Don't Stop Believing

Tuesday I played cash at Norwich Poker Club. It was good fun as a friend of mine Ben was in town for a few days and played cash as well, and given that Ben is perhaps the funniest person I have ever met, playing poker with him is always enjoyable. I won £100 over the course of the night but lost 3 big hands. I was all-in with TT vs A3 on a 345 flop for £300, then all-in with 77 vs AKhh on a T64Thh turn for £200 then all-in with 92hh vs JJ on a 9234hh turn for £200. So on another night I could have won a large amount, but any win at cash is obviously a good thing.

Wednesday I played 6 comps on stars, managed to cash in 3 of them, went fairly deep in the $3r coming 150th of 5000 and made the final table again of the PLO8 comp that I won last week. I started it with average stack but I did hit three consecutive ridiculous outdraws and came 9th for $150. Standard was embarrassing as usual, 2 of the outdraws I honestly couldn't believe that i got called. One had 5 outs, one had 3 outs, and both seemed happy to call all-in with 9 left on the final. But the standard of hilo online is shockingly bad. No-one can play the game. I mean literally no-one can play it. Also, my table tennis team won their first match this season on wednesday. It felt great to win a game, especially since it was at our home venue, Norwich Poker Club. The home crowd literally went wild. The champagne was flowing and the celebrations went on into the early hours of the morning.

Friday night I went to UEA Poker Society as some friends of mine go there and the banter is always superb. It was a fun night, although I did somehow manage to lose £150 in a 10p/20p cash game. However it was a deep game with average stack being about £75, and I did hit top two pair vs bottom set twice losing two huge pots. Despite the loss, it was a quality night as always, and I'm looking forward going to the UKSPC again in April with some of the boys from the UEA Poker Soc. Plus, I'll be able to meet up with Nathan again as it's in Birmingham, so hopefully there'll be some sort of Vienetta/Blue Crush/Bellowhead incident to enjoy.

Saturday I played online as I fancied the FTOPS event which was a $100 PLO rebuy. Only fancied it because it is exactly the same tourn as the ECOOP event I came 3rd in during November so figured it was worth a shot. Also wanted to see if I could win a seat in the FTOPS main event which I had already bought into but figured it was worth trying to get in cheaper. I was into the PLO for $300 and had Lee Watkinson sat directly on my left, and Joe Beevers directly on his left which was very handy as it meant there were two $100 bounties up for grabs. Unfortunately I couldn't win either as they both went out. My final hand I check raised all-in on a 872cc flop with JJT9 no clubs and got called by AAQ7 no clubs. It was for a 35k pot when average was 25k. It came brick brick and I finished 170th with 120 cashing. Very annoying, as 120th paid $700 and if I had hit that wrap I almost certainly would have cashed.

I won a $26 satellite into a $109 satellite for the FTOPS ME later on in the evening, then bubbled in that also. I lost a crucial pot all-in preflop with AQ vs KJ in a battle of the blinds when he raised 3x then snap called all-in for his stack of 15 BBs. It left me short and I stole to survive but had about 6 BBs aproaching the bubble. I shoved from the button with A9 and got called by 99 in the BB. I came 148th with 119 getting seats. I did nothing wrong I couldnt fold my way into the money from there blinds were getting big and there were still 30 to go out, it's just a standard setup, I have to shove. So two bubbles cost me at least $1,200 but I wasn't that annoyed because I had played really well all night, and got knocked out because of coolers. I fancied some live poker after a frustrating night online so went to the poker club at 2am. I ran very good and won about £700 so felt a lot better about my losses online.

I was really looking forward to Sunday as I was playing in two decent comps online. I had bought into the $215 sunday million on stars which was a one-off special $4m gtd. And I had bought into the $535 FTOPS main event which was $2.5m gtd. Given the large buyins I sold 50% of my action in the FTOPS ME for $267.50 to some of my backers, and I swapped 10% of action with five other players in the sunday million. All of them were good players capable of going deep, and given there were 30,000 runners it was a good tourn to have horses in. So I had half my action in both tournaments. The sunday million was embarrassing as it normally is. I lost a 15k pot early on all-in preflop with QQ vs A4o when some hero short stack made a desperate attempt to win some of his starting stack back that he'd already bluffed away. Obv it came A high and I was down to 3k, which I shoved a few rounds later with 77 and got called by KQ, despite the fact that he only had 8k so it was nearly half his stack to call. Obv it comes T429J. Standard sunday million donks. None of my horses cashed either which was even more shocking. One was all-in with AK vs AQ for a 60k pot when average was 40k, another was all-in with AK vs 99 for a 120k pot when average was 50k and 99 was an obvious fold preflop. And one lost with AK on a KJ8 flop to 87. All I can say is, whoever won that comp must have been very very lucky.

The FTOPS ME got off to very bad start when I couldn't get someone to fold AA on a 7624 board to a 5-bet on the turn. He bet flop, I called. He bet turn, I raised, he re-raised, I re-re-raised, he still couldn't fold AA and I was left short stacked. However I won two crucial flips with TT vs AK then AK vs 44 (shocking call by 44 btw) a little later to put me up to 11k and above average from the 7.5k starting stack. From there I started to play quite well as the blinds increased, and I started to hit some flops and I managed to get up to 30k. I then lost a 24k pot all-in on a 667 flop with QQ vs 44 when he rivered a 4. That river card was the most painful card I've felt in a while. It left me on 18k which was average stack at this point, but obviously should have been on 42k.

I got AA about 20 minutes later and made my standard 2.5x raise to luckily find two shoves behind me, both for about 6k. I called and my hand held aganst 44 and AQ to put me back up to 30k. I then had a crucial hand where I three-bet someone to 8k in position preflop with 77 and they called. Flop came K76 and they checked, and I checked behind. Turn was an 8. They put me all-in for my 22k and I obviously called. They had 99 and I held. I was on 60k and finally had a stack I could cash with, there were about 1200 left, 700 cash and average stack was about 40k. I obviously got a torrent of abuse in the chat from the guy with 99, but I don't like the way he's played his hand. Obviously by checking behind on the flop the hand went to a showdown but if it comes K65 I'm pretty sure I win the hand anyway as he can't beat AK or any pocket pair so I assume I can get him to fold. How many good flops are there for his hand? Does he think he's ahead pre? I think his flat call doesn't let him know where he is preflop and allows me to control the hand.

I lost 30k in a pot with 800 left which was annoying. 720 cashed so I assumed most poeple would want to cash and some of the better players will start raising light. There was a late position raise from an aggressive player to 4k, and a caller from the cutoff. I was on the button with AhQs and made it 11k. The raiser passed, then the cutoff called again. Alarm bells should have gone off at this point but I foolishly thought I could bubble scare him into folding and his flat calls were a way of avoiding the bubble if the flop was bad for him. It came 742hh to give me nothing but a back door flush draw and he checked. I put him all-in for his 18k left and he snapped with KK. Somehow I missed. It was a fairly interesting hand given the situation, but writing it now it does seem obvious the guy had a monster to flat call twice, and a waste of 18k chips. But nevermind, I made sure I cashed and had I had about 30k when the bubble burst.

I then managed to get all-in with JJ vs AK and won again for 60k which was handy. I then went very card dead and did steal my fair share but basically broke even on my 60k for a long time. Blinds were starting to get bigger and my cards were getting smaller so I had to start making the odd resteal to survive while waiting for a hand. I laddered at 360th which was an extra $200 and had about 50k. Average was 120k, blinds were 2k/4k. There were no ladders until 270th and I decided this was a good time to try and get some chips together to go deeper. It was folded to the button who made it 9,650, SB folded and I was BB with 69dd. Button had been aggressive from late position and I had a tight table image so it was an obvious resteal to me. I made it 22k in an attempt to look stronger than just shoving but obvously comitting myself. He instantly put me all-in and I had to call my remaining 28k hoping he had a strong ace. he had AQ and the flop came K62, turn J, river A annoyingly. It would have put me on 100k if I had dodged the river, but sadly it wasn't to be and I finished 355th for $1,152.77, which basically meant that everyone doubled up on their investent. It was a slight shame that my luck couldn't hold for a bit longer, but I was lucky to win my flips earlier so I can't complain, it just wasn't my time. But one day it will be. One day :D

This has turned into a bit of an essay, I think I'll start writing twice a week on friday and monday from now on to keep posts a bit shorter. MiniFTOPS is coming up March 10th, I hope to play every event, I worked it out today It will cost $1,300 to play every one including rebuys and addons, so I'll put that aside I think and hopefully play them all. They're great tournaments and I plan on defending my title in Event #2. That's all for now, if you're still with me, sorry for just wasting an hour of your life reading this. Hope all is well,

Rich x