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'.
But that's about to change.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Summer 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.
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.
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!
Rich x
PS - Las Vegas is booked again for this year 30th Aug - 30th Sep. Can't wait for that, our house is even sicker than last year :)))))))
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.
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!
Rich x
PS - Las Vegas is booked again for this year 30th Aug - 30th Sep. Can't wait for that, our house is even sicker than last year :)))))))
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Very Humorous
Well, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ;)
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,
Rich x
PS - Barbers are the world's best philosophers. Listen to their words wisely.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ;)
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,
Rich x
PS - Barbers are the world's best philosophers. Listen to their words wisely.
Monday, 12 April 2010
His surname is .Riivers. and he plays on pokerstars
It'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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!"
Rich x
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!"
Rich x
Monday, 5 April 2010
The 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ;)
Rich x
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.
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.
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.
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 ;)
Rich x
Monday, 29 March 2010
Play 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!!
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.
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.
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.
Peace,
Rich x
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!!
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.
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.
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.
Peace,
Rich x
Monday, 15 March 2010
Struggling with 50 outers
I 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rich x
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rich x
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