Keeping Warm in Winter

[pokerpops]

PLO8 at 3pm today, hopefully do ok but not really my game so will see how it goes.

LOL, just LOL. I see what you did there....

Clever stuff.

[AAroddersAA]

OK this post is probably a day late but yesterday I was not fully awake for the whole day *lol*. I am very happy to have won the PLO8 game on Wednesday to take my first live individual APAT gold medal and WCOAP title. It also lifts me back to the top of the POTY rankings for now although I know for sure Brian will not be giving up and expect to have to score more points between now and the end of the online events if I am going to be POTY. That for the future though.

Wednesdays PLO event started quite quietly for me. I was sat next to Tom Clark again and we wonder if we can both get past the end of the first level today after failing to do so on Tuesday *lol*. The game starts and I actually end up allin with my tournament life on the line before the end of the first level. I had top set (the nuts) on a flop with no low draw and got in against the nut flush draw, my hand held and gave me some chips which was very important. I was playing quite a simple game as I am not as good at this game as some. However some of the best players were missing from the field. Most notably Chris Webber (Defending Champ and 3-time world champion), Carl Pilgrim (great PLO8 PLayer) and Steve Redfern (excellent all round Omaha player). These are just examples that spring to mind but the field could have been even stronger than it was. I was doing OK and generally running up my stack. A player joined the table with lots of chips and he seemed quite well known in the casino. He is running good taking a big pot off Tom by rivering him, I get in a pot with him where I bet the flop and turn but miss my draw on the river. There is a heart flush though and I have the ace of hearts. I check it to him and he bets. Here I can fold and still have an above average stack but this spot was just perfect and I move allin. He quickly folds and this gives me a great boost to my stack and gives me the chance to final table, which I eventually do.

Tom went out just before the final table after playing very well all day. I run good on the final and end up three handed, I keep raising and they do not play back. I have a big chip lead and they fold down to where I basically have to call when somebody shoves. I win and end up heads up with a 6-1 chip lead. My heads up record in apat is err.. BAD. I tried very hard to lose this one as well (although I did get the chips in good twice and lose). He eventually takes the chip lead and actually end up allin and thought I had lost until the dealer points out I have the low. Don"t remember what happened at the end but we were even on chips and the blinds are so big we are basically playing shove/fold. He raises I see  A-5-9-9 and know that is plenty good enough. He has A-4-7-K so actually has a slightly better hand but I win by making a full house and no low.

I expected the game to finish at about midnight but it was 3am by the time we were done. I collect the Bracelet and Medal I was pretty much done and ready to head back to the hotel. I honestly had in my head there was something I should do first but didn"t know what it was. I say goodbye to Lucy and leave as I go to exit the casino it clicks you actually get prize money for winning. I already have the medal and bracelet but decide to go back and get the money anyway. I then try to leave again but this time leave my iPad in the card room on Lucy"s desk. I eventually get back to the hotel at 4am get a few messages and texts which I reply too. I was not really able to sleep so just read on my iPad.

Was really pleased to get the win as there has been that bit of pressure having never got the win. It is also a real pleasure to get a bracelet and they do make these events feel special. Want to get this done now, not been playing yesterday as was watching the team event and playing, today will likely be watching the team event, maybe a bit of cash and catching up with everybody.

Yesterday railed the team event for a while and was able to cash in the 6-max (came 11th out of 145 but was basically on auto play for most of it though, played OK but was not at my best). Got back to hotel before midnight I think and had a good nights sleep. Today will be railing team event and having a day off before playing the main event tomorrow.

Happy Easter Weekend Everybody. Have a great Bank Holiday.

[AAroddersAA]

So the WCOAP is over. Would have posted sooner but had a few issues since returning.

It was an excellent festival which I think everybody enjoyed. As you all know by now I was lucky enough to win a bracelet in the PLO8 event. I also cashed in the six-max. The WCOAP successfully has a different feel to the rest of APAT it is very much about the poker rather than the social side of it, although this does make it a bit intense at times. I am always really impressed by the people who can play multiple live events a day. I just can"t do it and event 5 in 6 days was a bit of a grind at the end. I would certainly take the results though and I THINK this cash takes me past Dave Garden into the Number 2 spot in the APAT cash list on Hendon Mob. Carl also cashed so will be about $1600 behind him. One mission in Season 10 will be to take that spot, that will be hard but I will be doing my best. I think the result will also take me into the top 4 all time WCOAP players behind Chris Webber, Dave Howard and Paresh Doshi. This has been a very good month for me Poker Wise I am just over $400 up in online cash and the WCOAP result tops it off.

Some shout outs from WCOAP, first to Chris Webber for his third bracelet in three years which is an amazing achievement. Obviously Matt Carter for his 5th place in the Main Event and to Simon Brooke for one of the best performances in WCOAP history this week winning POTS (I assume the online events do not count towards this). Last, but most certainly not least to Ian Thompson who maintained his run for cashing every year since season 3 and made it 7 seasons in a row with a cash, breaking the record. Then the obvious ones for Tom, Leigh, Des, Lucy and John for another excellently run event.

It"s not all over yet as we have to Player of the Year to think about. I managed to move into top spot for that and was looking good until Brian hit back taking 4 points in the team event to cut the gap to just 2 points. Matt Carter and Simon Brooke are also right in there with a chance when the season comes to an end this week with the online WCOAP games. I would like to see APAT make a bit more of the Player of the Year. They offer an amazing prize for this but it did not seem to get mentioned much this season. There are still 29 points to be won so although it is very likely the winner will be myself or Brian it is by no means certain. Whoever wins will need to score more points that is for sure.

I will this week be booking myself up for Vegas in November with Stu, Ger, Curly, Matt Ward, Phil The Fryer and Scottish Tom among others which should be to say the least - epic.

Have been back online this week playing 500 hands since Monday winning $44.23 a few hands of interest are below some. Feel free to make comments, I am pretty confident on my reads in this game and my thoughts are likely to be fairly accurate to how the game plays but I can still get it wrong sometimes.

This is a strange one. My thoughts were basically he either has a king or he doesn"t so might as well try and build a big pot, expected to see AK, KQ or KJ once he calls my raise on the flop so am basically trying to play and size bets to get my whole stack in the middle.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/18509421_494046949E

This hand is also interesting given the board and the interesting card on the turn (which should usually be a blank I think). The way he has played the hand is a VERY strong line but there is so much money in the pot I don"t have to be good that often and 3-bet pots are starting to play a little less honest than they use to in this game. There are a good few draws out there. His shove is actually bad as he only gets called when beaten. If he is going to put all his money in he would be better calling the turn then calling any river as this at least would weaken my range a bit.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/18509521_894AB03EE9

This hand is also worth thinking about. Our opponent would be perceived as less experienced he was playing 50% of hands over a small sample size and a less than full stack. The flop is pretty good and his weakish bet does not suggest a Queen really, when the SB folds I am happy to call. The river shove is interesting as this 100% COULD be a queen but my read on the flop was that he does not have a queen which probably makes this a call. Not 100% sure to be honest, he can have some kind of monster as well but would expect a smaller bet in that case. I tend to think the call is likely ok/good here.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/18523123_5B98DEB45E

This hand is for entertainment purposes only. There is not much logical thought process to it haha (there was a thought process at the time just not a logical one)

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/18509542_FB4AB83E89

So those are some of the cash hands I am playing. I am going to keep this going until the end of the Online WCOAP to see who wins the player of the year. After that the blog will likely go on a break until I would assume Season 10 kicks off. Hopefully will do some updates from Vegas in November this year.

[jayteejack]

Very well done in Stratford. Good luck for the Player of the year

[AAroddersAA]

Last day of Season 9 today, 5 people can still win player of the year. They are Myself, Brian Yates, Simon Brook, Matt Carter and The current World and UK Champ Andy Dodson. Unfortunately I don"t know Andy, so not sure if he is playing tonight but the other 4 will be and it is likely to be a close finish. After tonight it will be time for a break from poker for a short time and will be looking forward to the Season 10 announcement.

April is matched betting month on my blog. A few people in Stratford asked me about this and how it works. I know I am not the only one who does this and there are a few people within APAT who are probably better at it than me so if anybody else wants to get involved please do so. The idea of matched betting is we make a Guaranteed profit from whatever bets we do, this is done using free bets and exchanges, the easiest thing to do is start with a simple example. I am going to select a betting site I do not yet have an account with and do a sign up offer. Looking to make at least £30 from this offer by the end of the week. The site I am going to use is 188bet. I have signed up an account and deposited with them this morning.

We need to place 5 £50 bets to access the £50 signup bonus so we will try and start today. We can"t use horses for this offer. Minimum odds must be 1.75. The sport we are going to be using is football. After we have placed the 5 bets £50 will be credited to our account.

I have deposited into the site this morning and placed my first bet £50 on Roma to beat Lazio at 2.16. I have then gone onto the exchange (smarkets) and layed Roma for £49.54. If Roma win I will win my bet in the bookie, if Roma do not win I will win on the exchange. Whatever the outcome of this bet I will lose £1.45. The plan is obviously to do this 5 times to generate the bonus money of £50. If I lose around £1.50 per bet doing this will cost me £7.50 and I will get the £50 bonus money making a profit of £42.50 Simple - Lets see how it goes.

188bet
-------

Game One - Lazio Vs Roma (Lose £1.45)


In the future I might also do something on Betfair Trading which is something else I do at very small stakes.

[pables]

  :oRodders OMG what are you doing!!!
I cannot believe you are giving this information out freely
Give them your link    

[AAroddersAA]

:oRodders OMG what are you doing!!!
I cannot believe you are giving this information out freely
Give them your link    

But this is nothing I had not figured out for myself anyway. The things I had not seen (or even thought about until you told me) are what we discussed in Stratford and I won"t be mentioning here, the spreadsheets are also well worth having as they allow access to offers you could not otherwise do. Basic matched betting however (signup offers and basic football reload offers is not actually worth paying for).

They are all available for free here also:-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/984422048283444/

[AAroddersAA]

Welcome to Autumn.

As the WCOAP finished months ago I was intending to write up some things that we interesting that happened throughout the year. Some of the big things for this year included Yarm Invasion and APAT Belgium. Sadly I seem to have missed them all.

But what a great year it has been, we had the WCOAP at the amazing London Stratford casino. Will be honest and say that I will miss it next year (Stratford, not the event) however I understand why we can"t go back. Yarm Invasion 2016 was a massive success with OFC in the pub being one of the main activities. I was lucky enough to be in Belgium for an amazing team event  run by the Belgian crew. Even though I did not play well (let the team down a bit to be honest) it was a great event with the excellent company of Simon Brooke, JP Round, Claire Duffy, Ross Fullarton and Tod Wood. The beer over there is confirmed as a bit strong. Me booking the wrong hotel dates at Cardiff was pretty too funny in the end. To be fair the best part was everybody was really helpful with Several offers of room shares and to stay at various peoples houses, wasn"t needed in the end but says enough about our APAT people again. Had a great day in Cardiff Bay on the Saturday. A fine way to end the summer. Villamoura is missing from the calendar this year though which is sad I suppose we must have messed that up there are not really many better places I know.

So now the leaves are turning Golden and the farmers are gathering their crops. Before too much longer we will start to see Christmas decorations (yes I KNOW it is still September but trust me it will happen). Hopefully we will get past Halloween and bonfire night before that though. The problem with this time of year is it tends to get a bit cold. It"s a bit of a shame there is nowhere nice and warm we can go but where could that be? - maybe Manchester has possibilities

Poker has been a bit poor of late and I have become aware I really need to put some time to work on my game as I have been not playing well enough at all. I plan to put this right though and will start posting a little bit about it here. Probably won"t be able to play any more APAT's until next year now as am sadly missing Ireland. No Ireland, no Villamoura - really don"t know what is happening this year.

Away from poker been doing pretty well on the old "matched betting". There are some excellent opportunities on the Ryder Cup this week and using an advantage play on Accumulators with insurance is an excellent way of doing things. We also have 888 goals mean more promo and Ladbrokes in play offers. Coral are also doing some excellent stuff. Gonna do some recommendations on this.

Today"s recommendation is an offer on Skybet where you place a bet on a player to be top points scorer and get a £5 free bet every time your player wins a game.

Here is the Market on Skybet

https://www.skybet.com/golf/ryder-cup-2016/event/19755945

Here is the Market on Betfair

https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/#/golf/market/1.127221983

(I assume I can post these links if not let me know and I will remove)

So you just put a £10 Bet on Rory McIlroy to be the top overall points scorer at 7/1 (8.0) on Skybet and lay £8.04 at 10.0 on Betfair. So whatever the result we will lose £2.36 on that bet. The profit comes from the fact we get a £5 free bet every time McIlroy wins a game. As long as he wins one we will be up. We gain more profit every time he wins extra games. We will use matched betting to turn our £5 free bets into about £3.80 at least. Obviously you need to cash in your Betfair account to cover the lay which is about £75. Long term this is going to be massively profitable.

Anyway I will go and try and find something exciting that is happening pretty soon that I can write about the build up too and maybe even the event itself, Hmmm what could it be?

[AAroddersAA]

OK Day two of the new updates. It"s Friday night but I am working tomorrow so gonna watch Only Fools and Horses on Netflix. I think my favourite episode is the one where they go on the Jolly Boys outing and get stuck in Margate. Gonna watch that one. One of my favourite programmes but think it was ruined by making the last three episodes as I think the original ending was perfect. What the the favourite shows of other apaters?

In other news Tyson Fury (still a great name) has been stripped on the World Heavyweight title after testing positive for cocaine. Sadly I am not surprised, I don"t expect him to fight again and expect to see Anthony Joshua win the belts pretty soon. Think he would have lost to Klitchco but that must have cost him a fair bit of money.

So anyway played a bit of poker after getting back from work today:-

Have a look at this hand. I don"t really like my play too much (it"s OK) but hate his a lot

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20903842_BA62AE0595

So my button raise is obviously fine and the c-bet on the flop is also OK. I don"t really like his call with that hand (3-bet would be better or just fold). My C-bet is OK, don"t dislike his call too much as I can double barrell a fair bit here although on that turn I have to give up a lot as well. I also pick up a draw so I want a cheap showdown now and quite like the check. Don"t really like his bet on the river as it is a bad spot to bluff I think (he is bluffing but not sure he knows that) I am not a massive fan of my call either given that he should not be bluffing there but I got lucky and he was (I think). The bet is pretty small so the call might just about be OK.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20903747_D8B4D659BA

Not entirely sure about this one, it could be OK but so many made hands and draws on that flop maybe I should just give it up

Played 102 hands winning $1.77 so basically another break even session (I am good at those currently). Need to keep working on it to get my game back in good shape before November - November is a good month to have your game in shape see.

My Matched betting tip for today is on Ladbrokes place an in play £20 Bet on mobile on the Everton game today (min odds of 1.5) to get a free £10 in play bet on the Liverpool game tomorrow. Back and lay Everton in play for a loss of £2 or less and job done. This should make us about £5 whatever the results. Come back later as I might well put an accumulator up to use  will edit the post:-

Acca suggestion for this week (you don"t need to lay these if you don"t want too it will be +EV as long as you can turn the £25 free bet you get for one game letting you down into £20 real money)

12pm 1st October - Swansea Vs Liverpool - Liverpool (Liverpool)
3pm 1st October - Bayern Munich Vs Cologne (Bayern)
12pm 2nd October - Man Utd Vs Stoke (Man Utd)
3pm 2nd October - Real Madrid Vs Eibar (Real Madrid)
7:45pm 2nd October - Celta Vigo Vs Barcelona (Barcelona)

Odds are around 7/2 - This is only +EV when used in conjunction with an Acca insurance offer with matched betting used to turn the free £25 you get for one leg letting you down into £20 real money. As a standard bet it is a long term loser

Oh one more thing about that cold spell in poker...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVO8sUrs-Pw

[AAroddersAA]

Another day so another post (missed yesterday). I am planning to play a bit of the new APAT League that is coming soon but October is looking like a quiet month for me although a good mate on mine is getting married on The 15th October so that is going to be a good weekend no doubt. We have the reception in an "interesting" area of Newport but it will be cheap beer so that"s good, I think there will be food but not worrying about that too much. The thing I am pretty gutted about is not being able to make the APAT Dublin which is one of my favourites and last year having it as part of the IPO was brilliant. I will be following online instead.

I see that the government are getting around to triggering article 50. I wonder if that will have any effect on us realistically I certainly put the price up of something I had to buy this week. I will be surprised if it actually has too much effect on the life of the average person though. I would also like to say well done to Tesco who have decided to get rid of their 24 hour opening in Swansea and quite a few other parts of Wales. I went into town this morning and everything was open. I am very much of the opinion that at the moment the whole country is too focused on consumers and this is causing unrealistic expectations on people who work in that industry. I would actually like to see supermarkets close on Sunday (or whatever day we choose as the weekly day off) as well as a number of other services that are currently open. I don"t believe that is provides much benefit to society as a whole and might well be of detriment due to the high number of people who are currently working almost every weekend. How you make that work with things that have to run 24/7 I am not sure though, obviously 999 needs to be staffed at all times and hospitals and A&E departments need to keep running. The first thing that comes to mind is better rewards for people in those areas of work but that might be easier said than done maybe.

Good day of sport today with the football and the darts. Very happy with the result of the Grand Prix this morning, not a big fan of Rosberg but he is slightly preferable to Hamilton. Hopefully next season Red Bull will be able to mount a proper challenge.

Here is a bit of a poker update today. Played 300 hands or so and won around $30 which is OK. Have spent some time doing some work on Pokertracker and starting to find some leaks and slowly plug them. Here are some hands from today.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20922235_D0EF9F6962

The first hand is pretty straight forward and I only really post it to show the way it compares to another one later. Min raise could mean anything and I think 3-betting Jacks here is OK, when he 4-bets though my Jacks are not good enough to continue, pretty easy fold.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20922233_2EACAE77AE

Not entirely sure how much I like how I play ths hand. Not too much maybe. I don"t mind my 3-bet in position although it might not be the best hand to do it with. The cold call from the SB is a bit weird and teh flat call from the raiser means the flop is pretty good for me in that it is unlikely to have hit either of them. I think it is a good spot to c-bet a 3-bet pot even 3 way. I get a caller and the turn completes the flush. I am not sure if the turn should be another bet or not. I go for it and get it through. Probably pretty close but not sure how well this hand is actually played by me.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20922172_CC4D0219A3

OK this hand is a bit easier really. We have JJ in position and 3-bet the raiser who shoves. I think this makes AA and KK a lot less common in his range as people don"t shove these hands in this spot. AK is certainly possible as are some lower pairs. I doubt it is AQ and the only hand that MIGHT do this which I don"t like is QQ. This is a strange spot where I can call the shove but folded to the smaller bet in a similar situation in hand one. Pretty happy with this as I think JJ plays better against a shoving range than against a standard 4-bet range in this spot.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20922073_4D277BF73F

I like me plan for this hand and how I play it. Preflop is standard and I hit top pair on the flop. I think that I can be up against a pair a lot and given his stack size I can check the flop. I consider this player a bit weaker based on his stack size this is normally a fairly accurate assumption. His stack size is such that I can get his stack in on the turn and the river and be called down by a weaker hand than would call the flop and turn as my hand looks weaker. I think his call on the turn is OK but don"t like his call on the river much, but I can see how that mistake gets made, personally I think I get away from the hand on the river in his seat but do like how I played it in mine.

Finally bit of a matched betting update. We are doing pretty well with our Rory McIlroy bet as we have already netted £10 worth of free bets so should be nicely in profit from that one. Our accumulator bet had one leg lose yesterday, annoyingly it was one of our banker legs (Bayern) so that does not look so good now. Today I am going to recommend betting on Man City on Coral where you get double winnings of Man City Win both half"s. It is an easy one to do, you just place a bet on Man City on Coral:-

Bet £50 on Man City on Coral at odds of 2.4
Lay £48.78 on Smarkets at odds of 2.48 - your liability for this bet is £72.19

As a result of this you will lose £2.19 whatever the result. If Man City win both half though you will pick up bonus winnings of £70 so a really good offer to do if you know about matched betting. If you don"t want to risk any money you can lay Man City to win both half on Betfair for £2.50 on Betfair at odds of 10.5. If Man City fail to win both halfs you will win £2.37 which will wipe out the £2.19 Qualifying loss. If Man City DO win both halfs you will lose £26.25 on Betfair so your total profit after your £70 bonus win would be around £43 without any risk.

These are the links to the markets you need to do it

http://sports.coral.co.uk/football/england/premier-league/tottenham-v-man-city-4504984.html (Back Man City)
https://smarkets.com/sport/football/premier-league/2016/10/02/tottenham-vs-man-city (Lay Off Man City)
https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/#/football/market/1.127023581 (Lay Man City to win both halfs - Yes)

We do need a Man Utd, Man City and Barcelona win today for our Acca to give us our money back.

Anyway here is a video for today as we look forward to the Irish Amateur Championship at the end of next month. I wonder who will win ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ufcQe5D27s

[AAroddersAA]

Winter is most certainly coming, the heating has not gone on yet but might well be time to think about it in a few weeks.

So APAT Ireland will include such great APATers as Glenn Laming and JP Round. These two gentlemen are my tips for final table and medal glory. Before people accuse me of just picking my friends as predictions I have recently been fortunate to discuss some hands with these gents (ask me and Glenn to tell you about the AK discussion at some time). Anyway both of these guys have games which is much better than their results suggest (unless you count side events *lol*).

Here are some poker hands:-

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20944896_8C3FF7FEC6

I do like this hand. preflop is pretty standard so no need to talk about that.

Then the flop is quite good for me lot"s of hands can hit the queen and flush draws are going to continue. The only hand that should be drawing at a straight is 67. Seems like a very simple bet on the flop. I can bet quite big here compared to the size of the pot as most queens will call and I need to charge the draws. The turn really changes nothing, the pot is still 3 way so I am guessing Queen, Draw or some kind of set/monster. I think only a monster will raise on the turn usually here so my bet gives me both value and as a bonus, info. When I get the call I am pretty sure it is either a draw or a queen and more likely a draw. The river misses most drawing hands so I check intending to call and hope AQ type hands decide to bet when checked too. He shoves and I snap as was my plan, I think I play this hand quite well, he should probably raise the flop and try and snap it off when I shove. I don"t have to have a massive hand there and he might get some weaker hands QJ, TT type hands to incorrectly fold. He never really gives me the chance to make a mistake.

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20944716_222B1C8783

This hand is not played great but thought it might be funny

Had a long day in work today so will leave this as a short post, will be back soon

PS - FIVE WEEKS PEOPLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AAroddersAA]

This is me winning a big pot with and eight and a three

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20957940_727D1D3734

Better to be lucky than good that"s what I always say

[duke3016]

This is me winning a big pot with and eight and a three

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20957940_727D1D3734

Better to be lucky than good that"s what I always say

LEGEND

[Des]

This is me winning a big pot with and eight and a three

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20957940_727D1D3734

Better to be lucky than good that"s what I always say

Boom!

[AAroddersAA]

Hello worlds greatest people did you know it is only one month until Fireworks Night. YAY

So at the start of October Swansea is still quite warm and it"s all good. I have come up with some ways of keeping warm when the winter hit"s though:-

1) Put the heating on (boring)
2) Run around a lot (wtf)
3) Go to the desert (interesting)
4) Light a fire (bit dangerous)

I will work out what to do I am sure. I am good at that sort of thing.

So all three Welsh Clubs have sacked their managers in the last week. Bit surprised about Swansea who have had a very tough start. Cardiff needed to make a change but have to admit to being very concerned about Newport County. Work commitments mean I have only seen them twice this season and the team looks just not good enough. We need to get a manager in asap and come up with a plan. The best plan might be to plan for life in the Conference and how the club will survive in that spot. The pitch is not helping and having had two matched called off already due to this is not acceptable. Hopefully Wales can make it a bit brighter this week although Ramsey is a big loss.

I also played a bit of poker and found some interestings hands:-

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20970450_4064C95B41

This is a hand I am not sure how I played. Preflop my 3-bet is standard after UTG raises with one caller. Problem is he then bounces back with a 4-bet. So he can probably have AA, QQ or AK, I block AK so that hand is a bit less likely. QQ often just calls my 3-bet as well. I still think a call is good as if I shove I let QQ and AK have the chance to get away and AA just snaps me off. I decide calling the 4-bet is best but honestly not entirely sure.

The flop is good for me and he checks to me. I can bet here and get paid by QQ and lose to AA. I think it is AA more than QQ though so check intending to call a standard turn bet and assess on the river. The turn is an ace which is the worst card for me. It goes check/check and his river bet just feels like a value bet and I don"t really beat anything now so make a simple enough fold. Not sure about this one :-)

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-hands/Boom/20970532_F1477B2FD6

Very standard BvB hand here. Maybe 3-betting pre is better as I don"t fold much to a 3x BB Vs SB. I see this as a straight forward call down no sense in raising and against these bet sizings folding is probably pretty bad.

I am break even over the last couple of days but had one hand where I lost a stack with KK Vs AA in a spot that was OK to do so.

Not done any bets over the last few days as focusing on the poker a bit more. Will be some coming up soon though.