Thursday, 25 September 2008

Irish Winter Festival

http://www.paddypowerpoker.com/irishwinterfestival/

I must say its been a while since posting but i guess if i spent so much time before talking shit on here its only right that i should post about something like this.

I never have been one for satellites after being the bubble boy time after time for the gukpt. Played 4 of those this year and bubbled in three of them nasty to say the least. worst one being getting it in pre flop with aj std getting called by a3 and his kicker pairing on the turn.

Anyway.....

At the first attempt at the Irish winter festival. bingo :-) we are in. This went the complete opposite of other qualifiers instead of going to the final table chipped up I had mothered a baby stack the whole way through the comp reaching the final table with about 8 bb's I went on to win it outright.

Total package from betfred worth $4500

  • Entry into the Paddy Power Irish winter festival (Gtd prize pool of 1 million euros)
  • 4 nights at the city west hotel Dublin
  • A trip to the Guinness brewery on the Friday
  • Reception party and dinner on arrival
  • Extra spending money
  • Flights and accommodation for me and a guest

Apart from the fact that I'm over the moon to be getting the chance to play this event for the price of $50 qualifier, the chance to stay at the city west is a prize worth bragging about in its own right. The place looks amazing have a look http://www.citywesthotel.com/site/index.aspx

Before the emails start coming in after a long hard think I've decided to take cashbiatch with so unlucky folks she got there first.

As for the comp itself I'm going to enjoy smashing all those paddy's to pieces on my way to the final.

Happy fucking days wish me luck

Skipper

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

WSOP Freeroll coming in may

Just come across a free roll on a tiny little site online. Its pretty new and thy are giving away 2 mini wsop packages for the top two prizes.
All players club members Will get the password automatically anyone one else wishing to receive the password get signed up now.
Date the dairies is 10th may 2008.

Good luck to all that play see you at the table skip

Join me at the tables i pay full time at Poker Trillion the firm plays for their players Click below to find out more
www.pokertrillion.com/?bonus=mctaggartpok

Sunday, 27 April 2008

Lesson to be learnt in poker

Said i would do an update on Manchester so here it is...
Got there pretty early and the main event was in full swing lucky we bought in day before as the side event was sold out as we walked in . It was capped at 60 with about three million alternates.
Got sat down and liked the look of my table had a tight player on my right which i knew and 3 tight players on my left the fishy types where sat in the middle altogether.
First level went well manages to get up 7.5k from a starting stack of 5k.
Just got to the end of the second level and this hand came up .
Chinese guy limps utg (fish) tight player limps I raise to 400 with 88 rest of table folds bb calls(fish), Chinese guy calls tight player folds. Pot stands at 1400 (i think). They check to me and i bet 1200 on a flop of 754 rainbow. BB which I have had a bit of history with tanks for ages and doesn't know what to do with his hand. This is where the Chinese fella learns his lesson.
The Chinese guy is waiting to fold his hand as twitchy the bb is taking forever and Mr china looks like he has no further interest in the pot. Twitchy the bb says out loud I know you haven't hit that flop and mucks his cards. Mr china then looks at twitchy and decides that he is going to take me off the pot. He counts how much i have left and raises to 3600. He should of listening to himself instead of twitchy in the bb who hadn't the balls to do that himself.
Unfortunately for the Chinese I know I'm ahead and instantly move in for all my stack which is about 4800 more. The chinese guy now feels committed and calls for the other 1200 or so.
The chinese guy turns over a4 off and twitchy says oh i folded a 4 which i was very happy to hear.
So lesson learnt for chinese man 1. never listen to crazy white man with a twitch. Lesson 2. never underestimate crazy Irish mans reading ability at the poker table. Lesson 3. Remember the luck of the Irish is no match for the luck of the Chinese.
A king on the turn and the case 4 on the river sent me flying to the rail. Yes i was out of there.
The last thing I got from the comp was the lip reading session that went on for a few minutes afterwards from the remaining players at the table....

As for today played a total of 5 sit n gos online. Bubbled in the first one got all in with qq vs 55 for the fives to trip up, allin when 12 bb's remaining with ak vs aq for other to spike a queen, re raised all in on a rainbow flop with trip 4's to get called by qq which hit runner runner hearts to take me out again and all in pre with kk when i hand 16 bb's and got four yes four callers for the a8 suited to catch a straight on the river.... So its pretty clear that lady luck has fucked me off at the minute but no doubt she will be back soon.....
Good news qualified for the super satellite tomorrow for the Asian poker tour which is paying 4 seats and to be honest I'm feeling pretty good about my chances. Only 28 qualifiers in it so far wit a bit of luck it shouldn't make more than 40 runners and i will be giving it my best shot....


Speak soon guys Skipper

Join me at the tables i pay full time at Poker Trillion the firm plays for their players Click below to find out more
http://travis.bosscasinos.com/re.asp?name=POK&camp=REF126684_0&go=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pokertrillion.com

Thursday, 24 April 2008

Poker Trillion new software

Well guys the move has been made and poker trillion now resides at everleaf gaming network. i must admit the site does a lot better looking than the old boss media software and really shouldn't take much getting used to.
To help settle us all in poker trillion is holding a $10k free roll for their players that have come to their new software and yes i did say 10 thousand dollars.
The first negative thing about the site is that it doesn't seem to have many runners but if anyone thinks for a minute it will stay this way they have another thing coming. Its obvious by the way poker trillion does things that they wont be part of a tiny set up and before long this place will be booming.
They really have sent the message to the poker word that they take n shit and are very serious about what they do.
I personally cant wait to get on there today and get the ball rolling. By just having a quick look its pretty obvious that the games are very soft and i want to get my share before the sharks catch on . I will be spending the day on there before going to Manchester tonight for the side event freeze out.
speak to you all soon with and update on how Manchester goes, I'm hoping for real good game. my form at the minute seems to be holding from my last 9 live game Ive cashed in 8, from my last 19 sit n gos online Ive cashed in 14 and bubbled in 3 and with my cash game online showing a decent profit for the month when it normally shows a loss I can only feel really positive about how I'm playing at the minute.
For any one that wants a chance a this free $10k sign up at www.pokertrillion.com/mac



Join me at the tables i pay full time at Poker Trillion the firm plays for their players Click below to find out more
http://travis.bosscasinos.com/re.asp?name=POK&camp=REF126684_0&go=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pokertrillion.com

Sunday, 13 April 2008

Skipper six out of six

Well nothing really much to talk about at the mo. Got a few more players involved in the players club and having a great time taking advantage of the freebies on offer through out the net.
On bit bit of a hot streak at the mo managing to make the money in my last 6 live games so happy with the six out of six stat.

News is that poker trillion are changing software providers with lots of different positives for existing and new players. Reason not completely known as yet but the word fraud has been thrown around.

As a good will gesture all existing player swill receive a $25 bonus straight into their account on completion of the move.
Just sat down to the Blue Square Satellite for the Gukpt so love u and leave you and wish myself luck. For any one that missed it password was " WPTMANC" lol


Join me at the tables i pay full time at Poker Trillion the firm plays for their players Click below to find out more
http://travis.bosscasinos.com/re.asp?name=POK&camp=REF126684_0&go=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pokertrillion.com

Thursday, 20 March 2008

Play poker for Free/ Free Bankroll

Just like it says on the tin. Free money to play with is what these boys are giving away. Its all part of the competition to try and get every man and his dog to sign up and so instead of just giving away the odd sign up bonus they are starting to give players free starting capital to play poker with.
Here are just a few i have come across this month.
Thanks to this months edition of Uk Poker News the latest offers flying around are as follows:

Titan Poker giving away a free $50 bankroll no strings attached it tells me promo code="UKPNEWS"

Tony G Poker is giving away a free $30 bankroll no strings again promo code "UKTONYG30"

Tila Tequila Poker yep even the super models are jumping on the poker bandwagon to open their own poker sites. ( good luck to em) This one you need to go through the uk poker news site for. http://www.uk.pokernews.com/

Other offers on sign up bonuses are all the normal stuff but these ones above are supposed to be genuine so pop along to uk poker news and and have a look for yourself......

Poker Trillion still my favorite site at the minute the value added comp on Thursday is hard to beat anywhere on the net and the rake back deal is still second to none. They have a crackin discount for the wsop and side events with the promo they are running and discounted rates...
later guys and girls ...............
Skipper


Join me at the tables i pay full time at Poker Trillion the firm plays for their players Click below to find out more
www.pokertrillion.com/mac

Sorry for the delay

Well I know I haven't posted fr a while and because of that i realise the blog may of got a bit boring and gone a touch stale.
Reason being is simple. Not that much to talk about over the last month I have played probably no more than a a dozen games online and live.
Played at Leos Liverpool £30 freeze out and thought I played pretty well. Went deep got to the bubble and it all went pair shaped. I got so tied up in the game i didn't even realise that it was bubble time. Not that it would of stopped me bubbling.
I had played very well all night night without ever getting into trouble. For the best part of 4 hours i established i very solid table image and relied on a few squeeze plays to build my stack. I was lucky enough only to move tables once in 3 1/2 hours and had alot of respect.
Moved tables with 20 of us left and held a cozy enough stack to take me to the final table.
The hand i went out on was vs a very inexperienced that had only got to this stage through sheer luck. He had bee on my first table and after watching this guy suck out on people when calling a in's with top pair shit kicker only to pair his kicker twice in 2 hours, he was ridiculous.
With the at what i can remember was roughly 500/1000 (don't quote me) I made it 4k to go only the idiot in the bb called. Flop arrives Q47, it was hard to put this fellow on a hand because on his big blind he could call with a pretty big range. He bets out 4k and I'm pretty sure he probably has hit the q with his usual shit kicker so i don't want to scare him off. Turn arrives a king and he bets out 10k. At this stage I,m start too get worried that maybe he had called with kq but this fellow had been re raising with kq and pairs earlier. Second that was why didn't the king when it arrived scare him if he only had a queen but with the history behind this guy's play was that once he bet of rsed it didn't matter weather or not he had top pair middle pair he was firing at it. I decide to put him all in and after a small pause he called i Flipped over aces and he decides that its time to count out his chips and double check the amount was right in the middle.
At this stage because he is taking so long to make sure if he hadn't put too much in the middle before passing the chips my way, the dealer is passing the chips to me as he still hasn't shown his cards and looks like he is mucking turns over his trip sevens and start s to celebrate.
Yes pissed off is an understatement but I wouldn't give the slow rolling bastard the pleasure of knowing it.
Then I realised i had just bubbled which was a bit of salt for the wounds.
Next game after that was a £10 re buy Manchester. I travelled pretty well through out with and erratic player on my left carrying a monster stack he raises 3rd to act. I re raise 3his raise with pocket kings the table folds back to him. He calls I think he has probably has ak/aq/aj maybe middle pair but he hadn't been raising with 9,s in this position earlier so pretty sure he has big ace.. Flop comes Queen high he announces all in right away I have him aq and insta call, he turns over aq and the ace arrived on the turn to send me packing .......
Played a pub league game, down to 20 players when i re raised an aggressive player pre flop with ak clubs, he called flop arrives k high he announces all in I'm hoping he has kq ish i call and he shows me aces. To be honest he out played me because I didn't think there was a player good enough in the room to make that play.........
Played 2 other local £10 re buys no joy in one cashed for third place in the other......
Played another pub poker league job ion the week in up Holland labour club.... To be honest its not a bad set up at all, 55 runners £15 entry and not a bad nights poker for a small entry and a chance for a couple of pints as well.
Got hit in the face with the deck really. Pocket aces three times and kings twice. Got to final table and the way things where heading we where going to be on for a chip count. Guy on my left kept shoving coming into the last ten minutes I found pocket queens and limped hoping for him to push blind again, and so he did. I the rest folded he flipped over 89 i think it was. When the 7 arrived on the river it gave him a straight.
After a quick add up i was probably looking at £90 for going out 4th and decided to call an all in on the last hand with J6 it paid off when I hit a 4 card club board to give me a flush and net £166....
Ok return on £15 and a the crack was good with the lads as well alot of friendly faces running about.
Believe it or not that's prob all the poker I have played in a month and a half ans as for online i haven't really bothered that much with the tournaments, but been doing a bit of grinding at the cash tables. Pretty happy with the way its going after alot of work on my cash game .....
So that's it what started off as a quick couple of lines turned into a fuckin book lol
Good luck at the tables guys speak soon
Skipper.....................



Join me at the tables i pay full time at Poker Trillion the firm plays for their players Click below to find out more
http://travis.bosscasinos.com/re.asp?name=POK&camp=REF126684_0&go=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pokertrillion.com

Saturday, 2 February 2008

Passwords For Poker Trillion Affiliates Freeroll

Just had the the passwords through for this month's Poker Trillion Freerolls. You still have plenty of time to get to the link and become a member in time to play. It would be a shame to miss out on your share 2,500euro and 250euro freerolls that take place this month....
Anyone who has not yet recieved their passwords for the Poker Trillion freeroll's just drop me an email and I will be happy to sort you out with them .........
Good luck at the tables Skipper

Join me at the tables I pay full time at Poker Trillion the firm plays for their players
Click below to find out more
http://travis.bosscasinos.com/re.asp?name=POK&camp=REF126684_0&go=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pokertrillion.com

Monday, 28 January 2008

Poker Trillion

  • 30% rakeback for All PlayersWhen YOU want it!
    A Pokertrillion 1st, Just log into the Players Area and request your rakeback, or save it up to buy into a live event at a discount. With Pokertrillion there is no need to wait until the end of the month to boost your bankroll. As long as we owe you more than €50, you can request it when YOU need it.
  • €2500 Monthly FreerollJust for new players
    The game is restricted to new players who have raked one hand, so the numbers will be limited. This is the perfect chance to boost your bankroll. The Freeroll will take place at 7pm GMT on 5th of every month, each eligible player who created an account in the previous month will receive a personal invitation to play.
  • Up to 50% OffEntry to live tournaments.
    Use your rakeback to enter live tournaments at a discount. In return for wearing our PT clothing we will offer a 25% discount to most Euro Ranking Main Events or if you choose to save up for the main event of the WSOP, or an EPT, we'll extend the discount to 50%.
    The Players Area lists the available events.

Tuesday, 22 January 2008

Poker Trillion comes to Town with a Bang

At last the marketing experts have come up with what poker players have been waiting for. Answer = Poker Trillion
Poker Trillion is part of the boss media network a network that is forever growing and constantly offering a competitive software.
Poker Trillion are the new kids on the block and to make it even better they are a London based company, so they know what us Brits want in the poker world as well as the rest of the poker playing population.
They are offering all the usual incentive you might come expect as well as a few bealters. They are offering every poker player on their software 30% rake back but this is where it gets better.
They are giving us the choice to have it any time we like instead of having to wait til the end of the next month. So yes if you do have a run of bad luck or just hit a downswing and need to boast the bankroll a little then its available anytime by just the click of a button.
That's not the icing on the cake by though. They have set up a system they are giving a helping hand to their players by offering a discount to land based tournaments of up to 50% yes 50%.
I know it sounds mad but as you can imagine this is an incredible offer. You can use your rake back to by into the world series and it cost you $5k instead of $10......
so get your asses into gear and get over to the next big thing that's Poker Trillion cause this offer is huge absolutely fucking huge



I now play full time at Poker Trillion the firm plays for their players

Monday, 14 January 2008

Stanley Game

Turned up early to have a mooch around and was pretty impressed by the whole set up.
As far as casinos go its got all the flashing lights in the right places and all the games available to loose your money on. So don't hang around get yourself down there with your wages in hand and they will be more than happy to take them off you.
On a more serious note though the card room seemed spot on. The card room is up stairs and looks down over the restaurant floor the smoking area is upstairs on the outside through a fire escape job with heating lamps and all that carry on. It could of been a bit warmer but i guess we are supposed to be there to play cards and not for smoking so i cant call that a bad thing. The plus is if your a smoker like me then you haven't got a mile walk for a quick puff if ur in desperate need of a smoke.
T he structure was as expected lay out was good tables not over crowded as like some try now and again with eleven to a table and all that. No No this all seems spot on with a professional approach. If i had a bad thing to say about the place or the set up the only one thing would be the dealers. It seemed as though the dealers although all pleasant and helpful seemed new to their job. The dealer on my table and others mentioned it on the other tables seemed to be very slow. I would of expected to get alot more hands in per blind level with a half hour clock than we did and this could of been helped just by the speed of the cards being dealt. One level which was 30 mins only generated 7 hands. At the end of the day most people like my self go to the better structured games with bigger clocks to get more play in but i can honestly i would of got more hands in at the Blackpool game which is only a 20 min clock.
As for my game.......
I went out around the 30 runner mark which was pretty dreadful considering there was only 60 plus runners. The game itself was of a pretty low standard initial raises going in for like 10x bb from a mid position with no limper's and getting 2-3 callers. Very first hand hand consisted of three players on the flop of A5J first to act bet the pot got raised by mid position initial raiser to get called by the button then re raised by the small blind. Result was the three players ended up with all their chip in on the turn Sb had trip 5's initial raiser had ak for two pair and the button hit the king on the turn for a straight with k10.
This set the game up to be a nightmare for me because the guy that won the first pot was on the bb when i was on the button and so made it very hard for me to get away with much in position as he was hitting like wild fire.
I lost most of my first lot of chips when getting involved and after laying down aq on a queen high flop after i had raised pre on the button and bet a 3/4, i got called by the fish and chk raised all in by teh other caller. Result was that check raiser had had qj top and open ended and the fish had j8 flopped the straight. Then the king arrived on the turn for a split pot between the two.
Another bad hand for me was when I had to lay down 2 pr in a similar situation for the had to get lifted by a flush draw being made on the river.
Got my double chance and was having trouble making an impression on the table lost a hand wit aq suited against aj off.
I got to the stage where i had around 14 bb and called on the button after a late min raiser on my right and i called with kj off and the bb called as well.
Read to this stage was that the min raiser had shit because his usual form was bet huge with a hand and bet less with out. BB was the fish who be now was shorter than me and had blown all the chips he accumulated by pushing with shit.
I think at this stage i could of raised but the way the other two were playing they would of called pre and folded if missing flop but i don't believe i could of got them to fold pre. S o i decided to try and out play them on the flop with my position.
Flop arrives j high 3 spades, and the bb pushes all in and the min raiser folds.
Initial thought was if my king was a spade i call if not i fold. The king was a club. oops what now.
I go into the table for a min and go through everything i know.
This guy has hit a ten high flop twice before now and put all his chips in once with a 3 kicker and the other time with a nine kicker. So right away i think I'm probably ahead. I don't put him on a flush of any kind because he had slow played everything he hit all night like straights and flushes. My decision is that he has hit the j with either a 10 kicker or a q kicker and i most be ahead, surely if he had aj he would of raised pre flop because he has pushed before now with A10 suited and raised with A10,AJ, AQ, Ak. I ask him if i fold will he show he says i will show you one...... I dont rate him as a good enough player to pull that one with an ace kicker and i call.
He turns over aj and no help for me.........
And that was that, i was pretty unhappy with my call on the end but i had decisions like if i had of folded and left myself with 10 bb,s would i of got the chance to get back into the game as the standard raise being 5-8 bb,s and the table full of calling stations. My re raise would never of got an initial raiser to fold and so i was probably always going to need a made hand to push with.
Final thought was
It was probably a bad call because i didn't have a spade in my hand but at the end of the day, the most important part of playing poker is collecting the information available to us as the game goes on and then making decisions based on it. The way this fellow had played for the last 4 hours had indicated that i should of been in front and that's the info i based my decision on.
I felt at the time because i had never been able to accumulate more than my initial starting stack i was going to have to double up at some stage to be in with a chance to take the comp down. With the hand i had at the time i had now real reason to think i was behind. If he turned over queen jack i would of been laughing to myself asking what i was ever worried about in the first place...... Overall i think i actually played well and can only take the positives out of the game and improve from there.
Until next time Skipper

Poker Office Screen Shots

I must say I've been using this software now full time for over a year and it really is a god send.
Just a recap to any one that has forgot about it or is still having a think as to how the software works.
As i said before this is no get quick rich scam, no one has mentioned about making 3k a month.
Reason is because there is no such guarantee with any software and when they start to offer u these kinds of rewards it always turns out to be bollox.
Poker office works in a way that it tracks all the hands you ever play against your opponents and has 2 benefits. One is you can can back over your own history and monitor and analyse how you played and of course the other i s how your opponents have played. I you cant be assed going through all the hand histories and data you can bring it up in replay mode and sit and what yourself play tournaments as well of course as others playing against but this time their cards will be on show.
The data that this tool records is unbelievable.
Now after about a year of using it altogether i can look back and see how many times I've been dealt pocket aces, ak, ak suited, pocket jacks, how many small blinds I've played, how many open enders I've played and how many have hit.
It really does explain everything to you and most importantly it gives you information that you can re analyse over and over again to correct your game as you improve.
Here's a couple of screen shots below but take it from me this tool really has more inside it once your up and running...........

Sunday, 13 January 2008

New Stanley Liverpool £100 Deepstack

Off to the new Stanley in Liverpool this afternoon for the £100 f/o they are staring and from what i here it should be a cracking comp.
The structure is a 30 min cock through out with a 10k starting stack max 100 entries and wouldn't be a bit surprised if its a sell out.
I don't know how well the comp has been advertised but i believe we have a real shortage of comps like this in the country and its a good enough structure to appeal to a wide number of players. If i was going to be picky i could say a 45 min clock would be better and the start time earlier and having the final on a Sunday if necessary but for now itm sounds a reall exciting comp.
If truth be told i prefer a longer clock just so it gives the chance to create more play and takes away alot of the luck factor, but i guess beggars cant be choosers.
As of my game at the minute i must say i feel very confident about my ability to go deep today as long as the gods don't decide differently about my chances. As the saying goes I'm not lucking for luck i just don't wont to get unlucky and take it from there......
I will stick a thread up maybe tomorrow to let u know how it went and what the comp was like.
Oh yes and tell you how I got on at the final table of course.
Till next time skipper.....................

Saturday, 12 January 2008

Time to Practise What I Preach

If truth be told I haven't been playing all that much of late and that's why the blog hasnt had much in it. So that's the apologies out of the way.

If I'm totally honest its been because of a few reasons. First is because i have blown a shit load on cash games trying to develop a decent game, a game i know needs alot of direction, and the second reason with playing so badly at the cash games i play tournaments like a cunt. Its as though I take i use the tournaments for tilting after playing like a twat in cash.

So rather than carry on feeding the sharks i decided to take all the poker software off my pc and stop playing altogether until my frame of mind was right and do what i find as a great help, look at what I'm doing that's costing me my bankroll. Turn to the pro's for the answers.

Now this probably sounds very straight forward you might say to yourself but i find that opening up the poker pages that Ive learnt the game from start to go over the fundamentals and gives me a chance to analyse what the differences are between my game at the minute and the game I made money from.


My successful game =


  1. Playing lots of tournaments but single tabling

  2. Playing sit and gos around the $20 stake and not roaming the levels

  3. Playing no more than 2 sit n go's at once

  4. Playing tight solid sit n gos early and loose aggressive late on

  5. Tournament play being playing tight solid first couple of levels then lots of small ball afterwards

  6. Over all game is successful by being very observant at the tables I play, paying attention to what poker office is telling me about opponents. My discipline in tournaments and willingness to learn and change my game where i find necessary. Following the fundamentals and applying correct betting strategy's where necessary allowing me never to get tied to a hand. Stealing and probing my way around a field and not getting involved in to many coin flips.
My unsuccessful game=
  1. Playing lot of cash at levels where i think my bankroll can withstand but constantly losing
  2. Playing tournaments to try and recoup my loses in cash
  3. Multi tabling in sit n gos
  4. Raising too much pre flop in most situations
  5. Getting involved to early in sit n go's and tournaments before finding out what my opponents are up too
  6. Having no chip management at stages when others are venerable and i have an advantage just because of the size of my stack
  7. Roaming levels in sit n go's
  8. Roaming levels in multi's
  9. Not playing a fundamentally sound game

So its obvious the areas Ive been going wrong of late so what are the problems

  1. Get the books out and start reading
  2. Stop playing cash games
  3. Stop multi tabling in sit n go's
  4. Stop multi tabling in mtt's
  5. Correcting the fundamentals
  6. Don't roam the levels
  7. Start paying attention to poker office statistics
  8. Be more observant at the tables
  9. Make time to play poker instead of just when i get a chance
  10. Controlling my chip management in tournaments
  11. Don't go on tilt by playing another game/ switch off pc

These are all the things Ive come up with on analysing my game at the present and the game of past. The difference in results of these two games are very different.

Success game equals making a steady income and enjoying the benefits off milking fish online. Recent game equals feeding the sharks on a cash and not giving myself a chance to in mtt's by playing like a cock.

Conclusion=

Q. why is my cash game crap

A. on doing this analysis digging through the pro's books and sites and reading up on fundamentals I noticed a very important thing. Everything I enjoy reading about is in regards to tournament play. Things like making moves, spotting weakness, chip management, changing gears, the importance of your blinds etc etc. None of the study I'm doing has anything to do with cash games what so ever. Its so fucking simple and its there staring me in the face day in day out and i couldt see it, because i wasn't looking.

I've been reading Harrington on holdem this last week vol. 3 and its a cracking book. Its a must for anyone who has never read it. The book deals with the fear of flopping and such scenarios and problem based.

Well thats been my agenda for the last few weeks and just started to play again with a minimal bankroll. So if you spot me on a cash table over the next month do me a favour instead of taking all my money, give me a bit of stick about being crap and try shame me into leaving the table..... Honest you will be doing me a favour , a big favour...

Since doing my home work I have loaded back on the pc with immediate success. Sit n go's i,m probably level with perhaps just up a little and in mtt's I have cashed second in the $17.5 on Blue Square and gone deep very regularly in other big multi,s....

As far as dealing with the TILT factor. What i do is keep Harrington close to me and when i get a bad beat that seems hard to deal with the pc goes off and the book gets lifted for him to reassure that things where played correctly.....

Just keep telling myself that when I go out on some unlucky scenario it just means the bastards have to get lucky to beat you ..........

until next Skipper................................

Monday, 10 December 2007

A Full Tilt Experience

Had an account on full tilt poker for a while but never used it. Now that they have introduced solo/switch card payments ( my means of deposit) I decided to make a deposit last night and give the software a try.
I must say that its a pretty likable site.
The graphics, layout, functions are all top notch and the standard of play seems very good.
Played the $69 deep stack and felt really comfortable.
Game was going pretty well table was very tight but alot of the players seemed very passive but i put that down to the structure and that players weren't taking many chances early on.
Main hand for me in the tournament came after i raised 3xbb utg with 66. You might question the raise with such a small holding but people were not paying much at all and I had a very tight image on the table. I got a caller from the guy on my left and then another in mid position.
Flop came down 776. First to act I decided to bet straight out and look weak hoping that one of the callers would put me on maybe ak or just try and take the pot down with a bluff.
The hand developed perfectly. The guy next to me flat called and the other caller pushed all in.
I wasn't sure weather he had a slight over per probably 99ish or on just a bluff. After a long pause for trying to get the other caller to come along i called. The first caller folded and i was delighted to see the all in show 88..


Yes as you can see from the screen shot above the poker gods it was to and the best pre flop hand should win and decided to give him his two outer.
That left me me a few chips that i got a bit more play out of but the blinds were just too big to get any sort of a short stack game going.
Until next time .....

Wednesday, 5 December 2007

Just for you dan



OK been told off last night on the phone that I,m not putting enough into my blog on my tournaments so here it goes....
$6k Gtd on Betfred.
Played for the first hour and no fire works yet. Haven't really had any decent cards so Ive been bobbing and weaving around and after the first break my stack is 4100t, after starting with 3k.
Two biggish stacks on the two left seats and a few decent faces sitting around so i need to be careful...
Just as i,m typing this hand arrives





and just as i load the image this hand arrives.......

Cant really say that I regret the play apart from the fact I busted out, but like I always preach on about going with your gut instinct and what u believe in is the making of a proper poker player. At least that's what I keep reading lol.
This guy had played a pretty solid game and when he had a big hand it reflected in his raise and i
I knew if he had a premium hand first of all he wouldn't of re raised me as quick as he did and secondly it would of been a bigger re raise from him. I was quite happy putting all my chips knowing that he couldn't call because of the size of his stack and the way I played my monster hand.
The only thing was the idiot did call and when i saw his whole cards I was more than pleased.
Believe it or not not as much as I,m pissed off with myself for going out on such marginal holdings I,m still happy i made the read right.. Even if the cock sucking fucking stupid prick called........ til next time that ones for you Dan .......

Sunday, 2 December 2007

Becoming a pro by Atlanta Josh


Crackin little bit of reading with a couple of good links on the end................................

Becoming a Pro- Part 1
Wednesday, June 29th, 2005One of the most frequent questions I get is: "If you had $10,000 and had to start your career over, how would you do it? What would you play and do you think its actually possible to do?" The answer is yes, it is very possible and after thinking about it, I believe I will give it a try. My plan is to set aside a bankroll of $10,000, play 40 hrs a week online in lower limit games and see if I can earn $1500 a week, which should be very possible. Just kidding, I wish I had time to devote to a project like this, it seems like it would be a very interesting study. Instead of doing it myself, I will tell you how I would go about doing it and see if I can coach you on your road to professional poker.Ok, lets say that you have your $2k in bills paid for the month and now you have $10k to work with. Lets not worry about playing the big tournaments right now. Lets concentrate on the tourist-rich cash games. Everyone and their mother thinks they have what it takes to play no limit these days, so lets expose em. Find a casino that offers $1-$2 or $2-$4 blind no limit games and always be sure to buy in for the max. Most of these games have a table buy-in limit set, so make sure to always buy-in for the max. If there is no max, don't be afraid to sit with $1,000 of your $10,000 bankroll... You don't want to show fear, players pick up on it and a small buy-in is the first sign of fear.The key to becoming a pro is working your way up in limits. Every pro has started at the smaller limits and worked their way up. Even players like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu played the small limits, so don't get discouraged or embarrassed to start small. Another major ingredient to building that bankroll is game selection. Don't be afraid to play a little bit higher if you see an amazingly soft game that you think you can push a few people around. Let me explain game selection a bit. I am the biggest sucker for a game with tons of chips flying. In many past experiences I have found myself walking back to the room with my tail between my legs and my chin on my chest because I got broke in a game like this. Be sure to shy away from fast paced games with big swings. We aren't looking for games like that at this point. We are trying to keep our swings down and show small profit in each session.At this point in your career, decision making is so important in every aspect of the game. Every hand you play and every minute at the table is valuable experience for your long road ahead. Be sure to pick up on tells and betting patterns that people at this level are unknowingly throwing at you throughout your entire session. After each session critique everything you did for an hour or so. Think about the weird situations that you found yourself in and think of how to avoid them from happening again.Right about now you are probably wondering: when am I going to get to the moving up in limits part? Patience guys, patience!!! Moving up in limits is not so important right now. You can easily make $20-$25 an hour playing these low blind no limit games. The competition is weak and your hourly may be more down here in the lower levels. I would say when you get your bankroll up to about $13,000 is when you can move up to the $5-$10 blind no limit games and start playing some of the smaller buyin tournaments. But before you do this, make sure you scout the games and be sure that you can move up and still be comfortable playing for the bigger stakes. If you find yourself playing tighter and more cautious because of the inflated dollar amounts, go back down!!! I cant say this loud enough. Playing weak tight can be a disaster to your minimal bankroll and you will find your yourself working back at that 9-5 wishing you were those straights and flush draws again.As you work your way up in limits you will find the competition getting more talented and you will find yourself in trickier situations than you ever before. Once again you need to find yourself evaluating your sessions and trying to improve all aspects of the game. This is a great place to start and before you know it you will realize that you are good enough to play the higher limits. I will go into the next step on what you can do in a later article, but I think I have left you with plenty work on for the time being. Here is a few of the finer points that you need to know and that have nothing to do with playing poker itself. When I first started making trips to the casino, a friend of mine told me a saying that I will never ever forget. He told me "Josh, when you go to the casino use tunnel vision." The saying is pretty straight forward, but I will explain it anyway. Don't be lured in by the free drinks, and definitely don't fall for that roar you hear coming from the crap table. There are many great poker players that struggle because they never learned to stay away from the alcohol or the pit gambling. Be sure to walk thru that front door and go straight to the poker room and do the same when you leave. Don't fall for that quick easy money, that's not what this is about. Your road to professional poker is going to be a long grind, its not something that happens overnight. Take it from me, I've been broke a million times, but I learned a lesson every time I went broke. I made it a point to learn what NOT to do and evolve from those experiences. All of those horrendous experiences have molded me into the player and person that I am today. Another important thing that you can work on right now is knowing when to play. Find good hours. Some of the best games are in strange hours. Adjust your schedule so that you are fresh when others are tired. No limit is a game that you can really take advantage of tired players and it will definitely help your bankroll to play against these people.Play because you want to, don't play because you have to. Everyday when you are riding into 'work' tell yourself how lucky you are for doing what you are doing and remind yourself of the alternative... THE 9 to 5 back at home, wherever you are from!!!! One last aspect I want you to really focus on is always play your top game. Be honest with yourself and know when you are off your game. No one, not event the top players in the world, play their best every session. But what makes them the best is the fact that they are honest with themselves and know what to do to stop it or they know when to call it a day. If you find yourself playing bad its probably because you are losing or just flat out sick of playing.... That's when its time to take a break and do something away from the casino to clear your mind.
Poker Article Archives
Becoming a Pro- Part 1
So What do YOU think?
The Magnifacent Woo
"Hold'em Up" at the Aviation Club
Bluff Magazine articles

Saturday, 17 November 2007

Blackpool Northern lights my second day

Didn't play in the comp only went down to play cash.
The place was pretty live with action. Cash tables all over the place and organisation was rubbish as usual.
Sat down with £50 in front of me and pretty much just assessed the table for the first 30mins or so. Action on the table was pretty hot and the guy 2 seats to my left was on a blufing mission.
I built my stack from £50 to about £180 when i decided it was time to have a go back at the Jamie Gold wannabe.
Blinds where 2 and 2 Mr bluffer bluffer was on the button after 3 limper's in the pot I flat call with ace jack another 2 callers and MBB ( mr bluffer bluffer) insta raises o £10.
I had already worked out that a £10 raise means jack shit and a £20 raise means a decent hand.
He gets 2 callers then me to act so i re raise another £40 to go, his turn to act and he pushes all in sounds crazy but i put my self ahead or him on a shitty pair. You can probably say this is a silly move but I called knowing 50/50 at worse and if i don't make a stand against him then he is going to trample the table and me for the rest of the night. I call it turns out he has 33 and i flop an ace and the rest was history. MBB stands there looking at me in disgust and said it was a brave call. I explained to him that he shouldn't underestimate me.
Table after that was mine outplayed people left right and centre got the usual hands that i had to pay a few people off but that happens now and again.
Half way through the night a pissed up guy came to the table with a lot of money in front of him.
Problem with him was he wasn't sure what a good hand was.
A lot of evidence showed that he was happy to put a few hundred in the middle with top pair shit kicker so but also over played his big hands, so it was very hard to some his play up.
Got involved with him in a monster when I turned trip kings queen kicker the only hand can beat me is a full house but i put him on that or ak and he didn't raise pre flop. I pay him off and he turns over ak. I,m out kicked what i couldn't get my head around was why he didn't raise pre when he was on the button when he had ak 3 times previous and raised ever single time.
I finished the session on a decent plus figure so I'm happy enough........

Monday, 12 November 2007

Event 1 Northern Lights Blackpool

Arrived at the G around 1pm planning on playing the free roll, to find 161 runners already registered for the £150 freeze out so decided to enter it up front.

The free roll was designed as a crap shoot as you can imagine went all in the first orbit with aj walked into kk on my left. Not to worried as the cash action was pretty live.

Sat down on the cash table and played up to 6pm sat with £50 lost that when I had doubled my stack to around the £100 mark limped into a pot for 2 with aq hearts got a mid position raiser to £8 and 3 other callers and me flop comes down 467 2 hearts i check out one of the late callers bets out for £20 and gets another caller i think they are both drawing and move in for another £35 i think it was and they both called. Raiser missed his flush and so did i the other caller had called with a gut shot and hit a 3 on the river to claim he pot.

Pulled up another fifty and manged to double that before leaving the table happy enough for something to eat before the comp started.

The casino was organised ciaos. About 30 mins before the comp started we found that there was about 50-60 people on the reserve list and that everyone that had registered at any other G casino hadn't been put on the system and so there was no space for them in the competition. The whole place was upside down alot of unhappy faces shouting and giving management a hard time. Rightly so......

We finally got under way blinds started at 25/50 first 2 levels at 45 min clock then the bad news was that it dropped to 20 mins blinds. So yes the crap shoot was on its way.

In the first 2 levels i had pocket aces once, pocket kings twice, pocket jacks once, ak twice that hit the flop, and aq suited in the small blind that hit a queen high flop, and by the time the first 2 levels had finished i still had only my 7k starting stack.......

Blinds started to fly up as u can imagine after that.
Got involved a few times but i was just running on the spot. First key was when i raised up on the button and the big blind called. Flop came 955 he checks i bet he flat calls straight away i think he has a hand its the first he has been involved so he must of hit the 9. The turn comes a jack and i think this puts me in front although not being sure he checks I check to see what his bet is like on the river he bets fifteen hundred and i pay to see him turn over A5.
Then I get kk in the cut off and it folds around to me, i try to make it look like I'm on one after loosing the hand before and the guy in first position tells the table I'm on tilt i don mind at all but the blinds fold.
Very next hand I get 99, folds to me I raise again and the fellow that was doing the tilt talk in the hand before decides to set me all in. This was the last hand before the break and if i call I'm not coming back. I raised it up for 1600 and this guy has moved in for over 7k. The whole card room has emptied apart from the ring of spectators around the table watching to see what is going on. Normally its a fold but with the blinds going up, and the clock dropped to 20mins I fealty it was time to go ahead and put them in. I think he could off done it with any 2 cards but final decision is the guy has something like 77-AQ. All the chips fly in and he turns over AJ.
My 9's hold up.
I'm up to 15k total.
After break my opportunities just didn't arrive and the blinds started to eat into me
Get moved table and have to settle down and find out whats going on.
First hand i get is pocket 10's utg raises up and I think about pushing but decide to look at a flop.
Flop comes AJ9 of spades and raiser pushes all in. I think forever because i held the 10 of spades and my opponent really doesn't look like he wants a call. I eventually fold and he shows trip 9's.
After that i have to start playing a short stack game and after only 3 levels and got moved table again.
Started to put my chips in with less than premium hands and manged to stay alive until 31st spot.
I ended up getting all in with the blinds about to come through me with KQ diamonds and called by the bb with 99. No help for me and i was out of there.

Wednesday, 7 November 2007

Wankers Getting Rewarded





Playing the 6.5k tonight and come across this guy hitting flops like a man possessed