Betfair Official Blog

Back in front for the month

Since my last post I have added another digit to my age (writes Yorkshire Pud) and I'm now the ripe old age of 27! Do I feel any different? In short, no. Not at all. If I think about it I didn't expect to feel any different so I guess I can't complain!

My birthday started at the unholy hour, for a Saturday anyway, of 0730 when I was awakened from my slumber by Step Pud shouting for "Mamma" and "Dadda". Thankfully I'd only had a couple of cans the night before otherwise I'd have been as rough as a badger's arse!

The first thing I do when I wake up is check my mobile phone for messages as I leave it switched on when I'm sleeping but with it on the silent setting, strange I know but that's me. My handset tells me I have three unread messages and I think to myself I must be a popular Pudding to have three birthday wishes at this time! Unfortunately they weren't messages of birthday wishes, rather they were from Pud Jr's mum's boyfriend, sent within a 15 minute period at nearly 0300! The first was quite civil and basically said we could meet up and talk to sort out the current situation with my access to seeing Pud Jr. The second, sent five minutes later was slightly more aggressive then the third, sent 15 minutes after the initial text, was quite threatening and ended with "put what you like on the net, you're only digging yourself a deeper hole" but in that strange text language some people use. Nothing I have put on here or on any of my old blogs has named people by their real names so it is totally anonymous to the outside world and never have I ever said anything that isn't true. Freedom of speech is a great thing.

The night of my birthday was spent trying to punish the liver and we all drank our way through a boat load of ale. We talked a bit, drank a bit, talked a bit, stuffed our faces with Chinese food then drank some more. By the time we'd finished it was 0400 and my mum had to stop me from cracking open the vodka! I sometimes can't stop once I start! Despite the lack of vodka I still felt a little ropey after 6 hours sleep but after a few coffees and a sausage sandwich I was ok. Mrs P on the other hand wasn't so good and ended up throwing up at the side of a football pitch, complete with match taking place, on our way to pick up Step Pud! Nice! Needless to say both of us were fast asleep at 2100 catching up on some much needed shut-eye!

Poker-wise I am back in front again for the month albeit a measly $30. April has been very frustrating to say the least mainly because it's been my first opportunity for a long time where I have been able to log a decent amount of volume. I've played 40x $5.25 heads-up sit and goes (broke even), 40x $10.50 heads-up sit and goes (basically broke even), 15 $5.50 6 player sit and goes (made a nice profit), some fixed limit cash games (up slightly), some short-handed no limit hold'em (down a couple of buy-ins) and around 15 tournaments which I failed to cash in a single one! I guess some will say the fact I have jumped around the different disciplines hasn't helped my profitability but if I am honest it has taken away some of the boredom of sticking at one type of game for a long period of time and I've got back to enjoying the game again and I've not let any of the bad beats effect me for what seems and age, instead I've laughed at my opponent's awful play, added them to my "fish list" and carried on like it never happened!

I've also been dabbling with Pot-limit Omaha Hi and I must admit I'm totally addicted to it! I've quickly worked out not to chase non-nut hands after losing 3/4's of a buy-in with a king high flush and lost out to an ace high flush and to also never discount the possibility of someone holding the exact hand needed to beat you which happened when my opponent had to have an Ace and a nine to beat me and sure enough it's exactly what they had in their four hole cards. The swings could be crazy but from what I've seen at the $10 and $20 buy-ins is that the players play far less than premium hands and chase non-nut draws too aggressively so hopefully I can profit out of these guys before they lose all their money!

I'll try get some hand histories up in the next couple of posts and also a typical tournament table for you to see if you can recognise any of the stereotypical characters present!

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

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