for the month but it hadn't been processed yet.

Anyway I tried to log in and I get a pop up that says "Your account has been locked out from our system. Please contact customer support". So I call their dodgy telephone support number and keep gettting cut off after 5 minutes. This shit goes on for 2 hours. Needless to say I'm fucking furious. I fired off an email about an hour in to the phone calls and I'm still waiting for a reply.

I'm not a fucking happy camper right now. Even if I get this shit sorted out I'm not going to have enough time to cash out from neteller and pay the bills. I can pay the bills anyway but thats not the fucking point! Cunts.

The best case scenario is that I don't get paid on time this month, worst case I'm down $8500 or around 80% of my bankroll if this site has gone tits up.

I'll not out the site right now as I'll give them 24 hours to get this sorted. If not I'm spamming every poker forum or blog I know with the story of these (possibly) cheating bastards.

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Limit Poker is a Bitch

I started playing some full ring again a few days ago and I've noticed some improvement in my decision making following a a solid week studying. Unfortunately I suffered 2 days of sick sick coolers and I was totally pissed off with poker.

Last night I sat down and fired up 4 tables and it was more of the same. It is hugely frustrating when you know you are making the correct plays but get fucked over anyway. After getting shat on by a rivered set of 3's against my flopped top 2 pair I was ready to throw my computer out of the window. I insta-left all my tables before monkey tilt took over.

After taking 10 minutes or so to calm down I decided to have another shot. I fired up 9 tables and concentrated on playing solidly and not paying too much attention to the result of any given hand. This is much easier to do when you instantly have other decisions to make. This was probably the best session I've had for a few weeks and I ended up $600 to the good.

I'm killing time this morning waiting on the games to start up. I think I'll spend some more time 9 tabling and hopefully keep up the positive results.

I have another coaching session tomorrow evening so hopefully I can iron out some minor leaks and make some extra cash for the rest of this month.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

Hard Work

Things are taking a more positive turn for me this week. I decided on Saturday that I was going to grind up the stakes to get my confidence and game back. I've used the time since then to focus on my 6 max game instead.

Full ring limit has become increasingly frustrating for me lately due to the poor game selection and a shit run of cards. Looking at the lobby on Stars there are currently 2 tables of 5/10 full ring running and 10 tables of 6 max. Learning to play short handed is something I've been putting off for a long time, mainly because I'm a nit but mostly because I'm a lazy bastard and learning a new game requires time and effort.

My week has consisted of:

1. watching a video on stoxpoker or deucescracked while taking notes
2. playing for an hour and trying to apply the concepts
3. reviewing my session
4. rinse and repeat.

I've found that it's a good way to learn and gets you playing well from the start of the session. There are a huge amount of resources out there for players who want to improve their game and I intend to make full use of them. Next month I might even take a stab at the dreaded NO-LIMIT!

Dell are finally sending a dude out to fix my pc tomorrow following at least 5 hours of phone calls to their technical support people over the weekend. Fuckers.

Saturday 9 February 2008

Back to Basics

Despite last night's tilt I've actually managed to lock up next months wages after clearing a few historic bonuses and such. Instead of carrying on the way I've been going for the rest of the month I've decided to go right back to basics with my game. This is partly to punish myself for tilting so badly and partly to get my game right back on track.

I've temporarily withdrawn most of my bankroll from Stars, leaving $1200 on there. For the rest of the month I'm going to grind up through the limits starting at 1/2 and playing a minimum of 10k hands at each level.

I'm also going to re-read some of my old books, watch a shitload of videos and really work hard on my game. This is something I should have been doing all along but fell by the wayside after a couple of weeks.

After dedicating the rest of February to this, I should come back a much better player in March.

Monkey Tilt

I had to clear 1200 raked hands yesterday to release a bonus that expired at 10pm last night. Long story short: not many games going, had to play on bad short handed tables and got my arse well and truly booted. I have never been rivered so often in one session in my entire life. Dealt KK 22 times during the course of the day - lost 14 times. Nice.

Needless to say this sent me on super duper monkey tilt and I proceeded to spunk off another $500 at 5/10 playing extremely recklessly.

I woke up this morning feeling fucking awful and in a foul mood. I then spent 45 minutes on the phone to Dell customer service trying to get my pc fixed. I have to phone back later once the system test is complete. Oh the fucking joy.

Another valuable lesson (re)learned. When things aren't going your way, stop. I could have saved myself a lot of heartache if I had remembered that. Spunking off $800 to clear a $500 bonus is a complete waste of time.

Today is another day though and I'll be hitting the tables again tonight at some point. I have a lot of ground to make up following last nights escapades.

Thursday 7 February 2008

Hangovers, Kratom and Chatting With Jesus

I have a fucking huuuuuge hangover just now after drinking far too much whisky this afternoon. I really couldn't be arsed with poker today and decided to get shitfaced instead. I drank some kratom tea aswell which has left me dazed and confused. I feel shitty.

I fired up a poker site to find out when my bonus expires, couldn't find it in the software so talked to live support. The box popped up on the screen and written at the top was "you are now chatting with Jesus". I nearly pissed and shit myself at the same time lol. Unfortunately he was unable to give me any clues about the meaning of life or anything but he did tell me when my bonus expires. Thanks Jesus, say hi to your pop for me.

I tried to get a screenshot but it just saved the chat box and not the text. Bah!

Monday 4 February 2008

The Grind

After being a lazy bastard on Friday and Saturday I put in a solid 8 hours today. No big swings, very little in the way of big hands and quite a good uneventful day.

I spent most of the evening bonuswhoring on a Prima Skin which was pretty boring. Even 8 tabling did little to relieve the monotony. I pretty much switch off when I'm doing this so I decided to stick a film on to watch while I played. This isn't something I would recommend unless you're not too worried about missing the action. At the stakes I was playing the game is easily beatable playing straight forward ABC poker. So I watched the Simpsons movie and then Leon which was fine. I also managed to turn a small profit while not paying very much attention. Hopefully doing this now and again will help to stave off the inevitable burn out that I get from time to time.

Later on I hit Stars and played about 1000 hands over 2 sessions. I've cut back the number of tables I'm playing at 5/10 following my coaching session. It made it very clear that I was missing a lot of profitable situations by playing 6 tables. Unfortunately this will cut back on the FPP bonuses but I've got a few other bonuses lined up on different sites which should see me through to the end of the year. Getting to Supernova Elite aint happening anyway. Maybe next year.

Back to the grind again tomorrow...

Friday 1 February 2008

Excellent Start to February

In the early hours of this morning I had my first coaching session with danzasmack from Deucescracked.com. It was initially intended to be a hand history review but I was having some problems with a piece of software he uses so we did a sweat session instead. This was pretty amazing really and I got a huge amount out of it. I played 2 tables for a couple of hours while discussing various situations with him as they came up. He encouraged me to open up my game a lot more in certain situations and against certain opponents and it paid off.

The fact that there was one of the fishiest players I've ever seen at these limits made it all the more interesting. The guy was 3 betting 10 4 off suit and running at 80% VPIP with a PFR of 50%. I managed to isolate him a couple of times and get paid off by weaker hands. Towards the end of the session every other player on Stars had clicked on to this guy and when he left the table the waiting list was 14 deep.

I'm looking forward to applying the things we discussed over the next few days.

My computer is now totally arsed after I tried to reinstall the system and it didn't work. I need to get on the phone tomorrow to get it sorted. I'm now on my laptop with my old 19" monitor and it's not nearly as comfortable.

I still can't connect to any Prima skins on my laptop so I'm wondering if it might be something to do with my ISP. I'll have phone them aswell.

I'm taking the night off tonight and having a few jars.

Bad End to January

I went out last night and had a few beers with a guy I used to work with which was good. Came home about midnight and let my dog out. The little fucker proceeded to escape from the garden so I wandered around in the pissing rain trying to find a black lab in the dark for an hour. He came back at 4.30am very impressed with himself. Little fucker.

This morning I'm hunting for my fags when suddenly I don't feel so good. I start upstairs to the bathroom, make it halfway up and proceed to be violently sick up the stairs, along the hall and all over the bathroom floor. Ironically I was finished puking by the time I made it to the toilet. All I'll say is I regretted having a kebab last night and the cleanup operation took fucking ages.

So tonight I sit down to get some hands in at the Prima site I've been bonuswhoring and the fucker won't start. No worries I think, I'll just reinstall the software and we'll be away. I do that and I'm still getting the same thing - the software starts and freezes before it opens. I try another Prima skin and get the same thing. So I spend about 2 hours talking with live support, try loads of different things and nothing works. Not good news as I'm relying on this bonus for next months wages.

Later on I tried to install some other software and it won't install and I keep getting errors. I also have a weird bug with Internet Explorer where it writes backwards when I'm typing or the window moves accross the screen when I'm scrolling down the screen. It's a pain in the arse.

My Anti Virus shows nothing, I've ran Adaware and Spybot and get nothing. I've pretty much tried everything I can think of. I'm going to try to reinstall windows later to see if that helps. If not I'll be formatting my hard drive and starting again so it'll be bye bye to another pokertracker database.

As far as poker is concerned, I've had an ok month all things considered. Cashed out $3200 in total which is a slight pay rise compared to my old job. I'm pretty happy with this considering the difficulties I've had adapting to playing full time.

Computer problems aside, I'm looking forward to February. I'm planning on getting a serious amount of hands in now that i have some sort of routine in place and hopefully making a decent amount of money!

Good luck.