Greekstein: March 2009

Monday 30 March 2009

Running like Lava

So fucking hot it's untrue atm. I lost one buy in the other day with AK vs AQ blind on blind in 6-max and I was literally shocked at how I didn't win. That might give you an idea of how I've been running lately. I fucking hope this little chirp doesn't bok me. Mind you I've been due and deserving a run like this though I would say that wouldn't I!

I love the move from Crypto to ipoker too. The players are so much weaker and I'm on an improved VIP deal (I've had to edit this as I can't mention site/amount or what this payment is called (pretty obv) - it's higher than 49% and skin is pretty irrelevant and the network I play is also obv) which is gonna make a very significant difference too. I was actually talking with Woodsey (some of you may know him, some not) at the Empire on Saturday night. We're both very active members of the blondepoker forum (pwns all forums imo) and we were discussing playing on the blonde card room. Whilst I'd love to in order to give a bit back to the site I can't justify moving back to a 30% rakeback deal as it would cost me a few hundred £ every month to do so. I will be joining soon just for the times I wanna play an MTT session.

I'll go into why I've been doing so well online a little later but in live poker you don't even have to be that good to win. The main skill is putting up with sitting at a table getting 25 hands an hour and tolerating at least one absolute dickhead that you'll ineveitably get on any table. On friday night I played the £1/3 game at the Vic finishing with a £1600 stack after buying in for £600 and then I went to the Empire to play on Saturday night and after buying in for £600 finished on £2600 (-£100 on massages - FML but she was too fit). It was good to see and play against Woodsey again - a good guy from my days at gala and one of the best players there. My game has come on a lot since then and I was therefore able to battle a lot more evenly with Woodsey than the one sided schooling he gave me on more than one occasion back in Nottingham! I made one very good call against him and one poor one right at the end of my session. Also had drunken mates show up at like 4am just as I was finishing and fck sake what a nightmare they were. One got punched in the face too and was so battered that he insisted on going in to the empire to win his money back from a night out on the basis that he shouldn't have to pay for a night that got ruined! Sigh donkaments. Anyway £600 of not being able to stop him later he was not happy! We then argued for about 10 minutes as he wanted to borrow £300 off me but I didn't want to lend it to him in that state and woulda felt responsible if he lost. Anyway I did eventually and he did £300 a hand and won a few to get even for the night and then I got him out and home though that poor cab driver endured a lot of abuse.

I've studied and worked on my game a fair bit. When I was in Nottingham for the DTD £300 weekend I stayed with Tom Rutter and saw how professional he is with his bankroll and approach to the game. Obviously he is a very talented player but it kind of made me sit up and think about what is necessary to be succesful at poker rather than just being able to play well. So far I am doing everything I think is necessary. Despite a £5k upswing in cash the last 9 days I havent any temptation to play any higher than $1/2 online. I've not even experienced an ounce of tilt when I've lost a big pot or a buy in or got donked which is obviously having a huge impact. Richard 'Loser18' Lewindon has helped me with my game a lot too. He was the best reg on Crypto at £1/2 and £2/5 and I know him from old live cash games at Gutshot yonks ago. Through discussion on msn he helped me iron out a lot of leaks and just improve my all round game.

Fucking hell I blew my own trumpet in this post. I'll try to update again soon even though the novelty of blogging has worn off a bit.

gl at the tables

Wednesday 25 March 2009

A Prelude To Getting My Shine on at the Vic

As I said briefly in my last post I really haven't felt like blogging but maybe that's cos nothing too noteworthy has happened of late though last night at the Vic makes for a good little tale which I'll get into in my next post tomorrow. Anyway when Steve Holden tells you to blog, you fucking blog.

In the meantime I've been getting back into the gym big time. My training partner is back from his travels and a few other mates have decided to get into it so I've been showing them and we've all been training together. My strength is sick good atm, I've just gotta keep the cardio up at the beginning of my sessions so I can lose about 10kgs so I actually look strong too!

I was playing online a bit here and there and couldn't really get anything going. My B-game wasn't even in site let alone playing my best though volume was pretty small. Despite this I wasn't really losing and decided to move my money off William Hill and back into my bank as I had just set up a new account with VC where I'm on a 50% rakeback deal. (Thanks Barry Carter and James Atkin for helping me with this one). I decided to have a few days off while I just did other stuff when I realised my rakeback money had come into my Will Hill account and I registered for a few MTT's and ended up taking down a 336 runner 6-max MTT for £650/$910. Having the next 4 days off meant I could finally play some tournies on a sunday night and after this win I seem to have been running really well in cash games on VC and playing pretty close to my best too. I think I'm up around 20 buy ins in about 5k hands this week.

Since the Will Hill move to ipoker and my other move to VC (also ipoker) it's the first time I've ever really played online in dollars. Crypto tables were predominanly in ££ and I think the change has made the tilt factor which I sometimes suffer a bit more than most from decrease loads as when I lose a pot in dollars it doesn't seem to mean as much when you lose one in ££ and think what that money equates too. Maybe I'm just rambling now.

Anyway, before I post about my day at the Vic on tuesday I'll leave you with a conversation I had with King of the Bloggays Amatay on msn where he mentioned that Richard 'The Virgin Cunt' Kellett won the £200 rebuy at the Vic the other day. (I'll mention TheKellster in my next blog post). Myself and Amatay mentioned that whoever wins the most in cash on saturday would get to pick a move for the other to perform on the Kellster at the Vic. Amafish's comment at the bottom sums up both our thoughts at the time. Amatay used to be a teacher you know. [ ] Great use of English mate.

Amatay says:
DDT off the final tarble
Cos says:
Sweet chin music from the top of the stairs
Amatay says:
maybe tag team the cunt
Amatay says:
sweet chim musik from greek followed by the big boot from Amatay
Amatay says:
elbow drop from Tikay
Amatay says:
fml
Amatay says:
wtf am i talking about
Cos says:
at least we're true men and can admit wrestling pwns
Amatay says:
2.30am chatting to some cunt i only know as greekstein about performing redic wrestling moves another some other cunt i only know as kellster in London biggest casino!

Tuesday 24 March 2009

CBA to blog

Really cba keeping a blog anymore.

Maybe that'll change so I won't delete it for the time being but atm just really dont feel like it.

Week off work atm up about £1k so far this week. Should be at the Vic in the next day or two.

Monday 16 March 2009

Severe case of Blogitis

I haven't felt like Blogging recently.

Will try and fill the gap at some point this week.

In the meantime check out this blog from FTP red pro Matt Hawrilenko aka Hoss_TBF who endured a Phil Hellmuth rant on UB recently. Pretty funny.

gl fish

Thursday 12 March 2009

Cheltenham

Fuck horses.

Binocular - die.
Voy Por - die.
Kasbah Bliss - die.

I guess what I'm trying to say is just fucking die - stupid animals.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

FFS!

Just lost £500 on poker and got really steamed. A dirty 88 vs 44 on 567 flop. 3 on river all money in on flop. Did a further £300 on WH blackjack.

Why does this always happen after a good streak? Been playing like a dick.

Thoroughly fucked off.

The Dirty Ho of Poker

Over the next week I'm going to be doing more grinding than a slag on the dancefloor.

I've got monday-weds off work so I'm in two minds as to whether to go up to DTD for their £300 deepstack but don't know if I can really be arsed to make all the arrangements (e.g train/hotel etc). I'd say I'm about 25% to say 'fuck it I'm off atm'.

My plan for my days off is to go out on monday and use some of my recent 'run-good' monies to buy a new set up for my room. At the moment I only play on my laptop which isn't really ideal for multitabling. Anyone who plays Crypto will know how annoying it is not to have adjustable table sizes and I prefer overlapping tables slightly to their gay 'pro view'. As the saying goes 'you can't miss what you've never had' but playing on my mates 36 inch monitor a few times recently I loved it and it can only help my profitability so is now a must. Luckily these days things like that don't cost a ridic amount and I reckon I can get what I want for about £600. I'm going with a mate as he's knowledgeable about what to buy and I'm clueless other than size. Is that a realistic amount of money to spend or should I be expecting to fork out a bit more?

Last night I had my first bad session in a while. I was really really disappointed with my play and my attitude which seems to have improved greatly since I started this blog and trying to take a more professional approach towards poker even though I'm not a pro.

I was down about £300 a few times and as much as £550 once. I made so many stupid spews when on mild tilt it was ridiculous. Raising too much and getting 3-bet a lot I was spewing hard...esp when I kept calling the 3-bets to catch a flop. I made a stupid 4-bet bluff with A4 on a Q2310 board with no knowledge on villain to fold to his 5-bet shove. I haven't donked like that in a while and hopefully I won't be again! I've also reviewed my HH's and really wasnt catching any flops and did run pretty poor but still shoulda lost less in a few of these spots and not got into some in the first place.

Some spots were unavoidable like when I raised 88 on the button and got smoothed in the BB. Flop 689. obv opponent had 10 7.

I also lost with a set and flush draw all in on flop in Omaha to a wrap and smaller flushdraw.

Then playing a $2/5 game guy UTG playing $200 makes it $17. 2 callers behind him and I find AK on the button. Great spot to look like I'm squeezing and get it in. I make it $85 and raiser flats with $115 behind. Flop comes QQJ and I miss for the rest vs his J10. Wp sir, wp.

Revenge was very very sweet though as a few hands later I made a big bluff and before I could even top up, my stack was at about $700 when I raised the cut off with J10 and Mr J10 3-bet in the BB. I had to call this guy just to stick it in the motherfuckers eye. Flop was K92 and he checks. When he checks I know he feels his hand is massive because he woulda continued anything bar laying me a trap. I peel off behind him as even if he does have QQ,JJ,1010 etc he's not folding to me. Turn comes a queen. Absolute sexual chocolate of a card. He insta leads for $85 with about $205 behind and I flat to make sure his stack goes in on the river. The river comes a 9 and he takes about 5 seconds before getting it in. Unfortunately for me I didn't think so slowroll the little bastard and just instacalled to see AK. tyty.

I finally trapped a late night tilter into overshoving the flop when i 3-bet pre with K9 and made a weak lead at the King high flop which he shoved with bottom pair A kicker and missed.

Since I started this post I'm now really really fucking tempted to come to DTD and as long as I can sort somewhere to stay I'm gonna try and do it. Be nice to ship the £27k first prize one time!!!

Monday 2 March 2009

Minraise me and I'll put it in your eye.

Game #7391431303: Hold'em NL (£1/£2) - 2009/03/03 - 02:06:03 (UK)
Table "Waltevi" Seat 3 is the button.
Seat 1: Hero (£196 in chips)
Seat 2: Godfather (£247.60 in chips)
Seat 3: Ryan87 (£361.25 in chips)
Seat 4: Walrus2 (£197.30 in chips)
Seat 6: Stabec (£340.10 in chips)
Walrus2: posts small blind £1
Stabec: posts big blind £2
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Hero [4h 4d]
Hero: raises to £6
Godfather: calls £6
Ryan87: folds
Walrus2: calls £5
Stabec: folds
----- FLOP ----- [Qd 7h 6h]
Walrus2: checks
Hero: bets £12
Godfather: folds
Walrus2: raises to £24
Hero: calls £12
----- TURN ----- [Qd 7h 6h][4c]
Walrus2: bets £22
Hero: raises to £54
Walrus2: calls £32
----- RIVER ----- [Qd 7h 6h 4c][Ks]
Walrus2: checks
Hero: bets £66
Walrus2: raises to £113.30 and is all-in
Hero: is all-in £46
Returned uncalled bets £1.30 to Walrus2
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Walrus2: shows [Qc Ah] (A Pair of Queens, Ace high)
Hero: shows [4h 4d] (Three of a kind, Fours, King high)
Hero collected £397 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot £400 Main pot £397 Rake £3
Board [Qd 7h 6h 4c Ks]
Seat 1: Hero showed [4h 4d] and won (£397) with Three of a kind, Fours, King high
Seat 2: Godfather folded on the Flop
Seat 3: Ryan87 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Walrus2 (small blind) showed [Qc Ah] and lost with A Pair of Queens, Ace high
Seat 6: Stabec (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

That is all.

Sunday 1 March 2009

Weekend Poker...

I made about £1k last week and only really played one session. I've put in a good few hours this weekend and managed to continue my good run..

On friday night I went with a mate to play a £10 rebuy at the Big Slick club. I ended up busting with AK vs JJ in a pretty standard spot but my mate just seemed to steamroll the whole way. We had 40% of each other and whilst I was playing cash he was down to the last two tables. He made an excellent call with K high when he raised the cut off with KJ and the bb defended. Flop 357. check check. Turn 8. BB leads for 11k of a 34k stack - my mate calls. River comes a queen and the board now reads 3578Q and BB moves in for his last 23k. My mate thought the hand through for a few minutes and made the call. He pretty much eliminated everyone from the final table and won the tourney outright for £1200. Ship the 40%. Shame I was down £200 in the cash game. I definitely ought to go there more often as the standard is without doubt, the poorest I've ever seen and I've played in a lot of places.

The cash game was £2/2 pot limit and after bluffing off over half my stack I was playing about 140 and there was a straddle of 5 and then 10. I duly put in 20 and pick up AK (mbn!) when its called in 3 spots. I get it all in vs 2 oppos and bink 2 aces vs QQ and KJ. Unfortunately about two hands later I raised the button in a double straddled pot with 99 and saw a 9,10,A flop (all diamonds). When checked to me i bet £90, about 2/3 pot and was met with an all in for £240. Check raising is pretty strong there but I call pretty quickly and miss a pair-up vs 56 diamonds. I reloaded and made most of my losses back by the time my mate had shipped the tourney and went home happy.

On saturday a mate who had left to join the army had his first weekend back home in 2months so a few of us went to a pub in central london to watch the rugby. Coming from a big rugby school that produced players like Andrew Sheridan and Nick Easter, it was disappointing to see another poor england performance but the amount of vodkas in me by that time I didn't really care. We went to an all you can eat chinese to line our stomachs for more drinking. Unfortunately it was an absolute shithole and the food tasted like pigshit - well done Will who works nearby for recommending it! donk.

After that we moved on to Leicester Square and then Covent garden for more drinking. I was in trainers and hoody and was never going to get into a club so while they went off I met a few other mates in Chinatown and we finally went to my mates house at 2am. He has an awesome new set up and I had a quick spin up which the 3 of us were 33% each on and despite being stuck pretty quickly I won a few hundred quid which paid for our nite out. I got back home at about 4am and loaded up a few tables again to see the biggest donkey in the world sitting with a £1300 stack at £1/2. 1 hour later and he'd been stripped of the lot - unfortunately I was only able to catch him for about £200 of it but I'm not complaining. I played until 7am and just before I logged off to go to sleep I played a 400x pot with KK vs J10 on a KJ41010 board.

Today I logged on and more of the same ensued. I've changed a few things about my game recently and without saying too much (as I know some of the regs I'm playing against may read this) I feel like I'm +EV against probably everyone at £1/2 on crypto apart from Loser18 who is a really good player and in a good spot to keep taking shots for the time being. If I lose 3 buy ins at any point I will drop down and keep grinding til that money is back before I take more shots at £1/2. I will try and save some hand histories and publish them on my next post as I've had loads of really interesting pots I could share.

All in all I've made around £2k this weekend so up £3k for the week. Now just gotta try and keep the focus and discipline up as sometimes when I win I get cocky and end up having a session where I play like a dick and undo my hard work.

gl at the tables

Greekstein