Pud's Poker Progress / Matthew Pitt / 19 March 2008 / 6 Comments

Ever since my (non-poker related) bankruptcy two and a half years ago, I've never had a car of my own and I've either had to rely on borrowing a friend's car or use the pile of cack that is public transport to get to and from work and from A to B on a daily basis.

For those of you who drive but have had to go without your motor for a few days you'll realise how much of a pain not having your car is and how much time you waste hanging around bus stops and train platforms when usually you're sat listening to your music in your own little bubble. Well spare a thought for little old me who works seven and a half hours a day but is out of my house for 12 hours a day due to travelling. Last night's journey home was the icing on the cake and cemented my plans to invest in some sort of car.

I knew it was going to be "one of those nights" when I was logging off at 1700 and one of the managers came with a last minute request and then proceeded to chat shit for 10 minutes causing me to miss not one but two buses outside work! By some miracle I managed to get to the train station in time for my usual train but when I arrived at the top of the escalators I was greeted by two barefooted guys, facing east on their prayer mats, chanting and bowing away in the middle of the platform! Never seen anything like it before and it was strange to see, especially as Leeds has it's own dedicated prayer room nowadays. Anyway, for some reason, the powers that be decided to send a train with only two carriages at a time when there areenough commuters to fill twice that. Cue my best sardine impression.

I've always said life mirrors poker and vice versa and this train journey was no exception. At the poker table you'd be in a world of pain if you had Annette to your right and Imper1um to your left so imagine been stood on a train that now looks like one of those overly-packed trains in Calcutta and having some 6'8" dude to your right, who's obviously not washed his armpitsfor a few days so smells like a cheese and onion pasty, thrusting his BO on you at every opportunity, sandwiching you from your left side is a guy who has been drinking vending machine coffee and smoking fags all day so has the breath of a dozen camels and who keeps coughing to spread his scent around. Nice! These partners in crime were joined by a third member who can only be described as Peter Kay in a dress and she/he/it had obviously never been on a train before and had the balance of someone who'd just sank 10 pints, not holding onto anything, bobbing around like a cork in a piss pot, standing on my toes, kicking me in the shins and crushing me against the door. Good times!

Poker isn't going too badly. I've been experimenting with games to see which I can see myself playing the bulk of in my year long challenge that starts April 5th, where I am going to try and match my wages with poker profits. I've tried cash game Omaha Hi which is mental and I'm sure that once I understand the betting etc then this could be great fun and very profitable indeed. I also played in the Stars $100k and outlasted 16286 fish to finish 3714th and 714 short of the money. I was sitting pretty at one point, in the top 600 but I tried stealing on the button with 76o, the shorty in the SB jammed and offering me 3/1 to call. I make the call and lose out to AQ, meh. Then I race AdJd vs 77 and miss leaving me crippled and having to push T4o into QQ to bust out. I don't think the fact I had been drinking 7.4% Thatchers Cider helped matters but it was good to go deep in this massive field. Played in the BritBloggerment and came 19/22 after playing a wreckless, now 3/4's drunk, style! Ooops!

I've started to try learn the art of HUSnG's too and have played a grand total of 12 so far and won 8 at the $5.25 stakes and I'm finding them enjoyable, pitting my wits mano o mano. The play in these is pretty awful and the villains seem to think you have to be uber aggressive and bluff every street and so far they seem to basically play their hand face up so monster hands are obvious if you pay attention. I think these could become very profitable and the hourly rate you can get from these things, in relation to the stakes is insane. Checkout one of the poker tracking sites and do a search on the most profitable SnGers on the net and I guarantee it's the HU specialists that are storming away at the top.

Not much else to report on. I have a One To One with my boss today which should be fun and there is a whole load of life stuff going on that I need to keep off these pages for the time being but once the dust has settled I'll be able to fill you in.

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