Yeah worst beat I've had for a while lol. Brutal one but suppose these things are gonna happen occasionally!

I actually looked at flights to Berlin again this evening haha, already can't wait to be back and go for a bit longer!

Thanks for the FPP advice. Realistically I'll never make higher than Goldstar though since I'm not playing full time and have no plans to. Means I've got about 10k and not really sure what's best to do with them since I'll never make sn.

Will look into the satellites. Is it the 6max hyper 235fpp ones? I've grinded them and then just used a few tickets to play bigger tournies in the past with decent success (although obv high variance)


Thanks man And lol! that makes two of us! Gl yourself!

Managed 2k hands each of the past 2 days so fairly happy volume wise.

Broke even yesterday. Funny looking graph though cause I was down 4 buy ins before getting it all back in a ~25minute session after football when I was in bed at the end of the day lol.

Up just over one buy in for today, prob should have quit a bit earlier though cause lost a bit back towards the end of the session when I was starting to get tired and not really in the mood to grind anymore. Lost AA < KK (AIPF K on river) too which was bleh so called it a day not long after that.

Not really a conscious decision I made but have found myself playing 2/3 shorter sessions the past couple of days, rather than the one big 80min or so session which I had been playing before now. Think I prefer this way because I'm getting a few hundred extra hands in and means I'm taking more breaks. As a result I should focus more and get less tired towards the end of grinding time.

Finally marked some hands again too for the first time since the 24th of October lol. Need to start reviewing again and will post them in here in a minute. All feedback always welcome!

Wasn't really sure what to make of his check/min raise on turn. Definitely concerned but pretty sure our hand is too good to fold in case he just has random "find out where he's at" spaz. Anyone ever play this differently?

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $16.16
SB: $27.12
BB: $18.29
UTG: $4.36
Hero (MP): $11.63
CO: $14.32

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is MP with Q K
1 fold, Hero raises to $0.30, 1 fold, BTN raises to $0.90, SB calls $0.85, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.60

Flop: ($2.80) K 6 K (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($2.80) 2 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.10, BTN folds, SB raises to $2.20, Hero calls $1.10

River: ($7.20) 7 (2 players)
SB bets $3.40, Hero calls $3.40




OK... Pretty sure this is spewy but he was 3betting something like 50% and truthfully, I just didn't want to fold

I actually checked the turn planning to give up but I think he gets KK+ in pre and prob bets AA on the turn so when he checks back I think he has AK/AQ and mid pairs (like 88/JJ and maybe QQ at best) almost always so decide I have to try which thankfully works out but as I said at the start don't think this hand is great.

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $38.32
Hero (SB): $19.82
BB: $16.04
UTG: $19.78
MP: $9.65
CO: $10.12

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is SB with J K
1 fold, MP raises to $0.30, 1 fold, BTN raises to $0.90, Hero raises to $2.70, 2 folds, BTN calls $1.80

Flop: ($5.80) 9 7 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.10, BTN calls $2.10

Turn: ($10.00) T (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($10.00) T (2 players)
Hero bets $5.80, BTN folds



OK... Pretty sure I f'd this one up hard...

I might have made the right fold I'm not even sure but looking back at it now I'm pretty sure I let recent run bad affect how I played it cause I've run KK into AA a lot recently and I'd stacked off with AA to 77 on a T722 board like 10minutes earlier so pretty sure that was on my mind here...

Pre cold 4 betting UTG and UTG+1 seems insanely strong but I guess I should just raise and then cry decide if I get 5bet? On the flop I tank folded, not sure if he ever plays JJ/QQ like this but doubt it? Sucks we block AKss/KQss etc too.

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $10.00
SB: $14.83
BB: $7.19
UTG: $10.00
MP: $24.32
CO: $10.00

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BTN with K K
UTG raises to $0.25, MP raises to $0.80, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.80, 2 folds, UTG calls $0.55

Flop: ($2.55) T 5 8 (3 players)
UTG checks, MP bets $1.40, Hero calls $1.40, UTG raises to $4, MP folds, Hero folds



I actually really like my bluff here considering we have all the Jacks tbh. Doubt he ever folds a set but he never has KK or QQ so if he just has one pair or even 2 pair it's a tough call for him I think? He tanked for ages before he called so guess it almost worked

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $13.27
SB: $10.97
BB: $10.00
Hero (UTG): $12.48
MP: $8.42
CO: $32.64

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is UTG with J J
Hero raises to $0.30, MP calls $0.30, 4 folds

Flop: ($0.75) 5 3 T (2 players)
Hero bets $0.40, MP calls $0.40

Turn: ($1.55) K (2 players)
Hero bets $0.80, MP calls $0.80

River: ($3.15) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $1.10, Hero raises to $10.98 all in, MP calls $5.82 all in



Funny hand from today, was rooting for the 9c on the river lol. K6 guy snap called which made my decision a bit easier but still happy I managed to fold cause a few months ago this was a spot where I'd know I was beat, have everything tell me to fold and then be like "lol I haz flush... call!"

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $5.81
SB: $11.81
Hero (BB): $15.09
UTG: $10.00
MP: $9.55
CO: $8.45

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with J T
UTG raises to $0.30, MP calls $0.30, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.95) Q 5 8 (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $0.69, MP calls $0.69, Hero calls $0.69

Turn: ($3.02) 2 (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $2.18, MP calls $2.18, Hero calls $2.18

River: ($9.56) K (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $6.83 all in, MP calls $6.38 all in, Hero folds

KQ fine
KJ bet turn
KK looks good, he's never bluffing
JJ check turn, river seems spewy as played, don't try and bluff 10NL players off a range of mostly 2p+
JT I might actually call given they're clearly both fish, but without that read it's fine

Cheers, appreciate the help and agree with everything you said.

Actually meant to make this post last week but oh well!

Goals for November:

[ ] Put more work in at studying and improving whether it be videos or books - Also really open to suggestions with this because honestly not really sure how to go about this efficiantly...
[ ] Improve my tilt control
[ ] 40k hands
[ ] Maintain Goldstar
[ ] Play some UKIPT edinburgh sat's and ideally luckbox a seat and score!

Non Poker:

[ ] get back to going to the gym regularly (I went on Thursday and Sunday for the first time in weeks...)

I'll revisit these at the end of the month but current progress is 9538 hands played, 870 vpps earned and made a smallish profit.

Graph for the past week (and month as a whole)



I played a little zoom at the weekend but had a lot going on so not too many hands to talk about.

Went out with a couple of mates on friday night for a quiet one. Then Saturday morning the kids I'm coaching won their game 4-3 having been 3-2 down with a minute to play. Mixed feelings about the game tbh because we should have been out of sight but missed a few chances then conceded some awful goals from a defensive point of view but pleasing to see the kids never give up and keep going right to the end. Especially considering the horrifc rain and muddy conditions! Hearts also won their 4th game in a row and are now up to 2nd in the league so good day footy wise!

Saturday night went to a fireworks party thing at my GF's aunt which they have every year. Managed to burn my thumb like an idiot lighting a firework which hurt like feck lol. Despite that was good fun and lots of food!

Finally played my first UKIPT sat's last night - £15 turbo x 2 to the £100 direct feeder. Bricked the first entry but shipped the turbo on the second try.

Had a bad start in the main after I butchered this hand which I posted in the MTT forum (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/18...-lost-1570420/)

Poker Stars £92+£8 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 7 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: t1654 33.08 BBs
BB: t2690 53.80 BBs
UTG: t9252 185.04 BBs
UTG+1: t3385 67.70 BBs
Hero (MP): t2950 59 BBs
CO: t3749 74.98 BBs
BTN: t6320 126.40 BBs

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is MP with 8 K
2 folds, Hero raises to t100, 1 fold, BTN calls t100, 2 folds

Flop: (t275) J 6 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t137, BTN raises to t411, Hero calls t274

Turn: (t1097) K (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets t731, Hero calls t731

River: (t2559) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets t1750, Hero folds



Got back in the game when I got lucky here:

Poker Stars £92+£8 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 7 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

MP: t1704 34.08 BBs
CO: t2615 52.30 BBs
BTN: t9177 183.54 BBs
SB: t3335 66.70 BBs
Hero (BB): t1783 35.66 BBs
UTG: t3749 74.98 BBs
UTG+1: t7637 152.74 BBs

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is BB with Q 9
3 folds, CO raises to t125, BTN calls t125, 1 fold, Hero calls t75

Flop: (t400) T J 6 (3 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t250, BTN folds, Hero raises to t1658 all in, CO calls t1408

Turn: (t3716) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t3716) T (2 players - 1 is all in)




Sadly then went super card dead and busted with like 12 left when I got KK cracked by TT all in pre for not massive but decent stack (prob like 5th/12), bleh

Will try again when I get a chance but probably won't be until next Sunday.

Pub poker tonight so should be fun then I'll get back to playing zoom and posting hands and what not tomorrow

Meant to post a couple of hands as well:

Biggest winner from the weekend...

At the risk of showing myself up as a luckbox I misclicked pre (meant to fold) lol...

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $10.91
SB: $12.64
Hero (BB): $10.32
UTG: $12.69
MP: $17.31
CO: $11.32

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with 9 J
2 folds, CO raises to $0.25, BTN raises to $0.70, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.60, CO calls $0.45

Flop: ($2.15) 3 K 8 (3 players)
Hero checks, CO checks, BTN bets $1.20, Hero calls $1.20, CO folds

Turn: ($4.55) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $2.35, Hero raises to $8.42 all in, BTN calls $6.07

River: ($21.39) K (2 players - 1 is all in)



Biggest Loser:

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $11.03
SB: $10.35
BB: $11.58
Hero (UTG): $10.00
MP: $10.00
CO: $13.88

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is UTG with 5 5
Hero raises to $0.30, MP raises to $0.90, 4 folds, Hero calls $0.60

Flop: ($1.95) 5 K 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $0.93, Hero raises to $2.80, MP calls $1.87

Turn: ($7.55) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $6.30 all in, MP calls $6.30 all in

River: ($20.15) 2 (2 players - 2 are all in)




Bonus Funny Hand: Nice to run good!

Poker Stars $0.05/$0.10 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $10.27
SB: $10.00
Hero (BB): $10.10
UTG: $9.03
MP: $10.96
CO: $12.34

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is BB with A 4
1 fold, MP raises to $0.35, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.25

Flop: ($0.75) 2 5 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $0.48, Hero raises to $1.40, MP calls $0.92

Turn: ($3.55) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.90, MP calls $1.90

River: ($7.35) Q (2 players)
Hero bets $6.45 all in, MP calls $6.45

Took Monday off and really glad I did! I was starting to get a bit tired of grinding the micros but went back to Zoom fresh yesterday, enjoyed playing again and felt like I played the best I have in a long time

Generally avoided any big pots unless I had the nuts and stopped myself calling 3bets OOP even when I was tempted... Tightened up a little the past couple of days as well, running something like 27/19/8 which I think is probably a slight improvement from where I had been which was verging on too loose at times.

Decent last couple of days all round, managed 2k hands each of today and yesterday and booked a few buy ins profit each day. Downward spike at the end of the graph is from losing KK < JJ all in pre with some dead money in the pot at the very end of today's grind which was annoying but ran reasonably well for the most part.

Coolered a guy AA v KK blind on blind which was pretty brutal for him but I wasn't complaining...

Here's the graph for last 2 sessions. Heading off to football now so will post a few hands tonight when I get home. Cheers and enjoy your nights!

Not played yet today but gonna start a session in a few minutes before I need to leave for coaching the kids in an hour or so. Will hopefully manage close to 1k hands but see how it goes!

Here's the hands I was gonna post yesterday:

Brutal river... Anyone calling? I used to always sigh call here despite being pretty sure they had it and of course they did... He snap jammed as well (like within 2 seconds) I mean I guess he (correctly) assumes that I rarely if ever have a flush when I check but I doubt the majority of 10nl players ever turn AQ/overpairs/55 or something into a bluff...?



Hand 2:








Figured AK v. unlikely when he flats pre and doubt sets/2pr donk flop so was targetting worse K and Tx on the river. Thought it was fine at the time but maybe slightly too thin?

Hand 3:







His turn jam seems uhh... optimistic. Nice donation though!

Hand 4:

Biggest pot (and win) of the last few days...

I'd notmally flat pre but he was playing something crazy like 57/57/67 LOL ... Anyway safe to say that's not the hand I expected to see when we got it all in but easy game!

Hmm not the greatest session tonight. Training actually got cancelled in the end due to the weather so managed 1400 hands but just couldn't really get anything going at all today.

Mainly a mixture of card dead and being outflopped but got coolered a couple of times and didn't play particularly well till towards the end so bit disappointed. Maybe should have kept going cause was starting to feel happier (both with my play and the results) the last 20 minutes or so but was feeling pretty tired so just called it a night.

On the bright side I was down 4 buy ins early on and managed to grind back to almost even so certainly could have been worse!



Not reviewed the session yet so only a couple of hands marked..

Hand 1

First time this has happened to me in a while. Checked flop planning to check raise all in but pretty unfortunate run out NH him I guess




Hand 2:

OK OK, I should have just folded to this lol jam but he was playing 63/38/50... Admittedly a tiny sample but truthfully this was when I was down a few buy ins and looking to get even so just decided to gamboool it up
Easy to say having seen his hand but I thought it was pretty unlikely he ever does this with a big pair and figured I was almost always flipping and might occasionally have him crushed (or I guess be crushed when he has 99/TT)







PS. The Hand history converter is finally fixed! Yay!

Soooooo remember right at the beginning of this thread when I said I'd post any major spews into shaming me to not do them again? Weeeell this 300bb pot just happened

I'm the worst





He was playing 15/11/4 so didn't expect him to 4bet 99 / 66/ 78 pre

Figure his range is mainly overpairs which I just got lucky against and big hearts with maybe a few random bluffs and AK combos that decide to barell. Thought I was getting too good a price to fold to the 4bet in position and flop peel is on the light side with a pair and backdoors... Suspect this is major spew though...

Well still managed to book a smallish profit over 2500 hands despite the above punt!

Also played five x 235 fpp 6max sat's and won 2 for 22 tourney $, I'm no expert by any means but they seem soft and I'll look at some basic strategy before trying to spin up my 10k or so FPP's before the end of the year

Will do an update with graphs for the week and month on Sunday night

Done for the day now, off to see Spectre with the GF tonight: Heard mixed reviews so hopefully it'll be decent!

Enjoy your weekends!

Verdict on Spectre was enjoyable, a bit overly long and won't have anything that you haven't seen before but I enjoyed it and would recommend!

Anyway enough of my film reviews lol.

Played 2k hands this morning, fun session with lots of big pots and swings all over the place!

Just gonna dump the hands here, felt like I ran pretty bad, not too happy with how I played and was on the wrong end of a couple of beats and coolers so suppose breaking even isn't the worst result. Want to get back to playing my A game this evening!



I actually think river might be a fold... Does he ever not have 33/QQ/JJ here?





Not happy with my spew on this river. Think I should prob c/call and give him a chance to bluff clubs. Might be a gross fold when he jams? Obv block KQ super hard but assume I'm calling to chop at best and he's gonna have it sometimes.




Wondered if this was too thin but if I ever jam missed diamonds then it might be fine. Sad beans river though.






Standard cooler






Thought a small cold 4bet would look super nutted given their positions so just jammed to try and look weakest and get sigh calls from stubborn AK/QQ/JJ. Tilting run out






Cooler given it's blind v blind right?





Wasn't sure about this... Doubt AA or QQ bet this river? So does he ever not have JJ here... ? I tanked for ages then sigh called expecting to lose but just hoping he was spazzing KQs or to chop or something

And a couple of hands just to show I did win a few when all in too!





















Special Bonus Fun Hand:


Dat river tho

Obv not standard to rip 5x pot lol but I really just thought he had either missed hearts which were folding to any bet or an overpair and would call it off (although had him more on 99-QQ than his actual hand)

GL to you Sicro !

Thanks man Same to you!


Graph for the past week here:




Not great volume since I didn't play at all on Monday or Saturday I believe due to a combination of wanting a day off grinding and being busy in real life. Bit disappointing to basically break even but better than a losing week I suppose!


Been a good start to this week, both volume and results wise. Graph for the past few days below:




Bankroll is finally starting to rebuild a bit and been a good day today winning a little over $62 in 2000 hands. Took a shot at 25nl zoom again as well but hit and ran when I made like 2 buy ins in 100 hands lol (mainly due to 1 hand which I'll post below.


Some hands from today:


Biggest win (at 10nl):


Not sure how good flatting here is?

I'd likely 4bet AKo most of the time but want to see a flop and not too unhappy if we go 3ways I guess?

Assume button has like QQ+ almost always when the flop action goes like this so if one or both of my overs aren't good maybe not an amazing get in but so much in the pot draw to the nuts overs blah blah. Suppose it can't be bad getting it in with almost half the equity 3ways anyway and got lucky in the end which was nice.





Biggest Loss:


Really not sure how I feel about this hand, I mean I guess it is a cooler and don't think I can really fold but am I ever not calling to chop at best?

Assuming he's not an idiot then he isn't jamming JJ and I guess he has the occasional AQss/quads in his range so all in all... Gross





Only a small pot but this hand tilted me...

I checked turn for pot control although b/f might be better?

Anyway on river I was sure I was beat and gonna snap fold to his raise then like an idiot convinced myself "but I haz the A and he'd lead a flush when I checked back turn" and clicked call. Obv he had it. Felt really dumb after this lol






How to set-over-set someone and win the minimum...

Unsurprisngly not happy with this either, Pretty sure I should lead river when the turn checks through, just didn't wanna get raised but left so much value on the table and certainly could have got another bet in if not stacked the shorter stack given the safe run out...








This was the biggest hand of the day from my brief 25nl shot:



Kinda plays itself really I think. He tanked for aaaages after I jammed river though so kinda feel like I got lucky on the river... Doubt he's folding 88 or 77 and they probably raise somewhere earlier but given how long he tanked I'd guess he had A3 or something. Not sure though




Anyway good day at zoom so far. Might be done for the day but may have another shorter (like <1 hour) session later but see how I feel.

Debating going to the casino tonight to play a live UKIPT satellite. Honestly the thought of grinding all night is giving me the no feeling already but it's £55 with 8 seats GTD and the standard is likely to be pretty bad so seems like a decent opportunity...

Other option is to yolo the hyper on Stars and hopefully repeat last years bink of winning a seat the night before at pretty much the first attempt...

Will update with results either way but wish me luck!

Lol, went to the casino for the live satellite and it was mental, 130 odd players already reg'd and they were deep on a waiting list so just sacked it and went home...

Fired up stars for a last chance shot and late reg'd a hyper turbo... Won a seat into the £82 deep hyper which I shipped the night before last year... OK Good start!...

Unfortunately it wasn't to be and I had a failed squeeze picked off and then just busted KQ < AJ all in pre. That was the final satellite so sadly won't be playing this years UKIPT Edinburgh

Pretty angry at myself for leaving it so late tbh cause really gutted to be missing out now. Just makes me more determined to get organised in advance next time though. Definately wanna hit Dublin in the new year so goal is to start the satellites more than a week before for that...

Might play a couple of the Edinburgh sides but currently undecided, see how I feel on the days!

The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.

-Marcus Aurelius

GL mate

Nice PG&C thread mate, been an interesting read.

Little feedback on the hands in your last post:

Hand 1:
All your analysis seems reasonable if we were in position, but given that we're in the BB and going to play the pot OOP, I think you should 4-bet with the intention of getting it in.
You said that given the action, you believe BTN to be strong, but solely given the information posted in the hand, I don't think this has to be the case. If we were in BTNs shoes, we should be iso 3-betting the short buy stack with a wider range than normal. We can cold 4-bet which a lot of the time will take down a reasonable sized pot uncontested, or get it in with a hand that has a good amount of equity against BTN's GII range.
Flop as played is standard.

Hand 2:
Pay the man.

Hand 3:
Agree with your initial thought, bet/fold is best. You holding the A actually takes out a lot of his river check/raise bluff range which skews his range towards more value hands. To be honest, I can't think of too many hands apart from pure air that bluff-raise this river.

Hand 4:
When the turn checks round, I think it's pretty safe to throw out a small value bet on the river. Just puke when you bet say $3 on the river and get shoved on. CO shouldn't turn up with too many flushes when in the middle of the action on the flop calling twice and BTN should just flat out never check back turn with a flush. AA/JJ seem unlikely when there's no 3-bet pre.

Hand 5:
GG

Keep it up man and good luck at 25NL

Yuck, bad day all round and worst in quite a while results wise.


Didn't run too well but shouldn't have played tonight tbh. I'm tired and while nothing major, was life tilted by various smaller things which I definately let affect my mood and my play.

Vast majority of the graph is from 10nl but played about 800 hands at 25nl again tonight, actually went pretty much ok.

Finished down -$16 there but was pretty much all from these 2 hands.

Not sure I find a fold anyway but guess I should just call flop given Jx likely just calls and it's so dry that he only really reps sets or bluffs so hate my jam... As I said was off my game and definately let it affect me.






Meh about this. Don't love it but think it's ok against a shortstack cause he might not always call 44 pre and figured he had enough worse aces he was going with or flush draws to make getting it in ok. I'd prolly just call if he had been full stacked.








No real interesting hands tbh, I lost 2 buy ins at 10nl with AK < KK when I probably should have folded but was just over it and literally about 15 seconds later QQ < KK in the exact same scenario. Not sure why I didn't just quit then tbh.


Bad day all round but ready to put it behind me. Done for the day so gonna relax and watch the new episode of Peep Show before bed and then hopefully come back fresh tomorrow.

I only need like 300 more VPPs to retain Goldstar too so thinking I'm gonna take a few days off playing once that's out the way. I'll maybe look more seriously into studying and improving in that time too cause honestly bar marking and reviewing a few hands in HM2 I've done literally nothing there...

Heh, thanks man

Like the quote too and definately setting a goal to be more organised in future and quit leaving things so last minute! (Not even just for poker but general life too! )

Hey man, thanks a lot! I really appreciate the kind words and glad you're enjoying reading I enjoy writing this but always nice to know that people are reading and hopefully liking it!

Appreciate you taking the time out to give me feedback as well, agreed on all your points and definately found it useful!

GL and cheers!

Sorry for the lack of updates on this recently, I've not played online since Wednesday night so nothing to report there!

Played a live tourney yesterday but bust just before the FT and didn't cash. Played cash after though and made like £120 in about 2 hours in a short handed 25/50p game so not too bad lol. I'll post a few big hands from the tourney and cash later when I have more time.

A friend is at the UKIPT final table and 2nd in chips just now so rooting for him! Off to see family and get dinner for a couple of hours now and then will probably swing by and rail for a bit while I play some £1/£2 cash if he's still in!

I've been really lazy both with grinding and updating this recently so I'll try and get things back on track here... I think I already mentioned that I hadn't played a single hand online for nearly a week - until Tuesday but more on that in a bit...

Gonna split this post into 2 parts – one for recent live play and one for online – so as it doesn't end up being one massively long post!

Part 1...

Playing Live:

I played live for the first time in a while on Saturday – it was the “Champion of Champions” tournament for the pub league that I play in on Monday nights. You need to have either won the CofC tournament in the past, the regional finals or come in the top 3 of a league (which is how I qualified) to get in.

It's a small field and only £20 buy in so the prize money isn't great but the field is super soft and the top 6 or 7 were getting seats to Nationals which is in Glasgow this Saturday and is a freeroll with decent prizes (prob like £2k plus a free trip to Vegas FTW!) so not a bad deal really.

Given I mentioned how the field was super soft, I actually got a pretty funny table draw with 2 of the best players in the room who I'm good friends with and we were all joking around and having fun. Only real hand of note is one where I got pretty lucky early on...

I open and peel a small 3bet from one of the good players getting 3:1 with 35 and then get lucky when I c/jam a J75x flop and hit a 5 on the river v KK...

I have literally no other big or interesting hands and just steal the blinds/ raise and c-bet and pretty much break even for the next few hours until eventually we get down to the last 2 tables of 6 players.

I'm fairly short in the bb with like 17k at 800/1600/200... UTG min raises, gets called by standard weak/passive old guy and then I look down at 96

I've played with UTG a fair bit before and wouldn't call him a nit but he's definitely on the tight side

I think I need to maintain my stack so maybe peeling here isn't great but I figure I'm literally getting better than 6:1 with the blinds and antes and my hand is easy to play post – c/r all in if I get lucky and flop huge or open jam draws for max fold equity.

Flop comes 345 with a diamond and I open shove for 14k. Sadly UTG has 99 and I don't get there. Don't think my play here is the worst ever but not really happy when I could maybe just fold pre and open jam late position in the next few hands...





Random stack photo from before I bust lol


Anyway I'd already qualified from regionals earlier on in the year so it's off to Glasgow on Saturday for nationals. A few friends have qualified as well so all heading through together, should be a good day and hopefully I can bink something!


Played a 6 handed 25/50p cash game after I bust, sat with £50, started drinking and having fun and cashed out for £180ish after a couple of hours and had quite a few beers so that was a decent end to the night. Not much to report other than one big fish donating and bluffing in spots that made no sense – I called him with 4th pair on the river and was good which got some comments from the table and made me feel good about my reads

Pic of cash stack not long before I cashed out.




Don't really like being that guy and taking photos of stacks (especially when they're not even impressive) but figured it'd be better for this than just blocks of text


Last comments on recent live stuff for now is that my friend came 3rd at UKIPT Edinburgh on Sunday! We're not super close or anything but I know him through the pub league and he's one of a small group of players there I'd actually say were actually good and who's game I respect. Tbh I actually found it pretty inspiring because he's not a pro but shows that someone playing at pretty much the stakes I am can still go deep in events like this so congrats to him and made a fun sweat on the blog for a couple of days!

Part 2...

Now before I go on, advance warning that the next paragraph or two might feel like a bit of a moan and honestly I suppose it is but I don't mean it to come off as whining, more just as a vent for myself because I'm starting to get a bit frustrated and doubt myself but (Saturday aside) I feel like I've been running really bad lately.

I won't bore anyone with the hand histories cause I know nobody cares – Just constantly getting 2 and 3 outered etc and 3 weeks in a row I've lost big pair to one over for heaps at the FT so instead of being top of my Monday league 3rd or 4th. Not like it's a huge deal or something, just all the beats with that, combined with getting constantly rivered online were starting to frustrate me.

It's hard to explain the feeling though because it got to the stage where I wasn't even rage tilting I was more just apathetic if that makes sense? When the beat was coming I was more just like “Yup, that's about right” rather than smashing my laptop lol

Anyway I wasn't enjoying playing online and was grinding because I felt like I had to rather than actually wanting to. Considering I'm not playing for a living or anything that's silly so that was a big part of the reason I hadn't played Zoom in a while.

All that said, I figure all I can do is play through the variance and keep getting it in good so here's my promise that I'm not gonna whine about it again now I've ranted a bit!

Graph for the past couple of days is here:






Obviously really disappointing but the slight recovery at the end was all 25NL so I suppose that's a good sign even though it was only a few hands.

I need 175 Vpp's to get Goldstar again so once that's out the way I'll probably start converting the rest of my FPP's. Made about 150 T$ from the 6max hyper satellite's so far despite running badly so gonna spend the last 4k or so FPP's that I have on them and see how much I can run it up to.

My flatmate is half American so got people coming over and we're having a thanksgiving meal/party at our place tonight. Got back from work late and I've been roped into helping not gonna have time to play today but should be a decent night.

Back to the grind tomorrow and I'll put up another post with some Zoom hands I have as marked when I have time (tomorrow!)

Cheers for reading!

Hands from the past couple of days



Tanked quite a while here and almost folded a couple of times but really just thought he'd go smaller for value...





That river... Grim Wonder if I should actually just call considering his hand looks a lot like AA or pairs that'll fold anyway but might just be being results orientated








Easy game








Sweet river - Obv not standard to make such a huge overbet but I really thought he'd call with 7x and a load of his pair and draw hands are now straights/boats/trips so figured I had a good shot of getting paid off









Bleh, maybe I should river cause not sure he bets AK/AQ 3 times?









Yeeeeaaaah.... Not sure why I didn't bet turn. Doubt he folds anyway but I messed this up badly, gross river though :/










I really felt like I was beat when he donked river but this was at the height of the runbad/being constantly rivered so think I was just letting that get to me. Realistically don't think I'm ever folding here.









Nasty