Selling Will Hughes for 5 million and signing Tom Lawrence for 7 million being a good example of his acumen in the transfer market
Best bit of business he did for us was selling himself to Stoke for about 2 million
The thing is, it's rarely a club's decision to sell a prize asset. Once a player wants to go, he's as good as gone.
Actually, I question whether "rarely" is the correct term, "never" is probably more accurate.
I’m not sure that Hughes dreamed of signing for Watford when he was a boy
Dropping him from the first team and making it quite clear that he wasn’t his sort of player may have had an influence on his decision to leave when Watford came in for him
Selling Will Hughes for 5 million and signing Tom Lawrence for 7 million being a good example of his acumen in the transfer market
Best bit of business he did for us was selling himself to Stoke for about 2 million
The thing is, it's rarely a club's decision to sell a prize asset. Once a player wants to go, he's as good as gone.
Actually, I question whether "rarely" is the correct term, "never" is probably more accurate.
I’m not sure that Hughes dreamed of signing for Watford when he was a boy
Dropping him from the first team and making it quite clear that he wasn’t his sort of player may have had an influence on his decision to leave when Watford came in for him
It's not so much the club, it's more the signing on fee, increased wages and the follow on. Though, I agree, it didn't end up a good move him. He was great when you beat us 1-5 at The Den. When we were managed by Holloway. Now THAT is what you call a clown of a manager!
I'm still nowhere near my best, but, with three (small) cashes from seven tournaments over the weekend, there is, at least, some consistency for the first time in quite a while.
I am hoping this is sign that I may be creeping back into some kind of form.
Having now suffered both types of losing spells, I can confirm that running poorly > playing poorly. While the former may be responsible for the latter, it's a far from comforting excuse as, for any player, there is little worse than letting yourself down.
I'm still nowhere near my best, but, with three (small) cashes from seven tournaments over the weekend, there is, at least, some consistency for the first time in quite a while.
I am hoping this is sign that I may be creeping back into some kind of form.
Having now suffered both types of losing spells, I can confirm that running poorly > playing poorly. While the former may be responsible for the latter, it's a far from comforting excuse as, for any player, there is little worse than letting yourself down.
Having made a decent profit in the one MTT played on Monday, there is further evidence to suggest this may be the case.
I finished 20th in the Mini after claiming a good few bounties and, had my final hand held up, I may have gone close to making the final table.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
chief5902
Small blind
800.00
800.00
73052.00
d4y0
Big blind
1600.00
2400.00
31461.00
Your hole cards
K
A
Bigman2810
Fold
Stuart650
Fold
mushroom1
All-in
27462.88
29862.88
0.00
chief5902
Fold
d4y0
Call
25862.88
55725.76
5598.12
d4y0
Show
A
10
mushroom1
Show
K
A
Flop
6
8
3
Turn
J
River
10
d4y0
Win
Pair of 10s
55725.76
61323.88
Ooof.
This came a few minutes after my Kings were busted when AIP, however, ultimately, it's all good as I am feeling much better about matters - which is handy timing, given I am currently under house arrest in Tier 4, with little else to do.
I know it's illogical, but, for such a long time, I felt I was beat as soon as I logged on.
I tried lots of things to get out of this terribly damaging mindset, with little success. Ultimately, I simply decided on playing less.
In all forms of gambling, even winners have losing runs (obviously), the trick is to lose as least as possible during these inevitable runs - so playing less was sensible.
Thankfully, as previous posts suggest, I am feeling much better about my chances of success and enjoying my time playing.
This is extremely important to me as, with regards to online poker, this really is the only place I wish to play - I am totally sold on the short-handed bounty format.
It will be "fun" should I ever play a full-handed regular old freezout again.
In recent times, the King George VI Chase has been dominated by Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Colin Tizzard.
The three yards have won every renewal since 2006 and have been responsible for 73% of all win/placed horses since 2009.
With their combined runners dominating the markets every year, their blanket success during this time is understandable and, given the trio are responsible for six of the nine (likely) runners on Boxing Day, only a brave man would bet against another carve up.
I am such a man. Kind of.
Before continuing, let me be clear; I believe it is extremely likely that Saturday will prove another Nicholls/Henderson/Tizzard benefit. However, there could be some value surrounding one of the three runners aiming to upset the clique.
The Mega went the same way, with an a 7,000+ loss with Aces causing irreparable damage.
After two limpers I made it 6x with the bullets, receiving a caller on my left and one from the limpers.
The flop appeared safe (Jack-high raggedy rainbow) so, naturally, I led the flop. Once doing so I cannot pass to the re-raise from my left.
It wasn't the biggest surprise to see my opponent table trip Sixes.
All fairly standard given the pre-flop deepness.
Despite a decent start in the Gold Rush, were I scaled the dizzy heights of 30,000 tournament chips, I found myself situation dead for a period longer than ideal for the structure.
One of my shoves finally gets called when I was holding pocket Tens and 12-bigs (five-handed). The caller found Jacks in the small blind.
I shall probably chance my arm with a late reg in the Reload.
I double bought-in and close to the break and, after adding-on, started the freezeout period with around 8,500 tournament chips.
I am dealt Ace-King in (maybe) my third hand. There was a min-raise UTG which was called by UTG+1 and the button.
I am in the small blind.
The raise is 360 total. It's quite a tricky spot, for me. I could make it 1,000-1,500, but then I am playing the hand out of position, obviously. If raising to 1,000-1,5000, I would call a re-shove due to the structure.
Therefore, I decide to shove. Thoughts on this are welcomed - FYI I hold 40-odd big-blinds.
I am snapped by the original raiser, who had Aces.
I flop an Ace, giving me a chance, but I lose the hand as this, apparently, gave m opponent trips.
I'm left looking down at a paltry 1,200 tournament chips, or six big-blinds.
I double bought-in and close to the break and, after adding-on, started the freezeout period with around 8,500 tournament chips.
I am dealt Ace-King in (maybe) my third hand. There was a min-raise UTG which was called by UTG+1 and the button.
I am in the small blind.
The raise is 360 total. It's quite a tricky spot, for me. I could make it 1,000-1,500, but then I am playing the hand out of position, obviously. If raising to 1,000-1,5000, I would call a re-shove due to the structure.
Therefore, I decide to shove. Thoughts on this are welcomed - FYI I hold 40-odd big-blinds.
I am snapped by the original raiser, who had Aces.
I flop an Ace, giving me a chance, but I lose the hand as this, apparently, gave m opponent trips.
I'm left looking down at a paltry 1,200 tournament chips, or six big-blinds.
Exciting update: I have managed to spin straw into copper, with my 1,200 rising to 5,900.
It's still, very much, a bowl of rice but, at least, it's now Special Fried.
Despite what may (or may not) have been a Masterclass in micro-stack management, where I dodged, ducked, dipped, dived and dodged, my tenacious run came to an end in 31st place, just five short of the money.
I was toying with the idea of a hand-by-hand report, as there were many interesting spots, but it would probably be a too long to make interesting reading.
Before I get back to the King George, I apologise for the drop in quality of my entries over the past month or two. My downbeat mood had nothing to do with financial loss in this time, I simply was not enjoying the time I spent playing.
I felt powerless to an overwhelming sense of dread the moment I logged on, so naturally, this had an impact on the thread.
Hopefully, I am fully back to making good decisions and enjoying the game.
Comments
However, I was outdrawn when playing my first big all-in-pre hand.
I get it in with Kings against Jacks and Tens and, as you do when on a poor run, I waited confidently for either the Jack or Ten to halt my progress.
The rot started with him
Selling Will Hughes for 5 million and signing Tom Lawrence for 7 million being a good example of his acumen in the transfer market
Best bit of business he did for us was selling himself to Stoke for about 2 million
Actually, I question whether "rarely" is the correct term, "never" is probably more accurate.
Dropping him from the first team and making it quite clear that he wasn’t his sort of player may have had an influence on his decision to leave when Watford came in for him
I am hoping this is sign that I may be creeping back into some kind of form.
Having now suffered both types of losing spells, I can confirm that running poorly > playing poorly. While the former may be responsible for the latter, it's a far from comforting excuse as, for any player, there is little worse than letting yourself down.
I finished 20th in the Mini after claiming a good few bounties and, had my final hand held up, I may have gone close to making the final table.
This came a few minutes after my Kings were busted when AIP, however, ultimately, it's all good as I am feeling much better about matters - which is handy timing, given I am currently under house arrest in Tier 4, with little else to do.
I tried lots of things to get out of this terribly damaging mindset, with little success. Ultimately, I simply decided on playing less.
In all forms of gambling, even winners have losing runs (obviously), the trick is to lose as least as possible during these inevitable runs - so playing less was sensible.
Thankfully, as previous posts suggest, I am feeling much better about my chances of success and enjoying my time playing.
This is extremely important to me as, with regards to online poker, this really is the only place I wish to play - I am totally sold on the short-handed bounty format.
It will be "fun" should I ever play a full-handed regular old freezout again.
The three yards have won every renewal since 2006 and have been responsible for 73% of all win/placed horses since 2009.
With their combined runners dominating the markets every year, their blanket success during this time is understandable and, given the trio are responsible for six of the nine (likely) runners on Boxing Day, only a brave man would bet against another carve up.
I am such a man. Kind of.
Before continuing, let me be clear; I believe it is extremely likely that Saturday will prove another Nicholls/Henderson/Tizzard benefit. However, there could be some value surrounding one of the three runners aiming to upset the clique.
I shall continue this later.
What a tease.
Subscribed though.
I am sent packing in the Mini after losing a hand where I was 95% favourite...
Now, were I sunk by a Five, I would've smashed the gaff up.
After two limpers I made it 6x with the bullets, receiving a caller on my left and one from the limpers.
The flop appeared safe (Jack-high raggedy rainbow) so, naturally, I led the flop. Once doing so I cannot pass to the re-raise from my left.
It wasn't the biggest surprise to see my opponent table trip Sixes.
All fairly standard given the pre-flop deepness.
Despite a decent start in the Gold Rush, were I scaled the dizzy heights of 30,000 tournament chips, I found myself situation dead for a period longer than ideal for the structure.
One of my shoves finally gets called when I was holding pocket Tens and 12-bigs (five-handed). The caller found Jacks in the small blind.
I shall probably chance my arm with a late reg in the Reload.
I double bought-in and close to the break and, after adding-on, started the freezeout period with around 8,500 tournament chips.
I am dealt Ace-King in (maybe) my third hand. There was a min-raise UTG which was called by UTG+1 and the button.
I am in the small blind.
The raise is 360 total. It's quite a tricky spot, for me. I could make it 1,000-1,500, but then I am playing the hand out of position, obviously. If raising to 1,000-1,5000, I would call a re-shove due to the structure.
Therefore, I decide to shove. Thoughts on this are welcomed - FYI I hold 40-odd big-blinds.
I am snapped by the original raiser, who had Aces.
I flop an Ace, giving me a chance, but I lose the hand as this, apparently, gave m opponent trips.
I'm left looking down at a paltry 1,200 tournament chips, or six big-blinds.
I have managed to spin straw into copper, with my 1,200 rising to 5,900.
It's still, very much, a bowl of rice but, at least, it's now Special Fried.
My first hand of the level is 93o. In the big blind. Two all-ins before I act.
Before my blind reaches the winner's stack, I am moved to another table and straight into the big blind. This time I am dealt 82o.
Things appear to be getting worse.
The BB comes and go and there are no shoving opportunities in the hands that follow. The big blind is back to me again. I am dealt 72o.
Things ARE getting worse.
The break brings some respite. I have less than six-bigs. I am 99/110, meaning there are eleven poor souls even worse off than I.
Despite what may (or may not) have been a Masterclass in micro-stack management, where I dodged, ducked, dipped, dived and dodged, my tenacious run came to an end in 31st place, just five short of the money.
I was toying with the idea of a hand-by-hand report, as there were many interesting spots, but it would probably be a too long to make interesting reading.
Before I get back to the King George, I apologise for the drop in quality of my entries over the past month or two. My downbeat mood had nothing to do with financial loss in this time, I simply was not enjoying the time I spent playing.
I felt powerless to an overwhelming sense of dread the moment I logged on, so naturally, this had an impact on the thread.
Hopefully, I am fully back to making good decisions and enjoying the game.