I love sports betting

The simple problem is that i'm not very good at it. Down about £350 on Euro 2008 and the last few days have been the worst of the tournament, lost £100 on the Italy v Spain game and my £30 bet on Croatia to win the comp at 14/1 was looking awesome until Turkey scored in the last minuet and then won the shootout. Think i'm now going to switch my attention to Wimbledon and hope this goes a little better.
In other news i was reminded last week of why i love living in London so much. Went to a silent disco in south bank on thursday which was loads of fun. I hadn't been to one before and was a little sceptical but as it goes we all had a good time my only regret is the massive hangover i had on the friday. Thankfully i had just recovered in time to attend my sisters 24th on the Saturday, which started in a bar in Angel and ended in a Karaoke bar in Farringdon. Once again not a regular night out for me but the place was well set out with a central bar/dance floor and a number of private side rooms for the karaoke each holding parties of between 8-40. All of my sisters friends from work seemed really cool and have always got on with her friends from home so had no problem making a total twat out of myself; why change the habit of a lifetime, and would have to say that hello by Lionel Richie was a personal highlight.
Will just write a few quick words of congtars to my mate Will for coming 11th in the GBPT Bristol. I'm sure he was dissapointed not to make the final but its still a good result and good practice for the WSOP main event.
Now onto my own poker playing of which i have some good news. Managed to chop the $20K gtd on party last night for $4.6K/$4.3K, certainly a well timed win. The weird thing was that i had no intention of playing the comp but logged in at 11.58 saw the comp was seating and just thought wtf might as well. It certainly felt a bit like fate through the first 50 mins of the comp where i went from 3K to 12K thanks to some serious donkey play from my opponents and 1 cold deck with 22 v QJ on a JJ2, SHIP IT.
So things were going great when this pot took place:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795161

Ouch!! Obviously the beat hurt but his stack size made it that little bit more painful. Went a bit card dead after this hand but managed to survive for a while and then got lucky to double with AQ V AK all in pre. Another fortunate hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795166

This hand is so very lucky for a number of reasons the sb could very well have had a hand like 77 - 1010 which obviously has me in a load of trouble. When the bb raises he must have a big hand so to be up against AK with the dead money was awesome. Tournaments are crazy, 1 sec i've got 5000 playing 300/600 then a few hands later i have 35,000 playing 400/800, insane.
This is the worst hand i played all comp:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795174

I open light which is standard and have no problem with but the call in the middle gives me a tough decision when it gets back to me. I can't fold cause obviously to much in there so i have to raise the other guy all in or call. I made the wrong choice but at the time was thinking i can just call hope to get lucky and also the fact i'm out pf position is not important cause he is unlikely to bluff me with the other player all in. Obviously i make the value bet on the river but the sick thing was i worked out he had KQ as soon as i made the bet, not to sure how but when he moved in i was pissed off. The 1 good thing about the hand is that a year ago i would have said ffs you have KQ i call, i was annoyed by the hand but the fold on the river allowed me to save some crucial chips.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795177

This hand got me going. The guy had been raising a fair bit and c betting most of the time so i figured i could well be winning on the flop and also could well bluff him off 99-kk on the turn. As it turns out he did have an ace and i got the miracle river, who said poker was a game of luck?

From that hand on i got into full swing and started running the comp playing very Lag and loving every second of it, couldn't help myself:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795181

So at this stage of the comp there were about 14 left and from here to the final table i got a lot of chips together and managed to build a bit of a lead on the field. When the final started had 35% of the chips. This next hand is a weird one:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795185

The sick thing is that if he moves in i would probs just move in over the top but the size of the raise was filthy and my gut said AA, guess we'll never know.

Busting 2 short stacks:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795186

From this hand to 3 handed things were quite easy some of the players were quite waek and was able to pick up a lot of chips at 2000/4000 and 3000/6000 with very few people ever playing back at me. The only real threat was FaxEmpoker who played very well all comp so i was a little worried when this hand took place:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795196

Got them all back:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2795199

The guy busted a few hands later so when the heads up started i had him 550K v 70k but this changed with 2 back to back all in pre hands Q9 V 76 and A4 V 88 both of which i lost. When he offered a deal i had a slight chiplead but he had the momentum so i went for it like the girl i am.
Nice to win some $ before vegas and wont be able to play that much before hand so doubt i will blog until i'm day 1 chipleader, one time!

The day of the $.

Just thought i'd write a quick blog about the most profitable day in poker history. Played for about 6 hours, couple of $100 MTT's and a shitload of $55 2/6/10 handed stt's and i managed to win the grandtotal of $1!!!! Oh yes that was awesome. To be honest have been down most of the day so i'm not to bothered. It made me question the whole reason i play poker a little bit but right now i don't regret a single moment of this seemingly wasted day. Yes poker can be a grind and it hurts when you run bad and make some bad decisions but the very fact it can be difficult is the reason its so great. When i'm running good it feels like the easiest game in the world, everything just seems to fall into place but to be a truly great player i believe you must be able to ride out the bad times and maintain a high standard of decision making, a skill that i dont possess at this moment in time but hope to attain in the near future.
I'm in a kind of weird philosophical mood at the moment and feel like i'm able to assess where i am as a person. In general i'm very happy with life the way it is and not really thinking about the future but my immediate frustrations lie with my inability to secure a big win that would give me some much needed financel security. I've made the top 100 of a major sunday comp four times and to have 0 final tables is a bit of a joke. Its hard not to get frustrated at times but i've just got to work on getting better and hoping that i can win that big hand at the right time which has eluded me thus far. Might have to save that for the WSOP main event.

Close again

So just a few weeks after the agony of finishing 22nd in the 5ooK gtd on pokerstars i was back at the business end of a major comp. As the title of this blog would suggest once again i failed to make the final table and ended up 36th getting $1200 for my trouble (first place $60K) arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
I feel like from start to finish i played my absolute best and would say in all honesty i don't regret a single decision i made. Had AA v QQ twice for big pots which helped a lot but most of my stack came from a lot of well timed aggression. I was able to build throughout the middle stages thanks to a couple of weak table draws and at one stage things were looking great. I then lost a big pot with AQ V 77 and then playing 6000/12000 i found AQ and got my 160K stack all in V sb's 88, 8 on the flop bye bye wendy.
Oh well one day i'll win that race, make the final table and go on and win a sunday major, the sooner the better!
Another piece of poker related news is that i will be flying out to Vegas on july 1st. My friend Will 'the iron man' Brewin won a package with free flights and accommodation for 2 so when he asked me i jumped at the chance and can't wait. I've already been in contact with Jambon about staking and he seems well up for putting me in some of the deepstacks at the Venetian and also the main event (as long as i put some $ up). It's been my dream to play the main event for ages and i'm really looking forward to it also just can't wait to check out Vegas, hope i don't blow what little money i have out there.
We're flying back on the 16th and on return i will hope to have a few war stories to tell, btw if you want to buy a piece of me in the main event get in contact cause am happy to whore myself off at a decent price, it's all about the bracelet anyway, lol.
So plan on playing quite a bit of poker over the next few weeks to win some $ to spend in Vegas, might even hit the gutshot for a bit of live cash and maybe even a tourney along the way.
Once again Newquay was fucking awesome. The weather was great, the banter was top notch and the drinking was excessive,. Think the best thing about summerbreak is that all the people are students or ex-student and everyone is just up for a laugh and making a twat of themselves, i was wearing pink legwarmers and a wife beater for most of the time, a fantastic combination imo. Bring on Newquat 2009!! Bring on Vegas 2008!!

massive tilt

Just thought i'd post to say that i just went on mad major monkey tilt and lost $1500 in about an hour. This was started when i got knocked out the super tuesday by running AQ into KK twice in 3 hands and then losing with 33 v 22 all in pre. Then bustted the $109 20K gtd with AK V AQ AIP. I then lost 3 $109 HU matches in a row JJ v 33, 1010 v 99 and AK v 55 all all in pre. Then lost $700 playing $1/$2 this was the pick of the bunch http://www.pokerhand.org/?2708028
In an attempt to win some cash back i then played a $310 Hu match. We pick up the action when the chip counts are wendyx25 3960 and worm tail 40:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2708045

Ok so thats 1:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2708055

2 in a row no big deal:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2708061

starting to worry:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2708065

ARE YOU SERIOUS!

So as you can guess i went onto lose the match in spectacular fashion, i don't think i've ever been more mad than i am now. I hate poker!

Bring on the summer

So as May has come to a close and we move into the summer months i'm not in a particularily good mood. Put quite frankly the last few weeks have sucked big time, the reasons for this are as follows. 1) i'm running very badly indeed. 2) 1 has caused me to make some crazy decisions 3) i hate to lose!
I'm up a pathetic £500ish in may and seeimg as i have spent £2000 its not looking great. I'm trying to cut down on spending but this is proving to be difficult with the whole living in london/gambling problem thing. I played the $530 high roller comp today and got all my stack in on the first level with QQ v AK on a J 9 3 board, boooo. I get my 18K chip stack in on the sunday million at 200/400 with KK v Q9 on a Q 10 6 2 board, OUCH! so i'm running like a gypsy and this has led to some bad calls/bets that has pissed me off even more. I've also been playing some cash games both live and online and these have both gone badly to. Online i've been playing PLO 1/2 and running so bad it hurts. Most of the people that play this level play so poorly its almost impossible to lose but i've found a way. I've also dropped about £800 live running nut flush into house and KK into AA AIP, awesome.
I saved a load of hands but looking through its just beat after beat amd posting them may make me cry. The only good news is that i'm starting to dominate the hu stt's on party I'm mostly playing $55 and have won about 22 of my last 30 which is cool.
Tried to play the main event of the ESOP at the gutshot but they were sold out which was annoying cause the structure was awesome. Played the £100 NLH and the £150 PLO but no result to speak of which is a shame, think my next live festival will be GUKPT Luton at the start of August.
1 week till Newquay i can't fucking wait! Hope next time i post it will be better news, back to the grind.