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dapperdanman's blog    Friends

Bankroll it is :)

Date: Fri, Feb 19, 2010 Tournament

Just a quick update to say I've decided not to do Vegas this year. Partly thanx to advice from Rosco and Dan Trett, I decided my budget would be too low and that there is guna be other oppurtunites.

The good news is obviously that in 3-4 months time when I finish my degree I'll have a bankroll between ($1k-$2k) to play with, depending on how much I spend/save :)

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Decisions, decisions... Vegas or Bankroll???

Date: Tue, Feb 16, 2010 Tournament







OR





My recent win from which I have managed to save about $1.6k has left me with a decision to make: how to spend it :D

Basically I have narrowed it down to 2 sensible options:

1) Go to Vegas with 'Newcastle Poker Forum' gang during the WSOP or (I will have another $1k by then so $2.6k total)

2) Save it to use as the bankroll I've always wanted for online MTT's (when I graduate in June)

I'm torn between the two at the moment. Basically the trip to Vegas is a great oppurtunity as the NPF lads are renting a house, which would save a lot of money. Plus it's an oppurtunity to experience Vegas with a bunch of other poker players (last time was on my own). Plus it's during the WSOP!!! The only cons are I'd be on a budget (only $1k to spend over 2 weeks including buy-ins) and that I've been before so perhaps I should wait to go again until I'm not on a budget.

Option 2 however has it's own allure. Basically instead of pissing about hoying $20-$100 on now and then onto various sites and trying to guess if I'm a winning player overall, I could do it properly! I'm sure I could raise $400 to make it up to $2k which is a perfect figure for $10-$20 MTT's given that I'm not going Pro. TBH the reason (and this is very honest for me lol) I've never kept a decent online bankroll is because when I've had over $1k online I get scared and spend it on something concrete (and usually unecessary e.g. bike or TV).

What would you do??? Comments appreciated.

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Stars Step 5 - double mistake

Date: Wed, Feb 10, 2010 Tournament




After my latest win I cashed out $2k from my Stars account so I can concentrate on study again for the last 4 months of my degree. This left $100 which I decided to use to sattelite into a Sunday major... I won a $39 turbo sat and unregged as I couldn't play that nite.

Then, stupidly, I decided to play a step 4 tourney on stars thinking I could cash in the $700 if I won!!! Half way thru it dawns on me that I can't do this, woops! However, I can't bring myself to lose on purpose in the late stages to regain my Sunday major ticket... So I win and advance to step 5...

5 hands in I'm dealt AKs UTG and 3x raise. One caller from MP and I immeadiately put him on a small pair for some reason... Flop: A43 two clubs... I C-bet, he raises, I check sharkscope and see this: he's played 1 $5 SNG on stars and that's it, SUSPICIOUS!!! Anyways I know he can reset his stats and do this but the other part of me wants to believe he's a fish with AQ or a flush draw. So I make a standard $10 SNG move and re-raise, he shoves and I feel commited so I call. If u haven't guessed it by now he has a set of 3's. Gutted.

I think the main two factors in this mistake were years of playing small stakes SNG's and my eagerness to believe what I wanted to, it was a painhful mistake that I hope I learn from. Of course $2k has softened the blow a bit :)

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1st for $1.9k Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Date: Sat, Feb 6, 2010 Tournament

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night was my biggest cash ever. And tot top it off I had decided it was the last game I would play online for 4 months (probably lol). I just put a tenner on to treat myself after handing in two assignments.
I'm quite glad I did that. Seriously though this is the result I've been looking for, for a long time now and I finally got it when I least expected, extremely chuffed!!! :D

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5 Month Break from Online

Date: Sat, Jan 9, 2010 Tournament

This might sound out of the blue for a few ppl but it's something thats been brewing a while for me. I'm in the last 5 months of a degree that I've been doing for nearly 5 years now, enough said on that factor. There are other reasons for the break too though.

Firstly, the more I hear about successful players on forums the more I realise that they are extremely hardworking people, I can't be with regards to poker atm.

Seconly, online poker has become a big escapiest tool for me in recent times that has prevented me from getting the most out of my life.

Thirdly, I can't afford a bankroll atm to play the games I want to play.

Finally, I need some time to reflect upon where I'm going with this game and how much time/effort I'm willing to give it in the future.

I will still be playing live (once or twice a week max) but the aim is not to play online at all until my degree is over. Good luck in the new year to everyone else!!! See you at the tables (live) :)

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Quick Update

Date: Wed, Dec 30, 2009 Tournament

Just a quick update on the cash challenge. I've played 30k hands now from the beginning and I am break even without rakeback. Considering the steepness of the learning curve of deep stacked play I am pleased with the results so far. Hopefully now that I have just signed up for rakeback and I have some 6-Max experience under my belt I can get this ball rolling!!!


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Azimut Cash Challenge

Date: Mon, Dec 21, 2009 Tournament



Once again sorry about the image quality, if you click on it you will be able to see the details. A very experienced and skilled player on the NPF has set up a 'cash challenge'. So as I've always wondered if I could cut it playing 6-max 100bb's deep I decided to join in, all be it with a limited starting bankroll of $100.

I'm now 15k hands into the challenge. The first 3k hands at 5NL went badly as I lost about 7 buy-ins and slightly belatedly dropped down to 2NL - not how I'd envisaged things going :s . Switching from playing $10-$30 MTT's to 2NL was something of a challenge in itself lol... but part of the reason for doing this challenge was to learn proper BRM, something I have rarely if ever properly employed.

11,620 hands later and I'm back at 5NL hopefully to stay this time. The challenge is to rise 5 levels so I'm back to square one, bring on 10NL!

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set over set over set :

Date: Mon, Dec 14, 2009 Tournament


It's times like these your glad your only playing 2NL lol! Sorry about poor image... I had the 9's.

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Deep mistakes, Manchester and Sklansky

Date: Sun, Nov 22, 2009 Tournament




I haven't written for awhile due to the fact I haven't made any big final tables. I'm putting this down to a lack of volume combined with my recent switch from smaller fields to huge ones (1,000 - 6,000). Despite this I've been running deep eg. making the last 150 2 or 3 times in the Stars $3 rebuy. In fact I seem to be runnning deep a lot which is encouraging but at the same time it's making me wonder why I mange to convert these deep runs to good finishes so rarely... I think a good example of what I may be doing wrong came the other day in a 1000+ man $11 tourney on Full Tilt that I busted in 50th:

It folded round to the SB whilst I was in the BB and he raised to 3x the BB, I had A4s and decided to push over the top, he insta called with JJ, no help for me and I busted.

Up to this point I had been picking great spots for re-steals and chipping up substantially through them but at this point I got carried away and failed to analyze the situation... This player had just moved to the table so straight away I should give him credit as I have no reads on him, worse than that though I realised afterwards that I had played with him on another table recently and had forgotten that he was in fact a very tight player, woops!

So what was this mistake that I feel is repeatedly my downfall, I play decent aggressive poker in the mid-late stages which takes me deep with a good stack and then in one foolish moment/hand the confidence I have gained gets the better of me and I make a move (or 2/3) without fully considering the factors around the situation resulting in the worst kind of bust out - when you know its your fault!

Anyways the moral is that I must maintain dicipline and focus as the tournament progresses and remember to treat every hand as thoug it could be my last (the curse of NLHE). This of course is hard when you play lots of big MTT's and are just a recreational player, but is quite simply the only way you're going to go from deep runs to FT's... nuf said :)

Enough rambling about my shorcomings then, what else have I been up to? (for the brave souls who are still reading lol). Poker wise I started a facebook group called Newcastle Low Rollers which has nearly 30 members now. It's mostly m8's who have a vague interest in poker but a few who regularly play live, so we're havin a few home games, trips to casinos, pub games etc. If anyone readin wants to join just add me on facebook (will_poulsen@hotmail.com). We had a trip to the casino the other night which was fun until bot me and my m8 got busted both all-in preflop with KK (seperate hands). His was v.harsh - all-in preflop for 70quid in a 0.25/0.50 game lol! Wait for it... against A7s! and trip 7's hit on the river. The other player had no reason to believe he could make him fold as my m8 hadn't been laying anything down, he had better reasoning than that though! I hit a Royal Flush with this hand the other night! LMAO!

In other non-poker related news, I'm in Manchester atm, hav had a gr8 wknd visiting my Australian family who are over. Been to a posh Indian resteraaunt, a play, markets and generally enjoyed their company immensly :D Meanwhile I've been reading Sklansky's 'The Theory of Poker', I'm about 1/3 of the way through and am enjoying it so far. Despite it's constant references to Limit poker and 7-card Stud, Razz etc. it's great to read where the origonal concepts of EV came from and things like 'The Fundamental Theorem of Poker':

"Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose."

When I first read this awhile ago I thought wow so what... But when you see it in the context of this book it's the basis upon which all of his other theories/advice sits so although it sounds simplistic by itself when it's used within another theory you can see it's importance. It's like 2+2=4 in maths on it's own someone tells you and you go "Wow, you're clever" but without it more complex sums and equations would not work. As well as this I've started watching training videos from Cardrunners etc. as I now have access to them through a torrent site listed in my links :) Lovin that as I can't afford the subscriptions to the sites atm. Got to go catch my train back to Newcastle now, playin 2moro nite at the Hussar in Heaton hope to see some of you there...

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62nd out of 2,400 in $10 rebuy

Date: Thu, Oct 22, 2009 Tournament

Pokerstars tourney, $12k for first... gunna get there one day.

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11th outta 1388 in $35k GTD pffffffffff

Date: Fri, Oct 16, 2009 Tournament

Too gutted to remember screenshot again! $8.5k for first, I got $300.... Becoming a specialist at just missing out on the big money lol!

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Another Final Table, 6th outta 600 weeeeeee!!!

Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2009 Tournament

Forgot 2 take a screenshot but u can see the reult at the end of the graph :)

I havn't been playin much since I spent my bankroll recently but I just fancied a $3 rebuy on Ipoker today... 6 hours later and I'm on a Final Table Weeeeeeeee!!! I was chip leader too with 6 ppl left when I raised from the SB with KTs and got a call, no alarm bells yet cos this guy seemed to be defending his BB.

Flop is King high rainbow with no straight draws, I bet... He raises nearly all-in (he was 3rd in chips)... Now the alarm bells rang, but not loud enough!!! I think for awhile and decided top pair decent kicker is good enough to get it all-in in a BVB battle... he shows KQ, oh dear! From then on I've got an M of 3 or so I shove a couple of times and walk into a hand... game over and that "big" cash ($1000+) continues to elude me... Oh well, one fine day!

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Bankroll no more...

Date: Wed, Oct 7, 2009 Tournament


Today I blew my bankroll... on two wheels :) As I'm in my final year of University I've decided I'm spending too much time playing poker and not enough studying! So in order to kill 2 birds with one stone I bought something that will help me get fit and study more... a Charge Plug singlespeed bike :) which I've wanted for ages now but the 500 quid price tag has put me off a little...

Does this mean the death of my blog??? Hopefully not! I will still play when I have spare funds each week, either live or occasioanlly online. Also I will try to find some other topics to rant about on here, which I know my friends at least will find a lot more interesting! Watch this space...

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Persistance Pays :D ($680)

Date: Tue, Sep 29, 2009 Tournament



Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! It's been ages since I've had a first place in an MTT. I wasn't feeling well either while I was playing. That didn't stop me bullying the final table bubble though, which gave me a 2:1 advantage over the second biggest stack coming on to the final table :) From there it was more bullying and a lot of luck that put me in an even chip situation with the ft's worst player heads up :) I didn't manage to screw this one up! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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