Skybet / Calculatem / S&G Shark / Dial a Dealer / Skybet

Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Angry Aussie

Well its been a while but I thought this deserved a wider audience
This guy going nuts because he lost ten bucks.....

FullTiltPoker Game #8259554250: Table Arlene (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 7:52:55 ET - 2008/09/28
Seat 1: redcar99 ($48.25)
Seat 2: mike0980 ($55.45)
Seat 3: ziborbor ($60.30)
Seat 4: That One Guy 00 ($13.95)
Seat 5: 51LBO ($34.35)
Seat 6: Potamology ($51.25)
redcar99 posts the small blind of $0.25
mike0980 posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to redcar99 [Qh Qc]
ziborbor folds
That One Guy 00 calls $0.50
51LBO calls $0.50
Potamology raises to $2.50
redcar99 calls $2.25
mike0980 folds
That One Guy 00 calls $2
51LBO calls $2
*** FLOP *** [Qs 8s 8d]
redcar99 checks
That One Guy 00 checks
51LBO checks
Potamology checks
*** TURN *** [Qs 8s 8d] [Kc]
redcar99 bets $2.50
That One Guy 00 folds
51LBO folds
Potamology raises to $8
redcar99 raises to $22.50
Potamology folds
Uncalled bet of $14.50 returned to redcar99
redcar99 mucks
redcar99 wins the pot ($25.20)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $26.50 Rake $1.30
Board: [Qs 8s 8d Kc]
Seat 1: redcar99 (small blind) collected ($25.20), mucked
Seat 2: mike0980 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: ziborbor didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: That One Guy 00 folded on the Turn
Seat 5: 51LBO folded on the Turn
Seat 6: Potamology (button) folded on the Turn
Potamology: well played
Potamology: i guess when you are a
moron you call with 89 from the small
blind
redcar99: lol
redcar99: dry your eyes
Potamology: lol, you utter spastic
redcar99: ha ha ha
Potamology: btw you extractred max
value then
redcar99: whinging aussie
Potamology: you play very well
Potamology: well i folded aces you
fuucking moron
redcar99: thanks for the
donation..donk
Potamology: lol, well i would bet
anything it was the right fold
Potamology: you fuucking moron
redcar99: dry your eyes
redcar99: u lost $10 stop crying
Potamology: lol, you ignorant moron
redcar99: u need to learn how to lose
redcar99: or play better
redcar99: mug
Potamology: lol, learn to fold a hand
51LBO: or dont play at all
Potamology: you fuucking idiot
redcar99: lol
redcar99: boo hoo
Potamology: its funny that you are too
stupid to admit that you played the
hand like a fuucking moron
redcar99: lol stop crying
redcar99: let it go
Potamology: way to win the minimum
genius
51LBO: it's poker
Potamology: lol 5ILBO shut the fuuck
up
redcar99: lol
Potamology: you uneducated blue
collar cuunt
51LBO: ha ha ha ha
Potamology: you are worse than redcar
Potamology: and that is saying
something
redcar99: let it go
redcar99: its only $10
Potamology: yeah thanks to you
Potamology: lol
redcar99: lol
redcar99: well thanks for it
redcar99: i appreciate the donation
redcar99: mug
Potamology: lol, you saying that just
proves that you dont even understand
what we are talking about
Potamology: you 'mug"
Potamology: lol
redcar99: ha ha
redcar99: stop crying
Potamology: i dont actually recall crying
Potamology: but you can keep
repeating that iff you like
redcar99: jeez your giving me earache
redcar99: stfu
Potamology: i wasnt aware that FTP
had audio support
redcar99: If you think you're sat with
bad players, why complain ?
Potamology: what is it like to have the
mental capacity of a 10 year old with
down syndrome
redcar99: oh dear
redcar99: u realy are a sad kunt
Potamology: loooool
redcar99: do you swear at everyone
who takes your money ?
redcar99: u must be one angry dude
Potamology: at least im not sdumb and
ignorant like your good self
redcar99: lol, it sounds like it
redcar99: im off thanks for the
donation donk
Potamology: ahahahahaha
Potamology: go and kill yourself

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

All quiet on the western front

Things have been pretty quiet lately, still grinding away at 25c/50c on Full Tilt, still making a small profit, mainly due to bonus and rakeback, would be barely breaking even otherwise.
I recently signed up through poker strategy for a free $50 on Titan poker, anyone else who wants the free cash can sign up through this site. http://www.brickandmortarpoker.page.tl/Home.htm
The deal is, complete the quiz and get an immediate $50 in an account on a poker site of your choice, gain so many frequent player points and release further bonuses up to a total of $100.
Thats $150 for free, just for taking the quiz.
The tricky bit is not losing the original $50 to try and build a bankroll from nothing like Chris Ferguson, bank roll management is the key, I'll update on future posts (unless I busto in which case I'll never mention it again)
The actual strategy proposed by the site is a little strange though, it seems aimed at minimising any potential losses rather than maximising profit, by playing a strict short stack strategy, which is, I guess, the way to grind up a $50 bankroll, but its not much fun :(
Not much else to report, haven't played live for a while, will try to think of something interesting for the next post

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Short-Stacking

I think its fair to say that opinion is divided over short-stackers, while some people see this as a legitimate tactic, others look on shortstackers as the lowest of the low.
At my usual 50NL 6max cash games there are a number of regular short-stackers, most of whom make a loss, but some show a small profit according to my pokertracker stats.
There is one guy in particular who buys in for $10 and either folds or pushes every hand, never a call, never a raise, its all in or nothing, he multi-tables 6 or more at a time and must be showing some kind of profit, I wont name him, but I'm sure any Full Tilt regulars at 50 NL with know who I am talking about.
For me this type of player is pretty easy to play against, first you identify his range, (this is easy when he is multi-tabling, and you can data mine through PT), once you know this you can simply play the hands that beat his range and fold the hands that dont, this works pretty well for me, although I do avoid sitting to his right.
Against short-stackers playing a more orthodox style I tend to play my normal game, though I am more inclined to call them down, knowing that my losses are limited to the size of their stack.
This got me thinking, that if I am more likely to go to showdown against a short stacked opponent, then maybe I can reverse the position and take advantage of opponents calling me down lightly by short-stacking with $50 at NL100 or even NL200.
By playing a TAG style while short stacked at higher stakes, maybe I can get bigger raises called and more $100 pots than by buying for the max on a 50NL table.
I know that conventional wisdom says you should always buy in for the maximum, but I think that maybe this tactic is worthy of some investigation.
If anyone has tried this, I would be very interested in the results

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Table selection

I have long been of the opinion that table selection is one of the most important factors in winning online poker, but recently I have been reviewing exactly what makes a 'good' table.
My natural game is pretty tight (I'd like to say tight/aggressive, but one out of two aint bad) so I normally look for a pretty loose game where I will still get callers when I raise for the first time in three orbits.
Using PAHUD I look for tables where 2 or more players have a VP$ of over 40% with a table average VP$ of around 30%, or higher if possible.
The difficulty then comes with the fact that nearly all the pots I play are bigger than average, and with a couple of calling stations on the table, after a raise with maybe two callers, and a continuation bet with one caller, or maybe more, I have odds to call with almost any drawing hand, which can start to get expensive when I miss (and I miss a lot of draws).
I have been wondering if there is a better way to play, maybe by picking tighter tables to play on and playing more hands, a more LAG style.
This way I get to play more hands, see more flops, for less money, and once people see me playing more junk, I should get called down even more when I do hit a hand.
I'd be interested to know how any readers pick their cash tables, is the loosest game always the best ? I notice that from time to time, there is a big queue for a particular table for no apparent reason, I guess there must be a big fish sat there to have 7 or 8 people waiting for a seat, but I don't see the need to join a queue that long, as surely the fish is the first to leave and by the time 6 or 7 people in the queue ahead of you are seated any value must surely be gone.
If anyone has any strong views either way on this please post a reply.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Lady Luck

I played a short session recently which just served to remind me how big a part lady luck plays in proceedings when you sit down at a poker table.
I played for a couple of hours without really getting into any big pots until with 22on the button I called a 13 x BB reraise to $6.50, hoping the initial raiser would just call.
He did and the flop came A92 rainbow.
It was checked to me, and hoping that they were both slow playing AK or AQ I bet the pot of around $20.
The initial raiser reraised all in and the other player folded, leaving me with a decision.
The villain was playing around 44/28 or something so I called, hoping for AK and not AA, he flipped A9 and I was celebrating until the 9 on the turn gave him the bigger Full house and I lost around $75.
I think the loss tilted me as I determined to take a stand against a couple of serial raisers soon after.
The first was on another table where the player to my immediate right kept raising my BB from his SB, and after folding A3, A5 and K9 I decided I would take a stand next orbit with any two cards.
As expected he raised to $2.50, and I pushed all in for around $50 with 75o (Yeah, I know), he insta-called with pocket Queens, and I was kicking myself until my straight hit on the river.
Back on the original table, another player kept reraising my $2 raise from the button to $12 on his BB.
After this had happened about 5 or 6 times, I decided I would again take a stand the first time I had any kind of hand on the button.
A couple of orbits later I find AQ and raise to $2, he reraises to $12 (again) and I push all in, he calls with AK. The flop is 55J, another J on the turn gives me a split, until a queen on the river hands me the full pot.
Despite being up around $100, I decide to call it a day before I tilted away the lot.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

A dream come true

I know I run the risk of being called an aftertimer posting this now, but I swear its true, the only person who can verify this however is my wife so if you dont believe me....c'est la vie.
I had a dream on Tuesday night where I dreamt the result of the eufa cup final, I woke during the night and nearly got up to write it down, as I thought I would forget.
In the end I didn't get up but went back to sleep after memorising 0-0 then 2-0, by the time I awoke in the morning, I had just about forgot the the dream, but remembered the mantra 0-0 followed by 2-0.
I wasn't sure if it meant 0-0 half-time and 2-0 full-time or 0-0 full-time and 2-0 after extra time.
I was a little bit dubious about risking hard cash on a dream, but decided I would rather risk a couple of small bets than kick myself afterwards if it turned out to be true.
In the end I had 3 x £5 bets on Draw HT - Zenit FT, Zenit to win 2-0 and Zenit to win in extratime.
I watched the first half on tv, and at half-time thought I had some kind of chance of a profit at least with a Zenit win in either the second half or extratime.
To be honest, the match was so boring I switched over in the second half and just flicked back ocaisionaly for updates.
At 1-0 I was thinking I had shown a profit, but when Zenit scored the second with the last kick of the game, I went from delight at winning £75 to disapointment that I had only had a fiver on.
I've been to bed early every night since, but as of yet, I still dont have any lottery numbers or the FA Cup final winner, but watch this space..........

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Bad Beats and Retards

The purpose of this blog is not to post all my hard luck stories, but recently it seems like lady luck is taking the piss.

I ran into another candidate for 'numpty of the week' today, I can think of no explanation for his play, maybe 4s5s is his 'lucky hand' or something, it was certainly pretty lucky against me.

The thought of this idiot running off with my hard earned is enough to make me want to puke, I don't suppose he will hang on to it for long playing like that.
After the first hand, I just reloaded and carried on, ater the second, I had to stop playing before terminal tilt set in.

FullTiltPoker Table El Greco (6 max)
$0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:49:06 ET - 2008/04/27
Seat 1: ($52.60)
Seat 2: ($22.05)
Seat 3: ($45.95)
Seat 4: j2ah1ve ($45.20)
Seat 5: redcar ($69)
Seat 6: ($58)
redcar posts the small blind of $0.25
Seat 6 posts the big blind of $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to redcar [Kc Ac]
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
j2ah1ve raises to $2
redcar raises to $7.50
Seat 6 folds
j2ah1ve calls $5.50
*** FLOP *** [Ad 7c 9c]
redcar bets $7.50
j2ah1ve calls $7.50
*** TURN *** [Ad 7c 9c] [4h]
redcar bets $15.50
j2ah1ve raises to $30.20, and is all in
redcar calls $14.70
j2ah1ve shows [5s 4s]
redcar shows [Kc Ac]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 7c 9c 4h] [5d]
j2ah1ve shows two pair, Fives and Fours
redcar shows a pair of Aces
j2ah1ve wins the pot ($87.90) with two pair, Fives and Fours


FullTiltPoker Game #6196663108: Table El Greco (6 max)
$0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:58:43 ET - 2008/04/27
Seat 1: ($48.80)
Seat 2: ($56.40)
Seat 3: ($36.95)
Seat 4: j2ah1ve ($84.90)
Seat 5: redcar ($77.25)
Seat 6: ($56.50), is sitting out
redcar posts the small blind of $0.25
Seat 6 posts the big blind of $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to redcar [Qs Qh]
Seat 2 folds
Seat 3 folds
j2ah1ve raises to $2
redcar raises to $7.50
Seat 1 folds
j2ah1ve calls $5.50
*** FLOP *** [7h 5h 5c]
redcar bets $15.50
j2ah1ve has 15 seconds left to act
j2ah1ve raises to $77.40, and is all in
redcar calls $54.25, and is all in
j2ah1ve shows [5s 4s]
redcar shows [Qs Qh]
*** TURN *** [7h 5h 5c] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [7h 5h 5c Kc] [4d]
j2ah1ve shows a full house, Fives full of Fours
redcar shows two pair, Queens and Fives
j2ah1ve wins the pot ($152) with a full house, Fives full of Fours

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Numpty of the week

Apologies for a bad beat post, but I had to get this one off my chest

Its been a bad day, down $100 early on before a recovery to about $40 down

HansFrans & Nayock420 are both retards and have been raising and reraising with atc
I've been patiently waiting my chance to stack either of them
I've already laid down QQ and JJ both on a K high flop to big raises of my C-bet
My chance finally come and this happens

FullTiltPoker Table Golfcart (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: Nayock420 ($42.70)
Seat 2: wyvern17 ($55.15)
Seat 3: redcar99 ($43.20)
Seat 4: toreds ($54.35)
Seat 5: Sloukka ($35.85)
Seat 6: HansFrans ($55.40)
wyvern17 posts the small blind of $0.25
redcar99 posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to redcar99 [Th Ts]
toreds folds
Sloukka calls $0.50
HansFrans raises to $1
Nayock420 calls $1
wyvern17 calls $0.75
redcar99 raises to $5.50
Sloukka folds
HansFrans calls $4.50
Nayock420 calls $4.50 (well you have to call a reraise with J4o don't you)
wyvern17 calls $4.50
*** FLOP *** [2h 6s 4c]
wyvern17 checks
redcar99 bets $37.70, and is all in
HansFrans folds
Nayock420 calls $37.20, and is all in
wyvern17 adds $0.35
wyvern17 folds
redcar99 shows [Th Ts]
Nayock420 shows [Jh 4d] (Middle pair and no draw)
Uncalled bet of $0.50 returned to redcar99
*** TURN *** [2h 6s 4c] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [2h 6s 4c Ac] [Jc]
redcar99 shows a pair of Tens
Nayock420 shows two pair, Jacks and Fours
Nayock420 wins the pot ($93.90) with two pair, Jacks and Fours

And just to rub it in he promptly leaves the table, what a twat !

Well done Nayock420, you are officially Numpty of the week

Monday, March 31, 2008

Learning to play cash


I've spent most of the last month or so trying to teach myself to play 6 seater cash games on Full Tilt.
Thankfully the first deposit bonus and an apology bonus for some downtime on the site in February (Betfair take note) has kept me in the black.
I've played around 15,000 hands of 25c/50c over the last 6 or 8 weeks for a very small overall profit, but I do think I'm improving, my bankroll on full tilt is increasing thanks to the bonus payments and I feel I can hold my own at this level now.
The plan now is to persevere on full tilt or maybe another new site where I can release another first deposit bonus to try and earn enough to pay (or partly pay) for a planned trip to New York next January (Yes I know that sounds a little ambitious, but it helps to have targets).
The cash game has got me more focused on improving than I have been for a while, the bad beats hurt a bit more, and its easy to get bored and tilt away a few hours worth of grinding in a few minutes, but on the whole its been enjoyable and hopefully will remain so.
Im still playing the odd tournament, the groundhog day syndrome remains in the EPT and WSOP qualifiers on Pokerstars, I'm still stuck on level 3 and keep bubbling for the next level and returning back to level 3 again, and again, and again, but one of these days I'll be at level 6 with a trip to Las Vegas or Monte Carlo in my sights.
Enjoyed a couple of weeks off work over Easter, just took it easy for a few days, had a few day trips out and about in Spain, and generally chilled out for a while.
Also had an e-mail from Betfair offering me a £10 refund, win or lose if I transfered £10 to their casino and played. This I did and manged to release a first deposit bonus, make a profit at Blackjack, and get back my original tenner for a total profit of around £80, so thats the end of my casino career, quit while I'm ahead. :)

Friday, March 07, 2008

Groundhog Day



It feels like groundhog day recently trying to progress in the steps tournaments on Pokerstars for EPT and WSOP seats.
I started off using player points to play the step one sit & go tournaments, bounced up and down to level 3 ($75 + $7) and eventually paid for a couple of $7 + $0.50 step one sats.
Im now going round in circles on level 3, with 4 third place finishes in a row leading to a new start on level 3, without getting to level 4. I'm at level 3 for both EPT and WSOP, but one of these days I'll crack it for a seat in one of the big live tournaments.
Heres hoping.....

I started off pretty well in the $50 satellite to the 'Mr Silent charity WSOPE' tournament on Betfair.
This was for a seat in a $500 satellite for a $23k WSOPE seat donated by Betfair player Mr Silent in a quite amazing show of generosity.
$50 is a big buy in for me, but I thought it would be churlish to turn up my nose at a charity event given how it was donated for free so I decided to play.
I managed to double up early on and held the chip lead for a while, and was playing pretty well, even though I do say so myself. I think I was second at the first break, but didn't make it to the second. The key hand was one where I raised 3 x BB in early position with AK, had one caller in mid-position and the short stack pushed all in from the button for about 9 or 10 BB's, I pushed all in to isolate the shorty and was called by the MP with 77 or 88. Shorty had AJ and the 88 held up and I lost about half my chips.
I never really recovered after that, was card dead for quite a while and blinded away for half an hour before taking a risk and pushing in only to lose a race and crash out.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Return of the blog


Well, its been a while !

Six months without an update so where do I start ?
Well to be honest I never played at all in September and October, had a complete two month break from poker and I never even missed it.
I returned to the fold in November with a couple of MTT cashes for around $400 each on Pokerroom, 3rd in a $10 mtt and 2nd in a $5 mtt if I remember correctly.
I struggled on playing stt's on Betfair in December for a small loss on the month, stayed on the sit and go's during January without much success and in February I opened a Full Tilt account to play some small stakes cash.
Finally got to see some benefit from my Poker Tracker playing cash games and bought PA HUD to go with it, Its hard to beleive anyone playing cash games seriously can do so without this software. It really is terrific, displaying stats from poker tracker live on the tables showing you details of opponents previous history over however many hands.
Using this I managed to show a (very) small profit on the $0.25/$0.50 cash tables over around 5000 hands, and will be persevering with the cash tables for the forseeable future.
I also managed to win the Mansion staff invitational freeroll last night for a nice payday, doubled up on about the third hand of the tournament with pocket Aces, pushed all in for around 1800 on the turn with two spades on the board to push out any flush draw and was inexplicably called by 66 with three overcards on the board, his 2 outer missed and I got off to a good start, stayed in the top ten or so throughout despite donking off 1300 chips when misclicking and calling a huge river bet with what was obviously a made straight when I meant to fold.
I recovered untill losing a hand with trip 2's v a full house just before the final table and was last of ten going onto the final table.
A couple of well time bluffs and some decent cards when needed helped me build back up, and I eventually won the tournament, bragging rights at work, and a cool £1000 for my troubles.
I'll try to keep the updates a little more regular from now on , not just when I win a freeroll, and hopefully try to stay profitable in the cash games as well as the odd tournament