Training Day

I saw Senna yesterday. What an amazing film. Despite being force-fed Formula One every Sunday afternoon by my car-obsessed Dad throughout my childhood (or, come to think of it, because) I've never actually been interested in cars or racing at all. However, that didn't stop me thinking this was one of the best films I have seen in a long time. I'd highly recommend that people go to see it - it's funny, dramatic, exciting and incredibly moving also. Everything that Formula One usually isn't. Here's a trailer if you need more convincing...

The rise of feature documentaries is a fascinating development in Hollywood/cinema over the past fifteen years. Due to their relative scarcity almost every doc that is released in cinemas is great. Just over the past few years there's been Man On Wire, Inside Job, The September Issue and now Senna to name a few great examples. This also looks amazing, out next month or so;





I hired a poker coach this past week. It's something I've been meaning to do for the past six months but as they're quite expensive - $750 for 5x80min sessions - I wanted to make sure I got the right coach first. I eventually settled on Alan Jackson who makes training videos for BlueFirePoker.com and plays the same stakes as me. He's a very technical, stats-based player/coach which should be ideal for me as those are areas I'm pretty weak in. We had our introductory session last week and it went really well so I'm very excited to get started tomorrow.

Ironically, despite currently being in the midst of a great run, I think now is probably the best time to get coaching. Even when you're playing (and running) well it can never be a bad thing to have somebody from outside come and give an objective look at your game. As anyone who has played a lot of poker knows, it can be quite easy to grow a big ego regarding the game, which in turn can obviously lead to playing badly and not actually analysing or reviewing your own play. All of our sessions are conducted via Skype and cool software that allows Alan to see my screen and vice versa. I'm sure it will more than pay for itself over time.

A big shout out to Sam Grafton over in Vegas who finished 14th in the $2,500 Six Max WSOP event for about $24k. I'm sure he'll be gutted to come so close - 1st paid over $600k! - but he's an awesome player and a cool guy so he'll have plenty of other chances to do well soon. If poker were definitively defined as a sport (which it isn't really) then it would probably be the UK's best all-round sport. Certainly better than our amazing football team...and, in about two day's time when Andy Murray is the only Brit standing, our tennis team too....

Last time out I said I'd post a few interesting $5/$10 hands and in the interests of retaining a cohesive narrative, here we go.

Seat 1: khalidzahoor16 ($980)
Seat 2: Zilog ($1,000)

Seat 3: MrStarch ($1,286.44) (BTN)

Seat 5: vakostar ($391) (SB)

Seat 6: japete ($2,763.81) (BB)

Dealt to MrStarch

Preflop: (Pot: $15)

RAISE khalidzahoor16, to $30
FOLD Zilog
RAISE MrStarch, to $95
FOLD vakostar
FOLD japete
CALL khalidzahoor16, $65

Flatting or 3-betting this hand on the button is fine. Khalid is one of the worst players at $2/$4 and $5/$10 so there's no way that I can ever fold and avoid playing a hand in position vs him. He calls 3-bets a massively high % of the time so I think that makes just calling marginally the better option actually.

Flop: (Pot: $205)

CHECK khalidzahoor16
BET MrStarch, $95
RAISE khalidzahoor16, to $210
CALL MrStarch, $115

Nice flop! I don't think that there is too much point reraising his check-raise. A lot of the time Khalid will just have Ace-high type hands (for a gutshot) or something like 77-99 which he may be able to fold if I jam on him. His actual hand was definitely at the very top of his range I think.

Turn: (Pot: $625)

BET khalidzahoor16, $275
RAISE MrStarch, to $981.44
CALL khalidzahoor16, $400

Awesome turn and he's pretty much committed to the hand at this point so it's an easy shove and he's drawing to just two outs. Woohoo!

River: (Pot: $2,281.44)

Showdown:

SHOWS khalidzahoor16

SHOWS MrStarch

MrStarch wins the pot of $2,278.44

The swings in $5/$10 can be pretty gruesome though and it's a main reason why I only play when the tables are pretty soft. A few minutes later a steaming Khalid got his revenge by playing abysmally in this hand;

Seat 1: khalidzahoor16 ($1,003) (BB)
Seat 2: Zilog ($1,046)

Seat 3: MrStarch ($2,224.77) (BTN)

Seat 6: japete ($2,746.48) (SB)

Dealt to MrStarch

Preflop: (Pot: $15)

RAISE MrStarch, to $30
FOLD japete
RAISE khalidzahoor16, to $90
RAISE MrStarch, to $200
CALL khalidzahoor16, $130

I raise TT on the button and Khalid 3-bets from the small blind. Given his frail mental state and all-round spewiness I'm quite happy to get this all-in right here so make a small 4-bet which hopefully he'll either fold or jam over. Anyway he does the unexpected thing instead and just calls. No matter what hand he holds that can't be a good play ever, especially out of position. Miserable.

Flop: (Pot: $425)

CHECK khalidzahoor16
BET MrStarch, $260
RAISE khalidzahoor16, to $520
RAISE MrStarch, to $1,734.77
CALL khalidzahoor16, $253

Anyway I flop top set as usual, we get the money in and what does he have? The old 5-6 suited of course.

Turn: (Pot: $2,932.77)

River: (Pot: $2,932.77)

UGH!!!

Showdown:

SHOWS khalidzahoor16

SHOWS MrStarch


khalidzahoor16 wins the pot of $2,010


In general though poker is going pretty good this month. It's the 20th June today and I've already played about 45,000 hands so far. My aim for each month is 50,000 so I should smash that easily, hopefully have another good week (while watching Wimbledon in the background) and make a nice withdrawal in a few days.

Cheers for reading.