Feb update

Feb. 8, 2011

Well things are going well at the moment, im playing with real clarity, picking the right games, taking apart the games of reg’s I was previously losing to and playing a much more balanced game. Balance in itself is worthy of a book in my opinion. A big problem I see is players thinking about balancing ranges where there is absolutely no bloody point. It takes a given set of circumstances to ever worry about balance. Firstly, you need to be playing that guy regularly, by that I mean daily. Secondly that player needs to be a very good thinking player, who also views you as likewise. Thirdly, they need to be a proper player, capable of courageous calldowns and big bluffs. Many regs, whilst likely suspecting something, just lack the heart to follow it up. These guys can be exploited the hell out of. There is one reg in particular I play who has a fold to cbet by street of 40/50/75. What that means is he absolutely believes a triple barrel. So almost regardless of board texture and what I can credibly rep, I triple him constantly; and will do until he makes a big calldown. Being balanced makes you MUCH tougher to play against, because bluffing is so goddamn powerful in nlh and ultimately, players just don’t bluff anywhere close to gto.


Im having huge difficulties with a couple of players. They are extremely difficult because they are very well balanced, their ranges are very wide at all times and they are good enough to handread that they put enormous pressure on my slightly exploitable game. I know I am being exploited, but right now the games are so good I feel adjusting would probably be negative for my overall bottom-line. I have learnt a tonne in the last 3 or 4 months and really feel that I have a solid game for playing regs and a superb default game for playing fish (note, I see this all the time- a fish is sitting with 300bb on a sat/fri night, playing really splashy/aggro. You have direct position on fish. GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO PLAY SUPER AGGRO v this guy. I mean 3betting all sorts of shite, showing him big bluffs and getting him riled. If you can get him wobbling, you will be the recipient. Worst case scenario, you get a big bluff called down. Nevermind, you now have direct position, a great image v that player and you can also probably cost the bluff differently as hopefully a tonne of regs just saw you take that snazzy line/bluff which will enable you to get more value in future. Having a lot of bluffs in your range is just a really good overall gameplan, but sensible bluffs :P



Warrington is going well. Im not going to name names, okok, Chaddy and Kyle in particular (suckmynutz and weekyle) have REALLY developed fast in a very short space of time. Really solid players at the moment. Other guys like Fieldy (Yoda) and Akko (second chance) have improved so much in so little time that a lot of the time I don’t want to play because they just soak up information like a sponge. Its really rewarding to have people listen and be able to see the visible improvement in their game, especially at the rate some of them are.



I have a prop bet with a few other farmers, potato head, degen and tyler regarding our winrate for the month. Seeing as Tyler is off the boil at the moment, calum is out-thinking himself (alien obv) and losing, it looks already like a race between me and degen. He already owes me 5 grand so I guess it’s a free roll? J



Really gonna miss the warrington lads, pretty great bunch of people, even is some are (as OD would say reeee-tard’s, ahem, kyle and to a SLIGHTLY lesser extent Kai) but really fun group. Dave even feeds us sometimes. That said, im super excited to be going to S.A cant wait for seeing sunshine, eating some nice food and hopefully having a better lifestyle. The remote side of the business is going ok too, an old online buddy is playing plo on billy hills. He was initially a bit annoyed at being forced to play so “low”, but he has been moved up, a cracking player so hopefully will do well. Another guy I know from 2+2 has joined the farm community, hes a bit of a nit (probably had E-dog as coach in a previous life) but we will get that CO and BTN steal north of 40 and 50, which will probably single-handedly get him crushing 200nl.

So, this week im going to donate £500 to the ukipt, whilst seeing a few poker people I wont see again until the series. Basically a well-deserved jolly up, especially after James making Keys had a monster result in Aussie, coming 2nd in the main for, oh, about a milli. Many grats to tricky also for winning every degen buy-in comp the world over. $250k buyin! Normal.

So, cliff notes, month going well, northern people are monkeys, running so good I refuse to tick “display allin EV” on the graph below.