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A motorway
A ditch
A bucket
A none beer & a fake mate
Just make sure you still post on the forum!
When Beefy mentioned it, i immediately thought of YOU!!! So pleased its hit your diary. Made me chuckle!!
Ultra flat deck at Lords today, so we need abit of help from the Aussies.
Nice of them to oblige.
lololololol.
Watson should get the credit for that Rogers wicket, nice 1 twatto!
Still gonna be a long hard slog, 450 par imo.!
Nothing much to update, I've just looked at the graph as it is now and compared it to the one above, you can add maybe 60/70 dollars to the profit and 40ish games.
Quiet week.
I looked at the HU sng specific graph though, I'm getting beaten up in those.
I'm keeping the faith, I'm certain I'll turn that around against the standard of opponent I've been coming up against. Even the winning regs are quite poor so if they can do it.......
I've been using a tracker to monitor my expected value in the HU sngs. That confirms that if I was running as expected I would be winning.
fwiw I've played 120 HU sngs, average stake $12, profit -$98, roi -3.5%.
Down about 8 times my avg buyin, not disastrous. Hoping to turn that around this week/end.
The hyper HU sngs on there are slightly lower rake than here (only something like 0.2% lower) the structures are identical, but the the levels last 3 minutes instead of 2. I really like this change.
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Other poker news, bought some action over the last week. Had 50% of a player who finished 13th in the Thurs night BH, then 10% of 10th place in the SPT 6max.
Pretty frustrating to get very close to big money twice and just fall short, but still a few quid and a couple of fun sweats.
Day off today, hoping for a big session tomorrow, MTTS/SNGs before going back in to ASHES mode over the weekend for Fri/Sun sessions.
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Gazza it's the site that Don plays on, and refers to it as 'lose the max'.
Oh sigh, might as well just say it. Mods can Mod it. Winamax!
GL all grinding today !
They are very solid stats btw for 1000 games Gooner, wp.
Cheers tho, only like -£15 so like -3BIs and over a tiny sample, I can live with that... but I'm not eager to get back to them any time soon lol. The swongs tilt the hell out of me.
Yo!
Going to play a session today from 11am onwards. My usual warm up routine is wind acegooner up on Skype for an hour, but he's rudely decided his push for priority is more important than my entertainment and got his grind on, so I thought I'd give an update of how things have been going.
Poker
Steady away tbh!
Still sticking with the routine of playing MTTs in the afternoon, then sit n gos in the evening.
Lets just say the afternoons have been going a lot better than the evenings!
I'm really struggling to get ahead of the game in the HU's.
My sample is now approaching 500 games, which is still nothing really and I can't draw any conclusions yet but I had hoped that my perceived edge in the games would have started to show in my results by now.
My profit keeps fluctuating between -$400 and +$50.
It is rather 'sigh' on paper, but playing €20 games mainly it's not really that bad.
I'm showing good bouncebackability, I rarely have 2 horror sessions in a row which means any hole I've gotten myself in thus far has only been 1 good session away from being repaired.
Similarly, I rarely have 2 golden sessions in a row! Which means it's impossible to get ahead of the game!
I will keep the faith, as always, if I'm still struggling when I hit 1,000 games it may be time to re-evaluate.
MTTs going well, and keeping the stats looking respectable. No huge scores, but then again I'm not playing any huge mtts.
Here r the graphs of my lifetime games on the 2 sites I play mainly nowardays.
The one on the left is the site I found around 2 months ago (just before I stopped updating here).
http://imageshack.us/f/543/cddy.png/
(click to enlarge)
Some of you may know 'bearlyther' he plays on sky occasionally, used to play here a lot.
He's started making poker video commentaries for a website, he kindly agreed to review one of my deep runs as abit of practice. If you're interested in that type of thing, and want to see some horror plays of mine, the link is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_3d84diL9w
Sport.
Very solid start to the season for Donny.
I feared the worst when we got beat at home on the opening day to Blackpool, who I thought would (will) be relegation candidates also this season.
But a home win against Blackburn and away point @ Wigan were 2 really good results.
Being 3-1 up after 50 mins v Charlton and having the game called off was abit brutal though.
On the whole a lot more optimistic about the season, we might have a chance of finishing 2nd bottom now!
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Strange end to a very strange Ashes series.
A lot of people blaming the ICC/Umpires for the end to the Oval test match.
I'd be much more critical of England.
Captain Cook & Flower knew (or should have known) the rules.
With 20 overs to go, we needed only 6 an over with plenty of wickets in hand, yet we tried to time the chase to win in the final over or 2.
Should have gone a lot harder a lot earlier to avoid any chance of going off for bad light.
Very very flattering result overall, no way were we 3 tests better than them.
Can't wait for the return series now, lots of needle between the 2 teams, doubt we'll get away with sub par performances again over there.
Bring it on!
Comedy
Just this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK_9wTVAAAU
Gold!
gl all playing today!
Loads to go at!
Cricket first. (this will need a post of its own!)
The Ashes down under! Gulp!......
Looking forward to it wayyyyyy more than I did the home series. Because, I think it's a much more even series, if anything we are going in underdogs. (doubt the bookies will agree, and ultimately I hope they're right!)
I've said before we were within 2 or 3 more overs of winning the home series 4-0. 3-0 is already 1 of the most flattering results I can remember, 4 would have just been crazy.
No way were we 3 tests better than them. Aside from Lords, the series was really even.
So much needle between the 2 sides, Lehman is going to get them right up for it and playing fearless cricket.
If they get their selection right (play people like Marsh/Finch/Warner instead of Kawaja/Cowan/Hughes) and play the right brand of aggressive cricket, (particularly with the bat) I think they'll give us a very hard time.
Throughout the summer, I always felt watching it that they had a wicket in them. They had good plans and great discipline with the ball (very similar to New Zeland before them) and I never felt comfortable watching us bat even on the dire wickets which we produced all series.
The return to form of Mitchell Johnson is huge also. I don't think we have anyone who can bowl a hostile spell @ serious pace like he can.
You just have to compare the run-rates of the 2 teams to see how much more control their bowlers had. The fact that Swann was our top series wicket taker also tells a tale.
Very different pitches down under, question marks over Finn, Tremletts fitness & Rankin unproven, wickets wont be ideal for Jimmy (although he's a genius and will always take wickets), I think it's a huge series for Broad. He has to stand up and lead the attack imo.
I'm ranting, and typing on & on & on, I'm excited already
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1 final rant.....
selection.
Can't understand why Kerrigan was given his debut in the final test. So many reasons....
He's made his name/reputation in the T20/ODI arena.
He bowls in county championship division 2! And has a decent record. But nothing spectacular.
He should have been eased into the ODIs first like most players are, particularly when he's a specialist & comfortable in that format.
If England wanted an all rounder to bat 6 (Woakes) why not pick Adil Rashid as the 2nd spinner, who's averaging close to 100 with the bat in division 1 this year, and also bowling a lot better and taking wickets again.
That way we could have played a proper 3rd seemer (not the 82mph straight up and down Woakes), have Swann as the main spinner, and Rashid as the 5th legspin option.
If Monty doesn't get on the plane down under it'll be a disgrace.
He is by far our best option behind Swann. He outbowled him last winter. I don't care if he p'd on a bouncer. It's no worse than Warner punching Root or Freddie and his pedalo. It's the Ashes, we need the best players available.
Rashid to go on the A tour down under in the performance squad with Kerrigan.
Anyway, looking forward to the final ODI tomorrow.
Pleased Carberry got some runs yesterday, and Butler finally performing on the big stage
Very unsure about Stokes, but will give him more time. Don't think he's ever going to be a first change bowler in any format though.
Ravi still tilting the f out of me with the bat.
All good fun!
Unspectacular stuff from Donny.
No signings on/around deadline day, but at least we extended loans and extended a couple of short term contracts.
Decent point away @ Uddersfield yesterday after a terrible home defeat to Bournmouth.
The fixture list does seem to have been kind to us early. We'll have some v tough fixtures in quick succession soon.
At least we'll have 2 games against both Derby & the hopeless Millwall to break up the run of thrashings!
Seriously impressed with your rivals Forest when I saw them the other week @ Watford.
They've got 1,248 strikers on the bench that'd walk into most Championship teams. They'll go up with QPR, for the 3rd promotion spot get a pin out and stick it in the table anywhere between 3rd & 16th! Who knows!
Cash guide
No, I definitely wouldn't do anything like that again.
I didn't even mean to make that 1 really.
I started talking to Don off forum, at the time he was having difficulties just breaking even @ nl4, and I was playing a lot of cash and doing very well @ 30nl so I felt I'd be able to help him out.
I played an hour or so on 4nl just to re-familiarise myself with the level to be in a better position to help him out. Started jotting some down some notes to send over to him and it kind of turned into the guide. Had to modify it abit and I posted it in the clinic for other people struggling @ nl4.
Then got a PM off skydave asking if he could turn it into a blog for the site, and that's how it ended up on there.
I cringe when I read it back now, if I were to update it I'd just edit that one as I think the basics at that level are still the same, and always will be.
It's just enough to turn a losing player into a break even or small winning player. Nothing more than that.
A lot of the game at that level is mental, even more so than higher up imo. Loads of the players there have the wrong idea and don't understand that bad players making bad calls is a good thing, not a bad thing!
I definitely think these kind of guides offering very basic advice is good for the site/game.
I'm sure Tintin & co wont agree so much :P
But it's no good players pumping deposit after deposit into the site before getting fed up and calling it a day altogether.
The guides wont make anyone World beaters, but hopefully make their money go further and therefore increase their enjoyment of the game.
fwiw, Donald was still struggling at nl4 long after the 'guide' was published!
Hopefully it's helped 1 or 2 though.
Changes
Yes, things have changed a lot during my time on sky in the cash games.
The standard still isn't great overall, but players are a lot lot lot lot tighter than they used to be.
The regs are a lot better. I can name 4/5 players that I would sit next to on 30nl now that I feel are better players than me.
2 years ago, there was probably only 1. He's now a TV analyst & touring the World crushing epts/wsop etc!
Put me on a table with f ivanovic, ajrockets, kkrippler, stacker & acegooner & I'd be the fish in the game.
Ok maybe I was struggling to find a 5th, memory isn't gr8 & I aint played for ages!
There are lots of bad tight regs, but there used to be lots of bad aggressive ones.
I know which one I'd prefer!
I've had to look for value elsewhere, I don't play anywhere near enough volume to sit grinding it out with those guys for hours for a small winrate. In the past I could sit and crush almost at will. I didn't need to put the time in to grind down these tight regs. Certainly not the case anymore.
People would suggest trying to improve my game.
I have tried, I just can't seem to get to the next level where I can have a significant edge on these people.
I've put hours and hours in on forums & Skype discussing hands, making videos, contributing to live session discussions etc etc.
Just can't take it on again! yet! Will keep trying!
Maybe someone can write me a guide
SPT
pfffft! :P
Poker Update
While I'm here it'd be rude/impossible not to put a brag in!
My last session was on Friday where I had my most profitable day of the year so far
I won a tournament on pokerstars.fr. If anyone has seen the video we made on Dons diary, it's that exact tournament,
Came first out of 650 runners over 7 hours for just under €800!
Was a lot of money on the heads and I only took 3 throughout the whole tournament! I'd guess the average prize for first place in that including heads is well over 1k!
Backed that up with a good result in skys timed cash game, 2nd in a sky BH and some small binkage on the HU sngs for a £1k+ profit on the day!
Was well chuffed with it.
Nothing like a Sunday grind to bring me back down to Earth today though
Again, all good fun
Hope everyone is running well, gl all playing today!
Out of interest, if you are playing cash at 30nl are most tables filled by regulars? Is there never tables with a good amount of randoms?
I was looking at playing 20nl 1 night, and most tables i looked at had atleast 4 regular players on them. I don't see how that can ever be profitable, as there is no edge when you are playing a table where people just play ABC poker. Well you can make money, but probably a small amount, but it would just be boring.
If i'm playing, my ideal is 1 regular ABC player, and the rest randoms, or 1 regular ABC player and 1 regular passive player. But anymore than that, and it'spretty pointless sitting down at the table.
Well done on your wins the other day, very nice results indeed, some more today please!
The standard has definitely changed even in the short time I've been playing slightly higher games than I used to, not even necessarily that loads of people have got better but as JJ said, loads have got a hell of a lot tighter, cos it's a safe, low variance route where you won't lose much very often and if you can just cooler a few people or stumble across a few 'less experienced' players then you can win a few stacks. The games are more tedious now which is why I don't think JJ wants to grind it out there anymore.
That's the thing though Larson, people never used to play like that at 4NL. I remember the days when you'd sit down and it was pretty unlikely you'd even have 1 person on the table playing like a nit, table selection was just unnecessary cos you could just sit at any table and it would be a good table. I haven't played 4NL for yonks tho, it probably is still a lot like that, it's probably the level with the most traffic on the site so can't imagine there aren't still a ton of good tables.
There are deffo better tables than others at 20NL, depends what you want. Cos I play alot of tables I'm usually forced to play on tables with a few regs but it's not hard to find tables with 2-3 'non-regs' and remember, in cash, just the same as an MTT, you should be finding your 'spots' and pounding away at them... you don't HAVE to be playing pots with every single player at the table, you can just pick out the people you think you have the biggest edge against and constantly try to get into pots with them.
There is an edge, just not as big as against some loose maniacs, and it's just about learning how to find it, like if Phil Galfond sat down at any 20NL table, I'm sure he'd be able to destroy it once he figured out everyone's game. I think the problem is people sit down and think 'this is how I play, so that's how I'm gonna play 100% of the time'. Some tables you need to tighten up a bit and just value town people, some tables you will need to be 3betting and 4betting people light alot. Generally though, it's gonna be higher variance trying to beat this sort when you're 3/4betting light alot, cos you'll also be doing stuff like check/raising flops with air knowing they need a super strong hand to continue, or shoving rivers as bluffs... so can be swingy.
Some people 3bet a decent amount of the time but when facing a 4bet will continue with like KK/AA and that's about it, so these people you can just make 3bet/fold an absolute ton, and if you take down a pot pre where someone has 3bet you're probably winning 15xBB ish... do that a few times and you won a BI. 15xBB doesn't sound alot but when a good winrate is like 10xBB PER HOUR... it's not to be sniffed at.
FWIW, Reg doesn't mean they're a great player. As Bean often says, if they were amazing players they wouldn't be playing 20NL, they're just good for the level or good enough.
Bit of art work to sum up sundays poker!
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/9336/hg4u.jpg
How do you lose 8 HU sngs in a row ffs.
Could have been another big day, but had to settle for a small win here & in Francais!
Loving the 7.30 timed tournament, I stationed off w/ 66 on 442J9 to a bet/check/bet line to see a rivered set with 99. Was behind every street. 99 makes sense! Not a lot else did.
recovered from 500 chips after hand 1 to cash out 14k! 3 figure payouts the last 2 times I've played that. Hope it continues to run!
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Important link for today.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2637487
ODI cricket doesn't seem the same as it used to be to me. It's like an England a team.
But today feels like a big game.
Bits of rain around towards the end of the first innings and start of the 2nd means the dreaded Duckworth Lewis will come in to play.
Win the toss and bowl then I guess!
Have a good feeling about Ben Stokes today for some reason.
Hope every1 had a profitable Sunday, gl all grinding today!