The Fossil does Vegas

[Erimus]

Someone must of knocked the boom switch at poker headquarters because again we reach another final table, this time on Party in the $22 contender, I managed a 5th place finish for $1178, as well as a couple of $109 tickets in $22 sats.

Exit hand I defended KQ in big blind, (18bigs), favourable flop KQx, I jammed and he snaps with AA, unfortunately for me, the Ace binked the turn which was slightly annoying but hey ho, busted KK with a raggy Ace with 8 bigs to get me to this position, bad beats we give em, we take em.

Took most of the cash out leaving enough in for the seniors event if I decide to play or I may even play the £500 at the weekend, especially if I manage to sat in.

I had a quick look at Sharkscope at my Party record and it was pretty grim tbh, although it doesn"t take into account the decent cashes at DTD recently, however with this bink, we are in profit over not a lot of games, tend not to worry about graphs, I know if I have money in my accounts or not, still not happy about leaving money on sites so I prefer to only leave a small amount on any one site at a time, I assume I am losing a bit here and there with rates etc,but with the amounts are negligible.

Not mentioning the football from today, I hate when we play away as we are so predictable, I would rather us lose 3 1 4 2 than a scrappy 1 0 in which we show very little threat, sorry I did mention the football, still I suppose survival is the most important thing this season.

Spent most of today in A&E with Susan, she is having problems with some medical equipment which is playing up, and tbh is really getting her down, I can"t blame her tbh, she hasn"t got it easy, hopefully we can get it sorted in the new year.

Out tonight for our Christmas meal with brother, cousin, friends and wives, around a dozen of us going for an Indian, I may slope of just before 10 and late reg the local G game, I think there may be an overlay as Day 2 of the Christmas cracker is on and a few locals will be up there, that"s to be decided, anyway thanks for reading and have fun whatever you do.

[Zozzy]

Nice binking

and ...... If this is the last post of the year I will eat my hat

[Erimus]

Just so Craig doesn"t have to eat his hat, this is definitely the last post of the year.

2 live games played, first a £10 rebuy locally and the seniors event at DTD.

The rebuy is now a yearly charity event and was sold out before it started and all the old faces turn out to reminisce about the good old days at Gala, wasn"t my scene then, I was a top class
Local athlete yet to be corrupted by poker, (yea that would be right).

Anyway at last count £4500 had been made for a local charity which is good, basically the £10 reg fee was donated to said charity and buckets were sent around etc.

The game itself seemed to be a cock waving comp to see who could make the most amount of rebuys, with the excuse it"s for charity, but it  wasn"t really as the rebuys went into the prize pool, one guy on our table said he was in for £350, personally was in for £30 I was the donator to the above guy ran 99 into his AA QQ into his 94 and at least 3 other pots v him I lost, obviously won other pots but he was my nemesis that night.

I decided to flip for my 25 big blind  stack with 77 v an uber aggressiveNewcastle reg who was consistently 3 betting light, we got the best we could hope for, he had the AK which was good on the turn, gotta win dem big flips, got it in good,all you can do. I could of waited and flipped an hour later but win that one got a chance of running deep, wasn"t to be.

The guy who won  it is probably one of if not the best players in the area, he got in as an alternate so started with 7k, this wasn"t  the normal structure so there was a bit of play in it, think he donated part of his prize back to the charity so Kudos to him and he is a good guy so well done to him.

Next day Nottingham for the seniors event, total snore fest literally.

I peaked at 60k then lost every hand eventually jamming KQ (12 bigs) into JJ and AA, we beat the JJ and even had a spade sweat on the river to beat the Aces but didn"t bink, no problem it"s poker the majority of games are grinds, got to be good at losing in poker and not let it affect the next lot of games you play.

Contemplating trying to sat into the £500 game but need to get Susan sorted first which is unlikely, if not a couple of $109 games on Party over the weekend with the tickets won.

Targets at the start of last year were as normal try to reach the end of the year, which knocking on wood I have done.

Make loads of money, which I haven"t but I have won enough to keep me going, monthly average increased after a very good December.

Freerolled New York, got a decent collection of Art on the wall if it goes belly up to sell.

I still really enjoy live poker, so will be playing locally for the next year with the odd 25/25, GPS etc thrown in, trying for Edinburgh in Feb and Vegas in June with Apat.

Goals for next year are pretty much the same, reach 2018 first, play poker in a different country other than USA, (does Scotland count ?), and just Keep trying to win that elusive trophy, ( cash is irrelevant), lost interest in that years ago.

Anyway that"s 2016 brought to a close, wishing everyone a
Happy New Year, let"s hope it"s a good one, without any fear, ( think them words would go well in a song), alas Mr Lennon got there before me, peace, out.

[duke3016]

Anyway that"s 2017 brought to a close, wishing everyone a
Happy New Year, let"s hope it"s a good one, without any fear,

You too, hope to meet up again soon

[Erimus]

No New Years Party at home, Susan not too well, so flicked in the $22 contender on Party and we make our first online final table of the year, alright it started in 2016 but it did finish in 2017, so in my tracker it"s goes in as the first result of 2017, Bink this and I may be on the way to Nottingham.

Alas we did not win, it was all so close, no massive chip leader and all only having 15 to 20 bigs so it was going to be who got the luckiest, got very lucky to hit 2 pair but my German compatriot got even more lucky as he flopped a straight in a limped blind on blind spot, no problemo as I binked a Q in a AK v AQ spot before the cash so no moaning here, all part and parcel, I finished 7th for $285 I think, the previous night I played a $109 with a ticket I had won and finished 18th for $275 in a 6 max game, just for balance and perspective played a UKOPS game on sky and didn"t win a hand.

I may play live at the G today, if not the £100 game on Sky might tempt me in, will decide later on.

Onto the football and what a sickener at Old Trafford, when we went ahead resigned myself to the draw, (typical Boro fan), but was annoyed we couldn"t hold on, but was an encouraging performance, tbh it was probably on balance of play a fair result, but after going ahead, well, it"s the hope that gets you, again not to worry, worse things happen at sea.

[Erimus]

Here we go again, 2017, nothing changes, 3 live appearances yielding nothing, nada, nowt, made one final table but ran AK into AA 2 off the cash nearly got there but the Jack falling to materialise on the river, not a problem, it"s been a recurring theme.

I played the Friday game, that just fizzled into nothingness, ahh don"t you just love poker, actually I really enjoyed both games, for some reason I was in a decent mood and quite enjoyed the people on the table which for me being a budding Victor Meldrew is unusual.

Better news online, deposited £57 onto sky poker played the sat into the £100 game, if I didn"t make that then I would play the £33 bounty hunter, alas the sat went out of the window so I played the 8pm game, fast forward 5 hours, I managed a 3rd place finish for £725 including bounties, alas couldn"t do a win ran AJ into AA, then A8 into AQ, not a lot we could do in either situation, the AJ was v the short stack and the A8 was v the big stack, standard spots, for balance regarding running into AA all the time, before the cash, I managed to crack them with AQ, made a dirty flush on the river, so mathematically should crack them 1 in 4 times, including Nottingham that was my time tonight, this was before the cash so I was freerolling the game from that moment.

Our fire croaked just before Christmas and we have had to buy a new one, it"s lucky I have been running hot as the fire hasn"t and of course the only one which will fit in the wall without any building work being done is £2k, Susan has expensive tastes, but poker has paid for it so it"s ok.

I will probably play the high roller on Sky tonight, withdraw the rest and see what else is on offer elsewhere, Dtd £100k guaranteed looks tempting, at least a few sat attempts or even a direct buy in online on Friday, to be decided.

Match day today, it will be the lowest crowd of the season but it gets me out of the house to meet my brother and a few mates, tbh the football is the spoiler for the day, haven"t really enjoyed this season so far, think we are doing ok but it"s all the crap that surrounds the premier league which does my head in.

Thanks for reading, run good, be lucky, stay healthy.

[Erimus]

This weeks musings started today with  an appearance in the £110 high roller on sky which in hindsight was not a good idea to play as I was pretty tired and wasn"t in the mood , but positive tilt overcame me and I played, I didn"t trouble the scorers ran 33 into the 10 10 of the target on the table, sometimes they just have it and if they don"t have it, they somehow get it by fair mean or foul, he was getting a bit of grief in the chat for some of his plays, (not by me)he admitted he had satted in and was the highest buy in he had played, good luck to him hope he went on to win it.

As said due to not being in the mood of course I fired up a sat on G for the Gukpt, had £25 in the account, added the £5 to keep the Sky table company, anyway this resulted in winning a seat in the £100 game in to the GUKPT, £1k main event.

We find ourselves 3 of 3 with £400 guaranteed and the possibility of a £1k seat, alas my Q10 spades couldn"t beat the KJ spades, aipf both making flushes and we made a Royal between us, again no complaints beat AK with J9, and A6 with 10 8 to get me to the £400.

I am not sure if them seats are transferable or if you can sell them on, but with the added expenses of a trip to London perhaps 3rd was an ok spot. Up £1100 over the last few days so I could just buy in direct, yea that would be right, if I satted in fair enough you don"t physically see the cash but handing over £1000 to play poker, Susan would kill me.


FA cup magic arrived in Middlesbrough today and what an underwhelming game that was, as stated in previous post football tends to get in the way of a good afternoon out, still we won so we shall see who we get in the next round to entice us into the magical world of the FA cup, knew I should of been in marketing, missed my vocation, DTD £200 game now a distinct possibility, probs play Friday, will have at least 1 sat attempt, any more than 1 you may as well just buy in, just see what the week brings, thanks for reading.

[pokerpops]

<a href="http://youtu.be/pieK7b4KLL4" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://youtu.be/pieK7b4KLL4</a>

[Erimus]

Lolz, the magic of the cup is back, can"t wait for Accrington Stanley, but no thoughts of 5th round glory yet, last time we played them sat through 85 mins of dullness then managed to lose 1-0, at home as well, don"t put Boro in your accas, ever, they will always let you down.

Whilst I am here interesting week, started off with a Deepstack turbo on Monday at the G which I managed to chop heads up for £335, was offered a ridiculous deal at 3 handed which I politely declined and after winning a flip heads up to equal stacks out we chopped it evenly, the villain gets on my nerves and is one of the most annoying people in there and didn"t fancy spending another half hour at the table with him.

Tuesday  finished 8th they didn"t even give me the courtesy of being out of earshot before they started with are we paying a bubble now, perhaps Karma bit me on the bum after refusing 2 bubbles, I was short stack and didn"t want to make a £4 profit, no problems with that decision, bizzare final table with a who"s who of the biggest fish on Teesside, again not a problem, keeps them coming back.

Wednesday made a final table on 888 even though my laptop decide to do a reset and upgrade whilst playing, managed to get back in 25 minutes later to jam KQ into A9 for a 7th place finish, $110 from a $5 investment, if I was using proper bankroll management good roi, but no doubt will just flick it into a few bigger games relatively speaking in the next day or 2, pretty annoyed at that as I was 2cd in chips, first world problems I suppose.

Sky continues to deliver with a £135 return in the 8pm bounty hunter, 17th I think, threw away a virtually guaranteed £200 seat for Dtd, no need to get involved with AK in the position I was in but was on auto pilot and with 3 tables on screen just jammed, was ahead then wasn"t.

Dtd £200 will only play if it hasn"t started snowing, weather reports are saying it"s due and if I do make Day 2, driving to Nottingham in the snow is not an appealing prospect.

Also played a 25/25 sat, decided to flip vey early with AK, much to Craig"s surprise, he had just joined the table just as I got AK in for a 50 bigs v 77, thought 77 was also a bit hopeful as well but if villain is only putting me on a range of 1 hand I 3 bet with, (standard, I put him on AK retort), although he was right in this instance, gotta win dem flips.

[Erimus]

Not a lot happening this week, played the Tuesday game at G, but lost a flip just before the the break and then the classic race QQ v AK just after the break seen me home before 10:30, I 3 bet the QQ from the big blind was flatted by the 4 limpers, only had 10k behind and the pot was 40k, I just jammed the King high flop and AK had limp called, and got there, should of been all in pre given stack sizes etc, but as the villain said to me it"s only Ace high at the end of the day, yawn, after the last few weeks of winning flips for fun, it was inevitable I would  lose a few on the trot as well.

Strange as mentally every time I was in a flip situation I was quite confident of winning it but the last few days have brought me back to earth with a bump, losing quite a few on the bounce.

Not a lot of volume online other than a couple of games on Sky and sats for the 25/25 on G, no return from them though.

I played the contender on Party on Thursday night and managed to reach the final table with 20 bigs, $3k5 up top, laddered one spot for $440 then my KK couldn"t hold v 99 even though I flopped a set, guy rivered a straight, meh whatever £18 into £345 is an ok nights work.

I was planning a trip down the M62 to play the 25/25 on Friday so this pays for that, plus the fuel and the food so all is good, can"t complain so far this month volume tiny but winning month so far.

Manchester is a 2 hour drive from home and is doable in a day, my attitude to this one will be go big or get home, looking for a minimum 50/60 big blind if returning on Sunday for Day 2.

I played this last year and despite starting at 7pm, I was back on the road by 8:30 as I had all 4 premiums busted early doors, will happily take all 4 premiums in the first hour again tonight but obviously with a different outcome.

Turn 55 on Saturday, will be at the Riverside as usual, had some sad family news this week when an uncle passed away, we weren"t that close tbh but can always remember as a kid going to matches with my Dad, said uncle, and another uncle, one of the pieces of Art I bought (see page 53), brought back memories of this, they all worked in the steel or chemical industry and every game we went too they were all dressed to impress in their works donkey jackets, that picture brought it all back.

If anything major happens in Manchester will be back on to report, assume if no post it went belly up, good luck to Rich who has made Day 2 of the GPS in Luton, disappointed that this is no longer streamed live as I enjoyed watching these, assume costs prohibitive, I understand they do run a blog but I haven"t checked it out.

Thanks for reading, run good, be lucky stay healthy.

[Erimus]

Manchester came and went, lasted longer than last year but after peaking at 30k, didn"t win a significant hand in level 3,4 and 5, AK was my down fall had said hand 3 x played them all 3 ways, 3 bet, limped, called lost all of them, then jammed 88 (17 bigs) into AK, lost the flip, fun game though.

Had to laugh when someone gets 65 bigs in with K7 diamonds v AA, ofc he gets there hitting 2 pair on the river, excuse was boredom, this was in the 2cd level, 45 mins in.

Had a tilt issue on Sunday for the first time in ages, I was playing a few games online and just went off it for some reason and started ranting and raving, apologised to the missus for ranting and raving like a lunatic went for a walk and decided to play the Sky bounty hunter at 8pm, laptop almost went through the wall as second hand got AA all in v JJ on a 10 high flop, turn was a Jack but got lucky and rivered an Ace.

I went on to direct bubble this one running AQ into AK finishing 34th, 33 paid, made money with bounties though so pays for a few more of these during the week, didn"t tilt accepted it like the grown adult I am.

A few years ago would of played safe and limped into the cash but game has changed a bit, gotta go for the win.

The local schedule has changed from next week and last night was the final Deepstack turbo, start with 25k chips, ( people started moaning for the extra 10% bonus chips), how many chips do people want, 25k more than enough, but we start with 27.5k.

Mondays is going to be Omaha from now on, perhaps a time to learn a new game, we shall see.

Overlay tonight as only 16 runners, luckily didn"t have to re enter when I wasn"t shoved on by a slow played full house, I had made 888 and luckily for me villain only decided to call my river bet, she turned over 77 for a turned house, obviously I could of had quads, can"t be too careful v me as I nearly always have it, allegedly.

Reach break with 20 bigs, no thought poker now, chip up easily as people just do not call unless they have premiums and reach the final table.

Again get shoves through and finally get to a point were I can raise, fold, only 3 paid so need to chip up though, get a decent stack shoving 77 into AK and AQ, 7 first in the window, no sweats, easy game.

We get to 4 handed and a bubble is discussed, but decided to chop it 4 ways, not normally a fan of this but other villains are all decent regs down there and no doubt will see them on a final table again so hopefully this will be reciprocated in future outings, I was chip leader but wasn"t going to moan on for an extra £50/£100, if it was the other 3 non regs left just would of played on for the win.

Fun times at the Riverside on Saturday, it was the best we had played for ages tbh and AKs comments after the game were a bit strange, the atmosphere in the ground was quite good, and the supporters were just encouraging team on, survival is main aim this season but if we go down so be it, tbh rather be in top 6 fighting for promotion than bottom 6 of prem, much more enjoyable, if we do manage to stay up then hopefully kick on next year, get relegated, go again.

Unfortunately can"t make Edinburgh, family do on the Sunday, could just come up and donate on the Saturday but I don"t think that"s the point of poker not a plus ev move, I should be able to make at least 1 game in Manchester probably the £200 not because I am a baller or anything like that it just fits into my schedule, still plenty of time to make a decision on that one.

It"s been a good start to the year, above what I want to earn through poker but with a week to go it may go back down to my average returns.

[Fatcatstu]

Oooooooh Omaha you say?

[Erimus]

Ok so the run bad was bound to happen after a fairly good Nov, Dec and January, I wasn"t going to post but just thought I would share this little gem, but before that the first 10 days of FEB have been urgh only to be capped off with tonights effort, more of which later.

Local games are gong to be less frequent as Mondays is now PLO as wanted by the local poker community, both games so far have overlayed quite heavily so can see them being canned quite quickly.

Tuesdays I will continue to play and Fridays even though it"s the biggest game of the week I don"t like the whole vibe and atmosphere of the game, can"t put my finger on why but I just don"t enjoy it.

Been playing mostly Party, and sats to Dtd £220 game, no cashes anywhere other than a successful gaining of a $275 seat for this weekends £100K guarentee.

Here is the fun part, not wanting to bother with the live game at G, it"s fecking freezing outside and see above paragraph, l regged the online leg tonight and was online when the afore mentioned game popped up alongside the one I was playing.

Only 11 runners seemed a bit odd, it was only a feckin one handed flip game, wtf, I could of drove down to Dtd to play live either on the Friday, Saturday or even the turbo on Sunday Mornin, but no I had to endure this crap.

To make matters worse I get dealt AA but wasn"t confident with a 10 handed flip and they didn"t hold.

I know I should of checked the lobby so it was my own fault, probably spent £75 getting the ticket, a few £11 and one direct $55, future plans will be play 1 $55 the night before, if successful play, if not either buy in or wait till the following month.

Heed my warning always check the lobby, luckily I didn"t buy in direct tonight otherwise I would of been seething more than I was.

The above has put the cherry on the run bad cake, 2 entries last Friday, both times exited when I flopped 2 pair against a flopped set and rinse and repeat on Tuesday, KQ v 33 on KQ3 flop, can I and should I get away from these in the local donkfests, probably not so pointless going on about it.

Everton at home tomorrow, not very confident of a result, hope we do but I am mentally preparing for the drop, I hope we stay up but realistically we are just not good enough, the players brought in at the start of the season didn"t improve on what we already had, in the end don"t really care that much will still renew season ticket next year, given the choice I would rather watch a winning team in the championship than a losing one continually fighting relegation in the premier league.

Genting have a mini next week at Newcastle, will probably play that one but got to get my head right first as I am starting to tilt very easily at the minute.

Usual thing will post anything of interest but poker motivation is probably at its lowest point for a while, run good, be lucky stay healthy.

[Erimus]

Ok, Hands up I am an idiot, apparently I had entered a holding tank for a live Day 1, found out just too late to get down after the match so going to pop down in the morning for the turbo, at least I know were I stand, either in or out of Day 2 by 3pm, Stuart will be joining me for the journey so gl to both of us.

Boro gave cause for a bit of optimism today obviously still can"t score for toffee but performance wise it was quite encouraging especially as rather others below us lost.

[Erimus]

Before the weekly moan, re the above game, made Day 2 from the 6 max turbo, but got knocked out early 2cd level of Day 2, at least I didn"t have to drive down for Day 2, quite enjoyed the 6 max game and may take advantage of that format in future games, think it got nearly 100 runners which was quite an impressive turnout, turn away now if you don"t like moaning poker player talk, promise no bad beats or hand histories, enjoy.

February continues to disappoint on the poker front, nothing, nada nowt except for a few min cashes here and there online but nothing significant.

Most of January"s profit has gone but, got to put it in context to Nov/Decembers run good, luckily January"s money went on the usual, drugs, alcohol and women, no point wasting it.

I played the GPS up at Newcastle but bust that in the last level trying to accumulate a stack for Day 2, got it in good but when it"s not your day it"s tough.

Actually played a sat for the above game as well but didn"t get in via that, plus to make matters worse I got a bus lane summons for driving in a bus lane at 2am after being knocked out of the sat so that was another £30 up the Swanee.

To make things worse i have also just realised that after Day 1 of the GPS I know for a fact that I used the same bus lane after my Knockout at 2:30 on the Thursday so I am expecting another ticket in the post.

Speaking to a few people I know up there apparently it"s a total cash cow for the council as there are no signs up indicating it"s a bus lane until it says bus lane as you are entering the side road, I read the blurb regarding an appeal but tbh cannot be pestered, Guilty as charged,waiting for the second summons, at least I know now, if I get caught a 3rd time that would be really silly.

I could understand it in busy times during the day and early evening when there is a possibility of a bus but the feckers don"t run after midnight so why have a bus lane when there is little chance of seeing a feckin bus, rant over.

And relax, won a $55 seat from a $2.20 ticket tonight for Dtds £220 game, will be using that tonight to see if I can get to Nottingham on Saturday, there is a small possibility of me going down anyway as Susans other carer is round all day Saturday, that will be weather and mood dependant.

The magic of the cup is still resonating around the Boro, got lucky v Oxford in the end but a win is a win, next is Man City or Huddersfield, unfortunately we are the early kick off on the Saturday which I hate because, you can"t get to the pub before hand as easily, atmosphere is usually subdued and we usually play even worse kicking off at 12:30, at least it"s over on the day extra time then penalties, as for the other thing "Relegation", that is still very much a possibility but we could just bore teams into submission and scrape into 16th or 17th.

Palace on Saturday is massive, the proverbial 6 pointer, I will do my best to avoid watching or listening as l get too wound up to enjoy, fingers crossed for a win though.

I could do with a confidence boost re the poker, winning a flip would be a start and after winning that flip a seat to Nottingham and a shiny trophy on Sunday night would be a nice end to February, if that doesn"t happen, we go again, run good, be lucky stay healthy, and keep out if Bus lanes if you want to keep your cash.