Moving Up the ZOOM Ladder

I've finally fixed my hand import for ZOOM and can now review my hands.

I have also partially got a HUD in place. It is visible but it keeps showing the player stats from the previous hands which does not really help during a hand but I can go back and make notes in replayer.

I am working with the HM1 guys to get that fixed. If anyone knows a fix please let me know.

Since my partial fixes I have just played ZOOM NL50 for the first time. I made a ton pretty quick and saw a few people open shoving shite like A4o which is pretty encouraging for the format. It is the weekend though so there will be a few more maniacs gambling.

I got quite carried away playing this stupid unbalanced limp re-raise move at ZOOM NL25. Players were just not adjusting and kept raising my limps which was quite funny and profitable, especially multi-way.

I think my re-raise here is too large. What you think?

Anyway I have given up this move at the higher level with my premium hands. I might however start doing it with junk just for laughs though :)

May 2012 Review

May is now in the books. I made a few dollars again this month so I am pretty pleased with that.

I played a bit more ZOOM again and I have just contacted HEM support to get my HUD/Hands sorted for this format of the game. The hands number is therefore again understated like the last few months.

Euro 2012 is on in June so volume is going to dip a lot as I will spend the whole month watching pretty much all the games and hitting the pub.

I am thinking about maybe having the whole month off normal games as I am working on other things too but I will definitely be playing a bit a ZOOM when I have a few minutes to kill here and there. I will also hit the live scene a bit more.

I am now just behind pace to hit 200,000 VPPs which is pretty slack but I like playing less tables and concentrating and making more in winnings. This is a little different from last year when I made most of my bucks through rakeback.

The final numbers for May are as follows:

68,695 Hands Played
13,830 VPPs

+$2,559 (Cash Game Winnings)
+$100 (Stellar Rewards)
+$160 (SCOOP Re-load Bonus)
+$823 (Tourney Winnings)
 --------------------------------------------------------------------
+$3,642 (Total Month) 


The Ytd numbers are as follows:

458,870 Hands Played
75,830 VPPs

+$3,648 - Jan
+$3,213 - Feb
+$2,023 - Mar
+$2,072 - Apr
+$3,642 - May
--------------------------------------------------------------------
+$14,597 (Total YTD) 

GL in June..!!

New June 1st Bonus Cost Reductions

Some good news for Pokerstars players. We are set to receive some positive changes to the FPP Cash Bonus prices in the store from 1st June 2012.

It will now be cheaper for us to get bonuses and the highest conversion rate will be applied to the new $1,600 bonus. This is great as I don't need to save up for ages to get the $4,000 bonus (which will be scrapped) and I will get the same value with the lower bonus but I will get it quicker so improving my cash flow.

Here are the new tiers:

Enjoy..!!

More Maniac Spewage

ZOOM NL25

I thought I would have some fun limping AA as in Zoom every limp seems to get raised straight away. I get raised, this is then followed by 3 more callers. I re-raise and the original raiser folds, the button calls and the blinds both fold.

Not 100% sure why but I decide to crai instead of cbetting. Probably something to do with his insta call pre. I think he could be splashy.

I have no info on this guy so its very hard to assign him a range but I will put him on any pair 22-QQ, AQ+. I think he will get KK in pre. When he half pot bets the flop after I check he pretty much has a pair, some King or possibly air. I don't think he has an 8 in his range apart from 88.

I then bet just over a min raise to encourage him to come along with a King but he jams over the top. I did not expect to see QTo.

Devastating Cobra

If you missed the big fight in the early hours of Sunday morning then you need to find a way to see it.

Carl 'Cobra' Froch won the world title for the 3rd time in his career when he destroyed undefeated champ Lucian Bute.

It was the IBF version this time and was fought out in Froch's home town of Nottingham.

The bookies got this one completely wrong and had Bute as quite a solid favourite to win.

It was an awesome display from Carl that lasted 5 rounds before the stoppage was made. It was a last chance saloon for him as he stated after the fight that had he had lost then he was going to announce his retirement from from the sport. He can now look forward to some more big fights.

Well Done Carl..!!

Quit While You're Ahead

If you've ever been involved in sports betting you will be familiar with the saying 'quit while you're ahead'.

I have done lots of sports betting many years ago and I would say the saying is bang on the money.

You may think you have some sort of edge in a particular bet but most of the time you will not and the result will be completely out of your hands.

Every time I have a conversation wit a non poker friend they always liken poker to sports betting and tell me I should quit while I am ahead. I then get into the normal discussion about how poker is a skill game and it is just opposite that is true and you should step on the gas when you are winning... blah blah blah

While in general I do believe in that last statement I also think you should tread with a little caution and always consider the merits of having a good mental game of poker.

In this post I briefly want to discuss my thoughts on 2 concepts that I sometimes use in my poker play. They are:

1) Booking Wins &
2) Protecting Your Lead

When I sit down to start a session of poker I am very determined to win that session, in fact I am convinced that I will win that session as I believe that I have an edge in the game I play versus the masses that I will encounter on that day.

If I hit a bad spell of variance or play like a donk then I focus and keep on grinding till I get the win. Sometimes this will take numerous hours but generally I get there. You need to be beating your game of choice to have this attitude otherwise it will not work. When I can't pull the day back from the red it sometimes ends up as a huge loss. My biggest loss days in my poker career have been far bigger than my biggest win days due to this. However I win more than I lose.

This month for example so far has had 26 days. I have won on 23 of those day and lost on only 1 while having 2 days off. 3 of the days saw me make a profit of between $0-$10 therefore probably bringing back a loss into the black.

The point of this attitude is that it maintains a high level of confidence and therefore your game remains strong. If you have a bad run you can cope with it relatively easily as you know you will bounce back. I have seen many players fall apart over the years as they are mentally unable to deal with the downswings. Play hard, play strong, don't tilt and if you have the skills you will win..!! Try to book wins when you are having a tough time.

In sports like football and cricket you often have to protect your lead. For example you are 2-0 up in a game of football and there are 10mins to play, you are playing a 4-4-2 formation and decide to sub a striker and bring on a defender to protect your lead and now play a 5-4-1 formation with a tighter defence.

In poker protecting you lead can help to book those all important winning days and therefore bolster your mental game by enforcing the fact that you are a winning player..!! Now this contradicts the statement I made earlier about stepping on the gas when your winning but it doesn't have. Think about your daily schedule and how many hours you play. Think about what a good winning day is and what you would be happy to bank. Then use a strategy according to how far you are into your day. If you have played 75% of the hours you would play in a day and are up 8 Buy-Ins then consider stopping for a day and booking the win. If you are only 25% into the day and find yourself up 6 Buy-Ins then maybe drop from 20 tabling to 10 tabling and look for good spots to increase your win rate while protecting your lead. Alternatively drop down a league for the 2nd half of the day and be more aggressive and try to win even more while having the cushion of being up at a higher league already.

To conclude this post I just want to emphasise that this post is about helping you to maintain a strong winning mentality in games you are playing daily and happy to be at. If you looking to move up in the stakes which I strongly recommend then you should not worry about protecting your lead and booking wins but take shots and try to establish yourself at the higher level.

Rosh

Okay Month So Far

The Worst Possible River

If you play a regular game versus the same guys day in, day out then an important concept that you may have come across is taking 'Non Standard Lines' for value.

This hand in the screen shot took place yesterday at ZOOM and while it is maybe not the best example, it does depict the concept.

Most players would probably just barrel 3 streets here but I checked the turn for deception and the villain gave me no credit for any kind of hand apart from maybe JJ and snapped. It was the worst river for him though. I really don't know if I could have gotten away if I was him although I have made some big lay downs this last week.

I also had one of my best days at ZOOM, finishing up close to 8BIs. At one point on one table I was sitting with 700bb.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Review

Its now been about 6 weeks since I got the Samsung Galaxy S2 phone on the 3 network.

I actually bought it from ebay for £315. It was the 2nd one that I bought in a few weeks as the first one I bought (also from ebay) got stolen by some royal mail staff and the seller lost out as he sent it only by 'recorded' and not 'special' delivery and he was only covered to get £35 insurance from royal mail.

I got a full refund and bought another one. Ebay is generally good but you have to pick your sellers carefully especially if you are buying an expensive item. I tend not to buy electronic items from there as you won't get a guarantee but with a saving of over £100 vs the shops I took a chance.

My last phone was also a smartphone and also a Samsung but a very basic one so I never made use of its abilities.

The S2 so far is very impressive. The scrolling is just super fast and super smooth and the screen graphics are excellent with its super AMOLED technology.

The size of the phone is just perfect, giving you a big 4.3 inch screen but only being 8.5mm thick it slides into your pocket wit ease. It only weighs 116grams. I briefly had a play with the Samsung Note in one store and it was huge and not something you could carry without a man bag :) so I gave that one a miss.

The camera is 8-megapixels with HD video recording too. Having taken a few pics / clips I can confirm that the quality is pretty awesome.

The battery is not lasting me too long at the moment but that is probably due to the fact that I have downloaded and played wit far too many Apps in the short time that I have had it.

The call quality is extremely clear and the in call options are very good.

I am finding navigating through the menu system so easy and user friendly. You basically have only 3 main buttons (home, back and options) and everything else is on the touch screen. You also have a volume control on the left side and the power key on the right side.

I also managed to bag a new contract with 3 starting next week which gives me unlimited internet, 300 minutes and 5000 texts for £13 per month, bargain..!!

So my conclusion is that it is a pretty awesome phone. I wish I had owned an iPhone so I could compare it but as I have not I am not sure how it good it is vs that.

Here is some geeky stuff:

Product Information 

Not only is the Samsung Galaxy S II-I9100 packed with features, it is also sure to add to your style with its sleek and stylish design. With Android (Gingerbread) as its operating system, this Samsung smartphone gives you access to several applications. This Samsung Android phone comes with a stunning 4.27-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen that lets you enjoy vivid and bright colors. Thanks to its 8.1 MP camera with 1080p HD video recording, this Samsung smartphone lets you capture all your cherished moments. To let you make the most of your Samsung Galaxy S II-I9100, there are four hubs - Social, Readers, Game and Music. So, get ready to change the way you communicate, with this Samsung Android phone. 

Product Identifiers 

Brand Samsung 

Family Line Samsung Galaxy S II 

Model GT-I9100 

Key Features 

Capacity 16GB 

Colour Noble black 

Network Technology EDGE, HSPA 

Band HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100 

Camera 8 Megapixel 

Memory 

Supported Flash Memory Cards Micro SDHC 

Battery 

Battery Capacity 1650 mAh 

Display 

Display Technology Super AMOLED Plus 

Diagonal Screen Size 4.27 in. 

Other Features 

Touch Screen: Yes 

Bluetooth: Yes 

Digital Camera Yes 

GPS Yes 

Email Access Yes 

Internet Browser Yes 

Speakerphone Yes 

Dimensions 

Height 125.3 mm 

Depth 8.49 mm 

Width 66.1 mm 

Weight 116 gr

R

Arrrrggghh