What can I say, I run like God.

It's back to the grind tonight after having the weekend off. I'm excited to play again. Hope I crush again this month!

Played some £2/£5 last night, and booked a small win. Got slowrolled by a fish in a big pot in more brutal than usual fashion. Sigh.

Semi- interesting hand:

I limp UTG+1 with Jd9d (I don't usually limp ever, but nobody was really punishing it and BB is a fish). Btn calls and BB (no specific reads but he's an obv fish) makes it £25. He open raises to like £35 minimum so I didn't know what to make of this sizing really. I call, BTN calls.

Flop: 3-8-Tr. It checks around. BTN is reasonably aggro so I was thinking of check raising.

Turn: 9x. BB checks I bet £45, BTN folds, BB raises to £145. I didn't think he was repping much at all so I call.

River: 3. He puts me all in for £200. I tank... and call. Thoughts?

I think it's a fold. It's just such a weird line to take as a bluff, and you have blockers to A/K,J, which are a few of the only bluff hands he could play this way. A fish could also conceivably play JJ+ this way.

I think if you've been really aggro and stealing a lot of pots the river might be call, simply because he'll likely be more stubborn and bluff happy.

I'm going to take a wild guess that your fish has checked a multi way flop because he's hit it hard and needs someone to catch up, hence the check raise on the turn. He's made a set of 10's or similar?

Weeeell I don't exactly agree with this reasoning. Fish make bluffs that make no sense and rep nothing all the time, it's part of what makes them fish.

Yep forgot to say I have won a few small pots without showdown in the previous orbits.

See I agree that fish check when they hit monsters a lot of the time, but I find it much harder to imagine an aggro fish checking again on the turn, especially when the turn is relatively dangerous (puts very obv straight on the board). When check raised it felt more like a 'f u, you obv have nothing' sort of raise.

If he's checked a monster on the flop hoping that one of you has made a hand or a draw, then he has to lead the turn even if it's a danger card to at least try and get some value, he gets calls/raises from draws as well as a made hand there and if he is a fish the fact that the turn brings a straight probably won't bother him.

So.. was I right?

Villain had A7.

I am now finally back and recovered from probably the best weekend of my life at Bestival. Amazing music + some of my best friends + ??? = OMG THAT WAS GOOD. It's now time to hit the grind once more...

On Thursday I'm planning on playing the HUNL side event at Unibet (Aspers) and playing cash. I think I'll also play day 1a of the LCI at Empire on Friday. Other than that I dunno donkament-wise, I might just stick to cash. We shall see though! It would be nice to get a Hendon Mob page some day.

Also does anyone know what's going on/ who is real in the Paul Zimbler/Andrew Feldman dramabomb thread? **** is getting weird.

Cool thread, will follow. Tried quite a lot to play live, never win. Fun read so far and lol at the graph. Fox 1/2 was really soft when i played there.

ty Tom, loved your thread from a while back, you're a boss. What you up to these days?

Update

On Thursday I played the HU tourney at Aspers and failed to cash. The whole experience was pretty tilting - it was pretty shoddily run, and I didn't run great.

On Friday I went to play day 1a of the LCI main at Empire but was turned away! The place was full up. So, instead I played some cash, won a little at the Hippodrome and a bit more at Empire in a short-handed self-dealt game.

On Saturday I played day 1b. I busted on level 2 when I flopped a raggy 2-pair against a nit who had aces obv. I check raised the flop and shoved turn, he calls and spikes on the river, and shouts 'justice!'. ****ing idiot nits. I then lost several buy-ins at the Hippo, with KK<AA aipf and 23ss<AK on KJ3ss doing the damage. I then re-entered the LCI main, ran up a 2X average stack, only to bust on the last level of the night. AQ<44 aipf for a monster day 2 stack did half the damage, then I lost every pot I entered, before 3bet shoving AQ into KK with 18bbs.

So, that was my live donkament adventure. I didn't enjoy it at all. My tournament itch has been scratched, and tbh I hope it never comes back. There's no way you can make a living playing liveaments in the UK, imo. The players are terrible but the buy ins are small and travelling costs are high. And the cash games in London are always juicy!

Looking forward

I just deposited on pokerstars.fr for the first time. The rake is high but the players are terrible. FCOOP is in October (I think) so I will play some of those. I will also keep playing live in London as the games are always good .

In the very short term, I'm going on a quick holiday with some friends to Amsterdam tomorrow. Just a few days of fun before returning to the grind. I'm in a bit of a hole this month but it's easier coming off the back of last month when I ran great. Hopefully I can turn it around anyway. I hear there are PLO games in Amsterdam...

subbed and gl op
im in final year in london but online grinder ha, sometimes i head to the vic/empire
see you around sometime

ty, see you around soon!

Update

So, I'm back from the low countries. It ended up being an 8-day trip to Amsterdam and bits of Belgium, and was enormous fun. I played zero poker (unless you count a micro stakes PL mix game), but this is fine as I had a great time with some of my best friends and I feel somewhat re-charged. Getting away from London for a while will have done me good (much as I love London).

I wanted to play on stars.fr for the rest of this week but my account has been frozen! I need to send them ID and a bank statement before they unlock it, so I'm going to head to my family home today to find, scan and send all that, and then I'll probably play live cash tonight. I'm not sure where... I might try and play somewhere other than the Vic and the Empire for a change. Both places are really good at updating their Twitter accounts with the status of their games so I tend to treat them as primary places to play. This laziness might mean I'm missing value elsewhere. We'll see I guess.

End of the month

September was a very bad month at the tables (fewer updates=losing my bollocks, obv). Live and online, I pretty much got crushed. I'm down ~£2k in live cash and bricked two live donkaments. I've never really had a live downswing worse than this before so I hope it doesn't continue! I barely played online but when I did I got crushed.

My overriding emotion through all of this is embarrassment. The games are so soft that I really feel that I shouldn't be having losing months. I know that bb-wise the losses are completely standard, and I'm properly rolled for the stakes I play, but if I'm honest with myself, a large chunk of my losses are due to tilt, and my play deteriorated as the month went on. I thought I was mentally stronger than that at this point, so it's a bit of an eye opener. I'm really unhappy with he quality of my play, but I know I have it in me to play 10X better.

Last month was also a huge volume fail. However, this is mainly because I spent about half the month at a festival and on holiday, and I can't see this happening again for many months. Time to put the hours back in.

This month, my primary poker goal is to focus better, stop tilting, and play better! In hindsight, it was probably unrealistic to assume that I could step back in and instantly play my A-game after a few weeks where I pretty much just partied constantly. Bricking the donkaments probably contributed to tilt, so this month I'll be playing 99% cash (there's one live satty I might play, though I might change my mind).

Life-wise, I have a few small things planned socially, but nothing crazy like last month, which is good I think (fun as it was). I've also found a couple of good places to volunteer, which I will try to make happen.

Tonight I'll probably play at the Empire or the Hippo, and I'll definitely be playing well! I think a few sessions of £1/£2 are important in regaining a bit of confidence. By the end of the month I'll hopefully be at least back where I was at the end of August. Time to play good.

Well this is pretty telling isn't it. I didn't realise when I wrote this, but this is a pretty insidious form of tilt. The idea of losing in these games embarrasses me because I think many of my opponents suck balls, and therefore if I'm losing, I must suck, or maybe regs will think I suck, and I can't stand that. My ego can't take it.

This is clearly ridiculous. If you have an edge in a game, who the f cares if you win or lose, or if people think you're a fish. Just sit back, stay focused, keep playing and take the money .

Update

In the last two days I've played better (still not at the top of my game though I think), ran very decently, and wiped out last month's losses entirely.

I stumbled upon a £1/£2 PL mix game at the Hippodrome and ran up a big stack after 5 card PLO8 was added to the mix and I managed to scoop a couple of big multi-way pots vs some guys who didn't have much of a clue, which was lovely. I also won big in a £2/£5 NL at the Empire by having the goods a couple of times vs a guy who was tilting hard. In between I lost a couple of buy-ins at £1/£2 NL.

My results at £1/£2 NL have been very poor for the last couple of months. Running well at £2/£5 and PLO has really damaged my ability to focus on a smaller game. I should really force myself to play better or stop playing entirely. Something to work on.

Thoughts on the Hippo

I've played a few sessions there now, and I have to say, I like it for a few reasons:

- The £1/£2 games are deeper/looser than the Empire's. This is due to the Empire's cash race freeroll, which incentivizes nits to come and shortstack the games, and the fact that £2/£5 has taken off, drawing many of the action players there.
- The staff are friendly, and open-minded about trying new games. They're obviously looking to take action away from the Empire and so are eager to accommodate their players. For example, the £1/£2 PL mix game could never have happened at the Empire.
- It's new and shiny looking.

There are a few negatives though:

- The poker room is pretty tucked away, you have to go searching for it. On the plus side, there is a smoking area and bar near by so a few punters probably stumble upon it from there.
- The Empire still has way more games.
- Very little in the way of added rewards.

Has anyone else been playing there, any opinions?

Update

Last week went really well. I played every night from Monday to Thursday, playing mainly £2/£5 NL but also some £1/£2 NL and £1/£2 PL mix. I ran hot in the bigger games which is obviously nice. I probably can still play a little better overall and I'm not totally happy with my focus but I'm working on it.

I've also been playing some on stars.fr, running cold in tourneys but doing decently otherwise. The rake is f terrible though, I dunno if I'll grind there much after I clear my bonus. I'll definitely play some FCOOPs and some Sundays though.

Here's a LOL live poker hand:

£2/£5 NL, folded to me in the SB and I 4X with 84cc. BB is an old man who bought in deep and seems to be kind've a station so far. He calls.

Flop is 8-7-4 all spades. I bet ~the pot and he calls.

Turn 8. I bet 2/3 pot, he raises 3X, I call.

River is a red 2. I bet 80% of pot. He says 'you've been getting very lucky tonight...' and then reluctantly calls. I show. He then turns over 5-6 of spades for the flopped straight flush. There was still quite a bit of money behind. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Glad to see your back and updating, keep up the winning

tyty

Unfortunately, I haven't been winning for the past couple of days. Both days have been £2/£5 NL, both times the line-up has been good but not that good, and both times I've been stacked in very standard situations. QQ<AK aipf, 22<55 on T52 flop, etc. I feel I'm playing well, and I'm still doing decently for the month, so I don't feel bad.

I also made what one (lolbad) reg said is the worst play he has ever seen on a £1/£2 table (it involved calling a flop shove with K high, no draw). I was wrong, but I got there.

I really need to play better at £1/£2!

Keep up the updates, am living abroad atm and like to read about the live games around london. GL and play solid

Hi, nice read, keep it coming!

I am going to London for a "poker vecation" for a week the 16. I've been in London once before and I played a session at the Empire and was pretty happy with it. Although some of the regs seemed to be kinda douchy and pretty tilting when they started berating a HUGE station for calling too much making him tighten up.

Anyways do you have any suggestions for other venues or should I just stick to the Empire? I'm looking to play 1-2 and maybe a tournament for fun aswell?

Cheers

ty

On Wednesday I played £2/£5 at the Empire, played very poorly, ran bad, and lost a couple of buy-ins.

Frustrated with myself, I took the day off on Thursday and got away from poker.

I got back at it last night and played something close to my best. I got stuck a lot early but rallied back to book a big win, mainly thanks to playing a 450 bb pot with a whale - my Q5hh vs his 67hh on 3467hh. I 3bet shoved the turn and he called. Other than that I played a few marginal hands well which has bucked a recent trend.

I also had 55 vs JJ vs AA on AJ5 flop. Turn was a J. Luckily the guy with AA was a nit and I folded the river. If I'd binked the 5 I would have won £48k from the BBJ . It's the second set over set I've had at £2/£5 this week.

I played my first online Sunday MTT session in ages and bricked everything. Couldn't win a flip. In general I'm feeling very positive though, I ran horribly this week but didn't lose very much, which counts as a win imo (clutching at straws... ?).

Next week will involve more £2/£5 wherever I can find it, some PLO if I see it running at the Vic, hopefully some PLDC at the Hippo and probably a live satellite to some 1k donkament in Dublin, though I might well skip it. It's only a month since I said I'd never play another f donkament ever again, ha. I hear it's soft though...

went Hippo for first time tonight..... had old half bald dude/reg berate me.......not much table selection???

Yeah it can be quiet some nights. I bet it was still soft though. It always seems to be.

Last night I played £2/£5 again, and I think I played about as near to my A-game as I've played in ages. Again I got buried early in the session, and again I managed to book a decent win in the end.

One significant hand in getting unstuck - a fish leads out on T93ss in a multi way pot, I 2.5X his bet with 45ss, everyone folds, he calls. Turn 2, he checks, I shove for slightly more than pot, he calls with JT, I hit a 6 on the river.

I also played a crazy hand where I bet/called a large raise on 4568ddcc with T7dd, river 5d and get paid off by T7cc.

So it's fair to say I ran pretty good I guess.