Yorky Pud

Sorry for my lack of updates to my little blog, each time I have planned to sit down and type it out something has cropped up that has either taken me away from my laptop or tied me up for a couple of hours.

Things are pretty hectic around here as me and the Mrs got the keys to a new house on Tuesday, which is great as it allows us to get away from the Clampits who live next door but it also means that we have to move on Monday 13 June! Usually this would not be a problem, just a little stressful, but the new place is a complete mess. The decorating, if you can call it that, is disgusting an filthy so I have been spending almost all of my time painting the woodwork and ceilings, both of which needed two coats just to cover the nicotine staining and could probably do with another coat if I am entirely honest.

Then yesterday I decided to buy a steamer so that I could remove the living room “wallpaper” quicker and it took me nearly seven hours and it is still not 100% complete. Everything is just taking longer than expected and isn't helped that I am absolutely shattered and feeling pretty demoralised by the fact it doesn't look much better than when I started but that will all change when I put the first coast of paint on the walls. Anyway, enough about my aching body and upcoming house move as this is a poker blog, or at least it is meant to be.

A few entries ago I highlighted plans to see if I could improve my Pocket Fives tournament ranking so it will come as no surprise to you that I have not played a single MTT in that time! One form of poker I have been playing though is a game that I have always done well at but then always dropped like a hot potato when times got hard, Heads Up Sit 'n' Go (HUSNG). I honestly cannot remember why I decided to play then on Betfair Poker, especially as they have 10% rake which is ridiculous in HUSNG but I have so far played 87 of them this month, which considering I have been out of the house from 0930 until 2200 every day for the past week is some achievement.

The one good thing about the stupid 10% rake is that it keeps decent regulars away and out of the 87 matches I have only come across one winning player and he was the only one who gave me any trouble. I have managed to cash in 56.3% of my games, which equates to a 2.4% ROI, which won't let me retire but it is a start. My ROI was much, much better until last night when I stupidly decided to play five games before I went to bed despite knowing 100% in my mind I was going to play terribly because I was so tired. And I was correct as I only won one of the five matchs which lowered my profit for the month by $35.

I am disappointed with myself for sitting down and playing despite telling myself not to. Since reading the Mental Game of Poker I have been more in control of everything to do with my poker game so this little slip up is disappointing but I will learn for next time. The book has given me the skills to be able to see past the short-term results, something I put into practice when I ran like death in only my second session. Usually I would say sod it and play something else but I reassured myself that it was only variance and managed to turn matters around. To see how badly I am running but how well I am obviously crushing, my adjusted EV says my ROI should be 9.7%, which is partly down to hands where I raise with Jh8h and get called by villain. The flop comes down 8s-8d-7s villain checks and I overbet shove knowing he is calling with almost all of his hands because he's slack as a bag of spanners and he does indeed call with 7c5c and I am a 96.7% favourite. That is until the turn and river are the 9h and 6s respectively to give him a very unlikely straight. But that is poker I guess, you have to take the rough with the smooth.

I'm not sure how many games I will be able to play over the coming days as the house move builds up to its finale but I really want to try and fit some time in because I was on the Rake The Rake leaderboard at one point but have dropped off due to lack of playing. Oh, and I may have some exciting news about more live tournament reporting but I need to wait until I have all the details available to me. Watch this space.

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!