A better weekend

Well, this weekend went a little bettter than the last one, which wasn't too hard considering.
After last weekend, I was a bit sick of poker and hadn't planned to play during the week as a kind of cooling off period after tilting on Sunday, but I did play in the Crypto £4k Gtd tournament on Monday night and finished 19th of 415 for a £42 return.
I then laid off the poker all week until Saturday, where I avoided the cash games and played a couple of $25 sit and go's on Betfair with no success, I also played the $1750 Gtd, which is becoming a bit of a favourite, and ran well until I bubbled in 19th.
Sunday I played a few $10 sit and go's on Pokerstars with 45 runners and managed a 8th place and a 12th place with 7 getting paid.
So onto Sunday night to try to turn the week into a winning one, I decided to try the $50 buy in $25k Gtd on Pokerstars at 9pm and play the $1750 Gtd on Betfair simultaneously to keep from getting bored.
The $1750 started well when my pocket Queens won against KK and AJ with a Q on the turn, and then went from good to better when with 46o in the BB I Flopped the nuts with 357 rainbow and had my bet raised and reraised by A7 and TT as we ended up all in to take my stack up to 9k and the chip lead on level 2.
After that start,things had to quieten down, and they did, but I reached the final table in 6th place, and thats where I finished when my 66 ran into pocket aces giving me a $96 return.
The bigger tournament on Pokerstars didn't start so good, 3 hands in I get dealt KK on the button, in an unraised pot, I raise from 20 to 80 and get two callers.
Thje flop is a nightmare AAx, I bet out 160 and keep one caller in the pot, turn is another Ace, oppo checks, and so do I, river card is harmless, and oppo bets out 360, I put him on a smaller pair and consider pushing all in, but Im scared of the case Ace, and dont want to crash out this early in a (for me) big buy in multi so I just call.......
....and he has the Ace.........lucky escape for me, opponent congratulates me on not going bust, and we move on.
Next hand of note was QQ, I had recovered a little, back to the 1500 starting chips, when I pick up QQ in late position, no raise in front of me so I raise to 4 x BB, early position limper reraises, I push and he insta-calls with AKo.
For the first time in living memory, my pocket Queens stand up against overcards and I double up to 3k.
A little later I get a huge stroke of luck when I fluke a flush with 99 v KK and I'm up to 9k and going well in the top 20.
The crucial hand came with the blinds at 300/600 and I have 99 again on the button, its folded round to me and I make it 2400, and get a call from the BB.
The flop is Th 7c 2s, and I make the mistake of not raising enough, because Im worried by the Ten, oppo checks, I bet 3000 and he flat calls, turn is 6h , oppo again checks and I bet 3000, he calls, by now I have no idea what he has but Im worried by AT or an overpair, the river brings a third heart, but to be honest Im not considering the flush until he bets 6000, with over 20k in the pot, I call fearing the worst (probably not thye best move), and he shows A4h.
Pretty poor play by him is rewarded, but if only I had raised more on the flop, I would have been in great shape, instead of crippled, from here I manage to limp into the cash, going out in 149th of 1179 for about $100, when an attempted button steal with A6s runs into A9.
Two cashes make it a rare profitable week in 2007, but also a string of 'could have beens'
I would be interested in peoples thoughts on the 99 hand, it seems that the conservative thinking which saved me early on with KK cost me later with the 99 hand.

A bad weekend

Had a terrible weekend, so bad that its took me a whole week before I could bring myself to blog it.
Started off last Saturday playing 0.25/0.5 ring games on Betfair, I'd had a prety good week on cash so far and decided to try and improve the finances a little more by playing Saturday afternoon, whilst watching the football on tv.
Well to cut a long story short, it ended up a bit of a disaster losing $130 before I decided that I still had no cash game and packed in.
I've heard other people say its harder to win on the cash tables at the weekend than it is on weekday evenings, and thats what I have found too.
But worse was still to come on Sunday, chastened by my losses at the cash tables I decided to win it all back on the $25 sit & go's on Betfair and Victor Chandlers.
I then suffered the worst run of bad beats I have ever seen which, I guess started tilting me to even worse results.
I won't bore you with all the details, but I had AA beaten twice by smaller pocket pairs outdrawing on me. AKs v KJo losing as oppo made a flush etc etc etc
In all I played 15 games for a total buy in of $412 and all I managed were two third places for a total return of $90 :(
I started off 4th, 4th, 3rd, 5th, 3rd, 4th, before the tilt set in and I lost my complete bank on VC before I had the sense to log off.
Over £200 in a weekend is a disaster, but at least, hopefully, I can learn a lesson from it and not make the same mistakes again.
Funnily enough, one thing I did learn is that the standard of play on the $25 games is no better than in the more familar lower stakes games, sounds a little crazy after losing £200 in a weekend, but at least I have the confidence that I can play at this level, and I feel I have nothing to fear from the average $25 stt player
I guess time will tell if this is true or not.

Moving on up

Back to a familiar theme this week, starting a determined attempt to step up a little in my tournament play.
I've decided to give up on the Crypto £4k Gtd, as although the std of play is generally poor, the blind structure turns it into a crap shoot befoe the final table is even reached.
I've turned my attention recently to the $25 Gtd on PokerStars which usually has a total prize pool of between $40k and $50k for a $50 buy in. I havent had much success in it so far, though from the 5 times I have entered, 3 times I have lost with a pocket pair against a smaller pocket pair, in the words of Phil Helmuth 'If it wasn't for luck, I guess I'd win them all'.
The standard of play on Pokerstars does seem better than a lot of other sites, I know it sounds strange, but I think this will help my game, too many idiots playing junk make it very difficult to put anyone on a hand. When a guy calls your 5 x BB raise pre-flop and the flop comes A33, you would assume that unless he has flopped quad threes your AK is ahead, but then they turn over J30 and your out of the tournament.
I've also been playing on Betfair again recently, the $1750 Gtd runs alongside the stars $25k Gtd and I like playing them both simultaneously to help stave off the boredom in the early stages and reduce the temptation to play too many hands.
I've also moved my cash game from stars to Betfair as the cash tables are undoubtably looser and easier to win on, I may try Crypto for cash in Feb as they are giving away up to £100 bonus for earning fpp's on UKBetting poker in Feb.
The year hasn't started too well with no major cashes in tournaments and an overall loss on cash tables, in conjunction with the increased cost of playing the higher value tournaments, but overall, I'm fairly happy with my game.
I think my luck hasn't been great so far and when it turns, I'll be in the money again.

Ring Games

I'm still on a mission to improve my cash play, and at the same time, trying to earn enough FPP's on Poker Stars to release a $50 bonus.
My game seems to be improving, in as much as the losses are smaller than before, but I've already lost $50 trying to earn the bonus and I have only half of the FPP's required.
I think the stats show where I am going wrong, I'm playing too many hands and my win percentage at showdown is still below 50%
I seem to have got over my previous problem of losing whenever I played for too long, or to put it another way, playing too long when I'm losing.
I managed a 2 hour session on Saturday and a three hour session on Sunday for a total loss of just $7 and no reloads required.
I feel now for the first time that I know what Im doing when I sit at a cash table, still a long way to go , but at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Im still hot on the heels of a win in the Crypto £4k Gtd, played 4 times last week and only missed the money once when I had QQ and TT outdrawn in succesive hands.
I watched fellow Betfair forumite and ex-Blogger Wyld play in the Mansion $100k Gtd on Thursday night. he played really well before coming unstuck near the end with AQ v AK to just miss out on a final table placing, but did take home $1000 for 11th so congratulations Andy and very well played. Maybe another couple of wins and the Blog will be resurected.

Mansion $100k Gtd

Excuse me using my Blog to promote Mansion, but the $100k Gtd tournament which is on every night on Mansion Poker has been moved to 1800 GMT to suit European customers.
Anyone looking for value should make a beeline for this tournament which in recent days has been at 0300 GMT and aimed firmly at the American market.
Recent tournaments have been undersubscribed to the extent that Mansion have been putting up around $50k added in the tournament every day.
The entry cost is $100 with $90 of that going into the prizepool, the extent of the overlay, however, makes it the best value in online poker at the moment imo
How does $24k to the winner sound.
The tournament is on every night until further notice, so make hay while the sun shines

Stop Press

I forgot to mention Baretta won the second of the Mansion Staff freerolls for £1500

A Profitable Xmas

Well after a pretty bad run in December I was true to my word and had a few days off, coming back to play in the Mansion Invitational Freeroll for staff only with £5k Added and finishing 2nd of 108 for a nice xmas bonus of £925.
Deposited on Pokerstars soon after and played on there for most of the holiday period, with mixed success. I do like the site though, its possible to simplify the look of the tables and use big numbers on the cards for ease of use, must be a godsend if multi-tabling. The structures are good too, longer levels than Crypto, where I have been playing recently.
Followed up my second in the Mansion Staff tournie with a 10th place out of 110 in the second staff freeroll for £50, which coincidently was the buy in for the live tournament at the Casino on Wed 3rd Jan.
Managed another final table there too, agreeing a chop heads up for second place and £335 in Prize money to cap a profitable festive period.
I guess its the time of year to set out my objectives for 2007, so here goes

1. Firstly I think I will play less poker in general, look for value in Multi-table tournaments, and play at a highr stakes than in 2006

2. I'll set a profit target for the year of £2500 which is what I set out to achieve but failed last year.

3. I also need to address my cash game (If indeed I have a cash game) and try to at least generate a profit from it over the year.

4. I also want to make a profit from live play, as I managed in 2006

5. Maybe a final table on one of the larger Gtd tournies by the middle of the year and a win by the end of the year, or failing this to qualify via a satellite for a big live tournament

Well thats about it, thanks to all readers for looking in in 2006, and I hope you will pop in from time to time in 2007.

Wishing you all the very best of luck at the tables as well as in life

End of year accounts

I had a look back at Jan 2006 postings to see what progress I've made in the last year

My targets for 2006 were :

1. A profit of £200 per month £2400 for the year, enough to pay for a holiday

2. To win one of the evening guaranteed mtt's on Betfair

3. To progress my cash game, and to make an overall profit on cash games

4. To make the final table in a live game at the Casino at Teesside Park by the middle of the year and a top 3 finish by the end of the year

5. To play and qualify from sattelites for the £10k or £15k Gtd on Betfair and to make the final table on one of them

6. To win a big mtt on Partypoker, I like the $2 mtt at 2.45 pm but unfortunately, work does not allow me to play it too often, or maybe the $5 rebuy with a huge prize fund

My results against these are as follows :

1. Total online profit for 2006 £1600.09 total live profit for 2006 £298
Total profit for the year, just short of £1900, not quite on target but better than I expected mid-way through the year.

2. A win on the old $5k Gtd fits the bill here, achieved on 28th June

3. The lease said the better as far as cash games are concerned, still have'nt got to grips with ring games and lost $170 overall on the year

4. Teesside park is a bit to far away from Gib, but I have won a live tournament in Gib Casino for £750 so I guess I can tick this one off too.

5. I won entry into a few higher value tournaments, but no final table yet

6. I cant play on Partypoker from Gib so this one is a no no, but I have won mtt's on Betfair, Wm Hill, UKBetting and Paradise.

Overall 3/6 not a bad attempt but must try harder in 2007

Next posting : Targets for 2007