IPC and TCOOP

Thank foook Xmas and New Year is over with.Had a few good nights out ending with BIGMICKG and his mrs Helen coming down to myself and Ann Marie for NYE. Great night which ended up with me playing luckymo32 HU at 6:30 in the morning on pokerstars.fr while drinking lots of Havana club 5. Didn't play too much over Xmas apart from a couple of live Sat's in casino for IPC and WPT. Shipped the IPC ticket and no joy in WPT sat. As the IPC was a side event of WPT myself, Trevor Dinneen and Macau local Ger Fleming drove up on the Friday before the tournament started. My starting table had Marc Macdonnell and the always entertaining Paul Marrow and was fairly uneventful  for me until the 2nd level when I raise up UTG with J7c (1st mistake) get 3 bet by  Dutch dude UTG+1, Mark Macdonnell calls and I flat (2nd mistake). Flop Qh9c8c, I flop the owl guterball and flush draw. Im sick I'm OOP here and elect to lead out the flop after dwelling for a minute or two. Dutch dude 3 bets me, Mark gets outta the way and I elect to flat but fold d turn if i miss because I felt he was super strong and I would  have to play for stacks. 5c on turn and I check, he bets and i shove. He snaps me off with QQ and binks the quads on the river. Down to 7k and i slow play queens and lose another 3k. I get back up to 10k getting it in with AK vs A2 on an AAx flop. Then I just murder the rest of my stack getting it in with QJ on a KTx flop with absolutely no fold equity whatsoever. Always making these dumb plays in live tourneys and really have to snap out of it. The 250 game was annoying as i ran my KK into AA and QQ after a couple of hours. Well done to Gilly who came 3rd in  the WPT with a great run and Trevor who FT the 250.

Looking forward to this week online with the TCOOP starting and flash series on pokerstars.fr as well. As much as id like to call myself a POKER PLAYER, im not..I'm just a turbo donkey who knows his shoving/calling ranges and my results shows that. I asked my coach why am I winning so much in Turbos and losing so much in standard and he said cuz I'm a bad post flop player...Bit of a kick in the goolies but he is right...my graphs for turbo is like this..........

and my graph for standard is this......

At least i have something to work towards..So u can stick ur WCOOP's,SCOOP's and even WSOP's...its all bout the TCOOP for me. Had a good week in general online with a couple of FT bubbles and a shippage scooping 2.1k for a $2 2x turbo. Good luck all to everyone playing the series and a special good luck to Fox and Eddie Walsh for there upcoming  annual tournament in Clane. IPPF should be a great weekend and hopefully they get the numbers.

Xmas Rush.....

Couldn't wait to get back to the online grind last week after Macau Xmas festival.The festival didn't go as plan in both tourneys going out 10th in SH by somehow getting out kicked when i called a river 1.5x pot bet with bottom pair for 65% of my chips. Dude was a maniac and  I would prob do it again in that spot, rest of em went in when 9T couldn't beat 77 and K6. The ME started very well for me when i chipped up in 1st 2 levels to 28k...then lost a chunk when my QQ was flushed against AK.Went out in 300-150 25a level when i was playing 33 BB and raised 2.5x MP with 56s,English guy on my left flats and Albert Kenny flats in BB. Flop T56 Bingo,Bango,Bongo...BB checks,I check because i had been playing with English dude all day and likes to rep in position...he bets 2.1k into 2.5k pot,BB flats and i shove 9.5k original bettor folds and BB calls with KT and u know the rest.GG me. Big Wd to Jamie Flynn for shipping the loot. Plenty more from him in the future me thinks.

The week started Online as it had finished with me still losing but playing really well so was looking forward to one of the biggest Sundays i have ever played online. The fields were so sick and super soft and got loads of deep runs. Lost a pot for top 5 in chips in Big22 with about 400 left when i flopped middle set vs straight. $9.90 FT paid only Turbo Fergal Nealon (Midnitekowby) and myself were 1st and 2nd in chips with 10 left and i somehow bubbled running AA into 77 and AT into A4. The Sunday million was the biggest anticlimax ever for me as i lasted the whole of 30 mins,getting it in with a table maniac playing a 67/37 with AK vs 34h on an Ax 5h 6h board,He obviously got it the diiiirty way with running 4's. I could have folded but i was pretty sure i was at worst against a draw and i think he wud play AQ-AT same way,even if i didnt have a big sample of hands on him. My last 2k went with AK vs KQ. As you can see i was holding on to my run good for the $16.50 27k turbo were i came 4th for 3.3k and recoup all my loses for last month. Was really happy up  cuz i played well,coming through a 4200 runner field and ended shoving 15bb with AJ and getting called by 4's.Last tourney of night i was deep in $8 12k and came like 29th out of another 4,000+ field. I was pissed off with myself over going out of that because i made a shove that i really didn't need to do and could of definitely waited.

Have a few sessions planned over Xmas which will hopefully get messy so looking forward to them and not sure yet am i going to play WPT but will definitly play IPC. Pretty disapointing its a SE of WPT for the shear fact this is a  prestigious tournament and should be the focal festival of the year for the Galwegians. Hope everyone has a great Xmas and New Year and i will be back in Jan to tell of my WPT shippage........

Twas a long ass year...............

As my title will tell you, 2011 wasnt the best of years for me. Took a few months off from Dec 10 - Feb 11 and when i came back playing i ran/played really bad for 2 mths and basically done by bankroll by late April. I can be quite lazy in my approach to poker ex:conditions/mood and life tilt really wasnt helping.Never really got back going and although having a winning year online,live poker has really sucked  and got like 1 cash all year.It was a FT of Irish Classic but another bad year overall live. Cant seem to get the run of the felt in mid late stages of tourney's (was between 1 -10 of the money 10 times in ME in 18 months). These national live events carry so much value but they come at a price when your on the wrong side of variance. My Hendon Mob is embarrassing to say the least!!!!
http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=82633

My reasons for doing this blog are simple: I WANT TO START CRUSHING. By me doing this blog i feel like i have something to work towards and at the moment i will do anything to try and improve my game to get it at the heights I expect from myself. I've started with a coach i found on Pocket Fives at the start of November and have gone on my biggest downswing since i started playing on Pokerstars. Had a convo with him last night and he said its common enough as im trying to get my head around a different style and not picking the right spots to do it but it will all come good..... Hopefully before i move into a cardboard box :) With that in mind i'm gonna give myself a few goals for 2012:

1.  Ten Hendon Mob Cashes in 2012..........tough but very achievable
2.  Play minimum of 200 hrs per month grinding online
3.  Get at least 4 hrs coaching online each week
4.  Play an EPT
5.  Get down to 12 stone.....

Might as well start early with ur New Year promises. This week im taking a break from online with having a 2k downswing  in last month or so.

Macau's Xmas festival this week so will play the 200 SH on Wednesday night and 500+50 ME on Day 1A. Love these festivals, always get a run in them so hopefully will have some good news for you next week. As this is my 1st Post on my blog all comments are welcome good/bad and wud appreciate a bit of CONSTRUCTIVE critisim!!!!!!