2012: Fightback in Motion

I am still fighting through the worst downswing in my 7yrs of poker. The graph in bb is back on track now but I still have some work to get to the 2012 peak in $$$:

7 Stacks

Not bad for a days work I suppose.....

Still stuck for the month with work to do

Movie Review: Sinister (2012)

We went down to Vue on Monday night to catch new horror flick Sinister which was released on Friday.

The cost to view a film at the cinema in London is rip off so I tend to wait more for dvd releases but this one looked too good to wait for.

Its by the same producer of Paranormal Activity which I thought was pretty good.

The film is about a true crime writer (Ellison Oswalt) who visits or lives by crime scenes of unsolved murders. In his latest case he actually moves into the house where a family were killed but keeps that fact secret from the rest of his own family.

The murdered family consisted of 5 people: dad, mum, 2 girls and a boy.... however only 4 were killed and one of the girls is missing.

Oswalt (played by Ethan Hawke) discovers a box in the loft which holds video footage of the murder along with footage of other murders. In each case a family is killed but one of the kids goes missing leading to a belief that the murderer is kidnapping one child each time.

Hawke discovers a link to a pagan deity called Bagul and delves deeper into the matter until strange things start happening in the house. There is a nasty twist at the end and I won't spoil it by revealing.

All in all a very good movie which was a change from the last film I watched at the cinema, The Devil Inside which was a big disappointment.

Verdict: 7.5/10

Countdown to Year End Challenge

I have 82 days to go till the end of the year and to achieve this year's pretty low target of 200,000 VPPs.

This is 100,000 less than last year so I feel like a bit of a slacker but I have had lots of non poker related real life stuff going on too so I am not too bothered.

I currently stand at 147,278 so here are the stats:

200,000 - Target VPPs
147,278 - Current Total VPPs
 52,722 - Remaining VPPs
        82 - Days Remaining
      643 - VPPs Per Day

I would like a few more VPPs actually to get 3x $1,600 FPPs bonuses + 1x 200k VPP Bonus of $2,600.

That would increase things to:

 68,128 - Remaining VPPs
        82 - Days Remaining
      831 - VPPs Per Day

Time to get my grind on..!!

Stu 'The Kid' Ungar

When you talk about Legends of Poker they don't get much bigger than Stu Ungar. Full name Stuart Errol Ungar he was born on Sept 8th 1953 in New York city.

His card playing adventures began with gin rummy which he learned at a young age. Aged only 10 he won his first tournament on the gin rummy scene. By age 15 he was playing full time to support his sick mother and sister. His father had died about year earlier.

His father's social club/ bar had been where a young Ungar had honed his skills. The club doubled up as an illegal gambling den and Stu was beating opponents who had been playing for many more years than himself.

Having been around the card scene for a few years he was rumoured to have befriended a few villains and in 1977 he moved to Vegas. Been so feared as a gin rummy player meant his action had dried up as many people / venues refused to play him or let him play. He then switched over to playing poker.

Stu had a photographic memory and is the only player to win the WSOP Main Event 3 times outright. He became the youngest world champion when he won the event in 1980 and got the nickname 'The Kid'. He went on to win it the following year too.

Ungar was a cocaine user and famously finished 9th in the 1990 WSOP Main Event after having a drug overdose. A massive chip leader at the time of the overdose he was slowly chipped away as he got blinded out but still finished 9th.

During his life Ungar never had a job. He was a gambler through and through. He went from broke to millionaire to broke many times over.

In 1997 he made a comeback to win the Main Event for a record 3rd time. Being broke at the time he was staked for his buy in. He is said to have split the prize of $1m 50:50 with his backer. He spent all his winnings on drugs and more gambling, many sports betting.

On November 22nd 1998 Ungar was found dead at a motel in Las Vegas. He had died from a heart attack which was brought on by his drug taking life style. He was a genius and a true legend of poker..!!

Party Time at NL25

Looks like everyone want a piece of the action in this pot:




This one is at NL50

You used to see this kind of call down a lot back in the day. You probably see this a lot more at higher stakes in today's game but I rarely see it now at NL25 - NL100

How Do You Win at Poker??

I don't know how to win at poker at any level above NL25. After spending 1yr consistently battering NL50 the last few months have turned on me.

Its early in the month and I started so well at NL25 winning about 10 BIs in 2.5 days. I then decided to move up to NL50 and immediately got busted up.

Today I have been playing 3 levels mixing NL100, NL50 and NL25 all at ZOOM and here is the result:

I keep having to drop down and then take shots. I should be a reg at NL100+. I will now try to build up slowly by blocking out a few leaks that have appeared in my game and also but not cashing out. Once my roll is sufficient I will stay at NL100.

Ok, back to work..!!

Keep His bluffs In and Let Him Hang Himself

ICC World Twenty20 (T20) 2012 Semi-Final Line Up Complete

The Super 8s phase of the tournament is now complete and the semi final line up is set.

On Thursday my boys Sri Lanka will take on Pakistan in the first game.

Then on Friday Australia will go up against the West Indies for a place in the Final.

The Final will be on Sunday at UK time 14:30 which is evening in Colombo.

So far the tournament has not disappointed and has been non stop action. Every team has lost at least 1 game out of the 5 that each have played so it is still tough to predict.

SL Super 8s Match 1 highlights in HD

My guys looked best in the super 8s winning all 3 games and looking good in bowling, batting and fielding but in such a short version of the game it can be won by anyone having a good game on the day.

The Super 8s tables looked like this:

The last 3 games:

September 2012 Review

I had lined up a few pictures of clowns that I was going to post in the September review instead of doing the normal numbers as poker has become something of a joke but I have manned up and will do a normal write up :)

I am still on the worst downer ever (in 7yrs of poker). Over the last 3 months I lost 60 BIs at NL50 only I recover it at NL25 (BIs that is not $$$) I then lost more and it is just very swingy now.

Over this 3 month period I am pretty much making no cash whatsoever. Its lucky that I have a few other small income streams in life to help me pay my rent / bills and also have a little saved for the future.

I will post a graph in bb now as it shows I won 32 stacks in the month which is ok. The problem is I lost a lot at the higher level (NL50) and crushed the lower level (NL25).

The final numbers for September are as follows:

126,008 Hands Played

11,864 VPPs

+$382 (Cash Game Winnings)

+$35 (WCOOP Re-load Bonus)

-$267 (Online Tourny Losses)

-$97 (Live Cash Game Losses)

+$215 (FPP Sunday Million Tkt)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

+$268 (Total Month)

The Ytd numbers are as follows:

905,211 Hands Played

131,654 VPPs

+$3,648 - Jan

+$3,213 - Feb

+$2,023 - Mar

+$2,072 - Apr

+$3,642 - May

+$5,120 - Jun

-$699 - Jul

+$664 - Aug

+$268 - Sep

--------------------------------------------------------------------

+$19,950 (Total YTD) 

So at least I finally won some $$ at the tables but the take for the month is so low. I will get a $1,600 bonus in Oct so hopefully some winnings can push the month over $2k at least. My target for the year including the 200k VPP bonus is to make at least $30k overall.

I plan to play NL25 for the first 5 days of the month before moving to NL50 for the rest of the month. In November I will move to NL100 and sometime at the back end of December I want to be mixing NL200 too ready for me to decide on whether or not I commence an SNE attempt in 2013. 

I went to the Stars VIP London meet which was quite interesting. I met a few random players from other games but no-one from my games. I had a few beers + bites and watched the footy on a big screen. They also had an arcade room with a few games which was quite good. Lee Jones introduced the new software which is coming out. It looks pretty good and it designed with the idea of making it as easy as possible for recreational players to get playing poker, which is good for all of us. I actually got called up in Jan and went into London to test the software but had to sign a NDA so I didn't mention it in this blog but as the secret is out I guess it's okay now.

Anyway peeps, GL in Oct..!!