November Recap

Not too much has been going on since the last update.  Been grinding poker pretty hard the last couple of weeks and happy with how I'm playing.  Unfortunately the results haven't been complying which has been the story of the last few months.  Stringing two winning sessions together has been very difficult recently so the common theme has been winning 5-10 buyins in day, lose the same the next day, rinse and repeat.  Here's the graph:

I managed to get back in the black at least so that was a relief.  I put the obligatory ev line in which only goes in when you run below allin ev (learnt that one off Muzone and all the 2+2ers).  So the small online cash win minus live and tournament losses puts me about even for the month.

In some exciting news Mark (MrNiceness on pkr)  has made the final 25 in the Victory Poker contest which means he is getting flown to Vegas to do a load of challenges with the other finalists where one will win a load of cool stuff like $100k in tournament entries, car and apartment on the strip.  I feel he may need some moral support so a trip to Vegas could be on the cards in February.

Gl at the tables (except Japete and Pubecorp of course).

Arsenal v Spurs

It was a bit strange going to the Emirates and being surrounded by fans of 'the enemy' but it turned out to be a great day.  I got a free ticket from pkr and went to the game with four pkr gooners (was rather hoping there would be at least one other Spurs fan) and were were in club level seats which were ridiculously nice for a football match.....omg actual legroom!  This also meant free alcohol and stuff at half time which is a great perk.


Spurs didn't turn up in the first half and our defence looked like it was going to be cut apart by Fabregas and Nasri at will.  On a side note, what a petty human being Samir Nasri is by not wanting to shake hands with Gallas before the match.  Also Samir, if you score a goal lose the mouth-wide-open celebration you seem to like doing, you really are an ugly bastard. 


So we went into half time 2-0 down and pkr Arsenal fans were pretty happy and smug but I felt we had at least one goal in us considering the attacking talent we have and if it goes 2-1 then anything can happen.  And so I was proved right! We managed to score at a fantastic time early in the 2nd half with a neat finish from Bale and you could tell the Arsenal players got a bit nervous.  Then came the pretty hilarious Fabregas handball and a very composed penalty by Van Der Vaart.  At this point he went up to the Spurs fans (see above pic) who were going crazy.  Once it was 2-2 I really felt it was ours to win.  This new Spurs team just isn't the same as ones from previous years that would show potential at times but ultimately just fuck things up when it came down to it.  The goal came with five minutes to go from  Kaboul header at which point the Spurs fans went completely nuts!


This game makes me really excited about the rest of the season.  In Modric, Van Der Vaart and Bale we have three world class players and need to keep hold of them at all costs.  If we could get a long-term replacement for the perma-crocked Ledley King and a world class forward (Luis Fabiano would be my choice at the correct price) then we could be a major force in European football.  I'm not sure why Harry has decided to talk up our chances of winning a title because it just adds on pressure but whatever, I guess he likes to get the media talking about Spurs.

Bonus pic of depressed Wenger with a silly coat on:

Also, poker went well today, a late November heater would be sweet!

MCOP/PKR Live V/Cat gets suprised

Recently have been playing more live poker with the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam and PKR Live this month.  In Amsterdam I played a 1500 euro event which I busted and a 800 euro bounty event where I came 20th for 1566 euros plus 1k euros in bounties.  Also played PKR Live where I busted both events pretty early.  Both Amsterdam and London were a lot of fun, though perhaps too much alcohol was consumed.

I'm currently in a rather annoying downswing/breakeven period in online poker.  Having looked at my HEM database this period actually covers a really small hand sample so this length of run bad is completely standard but still very frustrating.  Playing hands on PKR takes longer than most sites due to the software and I'm not much of a grinder so it will easily take me longer than three months to do 100k hands typically.  Anyone that knows anything about variance realises that 100k hands of poker really doesn't mean bugger all in terms of expected win rates.  I think I will stick to the 2/4 games on PKR and other sites for a while until confidence and bankroll is replenished.

I'm back in London this weekend for Arsenal vs Spurs game.  I've never been to the Emirates before so hope its a good atmosphere and a good game.  On that note I will leave with a video that always cheers me up when I'm sad...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XALVPwkor7U

Big bluff

Just finished a session and had this hand.  This villain, Japete, kindly told me to put it in my blog immediately after winning the pot which was nice of him.  I didn't want to let him down so here it is:

Seat 1: MacDaddyNo1 ($1,504.90)
Seat 2: WhirlingDervish ($853.37)
Seat 3: HERO ($1,755.25)

Dealer

Seat 4: GolgeJ ($1,000)

Posts small blind $5

Seat 5: butterfish60 ($1,159.50)

Posts big blind $10

Seat 6: japete ($2,303)

Dealt to HERO

Check odds

Preflop: (Pot: $15)

FOLD MacDaddyNo1
RAISE HERO, to $30
FOLD GolgeJ
CALL butterfish60, $25
RAISE japete, to $125
CALL HERO, $105
FOLD butterfish60

Check odds

Flop: (Pot: $295)

BET japete, $190
CALL HERO, $190

Check odds

Turn: (Pot: $675)

CHECK japete
BET HERO, $360
CALL japete, $360

River: (Pot: $1,395)

CHECK japete
BET HERO, $1,070.25
CALL japete, $1,070.25

Showdown:

SHOWS HERO

SHOWS japete

japete wins the pot of $3,537.50

 I'm happy with the bluff, obviously less happy with the result.  I think Japete made a pretty horrific call here for a number of reasons, but I suppose the ol' aces are hard to fold sometimes.  He said something in chat about how he thought my value range was just flushes which I know certainly isn't the case here but maybe I should have known he would think along these lines.  On the bright side I guess I made a lot of meta-game dollars in this hand.

I actually ran good today overall so shouldn't moan too much.  At one point I was running like Muzone (that translates to really really hot) and its amazing how that leads to playing so much better and making smarter decisions.  Confidence, though talked about a lot in the poker community, is surely an underrated factor in how well you play at a given time.

In other news, I'm going to Amsterdam on 4th November for five days to play some poker and hopefully have some fun too.  There's the 'Master Classics of Poker' on during this time and a couple of friends and I will be playing a few side events.  The trip will likely consist of myself and BrotherMuzone busting very early from a tournament, then sweating the % that we have in MrNiceness until he bubbles, or maybe, if we are lucky, min-cashes.