Doesn’t February come around quick?

Here we are again, time for another World Blogger Poker Championship on Pokerstars. The last two were great fun even though I didn’t win, so third time lucky!

The Pokerstars guys are keen to know what we would do with our winnings – top prize $5K would be fantastic.

In my case it is easy. I have a three part plan.

Part 1…
In a couple of months I’ll be on my third trip to Las Vegas. At the moment I’m planning to play a little $1-$2 cash and mix in a few cheap tournaments. But with the $5k my plans change completely: I’ll be rolled to make a daily pilgrimage to the Venetian to play the deepstack and take a shot at a decent cash during the fortnight.

Last time I was in Vegas I gave the Venetian a miss, spending time in the new Aria cardroom instead. I did go there during the ’09 WSOP, but was too cheapskate to play the proper deepstack and just had a bash at a $120 Second Chance instead. A little crapshooty but not a bad tournament, except that I was card and luck dead. With my skillz I need both cards and luck so that was that.

Anyway, I digress. The deepstacks proper sound excellent, being 2-day events with a decent stack and a decent clock. With enough money to not play scared I reckon I’ve got decent chances of luckboxing a decent score.

Part 2…
The next part of the plan is to put the Vegas proceeds (or with whatever is left, depending) back into Stars. From there I will perform a determined spin-up on the cash tables. I reckon from what I’ve seen of $200 NL it could be a good giggle. I’ll need to reduce that ft3b% stat though or I’ll get steamrollered!

Obviously if I’m down to my last $300 I’m going to have to start lower. But I have plenty of experience losing at $50NL 6-max so I reckon it’s only a matter of time before my luck turns.

This will carry on until the early summer at which point I will have a decent wedge, just in time for…

Part 3…
The Pokerstars spin-up proceeds will go back to Vegas with me in July to pay for some WSOP fun time. Hopefully there will be enough for a main event buy-in; otherwise it’ll be one or more of the smaller WSOP events. If I stick to NLHE the fields will be huge as will the prizes.

The resulting victory will be my passport to a residency at Stars mid-stakes and to the HSNL thread on 2+2. My natural wit, telegenicity and all-round-good-egginess will ensure me invitations to Sky Poker guest commentator, Pokerstars Red Pro and perhaps even the Palace.

I can see it all now. What could possibly go wrong?

…

Anyway, you are probably wondering why I’m prevaricating instead of giving you my January 2012 results. Simple really … I didn’t play much and when I did I didn’t play very well. But then, I always lose in January. I blame SAD. That and fish making resolutions.

But here’s the score on the door:

Oh well. Still, February has already started better, so we’ll see what happens!

Well then, it’s been a full three months since I last posted and I owe you an update.

Not a lot has happened in the poker, but in real life there has been too much going on, what with moving house from Sussex to Essex and with the Baglady having an accident that put her in hospital for a fortnight.

But now the house is pretty much straight and the Bag well on the road to recovery I can start getting my life back to normal.

Since my last post I’ve been avoiding the cash tables but spending quite a bit of relaxation time playing low-level forum games at PokerPlayersPlace and at UK Sharks. With both of these forums it’s not about the money it’s about the fun.
And PPP has a daily evening tournament and a radio station to boot.

Here’s the financial damage for the last three months:

The only good thing to say about those numbers is that I have protected the bankroll!

The big red figure last month for “Bonuses etc” is down to the Worldgammon site: they have introduced terms and conditions that allow them to confiscate players cash if an account is not used for 90 days. Here is the correspondence with the support guy from GameAccount:

Crumble: Hi, I have a question about my account
Crumble: I haven’t played much on the site lately, but when I logged in today to play some BG I saw that there were no funds in there. Last time I checked there was over $120 in my account, mostly bonus dollars. What happened?
ga_adam: Hello Crumble
ga_adam: Let me check it for you
ga_adam: Give me a moment
ga_adam: Thank you
ga_adam: When did you check your account to see that there was $120?
Crumble: Probably 6 months ago
Crumble: I haven’t played for a while but I do keep records of wins / loses
ga_adam: Yes your account was tagged as lapsed account on 18th June,2010
ga_adam: And you logged in back on 23rd August,2010
Crumble: Yes, I went back in to change my address, having moved
ga_adam: There has been an inactivity fine of $124
Crumble: blimey
Crumble: I couldn’t see anything about inactivity in the ts & cs
ga_adam: Well if you fail to use your account for a single continuous period of 90days or more
ga_adam: Your account will be deemed as dormant.
ga_adam: Crumble can you please give me some time
ga_adam: I will consult my team and get back to you regarding it
Crumble: Thanks
ga_adam: You are so very welcome
ga_adam: As soon as I will have an update for you, i will notify you asap

Just be careful out there!

On a happier note, I’ve written up my Vegas 2010 holiday. Look over there in the right sidebar, lots of pictures with commentary attached.

I’ll try not to leave it so long next time, but until then happy gaming!

Well that’s settled then, the Baglady and I are going to Vegas in June to fetch back the money we spent there last year.

We also get to have another go at winning a bracelet: our holiday coincides with the WSOP Seniors event that we did so rubbish in last year. This time it will be better.

For the benefit of Crispy and anyone else who’s interested, here is the tournament structure from last year. To be honest it’s not great, could use a bigger starting stack, but imagine what it was like a few years ago when you started with just 1000:

Anyway, we’ll be staying at the Flamingo this year, so I expect we’ll be sick of pink by the time we come home again. But never mind that, roll on June!!!