If Carlsberg did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one

[Swinebag]

No. Just proves it"s not always aces

[TheSnapper]

3 betting an unknown utg raiser with QQ is not adviseable, mostly you end up chasing away those hands you have value against or playing a big pot versus a range that crushes your hand.

[monkeyman]

3 betting an unknown utg raiser with QQ is not adviseable, mostly you end up chasing away those hands you have value against or playing a big pot versus a range that crushes your hand.

No. Just proves it"s not always aces

Thanks for that guys. As well as what you"ve said, the thing this hand brought home (although not necessarily evident in what happened) was that I tend to be looser when I"m in a pot with someone I"ve got easily covered. Something to work on me thinks. You"ve probably guessed that I lost the hand in question, but probably didn"t guess that my opponents ace became the lower end of a runner-runner straight.
   February seems to have flown by and thankfully my results are much better than January. There"s a week in March when I won"t be playing at all, 12th to the 19th, but I may relent and throw in a tournament or two or if things start well, take a look at the nex buy-in up.

February results
---------------

Time played - 50 hours (ish)
Hands - 6925
Profit -  914 x bb
Monthly win rate - 13.2 bb per 100 hands

[noble1]

After a few days of not playing, i returned to a non-event, damp squib of a session, where nothing of interest happened. My profit and loss boiled down to one hand, so without giving my figures for tonight, I thought I"d post the hand in question and invite comment. Ok here goes.................

1) Apart from myself, two other players were involved in the hand in question and I"d not played either of them before  
2) UTG had around a third of the maximum buy-in and the button had me comfortably covered ( I always keep myself topped-up to the max)
3) UTG raised 4 x bb
4) I"m in mid-table with qs qd and reraise to 12.5xbb
5) Button calls
6) UTG shoves
7) I also shove
8 ) Button folds
9) UTG shows  ah kc which is what I thought he had

Would anyone have taken a different line?

Depending on how loose they open, i'll repop with either a 1:1 nuts:air ratio, 1:2, or even 1:3... all depends on the players behind which ratio i"d use.... a UTG raiser no reads my default 3BET ratio would be - AA KK 45s 56s 67s a 1:1 ratio.. AA KK obv i call any 4bet shove, if my 3bet is called by UTG or by someone behind then if i have 45s 56s 67s which still can flop big, these are +EV in a vacuum because our hand is so deceptive plus hopefully the opponent/s will still perceive us to be on AA KK... In general i"d stick to 1:1 but if the table dynamics allow then i"d expand my air range versus a very loose UTG raiser to 1:2, AA KK still plus adding more SC"s 1gapper SC"s.....
Something for u to have a think about anyhows, especially as u move up in stakes....

[monkeyman]

After a few days of not playing, i returned to a non-event, damp squib of a session, where nothing of interest happened. My profit and loss boiled down to one hand, so without giving my figures for tonight, I thought I"d post the hand in question and invite comment. Ok here goes.................

1) Apart from myself, two other players were involved in the hand in question and I"d not played either of them before  
2) UTG had around a third of the maximum buy-in and the button had me comfortably covered ( I always keep myself topped-up to the max)
3) UTG raised 4 x bb
4) I"m in mid-table with qs qd and reraise to 12.5xbb
5) Button calls
6) UTG shoves
7) I also shove
8 ) Button folds
9) UTG shows  ah kc which is what I thought he had

Would anyone have taken a different line?

Depending on how loose they open, i'll repop with either a 1:1 nuts:air ratio, 1:2, or even 1:3... all depends on the players behind which ratio i"d use.... a UTG raiser no reads my default 3BET ratio would be - AA KK 45s 56s 67s a 1:1 ratio.. AA KK obv i call any 4bet shove, if my 3bet is called by UTG or by someone behind then if i have 45s 56s 67s which still can flop big, these are +EV in a vacuum because our hand is so deceptive plus hopefully the opponent/s will still perceive us to be on AA KK... In general i"d stick to 1:1 but if the table dynamics allow then i"d expand my air range versus a very loose UTG raiser to 1:2, AA KK still plus adding more SC"s 1gapper SC"s.....
Something for u to have a think about anyhows, especially as u move up in stakes....

Cheers

[monkeyman]

I"ve not played the last couple of days as I"ve not been feeling 100%, but I have, at long last, booked the accommodation for my trip to the Speedway Grand prix in Cardiff on 25th June. On Friday 24th June I"ll be staying at the Travelodge next to the M48 Severn bridge and on the 25th I"ll be a late arrival at the Travelodge at Alcester near Stratford Upon Avon. This now leaves me to decide what I"m going to do to amuse myself on the friday night. There is a speedway meeting in Somerset that night, but I was also wondering whether anyone could let me know if there was much in the way of poker action in Bristol on a Friday night? If so, where?

[ronaldo07]

Gala Harbourside has a £33 FO 5K chips 20 min blinds.

Ive played a bit on Betfair since u recomended the 10NL on there: +5.5 buyins over 1K hands so far.

Cheers

[monkeyman]

Gala Harbourside has a £33 FO 5K chips 20 min blinds.

Ive played a bit on Betfair since u recomended the 10NL on there: +5.5 buyins over 1K hands so far.

Cheers

Worth bearing in mind. Do they play cash at The harbourside or The Grosvenor?
  Well done on the profits. Stick with it, there"s gold in them thar hills

[monkeyman]

First session of the new month and I"m off to a steady if unspectacular start.

Today"s results
--------------
Minutes played - 136
Hands - 262
Profit - 48 x bb

[monkeyman]

I know a good idea when I see one and I"m not averse to a bit of plagarism, so in a direct copy of Technolog"s blog, I"ve decided to livening up this particular blog with a few music videos. If I keep with this idea for more than 2 weeks, and I"ll be surprised if that is the case, then this will probably descend into being a stream of unlistenable heavy metal bands, so I"ll at least start things off with one or two slightly more delicate numbers.
   First up, we"ve got a band who evoke memories of my first trip to Vegas. I was at Atlanta Airport waiting for a connecting flight listening to an MP3 player I"d borrowed from my brother-in-law. This was the first time I"d heard this band and whenever I hear this track, it takes me back to a few minutes of staring over the runway at Atlanta Airport watching the sun go down, getting ever more excited about the days ahead. 
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KazJKjBvyRI[/youtube]

So onto the poker. I tried playing a buy-in higher than usual tonight and it didn"t really work out. I stuck to playing 3 tables and initially I was playing more passively than usual, calling where I would probably have raised normally. I had an accident quite early losing most of my stack by flopping top pair/top kicker against an opponent whose small pair had hit trips, recovered by redicovering my mojo, then ran what I thought was a winning hand into quad kings. I think the lesson from this is that I have absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of playing standard, but I don"t think my bankroll has sufficient depth to resist a sustained bad spell, so for the time being, i will stay where I am.    

Tonight"s results
---------------

Minutes played -  106
Hands - 295
Loss - 147 x bb

[monkeyman]

This one also takes me back to sitting at the departure gate at Atlanta Airport staring at the runway waiting for a transfer to Vegas. A deceptively dark number which makes me wince whenever I hear it covered.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CbAjj80NIM [/youtube]

After last night"s exploratory effort, I dropped back to 5 cent/10 cent level and had another good one.

Today"s results
--------------
minutes played - 245
Hands - 652
Profit -  122 x bb

[monkeyman]

We"re now onto the final song with a connection to that first Vegas trip. There were two highlights on that holiday; the first was taking down the morning tournament at Ballys no more than 9 months after I"d looked at a hand rankings chart and started playing free games on Partypoker. The second was seeing this band on the final night of a North American tour in what was at the time the Aladdin Theatre. This song was the concluding number of their encore that night.    

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao-Sahfy7Hg[/youtube]

With the safety net of a few extra quid in my Betfair account courtesy of a 14-1 winner at Newbury yesterday, I had another crack at 10 cent/20 cent tonight. This time it went a lot better and I"d like to pretend it was because I"d made further adjustments to my game, but I played like an idiot an got away with murder.

Today"s results
--------------

Minutes played - 125
Hands - 286
Profit - 90 x bb  

[monkeyman]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12kcpP-8jfM[/youtube]

I did my best to throw my chips away tonight. First hand folded to the button who raised 5 x bb. I had aces and reraised 15 x bb and the button called. Flop was 9 4 3 rainbow, I c bet, opponent raised, rather than hit the all-in button, I accidently hit fold. Doh! First hand on one of my other tables I managed to get most of my stack in with Jacks against Kings. 2 Hands and already a buy-in down. Fortunately, I could fall in a dung heap and come up smelling of roses at the moment, so managed to turn another tidy profit, again at 10cent/20 cent.

Today"s results
--------------

Minutes - 135
Hands - 428
Profit - 43 x bb   - should have been 143 x bb

[monkeyman]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx-MHXc5zGc[/youtube]

Tonight"s Results
----------------

Leicester 2  Norwich 3


Minutes - 112
Hands - 296
Profit - 75 x bb

[monkeyman]

I like the look of the season 5 announcement. The event in Vegas comes a week after my birthday, so it looks like I"ve got a lot of grinding to do to get the money together for that one. Having been second in the english online open for the last 2 years, that"s the event I looked for first this year and although its sooner than ideal, it falls on the day I return from my Cheltenham jaunt so it looks like I"ll be taking part again. The final question is which site will everything be on? My cash play will still predominently be on Betfair, so its a shame we"re moving and there is one site I will not play on under any circumstances, so I"m going to be keeping my fingers crossed over the next 24 hours.