Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Update



Theres the current graph. Was going good today, got the bankroll back up to around 520 thanks to a win in an $11 turbo and some $6 turbos as well. But then I played one more $11 and two more $6s and didn't cash in any, that's the spike down right at the end :( Pete's playing now so hopefully he goes alright. I don't know why but I'm liking the turbo's at the moment, I'm usually against them but I don't know haha, I guess because the turbo's get to the end game quicker and I think I got a pretty big edge in that department against most guys around the $5-$10 stake. The last $11 turbo I played was pretty sick. Took a cheap flop on the button with QJ spades, flop came QJ3 with the QJ of hearts, the blinds checked, I bet 75 into a 90 pot, small blind called and the big blind shoved for 1500 total, I called and the small blind folded, big blind shows K9 of hearts and the turn ends it all as he hits the 10 of hearts for a straight flush, ah well, punishment for me for playing a crap hand like QJ.

Remember two blogs ago when I said I have given up all hope on making the APL State Finals? Wellllll I made it! Haha thanks to my "win" at Gosford RSL on Sunday Night I ended up second on the leaderboard! Should be a lot of fun, I've never played State before so it will be a new experience for me. Last night at APL was a load of fun at the Gosford Sailing Club, had Ty, Pete and Forbesy on my first table, so it was always going to be a lot of fun, even managed a suckout when I shoved with AQ and got two callers, they checked down a board of AQ3xx and my AQ won against Wombats AK! He's a funny character Wombat, plays some pretty solid poker until he makes one really weird play and then he is out. I ended up bubbling the final table when I shoved with 44 and got called by 88 and that was that. And Pete played oh so bad haha, it's funny watching a really good player not give a shit haha, I can't wait until he starts working at APL, going to be a lot of fun! He starts at Hardys Bay next Monday apparently, wish I could make it but I can't...WRESTLEMANIA 25 IS ON! Been looking forward to an Undertaker/Shawn Michaels match for a looooong time, it's been about 11 years since they've had a one on one match and it should be awesome! I'm predicting an Undertaker win. Also, me and Pete have decided to go hard for the Full Tilt Ironman promotion thing, so I'm going to start playing more tables and more hours, I am hoping to play 3-4 at a time and hopefully get through 20-25 a day hopefully, it's a big ask, especially with the crappy lag that Full Tilt has on my computer but I'm starting to get used to it. Anyway that's it. Stay tuned.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Worst Night Ever

Well me and Pete decided to play some $10 SNGs today for the first time, great idea, we are 0/5 in the cashes today for $10 SNGs and not much better off in the $5's, so sickening. I think I bubbled in about 3 of the 5 as well
A9 < J9
AA < 88
88 < 66

Ran KK into AA twice today as well. Also AA vs 77 on a 227 flop vs a total maniac. So sickening.

Then the icing on the cake, I lost a $88 pot playing PLO
My hand KKxx on a KQ3 flop with 2 hearts, we get it all in 4 ways!
I am up against
j10xx
AAxx
Ah4hxx
Turns a 3. Rivers the case Ace.....awesome!

So our bankroll has slipped under 500. Something I seriously thought would never happen and I am sorry Pete, so sorry. I'll grind it back up tomorrow playing SNG's.

Oh, and Manly lost in probably the worst performance I've seen from a Manly side in years, made me fucking sickening, how hard is it to hold on to a fucking football

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Back on Track



This is going to be a pretty long blog with some interesting hands so bare with me haha.


Firstly, heres the graph at the moment and as you will notice, it's back on track now, me and Pete have been running pretty good the last few days and we have finally made it past the $500 mark which was one of our goals

Okay, yesterday (saturday) was a big day of live poker for me. Firstly I played in the 2pm APL event at Davistown RSL, doubled up pretty early on with A-4 Vs AK on a A46 flop when the guy checkraised me all in, luckily I didn't have to sweat to long as a 4 came on the turn. Won a nice pot with A4 again a few hands later when I limped on the button after a few limpers, flop 235. So I was pretty chipped up during the entire event up until this hand. Blinds 500/1000, 2 limpers, guy in the CO made it 3000 to go, I am on the button with AdQh and just call with a stack of about 28k, I probably should have shoved pre flop but ah well, not a big fan of that. 2 limpers called, flop is 46Q all diamonds, checks to the raiser and he shoves for 26.5k, I snap call and he says "oh shit, I'm beat" and then turns to his friend and says "we're going home" and starts shaking his head. I turn my hand over and he goes "oh, I'm ahead" and shows 57 diamonds, nice slowroll. I brick out and I'm left with 1.5k. I shove next hand with 9h10h and get called in 3 spots, make a flush to more than triple up. Anyway, I made the final table about 3rd in chips somehow haha, ending up finishing 2nd for $40 after my A9 lost to q7 all in pre flop heads up. Next up was the $33 Deepstack Terminator event at Davistown. Interesting hand vs Craig "Ranga" Stanley, about 6 or 7 hands in, few people limp in for the big blind of 50, I limp along in the hijack with K-3 spades, Ranga raises to 225 from the cutoff, about 5 callers, I call as well. Flop is Kh-4s-6s, a pretty big flop for my hand, checks around to me, I check, intending to checkraise Ranga who bets 600, but I had to re-evaluate once 4 people called! I really didn't know if I was drawing to a bad flush here, so I just called. Turn was another King, everyone checks to me and I check to Ranga who checks. River is a blank 10 of hearts I think? Everyone checks to me again, I check to let Ranga bluff and he does, he bets 4.5k, folds to me, I call, he instantly mucks and my 10k starting stack is quickly upto 22k, but for the next hour before the first break, completely card dead, every time I raised pre flop, I got popped so I limped into the break with a tiny bit above 20k, still a lot of chips. Come back from the break and same sort of thing, no hands, no suited connectors, nothing. Then I wake up with 10's on the button with the blinds at 200/400. 5 limpers, I think for a while and decide just to limp a long with them, flop came out 678 rainbow, Ranga checked in the SB, and the BB fired out 1.5k, folds to me and I call and Ranga calls from the SB, turn is a 9 completing the rainbow, Ranga checks, BB fires out 2k and I just call, not wanting to scare Ranga out of the pot who can be a bit of a station at times. River is an A, they check to me and I bet out 2.7k and they both call and I take the entire pot. Table break soon after and I get moved to a table with my friend Pete and Matty Dick who were probably the two toughest players in the entire field and I didn't know it at the time but the guy on my left was tough as well. Got AA pretty early on on this table, raised 3x the BB and stole the blinds which were Matty and Pete haha. Then nothing really happened for a while until Pete stop and go'd me the son of a bitch, I taught him that play during the break as well haha, what an asshole. Then I lost a sizeable pot with J-7spades, 4 limpers for 800, I complete from the SB. The tight solid guy in the BB made it about 3k total and the limpers called, so I called. Flop KK2 with a spade, checked around. Turn 9 of spades, checks to a limper, she was an utter calling station and was extremely predictable, she bet out 2k, I knew she had a 9 and I knew I was getting the price to call, all I was worried about was the BB but I got the feeling he wasn't really interested, so I call, he folded, river was the 3 of diamonds, check/check on the river and she showed Q-9 off suit. I don't think I could have bought the pot on the river, perhaps a check/raise on the turn? Was down to 15k after this hand with the blinds going up to 500/1000. The same girl limps in for 1k, folds to me on the button and I shoved for 11k total with AA, she eventually calls with A-Qo and I win the pot and double up and I knocked her out so I collected my first $10 KO of the night. Few hands later I pick up QQ and raise it to 3k from UTG, Roger calls on the button, now Roger is probably the player I read best at APL, I've logged a lot of hours with him and I usually know where I am in the pot with him. Flop came 8-10-J with two clubs, I c-bet 5k, he shoves, I call, he had me covered by about 4.5k or so? He turned over KQ off and my QQ held. Next hand with the blinds up to 1k/2k Roger shoved UTG for his 4.5k, folds to me in the BB and I call with K9 and I'm up against Rogers 78s, a King in the window and I collected another $10KO. Nothing really happened, stole a few blinds. Down to the 3 tables, blinds up to 3k/6k and I have 46K in the BB, Matty Dick shoves UTG for 36k, next guy calls for 28k and the SB throws in his last 25k or so? I look down at AJ and call and I'm up against KK vs QQ vs Matt's 66 and Matt spikes a 6 to win a pretty big pot and catapolt himself into the top 3 or 4 chipleaders in the tournament while I'm down to 10k and we are down to the final 2 tables. First hand of the new table, 2 people limp in for the 6k, I look down at 10's and put in my last 10k, Matty calls in the SB and Monty in the BB re-shoves for about 80k which I was happy about, I wanted the protection, everyone folds and Monty tables AQ off suit and he flops a Queen and I was out. I was happy with the way I played, I think I had to gamble on the AJ hand but looking back on it I think I could have folded but perhaps thats just ROT. Anyway, I went home and played about 8 SNGS, won 2 and finished heads up in another so I got a small profit.

Woke up this morning and drove out to Gosford RSL for the APL monthly regional invitational. 10K starting stack. 25 min levels. A half decent structure. My first table and I got Chimp on my left, I got Benny about 3 seats to my right and I got Monty three seats to my left, pretty fun table. First blunder came with KK, blinds 50/100, I raise to 325 after Ben limped UTG+1, some old spastic fuckwit calls on the button, BB calls and Ben calls, flops J62 rainbow, I bet out 650 when its checked to me and the old spastic fuckwit, lets just call him TOSF for now makes it 2k to go, I call, idiot move, shove Shep shove! Queen on the turn, I check, he checks, I really got no idea where I am in this hand. Rivers a 5, I check and TOSF bets 7k! WTF! I tank for like two minutes and eventually fold, he shows me 55! I said "nice bluff on the flop" and he replied "wasn't a bluff I had a pair". Next hand Benny doubles up with AA vs TOSF's J-8 off suit on a flop of Q-6-2 rainbow, yes Q-6-2 rainbow, you read it right and to put the icing on the cake, after the 10 on the turn TOSF called for a King, River was a blank and TOSF said "lucky I didn't hit that King" WTF! What is wrong with some people. Anyway I go busto a few hands later. Some guy who thinks he is a pro raises it to 500, I call with 9h10h with about 8k behind me. 3 other calls. Flops Jh 7h 2s, checks to him, he c-bets 1.5k, I make it 7k to go (this is a bet I've been trying out lately, the "I'm commited" bet) Folds to him and he instantly says "I'll just put you all in", I snap my last 1k in the pot and he shows AK off suit? Huh? What? That's a joke right? Anyway his AK holds up, I feel like puking. I hang around for a bit to see how some of my friends were going like Chimp, Benny, Pete, Nugent and Blake. Was funny watching Hulbert go busto with AK like usual, when will he learn AK and top pair ISN'T the nuts, anyway he got out, shaking his head, I think I said something about him not being able to fold AK ever or something, he said something back, then I said something back along the lines of keep grinding out the 7 cent wins on pokerstars. I think it's pretty funny how me and Pete have won more money online in 2 weeks than he has his entire life in poker. I seriously don't think he realizes how much he embarrasses himself at APL and that he is the laughing stock of the league. Then I spoke to Shell for a while, she's cool, then I heard out Blakeys "bad beat" where he commited his entire stack with KK on the turn with a board of 28910 vs 2 people who called a sizeable bet on the flop, he lost to 67. Just a word of advice, overpairs in deepstack tournaments are dangerous. If you get all the money in on the turn with just an overpair, you are usually going to be in trouble. Then I went home, played a bunch of SNGs. Ran KK into AA, ran QQ into KK, ran JJ into QQ, ran KK into AA again but luckily I spiked a king this time! About time! haha. Played 5 SNGs at once, won 2 of them, cashed in another, nice little profit that took us over the 500 mark. Anyway thats all. Hope you enjoyed it.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Downswing #1 + non poker stuff

I love this beat. This is pretty much what's been happening non stop today and yesterday
Full Tilt Poker Game #11287778028: $5 + $0.50 Sit & Go (84838987), Table 1 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 6:36:37 ET - 2009/03/23
Seat 1: noatje (2,070)
Seat 2: KingBenn (3,295)
Seat 4: Sil07 (800)
Seat 6: peterobinson (2,735)
noatje posts the small blind of 50
KingBenn posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to peterobinson [As Ad]
Sil07 calls 100
peterobinson raises to 400
noatje folds
KingBenn folds
Sil07 calls 300
*** FLOP *** [Ks Qd Kd]
Sil07 has 15 seconds left to act
Sil07 bets 400, and is all in
peterobinson calls 400
Sil07 shows [Jc 9c]
peterobinson shows [As Ad]
*** TURN *** [Ks Qd Kd] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Qd Kd 4h] [Th]
Sil07 shows a straight, King high


Anyway, on with the blog. The last blog was all about how happy I was with the progress me and Pete have been having but in the last two days we have experienced the other side of playing lots and lots of SNGs, we are going through a pretty bad downswing right now. We are getting bit in the ass by variance big time, for example, the last two days I have only won 5 out of 23 coinflips, but there was a couple that I didn't take note of that I won and lost but the % would still be around the same, so sick. Had AK vs A-x a bunch of times with them hitting the X, pretty standard stuff when you play lots and lots of SNGs so hopefully everything evens out soon and we can get the graph going back in the right direction. Also, been playing some 5c/10c PL Holdem/Omaha lately, won a nice $17 pot earlier today when my 6435 double suited held vs JJ4A on a 644 flop so that helped out the BR a bit. Well heres the graph, didn't really realize how bad this downswing was until I just checked it. Downswing of around 15 buy ins which is pretty terrible but I have the utmost confidence in myself and Pete to pull through it. We both seem pretty calm about it, we are still rolled for 80 buy ins for the $5 SNGs and that is plenty in my opinion, some people would probably consider us bankroll management nits for sticking with a 80 buy in rule but I've been there before and if we were at the $10's with this roll and this bad run happened, it would be a lot worse.
All hope is gone for me on making the APL State Finals and I really couldn't be bothered to be honest, I would have preferred to make it but I'd prefer to put all my poker energy into working mine and Petes bankroll up but next season, I am going to come out all guns blazing, I am going to try and play as much as I possibly can, I will be hoping to play 3-4 events a week, I think I would go insane if I played more than that as APL is pretty bad, but hey, I don't go there expecting perfect play unlike some people *cough* Ryan Hulbert *cough* and I don't blow up when I get trapped by some "APL noooooob", it's free poker, people are there to have fun and socialize, get the fuck over it.
But the worst beat I had today was finding out I have to wait until the end of the year for Dexter Season 4 to start airing in the USA....so pissed, I just finished season 3 and was hoping the wait for season 4 wouldn't be too long but I guess beggars can't be choosers. Also, one of my other fav shows at the moment "True Blood" is having a break before airing the next season, so double bad beat at the moment for me. But hey, at least Smallville and Supernatural are going alright. Supernatural is kicking ass at the moment and I can't wait until next weeks episode while Smallville is started to go south like mine and Pete's Sharkscope graph haha, they've been building the Doomsday character up for the whole season and every episode just seems to end the same now...with him almost turning into Doomsday, sure, this great piece of television worked for the first 2 weeks and it made me anxious to see the next episode but now I know I will be dissapointed when I watch the episode next week.
Alright, just loaded up 4 more SNGs on Fulltilt. Wish me luck.
Quote Of The Day
"Yeah nice play" - Ryan Hulbert after getting his money in with A4 with AK. Then steams off in a fit of rage, only to come back to see him flop three fours, then sits back down and acts like nothing happened.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

So it begins again...

Last Wednesday morning me and my friend Pete deposited a total of $100US on Full Tilt Poker in hopes of grinding it up to something special and a short ten days later we have almost quadrupled our bankroll. It currently sits a few dollars short of $400. The biggest game we have played has been a $5 SNG, so either we are running hot, we are good, or maybe a bit of both haha. Our biggest win came today when I won a $3 90 Man Knockout SNG. I have played 6 of these in my times at Full Tilt for a very impressive 3 Wins, 1 2nd and 1 Final Table, not too shabby in my opinion. Anyway, hats off to Pete, he has been playing some great poker and kept in mind the stuff I told him about bankroll management, I know some people wouldn't be able to handle grinding out small stake SNGs as they consider it a waste of time but he has been very disciplined. We grinded the bankroll up to $200 playing nothing but $2 SNGs, that took us 6 days I think, so that was good, we both played good and we both also had one bad streak of luck each but it was good to come out on top. So then we decided to mix in some $5 SNGs in with the $2's when we go the BR up to $200 and it has been nothing but a success, we have been killing it as you can see by the sharkscope graph. The downpoint after 90 games is when me and Pete deposited, he had the account earlier with a guy from APL named Chimp and that experiment didn't go very well as you can see by the graph but now it's going up and we are into the profit. I have basically given up on making the APL State Championships, I am 20th as of writing this and would need a hell of an effort over the next 10 days to make it, but I will still play a few events and hopefully I can go deep in a couple and who knows. But either way, good luck to Pete who should be making it, hopefully the event is fairly deepstacked so he can have an edge over the field with the small ball style we like to employ.

I went to Texas Hold Em Poker Australia last night at Ourimbah RSL and I have said before that it is the worst structured live event I have ever played and wow, they have changed their structure.....they've made it worse! Now the structure is 2k starting stack, blinds start at 50/100 and go up every 15 mins, just terrible, and they don't have a 75/150 level like APL which I really enjoy. If anyone ever see's me at a Texas Hold Em Poker Australia event again, it is either because I have lost a bet or I have lost the will to live, it is just that bad. It makes APL at Woy Woy on Friday Nights look like the WSOP haha.
Well that's it for the first blog of hopefully many. Hopefully next time I blog I will have some more good stories involving bankroll quadrupling stuff.