First part done

The good news is that i have made day 2 in the WSOP main event, yipeee!!! Thought it might be a good idea to write up a quick update before day 2 just explaining a few hands.

I basically ran like shit for the first 3 levels, thankfully we started with 30,000 chips and the levels were 50/100, 100/200 and 150/300. If your going to run bad then this is obviously a good time to do it. The first decent sized pot was at 50/100 with AK off (as Cashy will tell anyone i do not play this hand well); i raised to 275 utg +1 and get 3 callers. Flop came A J 6 with 2 hearts, bb checks as do i and the dude in middle position, the button bets 600 which folds out the other two guys and i call. The turn is a 5 and i check call a bet of 1800. River is a 6 which does not complete the flush, i check call a bet 4000 and he shows 65, good start. I didn't love his bet on the river but i think having massively underrepresented my hand i couldn't really fold. I'm repping KK or QQ really well and would expect him to bet a lot of missed draws and bet worse aces on the river for value. I spent the rest of the first level folding, raised AQ, got 3 bet fairly big and mucked pre and gave up on Q3 of spades when i raised and got 3 callers then missed the flop. The table was fairly solid and noone was playing that badly, the young guy on my left ran super hot and seemed to play well. He was opening quite a few hands but instead of getting involved in a pointless lag war in the first level i hust folded the crap i was being dealt, ended the level with 24.5K stack thanks to winning a few small pots at the end.

The second level also failed to go as planned. I felt i had a fairly good feel for the table at this point so i played a few more hands but unfortunately my opponents were making a lot of hands against me and i was being shutdown fairly early. The biggest pot i played was with 75 of clubs when it got folded round to the cut off who raised to 600, i made it 1700 from the sb and he snap called. He seemed fairly nervous and not that great so at this point i was sure he had 99-JJ or AQ, maybe AJ suited at a push. so the flop came 442 and i bet 3000, he called without thinking and now i know he has a decent sized overpair and is calling quickly to actually avoid thinking about the hand. Turn was a 3 giving me a straight draw and i check folded when he bet 5K, at the time i was close to check shoving but i really felt like he would have cry called, somehow managed to convince myself that i have a huge edge in this tournament and shoving into an obvious overpair would be fairly retarded. I ended the level with 19.5K.

The third level saw me pick up some big hands, the bad news was the other players were picking up bigger ones. Twice i raised QQ, got called and check folded an A K x flop. I also raised AQ and folded to a 3-bet and JJ and folded to a 3-bet, both times i felt like they were super strong and both times i was shown KK. Obviously by this point i was steaming a little, nothing was going my way and i felt like a day 1 Knockout was almost inevitable, i then pick up the Ant Yousefian hand 22 and my spirits lift. UTG raises to 800 i call on the button as does the bb. The flop comes with 45Q 2 spades and we check through. The turn is the Q of spades and after the bb check the original raiser bet 1200. I felt he was super weak here and almost defiantly had a pair between 66-JJ or even ace high so i raise to 3600, he calls. The river was the 3 of spades and he checks fairly fast. I felt like i simply needed to win this hand and bet 7000, leaving myself with 7.5K if called. After a horrible 3 minutes he folded, thankfully i had my i've got the nuts face on. This was the only decent sized pot that i won in the first 3 levels and spent the next 30 mins losing a couple of thousand back, finished the level with 24K.

Shortly into the fourth and final level i was moved table and i caught the hot streak that i felt my patience deserved. I managed to win a few pots without showdown and then i raise to 825 UTG playing 150/300/25. The cut off called, as did the button and the bb. Flop hit KJ3 with 2 hearts and i c-bet 1725, the Co folded and the button called, bb folded. Turn was a blank 6 and i decided to barrel thinking that he would fold anything that wasn't a king or better and i bet 3775, he called and the river came another blank 7. I checked and after a while of thinking he checked back, he had Q9 of hearts and i won a big pot with ace high, putting me up over 35K. He was thinking of shoving the river for 11K and the honest truth is my instinct was to call and i tend to always go with my instinct. I didn't think he would bet one pair for value in that spot and thought he would raise 2 pair on the flop, really thought he had Q10 off or a worse flush draw. We will never know if i would have called but i'm 90% sure i would have done. Anyway shortly after this i busted the same gut with AQ v 1010 when i raised and after 1 guy called he re-shoved for 8K total, thought he could have a ton of hands in that spot and i was surprised he was that strong, anyway i won a flip for the first time at the 2009 WSOP. Next i called a bet from the sb with QQ after a guy in mp raised to 1200, (felt he was super strong pre). Flop came Q67 2 flush and he bet 2k after i checked, i then made it 6K and he shoved for 10K more, snapppppppppppppppp!! He showed AA and i won. After that was taking hands for fun, loads of people trying to make day 2 and no one else any good on my table so i ran things for the last half an hour, chipping up all over the place. I also got a bit of coverage from ESPN so would be good to make the tv coverage this year, one time. Ended the day with 71K and about 3 double vodka red bulls inside me. This Aussie on my table thought it would be a good idea to get on it and i wasn't in the mood to turn down $1 drinks. Roll on day 2.

Half empty of half full

There are two ways that i can look ay my current situation: 1) I havn't cashed in a single tourney, I'm spewing off way to much money on shit, I'm having a losing month. 2) I havn't played that many tournies, the main event is coming up, i still have positive expectation in any tourney or any cash game i'm rolled for.

As far as my life outlook goes i think it has to be the second option. I've been running bad in Vegas but i really havn't played that many hands yet and am still hoping that things can turn around in the upcoming weeks. I'm playing a $1500 on saturday and then anothr one on monday so they are my last chance for a decent score before the main event. In the last bracelet event i played things went a little better. I made the dinner break and managed to get up to 18K at one point from the 4.5K starting stacks. Things went badly from here however and i eventually got cold decked before running a shortstack shove into KK. I also played a $330 deepstack at the venetian yesterday and got a guy to stick 130 bb's in pre with AQ v's my AK, flop K 7 3, turn Q, river Q, horrible way to lose but life moves on.

Life in the house is still fun, my diet has been shocking so far on this trip but this was to be expected. Hope to eat better and exercise a bit more when in Australia. Started playing heads up online a bit more and am finding it quite exciting. Think playing every hand certainly suits my style but havn't run that well so breaking even at the moment.

Having Fun

So the bad news is that the last tournament went worst than the first one. I started out really well, playing fast and making a few hands early to get up to 7K from my 4.5K starting stack. From then on however everything went wrong. I ran AA into 86 on a 88x board and lost a bit then fired 3 barrels with J5 on a JJ104K board. Was called all the way down to be shown Q9, nice call on the turn sir!! Finally i ran KQ into AQ on a on a queen high flop before shoving a shortstack 56 into A9, oh well. The good news is that i'm happy with every decision that i have made so far in the two tournaments, sometimes it just isn't meant to be. I'm playing another $2K event tomorrow so hope that one goes well and i can have a deep run.

In other news everything in the house is fine. Just spending a lot of time chilling playing a massive pool tournament and drinking lots of beer. Played golf today and lost $300 on silly betting but still had fun. Didn't play great on the front nine but to my great suprise found some of my best form on the back to shoot 42 which was +7. I also hit 4 or 5 shots with my Sw that were fucking awesome so happy with that.

Ouch!!

Just busted out of my first event, the $2K NLH. Had a fairly tight table and not much happened in the first 2 levels until right at the end when i got in 2400 playing 50/100 against a shortstack with J10. He hit the flop and after that was down to 3.5K from my 6K starting stack. Thankfully i doubled soon after this when i slowplayed AA and then got it in v JJ on a 10 high flop. Chipped up after this hand to 10K before running QQ into a shortstacks KK.
My bustout hand was pretty sick. Playing 100/200/25 a bigstack who had been play quite loose but very badly opened UTG to 600. Three players called and when i looked down at KQ on the button decided it was a good spot to squeeze and made it 2600 total. UTG called and the rest folded, we saw a J108 board and he put me in for my last 5400. I called and he showed up for AQ which was one of the worst hands i could see and pretty terible play from him. Anyway i missed and he ships the 18K pot with ace high.
$1500 tomorrow so hope to go better in that one.

Greetings from Las Vegas

I'm very aroused!!! Landed here in Las Vegas yesterday and can't wait to get playing my first wsop event of 2009.

As usual the flight was shit. I'm not a great flyer at the best of times but being on my own and the bad turbulence made it a bit of a nightmare. I'm also a really moody flyer which makes it difficult to enjoy the entertainment. I watched Milk and Valkyrie which were both quite good but i'm sure i would have enjoyed them a lot more if the screen was bigger, sound was better and i wasn't constantly thinking about plunging to my death from 30 thousand feet.

Moving quickly on, the house is awesome. Five double rooms, A+ Pool table and a really nice swimming pool outside. The weather is ideal. It's hot but not as crazy as last year so i spent yesterday outside just lapping up the sun and trying my best to stay awake. I'm already -$60 on the pool table playing $20 a rack but hoping i can improve on my 2-5 record throughout the holiday.

One good thing that has come out of my current lifestyle is the ability to deal with jetlag. Despite only getting 3 hours sleep on the friday and not sleeping on the plane, i was able to stay up till 10pm saturday night, (which would be 6am UK time). I was then able to sleep 9 hours and get up at 7am this morning. My first event is tomorrow at noon so the plan is to stay up till midnight tonight, get another 9 hours and then get to work. I'll be writing tourney reports on my gutshot blog as well as on this one. The only difference is on this blog i will be writing tons of random crap as well. If you only really care about the poker side of things just click on the link from one of my previous posts and that will take you to my gutshot blog.

Before i go i just want to say that Newquay was epic!! Although we didn't see more than 5 hours of sun in 4 days the drinking and general banter was fantastic and the dressing up was hilarious. My body has just about got over it but drinking that amount in four days is quite a challenge and probably not a good idea. Personal highlights include the all round performance of Michael Alp, the dressing up of big tone, Brad Larks 10/10 ipod and Tom 'the ranger' Parkinson asking if he can do a girl up the arse that he had met 2 days before, kids these days!!

A few thoughts

It's 1.40am, i can't sleep and i'm not in the mood to play any poker. I thought it was time for a blog entry.

This month has been up and down so far but i've only played about 8K hands, time will tell if it's a good one or not. I'm going home this weekend so planning on playing a lot this week and hope to reach my rather modest aim as far as how much $ i want to make before i head to Vegas. I want to take about $7K over with me but the money i leave behind is more important than the money i take; (not sure if that made any sense). Anyway if the worst case scenario occurs and i fail to cash in a single wsop event i want to make sure that i come back to a healthy role and not have to worry about grinding to hard or even think about going broke and getting one of those job things i'm always hearing about.

I've mentioned a lot in previous posts about how important i think maintaining a balance in your life is. A lot of poker players simply get addicted and lose focus on other aspects of there life, becoming increasingly consumed by greed and the desire for wealth. I want to become a successful poker player, i want to be respected and i want to make a lot of money from the game but those aims should never be achieved at the expense of my friends and family; nor should they come about through me changing as a person. I'm proud of who i am and think for the time being i have a really good balance in my life. One guy who seems to sum up these thoughts is a player called Hoss_TBF; he plays the very highest limits but at the same time seems a really down to earth guy who has a lot of good things going in his life outside a very successful poker career:

http://hoss-tbf.livejournal.com/

His blog is a really good read and is one that i've been following for a while now, would give away my right arm if i could get where he is within the next 3 years.

Think i might be ready for bed now, will blog before i go to Vegas at some point.

new post at last

As you may have noticed i havn't updated this blog for ages and i have a lot to write about. Firstly i'm going to mention that i'm now a sponsored 'gutshot pro'; I'm getting £20K in tournament buy-ins and i get to keep 50% of my profit with 0 make up. I can play 3 GUKPT's, EPT London and then i can spend the other money on the tournaments i want. In return i have to make some videos, post on the forum and blog the tournaments that i play for them on the site:

http://www.gutshot.com/bforum/blog.php?u=21969

The reason that i havn't blogged for ages is firstly i'm a lazy shit and secondly we were unable to get the internet going in the new house for 3 weeks. Overall the move has been fine, i have a bigger room, we have a little garden and all in all i like this place better than the last (even though it's just round the corner).

With no internet at home my opportunities to play online have been limited. Just realised that i havn't even put my graph up for March:

Once again it was an up and down month but obviously i'm glad that once again it was a profitable one. Breaking even after 25K hands sucked but thankfully managed to end the month well and ship some $. I've now played anout 15K hands of 400nl and am up about 10 buy-ins. This is fairly break even but winning a ton at 200nl this year so even if i do jerk off some cash i'm very confident that i can grind it back lower down.

With the internet down i've been playing quite a few live tournaments over the last couple of months. I played 3 comps at the start of March at the international for the Spring poker festival and unfortunately i was unable to get much going. I kept drawing really solid tables that made chip accumulation tough and when the blinds got high i would lose a flip or just run into big hands so i didn't get a single deep run, booooooo.

I have however managed 2 deep runs in both the GUKPT events that i have played recently. The tournament in London was a strange one, i played day 1b and for the first 5 levels i couldn't find many spots to make chips and found myself with about my starting stack at the start of 200/400/25. Anyway the first hand of this level i find QQ Utg and playing an 11K stack i start to think how can i get my chips in the middle, i make it 1050 and a guy in mp who also started the hand with about 11K makes it 3K total. At this point i think shoving is obviously standard, online it is just easy but i looked at the guy and he looked so strong and i thought about his raise (why make it 3K and not shove?); i thought he had me crushed so i told him that i was folding and begged to see his hand, after some persuasion he showed AA and i tabled QQ, hero folds are fun.

After that great laydown the poker gods decided to reward me with some hands. I won KQ v K6 when a shortstack shoved and then 3 bet shoved against James Keys with AQ V his A10 to get up to 30K. Once this happened i was able to raise a lot wider and managed to make a few hands and win a few small pots with air against some weak players, i finished the day with 55K about to start 600/1200/100 and was just over average stack.

At the start of day 2 things went from good to great when i managed to get my whole stack in pre flop with AA v 1010 to get over 100k. I then got moved to a really weak table and despite losing a huge pot with a straight flush draw v an overpair i was able to build up to 160K without any real problem. Then this hand came up with 45 left:

Playing 1500/3000/200 a guy in Ep limped (200k stack), mp calls as well (80K ish stack) and the sb calls (200k stack). I make it 12k more from the bb with and to my surprise they all call. Flop comes J106 and after the sb checks i cbet 25K. Ep calls and other 2 fold. Turn is an 8 and i check call a 30K bet and the river brings a 9 . I bet 50K and he puts me in for 40K ish more which i call. He flips KQ for the nuts, gg me.

I'm not upset at how i played the hand but the river is just so brutal as i'm check calling a brick, if an ace hits i can check fold and if a king hits he wasn't good enough to value bet so i'm winning the hand or not losing anymore chips. When he flipped his hand i felt sick but what can you do? Congratulations to Jambon for finishing 4th and making it to final tables out of two.

After the London event i was gutted but i didn't have to wait a long time to have another deep run, finishing 8th at GUKPT Manchester in my first major tournament as a gutshot pro. I'm going to be writing a pretty long report on my blog over there so i'm not going to go into any specific hands here but i'm just going to say that having started the final as chip leader and being the best player at the table by a distance finishing 8th was like being kicked in the balls, it still hurts two days later.

One thing that the last few months has taught me is that live tournaments are still the strongest part of my game. I have a big edge over the live players because most of them, even some of the pros, have no idea how to play there stack size and struggle to play after the flop and i feel i have an edge over a lot of Internet players who struggle to adjust to the pace of a live tournament and simply do not have the abilty to read there opponents. I'm now really looking forward to Las Vegas and really hoping i can have a big score at the series this year. Here is a list of the tournaments that i'm planning on playing:

Monday 15th June: 12 noon (US time) $2K NLH

Tuesday 16th June: 12 noon $1500 NLH

Thursday 18th June: 12 noon $2K NLH

Saturday 20th June: 12 noon $1500 NLH

Saturday 27th June: 12 noon $1500 NLH

Monday 29th June: 12 noon $1500 NLH

Sunday 5th July: 12 noon $10K NLH Main event.

So basically as you can see its no limit holdem all the way for me this year. I'm playing $20K worth of buy ins but Jambon is staking me for most of it so i'm going to buy about $6K of myself in total. The starting stacks are 3 times the buy-in this year and the clock is still an hour so even in the $1500 events there is still a bit of play. The fields will be huge but as long as i can stay focused and take it 1 decision at a time i'm sure that a deep run in one or two of the side events is on the cards. As for the main event the structure is so good and so much of the field is so weak that busting day 1 with my style of play would have to mean that something has gone badly wrong, let's hope another in the money finish is on the cards.