Since my last blog have played a couple more live sessions and am up about 500ish in total. A few funky hands here and there and my first shocking beat, basically got it in on the turn with AA on a pretty safe board, he had 5 outs and got there for a 620 pot, ouch!
Blogging the beats is no fun but blogging the hands i win is much more painless to write about. Last time i wrote about the call i made with 4th pair V busted flush. The next hand involves the same player and is arguably the sickest call i have ever seen or heard about. I limp the CO with 10 7 soooted, my buddy limps button and the guy in the bb (total gimp donk) raises 5 more. He could have anything so i call as does my buddy. Flop A 6 8 and the donk bets 10,he has about 150ish back and i'm very deep stacked so decide to make a loose call and the other guy calls to. Turn is a King and we go check, check, check. River is a queen, donk checks i think about a stab but opt to check and the button bets 30. The donk thinks 20secs and folds and its on me. After 5 seconds i announce that i think he has 75 or 97 and i'm going to call with a 10. He says 97 and i proudly table 107 for a very nice 100ish pot, very very very sick indeed.
So live poker has continued to go well. Have decided to use some of my winnings to play the main event of the london poker masters at the gutshot, 500 buy-in and 50 charge. Its a 2 day event with an excellent structure so should be a lot of fun and am looking forward to it, january 5th-6th.
Finished being staked by jambon online. Have about $1800 to play with on party which is nice, tilted very badly last night and lost 2 buy-ins at $2/4 NLH in under 10 minutes. Was really pissed off when i bubbled the sunday million on stars, took a very bad beat and would have had 120,000 chips with 15% of the field left. Instead of beating up a midget or having a wank (2 very standard ways to get off tilt) i loaded up the six max on party and the rest is history. Thankfully it was mainly profit i had been grinding out all day playing 0.5/1 PLO and NLH so not to bad. Tilt is so much fun.
Monday 17 December 2007
Monday 10 December 2007
great poker week.
Have just finished my 4th and final cash game session of the week and thankfully it was another profitable one. Its been my best poker week by far, as live play goes and i'm delighted with both my play and my luck.
Just a quick update on my third session which was a bit of a funny one. Went to the gutshot after work on friday, arriving at 4.30 am and not to my suprise there were still three games going so i jumped straight into a 1/2 game for 300 total. The game was quite active with 2 aggressive players on my left who seemed quite strong, 7 players in total. Lost 100 early with 3/4 hands that didn't quite go my way before winning a very nice pot with K8 V 77 on a 8 8 6 board, got paid on flop turn and river. Then i palyed a big pot with the player on my immediate left. Folded round to me on the button with a 5 straddle on the game, had raised this spot last time and had folded to a pot size re-raise, look down at AA, not folding this time. So i make it 16 and not to my suprise all 3 call. Flop A Q 3, 2 clubs and i bet 30 when is checked to me. First guy calls, other 2 fold and my man checks when a red 10 hits the turn i bet 60 and once again he thinks for 2 secs and calls. River was a nice fat 2 of diamonds and he checks again. I dwell for 10 secs and then bet 125 and he calls with AK, shipp it! Think he played the hand quite poor and was check guessing, was quite sick when the case ace hits but by the time the river comes he only beats a bluff, think he should try and define his hand earlier but not to sure. Got the first tube back at 6.30 when the game broke and they moved it to 1, 10 handed game, ended +300 so nice short game here and just nice to find a couple of good spots, made 1 shabby bluff but gave up before the river and 2 barrel bluffs tend to be a lot cheaper than all 3.
Was back at the gutshot at 8pm Sunday for the 50 FE, 5000 chips and 15 mins clock. Got a nice double up early with flopped flush and really tried to concentrate and play my best throughout, my tourney ended on a sick beat with 30% of field left, 35,000 chip pot 86 V 10 9 on a board of 10 9 7, very painfull 9 on the river but happy with my game and if i win that pot think i'm chip leader and very very confident at closing so think a top 3 would have been on i hope.
Wasn't to dissapointed and was soon back in cash game action sitting with the standard 300 in the 1/2 game. After about an hour was up 60 and going along very nice indeed until this hand came up. 4 limps into my bb and i pot with KK. 2 calls and a board of 2 5 6 with two clubs; i check (guy on the button is a bit of a donk who likes a bet) next guy checks and donk bets 25 ( leaving 125 back) i make it 80; first limper folds and donk shoves, don't love it but i can't fold. I table KK and he shows 87, with 1 club. Turn is a nice fat 4 and i take an ugly hit. Got my chips back 30 mins later with K2 v his 4 2 on a K 4 2 flop, unlucky for him but another nice flop for me. After this went on a nice rush for the next 2 hours, table was quite weak and had it worked out niceley, 2 total calling stations who were calling very light on the river so when i hit big and bet big they came along for the ride. Thought i had them pegged most of the time and was disgusted when i called a 50 river bet with AA on a board of 3 9 10 10 j and 1 of then flipped Q 10. His game was so obvious this was the worst play i have made in the last week; 0-2 with AA and KK; kind of call that is the difference between good palyers and average ones and was not happy 1 bit. Next hand was very sick, folded to me on CO and i bump it up with the 9 6 sooooooooooooooted. Huge granite like rock calls button and other 2 fold. Flop 2 2 5 and i bet 20, he thinks for 10 secs and raises to 60. Was pretty sure i was folding at this point but the more i thought about it the more adament i was he had 99-JJ and was looking a little un-easy, i decide to hope he hasn't noticed that i raise 15-20% of hands pre, say 'jeus have you got a 2' lol and then i make it 100 more, stacks are quite deep with about 300 back each so was also thinking if he calls i can shove the last 200 in if a ace, king or queen hit the turn; thankfully he folds JJ face up after 2 mins and i'm happy to show the 9 high, the donks look a little confused and sure enough 1 pays me off with middle pair 4 hands later for another 100. The play is a bit fancy and a little stupid but i was pretty confident it would work and i couldn't ignore my fucking instincs.
Next hand was one of the sickest i have ever played; 3 limps and i limp button with 75off. No action in the blinds and we see a flop of K 8 6 with two spades, check round to me and i bet 8. All fold round to the last limper who raises 20 more, he's quite aggressive and likes his chip tricks so i call with the up and down (wasn't sure what he had at this point). Red Q hits the turn and he bets 50 leaving 150 behind. At this point my first thought was to obviously pass, i'm not getting a good price and he's palyed it very hard representing 2 pair or a set. For some reason i call (think the plan was to shove a action card if he checked the river) and a red 7 hits the river, not the card i want and when he bets 80 i'm about to fold. Then i start thinking about a hand an hour ago when the guy checked 2 pair on the river and my stupid brain decides that he either has 66 or a busted flush, i call, he announces 'busted flush and i turn over 4th pair for a nice 250+ pot, very very sick call.
The final hand i will blog was sick for another reason. Folded to me on the CO with 42 SOOOOOOTED so i make it 7, button calls and bb raises to 24, he hasn't re-raised me for 6 hours but he had been playing very very weak post flop and i felt pretty sure it was AA or KK so i call to bust (he has 350 back) button calls as well and when we see a juicy J 4 2 board i'm in heaven and lead out for 75, button folds and not to my suprise donk insta raises to 150, i insta push, he insta calls and i say, 'i know you have aces, i can beat aces, no pain thanks dealer', he looks horrified when he flips AA and can't believe its not still the nuts, bricks on the turn and river and i win a huge pot with 42. More looks of horror from the table when i flip it but i have a good laugh after the hand with the 1 guy on the table that was a very good player who seems to find the whole situation as funny as i did, ' i knew you beat his aces but i thought at least you had a set'. Just a quick note on this guy called Ian, thought he was a standard donk when he asked me what a squeeze play was after being at the table for 20 mins, turns out that was a joke and he was a very good player indeed. He made two world class laydowns imo and think he was one of the best cash players i've ever played against (much better than me).
Ended the session +900 and ended the week +3.6K , VERY SICK FOR 1/2 FULL RING GAME. Long may it continue but i'm a realist and i know this hot streak wont last long. Its now 9.30am on monday morning and i'm gonna go put some cash in the bank and have a nice full english in the local cafe, I LOVE POKER!!
Just a quick update on my third session which was a bit of a funny one. Went to the gutshot after work on friday, arriving at 4.30 am and not to my suprise there were still three games going so i jumped straight into a 1/2 game for 300 total. The game was quite active with 2 aggressive players on my left who seemed quite strong, 7 players in total. Lost 100 early with 3/4 hands that didn't quite go my way before winning a very nice pot with K8 V 77 on a 8 8 6 board, got paid on flop turn and river. Then i palyed a big pot with the player on my immediate left. Folded round to me on the button with a 5 straddle on the game, had raised this spot last time and had folded to a pot size re-raise, look down at AA, not folding this time. So i make it 16 and not to my suprise all 3 call. Flop A Q 3, 2 clubs and i bet 30 when is checked to me. First guy calls, other 2 fold and my man checks when a red 10 hits the turn i bet 60 and once again he thinks for 2 secs and calls. River was a nice fat 2 of diamonds and he checks again. I dwell for 10 secs and then bet 125 and he calls with AK, shipp it! Think he played the hand quite poor and was check guessing, was quite sick when the case ace hits but by the time the river comes he only beats a bluff, think he should try and define his hand earlier but not to sure. Got the first tube back at 6.30 when the game broke and they moved it to 1, 10 handed game, ended +300 so nice short game here and just nice to find a couple of good spots, made 1 shabby bluff but gave up before the river and 2 barrel bluffs tend to be a lot cheaper than all 3.
Was back at the gutshot at 8pm Sunday for the 50 FE, 5000 chips and 15 mins clock. Got a nice double up early with flopped flush and really tried to concentrate and play my best throughout, my tourney ended on a sick beat with 30% of field left, 35,000 chip pot 86 V 10 9 on a board of 10 9 7, very painfull 9 on the river but happy with my game and if i win that pot think i'm chip leader and very very confident at closing so think a top 3 would have been on i hope.
Wasn't to dissapointed and was soon back in cash game action sitting with the standard 300 in the 1/2 game. After about an hour was up 60 and going along very nice indeed until this hand came up. 4 limps into my bb and i pot with KK. 2 calls and a board of 2 5 6 with two clubs; i check (guy on the button is a bit of a donk who likes a bet) next guy checks and donk bets 25 ( leaving 125 back) i make it 80; first limper folds and donk shoves, don't love it but i can't fold. I table KK and he shows 87, with 1 club. Turn is a nice fat 4 and i take an ugly hit. Got my chips back 30 mins later with K2 v his 4 2 on a K 4 2 flop, unlucky for him but another nice flop for me. After this went on a nice rush for the next 2 hours, table was quite weak and had it worked out niceley, 2 total calling stations who were calling very light on the river so when i hit big and bet big they came along for the ride. Thought i had them pegged most of the time and was disgusted when i called a 50 river bet with AA on a board of 3 9 10 10 j and 1 of then flipped Q 10. His game was so obvious this was the worst play i have made in the last week; 0-2 with AA and KK; kind of call that is the difference between good palyers and average ones and was not happy 1 bit. Next hand was very sick, folded to me on CO and i bump it up with the 9 6 sooooooooooooooted. Huge granite like rock calls button and other 2 fold. Flop 2 2 5 and i bet 20, he thinks for 10 secs and raises to 60. Was pretty sure i was folding at this point but the more i thought about it the more adament i was he had 99-JJ and was looking a little un-easy, i decide to hope he hasn't noticed that i raise 15-20% of hands pre, say 'jeus have you got a 2' lol and then i make it 100 more, stacks are quite deep with about 300 back each so was also thinking if he calls i can shove the last 200 in if a ace, king or queen hit the turn; thankfully he folds JJ face up after 2 mins and i'm happy to show the 9 high, the donks look a little confused and sure enough 1 pays me off with middle pair 4 hands later for another 100. The play is a bit fancy and a little stupid but i was pretty confident it would work and i couldn't ignore my fucking instincs.
Next hand was one of the sickest i have ever played; 3 limps and i limp button with 75off. No action in the blinds and we see a flop of K 8 6 with two spades, check round to me and i bet 8. All fold round to the last limper who raises 20 more, he's quite aggressive and likes his chip tricks so i call with the up and down (wasn't sure what he had at this point). Red Q hits the turn and he bets 50 leaving 150 behind. At this point my first thought was to obviously pass, i'm not getting a good price and he's palyed it very hard representing 2 pair or a set. For some reason i call (think the plan was to shove a action card if he checked the river) and a red 7 hits the river, not the card i want and when he bets 80 i'm about to fold. Then i start thinking about a hand an hour ago when the guy checked 2 pair on the river and my stupid brain decides that he either has 66 or a busted flush, i call, he announces 'busted flush and i turn over 4th pair for a nice 250+ pot, very very sick call.
The final hand i will blog was sick for another reason. Folded to me on the CO with 42 SOOOOOOTED so i make it 7, button calls and bb raises to 24, he hasn't re-raised me for 6 hours but he had been playing very very weak post flop and i felt pretty sure it was AA or KK so i call to bust (he has 350 back) button calls as well and when we see a juicy J 4 2 board i'm in heaven and lead out for 75, button folds and not to my suprise donk insta raises to 150, i insta push, he insta calls and i say, 'i know you have aces, i can beat aces, no pain thanks dealer', he looks horrified when he flips AA and can't believe its not still the nuts, bricks on the turn and river and i win a huge pot with 42. More looks of horror from the table when i flip it but i have a good laugh after the hand with the 1 guy on the table that was a very good player who seems to find the whole situation as funny as i did, ' i knew you beat his aces but i thought at least you had a set'. Just a quick note on this guy called Ian, thought he was a standard donk when he asked me what a squeeze play was after being at the table for 20 mins, turns out that was a joke and he was a very good player indeed. He made two world class laydowns imo and think he was one of the best cash players i've ever played against (much better than me).
Ended the session +900 and ended the week +3.6K , VERY SICK FOR 1/2 FULL RING GAME. Long may it continue but i'm a realist and i know this hot streak wont last long. Its now 9.30am on monday morning and i'm gonna go put some cash in the bank and have a nice full english in the local cafe, I LOVE POKER!!
Thursday 6 December 2007
Running hotter than the sun!
Poker is going very well indeed at the moment and i'm not going to take it for granted, i'm going to celebrate the fact. Having won $3.2K on Saturday for coming 2nd in the 20K gtd i had my biggest cash game win ever (see below) on Sunday when the poker gods guided me into the empire at the same time as some rich donkeys who were more than willing to just hand me their money.
When i sat down for my next cash game on tuesday i had no idea how long do i'd play for or how much i'd win. The answer to the first question is 11 hours, the answer to the second is 1440 pounds. As before the deck was more than generous to me, the difference this time was it wasn't 4 or 5 big hands it was 30-35 smaller hands each between 20 and 100 pounds. The biggest pot i won was about 350 but most of the money came from good reads and lots and lots of well timed bluffs. The table was quite weak and i was was running all over it, the players weren't really donkeys they were just quite weak and i felt totally in the zone and able to read most of them very easily; most were also afraid to bluff and had i no problems laying down some big hands. Folded QQ twice pre flop and was shown AA and KK so very happy with those laydowns.
Sickest hand of the night was this classic; had 87 in the bb and when 6 people limp i check my option. Flop J 10 9 (2 spades) which was hot hot hot, i get the ball rolling with a bet of 10, guy next to me makes it 35, next guy calls, shortstack pushes for 60 and finally the guy pushes on the button for 180 total YIKES!!!!! I fold, first raiser folds J 9 and the next guy calls with Q 2 of spades, shortstack has 10 9 and the button has KQ; phewwwwwwwwwwwwww.
As I've already said not that many huge hands but lots of nice size pots. My favourite; 2limps and i raise to 11 from the CO with KQ. BB calls as does first limper. Flop 9 2 3, both check and i c-bet 19. BB calls and after the first limper folds he bets 25 when another 2 hits the turn. The way he had been playing i thought he was quite weak and probs just had a 9 so i raised to 80, after 3 secs he calls, wooooops. I was done with the hand at this point, don't think he wanted to believe i had the overpair and i wasn't gonna fire another shell......... until a nice K hits the river and when he checks i get paid off for a cheeky 100 pound value bet, his fat face was not happy when i turned that one over muttering the words, 'i'm so sick', long may this golden rush continue!
When i sat down for my next cash game on tuesday i had no idea how long do i'd play for or how much i'd win. The answer to the first question is 11 hours, the answer to the second is 1440 pounds. As before the deck was more than generous to me, the difference this time was it wasn't 4 or 5 big hands it was 30-35 smaller hands each between 20 and 100 pounds. The biggest pot i won was about 350 but most of the money came from good reads and lots and lots of well timed bluffs. The table was quite weak and i was was running all over it, the players weren't really donkeys they were just quite weak and i felt totally in the zone and able to read most of them very easily; most were also afraid to bluff and had i no problems laying down some big hands. Folded QQ twice pre flop and was shown AA and KK so very happy with those laydowns.
Sickest hand of the night was this classic; had 87 in the bb and when 6 people limp i check my option. Flop J 10 9 (2 spades) which was hot hot hot, i get the ball rolling with a bet of 10, guy next to me makes it 35, next guy calls, shortstack pushes for 60 and finally the guy pushes on the button for 180 total YIKES!!!!! I fold, first raiser folds J 9 and the next guy calls with Q 2 of spades, shortstack has 10 9 and the button has KQ; phewwwwwwwwwwwwww.
As I've already said not that many huge hands but lots of nice size pots. My favourite; 2limps and i raise to 11 from the CO with KQ. BB calls as does first limper. Flop 9 2 3, both check and i c-bet 19. BB calls and after the first limper folds he bets 25 when another 2 hits the turn. The way he had been playing i thought he was quite weak and probs just had a 9 so i raised to 80, after 3 secs he calls, wooooops. I was done with the hand at this point, don't think he wanted to believe i had the overpair and i wasn't gonna fire another shell......... until a nice K hits the river and when he checks i get paid off for a cheeky 100 pound value bet, his fat face was not happy when i turned that one over muttering the words, 'i'm so sick', long may this golden rush continue!
Monday 3 December 2007
sick cash game
Live cash games tend to be a bit of a grind, especially when your playing self-dealt 7-9 handed no limit holdem. Good cards and good bluffing situations tend to be hard to find and in general i'm happy when i look back at a live session and i can say that i got the big decisions right and ideally have a nice 50% return on my initial buy in; if i'm running bad sometimes its even just nice to break even. Last night was somewhat different to the usual grind; went to the pub after work, had a couple of pints and just i was headed home i decided to nip into the empire to see if there was a game going on. Tourney was well under way but spotted a 1/2 game going on so i jumped straight in for 2oo with 6 complete randoms.
Not long before i was playing a big pot with the 32 of hearts. 3 limps and i complete from the sb. Flop 10 8 3 with two hearts and i check. First limper bets 10 and button calls, thought about raising here but was out of position and didn't feel like these guys were folding so i flat call, as does the bb. Turn is the jack of hearts so i make my flush and bet 20, bb insta calls and the flop raiser then makes it 60 yikes!! Didn't love this situation cause i know someone could have me out flushed in a multi-way pot but there is a lot in the middle and i've never played these guys before so i push for 90ish more, bb dwells and folds 2 pair, good fold then the raiser (who later turns out to be a full time live pro) thinks and folds Q 9 (no heart), excellent lay down but i'm up and running.
Next big hand was based on this smaller hand before: Ep makes it 6, 1 call and i call from the bb with 10 9 of spades. Flop K 10 2 rainbow and i check, raiser c-bets 10 and other player calls (as do i). Turn is the 10 of hearts and i bet 15 both call; river is a total brick and i bet 25, raiser insta calls and other guy folds. As i show the 10 9 he shows KQ for top 2 and moans in danish to his hot girlfriend about what a fish i am, lol think he has a point. So my carlsberg drinking buddy is not in the best of moods for the next hand when i look down at KK in the sb, folded rounded to me and i bump it to 8 and the dane insta calls. Flop Q 10 6 and i bet 20 just hoping he has flopped a pair and is ready to play a big pot. Not to my suprise he raises to 60 and seeing he has 100 behind, i think for about 10 secs then set him in. Looking like he might explode, the guy once again reverts to his native tongue before calling it off with A10! My hand holds and i'm now sitting on a big fat 200 profit.
As my danish friend exits 2 rather young looking indian boys sit down for 100 each and it becomes obvious very early that they have very little idea what they are doing. Love this hand: 5 limps to my bb and i check Q5 of diamonds. Flop A 6 7 with two diamonds, 2nd limper bets 9, young indian kid calls on the button and i calls as well. Turn is a black 3 making me a straight draw but still not 2 happy when the guy bets 30, when the kid calls i was sure i was getting the right price and am loving it when the golden 2 of diamonds hits the river. I make a sneaky check and the raiser blocker bets 15 (the kid calls again) and i raise 50 more, first guy dwells then folds his ace and the donkey calls with JJ!!!!!! The table looks shocked as he turns it over and says the following 'was sure you were bluffing again', the hand before i had shown a 6 pound bluff! ship it!
For the next 3 hours i ran hot, hot hot! Twice i had K 9 and the flop came K99, got paid 100 both times. Won another 130 with 10 3 when it came 10 3 3 and another guy had A3, LOL! It was simply ridiculous i was running good and playing good. Was about to stand up and leave at 2am when the game was 4 handed, que a young chinese couple entering the cardroom and once again struggling to get to grips with the game, 2nd hand of 6 handed play and i find 33 on the CO. Two of us limp in, sb completes and bb checks. Flop is 9 8 3 with two hearts and the girl bets 10, bb calls, as does the limper. Lot of draws out there so i make it 50. The girl calls and the other 2 fold. Turn is a black queen which is quite safe but she bets 50 and the j 10 got there so seeing as she has 250 behind and i'm a bit of a pussy i flat call and see the river cheap, 8 pairs the board and i have a rather pretty looking full house, she bets 100, i raise 150 more and after 10secs she calls with AQ. That's right 50 more on the flop with ace high! TY VERY MUCH!
After a bottle of champagne (bought by my new favourite couple) the game breaks after some more fun hands and i'm up 1350 quid, sick sick, sick! Think i might be back at the empire soon!
Not long before i was playing a big pot with the 32 of hearts. 3 limps and i complete from the sb. Flop 10 8 3 with two hearts and i check. First limper bets 10 and button calls, thought about raising here but was out of position and didn't feel like these guys were folding so i flat call, as does the bb. Turn is the jack of hearts so i make my flush and bet 20, bb insta calls and the flop raiser then makes it 60 yikes!! Didn't love this situation cause i know someone could have me out flushed in a multi-way pot but there is a lot in the middle and i've never played these guys before so i push for 90ish more, bb dwells and folds 2 pair, good fold then the raiser (who later turns out to be a full time live pro) thinks and folds Q 9 (no heart), excellent lay down but i'm up and running.
Next big hand was based on this smaller hand before: Ep makes it 6, 1 call and i call from the bb with 10 9 of spades. Flop K 10 2 rainbow and i check, raiser c-bets 10 and other player calls (as do i). Turn is the 10 of hearts and i bet 15 both call; river is a total brick and i bet 25, raiser insta calls and other guy folds. As i show the 10 9 he shows KQ for top 2 and moans in danish to his hot girlfriend about what a fish i am, lol think he has a point. So my carlsberg drinking buddy is not in the best of moods for the next hand when i look down at KK in the sb, folded rounded to me and i bump it to 8 and the dane insta calls. Flop Q 10 6 and i bet 20 just hoping he has flopped a pair and is ready to play a big pot. Not to my suprise he raises to 60 and seeing he has 100 behind, i think for about 10 secs then set him in. Looking like he might explode, the guy once again reverts to his native tongue before calling it off with A10! My hand holds and i'm now sitting on a big fat 200 profit.
As my danish friend exits 2 rather young looking indian boys sit down for 100 each and it becomes obvious very early that they have very little idea what they are doing. Love this hand: 5 limps to my bb and i check Q5 of diamonds. Flop A 6 7 with two diamonds, 2nd limper bets 9, young indian kid calls on the button and i calls as well. Turn is a black 3 making me a straight draw but still not 2 happy when the guy bets 30, when the kid calls i was sure i was getting the right price and am loving it when the golden 2 of diamonds hits the river. I make a sneaky check and the raiser blocker bets 15 (the kid calls again) and i raise 50 more, first guy dwells then folds his ace and the donkey calls with JJ!!!!!! The table looks shocked as he turns it over and says the following 'was sure you were bluffing again', the hand before i had shown a 6 pound bluff! ship it!
For the next 3 hours i ran hot, hot hot! Twice i had K 9 and the flop came K99, got paid 100 both times. Won another 130 with 10 3 when it came 10 3 3 and another guy had A3, LOL! It was simply ridiculous i was running good and playing good. Was about to stand up and leave at 2am when the game was 4 handed, que a young chinese couple entering the cardroom and once again struggling to get to grips with the game, 2nd hand of 6 handed play and i find 33 on the CO. Two of us limp in, sb completes and bb checks. Flop is 9 8 3 with two hearts and the girl bets 10, bb calls, as does the limper. Lot of draws out there so i make it 50. The girl calls and the other 2 fold. Turn is a black queen which is quite safe but she bets 50 and the j 10 got there so seeing as she has 250 behind and i'm a bit of a pussy i flat call and see the river cheap, 8 pairs the board and i have a rather pretty looking full house, she bets 100, i raise 150 more and after 10secs she calls with AQ. That's right 50 more on the flop with ace high! TY VERY MUCH!
After a bottle of champagne (bought by my new favourite couple) the game breaks after some more fun hands and i'm up 1350 quid, sick sick, sick! Think i might be back at the empire soon!
Monday 26 November 2007
long update
Havn't posted for a while so i thought i would write a big fat blog, the main reason is i just busted out a tourney and i find writing usually helps me calm down and hide from the tiltmonster.
For anyone reading this that doesn't know i have been recently employed as a croupier by those nice people at the G-casino in leicster square. Have been there for a month now and its quite a lot of fun; the people are cool and i'm used to the hours so on the whole think its going quite well. One guy who works there went to the same school as me and he seems really sound; not sure how long i'll stick it but to be honest its quite easy and the pay is ok, only have to do 35 hours per week and have allready dealt to a couple of spurs players (Antony Gardner can't count to 5) so think it could be a while. On the down side i'm not suppossed to go to card clubs but i can play cash in the empire which is ok but it doesn't quite feel the same as the gutshot.
On a poker theme i hardly played for a while but have started to log some serious time of late. Jambon shipped me $5K for 50% of any profit which was nice of him and have already had some good reults, am +$4000 for the first month ($2000 is mine obv). Came 3rd in the 10K gtd rebuy last week for $1.5K, was very pissed off for 2 days after. 3 Handed had 60% of the chips and had both the other players all in on seperate occassions as a 4:1 favourite, arghhhhhhhhhh! First was over $4K and think i left some serious sugar on the table.
The tournement i just finished was the same kind of thing $30 rebuy, $10K gtd with 175 runners, this time thought i would post some hands that seemed intresting at the time then try and analyse them when i was finished to see if my play was correct or just to laugh at donkeys(1 great example coming up).
As usual i went for the rebuy straight away so was up to 6000 chips, rebuy period was a drag and was just watching tv and giving the tourney around 10% concentration. Blinded off a few hands then got the standard donkey double up, took the 4500 add on and was sitting pretty with 16K (just above the average stack) at the end of the rebuy. Think the structure of the rebuys on party are fucking awesome, you can insta rebuy, 50% extra on the add on and 15 mins on the clock, plenty of play in the middle stages; love it!
Won a few hands after the rebuy and was building the stack nicely when this happend to me:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742369
I don't know why people like me so much, guess its the girls name, ty sir. Next hand is a bit of a weird one, i'd been pushing this guy around for a while and as you can see had built my stack nicely, being very active pre flop and felt in control of the table (around 35 players left). Felt like he really wanted to play but he had position and the other player calling left me in an ugly spot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742380
From what i had seen from this guy was quite sure he didn't have a jack on the flop and he could have a draw, lower pair or ace high. Very happy he checks turn and river but had decided before he acted on the river that i would call any bet cause value betting a 10 in his spot would be tough, he wimped it, continued to play weak for the rest of the tourney and gave up his bb frequentley tomy 2.5 x's raise. This next hand was just awesome:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742386
This cold deck gave me the chip lead and put me on the finl table. Well thats what i thought until this discusting hand went down:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742395
The hand is very sick but two things saved me $75K, first it was bubble time and second the turn killd the action. I thought he may have 2 pair wwhen he called my 3 bet on the flop so this slowed me down. If he re-raised me on the river i think i might pass, the guy was playing so weak would have put him on the house, not a nice hand though. Managed to rebuild over the next hour but was getting annoyed with the fact that the shortstacks were winning 90% of the showdowns and the average stack was getting closer and closer to 12 bb's reducing my edge as we went. This hand was a nice start to my final table (notice stacks v blind size):
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742404
In a big tourney you need to win the flips, this player had been quite acive from mp so felt like the raise was the right play:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742408
NICE RIVER!!!! Yelled NOOO at the top of my voice real kick in the balls methinks. This hand got me back in the fight, not sure about calling off my stack with 55 but think when looking at my opponnents stack sizes was a pretty good time to gamble:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742413
This hand sucks:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742420
My standard raise had been to 50K but had lost a few pots so wanted to steal for the minimum, plus the bb was very short so was more than happy to commit myself to a showdown with him, if anyone moved in out of the other playrs my planb was to pass and pick a spot to resteal after i took the blinds. Villans raise to 80 was very annoying, i could shove and hope he folds or could fold and save some chips.I called because i felt i had enough to take a flop and because i thought he had me crushed (his raises had been rare) i didn't think a push would work. The flop was ok and i knew from past experience that he might slow down cause he was weak post flop, his flop bet was very weak and looking back i think i should move in right there, i called cause i was still unsure what he had and hoped he would slow down, he didn't. With 180K back his bet on the turn would commit me to the pot, looking at it now the way he played i think he had AA or three jacks soi was drawing dead, very annoying hand, he probs had 6 high.
Once again i dragged myself back and then;
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742427
Only so many hits you can take at this stage but this was the big one, the Q was just a sick card to seal the deal. Ended up 3rd for another $1.5K. Felt like i couldn't do anymore and was very happy with the mid-late stages of the tourney where i rn things and was robbing the nits blind, just need to work on my showdowns.
For anyone reading this that doesn't know i have been recently employed as a croupier by those nice people at the G-casino in leicster square. Have been there for a month now and its quite a lot of fun; the people are cool and i'm used to the hours so on the whole think its going quite well. One guy who works there went to the same school as me and he seems really sound; not sure how long i'll stick it but to be honest its quite easy and the pay is ok, only have to do 35 hours per week and have allready dealt to a couple of spurs players (Antony Gardner can't count to 5) so think it could be a while. On the down side i'm not suppossed to go to card clubs but i can play cash in the empire which is ok but it doesn't quite feel the same as the gutshot.
On a poker theme i hardly played for a while but have started to log some serious time of late. Jambon shipped me $5K for 50% of any profit which was nice of him and have already had some good reults, am +$4000 for the first month ($2000 is mine obv). Came 3rd in the 10K gtd rebuy last week for $1.5K, was very pissed off for 2 days after. 3 Handed had 60% of the chips and had both the other players all in on seperate occassions as a 4:1 favourite, arghhhhhhhhhh! First was over $4K and think i left some serious sugar on the table.
The tournement i just finished was the same kind of thing $30 rebuy, $10K gtd with 175 runners, this time thought i would post some hands that seemed intresting at the time then try and analyse them when i was finished to see if my play was correct or just to laugh at donkeys(1 great example coming up).
As usual i went for the rebuy straight away so was up to 6000 chips, rebuy period was a drag and was just watching tv and giving the tourney around 10% concentration. Blinded off a few hands then got the standard donkey double up, took the 4500 add on and was sitting pretty with 16K (just above the average stack) at the end of the rebuy. Think the structure of the rebuys on party are fucking awesome, you can insta rebuy, 50% extra on the add on and 15 mins on the clock, plenty of play in the middle stages; love it!
Won a few hands after the rebuy and was building the stack nicely when this happend to me:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742369
I don't know why people like me so much, guess its the girls name, ty sir. Next hand is a bit of a weird one, i'd been pushing this guy around for a while and as you can see had built my stack nicely, being very active pre flop and felt in control of the table (around 35 players left). Felt like he really wanted to play but he had position and the other player calling left me in an ugly spot:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742380
From what i had seen from this guy was quite sure he didn't have a jack on the flop and he could have a draw, lower pair or ace high. Very happy he checks turn and river but had decided before he acted on the river that i would call any bet cause value betting a 10 in his spot would be tough, he wimped it, continued to play weak for the rest of the tourney and gave up his bb frequentley tomy 2.5 x's raise. This next hand was just awesome:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742386
This cold deck gave me the chip lead and put me on the finl table. Well thats what i thought until this discusting hand went down:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742395
The hand is very sick but two things saved me $75K, first it was bubble time and second the turn killd the action. I thought he may have 2 pair wwhen he called my 3 bet on the flop so this slowed me down. If he re-raised me on the river i think i might pass, the guy was playing so weak would have put him on the house, not a nice hand though. Managed to rebuild over the next hour but was getting annoyed with the fact that the shortstacks were winning 90% of the showdowns and the average stack was getting closer and closer to 12 bb's reducing my edge as we went. This hand was a nice start to my final table (notice stacks v blind size):
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742404
In a big tourney you need to win the flips, this player had been quite acive from mp so felt like the raise was the right play:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742408
NICE RIVER!!!! Yelled NOOO at the top of my voice real kick in the balls methinks. This hand got me back in the fight, not sure about calling off my stack with 55 but think when looking at my opponnents stack sizes was a pretty good time to gamble:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742413
This hand sucks:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742420
My standard raise had been to 50K but had lost a few pots so wanted to steal for the minimum, plus the bb was very short so was more than happy to commit myself to a showdown with him, if anyone moved in out of the other playrs my planb was to pass and pick a spot to resteal after i took the blinds. Villans raise to 80 was very annoying, i could shove and hope he folds or could fold and save some chips.I called because i felt i had enough to take a flop and because i thought he had me crushed (his raises had been rare) i didn't think a push would work. The flop was ok and i knew from past experience that he might slow down cause he was weak post flop, his flop bet was very weak and looking back i think i should move in right there, i called cause i was still unsure what he had and hoped he would slow down, he didn't. With 180K back his bet on the turn would commit me to the pot, looking at it now the way he played i think he had AA or three jacks soi was drawing dead, very annoying hand, he probs had 6 high.
Once again i dragged myself back and then;
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1742427
Only so many hits you can take at this stage but this was the big one, the Q was just a sick card to seal the deal. Ended up 3rd for another $1.5K. Felt like i couldn't do anymore and was very happy with the mid-late stages of the tourney where i rn things and was robbing the nits blind, just need to work on my showdowns.
Tuesday 18 September 2007
well done john
I first met John Tabba when he rolled up to the Reading uni poker society on behalf of pokerpanthers.com. He sat in the 10p/20p cash game with a wod of $20 notes and proceeded to donate about 300 quid to the rest of the table in about an hour. I knew he was a sponsored pro and i knew he was muffing about (in his own words; 'this is a lot cheaper than tilting $5/$10 online'), but i had no idea that 9 months later he would place 2nd in the WSOPE and pick up 570K.
When i turned up at the empire half way through day 3 i was star struck, Mel Judah was just leaving when i got there and Johnny Lodden was one of the first faces i saw when i got in the door; this was just the start!! The top pro's were all over the place and the great thing was that 90% of the people in the empire had no clue who these people were! Over the next 3 days i got to play cash with Todd Brunson and Marcel Luske and thanks to the limited amount of fans watch John play some awesome poker right up close. Although he was really cut up after he lost John can be so proud of the way he played; he got through 1 of the toughest fields ever and gained the respect of some of the greatest players in the world. When we asked Gus Hansen what he thought of John at the end of day 4 he replied, 'he was super aggresive, he got the better of me today', now thats a fucking compilment.
For me the highlight of the day was after the final table when John orderd a bottle of vodka and a rather impressive 27 bottles of champagne!! Seeing as there were around 15 of us celebrating getting through the vast majority of this was quite an acheivment itself. John is certainly the type to spend his money in a flash and seeing as he only had 40% of himself and 5% of Oyvind (the 4th place finisher) i hope the money lasts until the next big win; if he plays as well as he did in this tournement he wont have to wait long.
When i turned up at the empire half way through day 3 i was star struck, Mel Judah was just leaving when i got there and Johnny Lodden was one of the first faces i saw when i got in the door; this was just the start!! The top pro's were all over the place and the great thing was that 90% of the people in the empire had no clue who these people were! Over the next 3 days i got to play cash with Todd Brunson and Marcel Luske and thanks to the limited amount of fans watch John play some awesome poker right up close. Although he was really cut up after he lost John can be so proud of the way he played; he got through 1 of the toughest fields ever and gained the respect of some of the greatest players in the world. When we asked Gus Hansen what he thought of John at the end of day 4 he replied, 'he was super aggresive, he got the better of me today', now thats a fucking compilment.
For me the highlight of the day was after the final table when John orderd a bottle of vodka and a rather impressive 27 bottles of champagne!! Seeing as there were around 15 of us celebrating getting through the vast majority of this was quite an acheivment itself. John is certainly the type to spend his money in a flash and seeing as he only had 40% of himself and 5% of Oyvind (the 4th place finisher) i hope the money lasts until the next big win; if he plays as well as he did in this tournement he wont have to wait long.
Sunday 9 September 2007
sunday bloody sunday
Today was very annoying indeed. Been lying around in my underwear playing online, i turn on the t.v and i find out that the sky box isn't working cause every time i try and put a new channel on it says 'no signal is being reieved'. I look out the window to discover that the neighbours have erected their own giant sattelite which is blocking ours. I'm a bit scared to ask them to move it cause thier our 4 of them and they are black and scary. I'll wait for Ant to get back and we can formulate a plan to get our much needed sky tv back. The even worse thing is that the normal channels aren't working so i've been stuck on my own ripping up the tables.
By 'ripping up the tables' i of course mean dropping $1K playing every type of poker i can get my hands on. Had a go on the steps on party but been stuck on step 4 for a while and am about -$100. The good thing about the stt steps is that you get to go back a step or stay at that level once you make the top 7 and you can usually make this without playing a hand. Played the $300K gtd V 1600 Runners and crept into the top 500 with 19K in chips, then ran AK into AA and KK into AA within 30 mins and that was the end of me.
Also played a little bit of NLH cash .5/1 but dropped two buy ins quick and decided i didn't want to tilt off another load so i quit. This hand was fun:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1463187
I like his check on the end.
I've always said that when it came to PLO i was a bit of a retard but playing online has made me feel a lot better about my game. The swings are pretty big and with no real bankroll to speak of at the moment its pretty much gambling and hard to be frustrated. Despite this i feel that players are so bad at the lower limits that i should be crushing this game and the bad beats have been really annoying. Start with this gem:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1463197
I know i get lucky on the turn but only $3 has gone in by this point. When he chek raised the end i had allready started swearing cause i just knew, i still can't fold though. 1 outers are great fun.
Classic example of a retard:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1463207
Think the lesson is that people play so bad you should only get all the money in when they are drawing dead, i hate poker!!!!!!
By 'ripping up the tables' i of course mean dropping $1K playing every type of poker i can get my hands on. Had a go on the steps on party but been stuck on step 4 for a while and am about -$100. The good thing about the stt steps is that you get to go back a step or stay at that level once you make the top 7 and you can usually make this without playing a hand. Played the $300K gtd V 1600 Runners and crept into the top 500 with 19K in chips, then ran AK into AA and KK into AA within 30 mins and that was the end of me.
Also played a little bit of NLH cash .5/1 but dropped two buy ins quick and decided i didn't want to tilt off another load so i quit. This hand was fun:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1463187
I like his check on the end.
I've always said that when it came to PLO i was a bit of a retard but playing online has made me feel a lot better about my game. The swings are pretty big and with no real bankroll to speak of at the moment its pretty much gambling and hard to be frustrated. Despite this i feel that players are so bad at the lower limits that i should be crushing this game and the bad beats have been really annoying. Start with this gem:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1463197
I know i get lucky on the turn but only $3 has gone in by this point. When he chek raised the end i had allready started swearing cause i just knew, i still can't fold though. 1 outers are great fun.
Classic example of a retard:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1463207
Think the lesson is that people play so bad you should only get all the money in when they are drawing dead, i hate poker!!!!!!
Tuesday 28 August 2007
poker marathon
Its coming up to 2pm on tuesday afternoon and i'm sat in the gutshot reflecting on an extremely long weekend of poker. The fun started on thursday night and ended on monday at 7pm, apart from that annoying thing called sleeping i was basically playing non stop. I'm gonna run through the varios sessions/tournaments in order but gonna start with some much needed good news on the online side of things. On tuesday i played my first online tournement in the new flat; a $22 rebuy on party with 250 runners. With a bit of skill and a nice run of cards i managed to take the tournement down for a healthy $3.9K. The final table was without question the weakest i have ever played either live or online, at times it was as if my opponents were just insta folding pre flop without even looking at their cards; i got away with murder and thanks to the constant stealing i could even afford to run KK into AA and JJ into KK for 2 of the biggest pots in the whole tourney and still managed to win.
Now onto the fun part; the poker marathon!! This started on thursday with event #2 of the GSOP the £100 FE, the event reached a capacity 100 and featured a number of the warwick poker greats and Ant even donated to the prizepool as well. Busted out quite early when ran 88 into QQ with only 11 big blinds in the 5th level. Wasn't to happy that the guy took so long to call with the queens especially as he was the initial raiser and was clearly never folding but technichally its not a slow roll so can't be to upset. Was good to hear that Dave Lu and Tommo split it so well done to them. Mike and Cash point arrived at the gutshot about an hour after the tourney had started so when Ant went busto soon after i did the opportunity to go back to the flat and play a cheeky cash game was to much to turn down. The game was 5p/10p and in true Reading Uni £400 was on the table. I bought in for £100 and bluffed it all off against Ant when i played the 5 3 off like a hero on a A 9 6 4 board and ran into A6, i still had outs though. Then i lost the second £100 to cash point when i had middle pair and he had a flush draw, what a cold deck, tie in this loss with a 3-2 defeat on proevo to Ant for another £50 and the 'weekend' was of to a bad start with a nice £350 invested back into the gambling community.
Ant had to work on friday so Mike, cashy and i thought we would have a productive afternoon by going to the pub. 7 pints and 15 games of killer on the local pool table later and i was down another £50. Mike is a much much better pool player than i am and for some reason i still play the bandit for money, this has to stop!! At about 8pm Ben 'big cheese' Warwick turned up for the 2nd late night cash game and the action lasted until 5am. Ended up winning £150 back thanks mainly to a full house when Ant and Mike both had a flush and the fact that big tone has no idea what he is doing when we play omaha. On a very good note the local chinese takeaway was bloody excellent and i'm sure that Jd and Lu will be happy to hear that Mr lodger will be a regular customer.
After about 6 hours of trying to sleep whilst cash point was kicking me and snoring at the same time we headed off to Luton for the APAT; £75 buy in with 300 runners over two day 1's. The drive took us 3 hours and we arrived just before the start. It was my first trip to Luton and the cardroom was excellent, shame about my cards. Despite the excellent structure and 10K starting stack i had a horrible day and will be the first to admit that i played like a retard. My reads were all wrong and i seemed to run into so many hands it was just sick. Although the standard of play was quite poor i had quite a strong table and at times i felt like the entire table could see my hole cards. Finally went bust with A9 V 55 having lost most of my stack 3 hands before with AQ V 88 all in pre with blinds at 400/800 for a 20K pot, was left with 8k. Cashy had gone busto 10 mins earlier and the cash games had just started so we jumped into the £1/£2 game to try and improve our luck. The game was a lot of fun, great banter and a lot of action. Bought in for £150 and got £120 of that all in pre with AK pre v QQ, hit an ace on the river and was off and running. Was a bit of a card rack for the most part and managed to get 2 guys who both had £100ish all in pre holding AA v KQ and Q 10!! Caspoint had a really tough decision when he raised it t0 £25 after a limp when the strddle was on, the sb called then the guy who put the straddle on (a mainiac) raised £111 more, leaving himself £100ish back. After a while of thinking cashy stuck it all in with AK and the sb called with QJ sooooted!! The maiac had 55 and obviously the QJ made a flush to scoop the main pot. Cashy got £200 back in the side but was still a big hit. Looking back at the hand i'm still unsure if i fold or push. On the push side the raiser was a semi-maniac and the AK was always gonna be at worst 50/50, you also cant expect the sb to call off his last £120 with Qj even though the guy was quite drunk and had clearly come from the blackjack table. Despite this is still feel like the right play was to fold, its such a big amount to risk with AK and even if he has 2 unders your not better than 2/1, you could have the guy dominated but with a player behind there have to be better spots, an hour or so later the same player called an all in on the turn for £120 holding 33 on a J 10 9 6 board saying that he put his opponent on AK (he had QJ). I ended up £400 mainly thanks to some big hands pre that managed to hold up, also managed to fold aces on the river when a guy re-raised me on a K K Q 8 6 board, he had KK and had decided to slow play them pre flop, thank god he did or i go busto.
We got back to the flat at 2am and decided to go straight to bed (hope that sounds as gay as it was). Ant and Mike both went to Luton for day 1B (with no luck) and Cashy and i headed off to the gutshot to sit in the £1/£2 game, When i took my seat at 8pm i did not expect to still be there at 7pm the following day but i really enjoyed the 23 hour session like the sick son of a bitch i am. Bought in for £400 and was as low as £80 and as high as £920, ended on £670 for a nice £270 profit, not sure what that is an hour but was very happy with the result as i seemed to spend most of the time getting myself out the hole. Trying hard to remeber the big hands but is a bit of a struggle if i'm honest.
So i ended the weekend up a little bit and had a lot of fun, gonna be playing a lot more online over the next weekend and hope to blog in a couple of weekends.
Bankroll:£3,000 (LET THE WAR BEGIN)!!!!!!
Now onto the fun part; the poker marathon!! This started on thursday with event #2 of the GSOP the £100 FE, the event reached a capacity 100 and featured a number of the warwick poker greats and Ant even donated to the prizepool as well. Busted out quite early when ran 88 into QQ with only 11 big blinds in the 5th level. Wasn't to happy that the guy took so long to call with the queens especially as he was the initial raiser and was clearly never folding but technichally its not a slow roll so can't be to upset. Was good to hear that Dave Lu and Tommo split it so well done to them. Mike and Cash point arrived at the gutshot about an hour after the tourney had started so when Ant went busto soon after i did the opportunity to go back to the flat and play a cheeky cash game was to much to turn down. The game was 5p/10p and in true Reading Uni £400 was on the table. I bought in for £100 and bluffed it all off against Ant when i played the 5 3 off like a hero on a A 9 6 4 board and ran into A6, i still had outs though. Then i lost the second £100 to cash point when i had middle pair and he had a flush draw, what a cold deck, tie in this loss with a 3-2 defeat on proevo to Ant for another £50 and the 'weekend' was of to a bad start with a nice £350 invested back into the gambling community.
Ant had to work on friday so Mike, cashy and i thought we would have a productive afternoon by going to the pub. 7 pints and 15 games of killer on the local pool table later and i was down another £50. Mike is a much much better pool player than i am and for some reason i still play the bandit for money, this has to stop!! At about 8pm Ben 'big cheese' Warwick turned up for the 2nd late night cash game and the action lasted until 5am. Ended up winning £150 back thanks mainly to a full house when Ant and Mike both had a flush and the fact that big tone has no idea what he is doing when we play omaha. On a very good note the local chinese takeaway was bloody excellent and i'm sure that Jd and Lu will be happy to hear that Mr lodger will be a regular customer.
After about 6 hours of trying to sleep whilst cash point was kicking me and snoring at the same time we headed off to Luton for the APAT; £75 buy in with 300 runners over two day 1's. The drive took us 3 hours and we arrived just before the start. It was my first trip to Luton and the cardroom was excellent, shame about my cards. Despite the excellent structure and 10K starting stack i had a horrible day and will be the first to admit that i played like a retard. My reads were all wrong and i seemed to run into so many hands it was just sick. Although the standard of play was quite poor i had quite a strong table and at times i felt like the entire table could see my hole cards. Finally went bust with A9 V 55 having lost most of my stack 3 hands before with AQ V 88 all in pre with blinds at 400/800 for a 20K pot, was left with 8k. Cashy had gone busto 10 mins earlier and the cash games had just started so we jumped into the £1/£2 game to try and improve our luck. The game was a lot of fun, great banter and a lot of action. Bought in for £150 and got £120 of that all in pre with AK pre v QQ, hit an ace on the river and was off and running. Was a bit of a card rack for the most part and managed to get 2 guys who both had £100ish all in pre holding AA v KQ and Q 10!! Caspoint had a really tough decision when he raised it t0 £25 after a limp when the strddle was on, the sb called then the guy who put the straddle on (a mainiac) raised £111 more, leaving himself £100ish back. After a while of thinking cashy stuck it all in with AK and the sb called with QJ sooooted!! The maiac had 55 and obviously the QJ made a flush to scoop the main pot. Cashy got £200 back in the side but was still a big hit. Looking back at the hand i'm still unsure if i fold or push. On the push side the raiser was a semi-maniac and the AK was always gonna be at worst 50/50, you also cant expect the sb to call off his last £120 with Qj even though the guy was quite drunk and had clearly come from the blackjack table. Despite this is still feel like the right play was to fold, its such a big amount to risk with AK and even if he has 2 unders your not better than 2/1, you could have the guy dominated but with a player behind there have to be better spots, an hour or so later the same player called an all in on the turn for £120 holding 33 on a J 10 9 6 board saying that he put his opponent on AK (he had QJ). I ended up £400 mainly thanks to some big hands pre that managed to hold up, also managed to fold aces on the river when a guy re-raised me on a K K Q 8 6 board, he had KK and had decided to slow play them pre flop, thank god he did or i go busto.
We got back to the flat at 2am and decided to go straight to bed (hope that sounds as gay as it was). Ant and Mike both went to Luton for day 1B (with no luck) and Cashy and i headed off to the gutshot to sit in the £1/£2 game, When i took my seat at 8pm i did not expect to still be there at 7pm the following day but i really enjoyed the 23 hour session like the sick son of a bitch i am. Bought in for £400 and was as low as £80 and as high as £920, ended on £670 for a nice £270 profit, not sure what that is an hour but was very happy with the result as i seemed to spend most of the time getting myself out the hole. Trying hard to remeber the big hands but is a bit of a struggle if i'm honest.
So i ended the weekend up a little bit and had a lot of fun, gonna be playing a lot more online over the next weekend and hope to blog in a couple of weekends.
Bankroll:£3,000 (LET THE WAR BEGIN)!!!!!!
Monday 6 August 2007
Quick update
London has so far been a mix of the good and the bad for me. Unfortunatley on the poker front it has been very bad indeed. The internet has still not been sorted yet and my opportunities to play online have been very limited indeed. When i have played online its been squashed into small 2-3 hour long sessions in crowded internet cafe's. My results have sucked and for some reason i've even been aware of what i'm doing wrong and not changing this stratergy (main problem is playing to fast obviously). I decided to cash $3000 out for food/drink/rent/rent boys etc and leave myself $1K to gamble with. Like the genius i am i stuck this on 2 tables of $3/$6, closed my eyes and hoped for the best; result = busto in 1 hour!! Played 2 $1200 pots and they were a lot of fun. First i got all in on a board of A Q 9 with AQ and ran face first into a total idiot with 97, 9 on the river tyvm. Next i'm all in with KK on a board of 2 4 5 10 with 2 clubs. He called my last $250 on the turn with AJ of clubs and made his flush on the river. So that was that. Think i played fine and 2 rather bad beats have left the account on a nice fat 0.
Live has been much more enjoyable, but about as profitable. Been playing the 1/2 game at the gutshot and despite making some good friends i have been running as normal . Few examples of the last session: Bought in for 200 and was up to 450 after 2 hours, had made 3 nice bluffs and managed to bust a guy for 100 with QJ V K 10 on a board of QJ8. Also won 80 with 10 9 v 10 x on a 10 6 7 9 9 board, bet on every street and the facf i had flipped 4 high the pot before after a nice 55 bluff on the end helped me get paid. At this point i was really happy with my game my reads had been right in every pot i played and i was trying to force myself to pay attention when not involved. The sad thing was this didn't last and things soon went tits up. First 5 limps in2 my bb and i check with Q 10. Flop 228 and i fire 8 into the pot of 10. 1 caller and i know he has an 8 so when the turn comes an ace i bet 16. He thinks for 30 secs then calls. The river makes 3 clubs on board but is still a bit of a blank 4. I know he is a bad player but i also know he has an 8 so i bet 40 and he calls quick with 86. My read was spot on but the bet was still a huge mistake cause the guy had been at the table for an hour and i knew he was a calling station who didn't know when to fold. This was only a small dent but it seemed to mark a change in my night. Next up was a huge hand, long story short action all over the place and i had to call 150 to win 520 total with A9 of diamonds on a board of K J 10 with 2 diamonds. Was up against KJ and Q5 of d's and misses obviously. Got the rest in with 56 of clubs on a 774 board with 2 clubs, having raised in early i put my opponent on a big pair; he had 8 10 of clubs arghhhhhh. So went bust again at the gutshot and chose not to rebuy. Intresting fact on the night was i had 11 pairs between 2's and 9's made a set 0 times. Would have made a set with 77 if i had called 45 pre flop but my opponnent had 200 total so would have been a bad call; he made a set of kings on the flop anyway LOL!!!!!!!!
Going home next weekend can't wait!!
Live has been much more enjoyable, but about as profitable. Been playing the 1/2 game at the gutshot and despite making some good friends i have been running as normal . Few examples of the last session: Bought in for 200 and was up to 450 after 2 hours, had made 3 nice bluffs and managed to bust a guy for 100 with QJ V K 10 on a board of QJ8. Also won 80 with 10 9 v 10 x on a 10 6 7 9 9 board, bet on every street and the facf i had flipped 4 high the pot before after a nice 55 bluff on the end helped me get paid. At this point i was really happy with my game my reads had been right in every pot i played and i was trying to force myself to pay attention when not involved. The sad thing was this didn't last and things soon went tits up. First 5 limps in2 my bb and i check with Q 10. Flop 228 and i fire 8 into the pot of 10. 1 caller and i know he has an 8 so when the turn comes an ace i bet 16. He thinks for 30 secs then calls. The river makes 3 clubs on board but is still a bit of a blank 4. I know he is a bad player but i also know he has an 8 so i bet 40 and he calls quick with 86. My read was spot on but the bet was still a huge mistake cause the guy had been at the table for an hour and i knew he was a calling station who didn't know when to fold. This was only a small dent but it seemed to mark a change in my night. Next up was a huge hand, long story short action all over the place and i had to call 150 to win 520 total with A9 of diamonds on a board of K J 10 with 2 diamonds. Was up against KJ and Q5 of d's and misses obviously. Got the rest in with 56 of clubs on a 774 board with 2 clubs, having raised in early i put my opponent on a big pair; he had 8 10 of clubs arghhhhhh. So went bust again at the gutshot and chose not to rebuy. Intresting fact on the night was i had 11 pairs between 2's and 9's made a set 0 times. Would have made a set with 77 if i had called 45 pre flop but my opponnent had 200 total so would have been a bad call; he made a set of kings on the flop anyway LOL!!!!!!!!
Going home next weekend can't wait!!
Wednesday 11 July 2007
LONDON BABY!!
This is the first post for a while and the reason behind this is long and boring so here is the shortest version possible: no Internet cause former tenant is a moron and bt are a bunch of cunts! So i havn't played online for ages and i'm writing this blog from an Internet cafe on tottenham court road. With any luck we'll sort the Internet soon but for the mean time i'm happy playing live at the gutshot; my new spiritual home.
The flat is awesome and so far myself and Ant 'big tone' yousefian have been getting on as well as ever. We have got sky set up and i find myself drawn to the junk on MTV more and more; hogan knows best and made have rather embarrassingly made it on to my daily viewing list! I'm also a huge fan of Dog the bounty hunter.. arghhhhhh i'm turning into a twat. Also got the ps2 running and have a £50 bet on with Ant on who gets to 50 wins first, i'm 3-2 down and know i'm a slight dog on the bet but we are playing regular heads up matches for £10 each which is a good laugh and evens the score, i'm currently 3-0 down lol.
As far as poker goes i've been at the gutshot 7 out of 10 days and i'm down about £350 which is pretty standard variance i guess. On the first night we both played the £100 FE and Ant chopped it 3 way for £1500, lucky i had 20%. In the same tourney i busted 14th of 72 with 9 getting paid. I thought i played well and i had the chip lead with 30-25 left but lost 3 showdowns in a row, with the final one resulting in my elimination. 1 hand of note from the tourney was with 21 players and 3 tables left. The blinds were 500/1000 and i had 12K in chips, gets folded round to the button (a chav who is quite aggressive and not very good) who makes it 5K leaving himself 14ish. The sb dwells up for ages and looks soooooo weak but sticks his last 10K into the pot, i look down at 99 in the bb; Oxford flashback lol. This time however there was no doubt in my mind that i had the best hand and i shove for 7K more. Now its on the chav, he needs to put 7K in to win 28K and knock out two players, he has to call, but he starts to dwell. So i know he's got gash and obviously i want him to fold so i start yapping away when a guy on the other side of the table, who is not in the pot says, "you have to call"!!!!!!!!. I go mental!! "you can't say that, your not in the fucking hand, shut the hell up!" i believe was my response, i get an apology and in the confusion the chav folds Q8. The sb flips A9 and i win a very nice pot, Q hit the flop btw. The hand was interesting because it showed my advantage in live play, i'm loud, big and get angry and ironically i think the chav was gonna call before the argument. Another saving factor was the fact that i had saved the lower value chips and my shove looked a lot more than what it actually was, i saw Daniel Negreanu do this in the wsop one year and its stuck with me since, once again if i had just 12 chips in total at the start of the hand i think he calls. Although this tactic may only work in 1 tourney a year this alone makes it worth while, your opponent may not ask for a count thinking that you have a lot more chips than you actually do.
On the cash tables I've been playing the £1/£2 game with an unlimited buy in. I've been buying in for £300 and enjoying some major swings but alas am down in the game. Although the standard of play is hugely varied in this game (with around 40 regular players) on the whole it sucks ass!! people limp soooooooo weak its scary, there must be 5-6 regular players who are playing over 60% of hands which is ridiculous!! Although i'm not gonna blog any specific hands i will say that i'm pretty happy with my play; i've not been limp calling with marginal hands and have been trying to play the button and cut off as hard as possible. The thing that works against me in a full ring game is that its very slow and i find myself trying to make things happen rather than waiting for good situations; i've also made some dumb calls on the river when its been obvious that i'm beat.
Gonna play the £75 Fe at the gutshot with Ant and Mike Alp, who is staying at the pad for a few days. Hope we sort the internet soon cause i'm poor.
Bankroll:$5,250
The flat is awesome and so far myself and Ant 'big tone' yousefian have been getting on as well as ever. We have got sky set up and i find myself drawn to the junk on MTV more and more; hogan knows best and made have rather embarrassingly made it on to my daily viewing list! I'm also a huge fan of Dog the bounty hunter.. arghhhhhh i'm turning into a twat. Also got the ps2 running and have a £50 bet on with Ant on who gets to 50 wins first, i'm 3-2 down and know i'm a slight dog on the bet but we are playing regular heads up matches for £10 each which is a good laugh and evens the score, i'm currently 3-0 down lol.
As far as poker goes i've been at the gutshot 7 out of 10 days and i'm down about £350 which is pretty standard variance i guess. On the first night we both played the £100 FE and Ant chopped it 3 way for £1500, lucky i had 20%. In the same tourney i busted 14th of 72 with 9 getting paid. I thought i played well and i had the chip lead with 30-25 left but lost 3 showdowns in a row, with the final one resulting in my elimination. 1 hand of note from the tourney was with 21 players and 3 tables left. The blinds were 500/1000 and i had 12K in chips, gets folded round to the button (a chav who is quite aggressive and not very good) who makes it 5K leaving himself 14ish. The sb dwells up for ages and looks soooooo weak but sticks his last 10K into the pot, i look down at 99 in the bb; Oxford flashback lol. This time however there was no doubt in my mind that i had the best hand and i shove for 7K more. Now its on the chav, he needs to put 7K in to win 28K and knock out two players, he has to call, but he starts to dwell. So i know he's got gash and obviously i want him to fold so i start yapping away when a guy on the other side of the table, who is not in the pot says, "you have to call"!!!!!!!!. I go mental!! "you can't say that, your not in the fucking hand, shut the hell up!" i believe was my response, i get an apology and in the confusion the chav folds Q8. The sb flips A9 and i win a very nice pot, Q hit the flop btw. The hand was interesting because it showed my advantage in live play, i'm loud, big and get angry and ironically i think the chav was gonna call before the argument. Another saving factor was the fact that i had saved the lower value chips and my shove looked a lot more than what it actually was, i saw Daniel Negreanu do this in the wsop one year and its stuck with me since, once again if i had just 12 chips in total at the start of the hand i think he calls. Although this tactic may only work in 1 tourney a year this alone makes it worth while, your opponent may not ask for a count thinking that you have a lot more chips than you actually do.
On the cash tables I've been playing the £1/£2 game with an unlimited buy in. I've been buying in for £300 and enjoying some major swings but alas am down in the game. Although the standard of play is hugely varied in this game (with around 40 regular players) on the whole it sucks ass!! people limp soooooooo weak its scary, there must be 5-6 regular players who are playing over 60% of hands which is ridiculous!! Although i'm not gonna blog any specific hands i will say that i'm pretty happy with my play; i've not been limp calling with marginal hands and have been trying to play the button and cut off as hard as possible. The thing that works against me in a full ring game is that its very slow and i find myself trying to make things happen rather than waiting for good situations; i've also made some dumb calls on the river when its been obvious that i'm beat.
Gonna play the £75 Fe at the gutshot with Ant and Mike Alp, who is staying at the pad for a few days. Hope we sort the internet soon cause i'm poor.
Bankroll:$5,250
Wednesday 27 June 2007
Back in the overdraft and on the piss.
Went to London yesterday with Tony to sign the contract on the house. It all looks pretty standard but the 6 week deposit i was made to pay along with the first months rent put a big hole in my finances, £1200 ouch!! So as a result i'm back in the overdraft and the worst thing is i haven't got the money in poker right now to cover this, i cashed out $420 from party but wish i could take more out cause i hate being overdrawn.
On the social side of life i'm really enjoying my last few days in Reading. A few of the guys have gone home but most of the hardcore drinkers are still about which has resulted in some heavy heavy nights of alcohol consumption. Robin's 22nd last Thursday was awesome, the 'random rampage' pub crawl was a great idea (with various bars and time for consumption) being drawn at random. It was very fun and the missions were certainly the highlight of the night, eric running to every pub, alp falling into the old man pub face first and myself having to go commando were just 3 of a long list of hilarios activities. Monday and Tuesday were also top nights with the usual 'who can drink the most' argument sparking off a stupid amount of alcohol consumption. Mark Garbett i will not have a threesome with you, PERVERT!! Think i'm gonna skip the union tonight and just enjoy the final fling on Thursday, comedy club and cheap drink could lead to some emotional goodbye's.
As far as poker goes came very close to a big pay day on friday on two separate occasions. 17th in the super friday and 10th in the 18K gtd on party were again evidence of me getting close but not getting the job done. In the Super friday i ran KK into AA for the chip lead and in the 18K i lost AK v AK all in pre with 26 left (no he was not sooooooted). So not much i could do there but i was happy with my play in both tournies but disappointed in the end results.
Cash has been going well but quite slow, making a steady profit at 0.5/1 and just hope i can get back to 1/2 by the start of August.
Gonna put some hours in tonight then i'll play gain on Friday, might blog after that. Also was having a look at my mate jambon's blog and he said that his two mates lost $25K playing blackjack the other night in vegas. A few of them are over their for the wsop and it sounds like this drunken night may have ruined the trip: http://supertryagain.blogspot.com/ not supposed to laugh but it sounds a little funny.
Bankroll: $5,250
On the social side of life i'm really enjoying my last few days in Reading. A few of the guys have gone home but most of the hardcore drinkers are still about which has resulted in some heavy heavy nights of alcohol consumption. Robin's 22nd last Thursday was awesome, the 'random rampage' pub crawl was a great idea (with various bars and time for consumption) being drawn at random. It was very fun and the missions were certainly the highlight of the night, eric running to every pub, alp falling into the old man pub face first and myself having to go commando were just 3 of a long list of hilarios activities. Monday and Tuesday were also top nights with the usual 'who can drink the most' argument sparking off a stupid amount of alcohol consumption. Mark Garbett i will not have a threesome with you, PERVERT!! Think i'm gonna skip the union tonight and just enjoy the final fling on Thursday, comedy club and cheap drink could lead to some emotional goodbye's.
As far as poker goes came very close to a big pay day on friday on two separate occasions. 17th in the super friday and 10th in the 18K gtd on party were again evidence of me getting close but not getting the job done. In the Super friday i ran KK into AA for the chip lead and in the 18K i lost AK v AK all in pre with 26 left (no he was not sooooooted). So not much i could do there but i was happy with my play in both tournies but disappointed in the end results.
Cash has been going well but quite slow, making a steady profit at 0.5/1 and just hope i can get back to 1/2 by the start of August.
Gonna put some hours in tonight then i'll play gain on Friday, might blog after that. Also was having a look at my mate jambon's blog and he said that his two mates lost $25K playing blackjack the other night in vegas. A few of them are over their for the wsop and it sounds like this drunken night may have ruined the trip: http://supertryagain.blogspot.com/ not supposed to laugh but it sounds a little funny.
Bankroll: $5,250
Friday 22 June 2007
ups and downs
Poker has been very slow for a while now and its getting kinda frustrating. Just found out that we need to put a huge deposit down on the flat and i'm very short of cash which is frustrating. I'll almost certainly have to get a part time job when we move to London unless i start making some money fast.
As far as poker goes today really sums up the way things have been going recently, played for an hour in the morning and made $250 then played for an hour and a bit in the afternoon and lost $200, what a waste of a day!! The thing that annoyed me was that i didn't do much wrong at all and i felt that i was playing my best all day, just not getting anywhere.
Just gonna post a few hands from recent games. Start with a nice one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198068
The hand pretty much plays itself and i think i probs play the hand the same way as my opponent plays the kings, gotta love that flop though. Next 1 is more of the same:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198076
I knew he had AQ as soon as he cold calls the re-raise and i just loved that river, ship it!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198078
This is my favourite hand of the week, what a donkey!! Might be the worst played hand of all time just so so bad from him.
Final hand of the blog, bit of a cold deck:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198083
I like to try and define JJ as early as possible with 150+ bb's so i don't go broke on a rag board. When he check raises the turn i knew KK or QQ was a very good shout but i was committed and he could have had AA or maybe AK although unlikely and as it turned out untrue.
Gonna play a few tournies tonight and try and get a big cash, feel like my tourney game is still very strong and just hope i can get that bit of luck you need for the big pay day, grinding the low/medium limits is no fun at all!
Bankroll: $4,600.
As far as poker goes today really sums up the way things have been going recently, played for an hour in the morning and made $250 then played for an hour and a bit in the afternoon and lost $200, what a waste of a day!! The thing that annoyed me was that i didn't do much wrong at all and i felt that i was playing my best all day, just not getting anywhere.
Just gonna post a few hands from recent games. Start with a nice one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198068
The hand pretty much plays itself and i think i probs play the hand the same way as my opponent plays the kings, gotta love that flop though. Next 1 is more of the same:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198076
I knew he had AQ as soon as he cold calls the re-raise and i just loved that river, ship it!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198078
This is my favourite hand of the week, what a donkey!! Might be the worst played hand of all time just so so bad from him.
Final hand of the blog, bit of a cold deck:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198083
I like to try and define JJ as early as possible with 150+ bb's so i don't go broke on a rag board. When he check raises the turn i knew KK or QQ was a very good shout but i was committed and he could have had AA or maybe AK although unlikely and as it turned out untrue.
Gonna play a few tournies tonight and try and get a big cash, feel like my tourney game is still very strong and just hope i can get that bit of luck you need for the big pay day, grinding the low/medium limits is no fun at all!
Bankroll: $4,600.
Sunday 17 June 2007
woops!
Just had one of my classic cash game sessions where things start bad, get worse and really go off the rails towards the end. I played bad, ran bad and lost about $400 in an hour. The one positive thing was i got the hell out of the 4 tables when i knew that i was on major tilt cause think i could have lost a lot more like in the past. btw my 1 hour 'steam game' record is $1200 which was at $1/2, that was a lot of fun!!
So instead of just tilting off my rubbish little bankroll i decided to call it a night and blog the damage, start with this classic which you could take right out of the meat of supersystem:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183992
I think i play the hand the same way 90% of the time cause i give myself a chance to win the pot 2 ways. He insta called the last $52 so i think the fact i started the hand with 80bb's and not 100 is not that important cause my opponent clearly thinks top pair 3rd kicker is the nuts!!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183999
This last hand could have been a lot worse and i lost the minimum, saved by the shortstack and the paired board. As you can see from my chat though i put my opponent on a 10 and not AA.
Poker players worst nightmare for cash games and deepstacks:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1184000
I fucking knew it as well but at its a sick spot and i can't be to upset.
At first glance this 1 may look like another cold deck:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1184002
It wasn't a cold deck it was just tilty shit from me as ever! He played the hand so bad that i knew he had Q 10 it was soooooooooooo obvious and i can't believe i made this call really pissed me off and i think it may have started the tilt.
Least i got 1 nice one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183995, shipp itt!!
So a bad bad night on the tables and the last thing i want to do at the minute is play more, got a cash in the 300K gtd but was average stack with 200 left and ended up in 170th thanks to losing two all in pre showdowns with J 6 v A 9 and 5 4 v QQ, what a cooler, lol.
Ant is playing an stt satt for the EPT, live in London tomo night and he gets to take 3 people along for support, hotel, booze and food thrown in for free which sounds nice. Going with Ant's bird hatts and greg which should be a laugh. Really hoping Ant can be the first Reading uni man to play in a major tv event and i think he has a pretty good chance as long as he can stick to what he is good at, winning coin flops! He is the best i have ever seen at this and i figure as long as he gets it all in pre and doesn't see a flop he should be ok. That's a bit harsh but yousefian is the only good palyer i know who can make rookie mistakes now and again.
Gonna get some sleep, may watch some more 2007 heads up championship on pokertube, the show is ok but the structure is kinda shit and you see very few hands, the commentary sucks and the blinds are 200/400 on 1 table and the next thing you know its 800/1600 on another so the editing is bad, apart from that its ok, bring on high stakes season 4!
Bankroll:$4,440
So instead of just tilting off my rubbish little bankroll i decided to call it a night and blog the damage, start with this classic which you could take right out of the meat of supersystem:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183992
I think i play the hand the same way 90% of the time cause i give myself a chance to win the pot 2 ways. He insta called the last $52 so i think the fact i started the hand with 80bb's and not 100 is not that important cause my opponent clearly thinks top pair 3rd kicker is the nuts!!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183999
This last hand could have been a lot worse and i lost the minimum, saved by the shortstack and the paired board. As you can see from my chat though i put my opponent on a 10 and not AA.
Poker players worst nightmare for cash games and deepstacks:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1184000
I fucking knew it as well but at its a sick spot and i can't be to upset.
At first glance this 1 may look like another cold deck:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1184002
It wasn't a cold deck it was just tilty shit from me as ever! He played the hand so bad that i knew he had Q 10 it was soooooooooooo obvious and i can't believe i made this call really pissed me off and i think it may have started the tilt.
Least i got 1 nice one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1183995, shipp itt!!
So a bad bad night on the tables and the last thing i want to do at the minute is play more, got a cash in the 300K gtd but was average stack with 200 left and ended up in 170th thanks to losing two all in pre showdowns with J 6 v A 9 and 5 4 v QQ, what a cooler, lol.
Ant is playing an stt satt for the EPT, live in London tomo night and he gets to take 3 people along for support, hotel, booze and food thrown in for free which sounds nice. Going with Ant's bird hatts and greg which should be a laugh. Really hoping Ant can be the first Reading uni man to play in a major tv event and i think he has a pretty good chance as long as he can stick to what he is good at, winning coin flops! He is the best i have ever seen at this and i figure as long as he gets it all in pre and doesn't see a flop he should be ok. That's a bit harsh but yousefian is the only good palyer i know who can make rookie mistakes now and again.
Gonna get some sleep, may watch some more 2007 heads up championship on pokertube, the show is ok but the structure is kinda shit and you see very few hands, the commentary sucks and the blinds are 200/400 on 1 table and the next thing you know its 800/1600 on another so the editing is bad, apart from that its ok, bring on high stakes season 4!
Bankroll:$4,440
Saturday 16 June 2007
great day at $0.5/1
Its just gone 9.30pm and i'm having a great day playing 4 tables of $0.5/1. So far i've played for about 5 hours, broken down into 3 sessions of just over an hour and a half each. I think the Newquay tripped has helped, although my body is still recovering, i feel mentally very fresh and am enjoying playing whilst maintaining my focus very well. As well as this i'm simply running great, making lots of sets at the right time as well as making some good calls, the best part however is that i've been folding a lot of marginal spots on the river. I read an article recently by phil laak who said, "when your facing a bet on the river and you don't know where your at, 80% of the time your beat". I agree with this 100% and although i'm sure i've been bluffed today i know that in the long run folding these types of spots is major +ev at all levels of the game.
Lots of hands to go through. Start with this classic:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180565
I had just sat down at the table and this point and was loving it!! I knew i could be beat but i'm never folding cause most of the time my opponents would have the hands they did. This hand is also a great lesson to all new players, BET THOSE SETS!! By betting i give both very little chance of folding, i feel sorry with for the guy with AA cause that's a tough spot but if i check raise 3 bet then a good player may fold the aces, thankfully i'm not a retard.
This hand is funny:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180567
Yes the guy puts his last $40 in on a paired board with a gutshot!! ty donkey.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180570
This last 1 was a very good call by me, that sounds quite arrogant but the ace of clubs could well have been the worse card in the deck for my hand. At the time i actually said out loud, 'i don't believe you'; he had would i put him on, on the flop. Would have saved myself a tough call though if i had re-raised pre!!
This hand was very nice indeed, not much to say cause its just a basic cold deck, BET THOSE FLUSH DRAWS:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180572
The next hand is a little sick cause i hit the turn and he can't really fold when he makes 2 pair:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180574
One thing i will say is that maybe he could bet the flop (i fold). Or check raise the flop (i fold). The check call is a pretty lame play and i feel that even if my opponent had missed the river he would still have to probs call with the odds.
Next hand is your classic party poker donkey!:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180578
He calls 3 more oop pre with K 4! As far as the rest of the hand goes he's a little unlucky to smash the turn. I like my raise on the river a lot of muppets would be happy to flat call and take the pot thinking they had the beat hand: hence why blocker bets are very good idea. However i can smell a blocker bet when its soooooo obvious and i wanted his last $35.
The next hand is a great flop for me obviously and i bet it strong:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180582
I 3 bet pre to try and define my hand. We both have over 160 bb's and there is no way i'm going broke on a rag board, the flat call was nice by him cause i'm gonna fold to a 4 bet but i'm still sure i'm behind to an overpair, he may have AK. When the flop hits i'm thinking about his range: QQ, KK, AA and AK. 10 10 is an option but never crossed my mind. I thought about the check raise but with $130ish back he would bet around 40-50 with all of those hands and would fold QQ for the rest and maybe AA and AK if he was good. By betting i'm trying to get him to shove or call the push, which he did on the turn. By playing like AK i don't blame him for calling off 2 bets: shippppp it!!.
This was a pretty bad play by me:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180588
I had his exact hand by the river and technically its a tough call on that board, in reality i've played the hand so weak that its a pretty ABC call cause how can i have a K? Also he made such a weak bet on the flop surely with an ace i re-raise here; this is what i should have done.
Great flop for the small blind, even better flop for me in the big blind:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180590
He was drawing dead on the flop and i'm a little surprised he doubles my $98 with no kicker, i probs play the hand the same as him with 1 small change, fold the turn and save myself $80, quite a big change then.
Another donkey:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180592
He puts his last $55 in on a paired board on the turn with a 7 high flush draw, thank you x
Last hand bit of a cold deck:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180595
I think his range is quite high on that board so i don't mind the hand, well played by betting the flop.
Overall i'm up $900 on the day which is very nice. Shame i played the super Friday and $20k gtd after my last blog which cost me $314 combined. Maybe seeing the role below $4K gave me some motivation. I'll probs play the $20K gtd at 12 tonight on party hope the great day on the cash tables can move into the tournament arena.
Bankroll:$4,775
Lots of hands to go through. Start with this classic:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180565
I had just sat down at the table and this point and was loving it!! I knew i could be beat but i'm never folding cause most of the time my opponents would have the hands they did. This hand is also a great lesson to all new players, BET THOSE SETS!! By betting i give both very little chance of folding, i feel sorry with for the guy with AA cause that's a tough spot but if i check raise 3 bet then a good player may fold the aces, thankfully i'm not a retard.
This hand is funny:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180567
Yes the guy puts his last $40 in on a paired board with a gutshot!! ty donkey.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180570
This last 1 was a very good call by me, that sounds quite arrogant but the ace of clubs could well have been the worse card in the deck for my hand. At the time i actually said out loud, 'i don't believe you'; he had would i put him on, on the flop. Would have saved myself a tough call though if i had re-raised pre!!
This hand was very nice indeed, not much to say cause its just a basic cold deck, BET THOSE FLUSH DRAWS:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180572
The next hand is a little sick cause i hit the turn and he can't really fold when he makes 2 pair:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180574
One thing i will say is that maybe he could bet the flop (i fold). Or check raise the flop (i fold). The check call is a pretty lame play and i feel that even if my opponent had missed the river he would still have to probs call with the odds.
Next hand is your classic party poker donkey!:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180578
He calls 3 more oop pre with K 4! As far as the rest of the hand goes he's a little unlucky to smash the turn. I like my raise on the river a lot of muppets would be happy to flat call and take the pot thinking they had the beat hand: hence why blocker bets are very good idea. However i can smell a blocker bet when its soooooo obvious and i wanted his last $35.
The next hand is a great flop for me obviously and i bet it strong:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180582
I 3 bet pre to try and define my hand. We both have over 160 bb's and there is no way i'm going broke on a rag board, the flat call was nice by him cause i'm gonna fold to a 4 bet but i'm still sure i'm behind to an overpair, he may have AK. When the flop hits i'm thinking about his range: QQ, KK, AA and AK. 10 10 is an option but never crossed my mind. I thought about the check raise but with $130ish back he would bet around 40-50 with all of those hands and would fold QQ for the rest and maybe AA and AK if he was good. By betting i'm trying to get him to shove or call the push, which he did on the turn. By playing like AK i don't blame him for calling off 2 bets: shippppp it!!.
This was a pretty bad play by me:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180588
I had his exact hand by the river and technically its a tough call on that board, in reality i've played the hand so weak that its a pretty ABC call cause how can i have a K? Also he made such a weak bet on the flop surely with an ace i re-raise here; this is what i should have done.
Great flop for the small blind, even better flop for me in the big blind:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180590
He was drawing dead on the flop and i'm a little surprised he doubles my $98 with no kicker, i probs play the hand the same as him with 1 small change, fold the turn and save myself $80, quite a big change then.
Another donkey:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180592
He puts his last $55 in on a paired board on the turn with a 7 high flush draw, thank you x
Last hand bit of a cold deck:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1180595
I think his range is quite high on that board so i don't mind the hand, well played by betting the flop.
Overall i'm up $900 on the day which is very nice. Shame i played the super Friday and $20k gtd after my last blog which cost me $314 combined. Maybe seeing the role below $4K gave me some motivation. I'll probs play the $20K gtd at 12 tonight on party hope the great day on the cash tables can move into the tournament arena.
Bankroll:$4,775
Friday 15 June 2007
Oxford to Newquay
The last 5 days have been fantastic and have literally flown by. When you consider that I've spent all my time playing poker, drinking and prating about on the beach its easy to see why its been so good.
Oxford was a lot of fun and very interesting as far as poker goes. On arrival i quickly ran into flash, JD and Tomo who all looked as tired as i did; i was also informed that my hero and teacher Jambon would not be present and a tear was shed. In my last post i said that i didn't want a table full of nits during the rebuy and thankfully a 3 way all in on the first hand dispelled this concern. The rebuy went well for me and i managed to end up on 9.7K thanks to very little skill and some serious luck (its hard to fold 10 3 off when your almost getting 2 to 1). As far as opponnents go i had the usual mix of muff stations and fellow enthusiasts with the odd player that actually knew what he was doing thrown in. The bad news was the chap 2 to my left looked familiar for the wrong reasons but i've never been scared of good players and i was really looking forward to starting the 'real' poker.
Unfortunately this excitement turned to bordem over the next 2 hours as i was dealt utter crap. In general the table was very slow and the only thing keeping me interested was dealing the table and watching my opponents. I managed to succeed in stealing a few small pots but regrettably the only big hand i played in this session saw me lose nearly 3000 chips.
At the end of the 100/200 level i was dealt QQ in early and made it 550 total. The CO calls and we go heads up to the flop (he has been playing to many hands pre and seemed to be quite weak so i'm a happy bunny). We see a 9 8 3 board and before i get a chance to act he insta checks!? After the table quickly explains that its me to act first for some reason i check in front and we see a blank 2 on the turn. Once again he checks!! FFS! What the hell is wrong with this kid the rules are pretty simple and he's playing a £20 rebuy not a £2 freezeout!! I can't get over how excited he looked to be checking out of position at the speed of light but i go ahead and bet 800 in an attempt to make some sense of this situation (also to try and win some chips), did u guess it? of course he announces raise!! i mean come on wtf? he's insta checked out of position twice and now he's putting my 800 and 1300 more into the middle. Of course i give him my confused do you know who i am look and the rest of the table is in a similar sense of confusion. At this point i have no idea at all if i'm miles ahead or miles behind so i do what most players do in this spot, give it some big talk and call. I eventually get my chance to act first on the river and make a pretty standard check when a 7 hits. He moves in for 4100ish and after a lot of time i muck. Thankfully for me he was out 10 minutes later and he was kind enough to tell me he had 99 for top set, sir you are my hero.
By the break i was down to 7000 with blinds going to 250/500, oh dear. I was lucky enough however to get into the mind of a poker genius at this point and go over to the cash game to watch Mr James Saunders get it all in pre playing 10p/20p for 250 big blinds with 8 7 sooooooooooooooooooted; how the other guy called with AK off i will never know.
Back to the tourney and soon after the break i was informed the table was being broken (bit disappointed i hadn't got a chance to push with filth and get my outdraw double up) but i would have to wait for another spot. The next table was one of the best and funniest i have ever had the pleasure of playing on. Two to my right was Mr Scott O'Riley (poker pro and 54th in the 2006 wsop main event), to my immediate right Mr David Lu (2 time wpt player and warwick poker soc pres 2005/06), finally two to my left Mr Thomas Grundy (1 EPT cash and warwick poker soc pres 2006/2007). Lucky for me the rest of the table wasn't quite as stong, the two guys on Scott's right were both very odd looking and the classic thing was they looked exactly the same. The 'chuckle brothers' were getting a lot of banter from our side of the table and they certainly took my mind off my dwindling stack.
Lucky for me the table change brought a change in luck and i pushed twice with QQ and 10 10 to pick up some much needed chips. I also stole a few blinds with weak hands and got the better of Dave and the rude chap on my left to take down some small but crucial pots. It was at this point that Dave played a very interesting hand with chuckle brother #1 (emo chuckle or ec for short). Ec limped in middle with the blinds at 350/700 and Dave completed from the sb i check and we see a 8 7 x board, Dave checks i miss check and ec checks as well. When the ace hits the turn and Dave checks i think about a stab but feel that could of hit the limper and check as well, to my surprise the limper makes a weak check and a 9 hits the river. Once again we check over to our funny looking friend who looks to be making some kind of value bet/bluff of 1200. Mr Lu then moves in for what i think was around 7K total!! At this point i automatically think BLUFF, Dave knows the kid is weak and is trying to make him fold, also if he had a bare 9 then he would just flat call. After 3-4 mins Ec calls (with a 10/9 - k/9) and dave flips 10 6 for the straight, vwp indeed sir.
After a re-steal all in on Scott with blinds at 500/1000 (had to get that in) i hit my peak chip stack of 17,200. After another break we're down to 42 and blinds of 700/1500. I had 17K still and felt like i was playing well and still having a lot of fun with Dave, flash and Scott (the paedophile banter was classic!). Que the nightmare: blinds 700/1500 and ec makes it 8000 in early, he quickly explains that he didn't mean to bet that much and was trying to bet 4, what a moron!! Stinking of weakness ec has left himself 10K back when Scott moves in for 25K ish on the Co. I look down at 99 from the sb and do not like it 1 bit. I'm 100% sure i have ec beat but i know he's not folding and i know that Scott knows that and has a hand. My problem was that with that muck weakness shown i know Scott is gonna move in with AK and AQ and even maybe AJ, i knew that i could be a 4/1 dog but could he have 88 or 77 here? with 11.5 bb i move in ec hates it but calls off with J 10 off and Scott flips KK arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!
The worst part is the moron makes quads on the turn when a third jack hits to bust me and leave Scott crippled.
Overall i'm very disappointed with the call but i went with my gut at the time and don't regret that part of the hand. I played a good tourney with very little help from the deck but i'll put my hand up and say i dropped the ball on that 1. Well done to Flash for taking the tourney down he was short for most of the day but stayed focused and must have played well to win.
I then played some cash that i'll blog later cause had 2 interesting hands; 1 in 10p/20p nl holdem and the other playing 25p/50p OHL (big mistake by me).
On another note Newquay was awesome!!!!!!!!! The beach in the day was a good laugh and 4 heavy nights in a row were a good way to say goodbye to Reading Uni (a degree would be a better way lol). I'm gonna play some serious poker over the next 3 nights and hope to get a big result cause i need it sooooooooo bad.
Bankroll:$4,100
Oxford was a lot of fun and very interesting as far as poker goes. On arrival i quickly ran into flash, JD and Tomo who all looked as tired as i did; i was also informed that my hero and teacher Jambon would not be present and a tear was shed. In my last post i said that i didn't want a table full of nits during the rebuy and thankfully a 3 way all in on the first hand dispelled this concern. The rebuy went well for me and i managed to end up on 9.7K thanks to very little skill and some serious luck (its hard to fold 10 3 off when your almost getting 2 to 1). As far as opponnents go i had the usual mix of muff stations and fellow enthusiasts with the odd player that actually knew what he was doing thrown in. The bad news was the chap 2 to my left looked familiar for the wrong reasons but i've never been scared of good players and i was really looking forward to starting the 'real' poker.
Unfortunately this excitement turned to bordem over the next 2 hours as i was dealt utter crap. In general the table was very slow and the only thing keeping me interested was dealing the table and watching my opponents. I managed to succeed in stealing a few small pots but regrettably the only big hand i played in this session saw me lose nearly 3000 chips.
At the end of the 100/200 level i was dealt QQ in early and made it 550 total. The CO calls and we go heads up to the flop (he has been playing to many hands pre and seemed to be quite weak so i'm a happy bunny). We see a 9 8 3 board and before i get a chance to act he insta checks!? After the table quickly explains that its me to act first for some reason i check in front and we see a blank 2 on the turn. Once again he checks!! FFS! What the hell is wrong with this kid the rules are pretty simple and he's playing a £20 rebuy not a £2 freezeout!! I can't get over how excited he looked to be checking out of position at the speed of light but i go ahead and bet 800 in an attempt to make some sense of this situation (also to try and win some chips), did u guess it? of course he announces raise!! i mean come on wtf? he's insta checked out of position twice and now he's putting my 800 and 1300 more into the middle. Of course i give him my confused do you know who i am look and the rest of the table is in a similar sense of confusion. At this point i have no idea at all if i'm miles ahead or miles behind so i do what most players do in this spot, give it some big talk and call. I eventually get my chance to act first on the river and make a pretty standard check when a 7 hits. He moves in for 4100ish and after a lot of time i muck. Thankfully for me he was out 10 minutes later and he was kind enough to tell me he had 99 for top set, sir you are my hero.
By the break i was down to 7000 with blinds going to 250/500, oh dear. I was lucky enough however to get into the mind of a poker genius at this point and go over to the cash game to watch Mr James Saunders get it all in pre playing 10p/20p for 250 big blinds with 8 7 sooooooooooooooooooted; how the other guy called with AK off i will never know.
Back to the tourney and soon after the break i was informed the table was being broken (bit disappointed i hadn't got a chance to push with filth and get my outdraw double up) but i would have to wait for another spot. The next table was one of the best and funniest i have ever had the pleasure of playing on. Two to my right was Mr Scott O'Riley (poker pro and 54th in the 2006 wsop main event), to my immediate right Mr David Lu (2 time wpt player and warwick poker soc pres 2005/06), finally two to my left Mr Thomas Grundy (1 EPT cash and warwick poker soc pres 2006/2007). Lucky for me the rest of the table wasn't quite as stong, the two guys on Scott's right were both very odd looking and the classic thing was they looked exactly the same. The 'chuckle brothers' were getting a lot of banter from our side of the table and they certainly took my mind off my dwindling stack.
Lucky for me the table change brought a change in luck and i pushed twice with QQ and 10 10 to pick up some much needed chips. I also stole a few blinds with weak hands and got the better of Dave and the rude chap on my left to take down some small but crucial pots. It was at this point that Dave played a very interesting hand with chuckle brother #1 (emo chuckle or ec for short). Ec limped in middle with the blinds at 350/700 and Dave completed from the sb i check and we see a 8 7 x board, Dave checks i miss check and ec checks as well. When the ace hits the turn and Dave checks i think about a stab but feel that could of hit the limper and check as well, to my surprise the limper makes a weak check and a 9 hits the river. Once again we check over to our funny looking friend who looks to be making some kind of value bet/bluff of 1200. Mr Lu then moves in for what i think was around 7K total!! At this point i automatically think BLUFF, Dave knows the kid is weak and is trying to make him fold, also if he had a bare 9 then he would just flat call. After 3-4 mins Ec calls (with a 10/9 - k/9) and dave flips 10 6 for the straight, vwp indeed sir.
After a re-steal all in on Scott with blinds at 500/1000 (had to get that in) i hit my peak chip stack of 17,200. After another break we're down to 42 and blinds of 700/1500. I had 17K still and felt like i was playing well and still having a lot of fun with Dave, flash and Scott (the paedophile banter was classic!). Que the nightmare: blinds 700/1500 and ec makes it 8000 in early, he quickly explains that he didn't mean to bet that much and was trying to bet 4, what a moron!! Stinking of weakness ec has left himself 10K back when Scott moves in for 25K ish on the Co. I look down at 99 from the sb and do not like it 1 bit. I'm 100% sure i have ec beat but i know he's not folding and i know that Scott knows that and has a hand. My problem was that with that muck weakness shown i know Scott is gonna move in with AK and AQ and even maybe AJ, i knew that i could be a 4/1 dog but could he have 88 or 77 here? with 11.5 bb i move in ec hates it but calls off with J 10 off and Scott flips KK arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!
The worst part is the moron makes quads on the turn when a third jack hits to bust me and leave Scott crippled.
Overall i'm very disappointed with the call but i went with my gut at the time and don't regret that part of the hand. I played a good tourney with very little help from the deck but i'll put my hand up and say i dropped the ball on that 1. Well done to Flash for taking the tourney down he was short for most of the day but stayed focused and must have played well to win.
I then played some cash that i'll blog later cause had 2 interesting hands; 1 in 10p/20p nl holdem and the other playing 25p/50p OHL (big mistake by me).
On another note Newquay was awesome!!!!!!!!! The beach in the day was a good laugh and 4 heavy nights in a row were a good way to say goodbye to Reading Uni (a degree would be a better way lol). I'm gonna play some serious poker over the next 3 nights and hope to get a big result cause i need it sooooooooo bad.
Bankroll:$4,100
Saturday 9 June 2007
the joys of technolgy
Anyone who knows me will know that i'm a total retard with all modern technology, from computers to microwaves and even anything that needs batteries. Despite this i've found a way to post hand links at last so i'm very happy with this development.
These are all from $0.5/1 and some will make you think that it may actually be impossible to lose at this level as long as you avoid tilt and maintain 35 buy ins, two things i seem to struggle with especially when running bad.
This first one is a great example of the kind of spots that i've been getting my money in with over the last few weeks:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1161158
Was so good to finally win one of these. My opponent overvalues his hand and is lucky to find that he is a slight dog and not in the shit.
Another donkey opponent here, actually much more so. He had been playing like a dick since he sat down and i like the fact that i recognised this and pushed back on the flop instead of trying to slow play and then have to slow down and maybe even fold when the river hits:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1161157
In retrospect i think i played the next hand kinda sucky and any advice would be great:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1161155
Looking at tingles hand we could have got it all in on the flop but there is no way of me to know how hard he hit the flop. I would bet this flop 90% of the time against 2 opponents but i really wanted to get paid off by letting them catch up. The 1 thing i did like however was my flat call on the turn, i recognised that there was a good chance tingles had a draw and was actually yelling heart at the board. When it hit i knew i could make a fairly big raise cause i was sure that the way i played the hand it would be very hard to lay down a flush in his spot.
Last 1 is why i love poker, maybe Ant has been right all this time and pocket 2's are actually the best starting hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1161185
Still managed to lose $200 to day overall. Played a lot of STT's and they went bad. Big mistake playing a couple of $100+9 games cause it was a stupid gamble and its no fun when it hurts getting busted. Had AQ V KQ in one of these all in on a Queen high board with 5 people left and when the king hit the turn i reacted in a way that was not pretty, least it shows i care i guess.
Off topic its coming up to 6.30am and we leave for Oxford (me, Kieran and Nathan) at 8am. I haven't gone to sleep yet properly but i got 5 hours from 8pm to 1am. This isn't healthy obviously and on a poker front its gonna be a pretty tough field and being fucked on red bull and coffee is not gonna help. The plan is pretty simple with regards to the tourney; we get 2K for each £20 and the blinds start at 25/50 and go up every 30 mins. After the rebuy the blinds will be 100/200 i guess so by this point i want 10K, i'm prepared to gamble for this and being on a table with people that are willing to rebuy will help a lot. Worst case scenario i take the add-on and have a minimum of 4,000 chips so i have a shot whatever happens in the first hour. Overall i know even on a bad day i'm easily in the top 10% of the field and i certainly have the game to go very deep. This will be the biggest live tourney i have ever played as far as numbers go and no offence to Kieran and Nathan but i think they will be out of their depth, hence why i'm gonna try and swap 5-20% of myself with jambon and a few of his mates from warwick who all seem to be very solid players, That way i'm still involved when i bust first hand after the rebuy lol, hope the side games are juicy...........
Bankroll:$4,100 (this trend will end soon i hope)
These are all from $0.5/1 and some will make you think that it may actually be impossible to lose at this level as long as you avoid tilt and maintain 35 buy ins, two things i seem to struggle with especially when running bad.
This first one is a great example of the kind of spots that i've been getting my money in with over the last few weeks:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1161158
Was so good to finally win one of these. My opponent overvalues his hand and is lucky to find that he is a slight dog and not in the shit.
Another donkey opponent here, actually much more so. He had been playing like a dick since he sat down and i like the fact that i recognised this and pushed back on the flop instead of trying to slow play and then have to slow down and maybe even fold when the river hits:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1161157
In retrospect i think i played the next hand kinda sucky and any advice would be great:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1161155
Looking at tingles hand we could have got it all in on the flop but there is no way of me to know how hard he hit the flop. I would bet this flop 90% of the time against 2 opponents but i really wanted to get paid off by letting them catch up. The 1 thing i did like however was my flat call on the turn, i recognised that there was a good chance tingles had a draw and was actually yelling heart at the board. When it hit i knew i could make a fairly big raise cause i was sure that the way i played the hand it would be very hard to lay down a flush in his spot.
Last 1 is why i love poker, maybe Ant has been right all this time and pocket 2's are actually the best starting hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1161185
Still managed to lose $200 to day overall. Played a lot of STT's and they went bad. Big mistake playing a couple of $100+9 games cause it was a stupid gamble and its no fun when it hurts getting busted. Had AQ V KQ in one of these all in on a Queen high board with 5 people left and when the king hit the turn i reacted in a way that was not pretty, least it shows i care i guess.
Off topic its coming up to 6.30am and we leave for Oxford (me, Kieran and Nathan) at 8am. I haven't gone to sleep yet properly but i got 5 hours from 8pm to 1am. This isn't healthy obviously and on a poker front its gonna be a pretty tough field and being fucked on red bull and coffee is not gonna help. The plan is pretty simple with regards to the tourney; we get 2K for each £20 and the blinds start at 25/50 and go up every 30 mins. After the rebuy the blinds will be 100/200 i guess so by this point i want 10K, i'm prepared to gamble for this and being on a table with people that are willing to rebuy will help a lot. Worst case scenario i take the add-on and have a minimum of 4,000 chips so i have a shot whatever happens in the first hour. Overall i know even on a bad day i'm easily in the top 10% of the field and i certainly have the game to go very deep. This will be the biggest live tourney i have ever played as far as numbers go and no offence to Kieran and Nathan but i think they will be out of their depth, hence why i'm gonna try and swap 5-20% of myself with jambon and a few of his mates from warwick who all seem to be very solid players, That way i'm still involved when i bust first hand after the rebuy lol, hope the side games are juicy...........
Bankroll:$4,100 (this trend will end soon i hope)
Friday 8 June 2007
so close
Today was a day of near misses. I played three tournies and went deep in two of them, i also swapped 15% with cashpoint in two of them and he went deep in both as well. The bad news is neither of us made a final table, the good news is that i played well and feel that i'm ready to once again make some much needed money.
First up was the Friday special $215 buy in tourney, as usual there were about 200 runners. I got off to a great start when the table lunatic doubled me up with AA on a 7 6 3 rainbow, he had 9 6 and had made it 210 to play UTG . After i made it 710 from the sb and he called all i had to do was check the flop and let him commit himself, easy. From the 3k starting stack i was soon up to 11 when my kings busted 5's all in pre. One thing that i did enjoy about the tourney was that i was on table 1 and never moved, this allowed me to analyse my opponents but despite this advantage i seemed to be losing pretty much every hand when i saw the flop. In the next 2 hours i was dealt AK soooooted 4 times and despite playing the hand in pretty much every possible way i lost all 4, i even limped with it, flopped the nut flush draw and had to fold it on a paired flop. I was also getting outplayed in a lot of pots by players hellpower1 and cosmictrigger, by the look of their results i'm not sure how. I ended up bubbling in 21st when i ran AK into KK but i only had 14 big blinds at this point so this was inevitable. Cashy did slightly better ending up in 15th but he lost 2 big races that cost him a big pay day. Having said that cashy certainly had his fair share of luck to get that far. with blinds at 150/300 he turned a stack of 2.2K into 17K in 10 minuets: 77 v AQ, QQ on a jack high board against the nut flush draw and AA against 10 10 all in pre, button V small blind. For a man who claims to be the unluckiest player ever thats a nice 10 minuets lol.
In the 18K gtd $55 tourney i got out the blocks quick again when i went for a gamble early with 9 8 soooooted on a 6 7 8 board playing against JJ. With a larger field (approx 460) i decided to gamble more and built a big stack thanks to winning around 5 out of the 7 races i played in the middle stages. My momentum was shot however when i lost a 20K pot at 400/800 with 88 V AJ. I still had 30K but it knocked me a bit and by the time the blinds got to 800/1600 i was down to about 12 big blinds. I ended up pushing with filth and getting caught for a frustrating finish of 27th.
I think by this stage i was getting bored and playing the 20K gtd was a big mistake cause i lasted around 15 minuets and played like a total prick. I then watched 2 episodes of entourage (possibly the best show on tv at the moment) and came back to see cashy (and my 15%) still in. He ended up 26th with 30 getting paid but the way he went out sums up why i love the site soooooo much. With blinds at 600/1200 and a 50 ante it gets folded round to cash in the sb with J 10 of diamonds, he has about 26K before the hand and the bb has about 40. So he raises to 3,300 and the bb flat calls and they take a flop: 9 7 4 with 2 diamonds. Cashy checks and the guy fires 6K. Cash point then moves in for about 17K more and the guy insta calls with 4 2 off!! despite us both yelling for an 8, J, 10 or a diamond (to many outs) he misses and the moron picks up the pot. For me this just sums up your classic donkey, i have no idea how he was still in the tourney but good luck to the guy cause i tell you from the looks of this hand he is gonna need it.
I've just finished a quick sesh at 0.5/1 and i just about got my buy ins back from the tournies tonight so i'll probs play a few more tomo. I'm in a really bad sleeping pattern and plan to stay up all night, get an early one on saturday and wake up nice an early for the Oxford cup cause i hope its gonna be a long day, hope i have a lot to write about on monday morning before Newquay.
Bankroll:$4,350
First up was the Friday special $215 buy in tourney, as usual there were about 200 runners. I got off to a great start when the table lunatic doubled me up with AA on a 7 6 3 rainbow, he had 9 6 and had made it 210 to play UTG . After i made it 710 from the sb and he called all i had to do was check the flop and let him commit himself, easy. From the 3k starting stack i was soon up to 11 when my kings busted 5's all in pre. One thing that i did enjoy about the tourney was that i was on table 1 and never moved, this allowed me to analyse my opponents but despite this advantage i seemed to be losing pretty much every hand when i saw the flop. In the next 2 hours i was dealt AK soooooted 4 times and despite playing the hand in pretty much every possible way i lost all 4, i even limped with it, flopped the nut flush draw and had to fold it on a paired flop. I was also getting outplayed in a lot of pots by players hellpower1 and cosmictrigger, by the look of their results i'm not sure how. I ended up bubbling in 21st when i ran AK into KK but i only had 14 big blinds at this point so this was inevitable. Cashy did slightly better ending up in 15th but he lost 2 big races that cost him a big pay day. Having said that cashy certainly had his fair share of luck to get that far. with blinds at 150/300 he turned a stack of 2.2K into 17K in 10 minuets: 77 v AQ, QQ on a jack high board against the nut flush draw and AA against 10 10 all in pre, button V small blind. For a man who claims to be the unluckiest player ever thats a nice 10 minuets lol.
In the 18K gtd $55 tourney i got out the blocks quick again when i went for a gamble early with 9 8 soooooted on a 6 7 8 board playing against JJ. With a larger field (approx 460) i decided to gamble more and built a big stack thanks to winning around 5 out of the 7 races i played in the middle stages. My momentum was shot however when i lost a 20K pot at 400/800 with 88 V AJ. I still had 30K but it knocked me a bit and by the time the blinds got to 800/1600 i was down to about 12 big blinds. I ended up pushing with filth and getting caught for a frustrating finish of 27th.
I think by this stage i was getting bored and playing the 20K gtd was a big mistake cause i lasted around 15 minuets and played like a total prick. I then watched 2 episodes of entourage (possibly the best show on tv at the moment) and came back to see cashy (and my 15%) still in. He ended up 26th with 30 getting paid but the way he went out sums up why i love the site soooooo much. With blinds at 600/1200 and a 50 ante it gets folded round to cash in the sb with J 10 of diamonds, he has about 26K before the hand and the bb has about 40. So he raises to 3,300 and the bb flat calls and they take a flop: 9 7 4 with 2 diamonds. Cashy checks and the guy fires 6K. Cash point then moves in for about 17K more and the guy insta calls with 4 2 off!! despite us both yelling for an 8, J, 10 or a diamond (to many outs) he misses and the moron picks up the pot. For me this just sums up your classic donkey, i have no idea how he was still in the tourney but good luck to the guy cause i tell you from the looks of this hand he is gonna need it.
I've just finished a quick sesh at 0.5/1 and i just about got my buy ins back from the tournies tonight so i'll probs play a few more tomo. I'm in a really bad sleeping pattern and plan to stay up all night, get an early one on saturday and wake up nice an early for the Oxford cup cause i hope its gonna be a long day, hope i have a lot to write about on monday morning before Newquay.
Bankroll:$4,350
Thursday 7 June 2007
Running bad, playing bad.
I've hardly played at all over the last week and when i have played I've been losing. My bankroll is at its lowest point for 9 months and it couldn't really be happening at a worst time.
Personally i would say that my strongest suit as far as poker is concerned would be turbo STT's. A lot of people dismiss them as an all-in crapshoot with very little skill but in all honesty this couldn't be further from the truth. Although any old moron can win an online STT in the long run (over 100 Stt's) a player will only win if he has skill and a good understanding of the game. Unfortunatley i've failed to cash in my last 10 attempts playing $50+5 turbo stt's, i can't really recall making any massive errors but I've simply been running into a lot of hands and maybe i've been pushing to hard.
As far as cash is concerned its been the same old story, have 4-6 mini winning sessions and then tilt it all off in about an hour. Managed to lose $600 playing 4 tables of $0.5/1 in no time at all and the following 2 hands really sum up the title of this blog. Firstly I'm dealt Q 10 of clubs on the Co and make it $4 when its folded to me, the button folds and the sb makes it $12 (i have $120ish pre and he has me covered). When the bb folds i take a flop and hit it pretty hard: 3 8 J with 2 clubs. The sb bets $16 and its on me. what to do? any advive would be great. I ended up making it $42 and he moved in with KK. i had 2 call obviously and the blank blank saw him take it, boooooooooo. I think maybe i could have called on the flop but i wanted to give myself a chance of winning the pot 2 ways and i knew if we got it in then i have 2 shots at my 12 outs. The next hand was on another table but was pretty much the same kinda thing. I raise with 9 6 of spades get a small re-raise from the bb this time and once again we manage to get it all in on a 9 2 3 board with 2 spades. He has AA and once again i missed. I think the problem is that i'm simply playing to many hands, i like to play very fast but at 0.25/0.5 all the way through to 1/2 most players tend to re raise pre with big pairs and AK so a call with Q 10 is major -ev in the long run and this pot should only cost me $4 not $120. i don't mind losing these hands on the flop because i'm basically even money on them both but i'm simply overvaluing the implied odds with suited connectors because realistically your often gonna get it in with a pair and a draw and the overpair will usually call at these limits.
On a brighter note Anthony and i have found a place in Brixton to live next year. The rent is £115 a week each but the place is really sweet and i'm hoping the move will bring a change in my luck. I'm looking forward to playing live a lot more and will have to do some research on the various poker clubs that the capital has to offer. The place is also 10 mins by bus from the oval and the surrey fixture list looks pretty fun with a couple of games against Kent coming up that i'm really looking forward to watching in July.
Bankroll:$4,314
Personally i would say that my strongest suit as far as poker is concerned would be turbo STT's. A lot of people dismiss them as an all-in crapshoot with very little skill but in all honesty this couldn't be further from the truth. Although any old moron can win an online STT in the long run (over 100 Stt's) a player will only win if he has skill and a good understanding of the game. Unfortunatley i've failed to cash in my last 10 attempts playing $50+5 turbo stt's, i can't really recall making any massive errors but I've simply been running into a lot of hands and maybe i've been pushing to hard.
As far as cash is concerned its been the same old story, have 4-6 mini winning sessions and then tilt it all off in about an hour. Managed to lose $600 playing 4 tables of $0.5/1 in no time at all and the following 2 hands really sum up the title of this blog. Firstly I'm dealt Q 10 of clubs on the Co and make it $4 when its folded to me, the button folds and the sb makes it $12 (i have $120ish pre and he has me covered). When the bb folds i take a flop and hit it pretty hard: 3 8 J with 2 clubs. The sb bets $16 and its on me. what to do? any advive would be great. I ended up making it $42 and he moved in with KK. i had 2 call obviously and the blank blank saw him take it, boooooooooo. I think maybe i could have called on the flop but i wanted to give myself a chance of winning the pot 2 ways and i knew if we got it in then i have 2 shots at my 12 outs. The next hand was on another table but was pretty much the same kinda thing. I raise with 9 6 of spades get a small re-raise from the bb this time and once again we manage to get it all in on a 9 2 3 board with 2 spades. He has AA and once again i missed. I think the problem is that i'm simply playing to many hands, i like to play very fast but at 0.25/0.5 all the way through to 1/2 most players tend to re raise pre with big pairs and AK so a call with Q 10 is major -ev in the long run and this pot should only cost me $4 not $120. i don't mind losing these hands on the flop because i'm basically even money on them both but i'm simply overvaluing the implied odds with suited connectors because realistically your often gonna get it in with a pair and a draw and the overpair will usually call at these limits.
On a brighter note Anthony and i have found a place in Brixton to live next year. The rent is £115 a week each but the place is really sweet and i'm hoping the move will bring a change in my luck. I'm looking forward to playing live a lot more and will have to do some research on the various poker clubs that the capital has to offer. The place is also 10 mins by bus from the oval and the surrey fixture list looks pretty fun with a couple of games against Kent coming up that i'm really looking forward to watching in July.
Bankroll:$4,314
Sunday 3 June 2007
Hello World!!
I stumbled across this link when viewing my friend jambons blog and thought what the hey, if I'm gonna try and make it as pro poker player i might as well go the whole way and let everyone that is interested follow my progress.
As the title of my blog suggests i failed to graduate from my chosen University. Despite my academic failings over the last three years however i feel like Uni in general has been an overwhelming success. I've made a lot of great friends, drunk an obscene amount, convinced the odd girl to let me have a drunken fumble and most importantly found out what i want to do, play poker for a living. Over the last year I've spent around 25 hours per week playing online (mainly on party poker), in this time I've been experimenting with a number of games ranging from $10 STT'S to $530 MTT's with some $5/10 NLH thrown in. My game selection is based on my bankroll obviously but in some cases i have played over my head and as is usually the case in these situations it hasn't worked.
Although i have no official results for the last 12 months i have a fairly accurate idea of what i have made from poker: $30,000 net profit. My best moment was winning the Friday special $215 buy in tourney on pp for $10K. My results on party can all be found on: http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/ and as these results suggests I'm certainly one of the top 30 tournament players on the site.
Despite a positive year however the vast majority of my roll has been cashed out and spent on rent, booze and fucking takeaways. I've also been running bad over the last 2 months, not great news when I'm supposed to be turning pro officially on July 1st. For the next month i don't plan on playing much but i will post any decent wins and any tilty cash game sessions which in the end will almost certainly see me fail as a poker player. On a social side i'm off to Newquay on monday with 7 mates from Uni but next up is the Oxford cup next week which i'm really looking forward to. Unfortunatley its a £20 rebuy and I'm a total rebuy junkie!! I hope i can come 4th and make my money back lol.
Bankroll: $5,561 boooooooooooooo!!
As the title of my blog suggests i failed to graduate from my chosen University. Despite my academic failings over the last three years however i feel like Uni in general has been an overwhelming success. I've made a lot of great friends, drunk an obscene amount, convinced the odd girl to let me have a drunken fumble and most importantly found out what i want to do, play poker for a living. Over the last year I've spent around 25 hours per week playing online (mainly on party poker), in this time I've been experimenting with a number of games ranging from $10 STT'S to $530 MTT's with some $5/10 NLH thrown in. My game selection is based on my bankroll obviously but in some cases i have played over my head and as is usually the case in these situations it hasn't worked.
Although i have no official results for the last 12 months i have a fairly accurate idea of what i have made from poker: $30,000 net profit. My best moment was winning the Friday special $215 buy in tourney on pp for $10K. My results on party can all be found on: http://www.officialpokerrankings.com/ and as these results suggests I'm certainly one of the top 30 tournament players on the site.
Despite a positive year however the vast majority of my roll has been cashed out and spent on rent, booze and fucking takeaways. I've also been running bad over the last 2 months, not great news when I'm supposed to be turning pro officially on July 1st. For the next month i don't plan on playing much but i will post any decent wins and any tilty cash game sessions which in the end will almost certainly see me fail as a poker player. On a social side i'm off to Newquay on monday with 7 mates from Uni but next up is the Oxford cup next week which i'm really looking forward to. Unfortunatley its a £20 rebuy and I'm a total rebuy junkie!! I hope i can come 4th and make my money back lol.
Bankroll: $5,561 boooooooooooooo!!
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