April Review

Well dropping the stakes seemed to do ok in April, made a modest profit of about £1500, beats a kick in the nads!! Most of this came from low stakes HU games and a bit of rakeback.

Again this was playing relatively little poker. I've always been a little impatient to put too much effort into game selection but with the game getting a bit tighter over the past year or so I'm starting to give it more consideration. I days gone by mugs abounded at most levels of the game no matter which table you sat at. These days you have to work a little harder for your lunch and seek out the fish... or more importantly avoid the sharks. There are players who i'm about even money against.. especially HU and there really is no point playing them, the rake ends up killing you.

On the MTT front again i've been dabbling low stakes on Crypto Head hunters, I quite like the concept, the players are very happy to gamble against you and taking a few heads covers the buy in even if you don't cash. The only down side is that unless you take a few head along the way the final table money can be a bit of a let down.

The other night i wasn't in the mood for a 'serious session' so I took a look at Sky Poker and had a play on the Open. This is the MTT that runs on TV live while you play, it's low entry fee and a bit of a donk fest but good fun non the less, plus you get to listen to Helen C pull all the plays apart. I managed to go out just b4 the bubble and will prob have another go for the sheer entertainment value.

Toying with the idea of a trip to DTD for the Blonde Bash this weekend. See what the weather is like i think. May I'm still taking it easy on the low stakes stuff ($100 HU max i think) see how it goes.

Get knocked down... but i get up again..and again ..and again

I really do need to start doing more regular updates i think! Appologies!

I've just had a read of my last post and had to laugh at the ....

" Time to increase the playing levels a bit in March … see if we can get the bank roll back up to £10k + in the next few months. I'm also dying for a trip to Vegas and really need to sort it out."


I think about 20seconds after I'd posted that I sat at a couple £2/5 tables and walked into a nightmare session. One of those that you inevitably get if you play enough poker, after you take a couple of beats you can almost name the river card every time the money goes in......

You flop the nut straight with a flush re-draw all the money goes in and he makes a bigger flush.
You make a straight and he has top pair and a gutshot draw hits the gutshot or runner runner full house etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

They seem to come in clumps, the 1st one leaves your head spinnin a little and before you know it you've shipped your money into the middle 8 times in a range of hands where you are a 60% to a 96% favourite and lost every one... it's not even like ur tilting and getting it in behind. I've played enough poker to take these on the chin but could have done with an even break from a timing perspective. But if you take a shot.... u know the risks.

The hit was about just shy of £3k and after the 1st week in March I was back to struggling a bit from a bankroll perspective and grinding away, managed to get about £1k back before the end of the month. Again I've been withdrawing money from the bankroll to pay for holidays and stuff which doesn't help (but it beats spunking it down the drain i guess) , both me and the Mrs are still working part time so any 'extras' tend to come out of the bank roll.

to be honest i'm not sure what to play at the moment, i'm stuggling to find a lot of time to put an major effort in so I'm playing fairly low stakes and low volumes.

I emptied the BF account (withdrew not busto) and the put £50 quid back in for a minor flutter on the Grand National, I made the grand sum of £25 and managed to turn that into £500 in a few days playing lowstakes heads up, think I'll keep that account going like that and see what happens.

Had another trip to DTD. I wasn't really in the mood for an MTT and bust out fairly quickly playing fast, loose and badly. The only thing of note was that the guy who took me out was John Kalmar of WSOP final table fame. I then spent the rest of the evening playing in a very amusing low stakes cash game and made a few quid as well as totally pissing off a local with a well timed over the top bluff on an ace high flop when he C bet with QQ. I had to show my rags and he was less than complimentary :)

Betfair are ramping up their WSOPE promotions at the moment, apparently they've set aside $1.5m in promotions to send a load of BF lambs to the slaughter :)

Betfair are usually pretty good at giving value seats away for their sponsored events so well worth a look.

Part of me thinks it's prob not the best idea to be chasin a WSOPE seat at the moment I'd rather have the cash than the $24K entry package. But if you can get in cheap with a shot to change your life for ever then why not! Speaking of the WSPOE, coverage of last years started on Sky Sports this week and should make interesting viewing.

Quiet Feb after a big win

No updates for a while. I decided to have a very quiet month in Feb. The main reason being that at the end of Jan I won the Sunday £7.5k added Super Series on Hills, showing a very nice £4.5k return for a £35 investment :).





As it turns out that was the last £7.5k added… there's still a super series game at 4pm on Sundays but the buyin and the added money has been reduced which is a shame.

The win came just in the nick of time as well, so I decided to take it very easy in Feb and just play small MTTs showing a small profit.

I also had another trip to DTD for the Friday £75 FO and once again made the final table but once again ended up a disappointing 9th for not much money. I seem to be getting off to a flyer in live MTTs at the moment… I'd taken 4 people out within 30mins on this trip. Things then went downhill a little and it was lookin pretty grim when with 19 left I had 1 big blind left after losing a race. A treble up and two double ups within 4 hands saw me gain some momentum and hit the final table with average chips only for everything to slow to a stop and go totally card dead. There were several all ins where the low stack should have gone but always seemed to hit… before you know it I'm in trouble and out in 9th.

On a side note I'm sure I must come across as a complete moron when playing live… the gobby live pros always seem to sit there having a dig at me fumbling through counting my chips or having a few seconds think before I pass… this has happened a few times and invariably a few hours later when we both still sat there chipped up I'll get some backhanded compliment … always makes me laugh.

Time to increase the playing levels a bit in March … see if we can get the bank roll back up to £10k + in the next few months. I'm also dying for a trip to Vegas and really need to sort it out.

Another DTD Trip

Went along to Dusk Till Dawn again on Friday for what I thought was a £100 FO but turned out to be the 1st day of a new schedule and a £75 FO. Not to worry as the event had sold out at 140 runners and the club was very busy... good to see. I managed to donk myself off in 28th after having on of the best starts to a live MTT i've ever had.

3 hands into the tournie i'm on the SB with the blind at 25/50. Early position raises to 250 and picks up three callers and I come along for the ride with 45os. Flop comes along 4 5 Q .... two of the callers had AQ and next thing you know I'm sitting on a 11k stack from 4k starting. Within 25mins this was up to 19k. No idea where it went wrong from here..... apart from maybe getting a bit over aggro with a big stack and a bit unlucky when 60/40 in front 3 or 4 times on the bounce. Oh well.

Simon Nowab (he runs the key accounts at Dusk Till Dawn) came across to say hello during one of the breaks and I mentioned to him that I'd been playing a lot of HU in the past few months, he commented on how it can kill your MTT and CASH games. I had considered this before and had come to the conclusion that it actually improved some aspects of the cash game for a tight player. But I guess it can go too far the other way as well.

This prompted me to take a look at my woeful MTT record over recent months. I not playing many... maybe 3 or 4 a week, but I can't remember the last time I cashed in one. I think I'm just a bit too keen to race off my chips preflop with a marginal edge.... this is fine in the end game of a HU match but the wheels are bound to come off sooner of later in a MTT with this approach. Must do better.

I'm no longer drawing a wage from my bank roll so there's no real pressure to play at the moment. Focus is on rebuilding the roll to it's former glory and using it to pay for a few fun things so a juicy MTT payout would be nice.
Good luck,

Jim

Thanks SmartMoney (OT)

A few months ago Smartmoney posted a msg on the betfair forum about a new series on BBC4 called Flight of the Conchords. He'd already seen it on HBO in the states. Its about 2 New Zealand blokes in a (very poor) band living in New York, it's based on their stand up act i think .. every 5 mins they burst into song and it very funny.

Anyway me and the Mrs turned it on and every Tuesday night laughing our asses off.

It's finished now but I found this on Youtube...

Bret has asked Jerome to help him write a love song for his new girlfriend... :)



Poker had two weeks off for Crimbo and NYear... done ok since then. Off to DTD this Friday if anyone fancies a pint?

Jim

Dusk Till Dawn 1st visit

A week last Friday I had the pleasure of going to the new Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham. The club is reputed to be the biggest poker club in Europe. It has to be said, it is fantastic. With it being the opening weekend we were met with champagne and canapes at the door then onto the bar for a few quick ones before the £100 freeze out started at 7:30pm. An intersting side note is that if ou play online at Dusk Till Dawn you can convert Crypto MPPs into tournie buy ins at Dusk Till Dawn, anyone who plays a fair bit can essentially freeroll in a few live MTTs a month using this feature. Nice option to have.

The club is owned and run by poker players and you can tell. The MTT structure was excellent and if anything may have been a touch... and only a touch slow. The 108 runner game ended up having to do a 5 way chip count at 6am when the time ran out.



I thought that with it being a dedicated poker club on a invite only opening weekend the field would be very good and while there were a few faces amongst the runners I was surprised to quickly assess my opening table as about 60-70% weak passive. With that in mind I didn't waste any time getting busy and had doubled my starting 5k in chips by level 2/3. There was some shocking play at my table from a few... some did not know what they were doing but I was surprised to find out that one of the guys was a big poster on the Blonde forum... goes to show you should not always believe what u read on the internet. He managed to pass his BB to an early min raise with 5 callers?!??!?! FishandChips was one of the few i rated at the table and it was nice to say hi to a fellow blogger.

My favourite hand from the opening levels was against a guy who had a really bad tell. He looked a little like Napoleon Dynamite which amused me no end.


Heads up for rollz Napoleon?

He'd already played and hand vs someone else where he was obviously on a overpair and obviously behind and i'd watched him and thought I had him pretty much pegged. Anyway I'd raised it in mid-late pos with As9s and get min reraised which I have to call. At this point in time I'm thinking AK / AQ for matey boy. He looks like he's got a hand, flop comes J T 2 . Just one look at him and i know he's missed it so I lead out. He flat calls, I'm sure he's got no pair but a touch worried that I'm not going to be able to get him off it. Turn comes a lovely 9 for me. All my money goes in and he obliges with a call for all his stack with AK... i had him well covered.

I managed to double my stack only showing one hand and as is usually the case managed to get dumped back down to earth with a total monster. I managed to flop a set of Kings in a raised and re-raised pot only to lose to 9T on a K T Q J board... how he managed to see a turn with me firing big at it was beyond me. I then floated up and down between 7 and 14k for a long time. A break came when I jammed preflop with JJ vs AK .... the A K 2 flop did not look good but a T on the turn and rivered Q pointed my in the right direction and I doubled up again the very next hand with AK on a KK5 flop. He picked a flush draw on the turn and decided to ask me a question.... he got an answer.

I was then chipped up and in no mood to muck about, a blind vs blind headbut but saw me making what was probably a bad call with QTs to the BBs all in. I'd raised to 4k and he jammed for another 13k extra. He flipped A9 and there were a few gaping mouths when I called with QT.... a ten obliged the river and matey boy exited muttering something about bad players.

We were down to last 17 or so and I was a comfortable chip lead at this point. Here the make or break hand came. I've already posted this on the Betfair forum and it managed to split opinion quite well. I think next time I may well pass but it has to be said ... getting them in is much more fun.

I'm stacked up on about 80k or so, the guy to my left is also on a chunk of about 45k. I raised it up to 4k with 5s6s. He flat calls and the flop comes a rather nice looking 6c 4s 9s. I check looking to check raise and he just sticks his remaining 40k into the pot!?

Now I dwell this up for a long time. Obviously I'm probably behind most of the time, the question is do I want to gamble on hitting one of my 13 or so outs in order to command 25% of the chips in play with 17 players left? :) I finally decide that WTF am im playing 56s for if I pass on this flop and stick 'em in. He sighs and say good call and flips 88. Running red Queens and I'm back in the mire. I make it into the money and then the final table but walk a A9 steal into the BB with Aces and that was my end in 9th place for £220. Oh well always next time, at least I have my second entry on the Hendon Mob results database now!

Dusk Till Dawn is fantastic and what's more it has it's heart in the right place! It deserves every poker players support and I would encourage everyone to give it a visit!

Back to the grind

Over the past 4 years or so most of my poker has been cash games. So i decided to go back and have a dabble last week... big mistake. I was playing fairly LAG (too much heads up) and managed to find myself 2nd best in a number of pots that I could not get away from AK on a KK2 flop where hes holding 22 etc. I then missed an up and down straight flush draw with two overcards to top pair. I then folded a up and down straight flush draw with two all ins before me... i held 2h3h so i figured one of them prob had a higher flush draw of course I was wrong and i'd have hit and would have won a huge pot. Anyway that put paid to the cash session and I left feeling a little bruised.

I've not had much luck in MTTs either. I've been playing low stakes 100-200 runners comps with added money or a decent guarantee. The best of which is the outstanding value in the William Hill Super Series MTTs. They run 4 of these a week and they are exclusive to Hills

Sunday 16:00 UK - £7,500 ADDED Buy-In £35 + £4
Monday 19:30 UK - £3,500 ADDED Buy-In £15 + £2
Wednesday 19:30 UK - £1,500 ADDED Buy-In £7.50 + £1 (requires 25 MPPs earnt in the previous 7 days)
Friday 19:30 UK - £500 ADDED Buy-In £2.50 + £0.50 (requires 20 MPPs earnt in the previous 7 days)

I've mainly been playing the £7500 added one, the prize pool is usually around £15000 and so it's fantastic value. Last week I was running really well moving towards the latter stages when I get it all in on a rag flop with Aces... he calls with Kings and the river obliges with a two outer. Was a bit gutted as I was playing well and though I'd have a shot at a win if I won that pot.

Where I have been running good is in Sat and STTs. I'm in the Monthly BF $150k on Sunday for $50 at the first time of asking and I've also qualified 3 times from 3 attempts for the weekly $3000 Passport game for $20, think its just matter of time before I win one. HU is going okish... keep grinding away then seem to hit a bad run of 4-5 on the bounce every few days. The success in the small Sats prompted me to play a few six handed STTs and I've won more than my fair share. I may dabble more in these over the next week or two.

On the live front Dusk Till Dawn opens next week and I'm really looking forward to it!! I'm bought in for the £100 Freeze Out on the Friday night and I'm really looking forward to playng live again.

On the work from I've decided to take a bit more work on. This is really to take the pressure off a small bank roll at the moment. We'll see how it's going and review again is a few months.

Cheers for the support on the comments,

Jim