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My name is VBlue and I'm a Pokerholic.

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VBlue:
Still bringing my linked blog up to date for anyone at APAT who is interested in following my online exploits.

This would particularly appeal to STT players, novices looking to improve their game, low-stakes MTT players, anyone interested in Black Belt Poker and their online offering, and anyone just interested in what I hope proves to be and entertaining and informative read.

I have always been fairly good at making plans; I haven"t always been as good at seeing them through, so they "go oft awry".

December contained several distractions, including the festivities of the season. Poker took a back seat in favour of spending some time with the family and enjoying a night or two "socialising with friends" as some idiots cite under Hobbies and Interests in their CVs or job applications. Safe to say that I have still not got my insurance to pay out on the iphone I lost sometime after dancing with a Christmas tree and playing air-guitar with a ketchup and a mustard bottle in Yates" Wine Lodge. My girlfriend may see it as retribution for the embarrassment she has had to get used to over the years.

I did get back on track in January though and managed to almost complete my monthly target of 250 STTs. However, results have not been anything to brag about and you won"t see them in the BBV section of any poker forums. I guess it is mainly down to variance, as my run last year of losing 50/50s, 60/40s, 70/30s, and even 80/20s does not seem to measure in my favour as the ratios would suggest they should.

I did have a little run, which was helped when I incorrectly recorded some results and could not work out why my ipoker account was so much lower than my results showed on my tracker. A manual recount showed that ipoker were right and I was wrong. My biggest losses have come over the last 63 games, where I have dropped about $76. After getting back to break-even at just under 900 STTs since I started playing on BlackBelt Poker"s ipoker skin, I am now showing a slight loss at just over that number of games.

I have increased to 6 tabling just recently and do not feel like this has had a negative effect on my game and most of the time I am getting my money in good and either running into a monster, or sucking out.

I will continue to work with the SnG Wizard software package to constantly refine and hone my ICM game. I am tentatively starting to take notes now on other players so I can look for ways to exploit them in late stage and bubble play and I feel that, especially against regs, this is an area I want to concentrate more on and ensure that the notes I do take are useful. I am also recording ICM findings in an easy reference spreadsheet, looking at specific situations where I am not certain of the "correct" play. When using SnG Wizard, I think it very important to remember its limitations and not to rely on it as a sole solution to your late stage and bubble problems. When you are confident in the knowledge of what an ICM calculator cannot do for you, you are more able to find the answers it can give you.

Returning to some previous strategy material, I am constantly referring back to the original source and my notes to ensure that I am always playing as optimal a game as possible. To round this off I have made a learning plan, so I can focus on areas for improvement and the material or learning sources I wish to use.

Finally, I have also been looking at adding in some MTTs and I previously mentioned one or two regular games that I want to play more when I am available. I have now started to compile a list of the daily schedules for ipoker and a couple of other sites and look at their weekly tournaments, bonuses, challenges, and special promotions.

Just before posting this month"s blog, I wanted to add that I took down a $1k GP F/O this afternoon on ipoker for $270. BBP London Live II buy-in is $275. Co-incidence?

VBlue:
.....or nobody?  Any love for my blog would be greatly welcomed.

Had Aesop been around today, no doubt under the monickor "_Fabulist1_" he would undoubtedly be ensuring that he feeds the goose often, lest the golden eggs stop producing.

With a plethora of learning and training medium, he who only focuses on table hours and neglects stepping back to work "on his business" will be surpassed by those who nurture their long-term propects by investing time and effort into staying one-step ahead of the field.

February"s online exploits saw me achieve two main goals; Orange Belt status with Black Belt Poker - entitling me to enter the Orange Belt freeroll (prize of a seat at a future live poker academy) in March and earn belt points at an increased rate throughout the coming month to enable me to maintain my status more easily, and doubling my 2011 starter bankroll from $200 over approximately 400 x $5 STTs - an ROI of close to 10%.

I also decided to mix in some afternoon low-stakes MTTs using a $100 deposit bonus from one of the most well-stocked online fisheries known to online poker players. 3 x 2nd place finishes saw me add another $400 to my win last month.

With the Goose starting to produce, my tail feathers are up and all I want to do is continue on the crest of the wave of improved results. However, to ensure that I do not get carried away, I will continue to pay attention to the long term.

Some reading on the Black Belt site - Gavin Hall"s "MTTPokerKa" series and two linked articles, Oliver Schmidtman"s "Introduction to Equity Calculations", and Kevin Williams" review of Deuces Cracked video "App Attack, Episode 7 - SnG Wiz" proved to be a good grounding in subjects which I had identified.

Using a tried and tested method, I am now prioritising my poker month. Last month, belt points earned on BBP enabled me to participate in one of the weekly poker Dojo sessions, hosted by Kevin Williams and Jamie Burland. I haven"t done the calculation exactly, but the "cost" in rakeback amounts to an extremely good value deal to spend an hour or two talking with these poker pros.

In March, I will be using more spending points to subscribe to Deuces Cracked and take-in some of their video training to work on further parts of my game.

Finally, something I am hugely keen on and have recently raised on the BPP forum, is what I begrudgingly call the "buddy sessions" or are known also as the "sweat sessions". To be able to hook up and chat poker, is highest on my priority list and I hope to develop one or two partnerships with BBP players and some local to me.

Work done for my local poker club is being repaid this month in the form of a complimentary seat at the monthly £50 deepstack. With 60-70 players expected on Sunday I could do with a good cash to fund me playing more of these throughout the year - I reckon that the West Cumbrian players" geese are well and truly cooked.

VBlue:
and to bring this year"s up-to-date, my trip to the Wild West to play live:

A mid-month addition to my blog this week to share my adventures from a weekend in the Wild West....of Cumbria.

The journey from Kendal to Hensingham, nr Whitehaven, is not one for the faint-hearted. I arrive early to pick up Kostas (or Gus to most) looking typically hungover and going for what I can best describe as the "Nightcrawler" look - long overcoat, stubble, pasty, - rough as toast.

We spend the next two hours, after an unintentional diversion when I missed a turn off the M6, discussing tournament play - including hand selection, range, position, re-stealing, set-mining, M, structure, and exploiting opponents. Gus shows a good understanding, offers some thoughts of his own, and we arrive at 1:30pm ready for the tournament ahead.

To my delight, our dealer is delayed by an accident and I am asked to take her place, which gladly only lasts four or five hands. I settle down with my 10k stack and begin to cultivate my image as the self-titled "tightest player in Cumbria", until the Real Cumbrians take offence to Kendal"s claim to their County lines and I become "the tightest player in Westmorland".

Two hands later and the not-unexpected cry of "All-in" comes from a man who I will only name by his well-earned nickname, which I have already given you. If you gave some people a million chips with a 5/10 Level One and a two hour clock...

I pick up a few pots early on and grow my stack to 12k. With a young ipod wearing, Liverpool shirted, early raiser and two callers, I elect to call the button with KQ. Flop comes J9s7s, and our pre-flop Kopite leads for a third-pot bet with one caller, so I call again. The Q turn sees another lead for a similar size bet and I follow my flop thinking and make a 2.5x raise after the man behind me folds. Our friend from across the park takes some time to make the call. The Js river means I know I"m losing and fold to his river bet to be shown the boat.

Gus has decided to take onboard almost none of our chat, with the main purpose to help him cultivate his naturally super-aggo play with some actual reasoning to his actions, and steams up to 30k and then all the way back down again. Gus, Gus, Gus!

Down to 7.5k and with a promise to return for my chips I am delighted to be seated two to the left of "All-In". The players I leave behind at my opening table all sigh and bemoan my luck in my new position. With blinds at 100/200 before the first break looms, and an early raise from the big-stack, "All-in" makes it 3k to go. I shove and get two callers with AQ and 99. The K on the flop sees me on 22k. My Aces in the last hand just add the blinds.

Our chip leader, who having flopped a set of threes and geting paid off on turn and river bets by "All-in" with his paired deuce, secures a $50 bonus from our online sponsor, with further added money for first out and the winner.

Hand of the opening session was undoubtedly involving "All-in" again. I missed the action, but saw the face of one of his many victims of the day, who then had to go and sit in his car for ten minutes to take in what had happened. Thankfully we didn"t find him with the hosepipe in through the window! Our victim had got it in on the flop to be called with an unpaired 23, no draws. The turn and river delivered running deuces and wild celebration; chants of "We are the Champions" ensued from "All-in".

Post break, I picked up a pot three-betting some old school live donk (I jest) with AJs and other than that don"t remember too much else other than a loose UTG raise with small pocket pair that I folded on the flop. Two hands where I could have three bet against "All-in" with hands which would normally be outside my range would have delivered both a double-up and treble-up had I played a higher variance style and would have seen me breach 100k chips at 2k/4k level. My more cautious approach, however, meant that I had to fold a multitude of rags and rag-Aces in the face of earlier action as my M dwindled.

With the second break looming, "All-in" provides further hysterics when he berates a young lad to his left, who looked like he had just been told his dog had died, when facing not only a decision for his tournament life, but also a barrage of "I"ve no respect for you" and other banterage. He eventually folded his paired A weak-kicker, on a dry board, and "All-in" delighted in showing his paired K with more crys of victory sounding across the room.

With my returning stack now hitting 14 BBs and then down to 7BB, I called the short stacks 4 BB shove with my Q4 to see 62 and lose to the paired 2. My last 4 BBs get in against Q8 and lose to the paired 8.

The final half-hour in Whitehaven provided my final entertainment for the evening - I had a flat battery. Firstly, I employed two piss-heads to help me push the car across the carpark, narrowly avoiding rolling it straight into not one, but two vehicles. I then needed some light shining so I could see both bonnets, to connect jump leads. Fair play to the commitment of Lammy, who after I asked him to help out, replied "I have no lights". "Not a torch", I said, "your headlights". "I have no headlights either". I jabbed his ribs, cottoning on to his rouse and waited outside. When his car rolled past with no lights on and they told me they were driving 30-odd miles to Carlisle without them and disappeared half way up the road; Gus and I shared an incredulous look. They returned with headlights beaming. When you just want to get home (1.5 hours away) you can rely on poker players to seize the opportunity to make your evening more painful ;)

With jump leads unsuccessful, I was finally towed down the hill, only after forgetting to set off in neutral before sticking it in 2nd gear, and then forgetting to turn my key and thus locking the steering. A local took pity (more likely just thought I was a complete dildo) and jumped in and got my car started.

Thanks go the Cavalry, and to whoever was stood at the gated entrance and then spectacularly fell into the hedge letting out a fantastic drunken groan as they struggled to the feet, as I continued to ponder my own predicament: you know who you are; although possibly not actually.

With wolves howling at the moon and tumbleweeds rolling through the streets on the journey home, thank God I never stalled the van. Then I really would have found out how wild it is out West.

VBlue:
Things turn sour in the STT grind, and dilemnas pour from the heavens:

March has been a four-letter expletive of a month.

The STT grind has become much less enjoyable, with a 30 BI downswing currently a work still in progress. I decided that, upon doubling my reload bankroll to $400, that I would step-up to the $10 plate and 4-6 table in a bid to double up again. After noticing a single turbo table registering at any one time on ipoker during my evening playing-time slot I decided to seek out a rival site, look for a good deposit bonus, focus on the stock-filled fishing holes rather than the bigger brands, and continue in a nice upward curve.

Party seemed to be a good place to down-rod, so I found a 100% match bonus and calculated that in the required period I would be able to clear around $300-$350 worth of that bonus. Unfortunately, it seems that I then made a mistake and got caught between two bonus offers, ending up using a code which gave me $25 in my account from day one, with another $25 to follow from points earned, with a one month subscription to UK Poker News"s video training site - which would be a nice benefit had I not just bought a one month subscription to Decues Cracked with a token through belt points earned from Black Belt Poker.

I then proceeded to smash my way through the typical, though none-the-less sickening, STT downswing, made only more bearable by Kevin Williams sharing some results he had over 2k games on Stars with those who took his excellent Dojo session, entitled "Winning STTs One Hand at a Time". For those who haven"t and are playing their poker on Black Belt Poker"s skin, I highly recommend using some of your points to access one of these live skype sessions. Kevin in particular is first-class in his delivery, subject knowledge, and providing answers to questions. The main point was that a 50BI downswing over a larger winning sample of games is not to be unexpected.

Dilemnas then began to present themselves to me in spades. Would I continue to play the $10 games to try and access my bonus (at this stage I had not discovered my bonus code error) and ride out the downswing, as dropping to the $5 games on Party is not an option with their rake at that level being double that of ipoker"s? Would I ignore my lost bonus opportunity and take my roll back to Black Belt, qualify for Orange belt status again, and spin up again from the $5 levels and manage my STT bankroll as I should be? Or, would I use some of my MTT winnings to give my STT roll a boost, ride out the downswing, and with continued work on my game through ICM analysis have the heart to continue with my original plan for 2011 and put 3k STTs on the board?

Sometimes the best advice is the most simple; Sam Razavi gave this line in response to a query I raised on the Black Belt forum boards "My advice in general would be to find the game that you make most money at and focus your efforts on that. GL" Food for thought indeed, but of course the paradox is that to win at STTs you have to be prepared to lose, on occassions at least as much as 50 BIs.

The one thing that I think the Dojo session confirmed is that since this time last year the work I have put in away from the tabels and the game-time I have put in at the tables has gained me a good understanding of ICM and the low-level STT games. The focus should always be on volume first, rather than targetting results or income. As long as I continue to play well and refine my ICM game there is definitely money to be made, but with a continuing set of positive results at the low-stakes MTTs and a few near misses at adding to my win in the $1k GP I am considering switching to these and away from the STT grind, although I have to consider I am probably on the good side of variance over my small sample size.

To finish the month off I played the Orange belt freeroll last night on Black Belt; two seats available, worth £150 each, at an Academy day at London"s Victoria Casino and an opportunity to finally meet some of the team and fellow players. I raised a lot of pots early and took them down, in the main unchallenged, to slowly grow my stack and take up 2nd spot. With only sixteen players, includign four sit-outs, I started to think about winning a seat. When I found a flush draw with an over-card to the flop and doubled-up when putting my opponent all-in I held the chip lead and I regained it in time for the 2nd break. However, after missing an earlier similar spot, I finally fell in 5th place when getting it in with A9 vs an utg raise with K9from the loosest player at the tournament and seeing two kings hit the board.

My volume has suffered throughout March, probably due to my downswing and not feeling comfortable playing on Party (it"s hard to settle in when you"re just losing) and I need to clear my mind, re-focus my efforts, make some decisions after dwelling on them sufficiently, and kick-start things back into action. A curve-ball has just been thrown my way in the last few days, but I"ll discuss that in a future blog.

Paulie_D:

--- Quote from: VBlue on March 26, 2011, 17:19:39 PM ---

.....or nobody?  Any love for my blog would be greatly welcomed.


--- End quote ---


I confess I have read it but you might like to consider copying the content of each post to here rather than just linking.

I know that"s what I do.

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