End of year report

Well its that time of year again, and time to look back on 2009
After six consecutive losing months from April to September I finally turned things around in October, and look like having a break even year, after being down around $1000 at the start of December.
I've been playing predominantly on Party Poker since the end of September, no rakeback, but the deposit bonus makes up for that so far, and I've reached Gold level in the VIP scheme, which to be honest isn't worth much.
I've been playing 25c/50c and 50c/$1 dependant on my bankroll, my frame of mind and how juicy the tables look, I seem to do better at the higher level, maybe I just concentrate a little more at higher stakes.
I'm still fighting against tilt, not the crazy monkey tilt which drives some people to play above their bankroll or dump cash on casino games, just enough to make me change the way I play after losing a couple of buy-ins in a session, still trying to keep it under control.

I'm still running about $400 below EV according to Holdem Manager and I know that the general concensus is that this will even out over enough hands, but to be honest I think that I don't take enough risks, and I don't get it in when I'm behind often enough to pull back $400, maybe as my cash games improves I'll claw some of it back.
Away from poker I'm all over Manchester United this season, I have them at 100/30 to win the Premiership, 10/1 to win the Champions League and Rooney at 18/1 to be Prem top scorer.

Time for a change ?

I've played more this month than in any previous month since I started on the cash games, and my total profit is just about zero.
I claimed $50 for playing on 25 days in September as part of Full Tilts 'Take Two' promotion, and a few extra FPP's, which are pretty worthless anyway as the i-pod I had my eye on has been taken out of the Full Tilt store.
I have lost $86 in the month will get $50 from the promo and about $150 in rakeback, so I'm up about $100 overall, but I haven't enjoyed playing at all.
The standard on FTP is pretty good so I always try to find the softest table, trying to target the fish.
The problem is when you find them there are usually 4 or 5 other regs trying to separate the fish from their cash.
My usual MO is to sit tight, wait for the prenmium hands, and let the fish net themselves, unfortunately to make this work I not only have to overcome the lunatics, but also the monster known as variance.
The hand below is a perfect example, I waited patiently for a hand, I had peviously laid down KK on the river when his (obvious) flush draw hit after I flopped a set, and I had been waiting for this (hence the pre-flop limp)

***** Hand History for Game 14968157897 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, September 27, 11:25:41 ET 2009
Table AceKingNL (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: batmanisno1 ( $108.80 USD )
Seat 2: redcar99 ( $60.90 USD )
Seat 4: iapoligizenow ( $50.00 USD )
Seat 5: TOANNGUYENAA ( $26.40 USD )
Seat 6: loliHasAces ( $52.25 USD )
loliHasAces posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
batmanisno1 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to redcar99 [ Ks Kh ]
redcar99 calls [$0.50 USD]
TOANNGUYENAA folds
loliHasAces folds
batmanisno1 raises [$1.00 USD]
redcar99 raises [$5.00 USD]
batmanisno1 calls [$4.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, Jd, Th ]
batmanisno1 checks
redcar99 bets [$10.50 USD]
batmanisno1 calls [$10.50 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2c ]
batmanisno1 checks
redcar99 bets [$44.90 USD]
batmanisno1 calls [$44.90 USD]
redcar99 shows [Ks, Kh ]
batmanisno1 shows [4c, Tc ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3c ]
batmanisno1 wins $120.05 USD from main pot

That was just about the straw that broke the camels back.
I have come to the conclusion that I can't beat 50NL on FTP so I need to find a softer site or give up completely, so I have decided to cash out all my funds from FTP and try to make a profit on Party Poker
Its a shame because I really like the Full Tilt software, I think its the best around, but I just can't win there.
I will also have to give up on rakeback at Party, but hopefully I can actually make a profit from the poker rather than grinding away waiting for a weekly rakeback payment
Here's hoping !

Running Bad

I've been running pretty bad recently, in fact the last three months I must be down about 12 buy ins, even had to redeposit on FTP last week.
I had to bite the bullet and drop back down to 25c/50c last week and after a couple of losing sessions I managed a couple of (small) winning sessions.
The only consolation is that Hold 'Em Manager says I am running at about $450 dollars below my EV so I guess with a little luck things wouldn't be so bad.
Fortunately my live game seems unaffected by the online downswing, I failed to qualify online for the Malaga €1500 + €150 event but I did play in the €100 freezeout at San Roque last Saturday managing 2nd out of 21 for around €570, I may go back tonight to play again in the €50 single rebuy or add on, or maybe Gib casino for the cash game after the £5 rebuy crapshoot.
I folded a full house playing online a few days ago, the hand history is below, I'd be grateful for any feedback on it, general consensus so far is that I'm an idiot to even consider folding but given that, check - call, check - call, push on river is standard donk play for 'I think I've got the nuts' at this level, I'm not so sure

***** Hand History for Game 13857503946 ***** (Full Tilt)
$50.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, August 06, 02:49:23 ET 2009
Table Pergola (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: nicow777 ( $70.10 USD )
Seat 2: davewilk74 ( $31.50 USD )
Seat 3: n00b09 ( $50.00 USD )
Seat 4: Boogieman69 ( $47.70 USD )
Seat 5: Gnotschi ( $57.50 USD )
Seat 6: redcar99 ( $59.30 USD )
nicow777 posts small blind [$0.25 USD].
davewilk74 posts big blind [$0.50 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to redcar99 [ 6h Ah ]
n00b09 folds
Boogieman69 calls [$0.50 USD]
Gnotschi folds
redcar99 calls [$0.50 USD]
nicow777 folds
davewilk74 checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8s, Tc, 6s ]
davewilk74 checks
Boogieman69 checks
redcar99 bets [$1.00 USD]
davewilk74 calls [$1.00 USD]
Boogieman69 calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8d ]
davewilk74 checks
Boogieman69 checks
redcar99 bets [$2.00 USD]
davewilk74 folds
Boogieman69 calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6c ]
Boogieman69 bets [$44.20 USD]
redcar99 folds
Boogieman69 wins $44.20 USD
Boogieman69 wins $8.35 USD from main pot

Afterwards he typed in chat that he had flopped the straight which did make me lol, he was playing terribly so maybe he did, maybe he thought the straight was good ?

Back to the Future

Back on Full Tilt cash tables again trying to refind my Mojo this week.
My old faithfull Poker Tracker 2 kinda gave up the ghost after FTP's recent upgrade, or to be more accurate, the Poker Ace Hud did.
PT Forum gave me a patch to ensure I could still download the HH's bt the HUD didn't work and I guess with PT3 having a built in HUD it wasn't a priority to sort out so I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade.
I am a bit of a Luddite in this respect, I find that every time I have some new software its nothing but trouble until it all eventualy gets sorted out, which is why I never upgraded to PT3 before.
I've had PT2 for ages so its value against the upgrade wasn't worth much and Players whos opinion I respect have told me Holdem Manager was better, so instead of PT3 I opted for Holdem manager.
Anyway, with the new software installed, I'm back on the cash tables. With my FTP Bankroll down under $700 I decided I really had to drop down to 50NL instead of the 100NL I had been playing, I had a little success but couldn't really take it too serious after playing at 100NL so I went back to the 50c/$1 tables and as I write this I'm up abut one buy in today, only 6 more to go to break even :)
There's a new weekly tournament just up the coast at San Roque casino on saturday nights, a work mate Fabio won last weeks €50 rebuy, and not only did he win, he did it without any rebuys and without the add on, well done Fabio.
It was a €50 buy in again this week with just one rebuy or add on available, I was tempted to go up and play but decided to keep my powder dry till next weeks €100 freezeout.
In the meantime I have been playing online qualifiers on FTP for the Poker Series Espana event 2 in Malaga. This is a €1500 + €150 buy in event so I'm trying to satellite in on the cheap, with the extra bonus that there is a €3000 package and I can drive there in an hour so if I do qualify I will have the cash bonus to spend on anything I want, maybe even go back to Vegas on holiday :)

Vegas Baby !

Well, its been a week since I arrived back from Vegas, and I'm still feeling a little jet-lagged, it was my first time, but I hope it won't be my last.
I travelled courtesy of Mansion Poker to look after the online qualifiers for the WSOP main event, and while in theory that made it a business trip, its hard not to have fun in Vegas, even if you are working.
Craig and I managed to find time to play a few low stakes tournaments and also got involved in the $1/$2 cash games.
I managed a second place in a $70 freezeout at the Mandaly Bay, and Craig went one better, wining a $65 freezeout at Ballys and taking 2nd place in the same tournament two days later.
My cash game was showing a decent profit in the early part of the week I dropped a buy in first hand in a $1/$2 cash game at the Mandalay Bay, dealt KK I reraised from $8 to $25 with one caller, the flop was Q high with no stright or flush draw and we ended up all in before the turn, only for my opponent to show QQ for a flopped set, I did recover a few hands later, again with KK on a flop of KK5, another 5 on the flop gave my opponent a Full house, but my quad kings won the pot and also a 'high hand bonus' of $114 which amounted to about $79 after tax
Then two disasterous hands at the Venetian dropped me two buy ins in quick sucession.
First up I checked my option on the BB in a multi-way limped pot with 8h 9h and saw a flop of T J Q rainbow, with no pre-flop raise I figured my hand was pretty much the nuts and bet it as if it was, at showdown my opponent showed AKo, not a good start.
I reloaded and after about an hour of folding I picked up pocket Aces, my big pre-flop raise thinned down the field to one caller and a flop of A K J looked pretty good to me, the chips went in and my opponent tables QT for a made straight :(
Overall, I still showed a profit, and I think if I went again on holiday, without any work distractions I could definately show a profit in what were unexpectedly soft cash games

Just another Bad Beat

Well after saying I didn't want to fill up the blog with bad beats, here's one I couldn't resist posting

FullTiltPoker Game #12926009452: Table Joyner (6 max) - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:54:18 ET - 2009/06/20
Seat 1: pooshda ($75.25)
Seat 2: D4da15T ($109.80)
Seat 3: redcar99 ($100)
Seat 4: nem3si5 ($108.75)
Seat 5: Dr Sweetleaf ($77.35)
Seat 6: Murderer45 ($63.70)
D4da15T posts the small blind of $0.50
redcar99 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to redcar99 [Ts Td]
nem3si5 folds
Dr Sweetleaf calls $1
Murderer45 folds
pooshda raises to $3
D4da15T folds
redcar99 calls $2
Dr Sweetleaf calls $2
*** FLOP *** [Th Kh Kc]
redcar99 checks
Dr Sweetleaf bets $9.50
pooshda folds
redcar99 raises to $25.50
Dr Sweetleaf calls $16
*** TURN *** [Th Kh Kc] [5c]
redcar99 bets $49
Dr Sweetleaf: i think im fcuked
Dr Sweetleaf: i cant fold
Dr Sweetleaf calls $48.85, and is all in
redcar99 shows [Ts Td]
Dr Sweetleaf shows [9s Kd]
Uncalled bet of $0.15 returned to redcar99
*** RIVER *** [Th Kh Kc 5c] [Ks]
redcar99 shows a full house, Kings full of Tens
Dr Sweetleaf shows four of a kind, Kings
Dr Sweetleaf wins the pot ($155.20) with four of a kind, Kings
redcar99 adds $77.35
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $158.20 Rake $3
Board: [Th Kh Kc 5c Ks]
Seat 1: pooshda (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: D4da15T (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: redcar99 (big blind) showed [Ts Td] and lost with a full house, Kings full of Tens
Seat 4: nem3si5 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Dr Sweetleaf showed [9s Kd] and won ($155.20) with four of a kind, Kings
Seat 6: Murderer45 didn't bet (folded)

Not much to report

Poker's been up and down recently, mostly down.
I don't want to fill up the blog with bad beats, hence the lack of recent updates.
I have 12,000 hands at 50c/$1 now and that old familiar, "can I actually show a profit" feeling is returning.
I tried dropping back down to 50 NL but to be honest, I cant find the motivation to play at the lower stakes any more, so I guess I'll have to battle on until I either make some money or go Busto.
On a more positive note, I'm off to Vegas a week on thursday with work. We have 10 WSOP qualifiers on Mansion so Craig and I are going over to make sure everyone has a good time.
I'm sure we'll also find some time to play a little poker and have some fun, we're both looking forward to it, roll on July 2nd
The live game is not going too well either, managed to win a little cash a couple of weeks ago, rocking up to the casino a little worse for wear about 11pm, managed to maintain a "drunk and loose" image whilst actually playing pretty tight, and managed a double up with Aces AIPF before staggering off home in the wee small hours, could have been even better as I managed to get all in with a full house on the turn with Q9 on a board of QQ95 against an opponent holding Q4 and he managed to hit one of the remianing two nines on the river for a split pot.
I've been playing the regular sunday evening freezeout without much success, I seem to last just long enough for the blinds to really start to bite and when people have to start making moves, then it seems I always get outdrawn, latest time was with AQ v JT when a jack on the flop did for me, but I suppose as long as I get it in ahead, then its only a matter of time before I cash again.

Contrasting Weekends

Had a couple of strange weekends on the poker recently, 2 weekends ago I played 1500 hands and was only all in 3 times, losing all three, but still managed to make a profit of $250.
First was the ‘bad beat’ shown in the previous post when my full house got beaten by quad aces on the river.
The second was similar, I had pocket Jacks beaten by pocket 6’s , my pair was an overpair to the board and I lost when he made trips on the river.
The third time was my fault, I got a little impatient with the table lunatic and pushed all in pre-flop with AK only to run into KK.
Last weekend in contrast was a bit of an all in fest, Friday night I was down $300 in double quick time, so Saturday I started playing with the intention of getting back even.
By lunch time I was down another $300 and not feeling too great.
Things did improve later though and I recovered to a total loss over the weekend of $130 and a loss for the week of $80 which felt like a win from being $600 in the hole.
Rakeback will cover at least half of the loss so things not too bad overall
I also discovered this site : http://www.pokertableratings.com/ which is useful for checking out your opponents as well as seeing how your mates are doing and taking the piss out of the losers.
Its not perfect as it seems to be missing quite a few sessions, dissapointingly for me they seem to be winning sessions so I look even worse than I actually am...lol
Double coin flip lunch this week, Dan lost them both, so not only did I eat for free (again) but I'm still freerolling courtesy of Tim and the half marathon wager, who says there's no such thing as a free lunch ?