Playing too fast?

Listening to a Full Tilt podcast the other day got me thinking about my game again.

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Now I like to think of myself as a tight player who plays aggressive in most of the pots I enter.

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However I believe I may be playing too fast and aggressive when I hit a hand ... most of the time.

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Now everyone can slow play when they make a monster but can they slow play when hitting a hand ... say top pair top kicker for instance?

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Well the obvious answer is it depends on the opponent, past hand history, whether we are heads up and our own image ... etc, etc.

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However my personal answer is I don't believe I am playing slow enough at the right times.

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If you watch Phil Helmuth he looks like he makes alot of trap plays. However in reality I think he has a true angle on where his opponent is in the hand and he takes a few extra cards to get some more chips in the pot.

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Obviously he gets caught sometimes ... and I think this is why we see him get frustrated "Once in a While". But the truth is those extra chips ... especially in a tournament ... can mean the difference between winning and losing.

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So ... some key thoughts for my own game ...

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Don't chase people away so quickly when I hit my hand ...

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Try to improve my hand reading abilities ...

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Don't be afraid to let the hand go if I think the opponent has overtaken my hand ...

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and try to make a few extra chips.

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Until Next Time

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Keep it Tight!

Little things please little minds ...

... and with something as little as this I am not sure it will please anybody but me!

Thats right it is my sharkscope graph for my Pacific account ... what did you think I was talking about?

This all started from a dinky $20 I had in the account a few months back that I have now micro-SnG-ground out to a reasonable little balance.

My stats look quite pretty too ....

And the little icing on the cake ....

When I find a SnG tournament that shows up as neutral on the Sharkscope Tournament Selector and then join, the status changes from neutral to one of these ....

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Yep I am a one shark player on Pacific ...

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Maybe not big stakes but still a small shark ...

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He He!

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Until Next Time

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Keep it Tight!

Pokerstars UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT)

This looks quite interesting! Could this be a challenger to the GUKPT I wonder?

With buy ins from £500 - £2000 (or qualify on line) I am looking forwards to seeing how many runners there will be and what sort of total prize fund amounts will be up for grabs.

Will the major UK Pro's be attending?

I would think with the backing of Pokerstars this could be a very well run set of smaller buy in events.

I am going to have a look at the qualifying schedule and give a couple of the sub sats a go.

For now here is the expected tour dates.

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Until Next Time

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Keep it Tight!

Loss of Memory

I think I must be going slightly mad.

I played 3 events on the gala SnG decathalon and then completely forgot all about it until I just fired up my blog to make another post ... Doh!

I had two third spots and a 4th spot in the events I did play so I definitely wouldn't have been in the hunt for any of the prizes. However this isn't the reason I didn't play the rest of the events.

I have just been so busy.

So not much time for poker ... hence nothing of interest to put on the blog.

Nothing is certainly happening on the poker front other than messing around with a few free bonuses which are now cleared.

I did get a free £30 on William Hill Casino which is completely impossible to clear on their bonus terms (i.e. it had to be wagered £600 times. However a game such as craps only counts as 10% of the wagered value so on this game alone I would have to wager the £30 for £6000 times). Still it was free entertainment.

I am starting to feel like I need to do something interesting to make it worth people even reading this blog.

Lets see if I can win at the Jolly Waggoner poker tournament on Thursday to make a post worthwhile.

Until Next Time

Keep it tight!

Gala free tourney offer

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Gala Poker are putting on the following promo

10 free sit and go tournaments as per the following table

Earn points for wins as per the following table

Finish in the top 200 and share prizes of $50,000 dollars

Now I haven't played much Omaha and I haven't played any Stud 7. But if only to learn a new game format I will still have a go at this.

I am under no illusion I do not think I can get into the top 200 but it is a great offer.

Until next time.

Keep it Tight!

This tickled me!

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!

Concentrating on Poker

Well I have probably spent the best part of last month trying to figure out how to make Betfair a winning proposition - and I can't.

Horses, dogs, football, motor sports ...

I have had successes and losses but in the end the margins of winning and losing is so small that unless I am wagering large stakes i cannot see a future in it.

I certainly make more profit playing poker.

In fact this little detour has helped me to decide whether poker is a game of skill or not.

In my mind:

Sports betting = no control over the outcome in any situation = gambling.

Poker = personal decisions influencing the outcome of a given situation = game of skill ...

END OF !!

So from now on I will be concentrating solely on playing poker.

This doesn't mean I won't be having the odd day at the races or the odd punt on England in the world cup ... but gambling will be purely reserved for pleasure ... nothing else.

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!