Poker 101

So its kind of strange to think of myself as a "Poker Player" I know many, i've played many and I regularly interact and share ideas with people I respect. It's nice then, when someone see's what you're doing and asks for you to show them how to do it too. It must be a sign you're doing something right. Either that or they just wonder what the hell I do ALL day!

Having recently been asked by house mates to teach them how to play has given me a fresher perspective, and probably helped me to take stock of my own game in certain areas.

Reading a post last night brought a few things home to me. This is an excellent Blog post on how not to Level yourself.

I've just spent a good hour watching the housemates play 50Fifty SnG's whilst doing everything I could not to scream at them for doing "the WRONG thing". Even after a good few hours coaching, and leaving them to play for a few weeks it's hard to get across the basic fundamentals of position, hand strengths, pre and post-flop play. That's without getting into the minutia of SnG strategy, ICM, bubble play etc. Watching and learning how a complete novices mind works is an invigorating (and frustrating) experience but showed me quite a few things.

1. If someone wants to start playing and asks you for help, give it, give it willingly and openly. These people are good for the game, but moreover they are good for you. You will learn as much about yourself as you try to instill good habits for friends as they will. Every new player has to start somewhere and they will be bringing money to the game.

2. As the other article says, it's very easy to Level yourself out of the correct decision. Just because someone doesn't play advanced theoretical poker does not make them the spawn of Satan, it just means they aren't very good. This is what you want. You can't always range people onto specific hands because a lot of the time, they simply don't know what they're supposed to be doing.

3 There will always be things to learn. Reading, reviewing and conversing about the game is good for your game. Writing this for me is cathartic at times but helps me think clearer about things. Helping new players, doing things for them like, writing out hand percentages, what starting hands should be in your range from what position takes you back to basics. Everyone needs it from time to time. We end up tweaking our games so much according to what we read and what we hear, there can be times when it gets over loaded and our play becomes messy. Thats when a simple session with a total novice could actually be the better for us. Clearing the mind, and building from a stronger foundation.

Did William choose the right sister??

Comments appreciated.. I'm going with a yes he did..

Thoughts of the day

Well congratulations to the happy couple I guess, I hope you enjoy all the free champagne, caviar and gold plated ferrets testicles that will no doubt be quaffed at the UK ( and Commonwealth's) residents expense! Watching that scene from the balcony all I had playing in my head was this

As promised here is a shot of the "office"



I'll take another shot when its a bit darker outside, I'm no photographer and its from my Phone so no quality comments!

Another FT

But only 9th this time...

$5- 20k gtd. Made a bad fold with about 20 left which left me 20-22 BB's deep after 3bet folding with AQo. Not sure if my read was off as villain had changed his line that hand, but he then continued his min raising antics from then on. Prolly a snap call if he hadnt have decided that was the hand to change his opening bet sizing but I figured I still had chips to fight with so passing was the eventual outcome. Still some pretty good re-steals and aggression from LP got me to the Final table, just unfortunate to run A9 into AJ with 8BB's. Hardly any volume today after more train shenanigans and having to visit the bank after some POS tried to use my savings account to deposit fraud cheques into. Thanks for freezing my accounts on a 4 day bank holiday you ****!!!

bHUNLA

Or in other words, a Heads Up Team League..

With all the problems thanks to the US DoJ over the past few weeks the 2+2 HU competition has taken a bit of a pounding, with all the escrowed entries being held at the Presidents pleasure. Still playing on though and we're into week 2 now. I'm currently 2 for 2 in the win column! I guess all that training for that TLB match paid off along the line... Tonights opponent it seems was uber aggro, constant pressure from the button and then barreling relentlessly. All worked out though, made the spots much easier to pick. The biggest hand came when I'd already made a couple of marginal laydowns to double barrel turn bets, I figured my A high actually in pretty good shape on what was a very un-coordinated flop. The river bricked, he shut down and wasted very little of 1 heartbeat folding away the biggest pot of the match. After that fairly smooth sailing as he pretty much shut down 20bb's deep.

Thanks to Chiltern Railways and Virgin rail for causing me yet more aggro on the f*cking trains trying to get home tonight. I'm buycoting them and catching a coach instead. Why does everyone that works for a railway either go on strike when I want to get somewhere or have delusions of mastering a return of the Third Reich???

FUDOJ!!!

To all the American players out there, that want to show the US Government how they feel, whilst wondering around dazed trying to figure out how to fill 18 hours worth of daylight now they've been unleashed from their grinding stations...

This is only a partial view, you can check out the full store by scrolling all the way to the bottom

2 Years On...

Well its been a while since updating, mainly because '10 wasn't a Poker Year for me.

Coming back from Thailand and having to grind a "proper" job was all too harsh for a while but after circumstances changing in January this year its time to do things properly...

I'll get a pic up of the home setup asap. Using a Samsung 32 via HDMI for multi tabling ssMTT's and 180 SnG's usually 8-10 tabling. This jump in volume is hugely down to using Table Ninja.

Back in Feb managed to kickstart the a roll with a couple of nice scores, mainly the Stars $10 - $25k Gtd and consistent FT's in 8max micro 1000 caps.

So thats it, back in the real world of daylight deprivation, rustlers burgers, pro plus!