Some relief...

Well, as i only post when i win...i should probably post about now.

Went deep in the Stars $3r last night, got the the final 3/9 and managed to come 2nd for $2.4K.

I thought about folding, but grew some sack for once

I wasnt too happy though, as the opponent i drew heads up for the guy id've picked to play from 18 left.

Set up so hard beeyotch

Then he trapped me himself:

Bad/Tilty call

I managed to get out a line i've been wanting to say for a while now. When some kid proposed a deal. I shot back with ''No deals bitches'' so was happy to get it out finally. Speaking of the chatbox, must give a big shout out to messr's Horneris and ChipRich, whom both recieved 1 month chatbans on Stars for their abusive rail comments directed at anyone who won a pot off me. Horneris managed to lose his with 16 left, and ChipRich managed to rail some final table action, losing his with around 8 left.

If i had won, i was going to take a week off from poker and just kick back doing nothing. But that would've probably been a bad idea anyway as i'm finally coming into some form. Maybe the pokergods have something bigger in store for me?!

I'l be jetting off to Ireland on the first for the APAT Dublin event, this should be great fun with the characters that are Linux, Kinboshi, Colchester Kev etc.

Check this out: JimStringer there are some pic's of myself, Horneris and ChipRich after an all day drinkathon then hitting some casino action.

Note: I have updated my 'blogs' section, take a glance at a few, you'll find some entertaining reads.

Send it.

LeKnave takes the $3.5K down on iPoker, send it.

Well timed win i think, hopefully i have opened the flood gates and my total roll has been boosted back over £4K. So i'm content for now would love another win soon though.


I have cleared 450 FPP's of the 2250 required to clear my $150 bonus on stars. Will try play 100 sng's tomorrow when i can be arsed.

Stoke Team Event

LeKnave, ChipRich, Horneris, Kinboshi, the nun, MasterOfNun, SnipeR and Sledge13 made up the blondepoker.com team chosen to take on Stokes finest.

The event consisted of 10 teams with 8 players playing an 8 table shootout (1 team member per table) with the top 2 getting through to the final 16. And points were allocated dependant on the positions people busted.

For the 64 who didnt make it through, a bounty tournament was started, giving £5 and 1 point for each bounty a player took.

Round 1

I sat back for a while to get a feel for the table, and was pretty comfortable with it. As blinds escalated i started raising in late pos and taking it down or limping and betting w/e flop came. This worked fine, and as the bb got to over 1/100 of the chips in play, i started using the strategy that has treated me so well in online sng's. It is a strategy i learnt from watching bigjoe2003 play. This involves jamming most hands and rapidly increasing your stack. This play started to especially annoy one player. Who tried to tell me it was poor as ''only a better hand will call'' little did he know, that the chances are its gonna be a while before he find that hand, and by that time, it wont even dent my stack. So i casually stated that this was the optimum play in a short stacked sng. This got under his skin you could tell, for him to come back saying how he plays £100 sng's on Ladbrookes. I couldn't have given less of a shit if he was Joe Hachem, he was my bitch and i was gonna own him.

After returning from the break, we were 4 handed, myself on the small blind for 600, him on the big blind for 1200. It was passed to me and he said, if u push im gonna call you blind. So i looked down at a pretty 83o, of course the 'optimum play' was to push. He dwelled up and stared me down for a while before folding. I just sat there mellow, Huck Seed style. I decided it would be best to show him the hand so i flipped up the pretty cards for all to see.

Of course it had to end as it usually does, the big stack limped on my small blind, the button passed and i look down at 2 red kings. I push, bb folds and the limper insta calls with 2 red aces. And it was all over.

Round 2

The scalp tourny was a great laugh and i was delighted to see i was drawn on ChipRich and SnipeR's table, so i knew we were in for some comedy. Starting with SnipeR putting his scalp card on his forehead, ending with him comparing Horneris to Greg Raymer. We were pissing ourselves. I busted with AK vs 99 and 55. I think id rather cut my eye out then lay AK in that joke of a tourny!

Brent decided to grind it out like Knish, for some reason making us stay way later then necessary, i was nailed from being up since 6am and not looking forward to driving back!

We had some further comedy with myself, Sledge13 (who was hammering back the magners) ChipRich and our pro railer, Linux. Involving him going to the toilet and ChipRich downing his pint, he wasn't too happy on his return to see the remaining dregs. Sledge will tell you that much!

All in all it was a great day and nice to meet the crew again. We were in stitches for the majority of the day and we'l have to do it again sometime. Looks like a few will be up at Moortown on the 25th for the £50 FO. Should be a good laugh.

PokerStars FTW

Pokerstars 10 billionth hand is coming up, and they are giving away a shed load of things.

10 billionth hand promotion

I have shipped another $600 onto stars as they are doing a reload bonus of 25% up to $150, i should be able to grind the $6's and clear that in about a day or two.

Edit: It should take 2/3 days as it is only the base FPP rate that counts towards clearing the bonus. I will be getting 6 points per $6.50 sng so will have to play 375 to clear the $150 bonus.

In other news, i ran good simultaneously in the $5r and $10r on Stars and iPoker, but only cashed for $260 total coming 7th and 12th. Could've been a lot more. TY to sledge/horneris and chiprich for the rail. A good payoff s coming soon, i know it.

Big MTT day results...

03:00 - $16.50 FO - -$16.50
03:00 - $11r $55K - -$31.00
05:00 - $22 FO - -$22.00
07:00 - $33 FO - -$33.00
07:45 - $1r - -$2.10
08.00 - $11 FO - -$11.00
08:30 - $2r - +$4.41 FUCKING SHIP IT. HOLLA
10:00 - $33 / $5K - -$33.00
10:15 - $5r - -$30.50
11:45 - $11 / $1.5K - -$11.00
13:00 - $10r - -$51.00
13:15 - $22 Deepstack - -$22.00
15:00 - $8r / $10K- -$24.80
16:15 - $33r / $5K - -$33.00
16:30 - $3r / $4.5K - -$9.30
17:00 - $11 / $2.5K - -$11.00
17:00 - $22 / $10K - -$22.00
17:45 - $22 / $3K - -$22.00
19:00 - $3r / $10K - -$21.30
19:15 - $11 FO - -$11.00
19:30 - $55 / $2K - +$345

Total - -$68.09

Wow, that was nearly so so sick. Then it all came through in the blonde $2K gtd. 3rd for $400, i blew up pretty badly though with 3 left.

Seat 1 - 6K
Seat 2 - 22K
Me - 32K

Seat 1 folds,
Seat 2 raises to 2400
I push all in w/ AQo
He calls with AKo

Hmm, slight cooler i suppose. But i played like a tool on the bubble (weak passive) As i was so desperate to make the cash in this one.

So the mtt day wasnt a total failure, i lost nearly $70, so will now play with the remaining $380 of remaining sng profit.

gg wp nh etc.

For fucks sake...

The one shot i had at a decent cash ends in the same shite, 4 hours 35 mins into the $22 Deepstack on stars, 24 left. 18 paid.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1081591

And Le-fucking-Knave is gone in 24th.

Big MTT day today...

Well, as i've only been playing 4-5 mtt's a day, today i decided im gonna have a shot and attempt a comma pay off. I've been coming so close to the big money, but kept falling 1 hurdle short. Today i'm gonna bring my A-game (if i have one) and WIN.

Schedule:

PokerStars
iPoker

03:00 - $16.50 FO
03:00 - $11r $55K
05:00 - $22 FO
07:00 - $33 FO
07:45 - $1r / $750
08.00 - $11 FO
08:30 - $2r / $1K
10:00 - $33 / $5K
10:15 - $5r
11:45 - $11 / $1.5K
13:00 - $10r
13:15 - $22 Deepstack
15:00 - $8r / $10K
16:15 - $33 / $5K
16:30 - $3r / $4.5K
17:00 - $11 / $2.5K
17:00 - $22 / $10K
17:45 - $22 / $3K
19:00 - $3r / $10K
19:15 - $11 FO
19:30 - $33 / $2K

I'll post up my net prof/loss for each game later on, lets win a biggie.

holla.

STT Stats and Live Plans...

I've been slacking off the sng challenge a bit, and only played like 60 in the past 3 days. I keep playing mtt's looking for a big win, but am always falling 1 hurdle too short these days. 20-50th for like $50 feels like 4-5hours wasted. It'l all be worth it when i can find a sweet cash though.

I've played 469 of the $3.40 and $6.50 turbo's in the past week, and its been easy going so far:

Pretty happy with the above graph and am pretty comfortable 8 tabling the sng's, when i 13 table im usually too slow and miss a few hands. Got tempted to play a few mtt's last night and ended up losing $80 total, because of my trigger happy play in $5r and $10r costing me a few $.

On the live news i have a few things coming up:

Grosvenor Stoke team event - This should be a great laugh, will be driving down with Horneris, ChipRich and Sledge13 to meet Kinboshi and a few others down there for a fun afternoon.

Note: We need another player for this, so if your available this saturday to be in Stoke for 4pm let me know

Moortown Masters - Dave at Grosvenor Moortown has sorted a nicely structured £50 FO (10K stack with 25/50 starting level) Which should be a good tourny and there are a lot of blondes going, so should be a good laugh.

APAT Dublin - Finally got off my arse to sort out going to one of these after Kinboshi non-stop raving about it. Horneris didnt get in, but i am still going with my faithful railbird Linux. Booked the plane tickets, the Hotel and the seat. Very efficient. I leave on the 1st June and return on the 4th for the excellently structured £75 FO.

I'll be hitting some more low buy in mtt's this week, as well as trying to hit a decent number of sng's so i dont lose too badly!

lol Sitngoaments

I really ground it out today, i think starting this prop bet with Horneris will be a +EV move, even if i lose the bet. Which i won't.

The stipulations for the bet were as follows:

''The tournaments must all start between 00.00 on 1st May, and 23:59 on 14th May (pokerstars time, so that's 5am on Tuesday 1st May, and 4:59am on Tuesday 15th
May our time)No tournaments below the $3+$0.40 level to be played.No-one but us to use our accounts obv.''

So, leaning on the cautious side, and only have $500 or so in my stars account at the moment, i decided to go for the $3.40 10 seater balls. I varied between 8-13 tabling them on my 2 monitor set up. And the results were very positive. I played 188 of them, the most i have ever played in one day by a long way. And i turned a $183 profit (28.6% ROI). I am eager to see what my ROI is like after a more long term number (1000-2000) have been played. I'm hoping i can maintain a 20% ROI while 8 tabling.

To see the current totals for myself and Horneris, Click here.

April Roundup

I gambled with basically any winnings i had in april, i was up around £1K at one point. Then since that iv swung round to -£150, and am ending the month at +£44.83. I decided to take a shot at a big month to see if i could do it. This time i failed and chunked off the profit buying into the $100K/$350K/$1M on stars. But u live and learn.

So again, a really lousy month, but il live. I've had a very enjoyable month and spent a lot of moniesss! On a lot of nights out. But May is not being a social month, its is a massive grind month. Churning out 1000's of sng's on stars to begin as LeKnave vs Horneris : May 2007 begins.

On another note, i've managed to score 4 free entries into the $100K on mansion again this week. So hopefully, i could run good and scoop $24K first prize and have a relaxing month! That would be the case in an ideal world, but we'l have to see how it goes.

Edit: Colchester Kev made a typo, and it is in fact not me who has won the 4 free entries. I'll get revenge sometime.

So I'll probs have a few punts at the sats for the $100K's, as the values heaven, and the donk ChipRich will be in them if the value needed any more boosting ;-)



So, a great start to May is needed and ideally i would like to win £2300 in may, to attain my target average of £1K/month.

Blonde Bash 4 : Trip Report

Click Here to read the trip report i wrote on Myself, Horneris, ChipRich and The_Gibs trip down to luton for the blonde bash 4.

Gamble to win...

Took a few big shots this sunday to try earn so decent scratch.

Bought into the $300K on PTY and the $1M on stars, and managed 1 cash in the 1M for a mere $403 with 2 sick hands which could've allowed me to go deep.

AA cracked

First this hand, i decided that as it was 'moving time' on my table, a limp UTG to stem some action would be required. The play worked perfectly and i was in a great spot to have a T$150K stack.

Final Hand

The final hand was pretty standard, and when the turn fell, i really didnt like it for some reason but at that point there was no real way back.

I thought i played pretty solidly and took a lot of shots at pots on the flop later on, which were taken down uncontested. I really like the calibre of field in the million, and it is usually pretty easy to navigate. Just need the few breaks to go deep.

Currently for April im in profit by +£450 so its not all too bad, and il keep plugging away to try bag a real cash.

I've been playing the MTT's on stars in a very disciplined manner and have been going very well in the $3r+$5r then just flickering out by losing that essential CF with 50ish left.

I did have a $1000 cash in one of the mansion $100K's a few weeks back when i ran QQ into KK to miss a shot at the big monies. Hopefully i can score a decent cash some point soon and have good news to report.

April Joy...

Ship it, Crucial.

He's back, its been a long time coming but recently the form has been increasing...

But today, it came together, and i hit some mtt's on stars, 4 to be exact...i cashed in both $3r's for $40+ and $30+ respectively, and then i jumped in the $16.50 360 max, to get in a torny with a manageble field on stars for once, and i managed to take it down for $1350. SHIP THAT. HOLLA. I played it pretty well from 9 til 2 left, then went on sick tilt HU after having him on his last legs then him coming back. But i managed to pwn him when the half wilson hit a sweet 2 outer to come bk and proceed to get him in with the best of it a few more times before my 44 held up vs his JQ, a nice 346 flop calmed the nerves.

As i won the Mansion draw on blonde this week, winning entry to 4 of the $100K's, i will be staying in for the next 4 days (except friday when the $100K is @ 11am) I'd love another big score, and will report back on sunday night after a few more mtt's.

Will be hitting Moortown G on Fri, Mon, Tues and Weds next week probs, so hope to get a decent ship there...

March Roundup

March, as you will already know has been bad news, but its looking i good, and i feel like its coming together again.

On the live front, i have finalled in the 4 of my last 6 visits. Showing £311.50 profit.

On the online front, i have been on a break of sorts, and only played in 2 of the past 6 days, and those sessions were v short. Both sessions have been winning, yielding $173.50 profit.

Maybe both of these ends to March have given me the confidence i need to have a great April. I've been cashing a lot in the DTD tournys and been playing them almost exclusively, and made the £8K's last 2 tables twice, picking up £81.50 and £80.00 respectably, only a coinflip away from a big £1K+ cash. So i think im back on track and looking forward to starting afresh in april.

Results:

Live:

The end of March completes the 12th month of me playing live in casinos, of those 12 months, 10 are in profit and 2 in slight loss:

April -- £79.75
May -- £122.85
June -- £252.25
July -- £157.80
August -- £19.00
September -- £200.12
October -- £196.70
November -- -(£98.30)
December -- £122.00
January -- £310.00
February -- -(£23.00)
March -- £244.50

It was the first time i actually added them up in monthly blocks, and am really pleased with how succesful my first year was on the live scene. Winning £1583.67 in £5-£20 tournys is an ok achievement for my first 12 months, hopefully i can recreate it over the next 12, and up the stakes up to the £75 level.

Online:

As you can see, -£1567.70 for march. SO SICK.

But i dont want to dwell on it, its only one month in the scheme of things and we'l see how april begins, please be another January, one time.

I aim to play 15 live tournys in April, as i'm having a jam packed easter schedule with ChipRich and Horneris, it was going to include the £100 event @ Merrion Grosvenor, advertised as a 10,000 stack 25/50 60 minute clock job, but this is incorrect and it is only 5,000 chips, so we will give it a miss and grind out the £20's @ Moortown.

holla.

Live week...

Been playing a lot live this week.

Sun - £10 w/1RB @ Grosvenor Moortown
Mon - £15 w/1RB at Grosvenor Moortown
Tue - £25 FO @ Grosvenor Stoke
Wed - £10 w/1RB @ Grosvenor Moortown

I won the Monday torn for £275, only 25 runners...but it increased the confidence in my live game.

I played the game rly well, and pretty LAG due to how passive most of the field were. The final was a piece of cake except for ChipRich who bust out in 4th. Going into the final 3 i had about 140K vs 20K and 40K so it was mine to lose, and thankfully i didnt.

On tues we took a trip to Stoke and met up with Kinboshi off the blonde forum, he was a decent laugh as ever and me and him bust fairly early so decided to give some abuse on the rail. Which is always fun.

And on weds we met up with Sniper and Sledge13 (Clint+Marc) also from the blonde forum. And had a great laugh as Marc lost with every premium hand possible the highlight was certainly just after his AA was cracked by 77 for a £160 pot and his QQ cracked by K8. Sniper shouts "SHIP IT......STANDARD" right across the cardroom to ChipRich+Horneris on the final table of the tournament, and the entire table were in hysterics. All credit to sledge, he took his beats like a man and re-loaded and ground some of it back, respect sir. The cash game was great, had a short handed £0.50/£1.00 and i finished off +£63 which was pretty sweet.

Live profit for this week:

Mon = -£17 (10% of CR's 3rd)
Tues = +£208 (Gave CR 10% of diff)
Weds = -£25
Thur = +£46

TOT = +£212

Back to my online grind im spending far too much ££ at the minute and really have to cut down and starting pwning online...something i have forgotton how to do.

I've set up the old PC monitor in my room which is now hooked up to the laptop to allow me to easily 8 table mtt's on various sites. atm i have cash on Party, Stars, DTD, FullTilt and Mansion. So will be playing all sorts of mtts before the close of march to try get in profit. Let the grind/gamble begin.

holla.

Seeing red...

Alas, it returned dreaded BR crushing tilt...LOL im so fkin sick.

Was hitting the HU cash tables on FT, Only $0.50/$1 and pwning this fool, then his 7d8d beats my TT on a T8X flop, running 2 diamonds, so i was like ok, hes doubled his $40 to $80, so i reload for a hundred to own this guy so hard.

Then i get it in with QQ pre vs his TT, he duely peels a T off for the $180 pot. At this point i was fuming, and booted my bed obv.

I decided it would be a realy good idea to play some $2/4, tbf, i pwned in this game and won about $70 then launched into some $1/2 CapNL. I just played real bad, and donked off the rest of the roll...only about $200. At this time i was also putting my £120 i had left on DTD into a £1/2 table then a $2/5 table, obv i got it all in with 5h3h and got outdrawn by his A6. brutal.

I've told u all abut 4 times now how big a cash fish i am, but for some reason i decide i have to launch back. This was all after a downswing on the party $11 sngs, so i was pretty steamed. And lost another $200 in $1/2 on party where my set lost to a FD.

I went away composed myself and hit a few of the early morning MTT's on party, the $44 i manage to take down for $592, LOL donkaments. So tilt was over, and neutralised. holla. This session really was a wake up call though. I really shouldn't play cash, i can come bk to sngs later, but for now im gonna go bk to Jan+Febs glory days and start mulling the MTT's again.

Hopefully i can lock up a big win and get March into the greeeeeeeen. So on reflection it was a dumb idea, but we all do it. And i think i have learnt something this time.

I feel it is really important to lock up some decent rollage for october to be Br'd for playing the sunday $215's everywhere as well as trying to follow in some of the greatest in the $10-$50r's. To hit these games i would say i would like to invest 2% of my roll max into an mtt. So $215x50 = $10,750. That is a very realistic aim and tbf all i have to do to acheive that is break even until oct.

Back to the grindstone. peace.

The plan...

I know a lot of people will say im stupid for what i propose to do at the end of this year, but im young and there is only one thing i want to do with my life...

I dont want to look back and think what could have been, this is my shot. I have to take it.

I was planning on going to Nottingham Uni in Sept/Oct this year, but, as anybody would tell you, there is no way i could get a degree this year. I would be online or at DTD all the time grinding out an existence on a £4K a year course. So why should i do it there when i can do it in a nice house with 3 of my best mates for £1200 a year max?

So this is the new plan...

LeKnave, Horneris, ChipRich and Linux are moving into Linux's house when his mum leaves in October. The for of us will be grinding it out, going out and generally living the dream, well, living my dream anyway.

I have a lot to look forward to and a lot of ideas have been flying about regarding what to do before october. Whether it be grinding it out here at home or working out of the country for 4-6 months with Rich, its just about building a roll to ensure going broke at ship it standard mansion is an unlikely scenario.

Before you say, what if u blow it? ur whole futures gone...I will infact have a safety net for if i do happen to fail/go broke. I will be defering my university entry until sept/oct 2008. This way i have the year to pwn it up massive and try to make the dream a reality. And secondly, if i fail its out of my system and time to grow up and move on to get a degree and poker wont be such a big part of my life there and i can get on with work.

So the plans for apr-sept arn't really finalised, from apr-aug i will either be here grinding out the $11 sng's on party. Or be on a cruise ship working with Rich. I would be equally happy to do either. I think it would be beneficial to do either, grinding for experience, cruise ship for a break bfore the solid grind begins. In sept the 4 of us will be taking a month long vacation to relax and play some golf in the sun at my villa in spain.

Then we will return fresh to begin our lives...say what you want, if i take my shot and miss, so be it...but if i hit the bullseye who knows what could happen.

I've been spending a lot of money recently on going out, see the latest venture at http://shipitstandard.blogspot.com. And this has left me with approximately £3.8K in the bank and a tad over £1K online. So i have £4.8K to work with and thankfully my parents bought me a laptop for my birthday so that saves my £800 or so...With this £4.8K i think i am going to have £4K for poker, putting £800 into a new bank account which i will use for buying non-poker related things such as going out, buying clothes etc. I will cash some money into this every month to make sure it doesnt go empty.

But i will attempt to grind this £4K and by october the 1st i would like a BR which can cope with $50 sngs. i will settle for a £5K BR by then, left over from the summers spending.

Thats the plan anyway, how well i stick to it we will see, but its time to get serious and set myself up for the shot of a lifetime.

March Blues...

Its not pretty news.

Im getting pwned all over the shop so far in the short 7 days of march. I just added up all the prof/loss and realised im stuck £769.63 so far.

This is mainly down to today tbh, i bought into the £12K on DTD for £55, and played like heaven. Down to 80ish players, i r/r a button raise all in with 88, it is 2900 more to call, he has 3100 left and calls with 9cTc. I duely lost, and was very annoyed.

The £8K went like shit and the $4K i busted with AA vs TT in hand 2. So donked off $250 in Stars cash + £100 in DTD cash. No idea why, but i just did.

Currently my Stars BR is $16.76, shipitholla. And i cant be arsed depositing on there anytime soon, so will probs try crush $6 Hu's til im broke/got enough to move up to $10's. See what happens. Il probs play the £8K + $4K's on DTD every night + try get a sweet cash that i have been relying on over previous months. Probs hit the $10-$30 Party FO's in search of soft wins. And finally i might try give my Party roll a boost by grinding stt, see how soft they are @ $10 and $20.

As for BPL, il wait til the move on March 12th to start hitting the iPoker MTT's as traffic on tribeca is appalling with the 2 main sites (VC + BlueSquare) already moving.

Better news next time hopefully.

holla.

Standard

This is by far the sickest hand i have been part of...and it was live.

Cash game 50p/50p

I get dealt [Jd Jc] on the big blind.
4 limpers.
I raise to £2.50
I get 1 caller in MP

*FLOP* [Jh 6h 4h]

I bet £5
MP r/r to £15
I call £10

*TURN* [Jh 6h 4h][6d]

I check
MP bets £15
I r/r all in for £28.50
MP insta calls

i assume he has the nut flush..

He turns over [6c 6s]

At this point my heart sank, and i know how negreanu felt in that brutal hand...

February results

Another solid month, i didn't expect it to be as good as Jan, but i can cope with it being this good!
Some good results on the MTT front, another 2 wins to add to the list. The sng front went pretty well, and the cash games were toned down! After some BR breaking on Stars. The -$1479.93 on stars is a big chunk of cash game loss but i'l live and learn.

On the live front, i have not played ONE single thing in february! Which is poor, and March will be an action month in terms of casino visits. I am infact, making my first casino visit for feb tonight, on the 28th ffs! So it could well be a losing month on the live front ;-)

So, £4.3K up for 2 months, thats not a bad wage i suppose...a lot more then a part time job could get! But hey, maybe il get pwned in march + blow it all then get a part time job and update this blog as a 'year in the life of a min wage slave'.

I dont think i could stick having a job, so back to the disciplined grind.

holla.