Meh 200 400

I took a small shot at 200/400. I did four bullets of $20k over the last week or so. I only have two of the hands, as the others were on my laptop but i lose all four of the big pots i played, i was over 40% on three and one cooler. Doh.

Second nuts goes down in flames

Two Pair v Draw

Here is my 200/400 graph for 2008 anyway.

I have virtually quit playing online for the year. I'm just going to enjoy December and Xmas, i'm playing Prague EPT which i'm looking forward too as well....

A few hands

I haven't posted any for a while so i will post some below. Not much has been happening, i've haven't been playing so much in the last couple of weeks. I did an "In the Well" on 2+2 which can be seen here.

Run good

Running even better

A hand against The_Houdini

Another hand v The_Houdini

A non believer

My 2 was winning

Couldn’t fold here

sbsjqsqjb why the Queen on the turn

Funny one this. I floated the flop, and three bet blockers on the river and got called :-(

I'm also playing my heat of the Ladbrokes Poker Million on Skysports this Tuesday...

Run

Well my post about being bored and playing bad obviously did the trick. I didn't blog during the run, as i would obvious bok myself, but i managed to play from October 7th - November 3rd without having a losing day. Think i played on 21 of those days, i had a sick run back in 2006 but that must be a new record for me. I won just over $500,000 in the period ($400k at 50/100), i haven't even been at all tempted to play bigger which is good i think.....

I think towards the end of the year i'll set aside a decent amount to have a crack at bigger games, and see if i can have some ridiculous spin up.

Anyway if i break even for the rest of the year thats cool. Next years targets will be weird, as i'd probably settle for winning half what i've won this year. Or i could decide to stop being such a nit and play 200/400 :-)

Budaaaaa

Well EPT budapest was very short and not so sweet. Busted with AA v a donks AQ on a JKA3 board when the T fell on the river. He did very well getting 100bb in on the flop and turn.....

Wasn't so tilted as usual probably because it was a cheaper buy in than most EPT events, and what else can i do other than get it in as a 91% favourite.

The hotel i stayed in the Four Seasons Gresham Palace is stunning, and i'd recommend it to anyone for a few days break...

Buda

I'm off to Budapest tomorrow for an EPT event. Its the first one to be held in Budapest, and i'm sticking to my rule to only travel to cities to play poker that i really like. The only other tournaments i have planned for the rest of 2008 are the GUKPT final and EPT Prague.

Things have been going well in October so far. I'm up around $250k at 25/50 and 50/100. I don't even think i've played 200/400 this month. Got bored of running bad every time i took a shot. The games are also playing bigger because of the pound crashing against the dollar.

I decided to treat myself to a decent car as well. I bought a Daytona Grey Audi R8. Definitely my best ever purchase :-)

Bored

I recovered from my slight downswing i had in August and September. Kind of a bit bored of playing right now. There are quite a few reasons why i've been playing bad lately. After winning so much in June and July, its been really tough to focus on beating my usual games. I've also run really bad at 200/400 in the last month or so. I've lost like the last ten shots i've taken at about $20,000 a time.

Alot of the time i'm just trying to tear apart any player i face at 25/50 and 50/100. I've been making more bad plays than ever. When i was far more focused earlier in the year, i didn't mind playing someone for ages, if it increased the possibility of me beating them. Recently i'm trying to crush people in no time at all, even when i know i'm picking bad spots to play big pots.

Going to have some decent time off poker in Dec/Jan and Feb to party, go to Australia and then skiing!

I'll try and some interesting hands and post them in my next entry!

WSOPE Main

Well i busted late on Day 2. I never once doubled up in the whole tournament, and it was a real grind. I really was card extinct on Day 2, i think i had just one situation where i bet, and actually wanted a caller. I eventually busted shoving the button after i'd squeezed an Ace and only had about 10 big blinds, and lost to AK.

I also, missed the EPT London and High Roller Showdown too because of a wedding! Think i have only on tournament left that i'm going to play this year, EPT Prague.

Had sickest 20 minutes last time i played online. I had 11 all in showdown pots, and lost all 11. I wander what the odds were, don't think thats ever happened to me before. TILT.

WSOPE - Events 2 + 3

I played event 2 a few days ago, the £5000 PLO. I lasted about four hours or so, i decided to gamble with 66xx on a 642 board in a three way pot when i knew at least one of my opponents had 35xx. I figured i'd have far more chance in the tourney with 45000 chips rather than 15000.

I'm through to Day 2 of the £10000 NL main event. I probably played the tightest i have done for ages in a big tournament, and i was never all in during the day. I'm like 20th in chips of the players that played Day1A, hopefully i can get a decent table draw for day 2, and run good.

WSOPE - Event 1

I was the first person to cash at this year's WSOPE. Well it meant i was first to bust out in the money of the £1500 NL Holdem. Had ok chips going in to day 2, but just couldn't get anything going. I chopped a big pot when i was all in pre with AQ v A4, then i lost a big pot with 44v 66. You need to run good in these fast structured events.

I'll be playing the £5k PL Omaha and the £10k main event in the next week and a half. I also may play the £20k EPT high rollers event, if i am doing ok online. Haven't been playing so much since my last update.

Blog

Just been looking through some stats and my blog has had over 500,000 hits since i started tracking it a few years ago. Thats alot of people that have read bad beat stories :-)

I skipped EPT Barcelona, wasn't feeling so good on the morning of the tourney, so thought i'd chill out and enjoy Barcelona. Its definitely in the top three cities in Europe IMO.

Its the WSOPE starting this Friday. Its good to have some decent tournaments just a few miles from home, and i'm sure its an advantage not living out of a hotel room.

Still running at about break even for 5/6 weeks online. If my running bad means breaking even for a while, thats cool. I'm playing a bit smaller just to take it easy for a while.

I also came across somthing funny from theASHMAN103 blog, to quote:

I continue all through the morning very tired and in the mood to just keep running it up. Unfortunately I get stuck $100k in Omaha for the day and lose a ton to this mega clown named Ben Grundy. This hand tilted me to no end just for the sole fact that he wins my stack for playing the hand how he did. Rare monkey species. A hybrid if you will.

FullTiltPoker Game #7864146346: Table Pantheon (6 max) - $200/$400 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 14:16:07 ET - 2008/08/30
Seat 1: Phil Ivey ($40,000), is sitting out
Seat 2: Urindanger ($19,855.50)
Seat 3: Ben Grundy ($45,927)
Seat 4: theASHMAN103 ($39,984)
Seat 5: Brian Hastings ($67,895)
Seat 6: howisitfeellike ($12,669.50)
Urindanger posts the small blind of $200
Ben Grundy posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Ben Grundy [5d 7c 6h 8c]
theASHMAN103 raises to $1,400
Brian Hastings folds
howisitfeellike folds
Urindanger has 15 seconds left to act
Urindanger folds
Ben Grundy raises to $2,900
theASHMAN103 has 15 seconds left to act
theASHMAN103 raises to $8,900
Ben Grundy raises to $26,900
theASHMAN103 calls $18,000
*** FLOP *** [As 6d Qs]
Ben Grundy bets $19,027, and is all in
theASHMAN103 calls $13,084, and is all in
Ben Grundy shows [5d 7c 6h 8c]
theASHMAN103 shows [Qh 9d Jc Ac]
Uncalled bet of $5,943 returned to Ben Grundy
*** TURN *** [As 6d Qs] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [As 6d Qs 6c] [8d]
Ben Grundy shows a full house, Sixes full of Eights
theASHMAN103 shows two pair, Aces and Queens
Ben Grundy wins the pot ($80,166) with a full house, Sixes full of Eights

LOL whilst i may have got lucky in the hand, his call preflop is so dumb i can see why he is on a close to $1 million downswing. In a six handed game my four bet preflop is nearly always a hand that totally dominates his like AAxx, AKKQ, AKQJ ... if i four bet preflop his AQJ9 hand is ahead less than 10% of the time, and is often completely dominated. As it happened he caught a rare time when he was a slight favourite, but he would rarely have over 30% chance given the action.

Ashman if you think i'm a clown i will play you any day you like $50/$100 Heads Up PLO....

Complete tilt

Just lost my third round match of the $25k HU on Full Tilt after beating Ivey and Williamson... had my opponent down to 1k to my 12k. Winning the 3rd match guaranteed minimum $96k payout too.

OMG

IHATE

POKER

Handssssssss

Haven't posted any hand for a while, so here are a few Omaha hands from the last couple of weeks.

Aces v Kings

This got me steaming

Sick tilt and i get lucky

Winning a flip

Flopped a monster

We both hit this flop

Hit the perfect flop

I've actually been back playing NL Hold'em cash. I'm mainly playing HU, as i think i've more chance at winning at that. So far after 9 sessions of $50/$100 or bigger, i'm up about $110,000. It's good to play something different. Not really sure who the good or bad players are anymore, as its been a while since i played high stakes NL.

I'm not really getting so much Omaha action on Full Tilt and Betfair from the players that i want to play HU. Generally most of the ones that have been playing me are pretty decent. Maybe more fish will be around in the winter months........

The next few weeks are going to be pretty manic. I'll try and post some updates if something interesting happens.

New Month

I'm really glad August is over. It was a strange month. I was about $250,000 down at one point, and managed to get even, only to lose in the last few days and finish about $100,000 down on the month. Its my first losing month since April 2007. I did run bad, but generally i didn't play very good either. I think its because i found it so easy to win this year that i just expected to beat people without putting much thought into the game, hopefully this will be a habit that i can shake off fast.

September is going to be a mega busy month, with loads of live and online tournaments so hopefully i can play alot better.....

Schedule and stuff

Well i'm back from my holidays. I've been running pretty bad for like my last 10 sessions of poker, luckily i haven't done much damage due to my daily stop loss limit. I'm due to run real bad for a while i think after what's happened this year, so maybe August is the new January (where i normally book a big loss)

I'm pretty excited about the rest of the year. The EPT starts back and i'll be playing Barcelona, Budapest and Prague. Maybe Warsaw as well. I can't play the EPT London event (dammit especially as there is £250k added), so i may play the £20k high roller event, depending on how i'm running online!

Also, i'll be playing all four WSOPE events in September, the Stars WCOOP $5k main event, and the $25k HU PLO event on Full Tilt.

Holiday + Poker Graph

I'm taking a break from poker for a few weeks at least to go on holiday. I've been playing pretty bad in the last 10 days, so i'm sure the break will do me good. Haven't really lost, but not playing anywhere near as well as i had been.....

I've played like 80% of days so far this year, so 2/3 weeks no poker is exactly what i need. I'll update again when i get back playing :-)

I managed to do a poker graph of the year that someone asked for a few months ago as well, which can be seen if you click on it below....

Some 200 400

Since my last post a week or so ago, i've played a fair few sessions of $200/$400. I've probably won about $150,000 in that time but haven't really been playing good, i seem to tilt worse it that game than my regular stakes. In the last month i won almost exactly $1 million, making me up about $2 million on the year. Its just so sick, at the start of the year my target for what i wanted to win online for 2008 was $750k-$1 million, must make sure i don't give it back!

Here are some of the recent big pots i played...

Antonius makes a good call against me

Antonius gets lucky

Cracking the Aces

Big pot on Betfair

One i lost to ICallSoWhat

600 bb pot that my opponent played like a ******

HU v Durrrr hand 1

HU v Durrrr hand 2

HU v Durrrr hand 3

HU v Durrrr hand 4

I guess the last one is most interesting, especially as its a $143,000 pot. I think his flop call is pretty bad. I'm definitely betting the majority of blank cards. If his plan is to bet out if any AKQ24 no flush/straight cards comes on the turn then i was pushing (as i showed). Maybe he was planning to represent the flush too with the bare king (i guess so). Anyway, i got lucky after he hit his two outer on the turn!

Rush continues

Things have been going good since i last posted. I even won at York horse races... i must run good. My stats at $50/$100 PLO for 2008 are sick.....

Total Hands: 17048

Vol. Put $ in Pot: 78% (13,298 out of 17,048)

Amount Won: $1,317,889.50

Win rate per 100 hands: $7,730.46

Big Bets Won per 100 hands: 38.65

Raised Preflop: 41.98%

I'm still not sure about moving up to play $200/$400 properly, and for long sessions. At the moment i'm mostly setting a target to win $30-$50k with minimal risk in those games. It's kind off annoying because i watch the games all the time and just want to jump in and play deep stacked and especially HU, but i don't want a quick $500k+ downswing, as it takes a long time to get that back if i drop down again! Dilemmas......

Tournament wise... in the next few months i'm playing the Ladbrokes Poker Million, four events at the WSOPE and most of the EPT's. Its always good to have a break from cash games, even as my recent tournament form suggests, its a donation :-)

Too good

Took this from a thread on 2+2, some seriously good photoshop work!

A few bits

Found myself reading through some old posts from way back in 2004. This post amused me because of the quote below!

My stats below are quite interesting as well. I was the biggest winner on the table and yet probably saw the least flops by a mile. Some of the players must have been up around 60-80% of flops seen. My 12% flops seen statistic is very low but on such a loose aggressive table, pre-flop hand selection is crucial. Most of them were living by the saying, “Any four cards are good.” games played 153 flops seen 12% games won 13% showdowns won 72%

Oh my god i used to see 12% of flops. Its kind of weird how its changed to me being the loosest donk at any table i sit at.....

Someone asked this question in the last post and i'll have a go at answering it.

Be good to see a post from you about money management. When you have a big win do you withdraw and invest it? Property/Shares etc or does it just add to your bankroll.With the number of players that have won a million and then gone bust do you have steps in place to protect yourself from this happening?

To be honest between 2005-2007, my bankroll management was abysmal.

Quote from jan 2006:

Well i have been trying to claw back what was a horrific start to the year online. I had five £10000+ losses in consecutive sessions at the start of the year which wasn't exactly how i was planning my 2006.

I think at the time this was nearly half my bankroll that i lost in a couple of weeks.

I also remember playing this pot which was a sick % of my bankroll at the time!

Omaha PL (£25/£50)
Table "Sweetheart"
Seat 7 is the button.
Seat 1: Mafews (£4400 in chips)
Seat 4: Bennyboi (£20358 in chips)
Seat 6: Duhfin (£67322.06 in chips)
Seat 7: R KESTON (£8570.88 in chips)
Seat 10: ashdogs (£5345 in chips)
ashdogs: posts small blind £25
Mafews: posts big blind £50
----- HOLE CARDS -----dealt to Bennyboi [Js 7h As 7d]
Bennyboi: raises to £175
Duhfin: raises to £600
R KESTON: folds
ashdogs: folds
Mafews: folds
Bennyboi: calls £425
----- FLOP ----- [6s Qs 7c]
Bennyboi: checks
Duhfin: bets £1275
Bennyboi: raises to £3800
Duhfin: raises to £12675
Bennyboi: raises to £19758 and is all-in
Duhfin: calls £7083
----- TURN ----- [6s Qs 7c][8h]
----- RIVER ----- [6s Qs 7c 8h][Kd]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Bennyboi: shows [Js 7h As 7d] (Three of a kind, Sevens, King high)
Duhfin: shows [4h 4s Kh Ks] (Three of a kind, Kings, Queen high)
Duhfin collects £40786 from Main pot

After a massive swingy year last year, when i found myself $400,000 down in April (almost going broke). Most due to playing to big and too much NL Hold'em, i had an amazing second half of the year, winning over $1 million playing PLO, and losing just under half that at NL Hold'em.

At the start of this year i made it my number one priority to practice better bankroll management, and i've stuck to that extremely well. This is down to a few factors. I bought a house at the start of 2008 for cash due to not being able to get a mortgage, money which i am never allowing back into poker. This swallowed up nearly my entire bankroll.

I approached BadBeat at the end of January with a view to them bankrolling me into my regular games, $25/$50 and $50/$100 PLO. So far this has gone extremely well. They manage my bankroll for me, and this year i've never lost more than $50,000 in a day. In comparison to last year, where i must have had at least 10 days when i lost between $75,000 and $150,000. In 5 months i'm up seven figures in dollars, and its definitely down to much better money management, and hardly any NL Hold'em. I've also had no risk, which makes playing far less stressful, plus i don't have to fear the bank account car crash thats happened so many times.

No Vegas

Well i didn't go back to Vegas for the main event. I'm done with flying across the Atlantic for just one tournament, and because of the timings, its all i could have played if i had gone back. I have purchased a share in a few decent players to funk for.

I feel very pleased that i left Vegas when i did, it a tough place not to crack up if all is not going well. I've also had my best ever run online since i got back, winning $550,000.

A few hands from the last couple of days!

Not sure who plays this hand worse?

Big bluff

How i'm running at the moment