August 2011 Review

Its been a roller-coaster month as per usual and I have failed to make what I would have liked. I was aiming to win around 40 BIs in August but have fallen well short.

It started so well being up close to 20 BIs within the first week so I thought it was on for the 40 BIs and maybe my first appearance in the UGL Top 50 for the month but then I lost it all, then won it all back, then lost a little..... blah blah blah

Anyway.....

The final numbers for August are as follows:

125,000 Hands Played
20,281 VPPs

+$646 (Cash Game Winnings)
+$23 (Online Tourni Winnings)
+$148 (Live Cash Winnings)
+$25 (Stake Swap)
+$1,500 (FPP Cash Bonus)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
+$2,341 (Total Month)


The Ytd numbers as at the end of August are as follows:

909,000 Hands Played
222,137 VPPs

-$1,214 - Jan
+$1,075 - Feb
+$722 - Mar
+$4,766 - Apr
+$3,278 - May
+$415 - Jun
+$1,334 - Jul
+$2,341 - Aug
--------------------------------------------------------------------
+$12,717 (Total YTD)

A -34 bb/100 Villain and I pick up AA

I was only playing 4 tables at the time on my small screen as I watched a documentary on my larger screen.

When you play fewer tables you can pay much more attention to the finer details of the game. I was busy colour coding all my new opponents as I played. I had just played NL100 and was up around $20 when the tables had become less favourable.

I decided to close them down and switch to NL50. If I play a small number of tables I tend to take a lot more notes and watch every move. I open a Deep table alongside a Euro table and 2 standard NL50 100bb tables. I spotted a guy on the deep table who I colour coded as a whale when I saw his -34 bb/100 loss rate. I had position on him too and thought it would be nice to get into a pot with him.

Then, I get dealt AA and the whale opens UTG.... I am licking my lips. He opens to 5x and here is what happened next.....:


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

SB: $235.75
BB: $108.10
UTG: $161.00
UTG+1: $93.95
UTG+2: $50.00
Hero (MP1): $127.45
MP2: $161.90
CO: $81.20
BTN: $56.05

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is MP1 with A A
UTG raises to $2.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $9.75, 5 folds, UTG calls $7.25

I make the 3bet quite large at 4x. I could have made it larger and he would have called but at the time I didn't know that and was cautious not to scare him off

Flop: ($20.25) 3 5 7 (2 players)
UTG bets $4.00, Hero raises to $19.50, UTG calls $15.50

Low flop with flush & straight draws, so, not too scary. He leads for 20% of the pot. Now when he does this I assume he is not sophisticated enough to bet small to induce and this is a scared pot control bet or a I want to draw cheaply blocker type bet. I raise big to 5x.

Turn: ($59.25) Q (2 players)
UTG bets $31.50, Hero raises to $98.10, UTG calls $66.60

When the Q arrives on the turn he leads for around 5/8 pot and I think for a sec damn, hope he hasn't turn a set of queens. With 2 draws out there and the type of villain I don't hesitate to shove.

River: ($255.45) 2 (2 players)

Final Pot: $255.45

UTG shows 7 6
Hero shows A A

Hero wins $253.35
(Rake: $2.10)

Little did I know how great the flop was for me vs this type of guy who loves top pair. He also had the gut shot to go along with it which is actually 37% equity. On the turn he has 20% equity. Remarkably I held for once and took down a 500bb pot.

Show Me The Funny - Live at the Hammersmith Apollo

Show Me The Funny was a reality comedy show which featured 10 comedians of varying levels of experience as they battled it out to win £100,000, a full UK tour and their very own Xmas DVD.

The show lasted 6 weeks and saw the contestants gig at different venues all over the country.

Their audiences included Liverpool ladies, rugby players and a load of school children. Each week the weakest comedian is voted off until 3 remain for the final.

Yesterday was the live final at the Hammersmith Apollo. I was lucky enough to secure a couple of tickets and went along to see quite an entertaining show. The 3 acts were all pretty good and the eventual winner was Patrick Monahan.

The Show can be found here.

Its the Wild West at NL50

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

UTG+1: $26.40
UTG+2: $53.90
MP1: $20.15
MP2: $23.45
CO: $40.15
BTN: $20.45
Hero (SB): $50.00
BB: $46.30
UTG: $20.00


The Villains here both nice donators

BB is a 47/0 and MP1 is playing 82/9, both over small samples


Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is SB with A K
3 folds, MP1 raises to $1, 1 fold, CO calls $1, BTN calls $1, Hero raises to $6.75, BB calls $6.25, MP1 calls $5.75, 2 folds

Flop: ($22.25) K 9 K (3 players)
Hero bets $11.00, BB raises to $22, MP1 calls $13.40 all in, Hero raises to $43.25, BB calls $17.55 all in

Against Regs in this position someone is bound to have 99 but against maniacs this is the dream flop..!!


Turn: ($114.75) 3 (3 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($114.75) Q (3 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $114.75

MP1 shows T 9
Hero shows A K
BB shows J A

Hero wins $59.45
(Rake: $3.00)


I have to say that I have been playing terribly this month and am still having success because of pots like this keeping me in the profit. If I was playing NL100 or NL200 this month I would have been crushed as there aren't as many give aways and you have to earn your $$$s..!!

The funny thing is that everyday when I review my sessions I know exactly how I should have played the bad hands but I am not executing it at the moment in the heat of battle for some reason.

After 1 session today I find myself up $22 but have spotted 3 hands where I spewed $90 in easy fold spots. So, I should be up £110 but my control has been bad.

Then, on the flip side there are some days where I play flawlessly and make virtually no mistakes.

I have to find some consistency..!!

Movie Review: The Inbetweeners Movie

If you liked the series then you will most likely love the film.

I discovered the tv show quite late on as they were beginning the 3rd series. I quickly caught up with the previous 2 batches and immediately became a fan.

On Thursday I went to catch the film and wasn't disappointed. You pretty much know what to expect.... more of the usual non sense and buffoonary which is all good fun.

Schools out and the guys are all going to be moving on with their new lives. Before that there is time for a lads holiday in Malia, Crete.

Simon is dumped by his girlfriend and agrees that a holiday will cheer him up. They end up in an absolute dump of a hotel and soon hit the streets. The guys get lured into a 'banging' club which turns out to be empty but its too late as they have paid their entry fee. They meet a group of ladies and make their moves...

The film builds up to a big boat party where Simon will attempt to win back his ex, who incidently is also on holiday in the same place. Between Arrival and the Boat Party they go through many ups n downs...

If you're not sure then let me assure you it's a good watch

Verdict: 7.3/10

 

They are all great characters but I think Will is my favourite

Rosh

Amazing River Fold

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

UTG+2: $25.10
MP1: $36.70
MP2: $52.25
CO: $50.00
BTN: $52.20
SB: $20.25
BB: $37.20
UTG: $61.20
Hero (UTG+1): $72.60

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is UTG+1 with 6 6
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.50, 6 folds, BB calls $1

Flop: ($3.25) T 6 7 (2 players)
BB bets $1.00, Hero raises to $3.90, BB calls $2.90

Turn: ($11.05) 7 (2 players)
BB bets $4.50, Hero raises to $9, BB calls $4.50

River: ($29.05) K (2 players)
BB bets $17.50, Hero raises to $56.30, BB folds

Final Pot: $64.05

Hero wins $61.05
(Rake: $3.00)

The comedy value in this hand is that the villain puts in virtually his whole stack in on the river leaving behind around $5 and then folds to my shove. I haven't seen one of these type plays in a while... Always good fun

Hold'em Manager 2 - Training Day

I have just received my pass key for the beta testing for Hold'em Manager 2.

For those who are not aware, Hold'em Manager is a vital database and statistical tool for the serious poker poker. Lots of the top celeb players do not use programs like HEM but the serious grinders all seem to do so. I have used HEM for over a year now and would be lost without it. It also has a HUD included.

The latest version, HM2 is now being rolled out and I have just installed it. It is currently importing my database from the previous version. I have around 1.2m hands to import and it is about 15% complete as I write this.

I an going to spend today learning how to use this piece of software to the best of its ability. I will report in a future post my results and thoughts about how good this is compared to its predecessor.

R

Should Men wear Earrings?

I was at the gym today and saw a big muscle dude wearing hoop earrings like f***ing Pat Butcher.

I was outraged, lol...!!

I'm old school and think earrings are for the ladies and would never wear one myself.

So today's question is simply:

Should Men wear Earrings?

Standard and Poor's AAA Rating

Standard and Poor is a credit rating agency that issues credit ratings for the debt of public and private corporations and sovereign states.

The company rates borrowers on a scale from AAA to D.

AAA means an extremely strong capacity to meet your financial commitments.

You may have seen recently that USA has lost its AAA rating for the first time in History and been downgraded to AA+.

This made me really curious to know which nations currently have the AAA rating.

Here they are:

Australia
Austria
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Liechtenstein
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Singapore
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom


Later

Rigged............. Obviously

Online Poker and Poker in general must be rigged, surely???

We hear it all the time and at least one person at the tables will start making comments of this nature after taking a bad beat, pretty much everyday.

I was waiting for the usual flood of comments after this hand..... but shockingly they never materialised.

Maybe players are coming to terms with their bad beats and learning some serious tilt control.

Take it like a pro....!!



Poker Stars $50.00 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players

UTG+1: $82.95
MP: $56.15
Hero (CO): $64.35
BTN: $50.00
SB: $45.65
BB: $57.45
UTG: $53.50

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero is CO with Q Q
UTG raises to $1.50, UTG+1 calls $1.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $6, 3 folds, UTG calls $4.50, UTG+1 calls $4.50

Flop: ($18.75) J Q 4 (3 players)
UTG checks, UTG+1 bets $12.00, Hero calls $12, UTG raises to $47.50, UTG+1 raises to $76.95, Hero calls $46.35 all in

Turn: ($182.95) 3 (3 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($182.95) 2 (3 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $182.95

UTG+1 shows K K
Hero shows Q Q
UTG shows J J

Hero wins $158.25
(Rake: $-15.60)