Starch Poker: Hotter Than The Sun

Unless something catastrophic happens in the next three days May is going to be my best month of all-time online. Here’s a screenshot of my graph for this month;

This might be a bit small, but I'm still getting used to this....

When you add in some PLO winnings it’s the first time I’ve ever won $10k in a month playing cash games. Add in the £3,500 from PKR Live, $4k winnings from Vegas and about $500 more from online MTTs and life is good right now. Obviously I’ve been running well over EV but hopefully that’s not the only reason why this month has turned out so well.

I feel like I’m playing better than ever. Before I went to Vegas I’d been stuck in a real rut, with one breakeven month and one pretty big losing month before that, leaving me to eke out a miserable living as a rakeback warrior. As with any other job, it becomes easy to play poker (or go to work) on auto-pilot, never really thinking about what you are doing at the table or why. For example, you begin to play certain types of hands the exact same way every time and forget about the important aspects of poker such as putting pressure on people or looking for unique spots to bluff and find value. Anyway, playing live for a week really allowed me to experiment, get my confidence back and I think I’ve been a lot more creative since I returned which, for now, is showing itself in results. I've also joined a new gym around the corner from my flat and have been training much more, which probably helps with focus and all that technical mind stuff.

It also helps that the games online have seemingly been a lot better recently. $1/$2 is always beatable but a ton of new fish and bad players taking shots have started playing $2/$4 and making huge mistakes in big pots. Here’s a cool example of that;

Seat 1: itscalledsoccer ($881,54)
Seat 2: GolgeJ ($477,00)

Seat 3: Vic66 ($388,50) (BTN)

Seat 4: chillinFLUSH ($733,63) (SB)

Seat 5: MrStarch ($552,30) (BB)
Seat 6: MJ1215 ($186,28)

Dealt to MrStarch

Preflop: (Pot: $6)

FOLD MJ1215
FOLD itscalledsoccer
FOLD GolgeJ
RAISE Vic66, to $10,00
RAISE chillinFLUSH, to $42,00
CALL MrStarch, $40,00
CALL Vic66, $34,00

Flop: (Pot: $128,00)

CHECK chillinFLUSH
CHECK MrStarch
BET Vic66, $76,00
RAISE chillinFLUSH, to $172,00
RAISE MrStarch, to $508,30
CALL Vic66, $268,50
CALL chillinFLUSH, $336,30

Turn: (Pot: $1 413,10)

River: (Pot: $1 413,10)

Showdown:

SHOWS Vic66

SHOWS chillinFLUSH

SHOWS MrStarch

MrStarch wins the pot of $1,490,10

Obviously they should have both folded the flop. Massive fish calling off with middle and bottom set. Mwahahahahahaha! Set over set over set madness. So I lied about revealing some major tactical changes but generally I just feel more alert at the tables, and long may it continue.

In non-poker playing stuff, some cool stuff coming up. It’s my wonderful girlfriend Hattie and I’s three-year anniversary this weekend so we have a table booked at the epic-looking steak house Hawksmoor in Covent Garden - http://www.thehawksmoor.co.uk/ for 730pm on Saturday night. It took me about a week to realise that I’d made the stupendous error of booking a table at the same time that the Champions League final kicks off. Not good. And too late to change it. Oh well, eating a 32oz rib-eye with beef dripping chips will be far more satisfying that watching Messi massacre Man Utd anyway.

Pretty uninspiring UFC this weekend too but there is some potential for exciting fights. I’ve got small bets on Struve, Mir, Johnson and Stann to win.

Finally, sad news about the death of Macho Man Randy Savage this week at the age of 58. As many will know I used to be a huge wrestling fan (geek) and still follow it a bit. Macho Man was one of the greatest ever and I have some awesome memories of him from my childhood, especially his Wrestlemania VII match with the Ultimate Warrior. RIP Mach.