The Poker Lords Rain Down Bountiful Gifts Upon Us

Wow....what a night. I started playing 25NL two nights ago and was a bit up and downy to start with - was just getting my bearings, even though the change isn't that big.

Today I started playing again along with a few MTTs that I usually play...and well - I'll let pictures show what happened.






Most ridiculous upswing I've ever encountered....I could do no wrong. Over that period I was running at 50BB/100....making my 25nl BB/100 23 over 2,7k hands. Interestingly, my 10nl (full ring) is 11....so also very high. I'm clearly too pro! Haha!

I'm expecting a cataclysmic downswing in the near future...but I can always invest in play money for a while! :-P

A very nice start to 25nl by any means!!! :-)

Swimming upwards

Not a long post this time, just a note that I'm moving up to 10c25c, a limit that I've NEVER played before, so this should be exciting. So depending on how it goes I may be posting here soon laughing of crying.

Being anal about my roll is how I got here I think. My roll now stands at $525 after I cashed in the rest of the money I originally had in Party, 21 buy-ins...not a massive amount, but a start!

From starting on Party at the end of January I've played around 30,000 hands of cash and a number of MTTs and all my roll is profit....I've said his a lot, but I'm incredibly proud of it! :-P From starting at 2c4c I never thought I'd get up here so fast....or at all. It amazes me that I'm actually aproaching being a passable player now!

Just for fun - my first hand at 10 25...let's hope in continues!

PokerStars Game #28115364582: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2009/05/12 19:33:01 WET [2009/05/12 14:33:01 ET]
Table 'Cepheus IV' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: BigLawMonies ($33.95 in chips)
Seat 2: donni666 ($4.65 in chips)
Seat 3: Spiro_Sxx ($25.60 in chips)
Seat 4: chaoslordtom ($25 in chips)
Seat 6: omen023 ($7.40 in chips)
Seat 7: Maromann ($43.05 in chips)
Seat 8: Tuwei168 ($24.65 in chips)
Seat 9: ItsmeMayo ($25.25 in chips)
Spiro_Sxx: posts small blind $0.10
chaoslordtom: posts big blind $0.25
sergyprie: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to chaoslordtom [Js Td]
omen023: folds
Maromann: calls $0.25
Tuwei168: folds
ItsmeMayo: folds
BigLawMonies: folds
donni666: folds
Spiro_Sxx: calls $0.15
chaoslordtom: checks
*** FLOP *** [5h Tc Jd]
Spiro_Sxx: checks
chaoslordtom: checks
Maromann: bets $0.25
Spiro_Sxx: folds
chaoslordtom: calls $0.25
*** TURN *** [5h Tc Jd] [2s]
chaoslordtom: checks
Maromann: checks
*** RIVER *** [5h Tc Jd 2s] [4c]
chaoslordtom: bets $1
Maromann: folds
Uncalled bet ($1) returned to chaoslordtom
chaoslordtom collected $1.20 from pot
chaoslordtom: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1.25 | Rake $0.05
Board [5h Tc Jd 2s 4c]
Seat 1: BigLawMonies folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: donni666 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Spiro_Sxx (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: chaoslordtom (big blind) collected ($1.20)
Seat 6: omen023 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Maromann folded on the River
Seat 8: Tuwei168 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: ItsmeMayo folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Continuing to play well?!

As the title says, the unbelievable seems to have happened. It's taken me a year, but I seem to be profitable now! A while ago I posted about getting a free party roll ($50) from some random site, which I managed to get up to about $350 over a month or two. I then ran out of money and had to cash out to eat.

Then I realised in the easter holidays that food was for losers, so I cashed into stars for $200. My stars account broke $400 about a week ago after about 10,000 hands of 5c 10c cash and a few of those $2.20 turbo 180 mans (I recommend these to anyone with no money....the field halves in roughly 20 mins, so basically half the pot is free money!) I've tended to play one of these with 3 cash tables. 5c 10c is ridiculously easy, I'm running at over 4bb/100 over 11,000 hands.

Once I get to $500ish I'm going to cash in about $90 more, which is the rest of what I cashed out from Party and start playing 10c 25c....which will be the highest I've ever played. Go me! I know this is nothing compared to the gays who have 10k rolls or more, but from starting last year in the Aidan's JCR and donking off buy-in after buy in both there and online, it's really gratifying to finally be making profit. Especially since my online roll (counting the $90) is now $500 - all of which is pure profit.

In other news, I've started playing well live too...In the DUPS tournaments this year I've managed to be the 2nd highest exec member in the rankings, despite only cashing 3 times. I tended to go out between 14 and 7....infuriatingly. Last Saturday I managed to cling on until 4th place and take home £21 - oooh aaah! - despite having my KK ravaged by Chris May's A10 and my AQs beaten by another AQs, which took it upon itself to hit running diamonds -_-

2 cash games ago at Pauls I managed to leave even - for the 1st time since EVER - no mean feat...I generally treated this game as a quick and easy way to show Paul/Isaac how much I like them in monetary form (about £20 worth of liking generally). But after cashing in for £35 (or £40, because I'm a donk and kept cashing in half buy-ins) I finished on a, perhaps less than impressive, £37.

After the DUPS tourney on Saturday though, I managed to somehow salmon my way to a £50 profit, cashing out for around £90 altogether after I'd urinated away my first buy-in (assumedly to Paul, who was playing like a combination of Allah, Buddah and Chuck Norris). Paul also took away a nice £90, making us the only 2 profitable players of the night....a category in which I have rarely resided.

Loool on a more annoying note - in one of those 180 mans, just had these 2 hands:

PokerStars Game #27803779836: Tournament #160885904, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVI (1500/3000) - 2009/05/04 11:38:58 WET [2009/05/04 6:38:58 ET]
Table '160885904 19' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Neippl85 (35423 in chips)
Seat 3: mr alli (20998 in chips)
Seat 4: chaoslordtom (43829 in chips)
Seat 5: choppers396 (54875 in chips)
Seat 6: tcefreP (55311 in chips)
Seat 7: baculaat (40000 in chips)
Seat 9: Jo Ass 50 (19564 in chips)
Neippl85: posts the ante 300
mr alli: posts the ante 300
chaoslordtom: posts the ante 300
choppers396: posts the ante 300
tcefreP: posts the ante 300
baculaat: posts the ante 300
Jo Ass 50: posts the ante 300
baculaat: posts small blind 1500
Jo Ass 50: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to chaoslordtom [Qs Ad]
Neippl85: calls 3000
mr alli: folds
chaoslordtom: raises 12000 to 15000
choppers396: folds
tcefreP: folds
baculaat: folds
Jo Ass 50: raises 4264 to 19264 and is all-in
Neippl85: folds
chaoslordtom: calls 4264
*** FLOP *** [5c Qc 6c]
*** TURN *** [5c Qc 6c] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [5c Qc 6c Ks] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Jo Ass 50: shows [9h Kc] (a pair of Kings)
chaoslordtom: shows [Qs Ad] (a pair of Queens)
Jo Ass 50 collected 45128 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 45128 | Rake 0
Board [5c Qc 6c Ks 8s]
Seat 1: Neippl85 folded before Flop
Seat 3: mr alli folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: chaoslordtom showed [Qs Ad] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 5: choppers396 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: tcefreP (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: baculaat (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: Jo Ass 50 (big blind) showed [9h Kc] and won (45128) with a pair of Kings

Followed immediatly (next hand) by this vs. same villain:

PokerStars Game #27803787261: Tournament #160885904, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level XVI (1500/3000) - 2009/05/04 11:39:27 WET [2009/05/04 6:39:27 ET]
Table '160885904 19' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Neippl85 (32123 in chips)
Seat 3: mr alli (20698 in chips)
Seat 4: chaoslordtom (24265 in chips)
Seat 5: choppers396 (54575 in chips)
Seat 6: tcefreP (55011 in chips)
Seat 7: baculaat (38200 in chips)
Seat 9: Jo Ass 50 (45128 in chips)
Neippl85: posts the ante 300
mr alli: posts the ante 300
chaoslordtom: posts the ante 300
choppers396: posts the ante 300
tcefreP: posts the ante 300
baculaat: posts the ante 300
Jo Ass 50: posts the ante 300
Jo Ass 50: posts small blind 1500
Neippl85: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to chaoslordtom [9h 9d]
mr alli: folds
chaoslordtom: raises 20965 to 23965 and is all-in
choppers396: folds
tcefreP: folds
baculaat: folds
Jo Ass 50: calls 22465
Neippl85: folds
*** FLOP *** [7c Ad Qc]
*** TURN *** [7c Ad Qc] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [7c Ad Qc 6c] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Jo Ass 50: shows [Ah Qs] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
chaoslordtom: shows [9h 9d] (a pair of Nines)
Jo Ass 50 collected 53030 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 53030 | Rake 0
Board [7c Ad Qc 6c 8h]
Seat 1: Neippl85 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: mr alli folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: chaoslordtom showed [9h 9d] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 5: choppers396 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: tcefreP folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: baculaat (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Jo Ass 50 (small blind) showed [Ah Qs] and won (53030) with two pair, Aces and Queens

Nothing I can do about that...just annoying! :-D

Leaving the aquarium

Well, I've enjoyed my time swimming around, checking out the nice subaquatic flora and fauna and whatnot, but I think I may finally have developed primitive lungs and flopped out of the pond of loss into the garden of profit. Before now, any profit I made, I swiftly donked away through tilt, drunkeness, idiocy, or just general bad play.

Anyway - here's now it happened. At the end of last term, I got a $50 free bankroll from some random site or other. Quite a good idea for the salmon amongst us, who've managed to urinate every other bankroll away. I didn't play until the start of this term, when I started off playing 2c 4c cash on Party, where I made slight profit up to $60 or something (due to my unending stupidity, my account displays my balance in £, so I may switch between the 2 in the course of this diatribe). Then, through what was in all likelihood, my playing badly, I managed to piss that away and leave myself with £20....Annoyed at my idiocy I moved up a limit to 5c 10c (yes, I hear you cry silently, I am stupid enough to play with 3 buy-ins). This was about 3 weeks ago.

With this move I decided to start playing properly, actually properly, properly. No more raising J4 (except in position of course!), no more crying calls, no more tilting. Through this (and more than a little luck) I managed to get back up to my starting roll of $50 (woo!), from which I continued to rise up to £70, so about $100 at the exchange rate of the time. This seemed too good to be true and I was constantly wondering when my luck was going to run out, as it had so many times before. I hovered around this spot for a while, then a couple of noobstations donated their stacks to me and I managed to break £100, which combined with a bonus installment put me to around £120 ($170). Almost rolled for the stakes I'm playing!

More playing really well (for me at least) got me up to £180, where I've been for the past week until tonight when I broke the £200 and $300 mark simultaneously. So I'm now on around $310, with the most profit I've ever had.

I've been putting off posting a new blog update for weeks now, worried that I'll somehow curse myself. A year of playing badly and mainly losing online means I'm not used to winning and I expect it to all come crashing down around me! I suppose there's still time for that!

Here are my 2 graphs - I have 2 because I play on 2 computers and I'm too inept to combine them into 1 almighty-graph-of-imba-glory, so here they are in their upwards pointing awesomeness. I think it's amusing to contrast them with Isaac et al. and see how tiny my profit is, but at least I'm on the up... LOL - just click the wankers to see them in full....I dunno what I've done to the stupid thing. I can't work these bloody bloggers....it's like facebook.

I'm going to try and keep this updated more often now and next time actually post some hands, so people don't have to read vacant verbose verbiage (lolcanoes).

Until then....much salmon to you all!

Profit!?!

Gentlemen, Ladies, Animals, Mould, People from Surrey:

For the first time in my online career I've actually found a game I can make money from: Tetris.

Nah, seriously I actually have a graph that goes upwards...and a positive ROI and everything. Before I've managed this for perhaps 2 days then bollockedsed myself but this time all seems to be going well (touch wood).

Specifically I'm playing on WillHill in £5 Heads-Up SnGs with the massive starting bankroll of £20.

I've had to withdraw all the other money I have in sites to pay to eat....which is shite. Apparently sustinence is important. Anyway so I have no roll at all, so one bad downswing will bum me over completely, but this doesn't change the fact that for the 1st time ever I'm actually doing something right...

I've only played about 60 games, so I have absolutely nothing to base this optimism on, but my ROI is 14% and I've made $51 in 3 days according to Sharkscope. That means I have a higher ROI over 60 games than Paul has over 6000. That clearly makes me better than him. True story.

I also beat a guy with 15% ROI and 3k profit. That pleased me.

Anyway Kinder I need sleep....got a 9am tomorrow. Fun!

Many Wests to you all!

Hurrah for stats!

Until today I've been playing heads-up sit n goes on Redkings. I made about 60$ really quickly then lost it from 4 games of really bad running and a couple of tilt. By this time I'd got the 250 points I needed to get PokerTracker free, so I spent half of today trying to get my money out of RedKings....something which they are apparently reluctant to let me do as the "Withdraw" button does nothing apart from refresh the page and Cat from tech support can't tell her arse from her elbow. It seems I'll have to catch a plane to RedKings HQ and ask for the money in person...

After spending a further 4 millenia setting up PT and the like I cashed onto Titan with £100 and whatever that converts to in $. PTs shiny exciting stats have kept me occupied and I'm going to post a few of them here for perusal.

VP$IP: 29.31
PFR: 22.06
AF: 3.54 (I still don't really know how this is worked out, or what it entails)
Total Hands: 724
Total profit -$30.53 (lol....I'll elaborate a bit more later)

Most profitable hands:
QQ: $16.88
66: $10.39
J8s: $8.63 (wtf!?)

Least profitable hands:
AA: -$27.97 (More on this in due course...)
AKs: -$10.22
AQs: -$10.06
AQ: -$9.49
JJ: -$5.21

THE ONE, THE ONLY:
J4: -$4.80

Leaving asside J4 which is my own stupid fault for being a moron....I think the rest of my losses have been horrendous luck. Here are the AA hands (sorry about the shit formatting...that's how it comes out):

GAME #1252772369: Texas Hold'em NL $0.05/$0.10 2008-11-05 02:00:45
Table "TURBO" Victoria (No DP)
Seat 1: nvrfldstppair ($21.91 in chips)
Seat 3: marineros ($20.55 in chips)
Seat 5: coalh ($7.54 in chips)
Seat 8: Whtnflff ($10.77 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: SealReady ($11.20 in chips)
SealReady: Post SB $0.05
nvrfldstppair: Post BB $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SealReady [HA CA]
marineros: Fold
coalh: Raise (NF) $0.20
Whtnflff: Fold
SealReady: Raise (NF) $0.50
nvrfldstppair: Fold
coalh: Call $0.30
*** FLOP *** [H4 C3 D2]
SealReady: Bet $0.55
coalh: Raise (NF) $1.10
SealReady: Raise (NF) $4.40
coalh: Allin $5.94
SealReady: Call $2.64
*** TURN *** [CJ]
*** RIVER *** [S8]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $14.43 Rake $0.75
coalh: Shows [S3 D3]
coalh: wins $14.43


GAME #1252770403: Texas Hold'em NL $0.05/$0.10 2008-11-05 01:58:29
Table Bells Beach
Seat 1: AceHighFTW1 ($26.12 in chips) DEALER
Seat 3: SealReady ($18.04 in chips)
Seat 5: Nigoz ($4.00 in chips)
Seat 6: PokerFowan ($2.13 in chips)
Seat 8: soulflynice ($4.72 in chips)
SealReady: Post SB $0.05
Nigoz: Post BB $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SealReady [HA SA]
PokerFowan: Fold
soulflynice: Fold
AceHighFTW1: Call $0.10
SealReady: Raise (NF) $0.40
Nigoz: Raise (NF) $4.00
AceHighFTW1: Fold
SealReady: Call $3.60
*** FLOP *** [DQ S9 HQ]
*** TURN *** [H5]
*** RIVER *** [SK]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7.70 Rake $0.40
Nigoz: Shows [CQ H6]
Nigoz: wins $7.70


GAME #1252790388: Texas Hold'em NL $0.05/$0.10 2008-11-05 02:23:50
Table Kokba
Seat 1: SPEWTARD ($16.75 in chips)
Seat 3: Quickiller ($10.00 in chips)
Seat 5: VelMish ($11.53 in chips)
Seat 6: thelonius7 ($6.71 in chips)
Seat 8: SealReady ($21.66 in chips)
Seat 10: broche29 ($12.84 in chips) DEALER
SPEWTARD: Post SB $0.05
Quickiller: Post BB $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SealReady [CA HA]
VelMish: Fold
thelonius7: Raise (NF) $0.20
SealReady: Raise (NF) $0.60
broche29: Fold
SPEWTARD: Call $0.55
Quickiller: Fold
thelonius7: Call $0.40
*** FLOP *** [S4 D8 H2]
SPEWTARD: Bet $0.10
thelonius7: Call $0.10
SealReady: Raise (NF) $1.00
SPEWTARD: Raise (NF) $1.90
thelonius7: Fold
SealReady: Raise (NF) $5.00
SPEWTARD: Raise (NF) $8.10
SealReady: Raise (NF) $16.60
SPEWTARD: Allin $8.05
*** TURN *** [C9]
*** RIVER *** [CQ]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $33.75 Rake $1.00
SPEWTARD: Shows [D4 H4]
SPEWTARD: wins $33.30
SealReady: wins $0.45


The last one I think I could have avoided...but I still don't like folding an overpair at these stakes...even though it seems self-evident that he has a set.

One of the hands I bummed myself on I've posted on the DUPS forum and I'll post it again here. For a while after I thought I'd made the right move, but I think now that it was shitness...but I'm going to post it here anyway. According to an odds calculator I'm behind to his draw...I read him as weak because he'd raised a lot of people with draws and shit all in the hands I'd seen him play, but that still doesn't justify my shitness.

GAME #1252757292: Texas Hold'em NL $0.05/$0.10 2008-11-05 01:43:57
Table "TURBO" Victoria (No DP)
Seat 1: nvrfldstppair ($10.89 in chips)
Seat 3: marineros ($2.52 in chips)
Seat 5: Freuday ($0.94 in chips)
Seat 6: SERDEV ($3.33 in chips)
Seat 10: SealReady ($22.46 in chips) DEALER
nvrfldstppair: Post SB $0.05
marineros: Post BB $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SealReady [DA CQ]
Freuday: Fold
SERDEV: Fold
SealReady: Raise (NF) $0.30
nvrfldstppair: Call $0.25
marineros: Fold
*** FLOP *** [S5 S8 H2]
nvrfldstppair: Check
SealReady: Bet $0.35
nvrfldstppair: Raise (NF) $1.20
SealReady: Raise (NF) $4.30
nvrfldstppair: Raise (NF) $10.59
SealReady: Call $6.29
*** TURN *** [S3]
*** RIVER *** [C7]
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $20.88 Rake $1.00
nvrfldstppair: Shows [SJ S9]
nvrfldstppair: wins $20.88


Soooooo conclusion is PT is fun and helpful even if I can't figure out what some of the knobs, bells and whistles do yet. I was up $25 over 560 hands before I started getting bummed. I was happy with that....then it all went tits up in the next 150. 4 hands of horrific outdraws then a couple of me tilting/playing moronically - see above. Although...almost all the money I've lost, I've lost on AA :-P I think I'll just have to start folding it and re-raise 66 and J8s instead.

I am +ev at life.
Gambon is a fish.
Isaac will win the next DUPS tourney.

I are backz!

Haaaaaaaaah! Finally decided to update this instead of doing something worthwhile with my life!

Didn't play much over the summer...played at the casino maybe 4 times and cashed 2 of them. Not anything massive, around £150 overall. The only memorable hand is one on the final table where I had 56s in the BB and someone who'd been a total arsewipe all night raised into me, so I called to hopefully knock him out. This was on the final table and I was reasonably deepstacked and him reasonably short. I can't remember any numbers....because let's face it, I suck at life, not just at poker. Anyway flop comes xxA all hearts. He flat pushes I call - he turns over AA and berates me for the next 20 mins from behind the rope marking off the final table. -_-

Since coming back I've been playing on FullTilt with a piddly bankroll just messing around. I expected to lose it all and didn't much care. I think I've lost about $20 of it, but I had a lot of fun whilst doing it.

Now that my loan's in I've signed up to RedKings to get PT free. Of course RedKings doesn't take my card, so I have to fuck around with about 900 payment options (I broke my keyboard in a tantrum halfway through....) before finally (reluctantly) using Netteller who charged me about $150 to deposit $200. The fun continues as we discover that RedKings has the WORST interface in the known galaxy. I've seen plague victims that look better. You can't change your table position, so you have to search around every time for yourself if you're multitabling. You can't resize the tables (wtf?!) and half the options have to be done through the webpage (Cashier, search player...etc).

It does however have a few redeeming features -

1. Free PT after a certain number of points.
2. A really cool thing (for fish like me) that shows you your % chance of winning when 2 people are all in. Like you get on TV, but only when people are racing.
3. Obscenely easy $5 10 man Double or Nothing SnGs.

The third point is really nice. I've played 15 $5.50 ones today and yesterday and cashed in 12 of them. I got knocked out of the others on hands like AA vs A7 (me on AA) taking a drumming.
The other "players" (if I can call them that....donators would be more accurate) fold every hand until they get an inexplicable urge to push Q7 off and get knocked out by someone in the BB with KK. Once it gets down to about 7 men the entire table tightens up to be playing about Gambon's range. They fold themselves down to about half a BB and then get blinded out alltogether. It's even better if you have a competant big stack who can raise all the time because he'll never ever get called.

I'm interested as to what people think about these - i.e are they profitable in the long run. I worked out that I have to win roughly 3/5 of them to be making slow profit, but that doesn't seem to be too difficult so far.

Been playing cash games as well recently (live) and urinating money to everybody almost at random. Good fun though! :-D