Poker is a tough game. We all know that. Sometimes the odd player might make it a little easier for us with a bad bet or call, but essentially it can be a very frustrating game. When trying to build a bankroll, it’s not called “grinding” for nothing – it’s hard work, and you have to put the hours in. I read somewhere this week that the joy of a win is only a quarter of the annoyance you feel when you suffer a bad beat – and in a game where bad beats are always going to happen, you are putting yourself through an emotional rollercoaster every time you play – and unless you win at least 80% of the time, you are generally going to feel bad about poker more than you are going to feel good about poker – it’s a fact of poker life. So, if poker is such hard work, and such an annoying game, then why do we play? Why don’t we turn off the laptop and do something else?? There are a million things out there to do. You could go and have a round of golf. You could go and have a pint. You could build a raft for Milla Jovovich (well, one member of RTR might..) I can’t answer for anyone else, but here’s why I play poker… I am a lover of sport. It used to be the case that if there was sport on TV, I’d watch it. Anything – football, darts, snooker, formation ballroom dancing, boxing, and I’d get involved emotionally with it. I’ve rowed with Sir Steve Redgrave, I’ve celebrated with Gazza as he looped the ball over the central defender and banged it in the net (Wembley 1996 – some of you might remember that with a smile on your face – some of you won’t) and I’ve pushed Desert Orchid to a Gold Cup win. However, since I started playing poker, I have become the Sportsman – and with a little bit of help from the poker gods, my poker destiny is in my own hands. If I decided that I wanted to try and become the WSOP champion, then I could have a go, and depending on how much money I want to invest, I might have to win one,two, three or four events to achieve my aim. If I decide that I might want to have a go at winning a big Sunday night event, I can go for it. And in what other sport can I compete against people from all over the world whenever I want to?? So now, instead of being a watcher of sport, I am now the competitor. And nothing else I do fulfils my competitive instinct like poker does. So, yes it’s tough. Yes, sometimes it hurts. Yes, it drags me down sometimes. But I’ll always come running back. Cloud
This will be a split post with the latest poker news and HullJimi's account of his RTRC. WE HAVE A NEW RTRC "HALL OF FAME" LEADER!!!!!!
Well done to HullJimi, who now heads up the table with an excellent profit of $8.98 and the full time of 3hrs thirty achieved! Here is Jimi's account in his own words: Hour 1: I decided I was going to play nice and tight with the full $10 on Bodog - the site has loosest NL10 games I've ever found! I found myself a table with a few nutters on (full ring) and got comfy. Surely I'd have doubled up within the first hour? Well, no. First hand? The Hammer! A sign surely....?! The very next hand a donkey loses his full buy in by going all in with Q9o - and I was sat thinking to myself "Happy Days", yet it never really happened for me in the first hour. I saw 4 flops in the first 40 hands as I was being dealt utter garbage so guess what? I raised with the next installment of "The Hammer" (it was suited after all!). I get two callers. Eek. I follow it up with another pot sized bet on a flop of J86 rainbow and it gets through! Hooray for the hammer! So I was a whole $1 up after the first hour. Hour 2: Still sat in the cash game, I posted my progress in the RTR online forum only to be slagged by BM for not gambling enough. A fair cop guvnor! I'm sure this had nothing to do with my time in the challenge rapidly approaching BM's, or did it BM? So I juggled my money around, and fired up a $1.75 18 man turbo on Stars and waited for my luck to change. And it did. Massively. Whilst being railed by MattH and Cogs, and getting mocked by BM, I started to turn the challenge around. The SNG was mental - with an "all in" on the first hand (Some nob with a 10 high flush draw!). I picked up AA and took a pot but other than that kept out of the way with my eyes firmly on the massive $10 win. Anyway, the other eye can't have been working properly as I played too tight and had to start to chuck my chips in with gay abandon (not in a Brighton way though Cogs!). End result? I got knocked out. Balls. The cash game was going swimmingly however, with a nice pot taken down with quad 5's! Hour 3: I entered a $1.20 single table SNG (same as the one's Matt played) and and finished 3rd for a small return. As Matty will tell you (he was watching), I sucked out twice. Nice Getting short, I ran AQ into AK and saw a cheeky queen (again, not Cogs) and then I pushed my A8o into AK again to see a cheeky little 8 appear! So with a bit of time left, I piled into a 6 man turbo, $3.40 SNG and I managed to finish 2nd! Nothing spectacular happened, I just played "Quality hands baby" for a nice little win of $6.30. So, knackered, I called it a day after 3hrs 17mins rather than trying to spin the money up any further in a cash game for 10 minutes. And quite smug I was too! First one to show a profit, and a decent return too with it being very nearly double. Starting: $10 Cash Profit $7.23 ($17.23) Tourney Profit - $8.10 ($ 25.33) Less entrance fees - $6.35 Total: $18.98 End result +$8.98 ! I'm pretty certain someone will whizz past my effort by a long way (I'm looking at Kenn and assuming he'll whack the lot in a $10 SNG!), but it's tough and I was lucky when I needed to be. Good luck to the next contestant! HullJimi Next contestant: TBC Congratulations to HJ, can anyone beat this excellent feat?
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Online High-Stakes News
HORSE
It was all Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius in the $1000/$2000 H.O.R.S.E. game on Full Tilt Poker table Hatteras as he raked in over $165K in just 410 hands at the table. Also picking up decent wins were “Da Munsta” ($54K+) and Gus Hansen ($48K+). The biggest loser in the game was Niki Jedlicka (-$31K).
Stud Hi/Lo
In some $1000/$2000 Limit Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo on Full Tilt Poker table Sethfield, the player under the handle “2little2late2″ managed a solid $46K+ win in the game. Also picking up wins were “woeisme” ($35K+) and ”gamble up77″ ($21K+). Sharing the losses were David Singer (-$35K) and Patrik “FinddaGrind” Antonius (-$56K).
Heads up
"p_c4Libr4ted” was the next lucky poker soul to be privileged to some heads-up action against the infamous “tie53″. Playing $300/$600 NL Hold’em on several different tables throughout the afternoon, “p_c4Libr4ted” managed to rake in over $68K in winnings against the generous gambler.
PLO
As if collecting over $700K during a 13-hour period in the $200/$400 PL Omaha games on Full Tilt Poker wasn’t enough, the Great Dane managed to nearly duplicate the feat the very next day. Resting for just eight hours before going at it again, Gus Hansen raked in a $619K+ win after 21 hours.
LHE
The player known as “MadManMax” was busy in a $500/$1000 Limit Hold’em match on Full Tilt Poker table Tiger punishing “Fatal Fog. It was a battle that lasted over three and a half-hours and saw “MadManMax” rake in over $95K in winnings before it was all over.
General poker news
WPT
Six players took their seats shortly after 5 p.m. ET at Foxwoods Resort and Casino for the final table of the 2007 World Poker Tour World Poker Finals. While all six of them had the $1,704,986 first-place prize on their minds there could only be one winner and that was Mike Vela of New Windsor, New York. Before this Mike had a lifetimes winnings of $163,550, so this would be a pretty big boost to his bankroll.
UIGEA
The PPA (Poker Players Alliance) had day 1 of the meeting regarding the UIGEA. Teams from both sides of the argument, to make online poker legal again in the US, fought their corners, but from what I have read it sounds as though the PPA really took the fight to the opposition. Annie Duke was a huge factor and did extremely well for her part. The opposition used arguments such as comparisons to arms smuggling and cocaine trade, all which were easily discounted by the PPA. In conclusion it is looking very positive for time being.
For those of you not totally aware Americans were a HUGE part of online poker traffic (and also some great casual playing fish), but since all the major financial institutions were prosecuted for dealing with transactions between players and poker sites the average American player has found it so difficult to get funds into their poker accounts that they have stopped playing the game altogether. Lets hope the PPA keep up the good fight.
RTR News
We have progress on the New Raise the River League, Seaon 2! We recieved an email from Littlewoods happy that the situation with DTD and Cryptologic has all been cleared up and we are ready to go! Unfortunately the satellites to the CPC have now ended so the winner of the league will recieve a seat in the online final satellite to the EPT (European Poker Tour), worth over $500!! All we need now is confirmation from the forumites that they are happy with the start date. Please check the forum for the proposal.
We have a new leader in the Hall Of Fame for the RTR Challenge. HullJimi this week managed to pull off an amazing profit of $8.98!!! We get the feeling this will take a lot of beating!!! Well done Jimi.
We are hoping to make this the best damn blog we possibly can, so please leave comments and feedback. Tell us what you would like to see and we will take ALL ideas on board!
 Joe Hachem plays this weeks TLB winner GeorgieDubya, heads up on sunday November 18, for $5,000!!  Somehow, the Green Goblin doesn't seem quite so scary these days....  It's fun to stay at the YMCA!!!!
This weeks forum post of the week was written by: acefilleddreams. Here is the link to the thread. LINKBasically Ace had his laptop cooked in the oven!! There are pictures and everything at his blog. I wondered if he served it up with vegetables.... Other good posts this weekComedy Value:This thread just about scrapes it for me, but it was created by Cogsgoigne and the link is HERE. Very funny indeed! Strategy:This was a thread created by Brainchylde and is in regards to how so many people over play AK. The link can be found HERE. Acheivements by members:A huge congratualtions to Mair, for qualifying for the APAT again down at Manchester. She managed a 3rd position finish from 55 runners and picked up a Bronze medal in the process. The thread can be found HERE. Also congratulations to Kenn, who has been tearing up the MTT's again this week and taken a few prop bets on his progress too. He managed to take down the $5k guaranteed and also place 3rd in the $30 rebuy as well as numerous other deep runs. Very well done. Most of kenn's live railage and live updates can be found in the "Online Live" Forum. Lastly a huge congrats to MattyH or known on the forum as 2much2drink, who won a live poker satellite to play an online final where the top 5 get to go to Vegas to play the WSOP 2008! Very well done Matty and best of luck in the online final. keep us posted. You can see the image and the thread HEREBad Beat of the Week:Was by Portdeco, who suffered a horrendous 1 outer, when his straight flush was beaten by a higher rivered straight flush!! You can check it out HEREAre there other catagories you would like to see? Hope you enjoy the new weekly feature and hopefully your thread could feature on here next week.
Stage 1:
I decided to start with two $3.40 stt turbos, hoping to get some profit on the board early. It didn't work according to plan. I busted out of both of them in the late stages. One when my pocket tens all-in (crapshoot time in true turbo style) ran into the mighty pocket 6s, which then spiked a turned 6. The other when my push with 10,J suited ran into A,Q and neither of us improved.
So, that left me short of options. So I decided to jump into a $1.20 stt with standard blind levels. This was more like my sort of game. Plenty of time to watch the game develope without the blinds eventually pushing you into committing all your chips with any old thing if you were card dead on a loose table early doors. I managed to cash in 2nd place in this game for $2.70
Stage 2:
In the meantime I had already started another of these $1.20 games. Again I finished 2nd in this one. Headsup he just had me covered when I picked up AK and reraised. Villain pushes allin and I hope I'm either miles ahead or racing. As it turns out he is holding KK. No ace and I'm out in 2nd again for another $2.70
Seeing as these games were doing well for me I decided to go for another. I fired this one up and worked out how I was going to invest the money I had left. I figured the best thing to do was fire up yet another one of the $1.20 games and, also, go back and have another go at a $3.40 stt turbo. This meant playing 3 tables at once, which I had to do as time was running short. Now this wont seem much to many of you who multi table all the time, but for me it was bloody difficult. I haven't played online seriously for over a year now due to my live play seriously kicking off, and when I did play online seriously it was on the Boss Network, and only ever one table at a time. I only ever fired up Stars to play a couple of satellites a long time ago, and have only ever used it for drunk donking poker. This Friday nights H.O.R.S.E donking session with a few of the RTR Crew being a good example. So here I was struggling like hell to seriously concentrate on 3 tables at once
Final Stage:
So, I'm multi tabling 3 stts as my finale. For much of all 3 games I held the chip lead at each table. The $1.20 standard blind level games were taking care of themselves (thanks donks) and the turbo was typically fluctuating. Two successive sick beats saw me bust out of the turbo in 5th when I was set for a cash finish. I called an allin for half my stack with JJ and find myself facing J,Q suited. Hitting one Queen wasn't good enough for him as he rivered a 2nd. That left me fairly short stacked and the very next hand I picked up A,Q in the BB. I had two callers and figured this would be as good a chance as any to either triple up or steal the blinds as both callers had fold equity. One called my allin with A,10 and a flop of 9,7,8 left him open ended and four to the flush. The river brought his flush for him and I'm out in 5th
The other two $1.20 stts are going well though. I eventually managed yet another 2nd place in one, and a third place in the other. So here is my RTR Challenge result summary:
Result:
$3.40 turbo - No cash
$3.40 turbo - No cash
$3.40 turbo - No cash
$1.20 NLHE - 2nd $2.70
$1.20 NLHE - 2nd $2.70
$1.20 NLHE - 2nd $2.70
$1.20 NLHE - 3rd $1.20
That's a loss of $4.30 from my starting $10
My total time at the tables was - 3 Hours and 37 Minutes.
Conclusion:
With hindsight I wouldn't have played any turbos. They are too crapshooty from the middle to end stages. At such low stakes the standard is typically awful and loose, and as such you need cards to make any moves with in the latter stages if you've been card dead on a loose table early doors
If I was to do this again I would probably start with a $6 stt with standard blind levels and use the remaining on the $1.20 games.
I found this challenge very difficult. The need to multi table is not one I'm familiar with or good at. Quite the opposite - I was dreadful. I am, however, relatively happy with my results, although my one gripe is not being able to turn any of my cashes into a win.
Good luck to whoever is next at the felt
Matty H
RESULT: FULL TIME ACHEIVED. LOSS OF $4.30
Next to take the challenge is HullJimi
1) How are you going to start the challenge?? I've decided to take a different line of attack than the two previous attempts. I'm going to sit down at 5c/10c table on Bodog with the whole stack - I've just signed up for Bodog and it's bonkers at that level. So I'll be hoping for some nutter to double me up sharpish.....or I'll get outdrawn and last all of 5 minutes! 2) You're up to $25 after an hour. What do you do in that situation?? Do a little dance, make a little love - basically get down tonight! Well, given I'm playing cash, I must have found a juicy table. So, I'll leave some money on the cash tables and chuck in a SNG or two on Stars for a change of scenary.... 3) And when are you doing the challenge?? Saturday night. Unless the wife throws a spanner in the works. If she does *I'll beat her and throw her back in the kitchen* (strike this out!!), I'll be doing it Tuesday night. I'll post on the forums so everyone knows it's game on! 4) If you stay in the money, you'll beat BurnleyMik. Will you consider just sitting out?? ;o) Not only BM, but Matty too..... And no, they'll be no sitting out!
The year is 2057, and eighty-six year old Mr Cloud (still sprightly, with a twinkle in his eye, but very elongated ears) sits down to have a game of poker. He logs on to his favourite site, BurnleyMikPoker.com, the world’s number one new site. He thinks back to the days when he was happy to get 30% rakeback and laughs. No rake poker has been the norm for around thirty years now – although it still annoys him a little to see the tables having advertising all over them, and he knows his virtual avatar will be wearing a polo shirt emblazoned with the logo of the biggest fast food outlet. He plays his first hand, a $1/$2 nl cash game, now considered micro stakes, and takes a look around at his opponents. Despite their virtual clothing, he can see their faces clearly, and then he picks up his cards (the playing cards virtual reality pack is now freely available as a sign-up bonus – and enable players to physically pick up their cards, which are wirelessly attached to the PC, and will display the relevant cards that players are dealt). He has ten jack suited in the big blind, there are a few limpers, so he taps the table and his hand is automatically checked. One of his opposition is talking, but the voice he hears is not quite in synch with the players lips – obviously he is not talking English, and it is being translated, but he turns the volume down – the chat is all a little too abusive these days. The flop doesn’t help him, so he folds and he is treated to an ad about hearing aids whilst the rest of the hand is playing out – these tailored ads annoy the hell out of him – he wants to watch the action, but he knows that part of the no rake deal is that he watches these ads, and his eye movement is being monitored. He plays for around an hour and wins $40 – enough to buy his daily paper, delivered through his printer on the re-usable paper that is so rare these days, He turns immediately to the back pages and reads up on the latest WSOP news. The million dollar buy-in main event is down to the final table, and he is looking forward to the pay per view final table package that he has ordered through his television – which enables him to sit at any seat during the game, and see through the eyes of the superstars of the game, and see who would take the half a billion first prize. He goes back to his PC and logs back on just in time for Bloggerment 2634 – will he finally break his duck??
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