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Thursday, May 31, 2007

Poker plan!

So I have had an Epiphany! This morning poker came into focus. I need a plan. Nothing crazy just a little motivation to get myself going and to make the game mean something to me, add a little spice if you were.

So here it is, firstly I have withdrawn all my funds from FT and what I'm going to do is deposit £25 into my Mansion account. Most people probably don't rate Mansion and to be honest it s hardly full of players but I like the software, the sound effects and the play really isn't that great!

From that £25 I'm either gonna go busto or build my bankroll and forever play with that money. The more I win the higher I will go but its not a race, there is no goal its just about the poker.

The twist though my friends is that if I lose that £25 deposit thats it, no more poker!! Its over, the poker had its time, I tried and failed and it will be placed in the old memory bank to regale the grand kids with!!

So there it is, £25 between me and poker!

Let the fun times begin!

Bankroll = £25

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

I'm back!

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in posting but have felt so rubbish since i got home from chemo on Saturday that i'e steered well clear of all blogs and blogging!

So thats the worst of cycle 3 over already, i can't believe that I am now in week 8 of 15, technically over half way, phew!!

Over the last week I've been trying to get my head in order. I've been given a chance to make sure I don't waste my life and I am determined to live it to the full. Whether that be great holidays, expensive dinners, spending time with friends, staying healthy, and from a previous post...heading to the market!!

One of the key things for me heading forward is staying healthy and fit. I want to be in the best condition I can be in by the end of 2007 and to do that I really need to get focused. To help me do that I've been talking with a couple of personal trainers I know and I developed a website that will not only follow my progress as i look to achieve my goals but also to help me share my knowledge as I go. One day I would like it to become a feasible business but for the time being I'm just happy to hear your thoughts.

The URL is http://www.advancebody.com

Its very much a work in progress, some pages haven't been finished and the coverage of my progress won't begin until later this year but any feedback would be great.

Also if anyone out there is or knows the best way to qualify as a personal trainer/nutritionist part time I'd love to hear from you. Very interested in taking this forward for my own benefit as well as others.

Cheers all
Wombol

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Poker Lesson #1 - Never let avatars push you around

LOL, This is great! Some awesome SNG advice in here!! Follow this and you'll all be millionaires!

Monday, May 21, 2007

Cookies, Chemo and Charlton!

Hey ho all,

I'm trying to post a video but having a few problems, hopefully it will work shortly as its an expert guide to SNG's. I've taken all of the advice on board and feel I'm a more complete player now. I'll certainly be pushing with 9/4 offsuit more because of its straight possibilities and I didn't realise I could be on a flush draw pre-flop! But thanks to You Tube and our fishy friend I'm now very much enlightended!! You'll know what I mean if I get it to work otherwise I'll post a link!

So whats new? Its been a strange week, feeling good, feeling bad, all swings and rounderbouts! I have become addicted to cookies though?! One of the side effects of chemo is cravings. One of the reasons for this is the fact your tastebuds get dulled so sometimes you'll find a food that tastes really good and not metallic like everything else and for me its been frickin cookies. I've had to drive to the supermarket on a daily basis to get my cookie fix and one day they hadn't baked any, man was i p*ssed off! Needless to say they wouldn't bake any while I waited so went home empty handed.

This will all change tomorrow though as I'm back in for a week of chemo. Not looking forward to it to be honest. For the last cycle i was kinda indifferent but this time i'm just not happy. Its only 5 days though and when i leave I'll be over half way through so there is most deffinitly a plus but the thought of being stuck in the same room for 5 days is annoying!

Plus last time the nurse fucked up my arm. Now, as a patient I rely on the nurses to know best. It is after all their job. So here goes, one of the side effects of chemo is a burning of the flesh around the canulla (needle that the drip goes through). Its really painful and can be quite serious if its left unchecked. So on days 1-3 i have the drip in my left arm. For days 4-5 they move tha canulla. The nurse that was putting it back in couldn't find a vein so she was going to put it back in the same vein just a little lower down. Now i ASKED her if that was ok, it seemed a littke strange putting it in the same veing as what was the point of changing it? She said it was fine and there was nothing to worry about. Anyway turns out that the chemo leaked out the first hole in my vein as it couldn't heal in the 10 hours it didn't have a needle in. Now I can't straighten my arm and it burnt to f*ck. Well done nursy, you have been a great help!

Now don't get me wrong, nurses are great and we need more of them but shouldn't they know this kinda stuff? This wasn't a general nurse either, this was a cancer nurse. Its her specialist field?! There wasn't any undue pressure there, she wasn't coming off the back of a 324 hour shift she just didn't know her sh*t!! Oh well, Now I know so god forbid any nurse that tries to needles the same vein twice!!

On a less aggressive note, I've bought a pair of Charlton season tickets! This may or may not be a good idea but I feel we have a good chance of bouncing straight back up and its probably more enjoyable seeing your team come in the top 2 of the championship (ie win games) then watch them get stuffed by most of the teams in the Premiership and finish 16th! Only time will tell if thats accurate though!

Until chemo is finished its over and out!

Wombol

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Insanity

So there I was, just logged on to Full Tilt and as usual before I sit down at a table I like to have a browse through the high stakes tables across all poker variants to see who's playing. Sometimes if the games are juicy I'll rail for ten minutes just to watch some huge pots.

Today I came across what looked like a huge Omaha Hi game going. I had never heard of any of the players but it looked like most people were sat down with in excess of $200k in front of them.

So there I was, Id just come into the game in the middle of this hand and here is what happened! Amazing!

Full Tilt Poker Game #2437179612: Table 1041 - 1000/2000 - Pot Limit Omaha - 7:15:57 ET - 2007/05/16 (partial)
woogie420 is feeling confused
toddie128 calls 102,500, and is all in
crazy_hun folds
woogie420 is feeling angry
woogie420 folds
woogie420 is feeling normal
DNTH8F8 raises to 304,000
hotbmrchick calls 177,000, and is all in
DNTH8F8 shows [4h Td 5c 5d]
hotbmrchick shows [5h As Qh 7s]
toddie128 shows [8c Qc 4d 9c]
Uncalled bet of 13,000 returned to DNTH8F8
*** TURN *** [5s 4c Qd] [Ac]
woogie420 is feeling confused
*** RIVER *** [5s 4c Qd Ac] [9s]
DNTH8F8 shows three of a kind, Fives
hotbmrchick shows two pair, Aces and Queens
DNTH8F8 wins the side pot (377,000) with three of a kind, Fives
toddie128 shows two pair, Queens and Nines
DNTH8F8 wins the main pot (361,500) with three of a kind, Fives
hotbmrchick adds 200,000
toddie128 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 738,500 Main pot 361,500. Side pot 377,000.
Board: [5s 4c Qd Ac 9s]
Seat 1: Manny68 (big blind)
Seat 2: crazy_hun
Seat 3: brkawy_7 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: woogie420
Seat 5: DNTH8F8 showed [4h Td 5c 5d] and won (738,500) with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 6: trelos2
Seat 7: hotbmrchick showed [5h As Qh 7s] and lost with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 8: toddie128 (button) showed [8c Qc 4d 9c] and lost with two pair, Queens and Nines
Seat 9: blondie6282 (small blind)

So I'm in semi-shock here, did i just witness a $700,000 pot! Just insanity, imagine that much money changing hands in one go, thats just under what I earn a year (haha!). Well I watched a few more hands, the average was over a $100k per hand and I jus couldn't believe it!

After a while I got bored and headed back to holdem to find myself a table, however when I clicked on the holdem tab the highest stakes that were being player were $10K/$2ok...a flag popped up in the back of my head. You can't play this high on Full Tilt I thought to myself, whats happened, especially since there are a couple of tables full at these stakes.

I looked around for some clue, or an answer and it was then it dawned on me! While switching variants I'd clicked on frickin play money! I didn't just witness a $700k pot, id witnessed play money dudes throwing around worthless play chips!! LOL!

What a donk!

Wombol

Monday, May 14, 2007

Having a Flutter!!

So, it was the last day of the Premiership season yesterday and even though my beloved Charlton were already down it was still gonna be a great day of action and heartbreak for some teams. So given the excitement I thought I'd have a little flutter and make it all the more interesting.

Now I haven't' had a bet for a while now but do enjoy putting some money down, not loads, maybe a tenner or something, just enough for a bit of fun. So there I was looking at the fixtures and thought I'd play all 10 fixtures on Sunday and looking at them I thought Id go for Doubles all through so 45 bets in total.

Here were my picks for the day;

Blackburn vs Reading - Blackburn Win
Bolton vs Villa - Draw
Chelsea vs Everton - Chelsea Win
Liverpool vs Charlton - Liverpool Win
Man Unt vs West Ham - Man Unt Win
Middlesbro vs Fulham - Draw
Pompey vs Arsenal - Arsenal Win
Sheff Unt Vs Wigan - Draw
Spurs vs Man City - Spurs Win
Watford vs Newcastle - Newcastle Win

Clearly my bets must have leaked to all the clubs bar 2 involved in the last games of the season as it went catastrophically wrong!!

I don't think there was 1 point throughout the entire afternoon that if you had stopped the games there and then I would have had more than 3 results right!!

Oh well, I raked in £1.12 thanks to the 2 games i did call correctly!! So I'll try not to spend it all at once! Was fun though and will defo be placing a few more wagers next season :)

Am also haggling over a Charlton season ticket at the moment, I'm wondering what the revised prices will be so if its only a few hundred quid I'll get a pair for the misses and I. Could be good fun and I only live 2 stops away from the Valley so if I'm to call myself a real fan I really ought to go more!

Wombol

Friday, May 11, 2007

Poker me up!

Firstly I'd just like to say thank you to the following for their comments on my last post. Everyone has been very positive and given me great advice to help me with my blip and its very much appreciated.

CadMunkey : http://cadmunkeypoker.blogspot.com/

Yorkshire Pudding : http://yorkshirepuddingpoker.blogspot.com/

Drunken Monk : http://drunkenmonkpoker.blogspot.com/

Tx4themoney : http://freerollertohigroller.blogspot.com/

UKGatsby : http://ukgatsby.blogspot.com/

Today I played some pokes. Not a lot...well 7 hands in total :) but I at least booted up the pooter and logged on which is a start.

I can't say I was impressed with my play over the 7 hands and was lucky to take down a 4 way pot with a pair of 8's as everyone else was chasing 2 flush draws that were on the board but hey, it was only 7 hands so what am I talking about!

Felt ok, didn't feel anti poker in anyway, just felt normal so maybe thats the first hurdle out the way. I may log on again on monday as dunno if I'll have time to play any more this weekend.

On another note, I'm all set for a marathon gaming sess tonight. Bought myself some organic Aussie ale and have Virtua Tennis 3, Resistance Fall of Man, FEAR, Fight Night Round 3, Motorstorm and Full Auto 2 : Battlelines ready to go. I think Virtua Tennis will be the game most played tonight somehow!!

Time to kick ass!!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Why poker why!

Hey all,

I just wanted to follow up on my bemused post yesterday and hopefully add a little detail to my sketchy reasons why poker is loosing its appeal.

Firstly though thanks for the comments guys, its good to know that I'm not the only one Amatay, and also that when others have gone through something similar (Cadmonkey and Drunkenmonk) that a little time away from the tables has helped.

Here's my problem, or what I think it is. Poker, its a long term game. We all talk about or experience variance but over the course of say 12 months luck should even itself out and if we make the correct decisions over and over again then those little donkaments that suck out on us in January should, in theory, have swelled out bankrolls by December.

Now I'm feeling a little dejected with this whole long term thing. Maybe its my current situation and the fact at 26 years old, without a care in the world, a great career, great girlfriend, a dream holiday to the Maldives only weeks away I was told I had cancer. Yes, everyone has their setbacks and this is just that. I'll be better in a few months and only missing the dream holiday to the Maldives which I had to cancel and take a rather hefty financial hit on but it got me thinking about how planning around such long term gains/objectives can be a little dangerous.

Say all this happened and I was in a huge downswing, I'd be stuck for a few months and could end up fecking myself up even more as I try and chase my losses to get out of the position I'm in coupled with the unfortunate events that have befallen me. Not good.

So one, planning for variance seems like a very risky business. What I mean here is positive variance. So, brushing off that runner runner straight because in the long run you'll get your money back seems quite a scary thought.

Another area of concern for me at the moment is fitting poker into my life. I feel like my prior ties have changed completely. Its like I'm starting to feel and new exuberance for life and a deep need to do anything and everything I can. So yes I'll probably travel more, eat out more etc, the standard easy things to do but I also what to do other things and I don't know how poker can compare against them at the moment. For example its Saturdays morning, lovely day, about 9am. I can play poker for 2 hours and still head out for lunch, meet some friends or I can go for a walk, head to the market or something and try something new. What do I do?! Well at the moment it feels like heading to a fricking market is winning!! The idea of sitting in front of a computer screen clicking on fold, raise etc only to be sucked out on or earn $25 in an hour seems crazy. Yes there will be thrills along the way and I may even suck out on a few people as I chase positive variance but the thought of heading outside, on a nice warm day, taking my time to wander about, experiencing some of the nicer things in life (say I'm at Borough Food Market...go there if you haven't, amazing!) seems so much more appealing! Aarrgghh!!

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't know what sitting in front of a computer clicking on buttons can beat. Meeting friends, market, gym, movie, restaurant etc all seem so much more appealing!

So what does this mean for me? No idea to be honest. I'm going to take some advice and take a few days off. I'll still be updating the blog etc so don't worry but playing wise am just gonna take it easy, play some PS3 or something and go from there. By the way, Virtua Tennis 3 comes today which should be fun. Have a buddy coming round on Friday who thinks he is gods gift to gaming so have bought this as the great equaliser. I've never played it, i don't think he has and it will remain in the shrink wrap until he gets here so all is fair!

So thanks for listening, I don't know if any of this made any sense. You may think I'm mad and nothing could be better then online poker, maybe I've forgotten the thrill etc that everyone gets so please feel free to remind me, it might just chivvy me along again!

Now its time for some beans on toast and a boiled egg! Lubbly jubbly!

Wombol

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Where is the passion going?!

Hello all,

I'm back from chemo. Nasty week but am feeling better now which is a relief!

This is going to be a short post as I've been up since 3:30am for no apparent reason!

I think I'm losing my passion for poker!! I don't know why, I don't know where its going but its going somewhere!!

Some friends dropped by while i was in hospital and very kindly brought me some poker mags, and even got some poker goodies but in all honesty they were just left on the side and hardly touched. Not once did I feel like opening Inside Poker or Poker Player Mag and catching up on news or strategy. My desire just vanished!

DOES ANYONE ELSE EVER FEEL LIKE THIS!

I haven't booted up Full Tilt since I have got home and I was actually (in my head!) working out everything I could buy with my bankroll! This is not good.

I don't know what else to say at the moment, a little bemused. Is it a phase, will it pass, or has poker kicked me to the curb and thats my lot...I just don't know!

Wombol