Thursday, March 03, 2011

Cashing out, and getting richer!

Ok, for my four followers out there, another update!

On Dec 19th I became a father. Very emotional time and my son Marcel is now nearly three months old. It has been a total game changer in my life and I have very little time for anything else but I'm loving being a dad!

After Marcel was born I decided to cash out a fair chunk of my money, all told I withdrew $1500 from across my FT and Pokerstars accounts, which translated into around £997.

I left $167 in my FT account and just $16 in my Pokerstars account.

I thought that would be it, but no...I am still playing, although only very sporadically.

Basically in my head I was done with poker for a while as fatherhood was intense, especially in the first couple of weeks. But I was sitting at my kitchen table, one tabling a $50 Omaha H/L rush game on FT when I hit trips on a QJ10 flop. (me jj)

After I raising war post flop, I was all in for my $60 and two other over stack foes who held ak.

Turn blank, river 10...so in very short order, I had (just) enough to do some four-tabling on $50 NL again.

I've not played much but my roll now is $580 and it looks like I may be able to grind back high enough to try the $100 NL tables again...so much for quitting.

I really need to update my bankroll data to the right, but need to download software from some of the sites, its been so long since I played them!

Saturday, November 06, 2010

2010

After nearly a year a post...briefly, I've started playing again.

Four tabling, $100 NL on FullTilt, full ring, my roll on FT is $1802.77 precisely and I'm making around 4BB/100.

I'm enjoying playing again, especially at this level. Even with a $5k roll before I cashed out last year I never felt comfortable at the $100NL tables and out of my depth.

Pokertableratings is helping a lot as I know now who are the good players. I think this is the last level where the odd fish comes to try his luck.

Anyway, the blog will continue, very very sporadically - here are some winning pots for you!

https://www.pokertableratings.com/replayer/index.php?site=fulltilt&id=25028810271&hash=10579969231

https://www.pokertableratings.com/replayer/index.php?site=fulltilt&id=24268216295&hash=9860491962

https://www.pokertableratings.com/replayer/index.php?site=fulltilt&id=24751809004&hash=10322293115

https://www.pokertableratings.com/replayer/index.php?site=fulltilt&id=24268051829&hash=9860320402

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Last post of 2009

Two more days until 2010...I'm at work, with lots to do but little motivation to do it, hence the post.

I also played a little poker over Christmas!

Four sessions, two or three tabling $100 NL cash games on Full Tilt.
It must have been my first cash games at that level for over a year. Any attentive readers will know I was playing the $100 games a couple of years back but moved back down after I lost some confidence.

Now I don't care as much = more confidence = less folding like a pussy = more dosh!

I just went with my instincts in these sessions and won around $100 the first three times I played, and lost around $15 the last time.

I really enjoyed it, singing when you're winning and all that, but I found the oppposition pretty ordinary. Maybe it was Christmas and people were using the holidays to play a bit but I kept coming across foes that were clearly either playing above their normal levels or just having fun.

Part of the problem with cash game grinds is multi-tabling bots playing 12 tables ABC poker. No bluffs and bluffable but you'll never win that much off them. This time round there were enough one-table numptys to milk.

Can't recall any hands in particular but I'll try to save some hand histories next time I play.

How long will the Christmas players last? No idea...but I'll probably play another session or two around New Year.

Monday, December 14, 2009

A post....at last

Well, I have decided to update this blog, which has been dormant since July.

So time for an update...

Well, lifewise 2009 has been dominated by my CFA exams. I failed level 1 in June, pretty badly to be honest, and took it again two weeks ago.
I did a lot better but I don't find out the results until January 27. If I could work on the exam full-time, it shouldn't be a problem. But having a full-time job means I don't really get that much time to study and when I do, I'm knackered.

Pokerwise I have played very very little. I don't think I played more than once between August and December. A SNG here and there, but no long sessions at all.

It is amazing what finishing an exam does to you – before every spare moment I felt guilty about not studying; now I can sit around in my pants watching crap TV guilt free.

So I played two sessions in the past week.

The first was a four-table SNG affair, one $12, one $6.50, one $3 (all 90-man) and a $50 Omaha H/L six-man cash game.

I lost $25 playing Omaha – logging off after ten minutes in a huff – busted out of the two of the three SNGs and winning the $6 for $150ish.

I then played four SNG/tourneys – a $24 + $2 tourney, $12, $6 SNGS (90-man) and a $2 tourney. Four-tabling is too much for me playing tourneys/SNG (cash is manageable) so next time I’ll stick to three.

I went past the hour in each, and at one stage was doing well in three out of the four…but predictably the one I did well in (4th) was the $2 tourney (512 entrants) for a $99 win.

I went mental a bit towards the end – and tried to bully my way to the win at the end. It was working and I had a big chip lead with four to go. But I then busted in two hands to the only other player to play back at me….sigh….should really have taken it down fro $275.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the sessions, which lasted around 3 to 4 hours which is a manageable time for me. The $200 profit was nice as well 

However this is the stuff I write for work…

Goldman Sachs 2010 Summary

GEM/Asia
Positive on Asia – forecasting 36% total return (!) for 2010
Korea, Taiwan, China 40% returns. Capacity utilisation in Asia higher than most believe
GDP growth in 2010 in EM countries 7.3%, 1.9% Developed
Bullish on commodities – due to demand from EM

Credit
Weak GDP, low inflation, low interest rates in developed world will magnify ‘search for yield’ among fixed income assets
Nervous of lower-rated, more cyclical names which could ‘soften disproportionately as prices revert to fundamental value’

Interest Rates
US 10-yr yields to fall back to 3% in 2010, Fed likely to keep rates on hold
Rate rises more likely in Norway, Canada, UK (!), Sweden – where output gap is closing faster than in the major blocs

A yawn-fest I know, but our funds are all first quartile (in the top 25%) for 2009, and I have been promised a decent bonus (hurrah!)

Poker is now definitely a secondary hobby for me, so my goal for 2010 is:

1) Turn my FT bankroll of $470 to $1500.
2) Errr…that’s it.

I know now my strengths, multi SNGs/tournies…so I’ll stick to these.

See ya!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

A week of poker

I'm about to pick up the missus from Gatwick and have just logged off after another short session.

I ended up using my week of freedom mostly on the piss with mates so didn't play as much as I intended.

Just two session, three tabling multi table SNG and tourneys.

In the first I cashed in one, coming in 300-odd out of 2000 for a very small score.

My bustout hand was AQo versus J9s, I called from the big blind to an obvious bully boy but the hand didn't stand up despite flopping a Q.

Here are a couple of hands - the first when I was caught bluffing half way through. The second was a semi-bluff that worked.

PokerStars Game #30721869028: Tournament #180540393, $8.00+$0.80 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (75/150) - 2009/07/21 17:31:15 ET
Table '180540393 252' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: QuanticFive (11865 in chips)
Seat 2: omskurDZI (7820 in chips)
Seat 3: aldehuela (10135 in chips)
Seat 4: WjWeng (4341 in chips)
Seat 5: Talerz (19047 in chips)
Seat 6: madamxl (4258 in chips)
Seat 7: superweed (4531 in chips)
Seat 8: VERSEAU91 (9130 in chips)
Seat 9: Swuolzz (6178 in chips)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to QuanticFive [Kh Td] 
Talerz: raises 200 to 350
superweed: calls 350
QuanticFive: calls 350
omskurDZI: calls 275

*** FLOP *** [9d 8c 6d]
omskurDZI: checks
Talerz: bets 450
superweed: folds
QuanticFive: calls 450
omskurDZI: folds
*** TURN *** [9d 8c 6d] [Qs]
Talerz: checks
QuanticFive: bets 1200
Talerz: calls 1200
*** RIVER *** [9d 8c 6d Qs] [As]
Talerz: checks
QuanticFive: bets 2400
Talerz: calls 2400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
QuanticFive: shows [Kh Td] (high card Ace)
Talerz: shows [Qd Jc] (a pair of Queens)
Talerz collected 9830 from pot

 

PokerStars Game #30723092059: Tournament #180540393, $8.00+$0.80 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (150/300) - 2009/07/21 18:02:38 ET
Table '180540393 252' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: QuanticFive (8975 in chips)
Seat 2: omskurDZI (8248 in chips)
Seat 3: aldehuela (1113 in chips)
Seat 4: WjWeng (7382 in chips)
Seat 5: Talerz (12033 in chips)
Seat 6: madamxl (14397 in chips)
Seat 7: superweed (19704 in chips)
Seat 8: miken22 (6066 in chips)
Seat 9: Swuolzz (7413 in chips)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to QuanticFive [Jh Td]
QuanticFive: raises 600 to 900
omskurDZI: raises 800 to 1700
aldehuela: calls 923 and is all-in 
QuanticFive: calls 800
*** FLOP *** [2h Qc 9c]
QuanticFive: bets 7235 and is all-in
omskurDZI: folds
Uncalled bet (7235) returned to QuanticFive
*** TURN *** [2h Qc 9c] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [2h Qc 9c 3s] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
QuanticFive: shows [Jh Td] (high card Queen)
QuanticFive collected 1254 from side pot
aldehuela: shows [7s 8c] (high card Queen - lower kicker)
QuanticFive collected 3879 from main pot

Tonight I played three more SNGs, going deep in all three but only cashing in one - a $7 180-man turbo on Stars.

I ended up third for around $140. I was chip leader with around 40 to go but went card dead and tightened up near the bubble. I was either side of two bullies and couldn't cope really.

I scraped across the bubble near the back and limped onto the final table 8th.

I then trebled up with 10s and was suddenly chipleader again but couldn't see it through.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Bankroll update

I finally got round to updating my Bankroll info which had been stuck on December 2008 for...well seven months!
Not moved much really, reflecting my lack of play this year. The roll is now only just over $1k after cashing out but is still decent enough for the levels I play.

Played two killer tourneys on Full Tilt this morning, didn't cash in either :(

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

poker and sterling

Had another bash at poker last weekend - played four $10 double-or-nothing SNGs on PokerStars, cashing in two for solid break-even poker!

Back with my missus again since the last post for the shortest break-up in history. She is off to Athens all next week so I should be able to put in a couple of sessions while she's gone.

Just thought I would comment on sterling versus the dollar for all you high stakes players out there :)

Sterling has rallied since hitting a low of $1.37 to $1.63 as I write. For followers of this blog I was pretty vocal in my calls for sterling to fall from $2.
I lack the conviction I had last year but I can see another bout of weakness for sterling some time this year.

At $1.63, I would sit tight for a while and wait. My view is $1.45 is fairer value which is around a 15% gain from here.

Can't be arsed to go into the reasons why...but its my view for what its worth.

Back on the poker, I've made the decision to try to play some bigger tourneys while the missus is away. Only can do it on weekend so will try two not this weekend but the weekend after prob.

Ok, see ya