The Fossil does Vegas

[pokerpops]

Blog needs a new title...

"hanging with the Devilfish"

[PHIL_TC]

Brian.. I personally hope you keep this blog going mate, like you say from £30 freezeouts to playing a £500 buy in.. who knows whats next. You know I"m a big fan of your game, and if I"m honest slightly jealous.. think it keeps me from going completely to the dark side to be honest and have learnt a lot from your style of playing, not just on a Thursday but your consistent runs live, at the G and online. I know you play the right way. Keep it going, would miss your updates if they disappeared, binkage or no binkage x

[Erimus]

Cheers for that Phil, wept a little tear, ps chopped the G tonight for £110, 3 handed we all had about 50kish didn"t fancy sitting there for another couple of hours and bubble it, the other two were keen to get on the cash table, me, it"s another food shop in Marks and Spencer"s instead of Aldi.

I also flopped a straight flush so get entered into a 10k free roll at the end of the month online.
Congrats again on your work stuff nice binkage.

[pokerpops]

Brian.. I personally hope you keep this blog going mate, like you say from £30 freezeouts to playing a £500 buy in.. who knows whats next. You know I"m a big fan of your game, and if I"m honest slightly jealous.. think it keeps me from going completely to the dark side to be honest and have learnt a lot from your style of playing, not just on a Thursday but your consistent runs live, at the G and online. I know you play the right way. Keep it going, would miss your updates if they disappeared, binkage or no binkage x

Me too. Bri has a better understanding of the game than many. He knows his image and exploits it well.
Fossil? No way!

[Erimus]

Just a quick report on last nights game, I did card rack it in but there was one or two hands were I got paid far too much on the villains holdings.

It"s a 15k starting stack £30 game, it got 31 runners last week, hopefully this game is starting to take off, no just the 10 runners so a sng, didn"t mind as I was out for a bit of relaxation and a laugh.

The early levels flops were seen by an average of 6 people this gave me a chance to have a power nap before the real stuff started, learnt to sleep with one eye open just in case.

Blinds 200/100, 2 limpers I bump it upto 550, the big blind reraises to 2k, limpers fold, I call and see a k high flop 2 hearts, he donks  1k2, I reraise to 2k5, he flats, brick turn,he pots it, I fold pretty confident he has me beat if it"s a bluff well played, we will never know he mucks his cards.

I raise utg with 99 get 2 limpers young Luke who is on the button a good player ships it in,about 3k5, he had been coolered a few hands before,his range here is massive with the 2 limpers I make the call and we get heads up he shows 66, my hand holds so I am back above starting stack.

A local player late registers with about 30 big blinds, he talks a good game but i am not totally convinced so I will adjust my play accordingly.

I 3 bet a limper and get it through and the next hand I raise 55 utg which gets through, I am now in the big blind and look down at KK.

The new arrival limps the button 200/400, I raise to 1350 he flats, flop comes down J high, I lead out he flats, turn nothing significant so I put in another bet and he shoves all in, if this was a £500 comp (ohh listen to me) I might think about it a little but I called, if he has hit a set or a funky 2 pair fair enough, he turns over j8 off, my hand holds, he has played 1 hand and donated 30 to the prize pool, ty very much.

He then goes on telling me the reason why he flatted the 3 bet with j8 was because he had seen me raise the previous 2 hands and he just thought I was at it, now he knows my reputation as a tight player, I just cannot understand why he would think j8 would be in any decent shape against my image or even my 3 betting range, not that I am complaining come back to the table tomorrow and we can play again.

I also flopped a straight flush with j 10 of clubs with 2 people still betting into the pot, the fourth club killed my action but the 2 hands I was up against where a flopped straight not of the flushing variety and 2 pair, I did min raise the turn to keep them both in the 2 pair folded and I couldn"t extract any value from the straight with the 4 clubs on board.

the G have a promo on at the moment if you get quad kings or above you get entered into a 10k free roll online at the end of the month so I shall be adding another site onto my crowded pc.

I knock out another with AA v AQ, I did say at the start I card racked it, we were 3 handed at 300/600  with 3 left and 2 paid, it could of been an extremely long bubble so we chopped it for £110 each, £80 profit for 3 hours is ok as I was still feeling tired from the weekend.

I would love to join Dave for the sat at Newcastle tonight but not fair on Susan if I have to pack her off again if I qualified, the place she stayed in was ok but not ideal, work still needs to be done finding a suitable place, I don"t think that is going to be an easy task, I have found someone who can look after her for a few hours a week so it looks like I can get back to the gym for some serious training or a sick sweat in the sauna and steam rooms.

Gala might be a possibility tonight as the game at the G has failed to start on the last 2 Tuesday"s, thanks for reading.

[AAroddersAA]

Just caught up on this Brian definitely should keep blog going if possible. Very much worth reading.

[Erimus]

I couldn"t make it 6 out of 6 cashes at the G last night in the 15/15, table was as ridiculous as ever 7 people to every flop,waste of time squeezing or making any moves as once they have put a chip in the pot no one was folding.

First hand of any significance I reraised an utg limp with dem aces, to 1200 blinds 200/400,every player behind calls so we go to the flop with  7 people in the pot, probably not a favourite here, flop 6,10,10 the pot is about 9k I only have 10k behind, its fairly feasible that a 10 is out there but wasn"t going to bet fold so just put the lot in, got one caller who had flatted with 66 so he flopped the house, no problems with his flat there he had enough chips, I just wonder what the other 6 called with, he proceeded to teach me about implied odds and that is why he called, cheers for the lesson mate nh, home by 8pm.

I regged a few on Stars and had a deep run in the $4 cubed, eventually losing a couple of flips at 3am this morning, pretty frustrating as win one of them and I would of been in good shape to at least final table it but it wasnt to be.

It was good to see Jp at the nobbers game on Thursday, congrats on the win sir, and I see another invasion is imminent so looking forward to that.

On the home front all the stuff for the kitchen arrived, everything worked,everything fitted correctly without any hassle so just need the walls and floor tiling and we are done.

It"s the Gs monthly £100 on Saturday which I may be making an appearance in, it does clash with the Apat game on Saturday which is disappointing  but if I get knocked out early may make an appearance later on.

I know my brother reads this and I would just like to congratulate him again in Qualifying as a Radiographer at the local hospital, he was made redundant 2 years ago, managed to get accepted on a course and his hard work has paid off and starts his new career at the end of the month not bad for a 47 year old, well done really proud of you.

Thanks for the words of encouragement regarding the blog by the way, it may not be as baller as other blogs available, but it it is what is,an ordinary bloke having a go at the pokers.

[Erimus]

Only 5 of us turned up tonight for the prestigious G 10 10 10 game so we decided to play a winner takes all sat into Saturdays £100 game.

I proceeded to fold for most of the night,woke up at the right time with AA v QQ v K9 which held for a virtual treble up, eventually got heads up with Luke which I managed to win,total prize pool was £125, enough for the buy in on Saturday, I gave Luke the extra £15, was feeling in a generous mood, he had predicted earlier that it was obvious I was going to get aces and win the lot and for willing that in he deserved a bit back.

I left Dave crushing the blackjack tables, he started with the £3 change from the buy in and reg fee, and was going strong when I left at about 23:45, hope it didn"t go wrong in the interveening time.

Incidentally my skirmish with the blackjack table lasted one hand, I don"t normally play the table games but it seemed a bit tight to cash in the £3 change, not being a blackjack player Dave said I will tell you what to do, ok I said, proceeded to ignore his advice and lose the £3 straight away, in the first session think he spun the £3 into £40 ish which covered his buy in for the sng, and like I said above he was further crushing in his second session.

Looking forward to Saturdays game, not sure how many runners it will get, going by previous events 60ish would be my guess, but we shall wait and see.

[pokerpops]

 

[Erimus]

Not been playing much lately,the £100 game at the G fizzled out into a mid place finish, tbh there was not a lot to talk about other than a second straight flush in a week, I didn"t bother paying the extra £1 for the jackpot as I had already qualified for the £10k free roll on sunday which looks like being about 120 runners, with an extra value Gukpt seat for the winner available as an extra incentive,lets hope for a bit of run good in that one.

Had aces cracked early on in the above game by J9 which seems to be the norm in any biggish events I play in lately, probably fold em if the blind levels are below 100/200 from now on  , didn"t lose too many chips as flush and straight draws arrived on the river and there was a lot of betting and calling before it got to me, the joys of being oop, not a whinge by the way just an observation.

I got home and regged for the Irish online champs, got a good start with AA > QQ and was doing ok until I raise utg with 66, get reraised all in by Ger for between 15/20 bigs which I call hoping for a flip, unfortunately he has 10 10 didn"t bink my 6 and the rest of the game fizzled out.
As Ger reminded me in chat "welcome to the dark side", it probably should of been a fold in that position,and a year ago I would of insta mucked,but win that hopefully flip and I have a chance to run deep, I still had  20ish bigs left after the loss but couldn"t get any momentum going.

Over at Stars been running pretty poorly until last night, I seem to be isolating early position limpers correctly but people keep waking up with hands behind,and I keep running into big hands when I usually the second best hand at the time, hold em manager also showing 4 out of the last 5 times with AA it is coloured red indicating I have lost the hand so I think I am due to get get some chips in future tournaments with AA, variance and all that malarkey.

I have only been playing 1 or 2 games a day this month, mainly because I can"t be bothered grinding the sngs to get the mtt entries,so I late regged the $5 cubed last night playing on the i pad app, and managed to finish 3rd for$ 550 which has put me in profit on Stars for the month by about $350, the battery was dying about 12:30 so had to leave my warm bed to go and finish the game off in the back room, got back to bed around 2:15 with a nice boost to roll which is now just under $2k, ( when full tilt returns will have another little boost, roll on November).

Incidentally my biggest coup was a 3 way all in, post flop on a K4 5 flop against AA and AK who had both limped I had 44 in the big blind, mbn, this gave me a stack to take a few hits here and there.

My final hand was A10> k9 against the chip leader who was just shoving all in every hand, he had the stack to do it, unlucky for me he hit his 9, if my hand holds here I have 1 mirrion chips and a chance to take it down, it wasn"t to be, still haven"t won a Stars tourney out right which is frustrating and needs to be put right sooner rather than later , thanks for reading, run good , be lucky stay healthy.

[Erimus]

2 live games played this week, the G had a £500 added free roll on Saturday to celebrate there 1st birthday in Stockton.

As regular readers know if they read mine or Pokerpops blog the G struggles to get players for most of the tournaments at the minute (Sunays and Fridays seem to be picking up now),but with the added £500 92 players turned up and a £2k1 pot was created, goes to show add a bit of free money players will turn up.

Opening table was good fun and it was a good laugh, had my AA cracked early on by 67 in the big blind, seems to be a recurring theme early on here, I raised 2.5 from utg and the big blind had posted his big blind with a 1k chip, he couldn"t be bothered getting it changed so he elected to call the raise, the flop was 48k rainbow, I bet 3/4 pot, called turn Q, I bet again I have 10k behind, he calls the river is a 5, I check and he shoves all in, a straight gets there, a daft 2 pair or good 2 pair, I don"t think this particular player is getting lairy with a bluff or a 1 pair hand so with 30 bigs left I fold, he shows 67 for the rivered straight, nh move on, he apologised for a few minutes saying he only called because I was giving him the correct odds to call, I smiled and agreed, I played it pretty badly .

Got to the last 2 tables, was in shove or fold mode utg makes it 4x bb and I look down at 88 I reshoved hoping for a flip but he had JJ and it held so I was out in 17th place.

I checked the G schedules over the last 2 nights and surprise,surprise both tournaments cancelled, the Tuesday game is never going to compete with the £30 game at Gala so they really need to think a new strategy with this one, it"s pretty obvious no mtt currently on a Thursday so put the 10 10 10 on the Thursday and have the tuesday game as non game night pretty simple.

I went to play Gala last night, thought I was going to have to get the canoe out to get over there but it wasn"t too bad, it got 47 runners which is well below the norm, prob the weather put a few off, I managed to get a 5th place for £120, I will report one hand, I think Pokerpops game is starting to rub off on me a little bit.

My rep at Gala is ultra tight, so tight that I actually squeak when I make a move, blind are 300/600/50 I raise utg with 86 off just assuming to win blinds and antes, I had been card dead and needed to get up to at least average 68off utg is never in my range here, get 1 caller, flop comes down A57, obviously have to represent ace here plus with an up and down not getting away from this hand, I bet half pot, caller comes along, turn card 2, a brick really, happy to continue to rep the ace the caller may have an ace but is worried about his kicker, I bet half pot,again he calls, whatever the river card is its going in, it does help that the river is a 4 making my straight, it all goes in, villain folds showing an ace saying your kickers good. this gets me above average and the rest is pretty standard stuff, done a bit of laddering at the ft eventually getting it in good with AJ v K8 but the 8 on the flop killed it for me.

I had 2 of the better players at Gala saying they couldn"t believe the way my game has changed (so aggressive  ),and complimented me on my play which was nice to hear.

Online got a 13th in the Ecop game were I made an awful play with 77 which has been discussed elsewhere, will have a few sessions on Stars over the next few days, will probably end up being a  break even slightly up month both live and online.

[pokerpops]

wpsir not sure what you mean about my game rubbing off on you.

Names for the two "better players" at Gala please!!

I gather the table talk over there is interesting at the moment...

[Erimus]

September spluttered to a halt poker wise, checked on opr and I only played 33 games for a small profit cashed in 9% of games but volume pretty low, made 1 final table but couldn"t convert it to a win.

Live poker again a small profit but it tends to be 2 steps forward 1 step back at the minute.

I played the 15/15 at G last night and was going quite well until I got it in bad with 444 against a full house,but still had enough to get back in it, blinds are 200/400 2 limpers one never folds whatever the reraise, I look down at AQ, shoving 20 bigs looks over the top but it might get him to fold, I repop it 2200, original limper folds serial caller calls as expected, flop k 10 2 rainbow, he leads out pretty obvious he has the king, but I was going with this hand whatever the flop, missed my draws and the over and his K5 was always going to win that.

As I was leaving the card room i got a call from the wife asking if I could get home as there was a problem there, strange how this world works, got Home got the wife sorted alls well that ends well.

There will be 4 of us trekking up to Glasgow in a few weeks for the Scottish champs looking forward to that one, was going to give the sats for Dtds £500 game a go but 2 successive poker weekends is stretching it a bit so I will leave them alone for this month.

I read that another member has told online poker to Gtfo and I must admit I have been feeling a little frustrated with the game of late, but I will probably just carry on, not trying to make a living out of it but a bit extra here and there helps out a bit, it"s a free roll after all , home news,kitchen should be fully finished by the end of the week just need to spruce up on my cookery skills to take advantage of the new surroundings.

Run good, be lucky stay healthy.

[Erimus]

If this is how October is going to continue I think I will have the rest of the month off, Apat Glasgow excluded.
I have been on the wrong side of variance this week pretty much from the get go.

The home game on Thursday got 19 runners in total probs a record including the travellers, I managed to reraise Curlys raise with AQ and stacked my first buy in against Gers KK, and Curlys AA, great timing, by the turn a j would give me an improbable straight, didnt happen, Chips please.

We returned after the break and  a few hands in I get AK suited, I make my standard raise and Ger decides to reshove, he has been shoving fairly light all night, I mean who shoves KK into AA and AQ, l call, I have him covered by 2k or so, on there backs AK v AJ, pretty safe board until the river were the j decides to make an appearance 5 or 6 hands too late for me but hey ho that"s poker, eventually go out A2
I went to see Tim Vine during the week who was very good with the quick fire one liners but part of his show was to chat with selected members of the audience about hilarious things that have happened to them, this died a death and was really embarrassingly bad, I suppose that"s a chance he has to take with this format, it didn"t work in the Boro.

I nearly got involved with a story from myself from a few years ago 39 to be exact, I entered a Tarzan comp at a holiday camp the family was staying at, the premise being you had to go on stage in a loin cloth or speedos, or in my case woollies swimming trunks and beat your chest and do the old Tarzan call.

After all the contestants had done there stuff the results were read out in Miss World fashion, reverse order, and the winner is BRIAN, I ran on the stage all exited never won a thing in my short life this was the start of fame and fortune, the judge whispered in my ear not you son the other Brian, fml, it"s gone downhill all the way since that day, incidentally they gave me a consolation prize of a pink beach badminton set, ty very much, which lead 29 years later to me winning the Middlesbrough mens badminton doubles champs when I was 40, the only trophy I have ever received in my sporting career.

Sorry about that all my yesterday"s, back to the Poker I decided to play Galas £150, bad beat alert, AQ loses to Q5 suited he gets the flush eventually, I really dont know how to get some players off hands over there, bet bet,call call sigh your flush is good on a ace high flop, down to a shoving stack look down at AA on the button,  I have 18 bigs blinds 300/600, I min raise get 2 callers flop QJ9, 2 spades, small blind bets out 4k which is approx pot, knowing this player QJ is defo in his range as is any k for the straight draw or 2 spades for the flush draw, he is also capable  of just having top pair crap kicker, I am sick of hero folding in these spots in big games so I just shove hoping he is just on a draw, as he turns them over I say QJ is good but I have outs, I was right didn"t bink gg me.
If I was deeper stacked I could fold but as played it was what it was.

Online played 5 games so far, again can"t really be bothered cashed in 2 for not a lot, had a ridiculous hand in a $10 game on Stars but I won"t bore you with the details as it seems to come across as a moaning post and people don"t like to read about bad beats.

Looking forward to Glasgow next week don"t think I will be playing live this week unless the Thursday  game goes ahead, thinking about buying a Marine tropical fish tank, I need a new hobby this one is driving me to distraction.
Run good, be lucky stay healthy.

[pokerpops]

Variance sucks, but you will rise above it and return to winning ways Bri.

Marine tropicals eh? Just remember, "don"t tap the tank"