Poker: Financial results for July 2011

July was a bit disjointed due to my Brighton UKIPT trip, but I’m not complaining !

My June results had been a bit disappointing overall but despite my best intentions at the end of June, didn’t really do any catching up on my learning activities that I’d planned in July either ! 

Plan

My monthly targets are:
- Play 1000 hands of cash on NLHE $0.50, 1000 cash hands on PLO $0.20 and 500 cash hands of PLO8 $0.20 (all 6-max) with profit target of 2 BB per hour. ($16.00 for NLHE, $6.40 for PLO, $3.20 for PLO8 = $25.60 per month)
- Play 20 STT hoping for 10% ROI (around $20 per month)

Monitor

Overall results for the month:-

Pokerstars :    -$3.38 (normal play)
                       :   -£33.00 (EPT satellites)
Black Belt Poker: +$52.04 (+£32.50)
Live play  :  +£750.00

The live results were a £10 overall profit from Farnborough Club, but most from my UKIPT Brighton trip   Obviously can’t rely on a big live tournament cash every month, so although I’m over the moon about my result, it is a rare and lucky big win for me.  Hopefully I will be able to have another crack at EPT or UKIPT, although might have to wait until next year!

My Pokerstars results consisted of 7x STT of 8 game, with one win and one second place, plus one try at EPT Satellite for London.  I’ve decided to allocate £200 to try and qualify for EPT, so fingers crossed for that attempt

My BBP results break down as follows:

• Cash results (+£42.35 profit overall)

NL Holdem ($0.50)  1224 hands   +£34.48
PL Omaha  ($0.20)   568 hands   +£ 7.87

• Tournament Results (-£9.85 loss overall)

7x MTT             +£24.93
1x 2 seat STT   -£12.89 
2x 6 seat STT   +£ 4.40
8x 10 seat STT -£26.29

Reflect

I am able to hit my NL HE target number of hands in one session, so was able to do that this month and was pretty pleased with my play overall.    

Am also pretty happy with my play on PLO but am still having one or two blow-up hands where I do something stupid and drop a buy-in which I then spend the rest of the session trying to recover from .     I just need to concentrate more and avoid these silly mistakes.   

The tournaments were again pretty low volume, but again am overall happy with my play.   As with my cash play however, I also sometimes have the odd blow-up on a hand, especially if the other player is pretty loose.   I think it may be something I have to sit and think about more afterwards (if I do it again!)

As with the June, I was again struggling to get a consistent playing routine with everything else going on….

Adjust

August should be a more “normal” month so hope to get back to my normal playing routine for the first four weeks at least.  (I know already that September will be hosed)

Having said that, I am going to be trying to qualify for EPT with at least another 5 MTT Satellite games during August/September and also the WCOOP satellites have started so may get distracted there to !  

On top of all that, I still need to spend some of my “Poker time” catching up on self-learning as I have put this to one side the last few months !

It’s going to be busy, but hopefully will manage to organise my time to fit it all in.

References

January 2011 results http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/259109/sceaga/Financial-results-for-January-2011
February 2011 results http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/294043/sceaga/Financial-Results-for-February-2011
March 2011 results http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2011/04/poker-financial-results-for-march-2011.html
April 2011 results http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2011/04/poker-financial-results-for-april-2011.html
May 2011 results http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2011/06/poker-financial-results-for-may-2011.html
June 2011 results http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2011/06/poker-financial-results-for-june-2011.html

General: Bathroom finished !

Hoorah, our bathroom is finished

Since last weekend, progress has been swift:

Virtually everything was finished by Friday evening, so we were able to use our nice new shower over the weekend at least.  We were only missing a handle off the bathroom cabinet draw and the lights plus the extractor fan and bathroom cabinet power.  The only small problem we had was a small leak through the shower screen when we used the shower, but certainly was only a dribble so should be able to solve that one.

The sparky came in on Monday (25th July) and did the power, plus the fitters came back and finished off all the other bits and pieces, so we are now officially finished….

We have to leave some of the bits to dry before using, so will move in properly tomorrow (and test the shower doesn't leak anymore) but are very happy with how things have gone and the look and function of the new bathroom so far.

Overall the project seemed to be managed (and/or hindered ) by Jim from Stone & Chrome but the fitters certainly did a good job and were very helpful, friendly and efficient.

The materials and fittings feel high quality and nice to touch/use so can’t wait to get moved back in and use everything in our normal daily routine.

General: Bathroom progress

Compared to the new kitchen, the bathroom is relatively straightforward      The planning stages were quicker and easier, there are no appliances to buy and being smaller room is only taking 2 weeks to install !

They started last Monday and had more or less stripped it all out by the time we went away Tuesday to miss a lot of the mess.  

On our return Sunday were pleased to see a decent amount of progress.

Apparently they are still on schedule for finishing the end of the week, so are keeping fingers crossed as it’s a bit weird not having a bath or shower.

Poker: my first UKIPT trip

Having just come back from UKIPT in Brighton, which was my first UKIPT, thought I would do a brief summary of my experiences.

The actual detail of the play is pretty much already on my twitter updates so won’t repeat here

The only reason I was able to enter the UKIPT was due to a nice win on a previous Casino trip, so was very much looking at the UKIPT entry as a “once in a lifetime” sort of event as I don’t have the bankroll to buy in at £560 on a regular basis. 

Having got my entry funds ready, I decided to research Brighton’s hotels, etc and get something booked early.   I know a lot of people wouldn’t bother until nearer the time, but Brighton was very busy with all sorts of events and most B&B I walked past seemed to have “No vacancies” sign out.   The Brighton tourist information web site had good research material and googling “brighton hotel reviews” found some useful review sites such as http://www.brightonlife.com/hotels.html

I also need to get the time off work, which as it turned out was quite tricky but managed to sort it out in the end!  Finally I had to research car parking ,as it is very expensive to park.   as it happens, Lynn’s blue badge came to the rescue and we can park for free on the road in front of our hotel   Certainly for those paying for car parking will probably find it a bit trickier to find cheap parking for a few days but the Brighton & Hove Council Parking web site was very useful.

Despite having the buy-in already in the bank, I decided to try and qualify through the Satellite games.   The thing I needed to ensure was not to spend more than a buy-in by trying to qualify, so checked the satellite schedules and worked out how many attempts at each level to try.  In the end I budgeted £110 although only ended up spending £106.50 (without success) and end up buying in about a week before the event via my Pokerstars account.

At last the big day arrives and I turned up at the Hotel for the game.   There was a UKIPT desk in the hotel lobby area so got directed to the correct location for the Poker.  There were three desks to register at and quickly found out what was needed and got my registration sorted out.    Half hour before the game kicked off, I was able to get my table/seat number so was ready to go.  You do need to remember to bring Photo ID with you though, but drivers license is OK so not a big deal.  Also need to bring on Day 2 as well…else you don’t get to sit down!

The only slight oddity of the event (which didn’t effect me though) was that there was no facilities for accepting cash or card on site for entry to the side events.  You could walk 10 mins up the road to the G Casino and then register for the event, then walk back… but just seemed odd way to have it.  If you have funds in your Pokerstars account, then you can use that to buy-in at the venue, so maybe that’s the thing to do…

Back to the main event and was very impressed by the dealers and floor staff.   It was very well organized and ran smoothly.   Any floor disputes seemed to be resolved well and everyone seemed to be in the right place at the right time.  

The structure was pretty good as well….  one hour clock, 15k starting chips and blinds starting at 25/50 there is plenty of play.  Around 250 players on Day 1a and about 350 odd on Day 1b so is well attended.  81 places pay out.  

You can follow live updates on all the action on the Pokerstars Blog at http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/tournaments/ukipt/season-2-3/brighton-1/ which is pretty cool (esp. when you get some mentions and a piccy   http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/ukipt/2011/ukipt-brighton-day-12-level-17-updates-b-085158.html)

At the end of day one, you bag up your chips and leave on the table, so you don’t need to think too much!

Coming back for day two, there were pay-out structures and seat assignments posted to the walls around the room, so was easy to find where you needed to be and how much you were going to be paid (for the lucky few )

The pay out itself is also very efficient, as you get escorted from your table to the pay-out desk, show ID again, fill out a form for you to sign and that’s it!  I chose to have the funds put into my Pokerstars account but was other options

I ended up spending £106.50 on satellites, £560 to buy-in but was lucky enough to win £1400.  After leaving £100 tip for the dealers, I therefore ended up in profit for the event of £633.50 which is a great result and am well pleased.

In conclusion, I felt the tournament was very well organised, well planned and they made it very easy for the players, even those for whom it was their first event.   Overall a great event and am sure would still be saying that even if I hadn’t won any money

Holiday: Una Hotel–Brighton

For our Brighton holiday, decided to stay at Una Hotel

I picked the hotel as it was right by the Metropole where I was playing Poker, but was also very handy for the town centre and was literally a stones throw from the beach.  As we found during the week, the location couldn’t really have been better, being right by the (derelict) West Pier

The staff were very friendly and knowledgeable and were more than happy to help.

The facilities in the hotel are limited to the bar, but is open 24 hours (as is the reception) and the bar staff certainly knew how to mix up the cocktails!  

Breakfast was relatively basic, but was very nice and plentiful.  

As the hotel is a Georgian terrace house, all the rooms are different.   The room we picked was “Maja” which was very comfortable and just about big enough for the two of us and having the King size bed was a nice luxury.

The downsides to the hotel were firstly the tiny shower room, which was really too small to be comfortable in, but just about did the job.   There was also a lot of noise at all hours with guests coming up the stairs or lift and/or moving around their room.  I guess this is due to the nature of the house and lack on modern sound proofing.   The other issue isn’t really the hotels fault, (other than a lack of double glazing) but the seagulls were pretty noisy and seemed to have random screeching competitions at random times during the night and early hours of the morning.   I have never heard such a racket at any other coastal location!

Overall, we very much enjoyed our stay and were glad we picked the Una hotel.  Would certainly be happy to stay there again.

Holiday: Holiday in Brighton

Tuesday
On way to Brighton, had great idea to pop into Caterham Cars to take a look.   Sadly, Lynn took one look and declared she wasn't going to be able to sit in it...so have crossed Caterham off my car list

We also stopped at National Trust Wakehurst Place and had nice walk around the house & gardens and had lovely picnic sitting at one of the viewpoints.  Didn’t realize it was run by Kew Gardens so the gardens were spectacular (if you’re into that sort of thing)

Arrived in Brighton around 2:30pm and found our hotel.   Starting to spit as we go out for a walk, but have a nice cup of tea & cake.  

Walked up to the pier and back, getting back to the room around 5:30pm with a worn out Lynn!  Went out for dinner, ending up at Harry Ramsdens for our Fish & Chips, then back to the smallest pub in Brighton for a drink.

Wednesday

Had a disturbed night due to the “elephants” in the hotel, but mainly the Seagulls screaming at around 3:30am.  The awake at 7am when Lynn woke from her deep, uninterrupted sleep (lucky her!)  Had a nice breakfast, then out around 9am.   It was cloudy but warm, so had a walk around the shops, had a coffee, then wandered around North Laine area, then back down to the beach for a nice rest and ate our lunch there.

We then decided to walk up to the Marina, but is actually quite a long walk, so ended up getting the bus back to the east pier!    The approach to the marina itself is pretty grotty and looks like a 1960’s car park, but once inside the boundary is more what you expect.

Having got back from the Marina we needed another sit and rest with a nice cup of tea, before walking along the beach and then back to the hotel.   We found the car had a parking ticket, as it seems I parked in a residents bay rather than a pay and display bay, but will appeal that one as it was very confusing signage!

We decided to go see Bridesmaids at the local cinema (just up the road) which was very good… we both enjoyed the film, and is well worth seeing.    As we got out late, just had a Burger King for supper (really pushing the culinary boundaries )

Thursday
It’s Poker day 1 today but woke up tired, due to noisy hotel until midnight, then noisy Seagulls at 5am, then Lynn woke up at 7am.  We were up and out by 9am again, but this time it’s a lovely sunny day so went down to sit on the beach.   Had a small walk, then found lunch in the Italian Kitchen restaurant on the sea front.  It was OK, if a little un-imaginative, but wasn’t all that hungry with the pre-game nerves starting to kick in.

Went back to the room and got ready around 1pm and went to play Poker… with Lynn going off into The Lanes for her shopping trip.   Lynn didn’t buy anything as she was worn out and ended up sitting on the beach most of the afternoon.

I got back to the room around 2am

Friday
Woken up around 7:30am but managed to get a lie in until 8:30am.  Had a nice Full English breakfast and we were off to the beach for 10am to relax.  We had taken out full beach regalia with us this time as it was another glorious day, just a bit windy.  Luckily we had our chairs and wind break to make ourselves comfy and relax. 

Had a small walk around midday to find something for lunch, then went on the open top tour bus.  It was very busy, but worth doing as you do get to see a lot of the city quite quickly and easily.  The ticket is also valid for 48 hours so you can hop on and off as much as you like.

After all that excitement we needed and Ice Cream and rest on the beach again.   It was getting quite windy so got our chairs and windbreak out again and had a nice long rest.

For dinner we ended up in Pizza Hut ! then had a drink in the hotel bar before getting an early night

Saturday
Awake 7am after a lovely long sleep (at last!) although still feeling tired.   It’s day 2 for Poker and the weather is very windy and raining hard, so after breakfast go the short distance to the undercover shopping area.  It was heaving, so seems everyone had the same idea!

After a good look around we had a quick lunch before heading back to the room to get ready for Poker.

I wasn’t expecting to last very long, so Lynn came in with me and planned to go see Harry Potter film when I busted out.

As it turned out, I lasted until around 1:30am so Lynn had to amuse herself again.

Sunday
Woken up around 7am but don’t want to get out of bed   Have another Full English breakfast to build up the energy levels again and are out of the room homeward bound by around 10am.

Although the main reason for the visit to Brighton was the Poker, we certainly both felt we had a nice mini holiday as well… particularly the hot and sunny days we had!     It was a lovely break and although I don’t feel rested and refreshed, was glad we went and definitely enjoyed it!

Will do the same thing next year perhaps…

General: The Bull Inn

On way back from Reading last night, we stopped off at The Bull Inn in Arborfield for our Dinner

We’ve been there for Sunday Lunch a year or so ago, but was obviously under new management as all the staff seemed to be French !

Despite them being fairly well booked, we got a table.  The menu was varied and was mostly traditional English dishes, but also had a few specials.   The food was excellent and service impeccable, despite the ambiance being like a normal food pub. 

It was about £10 for a main course and £5 for pudding, but certainly felt we got value for money and an excellent experience.

Will certainly go there again as there were several dishes and deserts I’d like tot try out!

Cars: Test driving a Morgan

Went to Richard Thorne Classic Cars to test drive a Morgan 4/4 last night.

I’ve always been intrigued by the Morgan, but always thought of them as a retired gent’s sports car… I’m not retired, but am now an “old git” so feel it might be time to buy one !    Obviously if I was allowed to buy a Lotus, then I’d not likely be looking at Morgan, but hey…

The driving experience is a bit weird, but kindof in a good way.  Even at 50mph, it felt like I was doing a 4 wheel drift round some of the corners.    I expect you either fall in love with a Morgan or sell it within 12 months !   

My main hesitations to buying one are really the price (they are a bit pricey for what you get) and also the weather proofing (as I would be using it all year… and there are lots of holes and flappy bits around the doors and roof)

On the plus side, you can trick them up over time with motorsport bits and bobs.. I saw a full race spec (road legal) equivalent of the model I would buy… with adjustable dampers, tweaks to the engine, exhaust, etc.etc..  and is something you can add on over time (that would be my birthday and Xmas pressies sorted for the foreseeable future)

Overall, I am still looking favourably at the Morgan so is a definite contender.    Gonna take a look at Caterham next as it’s a direct competitor (and a bit cheaper)

Poker: Home Tourney–July 2011

Twelve eager players saw the start of the second half of the season.  With only 10 points separating the top 7,  the league is still wide open.

Turned out I was on the tight table.  During the rebuy period, it took until mid-way through the second level before anyone needed a buy-in, at which point the other table had 18 buy-ins!   Whoever got through to the final table was going to have their work cut out to catch up!!

I was playing a fair number of hands in the early stages, and was a bit up and down.  I grinded away and built my chips up to around 5k, then dropped a couple of thousand to Steve W when we both made a flush with four clubs on the board, my Qc not good enough to beat his Ac (I knew he had it, just couldn’t get away )   Overall, I generally had something I thought was good enough when betting out, although did take a few liberties as well         This set me up nicely for the break, putting me on about average chips

After the break, the cards came for me on the first hand when I raised A-A and Jock re-raised then called my all-in with Q-Q  My Aces held up and Jock was out first.    Simultaneously, alex was busy on the other table and took out Sean and Bill on the same hand.   It wasn’t long before we had our final table, when Derek knocked out Andy…. who was out the door before I had even realised he was out!  

I’m UTG with A-Jh on the first hand of the final table, so make a raise   Simon on the button and Lee in the SB call.   The flop is low and rainbow, but this doesn’t stop me cBetting when Lee checks to me,.. Simon folds, but Lee calls.   The turn is also low but another heart, giving me the nut flush draw, but when Lee checks decide to bet out, only for Lee to re-raise all-in.  I’m pretty sure I’m behind and not getting odds to draw for the flush, so fold.  Lee shows a straight, so had made a poor call on the flop but played the turn well.

Sadly this put’s me under pressure, especially as I can’t play my blinds and am pretty short.   I see A-9h and decide to shove (about 12 BB) Steve W calls me and sure enough am way behind to his A-J.  Lady luck intervenes though, and I manage to spike a 9 and double up, leaving Steve one of the short stacks.

With the blinds going up, I am soon down to about 15 BB again so make a move with A-2c when Lee limps, raising to 4000.  Jon is in the BB with 4'300 chips and shoves all-in, Lee folds so although I’m way behind Jons A-Q I was getting the odds to call.   Luckily for me (again!)  I spike a 2 and manage to dodge Jon’s outs so take Jon out and get an average chip stack.

It doesn’t all go my way, when down to 5 players, I raise A-3o against Simon’s BB only for him to shove all-in.   Despite having put in 1/3 of my stack, I can’t call and he shows A-K to confirm my feeling of being well behind.   Simon goes on a bit of a run himself and starts hitting flops and quickly goes from short stack to joint chip lead.

Down to four players and I’m shoving my 3 BB UTG   Lee umms and ahhhs but takes a chance to try and win my bounty, showing his 7-5 against my Q-7   What goes around, comes around and the first card that hit’s the flop is a 5 which is good enough to take me out in 4th and Lee gets another bounty (he took out Derek as well)   

Derek is down to 1.5 BB but goes on a run and gets it up to about 4 BB before being taken out by Lee, who also takes out Simon the next hand to take a well fought victory and his second cash on two attempts this year!

Well done all, it was a great game and very enjoyable as normal.

Cars: Goodwood Festival of Speed

Last time we went to Goodwood Festival of Speed was 3 years ago (didn’t know it was that long ago!)

We only decided on the Friday that we were going Sunday, so all a bit rushed.   We left home around 8:30am but hit huge traffic jam before Petworth but otherwise was pretty clear.  In the end we got there about 10:30am.  with Lynn’s blue badge we were luckily able to park in the disabled parking area and got a lift to the gate    Sadly we had to queue for about half hour to collect our tickets on the gate but got through eventually.

We had a nice walk about and good look at lots of cars   then had lunch, looked at some more cars, had a snack and cup of tea, looked at more cars then had another cup of tea…. so a brilliant day    Lynn was worn out by about 3pm, so we ended up leaving early, but we did at least miss the traffic going home.

The only small problem I had was that I recorded some video on my phone of some great sounding sports cars going out to race, but seems I didn’t save it !   Bit annoying but means I’ll have to go again to re-do the recording   Got some photos of them though…

We didn’t get time to look at many cars going up the hill itself, so (as every year we go) I think next time we need to go for a weekend, one day walking around and one day watching the hill climb !!

Anyways, here’s a few more random pictures of the event………