CPC and DTD Anniversary Cup

Overdue an update after the Caribbean trip. The trip was lots of fun, I'd not played much poker in the 1st half of November on account of having some shitty chest infection that lingered on for weeks and weeks, I was feeling a touch better as we headed off to Miami on the 15th but still coughing a lung up every 5mins. While the cruise was great the poker on the cruise was bloody awful. Played in a few side events with zero luck. I managed to walk 2nd nut flush into nut flush on the 2nd orbit of the $400 buyin event and things continued much the same for the rest of the trip.

Freedom of the Seas docked in St Thomas



Half way through the week I decided to divert to a little cash action and continued to get donked. I lost a chunk with AA vs TT when half the money was in preflop and then managed to lose with QhJh on a three heart flop to Kh9h. It was time for a rethink and a cunning plan was formulated. The Crypto Card room would not let any of the regular passengers onboard in, so value in the card room was pretty thin. However, they had one of those new dealerless tables in the ship casino and I managed to stumble across a load of tourists donking each other off playing $3/6 NL. I sit down and set to destroying them, all was going well until a few scandies from Crypto spot the action and decide to join in. One had been knocking back the beers and started playing pretty wild when the following hand occurs...

I'm dealt 4h7c in the BB and it's min raised with 6 callers... i tag along for the ride and catch a 5h 6s 8h flop. I check (every flop was being raised) and pissed scandie to my left bets a little shy of the pot, he then picks up no less than 4 callers on its way round to me to I RR a reasonable amount. Scandie jams all in without a 2nd thought.... it then goes CALL...CALL....CALL.... (shrug) CALL.... and its round to me... i'm not passing :). Scandie shows a rag flush draw, there's also 1)a pair and a gut shot draw 2) a gutshot draw 3) top pair top kicker 4)two over cards!!.... US tourists playing 3/6NL you have to love it!!

Good news is everyone has a heart so scandie boy is drawing thin.... but manages to peel off his heart on the turn to take down a $2k+ pot.... wonderful! After that I give up and decide to drink some beer and catch some sun. I did play a couple of STTs which were fun and managed a 2nd and a 1st from about 4 or 5 attempts. One hand of note saw ClintonO bust my Aces with 73 os after calling a PF raise for half his stack... bloody fish :) All in all ended up about $2k down for the trip and licking the wounds a little.

Lifes a beach...




Despite the poker me and the Mrs managed to have a great time. The Freedom of the Seas is one impressive ship and highly recommended. Spent some time on some of the most fantastic beaches I've ever been on and generally spent the rest of the week chillin out with the wife and meeting some great people! The grandparents looked after Jack and it was great to have 'week off'.


On return to the UK it was review the bank roll time again. Just before we left I'd withdrawn a load and this combined with the hit from the trip once again left me a touch on the thin side. I decided sell 30% in the DTD Anniversary Cup as a bit of insurance, and last Thursday once again headed up the M1 to Nottingham to start what would hopefully be a 4 day event. I'd had a little bet on Blonde on the number of runners and went over 133 for $50. My money as pretty safe as it picked up a very respectable 189 runners in the end. Think DTD will be very happy with this for a £1k event, especially considering there were other major events elsewhere in the UK. 20k starting chips, 2 hour levels and a slow structure.... I packed my Ipod.

Had a bit of a strange table to start with. Everyone was playing it very cagey and I managed to pick up a lot of pots as I opened up my PF raising criteria. One bloke announced after 4 hrs play that he'd been counting and I'd raised PF 4 times more than anyone else ... I slowed down a little after he said that! :)

I managed to get up to about 40k from a 20k starting stack then spent hours and hours bouncing between 40k and 25k. I hit a bad patch at the end of day 1 and returned for day 2 with about 28k which was a little below average but still no where near any trouble as the blinds were 250-500. I did manage a little luck vs a short stack with QsQh vs AhAd in a Button vs BB battle. It all went in PF and I luckboxed a 9s Ts Js flop for more outs than I can count. 6s did the business on the turn and I was looking to kick on. Sadly it just didn't happen as I continued to hit 40k in chips and then dwindle back. I hit a low of about 10k before going back to 40k again at the start of level 8 and things were getting a little frustrating.

My exit hand was a little strange.... after about 16hrs of play only putting my self at risk once when short stacked I pick up AK in the SB, I'm playing about 35k with the blinds at 400-800 with a 100 ante. The button raises it to 2400 and I re-raise to 7500. He hardly thinks before jamming his 90k in the middle with a flurry of his hands..... I'm 100% sure I'm racing at worst from the way he gets them in. I figure at 2100 an orbit with 27k behind it's probably about time to take a gamble and kick onto the next level... I call..... my read was correct as he turns 66....a 7 T Q flop adds some outs... as does a T on the turn.... but no luck on the river and I'm leaving the table in about 50th (with 18 paid) feeling a little dejected. Don't think there is too much wrong with call, could have maybe been a little more patient but hey you can't win them all.


Me looking a little worried as the board offers no help to my AK (nicked from Blonde)


Congrats to Bernie who finished 3rd, good lad who I met in Tallin in 2006.

RIP Crypto

Times they are a changing on the online poker scene again! It’s been in the public domain for a few weeks now that Hills had announced that they are leaving Crypto and moving to iPoker in Jan 2009. Hills still have some contractual obligations with Crypto and will run duel sites on Ipoker and Crypto for 12months.

All this raises some interesting questions. First off iPoker is totally anti rakeback, so much so that they have removed skins from the site for offering rakeback. Hills will be a reasonable sized player on iPoker it will be interesting to see what happens. If you are looking for potential rakeback on ipoker you could do worse than setting a Hills account up now to see what happens. Even if Hills have to can RB…. They are going to have to offer a pretty big carrot to lure their existing Crypto players with RB deals away to Ipoker.

All this left Crypto in a bit of a dodgy spot as well. Hills makes up a significant % of the Crypto liquidity and without Hills Crypto is pretty much dead. There were rumours that Crypto and Party may merge but today it was announced that Crypto and Boss Media (GTech) networks will merge (Virgin and Poker Heaven etc) as of early 2009!

Looks like they plan to use the Boss Media software… so Crypto as we know it will be no more! :-(

Back to moi and I’ve currently got some rancid chest infection… been hanging around for weeks getting worse and worse… so pissed off with it. So much so that I’ve only played about 3 nights of poker in Nov so far…. All with not much success! There is some light at the end of the tunnel though… started packing for the CPC. Sure some Caribbean sun will sort me out!

How to win 3 sats in 24hrs...

I decided to play some Sats for DTD live events last week, so on Monday I entered a £15 Sat to a £130 Sat to the December Anniversary Cup £1k event and a £10 Rebuy to the monthly £330 3-2-1 event. The £330 has the same structure as the £330 deepstack i won in August and I had a pass out and had sold on 30% so I was definitely going to play it.

I managed to win the £10 rebuy and shortly after win the £15 as well... only one seat was available in each so I was very happy but still had some work to do on Tuesday night in the final for a seat in the £1k event. Again just one seat was available so you had to win it.... and win it I did :) Heads up I'd let the other guy back in after being 4-1 up in chips and was slightly behind when a really sick hand occurred. Mateyboy slow played a set of Kings on a K 2 3 flop..... I rivered a 4 holding A5os and all the money went in on the end for me to take it. Very pleased with 3 wins from 3 sats in two days. As you can imagine well chuffed to pick up a £1k buy in for £15!

Unfortunately I didn't run quite as good in the actual live DTD 330.... I donked off a few k from a starting stack of 10k early on when I made a good read but could not get mateyboy to make a laydown with 99 on a 2c 3h 7h 6x 8h when I bet heavy on the end representing the flush having played the hand to nip it on the end with a pair and a missed gut shot (work it out... I'm almost embarrassed).

I slowed down a little after this and didn't have the best table position with Dave Penly to my right and Waheed Ashraf and a pretty rocky DTD regular Peter Conduit to my left. After the early set back things just never got going. It was one of those comps where you think how the fuck have i ever won a MTT in my life. I was getting total filth level after level and missing by a mile on the odd occasion when I did pick up AQ etc. On occasions where I found a spot to play the filth I always seemed to find 2nd pair or a decent draw (that didn't hit) against a flopped monster and it ended up costing me a few. I did pick up Aces and manage to win the blinds on one occasion.... :-)

Things just dwindled and dwindled until I needed to make a move in level 7 .... found a good value spot to jam on the BB with 5 limpers holding J9s... a guy with a massive stack in late position was offering me a ton of protection and all bar the huge stack passed. He flipped 88 for a race which I never looked like winning on a rag flop. Oh well I guess I was due a cold one live.
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I've just noticed that a guy called Alan Stearn won the 330 after a chop.... slightly amazed as I'd played with him a few times at DTD and had him down as 110% free chips! Oh well... goes to show you never can tell.

Moving onto Caribbean time again

Not updated for a few weeks as I've been pretty busy. Spent a week or so reflecting on the disappointment from the WSOPE, the more i thought about it the more I was kicking myself for not making the money. I've been taking it pretty easy for a few weeks playing mainly small MTTs online picking up the odd score here and there.

Was besides my self with joy at receiving the ultimate poker accolade.... a Gatsby award for Live Performance of the Month for the DTD :) Cheers Paul!

Had one live venture the weekend before last for the annual Betfair forum game, it's usually more of a social event than a serious poker trip and this year was no exception. There was a team event on the Friday night In an alcohol infused stupor I managed to run over most of my table before getting heads up vs the currently in form Neil Blatchly . Started 2-1 down heads up and reversed that the 1st hand with some filth... few mins later we were all in on a JJ8 flop... i held J7 and Neil had 9T .... a seven on the turn sealed it and I'd won my table.... unfortunately the rest of the team pissed it up the wall and we finished 3rd for £0!

Saturday was a £100 buy in freeze out and again started drinking early on and got myself into all sorts of silly situations including all in PF with 97 vs QQ and winning and all in PF with 87 vs AQ and KQ and hitting the nut straight. Finally busted out 13th with 9 paid when I lost a big race with A9 against Mrs Dest holding KQ. Mrs Dest who later went on to pick up the win. Well done Dests!!! :) To be honest the weekend was a bit of a blur... but apparently Medusa is the place to go in Brum if you like ropey open minded strippers!

I've been trying for a while to get a package for this years CPC. I've made the sunday final cheap most weeks I've tried for it and never had any luck. Last Sunday looked like being the last chance to get a seat and I was in the 6pm final again. Only problem was I'd been away all weekend was feeling like crap and the Mrs was giving me a look to say "If you think I'm sorting Satan out tonite after you have been away all weekend then you can sod off!" With this in mind I said "I'll bath and bed Satan....why don't you start the game off for me sweentness :) "

I finally get in front of the monitor at about 7:30 with about 12BB and 1st hand pick up AKs.... it all goes in and I can't improve against 99. This puts me is a pretty bad mood. Last chance to qualify and I get to play one fking hand!! But wait all is not lost.... there's another last chance starting at 9:45 with a supersat just about to start. I quickly reg and managed to bubble for a place in the final! GREAT! By this time i've really got the hump. In a fit of pique I stump up the 300 and buy direct into the final. The structure is really really good and I get off to a good start with about 60 runners chasing 5 seats. At about 3:30 AM i finally win my CPC package!!

So sunny Caribbean here we come! Not sure how much poker I'l play but me and the Mrs are really looking forward to it. Will be nice to get a break just the two of us.

Got lots of live games coming up and once again I'm offering some staking opportunities... last time £60 paid about £2k so maybe worth a punt... drop me a mail if you are interested....
1st Nov DTD £330buyin 3-2-1monthly (ALL SOLD)
10% for £50 (will sell up to 30%)

Mid Nov CPC Main event $2700 buyin (30% SOLD 20% LEFT)
10% for $360 (will split into 5% if needed- selling up to 50%)

2nd December DTD Aniv cup £1060 buyin (5% SOLD 45% LEFT)
10% for £145 (will split into 5% if needed- selling up to 50%


On a side note I've been scouting round a few Poker web sites looking for some with some decent content... I came across Pokerlistings.com, it's got a good mixture of news, promotions, live coverage but the bit that really caught my eye was the MarketPulse section . It's got live data and general stats from cash tables of all the main sites and throws up some pretty amazing statistics! It even goes down as low as 50c/$1 stats...at the other end of the spectrum, as i look now, i can see that Durrr is in a $600k hole ...erm today! Just need to get the bankroll up to a several million and may take a shot at him ;)

Also worth noting that Bodog are starting their blogger tournies again each Tue and Thurs ... usually some added value and worth a pop for any other bloggers out there.

Good luck

Jim

WSOPE £1500

Managed to bag myself a place in the £1500 buy in WSOPE opening event. So it was back from Spain and repack the bags and head off down to the big smoke for a few days of fun with the big boys.

I was playing in day 1b on the Saturday and having read the reports from the Friday it was clear that half of Vegas had already arrived in London and the field was packed with "T.V poker faces" .... Ivey, Hellmuth, Negreanu etc etc etc.

The clock was 60mins but only 6k in starting chips and 25/50 opening blinds meant that there was a bit of play before things got lively.

Nothing much happened for the 1st two levels, I was drawn on a table on the balcony level overlooking the main "pit" where the majority of tables were situated. I was feeling a bit crappy and found myself easily distracted by the circus behind me.



I'd drifted down to just below 5k when I got very lucky in level 3. With the blinds at 100-200 i pick up JJ in the SB facing a single early position raiser who made it 600 to go. He dwells and flat calls my re-raise to 1500. The flat call throws me a bit so I'm guessing 99-QQ maybe AK/AQ The flop comes a bag full of spanners 4c 7c 8s and he bets about 1800.

Now i've only got about 3300 behind .... no room to manoeuvre so I ship the lot. He thinks I've got more than I have and dwells again. When he finally figures out how much it is to play he shrugs and says "I guess I've got to call then" flipping QQ

Oops...I'm heading for an early bath until the turn drops a 9 and river hits middle pin Ten making my Jack high straight. I think the lack of any luck whatsoever in cash games is getting balanced out in the odd live MTT recently.


I then make steady progress through the levels when I get moved at level 5 to a new table with about 11k. The new table is in the pit area and I feel much better. Not sure if it was the move or the ensuing rush of cards that cheer me up but before long I'm motoring towards 30k with AK holding twice vs AQ and once again vs TT along with a flopped set of sixes.

We break for dinner for 2 hours with just 2 hours more to play in the day and I'm on about 28k.

The last two hours went a little slow and again I wasn't feeling on top form. In the end I took it easy and returned for day two with 26.5k in chips.

The combined day ones yielded 410 players and 88 came back for day 2 with I was placed in about 38th with 45 paid. 1st collects about £150k and 45th about £3k.

Managed a good nights sleep and felt good and was looking forward to day 2. I'd been drawn on a table of big stacks and my 26k was 6th on my table where it would have been 1st or 2nd on several of the other tables. Obviously this is good if aiming to go deep.

I pick my 1st decent pot up within 5mins when I limp the SB with 4d7d and the BB decided to show me who's boss... I call his raise and see a flop of Q 7 6 ... I check and he bets 4k into a 7k pot. It just stinks of him trying to push me around with air so I call and bet out on a 5 turn and he passes.

Two mins later I pick up KK in mid position John Kabbage opens for 2500 (blinds 500/1000) and it's re-raised to 9k before I act. Can't really flat call here so I ship it in hoping he's coming for a ride with AK or QQ but they both pass.

At this point I'm up to about 39k and manage to completely fuck up. I raise with 4c5c from mid pos and John Kabbage flat calls from the BB. I like the 2s3s4s flop but end up getting far too much involved against Johns Qs9s. This sees me down to about 20k. I'm scrambling between 15 and 20k for a while with the blinds at 600-1200 when the short stack to my right jams for about 10k. I've got pocket 9s and I'm not passing in late pos so move in. Unfortunately the SB wakes up with KK and we go three ways all in with the shortie showing AQ.

No help for me and an ace on the river sees me packing my bags and heading back north in about 65th place.

Bit gutted to be honest, I know you can't win them all but to come close to cashing in a WSOPE and falling at the final hurdle .. especially when I could have got away from the 45 hand for about 12k less than i did do. You live and learn, and it was fun to mix it up with the super stars of poker and go pretty deep.

Not sure what's next, got the Betfair live game in October in Brum but may have to try a trip to DTD before long. The December DTD Anniversary festival is definitely looking like one not to miss.

Think the live bug has got me :)

Cheers,

Jim

Ship it.....

....and ship it out again!


Here's a slightly bemused picture of me picking up the £10,000 1st prize for winning the £300 FO at the DTD August Deepstack festival.




Nice huh? 2nd DTD win within a few weeks and my last 3 visits have gone 2nd 1st 1st! Thinking of moving to Nottingham.

The only trouble was I'd sold 50% on in advance. It seemed like a good idea at the time, honestly. To be fair if I'd not sold on the % I prob would not have played as we were in York on the Friday for Ebor.. of course that was rained off so a 13 hour pub crawl replaced the racing. Then on Saturday morning I had to drive to Manchester to pick Jack up from his grandmas... then drive back to Leamington .... then grab 40min kip and drive to Nottingham still feeling slightly woolly. Hardly the greatest preparation and if I'd not had backers I'd have sacked it i think.

Anyway, 92 runners stumped up the £300 and the field was looking rather tasty with the likes of Lucy Rokach, Micky Wernick, Julian Thew and Lawrence Gosney all coming along for the ride.

The structure was good, with 10K starting chips and 45min clock. Don't think I played a hand for about 30mins then managed to double up within the last 15mins of the 1st level with a succession of decent hands getting paid off...

AsKs vs middle set that didn't bet enough on the flop and called too much on the river with a Ts 4s 2d Js board.

Someone who can't lay TT down on a QQRRR board with me holding AQ.

I mean come on!! Level one of a deepstack event with 200BB and I'm getting paid off like this!!

Things didn't slow down, although I managed to get away from Jacks and Kings pretty cheap when it was obvious I was behind. By the end of level 3 i'm on about 28k.

Levels 4 and 5 were really slow, just kept reminding myself to be patient and my patience paid off when I raised on the button with A8 and pick up a call from a mid position limper. A bingo flop of K 8 8 sees matey boy check jam and flip over KJ for a 10k pot. He was pretty disgusted and mildly insulting.... "I'd say nice hand but that's bollox" was the quote i think :)

Very next hand I'm all in vs a short stack with KK vs AJ for another 8k pot. All this keeps me around the 30k mark give or take.

I then get moved to a much tougher table. I've got bracelet winner Lawrence Gosney two to my left and on the other side of the table is a guy from Cumbria who knows Hawko and favourite trick was to re-jam any raise with any two cards. He'd already pulled off this trick successfully with Jack Rag vs AQ for a monster pot and was playing about 70% of hands. I sat quiet for a while taking it all in and dipped to about 23k in chips.

I pick up a big 3 way pot vs a short stack and Cumbria boy with QsTs on a Js 8s X board when I river the required spade. Cumbria boy passes to my bet on the end and I nearly muck my cards forgetting the side pot and the all in shortie...doh!

My mate Barry Neville is railing Gosney after busting out early.. I wave but I don't think he remembered me :o)

I pick another pot with a turned set of 8s vs top pair and finish the day at the end of level 9 on a healthy 50k with ave begin about 34k with 26 players left...9 paid.

Back for day two and in good spirits and waste no time motoring up to about 170k in chips after getting the hump with Cumbria boys rejams and finally making a call with AK that held up vs Jack Rag. I manage to eliminate him a little later with QdTd on a Qs 4d 6d flop... I bet he raises I push and he calls drawing thin to dead with Jd 9d!

I then took a couple of hits including a fairly brutal all in on the turn vs a med-short stack for a 90k pot with me holding J 9 and him J Q on a 9 T 7 .... he called my flop bet and we both shipped it on a nasty 8s turn! Not much I can do there i think.

Sat at the final table with about 120k. Rather worrying that Julian Thew was chip lead with about 200k. We were down to 8 when I made a huge call with QQ. UTG +1 raises to about 10k (blinds were about 1200-2400 I think) get another early pos caller. The next guy jams for about 85k..... I'm in late pos thinkin WTF!! UGT+1 looks none too happy and I think they are both passing. I had a good long dwell and basically can't put him on AA or KK. So AK or TT-QQ... so I've got most of his range crushed. To be honest I put him on JJ. If he did have AK the chance were high that the early raisers had 2 or 3 of his outs.... so I pushed all in.

Every one else passes and he flips AKos ... not ideal but my mood brightens a little when UTG+1 says that he also binned AK. 5 bricks later and I'm chip lead. I'm pretty good at working my way through a final table from a good position and the game plan was to try and get HU and take it from there.... managed to maintain my stack picking off one or two of the short stacks while one other guy hit some monster hands to motor into the chip lead.

I finally get heads up with him and he's got 770,000 to my 150,000. He offers a deal but I refuse :)

I figured out early doors that his HU game was poor. He overbet everything.... so he won lots of small pots and I won the big ones. Once we got about equal in chips he slowed down and I took advantage of the fear and had him down to about 90k when I let him off the hook. I jammed with A8 and he wins with AQ... next hand he makes a tough call with A2 on a Q 2 T A Q board when I jam on the end with a missed flush draw.... silly i know but there was a reason.

This sees him back up to about 370k. I have a think and go back to plan A.... before long he's back down to less than 100k and i make a standard check call to holding J4 to his all in push with KJ on a 6 4 2 flop. No King and I win my first decent sized live MTT :)

Happy Days!

I feel a holiday coming on... plan after that is maybe play the £1.5k WSOPE event.. if I don't make that then the £500 GALA POKER TOUR Liverpool leg is the same weekend with £5k added and all the names at the WSOPE it could hold some value.



On a side note i'm so fked off cash games I'm never playing another one!!!

Lose with AT on a A T T flop!!
Crazy 3 way all in flop
Crack Aces... erm nope
All in PF AA vs 33
KK on a K Q Q flop... can't lose this one...can I?
I'll name that river in one

I've got another 15 of those all within a day or two... obv by this time I'm steaming and tilt it all in with Ace high on this one.... amazingly I'm in front but...

STEAMING..FIND DOG- KICK -and repeat


Still ...Happy Days!! :)

Good Luck,

Jim

Another DTD trip and one better :)

This month I have mostly been.....Winning MTTs.

I quite like playing the dinky £1k gnted evening games on Crypto. They don't last too long and can see a small but reasonable return to a £10 or £25 buy in. I've won them both again in the past week or two for about £900 total, plus a couple of final tables.




Cash play in Aug got off to the usual bad start as set over set killed me about 5 times in 5 days. MTTs win balance most of this out so no real damage. I fancied a change of scene so decided to take another trip to DTD on Friday for the £75 FO.

It was a little disappointing to see a smaller field of only 63 but not to worry. There also didn't look to be too much value at my table. Barry Neville was 2 to my left. From the table chat and the other faces I recognised it was clear that most of the table had a reasonable amount of experience. I did my usual thing of fumbling chips and spending far to long trying to figure out how much was in the pot (ie more than 2 seconds) and as usual, most had me pegged as a bit of value.

Didn't hit much early doors and the 4k stack was down to about 3k when I picked up AsQh. The DTD structure is a little quicker these days and I didn't have much room for manoeuvre. The usual raise and call with a flop of Ac Jc Ragc sees it checked to me, I bet out and and mateyboy jams... I really dont have enough to pass and make the crying call to see him flip AhJd.... I get very lucky and spike a Q on the turn and from that point start accumulating chips at a rate of knots.

1st hand of much interest sees me with about 10k in chips and blinds of 100-200. UTG raises it up to about 600 or 700 and gets three callers round to me on the button with 22. I flat call and Barry N in the BB jams for about 4k. It's passed round to me and 9 times out of 10 I also pass here but a few thought play into my head...

1: Got a shot at eliminating one of the better players at the table.
2: I think Bazza is capable of a move here with not a lot
3: If I call with 22 now no-one else at the table is going to make a move on me and it sets a wonderful table image
4: If I lose I'm still about 6-7k chips (ave was about 6k)
5: Barry never stops spouting crap and I was getting a head ache.

Point 5 was the overriding factor here without a doubt :o) ..... but point 3 is something I've given some thought to, especially when playing live at a table where no one knows you but they are mostly reasonable, observant players. By making a negative EV play that can not damage your tournament position too much (even though it was for a lot of chips at that stage in the game) it can set up numerous +ive EV situations later in the game when things matter a little more. As it happened Barry had 77 and spiked a set straight off the bat ... so that was that. But the play seemed had the desired effect as much shaking of heads and numerous lectures ensued.

I soon got paid off with a nut straight in a 3 way pot after this and motored up to 20k+ chips in no time. It was time for me to bump heads with Barry again. I'm massive in chips and call a three way limp wit 34os for Barry to raise it up behind. The raise chases all bar one from the pot and I elect to flat call. The flop comes a rainbow 2 3 5. Check, Check and a bet from Barry and I move over the top all in. Barry calls for about 5k more and flips JJ. I can't hit 13 outs twice and my headache is getting worse with Bazza chirping away that he always has a hand etc etc etc etc etc zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

It then turns into a bit of a grid as slowly the field is reduced and reduced. Barry gets moved away and the table descends into a peaceful bliss.

There was one hand that was quite interesting. A few people at the table debated what I was holding and I said I'd blog it this week. I must have had about 12k in chips. Blinds were about 200-400. There's a table big stack who's looking to get in on most pots and he limps in from early position. I find 8hTh in the cut off and I'm planning a raise and pick up my chips. I then glance up and notice the big stack watching me carefully. I figure he's coming along for the ride no matter what I bet and elect to flat call instead.

The flop comes 5c 5s 3c and the big stack bets about 1k into the 1200 pot. I've seen him watching me thinking about a raise preflop and decide to represent an mid-over pair raising him to 3k. He dwells for a while then says something along the lines of....

"You were thinking about a raise pre-flop. You've got something like 77-99"

He then passes A3 face up and the table debates my holding for a few seconds..... I'm not giving any info away so I say I'll blog it. Course this is a mistake as a couple of people ask what my blog is and a few have read it. It's nice when a plan comes together though :)

Barry gets moved back to our table and is chipped and in full swing and full volume. Thankfully he's to my right this time giving the tinnitus in my left ear a chance to improve.

1st thing he says is .... "What happened to all your chips... you had loads?"

I have to remind him that I donated them in his direction about 90mins earlier with 34os. "Oh yeah" he says and proceeds to tell me what an awful play it was. I point out that it was only for 1/3 of my chips and I got my money in 1st with 13 outs twice where as he was calling for his tournament life with an overpair and he changes the subject and talks about himself for a while.

A few minutes later someone refers to me as Wonky. This pricks Bazzas ears up and he asks "Why you calling him Wonky?" .... someone tells him I write a poker blog.....


"How the bloody hell can you write about poker when you don't know bugger all about it?" asks Barry

I just smile.

Fortunately blessed relief is not too far away. By this point we are down to 2 tables and about 13 players with the majority of the chips on our table. Barry and one other guy have about 35k-45k in chips which is above final table average. When the pair of them decide to play a massive pot. I'm not 100% sure on the PF betting but Barry is in position and there's a load of chips in the middle preflop. Flop come ten high and Big Stack 1 bets out a chunk leaving himself only about 15k behind. Barry debates out loud that he's sure that he's got the best hand etc etc.... and jams all in. Now it's only 9k more to Big Stack 1 and there's about 65k in the pot. So Big Stack 1 makes the crying call and flips AQ.... Barry..... AJ ??!??!?!?!?!?!

Quite possibly the worst play I've seen in a long time but hey .... what do i know?

Bit later and we are down to the final table of 9 with 7 paid. I'm a bit short on chips with about 22k but so are 8 other people at the table as Mr Big Stack 2 now has about 50% of the chips in play. I take a short stack out pretty quickly with QQ in the BB to his Ace Rag all in. We then go into a monster bubble where every short stack seemed to win from behind.

After over an hour of bubble play it burst (I may blog a few of the interesting bubble hands in the next few weeks) and within about 40mins I'm heads up with Mr Big Stack 2.

He's got about 185K and I've got about 65K. I pass the 1st four hands at 2000-4000 blinds and then find a gear.... I'm up to about 100k when all the money goes in on a A 5 8 A board. I've got A5 and he's got A3. Two mins later and I call his all in with KQs to see KT and no help for him. Just shy of £1800 for the win sees me travelling back down the M1 with a smile on my face at 4am.



Pic nicked from DTD web site... short stacks all round on the bubble.


That's 4 final tables from 6 DTD trips :)

As a side note I'm planning on playing the £300 deepstack at DTD the week after next. £300 is a touch more than I want to shell out for a MTT at the moment so if anyone wants 10% or more (up to 40%) at £33 per 10% let me know. I'll wait for the flames for that one :)

Arseholes

Arseholes ---- There's a lot of them about in poker. My favourite type is the hard core low stakes grinder who is stuck playing 50000 hands a month at 50c/$1 NL in order to get enough rakeback to pay his rent. At first it's fun but before long he's become bitter, twisted and abusive as it slowly dawns on him that he's playing poker because he has to and not because he enjoys it.

Don't become a player like this!!

MrOrangeo is a crypto player who falls into this catagory i think. Usually abusive and frequently unpleasent I have to smile every time i sit at a table with him or someone like him. If I had more of a kind heart myself I may feel compelled to give him a hug. Deep down I think he just needs to be loved.

Last week a load of abuse came from him over hand when he bet a few quid into a £12 pot on the turn with a set and allowed me to hit my straight draw on the end. It ended up costing him a chunk and 30mins later we'd still not heard the end of it. All the table was laughing away and pulling his chain as he went into tilt mode.

He then asked me to post a hand where I played AQ very passively out of position in a 3 way Q high flop. Actually he said something along the lines of "LOL post that on ur blog u fat fuck", but never mind.

The flop had two spades and the action had been fairly lively .. i checked looking to check raise and the two others also checked. The turn brought a 3rd spade, it went check check check again. river a 4th spade and check check check saw 2s2h in middle position pick up a £12 pot. Not my finest hand ever I'll admit but my bad play cost me £4. MrOrangeos bad play cost him significantly more.

With that in mind. MrOrangeo...here's one for you...




and while we are at it ..one for your dog

Giving the finger to poker

Well poker in June has not been to great. A bad start... a partial recovery and then two days of disaster saw about a 2k loss... shocking, i'm almost embarrassed.

Off the poker table things have not been going much better either. The cut finger mentioned in the last post turned out to be a bit more serious than i thought and last monday I went into hospital for an operation to try and repair the nerve damage. Of course to do this they have to basically peel your finger like a banana.. so im sat here trying to type this on my right hand looking down at hand of Frankenstein to my left.

Fk this! It's time for a holiday. Few weeks in Spain is much needed!

Adios!

J

May Review

Started May with the best intentions to play low stakes HU for the entire month and see how much you could make... anyway after about a two of getting very bored and donking off a few hundred quid I got arsed off with low stakes HU. The £900 from the DTD win came in useful and gave a bit of a boost to the confidence. So much so that I went on a bit of a MTT rampage, playing 1 or two a day which is a lot for me. Within 10 days I racked up the following results...


Hills £1500 Gtd: 1st x 1, 2nd X 1, 4th x 2 , 7th x1 from 7 attempts.

Hills Sunday Super Series 1 x 4th from 2 attempts.

Plus a few others that I can't remember now. All this plus a return to the cash tables moved the early May losses into the green to show about £2500 profit by the close of play.


The Mrs desperately wants me to win a CPC package with Hills again this year. Hills are running a $40 Sat to the weekly $250 final so I'm trying to get in via there at the moment. I'm running pretty good and have not yet failed to qualify for the weeks where I've been able to play in it. I'm winning a $250 seat for every 2.5 times I play the sat at the moment so I may just keep playing them even after i win the seat and take the money :)

As i mentioned I've been playin a lot of cash at £1/2 and $1/2. It's amazing how much u can make at this level actually. I've been pretty comfortable playing 4 tables and racking up some rakeback and MPPs on Hills. See how it goes. At any given table there are 4 ROCKS and 1/2 nutters i think. I'm showing a decent + despite being over setted what seems at least once or twice a day. Having said that I had my usual nose dive at the beginning of the June and I'm once again in recovery mode.

On a social note we had a BBQ for Shell and Jacks birthday at weekend I was busy burning meat for 40 and managed to put the knife through my finger severing the nerve on my right index finger :) Happy days! The only good thing was that A&E at Warwick had me in and out in 30mins and by 7pm I was back on the brandy letting someone else take responsibility for the mass food poisoning.

Cheers,

Jim

Another DTD final table

Before last week I'd had 4 trips to DTD and made the Final Table twice only to finish a disappointing 9th on both occasions for not much more than double my money. Better than nothing but not much reward for hours or work.

Things improved the other weekend when a last minute decision to attend the Blonde Forum Game at DTD paid dividends. The entry was only £30 but the field was reasonable and the emphasis was on good fun and banter. With about 150 runners I did my usual trick of getting off to a complete flyer and then hitting a wall around level 6/7. Many of the players were pretty tight and keen to make a game of it and so the blinds started to squeeze the average chips a little early and I managed to pick my spots and make the most of some rag cards to keep my nose ahead of the game.

As we neared the money i got very lucky with KJ vs AK when a move on the BB backfired also managed to crack Kings with pocket nines. Made the final table in reasonable shape and continued to pick my way through the field playing some half decent poker.

I ended up heads up vs Jen Mason after about 11hrs of play. Now Jen works for Blonde and was there to enjoy her self. I think the definition of enjoyment for Jen is to make a move on every pot while having red wine fed in on a IV drip, by the time we were HU she was totally plastered and jamming every other pot preflop or on the flop. It was very funny and a decent number on the rail offering encouragement mainly to Jen and a bit to myself .... well I think several drunken verses of "You'll never Wonk alone!" and "Wonking in a winter wonderland" could be classed as encouragement! :)

Jen had about a 3-1 chip advantage so i was looking for a spot to double up and take it from there.... I lost a few chips folding and finally got it in with Ad8s and was insta called by Jen with 22. 3 diamonds and a deuce on the flop made it interesting and a 4th diamond on the turn saw me dragging the pot when the board failed to pair on the end.

It wasn't long before I'd jammed with AK preflop and Jen made the call with T4os ..... wasn't so lucky this time and a 4 obliged on the river to see me out in 2nd place for just shy of £900.

Here's a pic nicked from Blonde of Jen with me to her right trying to keep a straight face!





Great fun and congrats to Jen who was unstoppable. Very happy with my live hit rate 5 trips and 3 final tables makes me think I should play live a little more maybe.

I'm not even trying to make the WSOP this yea as I'm on holiday. However I've noticed that some sites are running good value qualifiers specifically for Bloggers. Bodog is running Tuesday night online poker tournament for Bloggers earning points for a final game, may be worth a look if you are looking to maximise your chances of a Vegas trip this July.

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