The Grind Challenge

Morning/Afternoon/Good Evening,

Does anyone even read this damn Blog! Anyway the title of the post represents the content i intend to contribute. I have had some pretty decent swings in the last couple of weeks and I found myself withdrawing almost all the cash i had accumulated on PS and FT to pay for life things. So the bottom line was that i ended up with $30 left in the tilt account and $11 left in the Stars one.

I had given myself till the end of May to get a grinding and build myself a respectable bankroll.(over $100) Of course with such a tiny roll i should have been concentrating on the micro micro games. But i do find it difficult to stay there. After a couple of wins at the $1 18 man games I bumped my roll up to $33 so i started at the $5 games and I've had some major success. The bottom line is as of now the roll stands at an impressive $120. Thats a really decent result. I won two 18 man $5 games and then took down a $5 27 man for $50. Anyway the plan now is to continue to grid until i am at $500 and i will start taking shots at the $10 games but if I fall below $400 its back to the $5 games.

The roll challenge is to see if I can hit the $2,000 mark by the end of August. I would imagine this will be extremely difficult. almost impossible. But for now I'm really delighted with my efforts.

Remember guys when your holding Queens you need to pray that the donk in seat one doestn hit his ace when he shoves on you with A7 off!

BBT5

Thanks have to be enxtended to Full tilt poker and Al cant hang for the great job they did in organising the BBt5 super prizes as well with TOC on tomorrow night i'll probably tune in to Buddydank radio tomorrow night and see which three of the lucky 21 will be going to the main event.

The finale event the Battle Royale is on June 6th for all those bloggers like myself who've taken part in a mookie or poker from the rail and fancy their chances at a 2k stimulus package GL at the tables. Except of course if your against me then I hope you hit no flops and dont see aces EVER!

Remember if your holding OddQueens your not doing too bad and occasionally 7 2 is the nuts!

Battle of the Blogger Tournaments BBT5

i was supposed to get this up earlier but it slipped my mind.

anyway:

basically jump to Al cant hang or the tao of poker to get all the details. i'm up playing in the mookie tonight and getting my ass handed to me so i have the concentration thing to worry about.

Since i've last been on i've had a couple of major swings upwards and downwards. Got to the Paddy Power last satellite with a great stack and only 30 players to eliminate unfortunately my aces couldnt get there gainst K fecking 10! anyway such is the way the cookie crumbles. I'll be back tomorrow to recap some of the mayhem of the last few weeks.

Ps this blog may become a bit of a life blog as well as a poker blog! Be warned .. Remember Queens are not Aces .. and Aces only win 80% of the time.

A nice relaxing Monday .. 2 games 2 cashes!

Yup yup i've been flying tonight. I came home nice and chilled made dinner , cleaned the house let the wife and baby sleep and then after a nice bowl of home made turkey soup I started a couple of games . One on Stars a 27 man and one on Tilt a 45 man. I final tabled both and finished 3rd in the Stars one and 2nd in the Tilt one. Over all a pretty decent nights work. 2 games and over $100 profit. For a micro stakes player like myself this is huge! So I'm delighted. I've run both accounts up to a decent size for the month. Delighted!

I've had the run of the cards again tonight though. Won my races, AK kept hitting for me and had a few calls with marginal hands that hit big flops J10 flopping a straight, Q10 flopping 2 pair and getting a caller with AK. So all in all i know its not just my play although I did work a nice short stack on Tilt back to a large stack. I'm playing well and running well and life is treating me well , so all in all I'm happy out.

I've also been in a dilema, i play gaelic football and i'm trying to decide whether or not to continue to do it. I cant continue to work, play football and play poker. Especially if I want to play poker full time at some point in the future! Sheesh life decisions I hate them! Anywho at the moment the poker is going well tomorrow night is the home game with a few mates on line usually around 30 of us and I usually just donate $5. I've not cashed in a few months now. Maybe tomorrow night I'll take it more serious .. I doubt it though! Remember if your holding Oddqueens your not doing too bad!

2 Wins and a Superbowl sunday!

Well hey there, flying at the moment in the S&g's, been playing for a couple of hours tonight from about 9 and am currently up $220+ on the night. The majority of this was earned in the last 2 tournies of the night in which i won both. A 45 man $10 on Full Tilt for $171 and a 27 man $11 on Stars for $100. I final tabled 3 45 man's tonight and I certainly got the run of the cards, i think i counted 4 occasions tonight where i cracked aces. So thankfully my run bad has turned into a super run good streak. I turned around the 27 man on stars quite unbelieveably. Had 285 chips left at one point. Had 2 double ups with a little bit of luck then cracked aces with Kj on a JJ6 flop then picked up aces . I layed it well but got my share of luck.

All in all today was a seriously good day at the tables. Not a huge amount of profit but profit all the same. I'm happy with the way I played and the way my patience held out. After 2 final tables wihtout cashing in the 45 mans I ran good and went and won the next one. Alot of the time this is where i blow 2 or 3 buys ins doing stupid stuff! But not toniight. Anyway am tired now and Peyton just threw an interception to effectively end the superbowl. So thats that .. Remember if your holding Oddqueens your not doing too bad!

February 2010

Hey all,
well i made goal number 2. I hit $200 by January 31st so was well happy with myself! Won a couple of $10 27 man S&G's to push me just over the $200 in cash earned mark it down as the goal reached. I've had a few goes at a few different games then but I'm down to $150 now, so the goal for February is to turn it into $500.

Been playing a few $10 games trying to pick a few spots where i think the play on stars is weak. So I've been trying to play a few and chip up, its been going decently enough although I havent had any wins I've a couple of seconds and a few min cashes! I've hand $150 in the full tilt account and it was down to $70 before a second place in a 45 man tonight brought me back up to $190. a minature profit for the month but i'll take it. No complaining about any profits!

The goal for Full tilt is to turn that money into a cash in one of the upcoming FTOPS. I hope to have $250 in cash in the account by March 1st and hopefully at least a min cash in one of the FTOPS.I'm thinking the NL game is my best shot but I might have a go at a couple of the HORSE /Omaha hi/lo satellites!

On a personal note the wife got her beautiful long hair cut today she is donating it to locks of love. Its a great charity that makes wigs for kids with Cancer. Unfortunately the trip to the hairdressers did not agree with her. My wife has a rare disease called MCS, or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Which basically means she has really bad reactions to everyday chemicals and frangrance. Unfortunately she is suffering tonight, but its for a good cause. Her hair looks fabulous as well! She is beautiful and I love her and my little daughter to bits!

Thats all for now but remember when your holding Oddqueens your not doing too bad!

So Challenge number 2!

Well hello all enjoying this blogging thing a little its good to get some of the poker stuff off the chest even if its onto cyber paper and possibly into cyberspace as no one reads this! But hey I dont really do it for anyone other than myself!

I managed to get a few games in tonight and came away with a decent enough return. I played about 5 tournaments got 1 final table and 1 cash. The final table I split the 1st & 2nd prize for a profit of $74 on the tournie and i had a min cash in a $12k $5.50 turbo tournie. I was slightly unlucky when i ran my 10's into Q's in a pot that would have put me 5th in chips with 700 left. But the blinds were rising ridiculously quick and in these turbo tournie you chip up or chip out.

Happy with the nights work. about $50 overall profit. Not great but not a long night playing either.

On other notes ... MANCHESTER UNITED 3-1 MANCESTER CITY ... thats right city you can take your money and shove it. You cant buy history, you cant buy tradition and you cant buy class .... Rooney. I may have had a small bet on the outcome of the match .. it may just have been United to win 3-1 and it may have been the sweetest win I've had in a few weeks all the more because my beloved United were the team responsible for the payout!

Going to publish a few little pics of the little one over the weekend and maybe some poker pics as well as soon as I work out how to take screen snaps of hands etc! Anyway until next time if anyone is reading remember if your holding Oddqueens your not in bad shape! :-)

January's coming to an end and Pokerstars is showing a profit!

Well hello there world! I know this blog actually doesnt have any readers yet!

Well anyway in my last installment I had plans to turn the small bit of money in my Pokerstars account in $100. It didnt exactly work out as planned but it sort of worked out. I lost the initial $45 and deposited €200. Which works out at about $270. Anyway i worked away an have kept the $270 in the account as of my signing out tonight i have $271.72 in cash and $162 in tournament dollars, which is basic buy ins for my tournies for the next while. It all came about from a run in a few $10 tournies and winning a satelite for the Sunday Million.

So basically my goal was to make $55 and i've made $107. So goal number 1 for January has been achieved! The idea now is to withdraw the cash and turn the $162TD's into $200. That would be a nice little turnover for January .. Only 5 days left in January though :-).

Also had a really deep run in the $5 Ante-Up $3k guaranteed. Finished 16th for $24. Its not a great return for outlasting 864 people. But the payout structure is very top heavy with $800 to first and 550 to second. I actually have a final table in this event late in 2009 for a 2nd place finish and also have a final table for 5th!I've only played this tournie a hand full of times, i think if i do manage to go full time by 2011/12(which is the goal) I'll add it as a regular tournie.

On the home front things are going great , little aurora is beginning to smile which is insanely satisying for both of her proud parents. My sis is currently in my house for a few days , she brought her Wii and I think the wife is becoming addicted. So therefore I could have a pass to buy a Wii :-) I wont say i'm disappointed! Its certainly alot healthier for kids and adults than the Atari2600 or Commador64 i grew up with which left your eyes seeing little stars when you played too long. To be honest being a sports junkie i never did too much of the staring at computers lark but when i did do it i did it spectacularly well often spending 7 hours playing Street Fighter!!! Always as Ryu of course as I was still going through my Brue Lee phase. Who am i kidding I still love Bruce and will buy/read anything I ever see on him.

Not sure how to add blogs i read, but a couple i find both educational and very entertaing are Tao of Poker, Hard Boiled Poker, BWOP, I Had Outs, Shaniac and The Poker Shrink. I'll be adding these as blogs i read as soon as i figure this blog thing out. Might take me a week or so before i can actually sit down and learneverything i need to learn but hey give me time. Also read a very interesting blog on the Ultimate Bet scandal on Haley's poker blog. It was a referral from Seamus at Hard Boiled Poker, so check it out its an interesting read.

Anyway peeps i'm living on little sleep as is its now 2.00am and the baby is sleeping which means i should be sleeping! :-) good luck at the tables ..and remember if your holding Oddqueens your in good shape!

Poker!

Yes i'm back and i'm completely driven to actually get this blog up and going! I've made 6 or 7 attempts over the last few months to actually draft and publish posts but they've just not made it here. On the family front my wife gave birth to our beautiful little girl aurora on 4th December 2009!

Currently i'm running a little challenge for myself. I'm trying to play some micro stakes on Pokerstars and turn $44 into $100. If i can achieve that within the next week it will be a small step on my goal to make January a big winning month.

I've been doing well in the $10 , 45 man S&g's on fulltilt. Cashing on average in about 1 in 4 and winning one in 10. Which is leaving a nice profit on my account. Its been paying the shortfall from my earning to my spendings each month ... lol. I'm planning on moving up to the $24 45 mans in time but it will take me about a month/or more to figure out the difference in the standards. $10 is pretty much ABC with a couple of trucky individuals.

I just had a pretty strange session on FT where i got into 5 flips and lost all of them, each time i got it in with the best of it but they didnt hold any time. 8's beaten by Q high flush when short stack shoved with Q7 diamonds. AK beaten by 8's. KQ beaten by KJ. It was just one of those nights i guess.

So overall that would be a $28.50 loss. I played 2 $10 and a $6.50 satellite for a $26 ticket. Its now 0:42 in the morning here and the baby is asleep and the wife is in the shower! So i think i'm actually going to hit the hay ... even though i'm at a loss for the night i think when the luck isnt with you its often better to just sleep it off.

Small goals for January ... turn the $44 in pokerstars into $100.
Turn $180 in FT into $500. Oh and a couple of qualifiers for the next FTOPS and the SCOOP!

Big goal for 2010. Qualify for a WPT/EPT/WSOP Event. The Irish Open is also the big big goal for 2010. And of course to take down a Sunday major! And make a million .. thats all for now folks!