Never worked, still working away.

Hello to anyone who reads this, I'm very much appreciative of the kind words and requests for new posts etc. so thank you. As you can see I'm not swimming in a pool of strongbow or being fed crisps by angelina jolie, so you can probably tell I didnt win any money in that tourney.

Every time I got a hand there was always a slightly better one to screw me over, and I never really felt like I could get going. Had 1010 on a K high flop, split AJ with A9 after a lot of chips went in on the flop and turn, QQ on an Ace high flop.. and possibly others. But my final hand was most annoying.
Most players had been playing quite loose, playing lots of pots with rag aces and the like, and I have AJspades UTG, so I have no qualms about raising it to 3xbb. One caller on the button and everyone else folds. The flop comes A7s3s, and I must think I have the best hand here. It just so happens the other player has A7, and the chips fly in with no help for me on turn or river. That was for 6k which wasnt massive but it was slightly above average if I recall correctly. Never mind eh?

I've also made Gold membership, and I await the collection of treats that I am now privy to. Treats such as a €150 bonus sound good, but I'm not sure I'll get it because I get rakeback already, though it doesnt mention it on the site which makes me hopeful.

Its so easy to spend money when you have it, those profits I've been enjoying have just been draining away as I spend money on things I dont need, and things I do need. But I still have enough to go to Nottingham with, and I can afford many a pint of beer, so I'm happy.

I've also cashed out another $400 for the time being to boost my bank balance a little, after having a reasonably good session today.
Had a lovely hand where a person was very annoyed at me for raising so many hands. I was dealt QQ on the button and UTG made it $4, and this annoyed guy calls, I raise it to $16, because I think it will get UTG to fold and angry man to call, which is what happens.
It might be useful to note that I'm aware of my opponents (angry man) skill level - he loves draws and draws to draws! The flop is 27j 2 diamonds, which is excellent. I think I bet $16, he calls. turn is a blank, and now the pot is bigger than my stack about $60 odd where i have $59. If he has a draw only, he might fold to my push, and if he has a Jack he'll call. So I think a little bit and decide its better to bet $30 here to tempt him into calling.
Yes if he hits it will be shit, but if he misses and has a terrible pair he may have to call my last $29 with practically nothing, because the pot will be so large. And thats what I do.
The river is a Jack!! The worst card ever. Or is it? He thinks and pushes, and theres just no way I'm folding, so I call. pot is something like $190 and he shows 10 8, a busted gutshot. Wooo me.
Not the most high level poker you've seen, and there was no hard decision to make, but there was some use of thought, preflop with the choice to re-raise so high to isolate angry man, on the flop and turn, betting not too much, to tempt him in. I thought it was nice.
This is the only hand I can remember, I must try and relay more hands in these posts.

Thats all for now, until next time, swing bada bada swing bada bada oooo!

Faith, Hope and Charity

So, two days ago I was prattling on about getting gold membership to see what it is like. It looks like I'll be able to get it no bother, so when I'll do I'll tell you all about it.
I'm back up to $1k, which is where I want to be. I had enough Faith in myself, to reverse that withdrawal and work my little way back into goodness.

I've also decided to play in a big tournament: the €100k guaranteed on Pokerheaven tonight. Costs about $190 and should be great fun. I set myself and passed a challenge today to win a couple of buy-ins to pay for it, so dont worry I'm not breaking any rules(although I am for mtt bankrolling, but thats neither here nor there.) I really Hope that I do well in it, because the payouts are bound to be amazing.
But, I have terrible MTT patience, and I'm probably not gonna get anywhere, so the chips I give for free will be like Charity to these people.

Ahhh see the title becomes clear. Amazing.

Until next time, shawalawaladingdong kanichidooda.

The Heat of the Moment

ach, I ended up reversing that withdrawal, I'm on $550 just now.

Partly because I cooled down, partly cause I don't have much to do, and partly cause I want to become a Gold member of Pokerheaven. Im pretty close but still probably have to work it hard to reach the €1000 Euros mark that they set for reaching Gold. I was at €790 today, and played a LOT of poker (however it was at the lower stakes, trying to re-establish normality). So we'll see how the rake is doing.

So yeh you might want to disregard the previous post, since Im playing again etc.

What are you going to do with me, eh?

This day was coming..

I've done something a little bit stupid. Perhaps its because im tired, hungry or just not in the mood.

I cashed out $400 after losing about $500. And I've got $60 left.

Im going to break for a few days. Then Im going to start at the beginning. Right back at .05/.10 holdem. Its gonna be weird.

Ach well. I think I'm playing too much. Need a break. I'm hungry. TILT!

Also, it may or may not interest you to know that this whole process of depositing, building and withdrawing has taken place over the course of exactly 1 month.
Maybe I'll repeat the cycle for the next month, who knows!
I'll be back.. I hope..

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

The saying is true. It applies to poker, if you leave off it a while, you'll find your desire to play - and just play for the fun of playing - grows substantially.

Not that I'm stopping playing, I love it still.

However the saying does also apply to food, or I'm hoping it will. I've agreed to take part in a bet which involves not eating until 1pm this Saturday. We started at 1am last night, after wolfing down an awesome pizza, to give us some energy reserves. This is going to be hard, I've never managed probably a few hours without snacking on crisps or something or other. Already I'm feeling like I could probably do with some cereal.

It will be a test of will power and body parts and metabolism. I hope my body is good at using up sugar and fat from places like my ass, cause it'll probably have to, and soon!

Anyway, if you dont hear from me, it could be that I've died from starvation. Or it could be that I'm busy. Either way, for more information, refer to Scotts blog (link in a previous post) for details of the Bet and how we are faring.

I hope I win.

Best regards, Kensteroony.

How is my roll doing? Ok. Bank!

That title is pertaining to the Weakest Link tv show, and also to the few days activities.

I cant stop. It seems I've caught an addiction. Don't worry though, its only an addiction to cashing out!!

Maybe its because I feel so poor that I'd like to see some money in the bank, but I've been cashing out quite frequently. The other day I cashed out about $700 after going on a hot streak. Then I went down below the $1k mark, to about $600, got back up to $900, and I felt I just HAD to get some of those chips into my real life banky, so I cashed out $300. And today, I've just cashed out another $200 after another good session, where I managed to scoop about $400.

So my roll stands at roughly $800, which is fine for playing .5/1 and I'ved cashed out $1200 to date.

Also, me and a friend are discussing the possibilty of going down to Nottingham and sampling the new poker club there, 'Dusk til Dawn', as we've heard nothing but great reports about it.
So when this trip comes around I'll have to temporarily (I hope) cash out most of this roll so that I could play the cardrooms 50p/£1 pot or no-limit ring games.
We're planning on going some time in February, and I'll definately be blogging about that when I come back.

For now though, my plans are to play more cash, get back to $1k, earn that rakeback..... and maybe have a couple cheeky cashouts along the way!

I cant help it I love money!

Until next time, Here's looking at you, kid.

Discussions of a serious nature.

When we left off last, I had $600 and was going back to full on .5/1. I've gotten back to $800 since then, and usually I'd go up to 2 tables of $1/2 as per the rules.

However, after having discussed at length (actually just the length of a number twenty-nine bus journey) the different pros and cons of this bankrolling strategy, I've decided to stay at .5/1 for the time being, until I can build enough to cash out a little for myself, then eventually move up.

See I'm not even sure I can beat $1/2 at the moment because it turns out I'm probably playing scared.
Scott Campbell, author of the poker and sports blog http://scotty2hatty.blogspot.com/, told me that "the pros say that if you're making folds too much [which I did, recently folding Kings preflop] it probably means you're playing with scared money. So maybe what you should do is move down a level."

His words are wise and more sensible. As he pointed out, as soon as I get to about $1200 and playing $1/$2 I'll actually be playing for a fair bit of meaningful money with at the moment no assurance that I'm playing well enough to beat the tables.

So as I write this, I'm playing $3/$6 and saying 'Sod off I'll play with ALL my money!'. Only kidding, I'm playing 1 table of .5/1 and luckily doubled up in the past 5 mins, so far so good.

I might as well relay the hand back. I have 78 on the button and make the usual 3xbb raise. The small blind re-raises it to $8, so 5 more for me, bb folds. We both have full stacks so with plenty to play for yet I call.
Guess the flop? 678. He bets 13 into the $17, I raise to $40, he calls. The turn is an Ace which is either going to scare his lower pair away (or not? dunno) or help a hand like AK. He checks, I say 'no more cards for you mister!' and push the rest of my chips in, and lo and behold he calls! I double up woo.
A good start.

So we'll see how it goes, until next time! Bye!

Ups, Downs, Grinds, and no I'm not dancing.

So, if I can remember all that has happened, I will recount an update of how my bankroll is faring at the moment, from that initial deposit of $40.

The sharper ones among you may have noticed that the sum of $40 corresponds to 4 tables of $10NL. Well thats what I started on, a grind - yes - but necessary for various reasons: money, control, rules.

This level isnt very difficult, as long as you dont play every hand and act like you're some sort of pro. You could probably do that but most people will just not have the control that is required to fold and raise at the minute pinpoint and precise times you need to, were you to play like you owned $10NL. I certainly cannot do that.

I feel a brief run down of the way I play may interest some people. My tactics are quite simple preflop. Basically if I want to play a hand, whether it is 45 or AA, I raise it to 3xbb preflop. Thats it. I play slightly differently in the blinds but theres no point in getting into the nitty gritty.
I dont know why, I'm not a poker god, but it seems to work.

Bearing in mind I can't actually remember because it was almost 3 weeks ago, I would say I managed to lift my balance up to $100 pretty easily. This was one of my checkpoints. If you've read the rules in the first post you'll see that once I have 4 buy-ins for the next level I play 2 tables of that plus 2 of the current. So, at $100 I opened up 2 $10NL and 2 $25NL and went to work. This means I'm playing with $70/$100 at the one time, though its split up.
What a disaster! I must've been secretly angry or something, because within a couple of hours I had lost half my money! This was not how I'd pictured it.
But then I think I had a break for a day or two, cooled off, moved back to $10NL and tried again with great success. I was again at $100. From here I got to 200, changing at 150 to playing 4 25s. I changed again, using the same rules, 10c/25c and 25c/50c, and again suffered a loss, though this wasnt as terrible.
Same thing again, move down, build up and again was moving up that little balance in the corner.

Then comes January the 2nd or 3rd, which is pay day! Well, it is if you've got rakeback from Pokerheaven. I had raked about 70 odd euros, which is just over 100 dollars. This gave me a cushion to start playing 25/50 and 50/1. Same thing again, struggle a little, then move down, then up and up.

This struggling thing I'm putting down to a period of adjustment at playing higher levels, playing for more virtual cash that I could be using right now.

From around $500 I get owned, but a little perseverance and a lot of people thinking I was bluffing meant I started to own them, and somehow I got up to $860.

But then! Major disaster! Major Tilt Express! I got owned attempting 2 tables of 1$/2$ and this spurred a massive decrease in my balance. I was down to about $185 before I played today, which seems like a massive loss. But perhaps it is not, due to the nature of my bankrolling strategy. Today, i started all the way down at 10c/25c, but now im back, baby, and the balance is at $600. So im ready to make 50c/$1 my bitch until I can move up again.

Crazy swings these past few days have been, and thats the kind of thing I'm trying to prevent, with little success it seems. The only thing I can take from the last three weeks is that I seem to be beating most of the lower levels up to 50c/$1.
My next goal will be to adjust to the 1/2 tables and beat these guys too, who are just as aggressive as the others, but probably a fair bit smarter. Hmmmmm...

Favourite hand to date was a call for quite a lot of money with 54 or 53, on a 5Q26J (or similar) board. The pair of 5's won by the way. I'm sure there were others, but I forget.

One thing that is really bugging me is the hand history function on Pokerheaven. It's really useless unless you know the hand number if I remember correctly. I also think its not set up with my computer right, so the hands are unable to be searched or something.

My next post will probably be another update, with maybe some more focus on the hands, for funsies.

So we'll see how it goes, until next time!

Playing poker with serious crazyness.

Here is my poker story so far.

Three weeks ago to this day I deposited £20 into Pokerheaven with the aim of starting a bankroll. That gave me $40 with which to play the cash tables. I am also enjoying 30% rakeback thanks to a friend, so thank you for that.

I am a student, and living in a rented flat with tuition fees popping out of my bank account every month,so I generally do not have any more at all to be putting in (even though I should be using meagre amounts like £20 for food and drink.)

I'm not new to the game, I've been playing for about 3 years and possibly more. Every time I've had some money in poker I've had to cash it out - to pay for things like rent and all associated expenses with living away from parents. Either that or I've cashed out some amount, then went on a tilt rampage and lost it all. This cycle - deposit, do really well, cash out, do not so well, play too much, play when bored, go on tilt, throw chance of a proper bankroll away, leave poker alone - repeats for me over and over, well for the past year or so it has anyway. I guess with being a student and more interested in things like alcohol, maintaining a level of control was and probably is beyond me.

And now I'm trying again, but with some changes to hopefully break the cycle. I've set up some rules to help guide me through the growth of my bankroll. They are not the typical recommended bankroll guides. Most forums and informational websites will give advice such as 'Never play with more than 10% of your bankroll at any one time', and 'To play No Limit Texas Hold'em [which is what i'm playing] within a proper limit you need to have 20 buy-ins for your current level'.
Although they are not wrong most of the time they are talking about people who are new to the game, and if not, then in my opinion they are being overly cautious, yet sensible at the same time.
My rules go like this:
1. Play 4 tables at a time.
2. Only play when you want to play for fun.
3. When you have 6 buy-ins for the next level, move up.
4. When you have 4 buy-ins for the next level, play 2 tables at the current level and 2 tables at the upper level.

Sounds crazy probably, but who cares eh, its my money, and its only from a £20 deposit.

So my goals are to get to $1/2 NL, build an amount and cash it out, play at $1/2, rinse repeat.
Hopefully that shall give me enough money for booze and computer games and other things all nice student boys like.

Will I succeed? Who knows, but it will be fun finding out!

My next post which I will probably write and publish immediately after this, will detail my poker ups and downs of the last 3 weeks, to bring us all up to speed to where my bankroll currently sits. I just didnt want to go into that in this post and make it unneccessarily long, plus you can skip the next post if you dont want to find out what has happened.