Update - WSOP still not getting anywhere...

Well i haven't been playing an awful lot in the last couple of weeks. What i have been doing when i have been playing is either playing 5 handed $20 STT for an hour on Virgin and see how much i am up or down in that time frame. I have been up every session but should have really won more. When i get down to 3 left (2 paid) i find myself being too aggressive, should i get into the money first and then try to win or is it right trying to win all the way through even if it means going out on the bubble???

I have also been playing $20 heads up games on Full tilt and Pokerstars and been doing ok.

I still haven't had confirmation from Virgin about the WSOP side event. This has been going on for a while now and the tournament is approaching rapidly...

Virgin Poker STT Challenge and South Africa

Well they posted the results for the 3rd week of the STT challenge and i came 4th with 100 points... I only played for a day and a half and thought i'd walk it... whoopsssss. I can't play next week so i'll give it a good push on the final week, not that i'm too bothered as the prize is entry to a WSOP event i'm already going to be in, i just figured i could swap one for something else!!.

I deposited some money into full tilt recently to see what it was like and to be honest, i now find all these sites to be much of a muchness... i have double my initial deposit of $100 in a couple of days so thats not bad. I have started playing short handed single table tournaments as the heads up was doing my head in a bit...

Anyway on to the holiday... I had a great time!! I started off in Cape Town for 3 days and did all the usual tourist stuff such as table mountain and Robben Island where Mandela was in prison. I met some cool people from Bristol who were over there scuba diving so spent the evenings with them. I also did the great white shark cage diving which is a must for anyone who goes to south africa, it was superb!!



After being in Cape Town i drove up the garden route to Knysna where i stayed with some friends. From there i went to a few wildlife places where i also did a cage dive with crocodiles and stroked some pussies (cheethas and lions...!!!) and also did the bungee jump off Bloukrans Bridge.. 216 metres and fucking shite myself.... If you want to see the video (from a distance it is me..honest!) please click here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmXXlgju4TA

i also did the skydive over Plettenburg Bay which was really good fun but not quite as scary as the bungee....

I then drove 8 and 1/2 hours to Bloemfontein to stay with friends of a friend i have never met... These two girls opened the door and i thought "Thank you god"". Was expecting two mingers and well see below...

Would you look at those puppies.....

Safe to say my next trip is being planned as i write this....

Virgin STT Challenge

Virgin are doing their STT challenge with 2 WSOP trips available as prizes.

The structure is slightly different to last time, there are 5 weekly winners who then play an final STT. I wasn't going to bother but then realisedi could hit the type of points needed to reach the final playing madly for only a couple of days.. i had to play non stop for a month last time...

So i am currently playing 2 5 seater STT and a heads up whilst trying to write this so i'll update later and let you know how i get on...

I'm Back

Well i'm back from south africa and had a great time.... There was loads to do and i met a load of really nice people, i'll post some videos and photos when i get myself sorted out.

I didn't play poker once whilst i was there, i have come back and got no further really with Virgin and the WSOP... I did have some communication with the poker room manager about certain games but he has not spoken to me since i told him what limits i play!!!

Virgin are running their STT tournament again until the end of may, slightly different to last time but i think i'll give it a pop anyway...

Holiday!!

Well i'm off on holiday today, i fly to Cape Town in about 6 hours and arrive early tommorrow morning.

I am spending a few days in Cape Town then going up to Knysna to stay with friends!

I've been looking at what to do and there are a few things i have booked/will book.

1. Great White Shark cage diving (might have to think about this one as my macho image just went out the window with a girlie scream and random flapping when a wasp flew in through my window...
2. Robben Island
3. Table Mountain
4. Sky dive at Plattenburg bay
5. Visit game parks
6. Visit vineyards

I'm taking my laptop so i will try and play some poker while i am away. I have had email conversations recently with the new poker room manager at Virgin. I was asked why i haven't been playing regulaly there and i explained that i didnt like the structure of their heads up games as the starting blinds were high and the levels too short. Even though i play low limits they have been really helpful in arranging this so i might give that a pop while i am away and see how i get on

Thank you Virgin Poker....

I received an email from Virgin Poker today about the prize i won to the WSOP.

I should be flying out on the 28th June to Vegas and i plan to stay for a week, probably in the Stratosphere Tower and playing in the $1500 NLHE tournament, event 49 of the WSOP.

If any of you are going to be about at the same time, please email me or post so we can maybe meet up and have a few drinks!! Also if anyone knows which casinos offer nightly good NLHE tournaments with quite low buy ins that would also be good!.

I expect i will end up getting wasted most nights when i am there as i expect to be in the tournament for about 79 seconds before being knocked out... I will probably either hire a car of fly to the grand canyon and do the Hoover Dam and all the touristy shite...

I just hope i don't get drunk and end up marrying some dodgy ugly american tart in one of the local chapels, but saying that, i think Brittany Spears will still be in rehab...

Lets take a break from Poker!

NO Francesco... I believe it was seven ONE.....

Rakeback

I'm not sure what to do...

I keep thinking that i need to play at a site that offers me a good rakeback deal.. however...

At the moment i am only playing $20 + $1 heads up sit and go's on Pokerstars. I really like this game on Pokerstars and do much better than playing the same stakes on boss, mainly due to the structure i think..

Now Pokerstars don't offer rakeback bu i can get for example 33% on other sites. I play on average 120 games or so a month so that works out at $40 or so that i could get in rakeback. I make around $300 - $400 a month playing on Pokerstars at $20 heads up sit and go's.

Is it worth changing Poker sites and risk not winning as much just to get the 33% rakeback of $40????

Things people say playing poker that i hate number 1

"Yes but they were suited"

Aaaaarrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Wembley

We went to the new Wembley Stadium on saturday to watch the england under 21's play Italy under 21's. I was disappointed by it to be honest... Now not to be bigheaded, i go to Old Trafford every other week and even though they cram you in like sardines, it is a nice stadium with good concession stands, TV's all over the place etc etc. We walked into Wembley and, even though the concourse was big, there wasn't anything there really. I was expecting state of the art surroundings with escalators etc and there was none of that, or just not where i was. The concession stands where staffed by idiots (as in every stadium) We went down for a pint at half time (well 42 minutes into the 1st half), were 3rd in the queue and got served as the teams were coming back out, and missed 3 goals.... From the outside the stadium looks nice, pretty boring neutral coulours, and you do have a lot of space in your seat.. Could i see where 750 Million went?? No... They will soon get that all back though, especially charging £5.60 for a hot dog...

On to Poker!!

Well i've decided to stop playing today, am only $50 down but seem to having one of those days where you get outdrawn every hand. AK v AQ etc etc...

I am having quite a good month, am now $415 up in March. In a previous post i spoke about when it all became real money.. I have now started using the profits i win to buy stuff i like rather than have it sitting in my poker account!!

I pulled out £200 the other week to buy a TV stand for the 32" LCD i won on Virgin, me and my mum have decided to go to Moscow in October to watch the Russia v England Euro2008 qualifier (might change my mind after saturday) and have paid for the £150 return flight (bargain!) with Poker winnings. I am also going to use my free flight with Virgin Poker to go to Shanghai in August, i only need to pay the taxes which is about £125 which i will pay for from my winnings..

So poker is good for me at the moment, flights paid to Moscow and Shanghai by the fish on Pokerstars, and free trip to the WSOP in June with Virgin!!

Poker Profit....

I've been playing poker for a couple of years now. Even from the start i have been a bit of a cautious player. Not in the games themselves but more in the stakes i play.

I started playing STT which i still play, At first it was $3 games then $5 then $10 and now i play $20 games (I did have a pop at $50 games and got a pasting so moved back down!!). Since finding the sharkscope website it has amazed me the amount people LOSE playing poker? When i moved up limits i lost about a third of my bankroll and immediately dropped levels. It amazes me the people that play limits and lose and keep playing higher limits. Now i fully understand that for me to WIN i need these players playing and if everyone won then nobody would ever win if that makes sense...

Looking at the players i have played today at heads up $20 STT here are the stats:

Games played Total Profit

169 $349
92 -$263
37 -$45
5234 -$28,871 (i mean come on....)
94 - $209
275 - $5,320
755 - $2,013
42 $188
796 -$1,987

I always argue with people about poker saying it is different to other forms of gambling sue to the skill levels involved and that you can't really lose if you manage your bankroll accurately..

This does actually make me feel good about my Poker, i profit, not huge amounts but i know exactly how much and know to adjust if things go wrong.

Flopping a Straight Flush....

I was playing earlier and the following hand occured...

PokerStars Game #8899057663:
Tournament #45257507, $20+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2007/03/14 - 13:35:03
(ET)Table '45257507 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: englishgc (1600 in chips)
Seat 2: United113 (1400 in chips)
United113: posts small blind 10
englishgc: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to United113 [8c Tc]
United113: calls 10englishgc: checks *** FLOP *** [9d Td 7d]
englishgc: checks
United113: bets 60englishgc: calls 60
*** TURN *** [9d Td 7d] [3s]englishgc: checks
United113: bets 100englishgc: calls 100
*** RIVER *** [9d Td 7d 3s] [2s]
englishgc: bets 180
United113: calls 180
*** SHOW DOWN ***englishgc: shows [8d Jd] (a straight flush, Seven to Jack)

Now apart from the bad call by me on the river (this guy had been putting loads of river bluffs all game though and i had top pair!!) I have never seen it before when someone had hit a straight flush on the flop..

He was holding Jack Eight of diamonds

Flop 9 10 7 diamonds...

Now i am NOT great at working out probabilities.. but he could only hit 9 10 7 diamonds or 9 10 queen of diamonds to make this... 48 cards in the deck and to hit the exact THREE cards you need????

Does anyone have a clue of the odds of this?? Has anyone seen this before???

Poker, it's a funny old game...

I've been thinking lately about Poker and how it's a funny game...

I was watching Ben Grundy on Sky Sports last night playing against Ram Vaswani, Antonio Esfandiari and some others at the William Hill poker open. Now i'm not going to say i know ben at all, but I read his blog ( http://milkybarkids.blogspot.com/ )and check for updates every day, and have posted comments on their and have had replies back. Also Matt Broughton http://thewasterblog.blogspot.com/ who is the editor of flush magazine and presenter on Poker Night Live, again i have had blog conversations with him both on blogger and on the Virgin Poker blog. Both are level headed and down to earth and both, especially Ben have great results at Poker. Ben finalled tables at the EPT final in Monte Carlo, i saw him on TV playing at the WSOP on the same table as Mike Matusow and he makes loads of money playing both holdem and omaha on the internet, i believe he is also sponsored by betfair or was. Which other sports with people at the same level as this, would bother to write a blog and respond to comments left by others???? Can you see Wayne Rooney writing er..well anything.. sorry bad example.... Can you see Steven gerrard writing a blog every few days about how he is doing at football? and respond back to comments people make? I doubt it..

There is also the money aspect. Recently in the Carlinbg Cup final, arseholes and chelski players kicked off at the end of the game in a pretty worthless cup competition (only worthless if united DON''T win it..!!) and then the reserves of the same two teams kicked off again the other night. Now thses players get paid well and are playing a game of football. In Poker, someone might bust you out of tournament say at the WSOP Main event final table heads up, $12 million 1st prize and say $6 Million second prize, if one guy gets a really bad beat and loses, he would get up and shake his opponents hand (apart from Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth that is) Now even though he has won a load in theory he lost a load as well.

I have a plan... Get Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Ricardo Carvalho, Arjen Robben, Michael Ballack, Emmanuele Addebayor, Robin van Persie, Gilberto Silva, Kolo Toure and Jens Lehman round a poker table and wait for the sparks to fly...

Virgin Poker V Points

It's all daft really....

Virgin Poker offer V points for every raked hand or tournament entry on Virgin Poker. V Points can be transferred for all sorts including Virgin Atlantic flying club miles.

I had earned a few thousand V Points then entered a V point free role and won 5,000. I was then issued 5,000 V points after the delivery of a 32" LCD TV i had won was delayed!! So i had about 16,000 Points. Virgin Poker than offered a promotion that you received double Virgin Atlantic flying club miles if you transferred the V points in December... 32,000 Flying Club miles. I then finished 14th in a huge freerole and won 14,000 V points so i had 51,000 Virgin Atlantic flying club miles.

I then checked the Virgin Website and they are offering a 20% discount to use your miles!!!!!

So for 48,000 Miles i can get free return flights to Tokyo, Shanghai or Delhi and for around 40,000 i can get free return flights to the carribean, anywhere in the US and to many other places!!

Not bad for a free offer!!!

I also have found a website called sharkscope that lets you see the total results on certain sites(pokerstars etc). I have been quite surprised with the results people have. I have always thought that everyone would move up and down limits depending on profit. I play $20 heads up sit and go's which isn't high limits at all but there are also $10, $5 and $3 games. So many people have lost loads of money and still play $20 games.. It makes no sense to me? At least it seems that i do quite well.

My sharkscope stats show:

Games Played - 290
Average Profit - $2
Average Stake - $21
Average ROI - 14%
Total Profit - $610

It's the ROI i like though. I have checked alot of the pro's and my ROI is the highest i have seen (even though the pros make more money, the stakes are higher)

Here are the stats for Greg Raymer

Games Played - 110
Average Profit - $9
Average Stake - $635
Average ROI - 3%
Total Profit - $1035

And Chris Moneymaker

Games Played - 345
Average Profit - $13
Average Stake - $395
Average ROI - 3%
Total Profit - $1035

Interesting!!!