Top Banana!

Thought it was perhaps long overdue that i added a semi nude photo of a bird in this blog.

Poker wise ive had a really good start to Febuary. After a nasty downswing (briefly documented in previous blog post :p) Ive managed to turn it around and am up around $4k in cash games. This was obviously helped by a tilting guy at HU 1/2 who dumped me $1/2k in 120 hands! I managed to book a $2.5k win that day which was really fortunate straight after the crazy downswong.Since then ive been on a heater and this weekend i took a couple of shots at 2/4 6 max and managed to make 2bi's in 500 hands which was nice, so i will continue to take 2/4 shots at weekends until i feel more comfortable.

Ive also played few of donkaments this week mainly because of the FTOPS. Never really got anywhere in both short handed events. I did however manage to final table the $40k and ended up 7th for $1.8k ($75). Was dissapointed again going into the FT 2/9 but lost a biggish pot with AK V AJ which crippled me.Last night i only managed 1/11 cashes which was quite brutal although i epically min cashed the Sunday Million.All in all i can't complain much at a $6k week so let the heater continue imo!

Away from poker it looks like i will be moving to London with a mate from home who works in T.V for 8 weeks.Should be a good laugh and a nice change of scenery although i will have to put up with a few southern fairies! Im sure there will also be some good opportunties to play some good value live donkaments.

Here are a few hands from the week...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3834270. After looking at this hand im not 100% about my line. I only really beat KQ and i think bet bet bet/fold river is probably the best line.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3834279. Nothing much to say here other than i think the opponent was on crack at the time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3834295. I let him use this line succesfully a hand earlier in session so was very confident he was FOS.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3834300.Turn my hand into a bluff only to find he has backdoor spades :S.This hand is very much Overkill though and i think a standard river bet as opposed to shove will be just as successful/ less expensive when i get my soul purged.

Downswonging!

Currently on a nasty 15bi downswing ($3k) and my online roll is down to $17k which is like the lowest in 6 months or so. Guna chill for a few days and get my head together. GG life!

Gl at the tables all!

Ship it holla bolla! oh wait :(

Ok so i haven't updated my blog in a little while so i'll start with my session yesterday.I decided to play donkaments like a true degen and fired up 10 and figured i needed to make $1k to b/e. Well a few hours in and i was still in 7 and ended up getting really deep with no FT's :(. Finished in the last 30 of the prima $60r 150k gtd (1st prize 37k) where i kind of spewed a few chips despite been CL and then shoved A9s with 11bb's and got snapped by AK.I also finshed around 25th in the Cake $109 50k gtd where i was sitting pretty in the top 5 until i 4 bet jammed AJ v the CL bvb who woke up with AQ.I also finished just outside the top 100 of the daily 125k $55 for $300.

Im pretty disappointed after eying up a $50k (lolz) day to only make around $200 profit but such is donkaments i guess and i certainly feel a big win is around the corner.

The only other donkament session i put in at the start of the month i managed to come 3rd in the prima $25r for $3k which was nice where i lost a huge flip 3 handed with QQvAK.Also like everyone i know that plays the $22 cubed on stars i managed to bubble the FT. So for 2 donkaments sessions im really happy with how im progressing as i seem to have a more balanced game than in the past so im going to keep grinding them on sundays hooping for a big win.

Cash games have also gone well this month where im definately running nicely.My volume as always has been pretty lame (around 25k hands so far) but im up around $3.5k which is nice and puts me up around $7k for the month. Ive also started taking 2/4 HU shots on prima (up around 1bi in 150 hands) and will be taking shots at 2/4 on weekends on stars from now on. Theres a general consensus that the jump from 1/2-2/4 is huge so aslong as i dont become a paranoid monkey like the rest of the 1/2 regs i have a chance of succeeding.

Here are a few interesting hands i have played this month.....

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3769811. I like my line here on a dry flop. Leading out is so string and pornat*r is a monkey who can't help himself so i managed to trap some dead money here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3769817. He proceeded to call me a donk :(. Obv calling 4bets this deep with 6high is standard.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3769820. Villan must have been so pissed here haha. When he C/R this flop his hand really is polarised to FD's/sets/air and i dont give him credit for c/r AQ/AK if he slowplayed.Guess i cant blame him for calling the river since i show up with a 6 almost never.

And the losers.......

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3769828. Not much to say here other than i got owned pretty hard.

www.pokerhand.org/?3769834. Insta snapping of with AQ is standard these days.Can't complain tho!

So a good month so far and nearly made my $4k stars bonus. Roll on Febuary and gl all at the virtual felt!

Happy New Year

So i lied and didnt post another blog in 08 but since today is going to be a right off im going to outline my goals today before beginning the grind tomorrow. Yesterday was a crazy good night. Watched 2many DJ's at a club in Newcastle who i thought were awesome and brought in the New year with old school friends which was cool although i was feeling under the weather and could barely speak as i had a real bad throat.

Anyway back to poker related materials and here are my "poker goals" for 09:

1.Play 40-50k hands online a month
2. Make $100k from cash games+ RB (Obv dangerous to set monetary goals but this is very possible if things go steadily at 2/4 and i progress further)
3. Play some live donkaments. Would like to play some GUKPT event and have highlighted the London leg (March time) and Newcastle leg (May time) as the events im interested in.
4. Play More HU and less 6 max. (Mainly because its my stronger game i make a better hourly and therefore it makes sense although can make u goa little insane!)
5. Score a big 4 or 5 figure donkament cash

I think my biggest leak is definately MTT's. Im probably a B/E player based on 08 but the amount of times ive blown up late in MTT's is pretty stupid. I usually have no trouble building big stacks and i used to struggle with mid-stages but now i think i need to improve my end game in order to be more successful which is obviously the most important stage. Maybe i should seek some advice from someone like Jagz7 who's "end game" is awesome when u considering how many 1sts/2nds he achieves.

Happy new year all. Good health and success for everyone IMO!

JP

Festive drunkeness!

Not to much to report since DTD. Im having a decent month and feel like im playin my best ever up around $3.5k + $500 or so in RB after about 20k hands and im running well which is obv nice. Im nearly up around $2k in Non showdown pots so im pretty happy with that. Havent played over the weekend as ive been out gettin blind drunk and in no shape to play poker, and i imagine the rest of the xmas period will follow in a similar vein. I intend to update my blog once more B4 09' outlining my goals for next year.

Gl at the tables

JP

DTD Weekend part1

So i arrived at DTD early Thursday evening after a surprisingly decent train journey (thanks to free interwebs). I went to meet the others reporting on the ME at DTD and played a £.50/£1 cash game. Nothing to interesting happened until i got it in BVB with KK<
The next day was the day of the £300 side event which i took part in and it got underway around 8pm. It had around 130 runners (more than i expected) leaving around £14k for 1st place. I started the tournament quite well getting up to around 16k from 10k starting stack after picking up AK a few times and 1010 twice and basically taking pots down with c/bets with very little resistance. There was a decent Norwegian player who was playin an aggressive game but everyone else was limp around. I even 5x raised AK into 4 EP limpers from LP and obv everyone called for "pot odds" lolz. Going into the first break i had around 13.5k after first 3 levels just above avg stack after folding JJ on bvb on a A 8 4 K board where the guy showed me his ace.(he played weak/passive and always showed never bluffed etc so i didnt bother c/betting).

After the break it went slowly downhill. I bleed down to around 8-9k after perhaps playin to loosely isolating LP with hands like A9o when in reality this table was limping stronger/dominating holdings. Then the key hand occured. I raised UTG with 1010, ss pushed for around 3.5k i called him showing KQ. flop 3 9 K...... so i didnt hold but meh. THe next 2 hrs or so consisted of me shoving on the blinds and surviving picking up no real hands until finally an uber shorty shoved for 2bb's UTG, i decided to shoved over for 8bb's with K9s a i suspected his range was any 2. He flipped A5o and despite picking up FD, gutterball and 2 live cards.......i did not get there. Next hand i was allin blind with j2S 1.5bb's and the ret was history finishing i think 57th of 131.It was late at the end of day1 at this point so i had a few beers with Ian and Andrew before calling it a night.

Saturday was pretty non-entertaining so i was railing the ME and Dean alot up until around 7:00pm when i played a £1/2 cash game. Bascially i drank throughout the game till around 3:00 am got up to £650 stack open shoved 1010 like a true piss head with a £375 stack to be called by QQ in the bb. Ive never done such a degen thing but i was pretty drunk and enjoying myself up until that point, but felt kinda bad about spunking such an amount when i could have comfortably made a few more £££ instead of losing it all. I also lost a £250 pot when i called a river bet with A high only for the other guy to turn his AK high into a bluff :(. Overall it was a good experience and i meet some good guys and will defo look to play some more live MTT's next yr as they are a good break from the online grind and i feel with a few tweaks to my live game and changing down gears alittle i am capable of a big score.

Last night i played a 200 hands HU pokerz for $1k which atleast has covered some of my losses for the weekend. Im up around $1.6k for the month now after 5k hands and running good which is nice. I intend to grind pretty hard online for the next 2 weeks before things gather pace for xmas.

gl at the tables

JP

All I want for Xmas is.......

To make some monies ldo.

November finished with a flurry to get me back to b/e +$500 RB.Hit a nice run in the last 2/3 days to ship $2k at the 6max pokerz so hopefully this will continue next month.This Friday i will be playin the DTD anniversary cup 2day side event at dtd £330 entry. Ive sold just under have my action to a few poker mates. Im quite excited about playin and it would be nice to ship a nice return for my backers faith.The tournament really could have any number of runners but i would hopefully expect around 80-120 to ensure a 1st prize around £8-10k. Apart from this i aim to put in only around 25k hands online since its xmas and im anticipating things will prevent me putting in further volume.

Gl at the tables.............