50 NL

Today i reached my miles stone of 600 euro and moved up to 50 nl. It plays basically the same as 20 nl and plenty of fish to dominate. Today i played 1500 hands and made $99, so 76 euros. Bankroll now at 678, and im due a bonus payment which betfair again forgot to send today of about 25 euro.

weekend off

so i took sat night and all day sunday off and went on a big drinking session instead. i then played 800 hands last night and played pretty well considering i was getting cold sweats from the hangover but i ended up down 45 dollars. i was on the receiving end of two bad beats for full stacks so overall i didnt do too bad. i also couldnt flop top pair to save myself. anyways i just concluded a 2 hour session and made it back plus a little more. i made two god damn bad mistakes which cost me 33 dollars though.

First one was calling reraise on the river when i had an over pair (QQ) against villians turned set.
Second one was even worse committing 23 dollars on the flop in a multiway pot with just top pair top kicker. villian had top two pair of course. I should have even been playing as i had set a time limit to stop and i knew i was nt playing as well as i should and was a momentary lapse of concentration.

No horses today as i was inside in dublin city all morning till 2ish and didnt have time to look at it in detail.

Ascot

I looked at the 12.45 today and here were my handicapping ratings
Fairok Lad (44)
Distiller (42)
Phone in (66)
Artic Shadow (30)

This race is very poor and will be a no bet race for me. If the going was good to firm then phone in would win this race easily however thats not the case today. A watching brief.

Night session

I recouped losses today and made a few buyins. i had to log out after a while as the software was really playing up tonight. i might give it a go later again. Including rakeback and bonuses i am now well over the 400 euro profit mark, so pretty pleased with that. However i only receive rakeback once a month and bonus payments every wednesday. I have another 130 euro to clear in that and i should have over 120 euros in rakeback to receive as well on the 6th of next month, maybe more.

Poker observations

I just played a 3 hour session of 20NL on betfair and ended down around 30 euro. I played reasonably well but got coolered twice.

Betfair differs from other poker apps as its very loose and passive, definitely more than pokerstars and full tilt at these levels. Therefore a tight aggressive game is profitable. However im playing a laggy style in position to also take advantage of the regulars and try and dominate the tables with aggression. I can only play 4 tables as the software is a load of shite and is so unresponsive to play that you alway time out with more than 4. So todays session i ran bad but i will put in another session later to recoup losses. sooner I reach 600 euro the sooner i can try out 50nl and increase profits.

Horse racing went well today with a 2 point profit. Of course would have been 3 if i waited a bit longer to get 11/2 on nemeton. I was a bit dissapointed with the first race but the lay didnt cost too much. Buck the legend is progressive and the one thing that really surprised me was the way he handled the track. Still a profit is a profit. i will be using the same bank as my poker bank for these bets , so i will be employing a 100 point bank. therefore todays bets were 5 euro each, so a whopping profit of 12 euros was made today!

Good night

I had a good poker night last night where initially i started off bad making two really bad mistakes, i held firm and won back 85 euro. my balance now is 516 euro.

so today i have time to look at the horses properly and i haev a few bets to place today.

I concentrated on 3 races so far, the handicap hurdle in ascot, the two handicap chases in exeter.

in the ascot race , Chantaco is a good lay but the odd are too high for me. if he was under 4/1 i would lay.

Exeter 2.50
Buck the legend (48)
A definite lay for me, going and distance not really proven, trainer record at course not good and horse is not suited to course. the race also has two other horse which i think are better than this on todays conditions.
Oracle Des Mottes (94)
A definite back for me. people are turning there nose up at thius due to weight it is carrying, but this horse seems capable of carrying heavy weights. its got pluses in all the other boxes. the last race was a bit fortunate but i still think he is way ahead of the rest here in this field.

Pistol Desbois (54)
Overclear (32)

3.25
Pauillac (73)
A lay for me as its a competitive race and question marks over weight and current trainer form
Nemetan (80)
This is a back for me and at 5.4 is good value.
Captain Marlon (71)
Brave Villa (71)
Eluvaparty (80)
Ive also backed this as the value is too good to turn down at 11/1. question mark over going but trainer likes to produce winnners here over fences.

some poker and 1 race analysed

I played 762 hands today and made 45 dollars so betfair balance is now 460 euro. i ran at 14BB/100 hands and played 24/19/3. i also only played 4 tables at a time so i could concentrate and not make any mistakes. i made two normal type scare card bluffs which did not work but no bad plays were made and i pounded the button and tried to isolate fish. i just did not get any great cards to play with. i got KK once and no AA. SO im happy enough with that and i think i will stick to 4 tables from now on. it seems to lag a bit of i play more.

I got a call from the betfair people today seeing if i was getting familiar with all it had to offer. i told them that the playability is pretty crap for multitablers but i don't know how much they take this comments into consideration.

As for horse racing, i only looked at one race so far. This race looks abysmal to call. the top 5 in the market all have major negatives and i will list below. again it looks like i will not be betting on this race as nothing stands out. if i got over 10/1 on markington then i may back that one.
3.10 Market Rasen (in order of market odds, fav first)
At The Money (46)
Distance & weight, and track are major fault.
Dan Buoy (43)
possibly going too soft, Trainer record bad there, seems to prefer left handed tracks, and may not be fully recovered from previous run 5 days ago.
Brave Rebellion (44)
Fitness worries and weight and not proven at class
Court Ruler (40)
going concerns, class and weight issues
Markington (68)
if the ground can dry any bit then this is the horse to back. Trainer form is an issue to but other than that has all the positive patterns to win if the going gets better

so as you can see there are more major negatives then positives for all these horses so therefore no bet for me.

No plays today

i havent had time to do anything today and i still feel tired so not in the best form to play poker. i did however receive a sign up bonus payment of 32 euros from betfair, so balance is now 435. Also rakeback stands at 75 dollars.

well after reviewing the race today i did well not to place any bets as i couldnt make a definite decision between the top two in the market and my handicap ratings showed it was pretty close.

Tomorrow i hope to get in 4 races, 2 handicap hurdle races in Wincanton and Market Rasen.

preoccuppied

Well i have had health issues in out family so i have put gambling aside for yesterday and most of today. Im knackered tired so no poker tonight but i did go through one horse race for tomorrow, the
2.20 handicap hurlde in Hexham.
I just had time to go through the first 4 in the market. i handicapped them with the follwoing ratings
Campanero 71
Twelve Paces 81
Scarvaugh Diamond 64
Fair Question 80.

Im ruling out Fair Question as he is not suited to the course and the other three mentioned horses as just as well suited to going and distance as he is but he does eed a flatter track.

Im worried about the top two as Campanero is a progressive horse but im nearly sure he can not handle top weight in a 3 mile mudfest.

So my pick for this race is twelve paces. However as the odds will be pretty small for this i will not back but only watch. Im not going to lay campanero either as a score of 71 is still pretty good.

Thats it for tonight im afraid. Hopefully i can get in some poker tomorrow

bad day today

Well i played around 2000 hands of poker today and im down to bankroll of 393 euro. i went over my mistakes and i could have saved 65 dollars but for stupid mistakes. I only had one cooler with KK V AA allin preflop but i could have got away from it as he limp reraised big and i put him all in and he snap called with AA.

Anyways hopefully i can sort out my bonus problem as im due over 80 dollars now and i should have 55 dollars coming back to me in rake back. I played a lot more laggy style today and tried to get involved against the bad loose players when i had position. It was working ok bar my errors. i need to stop playing 6 tables and just concentrate on 4 if i am to play this 24/19 style.

I also believe i may not be running well! (but i think everyone says that when things dont go their way!)

I really dont have much time for horse racing tomorrow as its now 3.41 am and i have to go to cork tomorrow morning but the one race which i glanced over was the 3.50 Leicster but i didnt fancy anything definite so no bet. If Pterodactyl had a recent race then i would have backed him but he doesnt seem to do too well after a long break. I have reservations about the favourite as he seems suited to a tighter course so looks like an outsider may well win.

Blog expanation and first post

Hi all,

This is my new blog which is all about poker and horse racing, hence the title. I am currently unemployed and plan to make some extra income from my two main hobbies that being 6max no limit hold em poker on the betfair poker site and UK and Ireland horse racing.

As I currently have shag all money i deposited €200 on betfair last Monday and it now currently stands at €420. I have over 11000 hands played at 20NL. Once i reach €600 i will take a shot at 50NL which i know i can beat but for comforts sake i need a decent bankroll and even with €600 i am still a bit short.

I will use this blog to post my observations of the limits i play and how i need to play to defeat my opponents and to note my mistakes, of which many i have made in the past week. I have gone back over results and have blown at least 200 dollars in bad mistakes. Poker is all about playing your A game and my negative results stemmed from trying to force myself to play poker when i wasn't in the right frame of mind to do so.

Now for the horses part of the blog I intend to analyse one race a day and use my own ratings system to see if i can pick out a winner or lay a favourite or both. This is just to get back into the horse racing scene as i have not placed a bet since last march. I was travelling the world for the past 18 months so i kept away from horse racing during that time bar the Cheltenham festival last march.

I also hope to be able to produce a video of me going through my process of selecting a race, and showing what to look for before you make a selection. I am a marginal winner in both poker and horse racing but that still makes me better than 95% of the other gamblers out there and hopefully with this blog i will keep track of my results and document my mistakes and learn from them.

And if some one actually does come across this blog, then please leave a comment.

cheers

JPR