Keeping Warm in Winter

[Fatcatstu]

Good to see you getting back into APAT's Steve fella. Hope that this means you are going to make a showing in Nottingham in August please thankyou!!!!

Yeah, DTD is pretty much nailed on. Not sure what I will play but will be there, time off work is confirmed and everything.

I am thinking about Cork as well, depends on work though to a certain extent, hopefully not too busy in July so may well be OK. You in Wales next weekend mate?

no i will be working that one, DTD will be my next one, i am there for the whole thing, gonna try and play in as  much as possible though, will be goo to see you back at an APAT table again though

[AAroddersAA]

**The Following Post has Nothing to do with Poker

I quite like watching football. I watched the Champions League final last night, it was a poor game but I enjoyed it due to the occasion. I like watching the FA cup final in the pub. I enjoyed the climax to this season between Man City and Man Utd. Football is a good thing which creates enjoyable times.

Way back in the early and mid-nineties I lived in Newport (where I was born) and was a Newport County fan. Home and away games were the best days out even though there were only about 100 of us. Team like Liverpool take 20 coaches to away games that must be quite a rush for those Liverpool fans. Same goes for Man Utd and Arsenal. Anyway a lot of the friends I went to the games with moved away and lost interest and as you often do I lost touch with a lot of the friends I knew when I was in college.

This led to me losing a lot of the interest in County. I still went to the odd game but it was pretty rare by comparison, still watched for their results and where they were in the table, but it did not have the same feeling of seeing the same faces week after week and getting to know the people there, you all knew you all really cared and were all "in it together". As it happened I at that time knew a lot of people who were football fans, but they were all Liverpool and Man Utd fans. I did not really understand this but never really bothered arguing about it as it seemed pointless at that time as I didn"t care what they called themselves.

A few times I was asked who I supported. I usually just said nobody really as I did not consider myself to be a proper fan at that time. I did mention County a few times and the reason I did not think of myself as a proper fan but this did not seem to be considered an answer. People seemed to have a hard time excepting this for some reason and it came up one day that I should say who I supported in the premiership. Well that was easy enough, my favorite team in the Premiership is Newcastle. This seemed easy enough for everybody to accept and I was labeled a Newcastle fan. Again I just accepted this as I could not see the problem with it. I was actually never that bothered if they won or lost and made no special effort to check their results.

A few years back a mate of mine invited me to a County game again, I went quite happily as I had not been to a game for a while and Newport were doing quite well in the Blue Square South. I went to a few games and Newport won the Blue Square South and went into the Conference. At this time one of the guy"s who I work with was also a Newport fan so I was talking to him about them quite a bit and I knew some of my friends were going to game regular. I quite frequently visit Newport at weekends as my Mother and my sisters family still live their so I got into the habit of going to the game again and the new social club was also a good reason to turn up, it made the experience worth it again. Now we had the Internet and forums as well. So I again became what I consider a proper County fan.

So my question is how can Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal fans really call themselves as fans. There is much more involved in being a fan of a club than just watching for results. I was never a Newcastle fan, but I guess I was as much a Newcastle fan as they were fans of their clubs.

None of them are likely to read this but hey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYPWwuRFdjw

[AAroddersAA]

So today was APAT Cardiff. It"s strange it really didn"t feel like an APAT during the build up. I did not need to go anywhere or worry about hotels or anything of that sort. With one of these it always feels like there should be a story for the Friday night but there was not. I did pop into the casino on Friday and caught up with Asa and Sharon but it was not the often experienced full on APAT Friday night. No problem though.

I arrived at the casino this afternoon with a little time to spare and found Steve Redfern and Richard Baker. Grant and the Scots boys arrived not long after this. My table was not a good one in terms of the strength of the players on it, Asa, Tony Trippier and Ben Young were all on it. JP Round joined it later. The table was actually good fun though and I actually felt pretty comfortable on it. I played some hands well and some hands badly but managed to get my stack up to about 30K. Then the table got broken and I got moved to another table with Sharon and Frank Ballie on it.

I folded the first few hands, then got AJ so raised, Sharon 3-bet me so I folded. Next hand I get TT Sharon I again raise and Sharon shoves on me for the rest of my chips. I could fold and still have about 22K at 500/1000. mm think I can find a fold here but just felt like this was a call. I might have got her range wrong here but I felt this was a play she could make with AK and some smaller pairs as the raise was so big it was confusing. She shows me AA and that was gg game. I think she played it well as the shove looked exactly like AK or maybe a hand like JJ or 99. The previous hand made me think this was more than likely the case. It might well have been a bad call, we all make them sometimes, I am reasonably happy with the logic behind it although am wondering if I calculated her range wrongly as I never gave AA a thought.

After I was out I went and ordered food, spoke to a few of the other players, including the APAT legend that is Paul Mcguniness, but it did not really feel the same as normal (it was just like a normal Cardiff tournament). I left at about 10:30 and drove home. Looking forward to DTD in October (and maybe Cork) as they will be more like the real thing.

Still an enjoyable day overall, I think I will actually fade the PLO tomorrow in favour of trying to contribute to another Welsh win in the league.

[AAroddersAA]

Have investigated my exit hand from last night a bit and have concluded that my call with TT was probably incorrect. To make the call a good one I have to have Sharon on a range of AQ+ and 88+ which does not feel right, mind you I did not think she would have AA or KK there which is why it is a good play.

Been thinking about my poker lately and I have concluded that recently I have not been playing very well at cash. not sure why, I still know what I should do but seem to go against my instinct a lot. I think I have run bad this year including one weird downswing which involved losing 24 buyins in about 48 hours (gotta love PLO). Will work on putting that right but might give cash a break for a while, it has been my main game for the last 6 years and does not owe me anything but recently I have been getting better results in tournaments. This is probably mainly because Pokerstars has a lot if fish in tournaments but the cash games are shark infested, or that is how it seems anyway.

The money is never really going to be relevant unless I play a sat and bink a decent score but it might be a bit more interesting than grinding cash

So I am going to carry on playing the little $4.50 tournaments and maybe mix in some $10"s as well and see how I do in those.

Following this weekend I might go to Cork in July if factors allow me too (getting the mon/Fri off work being the main one, but that should be OK). It was good to catch up with the APAT people and a proper APAT weekend (ie one that does not involve living on 30 mins from the venue) sound like a good idea.

Anyway have to play some poker tonight as Wales need a good turnout to try and go top of the regional league so the schedule will be something like this

APAT Online National League (stars)
$4.50 SitnGo #1 (Stars)
$4.50 Sitngo #2 (Stars)
Blonde Bash Sat (Dusk Till Dawn)

Most likely just leave it as that as working in the morning.

[AAroddersAA]

Forgot to update yesterday with the results of my efforts on Sunday. I lasted nearly and hour in the league game and cashed for £0 in the sitngo"s and didn"t bink the Blonde Bash Sat. So it was all quite standard really :-)

I really want to play Cork at the moment but I am not able to book the time off work until next week annoyingly this should not be a problem though. I just discovered my passport has expired too! (wp me). I don"t need one to go to Cork do I? Anybody know for sure, I don"t trust google.

[Paulie_D]

I really want to play Cork at the moment but I am not able to book the time off work until next week annoyingly this should not be a problem though. I just discovered my passport has expired too! (wp me). I don"t need one to go to Cork do I? Anybody know for sure, I don"t trust google.

Technically no, or at least so I believe but in real life the UK does not have an official ID Card.

Also, most airlines (certainly Ryanair) will not let you fly unless you can produce one.

Better pay for the urgent service.

It is each passenger"s personal responsibility to ensure that he or she has valid travel documentation which meets the requirements of Ryanair, immigration and other authorities at every destination. Please also note that

A valid travel document is required by all passengers travelling on Ryanair flights (including infants)

For travel to Morocco - a valid passport is required.  N.B. a EU National Identity Card is only accepted if a group of more than 8 passengers are travelling on a travel agency organised tour and hold an official hotel voucher approved by Moroccan Immigration.

A passport for travel outside the EEA (European Economic Area) must be valid for period of intended stay

If a visa is applicable any children/infants must be travelling with the adult named on a visa vignette
In order to ensure compliance, passengers should carry a valid passport (and visa if applicable) or EU/EEA government issued national identification card on all journeys. Any fines, penalties, payments or expenditures incurred as a result of breach of these requirements shall be paid by or charged to you.

Ryanair does NOT accept driver licences, residence cards, family books, seaman books, a police report (issued in the event of travel document loss/theft), military ID cards etc. Expired or damaged forms of photo-id will not be accepted on any flight.

[duke3016]

Officially you don"t need one as our esteemed travel guru says, but most airlines demand it. The Boat however does not, but thats not really a help. Urgent service for the win.

[AAroddersAA]

Urgent Service it is then.

Should really have avoided this issue based on the below post

I have just survived a heart attack.

As some of you might know I kinda booked this trip up at not quite the last minute but I wasn"t exactly well prepared. One issue I did come across is that my passport was due to expire in January. I quickly checked with Virgin Atlantic and was told this was no problem as long it it was valid for the time I was actually in the USA. I therefore happily booked up and forgot all about it.

So I am on the train today and am happily reading through some threads on the forum. I happen to click on a post by Paulie (who knows about things like this) which states that you need a passport with six months left on it. I get kinda worried for about 10 minutes until I check the government site below

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/north-central-america/united-states?ta=entryRequirements&pg=4

Which confirms all is OK. That was nearly a legendary fail, to say I would have been unhappy is an understatement.

Anyway I have just gone through Hereford and am speeding into the Midlands towards Manchester. Not long now :-)

[AAroddersAA]

Not doing anything this weekend, no football to go to and no poker to play.

I am going to play online a bit going to play at least 10 of the 180 manners. Volume is not great I know but only playing 2 at once currently. Will also play the APAT league game on Sunday of course.

Next weekend is the Blonde Bash which will hopefully be fun.

Results on the sit n go"s last month were

Played: 19
Profit: $21.50

Want to try and play twice that many this month without playing too many tables.

I lost at cash again which is really annoying as I know I should do better but keep making bad plays for no real reason.

Also best get my passport sorted for Ireland.

In the non-poker world, Newport County got a new ground. They will be sharing with The Newport Gwent Dragons. Unsure how I feel about that as I feel we should have our own ground, the fans have reacted very positively though so hopefully it will be a positive thing

[AAroddersAA]

Tournaments suck :-)

So far this month I have played the following

7 x $4.50"s
1 x Silverstar VIP Freeroll
1 x $3.30 PLO
1 x $11

Out of all of those I have cashed for $9 in total so I am down $36.80 (although the $11 was on one of my Big $11 token of which I have loads). So the actual total loss on tournaments is $25.80

I have not really run that well and have struggled to get going in a lot of them and seem to be consistently running into the tops of people ranges.

I have played some PLO cash ($10 Zoom) and am winning at that, up $58 over 959 hands this month which is fine. I of course then went and played a HU game and lost $50 when my AAxx got beat by a wrap, all-in preflop on what was almost an exact 50/50 spot (actually according to Odds Oracle I was 49% and he was 51%). I have been guilty of doing this recently. I win then try to spin up what I win, lose it and end up back to where I started. This month just going to try and book a winning month online. Will play some Zoom and find some hands to put in the strategy section today as I have not done so for a while.

[AAroddersAA]

Played a little bit of NLHE cash today as I have not played a lot recently. I wanted to try and play a bit more aggressive and play more hands. Played micro stakes Zoom for a couple of hours and ran well.

Overall stats for the session were as below

Hands:	356
VP$IP:	30.06%
PFR:	21.07%
3-Bet:	8.63%
Profit:	$50.16

I was only about +$30 in all in EV though so definitely was running good. Since playing a plot of PLO though I do think I have vastly improved my post flop game, don"t think it was that bad before but because PLO forces you to play flops properly you get to recognize things strength and weakness better. My red line looks a lot better than normal. Some of the hands I played.

This is probably an example of a hand I played badly and the sort of thing I just have to get right if I want to alter the play style

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/4343925

I also made $20 at PLO which was nice but then lost $20 trying to play PLO8, maybe I should spend some time trying to figure that game out before trying to play it.

Played 2 $4.50"s did not cash in either of them Current stats on them are:-

Played:	9
Cashed:	0
Total Loss	$40.50
ROI	0%

Will play two more tonight whilst playing the league game.

[AAroddersAA]

Nearly broke my run of non cashes but then this happened on the bubble

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/4345351

[AAroddersAA]

Last night I was bored so decided to play poker and wanted to make some hands for the Strategy board. This is a leak as being bored is not a good reason to play. I also didn"t really get any hands for the board. This hand happened pretty early on.

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/4348531

Don"t like how I played it obviously The flop shove is a great move if the pot is heads up and gets a lot of folds but 4-way it is just not very good.

This one is not great either http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/4348532

Anyway the stats for the session were

Hands: 314
Profit: $4.80
VP$IP: 41.4%
PFR: 29.3%
3-Bet: 10.38%

Looking forward to the Blonde Bash this weekend going up on the Friday, going to have to come back on the Sunday but it should be fun.

EDIT: Hang on didn"t we have one of these a couple of months back?

http://www.pokercircuit.com/index.php/pokerstars-announce-new-micromillions-schedule/

[AAroddersAA]

Completely unable to sleep last night for some reason, still not tried now. Anyway thought I may as well get up and play some poker, this might also be a leak. For some reason I seem to be playing quite well at cash currently. I played 149 hands with the following being of interest

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/4349119

This is more of a cooler than anything else. When I reviewed it I was wondering if I could get away from it but I think it is silly to think I ever could when I flop the full house 68BB deep. If he had had 300BB then it become a more interesting problem. I should be good enough to get away in that spot without getting stacked. I would lose more though. I have to call if he pots the flop and the turn. If he then pots the river it"s interesting, not sure I could fold although I probably should. This is the only hand I had played with this opponent.

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/4349120

This one is far more interesting as it is against a Zoom regular. He is a decent player for this level who will sometimes call a cbet and fold on the turn with a marginal hand (top pair type hand). He probably views me as aggressive, does not lay down hands that easily and knows that a 3-bet does not just mean AA or KK. Importantly in this hand I would expect him to know I almost never check the turn with a good hand. I could have AA or KK here but I never have QQ or a 5 (from his point of view) and there are no real draws for me to have. I make a mistake by betting the river as it is a pretty obvious check/fold when that card hit"s as the only draw he could have was the flush draw and if he had any sort of hand the only hand he can put me on that beats him is JJ. So this hand is a mistake.

There is one hand I played I am really not sure what the best option is even after reviewing it. I think it is a difficult one to be honest. It may well depend on the players but it is hard to get a good read in Zoom, although if you do review sessions and make notes on players it is a great advantage as most players are not going to have this.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=58014.0

Overall stats for the session were as follows

Hands: 149
VP$IP: 36.24%
PFR: 22.15
3Bet: 6.35%
Profit: $25.05

One thing I think I have improved recently is my non showdown winnings. My red line is now consistently in the positive which it never was before so I am picking better spots to steal pots and playing better again the players.

I have to stop playing at the wrong time though if I want to get my game back to the level it should be at. Both of the sessions I have played in the last two days were not played because I felt like playing or because I thought it was a good time to play but simply because I wanted something to do. Will try and stop that as it is really bad and most be -EV long term I would think.

[AAroddersAA]

Quick update on this had not had much time to keep it up to date.

Running pretty bad at the moment at the pokers but not losing money whilst doing it which is obviously how I like it. I THINK I am playing quite well. Its not alway easy to tell.

On Pokerstars I am down playing PLO cash this month by $50. I was doing well until hit a bad run and tilted off 3 extra buyins so will gave myself a stern telling off for that. I do that way too often, it"s down to not wanting to have a losing session and trying to play "just a little bit longer" to get even. I have said it before if I could just get that out of my game I would be far more profitable as a cash player.

I am $70 up at NLHE cash and very happy with my game which I have been working hard on this year and I am playing so much better on the turn and river now and making much better plays against certain players. Playing PLO has helped a lot with that. My red line has improved a huge amount and is now usually positive after a session.

I have manged to lose $103.50 at the $4.50"s by failing to cash in 23 straight. But a nice run in the Sunday Storm and the Bigger $11 last Sunday plus a couple of little cashes in the VIP freerolls has put me $325 up in other online tournaments this month.

So overall I am doing quite well.

Right I am off to win the Silverstar freeroll and then to draw blanks in another 6474564658 $4.50 180 manners :-)