Back on the blog

Its been over 2 months since i last posted and seeing as there are currently next to no games running i thought i would try and get started on another post. So here it goes i guess...

In my last 10-15 sessions of playing ive had a pretty rough time. At one point, before rakeback and excluding bonuses i was losing >$1000. Thats kind of a figure i havent had to deal with online before. Even though ive lost £1000 in a day more than once before, somehow losing it live is much different to losing it in small amounts online over a more substantial amount of time. So i took that pretty badly to be honest. Reassuring myself was pretty difficult and every now and again i would just give myself a speech or rant to myself like; 'How can i keep losing' or 'I must be playing bad' or 'Fuck poker this is bullshit' etc etc. Obviously that was just the irrational side of me speaking and after looking over graph after graph and showing myself over and over again how far below EV i was running it eventually sunk in (kind of). But running >$100 below EV every session for approximately 7 sessions is not something i plan on doing very much. Im not going to show every single session of running bad so heres one small session;

These sort of sessions are obviously just massively demoralising, especially when it happens time after time after time. During this time ive also encountered some horrific bad beats, which are made to feel a lot worse in the middle of a big downswing. For example losing AA vs AK for a >£100 pot or getting it in with the nut flush on the flop on 2 tables simultaneously vs 1 pair and losing them both. All these things just add up and affect you mentally. However to have gone through all these things whilst experiencing personal problems and not have killed myself is kind of an achievement though haha! 


Now here are a couple of things that have gone my way on a plus side;



Preflop: Hero is CO with   AcAs
4 folds, Tony5tark raises to $1.50, 1 fold, Leders raises to $2.50, 1 fold, Tony5tark raises to $10.00, Leders calls $7.50

Flop: ($18.00) Qd 4d Ah (2 players) Leders bets $49.22, Tony5tark calls $49.22

Turn: ($116.44) 7s (2 players

River: ($116.44) 6h (2 players


Hero was CO with   Ac As
Final board:   Qd 4d Ah 7s 6h
Leders shows  Jd Qh
(Pre 15.1% Flop 5.3% Turn 0.0% River 0.0%)  
Tony5tark wins $115.94






Its nice when someone calls your 4bet pre with QJo and then open ships when you flop the nuts, cannot complain with that at all. Another hand here;




Preflop: Hero is MP2 with   7h 7d
johnthebook calls $0.50, march188 calls $0.50, 1 fold, jamiess007 calls $0.50, Tony5tark calls $0.50, xjwj raises to $2.50, mikegreeny calls $2.50, 3 folds, march188 calls $2.00, 1 fold, Tony5tark calls $2.00

Flop: ($10.75)  Tc 7s 8c (4 players) march188 checks, Tony5tark checks, xjwj bets $9.00, 1 fold, march188 raises to $16.80, Tony5tark raises to $64.40, xjwj calls $55.40

Turn: ($147.35) 4s  (3 players

River: ($147.35) 2h (3 players


Hero was MP2 with   7h 7d
Final board:  Tc 7s 8c 4s 2h    
march188 shows 8h 7c 
(Pre 24.8% Flop 10.3% Turn 4.8% River 0.0%)  
xjwj shows  K6cc
(Pre 33.5% Flop 35.5% Turn 31.0% River 0.0%)  
Tony5tark wins $154.35


Winning a flip is always nice but winning it for a triple up just makes things so much better. Obviously on the flop its a huge cooler but how K6 squeezed pre and got a call from 78 is beyond me. But oh well hey it happened and i won a nice pot. 


 My goals for the next few months are to play as much poker as i can and earn another 100,000 paddy points so i can get a $1500 cash bonus and get a free ipad 3! Also when on a downsing and losing a lot it does not make it feel better when you have to withdraw a chunk too. Ive withdrawn about $1500 recently to pay for a holiday for me and my girlfiend for september. Spain for 10 days with 2 other friends too is just what i need right now, shame i have to wait. Hopefully i will get to blog a lot more. I have this problem where a lot of time i just cant be bothered lol. Also still trying to keep balance in my life as advised by the great Phil Galfond. Hopefully ill keep it up

Sick session

Yesterday i had an 8.5 hour session, played 6000 hands and raked $175. And it looked like this;

Playing a mixture of 20 and 50NL in $, £ and €, this was a pretty swingy and stressful session. There were many points where i nearly quit but overall im pretty glad i didnt. Will a low point of approximately -$205 i was ecstatic to finally get into profit after 4500 hands, however this was short-lived, all thanks to this hand;



Preflop: Hero is SB with   AsQd
1 fold, LLLLLLLLucky calls £0.50, 5 folds, Tony5tark raises to £2.00, DrRin calls £2.00, LLLLLLLLucky calls £2.00

Flop: (£6.00) 2c Js Qc (3 players) Tony5tark bets £4.50, DrRin calls £4.50, LLLLLLLLucky raises to £22.02, Tony5tark raises to £69.10, DrRin calls £48.50

Turn: (£145.62) 2c Js Qc 6d (3 players)

River: (£145.62) 2c Js Qc 6d 9s (3 players)


Hero was SB with AsQd
Final board:  2c Js Qc 6d 9s
DrRin shows 10c 8c (Winner)
(Pre 24.4% Flop 11.3% Turn 7.1% River 100.0%)  
LLLLLLLLucky shows  Kc 9c
(Pre 31.3% Flop 47.6% Turn 31.0% River 0.0%)  
Tony5tark wins £20.60DrRin wins £122.02


Some people may think this is a poor reship on the flop, however LLLucky is a huge fish and when he ships the flop i put him on any draw or top pair so im obviously in good shape. The only thing im really worried about is the 3rd player whom has flatted my C-Bet. I came to the conclusion of (trying to) isolate the fish because i just dont think that he is flatting behind me on that flop with a set or 2 pair and an over pair is definitely out of the question with this guy. So my thoughts were that he can do something stupid and call me with some sort of draw which i will be ahead of, or he can call with a Q which im also ahead of. When the hands are flipped its one of the best situations possible. Having approximately 45% to scoop a 3 way all in and even if LLLucky hits his gutshot or top pair i still make money on the side pot. However 'luck' clearly wasn't on my side and the muppet with T8cc hits his off suit 9 to make him the 2nd nut straight...MBN. 


So that hand demoralised me after finally getting even after hours and hours, to then be losing $150 again. I was pretty lucky that the games were so good really because i managed to play until 4am with good liquidity and a lot of fish still about. And after a lot of hands vs LLLucky i managed to win all my money back. Also a few hero calls helped i.e calling with 33 on AQ6J9 against some LAG. 


Outdrawing people is normally something i dont like to do. Obviously winning the pot is what i want to happen, but getting it all in bad frustrates me a lot. However when i got it in bad vs the biggest fish on the night and out drew him i was pretty happy;



Preflop: Hero is MP with   AhTd
1 fold, LLLLLLLLucky calls €0.50, Tony5tark raises to €2.50, 4 folds, LLLLLLLLucky calls €2.50

Flop: (€5.75) Ts 3h 8c  (2 players) LLLLLLLLucky bets €3.00, Tony5tark calls €3.00

Turn: (€11.75) Ts 3h 8c Th  (2 players) LLLLLLLLucky checks, Tony5tark bets €5.87, LLLLLLLLucky raises to €29.36, Tony5tark raises to €52.85, LLLLLLLLucky calls €46.14

River: (€110.74) Ts 3h 8c Th 8s (2 players)


Hero was MP with  AhTd 
Final board:  Ts 3h 8c Th 8s
LLLLLLLLucky shows  3s3c
(Pre 52.3% Flop 98.1% Turn 84.1% River 0.0%)  
Tony5tark wins €107.74


Again some people may argue that when he check raises the turn, committing himself, he only ever has a fullhouse. However from what ive seen for the entire night, and a few hands before someone coolering him causing him to tilt massively, i figured he was doing this with 33, 88, 99, JJ, QQ, KK, AA and any 10 combo obviously putting me massively ahead against his range. So i shoved in all my money and was upset to see my pathetic 16% chance of winning, but after a bit of chanting for any 10, 8 or A, my prayers were answered and a lovely 8 came on the river, scooping me a nice €100+ pot.


Overall i think i played my session really well and even though i was losing for about 8 hours out of the 8.5 hour session, i was really happy with the poker i was playing and had a lot of positives to come away with. The final result was -$8.20 and after rakeback it was a winning session. I might try and have another session like this today, we will see if i have it in me.

50NL grinding

Ok so since the cash point promotion i have been playing 50NL and feel as though i have got a good hold on the game to begin with. With a lot of help from my friend Tom, i feel as though my game has improved drastically, with a lot more moves in my repertoire. I have also taken a few shots at 100NL with not much luck. A big pot i lost was with 99 on 9JAA vs AA who limped the button, was not a nice occurrence. 


I'm now looking to move to Paddy Power Poker asap due to their excellent rakeback system. Not only is the first deposit bonus released twice as quick as winner, but they also have milestone prizes which consist of cash, tournament tickets, clothing and the highest item i will achieve will probably be an iPad 3. Hopefully i will get started with that in the next few days and be able to grind hard. In the mean time i will be continuing my game on Winner and hopefully my next 100NL shot will be a little more successful.


Also, if you do not understand why i lost so much during the 'cash point' promotion, then it is all explained in my previous post. 

Promotion chasing

Ok so for this month i have been pursuing a promotion on ipoker called 'cash point'. Basically there are 3 levels; micro, low and medium/high. You earn a point for every other person in a pot that you win, but the pot has to be a minimum of 3 way to qualify and you can only have 50 qualifying hands per day. 


This promotion was probably one of the most exhausting and demoralising things ive ever done in my poker career. I cross booked the entire promotion with my friend and although we got off to a good start in week 1, bagging $450 each, we did not realise that our tactic was pretty awful. We were playing full stacked and bluffing like mad men. Although the bluffing part was fine we didnt realise that short stacking was the optimal technique for the situation until near the end of week 2. The second week saw us make about $275 each which was very disappointing for us and highly unexpected seeing as we seemed to be dominating everyone at the tables. We looked into the leaderboard and the results were dubious to say the least. It seemed as though we had been awarded a very low number of points which did not seem right what so ever. After this happened i decided to tally every single multi-way pot i played in order to find out if the results that were being shown were accurate. I also decided to play on my titan account for the promotion too in order to maximize profit. Throughout the week one of my accounts was contesting the top of the leaderboard all week long and i knew if i could keep it up i could make a good amount of profit. When the final results came through i was happy to have made 3rd place on one account for $800 and my tally was just 2 points out so i assumed it was just an error on my part. But when i looked into my other account which i was cross booking with my friend the numbers were just ridiculous. i was something like 140 points short which is the difference from making $120 and $550 which is considerable. 
This information just reinforces my thoughts that my results for week 2 were also incorrect and I decided to send a concerning email to the winner poker support team. Hopefully i will get a response tomorrow and will be awarded some more money in compensation but i won't hold my breath, seeing as its the worst support team i have ever had to deal with (as my previous post on this blog shows). 


You may be wandering why i said this promotion was demoralising and exhausting. Well basically its because im trying to win so many multi way pots. This involved me bluffing like crazy and basically calling off for stacks with anything as bad as 1 over card. A gut shot or heaven forbid, a pair, was considered the nuts and was an auto all in. I knew i was going to be losing a lot playing this tactic but i had no idea i would lose as much as i did. But as all amateur gamblers will tell you; 'you have to lose a lot in order to win a lot' 


My numbers at the moment stand something like this; I lost about $700 in order to win money from this promotion. Not including any money that i will receive from incorrect results being corrected (i hope) i got about $1700 from the promotion. I've also made about $300 in rakeback and $150 in FDB clearing. So i have made approximately $1300 from this promotion which i guess its actually pretty good.


So after all my stress of losing every single session i played for 21 days along with other personal stressful issues, im incredibly happy that the promotion isnt going to be on again until June, and that i netted about $1300 profit with another week left in the month. 


Im now going to be playing 50NL and hopefully run good. I also hope that i get awarded some more money from the promotion to help me in my 50NL conquests. Also to any online grinders reading this; purchase a stress ball, has genuinely helped my so much.


Thanks for reading and sorry to rant so much 

I hate support!

Ok so the other day i was playing and needed to ask customer support a few questions about the new promotion called 'cash point'. Its basically a promotion whereby you earn points for every pot you are involved in that has 3 or more people in it. I thought my problem was that the leaderboard was all messed up, however I soon realised that the incapability of Winner pokers online customer support was far more tilting, especially when you're playing 15 tables; UKpro1: hi

Anika: Hi there! Anika here from Online Support. How may I help you today, Daniel?

UKpro1: hi i was wandering if you knew what the problem with tr

UKpro1: the low stakes cash point leader board

Anika: Can you please be more specific?

UKpro1: the promotion cash point has 3 different levels correct?

Anika: Are you referring to the pointys accumulation ratio?

Anika: *points

UKpro1: no

UKpro1: do you know the promotion called 'cash point'

UKpro1: ????

Anika: Where did you see that?

UKpro1: CAN YOU PLEASE REFER ME TO SOMEONE THAT ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT THEYRE DOING PLEASE

Anika: I want to provide accurate answers to your concern, Daniel.

Anika: Can you please explain more of your concern?

Anika: Are you referring to chasing in of points?

Anika: *cashing

UKpro1: NO

UKpro1: my concern is you have no idea what youre doing

UKpro1: there is a propmotion availble called 'cash point' do you know what that is?

UKpro1: this...http://poker.winner.com/cash_point.html

Anika: The Cash Point promotion has 3 races taking placethis month.

UKpro1: yes! now were getting somewhere!

Anika: You can win over over $250,000 in prize money.

Anika: You need to register first to the Cash Point Participation SNG located in the Cash Point tab to be able to join.

UKpro1: there are 3 races !

UKpro1: micro, low and high

Anika: That is correct.

UKpro1: the low leaderboard...found here; http://poker.winner.com/cash_point_leaderboard_b.html

UKpro1: is in correct

Anika: May I know why did you say so?

UKpro1: please can i talk to someone english?

UKpro1: me say so because information is no right

Anika: Daniel, I want to understand ywhy did you say that the leaderboard is not correct?

UKpro1: because i

UKpro1: tit isnt right!!!

UKpro1: im not on it for a start and i should be!!!!

Anika: The leaderboard is being checked by our Poker Team.

UKpro1: will i get an email or something to answer my question?

Anika: Please note that the promotion will include only No Limit Hold’em cash tables.

UKpro1: look dear, i clearly know a lot more than you

Anika: The leaderboard is not yet final for the first week of the promotion.

UKpro1: do you know what, forget it, you clearly have no idea what youre doing

Anika: The counting period of each day will be from 00:00 GMT until 23:59 GMT. Each qualified hand will be counted by end date.

UKpro1: well the points havent been counted thats what im saying

Anika: The points counting for the day will be until 23:59 GMT.

Anika: Kindly allow sometime for the leaderboard to be updated after 23:59 GMT.

UKpro1: so how come i have no points from yesterday or the day before

Anika: Please give me few minutes while I check on that.

UKpro1: ok

Anika: Thank you for waiting.

Anika: I'm still coordinating your concern with our Poker Team.

Anika: Please give me few minutes.

UKpro1: sure

Anika: Thank you for waiting.

Anika: Daniel, as per our Poker Team, they are in the middle of updating the low leaderboard and your points will be shown in the next hour.

Anika: Kindly allow some time to update the leaderboard. :)

UKpro1: wasnt so hard was it

UKpro1: ty

UKpro1: gg

UKpro1: gl

Anika: You're welcome. :)

UKpro1: have a lovely day

Anika: Is there anything else that I can assist you with?

Anika: Same to you. :)

UKpro1: defifinitely not

Anika: Please do not hesitate to contact us with any further queries. Best of luck on your games! :)

UKpro1: if you say so love

UKpro1: bye now x

Online Difficulties

It has been a while since my last post and kind of a lot has happened since. Firstly i have gone from running good to incredibly badly. i have lost approximately $330 at 20NL ($90 was at 50NL) which forced me to exchange 40k points for $300 so my account is back onto slightly over £500 now. However this hasn't been my only problem. Titan has decided to change the full ring cash tables from 10 handed to 9 handed, and seeing as Hold em Manager does not have a 9 handed feature for iPoker, the HUD is all over the place and is damn near impossible to align on more than a handful of tables. This has meant that i have not been able to play anywhere near as many tables/hands as i would have liked, and in fact i am extremely far behind on this months goals.


The sessions i have been playing i have been forced to quit after just a few hundred hands, due to me losing. It seems i am getting coolered/bat beat way too much and its always at the start of my session and in fact i have hardly won any all in's since HEM has had its 'difficulties'.  All in all it has been a very tilting process for me and i just hope that HEM issues an update very soon so i can get back to grinding. I really need to achieve Titanium again this month for the extra points boost. 


In the meantime i have been planning what i am going to do over the next few months and i came up with the following;

1. March 15th-25th Pokerstars Micro Millions series
2. Deposit on winner and take advantage of the 200% $2000 sign up bonus
3. Deposit on Poker770 and take advantage of the 200% $2000 sign up bonus
4. Decide which iPoker skin is best for me regarding bonuses and VIP loyalty schemes
5. Watch training videos to help me transition from 20NL to 50NL

I think Poker770 looks the best for me but i guess we will have to wait and see. Points 2 and 3 will most likely take about 2 months each, if all goes well 3 will be less because i will be playing 50NL by then but i wont hold my breath, I've seen the swings that i can have.

Running good

So over the past few days i have been putting in ample volume and running super hot. Makes a nice change from running like a 3-legged dog non stop for 3 weeks but i wont complain. winning approx $180 yesterday and decent amounts for the few days before that, things have really picked up. Taken a few shots at 20NL and succeeded, so it was nice not to get wacked and sent straight back to 10NL. 

As of next month 20NL will be my main game, presuming i don't get smashed and lose too much straight away. On the other hand i experienced one of the sickest coolers of my life yesterday where 4 people got it in on the flop;

Pretty sick i thought and nice of the 99's to bink his 1 outer lol. Fortunately i was not any of the players partaking in that specific pot and was just lucky enough to have a front row seat to the sickness. 

So now i pretty much have titanium locked up for next month and if i play 20NL all of next month i may be able to make diamond which is the top level. An extra 20% points bonus would be much appreciated so going to try and put in all the hard work for that.