Poker: End of the year so time for reflection

The end of one year and the beginning of a new one is often a time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future.... so further to my previous post "How Long does it take to become good at poker" (http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2006/06/poker-how-long-does-it-take-to-become.html) decided to analyse my previous (Online) poker results with a view to seeing how I can improve for 2007

2003 was a good year, being $250 up for the year, 2004 cost me $50 but 2005 cost me $300 and this year I spent a whopping $1000 !! I was a little surpised about the apparent worsening of my poker game so thought I had better look into why this may be.... is it me playing worse, the opposition getting bettter or what ???? Luckily $1000 is only £500 today, so about £45 a month habit, therefore still a cheap hobby (Motor racing was costing £5000 a year :-) )

Looking back at 2005 I found that I was playing lots of little games and winning overall, but when I stepped up to the $100 or $200 games I would only have bankroll to play one game and didn't cash in, so a couple of big losses effected my whole year of hard work with the smaller wins. This behaviour is easy to correct :-)

2006 has seen me settle into $20 STT tournaments as my "normal" level, so a bad run will see me lose more than previous years but also I am playing less games so this may be putting pressure on myself to "win" rather than just play my normal relaxed game ? Apart from that, this year has seen me play a more diverse range of games (I now play more cash games generally, but also Omaha and HORSE) so for these types of game am back to being a "beginner" so therefore not winning an average proportion of the games. Finally I have played six different sites (three regularly) during 2006 so wonder if this "flitting around" would effect my game, as it takes a little while to get used to a new interface which would distract from playing the games.

So those are all my excuses, what can I do to ensure I don't have a bad 2007 ?

As discussed in my previous posts, will ensure I have correct bankroll for the game level I am playing. This should ensure I can average out my results against bad runs and give more representative picture of my results (if I am still losing all the time will also have to drop down to lower stake levels!) If I have any really good runs, I will try to cash out rather than escalate the stake levels I play at, so this would ensure I dont just lose what I win (there are some gadgets I really want to buy in 2007 so this will be my incentive to win and cash out ;-) )

Will also try to first focus on my "best" game to build up my bankroll, before then spending my "winnings" on the more exotic games that I am trying to learn... also ensure that I only get into the lowest stake levels for these games as well as my win expectation is very low for these games until I get into them more.

Finally, will get around to reading the poker books I bought months ago ! Particularly for the HORSE games as I need help to master these !!

I think this plan will allow me to get my financial results back on track and reflect my level of play better, so lets see how it pans out during the year

In the meantime, thanks for reading and have a great 2007 (although not if you're playing against me ;-) )

Poker: Home Tourney December 2006 (and end of season report)

The 2nd chance No Limit Freezeout format always makes for a tense, exciting game for everyone and this time was no exception. Great plays being made and tight decisions being put on players so a fantastic game for all..... (well as far as I know... let me know if you feel different)

For my own game, I was playing quite tight to begin with, but had a couple of good draws which didn't hit to drain a few chips early on... then I had 5-4 o/s on the blind and flop came a poor looking T-8-5 (or similar) Darren W put in a pot sized bet, but I felt there was weakness and called, along with Simon W. The turn came another 5 so ended up all in against Darren, who show Q-5 and took the chips forcing my 2nd chance rebuy early on. After that things were a bit up and down.... but felt I played fairly well. With the blinds going up and my stack doing down, my K-3 suited looked quite good as I was on the blind but sensibly checked to see a low flop. All 4 players checked and the turn was a K. I thought I was ahead now, but decided to check. The river was a 6 so had no reason to believe I was beat and put in my last few chips, for Simon W to show 2 pair (hitting the 6 on the river!!) so it was all over for me.

The game continued and people started dropping like flies as the blinds became punishing, so we were soon down to 7 players. Play seemed to get more serious as the average chip stack was now 4000 to the 500/1000 blinds, so players had a chance to wait for hands. As I joined the cash game didn't see much of the action after that, but did see Darren W all-in pre-flop with pocket A's against Simon W with pocket K, the A on the flop made the double up for Darren certain.

The last hand of the game saw 4 players still in the game, but all going all-in to decide the places. Simon W took the hand, first place for the night and also the coveted 2006 trophy for league winner

Well done to Simon W for showing great spirit to win the 2006 title


The year stats make interesting reading:
Jon is "Mr Consistant" with 50% money finishes for the year and also average finish position of 4.7 (2nd only to Simon W)

My consolation for the year is third top finished by Average position (hammered by poor finishing the last two games) so looks good for me next year ;-)

Full information at http://www.statsgenie.com/Poker/ (CamberleyBoyz) as normal

Have a great Xmas and new year and hope to see you all bright and breezy on Thursday 11th January 2007 for a fresh start with the new rules

PS - Start telling your friends about the 2007 "Invitation Cup" tournament

Poker: Farnborough Club - November 2006

Went to TC Poker again last Thursday for a No Limit Texas Hold'em £50+5 tournament (2nd chance freezeout, see http://www.tcpoker.co.uk/schedule.htm for schedule)

Managed to get some of the guys together, so ended up with myself, Sean, Bill, Jon, Andy W, Simon W and Andy's father in law (Jo)

This is my narrative of the tournament events as I remember them, although additional thoughts and corrections welcomed

TC's seem to be getting the timings together better now, as the tournament started roughly on time and the breaks were only 20 minutes as scheduled :-)

There were 28 entrants, so making three tables. There were prizes for the top 5 players, around about 600 to first, then 300, 250, 200, 100 (or similar) I was on a table with Andy and Bill, the others were on another table together.

My initial strategy was to get in cheap if possible but otherwise play tight solid poker to begin with and see how things go, especially as the guy to my left I knew from before as a tight agressive player. As I was not getting any hands, it was easy to follow my strategy to begin with, but later on I was on the big blind and Andy put in a raise. I would have folded but he got called by 2 other players before me, so I made a quite loose call with T-4 o/s... but then saw a near miracle flop of T-7-4 albeit with 2 suited cards. With the possibility of a flush draw I decided to make a reasonable bet and to my astonishment Andy went all in. The other players folded but it was an automatic call for me. Luckily Andy had two high cards so I managed to virtually double up early in the game

This allowed me to sit back and relax, waiting for good cards. I kept an eye on the average chip stacks to ensure I wasnt getting below average, but otherwise was playing tight.

Did make one silly mistake when I was raising one hand. I decided to make a standard raise of 3x blind, so put in 1200 chips, but stated "raise 12000" ooops..... of course the dealer wanted me to go all-in (still had around 7000 chips at this point) but the players on the table kindly agreed they knew the bet I intended to make so I only had to put in the 1200. As it turned out everyone folded anyway so it made no real difference... but still decided to keep my mouth shut after that and just stick the chips in !

By the break I had about 7400 chips which was a bit above average

When my chips were dwindling a bit and so when I got pocket 3's decided to make a move so put in a decent raise after a couple of callers. Andy went all-in and the other two players folded. I was getting good pot odd's decided to call and saw Andy with two over cards. Andy hit his card on the flop, so was just putting on my watch to get up and go, when another 3 came on the river to give me the pot... phew ! Unfortunately my good fortune meant that Andy went crashing out

Later on I made another raise when the low stack was in the blind and he went all in. Even with Q9 I still decided to call as was getting good odds and could afford to loose the hand. He showed pocket 3's ! but I hit my 9 on the flop and nothing came to help him so took the hand.

We were down to about 11 players at this stage with the blinds around 1200/600 so was quite expensive to see a flop. Bill called an all-in move by the tight guy to my left, but actually Bill had Kx against Q4. Unfortunatly the 4 on the flop was all that helped either player and Bill was out in 10th place. Someone on the other table was out immediately after, so this left 8 players for the final table.

Myself and Jon were the only CamberleyBoyz on the final table, both with short stacks as well ! When I was big blind, Jon called from late position to see the flop. The flop came down A-5-6 (or similar) giving me an up and down straight draw, but was worried Jon had hit the A. I called his smallish bet on the flop but the turn didn't help me, so had to fold to his next bet. This left me with probably lowest stack at around 14000 chips.

As the blinds had just passed me I sat back to wait for a hand. One before the big blind I got dealt pocket A's ! I put in a normal raise, but the table was playing tight and everyone was folding. Luckily the big blind called.... with a flop of Q-J-6 rainbow, I was happy enough but whilst deciding how much to bet, the Big Blind player put in all his chips so was very happy to call him, especially when he showed K-T. Problem was that he hit a 9 on the turn giving him a straight to turn over my aces. I was definatley very disappointed but there was no other way to play the hand so was happy that I had got all my chips in whilst ahead and just got unlucky

Decided to go home after that, but Jon ended up in 2nd place (in the early hours again I guess) so well done to you

There will definately be a next time so start saving up again ;-)

Poker: Farnborough Club - Oct 2006

Went to TC Poker club (http://www.tcpoker.co.uk/) to play in the £50 NL 2nd chance Freezeout Hold'em tournament last night....well actually, I went to play in the Sit'n'Go games but they are "fine tuning" the games and structures to meet the needs of the players (which is a good thing of course :-) )

The White clan turned up in force as well as Alex, so the CamberleyBoyz were well represented. Luckily for my health and job prospects, there were only 20 entrants so was looking hopeful that the game wouldn't go on to the early hours...

There were two tables of 10, with Alex, Jon, Simon and Andrews father in-law (Jo) all on my table. There was also Samir (a club regular) on my table..... who is a great guy but talks the hind legs off a donkey and seems to play any two cards. Samir and Simon's banter was highly entertaining and almost worth paying £50 just to sit and listen.

The tournament itself was very exciting for me.... around the third hand in I got AQ and raised in early position, the button called then Samir re-raised another 800. I was happy to battle with Samir, but though the button would have a good hand so went all-in. The button folded but Samir showed KK, so I was in trouble. Despite getting a straight draw on the flop my chips were gone and had to use my "2nd chance" to replenish the chips.

The very next hand I got AK so raised. The guy next to me called and the rest of the table folded. When the King hit I decided to bet, but got re-raised all-in. I had to call but was a bit nervous about my prospects.... as it turned out we both had AK so split the pot.... I was quite happy to still have chips !

Couple of hands later I was on the button with 97 suited so called after a couple of other callers. The flop came 9 high rags giving me top pair and a middle pin straight draw, so when it checked to me I put in smallish bet. The big blind re-raised and it folded to me, so I called. The turn came a Q and we both checked.... the river made me a straight so we both ended up all in. Sure enough we had both hit the straight so another split pot.

After that it was a relief to get bad cards for a while, as it is unlike me to be all-in three times in the first 8 hands of a tournament !!

It was all quiet for me until after the break when I got dealt AQ suited. I raised and got called by Simon and Alex. The flop came queen high so when checked to me I went all-in for my remaining 1200 odd chips. Simon thought for a long time then called and Alex called quickly, worrying me for a few seconds until another Q came on the turn! Alex went all-in and Simon called. Simon needed a miracle and Alex has KQ so wasn't far behind needing a miracle, but the river paired the board giving Alex and me a full house and another split pot !! Had I won that hand I would have had over 6000 chips and been well in the game, but as it was I was still the lowest chip count. Oh well, at least I had chips.....

My final hand came against Jon soon after..... I got AK on the big blind and raised 800 into the 600 pot. Jon thought for a while then called, so thought he must have a pair.... the flop came Jack high so I checked. Jon bet 800. Jon was obviously ahead but I was getting 4-1 odds and didn't really have enough chips left back to fold so went all-in. Jon had called my raised with JQ and won with his jacks. I guess he thought I was stealing pre-flop :-)

I was about 16th of 20, which is not a great result but some fun and a story to tell, so will be back

Alex ended up finishing 5th with Jon and Jo both finishing in the money so not a bad night for the Boyz....

However the night was not over for me as there was a cash game going on. I played really tightly as the table was very loose, but didn't really get a hand. After half an hour I hadn't played many pots and never got past the flop when I got dealt pocket J's so raised pre-flop. Got one caller then Joe re-raised for most of my bankroll. Decided to go all-in and only Joe called, showing pocket Aces.... so I went home :-)

General: Ideal Home Show - Oct 2006

Went to the Ideal Home Show this weekend as we haven't been for a couple of years.

Got up at an un-godly hour for a Saturday (7 am!) as we wanted to get the 8:18am train. The journey up was uneventful and was standing outside Earls Court at 9:45am (didn't open until 10am) Quite a few people already there and by 10am there was a substantial length to the queues.

Going in we decided to head for the show homes, as they tend to always have large queues of people waiting to go in. We were slightly taken aback to find that the show was tiny compared to the previous shows we had attended and there was only one show house to look around and it was virtually deserted.....

The floor space of the show was about 1/5 of the previous show we attended so after a couple of hours we felt like we had looked at every stand ! Going around was quite interesting and there were a wide variety of types of stands available, but overall we were both disappointed by the show.

Making the most of the spare time available, we decided to go to Piccadilly Circus and walked up Regent Street, popping into Hamleys of course. The shop was busy but were able to get around and see the goods on offer. There were a wide array of games, toys, models, etc that I would like to have bought, but ended up just buying Lynn her birthday present there (no guesses for what she chose !)

Going along Oxford Street we found the place absolutely heaving and was impossible to enjoy walking along, let alone battling to get into and out of the shops... dread to think what it would be like at Xmas! We ended up walking parallel to Oxford Street and had a nice cup of coffee in Soho Square. This seems to be the place for all the young Goths to hang out as the park there was full of black clad teenagers with died black hair, etc..... The hair-do, clothes and make up I can handle and are sometimes interesting, but their body piercing always makes me cringe and feel sick (must be my age)

After our rest, we made our way to Covent Garden area, which was also very busy due mainly to the street performers, but bizarrely this made it feel more intimate and cosy rather than being overwhelming. Not sure how the knife juggling man in a kilt standing on top of a free standing ladder got past Health and Safety, but he was very entertaining, so well worth a visit if you're around that area on a weekend.

Decided to head back for the train, so walked over Waterloo Bridge for the station. The sun was out and it was pleasantly warm, so was great to stand and take in the views from the bridge.

Once sitting down in the train we both realized we were absolutely knackered, having walked around over 6 hours, the time cetainly flew by.

All in all, a grand day out, albeit slightly marred by the disappointment of the Ideal Home Show

General: Brooklands Museum visit

We haven't been back to Brooklands since the trip in July (http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2006/07/general-trip-to-brooklands-motor.html) but did manage to get to the Morgan Day at Brooklands this weekend. (http://www.brooklandsmuseum.co.uk/)

Went with Mum & Dad as well, who were looking forward to seeing Concorde again

On arriving around 11am, we found a queue of cars behind a huge coach, so initially worried we wouldn't even get in ! As it turned out, they were just taking time to process the coach party so although it was quite busy, there were not huge crowds of people

Our first stop was to buy a ticket to see Concorde, as there are restricted places. As it turned out we would have to wait until 1:00pm to get on board, but this wasn't a problem as there was lots to see.

Being a Morgan day, there were lots of Morgans to look at ! As I get older, I feel more drawn to the Morgans for some reason, very odd..... I still prefer the "funky" looking Speed 8 so maybe there's hope for me yet :-)

Took the parents round a couple of the main displays and the Sultan of Oman's VC10, which I still find fascinating, then it was time for our Concorde "experience" We convened at the "gate" which was some seats under the body, but gave you the feel of waiting at the airport A very knowledgeable guide then took us in via the cargo hatch through to a display of Concorde atrifacts and short videos on PC monitors. We then got taken through to the forward cabin where we sat in the seats and watched a video about Concorde. A brief peek into the cockpit from afar and the trip was over and we exited from the front door. It was very interesting and seemed very quick, although the tour onboard lasted 30 minutes. A good sign, as it leaves you wanting more.

Being lunchtime we had our picnic in the field by the car park, by now the sun was out so it was lovely to have a rest and soak up the suns rays and the unique feeling of Brooklands.

Suitably refreshed we went back round to the planes and had another general look around (and a visit to the shop) before leaving.

Left feeling like we could have spent more time there, so will definitely be back soon.

General: Petworth House (National Trust)

We joined the National Trust this year as we do like to visit places, so in a bid to get our moneys worth went to Petworth house couple of weekends ago. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/petworth/

Weather forecast was good, so of course on the journey down it poured with rain ! We were thinking we might only look at the house rather than the gardens... but in the end by the time we got there it was bright and warm.

There is a pleasant walk to the house itself from the car park and entering the house you are struck by the grandness of the place (makes sense I suppose) The house didn't take that long to look around, although we could have spent more time looking around had we wanted to study the artifacts in each room more carefuly (especailly the north gallery which is crammed with statues and paintings) For us it was nice to just see the rooms and pick out a few items to look at more closely. Having done the house, we went across the courtyard to the Servants Quarters which now also houses the shop and resteraunts, but it was the Old Kitchens which was facinating to see. You wonder how they got the time to do anything in those days, everything was done by hand and with some very odd looking implements !

Coming out to the gardens, there was extensive grounds so we walked down to the lake and round to the boathouse. It was a bit wind and chilly outside as the landscape was quite open, but this made for fantastic views from the hill top. There are also herds of deer running around which is quite interesting. They are not frightened of humans so you almost have to barge your way through them if you come across a herd.

After visiting the house and gardens, we walked into Petworth villge itself (the house is on the outskirts of the village) It is an old village and a pleasant walk around. Not many interesting shops but plenty of oppertunity to eat or drink if required and very picturesk

We had a very nice day trip out and feel like we have got some culture now :-)

Poker: October 2006 Home Tourney

With a new strategy in mind, I was quietly confident about having a good result this month. Good job I kept it quiet as my plan didnt quite come to fruition ! Had a good hand early on and trippled up when I hit a flush, but then the chips quickly dribbled away and the rebuys started to come along. Just before the last rebuy I had another good flush and had about 3000 in chips at that stage and felt confident again. Unfortunately I raised Bill who called when I had AQ, the flop came jack high so was easy to call Bills all in bet... he had QJ so only an A would help me. Didnt come so most of my chips went ! Next hand Simon went all in and Bill re-raised me all in, so felt I had to go with my A2. Unfortunately (again) Bill's pocket jacks looked good, so I needed an A until the J came on the turn and I was out in 8th. Felt I played OK overall, but a bit disappointed.

The tables seemed a bit quieter tonight,with no wild moves (although Sean wasn't on my table :-) ) but definatetly most enjoyable game of cards you can have for sure.

The final table was a studious affair, with the chips moving around the players.. Derek got a good win when all-in on the big blind and started to look good for another great comeback.... A huge pot with Sean and Bill all-in saw Andy take a huge chip advantage and knocked two players out. Andy and Jon ended up being the last two players with only about 7 mins to go. Couple of small wins to Jon saw him with a small advantage in chips, but then a couple of folds swung it back towards Andy. The last hand of the game saw the blinds as the difference between the players, so whoever won the blinds would win the game. With neither player able to fold all the chips went in after the all low flop. Jons KQ was behind as Andy had hit a pair. The turn was a blank, but the River came with a K giving Jon the game.

Well done to all, can't wait for the next one... will have my new strategy in place by then.....

Posted results to Statsgenie as normal, see some of you at the Farnborough club but otherwise next month

http://www.statsgenie.com/Poker/ (CamberleyBoyz)

General: How to add a comment to my blog entries

There has been some confusion about how to add a comment to a blog entry, probably caused when I selected the "anti-spam" option for comments, which I have now removed.

If you would like to add a comment to an entry, then you can follow these steps

• at the bottom of each article you will see a line saying "Posted by Mike at xx am 0 comments"
• click the "0 comments" link to add a comment.
• this will popup a new browser window
• enter your comment in the box provided
• you then need to choose an identity. If you are shy, you can click the "anonymous" link, or you can click "other" if you want to specify your name (in this case you can freetype your name, there is no need to register)
• then click on the "publish your comment" button
• this should then redraw the window with a comment at the top saying "Your comment has been saved"
• you can now close this window (there is a link to do this on the top left or just click the X)

The only other thing to mention is that any comment you make will be viewable by anyone in the world looking at the blog, so it is generally a good idea to not mention things like you bank details in any entry :-)

Hope this helps you to add your views and comments to my blog pages

Poker: First trip to Farnborough Poker Club

With the closure of Reading Casino's card room for refurbishment until December (!!) I was happy to hear from Jon that there is a new Poker club in Farnborough just opened, TC Poker (see http://www.tcpoker.co.uk/index.htm for details) so decided to go down and try it out last night (Tuesday)

The slight drawback is that the games start late (for a work night :-) ) so went for the £40 no limit, no rebuy tournament on the basis that it would finish quicker than a rebuy tournament (for better or worse)

The club itself is basically one room crammed with poker tables, but gives it a friendly, cosy type atmosphere. The snooker club and is across the corridor and provides a bar and sport on TV in case you get knocked out early ! I like the idea that a dealer is provided on every table and that there are other games going on apart from the tournament itself. My only small criticism was the slightly chaotic organization, but I guess that will improve over time

The turnout for the tournament was disappointing but suited me to a certain degree as it meant the game would finish earlier. 18 players started, spread on two tables with the top 3 places being paid. The blinds go up every 30 minutes so is quite gentle to begin with. Game started about 8:40pm

Jon was on my table and we both seemed to get dealt good cards over the first few hands, but luckily didn't clash with each other. On about the 6th hand, Jon raised after the flop and got re-raised ending up with him being all-in against one other player. Job showed AQ with an A on the flop, the other guy had A7 so was well behind. Unluckily for Jon another 7 fell on the river taking him out after about 30 minutes play !

I was taking it steady to begin with and didn't have any hairy moments in the early stages. My early decent cards had given me a few hundred more than the 4000 starting chips but with some players busted out already was below average stack size (an unfortunate trend which continued all tournament for me) One big hand that hurt me was just before we went down to 1 table. Playing short handed (5 players) I got A4 diamonds on the 400 big blind when the button raised to 800 With the small blind folding I decided to call and see the flop. The flop of all medium cards included 2 diamonds so checked then called another 800 bet from the button. The guy in the button was actually Tony (as in the "T" of TC poker) and he told the dealer "no diamonds" . Of course the dealer then dealt blanks for me on the turn and river which were checked down. Tony's pair of 9 beat my A high, leaving me with about 3500 chips with 10 players remaining.

Now with 10 players on the table I had to tighten up, but luckily drew the button seat so had some time. With my chip stack going critically low I had to make a move with JT suited on the BB but luckily only got called by T9 off suit so doubled up. One off the button I got AJ so went all in and got called by the BB also with AJ and we split the pot. My final hand was A6 but felt the players behind me would fold unless they had a hand. Unfortunatlety for me the BB had AQ and I went out in 8th place around 11pm

The game was friendly and entertaining, the players were varying in standard so felt I had a chance to do well, so all-in all a good game and a good place to play poker.

Will probably try to arrange a "Camberley Boyz" trip to have a game or two there sometime soon !

Poker: my return to UB (part 2 - win myself a Lotus drive ?)

Having recently gone in my Lotus "experience"( http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2006/08/cars-lotus-track-experience.html ) I really want to go on the next level which is the one day "Driver Training" course (http://www.grouplotus.com/media/car/oth/Driver%20Training%202006.pdf)

I have already put aside £100 towards this event and intend to ask for money for Xmas and Birthdays, gradually saving up...... then I had a fantastic idea ! Why not invest my £100 into UB and try to increase it to the required £450, which means not only do I have fun playing poker but also gives me practise at the higher stakes than I would normally play. Sounds good in theory :-)

My £100 equates to $180, so planned to play $100 (+9) and $50 (+5) 6 seater tournaments giving me a few bucks to play around with.

Logging on to play the first night, there was no action on the $100 or $50 tables, so ended up putting $40 into a $3/$6 cash game. This was actualy quite scarey as I was really underfunded (so should've invested more or gone for a lesser value!!) and there was a very aggressive guy playing: raising pre flop and betting every flop. Luckily for me, my third hand dealt to me was KK so got heads up with the aggressive bettor and no ace fell on the flop. His large bet into me was willingly called (despite me being all-in) and he showed 7-2 off suit which was no good ! As I had doubled up, then decided to do the sensible thing and leave the table as quick as my fingers could click

Net time I managed to find a $50 game, but played badly and finished 6th ! My $100 game was a little more lively and was chip lead a lot of the time until we got down to 3 players. Probably tightened up too much and frittered away my chips, ending 3rd..... (only 2 place pay out)

Then played another $55 game, but despite a good showing early on still fell at the last hurdle only managing 3rd again !

I am down to about $3 so play the 0.01/0.02 Omaha hi/low (Pot limit) The game really does my head in but is great fun. I generally seem to be able to win the low hand in these games :-) Actually work up to $6 before falling back to $4 so call it a night. The next time I play however, somehow manage to work my $4 up to $14 before getting involved with a massive pot with 4 players all-in and loose the lot (my Full House was second best hand to a higher full house, but thats Omaha for you)

So my dream of an early return to Lotus is in tatters, and any family members reading this will know what to give me for Xmas ;-)

Did have a good time playing (winning would have been even better fun of course) so maybe I don't need to register with http://www.gamcare.com/ just yet :-)

Poker: My return to UB to play for "free"

Having recently blown my stack I found myself trying to decide which site to load my account with. In the end I decided to wait until after the Casino trip (1st Oct) to give maximum funds out of my "Casino Fund" for that trip.

I happened to notice that UB now allow you to use your UB points to enter tournaments (http://www.ultimatepoker.com/promotions/tournament-points.html) both for points and also direct into cash tournaments. Having played with UB for years, I had about 5'000 UB points, so have got some "free" tournament entries and is the best User Interface (in my view) so like playing their site. I decided to try to get my points up by entering points only cash games (NL Hold'em) Problem is I treated my points like play chips (as did a lot of people it seemed) and soon frittered a lot of them away. In order to get some value, I entered a $10+1 tournament for "free" which was great, but came 6th (which wasn't so great !)

I am down to about 20 UB points now, will take me a little while to get back to a reasonable level again !

Poker: September 2006 home tourney

I had a good feeling about the game this month, felt relaxed and ready for action. Just as well really as I had Martin and Sean to my right and Darren W to my left. Even Jon was in the mood to gamble so the all-ins came thick and fast. My first couple of hands set the tone of the night for me...... My AJ suited getting well beaten by "inferior" starting hands and similarly with AK. Later I went in with 87 suited and won a big pot with 2 pair, so seems a bit of "reverse strategy" will win the pots tonight :-)

Soon after I dropped a significant size stack to Sean with AJ suited (again) against his pocket 8's so the chips were coming and going like water and wee

I did managed to pull it all together and by the end of rebuy period, had around 2400 chips placing me just below average chips (2875 at this stage) Sean and Zoran both had around 7500 in chips and Derek was tournament low stack at 900. On the other table, Bill was chip lead at around 5000 chips and had Alex and Steve with 1000 chips low stacked (they obviously hadn't been as busy as my table!)

First hand after the rebuys closed and Alex was first out, closely followed by Derek on my table and two more following soon after. I got moved to the other table to load balance but didn't get a hand to play. On big blind I saw A7 suited and moved all in, with Simon W calling with KT putting me 3-2 favorite. Unfortunately Simon hit a full house by the turn to take me out in 9th and giving us the final table.

Zoran was surprisingly first out on the second hand of the final table, so the practise he got in Las Vegus had not helped much tonight ;-) Simon W was now a large chip lead and looking dangerous, especially when next hand Sean took him on with 2 pair, but lost to a higher two pair ! Sean seemed slightly stunned but still wandered off to play in the cash game that had started up - a true gambler :-)

It was looking like an early finish for everyone with Simon W hoovering up all the chips, but we did end up going to the final hand with Simon W having 23'600 chips after putting in his small blind and Simon having the remaining 19'400 (plus 2000 in the blind) Simon W had a rubbish hand so threw it away to take a very determined and well deserved first place.

Again an eventful, exciting and slightly mad game..... but enjoyed by all

Results posted to Statsgenie as normal (http://www.statsgenie.com/poker/default.aspx?HH=1&OrgID=1499)

Poker: APAT online tournament

Circumstances combined to allow me to enter APATs "Italian Amateur Poker Open" online tournament yesterday.

Wasn't quite sure how many people would have entered, as normally I wouldn't have much chance to play poker online on a Saturday night ! As it turned out, there were 206 entrants.

I played pretty steadily and managed to stay above the average chip count for the first couple of hours without much problem. Stayed out of trouble and played selected hands with aggression, which seemed to work OK.

In the third hour, my 20'000 chips represented just below the average chip count, and the blinds + ante were around 10 times my stack, so decided I needed to get a bit busier. Unfortunately I seemed to choose the wrong moment to make a move... although AJ under the gun isn't a great hand, decided to make a standard raise. One player re-raised me and as he only had another 2000 chips decided to put him all in. He had AK which stood up and I was down to 10'000 chips. Next hand I was on the big blind and got dealt KK, great I thought, will get some chips back.... but no, everyone folded (including the small blind) ! On the small blind I got dealt KQ. Everyone folded round to a late position who raised. Everyone folded to me, so decided he was trying to steal so went all in. AS it happened he had QQ so blitzed me and I was down to 250 chips.. Now on the button my 87 suited was enough to go all in but never stood a chance

Ended up finishing 57 of the 206 runners, so not too bad, but those two key hands really did me in. I should've just called the AJ to see what happened, but my small mistake there cost me the possibility of a good finished. (well, that and my moment of madness with KQ :-) )

Oh well that's Poker :-)

Cars: Lotus track experience

I finally got to go on my "Scare yourself sensible" experience last Saturday. (http://www.grouplotus.com/media/car/doc/LOW%20RES%20SYS.pdf) You are not allowed cameras on site, so put some "official" photos above....

Just being at the Lotus factory was an experience in itself, with unregistered cars lined up ready to go to the lucky new owners.

The 8am start wasn't too bad as we stayed in a hotel about 10 minutes away, but still felt a bit tired. Coffee was available at signing on to wake everyone up, and the sight of the first few people going out got the adrenaline rushing as well

At last it was my turn to go out on track. We were in showroom standard Lotus Elise 111S which was a little surprising, not even a 4 point harness, but it didn't detract from the experience at all. The track was a bit tricky to remember, particularly the 2nd half which had lots of twists and turns. Despite my confidence that I knew roughly what to do, I was driving quite carefully and trying to listen to the instructor telling me what I did wrong on the last bend, whilst rapidly approaching the next, not easy to do ! To my disbelief the instructor told me to turn off the track, but the 20 minute session was up already, it really only seemed like 5 minutes had passed. Really was a great session, but clearly leaves you hankering for more.

We both then went round the Lotus factory tour. Despite having no engineering experience (or real interest) I found the tour extremely interesting. We saw the cars being assembled from the basic glued chassis right through the process to the finished car. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and open about their processes and products, and you really feel you are getting into the guts of the production process (you are even encouraged at certain points to touch and feel) The favourite part of the tour must be wandering around a selection of finished cars, deciding which options and colours you will have on your own Lotus !

Despite the brief drive, I really felt we got value for money and came away wanting more driving and desperate to order a new Lotus. I am now saving up for the one day "Driver Training" day (http://www.grouplotus.com/media/car/oth/Driver%20Training%202006.pdf) and a Lotus Exige (or a Europa if the Wife gets her way, although this type of argument I almost look forward too ;-) )

Poker: Bankroll strategy - part 6 of 6

This will be my last regular post about "Bankroll strategy" as I called it (unless you tell me different!) although I will of course be continuing to play :-)

The previous post (see http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2006/08/poker-bankroll-strategy-part-5.html) I had another average run, but managed better this time.

For this round, I played $20 (+2) 6 seater tournaments with the following results

Game 1 : 25 mins : 4th (-$22)
Game 2 : 40 mins : 3rd (-$22)
Game 3 : 25 mins : 5th (-$22)
Game 4 : 40 mins : 1st (+$50)
Game 5 : 40 mins : 2nd (+$26)
Game 6 : 35 mins : 1st (+$50)

Played 6 games of 6 seater $20+2 STT
Time spent 3 hours 25 mins
Won cash in 3 games
Lost 3 games
Layed out $132
Winnings $192
Winnings of $60 (win of $17.56 per hour)

Summary of all the 36 games played since publishing my "Bankroll strategy"
Played 36 games in total
18 games of 6 seater $20+2 STT
12 games of 6 seater $30+3 STT
6 games of 6 seater $50+5 STT
Time spent playing 17 hours 10 minutes
Won cash in 13 games
Lost in 23 games
Layed out $1122
Winnings $1116
Loss of $6 (loss of $0.35 per hour)

Not bad for a hobby, but could do better :-)

To conclude bankroll strategy:

I will continue to follow my own advice which is

• Never play with money you cannot afford to loose
• Once the bankroll has gone, its gone !
• Work out how long you want your bankroll to last, then pick the stake level that will allow you to play enough games but not be playing "scared"
• If you are doing this for fun, then you should enjoy the games you play, so play whatever game type you enjoy the most
• When playing ensure you have enough time to play, you are away from distractions

Hope you enjoyed reading about my experiences in the online poker world

General: Weekend away August 2006

Went away this weekend and had a lovely time

Traveled down to Devon to see some friends on Saturday, but decided to go the scenic route (along the A30) which as it turned out was a good plan as the A303 was chocked up apparently !
Stopped in Shaftesbury for an hour to walk around and get a cup of tea. Very nice market town, worth a visit and certainly better than most service stations

Found the house via Sat Nav via a slight detour, there are miles of single track country lanes to traverse so definitely out in the wilds :-) Great house and land attached, and great time had at the party despite my needing to drive to the hotel afterwards

On the Sunday, decided to stop off at Stourhead (National Trust house and gardens) It was surprisingly busy there, but the gardens were fantastic. Of course it started to rain as we got halfway round, but not enough to make us run to the car. Stunning views and lots of surprises around the walk to keep you interested. The house was very grand and full of stuff that all country houses seem to be full of. The cafe was reasonably priced and the cakes definitely recommended !

We also stopped at Stonehenge as we have always driven straight past it previously. Found a space to park on the road to avoid the £2 parking charge for the car park. Even if you queued and braved the crowds to get into the stones area itself, you didn't get much closer than viewing from the road (which is what we did) The only amenities around the site were some grotty toilets and one burger van, so really not much to see or do at all. All in all, we were very disappointed by the whole experiencee and almost wished we hadn't bothered.

All in all a great weekend away,albeit a little tiring....will happily sit and veg out in front of the TV for the rest of Sunday afternoon now !

Cars: Hungarian Grand Prix - wow what a scorcher....!

I was bemoaning the lack of excitement in F1 races earlier in the weekend and stated that I prefered Touring Cars now (see also my previous post at http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2006/06/cars-british-gp.html ) but then I watched the Hungarian GP......

Wow, the wet track and rain really spiced things up, and Jenson Buttons victory made the whole thing even more sweet :-)

The event packed race is far better described by other people, for example at the F1 ITV web site http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=36958

Perhaps the rule change that the FIA should consider to make things more exciting is to only race when it's wet... this will also have a positive side effect to ensure Silverstone keeps its GP ;-)

Poker: August 2006

Another full house this time round, although only thanks to our "reserve" Ant who stepped in at the last moment to fill the last seat.

Once the game started, even by our normal manic standards it was completely mad ! On my table we had 4 people all in on the first hand (which went to Ant) and so the standard was set for the early stages of the game. The other table was keeping up with us, so after about 20 mins play there had been 32 buy ins. Ant won another big pot taking him to large table chip lead, which he kept for large amount of the game

My luck wasn't good to begin with. Got pocket 10's on the button and debated whether to call or push all-in. Just called a small raise to start. Another T on the flop gave me trips, but there was 2 spades and possibility of a Str8. Decided to go all-in anyways and sure enough someone hit a flush but lost to a Full House..... trips just ain't good enough these days :-) Eventually I hit a but of luck and quadrupled my stack, and couple of hands later took a bundle of chips again... so had gone from no where to table chip lead in two hands.

By the break and last rebuy, myself and Ant were well ahead on our table with about 5000 chips each. On the other table I think Andrew W was tournament chip lead with around 7000 chips

With the unforgiving blinds people started dropping out and some had miracle survives. When we got down to 10 players I had to move to balance tables. Andy was massive chips lead so my 7000 odd chips looked a bit insignificant compared to him, although was joint chip lead on my original table. On the second hand I raised from the big blind making it 3000 to go. Only Andy called me and seeing nothing on the flop we both checked. On the turn Andy bet to put me all-in so had to fold. Unfortunately that was half my chips gone already !

With the blinds going up to 2000 it looked like we may run out of time before we got a final table, but then 2 players went out in quick succession, leaving 7 to go to the final table with about 12 mins left to play

As Andy had a large chunk of the chips and three or four of the survivors having little more than a big blind or two left, it got busy quickly. Simon W was on small blind with most of his chips, so stuck them all in, with only Andy calling and taking him out. Steve only had 1000 in chips so just needed to decide when to stick it in. Luckily he won the first time, then was on big blind... went all-in and tripled up again.... then won another hand and was suddenly up to around 15'000 in chips and second place ! On my big blind I had half my stack in, so seeing AT stuck in the rest of them with only Andy calling (a pattern emerging here....) but showed QQ. I didn't hit my A so went out in fifth.

Dealing out the next hand the time ran out so had 4 hands to play. Simon called Darren's all-in but lost, leaving him with 900 in chips, which of course went all-in next hand. Darren went all in again and Steve also called. Steve won the hand taking two players out, with just 2 hands left to play.

Steve went all-in but Andy folded. The chip's looked close, so for the last hand we did a quick chip count and found that there was only 1000 in it, so however won the blinds won the game. Both went all-in with Andy taking the pot and first place.... what a game, exciting to the last hand !!

Great buzz to the game tonight and lots of manic play, probably something to do with the heat :-)

Results posted to Statsgenie as normal (http://www.statsgenie.com/poker/default.aspx?HH=1&OrgID=1499)

See most of you next time......

Poker: Bankroll strategy - part 5

In my last post (see http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2006/07/poker-bankroll-strategy-up_115212553760217054.html) I had had a bad run in the $30+3 games, partly down to bad luck I must say :-)

This time I have been playing $20 (+2) 6 seater tournaments with the following results

Game 1 : 50 mins : 1st (+$50)
Game 2 : 30 mins : 4th (-$22)
Game 3 : 15 mins : 6th (-$22)
Game 4 : 40 mins : 2nd (+$26)
Game 5 : 40 mins : 3rd (-$22)
Game 6 : 30 mins : 5th (-$22)

Played 6 games of 6 seater $20+2 STT
Time spent 3 hours 25 mins
Won cash in 2 games
Lost 4 games
Layed out $132
Winnings $120
Loss of $12 (loss of $3.51 per hour)

OK, so I achieved "average" results and therefore just lost the house fee, so not too bad a result I guess. There was only 1 game where I had "technical problems" with NTL, one game where I was blitzed by a lucky idiot and another where when down to 3 players the chips leader literally went all-in most hands and got lucky against me when I got a good hand.

All in all, I can't complain and had a lot of fun for my money :-)

Will probably play cash games to raise the $8 I need to get another $22 round in, then report back for the last time about progress..... and will try to summarise the lessons learnt and how effective the strategy has been in my next report

Poker: APAT

In case you're wondering, it stands for Amateur Poker Association & Tour :-)

Poker Player magasine is one of the sponsors so of course they pointed me to the APAT web site (see http://www.apat.com/) It's only a fiver to join up, so I did - just for the heck of it really... but their stated aim is to :-

aspires to represent the interests of all non professional players in the UK. The APAT will engage government and industry bodies to enhance the player experience; with standardisation of rules, player friendly structures and the provision of a clear communication channel for player feedback at the top of our agenda.

More importantly they are running both online and Live tournaments with the possibility to win a trophy, so sounded like fun to me :-)

Unfortunately the online tournaments start at 9pm on a Saturday (8pm GMT), which is going to be a little tricky for me but hope to attend one or two of the live tournaments in the year to get some benefit of joining.

Will let you guys know of any developments and/or benefits of being a member as and when

For now, I need to work out if and how to get to Birmingham for the weekend of 23rd-24th September for the inaugural tournament !!

General: Motor Show 2006

Went to the Motor Show at Excel in Docklands yesterday (Saturday) See http://www.britishmotorshow.co.uk/

I don't enjoy traveling in London anymore, it just takes too long to get anywhere and is hot, smelly and crowded, so wasn't looking forward to the travelling

Decided to get up early to miss the rush, so left home before 8am to go to the station. Got the first train OK, but when changing for the Waterloo train, found out there is signaling problems so all trains are delayed and/or cancelled.... oh great. In the end we get there OK, about 45 minutes later than expected so not too bad (although it took just under 3 hours to get there !)

The Excel is well organized and there are two massive halls plus a lot of things going on outside. Went to the Lotus stand first and had a good look around, then went to TVR and Morgan, then I could relax having looked at the most important cars there :-) It was a shame that TVR didn't let you sit in the cars but they do look fantastic.

The Ford stand was crowded and they were giving away free drinks which was great. The Aston and Jaguar stands were heaving and you couldn't get close so after a quick look through the bodies moved on. Strange how some stands like Kia and Hyundai always looked empty :-)

Not all manufacturers were there, Porsche and Subaru were the two I would have liked to have seen, but otherwise all the usual suspects were there and was a lot of cars to look at. Outside you could (queue up for ages) for a ride in a 4x4 over an obstacle course or drive a Mazda, but didn't bother with those. Was also water sport displays in the dock and with the hot weather it was nice to stand out in the cool breeze every now and again.

By later afternoon we had managed to see most things and were both a bit worn out ! A brief re-visit to Ford stand for another free drink also bagged us a free ice lolly as well, so well done Ford, we will definitely be visiting your stand every time we see one at a show :-)
The journey home was uneventful and only took 2 hours so a lot more pleasant than the trip up. It's great having air conditioned trains now !

Highlights for me were
Best cars
definitely the Lotus and also TVR, I really love those cars !
Most Interesting
The Honda stand had a hidden treasure having a dismantled F1 car suspended in a glass room, great idea and fascinating to see.
Best customer focused
Ford take the prize for being most thoughtful to what the crowds want (free cold drinks and ice lollies were definitely what was needed!)
Most boring
Cant remember I fell asleep, but probably Toyota. Don't remember there being a sports car on the stand. I think the F1 car was there, but no-one bothered to look
Most desperate
Kia staff trying to lure people onto their stands, offering a free carrier bag

In Conclusion, it was definitely worth the effort to travel to the show and really enjoyed it once I was there. Don't think I would go every year, but certainly an event I would like to attend regularly

General: Farnborough Air Show 2006

Went to Farnborough Air Show Saturday. We decided to park in the on site car park this time, although having taken 90 minutes to get there was questioning the wisdom. (it is only 5 mile trip)

Had a chance to wander around the static displays but only for about 45 mins until the flying display started. The red arrows are first up at 12:30, and at 12:29 we felt the first spots of rain!!! Been in a heat wave with record temperatures for about a week, now we are planning to be outside all day it is monsoon type rain. Of course the umbrella's are in the car (we didn't bother to bring rain coat either) so we end up back at the car a little wet....good job we decided to park on site. As it's lunchtime we decide to eat in the car out of the rain, but then the rain really came down and the displays got postponed until the lightning storm passed over.

One the rain eased off we ventured out again with the umbrellas, which were needed for a couple of hours as we kept getting short showers after that

Other than the weather, the flying displays were memorable and very loud :-) The Airbus A390 (the huge double decker one) was a sight to behold... it is huge ! The military jets all put on a good show, with afterburners blazing away most of the time. Great stuff

We came away slightly disappointed that we didn't get time to really look closely at the static displays and didn't even get into the exhibition halls... which I guess is a good thing as it means we enjoyed it. Next time we will have to get up earlier and get to the gates for 9:30am!

Poker: Bankroll strategy - part 4

The last round I have been playing $30 (+3) 6 seater tournaments with the following results

Game 1 : 40 mins : 2nd (+$39)
Game 2 : 20 mins : 4th (-$33)
Game 3 : 15 mins : 4th (-$33)
Game 4 : 20 mins : 4th (-$33)
Game 5 : 10 mins : 6th (-$33)
Game 6 : 30 mins : 5th (-$33)



Played 6 games of 6 seater $30+3 STT
Time spent 2 hours 15 mins
Won cash in 1 games
Lost 5 games
Layed out $198
Winnings $72
Loss of $126 (loss of $56 per hour)

Getting a bad run is bound to happen, and in fact consider myself unlucky in the first game as I was 5:1 chip lead when heads up and my interenet connection died.... got back on just in time to see my stack down to 1 big blind (I was not happy!) and the next two games were bad beats.... could be a lot different picture, but this time round it wasn't good results for me

Game 1 - First level I was getting lots of pocket pairs, but not really able ot capitalise as everyone playing tight. BY level 2 I had only gone from 2000-2250 chips. Down to 5 players now, and lost internet connection for a while. Level 3 saw three players (not me) all in after the flop with a huge pot to win. JT had 2 pr, J9 looked in trouble and AA was behind. In the end the J9 hit str8 on river annd we are down to 3 players. Level 4 sees me at 3200 chips and three players. Internet goes again ! Get back in and manage to knock out one of the players. Also manage to bully the other player to reach 10000 chips to his 2000.... I see QQ preflop and hit to raise button... then nothing happens. Internet has dies again. Thanks a bunch NTL ! Get back on eventualy and I'm all in. Manage to struggle up to 2000 chips but get taken down KT against A5. Not happy as I should have won this game!!

Game 2 - Quite wild play. Level 1 and level 2 see players dropping out. I hit A on flop with A9 and get called by 1 player. His Tx eventually hits straight on rover to take me out. Definately a bad beat !

Game 3 - Level 1, I get AJ and A hits flop. End up all in against A6 and win ! Level 2, I get AK and flop straight ! 3 players end up all in. One also with AK the other with JJ (trips) another T comes to make Full House and I'm out. Thought it was a bad beat, but actually I was about 6-4 favorite to split the pot.

Game 4 - Never really got into the game. Down to 1000 chips on level 3 with 4 players left. Took a gamble that didn't pay and out

Game 5 - One player playing like an idiot. I hit top pair (Q) on flop and went all in against him with my AQ. He called with Q2 but hit a 2 on the river.... another bad beat

Game 6 - Loose and crazy players in this game ! All 6 players still in at level 3. I am down to 750 chips and take out lower chip stack, but then get taken down by the chip leader


I have got enough in the account to play 6 seater $22 games, so will report back on progress after the next round of games

Computers: CD burning software

I was trying to burn an ISO image on my WinXP laptop today.... the built in facilities did not allow me to do this and RealPlayer reportidly allows you to do this as well, but just hung !

Searching the web I came across CD Burning software from cheetah - see them at http://www.cheetahburner.com/ which was easily installed and the 15 day free trial allows you to check it works for you. You can also get a free copy by telling all your friends about it :-) http://www.cheetahburner.com/free.html or it costs $15 if you are unable to do this

Did a good job for me, so I am happy to tell you about it...

Cars: Elvington Heath car show

Went to the car show (near fleet) today. Fantastically hot day, but lots of hot cars to see :-)

It only took an hour to go round the small field where the cars where, but as it's free entry and a nice pub lunch afterwards, it was definately worth the effort to go !

Must say the Lotus' were my favorite, but Lynn liked the old mini's that were there.

The Lambo's must have been the most dramatic with the old modified Pugs looking the most ridiculous :-)

Poker: Casino Trip July 2006

On Thursday the CamberleyBoyz went to the Casino to compete in the weekly Hold'em £10 pot limit rebuy tournament (billed as Beginners night!)

Events as far as I can remember....

With 1000 chips per buy in, the blinds started at 25/50 for 45 mins, 50/100 for another 45 mins then rebuys stopped and the blinds go up to 100/200, and keep increasing every 20 minutes thereafter (200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 500/1000, 600/1200, 800/1600)

40 entries
7 CamberleyBoyz (Me, Derek, Bill, Zoran, Alex, Sean and Darren)
Top 5 players get paid (about £750 for first, going down to £160 for 4th and £80 for 5th)
Started at 8:30pm and we left at about 2:30am !

On my table everyone played loose from the first hand. Two guys went all in on the first hand, three on the second I think and so on. I sat back and let then fight it out, content to wait for a hand. AQ came for me so raised and got two or three called, then A came on the flop and I bet pot. 1 guy called me and he had nothing, so I won a large pot. Then we had an incident, which luckily I wasn't involved in! in that all the players tend to just throw their chips into the middle of the table, but with 4 players going all in with differing amounts of chips there was a big argument over who had put in how much (shows how sensible we are to leave the chips in front of the players!) After about 10 minutes of trying to reconstruct the hands, they called the supervisor over, who took another 5 or 10 minutes to sort it out.. chaos... one of the guys who had lost all his chips had enough agro so went home :-)

Few hands later I got AQ again and raised again. This time got 2 callers and the flop came AQQ - wow can't get much better than that! My check raise all-in only got one caller who had a sole A so I took another large stack of chips and was probably table chip lead.

At the break when rebuys stopped, I had about 11'000 in chips and was table chip lead. Sean had about 13'000 chips and was tournament chip leader at this stage, with two other tables having about 10'000 as the chip leaders. Derek only had 900 chips so was looking a bit shaky, Alex had 2000, Darren had about 3000, Zoran had apparently gone home ! Bill probably had about 3000 as well.

On the restart, the nature of the game had changed, with no more rebuys the guys with chips were playing tight and the short stacks had to get busy. I got AQ again! which was again kind to me and I took out our chip bank (the guy who had the most rebuys :-) ) The next crucial hand for me was when I was big blind with 89c The flop came 887 so had trips. Checked and the player to my left bet the pot. It folded round to me so I re-raised but then he went all-in which was vast majority of my chips. He had to have the other 8, but what kicker.... but I was pot committed and called. Luckily for me he shows 86 and lost, giving me a huge number of chips

It all gets a bit hazy after that but I continued with my policy of playing very tight and in the main the play on the table was tight aggressive overall.

As the number of players decreased we went to two tables. Sean joined my table with what must have been the tournament chip lead (or joint with one other player on our table) After a few hands, a nondescript flop of T86 (or similar) provoked the two large stacks to raise/re-raise each other. Sean called and showed T2 but was up against TQ and was out of the tournament (I am sure the hand will be replayed in his mind many times)

Before I knew it, we were down to the last 9 players and I had made the final table !

The final table had a dealer so the pressure was off on the admin side of the game, but only 5 places paid. I was about 3rd or 4th highest chips with 27'000 Darren also made the final table with about 10'000 and the blinds were at 400/800 (I think) There were 3 guys quite low in chips (less than 5000)

The first hand of the final table saw the lowest chip stack go all-in and get called and busted by the chip leader (around 40'000 in chips) After a round of play the blinds went up to 500/1000 which prompted the lowest chip stack to go all in. His A7 got taken by Darren so we are down to 7 players. Soon after another low stack goes, so we are on the bubble. This stage is particularly tough as everyone is super tight, not wanting to finish out of the money... and more so when the lowest stack doubles up. We are all in the 10'000 to 25'000 chip count range so very close between the players. I was lowest stack and saw K3c so with the blinds coming my way went all-in. Got called by big blind with KQ so looked all over for me. Two clubs on the flop were not enough and I started packing up, but then saw it was a split pot and there were two pair on the table.... phew a lucky escape for me.... Eventually another player was busted out so we were all in the money now.

Still a tight game and everyone playing well. The chips were going around the table but it was Darren who finished 5th. Another blind round saw me all in with pocket 4's. The flop of 567 looked OK for me but the two callers both flipped over 89 so shared the pot with their straights on the flop.... oh well, made 4th place (I was about 55% to win pre-flop so a little disappointed)

In rough finishing order, the camberley boys were
4th - Me :-)
5th - Darren
13th - Sean
18th ? - Derek
Bill
Alex
Zoran

Great night out for me, great poker, very tense and exciting at times, dramatic and gut wrenching at other times.... this must be the beautiful game, you can see why it can get addictive ! Will "re-invest" my winning in the £100 freezeout tournament next time I think, but as I have the day off today (Friday) I might play some online poker :-)

Poker: Bankroll strategy - part 3

After my last post, I managed to win about $35 on cash game, which gave me enough bankroll to play a round of 6 seater $55

I thought this would be a tale of woe and lamenting how you shouldn't go above your comfort levels, but it turned out OK as you will shortly see

The last round I have been playing $50 (+5) 6 seater tournaments with the following results
Game 1 : 15 mins : 5th (-$55)
Game 2 : 25 mins : 5th (-$55)
Game 3 : 15 mins : 5th (-$55)
Game 4 : 35 mins : 4th (-$55)
Game 5 : 40 mins : 2nd (+$65)
Game 6 : 55 mins : 1st (+$125)

• Played 6 games of 6 seater $50+5 STT
• Time spent 3 hours 5 mins
• Won cash in 2 games
• Lost 4 games
• Layed out $330
• Winnings $300
• Loss of $30 (loss of $9.73 per hour)

This shows the importance of having a strategy and not being afraid to lose, as it would have been easy to cut my losses after 4 games :-)

I need to win another $15 before I can play another round at $50, so may play cash games again for a while... otherwise will go back to the $33 level


The games at this level are about the same as $11 upwards in terms of style of play and risks being taken by the players.... summary below in case you're interested

1. Game 1 - very loose game, lots of raises pre-flop and after. 1 player out on level 1. I blew out in level 2 with KJh against 77
2. Game 2 - steady game, especially me ! although we lost 1 player in level 1 again. Played too cautiously and was low chip count by level 3. Tried to make a move with A3 on a low flop, but got busted by K9
3. Game 3 - loose game from level 1, 1 player out ! Played pocket 8's to showdown and lost big pot to ATh (hit flush on turn) Got busted in level 2 when my JTh didn't hit and opponents 98 hit a flush on the river
4. Game 4 - first two hands got dealt monsters so was raising and only winning the blinds. 1 very agressive player so played very steady. Didn't loose player until level 3. My cautious play saw me low stacked by level 4, so stuck it in with K4s which lost to a QT
5. Game 5 - steady game, I was one of the aggressive players ! Level 2 got dealt AK and when A came on flop my opponent went all in... called and he had AT, and I took big pot. Droppde lots of chips in level 4 as play got more aggressive, but down to 3 players. Level 5 we're down to 2 players. After some tooing and frooing, my A5s got beaten by K5
6. Game 6 - another steady game, well after the first level when 2 players got taken out! My chips stack went up and down, but seemed to average about 3000 all game ! Level 4, 5 and 6 we played with 3 players and the chips went round the table (we all played tight agressive, very tense). I took out the third player and took 2:1 chip advantage to level 7... have to go all in most hands now, but luckily got good run of cards and ended up with my KK taking out the 2nd place player - phewwww !!

Thats it for now.... off to the Casino tommorow night, so hopefully will remember enough to write it up

Poker: July 2006

We were oversubscribed this month, so sadly Simon W wasn't able to play, but came along anyway to cheer on the boys and seemed to be enjoying himself :-)

Played my normal game, sitting back and letting the maniacs fight it out to begin with.. I won a pot early so went to about 1500 chips so could relax and wait. Sean and Bill seemed to be egging each other on and were often both all-in (and both loosing!) almost every hand or so it seemed.

First key hand for me was being dealt AT in big blind and raised to 100 to go, getting 3 callers. Flop left me needing miracle Q for the str8 and Joe bet 500. With Andy W calling I was only getting 3-1 odds but decided that an A was an out for me as well, so went with the flow. Luckily my miracle Q came on the turn, so trap checked to Joe, who put in another 500. I went all in and got 1 caller, winning the pot and taking me to chip lead on the table. Kept playing steadily and was still table chip leader when rebuys finished.

Second key hand was being dealt AT early position again !! I raised again and only Bill on the button called me. Flop came K-6-x but thought it probable I was ahead, so made bet of about half Bills remaining chips. He went all-in and I decided I was probably behind to a K, but as only had to put in 2000 against a pot of 6000 so decided to go for it. Unfortunatley for me, Bill had K-6 so was way ahead and he obviously won !

Was left with about 1500 chips now, so struggling a bit, but played steadily and ended up with about the same going onto the final table, albeit being lowest chip count

On the final table I drew seat 8 so had some time before I had to make a move, but the blinds being at 800/400 meant I had 7 hands to find something I could win a pot with. Roger was big chip leader, which became even bigger when he knocked out Bill, Martin and Joe in quick succession !

Two hands away from the big blind, I got dealt A-8 so decided to go with it. Alex ahead of me raised enough to put me all-in, but I went with it anyway and only Roger (chip leader at this stage) called as well. Although an A hit the flop, Alex had A-Q so won the hand and also knocked me out

The last four played very well, with bluffs, big hands and bad beats all over the place, but the chips seemed to just circulate. Derek was dangerously low on chips, then Roger just managed to pip him to 4th place about 5 mins from the end of the session when Darren took him out.

After that the game played itself, as Derek needed to double up every hand to get to 2nd spot and Alex just needed to fold every hand to win by a reasonable margin.....which is pretty much what happened

Great game as always, looked like everyone enjoyed themselves (after a lot of swearing when they got knocked out) and this time we finished well before the club closed! (after dropping 15 mins from the 2nd level)

The match details are uploaded to StatsGenie (http://www.statsgenie.com/poker/) but couldn't get the direct URL to work, so you may need to search for CamberleyBoyz organization to find them

Backgammon: Swing tournament strategy

Entered a Swing tournament for 10 players after my poker session (just to relax :-) )

First game was OK, doubled up and won the game

2nd got a bit lucky at one time but played OK and won doubled up again

3rd lost but only 300 pts

4th playing much higher ranked player and got slaughtered ! luckily only for 100 points

last game, again a much higher ranked player, this time I was in a good position, doubled then got a bit unlucky, got doubled back again then got slaughtered when I got a piece taken whilst my opponent had all the points covered in his home area!

Finished 6th out of 10 in the end

Lessons to be learnt

• Don't play backgammon when I am a bit tired, at the end of a poker session!
• Don't be so aggressive with the doubling cube (I think I doubled in every game, probably a bit marginal in places)
• Stick to the lowest entry stake swing tournaments as they require consistently good and focused play in order to get to the money stages (only the top 2 get money back)

Swing tournaments are great as they allow you to get about 4 or 5 games for a fixed stake and the doubling cube plays a large part in your strategy, so will definitely continue to play them, but I certainly need to look at when I play backgammon if I want to get any money back when playing it

Poker: Bankroll strategy (update)

In my previous post about Bankroll strategy (See Poker: Bankroll strategy) I described how I was going to organise my bankroll, playing in rounds of 6 games.

The last round I have been playin $30 (+3) 6 seater tournaments with the following results
Game 1 : 40 mins : 1st place (+$75)
Game 2: 20 mins : 4th (-$33)
Game 3 : 20 mins : 6th (-$33)
Game 4: 30 mins: 1st (+$75)
Game 5: 30 mins: 2nd(+$39)
Game 6: 5 mins : 6th (-$33)

• Played 6 games of 6 seater $30+3 STT
• Time spent 2 hours 25 mins
• Won cash in 3 games
• Lost 3 games
• Layed out $198
• Winnings $288
• Profit of $90 (about $37.24 per hour)

So where next ? I am just under the bankroll level needed to progress to $50 or go to 10 seater $30, so will probably spend up to $100 on cash game (just for a change) then go back to the $30 6 seater for another round

So far so good still :-)

Gambling: Betfair strike again

In a previous post (see Gambling: How to go bankrupt with Betting Exchanges) I was lured me into the murky world of gambling on betting exchanges
with the promise of free money..... well they have done it again !

This time Betfair offered £10 worth of free bets if you placed £10 in bets across two markets, Wimbledon Tennis ! Mens singles winner (without Federer) and Womens singles winner. Going against my own advice, I decided to leap into an area I know nothing about (it's free money - right ? :-) )

I decided on a lazy strategy of simply picking the 2nd favourite in each case, Lleyton Hewitt and Justine Henin-Hardenne. As luck would have it, they both got as far as the quarter finals now, so I have now sold my positions and will still get a reasonable profit if either win, but will get my £10 back whatever happens !

Feeling a bit adventurous, when I heard that "Barrys Bismark" (Channel 4 racing) was red hot favourite "Hard Top" in the 3 o'clock at Newmarket on Saturday (1st July) I decided to try and make a book on that race, laying off the 5/4 favourite (meaning I don't want him to win) My favoured filly was Ouninpohja who unfortunately ended up 2nd to Admiral's Cruise, so although I didn't make my fortune I did make a small profit overall.

This time round it is "so far so good", as my £10 investment currently sit's at around £22 (assuming I haven't picked the Wimbledon winners) but need to get time to investigate the markets and focus on the odds and options available.... will report back sometime to update with progress and what seems to be strategy to take (or for you to avoid if I loose it all again)

General: trip to Brooklands Motor Museum

You can see concorde at Brooklands, but interior closed until August 2006


We are "friends" of Brooklands Motor Museum (see http://www.brooklandsmuseum.co.uk/), so really should go at least 3 times a year to get value for money....well we finally managed to get there this weekend so just got to go back another two times later in the year :-)

The main driving force behind our trip (pardon the pun) was the "MG Extreame" Rally car rides. As we have been there several times in the past, it is nice to have some event going on to ensure you see something different.

There have been quite a few changes and additions since our last trip, in particular I didn't realise they had finished re-assembling Concorde so although you can't go into the plane until August (interior being refitted) to actually be able to get close enough to "kick the wheels" is worth the visit by itself. As it turned out, the Rally car rides were £30 for a ride lasting about 4 minutes, so decided not to bother so just as well there was other things for us to see !

The planes are definitely worth seeing, with the knowledgeable volunteers there to add interest to your experience of sitting in the pilot seat. The Sultan of Oman's VC10 is defiantly the highlight for me, well until Concorde is open anyway......


Car wise, it is difficult to pick a favourite, but the 1930's Bentley Blower sticks in my mind right now.

After going round the planes and looking at the cars, we had a nice lunch sitting by the hill climb. Lynn wanted to go into the shop, but managed to resist the temptation to buy anything, but we did have to buy an ice cream! We then climbed up the hill climb track, it isn't very far but the 1 in 4 section at the top is a real lung burster, especially in the blazing sun ! (or maybe we are just not that fit?) The top of the hill provides lovely views all around and the bridge over the track is essential to see, as it is only from here that you really get a feeling for how scary the banked track really would have been for the drivers, especially in our case the MG rally car was running along the top of the bank whilst we were there


MG Rally car running on the banking at Brooklands. Just a bit expensive in my view!


We needed to leave relatively early to get home for the England match (already said my piece about that in my previous post!) so we "only" stayed about 4 hours... it's a great day out and we will definitely be going back when Concorde is open later in the summer and also maybe when they have their Morgan day in October, so should get our value for our membership this year :-)




Lots to see and do at Brooklands

World Cup: Final report for 4 years !

England v's Portugal, well what can I say !

England played quite well the first 5 or 10 mins then looked like going behind the rest of the first half.

Beckham going off injured and Roony being sent off seemed to make the players realise that they actually had to play football and score goals to win.... and whilst playing with 10 men actually looked dangerous and like they could pull off a famous victory against the odds

I actually think Rooney got sent off for pushing Ronaldo rather than the foul.... his "foul" probably came about as a result of the two players pushing him around and he probably didn't know exactly where the other players were anyway

As it turned out, when It went to penalties and Frank Lampard went up to take the first kick, I knew it was all over ! Respect to Frank for the effort but he hasn't found the net all tournament and his luck didn't change on his penalty either. Gerrards miss was the crucial one really, but it was never looking good for us

It was an entertaining game, and a glorious defeat which will probably be remembered much longer than the mediocre victories leading up to this match.

Lets hope the new manager will be able to get a sense of urgency into Englands future games and teach them how to score goals

Backgammon: bad day at the board

Decided to play a couple of games of Backgammon

I like to play the "swing" tournaments as they combine the use of the doubling cube with a fixed amount of money and a tournament format. You get 1000 "chips" to play with and each game point is initially set to cost 200 chips. Every 5 mins the stacks go up and when you loose all your chips you are out of the tournament. Unfortunately it can take a long time to wait until there are enough players (only 6 players in my case, but can take half hour or so before the tournament starts)

Whilst I was waiting I tried to find a cash game, but could only get a $1 game, which is OK but was hoping for a quick $0.40 Had an exciting game, opponent doubled up early on, so took the bet. Went down to the wire and had 1 checker left at the end, so very close. Had a rematch, but soon after this game started, the Swing tournament also started and unlike Poker it is extreamly difficult to play more than 1 match simultaneously. Did my best but the distractions meant I quickly went behind in the cash game and lost too easily.

Must take the lesson onboard NOT to register for tournament then go off an play cash games in future !

The tournament started off well.... first game I offered a double and the opponent quit, even though I wasn't that far ahead. Second game had an exciting match, got doubled and went on to win. After the third game which I also won I was in the lead with the most chips and only 3 players left (out of the 6) but the stacks go up as time progresses so when I lost the next two games, I was all-in on the next game, with the winner of this match likely to take the tournament (as the third player only had a few chips left) Very exciting again, had a bit of bad luck with the dice to begin, but then managed to build a good position but it eventually came down to who got luckiest on the dice rolling by the time we were bearing off, and I lost by 1 checker again !!

Not my night tonight for Backgammon and my bankroll is back down to my starting amount of £20 so will have to start building it up again.

Great way to relax after playing poker though :-)

Computers: RSS feeds rule OK

OK, I am a sad techy and can't stop myself from getting excited about some new techy toy :-)
and it's not even new technology.... just that I found myself struggling to keep up with all the news at work and also was browsing my local council web site and found some interesting local events stuff, which I knew I would never remember to find again..... so what is the answer ? Well RSS is the answer for me on this and luckily RSS feeds are available on the sites I was looking at

What is RSS (Really Simple Syndication) well it is basically like being sent emails about new articles in a section of a web site you are interested in. It is better than email as you get a summary of the article/item and can go and look at the full article if you want to, but otherwise just scan over the articles.

All you need is a RSS reader, which you can either install as a program on your PC or via a Web Site where you use your browser as the reader. For me, a browser based RSS reader is the only way to go so looked at the following sites:-

1. http://feeds.reddit.com/ but the interface is clunky, the site is slow and you cannot even change your password (maybe I shouldn't be so fussy with a free service :-) )
2. http://www.bloglines.com/ interface seems quite good and the site looks fast. Seems to have lots of features like blogs and stuff.... but to be honest I just couldn't work out how to read my feeds after I subscribed to them so completely useless as a RSS as far as I am concerned
3. http://www.google.com/reader this is the one I am using right now. Easy to setup, quick responses and slick interface

Now I can simply login to the reader site and see a list of new articles from the sites I subscribe to, meaning I can easily keep track of local events and work related news all from one place. I guess the only downside is that I will need to login every day to keep the volume of items to scan down to a manageable level.

Mind you, I cope with about 40-50 emails every morning so I guess an extra couple of dozen messages won't make a lot of difference

If anyone knows a better browser based RSS reader let me know....

Music: recent additions

Recently added some CD's to my collection

Goldfrapp - Supernature
Took a bit of a risk buying this one, but it's OK, with couple of really good tracks.

KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Saw KT on various TV programs and liked what she played. Little disappointed with the album, most of the stuff that I hadn't heard before is a little flat and girly

Gorillaz - Demon Days
Only heard two or three tracks before I bought this album, like KT was disappointed when first heard it through, but more I play it the more I like it

Green Day - american idiot
Best of the four by far. Lots of energy, good tunes, good lyrics. Having said that, starting to wear off a little and find myself skipping one or two tracks now. Overall great album still

Apart from the four albums above, my car 6 disk changer also has The Best of Black Sabbath (double CD) To be honest, thisCD is the only reason I haven't changed the CDs in the car.... I just can't wait to hear it again and again. Olden but definately golden.....

Gambling: Backgammon

Relatively recently started playing Backgammon on the internet for Real Money, so will start to talk about it in my blog

I have always enjoyed a nice game of Backgammon, but never really understood the point of the doubling cube, so one day decided to read up on it. To my surprise it opened up a whole new world of gambling to me :-)

Of course Backgammon has been around for a heck of a long time as a game, (and doubtless people have always put some wager on the outcome) but I just never fully realised how important the doubling cube is, nor how widespread the tournaments and games are face to face and now on the internet.

I had a browse around and liked the look of http://www.gammonempire.com/ so signed up and started playing.

My first 50.00 lasted quite a while but of course drained away eventually. I just loaded another 20.00 so will post in the future about how I get on and what I think I am doing wrong (or right !)
They have an interesting ranking system, in that all players start at 1400 and win/lose one point for each game you win/lose. My current ranking is around 1300, so probably need to improve a little :-)

World Cup: Second Round: England v's Equador

I thought it was actually a good performance by England overall.... Frank Lampard still needs to be shown where the net is and Beckham should avoid Curry and beer on the evening before a match but apart from that England were quite steady and only wobbled a couple of times.

With just the one goal, there was always that nagging dount that Equador may equalise, so was full of nervous excitement (and beer!) watching the match

Portugal next, luckily they didn't seem to be running Holland ragged so should be a good next match

BTW - would you really want this image as the wallpaper on your PC ? Available from http://www.bbc.co.uk/football I think it looks really naff, yuuukkkk :-)

Poker: How long does it take to become good at Poker ?

Unfortunately I never kept records of my "Casino trip" poker tournaments, but can tell from my expense claims that my very first game of tournament Poker was the evening of 15th January 2001, in Sheffield. No, the company didn't pay for my gambling, but a work trip happily coincided with the Hold'em tournament night in the Casino near to the hotel I was staying :-) It was a £5 Pot Limit rebuy tournament and although I don't remember how I did, I do remember feeling very nervous until the game started.

I have been keeping meticulous records of my online poker games (the real money one's anyway) but have never really bothered to do any analysis of how I have been doing, so out of interest, I thought I would do a quick summary

First online game was 2nd September 2002 with Ultimate bet. It was a $15.50 buy in to a NL MTT with 160 players. I finished 25th (didn't win any money) but not too bad for a first attempt !

Quick summary (might get around to analysing further some day) as at 22nd June 2006
Ultimate Bet 390 games total loss $973
Poker Stars 17 games total loss $ 50
Ladbrokes 427 games total win $ 67
William Hill 14 games total loss $145
Party Poker 121 games total loss $ 84

My career total so far is therefore a loss of $1040 (about £562 at todays rate) over 969 games spanning nearly 4 years. Not an expensive hobby by any means, but could do better.

So why so many losses ? That I will have to analyse more, but I used to play a lot of MTT with large fields (smaller chance of winning) and also tended to play large stakes games once I built up my bankroll, so if I lost that one game then it would wipe out months of small gains.

To answer my own question "How long does it take to become good at Poker?" the answer for me seems to be more than 4 years :-)

Gambling: How to go bankrupt with Betting Exchanges

I love the idea of Betting Exchanges, it gives you that entrepreneurial feeling, like you are wheeling and dealing.... Unfortunately for me I am rubbish at it

My lessons to be learned with Betting Exchanges are not to get involved with things I know little about and you must do your basic homework !

The first time I got involved was a back in April when Betfair sent me a "free" £10 bet (actually had to deposit £10 to get the free bet) At first I bet on Football games, but didn't do any research (and don't follow football normally) so my £20 soon disappeared. It was good fun though so decided to "invest" another £50, but this time I tried to run a book on horse races. This was even more fun, but needed a lot of time to prepare, check form, monitor prices, etc... which I didn't really do properly so although I didn't have huge losses I was seeping money away again. Having dropped about half my funds, I stupidly went back to football games and dropped my remaining funds in a couple of matches...

So I learned my lesson about betting on football matches

So why this post now about Betting Exchanges.... well, Betfair sent me a "free" £5 bet... and also offered to give a separate free £10 bet as well (you can probably see where this is leading :-) ) For a £5 I will be given £20 to bet with, so the offer was too good to miss.

My first bet was to put a book on a horse race, although I got a bit excited and layed/bet on too many horses so ended up with a profit of exactly 0.00 (better than loosing I suppose)

I seem to have a fatal fascination about betting on football matches, so of course I placed a couple of bets on world cup results, both of which lost, so am back to 0.00 in my account balance again.

So I learned my lesson about betting on football matches

My lessons to be learned with Betting Exchanges are not to get involved with things I know little about and you must do your basic homework (and under no circumstances bet on Football)

:-)

Betting Exchanges are good fun so will probably fiddle around with them again, but don't think I will be making a living as a bookmaker any time soon.....