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

[monkeyman]

Good luck in Walsall  

Hurrah and Huzzah! I have now cashed in a UK casino outside Norfolk thanks to my 4th place from 21 runners which netted me £50 for my £30 invested. Surely being a Pokerstars pro is now only just around the corner.

[thinsy147]

Good luck in Walsall  

Hurrah and Huzzah! I have now cashed in a UK casino outside Norfolk thanks to my 4th place from 21 runners which netted me £50 for my £30 invested. Surely being a Pokerstars pro is now only just around the corner.

I"ve just telephoned Stratton Motor Company (the local Aston Martin dealership for those who wouldn"t know) and told them..........

Not to wait up for you!  

[monkeyman]

Hell"s bells, its been a while since I"ve posted. How slack of me. I"m still concentrating on cash play and seem to be doing way better six handed than I was on full tables. I"ve also temporarily shunted Betfair into the sidings as at the lower buy-ins its impossible to bluff anyone off a pot and there"s nothing more frustrating than sitting and waiting for hands at a six-max table. Blue Square is my current site of choice, largely because its far easier to play "real" poker on the lower buy-in tables on Ipoker than Ongame. Indeed, I seem to have added a couple of additional plays to my repertoire which are confusing the hell out of my current opponents (call a raise from BB preflop,check call flop,min check/raise the turn with total air anyone?)
   In addition, because I"m bored witless of my current job and with continued government attacks on public servants, I"m looking to branch out a little. Starting from almost no capital I"m looking to make a few quid off my own back. Initially I"ll have a few t-shirts printed which I intend selling on Ebay and, assuming I sell anything at all, reinvesting in more t-shirts and so on. Hopefully this time next year I"ll be a millionaire!    

[monkeyman]

Whoops. Looks like I disobeyed the first rule of blog-writing, namely if you ever post how well you are running or how good you are, the poker gods will punish you. Since my previous post I"ve been all-in preflop with a large pair on 3 occasions and each time seen somone spike an ace on the river to steal my money. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.    

[monkeyman]

Oh FFS, this is just getting stupid. For the first time in a while I decided that tonight I would play my regular tournament, the 7.30pm 8-handed deepstack on Ladbrokes. Second hand in the first level the blinds are 10/20 (starting stack 5000),I"m in the small blind and get dealt KK. There is a limper, the button raises to 100,I reraise to 300 which is followed by the limper and original raiser both calling. The flop is 999, I check, the limper bets 0.5 of the pot,button calls, I shove and am called by both opponents. The limper turns over A5 suited (yes really!), the button has QQ and I am momentarily elated before the turn is another queen meaning the lucky f****r to my right has a bigger full house than me. Sometimes poker sucks. Back to the grind...............    

[monkeyman]

I would like to offer my hearty congratulations to Blue Square for tonight providing the most inept display of customer service I have ever experienced from an online poker operator. Not content with having 2 different operators cut me off halfway through my first sentence after being connected, the third person tried to answer my question by repeating things I"d said at the start of the call. However did they know that after a day in a local authority call centre, what I really wanted was to spend my evening on the phone to a call centre? Top work guys!

[monkeyman]

Gonna whisper this one so the poker gods don"t hear me, but things are still going really well. I"ve stuck with 6-handed tables on Ipoker and my cash game has never been healthier. I wonder if this has anything to do with my continued lack of Hold'em Manager?

Time for a music video methinks

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FuGSCHECoU[/youtube]

[monkeyman]

Am I a fish or not? You decide.......
   This happened a few minutes ago on a 6-handed cash table on Blue Square and I"d be interested to hear what other people think. The action folded to me on the button with  jd  td and both blinds called. The flop came 9 6 3  with two diamonds. The small blind c-bet the flop,big blind folded, I shoved and after a delay,the small blind called with pocket tens. The turn was an 8,giving me an open-ended straight draw to go with my flush draw but I failed to hit and lost a buy-in. My question is as I was only a few hands into a stint on a new table against opponents I had no information on, was I too hasty to fire my chips in, or is it perfectly legitimate to do so on the flop with two overcards and a flush draw?  
   [youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wws7mnMewPw [/youtube]

[monkeyman]

Online national time. I"m in. Here we go.

[monkeyman]

First hour gone and despite being down to $7903, I"m pleased with that. There was only one hand of significance and it was not the first time I"ve locked-horns with the APAT legend that is Scouse. I had pocket aces, he had a pair of queens and managed to turn them into a straight. It was one of of those hands where I think we both played correctly and I am hugely relieved I only lost a quarter of my stack

[monkeyman]

Not sure how, but I"m still hanging in there with $12683 putting me 33rd of 57. Ive had my first lucky break with my AJ rivering John Murray"s pocket sevens.

[monkeyman]

F*** me, is it really that long since I visited this site? I"ll have to admit to becoming a tad disillusioned with the game recently. The penny has dropped that after several months of trying, I just don"t consistantly make money playing cash games. Therefore, I returned to what has made the bulk of my profits since I was first introduced to the freerolls on Partypoker 6 years ago, namely single table SNGs and deepstack tournaments. Oddly enough, I"ve started to enjoy playing again and I"m making more money now that I"m no longer bashing my head against a brick wall trying to grind the microstakes cash tables. Poker is fun again, hurrah! At the moment my tournaments are mainly on Pokerstars and SNGs on Blue Square. You never know, I may even decide to play in the next online national as well
   

[monkeyman]

I seem to be running good. I"ve played the $5 15k guaranteed on Pokerstars twice in the last 3 days and cashed both times. On sunday I was 60th out of 4000+ players and I"ve just exited tonight in 136th from 3124 entrants. I cruised through the early stages, then things got a bit more interesting once in the money. After going card dead for a bit I shoved with A 7. My opponent called with JJ and I rivered an ace. Later came a hand which could have put me right in the hunt for the top prize. I was in the big blind with about 20xBB and was dealt QQ. UTG raised to 2.5xBB, the table big stack reraised to  9xBB and the button called. I folded fearing that one of the other players had KK or AA,the BB folded and so did the original raiser. The flop came Q high (Grrrrrrr); big stack and button got them all in and big stack revealed KK against button"s JJ. If I"d have got them in with my QQ, that pot would have put me 5th overall. Maybe I"m being to timid to actually see one of these right through to conclusion. As luck would have it, not long after I was crippled by running JJ into QQ. 2 hands later, and with only 4xBB I picked up KK and was knocked out by an opponent who called with A9 and hit his ace on the flop.        

[Santino67]

Good to see you back in the action and blogging again Simon, keep running good mate and continue enjoying the game  

[monkeyman]

I think I have discovered a tournament designed especially for me, namely the Pokerstars saturday micro $3.30 $30000 guaranteed. The saturday midday start time is perfect as it allows enough time for friday night"s beer to no longer be an issue, its on the only day of the week when I can guarantee I won"t be distracted/disturbed and more importantly if I do run deep, I won"t have to worry about whether I will have to find out whether it really is possible to sleepwalk through a day at work. This has my name on it.