I have been reading the Harrington on Holdem series, and I don't think there is any coincidence that I have started doing well in tournaments.

I have made some very good plays recently, although there hasn't been a big haul yet.

I do feel very confident in my tournament game, especially holdem.

Sunday I played the party poker 200k and to say it's soft is an understatement. I went deep and only picked up a premium pair once. I think I ended up finishing 23rd for $1.1k

The hand that effectively crippled me was along these lines.

I pick up 66 in MP and open raise, the BB who I have covered by around 50k is the only caller, the blinds are 6k/12k.

The flop came Q55 which is quite nice for my hand, probably one of the best flops I can ask for that doesn't involve a 6 of 543.

So he checks, I bet 40k and he raises to 80k. Now, I think I would have folded this against most opponents, but I had seen him do similar with AJ high and ended up getting lucky to split.

So with that in mind I pushed and he called showing a slowplayed KK, nh and pretty much gg me.

I played a lot of tournies tonight on full tilt and today was the day for suckouts. AA versus QQ flop Q high, AA v AK, flop K turn K, AK v TT flop TQ* turn * river J, so yeah, not so great.

I cashed for about $50 in another tourney.

I finished 2nd in a HORSE tourney for a little over $1k. I played good, but the chiplead the guy had was about 6-1 or something, so I had little chance. Infact, the last hand I made open aces on 4th, he called my double bet, pushed me all in on 5th and made a straight on 6th, so nevermind.

On a side note, there was quite a bad player in a 30/60 razz game and although I am underrolled, if I was ever going to take a shot, it was now. He was involved in a capped 3rd street with a K versus my A and someone elses A, which was nice.

Infact, in that hand I made what I think was a very good play. I am going to post it up I think, once my friend has taken a look at it and decided if it was good or not. If it was infact bad, I probably won't although I think my reasoning was justified.

So I took down about $1k in that game to leave myself up a peachy amount.

I actually look forward to playing tomorrow which I don't think has happened for a while, I think it's the tournament addiction or something kicking in. I might just play them all day.

5/10 and 8/16 Stud and Razz when mediocre and I didn't play any NL100.

nn.

Couldn't think of a good title header and someone just said that in a tournament.

Ok so not really been updating lately due to me losing huge amounts, not playing much and not really having the motivation to talk about poker or write about it.

Anyway, this is a basic rundown of the last few weeks.

If you read my last few posts, you know I didn't do too well at stars, well I ended up bustoing on there and I am not going back. I lost 80bb in one session playing fine, no tilt, nothing. When I realised I had lost 80bb I decided to just put the rest at 30/60 and then went completly busto.

It was only a few hundred anyway.

So during this I had tournament success at Stars. I finished 2nd in a HORSE tourney for $1200 and first in a Stud H/L for around $800. I knew learning these games would come in handy.

I have decided to withdraw from stars for a few reasons.

1) I had like 2 winning sessions in 2 weeks
2) I lost loads
3) I am too easily tempted by the soft 10/20 games without the roll on there
4) No rakeback

The 5/10 is like a standard 1/2 game on the Internet, so the money is there, but after the downswing I am taking I think it's best if I play somewhere else and build my roll back up.

I am frustrated still at the lack of Stud games on Crypto and decided to withdraw all of my money from there, except for a small amount which I bustoed at 10/20 SHL and staking my friends in tournaments.

I was doing well at the SHL (Short Handed Limit Holdem) but after a few days staking, some break eveness and then a decent sized loss it was too much for the tiny bankroll there.

I will redepo there at the start of the month. Also, does anyone else think the new software looks terrible? I love the crypto design. If they could just add the new features and keep that then it would be great.

My friends didn't get any big hauls in the crypto tournaments, so the staking has stopped.

Having a load of work done on www.rake4poker.com at the moment, so watch this space!!

Crypto and Prima are now capping their rakeback to 30%, which I think from their point of view is very sensible, and I think Prima got way out of hand, what with those 65% RB schemes and higher.

So I am playing quite a bit on Full Tilt at the moment, when I actually do play that is. I have not really had too much motivation recently, which is probably due to me finding other things to do and also downswings.

I decided to re-read Gigabet's The difference between success and failure on 2+2 again which got me motivated again. So I decided I am going to give 6xNLH100 a go using Poker Tracker and Poker Ace. I have not done too much playing, probably a few k hands, and am about break even.

On the side, I am also playing 5/10 or 8/16 Stud or Stud H/L which has been fun. I also finished 4th in a $26 buyin for $800 yesterday.

I finished reading NLH Theory & Practice by Sklansky and Harrington On Holdem Vol 1. I am just about to skim through PL and NL poker by Bob Ciaffone and Rebuen again before I move on to HoH Vol 2.

I played the 200k on Party on sunday. I didn't get too far, but the play was so soft it was amazing. I doubled my stack without a big all in, then I got AA v KK to double up. Unfortunately, the very next hand I get KK and run into AA and lose most of my stack.

I will be playing that again tomorrow though, and perhaps if I can get a decent win tonight the $215 HORSE on FT tomorrow depending on how I am feeling. My friend also wants me to play the stars million, but my sleeping patterns have been relatively normal these past 2 weeks, so I don't know if that will happen.

Right, I knew this would have a lot of stuff in. Now away from poker.....

It's time I started getting a bit more of s stable income together. I thought about getting a job, but that is pretty much ruled out again now. I am thinking about starting some kind of offline business and an online eBay business.

I don't know exactly what I will be selling yet, but I am researching it. Also, a friend of mine are looking into openeing a website renting properties in Florida again. We touched on the idea a few months ago, but other things got in the way. He is going over there next week so hopefully he will be bringing bucket loads of information back with him so we can get a detailed business plan together.

I have always thought it's a good idea to have your fingers in many different pies, rather than just one, unless it is an original concept, which none of mine are.

Anyway, I think that's about it.

Well,

I have played loads on stars at the moment. It's pretty much been one huge downswing and I can't quite put my finger on why. I have been playing my normal game with a few adjustments, but the games are so loose I am getting massive variance.

I am pretty sure in the end I will come out a big winner at 5/10 Stud, but I just hope it happens soon.

I decided I would not deposit anymore in Stars and just try and build up what I had left, so I started with 3/6 stud and HORSE, then got bored and decided to take a shot at 5/10 in the evening.

At last today went very well. I played well on crypto in the 10/20 game to earn me some rakebackage and some coinage too, but that game does seem very soft.

Stars: Most of the decisions went my way today for once. I could hit flush draws, straight draws and trips to take down a nice haul from there, but these swings are huge. they are literally -100b to +100bb in one session 4 tabling. I don't know if this is the norm with stud and I guess it isn't, but that's how bad these games are.

Anyway, played the million on sunday and got a sick beat with a set of fives versus running gutshot. Also I have been staking my friends in a number of tournaments on crypto to a) try and win monies and b) get high up on this AWF leaderboard. Both players are good tourney players, better than me anyway, but they haven't managed to get a big cash as of yet. I doubt we are going to win the leaderboard now, but a nice place for a few k would do.

I don't think there is anything else left to really say except I have bought Poker Tracker Stud and it's cool, so yeah I am going to bed hoping tomorrow will be like this evenings session.

Night all.

So I think it was Tuesday I decided it would be a good idea to deposit on Stars. I looked about on a few other sites and it was the only other one which had Stud games going. I have never really given stars a proper go, just random tournies usually.

What really puts me off is the lack of rakeback, but it has a good selection of cash games, tournies and bad players, so we can't have it all I suppose.

It didn't really go too well either. I staked a friend in a $150 tourney and he didn't cash, lost a load at 5/10 HORSE and Razz and then some at 10/20.

Next day I do the same, but not as much this time.

Thursday and I finally record my first winning day on Stars. I think I have found the problem. The players on crypto and stars are worlds apart. I am not really talking skill wise, but stars the players are a lot more loose than they are on crypto and I think because I have just started playing stud really, I didn't think/know how to adjust.

Anyway I looked into it and realised where I was going wrong and hopefully I will be able to do well on there in the coming days.

Today was a good day overall, because I was confident in the 5/10 HORSE, 5/10 Razz and 5/10 Stud.

The HORSE didn't go so well and I ended up busting just before the end of the night. What is there to say? Not much really, I just couldn't catch that much of a hand and when I did I seemed to get outdrawn or second best.

Two examples from Holdem.

Raise QTs in LP BB has QJo and the flop is Q high
Raise KTs in LP BB has KTo and the flop is K high

Two examples from Stud Hi.

Straight v House in Stud
Straight V Rivered Flush in Stud

Silly hands like that mainly.

I am very disappointed with the lack of Stud action on Crypto at the mo. There used to be at least 2 or 3 tables running and now there isn't even 1! So I hope that changes soon.

I went round my friends earlier as well and watched him play 30/60 Stud and Stud H/L. I really learnt a lot about Stud H/L tonight. There are a lot of hands that I think most of us would play one way that is completly wrong, but it's too late to give examples. Maybe I will tomorrow.

Anyway, this was a nice boring update, so enjoy and goodnight. :)

Edit: I forgot to add that I finished 5th in a Stud tourney, 10th in a Stud H/L and 12th in a PLO tourney, all for small money though.

Right,

I haven't played any poker really today. I played for about 40 mins at 5/10 which went ok.

So I have a question for any of you.....


It's 7th street in stud, you have two pair and you knew on 6th that your opponent only had Queens.

If you bet out and they raise, you know pretty much they made two pair, but betting out will make you break even in the long term, do you check or bet?

That's what my friend asked me, to see if I understood some concepts of the game. I will leave it up for a few days, feel free to reply to this post with your answers and why.

Hiya,

I will start with the stud questions. Jef in his comment pretty much summed up most of the answers.

1) You have split 6's with a Q kicker. An A up open raises in EP and there are a few callers showing very little. Do you Fold or Call?

Call: You are getting the odds to draw now a few people are in[

2) Same scenario as above except the A up is in MP. Do you fold or all?
Call: Although this hand is a bit tricker because there is a chance you could be reraised from behind you once you have called, there are still callers in and the likelhood now of it being raised is very slim. And as 1) you are getting value to draw to your trips/two pair.

3) Same scenario as 1) except it's folded round to you. Do you fold or call?
Fold: Although there is a chance of a player calling behind you, nobody has come in as of yet and you do not want to be going HU against what you strongly think is aces. You could call this if the player who raised seems to be very loose, but if he is tight it's an easy muck.

4) same scenario as 2) except it's folded round to you. Do you fold or call?
Fold: Again same answer as 3, unless you think there is a chance of someone calling behind or that he is an extremely loose player.

5) same as scenario 1) except your kicker is an 8. Do you fold or call?

Call: Doesn't make much difference that the kicker is an 8, except there will be more times you get done over with a small two pair, but then this is where your board reading skills come into play

6) same as scenario 2) except your kicker is an 8. Do you fold or call?
Fold: For the same reasons I have already given for any folds in these scenarios


These may be simple questions and basic theory, but I actually found for 2 of these questions I didn't know what the best course of action was. After I spoke to my friend it all made perfect sense. I also noticed from playing that there are also a lot of people out there that do not know how to play these sort of hands, so hopefully this gives my reader(s) a bit more insight.

So, on with what has been happening since Saturday.

Sunday was an ok day. I got a friend of mine to play the £40k GTD on Sun which he cashed in (27th for £400). I watched my friend play for a bit, then I played some 5/10 stud till around 4am and did ok.

Monday was a bit of an up and down day. First of all I was annoyed I had to get the stud games going. I waited till about 5pm then decided to just sit down and be prepared to play HU and shorthanded. Well, the £2/4 game soon filled up and it started off badly and ended up ok.

The £5/10 then got going so I decided to give that a go and promptly lost. The game was very juicy so I ended up playing full handed then shorthanded till about 3am. At this point the players left and it was me and someone else HU. To say I completly dictated the play of the game and was in complete control was an understatement. I usually play this person at £2/4 and while not overly great, they usually do ok.

Tonight I ended up taking a lot of money off them at £5/10 and was playing till around 8am. By that time a few more players joined and I was too tired to keep track of more than one board.

There were quite a lot of 20bb+ pots with this person, one being when I had trip 5's on 4th, we ended up 8 betting it, with two of the fives showing, they were double bets naturally. Disaster on 5th when they now showed open aces. I was convinced that they had trips and me crushed so I called down from then. Turns out that all they had was a pair of aces.

That was probably the most exciting of the hands, with a couple of others such as Aces up, flushes, a house v house and so on.

So tomorrow I think I might take a day off except perhaps play a tourney or something. I think after this session I need a bit of a break. Let's see how the games are tomorrow.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Night.

Well,

I decided to clean up my laptop friday night, I went in the other room to use the phone, came back and the laptop was off. I thought that was a bit strange, perhaps overheated.

Anyway, tried to turn it on and it said the hal.dll was missing or corrupt, please replace it blah blah blah. I couldn't get into my computer at all. In short, I solved it, I knew that national diploma in computing and quarter of a 1st year degree in computer science would do me good.

Anyway, I wish it had stayed broke because I played 10/20 stud and got royally creamed for a decent amount. It wasn't bad play till the end, but just not being able to make a 2nd pair, straight v flush for a nice pot and so on.

I got back in today from setting up my friends rakeback accounts and played for 9 hours straight. Most of the time I was 4 tabling, 3 of them being 5/10 stud. The other table was either a MTT, Omaha or Holdem.

I finished 3rd in the $7,500 VIP Platinum freeroll for $660 odd which was nice.

Busted in the AWF $3k GTD with KK v Q8s (monster)

Finished 11th in some 2.5k GTD, which is what I will talk about.

So I ended up making a great move with AJ to double up and become top 3 stack with 11 left. Next hand I get ATs and someone min raises. I decide to reraise big and he calls. flop comes KT*, he checks, I bet the pot and he calls, Turn J.

I just put him all in now because he doesnt have much left, he flips over QJ to cripple me. Well, that was short lived. I went out 11th soon after.

The stud games went very well today. I decided after last night to stay away from the 10/20 game for two reasons;

1) I didn't fancy going on another downswing at those stakes right now
2) The game wasn't particuarly that good and I felt I could do better 3 tabling 5/10

As I said, the games went very well for me today and I was playing very well. One of the big downfalls that my opponents seem to have is their very timid play, especially shorthanded. Someone called me down with Aces up against my un co-ordinated board. I obviously had two pair and he called down on 5.

It's good for me, but he could have got himself an extra bet, because his aces were buried and I wasn't putting him on that sort of a hand. I wouldn't have 3-bet or folded, but I would have defintly called down.

Another problem they seem to have is that I am a very aggressive player. They are quite happy to call my raise on 3rd when they are bring in, call 4th, then fold 5th pretty much all the time. I am just going to carry on betting regardless of my hand till I am told otherwise, unless it looks a bit fishy.

If I was them I would be re-raising on 3rd with a lot of marginal hands, or even on a complete bluff on 5th but they don't seem to be wanting to do that.

I found myself in a couple of situations today and I do not know the answer to my questions. I am going to type them up here so I remember them for tomorrow when I see my friend.

I know the answer to a few, but I thought if I type up a few scenarios then when I get the answers, it will help any of you who are looking into stud.

Here they are;

In all these scenarios all your cards are clean.

1) You have split 6's with a Q kicker. An A up open raises in EP and there are a few callers showing very little. Do you Fold or Call?

2) Same scenario as above except the A up is in MP. Do you fold or all?

3) Same scenario as 1) except it's folded round to you. Do you fold or call?

4) same scenario as 2) except it's folded round to you. Do you fold or call?

5) same as scenario 1) except your kicker is an 8. Do you fold or call?

6) same as scenario 2) except your kicker is an 8. Do you fold or call?

As you can tell I am not too sure what the best course of action is with these small/mid pairs when there has been a raise. I suppose we can start bringing in player dependant blah blah blah in this situation, but for arguments sake we will say he is an unknown.

I will let my two readers of this blog think about it and maybe they can post a reply. If not then I will probably give my answers tomorrow and my friends in a day or two.

Right, so that's about it for tonight, except for the fact I must have earnt shitloads in rakeback tonight!

Night.

Hello friends,

Sorry for the lack of updates for all of my 2 readers, but I have been away for the last 3 weeks.

I went away to London for a weekend,but ended up staying 3 weeks because I was enjoying myself so much. I had to come back in the end, although I didn't want to so I could sort some things out.

So I will let you kmow where I was at before I went away.

I was on a WCOOP mission and I ended up getting qualified to all the tournaments my friend wanted to play including the $5200 HORSE event.

How did it go? Well, not as sucessful as we had hoped to be honest. We came away from the WCOOP with a tidy profit, but nothing of any huge significance. Oh well, there's always next year, we hope.

So while I was away this BS gambling law came into place. The site I play on has banned american players, but if I am honest it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference. In the stud games, most of the players were generally British or European anyway and I have played very little Holdem.

I do worry for the state of this law, but I did say at the time it wouldn't go through, now it has I really can't see it lasting. I can't really be bothered to go into my whole thoughts, as they pretty much echo every single online poker players.

I must say though I took great interest in reading the act itself and several articles from the 2+2 thread, very interesting.

So where am I at now? Well, my friend is here for another 2 weeks which is excellent news, because at some point we are going to get the chance to sit down and he will watch me play and give pointers. I am looking forward to that.

I still haven't read anymore of the 5 poker books sitting there staring me in the face, so I might get round to that.

My main game at the moment is 5/10 and 10/20 stud, which has been going very well for me, although I am sucking vad at NLH for now.

In other news, I let 2 people play my account and a tourney and within the 2 days they both finished 2nd, so I made a decent chunk from that, which was needed after my gambooling and drinking ways in London.

So where am I? Well, I am kind of looking into the posibility of getting a job. This is for 2 reasons;

1) I am finding myself getting increasingly bored during the day
2) I don't know how badly this US ban is going to affect me in the long run

Ok yeah I should be greatful i can at least still play, but this has defintly had a ripple affect across the whole world, with regards to game selection and the stability of the smaller poker sites.

Anyway, it is just an idea, an idea that will probably go down the drain, but at least I thought about it!

Rake4poker.com was down for a while due to a server issue. That's been resolved now and I have got it back up and running. We should have some of the poker tools up and running on that ASAP. I am particuarly looking forward to having our own hand converter on there.

Acigaming.com is still running fine.

And well that's about it. Nothing exciting has been happening really, so this was a nice and boring blog to give you all a catch up. I am thinking about possibly divulging into some Stud strategy for my lovely readers, but I will have to think about that.

Anyway,

TaTa for now.

xxxx

Well, I know september isn't over yet, but I thought I would tell you how I am doing with my goals.

Carry on my healthier lifestyle - Yes
Finish NLH book by Sklansky - No
Fix PokerTracker - Yes
Look into buying PTStud - Not had chance
Move up to 5/10 stud for good - Yes, playing 3/6, 4/8, 5/10, 6/12, 10/20
Continue to play NL100 and NL200 - Yeah but not as much as I usually play
Qualify for more WCOOP events - Will move on to that later in the post
Win - Ermmmmm


Ok friends, I have a bit of an update for you. You know I said I went on a crazy NLH downswing? Well I went on another one as well. I am growing a little tired of the game if I am honest. I am finding more enjoyment playing Stud and Omaha.

I still play Hold'em, but I am limiting myself now to when the tables are actually good. For example, if the game is NL100 and the avg pot is $8, I am just going to leave it and play something else.

Game selection hasn't been that important for me at crypto, because they don't actually have that many games to play, so you just have to take whatever you can get. This has changed now that I can play stud. If the Holdem games are bad I will just open another stud table or something. I think this is an important tool to have in your game. Yeah ok, we all know about table selection blah blah blahs, but how many of us actually apply it?

I know I used to back on Party a year ago, but now I just jump in any. I am going to try and change that.

So I have told you the Hold'em is going bad, what about the others craigor?

Well, Stud is doing ok, I have pretty much been break even over the last few sessions, but it happens. I can't improve my split kings and they river two pair 8's and 7's or something, which is fine. I am getting to that stage in the Stud where I am starting to think about scenarios. That's a good sign, because it means I am progressing. I don't mean scenarios like you have AA in the WSOP main event first hand and everyone goes all in what do you do?, but good questions.

I won't give them away now, because it makes me look silly, when I get the answers then I will.

Omaha has been, well Omaha really. There is a new player who is sitting at the game who is a complete fish, and I seem to keep taking money off him, but then distributing it to people who have two pair all in v my wrap and top pair.

On the subject of Omaha, I saw an absolutely sick game the other day. PL200 on crypto, I just sat down, to find one guy on $600, another on $800 and the other on $1.3k wowser.

The average pot was $200 and I watched a huge hand which was two pair v set, versus the 1.3k guy and the $800. $800 guy wins and is now up to 1.6k. The 600 guy and the former 1.3k guy tangles and the former 1.3k goes bust in the end.

It was quite sick to watch at such a small limit, but it was fun. I didn't get a hand while the game was that juicy unfortunately.

In other news, I staked my friend into the sunday 10k on crypto and he finished 2nd, netting me a nice $2k for $50 investment \o/, we had a deal of course.

WCOOP

Ok, so I have played a shitload of qualifiers for the WCOOP and have been getting literally fucked over. The best hand so far was a big stack in a PLO8 sat, AA24ss, raise, guy pushes, the bb calls, and I reraise all in. The bb insta calls with A2QQ

I really don't understand this play at all. Ok yeah, A2 is the nutz so feaaaaaar it and whatever, but for me to raise in EP, then reraise all in. Doesn't that say "I know you have A2, but so do I with a better hand than whatever you have, biotch?"

Because that's what he should have realised. Nevermind, of course I get screwed out of another qualifier when he hits a Q on the flop, but the likes of hammy and supa keep using up all the luck.

I am glad the HORSE sats are over. I ran super bad in those. My friend was going out saturday night so didn't play it.

Anyway, I finally placed in one, which was at Stud (Suprise Suprise) last night. The Stud event is tonight, and we will be playing that. I am really looking forward to learning how to play Stud in tournaments. I have a good idea already, but It's going to be interesting to see it in a decent buyin.

My friend has been playing a lot of 30/60 HORSE at the moment with me watching. It's quite a good way to learn actually, with a mixture of the games.

Oh, some other points to note.....


Snoogins and I want to become Internet Radio Celebrities, so expect some sort of podcast to be coming to the Internet involving this crime fighting duo.

I have a new catchphrase: MOTHERFUCKING KINGS, thank you spawnz for your little rant about AK v AA for that one.

I want to reinact UAU's life story. I don't think the sply the best thread/audio narration got the acclaim it deserved. If you haven't checked it out yet, head over to texasholdem-poker.com, go to the forum and search for "badass" by UrAteUp.

I want to go by the nickname "Zing" now, because it's cool.

Anyway, will let you know tomorrow how the Stud tourney goes.

Laters.

xxxx

Ok, so I have realised that I have nothing to do for at least a year, if, I do decide to go back to Univeristy next year, so it's time to make some kind of a plan to keep me entertained.

First I think I will give you a bit of an update on what has been happening. Well, I have not qualified for anymore WCOOP events yet, but I am pretty much going to be satting it up everyday, so I should get into a few more.

Second, I have been watching my friend play for a few nights now and it is mind blowing. I have probably learnt more about stud from watching him for a few days than I would have in a book. Any question he has the answer to because he has been playing the game at a high standard for some 20 years.

So much so that I was happy to take a shot at 10/20 Stud at crypto and ran it over. I have also been playing a lot of 5/10 Stud and been running that over too. I don't want to get too cocky, just in case it is a bit of short term variance, but I have a good understanding of that game now.

We decided what we would do is set aside a day where he will 4 table one particular game, then afterwards I will play it at a lower level and he advises me on what to do. I think the next one will be Limit Omaha or Limit Omaha H/L because I really want to learn those games.

We played the WCOOP Razz event and went out 500th odd, boo hoo. He played great, but we kept on pairing our door card or catching a king when he catches a 5 and stuff, so there wasn't too much we could do.

So today I think I will play the 25k on crypto, as it will probably be juicy. I will play a bit more NL as well.

On the subject of NLH, I went on a crazy little downswing late at night the other day. It was quite sick to have the beats I did in a short space of time all to the same guy, thanks river.

Right, so on to some sort of plan.

Well, it's actually not really a plan, it's more of the monthly goal thing I used to do, which I picked up from 2p2.

So here it is, even though it's the middle of september, but what the hell.

September Goals:

Carry on my healthier lifestyle
Finish NLH book by Sklansky
Fix PokerTracker
Look into buying PTStud
Move up to 5/10 stud for good
Continue to play NL100 and NL200
Qualify for more WCOOP events
Win

Right, that's the plan. It's nothing great or out the ordinary, but it just sort of gets things straight for me.

Right, off to win the 25k

xx