swinebag's blog - proof that teachers have too much time on their hands!!

[ForthThistle]

Rob,
        I want my name first on the list..

We can discuss the 1%

[Swinebag]

Rob,
        I want my name first on the list..

We can discuss the 1%

[Swinebag]

Not much poker this weekend. I was visiting friends in Devon and got to take in the Coventry - Torquay match to boot, which was a great game and could have easily had shock exit for Cov. But as is the case the difference in level showed as Cov scored with their only real chance of the second half whilst the Gulls had a load of chances but couldn"t even work the keeper.

Back early on the sunday but didn"t fire up until the evening. I probably shouldn"t have played any poker because I was tired but as I love it, I did anyway!!

Played 3 $10 tourneys on stars and exitted in the first hour of all of them. I did play in the GUKPT league game on BSQ and finished 4th out of 42 for $115 and some league points to boot. I managed to follow my own advice about playing very straightforward in these small runner events and resisted the temptation to get too "creative".

It did help when I doubled up with a 99 in the BB v AQ (button) and then 2 hands later near trebled up with AA v JJ v 66 (short stack) . This gave me a massive chip lead at the final table.

As it was the final table (and only 5 were paid) I decided to pick my spots carefully as opposed to trying to run over the table. This was just as well as I was card dead for the next hour where we only lost 3 players.

I did try and steal a few times from LP and considering I was stealing from the medium stacks thought I had a good chance of getting them through. however the medium stacks had their own ideas and I was reraised out of most stealing attempts, causing me to go right into my shell.

By the time the bubble approached I was 4th in chips and hanging on for the cash. 5th paid 3.5 x buy in so I felt it was a case of playing to cash rather than FTW. Cant remember the hand that broke the bubble or the one that sent someone out in 5th but I had been itching to get my chips in and in the next hand did so with QT to get called by A8 and with no help was gone in 4th.

To be honest I shouldn"t really play stars tourneys. They have 2000+ runners, take hours (that I dont really have) to finish and I dont play enough of them to get an accurate idea of how well i am doing in them. I also dont like the payout structure on them where too many get paid with the worthwhile prizes only being at the FT.

I think I will stick to <200 runners for my MTTS from now on. I have a decent record in these and whilst I will not be getting rich playing them, I will be building the roll.

[Mikeyboy9361]

I agree with what you say about those massive tourneys, who has the time!! Thats why end up playing smaller mtts or 2 and 3 table SNGs, and cash. That allows me to play bite size poker. And then I can really look forward to the APAT nationals and focus on them. Can"t wait for walsall.

[kinboshi]

You need lots of time to play these, not only because they last longer than the smaller fields, you also have to play a fair few to ride out the variances of luck.

I do like the 180-seater SNGs on Stars.  Always one just round the corner and they are about perfect in terms of the size of the field.

[Swinebag]

You need lots of time to play these, not only because they last longer than the smaller fields, you also have to play a fair few to ride out the variances of luck.

I do like the 180-seater SNGs on Stars.  Always one just round the corner and they are about perfect in terms of the size of the field.

I do like the 180 SNGs to and I"m logging these. I"ve played 12 so far this year and cashed in 3 with 1 FT and 1 bubble. I think i"m pretty close to a win or top 3 here that should put my ROI in to the positive.

[Swinebag]

Poor night last night. I played 3 STTs and my best finish was 5th. I have now slipped back into the red at this level where 2 weeks ago I was showing an ROI of 25%. This is not too big a down swing as the sample size is still very small (about 40 games). I am happy with my decisions at the moment despite only having 1 3rd place from my last 8 games. I was definitely playing worse last week when, on the back of a great run, my STT game descended into what I call "invincible poker" and  I deservedly got my wings clipped. The last few days have merely been a case of playing tight, not getting any hands to double up, then when short stacked running into monsters or losing races. Watch this space for the upswing!!

I also played in the GUKPT league on BSQ. 52 runners. I got to the last 2 tables with a below average stack having played a very tight game when the following occurred....

blinds 150/300, My stack 3800. Folds to me OTB where I have A7. For me this is normally a definite raise to steal the blinds. I couldn"t decide between push or 900 (I"m normally pushing 10BBs or less from the button so with 13 being close to that, couldn"t decide).

I settled on 900. SB folds. BB shoves covering me and leaving about 1K behind. Now the dynamics of the table was that there had been a lot of resteal shoving from the blinds that had in the main been successful. I had already folded twice to similar plays. I hadn"t seen this player resteal yet but thought that, as I had taken a long time to put my original raise in, he might think I was weak and it was a good resteal opportunity. I called, he had 55 and like most of my races last night, I lost and was out.

I was pretty disappointed with my play here. I think I should have just shoved these in here. I had fold equity and maybe the 55 could have folded (I"d have been happy with the call there).

But the logic of my move baffles me too....Why raise to steal with a weak to marginal hand if I"m calling anyway....why, if I was stealing, use a quarter of my stack to do this anyway?..I hadn"t thought this move out properly at all

Any opinions on this hand are appreciated.

A few questions..

1. How many big blinds would you open shove from the button? (or anywhere else?)
2. What range from the button would you shove this stack?
3. How would you play this?

[nosey-p]

1.   For me its 8 BB
2.   Pocket pair, AK, AQ,AJ,KQ. If i think they are a tight player then suited connectors
3.   With 13 BB, it's a fold for me. I can understand a push but not a standard 3 times raise

[mal666]

standard shove imo,if u want to raise fold make it less 675-700.

[Swinebag]

Thanks wayne and Mal

Back on track with STTs tonight. Played 3 and 3 cashes (2nd and 3rd twice)

I am pleased with my STT game and it is my bread and butter in terms of poker profit. I just opened the latest issue of PokerPlayer mag and was delighted to score a perfect 10 in the STT quiz.

Despite a few poor decisions in my last few games, I am reasonably happy with my MTT game. I"m not as confident as monkeyman is with Walsall coming up, but I am doing ok in small field MTTs. Made the FT of the GUKPT league game tonight. I finished 8th (top 5 paid) when my AA flopped a set with 2 hearts on the board. The money went in against the CL who had the AT hearts and he made his flush on the turn. I took it pretty well to be honest.

I"m certainly not a "ffs"er or somone who has to replace laptops or cats regularly. In fact I liken myself to Peter Eastgate when it comes to emotion at the table and am quite proud of this.

[duke3016]

Keep it up Rob, beats will happen and I am glad you take the same road as me, calmness, serenity, and forgiveness to all..

Roll on a polite, no tantrums and generally serene Walsall

Right.......................................................

[Swinebag]

Just back from COMS

Not the greatest performance but no means the worst either. A welcome 3 points nevertheless and up to 8th. I"m sure the southern biassed press will somehow put a negative spin on this though. I may be paranoid, but the press have been having a field day at city"s expense these last few weeks.

Apparantly £91 million is "obscene" for the best player in the world, but 6 years ago £30 million for Ferdinand or 7 years ago £28m for Veron was anything but "obscene".

[kinboshi]

Not a go at Citeh at all (I quite like your lot as we share a common enemy), but I watched that programme on Dubai last night - and the whole place is obscene.  When I say obscene, I mean in terms of the fact that it doesn"t actually produce anything and only a small few get to enjoy the opulence and wealth, whilst the rest have very few rights.

I think the "wealth" of the sheikhs is on dodgy ground (if you pardon the pun) - and not on solid foundations.

Dubai is very similar to Las Vegas in some respects (but with some elements on a much bigger scale).  But at least with Vegas you get to see the "warts and all" if you leave the strip.

I"m blabbering now...I hope that made sense?

[KarmaDope]

Not a go at Citeh at all (I quite like your lot as we share a common enemy), but I watched that programme on Dubai last night - and the whole place is obscene.  When I say obscene, I mean in terms of the fact that it doesn"t actually produce anything and only a small few get to enjoy the opulence and wealth, whilst the rest have very few rights.

I think the "wealth" of the sheikhs is on dodgy ground (if you pardon the pun) - and not on solid foundations.

Dubai is very similar to Las Vegas in some respects (but with some elements on a much bigger scale).  But at least with Vegas you get to see the "warts and all" if you leave the strip.

I"m blabbering now...I hope that made sense?

Dubai is like Vegas but it hides its Downtown away.

That make sense cos that"s what I interpreted!

[Swinebag]

I love weekends

Got up early to go to the Chill Factore Ski Slope for a bit of practice before I go on holiday in a few weeks time. I started on the Slalom course attempting to emulate the great slalom skier Alberto Tomba. It was probably more Alberto Balsam but I did enough to iron out the wrinkles and feel well set for Les Alpes.

The boss was out with a friend this afternoon, so I settled down to watch the Stoke v Man City game whilst playing a few STTs. Now I dont know if it was the ineptitude of City"s ability to lose to another 10 man bottom 3 side away from home that contributed to my awful run (or the fact that I had distractions when I was playing online poker) but it was truly ghastly poker experience for me.

I played 12 STTs, cashed in 3rd twice, bubbled once and nowhere in the other 9. Whilst I could have payed better attention when I was playing, I really felt that I didn"t do too much wrong.

I kept getting down to last 5 or 6 from 10 starters, (normally short stacked) and when I found a hand kept running into a bigger one (normally AA!!). I cant even complain of too many bad beats (though there were a few!!). I was literally running into monsters.

I"m now further in the red at this level and another bad run like this and I"ll be moving down. I am quite proud of the fact that I didn"t go on tilt (I rarely do) but did start getting wary when I was dealt a good hand. This was the prompt to log off and stick it on the blog.