Wednesday, August 13, 2008

No poker, but some market views

The less said about the performance on the felt, the better at the moment.
Suffice it to say I have droped about $200 since I last updated, withdrawn most of my Pokerstars roll into my Neteller a/c and moved some of it into Bodog.

Why I'm updating is to talk a bit about the US dollar...

Ardent readers (!) may remember I talked about the US dollar strengthening versus sterling. Well its finally happening...£1.70 or £1.75 is not unreasonable.
This means if you can afford to keep your roll in dollars, do so.
It is £1.86 as I write (£2.02 when I made the prediction) and should continue to fall in the coming weeks. It has really come off this week and my $4500 roll is now worth around £2,400, meaning I've made £150+ by doing nothing.

My currency forecast has proved far more accurate than my share tip - Partygaming - which I sold a couple of months back, booking a 15% loss. It has since tanked further.

Bye for now.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Back from my hols

After a week in France and a hectic weekend at the Big Chill losing my mind, I logged on again tonight.
Went back to Stars and managed to win over $100 four-tabling the $50 NL tables in 90 mins.
I was about to log off about $20 up when I went on a mini-rush with this hand doing me very nicely indeed...

PokerStars Game #19412975593: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2008/08/06 - 17:43:29 (ET)
Table 'Kale V' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: QuanticFive ($61.80 in chips)
Seat 2: royaldd ($48.50 in chips)
Seat 3: Ernestoxl ($45 in chips)
Seat 4: habfan123 ($29.50 in chips)
Seat 5: [M69] ($48.25 in chips)
Seat 6: RicoJay13 ($49.75 in chips)
Seat 7: Spy_Lord ($67.35 in chips)
Seat 8: fila1051 ($36.10 in chips)
Seat 9: retrofatgaz ($50.85 in chips)
habfan123: posts small blind $0.25
[M69]: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to QuanticFive [9s As]
Three folds
retrofatgaz: calls $0.50
QuanticFive: calls $0.50
royaldd: calls $0.50
habfan123: calls $0.25
[M69]: checks
*** FLOP *** [5s Qs 2s]
retrofatgaz said, "nice king fila"
habfan123: bets $2
[M69]: folds
retrofatgaz: raises $2 to $4
QuanticFive: raises $10 to $14
royaldd: folds
habfan123: folds
retrofatgaz: raises $36.35 to $50.35 and is all-in
QuanticFive: calls $36.35
*** TURN *** [5s Qs 2s] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [5s Qs 2s 3s] [Ah]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
retrofatgaz: shows [Js 4s] (a flush, Queen high)
QuanticFive: shows [9s As] (a flush, Ace high)
QuanticFive collected $102.20 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $105.20 | Rake $3

A couple of $25 pots boosted my winrate further. I can't be bothered to run them through Poker-tracker but it was pretty easy to spot who to go for.
I tried to be a little more aggressive against certain foes which worked and meant I could keep my stacks at $50 without constantly having to reload.

Work today was a massive shock and the markets remain unfathomable. However, all the doom and gloom is totally misplaced and the world will sort itself out.

As a former hack of eight years, I know for a fact that a editor of one national got his staff to queue outside a Northern Rock branch for his front page pick. The next day, as if by magic, real customers begun queueing.
Now the tabloids bang on about the credit crunch without really understanding what it means.

My next poker-stop will probably be Bodog again...