Multi-Tabling.............

So, how the hell do all the people multi-table? They must be off their dam heads.... The neck pain must be immense and RSI would have kicked into their mouse hand many moons ago.....

Well, efficiency is the key... As you can see from the above pic of my set-up i have one 24" screen and one 19" screen, so the visible area is not too big... never had any neck pain ever. Also Table Ninja is a must.

Previously i had been 20tabling at NL100 with the 10 tables you see visible, double stacked..... I have now dropped down to NL50 to try to improve my game. I now do one of the following:

1. Have 6 NL50 tables running on the left screen while i read online on the right screen.
2. Have 4 NL50 tables running on the right screen while i watch poker Training Vids on the left wide screen
3. Or finally play 10Tables (8x 50NL, 2x 100NL) across both screens

I do not like to stack or cascade as i want to follow the action on all tables if poss. If i am 20tabling i can always minimise 1 screen to see whats below, but if i had 10+ stacked on top of each other this would be a nightmare.

I am finding playing 10tables much better for my decision making and picking up reads, as 20tables is very intense at times.

So don't overload yourself peeps, just play within your comfort zone. And if u wanna go for SNE then you may just have to turn into a BOT to make it happen....

Laters

Tournament Tear-Up....

Well not quite the MTT that i had expected.....

2 weeks ago I joined a poker club called The WesternClub. Its located in NW London, just of the A40/A406 Junction(Hanger Lane). It is a much smaller and intimate venue than some of the Big City Casinos that you find in central London.

Anyway, yesterday was my 1st visit to what i thought would be the biggest tourni of the week. They run 2 tourni's mon-fri (afternoon + evening) and one on sat and sun evening. Weds night is the Deep Stack (10,000 Chips) £40 FreezeOut. I thought there might be 3 tables running but instead it was in effect a 10 man sit n go as turn out was low.

I think its quite wise when you come to a new place or first sit at a new table to take as much in as possible about your opponents. What i know about this place is that it is full of Regs. It is quite different from a casino uptown where you will have recreational players and people on a night out gambling. I was very quiet and there was a lot of chat going on. All nine of my opponents knew each other well and i can only describe it as gate-crashing somebody's home game where you knew nobody...!!

As the game developed it was clear with the exception of 2 guys that these were pretty hardcore players. I recognised a few of the leaderboard runners who have their player profiles on the site. The reigning leader was too my left and i thought that i had drawn the worst seat, but as it turned out i think he was pretty card dead and played tight all night.... in fact i raised him twice blind v blind and he folded and also a few of times on the button and he didn't play back once.

The 2 weak players busted early and one by one they fell..... soon i found myself 3 handed and in the cash. I did get some nice cards and i won 2 flips along the way, but the fun bit was that i made well timed bluffs which got through. I think my quietness built up a strong image and that helped. I made loadsa mistakes posting the wrong blinds and forgetting to say 'raise' when i put chips in.... it then being deemed a call.... i mean online you just hit raise... you don't need to say it... lol

3 handed there were 2 memorable hands where i donked my betting. With blinds of 1000/2000 i threw in 5000 OTB with T4o, a pure steal, but i forgot to say raise, so it was a call, SB folded and BB checked.... The flop was AQ6 he checked but a got a tell so i checked. The turn brought 3 clubs on the board and he checked.... now i have to bet here, but for some reason i checked and the river brought a 4 flush on the board... i had the 4 of clubs and showdown value and embarrassingly had to turn over T4o and with it went my tight image. I won the pot though and thats all that mattered at this stage. He had a Q and i don't think he would have folded so i think my line was right even though i could have repped the Ace with 2 bets on the flop and turn.

Funnily enough i my think raise-call mistakes OTB scared my opponents into thinking i had big hands. A few hands later i tried again to raise to 5000 with 67o but threw in the 5k chip without announcing so it was a call again... SB called, BB checked..... Flop was AJ3 and it checked to me... this time i Cbet and they couldn't fold quick enough... lol

The cash in this tourni was very small relatively but it was my first live tourni (not including home games) for over a year and was lots of fun vs good players. We eventually decided to chop.... i had more than half the chips in play and at first said no to the deal and played on as i thought it was a poor split but as one of the guys said one double up and it all changes.... he was right but more so i felt like i was the weakest player at the table so finally i agreed and we split:

1st: £140
2nd: £110
3rd: £110
4th: £40

Here is my name on a tourni winners posting... the 1st time ever in my life...!!

http://www.thewesternclub.com/result/400

Time for me to start-up my tourni play......

August Mid Month Review

The middle of the month is here and I have played around 20,000 hands so far.

My emphasis these last 14 days has been on playing less, studying more. I have read a lot online and invested in HEM.

I have worked more closely with HEM and the HUD and definitely see the benefits in both and they are now part of my game.

The HUD stats that i have live are: VPIP, PFR, Cbet, Steal, Fold to Steal, 3bet and Fold to 3bet.

There are like about 200 possible stat fields that you can choose from. I don't want too much junk on my screen so i will use the above only and concentrate on my game

The numbers so far for August are as follows:

+$891 (Table Winnings)
-$90 (HEM Investment)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

+$801 (Total Month)

2010/2011 English Premiership Football Season - Poker Fantasy League

The new football season commenced today. 38 weeks of high octane action begins. So, you fancy yourself as a football manager?? Well put your skills to the test.

The official premiership site runs a fantasy football game of which i have played for the last 5yrs or so. This time i have created a league for all SSNL poker players. We have 6 runners already.

If you want to sign up, please go to the link below and create your team. Once your team is ready, join my league. Code is: 1602000-310925

http://fantasy.premierleague.com/

GL

What's up at NL50...??

I have been playing NL50 for the last week or so and it is very interesting to see the new dynamic of players. I search players on PTR and colour code them according to my ranking system of BB/100.

The Ranks are as follows:

1 Donk
2 Average Player
3 Above Average
4 Solid Pro
5 Elite Player

What this does is aid my Table Selection / Seating Selection. What i have noticed is that there are very few Rank 3-5 players compared with NL100 and NL200.

It's still very early days for me but there seem to be far more recreational players and less REGs than at NL100. Another very interesting observation is the 3bet and 4bet strategies at NL50. I think players play back far more at NL100 when you 3bet and fold far more at NL50.

I have now also been using HEM for about a week and am quite impressed with it. I am making use of the HUD too but with over 200 possible Stat features i have settled for displaying the following:

VPIP
PFR
Steal
Fold to Steal
3Bet
Fold to 3bet
Hands Played(sample size)

Using the HUD helped me identify the most passive REG that i think i have ever encounted. Here are his stats over a 800 or so hand sample:

VPIP: 14.8
PFR: 0.6
PFR/VPIP: 4.0
3Bet: 0.0
Agg: 0.83

I got into about 22Pots with this guy and i just showed so much aggression to keep taking it down. I think the score was 18-4 to me in pot battles. I don't always switch the HUD on because it gives me information overload, but it can be very useful.

In the last week at NL 50 i am up around 17 BIs. Here is the graph:


I will continue to battle at NL50 as i look to build my bankroll to a good level.

My key objective for this month will be to digest the gems from Harrington on Cash Games I & II.

My volume will be small as i only 10table now instead of 20

Okay, till the next episode.... laters

July 2010 Review

The Photo attached summarises how my month has gone. After suffering numerous bad beats i found myself up at mid point due to a cash bonus.

My game then deteriorated as i tried to make things happen instead of waiting and picking on good spots. I then had around 8 down days of Internet which is still not restored, but i am using a temp ISP until my appointment comes around.

I have now sadly dropped down to NL50 in order to sort my game out and also due to a lack of funds in my account. Yesterday was interesting as i installed HEM (trial) onto my system. I am still playing with all the settings to find a set-up that i like.

However the HUD is not impressing me at all. The numbers are all over the place and my screen looks like a messed-up matrix. Every time move the stats manually, they move on each screen and as i sit on different seats on each table their fix seat function is useless for me. Also if you are a multi-tabler i think you will waste a lot of time trying to use the stats to add benefit while timing out on other tables. The other issue i have is that if you do not have a big sample size, how good are your stats? You will benefit if you can quickly identify a recreational player who limps a lot and calls PFRs too often. I think i will spend Aug worrying more about my game and keep the HUD switched off..!!

I have some really good literature to read in Aug, so it will be very much a training month while trying to beat NL50. My target will be a modest +$1500 from table winnings with no bonuses forecast till Sept. I also want to spend a little time on live games at some of the London Casinos/ Poker Rooms. I am really looking forward to the Supernova Freeroll too as it will be my first one. If i can final table that one it will sort out the rest of 2010 financially.

The final numbers for July are as follows:

-$1,945 (Table Losses)
+$1,500 (Cash Bonus)
+$85 (MinCash Turbo Takedown)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

-$360 (Total Month)



The YTD numbers as at the end of July are as follows:

+$5,745 - Jan*
+$3,385 - Feb*
+$467 - Mar*
+$1,620 - Apr*
+$1,234 - May*
-$1,555 - June
-$360 - July
--------------------------------------------------------------------

+$10,536 (Total YTD)

So my first 2 months as an FPP Pro could not have gone much worse to be honest. I am even more determined to succeed now and intend to put in the most amount of time ever in 1 month into training at poker. This month i will not be a hunting FPPs but working on my win-rate. My employment income officially ended in July. So i will have to make cash in Aug to pay my rent..!!

On another note, i just got back from Zorbing in Hertfordshire. It was good fun and definitely worth doing at least once before you die. In terms of value it was quite expensive @ 35GBP for 20seconds of Thrill time. I took my camera but when i attempted to turn it on the battery was completely dead, doh.... what a donk. Luckily once of the guys got some footage, so Pics / Video to come...


See you at the tables in Aug and go easy on me.

Talking To Myself.......

I started this blog to randomly jot down how my awful poker play would pan out and to maybe laugh in years to come as I eventually became better and better and got to stage where i would destroy Phil Ivey at the WSOP ME. I didn't actually think that anyone would bother to read it. I have often talked to myself during tough times and this was just another angle to converse with me.

Anyway, just out of interest i installed sitemeter on this blog(bottom of the page on the left) to see if i would get more than 1 view a day (yes, that's me checking up on myself) . So far in 15days there have been 280 hits.... whoooaaaa.... not bad for a boring old fart...!!


Anyway, back to the poker.... All the bad beats have made my play equally bad and i have now established a new focus for the up coming weeks.... I do not want to put any more cash into my account in the next month or so. This means that i will now drop down to NL50 for possibly the whole of August. This will have a big effect on my bonus generating abilities but i think the most important thing is to improve my game. I will also drop from 20tables to 10 for added thinking time. This means i now sit down with $500 each time instead of $2,000. My swings and variance should also come down. Time to big up my +EV.....


I am going back to basics, back to the drawing board.... It will be like the last 5yrs never happened and someone just handed me my 1st deck of cards and shouted shuffle up n deal punk.




I need to develop my poker mindset. I will invest in HEM and also spend some time on sites like cardrunners and deucescracked. I am now on 2p2 and have been reading a book on odds and probabilities. I am learning off by heart the 1card and 2card drawing odds tables for outs between 1-20. I have Harrington's 2 books on cash games and hopeful i will absorb every little gem he has to offer.

I am also going to begin development on my Tournament game as the starting ranges and concepts differ so much from cash games. Wow, that's a lot of stuff to do.

On another note i will be going Zorbing on Sunday (weather permitting), so i hope to add to YouTube vid of me and my bro spiralling down some hill at 35mph in a huge bouncy ball. Hopefully this will jolt my poker game into the premier league of NL50, lol.

Peace...

What Would You Do...........???

Here's a poker conundrum for you....

So, in this situation what would you do???

Hmmmmm......

Click Link:

??????????????????

ADS-HELL........

My god dam ADSL Internet Connection has been busted for a almost week now. I have spent many minutes talking to India which has been fun as much of the English conversation has been spelt out to me in phonetic alphabet by the call centres..... Hotel Echo Lima Lima (HELL)

Basically its still busted and TalkTalk are so lame that it takes 2 weeks to get an engineer out to my house.... They reckon that there might be a problem with the line even though the phone works perfectly. So it could not possibly be their modem or filter or cables that is the issue... hmmmm.. Strange that i have to pay only if the line is faulty as the other items are their responsibility. The phone works so they ain't getting a penny outta me..!!

Its 1am and I have just sorted a dodgy temp fix... so poker should be back tomorrow. When IT systems fail it is just so crippling to an online poker player..!!

However, it might be a blessing in disguise as my poker over the last 7 weeks has been woeful. Maybe a break from the tables is just what i needed...!!

Anyway as a newly qualified Supernova i am looking forward to my 1st $1m quarterly freeroll on 7th August. Not sure what to expect though in terms of runners... I am hoping that as this is restricted to SN VIPs and SNEs the field should be relatively small compared to a Sunday Million for example... As 999 places are paid hopefully i should get into the cash...!! The $150,000 1st prize would be sweet though. So what are my chances???........ Well, slim to none would be my guess as i suck at Tourneys.

My best tourney result came quite recently when i final tabled a UK freeroll. It was a satellite to the UK regional grand final with 9 places being awarded a spot in the main event. There were 4747 runners and i tried and interesting style of play which seemed to work well. With 50 players left i was chip leader and i hung on to that lead till about the last 20. When the final table was set, i was 3rd in chips and had made the cash (which was tiny) and received my ticket to the ME. I then went crazy and started to gamble wildly... big mistake... I was duly busted 1st at the final table.... lol..

I have been watching the Tour de France highlights show daily on ITV4 but tomorrow looks set to be the big showdown up the Col du Tourmalet. I will watch this stage Live and it should be fascinating as Andy Schleck has to attack if he has any chance of winning Yellow in Paris. With Contador favoured to beat Schleck in the time trial, Schleck must gain a lead tomorrow of over a minute to have any chance putting on the maillot jaune... You can do it Andy...!!

Poor Lance Armstrong had a shocker on one of the early stages when he crashed 3 times and effectively ended any chance of a podium finish... It would have been great to see him in his prime against Alberto Contador... would have been an awesome battle..

Peace...

July Mid Month Review...

July so far has been pretty relaxed. I have put in less volume than June in the first 13 days of the month. I enjoyed the World Cup and Wimbledon and am now keeping an eye on Le Tour.

The poker story is that the bad run continues and does not seem to be ending. I continue to get battered at the tables but am still pretty confident as i am getting it in with the best hands. Here are a few recent hands:

1. I raise in early position with AA, i get re-raised, we get it AIPF. Villain turns over AA also and i laugh.... well, until he hits the Flush and Stacks me.... now I'm Crying......

2. I raise in mid-position with AA, SB re-raises me, i re-raise and we are AIPF. He turns over KK and I am looking good for a double up. Then BANG, he hits his Flush.... Stacked Again.... Raaaaaaarrrrrr......

3. I get AA and raise in the cut-off, SB moves AI for around $40, i snap call.... He shows QQ and duly hits his straight on the river.... Great...!!

4a. I had been watching a crazy loose donk on one table. He was sitting to my right which was perfect as i would always have position on him. A situation arrived where we were blind vs blind. I had AA in the BB. He calls and i raise to 5x (i was making my raises larger to him as he was calling many larger raises pre-flop). The Flop comes 8QQ (2 Spades) and he shoves $18 into a $10 pot. Now he may have a Q, but there is now way that i am folding AA in that situation. I call, he shows 84o. Great situation for me... he can't hit a 4 as i have 2 pair AA & QQ, so only 2 outs with the 8s. You know what comes next.... 8 on the turn.... The donk hits a full-house. Now he has around $50... that should be mine... lol

4b. I am out to get this guy now and its not long before i pick up JJ in mid position. He has already limped, so i raise 7x now and of course he calls. The flop is 849 rainbow and surprisingly he leads into me with a bet around 80% of the Pot. Now, normally i would think a little here before my decision but as i am pretty sure i have the best hand i snap call (i think i should have shoved actually).... anyways, the turn is a 2 and he checks. I bet pretty big and he check-raises AI. I call and the fool turns over K8o. As usual i am way ahead with one card to come. And obviously the card last is.................. a big FAT K to give him 2 pair and double up through me again..... What can i do???

The Poker Gods seem to be mad at me for some reason....... Its so frustrating, but i am still enjoying it..

Every now and then though there is always a player that makes me smile at the tables...
I love this hand:

I pick up AQ in mid position and raise 3x. The button calls and so does the BB. $9 in the pot.... The flop is AQA.... nice... BB checks, I check to slow play the NUTS, and the guy on the button bets $47 into the $9 Pot..... wtf...??? Anyway, I call and he shows J7dd with no diamonds on the board.... For a change i cant lose as he is drawing dead and i pick up a nice pot..... lmao..... Its fun sometimes...

July numbers so far:

-$442 (Table Losses)
+$1,500 (Cash Bonus)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

+$1,058 (Total MTD)

If my bad beat hands had held up i reckon i would be up almost +$1,000 at the tables.... but it is what it is... no 'ifs', no 'buts'.... At least i am up with the bonus.... The fight goes on...

I want to target the $4,000 cash bonuses but as my bankroll has been very low i need cash ASAP and have been going for the $1,500 cash bonuses to build my roll up quicker. These are cheaper and quicker to release but obviously not as good value so i am losing out there. I plan to get one more $1,500 bonus before i start to go for the bigger one.

Its a little bit scary to think that from next month i will have no income and i will have to make it as a pro poker player or i will be in trouble. My bills amount to around $1,600 each month, so i will need to get that as a minimum. My goal is to earn around $3,000 p/m from poker. I will receive my final pay cheque from my previous employer next week and that's it then... from 1st Aug I'm a poker pro. I will step up my volume significantly to make sure that i rack up as many VPPs as possible each month

Come on heater... where are you???