2 weeks without an update! Sorry everyone

Well well well.

2 weeks since I updated and I've actually had a few people notice!! Maybe more than just my Dad are reading this blog.

So what's been going on? As you can probably guess not a great deal of poker, but why I hear you ask?! Well I've had a bit of a poker injury, a crick in the neck it's called, basically it causes some pretty severe pain in my shoulder whenever I turn my neck, it's made it a lot harder to play or do anything really but I shall press through and hope it gets better.

Lots of exciting life stuff has happened but I'll start with a few bits of poker news, if you're not interested in this bit then skip forward, I won't be offended.

I downloaded a piece of software called table ninja. Poker players will be very familiar with this, basically it allows me to play more table faster, it will also automatically register me for as many games as I want and when a game ends it'll register me for an identical game. I can definitely now play 40 games at a time, I think if I do this continuously I should average 100 games an hour, this means approximately 1,250 vpps an hour so 8 hours a day would be 10,000 vpps. To put this into real terms, every 100,000 vpps is worth approximately $8,500 to me (and that's just as Supernova, when I hit supernova Elite next year 100k vpps is worth approximately $11,000 to me)

So you can probably tell that I'm quite excited by this prospect, I'm gonna aim to hit SNE by my birthday in 2012, if you don't know when my birthday is you'd best find out cos I want a card and some scalextrix.

I've gotta push it in December because if I don't get 68,000 more vpps I will miss out on a $3k bonus, it's not a massive target, I just really need the discipline so hopefully will get cracking on that tomorrow.

If I thought it was worth my while I think I could hit Supernova Elite by the end of February. It's worth a total of $120,000 in bonuses but would require me to work about 12 hours a day every single day and I like to have a life outside of poker.

So, onto my life outside poker NON POKER FANS START READING AGAIN HERE. People who are only interested in poker can switch off now as I won't be mentioning it again.

Been doing lots of quizzes as usual, couple of wins last week, Tuesday and Wednesday quizzes. Thursday quiz is now moving to a Sunday which is probably better as only 5 of us turned up last week so we played individually but at least I beat Jen.

This weekend just gone we went up to York to meet up with a group of Jen's friends from when she was at uni, they were all really nice and we had a great time, it got to about 00:30 on the Saturday night and Jen was knackered and wanted to go back to the hotel and go to bed, I was so tempted to stay out and drink but I relented and went back to the hotel. I did learn a new drinking game from some new zealanders but you need at least 3 friends to play it so I might struggle.

This Monday night I finally acheived a life long dream, I saw Bryan Adams sing Summer of '69 live in concert. My friend Hayley had a spare ticket so I went with her, we were standing about 4 people back from the front, fantastic view and I loved it, I didn't know every song but any I didn't know were really enjoyable and when he played summer of '69 I was so happy! Had a really great night. Tuesday night my good friend Mel sorted out some amazing tickets for Jen and I to see Jason Manford at the O2 in London. It was absolutely fantastic, seats were great and Jason was just so funny, had us in stitches all night long, we went 1st class cos it was only about £15 each more which meant we got lots of free food and also sat in the 1st class lounge at Euston for 3 hours before we headed back this morning (This was because we stayed with my friends and they had to be up very early and our train wasn't til 11)

I used this time in the lounge to lose $120 at poker, well everyone else in there seemed to be working so I thought I would too. Lost every flip so wasn't too fussed and wasn't playing my usual games, just 18 man games.

Tonight just went to the quiz at the railway, had food too. Wouldn't let Karen and Ria cheat tonight and we ended up coming 4th oops.

In other news my friend Louise, who I know from uni, and I have decided to organise a bit of a reunion in Lancaster in February, haven't seen anyone from uni in nearly a year so would be great to catch up (I have two sets of uni friends and have seen the other set more recently and I love all of them just as much so if you're reading this don't get upset)

Not a lot else to add, gonna head to bed in a minute just watching the end of a college basketball game.

Again my apologies for not updating regularly but it's been difficult to sit at the computer lately but feels a lot better so all being well I should be updating regularly, also had some kayboard issues which seem resolved now as well.

Good night all, and good luck!

More quizzes and maybe a little bit of poker

so, two days since I last updated my blog and I can hear you all wondering what I've been doing for the past two days, well you've come to the right place to find out so well done you!

Tuesday wasn't a good poker day, I was playing in the afternoon but was just knackered, not playing my best and running badly, didn't cash in anything and ended up about $400 down so stopped and went for a sleep.

Went the Farmers quiz where we stormed to victory thanks to a reggae round on the music, me shouting UB40 for every song eventually was correct, we got 15/20 noone else seemed to get more than about 8.

We only got 3 general knowledge questions wrong all quiz, one was 'which river does Sunderland Stand on?' One was, 'Which coin went out of circulation in 1980?' And, erm I can't remember the other one. Sorry.

We won by 3 pts anyway so didn't matter and we also won the jackpot so we now have £180 in our little kitty. We've made over £300 this year from that farmers quiz, but probably spent about £600 behind the bar doing so! Oh well.

Wednesday I woke up around 5am wide awake and got straight into poker tournaments, was playing well but not running great. Came 10th in a $109 tournament when Q9 lost to J6, I know the hands sound crap but the situation dictated I call there, I was right but J on turn killed me.
Came 9th in a $33 game when AK lost to A9 and then came 5th in a $77 game when KJ lost to QJ. I won back the money I'd lost the day before plus a little bit more but should have been lots more. ah well, can't win them all.

Went to the railway quiz, there were loads of us so we formed 3 teams, my team was pretty much just Me Jen and Hayley but to be honest, that's all we needed. We won getting only 5 things wrong in the entire quiz without cheating. The other teams came 3rd and 4th but one of the team names was very abusive to me so I think I'll stop going unless Karen is nicer to me!

Got home and went to sleep, I don't think this blog has reached levels where you need to know about my dreams, but I did get up twice in the night to urinate.

Not gonna be playing much today as I've done something to my shoulder and it can be really painful when I'm playing plus I'm taking Naomi for lunch in a bit, might play a few $7 hyper turbos to get my poker fix for the day. Then going to the Blue Anchor tonight to support Aaron's quiz. Anyone who's free should come as it's very good fun.

Also I'm getting lots of strange abuse on this blog at the moment, and I love it, feel like I've made it so keep it coming kiddies :)

Hope everyone has a lovely day. I need to buy more curly wurlys. Bought 15 on Saturday, all gone already. oopsy!

Football and quiz - NO POKER!!

Someone requested more quiz updates as they didn't understand the poker stuff. I dunno who they are but I thought I'd oblige.

Played five a side tonight against probably the best team in the league, We actually did ok, we took a 1-0 lead when Ste's shot hit the keeper, the post, the keeper and bounced in somehow. Then Aaron thought it was a good idea to pass the ball across his own area straight to one of their players and it was 1-1. They scored again soon after and we were 2-1 down at half time.

Second half we started lively and were pushing forward, Tim played me down the left and I played it off the wall to him in front of goal but he kind of scuffed it, then I had the ball and could have played Tim in on the right or Ste to the left but went for goal and it was blocked.

Then we were attacking again, I had Ste to my right or Tim behind me to the left, I tried a backheel to Tim but totally fluffed it and they broke 3 on 1 and scored to make it 3-1.

I took myself off the pitch immediately cos was so annoyed with myself and it was soon 5-1.

I came back on and they scored again and we got one back late on thanks to a great finish from Tim so a 6-2 defeat but it wasn't too bad a performance and but for a few careless mistakes we could have gotten something from that one.

So straight to the quiz, via my flat because once again I'd forgotten my jeans and my shorts were a bit too short to wear at a quiz with so many middle aged women. And I've had my hair cut so I'd have been fighting them off with curly wurlys.

First round was general knowledge, we got 14/20 on this plus our bonus so scored 5. A few I was very happy with were Sid Snot was a creation of which comic? And how many cards in a Tarot pack? I won't put the answers up cos people might wanna guess them.

Ridiculous question of the night, What is a Falasha? Apparently it's an Ethiopian Jew!! I mean who the fuck would know that?!

Really can't remember any others from that round, 2nd round was entertainment, we got about 15/20 on this one, I was pleased with was 'What was Sharron Davies' name in Gladiators' That was our bonus so worth an extra 5. A few silly ones, like who played Alice in the 1972 film Alices adventures in Wonderland? Fiona Fullerton is the answer if anyone is interested. Also there was 'Which sitcom did Richard Wilson play a dr?' We put Happy when I laugh which was the theme music, it was actually called Only when I laugh, but he gave us the point.

Pictures and anagrams..... We got both anagrams but missed a lot of blonde women. The anagrams were 1980's adventure drama films.

1. AAAINNRRTUWY
2. CDEEEEHIRSTV

Good luck with those.

Music round we got 18/20 Thanks to things like Jason Donovan's sealed with a kiss and something by Christopher Cross. Aaron came through with several good answers like Lynn Anderson's rose garden and Tavares for something.

2nd, best we've done in a while.

Tomorrow is Farmers quiz so will update how that one goes.

I'm watching NFL tonight yay! come on Vikings, beat the Spackers for my bears!

So excited! A HATER!!

Yay! I feel so important, I finally got my first hater (besides my brother)

Makes me feel pretty special that someone has taken the time to read my blog just to give me some abuse at the end.

I really hope they keep doing this and encourage their imaginary friends to do likewise :)

One step at a time ....

Sorry I've not updated in a while, but to be honest, I'm a lazy git.

Haven't played all weekend except in a team game which I'll get to later but here's the reason why and also a valuable poker lesson for all you aspiring Jazzy wannabees.

Had a bad couple of days on Wednesday and Thursday, just seemed to be losing all the key pots at vital times in tournaments and was down about $800, was playing a $109 tournament on Friday morning. I'd got up to 5000 chips early by making some calls with A9 on A Q 6 flop, opponent bet heavy every street and shoved river but I'd committed myself by then, he had 22 and I was away.

Got up to 16k with set vs top pair but then lost a flip and was so card dead and every raise seemed to get jammed and we got close to the bubble (27 players left) and I was pretty short, it was $166 for coming 27th and only about $260 for 12th which is when the money went up sharpish so I realised the best option was to just get myself in the money and take it from there.

I squeaked into the money on 3,000 chips with the blinds 750/1500 and was pleased to have cashed, I then had AQ and held vs A5 to get to 10k and then had stole the blinds with QTo, got a walk in BB and then had KK when I had 14k and held three way and suddenly I was in with a chance.

Went totally card dead again and my next idea was squeak onto the final table and take it from there. So that's what I did, got down to the final 9 but was in last place but on the final table of a $109 game the prizes jump up pretty steeply so every place was worth a decent amount to me. I didn't play any hands but noone was going out. I got JJ and had to go all in, AJ called me and I held knocking him out and moving up to 50k which was still pretty short.

I kept folding trying to pick up a few more spots which worked as we were down to 6 people, I stole the blinds a couple of times when I had the chance. We were down to 5 and it was time to come alive as I had guaranteed myself $1000 and I wanted to win.

I shoved from the Button with T8s for my last 35,000 chips and for some reason the BB called with 34s, I flopped a Ten but he flopped a flush draw, I managed to hold and looked like I had a chance, three hands later I had AA in the BB, the button shoved with KTo K flopped but I held and I was chip leader and then we lost another player leaving it 4 handed.

I played quite badly for a while, every raise got shoved and I wasn't 3 betting enough, then I got ATs, utg raised so I shoved and he had KK, but I flopped an ace and held and we were 3 handed, me on 207k, other british guy on 200k and someone else around 90k.

I raised from the SB with AQ knowing the BB would probably shove, he did so with A5, I flopped my queen and suddenly I'm on 400k with the others on 90k and 7k.

Now next hand was pretty hilarious, I stuck my 400k in with A5, the short stack called from the SB with AJ and the other guy called his 90k with KK.

The river was an ace keeping the shortie in on about 20k and knocking the KK guy out in 3rd, he was fuming as I went to 480k. It was over the next hand and I'd picked up $3,612!

great result so I took the weekend off to go on boyfriend duties. Went to Wales with Jen to see her grandad but I went for a 3 hour sleep in the afternoon cos was so tired but at least I was there!

Did nothing Saturday night, Sunday Jen made a roast which was really nice.

Quiz report from last week ............

Monday 5th at the railway
Tuesday WON THE FARMERS - Quite convincingly too.
Wednesday WON THE RAILWAY, Karen's team got 2nd by copying our answers but she nicked my winners drinks vouchers.
Thursday 3rd at the anchor. Had a few beers, everyone thought it was so unusual! I need to drink more I guess.

Sunday night played a team game helping out someone I've just met, I was their ringer. Was chip leader throughout but then lost KK v A5 with 4 left which meant the team only came 2nd. oh well.

I think I'm the only person in the world who looks forward to Mondays, weekends are pretty dull these days but on a Monday I get football and quiz.

Started buying christmas presents yesterday! It's so nice to not be worrying about money for presents for once, just hope I don't go too over the top, my dad's present cost £50 just for the postage! grr.

I'll finish the blog now, if anyone has anything they'd like to see in here then just let me know!

Have a good week everyone

Oops, not updated in a week!

So I haven't updated my blog in nearly a week, 'why not?' I hear you ask, and 'What's been happening with Jon's poker?'

Ok I doubt anyone cares but I'll tell you all anyway.

I actually had a bad weekend for poker, did pretty much nothing this weekend, in fact the only time I left the house was to go pick up the chinese food on Friday night. That's mildly depressing so this weekend I will endeavour to do more exciting activities.

So poker was bad, I played mostly tournaments all weekend but just couldn't get a big win at all, closest I got was 9th in an $11 game, final table was infuriating, I was rivered twice and then watched two other short stacks river 2 outers and finished up 9th for $200ish when winner got $2,500. annoying.

That's the problem with weekend poker, there are too many idiot players so you can either win a lot or lose a lot, this weekend I was about $1,200 down. Ouch, but I've had worse

Sunday night I tried playing a batch of $30 hyper turbo 6 seater games, ran horrendously, somehow only cashed 5 of the 30 I played and lost $500 so I think we'll steer clear of them, I'm also playing some steps tournaments which will hopefully win me a trip to a live event somewhere and a chance at a massive score.

Monday night was my footie night and I managed to remember all my clothes for going the pub with, all my football kit, my wallet, keys AND Mobile phone, but managed to give everyone the wrong time for the game, Damion realised about 20 minutes before kick off and we made desperate attempts got there on time but lost 3-2. It was really disappointing as we were winning 2-1 and I was clean through but the keeper made a great save and we went on to lose 3-2 oh well, best we've done all season.

When I got back from the quiz I watched the NFL, Bears beat the Eagles! woo. Am thinking of going to the play offs if the Bears make it and play in New York but won't know about that for a few weeks yet.

Played a load of tournies and for first time in a few days I started doing well in games again. Had a few small results, 7th out of 939 in $11 game for $250 but should have been way more, 7 of us left and I had about 450k in chips, chip leader on 1m chips and everyone else around 100-300k. He was playing very aggressively I raised with AQ, he re raised, I shoved all in, he called JJ and hit another Jack to end my chances, very silly.

came 5th in an omaha tourney, don't really know how or what happened but picked up $150 for that.

And then, the exciting one. a $55 cubed, meaning $55 to play, you can buy 3000 more chips at any time in first hour for $50 and add on another 3000 chips after that hour for a further $50.

I decided to rebuy very early to give me a chance of a big stack and that chance came with KQ on a Q 8 7 flop, guy bet out, I shoved and he called AA, river Q and I'm on 12k.

After that I ran quite well, all my hands held up and when we got to the end of the 1st hour I was 2nd in chips on 37k. I took the add on anyway because they could be invaluable later. Tried to nick some more chips as and when I got myself up to 100k (not sure how) and then started raising a lot, raised with 99 and someone shoved on me, as I was playing aggro I had to call, he had 55 and I held to be massive chip leader on 160k. This lasted one hand, the next hand I lost QQ v KJ and the one after AQ v AK v AK v K5 to go down to 50k, soon got into the money and then had some hands hold and was back in with a good chance.

To be honest I don't recall many hands til we were down to the last 4 but I definitely took someone out cos I was chip leader. I tried to broker a deal but one guy refused, I was offered $2,400 in the deal which was same as 2nd place price money so I wanted to deal but never mind. a few hands after I raised with 88 the BB bully jammed, I called, he had JTo and I held putting me a big chip leader and him almost gone, he went a few hands later and then I held 66 v AQ against the other short stack leaving us heads up.

I had about 500k, he had about 300k, first hand he raised, I shoved A5 and he called 66 and held. two hands later I raised 88, he shoved K9o I flopped flush draw but he rivered K to win. Annoyingly he was the guy who wouldn't deal but I still ended up with $2,400 for 2nd so I was happy enough I guess but should have won.

So downswing is over, back on track and I need to get out more at the weekend. And I need to get back a sensible sleep pattern.

Once again the last line of my blog could have saved you reading the rest! oh well.

Why I don't play cash tables.....

I took Wednesday off after Tuesday night's big win, had a relaxing day and then went the pub to get drunk, it was just me and four girls, and that's quite a scary time! They kept squeezing eachothers boobs and trying to draw on me! mentalists! haha, And we only came 3rd in the quiz. Had a great laugh though.

Got home and slept from 1am til 2:30pm Thursday afternoon, musta been knackered but felt much better for the sleep.

Pokerstars has had a promotion on this week in the build up to their 70 billionth hand, every 1 million hands the players in that were awarded big bonuses and it was a huge bonus if you were dealt into the 70bth hand.

I started off by playing 20 tables of limit poker but after 30 minutes I was down $200 so I thought, hmm, lets try something else.

I got a friend to work out when he thought the 70 bth hand would go (you got more money for how many hands you'd played previously at the tables so you needed to play for about an hour before it went to maximise reward) and he said about 3:30 so I had a set of my 50 50 games.

Did brilliantly on them and made $775 on the 30 games, dunno if I ran well or not cos haven't checked hands yet but probably to do that well.

So then I decided to go for this prize and loaded up 24 $0.25/$0.50 no limit tables with $50 on every table. I wanted to play more tables but 24 is the most that poker stars allowed me.

It was all pretty frantic, didn't see any of the action, I know I ran KK into AA twice. Needless to say I didn't get dealt into any bonus hands. The big one was won by two german guys at a heads up table. They were folding instantly to eachother to try and maximise the chances of getting that hand. Obviously it worked, but I seriously think Pokerstars are gonna withhold the money as they were clearly cheating. we'll wait and see.

I lost another $100 on all those no limit tables chasing this dumb bonus. I'm clearly not very good at cash tables, and feel like I wasted an evening as the jackpot hand didn't go til 5am!!.

I'm off to bed now, Saturday is a vip special game with free entry and $1,000,000 in the prizepool, with $100k for the winner. I fancy my chances in this and am staying in on bonfire night to try and win it, but I hate fireworks anyway.

Hope you're all well :)

Wow, it just gets better and better

I can't believe how well poker is going at the moment, I just feel invincible.

So what's happened tonight? Ended up falling asleep on the couch at 8am til about 2pm and then fell back asleep around 6pm til 7:45. Watched the first half of the Arsenal game and went to the farmers, we came 4th in the quiz but had lots of fun and then came home.

Jen went to bed and I thought I'd have a set of 30 fifty 50 games for the first time in ages, played 5x$100 10x$60 and 15x$30, cashed 17 of them but it was 4 $100s and 9 $60s including 3 of them on 9k chips so made $800 from one set running at 45% roi. Hope you're reading that Rob, I'm looking good on the bet.

I then moved over to tournaments. It started badly, I was playing awfully and losing every flip and getting a bit fed up, was down about $500 but still had a few games going well, I ended up heads up in a $15 180 man game and I don't mind admitting this, I got totally outplayed, he possibly ran golden heads up but if not he played very well, so I ended up 2nd for $500.

Had some more games going, I cashed a $55 800 runner tourney for about $100 an $11 rebuy for $45, came 4th in a small $9.90 game for $35 and a $27.50 tourney for about $50. but had a $109 220 runner game going.

I started badly, missed a big draw and was down to 1000 chips but doubled with JJ v A4 and then AK v AQ to get up to 4k. then won some more pots pre and had AA in SB when button shoved, I held vs his Q8 and was on 10k. Took some pots pre and got up to 15k then blew 5k with 33 v AT.

Made the money which was guaranteed $150 and then got AA again, there was a raise and a call so I shoved from the BB and they both call, 88 and AKo. I held and was suddenly chip leader on 30k. Then got QQ, short stack all in, button shoved to try and isolate with A4, I flopped Quad queens and was cruising on 50k. we were soon down to 12, and I was raising lots to pick up pots, raised on hand with 58o and the SB shoved but I was priced in and called, he had AT, I flopped 8 and rivered straight to put me on 80k.

Tried to take some more pots pre but the aussie on my left wouldn't let me get away with it so I went to the final table on 80k in 2nd place.

Again my raises didn't get through and I was down to about 50k or so but we were down to 6 players. I was guaranteed $950 and when the cutoff shoved I decided to call in BB with ATo. he had AK but I hit the ten and held and was right back in there, next hand someone all in with QJo, I called AQ but the Jack came so I guess that was fair after the AT hit.

we were soon down to 4 and I was very much the shortest, I tried to broker a deal at this point but noone seemed interested, then I got AQ, and button shoved, I called, he had 78s. Q on turn left him dead and me looking good at last. Next hand he shoved again A7o and again I had AQ, and again Q on turn left him dead leaving us 3 handed and me a big chip lead.

I started taking pots down pre but then the other two clashed, Leguito (a player I know well from the 50 50s) won and we were heads up with him well ahead.

We immediately decided to deal, he took $4k, I took $3,800. Another phenomenal result and means I can go get pissed tomorrow and have another day off!

Probably won't sleep now cos totally buzzing and just can't believe the run I'm on. I hope it continues, I'm obviously doing something right.

Maybe having this blog is helping me focus, I dunno? but thank you all for reading!