What a shocker of a day

Right I have played 11 STTs today and cashed in just the 1. I mentioned in my new year blog that I was going to keep more details records, well this has included a short resume of the crucial hands in STTs that either help me (not too many of them) or kill me off. Here are the 11 short comments from todays games:

AK caught by quad 6s early on for half starting stack, waiting for a spot and went with A4 in co, called by KK, no help

Folded JJ to massive pressure early on, they flip over TT and K9 not matching the Q high flop at all. Later, all in with KK called by AQ, A on the river

Going mostly well, down to 4 in 2/3rd hit top pair on KJ8 board all in, called by AJ, 2nd J on the turn

Going well again despite being ss when down to 5, last 4 push on a KJ8 board with J9 called by J4, turn a blank, 4 on the river and I'm done.

Played alright, mostly got to blinds 500/1000 so bit of an all in fest, but happy to cash after 5 without success

V quiet most of the game, eventually all in with AJ sooted, called by KK

Doubled up early. Comfortable late on 3rd in chips, took on 2nd after hitting top pair with no kicker, he flips better kicker - Bad play

OTT all in pre with AK he flips over J9 sooted and hits his flush by the turn. Recovered a bit, then all in with A8 called by T8 by bs

Got short stacked, eventually went all in with AT called by 2 and one of them hit a str8

Always + chips after a good start however one of two shorter stacks with 5 left blinds 200/400 1200 left, me bb other ss on sb goes all in I have A7 so calls, he flips over K8, and an K comes on turn.

FFS! Out on 4th hand, limped with A6 flop comes down A A 8. Lots of mini bets, turn comes down a 6, bingo, I raise, get re raised all in, easy call for me, he flips over A8.


Best I jack it in for the day, now a couple of the plays were bad from me, but some of the outdraws, bad timing and beats have done my head in today.

Jump Back to 06

Forgot to put up the financial report for Dec and for 2006 as a whole, so here you are:

Dec 06, hmmmmmm the worst month since records began by a very long way too. -£272.86 was the figure, not helped by a losing cricket bet of £118, but even if you took this away its still the worst month ever ever ever.

December does have to be balanced off against the rest of the year however, and looking on the bright side I started the year with a bank of £914.36. The final figure was £2057.89 having also withdrawn £490 over the course of the year. Best month by a long way was August with a £700+ boost (December obviously being the worst). Only 3 losing months in the year was also a positive. Happy with last year and positive about this one already and by using my Quality over Quantity adage I have cash (but not won) in 3 out of 4 STTs played so far this year.

...and for 2007

So onto the new year then. I have been thinking about doing some resolutions for 2007 and they are, in no particular order:

Make a profit at poker for the year.
Speak my mind a bit more on here and on the Betfair forum.
Lose a bit of weight.
Qualify for a live event through a satelitte.
Get good at Darts.
Update this Blog more often.
Have less Poker snacks.
Keep even more detailed records of my Poker.
Do less Sports Betting.
Walk to work more often.
Quality not Quantity Poker.
Go to bed earlier.
Play more Golf.
Cut down protion sizes.
Cut the grass regularly.
Buy a PS3.
Go to (or at least arrange to go to) Las Vegas
Be more patient with the kids.
Spend some of my Poker profits on good stuff.
Reduce the amount of Poker clients on the laptop from 22.

Okay thats just about it, lets see how I get on.

Bloggage Review of the Year

I have just had the misfortune to re-read my blog for the past year and thought I would do a TV stylee review of the year so here goes:

Jan
Gave up Cash poker after losing $46 on betfair over 2 days.
Gatsby banned for life from the Betfair Forum.
Decided to play Cash on Sporting Odds instead, and won $47 in one session.
Lost headsup 3 times in a row in Flashmob games.
Broke through the £1000 bankroll barrier.

Feb
Lost $25 in one sitting playing cash on Sporting Odds.
Won $320, winning a 99 runner mtt on Blue Square.
Left home to work away during the week for 5 months.
Dibble joined the world of Blog.
Won a Flashmob MTT.

Mar
No Winners at the Cheltenham Festival, but loads of high priced places.
Team Flashmob is born.

Apr
Apparently nothing interesting happened in Apr.

May
Visited Betfair HQ to look at some "new" software.
Went to the Big Slick with Betfair and a corporate credit card.
Won a Flashmob MTT.
Betfair Forumite Focus.
2nd in a 1 cent buy in MTT on Mansion for $200.
Broke through the £1500 bankroll barrier.

Jun
Dests joined Team Flashmob.
Smart Money sponsored Team Flashmob with personalised shirts.
Increased Virgin Airmiles Bank to 76000 miles.
Played (and won) at Omaha Cash.

Jul
Blog interest at an all time low of 2 posts, neither of which merit a mention here.

Aug
Won £2 Thunder MTT for £200 and change.
8th in the £4k gtd for just over £100.
Doubled Betfair Bankroll in just over a week.
6th in the £4k gtd for £200.
Played live at Norwich Poker Club.

Sep
Away with work for most of the month.

Oct
Broke the £2.5k Bankroll barrier.
8 STTs without a cash.
Gats wins 4th Flashmob MTT and joins one of the most exclusive clubs on earth.
500 STTs on Betfair.

Nov
Won 10pm £2 thunder on UK Betting for £155.
3rd in Pokerplayer Magazine Open live at the Loose Cannon Poker Club, London for £440.

Dec
Lost a packet beting on the Cricket.
A bad month on Betfair STTs.

So there you go, hope you enjoyed that. It has been a good year for me personally and on the poker front (December excepted), I didnt set any goals for 2006 but I have a few in mind for 2007 so will put them up in aseperate post tomorrow.

Happy New Year to all.

I only blog when I'm winning

And I have had a fairly bad month hence the lack of posts. I am in no doubt that the end of month/year results will show two things. Firstly it will show that December has been my worst month since records began, one of the best results I have had was finishing second in a headsup match as part of the betfair forum headsup champs, round one of course. I cant explain it, Snap thinks I sound like a man who doesnt mind losing and half expects too. Well I dont like losing, but when I do it doesnt affect me very much, which could be seen as not caring. Going eight stts without cashing is a problem and it pisses me off but when I start a new game, I dont think of the previous games as to me they dont affect the here and now and there is nothing I can do to change it. Anyway, rant over.

The end of the year will also show that I have, over the course of the last 12 months made a fair few quid and probably only had two losing months, so musnt grumble. Just got to sort out what is happening at the moment and we will all be happy. One thing I do need to sort out is my headsup play cos its frankly shocking if I even manage to get there!

Maybe I should post on here more, as while I have been typing this I have just managed a 2nd in a stt on betfair, so you see I do only blog when I am winning. Shocking headsup play though.

Cricket Tilt

I dont tilt much or very often but I seem to have been severely affected by a (relatively) big loss on the cricket last week.

I had a tenner on the Aussies before the start of the second test, which seemed entirely sensible. However, after England had built up a massive 1st innings score I decided to get out without a loss, by laying the aussies at long odds. Well the rest is history, with a second inning collapse I am now a ton or so down on the event.

Added to this I am unable to cash in a stt to save my life. I have now played 7 $10 stts on betfair and had a couple of 4ths for my troubles. I feel as if I should play to recoup the cricket loss, but the longer the losing streak goes on the worse it is.

It doesnt help when my AT gets beat by A7 to put me out in 4th. But hey, thats poker!

Finally !

After six previous live tournaments without a cash I managed 3rd at the Pokerplayer Open last night at the Loose Cannon Poker club in London. Collected £440 for my troubles. Didnt get to bed until 4 this morning so will put a longer update on later. Get In!

Half Decent Weekend

Had some good results on STTs this weekend. Played a few with Snap on Saturday, and we even managed a Flashmob 1, 2 in a STT on Party. Snap won so he is now the captain.

I also managed to win the 10pm Thunder on Crypto tonight, 305 players and 1st paid £155.55 which was nice. Not played many MTTs recently and I was only playing cos I had money sat around doing nothing in my UK Betting Account. Cant get to my winning at the moment cos the account is frozen!

Even though he hasnt link his bloh to this one I must congratulate Shaa on 2nd in the 35k on Betfair, and a cash of $7k. Nice one. I cant imagine how he was feeling as it was getting down to it, I was bricking it when headsup for £150!

Back to work tomorrow, but then off to London on Wednesaday for the Pokerplayer Open at the Loose Cannon poker club, should be fun.

Mixed News

Good News
1. Came back from 500 chips with 5 players left in a $10 stt on betfair last night to get headsup.
2. The wifes gone away for the weekend, so its poker all the way.
3. The Sirrus is in the fridge, chilling nicely.

Bad News
1. Lost the Headsup holding KK beat by JT.
2. She left the kids here.
3. I think I prefer Magniers, but hey not the end of the world.

Had a reasonable successful time on the etafir 9 seater stts, and this is where my focus will be this weekend. I dont have a problem with the software (much prefer it to boss for example, and as I am getting 66% rakeback on stts at the moment I would be a fool not to concentrate there. I have also had my usual saturday acca, which will no doubt be dead by half time at the latest tomorrow, but here it is anyway:

Colchester V Southend Colchester to win @ 1.80
Preston V C Palace Preston to win @ 1.61
Southampton V Luton Southampton to win @ 1.61
Peterborough V Torquay Peterborough to win @ 1.66
Stockport V Macclesfield Stockport to win @ 1.57
Rangers V Kilmarnock Rangers to win @ 1.33

And that should return about 15/1, seems like easy money to me. Get On !

Good luck to anyone that still reads this blog.

A Game of Ladders

Just playing STTs for a while as I wasnt really making anything from MTTs, so to amuse myself I decided to play my own ladders game on Betfair.

My rules are as follows:

Win, step up a level, 2nd or 3rd, stay at same level, outside the money drop down a level.

Done okay and got up to the $25 level a couple of times, and not dropped down below the $5 level at all and in the process have made about £60 which is good news.

All Day Poker

Not much happening today (Saturday) so I am playing poker all day while watching tv and doing a bit of work (v sad)

I intend to keep a running check on every game I play here:

$5.50 STT (9 Seater) on Full Tilt - 7th $0
-$5.50

$1.25 MTT (90 Players) on Fult Tilt - 13th $1.80
+$0.55
= -$4.95

$5.50 STT (9 Seater) on Full Tilt - 5th $0
-$5.50
= -$10.45

$5.50 STT (9 Seater) on Full Tilt - 1st $22.50
+$17.00
= +$6.55

$11 STT (9 Seater) on Betfair - 7th $0
-$11
= -$4.45

$2.75 STT (9 Seater) on Betfair - 1st $11.25
+$8.75
= +$4.30

$5.50 STT (5 Seater) on Sporting Odds - 5th $0
-$5.50
= -$1.20

$5.50 STT (5 Seater) on Sporting Odds - 5th $0
-$5.50
= -$6.70

$5.50 STT (9 Seater) on Betfair - 2nd $13.50
+$8.50
= +$1.80

$5.50 MTT (62 Seater) on Betfair - 11th $0
-$5.50
= -$3.70

$5.50 STT (9 Seater) on Betfair - 3rd $9
+$3.50
= -$0.20

$11 STT (9 Seater) on Betfair - 5th $0
-$11
= -$11.20

And that was my day, right up to the last game I was just about okay, but ended slightly down on the day.

It also didnt help that I lost £20 on England v Argentina at the rugby.

Ahem... £7.50 Anyone?

Not quite sure why I am putting this up on the blog as a post, but if it earns me £7.50 as promised then thats a bonus...



This is my able assistant Nikki on a quiet night out. There are actually FOUR bottles in her hands and she was attemptng to drink them all at once, fair play...

Its a shame you couldnt see what some of the others got up to!

500 Games on Betfair

The ajcairns account on betfair is officially 500 STTs old.

The account is the grand total of £154 in profit, which is an average of 31p profit per game. Have a look at the profit/loss graph cut and paste from sharkscope, which has shown a steady rise, with only a couple of blips, the most noteable one when I stepped up a level during the day and couldnt hack it, soon learnt my lesson.



Anyway, heres a couple of other graphs, firstly ROI, which is not so good at the £10 level:



And a one the littler ones where it shows my finishing position in the £5 STTs:



No world beater I'm sure you'll agree, but it beats being a loser!

Tiltastic

Snap reckons I dont tilt, and he is probably right but I have never really thought about it much. But he got me thinking about it.

Being on tilt means letting your emotions beat your ability to play. Most players go on tilt at some point, so limiting it is essential to winning long term. Poker is a game that requires reason. You also need to know when to fold, especially when you feel a bit tilty. By letting your emotions take control you keep chasing those draws, hoping to catch the card that you need and "hope" you are not beat. You have to stay focused and rational while at the poker table. Mostly you will tilt due to a bad beat or if you just can't seem to win a hand and while it is natural, you need to limit it.

The best way I find if I feel a bit tilty is to sit out a couple of hands and go for a piss or make the missus a cuppa. Not immediately though, but after the next hand, cos getting a monster on the very next hand after a beat is a great way to double back up. Imagine you have just suffered a bit of a beat - and then you get dealt bullets, best thing is a quick go in the chat box "lucky b", "fuckin fish", "grrrrrrr", and then you stick your remaining stack in the middle. You will get calls from all sorts of rag hands, bingo. But only wait for that one hand and if you feel tilting, step awaaaaayy from the pc, and do as advised above.

When you are away from the table, reset your thoughts, change your train of thinking and come back with a neutral perspective of the game you are playing.

Take each game on its merits, each game you play is a seperate entity and is not linked to the previous one, so why let your previous game affect the one you are playing at the moment.

The Race for the 5th Mob Title

Not quite on the same scale as the race for the 11th WSOP bracelet, but to me nonetheless important.

UKGatsby landed his 4th Flashmob game last night (see his blog for details) and joined yours truly on 4th wins, since forever. There are loads who have won two games, and the vast majority one (some have never one won, lol), but me and Gats are out there on 4 each now. Gaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeee On. wp last night Gats. First to 5 wins.

btw, back at home as my course got cancelled due to lack of interest.

Message for Hype

Hype, Offline now, if you get owt sorted, or just fancy a beer or two drop me a txt on 07986080480

away for two weeks now, down in portsmouth, catch you all later

Bit of an Update

Had a live cash game round the house last night which was good. I'm not a great fan of cash games and much prefer stts and mtts but as there was only four of us we were kind of forced in the the format. Did quite well and was slightly up on the night.

One stt played tonight and one win, might just leave it at that. I'm away at the wekeend for another work course for two weeks in sunny pompey. Anyone down there fancy a game then give me a shout.

LLLLLLLL

Re my last, I have just done 8 STTs in a row and not cashed once.

I think it is all in the mind! Just played the 9th and got a 3rd so the run is over.

Lacking in Commitment to the Bloggage

I really should update this more often. I have however been very busy at work, ensuring that the world stays free from tyranny, which let me tell you is not an easy job at all. I have almost been shamed into an updated by the £2 and above thread on the betfair forum, where all the blogs get a mention, but if you aint updated it in the last week your link isnt in bold, the shame of it!

Anyway, on the poker front, my steady rise has continue with a £112.78 profit for Sept 06, which has taken my overall bank over 2.5k. I have promised "she who is to be obeyed" that I will withdraw some and do something useful with it. We shall see. And the cynics amongst you will no doubt be expecting a slump due to a withdrawal on the account.

Away for a bit

I'm away doing stuff for work for a couple of weeks and not really able to post. MIght still get the odd game of poker in and I am back home at weekends when I will be online.

I have also upgraded to beta blogger with google and have now found that I cant comment on many of your blogs, so I aren't ignoring you, I am still reading.

Laters