Yoshi's Poker blog

Still in profit since October

2008-06-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

After some ups and downs, I've managed to stay liquid.

I've learned a lot but still did the stupid thing and donked $650 at the NL5/10 recently which hurt my bankroll.

Still, I'm doing OK. Staying out of trouble and getting more value from my big hands.

Today I decided to flat with A3o with 3 limpers. I normally throw that trash but say it on an instruction video it's OK to limp. Well I flop the straight, I bet, he raises, I shove a massive overbet. He calls and shows trips. My hand holds up and I get $450 pot shipped...yeee haa! The player was pretty tight. I figured he might lay down an overpair like 77 or 88. He couldn't lay down his trips.

FTOPS $2M mtt

2008-05-16T08:49:00.000-07:00

It's looking like $354K for first prize in the FTOPS. That could pay my mortgage + more. And it's tax free whoppee!

I've got 24000 FTP points - that's enough to play 2x12000ftp sattelites. 1 winner, 9 runners = tik first prize.

Still getting hammered

2008-03-26T08:53:00.001-07:00

Not played a helluva lot but getting hammered every time I do.

Last MTT got it in with JJ to run into 10/10. And of course 10/10 made a straight by the river....aaaaargh

Up and down, up and down

2007-12-12T02:03:00.000-08:00

This internet poker thing is just a yoyo...exploting the difference between winning and losing is the key. I still have a balance since October, and am employing bankroll management (5% max. I take to each table).

Still the up and downs depress me....

A top tip - keep your laptop data backed up!

2007-10-22T03:56:00.001-07:00

My laptop went down, kebang. I've wrote a post here but essentially I couldn't play poker and thought I had lost my passwords. As explained in the post above, 123 Data Recovery saved my bacon and did a great data recovery job, fixing my laptop and replacing my hard drive with all data intact.

On a poker note, have been playing at William Hill - dropped £100, played some sng/tourneys and cash and am now at £250. Let's see how it goes, the tables seem soft.

The big crash in funds

2007-07-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

Going from $7800 to $1300 was no fun.

A massive landslide.

Some of the hands were very hard to get away from.

I grinded it back up to $2300 today, after nearly throwing the towel in.

Seems I'm leaking some chips and need to work on my game a little more.

Calling a lot less hands also.

The home-game, 11 manned

2007-06-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, it sucked this week. 11 players didn't help. The button took forever to get round the table.

Went all in

- on gutshot straight on 4th st. Only did so because (a)rebuy hour (b) 3 other players already in the pot committed (c) if I hit, I would defo win. Anyway, no surprise I lost.

- other two times K10 suited and something else....ran into AA both times!!! And lost of course....

- All in on A8 offsuit, up against A10 offsuit, spiked an 8 and actualy won that hand.

Finished 7th, spent £50. Urgh!

Ach well, finished 1-2-1 previous visits. With the turbo-blind stucture, if you don't get lucky you don't get paid.

Ross won in the end.

Full Tilt Experiment

2007-06-06T07:21:00.000-07:00

I've decided to play the 5/10 tables at Fulltiltpoker.com

Supposedly where the best pros play etc, I'm figuring it's less rigged.

And indeed it is, the high stakes is more what I'm comfortable with.

Played 5 sessions - first session ended around $1200. 2nd session $1700. Then 4th session I finished $2900.

Sadly 5th session this AM, I took a heavy hit on my JJJ being beaten by a straight....$1000.

So at the end I ended $1740. Still $540 up on my start...

Online poker at higher stakes is not rigged?

2007-05-30T06:39:00.000-07:00

Sadly, no place for me to graft hard at cash games and build a bankroll. Tournaments are too much of a crap shoot, particularly towards the end.

I was talking to a good (poker) friend...he says the 2/4 ante tables are not so rigged. I've been watching the 5/10 tables - the standard of play is akin to a higher stake cash game mostly, just the odd donkey. Buy in seems to be $1K min.

On the 5/10 tables, possible flushes reared their heads most of the time on the flop - distinct lack of rainbows. However, these flushes didn't hit that often from when I was watching which would be fairer.

To conclude - maybe the flops are juiced for action more, but the hole cards were folded a lot suggestioning the hole cards not so hot. 4th st and the river didn't seem as juiced either. I will continue to study....

My first quads live

2007-05-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

It took some time, but I hit quad 9s earlier this week in a live game. True I've hit them before playing heads up years ago but not in a bigger cash game.

I had to call a fairly big raise with 99.

The flop came with Q49. Two hearts. I figured I'd play it risky and checked.

James raised, I re-raised all in and he was then pot committed.

I don't even remember what he had as the case 9 appeared.

Overall I finished 2nd from 9 places. Not bad result but no match in heads up against the chip leader.

WSOP fever

2007-05-14T02:17:00.000-07:00

The WSOP Main Event looms closer....my satellite is scheduled for beginning of June...50 runners, 1 prize of $18000 for the winner, part of which is the 10K entry ticket to WSOP.

Needless to say I fancy my chances at 25 to 1 as I'm going to employ the strategy of survival for the first half....but we'll see what happens.

Trip 7s demolished

2007-04-05T01:31:00.000-07:00

I had 77 in the hole.

Flop comes 7 + two spades.

I figure I have to bet to stop any potential flush.

So I bet, about x1.5 the pot.

1 player calls.

Next card a blank.

So I move all in - if the board pairs I got a full house and the odds are around 35% on another spade coming out.

As I played an amateur, he called.

And the flush arrived. Sick.

The Aim of this blog

2007-03-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

....is to chart my poker progress.

The game - Texas Hold Em No Limit
The Venue - live or Internet

After several weeks of good play and good results, last week has been rough.

At the 9-player Monday Fife game, I started loose play during the rebuy period.

Doubled up 1st hand. The 2nd time in a row I've done it. Chip count was an instant 3.5K courtesy of Shugster.

2nd hand, moved all in with AJ offsuit, was taken out by a pair from Shugster.

Kept moving and shaking up to about 4K, but lost on a draw.

Still no rebuy, going into the freezeout session I had 1500 in chips. Basically level from start. Topped up to 3000 in chips. Now I had to wait for my moment....

Hole cards came eventually, I had about 2600 in chips an AA pre-flop.

Moved all in, James called with 88 and Gary with 44. Ross already folded A8 so that reduced the outs.

James had 1 out and 6.8% chance of hitting an 8. And he did, to give him 888.

My aces were defeated....poop!

All downhill from there, couldn't get moving in the Be A Pro freeroll all week, out 3rd hand in WPT qualifier and then did $75 on Bodog. Bodog sucks. It's profiled me as someone who's hustling and deals me juicy cards like 10/10, KK, QQ, AK and they lost EVERY time.

So I'm taking it easy this week. It's just a rough week for poker.