Big Deal

Absolute Bet: Last week $600; Current $527 (-73)
Poker Stars: Last month $150; Current $144 (-6)

Total = $ 672 (-79)

Profit on the month = -79

Profit on the year = -79

B&M money = £246 (+46)

Life online has been very trying this month. I've played 30 $11 SnG's and ended up down $73. Despite doing well in the Bloggerment, I'm also down a little bit on Stars, as I managed to get sucked into some cash Pot Limit Omaha. I'm a long way short of having a game plan there, so I'll give that a miss in future.

In my "bread and butter" SnG's, it's all the usual "bad beat" type stuff, being sucked out on in key hands where you were ahead etc. The worst run was 7 games without a cash - nowhere near my record, which is twice that. I didn't have an outright win until the 28th game. That is the real cause of the problem. Turning a healthy percentage of cashes into wins is vital. Anyway, hopefully things will turn round and I will get into the black again. I've been here before.

I've certainly turned things round at the cricket club where I cashed in both games played.

However, by far the best craic was the APAT UK Forum Team Championship at the G Casino in Manchester, where I played for the "Raise the River" team. I finally got to meet lots of folk off the forum that I regularly play in the "Bloggerment", including Mair, Hammerheid, Bullmeister, Ant, DoV, dD, Lou Saban and Gorvacorfin in addition to the motley crew I'd met up with in Bolton, BurnleyMik, Snakeyes and NoCash. I certainly took dD by surprise - he wasn't expecting someone even more ancient than himself! :-)

Hammer, Snake and Mik were well up there in the drinking stakes but the prize (to nobody's great surprise I suspect) has to go to NoCash, who woke up the next morning minus his shoes!? Well done that man. The Norn Irish and the Geordies provided some stiff competition for service at the bar too - more of them later.

I was back to back at my table with Ant at the next one. For the first 3 levels we competed very effectively with each other to see who could play the fewest hands - yes, I won :-). I had AQ raised, hit the Q on a two spade flop, bet the pot and got called. Blank on the turn. Overbet the pot, got called. Spade on the river. Bet from opponant - fold. He had the flush of course. Sigh.

Amazingly the first player out was last year's winner, Mair. Glory is fleeting and all that.

For the remainder of the day (it finished at 2.00 in the morning) I played 5 more hands, winning all of them. However, mostly I only took the blinds, as nobody took me to a showdown. Given the ultra tight way I had been playing, that was hardly surprising. The rest of the RtR team were gradually whittled away, until there was only BurnleyMik and myself left.

I was left with a stack of 46K to start the second day with Mik on about 37K. Somewhat surprisingly there were no huge chip leaders among the 31 players (of 160) left - even the biggest only had about 30xBBs. So we were almost all in with a shout. Players were gradually whittled away but I was totally card dead and had to make the odd all in blind steal just to stay with a stack that could realistically make people fold. With antes as well as escalating blinds this tactic is vital to survival. Eventually I had to make a move with about 7 BB's left and went all in with a pair of 6's against a big stack. He called me with a big Ace but a six came on the flop and I was chipped back into it again.

When his table broke up Mik ended up on mine, two places to my right with one of the Irish guys between us. He was getting to the stage when he had to make a move and went all in on my Big Blind. I had A10. Cue major trance as I thought things through. If I called one of us was going out and therefore we would have no chance of going deep in the team tournament (we both needed to figure high on the final table to even have an outside chance). Also, he wouldn't have put me in this situation (for the same reason) unless he had a strong hand. I folded and he showed JJ. Phew - nice pass Brian! However it was all in vain, as Mik was evicted when he raised the Irish lad from the small blind and was called. With two low spades and two on the flop, which included 2 jacks, he checked. So did the Irishman. Blank on the turn. Mik went all in and was insta-called. Irish lad had 2 Jacks for Quadzillas and it was goodnight Mik.

Gorvacorfin from the forum was the last player left that I knew. He was on my left now and just to be friendly I nicked his blinds a couple of times - you have it to do as they say in Lancashire. Players were being slowly but steadily eliminated and we were down to 5 handed when I found myself short stacked again and ready to make a move. K10 told me it was time to shove and in it went - call from a big stack with AJ. AQ on the flop giving him the lead and me 3 outs...but no Jack came and I was out in 12th place, three off the money. SIGH. Sadly, Gorv was the next out, missing out on the money too.

It was great to go deep and have a shot at making the money again. Actually I did make some as I was in a "lasts longest" for a tenner each with the other guys, so at least I got my entry back and £20. All that and two grand day's of entertainment too. Great craic and I will be back for more. Well done APAT.

The Geordies? Grief but they made a noise ("drink had been taken" as my mother would have put it). There was particularly raucous support for a player they insisted on calling "Chipmonk", though he didn't seem to appreciate this moniker himself. He did eventually finish 2nd, so well done. The donkey's head he put on when he went all in a couple of times was entertaining too - as he put it himself - try getting a read on me past that!

I'm going to have a bash at this along with some of the other Raise the River folk...

This lovely little fellow has arrived because I've crashed out first in the Bloggerment (for the first time I can recall). The cause - very poor play and nothing else. So it goes :-(

Ultimate Bet: Last week $453; Current $637 (+184)
Poker Stars: Last month $113; Current $149 (+36)

Total = $786

Profit on the month = +$220

Profit for the year = +$580

B&M money = £2,389 (-9)

Profit for the year = £2,389

It's been a grand final month to finish a great poker year - with $184 profit on the $11 games on Ultimate Bet and $36 on a few games on Stars. The SnGs work out at the totally awesome roi of 74%, which is even better than my previous monthly best - the September figures. According to Sharkscope my roi overall is 23%. Very acceptable.

I'm very comfortable with $11 games, so I'm going to look towards getting the Cereus bankroll up to $800 and then moving up to $22 games. I'm going to take out the Ultimate money and transfer it over to a new account on Absolute, so that I can get rakeback (30% seems to be available from a number of sources). It looks as if I will be playing enough hands at a sufficiently high level to make rakeback worth taking into account in future.

I re-opened the Stars account to play in the Bloggerment with the RaisetheRiver folk (Stars private tournaments 9.00 PM on Sundays - good craic). As hoped, my luck on there has improved (poor old "Weegem" certainly thinks so after last week when my all in with TT against his Aces hit a flop with two tens - sorry mate). I've now come 2nd twice. "Mair" has won for the last two weeks running and seems in fine form.

The hoped for improvement in results at the Cricket Club hasn't emerged yet though - looks like I will have to tough that one out.

All in all I am very pleased with the way my game has developed. I now have a winning game at SnG's which I've managed to successfully transfer to tournament scenarios. There is still plenty to work on, but I'm enjoying playing which is the main thing. It's a hobby not an occupation.

So, time to set out the poker plans for next year.

a) Basic game on-line: $11 then $22 SnG's with a profit on year objective of $1,000.

B) Play some MTT's on Stars when I have the time (good for practicing tourney technique).

b) Play on-line games on Blue Square in the APAT leagues. (I'll put $200 into Blue Square to set that up).

c) Play some more B & M tourneys (especially APAT) when they are available. (I'll set aside £200 to fund that).

Neteller: Last week $113; Current $113 (-)
Ultimate Bet: Last month $442; Current $453 (+11)

Total = $566

Profit on the month = +$11

B&M money = £2,398 (+£14)

Well, with the very able assistance of my wife and two daughters, I've managed to be a one man antidote to the recession and spend the APAT money. I'm now the proud possessor of a new wide screen plasma telly, nice big monitor for my computer, an iphone for daughter one, a lap top for daughter two, and a fine selection of new clothes for the wife and I. Buy shares in Curry's now.

On the actual poker front it has been a case of up, down and then a minor recovery. On the $11 games I shot up to 537 in 8 games and then went into a tailspin with only one miserable 3rd place in 14 games. Three wins in my last 5 games has pulled me into a position where I have made the grand profit of $11 on the month. Downswings like that are to be expected, but they are still tedious to bare. However I don't take it too seriously. Basically I know I am a winning player at this level and I have the bankroll to see out things like that.

I haven't been able to do much at the Cricket Club lately either. I am regularly in the last 3 or 4 but I haven't won outright for a while. Some new young players have been joining and a couple of them have learned quickly and developed decent games. This means that we have about 5 players with tight/aggressive games and the remainder are very Laggy. Inevitably some of the LAG's get lucky and chip up early and then bully with big stacks. One of them did me the other night - calling my all in on the flop with 44 against my QQ - he hit the 4 on the turn of course. Still it's fun and I'm sure I can start winning again soon.

Meanwhile, since I was in Nottingham for the night, I went down to the "Dusk till Dawn" club - the largest in the country. Very nice set-up. I had hoped to play in a £25 freezeout but got there too late. I played some .5/£1 No Limit Cash and won the princely sum of £16. There were a couple of seriously poor players who donated nicely (what is it about the Chinese that makes them such wild gamblers?) but sadly I never had a hand to go up against them with myself.

It's good to see the Bloggerment tournament on PokerStars back again too. (9.00 on Stars "private tournaments" - password "donkament"). That is basically where I learned how to play tournaments. No luck so far though. I've had folk sucking out against me with flush draws I hadn't given them the odds to call for the last two weeks - again, my turn will come :-)

Neteller: Last week $113; Current $113 (-)
Ultimate Bet: Last month $517; Current $442 (-65)

Total = $555

Profit on the month = -$65
B&M money = £2,386 (+£2,334)

The APAT English Amateur Championship tournament in Bolton turned out to be totally awesome, with me finishing in 2nd place for a prize of £2225!

Day 1.

I met up with two of the Raise the River guys, at the Odessa Cafe in the centre of Bolton, "Snakeyes" and "NoCash". "BurnleyMik" turned up later at the casino. Before the tournament started, we set up a £10 a head "who goes deepest" prizefund of £100 for 10 of us, held by Kevin from Blackburn. Then we were off.

I was on a table in the corner, which turned out to be a thoroughly good thing. With over 220 folk all crammed into quite a confined space the heat in the centre of the room was mega, so it was useful to be near an exit.

We quickly found a "table captain" in a guy from Halifax. He bullied the table something rotten and over the first couple of hours took out several players. Certainly there seemed to be more cries of "Man down" from our table than anywhere else. He had position on me which made things difficult. Basically I took down a couple of blind steals and that was it. Mainly I was trying to come to terms with casino rules such as keeping your cards on the table and avoiding "string bets". All new stuff to me. I was totally card dead, so my 10,000 starting stack was slowly depleting as time went on, but I hadn't reached a 10xBB situation which would make an quick all in necessary.

The table broke up and I ended up in the centre of the room. This was bad news as the heat was dreadful there and I was downing water like a fish! However, my luck changed with regard to cards. I had AA twice and the first time I just took down the blinds and an original raiser who folded to my all in. On the second occasion however I opened with a 3xBB bet and was followed by an all in from one of the few female players. Naturally I called. She had KK. Nothing untoward happened and I'd doubled up nicely. BurnleyMik told me afterwards that she had crippled him earlier with 99 hitting trips against his 1010. A tough break for the lass, but I needed it.

I went card dead again for the next couple of hours, just making the odd blind steal, against players I thought wouldn't shove back at me (reads were good).

At the very end of the day (about 1.30 in the morning) I was moved to a new table. A couple of hands are played with no action and I look down at AQ of Spades. We are nearly at the end of the level and everyone left will go through to the next day. I put in a 10,000 bet (a quarter of my stack). A Welsh guy, Gary Phillips, goes all in with a stack similar to my own. A big stack thinks long and hard and folds. I go into a trance and eventually decide he has to have a big pair to make that move at this stage of the day, so I fold. Gary, very decently, shows his KK to confirm my read.

Day 2.

I'm still in, but in 26th place of the 30 left. I've worked out what I'm going to do before I even get to the casino. The new blind levels and antes are going to slaughter me so I'm going to make a move on the first two laps with the first reasonable hand I get and with air if it's getting close to the second set of blinds. First lap I shove with A9o and collect the blinds. That gives me another couple of laps. Then I get AA and shove - no callers. Collect the blinds again. My stack is dwindling as the level is coming to a close - I have to make a move and shove on the blinds with A5. Call from the Ian Burnett in the big blind with A10s. I'm on my feet ready to shake hands and leave. A 5 hits on the river!! Ok - we still have a game folks.

Then comes what will be the main hand of the tournament for me. I look down at QQ. A guy in early position with a stack smaller than mine makes a 4xBB move. I go all in over the top. The guy after me (who has shown every sign of being a good player) goes all in over me with a bigger stack. The original raiser calls. The guy to my left has AA (damn). The original raiser has AhJc (why was he still in the hand?). The flop comes Q93 all hearts. Yippee - I've lucked out trips. (Damn - there's a flush draw). Two blanks and I've trebled up!! I felt sorry for the AA guy, who had only done what anyone would and he exited shortly afterwards.

I now had a stack of something like 240K. Folk were exiting steadily and I was "in the money". I now went totally card dead again. For something like two levels I only made the very odd blind steal and watched the others at the table. A young chap called Andrew McCloud made a very strong impression as did Ian Burnett, who was a couple of seats behind me. It turned out that he knew "Mair", who my wife told me was giving me a lot of support on the APAT website along with some of the other RtR folk.

I decide not to make any more blind steal moves as there are so many guys ready to go over the top and put you to the question. Besides, I didn't have too, since I was comfortably more than 10xBB and antes. Gradually players were eliminated and we were down to the final table.

The last 9 players were all treated to a very pleasant meal. They all seemed a really decent bunch of folk (and no sign of the autistic types I remember from my Chess Congress days!).

I went into the final table with the second smallest stack, so I knew I would be making a move fairly early on and it would have to hold. Early doors, Tony Trippier (who was chip leader at the end of day 1) puts in a big bet ahead of me. I go all in with QQ and he shows AJ. The Queens hold (I'm really beginning to like Queens). Things are now really aggressive all round and I'm only really looking for all in moves. I end up all in with Andrew McCloud with QQ (again) against 1010. He hits a 10 (damn) but I river a straight!

Then one of the key hands of the tournament and I'm not in it. Andrew makes a big bet and John Kay goes all in over him. Andrew has a long think and makes a great call when he finds his AJ up against A7. However a 7 comes and no jack so Andrew is out in 4th. (Tough that).

Ian Burnett finishes 3rd when his A4 is beaten by John Kay's K10. I'm second - hooray! Now for a shot at the title. I'm .5M chips v 1.5M chips. First hand I get A4 and put in a big bet. John goes all in. Odds must be my A is ahead and I'm level on chips if I win. I call. John shows 109 hearts. Four blanks ... and a 9 on the river.

John rode his luck, but then so did I, so I can't complain. I was saved on the river 3 times in the course of the day.

A great exciting day and very well run by the APAT folks. Many thanks to Steve at the casino and the RtR folk for their support (my wife was amazed at the positive vibes I was getting). I will return, but I doubt if I can ever run as well as that again. As Pete Birks put it to me, the best poker advice I can give is "run good". Amen to that.

Oh, I've had a crap month at the $11 SnGs. Now ask me if I care!!!

Neteller: Last week $68; Current $113 (+45)
Ultimate Bet: Last month $317; Current $517 (+200)

Total = $630

Profit on the month = +$200
B&M money = £52

Hilarious times at the Cricket Club face-to-face game recently. One of the regulars at the bar decided to join in for a game - having watched proceedings for the last few months. Result - carnage. The man could do no wrong - although he was committing just about every "wrong" in the poker bible.

He was in just about every hand (he won the first five of the night) and totally dominating my table. I was quietly observing and doing damn all as usual at this stage, when I looked down at KK. He called as per normal and I put in a 4xBB bet. He called. Nothing flop. I bet the pot. He called. Nothing Turn. I go all in. He called...and he then showed AA!

The first "proper" hand he had had. SIGH. I got lots of jeers and catcalls, since it is a rare event indeed for me to play a hand in the first hour, never mind go out with it!

Well - this carried on for the rest of the evening. Whatever he went with, hit, and he won the evening in record time. It was amazing (if a tad depressing) to watch. Needless to say, he was first out the following week.

I've closed down the Stars account, as I hadn't used it for months.

Meanwhile the on-line poker has been a roaring success. I've had a really nice winning run at the $11 games and pushed the roll over the $500 mark much quicker than I'd expected. Sharkscope puts me on an roi of 31% (though they haven't got all my 5.5 games by any means). However my roi for the 30 games I've played this month is an awesome 54%! I've cashed in 19/30. I even played a $22 game, following a win in a $11 game and came 2nd in that. The standard was just as bad.

There are one or two decent players that I've clocked and I've got "notes to avoid" on them - no need to make things more difficult than they need to be. One of them looked so useful with his big stack "bullying on the bubble" tactics that I googled him and found that he had an roi the same as mine but for 10 times as many games! A real shark and now a marked man as far as I am concerned. Funny enough in the next game I played there was another player trying the big stack bully on the bubble stuff. He was nowhere near as good at it though and eventually he was the one who bubbled out.

Meanwhile next month sees the the APAT English championship in Bolton, which I've managed to get an entry to, using £75 from the money I've won at the Cricket Club. I've never played a face-to-face tournament in a casino, so it should be an interesting experience, especially since BurnleyMik and another couple of the RaisetheRiver guys will be there too. I thought I may as well record the money position in b&m games - I've £52 left after paying the entry for the APAT thing.

FUN AND GAMES

Neteller: Last week $68; Current $113 (+45)
Ultimate Bet: Last month $317; Current $517 (+200)

Total = $630

Profit on the month = +$200
B&M money = £52

Hilarious times at the Cricket Club face-to-face game recently. One of the regulars at the bar decided to join in for a game - having watched proceedings for the last few months. Result - carnage. The man could do no wrong - although he was committing just about every "wrong" in the poker bible.

He was in just about every hand (he won the first five of the night) and totally dominating my table. I was quietly observing and doing damn all as usual at this stage, when I looked down at KK. He called as per normal and I put in a 4xBB bet. He called. Nothing flop. I bet the pot. He called. Nothing Turn. I go all in. He called...and he then showed AA!

The first "proper" hand he had had. SIGH. I got lots of jeers and catcalls, since it is a rare event indeed for me to play a hand in the first hour, never mind go out with it!

Well - this carried on for the rest of the evening. Whatever he went with, hit, and he won the evening in record time. It was amazing (if a tad depressing) to watch.

Needless to say, he was first out the following week.

I've closed down the Stars account, as I hadn't used it for months.

Meanwhile the on-line poker has been a roaring success. I've had a really nice winning run at the $11 games and pushed the roll over the $500 mark much quicker than I'd expected. Sharkscope puts me on an roi of 31% (though they haven't got all my 5.5 games by any means). However my roi for the 30 games I've played this month is an awesome 54%! I've cashed in 19/30. I even played a $22 game, following a win in a $11 game and came 2nd in that. The standard was just as bad.

There are one or two decent players that I've clocked and I've got "notes to avoid" on them - no need to make things more difficult than they need to be. One of them looked so useful with his big stack "bullying on the bubble" tactics that I googled him and found that he had an roi the same as mine but for 10 times as many games! A real shark and now a marked man as far as I am concerned. Funny enough in the next game I played there was another player trying the big stack bully on the bubble stuff. He was nowhere near as good at it though and eventually he was the one who bubbled out.

Meanwhile next month sees the the APAT English championship in Bolton, which I've managed to get an entry to, using £75 from the money I've won at the Cricket Club. I've never played a face-to-face tournament in a casino, so it should be an interesting experience, especially since BurnleyMik and another couple of the RaisetheRiver guys will be there too. I thought I may as well record the money position in b&m games - I've £52 left after paying the entry for the APAT thing.