Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live

unknown_username

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

Good stuff Timmy, appreciate it.  I'm in the process of putting up 100 or so of my previously published columns on the site. With annotations. They need annotations because they - well, certainly the early ones - cause me to shiver in embarrassment.  If anyone wants to shiver along with me, you can start to read them on my site at pokercism.co.uk (can't seem to add a link at the moment). Anyway, an update. I lost AT v A7 aipf yesterday for a reasonable stack in the last Vegas freeroll but I was playing pretty shabbily and wasn't too distressed. I did throw my phone at a chest of drawers, though. That showed it/them.  Cash has been a bit...nothing. Lost a bit but hoping to do some solid grinding over the weekend.  Opening bankroll: £40 Current bankroll: £111.43
Posted by SR23

Very thin accusation snuck in there

day4eire76

Following and have to say its a great read.

Good luck with all your targets.

SR23

Thanks very much day4eire and mumsie - lovely to have you here. 

Would've replied yesterday but had a holiday from the internet. I can't remember the last time I had a day where I didn't go online. Usually it's the first thing I do in the morning and last thing I do at night. In between, I'm on my computer more than I am not on it. Yesterday, though, I decided to take a break and played tennis, drank beers, went into various rooms in my house and just lay there like a slug and, later, read books. It felt marvellous. I think I'm going to aim for one internet-free day a week. The stuff that's on there doesn't go away, I've come to realise. 

Yet I should have been itching to get on here and grind. On Friday I horribly misjudged both my bankroll, skill level and the goal of this diary and registered for around £40 worth of tournaments. Within less than an hour I was floundering around and flapping up in all of them and would have snap-taken my buy-ins back. 

A couple of hours later I had cashed in one and had squeaked onto the final table of another - the £3 rebuy at 9:30pm. At 5/6 I would have snap-taken third, at 3/4 I would have snap-taken second but once I cottoned on to the ridiculous amount of my folding my opponents were doing with 4-5 bigs (this tournament gets dead shallow) and won a flip or two it was a cakewalk. Heads up lasted one hand: my mighty Q5s beating JTo like the dog that it was. 

So, yes, tournaments. Winning one can re-ignite your love affair with MTTs and, as I may have said before, I reckon they (low stakes MTTs) represent about the best value in online poker. Think I'll have a stab at grinding these for a while, alongside microstakes cash (and lying around like a slug). 

Thanks, as ever, for reading. 

Starting bankroll: £40

Current Bankroll: £406.21

SR23

Bankroll continues to climb. It could have climbed a bit further if things didn't go baps up on the £2.20 re-buy earlier. I reached the FT as a huge chip leader, went absolutely card dead, probably missed a couple of spots and then, when narrowly in second place, A6o couldn't beat up KTs aipf bvb and I finished a disappointing third. 

I'm not remotely complaining though - I've been running handsomely and my bankroll has grown 10-fold with little effort and not putting in many hours. Been running bad at putting up links to my blog, though. Can't seem to link here anymore. Please see pokercism.co.uk for more thrilling detail about my poker life. 

Peace out.

Starting bankroll: £40

Current bankroll: £469.49

SR23

Thin gruel out here, readers. Things have stuttered. I've been running so-so but had a handful of sessions of playbad, where a sprinkling of better regs have owned me. This, strangely, feels good and has prompted some study/work off the tables. 

There's been rather thin gruel on the work front, too, meaning I have had to take out money to stop me dressing in rags and eating out of bins. I have lots of writing work apparently hurtling my way, and therefore lots of grands, but it's something of a Mexican stand off at the moment. 

On a more positive note, my latest blog update is possibly the best thing I've written* - in fact, possibly the best thing that anyone has written**. 

Take a look if that kind of hyperbole is your bag. Thanks. 

https://www.pokercism.co.uk/single-post/2017/06/26/Book-3-Bones-v-Slugs

* true

** not true

Starting bankroll: £40

Current Bankroll: £118.58 (£350 withdrawn)

SR23

Thursday lunch time poker is the best poker. Plump, fun tables earlier and a £40-45 profit in around 45 minutes has made the bankroll look somewhat healthier. 

Recording of the is session here - assuming the thrilling detail above hasn't satisfied you. Not sure the appetite for diaries is that keen at the moment - because it's the summer? - so I think I'll be updating slightly less regularly. Once, perhaps twice, a week. I'll keep slogging away though, readers, just you see. 

Off for a lolament session. Peace out. 

Starting bankroll: £40

Current bankroll: £165.82 (£350 withdrawn)

bbMike

You write well and I enjoyed your first video. Will check this one out too. GL with the BR targets.

SR23

Thanks a lot, Mike. Assuming it is Mike. It's Mike, right? Anyway, one will do one's best. 

bbMike

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

Thanks a lot, Mike. Assuming it is Mike. It's Mike, right? Anyway, one will do one's best. 
Posted by SR23

Ha. Never did get round to posting on the 'your name is' thread. Mike will do. Been referred to as other things in chat but yeah, think I prefer Mike.

SR23

On the tables things have been a little thin lately. Bankroll continues to creep up but my miserable work situation means it's been bleeding out into my liferoll, as I don't want to dress in rags and eat out of bins. Plus - on a less dramatic note - these tennis lessons I'm having don't pay for themselves. 

Been trying to qualify for Manchester through the (excellent) freerolls but the last couple of weeks I've been ghosting out near the bubble with an average-ish stack and 65-70% equity in jams. Good old jams. Must try harder to win some of these. 

On a more positive note, I (a) have two weeks of lucrative, interesting and socially benign work coming up so I shouldn't need to withdraw until at least early August and (b) am getting better at the pokers. Study, innit. My game has really stuttered. For the last couple of years I've been incredibly complacent and just kind of turned up expecting to win and/or spent five minutes looking at strategy on forums or two minutes looking at my HH going, "That's fine/that's a cooler/I was drunk in that hand/I was tilted in that hand etc. etc. Right, I'm ready to play."

But even if I could just turn up and win at the micro stakes (and I just about can) that's not what I want to be doing for the coming months and years. So, yes, I need to study off the tables more. It actually feels really good and has stopped me crying into any foodstuffs that include, but are in no way limited to, boiled eggs. 

That's about as mawkish as it's going to get around here. Thanks for reading. 

Opening bankroll: £40

Current bankroll: £152.71 (£600 withdrawn)

Jac35

Don't beat yourself up 

That's a great return so far on your £40

Hope to see you in Manchester 

SR23

Thanks Jac35, appreciate it. Yup, planning to be in Manchester but my plans are excellent at unravelling. If I don't sat/bink in (and I haven't tried any sats yet) then I'll probably decide a day or two beforehand. 

Jac35

You could  try the hhy approach

He has no plans to play poker that weekend as it will get in the way of beer and burgers covered in gravy

SR23

Gravy-burgers? That man is a pioneer. 

SR23

Manchester is looking unlikely for me. 

Busted the final freeroll in reasonably grubby fashion after raising a limp and three calls pre w/KK, getting four calls, beaming at a J32 flop, beaming further at getting it in against AJ on a 3 turn and then beating loads of stuff up on a J river. 

Stuff I beat up included: a big box of filter tips I'd bought earlier that day (that showed them), a punch bag in my garden (that showed it) and various surfaces around my bedroom/kitchen (that showed them).

It's rare for me to get angry about beats - a couple of days before the above I lost w/AA v AA aipf at 30NL and laughed my head off when I lost - but this one affected me (and various inanimate objects) somewhat. Maybe because I just really wanted to go to Manchester. Maybe because I'd bowed out of the freerolls in similar equity spots the preceding two weekends. Maybe because I'd spent a few weeks making sure I qualified for them. Maybe because the often cruel nature of poker can be exhausting and I'd just had enough of it. Maybe because I'm pathetic. 

I quickly regained my composure though and fired up some tournaments. Was running nicely in at least two of them and then my internet cut out for 20 minutes so I decided it was a good idea to smash some more stuff up. 

Anyway, I've been taking a bit of a break since then. Not because of anything maudlin, more because I've had a fair bit of work to do and when I haven't had a fair bit of work to do, I've had a fair bit of going to the pub to do. 

Looks like I have less work on next week, though. If I make enough on the tables to cover travel (I travel cheaply), a hotel (I sleep in bins) and the tourney buy-in (£220?) I may decide to go at the last minute. 

Looking forward to playing again, even though a few days or weeks away can sometimes make you feel like not only have you forgotten everything but that you didn't even know anything in the first place. 

Opening bankroll: £40

Current bankroll: £209.40 (£800 withdrawn)

markycash

Hope you can (a) manage to make the Manchester trip (b) do not need to sleep in bins & (c) have not smashed up all of your inanimate objects. 

Good luck.

Tikay10

"Manchester is looking unlikely for me." 

Boo.

I say, boo.

Tikay10

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live : Thank you very much, Mr Tony 'Teacakes' Kendall. Breifly, on a scale of 1-10, how easy did you find it to give up smoking? I'm on the brink. 
Posted by SR23

I must apologise, I was gallavanting around in Vegas & clean forgot about this question.

I was a 20 or 30 a day man, especially when I was playing online poker, & I'd been smoking since I was mid-teens, so 55 years or so.
 
As it happens, giving up was far easier than I feared, though I guess it helps when the quacks effectively put a gun to your head & say "it's a matter of life or death, literally".
 
Vegas WAS a problem, as I had quit 10 weeks earlier & by now I was taking it for granted. And Vegas, where you go pop down to the Casino floor first thing in the morning & get a Starbucks, then sit & have a smoke in the Sports Book is a real temptation. 

I managed to resist, but Vegas was the hardest by a long way. 

As it happens, I had a hossie appointment today, & the Consultant chap told me my upper ventricular (or whatever it's called) was 99% blocked when I had the HA. And that was all down to smoking.
 
Nobody listens to advice like this - I certainly never did - and when old people say do or don't do this that or the other they get on my ****, but if you are a smoker, please try to quit.   

hhyftrftdr

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live : I must apologise, I was gallavanting around in Vegas & clean forgot about this question. I was a 20 or 30 a day man, especially when I was playing online poker, & I'd been smoking since I was mid-teens, so 55 years or so.   As it happens, giving up was far easier than I feared, though I guess it helps when the quacks effectively put a gun to your head & say "it's a matter of life or death, literally".   Vegas WAS a problem, as I had quit 10 weeks earlier & by now I was taking it for granted. And Vegas, where you go pop down to the Casino floor first thing in the morning & get a Starbucks, then sit & have a smoke in the Sports Book is a real temptation.  I managed to resist, but Vegas was the hardest by a long way.  As it happens, I had a hossie appointment today, & the Consultant chap told me my upper ventricular (or whatever it's called) was 99% blocked when I had the HA. And that was all down to smoking.   Nobody listens to advice like this - I certainly never did - and when old people say do or don't do this that or the other they get on my ****, but if you are a smoker, please try to quit.    
Posted by Tikay10

I'll take the overs, please.

Hope you can make it to Manchester SR, by hook or by crook....just get yourself there

Jac35

Why not just go to Manchester and not play poker?

The tubby fella is doing just that. He considers the poker to get in the way of the important stuff.

Hope you make it

IH8UButler

Hi mate unlucky on the freerolls the structure was a bit fast so needed some rungood to have a decent chance. Enjoyed your YouTube vids you planning on any more? Would be interested in your thoughts on 20/30nl.

Hope you can make the SPT, you seem like a trustworthy guy so if it helps would be happy to take 10% of your action at no markup for a bit of a punt. 

Donttelmum

I'd take 10% if you fancied selling some.

SR23

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

Hope you can (a) manage to make the Manchester trip (b) do not need to sleep in bins & (c) have not smashed up all of your inanimate objects.  Good luck.
Posted by markycash

Thanks very much dude. I will (a) try my best (b) try my best and (c) try and keep a few intact. I suspect it was just an anomaly. 

Appreciate you stopping by and thanks for the good wishes. 

SR23

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live : I must apologise, I was gallavanting around in Vegas & clean forgot about this question. I was a 20 or 30 a day man, especially when I was playing online poker, & I'd been smoking since I was mid-teens, so 55 years or so.   As it happens, giving up was far easier than I feared, though I guess it helps when the quacks effectively put a gun to your head & say "it's a matter of life or death, literally".   Vegas WAS a problem, as I had quit 10 weeks earlier & by now I was taking it for granted. And Vegas, where you go pop down to the Casino floor first thing in the morning & get a Starbucks, then sit & have a smoke in the Sports Book is a real temptation.  I managed to resist, but Vegas was the hardest by a long way.  As it happens, I had a hossie appointment today, & the Consultant chap told me my upper ventricular (or whatever it's called) was 99% blocked when I had the HA. And that was all down to smoking.   Nobody listens to advice like this - I certainly never did - and when old people say do or don't do this that or the other they get on my ****, but if you are a smoker, please try to quit.    
Posted by Tikay10

Thanks very much for this - I need all the help I can get at the moment and this certainly helps. 

55 years is a lot of years. I realised, fairly recently, that I had been smoking for 25 years. That seems a lot of years, too. And when one really drills down, one realises there aren't that many benefits to it and the positive aspects of not smoking - exercising more, meditating or yoga, say, as alternative forms of stress relief, saving money, saving lungs, making teeth look nicer - could well bleed into one's life and make it considerably better. 

The thing is, I feel like I'm hopelessly addicted and don't have the stones to commit to quitting right now. My life often feel like such an omnishambles and I don't have the mental stamina for not quitting. Perhaps I just need to buck up. But then there's another thought: smoking will be near-impossible, I reckon, within 5-10 years so perhaps make smokey hay while the sun shines. Or at least that what my addicted brain tells me. 

I'm certainly buoyed by you being able to quit just like that though, albeit under pretty severe circumstances. Well done on dodging Vegas-sports-book-with-Starbucks temptations. 

Maybe see you in Manchester. 

SR23

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live : I'll take the overs, please. Hope you can make it to Manchester SR, by hook or by crook....just get yourself there
Posted by hhyftrftdr

I'll do my best. Will buy you a dozen gravy-burgers if I do. 

SR23

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

Why not just go to Manchester and not play poker? The tubby fella is doing just that. He considers the poker to get in the way of the important stuff. Hope you make it
Posted by Jac35

By important stuff do you mean booze and gravy-burgers? Would be great to meet you and others there. I'm sure someone once said something along the lines of "Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to assist you," so let's see. 

SR23

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

Hi mate unlucky on the freerolls the structure was a bit fast so needed some rungood to have a decent chance. Enjoyed your YouTube vids you planning on any more? Would be interested in your thoughts on 20/30nl. Hope you can make the SPT, you seem like a trustworthy guy so if it helps would be happy to take 10% of your action at no markup for a bit of a punt. 
Posted by IH8UButler

May well take you up on that - thanks very much for the offer. Are you going headed up to Manchester, then? Thanks for the faith and for watching my vids - we've barely played versus each other lately but you owned me whenever we did. 

Have lots of thoughts on 20/30nl and even more on 50nl. Now I have tons of work over the next few months I may be able to build something of a roll and play these sorts of heady stakes. Watch this space. 

SR23

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

I'd take 10% if you fancied selling some.
Posted by Donttelmum

You are good people - thanks, man. Will PM you if I do decide to go. It's looking 50/50 right now. 

nb Have just started reading Agassi's autobiography - considered by many as one of the greatest sports books (even though it's something of an anti-sports book) ever written. It's gruelling, interesting stuff. 

HENDRIK62

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live:

In Response to Re: Harebrained June-December 2017 Challenge: 4NL to £5/10 live : You are good people - thanks, man. Will PM you if I do decide to go. It's looking 50/50 right now.  nb Have just started reading Agassi's autobiography - considered by many as one of the greatest sports books (even though it's something of an anti-sports book) ever written. It's gruelling, interesting stuff. 
Posted by SR23

I am not a huge fan of Biographies in general (although I have read a fair few, purely because I like to have at least one book going at any given time) but I think this could be one of my favourites.

SR23

Me neither. Looking forward to ploughing through this, though. Yup, I've gone from reading one book at a a time to having two or three (or four or five) on the go.