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As it happens, Mike had a point last night, as traffic was thinner than of late, & I struggled to get my usual 30+ games in, eventually upping stumps at 26.
After losing the first 4 games straight for 0-4, I'd have happily accepted a break even night.
It all turned though, & I ended with a run of winning 14 of the last 17 for a game count of 17 from 26, which is 65%, & a nice little profit of £22.
I had hoped to reach 500 points last night, to give me £5 Rewards Money, as I'm away all weekend, but I fell just shy & still need another 36 points. So the plan is to try & knock those off early evening this evening. Gill is due to arrive at around 8pm, so I'm supposed to be preparing tea & tidying the house before she gets here. Priorities, priorities....
Have a great weekend.
Despite a short playing week last week, my Account ended the week £70 above where it began, though £45 of that was from the Premiership, & £5.02 from Reward Points. So only about £20 was from the tables, but I'll take that. I keep going forward 3 steps & back 2 steps, but slowly it is creeping up, & I think I'm close to my all time high at present.
Really enjoying my poker at the moment.
The games are variable in quality, but huuuuuume has been playing most of the bigger ones, & is a formidable opponent, but I do enjoy playing him as he makes you think all the time. And of course Eon is a very good opponent.
Jac35 has been joining us too. He's an opponent.
I got in a right tangle last night, when I suddenly found I had NINE tables open.
The most my Laptop can manage - & me, for that matter - is 6, so 15 minutes of button clicking followed as I tried high variance lines to "clear" some of the tables. Worked rather well actually.......
It took about 20 minutes before I got back on an even keel. I must have timed out, or nearly so, 30 or 40 times, so it was all a bit awkward.
Trying to forecast when the site will be busier (& so regging for fewer games) is a bit of a headache, as I like 5 or 6 minimum, but 6 maximum. Narrow range, that.
I plan to just reg for the bigger games after mid evening tonight, so I don't get in a mess again, 7 then "top up" with the £3 & £5 games as & when I have spare capacity.
Was pleasantly surprised after all the carnage to end up with a £6 profit, but that all rested on the night's final game, so it was a close run thing.
After 4 consecutive winning sessions (£6, £22, £10 & £12= £50 dead) the game seems easier.
So I went into last night full of confidence. And lost £50.10.
Ran bad, played bad, did the easy things bad, did the bad things bad. I was badder than a bad thing on a bad day.
Pfft.
Only 1 game each @ £11 & £16.50. Lost both, obv.
Bad.
Managed to rattle up enough points to keep me on the Leaderboard - just - in the Premiership thingie, so at least a bit of damage repaired.
To explain what happened:
If I can get Heads Up with a real life mate, a bit of speech play, between mates, is generally good fun.
With 4 left in a DYM, & me in the Small Blind & Grumpy Paul in the Big Blind, I typed.....
"Who is in the Big Blind? I've got a monster, might have to attack him".
Whilst typing, I never noticed that mmmchips (button) had potted it. And I went ahead & re-potted.
Handy Hint to readers - when mmmchips pots it, get out of the way. Fast. His range is generally super strong.
So that was that. I blame Grumpy Paul, obv.
Progress this week has, shall we say, not been great.
Monday - £6 profit
Tuesday - £50 loss
Wednesday - £7 loss
Thursday - £29 loss
Plenty of run-good needed this weekend, then, to avoid a loss on the week.
Don't think I'm playing great, tbh, & that combined with a bit of run bad & some supremely optimistic re-shoves against me somehow getting there.
Won't be changing too much, try to play a bit better, but mainly just keep my discipline.
Traffic was extremely heavy on Mon/Tues/Weds, but very quiet last night.
Hoping for plenty of traffic this weekend, as I'm aiming for 1,000 Reward Points this week, & only have 620 so far.
All good.
Have a great weekend.
Variance continues to baffle, bemuse & tease.
After a torried Tuesday & Thursday, I could barely put a foot wrong last night, so we head into Saturday & Sunday with a slim chance of recovering this week's losses;
Monday - £6 profit
Tuesday - £50 loss
Wednesday - £7 loss
Thursday - £29 loss
Friday - £49 profit
Only one game ran at both £11 & £16.50, & I somehow won both, & a remarkable 9 out of 10 @ £5.50.
The edges in these things are so small - I could have played identically, & lost £20.
Best 2 game of the night were the 2 biggest ones.
With the final 4 in the £16.50 being huuuuume, Pompeynic, Nin777 & myself, it was real ding don g stuff & I got fearfully lucky twice v huuuume.
The sole £11 game was even better, with a final 4 of huuume, Pompeynic, Markycash & myself. This one swung & swong all over the place, each of us went from first to last & back again, before huuume got unlucky again.
I "won" both, but could equally have lost both. Such is variance.
I really had to change my standard "safety first" game in these two. When Markycash &/or huuume are in the final 4, ABC poker is no good, these boys play ultra high variance styles & we have to do the same, whether we like it or not. Ranges widened considerably, to put it mildly.
I generally don't over-defend my blinds, as I don't want to play OOP, but against these boys, all bets are off & it's going in pretty light at times.
When an all-in arises, whether it involves me or not, I like to try & guess what the 2 players are going to turn up with.
With most players, you can reasonably assess their range.
If a guy is first to bet, gets re-raised & is pot stuck, so has to call, he can literally have anything. You have to make these attempted steals with semi-air. That's correct play.
The ones that always fascinate me is when someone 3 bets - comes over the top of an open. Now his range is really very narrow, you'd think. And yet chaps playing a full stack & with not a chip invested often come over the top with complete poo, A-8-7-4 for example. I know the ranges run close, but that HAS to be behind both ends, surely? We could legitimately open with A-8-7-4, really it's an attempted steal or semi-bluff. That's fine. But 3 betting with that sort of stuff always causes an arched eyebrow or two. It's as if we look down at A-8-7-4 & decide to make a move, but can't change or mind when someone bets first. Might be because we are multi-tabling I suppose.
The different ways we play endlessly fascinates.
Saw so many examples of that last night, including remarkable comebacks by Andrew (winshoes) & Old Father Time (Eon).
I was a bit busy with 6 tables all evening, but I got the impression you had a good night last night. Well done bud, keep it going. You are a tough opponent, more XYZ than ABC, nobody ever knows what you might turn up with.
Good luck tonight.
Small - very small - profit last night, shaded the game count 20-17, & in winning the only £11er than ran, (after getting very lucky twice) just about got over the line intact.
Monday - £6 profit
Tuesday - £50 loss
Wednesday - £7 loss
Thursday - £29 loss
Friday - £49 profit
Saturday - £3 profit
I got £13 from the Premiership thing on Thursday, too, & will make just over 1,000 Reward points this week, for another £12.50 or so, so if I can avoid losing tonight, might just about get out of it after a swingy week.
Don't forget, Happy Days is on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday this week, fill yer boots. I can't play Tuesday, I'm working, but will be topping up on Wednesday & Thursday.
The evening was overshadowed by a nasty incident in one game.
4 players left, 3 of us are regulars, one guy just plays now & then. Now & Then bloke has 10,000 chips, we three regulars have 2,000 between us @ 150-300. Real tactical stuff this, trying to outlast 1 of the other 2 shorties, finding spots, folding when he have no fold equity, that sort of thing. Fun, actually, or should be.
Now & Then types something nasty in the chat box about a shortie. (Not me).
"I don't like him & he knows why" he types mysteriously.
Soon, it becomes apparent he is playing hardball against the guy he dislikes, & softball against the other shortie & me. It's pretty clear what is going off, but that's his business, & I say nothing. He's entitled to do that if he so wishes.
Then it happens. I have 1 Big behind, & am in the BB, so 2 Bigs in total. Now & Then is to my immediate left, & limps UTG. Before it gets round to me, he types "raise it tikay, I'll fold" or words to that effect.
As it happens, I have a decent hand, especially when I only have 1 Big behind.
But after he types that, I can't possibly raise, can I? It would look like I'm agreeing to his filthy suggestion to collude.
My hand includes JJ, & the flop contains a Jack, so now I HAVE to bet, & can do so legitimately. My man folds, & I show the set of jacks, so everyone can see there was no hanky-panky going off.
Now I type, "hey mate, I can't be doing that kind of stuff, sorry".
To which he replies "I can do what I want with my chips".
Well my friend, that's only true up to a point, & it does not include openly stating he will limp fold to a 1 Big shove. But before I can reply in that vein, the game ends.
Not nice, not nice at all. Don't recall seeing it done so openly before in the PLO8 DYM's.
Really don't want to see this kid on my table in future games.
imber
J10 had Midlands Medley, Midlands Meltdown, Midlands Masters etc.
Newcastle had May Madness, Southend had March Mini, Luton had the Christmas Cracker.
Most festivals were a week or so, & our poker life revolved around them, there would be one or 2 per month.
Later, they died out, or were strangled by sponsored events by Online rooms, & of course the EPT sucked all the cash out of the system so that was that.
Very happy memories of all those festivals. Mainly Thewy & I would travel & room together, we did all the big stuff in Mainland Europe, too.
I just had a look at my THM, at the various Walsall events I cashed in. A rich vein of characters & stories there.
A player is allowed to "target" a specific individual, yes, of course, but he most certainly CANNOT type "I'll limp, you raise & I'll fold so we can help bust x". That is outright, 100% collusion & is specifically not permitted.
I got your PM, & replied.
In DYM's, let us not kid ourselves, we do, & SHOULD target shorties collectively, & play optimally when there is an AWAY player blinding out. But we must never type that stuff in the chatbox - when we do, that becomes collusion.
It is a bit frustrating when there is a super-shortie 2 spots to our left & we bet into them, then the fella between us re-pots it. I mean, that just makes NO sense at all to me. Why would anyone EVER do that in a DYM?
We saw a guy with 8,000 chips 4 handed last night, re-raising everyone, every hand. I can only assume he had a very small willy.
There was a shortie in one last night & the Big Stack kept limping into the shortie's blind, so the shortie was getting a Freeroll every time. How daft is that?
It's not all about knowing good hand ranges, it's being table-wise too.
How is the game treating you - you getting the lot, as per?
Wish I had more time, I'd bore everyone to death with some of the tales from Walsall & the like.
We came back from the break in one big Walsall event, just 2 tables left in a biggie, & of the 7 players on my table, three never returned from the break, which was a bit odd.
Later it emerged - dare I say news filtered through? - that there had been a police raid during the break & they'd all been arrested for some cigarette smuggling coup.
I'll also reply on Ice Tigers thread about a bizarre happening at Walsall during an APAT thing. It all ended rather badly for one clot of the highest order.
Celebration time (of sorts) as a few days ago - Friday to be exact - my little challenge reached it's 3rd Birthday.
On September 2nd 2013, I deposited £200, & I've neither deposited or withdrawn since. The current balance is £3,019.41.
That sounds a lot of money - well it IS a lot of money - but I'm not sure I have much to crow about considering it has taken 3 whole years to get there. I'd also estimate - pure guesswork - that at least a third, maybe a half of it came from Rewards money, Promos bonuses & the like.
For context, again just guessing, but I reckon I have spent some 600 evenings playing, so that would mean a measly £5 per evening. Looked at another way, I've played around 2,000 hours to earn just shy of £3,000, which is £1.50 per hour. Not exactly crushing, eh?
In other trivia, if I have played some 17,000 DYM's in those 3 years. If they averaged £5.50, (probably slightly less) that means I have invested some £93,000 to earn that £3,000. Not a great return, is it? Rake? About £8,500 paid. Yikes. Just imagine, £93,000, it beggars belief, doesn't it?
The other side of those coins though is that I've had immense fun, & made a bunch of friends (& a few enemies) & it has cost me nothing. A really intense hobby that costs nothing. Really? How good is that?
It's a little embarrassing that a man of my age wastes several hours every night clicking buttons & playing smallball poker. Then again, it keeps my mind active, keeps me out of mischief, & I absolutely relish the challenge. It's something I enjoy. A lot. And, if we can't do what we enjoy in the autumn, early winter even of our lives, it's a bad do I reckon.
Not sure how long I will continue. I'm beginning to fret about my mental dexterity & concentration levels. Like our bodily parts, they shrink with age you know.
Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who has helped along the way & made the journey such fun.
I must say, he was very cheerful last night. By his standards.