Health warning for online grinders!

"The bad news is that what poker puts the human brain through is unsustainable. I was told that if I choose to play online poker as a full time career, I will likely die of a stroke before the age of 50. They said that the human brain simply does not have the capacity to put itself through 8+ hour days of mass multi-table online poker. They said that playing online poker to that degree was quite literally one of the very worst things you can do to your brain and body. They said it wasn’t quite as bad as being an NFL player or someone who works full time around organic solvents, but it wasn’t far off. It was on the doctor’s urging that I retire from full time online poker"

-Excerpts from blog posts by Dusty "leatherass"  Schmidt.

This is my brain on poker

This is my brain on poker part 2

Dream flop and the parting of the proverbial cheeks

About 10 years ago I was watching the WPT coverage with Vince Patten and Mike Sexton. I didn,t have a clue what was going on, but got completely hooked by the coverage of the poker.

The two of them would be sitting on 80,s style bar stools at the back with the poker table lit up in the middle of an arena somewhere exotic, 1000,s of dollars stacked up, sun glasses, gold bracelets, spotlights, hand percentages on display for folk like me.

Mike would whisper something like

"Hansens digging the hole"

Vince would chip in

 "he's laying the trap."

"he's covering it in branches"

"Will he fall in?"

"I think he's got him"

"he,s got him!"

"he has just nailed him to the floor!!"

Don,t diss the 6, 3 off suit

I found myself getting involved in a massive 5 way pot last night holding no less than the mighty 6 -  3 offsuit.
 I headed down to the Mint Casino in London for the £65 freeze out. Late entries and rebuys mean't that were 53 entries in total and a £3180 prize pool with just over a grand for first.
It,s a good structure with 25,000 chips starting stack and a 20 min blind clock with no antes. Very sedate.

By the first break I,d ground up another 7 or 8 k mainly thanks to one guy at the table who bluffed off his entire stack (and his rebuy stack) with a series of pretty poorly timed re-raises.
Unfortunately a couple of guys at my table were the main beneficiaries of him and few other guys who got moved to the table who seemed determined to donate their entire chip stacks away. After a few hours I was starting to fall well behind the chip leaders, and spots were becoming increasingly difficult to find when the big hand came up.

Its worth noting, that there had been a fair bit of limping going on.....so utg starts off this particular  limpfest, then utg +3, the button also limps, I,m in SB with 6 3 offsuit and I opt to make up the blind, the BB checks behind, so we are 5 way to the flop.

I think Blinds are around 5000/2500 and my stack and two of the limpers are around 90k, and the two big chipstacks are around 350k.

Flop comes down Jh 6c3c. Not bad for the old 6,3 off!
I check, the BB bets out 10,000 and the whole table calls the 10,000 bet till it comes round to me. I repop it up to 50k, the BB shoves all in for about 90k, utg also shoves all in for about 90k and the 2 big stacks fold.

This isn,t exactly what I,d planned I was pretty sure I was ahead, but now I,m not so sure, but I can,t really fold now anyway so I go all in as well.

I,m happy to see noone has a set, but I,ve got alot of cards to fade.

The BB tables King Jack for top pair decent kicker
UTG tables Ace rag of clubs for the nut flush draw.

The dealer sorts the chips out and deals out the cards.

Turn card comes a King - BB bangs the table with delight Y-E-E-S!

I,m getting the jacket on, the BB now looks a bit less happy as he has just realised he's actually got quite quite a few river cards to fade now.

Dealer puts out a 6 of clubs.

The dealer announces house! 6,3 wins. A quick chip count confirms I,ve got both of them covered - just. 
Its a massive pot and puts me up in touching distance of the chipleaders.

- to be continued

Just a tease.

1st game in December and I managed another final table, with a 9th place finish from about 70 players. Satisfying but ultimately pointless as that added £0 to my bank roll...I got to the final table as the short stack with 33k and blinds at 4k/2k/400. First hand the button and the SB clash. Raise from the button, the small blind who is chip leader shoves all in, bb folds and the button instacalls with Aces. SB turns over 9, 3 off suit(!)

"I thought he was at it".

 For once the deck doesn't reward the 9 3 move and the aces hold.