I went to the Sporting Emporium last Wednesday to get in a few hours of live cash game play. I arrived at the casino in good spirits and saw that there was one PL Hold Em game on the go. I recognised a few of the faces seated around the table and to my delight I saw an empty chair to the immediate left of the biggest CLAM (chasing-loose-aggressive-muppet) in the cardroom.

I plonked myself next to him and ordered 200 euros worth of chips. Within 5 or 6 hands its pretty apparent that the game is as soft as shit. The play is extremely loose and ridiculousing passive. A hyper aggressive stealing strategy wasn't going to be too effective though. Most of the players at the table seemed quite happy to call pot-value raises with all manner of trashy holdings.

I was quite happy to bide my time and try to find a spot where I could squeeze maxmimum value out of a big hand. Meanwhile my CLAM friend has assemled a goliath stack to my right. The guy couldn't stop hitting the flop hard: two pair here, a flush there, river gutshots.
Eventually in the BB I look down and find AcKc. The player to my left has bet 7E without even looking at his cards. There are a number of calls and the action hits the big man to my right.
"Pot" he announces.
I'm delighted This guy is liable to do this with a lotta cards. He is in the SB and wants to snatch the money here and now. If he gets one caller he will be first to act on the flop and will have no hestitation in delivering a big bet. I decide that I'm not going to mess about, I am gonna tank this baby here and now. There is around E100 in the middle. I repot it for another E100 or so and the action folds back around to my friend. He ponders for a moment and asks how much I have left.
"65 euros or so" I tell him.
He deliberates and then calls. The flop lands J 7 3 rainbow. And he sticks 65 euros into the pot. With 315 odd euros already in the middle I have to call him and hope that he hasn't got better than a pair. I stick my chips in and he promptly shows me AJ offsuit. I don't get any help and I reload 150euros.
I suffered beat after beat (top-two-pair got cracked by the CLAMs bottom pair wedding with a high card on the river to give him a better two pair) and I began t get the feeling that it really wasnt my night. In spite of the misfortune I was still in profit on my reload and was sitting with about 370euros in my stack when I picked up Ah9h in the cutoff. The clam raises it, I call, the button folds and we get two more players to see a flop. The flop lands Q 9 6 rainbow. The other two players check and my friend makes it about 35 to play.
I elect for a call. I'm certain that my opponent is betting fresh air or a draw here and if either of the early players is bagging a monster at least I'll dodge it cheaper this way. The other two guys fold and the turn brings a harmless deuce(albeit a second spade). My opponent cant get his pot bet in quickly enough(about 90euro). I am strongly considering a raise here, but my logic is that if I am ahead my opponent will almost certainly fold to a raise and he is at best about 14% to make a better hand on the river if he hasnt got me beaten already. I also know that he will probably hammer a huge bet on the river irrespective of what card falls... to my mind the profit here is made by running the fine margin.
I call and the river lands another deuce. He stacks six black 25euro chips and shoves them forward. I waste little time in calling the 150e. He grins and reveals 82 offsuit for trips made out the back door.
About 4 hands later I manage to get my last 100 allin with JJ in the BB preflop, I am up against KK and AA. I dont get any help and I grab my cot and begin to make my exit. I happen across an ATM on my way out and have a change of heart. I withdraw 200e and go back to the table.
Somehow(and I barely remember any of the details) I manage to tear the table apart. I still get the odd filthy beat but I come unstuck(almost) and leave 160euros down

JADED

Well its been a hectic few days and not much poker has been played since I lost that big pot early last week. I went and invested in a top-of-the-range PC which set me back around a thousand bucks and did some heavy drinking with my mates over the weekend.

When Monday rolled around I had an itch to get a few hands under my belt and I thought that the 25 euro rebuy tournament in the Sporting Emporium would be a good place to get my groove back. My live play had been superb of late and I was hoping to log another solid performance. I won’t reflect on the tournament too much as it was an out-and-out disaster wherin I played so bad that I was actually embarrassed to be sitting at the table.
I was playing hands in my usual style preflop however once thee flop hit I mutated into a weak-passive-fish. By the time the top-up period arrived I couldn’t even purchase the 3000 chips on offer as I had already reloaded the maximum number of times for the game. Needless to say I made a swift exit shortly after the break.
I then sat in a cash game and did considerably better. In the end I registered about 160 euros profit for the evening.

This evening my 200euro Neteller lodgement finally hit my account and I went to Party Poker and played some cash games. They didn’t go at all well and I’m down to roughly 80$ in my neteller account. I’m not actually all that pushed on playing too much at present, I’m actually feeling pretty exhausted and I really don’t want to blow the healthy amount of cash I’ve assembled whilst I’m in my current state. I think I’ll restrict myself to low stakes HORSE games online as well as the odd live game for the next two weeks.
I will abide by the strategy I outlined earlier later in the month when I feel that I’ve regained my desire to win.
For the time being it’s the gym, work, movies, videogames and Christmas shopping for me….

MONTH IN REVIEW

November has been a volatile but ultimately successful month for me. I enjoyed great success early in the month in live cash games registering a little under 2k in profit from 2 sessions.
I lost around 400 euros playing online poker with two separate lodgements to my online accounts as well as another another 150-odd in smaller deposits here and there.

On both occassions I ran very well getting 1.5k in the first session only to blow that away in a moment of madness that followed a row with my girlfriend. I actually accrued the $2500 that would have afforded me a small roll to play at 1/2$ NL.
I decided to withdraw 1500 for a new PC and play around with the rest. The entire roll went south due to my own greed and stupidity once again.
My win in the UK Poker Tour event in Banbridge brought in the sum of 5000 euros(1000 of which went to a mate who had an interest in me).

Discipline is still the biggest flaw in my game and I see little point in trying to progess any further until I have eradicated this problem.
My Permanent TSB account is now open so hopefully when I resume play I can adopt my regular cashout policy wherin 60-75% of my roll will be inaccessible for a 48hr period at any given time. I will be playing STTs and MTTs as well as the occassional live game over the next 2 weeks so I will lodge 500$ to my account and will register the first cashout when I reach $1000.

LACKING DISCIPLINE

I had a belting week at the cash tables and had run my account up to 2.8K - I ordered a withdrawal for 1500$ last Friday and played a few more cash games on Friday evening. Two sick beats in two different 3/6 games(one 3-outer and a runner) all but put paid to the money beyond the withdrawal. But I was happy enough this little spell at the cash tables was more of a treat than anything else and I still had the price of a computer winging its way to my Neteller account.
When I returned from home I opened Neteller to find that the transfer had not been processed. I contacted the customer services department of my gaming account

With a view to cementing a little more discipline into my game I've decided to commence a poker blog.

The blogs primary functions are:

1. To avert TILT.
2. To inspire me to play better through goalsetting
3. To criticise and improve my own game through retrospective hand analysis
4. To log my performances.

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3 weeks of intense play play which saw me turning a £40 bonus from Party Poker into approximately $5000. I managed to cash out $2500 while the other half was blown primarily on tilt with a little under another $1000 spent on a barren run in multi-Table tournaments.

The past seven days can be summed up in a single word: The bubble. Out of approximately 25 Sit & Gos around 15 of them have resulted in the misery of a bubble finish.

Today I relaod $400 to Party Poker with a view to solely playing Sit & Go Tournaments until such a time that I have a luxurious enough bankroll to dabble once more in Multi-Table tournaments as well as cash games.

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