A Bit of Live Action

I went down to the Isle of Thanet on Thursday to play at the G Casino on the industrial estate there. I don't know why the call it an 'Isle' as I crossed no water to get there. Maybe it's designed to give the place an identity other than run down seaside resorts.

Anyway to the poker - I played in the Thursday freeroll with five pound rebuys. There were 38 runners and I came a pitiful 9th and out of the money. I didn't rebuy and only spent five British pounds on an add on. I had very few chips and called all in after an early position raise, something I don't like to do, but the ace ten I had was the best hand I'd seen all night. No match for his AQ so I'm out. The cardroom is great with loads of room and a nice feel. The tourney directors were weak and let the regulars string bet, show each other cards and still act and break other assorted rules. This spoilt the tournament and certainly put me off playing in it again. The prize money was heavily weighted to first and I felt that it should be a more gentle slope of payouts, but then I always think that.

I then played in the Friday thirty pounds one rebuy and add on. This was a much better tournament with tourney directors that were much more professional although still not watching the action as much as I'd like. There were 51 runners and I was doing well with 13 left when I made a bad move. I was table chip leader with 37,000 with the blinds at 1500/3000, UTG with AKo. I for some reason decided to steal the blinds and went all in, only to be called by the second chip leader next to me who turned over QQ. I lost the race and was down to about 10k. I then lost another race with QJ against the same bloke who had 44, with me dealing I turned over two fours on the flop for his quads, then threw the cards down saying 'Fuck it' and walked off in 13th. A bad move by me with the AK, I should have limped or made a 12k raise. Then I may still have called his all in but at least I'd have had a chance to fold it.
I will play there again but not in the freeroll.
I'm $130 down on poker for the trip and I lost twenty quid on three card poker to cool down after busting out so poorly.

A Partial Recovery...

Thank the lords of the World Wide Web for inventing internet poker! I've made a partial recovery of the online bankroll. The SNG chart peaked at $1474 then dropped horribly to about $1350 the other week. I hate it when that happens. With a mixture of solid play and a big dollop of luck I've brought it back to about $1440 which is making me feel much better.

I just played a lad who is losing $2700 on Sharkscope over the last 1700 games. He ws quite rude so I mentioned this and his reply was to the effect that he loses $8000 annually, and he can afford it. My question is then if he loses all the time and can afford it why is he so rude? The answer must be that he has two hobbies - internet poker and being an ass.

I'm off to the dogs now to lose about 100 quid probably. I do about ten quid a race betting on reverse doubles(top two dogs in any order - 2 bets) and trio always(top three hounds in any order - 6 bets). I have won a few trios here and there which has been nice. I don't think dog racing(or any racing) has much integrity going on but it's a bit of fun and the other half likes it. Full update to come of course.

Still Getting Shafted...

I had a home game last night with friends and family. Unfortunately there were more women than men there so the poker went painfully slow as the talk about shopping and f***ing kitchen utensils took precedence.
The Father in law started shouting at his wife early on which was embarrassing and set the tone for the evening, the wife was pre menstrual which is never a good thing, and I was getting annoyed at one of our new players who couldn't get it into her head what 'check' meant and why we had to put blinds in.
I was becoming increasingly frustrated and was accused of being stroppy when I had to raise my voice to get a player to put her blinds in, and I had to explain why we have blinds for the 50th time to that person. It was hard work and what made it worse was I was losing. I hit a set of kings on the flop only to lose to a rivered flush, and tried to bluff a sucker who of course wouldn't have laid down two napkins never mind two pair.

I lost about 25 quid and the wife won about that so not a disaster, but I'm glad that one is over....

Getting Shafted.........

Over the last few days I've been getting shafted online time and time again. It's uncanny that when you're on a bad run people seem to hit two outers on you with alarming regularity. I've dropped about $150 which doesn't mean I'm looking to sell my belongings, but it's seventy five of the Queen's English Pounds, and she will not be amused that the currency of the Realm is going to some obscure European or Russian village to be spent on donkeys and cattle.
Clearly something needs to be done, I vow to have a rest from the online world and get some live action going. I've got a poker night Friday with seven players total, two of them relative newbies so we'll need to ease them into it gently. I may go to the Empire at the weekend for their crap shoot, and I'm going to have a crack at the new G casino in Thanet next week. I'll report on all the action at both venues of course.

I've been enjoying the Olympics as I'm sure you all have. My favourite events so far have been;
Women's Beach Volleyball, Cycling, Kayaking, women's diving, triathlon, certain gymnastic events and the Men's 100 and 200 metres. It's amazing what these athletes can train to do with little funding and limited support from the Government.
My least favourite events have been;
Any martial arts, boxing, Heptathalon, shooting, marathon, archery. Sorry these just don't rock my boat.
Well done to the British team, you've done us all proud and brought more than a few tears to my eyes. None more so than when Bryony Shaw won a bronze medal in wind surfing and was sobbing with pure joy, saying 'It's the best thing in the world.' Although I suspect there may be better things in the world to some people, it was very sweet that it meant the world to her.

Mad Pat's Home Game

I was looking forward to Mad Pat's home game because there were a few really new players who needed the hand rankings in front of them, and it was ten pound freezeouts with a fast blind structure. I mangaged to bust out in 7th (out of 7) in the first tourney when my aggressive all in under the gun with tens was called by a pair of kings.........oops. The second tournament was more successful in that I powered my way through the field to come in the top two, which split the prize fund equally. A $30 profit for a night out wasn't bad. Bring on the next home game, I'm on a roll!

Profit / (Loss)
Online Cash (273)
Online SNGs 1470
Online Multi tables (65)
Live Cash 821
Live Multi Table tournaments & SNGs 552
Live 'Pro' tournaments + Satellites (1840)
Home Games 188

Total $853 up