Fish on a Heater

Very happy to report that Iv probably had my best month ever at the pokers – yeah I know lol retirement. I didn’t actually play any poker for the first 2 weeks of the month because I was busy with work and life stuff so about 2 weeks ago I stuck a monkey online to grind 25nl. I have been running like Usain Bolt on speed at about 17bb/100 over 10k hands ranging from 10nl to 50nl (the 50nl is either playing fish heads up or jumping into a 6 max game where I see a good spot) Iv just set up a new Ipoker account and the rake back is pretty tasty meaning Im pretty much rolled for 50nl now. I think I will stay at 25nl for a little while longer for a couple of reasons

(1) I can accept that Im running hot and don’t want to move up just as variance is catching up with me

(2) Ipoker needs a little getting used to – both the software and the players. On party players rarely 3bet (and either did I) but they were great for calling 3-bets with ATC. The regs on ipoker are far more aggressive but they 4bet spew so much it makes me laugh

(3) I don’t want to move up too quickly Im only finding my groove on the new site so Im in no hurry

Live tournaments are going great too. I played bad in the Voodoo deep stacked game and deserved not to hit my open ender when I shipped against 2 pair. I just played far too tight early on and didn’t try and see enough flops with speculative hands. I also 3 bet badly against the wrong layers and my bet sizing was bad so they were lessons to be taken into account for the rest of the month.

I then proceeded to win 3 tournies back to back. The Voodoo €25 crapshoot, The Fitz €30 Sunday afternoon game and the Jackpot midweek €40 deep stacked game. If Im being honest Im running very well winning most of my flips and staying ahead when I get it in ahead but Im also playing quite well. My instincts have been good re when to 3bet and when to bluff and when to value bet. Since im on such a heater im kind of sickened I missed Waterford but there is always next year.

Oh iv also been studying a shitload of poker. Iv been reading pretty much anything I can get my hands on and posting as many hands as possible. Hopefully the new study group on IPB will take off because I want to get a couple of sweat sessions in. I know myself I have so much to learn and I have so many leaks its disgusting

The funny thing is the better I get the more I realise how bad I am

Tony

Rehab is for quitters and the Fitz EOM

Well as people may have guessed my retirement isn’t exactly going to plan. I think I finally understand the meaning of the phrase” the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. I genuinely thought that giving up would be easier than it has been so I’ll definitely put that down to naivety on my behalf. Since my official “retirement” I have hit some run good in some small donkaments and a couple of drunken spins to the tune of 2.2k so I’m after making a bit of a dent in my overall lifetime graph. Iv been feeling good about my game lately so when I bubbled a sat for the Fitz EOM on Paddy Power I decided I was going to take a shot.

This was only my second time playing the event and thankfully I was a lot more relaxed this time around. I had a plan in my head and I just kept telling myself to stick to it no matter what. The numbers were a little disappointing at 72 but that is to be expected with the WSOP and Killarney. I drew table 6 seat 6 and just spent the first couple of levels feeling out the table. Unlike my first shot at the EOM I had a very favourable table draw this time around with a lot of weak passive players, one yank who I thought was good until I seen him spaz in a ridiculous spot for a massive pot and one young lad who I think was Starvin Marvin from IPB? Starvin was possibly the only good player at the table and I think (hope) he thought the same about me so we just stayed out of each others way. I actually had no interesting hands for the first 3 levels apart from getting a couple of my c-bets raised where I had to release.

I came back from the break with about starting stack and decided to get moving. I think this is probably where I played my best poker of the night and just used my position to chip up to 24k without showdown. I just found it really easy to put players on hands so I was more than a little disappointed when my table got broken up. I was only at my new table for about 3 rotations before it got broken up too. Nothing really happened apart from some old dude taking forever to make every decision and then going ape shit when he makes the wrong one – it probably didn’t help that everybody started needling him after :).

So at this stage we are down to 25 and its getting harder to find the value spots. Im now sitting on a table with Denis O kane (loose cannon) Sean Prenderville (Mr Monkey) Starvin Marvin and Barry Donovan (Wallop nuts). There is a lot of 3 betting going on and its easy to see that the better players are putting the pressure on. Then this hand comes up;

With the blinds at 400/800 Some randomer min-raises in late position. I 3bet on the button to 4k with QQ. Denis flat calls in the small blind and original raiser folds.

Flop is Jc 7s 2h

I bet 7k and Denis goes into the tank – asks me how much I have left. I say about 13k i.e. I have 40% of my chips in the pot already. After looking like he was folding for an eternity Denis moves all in. Now Im in the tank here. Its such a dry board and with 40% of my stack in there Denis knows Im not doing this with air. After what felt like an eternity I mucked my cards. I was feeling really shitty about this but Denis turned up KK to give me a bit of a boost. I know most people will say this was a retarded fold but I genuinely had a good read in this spot and I think it was the correct thing to do – also I didn’t want a big mistake (my flop bet) to cost me the tournament.

I was now nursing a short stack and after stealing a few blinds Im up to 18k. I then got to cold 4-bet all in after a raise and a re-raise with QQ. I had a monster Hold against AK considering that the villain flopped a straight draw and a flush draw but thankfully the turn and the river bricked out. I then won a couple more chips when I called a reship from a shorty with my AJ getting there on the river against his 66.

So im up to about 55k at this stage with the blinds at 600/1200.
Sean and Barry are getting very trigger happy with the 3-bets and stack sizes are really awkward. I raise and sean re-raises enough that I can’t peel and he can still fold if I ship but he will only call with a strong range – how do you like your A8 - AJ now?? :). I also noticed that Sean was stealing an awful lot from UTG – perhaps this is because he wanted people to think he had a strong perceived range but more than likely its because he seen my BB as a soft spot :( and barry would be oop in the SB.

We played down to the final table without any real incident to be honest. Some guy on the opposite table was really pushing hard to pay the bubble but Sean refused – and understandably enough considering that he had the stack and a decent edge over the field. I actually didn’t really want to pay the bubble because I thought it would have been a good opportunity for me to chip up a bit. Sean then lost a flip and agreed on the deal.

Final Table was quiet enough with a lot of players sitting tight. I used my run good to suck out when at 2k/4k I shipped 38k with A5 to be called by AQ. I was in trouble with no help up to the turn but then I used my skills. I shouted “5 ball” and then did my Doyle Brunson Impression by shouting “BOOM” as the River was turned over. 5 of hearts you little beauty :).

We got down to 6 relatively quickly and at this staged I had chipped up to 70k with the blinds at 2.5k/5k. Sean min raises in the Hi-jack and the button flat calls (button seemed like a bit of a drooler to be honest) I look down at A10s and ship the loots right Bam into the middle of Sean’s Aces – bleh standard I think.

So all in all Im happy with how I played but a little disappointed not to go deeper. I think I need to practice my 3 betting because its really what separates the good players from your average joe soap.

Thanks for reading

Tony

Searching for my Methadone

Wow this first week has been tough and if I’m being quite honest I suspect things will only get more difficult. As the title suggests I’m searching for my methadone. Poker is obviously the heroine that has been pulsing through my veins for far too long and it has become apparent that I need to find some form of replacement less I drive myself insane. I really feel the winds of fate are trying to tempt me back though – I’ve had more staking offers in the last week than I’ve had in the last 2 years and twice I just happened to stumble across some juicy action in the back room of the local boozer. Is it my imagination or does the world want me to fail? Twice I walked away. Kept telling myself that just isn’t me any more but man it hurt me to do it.

As some of you are aware I qualified last month for the Santry Poker cash league that took place on Friday. It was quite fitting that my poker career should end in such a sickening fashion. I got it AI 3 ways with my AA no match for AK and KK. One does have to admit there is a sense of poetic irony in the last hand I ever intend to play in a casino. It was poker’s way of giving me one last fuck before I went on my merry way – you could call it one for the road.

Now that I’m no longer a degenerate (yeah right) Iv tried to ease myself back into the “normy” way of living – one of the benefits of giving up poker is that I have gotten back to a somewhat normal sleeping pattern and I’m far less nocturnal. I’m making daily trips to the gym again for the first time in months and I’m making good inroads into the third series of the wire (no spoilers yo). I’m still thinking in terms of EV which is to be expected I suppose – old habits die hard and all that.

Other good news is that my football is going well and I will be on the DCU Sigerson panel next season. I’m pretty happy with this considering the scope of talent that’s available but I won’t be content to sit on the line. It’s up to me now to work hard during the summer and try to force my way onto the team. Opportunities like this don’t come around very often so I need to give it my all.

That’s pretty much it for this week. I’m all ears if someone has a good replacement for poker??

Tony

This is the End?

First of all I don’t know why I feel compelled to write this piece. Perhaps it is an attempt to sum up my poker career to date, perhaps it is a warning to other people in a similar situation to myself or perhaps this could finally be my retirement from the game of poker? I have been wrestling with my conscience over the last couple of weeks in relation to poker. I have done extensive research and have a fairly accurate figure of the amount of money that I have invested in poker – both live and online. As it stands since my introduction to poker in September 2005 I have been a losing player to the tune of circa 5.5k. Now this paltry figure might seem like chicken feed to most but as a small time recreational player it still irks me that I have basically handed over a large percentage of my current net worth to fellow degenerate gamblers. I have never been busto – but then again I never understood how anyone could go busto. I always had a philosophy of never playing with money I couldn’t afford to lose.

In a recent conversation a well known IPB’er remarked that just by admitting I was a losing player it put me ahead of the masses who continue to delude themselves into thinking they are making money from the game. This got me thinking – If I wasn’t playing the game to make money then why was I playing? It’s certainly not for entertainment! As far as value for money is concerned I have come to the conclusion that poker is probably the least value where entertainment is concerned. Spending time in front of an LCD screen really isn’t a great way to spend nice summer evenings considering the alternatives that are available. An argument could be made for the live scene but most of the craic live comes from everything that isn’t poker related such as meeting the people we know from IPB and having the craic at the bar.

There is one thing that jumps out at me more than anything else – to be successful at poker you need a very defined set of traits; emotional indifference, analytical skill and general intelligence but to name a few. It strikes me that anyone who possesses these traits is likely to be successful in other business ventures in life outside the world of poker. I’v already proven myself to be a failure at poker does this mean I will fail in business too? I hope not but only time will tell.

So I suppose you could call this my official retirement from poker (for real this time – not like the previous attempts that lasted all of 5 minutes). No doubt Il miss that feeling of excitement of flopping the nuts and having someone empty the clip trying to bluff the pot. Or that feeling of pure desperation as my 14 outer finally gets there on the river for a 400bb pot – it really is “the sweetest desperation in the world”. Il not miss wasting my youth in front of a laptop analysing stats and plugging leaks or having some fitz junkie bink his 1 outer on the river for the price of a small island in Dubai. But most of all Il miss the dream of the big scoop. I think all players dream of someday scooping big – whether it is purely for financial reasons or to prove to themselves that at the end of the day it was all worth it. I’d like to think that the last barrier between me and a complete degenerate is that I know when to throw in the towel and not to chase the elusive big score.

So that’s that! Im sure Il see the majority of you at events around Ireland – I quite enjoy the reporting aspect of the game believe it or not and I have a few business ideas that are directly linked with the world of poker but for now my playing days are over.

Player gone!! Table 1 seat 5

Tony

Good Start

not a lot has happened in the last week. Iv been going back exercising and have lost 2kg already (the first bit of weight is always the easiest to lose). Changing the diet has, as always, been the most difficult thing to change but Im just sticking to the basics - porridge, chicken, tuna, salads - generally just eating around the outside isles of the supermarket. On Tuesday i did a 10km walk and on wed I had to go training with the GAA. we needed to do a timed 4km run and im pretty happy that I destroyed the competition averaging 4 minutes a km to finish 1 minute ahead of the next lad.

Its been a strange week for poker. I played about 2k hands of 10-25nl HU im up about 10 BI's. But the thing is Im not entirely hapy with sitting in front of a CPU for 4-5 hours at a time. Its Amaing but some random donk hitting a 2 outer against me for stacks affects me an awful lot more that me staking him relentlessly for the rest of the night. e.g. it hurts a lot more being sucked out on once than I get joy out of staking the same donk 3/4 times.

I might try and play a bit live this weekend - needless to say I didnt qualify for the IO but I might head down for some cash action although the fitz may be hit - I know live poker has gotten better in the last while but the fitz is still so rediculously soft IMO.

so the updates

weight 82kg
bankroll $415 - although im not really arsed playing much more online - live is much better craic (sometimes :))

Tony

Every Journey Starts With A Single Step

Well seeing as my well on irishpokerboards.com was a bit of a success i thought id do a regular blog on health and fitness with a bit of poker thrown in along the way - just to pass the time really. in this il try and put in whatever im eating/training/playing and you can track my progress and adapt whatever Im doing if you think it is applicable to yourselves.

At the moment I am 84kg - just had 2 weeks of training and basically just eat shite. this morning it was back to the grind. did a 5km run (thought I was going to die) and got back to eatng healthy - porridge for breakfast, tuna salad with wholemeal toast for lunch and will have a chicken stirfry with veg and rice for dinner. have had a few oranges to snack on - need to satisfy the sweet tooth some way.

on the poker scene i played in the Fitz EOM last week and found it very enjoyable - that has nspired me to go back to the grind. I threw $300 online this morning so it will be interesting to see which i will stay at longer the fitness or the poker. if i tilt at poker i will prob blow my roll but if i tilt at training i will just eat a giant choclate cake or something.

anyway welcome to the blog - il try update it as much as i can.

current weight 84kg - 17% Body fat
current role $300

Tony