Long time no post!

Howdy.

Been pretty busy with uni work/socialising and any free time I have i've been playing poker - no time for blogs! Been pretty weird pokerwise. Played the turbos for a little while, didnt make/lose much from the last post. Then kinda went all tilty for a little while... playing cash (NO BEN, NO!) and some turbos out of my roll. Don't really know what the result was overall... I know I had 700$ at stars, and withdrew my last $500, $1000 at pacific and withdrew the last $300 when I realised things were getting a little out of hand. I think I lost another few hundred in there somewhere. Low point was losing a $1200 pot. Flopped the nut straight, other guy pushed on flush draw. Hit of course. *shrug* Didn't feel tilty or angry after that, just kinda numb.

Then again, I withdrew $500 'profit' around this time from messing on cash table at absolute with a spare $20 i had after cashing it all out, so I dont think I lost all too much...maybe. I sort of just realised 'this is not good' and withdrew everything I could to make sure it didn't get any worse. That was a few weeks ago now. Took a week off to sort myself out a bit, and then decided to go back to a winning formula - i redeposited on absolute (scammage seems to have blown over somewhat) to 6-7 table sngs, with rakeback and bonus. Feeling alot more steady/normal. All good.

Also, did the messing around with 20$ left on stars and also ran that up to $500 (in an hour!) withdrew that, then did it again to $380, withdrew that. So thats money safely in my bank, which is cool. So since my last post, i'm probably up actually. I'd estimate tiltage probably cost $1100, but I've made $1380 from cash table messing (in about 4hrs...) It's kinda cool, cos it was literally leftover change in my account, and an hour later I have food money for the next month!

Feeling alot better when playing the sngs, just like it was really. I'm down $75ish, but am certainly running under expectation. I only have about $750 online right now, which is probably a good thing as a precaution, and I'm playing mainly $20 and $30 games, which I'm definately rolled for. Just going to grind them out a bit for a while until I get robusto again. Ahhh, the days when I had $4/5k in my absolute account alone. That's what I'd like to get back to.

*Philosophical self reflection warning*
Felt like I learnt quite alot about what prolonged tilt is like. It's scary. Am glad that I withdrew everything and got my head sorted before playing again. I also think I learned change is not condusive to poker success for me. Playing different structures/buyins/etc just gets me flustered. I'm thinking i'm not really cut-out for the long-term grind. Perhaps I should just play mtts when I feel like it and leave it at that. Every now and then I have a big score - but it's not like i'm grinding the mtts at all, i barely play any. Try and satellite into the bigger mtts/live events maybe. Meh, I don't know. I'm happy grinding the sngs for now. We'll see. Maybe I'll just continually deposit $20 and withdraw $500 an hour later. If only it were that simple! Seriously though, shortstacking against other shortstackers, and continually moving up limits and finding more shortstackers seems crazily profitable. Though I probably just ran like jesus and it would fail dismally if I tried it again.


Anyways, I need sleep.

booooo

Turbos suck!! (read: I am variance's bitch)

Sigh.

Was doing real good, up to ~$700. Then played 20+ today and cashed in 3. 3!!!!!! And only on the cheap ones, lost all the $25+ games I played. BOO!

So there goes most of my hard work.

Totals
Games: 184
Amount won: $263.7
ROI: 6.34%

Turbo tastic

Been carrying on with the turbos, tried 12-tabling today! Was mucho fun. Timed out a few times, but that was most mostly because I was talking to people and eating. Also running pretty good, broken almost exactly even on the 16$ games, but have an ROI of 70%+ (albiet only after 16 games) for the 27$s. Going to carry on playing about half and half 16 and 27$, and after a few hundred games, if all is going well, I'll move up to the 27$ games permanently and mix in some 35$ games (think thats the next level).

Reached silver star on stars. wooo. I'm pretty sure I could make platinum star without too much trouble, ~35 27$ games a day for 30 days. Thats just 12 tabling for like 3 hours a day. If I had a lot of time on my hands and did that for 10 months, I'd be supernova! But I doubt that'll happen anytime soon; uni work coming in thick and fast, barely getting in 5-10hrs a week. Maybe if I have loads of time I'll go crazy for 5-6 months and then have 6-8 months of freerolls and such. Then agin I should probably go to fulltilt for rakeback and bonus, probably end up being worth more. Aah, decisions decisions.

Played a live home game organised by some students. £5 buyin, 8 players (ish, maybe 7...can't remember) Was good fun, people playing heart-warmingly badly. Got lucky, beating TT with A7s near the bubble, and once I got those chips, it was kind of over...Not meaning to be arrogant or anything, but it was a fairly easy win from there. One other guy said he plays 50$ and 100$ HU sngs on PKR, and does well, reads 2+2 etc, says he often 10+ tables, so I assume he's pretty good. I doubt he was lying. He bust out early though, (trying to get too fancy, tut tut) so I never really saw if he was any good.

Going to a live game in manchester in a few weeks, meeting up with some PFUers, should be good fun, and with 10% getting a free seat to the amateur poker championship in manchester in december.

hy, that's about tout. Hasta next time. (woo, 4 languages in 1 sentence!)

Totals
Games: 55
Amount won: $307.5
ROI: 29.12%

...some days.

Having fun at uni, not played a great deal of poker after my big win a while ago. played a few sngs and won a bit, donked off some playing cash. (STOP PLAYING CASH GAMES!!!!) Decided I'm going to get into crazy multitabling turbo sngs. Inspired by a sick sng player I've read about, 20+ tabling the 60$ turbos on stars, aiming for 25$k this month! Plays like 300 a day. Insane. So anyways, I had a go at 9 tabling, which went fine - physically keeping up I was fine, and feel I could handle quite a few more. Whether I could do so profitably is another matter. But I felt I played well for the most part. So I'm going to stop doing the old sng updates, and replace them with the new turbo thingys. Just for a while, see how it goes. If I decide I want to do it 'properly' I'll probably go over to fulltilt for bonus+rakeback, since playing low roi/huge volume type things would be greatly improved with some rakeback.

Also withdrawn most of my roll of AP. The scandal has been blown wide open, and while I doubt they're going to go bust, I want to be sure. Not to mention they handled it all very badly, and I'm not sure I want to give my custom to the site.

New results, starting off with mostly $16 9 man, with some $27 games too.

Totals
Games 22
Amount won: $72
ROI: 18.18%

Freeroll

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5933456

Yay for free money.

Days 39-...45?

Boom! I've been in sheffield for 2 weeks now. Been going ok, settled in fine, nice flatmates, course/classes seem fine so far.

Not sure how many days I've played! Haven't been keeping proper records, though I know how much I've spent/won. Started off pretty bad... combination of playing at a new site with games that I'm not really used to (turbos/rebuys) or playing different types at once - playing rebuys whilst playing 70$ sngs can end in disaster! Also a few nights opening up a few games after a few drinks... Basically it all led to me not playing great, though I wasn't running well either. It also led to me losing $1000+. Eek! Oddly, I feel like when i'm just playing 1 or 2 tables, my mtt game is better than it's ever been. I really feel like I'm making some advanced plays that are based on reads/maths, rather than making random moves and hoping they work which I think tends to happen when I'm playing 6 tables with 3+mtts. It's especially satisying when I'm about to fold/check and then I suddenly realise what hand(s) makes most sense (ie I can narrow my opponents range consideraly) and so can call/bluff accordingly. I mean, that's kind of the basis of poker, but I feel like I'm getting better at it, and am applying it to complex/crucial situations well. Yay!
Got deepish in a few mtts playing like this, got unlucky/coolered in some...But then... played a 5$ rebuy. It lasted 8hrs so I wont give a desription, but I felt I played really well from ~100 left. Had a few key double ups, was fairly short with 2 tables but manages to survive and went into the final table in 7th. A huge double up with 8 left with A6 holding vs kqs put me into contention, then took out a few players,and we ended up 3 handed. Another massive double with aces put me equal with the chippo, and the shortie quickly bust. I actually feel I was outplayed for parts of the HU, and ended up getting it allin with top pair against top pair with a slightly better kicker. But I happily settled for 2nd, getting ~$3900. weeeeee!

Played a 7hr live cash session too, making £40(~$80) which was good fun. I was thinking these guys would be great as they played alot. I was wrong. Some of them were ok, but fairly bad for the most part. Oh, my favourite hand: 1st hand of a round of omahaha. opponent says hes never played omaha before.
opponent raises preflop, a few callers, I call with junk (AJT6s or something) cos i'm a fish. Flop comes AJJ. Villain bets, I called with the flopped boat. Turn in a queen, opponent shoves, I call, youknow, cos I'm a fish. He obv turns over aces, but the river brings a lovely 1 outer - a jack. Ship the £70 pot! Hehe.

Anyways, work's getting harder so probably not much serious poker for a while. And I'll either be grinding sngs on absolute, or playing the odd mtt, not both at once! New BR is -$2475 that I withdrew.

Sngs: 39
total: 2853
Time(hrs): 25
Old Online Bankroll: $4419
New Online Bankroll: $4797
Total since 01/03/07: $23148
Total time(hrs): 573.5
Total $/hr: $40.4

Days 36-38

Well, off to uni tomorrow! Going ooop north to sheffield. Looking forward to it, had a fairly quiet gap year, so it'll be nice to be busy again. Probably wont be playing much poker for a while though, so probably wont be many updates for a little while. Seems like a lively poker scene in sheffield though, so I'll probably be playing more live, which is good as I've been meaning to improve my live game anyway (reads, etc)

Deposited on stars, and played some of the 180man sngs, (12$ turbos and $4.5 non-turbos) and some mtts. Lots more choice which is nice. Came 5th in a $12 turbo, cashed in one of the bigger $55 mtts, had a decent stack but made a silly move just before the bubble leaving me low. I think that hand made me realise a big leak of mine - making too many moves. Every hand I'm thinking 'how can I win this hand?' That's all very well and good, but it kind of blinds me sometimes when I obviously cant win. It's like I'm trying to get too fancy, thinking 'oh he's playing this board like he has the trips so obviously he must be bluffing' - sometimes I need to play a bit more simply.

Had a nice 400$ mtt score a few days ago, but had a bad sng day so was breakeven really. Then had another bad sng day (looks like my upswing is over!) and lost ~$250. Had a ok few hours last night, booking a small win which was nice seeing as it'll be the last poker I play in a while. New BR updated with +$1200 I've put on stars. Have to deposit in $600 chunks which is kinda annoying, but oh well.

So...I'll update in a while. Adios.

Sngs: 25
total: -34.5
Time(hrs): 13.5
Old Online Bankroll: $3253.5
New Online Bankroll: $4419
Total since 01/03/07: $20295
Total time(hrs): 548.5
Total $/hr: $37