Hospital Tomorrow

Poker

Well I'm going to take a break for poker for a few days, nothing is working and I'm playing really badly so if I take a break maybe things will turn round.

Life

Tomorrow I'm going into hospital for an operation, providing everything goes OK I should be in and out in the same day. Recently I found a lump where there shouldn't be one, after several visits to the doctor and tests they have decided to remove it and check to see if it is a cancer or not. Judging by the test results they are 99% convinced that it isn't so I'm not to worried just not looking forward to being hacked about. Then I'll have a few days of recovery, that gives me a good chance to read a few poker books and try and mend my game.

Why I Hate Poker (for now)

Poker

I'm so frustrated with poker at the moment, because I lost my job I took most of my bankroll off the net and into my bank account. I left about $1000 spread across several sites. This has left me playing in $1 to $2 buy in tournaments and the standard of play down there is terrible. Now I know to win you have to adapt your play and deal with the game but the frustration is getting me down.

I go back to ABC poker, play the good hands try and get value out of the fish and make my way deep into the tournament, only to get sucked out on by someone who has built a large stack and just doesn't care what they play. It take strong will to have confidence in your own game and at the moment mine is all gone.

I play in 2 leagues on forums Instant Poker Money and 4kingpoker these are going OK, I've been playing the IPM league for 5 months and I've finished in the top 3 for 3 of them, and I think I will be in the top 3 again this month. For a top 3 finish you win a small amount of money and 2 x $11satellite tickets for Carbon. These games are played on Tuesday and Thursday, Tuesday is a freeroll and Thursday $2 buy in with money added. I like these games, the players on there are generally better than the average at this buy in level. OK the freeroll games have a few all in with 63 off players but not too many. The 4kp league is on Thursday and is a $1 buy in with money added and is played over a few sites over around 12 week. This season I haven't done too well because i missed to many games but in previous seasons I have come in the top 3. These are tough games there are some very good players, there are maybe only 10 to 20 players in the game but any win is hard. 4kp also have a Sunday team league and I am captain of Team UK this game is also a $1 buy in with money added. At the moment Team UK are 3rd in the league with 1 game to play. I hope we may take second tonight.

Well that's some more about poker.

Update 21:28

Just finished in a 3.30euro game on PokerHeaven, the standard of play was much better than the 1.10euro game I played there yesterday, but I was still completely card dead. I was able to run a couple of bluffs but it was a bit risky because people were keen to call with very little. I got very lucky on 1 hand where I beat A9 with J 10 (I was getting very short stacked at that point) in the end I went out about 20 short of the money when my AJ all in was called by K4 and I lost as usual.

The Start

Poker

Great place to start a blog that concentrates on poker, but I hate poker. I seem to be going through a spell where nothing works.

Some background, I've been playing poker since 2002. I started playing freerolls and even though I was probably the worlds worst player I made a few Dollars. After about a year of thrashing about playing badly I discovered a poker forum. This helped improve my game a little and was also a good spot to make some money in freerolls with smaller fields. From there I moved onto playing in small buy in games, I generally stick to playing tournaments, but occasionally I try and break into playing cash games. I seem to do OK at this for a while then I start to throw money away and move back to tournaments. I'm now a member of a few poker forums and this has help me become a better player and helped build my bankroll. Which at the beginning of the year stood at around $4000. That's where we come on to the second part of the blog.

Unemployment

In January I was made redundant, after 30 years of working in different jobs I was suddenly at home with nothing to do, which I pretty much hate. Most of my working life I have been a Stores/Warehouse Manager, except for the last few years, for those I was a Sales Rep. I was earning good money up to £35,000 a year now I'm on £60 a week jobseekers allowance. Life sucks! I promise this won't be a depressing blog even though it is starting off that way. The help that you get from the system when you are unemployed is a constant source of frustration and dark humour for me I hope I can share some of that.

Life

Well I'm married, have 3 kids and live in Norfolk UK. I'm 48 years old and generally in good health although I have got to go into hospital next week for a small operation which I'm not looking forward to. My eldest son is 17 nearly 18 and is currently looking to find which university he would like to go to and spend 3 year having his drinking interrupted by the occasional lesson. My daughter is nearly 17 and has just done her GCSE exams and will start college in September, and my youngest son is 10 and has ADHD and Asperger syndrome, more of that later.

OK there's a start lets see where we go from here.