Posted this on pokernetwork, pretty good quick summary of my year.
I think it's safe to say I got a pretty good taste of the highs and lows of grinding MTTs this year. I had always dabbled in MTTs online, though only made the transition to trying to play them full time at the start of this year. I was lucky enough to breakeven for the 1st few months of the year while learning, and had a breakout month in May grabbing something like 40k profit, followed by a 2nd in ANZPT Queenstown in July for 55k $NZD (of which I had 35% of myself).
Sky high in confidence, I was brought pretty quickly back to earth with a -20k downswing almost straight down. Took me the best part of 5 months to get that figure close to even, by this time living expenses/livaments etc had caught up with me and the pressure on my roll became a little too much. Fortunately I was lucky enough to get backed by the baza/RAWKS conglomerate at the start of this month, and have been playing a shitload better since then.
I think the best thing to take from all this is that while is it very easy to blame losing money on tournaments on variance/run bad, you can still stay pro-active in improving your game, something I definitely neglected for a while. With that in mind, goals for 2011:
1) Make enough bank to get unbacked, and successfully keep it that way 2) Multiple 5 figure scores online (or 1 6 figure) 3) Lose 20kg, play 1st grade footy (AFL) again 4) Finish the remaining subjects on my degree, hang it on the wall
The majority of this blog post will be dedicated to one of the hoffest bands in the world, METALLICA. I've been a huge fan of theirs since about 2000, have every CD on my Itunes and have very fond memories seeing them live @ Big Day Out 2004; where they came on in the middle of a hectic storm complete with (Ride the) lightning! So understandably I was stoked when I got tickets earlier in the year, and got more and more keen as the date approached, fueled by trip reports from other people I know and coupled with the amazing reviews the shows were getting.
Thursday night rolls around and Casey, Wayne "Malleebull" Dever and I were off to Acer Arena. We sat through the lead up band 'Lamb of God' who were way too heavy for my taste - I ran bad as Fear Factory supported some of the earlier shows, would have been great to see them again. Anyway the stage is set up as a massive rectangle shape, and the whole of Acer Arena is filled with 360 degrees of fans. Then after all the waiting, the arena goes black, 'The Ecstasy of Gold' starts pumping through the speakers, and the crowd goes skitz. The setlist that they played was:
*That Was Just Your Life *Cyanide *Creeping Death *Harvester Of Sorrow *Fade To Black *The Memory Remains *No Remorse *Sad But True *No Leaf Clover *Orion *One *Master Of Puppets *Battery *Nothing Else Matters *Enter Sandman Encore: *Stone Cold Crazy (Queen cover) *Whiplash *Seek & Destroy
All in all, you couldn't really ask for much more from a show, although I was a touch disappointed they didn't play my favourite song 'Blackened'. Highlights were definetely 'Orion' 'Sad but True' 'Master of Puppets' and 'Whiplash'. It was an Amazing show from an amazing band. The sick thing is they could play a completely different setlist and still leave the crown screaming for more.
Some vids: Master of Puppets Live (should give you a fair idea of how the stage was set up)
Orion Live
One
In other news, I'm currently in Cebu with the one and only Wennie Shhhhteeel, took a mammoth flight to get here: 9.5 hrs Sydney ---> Hong Kong then 2.5hrs ---> Cebu. Had an awesome time at the players party which was held at the beach with a shitload of food and free beers which I very much indulged in. The following day I busted last level of Day 1, I never got much going all day being pretty card dead, then raise/called pocket Tens for 20ish bbs vs one of the more active players at the table, and lost a big flip to his AQ. Then bustoed shoving 14bbs in the CO with A5o with the Ace of Clubs, called by AJ flop T86ccc and brick out.
Yesterday all the boys decided they were going to stack off during the course of Day 2, and as a result they are all available to go paintballing this afternoon which should be hof. My future victims include Lolgate, Jackovich and Weygang - Rennie is being a cat and piking. TR to come.
So I had been struggling along at the online pokers, tilting over getting deep and not closing and generally in a pretty foul mood (4 month breakeven/downswing can do that to you!). Then for some stupid reason I decide to actually to do a couple of days real work as a removalist... My mate Dixon has already made a hof blog post describing it (keep in mind he did 5 hrs with me on Thursday, and I backed up with another 12 hours on Friday).
CROSS-Posted from http://thelifeofapone.blogspot.com/: I woke up at 7 and walked to Watson's as we had arranged to do some work for this lady that lives behind the Big GSV. Watson warned me not to go out because the work we would be doing was strenuous, obv didn't listen.
Alright so we get to this ladies house with the plan of moving all her shit to another house, for $80 an hour all up. I'm still covered in spew, my mind is fucked and I walk into one of the biggest secs pits I have ever seen; it was seriously like something off A Current Affair, this lady (the craziest hoarder of all time) must have kept every belonging she had ever owned. There were boxes of shit everywhere, old newspapers, baskets of shells, the place was fucked. Not to mention that it stunk of cat shit and cigarettes. This first observation made me absolutely tilt, I couldn't believe what we were in for. To make matters worse the lady was completely tapped, like a proper head case. Talking so much random shit, pizzling my life and I was just being a bit of a cunt.
She believed that we could have the whole house moved in one day and I had to give her a not juuuuance because of the abundance of shit she had. To put things into perspective; it took us one truck load to clean out half an average sized living room, which was only filled with boxes and a few shelves and cupboards. I'm still blind and the first thing me and Watson grab is this big cupboard. Watson is walking up the ramp for the truck and he slips and I watch as a big ass cupboard is about to squash him, bang moves out of the way and is safe. Tapped lady is still pizzling our souls so I start to have a bit of fun.
Lady: "Make sure there are four bricks under each wheel of the truck" Me: "Yep I have three here" Lady: "NO FOUR!" Me: "Easy..."
We unload that truck at her new house and I inform Watson that I'm only doing one more load cos this shit is fucked. Mini Moan has tagged along with us and he has a car and all I can think about is how pure it would be to just jump in his car and bail. Maccas run and I'm crumbling, finally sobering up and realising to the full extent just how messed I really was. Watson is driving this truck and at one stage bunny hops the shit out of it, it was as if we were on a roller coaster. Second run and I'm dead, I just can't do this anymore. We decide that we will find all the biggest shit we can and stack them in the truck so it looks like there is heaps of shit in there, we do that then go back to the house. Tapped lady is killing my soul and I drop something.
I do the best thing ever and claim that I just got called into work and we all pull the pin. Made $125 for only a few hours work and I still don't believe it was worth it, just so happy I never have to see this lady again.
Anyway to avoid future forays into the labour market I actually won money at poker today.. BINK! 3rd in 55/25k for $4.3k and won the late 5 quad for $2.9k. Also like to mention Kiel "Irish Lights" Cram's efforts in winning the $26/18k superstack for 5.5k and a 6th in $26/28k gtd for another $1.4k; obv I run good in staking! (in b4 mbn etc) So again, I find myself (almost) out and am super keen to keep up the good work.
So I've arrived back in the gong after a week away in Melbourne; overall it was a great trip!
Thursday I was chauffeured into crown by the one and only Julian Cohen to play the $1,100 six max lead up event of the ANZPT. The tournament got off to a dream start, managed to stack someone in the first level when my JTs backdoored a flush after being openended on the flop, we got stacks in on the river, top two no good sorry chief... Then proceeded to rollercoaster up and down, the table being pretty decent apart from Michael Egan who was luckily on my right, playing a very solid aggressive game. Got moved tables holding roughly 40k @ 200/400 and promptly lost three quarters of my stack; defended 95ss on the button, flop K95r, old guy leads like full pot (3kish) which essentially screams "I have AK or AA!" I pop it small and he snap jams then starts berating me when I flip up my hand. Lucky old fuck catches another King on the turn tho, and suddenly I am short and hating life the blinds moving up to 300/600. Jam my last 10k with 77 over a CO raise and a call from the big blind, and win a flip vs ATs then very next hand stack the same guys remaining chips with AQ > his AT all in pre. Stack kind of hovers all the way to 600/1200, I have about 30k when the next hand goes down. Middle aged live guy who is playing really well and fairly aggro opens MP to 3k and the BTN flats, I 3bet to $8,500 with AJcc and he time-bank shoves which I sigh-call off and manage to 3-out his AQo on JKx x x. My 65kish stack gets moved again, I manage to win a few more pots to chip up to 80k roughly @ 800/1600, then... old guy opens CO to 5k, I 3bet to 13.5k with KK and he shoves for 100k with the old Ace ten off and flops an Ace to send me walking with 30odd left. Luckily this allowed me to go and have dinner with an all-star lineup; baza, dave & lisa, benn (risk2dupside), ben (bazooka87), RAWKS, moffo, and of course Wennie Shhhhteeeeeel. Dinner was hof, a Chinese banquet with course after course being delivered to the table, accompanied of course by a dickload of drinks. After which risk took us to some pretty amazing drinking holes, none of which I will ever be able to find again due to their out of the way nature.
Unfortunately the main event on Saturday was a non-event, my stack went from 20k to busto over a few hours, pretty much lost every pot I played, good times. I was able to play a Monday session in the hotel room with Dave, and "saved" it good and proper monoing the $27.50/30k from 200 out to come 3rd for $3.1k, after which we cabbed it out to the 'Cohen Life' house for a BBQ. Got very very wasted while playing Fifa '11, me and Andy Hin schooling all would-be challengers. Tuesday morning was breakfast with Brad, Moffo and Dave followed by a trip to the Airport. I should mention that over the course of Monday night, and Tuesday morning everything was paid for by the person who lost the 4-way scissors, paper, rock - gg plebs as I freerolled everything BINK! Skill game obv...
Got 5th in today's session in $55 turbo rushament on FTP for 1.5k which pretty much saved it. Results below... (cue drumroll..) Really looking forward to getting that number back into a positive... *fingers crossed*
Been putting off making this post for a while, mostly due to the fact there has literally been nothing to report on the poker front... September contained lots of small ups and downs, I think I finished something like -3k overall from roughly 30k worth of buyins over 700odd MTTs. I got pretty frustrated with it at times for obvious reasons, tournaments are fucking gay when you don't win at them.
Luckily, life has been pretty fucking sweet lately in other areas (apart from the massive beats of losing both our grand final and Collingwood winning the AFL grand final replay..) Me and the footy boys had two massive three day benders, one after the grand final loss on Saturday into Silly Sunday into Mad Monday, followed a couple of weeks later by a very loose excursion to the Gold Coast for footy trip. In fact, I am still recovering almost two weeks later from the Gold Coast trip - mbn to get the flu.
Finally, I have managed to start October with a bang! Casey and I went up to Star City on the public holiday monday to play the $550 deepstack which I promptly busted out of TT < QT (hof raise/call from MP for 20ish bbs) Jumped on the 200-500 table and doubled up quickly to 1k, then moved that to play the 500-2k game for the first time. Doubled with QQ, made it $80 from the CO, get 4 callers, flop 743r and check shove on the button who made it very clear he was going to bet if checked to who promptly SNAP calls with 99 (COOLER_BRO) Kept winning pots here and there got up to a high of about 4k then lost a largish pot 3betting QQ and got it in on the turn for 1k on T942hh and lost to T9o. Still finished up 2.5k which was very nice as I flew down to Melbourne on Tuesday.
I've stayed with the Hugh & Julian Cohen, Tollgate and Weygang for a couple of days then checking into Crown today (love winning packages!!) Anyway so hanging/grinding with the boys has been very fun & profitable; I shipped a ANZPT seat on the Tuesday night which = $2.5k in $T then got up early to grind Wednesday morning with the non-so dedicated grinders joining me later in the morning. Anyway they say a picture tells a thousand words so..
All up managed to book about a 10k profit online since ive been down here, hopefully the upswing continues for the $1,100 6-max today and the ANZPT Melbourne main event this weekend! I'll update the total when I get home, but I'm proud to report it should be looking a lot more healthy! (or a lot less sick)
Had a pretty decent day today which put a positive spin on what has been another pretty ordinary (but at least breakeven) week. I really felt like I played well today and ive been able to control my buyins however I still get involved in the occasional 109, I guess I cant resist trying to clear this downswing all in one hit! Cashed in a bunch of stuff today (21% ITM, $38 ABI, 38 MTTs) including some stuff id love to win one day; $55 daily 90k on stars, $55 40k, $20 1r1a... Although I did manage this:
Dear ragenut,
You finished the tournament in 2nd place. A USD 2,490.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
in the $55 500 cap. Top 3 finishes have been hard to come by lately, and hopefully I'll be able to emulate this soon in something a bit bigger! Looking back, I've had a couple of really deep runs go not as far as I would have liked in bigger shit, got a 21st in $109/125k gtd and 160th in the millball last monday, as well as bubbling for a 2nd ANZPT melbourne package on Friday night. I guess I just have to keep plugging away and hope something eventuates. Also the total doesn't include the two ANZPT packages i've won (shipped a Melbourne one last week sometime) so I guess things aren't quite as bad as they look. Ill def be playing the Sydney Champs ME ($1650) so hopefully I'll get my live rungood on!
In other more important news the mighty UNI BULLDOGS have managed to secure a grand final berth in both grades this Saturday! I kicked three goals in our semi the weekend before last, and went down the weekend just gone and got shitfaced on the sidelines watching first grade get up followed by the SCAFL preso night. Anyway regardless of outcome this weekend is going to be fucking massive, and im going to be super fired up for the game... So hopefully will see all you shit cunts there ;)
I daresay the main reason for the lack of updates recently has been due to the somewhat vicious and unrelenting downswing I have been suffering.. I havent been in a great frame of mind (especially immediately after losing sessions)
Basically online it has been -15k almost straight down since ive been back from New Zealand, however I guess I should be somewhat grateful that I was lucky enough to bink live (including some swaps from the GC ty Rawks n Aycee). If not for that binkage I would be in a lot more trouble, although on the flip side I may have been a bit nittier in regards to bankroll management.
Regardless of how good/bad/ugly I have been running, I've had to make some serious financial decisions and come up with a solution to get me and this challenge (lol 100k) back on track. I have had to dissolve the small stable I had going to free up some online $$$ and I will have to be pretty nitty with it - really dont wanna bust it! I guess I'm going to work with another 400 or so buyins and try and play an ABI of $30-$40 (feel free to berate me if you catch me playing anything 109+) and hopefully we will see some results!
Anyway enough of the serious poker shit, more importantly we have footy semi finals tomorrow playing for a spot in the grand final. Should be loose night especially if we get up in both grades, my liver needs prepping for the barrage of pain that I will be inflicting on it with (hopefully) premiership celebrations followed by footy trip.
Reports back from the gold coast indicate that Rennie "smokebomb" Carnivale set a record for the worlds shortest trip to a poker tournament, was in and outta Jupiters within 24 hours! Had a great time myself, although one hand late on day 2 pretty much cost me a stack which I probably woulda rode in for at least a mincash; I spaz reshoved wayyyy too many bbs (its fucking hard counting live chips).
Pretty much spent the rest of the time up there either at the beach or on the piss/dinner etc, highlights included a all-star touch football game obv we had to explain the finer rules of the game to the Melburnites but end result was the superior athletic prowess of Wattage, Tollgate, Milf, Jules and Neilson prevailing easily over the spuds Rickwaa, Moffo, Jackovich, Weygang and Sammy.
Also met up with an old acquaintance of ours, Marty from the Cabbage Tree Hotel who now resides in the Gold Coast, someone who James Dixon would remember very well: http://thelifeofapone.blogspot.com/2010/05/me-and-woodleys-night-of-shame.html
Here is a quote aptly summarising the events of that said night: "...I am standing behind the bouncer, being a pest, dancing behind him and mocking him. Supposedly he turns around and says to me calmly "Would you like a slap to the face", to which I replied with "Yes please". BANG this bouncer backhands the shit out of me and i hit the deck." yeah wp dixon u fish.
PS forgot to mention I managed to win a seat to the next leg of the ANZPT tour in Melbourne in early October. Aiming to be robusto online again by then, but really who knows. Sure would be nice to bink another big score tho!
Thank god I slept in today. Played every day this week bar today, managed to sleep through my 4:45am alarm (standard start time FWIW) and didn't wake up til midday lol. If the trend had continued, it would have been another losing session... This week took the downswing to well over 5 figures, fun times!
Totally bricked a smaller session Tuesday, scraped a 3rd in an 11 FO on Wednesday for 2k ish and bubbled the $50 sniper on UB another fantastic 10th place finish! FTOPS (no Dixon this does not stand for Full Tilt on Poker Stars) started on Thursday so I felt obligated to play another session and bricked hardcore again.
Trying hard to stay positive, I'm still in fine shape to keep grinding away a $40-$50 ABI and I know there are guys out there on bigger downswings than me (hi dere Risk!) and hopefully It'll go my way soon enough.
In other news, my red card last week means I am suspended for this week, and as a result I am playing the NPL500 this weekend with the one and only Wennie Shhhteel. For those who dont know, this $2,200 event should be choc a bloc with your standard pub poker players, I dunno what out ROI's will be but I estimate something like 500% looooooooooooooooooooooool. Then Tuesday I head up to the Goldy for more liveament action!
Another disappointing day on the online felt; got a ton of volume in, a lot of promising deep runs and then falling agonisingly short (yet again). Two FT bubbles today in really big Monday fields; 16th in $75 24k gtd on FTP (23k 1st) and 15th in the early 11r on Stars (18k 1st). Luckily I still feel like im playing well so the next result (should) be not too far away (and yes I know I just binked in a liveament but its easy to be greedy!)
In other news, made a rather average return to the footy field on saturday, ended up getting red carded for hurling a barrage of abuse at possibly the worst AFL umpire in the country... Still need to make major inroads on the fitness front; hopefully this will have a positive impact on my results as well.
What a trip! As im sure most of you know, I ended up coming 2nd @ ANZPT Queenstown, after 4 days worth of pokering. This was good for 55k NZD, although a fair chunk of that had to be paid out to my investors/guys I swapped action with. Still by far and away my biggest score and really put an exclamation mark on what had already been an amazing trip away! Hopefully I can do a full recap of the tournament in a later post. It feels good to be home however, I plan to really knuckle down and get my grind on online, as these live trips have prevented me from really putting in the volume id like. Would be nice to get back into the black on my challenge too – i’ve played a couple of sessions for no result lately as well.
Queenstown continues to be amazing! On Tuesday I headed up to Cardrona again with Pat, Chloe, Hugh, Toby and Tollgate. Got up there super pumped because it had snowed overnight, however the weather was awful on arrival. We spent the first three quarters of the day on and off the slopes, the visibility was shocking – pretty much guessing where you are headed, following poles down the runs and not seeing the various bumps and drops as you went over them. On top of this, my shin splints were destroying my soul; my calves were completely locked up. Luckily, mid afternoon I managed to give them a rub down with some anti-inflammatory cream and had a stretch and was good to go again.
Walk outside and the weather had magically cleared, the sun came out, and there was fresh snow everywhere! I spent the rest of the afternoon shredding the mountain with Tom “Tollgate” Grigg and getting a ton of “freshies”. It was amazing riding the chairlift looking over at the fresh tracks we had just made and getting excited all over again trying to work out where we were going to hit next. Funniest moment of the afternoon was Tom dropping off into a fresh slope and losing his ski in his first turn cause the snow was seriously waist deep. He had to crawl back up the hill a bit and dig through the snow to find it. By the end of it though, my calves had definitely had enough – so totally worth it. On a related note, Tom and I have made a 1k weightloss bet as we were both too heavy to skydive here in QT... We still have to finalise the actual amounts we are aiming for but I will be going to somewhere <100>110 atm).
Wednesday I spent with Casey grinding in the same Internet cafe that had been the scene of so much excitement on Monday. Had a pretty good day, FT’d the 11 cubed and the 55 6max on stars. The 11 cubed was a real crapshoot, 7 handed the CL had like 35bbs and everyone else was 15-20. Unfortunately I busted in a pretty standard spot, I reshoved 77 for 18bbs over a MP raise vs a guy who had already raise/folded to a smaller jam by me in a similar spot. Unfortunately he woke up with pocket rockets and I didn’t get there – 7th for just under 1k. While all this was going on, I was grinding the 55 6max FT too. I love the structure in these, I was 4/4 yet I was perfectly comfortable on my 40bb stack. I managed to keep my stack afloat with a combination of 3betting and opening a ton of pots and managed to small ball my way to a HU match vs another decent reg. It was fairly deep (>50bbs effective) and was actually quite fun to play another good player heads up. He definitely got the better of me early was 3betting me a ton etc. However, my reads on him were pretty good as the following 3bet pot demonstrates:
***** Hand History for Game 47056348564 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, July 21, 05:39:06 ET 2010
Table 322011122 9 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: golden_nug ( $443022.00 USD )
Seat 3: ragenut ( $267978.00 USD )
golden_nug posts ante of [$600.00 USD].
ragenut posts ante of [$600.00 USD].
golden_nug posts small blind [$3000.00 USD].
ragenut posts big blind [$6000.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ragenut [As 9s ]
golden_nug raises [$9000.00 USD]
ragenut raises [$25555.00 USD]
golden_nug calls [$19555.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ks, 7c, 7h ]
ragenut bets [$27855.00 USD]
golden_nug raises [$62000.00 USD]
ragenut raises [$207968.00 USD]
golden_nug folds
ragenut wins $173823.00 USD
ragenut wins $188310.00 USD from main pot
Then I managed to ship the win for 2.6k after this hand, some people might regard this as a “cooler” heads up (top pair v top pair) however I definitely think he overplayed his hand and could take a better line, though I am grateful he stacked off and I held!
***** Hand History for Game 47056364243 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, July 21, 05:40:05 ET 2010
Table 322011122 9 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 1: golden_nug ( $348867.00 USD )
Seat 3: ragenut ( $362133.00 USD )
golden_nug posts ante of [$600.00 USD].
ragenut posts ante of [$600.00 USD].
ragenut posts small blind [$3000.00 USD].
golden_nug posts big blind [$6000.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ragenut [As Jc ]
ragenut raises [$11555.00 USD]
golden_nug calls [$8555.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5c, Ts, Jh ]
golden_nug checks
ragenut bets [$18557.00 USD]
golden_nug raises [$45500.00 USD]
ragenut raises [$88998.00 USD]
golden_nug raises [$288212.00 USD]
ragenut calls [$226157.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3c ]
golden_nug shows [Js, 9h ]
ragenut shows [As, Jc ]
ragenut wins $697734.00 USD from main pot
So yeah overall a good day, still unhappy with a couple of things, I bubbled the FT of the 27.50 turbo on stars came like 13th shoved A9o on the button with 14bbs – SB (3bbs) snaps off with A5o and BB (10bbs) comes along for the ride with A2s. The BB ended up flushing me on the river and I busted the next hand. Also made a very FPS play on the bubble of the 22 rebuy 6 max on FTP, 3bet a reg’s BTN raise he makes a small 4bet and I for some reason decide he is FOS and 5bet ship the ol’ 74 sooooted for about 50ish big blinds. He of course has AK and im sure was very grateful for the donation lol.
In other news I play the main event day 1 in about 2 hours, I have been presented with a rather embarrassing T-shirt which I have to wear today due to having the worst Monday (bit hard when someone binks 4th in the warm up thanks tom!) GL to me anyway vs the live pros...
Having a blast in New Zealand at the moment! We have been here for 5 days, spent 3 days on the slopes so far two at Coronet Peak and one beautiful sunny day at Cardrona yesterday. Queenstown really buzzes at night, there is a number of decent restaurants and nightspots. We spent the other night at a sports bar which was quite intimidating - the All Blacks were playing South Africa and the crowd was soooooooooooooooooooooo into it. Been hanging out a fair bit with Pat & Chloe, as well as Hugh and Toby Cohen and Tom "Tollgate" Grigg. ANZPT Queenstown events start tomoro, so the town is obv about to be invaded by a shitload of poker players including the one and only Rennie Shhhhhteeeeel and his GF Sorrell. I personally doubt I will be playing many of the lead up events, but I will be playing the main event which starts on Thurday, hopefully get my run good on!
Anyway, this morning Tom, Hugh and I headed down to the 24hr net cafe to get grind on the mind. Had a pretty uneventful session myself, copped a brutal beat deep in the Cake $100k gtd QQ < AJ to bust 28th... but
Tollgate the sicko ended up shipping 4th in the Sunday Warmup for 46k!!!! This was awesome for me as well cause I swapped 5%, and the 2.3k I got was enough to get me in profit for the day. I am making inroads into my downswing, really keen to put in some serious volume when I get back home. Only one decent cash away from being back to square!
Also a small brag managed to cash in the Million for 500ish but I bought into the mill and the warmup with FPPs; so 27,000 Fpps ----> $2800 = :)
Played last night and today for another disappointing (overall) result. Got 5th in 109 2x turbo for $2.7k and racked up a 9th in the 11 12k gtd on stars; got stacked overpair < top set for a hugggge pot. Also came an unexciting 24th in the nightly 70k, AQ < AK off a 12bb stack love you pokerstars.
Bricked a couple of ANZPT/APPT satellites last night, so really didnt knock much off my downswing at all. Just really sick that today could have just as easily been +10-20k. Getting very sick of coming 10th-25th in big fields too.
Luckily Ill be able to take out my tilt on the ski slopes of Queenstown tomoro, so far we have done two days boarding and took today off due to various muscular aches and pains plus a need for sleep. ANZPT main event is in about a week, I have sold/swapped off a lot of action but a deep run in that would be obv great.
yup book another losing session... very tilt worthy considering the deep runs I had going. Managed to FT possibly the very smallest MTT on my schedule (non guarantee $33 turbo on FTP) and got 2nd for 550 but that was it.
As for the could have beens:
*23rd/6000ish in the early stars 3r *30th in 26 33k gtd *17th $55/500 cap *24th 20r on FTP
and... to finish this gem to get 11th in Big Double A:
Full Tilt Poker Game #22252581937: Big Double - A (171740865), Table 15 - 1200/2400 Ante 300 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:34:22 ET - 2010/07/12 Seat 1: Higher_Wattage (37,018) Seat 2: 1stlogeeek (52,603) Seat 3: Smiggie Balls (58,382) Seat 4: F3NN3K (41,470) Seat 6: aswtos (45,056) Seat 8: lockitup2487 (66,509) Higher_Wattage antes 300 1stlogeeek antes 300 Smiggie Balls antes 300 F3NN3K antes 300 aswtos antes 300 lockitup2487 antes 300 lockitup2487 posts the small blind of 1,200 Higher_Wattage posts the big blind of 2,400 The button is in seat #6 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to Higher_Wattage [Kc Kd] 1stlogeeek has 15 seconds left to act 1stlogeeek folds Smiggie Balls folds F3NN3K folds aswtos folds lockitup2487 raises to 4,800 Higher_Wattage has 15 seconds left to act Higher_Wattage raises to 12,555 lockitup2487 raises to 66,209, and is all in Higher_Wattage calls 24,163, and is all in lockitup2487 shows [Jh Js] Higher_Wattage shows [Kc Kd] Uncalled bet of 29,491 returned to lockitup2487 *** FLOP *** [4d 5c 8h] *** TURN *** [4d 5c 8h] [3c] *** RIVER *** [4d 5c 8h 3c] [Jc] lockitup2487 shows three of a kind, Jacks Higher_Wattage shows a pair of Kings lockitup2487 wins the pot (75,236) with three of a kind, Jacks *** SUMMARY *** Total pot 75,236 | Rake 0 Board: [4d 5c 8h 3c Jc] Seat 1: Higher_Wattage (big blind) showed [Kc Kd] and lost with a pair of Kings Seat 2: 1stlogeeek folded before the Flop Seat 3: Smiggie Balls folded before the Flop Seat 4: F3NN3K folded before the Flop Seat 6: aswtos (button) folded before the Flop Seat 8: lockitup2487 (small blind) showed [Jh Js] and won (75,236) with three of a kind, Jacks
Yeah so I'm pretty sure the title says it all - been in a major rut lately when in comes to the real business of actually winning $$$. I feel like I have been playing well still, however I mostly attribute this to my (failed) attempt to increase my average buy in; a sort of "shot-taking" I guess. Had some deep runs in some really big stuff lately, I have racked up a 10th, a 21st, and a 34th in $162s - obviously a result in any of these would have kept me in enough $$$ to keep my ABI where it is.
However, as I alluded to in my previous entry ill be dropping a lot of my bigger stuff and trying to run somewhere around a $40 ABI for the time being, at least until I get a result or two. It amazes me that so many poker players out there are completely irrational when it comes to bankroll management, especially considering the inherent variance that exists in the game (especially in regards to MTTs). It is my opinion that you should make some attempt to "smooth" out the fluctuations that your bankroll goes through; somewhat similar to what the government attempts to do for the economic cycle using monetary/fiscal policy. To put it simply, take shots when your upswinging, and drop back when your downswinging. I've taken my shot, im ready to admit short-term failure, and now going to grind it back.
Also went 0/4 MTTs in Perth, Ill probably write a post about that later. Off to Queenstown on Tuesday too, should be epic!
FML another losing session. Came 24th in the $75 24k this week, after coming 30th in it last week. Gonna have to drop down in buyins noticeably and try and get some results to get me back on track.
Didn't think I was going to be playing today however was feeling ok so decided to start just before 9am. Got in for a decent amount no real runs early then started developing some stacks towards the end of my session. Anyway ran real fucked in endgame came 14th in UB 30 rebuy 15k gtd ran TT into the mighty deuces for an overwhelming CL and obv he flops a set! Last ten bbs 44 < AK gg.
So the outcome of the session is riding on the FTP $55 50k guarantee (fifty-fifty). As some of you might know this tournament is much loved by me as it was responsible for my biggest online score for a long time, a 3rd for 4800ish back in early 2009 when I was probably horrible. Anyway was sitting pretty 8/18 then promptly run TT into AA and my last 6 bbs K3 into KK. Thanks Mr Lederer, fuck you, 18th.
went out last night for "Manishfest 2" return of the pone. For a recap of the nights shenanigans watch this space: http://thelifeofapone.blogspot.com/ My night was pretty loose, started at unibar @ 4pm and ended up stumbling outta Ivory at no idea what time im assuming sometime around midnight ended up passed out on the bed in the war room no idea why lol. Its official that Anthony "profiletrawler" Yeoman is an idiot for some reason we had to do straight vodka shots because anything else impacts on his diet not juance! Never again almost vommed it str8 back up.
In other news heading to Perth on Saturday for a weeks poker in the Sapphire series they are holding; should be pretty good im excited cause ive never been there before. Obv going with Rennie "brickshithouse" Carnevale hopefully if we run real good we can knock over a ton of the 200k challenge.
Also a big shout out to Benn "risk2dupside" Skender who broke outta his downswing in style winning both the Big Double A and the Stars 11 cubed today! 1 win away from a triple crown so gogogo!
Just finished a session with a victory in the 10:15am $55 6max on stars for $2,400ish. Felt pretty good to actually get a win, ive been FTing and somehow racking up lots of 2nds and 3rds so :) Last hand of the tournament was pretty lol too:
Yeah so made for a satisfying end to another frustrating day; I also FTd the UB $82.50 Turbo and ran 5th; I was 2nd with AKs and obv lost vs the chip leaders AJo for a massive CL zzzz ended up with 800ish for that. Also FTd the $16.50 360 cap and ran 8th. Another big FT bubble as well; got 15th in the early 20 rebuy on tilt. Can definetely feel another big score coming, I feel like im playing really well at the moment and not making so many retarded mistakes which can often happen if you not in the zone. Also got my buy ins back under control today - bankroll management baby...
Going out now for Manishfest #2; should be pretty epic and I very much doubt I will in any state to grind tommorrow.
As the title suggests, the last couple of day havent exactly gone according to plan. Played footy on saturday and had a very average game, got my hands on the ball a ton but sprayed away in front of goals, ended up with 2 goals from 8 shots on goal... And we fucking lost by 14 points or something, hard not to feel somewhat responsible. Anyway, Casey and I headed up to Homebush to watch the Swans get pumped by their nemesis side Collingwood who for those who dont know anything about AFL is filled with some of the most shit eating shit eaters to have ever kicked a Sherrin (eg. Didak, Davis, Travis Cloke, and the fucking fairy Dale Thomas).
After driving back from Sydney I decided that midnight was a great time to start an MTT session (this is not correct). I always end up regoing for too long and nodding off towards the end not to mention to loss of focus etc from being overtired. Bricked everything while playing too high... gg -$3k. One FT a mighty 9th in the 27.50 360 cap. Bout the only funny thing of the night was getting a phone call from Jack "outline" Dobinson @ the weee hours of 6am; the shit eater is very lucky I was up playing and not in bed where I should have been. Anyway the dude is outta and sounds completely manished and being the good mate that I am manage to top up his account with $100 and then think nothing of it as I go to bed. Anyway next thing I know I am being pizzled by the man himself who has somehow managed to get himself from Kings Cross into my bedroom and proceeds to pizzle the shit outta me for a good half an hour before retiring to sleep himself at the impressive time of 11am. Managed to fuck him off though when James "gollumbody" Dixon came to pick him up, thanks dicky-nee.
Continued my powernap then headed round to Bull n Sams for a latish lunch. Sam crushes the kitchen so hard BBQ ribs and potato salad purity! Just chillaxed and watched the footy then headed to Casey's mums for dinner (so fucking good not cooking yourself). Came home flicked the season finale of underbelly on; tbh the whole 3rd series was very meh, a little better than the 2nd but the 1st one remains a standout. Bricked the ANZPT satellite I run like fucking aids against the live pros who play them (eg Wennie Shhhhhteeeel). Gratz to the big man tho he managed to win himself a package for Queenstown ANZPT - we are heading over in July for a weeks snowboarding then some poker should be an epic good trip. Hopefully I can snag a seat for myself somehow, worst comes to the worst I should be able to sell off action.
I was in bed my the time Rennie was shipping; gotta get some sleep before the big Monday session. The session itself was a fucking punish, such a cock tease. Went deep in absolutely everything came 30th/1400 and 30th/1200 in the two massive 75 FOs on FTP very very rigged lost AK < KK in the 1st and AA < KQo ... Also 47th in the early fuper plus 16th in the late 20 rebuy on stars to bubble the FT AGAIN. Prob the most tilting bust of the day was the 20rebuy 6max on FTP in 14th; some fish decided to stop and go his J8o OOP and somehow flops the world somehow having the Jc on the 986ccc and besting my 77. Well played sir, hope to see you soon at the tables... Did make 2 very small FTs to end the session in slight profit: got 3rd in the $5r25a for 600ish and won a small 33 turbo on FTP for 1200. Way to run good in my lowest buy ins... zzzzz. Was a bit happier with my ABI as I managed to cut some of the bigger stuff and am gonna try and keep it < $50 for the meantime. Definetely due for a decent score too.
RESULTS:
Sunday night session: -$2,997.26/ABI: $77/MTTs: 42/ITM: 14%/FTs: 1
Had a pretty horrible day at the tables while playing higher = a pretty easy way to lose some decent $$$. Its funny how sometimes it just doesnt happen for you some days - today I felt the most switched on and pumped to play I have in a while, and made a ton of promising runs. Bubbled some big stuff, nightly 100k & 70k on stars as well as FTP $163 ten off the money KK < KTs AIPF zzz. Didnt cash anything more than $400 and the deepest run of the day was the stars 20 rebuy which I was monoing and ended up flopping the world with ATdd vs AA AIPF 2 tables out: Flop 964dd turn 7 giving me extra outs and a big brick on the river for a very unspectacular 12th. Also racked up another pretty deep finish in the early stuper unded up coming 27th running KK into AA for a top 3 stack, pretty gross.
Anyway I have a day off tommorrow playing @ full forward for the mightly Uni of Wollongong reserve grade vs Bomaderry then going to see the Pies hopefully eat shit and die vs the Sydney swans tomoro night.
Went out on Wednesday night and got unbelievably manished... Town was absolutely packed despite the drizzling rain as every uni student in Wollongong bar Hamish "Im not getting drunk tonight" Gorman had finished their exams. Regardless, who do I bump into @ Ivory but the man himself off his head! He proudly showed me some smudged barely legible scribble on his hand which apparently said: "You have an exam tommorrow; do not get too drunk tonight". Classic! Eagerly awaiting the exam results for that one...
But I digress. The night actually started with dinner @ North gong with Casey, JC, Rennie "shrek" Carnivale and Tim "chasingKesby" Dains. Steak n a few beers later we say goodbye to the girls (this includes Rennie obv because in his mind Gym > Socialising) "you dont get biceps like this hanging out at the pub". Grabbing a 6 pack of premix Jimmys (brings me back to my 18yr old days when I could only afford Cougar n cokes) me n Tim head to Luke "McGrog" Mcgregor house where we meet up with Dobbo and some of Luke's mates and proceed to predrink it up while pizzling the shit out of Simmo "jizzpants" Irish who is failing spectacularly at doing an assignment apparently a lazy four weeks overdue (at what stage do you give up) To Simmo's credit he did man up and drive us into town; in return I might pass him the ball on the weekend @ footy.
So packed arse Ivory ran into the one and only James "big Koots" Cayley; Chloe, among endless numbers of other individuals by this stage recollections are getting a little hazy due to peer pressured Jagerbombs (i fuckin hate jagerbombs) as well as endless bourbons (who can pass up Wild Turkeys in happy hour). Across the road to Glasshouse the manishment continues with Chad "Dobbly" Kroeger. I distinctly remember a few things; ran into Millhouse who seemed to have lost the ability to speak which did not deter him from shouting incoherent nothings in my ear. I actually saw James the next afternoon who was still passed out on the floor of his place, but I definetely understood his "fuck off" when I asked him how he was feeling looooooooool. Other memories include going drink for drink Jack n lemonades with Brad "PDF" Golledge, by the 3rd one we were lapping them outta the glass to demonstrate to some rookie 18 year old fish why we were shouting "MOTHERS MILK" at the top of our lungs. Also got pizzled by this dude who was an Austrian exchange student back in Year 8 in high school who has been in the Austrian army for a couple of years and is now built like a brick shithouse and proceeded to crush my hand while giving me some motivational dribble about making the most of my potential... obv poker doesnt count and today certainly didnt benefit from his uplifting speech.
Manage to escape on the bus to Castros with Jack "paddlepoplion" Dobbo who is as paralytic as I am by this stage. If anyone can fill in the blanks for me in this stage it would be much appreciated only thing i remember is seeing John"thatdeafguy" Ziogas outside in the smoking area... very standard good to see him loving life though. Next thing I remember im by myself at Fat Boy Pide - accused the dude working behind the counter of trying to fuck with me because the drinks fridge was on the other side of the shop than the last time I was in there.. Smash down my barbecue Meatlovers pide which is fucking pure: pide >>> kebab imo. Also semi-abused some chick who used to work behind the bar at cooneys when we were 18 year old menaces; it was standard operating procedure to powerspew @ 11 after starting drinking when happy hour started @ 9. Those nights were fucking pure; I have very fond memories of being stoked when you got up $5 in the pokies - because that was enough to buy the amazing $5 combo of one Carlton Draught and a bourbon and coke!! anyway I accused this chick of being responsible for the fact that Im not as intelligent now as I used to be and that she singlehandly caused the destruction of many of my brain cells.
She laughs it off --> cab ---> home and I slumber til midday upon which I wake up fucking manished which lasts with me all day and night, I almost vom multiple times at footy training. Not the only one feeling the effect though; messages received from Dobbo on Thursday: * "wow what did i do to myself last night im in agony!"
to which my reply was: "I'm dying ive got the junkie shakes"
and he comes back with: "Mate im fucked im convinced im actually dying"
for those interested in what Jack did last night he crumbled his soul back @ mcgrogs on what looked like possibly the worst pull out bed in the world while the soccer was on. Thursday night he had to go to work teaching little kids how not to drown unrucky Dobbly appropriately summed up by Dixon "HAVE FUN AT WORK CUNT"
yeah there may be a reason I dont punish my liver that hard that often. Looks like Dixon had fun last night though I will post a quote from Facebook today (for those people who dont know Dixon, the amount of shit he posts on facey in a day is directly correlated to the level of manishment he is enduring).
James Dixon ---> James Pirie:
DICKO YOU JUST DONT UNDERSTAND, THE PIZZLING I RECEIVE ON A CONSTANT BASIS IS BEYOND. JUST THINK ABOUT IT IN MY SHOES, I WOULD NEVER EVER!! SLEEP ON YOUR COACH AND PIZZLE YOU BUT U CONTINUE TO MAKE ME CRUMBLE IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. IM CRUMBLING AND I NEVER WOULD DO DAT. PLEASE JUST GIVE ME SOME PEACE AND QUIET AND STOP BEING SUCH A PIZZLER.....FUUUUUUUCK WHERE MY PEPPERONI AND PASTRY PIZZA NO ONE TOUCHES MY CUSTOM PIZZA OR BROWNIES NEVER WOULD DEY DO DAT...NEVVVVVVVVVVVER, YOU COULD NEVER DO DAT, ILL CRUUUUUUUUUUUMBLE. NEVER STAY AT MY HOUSE DIXON OR EAT MY PIZZA AND BROWNIES YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HOW BADLY I WILL CRUMBLE
Poker Results:
Today: -$3,162.14/68 MTTs/ABI $64/ITM 12%/Zero FTs/1 FT bubble. OVERALL: +$672.04
grrrrrrrrrrr such a frustrating day. I know I should be happy but cant help feeling a touch hard done by...
started @ 4.45am like a good grinder should no real love early except for a 3rd in 27.50 big antes on stars for 800.
Finished regoing @ midday and watched as a number of nice stacks began to appear in my last ten or so tables. Ended up finishing 10th in probably the biggest FT bubble in my career in the late FTP $163 FO ($21k for 1st) and busting A9 < 99 shorty on shorty violence. Taking this in my stride managed to win A8cc > JJ on the FT bubble of the UB $130 sniper. Flop xxx one club turn club me and Crammy both fistpumping the club river hardcore and instead bink the A on the river to go into the FT 7/9. Ended up with the CL early after AA > JJ (FUCKING SWEAT flop QT9 and then bricks out gg) then got 3 handed and 4 bet jammed AJ into the most active player left on the table gg QQ is good. Next hand back to 10bbs A5 > aggro dudes K5 and then very NEXT hand he raises the button i ship QQ he snaps A2o and flop 26A obv lol gg wp etc etc etc FUCK. End result 3rd for $3,300; not a bad result considering i was 7th going into the FT but really wanted the 7800 for 1st obv.
End up monoing the $26 28k gtd on tilt to finish up my session. go from 2/16 to finsh 14th zzzzzzzzz. Those lower stakes freezeouts are a bit of a crapshoot late; everyone is trying to make the FT by folding and you cant really afford to lose to many pots >30bbs. Anyway shoved Q6 < shortys AJ blind vs blind then blinded down, blinds up and snapped off a BTN shove with KTdd and brick out vs AJo gg 14th.
Still cant complain with another winning day; going to head out now to celebrate + celebrate end of exams with dinner then manishment @ north gong and other assorted fine drinking establishments in the Gong with Wennie Shhhhhhhteeeeel and the rest of the uni kids.
Nothing else of note except that I almost died making my return filling in for the powerhouse of Wollongong Tuesday night indoor cricket that is the Headies Shreddies last night. After the 1st (of four) overs I was ready to call for the ambulance as I was on the verge of a heart attack; luckboxed only getting out a couple of times while my batting partner Neil proudly showed off wat he's learnt @ the mighty Keira Lions by steering our combo through to post a respectable total. Then got my run good on bowling somehow binking 4 wickets through a combination of full tosses, short balls and one amazing slower ball with Simmo "Drazic" Williams expertly cleaning the fool up behind the wickets. And bink end score 120 - 70 odd gg texas hammer shralping ring ins.
Must get fit if I am ever going to be able to play any position apart from full forward...
So i figured it was about time I started one of these. Hopefully this signifies the start of a new period in my life; ive decided to but uni on hold for six months (with every intention of going back) and grind hardcore with the goal of making 200k in six months between me and Rennie "Steel" "I bench Bobbis" Carnevale. So that leaves me with 100k to make between now and Christmas 2010 I guess. I plan to keep putting in good volume and hopefully run half decent - its a pretty achievable goal. And of course if I fall a little short then its not like ive exactly wasted my time. I also plan on using the extra time to "try" and get fit (I know ive been saying that for years) but exercise is a great release, especially after sitting at a desk for 8-14 hours at a time.
Err so 1st day was ok I guess, had some deep runs finishing: -2nd in the 5r25a (aka the Risk2dupside invitational) for 875 - 3rd in 20r 7.5k on UB for 1kish - 3rd in 75PL 6k on FTP for 840 - 8th in 44 turbo on stars for 255
plus assorted other cashes got 12th i think in the 50r on UB and busted my last table ($109 2nd chance) in spectacular fashion calling a 10bb shove and a 15bb reshove with TT from the BB; facing QJ and AK flop T8x turn 9 riv brick obv for the CL with 20 to go. Still a win is a win...
Results: +$545.64 ABI $61 from 56 mtts [4 FTs; 1 bubble]
In other news, James "mbntoponeonadancefloornearyou" Dixon came over and is the proud new owner of a fresh new Full Tilt account and with my rough guidance while multitabling my session managed to win his 1st $1.10 45 man sng!! If dixon manages a transformation into an online grinder he is seriously going to be the most famous person in Wollongong as he is already known all over town by both bouncers and pub patrons as the skinny manished pubehead losing his shit on a dance floor near you...
Anyway the upcoming week is probably going to be a struggle as im sure I will be getting fucked up on potentially Wednesday and Thurday night so I may be in for some late starts. Manished grind... that pizzling!
