Well......, why not?!
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!
This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.
Registration code: 3070723
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!
This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.
Registration code: 3070723
Haven't played on-line for nearly three months as proper work has taken over of late. I was a bit bored this evening so played the $100 freezout on stars and managed 3rd from 309 runners! - $3100 in my account that they hope i'll blow on the cash tables :-)
My luck in the MTT's is just bang out at the moment, I'm not going to bore you or dwell on it but honestly i seem to be losing just about every big key pot i play, whether it be on-line or live. I am the first to admit when I think I am playing badly and I am not affraid of taking stock every now and then and analyising my game but at the moment I honestly think I am playing just about as well as I can but I am not getting the frequency of results that i use to. I am accumulating chips steadily, I am making the correct lay downs in the correct situations and I am 9 times out of 10 getting it in with the best of it and if i don't get it in with the best of it then I usually have a huge draw! - But i just can't get a decent result! - wtf is going on?!. If by miracle of miracles someone doesn't suck a 2-outer on me and I make a final then I just can't get my bad-beated ass past 7th! - it's frustrating the hell out of me! There has GOT to be some string of luck lurking round the corner somewhere... surely!
Sounds quite a good name for a local pub yes... err, well maybe not!
After my last chirpy post about the overnight situation at Sheffield's Summer Festival, this one will be a little more somber.
F***ing rain woke me up after about 3 hours sleep and there's no chance of getting your head back down when your bedroom is on the top floor in the roof! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....
I have been playing a bit more live poker recently as I was getting fed up with the on-line game and i didn't want to turn up cold to the £300 F/O at Sheffield on Thursday having not touched a playing card for the best part of 2 months. Although playing in a few smaller live games just prior to a decent sized tournament is reasonable preparation for getting the routine and feel back, it can also be counter-productive, especially given the huge gulf in the types of game played, their respective structures and the standard of player you are likely to encounter. I am expecting the Sheffield freezeout competition to be fairly tight (by South Yorkshire standards), you get 5000 chips and 45 minute levels (blinds start at 25-50) and the players will vary from 'reasonable' to 'pretty decent', with the odd good player sprinkled into the mix. However, the Notts £30 No-foldem holdem re-buy bingo chip chucking contest is somewhat different; 2000 chips, (blinds starting at 50-100) 25 minute levels and players that range from 'newbie' to 'useless' with a few notable exceptions that can play a little bit. Here's an example hand to give you the flavour:
It's the final of the 2006 WSOP pokerthon later today. It’s taken 8 days to get from over 8500 hopefuls and a scattering of absolutely no-hopefuls to the final 9 poker gladiators who are going to battle it out for $12m in dirty US greenbacks. - Nice!
I've been messing about recently with a new odds calculator called 'Pokerbility'. It instantly works out the odds of your hand and the odds of it improving to a better hand by the river and it also tells you the probability of your opponent having a certain hand - its quite scary how fast it works! Oh, and for those really lazy folk and those that are learning the game it also suggests what your next move should be (check/fold/raise/check-raise/check-fold/limp-call/re-raise etc.) You do need to configure it though to whether you want to play tight/loose/aggressive pre-flop, post flop etc but it does adapt to your style of play over time. It also works on most internet card rooms and they are adding more every week.
I made a return to the live scene last week. I played the Notts Gala £50 NLHE (with 2 optional re-buys) last Thursday. 67 runners, I managed 5th for £500. Not bad I suppose considering my lack of live action recently but I suppose it's like riding a bike really - you just never forget. I really enjoyed it and it made me realise what I miss about the live game - the banter, the atmosphere, the ability to get a feel for a player or make a read based on anything other than previous actions and betting patterns - I like to be able to watch a person's behaviour at the table and get a read that way. Its amazing what you can pick up if you're attentive.
I discovered the world of bonus whoring this week. I was getting a bit fed up of playing on one site and the beats were becoming infectious and many so I thought a change of scenery might do the trick (its nothing to do with my play you understand :-)) I took a look around to see what i could find. I was quite pleased, it seems like every site under the sun wants a piece of me and i suppose providing you have the time and the initial investment it can be quite worthwhile setting up new accounts with a variety of different sites that offer sign up bonuses. It can also be a good thing playing against new players with different styles. I registered with Neteller and cashed out 1/2 of my stars balance into there and have spread the love around my new poker homes. I've set up 4 new accounts and am occupying my time playing on them for long enough to earn my bonus (most sites have a stipulation for how many hands or how much rake you have to generate before you get the bonus, which i suppose is fair enough - no-one likes to be hit and runned, not even multi-million dollar corporations. Wish me luck!
Well, it’s coming up to the end of July now and to be honest I really could do with seeing the back of it from a poker perspective. I’ve performed pretty badly online (yes, what’s new I suppose?) I have made a profit so far but that’s not the point. The point is my hourly rate probably equals that of someone in the third world who picks peanuts out of shit for a living – and that’s just not good enough!
Well I didn’t manage to snag a late seat to the WSOP as I finished about midway in the Stars 150 seats guaranteed when my short(ish) stack lost a late position coin flip with QQ against AK. I did beat over 4000 people but finishing 2617th isn’t really something to blog about is it?!. I am disappointed but it’s not a huge disappointment. Especially in light of a lot of the blog reports I have read recently about the various problems players are having out there with the Harrah’s organisation and attitude towards the players. I have heard tales of them refusing to change marked decks, altering structures and formats of events only minutes prior to kick off and issuing bans and ejections for anyone with an opinion they don’t like. If you add to this the huge crowds and the long waits for available STT’s then I would probably rather not be there and even if I was there I would probably be over at the Bellagio or Orleans, playing the competitions they have to offer, which last year were very good value, well run and were not a complete circus.
The Vegas jealousy is getting too much. I keep reading reports of the action and its bringing back memories, therefore I am having one last ditch late effort to get a seat. I am playing in the PokerStars $370 satellite with 150 seats guarenteed on Sunday. I managed to get in for $9 in a $3 rebuy earlier today :-) Who says this poker lark is expensive?!!