The 7th i am the most gutted about, as got it in with AA v QQ and JJ and came last.....woulda been clear CL and the table was sooo fucking soft......rule for 2012.....Close out more FTs....althought this is Final Table #7 in 11 days....tbf only played 5 sessions in those 11 days lol
Thats a good ratio...
Sorry the blog isnt as content driven as usual....am preparing a decent edition to end the year, including a plan for 2012, life and poker, as well as some interesting shizzle about teh podcast!!
Hope all is well
and Merry bloody new year to you all
Decided to play a big session of around €200 worth of buyins due to lack of runners and HUGE overlays.
Firstly played 3 x €6.60 1 chip sats for the €33 HH winning 2 x seats!!
Then had 2 x final two table appearances.
Final Table of the 27e coming 7th losing flip for CL QQ < AK
And Final Table of the €33 HH, not bad for a €6.60 investment!!
PLus €181 for bounties
Was 2/9 in this but went super card dead and found the players 2 to my left and 2 to my right both chip up whilst i dwindelled.....they applied lots of pressure....i eventually ended up jamming AJ into KK so ho hum
Finished 11th in teh €55 with 8 pd, so missed another Final Table, and another Cash.....good solid session but do need to start closing out mtts please
As some of you readers know my PokerHeaven BR started with €55 Tounry Creds, which i ran up to around €400 (minus a €200 withdrawal) to the start of December. Sadly December started poorly for me, with too many bubbles and mincashes, and no real runs to the top 3 in MTTs....well it all came good this week!!
Firstly i binked teh €55 €2.5k game:
And then tonight managed a 2/177 in teh €11 Deep........
Sadly got it in HU with T6hh v 55 on TT5K8 board :(, which was ghey as i pwned this from 5 handed...
So Bankroll stands at :
Add the €300 withdrawal, ive managed to turn €55 TC (€0 in real money) into €1700........freerolling!!
Have been having some D/C issues with PH tho, so will be withdraing to Money Bookers and getting it on another Boss Skin.......which is a shame as one of my aims fgor 2012 is to get a Sharkscope Star and my Sharkscope atm for PH is looking sexy!!
In other news, i busted the Sunday 10mill with AJhh < A8dd aipf for a 40bb pot with about 1/3rd of feild left...so gone is the 2million dream :(
Firstly to refelct on the 2011 goals, and how they went:
[x] online Final Tables x 15
[x] online MTT wins x 3
[ ] satty into at least 1x UKIPT
[ ] satty into at least 1x CBMPT
[ ] $15k winnings on Stars
[ ] €2k winnings on Boss
[x] Hendon Mob Entry
As you can see was pretty poor, mainly due to volume.
Deffo happy that i managed t get some Hendon Mob entries on the board, and was close to 3 entries in a week when i cashed the GUKPT Goliath and DTD Grand Prix in a week, sadly the 3rd entry was supposed to be in teh APAT Main Event at the WCOAP, but with 5 mins left in day 1b my AKss couldnt beat KJo aipf, or on a Ts 3s 5h flop, to get me into day 2 9 from the money and top 5 in chips :(
Also added a late entry with a team win of the APAT Team Championships, for team GNF, so all was good....
Achieving the Final Tables and wins were ok, when i finally moved over to the IPN Network.
So 2012...what do i want??
I have managed to lock up 43% rb on an IPN skin, so most action will be on there...and after Poker Heaven gave me a free €55 that i have ran up to €450 (and a €200 withdrawal) i will be moving that over to the new skin, for maximum value, and i will have a moneybookers acc open, so if i need to whip the roll out and move it somewhere for deposit bonus' whoring, then i certainly will be!!
Goals are slighlty diff layout but here we go:
1) Earn Rakeback minimum 10/12 months in 2012:
To achieve this, i need to rake 100e and for every 100€ raked i get €43 back, so this is needed!! Average night of MTTs for me earns around €5-€10 rake, and as long as i keep hammering the sats for the Sunday Major on IPN (85€ HH) that equates to 10 nights of MTTs plus the 4x HHs....easy eh....also micro cash can be used to earn the rake!
2) Freeroll to €10k
I started with €55 Tourny Creds and now have circa €400 which will be moved over to the new skin, and aim to have a €10k year....alot to ask, especially as the top prize on IPN is ~ €7k + bounies in the €85 HH, but looking to take advantage of the soft small fields, and hopefully the little and often approach will lend me to this. Wont be too dissappointed if i dont get to the magical €10k mark, but its a good benchmark.
In regards to withdrawals, i will not withdraw until roll is at €2k, and then at the end of each month i will withdraw all € above the €2k mark. If i end a month under €2k, no withdrawl will be made.
3)Top 20 MTT winners on IPN
This will be a dream acheivement ;)
Will also set up a sharkscope setup so i can view all my IPN accs and see how much the software has faired me (some of the skins have losses against them)
4) 3 x Hendon Mob Entries:
After having 3 entries in 2011, i am deffo looking to replicate that achievement in 2012. With the introduction of the Gentings Poker Tour, an affordable £400+30 Main Event, plus £150 and £100 side events, i will be looking to sat into a few of these if possible, as well as at least 1 x UKIPT, 1 x DTD Deepstack and a return to the Vienna Deluxe Challenge.
5) Live
Carried over from above to play
[ ] 1 x UKIPT
[ ] 1 x Gentings Main Event
[ ] 1 x DTD Deepstack
6) Get ITM Poker Podcast recognised
Pretty self explanitory, if u dont know myself and Tom Piccirilli have embarked on a side project of the ITM Poker Podcast, which is on iTunes. It would be a dream to get this off the ground, as a known UK Based Poker Podcast.
Let me know what your goals are this year coming guys, and run well
As i have a week off work i have decided to put some hours of grindage in on IPN and altho im not putting a huge amount of volume in, i can see how tough it is already.
First MTT of the week was good as i came 3rd in a €10 rebuy for €350 but no big scores since then.
Today has been uber frustrating, as i seem to have an issue with my PC, the Net and the Software all not communicating as i got disconnected a total of 8 times today.
Sadly it was all in and around bubbles.
In a €1 rebuy the bubble burst and i was 1/50 but got D/C'd to finish 19th, this also happened in a €6 freezeout where i was 2/10 and came 11th for a small cash.
Even more frustratingly, i was 1/32 in teh €22 2nd Chance and got D/C'd, by the time i got reconnected i was 17/17 with 15 paid, but managed to make the min cash again....losing KQ V Q8 aipf.....grrrrrr
However, i thought all was getting better, 2 hrs with no D/C and 1/75 in the €11 Deepstack i am in prime position for a deserved FT.....however the D/C blues crept back and i finally reconnected finding myself 23/25 with 20pd, and a lowly 6bbs......UTG i have J9ss and jam it in, get called by AK and lose for €0.
So 19 games in:
Total Buyins: €249.30
Total Cashes: €429.62
Profit: €180
So about €9.50 a game
Obviously fancied a better result today, set myself up for decent scores on 4 seperate occasions, but these D/C's are a killer!!!!!
I have uninstalled the software and reinstalled but to no avail.....ran a virus check and sorted all the bits i can think of.
October was a pretty horrific month in regards to online poker. I started off strongly but couldnt seem to turn deep runs into big finishes. Runs like that are always frustrating, but was easy to see the brighter side with 3 weekends away in a row planned.
Firstly we had the PCUK party, and although the day started terribly (car radiator decided to blow), myself and Dan Carter managed to make it to the tourny in level 2. However after losing JJ < 86 on 6T3 flop i was the first out, and left to enjoy the rest of the party festivities. Was a great night all round, especially with Dicemans Alter-Ego "RubberDick" making a guest appearance:
The next weekend adventure was the APAT National Team Event in which i represented Team GNF, and we were hungry for Gold. The last few team events we have been invited to have seen us run deep and fall short of the titles, mainly due to sick bad run in the later stages.
Non Apat 2010 - 2nd - AA < KK and set of 6s into a set of Ks took the title away
Apat 2010 - 3rd - AA < AK < KJ aipf to cement 1st
So we were definatly hungry for the Gold this time.
Personally it was a tough tourny for me, 10k starting stack and 45min blinds, and i found myself down to 2k after level 1. Within the first level i folded 2 x sets and 2 x flushes on river, when confident i was behind, and each time right. That gives you a boost, but my stack gave me little room to move. :(
Managed to grind back to 8k, and then won a flip with 99 > AJo aipf and started to go on a tear.
As top 50 players score points for your team, with ~100 left and on half average stack, i knew i needed to make a push to get a comfortable stack for the points bubble.
An aggro player raises his button, after a few limpers, for the 5/6th time in the orbit, and i look down with my 16bbs (in bb) at QTss and shove it in. He beats me into the pot with two black Aces and im on the rail. :( Timing is everything!!!
All is not lost tho, as we have 3 players through to Day 2, including Captain Swinebag (Rob Swindells) who has a commanding Chiplead. Determined that we are gonna win the event, i keep the 3 guys left in in the know of points situation etc, and......................................we ship it!!!!! As a bonus both Phil and Swine make the FT and we celebrate a well earned victory!!! At last!!!
Sadly the Team Trophy seemed to have been stolen, and there were no individual medals, so for now ill just show you the Champs, and give a virtual medal for you all to gaze at!!!
Back Row (L-R) John "Smeigle" Georgiou, Andy "Cayton" Walker, Rod "The God" Buckman, Phil "Firephil" Laws. Front Row (L-R) Ben "Waltypies" Walton, Rob "Swinebag" Swindells, Iain "JJJ" Wilson, Dann "S4ooter" Williams.
Next stop for my Poker Travels was the Montesino Card Room, in Austria. WOW, what a cardroom it is. 15 + cash tables running 24hrs a day, and Boss Medias "Vienna Deluxe" was taking place. I had sattied in for €55 and had won Rod some €€€ via a staking deal so we decided to make the trek over.
This weekend shall be split into 2 sections.
Poker.
The poker went pretty terribly for me, both in the tournies and on the cash tables. The first night i played some 1/2 with rod and lost a €250 pot with J9cc v 76o on a 4c5c2h flop. The guy was a aggro-tard and felt he was priced into call, in a spot where he certainly wasnt.
The Main Event, started really well as i chipped up to ~30k from 20k starting stack, but i found myself card dead on an all action table. Sadly my hero call KO'd me when, in a 3bet pot, i called an overbet bluff with top pair top kicker against the table CL and really aggro player. My A8cc on a 8d 5d 3h board was no match for his Ah9d when he hit runner runner flush, for a 100bb late on in day 1. Still, im happy with the way i played, and would rather get it in 75% fav, than in a flip in a spot like that. C'est la vie
Also played the €35 side event, and busted early with AJ v TT v 88 v 77....board ran out AKQTQ lol...all the monies went in pre!!!
Rod, however, did FT the side event only to see his AQ < AJ aipf, when the flop came JJx.....sick
The standard at this event was GOD AWFUL, and am already looking forward to a repeat journey!!
Media:
This, however, was very good for me and the Podcast. Myself and Rod were interviewed numerous times for the Poker Channel (sky 166) and i have made some contacts for future ventures, even if it meant i had to get hustled by Laura Cornelius (Pokernews/Poker channel presenter) at Table Tennis (2-0) Brutal!!!
Also met two Poker Heaven VIPs from the Czech Rep, Luu and Jacob. Great lads, and we found out on 2nd night they were in our hotel too!! That night Jacob managed to chunder if the lift in the hotel but we magaed to get them donning poker.co.uk badges instead of Poker Heaven lol
Dann, Luu aka Ping Pong, Rod, Jacob
Myself and Tom will be recording a double episode in the next week covering his adventures at EPT London, as well as my Vienna Trip.
In regards to the podcast, the site is looking at a revamp very soon as we have lots of stuff to get up there, and hopefully that will make it more user friendly.
Whilst in Vienna, i met Poker Heavens VIP Manager, Toby, how convinced me to enter a freeroll Bingo draw to win some Tournament Credits for rival skin Poker Heaven and i won €55!! Ship it!!!!
I used them tonight........wonder how i did.......
Good ROI on Poker Heaven. €0 deposited, €725.40 on there! BOOM
Thats all for now, ill just leave you with Rods reading material in Vienna!
I have a crazy busy month, which is epic, which involves parties, poker and poker...cant be bad!!
Last Weekend i ventured to Sunny Weston Super Mare, with the better half (catch her blog at Laurens Blog, or her twitter at Laurens Twitter) for her friends 23rd birthday party, It was a "Glee" theme, so i just dusted out clothes from my own wardrobe and was labelled as "Puck", but it was cool to meet some of her friends from home, and have a weekend away from the drab life in Tewkesbury....
As you can see, i dont think she is too impressed with my Vocal performance!!!!
We have also released another Episode of our In The Muck Poker Podcast, and it seems to be going well. You can follow us on twitter and we hope to grow our followers as much as we can. So lets get the Social Media on teh go, as without your thoughts, we cannot grow to please our viewers.
Next Weekend, i will be off to Bristol for the Oxjam Poker/Live Music Festival, this should be an awesome day as not only will i get an afternoon of Poker, with old friends, but there are lots of free music AND its for CHARITY!! Get involved here
As if thats not action packed enough, we (as Team GNF) are off to the APAT UK Team Championships in Luton, to try and turn our 3rd place last year into a 1st and some shiney Gold Medals!!! Cant wait for another w/e away playin poker, so all will be very good there, and hope we can TID.
AND FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Myself and Rod "The God" Buckman (see above) are flying to Vienna for the Vienna Deluxe Challenge, which i qualified for on PCUK.
We are flying out Friday, and back Monday and the event boasts 2 Day 1s and a GTD Prizepool of €75k, so would imagine ~ €15k up top.....Ship me the €€€€€€€
Well thats all for now as im off to follow my ITMPoker co-presenter Tom Piccirilli as he is at the Final Table of the EPT London £300 side event, 9 left and 12k up top.........this guy has had a sick 6 months and is a great player and deserves a title, even if its a side event!!!
Well 3 x Final Tables, but frustratingly couldnt manage greater than 9th, which is pretty vile. On a scale of 1-10, its a 9.5 of pure vileness. Especially when its KK < AJ aipf, and 99 < T9 aipf for big stacks......bit of a fucker really and meant i was down for the night, but very close to a HUGE profitable night.
Final Table of €16 Deepstack
Final Table of the €11 Deepstack
Final Table of €10 Rebuy
Suppose its lucky that i have won myself a free Holiday to Vienna, not bad, considering ive not been abroad for 7 years!!! Time to route out my passport!!!
Holiday!!!! Celebrate!!!!!
The MTT is a €75k Gtd game in Vienna, its only a €225 buyin, so standard will be shocking no doubt, but within package is the seat, €300 for flights and Accom, plus €50 to spend on casino tables, plus some goodies i believe!
Every poker player thinks they run worse than everyone else. I have been foul of that before.....but now i appriciate it so much more....and HEM can actually show me too....like it is rubbing it in my face, like a bully in the school playground!
BASTARD!!!
Ive been keeping a record of exit hands on Boss the last few days and puke is coming up again!!!
I have won 0/9 flips when all in
I have won 0/4 Pair vs 1 over when all in
I have won 0/2 times all in with AA as well ( v 94o for CL of a 10e rebuy and vs KK on Q96 flop)
I have made a video
I am still cryin
At least i had a 2nd in teh 11e deepstack the day before!!!!!!!
Myself and Tom Piccirilli have started our new project, the "In The Muck Poker Podcast" and at present have recorded the pilot and 1st Episode, both of which are available in iTunes. We are very lucky to be able to do this, and i hope it can build into a UK Poker stalwart.
I really hope you guys like the podcast, and we are looking to build and expand episode to episode, take the time to have a look, its worth it ;)
Live Poker:
I also took a week off work to trek around the Midlands to play in a few Live Events, and managed to get my first ever Hendon Mob entries, which is cool as i dont play live events a great deal!!
As well as the above i almost had a 3rd Hendon Mob entry in a row, when i finished 53rd in Day 1b of the APAT WCOAP Main Event, losing with AKss v KJo aipf......a Ts 6s 5h flop saw me 95% favourite with 2 cards to come, but a red Jack on the turn and a blank river meant i didnt have a top 10 stack to go into Day 2 with, instead i was on the way home.
Online Poker:
Been putting in the MTT volume on BOSS, using the skins of Poker.co.uk and Dusk Til Dawn with great success.....including Final Tables in the last few weeks:
Came 1/65 in the €60 DTD Grand Prix Day 1.....my good friend Fez also came 2nd, meaning we are both off to day 2 of thr €250k g Grand Prix
WOOP WOOP!!!!
And like buses another win falls straight in your lap!!
Also won the 11€ Deepstack on Boss for €503.
Found myself 11/11 approaching the final table but waking up with KK when opp had QQ twice helped me get a stack and once it was 5 handed i ran the table. Only real set back was 99 < 88 when board ran out 8xx98 lol, but once HU i was laughing. Had a 3/2 CL and managed to get it all in pre with TT v A4 and hold!!
This is the type of form i am looking for heading into the C Gasino Goliath, APAT HU National Champs and now Day 2 of the DTD Grand Prix, with € locked up and my first Hendon Mob page (of many more to come i hope!)
So finished another small 25 game session, and have learnt a few things.....
1) Im shit at Volume
2) Variance is a killer atm.
3) There are some river spots that i seem to spew like this one......
Seat 1: s4ooter (1453 in chips)
Seat 2: Zeroberto84 (1547 in chips)
Zeroberto84: posts small blind 25
s4ooter: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to s4ooter [3s 3h]
Zeroberto84: raises 50 to 100
s4ooter: raises 150 to 250
Zeroberto84: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [6d Ah 9h]
s4ooter: checks
Zeroberto84: checks
*** TURN *** [6d Ah 9h] [Qd]
s4ooter: checks
Zeroberto84: checks
*** RIVER *** [6d Ah 9h Qd] [3d]
s4ooter: bets 395
Zeroberto84: raises 902 to 1297 and is all-in
s4ooter: calls 808 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (94) returned to Zeroberto84
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Zeroberto84: shows [4d Kd] (a flush, King high)
s4ooter: shows [3s 3h] (three of a kind, Threes)
Zeroberto84 collected 2906 from pot
s4ooter finished the tournament in 2nd place
Zeroberto84 wins the tournament and receives $13.42 - congratulations!
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2906 | Rake 0
Board [6d Ah 9h Qd 3d]
Seat 1: s4ooter (big blind) showed [3s 3h] and lost with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 2: Zeroberto84 (button) (small blind) showed [4d Kd] and won (2906) with a flush, King high
I suppose when he sets me all in on the river i should fold, but at teh $15's they do that with bottom 2 pair!!
Im cashing exactly 50% so only down in rake for the first 100 games, so hopefully winning a flip occasionally ( i lost something crazy like 12/13 on the trot at beginning of session today) Profitsville will be in sight.
Also stumbled across this thread on 2+2 which is now my bible: All the HUSNG Knowledge you could ever want. As well as using all of this resource (i may print it and make a bible!) i have also downloaded some ush fold charts, so i can tighten (or loosen up ) my ENDGAME, as i feel i am missing some +EV spots when the blinds get big, that over 1k games a month could kill my ROI
Have decided to up my BR limits, and play more $7's for the time being and hopefully shall increase my profit
Also looked into PCUK as a new place to play these.....i mean Stars is great, and FPPs are fun but a Euro site, with 30% Rakeback, and 3x weekly tourneys with good prizes to use the PCUK FPPs in, seem like super added value for a HU Grinder......the rake is higher on these tho, the €5 games have .25c rake (but i would only need to play 400 games to earn €30 rb + additional benefits)
Stats for the month:
Played : 50
ROI: -4.1%
Winnings: -$27.94
VPPs Earnt - 155.57
FPPs Earnt - 233.36
Total FPP's - 2834.28
Also am Over half way to GoldStar and ~300-350 games will give me Platinum (depending on the stakes i stay at)
Had a pool match this evening so could only fit in 2 hrs which was less than wanted. Also found with this new 90% discount on VIP status' that cash games were buzzing and the traffic on the HU Turbo's was slightly lower than usual, so i did jump into a few $7 games to keep traffic.
Quite happy with a good start to the month, albeit not with Volume.
Im 4226VPPs away from another $50 Stellar reward, this works out at 1257games @ 15's so should have that cleared too by first week in September....Any bonus' i buy will be added to graph accordingly
Graphy Poo's
NO EV LINE = NO TILT
With the new set up on VIP Status', i should be able to make Platinum Star by end of month quite comfortably meaning i will get a juicy 2.5fpps per vpp earnt, instead of 1.5fpps.
Looks like i can spend lots of FPPs in the sale in the shop too. Ive never had more than about 2500 fpps at any one time as i always use them for sats etc (good way to boost the roll) so would be nice to horde some for goodies in the shop (everyone in my family will be getting Stars Merchandise for Xmas!)
Anyway, for those that are reading this....this is for you
A friend of mine had his first Amateur MMA fight today at the Trojan Gym in Cheltenham. Awesome performance, dont know if many fighters win there debut with a Triangle!! Sick Performace!!
Started off pretty badly, and couldnt find my way back. No matter what i did.
TBH my EV is pissing me off as it should be alot higher (bit i did tilt a little....) However the Gap from EV Line and Actual P/L is horrific and makes me feel very sad......
As the "challenge" starts tomorrow there is good and bad news...........
The good news is i get to start a fresh, shiny new graph with this horrendous image gone!
The bad news is the roll took such a hit im either gonna have to a)mix in some $7s or b)Use fpps to try and get some TD$s from WarmUp/Mill sats.....
Just hope my EV line and Actual line are not $200 apart this soon again (well unless the actual line is higher than EV) ;)
