KieranK’s Blog

Well just thought i’d give this a quick update, i have moved my money off Absolute. Really didn’t like the poker room, not just because i lost a few quid but just the actual layout and software wasn’t nice. Even thinking about that shit, bleak blue room makes me cringe. Well maybe not to that extent but you get the point! Have now deposited my money into Carbon Poker which i must say i’m actually really liking at the moment. On the plus side i’m getting my 150% bonus (which you actually have unlimited time to release as long as you don’t cash out in the mean time which suits me fine), i’m getting my 30% rake paid through Pokertrikz.com of course and it gets paid daily into your account which is also a bonus. Must say i find the software very nice on the Merge Network and maybe not as fast as Full Tilt but its definately easy on the eyes and looks very well. Had a quick session tonight made 2 buy ins including a hero call of a shove on a monotone 3 bet flop. The players seem pretty average, there were a few regulars at each table but usually at least 2 fish aswell. Only problem is it doesnt support Holdem Manager so no HUD and also the hand historys are a bit poxy to use but hey, ya can’t have it all in life!  Think i’ll be sticking here for the time being!

Also got my “tournament quality” playing cards i ordered off Full Tilt in the post. They said 6 – 8 weeks for delivery but it only took 2 and a half which was grand. Must say there pretty slick anyway. Have 2 home games lined up for this weekend so they will be getting put to good use! Other then that all is quiet so will report back again soon.

Well its not going great at the moment. Lost 2 buy ins at 25NL so have to move down to 10NL. I don’t know if its me playing bad, or just really running bad. I found i could not hit any hands, no sets, flushs, straights, never got KK or AA once. When i got AK the board would come QJx and my c-bet would be insta called. If i had AQ the board would come K10x hitting my opponents range everytime. I got really really frustrated and felt myself starting to tilt so had to get up and leave to cool off. This was my one of my biggest losing hands and involved me getting 2 outered on the turn after me making 2 pair:

***** Hand History for Game 1701450251 ***** (Absolute)
$25.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em – Tuesday, October 20, 04:31:24 ET 2009
Table WEST WAY (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 5: OLLEG777 ( $14.54 USD )

Seat 6: Villain ( $14.90 USD ) (SB)
Seat 1: Hero ( $28.81 USD (BB)
Seat 2: BLACKCATPL ( $23.53 USD )
Seat 3: 0FISHNCHIPS ( $17.03 USD )
Seat 4: MASTERBUB980 ( $16.79 USD )
I69412 posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
Hero posts big blind [$0.25 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [  Js 6h ]
BLACKCATPL folds
0FISHNCHIPS folds
MASTERBUB980 folds
OLLEG777 calls [$0.25 USD]
Villain raises [$0.40 USD]
Hero calls [$0.25 USD]
OLLEG777 calls [$0.25 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6d, 3c, Jh ]
Villain bets [$1.00 USD]
Hero calls [$1.00 USD] —> Should have raised here
OLLEG777 calls [$1.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Td ]
Villain bets [$1.00 USD]
Hero raises [$2.75 USD]
OLLEG777 folds
Villain raises [$6.75 USD]
Hero raises [$24.56 USD]
Villain calls [$5.65 USD]

** Dealing River ** [ Kd ]
KIERANK shows [Js, 6h ] Two Pair Jacks and Sixes
I69412 shows [Ts, Tc ] Three of a Kind Tens
I69412 wins $29.74 USD from main pot

The other hand that really got me annoyed was this one. I said to myself that i was playing good and that i hadn’t got tilted when i’d been beat i just kept reloading and said that eventually i would catch a few cards. Then this hand happened and at the end i even threw in a “WTF was that” into the chat box (i know i know):

***** Hand History for Game 1701461561 ***** (Absolute)
$25.00 USD NL Texas Hold’em – Tuesday, October 20, 04:43:56 ET 2009
Table WEST WAY (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Hero ( $23.82 USD )
Seat 2: BLACKCATPL ( $54.83 USD )
Seat 3: 0FISHNCHIPS ( $20.23 USD )
Seat 4: MASTERBUB980 ( $23.08 USD )
Seat 5: Villain ( $8.15 USD )
Seat 6: ARTEM_RU ( $25.00 USD )
BLACKCATPL posts small blind [$0.10 USD].
0FISHNCHIPS posts big blind [$0.25 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [  Qs Jc ]
MASTERBUB980 folds
Villain calls [$0.25 USD] UTG+1?
Hero raises [$1.10 USD]
BLACKCATPL folds
0FISHNCHIPS folds
Villain calls [$0.85 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, Qc, 9c ]
Villain checks
Hero bets [$2.30 USD]
Villain calls [$2.30 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]     
Villain checks

Hero bets [$7.15 USD]
Villain calls [$4.75 USD] and is ALL IN
** Dealing River ** [ Ah ]
Hero shows [Qs, Jc ] Pair of Queens
Villain shows [Ad, 4d ] Pair of Aces —> What was this guy thinking!
Villain wins $15.84 USD from main pot

To be honest i’m thinking about withdrawing my 250 dollars as the bonus is just gonna be a nightmare to clear. After my sessions today i only accumulated like 7 points or something. Wow only another 80 and they’ll release 5 dollars! Might just put my money into Cake or something. Can anyone tell me what the bonus is like to clear there? Or Aced what the bonus is like there? I hate Absolute already

Well after 2 days of trying, going back from Customer Support and Western Union i finally got my cash deposited into Absolute Poker. What happened was the woman in the shop that wrote out the docket for me obviously never went to school and couldn’t write very well because a very clear “1″ turned out to actually be an “8″.. Yes it is strange so i ended up giving Absolute the wrong number the first time then had to go back to the shop to check all details. Realised that it was the number that was wrong and still it wasn’t accepted. Grrrrrr…

So finally after me changing the name on the docket (having to show ID and everything) it’s finally done. $300 in the account with $450 waiting to be cleared. Made sure that i e-mailed support to make sure that i was being tracked for rake through Pokertrikz so i should be good to go.

One thing i noticed though is that this bonus on Absolute is an eh.. absolute monster! I was playing for a few mins at 2 25NL tables (to have a quick bash), came out $17 up with only 2 points cleared.. You need 100 points just to clear a 5er! Must need some serious grinding to be able to get the full amount. I decided to fire up 4 tables then of 10NL (how much i usually play) and found that with my Holdem Manager stats aswell the tiled tables seemed fairly fiddly compared to Full Tilts. Layout is definately not the best and the buttons and slider for betting are also quite poor. I also managed to open up a Seven-Deuce table and two Turbo tables by mistake. Seven-Deuce might be fun on TV, but when your only winning a couple of cents? Just don’t?? Ha and the Turbo tables are just real bad no time to think or act i ended up folding trips on the river becasue of everything going on.. So will be sticking to clear cut regular tables for now.

My plan for the next few days is to start grinding out at a decent rate probably 3 to 4 tables of 25NL as with 10NL i’ll never get the bonus cleared. I know i’m underrolled (only 12 buy ins) i will have to be careful. If i lose 2 buy ins at any point then i will drop straight down to 10NL where i will have a good 25 buy in’s. Will keep you guys updated with my progress and will throw up a few hand historys soon.

Good luck at the tables kids

Hey hows it going. I’ve read a few of these blogs and they seem a good way to vent out certain thoughts and feelings on poker related subjects and seems a good starting place to track my first serious venture into building some sort of bankroll to play with. But first things first a little about me.

My names Kieran as you may have guessed but most my friends call me Kenny (Second name). I live in a town called Clondalkin which is on the southside of Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland. I’m 21 years old and due to the dreaded “R” word i am currently unemployed. I had been working since the day i left school when i was 17. Made the mistake of not going to college as it wasnt a cool thing to do back in my teen days. I worked for a Lift Engineering company for 3 years installing elevators and escalators. I then made a huge career change into Car Sales, as cars are one of my life long loves since i was a little boy, so selling them for me was really exciting. After a years run the car sales industry in Ireland has plummeted and i was forced to leave. So basically i’m stuck in a rut the last few months and trying to find a way out!

I started playing poker about a year ago, but only casually and only at home games. Me and my friends got more and more into it and we used to play every week if we could. Eventually my cousin showed me the site PKR reknowned for its 3D graphics (which is obv why he downloaded it [fish] ha) and it got me playing on that site aswell. While playing on that site i read up loads about poker, read forums, read articles, watched every poker video i could find on the net (Thank you Jon!) and just really wanted to better myself at the game as i love playing it. I deposited my first 50 dollars, managed to run it up to 300 dollars winning 3 MTT’s and playing a few Sit and Go’s but eventually without proper bankroll management i pissed it all away playing 20 dollar SNG’s that i couldnt afford!

So back to the future i have about 60 dollars in Full Tilt Poker from the remaining money i had on PKR and have been playing 6 max 10NL on this bankroll (i know i’m seriously underrolled) but have been grinding up steadily and am confident in my game to a certain degree that i want to give myself a proper shot at things this time round with all my knowledge i’ve been learning. So i’m about to deposit 300 dollars onto Absolute Poker (signing up for rakeback thru Pokertrikz of course) and am going to start doing some proper grinding. Starting at 10NL and slowing moving into 25NL when i feel comfortable. My plan is to find out how far i can go and will update you guys every step of the way. I have to deposit the funds using Western Union transfer as i have no credit cards or anything of the sort so i have a feeling there might be some problems! I’m going to get a shower now and am going to go around and sort out the transfer so will keep you guys updated.

Thanks for reading so far!

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