Aces and Agony - An APAT'ers blog of the highs and lows of poker ( and life!)

[amcgrath1uk]

I will give myself some targets in March, especially as I have some time off.

1) Play 500 in a month. Definitely achieveable, but way more than any other month.
2) Make a profit.
3) Decide to 6 or 8 table. I can tile 6 tables on my laptop, I have to stack or cascade 8 tables.
4) Attempt to play with much less distraction, ie no TV on/xbox on etc to see if it makes a difference.

Thoughts?

You know 1 & 2 are achievable mate, 3 whatever you"re most comfortable with, 4 background music FTW  

Going along nicely mate, keep it up!

8 tabling quite comfortably now. 262 played and have a lot less on this week so will be hammering the tables I think. Am running up at the mo, but will update at the end of the month, or when I get to 500. ( mainly as I deposited to cover some mtt"s I played last Sunday)

..................and your choice of background music?

generally have it on my iPhone so not really background, with it 90% of the time being Eminem. I"m not a huge music person tbh.

[samuel_9]

wats ememem

[Santino67]

wats ememem

Just magical Ray  

[amcgrath1uk]

wats ememem

Just magical Ray  

was gonna say he"s a wrapper but...

[amcgrath1uk]

Well as it"s now April, I think I better update this!

APAT wise, I"m ready for Coventry, and have also booked for Cardiff. In particular looking forward to Cardiff as I haven"t been down that way for a very long time. ( and the fact I"m there Fri-Mon meaning a few drinks will be consumed on the Friday), unfortunately I"m having to work this Friday, and until last week I was unsure what I was going to be working, so there was pretty much no point booking the hotel and travel for the Friday.

APAT leagues I"ve played 3 of the 4, deepest was last Sunday, where I managed to get to the last 90. For me, on stars, that"s a vast improvement! The APAT English main event, the less said, the better.

Somehow managed to luckbox my way to the final table in the Omaha, considering it was my first proper ( ie non turbo) Omaha tournament, I was pretty happy to finish 5th, losing a massive 350k pot with AA xx vs JJxx. Managed to spin back from 2k back up to 50k but alas was not to be.

Work wise, as I"ve said previously, I had 2 weeks off in March, so although I enjoyed the time off, as the job I do is fairly unique, in effect I have 2 weeks of work to catch up and check.

The sit n go challenge for March

Was a good time to go on a significant downswing  

Games played: 550
Starting bankroll: $124.85
Ending bankroll: $16.67
Total loss: $108.18

On the 14th March, my roll was at $226.11. On the 20th and 21st, I ran awfully.  In those 2 days, I played 96, won just 6, 9 2nd places and  9 3rd places. Cashed in just 24/96, a dead on 25% cash rate. That alone put me down to a roll of $70! It also dented the confidence severely I must say.

Positives:

1) I can play a decent volume
2) I can play 8 tables comfortably.
3) 1st time ever as a silver star on pokerstars

Negatives:

1) I lost a fair bit of bankroll.
2) As an overall, I don"t think I"ve quite got the balance between playing tight and loose, at the right stages.
3) I don"t think I am aggressive enough when we"re down to 5/6 players to cash often enough.

April"s challenge

Errr no idea. Thinking of continuing playing sit n go"s, but with missing a weekend playing in Coventry, my volume will be way down. If anyone has any suggestions, please post them.

Here"s hoping I continue to improve my performances in the APAT's and get deep into day 2!

[amcgrath1uk]

I haven"t forgotten this blog, just been working so much and very little free time.

I haven"t played much online at all, and live even less so.

I"ll update properly over the weekend as I have a little bit of free time on Sunday/Monday!

[AAroddersAA]

How many you aiming to play this month?

[amcgrath1uk]

How many you aiming to play this month?

Very few. Lots of holidays at work, and a stocktake coming up which I run. I"ll be playing when I fancy and when I"m not falling asleep.

Have a couple of days off now, but having taken out my bankroll earlier in the year ( and Cardiff being good), my online bankroll is minimal, and after Cardiff, it"s definitely awakened my want to play live. So today, it"s off to the G in Salford. Will either play this afternoon or evening, or possibly even both as I"m also off tomorrow. My next day off is then next Sunday.

Just a quick roll back to Cardiff first.

Had an arduous 4 hour train journey down. A lovely 2 carraige train, no free tables, no wifi, no plug sockets. I"ve been through worse so was a case of get the Ipod on and wile away the time.

Get to Cardiff, most impressed with the Future Inn, and meet up with Sharon, Rodders and Darren, and end up playing the Friday night tourny at the G. Darren did his stack 1st hand, he re-entered. I did mine 2nd hand to Darren! Was a good laugh, ended up bubbling the final table.

In the main event ran up to 35k quickly, in the process wininng a decent pot with   on a 7 K Q 10 6 board. Then made 4 raises in a row, losing a flip with AK vs QQ, then knocking out Ben Young AK v A9, 9 1st card, K on the turn. Get moved tables then proceed to go card dead, having to fold my 2 best hands, 10 10 and 99 to raises and reraises before the action reached me.

End up being fairly short, into shove mode, then faced with a raiser in my small blind, look down at AKos and the caller has the same AKos. He 4 flushes. Puke.

Play the Omaha and somehow lukcbox to 3rd despite not particularly knowing what I was doing. Get 3 handed and Luca is raising everything. I have KK44 and come over the top, of course he has AA88. Damn good fun though.

Have to definitely give Cork a miss which is disappointing, and at the mo, I"m 99% certain to miss Dtd but will do what I can. Glasgow is a definite and looking at booking everything asap.

[amcgrath1uk]

Very little time to play and having to withdraw pretty much everything from my bankroll sucks.

Managed to play a lil bit during the week. Managed to win my 1st tourny of the year on Stars, however was the $3.30 Horse for a whopping $44.

Will update properly when I get time ( I think tomorrow afternoon as I"ve a few things I want to post!)

[AAroddersAA]

Very little time to play and having to withdraw pretty much everything from my bankroll sucks.

Managed to play a lil bit during the week. Managed to win my 1st tourny of the year on Stars, however was the $3.30 Horse for a whopping $44.

Will update properly when I get time ( I think tomorrow afternoon as I"ve a few things I want to post!)

That"s a great result though, I would be really happy to get $44 in a $3.30 tournament ROI ftw.

Also if you want a bigger BR why not sell some action. APAT has a staking board now. I would buy a piece and I would not be the only one I know.

[amcgrath1uk]

Very little time to play and having to withdraw pretty much everything from my bankroll sucks.

Managed to play a lil bit during the week. Managed to win my 1st tourny of the year on Stars, however was the $3.30 Horse for a whopping $44.

Will update properly when I get time ( I think tomorrow afternoon as I"ve a few things I want to post!)

That"s a great result though, I would be really happy to get $44 in a $3.30 tournament ROI ftw.

Also if you want a bigger BR why not sell some action. APAT has a staking board now. I would buy a piece and I would not be the only one I know.

Cheers Rodders for the confidence

Just watching the rest of the footy, and if I don"t fall asleep after I"ll respond!

[amcgrath1uk]

Stocktake is over and done with, and the important thing is the result was good meaning I can relax a little bit! Not much time to relax however. I"m off today, working late tomorrow and early, if for a short time on Friday. Then I have the weekend off, but starting Monday I have the joys of leading a team in moving our stock around to make room for new stock. It means a hell of a lot of work, both in terms of preparation and actual grafting. The full joy of this is the end date, 9th July, happens to be the start date of our seasonal promotion, basically means I"ll be putting really long shifts in combined with imaginitive time management!

What it does mean is that I have today off so am putting my meagre bankroll to the test on stars.

16 tournaments with a total buy in of $82. Playing all sorts, HORSE, Omaha, Hyper Turbo NL Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo and the usual  structure NL Holdem.

Have done fairly well in the Horse/8 games recently, last 4 I"ve played Ive won 1, finished 4th, finished 10th and bubbled. Seem to do particularly well in Razz and Triple Draw Lowball for some reason. ( No skill involved proberly)

The weekend off also means I get the opportunity to play live for the first time since Cardiff. Pretty certain to be playing Friday night and Sunday afternoon but will see how I am.

[amcgrath1uk]

Also wanted to mention that I love how APAT has set up it"s Staking Board. It is something that I will be looking to use in the future, but not quite yet, purely as there are a couple of spots in my game I want to improve upon before I do. Also a couple of results would also help! Unfortunately, the lack of a stable rota at the moment means I never know too far in advance what I can play ( unless I book time off).

I"ve been staked in the past, and through it, ended up winning my biggest buy in tournament online, so I would quite enjoy doing so again!

Anyways, let"s see how today goes!

[amcgrath1uk]

16 tournaments, just 1 cash, a frustrating 39th in the $11 turbo for $72, where I ran   into the bb"s JJ.

[amcgrath1uk]

Finished earlyish on Friday so played both Friday and Saturday night at the G in Manchester.

The last time I played the Friday, it was £10 for 5k chips, then £5 for a further 5k twice. This time, it was £10 for 5k chips, then £10 for 5k more chips. Not a problem either way in my eyes. The fact they moved the blind starting at 50/100 from 25/50 meant that by level 4, the ave bb was 20!

Anyway, managed to get up to 8.5k 1st hand with a flush over flush, then rivered twice, holding Q6 on a Q672 board, with some random French bloke deciding Q10 was good despite I"d reraised on the flop and reshoved all in on the turn.  10 on the river. Thanks dealer.

2 hands later, get it in on a 235J board with A4, called by 32, river 2.

I was only intending to play Friday night, but was at a loose end on Saturday so went and played the new £30 f/out with 8k chips. Again starting at 50/100 not exactly the greatest structure. Maybe that"s why it only got 27 runners? Or possibly something to do with the ridiculous traffic around Manchester thanks to a small concert going on!

Again, get up to 14k quickly, lose 3k with JJ v 10 9 on a 10 hi flop, then lose 7.5k KK v JJ, J on the flop. Nearly managed to check behind on the river but it wasn"t a scary board. So we get to 200/400 in level 4 and I have 3.2k. Shove with   on the button, hit the 9 to double up 2 hands before the break.

Sit down in the sports lounge for 25 mins watching Murray then back to it. Get up to 9k again quickly, then call a min raise with JJ in the bb, QJx flop, and get a full double up from AQ. Play at the table was absolutely manic, we were down to 15 in no time at all, and before we get down to 10, win KK v AQ and then the vital hand. A raise from mid position and a caller, and with 4500 in the pot, I"m calling any 2 in my bb. I look down at   . I have been pretty active and with both stacks having just less than me, I just open shove. Get a rather surprising call from A 10 os and a K on the flop makes me the big stack on the final.

I try not to play first hand on the final table, and I"m glad I didn"t! I had QJ suited after a limper, so fold, 2 shorties shove and the limper ( called 800) decided to call 15k off with 32os, and of course flops 2 pair. The same guy kept on making crazy plays and calls, and we"re on the bubble with 5 left at 600/1200! The mad drunk old guy is raising everything, so I just pick my spots and reraise strongly and he folds every time!

Crazy old guy continues his mayhem and knocks out the others so we"re heads up and he has a 6:1 chip advantage. Within 10 minutes, I"m level, as he calls me off with everything. Then the flip A8 vs QJ and he of course hits.

So 2nd for £270 which was decent enough. Go to take my wallet out at the cash desk, oh ****. Could I find it? Check everywhere I"d been in the casino, then talk to the manager on duty. She goes back to where I was sat in the sports lounge, there"s some random bloke sat where I had been, he gets up, he"s only sat on it! Nothing missing. Mega bonus!!