Don't often bet on horses, but a colleague has a son that works at a local yard and said of Shaakis in the 5pm at Goodwood today 'It will win'.
And I'm a degen, with a user name that isn't that far removed from the name of the horse, so obviously I had a tenner e/w last night before bedtime. Was 12s then, now 11/2 - 6s so a few more people must have spoken to similar people. Fingers crossed...
Decided to give tournaments a bash yesterday, which I still suck at by and large, so was mostly micro games only:
2.20 rebuy (c. 7pm) = (£4.40) late regged and never even made it to add-on stage - not a great start
Orfordable deepstack = (£3.30) obv a pretty decent standard, got a lucky double up early on from a limped pot where I hit second nut flush, then just struggled to ever get a spot and limped out around 45th
UKPC freeroll = £0 - no luck in my flips and didn't come to much
BH = (£5.75) always surprised by the play in this level buy in, didn't mean I got anywhere though
freebuy = 2nd for +£12.80 - first time I've ever played this... what an utterly bonkers format! Unlike above, I went through a period in the first 15 mins of running like God, decent pre-flop hands and winning multiple 5-way all ins. I had about 650BB by the time it got to normal play. I'm sure there must be money to be made if you can get 40+ BB post rebuy session here, the winner was solid but otherwise lots of people donked themselves out.
deepstack = (£1.10) - got to about 5 off the money in good shape, took a bad beat, stumbled on, didn't make it to the cash. always a fun structure though.
£5.50 timed = +£1.94 I really need to bite the bullet and get an hour of info from a good tourni player - these are beatable and I could do way much better than I do.
8.50 BH = (£1.55) easy bounty early doors but then kept running into hands. my timing was dreadful.
8.05 BH = 3rd for +£36.64 improved for the night, one pot where I got 2 big heads had me with about 1/3 chips in play with 12 left. Bit sigh to not win as I thought I was actually solid at the FT. Alas when a shortie shoved and the 2nd place shoved over, I found QQ in the BB and donked off. Both oppos had Ax so not a bad spot, but the A left me crippled and could never quite fight back.
So a tiny improvement to my sharkscope. Disappointingly I get no credit for the freebuy, which is evidently not seen to be a 'proper' tournament. A bit of a buffer built up now though for if I ever go spewy in a bigger BI game.
Shows what great fun you can have on SkyPoker for a very limited outlay. Even if I bricked it all I was only £26 or so down and played from 7pm till around midnight.
Only downer - there did look to be lots of decent cash games running at the micros. Nearly joined a few but was pretty whacked after 5 hours online. Next time though...
So with the good (or lucky lol) and bad in the BH, the ugly came towards the end of the cash session. This is one area that I always run poorly - a maniac sits at the table, I (probably) play too tight, eventually play a hand with them, lose, then watch them spew their stack to another reg before insta-standing. Probably need to work on what ranges I go to war with against them / how I go to war. Obv this one is just bad luck, but when maniac is opening 9x, and 2x pot or all in on any flop, perhaps I need a range of 3b shove hands to go with and just let variance take me for a rollercoaster ride? Player Action Cards Amount Pot Balance andybeth Small blind £0.05 £0.05 £19.34 xxxxx Big blind £0.10 £0.15 £5.14 Your hole cards Q Q shakinaces Raise £0.40 £0.55 £14.24 horacewimp Fold VINEY73 Fold andybeth Fold xxxxx All-in £5.14 £5.69 £0.00 shakinaces Call £4.84 £10.53 £9.40 xxxxx Show J 9 shakinaces Show Q Q Flop 3 7 9 Turn 10 River 9 xxxxx Win Three 9s £9.74 £9.74 Posted by shakinaces
This is all to familiar for me. Seem to lose 90% of these.
Awesomely I managed to slice open my hand on a rusty nail Sunday lunchtime... nothing much to moan about* but it did sort of distract me when I played poker as it hurt like crazy whenever I rested it between mouse clicks and that, plus being tired, meant I probably shouldn't have played at all.
Quality of my play -2 (some frankly terrible 'station-y' spots and 'no plan' hands) Variance +2(I deserved to be more down, but hit runner-runner straight to bust a flopped set and held when someone 3-bet shoved QQ into my aces) Focus -3 (abysmal, like a kid with ADHD trying to complete their maths homework) Tilt control -1 (no insane monkey tilt, but the above factors made me tilt myself before I quit)
So top of the list of learning points - don't even start playing when tired and not focussed. Bring the TV back down from the loft and watch some old movies or something instead.
Others:
Stop calling 3 bets in position without a plan Play a few more hands vs randoms before 3b bluffs from the button (and then know which to avoid bluffing!) Bet less (ie know where you are too strong / where someone is more likely to pay if you let them bet)
And for tournaments - work out 3b shove ranges. I get from the 40bb, play a bit of poker stage to 12bb shove/fold often with no play in between, too scared to do much other than play monsters / min-raise to steal blinds. I'm never going to build a respectable sharkscope graph until I improve my mid-stack ability. Plus would almost certainly make me an unexploitable cap game / timed tourni player at the same time.
* over the course of the last 24 hours the red patch emanating from the nail-hole has now grown about a quarter way down my arm. How quickly does one know when such an injury might have become a tetanus risk?
Brutal start to yesterday, was about £40 down within 10-15 mins of sitting down. Most memorable hands being AK vs KT on a K7T73 board and AA vs J7o and 84s on a 77472 board.
I don't think I was doing huge amounts wrong during that first session, just seemed everyone always had it / got there.
Thankfully kept the head and had it turned around - nearly a profitable session bar a late stack lost with AQ on a 9TJ - 9 - K flop vs JJ. Their check on the turn suckered me in to thinking I was probably good when I hit my card on the river. Ah well.
Quality of my play +2 (was happy how many sneaky value bets I got in and saw hands exactly in the range I'd estimated) Variance -1 (grim early doors, helped out to hit a nut flush vs low suited connectors and river a FH that got called down by an Ace - my bluffy reputation, entirely undeserved, occasionally works in my favour) Focus +2 (was in the zone for a good couple of hours after the initial maelstrom... maybe the gym work is finally showing some benefit) Tilt control +2 (Would often walk away after the start, but was certain I'd get the money back if I kept my head)
All in all, frustrating to not sneak a small win, but happy that I played one of the best sessions of cash for a few weeks.
No play today as it's brother-in-laws birthday meal, after gym. Shame I miss most of the HU games on ch861, hopefully back to see a bit of the final games.
Then a bit of last minute revision of micro tourni play and cross fingers I can top-50 the Poker Play game tomorrow eve...
Always disappointing to find out you *thought* you had over a +3 BI session, but turns out poker rewards were paid and actually you only had a bit over +1 lol... moving in the right direction though after the standard down-then-up session
Birthday stuff ended early so was home watching Sky Poker Cup and couldn't help myself but play a few tables.
In the main I thought my value betting was starting to improve... maybe this board didn't warrant trying to eek out any more value though... although the actual winning hand wasn't in the range I was thinking of, there are lots of two pair hands as well as KQ. Obv I fold if I'm c/r on the river. I hope.
Too optimistic to try and get a bit more from hands like AJ/KJ/QJ, AT/KT/QT, 98 and stubborn PP 66-88?
Bricked PPT freeroll. Spot dead, didn't see a face card for first 3 levels, 3b odds and sods like 86s to keep head above water. Then shoved about 11bb JJ < AK gg me. Ah well, will just have to FT the £5 round 4 event!
Added the 8.05 and 8.50 BH games with aim of multi-tabling tournis, didn't run much better. Exited both of those with JJ as well lol, no bounties. To be fair I played garbage in the 8.50, had lost interest in tournis and was concentrating on cash by then.
T5o got me again at cash (sigh), but then I suppose that's fair punishment for thinking 64s was a good hand to raise limpers on the button (456Tx rainbow board looked so innoccuous lol). Other than that my />20 BB wins vastly outweigh the < 20BB wins so a good night all in all.
Quality of my play -2/+2 (tourni / cash) Variance -1 / +2 (tourni, I hate JJ / cash a couple of grim spots outweighed by a few spots villain was barely behind but had to pay off) Focus -2 / +2 (at one point I was simultaneously -3 at tourni and +3 at cash lol... maybe shouldn't mix) Tilt control +2 (no issues here either side, but then no particular bad beats either, just flips)
And wtf is going on in the world of football in the run up to the start of the season.
Sell the best 2 young prospects in the squad for what most fans think is peanuts, allegedly without letting the manager know, all because you 'have to comply with financial fair play' (which is a poorly applied concept imo, but a totally different point).
Then go out and splash ALL the money you just got from the transfers within 48 hours, breaking your transfer record in the process.
Forest will either storm the Championship or utterly self-implode this season. I guess either way it's going to be exciting!! May break the habit of a lifetime and actually have a cheeky ante post punt on us winning the title / Assombalonga for top scorer...
Oh yeah. And wtf is going on in the world of football in the run up to the start of the season. Sell the best 2 young prospects in the squad for what most fans think is peanuts, allegedly without letting the manager know, all because you 'have to comply with financial fair play' (which is a poorly applied concept imo, but a totally different point). Then go out and splash ALL the money you just got from the transfers within 48 hours, breaking your transfer record in the process. Forest will either storm the Championship or utterly self-implode this season. I guess either way it's going to be exciting!! May break the habit of a lifetime and actually have a cheeky ante post punt on us winning the title / Assombalonga for top scorer... Posted by shakinaces
Oh yeah. And wtf is going on in the world of football in the run up to the start of the season. Sell the best 2 young prospects in the squad for what most fans think is peanuts, allegedly without letting the manager know, all because you 'have to comply with financial fair play' (which is a poorly applied concept imo, but a totally different point). Then go out and splash ALL the money you just got from the transfers within 48 hours, breaking your transfer record in the process. Forest will either storm the Championship or utterly self-implode this season. I guess either way it's going to be exciting!! May break the habit of a lifetime and actually have a cheeky ante post punt on us winning the title / Assombalonga for top scorer... Posted by shakinaces
Biggest load of bo111ocks to ever grace the greatest game in the world.
Lots of coolers last night, you know it's bad when a reg spots that and starts trying to tilt you lol. Quite happy to only end up 50p or so down at cash given some of the hands that I was involved in. It's hard to really get tilted from hands like top set vs flopped straight on a 568 rainbow flop, we've both played the hand right and it just means I miss out this time.
Given that I love playing 97 in position, I must have reversed that spot plenty of times and just forgotten about it lol
The venture into donkament land was more fun. GII wAQs for about 14bb pre and get cold called by T7o.
Flop T77.
With psychic powers like that, someone needs to be buying lotto tickets this weekend!
Footynearly here again... can't wait for things to get going again. Disappointed I can't afford the trip north to watch Forest dodge defeat against Blackpool. 1st day of the season is always so good, every fan in the country can harbour some degree of positive expectation while they are joint top of the table. Except maybe Swindon fans. They much prefer year-round pessimism.
Looked at the odds this morning. Genuinely surprised that Derby are priced up as favourites. I hope they will be there or thereabouts, albeit behind Forest, but that does seem an odd choice by the bookies.
I didn't see the UTG raise and thought I had clicked the 'check/fold' option as I went to focus on a table where I actually had a hand... turned out it was 'call any' I selected.
Somewhat confused when this table came back into focus and I found myself out of position with rags and 10bb in the middle.
Subsequently did my bit to convince another rec that poker is rigged and things are set up for big hands to go busto.
Cheers Ten, look forward to a bit of abuse from my new team members when I'm donking about in the DTDs!
I seem to have become more of a lightweight as I get older. Saturday was a slow day after 'a few quiet beers' became 'drinking tumblers of whisky till 4am' on Friday night.
I did play a few hands after listening to an excellent opening day's football, but after losing nearly two BI including one where I bizarrely thought it was a good idea to barrel off against the biggest NL10 nit on the site, I realised it was time to 'book the loss' and return to the sofa and watch mindless violence on the TV.
Earned most of it back from a few little sessions on Sunday, but more side-tracked by playing/watching footy and needlessly speeding around town in a demo car.
First world problems are ace. Tough life having to use my (very limited) driving ability to work out which one will be the new company car. For the record, the M-sport 1-series is an utter beast. I will definitely lose my license if I pick that.
So I will almost certainly pick it.
Might be a bit of a ball-ache having to cycle around the country for work over the next few years though...
DTD and PPT games after gym tonight. Hope I find secure some good luckboxing.
Only played twice since last update. DTD for one minor cash and just missed out on PPT top 50 after getting in with AK vs AK vs KK... doh!
Yesterday I played a bit of 2 x NL20 and generally scrapped and battled to some small profits, but came undone in one hand against a super loose player... allegedly plays at higher levels... seemed to own everyone at the table, frequently lol
He'd c/r a LOT of river cards, too many to have always had it, but I think a lot of players were iso raising him fairly wide pre (given he was limp calling to see almost all flops) and therefore were rarely super strong themselves when the river c/r hit.
I did call in this spot once and he flicked over a busted straight draw, which was what was forefront in my mind when I made (what I see now) was a very fishy call. Plus I should have bet bigger on other streets. @rse.
Comments
Awesomely I managed to slice open my hand on a rusty nail Sunday lunchtime... nothing much to moan about* but it did sort of distract me when I played poker as it hurt like crazy whenever I rested it between mouse clicks and that, plus being tired, meant I probably shouldn't have played at all.
Quality of my play -2 (some frankly terrible 'station-y' spots and 'no plan' hands)
Variance +2(I deserved to be more down, but hit runner-runner straight to bust a flopped set and held when someone 3-bet shoved QQ into my aces)
Focus -3 (abysmal, like a kid with ADHD trying to complete their maths homework)
Tilt control -1 (no insane monkey tilt, but the above factors made me tilt myself before I quit)
So top of the list of learning points - don't even start playing when tired and not focussed. Bring the TV back down from the loft and watch some old movies or something instead.
Others:
Stop calling 3 bets in position without a plan
Play a few more hands vs randoms before 3b bluffs from the button (and then know which to avoid bluffing!)
Bet less (ie know where you are too strong / where someone is more likely to pay if you let them bet)
And for tournaments - work out 3b shove ranges. I get from the 40bb, play a bit of poker stage to 12bb shove/fold often with no play in between, too scared to do much other than play monsters / min-raise to steal blinds. I'm never going to build a respectable sharkscope graph until I improve my mid-stack ability. Plus would almost certainly make me an unexploitable cap game / timed tourni player at the same time.
* over the course of the last 24 hours the red patch emanating from the nail-hole has now grown about a quarter way down my arm. How quickly does one know when such an injury might have become a tetanus risk?
Brutal start to yesterday, was about £40 down within 10-15 mins of sitting down. Most memorable hands being AK vs KT on a K7T73 board and AA vs J7o and 84s on a 77472 board.
I don't think I was doing huge amounts wrong during that first session, just seemed everyone always had it / got there.
Thankfully kept the head and had it turned around - nearly a profitable session bar a late stack lost with AQ on a 9TJ - 9 - K flop vs JJ. Their check on the turn suckered me in to thinking I was probably good when I hit my card on the river. Ah well.
Quality of my play +2 (was happy how many sneaky value bets I got in and saw hands exactly in the range I'd estimated)
Variance -1 (grim early doors, helped out to hit a nut flush vs low suited connectors and river a FH that got called down by an Ace - my bluffy reputation, entirely undeserved, occasionally works in my favour)
Focus +2 (was in the zone for a good couple of hours after the initial maelstrom... maybe the gym work is finally showing some benefit)
Tilt control +2 (Would often walk away after the start, but was certain I'd get the money back if I kept my head)
All in all, frustrating to not sneak a small win, but happy that I played one of the best sessions of cash for a few weeks.
No play today as it's brother-in-laws birthday meal, after gym. Shame I miss most of the HU games on ch861, hopefully back to see a bit of the final games.
Then a bit of last minute revision of micro tourni play and cross fingers I can top-50 the Poker Play game tomorrow eve...
Always disappointing to find out you *thought* you had over a +3 BI session, but turns out poker rewards were paid and actually you only had a bit over +1 lol... moving in the right direction though after the standard down-then-up session
Birthday stuff ended early so was home watching Sky Poker Cup and couldn't help myself but play a few tables.
In the main I thought my value betting was starting to improve... maybe this board didn't warrant trying to eek out any more value though... although the actual winning hand wasn't in the range I was thinking of, there are lots of two pair hands as well as KQ. Obv I fold if I'm c/r on the river. I hope.
Too optimistic to try and get a bit more from hands like AJ/KJ/QJ, AT/KT/QT, 98 and stubborn PP 66-88?
Bricked PPT freeroll. Spot dead, didn't see a face card for first 3 levels, 3b odds and sods like 86s to keep head above water. Then shoved about 11bb JJ < AK gg me. Ah well, will just have to FT the £5 round 4 event!
Added the 8.05 and 8.50 BH games with aim of multi-tabling tournis, didn't run much better. Exited both of those with JJ as well lol, no bounties. To be fair I played garbage in the 8.50, had lost interest in tournis and was concentrating on cash by then.
T5o got me again at cash (sigh), but then I suppose that's fair punishment for thinking 64s was a good hand to raise limpers on the button (456Tx rainbow board looked so innoccuous lol). Other than that my />20 BB wins vastly outweigh the < 20BB wins so a good night all in all.
Quality of my play -2/+2 (tourni / cash)
Variance -1 / +2 (tourni, I hate JJ / cash a couple of grim spots outweighed by a few spots villain was barely behind but had to pay off)
Focus -2 / +2 (at one point I was simultaneously -3 at tourni and +3 at cash lol... maybe shouldn't mix)
Tilt control +2 (no issues here either side, but then no particular bad beats either, just flips)
Poor call / sigh fold.
Raise bigger pre.I was obviously beat, 4/1 on my money was just too tempting...
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceshakinaces Small blind £0.05 £0.05 £21.62 supercrazy Big blind £0.10 £0.15 £23.25 Kerbra70 Big blind £0.10 £0.25 £4.90 Your hole cards K A Kerbra70 Check villainRaise £0.30 £0.55 £7.49 shakinaces Raise £0.95 £1.50 £20.67 supercrazy Fold Kerbra70 Fold villainCall £0.70 £2.20 £6.79 Flop A 10 8 shakinaces Bet £1.20 £3.40 £19.47 villainCall £1.20 £4.60 £5.59 Turn 5 shakinaces Bet £2.40 £7.00 £17.07 villainCall £2.40 £9.40 £3.19 River J shakinaces Check villainAll-in £3.19 £12.59 £0.00 shakinaces Call £3.19 £15.78 £13.88 shakinaces Show K A villainShow 9 Q villainWin Straight to the Queen £14.59 £14.59
Don't call 3 bets to set mine vs short stacks.
Bet bigger flop.
Master of my own downfall.
Ps - this is the only time I have ever and will ever do this. I'm a 100% nit and fold pre every other time. Honest. You can trust me.
And wtf is going on in the world of football in the run up to the start of the season.
Sell the best 2 young prospects in the squad for what most fans think is peanuts, allegedly without letting the manager know, all because you 'have to comply with financial fair play' (which is a poorly applied concept imo, but a totally different point).
Then go out and splash ALL the money you just got from the transfers within 48 hours, breaking your transfer record in the process.
Forest will either storm the Championship or utterly self-implode this season. I guess either way it's going to be exciting!! May break the habit of a lifetime and actually have a cheeky ante post punt on us winning the title / Assombalonga for top scorer...
Lots of coolers last night, you know it's bad when a reg spots that and starts trying to tilt you lol. Quite happy to only end up 50p or so down at cash given some of the hands that I was involved in. It's hard to really get tilted from hands like top set vs flopped straight on a 568 rainbow flop, we've both played the hand right and it just means I miss out this time.
Given that I love playing 97 in position, I must have reversed that spot plenty of times and just forgotten about it lol
The venture into donkament land was more fun. GII wAQs for about 14bb pre and get cold called by T7o.
Flop T77.
With psychic powers like that, someone needs to be buying lotto tickets this weekend!
Footy nearly here again... can't wait for things to get going again. Disappointed I can't afford the trip north to watch Forest dodge defeat against Blackpool. 1st day of the season is always so good, every fan in the country can harbour some degree of positive expectation while they are joint top of the table. Except maybe Swindon fans. They much prefer year-round pessimism.
Looked at the odds this morning. Genuinely surprised that Derby are priced up as favourites. I hope they will be there or thereabouts, albeit behind Forest, but that does seem an odd choice by the bookies.
Still, what do I know.
I didn't see the UTG raise and thought I had clicked the 'check/fold' option as I went to focus on a table where I actually had a hand... turned out it was 'call any' I selected.
Somewhat confused when this table came back into focus and I found myself out of position with rags and 10bb in the middle.
Subsequently did my bit to convince another rec that poker is rigged and things are set up for big hands to go busto.
Oh well, never mind.
I seem to have become more of a lightweight as I get older. Saturday was a slow day after 'a few quiet beers' became 'drinking tumblers of whisky till 4am' on Friday night.
I did play a few hands after listening to an excellent opening day's football, but after losing nearly two BI including one where I bizarrely thought it was a good idea to barrel off against the biggest NL10 nit on the site, I realised it was time to 'book the loss' and return to the sofa and watch mindless violence on the TV.
Earned most of it back from a few little sessions on Sunday, but more side-tracked by playing/watching footy and needlessly speeding around town in a demo car.
First world problems are ace. Tough life having to use my (very limited) driving ability to work out which one will be the new company car. For the record, the M-sport 1-series is an utter beast. I will definitely lose my license if I pick that.
So I will almost certainly pick it.
Might be a bit of a ball-ache having to cycle around the country for work over the next few years though...
DTD and PPT games after gym tonight. Hope I find secure some good luckboxing.
Only played twice since last update. DTD for one minor cash and just missed out on PPT top 50 after getting in with AK vs AK vs KK... doh!
Yesterday I played a bit of 2 x NL20 and generally scrapped and battled to some small profits, but came undone in one hand against a super loose player... allegedly plays at higher levels... seemed to own everyone at the table, frequently lol
He'd c/r a LOT of river cards, too many to have always had it, but I think a lot of players were iso raising him fairly wide pre (given he was limp calling to see almost all flops) and therefore were rarely super strong themselves when the river c/r hit.
I did call in this spot once and he flicked over a busted straight draw, which was what was forefront in my mind when I made (what I see now) was a very fishy call. Plus I should have bet bigger on other streets. @rse.