It’s the weekend! Finally can forget about work and get on with something I enjoy, playing Poker!

Today is Sunday and I’m writing this just before I enter a tournament. I’m not holding out much hope, just wanting to get into the money if I can but I’ll let you know how it goes in my next blog. Yesterday however I played a large number of freeplay tournaments on both PokerStars and 888.com. Ever since I started reading up on poker, all the pros have been making comments about how you can have runs of bad lucks when the cards “go cold” (which is where you don’t get decent cards for ages). Well not only did they run slightly cold yesterday but the gods of poker were out to teach me a lesson. Every time I went into a hand the favourite to win it, I would get beaten, usually on the final card. My computer crashed just after I bet big on pocket aces (and if my opponent came over the top or made a subsequent bet, by the nature of poker sites, when your thinking time runs out, they fold your hand!) So although I think I could possibly have won, I’ll most likely have folded. I had trip aces beaten by flushes, flushes beaten by full houses, pocket kings beaten by pocket 6s (when they flopped another 6), pocket tens beaten, I kid you not, by 9 4 off suit. What the H*** they were doing calling a preflop raise with 94 off suit I have no idea. I played 6 or 7 tournaments and in total for the whole day, my cards held up 4 times. Most of the time I wasn’t all in, so I then had to slowly build up my chipstack by stealing blinds or getting people to fold better hands, but I could never build them up that much so I never cashed in on a single one of the tournaments. Very depressing, very disheartening, but that’s why you should never gamble with money you can’t afford to lose, or gamble outside of a small proportion of your bankroll.

Oh have I not mentioned Bankrolls? A Bankroll is the money you have set aside to play poker. You should always keep your bankroll separate from all your other money, and try to never add to it from your savings as that’s how you end up losing your house. Pick a sum you can afford to lose, put it in an account somewhere, and that’s your bankroll. When you gamble, you should only use a small portion of it in one go as a buy in to an event or table, many pros say about 1/1000^th of it. Obviously when you’ve only got a small bankroll, this does limit your options slightly, but both Pokerstars and 888.com have tables and tournaments for as little as 1c, they even have free tournaments where you can win money, so there are options. However I for one can understand how frustrating it can be when you play for 2 hours and win 20c. I can guarantee you though, if you have a $50 bankroll and enter $5-$10 dollar tournaments all the time, you’ll be refreshing that bankroll quite a lot! If you’ve got the money or means to do that, without missing paying bills, then go for it! It’s your money after all. But I don’t want anyone going broke cos of me. Set aside some money that you can afford to lose, and only play with that.

So, back to me.  I’m having luck as Bad as Michael Jackson the way, but then what is luck but the random occurrence of statistics? I look at it, the longer I have a run of bad luck, then the better my run of good luck will be, eventually, I hope. My lesson today is, no matter how could you hand, you can still be beaten, that 10% chance they have of winning? Well, 10% of the time they’ll win!

I’ll let you know how the tournament goes; now if you all cross your fingers and wish, maybe I’ll be able to give you good news next time! Till then, Cya later

Squirrel

Probably not the best day to be starting a blog, but I’m not hugely superstitious, and today is no worse than any other, so here goes.

I’m Squirrel, aka Owain and I hail from the rain drenched lands of the Welsh. I’ve been playing poker for about a year, some live games with friends, and also some online games too. I like to read up on the strategy, theory and mathematics behind poker, so I’ll be sharing some of the things I learn with you as I go along.

If you’re here reading this blog, this means that you too have an interest in poker. You may be a complete beginner looking for some idea of how to play the game; you may have played the game for a while and are looking for likeminded souls to discuss poker, learn new ideas, or just simply get to know some of the people you’ve beaten; or you may be an expert, looking to pass on some of your knowledge and teach new people, or get some information on those people who’ll be taking your crown in a few years. All of you are more than welcome to this site, and we hope you join our community.

If you’re looking for a little something more, then consider the challenge that I’ve put to Monster (and myself). We both start with a £50 deposit in an account on any of the multitude of poker game sites out there. We then have to work that £50 up to entry into the WSOP in 2009, in particular an H.O.R.S.E. event, hopefully the $50,000 World Champion H.O.R.S.E event. Why H.O.R.S.E.? Because H.O.R.S.E. is viewed by all professional players as the King of Poker Games, as you have to be good in all five of the component poker games. Why 2009? Cos you need to be good in 5 poker games and we need the time to learn and practice! Do we think we can do it? Maybe, maybe not, but its sure going to be fun trying! And that’s what this site is all about. Having fun whilst playing poker.

Why don’t you join us?

Cya later

Squirrel

Welcome to HORSE poker Challenge. This is a new blog charting the success and pit falls of two like minded, beginner poker players trying to make the big time.

Your bloggers are Owain aka Squirrel who’s been playing poker for nearly a year now and has entered a few tournaments, he has the knowledge of the games and will be helping us understanding the many terms and facets of poker. Also we have me, Mike aka Monster, I’m quite new to poker online. I’ve played at home for nearly a year with friends and dabbled with the online free play games to get a feel for things. I’ll be blogging from the beginners view to online poker.

So what’s the challenge then? And what’s HORSE poker I hear you ask? Well we’ll go into more detail about what it is in future posts but basically H.O.R.S.E.  is the King of Poker Games. It stands for Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Seven-card Stud High and Seven-card Stud High-Low Eight. Five different versions of poker all played in the same game, alternated after  a set period.

The Challenge? For us to learn the five versions of the game, earn some money to enter a few tournaments and the ultimate challenge.. Get a place in the World Series Online Poker Tournament in 2009!

We’ll be blogging our experience here and you can read all about our joys and sorrows! Maybe you’ll even join us on the challenge too . We hope to build a poker community that can learn from one another. We’ll be setting up private tables for the members of this blog so we can get to know the people we’re playing with. Something I’ve noticed about the big casino tables is you don’t ever see the same people very often and you pretty much on your own, we want to change that.