Thursday, May 26, 2005

Patient still on ventilator

Almost a year into the life of my blog, and I have finally taken on an affiliate arrangement.

These guys run a really good rakeback service, at eurobet (Party skin) and several other sites. I've been really pleased with their service; they set my account up for me, their nice clean site provides daily updates on your rake paid in the month, and queries are replied to very quickly.

Things have improved for me since the barrage of moaning entries about my terrible luck. I have booked a couple of small wins, but my luck is still really not good. I could have recorded reasonable wins, but several total or near-freerolls have failed to provide even one scoop. Winning the whole pot in these spots once in a blue fucking moon is where decent profits come from in PLO8. When you can never win one, and are just splitting middling pots all over the place and stealing the odd small one, the game can become mindnumblingly tedious.

Frankly, I have tightened up lately. Playing creatively, as I had used to do, is rather trying when people simply won't fold on the end - to any size bet - if they have even a 10% chance of maybe, just maybe sneaking half the pot.

I deposited into my old site today, but I am still finding it hard to go there when I am getting RAKEBACK at Eurobet!

Monday, May 23, 2005

Backer to the future

I had the anniversary of this blog wrong. It’s the 28th, not today. I never have been much good with birthdays and suchlike. I’m not sure I’d be handing out balloons and cakes anyway - I have neither the mood nor the bankroll for that.

Yes, the bad run continues and I am really suffering. I’m bewildered, stunned, frustrated, pissed off, disappointed and upset. It isn’t the worst financial run of my poker life - I’ve lost more in one pot than I have in the past two weeks - but it is the worst in terms of timing, and the sheer persistence of these awful, shitty cards.

It is starting to get to me. I’ve avoided tilting; I’ve tried tightening up; I’ve tried gambling a little more. And of course I am starting to question my play, even after checking just about every hand history where I have lost a lot of chips. Every time, I have either been a big favourite or at least in decent shape. And heck, you can’t get it right every time, but surely you should expect to hit the odd 3/1 shot to scoop and surely you should expect to occasionally get something out of the pot when you are only 60/40 underdog?

Shockingly, I now have somebody who is backing me somewhat, who believes in my game enough to do so - although it is largely a favour because this person can afford it. Therefore, I will be reasonably bankrolled in a few days despite these recent losses. My aim will be to play somewhat higher, although in gradual steps at the moment with my confidence having taken such a battering.

I’ll also be splitting my play between Eurobet and my older site, as I enjoy the greater variety of games there; 6-max tables, PLO sit and goes, heads-up freezeouts, five card stud. However, the rakeback I get at Eurobet means I want to play there plenty; its all I have made for the past fortnight!

Today’s most bizarre Google search referral to this site: ‘Toby Maguire naked’.