As you are probably aware you have to expect a few harsh beats when your playing, here is a few of mine. What's most fustrating is when you make an excellent read/call and get punished for it by the draw of the cards (especially if it is late in a competition!):
KJ vs QT:
So I'm playing the 160 buck deepstack at Ceasers palace, started with 10k and I'm on about 40k and we're pretty late in (last 4 tables)
Most of the table are good solid players and sensible, so I'm happy with my seat.
The blinds are 400-800 with 100 anti, and the action folds round to me on the small blind, I have KJ offsuit.
I know the big blind will call my raise as he is that type of player, but he won't raise his own big blind to protect, so I elect to call and just play the flop - he's quite a tricky player and has around 30k behind him.
The flop brings KQ2 rainbow (pot 2600)
I check and he bets 4k...thats a strange overbet. He is on big blind so I don't figure him to hit that flop much, at best a 2 pair or a very disguised trip 2's, I take a sneaky look over at him and am not convinced by his body language - he is looking away from the table and messily playing with his chips...he is quite an old guy and obviously experienced in poker but from what I've seen, not a solid player.
I decide to re-raise him here, I don't want to play another card out of position, I got more chips than him so I can bully, and I figure my KJ is the best holding - so I re-raise to 10k. This pot has got a bit out of control but I'm not too upset about that because I'm sure I have the best hand.
He instantly goes all-in for another 9k. Instantly going all-in is a tell that he hasn't got a made hand. The reason why is, if say he had a hand like trip 222's, he would need to think about the best way to extract the maximum value from the hand, at least for a moment!
Most likely he thinks I don't have a hand and am trying a sneaky play (which aligns with my image, young gun in leather jacket, talks a lot, tricky player, likes to raise). Another tell (in my opinion) of the instant all-in is that the person has decided they are going to bluff and pull the trigger straight away so that they don't talk/think themselfs out of it!
There is a lot of factors that allow me to call here:
a) I think I have the better hand
b) If he does have a hand like Q2 I still have outs (a king or jack or paired board)
c) I have more chips than him so will still be in the game if i lose, although partially crippled
d) I have awesome pot odds (9k to win 33k)
e) If I win I will become the chip leader
f) If I call and am ahead the table with fear me (even more so than before)
So I call and he shows QT, I'm way ahead, awesome call.
Next card is a Queen and he takes the pot....So fustrating, If I won that hand I would have probably won or finished late in the tournament, there was only a few other players who were top standard and none of those were on my table. Instead I spent the next few hours battling with a short stack and eventually got knocked out on the last 3 tables trying to steal a big blind with a weak holding and losing the showdown. super bitter...but thats poker!!
89 vs Q6
Pretty late in the 160$ Ceasers Palace game and I'm on around 22k, the blinds are 400-800. My table is wreckless, I got 4 players on my right going all in/raising every hand, and 4 tight players on my left...this is actually a pretty good seat positional wise.
Finally everyone on my right folds round to me, and i have 89 offsuit - I elect to limp as it looks kinda suspicious with all the pre-flop raising going on and hence might give me a chance to see a flop and make a cheap steal. I could even re-raise all in pre-flop is someone makes a weak raise on my left.
Everyone folds round to the small blind who completes and the big blind checks.
Flop 89Q rainbow, pot is 3300 (800+800+800+antis 900)
The small blind and big blind check so I raise to 2000, 2000 is a good bet for my 89 2 pair because it looks like a cheap steal on the button but has pretty value also (2000 into a 3300 pot). The small blind re-raises to 5000 - he has around 30k behind and has played straight forward poker, the big blind folds.
I take a few minutes to think about his possible holdings on the small blind, and the obvious conclusion is that he holds either; a queen with a weak kicker, a semi bluff (e.g. 9T so he has a pair and straight draw), or a better 2 pair than mine. He doesn't seem like a player who would semi bluff and it is unlikely he flopped the straight (TJ) because he would probably slow play it as there are no scare cards (e.g. a flush draw). He also doesn't seem like a player who would slow player a monster (e.g. KK, AA, QQ) - there is a chance he could have trip 88 or 99 but that is unlikely as I have an 8 and 9 and there is an 8 and 9 on the board.
So I re-raise him all in, thinking I'm either behind to a higher 2 pair (which would be unlucky and is quite unlikely) or ahead to a weak queen and he will either fold or go in behind which is fine by me. The amount of the pot is good enough for me to take down right there (10300) and I don't want to slow play my hand because it isn't that strong + there is a lot of cards that could scare me (e.g. a T, J, Q, even A or K), although I would have position on him for the rest of the hand. He calls and shows Q6...the river comes a 6 and his 2 pair beats my 2 pair and knocks me out of the tournament. Sigh, play good and get punished again! damn poker...:(
AT vs 88
So we're early on in the tournament I already have a pretty good read on my table. One of my friends is there (Will, a french man) who is a superb player and I've already had to fold some good hands to him because there is just no point getting involved with other good players so early in the tournament when there are easier chips to be won.
The blinds are 75 150 and I have around 10k behind me, its a deepstack so everyone has arond the same stack size. so anyway, limp, limp, limp, I have 88 one before the button and call, the button raises to 650. Everyone folds round to me, I've seen this player in a few hands already and didn't believe him in any of them, he is very geeky looking and has glasses/scruffy hair, obviously an internet player.
I announce that I should raise because I have the best hand but elect to just call. I'm sure at this point he has a mediocre holding like KQ or AT (or equivilant strength)
The flop brings 992 rainbow (pot 1825)
I check and he bets 750, again I know he hasn't hit the flop and that I have the best hand - his body language almost instantly tells me that he has a weak holding, so I raise to 2k.
He instantly goes all in for around 10k and marginally has me covered. This is fustrating, but I know I have the best hand, I take a while to think about it and look to my left at him to increase my physical read (which is all I'm going on now, online I would have to fold this), and I am convinced that he hasn't got it. When I say also, "I know you don't have it" he shrivels and looks nervous and try's to talk but his voice breaks lol..what a loser. Reminds me of comic book guy from the Simpsons.
I mentioned before that the instant all-in looks weak and this is another example (if he had an overpair which is obviously what he is trying to represented, e.g. AA KK QQ or JJ, he would think for at least a few minutes about what the best way extract the maximum value is)
Anyway so I call, and he shows AT, the river brings an ace and I go out of the tournament....so annoying - punished for the an excellent play, I was so happy with the way I played the hand and my read however, that I wasn't too upset.
My friend Will said afterwards that it was a great but unnecessary call because I'm good enough to avoid situations where it is down luck, even when ahead - at least this early in the tournament (the AT still has about 30% after the flop). He makes a fair point, and like I said before is a great player, but I'm still happy with the call...I like the idea of stacking up early. Damn showdowns, killing me. It will be something I take into consideration next time though when I am faced with a similiar situation.
QQ vs KK (cash):
So I've been playing this cash game for about an hour at Bally's and I have pretty good reads on all my tables and am in a steady profit.
This hand I pick up QQ on the button, everyone folds round to the guy on my right who raises to 12$ (blinds 1-2). I have a good sense on this guy that he only raises with premium cos he is very tight so I elect to call on the button and take advantage of position - there is no point raising because I might have to fold to a re-raise or have a race for a big pot, I figure most likely at this point he has JJ, KK, AA AK or AQ. My image is fairly loose as I have played quite a lot of hands.
The blinds fold and the flop comes KQ2 rainbow (pot 27$)
Premium. He bets out 25 which is basically the pot, I elect to just call and slow play this monster - I'm pretty sure he has AA or AK here so he would probably call a raise but I don't want to raise any suspicion and there is no cards that can do me much damage on the turn so a call seems like the best option.
The turn comes 2(KQ2), pot 77$
He checks, and I bet behind - this is obviously a good hand to slow play, however I'm sure he has a strong hand also and will be willing to put more chips in the pot, and because he checked to me a raise doesn't look as suspicious (if he raised and I re-raised then that would obviously show I have a super strong hand). So I bet 50$ and he calls, I started the hand with around 350 dollars, him 300 so now we both have around 200-250 behind.
The river comes 7(KQ22) no flushes, pot 177$
He checks, I think he has AK and doesn't want the pot to get any bigger so I value bet the river....if I had AK and I was a tight player, how much would I call? I figure around 70 dollars is a safe option, I could just push all in but he might fold AK with that.
So I raise to 70 and unexpectedly he pushes all in for a total 220 or so, oh dear. I think for a few moments but it is a pretty easy call, I'm only losing to 2 hands KK or 22, pretty unlikely he has 22...KK is a reasonable holding though and lines up with all the action so far. I can't fold this though, so I call and he shows the KK for full house KKK22 vs my QQQ22 - I feel like someone has just punch me gut, bitter. thats poker :(
22 vs KK
tbc
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Friday, 19 February 2010
Reading Oppenants: Tells and Bet Sizes
One of the advantages I realise I have in live poker is the ability to guess my oppenants holdings.
This is done by taking into consideration a number of factors, for example; player betting patterns, physical tells, player type and oppenant stack size are just a few of the factors that can provide clues into what your oppenant is holding.
The other day I had an epiphany while playing, and it's pretty simple. When I'm not in a hand, to keep myself entertained I will try and guess the holdings of players who are in the hand (I think it is a game called Ghost in a previous book I read). The epiphany was, I should be in more hands and use this to my advantage!!
If i can guess so well my oppenants holdings, then I should play more hands with weaker holdings and use it to my advantage, because I know when they are going to fold, call, check or raise and how much I need to bet achieve my goal (e.g. to make them fold, or call with a weaker hand, or charge out a draw)
So I've been trying to do that more, and here's an interesting example hand from yesterday's game, I've had to rush it and not re-read it as I normally would because I got to get ready for the next tournament, poker fans enjoy:
We are around 60 minutes into the game, there is 70 runners started and around 65 remaining. The stakes are 85$ buy in at Ceasers Palace Casino; we started with 7500 chips and i'm currently on 8500 chips from winning a few small pots early on, the blinds are 25 minutes.
The blinds are at 75-150 and I have a good read on my table, I like to associate my oppenants with poker books that I have read as that details to me the level the play they are capable of. My table consists mainly of "Dan Harrington, no limit tournament hold 'em" players, the most straight forward tournament poker book. This basically means they rarely bluff and play straight forward poker based on their 2 hole cards, position, stack size and their oppenant. These are my favourite type of oppenants as they are the most predictable, it's generally associated with middle aged men. There is also one wreckless guy and a clueless woman at the table, but they are not involved in this hand.
The blinds are 75-150 and I'm on big blind, everyone folds round to one of the button who limps - I straight away assign him a range of limping cards, basically any suited ace, any ace with a good but not premium kicker (e.g. AT), any 2 high cards (e.g. KJ) suited or unsuited and any pair 9's or lower. I would have expected him to raise with starting hands stronger than those just listed, especially in an unopended pot.
Seeing as I'm confident he is a Dan Harrington player I don't think he would be capable of playing any strong hands in a tricky manner, the table is pretty timid also so I don't think he would limp with premium hoping that someone else will raise.
The button also limps and I assign the same analyse although he could potentially be weaker as he is limping behind a limper and is in an even later position (which means there are less people to act behind him so he will be less worried about someone raising behind), and the small blind completes for another 75 - he could have any 2 cards, I won't worry about his holding until I get more information at a later stage.
Each player has around their starting stack of 7.5 behind and I have Q8 offsuit on the big blind, I elect to check. There is no point raising to protect my big blind as the amount I figure I would have to raise to make my oppenants fold, would percentagely not be profitable relative to how often they call and hit a flop (I figure I would have to bet at least pot to make them fold). I also don't want to play a flop with bad cards, out of position, and with an already big pot especially at such an early stage in the game!
Another advantage of checking on my big blind now is that it may build me some respect for later, when the blinds are bigger and I feel it is worth with trying to punish the limpers with a weaker hand.
The pot is now 600 and the flop brings Ah, Qh, 9C
H=hearts, C= clubs, etc.etc,
The small blind checks he doesn't seem interested in the hand, I check my pair of queens as it isn't very strong and the ace aligns with a lot of the holdings I already assigned to the late limpers.
The first limper raises standard half pot 300 and the button / small blind fold.
This raise instantly makes me think that he has a weak suited ace or an ace with high card (e.g. AT). I don't think he has 2 hearts as the Ace of hearts is on the board, only KJ hearts or KT hearts would align, but then I would have expected him to check hoping to see a free card (doesn't seem like a tricky player). My physical read makes me think he is quite happy with the hand.
I elect to call with the following thought process, I'm confident he has an Ace - kicker unconfirmed but probably no higher than Jack as he would have raised pre otherwise. I think that if a heart comes on the board I will be able to bluff him on the hand on the turn/river as he is capable of folding to a scare card/big bet, and if a Q or 8 comes on the turn/river I will be able to maximise my value bets as I am aware of his holding.
Because we have both have big stacks behind us, I feel the implied odd's make this play worth while, so I call.
The pot is now 1200 and the turn brings 4S (AH QH 9C)
This was not a good card for me as it didn't bring trip queens or 2 pair, and was not a scare card for him (i.e. a heart) - so I check. He takes a while to think about his hand, and plays with his chips on and off for a while thinking about whether to bet or not.
This is quite an obvious physical tell that he is weak and does not have a made hand, generally people know instantly if they want to bet or not and will take chips into their hand as soon as it is there go, but may take a while to decide how much...he was semi confident about raising or checking and after a while decided to bet 500.
Another note is that he was going to bet 600, but chose 500 instead at the last second - this provides me some additional information that he wanted to bet less and was less confident about his hand.
There are only two reasons I can figure why he wanted to bet less:
1) Because he had a premium hand and wanted me to call (i.e. give me better value) or
2) because he was worried about his hand, however felt he should bet so chose to bet less.
I'm about 95% confident it is the latter as this would align with all my anaylse of the preflop/post flop play. This changes my thoughts on his ace holding, I'm pretty sure now he has either KT or KJ of hearts and is chasing the flush/straight, this would align with the preflop action and would explain why he bet the flop (because he has so many draws, granted originally I didn't think he was tricky enough at the time, but with a lot of draws it makes sense even to a Dan Harrington player).
So I elect to call, confident he is holding either KT or KJ hearts and chasing the flush/straight draw, there is no point raising here as I would have to bet a lot to chase him off the hand and if my analyse was wrong or he elected to re-raise it would be a very expensive pot for me that I may have to give up on - this is the one of the major disadvantages of playing out of position, less control of the pot size. With calling I can review the river card and some keep control of the pot size at the same time.
The pot is now 2200 and the river brings JS (AH, QH, 9C, 4S)
This card is 50% of the time good for me, 50% of the time bad for me; depending on whether he has KT hearts or KJ hearts ha. Seeing as I don't know here whether he has the straight or just a pair of Jacks now I elect to check and keep the pot small.
If he raises behind I'm pretty confident he has the straight and can fold accordingly (subject to physical read and bet size) or if he checks behind then I'd expect him to have the KJ and hope to win the showdown, this would be the most reasonable Dan Harrington style play - it makes less sense to bluff the river if you have a chance of winning it anyway, it's only worth bluffing if you think you can make your oppenant fold a stronger hand than yours.
A better player would see past this and consider his oppenants holdings (i.e. me) and also what his oppenant thought he was holding (i.e. I think he has the KJ or KT hearts). He could then complete a success bluff or a profitable check accordingly, for the Dan Harrington player - this is too much to think about (not Dan Harrington himself, he is an excellent player).
He checks behind and shows the KJ hearts, with a pair Jacks from the board. I show my Q8 and take the 2200 pot with my pair queens, he compliments my call on the turn - I laugh and tell him that if he bet 600 rather than 500 I might have folded ;)
I figure if my reads are as good as this for the rest of the game, I'll have a good chance of winning the tournament, and premium result - I won it outright. 1 for 1 so far haha vivaaa las vegass!
Right back to work.
Steve (hopelesglory)
This is done by taking into consideration a number of factors, for example; player betting patterns, physical tells, player type and oppenant stack size are just a few of the factors that can provide clues into what your oppenant is holding.
The other day I had an epiphany while playing, and it's pretty simple. When I'm not in a hand, to keep myself entertained I will try and guess the holdings of players who are in the hand (I think it is a game called Ghost in a previous book I read). The epiphany was, I should be in more hands and use this to my advantage!!
If i can guess so well my oppenants holdings, then I should play more hands with weaker holdings and use it to my advantage, because I know when they are going to fold, call, check or raise and how much I need to bet achieve my goal (e.g. to make them fold, or call with a weaker hand, or charge out a draw)
So I've been trying to do that more, and here's an interesting example hand from yesterday's game, I've had to rush it and not re-read it as I normally would because I got to get ready for the next tournament, poker fans enjoy:
We are around 60 minutes into the game, there is 70 runners started and around 65 remaining. The stakes are 85$ buy in at Ceasers Palace Casino; we started with 7500 chips and i'm currently on 8500 chips from winning a few small pots early on, the blinds are 25 minutes.
The blinds are at 75-150 and I have a good read on my table, I like to associate my oppenants with poker books that I have read as that details to me the level the play they are capable of. My table consists mainly of "Dan Harrington, no limit tournament hold 'em" players, the most straight forward tournament poker book. This basically means they rarely bluff and play straight forward poker based on their 2 hole cards, position, stack size and their oppenant. These are my favourite type of oppenants as they are the most predictable, it's generally associated with middle aged men. There is also one wreckless guy and a clueless woman at the table, but they are not involved in this hand.
The blinds are 75-150 and I'm on big blind, everyone folds round to one of the button who limps - I straight away assign him a range of limping cards, basically any suited ace, any ace with a good but not premium kicker (e.g. AT), any 2 high cards (e.g. KJ) suited or unsuited and any pair 9's or lower. I would have expected him to raise with starting hands stronger than those just listed, especially in an unopended pot.
Seeing as I'm confident he is a Dan Harrington player I don't think he would be capable of playing any strong hands in a tricky manner, the table is pretty timid also so I don't think he would limp with premium hoping that someone else will raise.
The button also limps and I assign the same analyse although he could potentially be weaker as he is limping behind a limper and is in an even later position (which means there are less people to act behind him so he will be less worried about someone raising behind), and the small blind completes for another 75 - he could have any 2 cards, I won't worry about his holding until I get more information at a later stage.
Each player has around their starting stack of 7.5 behind and I have Q8 offsuit on the big blind, I elect to check. There is no point raising to protect my big blind as the amount I figure I would have to raise to make my oppenants fold, would percentagely not be profitable relative to how often they call and hit a flop (I figure I would have to bet at least pot to make them fold). I also don't want to play a flop with bad cards, out of position, and with an already big pot especially at such an early stage in the game!
Another advantage of checking on my big blind now is that it may build me some respect for later, when the blinds are bigger and I feel it is worth with trying to punish the limpers with a weaker hand.
The pot is now 600 and the flop brings Ah, Qh, 9C
H=hearts, C= clubs, etc.etc,
The small blind checks he doesn't seem interested in the hand, I check my pair of queens as it isn't very strong and the ace aligns with a lot of the holdings I already assigned to the late limpers.
The first limper raises standard half pot 300 and the button / small blind fold.
This raise instantly makes me think that he has a weak suited ace or an ace with high card (e.g. AT). I don't think he has 2 hearts as the Ace of hearts is on the board, only KJ hearts or KT hearts would align, but then I would have expected him to check hoping to see a free card (doesn't seem like a tricky player). My physical read makes me think he is quite happy with the hand.
I elect to call with the following thought process, I'm confident he has an Ace - kicker unconfirmed but probably no higher than Jack as he would have raised pre otherwise. I think that if a heart comes on the board I will be able to bluff him on the hand on the turn/river as he is capable of folding to a scare card/big bet, and if a Q or 8 comes on the turn/river I will be able to maximise my value bets as I am aware of his holding.
Because we have both have big stacks behind us, I feel the implied odd's make this play worth while, so I call.
The pot is now 1200 and the turn brings 4S (AH QH 9C)
This was not a good card for me as it didn't bring trip queens or 2 pair, and was not a scare card for him (i.e. a heart) - so I check. He takes a while to think about his hand, and plays with his chips on and off for a while thinking about whether to bet or not.
This is quite an obvious physical tell that he is weak and does not have a made hand, generally people know instantly if they want to bet or not and will take chips into their hand as soon as it is there go, but may take a while to decide how much...he was semi confident about raising or checking and after a while decided to bet 500.
Another note is that he was going to bet 600, but chose 500 instead at the last second - this provides me some additional information that he wanted to bet less and was less confident about his hand.
There are only two reasons I can figure why he wanted to bet less:
1) Because he had a premium hand and wanted me to call (i.e. give me better value) or
2) because he was worried about his hand, however felt he should bet so chose to bet less.
I'm about 95% confident it is the latter as this would align with all my anaylse of the preflop/post flop play. This changes my thoughts on his ace holding, I'm pretty sure now he has either KT or KJ of hearts and is chasing the flush/straight, this would align with the preflop action and would explain why he bet the flop (because he has so many draws, granted originally I didn't think he was tricky enough at the time, but with a lot of draws it makes sense even to a Dan Harrington player).
So I elect to call, confident he is holding either KT or KJ hearts and chasing the flush/straight draw, there is no point raising here as I would have to bet a lot to chase him off the hand and if my analyse was wrong or he elected to re-raise it would be a very expensive pot for me that I may have to give up on - this is the one of the major disadvantages of playing out of position, less control of the pot size. With calling I can review the river card and some keep control of the pot size at the same time.
The pot is now 2200 and the river brings JS (AH, QH, 9C, 4S)
This card is 50% of the time good for me, 50% of the time bad for me; depending on whether he has KT hearts or KJ hearts ha. Seeing as I don't know here whether he has the straight or just a pair of Jacks now I elect to check and keep the pot small.
If he raises behind I'm pretty confident he has the straight and can fold accordingly (subject to physical read and bet size) or if he checks behind then I'd expect him to have the KJ and hope to win the showdown, this would be the most reasonable Dan Harrington style play - it makes less sense to bluff the river if you have a chance of winning it anyway, it's only worth bluffing if you think you can make your oppenant fold a stronger hand than yours.
A better player would see past this and consider his oppenants holdings (i.e. me) and also what his oppenant thought he was holding (i.e. I think he has the KJ or KT hearts). He could then complete a success bluff or a profitable check accordingly, for the Dan Harrington player - this is too much to think about (not Dan Harrington himself, he is an excellent player).
He checks behind and shows the KJ hearts, with a pair Jacks from the board. I show my Q8 and take the 2200 pot with my pair queens, he compliments my call on the turn - I laugh and tell him that if he bet 600 rather than 500 I might have folded ;)
I figure if my reads are as good as this for the rest of the game, I'll have a good chance of winning the tournament, and premium result - I won it outright. 1 for 1 so far haha vivaaa las vegass!
Right back to work.
Steve (hopelesglory)
Monday, 8 February 2010
Stick to the Plan
Hi there,
If your reading this, then you've got too much time on your hands eheh, or you are interested in my story of persuing a career in playing professional poker in Las Vegas, well done you.
I've accumulated a bank roll of around $7000 from;
- My own money (well technically it's HSBCs as it is on credit card lol)
- My sultan mates (Matt (Donkey) Roberts - his nickname is nothing to do with poker ladies ;), Simon (Anti-game) Izzard, Pete (Self-appointed Captain) Khoury, Dan (Old man) Murnghaham, Ali (Pied Piper) Smith, Kam (Token) Berepiki). Fortunately I beat them all in house games so the mugs have faith, little do they know I've marked the cards muhaehehe (only joking)
Thanks guys!!
Ive booked flights and a hotel for the first week. After that it'll be done on a week by week basis - my ultimate goal is to last the 3 months allowed by USA Visa permits. My man Kam found a return flight for 350 nugs, it comes back in 3 weeks...I'm hoping I won't need to take it!! We've reviewed the laws and put together a spreadsheet documenting how much wonga (nug nug nug) I'll need to survive - what hotels I book and how well I eat will depend on my poker results lol, it's gonna be interesting times....
So anyway, you wanna know a bit about the kind person who does this crazy trip?!? If no, then skip past this bit ha, otherwise here goes:
I've been surviving in Portsmouth, UK for the last year by playing online poker
Before that I designed weapons for warships at BAEVT and before that I designed helicopter upgrades for 2 years at Lockheed Martin. I quit these jobs because I knew I didn't want to work in an office...being behind a computer all day, checking BBC news every lunch, spending 30 minutes writing an email to someone sitting just next to you...also, there is just not enough of those lovely ladies in the office workplace!!
I also teach a little bit of breakdancing as volunteer work (I quite enjoy working with kids, did a Summer camp once in the US for 10 weeks which was awesome). My breakdancing experience is only about a year, however I am just about good enough to do shows and compete at a low level. I love dancing, it's such a good thing - keeps you in great shape, loads of cool people do it and is a great party trick! Gonna miss all my breakdancing pals!!
Before Breakdancing I did a lot of martial arts and was the president at my University club (Portsmouth). I won quite a few gold medals competing accross the UK in Taekwondo and was also awarded the "Full Colours" award by Portsmouth Uni for my efforts, touch!
I have a degree in Computing from Portsmouth Uni and won an award for my degree for achieving the highest mark, although I spent the whole of Uni partying or at competitions, so not quite sure how that happened!
Before Uni I played computer games a lot online and was the UK captain for a game called RTCW (Return to Castle Wolfenstein), this included competitions around the UK and US. However I completely messed up my school/college grades because of it and had some pretty poor results (too embarassed to say lol!). I remember my dad calling me when I was playing at Quakecon in the US, and saying how embarassed he was collecting my results and talking to my teachers /friends about bad they were...ohh myy dayssss. I got suspended from school once for drinking between lessons lol, I also used to flunk school a lot with Rhodes but never got caught (in fact my parents don't even know to this day hahaha, so did Andy by the way if you guys read this. Ian didn't, he was too proper!)
And finally I also like playing chess. I used to play for my county when I was younger, but then didn't play for a while, getting back into it now - great game!
Right enough about me, now for the plan. There's only one way that I'm going to survive in the crazy Yankland gambling deviant city Las Vegas, and that is by, and only by! "Sticking to the Plan" (plan formally created by life long friend Rhodes - insert small c in circle for copyright mina mina)
So what is the plan?!? Well...basically it means a list of things:
- Stay away from Craps table (ohh my godd Craps is so much fun, yeeeoooppp)
- Play only the 1 cent 1 line stakes on slot machine "Mr Cashman" (Don't put a 100 nug note in ya clown)
- Stay away from the "other" expensive pleasures eheh (multiple.)
- Play a lot of poker. Poker, poker, poker, poker, poker. When I'm not playing poker? Study. Review, anaylse, criticise, discuss, whatever it takes to improve - I have to become the best Poker player I can possibly be to ultimately maximise my winnings!! There is too much luck involved in Poker to make mistakes, my game has to be precision perfect!
That's it, thats the plan. If you follow this blog on a regular basis (I intend to update it once a week), it's gonna include an all telling Spreadsheet, details of every game and their results; My poker thoughts with regular updates on interesting poker hands; What I'm thinking about when I'm in hands, my poker strategies; and finally my personal thoughts - how I'm getting on, the highs and lows! What living in Vegas is like and how I'm gonna survive out there on my own, away from all my friends and family.
I hope for the future that this will be an interesting read for you (I will try and add pictures/ videos to the blog), and a rewarding trip for me / my investors.
So to good times, wish me luck!
Steve (hopelesglory)
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