Playing like a Clown

There's nothing worse than playing like a clown, someone telling you are a clown and then arguing the toss (like a complete clown) but thats what happened last night. I have been playing like a pillock for a couple of days so might as well have a truthful blog from the off and yesterday made a pretty bad play which hit a straight.(Chips all in from before the flop so no skill involved). Normally I would apologise and that would be that but the other player, obviously a tad unhappy, had a bit of a pop and, never having been too keen to back away from an argument, I proceeded to look an even bigger clown by trying to explain my reasoning behind my play. Having thought about it this might work in my favour as the fella plays a fair bit on my preferred site and probably has me pegged as a plank and with a bit of luck has notes on me as such. I made notes on each person on the table as "probably thinks I am a sh*t player" so that should I come up against them again I can hopefully rinse them with better play. Realistically people probably don't take notes on a one off play but you never know. (My argument was rubbish so may have drawn attention to me).

I would like to thank the couple of people who have offered me advice on books to read etc and offered PDF's, as feedback and advice is always welcome, unless the advice is to "f off and take up tiddly winks".

Having read a few other blogs there are obviously people with various levels of skill/experience and they are all, in the main, interesting. My hopes and aspirations for my poker are to see if I can first of all qualify for the attainable, like the Will Hill Caribbean Cruise or via free rolls and cheap satellites to larger buy in tournies, to give me a crack at some decent money but to be fair while I am playing with my big shoes, trousers and a red nose on I will stick to my small stakes until I can force myself to play sensibly. The clown issue still leaves me a few hundred £ up for the month but the lack of discipline is annoying.

Anyway I will post again at the end of the month with a profit/loss figure for September and with a bit of luck a positive update.

Joke of the day:-

3 women, 1 engaged, 1 married and 1 a mistress decide to treat their men by wearing black leather bras, stiletto heels and mask for when they arrive home from work. Following day the engaged woman says "my man leapt on me as soon as he saw me & made love to me all night!" The mistress adds "Me too. We had wild unhibited sex all night and all morning!" The married woman sighs "My husband came home, took 1 look at me and said "Whats for dinner Batman?!"

Cheers and gl

Gav

Learning Point No1

Is this the picture of the original dick head??

On nights now for a few days but managed to get to a couple of Final Tables on Monday night (unfortunately not the Super Series as I managed to bugger that up early doors)

Though these were decent results and gained £100 profit (not to be sniffed at) I made the same glaring errors in both.


In both tourneys I went out with flush draws after going all in after the flop after making a complete f"$k up of my odds calculations. Both times I had As Xs and the flop came spade spade gving me the nut flush draw.
I thought I was 50/50 and with my belief that I'd rather win a couple of tourneys than limp through the places I ploughed in happy with my chances.
However I have now found out that the chances were 35% (a major oversight having played poker for 3 years) and had I realised this would have waited for a better spot. Just goes to show these maths people are not complete tossers.

Not unhappy with £100 profit for the evening but lesson number 1 is to KNOW THE BASICS.

Everyone needs to commit simple odds to memory. (Pot odds I still can't get my head round but odds of turning a pair into a set, set to FH, open ended straight draws etc must be essential)

I will start to attach tourney lobbies to the blog for any decent results when I have worked out how to do it.

Not a bad nights efforts though.
7th in the £2 MTT @ 8pm got me £20 + shrapnel which paid for the night so far, so, as I was going to be on nights on Tuesday thought I might as well invest in the $5 guaranteed 11pm. ($25 entry)

Managed 7th place in this as well for $200 which wasn't bad but could have been better with the knowledge.

The above may make me sound like a complete novice and I am a novice to an extent but if you are learning you have to be improving.

Text joke of the day:-

Two men at airport. First man says "I can't find my Wife". Second says "I can't find mine either. What does yours look like?" 1st man says "She's 6ft tall, blonde, big tits, long legs, mini skirt, stockings, high heels and a boob tube. What's yours look like?" 2nd man says "F"%k her, we'll look for yours!"

Good luck - Gav

Introduction

Where to start:-


I am a 40 year old married bloke trying to earn a little extra playing the game that we all love, hate, hate with a vengeance, detest and then love again.


I have been playing Poker for 3 years, mainly MTT's with the occasional STT thrown in when time is short.


You won't find me on the cash tables as I have been bitten a few times and just cannot seem to get to grips with it.


I have made a bigger profit year on year but this is currently £3.7k for 2008 so I'm hardly looking at going full time pro :)


Best wins to date have been winning both the £1.5k added and £1k added Super series within a week of each other in July this year just before going on Holiday which account for 2/3's of my winnings.

I was on fire and the holiday came at precisely the wrong time in some respects but the wins certainly helped and I got free spending money, a laptop, paid a few bills and still have a few bob to play with.


I will try to keep a roll of honour as I have seen others do and best results this month have been to win a couple of £2 MTT for £133 and £137 respectively.

I have a couple of questions below that if you are similar in standard to me you will recognise from a mile off.

I was going to call my blog WTF as that seems to be the what the main questions begin with when I'm playing poker. For example

1. WTF was he thinking?
   
2. WTF was I thinking?
   
3. WTF am I doing? etc etc

Other questions that I can never seem to answer are :-

1. Why, when someone is blatantly shit and seems determined to off their chips at the earliest opportunity and keeps winning all-ins with crap hands, do I then call them with even shitter marginal hands when I should know better? or


2. Why do my fingers argue with my brain? I know I should fold and end up all in because my fingers are in control of my brain and are hearing different voices? (This may have something to do with alcohol but I'm only guessing.)
   
3. Why are the people with the green pen always so chatty and always consider themselves better poker players than everyone else? (I play mainly on Will Hill but for those that don't this refers to the people that have been knocked out of tourneys).
4. Why is it that Birmingham City can have what Alex McCleish describes as "their best game since he had been in charge" away at Bristol City and then what I would describe as "their shittest, most lack lustre" at home to Blackpool a few days later. No disrespect to all Blackpool fans but we have to beat the likes at home and away if we have any aspirations of playing Hull next season ;)

I will finish off each entry with a text joke that I have recieved. Apologies if any offend anyone but they are funny so sod the political correctness.

Paddy walks past a new pub and sees a sign in the window, "SPECIAL OFFER: Pies 50p, Wanks 10p". He couldn't believe his luck!. He goes in and sees a stunning barmaid and asks her. "Are you the one that gives wanks?" "Yes" she replies. "Well" he says " Wash your fucking hands, I want a pie!" Keep smiling.

I will try to keep this blog updated as often as I can and will appreciate any comments.

Should you have a blog that you would like me to add to the list just let me know your URL.

Cheers and good luck - Gav