The Fossil does Vegas

[Scousebill]

You will be back.... As you say it's the final release from the game.
Plus, how can you stop other peoples enjoyment of your words of woe and wisdom....

[Erimus]

Cheers Bill, nice to hear.

Whilst i am here, here are the latest additions to the collection



Above is by Richard Rowan, as per usual you visit a gallery and see more of his work in real life and the cogs start working.



Boro decided to score a few goals, so celebrate with a bit of Mackenzie Thorpe.



Another Mackenzie Thorpe this is number 75 of 75, Susans favourite.

Quite a few of my buys are now sold out, whether these increase in value who knows, one is currently on sale on E Bay at £300 more than i purchased it for, i understand that means nothing but for now i will just enjoy them, got to find a cheaper hobby though.

Remember the fish ?, well after redecorating and moving stuff around this became surplus to requirements and is no longer going, heater and pump broke down and it was during a downswing and i couldn't justify more spending on it, especially as it had been moved to the rear room, RiP Nemo and friends.

Apologies for this piece of self indulgence, but at least you didn't have to read about ranges, equities all ins etc.

[pables]

Nice report Brian, just keep doing what you do and please keep the blog going

 

[Erimus]

November coming to an end and it's been my biggest losing month mainly because of the Blackpool £1k (partly backed),shot take but had a chance to get out of it with a couple of shots at the GPS in Newcastle.

I was only intending the one bullet which was duly despatched on the Thursday night, penultimate level bust out, pattern emerging here, horrible game, less limpers in a leper colony but it is what it is, tried to get lucky by joining in the limp fest but usually ended up bleeding chips having hit a small part and usually making  2cd/3rd best hands.

The following night got a chop in the Friday local £566 and as the GPS pot was already at £38k another bullet was fired on the Saturday in Newcastle.

Table a lot different than Thursday lots of 3 betting and was a much more enjoyable game even though a lot tougher.

I was up and down from starting stack but my exit hand involved me slow playing trip Jacks when a flush card hit the river, I put a small blocker bet out leaving behind 18bigs thinking I may fold if jammed on, which I duly was.

The villain is a good local reg on Teesside and is capable of bluffing this card especially versus me as he knows I can find a fold with a big hand, I tanked for a while and was convinced he hadn't made the flush, boom I was right no flush, he had only filled up to a boat with the 9 on the river, meh whatever, got lucky then got unlucky nh gg.

The last 2 local games have been bricks with just a complete 2 game card and spot missing bore fests.

A couple of deep runs in Stars bounty hunters which gave me a few games during the week, however will need to redeposit if I want to play on there again, as said before not particularly grinding anymore happy just to deposit, win, withdraw lose, whatever happens happens.

A decent start in the Apat premier league, no cashes for me but points on the board and points may mean prizes at the end.

The local 25/25 this week in Stockton and will be a one bullet affair unless I win a seat or 2 as I have other stuff on on the Friday and Saturday.

In summary November been pretty poor but had an opportunity to play in my biggest buy in event, still find handing over £1k to buy in to play poker a bit bizarre as when I started £30 was a stretch.

As a recreational player, I have increased my monthly targets for the year due to some run good in 2 events so 2017 poker wise has been a good one, still not intending to grind games online just play when I fancy a game and keep plugging away at the G in Stockton embracing the variance in them games.

Boro continue to bore our way in the championship, fingers crossed for an improvement in the second half of the season because we haven't been that good in the first half, but we are still in a play off position before todays game.

[Erimus]

Slightly premature end of month report above has to be amended with a 4th place finish in the Contender on Party for $1160.
Dissapointed not to win it outright as I was chipleader  for a while then 66<AA and A10 < A2, but I did crack Kings with 99 on the final table, so just got to embrace the variance.

Standard poker in front of TV clicking buttons then realising got a stack so TV off and concentrate on the game, as soon as I was knocked out they decided to deal, I was the only one who hadn't clicked the discuss deal button as I fancied the outright win, alas wasn't to be.

Prague was definitely on the cards if I had won this in a couple of weeks and may still well be if the local 25/25 goes to plan.

Bizarre game at the riverside yesterday, we played really well in the first half but were so bad in the second it was laughable, luckily it doesn't bother me as much as it used too, as I have said before the match usually spoils a decent day out with my mates.

Rollercoaster month so far, losses have been reduced to a standard meh whatever, but with a a 25/25 in Stockton and Leeds coming up plus the Christmas cracker plus the yearly charity game which is a bit mad we may be back on the downward trajectory, thanks for reading, run good, be happy, stay healthy.

[Erimus]

After getting out of the hole in November I decided to redig in a new spot and build a new hole, not quite as big but still enough to dent the confidence slightly.

2 local 25/25s were the culprits, the local leg (Stockton) was a 2 bullet affair one of which was aided by a sat Entry were I managed to sneak a seat with 3 big blinds.

Bullet one went in 2 hands effectively, half stack went when I 3 bet AQ v JJ , flop AAx, J turn, brick river, could of lost the lot but was early doors.

The rest went when I flopped a house holding AA on a 888 flop, the chips went all in but the J on the river made Jacks full for the villain, who said Jacks were difficult to play, no problem 2cd bullet the following night.

We reach for the final level of 2cd bullet with 60k and if I don't play a hand will probably return for Day 2 with 20 bigs, but I played too many hands and we busted when I shoved my last 15 bigs with AJ into the big blinds QQ no help and no Day 2 or back to back 25/25 cashes, as it happens family stuff on the Sunday meant it would of been a bit awkward to play Sunday, unforeseen circumstances and all that.

Leeds was next won't bore you with details as it was one of those games were nothing of interest occurred, more folding than an origami convention, eventually AK losing to A6 for a chance to get back in the game, wasn't to be.

Got a cash in the local game on Tuesday £120, was only in for £37 was a fun game tbh for a change stack up and down and was involved in a few spots.

An example of how cut throat it is down there, a guy who had a stroke last year made a return to the tables and was struggling a bit with chips and cards etc was involved in a hand with a sweet old lady, locals who read this will probably know the 2 people involved.

The guy flops a straight with J 10, flop 789, the   sweet butter wouldn't melt old lady flops a set, neither bet, on the brick turn the old guy just turns his hand over so the dealer just grabs the hand mucks them and gives the chips to the old lady who turns her cards over for a flopped set, she was told he had flopped the straight, but she wasn't bothered and just accepted the chips with glee.

The dealer in my opinion was a bit quick in mucking the hand, it was an obvious mistake by the old guy but the speed the dealer put the cards in the muck didn't give any one a chance to say what had gone on, so the floor wasn't called and the game just continued.

Nothing to report online, when I have played I shouldn't of because playing for the sake of playing is not good.

The G have a week of different games next week and non of them appeal  tbh except the standard game on Friday, then it's the yearly charity night on the 28th which I have registered for but cannot actually play due to a clash of diaries, there are 365 days in a year and due to my social engagements clashes are few and far between but alas it happens.

I will be playing the Christmas cracker the following night though, unless I am invited to another soirée somewhere else which is highly unlikely.

Anyway another year over and it hasn't been that bad considering.

Happy Christmas and New Year to you all as I would imagine this will be the last post of the year (I know I keep saying this, but I usually bink something if I say it's the last one).

Thanks for reading, good luck, run good, stay healthy.

[Zozzy]

neither bet, on the brick turn the old guy just turns his hand over so the dealer just grabs the hand mucks them and gives the chips to the old lady who turns her cards over for a flopped set, she was told he had flopped the straight, but she wasn't bothered and just accepted the chips with glee.

The dealer in my opinion was a bit quick in mucking the hand, it was an obvious mistake by the old guy but the speed the dealer put the cards in the muck didn't give any one a chance to say what had gone on, so the floor wasn't called and the game just continued.

The old fella turned his hand over so his cards are live. No aggressive action allowed by him on the final street.
The river card should now be dealt.
The only way that the sweet old lady can win this hand is if she bets the river and th'owd fella folds.

[Erimus]

Cheers Craig, agree should of run out as you said but dealer was inexperienced and just grabbed the cards in the muck before any one had a time to react.

Whilst here may as well jot down the previous months exploits, wouldn't hold breathe for excitement though it's been pretty bland.

The Christmas cracker didn't crackle, it  fizzled into a non event, standard get to last level and could fold my way to Day 2 but I decided 25 bigs was the minimum I wanted to travel to Newcastle with and couldn't spin my 18 bigs into a bigger stack can't remember the details but it's not that important or interesting.

I don't normally wear headphones when playing but this table draw early doors was one of the worst with serial moaners and strategists on it, however I did hear the following words of wisdom as I scooped up a treble up early doors with QQ, trebled from 10k to 30k so just got back in game.

Guy who had limp called my 3 bet talking to another guy who had also limp called my 3 bet, " he only ever plays big hands, I knew he had it, just has it every time", other guy agrees yes "put him on Aces or Kings", not a bad read  though, had the Queens, yet they both called me down on a 10 high flop, turn and river, well they can always hit the two pair I suppose. Long live the regs at the G and please never stop learning, been playing with these players 5 years now and they still don't act on the information they have.

I didn't play much of the Christmas festival locally as the games were pretty horrid tbh but shout out to Betty mentioned in previous post for absolutely crushing all the events, when checking the results her name was at or near the top in every game, considering being aggro is supposed to be the way to go Bettys  strategy of  limping every hand including Aces and Kings should be made into a book.

I wasn't even bitter when she flatted my 3 bet of 2 limpers with A7 for a massive pot in the £4K guarantee with 13 people left, to add to the intrigue I won't tell you my hand and the outcome, bit of a card reading exercise for you all, all you need to know I was out the door and she went on to win £1k, she is a legend.

And we reach 2018, no poker goals just playing for fun whatever happens happens, no specific bankroll, deposit, play, lose win etc.

Made 3 final tables 2 on Party and one in the Apat Premier league on G, shoutout to Leigh who I assume is behind this, really enjoying these games, different dynamic to the games with team members and opponents to care about, currently top of our section going into the last game so got a chance of reaching final stages.

As for the winnings, not worth mentioning as not reaching top 3 prizes are pretty meh and they have been donated back to the community, but always nice to reach final tables.

Live, been on a small heater, direct bubbled the £4K guarantee but got bubble payment which meant I was free rolling the next Friday game were I came 5th for £350, so I was freerolling the next Tuesday game (last night) which I was offered a deal £310 for 6 big blinds was ok with me, too good to turn down as it was 3rd place with 5 left and a massive chip leader who may of been overly generous, will take it though.

I was contemplating going to Leeds tonight a £7k5 guarantee but looking at weather forecasts it may be a bit dodgy if snow makes an appearance and if I am the only car on the M1 at daft o clock seems a bit irresponsible.

In profit then for January so far and with a GPS mini in Newcastle and a 25/25 in Stockton in February we will no doubt be break even soon, hey ho that's poker, when the fun stops, stop, it's still a laugh so will continue till it isn't, actually some of the play last night was hilarious so it will keep me coming back, plus we now have unlimited re entries which is pretty daft for the stakes and prizes we are playing for, one or two people do seem to enjoy throwing £200 at comp with £800 approx up top, which usually never materialises as it's usually chopped but as the said guy says as he buys in for the 4th time he couldn't give a F****, as he pops to roulette and manages to spin up every time, really ?, is roulette that easy, I remain sceptical.

Waffled on enough, run good, be lucky stay healthy.

[patrickc]

Hi Brian,
Sent you a personal message let me know if you receive it as its not showing up in my sent messages.

[Erimus]

Hi Patrick, yes I have received pm and replied.

[Erimus]

Posts are becoming a bit irregular now but for balance have to report the downs as well as the ups, and there is not gong to be a pot of gold at the end of this brief post as we are heading firmly in a downward trajectory.

Mid January was the last post and I was breaking evenish with a couple of small cashes but since the last post it's been downhill all the way, no cashes live, any small cashes online usually lost the following few days, volume tiny so it's pretty irrelevant.

Feb has the potential to be my biggest losing month for a while, a couple of bullets in the mini Gps in Newcastle fired into the ether, both games never got above starting stack, annoying but that's the way it goes sometimes, the local games again never got into the games at all, just folding, the odd 3 bet gets 6+ callers, miss,fold, then jam 15 bigs usually into QQ+ in the later stages, rinse and repeat.

We have a 25/25 in Stockton next week and as it's local will be 2 bullets if required, there is a sat on Tuesday so will try for a cheap seat, if not try and get to Day 2 on the one bullet.

I can't even have a whinge about bad beats because I haven't seen enough hands to get given them so at least that spares the bad beat tin filling up.

One good thing though is that I have another opportunity to play the £1k  Gukpt in Manchester at the start of March, don't worry I have not suddenly become the massive degen or anything like that, l am still the same sensible old git I have always been, hence my pretty average poker journey, which by the way I have no complaints about, it has given me more positives than negatives, although I could do with getting out of this downswing.

On my last outing to the G I decided that the optimal play would be to join in with the others and limp every hand and hit 2 pair minimum, jam and win the pot, I reached the break with a stack of 9k from 21k having not made a single winning hand, I am not going to try this strat again as it wasn't fun and it didn't work, I don't have Betty's mad skills at this part of the game.

It will be another trip to Manchester  for at least the Main event with Apat, I will try and fit at least one more game in but circumstances will dictate that one.

Hope to be able to post a report within the next few weeks of a major bink, if not whatever will be will be, thanks for reading.

[Erimus]

Defo moaned this one in, missed theFriday game due to me falling asleep early evening and actually sleeping right through not something I do a lot of these days bit of an insomniac tbh, hence these ramblings at daft o clock.

Anyway some ridiculous happenings in this game, so thought I would fill you in, celebrating 150k views,  think there 50 ish runners starts, grinded my way to the final table as per nothing spectacular in the build up and we have 25 bigs, always nice to flop a house with AA and have 2 people betting into you.

8 paid, someone suggests a 10 way chop so we can all get away early, don't know wether he was being serious but the couple of short stacks seemed interested, I laughed it off and we started.

Called blind a utg 4 bb shove and 10 3 off was better than 99, lost half my stack to J5 off v 10 10 and now in in shove mode. Got moaned at by saying how can you call with that re the 10 3 hand, it was suited I replied, got short shrift from villain.

A few knockouts later and 5th prize was £115 and I was less than 10 bigs was offered £150 and the rest of them would split it, laughed that one off, I said wait for me to go then you can chop it.

I jam 33 utg, big blind open folds Jacks, put me on Queens, he says, (my image is ridiculous). If he believes I have Queens plus, it was a good fold, always go with your read that's what I say eventually knock this guy out when he shoved 4bigs A3 into my 89 suited, obviously I get there, he still insisted I had Queens, I said he was right and it was a good fold.

Any way I lose in a blind on blind spot and am left with 7k, blinds are 20/10k and I am all in in the small blind I can hear the mental arithmetic going off in the other 3 peoples heads, 350 each and a pic on Facebook, lol, utg limps, button 3 bets obviously I am all in an bb folds original limper folds and I win the hand, cannot remember details but we now have 1.5 bigs ,the 3 bettor gets berated by the others for not letting it go multi way where I would of lost.

 I win the next hand and this is were it goes daft, i know these prize  pools aren't massive but I still like to play as correctly as possible, anyway a 3 way all in occurred so I folded my big blind, even though I was told it was too much value for me to fold by the resident expert who does vey well down there tbh can't argue with his results but he does run pretty golden, my thoughts were the big stack wins I get a £185 pay jump we have KQ v 66 v A 10, flop was Q 6 10, the resident golden runner obviously hits a set , Q, turn Q river, big stack makes quads, he knocks 2 people out and I have laddered from £115 to guaranteed £300, lol, skill game.

The guy probably outchips me by 3 to 1 and we are playing 30k/60k, obviously need to get lucky but this guy limps every hand so see flops and pretty soon we are even stacked, no mention of deals for a change nice to play heads up although not deep, last hand he limps 45 I have 9 10, flop 678, wonder what happpens next, oh yes off to the cash desk to collect £470 first prize.

I would like to say it was skill and cunning which helped win this but it was one of those games were I got so lucky and the players on the final table were so bad it all worked in my favour.

So, recovered the Gps buy ins, and now onto the 25/25s, sat tonight live, will be playing Day 1 Thursday, with an option of Friday and Saturday, hopefully won't need them extra days.

[patrickc]

Well done Brian keep up the good work.

[Erimus]

Short update, cruised through the sat on Tuesday night, never had so many premium hands and they all held even when I got it in with 99 v 66, I actually called in the 6 for the villain as he had doubled me up previously, it did actually arrive, odd when you call your own in it doesn't turn up, mind you it did get a bit squeaky bum time as the bubble arrived but 15 bigs at this stage was massive, eventually the 1 big blind clashed the the 2 big blind and we binked a seat to the 25/25.

Played a few games on Party and the total opposite to the above occurred, ahhh variance, got to 1.5 million with 20 left and AA loses to 88 aipf, 88 flop kills me, for massive chip lead, min cashed that one, meh whatever.

Felt a cold coming on but decided to play last nights leg, and successfully made Day 2 with 60k, 30 bigs is good enough for me, my last 2 decent scores I came back with 15 and 20 bigs respectively, will see what happens.

Played really well last night, not paying people off with river bets when I know I am beat even though a chop was available, saved myself 10k in that spot, was shown one of the hands which I put her on, she was obviously dominated pre, but no one folds these days except me.

Had a hand with Dave were I could of busted either way but being the super nit I am managed to lose only my big blind, he limps utg, ( suspicious straight away), 2 Callers I have J 10 off, flop J 10 8, I check intending to check call and providing the board doesn't pair get it all in and crack his QQ plus range here, don't think he has AK here either, Dave bets out, guy in cut off reraises, knowing this guy very well could conceivably have an overpair to the board or 2 pair which I beat obviously or set withw JJ or 10 10 unlikely as I block them or 88, I reluctantly fold only because I know the said player, if it was a random tourney somewhere else I perhaps get it in here, Dave reluctantly Jams, villain has 88 for a flopped set, 33 completed the board so would of lost the pot slow playing 2 pair but went with my read and lost the minimum.

Crucial hand in last level, I have QQ, decide just to jam 15 bigs, if I min raise it looks suspiciously strong and Queens are vulnerable, anyway get called by K 10 off, very surprised to see that, a Q on the flop gave a comfortable runout and he was drawing dead on the turn, bagged 59,200.  approx 30 bigs.

One funny moment before the Queens, there had been a lot of action pre, and for some reason I just decided  to go to sleep and sat with my cards in front of me for what seemed like an age, some one coughed and realised it was on me, they started taking the mick assuming I was tanking for a Day 2 position, but I literally was away with the fairies, one of my  pet hates in poker is the tanking and I keep asking for a shot clock down there as it makes it a much quicker game, anyway thats the latest efforts on the poker front, happy not to utilise bullets 2 and 3 and we are almost breaking even.

See what Sunday brings, and then it's onto the Gukpt Manchester, planning to play Day 1 on the Thursday, run good, be lucky stay healthy.

[Erimus]

Day 2 didn't go to plan, still feeling pretty yuk but managed to get myself there for the start and manged  to get to 82k, it then went downhill from there, think I left my A game at home and played a few hands badly, 3 bet a few times but the original limp callers bet out massively, not even giving me a chance to c bet, exit hand A5 didn't beat 22 in a blind on blind spot for a 20 big blind pot, standard spot.

Didn't really feel it was going to happen today, but we move on to the next which will be Fridays game, unfortunately Boro are at home on Tuesday so won't be at the G on Tuesday, not really looking forward to the game but I haven't seen my mates and brother for ages, missed the last game hanging about for nurses and doctor for the missus who is not very well at the minute, I don't know how she puts up the crap she has too regarding her health.

Managed to win a seat to skys £100 tonight, flopped a set with 10 10, and we are all in v AA who binked an Ace on the river, the joys of reverse implied odds, never to worry.