Get This Party Started

I thought I'd write a blog on how I did one thing that would change my life forever and brought me to where I am today. This is going to be a bit long winded and kind of like a life story but hey ho let's go! I've had poker pop up in my life a few times before I actually came to understand the rules. There were many times we stayed up late watching whatever game was on TV and then one Christmas Day, my dad bought a poker set and tried to explain the rules to us but no, we just weren't getting it!

I went to Weymouth to study Music Technology with Bournemouth University. I made some awesome friends and had a load of fun. I then made a decision very early on that I was going to do something that I don't believe in and I wouldn't do it again as it was the most diabolical experience of my life. So the one thing that I did was very simple; I went on a dating site. I don't think I've ever told anyone so here it is. I, Antonia Smith, went on a fricking dating site. And people ask me why I don't go on Tinder or POF, well I'm not looking. Someone will find me or I will find them.

So, this dating site. I met a guy called Aaron, we talked every day on MSN. I was 19, so this was 5 years ago and he was 27. I agreed to meet him one day at the William Henry, one of Weymouth's finest Weatherspoons of course! I don't remember the whole evening apart from drinking a lot of Tyskie, but what I do remember was walking along the seafront to meet him and I saw him and almost turned round to go back home. Instead I walked straight into one of those seafront shops that sells lots of touristy stuff. I bought 20 Marlboro Reds, smoked one then got the guts to go and meet him at the bar. After that night, we were inseparable, but he didn't care about me. He'd tell me to come out every night and sometimes leave me by myself, sometimes I'd wake up at his and sit in the back garden with a black coffee thinking about what a shithole this was. I am a complete snob and I knew this wasn't my life yet I was living it. I made a lot of friends through him and finally, after 3 months, I stopped talking to him. My new friend Jess invited me to this metal pub called Finns and it was that night that I met Lee.

I don't know what I ever saw in him, still, to this day. But without him I wouldn't be writing this. He wasn't attractive, but I didn't care, I just liked him. He didn't have a job and made loads of awful racist jokes which he knew I couldn't stand but I still became his girlfriend and it lasted a year and a half until I couldn't put up with his shit anymore. He was the one who taught me how to play poker and got me hooked on zynga. Bloody zynga. I even got an iPhone and played it on there constantly until one day, I decided to sign up to Full Tilt poker.

Be Aggressive, Be Be Aggressive!!

Last week I had a migraine running from Saturday to Wednesday so I ended up playing a little and losing a lot. Sunday was particularly bad, I went from my $11 down to $5.96. I took the hit and have tried not to get too ate up about it.

 

Tonight I put all that money out there on my 4 cash tables, played my 200 hands and I'm now on $6.94, just short of a dollar up. It wasn't going well from the start though, I noticed just past the half way point I was playing 27% of hands which is too much and also I was being a complete softy. It was then that I realised I still had another 60 hands where I could still change my game. That I did. I started folding a lot more, finishing my game on 24% of hands played and took to a more aggressive tune to start raking in some stacks.

 

If I had played like that from the start then I probably would have done better, I think my tiredness effected my play and from Sunday, I was too afraid of putting too much out there. Every time someone through a load of chips in, I melted down and budged back into my corner. I need to remind myself each time I play that 1c/2c is pretty simple, the people who play are usually beginners or in general not very strong.

 

@AntoniaChigurh

Getting Somewhere

Day 3: I played a lot today, it's a Saturday, had only a couple of things to do and some quality time with my lovely male friend :).

I started this morning, had some breakfast and got right into it with 4 full ring tables, played my 200 hands and went from $9.49 to $10.29. I then decided I'd do a little 6 max forgetting how quick it was, I was over 200 hands before I knew it and made it up to $11. At such a flat number and a whole dollar more than my $10 start, I got the fear, the fear of losing any of it! So I stopped there and went about my day.

I go back from my boyfriend's at about 10:15pm and watched a tiny bit of TV with my sister, thought I'd go to bed and there it was, the itch, I haven't felt it in some time. So I scratched it, another 4 full ring games, went down to 0 on 2 of them, but still profited. I am going to bed on $11.29. Slowly but surely creeping up, I'm happy with it and that's what matters, it's super micro stakes, playing for less than pennies!

I am also happy as my stars coins are going up well too. I am very close to completing 2 steps today, so if I keep it up, I should be on chrome star by the end of the month which would be good, I used to be on it, then gave up for a while and lost it. I've been on bronze ever since. Would be nice to be able to cash some more coins in though. It was only recently I took $25 out.

Starting Afresh

My boyfriend has bought a house, he's spending lots of time on his paperwork and I'm sitting watching whatever's on Netflix. It's rubbish. I forgot how much I love poker and how I used to spend so much time on it, how I used to get so excited when I learned something new I could use the next time I played and when that new tactic succeeded.

 

A month or so ago, I started at $30, played roulette, blackjack and dare I say it...slots. All online, I got up to $240 and decided to keep going until I made it to $500. I never made it that far, I got back down to $100 then rather than doing the normal thing of withdrawing, I spiralled even further. That gambling ship also sunk my love of poker, I don't love gambling, I know that the casino always wins, I have read my way through www.gambleaware.co.uk many a time to make sure I know I am in the right, but this was bad. I felt like a dogs bottom and seemed to have moved poker into that same category, even though poker had done nothing wrong!

 

So cutting to the chase, I have forgiven myself, done my yearly visit to www.gambleaware.co.uk and have turned a new page. I am starting a new challenge, a pretty common challenge, but nonetheless, a challenge! I have already started, I have done 3 days so far or around 4 hours. It started on Wednesday 6th April 2016. I put $10 on PokerStars, I will try to get in a minimum of 8 hours a week (It's not compulsory, keeping it fun and all that), starting on the 1c/2c cash tables. I play 4 tables at once and the rules are as follows:

• Play a table to wins of no more that $4 then leave
• Play a table until loss of all $ then leave
• Play tables until 1 hour has lapsed or 200 hands, whichever is preferred at the time
• Move up to the next level when I hit $50
• At $50 for every $10 made, £1 (yes British pound) will be donated to a charity of my choice, and this will be started monthly (at the end of the month, check how many $10 have been made and go from there)
• If I do wish to play some sit and go's or MTT's etc, I can deposit extra cash and keep an eye on my dollar from there
• I can play Zoom tables, only 1 at a time and again if I wish to play above the relative stake, I will deposit money to do this
• Any wins on extra deposited cash can either be added to my challenge money, or move to my fun fund

Hopefully that's everything. But how am I doing now?

 

Day 1: Played 4 full ring tables then 4 short handed and made 61c

Day 2: Played 4 full ring tables and lost $1.12

Day 3 (still playing however stats so far): Played 4 full ring and gained $1.25 on 200 hands

 

My balance currently sits at $10.74. Yay for micro stakes!

True Happiness.

What does happiness mean to you? It is a state of mind and can be determined and changed by enviromental factors. My step mother inspired me when I met her a few years ago to just become a more positive person. With this I have been a lot less shy and more comfortable in myself but yet still there are people and conditions that will bring me down. But that's the same for everyone. But is it bad that I block certain people out because I cannot be doing with their negativity? Since Tuesday last week I have been in such an odd mood, talking about things I wouldn't normally, not feeling completely certain about myself and generally just a little insecure. This has then led me to some weird madness about trying to change loads of tiny insignificant little things that wouldn't normally matter. It's like I am literally just stressing about myself. Just myself, nothing else. The last time I did this my best friend was suffering from depression and I was 17 years old, feeling extremely shy and ugly. I needed to escape so I chose to move to Weymouth to do my degree, to be far a away in a completely different environment. It was there that I found poker and building on that over the past few years along with the friendships I have made I have been able to become a much greater person.

So this week, this god damn week where I have been acting just plain odd, I hope to close off today. I think my friend Reece has picked up on it a bit and has generally just been really nice like the fantastic person he is. And I just got back on the poker because even though online isn't as much fun, my pub game isn't running :(. But this is it, I'm going to stop nit picking at myself just because of one person. Everything is brilliant once more. Though there's something missing; a real game of poker must be arranged. Love you all :)

I admit it, I over did it.

Last night I came to my computer, played Sofia Lovgren's Birthday freeroll on PKR and then retreated to pokerstars for some cash games. I hate cash games. But without cash games my bankroll doesn't go very far. I'm really good at Sit and Gos and find Tournaments the most fun, but no, I'm sitting there with a timer on my phone and 4 cash tables sitting infront of me. I feel dull, so so dull.

Gambling is a form of entertainment which is why you are only to put in an amount of money you have set aside for entertainment. This should go in the same line as when you go out drinking, go to Alton Towers, the cinema, anything that constitutes the idea that your mind is being entertained. So when I'm playing poker and I am unexcited and tired and desperately trying to bring back up the money that I set aside for entertainment and feeling dull about it, does this put me in line with people who have a problem? I like to think not as I haven't scraped up all the money that I have left to feed and clothe myself for this month from the deepest darkest barrells of my bank account. However I'm literally just playing for the sake of it, and that's not fun.

On this tired note, I'm going to take some time off, a week maybe. I will be finishing my VPP mission first as I have less than 10VPPs to make before completing it. It is then that I will take some time to watch some TV, read my book 'The Education of a Modern Poker Player' and I have a subscription to PokerPlayer magazine aswell so I can read that too. I have some writing to do as well and I will blog about how this is going and will go back to the game with a fresh thinking mind.


Read more: I admit it, I over did it. (Toniommi) – Poker School Online: Learn Poker Strategy, Odds and Tells http://www.pokerschoolonline.com/blogs/Toniommi/i-admit-it-i-over-did-it#ixzz2vD7xTEZ4

Stake It to Make It!!

I confess, I don't read many more blogs than my own. And when reading mine, it's proof reading. However I did just skim through the 'staking 102' blog found in the 'popular' section. This came to my attention as I have had a staking experience myself recently, how exciting! Well, it was, so here's how it came about and how it went.

I was sitting at my computer playing a microstakes tournament, it was going really well, my whole poker night was going really well and I was talking to someone on twitter. We have spoken before but on this particular night he asked if I would be willing for him to stake me into a tournament with the aim of him getting his buy-in back plus 50% of my winnings. I have never heard of this before and the idea of gambling with someone else's money made me think 'is this guy crazy? He's never seen me play, nor does he know me that well.' After a few moments of thought, I decided to go along with this and give it a go. We decided on the $13.50 KO that was already 30 minutes in.

There I went, divng in at level 3, the water's cold. I sat tight, I had such a fear of losing the money that wasn't mine to lose. My starting game plan was to keep tight aggressive and learn the games my opponents where playing against me I became very aggressive, especially against shorter stacks as I know from experience; if you watch carefully you will see the gaps that you can fill in.

The tournament goes on, I didn't knock anyone out but my stack got very healthy, but then I didn't loosen up in time. At an early stage an 8k stack looks awesome, but later on you feel like a melon because you can't really make a move when the blinds are big enough to swallow you whole. You can't be aggressive because everyone else wants a shot at eating you up. So you wait, I missed many opportunities and I could have passed it up, I was 21 off the bubble and went all in with AJo and did not hit.

I felt bad that I couldn't give back what I had used and I didn't know this staking business was...a business. It was enjoyable though, I don't think I played brilliantly and made some mistakes because I had the fear of not making the money back. I had never been in this position before so I really had no idea how it would turn out. It made me nervous to say the least.


Read more: Stake it to make it! (Toniommi) – Poker School Online: Learn Poker Strategy, Odds and Tells http://www.pokerschoolonline.com/blogs/Toniommi/stake-it-to-make-it#ixzz2uBtOuyxh