Catch Up - Part Two

1st Some Good News

I had an email from PokerStars earlier in the week, informing me of some WSOP ME freeroll satellites... every hour, for the next 10 weeks or so there is a turbo freeroll to win 50 seats into a weekly final; each Saturday there are 3 weekly finals offering 7 WSOP ME packages between them.

Last Mon morning I finished in the top 50 (of 1287) in one of the freerolls to secure my weekly final ticket. At this moment in time I haven't decided which of today's 3 weekly finals to have a crack at... the choices are - 12:30 currently 372 entered, but only 1 package available; 18:30 currently 544 enetred, with 3 packages; and 01:00 (Sun) currently 396 entered, also with 3 packages.

It's really just a choice between the first two and I'm leaning toward the 18:30 one at the moment.

(Update update... finished 177th of 1506 doh!!)

And some bad news...

I am running so bad in the Ladbrokes WSOP league series that I might just as well save myself $22 / week!!! :-(

And then some mixed news...

Whilst the sideways trend in the cash games continued for about 10k hands, in the last few days I have had a few decent sessions and have, hopefully, broken out of the doldrums and am now set fair to power ahead, onward and upwards!

I have to admit to deviating slightly from the rigourous bankroll management constraints that I set myself, and ventured into the 50NL arena a little sooner than I should have. The reasons behind this were two-fold... firstly the 10c/25c on Full Tilt is suprisingly difficult for such low stakes, it is full of people all playing much the same 'tight-aggressive' game; secondly, I opened a new account on a Prima/Microgaming skin, with 30% rakeback and a nice deposit bonus. The deposit bonus is paid after a set number of 'raked hands'... their description of a raked hand is one where you are dealt cards and the rake is at least 25c. Unfrotunately in the 10c/20c games only about 15% of the hands make the 25c rake threshold, whereas at 25c/50c it is closer to 50%.

Any way, with the profit now standing at just over $500, my total bankroll is over $1000 and is now sufficient to legitimately support this new level.

I have also decided to cash out my rakeback each month, until I have recouped my initial $500 investment... this will then make this venture into a freeroll, which is good, yes? If winnings continue at a decent rate I will probably continue cashing out the rakeback, save it for my retirement!!

I've been told to catch up, so here we go - Part One...

Virgin Poker Festival II (Apr 12/13)

It is good to know that the people at Virgin Poker, in particular that nice Joe Legge, listen to their players... and after the debacle of arranging 'VPF I' at a pub with no beer - well, more acurately, a casino with no Guiness - this time they did their research properly and opted for the superb Aspers Casino in Newcastle.

I drove up Friday afternoon and settled into my hotel, before heading up to the casino for their regular £20 freezeout. Played a steady game for about 3 hours before going out with AK vs AJ, when a jack hit on the river. The rest of the evening was spent having a few beers in the company of some friendly 'blondes'... OK, move on, nothing to see here, I'm talking about Ironside, Eck, Laxie, InTheBelly and partner Charlotte.

Saturday started with coffee and a sandwich, across the road from my hotel, in the station, followed up with a little over an hour (that's how long my laptop battery lasts!!), playing 10c/25c 6-max cash on Full Tilt in the hotel lounge, for a profit of about $100. Back to Aspers by about 1.30pm, where I had a chat for the first time with Paul 'M3Boy' Garnham - we had actually stood a few people apart in the queue for a tournament at Binions and sat about 3 tables apart for a couple of hours last year - I got all the details, chapter, verse and FACT, of 'that' Omaha hand on iPoker (it's a blonde thing!)... and so on to the main event.

Before the tourney starts, Tikay introduces the four 'bounties'; matey that won VPF I; 'Elvis' - some guy who bears a passing resemblence to EP after you've had 8 pints of Stella; Maria 'Chilli' Demetriou - the young man who made the final of the last series of LNP; and Lucy Rokach.

I make my way to my table to find that I am sharing it with two of the bounties - Lucy, in seat 2; Elvis in seat 9 - I'm in seat 5. I don't think the guy Elvis was much of a poker player, but I anticipated that with Lucy Rokach sat three seats to my right, things could get interesting once the blinds increased and the antes came into play. As it was I didn't notice her getting too out of line, she just seemed to quietly pick up the odd pot and keep her stack steadily increasing... I guess that may be the measure of how good she is; she just seemed to know when someone was weak and that a timely bet or re-raise would take the pot the down.

My tournament was a bit of a rollercoaster... I picked up some chips early and was feeling pretty pleased with myself; I then played a couple of big pots (badly) with LR, shortly after that I made a questionable call of an all-in, for about 3/4 of my chips, when an Ace on the turn gave me top two pairs (AK), but also put a straight on the board... IF he had exactly QT - he had exactly QT!! Bollox!

I then nursed my short stack for a couple of levels until... Blinds are 200/400/50, I have 99 on the button, with about 4k chips... it's folded to the cut-off who makes it 1200... I push all-in, the blinds fold and after a long dwell matey calls and turns over 66... needless to say a 6 pops up on the river!

So a couple of beers to commiserate myself, a £5 heads-up match aginst one of the Virgin staff - which I won! - and it was back to the hotel for a relatively early night.

Sunday started much the same way as Saturday, except that I only won $35 on Full Tilt. Sunday afternoon was 'The Terminator' touranment, a £30 freezeout, with £20 in the prize pool and £10 bounty on everyone... I picked up £20 for knocking out two shortstacks, before going out in a 'set over set' situation. Ironically, this time I have 66 on a K96 flop... matey2 has pocket 9s!! Bollox again!

So to sum up... 3 days in Newcastle - 3 MTTs, 0 cashes - 1 heads-up match, 1 cash (half of it put in charity bucket) - No Cash games - No Blackjack - Plenty of Guiness!

When's the next one?

(PS. A little bird tells me it might be at DTD)

All is not rosey, in the garden of the trainee cash player...

The steadily climbing graph, previously published, has taken a worrying downward trend in the last 3.5k hands. I wish I could report that it was all down to variance, bad beats, suckouts, coolers, cold decks or any other reason beyond the the control of a mere mortal... but alas, I fear that it is largely down to my old bad habits rearing their ugly heads.

On the plus side... I am still nicely up on my original $500 deposit, to the tune of $236 won, plus a total of $97 rakeback ($62 for 15 days in March and $35 so far in April).

I think part of my problem is playing too many tables at once, for too long, unfortunately my ageing brain just doesn't really cope with multi-tabling 6-max tables for hours on end. I can just about cope with three tables but four is too many and I now realise that 90 mins is about the limit of my attention span.

So, from now on a session will be three tables for 60-75 mins, 90 mins max if I'm going well and there is some easy money at the table... on days when I've been at work just one session and on days-off no more than three sessions but with at least 2hrs break between them.

I think I got a bit carried away with the success of the first three weeks and started pushing the sessions too far and playing tired, in my race to $1000 and the move up to NL50... lesson learned - there is no need to rush; be disciplined and play properly, the money will come!

What kind of idiot makes this re-raise...

(click pics to enlarge)

Well I'll tell you who... it's the kind of idiot who is 4-tabling 6-max cash tables, while watching the 'highlights' of West Ham losing to Portsmouth, at about 11.00pm, with tired eyes after playing for 3 hours, who doesn't notice the UTG raise to $10, and just sees ATs, on the button and hits the bet pot button... that's who!!

OK, now this is bad enough, a schoolboy error I know, but what happens next is even more incredible...


The UTG original raiser dwells up for a few seconds and just calls... leaving just $5.95 behind??

He then pushes the rest in on this flop...


Now obviously I am putting him on AA, KK or at worst AK, but I now have to call, getting 11/1 on my $6. You can imagine my suprise when the cards are revealed and I see the hand he has been playing and the fact that I'm not drawing dead...


Now I have already answered the question - 'What kind of idiot re-raises $30 with ATs', and I have to just hold my hand up and admit to not paying attention... but, but just answer me this, in the name of all that is holy, what kind of clown raises 40x UTG with AJo?? And then calls the huge re-raise, wtf does he think I have?? Could he hear me cursing and swearing at myself?? Well come on... I want answers dammit!!!!

So where was I?

On Saturday, March 15th, I made a momentous decision... to try and find out why I'm so crap at online cash games??

Having heard nothing but good things about CardRunners, I decide to bite the bullet and cough up the membership fee. Cough being the operative word, at $99 to join and then $24/month!

First stop was a 5 part video series on how to beat Small Stakes No-Limit games, which according to the presenter should give you tools required to win at up to NL200 ($1/$2). With part 1 under my belt and armed with a starting hand chart and the motto, "We never limp!" ringing in my ears, I deposited $500 into Full Tilt - the 20 buy-ins at 25NL that proper bankroll management dictates.

After almost two hours, 2-tabling, I have lost $108!! FFS! Time to watch part two perhaps?? To be honest, it was just my old problem rearing it's ugly head - unable to lay down big pocket pairs and making mis-timed, un-thought out bluffs... If I could just eradicate those two huge leaks!

Another couple installments of the videos watched and a break even day on Sunday was then followed by some winning sessions... hoorah!

Well that was all three weeks ago... a few more videos have been watched and inwardly digested and the bankroll is still increasing, currently standing at a little over $800, with an additional $62 rakeback for March to be added in a week or so.

Here's a few stats for those that are into that kind of thing, comments on the numbers welcome...