Rodder's Boring Blog about Poker and Random stuff

[AAroddersAA]

Hello Everybody

To begin with I will introduce myself. I am Steve Roderick, quite a few of you will know me already because I have played most of the APAT events this year (only missing two of the European events) and have been lucky enough to get a few results. This has contributed to 2010 being my best year in poker so far ending up with a total profit of 5 figures. This is great (really great actually) but I have to say just as good is meeting all of the people I have met on the APAT tour. I am not going to name them all here as there are too many and I would miss somebody who I should not. My original intention was to only play the APAT tour for one year to see how I did, then go back to playing online only with the odd live event. The people I have met have changed my mind on this and I will be at as many events as time allows next year, although I am unlikely to be able to do them all.

The reason for me starting this is that I wanted something to help motivate me in 2011. I cannot expect to have a year like last year but do hope to have a good profitable year and would like to have somewhere to record this. One or two people might even be interested :-) So the main reason for this blog is for poker but I will probably comment about other things as well. I enjoy some of the othe blogs on here a lot as well. I did consider posting this elsewhere but the APAT forum now feels like the right place.

I will start my stating my poker goals for 2011

1) Win £2000 at online cash (not including rackback)

To be honest I would be very dissappointed not to achieve this. In the past I have played on Pokerstars but think I am going to be moving onto Sky Poker in the New Year for cash games. I have never failed to make a profit at online cash over a 12 month period (playing it for the last 4 years) and the competition on that site does not seem that tough (although there are some good players). I am going to deposit £600 and start on the £30 tables (more than less the same level as 25c/50c on 'Stars but much easier - although this is offset by the vastly reduced traffic). Their cash for points system also makes me more than Pokerstars VPP system. I will be keeping a count of my bankroll and results here.

2) Play 100 MTT's online and show a profit

Although my results this year have been excellent this is more due to positive variance than actually being any good. I still don't think I am actually very good at MTT's, I just don't understand ICM properly and although my basic shoving range is probably OK I am just not good enough at the resteal and my calling range is possibly too tight most of the time, I am going to be working on that as best I can in 2011. My plan is to play 100 at the $10 level on Betfair (this can include APAT league games or whatever they turn out to be). This might be a tiny sample but I think I should be able to at least make a small profit.

3) 12 sessions of live cash at least 2 hours long each at Aspers or Les Croupiers.

I don't play enough live cash considering there is a very good game a 10 minute walk from my house. I will try and play one session per month. I should be able to achieve this.As long as I play quite well and run close to average I should make money at this.

4) Play 6 non-APAT live tournaments

This might sound easy but as I don't play in casino tournaments, if I go I am more likely to be playing cash. It would have to be proper event's. One will probably be a DTD Deepstack and a second one will be SPT Cardiff. I will try and achieve this one but might well miss it.

5) Win an APAT Medal - Online or Live

I don't think I am a favourite to achieve this one. I will play a good few of the live events and probably most of the online events but I tend to get bored during the longer online tournaments and make bad plays so will need to improve on that. The live events are pretty hard to get medals in and I will probably only be playing in about 5 of them. Although there are side events at the Worlds I may play the Omaha or 6-max events there.

So there we are, I believe the goals are realistic and think I will achieve the first 4, the 5th, I will do my best. Please add your comments and ask any questions you have during the year, I will answer all questions asked as soon as I can.

[Paulie_D]

Don't forget Vegas in November, Steve.

Looking forward to the updates.

[technolog]

This should be a good read - best of luck with this and next year's poker. You've certainly had a stellar year this year and it'd have to be a braver man than me that bet against you winning a medal next year!

[david3103]

Good luck with all your goals, but may I query #3

2hr sessions of live cash? I know you said a minimum of 2hrs but if you consider that live dealers and, more so, live players  struggle to complete more than 30 hands an hour that doesn't equate to a lot of poker...

You did well to avoid the offer of a lift to G Coventry from me by the way - we took a huge detour when I took the wrong turning out of the hotel car park!!!

[AAroddersAA]

Good luck with all your goals, but may I query #3

2hr sessions of live cash? I know you said a minimum of 2hrs but if you consider that live dealers and, more so, live players  struggle to complete more than 30 hands an hour that doesn't equate to a lot of poker...

You did well to avoid the offer of a lift to G Coventry from me by the way - we took a huge detour when I took the wrong turning out of the hotel car park!!!

The offer was very generous though thanks.

The two hours sessions, I see your point and agree that a two hour live session is not a great amount of poker. I would expect most of the sessions to go quite a bit longer but I would be happy with two hours if I decided to leave that session would still count, if I only played for 30 minutes was playing badly and left that does not really count, however two hours is enough to count it.

The reason I put in on here was to help motivate myself to play some more live poker as I don't feel I play enough. Hopefully that makes sense.

[AAroddersAA]

Happy New Year.

2011 arrived to a firework display in Swansea last night.

I played my first online cash session the the year, 4 tables ust under and hour,  I misplayed a couple of hands and didn't play as well as I should have but managed to turn a small profit of £3.21 - so basically a break even session and only 53 poker points. I played a coupleof sessions yesterday and made £75 but they don't count for this year unfortunately.

I might play the APAT Betfair league next week but will be putting most of my effort in cash this month.

Now for the darts. After Jenkins and Lewis got through this afternoon it will be a very strong semi final line up. I expect Taylor and Barney to go through, although Barney does have a tough game against Anderson. Earlier in the tournament I laid Taylor at even money with some mates. I think it was a good bet at the time but now I am not so confident of winning it from here.

[Fatcatstu]

Wow is all i will say about the darts last night.

Anderson proved ALOT of people wrong, he is the form horse at the min, and i expect an anderson v webster final, and webster  to take it down.

[AAroddersAA]

Anderson was on fire last night and Webster was really solid. The only problem is how will Anderson react to the pressure now he is expected to win it. I think he will be fine and expect to see him take it down tomorrow. Webster vs Lewis is the game to watch this evening I think.

Webster to win 6-4 tonight
Anderson to win 6-3 tonight

[AAroddersAA]

Very poor cash session today - lost two buyins neither of which I should.

The first one I get AK and make a reraise. from 90p to £4. The flop comes 3-3-6 and I c-bet £6 into the pot of £4. he then shoves for £20. So its £15 to call. This is probably a fold but I convince myself it should be a call - he shows 6-6 and there is no help on the turn or river.

The next one I have AJ (with which I have raised) and a short stack shoves over the top of me. I somehow completely miss the fact that a bigger stack have shoved before him and call what I think is about £5 but it is actually about £20. I lose and end the seesion down £56.

Not happy with that as I was planning to come off about 10 minutes before but was a little bit down (about £10) and was trying to bring it back. Both of those hands happened in the last 10 minutes. I really must stop doing that. I am sure if I ended all of my cash sessions 30 minutes earlier my bottom line would be far better.

Total loss now: -£53.56

[AAroddersAA]

Saw this for the first time in years today. This wsa great back in the day when I was a computer tech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d85p7JZXNy8

[AAroddersAA]

Hmm Cash poker sure is going well so far. I am currently sitting down £120 on the year. I have quite simply made too many mistakes. Earlier today I was in the big blind and the button raises. I am sat with £24 as I have not bothered to rebuy. I call the raise with As7s. The flop comes down a helpful

jh-7c-Ac

I check and he bets £1.20 into a pot of £2.10. I raise to £4.20 and he flats. The pot is now £10.50. The turn comes and I bet £7, he calls again. The river comes . I check, he shoves and it is another £12 to me into a pot of £35. I make a poor call. I should have saved £12 here. He shows me the nut flush.

I reckon I have lost at least £60 to bad play over the first three days. Yes there have been a few coolers as well, I has KK outdraw by QQ for a monster pot of £110 allin preflop and also hit a set of sixs only for my opponent to show me a set of aces. These will even themselves out but the amount of money I am currently dropping to poor play is a concern. 4 buyins down is not a good start to this year.

To mention some of the hands I won, the biggest was a pot of £55 when I get allin with QQ against K-10 preflop. Unfortunately that was the player who took it back with his QQ against my KK lol.

I also won a nice pot with a set of 10's against top pair. Sky Poker does not let me see hand histories so I don't know exactly what it was, I do know those are the ony two hands I have won more than £10 in though so far.

Total loss this year = £121.67

If I drop more than £200 I will drop down to the 10p/20p tables until I have made it up.

[AAroddersAA]

I am currently wondering if Mr Lewis can do it tonight. It would be great to see him take this one down but I think Anderson might have the edge.

[duke3016]

I am currently wondering if Mr Lewis can do it tonight. It would be great to see him take this one down but I think Anderson might have the edge.

currently 7/4 odds on Lewis, I personally think he can do it.

[AAroddersAA]

I am currently wondering if Mr Lewis can do it tonight. It would be great to see him take this one down but I think Anderson might have the edge.

currently 7/4 odds on Lewis, I personally think he can do it.

Good shout, pleased to see lewis win. He has been due for a while and after he beat Taylor earlier this year he has been in great form. I reckon he will do well in the premier league.

[AAroddersAA]

Total loss - £203

Should not have played tonight but did anyway and lost the best part of three buyins. This was certainly down to bad play not getting unlucky so no excuses for it. Going to stop playing (will play the final APAT league game but just that one) until I get back from Spain now.

The way the cards have run I could forgive myself for being down by about £50 but have dropped an extra £150 (5 buyins). It is hard to win five buyins *lol*. Tonight was basically a case of chasing money and trying to outplay players that I nevcer should have. I was trying to bluff in bad spots and this cost me, then I started seeing flops with poor hands (K-J UTG and that sort of thing) trying to hit big. Obviously this is never going to work. Annoying as I much prefer to do things the easy way !!!! I was probably due a bad run as I have not had one for the best part of six months but would have liked a better story to start this with. I remember a time when dropping £200 in a week would have left me in shock and never wanting to play poker again. Can't say I am over the moon about it now mind you :-)