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a donkeys life
A Donkeys Life:
Just back from a few days away with the missus and the ankle biters…absolute winter conditions…but great time on the monopoly board having cheated to get the Mayfair and park lane pitch to park my little silver hat….(even bribery failed to prise my favoured motor car from the hands of my second or third youngest/oldest…I’ve lost track of the order they came in…and at the risk of sounding childest…they all look the same to me). Anyway…suffice to say..a great time had by all..despite the sacrifices of.. poker..bingo..fb..and area 51.
First night back I resolved to enter..maybe.. a £5 to £11 bounty hunter or guaranteed…and I got to be honest here…my missus does all the driving…we arrived home from a leaky what’s the point caravan …and I immediately entered an £11 bounty hunter at 12:30am..full of vodka and high expectations I quickly lost 5/6 hundred chips with pockets hands hard to fold on the first pass…then followed this up by overcomitting to a pot with a seriously bad hand…and all inned hoping to fold the only other player left..who incidently had top pair and was probably braying at me loudly as I made my hasty exit…all this despite the fact the deepstack and longer blinds were my preferred tournaments…since in my three months at sky poker I have won three…two back to back..and along with a bounty hunter second..2 thirds and several top twenty places with many bounties. I faced in the main very decent players in the latter stages of all..albeit the very nature of the game..i.e. massive blinds.. can lead to some erratic..and some necessary erratic gameplay .. However i consider these fair stats given the period of time playing at this level (not bad for a d**k)…but I reasoned this was because the kids were always in bed or going to bed when I got involved in these. This time they were sent to bed….no guilt…they were absolutely knackered. So I headed to the bathroom to freshen up…mainly from the neck up…and hurriedly made my preparations..bottle of coke..pkt of wipes (in case I spilt the coke)…several roll ups…ashtray..captain Kirks chair…cushion..and mr wobbley..(this weeks lucky mascot…or not as the case may be). There was a £250 bounty hunter up shortly..around 1:30am…but I only pondered this briefly…because although I’d had some decent placings..and collected some nice bounty money in the past…I felt that the nature of this tournament can and in my case has..led to some questionable gameplay…sometimes the greed for the bounty can distort your thought process…in the worst cases leading to early baths..and I thought that if I start first tourney back in this way…it may taint my play in any other ensuing tournament that night…(hopefully none).. I feel that any decent player can expect to go deep in at least one out of three in any given night..having to play all three being rare…of course I hadn’t came up against the three or four days of brutally cruel and incredulous (admittedly..not impossible) poker that can happen online and seriously affect your gameplay…YET .
Another worrying niggle at the back of my mind.. (and I don’t mean the one about men in black suits and ties and sunglasses..from secretive places like Langley west Virginia…beaming me off somewhere for a good and proper probing)…(or the one about the mayan calander predicting the end of the world is “nigh” due to pole shift in 2012..which basically means the world is shaped like a sock and someones put their hand in it and turned it inside out (very scientific)..or vice versa)..(or even the one were my wife’s knicker elastic snaps in her sleep and cuts me in half..sorry babe)..I mean the one concerning.. Area 51…drat..what had ever possessed me to raise my profile in this manner…(besides the fact it’s great). What if I was playing people who had read my rantings…would my gameplay then be under close scrutiny..and if I played cr*p…would I then be crucified and ridiculed by the written word.. all my thoughts turned to the saying “The pen*s mightier than the sword”..sorry.. that’s two words..isn’t it?... I know this is silly..but you can’t help your thoughts. Still..this was one hurdle I knew I could get over…simply by playing well.
I then decided to play the next available tourney…(immaterial what it was)…it was a 1:05 bounty hunter costing £2.30…(a fact which I also believe is immaterial) …hopefully using the sometimes reckless play to my advantage…so I decided to make a few ground rules for myself in the process 1)..no chasing bounties..2)remember no poker hand can be won with two cards..no all ins..(within reason)..and 3) remember rules one and two. Now the first hour of most tournaments..as you know..are dodgier than foxtrotting across a minefield in loose fitting flip flops..everybody is trying to get their foot on the first rung of that ladder to success. My gameplay plan was simple…while the blinds were minimal…play as many hands as possible..chase a few flush draws…chase a few straights…and…(since I think human sacrifice has been prohibited these days) get down on my knees and pay a little homage to the great poker gods.
Right away the table became dominated by one of those ultra aggressive players…the ones you know have nothing most of the time…but tend to catch something when you decide to square up…and though a lot of us hate this play..you can’t knock how effective it can be…especially if they have the card sense to fold when someone does make a stand I quickly resolved not to get involved in too many hands with this player…unless the cards dictated otherwise…or unless there was nobody following my check. Now to say I deliberty may have handicapped myself in this tournament is an understatement…what with the pressure of my rantings in area 51…the four days of catastrophic card cruelty…ensued hotly by two or three desperately played tournaments…and now the resolution to fold some decent pocket card…in particular the ace queen..(a personal favourite hate)….I had also resolved to fold some strong hands post flop and turn.. especially those where an 8 or a king could beat me on the river (cos it generally does)…(and not just me.. according to just a small sample of posts on area 51)…I also resolved to fold a dominant pair if a ten flopped..trip tens enters the same catorgory as before…as does runner runner…especially with an eight…and also be ultra wary when there is a chance of four communal suited cards following flop or turn..these card/hands..I considered highly dangerous cards of the week/month/year…..I would be interested in seeing the percentage of strong hands turned over by the latter…I suspect if I have saw lots in just a few samples.. the percentage is high. Though I hesitate to sing the word “manufactured”…(to the chorus line of blood vessels “POPPIN” all over the place…or if you don’t know that one..try I’m forever blowing bubbles by Michael Jackson)…so I won’t say “manufactured” in order to prevent any annerism caused by the word “manufactured”…moving quickly on. In short I had decided to alter my game in a way which I thought necessary to play online poker..in this matter those whose main experience is online..or have been playing online for a long time…have a distinct advantage both consciously and subconsciously.
I also resolved to appreciate danger times..i.e. I feel that particularly in the run up to a break..and just following break…the chances of you being took out are heavily increased…and this has proved rewarding in the past…however after the break may be just due to you losing rhythm…or falling out of the zone…by zone I mean you can almost tell when your opposition has stopped to refill their glass… In the early stages of any tournament I very rarely raise any pot…preferring to be bet into when I finally catch a viable hand…the drawback is that when you do want to bet…you get a table of folders…hence your aces may only lift the ante…however.. as we all know..live or online..pocket aces is not necessarily a winning hand…also as we all know..especially online…and though I don’t really like being pulled about from table to table..it does offer a chance to change your mode of play..very important as progressive involvement and measured aggression are a must. The first break is always my only target initially…and if I reach this I’m happy..and far more relaxed..
Obviously I can’t start posting loads of hands..but just a few here before the first break. About twenty mins in I hit kk on the button..I quickly checked not wanting to scare anyone off if these looked good…the following 2xbet and this was called by one other before me..the board flopped 7 2 10…I checked..the following player 2xbetted..and the other quickly 4xbetted…an immediate fold on my part…one pair not enough in this situation…and even if there was only one..I would have fold to the flopped 10…anyway an all in followed…the player left turned 8 9…the player right 10 2..(which makes you wonder why there was a pre-flop raise or call at all). Jack and queen waved the two pair goodbye. The only other hand of interest was my pocket 6’s…the ultra aggressive (now well ahead) 2xbet the pre-flop..I called…the flop produced a 2 4 and seven…I checked..your man 2xbetted…and my gut told me he had nothing…if he had a really solid pre-flop hand…a lot more chips would have went in…same post-flop..so I called…the turn was a nine..I checked..he 3xbetted….now I felt the nine was scarier than even an ace..no flush on the board..but an outside chance of two straights…and he may have also caught nines…but his bet was still too small…so on gut I pushed in half my stack quicker than a skydiver without a chute….he let is time run down..but eventually folded… and was a bit less kami-kazi from that point on. The reason why I posted this hand was not to rubbish textbooks..(as I’ve already been brought to brook for this…and rightly so)…its just to prove that in many cases a player doesn’t play bad or good…a player plays poker….Many times I have completely dominated tables for a lengthy period of time..winning pots with hands that would make your granny faint..and your grandfather take advantage of it…(thus disappearing to the pub I mean…guttermind)…more importantly at these times is the ability to crush your opponent by making folds when they do finally fill…this is gut poker..and though dangerous..is a hugh part of any decent players game. I also feel that any player who plays strictly to a text gospel can become vulnerable…especially to those who have read the same book.
Nothing much to report early doors on 2nd hour stole a few hands with nothing…(hate when one of the mods advises you to steal a few hands..and then berates you for playing rubbish…a contradiction in terms I think you’ll find)…folded pocket queens to an all in bet when there was two callers before me…figured an ace or king on the board would beat me…mentally kicked myself up the jaxy when queen fell 1st card on the flop and produced another all in…and then spent 10mins mentally removing my boot when two of the players split the pot with a straight to the ace..time to be careful with a few “ACTION FLOPS” starting to fall. During game so far was delighted with my prowess that maximising winnings from winning hands…even if it was only a single blind raise at times…but more happy at how minimally I was losing on losing hands.
Then disaster..up until this point…due to my own rules..i.e. don’t chase the bounties…I had reached after 1hr and 21mins a mere 3680 chips and 1 bounty…only to be all inned 2850 chips with a jack ten..since I had ace jack.. at first I was delighted…but when the ten fell on the flop followed by another ten on the turn…I was absolutely gutted…and under 1000 chips…(you may think my previously writing about the trip tens is with hindsight…but it is now 4:05 am..and I have just won this tournament at 4:00am…but this hand was not “manufactured”) neither was the hand that put me back in the runnin…(you guessed it..an eight on the river finally worked for me..i.e straight to the eight..which I called thinking this is possible online…and only online)…SUCH IS MY CONFIDENCE IN MY GAME…THAT I WROTE MOST OF THIS POST WHILE ON HOLIDAY.
Now… there are many more hands which I could display…but I won’t…letting my finishing position speak for itself..despite the fact I reached the final table with lowest stack…a mere 6300 chips. I would advise caution if rubbishing this win and the aforementioned wins and placings…to do so would rubbish 1000’s of players with placings and wins in similar tournaments..and therefore would make any position in mediation…to say the least…untenable.
And so to conclude. On the basis of the above… the question of weather this site is rigged..no longer becomes the question…the question is now…can it be beat?...and the answer is yes..it can. A more important question to me however is…Is it true that the more derogatory anti-riggist witch -hunters..whom have just had all their pitchforks bent and all their flaming torches doused. Is it true that these defenders have not the slightest clue of what they speak.
Well…obviously…duh!
Comments
That is probably one of the best posts I have ever read on here.
...... and in answer to your question ''can it be beat'' the answer is yes. I've been doing it for 10 years. Great insight and better than a thousand ''it's rigged'' posts.
Posted by DOHHHHHHH
Your assumption is correct dohh..well called (poker players eye)...I take it you assumed there was no king,s..or 6s..I wouldn't flimflam you in anyway..i'm basically an honest guy...which is why i stated that most of this post was written before i sat down..and only the end was to be altered...thank god for small mercies..i really would have missed sky...Did your poker eye also spy that this post was somewhat of a capitulation. The absolutely great thing about the past weeks discussions and debates..has done wonders for me...most of all it has made me look past the bare basics of the game...and attempt to compare it to schools twenty years ago with the exact same rotation of thirty or forty faces..completely different animal...how i missed some obvious facts astounds me...fact one when playing thousands and thousands more hands one can expect thousands more repeated cards and hands...duh!...also though the kks didnt happen i have learned how to fold some pretty strong hands...in fact..i have learned more in the last week than i probably would in a year without said discussions... I have fallen well done the ladder of the definitely rigged brigade...and now feel given time and patients..(go figure) anybody who trys can adapt to online poker over time. There's no punchline honest. As for your challenge..thks for making me feel important for five mins...but this would end in humiliation for one us and we both know which one...(i'm taking the fifth on the grounds i mite incriminate myself...lol)...i'm afraid your knowledge and experience is light years ahead of mine..(course i mite get lucky)...maybe u'll let me issue in 1 or 5 years...but my recreational play i fear..will never close the gap. I would like to show you my best fold of the night..final table...a fold i couldn't have made last week...never mind 20 years ago..i'll post it shortly
Posted by edge215
Posted by edge215
Obviously you dont c the winner after my fold...but me and him ended heads up and friendly...he did have the house..no reason to doubt him..pretty candid guy and cetainly not big raiser with nowt...anyway its all there in black and white...no doubt some will be appalled at my backtrack...but thats the way i feel...and having got that of my chest i'll enjoy my poker much more...ave dude
Nice thread edge.