Follow Me To My New Home At BETFAIR!!

I have been given a great opportunity to blog over at Betfair, see someone likes my rants!

Please do me a huge favour and update any links you might have for me to "Pud's Poker Progress" and once I have gotten to grips with the new software I will link back to you no problem.

The link again is http://betting.betfair.com/poker/puds-poker-progress/

I appreciate you doing this, it means a lot to me and I want to make a success of it so please help keep my traffic figures up!

Much love,

Pud

Lost My Bloggerment Cherry!

I finally played in my first Brit Bloggerment on Sunday as I no longer have to work Sunday's since jacking in my bar job and moving out from the pub and I managed to finish 3rd from 22 entrants for a $22.00 return on my $5.50. Not a bad start eh? 100% ITM and 300% ROI. I almost didn't play because I couldn't register for the fucking thing! No matter if I typed in capitals or lower case it wouldn't accept the password, then all of a sudden it decided to accept it and I was in my first Bloggerment.

With 22 entrants we were short handed from the off and I found myself sandwiched between Cell 1919 and Al Eleven. I've played a couple of times with Cell and I read his blog regularly so I knew what to expect but I've never seen Al Eleven play although I had been told he can be pretty loose and aggressive. Anyway, things didn't get off to the greatest of starts and I soon found myself hovering around the 1100 chips mark when I changed gears, hit a couple of hands and was suddenly back up to around 2k and a little more comfortable. I managed to lay down 2 pair on a highly coordinated board against an unknown and a ran an awful bluff against Hammerheid which looking back at it he should have called but I got away with it. I came to the money bubble as the short stack, I was joined there by Cogsgoigne, Poker 4 Ever and Katitude and Katitude was sitting out making it a strange bubble. I ran a couple of moves based on the fact that I was the short stack with the reasoning why would I make a play without a monster when I could fold to the money. I ended up busting in 3rd when my J9 hit on a flop of xJK and was up against Cog's pocket Cowboys and I was practically drawing dead. My tournament seems to have been remembered for the following two hands though. What do you think?

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 50/100 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG+1: 2,160
MP: 2,350
CO: 1,895
BTN: 2,745
SB: 1,205
Hero (BB): 2,730
UTG: 1,385

Pre-Flop: (150) Q 9 dealt to Hero (BB)

4 folds, BTN raises to 400, SB folds, Hero raises to 1,300, BTN raises to 2,745 and is All-In, Hero calls 1,430 and is All-In

Flop: (5,510) T 4 Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (5,510) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (5,510) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 5,510 Pot

BTN showed J A (high card Ace) and LOST (-2,730 NET)

Hero showed Q 9 (a pair of Queens) and WON 5,510 (+2,780 NET)

The second hand was posted on Cell 1919's blog as it knocked him out and pissed him off slightly! 4 handed, ATo is a monster to me so I raise it up. I'd been pretty active and wasn't surprised to see Cell push. Cell is pretty tight but getting 1.9/1 odds I have to call here with AT and hope for a hand like 77-99. Instead I was up against JJ and sucked out in the worst possible way with a runner-runner wheel! I think it was the way he busted at the final table bubble that made him pissed off not my actual call. I would call here with almost any holdings as I'd still have an M of 14 if I lost out.

Poker Stars, $5 + $0.50 NL Hold'em Tournament, 75/150 Blinds, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: 5,260
BB: 3,545
Hero (UTG): 4,455
BTN: 1,210

Pre-Flop: (225) T A dealt to Hero (UTG)

Hero raises to 450, BTN raises to 1,210 and is All-In, 2 folds, Hero calls 760

Flop: (2,645) 5 Q 4 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (2,645) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (2,645) 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 2,645 Pot

Hero showed T A (a straight, Ace to Five) and WON 2,645 (+1,435 NET)

BTN showed J J (a pair of Jacks) and LOST (-1,210 NET)

To say it was my first MTT for over a month that had decent opposition in it I don't think I did too badly to be honest. There were a couple of times where I rode my luck and looking through the HH I made a couple of silly moves but hey ho we live and learn. Not sure if I'll be playing in the next one because I've withdrawn my roll and stuck it on Betfair for some silly reason!

Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

Making Plans For 2008

Readers of my blog will recognise the fact that I make up stupid challenges, stick with them for a few weeks and then ditch them like a hot potato. There are a couple of reasons for this, first one is up until now I've been a bit of a mental mess and if I'm honest it took me all my focus and attention to get up and ready for work on a morning. Second one was the fact I lived in a pub so drank an awful lot, ate at the wrong times and was pretty unhealthy. I also ended up covering the bar a few times so couldn't try my arm at MTT's properly because of the time factor. Lastly, I started trying to run before I could walk by playing up to 10 tables of SnG's and 6 tables of cash when if I am honest with myself I hadn't even really mastered a single table.

Things have changed now. I am, for the whole, mentally sound. I've got a new flat, with a great new woman and things are going brilliant and that was 90% of my worries and mental anguish. I'm kind of back on track at work and even though it's not great or what I want to do for the rest of my life my job is pretty secure and back in my hands. Although I'm no fitness freak, eating healthier, at proper times and having plenty of sexytime have helped me shed over half a stone and my sleeping is, when not broken by a screaming baby, back to normal and a solid 6 hours a night and I feel on top of the world. Money is still tighter than a virgin's fanny but Mrs P is awesome and is helping out on that front too. The foundations seem in place for a long term challenge, the only problem I can see is the timing of things.

I'm pretty obsessive about a few things and one of them is starting points of anything. I couldn't, even if I tried, start a challenge or project of any sort on say the 9th of the month, it'd have to be the first of the month or it would niggle me to death which is why now is a bad time to start anything new because in 30 odd days we are at the start of a brand new year, The Year Of The Pudding! Now I'm not a great player, nor do I pretend to be, but I am know 100% that I am better than a lot of the donkeys playing at my stakes. I am a student of the game, I buy and read books and forums, discuss hands and situations and try to understand more advanced concepts and plays I see and read about. Half the retards at the micro's don't even know the odds of drawing to a gutshot, never mind reverse implied odds and the like. It's time to exploit these fish!

One problem I've had is focussing on a particular discipline and sticking with it. I started off two years ago with fixed limit hold'em cash, moved to no limit hold'em cash, and within the last 6-9 months I've played SnG's, NLHE cash, FLHE cash, PLO, 7 card stud, and MTT's and never once have I devoted enough time to log a good sample size to see how I cope with them. Also, during playing these games I've always played 4-6 tables and relied on PokerTracker stats displayed by PAHUD software so I'm never gathering reads or making proper notes, just assuming that because a player with stats of 20/7/1 has opened with a raise from MP2 and bet a scare card on the river it means result X and I don't want to be that player, especially as I want to play a lot more live poker in the coming year. I want to become a better overall player, not just one that makes money, if that makes sense.

So, on Tuesday 1st January, 2008 I will start a year long challenge that will take me 366 days to complete and even if I don't make my monetary goal I'll be delighted if I can achieve the others, even though you may think they are small and silly!

• Follow correct bankroll management at all times (details to follow)


• Play a solitary table until I feel I am reading the players properly and accurately


• Only add an extra table when comfortable, not just to log more hands per hour


• Do not educate the fish


• Only play when I want to not just because I can


• Use table selection correctly


• Discuss at least two hands per session on forums


• Dedicate a minimum of an hour a week analysing any data collected


• Play live at least 12 times during 2008, including one festival


• Make at least $15,000 clear profit!

Now they seem pretty straightforward goals in terms of someone who has played for a couple of years now but I'm going to go back to relative basics so that I can emerge from the otherside a much better player. Now I've still not decided on which discipline I'll be playing initially because I need to factor in a few things like my starting bankroll and time I can dedicate to playing. Before I could, within reason, play when I wanted despite having to help in the pub but now I have Mrs P to think about and although she's not bothered about me playing it's hardly fair me caning the tables for hours on end, night after night plus I don't want to play every day anyway as I lose focus and play like a shit head. Bankroll permitting I'll probably start by playing cash for a couple of months until I have the bankroll to be fully bankrolled for some half decent MTT's because I have never given MTT's a real chance and I'd like to play a couple of hundred of them and see how I fair. Oh and for earning $15k next year through poker, if I can do it I will spunk in my pants! It was just a number plucked out of my head by the way! Profit type goals are likely to change but the first 8 goals / projects are set in stone. The rest of this month and all of December will be used to play whatever I like and hopefully turn a small profit ready for January.

I'm also starting a brand new blog for the new year too which is being hosted by UK Poker Scene who have recently joined us over at Raise The River so it'll be a totally fresh start for me and hopefully a successful one! I'll sort you out with the address etc once I have it up and running properly.

As always, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables.

Conning Bastard Service Stations!

Well I now have a set of wheels for three months as my former landlord is currently flying towards Calgary, Canada, until Valentine's Day 2008. We finally set off about half ten or eleven after we'd sorted out the car seat for Step Pud, stuck some massively overpriced fuel (99.9p a litre) in the motor and gathered some goodies for the trip to Sutton, London. Having never been to our nation's capital I was quite looking forward to it but not to the 10 hour round trip with a 1 year old baby stuck in a car!

Nothing of note happened on the way there, I ate my Cajan Chicken Wrap, Prawn Cocktail crisps and beef jerky and flicked through the Daily Star. I swear that paper is awful. If you wiped your arse on it more shit would come off the paper! I only bought it because there were no Sun's (still a shit rag) left and there is a poker section in the Star. I think we were all bored to tears and Mrs P kept nipping my and kicking the back of my chair to keep me on my toes and we soon stopped for a break and to change Step Pud's arse at the Watford Gap Services. The Landlord bought all three of us a coffee and it cost the poor cunt £9.30! To be fair the coffees came in buckets and were quite nice but fuck me £3.10 for a coffee. It wasn't a complete disaster though as I put a pound in some toy machine and out popped a fart bomb which I had to promise not to let off in the car / services / anywhere near Mrs P or the Landlord!

We eventually arrived at the Landlord's mate's flat, unloaded the car, had a brew and set back off around half six. Traffic was a fucking nightmare to say the least and it didn't help it was pitch black, in a huge city I didn't know, raining and rush hour! Somehow we survived, stuck some more petrol in the car, bought fags and hit the M25. When we finally arrived at Silverstone services I was starved so we decided to stop for a rest and food. After the customary pisses and baby arse change we went to Burger King for some fuel. I got an Angus pepper Special and the robbing bastards charged me £6.20 for the meal. Fuck me! I almost said I only asked for one! Mr's P's came to over £5 too, no wonder there's a Ladbrokes there too, it'll be so you can try to win on the nags to offset your food costs. How can the robbing cunts charge that? After my shock we hit the road again and despite Step Pud screaming for about 45 miles we made it home in one piece around half ten. Oh, we did stop at Asda for beers too cos I was mentally fucked from the driving, it took a lot out of me sat at 85mph for all that time in the dark and rain when I've not driven further than 15 miles for about a year!

We managed to get Step Pud off to sleep and we relaxed with a beer or two watching shite on the box for a small while before Mrs P said she was hitting the hay. The thought of her in skimpy shorts and bare titties overpowered Tom Cruise in Born On The 4th July so I joined her! Anyway, some travelling tension was lost and I got out of bed for something and saw Step Pud stand up in his cot so I ran into the bathroom and shut the door. Mrs P came out and asked what I was doing so I told her Step Pud was awake so she quickly turned out the lights and we stood in silence. Silence until I let out a big fart which set me and Mrs P off laughing and mid chuckle another came out which woke up Step Pud and made him cry. Twenty six and finding farts funny, I need to sort myself out! When I managed to get him back off to sleep I was busting for a piss but daren't walk past the cot in case I woke him up again so I made an executive decision to piss in an empty wine bottle! LMAO!

I also played in the Bloggerment for the first time on Saturday and managed to cash in 3rd but I'll be doing a report on that game later because I got stick from some of my hands, as usual, and was going to explain my actions on a few plays!

Cliff notes - Went to London, Got bummed at Burger King, Drove home, had beer and sexy time, woke baby up with a fart pissed in a bottle, played Bloggerment for 1st time and cashed.

Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

Frustrating Start To The Campaign

I manged to play a whopping 5 SnG's last night,cashing in two, bubbling two and donking out of one in 6th place to record a loss of $1.50. The play in these is so horrific I think I'm going to play no less than 8 games at once and just play ABC poker and a few plays based on Poker Tracker stats and not even try to play the player as they are retarded!

I started off playing pretty poorly on 4 tables after my month off and made a couple of weak bluffs that even David Blunkett would have seen but I soon settled down and got to work. I quite liked this play with T8s where I just knew the fish was chasing a flush, pure aggression rules the day!

Am I thinking wrong or was villain's preflop call horrific in this hand which I bubbled? How the fuck can he flat call a raise and reraise with JT? Oh it was suited! My first attempt at a chat ban followed the hand but I didn't succeed! My luck against JT continued in another game where the fucking hand cracked my KK, then this wanker calls on the bubble with QJo? His comments of "haha bye" were met with me ranting but still no ban despite calling him a Norweigan cunt. Never mind.

I did manage a 3rd and 2nd but I should have won the game where I came 2nd because the fish was so bad but it was midnight, I was knackered, had Mrs P asleep with her head on my lap and I ended up pushing with rags, he called with better rags which held. If I'd have won that I'd have been in profit for the night but whatever. Planning to hit 10-12 SnG's tonight whilst Mrs P watches X Factor of all things so hopefully the wheels of profit will begin to turn once more. If I can make more than $10 profit by tomorrow I'll play the Bloggerment for the first time which should be fun!

Thanks for reading and good luck at the bubble!

Connected.....In A Fashion

Well the Pudding household is back online, well sort of. My "livebox" router / modem came yesterday from the goons at Orange and I started to set it up right away. My old Belkin router was a right pain in the arse to setup but this seemed nice and simple, plug in a few wires, run a CD and hey presto you're ready to go, in theory at least. Power on, check. Cables attached correctly, check. Installation CD instructions followed to the letter, check. Internet active. Go fuck yourself you piece of shit! I can connect with the ethernet cable but not via my Belkin wireless card. I've turned off security etc and nothing. Any ideas readers because playing with a wired connection seems pointless with a laptop especially when there is an 11 month rug-rat with a liking for cables and wires, shuffling around the place!

Another gripe I have is they said it would be an 8MB connection but it seems closer to 3MB at the moment but they did warn me it could fluctuate massively for around 2 weeks whilst my connection settled down. I think the guy from customer services in Calcutta was taking the piss to be honest! I've been searching the net today and hopefully will sort things out by the time I hit the hay later tonight. I didn't start playing last night mainly because I didn't have my roll on one site and also because I couldn't be arsed although I did fire up 10 tables to see if the connection could handle it and all seemed ok. I might try for a set of 4-6 tonight but I have Pud Jr staying over and he likes to hog it for Cbeebies and Mrs P has a slight addiction to MySpace too so I might not get to even log on at all, guess we'll see.

Not much planned for the weekend due to only having something like £2.53 until Monday although I should get £80 tomorrow from selling my cooker to a woman from accounts. I finally managed to sort a van out and Mrs P has offered to help move it so all should be ok. Think Mrs P and I might end up going for a few jars tomorrow night when Pudding Jr has gone home and get a chinky for tea or something because we've basically been stuck in the house since the move and it can get you down sometimes and I think she needs to let her hair down a little with all the grief she's been getting from the situation we've found ourselves in! At least we've no Step Pud until at least Sunday night so we can have a sleep in on Sunday which is great, especially as I don't have to go to work behind the bar anymore!

Fingers crossed I get off to a good start and hopefully get chat banned over the weekend!

Site Decided And Mini Challenge!

I've decided to ply my trade on PokerStars, at least until the New Year when I will be setting myself some longer term plans to make some decent cash. My reasoning for this is how quickly the games fill up on Stars, how great they are for multitabling on a shitty laptop screen, I have some sort of bonus (I think) pending and the fact most of my RTR buddies mainly play there.

With my roll being a paltry $50 I have decided to spice things up a little and set myself a challenge to keep things interesting and stop me going totally crazy whilst I grind out the $1.20 SnG's on Joker*/River*/Rigged*Stars (*delete as applicable). I have made a post here on Raise The River just for the sake of it. For you lazy bastards who can't be bothered clicking the link here is my mini challenge that must be completed before 0000 on 25th December 2007.

• Play 300 $1.20 SnG's


• Make at least $100 profit from said SnG's (approx 30% ROI)


• Get chat banned from PokerStars support


• Send humerous email to PokerStars support re: Chat Ban


• Play in at least one Bloggerment


• Abuse BurnleyMik everytime I bump into him at the tables. If chat banned relay my abuse through someone else via MSN


• Win the remaining place in the DTD Wild Card tournament


• Teach Kenn how to flat call

Now abusing Mik should be easy as it is my standard procedure when I log onto Stars so I can tick that one off my list right away. Playing in the bloggerment should be easy too but now I don't work Sunday's I'd like to spend some time with Mrs P so may need clearance to play! I might not be able to play the Wild Card tournament on DTD so this may have to be scrubbed off and teaching Kenn to flat call when he's probably removed that button from his screen is almost impossible but I can but try.

Being able to play 300 SnG's in 30/32 days and still maintain a 30% ROI is going to be difficult but it should be doable if I don't drink or go on Pudding Tilt. The play is horrific but that's what we want long term and although 300 games isn't a massive amount it should be enough to get on the good side of variance, fingers crossed. I won't be and can't play everyday so I'm going to have to really grind when I get the oppurtunity.

Finally, the chat ban. I've seen loads of people banned for calling someone a fish or typing in the card they want to see over and over again which is stupid. I've called people wankers, cunts, twats, bastards, wished AIDS on them, told them I hoped their tampon turned into a hedgehog and even said Lee Jones sucks cock and I've not come close to a warning. Maybe my chat account is rigged. This is the hardest part of the challenge because I need someone to report me and the fuckers won't. To make it fair I won't just sit there typing "I hate Jews" in Mel Gibson stylee I have to get banned for berating a fish!

Should be fun!