CARDRUNNERS

Its winter in London, so there isnt much to do apart from sleep in the day and party and play poker all night... but fortunately that suits me fine! I have had a good year grinding away at sitngos and mixed games and am in the final stretch for the year now and starting to ease off. Reaching Supernova Elite proved unobtainable as i have been more interested in playing in good cash games where i can rather than simply grinding out rakeback, but i will still end over 600k VPPs which is the second best option bonus wise and gives me something like 45k back on 104k raked (i got 80k VPPs for being from the UK, thanks PokerStars!). If there were more higher stakes games available it would be easy, but even the $200 games seem to struggle to start now and lots of people seem to have gone on massive downswings in them. The battle of the planets leaderboard have been valuable too - last week was double prizes and i ended up with $6700 for winning both high stakes leaderboards and placing in another, plus $20k or so from the actual games.

Mixed games have gone very well too, although ive continued to pick out indivual games rather play 8 game mix, mainly because the games are too slow, break easily and most weaker players have one game that they are comfortable with and believe they are good at. Having said that im hoping to play more 8 game in 2010 so hopefully there will be fast tables and rules to stop people angle shooting between the various games. This year ive mainly played Triple Draw, Badugi, Stud8 and some Limit Holdem so combined with past experience with NLE and some experience of PLO i should be pretty well placed, and it seems like this is the sort of place the games will go in the future at high stakes since many people are so specialised in one form no-one else will play them.

The weather has officially turned, and whilst just a month ago i could cycle through the city in sunlight and a t-shire its now time to lockdown for the winter, get up late and head abroard in search of sun. Ive had some good nights out recently visiting clubs like 5 Cavendish Sq, 24, Movida, Merah (formerly Crystal) and China White and plan to keep it up as much as possible through the next couple of months. I havent done much travelling recently as i did so much in 2004-7 but perhaps its time to start up again, and the PCA looks appealing with so many events and a nice setting. I mainly would like to go to places I havent been before though, so will have to start consulting the tourney databases again and see whats what for 2010. Im even starting to feel like playing tournaments again after a good run at the start of the year that fizzled out, so who knows what the new year holds...

SNGs - ive played a ton of games from 200-2k, and have dont pretty well in the Step 5 and 6s to the WCOOP events. Im not sure whats going to replace them as i dont really want to play the EPT London ones as the exchange rate is terrible and its not clear if id get a hotel refund or not. Ill probably end the year on 600k VPPs which with the 80k bonus for UK players will mean about 45% rakeback. If there are suitable step tournies all year it would be pretty easy to get to SNE, but its way too much of a grind playing $200-500 games and there arent even many of them running at the moment.

Mix games - havent played much recently but will probably jump back in soon since theres not much else on. Its too hard to concentrate on different games with sngs/tournies going on, especially if mix formats. I hope they take off more and some of the kinks are worked out like faster tables and preventing people sitting games out as i should have a good edge, but for now i still prefer playing the individual games by themselves.

Live events - not sure if im going to play much as live tournies are kind of tortorous, but there are some new formats about for the EPT like 6 max and 8 game so who knows. Played a live cash game on friday to kill time waiting for someone, only £2-5 but was shorthanded for a while and good fun. Things are just kicking off here so hoping for some good nights out etc, went to 24 on Friday which was awseome (www.disco24.co.uk). If youre in town pm

NL cash - havent played that much  in recent months but have jumped back in a bit recently and am enjoying the change, will probably play some more 5/10 and 10/20 in coming months and see what happens.

Summer - the weather in London has been predictably poor but Ive still been enjoying as much of it as i can and have been to some great gigs lately - Blur, Tiesto, Manic Street Preachers, Lovebox Festival, and some others i cant remember. This weekend is V Festival then the next weekend there are some festivals on Clapham Common and the Notting Hill Carnival. London is such a great city when the sun comes out, everyone seems to turn out and sit in the parks or outside the pubs and theres a real party atmosphere - as the Lily Allen song goes 'sun is in the sky, oh why, oh why, would i wanna be anywhere else?'

Poker - Ive been playing quite a bit lately on an earlier schedule, lots of Step 5 and 6 and some other sitngos, and limit games from 30/60 to 200/400. Ive played quite a bit of full ring LHE which is fun and much easier than 6 max, triple draw and some 8 game, though the latter still totally frustrates me - everyone seems to be engaged in some secret prop bet to take as long as possible on every decision and sometime people wont even play 6 hands of one game to keep the table from breaking. I really hope they introduce fast tables soon as i really would like to play more and that would make it much more appealing, as would adding badugi or 2/7 nl. On a positive only a few people seem to be decent at all games, and my note taking can be reduced to 'has no clue how to play razz/td/s8'. It seems like these mix games might be the future of higher stakes poker since so many people are specialised at one form to the extent that no one wants to play them and there arent enough fish to go around, but its not quite there yet.

On another note im looking forward to September/October and WCOOP and the live events in London. Ive gone off the mtts recently and had almost no results in the few ive played so hopefully it will come back by them. The structures are a bit more reasonable this year with 20 min levels and flatter blind increases so im hoping to play a few more than last year, but who knows!

Had flu at the start of July for almost a week, so didnt make Vegas in the end. To be honest i spent the preceeding weeks to-ing and fro-ing between excitement and scepticism about the prospect of fying halfway across the world for one event and that pretty much sealed it. Im not really a massive Vegas fan anyway, and the prospect of playing a lot of side events didnt really seem that thrilling, epsecially without them being televised. So in the end i didnt book anything and decided to just jump on a plane or not as the last minute. Fortunately with people being turned away on Day 1D it looks like a good decision to bail, and there were some good games online when i could summon the energy to play for an hour or two which compensated for the supposedly great ev of the main event. Good luck if you are still in...

Online play has been going well, although another string of 12th, 14th, 13th places etc including the Sunday Warmup and a couple of other big events didnt exactly make me want to play in Vegas. TD and Stud8 have been bumping for a while recently although sitngos are pretty dead right now, and i just found out FTP have 7 game mix so am looking forward to giving that a go. To be honest i havent really got in the 8 game on pokerstars - the dealing is so slow, games change every 6 hands so theres no flow etc. Ive had a nice relaxing summer and done lots, and am now looking forward to FTOPS, WCOOP, WSOPE/EPT in the next couple of months, so hopefully i will have the enthusiasm for long hours back by then.

Ive agreed to do another book this winter for spring release. Its currently called Secrets of Non-Standard Sitngos and will cover HU play, 6max, multitable, steps and other formats that have sprung up recently as well as VIP sysyems, rakeback, bonuses etc. The first book has done really well and there will be an updated edition out next month, with a few extra pages and and some minor typos cleared up.

Ive also recently set up as a rakeback affiliate, as this is maybe the only thing that is essential to sitngo players that i neglected to talk about in the first printing of Secrets of Sitngos and i wanted to put info in the new edition and book. Ive found a great company and everything seems to be running smoothly, so if you want rakeback just go to the link below and you can sign up for most of the sites that offer it there, the main ones for SNGs being FTP, Cake and smaller ones like PKR i guess (Pokerstars having their VIP system). Id to make it clear that i do not endorse or play on UB/Absolute becuase of the recent cheating scandals, but theres no way to take them off the list and everyone must make their own decisions about risk/reward in terms of what minor sites they play on.

http://rakeupdate.com/signup/secretsofsitngos

I played the £200 freezout at the International Club again this week, mainly as i had arranged to meet someone there beforehand. Again it was a pleasant change and the standard was low, but i doubt ill go back soon as its a bit too much time/effort for a shot at three grand, and sitting there for hours with 15 big blinds listing to discussions on how many times someone has been dealt KK in a row isnt very engaging. So, for any of you venturing thence in future some advice:


Strategy.

- Dont limp with all the hands you want to see a cheap flop with in early position (like 85o) and raise with strong ones!
- Dont 'trap' with A2 by limping in the small blind then mutter under your breath when someone moves all-in in the big  blind and wins after you snap call!
- Dont reraise all-in with sutited connectors when you have no fold equity!
- Dont limp in early position then call A4s all-in for 20bbs!
- Dont limp call all-ins with 88 when the blinds are high. Especially when i have JJ and there is an 8 coming on the flop!


Ettiquette

- Dont ask to see losing hands. This is terrible ettiqute and will get you into trouble in a more serious environment!
- Dont discuss other peoples play after a hand you were not in. Especially if this may possibly reveal you as clueless!
- Dont say things like ' If he folds youre just going to go all-in arent you' when there are lots of players still in the hand! Instead just STFU and keep your expert analysis to yourself!
- And most importantly, dont openly criticise and berate the obvious recreational players who arent saying anything or hurting anybody for making a bad play, espectially if there is like a 95% chance thay they are far nearer the top of their chosen field than you ever will be to the top of the poker ladder (all but one of the above plays were made by the apparent regulars)...

Since the last entry Ive been playing much less hence lack of updates, but since im bottom of the most recent pro blog updates (even CTS has updated more recently!) here goes...

I recently encountered close to a 100bi downswing in the sngs, and then they stopped running as much so the SNE plan is off - i guess there were lots of people wanting to go for it from lower stakes who have now dropped out, and playing below the $200 level is pretty boring. It isnt very significant monetarity and fortunately cash games and non-playing poker stuff is going ok so no big deal, but constantly having sessions where you dont win an all-in for a full stack in 10 games or get a big stack then lose 3 or 4 all-ins on the bubble everytime is pretty mindbending! Think Im still up 50k plus another 10-15k in rake/leaderboard stuff though recently and things are getting back to normal now, so im gonna take that and go back to a more part-time sng schedule and play some other stuff.

Ive played a fair bit of cash on Euro sites between 3/6 and 25/50 in the last couple months and its much more fun than Stars/FTP - those crazy Euros are more than happy to 5 bet shove light with no history at all, no problem! Hopefully the same streak dosnt happen there or i will be stuck 6 figures in no time....  Ive also played live once at the International club, who now have a little £200 freezeout on a Wednesday night - its only geting 30-40 runners at present so it isnt exactly part of my retirement masterplan, but its only a nice 20 min cycle ride through the park away and a bit of deeper stacked live tourey poker mid week is a fun change. Last time i lost two big pots to the same guy... the first i flatted an utg raise and a call with 86s, then bet when checked to on Kh 8 3h, utg raiser calls, c/c blank turn, river Qh, he makes a tiny blocking bet so i feel obliged to jam it up a bit, he winces, thinks, looks away etc then throws in chips with QQ. Then i crai with KQ on 4s5c7sKc, he ums and ahs and call with something like K8c and hits. Its a good structure and a pretty soft field, so if youre in the area come along...

I also played a bunch of tournies this last week for FTOPS cashing in around 0/5 and having a few deep disappointing runs on stars, including 10th and 14th in big 100rs, where i lost a 2x final chip pot and a 1x final chip pot, so my form is returning to normal! Seroiously though i realise this probably has to happen a lot for everytime you win one, and whilst its very frustrating psychologically the step ups to 7-9th arent very much, so i you just have to play for the big stack and hope to run good when you get it and close. I also came something like 48th in the Warmup on sunday, losing a 1/4 final stack to mkind, who was 1/10 before losing KQ to 67, KK to AA and AA to 88 to finish 9th. Tourney poker is a perverse and frustrating passtime... i wonder which of us was most dissapointed! (Edit - Actually i did win one a couple weeks ago but it was only a 20 runner PL 5 Card Draw for $2500)

Whilst playing less Im trying to excersie and get out more. There are tons of great cycle paths/routes where i live, through park/by canals etc so thats awesome and im starting to run again. I also hired a trainer who deals with posture/nutrition/lifestyle/excercise, so hopefully he can knock me into shape.... Its summer so the whole city has come alive and whereever you go if the sun is out people are sat drinking outside the pubs, in the parks etc, and im no exception particularly after a long hard slog. Perhaps i really will go and live somewhere else during winter this year.

I have been back grinding sitngos for the last couple of months now for a number of reasons :

- the pound is at $1.40 whereas a year ago it was at $2.10, effectively a 50% boost in ROI making them much more worthwhile to me than previously.
- cash games seem to be dying slowly.... some of the big fish have disappeared and there seems to be a downward force created by this and people taking shots at nosebleeds and losing that if forcing the regs down in stakes too
- the Stars setup is now very attractive, with the VIP program and the Leaderboards adding quite a bit of value.
- Ive been running good for the most part, and am currently up about $50k in the last 1000 games which is quite a bit above expectation and makes me want to play more.

So, im going to keep going with this plan for the time being and see how it goes. I also happened across the Supernova Elite pursuit thread on 2p2 in December and was having fun following the people trying desperately to make it in the last couple of weeks. Now Im now about to make any declerations, but i am keeping track of my progress against the required pace and will see how the year develops. I currently have about 50k VPPs which is a bit behind, but the program is really set up like a seesaw and the further you get the more inclination there is to go on. Basically it requires raking $200k in a year of which you get back about $115k in bonuses and tourney entries, but over half of that comes from raking the final $80k so in the home stretch you are almost playing for free. So if im anywhere near come the 2nd half of the year and my headline results are still good i can probably still smoke it for the last few months and be sunning myself at the PCA next Jan. We'll see... ;-)

No tournaments to complain about this weekend as i have been ill - however i did manage to drag myself out to the Poker Million party on Friday and to Smartieparty at Scala (a nightclub in Kings Cross) on Saturday.

The Poker Million party was basically a three course meal served in the ballroom at the Metropole whilst the live final is projected on screen around you with the always entertaining Norman Pace as compere, and was very enjoyable. Marty Smith sealed the 2008 Award for Running Better than God (or Roland de Wolfe), coming back from 15k chips after an early loss to amass all 1.6 million, in only his third Poker Million final in three years, in which time he has also won another TV crapshoot event, a bracelet and the Irish Open.  Despite having a worse structure than a $5 sitngo it still went on four about five hours and ended with average stacks of about 12bb, but fortunately I was sat at table Dennis (publishing) where the time was merrily spent on Omaha coinflips and gawping towards the adjacent Table (Danielle) Lloyd and Table (abi) Titmuss. 

Ive also managed to put a few sessions in at Badugi and won 3-4k playing $10/20 so hopefully there are bigger games soon. And im the weekly CR interview on the home page! Nice to be on the other end of an interview for once... maybe i should become more self-promoting and get on some of these tv things in 2009 but Ive played a couple in the past and the problem is that the open events tend to have no added money, film at ungodly hours and have to be over in a couple of hours so you dont get much for play, and you dont get invited to things like poker million without being known from other touney results or winning a qualifier online, which is very time consuming. So maybe more grinding away online it is. At least i can watch Entourage whilst doing that ;-)