Richard 'Strummer9' Herbert's Blog

Its a long one!!!!!

Strummer — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:11:00 GMT

Once again its been too long, and ive actually had things to talk about, so no excuses really i should have posted weeks ago! Still, im here now. Last time i posted i was going through a stage of playing huge volumes of online cash and play very few tournaments or satellites to live events which was my stated intent. Well three weeks or so of playing 25,000/week grinding the low levels brought me to my senses! Boy its hard work putting in big volume, and to be honest it was making me a grumpy bleeder too!!! So is stopped playing huge volume, got back to playing 1 or 2 tables in small sessions and all of a sudden im enjoying my poker and smiling again! Im a great believer in the positive thought positive results theory, i don’t know too many winners who think like losers! But off the back of my smiling happy poker out look good things started to happen. As i said earlier my goals poker wise where/are to get out playing live at least once month, well ask and you shall receive! I got my first live event from a very unexpected source. Gary Ingham was part of the Ladbrokes poker team from the glory days, he then went on to work for mansion poker before moving to pokerstars. Hes now moved on to a new site called jetbull poker based in Prague. Gary and i are from the same town and have know each other a long time and naturally talk frequently. Anyway one morning on msn he asks me what im doing at the weekend and would i like to represent jetbull in the Malta open?! Well i thought about for a second or two before snapping his hand off! A couple of days later and im in the Hilton hotel Casino playing against the locals in the 100euro sat to the 1000euro main event. I can honestly say hand on heart i have NEVER had such a big edge in a poker game in my life, i can also say hand on heart that i will NEVER have a bigger edge in a poker game again!!!!!! It wasn’t that they didn’t know how to play, talking about hands they clearly had a good understanding of the game, in fact they generally had high levels of thinking about the game, but when it actually came to implementing the thoughts into practice, well they either couldn’t or if they did they made it so very obvious what they had they may as well have had the cards face up! An example of this was a hand i played early on in the game and was to be repeated several times throughout the night with several different players. Because i was decked out in my jetbull/badbeat gear and was getting some attention from the press there it didn’t take a genius to work out i was a pro player, and the locals were only too willing to test their skills against a “pro”. So im raising nearly every pot, im bluffing sometimes but im hitting too and when i hit i show, they wanted to believe i had a hand every time and i wanted to show them they were right. Again i raise and there are a couple of callers, it gets round to a local reg who re-raises big, and its folded to me. I don’t remember what i had but it was going to be an easy fold but i gave it a bit of Hollywood to keep up the image of having a hand. After 30 seconds or so the fella tells me “look, just fold i have huge hand i will show you”, well his bet size already told me that, and it was clear by how he spoke he was telling the truth, i smiled told him i was making a huge fold and folded as did the other players in the pot, the chap then flips over AA. So he tells me his hand size with his bet size, he verbally tells me his hand strength and then he confirms it by showing his hand............like i said this happened many times during the night with several different players. Its as if the small local poker community had introduced this as a way of not having the big hands busted, because they were all at it!!!! “i have a big hand, i will show you” and they kept doing it!!!!!! Bloody wonderful!! There were 12 tickets up for grabs and when we were down to 14 players i was on around 15BB, i was ok but not safe, i was also very tired as i had been awake for 24 hours due to my early morning flight and the fact that this satellite had dragged on far longer than anyone had planned for due to a good structure. But i didn’t need to worry, i was the only outsider on my table of locals and they were all nudging and winking at each other in the most blatant live poker collusion i have even seen!!!!! Not that i complained as they time wasted then folded to the blind every hand! So sick! There was also no hand for hand as they only do this in the events themselves!!!!! Needless to say i got one of the tickets and cashed it it for the 1100euro that cover the exs for the trip. So the next day and to the main event itself, this field was a little tougher than the sat as there was a number of strong players from Denmark here, but over all it was still a great value field. I got off to a good steady start pick up pots at will, after an hour i had turned my 15,000 starting stack into 22,000 while the average was 15,500. I then get all my money in pre flop in a 45,000 pot with AA v KK.....................the river was a K! Blahhhhhhhh!!!!!! I know i will sound so up my own bottom for saying this, but im just so sure that if i win that pot its all over, i mean i have three times more chips than anyone in a field of players who tell you what cards they have.............o well! Still it was nice to out there playing again, and Malta was great too, but as so often in my poker life there was no cigar!

Standard for me the next day i jumped on the first plane out of there and headed off home. On getting home i received some more good news, due to my good results online the previous month badbeat had given me a bonus seat to the GUKPT event at Blackpool, things where starting to happen in a very positive way indeed!

So to Blackpool, and i arrive here in good spirits. I always play the Thursday in this event for two reasons, firstly on the Wednesday most of the UK poker world goes out on the town in Blackpool for the Christmas due so i hope that a few players will be a little worse for wear, also i feel Fridays are generally a little tougher than Thursdays, this is based on zero evidence, and was to be proven very wrong as i take me seat only to find Richard Ashby and Stuart Fox sat with me. For all the quality at my table there was also a generous splashing of value, most notably a Lady of advancing years who was sat three to my left. I don’t really remember much of day one apart from two hands, the first was early on again the said lady. I got dealt AA, a raise a couple of calls to me i put out a standard 3bet squeeze raise and get just the one call. The flop was 7h2hxd, i bet out 1000 and she re-raise to 2000. In the hands she had played she played a very straight forward (poor) game so i was pretty sure she had a set, but as i was thinking what to do the dealer dealt the next card Jh, she then went mental! So now i KNOW for sure she has a set. The floor is called, the jack is put back and now i have a decision. I know i can rep if the heart hits, and obviously i still have 2 outs in the aces, also the bet is so small and i have position that i take the turn..........Qh. Perfect, i check and she tut checks behind me, the river is a 4^th heart and its the perfect card to bluff on, so i lead out with a nice 60% pot bet, no thought, just tuts as she snap calls turning over her set...........FFS don’t bluff the fish!!!!! I grind back the stack back up and along the way pick up a nice pot against foxy when i squeeze 4 players with KQ, flop the K then get a value bet in on the flop, turn and river. Like i said i don’t really remember too much of day 1, not even my stack size, but i know i made it to day 2 with an above average stack. Too be honest day 2 was also a bit of a blur, though i do remember the key hands! The first major pot i had raised from utg with KJ, a player who had been at the table for just a few hands flat calls, at the time i was starting to get in the “zone” and was being very clear at putting people on not just ranges put them on real tight ranges , in the hand 55-88 was the feeling. Everyone folds. The flop was J xd xd. I bet out and the guy thinks a little before moving all in. This was a huge pot, if i win im right up there with the chip leaders, if i lose im way down the list. As i said pre flop i was sure of the hand he held, but now on the flop i started second guessing myself, AJ? Flush draw? Playing a set like a flush draw? With all this going on in my head im also start looking the player up, then my mind was made up for me, he looked terrified, i was back in the “zone”! I call and he turns over 77 with no back door straight/flush draws so just the 2 outs, he misses i double up and im in good shape! Again i don’t really remember how the stack went during the rest of the day, but i know as we passed the bubble and played the last couple of tables i was on the short side. I think the blinds where around the 5000/10000 level and i had about 100,000. To my right was Ladbrokes stalwart BigLad. Now the hand we play i understand caused a bit of a thread on a couple of forums. Biglad was on a very similar stack to me so was also in need of a double up. Hes also a good player and totally understands the need to pinch the blinds and anti whenever possible. It was folded around to our blinds, he thought and pushed all in and i folded my rags. A couple of rounds later the same thing happened, its folded to our blinds, he thinks then moved all in. I look down and see 33. Now when asked about this hand by him later, and when asked about it by others later i explain it very simply, i was sure it was a race, and i was happy to take the race. I also felt pretty confident, its hard to say what i thought but the poker side of it, the maths etc was very straight forward in my mind, but the gut feeling of that moment just made it the right thing to do. I think he had k6, but the flop was so sick as he caught a open ended straight, the turn then paired which basically gave him every card in the deck!!! Amazingly i caught some random dream card on the river and my 33 held up and i was back in the races. Now im not a great fan of calling of my tournament life with 33! Its not a standard play , but again i just “knew” at that time, in that spot it was correct, and well sometimes you just got to trust them feelings. At this time a real strange thing started to happen, two players who for two days had played like ducks bottoms, all of a sudden the fact they had £2000 guaranteed they started playing like lemons!!!! I cant begin to explain just how spewy they got , but one of them pushes all in utg with J9 and the other calls with AJ when there are probably 3^rd and 4^th in the chips.................well you get the picture. Thankfully i was still very much switched on and steadily built the stack up, then i played THE hand. Once again it involved my now favourite hand KJ, again i raise utg, this time i get just 1 caller from the small blind. The flop is Q 10 x. I make good size bet, SB thinks about it and makes a call, but it looked like a pained call, thinking it through im putting him on A10, K10, J10 or maybe the same hand as me KJ, i cant see him being in there with Q9, and i think with AQ, KQ, JQ or Q10 he would have been much more pleased to get him money in. With the blinds as they were this pot was now a huge pot with over 150,000 in it, and we had 150,000 each behind. The turn was a rag, again he checks. Like i say he just looked like he didn’t like his hand, im sure hes weak and go with my read, i push all in. His reaction tells me that my read is right, as he stands up, and starts talked to himself................only thing is hes not folding, why arnt you folding???!!!!!! After about 5 minutes of telling himself he doesn’t like his hand, that hes behind, he whispers “i call”, he then flips over JJ. Hmmmmm, now i really hate is play on every street, i mean limping in the SB from a UTG raise with hug blinds with JJ!!!! I mean, come on, please!!!! So to the river, i still have outs, any A, 9 or K, the K on the river bringing him to his knees, its nice to play good but its even better to get lucky!!!! Still you make your own luck, i played that hand right in my mind, not to sure he can say the same!!! So that hand sealed my seat at the final table, again i cant actually remember the details of stack size, but i know i was up there in a nice position.

The final table on Sunday seemed to fly by, i don’t remember playing too many hands, but the ones i did play i won!!! The first big hand i played was against the table clown Andrew Bradshaw, now get me wrong i like a bit of personality at the table, but when someone tries shooting angles like he does in EVERY hand he plays, well me personally, i like to try and take their chips and shut them up!!! So ive played pretty tight in the early stages when i fin 1010 in early position and raise, mouth calls. The flop is Qh x x, he checks i bet, then the talk starts “ i cant fold this, i love my hand, don’t go broke here” blah blah blah (seriously doesn’t he get we’ve been here seen it all before?), the turn is xh, he checks and i check behind, the river brings a Ah and you can see the disappointment on his face, he checks, i think take my time, count out a nice size bet and bet. “how can i let you catch up, why did i give you the free cards” blah blah blah. After 10 minutes hes says he will fold if i show, i shake my head.........then i tell him he can see one and he can choose, for some reason this sends him over the edge as he rants at himself for letting me “catch up”, eventually he mucks showing KQ............i offer him one card but hes not interested!! The bookies favourite at the table was the young wonder Jack Ellwood, apparently hes been on a huge winning year clocking up some impressive results online and live, and i had him two to my left, unfortunately for him he had three short stacks to his left, so every time in tried imposing himself on the table one of the short stacks would pop it back to him, the result was he lost a couple of races and couldn’t get a grip of the table as he would have like. At the other end of the table Bradshaw was still playing the table clown, in his head im sure he was playing super advanced mind games, but i think in the real world we had him sussed. His exit was soon to come, first of all he lost a HUGE pot moving all in with JQ on a Q high board against KK. He then pushed all in a couple of time, then he pushed on my BB i have A7, it was 1/3^rd of my stack and i snap call. I win the race against his q6. A couple of hands later Ellwood pushes all in, i look down and find two ladies, i call and again i win a raise against his AJ, in the space of 10mins i get rid of the table clown and the best player, sweeeeeet. The other plus point to losing Ellwood is that there can now be talk of a deal, when youve had the year hes had you don’t need to deals thus don’t, unfortunately i havnt had such a year and thus would love to do a deal, though i wasn’t going to say so!!! After a few hands four handed i was slight chip leader on about 1.3m chips, second had 1m with 3^rd on 800k and the “small” stack on 650k. This is when the player in third asked about a deal. Fourth was to pay £17k, 3^rd £26k, 2^nd £45k and first about £70k. Even though i was chip leader i was only one race away from being the small stack so a deal was good with me, in the end the two small stakes took £34k and £35k, the second in chips took £44k and i took £45k, nothing surer i could have pushed for, i think i could have squeezed another £5k, but it was a fair deal and i was happy with it as where the other players so why get greedy? Happy Christmas!!!!!!! As soon as the deal was done the game opened up, we lost the short stack quickly then i took out Ronald Musson when i called all in with 77 again his Q2. So HU and im chip leader against David Johnson.......................and then for some unknown reason we have a dinner break!!!!!!! Well the money had already been chopped and i had visions of the very nice bottle of red waiting at home for me!! Basically i’d lost my focus. When we finally got it back on i wasn’t playing good, this was confirmed in the last hand we played. I open up with 108 and get called. The flop 10h8hKd was perfect and we get all the money in. Dave turns over KJ and i flip over my 108........................though it wasn’t 108, it was 107!!!!!! Just to rub it in the turn bring another 8! The rivers a blank and the KJ is good and im left shaking my head!! Still 45 bags in the bank soon brought a smile back to my face!! Ive been saying for far too long that im playing good and that a result is just around the corner, well at last i can say I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!! But i guess if you say something enough times well its got to get there in the end!!!!! Still its great to back in the money, probably my most important cash in the grand scale of things and it pays them bloody credit card bills off, sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!! Next stop London for the grand final, and you know what i think i got plenty more results in me , and plenty more results due!!!!

October 2010

Strummer — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:27:00 GMT

Three weeks in with my new focus on the game, as I said in previous posts im going to spend more time playing mtts and try to get back out in the live arena……………………so the stats so far: Mtts players 1, satellites played 0 and cash hands played, ermmmmmm 60,000! As you can see when I get a clear idea of what I wont I go for it!!!!!! Bloody hell! To be honest playing the large number of cash hands was done as I chased down the weekly leader board at pokertime, which I won, that gives me a $1500 live buy in ticket, so its part of the plan! As for the mtts, well I played the £25 rebuy on pokertime last week, 320 runners I finished a respectable 40^th. The old saying of to win a tournament you need to win with AK and you have to beat AK couldn’t have been made any cleared as I lost two huge races, once with AK (SB open shoved all in on my BB with 77…………what could I do) and once with 1010, win either im on final table……………loss both and I was out! Still it was nice to get into tourney mode, but ive got a feeling that chasing down weekly/monthly leader boards again this month with stop me playing the number of mtts that I want to. It’s a pretty depressing time looking at the live scene at the moment, after missing the WSOP I was thinking about at least playing a couple of side events at the WSOPE…………..didnt happen, so then theres the London leg of the EPT, again get down there couple of side events, couple of sats……………….didnt happen……………..then there the Ladbrokes Ireland thing (well done skalie, £20k for 4^th)………………………..didnt happen!!!!! But there s Brighton this weekend and Ive got a live token I can use…………could happen??? Well it could, but im currently in bed with the flu of all flu, yep the man flu (sorry if ive painted a horror image of me, sweating, unshaven, naked, with dribbling features typing away on the notepad…………………but it happening)! So unless I make some kind of speedy recovery it looks like my fist live event in while will be up North in the Blackpool leg of the GUKPT. In the mean time im going to keep grinding away at the low-medium levels at pokertime and try and pick a few more live buy in tokens and get that live bankroll fattened up for a real good run at live events in the coming months……………..it will happen!!

Its been a long time!!

Strummer — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:35:00 GMT

Well I know I said I would try to write a regular diary………………….but well you know the answer!!! But I promise, im really going to try and start writing again, it’s a good outlet for my frustrations! So, whats been happening in the past 2-3 months since the last post? Well lets start with the WSOP, when push came to shove I decided not to go, when I decided not to go I was happy with my decision, when the the WSOP was on I was gutted with my decision, but now its all over and im $15,000 better off im happy again! Well kind of happy, truth is the WSOP is what its all about and to not be there for the first time in my poker life was painful, but as always with my life its family first so it was the correct grown up thing to do, though from a poker playing point of view it wasn’t!!! Still WSOP will be there next year, and the year after that! The story of this years WSOP for me was Praz picking up his second bracelet, his form over the last few years as been nothing short of unbelievable, just proving the point beyond doubt that if your good enough your good enough! Its also helped me focus a little more on what I want from the game. The past three years or so its been cash games 99.9% of the time with a few live events here and there, how can I expect to play live if all im doing is playing online cash?!! If im going to get out there more, well I got to get out there more!!! So from now on its not going to be cash games only, im going to get back to my first love MTTS and try qualifying for live events again, its what I used to do so im going to do it again.

So online, well the past three months have hardly been the best months of my life, one winning month, one break even and last month a losing month. The losing month was no surprise to be honest. My online home of betfair took the unreal decision of moving from its own independent platform and joining possibly the worst platform in poker, that is ongame……………..seriously what a bag of s**t that place is! Betfair was my platform of choice for many reasons, good software and the fact I won there being the main reasons, but within a week of the move I knew my love of the place had ended, who ever made the decision to move there needs shooting, of all the platforms to pick from they pick the worlds worst…………….ahhhh well such is life, RIP betfair! So where to play now? Well pokertime is going to be the new home, it’s a new skin on the microgaming platform and its not particularly busy at the moment, but its a pretty soft site (at the moment!!) and pokertime are giving away massive weekly bonuses that that can be used for live events which obviously ties in nicely with my need to get playing live, so all in all a perfect match! The action at pokertime isnt really happening above $1/$2 at the moment, so to fill the gap im going to be playing at my old stomping group Mansion poker, again a good rake deal being the main reason but also after spending the past 2 years playing nothing but seasoned pros at betfair ive found theres still a lot of value to be found on the bigger platforms!

Ive just returned for a 2 week break in Italy, nothing like a good break to re focus and re charge the poker mind, ive done a lot of thinking on the holiday and have got a very good idea of what I want and where I want to be in the next 12 months. I think betfair moving and forcing me to change my daily routine may well be the catalyst to what I want to achieve, well I hope so, as Praz has show so well over the last few years, its all possible you just got to get out there and do it!

21st June 2010

Strummer — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:38:00 GMT

Once again its been far too long since my last post, jes nearly 2 months!!!!!! Unlike last time though its not because ive been running bad and thus not wanting to write about, its actually be the complete opposite, no the reason for the lack of posts is purely down to lack of time!! This is not a moan, this is just the way it is, time is becoming more and more hard to come by, like I said I m not moaning, I wouldn’t change a thing in my life at the moment, I am blessed and I know it! But trying to find time to write on top of the mentoring, playing poker, working on my game, family life ( I seriously cant remember it being so hard having a baby in the house!) and some how trying to fit in the things like eating, running, socialising ……..well its kind of hard at the moment! Still a good morning session that I decided to bank has freed up 30mins and so im using it to write this! So to May, well it was a great month , I finished well into five figures up, added to some good rake figures its was the perfect come back after such a poor P&L in April. Added on top of this was the $1750 I picked up for the badbeat May madness promotion, all in all a very nice month indeed. But it didn’t end there, as part of the promotion as the biggest overall winning player for May I got to pick a group in the World cup, if a team from this group goes on to finish 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd in the world cup I can go on and collect another live poker buy in up to the value of $10,000!! Not a bad freeroll in my book! Naturally I went for the group of death that contains Brazil, Portugal and the Ivory Coast, a good group me thinks!

So to this month and of course the WSOP. My initial plan was to go out for the WSOP early June, for one reason or another this was put on hold (mainly the missus asking me not to go this year due to the arrival of Oliver), so my next cunning plan was to see how this month went and maybe pick up a main event ticket somewhere along the line and head out to Vegas at the back end of this month. Also there was the attraction of trying to take advantage of this months badbeat promotion: to net $5000 for the month combined your GROSS rake (no misprint, it really is GROSS rake) and the month P&L and you pick up a $1500 live buy in ticket, put simply this is a give me, this is free money! Part of the deal is you must finish +$1 on P&L to qualify and well the poker gods in the first part of this month decided that there were in no mood to make things easy. After 2 weeks I found myself in a deep black hole with losses for the month touching 5 figures, the gross rake was in place but the +$1 P&L was looking a distant dream, and the WSOP was even further away! As has been the pattern this year the losses where down to a combination of set up hands but more often that not me holding a solid 2^nd best hand, nothing worse in poker than the 2^nd best hand! This inevitably lead to some poor play on my part, thankfully not to much was lost due to bad play as the errors in my game where quickly found after a few hours pouring over my stats in holdem manager. Slowly though the hole has been filled, getting back to the basics and focusing on banking winning days followed by a real hot streak as seen me finally reach profit for the month, and ive got to be honest im a happy bunny! Five figure losing months are never nice but when its also going to cost me several $1000s in live buy in tickets, well the pain becomes two fold! But that’s last weeks worry, im back in profit so need for that conversation! The last few days have been very nice, its been sooooo nice to see the best hand v 2^nd best coming down in my favour for a change! And ive certainly had my fair share of AAs too! So where does that leave me regarding Vegas? Well the truth is I really don’t know! Naturally I want to go, it’s the WSOP!!!! But then theres the family issue, the missus wants me to leave it this year, and well I probably can bit my lip and miss the big game for one year……………not sure im convincing myself though!! To help soften the blow I have of course got the World cup to watch and help me forget! Truth is im really unsure what to do, or what I want to do so today is not the day to make the decision! And then theres also the badbeat promos! Not sure what the next promotion is, but I know there going to be big and I want my piece……………lets wait and see.

10th May 2010

Strummer — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:30:00 GMT

Been a long long time since my last post! And well the reasons are pretty bloody obvious! Ive been losing and don’t want to write about it!!! Positive though positive results don’t happen by talking and re running my badbeats, my hard luck stories and of course the crap play stories! But I can keep silent for ever!!! So lets start at the beginning of April and the Irish open. After a hugely swingy month I decided to go play the open for two reasons, firstly I was playing great and secondly im just so over due a big live result!!!!

I arrive in Ireland on the Thursday, the day before the main event, I was staying a couple of miles away in the Herbert Park hotel, this had huge advantages in that it kept me away from the free flowing beer at the Burlington and also kept me away from the free flowing drinking poker players who were all staying at the Burlington. So on Thursday night instead of getting sh1t faced with skalie,punk tim Blake, kimber and co I went for a run around Herbert park, went for some sushi then retired back to my room for a very good nights kip.

Next day I felt great, over the past 3 months ive been on a bit a fitness spree losing the not so small sum of 28lb as well as substantially reducing my alcohol intake, all in all im about as fit as I have been in the last 5 years , and well I could feel it! So I join my table and to my left its my old labrokes pal Ian Frazier. The great thing about Ian is that he really believes hes the best player on the table and will try and out play you in every pot he plays, I like playing Ian. After I lose 1/3 of my stack in the first hand I bluff at, I settle down and slowly get myself back to level, then I find KK v Ians AK, and after a floor ruling (Ian tried pulling a moody) I get myself up to 15k. At no stage during the first day did I have any real tough decisions to make, it was just nice and easy small pot poker. With about 2 hours too go I was sat on a very healthy 40k, and was feeling and playing great. A huge pot later when my AK lost to 1010 I was back to 20k (ish) still above average and still playing and feeling good. By the end of day one I finished on 19k, under average but what I thought was a playable stack, out of the 720 runners we had managed to loss over 400 of them!

So to day two, I had a great nights sleep and again had a run around the park before making my way back to the Burlington. It was only when I sat down that I realised that even though I was returning with nearly average stack I still only had 15BB!! FFS day two of the first major of the year, the last 1/3 of the field with average stack and im playing push or fold poker! Needless to say it was good cards or good spots to push that I was looking for, but neither of them seemed like finding me. Finally I get dealt 22 in the big blind, the most active player on the table raise from the button and I push, he wishes me good luck before calling with AK……………first card out was the A. Cant complain, I got the spot I was looking for, just really disappointed to have played so well on day one only to return on day two to a structure that left no room to play………………………….such is life. To compound matters I then went back to my room and did my bollocks in online……………….this was to continue for the next 3 weeks. Now I don’t want to go in to detail about the online downswing, it contained its fair share of badbeats, but it was mainly made up of cooler hands, just me getting it in second best most of the time, this naturally lead to a number of crap spew plays, this of course lead to the zeroing of my account!!! During the month of April I swung on more than one occasion from 20 buy ins down to level only to finsh back down 20 buy ins, that a big swing, that’s a big losing month and that’s what I really didn’t want to be talking about in my blog!!!! To make matters worse it was my home town leg of the GUKPT in Manchester, to get a seat I had to go and beg for a seat from badbeat, “im playing great, let me play pleeeeeeeeeeeeease”! And play I did……………………..for four hours. I had a great table, very loose with lots of play, and the guy with all the chips due to that rare skill of being able to hit with any two cards added to the ability to get paid off every hand………….still it couldn’t last and I KNEW he was just keeping them warm for me. So the first real hand I play is against the said player. I find AhKh on the button, blinds (I think) where 50/100 and he opens for something like 600 from very early position???! All fold to me and I call. Flop is king high with two spades. He then bets 2500 into the 1200 pot…….ffs whats going on here? Turn is a Q, and he again bets big, this time 3,000 into the 6,000 pot, I call. River is a 9s, he checks and I check sure im good, he flips over AA……….o well. I then spend the next hour grinding the stack back up, im then dealt AK again, this time under the gun, the hitting machine calls then its folded to the big blind. This fella had just won his fist hand after folding for 3 hours, he looks at his cards and says “well I might as well ride my rush”. The flop K A 2 rainbow looked good so I bet pot, hitting machine folds and the big blind calls. The river is a complete blank, again its checked to me and I bet pot, he calls. The river is 3, he now bets into me????!!! Im unsure if his bet is a blocker bet and he has a weak ace, but I also have a nagging feeling he holds 22 for the flopped set, but I make the call, too much in the pot to fold……………he says “sorry I was fishing” before flipping over 45!!!!!! This man had folded all but 2 hands in 3 hours and then decides to go chasing a belly buster from out of position again the second tightest play on the table!!!!!! Blahhhhh. This left me pretty short and I exited 30 mins later when I shoved all in to two limpers with A8, how I was able to get in that pot I don’t know as they then go on to get the money in with AK and JJ! To make matters worse I go on to hit the A on the flop! So another bad day at the office……………….i then went home and did my bollocks in online…………I didn’t really I actually had already got my account zeroed!!!

So to this month and im trying to build a roll for Vegas, so far its been a winning month but I seem to be taking two steps forward followed by two steps back! Still im not complaining, im defo running well below EV and im defo suffering more than my fair share of coolers, but that’s the game, it happens! Over all im happy with where im at, family life is great, im in great physical shape and im playing pretty well, and from what I know about me and my game if I have those three things well im pretty sure a good P&L upswing is soon to follow!!! Heres to a huge winning May and more blog posts.

March 24th 2010

Strummer — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:59:00 GMT

The posts have been few and far between over the last 4-6 weeks, but well I think I got good excuses! The obvious reason is Oliver, jes I cant believe id forgotten just how tough it is having a baby in the house, feeding him every 3 hours 24 hours a day does kind of mess up my sleeping pattern! Apparently as im a poker player I should be able to cope with the lack of sleep, short term I totally agree with, in the days when I used to play and go deep in live events (ahhhhh the memories!!) sleeping for 3-4 hours a days was not a problem, but this sleep deprivation as been going on for like 4 weeks now, it hurts!!!!!!! Still I wouldn’t change it for the world!

The second reason for lack of posts is down to the workload, theres been a few changes at badbeat with a few comings and going and well ive taken on a few more players shall we say! The workload as basically doubled in a few short weeks, thus time is tight. But the main reason as been I have run soooooooo bad in the early part of the month, and I mean sick bad, and the truth is I didn’t want to write about the bullshit!!!!!!!! Now I know that most people who read blogs do it because they like reading about the train crashes, nothing more pleasing than reading about others peoples misery?!!! Well since I no long want to talk about badbeats, bad runs, out draws, muppet play, 1 outers etc etc I would basically have had nothing to say this month, because basically that’s all I had in the first 2 weeks or so, so sick!!!!!! But the positive thoughts, positive actions, positive outcome mind set that I now try to live by doesn’t allow me to talk about it……………but trust me it was painful, and anyone whos been following the hands on twitter will be able to second that!!!! So to this week, well its been good! Ive got my money in bad a few times and won, which is nice, but more importantly im getting my money in pretty good most of the time and the hands are holding up which is really nice. Im still in the red for the month but on current trends im hoping to be back in front for the month end which then means I can get over to Ireland for the Irish open, 6 days to go I’ll let you know if I make it………….but if I don’t the silence will speak volumes!!!

March 4th 2010

Strummer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:51:00 GMT

Well what a month!!!My little boy is now home after a few weeks in the baby unit and my family and I are getting our heads around living off 30 mins sleep a day, and you know i wouldnt have it any other way! Been through the full rollercoaster of emotions these last few weeks and to come out the other side this time on the right side of the coin, well its nothing short of wonderful. So i finally got back to the grind this week, and well i suppose your cant have everything as you would wish, lets say the poker gods are trying to cancel out the joy in the real world by giving me hell! Ive had a massive winning 6 months but this month is doing its best to remind me how tough this game can be, thankfully the years of pain ive suffered in the past stand me in goodstead and ive taken the loses in my stride, doing all the things i know i should like steping down the levels, being more selective with my table selection, playing the "A" game or not playing at all and most importantly not tilting, and the end result, well a month that im sure in the past would have been a 10-20 buy in down swing is a very small, pain free 3 buy in down swing, and if thats as bad as it gets well im a happy man. Hoping to get back to the live arena at the end of the month with the Irish open, ive booked my flight so the intention is there just need to win the seat now! But overall life is wonderful, im still blessed and my word this really is the year of the strummer!!!!!!!!!

15th February 2010

Strummer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:49:00 GMT

Well basically poker is not the talking point this week, no i feel the arrival of my son Oliver last Sunday is more of a story!!! As is standard in our household we like to make things a little difficult, so fitting in to that roll straight away young Oliver decided to join us just the 6 weeks early via a emergency section! Hes came in at a very healthy 4.10lb and for the past week hes done brilliantly!! As for his mum, well shes home now and is also making a great recovery, but for the coming weeks poker has to take a back seat as i combined being a full time dad, cook, cleaner, taxi driver, nurse, teacher, etc etc etc...........but i wouldnt swap it for the world!!!!!!!!!! Some how though i did manage to fit in 20 mins poker here, another 40 mins there over the last few days (sick i know) and also managed to recover this months loses, so all in all a pretty wonderful week!!!!

3rd February 2010

Strummer — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:16:00 GMT

First month of the year and im off to the perfect start! A 30 buy in plus month, 50,000 raked hands and I bagged the $5k live event rake bonus. To be honest at the mid levels that I play I know this isn’t anything special, it’s a good solid month, that’s all, but to do it while doing a full time mentoring job and having to do more than my fair share of household duties (have I mention the missus is 8 months gone?!!), well im pretty happy with the performance. The p&L side to be honest is a little disappointing, on true EV (I mean true EV, not HM EV) I worked it out I should have been close to 45 buy ins in profit, buy hey im not complaining!!! It’s the rake side of things im most pleased with, having to play 50,000 hands was a big ask for me with my currently work load, so to do it was a big plus…………though I don’t plan on doing it again anytime soon. Another big plus was once again playing and winning in the 2000nl game, theres still not enough value at that level to be playing daily, but when the right players are there im scoring well. Though the month was a good one it did end on a down note with the weekend being nothing but pain!! Again though this is no complaint, the money went to the blessed fish, and every now and then you got to feed the fish, just happens the weekend was my time to pay.

Buts it’s the regs who never fail to amuse me, lets have it right someone who plays between 4-10 tables for 12 hours a day you would have thought would have some understanding of “outs” and “pot odds”, but from what im seeing on a regular bases a lot of them turn to the trusted quote of “it was suited” and/or “I thought you where at it”………….5 years on and its still the same old same old! And again, this is no complaint!!! In-fact I cant remember the last time I moaned about anything poker, no, I cant remember the last time I complain period?! I think these days its more a case of really realising how blessed I am and how grateful I am, and its true, I am bloody blessed and I am bloody grateful!!! Thank you!

All being well the online form and results are going to transfer to the live arena. This weekend im kicking things off in Birmingham in some team event, im playing for the poker magazine WPT team which includes Paul Jackson and our very own Sandy Jackson. This will be a nice warm up for the following weeks UKIPT event in Manchester which I am told has already sold out, no surprise really as its only a £500 buy in and has the backing of pokerstars, this itself will be a even better warm up for my first major live event of the year which is the Irish open…………………..i cant wait, just hope its my time to catch a few fish rather than feed them.

25th January

Strummer — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:12:00 GMT

Two weeks since my last post and the reason being im back in a world that requires a 30 hour day. First of the builders are still on site! To be fair to the fellas its nothing to do with bad planning or lack of effort on there part, like a lot of things this year the weather caused major delays, even I can see that its pretty difficult to fit a new roof with 10 inches of snow covering everything. The missus is also adding big time to my work load! Again not too much can be done, I think her being 32weeks pregnant gives her good reason to not really want to be rushing around Sainsburys etc. Then of course there’s the daily work load that is being a badbeat mentor, and then finally the small matter of playing poker. Again its been a fruitful time for me at the table with another very healthy $7k upswing, another $20k plus month on the way and the year of to a flyer. Im also chasing a $5k badbeat rake bonus seat. As of last Friday I needed to rake around about $2500 to win the seat, this has to be done by the end of January. By my reckoning I need to play about 3,000 hands per day to hit the target which on the current number of tables I play works out about 8 hours play/ day!! I think im on target but ive got to admit im feeling the strain! Still im sure once ive hit the target and used the bonus to pay for the Irish open I’ll feel its all been worth it, just not to sure the missus will see it in the same light!

BTW, the £1 bet with the daughter that I wouldn’t have a drink for 40 days fell apart last Saturday as I couldn’t resist a nice bottle of red! Still 14 days isn’t a bad effort, infact im pretty impressed with the will power I showed to last that long!!!!!

12th January

Strummer — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:37:00 GMT

Well its been another splendid week with another $10k+ win, starting to get used to this. Trying to put my finger on to why im running, playing and winning so well over the past few months is something ive thought about quit a bit, and well the main reason I would say is attitude. Last night with the missus and young un tucked up in bed and the TV offering nothing more than the bland brain dead weekend nonsense schedule I found myself reading my blog from 2007. Now 2007 got of to a great start for me, I was crushing the 20/40-50/100 FL games on ipoker and Betfair and I also cashed for $35k at the EPT grand final in Monte Carlo…………….then the wheels came off! Reading the entries for June and July brought back painful memories of sick outdraws, huge down swings and several smashed up laptops! The most striking thing for me though was just how negative I was, don’t get me wrong most days I talked about how I knew I was good enough to come through the down swing and how things would turn for me, but I also never stopped going on about how unlucky I was, how the poker gods hated me, basically I talked the downswing in. I didn’t read past July, that ended with another badbeat, this time on the final table of a Bellagio Cup event, but no surprise there, lets face it if you talk about it enough and believe it enough its going to happen and my word I talked about being unlucky enough and believed enough and guess what?! It Happened!!! So to my current form and my current results, well for the past 12 months ive been talking about how well im playing and how the results are going to come, talked about it, believed it and hey the results are starting to come my way. So guess what? Im going to keep going on about how im going to have a huge live touch soon, not because I think talking about it will make it happen, but because talking about it and believing it will make it happen……….well I know its not going to do any harm, that’s for sure. Away from the poker tables im also inline for a nice touch due to a very large bet ive made. 3nd January I made a bet with Jade my daughter that I could go 40 days without touching a drop of alcohol, 7 days in and nearly 20% of the task complete im cruising, what im going to spend the £1 on yet as not been decided, but what ever I spend it on I know its going to be purchased from behind a bar!! Yep 2010, im sure is the year of the strummer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010! Happy New Year!!

Strummer — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:34:00 GMT

So a quick review of 2009, put simply 2009 has been a great year for me, sure I didn’t get my hands on a big live win but apart from that its been good! The bread and butter of online cash play: after a real slow start (mid January I was -$14,000) I got down to the grind and after winning my way back up the levels (at some stage during the year I played 0.50/1, 1 /2, 2 /5, 5 /10, 10 /20 and 25 /50…………………0.5/1 !!! FFS!!!) ive finished with an acceptable P&L that with the rake added turns into a pretty good year. Either way it’s a good solid winning year which finished with a great November and the best winning month of the year in December, and if January so far is anything to go by 2010 is going to be a GREAT year. Though I didn’t register that big live win I know im due i was still more than happy with my live play in 2009, lets face it not many people get to play the amount of live events I do and as always I feel blessed to be able to play in great events like the Irish open, the WSOP in Vegas and the WSOPE in London. Ive taken a lot from my live play in 2009 and I know, I really just know that my time is coming soon on the live stage.

The truth is though all this is over shadowed by one event in 2009, and that was the news that Debbie was pregnant, 7 months down the line and all is well as we look forward to the birth of our 3^rd child in March, now seriously nothing can top that! So all in all 2009 was a wonderful year for me on most levels.

So to 2010, well of course the birth of my third born will be the highlight by a country mile, but real life to one side im so looking forward to this year. Ive got off to a great start online which im sure will stand me in good stead for the rest of the year, ive got a target figure in my head for my P&L and it’s a big one, but on current form it’s a realistic one, but as always with me though it’s the idea of doing something on the live stage that I really want. The live events of the year for me are starting with the Manchester leg of the UKIPT in February, then im planning on playing the Irish open in April then its on to the big one: Vegas 2010! The opening events start in late May and im looking at getting out there for 2 weeks to play 5 or so events, win a couple (ok one will do) then home to watch England win the world cup (im pushing it I know, but come on!!!! Positive thought!!!) then all being well back out to Vegas for the main event. At the moment these are the only live events I have pencilled in, I will be adding a few GUKPT events for sure and with the new structure of the EPT events im also looking at playing one or two of those, with Monte Carlo being the event id most like to return too. What ever I play though, just one big result and I’ll be a happy fella!

Roll on 2010, surely the year of the strummer!!!!!!! Happy New Year and good luck to you all.

PS.

Cant believe ive not spoken about my poker highlight of the year!!!! WSOPE main event, and a player arrives an hour or so late taking the seat to my left, the cameras arrive and theres a buzz from the rail. The opening words as he takes his seat "Your strummer from badbeat right?".....................the man in question, only Peter WORLD CHAMPION Eastgate!!!!!!!!! I just wish id been more switched on and said "yes, who are you?" instead of my reply "yes" in a high pitched voice!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Strummer — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 08:14:00 GMT

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!! And a merry Christmas it has been too. Been a very busy week or so since my last post, so much has happened with most of it being good happenings! So lets start with the basics, online. Well its been another good week or so, with another $10,000 upswing making December one of my top months of the year and helping turn 2009 into a very good year indeed. With the current badbeat promotion im also inline for a very nice live bankroll which im probably going to use toward the WSOP, the plan being to spend a good 3-4 weeks out there next year. The big wins of December also have the very obvious financial benefits, coming at this most expensive time of the year with the added cost of the garage conversion, well my timing couldn’t have been much better. Its also been nice to play a lot more $1000nl and $2000nl. Ive spent a lot of this year grinding back my bankroll at the lower levels of $200nl and mainly $500nl so to end the year with a the bankroll, the P&L and the confidence to play the higher limits again, well it’s the perfect ending to 2009.

Last week was also the badbeat Christmas party. If again followed the proven Christmas party formula of lots of drink, a good curry, good company and a game of poker to make the perfect Christmas party! For me the highlight was the cash game we had later on in the night. The game wound up at 08.30am with several very drunk and very bleary eyed folk making there way to bed with empty pockets, thankfully I was just a bleary eyed drunk with full pockets! What a night! Not going to mention my call on the river with 4^th pair with a 6 kicker against a certain bluffing punkfloyd, and im certainly not going to mention one of the very last hands of the night where my 4bet got badbeat mentor Maneul to lay down KK pre flop………..no, theres no need for me to mention either of the hands, the bulging pockets said it all.

So back to the real world and Christmas, and well its been a wonderful time so far. As I get older the more I love this time of year, not going to go off on one here but being able to focus on family and friends and to see the joy that giving brings, well its is the best time of year for sure!!!! That’s without mentioning being able to drink and eat far too much and being able to justify it! So again I wish you all a very merry Christmas and heres to a wonderful 2010, may the new year bring you all you dream of.

14th December

Strummer — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:04:00 GMT

No point beating about the bust, this week as been bloody wonderful ! Firstly there’s the poker: from Monday 7^th to today ive had a $10,000 upswing. Based on the number of hands ive played im pretty happy with the figures. To add to this there seems to have been an influx of shall we say less experienced players, with one or two of them returning nice wins due to a number of world class river hits, I got the feeling there going to be sticking around for the Christmas period, bless them all!!! The real world as been a pretty enjoyable place to live this week also, this weekend I celebrated my 37^th birthday (I know, I look a good 10 years younger). For gifts I received everything a man could want: Aftershave, a cook book, money and errrr my daughter insisting that she takes me to watch Oldham Ath v Exeter City on MY birthday Saturday afternoon……………………..doesn’t get much better than that! The tics did win though and my daughter got to witness her father slightly over celebrate both goals which needless to say has brought nothing but shame on the family. To round things off on Sunday we had a family meal at one of the very few very good restaurants in the Manchester area as we celebrated my mums 60^th birthday at Nutters restaurant, basically not possible to get beef cooked any better on this earth! So all in all a bloody good week. Even in this week of highs there was still a slight plip, im currently having the garage converted into a office as I need to vacate the room upstairs in preparation for the new born next year. Saturday morning and the builders knock my Sky dish. For the past 48 hours I have had no TV signal. This may not sound much, but I promise you it is! Its like the old saying “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”! There was though an upside to this as I treated the family to the best DVD in our house: Portuguese pokermillion 2005………………..its a classic!!!!!

December 7th

Strummer — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:43:00 GMT

Its been a strange old start to December. The month started with a couple of coolers that quickly put me on the back foot, but this was followed by two pretty awful days of play by my good self! The fact that I played so awful is compounded by the fact that now all my “big” hands, that is any hand that goes to show down of 50bb or more, is instantly sent to twitter for those sick enough to want to see. Im sure a few eyebrows would have been raised when I stacked of pre flop with A10 (I had good reason, and was pot committed to the all in), as im sure the stacking off with AQ did ( I had good reason, and was pot committed to the all in). I Think though it’s a hand that I won that would be the biggest eyebrow raiser. I was playing HU against a super, super, super aggressive donk. In the first 10 hands we played he open shoved all in on me 2-3 times, he didn’t want to play poker he wanted to gamble, which sadly is fine by me! On the button im dealt Kc9c and raise, he 3 bets me and I call. Flop is 6c7d10s. He goes all in. I snap call. Now I can see that this looked like a truly poor call, but I was pretty sure where I was in the hand, and I had him on some rag 8 hand. With my over card, flush draw and belly buster I was sure the price was correct (still not checked on pokerstove but sure I was slight fav against the range I had him on). Truth was I was in better shape than I thought as he showed 33, the turn 6 and river 7 giving me the pot, but not they way I expected! Ive spoken to few people about the hand who see that different than me, but the truth is I trusted my “read” and against a player who was never going to let me play small pot poker I took my chance………….strangely hes not played me since! The biggest losing pot of the week was yesterday, and just writing about it makes me a little mad. On the button with 1010, serial raiser raises and is flat called by a station, I squeeze betting the pot, both players call. Flop 10c2c5d. First player checks, second player moves all in (done this ALL day!!), Obviously holding the nuts I call……………then the next player calls. First player has total air, drawing dead on a completely idiot move, second player has Kc6c, hes called a 14bb 3 bet out of position with king f***ing 6 of clubs, excuses my French but the reason for my poor language is made more understandable when I tell you this is a multi tabling reg!!!!! FFS. Needless to say his class play was rewarded with the rivered club and a 300+bb pot rightfully ships his way. Bless him. Hopefully that hand on twitter cancelled out all the “fish” talk of my previous hands! Anyway, yesterday I played great and still lost, so this just makes the poor play of the previous few days even more expensive, variance takes care of itself, sadly poo play by me is basically me flushing money down the pan! A lot of the damage was put right this morning, with another “A” game performance that this time resulted in a nice upswing, promised land is here again!!

You can follow my hands via twitter by following strummer9.