Make-Over

No, not me the blog (although I could probably do with a tidying up). Today I went out ahead and changed the blog layout and colours. For some reason, its taken me the best part of a month to notice that Gordon had the same background as me. Dunno why, it was completly obvious, but I was probably blinded by a sick run of his or similar. Other chages to the blog included that beginning of Blogs list, theres a few names in there now but I plan on adding to it. There three that are in in now are some of a few that I keep an eye on and are updated regularly (Gary doesn't so the daily anymore though, he should)

As for the pub game last night. I approached it with extremely low hopes, no expectations and an open mind. I was let down. I expected the horrible turbo 5 or 6 hands a level structure, I was ok with the shorthanded tables, and knew the standard of play was going to be the dregs of it all. But I couldn't believe my horrible bad luck. I decided to sit about until I made a decent had and ship it, most likely getting a caller. Various races included
JJ vrs 99.....9 on river
QQ vrs A10....ace flop
K10 vrs 77 and 8K on a 2JQK flop, in on the turn with 2 players, 7 on river

I was always ahead in chips getting it in so I never went bust (until the break) so at least I didnt disgrace myself with a rebuy, but it went like this for an hour and a half.
I get it in ahead, I lose, I grind it up, and repeat. When I had hands I got paid off, but if I won some of the races above I would of been chip lead contender and could of play a little properly. lol pubaments indeed
I find it quite hard to believe that I once played these games in oubs, but I still believe that last night was the worst one I ever did play.

I was tempted to go with another Bob Dylan quote sign off (The Times they are a chaging) but instead I leave you with this:


There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

Bad display all around

Played the €45 FO in the jackpot this week. The standard was pretty poor as always. I started off ok, tried to bluff a station when "my" flush got there. He has two pair and raises (my actually hand was a pair) and I fold. Still, I'm happy with the bluff as most players were going to let go. Get back up with a straight, I flat called a river raise with the straight as the board paired and I didn't think less than a house was calling a push. In hindsight I am unsure.

Moved table. And boy is this a donkey stable. Two people opposite me are involved in every hand between them (often they're both in). Such gems as A3 calling solid raises to the river. Incredibly this was split (river pair and high board). So I decide to rock up and wait for a spot.

My bb (150), I have 3500. UTG+1 raises to 550 UTG+2 (male donkey, I believed they are called Jacks) calls, folded to me.

+1's range is probably tight. I have him on a mid to high pair, or a strong Ace with the raise I'm leaning to AK and AQ, as I'm seeing AJ & A10 limp here a lot in this game

+2 has anything, any ace, most Kings, a lot of suited cards, all connectors and of course pairs.

its 400 more to me into 1325, I am holding QJ spades, I think I am getting the value (23% equity) to call so I flick the chips in.

Flop comes: 7 8 J

UTG+1 bets 800, calls

Decision, top pair, I feel im ahead of UTG+1 a good bit, AJ is my only fear, unless he has an over pair. I lean towards AK continuation bet or 99/TT with a gutshot (he checks a set here), I come over the top al-in, ( quickly dismiss UTG+" as he never has an over pair here, and will call down with all sorts of draws and one pair hands.

Both insta-call and I sigh

AJ for UTG+1

9,10 for UTG+2

So the first has my only major fear and the other flops the nuts with his connectors. Right move wrong flop.

I think I should be going back to the uber rock game for the €45 F0, its just too sick a game with the uber LAGs in town.

 

In the meantime, I'll have to rock up on Friday at the pub game if I don't want to spend the night complaining of sick lag pub type (apparent) players.

I leave again with another quote. I'll will try to theme them to the post, but I might just put up one I like.

 

Let fortune do her worst, whatever she makes us lose, so long as she never makes us lose our honesty and our independence

 

Slip sliding away

It's been a busy week in work and I haven't manage to stay on top of this blog thing. Basically the guy who is running the job im on is leaving the company on friday, so alot of the work load is falling on me, much more responcability and i'll have to have more critical decisions involving big bucks, but i'll get no extra credit or cash (at least I don't think so). So the knock on effect to this is im not getting that much poker in this week.

On the gambling front, I went for a big accum bet at the weekend, with only Fulham letting me down, I know they're dodgy but it was feckin' Derby. I did manage to get a steal of a bet on the Argies to beat France.
At half time when up by 14pts
Paddy was feeling nice and gave me 5/6 on The Argies -5 pts to win
Shocking stuff paddy. -14 points would of been fair.


No new bets to announce yet.


I don't have alot of poker planned this week, small flutter about online maybe. But i want to play live on Weds. The €40+5 with €400 added is great. I had a great start to this, but last two weeks I played weren't great. Bubbled and then gone before break, although I got it in 60/40 ahead, hit trips on flop, he turns a straight and no board pair. I played three solids hands. Anmd even folded AQ on an A96 flop to a jack pot regular. For anyone who doesn't play regular in the JP any pair is the nuts, but I was fairly he had a set due to something he did.
I'll be there on weds, come over and say hi, not sure if there are any readers out there, let alone weds night student types.

On friday, I'll be playing a pub game, which I promised i'd never do again. But its a fundraiser for my dads P&P club, so its more for support than value. Gonna go rebuy mad, lag it up, and dish out runner runner to pub types that deserve it.


I feel like signing off in a nice way for a while, so here is a quote. I'm not going to say who by, to keep it interesting.

What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do

Change of Pace

So, i've started my run at satellites. Currently playing a few of the cheap ECOOP sats on ipoker. My first few at low stake as I want to get used to the structure and situations of satellites. So far i've played a wide variety of types, MTTs & STTs, rebuys and freezeouts.
I feel MTTs are better as STTs normally only offer one ticket for 1st, the STTs quote agro, so there are normally a big stack or two when 5 handed, you need to run good here to take first. Also a STTs will never have an overlay. It you watch the MTT sat list you can occasionally spot one. For example, some of the ECOOP feeder sats have 4 seat to the GF guaranteed. I also prefer freezeout, as the games play tighter so it suits me better and also the levels are in general longer, the early stages of the of the rebuys are quite lag and the levels are quick.

So far I have played 4 sats, and won one ticket. Although, I was close to bubble twice. Although technically the sat I won was to another sat so I have played 5/paid for 4.
The sat I won brought me through to the final sat to a ECOOP event but failed to take a ticket. I made a bluff on a paired flop when I raised the button, only to find the BB had made trips from the rags he called with.
As I speak in currently heads up in a STT satellite, and i'm not doing well. Cards are not helping, and this guy is very agro.

In other poker news, GJP announced their feburary festival, which includes a €1400+100 event with a whooping 50k starting stack
Details found Here!!

I plan to keep plugging away at the ipoker sats, get a bit of practice in. Then make a decent run at the various live sats to big events coming up.



Edit: After a yo-yo heads up battle, I took down the STTs for a ticket into the GF sat to the ECOOP#1. Its only a $33 ticket, but I am doing this to improve my satellite game not to play huge events. Baby steps.
Hopefully, I will find myself in enough critical bubble plays and by running over the games afterwards, it will become natural.

Blog from a far

 

So this is my first time trying this. Im posting a blog remotely by sending an email, hopefully it shows up on my page. So whats been happening lately, played the Jackpot €40+5 game last night, disaster. First hand I play I raise te button with AJ, get two calers, have played with both before and they might have me down as a loose player, which im not at all. First is loose passive, second is tight passive. Flop comes A96, check, TP guy beys out 700 into 1200 pot, I get the feeling he likes the flop but I call, LP folds, turn is a 10 and he ships it. I dwell up and fold announcing I think he has a set and lucked out with a flopped two pair, I show my ace and he tells me after wards he had a set.

I now fold every hand for 30 mins, two limpers to my BB and I raise figuring that they will get out of the way of my tight self, BB calls, flop is ace high and I bet BB calls, turn is check check and he bets 1/4 of the pot on the river, I fold and wonder how I got myself to 10 BBs

4 limpers to my BB, I push with A5, one caller with 89

flop: 556

(I announce 7 on turn and pair the board on the river)

Turn: 7

River: 3

I run bad

 

 

In other news, the bet I placed yesterday was good, I check results last night but I wasn't paid by this morning. Lunchtime today and Im still not paid, a polish match is pending, finally got it at 2ish, With my winnings I had a go on the horses, took McCoy in the 2.50 Wincanton, he was joint favourite and PPP were pushing the other fella on the main page, I got him at 11/4, he ran at 9/2 because the other fella took alot of betting, McCoy rides home first and im good.

I have a theory on PPP and irish sport, most of the money is going to be going on Irelands side, so it makes sense for them as bookies to have the odds nuged away from Ireland, ie giving them worse odds than they deserve, like offering 6/1 when 8/1 is a fair price, but the backlash of this is that the other team is offered at a better price than they deserve. For example, if you bet against Ireland in every rugby group match handicap bet, you would of win. Granted Ireland had a bad RWC, but PPP failed to adjust when Ireland failed to show up, their handicap against france was shocking considering irelands previous games.

Bear this in mind and have a look at the soccer handicaps for Ireland verses Germany

 

Bet no good!!!

Noy much to say today, don't even know its there anyone to say anything too. Any one out there? Well the bet last night was no good again, was always a long one. Results were:

Sundsvall Win 2-0
Leyton Orient Lose 0-1
Linfield Win
Forest Green Win 4-1
Stevenage Draw 1-1
Chelmsford City
Bashley Win
Witton Albion Win

Two goals did it for me, its not too bad it's better than one off again, a loss is a loss and this way I break the trend. So I stuck another one on, its 4 teams this time, if I type their names here it might jinx it, so you'll have to believe me tomorrow if I win or not. No poker today, I looking into satellites on various networks, probably make a live run too.

Satellites and long shots

So the big poker weekend has passed. It was a bit of an anti-climax for Mellor. Crashed and burned in IPO and was tempted to go the monthly game in the SE but felt that my head wasn't in it. I still enjoyed the week all the same, I got chatting to a few lads and got names to faces, Rag2gar and Valor at trhe break and FatboyDim who I dropped out to the RDS.

I did a bit of thinking about cash verses STTs and more and more im swaying towards cash. STTs have crazy varience, its a shame because I have a decent endgame in STTs when my head is in it. I don't want to drop tourny play completely. So i've decided to continue playing cashes to try build up a decent roll, but play some STTs or even small MTTs, but only certain ones. I mostly want to keep these to basicly get better at them and bring this to my live game. In my opinion to do well at tourney play you have to adapt to the changing structure, this is most important from bubble point onwards, players who dont consider this change end up with the blinds eating them up. This is of course more prevailing in the lower levels. Understanding ICM is a big part of good endgame, while reading through some tourney threads on boards I came to the conclusion that ICM is an even bigger factor in satellites as so different.

So armed with this knowledge I have decided to only play satallites for a while, I wil be going over to PokerStars for this as I can cash in satellite wins. The only downside is that the bank are taking their getting my new card out to me, so I've no online funds at the moment (except a few quid thats in paddy power sports section). Any ideas for a scheme to earn a few $$$ for stars until I get my card up and running

In continuing my fashion of placing football bets and all but one coming in, I went for an eightfold tonight. Lets hop I can break the chain, even if more than one loser is welcome. All to win as follows:
Sundsvall
Leyton Orient
Linfield
Forest Green
Stevenage
Chelmsford City
Bashley
Witton Albion