"A BAD WEEK"

Neteller: Last week $118; Current $118 (-)
Inter: Last week $8; Current; $8 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $292; Current $221 (-$71)
CD: Last week $260; Current: $26 (-24)

Total: Last week $678; Current $583 (-$95)

Profit for May: +$98
Profit for year:+$453

A very poor week for me poker wise. I just had a poor run of cards on CD, but on Laddies I allowed myself to get sucked into a couple of very loose games and got hammered in a several big multi-way pots. Bad play by me (I do know how to play these tables) which I hope I won't be repeating. I am going to have a stop/loss point of 30BB per session - something I should have instituted earlier really.

In the meantime I think I am developing my ability to handle Multi-table tournaments. I haven't made any money (since my triumph of a few weeks back) but I am consistently going deep into them and I think it is only a matter of time (and
inevitably, some luck) before I do. My current strategy (it's still evolving) is to try to see cheap flops early on with anything semi-reasonable in position, but back off in the face of any opposition unless I hit of course. Early I will only go to war with AA and KK. Lots of people seem to go out to coin flips with Ax or any pair early on. In the middle I loosen up a bit, but basically I'm still trying to play poker, rather than take 50/50 bets. At less than 10x the big blind I start looking for all in opportunities to double up and get ahead of the blinds again. Here I'm not taking on other folks' all ins, unless I have a monster. I want the "fold equity" of being the first one to go all in. If I'm ahead of the blinds, I'm trying somes steals from position. I haven't had a lot of opportunity to develop late MTT play. I went out "on the bubble" on one last night when my KK met AQ, which hit an Ace on the flop. So it goes. They are quite good fun and of course inexpensive, since I am only playing in freerolls and "player points" tournaments. When I feel a bit more praciced I'll have a go at the blogger tournament.

Any experienced MTT players who want to comment on the above, please feel welcome.

"Tagged"

Neteller: Last week $118; Current $118 (-)
Inter: Last week $8; Current; $8 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $278; Current $192 (+14)
CD: Last week $262; Current: $260 (-2)


Total: Last week $666; Current $678 (+$12)

Juice and lots of the other poker bloggers have been doing this "tagging" thing where you provide 7 little known (or totally unknown) pieces of information about yourself. Here are mine...

1. Kronsdat (my poker alias) is the name of the Russian naval base near St Petersburg. I did the dissertation for my history degree on the rebellion of the anarchist and far left sailors at Kronsdat against the Bolsheviks in 1921.

2. I once danced with Northern Ireland's first, and I strongly suspect only, Cotswold Morris Dancing Team.

3. My surname is the lowest ford on the Firth of Forth (which is hard to say if you've had a few).

4. I once ran against Dave Bedford...in the inter-university cross country championships. He came 1st; I was 322nd. Still, there were over 600 in it.

5. I was at the game when George Best kicked the ball out of Banks' hands. It was a goal. It had left his hands and he never touched him! (but I could be a bit prejudiced).

6. The football team I supported in Belfast as a kid were called "Distillery" (now Lisburn Distillery). My father was their physio when they drew 3 - 3 with Benfica in Belfast (Eusebio and all). Tom Finney came out of retirement to play with Distillery for the match.

7. My only "international" sporting appearance was playing netball against England! (I was a basketball player - they asked my team to play a practice game against them, as their next fixture was against Jamaica and they were expecting a rough game!)

Meanwhile back with the poker...I'm pleased to have finished the week on a positive score. For the first four sessions I played this week I had one of those downtimes we all have to learn to live with. The usual stuff, poor hands (I was sub 10% flops seen in one session) and bad beats when I did get hands (AQ ambushed on the river by the might of K4 off lingers in the memory). Still, I rode it out until $60 down or so and then battled my way back.

So it goes.

"STEADY PROGRESS"

Neteller: Last week $158; Current $118 (-40)
Inter: Last week $8; Current; $8 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $263; Current $278 (+$15)
CD: Last week $188; Current: $262 (+$74)

Total: Last week $617; Current $666 (+$49)

I now have a beast of a bankroll :-)

I didn't actually play a lot this week for one reason or another but what I did play went ok. I had some interesting times again on Ladbrokes where I again managed to find a wild 1/2 table on a couple of occasions. I remember commenting a couple of months back on how I couldn't get AA, hitting a third to hold up for a while - here's a hand where it did...

Speed $2 10 [Hold 'em] (1.00|2.00 Fixed Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- _Kronsdat sitting in seat 1 with $93.50
- vodichthu sitting in seat 2 with $28.59
- bolnde__25 sitting in seat 3 with $121.29
- paramal sitting in seat 4 with $65.70
- DOC1970 sitting in seat 5 with $74.37
- niloc sitting in seat 6 with $80.51
- yurkes sitting in seat 7 with $69.05
- SegerX sitting in seat 8 with $21.50
- fishing_rod sitting in seat 9 with $1264.74
- Silverfox sitting in seat 10 with $66.81 [Dealer]

_Kronsdat posted the small blind - $0.50
vodichthu posted the big blind - $1.00

** Dealing card to _Kronsdat: Ace of Spades, Ace of Clubs
bolnde__25 folded
paramal called - $1.00
DOC1970 raised - $2.00
niloc folded
yurkes folded
SegerX folded
fishing_rod folded
Silverfox folded
_Kronsdat raised - $3.00
vodichthu called - $3.00
paramal called - $3.00
DOC1970 raised - $4.00
_Kronsdat called - $4.00
vodichthu called - $4.00
paramal called - $4.00

** Dealing the flop: King of Clubs, King of Diamonds, 10 of Hearts
_Kronsdat bet - $1.00
vodichthu called - $1.00
paramal folded
DOC1970 called - $1.00

** Dealing the turn: Ace of Diamonds
_Kronsdat bet - $2.00
vodichthu called - $2.00
DOC1970 called - $2.00

** Dealing the river: Jack of Diamonds
_Kronsdat bet - $2.00
vodichthu called - $2.00
DOC1970 called - $2.00
_Kronsdat shows: Ace of Spades, Ace of Clubs
vodichthu mucks:
DOC1970 mucks:
_Kronsdat wins $29.45 from the main pot

There must have been at least one top straight out there - nice.

Sad to say it is increasingly hard to get a ring game at limit on Laddies though. They seem to fill the tables quite late on in the evening, but even then, not every night. CD I can always get a table on but they are generally much tighter.

I will have a punt on the blogger tournament on PokerStars some time soon - sounds like fun.

"Unexpected tournament success!"

Neteller: Last week $100; Current $158 (+$58)
Inter: Last week $8; Current; $8 (-)
Ladbrokes: Last week $170; Current $263 (+$93)
CD: Last week $149; Current: $188 (+$39)


Total: Last week $485; Current $617 (+$132)

I idly entered a tournment on CD last Monday, not expecting much, since it was a 1000 player jobbie. Well, blow me but didn't the Ghods of Poker smile on me! No fancy moves were employed. I just went all in with good hands at appropriate moments. That turned out to be good enough and I finished 7th to win $27.50. I might have gone even further if, in my last hand, my AQ had held up against JJ but there you go.

That accounts for the bulk of the positive score on CD where my cash game play also made a little progress.

In contrast to that the Laddies account shot up when I came across a wild game late on Tuesday night. I just sat and waited for a decent hand, while the rest of them were lathering into each other with gusto. In the end I entered a pot in middle position with QJ off with 6 players in. The flop came J7Q rainbow. Bingo! The big blind raised and I reraised him and got two callers. J on the turn. The two players, one still raising, called me down on the turn and river and one of them turned out to have a pair of 7's which accounts for his enthusiasm. Nice. It continued like this and I ended up $70 up in 40 minutes.

Meanwhile I've closed the Hill's account. I just can't face the pain of trying to collect the bonuses on the likes of Hill's and Inter - the flops seen on the tables you have to play are just too trying (sub 20% most of the time). I'll leave the grinders to enjoy each other and concentrate on tables and sites where the prospects are more inviting. I've kept Inter on for a bit longer, since I've still got quite a lot of player points there that I may as well use for tournament play - now that I'm an expert :-)