À la recherche de l'élan perdu

In which I'm fucking shattered....

2011-02-21T13:02:00.000-08:00

Points of Order:

Congratulations to Gaz Walker on his magnificent win at the UKIPT recently. Well done Gaz, well deserved. It was great to see the entire NPF behind him and the rail thread was one of the best on their in ages. So much love.

Congratulations to Teh Dobberz on their CGK Cup win, I'm gutted I couldn't make it to Newcastle for this epic tournament.

Why I'm shattered:

Last week I worked about 96 hours and still got some time in for a game of Rugby and a coaching session with both an MTT sicko and a HU midstakes cash reg. I'mn actually constantly fucked, but really enjoying the work. The boss said some nice things about me in my appraisal recently, but honestly, I didn't achieve even half of what I wanted to in my first three months in the office. I have so many plans and ideas, but as ever, operational shenanigans can sometimes get in the way.

I also had another friend out here for an interview, but unfortunately, although he made the final two from about 12 short-listed candidates, he didn't get the job. Such a shame. If there's something you think you could do for us, why not check out www.pokerstrategy.com/jobs.

Looking Forward:

I have a *lot* of things I need to complete by the end of the month, after which three great friends of mine are coming out to visit. I haven't seen one of them in about 8 months, so it'll be nice to finally catch up with some beers. I even took a few days off work and will leave my laptop in the office!

And, of course, next weekend the 6 Nations is back, and I'll be spending some time in Granada. A really good friend of mine is coming to the end of her internship; so next weekend is her last with us for the foreseeable future as she has to complete another year of studies in Germany before possibly returning so there'll be some fun to be had there too. Honestly, it'll be nice to have a weekend to myself without working.

Till then,

Peace,

--mulhuzz

In which I ship one....

2011-01-31T07:26:00.000-08:00

Gala Monthly £100 Deepstack Report

On the last Saturday of each month, the Gala here plays host to a £100+£10 deepstack event (30 minute levels with ALL the levels, 10k starting stack) which is far and away the best structured game in Gib. I hadn't been able to play this so far so I was really excited when I had a Saturday off, and even nursing a slight hangover, I made my way to the casino for the 4pm start.

Joining me there were 6 or 7 PokerStrategists from 29 runners in total, but luckily for me, my table draw was beyond sweet. On my table, almost everyone was a huge Spanish fish, except for Aurelien, one of our French Community Managers who had position on me, and an English guy called Tony who is well known for being a laggro type, but plays pretty decent. He also has position on me (I'm in seat 1, he's in 2 and Aure is in 3) so I know that I'm going to have to play a little nittier than I normally would in these structures in the early levels.

Table is playing passively and when I open TT after a limp I just pick up the blinds and carry on. Nothing much happens for a bit until I own Aure in a decent size pot by inducing a bluff on the river with 'weak' play on the turn. He was shocked when I Hellmuth called him on TxxAx with JT but I think it was pretty standard.

Early levels are going fine, and even though I flat a raise with 99 from SB to induce squeeze from Tony (laggro) I then find a fold when I pick up a tell that he has a value hand and not a squeezing hand and the original raiser also calls.

Then some blah blah about blah blah and making a nice value bet with the rivered nuts with AKo on a 4 heart board and some more blah blah about stealing a few pots in position and I find myself with about 18k by the first break.

After the first break the Azbo costs me a bit my refusing to suckout on the Kings of Mr Aggro in a 4bet preflop pot (I c/call, c/call, check/check) with my one pair hand on a low board assuming he has 2 broadways. I win it all back an orbit later when I check behind for complete deception with turned top-top and get a pot sized bet AND a pot sized raise on the river (when I improve to top 2!) from the BB with AK > AT on XXXAhh board.

Anyway, at this point, Coen gets moved to my table. He's a PS.com staffer and a solid player and is opening everypot and threebetting my opens and all sorts. I'm somehow stuck around 15k and nothing is happening. There's another guy who is opening every pot too (young English kid) so when he opens I decide 42o is good enough to 3bet the last hand before the break and I show the 2 when he folds. He's pretty furious with me, convincing himself that I'm value 3betting 22 or A2 and calling me a terrible player and such. Tilting people is quite nice.

First hand after the break I 3bet ship AQ over Coen's KQ but he folds and I'm back to about 18k again. Obviously I can't win every flip though and lose 88 < KT shortly thereafter vs a shorty and back to 13k. Fucking hell man.

Interesting Hand One:

Remember the kid from before? The one who called me a terrible player? Folds to him in SB and at 300/600/100 he makes it 2600. I flat with AA in BB and flop comes JTx. He insta pot bets and I jam for the rest (about 14k total or so) and he absolutely Hellmuth's me with J2 for top pair, shit kicker. I wrap it up on the turn with a lovely Ace.

I then take some more from him by simply calling down with K9dd on 9875Jsss and he gives me a 'how could you call' kinda look but I was confident he had utter air.

He then gives me the rest of his chips on the FT bubble (only 4 places paid) when he picks the wrong time to 3bet shove because I wake up with AA behind him.

Anyway, on to the final table, I have about 41k and average is 30k but blinds still like 400/800/100 I guess, so not too bad at all. Couple of shorties though and one guy just basically gifts Coen 90k by stacking off ultralight on KXX when it was clear Coen had AA.

Again, Coen is opening every pot and he opens to 2600. I 3bet AKs to 6800 and a shortstack with 7000 shoves for 200 more. Coen then goes immediately and makes it 21k. I sigh, announce, you're insane sir, this is always Aces and fold face up. Feel sorry for shorty as he has KK and I've just shown him I passed one of his outs. Actually this is normally a snapfold for me as Coen's 4bet range against my stack there isn't balanced at all. What made me ask if he's insane was that *right before* the final table we were talking about how a cold 4 bet that isn't a shove is always so much more polarised to AA than a 4bet isoshove. Admittedly Coen's 4bet here wasn't cold, but he'd been opening so many pots it might as well have been! :D Basically, I thought he could be levelling me with like TT or AQ.

Interesting Hand Two:

With a stack now at 18k, Coen opens again and I threebet TT to about 6k, leaving myself 12k behind. I'm never folding to a shove, but somehow I get two flat calls (and then Coen passes!) and I shove a JTx board and pick it up.

What's your line here? Are you threebetting small or just jamming? Can you every 3bet fold?

Let me know in the comments! :)

Anyway, from there on out it's pretty standard, I win a flip 55 > AK vs Coen for a 65k pot and then another couple of pots from the shorties who are folding too often before I raise button, BB shoves, it's 15k more into 30k pot, easy call. He has AQ, oh well, found the top of his range, oh hai, that's a K in the window and we're three handed.

After playing a while, there's a complete fish with 105k, and Coen and I have 85k with blinds at 1000/2000/200. We both have a huge edge on the fish but are more or less neutral EV against each other so I decide I don't want to flip for £400 (difference between 3rd and 2nd) with Coen, and I defo don't want him getting the fish's chips before me, so we split for £800 a piece plus £100 more to fish because 'he had more chips' -- actually a pretty generous deal, I think.

In which I take baby steps...

2011-01-09T17:41:00.000-08:00

Goal One: Poker

So I've been more relaxed about poker recently and had a winning cash session (some £200 or so) at the cash tables recently and also our new MTT study group (Project: Ship the Majors) made $120 playing a small spread of tournaments today, including the Sunday Warm Up where we cashed for $500 or so. Crucial hand was AKss vs JJ on JXXAss board. Oh well, that's a set up obviously.

I'm actually enjoying poker again so far, but the trick is not to play too regularly, I think.

Goal Two: Lifestyle

I've also made some baby steps with regards to health. I'm drinking far more water and eating more healthily than I did last year and I'm not missing it. I also played Rugby for the first time in a couple of years today which was great fun. Really enjoyed the crack and the banter and I'm going to be training 4 hours a week, in addition to games in the Spanish National League. Obviously this will allow me to get fit and also with....

Goal Six: Travel

Really hungover on Saturday (weekends don't count, right!) I woke up at a friend's house and we headed to Jerez in Spain. It's about an hour and a half away by car and we left the glorious sunshine in Gib to be greeted by horrendous rain. Nice lives us imo. Still, Jerez is famous for Sherry (Jerez in Arabic sounds a lot like Sherry and obviously the moors owned southern Spain at one point...) so we toured the biggest Sherry factory, had some Tapas and tasting before heading home. A very pleasant afternoon indeed and we rounded off the evening back in Gib with some Thai food.

2011 already has 2 roadtrips completed (Malaga and Jerez), so Goal 6 is looking good!

Goal Four: Languages

I'm speaking German about 60% of my day which is nice and I don't speak English unless I have to. Coupled with a studious approach to (re)learning the finer points of grammar, I feel my German is steadily improving again. I've also signed up for Spanish courses so that I feel comfortable enough to get by in Spain. I've taken some baby steps by ordering food and drink in Spanish and speaking Spanish at the supermarkets and so.

It's too early to comment on my other goals, but I'm in a good place right now. Now if only I could get my bank card back....(machine ate it, sigh).

I'll also be following Farmer Dave and Sensh's weight loss threads over at the NPF with interest.

Let's pay it forward!

Peace,

--Huzz

In which I recap, and set some goals.

2011-01-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Small Recap of 2010

Basically, 2010 was an interesting year from me. On the poker front, I scooped my first big live score and achieved my goal of making £2500 profit from poker over the year.

2010 was also a challenging year from a 'real life' perspective, in which I was forced to take a real hard look at my life and why I had lost some momentum with my career and, well, everything. As a result, I built a door, visited Gibraltar, and finally ended up working here.

As I've bragged about before, it's pretty wonderful out here and I feel really stretched and challenged in my new role, in ways that I haven't been stretched in quite some time. In other words, I'm out of first gear and whilst I'm not in fifth yet (there's so much more I can do, professionally and personally, but I'm really glad to have the opportunity to learn, develop and grow), I feel I'm getting there, step by step. I can't deny there have been times when I've been a little homesick, especially this Christmas which was the first time I've ever been away from my family for the holidays, but fortunately some colleagues were kind enough to invite me for a particularly multi-cultural Christmas dinner and it was so nice to have their support. Admittedly, I'd never spent Christmas with a dutch guy, polish girl and more romanians and germans than you can shake a stick at, but it was actually amazing. I recommend Romanian food too, it's right on the money.

I'm not really one for reminiscing and such, suffice it to say 2010 was awesome, notably in how quickly new friends were added to old friends (who i miss dearly) and how much I grew as a person. I know that 2011 will be better. I am determined, and here's how:

Goals for 2011:

1. Don't give a shit about poker. I work with it all day everyday and it's getting to the point where I'm not enjoying playing. Stop taking it too seriously and just enjoy myself. Don't think about profit and loss, odds and outs and all that kind of thing. Just enjoy it for the rush and the buzz that it is. (Only poker goal)

2. Take better care of myself. That involves eating right and playing more sport, start playing rugby again and just generally not being such a lazy fuck. It also involves not drinking through the week. Fortunately, today isn't a weekday, so I'm off into Spain for tapas and live music.

3. Develop professionally. Continue to learn and grow by taking the advice of those around me. I happen to work in a company of rockstars, and I can make better use of their experience. I have a certain set of professional goals but this blog isn't the appropriate place for them.

4. Languages: speak more German, get back to studying Dutch and get my French back to the level it was when I was 18. There are 28 different nationalities in our company, so I'll always find a practice partner. On top of all that, learn Spanish. And double quick. I don't want to live in Gibraltar forever, and Andalucia is so fucking beautiful it's insane. I have to live there. And that involves speaking Spanish. You all know me. I won't be 'that guy' in Spain that has to talk English all the time. I won't do it.

5. Be more relaxed, socially. Sometimes I'm a bit of a social retard because my brain is working overtime to analyse situations. Fuck that, just chill out, dickhead. Stop sweating the small stuff and just relax.

6. Come back to England at least once, but also take a holiday to somewhere I've never been. Morocco is on the cards. As is Tunisia.

7. Invite as many people as possible to come visit here during the summer. It's gonna be insane, and if you're reading this, you're invited.

I hope you all had awesome holidays and I wish you the best for 2011.

Gl, and not just at the tables,

--Huzz

In which I play MiniFTOPS Razz...

2010-12-19T18:34:00.000-08:00

So Mulhuzz, why Razz?

Thanks for asking! Basically, I love Razz for the following reasons:

It is a limit game, and limit games are super fun because there are so many people that simply don't understand the importance of saving bets or showdown value. They also don't understand the importance of simulated all in situations, but more on that later.
Razz is a great game for strategy and requires far more thought than playing Hold Em, whether FL or NL. It is therefore, for me, more fun.
I have a bigger edge in Razz than I do in Hold Em for lots of reasons. The chief of these being that I manage to avoid logic knots in Razz more than I do in Hold Em. This is because the average Hold Em player is, well, average, and the average Razz player is, well, terrible. This means that you can play Razz to a semi-decent standard and still be exceptional value in a game. Translation: there's a lot of dead money in Razz.

Why mini-FTOPS?

I played the $30+$3 mini-FTOPS Razz event because Andy 'KQ4EVA' Blair offered to stake me for it because I'd railed him as he crrrrrrrushed the Full Tilt nightly $2k Guaranteed Razz and repeatedly commented on how bad the players were. Obviously he only managed third because, well, blind squirrels and nuts, but the nice $800 cash from $24 was enough for him to spare me the $33 entry for this.

I haven't played Razz tournaments in years, except as part of the HORSE mix or so, but used to play a decent amount of Razz cash and still do, although the volume is somewhat lower than it used to be.

Anyway, to the tournament!

I set myself up in the office and connected the laptop to the big screen so I could rail a few other mini-FTOPS events whilst also concentrating fully on Razz. The game began at 3am here, so I was helpfully joined by my housemate to keep me company. Joerg is probably the best mixed game player I know, so it was great to have him for a line check from time to time (e.g. do I check-raise here or simply bet and hope to be raised?, etc). I'd also had a skype conversation earlier that day with one of the biggest FL pros in the world and we talked a little about strategy and such so I was feeling really well prepared.

Two hands in and I'd won my first pot (winning 3 more bets than I should have done!) and Joerg commented 'ok, this tournament is as good as shipped!'. Oh man I wish that were true! With over 1200 runners there was a lot to play for. For the first two hours I basically played perfect and built 3k starting chips up to 9.5k and I was really bossing the table. I also had a nice hand where i made the nuts (A-5) and the table idiot (having called with a semi ok draw on two streets made perfect-almost-perfect to end up with A234-6 - the second nuts, so I caught like 7 more bets than I should have done in that hand because we end up capping it on 7th of course.

Where it all goes wrong...

I'd love to show you hand histories and so but for some reason they don't save on my work laptop so I can't. I get massively coolered in a huge pot against a retard (a 5k pot when the average is also 5k at 200/400) when some guy finds his miracle one out deuce on 7th when he was basically drawing dead against my made nut 7. Somehow he manages to find the 65-low on the end though, somewhat improving his 965 made....sigh.

From then on out, I go completely card dead and then lose two more crucial pots as at least a 72% favourite. In my exit hand the guy doens't understand the concept of simulated all in at 300/600 where I have 1800 and get 3 small bets in on third and the rest in on 4th (this is what simulated all in means, I'm never, ever, ever, ever, folding) with 2357 and can't hold against 9357. I had the dude basically completely board locked but he managed to get there of course.

A Word on Limit Tournaments...

In limit tournaments, the midstages are by far the most important. At some point you'll play a pot for stacks because the average will almost never deviate from 8-10 Big Bets and you have to run good to survive in the middle stages. I felt I played pretty perfect (threw away one more bet than I needed to in one spot to be honest which was the only mistake I made) and the fact that i very quickly got to 2x or 3x the average meant that when I got coolered I still had a stack to get back into the game. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be and I busted in 568th spot someway off the bubble.

I did, however, outlast most of the FTP Red Pros, including David Singer which won Pads £100 because he's backed me against anyone in the field and his mate picked Singer. Unlucky, I crush Singer at Razz! :D :D :D At least someone won something from this tournament.

Now What?

I'm going to play more Razz because I'd forgotten two things:

1. How much I love the game and how much fun I have playing it.

2. How much of an edge I have against your average Razztard.

That's all for now folks, thanks for reading and thanks also to GeoKing, SamJ, Google and co for the rail. Sorry i couldn't give you a better sweat.

Gl at the tables,

--Huzz

In which I let a colleague do the bragging for me....

2010-12-15T08:19:00.000-08:00

Need I say more......?

This video was shot yesterday up on the roof of our offices. Pretty informative too, whilst also being a major brag ;)

Enjoy!

--Huzz

In which I feel like a proper degenerate...

2010-12-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

Recap of the weekend...
PokerStrategy.com 'Open' at Gala Casino
This sunday saw 40+ PokerStrategy.com staffers and some 20+ locals and friends of the company take to the felt for our Poker Open generously held at the local casino. I call it a PS.com open, and it kinda was. We'd (well, one of our Poker Experts) had organised the tournament, made it open for all, and demanded that we wear our red PokerStrategy.com T-shirts as a group.

It was like a sea of red and awesome fun. My tournament didn't go too super. I got seated on first table with 4 staffers and was OOP to all of them but banter was superb. I owned a couple of the fish for nice pots before losing a small one BvB vs Arjon one of our Dutch Community Managers. It was then time to move table where I open the button (2k starting chips, 15m clock, basically a shallow super turbo) with A7o to 425 (100/200) and get shoved on by a 1.5k stack (I have 4.2k) from the small blind. I make the standard call but can't hold vs 34s even though I have a straight draw and two overs on the turn. Sigh.

The very next hand, Philippe (cool guy I mentioned in previous blog) and I are drinking away when he shoves and I make the auto-reshove with 33. You need chips in this tournament and I know I'll have to win flips. He tables AK and I can't remain ahead on a 7585 board when the river brings another 8. Which was great, because the Card Room Manager called for it. The bastard!!! But anyway. that's pretty standard the way I run in Gib ;)

Competitive Slots...

Having found myself dumped outta the tournament I catch up with some of the lads who decide a round of competitive slots is in order. The rules are simple. Each player puts £10 in a slot machine, we all press at the same time and whoever is busto first loses and they buy the next round. For the first time in like forever I didn't lose at slots and was showing a healthy £29 profit plus the drink that Hannes bought me! ;)

Competitive Roulette...

Bored with competitive slots, we move on to competitive electronic roulette. Again, I win here by backing number 8 twice in a row at some point to book a healthy £56 profit.

Competitive Blackjack...

Sigh. Not really competitive because I was the only one playing and just to get rid of the £6 I had from roulette in chips. Down £6, needless to say.

Competitive Shortstacking...

We now decide, Graham, Hannes, Joerg and I, to play competitive shortstacking at 100NL. Same rules, whoever is busto first (2 bullets max of £25/time) buys the next round but we can only shove or fold.

In the first hand I post and it's limped round to the BB who checks. The flop is 345 and I look at my hand to see a beautiful 33 for bottom set. Well, I'm not folding, so I'm defo shipppppppping. I do, to be called in 4 spots by Joerg (64), idiot 1 (69) and idiot two (A6). The pot is over £100. Obviously I'm never winning. 7. BAM. 8. BAM and idiot 1 scoops the entire. I rebuy as does Joerg. Next hand I'm in the BB. Folds to button who limps, SB raises to £4 and I shove £25 with 77. Limper tank calls and raiser says 'I'd have called if you hadn't'. I'm shown K9o by Idiot 1 and the raiser folds his J8o pre. Obviously I can't fade a 9 ball but would have faded Js and 8s. Sigh.

Clifffffs: £50 and a round of drinks down.

More slots...

Made another £20 at slots before calling it an night.

At some point in between...

Had dinner in the casino with all of our Dutch Team (who crussssh at the Stargate slots we have) and a few others. Decent food, great banter.

However....

All this partying has made me iller. I've got a pretty shitty chest right now but I'm fighting through it as I'm going out to dinner with all the CS Team Leads tomorrow night which should be pretty fun. Headed into Spain for the first time....must remember passport and Euro!

That's all for now folks, take it easy!

--huzz

Christmas Party Re-Cap

2010-12-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

It's Paaaaaarty Time

Well, what can I say...last night was absolutely epic. I'm tagged in some photos on facebook and I'd recommend flipping through them to see the carnage that developed over the night.

It starts when one of my flatmates and I meet a couple of friends at home, get picked up and arrive at the Caleta Hotel, a hotel I know well from my interview out here. We're greeted in reception with Champagne and mingle eating fingerfood for a while before we're seated. They run out of Champagne at one point, so it's straight onto the rum and cokes for me.

I'm dressed in a suit without a tie, as are most of the blokes, and the women are mostly wearing cocktail dresses or so. There's an air of sophistication around the whole affair and rapidly (post wine with dinner) the sophistication turns to pure hedonism and debauchery.

Pre party, all the talk had been about the seating plan that had been made for us and everyone was trying to work out what the best tables might look like. As it happens, I end up drawing a pretty sweet table with Nicola (our senior HR person and really nice/friendly/find better adjective), her husband, Cristi (Romanian CSR and cracking lad), Johannes (Pads' future boss who is awesomely degen) and Anett (Finance something or other, I don't really understand, but also class banter) and Phillipe (QA Team Lad and one of the coolest guys I've ever met tbh) and his missus amongst others.

I get through a couple of glasses of wine at the table whilst waiting for dinner to be served and am chatting with away and generally having a good. time. By the time dinner is served everything is in full swing (even the obligatory speech from the CEO has been made!) and I'm having whales of times.

But then....

As I'm tucking into the food, which, to be honest, was average for me (great for those that didn't order Turkey tbh) my face explodes and my tooth begins a war of attrition. It is desperate to ruin this party for me and I'm in hellish amounts of pain. Not to be beaten, I calmly move to reception and ask them to call me a cab. 15 minutes later I'm back at my apartment and having asked the driver to wait, return before dessert with Ibuprofen and Neurofen in tow. I throw a couple of those down my throat washed down with another glass of wine.

Health Notice:

This is not super recommended. paracetamol and alcohol is generally ok (think what you do when you're hungover...take paracetamol) but ibuprofen and alcohol can be really bad because it can cut your stomach up, thus making it far easier for you to ingest the alcohol.

Back to the plot....

I decide to pass on dessert (which did look good) because there was no way I was going to give my tooth another opportunity to ruin me and about 30minutes later I feel no pain whatsoever in my mouth. I mingle with lots of people, mainly with Daniel (Editorial) and David (Content/Education) and we're having insane fun. By the time dinner is over, the fun really begins. Hard liquor is now the order of the day and I move back to rum and cokes from wine. In ordering two at a time I tell people that I'm using rum as a tranquiliser, because I don't want my tooth to get back in the game. In truth, that's pretty much how it was. And I don't like queuing at the bar. Once Graham (Education), Joerg (B2B, flatmate) and I find a secret bar upstairs I switch back to ordering one at a time because there's no queue ;).

From here on out....

It would be impossible to recount everything that happened. Let's just say that the party was epic and ended at around 2:00am before everyone piled back into taxis and made our way to Ocean Village where a) the casino, b) Savannah's (club) and c) my appartment are. At first we end up in the casino because it's generally considered to be 'too early' to go clubbing so we have a couple more rum and cokes and such at the bar. Melvin (Community Manager for Dutch, insane good dancer, hero) runs sick good at the slots so we keep drinking. We decide, between the two of us, that we'd like to go to Savannah's now, so we finish up drinking and leave for the club. This is at about 4am.

I know this because...

We arrive at Savannah's to see a ridic queue and a packed out (mainly men) club (glass fronted so we can see inside). We wait for about 5-10 minutes but the bouncers are really shit at not letting people cut into the front of the queue so don't move anywhere and we find out that for some reason they'd like to charge £10 for entry, when it's usually £5. Fuck that for a game of soldiers, we decide, and head back to the Casino (about 1 minute away) where we can't get in. They shut the doors at 4am and won't let anyone else in. Completely ridiculous policy, but whatever. We then headed to another bar and had a couple of drinks but there wasn't really much going on so decide to head home. On the way, Melvin almost decides to head to the office to play poker. He had the idea of playing $5k NL HU for a spin up but in the end doesn't. *Phew*

When I get home...

I almost play the MiniFTOPS Stud H/L event because I see it's starting in ten minutes (and Pads even offered a stake!) but decide against it because 'you don't realise how fucked I am Pads, I'd be dead money'. I then fall asleep. Saved Pads some money there ;)

The Aftermath...

I wake at about 12 and head for lunch with Joerg, Hannes (German Community Manager) and David. I have Llantio Campero (basically a Gibraltarian mixed grill breakfast thing) and it hits the spot. Arriving home, I catch the football (great games today, although fuck Alan Pardew, that was Hughton's team!) on the internets and then sleep for an hour or so before heading out for steak with Hannes, Joerg and Melvin. We then head to the casino and I leave to come chill out after about an hour when they decide to play cash and I really cba.

Right Now...

I'm headed back to the casino (it's almost 3am) because I want to watch the Khan v Maidana fight in better quality than the dubious WLAN in Gibraltar can offer. I'm predicting Khan to win, but it will be really close and Maidana could knock him out for sure. I quite enjoy that I can make a snap decision to go to the casino at 3:00am and be there by 3:02am. I could never do that in Newcastle!

Hope you've enjoyed the recap and the amount of blogging I've done lately. I'm hoping to keep up the rate of blogging, but only if I think I have interesting things to say!

Keep it funky and glglglgl to all those still grinding miniFTOPS,

Peace,

--huzz

In which I feel like there's a pneumatic drill in my mouth...

2010-12-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

I've been off work sick today for what feels like the first time in over 4 years. My head is on fire, I can't think straight and my tooth is giving it absolute dixie.

I might need to be off tomorrow, too, which isn't really great as I have a lot of stuff to finish by the end of the week so being two days behind would just be suicide to be honest.

Still, it's the company Christmas party tomorrow (the stuff of legend!) and I definitely want to be ill and miss that. Ssssigh. Hopefully the three different painkillers and antibiotics I'm taking can turn it round before tomorrow as obv it wouldn't be good form to miss work and then go party and unless I'm actually incapable of walking I'm going to party.

In other news, what the hell have Newcastle done in sacking Hughton and replacing him with Alan ~~Partridge~~ Pardew? What's he ever done that Hughton hasn't? Absolute disgrace. Somehow this idiot managed to get a 5.5 year deal. I don't even give him 5.5 days. He's gonna cripple us for compensation when he's sacked in 3 months. There's a huge economic incentive for him simply not to perform. And Mike Ashley is allegedly a business man? He's a fucking moron, that's for sure.

In other news, I'm thinking about doing a Masters next year through distance learning. Could be fun.

That's all for now.

--Huzz

Boooooooooooooom

2010-12-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

So yeah.

Remember I said that a friend had been out for an interview?

He got 'the call' today and they offered him a job! Ship it Pads!

Here's to being degens in Gibraltar together! :D

That's all for now.

--Huzz

[ ] Dentists are fun. Or cheap.

2010-12-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

RE That Tooth Thing:

So re the whole toothache thing: shipped the dentist (super nice guy) £200 today which made me feel sad and I have a cocktail of drugs to be taking so that the inflammation which is stopping him just yanking the problem tooth out fucks royally off.

Apparently after what I'm loosely terming 'the operation' (maybe 'procedure' fits better) I'll be in some discomfort for about 2 days. Good thing the procedure (is it better?) is on the 23rd of December then. And I won't be able to smoke or drink for two days at least there after.

[ ] I wanted to enjoy Christmas, anyway.

That's pretty disappointing to be honest, but I'll have to get on with it. The fact that I'm 1800 miles from my home and family on Christmas and now can't even really enjoy myself is pretty awesome. Just for extra fun, I won't even 'be allowed' (Dentist) to work for 2 days. Both my flatmates are going home for Christmas.

[ ] Not only did I want to enjoy Christmas, I was looking forward to some level of social interaction.

[x] Life tilt now.

[x] will be making turkey soup as it's prolly the only thing I'll be able to drink/eat.

[ ] Christmas will be Merry.

[ ] Get me started on New Year.

So yeah, that's pretty much it. Oh yeah, it occurs to me that if you google my name you can find this blog through my Twitter (not anymore...) but just in case anyone already found it, I'll probably not talk alot about work anymore. I wouldn't want anybody to misunderstand anything that's said here. Too many injokes and NPS based banter which can defo cause misunderstandings. I hear companies do that these days and even whilst I doubt my firm does (too cool by miles) you can never be too sure.

Hopefully see you all for APAT in Januaryaments.

Peace,

Huzz

In which I have two days off in a row for the first time....

2010-12-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

Work:

So once again, it's been a little while since I've blogged and to be honest that's because I'm working really hard at getting new processes and procedures implemented at work such that as the department grows (projected to more than double in the next 12 months) we have scalable processes in place that all have an owner which will make us super agile and able to adapt as quickly and possible whilst minimizing the risk of growth at such a rapid pace.

This weekend has been the first time since I got here that I've had two days off in a row. I've still been answering emails and doing a little work, but I haven't actually been to the office at all this weekend. Even though I really love the work I do, sometimes it's nice not to have to physically go to the office. I'm reminded of a speech given by Jason Fried of 37signals fame where he talks about why the office isn't actually a place where people work. If you work or manage in an office environment then this should really be required viewing. Go on, cancel that next meeting. People will love you for it! ;)

In any event, I feel I'm really making progress at work and making the changes that are required as quickly and as sensitively as possible -- even though I have been accused of 'killing the culture' on more than one occasion because I have some radical ideas about schedule and capacity management (e.g. we should forecast volume before scheduling, hardly revolutionary, I know!) I guess maybe I need to learn to tilt less and focus more on getting people to buy in to the changes I want to make. Just because they're obvious wins from my perspective doesn't mean others 'get it' quite so easily.

Social:

The social life here is, as ever, completely awesome. I'm really having a lot of fun and the maxim 'work hard, play harder' certainly applies here! Whether it's going out for dinner or playing poker through the week (still on a lifetime downswing btw, but nice upswing at slots!) to getting absolutely battered at the weekends, there is always something cool to do and awesome people to do it with.

Speaking of awesome people, at the beginning of the month I moved into my new apartment, right on the marina looking out towards Spain and Africa, a full 5 minutes (if I'm lazy, and I think we'll all agree that I am!) walk to the office which is super nice. I've attached some photos below ;)

I'm sure you'll all agree that this apartment is pretty baller for £500/month!

My flatmates Mike (Lead French Community Manager) and Joerg (Poker Market Analyst) are two of the nicest blokes you could ever hope to meet so I'm really happy!

Other:

Yesterday was hell because I had a really bad toothache for about 5 hours.
Copious amounts of rum solved the problem. ;)
Pads was here for an interview last week. The word on the street is that he crushed it. Let's gogogogo one time and ship me the $2k referral bonus lol.
I'm really hoping to get to the APAT team game even though I (quite rightly) wasn't selected to play. I defo wanna be on the rail.
I still haven't been to Spain. I really should change that, particularly now I've started learning Spanish.
I'm speaking more German than I have in about 4 years, which is really nice for sure. Even though yesterday I had a really bad toothache which I can only assume was the result of not uttering a single English word the whole day!

That's about it, honestly. Comments appreciated, and let me know if you wanna join Scottttty and Dan Mutha Fucking Trett here sometime early next year! :D

Hopefully I'll see many of you at the Bolton G in January. Until then, if I don't get the chance, I'd like to wish you all:

A Very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Huzz

[x] it's been a week

2010-11-18T11:06:00.000-08:00

So I promised that I'd update my blog in a few days.

As pads just skyped me:

[x] been a week

So I guess I should update.

Ok, what's happened this week?

Wait, first, how has poker gone over here so far?

Tournaments: played two (£70 outlay), bubbled two (both shoving button with AK into AA in BB or similar)

Cash: one session -- up about £150. (a buy in) should be a lot more, but I'm just playing nitty poker working out who the retards are and such (hint: if they're Spanish. Retard. Gibraltarian: 50/50, international: 30% retard, 70% solid reg)

So, yeah, working for a gaming company I just don't want to play that much poker right now, not when I'm thinking about it and talking about it 13 hours a day anyway.

What am I doing?

Eating out. Like every night. I cba with washing up and eating out is possible to do for as little as £10 (in the casino) for 3 courses and a beer.

I'm also just hanging round the casino (it's a real focal point for the entire company, after hours because it's just pretty cool) and chatting to colleagues and talking to people.

Good Things:

I interviewed the best candidate I've ever (in prolly like....50+ interviews so good sample size) interviewed for Customer Service today. My boss then insta-said let's make him a Team Lead, so we found some more operational support which we really need.

I referred a really good friend for a position in our company which I think he's perfect for. If you read this blog, you probably know who I'm talking about, but you might not know he applied, so I'll not ruin that for him.

Bad Things:

I was ill at the start of the week and now it's gg weekend caus I have so much to catch up on.

There you go Pads, a short update ;)

No more bad things.

In which I don't post any photos because my phone is an arse....

2010-11-07T17:58:00.000-08:00

So here we are then. Almost a week and a half after I left English shores, with, for the first time in my life, absolutely no idea of when I am going to return (hint: it won't be Christmas or New Year); I'm sitting in my room in my town centre apartment and reflecting on the time I've spent since I got out here to Gibraltar.

Firstly, let's recap the basics for those that don't know.

I've moved out to Gibraltar, a peninsula on Spain's southern tip and forms one half of (along with the Atlas mountains about 20km across the Med in Morocco) what the Greeks called the Pillars of Hercules on account of the big fucking rock here which is the focal point of the entire peninsula.

I'm working for PokerStrategy.com in their Customer Service and Fraud Prevention Department. If you don't have an account, you really should check us out. We offer a unique value proposition to players and definitely worth a look. Ok, no more plugs. Promise.

I've lived abroad before but previously always had a definitive time frame of when I was coming back to the UK. Right now the plan is to stay here for 3 to 5 years, minimum, but beyond that, who knows.

The Day of the Flight

Obviously, I run super sick amazing and once again, just as it was for my interview, my flight is delayed by about 90minutes due to French twats striking again. So after I'm super tilted and a lot more travelling time than there needs to be I get picked up at Malaga Airport and we drive the 70 minutes or so to Gibraltar. I arrive to a really nice city centre apartment which I'm sharing with a guy from Hungary who is an intern in our editorial department but is also a coach for SnGs. On top of this, he's actually a cool guy too, although a little shy I guess.

At this point, I obv take some pictures but, and this is a theme throughout this blog entry, my phone has decided to delete them all. Which is awesome.

Very much a camera fail, obv. Anyway, I head to the casino and have some dinner in the evening and introduce myself to some of my new colleagues. Pretty nice evening and I head home just super excited.

The next couple of days:

Oh man oh man. Friday I spend the day basically exploring Gib and getting myself nice and orientated. It's pretty easy though when you're living in the centre of town and on one side you have a big fuck off rock and on the other you have the sea. This doesn't, however, stop me getting lost when I try and take a shortcut to the office on my second day. But we'll get to that, first though, it's the...

Halloween Party:

What can I say about this? Fucking hell, it was immense. These guys know how to party. I spent the day getting 'greened up' putting green make up all over my body and then adding my Frankenstein mask to complete the look. Basically we were halfway up the rock and we had a free bar all night. Thanks. I got absolutely battered and after about 12pm I have no idea what happened. I think I must have walked home. Down the mountain. Pissed. In any event, I do know that when I got home my bedsheets (even post shower) were green, as were the walls in the hallway. Really need to get some paint to cover that up, actually. There's one nice part where you can tell I'm stumbling up the stairs because the paint is nicely in the shape of the crook of my arm as I've obviously staggered about.

Sunday, the best day as a Newcastle fan in a long time, and I missed it:

Ueber-hungover from that Halloween party I head for some lunch and then watch Newcastle smash Sunderland all over sipping on cokes in the casino. What a marvellous day. Needless to say I didn't really get up to much for the rest of the day as I had to start work the next morning, bright and earlyish at 9:30am. I must say, however, that not being in Newcastle that day really tilted me, and all the texts and emails I got made me a little homesick. Until I realised it was basically November and I was in 20 degree heat and having a lot of fun, obviously.

My working week:

Basically most days have involved 10 to 14 hours in the office and I think in total this week I've worked something close to 60 hours and it honestly doesn't feel like it at all. I've loved every second of it and never for even a split second have I been bored. Great people are what make great companies and here at PS we have a tonne of good people. I know this is easy to say after ten days or so but I haven't met a single person who I don't feel I can get on brilliantly with. Seriously, they are all top people and I feel really lucky. Professionally, I get on super well with my boss who shares the same vision I have for putting the departments on a more sound footing. Both CS and Fraud are young, immature departments (I don't mean that as a criticism at all, btw, I just mean that they are feeling the pain of having watched membership explode over the last 18 months or so) and they sometimes lack process in certain areas and there are a number of challenges that I have to face in order to make the service we provide to customers stellar. I have a pretty keen understanding of what the biggest pain points are now, though, so over the next 6 to 12 months I'm planning to solve them. But enough of that. Suffice it to say that I'm really looking forward to the challenge professionally over the mid- to long-term.

Overall:

If I told you every little detail of why I'm loving it out here I'd be blogging for months on end, so let me summarise:

Great apartment
Great people
Great challenges
Great environment (22deg in November, much?)
Great opportunities, both personally and professionally.
Super supportive company who really look after their staff with all sorts of goodness.

My next post will probably be in a couple of days, and I'll let you know how I've fared playing poker over here so far. (Spoiler: so so)

A chance conversation with an old friend that I had about 3 months ago when he encouraged me to apply to come and work here has developed into such a great opportunity and I'm grabbing it with both hands (including Friday night when I got absolutely battered) and I'm reminded that the world is full of wonderful opportunities if you only have the stones to go and seek them out.

I am, of course, disgusted that I missed the NPF Champs, but I caught lots of it on the livestream and I'm so glad I did.

PS, an invitation:

Anyone is welcome to join me out here for a holiday or such, just drop me a mail.

Circus Nifty Fifty Report

2010-10-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

So last night was the second leg of my three leg attempt to win the world. Here's how it went.

Caught up pre game with George Lawson, both Trett brothers and a few others and had some cracking banter as per. My starting table was pretty nice, and easier than the Asper's game. I'm in the 9 hole and the only players I recognise are Simmy in the one seat, Shaf, a circus cash reg in seat ten and Steven the teacher in seat 8.

First hand I find 66 and open the pot to 125 in what is basically the hijack and immediately get 3bet by Shaf to 525. Everyone else folds and I tell him Aces good, fold and he shows AA. Yip. Nice hand sir.

A little later it folds to Stephen in the SB and he completes. He basically dares me to shove. I do with KK. Nice life. He instamucks. Sigh.

I wanna talk about a hand that I wasn't involved in at all, in the first level where I felt both players played it pretty turbo good. Simmy opens the hijack to 200 and gets flatted by CO before button makes it 400. I instaput button on QQ+, caus I think his button min-3bet range in the first level must just be really small, it's almost always a raise to induce. Simmy calls as does the button. At this point we've got a 1275 pot at 25/50 and we didn't see the flop yet. I perk up and start watching more intently.

Flop is JJx and Simmy fires 700 or so, CO folds and Button (who I'm reliably informed is called 'Waspy' and a good UK Circuit pro, but we'll get to that in a bit) calls pretty quickly. Simmy then bets 1500 on the most inconsequential turn ever, like a 4 or something and gets called pretty quickly. The river is an offsuit Ten and Simmy thinks for about 0.3 seconds and just jams 7.5k or so into a 5.5k pot (numbers might not quite add up, but he's definitely overbet the pot on the end).

In my head, this is what happens....."ssssssssssssssssssssssssick, Simmy's fucking flops quads. It's the only hand he can play like this. He almost always VBs all other Jacks a set of Tens for tens full too...wowowowow, he's put V on KK or AA like me (he now can't have queens as he prolly raises the turn and he almost never has a Jack because he'd raise the turn (put a flushdraw out there)) wow, sick, what a great bet. V can almost never put Simmy on a Jack here. Like, never. All his small Jack's he check calls, all his big Jack's he VBs river, not shoved. Sick hand."

V is in the tank, and the longer he tanks the more I rule out KK from his range, he pretty much has only AA now because he's already called with a Jack and already mucked KK. V plays well to pass caus it's really hard to think Simmy has a Jack there and as Simmy goes to muck I say 'show me the quads, Simmy, you had quads, right?' and Simmy, with the most surprised look on his face ever says 'yeah, I did, actually..' and shows em.

Must be nice to deal yourself Quads Simmeister. I actually said to him that I didn't think he had that level. That's such an advanced play to shove the river there because most people would probably check or lead really small looking to get value. The way Simmy and I both thought about the hand (since we discussed it, obv) was that he *never* gets raised on the end, unless V has Tens full, which is unlikly given the min-raise pre and the call on the turn being like instaquick so therefore he can bet like 2500 pretty profitably and gets called most of the time. He can check, but he rarely gets lead into either, I think. So basically a smallish vb of 2000 to 2500 seems optimal, but think of the long term. Effective stacks are like 7500. He only needs to get called with his overshove like 1/3 of the time to make it breakeven cEV-wise when he bets 2500 on the end (assuming V *never* folds) vs 7500. I actually think that he gets called a lot more often than 1/3, and unfortunately Simmy ran into a player capable of making a great fold. Additionally, I feel that since it's so much harder to put Simmy on even a bare Jack with an overshove, vs what it might be with a smaller value bet, that he probably makes 2500 more chips everytime he overbets than when he just leads.

I hope that makes sense.

For my part, I make a nice little stack mainly by reading the game well and valuebetting 4th pair a couple of times, lose a bit back making a slightly lose call with QJcc against AQo AIpF when dude had opened every pot since the start of 200/400. Maybe slightly loose against the range I guess, but I can't raise fold my hand and I'd already raised. Anyway, I go through the blinds and such and I make it to 300/600 when I'm in the BB with 8.5k (never higher than 14k) and Waspy (V from quads hand, covers me by about 6 or 7k) opens to 2k in EMP. He's been pretty tight for a while, but when I look at Aces I don't really start to think about my hand. I wanna play for stacks and the best way to do that is call and jam any nice looking flop. I do, and duely jam on KJx, 2 spades. He calls, after a very long tank, pretty sure I induced it by looking superweak, allsorts of reverse tells going on (looking away then insta-looking at his chips when he put his hand on them, etc) and he announced Merry Christmas ans shows AJdd. Jack on the turn, nice life. Can't win 90%ers. Meh.

I think it's a pretty good call against the range I'm suppose to have there to be honest. Poker's about making your opponent make mistakes and I think he made a pretty big one there, caus of the way I played the hand. Meh, sometimes slowplaying works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm still happy with how I played. Not too happy with how I reacted to the beat. Like a bit of a dick, actually. Sorry Waspy. I find out later he's a UK circuit pro and if I'm making a player of that caliber make a mistake then I'm doing something right.

Bring on Saturday and the longer levels and wowowowowow am I gonna crush. Hard. Suits my game down to the ground.

Aspers Nifty Fifty Report

2010-10-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

So here we are again.

Since I'm moving abroad I'm a complete money nit at the minute, but still really wanted to play the 'big 3' tournaments this month:

1. Asper's Nifty Fifty £500 Added
2. Circus Nifty Fifty £1000 Added
3. Circus Deepstack Fifty £500 Added

With my nitting in mind, I quickly sold some action in the spread of games and once again Nemesis backed me and was joined by Knerrad in completing out the £100 stake at 60/40 return in their favour.

So last night was the first of the spread and I rocked up to get a nice starting table of several retards, one studenty aggro online player, Rosco and Rachel Costa. I'm stuck in the 3 hole between Rosco and Rachel and looking forward to the fun.

Within the first level I 3bet AK twice and fold on Jxx and Qxx boards to retards who so obviously had AJ and KQ that I wanted to spew a little. I'm annoyed and then when I have to fold JJ on a QxxT board against QTo lol I'm down to about 5k from the 8k starting stack and get a little tilty when this hand occurs.

AggroStudent makes it 150 UTG and I pick up two separate weakness tells so folded to me in the Hijack I threebet in the dark. The button (complete looooon, lost most of his stack already) calls and I'm not concerned about him at all. The flop comes down K9Tr and I get checked to. I sneakily checked a peek at 88 and lead 2/3s pot. I get shoved on by the button and, as predicted, the aggrostudent folds. Unfortunately it's only like 90p more into 80mirrrion so I call and get shown K4s. Nice life. 8 on the turn is pretty sweet though.

Still within the first level there are two limpers and Aggro makes it 375 in MP. Rosco flats the SB and I find a nice life with AA in the BB. I make it 1275 and then get a speech about respect from first limper (who folds QJcc...lol pls call?) AggroStudent then tank folds, which annoys me, I thought my 3bet with 88 (he doesn't know I was blind) would get me a 4bet like 80% of the time here. To my absolute surprise Rosco then sticks half his stack in. As Dan Trett said to me last night, I can't really continue in the hand without turning my hand faceup whichever way I play it, so I just jam and somehow Rosco folds. I still don't know what he had, he has to call with like all his bluffs given the odds so I guess it was a hand like QQ/KK since he wasn't getting 4 to 1 to call with those (since I always have AA here). Although I don't squeeze that often, he can be playing smallball with QQ/KK. Flop is AKx anyway so I either get em all or none on the flop so shoving pre prolly the best line.

From then, I go pretty card dead for about 80 years. Standard, and can't find any spots. At the break I have 15k, and after the break I'm just finding onehand per orbit to steal the blinds with, including 64dd UTG+1 which was pretty nice. At 300/600 I call a 4bet jam vs Aggro with AJo (same weakness tell as before) and he shows the same hand, and then at 400/800 I get AQs UTG and run into BB with...AQ lol chop chop...

Anyway, I then open to 2200 with A8ss in the hijack looking for my onehand per round, get shoved on for 4k, call and lose a race vs 55. Down to about 8k at this point which is 10BB with blinds about to go up. Next round OTB Aggro opens and, again, I know he's weak. T8dd is a standard resteal there, BB passes like AJ and Aggro sigh calls with A9o. I flop the OESD, turn a flushdraw and have 20 outs going to the river. I don't run good enough and I'm out.

Pretty happy with how I played and a couple of times early if boards come Axx (with AK vs AJ) and not Jxx then I get stacks. Just sucks when you can't run well at all (8s aside lol).

Still. Off we go tonight with leg II of Mulhuzz's plan to bink.

Peace,

--huzz

T Minus 20 or So Days...

2010-10-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

So it looks like I'll be starting in Gibraltar on November 1st, which probably means flying out there in about 20 days time. GG me.

In which I run really goood...

2010-09-30T05:51:00.001-07:00

So I've been offered the job. Working for PokerStrategy.com, although I can't say much more right now.

Just need to work out a transition at work and then I'll be off to Gibraltar to live, work and play. Couldn't be more delighted.

Shipppppp ze looooot!

--huzz

In which I basically retire from live poker in Newcastle....

2010-09-30T01:33:00.000-07:00

So last night I play Circus £20 doublechance and take all my chips at the start. Like an orbit in basically one of only 3 competent players at the table opens to 225 after a couple of limps from the CO, and I make it 725 behind with KK in the SB. He tank makes it 2100 leaving himself about 3k behind and I just jam.

I 3bet small because V is a good player, I guess. I don't know his name, but I think he might be Celia's boyfriend, maybe? Or something. Nice guy anyway. The point is he's capable of recognising my shove as being airy too, which only makes sense if I 3bet small. He has AKhh and sigh calls. There's an Ace in the window but somehow I find the one outer on the turn.

Stephen the Teacher is at my table and has been talking non-stop. I put Phil Collins on Spotify and I cans still hear him, so I change to Paramore, and that's a little better ;) For reference, most of the time I don't mind Stephen. He talks a lot, but is basically harmless and a lot of the time he's just such dead money it's ridic, so ofc I don't mind playing with him. For some reason though he's really tilting me. At 25/50 he makes it 700 and I call from my huge stack with 66 on the button. Bear in mind, I know 100% that Stephen has TT/JJ here, but I'm looking for nice boards to bluff or to set mine. On a Q35 board he leads 2k and I jam thinking I had loadsa fold equity. As ever, his overbet is 'I'm scared of something having got there already' but he calls announcing 'I think you have a Q but I can't fold'. I tell him he can fold, ofc, but he doesn't. No miracle 6ball and I'm back to 11k or so. (He had JJ, obv).

A couple of hands later I raise TT to 175 and get called in 4 spots. I cbet a AA9 board, get called by Gladys, check call the turn and a K on the river means I'm check folding. Gladys has like King high there a lot and I got rivered I think. Anyway, another small pot lost.

Some hands later I open early without looking at my cards simply because it's Stephen's big blind and he threebets me to 600. I instacall looking strong. I also think he has a small pair from his demeanour (I mean, it's not hard to read him).

Flop is 356ddd. He overbets the pot again, I look at my cards and decide, meh, this is prolly a set but his batshit bet just gave me equity to jam in this spot with my Jd4s. I jammed 8k or so and he SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPS with.... 4d4h. Brilliant. Players can't pass a 4high flush draw. Mint. Obviously I brick and I'm out in the first level.

Well played Mulhuzz. Keep forgetting that you never have fold equity against retards.

Well, on the the NPF Champs in November, still no job news :(, and playing the £3r at the G tonight to get drunk. Excellent.

--Huzz

In which I visit Gibraltar...

2010-09-27T06:58:00.000-07:00

So, here we are again than. Last time out I talked about how I was off to a job interview in Gibraltar.

Well, first off, what a magic place. Really. Such a cool part of the world -- great weather, great atmosphere, cheap beer -- as you can imagine, whales of times were had. I arrived on the Thursday afternoon after a 2 hour delay to my flight due to the french national pastime, la grève and quickly got checked into a pretty baller hotel after the one or so hours drive from Malaga where I'd landed. The drive down, incidently, took me through some of the coolest mountains I've ever seen, which included driving near this little gem:

Check out videos of 'El Camino del Rey' online to see more of this amazing place and the nutso guy that films along the pathway.

Anyway, after getting myself nice and checked in to the hotel, I grabbed a quick beer and then headed out to meet my pal Hannes for dinner. Well, we didn't get quite as far as dinner as we quickly met some of his colleagues and friends in a bar and then later in the casino. Anyway, knowing I had an interview the next day, but not until 11am, I decided to sit and play a little 100NL. I sat for, I think, £90 or so (all the non-Euro cash I had on me) and within 4 hands I'd slightly more than doubled when I got A6dd in from the BB on an A62 board vs an UTG limper with AJ. Obviously the entire world had also limped, hence the slightly more than doubleage. I checked in the dark, he leads for more than pot, one caller, I 3bet, he 4bet jams and I snap after the original flatter has passed. Mbsfn, right?

Wrong.

A little later I lose a race for about 30 with TT v AK which is pretty standard, but the game is ridic soft so I don't mind that at all. Plenty of fish to take chips from, or so I thought. At one point I also lose my balls when I should have 4bet jammed A7o (btn) over him and he shows me QTo (bb) I told him he should 3bet to £21 if he had a ten in his hand...sigh. I'm so weak lol. Knew he was full of shit too, but didn't want to find A8 or something.

Key Hand 1:

I flat a small (to £4) raise in the BB with A2cc and with 4 callers already I'm getting zillions to one. 922r looks like the perfect flop for me, I lead, get 4 callers, someone shoves, I reshove, but only get the shovers £150 or so in the middle. I'm pretty sure that's how it plays out, but the point is that I lose about a £600 pot with A2 on a 922 board when AT gets there. Running T-balls, eh? Hannes immediately rubs me down by calculating that I was 99.49% to win right there. Sigh.

Key Hand 2:
Sigh. I get it in on the turn with top two on 85AQ, get called by 9T and a J-ball on the river. Sigh. All of a sudden I'm less than breaking even, down to about £55.

Key Hand 3:
Having got the required double up with JJ v TT on a Qxx board (I read people gooooood) I'm on about £130 when this happens. The 200NL game has just broken and people have joined this table. One guy has about £800 in front of him, and posts. He makes it £7 to go and I make it £21 in the SB with JJ again. Some Spanish retard (who gutshotted me twice already tonight, once in a big pot) has about £400 effective I guess (maybe a bit less) and he flats. Poster calls as well and I immediately think...hmmm, I might need a set here but we'll see. Anyway, board is JXXcc and I just jam. With £60+ in the middle, and I have £130 there's nothing else I can do here. I get called in both spots and it gets checked down. Turn 2s, River Qd. Retard flips KQcc for the busted draw, I show JJ and get shown QQ by the poster. Brilliant.

Anyway, that was me busto. Brilliant. Decided to take a taxi back to the hotel and not bother reloading.Must have run about a million quid behind EV, I think. Maybe more like £800-£1000, I guess.

The Next Day:
Anyway, the next day I make it over to the office where I'm being interviewed for about 10:45am and introduce myself. First impressions: Wow. Every Office should be like this. So laid back, well stocked out and cool as fuck. I'm quickly introduced to the HR lady, the current head of Fraud and the Chief Operating Officer. I get myself a water and crack on with answering the questions. About 2 hours later we've talked about everything, and I''m feeling good, before the COO leaves for another meeting and I'm left with the Fraud head and we talk some more about algorithmic approaches to Fraud detection and prevention and some other stuff, before she sets me a task of sifting through 300 lines of data looking for fraud indicators in the registration data. I think I do pretty well here, I don't know what fraud looks like in their system, but I know that irregular looking behaviour is a good place to start so I get a couple of algorithms and such running and bang up a quick snippet of VB code to find some obvious stuff for manual review. There was also some pretty straightforward ID validity test (pick the fakes out from these passports) and then another test of my language skills and customer service chops which I think goes fine too.

After about half the time, I meet Hannes for lunch in the staff canteen and enjoy a pretty nice chicken curry before having a cigarette on top of the building looking out over the marina with Spain to my right and Africa to my left. Pretty. Fucking. Amazing. Anyway, Hannes lets me get back to work and I finish off. A little later, he gives me a tour of the office and I meet the team a little more formally than last night, then go back to the hotel feeling pretty pleased with myself.

That night I head over to the Casino again for beers and poker (losing £130, highlight of the night running AJ into AK on a AAx board against the most aggrofish at the table for stacks...sigh) but continue drinking and talking poker with loads of the guys, before heading to a leaving party for one of the company. On the way, we stop of at Hannes' baller as fuck apartment and have some Vodkas, obv. Anyway, long story short, I meet some more people, generally make a good impression I think, and I should find out on Friday if I got it. My initial impression and read on them is that I did well, and I'm confident, but we'll see. Definitely getting some positive vibes like.

Basically the company spared no expense in showing me what Gibraltar is like and what it's like to work for them. They treated me as a colleague, not an interviewee, for the whole time and I came away flabbergasted at how smart each and everyone of them was. Like not just in poker (even though some of their employees crush anything from 400NL all the way up to 2k/4k fixed limit. No joke. Ha. Sickos!) but in business as well. I was very impressed by them, and should they make me an offer I'd snap it off.

Anyway, this is long now, wish me luck, anyway.

Building a Door...

2010-09-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

Milton Berle said:

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.

I’ve built my door, kitted it out with the best, shiniest knocker you’ve ever seen and now we’ll go see if I can invite opportunity to come a-knockin’.

This Thursday, I’m flying out to Gibraltar to talk to some wonderful people about how I can streamline and improve upon their trust, safety and risk mitigation procedures, enabling them to become less risk averse (the consequence of having a well defined fraud prevention policy is that you can take a few more risks, which seems like it shouldn't be true, but it is!)

If the interview goes well, I hope to be in Gibraltar full time by the end of the year, maybe even sooner.

I'm really really excited by this opportunity, coming as it has at the perfect time with all the stuff that's going on at work at the moment. Working in the gaming and betting industry has obvious appeal to me, and the nature of the work fits both with my academic and working background, so there are obvious encouraging signs there and a whole load of transferable skills, too.

Anyway, I'm going to spend a few days out there, catch up with an old friend who's lived out there for a while now and enjoy a little bit of distraction from the situation here. It should be pretty nice trip either way, and I hope that next time I'm blogging I can tell you all some good news.

Can I use your one time? Thanks, I might need it.

In which I remember why I love the G....

2010-09-15T04:36:00.000-07:00

£15 Turbo FO, G, Monday 13th Sept

So I played the G 'super steep, super deep' tournament on Monday night because I was bored after work. Nemesis had dropped me a text and, as usual, if he's playing, I'm playing. I get there pretty early and have some great banter with Emma Fullerton, a pal of hers who's name I always forget, Azbo, Nemesis and a couple of others.

When the seats are drawn, well, wp me, I'm in the one seat and one my table are Nemesis and Emma, as well as, and FML, Barry Smith. Brilliant. I definitely needed to be OOP to Emma (superlagggggggg, seat 3) and Ian (seat 5).

Within the first level my bluff frequency is huge, I'm playing mostly ATC. There's only a 15 minute clock, and stacking someone is always nice. Barry Smith limps UTG+1 (seat 7) and I follow (we're 7 handed) with 95cc. Folds to Nemesis OTB and he pumps it to 250 or so and we both call. I think one of the Blinds calls too.

Flop 56Thhc. Checks to Nemesis who bets 600 and is called by Barry Smith. I make it 2200 pretty quick (repping a set) and get called in both spots. Shit. I'm pretty sure Ian has a hand like 78/79/T9/etc and possibley with hearts too. I'm not that delighted by Barry's call caus he almost always has a ten. Iain bets 3200 from an 8000 stack when checked to on a 2c turn (so now I have one pair and a 9 high flush draw lol). On the flop, I checked to Iain mainly for pot control with my weak one pair hand (because he'd have raised with draws as well as real hands if I bet, and also to set up an elaborate three street bluff, which starts with checkraising repping a set on the flop. On the turn, I was planning to lead, until Barry called. Now I have to careful that he's silly enough to call off really light (like I say, the way he played the hand and his demeanour meant that he almost always has a Ten..and a Ten is pretty light given the range I'm repping..) so I check the turn and calculate that I can jam on Ian if he bets the right amount. The nice thing about Barry being in the hand is I can now use him to induce a bluffing range from Ian by checking behind.

Ian bets 3200 on the turn like I say and this is just never a value bet I don't think. With the board now extradrawy he would probably jam his value hands (8k into about 7k..), especially since Barry is in the hand and might stack off light. He knows *for sure* that I'm capable of stacking off really light to Ian too, so there's only one thing to do with his value hands here. 3200 looks like a draw. It could be a well disguised value hand, but, erm, my read was that it wasn't, shall we say. Barry sigh passes and I do the maths and jam 8k effective leaving myself about 7k behind if called. If Ian has a pair and a draw he probably has a decision here, and if he has a bare draw he just has to pass, I think. He tank passes and I show the 'bluff'.

Anyway, I now have about 24k from a 15k starting stack and I'm coasting. Then this happens on the last hand of 25/50. Player (unknown) opens early and I threebet with KK in the cutoff to 800. I get two cold calls from moron (button) and Emma (SB) before the BB makes it 3000 to play. Original raiser passes and I just jam. Other two quickly pass before BB tanks (with about 16k behind) and talks about how he always loses with this hand, and I put him on AK obv, and then after about 5 minutes (seriously) he calls and flips QQ.

Q on the river. Just the 40k+ (1600BB+) pot lost there then. Sigh. This is not why I love the G lol.

The next hand I raise 10% of my remaining stack, someone makes it 5k (lol) and Emma jams. Thanks for the treble up opportunity with my pretty cards. I jam for 5650 and the guy who made it 5k sigh folds (lol - he passes AJ, but knowing he has three outs he now has the correct price to call off the extra because of his batshit raise....). I beat Emma's AQ with a 6 in the window for my 69s and I'm back to average.

I go on to crush and at one point 6 handed I have 90k, then I have to fold on supercoord flops that miss me and I'm on 45k (average 50k) and 4 handed when I 3bet jam over the eventual winner with K9s and he slowrolls with AQ. He had a healthy chiplead and had opened the last million pots. I miss, obv.

How does he win? He coolers the fuck out of Boris when Boris has him covered by 20k or so. Boris in SB, thinking of what he should raise to (although he hasn't announced raise yet) and the retard just jams. Boris asks to make sure he said 'all in' and then calls with KK. Retard flips 55. Flops quads. Boris makes a stand of it and gets it back to almost even, but he's unlucky again later.

Fortunately this kid has now won 2 tournaments this week (one at aspers, apparently) and will think he's a great player. He's not. Really. I'm licking my lips at the thought of all that money coming back to the poker economy.

Except, I'm not....

I'm taking a break from poker for a while. I'll defo play the £1k added first Tuesday and the NPF Champs is a cert, but other than that I prolly won't play much in October, I'm almost certainly done for September, with the exception of the until I've sorted out a new job and know what I'm doing. We'll see.

Oh, I should tell you why I love the G.....

I was chatting to Phil about why the G's new schedule, much maligned on the NPF, actually makes good business sense for them (it does...) and his enthusiasm to be better all the time was very impressive. Good things will happen for the G, and if a couple of their games take off we'll have some big pots there pretty soon.

My Ideal MTT Table....

2010-09-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

I've played a couple of tournaments recently, ran awesome and crushed in the one that didn't matter (the Friday £15+£15 at Circus) and ran terribad and got nowhere in the one that did (the £50 Circus Monthly FO).

I don't really want to talk about them too much, I mean there were standard spots in both and it's kinda meh. If you can't win 70%ers then you have no chance.

Additionally I played the £20 triple chance at the G on Friday and ran AK into TT on an AKx flop and then AK into QQ and KK aiprf when blinds wake up with QQ and KK? Live poker is rigged! ;) having played super awesome thus far. Meh.

This weekend saw the CMBPT roll into Teeside and as you'll probably already know, the NPF owned it, with FT finishes for bigstumpy (6th?) Rosco (4th and second FT of the tour this year!) and Mark "The Threat" Trett (who doesn't like anyone else winning a free drinks voucher at Teeside, nevermind a poker tournament) coming second for just over £10k.

A couple of people talked about a Day One table that lots of NPFers played on:

1) Dan “Not Always Light” Trett
2) Unknown
3) Khadir “I Call” Khoshawy
4) Rizgar “Borat” Qadir
5) Lee Danaher
6) Dave Collins
7) Mark “The Threat” Trett
8) Craig “Big Stumpy” Newton
9) Ross “Roscopiko” Johnson

How much of an awesome MTT table is this? Banter: check. Good players: check. Bad players: I-call, erm, I mean, check.

This got me thinking. If I could devise 'the perfect' MTT table containing solely NPFers, who would I have?

Some Criteria:

1. I'm not going to give regards to seating (basically position) and assume that the players would randomly be assigned seats at this table.

2. The table is mainly going to be based strongly on 'players whose game I respect' (of which there are many, so if you're not on the list, don't assume I don't.....) and 'people I'd have a cracking time at the table with (similarly cf above).

3. As a corollary of 2), I won't necessarily be ammmmmazzzzing value on this table. I might even be dead money most days, as it happens. As you read down the list, you'll see why.

4. Most players will be given a nickname. Some of them will be well known nicknames, others will be things I think of them.

5. I'm going to try and get a mix of styles and games. Although they'll all be excellent players, see 2).

1. Marc 'mulhuzz' Mulhern
Well, I have to be on the table, right? What's that Rounders quotation? Something about spotting the fish....

2. Steve 'know your enemy' Brennan.
Yeah, we'll have some Bulmers please. And Brennan's hand reading skills will make me sick. He'll fold AJs UTG+1 but then raise 89s the next hand because he knows his enemy.

3. Ross 'roscoLAGo' Johnson.
Always plays to win, not as lag as I think he is, obv, and two CMBPT final tables this year means you know he has game. Also Cpt of the latest NPF team.

4. Dan “Not Always Light” Trett
Mark has made the bigger splash in the last couple of years, but whisper it quietly, I think Dan is the better player. Not by much like. And if we both get knocked out early, there is nobody I'd rather go drink Jaegerbombs with on the rail. :D

5. Mark “The Threat/Lord Mayor of Teeside” Trett
All round gent and brilliant player. Useful to get a linecheck from, even if it is just 'check call all three streets'. Only kidding, Mark. Also calls me Mulldozer. Which I love, obv. So he's in. Oh yeah....he also owns Teeside, so in the interests of fairness, the MTT must be held in Newcastle...

6. Andy 'KQ4EVA' Blair
Andy has, unknowningly, taught me more about MTT strategy than anyone else on this list whilst I've been at his table in the past. He also knows a fuckload about the mixed games, and is very good at framing the 'mental' side of the game. If this was an STT, he'd win more often than any other player, I suspect.

7. Dave 'Jimmy Chipmunk' Stephenson
Is there anyone better at patiently waiting for a spot, even with a microstack? The total opposite of my approach to shortstack poker. Also, we're drinking red wine, always +EV.

8. Neil 'Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz' Harvey
Depending on your definition of 'young' (I'm 24, so we'll say under 22), Neil is by some distance the best young player in Newcastle. Someday soon he's gonna win something huge like a GUPKT. Nobody will be surprised. Obviously he's also a great buffet companion.

9. George 'GeoKing Get Therrrrrrrrrre' Lawson
Very solid, very dangerous, much improved over the last year or so. Also, we'd trade a cheeky 10%, giving me more of a shot. We could have signature hand battles (the mighty 75s for George and K8ss for me!)

10. Ian 'Nemes-is in the tank' Bertram
OK, he tanks. Alot. It tilts me and he knows it, but I love playing with Ian, mainly because there's so much meta-game there and plays that to an outsider look ridiculous make perfect sense to Ian and I. Also, there should be at least one other player where I can't decide if a 5bet jam is Aces or 45s. I'll let you make your own judgment on who the other is!

I'd have a combination of Keith 'please blogggggg moaaar!' Ridley and Steve 'CGK' Wills on the mic announcing the action, too. Just because I can.

Did I miss somebody out? Who would you have on your table? Let me know in the comments if you're so inclined.

Peace, Love and Grapes,

--mulhuzz

In which I do ok....

2010-09-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

Short update for the week.

Played 5 sessions of NL50 live for a total profit of £280.

Played two tournaments also for a £60 loss.

I should have been up about £400 today but some quality hands like this:

Q7s in a limped pot I complete in SB.

Flop KQ7hh. I checkraise 3 players, one folds, two call. Turn is an offsuit 2. With £60+ in the middle I jam for my remaining £45ish and get called in two spots. One has a straight draw, the other a flush draw with a blocker to the straight draw, I hold for a huge pot (~£180).

I raise to £3.50 AA UTG+1

Called in 5 spots and flop is T45dd. SB leads £8 and I check (with 3 players to act behind) planning on 3betting when the aggro MP player raises (which he will). He makes it £20.50 and I'm ready to 3bet jam when I realise that he's put about half his stack in and he prolly commits the rest on the turn anyway when I can see it blank for free. Whilst I'm running over the options, the SB calls with £100+ behind. Now I can't really jam because the SB could be planning on jamming any non-diamond turn with a set/two pair. I call and the turn is a 2. It checks round, which is weird as fuck, was pretty sure now that SB had a hand like AT/KT/all other pairs and was trying to get to showdown as cheap as possible. Since the aggro MP player checks he now defo has a flush draw.

I river a wheel with the 3. I check-call a shove (once SB folds, I wanted to see what he did, just in case he played a set weird) and get shown J6dd for a bigger straight. Sigh. I should just jam on the flop with so much in the middle. Urgh.

I get most of that back later when....

Well, only what I'd invested in the hand when MP player from before limps early, Scotty raises right behind, one caller and I threebet to £10.50 with AQs from the BB. Scotty asks how much I have behind and the limper jams for £35. Nobody has played KK like this since the mid-nineties. This is always midpairs and I'm always flipping. I make the obvious call and river an Ace. Scotty passed Jacks. MP limper had TT.

I get coolered when...

I call a small raise OTB with 78s, flop is K88. MP limper bets threestreets, I don't raise caus the board never gets drawy and I almost always have the best hand. MP almost always has like KJ from the way he plays and he ended up with A8. Sigh. I didn't even raise the river just in case. Pfffft. Guess I lost the minimum.

Later that evening, I make a straight and get max value when...

I call a small raise in LP with 89s, flop is 467, call a minbet on the flop, turn is the nut T and I make a thin value raise on the river when the board pairs the 6. Donk had flopped the straight and I take him for £40 or so.

4 hands later......

I open KK in EMP. Get 5 calls. Board is J62. I raise a donk from BB. He flats. Turn a 4 and we get it in. He has 43 for a pair and a gutshot. He gets there. Sigh. GG £120 pot.

Decent, but should have been so much better. Did have mint craic with Scotty all day though.

In which Simmy plays like Simmy, not Simmy fucking 3k!

2010-08-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was the G Cup team event down at the G. I was playing, for the last time, for Team Ninja.

I'm not really going to review the event too much, other than to pick out a couple of interesting hands and how I reacted and such. Starting with 7500 and a 40 minute clock, let's jump right in.

Early doors I three bet A8s against perceived weakness and take a nice multiway pot down on an Ahigh board. I then play some suited connectors in position, make a loose (advertising) snapcall with King High vs Mrmagoogle in a small pot and I'm on about 8500 when I open QQ UTG to 225 UTG at 50/100 and get flatted by both the CO (relatively spazzy, prolly flatting ATPrettyC because of tight BTN and my LAGtard image) and the BTN (tighest player at table, confused by the coldcall) before Nemesis (my team, captain, capable of squeezing wide) makes it 625. I'm getting prepared to 4bet before Alison (mrsfatfish, playing real good and TAGgy) pops it to 1625. I tank fold. Nemesis flashes the As as he folds and Alison mucks. I think she prolly shows a bluff so I think good fold. I also don't think she 4bets AK out of position. With AA she probably flats and hopes I shove. I guess I ran into the other two Queens (nice bet) or KK (nice hand and nice bet) or the Azbo (super bet, and I'm never ahead). There's always a chance she has AA though. A friend of mine says that however weirdly the hand plays out, there is always an 8% chance that they have AA. A maxim I live by!

I claim I folded JJ as I just don't think folding QQ suits my laggy image at this table.

Anyway, a little later I open T8s in late position, flop 2 pair on a drawy board, bet three streets and get raised on the end by mrmagoogle. I sigh, wonder if he waits till the river to raise a straight or set on a 2 heart board but decide he doesn't, call and my top2 is good for a nice pot.

I'm up to about 13000 when the crucial hand occurs. Simmy3k has just moved to our table and joined the tournament. I know him to be LAGgy as hell and capable of all sorts of moves. His third hand in, he makes it 550 at 75/150 in the hijack and I flat the button with 22. Now a reasonably tight player in the BB Pam overcalls for value. As she does this, I turn to Simmy and announce 'great, I need the pot to be multiway for my hand' and he says 'pfft, I just wanted it heads up'. There's 1725 in the pot and we see the flop:

4c 5c 9x

BB checks (I don't think she check-raises a lot at all, so suspect there's a check-fold coming, or, if she has a draw, maybe a check-call) and Simmy obv cbets 850 pretty fast. I think raising here is the best line because:

1. I likely have the best hand as that board doesn't hit Simmy's range that much.

2. I need to protect my hand, and as an added bonus, price out the BB if they're on a draw.

3. I can represent a set or a huge draw given my speech about 'needing the pot to be multiway'.

4. Simmy doesn't know I've been laggy so a raise reps a pretty narrow range, I think.

5. If I get flat called I can reevaluate on the turn. So yeah, I'm raising for value and for information.

Anyway, you may disagree, please let me know in the comments if you do, but I make it 2300. This makes the total pot 4875, and Simmy has to put 1450 more in. Given that he started the hand with 7500, he'll have almost half his stack in if he flats.

He tanks. For a looooonnng time. About 5 minutes. In the end, he looks resigned and just slides his chips over the line. All 6950 of them (including the 850). So, the pot is 10975 and I have to call another 4650 from my ~11k remaining stack. Let's consider his range:

1. He doesn't have sets or twopair, like, ever, because he jams quicker. Like instaquick. I don't think he was acting, he was genuinely trying to decide how to play his hand facing a raise.

2. For the same reason, I rule QQ+ almost all of the time and TT/JJ lots of the time (i think he flats and reevaluates those hands, and moves in with QQ+ quicker).

3. He has 66,77,88 here a fair amount of the time, I think. Maybe 20% of the time he turns up with one of those hands.

3. He has clubs here, a lot, I think. Like wider than AcXc and including like KcXc, QcJc, maybe even wider, I think (given the image I have of him). Obviously when he has clubs -- I have the 2c, kindofa blocker ;) -- he also has two overs, which is basically a flip. Given the money in the middle (remember, 4650 more into almost 11k) I make the auto call for how often he has just clubs.

He shows KK. Ooops. No help for me and down to like 6k or so.

I then play really badly, don't adjust to my new stacksize and finally shove 4200 over Simmys open with A9s and he has KK, again.

Thoughts on the key hand?

As a test: If you were shown AKcc by simmy when he moved in, and you'd still fold, you're wrong. A couple of people said that too me at the break. I haven't heard a convincing argument for why I should fold here (when shown 2overs and FD) yet, so I'll continue to assume it would be optimal to call.

Anyway, comments appreciated and well done to Dobba Knights for the record and to all who played. Well done to Dan Trett for being more hungover than me and for tempting me pre-tourney with Nandos, too.

Editing blogpost title given comments.

Today is a bad day....

2010-08-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

So I have to work tonight, which means that I've had a couple of extra hours sleep in the afternoon to prepare me for the nightshift.

I've woken up to a barrage of 'WTF?!?!?!' text messages from colleagues and after a bit of digging I managed to find out. Most of our entire team is at the risk of redundancy because the Client is moving business elsewhere. Fuck.

I feel absolutely horrid.

UPDATE: The entire team, including me, is at risk of redundancy. What's worse is that the consultation period will be little more than a formality, and that, sometime within the next 90 days, I won't have a job.

Here's the thing. I've been looking, for a while, for a new job, but I thought that I'd always have the safety net of being here to fall back on. There are two ways of looking at this:

1. Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuck the world is falling down.OR
2. Ok, that's that then, nothing we can do, let's use this as the impetus to find a killer job in the time I have left.

As a colleague described it, if a plane slams into the side of a prison, you can either lament the structural damage to the prison itself, or you can just fucking escape. Pretty simple choice if you think about it, and I want to make the most of this horrible spot to kick forward in my career.

I'll miss the craic here in the office. There is no exaggeration on my part when I say that all of the people I work with are fucking top class. Honestly, you couldn't hope to work with a better bunch of people. They truely are superb and I'll miss working with every single one of them.

I'll probably take voluntary redundancy if it's offered, though. Just seems like a good spot to move on.

This is the second time in a little under two years when I've been at risk of redundancy, but whilst there was a realistic chance that I'd keep my job last time, that just isn't the case this time. Let's hope I can make lemons out of lemonade.

If anyone has suggestions for jobs, serious or otherwise (I could do with cheering up!) then let me know in the comments. For reference, I have a law degree, speak 4 languages to various degrees of fluency and am learning a fifth. I have amazing chops in Customer Service and Fraud Mitigation and (still) lead a team of 50 people.

I know this isn't the end of the world.

--mulhuzz

In which I don't actually update much, at all...

2010-08-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

So it's been about a week since I blogged last, and basically, I've not played any poker.

As part of my self-imposed exile until the G Cup at the end of the month, I've really just been taking time to guide my fantasy football team to glory (I've had a nightmare of a weekend, thanks for asking...) and generally hitting the job trail hard. I've applied for a couple of nice positions, and heard some positive things back from some other jobs that are in the pipeline. That's one part of my 'new hotness' done.

Other than that I've been working hard at work to fuck the auditors we've had in the office recently. Basically, this was an Operational Processes audit, and we scored 93%. Hold the fistpumping and cartwheeling though folks, we still failed. You can file that under W for 'What. The. Fucking. Fuck.' (indeed, I have). Apparently it's appropriate to have a scoring system that prohibits the passing of said audit. I'm appealing, obviously, especially in the light of the fact that nobody in the UK has ever scored more than 85%, and they still thought we failed here. Fuck them, tbh.

My parents are on holiday currently, so I'm spending a good amount of time at their place looking after things and enjoying the big screen TV, just a shame I have to work tonight and can't see NUFC get tanked away to Man-fucking-Yooo as they're known in my house. Actually, Rooney's in my fantasy football team, so if we have to get tanked, please let him score all the goals.

Stuff I'm reading today:

German singer Nadja Benaissa apologises at HIV trial
This is a pretty interesting article, and actually, the law as it applies to the UK is interesting. Ideas of consent and intent play heavily on the judiciary in deciding such cases. As I think I've mentioned before, the idea of the Criminal Law is that which most appeals to me, and should I ever work as a solicitor, it'd be for the Crown as a Prosecutor. Just unfortunate that they are in the midst of a 3 year hiring freeze which isn't likely to get better anytime soon.

Spotify SVP Paul Brown leaves for new startup
Please don't be the beginning of the end for Spotify. I love them. Even though I don't have a phone to use it on, thanks, Carphone Warehouse, you bunch of cunts. That's another story entirely, though. I should point out that nothing in this post should be construed as liabliing Carphone Warehouse. Your complete and utter moronic treatment of me means that this comment would fall under the defense of Fair Comment. For the avoidance of doubt, no malice is either intended or inferred. Ok, rant over.

Stephen Fry's Newspaper
In the words of Scroobius Pip, "thou shall not question Stephen Fry". That being the case, get reading.

I'll leave you with the image a colleague drew of me. On a whiteboard. In the middle of the office:

Awesome Sauce.

Peace, Love and Grapes,

--mulhuzz

In which I start a Revolution....

2010-08-09T04:25:00.000-07:00

A short update today, but first, a disclaimer:

When I say 'I' start a revolution, I of course mean that Roscopiko has started a Revolution. Most references to 'I' in this post should be taken to mean 'the collective work of others whose glorious coattails I've clung to for dear life'. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions apply.

Recently Pads retired from the NPF, and teamdobbs and s2c made the decision to formally announce the creation of a new team to replace the Cubs, the team which Pads led for some time. Their first job was to announce a new glorious leader for this new glorious future. Enter Rosco.

Rosco's first job, then, was to select a team and how he'd like to run it. Needless to say, I think Rosco has excellent taste, not least because he's seen fit to ask me to take part as a regular team member, alongside a great mix of players, who, most importantly, are all excellent banter. You can read all about that here. The name, lest you hadn't seen the link, is NPF Revolution.

What I wanted to talk about here though, is Rosco's idea of having an inclusive, extended team. The idea is basically that he's picked 8 people as 'regs' who will always have the first option to play in any event for which the Revolution are putting together a team. The other two spots will be left open, and left to Rosco to pick players on a 'per event' basis. This is another cunning tactic. I know what you're thinking. Rosco is going to pick the players that are running like fucking God at the time. Nope. That's not how the Revolution roll -- see what I did there? -- he's going to pick players based on their commitment, no, contribution, to the forum.

What's happened here is that Rosco has immediately created 2 spots for newer, non-affiliated, NPFers to get involved in the banter of the team games. All they have to do is get involved. Which can only be good for forum participation and the community at large. Rumours that they'll be subjected to an X-Factor style audition are probably wide of the mark, which is, of course, also good for forum participation.

I like this idea, I really do. When I first joined the NPF, about 2 years too late, I quickly threw myself into posting, commenting and getting involved in the general banter. Then there was the first 'official' NPF Event, the hallowed NPF UK Team Challenge. I wasn't in a team. I really wanted to play. These events were rumoured to be the best banter ever invented. Fortunately, I was invited to play for s2c's Elite Team, which is an invitation only team put together by Scott. I had a great time. I cemented friendships and online personalities, met new people, saw CGK rock the mike, allsorts. All of that wouldn't have happened without an invitation to play in s2c's team. So anything at all that extends the pool of available slots in teams for this type of game is a fucking great idea s far as I'm concerned.

wp Rosco, wp teamdobbs and s2c, up the Revolution!

--Mulhuzz

In which I play like a hero, then a tard, then a hero again.....

2010-08-05T22:55:00.000-07:00

So it's been a short while since I've blogged, and I won't do the whole 'apologies' thing, I wouldn't want anyone to think I was the kind of person that expected they ever had anything interesting to say and that hoards of poker players refresh this page everyday just to see what inane tripe I've written this time. That would make me a righteous prick, eh Mark Trett? (in joke alert!)

Anyway, the week started really for me last Saturday night at the G Triple Chance £20 Freezeout. I've honestly not played so perfectly for a long time, but it's such an easy game sometimes when you get AA three times and proceed to either flop or turn top set on dry boards in multiway pots each time. You still have to get paid though, and anyone on my table for at least one of the hands will probably tell you I gave some of the best speechplay you've ever heard to induce a shove when I 'squeeze' the button over a cutoff minraise and get called all in by one player and then a player with 9s completes the bet and somehow conspires to jam on me for a pot size bet on an ATx board. Yeah, cue the Hellmuth snapadooooooooooodle call. ;)

Later in the tournament, once the bubble breaks myself and Apokerlypse are apparently they only players that aren't trying to ladder. I'm shoving every unopened pot and some nit-tard folds AQo when I jam from the button -- after checking my cards I had 9Ts and was definitely getting there lol -- and basically Mac and I abuse the shit out of all these invisi-bubbles. We end up chopping at 5:45am, mainly because I have to be at work at 7am. Sigh.

Later that day (it's now Sunday, right?) I head to Circus for their first annual HU tournament. I had such high hopes for this tournament as I consider myself a solid HUps player. Unfortunately, out of all the tards playing this game, I get drawn one of maybe 6 or 7 people with the skillz to pay teh billz -- Choppa/Goldfoxdom. We're going back and forth, snapping each other's bluffs, making thin value bets and calls and generally having a good time. In the first round best of one, with a constant 25/50 structure and starting with 7500 we've been playing about an hour and are about even when I threebet from the BB with QJo. (standard). Dom flats with KJo (standard) and..ladies and gents, here's your cooler flop: T9Qdd. I lead for about 3/4s pot, and Dom insta minraises. I think he does this with all his flushdraws and twopair hands (and I have so much equity against those hands) and even some total airy bluffs, too) that I just jam for value. Yeah, he snapadooooooodles of course (as you do, with the nuts.....) -- somehow I avoid a K for a chop and even a diamond on the turn gives me backdoor diamonds but I whiff.

Oh well. Dom played the hand pretty perfect knowing that I have to jam for value with a LOT of the hands I'm leading with, esp since I'm OOP. Which is super-profitable when you have the nuts, obv. Even when I don't jam, does anyone fold to a min-raise these days? I doubt it. I could flat, but what do I do on most turns? Fuck all, probably. Check/fold? Maybe.

I'm persuaded by Nemesis to play some cash later and with a double straddle on, I find AA and make it £13 to go. Scotty asks how much I'm playing and tank-3bets to £26. Choppa, with about that stack, shoves for value and I overjam for doublerainbow value. Scotty sigh calls and the flop of KQT is pretty horrid for me, but I hold and win a nice pot for a double up plus. I win a few more pots and then go to get food before playing in the £20+£20.

This is another tournament in which I play like a tard. Actually, all is going superwell and I'm building a stack nicely (until TJ tilts me, angleshoots me and threatens to throw a bunch of chips in my face, real mature -- ask me about it sometime if you want the details). Anyway, with a 30k stack ish, I raise early with KJ and get two callers. I lead the J high flop and I'm tank check-shoved on by Irish Mark in the BB. I instaread him for a (semi)bluff and snap, nicely holding against A9 (no spades on a two spade board), I also have the Ks, which means he can't be freerolling against me....

Some hands later, I'm in the BB with 55. Adam Brown(?) has limped UTG and I peg him for like AJ/KQ/etc and raise-squeeze. He's the only caller and I lead the Ahigh flop and he sigh calls. There's no way I'm giving up on this pot now he's sighing. I turn and river and he tanks for a long time on the river, convinces himself I have a set and calls anyway, meh. Turns out the hand I had was the only one he could beat. I certainly played it like I flopped a set and was valuetowning the shit out of him. I guess it's a good call. Caus he was right. Yeah, cause that's how results orientated thinking works.

Later still, I chip up a couple of times holding AK vs Ax twice vs shorty jams. I then open Q9s in midposition (blinds 800/1600, I make it 3400) and Adam immediately makes it 13400. I sense total weakness in his bet, his demeanour etc and plan to jam on him. Then I go into tard mode. I just flat call. I should jam, I know that now. I then check a J8x flop to him because I expect to get freecards to my draw. Mistake 2. He bets 16k, I jam for 32k. He can't fold, obv. He calls with J2o and holds. Sigh. Busssssssssssssto. Completely butchered that hand. Need to get out of the habit of butchering these hands with 20 left in good value tourneys. Costing me dear, tbh.

Anyway, Monday I have a break instead of playing Aspers' NEW TOTALLY ORIGINAL (sigh) £55 with £500 added game. I make it out on Tuesday to play Circus £55 with £500 added. Basically, I'll keep my synopsis of this one short.

1. Jon Lundy owns me.
2. And a bit more.
3. And some more (checking two streets in a threebet pot in position with AQ on a QXXX dry board and then getting paid overbetting the pot on the J river when I get there with AJ)
4. I almost own Jon, but then Milo wanders over and tells Jon I'm not capable of valuebetting (in this spot) so I must be bluffing. Jon calls. I was bluffing. Round 4 to Lundy. Sigh.

5. I overplay TT against an aggrofish.

I played so badly I was horrifed. Really. Playing with Jon was fun though.He makes you think so much deeper about the game than a lot of people. He pulled one outrageous bluff against a teesider, then rubs him down by showing QJcc on a paired 3 diamond board and announcing 'yeah, you can't call with the bare Ace there, eh?' Showing bluffs are good for the game. Lol.

Anyway, on Weds night, bored I head to Stanleys. To keep it short. I own it. Really hard. And then when I have 70k (FT average is 40k, 16 left) I 3bet 'squeeze' the button with AK only for the cutoff to shove (for fuck all more, really) and show AA. Sigh.

I remain perfectly patient, still having more than the average stack and confident. As it happens, I own the FT and threehanded I'm getting short with the blinds and such and on the button I shove the Azbo in spades and find the top of Jamie Nixon's (the same cutoff from before!!) range, QQ. Flop brings a 7, but my sweat is not enough and I finish 3rd for £130. Meh. Still happy with how I played. Really well.

Now a break from poker for a while, prolly till the G Cup on bank holiday weekend. I've got a lot on at the minute with work and need to switch off from all things poker for a bit. I'll still update this if I've got interesting shit to say, or, let's be honest, otherwise.

--Mulhuzz

In which I reflect...

2010-07-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

So I've just returned from London to see my brother graduate from KCL with a degree in Portuguese and Brazilian studies. We pretty much had an awesome time down there, although London is *expensive*, especially when you're bankrolling my brother for the few days anyway!

Coming back though, I got to thinking about what I've done since I graduated, which is basically the sum total of fuck all. As I outlined in my original post, I was planning on changing that, but actually, I don't think I've done a great deal. So it's time for action. Here's the new hotness:

1. Apply to sit my solicitors exams. Even if I don't take them because of some other reason, getting motivated to start studying the law again is a good idea. Exams are there to be crushed!

2. Send out 7 CVs/applications a week to KILLER jobs. No fucking around with 'a change is as good as a rest' jobs. I want something KILLER. I want the moon on a fucking stick. Yip, right now. I've found one that I really want and the outlook is promising but I can't say too much about it now, lest I look a dick when I fuck the interview up. What I will say is that it requires me to move abroad and in an industry that is closely tied to poker. I'll have some of that!

3. Get the fuck out of a call centre. I'm not blowing my own trumpet here, but I'm completely wasted here. I don't get out of neutral to do this job, add shit loads of value to the account, but don't get appropriately rewarded. That must change!

4. Get practicing my Dutch and French. Right now it's a disgrace that I've let these linger to the point of almost complete rustiness. Just because I speak German everyday at work doesn't give me the excuse to not keep up with the other languages. Use 'em or lose 'em!

5. Spend more time outside instead of on the grind outside work. Sunshine and football ftw!

So that's basically my 5 step plan to pay it forward over the summer.

Hopefully I'll actually be able to stick to it, bink an unreal job/get accepted to take solicitors' exams/enjoy sun.

Wish me lots of rungooooood.

--mulhuzz

In which my run good stops, maybe.

2010-07-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

A quick update from the last weekend or so.

On Thursday, I *somehow* get persuaded to play the mayhem that is the £3 rebuy tournament at the G. With a 1k starting stack, and a table of maniacs, I was quickly in for ten rebuys or so. At the break, I had a massive 4k stack knowing that I needed to double up. This soon came when I get lucky with A4 (vs AJ) and from there I started to crush, winning every flip and 60%er. In the end though, I couldn't beat the bigger luckboxes and came third for £100. Not bad, I guess. It was quite fun, I guess, and I met Sculph from the NPF for the first time, who's a nice guy and plays good too.

Afterwards, I then sit at cash and run horrendous, having some herotard limp-4bet me with A2o and getting there against my QQ, and having the same herotard then later getting there with 67o (again, limp calling my 3bet) against my AA. Still, I do manage to profit about £60 from the night by playing perfect and making sicko value bets all night.

For the next few days, I head to Coventry for a piss up because a friend of mine has just graduated and it's celebration time for sure. £1 gin and lemonades should be fucking illegal. Dangerous times, and capable of causing a two day hangover for sure. They wouldn't let me buy the bottle though, because apparently that encourages 'binge drinking'. *sigh* *irony* *etc*

Anyway, after a fucking amazing weekend on the piss, and a horrid hangover (note to self: Flake ice creams, whilst delicious, do not cure hangovers...) I get back into Newcastle just in time for the break in the Circus £2000 gtd £20/£20. This is such an awesome game, with a great structure. Even coming in three levels late, I'd have t12000 at 100/200, which is a pretty nice 60BB. Early doors, I start to increase my stack when I open AQhh from the button and Gary Collins (SB) calls, and Mark Trett (BB) then threebets me. I think Mark can be light a lot of the time here, and I consider just moving all in. The only problem with that is that I might find the top of his range. Ha. I don't like the idea of flatting because then I'm valueing Garry into the pot. In the end, I flat and Garry passes. Flop comes 9 high, two hearts, Mark leads and I just jam for value. If he has JJ then fine, we can flip. He passes AK pretty quickly.

I also get a couple of brilliant bluffs through vs Garry Collins and Big Stumpy (missed diamonds, bet the river in position), and Anton (he limps pre, I raise with Azbo, he calls, he bets 4k of a 12k stack on flop of Qxx, I shove for more than Anton, he folds, I show him the Azbo). I then obviously lose a monster pot with AQ on a KQx board against the most obvious JT in the world, but later I win a huge pot when I open early with TT, I call threebets to 6k (blinds are 400/800, I think) and someone shoves for 8k total. I isojam for value, and as I'm doing so, I see Icall has a 7 in his hand. He claims I looked at his cards, but whatever, it's a standard shove against him anyway, and he should protect his cards. He passes 77 and the board runs out 9x7xx vs AQ and I'm up to 40k again.

Then comes the most standard hand of the night ever. There are about 18 left and I open AA UTG to 3300 at 600/1200, Paul Nixon flats behind and we both see a 456 flop. I lead for 3500 with 8400 in the middle and Paul makes it about 11k. I jam for like 35k effective. He calls and tables 88. Obviously he gets there on the river with the 7 ball and I can't do anything more with 2.5BB when KQ < A7 in the BB next hand. Honestly I think Paul played that hand horrendously. I don't know what he thinks he's beating when I jam, obviously one of those where people convince themselves I'm spazzing with AK. Obviously I'm delighted with the call, just disappointed with the runbadddddd. Meh. Anyway, I don't think I've ever won this Sunday night game, and I should have had a better go at it last night than I did. Nm.

Peace, love and grapes,

--mulhuzz

In which I win the world, and come damn close to the universe...

2010-07-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Note: Before I start, there will be parts of this post which are incredibly braggy. I make no apologies for it.

Friday 2nd July saw the start of the £10 rebuy with £2000 gtd at the G, and value like this I couldn't pass. I turn up to be, eventually, joined by 36 others leaving the G with an overlay of about £700. Amazing value, pretty shocked it didn't get more runners to be honest. I don't remember much about this game, to be honest, other than the final table where I ran like God in amazing spots to go from short-stack to second in chips and take a 4 way chop for £400, with Garry Wilson Snr (who owned me in a few spots tbf) taking about £550 for the chip lead. Nice way to start my week.

Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on that, other than to say that it's a fantastic value tournament and deserves some support. I don't know how much longer the G can sustain the overlay (which was £1000 last Friday!!!) so get in whilst you can.

The following day, I played the G Tag Team game with Glen the Geek Whitehead. I'd like to apologise to him for playing so bad. I completely butchered a hand with 66 on a 432 board, and Gary Wilson Jnr had trips already, and I missed when he made quads on the turn. *sigh*. Anyway, that night, Dan Trett, Scotty Hocking and I go out instead of playing the evening game at the G. We. Get. Battered. What a fantastic night, complete degeneracy at it's very finest. Ask Dan about our taxi, he'll love telling you that story... :D

< < < fast forward > > >

Saturday, July 10th, I step up a buy-in level and play my first ever live £100+ tournament by playing in the £220 GUKPT Club Championship for the Newcastle G. I know I have game in the £75 circus game (keep coming really close to a big score in that one!) but decided to sell half my action to reduce variance in this game. As I've said before, I have no fear of the big boys and want to mix it with the best all the time. One quick text later, and Nemesis has bought half my action in this game.

On to the game. I get a tough table draw, I think, with some unknowns, but also with Nemesis, Dave Heathfield, TeamDobbs and Dan Trett on my table. Obviously I run amazing because Dan has position on me, but I have position on Nemesis. Ok, I can't have it all my own way, I guess, and I immediately form a plan to take these two on, as well as Hamed R, at one time one of the best players in the universe, by all accounts, and a real nice guy too. Without giving too much away, I decide I'm really going to under-rep my hands vs Dan and Nemesis, they can sometimes be so aggressive that you don't need to bet.

As it turned out, this was a good strategy. I underrep QQ vs Nemesis v early doors and he gets there in a small pot with A2...having limped UTG.....fish. :p

Some hands later, when I've severly underrepped hands vs Dan (check calling three streets with KcJx on a JXXccc board) and Hamad (checking the turn with flopped top-top to induce a call of a river value bet if he can put me on missed hearts...) and I'm shooting towards 30k from the 10k start. By this point, I've already knocked Nemesis out in a three way pot with AQ against a pair and a draw for Hamed and a bare draw for Nemesis QxxA in what was a huge pot. Details are fuzzy, but I shove the turn into a smallish side spot, and Hamed folds and I hold vs Iain to get a huge pot. EDIT: Nemesis reminds me that I bet Hamed off the pot and he shoves with fold equity with his draw. No fold equity vs top two, though, eh ;)

I'm really confident and playing well as we move to 200/400/50. This level crushes me, as we're joined by Lynne Beaumont (great player, obv) and Stumpy and by the end of the level I'm down to 16k and the break can't come soon enough. I did well not to double Stumpy up, and also had overpair vs underset 3 times in one level. That was so sick. I also lost 88 < Q6cc to Hamed.

At the break, I got myself back in the zone and thought about what i was going to do. I knew that I had a lot of BBs, and it wasn't panic stations by any means, but when you're running so bad (and, I might add, losing the minimum each time...) it's hard not to be affected. I take a break before we return for 300/600/50 and I basically have a word with myself. When we come back, I breeze to about 40k without really showing a hand down. When Lynne shoves ~11BBs from the button to my BB, it must be so fucking nice to find AK and hold vs QT.

< < < fast forward > > >

I then go card dead for what seems like an eternity, and i can't find a spot because shorties are often in the pot before me, pretty standard really. I must admit, I've forgotten a whole load about what happens now, and what happens when I have like 40k on the FT. I do remember winning a huge pot 5 way by getting a bluff through. I've been really tight and raise early with 78cc. Obviously nobody believes me and I get called in 4 spots to create like a 25k pot (blinds were 8-1600). I get my reads perfect (two guys overcalling for value and leading anything where they hit, Dom on the button has a hand like AQ because he checked himself before not 3 betting me pre, and he expects me to have QQ+ here a lot. Boris, in the SB, determined to defend. Anyway, flop comes JTccT and I lead half pot to pick it all up with my gutshot SFD. I show the 8high, which I think gets me a lot of action in the most crucial pot of the day, not much later. We're 7 handed, I think, having dealt to have £200 back to 6th and 7th, leaving the following prizes:

1st: £2540
2nd: £1800
3rd: £1330
4th: £740
5th: £590

I raise in MP with two black Aces. I make it 4200 at 1k/2k/200. Dom calls from the BB and checks a flop of AT5r to me. Surprisingly here, I lead with top set, for about 3300, about 1/3 of the pot. With me having ~67k and just covering Dom, I'm leading here because he has a stack size to float me and I'm also inducing bluffs from hands like JTs, 99, etc. I couldn't believe it when he shoved on me. I had to ask the dealer if he was all in as I had my earphones in. It genuinely was not a slowroll. Dom shows 33 and needs runner runner, the turn bricks and now 6 handed I have 140k from 370k in play.

A little later, we lose Boris when 2 Shades Nick opens for 12k at (I think) 1500/3000 and I make it 40k right behind him with 77. Nick had been opening a lot of pots lately, and not found much resistance. His bet sizing was pretty horrible all day, often overbetting pots both pre and post flop (erm...3 and 4x against all villains is so 2008, especially when the blinds are so large, there is literally almost no need to bet that much, imo. I'm not criticising as such, I'm just pointing out that I found I could exploit it with a pretty large range and thus win more than I should be able to than, say, if he opened to 2.3xBB). Horrifically for me, Boris jams in the SB for like 55k total and I obviously can't fold once Nick passes. I'm not happy about it, but I say 'well, I just hope you have AK, then'...'Yup, nh'..and the board bricks out. I must admit, having watched Boris play so well on the FT and around the bubble it is absolutely no surprise that he has had a couple of deep runs in the Newcastle GUKPTs of late.

< < < fast forward > > >

Anyway, I'll fast forward a bit more now, as my memory is fading to be honest. I dunno how we get 3 handed, but we do. It's some guy that won a pot from me earlier and I told him to show both cards to win before the dealer mucked his hand (helping the guy out by not angleshooting his pot...) and he immediately replied 'show me your hand'. In this spot, I could just muck my cards and be a knob, but I flash him my cards and explain why that's bad etiquette and instantly label him knob. Actually, that was an overreaction, the dude is decent I guess, probably too nitty and I start being the table captain 3 handed, bluffing and barrelling and basically running over the two of them until this hand:

Nick opens the button for 15k (3k/6k blinds with ante) and I find AQs in the SB. I run through the possible options here. I'm pretty sure he's opening a v wide range, but I think I've run into the 'value' end of his range (not, like JJ+, AK+, but more like all pairs, JT+ since I think he's been opening a lot of pots on the button and all of a sudden he opens for 2.5X not 3+x). In the end, after about 45 seconds, I decide jamming is the optimal play. Here's why I think that:

1. I have over half the chips in play
2. I have him covered by like 40k.
3. We both cover the short-stack by at least 80k.
4. I've always shown down AQ+, 77+ at this table when I've moved in, pretty much been that way all day, actually.
5. ICM would dictate that he needs at least JJ+ to call here (and I think even that's a fold) and should prolly need KK+ tbh. (I haven't worked it out, but that's what I'm guesstimating)
6. He's a nit, and tank called a shorties all in with AK. Total nitroll when it comes down to putting his tournament on the line.

He tanks. For aaaaaagges. And then asks about the prize structure and the difference between 3rd and 2nd (like, £500...). He finds the hero call with 55 and holds, which I think is a snap fold for me. (fwiw, I think 55 can also be a snap call in other circumstances, e.g. if I 3bet him to 28k or so, you can jam on me then, etc..) All of a sudden I've gone from hero to zero in one pot. Tank calling with AK and 55 in those different spots is so weird, so maybe I should have played small pots with him, but like I say, I thought his bet sizing was exploitable and expected a snap fold tbh.

Anyway, I get one double up with A8 v JT (through the shorty, lol) then later, when down to about 70k (up from 40k..) I flop a pair and a flush draw on a J94hh board with 93hh and get it in against KJo. I bink the flush on the river and knock the other guy out.

Heads Up:
Doesn't last too long, I get a walk in the BB with QQ for the second time today (happened 4 or 5 handed, too), I start winning more and more pots, we make a deal (£2000 for me and £2300 for him with me having 160k and him 210k) and then a few hands later I three bet jam A8 and find AJ in the top of his range. He tank calls. lol. I don't run good enough to get there, though.

Oh well. Still a great score and my best live score ever so I'm cartwheeling, fistpumping and all that jazz. Big, big, big thanks to Nemesis who backed me to make an impression in this game, so pleased I could get you a good return, although giving you a grand was quite surreal lol. Thanks also to various others, incl Mark Trett, for giving me advice on the mental mindset needed for a 'bigger game', to Stumpy for rubbing me down at exactly the right time (in my level of hell) and making me laugh just when I needed it, to the G for being awesome, and to everyone else who has helped me with my game, knowingly and unknowingly, in recent months.

Alright, enough now, you only won some money at cards, not a fucking Oscar; I hear you.

Peace, love and grapes,

--mulhuzz

I'm Back....

2010-06-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hi folks!

So I'm back from Bulgaria, it was *awesome* and well worth the 50p I spent in being there. Seriously, I spent less than £300 in a week, was pissed every night and ate out twice a day. If you haven't been, I recommend it highly!

Obviously I didn't play any poker whilst out there, although obviously I did do my nuts betting on which of us would be faster down various water slides. Tip: being a fat lad doesn't make you gravity proof, but doesn't make you as quick as you'd imagine, either. I also did my nuts on data roaming by forgetting to turn my mobile internet connection off, *sigh*.

Tip 2: Don't watch England get fucked by Germany in a bar full of Germans having spent the whole afternoon cursing them in their mother-tongue whilst drinking beer. Further, don't lose your lighter and then need a cigarette so bad after they make it 3-1 that you interrupt their celebrations to ask for a light. They took it rather well, I thought, but it was pretty embarrassing after I'd spent the whole day pointing out the lack of Germans in their team (Brasil, Poland, Tunisia and Turkey are just some of the countries they employ to do their football these days) and how we were gonna stuff them. Thanks, Fabio, you prick. Now fuck off and resign. What? You mean you value the £12m you'll get paid off if sacked more than you dignity? Of course you do, you arse, the Italians don't have a word for dignity. Or if they do, it's the same as 'snake faced cunt'.

Anyway, a week of sun, Germans, waterparks, beer (at 75p/pint) and women (considerably cheaper and more dangerous to your health!) later, I'm back to work, which is brilliant, because I love sitting in the office when it's nice outside... when there are Germans in the office taunting me at every opportunity, both over football and my conspicuous lack of a sun tan. Yes, I've been on holiday. No I don't have a tan. My personal melting point is a little over 25 deg, so meh :(

This week, I plan to plan at Circus on Weds to get back into the swing a bit, and then probably over at the G on Friday, too. I *may* squeeze in a little bit of Circus Thursdays, just for the craic too. Seems like I'm amenable to a little bit of gamble gamble this month too. Looking forward, I'm also gonna play the £200 G Club Championship, and I'm gonna sell half my action in that. If anyone is interested (straight 50:50 split after stakeback to backers) then leave a comment or PM me on the NPF.

Peace,

--mulhuzz

Sigh, Decent, But Sigh

2010-06-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to recap my week.

It starts with doing ok in the Monday game at Circus, before going card dead, sigh. I finally 3bet ship 4 handed with A9o from the SB after Brennan's button open. Standard ship for my 10BBs, but he has AA, sigh. Thanks Brennan, happy birthday me. Still take £70 for fourth though. Can't really remember much about the tournament, before I go on to crush at cash for another £100 or so, through till the early hours with George and Lewis and playing DC. George gets there with 72 against my TT in the last hand of the night, so I decide I need sleep and go home as it's now 'officially' my birthday, and I want to go out on the lash the next night. 7am is more than good enough for me to go home!

The next night, I get fucking wankered, lose everyone in Madam Koo's and head to Circus for 45 mins, maybe an hour, win a proper internet hand with AKdd all in on a 8d 3x 4d Jd board for over £200 against 88 and 44. lol. Brick the river one time please sir, thanks, ship it! First time I've ever put the straddle on and woken up with a hand!! That was nice, ldo. I then go find the rest of the lads and get more drunk, before heading to get food and home. As we're in the take away, some dude (asian rudeboy wannabe gangster) tries to pay for a bottle of water with a £50 note, so he's immediately labelled 'cock' obv and then tries to talk to me. I tell him to fuck off, he pulls a knuckleduster out, I laugh in his face, as do all the lads I'm with. He offers me out, I step outside, he doesn't follow, I laugh more. Police arrive, he's knicked for possession of a little baggy of pills and for being a ladytard with a weapon. I laugh more.

Weds I head to Aspers for cash, lose a little with AK < QQ aipf (other guy was shortstacking, I 3bet from button over CO raise, he shoves, I call getting 90million to one, he wins). Then the game is going to break up, because there's a £11 sng announced as a satellite for the Nifty Fifty which started the Aspers game.

I absolutely crush this, I slow roll Barry because I've misread my hand, he was furious and I was super apologetic, but what can I say? I was hungover to fuck and spades and clubs look similar. I thought I was tank calling with a bare 8 on the end of a 4 spade board, rechecked my hand, I have As8c. Sorry Barry, I have the nuts, I call. He shows Ks2s. That's what happens when you call my raises with tripe. I slowroll you with the nuts. lol.

I then win a huge flip on the bubble when I hit one of my 2389028392839 outs on the river to make broadway after I shove button with AJs and BB tank calls 77. He had slightly less than me, and the chip leader (Benoit, not Bruno as I've been calling him!) had 2x me, so it's a pretty spewy call imo, but there we go, I was happy to go to the river needing any pair, any heart and any 9/K for my double gutter. K ball one time.

So to the Nifty. I have a pint with Ian 'Nemesis' Bertram pre game, and then catch up briefly with the Tretts. Unfortunately, they don't buy my claims that the game is cancelled and Dan goes on to take the lions share of the chop. I should've tried harder, obviously. Well done Dan!

For my part, I never get going, totally card dead and only win one pot of note pre break when I turn a flush and win a medium size pot from two tards. I lead the turn for 1500 into 3500 when one tard has 2200 total. I should have checked as he tank folds. Sigh. I'm up to about 9000 from 6000 at the break but still totally card dead.

After the break, I know that 100/200, 200/400 and 300/600 are really the levels where it's make or break for me. At 100/200 I manage to lose the minimum with 44 on a 467T hhh board when I check fold the turn to be shown 77. Kinda butchered it, caus I check-called the flop planning to check-raise most turn cards. Worst card ever comes off, I don't have enough chips to bet fold though, so check-fold it is as there is literally nothing I'm beating.

I then get super card dead some more, all the way to 300/600 when I have about 6500. I've had difficulty finding spots because all the shorties on the table are too my right, so they often get in the pot before me. In the BB, I pick up 45o when my BB is raised from MP again! Brennan flats behind and I immediately peg him for a hand like AJ/AQ/55 etc. When he flats, I note that the raiser looks nervous, and annoyed that he's gonna be outta position. With a flat caller behind him, he has to be huge to call my shove (because he has only 9000 total) so I just shove because there's like 2800 in the middle and my tight image should make brennan fold out lots of hands in his range. Obviously I get tank called in one spot with an announcement of 'ok, I'll gamble' and then Brennan tank folds AQ. I read him so good. lol. Obviously I'm up against KQo and the first two cards give me the world with 23, then the board pairs and runs a K on the turn and I miss my up and down for the win. Sigh. I don't think I played too badly, but I just didn't know what to do with no hands at all and no spots. Meh.

So there we are. A weekly round-up. Thanks for reading!

In which I smash all boards ever in the face, and somehow conspire to lose.

2010-06-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

First of all, before I get ranty, let me just say wpwpwpwpwpwpwp and shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip it to Rosco for winning the Coral British Masters Leeds game this weekend. I'm sure he'll be reporting more on this over at his blog. Well played sir, and super well deserved.

Ok then, on to the rant. So I'm off work, fancy playing some cards so head over to Aspers for a little cashytao action. The game is just getting underway as I rock up, so sit for £50 with Stephen Craik (terribad), a French lad called Bruno(?) (nice guy, good player, v capable and thinks I'm a total shark thanks to some brilliant speech play by James BOTR Howard...lol) and the usual collection of Chinese/Asian donks. I get building a nice stack early when I make a good call with TT on a K9xxx 2 heart board against Bruno. I also turn the nuts against a shortstacking Stephen and get paid off when I donkbet shove the river. I nitroll some other dude when after I lot of limps I pop it with AQo in the cut off. Get a couple of callers, and flop is Q8x 2heart board and my c-bet is check called in one spot. Now the pot is like £15 and the check caller in the hijack leads for like £3.50 on a K turn. It looks so milky I start wondering if he has a set, and he only has £20 back. I flat call because he always calls with sets, and always passes everything in his range that I beat, I think. On the river, a really bad J (because now all the queens he can conceivably have check/called and fired with now all have 2 pair. *sigh*. Any way, he bets £5.50 on the end, so I kinda nitroll call and he had A8. Ok, I can't raise for value I suppose, but just, wow.

So anyway, I'm crushing and playing pretty super when some tard raises early to £3, and I repop to £14 with AdKd in the hijack. Bruno, on the button, tells me this is a great spot for him to 4bet me, but passes (I'd have snapped, ldo) and the tard calls.

I turbo smash the K96dd board in the face, and the tard checks, having thought about betting, and I insta think 'draw' so I just shove. He calls and I'm shown the might QJo. Ten on the turn ldo and I obv miss the river diamond. Sigh. Wp sir, you play so ossm. I'm then told by two other players that they passed a ten. No diamonds. Mbn to be one outed.

So anyway, next hand I find AKo so I raise to £3.25 with the straddle and get called in 5 spots. I bet £10 on the K93r flop and some tard shoves for £16 total. I call and he shows KJo. Jack on the river, ldo. 3 outed. Back to back. Yip, nice hand, you played it awful ('i thought you were steaming', 'so shove pre, you have no fold equity and never have the best hand otf', 'what's fold equity', 'sigh')

So, there we are, gg profit, and I take a small £4 profit from playing like a hero.

I refuse to be tilted by this though, I played completely awesome, I think, and right now I feel I'm playing better than I ever have before. Within the next couple of months I'm going to be really working on my live tournament and cash game and by the end of the summer I hope to have played in (and scooped) a major live tournament like the DTD deepstack. I didn't think I was ever good enough in this kind of game, but recently a couple of people I really respect have said nice things about my game (you know who you are) and convinced me that I might well just be good enough value to take some shots. When I do, I'll probably sell some action, so I'll keep you all updated.

Thanks for reading, comments appreciated.

GL at the tables,

--mulhuzz

Circus Friday Game 5th June 2010

2010-06-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

So I didn't blog in a while, I'll keep this as short as I can. Honest.

I get persuaded to play the Circus £15+£15 game on Friday and get further persuaded by BO$$HOG and Pads that having beers before would be fun. They were absolutely right, it was fun. Couple of beers in the telegraph (which is rammed) and then off to reg at Circus. Before we reg, I play my first ever game of AZBOKING with Sensh, BO$$HOG, Pads and Andy Blair. Obviously I bink it. Beginner's luck and such.

I get drawn a reasonably tough table, with Andy 'KQ4EVA' Blair (who I love listening to talk about poker whilst he's playing, it's like free coaching!), Lewis Clemment and Chris Day all here, plus some unknowns. Chris is tough to play against as he's just so aggro with a wide range, and I think it's pretty safe to say that Lewis is a top player who will be more than happy to have the button when I'm in the BB. Andy is directly to my left too, which should be fun. Chris is directly to my right and dealing, and he's always good crack. You know he's gonna be here for ages with loads of chips, or out early with his style.

A little into it, Chris coolers Andy for his first buyin with A7 > TT all in on a 7 high flop. Ace on the turn. Andy rebuys, and Chris coolers some other dude and very quickly has north of 20k, I guess, from the 6k start. He's being aggro and running good. Hitting every draw and such. Then Chris raises the button to 425 and I repop to about 1250 with AKs from the SB. Andy moves in from the BB and Chris passes. I don't like folding with 1/3 of the effective stack already in there when I'm flipping a lot. I make the call and AK > TT. Ul Andy, wp. Always a pleasure.

I like to threebet a little lighter against Chris than I normally would, and I make up for this by flatting less. The reason is that Chris can have a tendency to overplay hands a little, especially if he thinks 'he'd never reraise with X preflop' so you can get him to commit his chips with all sorts of draws and mid pairs. The flip side is that I'll rarely bluff him, particularly if I think he has a draw and the pot is about to bloat.

Later a couple of crucial hands come up. I threebet Chris' open with TT and he calls (that's not lighter than usual, I'll 3bet TT for value against most people..) and he calls OOP. He leads pot size on a 689 board and I just shove for 10k effective. He snaps with K7, I fade the world and double up to 20k-ish. My shove looks so weird here I think that Chris might think he has Ks, 7s, Ts and 5s for the best hand. He'll prolly also call with just like any pair. With hands that beat me, he probably bets smaller or even 'checks to the raiser' I think. Meh, maybe I got lucky that I wasn't behind but that he still called. I had a live AZBOdraw if I was behind, anyway.

A few orbits later, with the beers flowing, there are a couple of limpers (Chris included) into Rob Flett (new to table) in the BB. He promises to raise, so I overcall with 99. Not ideal, but meh. Flop is a dreamy 345. Rob checks, Chris bets, I raise for value from hands like A5, etc, and Rob flats. Chris then shoves for 6k more (with about the same in the middle) and I just flat. Rob then moves in for 1000 more than that. Sigh. Not beating anything now, I guess, but I call. Actually, I'm beating the world. Rob has 52 (he gave the 'I guess I'm going to work speech) and Chris has 65. I scream for a running King Queen ball, and that's exactly what I get, and all of a sudden I have 38k or so. We're not even at the break yet!!!

At the break, I tell pads how I'm crushing and he tells me how he's catching up. Some good banter there, of course. I decide to add on, just for the crack, and eat at the break, catching up with Dan and Mark Trett too.

After the break, some other stuff happens. Fast forward to Dan and Mark Trett getting moved to the table. I'm dealing now, and having banter, and watching the Tretts hoover up chips. Apparently when Mark writes his first book, the first chapter will be 'how to get there on the river' and Dan will guest author a section on 'how to flop trips and get paid everytime'. Dan and Mark both came to the table with less than me, and all of a sudden Dan has like 50k, Mark getting to about 35k -- by getting there on the river, obv ;) -- and I can't relax anymore. Now there's poker to be played, so I mix up a few pots, but I'm playing a little tight against them both as they both have position on me and I don't want to get into a spot where I could go broke if I play it wrong.

I haven't really moved chipwise for a while, small variations, going through blinds, taking blinds and limps and such. I'm delighted to continue the banter when the table splits and I get moved. I *really* want Pads' table, but it's not to be, although Dan joins me on a table with philn, KENLOCK and some kid called Phil, as well as another lad called Shaun that I know from around. At this point, let me say that it's the first time I'd met KENLOCK and we spoke for ages about a lot of stuff. He's a top top bloke, if you don't know him, introduce yourself. Needless to say, he knows his way around the felt too.

I start opening all buttons and also threebetting Dan Trett's early and mid position ranges in position for value. The lads in the blinds are starting to get sick of me, I think, and it's no surprise when Shaun shoves. I ask him how much more and he instantly draws in breath quickly, telling me he doesn't have a monster. I know I'm unlikely to be dominated with QTs and make the call for 12k or so. I bink against A3 and start to chip up again. I then lose lots of it back when I flop two pair from the SB against and all in pre (for 2BBs) and KENLOCK who flatted the button. Ken has a straight and a flush draw, so when I shove he snaps and I can't fade the world this time ldo. I'm back to around 40k again when I open AQo early. Dan calls in the SB which is perfect for me, because it sets up a squeeze from philn in the BB. He duly obliges and I hold vs 78s by flopping an Ace in a 50k pot. Up towards 65k now. (I think that was the order of those hands, I may be wrong, but the net result is that when we move to the FT bubble I had 65k).

I raise from LP again (this time with KQs, a value hand!) and I get shoved on by the mighty Q7s. I make what I think is the most standard call in the world, and he flops a 7. That was the other kid called Phil. I guess he was just sick of me stealing his blinds, maybe. More like a frustrated shove than a value shove, esp when he had 25k or so. GG 50k pot.

I think I play another couple of pots, but get to the FT as a decent stack. Basically, this goes on for ages. Jean Barr limp folds AK to a Dan Trett all in (he lost a reasonable amount at the other table, but I don't remember how) because there was a limper behind. I was furious with that tbh. Anyway, I play like a bit of a hero, I think, but all of a sudden it becomes a little too tight so I start opening everypot that's folded to me, as does Dan. With less than 15BB in some spots, I just shove shove shove and pick up blinds all the time. Dan takes a stand with the 'miles ahead of my range' (my words, not his) KhJh. Unluckily for him (this is the 5th hand in a row I've shoved) I have Ah6h and hold to win a huge pot.

I can't be arsed to keep typing, but some dude gets KK a million times (and I fold JJ and AK to him pre) and later I'm offered a 5 way deal as chip leader. Lewis really has my back here and I turn it down because, frankly, 80% of the time I'm giving like £85 away. I offer a 5% discount on an ICM chop, but nobody other than Lewis knows what that means, so we play on. I start nibbling and nobbling and applying pressure, but then lose a rather large pot to TJ when he outflops me when I'm dominating. *sigh* -- back to average, TJ, furious that I didn't deal, starts giving it a bit of talk, so I stick the earphones in and decide to crush again. I do. 3 way chop at like 6:30 in the morning caus I had shit to do that morning and couldn't be wrecked. That was annoying. Good cash though, felt I played well.

In other news, that put me top of the new world cup league. weeeee..

In other other news, I did like £100 in a cash game at the G on Saturday after coming in pissed and having Scotty outflop my AA then play me like a fiddle for me to get it in drawing dead almost. That sucked. Still, when I made my first post at the NPF, I said I wanted to make £2500 this year from livepoker. It's June. Almost midyear review time, and I think I'm well on target for that, so that's something. Even if I do play like a fucking buffoon whilst pissed.

Thanks for reading. Sorry about the curtness at the end.

GL at the tables,

--mulhuzz

G League Final Report

2010-06-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

So I turn up at the G well before play is due to begin, and I pretty much love my table draw. It looks pretty soft. There's a lad called Jamie, who definitely has some chops, but I have position on him. There are 2 super tight players and Christine, who I hate, so I'm looking forward to knocking her out (more on that, later).

Also at my table, directly to my left, is Glen the Geek. He has about 21k, so could put some real damage to my 31k stack. Before the game, I catch up with a few of the lads and have a pint with Nemesis and chat to Spoona, Sensh and CGK for a bit. By 3pm, the cards are in the air. Unbelievably, only 36 of 50 players have turned up, and with £4100 in the prizepool with £2000 up top, I'm feeling confident I can do well.

It would be impossible for me to report all the banter, action and good times from this tournament, so I'm just going to select a couple of things. First of the bat, thanks to the G for a slick and well run tournament and especially to Candice and the Big Cheese for just having a good time and running things so smoothly.

Early doors my plan is to be tight. Blinds start at 50/100 with a 25 minute clock throughout, so I don't need to get funky at any point with over 300 BBs. I know that a lot of people would limp lots of small pairs and suited connectors with my stack, but obviously it's effective stacks that we're concerned about, and more than one person at my table had between 40-60BBs. I don't need to get involved and I'm hoping when the blinds go up I can play a few pots profitably.

Not how it turns out, though. Within the first level, there's a little less action from the short stacks than I expected, so I start playing a normal game, loosening up a little. I raise AQo in late position in the second or first level and someone ships the whole farm from the BB. It's about 3k more to me, and frankly, I don't need the flip so I sigh and pass. Later still, the Geek limps UTG and I check my option with K4ss in the BB. I lose a small pot when I brick a flush draw. Good thing I do, Glenn has trips and the NFD by the turn on an AA36ss board with A8ss. I lose a couple of small pots when I brick the world twice with OESFDs, when I've over limped or overcalled with suited connectors in late position. This is pretty standard I think, I've only lost a tenth of my stack and I'm not worried at all.

An interesting hand happens the next orbit when I'm in the BB. With the blinds at 100/200 (first hand at this level), Glen makes it 700 UTG and I elect just to flat in the BB with AhKh. I'm out of position, and I think Glen will overshove most pairs 88+ here when I raise and I don't need a decision for 20k chips, thanks. I'd rather control the pot size, out of position as I am, and I check fold a 9JQ one heart flop. This flop smashes Glen's range in the face, and I'm drawing to a ten ball at best. Turns out if I'd lead the flop, I would have picked it up as Glen shows TT. Unless he liked his OESD on the flop. Ha. Still, I don't mind check-folding here. I'm looking to control the potsize anyway. Against a smaller stack I'd have probably raised pre and called a shove, but it's suicide against the only stack on the table that can significantly dent me.

I'm down to about 24k at one stage, and I'm not happy. I can't hit the board for toffee and I'm bricking draws. When a new player raises early and everyone else folds I shove AKo in the BB for about 5k effective. He calls with KK. Flop brings 3 diamonds, turn is an Ace and he's dead because the case King is diamonds and would make me a flush. I run pretty good. From then on, I tear it up, I start checking to induce bluffs, floating and barrelling and generally playing my A game. I lose a pot to Christine when she tank calls QJo in the BB to my EP raise with AQs and we check it down (she always check calls every street, I hadn't hit the board, so I'm not betting really as it doesn't seem like a value bet with A high. She calls the entire range she's beating me with and the board is J high).

I then take a couple of hits with standard cut off raises running into '3BB more' shoves from the BB. I'm never flipping with him, sigh, he always has a value hand and it's pretty frustrating. He then spews these chips away by bluffing B v B and limp folding 7BBs, but then I go double him again with A9s running into AA for about 30p more. *sigh* I don't give up though, and flop trips to get three streets of value from one idiot, and then raise with 78s in late position again. The BB (him again!) shoves on me and I snap. He has AQo. Finally a hand where I'm not dominated. Persistence is virtue and I flop 2pair. One hand later I raise in the hijack with QJhh and get shoved on for not much more by a different big blind. I'm priced into call and hope I'm not dominated. He has 99. Nice. I flop two pair and turn a house. Nice. That's the 2 table bubble and we're joined now by Nemesis with mirrrrions of chips and Glen the Geek rejoins, having been moved just after he took my 700 in level 3. Other players I don't know.

Nemesis has position on me, so I tighten up a bit because he's capable of three betting light. Jamie, a teacher, who I have a lot of time for and was excellent banter all day (including agreeing to put a £5 bounty on Christine's head) gets coolered when he shoves the short stack from the button and before I can even finish saying 'I'm calling you light' I snap him off with JJ. He has TT and my stack is north of 45k for the first time. Ul Jamie, good playing with you.

I win a pot against Nemesis when I limp the button with JTs (horrid, I know, but I've been stealing his blinds a little and I want to play a pot with him for a change!). He raises as expected and I flat. I call his bet on the flop QJx board, call again on the turn which puts a third spade up there, and tell him that I'm going to call a third barrel on the river, so he checks and I check behind. He never calls Ace high here, but he might raise and I don't want that. My stack is north of 65k now with only those couple of showdowns. We're short handed and near the final table bubble

A few hands later, Ian gets me back. I raise in MP with JJ and Iain shoves. I was really close to calling, but I passed. Truth is, I didn't want to lose a flip when I think I can outplay everyone else at the table. I was closer than Nemesis thinks I was to calling, he told me he thinks I need KK+ to call here. I'm calling with 99+ and AQ+ normally, but the table dynamics dictated a fold. He shows me K8s. Nice hand, you fish! :D Ian was continuing to apply pressure to people and wanted to be the table captain. I was fine to let him and pick off the weaklings. Heh.

Eventually, I don't know how, we make the final. I have 63k from 490k total. First hand the geek moves all in for 20k. I tank fold AJs and Nemesis wakes up with QQ. Obviously I'd have rivered an Ace. Sigh. Right fold though.

Some sick hands later I take out christine who's been bitching about ten not being paid because she had about 5BBs. This woman is so standard. I fucking hate her. When it's her BB at 1/2k, I make it 7k UTG with ATdd. This is totally below my usual UTG range, but I want that fiver, considering she only has 4.8k or so. She calls with K5o. Board runs TT33X and she complains about badly done by she is. I really want to tell her to fuck off, but I don't. Play better. Or talk less. I don't care which.

Rob Taylor is our bubble boy when he shoves something and Nemesis snaps. Ian is playing well, but the deck is smashing him in the face! I've never seen anyone run that good.

Anyway, this is long now, so we'll avoid the drama of making the deal and Stephen Craik not wanting it, then wanting it after Nemesis punished him with a shove every single time he raised. Basically, I have £500 locked up and can win a further £500 by winning it. I decide not to ladder and try to rechop later, I'm playing for the win so when I raise the button with 44 and Iain ships the SB, I auto call. He has AK. River is the cruelest Ace ever for a third of the chips in play. *sigh*. I mean, it's standard, but meh.

Ian then smashes the deck some more, cracking KK with QTs by flopping a house when Spoona already passed QT. Wow. He then got Dave in some other ridic spot and finally Spoona, who rocked the short stack admirably, and played super all day long, when Ian turned a 6 ftw in A6 v AT aipref.

I had such fun. £500 is my holiday spending sorted. Great game and wpwpwpwpwpwp Ian. You might run like God, but you played great, too. Well done to everyone that final tabled, of course too.

Ok, enough now. Comments appreciated.

Gl at the tables,

--mulhuzz

sigh why can't I play better? -- The story of my weekend.

2010-05-31T02:45:00.000-07:00

So I played the Friday night tourney at the G.

Cardguard puts a bounty on my head and even though I'm playing like a hero, JJ < AK and I can no longer beat Stumpy for the £300 seat. Bah. Wp Stumpy though, well deserved sir.

I then play cash and spunk off with two overcards, NFD and a broadway draw on the turn when some total moron bets £40 into an £11 pot. *sigh* Incidently, I also made quads and got very little action. Scotty raises early to £3.75, I 3bet to £12.25 with KK and some tard shoves ATo for about £20. Scotty was 4betting AQ all day there, but now he has to pass and I flop quads. Thanks for that, retard. *sigh*

Also, I spazz out of the G Online Final, making the money, but not very much. Still, it's £25 for free when AZBO < AQ. *sigh*

Saturday night was the most fun I've had playing poker in fucking ages. A cracking, although pretty short, DC game at the G with Russ the Suit, Chris Carr, Sensh, Cardguard, the Geek, Nemesis, Craig Mac, Scotty and a few others.

Sensh runs like God, obviously, making a ridic call on the turn in 6card PLO8 where the other three players in the hand already have nut nut. Sensh has a set and an ueberwrap with a flush draw, and he binks the river. Still, I only lose about a tenner on that hand, if he folds, I win about a £5er, so meh.

Later, I make a cracking call against Scotty in this hand: 7 card PLO8:

I have A23467T with some suits and flat cgks raise from the button, but say that 'I think I'm supposed to pot it here'. Scotty, who has limped, says 'yeah, i think I'm supposed to pot it too' but just calls.

Flop is a worldy K45r. I now have an ueberwrap for the high and the low, and a pair. I check, Scotty bets £5 and is called by cgk and Sensh, so I come along as well. Turn is a pretty bricky Qc, which puts a flush draw out there (I have three club blockers) and a broadway gutshot. Scotty bets £16, cgk passes and Sensh calls too. Now I have to call also, I don't like raising because I can be dead to half the pot a decent amount of the time here.

River is an offsuit 4. So now I have trips, but someone could easily have KK/QQ for the world.

I check, scotty bets £44 all in and Sensh mucks. i had sensh on like A23KQXX, and I tank for ages before deciding that scotty has bricked the world here. He has AKQJTXX so often here I think, and his 3/4 pot sized shove just doesn't make sense to me. With him last to act, I think he'd check behind any small value hand like 5s full or the other 4 with a house, and he'd make a smaller bet with KK/QQ. After tanking for eternity, I call and Scotty immediately tells me 'I think you're good' so I flash a 4 and win the pot. He tells me later he had the nut low draw, nut flush draw, a broadway wrap and 2 pair, so good read me :D

On Sunday night, I head over to Circus and get my stack in first hand (I've turned up late) with AKcc. Phil Butler raises to 200 in EP at 25/50 and I make it 725 in MP. With the action back on Phil, he makes it 2000. I read him for having JJ/QQ and folding to a shove, so I oblige and shove. He sigh-snap calls with KK, I turn a Royal Draw and river the Ace. I run so good.

I don't play any big pots really, but I get three streets of value from Malcom, some old fish, twice with AK and KK respectively, both on KXXXX boards. With the addon, my stack is north of 27k (almost twice the average) when I'm moved tables.

I'm reading my table well, so I'm annoyed to be moved, but Dan Trett (with a million billion chips) and Sensh (with about 23k) are on the table, so all is well. This'll be tough, I think, but great banter. There is also Rob 'larfingravy' Richardson, who's a really nice bloke (and, ul for him, stuck between Dan and Sensh, gg blinds...). In addition to these cracking lads, there's a total fish and friend of 'I Call', an old lady to my left, and the biggest prick in the north east two to my right. There's also another arse directly to my right, who's had some choice things to say about me in the past.

A few hands in, I Call 2 raises to 800 at 2/400 and 4 players call. I have TT in the SB so re-pop it to 3300. Everyone passes, except the arse directly to my right, who, with a stack of 7000 or 8000, flat calls. I check fold the AJX flop and berate him for calling and not shoving/folding. He goes into 'but I won the pot' mode, which is so ridic, and then he calls me an arse so I get a little bit lippy. Sensh is laughing, but Dan's a bit pissed at my attitude, and rightly so really. I'm never mornally a prick at the poker table, but this dude just gets under my skin.

Two hands later, I flat an EP raise from sensh with, you guessed it, AQcc. The situation is so ripe for Dan to squeeze light from the big blind, and I only flat so that I can shove over him, really. Dan obliges, makes it 4400 and then sensh shoves. *sigh*. I have to pass, as does Dan. They both had 99, apparently. Nice bet, Sensh.

Then I think the very next hand, I get AJs and it folds to me late. I look like I'm steaming, I kinda am a bit, and I raise, thinking Dan will raise light. He raises, Rob Richardson ships for a little bit more and it's back on me. Now, I only have AJ, and Rob's range is TT+, AK here I think, but as long as he doesn't have AA, I'm getting the right price to call, as long as Dan folds. Now, like I say, I think Dan's light here *a lot* so he folds if I shove about 70% of the time, I think. So I shove. Dan's not light. He has AK. Sigh.

The thing about Dan is that he has an image where people always think he's light. And he is so capable of being light a lot and just taking pots away from people with solid aggressive poker. The corollary of that is that sometimes he will have a hand, and will catch you with your pants down. I'm not scared of anyone on the Newcastle poker scene, I think I've got some game and I'll mix it with anyone, but if there's anyone that I feel a little uncomfortable having on my table, it's Dan. He puts people to decisions all the time, and there have been pots when we've 3 and 4 bet (and even 5 bet, iirc) each other with fuck all. He's so hard for me to read too so is a really dangerous opponent. If Dan's in the zone, he's probably the toughest player on the scene for me. He also has an awesome blog, Full Trett Poker, which he and his brother Mark write. If you don't read this on the regular, what are you doing with your life? Go read it now, I'll wait here.

So there we go, a weekend round up.

Note to self: Dan isn't always light. ;)

Today after work I'm off to the G for the league final. There's £4k in the prizepool and I start with the most chips by virtue of having won the league. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

Gl at the tables,.

--mulhuzz

Good times at the cash table

2010-05-26T02:19:00.000-07:00

So bored after work yesterday, I take a trip to Aspers for for something to do. I buy into the £5 donk fest and try to build a stack quickly. I keep running my suited connectors into big hands though, so pretty quickly I look like the biggest donk at the table. Would you believe that everyone thinks I'm an idiot for shipping with 89s, getting called by AKs (why does the BB always have a hand!) and then telling everyone 'if you're not getting it in behind, you're not getting it in enough'. Obviously almost zero percent of these players have ever ground the margins in SnGs online. They thought I was joking -- I wasn't, or that alternatively I'm an idiot -- I'm not. ;)

I then wander past the cash table and chat to Bomber for a bit, sweating a couple of his hands and telling him 'I want action from you Bomber!!'. He proceeds to donk about £20 whilst I'm watching and I feel only a little bit responsible. I mean, there was no way he was calling an UTG raise with K5ss unless I was there! He encourages me to sit down and play a while, so I think about it, fully aware that I have to work early and that if I sit down now, it'll be a long session, but then decide to go have a cigarette and think about it.

I don't play cash that often, particularly live full ring, because frankly, I'm not that good. I'm a little too tight and weak passive if I'm honest. I much prefer shorthanded games, particularly heads up cash. Looking around the table, there were lots of decent players, including Gaz Walker, Ridla, Bomber and a lad called Graham who I know to be a solid player. There also look like there could be a couple of softer players though, so I grab the next open seat because with SamJ dealing, the banter on the table is flowing nicely. I decide to sit for £60 with the blinds at 25p/50p and the occasional straddle from Ridla.

Pretty early in, I flat a small raise on the button with JTs, and four players, take a flop. It's a pretty marvellous JTx rainbow flop from me. Small blind leads for £3, I make it £8 and he ships for £40. I snap, obv, and he flips QQ. How he doesn't 3bet pre is completely beyond me if I'm honest. The turn is a 9 adding more outs, but he bricks the world and I make a nice start. Getting it in good only to have people turn more outs than they flopped is a common theme for me tonight.

With that in mind, Gaz has the straddle on (he pushed a couple of times already tonight, generally being banterous and having fun) and I find AA UTG. I make it £4.50, and get called in about 4 spots. Bomber takes a little while before he calls, and it kinds looked like he was thinking of 3betting preflop, so when the flop comes down Q24 with two clubs, I'm just hoping that he doesn't have QQ and I know I'm gonna be trying to get my money in. I lead for £16 and Bomber instajams for £45 total. Everyone else folds and I call. I can't ever pass here I don't think. He is nice enough to show me the AzobKING in clubs, so he has a bare draw. Are Aces ever holding against the Azbo? I think not!! Turn is a ten, and this time I can't brick the world as a club on the river seals it. I ask the table if I'm allowed to call Bomber a cunt, and Keith thinks it's fine, so I do. Nice hand sir, you truely are the AzboKING and I was owned. :D

I must admit, after the profit from the first hand, I'm just about even, maybe down a small piece and a little tilted. I put the straddle on next hand and check with A3hh. Flop is 335dd and I lead, get a caller before Waaaaaalker check raises me. I'm content to shove and get called by a flush draw. He tanks for a long time and then calls, flips 94dd. Turn is a 5 to give him and up and down but this time I manage to fade the world again I've got the double up my Aces deserved!

I go pretty quiet for a while, then limp in the BB to the straddle with 66. Flop comes 68x with two diamonds. I win a nice pot getting it in against Gaz and a tourist. Gaz had a open-ender with 97 and tourist decided that A8 no diamonds was a nice spot to go broke in. Turn's an 8 and I fill up. Pass the sugar pls!

A little later, and i've been pretty tight, there's a raise from EP to £4, a flat caller and I raise the SB to £20 with AA. Original raiser passes, then it's coolertime as I get reshipped on for £45 by KK. AA holds and I take another little pot.

A couple of other hands where I felt I was too weakpassive:
Later in the evening, Adam (who has replaced Gaz, and seems a totally solid player) raises the hijack and I just flat in the cutoff with TT. This tempts Graham to flat on the button and we see a flop. Flop isn't great, but no shocking with J89. Adam fires £6, I flat and Graham passes. The turn is some awful card, like a 3 or something and I fold the Adam's bet. He does get flatted by some other dude who had a bare 7 for a gutshot. Pretty sick, imo. He bricks obv and Adam shows 89s. Nh sir. I think I should have three bet for value here. I should have realised that Adam's range contains hands like 89s in late position, but he hadn't played many pots (except against one dude, really) and I don't know him that well, so I just flatted. A bit still really.

Later still, I have J4o in the BB and lots of limpers we see a 44X rainbow flop. I check, someone bets, gets one caller and I flat behind planning to lead any turn. Turn is irrelevant and I lead £6 which gets the original player out, but then I'm raised to £16 by a MP limper. I think a flat is fine here, because I don't want to fold out any draws or X's (I think it was an 8). I'm planning to check-raise most river cards too, so I check and now the bet is only £12.50 on a K river. Player has maybe £30 behind that, and for some reason, I decide that I should only call here, because the bet looks so fishy. That makes total sense, because he also has a 4 but my kicker is good. *sigh* £30 of missed value there. I should have led the river...SamJ rightly berates me for playing like a tard.

That's pretty much all I can remember from the night and I left at around 1:30am with a lovely £220 profit for the evening. I must admit, I should play cash more often, I have some really obvious leaks which I can work on, but the banter with Ridla, Gaz, Bomber, SamJ and the other guys, including James 'Brickontheriver' Howerd who dealt for a while (and was the architect or my two biggest pots, and yes I did say 'thanks for the brick on the river, James' --< I'm such a tard, was tremendous. It's nights like these when I remember why I love live poker. So good. So fun. I genuinely would have said that if I'd been stuck a couple of hundo too.

Oh, and my needle of the night goes to Bomber who says 'Mulhuzz, do you know Brickontheriver? He used to be somebody.' :D

Banteriffic.

Gl at the tables,

--mulhuzz

It wasn't supposed to be this way....

2010-05-24T23:23:00.000-07:00

So after my adventures in no sleep land, I slept until 7pm on Monday which made me feel super refreshed and ready to hit the G for the £10 turbo game. As I've already wrapped this league up with a week to spare, I thought I'd go in, play like a champion, and show everybody why I've won.

That's not exactly what happened. On my table I have Rob Charlton and Ian Bertram (Nemesis), the only two capable players and pretty early on they get involved in a nice pot, and Rob folds 2pair to Ian's riverbet. I'm one million percent certain that Ian was bluffing though. With Ian in that kind of mood, he can be tough to play against, so I decide I'm not going to get into any big pots with Rob or Ian, and just take chips from the table morons, of which there are many!

2nd level: Blinds 50/100, stack 10,000.

I'm in the SB with A3hh, and there are 7 limpers. I give a speech about what a perfect hand to squeeze I have, then just complete. BB checks and we see the flop of:

3d 3c 7c.

BINGO!!! I check, thinking someone will bet a club draw, a seven, any pair they've limped in with, or just bet with position (button is a moron, as is cut-off).

BB checks, everyone checks. Sigh.

Turn Js.

I lead 300 into a 700 pot. BB insta minraises to 600. Excellent. He has a three. Let's try and get this in. Player in mid position then makes it 3000 so I just shove, expecting a call from the BB and maybe a call from MP with like AJ or KJ or even J7.

BB snaps, with 35o. MP snaps with JJ!!!! Wtf?!?!?!!?!?!? Could he have played that any worse?!?! Wow.

So there we go. It wasn't supposed to be this way. :(

Urgh. I'm a total idiot.

2010-05-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

So after my last post, you know, the bit that said 'sleep now before work tonight', what did I do?

Exactly the opposite of sleep. *sigh*

I went to the beach for cricket and arcade fun with Buzz, Farmer Dave, Burrrrrrrs Hurrrrrrrg, Spoona and Sensh. Good times were had indeed, great banter and I must have only lost like £6 playing 10p arcade games which feels like a winning session against such obv rooooooged games.* Surprisingly, neither Buzz nor Spoona did their nuts and went busto within the first 3 seconds! ;)

The bad news is that I've had exactly 0 sleep and now I'm at work till 8am. I tried a power nap, but it didn't really work.

All i had to do was text back saying 'nah, got to work tonight, should probably sleep', but then again, I'm an idiot. Totally worth it though. Cheers lads!

Oh yeah. I think I bruised a rib attempting to take the most ridic diving catch in cricket. That sucks major balls. Oh well, a little bit of paperwork catch up and then cock about for the rest of the night is in order, before sleeping all day tomorrow. Once I've done that, I'll obv play the G £10 Turbo, just for the craic and because I'll need something to do before starting work at 7:30 AM on Tuesday. I am an idiot. *sigh*

Gl at the tables,

--mulhuzz

*srsly, I'm not that much of a degen that I think of visits to the pennyarcade in terms of being 'winning or losing'

A little bit of HU Cash action

2010-05-23T04:27:00.000-07:00

So I got home from work this morning after a not so taxing nightshift, and decided to play a few SnGs and mix in a few 45 mans as well. I fired up my first set and it quickly became clear that today was not my day.

I was getting coolered and outdrawn all over the place, so I took the loss on the chin (just one measly 3rd place from my set of 6), went for a shower and came back. I thought about opening some of the 45mans I'd promised myself, but I wasn't really calling correctly in the push-fold modes and I certainly wasn't winning flips so I decided not to bother.

Still, I wasn't tired, so I thought I'd play some HU cash to keep me entertained. I opened two tables of 50NL (50BB max) tables as I think I have a bigger edge in this game than I do in the slightly deeper version because people are willing to gamble a little more.

I ended up playing the same dude on both tables, and short of two coolerings (I have Ah on a 2h3h5h6h board, he has 4h) and 4 betting KQ and getting it in on a KQ5 board (he snaps with 55) I completely dominated. Some of the hands were just ridic. I made a point of calling his raises prF pretty light and rarely three betting. When I did three bet, I three bet for value 70% of the time and as a bluff 30% of the time. On most flops, I was pretty content to check flops back to him and make a decision on later streets.

Dude was so happy to see me check flops OOP that he kept three barrelling and I kept calling down with middle pair, bottom pair, K high, etc. He really made it easy for me. If he had it, he'd bet 3/4s pot or so, and if he didn't have anything, including draws, he'd bet 1/3 pot or less. Incredi-predictable.

One hand, he raised button and I flat with K4ss. Flop comes 425r and I check-call. I check call the 9 turn too, and it's pretty obvious he has air from his bet sizing. Pot is about $6 and the river is a rather delicious 4. I decide I could check to induce bluffs, but I've been doing that a lot, so I tank shove for the $25 effective. He snaps with Queen high. Thanks. Fool.

A couple of examples I already converted:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($36.40)
SB ($50.40)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 3, A
SB bets $1.25, Hero calls $0.75 I'm not three betting A3o here because he's gonna call pretty light and I can get value from A high hands far more when I just flat as opposed to 3betting.

Flop: ($2.50) Q, Q, 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $1.55, Hero calls $1.55

Turn: ($5.60) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $2.15, Hero calls $2.15

River: ($9.90) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $3.70, Hero calls $3.70 Standard c-c all the way. I considered a raise for value on the end to let him pay me with K high, but he's prone to spazz and could have shoved so I c-c.

Total pot: $17.30 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
SB had 9, 8 (one pair, Queens).
Hero had 3, A (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: Hero won $16.80

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($45.55)
SB ($38.15)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 7, 7
SB bets $1.25, Hero raises to $2.50, SB calls $1.25 -- Pretty standard 3bet with any pair 55+.

Flop: ($5) 6, J, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $2, SB calls $2 -- Pretty safe board and if V is floating or on draw he always just flats. He raises any J and lots of 8s.

Turn: ($9) 5 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $5.30, Hero calls $5.30 -- Again, I check to induce a bluffing range on the turn and river. V is prone to 3barrelling me. I would normally c-r this turn, but I know V bets so many rivers for me.

River: ($19.60) J (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $14.05, Hero calls $14.05 -- well, there's no way he has a Jack, so it's either some spazzy 82o or complete air. This is the one time he bet more than half pot with nothing. I still snapped. Far too many spazz hands in his range.

Total pot: $47.70 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
SB had 9, K (one pair, Jacks).
Hero had 7, 7 (two pair, Jacks and sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $47.20

My fave. 6 hands after he got the straight flush, this occurs:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) ($29.45)
SB ($65.30)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10, 6
SB bets $1.25, Hero calls $0.75

Flop: ($2.50) 10, 3, K (2 players)
Hero bets $1, SB raises to $3.85, Hero calls $2.85

Turn: ($10.20) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $6.35, Hero calls $6.35

River: ($22.90) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $20.70, Hero calls $18 (All-In)

Total pot: $58.90 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
SB had 4, Q (high card, King).
Hero had 10, 6 (one pair, tens).
Outcome: Hero won $58.40

I continued to check-call most boards and he continued 3 barrelling and stacking off to me so light.

Thanks for a pretty easy $150 for the session.

Right, enough now. Sleep before work again tonight.

Gl at the tables,

--mulhuzz

Lost Momentum

2010-05-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

So, welcome to my blog.

'À la recherche de l'élan perdu' translates somewhat loosely as 'in search of lost momentum'. It's a particularly telling title because, almost 3 years after graduating from University, I'm still in the same job, still living in the area I grew up, and still monstrously bored. More than that, I feel stuck; almost on the verge of having an utterly clichéd (mid-) life crisis -- which I'd be far too young to pull off properly.

I'm hoping that blogging about my experiences of how I lost my momentum in life will help me regain it. I'm hoping that I can find that force, that classic impulse, which will move me forward.

So what should you expect?

I play cards. I'm not a bad player, but not good enough that I don't have to work. I'll post about that pretty frequently, particularly as I attempt to get a serious roll going. I'm currently grinding the low stakes SnGs in order to rebuild a roll online after a somewhat misguided interpretation of bankroll management. More information on that is here.

Anything Else?

Well. I'm fairly multilingual so expect to see the odd post in French, German, Dutch or some equally impossible language.

I'm a fan of the (in)glorious Newcastle United FC so I expect I'll post about them. Frequently, during the Premiership season.

I'm almost entirely computer dumb. That's like saying that I can recognise all of the parts of the web, but I couldn't reproduce them, even if my life depended on it. In that respect, don't expect much more than very basic formatting on my posts.

My thoughts wander, randomly, all the time. I'll vaguely recall past memories and future possibilities, so coherence is probably not my strong suit. (a slight nod to Marcel Proust, author of the marvelous 'À la recherche du temps perdu' whose title I've nicked). You can expect that I'll start having a very inconsistent and, frankly, crap, writing style, and after a time I'll reach the level of complete and utter mediocrity where I shall remain till the end of my days.

For now, I suppose that's enough of an introduction.

Peace,

--mulhuzz

À la recherche de l'élan perdu

In which I'm fucking shattered....

In which I ship one....

In which I take baby steps...

In which I recap, and set some goals.

In which I play MiniFTOPS Razz...

In which I let a colleague do the bragging for me....

In which I feel like a proper degenerate...

Christmas Party Re-Cap

In which I feel like there's a pneumatic drill in my mouth...

Boooooooooooooom

[ ] Dentists are fun. Or cheap.

In which I have two days off in a row for the first time....

[x] it's been a week

In which I don't post any photos because my phone is an arse....

Circus Nifty Fifty Report

Aspers Nifty Fifty Report

T Minus 20 or So Days...

In which I run really goood...

In which I basically retire from live poker in Newcastle....

In which I visit Gibraltar...

Building a Door...

In which I remember why I love the G....

My Ideal MTT Table....

In which I do ok....

In which Simmy plays like Simmy, not Simmy fucking 3k!

Today is a bad day....

In which I don't actually update much, at all...

In which I start a Revolution....

In which I play like a hero, then a tard, then a hero again.....

In which I reflect...

In which my run good stops, maybe.

In which I win the world, and come damn close to the universe...

I'm Back....

Sigh, Decent, But Sigh

In which I smash all boards ever in the face, and somehow conspire to lose.

Circus Friday Game 5th June 2010

G League Final Report

*sigh* why can't I play better? -- The story of my weekend.

Good times at the cash table

It wasn't supposed to be this way....

Urgh. I'm a total idiot.

A little bit of HU Cash action

Lost Momentum

sigh why can't I play better? -- The story of my weekend.