badabing, badaboom...

Another strong session today. The cards were hitting me pretty good but I really feel (except for one semi-dubious $20 river call) that I played some quality PLO today. Had a quick session of less than 2 hours this afternoon and played much more aggressively and with more control than I've had for a long time. I am trying to put a bit more pressure on chasers when I hold good position and I feel I really accomplished that aim today, pushing large bets in even when scare cards hit the board, and for once the suck outs seemed only to come in smaller pots and keep my big hands fairly clean.

My best moments came in a couple of big pots, firstly as my KK hit a K8T flop, the turn brought a 9 and my single opponent (with over $50 on the table) checked to me; I decided to bet out, he called, and when the second 9 hit the river it was an easy all in. He showed his horribly played straight and the $200 pot zoomed my way. Later on I called preflop with QQ77, and found a flop of Q67 with two diamonds! I lead out, and got raised the maximum. I was expecting the worst (a wrap with flush draw) which would make me only marginal favourite, but it turned out my foolish opponent held only the bottom set, talk about dominated! The $210 pot was most welcome.

Anyhow, overall, $340 won in two hours, and I felt for the first time in a while confident enough to really dominate the table with a lot of aggression preflop and beyond, and seemed to make the right decision time and again on the river. When I'm in that frame of mind I really feel like the cards only have to cooperate and no-one can touch me in the 100 and 200 buyin games, and so it proved today.

I made decent money in the 50PLO at UltimateBet (to free up a little bonus, and because the empire tables looked tight for a while), a profit at the 200PLO at empire, and a LARGE profit of 250-odd at my two 100PLO InterPoker tables. Suddenly March is looking much, much better!

Winnings: $2410
Hours: 59
Winrate: $41/hr

Back on track winrate-wise, and looking forward to a nice pay-off in my Empire rake rebate, which I think I'll put towards April's numbers. Booya!

Monk
xxxxx

I tell you what I fucking hate. The fact that Party and sodding Empire, when you drop your internet connection, put up a "health pokerservices" window that tells you you can't connect to the site. Well BIG SODDING DEAL, I know I can't. Grrrr. And the worst thing is, instead of OPENING a new explorer window to do it, it HIJACKS a window that's already open. I can't think of any idiocy of a poker site more flagrant than this, except perhaps the fact that it takes about ten minutes to get back into stars if your connection drops.

Anyway, long story short I just spent 20 minutes writing my latest journal entry, which was kind of an interesting one, and when my connection dropped, the mother-lovers at empire decided to hijack my browser window to tell me that the webpage telling me i couldn't connect to empire is not available offline. Consequently I'm pissed off and can't be bothered reiterating the longwinded story of how I made $300 in two hours this afternoon. Here's the damn numbers.

Winnings: $2720
Hours: 61
Winrate: $44.6/hr

Monk
xxxxx

Monk - I think we covered this in your other journal - write up your journals (or any long post for that matter - which for you is all posts...) in a text editor and then copy and paste. This way - you can write your entry and not have to worry about posting it before you are ready, nasty IE hijacks or even accidental misclicks to put you on some other porn sites...

One would think you would've learned by now...

/d

Well, had a kinda fun evening. I have been playing about with my NEW 20" LCD flatscreen TV with integrated DVD player I bought today, partly with birthday cash from my parentals, and partly with other people's money from the poker tables. Man is it GOOD, although the reception of TV stations in this part of the world is pretty bad. Once I get my new place (hopefully) sometime in the next 6 months, I'll maybe get cable or something to make good use of it.

With the money i spent on the TV, my car MOT/service/repairs (which is going to cost in total somewhere in the $1000 region), my car insurance which is due next month (another £700 - $1400 give or take) and the $800 I spent on some dentist stuff lately, I really need the money from poker right now, so I went reluctantly back to the tables today. Tightwad was online so I decided to break the habit of nearly one year, and join him on some 3/6 limit holdem...

Wierd, but I kinda enjoyed it. I havent played limit since I lost nearly $1k trying to make $40/hr playing 3/6 in the middle of last year, and shelved the whole project as a bad idea. Anyway, some crap happened today that made me remember why limit can be so damn frustrating. The first hand in particular was a kick in the balls, I couldn't believe both players could so much money in the pot with hands that were blatanlty drawing thin to dead but, damn, that idiot got there....

***** Hand History for Game 1808093835 *****
$3/$6 Hold'em - Monday, March 28, 17:43:23 EDT 2005
Table Table 32583 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 1: Fel_Monk ( $251.5 )
Seat 5: PLY_AGF ( $94 )
Seat 6: BIGGITYBIG ( $111.5 )
Seat 7: TangRocks ( $203.5 )
Seat 10: d_kajvi ( $187 )
Seat 4: twisterman ( $146 )
Seat 2: slipperyjoes ( $57 )
d_kajvi posts small blind [$1].
Fel_Monk posts big blind [$3].
slipperyjoes posts big blind [$3].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Fel_Monk [ 4c 4h ]
slipperyjoes raises [$3].
twisterman folds.
PLY_AGF calls [$6].
BIGGITYBIG folds.
>You have options at Table 32707 Table!.
TangRocks folds.
d_kajvi calls [$5].
Fel_Monk calls [$3].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 8d, 4s ]
d_kajvi checks.
Fel_Monk checks.
slipperyjoes bets [$3].
PLY_AGF calls [$3].
d_kajvi calls [$3].
Fel_Monk raises [$6].
slipperyjoes raises [$6].
>You have options at Table 15839 Table!.
PLY_AGF calls [$6].
d_kajvi folds.
Fel_Monk raises [$6].
slipperyjoes calls [$3].
PLY_AGF calls [$3].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8s ]
Fel_Monk bets [$6].
slipperyjoes raises [$12].
PLY_AGF calls [$12].
ArcadiaTGR has joined the table.
Fel_Monk raises [$12].
slipperyjoes raises [$12].
>You have options at Table 15839 Table!.
PLY_AGF calls [$12].
Fel_Monk calls [$6].
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]
Fel_Monk checks.
slipperyjoes bets [$6].
PLY_AGF raises [$12].
Fel_Monk calls [$12].
slipperyjoes is all-In [$9]
PLY_AGF raises [$9].
Fel_Monk: well slippery this was a damn food spot to find your TT you lucky bum
Fel_Monk: good
Fel_Monk calls [$9].
PLY_AGF shows [ 8c, 9d ] a full house, Eights full of nines.
Fel_Monk doesn't show [ 4c, 4h ] a full house, Fours full of eights.
slipperyjoes doesn't show [ Js, Qs ] a flush, queen high.
PLY_AGF wins $12 from side pot #1 with a full house, Eights full of nines.
PLY_AGF wins $177 from the main pot with a full house, Eights full of nines.
>You have options at Table 15839 Table!.

Another unbelievable three bet from the SB followed up by raising and betting all the way with a flush draw... when the flush hit on the river, I knew there was no way he could have the ace-high because he raised the flop (mustve been AA or AQ, he couldn't have AKs because I had the K). Oh, great. He three-bet AJs from the small blind. Genius.

***** Hand History for Game 1808148509 *****
$3/$6 Hold'em - Monday, March 28, 17:55:22 EDT 2005
Table Table 32707 (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 2: Topproduct26 ( $121 )
Seat 4: TangRocks ( $221.75 )
Seat 7: PaulisBono ( $435.5 )
Seat 10: newhardblue ( $237.75 )
Seat 9: Fel_Monk ( $238.5 )
Seat 1: cnfuzzd ( $96 )
Seat 8: Krunk77 ( $178 )
Seat 3: Maysman ( $135 )
Seat 6: bdgsz626 ( $47 )
cnfuzzd posts small blind [$1].
Topproduct26 posts big blind [$3].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Fel_Monk [ Qc Kc ]
Maysman folds.
>You have options at Table 32583 Table!.
TangRocks folds.
bdgsz626 folds.
PaulisBono folds.
Krunk77 folds.
Fel_Monk raises [$6].
newhardblue folds.
cnfuzzd raises [$8].
Topproduct26 folds.
Fel_Monk calls [$3].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qh, 5c, 2c ]
cnfuzzd bets [$3].
Fel_Monk raises [$6].
cnfuzzd raises [$6].
Fel_Monk calls [$3].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
cnfuzzd bets [$6].
Fel_Monk calls [$6].
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
cnfuzzd bets [$6].
Fel_Monk raises [$12].
cnfuzzd raises [$12].
Fel_Monk raises [$12].
cnfuzzd calls [$6].
Fel_Monk shows [ Qc, Kc ] a flush, king high.
cnfuzzd shows [ Ac, Jc ] a flush, ace high.
cnfuzzd wins $96 from the main pot with a flush, ace high with ace kicker.

Those two hands apart I played great (including drubbing Tighty a couple of times with my QQ) and really felt I was pushing in the right spots, folding in the right spots, and, in all honesty, I don't think I put a foot seriously wrong all session. Not bad for a frustrated omaha player, maybe I could make a crust in this limit thing after all... Well, I suppose it WAS my main game about 18 months ago, so I haven't forgotten everything

Anyhow, I won about 80 bucks. Was over 200 at one point but that horrible 4 outer on the first hand I put in here for the 180 pot was the killer. Rather like my PLO session this afternoon, it coulda been collosal except for some rivers, but I shouldn't complain as it went ok other than that. My only problem is that because i havent played limit in ages, I don't have a space for it on my records spreadsheet and so I've had to file it under limit omaha! At least it'll boost my risible O8 stats for 2005...

Winnings: $2800
Hours: 62
Winrate: $45

OK, I'm off to watch my spankingly superb TV! And spare a thought for tightwad, who seems to be having a rough time of it at the tables.... me coming along and crapping on his AK a couple of times can't have helped!

Monk
xxxxx

Had a quickie today.... At least I won, though I played like garbage at the start, making stupid little fanny raises with single suited aces from the blinds and other pointless plays. I think it was a contrived effort to put some variation into my game, or something, but it lost me a bit early on so I was glad to finish up, although I did have an annoying loos late on in a $110 pot when a steaming idiot pushed his last $50 in preflop with some garbage like K752 all one suit when I had AAJ9ss, and the pot went the other way. Again one pot woulda made a mediocre session a good one, but I shouldn't complain as I didnt play very well. I also made an aggressive/foolish play with a nut flush draw into a 4 man field which lost me a stack when someone woke up with top set. Oh well, can't win em all.

A few good hands didnt get paid off, though I had others' poor play to thank on a couple of occasions; once, I flopped the top flush with some BB garbage, all spades. A terrible player lead for a small bet, I raised the maximum (the field was big and I didn't want to give a set any good reason to call). A decent player with a set called, a short-stack with the second nu flush went all in, thus reopening the pot and letting me push all in. The bad player called with top two, which kinda crippled the decent player's second set (still a bad play by him I think), and I was in the unusual spot of getting all in FOUR ways on the flop with the nut flush! Anyway, it held for a $260 pot. At that point I was nicely up, and then I made a bit more when I turned a nut flush on empire and one guy paid off two half pot bets with a 9 high flush (I made a nice note of his actions!). It was the only hand I had on Empire in 2 hours; I went to showdown (I think) only once in the whole session, and did great to finish $7 up!

Anyhow, I fancied playing some limit because I really enjoyed it last night at empire but it's late, i was tired today and i want to protect my pathetic $37 win so I'm gonna hit the sack.... I'd really like to know how much rakeback I have built up on empire, hopefully i have a fair bit this month. Going to play the next coupla nights if I can, would be lovely to hit $3k!

Winnings: $2840
Hours: 64
Winrate: $45/hr

Oh, and I have a new article up today at BTP! Check out pot-limit-omaha-post-flop-plays-page81.html for some PLO goodness. This article is not available at www.tubgirl.com

Monk
xxxxx

I think i know that link well enough not to click on it, but nice try.

Lol! Well you wanna leave tubgirl well alone, yup. Check out the omaha article though, that is safely clickable

Monk, that tubgirl ploy is just downright cruel and nasty, and speaks volumes about how tragically deformed your character is.

The above sentence may be the only compliment I've ever given you, so cherish it!

As for the PLO article...well, it pains me to say it, but there's some good stuff in there. Keep it comin, donkeyman!

-TW

Hola, muchachas!

Well, I played a bit more 3/6 holdem tonight. I guess it's my "reward" (lol never thought i'd talk about limit like that...) for having done well in the last weeks of this month, and I've actually been really enjoying it, which has surprised me. Perhaps sometime this year I might take a peak at 5/10 and see how I do....

Anyhow, I was well up again (150 or so) but finished only 60 up. I think I played OK but I missed at least one or two good spots to bet, and at times I feel I was SLIGHTLY too aggressive, but I believe it's better to err on that side in limit so it's not too bad for a rusty ol' omaha semi-pro. Was fun playing with Tightwad again although we didn't really get into many hands with each other, mind you I did foolishly tell him in one hand I had AQ when I hadn't realised he called my raise he had TT and took it by CRing the J high flop... D'oh.

Anyhoo, Die Hard is on so I might go to bed and watch that on my spangly new 20" flatscreen. One more day of the month, it'd be nice to break $3k but nvm... I dunno if i'll get chance to play cos i was gonna go for a drink after work with someone tomorrow, so kinda depends what sort of time i get home!

$2910
66 hours
$44/hr


Monk
xxxxx

Hurrah! Even after a bad start and getting crapped on three times by opponents taking one of my $100 stacks playing horribly, I still made enough today to top $3k for another nice month, cash-wise, although the hourly rate is only kinda average.

For what it's worth, I played $200PLO at empire today (two tables for an hour or so) and made one BIG pot of about $450 when I got lucky.... raised AAxxss in EP, got re-raised and called. Flop came KT5 with two of my suit, I lead out big and the preflop raiser popped me back all-in ... anyhow, my spade outs were obviously all clean, my ace would probably win if i hit, so I called down with two cards to come and getting paid 2:1 on the pot. He flipped up a good news/bad news hand at the end.... he had KQJT with two spades, giving him blockers to my flush and killing my ace outs, but giving me additional outs to a higher two pair. Anyhow, I caught the flush, which must've annoyed him as he had the second nut when the cards flipped at the end, and I took a biggie.

In the 100PLO over at InterPoker, I lost a few hands, including two when I got in with the best hand and one where my opponent horribly misplayed his hand and got all in with a bare draw that was about 40% dog. I lost them all, but my luck in the 200 hand meant that overall I plugges a $120 profit in my 3 1/2 hour session. Good finish to march, roll on April!

FINAL MARCH FIGURES:

Total Winnings: $3030
Hours played: Just under 70 hours
Hourly winrate: $43.3/hour

Pretty much on target. So far this year I have made in excess of $8,000 in the first quarter, a yearly target of $30,000 seems like a good one to shoot at. This should allow me to accomplish the things I want to do in my life, as it stands, this year, including buying a house and developing enough of a float to be able to get all the stuff I want without compromising my bankroll, and also being able to change up my car sometime a month or two into 2006.

Anyhow, I have some more figures to post but no time to do it right now! Laters!

Monk
xxxxx

Well, I figure I should use this thread as my perma-journal and begin my official

APRIL JOURNAL

...right now...

Haven't checked in this week because I've been kinda busy, and not really in the mood for journals cos i'm fairly pissed off. I'm tired, not getting enough sleep, work has absolutely SUCKED this week to the point where i've been sloping off for hours in the afternoon just to get out of the fucking office, the only thing i've really been looking forward to, sadly enough, is coming home to get a coupla hours in, and, true to form, last three days i've been getting my ass handed to me at 3/6 limit.

I got back playing a little limit with Tightwad last week, to close out March, another strong month for me. Thought i'd persevere this week and, although I'm only like 37BBs down in this run, all the previous frustrations that always pissed me off about limit have returned so I'm kinda annoyed i've blown 200 bucks plus messing about with it.

I also find, because poker time is limited, i'm playing most nights, and playing too late into the night. My sleep patterns are pretty screwed and thus i spend all day at work tired, irritable and far from alert, and the daily grind of driving to and from the place on the same roads and coming home, eating, playing poker/watching tv and going to bed is pretty shite right now. I think I really need a holiday, or something. My next big project is to try to find a house to move into, this was part of my yearly project to make a minimum of £15,000 ($30,000) playing poker (which i'm on track for), use this to get myself a nice little house/flat of my own, perhaps with some additional space i can rent out to pay the bills whilst i save the poker money. I had my eye on a fancy new car for early next year too, so i budgetted for needing about £40,000 to do all this and allow myself a strong poker bankroll, all of which i need by early next year. Thankfully, i'm kinda on track for that poker-wise, but life grinding along like this is kinda crap so i think i need to sort a few things out. Like getting laid, having a holiday, finding a bit more interest in work, sorting out a house, being less of an asshole to people in my life and saving the whales etc.... Problem is there doesn't seem enough hours in the day. More and more I think that cutting back on work hours next year might be the solution, as it's the only element of my life i want to be doing LESS; certainly, i like getting in a coupla hours poker a day, minimum, and i need to sleep more, go out more, do stuff during the days etc. Maybe next year I'll try to cut back to a three day week, but god knows how everything'll be going then. That'd basically mean relying on poker to pay the bills each month which i'm currently a bit loathed to do.

Anyhow, upshot is i'm a bit ticked off this week and so i'd really like something good to happen at some point in the near future, goddamit! I have busy stuff at work for the next week or two, and then after that maybe i can take a week away somewhere and do the whole house hunting thing for a bit.

As for poker this month, well, we'll see. I'll get my crypto bonuses and stick with PLO for a while. Still really enjoying the game but maybe other areas need looking at in the immediate future! We'll see what happens....

Monk
xxxxx