a year in the life.

poker coaching london.

2011-08-06T17:35:00.005+01:00

.....and the other news is I'm very excited to have set up Poker Coaching London! I just have always loved teaching and explaining poker concepts to people that it's been in the back of my mind for ages to do something properly. It seemed like a perfect fit really to combine my love of the game with my love of teaching. Plus since I've started, it's also helped me with my own game, just really exploring the nuances of even really simple poker strategies like c-betting. It's also just been incredibly satisfying seeing my students improve by tweaking certain things in their game as well as being the catalyst for those eureka moments particularly when talking about hand ranges.

I just wanted to focus on live poker games in London as online poker coaches are a lot more prolific. I play mostly at the Empire and people don't realise how much you can make there even at £1/£2. I mean you can make £3-4k a month and of course, it's tax-free. Plus everytime I play there I just see people make so so so so many many fundamental mistakes which costs them tons and tons of money.

Either way, it's been going really well so far and absolutely loving it. I basically have approached a few people that I play with, who have an intermediate understanding level of the game but make some fundamental errors, and offer coaching to them. It's really cool because already I know exactly what concepts to teach them to immediately increase their win rate.

All in all after a few months, I've managed to take on six students who are all great down to earth nice guys and who I feel honoured to be sharing my knowledge with. Super fun! Check it out!

www.pokercoachinglondon.com

tweet tweet.

2011-07-18T10:13:00.002+01:00

hello.

2011-07-18T09:49:00.005+01:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been more than a year since I last wrote a post which is unforgiveable considering the last 12 months have been so amazingly blog-worthy. I left my job late last year and took some time off to travel around the world, playing poker trying to find the softest cash games and bink a major tournament...

I played the WSOPE, English Poker Open, and EPT before grinding out cash for a bit and realising I actually could make quite a decent living doing this. Was averaging around £4K a month just playing £1/£2 at the Empire. Headed off to LA in November for the NAPT and bust out level 2 with set over set. That was fun. Although I did experience probably one of the sickest night of my life as it coincided with BK's birthday out there and he went to town with a limo stocked full of vodka, tequila, gin which we drove and partied in the Sky Bar and then went all VIP in Truesdale.

By this time it was getting quite cold in the UK so went to Cape Town, South Africa for 3 whole months, travelling around, experiencing some of the soft (albeit stupidly slow and not very deep) cash games there. Met some great new friends and played Emerald Poker Series in Johannesburg and Royal Rumble in Swaziland. I experienced the fastest I've ever driven clocking up 152mph en route from Jo'burg to Swazi. My driver wanted to make his massage he'd booked...

Got back around March to play some more cash and after smaller earnings in South Africa, immediately booked in a £5k month back home. And then some more tournaments. This time, I played WPT Vienna, EPT Berlin and Irish Open. Loved Vienna, Berlin sucked, Dublin was an amazing town.

Briefly popped to Isle of Man and then Budapest for holidays and unfortunately had to cancel my trip to Vegas as had Best Man duties for my good friend's weddings. All in all, I've had a few cashes but nothing substantial. It's about time I bink one of these things!

Which brings me to right now. I'm currently in Portoroz, Slovenia about to play day 1b of WPT Slovenia. Life is good and I am living the dream having some incredible experiences along the way!

Also, the main point of this post, is that I'm now on twitter! so follow me @chuckpoker for chip counts, random ramblings and more poker exploits.

www.twitter.com/chuckpoker

wsop day 1d

2010-07-09T21:49:00.001+01:00

57.3k chips (above average I think) - made it through day 1. Play day 2 tomorrow. Table wasn't as soft as I hoped but made the best of the situation. I think I made one mistake the whole day (which wasn't really a mistake but fired twice which didn't work as he'd flopped a set) and had ak vs aa on k high dry board. I just check called all the way so lost minimum although maybe could have folded the river...

Anyways, first couple of levels, was still working everyone out so didn't feel like I was in the groove but after level 3, opened up my game a bit more and got in to the groove.

BK is on 41k I think which is average and JD unfortunately bust out....

is this thing still on? / wsop 2010

2010-07-03T15:42:00.001+01:00

Anybody there?? Wow, I really got out the habit of posting but in the back of my mind, I always knew I'd start right back up again right about...now.

I mentioned before I'd be heading to Vegas this summer and right now I'm en route. Currently in San Francisco and been here for a couple of days now. We're just about to rent a car (convertible ftw!) to head down to Santa Cruz and then San Luis Obispo before hooking up with BK in L.A. We'll then drive over to Vegas and aim to play the Main Event on Day 1D where we'll meet up with JD. Remember last year when JD had a last minute urge to play the main so we gathered up all our money ($2500) and tried to spin it up on the $10/$20NL at Bellagio? Well, he's sorted out his buyin advance so less chance of ending in disaster...haha. That was funny though (apart from him losing obv). Why didn't we just stick it all on RED?!!

Anyways, I actually stumbled on my last posts of the main event and re-read the whole section which was pretty interesting. I'm really glad I recorded the whole thing so I am definitely aiming to do that this year as well.

More updates to follow shortly. Now it's time to hit the Pacific Coast Highway...

the revenge.

2010-03-31T15:29:00.002+01:00

I had to excuse myself from the home game at around 2am on Monday night. Suddenly without warning, an alien inside me was trying to get out. Killer stomach cramps. I had just been dealt trips with action ahead of me but all I could think of was how much fucking pain I was in. I thought back to what I’d eaten. Domino’s Pizza – Meltdown, The Revenge – chilli, chilli, chilli with a hint of pizza. Never again. And I LOVE hot food but that pain. Yikes.

I went to relieve myself and then coasted the next hour making a few pounds here and there. It was a horrible feeling really – all those fish lining up and taunting me yet I was thinking to myself I really gotta call it a night. BK announced last hand which was fine by me. I was up a bunch and was ready to assume foetal position in the spare room. For some reason, we seemed to play one more ‘last hand’ in which I did about £150 to a losing JD when he hit his miracle set on the turn. Argh! Nevertheless, I made £340 that night which was nice and healthy. Still amazing to witness the shocking moves I see in that game. It’s a sushi bar. Consequently, I felt I was card dead the whole time but made some good reads – e.g. calling with bottom pair on a straightening board was good for about £200 pot.

Apart from the Monday night, I’ve been concentrating on a ton of other stuff like setting up a business which hasn’t got anything to do with poker but hopefully will be another profitable sideline. Been working loads as well including a photoshoot over the weekend, another gig tonight and just meeting after meeting. All is good though. Easter is nearly upon us and booked a weekend away in Devon – I just wish the weather forecast wasn’t so terrible. Still it’s gonna be great getting a break from the big smoke. We’re gonna be near River Cottage so definitely check that out and one of the Hix restaurants… although I’m sure when I last went to the GQ Awards, he designed the menus and it was pretty much crap. But I’m sure he’s good….caught him on an off day catering for loads of people. Maybe.

Finally, just a little plug with a new initiative called Music Matters. I saw this film and thought it was great. All the animations are brilliant and this one in particular just makes you fall in love with music all over again. And I don’t even like Kate Bush!! Wicked tune though.

Music Matters - Kate Bush (23-3-10) from Music Matters on Vimeo.

a guest post from would-be.

2010-03-19T10:00:00.009Z

I asked would-be to write a guest post for this blog cause I reckon there'd be a bunch of guys out there wanting to know what he was up to. Last we heard of him, he'd just got a new job and developed sudden paranoia atfer a ridiculous cocktail of drugs at a work party. He seemed to remember mentioning his blog to a girl leading him to take it down. The risk of anyone discovering it now that his life was finally on the mend was just too much.

So what's he been up to the past few months? I'll leave it him to explain... comment thoughts below.

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

It was probably about a month ago that C asked if I’d be interested in writing a guest post for this blog, and although agreeing to try and fit it in at the time, I didn’t really go out of my way to make any effort.

There were a number of reasons for this. The first being that my laptop completely died beyond repair back in January and I haven’t sorted myself out a new one yet, meaning that I’d have to write up my shit on my work computer and run the risk of my degeneracy being uncovered by those that I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Another big reason was that even until a couple of weeks ago I was still pulling the same shit as before. Since I started this job, I’ve had two paydays, and less than a week after each I was completely skint after chucking every penny in to sports bets and the roulette machine in the Ladbrokes underneath my North-London flat. I also went through a stage (albeit a small stage) of doing a lot of coke. That’s an expensive habit.

I didn’t want to write a post about it because although I was still up to no good, I was managing to live a life of denial, helped by the fact that I can never tell my flatmates that I’ve gone back to my old ways, instead having to come up all the time with elaborate stories as to why I’ve no cash.

Away from the gambling, though, things have slowly been getting better in my life. Work is going well, I’ve managed to build up respect from those around me, even if it is based originally on a fabricated history, and potential is showing its face at almost every corner.

I also get to travel a lot and go out to dinners and shit in fancy restaurants and hotels that quite frankly a person like me has no business being in. Just a few examples of this are the dinner I had to go to in the Savoy on the Strand, the week I have to spend next month in Munich at a big construction trade fair, the week I have to spend in Vancouver, and then the trips I’m expected to take in the next few months to both Brisbane and China. Although, I’m trying to get out of the China trip just because I could do with a break and don’t really fancy it right now.

About three weeks ago I also decided to stop taking my medication. The more I move on in my life, the more I want to regain control of every aspect.

To be honest, I don’t really feel any different, at least not yet. My moods are fine. The only thing that’s causing me stress is that since I came off them I have become a real insomniac, getting about 3 ½ hours sleep on a good night.

But I can deal with that. In fact, my body’s got used to it and it doesn’t bother me as much as it did.

Ah yea, before I forget, I even joined the gym just round the corner from my work for £50 a month and I’m trying to get myself back into the shape I was in when I was playing football.

Right, moving on a bit….

I’ve met a girl.

Not just any girl, actually. Probably the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met in my life, someone that makes me feel so good that after leaving her and jumping on the tube, people look at me and avoid me like some sort of special case as I can’t wipe this big fucking retarded smile off of my boat.

And the best thing about all of this is that she likes me as much as I do her.

Every lunchtime she jumps on the tube from Hammersmith where she lives to come and spend an hour with me walking along the river close to my work in Blackfriars. In the evenings I go over to neck of the woods. And when we’re not physically together we just speak for hours on the phone, and online when I’m at my desk in the office.

She’s quick-witted, intelligent, funny, laid back, and stunningly beautiful to look at. She writes poetry and songs, drinks and smokes, and has been through shit in the past that has only made her stronger. She’s a talker and a listener. She’s everything that I’ve been needing lately but also everything that I didn’t really want to find. She seems to understand me, which certainly isn’t easy.

Before she came along, I was up to my old tricks on the woman front. I’d already shagged a girl from my office, as well as having a casual sexual relationship with a Czech girl I met who turned out to be a fucking pain in the arse and had to be got rid of. In the last couple of months I also took home a few girls I met in clubs and pubs, but got fed up with each and every one of them almost before I’d shot my load.

I was seriously of the belief that I was incapable of caring about a girl or even really liking a girl for more than just a quickie. I’d given up on all hope that in my life I might once again have that feeling of uncontrollable happiness in the hours before and after spending time with a girl.

I was a cynic. My future was mapped out for me; I would gamble my life away, drink, take drugs when on offer, and shag women when I had the need. No one was going to change me.

Now, though, my whole world has been turned upside down. I don’t want to fuck up, I want to finally beat the gambling, I want to be able to give this girl everything, even though she’s not the type of girl who just wants stuff. I like her. She’s made me happy. It’s only been 10 days since we first met, and already she’s completely blown my mind. I feel weak to it. We’re already even making plans of weekends here and weekends there. This is new to me, I’m so out of practice, and yet it just seems so natural.

Apart from the girl, I’ve started enjoying things in life again that I’d forgotten could be so good. Things like going to Spurs. I went to the Blackburn game last week, the first time since my dad died, and after I’d got through the emotion of realising he wouldn’t be phoning me at half-time to see how we were playing, I was able to soak up the atmosphere and just bask in the love I feel for my club. Tottenham Hotspur, can’t smile without you.

Please let us carry on the fight til the last day of the season and grab that Champions’ League spot. Please.

I’ve got a ticket now for Wednesday’s cup quarter-final replay against Fulham, and after that I hope to be able to sneak a ticket for the semi-final at Wembley as well, although I don’t fancy my chances of getting one for the final against either Chelsea or Villa.

Family-wise, things have calmed down a bit since the problems I had with the law back in December. I’ve completely cut my mother out of my life, she’s dead to me and I don’t expect to ever see or hear from her again. If she died tomorrow, I wouldn’t even want to be informed. I don’t care.

Equally, the guy that I hold responsible for my dad’s suicide is out of my mind for now. I know he’s moved into my dad’s house, and for a long time I was making plans with certain people and things were almost ready to be put into action. But now I’m able to look at the situation with a clear head and not let my emotions and fiery personality get me into hot water that I really don’t need to be in right now. I’ve too much to lose, which is completely different to before when I had absolutely fuck all to risk.

I have a life now.

I even get on well now with both my sisters, and regularly go over to the older one’s in Kent on a Sunday for a roast and to play with my niece and nephew.

I realise that this post is probably boring and disappointing, but if I were to apologise for that fact I’d be lying. I’m not interested anymore in entertaining through my own fucked-up tendencies and childish behavioural traits. I also know that I probably come across as some sort of soft poof in this post. I also don’t care. This is (hopefully) the last post you will ever read from the Degenerate Would-Be.

Time has been called.

pummped!

2010-03-18T15:57:00.007Z

I feel like posting which is the first time in ages to be honest. I guess it’s something you need to get back into and maybe I’ve fallen out of the habit. I have no idea what to write about though...

Let’s start off with yesterday. I booked my flights to Vegas over the summer which just so awesome! My girlfriend is coming along so we’re going to head to San Francisco first for a few days before travelling down to LA. Hopefully BK will have completed on his house out there so we can stay in basically the sweetest place I’ve ever laid eyes on. I’ll just tell you three points about it a) it has a private sauna b) it’s on the beach c) it has a private cinema room. Oh I better mention d) as well, it’s right opposite the beach volleyball courts. Ding!

So a few days in LA and then maybe we’ll drive down to Vegas 'Hangover' style. Always wanted to do that. I’ve got a room sorted and all comp’d at Aria which is the new hotel in City Centre for my stay which is pretty sweet. I've got the option to move though so may change this to MGM cause that was pretty fun last time and the poker room is soooo loose. We’ll arrive on the Wednesday to register for the Main Event and play Thursday which would be Day 1D. I know tons of people going out so should be a great, great trip and if you wanna hook up out there, give us a shout here.

It took me AGES to find flights. My girlfriend is not working at the moment so I offered to pay for her tickets which meant I had to be careful with the price. In the end I saw that if I bought these flights on United from the US site (not the UK one) and paid for it in dollars, I could get them both for under a grand which was pretty sweet and saved me about $400! They were asking for a US billing address so luckily I could just get BK to put it through and then just transfer the £ over to his UK account.

I’m so PUMPED to be going out this summer, I just can’t wait. My girlfriend’s meeting some friends out there once we hit Vegas giving me plenty of time to play and earn some money off all those unsuspecting tourists that have no idea what they’re doing. It's gonna be GREAT! I also can't wait to show her all the fun stuff which I experienced last time like the dancing fountains at Bellagio and the rides on the Stratosphere. Oh and the rollercoaster at Sahara is INSANE!

Anyways, since my last post, been chilling out although went out for a really nice dinner on Tuesday night at Sophie’s Steakhouse which I had never been before. Opted for the Malbec/Ribeye steak combo which was just awesome. Got some nice drinks at The Hospital Club on Friday coming up before heading back to the country for the weekend. I haven’t actually played in a while so perhaps I’ll have a session on Sunday or something. Next week’s gonna be a lot busier with gigs, drinks and I think N-Dogggg is flying over. Then I gotta work at the weekend at a photoshoot but that’s fine.

Finally check back soon as a guest post from everyone's favourite car-crash would-be will be up soon. Laters.

hideously generous.

2010-03-15T14:58:00.002Z

BK's home game was an absolute disaster and I somehow went from calm, cool, collected player to raging monkey tilt demon. I just couldn't understand how these absolute chumps were winning. Well I was playing bad but also not hitting which is a deadly combination. After starting off poorly, I managed to regain composure and get back to even despite being £400 in the hole in a 25p/50p game.

Then called BK's massive all in with AQ thinking I was dominating or to be shown 72 (as we had the rule in) but instead faced 10Jcc which took the £700 pot. This tilted me and I then became a hideously generous ATM.

Something didn't quite compute in my brain that I was actually losing in this game and so my neurones dysfunctioned and decided I had an aversity to money. I ended up down £512 and pissed. It would have been £532 but I had a side bet JD wouldn't be the biggest winner of the game - the only decent wager I made all night.

So after pootling around at the start of the month, I was down about $600. My blood simmered at the thought I'd lost in this game but I only had myself to blame. Anyways, since then I've made a recovery playing one 0.25/0.50 HU session online earning about $500ish to take me back to even. I haven't earnt anything this month yet but back to even now and all is good.

smokin' hot tracks.

2010-03-10T12:59:00.008Z

There’s some great music kicking around at the moment and I’ve had a few comments asking for recommendations which I keep meaning to get round to do.

So here are my top 10 hot tracks at the moment which conveniently make a smoking hot playlist. Some new, some old but all definitely worth checking out.

Band Of Skulls - Honest
Sia – Clap Your Hands
Lissie – In Sleep
Bluey Robinson – I Know
Ellie Goulding – The Writer
School Of Seven Bells – iamundernodisguise
Sade – The Moon And The Sky
Four Tet – Love Cry
Gypsy & The Cat – Jona Vark
Broken Bells – The High Road

Enjoy.

after dark.

2010-03-09T12:19:00.007Z

I feel like I haven’t seen any new films in ages so there’s some kind of imbalance at the moment. Just in the nick of time however, I’ve been invited to a couple of screenings this week. First up is Alice In Wonderland 3D at Paramount and should be heading over to see Shutter Island on Thursday with Pearl and Dean. I’m hoping they’re both going to be good – I’ve got mixed feelings about what to expect. I saw some absolute shockers the other day- Love Happens (1*): awful, had to turn it off half way through and The Invention Of Lying (1.5*): couldn't wait for that to end.

I also hadn’t been to a new gig in ages but despite the freezing weather, trekked up to the Roundhouse on Sunday night to watch Bluey Robinson which was incredible. The crowd were going nuts for this guy who hasn’t even got any radio play yet – all of this buzz just off his youtube videos.

Played the Empire last night and had a rocky start where I got two outed on the river with KJ vs QQ all in on a JJ5 flop (K on the turn just to dig it in) and QQ vs KK all in pre-flop which maaaybe I could have got away from but was only £250 pot. Kept calm and my hands started to hold up so had a £700ish upswing and cashed out +£350ish. Some of the hands where I won were played SO badly by the opposition. I feel I’m getting better and better and now realising how many mistakes people are making – mistakes I used to make.

BK’s home game is tomorrow night which should be fun. I may also be going to see Passion Pit / Ellie Goulding later on in the week and some kind of Jazz night thing is on the cards.

Oh check out Ellie’s album if you haven’t heard it – it’s fantastic.

"i am tilt"

2010-03-02T12:18:00.018Z

Spring is here and February was great! It started off pretty poorly where I made a little bit, lost a little bit... I think I was a few hundred loser and then I went on a decent run over the last two weeks and I've ended +$3K for the month. And to think one of those sessions was after a quite drunken session at Cork, LAB and Dean Street Townhouse on wine, gin, vodka, martinis. I tried to engage in a conversation with Mikey upon arrival but was told I was completely incoherent. I wasn't that bad, just maybe not as fresh as I would have liked. I still felt completely lucid - enough to shove with AK over a ridiculous 4 bet by some drunk Lovejoy character only to be CALLED with 34o. A on the board but his two pair was good and I lost the £1K pot. Still, managed to recover and ended making around £850ish through good play...

Anyways, I've been speaking to James (jbt101) recently who I asked to write a guest post on any subject he wanted. We settled on 'tilt' but it kind of turned into his life poker story so far which is so bloody interesting. I was going to split this into two parts as it's fairly lengthy but it is such a good read, I had to put it all here in its entirety. Enjoy and let us know what you think....

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

C has kindly asked me to write a guest post in lieu of paying him the cash from a half-pissed online HU session the other week. Does this make me a paid writer or a gambler so desperate that he whores out his talent to his creditors. It is the latter. I am a whore.

Anyway, joking aside, (C - it was a wind up I’m paying you as well but I bet you thought I was serious for just a second) I wanted to look at “tilt” and some of my experiences with it. I tilt in two ways – live I’m very quiet but generally playing backwards when out of sorts. Online my tilt is a sight to behold – C published a match-report last year where I dusted off ten buy-ins in just over 200 hands but let me tell you, that is nothing.

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

“I am tilt”

I used to have nerves of steel and the patience of a saint. Sitting at the card table for hours, days even, was not a problem and the only problem I really had to worry about was the crushing fatigue that would hit after about 11 hours at the felt as the acidic combination of green tea and orange juice churns with stomach with excess acid and half a wolfed down toastie. Oh how that has changed; now the smallest thing can put me on tilt and that can be very destructive – not just to the bankroll but also to my desire to play the game. It used to be three or four nights a week, week in week out.

Even when I was in the restaurant industry grafting from 8am until midnight I would still play until the card-room shut, stumble home and survive the next day on espresso, nicotine and adrenaline. Moving to London in 2006 I would play on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and probably every other Saturday – Tuesday and Wednesday were often all-night sessions as the younger me desperately subsidized a lifestyle that was barely half covered by my graduate salary heading to work bleary eyed having won or lost a months salary. I was a grinder. I was a “semi-pro”. I was “baller”.

Despite the tax on body and soul I found success at work. Success in the workplace meant longer hours, mainly spent in bars schmoozing and entertaining clients courtesy of my then insane expense account (if I had had a pond I would have tried for a duck house – it would have got through). My energy levels dropped and I would make up my hours playing while drunk (and I mean hammered drunk) stumbling back to work the next morning, my hangover accentuated by a massive dose of self-loathing, fear, doubt and a lighter wallet. But I never really suffered for I am not a Dostoyevsky-ian self-destructor – I now earned better money and could “afford” to play and my bank-roll was still intact, for the most part because I met the shortfall from my pay check thereby punishing myself for poor play. I loved poker. Poker loved me.

Towards the end of 2007 I took a long look at myself and decided that it was time to get serious. I was playing well, when sober, and decided that December would be a big month either way and I would reap my rewards from the hordes of drunk players that roam London’s streets looking to give their money away. I dropped £7,500 in three weeks playing pretty much £1/£2. Yep, read that again, £7,500, that’s 25 buy-ins and it was way over half of my bankroll and considering I played part-time you get an idea of the bloodbath I lived through.

I ran worse then I have ever run but I also had my first contact with tilt, that subtle monster that exhibits itself in so many strange ways. Those of you that know me are aware that I am generally a pretty solid player who rarely gets massively out of line but that sometimes can play like a complete maniac (normally that’s me pissed). But I rarely “tilted” - a shrug of the shoulders, a call of “chips” and I would re-enter the fray chipping back up as if nothing happened. I was solid. I was safe. I was no more.

In the aftermath of December 2007 I was stunned. I couldn’t win – I literally lost all faith in my ability to make even a logical play. Value betting ceased entirely and I would take obvious trap check lines in the hope that I would be paid off by opponents when I had the nuts. Conversely I would take strange lines when bluffing easily dumping a hard earned stack by playing way out of position in nonsense spots. I had no nerve. I had no aggression. I had no mojo. I had no je ne sais quoi. I had tilt.

This wasn’t “chase the losses” tilt this was the dreaded “I am going to lose” tilt where you convince yourself that you are destined to lose. The problem with this kind of tilt is that it doesn’t exhibit itself in the obvious manner of turning red and steam pouring from the ears but it is, I think, far more destructive. Because the image of civility and lucid thought is maintained it almost seems impossible that you can continue losing. So back you go, as planned, sober, eating well but running and playing like shit. I was desolate. I was confused. I was beaten.

Christmas 2007 was dark, I mean really dark. I went home, didn’t drink much, ran every day in the biting cold and got into a huge row with my sister over why commuting meant I couldn’t listen to “The Chris Moyles Show” and basically took my December frustrations out on myself and those around me. I didn’t play a hand but I couldn’t help but think of what had happened. I was buying a flat but I had just wiped out a load of my cash and things were no longer looking rosy. Shit 25 buy-ins; it’s not a massive swing by any means online, but live it’s unconscionable in terms of physical cash. What I could have bought, the student loans I could have cleared, the classic car I could be driving. I quit. I was out. I’d had enough.

January 2008 I decided not to play until I had completed on the flat, filled the spare rooms and so I liquidated the rest of my bankroll furnishing the place. It was great, I was busy, I found tenants, I started saving and I fell for a girl. By early March I couldn’t believe where I’d been in December. Life was great, this girl worked in media as well but had a low paid job at one of those funky Shoreditch style magazines so as a result she worked every Saturday night, and most Fridays, as a cocktail waitress so I had time on my hands again.

There was a snooker club near me that had a back-room game that I found by accident - £1/2 PLHE, my old game from Leeds and the Gutshot. So I dabbled with £50 one Friday night and tore them up. I mean tore them up – these guys were terrible players. There was no balance and two decent guys whose bankrolls came from pills, powders and the sale of therapeutic herbal remedies essentially and myself carved the game. With a small roll going again I ventured back to the bigger games in London (this little game would only ever sit for three or four hours) while the girl was at work. It was great. I wouldn’t drink but would play until 5am, pick her up and indulge in the late pre-dawn shenanigans of London town. I was in love. I crushed. I was back.

Before the nightmare of December 2007 I had been an early adopter of the joys of online PLO and had been applying Rolf Slotboom’s approach to wonderful effect – it was a money machine!! Having liquidated the account in January 2008 to pay for house stuff I was now itching to get back in the game as my regular haunts didn’t spread games I could comfortably stand any more I went back to online. Chucked $100 on (I know sick!!) one night watching the football with my flatmate – to be honest it was meant to be $1000 but I mis-typed – a sick run of cards later and there was $2000 in the account, Spurs had won and I was bleeding slightly from having been smacked so hard in the face with the deck that it hurt! Accepting this little windfall as fate I spent the next few months in a happy little cycle: Friday/Saturdaty was live poker. Sunday – Tuesday was PLO while the girl slept and Wednesday/Thursday were normally the nights off. I was hooked. I was crushing. I was roll building.

This continued for a while and I was joyously experiencing the antithesis of “tilt”. Outdrawn on, no worries “chips” and let’s get to work. Committed to this pot, “no really, I think not” saving buy-ins through control I exercised a beautiful upward curve both live and online. I was in a quandary as the online roll was now way past five figures (a situation I had never had) and the cash was beginning to clutter my bedside drawers I decided to liquidate the live roll by paying off my student loan. This left me playing with no live roll but safe in the knowledge that I had a nice chunk online – we were over $20k and cruising. I was proud. I would fall.

June 2008 was a dark month. I was in an insanely high-octane relationship with an absolute lunatic. It was a strange combination – a dilettante cokehead media girl and a hard drinking, poker playing media boy – the two don’t mix. Poker didn’t cause the end of our relationship – drugs did. Poker money doesn’t finance a drug habit – my money doesn’t finance a drug habit.

We ended it on a Saturday morning; she’d come to mine on the Friday evening in pieces having been on a coke-fuelled bender all the way from Thursday lunchtime. She slept in my arms dressed in my sweats. We made love in the morning and then she walked out saying that she didn’t love me and that it wasn’t going to work out. I still remember closing the door on her as she walked out. I was in tears. I was broken. I was “tilt”.

There are a number of gambling studies that attribute severe addiction to a need to affirm ones position in life as a loser. Only when every penny has gone does the true addict experience the catharsis of knowing that they have achieved their rightful place in the pecking order. I’d never had that problem before; I was always brutally self-assured in my own ability. Even my previous brush with “tilt” had been partially fuelled by my overriding belief that I was too good to lose over an extended period of time. This was different. I was unaware. I was alone. I would fall.

Stumbling back up the stairs I felt terrible. I went for a run, I had a shower, I decided to play some PLO. It was Saturday, there was money to be made, I’d show her, this would be sick! Gollum-like I surveyed my pretty balance on FTP - $26,572. I contemplated withdrawing some of it there and then to go on a bit of a shopping spree to cheer myself up but I decided against it. This was my “roll”, my baby, my ticket to the World Series. I didn’t need anything else at the moment – flat was tricked out, wardrobe looked good and the current account was in the black. So I played my normal stakes. I would grind. I would win. I would not see this coming.

Over the previous few months I had gloried in being a bankroll nit for the first time in my life. I would play $1/2 or maximum of $2/4 PLO and never more then two tables at a time. At this level I could crush the game and had moved to a deeper style of play and away from the simpler short-stacking approach that had built my roll. Things started off well that day and I was quickly up a few buy-ins. It was mid-morning and drunk Americans can be quite liberal with their cash. I lost a hand when I was “locked” at 80% to win on the flop – do you know how hard that is in PLO? But this time my reaction was different. I was bothered. I couldn’t shrug it off. I could rebuy. I could rebuy higher. One outdraw and I was toast – emotionally desolated from losing a girl I was crazy about had fried my mind. That two outer was the absolute proof that the universe hated me and that life wasn’t fair. I lost all ability for rational thought. I shoved thinner and thinner edges, got it in drawing dead and would never hit. Instead of stopping and going to the pub I frantically looked for ways to get full stacks in the middle. I’d get back to even. I’d crush. I’d show her.

$26,572. $26,572. $26,572. $26,572. $26,572. $26,572. $26,572. $26,572. $26,572. $26,572. In just over five hours my balance read $0. I had played as high as $10/20 PLO and at one stage had peaked above $30k. I wouldn’t stop. For some reason that escapes me I craved the affirmation that life was unfair that everything I had worked for should be taken away from me. Frantically bashing buttons, drinking coffee and watching TV with my flatmate I pissed the lot away. Once my balance read $0 I felt amazing, free, lost, calm but surrounded by a thunderous rushing sound. I went to bed and slept for 20 hours. It was a train-wreck. It was a super-nova. It was 3pm. It was “tilt”.

I am now acutely aware of the impact that life has on my game. I really struggle to play well when distracted or unhappy and can conversely brood far too much if playing badly. It is a strange place to be. Nowadays I still play, still love the game, but I am “between” bankrolls and as such am far more conservative in my approach.

I think it frustrates C – we’re meant to be crushing the games this year and I back away too often. Pull the plug at the slightest sign of “tilt” the slightest chance that I won’t be in the right frame of mind. It’s gone too far now though. Playing good poker – and I believe that I can play good poker – is wrapped up in the vagaries of a game, of the inherent unpredictability of it. To move on to the next level I should scale back the sensors and allow myself to play a less constrained game accepting that the rough comes with the smooth and simply to go back to what I was before. I have tilted. I have lost. I will win.

just like that...

2010-02-26T13:01:00.001Z

There's a very odd atmosphere at work at the moment. Reliable sources have informed me changes are coming and rumour mill started churning away. The team I worked for suddenly felt large and could easily be the target of cutbacks. I could certainly objectively see it would make business sense. I felt venerable and so did a bunch of others. I was quiet workload wise and thinking I've got to be wary here. I sat down with my girlfriend for the first time and told her that we have to expect that I might get made redundant...just..it’s a possibility. That’s what happens in this industry.

Rumours continued to fly around and yet no definitive answers were coming through. Others didn't handle the uncertainty very well. A couple of girls have burst into tears in front of me frustrated that they just don't know what's happening. No one was telling us anything. But to be honest, I really was embracing any sort of change good or bad.

Meanwhile, a bunch of exciting new acts were being signed but not assigned to anyone presumably until they got the structure all worked out. I needed a backup plan and started having conversations with all the major film and music companies.

Then everything changed. A ray of sunshine bursting through the gloomy atmosphere over here. At the start of the week, the marketing director called me over to explain she wanted me to work on one of our biggest new signings. Massive priority. Huge budget. Won from a bidding war. Amazing. That's a good sign. I knew a few people were dying to work this one but she explained she definitely wanted me to do it. Sounds good. All of sudden things are looking rosy. She continued, "Yeah I just wanted to let you know because I know lots of rumours are flying around at the moment and wasn't sure if you were thinking of resigning...or..looking for new jobs...' Wow. I felt like I had my emails checked or something. I’ll put it down to a coincidence.

Either way things are looking gooooood.

sticks.

2010-02-16T16:43:00.007Z

I went to a funeral last week which is always quite a somber experience. Sitting in a cold church singing hyms I've literally never heard before and listening to the life and times of my girlfriend's grandfather. It was a nice service but my heart goes out to the grandmother who is stoically coping but devastated. All you can do is just be there for them. After taking a day off work, we went back up again to West Sussex at the weekend which was pleasant. We got away from the house for a day and explored the archetypal countryside of Bosham. It was all straight out of a postcard, kids giggling as they played pooh sticks in a nearby quaint stream (ok that was us).

There's a bunch of films I want to catch up on like The Lovely Bones and Up In The Air but haven't got round to it yet. I've got preview copies and free cinema tickets through contacts so no excuse really! I did watch Fish Tank (3.5*) the other day which I've been meaning to see for ages which was good but not as good as I thought it'd be. I watched Jennifer's Body (3.5*) though which I expected to be crap and turned out to be pretty fun. Some classic lines in there and Megan Fox is well....easy on the eye. Saw 6 (3.5*) was also great.

Poker wise, it hasn't been the best start to the month and last post meant I was a few hundred dollars loser. Nothing too crazy but just couldn't get anything going really. Then I played a session last night where I played well, got some nice hands and consequently reaped some good rewards. I bought in for £220 and ended up cashing for around £2.3K.

A couple of key hands: 5 limpers. Mikey bets £12 on the button (he's been raising a lot). I reraise to £49 with AhAd. Everyone folds. He calls. Pot is £100ish.

Flop comes 10d5d2c. I bet £75. He reraises to £185. I think for a while and call. Pot is £470.

Turn comes 10d5d2c10h. I check. Mikey bets £110. I call. Pot is £690.

River comes 10d5d2c10hKc. I check. Mikey puts me all in for around £370. I end up calling and win £1.4K ish pot. He mucks and said he had QQ trying to get value for JJ. (not sure about play on the end personally...)

There was another interesting hand. Effective stacks was £1k. Grandpa limps and he's been playing hands really weird. E.g. limping on the button with A3cc then calling a 4 bet, then betting out on a 443 board + chasing gut shots when a flush is on board. He's been getting lucky but just playing so oddly....I couldn't quite work him out.

Anyways.... there was another caller. I limp with 6s6c. Button raises to £12. 4 callers. Pot is £60.
Flop comes Kd6h2c. Grandpa bets £10. One caller. Very safe for me so I call. Pot is £90.

Turn comes Kd6h2c9d. Grandpa now bets £50. Other guy folds. I reraise to £177. Grandpa calls. Pot is £450.

River comes Kd6h2c9dQh. Grandpa now bets £250. He had about £500 left....the hand just felt really weird so I end up just calling and winning. A few people were like it's good to call in the long run, others were like, you should have raised. Now obviously against anyone else on the table, I'm raising there...but because I just didn't know exactly where I was (and I'm normally good at narrowing hand ranges), I called.

I didn't have an accurate read on him. He could have 99, KK, 10Jdd. I'm thinking it's way ahead / way behind - i.e. calling with everything that beats me and folding everything else. The only hand that he'd possibly call with is KQ? Turns out he has K4 (wtf?!) - such a weird bet on the river with that hand! So I don't think I would have got any more money out of him.

All in all a good session. It's been aaaaages since I had a £2K+ score on a £1/£2 cash game. I mean literally I think the last time was in the Gutshot. Not that it's an easy feat when you're playing 5 hour sessions. So I'm happy.

I think I'm about +£3.5K ish since I came back from holiday about 28 days ago.

getting personal.

2010-02-15T11:55:00.001Z

I played on an extremely juicy table the other day when this hand came up.

£1/£2.I raise in CO with 69dd to £12. Two callers. Pot £36

Flop comes 10d 8s 4h. Checks round. I check.

Turn comes 10d 8s 4h Qd. I bet £31. Girl calls. The rest fold. Pot is £97

River comes 10d 8s 4h Qd 3c. She checks. I bet £54. She raises to £110. I feel she is incredibly weak here despite the strong min-raise. Pot is £200 ish. I’m a little short but feel 3 betting here is exceptionally strong considering I feel she doesn’t even have a calling hand despite being ‘priced’ in. So I go all in for another £150 more. Pot is £300 now.

Now I pride myself on my reading ability and believe it's one of my biggest strengths. Three bet bluffing on the river is not something I make a habit of at all but when she min-raised me leaving me what I thought, was JUST enough to shove, I felt like all of a sudden an opportunity had presented itself to me. The thing is, I didn't just feel she was even second pair weak, I thought she was literally air-ball weak so even though £150ish wasn't really 'enough' because she was seemingly 'pot committed', because I literally put her on nothing, my river 3 bet is so strong, she has to fold. Remember I'm not putting her on top pair or anything.

She hums and haas and calls with 45off for fourth pair no kicker. Marvellous. I start berating her for a ridiculous call and she's like 'at least compliment the girl on making a good call'. No it was a ridiculous call I’m angrily telling myself in my head.

I discussed this hand with a few people who all had their own take on the hand. She’s pot committed was one such answer but I think anyone with half a brain isn’t calling there with bottom pair despite the size of the re-shove and pot size. Again, I put her on a complete miss and as it turned out, I was more or less right. Another answer was that she’s just a bit of a station – hmmm….yeah, to a certain extent but she still had some knowledge of the game and despite my image, 3 betting on the river is so strong, you would think she would have folded this hand. It was Mikey, a regular I respect who was on the table at the time who hit the nail on the head though when I discussed with him a day after and that was… she HATED me. She hated me with a passion.

Now this table was juicy as I mentioned, but I was card dead so I mixed it up with big bluffs and showed my cards to make sure I generated action when I did get the goods. The payoff seemed worth it. Except the goods never came and I never got any good spots. As a result, I began stretching my hands even more. This created a punk image – an annoying little shit at the table who thinks he can run over everyone and surrounding players are now very conscious of my ‘crazy’ plays (which weren’t that crazy but the bluffs rubbed salt into people’s wounds). Then a hand came up with the girl above where I flopped middle pair and called her on all three streets which was good. This hand combined with the showmanship bluffing meant she was DYING to stack me. As her eyes glowed red, steam began to seep from her ears.

Now she was a donkey (a donkey who thought she was exceptionally skilled I might add) but still I thought the bet was good enough to take her off her hand. But folding there meant ZERO chance for her to stack me. Yes it’s twisted donkey logic but a part of her was calling me out of spite loving the fact that maybe, just maybe, despite the very slim chance, her 4th pair would be good and she'd look the hero. It was her chance to stack me despite the odds being against her. It didn’t matter to her. She desperately wanted to take me down a notch.

If I hadn't shown any bluffs, would she really have called that bet? No. She wouldn't have even min-raised. I suspect fold a lot of the time, maybe hero-call a tiny percent.

The lesson is you make your life easier when you don't create any personal vendettas at the poker table because people will stray away from their standard game just for the sake of getting a bit tricky against you. It complicates things. Stick with fading in the background and getting it quietly. If it gets personal, it’s not terrible but be super super aware of who you're playing against and be more careful with c-bet bluffs as there will be a high risk of opponents trying to float and outplay you.

a conversation with... sunny chattha. part 2.

2010-02-12T09:59:00.005Z

The second part of the interview with Hitsquad member Sunny Chattha. If you missed part 1, it's right here.

C: Ok on to a bit of strategy. Do you feel like the tournament game has changed over the years?
S: I've been through a lot in the last 3-4 years and I think I’ve experienced everything there is to feel and experience which is pretty scary as I’ve only been in the industry for 3-4 years. Tournaments have definitely changed. Everyone is much more educated these days and live poker is getting tougher now these internet kids are finding out how to get casino memberships.

C: Do you feel like the game has got more aggressive?
S: Much much more aggressive, especially over in the States. You get guys that play like 10% of hands but when they are in a hand they play it so aggressively and not just because they have a hand, it’s because they have learnt from books and teaching aids etc. The aggression has also ''upped'' in the UK - these old nits are 2-3 barrelling because its ''right''

C: Do you feel that a lot of it is mindless aggression? As in just doing what Cardrunners tells them as opposed to thinking about what their hand is?
S: 50/50 there’s the players that know what they are doing and have controlled aggression then yes there is a lot of mindless aggression that’s just crazy like 3 barrelling a middling flushing board with no hand just because you raised with AK. I found most of the mindless aggression coming from 35+ year old guys in Vegas, I don’t know why.

C: That’s interesting...so what do you think of 4-bet bluffing which seems to be a new ‘trend’?
S: Yeah obviously as more people are 3-bet bluffing now, a 4-bet bluff is much more likely to work, but it’s not like whenever you are 3-bet you should move all in. Most people still have a hand these days (especially live) when they 3-bet. Online 4 bet bluffs are a much more powerful tool not just because you are getting 3-bet light and hence the chance of getting a 4-bet through are much higher but also because the stack sizes are usually ideal.

C: So is it a tool you use? I mean small ball used to be all the rage....
S: I don’t like to blow the pots up preflop yes, I would rather take a flop but yes deeper into tournaments when stack sizes are usually 20-30BB deep I don’t mind a 4bet all in move. It has to be against the right opponent obviously as I mentioned earlier there isn’t THAT much 3 bet bluffing going live especially when the stacks are so shallow.

C: How do you play Aces in tournaments these days? Some people will never re-raise and find better value in slow playing. What's your take?
S: Mix it up a lot, I never have a set plan of how to play them, sometimes I find myself min-raising with them sometimes putting in a hefty re-raise and sometimes flatting out of position, I just play them according to the situation. Playing them deceptively used to be good, but now everyone thinks I am always at it so playing them aggressively is also good.

C: When you first sit down, do you like to establish a loose image and then tighten up or vice versa? Or just see how it goes?
S: I have had a lot of comments such as ''wow I didn’t know you was so tight'' or ''wow you’re a lunatic'' and I think that’s because I am constantly mixing it up. I think the preconceived image of me is I am always at it which sometimes works for me but sometimes against. In reply to the question, yes I think I usually try to create a much looser image then how I play because when I play tight and try to make a play, I still get called because of my preconceived image.

C: What are the biggest mistakes made by players in tournaments?
S: Variety of things such as playing too tight/too loose, worrying about things like the average and trying to keep up with it, giving up the chance to gamble for a nice stack due to being scared of busting etc. The internet kids have got it right, they play according to how many BB’s they have and have a style of play that fits each situation

C: Ok, to end on...what have you got planned for the year ahead? goals?
S: At the moment I am helping my parents out with their business which is struggling, my aim is to sort all that out and get them back on their feet. That’s my only aim at the moment and after that I'll start playing and see what happens

C: Great. ok man...that's a wrap!
S: No probs cheers.

a conversation with... sunny chattha.

2010-02-09T10:41:00.007Z

Sunny Chattha is the youngest member of The Hitsquad who has been playing poker professionally for three years. Having been introduced by his older brother Chaz, he soon found a knack for the game and has since won 2 major UK titles including a GUKPT and amassed over $450K in tournament earnings.

C: Right Sunny..... how are you?
S: Hello not bad, you?

C: Good thanks. What are you up to?
S: I was just watching some TV

C: Anything good?
S: Only Fools And Horses ha!

C: Ha! ok...let's start with last year. I read somewhere that your aim was to make 750k. how did that go??
S: Erm was that on uncover poker? not great to be honest I don’t think I even managed half of that

C: Still half is a TON of money! How was your year in general? Obviously started off well with GUKPT win?
S: The first 3-4 months were great I was still on Channing’s stable then and I was winning me and him a lot of money. I think in March-April I made like £150k and I had to give half to Channing

C: Does having a backer make you play better?
S: Erm not really, that’s one thing I do well, doesn’t matter if I have £100k in the bank or I am absolutely broke I always play the same. If I am backed or playing on my own dime, I always play the same.

C: So would you say you are more emotionally stable compared to the rest of the pros?
S: Yes definitely

C: I read was you described how it “reallllly hurt” when you narrowly missed out on one of the GUKPT's final tables (Blackpool) so even being emotionally stable, doesn't the tournament trail get relentlessly demoralising when you go without a win for ages through no fault of your own?
S: Yes that period was so frustrating because I bubbled like 4 GUKPT finals within a space of like 8 months. I was absolutely broke at the time and had the chance to win big money on loads of occasions. I played a bit too aggressive on the bubbles but I did also lose big key pots when I was a favourite. A lot of people said you should just try and ladder up and get a good finish, but I didn’t want to come 6th or 7th. I played the same on the Walsall bubble and that time it paid off and I went to the final table with 35% of the chips in play. I would rather come 11th x 3 times and win once then 4 x 4th-7th place finishes.

C: So when you say you were absolutely broke at the time, was that from cash games or just a very bad run in tourneys?
S: Just trying to remember… yep end of 2006, I had a nice little roll like maybe £50k and gave like half away and maybe done half on travelling expenses and playing comps way out of my bankroll. Oh yeah… and me and Chaz put down £25k each on a house

C: Well at least that's an investment
S: Yep, unfortunately that’s exactly when the house prices started going down so the £300k house we got is valued now at like £240k. Sick bad beat but it will go up.

C: OK...so what's your game at the moment? tourneys/cash?
S: To be honest I haven’t been playing much in the last few months, had some stuff on at home so poker taken a bit off a back seat but usually I play tournaments 80% live 20% online

C: So how's your bankroll management?
S: Erm… the reply Karl gave you in his interview - the opposite of that. lol (very bad).

C: Do you tilt?
S: When I first started I used to tilt a bit but now if I lose I lose. Just learnt from people like Karl and Jeff Duvall etc if you play a hand and you are 73% favourite you still have to lose 27% of the time

C: So you don't tilt anymore?
S: Not at all

C: What's been the biggest amount you've won in a session? (tourney or cash)
S: Tourney probably $140k cash prob $10k

C: What stakes/variants do you play cash?
S: In the last 3 years I think I have played hold em anywhere from 0.25/0.50 to 25/50 to 100/200(limit) but usually 2/4 - 3/6 sounds about right.

C: How about your biggest loss?
S: Cash prob $10k

C: What's the sickest thing you've ever gambled on?
S: Loads of stupid prop bets with the squad obviously. Stupid things like roulette and stuff nothing sick really stands out

C: Any interesting prop bets??
S: We've had so many it’s hard to remember but ones that stick out involve jumping into swimming pools fully clothed. I think that one was $100 for each length swum in a 5min period. Maybe it was a 3min period… I was hoping to get $700-$800 but managed about $100-$200.

C: What's been the best night of your life which has come from the fact you're in the position you're in?
S: Either one of James' deep runs at the WSOP - 2nd in 2008 and WSOP Main Event Final Table in 2009. When james made the final in July 2009 that was probably my best night in poker. There was like 15 of us that went on a mad one in Vegas. Clubs, bars, strip clubs, everywhere. We were all so fucked singing football chants (changing words to Akenhead and Jaymee etc) in the limo. Was so funny. Probably started around midnight got back in like 11am

C: On the flip side, do you ever feel sick of all this pressure and endless gambling? Just want to pack it all in?
S: That’s the good thing with poker, you can just pack it in when you want and start playing when you want. I used to get ''pack it in'' moments and have low moments but I don’t get them anymore. I think it’s because I've had a long break and learnt a lot from that

Part 2 right here where we delve into poker strategy...

some people are so sensitive.

2010-02-08T14:05:00.008Z

'Man there is some thinking people on this table', the young kid said.

'Don't you mean thoughtful?' I replied.

'No. I mean thinking.'

'Hey listen man, I'm just trying to be grammatically correct here. I'm just concerned about your education correcting you now so you don't embarass yourself later on in life'

Cue threatening behaviour and talk of why don't we step outside. Jeez. Some people are just so sensitive.

Oh speaking of which, my last aggressive encounter was on this post. Well I saw the guy the other day and he came up to me and in jest said 'how's Mr. all in?' I respect that. We had a laugh about it and I shook his hand. I'm not one to hold grudges for sure (just ask James who I'm friends with despite this post). Some people take poker too bloody seriously. BK throwing his chips in disgust when I call his bluff with 72 .

p.s. I was drunk.

easing the january blues.

2010-02-02T12:48:00.003Z

I'm changing the way I play and it's working. Less risk, more discipline, more breaks, shorter sessions, more sleep, better mindset, less fear. I think I'm probably a bit passive in certain situations but it doesn't matter, it adds neatly to a tight image to exploit weak players at the table.

I playing fairly simply against 80% of live opponents. Some of the regulars, you can get a bit trickier and try some sophisticated moves but generally, just flop a hand and bet, bet, bet. All the fish will pay you off. I really feel like I have a really good understanding of the game at the moment. I'm still learning obviously but compared to 80-90% of people I play against, I see mistake after mistake after mistake. I mean, some of the plays these guys do is just shocking. They have no idea about way ahead / way behind.

Had two losing sessions which is ok. The first one was from my last post and didn't play great to be honest. The second was absolutely fine - I just got unlucky so no complaints there - e.g. the last hand, got someone to call my all in with bottom pair for some strange reason on the flop and of course he makes trips on the turn. No worries.

Anyways, nice to have a good start to pay off the holiday credit card bills.... and there are several.

shit isolation.

2010-01-28T18:09:00.006Z

Here's a hand that I've been talking about with a few guys. Annoying.

£1/£2 NL HE
X limps £2. (stack = £200 ish)
Y limps £2. (stack = £200 ish)
Z limps £2. (stack = £120 ish)I
raise to £14 in the CO. I have Ah10d (stack = £500 ish)
Button calls £14.(stack = £500 ish)

X,Y, Z call. Pot is £70.

Flop comes As2s3c. X,Y check.Z (weak player) bets £7. I
reraise to £52. B

utton umms and ahhs and calls £52.Z shrugs and moves all in for £101 total. I ask if I can raise. Button says ‘no no….’. Dealer says ‘yes’. Button’s like ‘yeah ok…’I thought I sensed weakness so I reraise to £200 to isolate (£150 more) thinking this is very very strong and therefore pot committed.

Button waits 2 seconds and shoves for about £330 total. Fuck, well I read him wrong then. Shoving there is so super strong considering its been bet/raise/call/reraise/re-reraise/re-re-reraise! 5-betting generally indicates this....

Main pot is £350. Side pot is now £300. (Total £750).

It is £180 to call. I fold.

X turns over 56ss. Button turns over K7ss.

Board runs out As2s3cAh3d meaning I would have won the £1K+ pot.

My read was right but when he shoves in that spot (after bet,raise,call, re-raise, re-re-raise) then you've gotta think he's super strong. I made a mistake, I was protecting my hand instead of protecting my stack. He on the other hand, is a bigger donkey for shoving in that spot which I just think is absolutely awful. (he's 33% with flush draw, 30% vs 2 flush draws, 24% vs two pair, 19% vs set) and yet he shoves with, what I would think, is no fold equity.

Once he's shoved, I figure now he's got AK at the minimum/set/two pair straight so think I'm drawing to 2 outs (3 outs minus the spade to two pair up) . That's 5%/6%.

Good read. Bad isolation. Got carried away. Big mistake. I write this up to remind me of this important lesson. Fucking annoying seeing those hands turn over but still think you have to fold there. (Button was playing pretty tight, not many hands - wasn't a crazy maniac or anything)

week one.

2010-01-26T18:01:00.002Z

OK, I’m easing back into things. N-dog was over for the weekend which was fun although he caned me on the squash court and my muscles have been aching ever since. Been watching a lot of movies – The Hurt Locker (4*), The Taking Of Pelham 123 (3.5*), Transformers (3*), Sunshine (4*)… and catching up with friends. I’ve somehow become addicted to twiglets after an evening in the Groucho reminded me of their brilliance. A friend’s leaving party on Saturday night was fun partly due to a mixture of beer, tequila and other concoctions lined up at the bar…. and I didn’t even wake up with a hangover. I cheat death!

Poker-wise it’s been a good start to the year and I’m sure it’s the break that has done me a world of good. Whilst I was away, I listened to a lot of Cash Plays, a free Poker Road podcast on iTunes hosted by Bart Hansen. It sounds a bit clichéd to say it’s made by poker players for poker players but it delves straight into the deep end talking about advanced concepts like balancing, game flow, overbetting, deep stack strategy etc. It is brilliant. Check it out.

There are a few concepts that I’ve revised which has helped me immensely judging by last week’s results namely a) protecting your stack, b) way ahead, way behind c) not pushing with draws when you have zero fold equity and d) taking breaks. Most importantly, I’ve kept focus. Anyways, since the last post, I’ve been playing £1/£2 live and sticking to $0.25/$0.50 NL online for brm / discipline. So far, things have gone smoothly and I’m up +$2.9K.

I played a similar hand to the last post in one spot which I think was the only bluff I pulled off all week. I don’t like the way I played this at the first half of the hand but made up for it in the second half. I raise £9 on the button with 56o. Matt calls £9. UTG+2 (X) raises to £24. I call. Matt calls. Pot is £72.

Flop comes Ah Jd 8c. They both check. I fire £36. Z folds. X calls. Pot is £104.

Turn comes Ah Jd 8c 7s. He checks. I’ve just picked up a straight draw here but I don’t think this is a good time to c-bet so I check ready to give up on the hand….

River is Ah Jd 8c 7s 10c. He then bets £90. Something seemed strange. Earlier he did something similar and bluffed my friend off a hand with air. The line he took and the way he bet in this hand was uncannily similar and it just felt weak. I thought about it and went with my gut. I moved all in for £270 knowing I can represent A9 here. Eventually he folds and I scoop the big pot.

I’d obviously put him on tilt after this (perhaps helped because I showed the bluff) which turned out to be a good thing because two hands later he calls me light when I turned the nuts in a £400 pot. Nice.

it's a new dawn.

2010-01-20T15:10:00.007Z

It's a new dawn, it's a new year. Everyone around this time (well a couple of weeks ago) starts posting about this year targets and last year reviews. First, I wasn't going to bother but actually, I think it’s real important. Just like reviewing hand histories or your sessions, you've got to review your year. I won't go into too much detail this time but I'm pleased with what I've accomplished this year namely as it's been another winning one. The highlight obviously was the $40K+ tournament win amassed at WSOP, the low light being my awful run in cash games in September. All in all, I definitely feel like I've become a better player and learnt a hell of a lot.

It's important to know your weaknesses and there's a few I've been thinking about whilst on my break. Emotional control is the #1 factor I need to make sure I'm on top of this year. Right now, I feel great and feeling good equals playing good. Just got to keep that up.

First up, small things: I need to take more breaks. Every orbit, I need to do a mental check on my emotional state. How am I playing? If I’m pissed off or stressed, I need to take a five minute walk outside to cool down and get some fresh air. It's funny how when you're tilting, you just feel like you're wasting time by sitting out but you need to make sure that every hour spent at the table are +EV hours.

Ok. Now sometimes that can be hard when some donk has just felted you with his two outer but here’s a tip: Just drink more water. And then you’ll have to go to the bathroom more frequently. Your bladder will literally force you up from the table no matter how bad you're playing. Plus it’s healthy. Don’t sit waiting for a waitress. Get up. Go to the bar. Drink liquid. It’s good for you.

While we’re at it. Eat well. The Empire players menu is SHIT. There is no salad, just burgers, chips and grease. The one semi healthy option is the salmon but even that is covered in butter. The sandwiches are drenched in mayo, the pizza is like cardboard, the beef in black bean sauce is chewy and the kebabs are well… kebabs ffs! If you eat crap food, you get into an energy slump and your brain won’t be as switched on.

Fulushou, the Asian restaurant upstairs has some healthier options I discovered the other day which I always kind of knew about but would always be too lazy to go up there and order. They do vegetables and rice for £5 and it tastes SO good! Tip the waiter up there and he'll bring it down. You can't order it but it’s another reason to get off your ass and another break.

I also want to be a bit more careful with my sleeping patterns and make sure I get at least my minimum four hours. I can function fine with this amount. Any less and I start getting retarded and feeling sick - wipes me out for like two days and it’s just not healthy. I feel great at the moment. I went for loads of runs whilst away and was doing between 20-50 lengths in the pool. Need to keep this up and planning to go for a run tonight.

Emotional stability is the key to consistent winning. I’ve read a lot about it recently. There's a great post I read by boy wonder and put in the post below this one. I urge you to check it out as it makes a lot of sense.

Ok, so that's it health wise. Game wise, I was thinking about one hand before Christmas. My stack was around £950 on a £1/£2. Guy straddles for £5. Couple of callers and I have 34o on the button. I call. SB and BB call. Straddler raises to £30. One caller and I call. SB and BB fold.

Pot is roughly £100. Three players. Flop comes J,9,3r. Straddler bets out £60. Other player folds. Now the straddler seems like a weak player to me. I don't put him on much here and he has around £800 so figure I’ll float. Pot is now £220.

Turn comes J,9,3,7. He checks. I figure he's weak. I bet £137 to look like a good solid value bet and the 7 is a good card to represent a straight. He calls. Now I've narrowed his range to AJ, QQ+, J9 but to be honest my read is that he’s still pretty weak and when he calls, practically every river, I'm moving in on.

Pot is just under £500. River comes J,9,3,7,8r. No flush on board. To me, it’s a perfect card as there’s now four to a straight and when he checks, it confirms this. I move all in. He takes a while pondering and eventually calls with A9 winning the £1.3K pot.

I lost but was mulling it over and I like the way I played the hand and am still confused by the call. He wasn't a huge station and my image was pretty tight having shown down quite a few strong hands and no bluffs. I don't think I've played with him before. He just thought I was full of it. Makes me think maybe I gave off a tell or my story wasn't convincing enough plus I misjudged his character. Anyways, one thing I want to do is always take a few moments in any big pots on the river - at least 10 seconds or something consistent. Food for thought.

All in the all, the most important thing that I will work on and the main bulk of this article is keeping level headed and across all forms: late night Empire sessions, BK’s crazy home games, low stakes media games and online poker. I’ll make more money, I’ll tilt off less and make sure whatever poker bonus I complete is clear profit.

Ok, one more thing that me and my friend James had vowed to do more of this year is analyse hand histories and discuss poker strategy. I really respect Brian Townsend and his PLO game is fantastic now purely because of how much he’s worked at it.

Anyways, I’ve started off well. I played live for the first time last night in four weeks, got paid off with my straight and stacked someone on the very first hand. I remained calm and focussed throughout. I ended up leaving early feeling my concentration slipping due to a headache and cashed +£500. Good start and need to keep this up. Discipline. Good luck everyone for the year.

an interview with boy wonder.

2010-01-19T15:20:00.002Z

Source: 2+2 posts. To some of the PMs; thank you, and many of your answers can be found in the summary of the previous thread here (sry for not answering personally, and thanks to whoever made this summary).

BW: I believe this winrate is something that almost anyone can achieve with relatively little work... most people just don´t know where to look or lack the basic discipline.

Q: Where should I look?

BW: Your mental, emotional state while playing is 80% of the work, and you can work and take specific steps to get better at that. Being in the right emotional state will allow you to open up your eyes to what you and the other players are doing without being stuck in the previous hand you lost, how much you are up, what you´re gonna eat later, etc.

Combine that with some basic technical steps that can be taken and you got the other 20% to at least achieve enough to live comfortably off poker. I believe that with today’s games and climate, anybody with even mediocre intelligence and some discipline could at the very least make a comfortable living playing this game.

Q: It's always so good when people say that you don't need huge natural talent to succeed at pokers...

BW: To say that you need huge natural talent to succeed in poker is probably very disrespectful to people who have a real natural talent in almost any other field. LOL at saying you need huge natural talent to succeed, at least to the level of making a 100 - 250 k a year playing. Above that I couldn´t tell you, but I will when I get up to that level. Will not be surprised to find another bunch of semi-intelligent slackers that are super mega lucky to have found something to lean on and call themselves "huge natural talents".

The big difference between the average 1-2 grinder and the average 3/6 or 5/10 grinder is definitely not raw talent or God-given natural abilities. It is risk tolerance, bankroll management, game selection, tilt control. All very simple things to reign in with a little emotional control. Once in a great while, just due to the large volume of players, you will get some kind of prodigy that will go from the micros to the nosebleeds very quickly, and not by virtue of luck or "positive variance" but a natural understanding of the game. These people are definitely the minority.

Also, as I mention above, I believe hand reading to be a function of your mental / emotional state at the time more than anything else.Ever noticed that some days you can put people on hands right and left, other days you´re just fumbling in the dark? They haven´t changed, you haven´t changed, your skills have not diminished. But you are probably not in that same emotional state you were in when playing the first game.

Q: What do you think changed your game the most in terms of becoming such a winning player?

BW: Realizing that most regulars actually were not that solid and didn´t have their own game (most just basically have picked up somebody else’s preflop game that they´ve seen on a training video and have no clue why they are doing what they are doing - postflop they are usually spewy as xxxx). When you start zoning in how to scalp the regs, that´s when you start improving and that's when you start beating the game for more than 1 ptbb / hour. And the basis for all of this was realizing how much of my game was dependant on playing when in the right emotional state, and learning how to maintain that mindframe.

Most of you guys have no basic technical problems when it comes to this game. You understand pot control, way ahead / way behind, position, equity, pot odds, 3-bet equity, etc. The reason you struggle with the more subtle technical aspects is that they usually require a good and clean state of mind whilst playing and analyzing. If you are on constant subtle tilt you will never understand your own image, your opponents projected image vs the way they actually play, what your history with a specific opponent really means and CORRECT adjustments (as opposed to a couple of 3 bets and now you´re waiting to shove any 2), and what all this basically boils down to; hand reading and putting your opponent on accurate ranges, and knowing what to do with those ranges. These qualities will separate a 2 ptbb winner, from a 5 ptbb winner. I believe that although I display a 4,7 ptbb winrate, I could have easily avoided many situations where I KNEW I was making the wrong play and made it anyway, and could easily have had a 5,5 - 6 ptbb winrate. I take responsibility for these results.

Q: Ok, what kind of prep do you go through before a session? Playing hudless, on a number of tables must require excellent and sustained concentration; I would imagine that you are consistently looking for patterns and methods of the regs when you are not in the hand?

Q: Do you take lots of notes on players, trying to highlight how they play groups of hands or board textures?

Q: Do you have a mental checklist you go through before making a decision during a hand? I have been trying to develop this to prevent auto-piloting (a horrible form of tilt that costs me money) but am having trouble forming a consistent checklist and method.

BW: I go through a studious prep pregame, and I have papernotes around me that I use whilst playing. I have very specific tradition throughout the day. I always start, for instance, by reviewing yesterdays hands. I do take notes on players. Away from the table, even though i am not using a HUD, I will check on a players stats in PT. Do not get me wrong. The PT stats are very valuable, it is just that I personally feel they hinder me during gameplay and don´t allow me to form a complete picture of the regulars.

As for a check-lists, start small. Whenever somebody calls or raises you preflop, jusk ask yourself about his range of hands. You would not believe how many pros fail to ask themselves this one simple question (which they always used to when they were improving). We all know we should, and yet when we sit down we start autopiloting our usual abc game. We´re on the ball the first 5 minutes, and then go into droid mode. Just start out by doing this every time you have any preflop decisions. Then extend to the flop. Then extend to asking yourself about your perceived range (2nd level). If you have been autopiloting for the last 2 hrs, you will have no idea what he perceives your range to be, because you have no clue about your own image. You can add levels as you go on, but do not overdo it. And the absolute most important thing when faced with a big decision, is to first breathe and relax for a couple of seconds.

Have you ever noticed when you get sucked into a hand? Like you have an overpair and you get raised on the turn, you know you´re beat, and beofre you know it you have called anyway? Or what i call the bluff-vortex, when you start with small flop raise, and before you know it you have fired three barrels and you´re all in and get snapcalled by the nuts? What the hell just happened? A 200 bb pot lost out of nowhere!!? If, at any point, you would have just stepped back, taken a breath and realized how little sense your line makes or how narrow his range must be, you would have saved a stack. When you look at it in retrospect, it is very clear to you. This alludes to my earlier point; most of you guys are fine when it comes to the technical aspects of the game, but you need to hone some of the mental and emotional ones.

Q: What’s the biggest downswing you have ever had?

BW: I have diverted from my strict set of rules once since I started playing strictly cash games in january of 07. That diversion led to my biggest downswing, which is 19 buyins I believe (roughly 12 k), and a 45 k hand breakeven strectch. I have had a bunch of 8-10 buy-in downswings. I have never had a losing month, and went fulltime pro in feb / mar 08. I have won roughly 350 k or so playing poker (never really having played higher than 3/6). I have consistently beaten every level I have played, and trust me when I say I am no genius or poker prodigy.

Q: Are you a buddhist, by chance?

BW: I try to live my life in accordance with many buddhist philosophies. The greatest lesson that can be applied to your poker game is the buddhist lesson of being mindful and aware of one´s thoughts and actions at all times. I believe that this is the one single most powerful tool in any game (or profession) and the separator between many of the nosebleeders, the midstakes grinders and the low-limit strugglers. Unfortunately as simple as this teaching is, it is not easy.

Q: is beating 3/6 at 5ptb/100 considered to be super sick now or something? Or am I being leveled?

BW: My point exactly \:\) And I completely agree with you. I believe the interest in this thread has very little to do with me or with my results, but the very fact that this can be done by almost anyone (I truly believe this), and yet so few are doing it. Why is that? And that´s where we return to the emotional control.

public service announcement.

2010-01-18T12:04:00.004Z

Anyone wondering where would-be's blog had gone? No, me neither...but still....a message from the man:

Hi mate,

I've taken down the blog just for a little bit cos I went to a work party on Friday night, did a ridiculous cocktail of drugs and I seem to remember mentioning something about blogging to a girl that I pulled there. The thing is, the girl I pulled also interviewd for my job. I can't afford for anyone at the magazine to find it and then realise that I got the job through my mate rather than through experience. It could fuck things up big time. So I'm just gonna leave it down for a bit until I feel its safe to bring it back.If you dont mind, can u just let people know in your next post why they cant find my blog. Cheers!

and there we have it.

Happy New Year everyone.

south african airways.

2009-12-28T09:48:00.002Z

I love how you can put certain albums on and your mood just jumps up. Thank you Miike Snow. I guess this particular album reminds me of the summer and here I am, in Johannesburg waiting for my flight onwards, tanned bodies standing beside me, the pitter patter of flip flops echoing across the terminal floor and glorious sunshine bursting through the airport glass. I am smiling.

The flight was hard work and I LIKE flying. As I walked down the aisle upon entering, my heart sank as TV screens on the back of seats were noticeably absent. This was gonna be a long flight. Medium sized monitors eventually eased down from the celing and I realised that I can either look at the one close to me placed at an unconveniently acute, neck straining angle or the other one down the other half of the plane. A safety video flickered on, a 'vintage' cartoon featuring lions and tortoises placing luggage in their overhead lockers confirming my thoughts that this plane was indeed two hundred and fourty nine years old. Yes, this was going to be a long flight.

Last time, I flew BA. I had loads of legroom. I watched Michael Clayton (4.5*) which was an incredible and I sat next to some really great guys. We got drunk together attacking the bar ferociously, telling stories and laughing at each other's jokes. The whole trip seemed to last 20mins. This one has lasted 5 days. And I'm still not even there yet.

I am sleep deprived, my back and neck aches but the end is in sight. The only thing which has brought me some comfort is Victoria Coren's 'For Richer, For Poorer'. Thank God I bought this book otherwise I seriously would have been screwed.

Ah. There's a tannoy announcement and some movement towards the airport shuttle. Onwards.

happy holidays!

2009-12-27T18:44:00.003Z

Well I'm finally sitting in a black cab heading to the airport. Three whole weeks of sunshine awaits. Its always fun going back to my home town, especially around Christmas, but after a few days, I've had my fill.

Christmas Eve was great fun catching up with old friends although the group does seem to diminish with each passing year. I have to admit, it doesn't seem quite as classy as it did all those years back in my youth. I'm standing in the Weyside, I've just had to pay £2 to get in and I'm being warned every 5 mins to make way as some drunk, weedy, scared teenager is hauled out by the neck by four burly trigger happy bouncers who probably have a bet on how many collar bones they can smash. I fucking hate bouncers. They think they have the right to be thugs.

I meet up with old friends but always seem to be introduced to someone new. This time is David, a mathematician currently working in California trying to solve a new wave of math problems. I wanted him to be a cool geek, unfortunately he let me down.

More Jaegerbombs (I don't know how they got they popular but I never seem to be hungover after having a couple of them) and more pints. I'm glad I'm with my group, they are all fun and normal.

After that night came Christmas where I watched three films - The Incredibles (4*), Elf (4*) and Final Destination (3*) drinking champagne and solidly eating leftovers till about 4am. I'd ordered the internet for my mum which worked briefly until, well, 4am when it stopped inexplicably whilst playing a decent pot of draw when I had trip kings and about to get paid of. Why doesn't the internet just...work? There's always something.

I phone up BT in the morning. The router has malfunctioned and they need to send a replacement. Can they not just make something that works for more than a day? 'I'm sorry Sir, can you please repeat that', comes the distant sounding Indian accent.

Boxing Day and back in Ikea. Need to find mum a wardrobe which we did. Upon unpacking back home, I discover there's 227 parts. I gaze down at the assorted collection of screws and nails and they are ALL laughing at me safe in the knowledge they will rob two hours of my life.

Finish at 8pm so down the pub to meet my good friend and previous Vegas companion Mark. We play pool and hang out which was a good evening. By 11pm, he headed home and I'm left thinking how early it is. Literally everyone local I know is in bed. It's like there's a time difference between here and London. We are like three hours ahead or something.

Anyways, it's been nice. I've seen the people I wanted to see, ate great food and drank decent champagne but now I want some sunshine and three weeks of it.

The end of the year is upon us. I've had a fun year poker wise and made a decent profit but I am aware of the weaknesses in my game and I know exactly what to work on.

But for now, I'm having a little break from the game. When I'm back, I'm planning to change the way I play slightly. There's one guy in the Empire whose game I really respect. I want to work on incorporating some of his game into mine. That's not to say I want to play like him because its a very different style but he has a profitable strategy and I'd like to fluidly alternate between the two styles during a session. Everytime I see him, he's got a stack of chips so I know it's working.

It will take more discipline but it's coming increasingly essential that I keep control over this. Apart from that, just be conscious of tilting and keep online BRM'ing.

I've just realised how bloody slow this cab is going. I've been in it for ages and still not there. Come on!!! I just hope this Nigerian bomber doesn't delay my flight.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

victory!

2009-12-21T16:21:00.002Z

Wow. RATM conquered the charts on Sunday night with a 50K sales difference! Final numbers in the end were 503K to 451K. It was a great fight and makes me wonder what the odds were for Rage to take the spot a couple of weeks ago! Insane.

it's close...

2009-12-18T12:56:00.005Z

Thursday sales:
#1 RATM, 253K
#2 X Factor, 217K

Fri sales:
#1 RATM, 306K
#2 X Factor, 297K

Also, can anyone read Japanese? Not sure if you remember my post about having Wagyu but I've somehow amassed 25 comments from the Japanese blogging community. I'm getting like one a day at the moment.

I pasted one of the comments in an online translator and here's what I got out:

Very his person and your deep state of mind which she cannot do doing [mote] degree of [ru] check with thorough elucidation ♪ everyone, result exchange freedom, as for combination [kon] and break in [mote] degree of [ru] check the spare time crushing! It diagnoses the instant which [mote] period visits next decisively and the [chi] [ya] is

Right then.

a conversation with... would be. part 2.

2009-12-17T11:21:00.004Z

Thanks for your response on first part of would-be's interview. Here is part 2 and was conducted a couple of weeks after having moved to London to try a fresh start...

Part 2: London, Dec, 2009.

C: So, congratulations on the new job, how's life?
WB: Cheers. Life's better than it was when we conducted the first part of this interview. I'm slumming a bit but it's only temporary. I've cut all ties with Brighton and am looking to the future here in London. As shit and fucked up as things became, I realise now that it was just the kick up the arse that I needed

C: From your recent posts, it does seem to be like a fresh start… Does it ever surprise you the following you have built up on your blog?
WB: Not anymore. You get used to it. It used to surprise me when I first started getting read by people because when I first started writing it I was probably getting about 4 hits a day. I don't think I'm getting too many new readers nowadays, it tends to be the same old crowd. Well, at least it's the same old crowd that leave comments, the rest of the readers I have no idea. It makes it easier sometimes to write posts because I know that I can make references to past events or to show a side of my character without having to explain it. It still kind of bothers me that the whole reason the majority of the people are reading me is to see just how fucked up I can get or how badly I can fail, but then I have to realise that without that interest I'd have very few readers and so writing about my boring world would be even more pointless than it already is.

C: Do you feel excited writing about something really fucked up cause you feel like you've got a good shock factor?
WB: Nah, I dunno if it works like that for others but it doesn't for me. Usually, when something really messy has happened I first debate whether or not I should even re-live it myself by putting it into words. Most of the time I do. The worst thing with that as well is that I know that it'll take some time to sit down and be able to tell the story properly, so it actually means more work. Then I know as well that I'm probably going to paint a bad picture of myself, and I have to accept that. One thing that readers might find hard to believe is that I'm actually quite a decent bloke. I really don't know how it is that I get myself into some of the trouble and confrontations that I do. And sometimes I'd like to be able to show that side of me, but it just doesn't seem to work. So I'm taking the opportunity now. On the whole I'm pretty normal and someone you can have a drink with and get on with. There, I said it.

C: so... smoking heroin….thoughts?
WB: Ha! That was a complete one off and not something that I'd do again. Basically, this guy that I'd met travelling a couple of years ago turned up in my house to stay for a night on his way back to Ireland from Amsterdam. In my kitchen he pulled a tiny bit of tin foil from his pocket and said "I got you a present." So we smoked it then and there. I didn't even think about it. And honestly, I didn't know it was heroin until I was ready to actually take in my first hit. "What exactly is it?" I asked. "Brown. Heroin" "Oh." And by then I knew that I was already pot committed.

C: Nice poker reference…
WB: I don't regret it at all. I've always been someone who will try any substance if it's offered to me. If it kills me, then so be it. If I like it, then so be it. And if it's shit, then so be it. As it was, I didn't like it. I felt sick for about 2 hours, I was hot and sweaty and couldn't get comfortable.

C: So you'd inject yourself with it then?
WB: I wouldn't go out and buy it or looking for it. If I found myself sitting in a flat with some friends and it came about, then I'd have to do it. I've always tried to avoid being in that situation though throughout my life because I am aware of the consequences of such a drug.

C: Yet, if you were in that situation, you couldn't just say no?
WB: There's just that death-wish I guess that battles with my basic instincts. I wouldn't say no. I'd say no to smoking heroin because I've already tried it. I'd never say no to a drug I hadn't tried. Because who knows? It might just turn out to be the most amazing thing I've ever done, something to take away all of my inner pain. Does that sound overly dramatic? Probably. But it's how I feel. I don't want to say no to something that might be amazing.

C: Do you have any boundaries with other stuff? like say… bungee jumping
WB: Not anymore. I used to when I was younger. I'm not gonna lie, I don't like the idea of doing something like that. It scares the shit out of me. I don't like heights. But I'd do it.

C: Do you care about your anonymity now on your blog?
WB: Yeah, as far as anyone who knows me is concerned. People who know me through the blog and have come to know me personally is different, I have no problem with that because I'm able to pick and choose who I let into my world. But I would hate for friends and family to follow the blog because it'd be no different to reading the secret diary of a teenage girl. Well, different in that I'm not a teenage girl. Or am I? Imagine if I'd been pulling you all along for all this time. Lisa, 17, Essex.

C: You're more a Gertrud.
WB: Ha ha

C: Do you consider yourself racist?
WB: Not in a far-right kind of way, and definitely not like JR to says things like "White Pride Worldwide" and listen to skinhead music. I'm very politically incorrect and I will talk about differences between certain groups of people. If it pisses me off that blacks are stabbing people all over London, I'll say it. I'm not afraid to be labelled a racist, and sometimes this means that that's the tag that I get. But, in truth I'm a multi-culturalist. I'm fascinated by different peoples, their languages, their customs, etc.. But I'm not someone who ignores differences and says we're all the same. Does that make sense?

C: Is it only black people that stab people in London?
WB: The majority of stabbings and shootings are carried out by members of the black community. I think that's a safe statistic.

C: What do you think of Steve Holden?
WB: He bores me. But then again, who from Birmingham doesn't? It's hard for me to say anything about him cause I haven't read his blog for quite a few months now so I've no idea what's going on. The whole Black Belt Poker thing just forced me to stop reading. It was embarrassing!

C: How about amatay's blog? He's got quite a following....
WB: Yeah, for the most part I enjoy reading his blog. Although he hardly ever posts anymore. Gets a bit annoying constantly reading about his online tournament cashes, tbh. His off-felt activities are what I check for.

C: ok lets finish off with something light, If you could wish for one thing, what would it be?
WB: Hmmmmm…. Stability without boredom

C: Any last words?
WB: I can't remember exactly what I said about Bossa's blog in the first part of the interview, but since then his blog has been by-far the most improved on the circuit. I recommend it to anyone that hasn't checked it out already. Seriously, it's fucking good, needs more readers

Hope everyone enjoyed the interview. Comments below....

rage holding.

2009-12-16T15:31:00.006Z

Wow, Rage have really pulled away...

week's sales so far...
#1 RATM, 175.2K
#2 X Factor, 110K

The physical CD of Joe is released today so that will give it a boost. The numbers tomorrow will be telling but either way Mr Cowell is not happy. James mentioned to me Simon had just been interviewed on Radio 1...

"(Simon said) it was pathetic that people would make such a cynical move, that it was going to ruin it not for him but for Joe and that there was a an edge of snobbery to it – that people supporting this campaign basically look down on the X-Factor audience

Once I stripped away the vitriol he actually made a lot of sense and I felt bad...to cheer myself up I went and bought another copy of “Killing In The Name”

a conversation with... would be.

2009-12-15T13:33:00.017Z

'would be' is a legendary anonymous writer that's amassed a dedicated following in the blogging world with his gripping accounts of his life as a gambler. A complex past and present laced with sex, drugs, violence and gambling, his blog unveils one shocking revelation after another. His tales are fascinating despite often leaving the reader with a sense of his sadness and desperation.

Despite a tough year with the passing away of his father and his mental illness briefly overtaking him, recently things have changed for the better. He's landed a well paid job in what he does best... writing. Here's the man himself discussing life as he sees it in a frank and uncompromising interview.

Part 1: Brighton, Nov, 2009.

C: Yo!
WB: Hang on, just gonna light a fag. Proper Kurt Kobain interview style

C: Nice. That's going in. So how are you?
WB: Older than I once was and younger than I'll be, that's not unusual. Do you know what song that's from? I'm pretty standard for my life at the moment. Skint, quasi-homeless after a few incidents with family, but getting through day by day. Actually, night be night. Can't remember the last time I saw daylight.

C: Is blogging a kind of therapy for you?
WB: It used to be, back in the day when I first started. At the time I was working a shitty call-centre job by day and gambling my money away by night. There was a lot of shit that I was trying to come to terms with, all self-imposed, and it used to be good to get it out into writing. But nowadays it's lost its edge. Because after all this time, I'm still really the same as I was before, if not worse.

C: When you say you all the shit you were trying to come to terms with, what are you referring to?
WB: Because it's no longer entertaining to read about my own life and find the funny points that before I could maybe laugh at. It was so ridiculous before that I used to enjoy reading it after as if I was reading about someone else's degeneracy. But now it's not entertaining it's just sad. The shit being really that I was in conflict with myself. As far as anyone who knew me was concerned, I was the class clown, always making people laugh and taking everything in my stride. Confidence has never been something I've struggled with, and people saw this as meaning that my life was actually great. But as soon as I'd get home in the evening, I was back with the real me. The degenerate gambler and diagnosed manic-depressive. Living the lie was part of the game, hence the blog being therapeutic because it meant that to an anonymous public I could be myself and show the bullshit.

C: What came first - the depression or the gambling? did one lead to the other?
WB: The gambling has been a part of my life since I was in school. I even got suspended a couple of times in years 10 and 11 (15/16years old) for running a book on the weekend's football until parents started wondering why their kids were coming home hungry after not having had any lunch. It then got more serious after I left school when I set up a Ladbrokes account in my mum's name and used to spend the whole Saturday watching the horses. But, people who've known me years often say that I've always been an extreme depressive to extreme happy since I was a teenager as well.

C: Have you got any ideas why you're like this and suffer from this mental condition? Would you say your childhood affected you or....?
WB: But the gambling is what's lost me everything in my life so there's an argument that without the gambling I might not have suffered with the depression as badly. Yeah probably my childhood played a part but also I've been diagnosed with Bi-Polar so it's something chemical as well. My mum’s mum killed herself when she was in her twenties, my mum and sister have both suffered from depression, and my dad was obviously very ill but undiagnosed because it eventually led to him putting himself under a train just a couple of months ago. So I think it's a mix of these.

C: That's really terrible mate and sorry to hear that. have you tried getting some help?
WB: For the depression, yeah. Not so much that I've tried myself, but there have been a couple of times where it's got too out of hand and I've ended up in a secure hospital. But the reality is that you can only be helped if you first help yourself, but it's kind of a catch 22 because to need the help you have to get to a really bad place, but once in that place you feel like there is no help and you want to just disappear. And for the gambling, I've never sought help because I can't imagine my life without gambling. It's the only thing where there's always a dream that you believe is attainable. "Just one big cash" or "Just one accumulator win and I'm set." Which, as we all know, is bollocks.

C: So, when exactly did you first discover gambling?
WB: My extended family's always been big into gambling. My uncle lost his business and wife through it. His son, my older cousin, did the same. Even now I know that I can say hello to him every time I pop into Laddies because he pretty much lives in there. I used to go on family holidays to the Isle of Wight and the like with my nan and aunt when I was like 8, 9 10, etc, and we'd spend the evenings playing cards for pennies or I'd go and sit with them in Bingo and fill out a card. And even then I always wanted more, I never wanted the game to stop. Christmases were the same. Everyone just gambling together.

C: What's been your biggest win?
WB: This is actually a story that changed and shaped my life. I'd just moved to Slovenia to try and find work because I'd fallen head over heals in love with a girl. I was living in a shit-hole of a flat and couldn't find work because at the time they weren't in the EU yet and I hadn't yet learned the language. So I was struggling.

Then it got to the point where I had no rent money, no job, no nothing. So I just used to go and spend my days in a cheap internet cafe wasting time while my girlfriend was at uni. For some unknown reason I one day checked an old gambling account, it was SportingOdds, and found that I had £2 in there from ages ago. Again, without thinking about it I picked 3 horses in the next 3 races, all were priced at like 14/1 or something, maybe a bit less I don't remember exactly. I made a £1 EW treble and then waited on SportingOdds. The first result came in and my horse had won. I didn’t really think anything of it cause I still had 2 more to go then the 2nd came in and it had won as well.

Now I was bracing myself for the disappointment but thought that at least if it could get a place I'd at least get some money back. It won and I immediately called my girlfriend and said "I think I've just won over £100". My maths and horse-racing knowledge was bullshit then. I waited for my account to update and almost fell off my chair when it said "£1900". I paid my rent, got some food and the next day a language school phoned me to ask me in for an interview. I ended up staying there for 3 years and building a good life with her, but if that last horse hadn't come in I would've been home within the week.

C: Wow!
WB: Yeah! I still get a weird feeling when i think of. Like something was on my side that day. I don't like to get too spiritual, but I definitely believe that.

C: OK so how about your biggest loss?
WB: Playing poker in an illegal little poker room in Ljubljana. It was the night before my birthday and my girlfriend was working a night shift so I decided to just go down there and play a 10 Euro tournament. I'd only just started learning the basics of the game and knew nothing at all really. I played the tournament and busted out and was about to leave when they asked me if I'd fancy joining in the cash game. I told them I hadn't brought any money and they told me it was fine, they'd give me credit. As a gambler I couldn’t walk away, even though I knew I was being set up. I walked into this dark little room and found that I recognised a few of the players. They were celebs that I was used to seeing on the telly. Beside them were the Serb "mafia" guys that ran the place and also gambled.

We were playing 1E/2E limit and they gave me 200 to sit with. Before the night was done they'd given me a grand in credit. I was playing every hand and I was the fish that they were all rubbing their hands together at. I walked out of there at 8 in the morning and it was like that scene in Lock Stock. Everything was spinning and I puked in the kerb. I went home, had a shower and then went to work. After that I was 'wanted' and in the end I had to leave the country.

C: So how much did you lose?
WB: 1000 big ones. Probably sounds like nothing to a high-stakes degen like yourself. (Ha!)

C: Do you have any heroes in the poker/gambling world?
WB: No heroes. There are players I like watching. Sammy Farha being my favourite 'character', he's such a degen it's funny. Yea, Sammy Farha is the main man for me. The late Stu Ungar as well, I've read a few books about him and watched some documentaries and he also took things to a whole new level of degeneracy.

C: Which blogs do you rate?
WB: Not many to be honest. It seems like the standard of blogging has gone downhill since so many people with no story to tell have taken it up. The ones I read regularly are Joppa's, Bossa's, Platonic when he can be bothered to post, and occasionally Magical Mystery Poker Tour will make me smile. Joppa's a dirt bag and if I didn't talk to him regularly online I probably wouldn't believe some of the filth he got up to was actually true. But sadly it is. Bossa has his ups and downs. Sometimes very funny, other times he tries a bit too hard to find something. But we're probably all like that. Well, not me actually, sometimes I just can't be arsed to write because nothing's happened. So yeah Bossa, sort it out! If nothing funny's happened, wait for it. Oh yea, there's also a blog by this fish who somehow managed to get a money place in the WSOP. He's a degen fish who's started interviewing people now.

C: Well he's nicked my idea ffs!!
WB: Hang on, just got an email from cashier at Full Tilt. What could it be? Someone's just transfered me $5! Wtf? pearo780. Sorry, carry on!

C: OK, so do you feel happiness after a big win or just relief?
WB: Um, it depends. when I’ve made big cashes in tournaments (by big, I'm only talking like a couple of hundred) then I feel great. Especially if it's live. I won the £15 freezeout down the Brighton Grosvenor once and got a 2nd place in a £25 freezeout for £400. I was walking on water for a while after that because it's a justification to myself that when my head's right I can play the game. But after a big betting win it's just relief because to win big I've had to bet big. I never get a good feeling from winning a bet, the joy comes more from watching it take place and going through the emotions. Actually, it's pretty sick, I shouldn’t enjoy it.

C: Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
WB: I hate this question. Because honestly, I don't know whether I'll even be alive. I know it sounds fatalistic but that's one of the things I have to deal with day by day. If I found myself still in the same place as I am now then I'd probably even rather not be here. But I also harbour some hopes that my writing will take off and I might be a recognised and published writer by then making a life for myself that involves more than just gambling. We'll see.

C: So how is the book going?
WB: It's getting there. I'm probably about a third of the way through, but that's only for the first edit and I know that there's a lot that needs to be edited and re-edited and re-edited again. Writing a blog and the odd article is one thing, but actually writing a book that flows and is structurally correct is proving a lot more challenging than i first imagined it would. I've got the material, that' s not a problem. It's the whole putting it together part that's the difficult part. But I have every confidence in my own ability to get it done to as close to perfection as I feel possible.

C: Do you ever feel like embarking on the same adventure again?
WB: There's two hopes of that. Bob and none. Definitely some sort of travelling and challenge in the future if this book proves successful, but I wouldn't put myself through that ordeal again. It was a nightmare. It's only good now that I'm finished and can look back on it but at the time I wanted nothing more than to reach the end and get home....

Click here for part 2. Please comment below any thoughts.

Also, just a note to say that depression is a really serious condition that should never be underestimated. Mental illnesses are always hard to cope with because it's not people can physically see. Even worse, some people will just rationalise that all the person has to do is 'snap out of it'. Well it's not that simple. I watched this moving documentary to raise awareness on BBC about depression in sport. It featured many top names describing their battle and their struggle to cope. It was great to see these celebrities coming forward and not being afraid to share their darkest secrets. If you do suffer from depression, you should never feel embarassed to seek help. You can start by clicking here.

viral rage.

2009-12-15T12:25:00.006Z

I can't believe it. According to the midweeks, (daily update of the week's singles and albums chart) Rage Against The Machine are currently outselling the X Factor winner's single! The power of the viral!

A campaign was set up to have this anti-corporate record take the number one spot and deny Joe McElderry his place at the top. I think the idea was that Simon Cowell and his company have too much money. Funny how Simon's company is part of Sony, which incidentally is the same label that RATM are on. Still, love that tune!

#1 RATM, 83.3K

#2 Joe, 77.4K

#3 Lady Gaga, 20.5K

facebook campaign / telegraph

p.s. I would be very surprised if it holds on the #1 spot but we can only wait and see....

sleight of hand sexual wizardry.

2009-12-14T13:27:00.008Z

Well after that weekend, I think my bankroll is feeling dizzy and wondering why on earth I would her put her under so much stress. On Saturday morning, I was feeling rested and ready for action plus nicely in the black as I cashed for £550 with the satellite on Friday night. I woke up, ready for the day and headed to Soho for brunch at Balans with an old mate. I flirted with the idea of having something healthy but let’s face it, the hearty fry-up is the breakfast of champions!

After that, I headed down to meet BK and play the Paradise £100K. I sat down next to Willie Tann who impressed me with his game. I kinda thought because he looked like my grandpa, he’d played tight/aggressive but to his credit, he was really mixing it up. A generalisation I know but you gotta start somewhere. I tangled up in a big hand with him where my top pair got scuppered with his straight on a flush board. He outplayed me on that hand and I was impressed. Anyways, about 40mins later thinking he might be semi-decent, I shoved his button raise on the SB (for about 8x more). He calls for about 30% of his stack with 10J. Hmmm….I think that was a tad ambitious Willie and my QQ held up. Baffling call.

Card dead for about 5 hours, I was looking for spots to double up and shoved 77 pre-flop against a weak player. He unfortunately had QQ this time. I hear a exasperated groan as he sees the 7 in the door only to discover another Q on the flop. Drawing to one out, it wasn’t meant to be and bust out before dinner.

BK similarly suffered misfortune and despite playing well and getting away from set over set on a rainbow, unconnecting board (wtf?!), he busted QQ vs AA. I joined him down on the cash tables looking to take advantage of the Saturday night juice. The very first hand I’m dealt QQ and get felted on a low board with no straights or flushes on when the guy flopped a set. Marvellous.

A buy in later and I’ve shoved with 107hh on Ac8h9h board. BK calls with 89 for exact coin flip. I hit the flush on the turn and hits house on the river. Yuk.

Down £500 now and I don’t seem to stop losing. Some French guy calls a big bet of mine (10xBBs!) with 8Jcc pre-flop and hits his straight. I then tried a big bluff against him about 40mins later. I should have probably tagged him as a calling station but it seemed like a decent spot where he couldn’t possibly call…. I overbet on a 2356K board knowing he didn’t have a straight. Annoyingly he had KK hitting his set on the river and ‘forcing’ him to call.

More bad beats followed couple with sick variance and I lost £1K. Marvellous. It was the kind of table I kill to be on seeing how those people were donking their money away but it wouldn’t have been a good idea to lose anymore despite the temptations. Just as I’d thrown in my last chips, James turned up and suggested a night of drinking instead which sounded like a marvellous idea! BK quickly agreed who was quite happy to walk away with his tidy profit of around £500.

It was only 8pm and yet it felt like midnight. The night was young. We headed to LAB, a great place in Soho which I never knew about and drank several vodka martinis. I had all this gamble in my system which just had to come out and I knew James was dying for some kind of action. And so the prop bets begun. First it was rock paper scissors for £10 a go, then £20….then flipping coins for £20 just to see who had the biggest balls. More martinis quickly followed.

We headed to Graphic in Golden Square where beers, more martinis, tequila shots and vodka cranberries were bought and consumed. We left in a drunken haze when James suggested 3-handed PLO back at BK’s. BK fancied the Empire but we quickly came to the conclusion that being completely tanked in those games would definitely be –EV.

We grabbed a cab and made it back just in time so that my bladder didn’t explode. The clock blinked 1.30am and we broke out the chips for £1/£1 PLO. I knew I had the best chance here. I’ve been playing LOADS of PLO HU and I know James is more a 6 max player and BK’s game is definitely more holdem. We were all drunk, singing Dispatch but I could thankfully think straight.

I shoved a ton on BK’s tab which lasted about 30mins. Another evaporated and I was in for three. I then went on a tear and just cleaned the other two out to the tune of +£550. 4am – life was good again.

About 4.30am, I figured James and I would just crash out but BK seemed to be hustling us out the door which was unusual. He saw a bunch of keys and a blackberry on his coffee table and thrust them into my hand with a ‘so you good to go?’. Something seemed up. James and I stood in the foyer and I realised the sly dog had a keen French girl in his bedroom waiting for him. Where the hell did she come from?? It was like sleight of hand sexual wizardry! Mais oui! Finally home at 5.30am, I crashed out.

Sunday afternoon, I awoke from my sleep… without a hangover! It was so beautiful, like I had cheated death! Chilled out all day and watched District 9 (4*) which rounded off the rollercoaster weekend. So now I’m back to where I started. In the black ready for the busy week ahead.

satellite.

2009-12-12T00:41:00.003Z

Just played a satellite for tomorrow's event and won a ticket. Played every hand perfect apart from one. So I've cashed that as I've already registered so ship the £550. It was a £30 rebuy and only bought in and topped up so in for £65 total. Nice to see I've still got some tournament skill - just need this momentum to carry on tomorrow....

sleep balance: fail.

2009-12-11T11:38:00.012Z

Man I feel good today probably because I actually managed to get some sleep last night - woop!

BK's home game came and went on Tuesday night, and whilst I got off to a bad start (down £200), and ended up +£168.50. The big winner was JD who won +£600. Again, the blinds were 25p/50p! Here's a lovely hand which may give you an idea of the competition. I call a raise pre-flop with 22 from button raiser. Flop comes 10102. Jackpot.

Pot is £10. I bet £3.50. Button raises to £12. I reraise to £36. He reraises to £112. I reraise to £302 all in. He calls with A high and I scoop the near £600+ pot. Lovely! Yes I know dear reader, you WISH you had an invite to this game!

Had a late one on Wednesday where I went to the Alicia Keys launch party in swanky new bar called Aqua. The food (steak) and drink (passion fruit cocktails) were great plus Alicia played an incredible set complete with a track that I was raving about earlier 'Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart'. Needless to say, the party was lavishly fantastic and celebrities were pouring out from everywhere including a very small looking Saturdays who seemingly have spent all their earnings on foundation.

Anyways, good week so far, caught up with some school mates last night for wine, beer and chinese food and I was still tanked up from the Christmas lunch earlier that day.

Now, onwards to the weekend where Paradise £100K guaranteed is tomorrow which I've registered for and hopefully BK will be joining me so we can create a bit of that Vegas magic! Next week also set to be a busy one as have a couple more work Christmas parties including one in the new Supper Club in Notting Hill, private screenings of Paranormal Activity and Avatar plus a Them Crooked Vultures gig. Yikes.

Anyways, back to the office - Friday's are always fun. Literally as I type this, music is blaring out the speakers, there are people dancing and other guys playing football in the corridor. Sometimes work is alot of fun.

the headsup challenge.

2009-12-08T11:07:00.010Z

As mentioned, James and I played a headsup challenge last night. We decided on 500 hands of NLHE over two tables. There was a side bet on whoever was up after that would win the side bet of paying for the other guy's pizza tonight. Well, it started off well and I was soon cruising about +$20. I then tried some ridiculous overbet bluff and suddenly James went on a tear from about no.400 onwards to capture the prize and win the bet. At that point, he was $100 up.

As the hands were just flying through, we thought we'd extend it the challenge since I felt like whilst I made a couple of big mistakes, we weren't playing enough to even out the variance. So we carried on. After about 100 more hands, I was back to even and by the 866th hand, I had busted him for about 10 buyins. Simultaneously on both tables, I had called his shove with AJ on J472 board (he had AJ) and his shove all in pre-flop with AQ. He showed A8. Ship!

James wrote this match report and sent it round to everyone this morning which made me howl with laughter. Have a read, it's absolutely hilarious...lol

Match Report.
I trust that this morning finds you better than I, for today greeted me with the sour taste of defeat and a stench of corruption emanating from the area previously inhabited by my Bank Roll. Last night saw the first, of what I am sure will be many, Heads-up encounters between your faithful correspondent and the one known to us all as C.

Rules were simple; two tables, five hundred hands to decide who paid for the others pizza and the cry of “Uncle” would result in a hefty fine apart from that...it was game time.The 10pm kick-off was delayed by young C’s inability to negotiates London’s myriad public transport system with anything even close to resembling élan – I, cocooned against the cold had made it home in good time astride faithful Sasha and, having eaten, bathed and vaccummed the flat I was, for once, conspicuous in my presence. 10:22pm saw the commencement of hostilities; that the indominatble C won both high-card draws should have been warning enough of the form in which he entered the fray but nonetheless there was pizza to play for.

Circling each-other like princes of the land of “Fistiana” early exchanges were dictated by minor adjustments in bet sizing as C struggled with my relentless use of the 4xBB raise from the Button and the occasional 5xBB reraise from the blinds. Eventually a happy medium was struck which allowed for some hands to develop. Determined not to be pushed about by C’s well documented aggression I set out from the off to call him with all manner of questionable filth come showdown and for the most part this succeeded in the early stages. A few top-ups necessitated by the exorbitant rake saw both of us sweep past the 200 hand mark with nary a whisker between us, the dynamic predicating all but the thinnest of calls and raises.

By hand 350 I had C on the ropes. Despite paying off yet another gut-shot draw that filled on the turn I had committed the grossest of felonies – at least in his eyes – by calling him down for the better part of a buy-in with J-high on an AAxQx board... Robert Louis Stephenson could have used the steam from C’s ears to power the Rocket I fear. (ed - yeah, you wish!)

A couple of value bets later and with 500 hands approaching the match was all but mine. A brief IM confirmed the fact and I could look forward to wallowing in the quasi-Bacchanalian delights of “C’s Pizza....ummmm C’s Pizza”. It would appear though that thoughts of melted cheese, peppers, delicious smoked sausage and tangy BBQ sauce caused me to take my eye off the ball...disaster swiftly followed.

One buy-in went to a flopped straight v flopped two pair when I made the erroneous decision that the paired board (lower then my two-pair) would either counterfeit my foes holding or at least not worry me too much. A poorly played set of big hands; by poor play I mean no play as C, habitually three-betting from the blindsd and raising the button with impunity to this point set about a protracted period of open folding to my KK, AK, AJ, QQ, 1010, 99, KQ, AA, KK...or folding to 3xBB raises when I held similar. Knowing that Russ Hamilton lives not in the Clapham area I could only deduce that with young Mel’s recent departure to warmer climes young C was re-acquainting himself with the other nefarious delights that this so called “Internet” offers to those in possession of monitor, mouse and large quantities of “Kleenex – Mansize”.

Nonetheless a buy-in or two slipped through my grasp as I pressed thin edges too far and frantically scoured tea-leaves for calls that had no foundation in the cold logic of Heads-up conflict. The wheels firmly departed when frustration finally got the better of me with KK and a strange descision to shove a A5QQA board to young C’s already sizeable raise gg me!

There is none more deadly to one’s finances then a dash of tilt combined with an opponent hitting boards with the accuracy of Chris Brown at a Rhianna look-a-likes convention. Straights, flushes and not the odd TPTK v TPLK saw funds drain from my account like water from the flood plains of the lower Kalahari. Finally I put myself out of my misery by 4 betting Ax s’ on both tables into C’s AQ and AQ (I believe but I was in the throes of the red mist).

My Pizza’s on C, but unless it is made from a base of crisp £50s I fear it may not represent the best value. The last 230 hands were a disaster. But I can, nonetheless, assure you that C certainly played the first 500 hands like a massive pussy, just such a pity that I played the next 230 like a gargantuan c*nt.

hormone drench.

2009-12-07T16:15:00.000Z

Well, there I was sitting by myself surrounded by the squeals of fifteen year old girls drenched in hormones. Wait that sounds dodgy. I was at the Jingle Bell Ball lost in a sea of excitable teenagers who, whenever JLS were mentioned on the tannoy, would erupt in a frenzied chorus of excitement. Just as was I heard this twelve year old pike stomp down the stairs next to me shouting at his poor mum “We’re nowhere near the front, we’re miles away! You ruin everything!” Oh God. You gotta love the listeners of Capital FM.

Meanwhile, James and I are having a headsup challenge tonight so I can test how decent my NLHE HU skills are at the moment. I consider it one of my strongest games so I’m quietly confident but then I’ve got absolutely no idea how he plays. BK’s home game is tomorrow so no doubt whoever wins will be bragging till the morning. Heading to this Alicia Keys launch party on Wednesday which should be ridiculously lavish and then catching up with uni friends on Thursday. Christmas drinks with work on Friday moving into drinks with friends and probably some cash game antics. Then finally a relaxed brunch with my old housemate on Saturday morning which hopefully will set me off nicely for the Paradise £100K tournament at the Empire…busy busy busy week.

Anyways, 10pm tonight. Two tables of NL. 400 hands. We’ll see who emerges victorious….

bust your windows.

2009-12-04T14:36:00.002Z

Ok, well BRM… I’ve been doing it for a whole month which is a personal record. Let’s see, there was slip up recently and I donked about 60% of my online roll away which is annoying BUT I didn’t go broke and now I’m building back. Lasting this long is great and I feel like I’m finally getting into the swing of things. It’s tough don’t get me wrong and the time, I donked 60% away, it could have easily been the whole lot. I was two tabling $0.25/$0.50 digging myself into a nice little hole when I bust my whole roll and the guy refused to play me on just one table. Luckily, I was deep stacked on the other so just took that and then had to go out. Sitting with my whole roll though. Not good. That happened only once which isn’t bad for a month. I’m still learning…damn, I'm dying to play higher.

So I’ve been sticking to PLO as of late and had some decent success. Plus I really do the love the complexity of the game. The swings are supposedly a bit higher than NLHE but it seems actually fairly steady at these lower limits when you’re reading your opponent well. Past couple of days, I’ve won 8 buyins just playing $25 PLO HU. I want to learn the 6 max PLO games and Karl said he’d spot me which is great. Hopefully that will accelerate learning. I’ll probably get Slotboom’s book at some point as various people have recommended it to me.

Also as a bit of fun, James and I have decided to do a PLO HU match over probably 250 hands with a side bet which will most likely be buying the pizza at BK’s home game on Tuesday next week. Should be interesting. I feel like I’ve been playing a LOAD of donks and he knows how to play (I assume) so it’ll be interesting to see if I can keep up with him. I actually think I’m ok now having been logging a ton of hands.

Anyways, month end, and all in all, playing really low and not taking into account the £1/£2 games at the Empire (which I broke even on and only played like twice), I’m up $2K which is nice playing super low. I’m very interested to see how much rakeback I’ll get which should hit my account early next week. Got a busy next few days. Seeing An Education tonight, got the Capital Jingle Bell Ball at the O2 tomorrow and a mate’s birthday on Sunday. I’m dropping my girlfriend off at the airport on Monday as she flies to South Africa early to spend time with her mum and I’ll be going out later to meet them out there which I can’t wait for. As last time, this will probably ramp up the sessions so expect a few more posts.

talksport and the baron.

2009-11-30T14:12:00.005Z

So I'm on my way to the annual Talksport Christmas party! There's food, drink and quite conveniently, a freeroll poker tournament. My friend in media buyer land was telling me about it last year - free entry and awesome prizes. Last year they were giving away holidays and other non-cash goodies. Sounded great so I made a note to remind myself to ask him about it come September this year. Sure enough an email landed in my inbox inviting me this media extravaganza. It seemed they'd picked up Pokerstars as a sponsor. Sweet! The top prizes seem to be into a live Pokerstars sponsored event and some flights somewhere. Not bad for a freeroll.

I expect it will most likely be a total crapshoot with an awful structure but may as well give it a go. I met up with the bunch of guys who I recognised from various work and media poker things and we headed down to the Loose Cannon. I'd never been down to this place before but heard decent things about it.

We got there, registered and started attacking the free buffet and bar. The tournament eventually started - the top prize being flights to New York, top 9 getting paid $100, $200 etc all the way up to 2nd. The structure was predictable fast and furious so when I had QK on a Q high on a drawy flop, I reraised this one guy who had AQ and it was all over in 20minutes. What the fuck do I do now?? For fuck sake. It was a freeroll but I still manage to lose two last longer bets with a couple of guys in there.

They set up some STTs but they were even more of a crapshoot - 1500 starting stack with 10min blinds!! Haha. Just £10 entry. No matter, they were just a bit of fun.

It got pretty late and I headed in to town to meet James. I sat down on a cash game which was just so juicy! I sat down with £170 and made about £600 in less than 2 hours. One interesting hand with James...

I'm in BB, he's in SB. Couple of callers. James limps. I raise to £14 with JQhh. They all fold apart from James who raises to £40. It doesn't really make any sense, I mean he can't be that strong to limp in the SB and then to reraise. So I reraise to £140 and he shoves for about £40 more. I insta call. He has A10. Q high flop comes and I take the nice pot.

I make some more money from these guys at the table who are just absolute fish. It was so easy. Then a couple of guys sat down and the table dynamic changed. I didn't mind, I was running so hot.

One of the guys who sat down asked me if I wrote this blog and introduced himself as Tom also referred to as The Baron on this blog. He seemed like a real nice guy but I think, I didn't really appreciate how complicated the meta-game became.

Within the first hand he stacked off his chips in a cooler with two pair vs set. He later came back to reload. I knew he was ready to play. I've seen him before and know he's more than capable. I knew he was a skilful player although I think I’ve only played with him once. Anyways, I mention this as a big hand developed between us...

He limps and I'm on the button with 42cc. I raise to £12 and 2 callers. Flop comes Kh4c3d. It checks round and I bet about £24. They both call. Turn comes Kh4c3d4d. Lovely beautiful card. EP who is short goes all in for his remaining £11. Baron calls and I reraise to £52. Maybe it should have been more but it seemed like a safe flop. There's now £36 in the side pot and about £150 in the main pot.

Kh4c3d4dAd. The Baron goes all in for £225. Sigh. So my initial thought was I'm beat but then I was trying to work through it in my head. On the turn when he called, the possibility of a house crossed my mind but it didn’t feel quite right so on the river, that leaves 52 for the straight or the flush which have me beat. The flush would be pretty sick as that would be runner, runner. If he had like say KQdd, he played it quite passively. Anyways, I kind of built up a bit of a case for calling: I thought he might be tilting from his earlier hand A8 vs 88…A is a good scare card against my betting range….he could have AK and big value bet…

I felt as soon as he sat down, he wanted to outplay me at some point in the match and show some outrageous bluff plus…compared to the other fish on the table, he was good enough and capable of making the play. However, such an overbet, I mean it screams a great hand and shoving on a paired board when the flush completes screams a house which meant he could have pocket 3s. This is why it got so complicated. Eurgh! I knew he read this blog, knew my style. It wasn’t just another player which made the call more tempting. I was going to fold with the knowledge I’d get to see his hand either way which would at least give me some closure but then someone called clock on me after literally 1 minute which pissed me off and suddenly, I leant towards a call…..yuk.

I called. He showed me JQdd. Well played…very nice hand.

After that, I’m still hovering with some profit but then got into a bit of an annoying situation.

I’m on the button with 79off. Asian fish on SB £1. Crazy guy £2. Baron raises to £12. I call with position. AF calls. Drunk reraises to £30. Baron calls £30. I call, again with position and playing against deep stacks. Then AF reraises to £80. What the fuck?? What the hell is that ridiculous play? He’s a fish so I know he can’t be that strong. Drunk calls £80. Baron folds. And I’m left with a £50 call to win £290. I call.

Flop comes AcJc7h. AF checks. Drunk checks. I had a fantastic tell on the AF which was so accurate and won a £150 off him earlier calling him down light and snapping his river bet. Whenever the flop came good for him, he would massively exhale, whenever he missed, he’d hold his breath. I’d read about this particular tell in Caro’s book but here it was in such an exaggerated form. I mean he was literally breathing a sigh of relief when the flop came good. It was actually hilarious. At this point, I put him on a decent hand but he was definitely not liking the Ace. 10s/9s maybe….

So I felt I was good against him. Drunk was loose but I figure this pot was big enough to bet big and get him to think twice. I felt it was the right two people in the pot to do this. So I shoved for £275. The only thing I was worried about was the fact there were two clubs on the board. All in all, I thought this was +EV play. AF eventually folds (I’m thinking QQ at this point judging by how long I took). I unfortunately I overestimated the folding capability of the drunk and he calls. Board comes AcJc7hAd2s and for a second, I think I might be good. Unfortunately, he shows 10J and takes down the big ol pot. Shame…

The Baron looks at me and agrees, “I would have called”. To which I replied, “Well, you weren’t in the hand…”. I said that because there’s no way I’d shove with Baron in the hand because he’s capable of calling light for a start but he thought that I thought he was giving me a rubdown and started apologizing. Well I didn’t think that at all, I just simply meant, I wouldn’t have tried that play against him for different reasons. He kept apologising for the supposed rubdown but I was too tired to explain what I meant.

Thinking about that hand, I say it was +EV, but maybe I should have peeled one off. I mean, I wonder if I was a bit tilty then. Maybe. Quite infuriating to have lost in that session. The good news is, I lost but not very much. Despite all the big pots and getting severely raped at the end, I was down £150.

Online on the other hand is another story but I’ll save that for next time as this post has turned into a bloody essay. Let’s just say, I took a little bit of a nosedive…weeeeeee!

a conversation with.... karl mahrenholz. (pt.2)

2009-11-25T12:47:00.012Z

Karl was one of the first guys that made me realise you could make money from poker. We used to play home games together back when we were at university. I nearly fell off my chair when he said he made $4K over the Christmas holidays! What?? Where? How?!

And that's when I discovered there were books on the game... chapters explaining when to call, when to fold, when to bet. I remember reading a section in a book I picked up which explained continuation bets and betting for information. It was like a ray of light shining down from the gloomy, overcast sky. Holy crap! I tried online poker for the first time shortly after and deposited $25. I literally googled online poker and pokerroom.com was the first site that came up. And so began my love affair with that site...sigh! I miss that network!!

Anyways, having absorbed this knowledge, my $25 suddenly turned into $80. I couldn't believe. I remember waking up the next day and checking my account - yes! it was still there!

I still had a lot to learn though. I picked up Caro's Book Of Tells shortly afterwards and remembering reading about big laydowns. Facing a small bet, I remember folding two pair K9 on a 963K board against Karl just because I think, I was getting too hung up on what a certain twitch met or what that facial expression meant. It's like I wanted to prove to myself I could actually fold two pair when I put him on a set. He showed complete air. What an idiot I was!

Anyways, here's the final part of Karl's interview. If you missed part 1, you can catch it here.

C: What’s been your biggest improvement over the last 12 months?
KM: Hmmm…can't think of any 1 significant thing but, my game overall has been improving steadily, thanks to time spent chatting over things with some awesome people. Maybe the biggest thing would be that I've kind've become a PLO tournament shark. I always fancy my chances in those these days and have racked up some decent results

C: which leads me on to my next question....How did you get so good at PLO so quickly??
KM: some very good PLO people around me - Paul Jackson, Nick Gibson, Jeff Kimber spring to mind. Using training videos and putting in a decent amount of hands. The fact that the general standard is (or was) lower meant I was able to get ahead of the game reasonably quickly.

C: How much % of each other do you and your friends have on each other and is it something you would always recommend to other people?
KM: I tend to swap 5% with 2-4 people on average in a tournament. I have debated %s with myself and others at various stages - the thought being that when you get 5% of someone paid out, sure it’s nice but it’s never enough to make too much of a difference, whereas when you have a big score and you have to start giving out 4 or 5x 5%, it’s quite meaningful. I think I ended up concluding that it’s still a good idea, so long as you don't go above say 20%. It’s mainly just a friendly thing between good mates.

C: Sometimes when I see you in the late stages of a tournament, you can be a bit cynical / pessimistic / realistic compared with say James (Akenhead) who’s more happy and excited – is this a defence mechanism? Has poker made you a bit grumpy??
KM: Ha! I hope not! Realistic is a better phrase. James will say stuff like "I’ve got a really good feeling about this..." whereas I'm a bit more "I’ve seen this before..." Praz (Banzi) has been talking to me recently about how we all need to have more of this confidence and belief, and he believes in the positive impact it can have. I’m not too sure, but I’m willing to give it a go, James seems to have been doing ok for himself recently

C: Quite! Do you ever feel guilty for taking someone’s money?
KM: Ha! No. Although, I’ve never really been sat with someone that I cared about that I didn't think could afford to be sat at the table

C: So you would never tell someone to stop if you could see he was a desperate broken man, a broken man who happens to be losing hundreds of pounds to you in a live game??
KM: C, I don't think it's come to that yet has it??

C: Haha!
KM: I don't play many live cash games, but unfortunately poker is quite a cut throat game, and assuming I didn't know said person, I wouldn’t be the one to stop him, no.

C: Good good Karl. So, how do you personally stop tilting?
KM: Hmmm. I'm not sure many people do 100%. I try to force myself to quit cash games when things aren’t going well but I still find that hard in a tournament where you don't have the chance to just stop, I'll maybe get up and go chat to one of my friends who are playing have a bit of a moan about how bad I run, and a pep talk and then snap out of it and get on with the job in hand. The final in Cardiff springs to mind - going in as chip leader, and getting it all in vs 2nd chip leader kings v A 10, losing and being left with 10bb as he constructs the biggest tower of chips you’ve ever seen.

C: You had a break after?
KM: I got up and chatted to one of my friends, bemoaned my luck and refocused on the new situation I was in.

C: Something Jay Rosenkrantz mentioned in “2 months, 2 million” ... Do you feel happiness after a big win or just relief?
KM: Happiness. Those highs are what you work hard for.

C: Has poker ever ruined a relationship for you?
KM: I’ve not been in a serious relationship since I've been playing poker and it's suited me well.

C: well are the two things linked then??
KM: I’ve seen at least one other relationship fall to poker but then again I’m not sure that would have lasted anyway. Maybe. One of my friends was in a relationship, that broke up during a long stint in Vegas. Poker involves a lot of travelling and not all partners are going to be able to deal with that. The people who I know in relationships are predominantly online players. I think I would definitely have been in more than 1 if I was in a "normal job". Saying that my job before this wasn't normal, so maybe that's not the case. (Karl was working as an analyst in an investment company working long, long hours and often at weekends)

C: So how much travelling do you do a year?
KM: UK… well I play the GUKPT, that’s one week out of every month. I’m a lot more selective about the Europe events I play than I used to be but I’ll probably play one every other month. Then there’s always 2 months for Vegas in the summer.

C: How much would you have to make in one year for you to sit back and think “Yep. That's a good average year. Happy with that.”
KM: £100k

C: And how's this year going?
KM: ha! Above average sir.

C: Nice.
KM: I’ve has some nice %s thrown in this year!

C: Indeed you have! (Karl had a 2.5% piece on James Akenhead’s WSOP winnings). Ok, so how’s TGF going?
KM: Currently negotiating our deal for Ipoker, which has taken slightly longer than I would have liked but we are getting there. I’m very positive how next year is going to be for us.

C: Why should people check it out?
KM: Between me and Paul Jackson, I think we've got 2 names that people will immediately trust. There's lots of skins around these days that get into trouble and people are becoming more careful about who they trust with their money. With TGF, people can just pick up the phone to us and we will sort any problems out for them, rather than going round and round with automated support answers. On top of that, we'll be offering mentoring and even bankrolling which hopefully some people will find valuable.

C: Cool! How are you offering mentoring?
KM: I’ll do sweat sessions with anyone who wants one whilst playing on our site. Paul does regular ones, group and individual. Paul is without doubt one of the best teachers in poker I’ve come across.

C: How come?
KM: His ability to think logically and analyse situations/break down though processes is spot on. Great poker mind!

C: Ok finally , what do you feel someone needs to have achieved before they can turn pro?
KM: A consistent cash game winning record say over maybe 12 months. It all depends what you're leaving behind. Personally I was quitting my job anyway but I wouldn’t rush anyone into quitting their job. Poker is getting tougher and tougher.

C: Any advice to me on how to improve my game?
KM: chat through hands with people you respect as often as you can, get alternative view on things, things that you may not have thought about and watch as many videos as you can on Cardrunners or any other of the main training sites

And there concludes the first interview for 'a year in the life'! I've got a few others lined up including a very honest, frank interview with would-be which is a must read. I'm actually half way through that one so any questions, you've wanted to ask him, leave it in the comments.

a conversation with.... karl mahrenholz.

2009-11-24T18:00:00.013Z

As mentioned previously, I’ll be embarking on a string of interviews with top pros and prolific bloggers across the poker world. I’ve lined up a bunch of people and I’m pleased to bring you the first in the series, part 1 of an interview with Hitsquad member Karl Mahrenholz. Together with recent November Nine member, James Akenhead, WSOP bracelet winner Praz Bansi, Sunny Chattha and Chaz Chattha, the Hitsquad are proving a dominant force on the UK poker scene.

I’ve known Karl for a good few years now and as well as an accomplished poker player, he’s an all round nice guy. It’s great to see someone so down to earth achieve all the success and profile he’s currently getting. At the time of writing, he just won the first event of the GUKPT 2009 London leg just a few days ago for another nice five figure sum taking his career tournament earnings around the $750K mark. Let’s get to it…

C: Yo! What you up to?
Karl Mahrenholz: Just got in from golf and watching the GUKPT coverage from Blackpool. Didn’t play great and got beat by James who is a newbie!

C: Did you gamble before you got into poker?
KM: Don't think I’d ever been into a casino before I played poker… trying to remember how old I was…probably about 18 or 19 years old. Didn't really bet on anything before that, none of my peer group were really into gambling

C: So when was that exact moment when you thought, you know what, I could actually make some decent money here??
KM: Hmmm…. probably about 2006, I came 2nd in a big online tournament whilst I was at work for a nice cash. I think it was $60k for a 2nd place finish in a tournament on Cryptologic. But I was never a consistent winner in cash games, and therefore I doubted the longevity of it. When I quit my job in 2007 I still wasn't that convinced - I never quit my job to play poker full time, I was just intending to have a year out. Luckily it's gone ok since.

C: what did you do with the money??
KM: Put it on the pile

C: Ha!
KM: Didn't really do anything special, I was still working so no time to spend anything anyway. I guess it helped me when I eventually quit work

C: What do your parents think of your career choice? Are you ever embarrassed to say what your profession is?
KM: My parents are great and have always trusted me and backed me 100% in whatever I do. I guess it's because I've been lucky enough to do well in most things I’ve done be it at school/uni/work and so they've no reason to doubt me. I'm never embarrassed no, but I do find it frustrating talking about poker to non poker people and so I try to move the subject on quickly whenever it comes up, just to avoid painful conversations. Everyone is always fascinated so though.

C: What do you mean painful?
KM: Just when you're trying to explain it all. What it is and what you do. And try to explain the difference between poker and gambling. I’d just rather talk poker with poker people and other stuff with other people.

C: Do you feel you lead an unhealthy lifestyle? do you worry about your health?
KM: yes and my lifestyle is something I’m trying to change but i don't worry about it no. I’m inherently lazy but I'd rather keep fitter/healthier. I'm taking up golf in a big way at the moment. Not sure that’s going to keep me fit but it gets me out of the house and into the fresh air which is good!

C: Who are your heroes in the poker world?
KM: Heroes?

C: Who do you admire?
KM: I don't really have any heroes in poker but I'm surrounded by some of the best UK players and I admire and try to learn something from everyone of them

C: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
KM: My main strength I think is bankroll management. Touch wood I'm never going to go broke as I always manage myself well, borrowing well on my financial/business background. I think this aspect is underrated/overlooked by most people. No point being a great player if you've got no money to play with.

C: So any tips for those who are struggling with BRM?
KM: Don't get attracted by the bright lights of the big tournaments. Make sure you grind the cash games/STTs to fund your tournaments. Play lots of satellites into the big events. Try avoid speaking to you.

C: Hahaha! You mentioned you were struggling with cash at first....things better now?
KM: I’m not sure I ever did that well playing hold ‘em cash games but when I found PLO, I found a way I could be successful in cash games

C: So you've only been successful in cash games recently?
KM: In the last 18-24 months yeah.

C: What’s been your biggest cash win?
KM: Not sure I can tell you, after preaching about how good I am at BRM!

C: What do you mean? Spit it out!
KM: I won $20k once, taking a shot at 200/400 on ftp

C: Haha. Ok. I understand! So how about your biggest cash loss?
KM: I lost $20k in a session once, when I was travelling. It was the week before the inaugural WSOPE and I was still debating if I was going to play that so it was nice to lose the buyin online the week before! You might think that would make my mind up whether I was going to play it or not…

C: …but then you went on to have a nice cash! (Karl took 15th for £38,010)
KM: Yeah I wasn't planning to play it, but after reading the day 1a updates, one of my friends was near the chip lead. I thought fuck this, if he can do it.... It ended up being a good choice, although spending £10k on a tournament was without a doubt very stupid (BRM again!). In my defence, I think I had won £10k in a tournament at the Gutshot a couple of weeks before so I was kind of using that money...(and forgetting about the online loss!)

C: Do you ever have moments where you just want to pack it all in?
KM: Never. What could be better than doing this?

Click here for part 2. Feel free to post any comments below.

smashed again...

2009-11-22T09:46:00.002Z

Holy shit... the record for the biggest online pot has been smashed already. Again it's Patrik vs Isildur1 and this time, it's come in at a WHOPPING $1.35million. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaah there!

straight in the gutter.

2009-11-19T14:11:00.005Z

BK’s home game was as eventful as ever on Monday night particularly now that we’ve introduced the 7-2 rule to the game (£2 each if you win with 7-2). I thought I played pretty well and was outplaying and trapping people in a lot of spots. I really feel like I’m getting a lot better at knowing when to massively value bet, bluff and call light (there was the odd slip up of course but generally speaking!).

25p/50p again with a £50 buy in and I quickly made my way up to £175. I then got it all in with BK pre-flop with KK vs QQ. Unfortunately he spiked a Q on the river. And I was down to £60.

I then got into a ridiculous pot where I called a 3 bet with 3 people in the pot with 36off. Flop comes 10105. EP checks. JD (on the button) had 3 bet but I was probably steaming from the KK hand. I bet all in for £50 into £35 pot and got called by JD with QQ. Turn…4…..River….7. LOL. Back up to £180 ish. 3.6% on the odds calculator. lol.

I then started playing super good and making great calls and river bets. Was up to £440ish now. Then I made a bit of a stupid play where JD 3 bet on the button again after I raised with Q7dd MP. Flop comes 9d5d3c. I check. JD bets £15 into £30. BK folds. And I put in the big reraise to £51. JD dwells for ages and calls. At which point, I’m reading him for weak. Turn comes 9d5d3c5s. And I shove all in to cover him which was around £180. I just felt he was scared. He tanks for ages and eventually calls with AA. I think I did read him right as nervous but I didn’t think he had THAT strong a hand!! He definitely didn’t know where he was at. Should have read his 3 bet pre-flop as a pair. Thought he may have had AK. Back down to £125 which was annoying.

Then yo-yo’d a bit and started to make some money back. Then I had a beautiful confrontation with BK. I look down at 72 on the button and fills risky but make it £4.50. BK calls and it’s heads up. Flop comes 7s6c5c. He checks. I bet £7 and he calls. Turn comes 7s6c5c Qs. BK checks. Two draws and I still fill like I’m ahead so I bet £14 into £23. He calls. River comes so board is 7s6c5cQs3s. BK bets £50 into £51 but it just fills like he’s missed despite the flush and straight on the board. I ponder and call. He shakes his head and then when I show the 72, he loses it and slams his chips down. Ha! I know he HATES getting outplayed! Very competitive! I love it.

Ended up on the night with £218.50 from initial £50 buyin but slightly annoyed with the AA hand. I didn’t tilt afterwards though so pleased with that. The night didn’t go on as late as usual so when I got back home, I logged on to Full Tilt just to see what high stakes match ups were happening. And that’s when I saw Patrik take down that $900K pot which everyone is talking about. Insane. I’m getting pretty fascinated by isildur1 who seems to have appeared out of nowhere and is just terrorizing everyone. Yeah he lost a bunch from Patrik but is winning huge amounts from durrr, ziigmund, Cole South and Brian Townsend. He’s up about $5m I believe at time of writing having another winning session this morning.

Haven’t played online at all since then apart from a very quick session winning a buyin at PLO. I’m still enjoying this BRM challenge. I think I must be on a record or something on how long I’ve kept this up! Something seems different this time and it feels great! I know there’s probably a lot of bravado and maybe some people feel embarrassed playing this low (Brian Townsend went as far as changing his screen name when dropping down stakes!) but it’s just a great challenge and a lesson in discipline. Doesn’t sound much but up to $700ish from my initial $500 just grinding super low ($0.10/$0.20; $0.15/$0.30). Very satisfying actually.

Anyways, other than poker, I went to see Diana Vickers in Little Voice at The Vaudeville Theatre on Tuesday night and she was great although the play was far too long. I really want her to succeed as she’s a really lovely, sweet girl.

Yesterday evening, ended up staying in and watching Funny People (1.5*) which was terrible. Back out tonight for a night out with work bowling in Bayswater. I’m so crap at bowling. It’s funny how sometimes, I’ll randomly fluke a strike and literally after that I’m thinking, “I’ve got it! This is easy!” Next shot, straight in the gutter…lol.

fifteen buy-in swings.

2009-11-16T17:29:00.005Z

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from a 'fan party' but thought we'd check out the New Moon one (the next Twilight film) last Wednesday. My expectations were low to be honest but at least we had the all important VIP wristbands. Unfortunately, I seemed to misplaced one so had trouble getting in. A few minutes of ‘do you know who I am?’ with the security guy and we were being led round the back entrance to get to the VIP bit.

There were deafening shrieks coming from teenage girls and I couldn’t believe the hysteria. All around the perimeter, kids were forcing their heads through the barrier to get a glimpse of the stars. And this wasn’t even Leicester Square. It was Battersea Evolution in what felt like the middle of nowhere. Considering they weren’t showing the film, I wasn’t even sure they’d be food but as soon as we entered, we were thankfully greeted with flutes of champagne and a wide array of canapés including my favourite, mini buckets of fish and chips. My girlfriend on the other hand was glued to the chocolate covered strawberries naturally. A few bands played including Daisy Dares You who was great, the Magic Numbers who were hairy and some other kids I’ve forgotten the name of.

On Saturday, went down to Brighton to see some friends which probably could have been timed better considering the weather warnings and howling gales. Still I had the most amazing Pork Belly in this pub for £7.95. What a bargain! Hmmm….getting hungry. The evening we headed back to London via the suburbs and had an awesome dinner/tea with some other friends whilst hurling praise and abuse at X Factor contestants.

I played a few hours Sunday evening and that got a little bit wild. Ok so I’m still obviously trying to perfect bankroll management however, playing $0.15/$0.30 HU, I somehow managed to donk off 15 buyins to one guy. Yes, 15. As in, when I rebought for the last time, I had $30, and he had $450.

He was such a donk though, I knew if I could get up to $60, I could beat him cause I had chips to play with. I finally doubled up after my overpair finally didn’t run into a set and then proceeded to extract every last dollar he had. From $30, I took him to the cleaners. He even had the nerve to say in the chat that I hit 95% of flops! Wtf?! You were 15 buyins up you donkey, you just play SO bad!! Anyway, quite a large swing and it really should not have come to that. Comforting to know my headsup game is still there once I really ultra-concentrate but still, that was a little bit naughty.

Nevertheless, the fact I never increased stakes and could afford to rebuy as was only using 5% of my roll was a good thing as I didn’t go broke. Whereas before, we all know what would have happened. Fifteen buyins though is pretty sick. I mean if I was playing $2/$4, that would have $6K. Jesus. I can't believe how low I'm playing but it's like boot camp and pretty fun when you get going.

I also did my first interview yesterday which took me back to my reporting days! I spoke to Karl for about 1hr and got some good material. That'll be posted up here soon. The idea is to interview a mixture between some live pros and also some prolific bloggers. That should be up this week.

Anyways, another week and this time it starts off with BK's home game tonight. Hopefully I'll run as good as I did last time.

Finally, some great things in the music world: Lady Gaga's new video for Bad Romance is fucking incredible. $550K well spent! It's getting about 1 million views a day. Also, I heard a new band who are doing well in the States at the weekend called Owl City which are definitely worth checking out particularly this great song called Fireflies. Also just seen the new Beyonce (feat. Lady Gaga) video which is OK. After the first 10 seconds, I was bracing myself for something incredible, and then it cuts to studio shots which was a bit disappointing.

cada's done it...

2009-11-10T10:14:00.007Z

Well done to Joe Cada, I can only imagine what that sense of euphoria must feel like... oh I can't wait for next year! Meanwhile, I'll definitely be playing the Paradise Poker £550 at the Empire Dec 12th, 10K chips and 1hr blinds - beautiful. Should get a bunch of runners as it's £100K guaranteed so looking forward to that...

And in case you hadn't heard but feel like I should mention, Dwan has finally signed with Full Tilt. I'd love to see those contract terms but I can imagine, for someone who has held out so long, it's extremely favourable to Tom. The rich get richer...

I watched Julie & Julia (3*) last night which was ok...although a bit slow in places. It's about an ordinary girl who starts blogging about cooking. It's based on a true story as the blog eventually turned into a book, and then this movie. Now I'm not after fame or anything (I'll save that to when I win the World Series) but it got me thinking about how I could develop this blog into something more. The first thing that popped into my head was to interview some players/bloggers I know as I'm sure a bunch of you would find it interesting (maybe?). Also, I think it'd be pretty fun to fire some questions to the regulars at the Empire as well as a few of the pros I know.

Just an idea... I'm going to mull it over...

unpolluted country air.

2009-11-09T17:55:00.003Z

Well the weekend has come and gone meaning the November Nine is now down to the November Two. I think the whole of the UK was backing James naturally but he couldn’t quite get it going. It started off super tight and it’ll be interesting to see from the coverage who was stealing, who wasn’t. Antoine seemed to be getting stuck in and again, I’m curious to see what he was three betting with. After many many hours, it’s now down between Darvin Moon and Joe Cada with the latter 2:1 in chips.

I’m going to root for Cada just as I can imagine how happy it’ll make him. Moon seems more non-plussed. Obviously I’m sure he’ll love all that money as well but he’s not a full time player and as he states, he plans to just go back to the logging business when the tournament is over. There was a bunch of speculation if he would be advertising any patch on his cap/t-shirt… and sure enough, he was clear of any advertising cementing his attitude.

My weekend was much less stressful as my girlfriend and I headed down the Cotswolds to take deep breaths of the clean, unpolluted country air. The weather wasn’t looking good but when we awoke on Saturday, the sky was clear blue. I’ve never been to the Cotswolds before but it’s just breathtakingly stunning. The town where we stayed in was picture perfect and the place we stayed was unbelievably welcoming. As well as exploring around, we fitted in as many country pub meals as possible, usually near a roaring fire. My favourite was The Bell in Sapperton. Food was amazing! As you can imagine, the whole weekend was ultra relaxing.

I haven’t played much since the last post, just a couple of sessions of PL 5 card draw – won one session, lost in the other. Down about $40 overall. (stop loss kicked in – BRM – tick!) Got the home game set up for next Monday and most likely will play some cash on Thursday night. Was also talking to one of the guys who attends the media game and challenged him to a headsup session on Full Tilt which he seems up for. Let’s just say, from the way he talks and plays, I would guess quite confidently that my headsup game against him is…infinitely superior. lol. Gonna try and play him asap. Annoying that it’s all on Full Tilt but you win some, you lose some…ha!

High Stakes Poker, the best poker show out there is back for another season soon and they’ve announced the line up being Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Tom Dwan, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sammy George, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Andreas Hoivold, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Allan Meltzer, Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, and Lex Veldhuis…so can’t wait for that. I’m interesting to see how Phillips plays and of course, Dwan is always so watchable.

Speaking of which, this Dwan interview just got uploaded. My God, the interview technique is absolutely terrible but some of it is worth watching just for the comedy value. Here’s part 1 and part 2.

fireworks!

2009-11-05T17:03:00.005Z

Wow. The new Alicia Keys single is very very good. It’s called ‘Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart’ and hits the radio next year. Look out for it, it’s going to be HUGE. I also heard this fantastic Weezer bootleg remix of El Scorcho. I can’t stop listening to it. You may hate it, but I love it… cool little take. Check it out here. Actually I think I’ll do a music tips list for next year but that’ll come in December.

Since the last post, I’ve been trying to maintain a work/life/poker/sleep balance – sleep normally being the one that suffers! But also trying to pace myself a little bit. After I won about a grand in the home game last week, I hadn’t played until the media game earlier this week. Sixteen players turned up which means the blinds go up quicker and it turned into a bit of a crapshoot. Still managed a 4th but literally we had to come to a deal with the last five as we were getting kicked out of the restaurant. I thought I played pretty good and won £100 for my efforts.

Online, I’m continuing to do my bankroll management experiment. I opened an account on Betsafe to get my rakeback and started with $500. I played for the first time last night and really felt like a tournament so played the $50 to not much success playing middle pair/straight draw possibly a bit too aggressive. Played a $30 MTT but only 21 runners registered. Came 2nd in that for $150.

Played some ultra low limit cash to be in line with 5% bankroll risk. Sat down on $0.10/$0.20 5 max which was unsuccessful and lost about two and a half buyins. Didn’t really get on with that considering everyone didn’t know what they were doing! I opened up three tables but wasn’t really feeling it so quit after about 45mins and played $0.10/$0.20 headsup. Lost about two and a half buyins against some idiot and then proceeded to terrorise him and won about 8 buyins off him which was literally stealing candy from a baby. A baby that always thinks you’re bluffing so calls you down with bottom pair every time. Too easy.

All in all, there were some ups and downs and ended +$78 which doesn’t sound much but I’m very happy about. Ha! From now on, more than likely MTT buyins will come down and will stick with BRM grinding it out on the $0.10/$0.20 tables. I’ve had a few string of live wins recently so could play higher but that’s not really the point is it….lessons are to be learned. I need to master this. Seriously, I need to keep at this despite the profits not being as huge so I get this completely under control. And to think I was winning and losing $4K-$5K pots a couple of years ago… hahahaha… ship the $78 profit!!

The point really is I feel so in control at the moment. Not taking anything for granted and treating each session pretty seriously. Consequently, the results are coming in which is encouraging. We’ve got another home game scheduled in for week Monday so another four-figure win there would be nice…

I’ve also been watching a bunch of cards as well on TV recently as WSOP coverage comes to a close. I can’t help but think Steve Begleiter is a bloody idiot. He just comes across as such a nob! A lucky one at that. And Norman Chad’s commentary about him is hilarious. Of course, watching the footage, I am wreathing with jealousy that I didn’t make it. Ahhh…next time.

Anyways, 5th November. Pumpkin soup tonight and then off to some fireworks. Also going away for the weekend to the Cotswolds which is a surprise I’ve organised for my girlfriend. Be nice to get away from the city for a bit. The next week, I’m contemplating Flaming Lips and Biffy Clyro gigs. Flaming Lips are amazing live but the venue is such a mission and not sure it’s worth it… Also seeing hot new act Rhys Morgan at Ronnie Scotts and I think there’s some New Moon premiere on Wednesday I may have to attend for work. Then a birthday and a trip to Brighton… hmmm… busier than I thought.

Goooood luck to James this weekend. He does seem to be on a massive heater with his recent success. Spoke to Karl briefly at the Wynn who at 5pm (US time) was just waking up and ordering breakfast. Must be nice ffs… I gagging for a headsup rematch with him. I of course challenged him last night but he wasn’t ‘up for it’. I can’t believe I lost to him!! It was because it was on Full Tilt. He needs to play me on home turf where it doesn’t take me 5 mins to enter the right bet amounts…. Ongame!! LOL

Ok finally, check out this interesting interview with Luke Schwartz. Interesting what he's saying about Andrew Feldman, a UK pro who's just been confirmed on the new season of High Stakes Poker with new co-host Kara Scott.

part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4

home game craziness.

2009-10-30T14:25:00.004Z

Pretty mad night last night playing the home game round BK’s. We had a good crowd and things naturally got pretty crazy. I got dealt aces 3 times and got paid off on all of them. Flops were KQ4, AJ3 and AA5 – not bad. BK decided to bet into me on three streets when I flopped quads which had me howling with laughter inside.

The AJ4 was an interesting one. 25p/50p – I raise to £2.50. Button calls. SB (BK) raises to £13.50. I reraise to £41. Button folds. BK calls. Flop comes Ah Jh 4s. He checks, I bet £36. He reraises to £375 and I call BK is playing K3hh. Board blanks and I scoop the £900ish pot….on a 25p/50p game….! Ha…very enjoyable.

All in all, thought I played pretty well and it was a great crowd. Spent a lot of time bantering, laughing and generally enjoying winding BK up. Worked my way through the gears playing occasionally loose, occasionally ultra nitty. I was pretty happy with how I adapted to the crazy metagame. Eventually cashed out +£1,150 (on a 25p/50p game! lol…ship it!)

wagyu baby.

2009-10-27T16:45:00.006Z

Ok, so the weekend was pretty fun. BK’s dad was over in the UK and having done some shots with him previously on the webcam whilst I stayed in Battersea, I thought it would be awesome to meet the legend.

We all headed out to Sushinho in Chelsea which was just beautiful. Sometimes you eat at sushi restaurants where the fish is so fresh that everything just melts in your mouth. This place was no exception. It was too damn good! Soft shell crab roll was so fucking tasty, man I’m getting hungry thinking about it. We then ordered several bottles of fantastic sake which again which was just so smooth and reminded me of Planet Hollywood in Vegas – took me right back to PF Chang’s gazing at the Bellagio toasting sakes with JD and BK – one of my favourite moments of the whole trip.

We also had some Wagyu beef - a super expensive cut of meat from a breed of cow found in Japan where the meat is known for its marbling characteristics. The cows are fed beer, massaged and played opera music! The result is obviously awesome and tasted delicious but then again £40 for five small pieces, it better bloody do. I think hand on heart though, it wasn’t the best steak I’ve ever had in my life – I actually think my birthday steak in Vegas was better – the most beautiful aged rib eye - the absolute fucking BOMB!!! Ohhhh I love food. Wagyu, soft shell crab and sake... awesome combination...! Now I'm really bloody hungry!

Anyways, after sushi we hit a pub and noticed there were pool tables upstairs. BK challenged me to a game and not knowing each other’s skill levels, he gave me 5 to 1 odds he’d beat me! hahahaha. I was thinking how bloody good he must be but of course I’m gonna accept as I know I’m not THAT bad. We put tenners on, played two games and I came out up £30. Ship it! I didn’t really know the rules either – like you can’t foul on the black! Anyways, didn’t matter, drinks were flowing…. we moved on to vodka…. more tequila…. went to another bar, more vodka, back to his flat… whisky I seem to remember and then maybe like beer or something on the balcony?? I honestly have no idea. BK’s dad cracked me up, he’s so funny and just loves life… he’s got the mentality of a 25yr old. He also outlasted his apparently not so youthful son as 2 am, I find BK has slinked off without notice and passed out on his bed. Ha!

Saturday I played the £108 at Gutshot which didn’t go according to plan getting busted by the mighty Q6off. I then headed to the Empire for cash games and realised they had a tournament about to start so thought I’d play it - £75 freezeout. Not a bad price. Twenty min levels and 10,000 starting chips – wow, that’s loads of play…and all dealer dealt. About 55 runners. Not a bad tournament although it did get a bit gambly towards the end as no-one was busting out but still for £75, that’s one hell of a deal and the competition was like 85% fish! I busted 15th as mentioned…

I played a bit online when I got home as the list for live cash games were as long as my arm and wasn’t really in the mood. Made around $500 and turned in. Sunday night, I ended up playing first to 8 with Karl headsup tournament on Full Tilt. He won 8-6 after I started off well. We each had our share of inescapable situations e.g. coinflips / two pairs vs sets etc. It’d be good to see a video of it though with each other’s hands to compare plays etc. I was very sure I would win but he managed to get the best of me. He can be tricky but I’m well up for a rematch. We played $30 HU STTs with a $100 sidebet. GG.

Before we did the headsup match, we spoke on MSN and the legend has only gone and managed sorting me out rakeback on Ongame! Fucking best news ever! I could never ever get rakeback on Ongame but could never bring myself to leave the software because Stars and Tilt is so SLOW. The fact you have to click in the bet box still does my bloody head in (why?!?!?!?!?!?!). So now it doesn’t matter. I’ve signed up to rakeback a couple of times on Tilt and it never bloody pays out – must be doing something wrong but never on it enough to be arsed to sort it out. Finally, I get something back and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been playing lower stakes recently, but the rakeback feels really high. Maybe that’s just me…

Anyways, I had little sleep on Sunday night and then was out last night for a mate’s birthday. Went to Match Bar and ended up at Mahiki where I felt like I was 50. I’m only 27 ffs but some guy was celebrating his 19th birthday looking like he was 12. Where do all these kids get their money?! As we’re leaving some table has just ordered 12 bottles of Cristal. Rich parents and never worked a day in the life. It’s sickening. I can’t believe people pay £20 to get in to clubs these days, it’s nuts. Thankfully I sorted out a guestlist for our group saving us like £200. I got talking to this guy who knew my mate and is an avid photographer – he said we should go out one day shooting stuff saying he’d give me a personal tutorial which just sounds awesome. He talked through a bunch of stuff last night, some I knew, some I didn’t. Definitely made me want to dust off the ol’ SLR.

Was meant to have another late on tonight with Elton John concert but it got cancelled this morning which sucks as I know how much my girlfriend was looking forward to it. There’s also the Michael Jackson premiere I was invited to because it’s a global event with each country starting at the same time around the world, the UK have it at 1am which means it won’t finish till 3am. I like the guy, but not that much. Sleeping sounds like a very good alternative to me.

Dinner with friends tomorrow night and then the home game on Thursday which will be fun. Another busy week….

saturday freezeout.

2009-10-25T01:28:00.000+01:00

So I played the £75 freezeout at Empire this evening. I've never played this tournament before and it's got a great structure. Anyways, it has a 10k starting stack and all my hands were holding up for once. I quickly jumped to 15k, then 20k, then 30k. I remained chip leader for more of less the whole time I was in and was reading everyone spot on.

Two tables left and I have about 2x average chips. Blinds are 500/1000/100. UTG+1 goes all in for 3000. UTG+1 goes all in for 36,500. Everyone folds to me in the big blind. The guy's a bit of a muppet so I make the call with QQ. He flips AQ. UTG has 52cc. Flop comes an A. Nice hand...

I'm on about 40k and blinds are around 1000, 2000. Six handed, I raise in the hijack with AJ. Button shoves for 35,000. I was so close to calling but eventually folded figuring I've still got some play left here. I should have called. He just felt weak here.

Getting short stacked now as blinds go up to 1500/3000 and suddenly I have only 9BBs. Button does a standard raise and I ship it in from the BB with A8. She turns over KK. GG. Bust out 15th. Very disappointing. One time let all my hands hold up! The queens killed me.

the cautious and the brave.

2009-10-23T14:37:00.007+01:00

Man I loved how I played last night! There were a couple of situations where I lost the minimum and I think back in the day, I probably would have stacked off all my chips in about three or four coolers in the session. I’ve been watching loads of Poker After Dark on the way to work and Phil Hellmuth’s caution must have rubbed off on me!

Here’s one of them. £1/£2. I raise in the CO to £11 with J8. Button is ultra ultra nit so positional raise. SB calls and UTG calls. Flop comes QdJc3d. UTG checks. I decide to control this pot a bit so I check hoping for a blank on the turn. Button checks. I feel I’m good now. Turn comes QdJc3dJs. Lovely! UTG checks. £33 in the pot and I bet £15. Button reraises to £45. UTG folds.

Now normally I’d just ship it in here and call it a bad beat if he’s got me. I mean surely he bets AJ for example in position here on the flop, not the turn? I decide to just call. Something feels wrong about this hand. He has £118 behind and I’m thinking it is a £148 decision. River comes QdJc3dJs7d. Good card. He hasn’t got the flush draw and this will slow him down. Pot is £78. I check. He bets £30 and I call. He shows AJ and has me out kicked.

So I lost but it was the minimum. Hell, I saved myself £88! If I played it any faster at any point, he would have got the full double up so the fact I didn’t means I love this hand! Hahahaha!

Anyways, the table was damn tight so it was a proper grind but worked my £250 up to £550 eventually. Had a very nice hand with K4 hitting top pair on the flop, trips on the turn and a boat on the river betting every street.

Also I don't know what's happened recently but alot of the regulars seemed to have suddenly discovered this blog after 3 years. So now everyone has an insight into how I play. Marvellous. It's a good job I can read them all like a book - yep.... Freddie.... Tony.... Rod..... like a boook! hahaha! (I know they all love their cameos.)

Thirst last night was…ok. It was good but nowhere near as good as Oldboy. There’s some interesting cinematography and the acting is superb but it’s actually quite slow in places and could have done with a bit more editing. Worth watching but keep your expectations down. I guess mine were very high considering Oldboy is one of my favourite films EVER!

thirst...and other things.

2009-10-22T11:15:00.011+01:00

I saw a poster for Thirst the other day and immediately got excited at the words "from the director of Oldboy". I'm gonna check it out tonight at the Soho Curzon with my mate and horror fan. She works at Paramount and last time I saw her, she gave me a bunch of DVDs including Cloverfield (4*) which I've never seen before and absolutely loved. It's just so much...fun!

Anyways, so everyone is moving desks at work to be more in line with new structure. There are always casualties of the move and there’s always someone who’s unhappy (“C – they got me facing the wall with my back to everyone!!”). I seem to be more or less in the middle which is fine and sociable as opposed to tucked away in some darkened corner. I was cleaning my desk out and it’s amazing how much crap you accumulate through the years. A huge feeling of nostalgia swept over me as I unearthed some treasures. Premiere invitations…Harry Potter…Spiderman….Sweeney Todd…all amazing parties and takes me back to a period of my life where everywhere I went, there was always a bloody chocolate fountain. A Mischa Barton postcard... damn she used to be hot, not any more.

Pictures from this exec’s leaving party… back in the day I stupidly volunteered to dress up as Muttley (as in the dog from Wacky Races). I had to put on this big furry outfit which covered my whole body. It was so fucking hot and I couldn’t see anything! A Celine Dion tour programme (erm?)...a deck of cards (oh dear)... 12 boxes of condoms. This made me laugh, I completely forgot about these which the Street Team unloaded on me a couple of years ago…I wonder if they’re still within date…? A cuddly stuffed Snowman soft toy….. "Did You Spot The Gorilla?" book… Jamiroquai vinyls…. a "Winning Squash" book….Elvis and Led Zepellin box sets and a very expensive and delicious bottle of red wine from South Africa which I had forgotten ALL about (oh I love it when that happens…)

Somehow I doubt if I was still in my old competitor research job working in a pharmaceutical company, I would have amassed quite such a weird and wonderful collection of shit.

I'll probably head down the Empire tonight after the film and see if there are any fish. I went there the other day and was doing ok until this guy more or less stacked me with AK vs AQ. I reraised preflop and bet the flop on an Ac6s5s board. When the Qh came on the turn, my stack was only 60% of the pot and whilst it crossed my mind he had AQ, he was far too much of a calling station to contemplate throwing that one away. So I bet it all and he calls with his two pair. Hopefully better luck tonight. Online PLO has been going steadily as I continue to grind at the low level games. I've only been playing for less than two months, but I'm really enjoying it. So far, so good.

Finally check out the very talented Ellie Goulding. Her current song 'Under The Sheets' has been played alot today on my computer...

things are happening...

2009-10-19T17:14:00.005+01:00

So AJ Benza leaves High Stakes Poker as an unnamed female celebrity co-hosts will replace him (Vanessa Rousso rumoured?). He explains in his blog how he unashamedly took the following tact:

"Let's talk man-to-man and father-to-father." To their credit, they said, "Absolutely."I unashamedly told those two guys that if I don’t get my gig back....."you're basically putting a man and his family on the street. Is that what you want on your conscience?"I offered to take a pay cut for Chrissakes, Shit....the economy is in the tank, so I'm willing to take less to do the same job.

Wow. Talk about emotional blackmail! Still, I’m a fan of Benza but this bit from his post made me laugh:

“(Mori, Phil, Kevin….) Sometimes it took all those guys to make the repartee between me and Gabe to sound real and unrehearsed.”

Like I said, I like the guy but his and Gabe’s banter was SO bad…but which made it funny but to say that it sounded ‘unrehearsed’, come on! How does Gabe ever sound like he’s not reading from an autocue! Some of the jokes were just awful. But that’s what made it good. The slight awkwardness was hilarious.

Speaking of poker shows, another week and another one crops up. This time – Pokerstars Million Dollar Challenge. Kind of similar to Face The Ace in which a member of the public takes on a celebrity, then a pro, then Daniel Negreanu. There’s a few added twists, like Daniel coaching the players in the first two rounds, one round by their side, the other from a sound proof box. It’s more of a gameshow format so don’t watch it for the poker strategy whatever you do. Still it opens up a new audience to the game and the ratings were good. It’s miles better than Face The Ace helped by the absence of that cock Steve Schirripa.

OK more TV news. I was on it! I feature in a hand with Ivey on Day 5, part 3. Unfortunately it was one of the only hands I lost against him and of all of them, they choose to show that one. How I wish they had capture the set of Aces hand! Anyway the play was this. I raised with AK and he calls in the BB, it checks all the way down on a 8877Jr board. He bets a small amount on the river and I call with A high. The bit that made me laugh was when he turned over his J5 offsuit. Ha! No respect obviously but did make me think, to play that hand, he was going to try and outplay me (hence why I decided to check that hand down). I still had 1.6million chips at this point and the bet of 40k hardly dented my stack (ahhh..bittersweet memories)

I forwarded that picture below to BK who emailed me to say he was “contemplating bankrolling me to go pro”. What torture! Just as I’m going through a shit time with my job, he dangles the apple of Eden in front of me asking me to take a bite! Ha! Wow. Of course I’m tempted, but I haven’t written back to ask what the details are……yet.

You know I feel like I’m in the middle of some big change at the moment – BIG things keep happening. I found out from my mum that my dad is getting remarried (after getting divorced two months ago). I call him up to ask if it’s true and he acts like I’m attacking him. He goes all defensive and hangs up. My girlfriend thinks he’s an awful father to me but I always give him a second chance even though I’ve found out today that I (his only son, no other family) am not in his will anymore. Charming. Really really charming. Anyways I don’t want his money, I’ll make it on my own.

bk's famous!

2009-10-15T22:05:00.005+01:00

Bk's cameo! LOL

bad times.

2009-10-14T14:20:00.004+01:00

Well I had the shittest time last week which sapped all my energy to post anything up here. Lots of stuff happened but one thing in particular that had me nearly hand in my notice. I can’t really go in to it other than politics of this industry has fucked me up over good and proper. When I found out the news, I was literally shaking in rage demanding to speak to the top gun himself and sort this out. Surely this was a mistake. And as the problem unravelled itself a bit more, I knew there was no hope. I had to literally resign myself that I am getting pissed on from a great height. Five months of work down the drain.

Other people knew this as an announcement followed and indeed it makes you realise who your true friends in the company are. Even the people that I didn’t know that well would come up to me to offer their sympathy. Other people who I thought were my friends, didn’t really care as long as it didn’t affect them.

I stared at my computer screen and couldn’t string a sentence together. Passer bys who asked me if I was alright were greeted with the frank truth that no, I wasn’t. I was filled with hate. I spoke to friends and realised that these things happened and it wasn’t personal. It eased the pain but not enough. I barely said a word that evening. One true friend made me laugh. I told him I was having the shittest of shittiest days and he replied saying that, unless I did the following, how bad could it be?!

Unless you fooked up majorly, came back into work drunk after lunch, called your boss a tool, got asked to leave, wouldn’t leave, security were called, and you struggled, ripping open your shirt, exposing your exercise void torso, fell to the floor, started kicking and screaming, and were pulled by your legs by two security guards to the building exit, left you lying on the street, then were splashed fully by a bus running threw a puddle, then you got rage, pulled the bus driver out of the bus, beat him to a pulp, hijacked the bus, held the bus to ransom, with a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ refused to be ‘talked down’ by the negotiator, then the police came in, treated you as hostile, and snipered you from a roof, but instead of doing you a favour and getting you properly, they got you in both your hands, meaning not only were you out of a job, you also could not play poker, so you officially had no source of income, then your girlfriend left you cos she didn’t want to be associated with a criminal, and you spent then next 10years in jail, the best years of your life behind you. You come out a tattooed ‘con’, and the only lady you can get is ‘Donna’ from the nearby lady prison. She has 5 kids to 3 different men. You then live the rest of your days watching day time tv, eating crips and takeaways, and slowly drift away into a meaningless existence...

Yeah. Well it wasn’t that bad….

Been out of the office most of this week which has been just as good to take my mind off everything. Was in ITV yesterday - great set actually (below) and then Maida Vale studios which has the longest corridors ever.

I've hardly been playing poker at all as I donked my whole online account in one 30mins stupid session about 2 weeks ago. I'm determined to stick to proper BRM and I've got new motivation to do this. I'm playing PLO headsup now for $0.25/$0.25. I even played $0.10/$0.10 the other day - literally the lowest stake I've ever played in my life! As a result, the swings have stopped. It's not about the money now. It's about the battle for control. I need to get under control as tilt avoidance is the difference between a winning and a losing player. Things were good for a while after Vegas but then had some brutal downswings and need to reduce stakes to get back into the swing of things. So far, it's going well. I like PLO to be honest - I think because I the level I'm playing, I don't really have to be that good. As long as I'm not bad, I'm ok! Made 4 buyins last night which was nice.

I saw Zero 7 last week. Shittest gig I've been too in ages. Walked out after 6 songs, waste of time and alllll the way up in Camden. fml. They have seriously gone downhill.

what a shitshow!

2009-10-06T15:30:00.001+01:00

What a load of fucking crap. Face The Ace is the biggest shitshow I’ve ever seen. I somehow found myself watching three episodes and experienced the same feeling leaving Pirates Of The Caribbean 2. Hatred at the people who made this junk for taking away two hours of my life away that I’ll never get back. Steve Schirripa is an absolute nob. You want to smack him in the face and the contestants all come from that little town in America called Annoyingville. They are so so so irritating. At least there’s poker? They may as well be flipping coins! It’s a joke, the blind structure is ridiculous and I find myself wanting to scratch out my eyes in disgust.

There are better things to watch. I watched United 93 (4*) the other day, man that is an intense film. I actually found myself getting a little emotional….and I never get emotional. It’s based on the fourth plane in 9/11 which didn’t make it to its target. There’s a few scenes where passengers are phoning their loved ones from the plane to say their final goodbyes. It is absolutely harrowing. Heart in the mouth! The last time I felt that way in a film was Bridge Over Terabithia near the end. So sad. Yeurhhh!

florence and the machine.

2009-10-05T12:55:00.000+01:00

Ahhh...Monday morning back at work! So last week was cool, that Florence and The Machine gig was awesome. We watched in the company of Kate Moss, Jonny Borell and erm... Dane Bowers. My girlfriend should win the title for best celebrity spotter. She can spot them a mile off. I am always fairly oblivious until she points them out. Kate was just dancing to the hits like noone was watching. I loved that about her.

Media game tonight and home game on Wednesday. Also going to see Zero 7 on Thursday in the Roundhouse and some other band on Friday in Brixton.

mr. omar.

2009-09-28T16:22:00.007+01:00

A colossal £5K+ pot escalated on Thursday night between Tony and an unknown French guy getting it all in on an A high flop with AQ and AK respectively. I know Tony is a fairly solid player so found it strange that he’d get all his money in with just top pair. I watched another pot involving the same guy. Someone had squeezed for about £200 on the £2/£5 only to be snapped called by the Frenchman with 85 off. Turns out the original raiser was making a move with 910cc and a 10 on a flop looked rosy until running 5s came along. This stranger was now sitting on £7.5K, a mountain of pinks and blacks in front of him and loving life. I was on the £1/£2 game so carried on about my business and won around £900 that night.

I headed down to the Empire on Saturday to see what juice lay in wait. They were opening up a new game which was £1/£3. There was a waiting list as long as my arm for £1/£2 so figure I’d sit down considering most of the guys didn’t look too hot. I bought in for £200 but soon went down to about £100. I then had some massive hands. First KK – all the money in preflop. Called by QQ. Q on the turn. K on the river. Justice thank God. Very next hand, I have AA. Two great poker starting hands in a row!! Again all money in, this time, 3 people and I’m up against KK. K on the flop. A on the turn. Justice! Suddenly, after a little ropey start, I’ve got about £650. There is some guy who is just donking his money off. I have to stay on this table as the players are SO bad.

I then see the aforementioned French guy enter the poker room. This is the only ‘high’ limit game so I’m slightly nervous to be playing with this guy who obviously has loads of money and will be hard to predict. He’s desperate for a seat and as one guy goes to get some more money, he manages to play one hand, over a stack and sits down with £1K. He immediately raises to £25 UTG. Two callers and the button moves all in for £600. French guy SNAP calls and I mean SNAP and I’m thinking he’s got something good. Nope. 56hh. AK holds up. Mange tout Rodney…mange tout.

About 45 mins, a seat comes up for him and he’s sat to my immediate right. I have the best seat on the table. He’s wearing an Audemars. I ask him if it was expensive. He shrugs his shoulders, “seventy five grand”. Oooh la la!

He raises EVERY single hand £20/£25 and more or less jams it on the pot. Couple of people double up with their big hands and he’s throwing money about like it’s going out of fashion. I get NO hands against him and suddenly I haven’t played a pot for 2 hours. (sigh). Aces one time!! Just anything!! The game raises to £2/£5 and everyone stays because the French guy is a spitting ATM.

He eventually leaves and my stack is more or less even. I then go on a little rush as open up my game a bit and I’m up to £1.1K.

Then this hand happens: I have 1.1K. I raise MP to £14 with K10. Jeff Schulman’s wife on the button calls. Dutch guy (solid) raises to £42. We both call. Flop comes QcJs9h. I have the absolute nuts. Dutch checks. I decide to lead out for £60. Button calls. Dutch guy reraises to £210. I quickly flat call. Button folds. Pot is now £600. “deuce deuce deuce deuce”……queen. Bugger. QcJs9hQc. Now I’m worried. I’m hoping he doesn’t bet. He checks and I check. River comes QcJs9h9c2d. Now he bets £325. I should have folded this. QJ is now good and his set is in his range. Argh I call hating life praying he has AQ. He flips over 99 which starts the spiral.

Over the course of the next hour, I then get AA cracked by loose rubbish Indian guy with 84. Then all in again check raising him pre-flop with 1010. He snap calls with the might 68off and gets there with two pair. Half an hour later, I bet with AK. Button minraises and Indian predictably ships it in for 6x more. Not worried at all I call. Button calls which is slightly worrying and it’s AK vs QQ vs 33. Board comes Q high and I end up down £1K for the night. FML.

I should have left when the French guy did and dropped down stakes and I definitely should have got away from that straight hand, I’ll definitely remember that hand for a long time – there was a lesson there for sure.

Played a bit last night and won about $1K ish watching 2m2mm and the new SNL with Megan Fox. Newton Faulkner album launch tonight in Covent Garden, watching Florence and The Machine on Tuesday night, break on Wednesday, leaving drinks on Thursday, Julie & Julia on Friday and then the weekend to chiiiiiillllllllll.

GL to James and Karl in the Main Event today…update link on the left.

juicy games at wsope.

2009-09-24T10:01:00.002+01:00

Went down to check out the juicy cash games at the Empire last night with BK and JD. Was playing about 60% of hands I reckon and the table was lovely and soft. After showing a couple of bluffs and being fairly active and creative, I went on a tear at the end of the session end. Called £125 BK bet on the river with A5 on 95329board.

Then a hand against one of the tourist Americans who I can read like a book. I call late with J7. He's on the button and raises to £11. One caller and I call. Flop is 764. Checks round. Turn is 7643. EP checks. I bet £11. He reraises to £40. EP folds. He blatantly doesn't have a straight and is trying to push me around (lol), I reraise to £125 and he folds. I show my hand.

Couple of hands later and I check reraise JD on the button with A10 on KJ3 flop. He mucks and I show.... all of these are of course leading to my dream hand. If only all hands were like this:

I'm on the big blind and there's a button raise to £10. (We both have around £450). He's usually raised more so it will look like I'm bullying when I reraise. I have AhAd and pop it up to £34. He calls. Pot is £69. Flop comes As6d5d. I check. He overbets £75. I do my best acting job and call. Turn comes As6d5d6c. I check. Now he bets £50 into £219. So I reraise here to look like I think he's weak and I can get him to lay it down. I reraise to £164. He calls. So beautiful. Pot is £547.

River comes As6d5d6c2d. I ponder for a moment and then push all in for £277. He calls with AJ no flush. Ship the £1K pot! Beautiful dream hand! More of them please.

new music.

2009-09-23T12:20:00.003+01:00

Wow, I never thought I'd care but Susan Boyle's version of 'Wild Horses' is absolutely incredible. It leaked last week and has had such an incredible reaction which is also completely just. She performed on America's Got Talent and brought it doooown. Her album has been #1 on the Amazon album chart and pre-sale chart for ages and it's not even out till November! Interestingly, Shakira performed on the same episode of the show more of less humping the equipment with 'She Wolf' and showed no effect afterwards.

The new Foo Fighters song 'Wheels' is also absolutely incredible and I love the new Alicia Keys track. Saw Jay-Z and Coldplay over the weekend which was pretty awesome except Wembley Stadium is SO damn BIG!! So even the fact we were in VIP meant we were still pretty damn far away.

can you believe this shit???

2009-09-21T15:40:00.003+01:00

Well first of all, I bust out of the WSOPE around level 8. It really was a crapshoot. I felt lucky and spun up to 4.5K from my initial 3k. I then got moved tables and went so ultra card dead, I literally was getting dealt 105, 36, K2, J5 etc etc for THREE whole hours. It was awful.

I got dealt AJ in mid position and made a raise. Got three callers and when the flop came 3h4hAd, I thought I was good, until the BB bet the pot, which was 60% of this stack and I just had to lay it down. He turned over 34 for two pair.

About 40mins later and I literally have been labelled as the biggest rock ever to walk into the Empire, I get dealt KJ in the cutoff so raise it up. Get called. Flop comes 1062. He checks I bet and he reraises so have to fold. At this point, blinds are going up quickly – as BK was quick to point out, I was having to work with a tenth of the main event stack with half the level time!

It was gambly but fun, I think I could have done well but needed some luck to get some chips. There were so many pots I wanted to get involved in with suited connectors and small pairs but just couldn’t justify it with my stack at the time.

So after not playing a hand for an hour, I made a squeeze with 2 limpers for around 9 BBs as was getting desperate and the BB woke up with AKdd. After the call, before I turned my hand over, 3 people on the table immediately announced I had Aces! ….Kings! Literally my image was that tight, I had connectors but just couldn’t get through the AK.

So, over to the juicy cash games and on to the title of this post. I was absolutely CRUSHING the table. I had such a good read on everyone and then this happened. I raise in the cutoff with 78o. I have £400. Dude (Charles) has around £400. Flop comes A 10 5. He checks. I bet £24 into £36. He calls. Turn comes A 10 5 6. He checks. I bet £75 into £90ish. He calls. River comes A 10 6 5 3. He checks. I announce all in. He goes ‘it’s yours’. I flip over my cards to wind him up – I want to put him on tilt because he’s a big spewy ATM. He then looks at my cards and flips over HIS cards and says I got pair of 4s. Dealer goes to give him the pot. “What the hell are you doing?”, I ask. The guy next to me jumps in and says, “it’s C’s pot”.

Charles, who is 6ft4 and built like a tank by the way, explodes shaking his head saying ‘nahh, nahhh…ruling!’ wtf?!?

So Kal comes over and asks everyone to explain. He said he didn’t hear me say all in?! WTF? He’s now claiming he’d called with bottom pair?! 3 people on the table heard me say all in. But when the dealer explains he said he didn’t hear!! What a load of fucking bollocks!! This is absolutely bloody ridiculous. Charles is shouting at the top of his voice and I’m getting more and more pissed off now. “I said all in and you said ‘it’s yours’”!

He retorts, “you didn’t say all in”. I don’t bloody believe this. It’s like a £250 pot. Kal, going on the fact the dealer didn’t hear rules on a split pot. A SPLIT fucking pot!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Anyway I busted him about an hour later when I reshoved him pre-flop with QQ and he flips JJ but that’s not the point. I was so pissed off about that.

Here’s a nicer hand: I raise 23o late position to £12. Guy who’s all clad in VC poker gear reraises to £30. Everyone folds and I call. We are both very deep. He has around £800, I have around £450. Flop comes 2d2h3d. (I love life!). I check. He checks. Turn comes 2d3h3dQd. I check. He bets £34 into £60. I check my cards to give the impression of checking for the Ace of diamonds. I reraise to £109. He eventually calls. Pot is now £265 ish. River comes 2d3h3dQdJh. I’ve done some bluffs against him before but now this is my massive payoff moment. I’m putting him on AQ, maybe AA/KK. I shove £300 into the pot and do my best to look petrified. He eventually calls after about 5 mins. I turn over the boat and scoop the near £900 pot off him.

Not a very nice hand: About 5 limpers and I’m in late position so I throw in £2 with 62ss. Cutoff and button calls as well. £18 in the pot. Flop comes As3dQh. Everyone checks.

Turn comes As3dQh4s. Everyone checks to me and I bet £18. Button calls. I don’t know much about him but clock him as just your regular average guy. Everyone folds. River comes As3dQh4s5d so I have the second nuts. I bet £34 into £54 and he immediately raises £75 more….

I had the 6s in my hand so he definitely wasn’t on 67ss – to call a pot size bet on the turn for a 3 outer just seemed so unlikely. So I shoved for £260 and he snap calls with 67off. Ridiculous. I talked this hand through with Karl who said he would always move all in in this spot and completely agreed with my play. BK says he would always just flat call because what would he call with otherwise. I thought if he was a big ol fish, he may call with the 2. Anyways, I lost the big ol £500 pot and ended up about £50, after several hours at the cash game felt. Jeeez….

What does everyone think of that hand?? Call or shove?

update.

2009-09-19T14:31:00.003+01:00

Made first break - on around 4k with average of 3.4k. Allen Cunningham was on my table but over played his kings and is out.

start...

2009-09-19T12:01:00.001+01:00

4 people on my table. Don't recognise anyone. Just sigbed the release form which brought back good memories of vegas!

wsope morning.

2009-09-19T11:45:00.002+01:00

Well good morning...! The wsope is here and I'll be posting updates in the breaks. I'm running a little late as there was a road closure, should make it on time (just) as managed to find a taxi. I haven't had breakfast though so need to find some fooooood....

new variants.

2009-09-16T12:51:00.004+01:00

I'm coasting at the moment... it's kind of like a break before the WSOPE but still playing poker albeit at low limits. It means I'm still keeping sharp on the game but can't really have any big swings as it's all 0.50/$1 holdem. I've also being playing alot of the other variants to try and get to grips with them. It's something I've always wanted to do. Last night, I concentrated on $2/$2 5 handed and headsup PL 5-card draw and won about $100.

lily.

2009-09-15T10:08:00.004+01:00

I love Lily Allen. No, I don't fancy her but I do think she's cool. Her latest blog published last night makes me respect her even more. It's all about music piracy where she has some solid points and as much as I love Radiohead, she's absolutely right. Check it out here.

the week of the wsope.

2009-09-14T15:19:00.008+01:00

Since I had a few losing sessions, I’ve taken a step back to regroup. Watched a bunch more of Poker After Dark and studied my game a bit more and as a result, I’ve stopped losing. There has been no major upswing as I’ve dropped down in stakes to build my confidence back up but I can honestly say that the times I’ve lost recently have been down to bad luck (e.g. flopping a set, getting it all in against an overpair only for him to make it on 5th). The river hasn’t been kind but it hasn’t phased me as know I’m playing good solid poker and opposed to being a bit spewy two weeks ago. I really don’t mind if I lose as long as I know I’ve played well. But when I tilt, that’s when I start hating life!!

I’ve also been checking out ‘2 months, 2 million’ which follows 4 online poker pros during one summer where they pool their money to try and make $2m. It’s not high end TV by any stretch of the imagination (e.g. Emil interviews for a PA who proceeds to strip down to her bikini to retrieve golf balls from the pool) but still worth a look considering only 20 minute bite size episodes. Just don’t take it too seriously. Their set up however is pretty damn sick and their situation (i.e. renting out a pimped out house for the summer in Vegas) is awesome. The best feature is the ‘tilt room’ – essentially a room you can go to get all the anger out of your system with various equipment (e.g. hockey sticks, baseball bats…) and targets (old TVs, old fruit….)

The slowdown in pace has done me good and I’m feeling more and more refreshed. Very excited to watch the new episodes of Poker After Dark that aired this week. There’s one sick line up including Dwan, Ziigmund, Antonius, Ivey… so gonna be looking for inspiration this week!

What else? Well congratulations to Karl for taking down the GUKPT title. I’m really chuffed for him because he came so close last time round. Little bit swingy towards the end but worked out well eventually!

And now, what seemed like ages away when I got back from Vegas, the WSOPE is finally drawing near. I’ll be playing Saturday 19th hopefully with BK although he sent me an email a week ago saying he wasn’t in the mood (I sent him a youtube clip of Dwan doing this ridiculous great bluff). Hopefully that will spur him on to play. The structure is just ridiculous so I hope they come to their senses and add a couple of K on the stacks. The WSOP was also 3x the buyin equals the starting stack, but we’re in London now, there’s a bit more time and the pound is so much stronger than the dollar – at least take that into account!!

all quiet on the western front.

2009-09-08T12:10:00.001+01:00

Just having a little break… will be back for the WSOPE.

second in the psop.

2009-09-03T13:00:00.002+01:00

Yes, I managed to make it as far as the 2nd level in last night's PSOP. BK beat me and made it to the 3rd. So annoying as the structure was pretty decent. JD did alot better and went deep but bust out 14th just outside the money. Break time.

next.

2009-09-02T12:38:00.000+01:00

No good last night but was happy with my play and was only in for £40. Tonight should be a more skilled affair. £200 Paradise Series Of Poker freezeout down at the International. It will be tough but I am confident in my game at the moment.

three losing sessions.

2009-09-01T13:53:00.003+01:00

But now it's a new month and I need to put the past behind me. I need to come up with a plan which involves stoplosses and targets. I have incurred several four-figure losses so I am retreating slightly for composure. I took a week off and played last night but to no avail.

Anyways, tonight is the media game and tomorrow is the Paradise £200. Some results here would be a good start. Certainly, I will be formulating some kind of strategy for cash games this month...

15:20.

2009-08-27T09:57:00.007+01:00

On Tuesday afternoon, an incident was reported on the M3. A huge accident involving a lorry with hazardous waste. They shut off the whole lane of the motorway whilst an air ambulance came down to rescue the wounded and special teams were brought in to assess the lorry's contents. The traffic ground to a halt.

Meanwhile my girlfriend and her family were on route on that very same motorway to Terminal 5 to drop off her mum to catch the evening flight to Cape Town. As the traffic slowed on their part of the motorway to a standstill, there was a slight panic that she would miss her flight. Normally these things clear eventually but not this time. It took hours to get to the airport by which time it was too late. Emotionally distressed, she had to book to go on the next flight the day after. A wasted trip mostly stuck in the car.

I was due to meet my girl in South Kensington that evening once she had taken the tube in from the airport but after today's events, she was going to head home again to comfort her mum. Our plans of spending the evening together were put on hold. Suddenly I was free for the night. She asked what I might get up to now she wasn't coming back.

"I'll think of something...."

i'm such an idiot.

2009-08-26T09:53:00.015+01:00

fuck.

awful session on sunday night.

2009-08-25T14:38:00.009+01:00

Just an awful session where I was hitting nothing and I mean nothing. I was just thinking in my head how bad I was running so just need to minimise losses where possible but the bad luck was relentless for hours and I tilted away some unnecessary dollars. All the big pots, I missed and just couldn't get anything going.

As a result, I lost about $1.8K which was a sting. It's so funny how every time I win big, I think how I could do so well playing more and every time I lose, I think how the life of a full time player would be fucking impossible. I mean seriously every time, even though I've been back and forth through the motions, the mind baffles. I went to sleep angry and I woke up angry which hasn't happened in a while. Once I calm down, I always think how I'll definitely make it back... it just might take a while... which again annoys me. lol.

Anyways, I will break to the 'end of the month' which is this Friday. Then I've got a couple of tournaments next week/month including the Paradise Series Of Poker in The International and.... WSOPE! Off to see Ladyhawke tomorrow night which will be fun. Got this Livvi Franc party on Thursday and then bring on the bank holiday weekend...!

August earnings: +$2,175

hookers in the empire.

2009-08-23T23:47:00.003+01:00

So I’m sitting with BK on the ‘TV table’ at the Empire. I call it the TV table because it’s the first table you come to when you enter the poker room so usually draws some spectators. There seems to be a larger than average crowd tonight and I notice there's a few girls just milling about not really part of any group.

I turn to BK, 'What's with all the girls??' At this point there were just two but more or less by themselves.

'Dude, they're hookers!' BK says.

No way! Come on! Really? Hang on... no...surely not. I couldn't quite believe it. I turn around again and check out the girl behind me. She just didn't look like a hooker. She had a nice dress on, looked quite classy I guess you could say, but maybe I'm just comparing her to the sluts in Vegas. Am I just naive now?? 'Trust me, they're hookers', he finishes.

I was confused. I was in ear shot of her and noticed she had struck up conversation with this 22yr old black guy. All I heard was her announce excitedly, 'Ohh I've always wanted to learn how to play poker but I've had no-one to teach me...' Hahaha! Hooker! She's gotta be! What a giveaway. It was just funny because she didn't look like a hooker but maybe she was one of these high-class ones a la Belle de Jour... I was kind of fascinated maybe because I've never seen a high class call girl before but also because I just couldn't believe someone like her would come to a poker room of all places to pick up?! Most of the guys in there have either just lost their money or are winning for the first time so want to win more, more, more!

A seat opens up at our table and the dude sits down. He gets a chair for her and she sits next to him. She's all over him, whispering in his ear, touching his shoulder in excitement when he wins a pot. She even goes off for a few minutes to get him a drink (and one for herself of course). Does this guy even know she's a hooker? I mean, she must get turned down a lot from guys who are just shocked by the revelation right? Plus it made me think how bloody bored she must secretly be... and to think she's invested all that time being interested at the thought that this time you've actually flopped a flush draw! Hmmm....

empire session.

2009-08-21T14:34:00.005+01:00

Had a nice little session in the Empire with the guys. Mark unfortunately ran into some bad luck so went home early (running flopped trips into flopped full house and KK over pair into flopped trips) and then BK and I proceeded to just terrorise the whole table. I had a headache which was so so so annoying but still managed to get some good hands in. I loved the way I played these two hands:

Stack is £300. K8ss. Raise to £12 in the cut off. Button folds and 3 callers. Flop comes AsKc5s. Checks round to me and I decide to check. Turn comes AsKd5s8d. SB leads out with £30. Everyone folds and I call. River comes AsKd5s8d4s. Such a great card because alot of people will think I can't possibly have the flush because why didn't I bet out the flop so a big bet on the river looks like a bluff. He bets £40 into me and I move all in for around £200. He calls with KJ. lol.

Stack is £600. UTG raises £10. Folds to me and I reraise to £21 with JJ. Everyone folds and he calls. He's a bit amateurish so hoping to trap him here. Flop comes AsQsJd. He bets £20. I think for a while and flat call. Turn comes AsQsJd8h. He bets £20. I ponder and reraise to £87. He then moves all in for £187 and I call. He flips KK and the river blanks. I don't know what the hell he was doing but happy with the result.

Left about +£550ish. Lost a bit online last session but now over the $4K mark which is nice.

August earnings: +$4,173

bk's analysis on below!

2009-08-18T10:02:00.006+01:00

I dropped an email to BK about the below hand and here's what he had to say. Thought I'd post it up...

First, the texture of the flop is so scary for a big pair, which is what I would have put this guy on, of course depending on his playing style, maybe something different. But, if I had just sat down, that's what I would have assumed, JJ, QQ, or KK is the most likely. When he fires out 120 on the flop, I DEFINITELY flat CALL there. I know what you're saying about the fold equity, but I still would just call there. You have position, and that flop could be anything. Think about it, any spade, any Q (although in this case not) or any A, comes on the turn and you're good (so 31%). If a 2, 4 or 7 come (which it did), it slows the action as well. So, that's another 25%. So, 56% of the time he's going slow down on the turn, FOR SURE.

If he is weak or semi-strong, he is going to take the opportunity to slow down as well (say 30-40% of the time?)...so, my guess is that about 65-70% of the time, he checks to you on the turn. You get the free card then. The other 30% of the time you will be facing a pot of $400 with $190 invested and a turn bet of $250 (ish ?). So, you'll still have 15 outs or 30% to win on the river. If you call the $250 to win $650, your neg EV is about 8% (39% vs. 31% to win), but you get the opportunity to make a river bet and get paid off and/or muck if he goes crazy on you.

Ultimately, I really like the FLAT CALL there, especially playing in position and the good chance that you get the free card. But, I know your style and can totally see why you pushed there. The problem with pushing there is that you KNOW you're only getting called by a stronger hand (at that moment). If he is was going to fold there to your all-in, he is almost certainly going to slow down on the turn. So, the call accomplishes that with a lot lower beta.

Click for more hold'em strategy.

again, the swings!

2009-08-17T15:59:00.000+01:00

Sunday was pretty mad. I played a couple of hours in the morning and got pretty crippled having flopped a flush against a higher flush and AA vs AK in headsup. Before I knew it, I was down $1.3K. Nice start to the day.

We went off to see our friends up in Finsbury Park where they were hosting a Brazilian BBQ. Her boyfriend is a chef and an upmarket restaurant and the amount of food he had prepared was mind blowing. There must have been hundreds of pounds worth of succulent Sirloin steak not to mention, fantastically prepared chicken kebabs, sausages and salad. And then a Brazilian speciality I promised I would try... BBQ'd chicken hearts. They kind of look like round-ish sausages with an artery hole in them. Some of them, were cooked through so you didn't notice the aorta, others were more prominent with a whitish ring around it which was slightly gross. Either way, I popped one of the bad boys in my mouth and didn't taste too bad. It was a cross between a pork sausage and some kidney. Glad I gave it a go anyway. We got a goodie bag to take away as there literally was so much food - we got half a salmon, four steaks and yep, some hearts.

Came back in early evening and donked off some more money so down another $400 (my month earnings down to about $2.4K at the point). Decided to sit down on a $5/$10 short stacked as an experiment - thought I made a great call when called a reraise on the river with 77 on an Ah9h2c9s4h board and he showed 66 for a $707 pot. I ended up around $400 but still down the original $1.3K. Man that guy was such a fish!

Then had a break whilst snacking and watching The Mentalist with the girlfriend. She went to bed pretty early so thought I'd have one last session... I decided not to play headsup and instead concentrated on 2 x $2/$4 tables. I spun up until a few hours in, I was up $2.2K which was damn sweet. I then lost a huuuuge pot so ended up +$900. August earnings are now +$3,705. So annoying though because before the last pot I was up to +$4.9K and if I'd won it, it'd have been +$5.9K!! ahhhh... them's the breaks.

So here's the hand. I'm not sure if I played this badly or not. Would be good to hear your thoughts on this:

$3/$6 (my stack is $1K). I call UTG with AQss. Button raises to $18. SB reraises to $70. I call. Button folds. Pot is $164. (Note: standard reraise pre-flop has been $70 so nothing unusual here. The guy has been active. Not too loose, not too tight so his range is narrowed but not pin pointed.)

Flop comes 3s5s6h. I have two overs and a flush draw. He bets $120. Now this was kind of the key point in the hand because the rest of it will play itself. Should I raise or call? If he has 77-1010 or Ax, I can probably take him off the hand, however, if he reraises all in, I'm pot commited and have to call. Unless he has AA or a set, at worst, I'm 45% to win...plus all that fold equity of course. I don't put him on a set or aces... I think for ages and reraise to $373. I have $400 left. He goes all in. And I snap call now as committed.

Turn(7) and river(K) blank and he has QQ. (Note: with KK-QQ, I'm 45:55. With JJ-77, I'm 55:45). He scoops the massive $1.9K pot which annoys me greatly.

Should I have just flat called? I don't think it's the biggest mistake in the world but hardly small ball poker. If I called, the turn may have slowed him down. Hmmm....

Anyways, back to work. I'm feeling really motivated and inspired today so will take advatnage of that! Just had a meeting with Spotify and they showed me their new unreleased app on iPhone. It would have been impressive had it not crashed every 2mins. It's only for premium users though (the guys that pay 9.99 a month) and they only represent 1% of their subscribers!

Got a couple of dinners this week and seeing BK, JD and Mark on Thursday for some live poker at the Empire. Also sorted out a bunch of gigs (Florence, Zero 7 & Ladyhawke as haven't been to any in ages!

August earnings: +$3,705

the ten things that made me a better poker player…

2009-08-14T17:15:00.006+01:00

So many people ask me what is that helped me get better and actually make money in this crazy game. So I’ve had a think about what truly improved my game. The points below are to illustrate what got me out of those ruts i.e. when I was going through those moments thinking "I'm just not doing anything right!" These are the points which, when I acted on them, suddenly brought a new life to my game...

And here they are:

1) Playing $1/$2 and above. I can beat the games at 25c/50c and 50c/$1 but once you can, move up immediately. I have consistently found over the last 5 years that $1/$2 is a damn sight easier than the lower stakes. People understand the principles more and it seems to cross that point where a lot of the people playing it actually start to care about it a bit more. My win rate shot up playing these levels.

2) Multi-tabling. You can play more hands and you don’t tilt as often because if you get cold decked on one table, chances are you’ll have some hands on one of the other tables. I’ve never played more than 4 tables and nowadays, I mostly play 2 tables. If you find yourself getting impatient, open up another table, you’ll play more hands which means a higher win rate and you'll tilt less often.

3) Read Super System. This book is great and the principles are solid ABC. I’m not saying you should play like this (in fact, I don’t play like this at all) but it gives you a fantastic understanding of how 90% of competent players play and once you have that understanding, it's much easier to work out what they're doing.

4) Read Negreanu’s chapter on Small Ball (Power Holdem Strategy). This is great and fundamentally teaches you the principles of small ball poker. I started losing a hell of lot less money when I remembered about keeping pots small with your small hands.

5) Watch High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark (cash game episodes). This is real deep stack poker and fascinating to watch (unlike the WPT shovefests). When I watch it, I think about what I would do in each situation i.e. would I bet with his hand? And how much? Watching it is like a pop-quiz. You test your knowledge and when they do something that is against your thinking, you have to ask yourself why… There have only been a few Poker After Dark cash games (the rest being tournaments) so look to download the following: s04e36-40; s05e19-23; s05e37-41; s05e43-47

6) Read Caro’s Book Of Tells. I’m very proud of my reading ability and I learnt a lot of the fundamentals by reading this book. It also makes you aware of what other people look out with you. When I played the WSOP 2009, there were a lot of competent players there and in the world of these guys, I knew that talking would appear weak when putting in the big bet on the river. I started yapping at this one guy when I had 108 on a 10s8s2h10c6s board and bet out big on the river. He eventually called with KK putting me on absolute air despite the flush, trips and straight being out there.

7) Analysing hands – I did this by talking to people who’s game I admired or by documenting them in my blog. It helped to take just a few minutes to think introspectively about how you could have played certain hands differently. The big hands play themselves but it’s all the hands in between which will give you the big edge against your opposition making sure you bet the correct amounts meticulously.

8) Play calm. Sometimes I’m just in the zone and when that’s the case, I am ultra calm. If I’m rushing to the poker table, I know I need to just sit out a few hands before getting crazy. I’m always conscious of how exactly I’m feeling when I walk down those stairs in the Empire. When I know I'm in the mood to play fast, I need to try and take a breather and force myself to slow down. Slow right down.

9) Be honest with yourself and others. I know when I’ve made mistakes or when I’m tilting and being in denial about your state of mind is very unhealthy.

10) Bankroll management. This is without doubt, the number one skill you have to master. I’ve actually put it down the bottom because I haven’t mastered this. I don’t go on tilt as often but I still have my moments which I’m aware of. I know that the better I get at this, the better my results will be. Period.

If anyone has any more, let us know. Always good to read your comments on posts like these.

back in the day...

2009-08-14T15:01:00.005+01:00

I was watching this episode of Poker After Dark where it was ‘Nets vs Vets’ week. Taylor Caby, Cole South and David Benefield, all in the 20s, were up against Doyle Brunson, Gabe Kaplan and Eli Elezra in a battle of the ages. One conversation they were having involved how much they initially deposited and didn’t go broke from. I think Caby only ever deposited $50, South was a $100 and Benefield only a mere $35! They’ve all gone on to make millions. I was thinking about when I first started out and how much I deposited before I was just playing with profit and I’m not sure I can remember! It was definitely more than $50. But actually come to think of it, maybe only like a $100. I’ve been playing with profit ever since...or have I??

Three months after my first deposit in online poker, I graduated from uni and got a job working in Soho. There wasn’t much to do in the lunch hours back then. I got paid nothing so could only afford the 99p Cheese and Celery sandwich from M&S. Other than that, a lot of the days, I used to go to Borders, a flagship bookstore spread across 4 floors and home to a healthy ‘gambling’ section. I started to read a bunch of books and started to understand the basic winning principles of poker. Being tight aggressive was one of them and learning about positional continuation bets was like an epiphany.

And that’s when I decided to keep a record of my profits and losses. It featured in every book that this is something everyone should be doing. So I set up my account on pokercharts and kept track (back in the day it was free!). For the first time, I’ve decided to look back at the first 6 months of my play to see if I ever did dip below zero and it turns out… I did! I think only by about $5 and that was the first month of keeping records so I'll forgive myself. Since then I haven’t looked back. Now it's just a case of getting up to seven figures...

Here’s my P/L in my first 2 months…

...my first 12 months….

…my first 24 months….

…my first 36 months.

headache.

2009-08-14T09:55:00.002+01:00

I fucking hate headaches and write now my head is screaming in pain. Eurgh. It started last night and went to bed early to try and get rid of it but still woke up in agony. Played briefly last night and was all set to make a mint out of some tilting guy headsup when got a bit coolered flopping top two against his straight which stopped the momentum of him donking his money away. He eventually sat out and I settle for around +$250 but easily could have been a $1K the rate he was going (calling me down with 3rd or 4th pair every time!). Very short session as could feel this headache coming on which annoyed me no end. Time for a coffee and paracetamol.

August earnings: +$4,215

the blog graveyard.

2009-08-13T10:34:00.002+01:00

Of the estimated 133million blogs in the world, only 7.4 million have been updated in the last 120 days. That's 125.6 million abandoned blogs wasting away....

someone's had a traumatic childhood...

2009-08-12T17:35:00.008+01:00

Antichrist (1.5*) was awful last night. Beautifully shot... but awful. First of all, it was disgusting. Like fucking disgusting. And then the story was just a bit slow. The shocking bits were shocking though. The director obviously has one fucked up imagination (which he's admitted). Yuk.

Played a good session recently and had a couple of good hands both against the same player.

£1/£2NL. I raise in the CO with 24o to £7. Button calls. BB (raises to £27). I call. Button calls. Pot is £81. Flop comes 9sQsQd. I bet £60. Button folds. BB calls. Pot is £201.

Turn comes 9sQsQd5d. BB checks. I go all in for £220. He eventually folds his Jacks.

I can't help but show it and judging by the next hand, I'm glad I did.

Two hands later. I raise to £10 with 97. CO calls and button (same guy who I bluffed) calls. Pot is £33. Flop comes 9h8d7s. I bet £21. CO folds. Button calls. Pot is £75.

Turn comes 9h8d7sQh. I check. He bets £30. I look like I'm going to throw it away and then I call. Pot is £135.

River comes 9h8d7sQh2c. I think and then put him all in for £160. He calls and mucks his hand when I announce two pair.

So good session (+£628) and only made one mistake calling with two pair when some guy caught the flush on the river.

August earnings: +$3,966

learn to leave.

2009-08-11T12:18:00.006+01:00

Like a chump I hopped on last night when I had 20 mins to kill and lost $532, the last hand ended all in headsup pre-flop KK vs AA. Later on in the night, I got hold off another $500 which got whittled down to $140. Won a crucial pot with K8hh on $1/$2NL HU on a 2h8c10h board against A10 all in on the flop. Then had a good run spinning up to around $800 mark. Took a shot at a 5 handed $3/$6 table which was pretty soft and spun up to around $1.8K to end the night. Had a big ol hand K8 vs 10J on a K7988 board.

I need to be more disciplined with my headsup game. I played two people last night and both were very competent. When that's the case, I need to change games. I reckon I can still beat them but the edge isn't so big and it takes aaaages. I need to find the fish that mega tilt once you outdraw them and these guys just weren't biting. So I have to learn to leave. Immediately.

Best thing about last night playing? Catching up with Entourage alongside the tables. LOVE that program. My mate sums it up perfectly - "I love it for the entire 30mins I watch it but afterwards get instantly depressed that my life will never be THAT good". True.

August earnings: +$2,925

rushing.

2009-08-10T10:20:00.009+01:00

I hate playing these little small sessions and I need to stop doing it. Played one last night where admittedly I thought it'd be a lot longer but then was cut short. As a result, knowing I had five minutes to go or whatever just donked off my stack with 88 on a 7 high board. It doesn't sound too bad but did have a feeling he was strong. He turned over QQ and I could have controlled the pot a bit more. This tilted me slightly and $1/$2 headsup, I ended up losing 4 buyins against the biggest donk in the world just rushing, rushing, rushing. No more. I haven't played these small sessions in ages and admittedly, I thought last night would go on longer but still, no excuse...

I'm going out with a bunch of guys from work tomorrow. I haven't hung out with them in ages so should definitely put the time in. I promised myself whatever they get up to, I'll make it. And what do they decide to do? Cinema. And what do they decide to see? This film. Oh for fuck sa...

Something amazing though is that cruising through the app store, I discovered they've released The Secret Of Monkey Island for the iPhone! This is damn cool and frankly I don't care that it's £4.99! Hopefully Lucas Arts will release all the other ones. I'm getting completely overloaded on stuff to do on my commute - I just can't fit it all in! Now that I have the internet at my fingertips, there's checking the news, then there are all the blogs, I've got a couple of movies I need to watch, episodes of Poker After Dark and True Blood all lined up and now, the magical gaming memories of Guybrush Threepwood! Ah the choices!

August earnings: +$2,686

gotta love the trap check...!

2009-08-08T00:01:00.005+01:00

Just a quick sesh. Funny how I'm thinking about that bloody £140 last night and the very first hand I win a $800 pot so net +£240. Hmmm....shame I donked it off about half an hour later playing AK out of position on a full table headsup. A flop of AKQ looked good until I saw he had rockets. Ended up playing a bit more $2/$4 5 handed but then got to work on some guy who started to tilt on $1/$2 headsup and cashed made around $600 off him. Two hands that I look back on fondly...

He raises to $6 on the button. I reraise to $20 with QQ. Flop comes Q42r. I check. He bets $30. I call. Turn comes Qs4c2h5h. I check. He bets $111. I ponder and call. River comes Q4252r. I check again (so sexy!), He bets $250 into $300ish and I ship the rest in for $92 more. He folds and I scoop the $800 pot... LOVE that trap!

Last hand... He bets $6 on the button. I reraise to $20 with QKcc. Flop comes 1062r. I check. He checks. Turn comes 1062Ar. I bet $19 into $40. He calls. River comes 1062AJr for the nuts. I trap check again. Pot is $80ish and he bets $58. I insta reraise to $158 and he ships the lot in for about $30 more. He turns over set of 2s and I instantly picture him throwing his laptop out the window.

Running good...

I'm really digging True Blood at the moment. Just watched the first two episodes but already loving it. It's an American television drama series based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris. Check out the opening sequence here and try and tell me it doesn't look coooool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxINMuOgAu8

August earnings: +$3,665

snapper.

2009-08-07T12:11:00.001+01:00

I'm slightly pissed off from BK's home game last night having carefully and methodically built up £140 of profit only to piss it away on the last hand with some ridiculous squeeze. BK calls with 82 off and JD wakes up with JJ 3 handed. My Ace high is no good. Argh! Ended up £8 down. Oh well, the night, as always was superfun. I particularly enjoyed when Mark tried to squeeze me in the BB and I snapped called with KK. His face was a peach!

yeah... that's a pretty big swing.

2009-08-06T10:35:00.011+01:00

I sat down playing for a few hours online last night. I felt calm so thought I'd fire up a $2/$4 shorthanded table with $1.1K in my account. About 15 mins in and I've completely overplayed KQ and run it into Aces donking off my whole buy in. Very next hand I hit trips and figure I can make some money from the people who think I'm tilting. Eventually all the money goes in thinking I'm good except he has trips as well. Still, it's all destined to be a split pot until he hits a house on the river. Only $337 in my account now. Marvellous.

I know playing 5 handed would be a bad idea here so I buy in to $1/$2 headsup. Couple of bad hands and suddenly I'm down to just $60. Eurgh!

The guy I'm playing against leaves not wanting to play a short stack. Fuck! How am I going to find a game now? Then this guy sits down with $150 and I have a nice little double up with KK. Forty minutes later, I've completely busted him for around $800.

I then open 2 x $1/$2 headsup tables and make $100 off one guy. Then I realise the other guy is an absolute donk and tilting. So I close down the other table to concentrate. Another 40 minutes and I turn $200 into $1.4K. He then refuses to play and goes on about moving up stakes to $3/$6 or $5/$10. I laugh and challenge him to $25/$50NL on Full Tilt as 'all my money is on there' (oh the lies!). Eventually I agree to $2/$4 figuring I'm very comfortable at this level anyway.

We sit down and he then completely changes the way he's playing and it took me quite a while to adjust. I was actually thought someone else was playing under his account, it was THAT different. I go down about three buyins just trying to work him out and suddenly it's looking a bit ropey with a $400:$1700 chip ratio.

I then win a key hand (can't remember what but I was ahead the whole time) and I've got $800:$1300 . I know I can play a bit more now so start applying pressure in the right places and winning some nice pots sucking him and trapping.

Suddenly it's $1200:$1000 and I know I've got him. I have a stack now and I'd say deep stack headsup IS my strongest game. I am feeling pretty confident at this point, although slightly concerned it's getting a bit late.

Then this hand comes up: I bet $6 on the button with 810. He reraises to $22. I call.

Flop comes Q97r. He checks. I bet $25 into $44. He reraises to $90. I call $65 and pot is now $224.

Turn comes Q97Jr. I check. He bets $125. I call. Pot is now $474. I know I've got him. He definitely doesn't have K10.

River comes Q97J5r. I check. Sexy check as I know he's going to go crazy. He goes all in for $717 and I snap call. He shows Q9 and I win the juicy $2.2K pot. Time for bed!

August earnings: +$2,871
Current year: +$22,356

ingenious!

2009-08-05T11:00:00.009+01:00

Using customised virals by getting users to enter their facebook account details and then fully personalising a video trailer.... awesome! Try this out...

http://www.prototype-experience.com/

Also, third tournament since I've played was the media game last night and shipped the lot. Quite a lot of people actually so ended up with two tables and a £730 prize pool. I took 1st for £370 (no deals!!) although got a little bit frisky in the rebuys so was in for a ton. Still, always nice to win a crapshoot!

Whilst I was donking off chips in the rebuy period trying to accumulate some kind of stack to give me a chance, it got to the first break to which I had 3/4 starting stack plus a top up. That's 3,500 with blinds about to go to 200/400 (average was probably around 6,500). I asked BK odds he'd give me to win the whole thing. He offered 7/1 which I thought was a bit too low for a shortstack in a crapshoot so declined. I didn't want to be in the hole for more than a ton. I phoned him up afterwards to say I just shipped the lot to which he reminds me: "Shoulda taken that bet C...." lol!

Happy with August so far considering the hole at the start!

August earnings: +$1,659

happy happy happy!

2009-08-04T17:42:00.002+01:00

After the last post, it's time for a change of attitude! So I'm listening to this song. I literally have not heard this in 15 years and remember thinking how fucking amazing it was hearing it on the radio. It was back when I was first discovering music. I started realising how happy songs made me happy and sad songs made me sad. But this was a happy song...happy in a way I never imagined!

A few years passed and the band didn't really make it. I never had a copy of the track so I thought I was destined to never hear it again! Every few years I'd have a little search on the internet but to no avail. Even Limewire didn't have it. Recently, I've been checking iTunes and just now Spotify but still nothing. I remember I actually bid for a physical copy a year ago on eBay only to be cruelly outbid at the last minute. And then.... I just did a quick search on youtube only to discover someone has posted up the track just this year!

Could it be? I finally get to hear the track again! Will it be as good as I imagined? Oh yes. Oh yes it is! Fucking brilliant! Hahahahaha. Enjoy here!

blood boiling.

2009-08-03T17:32:00.008+01:00

Two guys at Empire who have pissed me off recently...

‘Tera’. Right so I’m talking to this regular about who we rate out of all the regulars. We get on to this guy called 'X' and regular says he doesn’t rate him at all. I agree saying he thinks he thinks he’s much better than he actually is. It’s true. Anyone who whinges about getting rivered for one bloody hour should fucking go home and stop playing. Get over it ffs. Anyways I digress. It was a light hearted conversation. I actually like X, I just think HE thinks he’s the absolute bollocks when that’s far from the truth. There are a few other people on the table including Tera just listening to the conversation.

So I pop in another day and spot a bunch of guys on one table. X happens to be on there. One of others starts talking to me and X goes: “Oh you’re C”. I’m ready to bask myself in WSOP compliments instead when he goes: “I hear you’ve been talking about me saying I’m not very good”. Oh for fuck sake. I mean come on! He immediately starts yapping “I’ll take you on anytime $10K headsup. I’ll show you how much better than you I am”. Oh ffs. What an idiot for saying that. I like how that is some people’s default response whenever you ‘hurt’ their feelings.

Anyways. I didn’t care. I still like X so I sit down at the table. I notice Tera’s there as well. So I say to X after he’s calmed down: “Who told you about that anyway?” Tera pipes up and says: “Oh we were just talking about it”. DICK! Why the fuck would you do that? Why? Idiot.

And just when I thought you couldn’t be any more of a bastard, this happened:

He’s in a pot with some guy. There’s some betting. It gets to the river. £70 in the pot on a 10JK3Q board. Regular ‘K’ checks it to him. Tera obviously has the straight so bets £35. ‘K’ laughs implying honestly he has none of it. So folds his hand by putting his cards by the muck but as a joke throwing in the £35 over the line...after he’s mucked. And then goes to take back the money whilst laughing. We play all the time and those guys all have played before. Except the cards haven’t physically touched the muck and Tera goes and calls a fucking ruling??!!! And not in some joking friendly slowroll kind of way. I mean, are you fucking crazy? It’s pissing me off just thinking about it. Needless to say, Tera ends up winning the extra £35.

Next up last night:

This dealer has been getting on my nerves with certain comments and last night was a prime example. When we were 77k:177K (1500/3000), I was not up for taking £100 deal (£500 difference between 1st and 2nd). It had to be at least £150. The other guy, a vocal angsty guy is getting annoyed at my lack of deal making to his ridiculous terms to which he keeps glancing at the dealer for approval. I’m not budging. I have edge on him heads up.

After one double up, we are 125K:125K and now he offers 50/50. Now, I’m favourite here. All I do practically is play headsup online and I think it’s my strongest game so of course I’m not gonna take 50/50 which would be £1650:£1650. I offer him £1700:£1600 to which he explodes with ‘rage’ calling me a fucking joke and how I’ve just insulted him. I say alright, we’ll do 50/50 (because I really want to go to bed annoyed that it’s a Sunday night and I have to work tomorrow) but now he’s having none of it for the ‘principle’ saying how he’s gonna take me down. Fair enough.

I sigh cause I want to sleep but I’m not exactly worried because I’m pretty sure I’ll win. I then get unlucky with a hand and I’m back to 65K:190K. He now offers me £70. Fuck off. And then he offers me £100. Again, fuck off. I’d do £150 at that point because time is ticking and it’s now past 3am. He declines. Now the dealer goes to me: “What are doing C? You OBVIOUSLY haven’t been on many final tables.” F***”£()$&!%^!*)*(!(*&$&”$&%^! Can you be anymore patronising??

a) Yes I have and a hell of a lot more than you have.
b) I have the edge here and I know how to make fucking deals ffs
c) I’m not going to roll over just because this guy is joking with you and you think you’re mates.
d) How the hell is not accepting a deal making you a worse poker player?

....and deep breath....

and chill!

ship it.

2009-08-03T03:53:00.005+01:00

First tourney back from Vegas and just did a deal for 2nd in the £100 at Empire to win £1,525 (originally £1,400). He got £1,775. Chips were 80k:180k ish (1500/3000 blinds). I was actually very confident I could take him down but it is far far too late and I need sleep right now. Wasn't worth it for the sake of £100.

So things are off to a good start this month. It started off very badly losing a big chunk in live cash across multiple sessions but then had some good multiple online sessions making around £1,300. Still about $500 down before last night.

Right. Off to bed.

happiness is a drug.

2009-08-02T16:03:00.000+01:00

Ah good times, my mum just had her offer accepted on a new flat which means she now has somewhere to live. And it’s such a cute little flat. She just phoned me up in a fit of happiness. Good times!

Speaking of which, following on from this post about Ezra, I absolute LOVE this tune by Florence called ‘Dog Days Are Over’. Actually quite a similar sound to Ezra so check it out here. I love the way she sings "Happiness hit her like a bullet in the back". Tune!

stuck. bored. no money.

2009-07-29T20:43:00.003+01:00

Oh for fuck sake. The one time they block my bank account, I donk off my whole stack at the Empire and the one time I donk off my whole stack is the one time I agree to meet my girlfriend in town at 10pm i.e. 2 hours time. So now I want to withdraw some money and I can't so I phone up my bank and I'm hold, no joke for 25mins and they still haven't sorted out the problem. I'm now waiting for their call back in 10mins. (Blatantly going to be longer). I can't believe I also left my other debit card at home one time!!

Apparently they are looking at suspicious activity on my account i.e. I just had £14k come into my account. What the hell is wrong with that?? Arghh. So bored sitting in Trafalgar Square with no money. I just want to get out a tenner so I can go have a drink. I could borrow money off this guy at the Empire but I know he'll use it against me in future and constantly try and hit me up for hundreds.

p.s. I can't believe JR thinks I have shit music taste! Marvellous.

take off your sunglasses.

2009-07-29T10:27:00.007+01:00

I LOVE this song by Ezra Furman! Bit of a shit video but the song is so immense! Such a feel good tune. Awesome sound! Have a listen here

500 Days Of Summer (3*) last night was ok but not sure it deserved that outrageously high score on IMDB, in fact, I reckon they've somehow rigged it perhaps, maybe all the people voting on there at the moment worked on the movie since it's not out on general release...! hmmm..... It's harmless, fun and there were some funny moments.

It's month end so July total is below. I've only made $14 since I've been back! Heading down the Empire tonight and may well play the festival at the weekend if I have time (£500 freezeout).

July earnings: +$16,820

massage therapy.

2009-07-28T12:16:00.004+01:00

So I spent the last couple of days celebrating my girlfriend’s birthday incorporating all the things she loved. I definitely wanted to take her for afternoon tea so we went to St James’ Restaurant at Fortnum & Mason’s which was pretty damn posh. All the tea was loose leaf and I kept forgetting to use the strainer in the cup so I think we were clearly the commoners in there. We tried pouring the tea back in the tea pot to filter out the leaves except it mostly ended up on the antique wooden table. Quite amusing.

We then strolled over to the F&M spa on the floor below. I looked on the website which sold a ‘mother/daughter package’ so I phoned them up to see if they could ‘man’ it up a bit for me. It currently included a manicure, facial and back massage however they said, they could easily be flexible and how about 1hr back massage and 1hr reflexology? Perfect! Shoulder, back and foot rub! Love it. However as the time came, they informed me the reflexologist wouldn’t be in that day and would I consider the alternate treatments. Well, I wasn’t going to lose out now was I so I agreed to a facial having absolutely no idea what to expect. I had like 10 creams and other various liquids put on me for an hour. I think I actually fell asleep at one point. Apparently I was ‘glowing’ afterwards. Ha ha. Right…I’m not saying it was unpleasant by any stretch of the imagination, just that I’m not sure I’d pay money for the experience. I can see why girls love it though!

Watched Bruno (2*) which bored me slightly. It reminded me of Eurotrash when I was 15. You’d flick on it for about 3minutes, laugh at one of the jokes, and then flick off to something much more entertaining and infinitely less cringeworthy.

Off to a screening tonight to watch 500 Days Of Summer which scored a very very impressive 8.5 out of 10 on IMDB so looking forward to that. There's something very cool about Zooey Deschanel. I got her record the other day which is a collaboration with M.Ward. Very indie, low-fi, bluesy Americana....very cool. They're called She & Him and you find out more here.

outside the box.

2009-07-27T12:53:00.002+01:00

This a great video here. And there just must be a way I can somehow use this idea and apply it to music marketing. Thinking cap on. Watch it, it's pretty fun. Of course, let me know if you have any ideas! (please)

jackanory - the four steps!

2009-07-24T17:05:00.006+01:00

Ok, so a post about poker as it's been a while. I'll talk about a mistake that a lot of feisty intermediate players are prone to make. It's something that will improve your game if you remember these key concepts when bluffing.

First up, just to say, poker isn't about bluffing. It's about playing premium hands, flopping something and value betting/semi-bluffing. Pros don't bluff nearly as much as you think they might and I know for a fact that people that play me think I bluff a lot more than I actually do. When you do bluff however you need to absolutely make sure that it makes sense. You see the amount you bet at the various betting stages will tell a story of what your hand is. So many people will see an 'opportunity' on the river to steal and represent something but fail to understand that, yes, you may have that strong hand, but it's actually more likely you don't because that means you've actually played it very strangely beforehand indeed. There are 4 chapters to the story (p-flop, flop, turn & river) and every piece must make sense.

Here's a hand I played with Mark in the Empire this week which illustrates this further:

£1/£2NL. We have £300ish each. I have QK on the BB. Mark has standard raised to £12 UTG and everyone's folded round to me. I call.

Flop comes Qc7h6d. I check. I'm out of position and because Mark is my friend, I want to keep the pot small. Not because I’m being nice, but because egos can often add an air of unpredictability to it all.

He bets £16. I call.

Turn comes Qc7h6dJc. I bet £18 into £58. Now this is kind of a feeler bet to see where I'm at. His actions here will tell me what I need to know. Mark reraises to £38. So it's £20 to call to win £134. The raise isn't really that much at all and just feels a bit weak because the board is straightening and flushing. Again, I think he's doing this to try and outplay me but this amount was a mistake. Either he should call, fold or big reraise if he reads me for weak. I just call putting him on a J or Q.

River comes Q76J10r. I check not entirely sure where I stand. And then he bets £100 into £134. That's a big bet and half my stack. My first instinct is that this is a bit uncomfortable however I’m now definitely ruling out AQ. So I start to go through my head what he could have.

AQ. No. This is what I was afraid of but you wouldn't bet so big on the river

AA/KK. Well this makes sense pre-flop and flop but not really the turn and definitely not the river. This is a vulnerable hand on 5th street that you wouldn’t raise that much on the river as it has decent showdown value.

AK. No. Makes sense p-f & f but you wouldn't reraise the turn with a gutshot draw.

89/9K. No. Mark's been playing tight and he wouldn't raise those UTG.

QJ. Now this possible for sure but again, his tightness makes me think maybe not raising UTG. I was definitely thinking about this hand though.

AJ. This felt a definitely option and then bluffing the river maybe? Possible. AJ has some showdown potential but £100 is big big big for this.

10K. It felt like it could definitely be this 10K because I think he could have been trying to mistakenly milk the pot up a bit on/steal on the turn. Possible but doesn't really make sense.

QQ/77/66. Possible but unlikely. He didn't feel that strong on the flop

JJ/1010. Yes definitely possible but this would be a cooler.

So with all this taken into account I figure I've got him or I'm crushed against his set but working the story through my head, I felt like I was ahead. I called and he showed A9 for absolute air.

Now on the other hand, if he'd bet the flop, reraise big on the turn and bet half the pot on the river, that would be entirely different as that would feel so super strong. I may have even folded the turn because I’d be worried about the big bet on the river out of position. So, the whole story has to make sense. When you bluff, you must tell the story from start to finish so your opponent believes you. If you don’t you have yourself to blame and a lot of more accomplished players will pick you off.

Finally just be wary about who you’re playing against. Obviously weak players may not know standard Super System ABC concepts so play hands weird and good strong players may bet light on the end there with marginal holdings to extract maximum value. But still, the large majority of players will be fairly standard in how they play.

this shit is viral!

2009-07-24T15:50:00.005+01:00

I'm learning all about viral games today and how they can massively help your project. Well. Yes. If they work. So I was looking at good successful campaigns and stumbled on this game. It is fucking awesome!! Plus good promotion of said audio track in the background. I just love the idea of it and that you're walking down Soho Square fighting these little toon aliens! Check it out!

Toon Crisis

Toon Crisis 2

films to change your life.

2009-07-23T11:57:00.005+01:00

Actually I was thinking about films following on the last post and realised that my top3 films are all subtitled. What's that all about?? Am I lost without the little grey box with white letters beneath the picture?? Do I find all those English speakers deeply off-putting. I mean they are brilliant films but would they be as good if done in Hollywood? Probably not, I mean the story is incredible anyway but the fact they are approached from an angle unfamiliar in Tinseltown gives it this beautifully different edge.

You guys HAVE to see these 3 films. If subtitles off put you, just give one of them a go and I promise you, you will be hooked!

Oldboy (Korea). One day, a man for reasons he doesn't understand, finds himself locked up in a prison cell, with no idea of what his crime was or whom his jailers may be. With a small television as his only link to the outside world and a daily ration of fried dumplings as his only sustenance, he struggles to keep his mind and body intact. Suddenly after 15 years, he is released, with as little explanation as when he was locked up, and he's soon given a wad of money and a cellular phone by a bum on the street. Emotionally stunted but physically strong, he struggles to unravel the secret of who is responsible for locking him up, what happened to his wife and daughter, and how to best get revenge against his captors.

Incredible cinema (won Grand Prix at Cannes 2004). When I first heard the synopsis, I was just drawn in thinking what a great idea it was. Go watch it now. For those of you who have seen it, can you believe Steven Spielberg is remaking this with Will Smith to be released in 2010. I'm not even joking. How the hell is that going to work?!

Amelie (France). A deeply charming story about a girl named Amélie whose childhood was suppressed by her father's mistaken concerns of a heart defect. With these concerns Amélie gets hardly any real life contact with other people which leads her to resort to her own fantastical world and dreams of love and beauty. When she grows a little older, Amélie becomes a shy waitress in a Montmartre café. After returning a long-lost childhood treasure to a former occupant of her apartment, and seeing the effect it has on him, she decides to set out on a mission to make others happy.

This is the most beautiful film I've ever seen (nominated for 5 Oscars). The script is so enchanting and the characters are totally charming. Watch it now! It is absolutely incredible.

City Of God (Brazil). City of God is based on a true story that takes place in the 60's where in the slums of Rio De Janeiro two boys growing up in the neighborhood take on different paths in life. The story is told through eyes of Buscape, a poor young fisherman's son who dreams of becoming a photographer one day. His story narrates the violence and corruption surrounding the city and the rise and fall of one of the city's most notorious boss'. Li'l Ze. As war wages on the streets Buscape's only way out of this violent life is to expose its brutality the world through his pictures. Along the way the lives of other are put into perspective as their stories intersect with the events that take place.

So there are some fairly disturbing and graphic scenes in this movie but it's absolutely gripping from start to finish. It's again shot beautifully and perfectly acted (nominated for 4 Oscars). It has it all. Again, if you're off put by subtitles, give this film ago and I guarantee you'll be on the edge of your seat. It's mindblowing.

And that concludes Film 2009 with me. lol.