Monday, July 30, 2007

Connect 4

Last night marked the first time I've had four consecutive $1,000+ days. There seems to be a lot of action on the tables around 3am - 4am EST (8am - 9am UK) so I will continue to try and put in a decent amount of hours.

The River King fucked me again in one hand last tonight:

River King Hand

Taken in isolation, those three hands (see last post) where I have been rivered by a King had a combined probability of 0.01%!! Frustrating but, as I mentioned before, it's not worth worrying about. Good job I have a chat ban though.

Here's a nice cooler that I won tonight:

Quad Tens Vs Kings Over Tens Hand

I played 3 more of those 45-man MTTs, and won one of them for $342. Here's the last dozen hands from the Final Table:

MTT Final Table

My Sharkscope ROI is up to 101% :)

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Saturday Night Poker Diary

I had a pretty good night on Friday, making $1,823, although it should have been more:

I slow-played AA against what I knew was KK and got him to commit his stack on the turn. The river was a King. Then I reeled in another KK with my JJJ. The river was a King again. I was a 96% favourite in the first and a 94% favourite on the second. (The board was 4J44 so the case 4 would have saved him too.)

Combined, those pots were $1,000+

Last night, Saturday, I thought I'd take brief notes and post a few hands. I started around 11pm.

Hour 1.

I had some fairly decent hands, and didn't lose any major pots.

This was a nice pot. It's not exactly orthodox play by my opponent with QQ at full-handed cash, and as such he got himself into a lot of trouble.

Hand 1 (Click Here)

My computer was running slow and, as a result, PA HUD stats weren't appearing on all of my tables. It was also annoying so I had to close my tables and restart my PC.

At the end of the hour I was +$494


Hour 2.

I lost this hand with AK v AQ. I think I played the streets well to keep the pot small, apart from the river call (even at 3.4/1 odds.) If it was heads-up then the call is the correct play because my turn check appears weak and may have induced a bluff. However, with another player in the hand too he's far less likely to bluff- and I'm not beating much.

Hand 2

This next hand is either a great example of a bluff at these levels by someone with no clue as to what hand he is representing, or he is poor enough to believe his two-pair is that strong. Either way, it's demonstrates how much dead money there is at these tables. (My notes on him said that he likes to bluff on the river- so I didn't give him much credit for a backdoor flush.)

Hand 3

I made another $172 during the second hour. Profit was now at $666


Hour 3.

I only recently realised that although Full Tilt restricts you to playing 12 cash tables, you can also open up extra tournament tables. So now I have started to open up a 13th table and play a low-stake MTT. I played a 45-man $22 MTT and got second in that for about $230.

I have now had 2 x 2nd and 2 x 3rd in my last 5 of these 45-man tournaments. Although only a small 67-game sample, Sharkscope now shows my ROI as 89%! :)



In the following cash hand, I flopped a set of Aces, and turned a Royal Flush draw. Fortunately my opponent played the flop poorly with his made straight so I lost the minimum.

Hand 4

This next hand is not particularly exciting but it demonstrates how you can increase your BB/100 from picking up small pots here and there. Even without the pair of twos, I'd be making this bet. I'm representing either the King or trip 4s and I'm likely to be called here far less than the 50% of the time that I need for it to be profitable. (The second 4 arriving makes a call from a mid-pair unlikely.)

Hand 5

I made $200 during the 3rd hour for a running profit of $866


Hour 4.

On friday night I hit Quads a total of six times! This was my only occasion tonight against another over-played QQ. If he is going to re-raise pre-flop with QQ then he has to raise more else he prices in any pair.

Hand 6

I finished the fourth hour with an extra $236 for a updated total of $1,102


Hour 5.

I only played for another 30 minutes as I was getting tired and starting to make some lazy plays. I lost $85 during this time.


So, total for the night was +$1,017 taking the monthly total to $15,333. My average hourly rate ($114) has increased slightly this month partly due to the odd tournament that I'm now playing.


I have to add that the RunItTwice website that I'm using to display my hand histories is absolutely first class.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Breast Competition #4 Answer

They were fake.

A special thanks to Dora the Explorer for posing for us.

Quite an easy one that especially as she does get around a bit to be fair, and who hasn't seen "Dora Does Dibble" anyway?

Here she is with her clothes on.


Friday, July 27, 2007

Breast Competition #4

OK Boys and girls, real or fake?

(And it's sweat in the photos.)




Thursday, July 26, 2007

Don't Abuse the Fish

Everyone has heard this advice so many times that it's gets boring: "Don't tap the glass. You want to keep poor players at your table. Don't scare them off."

Personally, I'm not too concerned whether a particular fish stays or not. That may sound naive, but when you're playing 12 tables there are 96 other seats with players coming and going all the time so it's not worth bothering too much over any one individual. Besides if he did leave my table there's a good chance he'll sit down at another table where I'm playing anyway.

When you play so many full-handed cash hands each day, there is VERY little variance from month-to-month. Therefore, in the course of a month, you will win close to 80% of your 80/20s, and close to 90% of your 90/10s, and close to 96% of your 96/4s. The point is, it's not worth getting emotional about any pot that you lose as a favourite.

Although it's difficult, I try and remain calm and remove any emotions from my game. This means if I am to avoid getting frustrated when I lose a $500 pot with AA v KK all-in pre-flop, I also have to avoid any elation when I win such a pot. This frame of mind, in theory, should enable me to play my optimal game.

However, too often I find myself abusing the fish, with typical lines such as "You fucking useless cunt" or "You lucky fucking prick" when I should be remaining level-headed. The detrimental effect that this has is not reserved solely for the lack of emotional control. It often leads me onto pointless arguments which further distracts from my game- especially when I time out on my other tables.

Currently, I have simultaneous chat bans on Full Tilt and Pokerstars! I'd like to thanks Highstacks for his help with the Pokerstars one! :) This ban appears to have helped my game though. I am no longer able to abuse the fish and get side-tracked attempting to explain to vegetables why their play was terrible. I also don't have to feel bad later on for having called someone a useless fucker. I won't be requesting to have my chat privileges re-instated at the end of the 30-day period.

So my advice to multi-tablers is to either turn your chat off, or call everyone a cunt until you get chat-banned. :)

On a more important note, I've just taken a couple of photos of a great pair of tits which I'll post tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

$200,000 UP!

My winning streak came to an end over the last couple of days with losses of $133 and $544. However I had a good win on the tables last night for a profit of $1,911.

I was playing 12 x $1/2 for most of the night, but I also played a table of $2/4 for a short while.

Here's a nice $1,000+ pot that I picked up

That takes my total online poker profit past the $200k mark for a grand total of $200,182.

If I maintain my current rate then I should be close to the half-a-million dollar mark by Christmas 2008.

Stats since going full-time at the start of March:

Profit: $74,723

Hours: 792

Rate: $94/hr.

Hands: A fucking shit load. Probably 600,000+

Sunday, July 22, 2007

July Update Part 2

I'm having a nice run right now. I've won on each of the last 15 days that I've played for a total of $11,828.

My total online profit from poker now stands at just under $199,000. Hopefully I'll be making a "$200,000 Post" in the next couple of days or so! :)

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Poker Focus

When you make your living from "grinding" at the poker tables, it's very important that your playing conditions are as ideal as possible. This includes:

Allowing yourself enough time to play.

Not just a quick 30 minutes here and there which encourages "gambling" rather than the patient play that is required.

Playing when fresh.

If I'm feeling tired then I won't play. Instead I'll often sleep for a while until I'm ready to play.

Playing without distractions.

I'll rarely play when my two daughters are running around the house- even when their nanny is here. I'll also often turn off my phone and MSN. (Due to the monotony of multi-tabling full-ring for several hours at a time, I don't consider having the TV on as a distraction- and will often get through 2-3 films during a session.)




















Sometimes I have to leave my daughters on the fridge to avoid being distracted!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

New Poker Table

A couple of months ago I decided to order a custom made poker table for my house. After quite a bit of research I decided that this company looked like the best there was available:

http://www.stinegametables.com/

My table finally earlier this week, although I still have to wait another 2/3 weeks for the chairs! (Eight of the Black with Cherry chairs seen here: http://www.stinegametables.com/poker-table-chair.html) The table looks like the dogs bollocks, and I bought some Paulson chips and Kem playing cards to complement it.

The only problem is that none of my mates over here play poker! So the plan is to host several introductory games which will hopefully lead to some regular social poker nights.

It was quite an expensive outlay. All together, the table, chairs, optional dining table top, chips and cards cost around $9,000. However, at the very least, it's a nice decoration for the house!

I'm now looking for some software that is suited for a small home game. Typically it will just be a STT of 8-10 players.

Also, what type of structure/game would you recommend given that initially virtually of the other players will be complete novices who currently don't even know the rules? Obviously the emphasis needs to be on playing time for each player, so I would have thought some type of re-buy event.




Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Keeping Records

Too many players fail to keep accurate records of their poker progress. However I think it's an essential requirement in order to, amongst other things, facilitate good bankroll management and discipline.

Without this data it's also difficult to gauge your ability as a poker player. It's human nature for most people to think they're doing better than they actually are without this information.

To me, it was particularly useful in order to make the decision to start playing poker full-time. I had a large enough sample of hands in order to confidently feel that I could rely on income from poker alone.

Anyone wishing to start keeping a record of their own progress may find this spreadsheet that I put together helpful:

Smart Money's Spreadsheet

Instructions are included, and you should also download the example version to help see how it works.


July Update

Click on the image below to enlarge.













In almost 3 years of playing poker I've never had so many days off as I have this month! I took my daughters to the beach (South Carolina) at the start of the month for 4 days, and then had another day off after playing right through (drunk) the previous night without any sleep!

For some variety I've played 6 MTTs this month too. I came 11th out of 210 in the Full Tilt monthly Ironman 30k Gtd. freeroll (basically for players who play a lot on the site.) $300 for that after losing an AK v QQ race for the lead. That jammy bastard went on to win the $5,300 1st prize. :)

I've also played 5 x 45-man $22 MTTs. The standard is absolutely dire. I've had a 1st and a 2nd in those, so I may continue to play some MTTs alongside the cash tables. (I played the MTT that I won tonight alongside 11 cash tables, and just closed down the cash tables when the final table started. So they needn't take my time away from playing cash.)

Other than that, it's been a pretty standard month. In fact, it's surprising how little variance I've seen since March when I started playing full-time. Average hourly rate by Month:

March: $91
April: $96
May: $91
June: $92
July: $99 (to date)

Month to date: $6,849 but I going back to the tables now for a short while. :)



Here's a nice $600+ pot from $1/$2 tonight:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2970651306: Table Lost Mesa - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:35:03 ET - 2007/07/17
Seat 1: She Can Play ($339.95)
Seat 2: mariojr ($298.50)
Seat 3: skarlghks ($184)
Seat 4: flhtsta1 ($142)
Seat 5: weasel95 ($200)
Seat 6: Narena ($214.30)
Seat 7: Reelyfe ($213.65)
Seat 8: LitezOut ($165.65)
Seat 9: PrairieG8 ($220)
PrairieG8 posts the small blind of $1
She Can Play posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Narena [3h 3d]
mariojr folds
skarlghks folds
flhtsta1 folds
weasel95 calls $2
Narena calls $2
Reelyfe folds
LitezOut folds
PrairieG8 folds
She Can Play raises to $9
weasel95 calls $7
Narena calls $7
*** FLOP *** [6h 3s 7c]
She Can Play bets $20
weasel95 raises to $191, and is all in
Narena calls $191
weasel95: doh!
She Can Play has 15 seconds left to act
She Can Play calls $171
*** TURN *** [6h 3s 7c] [3c]
She Can Play bets $15
Narena calls $14.30, and is all in
She Can Play shows [Kd Ks]
weasel95 shows [7s 6d]
Narena shows [3h 3d]
Uncalled bet of $0.70 returned to She Can Play
*** RIVER *** [6h 3s 7c 3c] [4s]
She Can Play shows two pair, Kings and Threes
Narena shows four of a kind, Threes
Narena wins the side pot ($28.60) with four of a kind, Threes
weasel95 shows two pair, Sevens and Sixes
Narena wins the main pot ($598) with four of a kind, Threes
She Can Play: great calls preflop guys

I did like the original raiser's comment (above) seeing as she called two deep-stacked all-ins on the flop that had limited draws out there.
Breast Competition #3 Answer

They were real.

A special thanks to PQ for posing for us, and well done to Highstack for recognising her.

Here she is with her clothes on.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Readers' Mums' Breasts Competition #2 Answer

Those beauties were a fake pair, but they actually look pretty good.

Thanks again to Highstack's mum for letting me take the photo. Well done to Highstack, Tank and Wonky Jim for giving the correct answer. Although to be fair, given that all three have sucked on those tits plenty of times, you'd expect them to get the answer right.

Here's a friend of her's:

Breasts Competition #3

Easy one this. Just really an excuse to show another pair. :)





Wednesday, July 11, 2007

...and God created NL cash

In November 2005, I went on holiday to Nassau, Bahamas. While there I visited one of the casinos and played some $1/$2 NL cash. The standard was poor and I left with a profit of around $500. Playing live* (as opposed to playing multiple tables online) really highlighted for me just how poor most players are. That’s when I thought that I could probably exploit this fact better at the NL cash tables, rather than the STT tables that I was currently playing.

*(Having moved to North Carolina from England in 2000 meant that I hadn’t had much opportunity to play live.)

When I got back home, I started playing multiple tables of NL cash. Initially things went very well and I finished the month with a nice profit:

November, 2005: +$7,703

However December didn’t go quite so well as I had yet to make the necessary adjustments needed for the NL game.

December, 2005: +$725

Frustrated, I decided to leave the NL cash games for the time being, and moved to mainly (low-stake) MTTs and also back to $22 STTs.

January, 2006: +$2,441

I tried NL cash again for a few days in February and had some good results:

February, 2006: +$7,589

I continued with NL cash, and moved up to playing 6 tables at a time:

March, 2006: +$7,969
April, 2006: +$12,446
May, 2006: +$10,949


I moved up to 8 tables, and then to 10. (My results don't look quite as good as the previous 3 months but that was partly due to a decrease in hours.)

June, 2006: +$8,947
July, 2006: +$7,925
August, 2006: +$1,577
September, 2006: +$5,047
October, 2006: +$6,732
November, 2006 +$5,117
December, 2006: +$9,873
January, 2007: +$6,344
February, 2007: +4,865


In March 2007, I went full-time, and had now started playing 12 tables at a time:

March, 2007: +$16,091
April, 2007: +$17,060
May, 2007: +$14,846
June, 2007: +$14,435


I’m happy with my progress to date; as of last month my total online profit was $187,891 and all 33 months have been profitable. I now have to think about where I want to take my game. I know I can continue to play $1/$2 and make a nice profit each month, with little variance, and no stress- but should I be looking to increase my stakes with an ultimate aim of playing some of the highest stakes online?

Look at Brian Townsend (blog link on right.) He was playing very low stake cash games just a couple of years ago, and now he plays the biggest games available live and online.

Am I good enough? I don’t know. I would definitely have to adapt my game somewhat if I stepped up.

I have started to open up the odd $2/$4 game. In fact, last Saturday night when I came in at 3am completely pissed, I had 6 x $1/$2 and 6 x $2/$4 going. (I was soon down almost $1,500 but managed to sober up enough to turn a near $1,000 profit.)

Perhaps I should just start introducing more higher stake games gradually? One obvious problem with stepping up is the increase in variance- not because the stakes are higher, but rather because the fewer tables I imagine you can play successfully.

Another direction I’m looking at for now is simply to play more tables. Full Tilt has a 12 table cap, so it would mean running Pokerstars or possibly Betfair at the same time. I don’t think I’d have any problems playing 16 tables.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Readers' Mums Breasts Competition #2

Apologies for anyone wanting to read about poker but most of my free time right now is being spent playing, but I will update soon.

In the meantime, thanks to Highstack for allowing his mum to pose for me for the lastest competition. So are these real or fake?


Friday, July 06, 2007

Breast Competition #1 Answer

Congratulations to everyone who said "Real." A copy of Super System 2 is on it's way to each of you.

A special well done to Doobs who was correctly able to identify the boobs as belonging to his mum.

An update to the poker will be up soon but more importantly, so will Breast Competition #2 (C)2007