Joe Blogs

Haiti Fund

2010-01-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

Taken from Bazclef;

The scene an hour's drive west of Port-au-Prince is apocalyptic. Almost every single building on the road I'm driving on now has been flattened.
The destruction here is even more dramatic than the dreadful conditions in the capital. People have fled to the surrounding sugarcane fields or into mangrove swamps - anything to get away from the nightmare of the falling buildings.
I've seen a long line of people queuing up at a single working water tap. Tens of thousands are living in the open in church compounds, school playgrounds and marketplaces.
The population here are in profound shock. Many are wearing handkerchiefs over their mouths to keep out the dust and ward off the smell of dead bodies.

David Orr, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme...

Many thousands were feared dead.
"Nearly every house was destroyed here. The military are talking about 20,000 to 30,000 dead."
Many survivors have been leaving quake-hit areas in search of food, water and medicine.

Quoting boywonder's Leggopoker blog...

Guys,

Stars, Tilt and Cake are making you an offer you can´t refuse. Any donations made to help ease the terrible struggle of the people in Haiti will be matched dollar for dollar.

If you are going to give another cent to charity in your life, let it be this time when Lederer and the boys match it.

I shipped 1 buy-in to "Aid for Haiti" on Fulltilt. 1 single buy-in. In fact, I should be ashamed for not giving more, and hopefully I will shame myself into giving another buy in. Unfortunately I already gave some today earlier before I found out about this amazing opportunity. However, by the time I wake up tomorrow, I won´t even remember having done that.

Leggo and the rest of the poker-community, let´s show the world that we are not the bumhunting nits everybody thinks we are, and donate 1 or half of a buy-in of your regular stake, and inspire others to do the same. Encourage your friends and family to help through you, so that they too can get 2:1 on their money and benefit from this bargain deal.

Within 24 hours, you will forget about it, and the effect it will have on your life will be completely insignificant. However, a child may have clean drinking water or hospital aid due to your generosity.

Donate a buy-in now!

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/aid-for-haiti

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/2010/pokerstars-sets-up-haiti-earthquake-appe-063299.html

MONTH #1 AS A FULLY FLEDGED POKER PRO ROUND-UP

2009-07-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

Too be honest it has been a little dissapointing. 2.75 BB/100 over 90K hands is poor. I would put a little of this down to running bad, but mostly down to the monotony of playing 2-3 hours EVERY DAY of the week. It's difficult not to overthink hands and start messing with regs etc. My redline is disappointing too, though at 25nl I've heard also that a slightly negative redline is fine too as long as your blue line is raising at a bigger rate (obv).

In terms of money made I'm actually happy enough. $1400 +about $700 rakeback is more than enough to keep me going.

I'm going to Greece now for 10 days.

Back on Track

2009-06-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

Things are going good again. Just had a +7 buy in day, and didn't even really play that long which is nice. And a positive red line which always feels good. My overall stats are actually a little depressing to look at, running just a little over 3.5BB/100 which isn't impressive at all but it is giving me a better hourly than a normal job. Just need to really start putting in more hours if I'm going to afford inter railing. We bought our flights today for the 3rd of August, flying straight into Amsterdam which is gonna be savage.

Had a couple of interesting hands, both of them versus regs and one versus my arch-nemesis, Virmos, who's an absolute nit. I've noticed that he will only really sit at tables where he's either across the table from, or has position on me, and I've berated him for it too. It felt SWEET.

And this beauty was a savagely cold deck for villain but he could have folded. Probably for the first time ever I typed something into the chat to try to extract the call. On the river after I went all in I said "Two pair no good". I did this hoping to rep the set because I actually had him on a weak flush. To be honest it was just a savagely cold deck, but I'm sure some regs might fold. The magical thing about this is that we both had more than one buy-in. My advice; If you're gonna hit a straight flush, -do it in a situation like this;

On a different note I've found a guilty pleasure song that is really cheesy but a friend threw it on for me recently and I haven't stopped listening to it since. It is pretty fucking cheesy though.

Later

Pulling my teeth out

2009-06-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

Have nothing more to say.

Pulling my hair out

2009-06-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

Since my last post about a week ago I've been putting off another post until I have something positive to say. Just played about two hours there and finished up about 4 BI's so I'll update how I've been doing. I've played about 20k hands, about 4/500 of those were played drunk which I will never attempt again. Another 4/5K of those were played while exceptionally tired after a night out (which I will also never attempt again) and the rest of them (bar today's) I was just playing poorly. Granted there are some ugly, ugly bad beats in there which are just plain unpleasant and happening with frightening regularity but that's part of poker. Over those 20K hands I ran at just over 1BB/100. A fantastic return for a reg at 25nl. Not. The really disappointing thing is that my red line (money won without showdown) Has been consistently heading south which is not the norm for me. I don't know if I'm just getting unlucky or c-betting too much but I'm down $125 from money won without showdown and even in the winning session I just had my red line is down.

I do have a couple of juicy hands from my sessions. I could choose from an absolute reem of bad beats but I'll only choose this one. These ones frustrate me the most. Far more than just cold decks, these really hurt me and put me on tilt:

^This genius 'traps' with AQ on the button, gets $8 into the pot behind, and $1.5 in the pot when he sucks out on the river.

For the newbs out there I'll provide ye with a short but very profitable lesson on how to crack queens with 45s out of position.

Eat that.

+ 3.5hours, + 3.5 BI.

2009-06-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

Can't complain, tipping along nicely. Was up about 5 BI at one point but if ever anyone has run card dead while 22 tabeling I just did it. Hit a set exactly once every 45 times I saw a flop with a pocket pair which is never nice. No special hands of note, -biggest winning hand was AA on the day by a long way.

The first is me bullying a nit, -12/5, nothing gives me greater pleasure than sneaking a pot from their cold lifeless hands.

And this is me being too aggro. Not sure what if I would play this different again. I guess I could have checked the turn. I'll post it on two plus two (here) and see what they say.

My overall stats on both sites since starting to play cash just two months ago. Rakeback is not included:

It works out at roughly $24/ before rakeback. but I'm improving :)

Tipping along

2009-06-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

Haven't really played a whole bunch over last two days, - between two and three hours which is pretty rubbish. Running roughly at 4BB/100 so happy enough. Made about $150 since my monster day, but I am running way above ev and not really playing very well. Was out last night and was very tired all day so couldn't concentrate and stopped. There were a couple of interesting hands and one that I think I did play well:

Villain in above hand was a 20/16 TAG reg and it's always nice to bust a reg. Hopefully he'll have second thoughts about joining my table again:)

Q4s is loose I know and generally I avoid these hands like the plague but the villain in this hand was a 32/2 calling station and in general a poor player. Suited cards on the button? -raise and isolate... I know I did smash that flop (and turn) but I have been working on isolating the weaker players at the table. To be honest I have had to work on this because 25nl isn't as soft as people think. I play most of my games around 10am to 6pm GMT, which is absolutely loaded with regs. I should really work on playing later in the day when tired Americans come home from work to donate. Long story short the only way to make money is to play as much as possible with the weaker players and just try to hold your own versus the other TAGs. Looking to stack regs is a very tricky business, and value can only really be taken from them by abusing their blinds and pushing them around in very small pots. It's the five-tabeling part time players with stats like 20/15 that are the best at doing this, and I'm sure I'm a prime target for them. I've noticed a few of the regs floating flops and 3 betting me more and more. They always seem to have the goods when I make a stand too! meh.

I've made a little over 2K now since I started playing cash. Running very slightly above 4BB/100 over 97K hands. Rakeback should make in or around 200 more at the mo, though I will wait for a $650 bonus.

Over and out, -post any comments/ questions.

Joe

Biggest day yet

2009-06-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

Monster day today. Played 8k hands and won a total of $382.23 over 6 hours of play. Feel great! Basically I was smashing flops left right and center especially towards the end of the day. I even finished below ev!

Did have a couple of sickeners but I really can't complain after a day like today.

This hand is my funniest yet in my database. This is the standard of player I'm up against, the type of player that pays my rent and puts me through college. It is a

...

Update

2009-06-05T16:34:00.001-07:00

Been a quiet week in terms of poker for me. Haven't really been able to concentrate properly but I did put in a few hours today. Ran well and finished up about 8 buy ins. Couple of interesting hands and a few bad beats too.

This is my updated graph to date, and also I recently started playing on another site that gives much better rake back:

So far since the first of June I've made roughly $30/ hr before rakeback. I didn't realise I had been making that much till just now and it feels good. Having said that I've only played about 14 hrs which is really only two days proper work, and I need to pick up the hours if I'm gonna pay for inter-railing later this summer.

Interesting hands from my session:

Sickest hand I've ever played and probably sickest hand you'll ever see:

And I think I'd do this all over again. Villain in this case is running at 93/39 over 60 hands. His min raise looked so much like a donkey bluff and I reshoved. Really he still should have folded AQ pretty much at every stage in this hand but he made the 'hero' call and took down a $50 pot with A high!

Won't be playing tommorrow because I am going to Waterford with lads from college to a house party. I'll probably play and update again on Sunday.

J

2009-05-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

Ups and downs

2009-05-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

Down: United lost
Up: +8 BI day today
Down: Still lost sklansky $$$ today
Up: I can pay rent
Down: United lost
Up: Close to getting to platinum star and my $650 bonus
Down: United lost
Up: I got demented to drown my sorrows:)

My stats at 25nl have turned pretty average to be honest. Beating it at a rate of 3.17BB/100, which isn't world class by any means, -though if you added on my sklansky bucks it would be a lot higher. Made just short of 1K since I started playing cash so I can't complain.

Despit this hand I still managed to run below ev on the day. I did rather enjoy sucking out on this dude, -I had been three betting him quite a bit so there was no way I was ever getting off it.

This one confused me a little, -it was against a supernova who I'm sure has a HUD and knows that I'm not splashing around with nothing. I suckered him in nicely but man it was just badly played on his part.

Running bad

2009-05-27T07:53:00.001-07:00

Nothing hurts more than getting consistently unlucky at poker. It hurts so bad, especially if you plan to live off it for the summer. I just seem to be unable to get anything going, - sets aren't getting paid off, -I'm running hands into bigger hands and getting sucked out on. I have to play because I need to get to supernova again and get a $650 bonus to pay my rent.

I'm down about $250 in Sklansky bucks which at the moment is about 1/3 of my bankroll. And all-in ev only tells half the story.

I made a mental note since starting my blog that I wouldn't bitch about running bad, - so on a brighter note United are playing in the champions league final tonight. Gonna get drunk and forget all about poker till tomo.

Tipping away

2009-05-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Been playing quite a bit recently, -punching slightly below my weight with the following stats:

My hourly rate over 10 hours played worked out at $20.33 an hour which is fine but hopefully once I get out of a slump of running bad I will be making more. I felt at the start I played quite poorly but stepped it up a notch after posting my hands on 2+2 and getting some serious abuse. To top it off over those first 4K hands I didn't run good by any stretch of the imagination. There were a couple of key pots that help me maintain a decent hourly, The first outlines the merits of reraising with pocket kings:

This one is one that I posted on 2+2 and everyone thought I played it horribly, but I like it :) :

The early position raiser was running 13/5, basically raising AK or QQ+ and then calling pocket pairs, so I actually put him a big PP pre flop. Took a stab with a suited connector and got paid off... Lucky I know but I ain't complaining.

This is my pick of the bad beats:

and this tested my sanity too:

1 exam left on monday. Gonna see star trek tonight with Janis and then hit the books again tommorrow.

Over and out.

Exams, with a little grinding in between.

2009-05-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

Just finished my fifth exam out of seven. It went really well I'm not used to coming out of exams and actually feeling ok about how they went. It's a new and strange feeling. Don't know if I've been just getting lucky or what but I think I've done very well in almost all of them so far touch wood. I have ground out another 7K hands or so since my last post. 3 hours ish yesterday. Wasn't bad at all, I made a few bob but it wasn't anywhere near my hourly rate.

Here is a beautiful hand I played v's some sucker slow playing a set, - the nice thing about this was the pot odds he gave me to catch up. He even could have folded the river (but I prolly wouldn't have, -then again I wouldn't have slowplayed it:) ).

I't seemed like this sort of thing kept happening to me over the last few hands, -Nothing to complain about, just a little variance to keep me on my toes. This is one of many I could have picked:

Stats:
Hours: 39.18
Total hands: 40,604
Vol. Put$ in pot: 12.95
PFR: 11.16
Hands/hr: 1036
BB/100: 4.66
$/hr: $24.19
Amount won: $947.75

PS, -39.18 hours put in total, - that's 1 weeks work during the summer. I'd be delighted with this return over the summer months :). Would set me up nicely for my final year in college.

For those of you who have just had one of those days.

2009-05-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

Press play and scroll down...

Running Hot

2009-05-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

Played a little yesterday and today and went on a really good run. Yesterday I finished upo $300 playing cash and I was just about to go to bed when I decided to short stack 1/2 omaha. Ten minutes and three buy ins later I finished the day at a total profit of $240. As a punishment today for losing silly money I woke up early today and put in a quick 1.5 shift before I went to gfs' party. Won A tidy $130 this morning so very happy. There are some serious fish around. I was 20 tabeling aswell and found it easy, may move up to 24 after I get used to 20.

Here are a couple of juicy hands:

Usually I would raise this pre but on this table I was running really high like30/25 or something and had only just sat down so I smooth called pre, -two donkeys.

SB special, served with a side dressing of OVER STRAIGHT. The thing I loved about this was the size of his raises. Trying to squeeze every last penny out of me and I was sitting with the nuts:) Fish.

Graph to date... Things looking good for summer.

Stats:
Hours played: 30.82
Total hands: 33,300
Amount won: $841.85
BB/100: 5.06
Vol. Put$ in pot: 12.96
Raised preflop: 11.29
$/hr: $27.3

2009-05-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

Poker has taken a back seat over the last week or so for my exams, -3 down 4 to go inc. one tomo. I did drop about $80 playing 10$ donkament 90 man sngs and ran bad, 0/10. Also my usb wireless adapter has broken so am using my neolithic laptop. I timed how long it takes to load internet explorer this morning after starting it up: 10:27 mins. Not sure what state my bankroll is in exactly, I imagine about 1200 or so. I haven't mentioned it before but I am staking a guy also, -ninersrule16:

I am really happy with how he's playing though I haven't actually heard from him in a while, -I'll need to get in contact with him soon just to check in but he has exams too at the mo so he hasn't been playing too often. He's been playing the 6 dollars sngs but I'll tell him to step up soon. I gave him 600$ to start with and I'm sure he's made a few moola from battle of the planets so he should have 100bi's at 10$ soon. The one thing going against him is the volume, -he plays 4 tables which makes it very difficult to make money off unless you're playing like $110. SNGS=VOLUME.

Please leave comments, -happy to answer any questions:)

Losing session

2009-05-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

One of those days that I just shouldn't have played. Kept getting sucked out on. Down $50 but considering I ran bad I'm actually just pleased it wasn't more.

Two of my favourites:
1.Lobotomised gibbon gets 58.6 big blinds in the middle with the nuts, -A7.

2.Bean #2 stacks it off with a flushdraw on the turn. (Villain was running something ridiculous like 50/30 hence re-raise pre)

Poker stats

2009-05-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

SO, I will give a little poker background info here to convey where I'm at: a couple of well placed screenshots:

Above are my current sharkscope stats for sngs and also my stats at 25nl. I've been running pretty bad for a long time now at sngs and have dropped down stakes from $39 to the $13 dollars to give my bankroll a breather, but my cash stats are promising and I can certainly get a much higher $/hr value at multi tabeling 18 cash than playing the $13 stts. Cash is tedious, boring as hell. But here's a mathematical equasion to clarify:

I heart $. $STT's<$CASH= Focus on cash.

At least until I have a bankroll big enough to start playing the $39 sngs again. Till that day:
Nana nana, nana nana, nana nana, nana nana, nana CASH STATS! (played to the batman theme tune)

Hands: 24,489
Hours: 23.05
Amount won: $651.75
BB/100: 5.32
$/hour: 28.28
VP$IP: 13.28
PFR: 11.59

I know it is a very small sample size, but I am happy with them stats because Joe heart $, savvy?

2009-05-08T13:19:00.000-07:00


	Hi my name is Joe Pegler, I am a college student in Cork, Ireland and am a part time-poker player. As of the start of the UCC term I attempted looking for a job around Cork city. I handed out maybe 20-30 CV's and did not receive one call back. I had money saved up from the summer so was not utterly desperate, but did need to start earning soon. I had been playing poker sporadically over the summer on pokerstars, but definitely not the stakes or the hours put in needed to make a regular profit. I decided to give a go at making a living off poker. If it didn't work out I could always get a student loan & start job searching again! My bankroll at that stage was very low ($40) So I used bankroll management to build my roll. I wouldn't buy in for more than 10% of my total bankroll, and if I ever had less than 10% I would drop down a level. I started playing the $3 turbos (6 at a time) and found the players there to be awful. That 40 was quickly ground up from 40 to $100 where I allowed myself to change from $3 turbos to $6 turbos. Players here were just as bad and it was in the space of a week I had that original $40 up to $170. This was all done playing 6 handed turbos. Week 1 profit: $130 I was delighted with my first weeks profit as a 'pro' but these kind of results are not sustainable at this level. So I pushed my self to move up to the $11 non-turbos. These games are probably my strongest considering the slow format of the non turbos. I had a big edge over the field picking good spots to get my money in. I also found I could play more than 6 games at a time so got through maybe 9-10 in one sitting. I'm always very slow to move up stakes and believe in excessive bankrolling but with about $450 in my account I decided again to move up stakes to the $20 non turbos. Again I crushed these games and consistently got my money in good at this level too. Some of the play here is terrible and a lot of average players here will make a profit if they can fold a hand and play solid preflop. At this point profits shot up and I made I think about $1600 from playing both the $10 and $20 in week 2. Again I was delighted. Week 3 hit and so did the variance. With roughly 2K in my account I again moved up stakes. It was at this point that I realised I could get through way more turbo games in one hour (despite only playing six at a time) than I could playing the non turbos, so to increase hourly profit I moved back to $25 turbos. I lost about $600 over 2 days and was looking at printing out my CV's again, when I came good. Everything kinda clicked into place and I caught some cards to turn this $600 deficit into a $100 profit that week. I was happy with the week despite the poor hourly rate because of some of the awful luck I had to put up with over the first two days. Week 4 was one of my biggest weeks. I hit cards left right and center and quickly spun the $2100 in my account up to about 3.5K This was done playing the $25 turbos and then the $39 turbos. The players in these turbo games are definitely poorer than the $30 non turbos. Although I have noticed some other big profit players sitting along with me at these stakes. Since then I changed to cash and multi table at the .10/.25 level for an hourly rate of about $30 an hour. I switched because I couldn't handle the variance of sngs, and my brother (http://finnianp.blogspot.com/) convinced me to change to cash. I currently do not have a big sample size at cash to determine which will be more profitable between the that or the $39s sngs, but with far more rakeback at cash and much less variance I can't see myself returning to sngs.