Monksta,

Sorry to hear about your rough session. Remember to keep your chin up at times like these. If nothing else, it facilitates healthier breathing patterns. Unless, of course, you're a mouth-breather...

Also got my chat banned, but I did get a kick out of the laundry-list of vulgarities they attatched to the e-mail. They look so much better uncensored.

-TW

I particularly liked the fact that they insisted that this served as a "first warning".... I assume if we transgress again that they'll ban us to placate the 4c/8c stud8 high-rollers

Well I figure I must've got my figures wrong yesterday because I had a losing session today (why oh why can't I string 2 winning ones together this month?) so I'm still treading water a bit, however when I went through my spreadsheet tonight my final total was exactly as it was yesterday. Oh well, at least I made a few bucks rake rebate I guess!

I also have a great bad beat story to tell (one of the three big pots I lost); on a table on Stars I was in the SB with AJJTds, decided to raise it a little preflop. Flopped a gorgeous J99. Turn 8, river 6, by now by stack is all in and the MP player flips up quad 9s. Ugh. $200-something pot as well. I guess these things happen now and again and to be honest I'm more annoyed by losing to a bad play than by big hand over big hand. At least he flopped it and didn't hit a one outer or anything....

My two other losses tonight came from borderline dodgy plays by me, though I think on the whole I felt like I was somewhere close to my best game tonight. Something just seems to be "missing" right now (winning, perhaps!) and I think I am making some bad choices. Again today I was on 6 tables, and went back on yesterday's decisions to play less tables and move up to the 200s at empire (I stuck at the 100s and ground out a small profit despite a big win early as my top set held against a guy with a gutshot and a flush draw).

Anyways, major loss 1 came as I misread a move (a raise came to me on the BBas I held AAQ9 with the Q9 suited... I decided to make a small re-raise to reopen the betting as I thought a short stack had made the first raise and thus I could push all-in against the other big stack in the hand; alas the big stack had made the raise, and mvoed all in himself - we both turned over aces but he hit his trip jacks on the river to take the $200 pot). Major loss 2 was a hand I misplayed (perhaps) but it was marginal and perhaps i'm being too hard on myself - all the money was going in even if I didn't bet it. Basically, I held AA46ds in the SB, many limpers to me so I raise it up to $9 and see about 4 calls. Flop comes Q75 rainbow with one of both my suits. I decide to bet pot first to act, thinking it figures to have missed most hands and the only holding that has me in trouble is a set - and even then i'm only 2:1 underdog with my open ender, over pair and backdoor flush draws. Alas, one LAG had 7753 and put me all in, I called of course and received no help this time.

I did make some decent plays though. This one is a real judgement play on the river - I decided if I bet that he would fold a draw and if he raised I would have to fold. However, if I checked he could show down a draw for free or try to bluff me and lose a few more chips, so I gave this decent, if aggressive, opponent rope to hang himself, which worked nicely:

ame #370967124: Omaha High Pot Limit (€0.50/€1) - 2005/03/16 - 18:04:07 (EST)
Table "Fieldrush" Seat 4 is the button.
Seat 1: fumbduck (€392.56 in chips)
Seat 2: Buffycat (€30 in chips)
Seat 3: Klasevits (€98.50 in chips)
Seat 4: MickeyLou (€115.38 in chips)
Seat 5: motoboy (€417.41 in chips)
Seat 6: HERO(€95.75 in chips)
Seat 7: robbiebox (€78 in chips)
Seat 8: EXORCIST1 (€260.25 in chips)
Seat 9: TedKGBear (€62.25 in chips)
Seat 10: ElvisP (€100 in chips)
motoboy: posts small blind €0.50
monk1234: posts big blind €1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to HERO[Jh Kh 5h 5s]
robbiebox: folds
EXORCIST1: folds
TedKGBear: calls €1
ElvisP: folds
fumbduck: calls €1
Buffycat: folds
Klasevits: folds
MickeyLou: folds
motoboy: calls €0.50
HERO: checks
----- FLOP ----- [Qs Ks 5d]
motoboy: checks
HERO: bets €4
TedKGBear: folds
fumbduck: calls €4
motoboy: folds
----- TURN ----- [Qs Ks 5d][6h]
HERO: bets €12
fumbduck: calls €12
----- RIVER ----- [Qs Ks 5d 6h][6c]
HERO: checks
fumbduck: bets €36
HERO: calls €36
----- SHOW DOWN -----
fumbduck: shows [7d Ad Jc 9s] (A Pair of Sixes, Ace high)
HERO: shows [Jh Kh 5h 5s] (A Full House, Fives full of Sixes)
HEROcollected €105 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot €108 Main pot €105 Rake €3
Board [Qs Ks 5d 6h 6c]
Seat 1: fumbduck lost
Seat 2: Buffycat folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Klasevits folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: MickeyLou (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: motoboy (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: HERO(big blind) showed [Jh Kh 5h 5s] and won (€105) with A Full House, Fives full of Sixes
Seat 7: robbiebox folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: EXORCIST1 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: TedKGBear folded on the Flop
Seat 10: ElvisP folded before Flop (didn't bet)

In that spot I often make a milking bet but here the check-call is clearly a better option to my mind.

Oh, this was on a Euro table over at Crypto - I like these as they play like $ tables but the currency is worth that bit more!

Anyways, enough of this - it's halfway through the month, I am laggin behind on my hourly rate but just need a few big sessions to get it up again. I feel my play has been mediocre but at least I'm not getting creamed and rake rebate on empire will be building up nicely. Stars is KILLING me to get thru this bonus (after I did so well there at the start of the year!) though in mitigation I lost two big pots here that could easily have gone the other way, that's $400 fact-fans.

Anyhow, my revised stats:

Winnings: $1260
Hours: 39.5
Winrate: $32/hr

Monk
xxxxx

Well Paula Abdul eat your heart out.... It is indeed one step forward and two steps back, and today was maybe my most annoying day of the month, sigh...

Felt I played great poker for 2 hours today without a break, didn't seem to catch a hand. I moved up to the $200 PLO at empire, found two nice games, and found some OK tables at crypto as well in the $100 and £100 PLOs. Had a few minor skirmishes that cost a few bucks early, and then got neatly up by making my top set hold up at crypto against a poor player on a draw for a $200 pot.

However, I was card dead all night and, as so often happens in these spots, I made a couple of plays (most were good and netted me money) including, alas, two that cost me pretty badly and ended up yielding a pretty awful session that set me back even further in my monthly winnings, back down below $1000 now and the $2500 i was wanting is but a distant target .

My first yucky moment came as I made a judgement play against a mediocre player in the $200 game at empire. I had played tight, and seen this guy already badly overplay AA on a low-card flop and lose to a flopped straight. He made a comment in chat about how he should've got away from it. Anyway, about an hour later I get AKJTds with the Ad. I raise in LP and the player in question re-raises from the blinds. Bad move because now I am fairly sure he has AA. He had about $110 at the start of the hand and I had him covered. Anyhow, flop comes 678 with two diamonds, he checks to me and I put him all in for his last $70. Amazingly, he makes the same awful play that he COMMENTED on (that he shoulda folded) earlier and his aces held up. I was pretty astonished he could make that call on a hand that is almost certainly drawing dead, or at the very BEST basically not a big favourite if I had the flush draw and NOTHING else. I wouldn't have made the raise without the diamond nut flush draw, but in doing so I knew he didn't have it and thus would likely fold. Anyway, enough whining - suffice to say that I missed my outs (9s flushes and possible runners to 2 pair/trips) and he won a decent pot .


The second one that rankled me was, basically, horrible play by me. In fact my turn play wasn't actually that bad, but not doing more on that flop was pretty awful. The thing that got to me was that I THOUGHT the button player, raising preflop, likely had a hand like AKJT or maybe something containing underpairs to the king, and I gave a free card to try to capture his stack on the turn... Just basically making the rudimentary error of trying to make something happen because i'd been running dry, seen a big hand and wanting to make a big score. I shoulda just made the full raise on the flop (although of course I would still probably eventually have lost most of my stack here), instead of trying to be smart.... Oh well, these things happen.

My turn play is PERHAPS not as bad as it may have seemed... This guy was a solid enough player but I'd seen him make one big raise earlier in a similar spot without much of a hand... I was putting in $150 into a $400 pot, and even if he had the goods I was getting $100 back of my $150 investment. There was always a slim chance he had turned a flush draw, or was pushing some high hand but... I guess in retrospect I shoulda realised his flop bet plus the turn raise (raises almost always spell danger in PLO!) were some sort of draw, and that turn hit the only likely one.... However, his preflop raise (high cards?) the knowledge he didnt have to be on a blind bluff very often for me to be +ve EV, plus the knowledge he'd made a play or two earlier, had me outthinking myself... my finger was hovering over the fold button and at the last minute i went against my better instincts and raised him down. So annoyed at doing that, I know that when I trust my instincts and don't make crying calls I play much better... even though you can even argue that the $150 wasn't too -ve EV (might have been a genius play if he was messing with a flush draw or something!) I still think this was just horrible, from start to finish. Ugh.

$200 PL Omaha Hi - Thursday, March 17, 18:23:06 EDT 2005
Table Table 36824 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Fel_Monk ( $193 )
Seat 2: kaffeuffe ( $534.25 )
Seat 3: guyslikeme ( $175.9 )
Seat 7: moilanen ( $410.8 )
Seat 8: iron81 ( $232.1 )
Seat 5: ginadavis3 ( $157.5 )
Seat 9: WnnrHOGAN ( $185 )
Seat 10: going2Aruba ( $196 )
Seat 4: D_GenR8 ( $204.75 )
Seat 6: boldfolder ( $200 )
WnnrHOGAN posts small blind [$1].
going2Aruba posts big blind [$2].
boldfolder posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Fel_Monk [ Qh Ks Kc 9c ]
Fel_Monk calls [$2].
kaffeuffe folds.
guyslikeme calls [$2].
D_GenR8 calls [$2].
boldfolder checks.
moilanen folds.
>You have options at Table 36669 Table!.
iron81 raises [$10].
WnnrHOGAN folds.
going2Aruba folds.
Fel_Monk calls [$8].
guyslikeme folds.
D_GenR8 calls [$8].
boldfolder folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3h, 4s, Kd ]
Fel_Monk checks.
D_GenR8 checks.
iron81 bets [$2].
Fel_Monk calls [$2].
D_GenR8 folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7h ]
>You have options at Table 36669 Table!.
Fel_Monk bets [$30].
iron81 raises [$128.95].
>You have options at Table 36669 Table!.
>You have options at Table 36669 Table!.
Fel_Monk is all-In [$151]
iron81 calls [$52.05].
** Dealing River ** [ Qc ]
iron81 shows [ 5d, 8s, 7s, 6d ] a straight, three to seven.
Fel_Monk shows [ Qh, Ks, Kc, 9c ] three of a kind, kings.
iron81 wins $400 from the main pot with a straight, three to seven

I then went on my now customary run of bad cards/beats in the last hour - lost a small pot to a draw when my set went down in flames again, and made a few aggressive plays which again didn't pay off.

$370 down or so at empire gone on a horror run there in the last few days (though I guess 370 is only a coupla buyins at $200)... I started great after the blinds changed, and again started solidly today but nothing has gone right yet AGAIN at this site and i'm back where I started.... $808, 8 up from my buyin lol. Should grab some rake rebate, if I still have any cash there come the end of the month....

I even managed to lose $85-odd at crypto, well.... just a horrible, horrible day. Again.

I need to break this snap soon because I am getting utterly sick of it.

Winrate and stuff to follow when I can be bothered working it out. Grrrrrrr.

Monk
xxxxx

Something else I have realised tonight.... Position is killing me. I need to start folding a lot more in the early seats and loosen up later on. Something else to think about.

Oh, I also need to start winning at poker again.

Hang in there Monk. I'm sure the tides are about to turn.

Yeah, I hope so. Won't be playing much this next week so I think this month is now going to be a sub-average one. Never mind, it's just a buyin or two away from getting back on track. Havent had time to pick up on my monthly figures from the last session but I think I'm on about $800-odd from about 42 hours. Below $20/hr now, grrrr.

Monk
xxxxx

don't forget the $0.84 that TW owes you. That will help your bankroll a little.

Hey there guys!

Sorry I haven't been updating my journal much, or doing anything really other than abusing tightwad over the last few days. Some things just have to take priority. Especially after he was complicit in getting my stars chat banned and then by some quirk of cosmic injustice managed to avoid the same fate himself. Grrrrrr....

Anyhow, I've played a few times since my last post, notably once on Monday and once today, but I have had other things going on.... ON saturday I found myself going out for a curry and nightclub-based evening to celebrate my birthday with a few friends from round here, and on sunday I found myself enjoying a morning hangover followed by an evening volleyball game. Monday, I got very ill after taking my car in to the garage, seems to have been a fairly virulent strain of nastiness as several people at my work have gone down (as in become ill, not given blowjobs indiscriminantly) this week. So I spent most of Monday after a short session where I made $200 or so recovering from this nasty illness, and so it was only today I was able to get the car, look at plasma screen TVs (not likely to be buying one this month after my poor showing thus far on the tables!) and come home to play a couple of sessions.

Anyhow, suffice to say luck has not been on my side once more, and although I have felt that again I've been on the verge of a big session or two, nothing is really hanging together and I'm still treading water. Nothing outrageous to report but in the last couple of sessions I've been bubbling along fairly reasonably with cold cards, and then with one or two hands (often near the end) which, if they had all gone my way, would have yielded big sessions, rather than merely break-even ones. Case in point, this evening I lost the biggest hand I was involved in, a $250 pot, 3 handed, when I had AA on an A78 flop with two diamonds. My opponents held 77 and 69Tx with a flush draw respectively, and the guy with the wrap (who had rather unwisely raised all in) won it. I finished the session (not counting $70 or so I lost out of money I forgot I even had at caribbean sun...) not too far off level, but had I won that single hand it would've been a biggy. Yesterday, I did OK and won nearly $200 in my two hours, but right at the end I got all in for a $200 pot with top set against a goon with a flush draw. He caught and what could've been a big session turned into a merely decent one. I feel like i've needed some of those hands to go my way this month and largely they haven't been.

Anyhow, I'm a bit out of touch with my figures too, but I think they're in the region of:

Hours: 48
Winnings: $1190
Winrate: $25/hr

Well, the party reload might be a change of fortune. I guess we'll see. It'd still be nice to top $2000 for the month but that'll need a couple of juicey sessions and to be honest I think it's unlikely it'll happen because I'm liable to be away over the easter weekend (perhaps down in london, ancestral territory of Ricardoon and Tetsuo, among others). I have a lot of hands to play at Stars to release the $120 there, and once I do that I may well withdraw there because of late it is absolutely killing me ($450 down releasing the bonus already). My Gaming Club account has been RIDICULOUSLY suspended until I jump through some hoops to confirm my identity (sending a driving licence photo etc) despite the fact i've played there for months already, and so it looks like Crypto and Party/Empire will be the order of the day in the meantime. Oh, I've also rediscovered UB, and thus will be hitting up the PLO there now and again along with my usual O8 games on that site, because I have about $150 of bonus there to release also.

I have also formulated a (tentative) plan for poker and general life for the next year, I will be posting it here once I get round to writing it. I also need to find time to pen another PLO article. If there is anything in particular anyone would think would make a good or useful topic for an article feel free to let me know!

Well, if I'm not signing in again beforehand, happy easter guys!

Monk
xxxxx

Well, I took the day off yesterday for my birthday and ate too much and drank (sadly) not enough, primarily because i'd eaten too much. D'oh. Anyways, had a quiet one really as I slide into a graceful middle age....

Played a fairly lengthy session tonight (nearly 4 hours I think), although the last couple of hours were spent messing around with tightwad on some of the 50PLO tables at party (man are those games SOFT! I think the 50>100 jump is by far the biggest at this site, btw, from today's evidence...). I had 3 tables at party up (getting the first 700 bonus hands out of the way) 100PLO and 200PLO, seguing into some 50 towards the end of the session. I also had two tables of 100PLO from crypto on in the background.

The bad news is I took a bit of a knock or two early on (though I didn't lose a single WHOLE buyin I lost out on a few little pots and couldn't buy a hand for an hour or two) and managed to lose a $250 pot on the $50 buyin table (I had AAds preflop and managed to lose it to a gimp who had QsQdTd4d).

The good news is tightwad lost.

OK, so that was a lie. He actually won. That goes in the bad news column then.

Anyway, the really good news was that I went on a mini-rush about 2 1/2 hours in (including winning two big pots concurrently on two tables) and then the 50PLO at the end pulled my party losses (at one point nudging towards $300) up to just $90 down. Meanwhile, thanks to a couple of nice hands and one (slight) suckout in a $150 pot, I finished $340 or so up at Interpoker (cryptologic), continuing my record of incredibly consistent winning there. Plus, 700 more hands and the $200 from party will be warming my bank account, hopefully i'll free that in the next couple of days, although I was vaguely toying with the idea of going down to london this weekend. I'm hoping my party bonus, my empire rebate money, plus a bit of extra bonus candy from UB if I play there, and maybe stars (although that won't be finished till next month sometime) can help nudge me up towards the $2000 mark this month, but to be honest I would be happy with a bit less after my many trials. AND I got paid today, hooray!

Hours: 52
Winnings: $1440
Winrate: $28/hr

Getting there anyhow!

Monk
xxxxx

Well, quick update, I put in a couple of hours tonight to push out those last 350-odd hands to get the Party bonus, mission accomplished (playing the $25 PLO8 for a total change of pace, and to ensure that if I had a bad run in my indifference that I wouldn't spill any serious money). I added $30 at the tables and the 200 bonus.

Hours: 57
Winnings: $2070
Winrate: $36/hr

Hurray! So despite my misgivings I did make that $2k after all. I'm not too far off the $40/hr which is my desired minimum winrate, so overall I guess the last few days have turned a bad month into a totally palatable one. Good, because I needed the money!

Don't know if I'll play much this weekend but we'll see.

Monk
xxxxx