Quote:
Originally Posted by ILoveMyBrick
Haha cheers
I notice you smoke, not sure how heavy a smoker you are but do you ever find it affects you when playing? i.e cravings/taking too many breaks?
Might sound a strange question to non-smokers but some people light up every half hour.
If it does affect you then my next question was going to ask if you vape at the table to counter this
Yeah, I do find smoking affects me while playing. I often smoke as an emotional response to some event thats taken place in live poker, ranging from winning a pot, boredom setting in from not playing a hand in forever, tilting from playing a hand badly etc. As a general rule, I tend to smoke more frequently when playing live poker than when I'm not.
Like half of everyone else who smokes, I've been meaning to give up and transition to vaping for a while. From a live poker perspective, smoking can really dent into your hourly especially if you're playing in a very good game. Nevertheless if I were to vape, I'd still probably go outside as I find vaping at the table a bit obnoxious.
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Weekend Grind Write-up
As promised, I intend to make The Empire the subject of my next trip report. However, I found the games to be on the meh side (granted, I only very briefly looked inside by moving out, and the £2/£5 had broken). I'll probably either fit in my report on a weekday, or the upcoming Friday.
Instead, I split my session over The Hippodrome and The Vic (Friday Evening and Saturday Morning respectively). The games at The Hippo I'd say were about a 6.5/10; in general the games there just haven't been that great for a while, although it was better than average for a Friday.
Hippodrome
The main table was inhabited by a manaiac who's somewhat of a celebrity there who I get on well with, who was shoving all-in very frequently/making very large overbets OTT (£300 into £50 etc). Unfortunately I managed to get none of it; the game was also infested by several utterly miserable nits who apparently refused to at least pretend they were having somewhat of a good time.
Hand 1
- BTN is a good player, although not a reg (i.e. not a fish)
- This was my first hand at the table. I raised blind UTG for obious reasons
- I don't think theres a nuttier board (especially rainbow) to check-raise than this one
- Stacks are shallow enough due to the straddle/blind raise where I think 77+ 87 is just going to get it in on the flop, leaving only hands like 65s which might play it more cautiously in position (which I also block)
- If you don't think you bluff enough, these boards are the ones to start with. Its extremely difficult for decent players to put you on a bluff because of the rainbow texture, and 2-gapper (i.e. people don't think you bluff with pairs)
- If I had topped up to £1k+ I think I would have bet equal fraction of the pots on each street instead of making a slight overbet on the turn.
Live £1/£2 with £5 straddle and £10 blind UTG raise.
I raise blind UTG to £10 (£650) with 7
6
, Maniac in the HJ (£1100) raises to £22, CO (£2000) calls, Straddle calls.
Flop 9
6
5
Pot £88, Checks around, CO bets £40, I raise to £150, CO calls.
Turn 3
Pot £388 I jam £5000, CO folds.
Hand 2
Remind me to never again "loosen up pre"...
Live £1/£2
MP limps, CO limps, I raise to £15 with K
4
OTB, BB calls, MP calls, CO calls.
Flop Q
6
2
Pot £60 check, check, CO donks £30, I raise all-in £112 (relative to the CO), folds, CO calls. CO shows down Q
9
which wins at showdown.