Corkeye's ramblings

Plan: time to take a break from live pokers,

corkeye — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:10:43 +0000

After a few more trips to the local card room dusk till dawn without success for several months (and very few times in recent times that I feel i've come away and thought i've played anything like my 'A game'), I've decided its time to take a break from casino poker at least for the next month. Within February i'm going to work through 'the mental game of poker' book in my spare time, I may watch some videos again, and only play a little online (nothing like my usual grind, but I will play a few hours).

I feel if I only play a small sample, it'll allow me to spend some time reflecting on sessions, post a few hands, etc, and get my A game back on track. Quality and not quantity is the idea here. In my few years of playing this game, my successes, be it a live tourney cash or a deep run in an online MTT always seems to fall along the times that i've put more into game when i'm not playing, but reflecting on concepts, hands, etc.

I feel that live especially i'm simply feeling a little 'burnt out' TBH. On the short drive back from the card room over the last few months i've said to myself "why did I play that hand/those hands so badly when I know I should have folded?" or "I really need to take a break from there as I keep donating and its showing no sign of going away". Its when you have these inner monologues that really it gets to the stage that you need to take time away from it.

Not only that, but i'm going to stop playing my usual tourneys when I do return, i'm simply going to try online sattelites into bigger live events each month. That way, I can get into better structured/juicier prize pools than I'm currently playing for cheaper, and if I don't, i've only spent a few £ trying, rather than 3 trips / month that is costing me considerably more.

I feel my plan is logical and I know deep down I should have done this long before now, before Christmas in fact.

Anyway, let's see how this goes.

GOGOGOGOGO. :)

dusk till dawn nottingham, the grand prix

corkeye — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:31:59 +0000

Pretty excited that dtd are running the grand prix again, starting this saturday. Ive bought in for the saturday day 1, but there are day ones running for 7 days! If you're successful (ie you have chips at close of play day 1) you go to the day two which is the following sat, and then final day is sunday.

For a little under 60 pounds the prize pool is E100,000 which frankly is incredible (dunno why they have done it in euros if you're wondering).

The gnt is pretty massive, and if i'm honest, perhaps a little ambitious for this time of year? Surely January is the month that people save money. That said, I was surprised to see the new £500 tournament smash their guarrantee last weekend BUT that was a weekend comp, this grand prix has the majority of it's day ones during the week days, so I guess their marketting should be geared towards the students and the weekday degens! :)

Being a regular down there I notice that they seem to always stretch their prizepools massively and often fail to hit them so obviously have to cough up the difference themselves, which surely is -ev business wise. But if it means a bit of overlay, hey i'm not complaining.

The structure is dead good too for the buy in - 40 min levels, 15k starting stack. Sort of structure you get for much higher comps. The Grand Prix generates a really fun atmosphere at the club too, you get people making the trip from everywhere in the UK, and those peeps are obvs dead excited as its like a mini holiday for them. DTD is actually 1 of the friendliest poker clubs i've played in, yes you have regs in there, but its not 100% cliquey, people talk to you and the staff are dead helpful too. Well there's my bit of promotion!

But yeah, i'll post a trip update for day 1, hopefully with some positive news, and obv if i make day 2 and/or 3 i'll also update the following week.

Here's a linky if you are thinking about playing http://www.dusktilldawnpokerclub.com/events/grand-prix

NOTE- you have to buy in online so you'd need to get an online account on DTD's software. Pretty painless exercise. You would also then need to fill out a form to get yr membership form. Again, pretty easy.

Happy to offer any peeps advice about notts/dtd/ etc as i live around here.

cool story bro

corkeye — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:36:08 +0000

i was going to buy a samsung galaxy but decided to buy an iphone 4s instead. As these things are so fucking brittle i also ordered a new case. Then i thought to myself, hang on apple, if you're so cutting edge and amazing, why dont u build yr iphones to be a bit stronger?

Cool story bro

big weekend

corkeye — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 07:42:04 +0000

So I went to play day 1b the blackbelt poker main @ dusk till dawn nottingham england.

Got off to a steady/slow start, which the structure kind of allowed for - 15k starting stack, 40 min levels.

Table draw was a good one, after sizing up the table for the first level, I figured the danger man was direct on my right, sam razavi (UKIPT Ireland 2011 winner, and HU cash specialist). As he was on my right it gave me a big advantage, he also busted within a few hours.

Later in the day I found myself 50% of average stack, and I knew I had to change gears. I thought to myself, I have to go for this, and if I bust, that's ok. I don't want to waste my time creeping into tomorrow (final day) and find myself less than 10 bbs for half an hour's play. So I went for it. First opportunity I had was a sexy squeeze spot. I had the PERFECT 3b jam stack after one raise/call. I had KJs but my cards weren't that relevant. I'd been playing tight so I knew this was getting through a lot and I considered the openers/flatter's range it just felt right. Opener folded quickly, flatter hollywood folded his button. Nice. Then I found myself a whle later getting it in with 33 vs a short stacked AK. 3s held. Game on! I didnt really hold back after that either. To cut a long story short, I managed to end day 1b about 10th in chips over all, taking into account 1a.

So I came back for day 2 rested, and excited. Early in the day I made a horrible play/mis read, and dwindle half my stack vs a donk who I should have known was slowplaying .Oops. The field starts to dissapear relatively quickly during Sunday afternoon. We get into the money, and I recall later in the afternoon say around 8pm it got really tense. There was like 20 players left. The table dynamic had gone from chilled to tense. The viewing gallery had got bigger. Now rather than once a day, practically every pot you were in, a camera with a huge lense was taking a pic of your face or a video camera was rolling.

Fast forward to 9:30 and we are 2 off the final table bubble! A massive stack takes a big gamble vs 2 shorty all ins, big stack has 66 vs 88 and AJ. A 6 in the window and we're on the FT! We have approx half hour break, which tbh i wasnt happy about, why must it take so long, i have work tomorrow!

We go over to the feature table, and there's a crowd of people in the viewing area (bit scary), and all the black belt crew (channing, woodlridge etc) are all having their pics taken.

We get ours taken and we are away!

Simon trumper announces the final table player by player, and the cards are in the air. Bright lights shining on you, Nick Wealthall, 1 of the well known british commentators/faces on the scene, is sat on my direct left. Funny/good guy. I didn't really like all this attention of the FT, it felt a bit unnecessary. Simon also insisted that flops/turn/river were dealt super slow like on tv, wtf!

I end up being the first guy out, being pretty short to begin with. I min raise pre with A10 and flop is J10x two clubs, 1 guy calls on CO. I figured this is a good flop for me and unlikely he has me beat after flatting me in position. I ended up cbetting, leaving myself pretty short, and calling an all in as the price was too good, thinking there's a ton of draws in his range, but alas he had AJ. I figured at the time that so much of his shoving flop range is KQ, or Ax clubs etc. Apart from AJ I have him in great shape, doubt for example he's calling me pre with KJ. Folding to the flop shove would have left me so short. I scoop $1000 price and get in my car to go home. GG.

Prob should have folded A10 pre from MP and tbh I did c bet far too big. I mean, what do you do? Check fold flop with mid purr? Meh. Check call flop, no way..then what? Bet small, then 3b shove if he clicks back, or call an all in? Perhaps. Jam pre circa 15 bbs? Possibly. Fold pre? Perfectly fine. It was a horrible spot, with about 311 options, and I could go over it in my head and tilt myself even more, but you know what, first decent score in a while so I'm not going to beat myself up about it. ;)

Luckbox/black belt poker

corkeye — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 01:38:11 +0000

A friend of mine put up a post on fbook saying he'd bought in for the black belt poker event at my local card room, room dusk till dawn between 18-20th november, however he also said that day 1B is fully subscribed to 200 runners (saturday) so if i wanted to play i'd have to buy in for friday day 1A and take 1 day off work.
After thinking about it for a week, i thought, meh, i'll take a day off work and pay the $140 BI. So I log in to the client and notice that day 1B had 199 players, someone had dropped out, so i snap bought in for saturday. YES!
Jake Cody, Sam Trickett, Neil Channing, Sam Razavi (sp?) are some of the big names that are in, and they all have bounties on their heads. $50K gnt prizepool. Cannot wait. Updates prolly to follow next week
Sweeeet
anyone off here also in?

live pokers, interesting/good start to the month

corkeye — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:56:19 +0000

my local card room, dusk till dawn, nottingham, england, have started doing a really good value bonus scheme - 'the final table challenge' http://www.dusktilldawnpokerclub.com/final-table-challenge.php.

To cut a long story short, i played a £15 freezeout last night, and final tabled, so i'm half way there to getting 2 x super 50 tickets if i can FT another one this month.

I only came 8th last night, practically a min cash. Really happy how I played it, ran quite well too.

Fingers crossed I get another FT this month!

Any other DCers play here?

I really want to go back to vegas

corkeye — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 06:47:24 +0000

Oli, if you're reading this, lets make this happen. Just been reading a vegas TR on two plus two, and I feel that I GOTTA go back. Its probably not too long before I get settled down with a family now that im practically 30 years old. I'm not saying that as soon as that happens my life is over and I will never get the chance to go on such a trip, it just feels to be me that this next 12 months are the prime times I should be going. I just gotta convince someone to come with me. A guy at work is semi interested but I kinda feel he's not as enthusiastic as me. So i just gotta find a few K from somewhere and get booking!

APAT and the MEANING OF LIFE

corkeye — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:03:16 +0000

OK maybe I've not cracked the latter, but got invited to play in a team event for the APAT at the end of october. Pretty excited, buy in has been covered, long story.

I'll give a trip report afterwards. Apart from that poker wise i cashed last week in a super 50 at dtd, played ok, hoping to have another good run next weekend.

breaking bad (pls no spoilers about any episode)

corkeye — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 06:46:30 +0000

I've heard a lot of hype about this series so i took the plunge and ordered season 1 on dvd. Wow, two episodes in and i know this is going to be awesome. So far its pretty much got everything, violence, family values, morality, black comedy, paranoia, drugs! What pisses me off (not about the series, but the situation), is that i've ordered season 1 and 2 on dvd, there is currently no UK Blu Ray available, (dvd only), however season 3 is completely unavailable in UK in all formats apart from dvd amercian version (i don't have a region free player), even though series 3 has been out for 12 months in US.
So I had to order season 3 from germany and pay like an extra £10 GBP ($15 dollars) to get it shipped, obv it has english on it, i did check, but still, this situation pisses me off. I'll no doubt have to do the same when series 4 is ready and pay another premium.
I don't get it. One of the most hyped/well known and apparently best dramas around is really difficult to get hold of in UK WTF?

Its a tarrrrp!

corkeye — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 20:39:27 +0000

Hey guys, i'm in a pretty good mood at the moment

One day at work, then its the weekend, then on monday i am going to Morocco for 10 days with the gf. Serweeeeeeeet. To add to this, tomorrow (Friday) night i'm going to my friends home poker game that has 14 players. Should be fun. AAAAND, on saturday, i believe my gf is out with her girly friends so i may go and play at the local card room. NOICE.

SF pumped right now.

Bought a kindle this week, been reading 'read em and weap' by joe navarro, some interesting info on live tells, something, as a live grinder, i guess i've overlooked in recent years, time to hit the kindle and PWN NOOBS!!!!!!!!111ONE

ttyl peeps xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

july results

corkeye — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:44:55 +0000

Had a slow start to the month, purely by playing too much volume at the same time! I got a new monitor so like 12 tabled, and so my reads were non existent. So i dropped to 4 tables, took a few shots up to $15 sngs (1 table up to some 45 man), ran and played pretty good, here are the results. Just about rolled for the 15s now, altho i want to carry on at the 7s just to hopefully build up my roll and get more comfortable psychologically, if u know what i mean.

Now thats what i call a tournament

corkeye — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:57:14 +0000

Just bought in online to the biggest fucking love tournament i've ever seen apart from the main event, but this is considerably closer to my budget!

This is 60 euros (dunno why they made it euros in UK, but w/e), and this just so happens to be in a poker room 15 minutes from my house.

LOOK at this guarantee!

http://www.dusktilldawnpokerclub.com/events/grand-prix

BALLA

I'm on holiday in morrocco in august, luckily i get back in the early hours of the friday morning, the last live day. I am going to play the 7pm sitting. I can't wait for this shit. Should be a blast.

Ridiculous value tournament. Obv my chances aren't that good of winning anything, like one in a million (so... you're telling me there's a chance, YYYYYEAHHH!) oblig dumb n dumber reference

But hey, exciting large tourney. I'm in! :)

detox u done it?

corkeye — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:55:47 +0000

ok so after a week long drinking session with friends (batchelor party) ive decided to detox. today ive eaten no unnatural sugar, drank zero caffeine at work too and eaten plenty of fruit and veg. after 1 day i felt more energetic at work. finished work, had my creatine, i hit the gym, had less strength/energy than usual but im putting that down to a week long drinking session.
i have found though, and this is where i need you guys advice, i ate my dinner at 830 pm, (bagel/cottage cheese), and then two yoghurts. i have the most ridic sugar cravings. i could murder like a cookie or something. will these types of cravings subside if i continue my sugar famine? or am i kinda stuck with them, and should treat myself occasionally? bare in mind im used to eating cakes/chocolate/cookies, and drinking sugar in my tea and coffee. this will be a shock to the system, but i have no idea whats in store for me...

Not posted results in a while

corkeye — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:14:22 +0000

Not sure if this works, but here goes:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/36/june2011garph.jpg/

Pretty low volume month, but did pretty good on the whole. Been playing the $7 sngs mostly and a few $15s.

Hope you all are good?

rigged, blog it up yo

corkeye — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:29:36 +0000

i miss yr blog posts. what u been up to?

The weekend has landed

corkeye — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:27:37 +0000

So got a shift at work to do today. might go play some live pokerz this evening.

Tomorrow I'm going to Birmingham with my gf as my buddy from work is fighting - kick boxing. should be fun.

excited about this year. (non poker content)

corkeye — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 15:25:01 +0000

This year I will hit a milestone in my life. 30 years old. Wow. I recall back in 2005 when I realised that when the olympics 2012 is in england (which, as it happens i have tickets for, wuuut), I would be THIRTY YEARS OLD! I remember thinking "wow, thats old". You know what, i feel no different or more mature than that day. WTF!

So anyway despite the mild fear of leaving my 20s and getting older, i'm kinda excited about november 2011. I will turn 30 as i've said, so will a bunch of my friends, and the plan is to book a huge house in the country, that has enough bedrooms for approx 25 people. Huge party, decks, music, beer, banter, jaegar, laughter, vodka. It will be 1 huge party with my closest friends. Also to add to this my parents turn 60 within 1 month of my bday, so no doubt this will be another top party/meal whatever. It will be a month of my life that surely i will remember forever. Weird.

Dont know what is wrong with me today, just feel all sentimental!

Vegas trip report, and my buddies blog linkage

corkeye — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:10:14 +0000

OK I have got back from Vegas today, just said ‘oh hai!’ to my girlfriend. She’s gone to the gym now and I feel it’s poifect time for me to update my blog to tell you guys how my week in Las Vegas went.

My friend oli has been keeping up a blog all week, on a daily basis, whereas my blog will be what I can remember now i’m back home. In hindsight doing it Oli’s way is far more +ev as surely you recall more memories daily, and what with all the drinking/playing/sleep deprivation we have crammed in, I fear I will miss out a few key details. But here goes. Is it wrong to feel excited as I type this? Yuh, thought so..

On a side note, I thought it would be interesting to link Oli’s blog to this entry, so you can see the trip from his perspective too. I say it’s interesting because you can see two sides of the story.

Link to oli's blog is at the end guys. Please take the time to read (after mine of course!)

He does not post on DC forums or have a subscription though (nobody’s perfect). While I am on the subject, a little intro about Oli. We have been close friends I guess for like 14 years approx since our early teenage years. Oli is predominantly an online tournament player and has been playing poker for a year or two longer than me. I have learned a ton from him strategy wise. An avid Arsenal fan though.. yikes...

Right so on to trip report...

1) So how much did I lose?

OK to risk boring you with my huuuge blog post, I will cut to the chase. I won substantially this week. I didn’t expect to.

I basically took with me $300 dollars, and spun it over $2k without using an ATM once. I had 1 losing session all week the rest victories from +$13 to like +$820. It got to the stage that I told Oli not to use any more of his own money with 3ish days to go. I covered everything. Oli got beat up on occasions while by all accounts he was playing solid. Me on the other hand never lost a flip, hit every big draw/flopped sets/disguised flush/turned straight you name it. I could not miss. I treated us both to a meal at aria (details below). I played solid in parts, poorly in others, it just didn’t seem to matter though. Run good was with me all week. I felt sorry for Oli who couldn’t catch a break, but I wanted to share my victory with him by treating him to basically what he wanted (within reason!)

2 )Our hotel

OK so where we were staying - the MGM grand. Massive massive huuuge hotel. The lobby is ridiculous. Me and Oli paid the cab driver and kind of looked at a huge line of people by the desk not knowing which line to get in with our suitcases. We may as well have had ‘noob tourist’ tattoo’d on our foreheads. Oli and I had read on 2+2 that there is a $20 trick – where you casually ask if there are ‘complimentary upgrades’ available and you slip the 20 bucks in with yr passport/credit card. Meh. Insta-denied! She told me that there were no upgrades at all. So I removed the $20 out my passport slightly embarrassed.

We got to the room, nice, two big beds. A wonderful view of the strip. I was happy. Throughout our stay we’d sit by that window, chilling listening to music and drinking some beers and basically laughing out asses off at the shit we were coming out with. Good times.

Facilities I was impressed with. Nice restaurants, huge pool/lazy rivers, solid bars, huge sports betting area, concierge service was amazing, cool lion pit. I liked.

Location could have been better. MGM is right at the bottom of the strip. Even though most of the hotels appear close together, its a right mission walking up to the likes of aria, Bellagio and beyond.

3) Poker Rooms

Basically the main reason we wanted to go to Vegas was to play poker. We didn’t go for the world series, but we just wanted to go and play either way. Here’s my low down on the ones I played

MGM Grand Poker Room

As this was where we were staying it made sense to play the most here. The poker room is comfortable. I only played $1/2NL here. The standard was on the whole terrible and the same can be said at all the other card rooms I discuss. I had a massage at the MGM one night and that was FEROCIOUS. I always thought it looked douchy when you saw pros on TV getting a massage at the tables. But you know what. I loved it. Maybe I am a douche after all. Apart from that, great welcoming floor staff and waitresses. The one thing I didn’t like about this card room was the fact that after about 3am you get drunken idiots turn up. Now you may be thinking ‘wtf, thats GREAT if drunk players turn up as they are giving money away’. You’d probably be right, however, I had my fair share of obnoxious idiots ruin the experience for me.

So much so one night when i’d run $200 up to $1200 this guy is being absolutely insulting towards me so I shop him to the floor who observes then gives him a verbal warning to cut out the swearing. I was on holiday primarily to have fun, a close second to play poker. He seemed hell bent on ruining both these, and I had done nothing to get him to behave in this way.

Classic conversation I had with an Aussie.

Aussie guy: “Thinking about it, I cannot remember the last time you [British]beat us at anything.”

Me (pausing for 0.001 seconds) “Er........... the Ashes..... this year.......?!?!?”

(uncomfortable silence)

Worst attempt at a needle for some time.

Aria

My favourite room of the week. Not just cos I won there, it was so comfortable, everything about this room was immense. Had good fun at the table that day. Was cool to see the likes of Greenstein and Galfond grinding in Ivey Room behind us too. Staff were brilliant. Would go there again in a heart beat

Planet Hollywood

Shit hole. Easily the worst room I played in all week. Another grade A douche drunk guy at our table. This time he didn’t give me a hard time, but he did everyone else. I met a cool guy from Canada in there though and we both left for the Venetian together (Oli left after 1 hour ish). The place had really loud dance music blasting out, and the dealers seemed to make a lot of mistakes and seemed unclear as to what the correct ruling is. Hated it.

Venetian

A very close 2nd to the Aria for me. Could be because I got to the Venetian very late and my table was full of passive nits trying to stay awake. Facilities wise it was pretty special. I hear the tournaments here are by far the best. I can see why, its a massive room which is extremely special. The Aria just had something else that I can describe for me!

4)Food Highlights

Sage at the Aria

I treated us to a 4 course ‘signature menu’ at Sage. I had heard about this place as Jimmy Fricke discussed it on Twitter. I have been fine dining a couple of times in UK at Michellin starred restaurants (Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Restaurant Sat Baines). This place had very very good food. We were pretty amazed. It was like $270 for food + wine. We then took the night downhill by going to the fair at New York New York then went to hooters afterwards...! Wtf?! I think we got too tired (well I did anyway) plus hooters is such a fricken dump! The fair bit at new York new York was fun though.

Smith And Woolensky

Amazing steak house on the strip, i had a burger that was so huge i only ate half though!

Summary and buddies blog (which I think is better than mine)

Pls read this: http://koalainvegas.blogspot.com/

It is true what they say, you do not sleep much in vegas. You also have no track of time. It saps you of energy but the lure of the card rooms keeps you going. I have had a great time simply chatting to people in card rooms from all over the planet for the majority of the week. I cannot wait to go back, hopefully next time staying at the Aria. I will also consider going during the WSOP or at least grinding some low/mid stakes tourneys mixed in with cash sessions.

Hope this isn’t too long and boring?! Feedback/questions appreciated as this took an age to type.

vegas in 1 week!

corkeye — Wed, 11 May 2011 22:05:54 +0000

I havent blogged in a while so decided to just before i go to bed. in 1 week I will be in manchester england with my friend near the airport probably sinking some beers the evening before our flight west for 11 hours. We are going to vegas for 1 week and will grind the tables hard, in between partying and eating. i am sf excited. staying at mgm grand. TBH I am not one of these delusional people that is convinced I will make any money at all- I am going to enjoy my poker, hopefully meet some interesting people at the tables and away from them, and just have some fun away from the stresses of real life.

Just gotta do 5 more days at work first...................

oh and today I did 1 hour straight on the cross trainer at the gym and burnt 635 callories. Standard? Impressive? Or meh?

Home game.

corkeye — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:03:08 +0000

Haven’t blogged for a week or two so about time I did I feel.

I’m doing a 2 table home game at my house this Friday. I also booked some time off work (fri-weds) as I feel like I need it.

I am hoping to get 2 tables worth of players(18), but it’s always hard to get confirmed numbers until the day it happens though, as people have a tendency to be unreliable and pull out at the last minute.

Either way, it will be the biggest game I have hosted, and i’m pretty excited. Normally I would put on a chilli but there is no way i’m cooking for 18 as well as hosting!

Structure will be an unlimited rebuy for first hour or 2. Hoping it goes well, nothing gets broken around the house or that people don’t get too drunk! I encourage people to have a good time and relax with some beers, but when you have a table full of drunks, each hand takes about 15 minutes and people lose focus!

Online i’ve had a real bizarre month in sngs. I got off to a terrible start then tilted loads. I then went on a sick heater and started playing well again and not tilting, and won 99.9% of it back to a break even finish. Weird. When I tilt it is mainly on HU sngs, when I end up playing higher trying to crush people and then i lose more, stupid i know, and it has to stop!

Other than that, gym is going pretty well, job is ok, health is good.

Will report on the home game after the weekend, and any other live games if I decide to go to the local card room.

incredible 100

corkeye — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:23:10 +0000

Just typing these thoughts out before the tourney today so i've got in my mind what I need to do. Playing the incredible 100 today at dusk till dawn. 20k guarantee. Over the past few weeks i've played ok in spots, but am totally conscious of where i'm going wrong, which I think is more important.

So, with this in mind here's what i'm going to do, (and NOT do)

1) No rash decisions when the decision in question doesn't warrant one(ie no 'gut instinct' snap calls/folds)- pause, take a few minutes, look him/her up n down, go through the situation, work it out. What are they representing? What hand range are they putting me on. What ,price am I getting? - when I take a couple of minutes, and think about it, my reads have gotten a little better over the past few months and in a tourney can save/make me critical chips.

2) No heavy carbs, no more than 1 beer all day/night. Don't wanna be tired and blur my decision making- relates to number 1)

3) Open up quicker than most of the table in the mid game! The tournament starts deep, 10k stack, but when the antes creep in after like level 6 or something, the stacks start getting shallower, the # of players go down, hand values go up, pots get more valuable pre flop yet people remain tight! So i need to open up.

4) Look for good resteal spots/use my table image.

All of the above is hideously obv, and in reading all that back, it looks as if i've been playing for 6 months just read up Harrington on Hold em volume one-three and have convinced myself i'm as good as Action Dan, but I just feel at the mo I need to go back to basics, and plug a few leaks in my live game.

RIGHT! That is IT!

corkeye — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:03:54 +0000

..........I’m joining the gym!

A bit of background:

Around 5-6 months ago I joined a football (soccer) team and it was good to get back into regular exercise, not to mention meet a few new people. I’ve had problems with injuries in the past (repeat dislocation of my left shoulder, and ruptured anteria crutiate in my right leg), and have had operations on both over the years. But when I got back into football, everything seemed ok. Until a training session in September when the knee gave way again.

It wasn’t the crutiate this time, I was told at the hospital that it seems to be a ligament in the side of the knee. I was just turning 29 years old at this point, and took the game back up predominantly for fun, exercise, to an average local standard. My knee be was always going a weakness now, I guess I could have another operation but I figured it’s just not worth it. If was 18, perhaps. So I quit football. Nearly 6 months later after this decision I basically didn’t do an ounce of exercise. I’ve found myself getting extremely unmotivated in absolutely every area of my life, and this week I thought I need to do something before I turn into Jabba the Hut and appear on some ‘amazing stories’ show on tv. So I decided to check out a gym that basically I pass on the way home after work.

Wow. This gym is the absolute nuts. It turns out I randomly picked the most expensive gym in the city to check out. But it is so sexy. It’s got more gym/weights/other equipment than i’ve ever seen in a gym, a beautiful swimming pool, sauna, steam room, music blasting out from the room with ‘spinning’ classes, and basically all round amazing facilities. Its expensive, yes. But I had such a buzz in that place, and I know that once I get into it, i’ll sleep better, i’ll probably play poker better, i’ll go to work with a spring in my step/hungry for the day ahead (like I used to when I was hitting the gym), and I’ll basically and more importantly be happier in myself and feel like i’m achieving something.

So I get my induction Saturday. Here’s to getting fit.

The weekend has landed

corkeye — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:42:14 +0000

Tonight im going to a friends house with my gf, we are having a Chinese too. Tomorrow i'm entering the ‘incredible 100’ with £20,000 gnt. http://www.dusktilldawnpokerclub.com/result-info.php?id=1929

Such a sick prizepool. I think they have the right idea just sticking 1 tourney on all day, it will get very busy i'm expecting >200 runners. I’ve sold 25% of myself for this event. First time i’ve done that.

Had a pretty terrible month online. I keep taking shots and getting pwnd. Gotta stop doing that.

Apart from that, had some stressful time at work, its all coming together though, and I hit my sales target this month. Woo hoo!

off to dusk till dawn

corkeye — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:16:34 +0000

Im typing this as i’m watching poker after dark cash game and phil laak is boozed up and sending me on life tilt. I’ve got the super 50 at dusk til dawn in 45 minutes, and i’m about to finish drinking my tea and hit the road. Update to follow on Sunday, probably.

Does anyone want to play my stars home game on Sunday, 2pm US time?

Peace xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

UKIPT side event disappointment

corkeye — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 11:54:29 +0000

So I went to dusk till dawn last night 2 hours before the kick off of the £100 side event, straight from work. Apparently the main event is a new british record of 1000 runners, so you can imagine how busy both the car park and inside was.

I got in there, and there must have been 70 people queuing. I went to the cash machine, withdrew some moneys and as I was doing so Simon (aces) trumper goes over to the cash desk and tells them not to accept any more side event entries at the moment, presumably as there were no tables. He told them it was being capped at 100, and so far 60 had reg’d. Knew I should have bought in online! I’ve had quite a stressful week at work with customers doing me head in, and was really in the mood to let off some steam in a pokerstars tournament, alas it wasn’t to be.

So there was no chance I was getting a seat in the side event. I walked over to the cash desk and my usual 50p/£1 cash game wasn’t on, it started on £1/£2 and above. Slightly out of my comfort zone imo, so I didn’t put my name down. At this stage I was a little disheartened, and thought, meh, a pint of ice cold beer would go down a treat before I go home. So i went to the bar. Massive queue, 1 barman. FML. I’m out of here.

I went to my friends home game, proceeded to play pretty terrible, but didn’t really catch a break. Soul read someone when I flopped middle pair and called her down only for her to catch her Q on the river. Pretty much summed up my evening. Shoulda jammed turn tbh.