Are You Dizzy Blood?

The villain in this hand is a 50/6 with a 3bet of 9.1% over a small sample

I would never play this hand this way vs a reg as my play on the flop would scream strength. However against an unknown or a fish it often works perfectly and induces the raise. I now have a 2/3 pot size bet stack remaining but have 2 streets to bet it. This allows me to check back the turn as he has the impetus in hand and allow him to continue his bluff. If he checks back I still have the opportunity to shove the river and he might improve his hand and call or call anyway with 88-JJ.

Poker Stars $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players

SB: $50.00
BB: $46.50
UTG: $50.00
UTG+1: $18.50
UTG+2: $53.45
MP1: $41.15
Hero (MP2): $65.25
CO: $50.00
BTN: $47.20

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP2 with Q Q
4 folds, Hero raises to $1.50, CO calls $1.50, BTN raises to $3.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $13, 1 fold, BTN calls $9.50

Flop: ($28.25) 7 Q 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $5.00, BTN raises to $19, Hero calls $14

Turn: ($66.25) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $15.20, Hero calls $15.20

River: ($96.65) 5 (2 players)

Final Pot: $96.65
Hero shows Q Q
BTN shows K A

Hero wins $93.65
(Rake: $3.00)

200,000 VPPs

Just hit 200,000 VPPs, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

$2,600 bonus, nice.... now I am even for the month, lol.

I hate poker.....

Sixty Eight Grand Bonus

The 65th Billionth hand on Pokerstars was dealt yesterday.

The run up to it was preceded by the 65 billion promo give-away.

Stars gives free money to each millionth hand leading up to the 65th billion. 300 hands get paid out.

The big winner was ‘yllams’ from New Zealand. He won $68,420 in prize money for being in the right place at the right time and winning the Mega Milestone hand.

There were $770,588 in prizes awarded during the whole promotion, with over 1,600 winners collecting cash.

The prizes are calculated as follows (source, Pokerstars website):

Milestone
Players dealt into a milestone hand win a cash prize of $50 for every VIP Player Point (VPP) they earned in the previous 50 hands played on that table. All players dealt in will also receive a base prize of $50, and any player that wins a portion of the main pot will get their prize doubled!

• Dealt into Milestone Hand: (# of VPPs in previous 50 hands x $50) + $50 = Cash Prize
• Win Milestone Hand: (# of VPPs in previous 50 hands x $50 + $50) x 2 = Cash Prize

Note: The 300 regular Milestone Hands will begin with hand number 64,700,000,000 and end with hand 64,999,000,000.

Example: You play for half an hour on a $1/$2 NLHE table. You play 53 hands in this time and are then dealt into a milestone hand. The system will look at the most recent 50 hands that you've played at that table and calculate the number of VPPs earned. In this instance, you earned 31 VPPs, so the prize will be: 31 * $50 + $50 = $1,600. If you go on to win the hand, you'll receive $3,200.

Mega Milestone

When the big 65 Billion Mega Milestone is reached, all players dealt in will be rewarded $500 for every VPP earned in the previous 50 hands (calculated same as above, including the base prize of $500 for all players dealt in). The winner of the Mega Milestone will also have their prize money doubled, and will also receive $65,000 on top - which means a grand total of tens of thousands of dollars!

• Dealt into Mega Milestone: (# of VPPs in previous 50 hands x $500) + $500 = Cash Prize
• Win Mega Milestone: (# of VPPs in previous 50 hands x $500 + $500) x 2 + $65,000 = Cash Prize

In the event of a split pot (either from a tied hand or from a split pot game) all winners will receive a share of the $65,000 proportional to their share of the main pot of the hand.

Example 1: You play 50 hands and earn 60 VPPs when the Mega Milestone hand hits on your table. You will receive (60 x $500) + $500 = $30,500. You win the hand and your cash prize is doubled to $61,000. You will also receive an additional $65,000 - bringing the total cash award up to $126,000.

Big Fight Preview: Amir Khan vs Zab Judah

Amir Khan vs Zab Judah (IBF & WBA Light-Welterweight Belts)

Venue: Mandalay Bay resort and casino, Las Vegas

Date: Saturday 23 July

Start time: 0300-0400 BST [Sunday, 24 July]

Coverage: Live on pay-per-view Primetime TV, commentary on BBC 5 live

Weight: 140lbs

It's the young pretender vs the veteran.... well not really a pretender as he is now a world champ and quite seasoned. Amir still has a lot to achieve in his career and this fight vs Judah is a good stepping stone.

Khan is a big favourite with the bookies and Judah has lost 6 fights already in his career. He has however fought a lot of big names including Cotto, Mayweather and Tszyu but he lost to all of them.

So will the experience of Zab prevail or will the youthful hunger of Amir come through. I think khan will win but you can't rule out an upset. My last prediction about Haye / Klitschko was wrong so let see if I can get this one right. I will go for a first half stoppage for khan.

Khan has weaknesses including his suspect chin. He lost badly when he fought Prescott and has been put down and been in trouble in a few fights. This will give Judah a chance.

An intriguing encounter. I look forward to it.

Weigh ins:

Big Daddy Update - 22/07/11

I'm not sure why the post I wrote called 'Big-daddy-is-in-house' is the 5th most read post on my blog. It is totally unrelated to poker and was basically a reference to my overweightyness.

Anyway, I thought I would just update on my progress. Since that post in Feb I have lost precisely 1lb in weight, lol. I'm sure if I took a pretty large dump I could drop around 3lbs in weight in one sitting..!!

The last 3 weeks have seen me step up my gym routine and I feel trimmer round the waist through all the cardio but I have also done a lot of weight training which is probably why there is no weight loss as I have a bit more muscle (I will keep telling myself this, lol).

So, I bought this chin up bar (or pull up bar) from ebay and it arrived yesterday. You basically use it on your door frame without apparently any chance of damaging anything. It can hold up to a 250lb person and I weigh 188lbs (85kg). I can only do 1 proper pull up before I fail. When I was 20yrs old I could do 6.

My goal is to be able to do 10.

Please leave a comment if you know anything about doing pull ups

Here is online trainer Scooby showing you how to use it:

2011 WSOP Main Event November Nine

After 12 days of poker the 9 finalists have made it through. They hail from all over the world and will play to win the number 1 prize of $8,711,956.

The final table will take place between November 5-7, 2011 at the Rio in Las Vegas.

Seat 1: Matt Giannetti (USA) – 24,750,000 chips
Seat 2: Badih Bounahra (Belize) – 19,700,000 chips
Seat 3: Eoghan O’Dea (Ireland) – 33,925,000 chips
Seat 4: Phil Collins (USA) – 23,875,000 chips
Seat 5: Anton Makiievskyi (Ukraine) – 13,825,000 chips
Seat 6: Sam Holden (UK) – 12,375,000 chips
Seat 7: Pius Heinz (Germany) – 16,425,000 chips
Seat 8: Ben Lamb (USA) – 20,875,000 chips
Seat 9: Martin Staszko (Czech Republic) – 40,175,000 chips

Beware Ivan Freitez Angle Shoot Trick

Having just watched a little of the EPT Grand Final I witnessed a pretty scummy angle shoot performed by Ivan Freitez, the eventual winner.

I have to say I was quite disgusted by his play and it was said that he had done it 4 times during the event.

What he does is if he gets the nuts on the river in position and he is facing a bet he says 'raise' and then immediately says sorry I mean 'call'. He then pretends his English is bad and says 'No English'.

The floor manager is then called and tells him that the raise stands. Once he makes the raise it will appear that he is weak and has made an error and will encourage a call or raise from a weaker hand that may have folded to a raise made properly. This is certainly not in the spirit of the game.

In the incident I saw the floor manager informed his opponent of what he had done on 3 previous occasions and each time he had the nuts.

So if you're ever sat with this guy don't fall for his trick..!!

Got a blog? Want more readers/hits? Find out how by reading these blogging tips.

Want to see some of the most baller pc/poker set-ups? These are pretty awesome..!!

When NOT To Bluff...............

Watch exactly how NOT to play this hand...!!

Richard Bacon's Beer & Pizza Club

I took time out on sat night to go to a show at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

Richard Bacon's Beer and Pizza Club (renamed The Richard Bacon Show) is a chat show where the set is designed to resemble a flat where his mates (guests) come over for a chat. They actual gave out real beer n pizza to some of the audience.

The show revolves around the guest being asked a series of quirky questions that they have to answer. They questions are set by each guest and one is also sent in by email from an audience member.

The celebs on the night were Keith Lemon, Danny Wallace, Justin Lee Collins and Imogen Thomas. They get them to sit in the audience and come down at the start of the show. Lemon was sat 2 seats away from me so I will be on cam for about 2 seconds, lol.

They also had a stand up comedian in between breaks and before the show who was pretty good. All in all it was a pretty funny show and will air on ITV4 in the near future.

Here's Imogen for those who don't know:

Skype Scammers target Pokerstars players, BEWARE......

A Pokerstars player posted a report on a forum thread about an attempted hack on their account by a skype scammer. The crook adds you on skype with their user name as 'Pokerstars Online Support' and then contacts you.

Pokerstars and Skype are aware of these guys and are taking measures to block them.

A transcript of the attempt was posted and I have reproduced it below.

The English used is pretty dam funny and terrible.




Scam attempt:

[11:25:01 AM] Scammer: Hi, it's pokerstars online support
[11:25:15 AM] Scammer: we have qustions for your account, can you answer now ?
[11:25:28 AM] Player: very quickly lots of tables
[11:25:29 AM] Player: lol
[11:25:46 AM] Scammer: tell me please, do you join at your account today NOT at home ?
[11:26:08 AM] Scammer: someone from Germany join today at your account
[11:26:15 AM] Player: ummmmm no
[11:26:17 AM] Player: im home
[11:26:18 AM] Scammer: we thinks thats your account can be cracked
[11:26:28 AM] Scammer: it's problem
[11:26:51 AM] Scammer: we shoud check your account manual, but u'r play now, and we don't block you
[11:27:19 AM] Scammer: write your password and email, after you game we will check you account and send results and new password
[11:27:27 AM] Player: lol no thanks
[11:27:45 AM] Scammer: ok, it mean that we right now block
[11:28:01 AM] Scammer: you agree ?
[11:28:28 AM] Michael: im not handing out my password via chat
[11:28:52 AM] Scammer: so it means that you agree
[11:29:00 AM] Scammer: i'm sorry but i will block you right now
[11:29:02 AM] Player: if ur pokerstars u should have my details already
[11:29:25 AM] Scammer: it's manual checking, i must ask your password

The full thread can be found here

Downsizing

Making my move down to playing 12 tables from 16. I got no excuse now. If I can't win at a decent rate playing only 12 tables then its time to move on...!!

I want to step up my live play too. I set out from July to go to the casino once a month for a change of scenery but I think I will make it twice a month and then eventually once a week.

Where Them Girls At - David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj, Flo Rida

Squeeze with it 6-high, lets gamboool it up............

[ ] Poker is dead

Poker Stars $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players

CO: $248.00
BTN: $89.85
SB: $57.00
BB: $54.35
UTG: $41.50
UTG+1: $51.15
MP1: $100.00
Hero (MP2): $100.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP2 with K A
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $3, 1 fold, Hero calls $3, CO calls $3, 1 fold, SB raises to $12, 2 folds, Hero raises to $100, 1 fold, SB calls $45 all in

Flop: ($121.00) 2 T 9 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($121.00) 5 (2 players - 1 is all in)


He has 23% equity here as he picks up a gut shot

River: ($121.00) A (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $121.00
SB shows 4 6
Hero shows K A
Hero wins $118.00
(Rake: $3.00)

These type of hands are fun against maniacs

66 into 23

Poker Stars $100.00 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players

UTG+1: $100.00
UTG+2: $102.15
Hero (MP1): $100.00
MP2: $203.85
CO: $162.60
BTN: $109.60
SB: $182.50
BB: $100.00
UTG: $46.55

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP1 with Q Q
2 folds, UTG+2 raises to $3, Hero calls $3, MP2 calls $3, 4 folds

Flop: ($10.50) 8 Q 9 (3 players)
UTG+2 checks, Hero bets $6.70, MP2 calls $6.70, UTG+2 folds

Turn: ($23.90) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets $66.00, Hero calls $66

River: ($155.90) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $24.30, MP2 calls $24.30

Final Pot: $204.50
Hero shows Q Q
MP2 shows 9 3
Hero wins $201.50
(Rake: $3.00)

2011 42nd Annual World Series of Poker Main Event Entrants, Prizepool and Payouts

The Final Numbers are In:

Buy-in: $10,000

Prizepool: $64,531,000

Entries: 6,865

Place               Earnings

1st                   $8,711,956

2nd                  $5,430,928

3rd                   $4,019,635

4th                   $3,011,661

5th                   $2,268,909

6th                   $1,720,396

7th                   $1,313,851

8th                   $1,009,910

9th                   $782,115

10th-12th         $607,882

13th-15th         $478,174

16th-18th         $378,796

19th-27th         $302,005

28th-36th         $242,636

37th-45th         $196,174

46th-54th         $160,036

55th-63rd        $130,997

64th-72nd        $108,412

73rd-81st         $90,343

82nd-90th        $76,146

91st-99th         $64,531

100th-162nd    $54,851

163rd-225th    $47,107

226th-288th     $40,654

289th-351st     $35,492

352nd-414th    $30,974

415th-477th     $27,103

478th-549th     $23,876

550th-621st     $21,295

622nd-693rd   $19,359

Half the World - 100 Nations

It amazing to think that your blog has been viewed in half of the worlds countries.

I noticed today that supernova125.blogspot.com has been viewed in 100 nations.

When I started jotting notes on this site it was merely for me to look over and see how bad my results were each year by month and annually.

Its crazy that I have almost 40,000 page views.

Roll on the next 40,000...!!

Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007)

This week I watched an interesting documentary, Zeitgeist: The Movie.

Peter Joseph is the American writer, director and producer of the Zeitgeist Trilogy of Movies. There is also a 4th movie in the pipeline.

This thought provoking film is split into 3 parts:

Part 1 questions the origins of the Christian Religion and whether it was developed through other Pagan Religions. He also talks about the Jesus myth hypothesis.

Part 2 is about conspiracy theories relating to the events of 9/11 and whether they were actually carried out by the US government in order to gain public support for the so called 'war on terror'.

Part 3, titled 'Don't mind the men behind the iron curtain' questions whether war is deliberately orchestrated for financial gain. Joseph says that the powers behind the Federal Reserve want wars to occur so that the US government has to borrow money to fund these wars and thereby the bankers become wealthier.

This movie is well worth watching if you're into conspiracy theories. Whether you believe the ideas or not it will definitely get you thinking.

I have just watched the 2nd movie called Addendum which is also very interesting and based around the ideology of a resource based world vs a monetary society and how technology would be far more advanced today if we had no money in the world and if everyone just worked towards their full potential in life.

Verdict: 7/10

Top 10 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Bracelet Winners Of All time

The WSOP has been going on since 1970 when Benny Binion kicked things off at the Horseshoe Casino.

Each person that wins an event receives a bracelet and a cash prize based on the buy-in and number of entrants.

Many have won bracelets over the years that have ensued. Some have been lucky or skilled enough to win multiple bracelets.

Here is the all time winners list:

11 - Phil Hellmuth

10 - Doyle Brunson

10 - Johnny Chan

9 - Johnny Moss

8 - Phil Ivey

8 - Erik Seidel

7 - Billy Baxter

7 - Men Nguyen

6 - T.J. Cloutier

6 - Layne Flack

6 - Jay Heimowitz

In other news I briefly played some live poker yesterday at the Vic in London. After spending time at the bar, the restaurant, the roulette tables and generally walking around I sat down to play the £1/£1 game while on the long waiting list for the £1/£2 game. 

I quickly realised my seat draw was the worst at the table as I had the most active and aggressive player directly to my left. I won a couple a three figure pots before shipping a bit to this aggrodonk to my left. He only showed down one hand and it was AA. I have no idea if he ever had a hand the other times but being OOP I had to fold to his aggression a few times as I had weak holdings. I banked a small win for the night and left the table within 45mins. I thought about joining a better table but instead I hung out with my gf and mate.

2011 WSOP Main Event Commences + Hellmuth misses out on number 12 again

So, its all kicked off... The big one has begun and day 1a is over.

I will one day play in this event, hopefully next year.

897 players started the first day with 341 biting the dust and failing to make day 2. The next 3days will be day 1b, day 1c and day 1d. In total it is a 13 day event.

The forecast entrants figure is likely to be around the 5500 mark. This is more than 3000 below the peak of 2006 when 8773 players entered and the final was won by Jamie Gold for a cool $12,000,000.

Some familiar players started day 1a, they included Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Greg Raymer, Annette Obrestad, Lex Veldhuis, Fatima Moreira, Jerry Yang, Vanessa Selbst, Randy Lew and Isaac Haxton.

I wonder who will end up winning the final table and a life changing chunk of change. Last year Canadian Jonathan Duhamel scoop $8,944,310 after defeating the field of 7319 players.

In other news Phil Hellmuth narrowly missed out on a record breaking 12th bracelet when he finished 2nd the the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship. At one stage Phil had a 5:1 chip lead over eventual winner Brian Rast.

In the final hand Phil picked up a flush draw on a flop of JT9dd while holding 82dd. Rast was holding KQ for the nuts as Hellmuth pushed all in. Rast held and Hellmuth was unable to break his own record of 11 Bracelets.

GL to all in the main event.