Downswonging pretty hard.

Title says it all really. From around the 20th October since i got back from Bristol, ive been on my biggest downswing approx $12k and am b/e over my last 60k hands. Part of this was unsuccessful shot-taking, playing pretty bad and not running too good. Ive struggled to put together decent winning sessions. Im still in a decent mind-frame and hopefully things will turn around soon.

Unfortunately this could mean i dont hit my $100k cash game profit goal for the year as at present im just under $25k short so its unlikely i'll get there but you never know. This month ive played 18k hands already (Grinding hard, obv means trying to rostucko :P) for a loss of around -$280 which isn't much. Obviously this downswing coincides with clearing the $4k cash bonus.

On Thursday im going to Blackpool to play the GUKPT ME. Figured theres nothing quite like chasing losses, by playing a £1k live donkament :P. Should be a good laugh as theres a bunch of people i know going so hopefully i or sum1else i know who is playing can make a deep run.

Hopefully my next blog will mark either a massive heater or a big Gukpt ship. Meh maybe even both! im not greedy.............

JP

Bristol £550+50 Coral poker masters.

On saturday i made the hour long train journey to Bristol, to play the Coral poker masters Bristol Leg. Previoua events had around 80 runners so i figured it might be good value. I arrived at my hotel around 1:45pm before heading to the casino to buy in. Kick off was to be 3pm

To my surpise when i got there it had sold out! 140 runners had already registered before me(160 after all the alternates), but fortunately i was 2nd on the alternates list so it wasn't really too much of a problem. The tournament had a decent structure 1hr clock and 10k starting chips.

45 minutes into the tournament and i get the call and take my seat. I dont think i played a hand for 1/2 orbits partly due to getting dealt trash and finding out how people are playing. As it turns out i have a young internet pro to my immediate left, which isnt ideal as hes playing 30% pots and very aggressively so i nit it up a little. I played a few pots here and there taking them down with c/bets and little resistance in the main.

1st key hand i raise QQ in MP at 50/100. i get two callers from the blinds. flop is Q 5 3 but all spades so i fire out a largish c/bet, and get one caller. Unfortunately the turn brings the 4th spade and i check behind hoping for the board to pair which it doesn't and im forced to fold a 3/4pot river bet. Id expect most players to c/r sets on that board so i think he has As alot. Later it turns out hes quite a bad player but with the info available to me at the time i think its an OK fold. THe next hand of note i flop a set 4 way with 6's on a J K 6 board two hearts but get no action as orginal raiser bet/folds and shows QQ.

About 5/6 levels in and i find myself shortish with 15bb's due to facing resistance with c/bets and card dead, so i was looking for good re-shipping spots and opening quite tight. Luckily i looked down at AA in the SB after a tightish btn opens. I ship it in and then the BB (who has 12bb's, tilting after bluffing off 75bb's or so) overcalls. Btn mucks and BB shows A4o, which i think is really bad and i hold.

So with a half decent stack of around 25-30bb's 7-8 levels in and 80 players left or so i get moved to a new tbl. The tbl is very weak tight, so i find myself opening a ton of pots since antes have properly kicked in and facce little resistance. Things do however start to go downhill, i had been opening liberally and opened JKss UTG. i get 3bet by UTG+2 so i fold and he shows AK. Later in the same orbit i open J2dd in the CO vs a very tight bb who decides to c/r a flop which i whiff and leaves me with the dreaded 15bigs and around 45 players left.

My exit hand was pretty standard. A competent northern european opened the CO and i re-shipped 88 with 14bb's from the btn. He calls and shows 99 and the board doesnt improve my hand. I went out in 45th around 25 from the money. I played pretty well and if things went well when i tried to change gears when the antes kicked in i could of made a deep run with a stroke of luck. £25k up top, but wasn't to be this time. I enjoyed it thoroughly and will be playing GUKPT Blackpool next month to get my live poker fix!

Online has been pretty rough recently. I took a shot at 10/20 earlier this week which didnt go well and im on a $6k downswing or so. So im up just under $10k+RB this month in 42k hands. On a positive note im crushing 2/4 HU, but just need to figure out the code to break the riggedness of 3/6.

GL at the tables all

JP

Little Update

Put a decent grind in so far this month. Played just over 35k hands for just under $16k profit so far which im pretty pleased with. My redline is +8k or and im running slightly above EV so im probs running like jesus. Ive also shipped just $2k in W$ playin PCA/EPT sats and taking the W$.

On Saturday im making the short journey back into England to play the £500 coral masters poker tour event in Bristol. Its not got a bad structure and should only get around 80 runners so hopefully either myself or bas can get a lucky break. 1 time plz dealer!

jp

Warning: rant ITT!

This blog post is just going to be a rant about HU pokerz!

Recently ive tried to play more HU pokerz as it is easily more fun than the 6 max grind. However the state of HU games has changed drastically over the last 18months or so. If u open the stars lobby on any given weekday u will find 30 or so 2/4 HU tbls open and usually only 3/4 running. Bumhunting has been taken to a whole new level and its killing the game. I PTR'd most of the guys and only a handful were big winners whilst the rest were b/e or small winners, fighting over the scraps of fish that trickle of to 2/4. I do exercise table selection myself as i wont play the biggest winners since ive only played 9k HU hands at 2/4 lifetime, but almost all will simply not play in the hope than a drooler randomly clicks open there table.

Ive probably played 100k hands HU lifetime mainly at (1-2) and hit and running has always been the standard by fish and some regs, i never used to let it effect me, but these days i get pretty pissed about it (probably because ive waited 90mins, for sum1 to win a >$200 pot and insta quit).

I don't even know if im a winner at 2/4 HU yet because there is never any action. Im going to concentrate on 6max for the coming months and shipping 400k vpp's b4 the end of the year.

September finished with a little heater and i finished $11.1k up + about $2k RB which once a decent effort considering how i ran. October has started in similar vein, up around $8k in 13k hands and im running 12bi's above EV so im probably not playing amazing but meh. After 60bi's below in 3 months i'll take it.

GL tbls all

JP

Wake me up when september ends!

Well September has been something of a washout after a promising 20days or so. Nearly 30bi's below EV and i tilted like a mofo one nite at 2/4 HU against sum1 playin 87/79 with a 43% 3bet and lost 10bi's in no time (can you guess where on the graph this occured?). I mean surely if i tilt like a mofo vs a 87/79 fish A/K high's and any pair will be ahead of his range.He is also a semi-regfish and huge loser according to PTR but everytime he stacked me he would make a "humerous" remark which i somehow refrained from replying. I have howevver been making remarks in the chatbox recently which i shouldn't but ive just been going through a rough patch.
When im up and running again i'll definately hunt him down as i have sum really good reads now.

Ive taken a few shots at 3/6-5/10 this month which have gone ok. I was insta stuck 2k at 5/10 after AK<<10 AIPF against aggro fish and losing K7Here are a few of my biggest winning and losing hands this month:
Winners
1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?4736151 I have a pair vs a maniac fish. Not folding ever
2.http://www.pokerhand.org/?4736160 spazzy reg spazzes again
3.http://www.pokerhand.org/?4736162 against the mental fish again
Looking through my DB there arent many interesting winning handsm but there are some hillarious osing hands
1.http://www.pokerhand.org/?4736164 My biggest ever losing pot. Just 4bet jammed cos he was a whale and him flatting my 4bet IP would suck.
2.http://www.pokerhand.org/?4736171 This hand is vs a reg. His bet sizing is terrible throughout and its pretty lol to think that K7o is profitable to open vs me bvb.
3.http://www.pokerhand.org/?4736177 Im not sure if hes betting for value or as a bluff. Im playin all overpairs and a high % of sets in this manner HU. Guess i got towned.
4.http://www.pokerhand.org/?4736189 . Without doubt the most hillarious hand of the month.
All in all ive really struggled to deal with this month. Its certaintly the worst ive run since october/November last yr and ive struggled to shake it off the past few days as its my 1st 8k downswing. One positive is the volume i guess and im on course for my 1st 50k hand month!
Im moving to Cardiff for 8 weeks at the weekend in a sick condo, so that should be fun.
Goals for October

1. 45k hands
2. 5k hands minimum of HU
3.5k hands of shot-taking 3/6-5/10
4. $15K profit+

Im currently on 294k vpps so only need 6k or so to reach the $3k vpp milestone and im nearly at 200k fpp's so should start clearingn the 250k fpp $4k bonus in October.
I decided not to go to Barcelona since i didnt win a seat and have a few bits and bobs to sort out for moving to cardiff so decided to spend a week and abit at home. I'll probably play the Coral Masters in brizzle next month just for giggles and a live event.

GL all

JP x

Overdue Update IYAM.

Pokerwise August ended pretty meh where i ended up +$9k + RB for the month, although i was up 9k after my 1st 10 days or so. Obv going a little emo here but i was fairly disappointed, as despite having a good few months my HEM showed me down 35bi's ($12k) below EV since July and i feel ive definately been running as bad as last November but im just not as bad as i was back then and im still making decent enough money not to be pissed too much :P

September started in the same vein until saturday, where ive played about 8k hands since for $11k profits (weeeeeeeeeeeee). Its a pretty sick heater but id like to think its due. This game is so god damn dellusional how your thoughts and mindset changes, its differcult to predict one week to the next. Ive now been playin 400nl for over 120k hands and feel like im doing pretty well running at 2.75bb/100 which im sure is in the top 10% at this level. Ive also started and plan to play sum more 3/6 over the coming weekends or if i spot decent games. Im really happy with my progress thus far and well on course for my targeted $100k cash profit this year (B4 RB)

I still haven't played any WCOOP events yet. Mainly because my lust for mtt's has dissappeared completely (thank god!) and everytime i contemplate the idea of entering i know i'll get bored and donk out 2 hrs in or summit. I really dont have the concentration and patience to grind thru big fields although i mite play the $1k 2day event on sunday if i feel the urge to donate to the mtt community. Im also most likely to go to Barcelona to play the FTP espana series from 28th altho i haven't satted in i mite buy in and sell sum action or just go to top up my tan and watch boobies on the beach and not play the tournament.

IRL it looks like im going to be moving to Cardiff next friday for 2-3 months. My flatm8 has a job in film (Ironclad) there and i said id go for the crack as ive heard good reports about the city and we have the most baller pad ever. 5 star complex with swimming pool/gym/sauna etc etc facilites overlooking the bay which should be sweet. We will probs leave early December time and return to Durham for Xmas which is ideal, while new year we'll likely head back down to London and maybe live in East London which has a more up and coming scene than where we live at the moment.

Hopefully get an update in b4 Barcelona but who knows...........

gl all

JP

Torrequebrada Trip report!

I arrived at our villa to meet bas and jono last monday afternoon after flying in from Birmingham. After a few hours sleep we went out for a few beers before, the other two lads sharing our villa affrokjell and welsh will arrived. The first 2/3 nights we spent getting pretty drunk drinking till 7-8 in the morning which im pretty sure is ideal leading up to a tournament.

By the time Friday evening came round i was ready to play a little live pokerz.The field had 208 runners with a 1st prize of €110k. I took my seat to which i was extremely pleased. There were 3 females at the tbl, 2 of which to my immediate right (Ship the blinds! :P) and alot of older spanish guys. There was 1 young scandi at the tbl but he was at the other side so no problems there.

A couple of hands in i get QQ in the sb after about 4 limps. I make a 6/7x raise or so and get 1 caller. Flop is 678 2 tone, i cbet 2/3 pot and get insta raised 3.5x my cbet so i hit the muck. It turns out the guy is a huge whale so i think its an ok fold, but this was to set the pattern for my tournament. Nothing else really of note for a few levels other than the play is terribble with a mixture of 10x raises pre and insane limp action. early in level 3 the whale opens for 10x the btn 3bets and i look down in SB to see QQ. sighhhhhhhhhhhhh i muck, fish calls and folds an 8 high flop, 3 bettor shows deem aces.

I then get AKhh otb. same fish limps who's now accumilated a nice stack running hotter than the sun. I isolate his limp and go to a 347hh flop. I cbet he flats, turn is A spades. I decide to check behind as i have the deck pretty crushed and he will be peeling so light he cant take the heat of a 2nd barrel and mite payoff on river. River is 5c. sighhhhh, he pots the river i fold he shows 68o for the nuts.

For the next few levels my stack dwindles down to around 12k from 20k starting stack at 150/300. 3 limps i 5x KK limper UTG shoves, i snap he has 66 and i hold. I manage to get my stack up to around 29k going into last 2 levels of the day which is just above average and put me in good shape for day 2 with 160 left.

Its around 4am at this point goin into final level and im pretty tired and bored. I look down to see Q9dd otb and raise to 1.25k at 250/500/50. Unfortunately i didnt realise UTG limped so i end up getting called by both blinds and orignal limper.
Flop comes a pretty awesome 37kddd. Checks to me and i cbet about 3k into a 5k pot, SB folds and BB asks how much i got behind so i spread my stack and he just flats, whilst UTG folds. At this point hes made it hugely obvious he has Ad but i have a 26k stack and he has around the same. Turn is a blank i cant quite remember i bet 8.7k into around an 11k pot leaving about 12k behind. He tanks for ages before calling. River is the dreaded diamond and he leads for about 3k into 40k pot so i make the call and he shows Adkx. I think my turn betsizing is bad in hindsight,i shoudld either bet smaller like 5k or just ship it in. At this point i had the sympathy of the lady to my left anyway who berated the other guy after anyway lol (she was a scouser!) The misery ended a few hands later when UTG limped BTN iso raised and i shipped in KK for around 16-18bb's. The guy gave me a gentle slowroll with Aces but i couldn't be arsed to rant. I was on tilt from the Q9 hand before really and resigned to the fact i was guna donk out instead of coming into day 2 as a ss.

I made some pretty huge laydowns for me throughout and ran pretty terrible. The field was softer than anything ive played b4 and even I was hugely +EV. Everyone in the villa (Apart from Will) + John Eames went out day1 including Affrokjell in the 1st hour on the feature tbl (LOL).

The next 2 days was spent been sick as i had sum kind of food poisoning time illness along with Jono and Will. I finally plucked up the energy to rail Will as he hit the FT and eventually shipped €32k of which i had 5% of so not a completely wasted trip :P. Final tbl was pretty dull to watch but i was chuffed for Will as the money really is a lot to him and gives him a good chance to build a roll.

So with 1/2 hr sleep in 2 days i went to the airport and eventually arrived back in London Monday afternoon.

Ive grinded online a decent amount since which has gone pretty terrible. Running terrabad at the mo, so my month sits at about +$6k in 25k hands. Plans for the next few weeks consist of grindin alot online and maybe playing GUKPT Cardiff but i'll make a decision closer to the time.

gl at the tbls all

JP