tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50154875239217227422024-02-08T04:19:14.444+00:00But I tried, didn't I goddamnit. At least I did thatThe Poker World of Rich JBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-11513327709097125692020-07-10T12:52:00.000+01:002020-07-10T12:52:01.220+01:00It's been nine years and still no word, I don't deserve it!<i>...I know you got my last two posts, I wrote the addresses on 'em perfect.</i><br />
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Yes, it's been nine years, I guess you could say a few things have changed - House, Marriage, Baby etc. but a few things have stayed the same, and like the rest of the semi-retired poker community who still maintain a slightly delusional ever-dwindling idea that their name will one day be up in lights, I'm rather excited by the prospect of competing for a World Series of Poker bracelet.<br />
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This is because for the first time ever due to the COVID-19 pandemic the WSOP is taking place online, with a number of lower than normal buyin events making the temptation to play a few events and have another 'shot at the title' incredibly tantalising.<br />
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I've played a bit on Stars during lockdown and encountered the usual highs and lows of online poker, initially losing a fair chunk in the TCOOP where I sold a package but essentially felt rusty and out of practice only cashing for a third of buyins. I think the adjustment of suddenly being at home for long periods of time with very little to ward off boredom lead to a slightly unhealthy fixation with online gambling that sadly I think me and a number of friends suffered from with people losing quite a bit of cash in those early weeks.<br />
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But as lockdown drew on I managed to find a better balance as most people were able to, only playing one significant session a week, and focussing on improving my game and enjoyment levels. My tourney game certainly sharpened up, and I managed to cash and go deep in both the SCOOP main event and the Summer Series main event.<br />
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More recently, I was grinding NL100 6-max ZOOM to exploit a 40% rakeback equivalent $200 cash bonus which as you can imagine was typically extreme in its variance. I deposited $300 with the intention of two-tabling NL50 but soon realised I couldn't put in enough time to clear the bonus playing 6-8 hours a week. But luckily I won a little at those stakes and started the NL100 grind with about $400. The first two weeks went very well as I got up to $1k before the inevitable downswing came.<br />
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I lost $800 in one night just not able to win a pot, including a humorous moment when I got AA twice in about 10 hands across both tables and won $1.50 with each as everyone snap-folded before two minutes later getting it all-in pre with KK against AA. There was also set vs straight draw, two pair getting counterfeited against top pair, flush vs flush and finally two tilty shoves with flush draw vs top pair and flush draw and two over cards vs mid-pair that both bricked. All pretty standard but at the time I was absolutely livid. I had $168 left and I didn't sleep well that night.<br />
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48 hours later and with absolutely no desire to play cash I decided to one-table the 5pm Tuesday Big $109 to pass the time and try and get out of the hole as my wife was heading out for the evening and I was at home looking after our son. There were 170 runners and a nice structure. The buyin also meant the play was of a high standard, and I really enjoyed it. I ran good when I needed to and I felt I played well, particularly once the bubble burst, eventually coming 4th for $1.4k. I had about half my action so after paying out shares I had about $800 back in my account - a welcome sight indeed! I managed to unlock the bonus shortly after and cashed out my $1k (making me nearly even for lockdown) with a slight moral victory, albeit at the likely cost of increasing my bald patch by 30% and bringing forward my one-day heart attack by about 5 years!<br />
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But the swings of cash certainly reminded me why I lost enjoyment for the game in the first place and why I shouldn't try to grind a consistent profit. Quite frankly I'm too old, bitter and rusty! And to be honest I'm lucky enough now that I don't need to make money at poker, I can afford to play the games I want to simply as a hobby and not worry too much about it... which brings me on to the WSOP.<br />
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I've moved my $1k onto GG Poker who are hosting the WSOP and I'm planning on playing the $100 Opener, the $400 Colossus, the $400 Plossus, the $500 Mini-Main and the Big $50, selling a bit of action to cover part of the buyins. I'm not going to play much else in between or at the same time, I'll hopefully just one or two-table the comps I'm playing whilst enjoying the fanboy-wonder of knowing I'm playing the WSOP. It'll be fun...<br />
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<i>For Kenny, Willie and particularly Craig who's beaming smile I'll never forget.</i>Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-67000027707920906952011-07-10T04:27:00.015+01:002011-07-11T18:06:05.729+01:0042 Year Old Man Or 19 Year Old Geek?There are many ways to divide the world into two. One such division that often comes up in my world is "Are you a live player or an online player?" It's a question that most poker players can answer instantly without much thought, but I find it tough to answer. Most players will spend the majority of their time and money playing either live or online. But I spend roughly the same amount of time each week playing online and playing live, and I enjoy the positives of both and get annoyed by the negatives of both in roughly equal measure. Before I answer the question I'll use this post to talk about a few of the differences between online and live tournaments.<div><br /></div><div>Tonight I was involved in a hand that will help illustrate some of the differences. We were deep in the big $11R with about 100 left. Blinds were 3.5k/7k and average stack was about 120k. It was folded to the cutoff who raised to 17k. Folded to me in the Big Blind and I went all-in for 80k with A4. The cutoff (100k stack) thought for a long time before calling me with Q8. Needless to say the flop was QT2 and I was out. I am certain that the same player in a live tournament would have folded his hand, so why did he call me here? </div><div><br /></div><div>There are a few reasons. Firstly, given the availability and frequency of online poker tournaments the player was probably playing many tables and didn't consider it to be a disaster if he busted one of his tournaments, he still had many other tournaments he could play if he wished. In a live tournament, when you bust you have to go home or maybe play cash, either way you cannot get your buzz of tournament action until another night. Therefore people guard their tournament life more carefully than they do online. </div><div><br /></div><div>Secondly live tournaments are played tighter than online tournaments, partly because people guard their chips more heavily as mentioned above. This means that my all-in range in his eyes in a live tournament is much tighter and he is much more likely to be dominated. Whereas online, where aggression is king, he probably assumed that my range was wide and he was unlikely to be dominated. Therefore he figured he was getting nearly a fair price to call based on pot odds.</div><div><br /></div><div>A third reason he would not call in a live tournament but will online is because there are consequences to calling with Q8 in a live card room that do not exist online. If you make this call playing live with questionable pot odds you will be branded a fish by the rest of the table, you will make the person you called very angry, and you will be embarrassed to show your cards. This creates an uncomfortable situation that players will simply avoid by folding the Q8 when it is a marginal decision. None of this happens online of course, you can simply call and gamble if you want to and relax in complete anonymity.</div><div><br /></div><div>A fourth reason he calls here is because most online players are happy to gamble with the worst hand in order to accumulate a big stack because they see it as their best chance of beating a large field. There are ten times as many runners in online tournaments than live. Because of this people try to gamble in spots to accumulate chips which they can use to bully shorter stacks. A big stack allows a player to progress more smoothly than if they were short stacked. The average good player is happy to finish in 45th place gambling with the worst hand to get a big stack as opposed to making sure they make the final 18 if it means they will be most likely be short stacked. This is an understandable strategy given how top heavy prize structures are, and the advantage gained for a good player if he has a big chip stack with not many players left.</div><div><br /></div><div>Because of these reasons there is a higher degree of luck in online tournaments than live. The fact that I am willing to make this statement is probably an indication that I am more of a live player than online. Also I tend to enjoy the experience of playing live more than online in most situations. However I have made more money playing online than live over the last two years, and it is something I take more seriously in terms of BRM and volume. So it is hard to answer the initial question one way or another, online or live? Maybe it's just that I am a rare breed of the two: an onlive player.</div>Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-48749870814912459332011-07-09T09:14:00.001+01:002011-07-10T06:12:26.842+01:00The Ramblings Of A Tired Old Man<i>Brief Edit: I wrote this post a few months ago but never published it because before publishing it I started to run good and felt like it was inappropriate to moan after having some good fortune. However due to popular demand and after re-reading it I think that I raise some fair points that would be interesting to read. This is the original post un-edited, written 20/02/11:</i><div><br /></div><div>I went to bed at 4am last night but for some reason woke up at 7.30am and despite lying in bed for the last two hours have been unable to get back to sleep. If I'm being honest I haven't been sleeping properly for months. Insomnia is never something I have suffered from previously, in fact the opposite could probably be said as I used to get more than my fair share of sleep. However recently it has become a problem. And so I decided to write about the thoughts that were going through my head as I lay there.<div><br /></div><div>A week ago a good friend of mine did a four way deal in the sunday quarter million for $16k. He beat 33,000 other people to get that far which is an incredible achievement. The trouble with a game such as poker is the luck factor which can't be controlled. The guy in question is an excellent poker player but I hope he won't mind me writing that he got very lucky repeatedly, which is necessary to beat a field of that size. I saw him win four hands in a row where he was 30% to win and couldn't help thinking that I wish that would happen to me. I am delighted for him that he had a very nice draw, but when you rail someone hit those hands and then you yourself can't win just one of those hands when it is crucial, it does hurt a bit. I wish I didn't feel selfishly jealous in that way but when you play a game where luck is so important and it falls on your friends but misses you, it's impossible not to feel that way. Maybe that makes me a bastard, maybe I'm just human. I'm hoping the latter.</div><div><br /></div><div>Which brings me onto my next point: I can't outdraw anyone! Spoken like a true fish I know, but to be honest to go deep in comps you have to be able to outdraw people sometimes. I'm not getting wildly outdrawn with the best hand at the moment, but whenever I make a good shove and get called by a better hand, even when I am only slightly behind, I cannot hit. This makes tournament poker extremely difficult.</div><div><br /></div><div>I know there will be plenty of people reading this thinking that it is simply variance and that at some point in the future I will start hitting crucial hands, but it is hard to find that comforting when the problem with tournament poker is that variance is (largely) irrelevant. You cannot be happy by knowing that despite losing you were ahead because you will never be in that situation ever again for it to go the other way. I'm struggling to phrase this point correctly so I will give you an example. Let's say you are playing two tables of 50c/$1 cash and you are all-in on both of them with AK suited against pocket nines. One pot is $220 and one pot is $150. Now it would be fair to win one flip and lose the other, and if that happens you will either be $35 up or $35 down overall, which is all taken in to your stride for a 50/1 player as it is a third of a buyin. Now lets say you have two tounrnament tables up one of which is the late stages of a $50 freezeout and one of which is the early stages of a $11 rebuy and you are all-in on both for a 500k pot in the freezeout and a 8k pot in the rebuy again with AK suited against nines. Well again it would be fair to win one of these hands and lose the other. But here the difference is likely to be in the region of winning a pot with a value of about $1k compared to a pot with a value of about $10. Now all of a sudden one hand is responsible for a swing of a hundred buyins. </div><div><br /></div><div>Playing cash you will regularly be all-in and flipping for similar sized pots so variance has a chance to balance itself out, as it will happen thousands of times over a year and you will hopefully be close to even. In tournaments however you will maybe encouter ten or twenty flips over the course of a year where the result is massively important and over such a small sample size variance has no chance of balancing out. You have to be very lucky in crucial pots when playing tournaments because there won't be time for luck to even out. There is no long-run to consider, only the current hand, so you better hope you run good.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope at least part of this rant makes a little bit of sense and that you can understand where I am coming from. But then again, maybe I'm just having a mid-life crisis.</div></div>Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-58118955323678592642011-06-23T17:30:00.005+01:002020-02-20T10:58:59.827+00:00Mitchell Street Masters 2011<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmDUh8M7TjxyESfUGB0rQX33AWtqU8xPG0lF-j6eW3ez9zhmJf7O06BbOBpPX5_XTvHQRr-E8JwXJEfd1WKMxygmYs2hZ3UfhCmPLo2oXS5dJPLzydwo7JmApxkeIJVNXoNHLBnvWQ2-e_/s1600/photo.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621459543440932354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmDUh8M7TjxyESfUGB0rQX33AWtqU8xPG0lF-j6eW3ez9zhmJf7O06BbOBpPX5_XTvHQRr-E8JwXJEfd1WKMxygmYs2hZ3UfhCmPLo2oXS5dJPLzydwo7JmApxkeIJVNXoNHLBnvWQ2-e_/s320/photo.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 320px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 239px;" /></a><br />
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Well this is a brief write-up of the MSM11. Below are all the events and the results. It was a brilliant weekend and I need to say a big thank you to everyone who lent me chairs, helped me clear up and helped the general smooth running of the weekend. </div>
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I had a great weekend, perhaps the highlight of which being the game of Scattergories on saturday night with Joel, Tyler, Seb and Will which ended with most of us crying with laughter. All the events ran smoothly and it was great to award five bracelets to five different players.</div>
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The Lottery was won by James Tyler and the seven of hearts, the high card draw HU shootout was won by Adam Rivers and the main event buffet was won by everyone. I cannot wait until the next Mitchell Street Masters.</div>
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Event 1: £15 Short-Handed Shootout</div>
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1st - Lewis Jeal £90</div>
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2nd - Alex Wakeham £60</div>
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3rd - James Tyler £30</div>
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Then in order 4th onwards: Ben Millar, Seb Fairhurst, Rich J, Will Rawson, Mike Cutler, James Tidey, Joe Boyle, Stephen Woodhead, Ed Ball</div>
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Event 2: £5 Pot Limit Holdem Rebuy</div>
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1st - James Tyler £165</div>
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2nd - Rich J £100</div>
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3rd - Joe Boyle £70</div>
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Then in order 4th onwards: Joel Lambo, Will Rawson, Lewis Jeal, Stephen Woodhead, Alex Wakeham, Mike Cutler, Seb Fairhurst</div>
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Event 3: £5 Pot Limit Omaha Rebuy</div>
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1st - Alex Wakeham £240</div>
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2nd - James Tidey £140</div>
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3rd - Lewis Jeal £95</div>
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Then in order 4th onwards: Will Rawson, Rich J, Joe Boyle, Jan Mueller, Joel Lambo, James Tyler, Stephen Woodhead, Dave Dawson</div>
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Event 4: £25 Deepstack No Limit Holdem Main Event</div>
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1st - Adam Rivers £170</div>
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2nd - Lewis Ralph £105</div>
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3rd - Chris Brown £60</div>
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4th - Rich J £40</div>
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Then in order 5th onwards: Stephen Woodhead, Seb Fairhurst, Dave Dawson, James Tidey, Johnny King, Jan Mueller, Lewis Jeal, James Tyler, Alex Wakeham, Ben Millar</div>
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Player Of The Series</div>
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1st - Rich J 230</div>
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2nd - Alex Wakeham 220</div>
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3rd - Lewis Jeal 215</div>
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4th - James Tyler 200</div>
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5th - Adam Rivers 150</div>
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Then in order: James Tidey 125, Lewis Ralph 120, Will Rawson 115, Stephen Woodhead 110, Joe Boyle 105, Seb Fairhurst 100, Chris Brown 100, Ben Millar 70, Joel Lambo 70, Dave Dawson 50, Jan Mueller 45, Mike Cutler 35, Johnny King 25, Ed Ball 10</div>
Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-42413260945904314902011-01-19T23:34:00.002+00:002011-01-19T23:35:55.517+00:00World Blogger Championship Of Online Poker (WBCOOP)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; "><div style="height:125px;width:100%;"><a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/"><img src="http://www.pokerstars.com/images/wbcoop/125x125.gif" alt="Online Poker" align="left" style="margin-right:10px;" border="0" /></a><p>I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on <a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/">WBCOOP</a> to play.</p><p>Registration code: XXXXXX 317662</p></div></span>Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-19879198372888081612010-08-03T15:01:00.009+01:002010-08-03T16:37:25.385+01:00Reach for the (Platinum) StarsWell, my main goal for August is to achieve PlatinumStar VIP status on Pokerstars. The main benefts of which will include generating a lot of FPPs which can be used to buy cash and for tourney buyins, and I will also earn entry into the weekly 30k and monthly 100k freerolls. I will need to put in a lot of hours to get there, however it is achievable now that I am 10-tabling $25 NLO8 instead of 6-tabling.<br /><br />FullTilt got back to me about the job I applied for in their media and marketing department, asking me to complete an online recruitment test, for which there were 20 questions and a 2-hour time limit. It was split into two parts, the first being poker knowledge and the second being poker media and marketing. The first part was relatively straight forward with most of the questions being multiple choice.<br /><br />One question was a little strange. It read "Small suited connectors are easier to play out of position than small pocket pairs, true or false?" To be honest both hands can be tough to play out of position, and my initial thought was false because when the blinds are small you can simply check fold small pairs if you dont hit a set, making them easy to play post-flop. However with small suited connectors if you flop a straight or flush draw they can be very hard to play out of position as it is hard to see free cards and hard to semi-bluff. However when the blinds are big, suited connectors are easy to play out of position as they are normally a fold preflop, or if you do call they are hands that you can check fold if you miss or check-raise all-in if you flop a nice draw. Small pairs now become hard to play as it is often hard to know whether or not you are ahead on many flops given the aggressive nature of late tourney poker. I put false in the end but I wonder what other peoples opinions are.<br /><br />The last question in the poker knowledge section was fruity. It read, "You make the final table of a small mtt. There is one chip leader and everyone else has even stacks. The chip leader makes a standard raise UTG. You have JJ in the hijack. What do you do and why?" Lovely question. I spent about 25 minutes on my answer, and wrote 5 paragraphs, and still wasn't too happy with it. I explored a few different angles given the lack of information in the question, and mainly talked about what I would do with various stack sizes. It was a tough question and i'm not sure why it was in a recuitment test. As Keysie said to me when I told him about it, "What job are you applying for, to be a red pro?"<br /><br />The second part was a little tougher with all of the questions being creative writing not multiple choice. Questions such as "If you had a $1m budget to spend on advertising FT, how would you spend it?" for which my answer in a nutshell was TV advertising during night-time entertainment shows with adverts specifically focussed on letting people know that they can learn poker and play poker free of charge, in an attempt to recruit new players to the site. There were various other questions about player promotions and online software, which my in-depth poker discussions with my affiliate Jamie in the past probably helped me answer.<br /><br />I was fairly happy with my answers on the whole, there were no questions that I couldn't answer and I think I put in a fair result. I shall find out if my answers were good enough, and if they can overlook the lack of professional work on my CV sometime next week. Fingers crossed.<br /><br />Not much else to report, I'll simply be putting in as many hours as possible this month on stars. The Gamblers link has been updated for all you degenerate gamblers out there. And some sad news to end this post is that it now looks very unlikely for the Mitchell Street Masters to be happening this year. Sadly there were problems with the venue, and the sponsors got cold feet once they found out that Phil Ivey was not going to attend, so it will have to wait another year. Sorry to all the MSM fans out there desperate to win a bracelet.<br /><br />Peace,<br /><br />Rich xx<br /><br /><em></em><br /><em>Edit: Since writing this blog post, I received the following email from FullTilt:<br /><br />Hi Richard, </em><br /><em></em><br /><em>Thanks for completing the Full Tilt Poker online recruitment test. You scored 10/10 in the multiple choice questions and your essay answers were good enough to move you to the next stage in our recruitment process. The Human Resources department of our recruitment consultant company, Pocket Kings Ltd, will contact you to discuss your possible future with us. </em><br /><em></em><br /><em>Best regards, </em><br /><em>Full Tilt Poker </em><br /><br />I wonder how many stages of recruitment there are?Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-9273936020080847132010-07-21T16:09:00.006+01:002010-07-21T17:10:54.190+01:00A Tornado meets a VolcanoWell, it's been an interesting few weeks since we last spoke. Firstly it looks highly likely that I will not be able to go to Vegas this year, which I am obviously gutted about but there is no point me going if I can't afford it. I would rather go next year and enjoy myself then go this year in debt and have the pressure of needing to win. I've been running very badly in tournaments recently seeming to lose every single flip and 60/40 which as result has meant that I've had quite a few low times over the last month. In particular about two weeks ago, when I had one of those days where everything went wrong. I've had to re-evaluate my online poker game as I can no longer afford to play tournaments on a regular basis, which is a shame as I have always made money playing tournaments and enjoyed them. However I couldn't find a new staking deal sadly and I don't have a big enough bankroll to play with my own money. So the plan has changed.<br /><br />I am now grinding NLO8 cash on PokerStars. I play 6 tables at a time of 10c/25c and have to put in some long hours. It's not glamorous but it's the only way for me to rebuild my bankroll and pay my bills. I have played six days so far, and am about $300 up. It also has the perks of generating loads of fpps which are very handy on stars as I can use them to buy cash bonuses and buy into tournaments. I plan to put in lots of hours over the next six weeks to rebuild a healthy bankroll.<br /><br />I have also applied for a job at FullTilt Poker in their media and marketing department. It is obviously a longshot to get the job and I don't have my hopes up but it is a possibility and I figured it was worth a shot. I am also considering applying for jobs at other poker companies if the bankroll rebuild doesn't go according to plan. Thankyou to everyone reading this who gave me a reference for my CV, it was appreciated.<br /><br />I've been looking forward to the next few days for a while now. Tomorrow I am going to Thorpe Park all day with Jase, Dave and Tash which should be great fun, although it does involve getting up at 5.45am which could be quite a challenge. Then on friday it's Barry's 40th birthday party which should be good fun as most of my friends on the poker scene are going, and I am sure it will be accompanied by equally large measures of alcohol and banter. Then on saturday it is Jeal's birthday poker trip to Dusk for the £100 6max freezeout, which I am secretly planning on winning.<br /><br />Sorry it's been so long since the last update I will try to update more frequently. Hopefully the next post will contain more positive poker news, as long as the NLO8 cash games treat me nicely. The Gambler's Link has also been updated on the right hand side of this page just below the personal details section. And for those of you haven't heard it yet, go and buy Eminem - Recovery, if you're a fan you'll love it.<br /><br />Peace, Rich xBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-3139742261518140632010-06-09T15:24:00.019+01:002010-06-09T17:28:12.592+01:00The Polar Bear Has Escaped!I have always loved playing live poker, ever since I first learned the game. I loved the social aspect of playing with my friends, and discussing individual hands with them for hours on end, as well as the game as a whole. I have been playing online poker for close to five years now and although I have always enjoyed it, when it came to the famous question in poker as to whether you see yourself as a 'live' or 'online' player, the answer for me has always been 'live'.<br /><br />But that's about to change.<br /><br />I've never really taken online poker as seriously as I should have. To be honest I've never really taken poker as seriously as I should have, but particularly online. My first substantial success online was on Full Tilt in January 07. I won around $12k in tournaments and around $8k playing $5/$10 NLHE 6max cash. I withdrew $10k and left $10k in my account. This was my first experience of the cashout curse, and I lost around $3k in tournaments and cash over the next 10 days or so, and then tilted hugely one night after another bad beat and lost the remaining $7k playing $25/$50 PLO 6max. It didn't bother me at the time as I had cashed out some money and had recently won a large amount of money in a live tournament, but looking back I hate myself for being such an idiot. Over the next few years I deposited and cashed out frequently, never really keeping much money online, instead choosing to spend my winnings on my lifestyle instead of re-investing them into my online poker.<br /><br />Recently I have been winning decent money playing live cash but I have been struggling online and I feel this is due to changing my game in order to maximise my profits playing live. Norwich Poker Club has a very loose-passive game, and has changed my style considerably. When I first started playing at NPC I lost in the game and had to adapt to it, which I managed to do very successfully but at a cost of hindering my online game in my opinion. I have also been enjoying live poker a lot less recently, and now wish to concentrate my efforts on building an online MTT bankroll this summer. I wish to play on PokerStars but my DTheSandwichJ account has always ran bad and has never won it's fair amount of showdowns. It's no coincidence that it is the only online account I have ever had that is losing (only rice at -1% ROI tbf but still losing). I am now going to play on Panda's old account which is pandybear22 and try my luck on there. It's prob just supertstition but if it allows me to play with a greater degree of confidence then it must be a good thing.<br /><br />I have also joined some advanced poker training sites. According to an independant poker training review site Bluefire poker got the highest overall score, and Pokerpwnage got the highest score in MTT training so I have joined both of those. I think that they will be very helpful in re-establishing my online tournament game and it will be interesting to hear other people's opinions on the game. I will also try and update my blog every monday which I know I have said before but I think it is advantageous to analyse my results and I find writing it is therapeutic.<br /><br />I have added a Gambler's Link to my blog on the right hand side, which I will update whenever I post. It is a link that will take you somewhere different each time it is updated. It will usually be a link to a blog post or article that I have enjoyed or laughed at.<br /><br />I had a fantastic holiday in Greece, definitely one of the best holidays I've ever had. I did jet skiing for the first time and absolutely loved it, and did it again later in the week. It's so much fun. Spent plenty of time on the beach during the day then at Milton's bar at night, for which he would not accept any money for drinks. Each time we tried to pay he told us we were insulting him. His generosity was overwhelming and I thank him greatly for it. I also thank Stefan for his hospitality and for doing all the driving.<br /><br />I will miss many people at the poker club for which I have been a regular member for five years now but I feel that my time and effort would be better spent playing online poker full time and trying to build a healthy bankroll. Despite its flaws Norwich Poker Club will always greet you with a cup of tea and a piss-taking ogre, and I will greatly miss the many friendly faces that play there, and the often hilarious banter that keeps me smiling. I will still pop in occasionally, but The Polar Bear will no longer be a permanent attraction in the zoo that is NPC.<br /><br />PS - Birthday night out this saturday after the england game. Everyone is welcome. Starting at the Slug and Lettuce at about 10pm, then moving down prince of wales. Text me for location if you're joining late.Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-13307291666458634572010-05-25T07:52:00.012+01:002010-05-25T08:56:05.315+01:00Summer 2010 here we come!May has been a vast improvement to April thankfully. It started with the SCOOP on PokerStars, which was a series of superb tournaments for two weeks, in which I was fully staked. I was staked in roughly $2300 worth of tournaments, and I ended up cashing for $2500 despite running fairly terribly throughout. So I was pleased that my backer didn't lose his money, and I made him a small profit. I spent these two weeks up north away from Norwich with a friend of mine called Steve as there are a lot of distractions in Norwich and I wanted to chillout for a fortnight and concentrate on playing well. It was nice to get a change of scenery for a while.<br /><br />On Victor Chandler I stopped playing cash and played a few tournaments instead. I also changed my avatar. I played in the Poker Olympics promotion, specifically the heptathlon, which was a series of 7 tournaments spread over a week at 8pm each night with overall prizes for the leaderboard. They were all $30 tourns and covered NLHE, NLHE turbo, NLHE 6max, NLHE Deepstack, PLO, PLO8 and 7 card stud. I ran pretty well in these and was guaranteed the gold medal after six events which meant there was no pressure on the last event. There were only about 20 runners who took part in the series, and bearing in mind that every tourn had standard payouts and that 10th and higher in the overall leaderboard was guranteed $150 bonus, they were incredible value. I got a $900 bonus for winning the gold. The standard in the non-holdem events was terrible and quite humorous, it seemed most people had never played omaha or stud before. I'm looking forward to the modern pentathlon and the triathlon which are coming up.<br /><br />Since returning to Norwich a week ago I have also been running fairly well, winning at the poker club playing 50p/£1 and £1/£2 NLHE cash and winning online playing mostly 50c/$1 PLO cash. I have also got a staking deal to play sunday comps on PokerStars which started this week. I was in $450 worth of tourns. I cashed in the sunday million for $350 but nothing else so finished slightly down. I have the same deal for the next 4 weeks so hopefully I can run good once and get a nice draw. The next week or so should be good fun. It is my 24th birthday tomorrow, and then on thursday I am going to Skiathos for a week with family and friends. Skiathos is a Greek island where my brother-in-law is from and I can't wait to get there. My brother-in-law's dad owns a bar on the island and I believe the plan is going to involve sitting on the beach all day and drinking in the bar all night. Sounds like a great plan to me!<br /><br />Rich x<br /><br />PS - Las Vegas is booked again for this year 30th Aug - 30th Sep. Can't wait for that, our <a href="http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/19228.html">house</a> is even sicker than last year :)))))))<br /><br /><a href="http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/19228.html"></a>Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-14673078794189756522010-04-29T23:06:00.010+01:002010-06-28T01:09:07.121+01:00Very HumorousWell, there is no avoiding it now, this will be my first losing month playing poker since August 09. It disheartens me to write that sentence, but this month my luck has been truly horrendous. I have been spending the majority of my time online on VC, and live playing cash at NPC. VC started the month by launching a brand new poker client with resizeable tables, time banks, better table displays for cash games and a new Poker Olympics promotion. Avatars are also now displayed on tables, even when they are re-sized to a small table for multitabling, whereas before they were only visible on the large table view which I never used. Which means that for the first time I got to see my avatar on every table I played.<br /><br />I didn't really feel a connection to the middle-aged man with grey hair, wearing a hawaiin shirt and sunglasses which apparently was my current chosen face to the online community, and so I set about looking into alternatives. There were all the classic options, the sexy redhead high class escort, the mafia boss in a cream linen suit, the cowboy straight out of a John Wayne movie, but I fancied a less cliche avatar that might demand a bit more respect. The one that caught my eye was a smart young man in a suit, who happened to look rather similar to Barack Obama. So, deciding to show solidarity with the modern world, I changed my online appearance to a younger, much more professional looking man. Needless to say, I got ruined.<br /><br />I have consistently lost money ever since. The outdraws have been shocking - Truly horrendous. I can only assume this is purely down to the fact that Victor Chandler now think I am black. My Victor Chandler account which has always run good as long as they thought I was an old time retiree on a permanent mediterranean cruise, has all of a sudden been cursed ever since I have been a smartly dressed young black man. The sheer audacity of this blatant racism shocks me. It's disappointing that in the 21st century, this is still an issue, especially with a public, respectable company like Victor Chandler. Very sad indeed.<br /><br />I'm not going to mention specific hands as I have played around 12,000 hands this month and there are too many to mention but four times I have been all-in on the flop with a 95% chance of winning the pot with a set over a set, and I have lost all four to runner runner straights or flushes for a total of $1.4k. Not to mention all the pots where I was 60% favourite or more and simply got ruined. As a result I have moved down stakes now 6-tabling 25c/50c PLO instead of 50c/$1. The standard is noticeably worse, and despite my terrible luck continuing at these stakes, losing far more than a fair amount of showdowns, I have managed to break level. Luckily, the poor standard of play has compensated for my bad luck.<br /><br />A similar streak of bad form has hit me playing live as well. I have played at NPC maybe six or seven times this month, winning probably on only two visits, and being shockingly outdrawn or coolered on the others. I am probably around £800 down on the month from playing live, which is a highly frustrating statistic, and one which hopefully won't repeat itself too often. I made one bad call that sticks out which was not being able to fold AT on an A25T board for a re-raise of £420. It was an annoying hand, and I came painfully close to folding, given that I know the player well and I was convinced that he couldn't be bluffing. However I just couldn't get the possibility that he had A5 out of my head. I ended up making a terrible call only able to beat one hand which he didn't have. But apart from that, I really haven't done anything wrong in terms of playing cash. The deck has simply been against me this month as is inevitable every now and again. No matter how I played, I was just never going to win.<br /><br />I've played a few mtts at weekends with no success, at one point having a fun two minutes or so while I was playing two tournaments. I called a mid-stacks button shove from the BB with AJcc on the bubble of the 45k gtd. on FT and he had Q9o. The flop came 89Tcc and then bricked to leave me crippled, while at precisely the same time on VC I was all-in on the bubble of the $10r $35k gtd. with AA vs Bristol for a huge pot which inevitably came J849T. I wasn't too bothered about getting rivered as I knew I was drawing dead on the turn. My financial shares also took a tumble this month annoyingly, and no football bets have come in just to complete the financial hell from all angles ;)<br /><br />But nevermind, I'm feeling more positive at the moment for some strange reason. I've moved away from Norwich for a couple of weeks just to have a change of scenery and chill out for a bit. While living in Norwich is great at the moment, there are just too many people and too many distractions and I'm simply not putting in the hours as I always agree to do something fun instead of playing. So hopefully, I'll be able to put in the hours and earn some money over the next fortnight. My friend Paul has very kindly offered to stake me in some SCOOP events which are starting this weekend so hopefully I can run good in one of them. For those that don't know, Paul won the Sunday Million this week for $258k! An incredible result. His blog is linked on the right-hand side of this page in my Blogroll, and he has written a post of the tournament commenting on his key hands along the way which is well worth a read. VC also have two superb promotions running at the moment which I shall take advantage of when I'm not playing tournaments on Stars. I'm hoping to do well playing PLO cash, despite the fact that I still haven't changed my avatar. That's about all for now, sorry it's been so long again since my last post, I shall try to keep updates more punctual. I Hope everyone has a fun bank holiday weekend,<br /><br />Rich x<br /><br />PS - Barbers are the world's best philosophers. Listen to their words wisely.Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-25162359764916139902010-04-12T23:00:00.012+01:002010-04-14T15:19:16.080+01:00His surname is .Riivers. and he plays on pokerstarsIt's been an interesting week. On tuesday morning we headed up to Birmingham for the UKSPC. I drove up with Jeal, and we followed Joe and Panda. After some controversial lane changes we arrived at the Travelodge. Dave somehow managed to bust the tourn before we arrived, so we spent most of the day in the bowling alley and pool hall. I met up with Nathan and we went through our usual ritual of playing pool for far too many hours while catching up before realising that we are both shit and shamefully retiring. Dinner was a highly disappointing and overpriced chinese buffet, although the fact that Dave lost a bowling prop bet and had to eat his entire dinner with just a knife made it almost worthwhile. We then played the £40 freezeout that night and I managed to go out in a blaze of glory reraising all-in on the river with Jack high for no apparent reason, against a calling station, who was committed to call me with any pair, and somehow I got called. I also had 25% of Dave's action who final tabled but sadly didn't cash. I played cash for a while and lost a £200 pot with Bristol all-in on a 568 flop vs K7 when it came J turn and K river but I only finished £70 down.<br /><br />Wednesday was an enjoyable day. It started with myself, Ben, Jeal, Dave and Joe going for breakfast while everyone else went to play the tourn. We spoofed twice for half the bill each time. Dave lost the first, and Ben the second. Immediately on spoof-tilt Ben suggests we spoof for drinks and who has to order it. Obviously he loses and heads to the counter. After ordering he throws his money at the waiter, who simply laughs with the rest of us as he knew what was going on. We headed through town and had a quick look at the Bull Ring which is a huge shopping mall in the centre of Birmingham. There were so many superb shops that we decided to come back the following day and have a proper look around when we had more time. <br /><br />That night I played £1/£2 cash for a few hours. I sat with £200 and cashed out £600. I left the table mainly because two absolute idiots sat down on my table next to me. They were more annoying than that dream where you invent something that makes millions of pounds and then you wake up and can't remember what you invented, so you try and go back to sleep only now you're dreaming about eating a giant marshmallow and when you wake up your pillow has disappeared. Don't you just hate that? Anyway, I digress. Turns out one of them was the guy that organised the event, what a shame that he was a complete twat. Everyone was knocked out on day 1b with no-one surviving for day 2 so I guess it was inevitable that we all got absolutely smashed at the bar. It seemed like a good idea at the time to order ridiculous amounts of Long Island ice teas while playing drinking games and talking to random strangers at the bar. Needless to say, by 3am they wouldn't serve us any more, despite our best efforts including trying to buy a round for £100 which luckily wasn't successful.<br /><br />I did feel that the UKSPC had lost some of its charm since I used to play in it at St. Andrews Student Union. I remember it being a huge room full of student poker players, talking, drinking, playing low stakes cash, moaning about bad beats etc. everyone basically played what they wanted to from 5p/10p upwards, with £1/£2 being the highest game. This meant that everyone could play after going out the tourney. This year, being in a casino meant the lowest stakes cash was £1/£2 so no students were playing cash. Once they were eliminated people were just sitting in the lounge bored with nothing to do, as they couldn't afford cash games or house games. The casino cared more about keeping their punters happy, so used their dealers for house games not the proposed sng's poeple were trying to start given that they weren't allowed to self deal. Obviously it is understandable for them to use dealers to please their regular punters, that is how they pay their bills, but I hope next year it is back in a private room where everyone can enjoy the few days. The only advantage with it in a casino is that it is dealer dealt but I'm sure most people would rather it was self-dealt and in a more student friendly environment where they could play what they wanted to.<br /><br />Thursday morning came around and I still had nowhere to stay that night so I had a quick look online and found a decent looking hotel in Coventry, that was only £28 a night for a double room. It had free parking and free wifi, and a steam room so Jeal, Woody and Wakes quickly jumped on board as well. Pretty standard as they are all steaming messes. We spent all day shopping in Brum, largely at the Bull Ring. I found an awesome D&G lightweight black leather jacket for the summer that I was going to buy until I saw the price tag of £755. Chortle chortle. There was plenty of spoofing all day starting with breakfast which Jeal and Wakes went halves on. Jez had to eat five tomatoes in a minute, Woody had to wear pink woolen mittens all day and Wakes had to go up then down the wrong escalators. We also spoofed for taxis throughout the day with an incredible effort by Joe. Four times we spoofed eight handed for taxis, Joe lost three of them but beat me heads-up in the fourth. Three 8ths and a 7th was a superb effort though to be fair.<br /><br />We arrived in Coventry at about 9pm thursday, had a meal in the restaurant then went to de-steam in the steam room which was thoroughly lapped up. I got a good nights sleep and headed to the G Casino for 2pm for day 1b of the UKIPT Coventry. The casino is amazing, it is by far the best casino I have been to in the UK. It has numerous bars and restaurants, a big Poker Room and plenty of tables. Vicky Coren managed to go out within ten minutes somehow but I guess she isn't bothered anymore about the buyins as she is the face of Pokerstars UK these days. <br /><br />It was a gruelling day as I struggled to maintain a decent stack. I lost a 30k pot with J4cc on a Jh2c5c flop when I couldn't improve vs QQ. This left me short but I got back into it doubling up twice with the best hand and holding. I hit a straight flush draw on the flop and called the all-in of a 10k stack who had a set. I hit my draw and got up to around 35k. I finally had some momentum and was around 45k at my highest. In level 7 I think I got AA which was the first premium hand I'd had all tourn and we were heads up going to the flop. It came 9 high and I lost about 15k to 99. Then I folded QQ preflop having put 5k in already and so I had about 20k come the 4th break, slightly below average. <br /><br />My final hand I shoved with Q5o in the BB after the cutoff had raised to 1800 at 300/600/75, the button had called as had the SB. There was about 8k in the pot already and I shoved for 14k hoping to win it. I had no reason to think anyone was particularly strong as they were all active players who were likely to be playing a wide range. The raiser passed, the button called with AQss, the SB passed. It was a shame I was dominated and couldn't hit. I played for around 10 hours of day 1b finishing about 80th of the 180 that started. I never really had the run of the cards apart from in short spells, with AA costing me when I finally had a decent stack, but it was an excellent tournament that I enjoyed playing and I hope I can play another soon.<br /><br />Jeal Wakes and Woody came down to the casino late afternoon to play the £100 side event. I had 10% of Wakes who managed to chop it four handed for £2,000 each so he earnt me a saver. He played very well in the late stages and deserved a chop. We drove home on Saturday and watched the national round Jeal's house when we arrived back in sunny Norwich. Overall on the trip I was basically even including expenses, which I was happy with as I had an excellent time and had played in a big tournament.<br /><br />On sunday we had a BBQ round Jeal's house, then played some tourns online. I lost a flip deep in the $150k gtd. on FT, and bubbled the sunday million. I went deep in the $22 Double Deuce on FT but finished 60th of 11,000 for $200 after going out on a pretty sick and unnecessary 4-bet shove. It was a good shove in the long run as I knew the re-raiser was weak but I annoyingly walked into QQ from someone else and it was an unnecessary move given the situation. I could have waited and hoped for a cooler in my favour or a better spot to steal. This week it will be all about the PLO cash on VC, as I try to grind out some profit and a nice VIP bonus. To quote one of my favourite professional bums, "I better get the games in!"<br /><br />Rich xBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-20296762851634144542010-04-05T11:19:00.010+01:002010-04-05T13:01:48.610+01:00The long night is over, the day of life is here.Well, Happy Easter everyone. This week has been fairly quiet for me. I played cash at the poker club on friday and had a humorous session. I had been running bad all night, three times walking into flopped sets from the same person lol, and unable to flop a set myself. But I was about even with £200 in front of me. A limped pot brought a flop of J97r which looked good for my 8Thh. I flat called a bet and a raise. Then called an all-in on the turn which was a 5. The pot was about £200. The guy had J9 and the river brought him an ice-cold Jack. It was then the very next hand when I looked down at 44. There was a straddle, a raise to £14 and an under-raise all-in for £25. I called, a limper called and the raiser called so we saw the flop four handed. It looked a rather pleasing 489. I had finally flopped a set. The raiser bet £49, I went all-in for £90, the limper called all-in and the raiser called. It was about a £350 pot I think. Turn was a 5, River was a King. I show 44, the two shorter stacks both muck, the raiser shows KK. Chortle Chortle! I decided not to rebuy after that and went home and watched a film. I figured it just wasn't going to be my night.<br /><br />I haven't really played online much either this week. I have been organising my bankroll in preperation for the next few months so I cashed out all my dollars in Full Tilt, Stars and Betfair. Over the next two months I plan on playing on VC. This is largely due to my very valuable VIP deal which earns me a lot more money than playing on any other site, and the new VC Poker Olympics promotion that is going on over the next 10 weeks. It is basically a series of Rake Races for cash players. It is exclusive to VC, unlike the double up promo which was all of iPoker, and it awards some nice prizes. I will be playing six tables of 50c/$1 PLO 6-max cash for hopefully 40 hours a week. I am not going to play higher stakes or more tables to try and win a bigger prize as I made that mistake in the double up promotion, and it will no doubt result in me not playing my best and losing money. I will play the games I am happy with and I will try to earn a high VIP bonus. Any prizes earnt in the promotion as a result will be seen as a welcome extra.<br /><br />After cashing out of PokerStars I had about $43 sent to me from a friend who owed me £30, which is apparently below the minimum cashout amount on Stars. So, being bored one day this week I played a $2 rebuy sat to the Sunday million, and a $10R. I luckily won a seat in the million and I finished 30th out of 5000 in the rebuy for $150. I was very unlucky, I ran AK into AA preflop with 50 left, then I rebuilt and got above average stack again before running QQ into AA preflop to go out. In between I got dealt AA, and took the blinds lol. I unregistered from the sunday million as it was on Easter sunday and I couldn't play it, and won 7 out of 10 $20.80 double up sngs to turn the tournament dollars into $280 cash. I spent the last few $T on a step sng ticket, and cashed out the money. Turned out to be a good thing that Stars have a minimum withdrawal anmount.<br /><br />The step sng that I played in turned out to be interesting. The 9-handed steps usually have a payout of 5th goes down a step, 3rd-4th get another buyin for the current step, and 1st-2nd get a ticket for the step above. Well I ran fairly well and won the first two levels so I got a step 3 ticket. After finishing 3rd then 4th, on my third attempt I won a step 4 ticket. Step 4 is $215 to buy in to, and so it takes a long time to fill up. I waited until saturday night to play it. I played a step 4 satellite to the Sunday 500, which paid top three $530, and 4th got $210. It started very tight and after an hour we still had 8 players, but the blinds started to get big and people stated shoving. Six handed a PokerStars Pro shoved for 1.2k from the cutoff when blinds were 100/200/25, and I reshoved from the button for 2k with QQ. He had QJo. The pot would have put me second in chips five handed on the bubble, but when the board came AT3K5 I was crippled and finished in sixth for nothing. A highly frustrating hand to lose, I couldn't have been much further ahead.<br /><br />I spent Easter Sunday with my family, and the first line of the first hymn in church was the title of this post. I rather liked it and adopted it for my blog. We had an excellent Sunday Lunch and it was nice to spend the day with my family as I don't see them very often these days. I am currently packing for my trip to Birmingham and Coventry. Birmingham will be a lot of fun, and Coventry will be an excellent tournament. £550 is a large buyin, however I have put sufficient money into my VC bankroll for the next two months and as I have been running good lately I decided to play in a decent tournament to give myself a chance for a big win. So I'm hoping the next week will be enjoyable, with plenty of banter, and the weekend will be fruitful. When I return I will be hitting the VC cash tables and hopefully earning some money at a consistent rate. That, at least, is the plan ;)<br /><br />Rich xBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-44843618469401233072010-03-29T22:37:00.000+01:002020-02-20T10:57:10.047+00:00Play the game Martini!To silence the angry mob, I have written this blog post. I do apologise for this post being essentially a week late, however, (and I do realise some people will struggle to read the following sentence without laughing,) I have been extremely busy.<br />
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I'll start with a review of the second week of the miniftops tournaments that I was playing. On the Monday night (15th March) I played in two events, the $22 FLO8 tourn and the $109 NLHE. I went out of the Limit HiLo close to the bubble, after missing a big draw left me short stacked and I couldn't recover. The Holdem tourn was clearly one of the best ftops events, and I was annoyed when I didn't go deep in it. I was largely card dead for the first few levels, and went out on a semi-bluff that did not hit.<br />
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Tuesday was a more successful day although again it was ultimately disappointing. The first event was a $33 6-max triple shootout, and I lost heads up on my first table. I was chip leader and was all-in with ATss vs AKo. The flop came KsJs9h before the obvious brick brick, which left him chip leader and his 77 held against my A6dd when I was short and shoved. Two late events were the $55 HORSE and the $22 NLHE. I managed to cash in both but just couldn't win crucial races in the money for big pots. I cashed for $88 in the HORSE losing a huge pot with A246 vs A227 after 4 cards in Razz and catching 3 bricks after raising every street. And the final hand having A2256 after 5 cards in stud hilo vs 899TJ and catching two picture cards. Annoyingly he also didn't improve and scooped the pot with a pair of nines. In the holdem I cashed again but not for much getting $44, again not being able to win a showdown once the bubble had burst. I lost a huge race with AK vs 77 to leave me short. I then shoved the cutoff with Gateway (KT) and the BB had AA, mbn.<br />
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On wednesday I played the $33R 6max and had a double rebuy and an addon. I started the freezeout period with above average stack, and played fairly tight for a while. I went out with JJ after a few levels when I called all-in preflop against KK. I took thursday off as the tourns were a $22 Cashout and a $22 Stud, and neither were very good tourneys for me to play. Also, I was a bit fed up of playing long hours online and not being able to run good enough to get a decent draw, and I hoped that a day off would help me play better. On friday I went fairly deep in the $22 6max but once again just couldn't get the cards to do well and finished before the cash.<br />
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So the weekend came around, and brought with it the best ftops events. Saturday was the $266 6-max 2-day event, the $11R PLO and the $53 super turbo. I had been looking forward to the 2-day event for a long time as it was a brilliant tournament, being very deep stacked and very slow. I reraised someone in level 3 or 4 with the suited Back and Forth (T7) and got called. The flop had come Q77. I managed to take someone's entire stack over three streets of betting when they coudln't fold JJ. So I had an early double up. However instead of playing tight, given that my table had seen my reraise preflop with the Back and Forth, I continued to play aggressively and got no respect. I made a series of unsuccessful bluffs and stubborn attempts to win pots that I should have given up on, and gradually lost my chips. When I went out I was more mad at myself than I had been for a long time after exiting a poker tourney. I felt that I could have played better. In the PLO my table was extremely loose in the rebuy period, which I suppose is a good thing but I was very unlucky, twice getting rivered for 10k pots. So at the break I found myself with 6k having had numerous rebuys and an addon. Early after the break I went out when I missed a heart flush draw in a 3-way 20k pot against two others, neither of whom had a single heart in their hand. In the 300 chip super turbo I doubled up early with KK and had a red pro on my table. I annoyingly lost a race to the pro for a $50 bounty and a decent stack, and went out soon after.<br />
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Sunday brought about the Main Event, as well as a $26 6-max knockout and a $22 PLO HU Shootout. In the knockout I started well and managed to get above 10k. As the blinds increased I stayed fairly level and got to the mid stages with average stack. I ended up going out on a bluff raising all-in on a T67 flop only to be snapped by the BB who had called my preflop raise with 89. My KJ somehow missed despite the Q on the turn. In the Heads-up Omaha shootout I beat my first two players quite comfortably, both of them being easy to outplay and too passive postflop. In the bubble round I got a better player, but soon got a 3-1 chiplead with the deck in my favour. Then I had him all-in with AQJhh on a KT8hh flop and somehow caught brick brick to double him up to even stacked. The deck continued in his favour and he eventually beat me with a flopped set against my two pair. A very frustrating tournament indeed.<br />
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In the $55 Main Event I really wanted to do well to end the series on a high. I got my initial stack of 7,500 up to 12k after getting paid with a flush and winning some smaller pots. It was about an hour and a half into the tournament when someone raised to 650 and I called on the button with ATdd as did the SB. The flop was 67Tr and the SB instanty bet pot for 2250 which the raiser flat called. There was 7k in the pot and I figured given the action that there was a good chance I had the best hand, so I shoved for my 12k. The SB reshoved for his 14k and the raiser passed. He had 78 for second pair and a gutshot. The turn 7 left me dead to two outs which didn't come in and I was very annoyed to go out in a nearly 30k pot to a 9 outer. <br />
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In general, the second week of the series did not go well. It was a very frustrating week and it seemed that every time I tried to bluff I would walk into the nuts, and every time I had a good hand I would get outdrawn or lose a flip. In total I played in 24 events with buyins of $1350 and cashed in 5 of them for a total of $625. Obviously my best chances to do well were in event 3 and the event 3 overflow, when I couldn't dodge outdraws in crucial pots.<br />
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Outside of the ftops I have been running much better, and it is a shame that I couldn't get the luck during the ftops when some big money was up for grabs. I played the Big Doubles on monday night (15th March) simply because I was railing a friend of mine at the time in ftops #12, and wanted to play something in the background. I came 3rd in one of them for $1,500 when three handed I lost AKs all-in preflop vs JJ to be chip leader heads up. However I was lucky earlier in the tournament so I was very happy with the result. On Sunday I also had a serious nipup when a friend of mine who I had 5% of made the final table of the 2-day miniftops event. He tragically lost a huge pot to put him second in chips five handed when all-in preflop his KK couldnt hold against A9o. The villain stayed in and doubled up and my friend finished 6th for $20k after losing all-in pre with AJ vs Bristol. At least that hand doesn't ruin my life that much!!!!<br />
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Since the ftops finished I started playing more live cash at Norwich Poker Club, and more online cash on VC. Throughout the week I won on VC playing 6 tables of 50c/$1 PLO 6max cash, I've had 8 winning days in a row online now for a profit of around $1.6k. Also I played 50p/£1 cash at Norwich Poker Club on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and won on each of those visits for a total profit of £2,100. On Sunday I played in about $600 worth of tournaments, including the Sunday Million and the FullTilt $750k, but didn't cash in either of those. I did cash in the Daily $80k for $150, went deep in the $11 1/4 Million for $100 and went very deep in the $5R $40k gtd, but finished 40th out of 5000 for $150 also. So I finished slightly down on the night. <br />
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As well as the poker, I am still playing in the local table tennis league and playing badminton three times a week. I'm probably not going to play too much poker this week as it is Easter which is an important time for myself and my family, and because next week I am going to Birmingham with some good friends for the student poker championships. Also, come the weekend I am going to stay in the area and play the three-day £550 UKIPT Coventry. I expect it will attract around 500 runners and a first prize of around £60k. I'm not going through the hassle and bother of selling action again I'm perfectly happy to have it all. However, if any of my friends reading this would like any share at face value then that is fine, just text me. <br />
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Although I realise that for many of you the lack of a blog post last week meant great levels of depression and anger, I do hope you can accept my apology for such a grave wrongdoing and I will endeavour to ensure that this never happens again.<br />
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Peace,<br />
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Rich x<br />
<br />Bowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-63859981482609874752010-03-15T16:03:00.011+00:002010-03-31T08:39:41.620+01:00Struggling with 50 outersI have always quite liked Bristol, my brother went to university there, and I visited on several occasions for the weekend. I always had a great time, and looked forward to going back. Now my friend Lucie lives there and I am planning to go and visit again. So it seems hard for me to understand why Bristol is trying to ruin my life. For you non-poker players out there, Bristol is poker slang for a starting hand of two tens. It is the 6th best starting hand in poker, and the odds of being dealt a better hand are around 25-1. So, in theory at least, it is a strong hand that should win the majority of the time. <br /><br />The Miniftops started this week on wednesday with a $22 freezeout which I busted out of impressively quickly. Blinds were 15/30 and someone managed to open to 480. I assumed he had AK and flat called with Bristol. The flop came 456 and the guy open shoved. I figured he could have 88,99,JJ or AK so called. He had 44. Humorous open shove with a set but he did disguise it well.<br /><br />Thursday was a more interesting day. There were 3 miniftops events on. Event 2 was the $26 PLO8 knockout tourn that I chopped last time. There were around 5000 runners and I came about 180th I think for $65. I was card dead once the payouts had started, and lost a couple of showdowns that could have easily gone my way. Final hand was A248 all-in vs AK56. Flop came KTT which wasnt very helpful. Event 3 was a $55 9-handed Double Shootout, capped at 729. Given that the shootout had been full for hours before the start, FT also put on a standard $55 freezeout for everyone who couldnt play in the shootout which got 1500 runners.<br /><br />In the shootout I won my first table, being a bit of a rack shorthanded, winning with QQ vs 99 five handed then AK vs AQ three handed. So I was through to the round of 81, and in the money. I had to win my second table to get on the final. I won a huge pot early on with set over set. I was chip leader five handed when a short stacked shoved all-in. Then an average stack shoved as well and I called both with KK. They both had AT offsuit. It would have given me 2/3rd of the chips in play three handed but they hit their two outer when the flop came A high. I still had average stack left and stayed in contention. Then 3 handed it was folded to the SB who just had me covered and open shoved me all-in. I called with Bristol and he had 44. It would have given me 2/3rd of the chips in play again but the flop was A34, and I was drawing dead on the turn 4. I got $220 for coming 3rd in the second round.<br /><br />In the Event 3 Overflow I also went deep. I had average stack with 36 left which was 120k. The guy on my right had been 3-bet twice and folded both times. Blinds were 2k/4k/500 I was SB and it was folded round to this guy who was on the button and he open shipped for 80k. I thought he was weak and didnt want to raise-fold again so I reshoved with ATo, BB folded. The guy had A3 and the flop came 783 and i couldn't redraw. I was left on 40k which I got up to around 60k. Blinds went up to 2.5k/5k/600 and UTG minraised to 10k which he had a few times before. Another 60k stack then flat called and I shoved with 99. UTG passed and the caller took his whole time bank then hero called me all-in with AJo. Obviously his play was rewarded with a KQT flop and I was out in about 30th for $210.<br /><br />Since then I haven't cashed in any of the events over the weekend. Event 4 was a $20 1R1A tourn and I had a large stack but raised with Bristol from early position. I got one caller from mid position. The flop came 356 two clubs and I bet, the caller raised and I went all-in. He had called with 24 obviously. Event 5 was a complete joke. It was the $20 FLHE. I'm no expert at fixed limit, but surely capping it on the flop with 8To on a J33 two heart flop isn't good play? But when I have AQhh and it comes a ten of spades on the turn I guess it was a good 4-bet. I also lost a huge pot with KKsh on a Q high all heart flop vs TJhh. Then lost a big pot with QTss vs AKo and AKo on a Q46 flop, they still hit a King on the river. It was a terrible tournament, remind me to never play FLHE ever again.<br /><br />Saturday I had outs to go deep but couldn't manage to cash. In the $55 PLO 6-max which I was really looking forward to, I got up to around 30k over the first few hours. Then I lost a huge 60k pot with 2456 all-in on a K53 flop vs AK95. Turn was a King to leave me dead. Then in the later $10R I got a stack early on and played fairly well but lost two crucial flips in the late stages to lose my stack which was rather annoying.<br /><br />On sunday the early tourn was a $13 knockout which got about three million runners and I didn't play very well, stacking off with AQ on a A78 flop to 77. Later was the $55 HU shootout which I really wanted to do well in, as I feel that my heads up game has improved. But I crashed out in the first round when my opponent 3-bet pre, and I called with KThh. The flop came 894hh and I raised his c-bet. He shoved and I had to call. He had 84o which somehow held despite the ten on the turn. The late tourn was a $33 freezeout. I reraised preflop to 400 with KK and got two callers. The flop came T high all hearts. I bet 750, and got a raise to 1800 then a shove for 5k so I folded. The raiser to 1800 called with KJhh, the shover had ATo no heart somehow. So I was down to 3500. A few rounds later someone open shoved for 3k and I shoved with KK. They had 99 and the Board came A359A. Lovely lol, no val in KK.<br /><br />I also played the sunday million last night. It started terribly, I was down to 3k in no time, with two outdraws and a bad bluff. But luckily I won a flip and got back up to 6k. I won some small pots and things were starting to go my way as I was up to about 10k. Then I played a pretty sick hand. Someone raised to 700, someone else called and I raised to 1950 with JJ. They both called. Flop came T96 two clubs. I bet 1999, the raiser passed and other player called. Turn was another 6 no club. I checked and he shoved for 6k. I snap called and my hand held against his 88 to put me above 20k. A while later I won a massve flip with QQ vs AK to put me on 65k. Then later a 20k stack open shoved and I called with AA. He had Bristol lol. Obviously flop came 78996 for a 45k pot. I was left on 45k. Near the bubble I made two huge, sick, potentially suicidal bluffs but won both for very big pots and I cashed on about 100k. I got up to about 160k and felt like I was playing very well and in the zone. <br /><br />Average stack was about 100k when someone minraised to 8k preflop. I called in the SB with 44 as we were both massively deep, and the BB called as well. The flop came 56Q one spade and was checked round. Turn was a Ks and I bet 12,345. BB folded and the raiser called. River was a 4, Happy days! I bet 45k into 55k. He then put me all-in for another 100k. I was struggling to put him on a hand: 23 and 37 he wouldn't minraise preflop, and 78 is an unlikely minraise but if he did raise with it then I assume he would bet the flop with an up and down draw in position. A bigger set I think he would bet the flop or raise the turn as there is a flush draw and loads of straight draws on board. Not because he is afraid of getting outdrawn necessarily, but more that if one of those draws hits it would slow his action. So I called unable to put him on a better hand and he had decided to min-raise preflop with 23. Another lovely two outer. What a sick card for him to river the best hand and for him to get paid lol, an absolute miracle of a hand for him. So I crashed out in 800th for $450, and was gutted as I was playing really well and had a decent stack. Standard sunday million bustout on a ridiculous hand.<br /><br />I've also played a small amount of cash on VC, still 6-tabling 50/1 PLO and it's going well, I won around $300 this week. So currently on full tilt I have cashed in 3 miniftops events of the first 10 for $500 total. Tonight is a $22 FLO8 tourn and a $109 NLHE tourn so I'm looking forward to both of those and I hope to do well in both. There are a lot of miniftops events this week so hopefully I can final table one of them.<br /><br />Rich xBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-70520565333261370012010-03-09T12:18:00.004+00:002010-03-31T06:08:37.320+01:00Kinder Bueno Eggs ftw!Very little to report this week, I haven't played much poker. I was a huge luckbox in a $5 turbo rebuy on VC that I played on wednesday night with 500 runners. I didn't really want to play it so just shoved with suited connectors a few times before the end of the rebuy period. Got called by AK, AQ, KQ and JJ I think and won every one. I had 50k at the break when average was 7k. I played it a bit more seriously after that but still didn't play very well to be honest. 50 players cashed and with 50 left I had 125k and was second in chips. It was at this point when I started playing well and tried to go deep. I ended up coming second for $1.2k after winning a massive flip 5 handed with 55 vs A7 in a battle of the blinds, to save me from coming 5th for $200. Good old Beehives winning me $1k essentially. I really didn't deserve to come second given how terribly I had played, but nevermind, i'll take it for all the times I had played well and been outdrawn by terrible calls.<br /><br />I have been playing some PLO 6max on VC as well, playing 6 tables at a time. I am around $500 up after playing for about 5 hours this week. I have been so lazy it's ridiculous. I guess I'm just enjoying having plenty of free time after the last 2 months when I had been playing 6 hours of sit and gos most days. But I really need to start playing regularly, to hopefully earn some money and to earn a nice VIP bonus come the end of the month.<br /><br />I had an annoying night at the poker club on saturday, losing £70 in the £10r, then £150 on cash after running AKss into AA for a £200 pot then losing with J9 on a T85 flop all-in vs AK, AQ and A5 for a £150 pot. Obv A5 scoops, nh sir. So I left early, knowing that it simply wasn't my night and not wanting to lose more money. I Did what I usually do when I'm on tilt and bored, and bundled round Owe's house after picking up the essentials from Tesco: Kinder Bueno Eggs, Ice cream, Coke and Mr Kipling Viennese Whirls was the shopping list I was given lol. Sleepy Hollow, Shepherd's pie, and Ice Cream did turn out to be a world class combination.<br /><br />Sunday started well as a football bet came in for £100. I wasn't as lucky at poker though. I was staked in the Daily 80k, the 1/4 Million and the Sunday Million. I got close to the bubble in the Daily 80k then I lost a crucial race to go out. The sunday million was also frustrating, I lost a sick pot to a backdoor straight which would have put me on 55k but left me on 20k. I then tried to survive for as long as possible, stealing where I could. I managed to survive for a long time hoping for a double up, but it never came and I went out in about 1800th with 1500 cashing. I shoved with K7 and ran into KJss and couldn't hit. My backer also bubbled it losing a huge pot with QQ vs AJ all-in on a KQ3 flop. It was a rather frustrating day.<br /><br />This week should be good fun. Tonight is Ben's birthday, think the plan is to get some drinks in then go to the poker club for cash. Tomorrow I have an away table tennis match against Owe's club, which should be great fun, as Owe, Jurate, Shane and Aaron will all be there and I'm sure there will be plenty of banter. And the miniftops tournaments start tomorrow night at 2am so I'll be playing them all week. Hopefully I'll be able to go deep in at least one and have a nice draw. Run good everyone,<br /><br />Rich x<br /><br />PS - Congratulations to Mike and TamBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-13887270448445726422010-03-02T18:38:00.007+00:002020-02-20T10:48:36.805+00:00Lol DuskamentsWell, the first part of this week was very uneventful, given that I got truly wrapped up in the winter olympics, so spent most of my time watching the coverage. I honestly cannot wait until London 2012, it's going to be simply incredible. So I didn't play any poker until the weekend, and when I did it wasn't exactly profitable. Friday night I went to the Poker Club and lost £150 on the texas cash game, the one big pot I was involved in was Gateway (KT) on a T high two heart flop all-in against 89hh but he hit a heart on the turn for a £300 pot.<br />
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Saturday I woke up at 10am after 2 hours sleep and got picked up by Dave and joined Lewy and Jason as we headed to Nottingham. We made a quick stop in Notts for some cigarettes, petrol and some football bets, then all played the £50 freezeout £10k gtd along with 288 others. My first table was ideal, with everyone able to read the game on a moderate level, which made it easy for me to make them believe what I wanted them to. I had 23k at the break and hadn't lost a pot and had a perfect table image because noone wanted to play a pot against me. I got up to around 30k when I unfortunately got moved. It was not an enjoyable second table. After 5 minutes I texted my friend Keysie "I'm in hell." It was shocking. I would guess that 3 players on my table had not played live poker more than 3 times before, and 7 players hadn't been playing poker for more than 3 months.<br />
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A hand happened at 300/600 when someone open shoved for 15k and it was folded to the big blind who had almost the same stack. he thought for a long time, measured out the call, then passed. He shock his head while passing and said, "I should have called that, I had good cards. I had a queen and a ten of the same suit." Incredible. Another guy on the table looked like a nervous wreck every time he made a bet, taking at least 3 minutes to measure out a call every time he was involved, collecting chips one at a time and carefully stacking them, before putting them into the pot. I was seriously considering going for a drink at the bar and blinding out. Still at 300/600 I heard one of the greatest lines of reasoning I'd ever heard while at the poker table. It was limped to the big blind who raised 2,800 more. It was folded to the small blind who asked how much the BB had left and was told 9,725. The SB then said exactly the following out loud: <br />
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"Ok so it's 2,800 plus 9,725 to me which is 13,435 in total. I've put 600 in, I have 22k left, average stack is 19k, I'm 60/40 but I need 3-1. If I miss the flop I'll be 70/30 then be pot committed. Hmmm, 13,435 is a lot. If I had less chips it'd be easier but I guess I'm not getting 2-1 so I have to fold in case there is no value. Good bet."<br />
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By far the greatest line of reasoning I've heard in a long time. If anyone has a clue what he was on about, please let me know. I'm lucky no-one I knew was on the table as I'm sure I would have burst out laughing. I tightened up and waited for a hand. After a few hours I was on about 60k then lost a flip with 88 vs AK for a 40k pot which left me on about 40k. Blinds by now were 1k/2k/300 and there were about 80 left and average stack was 35k. I had 48k in the BB and the button made it 4.5k. I called with Q9ss and it came K23sss. I checked he bet 6k I made it 15k and he put me all-in. I called and he had As4h. It was a 100k pot and sadly the Ts came straight in on the turn and I was out. Rather annoying really as 1st prize was £4.5k and if I win that pot I probably win the tournament ;)<br />
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I lost two buyins on the 5-5 Dealers table, both on annoying hands. One was unavoidable in five card omaha I had 7TAdd on a 5689ddcc turn vs 99TJccc all-in for a £600 pot. Both our hands are obviously huge and the money has to go in. I think I'm about a 60/40 favourite with one card to come, but the river paired 6s. The other hand was six card omaha, with a blind raise to £30. I called and someone re-raised to £90 then the blind raiser went all-in blind and I had to either call for £200 or fold. I had AAK935 double suited and called. I could have easily folded here because you can't really be ahead preflop in 6 card omaha and it would have been gambling with a tiny edge. Since I wasn't going to rebuy again and I had a bigger edge at other games, and seeing flops, I should have folded and waited for a better spot. The board came out 26TK8 and the blind re-raiser found TT and won. Lol good old Bristol ruining my life again. So finished £400 down on cash, then tilted away a bottle at Roulette to end a rather annoying trip to Dusk.<br />
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On the way home I was checking some of my football bets, and my £25 acca was looking good, with the first 3 out of 4 having won. The last one was Bristol Rovers at home. "I think they drew," said Jason. Standard I thought, Bristol ruining my life again. But no Boom! They won 3-2 at home to earn me £400 so I finished only about £300 down on the night. It was a quality trip though, I went mainly for the banter, which was well worth it. And at least I had a shot for a nice draw in the tourney.<br />
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I slept from 4am till 11pm on sunday catching up on some sleep from the last few nights, and missed all the sunday action, the £100 freezeout at NPC, plus all the online tourneys, so didn't really do much on sunday. Monday I played some PLO cash on VC, I figured given my VIP deal and the fact that I don't want to grind sngs all day, I'd have a look at the cash tables. I played 6 tables of 50/1 PLO 6-max for about 2 hours and won $600. I ran fairly good obviously, but now I will play a much larger sample size and see if it profitable in the long run as I enjoy it and it will result in a large VIP bonus at the end of the month if I can make it work. Also the MiniFTOPS starts in a week, and luckily I have been staked in every event for about $1300. So I'm looking forward to that starting, and am very grateful to my backer. I hope I can win some money and try to defend my title in event 2. That's all the news for now I think. Peace,<br />
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Rich xBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-61141626784852318232010-02-23T05:15:00.001+00:002010-02-23T08:24:28.142+00:00Don't Stop BelievingTuesday 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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<br /><br />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,<br /><br />Rich xBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-37007189847668638702010-02-16T09:18:00.002+00:002010-02-16T09:53:48.446+00:00The first page of a new chapterWelcome to the new look Bowburn poker blog. I've redesigned my blog, and decided to change the way I write it as well. I will now update it every week on a monday, covering all the week's news. So feel free to check here every monday night for a new weekly column detailing the highs and lows of my life as a professional gambler. Hope you like the new look, feel free to post any comments you might have as to whether or not you like it and what can be done to improve it. I also decided to remove my old posts, which I was sad about in many ways, but felt that it was right to do as I view poker a lot differently now than I did at the start of this blog. I felt that some of those posts would be out of place and would conflict with my current attitude and how I feel now.<br /><br />Not much to report since my review of January was posted. I'm currently splitting my time between playing tournaments on Stars and sngs on VC. I didn't cash in the sunday million this week unfortunately but I swapped 10% with a good friend of mine who tragically finished 46th for $2.8k. He raised from late position and the button shoved him allin. He called with AK and was up against Q9 and the flop was 9 high. The pot was for 2m when average stack was 1.5m. He was playing the tournament round my flat with another friend who also had 10%. Needless to say, we were all absolutely gutted that once again a chance for life changing money had ended in a bad beat. I'm really looking forward to next sunday as it is both the FTOPS main event $2.5m gtd. and the Stars special sunday million $4m gtd, so there will be some big money up for grabs. I will hopefully sell half of my action in the FTOPS event, and probably swap 10% with a few friends who I know will also be playing the sunday million, so there is a good chance that I will have an interest deep into the million again. Hopefully one day I will be involved in the final table in some way.<br /><br />I'm also starting to formulate my plans for the summer. I have already booked a holiday to Skiathos, a Greek island, in May with my family. I am also hoping to return to Las Vegas this summer for at least a month if possible. And I will be moving into a new flat over the summer as well. I will probably get a new place on my own in Norwich, although I am open to the suggestion of living with someone else, or living in a different city. I'm still in the early stages of planning this move, but it will probably happen at the end of the summer. That's all for now, hopefully next sunday's tournaments will go well and next monday's post will be one to remember. Take care,<br /><br />Rich xBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5015487523921722742.post-1249366324445800492010-02-13T19:00:00.001+00:002010-03-31T08:39:18.777+01:00January ReviewSo the challenge was basically to play at least 1000 $55 double up sngs in January to see whether or not it was a consistently profitable endeavour. Given that I have a new VIP deal rewarding the amount I rake on the site, I was hoping that playing the sngs would result in a nice profit. I did manage to play the thousand sit and gos throughout the month with mixed success. I finished $2,140 down, but earnt a VIP bonus of $3,280, so finished +$1,140 at the end of the month.<br /><br />This figure was a little disappointing as I was hoping to come close to breaking even while playing the games and the majority of my bonus would be profit. There were a number of reasons as to why this was not the case. Firstly, instead of playing 40 games a day for 25 days, my volume was much more inconsistent. I had a side bet with Jeal, which involved the person playing the most sit and gos in January winning a share of the other's VIP bonus. I had played 500 games after 9 days while running good and was around $1,000 up. Unfortunately Jeal had to withdraw from the bet due to a nasty downswing that was no fault of his own. So, I lost my motivation to keep playing every day and assumed that since 500 games only took me 9 days, the other 500 would be easy to finish in the month. I played 100 games over the next 2 weeks, being far too lazy and barely playing. With one week left I still had to play 400 games so I started playing regularly again.<br /><br />At this time my luck turned and I started a week long run of form that was truly horrendous. I lost so many ridiculous showdowns in a row it was hard to take. With 5 days to go I still had 300 games to play so started playing 60 a day. Playing 60 sngs a day when you can't win a showdown, is very very hard. I was losing money every day and it was emotionally draining to carry on playing. Due to my bad form and not having many breaks I started tilting and played worse as a result. Also my concentration would be good for the first few sets of 6 but would be poor in the last few sets. This week was one of the worst weeks I've spent playing poker, and I came close to quitting at various points. However, I finished it, having lost around $3,000 over the last 500 games to finish about $2,000 down. I was truly mad at myself for taking two weeks off instead of slowly keeping up the games.<br /><br />I think that if I had spread the games out more evenly, had a break every 18 games instead of every 30, and not been cursed for the last week I would have had a much more successful month, but it was largely my fault for leaving myself too many to play and not allowing for the possibility of running bad. However, I still earnt $1,100 on the month so it wasn't a disaster by any means. I think if I continued to play these sngs and learnt from my mistakes I could probably earn around $2k a month on average. It really wasn't much fun at times though, I personally didn't see it as playing poker, it was just playing a set formula and hoping to win flips. Some people can grind 1k sngs a month but I don't think I am one of them. I would rather be playing tournaments or cash where the full spectrum of poker is being played, rather than following a formula like a robot, which is necessary in double up sngs. And although it is clearly profitable, I think that tournaments are much more profitable for me at the moment, as I am playing very well and running well also.<br /><br />The plan for feb was to play more sngs to take advantage of the double up promotion on ipoker but on closer inspection, and after 2 days of playing it was obvious that there was no value in playing it as I would have had to play 200 sngs a day for a week, to earn about $500. Playing 18 hours a day non stop for a week didn't seem worth it to me, as my sanity would have probably gone after 3 or 4 days. So I've just been playing some comps for the time being, and luckily had some good results.<br /><br />In recent news I finished 25th in the sunday million two weeks ago which won me $6k, but I was gutted not to go further obviously, 6th prize was $100k, and 1st was $600k. I went out with AJs vs KQs allin preflop, but I had lost half of my stack a few rounds earlier bluffing every street, before having to fold to a check raise all-in. The AJ would have put me back above average which was a shame but if I hadn't lost half my stack then i'm sure KQ would have folded preflop, so in some respects it was avoidable. The day after I won a PLO8 tourn for $1.2k, and the following sunday I cashed in the sunday million again, finishing 500th for $500, but was very unlucky when someone open shoved 14BBs (2/3rd average stack) from the cutoff with Q5o and I had JJ on the button. I had average stack before the hand and it was a huge pot which left me crippled. Great shove sir, are you really that desperate to steal the blinds? Standard sunday million donk.<br /><br />Played live for the first time in a while last night in a dealers choice game in yarmouth, hosted by a friend of mine. I ran good and won a monkey. It was a lot of fun, with so much great banter all night it was hilarious. And I saw some old friends who I had not seen in a long time so it was a very good night. Hopefully i'll start playing live again in Norwich and yarmouth, as I do enjoy it and it makes for a nice break from online poker sometimes.<br /><br />Rich xBowburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01583057826816270159noreply@blogger.com0