Check Dem Gwaphz

Check out my awesome Graph. After feeling like I've been banging my head against a brick wall for god knows how long playing 6-max NL I decided to switch it up and try a little $0.50/$1 FL.

Needless to say it's a bumpy ride as expected, some of the play is quite amazingly bad, you can see that downswing at 1200 hands or so was me flopping sets to get busted by runner runner straights/flushes on more than one ocassion, it was a slow grind back up to break even but I got there. I'm in 2 minds whether to carry on or not as at the minute it's 1) Matt minus $5, Full Tilt Poker +$52.65 in rake over 2000 hands and I can't get a rakeback deal as I didn't sign up through an affiliate back i 2005.... whats my motivation here?

Oh well, hope everyone had a good weekend!

Ciao Ciao

LOL Downswingaments

So it begins.... if've been a little bit up, a little bit down in my 1st few days playing FTP, pretty much grinding even. A couple of nights ago I had a good session making a buy-in profit after a bad start so I was becoming optimistic for my chances on FTP.

Sadly this did not last. I start a session last night that started.... unbelievably well, hands we getting paid off, draws connecting and a couple of nice C-Bet floats/steals and I was about 3 buy-ins up in no time. Then it all start going wrong when I lost a pot with a flush v bigger flush, shoved AK into AA from a button raise on my BB and it goes on.

I then had a run in with a guy who was either a soul-reader or very loosey goosey, at these stakes I'm leaning towards the latter but who knows what devine inspiration could have been involved here, the lord revealeth thyself in mysterious ways indeed. Sadly I don't have the HH's as I'm doing this from work but 1st hand I 3x BB it up with KQ and he min-reraises back from the blinds... LOL. So I call and it's raggy, he checks I bet 3/4 pot he calls, I bet hald the pot on the turn and river which were all fairly inoxuious for him to call me down with AJ high.... what a guy. The next one I have 99's and jack it up, he min-reraises me again, I pop him back a notch and he calls. Board of 2,5,10 and I'm thinking my 9's are still good, I lead, he calls. Turn is J and I check as the texture of board gets nastier and he checks. Rag on the river and I make a half pot bet thinking as he's shown little aggression I'm probably good (perhaps a check behind was wiser here) and he just smooth calls with AJ again..... why call on the flop to make your hand to then check/call it down? zOMG?!?!?

Next hand I'm in late position again with A8s and pot bet from the button and he calls on the BB, 8 high flop looks nice, I make a large C-bet (nearly pot) to look weak and wanting to take this down, hoping he'll go spazzy on me and raise... which he duely does, I call to ensure no danger cards hit the turn, i've 1/3 my stack in at this point and the turn is another under card, he makes a small bet and I shove, he calls and has JJ this time.... so i lost the best part of 3 buy-ins to a complete moron on an inspired heater... nice.

The cap the next off I lost a hand where I raised it up with KQ, flop comes Q high with 3 hearts, I have the Kh, I bet pot, get shoved into, a massive over bet which in this spot is normally a flush draw so I insta call and he indeed just has the A of hearts, flush misses but makes the ace on the river to stack me, so cruel and then lose a monster pot with AA, when a limper and a raiser in early position come to the flop with me after I jack it up, 9 high flop, aces still looking nice, I make a big bet on the flop and i'm reraised by the original raiser and I shove and he has KK, makes a set on the turn....

I manage to get out of FTP with half my original deposit in tact, it was a fucking horrible run, from 3 buyins up to losing 6-7 buyins on the night, utter utter balls. I think thats my time on FTP over for now, I hate the frickin' software anyhow and this loss is a good enough excuse for me to try something else. When the finances are looking a bit smarter I may try party or even iPoker (Spade-It ftw folks, get mining them tables!) and see what happens, might go back to FTP for the odd tournie but I just hate the client too much to sit in front of it for hours every night playing cash. Grrrrrrrr.

Ciao Ciao lovers.

M x

Moving to the enemy...

So, it's a snowy day in good old London Town and naturally the world comes to a complete stand still, we really are quite wimpy when it comes to minorly adverse weather, however that did afford me an extra day off this weekend with no buses or tubes running \0/

So I decided to stick $100 in FTP as I can no longer play on Stars due to my employment with them. This really is a crying shame as not even their nearest rivals are anywhere near the quality of software or games as PokerStars, but not much I can do about that, it's the next best game in town so I gotta be happy with it.

As I didn't really fancy grinding away at cheeseburger stakes like I normally would on a new deposit (FTP is notorious for shamefully large rake on <$0.10 games) that I'd jump in at NL $25 6-max and 4 table it playing $15 buy-ins (60BBs). I like doing this with a shorter bankroll, my stack will allow me to take some decent pots down and shove with more reckless abandon on hands like JJ, AQ, AK for the lulz.

So without going into too many specific hands (purely I don't have them at work lol) I spend the day clocking up about 3000 hands, unlocking a whopping $10 of my deposit bonus and pretty much breaking even. the amount of times I got done for set over set, or trips vs Boats was somewhat discouraging, but hey that's Pokah! There does seem a noticeable shift in aggressive preflop play compared to the same levels on Stars, there is so much re-popping going on from any postional raises (not necesarily steals) it's quite hard to work out if you are being messed with or they have something, so this is going to lead to some juicy swongs in the near future I can tell! But importantly I haven't been afraid to return the favour which helps keep that BB per hour slightly above the red.

I'll update again when i've hit 10K of hands and who knows.... you might get GWAPHz!

Ciao for now douche-bags.

M x