Blog Title: Cottlads Poker Ramblings

APT Manila Package!!

Woot!

Spent the whole week analyzing my game and plugging leaks. Seem to be going round in circles somewhat. I'm happy with my preflop play now but my postflop play needs a little improvement i think. Made a 4 table, 200nl video and have posted it on PFU in order to get some useful criticism. Will definitely be making some more videos now i've got the hang of things with Camtasia. Will also edit the next one down so there's not as much inane waffle and boring hands.
Dropped a few hundred on ipoker this week after a couple of crappy sessions. Seem to be fighting back a little in the last couple of days though and am raking plenty at the moment and the bonus for this month will be very timely.
Congrats to Cheesies who's had a sicko month of November. Achievements too numerous to list but was capped by a 20k gtd victory last night. Also idi0..... another sicko who won another 20k gtd earlier in the week. PFU seems to be going great this month.... long may it continue.

My god what a boring post that was......
Can i save it with a funny vid i wonder?

Been Fishing!

Ahoy there landlubbers! Things are looking up.... at last!! Thank fook for that i hear you say! About time he stopped whinging ffs!! Well, i've had a decent week after slapping myself around the face a few times. Talk about a rut ffs..... You know when you're watching some utter moronic garbage on the TV at 3AM after a night out on the piss. You tend to stare open mouthed at the telly focussing about 3 yards behind it..... wondering why the fook you don't go to bed....? Well, that's been my poker game for a while now. I slipped into playing 20/15/1 before realizing what a tit i was and seeking some help..... that worked for a few days and i tightened up to play somewhere around 16/14/3 and felt much happier....... then i realized i'd slipped back to playing 18/14/1.5....... wtf?...... i'm supposed to be doing this for a living ffs? Pass me the dunse cap!

So, this week i spent a lot of time looking over my PT figures and plugging huge leaks. My bb/100 rate for $1/$2 had slipped to less than 2 over 35k hands after being around 4.5 over 20k hands.......Anyways, after a lot of studying and a few hours on cardrunners i've spent the last 2 days playing a different style and things are going really well. Yeah i know i've run pretty well but i'm back making decisions again instead of autofolding/playing just my cards v board.

Sunday I played the 250k satellite $40 rebuy event for a $300 seat. Got the seat without any rebuys or addon. So then played the 250k at ipoker and was looking to go really deep until i lost a standard flip and got knocked out 43rd for $1k. Quite happy with that ROI.
Yesterday i played the 15k rebuy at ipoker and managed to go deep after no rebuys and 1 addon. Cost $50 and i got 3rd for $1500.
Yesterday and today i've played 600 hands of $1/2 and made $1000. I've run pretty well to be fair but still, i'm so much happier with the way i'm playing and am enjoying playing again. iPoker roll up to £5k so may have a sniff at $2/$4 this week and see what occurrs.

Enough of all this upbeatednessization..... Saturday i went down to Birmingham to play in the Sky UK Poker Tour at the Broadway. It was only a £50 event and i went down to see one of the Sky guys (didn't show) and a couple of other poker chums. Great to meet Wayne and his missus and also Chris who somehow came 2nd! Have no idea ho as he was plastered lol. WP mate!
My exit was odd to say the least. We started on a fairly weak table with 4 decent players and 3-4 donks. Come the 1st break and all the donks were gone leaving the rest of us with around double starting stacks. After the break we go repopulated by decent players and things got tricky. 1 of these guys was really talkative to put it politely. He really couldn't stop talking for 5 seconds..... Within a few hands he'd run AA into KK twice and after arriving shortstacked had got to about 9k....... anyways, the dealer is shuffling and he's making a huge thing about telling the entire table how he's UTG and his book says he should limp with aces.... i mean he made a massive show of this even telling passers by.... The dealer deals and sure enough he limps UTG and it's folded to me in the cutoff... i look down and see KK and raise about 4x.... folded to UTG who shoves (he was auto shoving a lot) and i titter to myself as i call :-) He flips AA!! WTF?
That left me with less than 2k and i was done for a few hands later. I suppose they were using the Sky Online RNG for this live tourney!

Found this video on Youtube and it reminds me of Sky poker back in the day when it was swarming with fish..... those were the days...
Enjoy...

12 Weeks!!!!

Wow..... am a bit numb at the moment. Today we went for a 12 week scan and all is well. We are expecting a baby on 13th May 2009 :-)

GUKPT For Free!!!

I iZ 1 Dumm FisH

The Good, The Bad, And The Fugly!

The Good:

Big Slick roll is improving and i'm managing to multi table more without losing as much value as i used to. This comes with practice i suppose but also better PT stats as i've been mining every hour of the day i'm not playing...... that's about 40 minutes lately lol. I've been playing too much tbh and i'm tired. Am really trying to build a decent roll as quickly as possible though and once i have sufficient funds i will maybe slow down a little. The extra hours means my rakeback equivalent should be better this month although i'm still only playing 50c/$1 & $1/$2 both with $100 stacks. I've drifted away from the mtt's again. They were a very nice change of scenary for a while but i don't think they suit my game as well as 6max cash so i'll reserve the mtt's for when i need a change.

So, the £50 i deposited in Big Slick last month is now £1500 and i'm running at just over 7PTBB's/100 which isn't spectacular but is certainly acceptable.

The Bad:

How fooked up is Sky Poker right now? I've actually stopped playing there for a while after taking a quite frankly unbelievable amount of beats, coolers, suckouts....... My graph is horrific. I just wish i could somehow make an +/-EV chart. It's so hard to log hands there though as the software is really bad and the hand histories are non existant. After consistantly winning a decent amount for more than 15 months straight, the last 2 months have been break even apart from my Primo FT. I really don't know what to do as i still feel i'm playing OK there but 2 months of staleness may suggest otherwise. There just aren't enough players playing there any more, not that there ever was...... it just seems that every single table is full of regulars with maybe 1 or 2 fish split between the 4 tables that are usually at £1/£2 or above. Anyways, i'm concentrating on ipoker for the time being and if all continues well i'll withdraw all my roll from sky and kick it into touch.

The Fugly:

My Sky profit chart for the last 4 months. Without the Primo FT on about day 62, my profit is the same as it was 47 playing days ago....... I run bad! :-(

Don't forget about the Big Slick deal above. If you currently play ipoker network and don't get 30%+ rakeback equivalent then let me know and we'll sort you out. Better that 30% in your pocket than theirs!

Back And Primed!

Well i can certainly recommend that to anyone. A week spent lazing on beaches, eating good food, in good company with good wine. Not a cardroom or laptop in sight!
Got back on Saturday evening but didn't actually see a hand of poker until Monday. I just didn't want the holiday to stop tbh. When i did eventually get round to playing i felt refreshed and ready to go. I was actually enjoying this stupid game if i'm completely honest.
Spent most of my day at bIg slIck playing 50c/$1 6max and a couple of mtt's thrown in trying to build my roll there. Managed to make 4 buyins playing cash and also cashed in both of the mtt's. The 2nd one was the $15k gtd rebuy which i final tabled. My exit hand was AIPF with QQ from MP that was called by AK from the SB. It would have given me the chiplead had it held but a flopped ace scuppered my plans and kicked me out in 7th for $666. Oh well...... as Amafish has been saying of late..... that decent mtt win is close..... i can smell it!!!
Congrats to Sheep who won the PFU Session last night. I just can't seem to get started in that stupid game. I tend to try and pull off some silly moves that eventually get called. I'm stuck on 13.5 points after 9 games lol...... think the leader has about 408! Luckbox! :D
My local cardroom has just started its 'End Of Summer Festival' and tonight is the £10 unlimited rebuy! Bingo Bingo gogogogogo!!!! Cheeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiips Pleeeeeeaaaasse!!!!! Should be good for a giggle........ i'm taking £70 and when it's gone it's gone!!! Honest!
GLATT

Off On Hols

Well that's all last nights profit gone, and more, to an incredible series of 1, 2 & 3 outers. Off to Portugal for a week and not taking me laptop. Seriously sick of this game atm.

GLA

I Feel Goooooooood!!!

Strange Week

I have no idea what's been going on with the poker of late. I just can't seem to get in, and then stay in the groove. I've taken my BiG SLiCK roll up from £50 - 950 and then back down to £700 in the last 2 weeks and my other accounts have been stagnent. Every time i make a couple of buyins and think things are on the up, i lose a couple of buyins + change to coolers and suckouts. It's been really ugly. Ya know, them hands where you're waiting for that muppet sat to yr right to make that 1 mistake......... you pick up AK and a full buyin ends up going in on a Axx flop, he flips Ace rag and rivers his rag. Happening time and time again..... 2 and 3 outers galore. Have really doubted myself lately tbh but i just keep telling myself the money is consistently going in ahead and things must change soon. Fook me..... i wish i could spend Sklansky $$$'s......... I'd be so far up this month it's untrue :S

Took the boat out last Friday and it performed remarkably well to be fair. We had a couple of hours fishing and caught 30 odd fish between the 3 of us. All mackerel & whiting, the majority of which we let go. Just need a towbar on me car now and i'll be all set.

A bit of good news at last........ I entered the Sky Primo bingo allin donkament tonight. it's £25k gtd and i have a real good record in this one. It's monthly and i forget about it nearly every month. The 4 previous ones i entered resulted in 2 FT's. Anyways, i final tabled again tonight and got 4th place for £1750..... a very timely boost to the bankroll! :D Maybe that ease in pressure is what i need to turn the corner.

GLATT

Deeper Still......

Just played 2 rebuy $5k GTD donkaments at ipoker. Really enjoying playing there at the moment. The mtt standard seems to be soooooo poor. It must be if i'm regularly making FT's! lol.
1st one was a $7 rebuy and i was always there or there abouts. Major hand was when 3 left. AIPF my QQ v his AJ and he spikes an A to double up. Can't blame the shove but was a sick hand which would have given me the win i'm sure. I finished 2nd for $850 so can't complain too much. Cheesies got 4th. A good showing from PFU!! :-)

2nd one was a $10 rebuy and again i made the final table. Was doing OK until i picked up KK.....

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$5,000 GP Rebuy Buy-In: $10+$1
8 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

Getting Deeper

Man i must be close to a decent mtt win soon. I keep getting deep in a huge percentage of the tournies i'm entering at the moment but just can't seem to close the deal. Just final tabled the $7.5k GTD at ipoker for 7th place after being chipleader for most of the tournament up until about 14 left. My exit hand was a disgusting AQ v AQ! :-(
Was also going well in the 250k at ipoker earlier tonight and was top 20 all the way through to just after the 2nd break. I then got crippled by an uber donk playing 33 who called an allin checkraise on the flop with 33 ffs....... he had an underpair to the board! He spikes a 3 on the turn and i don't improve. I'd not long before doubled this donkey up when he called a turn push with AT for all of his chips, he had no pair, no draw...... he wasn't even close to being pot committed. It was as if he was playing to lose his chips as quickly as possible.... Just checked the tournament and he came 6th for 12.5k ffs! Where's the justice?
Anyways, at least i know i'm back to playing good poker. Quite enjoying playing a few donkaments for a change but the beats and suckouts don't half hurt after giving your all for 3 hours+
Cash games still not going fantastically.... made a $20 loss today :S

Got the boat ready for launching today but didn't have time to get her in the water. Hopefully Friday should see us getting the boat wet..... only the outside i sincerely hope!

3 Days of Profit!!!

Thank the Lord! The last 3 days have shown a profit and about time. About $800 in 3 days aint bad considering i've only been playing $1/$2 3 tables at the most. The previous 9 days before that consisted of loss, loss, profit, loss, loss, loss, loss, level, loss! About $2.8k down altogether! It could have been a lot worse i suppose and i certainly aint counting my chickens just yet. The last 3 days profit puts me back to where i was 3 weeks ago. I should have just taken 3 weeks off. It would have been a lot more enjoyable than 3 weeks of coolers! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Here's my graph for the last 40 days or so. Each vertical value = $4k. I suppose i was running pretty hot before the dip so i can't complain too much.
Have been playing some mtt's lately which have been going OK. I'm regularly getting down to the last 10% but am not having the luck when deep. I could do with a decent win at Big Slick to give me a roll there as the games look pretty soft. I just haven't got the spare money to deposit a decent amount at the moment so will just stick to playing smallish mtt's and hope to score a FT or 2.

Looking forward to our week in Portugal.....3 weeks and counting.
GLATT

Slowly Slowly

I feel positive. I don't know why, i just do. The poker hasn't got much better but i woke up this morning feeling generally brighter. Maybe the following cheered me up a bit.......


Holy shit Rolf.... WTF were you thinking man? He painted our Queen FFS! LMAO. I dunno if my respect for him has fallen or risen after hearing that. Am a bit numb TBH lol.

Got 4th in a local tourny last night. Only 25 runners though but was a good laugh and i cashed for £90. Bout bloody time!

Righty, i best crack on. I've got an article to scribe for Inside Poker and it needs to be in by the end of the week.
GLATT :-)

Slow Going

It's not getting any easier this poker lark! I've even started playing a few small buyin mtt's to try and stop the rut. Probably not a good idea because i tend to go off the handle a bit when i've played solidly for a few hours then get a bad beat/cooler/suckout to knock me out just before the big money. I remember now why i stopped playing these damned things lol.
On a brighter note, the standard of mtt play at ipoker seems pretty awful tbh. Lots of players wanting to shove any 2 cards early on. Played in a $11 mtt last night with 366 entrants. This was whittled down to 140 by the 1st break! It wasn't even a turbo! lol. As usual, i got down to 18 left (with 10bb's) and shovelled it AIPF with KK v AT & Ax. Obviously the ace flopped and i've just spent over 3 hours playing for a $24 profit..... sigh. Oh well.... at least i know i was playing solid poker. I'll take that as a huge positive after the last few weeks.

Don't forget the Big Slick offer i got available for new signups. See above for details.

Hopefully gonna try and get the boat in the water this weekend. Keep the RNLI on standby!
GLATT

Poker Is Like Golf

Just been for a golf lesson which was really interesting. My golf game has been really really bad of late so i went to try and get it sorted out. I took a few swings, then went to video my swing, then talked about my swing and state of mind, then hit a few more balls. The points i need to work on were exactly the same points i should be looking at in my poker game.
This is what he told me:
- You're overcomplicating what you're doing. Just get the basics right and the rest will follow.
- More aggression is needed. At the moment you're swinging the club with no punch
- It looks like you've tried changing everything to find the problem. The trouble is, you've succeeded in changing the good things in your swing as well as the bad.
- Don't try too hard. It will come but 1 stage at a time. Don't go hell for leather trying for the perfect golfswing or else you'll come unstuck.

I stood there listening to what he had to say and was thinking...... 'wow, do you want to be my poker coach too?' The above rang so true with how my poker game has been lately. Trying too hard, changing my game, lack of aggression, trying to get too tricky, tilting easily etc etc. Pretty strange to hear all that from a golf coach.

Now i'm hoping my frame of mind is getting more positive. I admit to being pretty low over the last few days but feel generally brighter in myself. I recouped some of yesterdays losses last night and have played a couple of sessions today both resulting in small wins. I know i'm still only 75% but i feel i'm back on the uplslope again. I know i'm still playing too cautiously but at the moment, reducing variance is the key whilst still hopefully making a profit.

A few more winning sessions should see my firing on all cylinders again.

GLATT

Sigh..........

Not a lot of improvement since last post. I've been playing OK but seem to have run into a whole host of donks recently and variance when playing these muppets can be huge. I've lost count of the number of times my money has gone in good and lost over the last week. It's the same old same old...... raise with AK to 6x as yr guaranteed at least 1 caller. Get called by the table fookwit shovefest alliner who calls with A7....... Flop comes A23...... it all goes in and he rivers his magical 7....... then thinks he's the worlds best poker player. Aaaarrrgghhhhhh..... this hand just happened BTW for a $1k pot but is typical of the last week.
Am actually quite sure this has been one of my worst weeks of all-time. 4 losing days out of the last 5 and currently stuck $1k today. Maybe i should just avoid the maniacs for a while and stick to grinding it out on the $2/$4 tables. My mental state really isn't up to playing loose cannons at $3/$6.
I'll spend some time over the next day or 2 watching some cardrunners vids too. That normally sorts me out a bit.
Not a lot else been happening in my world. Got the car back which hit me for £1200 so all in all, a week to be erased from the memory banks.
So..... yet another bad beat post entry in this blog. I promise the next one will be more positive.......

Coolerizations

Anyone Wanna Hear A Bad Beat Story?

Ya just can't believe some peoples play. It's as if they are completely unaware of what the game entails. I hate bad-beat stories but this is funny (or not)

I Lied!

........in my last post when i said the car was almost fixed. Got the parts and replaced them only to find the damn thing still mis-firing. Had a garage look at it yesterday and they just called me with some great news.......
Best case scenario....... bad valve...... £750
Worst case scenario.....New head...... £1600
WTF!!!!!
Am utterly fooked off right now. How can a supposedly solid reliable car need this work after only 75k miles? I drive it proper steady too :S I've got no choice i suppose other than get the thing fixed. Just hope i can have a decent run at poker to pay for it.
Pokers been going OK with the last 4 days winning ones averaging $800/day. I suppose that's paid for the car in the worst case scenario but i'm still not happy.
How the fook can these fookwits....... and when i say fookwits i mean someone who plugs a computer into a car then changes any parts that aren't working properly...... justify charging £40/hour. I mean WTF is going on in the world when a parts fitter is earning £300/day? Oh i forgot to add the juice they put on top of parts also! I gotta stop this rant before i tilt myself lol.

Right. Back to the poker...... relax!

Huuuuuuge congrats to idi0 from PFU who took down the FTP 40k last night for $15k :-) WP mate....... Fix me car for me? TYTY

GLATT

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder!

I still feel sick :-( What a bloody marvelous night Friday was though. There ended up being about 14 of us out on the town all pretending we could still drink like 25 year olds. We started off sensible enough in our local pubs at 7.30 but it started getting silly when we hit the city. Our 1st 3 pubs in quick succession involved 1) Flaming Absinthes and pints of snakebite & black 2) Pints of Old Peculiar 3) Double whisky with a Schnapps Shooter. It's all a bit fuzzy after that but i think everyone kept going until at least 2am.

OMFG

LOL Boataments!

Greetings! WTF am i doing? I seem to have bought a boat! Well myself, my Dad and my Step Dad in-law have. It's a Microplus 501 and we'll use it for fishing out of sunny Bridlington whenever we get any decent weather. That should give me a year or two to do the thing up! It's not quite what i've been used to over the last few years but hopefully she'll float and will give us at least 1 afternoons entertainment per year. The pic isn't our boat but is the same type. I pick ours up tomorrow. We are still to decide a name for her so any suggestions welcome. The shortlist so far: SEVEN DEUCE, SHARKBAIT, BAD BEAT, SUITED ACES, ANNAMARIE, GUTSHOT.

Poker's been up and down the last week or two. Swings have been bigger than i wanted but the action lately seems to have been crazy. My last 8 days have been -450, -500, +1800, +70, -4, +840, -1260, +960. Thats a 735 swing average per day. That's 91 big bets or nearly 2 buyins. Considering i'm only playing 2 tables per day for about 3-4 hours it's just too much. Only a very small sample i suppose. Anyways, i'm babbling....... STFU Shaun.

Going out with the boys tonight for the 1st time since my wedding in March!!!! It's not that i haven't wanted to or been allowed to (lol) but just haven't had the time. What with Vegas, other weddings, Silverstone, Honeymoon, parent visiting etc etc it's just impossible to get a free weekend. Doesn't help by living an hour and a half away from the drinking action....... which by the way i'm quite thankful for hehe. Anyways, there's close to a dozen middle aged warriors on the pop tonight acting like 19 year olds. Anna hit the nail on the head last night..... ' you lot are like kids when you all go out.... why can't you just drink normal drinks? Why is it that you act like you've never tasted alcohol before, never seen girls before, and never heard music before. You're 36 ffs not 17!!!' haha i think she's absolutely right...... So boys, who's round is it 1st for the sambuca afterburners?

Here are a few pics of a previous social occassion..... Come to a nice BBQ they said...... :s

Rich swimming in the carp pond

Agent Smith has had enough

Full bottle of JD for Martin!

Oh dear, it's gonna get messy!

GLATT

Grinding

Coolers, cold decks and suckouts. Sounds like a great name for a movie i may make one day. I spent most of my day occupied with the above and worked really really hard to keep my head above the water. Was just so frustrating 3 tabling 3/6 3/6 2/4 and being met by really really bad players who just seemed to hit endlessley. I left 1 donk sat with 2200 on 3/6 and he would religiously limp call a 5x preflop raise with any ace. He just never got caught out and always seemed to hit. I think i must have played for 9 hours today and until the final 30 minutes i have been in the red all day. Never really down a lot but always -$100 to -$400. The last half hour saw me eventually hitting some cards and going on a bit of a rush that put me +$400 for the day. With my other tables already closed i was UTG on my final 3/6 table and was dealt AsKs. It was my final hand of the night. So..... i raise to 20, MP calls, BB repops it to 100. I should maybe have just passed and shut it down (then again that would be uber nitty) but this player is fairly gung ho and only had about $400 stack................ so, i call, MP folds and we see a flop.....
Flop comes down 26K rainbow....... i'm still not sure i like it........... he bets 120...... i call.
Turn 26K (J) he bets $50............ i'm already well committed and hope this is weak so shove the rest in over the top.
River is a blank and he flips KK :-( He takes down an $800+ pot which is fair enough. I think he played it well and really think the only way out for me is pre-flop when he puts in a big 3-bet. Anyone else and i may consider folding but this guy could easily be JJ QQ AK AQ.

So..... after 9 hours of play today i'm -$2 which is a loss of just over 22c/hour (sigh)
Better than it could have been i suppose so can't grumble.

As you can see i've re-designed my blog. I think it looks better but i'm having to find red piccies so it all matches lol.

GLATT