Retards!

Okay I've made a bit of a recovery but should have won sooo much more, the retards calling down with every gutshot or runner runner draw possible keep getting there. The good news is that there is nobody on the site playing at my limit as good as me. The bad news is the same. They are all retarded but the games are good. I hope to clear this bonus then move in to the next skin. Should be okay but it's early doors.

Another bright idea!

So I decide to play at Littlewoods Poker, same skin as Pacific. Basically a limit player's dream or so it seems....

I'm now on a 150bb+ downswing again!

Cant win any hand even if I hit my hand I get creamed I have no chance. I mean if I have top pair they have an over pair , if I have sa srt8 flush draw i don't hit, if i have a flush they have a full house if i fold they hacve a worse hand and if i call their hand is better. Typical limit shit. I'll just have to waity until it's over but I'm doubting my abilities again.

Better watch some more Deuces cracked tomorrow and go to the gym.

Hands against my brother

Well god knows not to play cards with family but here we go.

Now my brother and I are good friends, however the following sequence plus a few added crunches makes this mad.

3 handed home game 2 gbp buyin no rebuys no addons.

Ahh so my I'm playing with Andy who I categorize as loose aggressive. He will basically call until the turn or river with any 2 cards and if he sniffs weakness will try to take you off your hand. My brother is more or less TAP he will limp big hands pre flop then if he hits will bet big on the following streets trying to suck you in. he also talks a good game and will try to manipulate especially a call through verbals. He likes to pretend that he doesn't understand the game when he has a sound grasp of it.
Tough game by anybody's standards. Plus my brother has a pregnant wife, he has a 2 year old already and he wants my mum to move to a very expensive part of town to help look after his kids, which she can't afford. I have offered to front my mum some cash so that she can afford to live in this expensive area. This does not appear to have gone down well with my brother as he can't afford to make the same offer and his work is not going too good.

Okay so 2 hands pass by and I limp in the sb against my brother with k6d knowing that a raise is unlikely and that I will see a flop oop but with the superior hand the majority of the time. he calls and the flop comes K58 rainbow I donk bet he calls. I know that he is fairly tight post flop and will only put chips in on a sound basis but I think I'm still ahead. I donk bet knowing he will perceive this as a bluff. He calls. Turn is a 7 putting the str8 on the board but giving me the tp pr and str8 draw combo. I 'm happy so I bet he calls. He now more than likely has a hand but it's hard to gauge the exact strength. The river is a 3 and he checks. I check and he pushes all in. I believe he knows I have a king and he has still bets all in time to exit and i fold my king face up. He says wise man and mucks. Then a second hand ensues where I my brother limps utg sb folds and I check with 84o in the bb. Flop 856 rainbow. I check he bets. I call. Turn K. I check he checks. River he bets 6/10 of the pot. I, after some deliberation and trash talk from my brother call to be shown q8 to beat my 84.

Then I fold on the button my brother limps in the sb and Andy checks. Now im out of the hand and dealing. The flop is a K82 rainbow and a bet comes from my brother followed by a call. Turn is an offsuit 8 again bet call. River 2 my brother checks and Andy moves in. Andy has already been caught with his hand in the cookie jar this evening and could be at it again.

Well now the battle of nerves ensues. I'm sure they are both strong, Ady, my brother, puts chips in the pot and then withdraws them. I call foul stating that he had called by putting his chips in the middle. An argument ensued in which, rightly,I told my brother he had called by putting his chips in the middle. he refused to honour the bet, I explained the string bet rule to no avail and my brother was allowed to fold with no penalty. I knew he had a read off Andy from putting his chips in the middle.

I few hands later Andy coughed to having trip kings. I told my brother that he knew what Andy had and that he gained an unfair advantage. He swore on his sons life that he hadn't and I said he had! Now because I had opposed his son's life in a a matter of opinion I was suddenly the bad guy and my brother threatened to smash my face in. I'm used to violence and was unfased by this however my brother wouldn't let it lie. I admitted that he might not have known for sure that Andy had trip kings but I maintained that he had gained an unfair advantage by his actions. Well this set the touch paper once and for all,. I had disrespected his son's life and I was in the wrong. Andy offered the 2 pounds back all round and I left the arena to go home to my wife.

Now my brother and I don't appear to be friends, all through a couple of hands of poker! I quite like a bit of conflict and a bit of mind games over the table and for me all's fair in love and war but this went a bridge too far.

I think my brother is jealous because i offered my mum some financial assistance over the house, to my mum, but I didn't realize the reaction I was going to get.

Pretty hardcore, I'll let you know how it pans out but I haven't had a fallout like that with my brother since I was 16.(20 years ago).

5th in an MTT.

Have just come 5/85 in a $15 MTT with 85 runners. Only got $35 but it's nice that my MTT game is in good shape. I feel confident about my MTTs and am cashing consistently, probably about 1 in 3 at the moment. My MTT game has certainly held me up recently.
I feel I'm a good limit cash player but the variance there is high. I even read an article by Carl Sampsom that he has given up playing limit due to the swings. I won't be giving up limit but it is swingy.
My NL cash game comes in a poor third. I just don't get what to do with your top pair type hands. It seems every time i hit top pr at the moment somebody goes in over the top of me leaving me with the sort of decision like do I want to call off all of my chips here with a pair of tens, especially when there is a streight or flush out there. The fishies will also call pot sized bets on the turn with the flush draw then bet the pot on the river when it hits. It's just so hard to fold the top pair/overpair hands when that happens, they don't even value bet to give you the odds to call they just barrel a big bet out there, and they always hit. I haven't caught a bluff in ages.
I still don't truly understand the value of my hand in NL. In limit it's easy, you just call down with top pair unless you have compelling evidence you are beaten. In NL it's hazy especially when players will draw to odd hands without the proper odds or just hit a set every time you are in with them.
I know I'm not running that good but I find it hard to get away from my hand.

Just giving the nod to my favourite TV shows....

Which are of course Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and Ashes to Ashes.
Looks like Lost, Heores and Battlestar have just finished so I'm going to have to watch The Unit and Fringe which come a poor second to the above...

2 outer

I get it. So I've run okay for a couple of weeks, so now I have to run like shit again.

I just got 2 outered by some fish limping under the gun with 22. he called all the way to the river with 4 overcards on board and hit his set on the river.

I HATE them! When do i ever get to hit a 22-1 shot? Never that's when.

Now the same dude capped a flush draw into my full house and sucked out again hitting another 2 outer runner runner to split.

I'm not even mad it just stuns me to see a guy hit a 50/1 double hitter and I can't even win with AA.

Paypal Rant!

Arrrrrrrrrgh!

I'm a tad upset. I verified my paypal account thinking that all would remain as it was. Noooo, they had decided that they would then take money directly out of my bank account. Now that particular account has no money in it, although I have a few quid in my other accounts with the same bank.
So my bank sent me a letter that paypal did not get their money and that my bank were going to charge me.
So I rang my bank and they saiid that i have made a direct debit with paypal and that they were going to charge me 38 quid for thier trouble.

Well the baloon went up for a minute there I went mad a paypal, mad at my bank and threatened to take all of my money out.

I then rang my bank back and another lady answered and she was most helpful and told me that it had all been a big mistake.

So all's well that ends well but i went off one one for a minute.

I daren't play poker as i'm now tilted.

On the plus side my roll is now $1500, i'm on my way and crushing 50NL so far.

Now I won a MTT!

So having run like poo for months I suddenly can't lose! I just won a baby MTT! Okay only $100 but it all counts!

And I won $30 in the $50 NL cashgame I was playing at the same time! Yippee!

50NL coming up.

Okay from being unable to win a tin of beans in a tombola I have suddenly grown my roll to over $1200. I've taken over $300 out of 1/2 limit games in the past couple of days. Weird game!

Here's where it get's tricky.

I now have enough for 50NL. So I guess we play that now however the site I'm on doesn't have any 2/4 limit so I'll have to stick to 1/2 until my roll hits about $2.5k when I'll play 4/8.

I have to say I crush 25 NL currently for about 19bb/100 although over a small sample so i won't lose at 50.

I have to say I got into trouble last time playing 50nl/2/4 limit and went on my bad run but I now know it was mostly to do with running like poo and showing down too light.

I'm gonna rest up now and hit the 50s in the morning. Wish me luck.

Result!

Just took $100 out of a limit game. This puts my roll above $1k. I'm back!

So how's it going?

Okay bit of a 4 month review.

Poker. Progerss has been made. Having gone down from $1k to $400 now back to nearly $900 I'm fairly happy. I have control of my NL game but can't win at limit at all! I basically know what I'm doing at poker but it takes a lot of hands to build a decent bankroll. I just don't play enough hands/tables/hours. Overplaying is counterproductve so I'm happy but I'd just like to have a bigger roll and play higher. I would love to get back to a 10k roll which is where I feel I belong. I have to say that the competition is much tougher these days and even the fish who play too many hands have a firm grasp on post flop play.

Golf. Okay I can now scrape round the course in less than 100. I went round in 99 today and 92 last week so my golf is improving steadily however I was a better player about 4 years ago. I struggle with motivation at golf because I know I'll never be very good at it. I am not a big hitter and I struggle with this. If i can just get a little more consistent then all will be good. In all I'm pleased with my golf and it gets me out of the house which is a major bonus.

Career. Well I passed the promotion interview so that is a big positive however I'm still not promoted yet, I'm waiting for a position. At least I'm heading in the right direction there.

Relationship. Wife seems fairly happy, so long as I take her out every now and then and promise to take her on holiday towards the end of the year she'll stick around! We're happy together. We would like to spend more time together but work kind of gets in the way.

Issues: The only thing bugging me at the moment is that my internet connection has gone really crap for no reason. It has suddenly gone really slow and keeps disconnecting me, which really is shit for poker/xbox.
I've rang Netgear who were helpful but they haven't fixed my problem. AOL have the customer service of dead animals. I'd take my business elsewhere but they seem to be the only providers who connect here so i guess I'm stuck. I'd love the virgin package but they haven't dug up the footpaths in my area so i can't get it.
Oh and i'm fat and don't go to the gym enough.

If my only problems are middle aged spread and poor internet connection then I can't really complain.

My goals are to hit a $3k bankroll, get a sub 90 round in at golf and see my promotion through at work. Fairly achievable stuff by the end of the year!