Another topsy turvy day

iPoker runs like a dog. Pacific runs like God on a scooter (apologies to whichever blogger I stole that from).

I found a beautiful fishy table at 2/4 on iPoker yesterday, with one 100/0 fish and another 80/40 maniac sitting on my right. Unfortunately the maniac sucked out a couple of massive pots on me, and then promptly handed it over to one of the table TAGs and left. Feeling pretty disgusted, I fired up a four $10 SNGs and busted out of all of them in double quick time. That was a tilt, I think.

A little later I played a couple of 2/4 tables on Pacific and won back 20BB or so to mollify my mood somewhat.

I have to say that in my observations of 2/4 in the last couple of weeks, I have found it to be actually a weaker game than 1/2. Is this possible? There certainly seem to be just as many fish compared to 1/2. Another element is perhaps that I am playing a little better at 2/4 because the stakes are significant compared to my bankroll whereas my play at 1/2 can get a bit undisciplined at times.

When poker makes the mainstream news...

It's rather unfortunate that the biggest story to make the mainstream news about poker concerns the UB and AP scam. What I didn't know, is that the scam was ultimately uncovered by an Aussie, Michael Josem.

I hope that this story does not cause a crisis of confidence in online poker. I am not too concerned about cheating at the levels I play. I figure if you can see the other guy's cards you are probably going to play at least medium to high stakes and not waste time playing 1/2 and 2/4.

I would assume that this particular loophole has been closed at UB and AP. My concern with depositing money at those two rooms is less about cheating, and more about the failure of the company if a large civil action against the company were successful. I completed the PSO kickback at UB without any dramas.

The cooler that was bound to come

Had a nasty cold session the other night on Pacific. Lost maybe 50BB at 2/4 and some more at 1/2. The tables felt pretty fishy, so I persisted, but unfortunately the turnaround never came. I won a total of seven pots in the last 100 hands ( playing 5-6 handed), and caught a ridiculous number of second best hands (2nd best straights etc).

What I am quite happy about is that I don't feel too destroyed by it (even though it's probably my worst single session loss). In the context of my month and my week, I'm still pretty happy overall.

In other news, I just finished my books on Paddy. Now for the two month wait for them to turn up so I can learn something to plug my leaks ;)

A timely reminder..

I played a couple of 3/6 tables just now, and was sickened by the following beat:

AA in the pocket, board runs Ts3s4d8d5d. The villain turns over 67 to make his gutshot on the river. Huge pot, multiway action. Sick, sick, sick. I was UTG+1, and only cold called the UTG raise PF - perhaps I should have 3 bet? Oh well. It's just as well I finished 15BB up on the other table :/

Yes, yes it is

It is unfortunate, now that this blog actually has an audience that I have to share this and inevitably attract sharks to my (currently) favourite pool, but this is too good to keep to myself.

I sat at three tables on LuckyAce tonight, one 2/4 FR, one 2/4 6max and one 1/2 6max. In the space of 90 minutes, I netted around 85BB (mostly at the 2/4 tables). 1/2 table actually looked the fishiest, but I was just treading water there mostly. I hit a massive heater in a very short space of time, making big hands on all three tables simultaneously. This one was king (or should I say Queen).

***** Hand History for Game 2120764923 *****
$2.00/$4.00 Limit Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, September 23, 08:41:12 ET 2008
Table Shirley Temple (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 2: Tini516 ( $84.00 USD )
Seat 3: Xmylly ( $440.45 USD )
Seat 4: _blindman_ ( $98.90 USD )
Seat 5: jayke ( $61.25 USD )
Seat 6: any2baby ( $117.15 USD )
Seat 7: NGT23 ( $49.55 USD )
Seat 8: 27272 ( $177.85 USD )
Seat 9: liandev2 ( $143.08 USD )
Seat 10: kkrotov ( $163.75 USD )
27272 posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
liandev2 posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to _blindman_ [ Qc Qd ]
kkrotov folds
Tini516 calls [$2.00 USD]
Xmylly folds
_blindman_ raises [$4.00 USD]
jayke calls [$4.00 USD]
any2baby folds
NGT23 folds
27272 folds
liandev2 calls [$2.00 USD]
Tini516 calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, 7h, Qs ] (oh yeah baby)
liandev2 checks
Tini516 bets [$2.00 USD]
_blindman_ calls [$2.00 USD](Yeah, flush draw but I'll take a punt on milking it)
jayke raises [$4.00 USD] (Thankyou!)
liandev2 calls [$4.00 USD]
Tini516 calls [$2.00 USD]
_blindman_ raises [$4.00 USD] (Hammer time!)
jayke raises [$4.00 USD] (nice)
liandev2 folds
Tini516 calls [$4.00 USD] (nicer)
_blindman_ calls [$2.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ad ] (great card)
Tini516 bets [$4.00 USD]
_blindman_ calls [$4.00 USD] (the pot is huge, nobody is going anywhere)
jayke raises [$8.00 USD]
Tini516 calls [$4.00 USD]
_blindman_ raises [$8.00 USD]
jayke raises [$8.00 USD]
Tini516 calls [$8.00 USD]
_blindman_ calls [$4.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Tc ] (KJ? pretty unlikely)
Tini516 checks
_blindman_ bets [$4.00 USD]
jayke calls [$4.00 USD]
Tini516 calls [$4.00 USD]
_blindman_ shows [Qc, Qd ]
_blindman_ wins $101.50 USD from main pot (yeah, baby)

The fishiest game ever?

I wonder if 2/4 on Pacific isn't the fishiest game ever. I played for a while yesterday, and while the cards never really ran my way (a few too many river beats), the players were terrible. VPIP was running at over 70 for a while, and most of the players were passive too (80/2, 70/8, that sort of thing). I was well down for a while until I took down a monster pot with AA (capped PF with 3 players and plenty of action right to the river). I ended up only about 12BB up, but I think that was an unlucky session overall.

iPoker is still running pretty cold for me. I don't think I will stick around after I finish the book bonus.

A frustrating weekend

I opened an account at PaddyPower (iPoker) to take advantage of the 2+2 book offer. Unfortunately after only a couple of hours play there I find myself down nearly $100. I have stuck to 1/2 so far, but just seem to be missing all the flops. Oh well, I guess it will turn around.

I also dragged myself out of bed at 4am this morning (in the freezing cold, I might add) to play in a $15,000 freeroll for the EPT London on Pacific. Sadly it was not my day, and I finished around 64 out of 86 runners. I actually saw plenty of decent PF hands, including AA, KK, QQ, and a couple of AKs - but I just never managed to get paid off with the decent hands, and instead I got people playing back at me when I had marginal hands like AT, KQ and 77. In the end I busted out on a completely bonehead bluff. I correctly read the weakness of my opponent's hand, but he found a call with TPNK.