months end

Have finished up poker for the month, played exactly 16k hands for some reason! Winning month online but not happy with it at all. I played about 75% HU and it didn't go well at all, the variance is pretty massive in it and I can see why you need a huge bankroll for it, 100 buyins is what I was using for 100nl as you feel completely comfortable at all times. I've had some 20BI swings this month in it and ended up finishing down $260 at it, its only 2.5BI so not the end of the world but hugely disappointing for me as I wasn't able to control my emotions once when I was running bad or getting coolered. I played one guy who was pretty decent and lost 5BI to him in 109 hands, I kept it cool and just quit him and said "gg" as there was basically no point in me playing on vs him, it wasn't even a deep table and I would find it hard to get money out of him unless I was able to cooler him like he done to me 8 times.

6max went very well over 3.2k hands or so, I am able to play a bit looser now after having played so much HU and I feel that HU improved my 6max game a lot as I am very comfortable getting into marginal spots and playing people in HU pots.

I have only played like 2k hands in the last 7 days due to being really really busy with work and I also have friends visiting me this weekend so poker is finished now for the month. We are going on the beer later to watch the rugby and then I am heading to the O2 to see Snow Patrol who have been my favourite band for the last 3-4 years I guess now, basically ever since they released "Run", this is probably going to be my 7th time seeing them live and can't wait to see the new O2 as its supposed to be deadly.

Monte Carlo was the one of the nicest places I have ever been to. The city is so small and really beautiful with everything being so clean and tidy. The place is ridiculously expensive though. In our hotel a bottle of Corona was €10 at the bar and a club sandwich was €27, just unreal stuff. Though to be fair they did upgrade our room for us when we got there so that was pretty sweat. I mainly just relaxed when I went over there and ate out each night. Went to a really really nice Argentian Grill in the Fairmont Hotel which is a top class hotel. I went for a the Wagu steak which was nice but not as nice as the one I had in Vegas, it had a lot to live up to in fairness.

I done some gambling afterwards in the Casino were I lost €100 at blackjack and won about €220 at roulette which was sweet, my girlfriend was playing roulette as well and she was always putting €8 on number 5 until and of course the one time she didn't 5 came up. It was so funny I thought, welcome to my world!!

I probably broke even with poker this month between live and online, the GJP deepstack tournament cost me about €1200 and I won about $1.5k online so possibly down a small bit but will probably be up with rakeback!! Graph below for online cash, played some sngs as well were I won a bit as well.

Monte Carlo in the morning

Going to Monte Carlo in the morning, really can't wait to just land there as I don't like air travel at all. I booked into a top class hotel so can't wait to just relax for a few days now and forget about work!

Haven't played much poker at all recently. I've started playing some 6max again and that's being going really well except that I am running hugely under expectation but I won't worry to much about that as I am still winning at a good rate, I'll only complain about that when I am losing.

Anyway just a quick update as I have to get up in about 4-5 hours and pack my suitcase for a 7.15am flight to Nice, here's hoping the weather is a bit nicer there and than it is here!!

Work has been busy

Haven't got a chance to play much at all in the last few days. I played a decent amount on Saturday were I ran terrible. I lost 13BI against one guy at HU. He was pretty bad and just got huge hands all the time and I kept having hands to pay him off with. They were mostly +EV but they all went his way and we even got it all in on the flop 250bb deep for a $500 pot were I had an open ended straight flush draw and he had QJ on a J high board and of course I never hit half the deck.

So Sunday I ended up going on a 20BI upswing and finished up about 18BI that day which was decent. I played for an hour on Monday and won a small bit, not even a full BI. I was playing in poor games against pretty tight players and lost a few flip against them. They are annoying to play against really because they never pay you off unless you can manage to get them on tilt and then its FUN!

Work has been very busy the last few days with me putting in very long hours and really early starts, worked 14 hours yesterday and 13 today so pretty wrecked now and won't bother with poker at all. I guess I should be grateful that I have a job these days and I wouldn't say I am complaining about it but its tough getting up really early everyday and I just be wrecked by the time I come home! Not much point in playing when I am wrecked tired so I will just leave it and hopefully Ireland will score a few goals and win this match, they are 1-0 down at the minute.

Also, I don't think I will bother with putting up results every Wednesday any more as it's just a pain to do sometimes. I will just put them up at the end of the month. Plus weekly results matter about as much as daily ones as they don't really represent anything at all. Instead I will just write up a post when I feel like it and post the results at the end of the month.

GJP deepstack report

Got knocked out of this late last night with 30mins left to go in day 1. I was pretty happy with my play all day but have been thinking about my exit hand quite a bit and have come to the conclusion that I should have folded it preflop but its pretty close.

I had a pretty tough starting table with some very good players and people with some very solid results on it. I even had the WSOP main event winner from 1999 on my table and to be honest he was probably the softest spot on the table. Rory Brown was on my right and I later on in the day I was able to pick off a few of his isolation raises against the early limpers who loved to limp and he loved isolating them so I had direct position on him and I done this a couple of times. The first hand I play was interesting, I opened J7s in LP and was called by Mark McKeever from the button. We were 1000bb deep so I wanted to get into a lot of pots early on and build a loose image and hopefully get paid of when I am able to make a hand later on. So the flop comes down QJx with no flush draw as far as I can remember. I bet 350 into the pot and Mark calls, turn comes another J and I bet 750, now it gets interesting. Mark makes a raise an he says he means to make it 2100 but he actually put in 20100 as he put in 2 10k chips instead of a 2 1k chips. He says he made a mistake but I don't know they guy from anywhere so I am a bit dubious, it could be some kind of angle shoot for all I know but to be fair it can be easy enough to mix up your chips at the very start of a tournament. Anyway I fold and show the J, he says great fold and later tells me he had QQ for a full house. He never showed so I don't know but he did say that he doesn't want to get into a raising war early on with QQ when we are so deep so who knows.

The next interesting hand I get is against http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=119895 when he opens in EP and I call with QTs, the flop is AJT and he checks and I check behind. The turn was an A and he bet it and I called, the river was a K making me the flush and he bet 500 into a 750 pot or so and I just called, I didn't see to much value in raising him here as he seemed pretty solid and most of the As in his range have made a full house so I just call and hes got KK for the full house.

I play a few more pots and I basically keep my chip count around the 48k-52k mark and maintain my loose image especially to Nick Slade who is taking a bit of an offense to me raising his blinds all the time
I raise another few hands after this and I am usually attacking Noel Furlong and Nick Slade's blinds all the time as they guys will both call with such marginal hands and I am happy to play lots of pots with them in position. After about the 6th time of me doing it he decides that he will call without looking at his cards. So that's fine with me!! I have AhQh and I make it 450 and he calls, blinds are now 75/150, flop comes down K9x with a spade flush draw, he checks and still hasn't looked at his cards, I check behind as I feel he will definitely raise me here as he's going to try and rep any 2 cards here as he says he will only look once I bet. So the turn is an A and I bet 650 and he calls, the river is another As and he bets 1150 and again I flat call as I feel hes only bluffing or has a flush, I really can't see him having the other case A here to often so I call and hes got Qs4s for a flush. Not looking at your cards it obviously the way to play poker!!

Noel Furlong has obviously had enough of me raising his blinds and for the 3rd time this day that I open and Derek Williams calls Noel 3bets from the blinds and each other time I folded, this time I have 33 and I had opened for my usual 3x to 600 and Noel makes it 3k, I go into the tank for a while and make it 7.4k. The 2 other times he had KQs and AQs so his range is most definitely not monster hands. Also, I have never once 4b or done anything crazy so I think he will give me plenty of credit here and he folded saying he had JJ. I also got the impression that his guy was really really old school and he will think that if I 4b here that I have KK or AA.

A bit later on I get AA and get 2 streets of value out of Mark when he folds Jx to my river bet on a J high flop. We then clash a bit later on in an interesting hand. Someone limps and this start an avalanche of limpers, so I complete in SB with 6d3d and Mark makes it 1100 in BB and everyone calls again so I peel a flop too. Flop is Q96 with no flush draw. Mark bets out 4k and it comes back to me after everyone folds. I tank it up a bit and count out ~12.5k hand put it in the middle, he folds TT after some deliberation.

I get moved table around the 8th level and I see one face I know, Sean Gregory whom I played with for a full day at the JP Masters game back in May. We tangled a hell of a lot that day, I raised almost every single time he limped in that day as he loves to see cheap flops with a huge range of cards. He is a good player and very hard to put him on a range of hands so a tricky player to say the least and a dangerous man to have a big chip stack. I fold all my hands for the first orbit or so just to see what the table is like, there are a few French players on the table, Troy Prendergast and a few other Irish lads.

So the first hand I decide to play is QQ which I have in the BB. Sean limps in early position and 2 more limpers follow, the guy on my right who I don't know the name of makes it ~3k and I make it 7.6k. Next thing I know Sean makes it 16k and I am in utter shock. Everyone folds around to me and I am getting almost 4/1 on the call with all the limpers and the original raisers money. Sean starts talking and he knows I have a big hand. I know hes got KK+, I really doubt he does this with JJ or AK and QQ is pretty unlikely. Sean says that he doesn't think hes good enough to fold it if I shove and he covers me and he could also be saying this with AA so I'm never thinking of shoving here. I was more thinking about calling or folding, I figure if I hit a set I will get paid here and I am getting immediate odds of almost 4/1 and about another 7/1 for his stack so I call and the flop comes A high and we end up checking it down and both know what each other has!!

I open 88 in late position later on and Sean calls me again, the flop is 8d9dQx and he check folds cheakily showing me a Td!! The blinds and antes go through me a few times and I am getting no spots to steal blinds as the laggy french guy and Sean are in the blinds when I am the button and they are never folding so I can't open too loose against these guys. So my exit hand goes like this. Blinds are 500/1000/100 and there is 35 mins left in Day 1. I have 44k and Troy covers slightly. Troy is a good aggressive player and looking back now I should have folded my hand preflop. Troy opened in early position to 3k and I called in late position with Ts8s, I was expecting the French guy and Sean to come along to but they didn't oblige. So the flop came down KsQsTd and he bets out 4k, at this point I had 2 options I though, call and see the turn and perhaps shove it allin on most turn cards or else raise now and commit myself to the hand as I will usually have 9-14 outs here and be in a flip situation unless hes got AsJs which would be a disaster. So I made it 13k and after 5 mins Troy shipped it in with AA and I missed 14 outs and was gone from the tournament.

Overall I thought I played pretty well over the day and picked good spots to make a few re-steals and a few bluffs. Thanks to all the lads that took a % in me and I hope you will know I put in my best effort at this. I plan on playing a few more small tournaments between now and the Irish Open, probably 1 or 2 at the weekend in the casino in Dublin.

2009 Week 5

I'm a bit late with this one. I didn't play any online poker on Wednesday or Thursday. I gave the supersat a go for the GJP deep stack event. Nothing really happened for me in this. I played fine I think, had a poor seat given that I the 2 fish at the table had position on me. They were 2 french players who were really really annoying with their slow rolling, collusion and running like gods.

The collusion was as blatant as I had ever seen, I'm not exactly sure what happened preflop or the bet sizing on the flop but the pot was 1600 I think on the turn, beardie French had bet a Kd2d2x flop and the shaved head Frenchie called. The turn was another diamond. Beardie checks and skinhead bets 500, they start talking to each other in french and beardie folds AdKx face up while the other guys shows him the Q high flush, now how this guy could possible fold here I will never know. We were still in the rebuy period as well so not a huge deal if he got knocked out. So he was basically getting 4/1 on a call and he folds top pair and nut flush draw!!

They also done some horrible slow rolling to some of the Irish players at the table to the fury of the rest of the table. They would turn over a Q on a QQ988 board and afterwards and wait for the other guy to show and then he turns over the 9 for a better boat. But enough about French players!!

February has started off pretty ok with with me winning about $400 playing HU despite playing pretty poor at times and running into coolers all the time. Avoiding tilt when playing is really tough. There has been a number of times were I am playing against some fish and he just keeps winning pots all the time because I never make a hand and he just cannot fold bottom pair so if you can't make middle pair its frustrating. More so when you eventually make a hand he folds or you 3 barrell yout 9-14 out draws but he calls you on river with middle pair when you miss. I've stuck with them and thankfully they havn't quit me to much yet and I eventually beat them but by the time you take the rake out of it you don't win all that much really!

I am playing the GJP deepstack at 2pm today. I really am looking forward to this event now. I have sold about 37% of myself which is a little bit more than I wanted to sell but I had mentioned it to a few people and didn't want to say no then when they said they would buy it. It's also good to know that I could have sold more than this which is good for confidence as well. I'm going to head for a swim now to freshen up for this a bit. I'm just after playing a few SNGs and some HU there for a little practice for it. Both went well, I played a $60 9 man which I came first and also a $104 double or nothing one which I came in the top 5 so doubled up there as well. Full Tilt site is still rigged towards me, played a $109 9 man one on it and with 5 left I get my money in on the turn as a 80% favourite but he hits his outs which would have given me a big chip lead on the bubble but it wasn't to be.

Results for the week were $400 in cash and $175 in sngs and -€210 in the super satellite for a poor week. Hopefully a big cash on Sunday can change all that around though!! I will try and do a trip report on my GJP festival.

GJP Deepstack

I've sold my 40% for this, thanks to everyone who took a piece. I'm still half thinking about playing in the super-sat but not quite sure yet. Its a 50/50 race at the moment I guess.

Have had a decent start to the month so far at HU, played 1900 hands for a little over $500 or 5 buyins so hopefully that trend can continue!! It's just so great when you sit down at a table and some guy sits with you. I check him up on table ratings like I do with all my opponents and low and behold hes a huge donater, pretty solid graph from this guy!!! At least hes going in some kind of clear direction!

January Results

By the end of January I was really really disappointed with my results, around the middle of January I thought I could be on for my first $10k month as I was up over $6k at that stage, but for some reason around the 15th of every month my results go BAD, but that's just superstition and I am not that type so won't worry to much about that. Graph and results for the month are below, I done pretty ok at 400nl and below but 600nl and above was frustrating over the all be it small sample.





So goals for February are very simple:

Improve my results on January
Play the GJP and have a good game at it.
Play only HU for the month but this will be subject to change and how well I am doing at it. Judging on yesterdays days play it may not last long but I will use the new month as a fresh start on it and forget about any good and bad results I had during January.

That's it for now, I still have 10% to sell for the GJP if anyone is still interested!! :)