On the up....

It's been a minute since my last post mainly because I have been on a horrible downswing online, however I'm hoping I've turned a corner and can start to build the bakroll again.. I'll shut up and post some hands from the $0.50/1.00 games i have been playing...

I tried taking this hand down on the flop neither player showed significant strength and if they are on the heart draw then I have good equity against their range of calling hands...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3615112

This hand looks spewy from me but the guy had re-raised my last 3 raises and I had to make a stand with a reasonable hand... It flet nice to dish out a bad beat to be honest!!!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3615116

I was hoping the guy had either A9 or an over pair, allowing me to stack off on the flop with him only having two outs in the deck to catch... no point in slow playing in this spot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3615119

Cold deck for my opponent here..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3615123

Dream flop for me after some preflop aggression here!!!! I put him on the King of clubs with maybe an ace so might aswell get it all in on the turn.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3615125

Didn't want to just call the flop re-raise and check fold the turn when missing so decided to ship it on the flop... I was crushed but still had about 30% chance of hitting my flush so i don't hate the play!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3615130

In terms on live games, I played some small tournament poker last night and won about £60 but played in the £1-2 cash game in Southend last month and lost £100 with top two pair against top set so the hand kind of played itself.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3615125

My biggest pots and biggest single downswing!!! ouch!!

Howdy all,

It's been too long since my last blog, I have just had my first losing month in poker and I lost big!!!

I took a shot at $2-4 blinds and went on my worst run since starting playing, I also won some decent sized pots in the process but I have had to move back down to $050-1 blinds until I start to run better...

Here are a few hands..

This is just sick and typical of how I have been running-
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3177380

I should toss this on the river but obviously couldn't....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3177411

Super standard.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3177416

Needless to say 10 10 isn't my favourite hand...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3177421


On the upside.. this was nice
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3177426

I will post graph at some time in the future to show how bad the downswing was, but trust me it was ugly.. As for September im up about $400 but it will be a slow grind back up

Laters..

Big pots & lots of action!!!!!

Howdy,

This weekend has probably been the sickest I have experienced in poker so far.... as you know I have been doing well recently and that run continued until yesterday when I dropped over $700. To be honest I didn't feel too bad as it's only 3 and a half buy's in the $200 games play but it's still scary when i equate it into £££££. I hit a real cold deck and took some naty beats, but before I show some hands I'll talk about my biggest winning pot ever on friday night. It was $610 and I won it with King high.... I know.. fucking king high.. hilarious!!!
Here is the hand, I was taking a beating in the game and pushed in frustration, thankfully it paid off nicely.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2920143

Now for the beats....this was pretty brutal.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2920149

This might seem wild but I just knew he was holding AK or AK some reason, can't feel too bad, I got my money in as a 70% favourite on the turn.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2920157

Cold deck time!!!! Never folding here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2920160

Tough call here on the flop but he seemed real fishy so I made a good call and got spunked in the face by the poker gods again....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2920167

Hope my luck changes again soon, I just won $130 today so thats a start I suppose!!

Laters..

$50 - $5000 in 13 months......

Howdy....

I reached a milestone today, I hit the magic $5k mark. I had a good day today and won just over $300 which makes it about $450 for the weekend... however I lost $200 last weekend so barely up over $250 for the month which is pretty shit. I'll post a few hands...

Should have gotten away from this...with his river raise but so often at these stakes it's trips or AAA.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2886296

Running V Bad..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2886304

Thought he might have a draw like KQ and just semi-bluffing on the turn, little did I know he was so strong!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2886313

Running good!!! lol.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2886317

I have my final presentation this week at work which will hopefully result in an end to my training and start my launch in field... wish me luck!!!

June Results...

Hello..

Click to see June results.. Good month but bummed I didn't finish as well as hoped.

http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=juneyp5.jpg

Action weekend....

Howdy all,

Job is still going great, I was in a hospital on Friday and saw a procedure of a flexible scope placed into a man japs eye to look into his bladder... enough to make me cross my legs.. lol

Been playing a lot of poker this weekend.... I played like a prick Friday night and lost about $250 in some $2-4 games, but have won about $600 playing in the $1-2 games so another nice profit for the weekend.

Here is by far my favourite hand of the weekend, i love the push on the turn as I think I can get KQ to fold here a lot of the time, my equity in the hand is good so even of he calls I still have about 14 outs, if he calls on a flush draw then he deserves what he gets.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2761645

Automatic, no need point in slow play here with 2 spades on the flop...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2761657

Finally comfortable enough at these stakes to shove here...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2761664

can't get away from this one...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2761675

NEVER EVER EVER SLOW PLAY... played like a cunt here, should have shoved the flop!!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2761695

I should have shoved this on the flop, my equity is pretty good and he folds often enough to make it profitable in my opinion
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2761688

I hope to play a bit during the week as I'm at home for a couple of nights this week... will update soon.

Craig .

Life is good ...

Howdy..

The new job s going great, i'm really starting to learn lots although I'm only half way thru my training and still spending most of my time down in Southend..... speaking of which, I went to the Maxims casino again last week and played in the £1-2 No-Limit Holdem game cash game. There were 8 players including me and the play was a bt soft compared to the super aggressive online 6 max games. Most guys were just limping in pots and there were a lot of dumb bluffs which were not working out.... anyway I sat down with £100 and played snug to get a real tight image to hopefully alow me to open up and steal more & more during the game. About 30 mins into the game I was dealt J 10 spades, there was one limper and I raised to £8, the small blid re-raised to £18, the limper called and I was priced in to call a further £10. The flop came 8 7 9 and I flopped the stonecold nuts, small blind checks, the limper checks, I fire about £23, the small blind calls and the limper raises another £75, I acted weakfor about minute, then puts my stack in hoping to et the small bind to call the bet, unfortunately he foled and it was just me and the limper, he showed 77 and my hand held up to win a nice pot. I won some small pots after that and left the table with £252, not a bad 2 hours work.... lol.

Online things have been going well too. I managed to win just undr $600 in May despite only playing 2000 hand which is a good win rate.... here are some hands from reent sessions....

I don't hate his turn raise here but once I push he has to fold.....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2727128

Standard as they come..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2727130

Not a profitable call preflop in my opinion but worked out well for him this hand
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2727135

I finally make a flush..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2727139

Great river card for me, still struggling to put him on a hand when he folds here....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2727140

Good luck...

Craig

Long time no blog....

Howdy all....

It's been a minute since my last blog and that's mainly due to the fact I started my new job at the end of April and I've been real busy. The job is going great, I'm learning lots of new shit and making new friends in the process, the only downside is that I'm away in Southend all week but that's ok... the staff restauranmt is the bollocks.... lol.

During my first week in Southend I went out with a few of the guys to the local Casino. There was a poker tourney going on and the guys wanted to play but we got there too late and they decided to play 3 card poker against the house, I watched for a while but it was just a luck game so i placed myself on the "wait list" for a seat in the live cash game going on downstairs in the poker room, the room manager said min buy in was £50. I got the nod about 20 mins later and sat down with £60, thn to my horror I realised the game was £1-2 blinds and was the big short stack at the table... I decided I would get it in with top pair good top kicker or better to try and double up early or simply go bust & leave, thankfully I picked up QQ and doubled up on 10 9 3 board against an opponent with A 10.. after that nothing of interest happend and I left with a £50 profit....lol the average stack at the table was about £300-400.

I started playing some Online poker again this week and things are going good, I'm up about $400 for the week. Yesterday I went on a major heater playing $0.50/1.00 Holdem and sat down with $100.... after 265 hands I was sat there with $385, unfortunately the other two tables I was sat at were not quote so kind.. my profit for the session was $219.

During the week I played one table of $0.50/1.00 and one table of $1-2 blinds. I normally only play 2 tables if i'm playing $1-2 as it's easy to lose a bunch of cash if your not paying attention to the more aggressive players on the bigger table. Here is an interesting hand from the session, the turn re-raise had me guessing whether he flopped a set or not but my instinct was telling me he wouldn't check raise with a set on turn.... most probably he wuld lead with a strong bet hoping I was strong enough to go all-in or call and go all-in on the river.... as iot turns out he was just trying it on...lol

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625802

Here are some hands fom my heater session playing yesterday.... the Q is an ugly turn card but sometimes you got to just get ur cash in...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625813

It's nice when a donk bets 4/5 of the pot with just an openender draw on the flop when i'm holding middle set..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625815

I playedthis one pretty bad considering I had made notes on my opponent and they read "will play big pot with top pair & good kicker" which was exactly the type of hand I put him on making my turn check appalling... got some nice value on the river though!!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625818

BAD BEAT CITY!!!!!! thank god he only had small stack..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625821

see ya..

Craig..

Small profit in April..

I haven't been playing as much as I would like during April as i have been busy doing other stuff. I have played about 8000 hands with a profit of about $400 but in genera I'm running quite bad, hopefully luk wil even itself out soon... here are some hands played in the last week.

When he just called then re-raised I knew he had either KK or AA and it made mydecision on the flop easy!!!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2509121

Maybe I should have just called the all-in from the short stack and pushed on the flop to get AK to fold.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2509136

Cold decked here...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2509142

Sick river card & he gets there!!!!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2509149

This guy was a fish and calling ALL raises & re-raises preflop... hoped to get all his stack here!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2509154

Will update again shortly...

Craig

Biggest online pot $$$$

Howdy... Ok as I said in my last blog I am starting to play some $1-2 games as I'm feeling confident enough to tackle the 6 man tables. I usually start off taking a couple of knocks at the start of the sessions and find myself down $100/200 but things have been going well in general, I'm up about 3 buy in's ($600) so far and and feel like I'm playing aggresive poker so hopefully it will continue.

Here is my biggest online pot to date.. I was convinced he had the Ace of diamonds as he was just check calling on the flop & turn which made his river push transparrent.. here is the hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2404145

stepping up the aggrssion..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2404149

Big laydown here but this guy was playing pretty tight and I'm almost always a 4-1 dog against KK or AA here or at best in a flip with AK.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2404159

will try to keep updting regularly, thanks for checking the blog.

Craig

playing $1-2 blinds

ok.. it's been while since my last blog and things have been going well lately. I start a new job at the beginning of March and when i handed in my notice my current emplyer put me on "garden leave" for 4 weeks, which basically means I'm on paid leave during my notice period. during the next weeks I'll get all those annoying jobs round the house done which have been left over the past year and hopefully play a bit more poker and increase my win rate...

On the topic of poker I have been playing 6man $0.50/1 tables and full ring (10 man) $1-2 tables.. I would prefer to play the 5 man $1-2 tables but they are too aggressive for me and I play a bit scared in marginal decisions so for now I will stick to the easier 10 m an tables where I feel the action is still good but the players are slightly weaker.

Here are some interesting hands from some recent sessions..

pretty standard...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2382243

Ugly flop for a set but happy with rsult.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2382255

marginal decision on the river although my read was he was holding A9 or even 10/10.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2382268

Nice to bust two opponents in the same hand for a big score...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2383675

I will try to keep updating more regular during the next week..

Craig.

Downswing!!!!

Thought I might aswell post a blog whilst watching sport relief on tv. Poker has been terrible over the past week, I'm down somewhere between 5 or 6 buy-in's ($500-600) and I hope it ends soon, I still have about $1800 in my bankroll but will have to move back down to the $0.25/0.50 games if things don't change...
It's as if my opponents can see my hands.. If I hit a set they fold, if I bluff they call me down light, if i have top pair top kicker I get rived with 2 pair, and people are hitting mad gut shot draws against me... I can't be arsed to post any hands but trust me it's pretty sick!!!
Looking forward to having a poker free weekend and taking a break from the tables, will update when i get back to the grind!

Swingy sessions in March / biggest online winning pot!!!

I started off playing a ton in March but not so much during the last fews days as I've been busy. The month got off to a flying start qucikly making $250-300, but since then it's been really swingy and currently i'm up about $350 which is quite bad considering the amount of hands I've played. I did manage to have a good session winning over $250 yesterday but lost it all and ended with a $15 profit which sums up poker for me lately.
Today I faced a real cold deck and was just setting fire to cash so decided to end with a $150 loss for the day... Since moving up to the $0.50/1.00 games I seem to be able to handle the losing streaks better than I did when playing for smaller stakes which is strange as the sums I'm playing for are increasing.... i think it's just a case of realing and coming to terms with the fact that loses are inevitable in poker and my edge comes from being able to keep my losing sessions short and my winning sessions long...
Overall I'm running shit at the moment but hopefully that will change and I can start to make some cash towards the middle and end of the month..... I wuld really like to beat lasts months figure of $1000 winnings!!!!
Here are a few hands which I played over the last few days which give an insight to how i'm running....

This guy was playing so many pots that I was sure he was over playing a hand like AQ/KQ or even JQ.... I couldn't really put him on 7 8 offsuit as he called a raise in the small blind..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2252782

another guy calling my raise with shit and getting extremely lucky.. my thought process in this hand was that there was no way he had KK or AA and naturally my QQ was way ahead of his 77/88/99/10 10.....

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2252792

Maybe i could have gotten away from this on the flop but i think it's too weak to fold in this situation..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2252812

Should have raised his flop bet given the flush draw out there....but turned out good!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2252828

My biggest online pot to date... this guy was a huge fish and i had noticed him re-raising with AJ and KQ in the blinds before so it made my turn push easy!!!(not that I'm ever foldin gin that situation with half my stck in the pot)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2252841

Happy with my play here, only really scared of 4 4.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2252859

I'll try to keep update in a week or so with some better results...

Good luck at the tables...

Year to date results

Here are my results for 2008 up to end of February..
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/416/2008ce3.jpg

I have had an ugly time of it since my last blog, although I made a nice comeback in the past 2-3 days. I dropped $300 in one session and about $185 the next day which had me really frustrated.. here are a couple of hands from the losing sessions..

played this so bad it's tough to see it again, should have just bet out on the flop and called a raise/push.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187961

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187965

Tilting badly and playing too wreckless..
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187973

I have managed to claw back most of my loses and made it a good end to the month with the help of the following hands..

Nice to hit a flop hard.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187983

Wish this guys was sitting at all my tables.. lol
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187989

This guy was playing over 80% of his hands making a call standard in this situation.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187994

All in all, really pleased with my results in february, I hope my luck continues into march.

Good luck at the tables...

My first Poker purchase & record month...

I made my first major purchase from my poker winnings on Monday and I have a real sense of achievement in doing so. I bought this wide screen tv for my front room...
http://www.digitaldirect.co.uk/products_moreinfo3/index.asp?product_id=13482
I kinda felt weird to withdraw from my bankroll but I promised myself to take some cash out if I reached my target for February.

I have been playing a lot of poker this month and it's my most productive month so far, I really feel like I have an edge over the standard 100NL player so In will probably stick around at that level for a while. Here are my stats from Jan 1st - Feb 23rd -
http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/8314/grapherwm2.jpg

Here are some interesting hands I have played recently..

Lucky turn here but I'll take it http://www.pokerhand.org/?2152095

Terible play from an opponent here http://www.pokerhand.org/?2152103

Should have pushed the river here I think http://www.pokerhand.org/?2152109

Running good http://www.pokerhand.org/?2152114

Some 200NL hands...

Very marginal hand here, I hate my turn bet but put him on a flush draw http://www.pokerhand.org/?2152120

another misplayed hand here should have raised river bet http://www.pokerhand.org/?2152126

Slow played but ended up getting the maximum http://www.pokerhand.org/?2152127

Will update agin in a week or so, good luck at the tables!

Making progress, getting killed AT 50NL

Things are steadily going my way over the past few days, since my last blog I played a disgusting session of 50NL and dropped just over 3 buys in to a complete donk who was hitting everything, here's a small example...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2105679

It might look a wreckless play but he was bluffing so often with air and showing that I was correct in thinking my 9's were well ahead of his range. I tilted quite badly and had to take a break before playing some 100Nl and winning back over $100 to help soften the blow.

So that's it for me at NL50, whatever the reasons my results are bad and I have the bankroll to multitable 100NL so i'm sticking with those games from now on!

I just finished one of my best sessions online banking $170 from 250 hands multitabling 100NL. I ran very well but played well also and managed to get the most from my hands, here is the biggest hand from the session.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2115350

Hoping to get a re-raise or push on the flop here..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2115362

Will update again in a few days time, good luck at the tables!

Welcome to my Blog...

So I decided to keep a blog of my poker activities. Over the coming weeks and months I will be posting tricky hands I've played, big pots and my general thoughts on how I'm running.

For those of you completely unfamilular with my posting on 2+2 and Fullcontactpoker forums I currently play 100NL holdem on Partypoker under the screen name In4apenny222. My bankroll is about $2000 at the moment which I have built up from an initial $50 deposit. I started playing $6 sit & go's but quickly decided that cash game poker is far more enjoyable and profitable (for me anyway). I have progressed through 10/25 and 50NL games and now feel comfortable playing 100NL. I have taken a couple of shots at 200NL but I'm stuck about $200 and kinda playing on scared money as my bankroll isn't high enough so for the time being I will stick to 100NL.

I have recently downloaded pokertracker & pokerace HUD software which has been a real eye opener for my 6max cash game strategy. I quickly realised that I was losing too much money playing in the Small blind/Big blind and Under the gun and have subsequently made alterations to help plug the leaks.

Thanks for checking out the blog and feel free to post comments when you like!!

Craig