I love HU

I've spent the past week with very little internet access and a very large workload but today after getting up early and pulling a very heavy suitcase along with a bag full of textbooks and course notes plus a laptop for a good 40minutes (I was sweating like a pig at the end of it) I have got my reward: A decent room and internet access!

Summer school at the LSE (london school of economics) started horribly, I havent done any academic work for the last 2 months anyway so to start after a long break with "advanced econometrics" isn't a good idea. After the first lecture I felt like I had a brain tumour but I was also very scared that I wouldn't make the grade needed to do the MSc in Finance and Economics and the LSE. But things have gradually improved and I now realise that we go into A LOT more technical detail than I need to pass the exam, which is good because I suck at econometrics anyway. The midterm exam is on wednesday I think and I plan on revising a lot tomorrow since I have absolutely nothing today. On a side note though I actually enjoy being busy during the day and really feeling stretched, its something that I havent done for a while and for some reason it makes me feel tired but happy. :)

I played my first bit of poker for a week today and it was great. When I went on holiday with my parents a couple of weeks ago I didn't miss poker at all but suprisingly I missed it a lot this week - perhaps because I wasn't with people I know. I'm on my sisters laptop at the moment so I cant really access the HH very easily aside from opening them one by one which isnt very appealing when they are hundreds of them so I'm going to just give a little account from memory.

My first opponent was someone whose name I recognised but only vaguely, we started playing a 5/10 game which soon turned into two 5/10 tables (he wanted to play a 10/20 one but since I have some financial uncertainty right now I don't think that I want to have large swings right now although I am certainly bankrolled for it if I want to play). The first key hand was a bit of spew by me which I think was down to the fact that I couldnt wait to play and I had a bit of an itchy trigger finger, I ended up spewing a buyin to him after a few hands where he raised and cbet, I checkraised the flop on a paired board then led the turn and shoved the river, he apparently floated the flop C/R with Q9 and caught TP on the turn. Now my image was really crappy but it enabled me to sit back, tighten up and exploit it. The next key hand was where I raised QJs and caught a SFD on the flop, cbet and hit my flush on the turn, he led, I raised and he 3bet, I called and then shoved the river to be called by middle pair turned 2pair on the river.

Next hand I floped TP in a raised pot and C/R the flop and led the turn, my opponent shoved with A high and obviously I called. We are pretty deep at this point and I 3bet PF with 89o and flop TP on a draw heavy board, I lead out and my opponent shoves, obviously I call and he shows 2 unders but manages to hit his 2pair draw for a 400BB pot. A few hands later my opponent quickly open raises to $235 when his standard raise had been $35, since he did it so fast it was obviously a mislick so I shoved with my 88, he called with k7 and flopped a K. A few hands later we got it in PF with my AK vs his 88 and he won the race and finally a few more hands later my set lost to a FD allin on the flop. /end whine. The good news is that I was only down roughly 2 Buyins which was a real accomplishment given how badly I ran, I really felt in control of the match and aside from the early spew I thought I played well. The funny thing is that I subsequently found out that this guy actually plays the £20000nl game (yes thats twenty thousand pounds) occasionally as well as games as low as 2knl and obviously 1knl. Sweet.

Its a bit late now and I don't really want to go into the next match in detail but basically I owned someone for around 4k which meant that I am up around 1.5k for the day. :D

A New Video

Basically I said that I would try to make a video before I go away on sunday so here it is. There is a mix of $500, £500 and $1000 including both HU and 6 max, however I basically concentrated on the HU match once it became obvious that it was potentially quite profitable so the 6max play is basically ABC and it does contain some mistakes (one absolutely massive one) however I point out these mistakes in the commentary so hopefully things should be ok.

I recorded a session (initially with the intention of commentating live) then I watched the video while recording again and commentating. It is a 3 part series and here is the first part which is 40mins I think.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/vie93s - Part 1
http://www.sendspace.com/file/h4qxmk - Part 2
http://www.sendspace.com/file/y33ewl - Part 3 (final part)

I'm going to London on Sunday and I don't know what sort of internet access I will have to I probably won't be able to post for a bit, so until next time... good luck and have fun at the tables.

Update

I realise that this "poker blog" hasn't had much topical content recently but I'm been really busy with moving house, graduation and trying to organise some sort of accomodation in London for the summer school (since the LSE overbooked their halls, bastards) but I'll try to get some hands discussion in here over the next week before I leave. Generally poker has been going really well in terms of results plus I feel that I've hit another run of improvement. This makes me pretty happy because there is nothing worse than playing and feeling that you have nothing to learn but even if you want to learn that you wouldn't know where to look. Currently I feel that I am playing well and my game has improved but I'm still also aware that I'm not playing perfectly and there is lots more to learn.

I'm pretty tired right now and I don't really want to activate my brain by going over hands before I want to sleep so I'm afraid this is another low content post. :P

Anyway good luck at the tables guys.

PS: someone asked me to make a video for Ptips and if things continue to go well then I might do that next week.

Quick Update

Just a short post before I go to the train station. I enjoyed the holiday with my family in Wales although I got a little bored at some times it was nice and relaxing - just what I needed plus in some ways a little break from poker was nice. I got a first for my degree so that means I have met the conditions of my offer for a masters at the LSE as long as I attend and do well in a little summer school course which starts in 2 weeks. I still haven't heard back from them about my accomodation which is slightly unnerving but hopefully things will be sorted out before I leave. Just going back to York for a few days to have my graduation and sort out the house I am living in then I'm back home. I've played a bit of poker in the last two days and really enjoyed it, I played a massive HU game against one person who was +4 buyins against me at one point but I managed to turn things around and ended up +2 buyins before he left, sweet!