Not much I can really add to be honest, banged in nearly £50 yesterday, dumped about £80 today but recovered to just over minus £30.
The amount of beats today was nuts, couldn't really have played that much better over the session as a whole, but nothing much you can do when the poker gods decide it aint your day!
Footy
Had two on the games today, £5 Draw / Mexico @ 9/2 and £5 Chile / Chile @ 2.34. I figure Spain for the other game but don't see anything worth my money as it's conceivable Netherlands could blag a draw.
Love the stats, that's 11 of Mexico's last 17 games which have been 0-0 at half time. Chile are fast starters and been ahead at half time in all but one of their last 10 wins so 2.34 looks good value vs 1/2 to win.
Mexico and Cameroon looked pretty garbage in the main, hopefully Croatia should find it easy pickings in their next two games.
Poker £922.53 - only played a very small amount yesterday.
Footy - no bets yesterday although disappointed I didn't pull the trigger on Ivory Coast while they were 1-0 down... although that was mostly down to being a little worse for wear and being incapable of using a smart phone... unlucky England but very much game on still, still think Uruguay are there for the taking and could be in control of our own fate by the final game.
Honduras don't look a bad team but think France have the defence to handle them so £7.50 at Evns on France win to nil - only bad sign is that it's one of Jamie Redknapp's Red Hot Tips so probably been jinxed lol.
£2.50 @ 3s for the Draw/France result and hope that Honduras can be as frustrating to break down as they were vs England. Lack of Ribery may make that more likely... fingers crossed for Pogba being the man to break the deadlock, 10s is tempting but will hold fire given my tourni bet on him.
May have a punt on Arg v Bos game later if I'm not forced to admit defeat and sleep / if I get the bug and log on for a bit of poker... disappointed if I'm wiped out by then as it shapes to be one of the better group stage games.
Poker £911.57 - started awesomely yesterday, tried to hero call what I figured to be a bluff at someone hitting a gut shot, where they had position and either had 66 (which they did) or any combo of overcards / big pair that they knew was going to lose a big pot... then set of jacks downed by a set of aces for almost £25 at a MC table.
As soon as I make a slight moan about never hitting sets I can't stop hitting them, but constantly done for by a higher set lol... so no more moaning, I'm happy to go a while without my pairs hitting sets
This is one of the particularly harsh ones... could at least have completed the top end of the straight so I got a little bit back from the side pot lol
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
xxx
Small blind
£0.05
£0.05
£6.60
xxx
Big blind
£0.10
£0.15
£7.70
xxx
Big blind
£0.10
£0.25
£5.56
Your hole cards
10
10
xxx
Raise
£0.20
£0.45
£25.59
xxx
Call
£0.10
£0.55
£5.46
shakinaces
Raise
£0.80
£1.35
£14.40
xxx
Call
£0.75
£2.10
£5.85
xxx
Fold
xxx
Call
£0.60
£2.70
£24.99
xxx
Fold
Flop
6
10
J
xxx
All-in
£5.85
£8.55
£0.00
xxx
Call
£5.85
£14.40
£19.14
shakinaces
Raise
£11.70
£26.10
£2.70
xxx
Call
£5.85
£31.95
£13.29
Turn
9
xxx
Check
shakinaces
All-in
£2.70
£34.65
£0.00
xxx
Call
£2.70
£37.35
£10.59
xxx
Show
Q
J
xxx
Show
J
7
shakinaces
Show
10
10
River
8
xxx
Win
Straight to the Queen
£19.50
£19.50
xxx
Win
Straight to the Jack
£16.45
£27.04
So as per other recent sessions, a few rotten coolers at the start followed by trying to chip back through a bunch of small pots. Only this time I didn't quite make it to a breakeven level.
One thing I really want to find a 'Plan B' for is facing these LAG (I guess) players that play 90% of hands and are constantly betting post-flop as well.
It sort of feels like a very weak and exploitable strategy to fold to them as much as I do and, dare I say, they are well adjusted now to exit hands quite quickly on those occasions where I do get a monster of any sort and start playing back at them.
Any recommended articles of videos to combat such players would be appreciated, as there are a number at the tables that I must be a net loser versus.
Their only benefit it putting other weak players on tilt which in turn often means I have to avoid the LAG but target whoever they put on tilt and try to earn ££ that way. Ho hum.
Honduras couldn't quite hold on till half time, Palacios being as ill disciplined as ever ruined that part, but at least the win to nil came in so happy days.
In spite of the world's best player recovering from injury I fancy the Germans to nick a win today. They scored first half goals in all their qualifiers so am split £2.50 @ 8/5 on them to be leading at halftime and £2.50 germany/germany @ 9/4 as well as a punt on Ozil ew FGS £2.50 @ 15/2.
Seems overpriced to be the 6th highest odds among the German players and, I believe, is their penalty taker so has the chance to benefit from that possibility also.
So it's a bit wrong to claim this as an Englishman but, come on Germany!!
Cheers Dev, good to see you back and all the best with your own challenge mate. I'll be reading regularly and sure to pop in from time to time!
Disappointed Ozil didn't fight harder when he grabbed the ball for the German pen, what a bottler lol
USA always well organised by Ghana just look a bit too good, and have beaten them twice before when the USA were stronger... with the Portugal hammering there has to be a winner here, surely, so £5 @ 6/4
And if a goal is coming, surely Gyan has got to be in there. £2.50 @ 2/1 to score anytime seems decent for a guy that has 40 in 79....
Yeah, enough said about that the better. Ah well, can't win them all!
Looking like there should be some very one-sided games based on current showings, the likes of Argentina / Bosnia, Brazil / Croatia, Germany (and probably Portugal) won't offer great odds on outrights but probably warrant little accumulators.
Poker £941.27...
After a rash of aces-related outdraws lately, AA /> QQ for £20 at mastercash boosted last night's sessions, which were often sidetracked by table banter including discussion about Robbie Savage, sheep and goats.
The mini view having chat box on is without doubt my favourite part of the new software. I rarely have the patience to one-table, especially those days where you are utterly card dead, but did miss the banter by not being able to view normal sized tables. Makes the game far more fun now, especially watching the master-tilter wind-up his opponents... it's a truly impressive dark art.
Although I accept he has poor game (compared to the pros), Tony G has long been one of my favourite names to see when flicking some poker on the TV. A panto villain on a table makes it so much more fun than games that are filled with hooded players hidden behind sunglasses and listening to music, trying to give nothing away about their holding. Sure, that invariably helps them to be more successful, but I don't see it doing much to attract any new audience to the game.
Oh yeah, and I'm now a 'sky favoured rungood fish'... I think that means I've now improved to level 4 and am guaranteed to always beat people at level 1-3. I'm this because I 'always' raise out of position. After raising UTG the first time at the table like 4 hands in, the first time I've ever played the person... and I had Aces... which I should have folded out of position.
I feel so blessed to have been recognised for the improvement I've made
And reiterate how much more entertaining things are with being able to see the chatbox these days!
Poker wise I was just treading water and losing £1 here or there... until yesterday when I did have a play and dropped a big over £30 so bankroll now £897.07.
Some poor calls in retrospect there, overpair vs sets and AQ vs KQ on Q high board... made worse bankroll wise as 42s vs a fish managed to catch it's flush vs AA and getting value with KK on MC went horribly wrong when AQ improved on the river and I was forced to fold (the one good fold I did find lol).
On the footy front, I've watched at least a good chunk of every game so far lol, must be in the minority that took the suffering to a new level on Thursday by sitting through the dire Japan vs Greece game after England had effectively been knocked out.
Not been betting on many games, but that's probably for the best given my poor recent run lol
£7.50 Brazil to win (evens, in running) LOST
£5 Columbia / Ivory Coast to draw (12/5) LOST £5 Rooney score anytime and ENgland win (9/2) LOST
£5 Japan to win (11/8) LOST
After the first round of games I also whacked some more on Brazil/Croatia forecast for Group A (£5 @ 3s) and jumbled that in for a four fold including France/Switzerland, Germany/Portugal and Argentina/Bosnia... only another £2.50 but keeps things fun like.
Not sure yet, but thinking to cover some scorelines in the Argentina v Iran game tonight... not convinced that Iran will even try to attack that much so covering 4-0/5-0/6-0 or some combo like that may give a bit of interest in the second half.
Random oppo that I've never seen before - has already done this one before in the 3 or so orbits I've been sat there for.... where's the cut-off card wise before this becomes a snap call when the action comes back to me?
Came on to play the WC freeroll and had a couple of tables of cash on the go at the same time, but I'm just not feeling it so shut down for the footy.
I did initially try and push on because there were a few spots at the tables, which hasn't necessarily been the case lately (a standard due to the sun I guess?)... but when you get SB defends by 86o... which float flops with no apparent plan and catch their 8 on the river... well, if you not making money at that sort of table you have to admit defeat and take the break!
Fair to say the Footy aint going much better lol... team backed to win pre: Spain... team to create a few shocks and be a bit of a dark horse: Bosnia... team supported and willed to win: England... Not a hat-trick I'll be celebrating too much!!!
Did another tenner on the Argentina game yesterday, can't believe how average they look given the wealth of attacking options available to them - easily the best front players at the tourni IMO and only opted not to back them because of their defence, but ended genuinely gutted that Iran didn't manage to nick something from it!!
After a season of being wholly underwhelmed by Algerian players at Forest, I'm probably going to regret this. But at 2.08 Algeria seemed like a good punt (Draw no Bet)... they've a talented bunch of mercenaries and will want to do something to earn a big money move (before becoming lazy show-boaters that only perform in Sky TV games that might earn them an even bigger money move lol).
Not played any poker for a couple of days, been doing this weird thing called 'socialising' with something I believe are called 'friends' in order to take some advantage of this strange sunny spell and continuing barrage of football.
Not had any more gambles since the Algeria game (happy days) but will make one final try to earn some losses back in Group F tonight I'm sure.
In the interim I thought I'd look back to see how the pre-tourni gambles are going and, well, not great lol! At the moment I'm mostly sat with all my eggs in a Neymar-shaped basket!
Neymar £5 @ 8/1 Golden Ball Winner 2 MOM, 4 goals and winnable games (?) vs Chile and then Costa Rica/Greece... if he stays fit then this one could get me out the hole!
Spain £5 @ 13/2 to win the less said the better lol... may get a refund if Brazil/Argentina win the cup
Luis Suarez £2.5 @ 13/8 to be top Liverpool scorer I guess I'm in the minority that want him to play on and not receive his ban until after the world cup? I believe he is L'pool top scorer though and can't think of anyone that can top his 2 goals?
Edin Dzeko £1.25 @ 4/1 to be top Man City scorerI'm sure this is still live, but needs to bang a hat-trick vs Iran... ooooo Dzeko
Paul Pogba £1.25@ 9/2 to be top Juventus scorer With Italy out I still need Brazil to stop Chile scoring and Pogba to get 1 to tie/2 to beat Marchesio... still live...
Mitroglous £1.25 @ 3/1 to be top Championship scorer Think this is game over now... Beausejour (sp?) scored for Chile and Leroy Fer for Holland... ah well.
Group F top scoring group £2.50 @ 5/1Yeah, I think I need about 18 goals tonight in two games lol... this is now likely to be the lowest scoring group... nuts!
Fred £2.50 EW @ 20s and Higuain £1.25 EW @ 22s Yeah. Miracle or done for lol.
Treble Group A Brazil/Croatia, Group B Spain/Chile, Group F Argentina/Bosnia £1.25 @ just over 20s Group A - Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon £1.25 @ 3/1 and Brazil, Croatia £2.50 @ 7/4 Group B - Spain, Chile £1.25 @ 5/2 Group C - Ivory Coast £1.25 @ 7/2 Group F - Argentina, Bosnia, Iran, Nigeria £1.25 @ 13/2 Nothing to see here... please move along...
Edin Dzeko top score Group F £2.50 @ 7s Need an Oleg Salenko style performance in the final game to surpass Messi's two goals lol
Russia / S Korea reverse forecast Group H £1.25 @ 9s Meh... still don't rate Belgium... good subs by the manager tho
Mesut Ozil top German scorer £1.25 @ 9s and Ciro Immobile top Italian scorer £1.25 @ 11/2 Another miracle required... I will get a winner off Ozil scoring in matches though... somehow!
I had a bit of a run on the tables last night but the reduced traffic makes it a challenge to really get going at the moment so for most of the time I only had 3 tables running at one time and only racked up a meagre 30 PP
I'm not sure if the lack of tables / reduced number of spots (given the higher reg:rec ratio) but I really don't feel like I'm playing all that well for the last week or so, with luck being my friend to rock up a small profit yesterday.
In particular, patience isn't what it should be. With only three tables and being relatively position/card dead for reasonable periods of time I found myself making unnecessary attempts to force some action, chucking out 3b either OOP or with weak holdings which, if I'm being honest with myself, I'm not good enough to do that in a consistently profitable manner.
Fold to 4b pre. Check river. Not sure I ever profit from calling pre in the long term. Feels so dodgy to be getting 200bb in pre with AKo. As it is, turns out the villain was a bit of a maniac and I'd have got it in ahead, but mostly I got lucky and then threw that luck away by failing to get full value.
Hmmm I was going to post a couple of other hands, but just realised that having left names in during hand 1, that it wouldn't take Sherlock to deduce who the villains were in other hands I was posting (from the same table).
So here are a couple of sigh folds from the barren period before I started playing junk and thinking that I could 3-bet bluff at micro stakes.
To be honest, the second one would normally cost me a lot more so I gave myself a metaphorical pat on the back for losing what I think was the minimum here. The first one should maybe be a call with £1 invested, but with the board also paired I took the low variance (and reduced Sky rake) option.
So, luckboxed my way back above £900 yesterday before taking the wise decision to take my tired-tilt offline to concentrate on the footy.
Played a bit on (football free) Friday but then got coerced into visiting the pub with an ex-housemate who had been left to babysit his girlfriend's Chinese uncles down the pub. An interesting night of awkward conversation, improved by the fact that one of them was the spitting image of the fella that did Gangnam Style and was equally excitable.
No poker Saturday as I was at a mate's stag party in London. Poor planning meant we were all completely oblivious (until already on the tube) that it had been booked in for the same day as Gay Pride... made for an entertaining wander from tube to first pub with a stag dressed as a middle-aged woman with Marge Simpson-style blue wig... we passed sights that a sheltered christian bloke from Swindon never thought existed in life.
It's a weird world that there London Town.
I did sneak in a bit of youtube watching, which I believe highlighted a positional leak I had allowed to sneak into my game through being too aggressive. One of the many vids by (I think) SplitSuit, particularly useful as they aren't as HUD-heavy as most vids.
The footy was a mixed bag but this tournament just keeps getting better and even more fun! After failing with (7/4) Neymar anytime/Brazil win, (11/10) Colombia was an easy nap of the day on Saturday to turn a small profit.
Then Sunday was utter variance in two cracking games. I'd long since written off (9/2) draw/Holland before the remarkable late turnaround saw me hit the bookies with runner-runner outs, before they got their revenge (7/1) Costa Rica to win 1-0 when Greece rivered a very late equaliser.
I love gambling and I love the world cup. Such a buzz!!
Speaking of luckboxing... In truth I think I played well yesterday, swapping tables fairly regularly to avoid too many tricky spots and bluffing way less than recent sessions / making a lot of disciplined folds.
This one probably doesn't fall in that category though. TBH I didn't think oppo was as strong as they were and called the turn bet thinking I could be behind (J8 and KJ featured highly in my thinking, as well as several two pair combos) - although I'm not sure (even using implied odds) that I should necessarily be calling to try and house up (which would have felted me anyway with any other pair on the board).
A bigger set was a bit of a surprise as I'd have figured this oppo to donk or c/r the flop, but the turn donk was never going to be less than a two pair hand. I think the strongest of one pair hands (QJ) would still be happy to c/c the turn.
First things first, I imagine that like a lot of gamblers, Germany's performance yesterday dented the world cup betting. Can't believe how vunerable they looked but there goes £12 that wasn't anywhere near going on a 0-0 draw lol.
It was just rubbing salt in the wounds that, having though 11/4 for Ozil to score anytime was a good price, he saves his one decent bit of football all game for extra time. Sigh.
Still, onwards and upwards! Argentina have got to drag me back in the game again tonight... and I still think Belgium are overhyped, so may find a way to support the US dream!
Bankroll end June £932.18 pts 1,774
Another good end to the month that sees my balance up on where I was at the end of May - will take that after the mix of frustration play and cold decks hit the roll quite badly in the middle of the month.
And importantly, that number of points means that even with the distraction of the world cup, I've still put in a respectable quantity of hands to hopefully add to the learning / development of game.
That my only real frustration is that I have been bad beat out of every world cup freeroll (standard freeroll outcome) and not bagged a toy or gadget... but it is just a bit greedy to want to luckbox in one of those
And speaking of crazy runner-runner, I definitely need to improve my timing around when I overshove the river...
I'm utterly amazed how many of these I've seen at the tables in 2014, don't know what the odds are but between the ones I've hit and the ones that have occured at my table it must be into double figures now in a 6 month period.
I nearly timed out on the river because the client froze while I was trying to turn off 'auto muck winning cards' in case oppo folded... shame on me.
Comments
Poker - 916.76 (pts 1,076)
As soon as I make a slight moan about never hitting sets I can't stop hitting them, but constantly done for by a higher set lol... so no more moaning, I'm happy to go a while without my pairs hitting sets
This is one of the particularly harsh ones... could at least have completed the top end of the straight so I got a little bit back from the side pot lol
One thing I really want to find a 'Plan B' for is facing these LAG (I guess) players that play 90% of hands and are constantly betting post-flop as well.
It sort of feels like a very weak and exploitable strategy to fold to them as much as I do and, dare I say, they are well adjusted now to exit hands quite quickly on those occasions where I do get a monster of any sort and start playing back at them.
Any recommended articles of videos to combat such players would be appreciated, as there are a number at the tables that I must be a net loser versus.
Their only benefit it putting other weak players on tilt which in turn often means I have to avoid the LAG but target whoever they put on tilt and try to earn ££ that way. Ho hum.
Honduras couldn't quite hold on till half time, Palacios being as ill disciplined as ever ruined that part, but at least the win to nil came in so happy days.
In spite of the world's best player recovering from injury I fancy the Germans to nick a win today. They scored first half goals in all their qualifiers so am split £2.50 @ 8/5 on them to be leading at halftime and £2.50 germany/germany @ 9/4 as well as a punt on Ozil ew FGS £2.50 @ 15/2.
Seems overpriced to be the 6th highest odds among the German players and, I believe, is their penalty taker so has the chance to benefit from that possibility also.
So it's a bit wrong to claim this as an Englishman but, come on Germany!!
Looking like there should be some very one-sided games based on current showings, the likes of Argentina / Bosnia, Brazil / Croatia, Germany (and probably Portugal) won't offer great odds on outrights but probably warrant little accumulators.
Poker £941.27...
After a rash of aces-related outdraws lately, AA /> QQ for £20 at mastercash boosted last night's sessions, which were often sidetracked by table banter including discussion about Robbie Savage, sheep and goats.
The mini view having chat box on is without doubt my favourite part of the new software. I rarely have the patience to one-table, especially those days where you are utterly card dead, but did miss the banter by not being able to view normal sized tables. Makes the game far more fun now, especially watching the master-tilter wind-up his opponents... it's a truly impressive dark art.
Although I accept he has poor game (compared to the pros), Tony G has long been one of my favourite names to see when flicking some poker on the TV. A panto villain on a table makes it so much more fun than games that are filled with hooded players hidden behind sunglasses and listening to music, trying to give nothing away about their holding. Sure, that invariably helps them to be more successful, but I don't see it doing much to attract any new audience to the game.
Oh yeah, and I'm now a 'sky favoured rungood fish'... I think that means I've now improved to level 4 and am guaranteed to always beat people at level 1-3. I'm this because I 'always' raise out of position. After raising UTG the first time at the table like 4 hands in, the first time I've ever played the person... and I had Aces... which I should have folded out of position.
I feel so blessed to have been recognised for the improvement I've made
And reiterate how much more entertaining things are with being able to see the chatbox these days!
£5 Rooney score anytime and ENgland win (9/2) LOST
Came on to play the WC freeroll and had a couple of tables of cash on the go at the same time, but I'm just not feeling it so shut down for the footy.
I did initially try and push on because there were a few spots at the tables, which hasn't necessarily been the case lately (a standard due to the sun I guess?)... but when you get SB defends by 86o... which float flops with no apparent plan and catch their 8 on the river... well, if you not making money at that sort of table you have to admit defeat and take the break!
Fair to say the Footy aint going much better lol... team backed to win pre: Spain... team to create a few shocks and be a bit of a dark horse: Bosnia... team supported and willed to win: England... Not a hat-trick I'll be celebrating too much!!!
Did another tenner on the Argentina game yesterday, can't believe how average they look given the wealth of attacking options available to them - easily the best front players at the tourni IMO and only opted not to back them because of their defence, but ended genuinely gutted that Iran didn't manage to nick something from it!!
After a season of being wholly underwhelmed by Algerian players at Forest, I'm probably going to regret this. But at 2.08 Algeria seemed like a good punt (Draw no Bet)... they've a talented bunch of mercenaries and will want to do something to earn a big money move (before becoming lazy show-boaters that only perform in Sky TV games that might earn them an even bigger money move lol).
Not had any more gambles since the Algeria game (happy days) but will make one final try to earn some losses back in Group F tonight I'm sure.
In the interim I thought I'd look back to see how the pre-tourni gambles are going and, well, not great lol! At the moment I'm mostly sat with all my eggs in a Neymar-shaped basket!
Neymar £5 @ 8/1 Golden Ball Winner 2 MOM, 4 goals and winnable games (?) vs Chile and then Costa Rica/Greece... if he stays fit then this one could get me out the hole!
Spain £5 @ 13/2 to win the less said the better lol... may get a refund if Brazil/Argentina win the cup
Luis Suarez £2.5 @ 13/8 to be top Liverpool scorer I guess I'm in the minority that want him to play on and not receive his ban until after the world cup? I believe he is L'pool top scorer though and can't think of anyone that can top his 2 goals?
Edin Dzeko £1.25 @ 4/1 to be top Man City scorer I'm sure this is still live, but needs to bang a hat-trick vs Iran... ooooo Dzeko
Paul Pogba £1.25@ 9/2 to be top Juventus scorer With Italy out I still need Brazil to stop Chile scoring and Pogba to get 1 to tie/2 to beat Marchesio... still live...
Mitroglous £1.25 @ 3/1 to be top Championship scorer Think this is game over now... Beausejour (sp?) scored for Chile and Leroy Fer for Holland... ah well.
Group F top scoring group £2.50 @ 5/1 Yeah, I think I need about 18 goals tonight in two games lol... this is now likely to be the lowest scoring group... nuts!
Fred £2.50 EW @ 20s and Higuain £1.25 EW @ 22s Yeah. Miracle or done for lol.
Treble Group A Brazil/Croatia, Group B Spain/Chile, Group F Argentina/Bosnia £1.25 @ just over 20s
Group A - Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon £1.25 @ 3/1 and Brazil, Croatia £2.50 @ 7/4
Group B - Spain, Chile £1.25 @ 5/2
Group C - Ivory Coast £1.25 @ 7/2
Group F - Argentina, Bosnia, Iran, Nigeria £1.25 @ 13/2 Nothing to see here... please move along...
Edin Dzeko top score Group F £2.50 @ 7s Need an Oleg Salenko style performance in the final game to surpass Messi's two goals lol
Russia / S Korea reverse forecast Group H £1.25 @ 9s Meh... still don't rate Belgium... good subs by the manager tho
Mesut Ozil top German scorer £1.25 @ 9s and Ciro Immobile top Italian scorer £1.25 @ 11/2 Another miracle required... I will get a winner off Ozil scoring in matches though... somehow!
I had a bit of a run on the tables last night but the reduced traffic makes it a challenge to really get going at the moment so for most of the time I only had 3 tables running at one time and only racked up a meagre 30 PP
I'm not sure if the lack of tables / reduced number of spots (given the higher reg:rec ratio) but I really don't feel like I'm playing all that well for the last week or so, with luck being my friend to rock up a small profit yesterday.
In particular, patience isn't what it should be. With only three tables and being relatively position/card dead for reasonable periods of time I found myself making unnecessary attempts to force some action, chucking out 3b either OOP or with weak holdings which, if I'm being honest with myself, I'm not good enough to do that in a consistently profitable manner.
Advice to self:
Fold to 4b pre. Check river. Not sure I ever profit from calling pre in the long term. Feels so dodgy to be getting 200bb in pre with AKo. As it is, turns out the villain was a bit of a maniac and I'd have got it in ahead, but mostly I got lucky and then threw that luck away by failing to get full value.
So here are a couple of sigh folds from the barren period before I started playing junk and thinking that I could 3-bet bluff at micro stakes.
To be honest, the second one would normally cost me a lot more so I gave myself a metaphorical pat on the back for losing what I think was the minimum here. The first one should maybe be a call with £1 invested, but with the board also paired I took the low variance (and reduced Sky rake) option.
So, luckboxed my way back above £900 yesterday before taking the wise decision to take my tired-tilt offline to concentrate on the footy.
Played a bit on (football free) Friday but then got coerced into visiting the pub with an ex-housemate who had been left to babysit his girlfriend's Chinese uncles down the pub. An interesting night of awkward conversation, improved by the fact that one of them was the spitting image of the fella that did Gangnam Style and was equally excitable.
No poker Saturday as I was at a mate's stag party in London. Poor planning meant we were all completely oblivious (until already on the tube) that it had been booked in for the same day as Gay Pride... made for an entertaining wander from tube to first pub with a stag dressed as a middle-aged woman with Marge Simpson-style blue wig... we passed sights that a sheltered christian bloke from Swindon never thought existed in life.
It's a weird world that there London Town.
I did sneak in a bit of youtube watching, which I believe highlighted a positional leak I had allowed to sneak into my game through being too aggressive. One of the many vids by (I think) SplitSuit, particularly useful as they aren't as HUD-heavy as most vids.
The footy was a mixed bag but this tournament just keeps getting better and even more fun! After failing with (7/4) Neymar anytime/Brazil win, (11/10) Colombia was an easy nap of the day on Saturday to turn a small profit.
Then Sunday was utter variance in two cracking games. I'd long since written off (9/2) draw/Holland before the remarkable late turnaround saw me hit the bookies with runner-runner outs, before they got their revenge (7/1) Costa Rica to win 1-0 when Greece rivered a very late equaliser.
I love gambling and I love the world cup. Such a buzz!!
This one probably doesn't fall in that category though. TBH I didn't think oppo was as strong as they were and called the turn bet thinking I could be behind (J8 and KJ featured highly in my thinking, as well as several two pair combos) - although I'm not sure (even using implied odds) that I should necessarily be calling to try and house up (which would have felted me anyway with any other pair on the board).
A bigger set was a bit of a surprise as I'd have figured this oppo to donk or c/r the flop, but the turn donk was never going to be less than a two pair hand. I think the strongest of one pair hands (QJ) would still be happy to c/c the turn.
So yeah, pure shakinaces luckboxin.
First things first, I imagine that like a lot of gamblers, Germany's performance yesterday dented the world cup betting. Can't believe how vunerable they looked but there goes £12 that wasn't anywhere near going on a 0-0 draw lol.
It was just rubbing salt in the wounds that, having though 11/4 for Ozil to score anytime was a good price, he saves his one decent bit of football all game for extra time. Sigh.
Still, onwards and upwards! Argentina have got to drag me back in the game again tonight... and I still think Belgium are overhyped, so may find a way to support the US dream!
Bankroll end June £932.18 pts 1,774
Another good end to the month that sees my balance up on where I was at the end of May - will take that after the mix of frustration play and cold decks hit the roll quite badly in the middle of the month.
And importantly, that number of points means that even with the distraction of the world cup, I've still put in a respectable quantity of hands to hopefully add to the learning / development of game.
That my only real frustration is that I have been bad beat out of every world cup freeroll (standard freeroll outcome) and not bagged a toy or gadget... but it is just a bit greedy to want to luckbox in one of those
Sigh.
I'm utterly amazed how many of these I've seen at the tables in 2014, don't know what the odds are but between the ones I've hit and the ones that have occured at my table it must be into double figures now in a 6 month period.
I nearly timed out on the river because the client froze while I was trying to turn off 'auto muck winning cards' in case oppo folded... shame on me.