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The £150 at DTD on the Sunday was a bit of a waste of time. Had a high stakes cash player at the table on tilt who insisted on calling down every preflop bet and hitting some real obscure hands.

I missed a few flops and lost a race and finally exited with a big blind shove into a button raise...i had KsQs vs 73 all in preflop for about 18BB ...... like i said he hit some obscure hands. It did allow me to make it home in time for a betfair freeroll which i managed to win for $800 that managed to pay for the weekend anyway.

I've been playing some small beer heads up to keep things moving for the past month or so. To be honest I've no idea if I'm any good at heads up or not. I seem to go on a run of 150 games where it's a constant up on the P&L graph only for it all to come crashing around my ears in about 50 games. No idea if this is me tilting, variance, me being crap at HU, crap game selection or what. Here's my roller coaster of a sharkscope graph. If anyone can make more sense of it than I can please feel free to comment.



Also think I may have upset some chap in the dim and distant past. Everytime he sees me playing HU he comes in and calls me all sorts of names. Most amusing and breaks the days up... Hi if you are reading :)

It's only in the past few years that I've played much heads up poker. It really is something any serious MTT player should do. I used to be really really bad HU. I had no clue with regards to starting hands, strategy ... nothing. When you consider the leap in money from 1st to 2nd in most MTTs a small/medium stakes decent MTT player can find himself playing in what is essentially a 2k or 3k heads up game at the end of a final table. The number of people who have no clue heads up amazes me. Even at a high level. With that sort of money involved it's worth investing a few hours and $ playing some HU STTs and just getting a feel for for it.

Just be careful not to let it impact your normal MTT game though... there's been a few nights recently when I've found myself making very dubious loose calls in the BF 12k purely because I've been making marginal calls all evening in HU games.

After the last DTD trip itching for another decent trip out live. Can't play the June or July DTD Deepstacks but I'm toying with the idea of playing a GUKP £300 side event in Coventry next week.

Have fun!

Jim

80k DTD deepstack... different river card please

The wife and kids headed up north for a Christening first thing Saturday morning. I got the whole weekend to myself.

I'm pretty sure half of you degenerates have no ties and live foot-loose, fly-by night, devil may care lifestyles? Let me tell you, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LUCKY YOU ARE!

I've got to book a weekend to play poker 6months in advance and even then it clashes with something critical nearer the time.

While a I love my family and would not change a thing. A whole 2 days to myself to do nothing but play poker is a rare and chesrished thing indeed.

So up the M1 to Nottingham it was with £500 in my back pocket for buy-ins. I have to say I was feeling pretty good and very confident as we sat down.

Think the best hand I saw in the 1st 3 levels was QQ but buy the time I'd picked the ladies up i'd managed to push onto about 16k from my starting 10k stack. Of course the ladies walked into KK and saw me back to 8k but not to worry. Half the table had me pegged as weak passive and tag teamed trying to push me off pots firing 3 large barrels with air into my maringal holdings. What they failed to take into account was I can't lay a hand down for shit so I happily check called my way to a 35k ish stack by level 6.

Then we had the 1st set back. I managed to find my self holding AcKs on a Tc Js 2c Qh board. Matey boy is betting for England and I close the door on the turn... he snap calls for his stack holding QcJc urggg .... 9c rivers and a 45k pot heads in the wrong direction.

Not to worry I'm still feeling really confident and nip a few decent pots in good spots to get up from 6k to 12k. Then a double up to 24k with AK vs AJ on a Ace high flop.

3rd set back of the day (and the fatal one) came Vs Peter Charalambous . He makes a modest raise from mid position and I flat call on the BB with KsQc. Qc Ts 4s flop sees all our money go in. I must admit he flipped i was happy to see AsJs.... but alas it was a case of replay the river as 9s drops to see me packing.

Very dissapointed to be honest. Felt really good at the table and was still doing ok despite a cooleer and a beat... but you need to win those to get anywhere. Just looking at day 2 chip counts and Peter Charalambous sat well with 100k+, wish him well as he seemed like a really nice fella.

DTD £150 Sunday game kicks off in 25mins so I'm off for a beer to get warmed up :) Wish me luck :)

Back after a break!

Hmm been a long time since i last updated. Mainly due to the fact I've not played much poker. A few days after my last post I took down the nightly 18k on Betfair again and then played a few weeks with just a few minor cashes. Round about the end of November I decided to take a break for Christmas and New Year.

Quite enjoyed the break and managed to extend it for January and February and it's only in the last month or so I've returned to playing a few MTTs. I have also been having a dabble with trading on BF with mixed results. Was doing quite well on a certain market that I'd researched and then got a bit greedy. Managed to blow 2months profit on a bizarre in-play cricket cock up trying to get out of a bad position at 1.12. Of course it all went tits up and I did my nuts. Oh well lesson learned.

In the middle of all of this Tom (who's still doing well) ended up in hospital for a week with meningitis and works gone a bit mental at the moment. So not much time for poker.

Been playing the $12k , $3.5k and $5k on BF and a little low stakes HU. Managed to win the $5k back to back during the 1st week in April which was nice. Managed quite a few other final tables that have kept the $$ coming in but seen to have developed a nasty habit of getting a made hand dicked by runner runner gut shots in the $12k and still waiting for something better than 6th in April. Will have it soon though.

Got a live trip planned to DTD this weekend for the £80k deepstack .... its been about 6months since I last played live and I'm really looking forward to it.

Good to be back :)

In the B.O.S.S seat

Well its been a pretty good September. The night after my last post I managed another 2nd in the 3k on BF. Had a bit of a lull for the past few days with a couple of minor cashes. I've been looking round for an alternative game to play in an evening, i like the 18k on BF but the 3k is a bit low stakes now that the bankroll is more padded. Trouble is I struggle to start much before 7:30 cos of the kids and I'm hard pressed to go much past 2am most nights due to kids/work.

So i've been scouting round for a game that fits the bill. Had a couple of stabs at the 50 euro rebuy on DTD and did ok but 150+ euros a night is a touch too expensive and the BR may struggle withstand a bad run in that game. The $50 rebuy on Ipoker is a bit more wallet friendly but finishes a bit too late. There is a 3500 euro gtd game on DTD with a 7:30 kick off. Bit lower stakes than I was after but will play it for a few weeks and see how it goes, may well still play the BF 3k as well until I find a better option. If anyone has any other suggestions pls let me know.

I had a stab at a $100 supersat for the Betfair Online Side Series (B.O.S.S) $1k main event last night as well. 20 runners and i got felted with a bit of a bad beat about 7 deep. I went into semi tilt mode with the remainder of my chips and 50mins later secured one of the 2 seats up for grabs at my 1st attempt. Throw this $1k seat and the £300 DTD monthly seat I picked up at the start of the month into the Sept mix and it's looking like one of the best months i've had for a while.. even with 10 days holiday!

Of course with the Mrs still off on maternity leave any profit seems to find somewhere to spend it's self quickly. I picked up a new position at work a month or two ago and I've had to drive up to Liverpool once or twice a week. Quite enjoy it, it's good to get out of the house and not had too many hold ups on the M6 yet.


The only down side was that the Mrs wanted the number 1 car for the kids. So that left me in her crappy V reg focus. Fuck that! So last week went out in search of a new car. My last car was a CLK which i loved but that went when we needed to "upgrade" to something with a bit more room for the kids and bought a CRV. Was tempted with a Merc again but had some hideous memories of having to stump up a grand every time it went in for a service.


Needed something comfortable, that would eat miles and low maintenance costs. Had a look around and in the end went for a Accord Exec CTDi on a 05 plate. Its in good nick, drives well and like a breath of fresh after the Focus.


Twas a joy going up the M6 this week with Feeder blasting out full volume. I've not listened to that album in ages and it sent me in search of one of my fav videos..... enjoy.....

Heater

After posting the wins yesterday afternoon.. only went and got 2nd in the 18k again last night for another $3600. Gremlin took a night off, which was nice. That's about $8500 in 5 days from 4 entries into the 18k and 4 entries into the $3k.

Just had a look at my stats on HEM since i started recording them in June and ROI is running at 212% and 20% ITM ... doubt the ROI is sustainable for long at that level so I shall ride the wave and enjoy it while it lasts. The Mrs is copping 50% of any wins she she almost cracked half a smile this morning. Bank roll is looking the healthiest it has been for a long time.

DISCO

I'm 100% sure there's evil little fucker of a gremlin that lives in my laptop. His main role i life is to piss around with my wireless connection at critical times when I've got made hands and half my chips in the middle. He's very docile in the early stages of tournies, especially when I'm being dealt total filth. What really gets him going is usually when I've just flat called a huge flop bet with the nut set.

A prime example (although maybe not a made hand) was last week when I'd somehow managed to dodge my way to heads up in the the Betfair 18k again. It's a $1800 difference between 1st and 2nd and I'm feeling really confident sat with my compulsory final table brandy at 2am. I managed to reverse a 150k - 250k deficit despite my opponent jamming every other hand to my standard raise. I'm looking for a spot to finish him off and pick up 99 1st to act.... i make the standard raise hoping he jams, he obliges and I make the snap call..... I wait .. and wait...

"YOU HAVE 8 SECONDS TO MAKE YOUR DECISION" ...

I made my fucking decision 15 seconds ago!!!! I'm sat there waving my laptop in the air trying to make sure the wireless connection is actually connected when 3-2-1... your hand is timed out. 2 seconds later all is normal.... FOR FUCKS SAKES!!!!

I put a mini rant in the chat box and my opponent sheepishly fesses up to Ace Rag. I'm now in a flap trying to get a wired connection sorted before it happens again. I take a hit the next hand then end up going from a commanding position to 2nd place in about 5 hands.



This has happened a few times recently and I'm sure it's always at a critical point. I know twice in the past two weeks it's when i've flopped a set. Anyway $3600 wasn't a bad payday.



The next night the little twat is out to mess my evening up again. This time it back fired :) Getting towards the business end of the $3k on Betfair and someone in early pos makes a small raise that gets 3 or 4 callers on the way round to me in the BB with 22. I make the call and once again I'm left staring at a screen that times out. I turn to the Mrs and say... "Watch this.... bet there's a 2 on the flop". sure enough J 2 J !!! I now say "watch this bet there's loads of action" .... sure enough two chaps are banging their heads in the rush to ship their entire stacks to the middle.... chap #1 shows QQ ...chap #2 flips... J J :)

Of course on this occasion it saved my arse... in fact i went on to win the $3k again for $1k. But even so I still make it that the little fucker in my laptop owes me about $1k.

Overdue update

Only seems like a few weeks since i last updated, was a little shocked to see it's been so long. First off family stuff.. Tom is doing really well. It's a case of so far so good, he's ticking all the boxes and the doctors are really happy with him. The service he had had from the NHS has been fantastic. He has a physio once a week to help him keep hitting his milestones and his consultant is sending him for every test under the sun just covering all the bases which is great. He's no trouble at all .... hardly ever cries and sleeps 8pm-8am !!!

Poker is on the back burner a little... strangely I seem to be making more money as a result. I'm just playing 2 or 3 MTTs 4 or 5 times a week and doing rather well. Lost count of the number of final tables I've had on the BF 18K and finally managed to win it at the end of July for $5.5k.



Tearing up the 3k on BF as well with a 1st, 2nd and 7th in my past 8 attempts. Just got back from 2 weeks in Spain.. had a great time....So life is good!!

Had a live trip to a GUKPT £200 side event at G Casino Coventry the other week. Played quite well but missed out on a few vital hands at a time when I needed to move forwards not backwards and ended up crashing out to Paul Jackson with KQs vs his AK in about 20th. G Casino Cov is great location and only 15mins away from me... will be making a few trips i think. Also picked up a £330 sat seat for the DTD monthly for $30 last night. Supposed to play it in Oct but may have to defer till Nov to avoid my Birthday.

Promise to post more often now..honest!!

TJ suited :)

Should have really updated sooner really but as you can see from the picture I've had my hands full for the past few weeks.



Thomas James arrived a couple of weeks ago and considering the problems we'd been having he's doing very well indeed. Past all his initial tests with flying colours it's looking good so far! Still got loads of doctors appointments over the coming months but the consultants are very happy with him and it's a case of no bad news is good news.

Not played much poker.. although i've been staked in quite a few of the daily $20ks on BF and managed a 6th and two 5ths so far.

Will I ever play the WSOP?

Again thanks to those who've wished us all the best! After a bit of a scare last Friday it looks like they are going to induce Shell within the next week. Fingers crossed for that...all getting very scary now.


Not played much poker since the rake race finished. Decided to grab a weeks break with the Mrs and Jack at Centre Parcs last week. Wasn't sure of what to expect to be honest but really enjoyed it. It's especially great for the kids and well worth a go if you can't get out of the UK. Can't remember the last time i had to ride a bike and nearly had a cardiac after lugging Satan 10miles round Sherwood Forrest twice a day. As this photo testifies it's about time I lost a few pounds.



For obvious reasons any aspirations to play poker at the WSOP have been shelved again this year. Keep looking at the sats wanting to have a pop but there really is no point given the current circumstances. Beginning to think I'll never get a chance to play it.

Need to pull my finger out and take advantage of the 60% RB for the next month or two and save some pennies to pay for Shells 9month maternity leave. I've done a deal with the Mrs to donate £200 of every £400 I earn while she is off. It's prob going to make me play a bit better as I've managed to build a slightly better bank roll once or twice recently only to spunk it off the next week. Always seem to do bit better when playing on the margins :)

Also the mind is starting to wander to a holiday at the back end of the year if possible.. would be nice to get a CPC type event to take the family but with the demise of Crypto will have to have a look around and see whats available.

60% Gross Rakeback... and multitable madness

Skip to the end if you just want the rakeback info :)

First of all a huge thankyou fo everyones messages of support and e-mails. Certainly gives you a little lift. Things are still progressing, however, Shell was diagnosed with gestational diabeties at easter which while not the end of the world compared to the other issues, it gives us a raft of other things to worry about. Never rain but it pours right? They are not going to let her go overdue so looks like within 2-3 weeks we'll have a new arrival.

Since we figured out last month that it was looking like there was going to be a baby I decided to occupy my time and take my mind off things by playing a bit of poker. With Hills moving to Ipoker I was taking a look at the 3rd party tools and scripts and came across two gems that make life easier and certainly make multitabling more bareable if not a joy on Ipoker.

First off is BETPOT. This is a customisable one click autobetting tool, you can basically assign actions to hotkeys or mouse presses and customise the standard betting on each street depending on the position and action before you. Clever stuff.

It also highlights tables that require action, saves your table layouts, allows one click sitdown and buy in at the tables and a load of other stuff. Well worth a look if you want to play a few tables.

The second one is MiniMaxMod. There are a couple of pieces of software out there that allow you to modify the way Ipoker looks and feels. MMM is the best I've come across... you can turn nightmare normal Ipoker screen into this with a few clicks....



It also allows you to resize tables so you can fit the right number of tables for you on screen with no overlap and no wasted space. I've never been much of a multitabler. I think the max i played on Crapto was 4. With the new software I was soon cruising with 6 and then jumped to 9 and 12 without much effort. This multitalbe experiment tied in with a Hills rakerace and I decided to see if I could rack up 100,000 Ipoker Points before the 20th April for a chunky bonus of £1400. Just about managed it after a bit of a push in the last week. All this was at 25c/50c NL.... I'm not daft enough to 12 table 2/5 and I dont think the bankroll could survive a bad hour :)


Some good news is that Hills are giving a rakeback boost to people that have previosuly opened a rakeback account via my blog :) A huge 60% gross rakeback in May and 50% in June and July base on the following rake requirements....



Drop me a mail at jimshell@talk21.com if you have any queries.

Cheers,

Jim

Not the best of beats....

Well the past few months have been a bit of a nightmare, in fact… I can honestly say they’ve been the worst few months of my life. I’ve been lucky so far in my 35 years, nothing truly disastrous has ever happened. My family is healthy, I’ve never really wanted for much and always been comfortable.

I’ve mentioned previously that Shell is pregnant with our 2nd child. In January we went along to the hospital for a 22 week routine scan that found……

“something we are not sure about… it’s probably nothing”.

We were asked to go back again a week later and “just make sure”. A week later the problem was still there and we were referred to a specialist in Birmingham for a detailed 3D scan. After this we were taken into a little room and told that there were a few problems they had found with the baby. A problem with the kidneys, a problem with the fluid spaces in the brain and a problem with the development of a part of the brain called the cerebellum. They said that taken individually each of these problems may not be too serious but taken together they added up to say that something was wrong somewhere.

We immediately had lots of tests taken to try and identify what the issue was, tests for chromosomal problems like Downs Syndrome etc… and an agonising 3 week wait to get the results which eventually came back clear. To this day they do not know what has caused these problems.

Shell also had to have 2 MRI scans to check the other parts of the babies brain were developing, at one point it was touch and go as to if there was going to be a baby or not. It goes without saying that poker has not been a priority during the past month or two.

Fortunately, it now looks like there is going to be a baby! However, we are still left with the problems with the baby’s brain that will not change and can not be cured.

The kicker comes with the prognosis; it’s so wide you could drive a bus through it. They don’t really understand the impact this is going to have. Some people have similar problems and go through their entire lives in relative normality and some are severely handicapped. Throw into the mix the wide range of physical and learning difficulties in between these two extremes and you are left with just about any outcome.

The odds of such a problem occurring are huge… greater than 40,000-1 ….. Not the best of beats is it? Shell is due mid May, and while our expectations of what this baby will eventually achieve with it’s life have been altered severely we’ve all got our fingers crossed that everything is going to be ok…. or if we are being honest … not that bad.

Hills Rakeback when moving to Ipoker

Just a quick update to let you know that anyone who set an account up via my link with Hills will keep their current rakeback deal when Hills move to Ipoker in the next month or so. You will also keep your monthly loyalty bonus. If you are not sure what your rakeback deal or bonus is drop me a mail at jimshell@talk21.com

Also anyone setting a new account up with Hills in the next few weeks with transfer across to Ipoker with the standard 30% RB and loyalty bonus. This is obviously a great opportunity to get a decent rake back deal on Ipoker.

Clear your cookies and click the link at the top of the page to set an account up. Drop me a e-mail at jimshell@talk21.com with your player name and I'll check it's been set up ok.

Cheers,

Jim

40% Rakeback at Betfair...and I do like to follow up on a promise

Take a look at the last line my previous blog entry. It took me four attempts before coming good. :)




As usual I had a huge HU deficit at one point 380000-35000 down only to come back and give some Romanian a lesson in HU. That in it's self was quite satisfying as he had about 10 mates railing and they were all total arseholes. With the $ as it is that came in at just over £1k.

Also won £1500 (but had to give £750 on a share) for 2nd in a freeroll on Saturday. Throw in a couple of decent results in the usual tin-pot MTTs I've been playing and all in all not a bad week for poker.


If you are after a decent rakeback deal Betfair have just launched a new promotion offering 40% gross rakeback for new accounts if you rake over £1500 a month. This is running Feb-April to start with. All you need to do is clear your cookies, click this Betfair link , set up an account and get playing. Feel free to mail me at jimshell@talk21.com and I'll can check the account is set up ok.



I wrote all the above a few days ago and not had time to publish it until now.. the plan was to head to DTD for the next £300 Monthly special 1st weekend in Feb, but I've had to cancel for family reasons. In fact it's been a pretty grim week for one reason or another. Sometime stuff happens that puts poker in perspective, may have to wait a while for the next update.

All the best.

Jim

Quadraphobia

Well didn't play much in December and showed a minor profit rounding off a reasonably profitable but far from spectacular year. The bank roll is still fked as most of the winnings got spent. With bambino number two on the way mid 2009 it don't look like much is going to change on that front. So it's survival and grab a slot in bigger comps cheap where ever I can.

Once the new year was safely out of the way I as itching to play some poker and the new £50k, £300 buy in at DTD looked just the ticket. Managed to get a backer for 30% to take some of the sting out of it and headed up the M1 once again.

When I got there it was packed with a big queue to register. I managed to pay in just before Simon Trumper announced that 12 dealers had called in sick and they only had enough to run 21 tables of nine. With 180 already registered and at least another 50 in the queue there were going to be some disappointed punters.

Eventually common sense dictated that some tables would be self dealt until dealers became available and the final number of entrants came up just shy of 300 for a £89k prize pool and a £27k first prize.

Day 1 went ok, was stuck on the 10k starting for 4 or 5 levels before I slow played KK into AA... lucky for me the flop came K high and I managed to get a nice double up to get things moving. It was one of those days where i never really settled as I was moved 3 times. I ended up on an average 30K overnight with 90 runners coming back for day 2 chasing 27 paid places.

Things got going well on day 2 moving quickly onto 44k when I was moved again. Shortly after I was moved came the hand that would make or break me... I managed to get it all in pre-flop with KK vs QQ only for the fker to spike quad Queens on the turn. That crippled me and left me scrambling. I did manage a minor recovery when I doubled up with Kings, but the very next hand I lost a chunk with TT into a flopped set of 4s on a low board. I would have lost more but he jammed to my flop bet and let me off the hook.

I finally busted with 33 vs JJ when really short and that was that... out in 65th.

The KK vs QQ hand comes my way and I'm pretty sure I make the money and who knows from there. Bit gutted to be honest. I'm looking to play this £300 every month from now on funds permitting.

The Blonde poker guys seem to make a habit of snapping me looking pissed off just as i'm about to exit... here's this months entry...






After the break in December I've been playing a few more minor MTTs online. There is one which is totally doing my head in. The nightly $5k gtd deepstack on Betfair. I really like the structure and I've final tabled several times but never managed to win it. I always seem to lose a chip lead from 15-20 out and finish 9th for cock all money! I don't blow it.... I just get totally sucked out. I must have played it about 12 times since the start of December and on three occasions I've flopped set over set and lost to quads!!! I mean come on... threeee times. The most recent one was last night and after the QQQQ at weekend I was right for chucking the laptop out the window.

Some greek bloke was tilting the whole table with his overraises...fk knows why he wasn't chuckin bricks at police men with the rest of his countrymen.

I'd already layed a monster down to his allin against my better judgement and I'd told the Mrs I was going to nail him. 10mins later I've got half his stack and another guy almost felts him... but he managed to scramble back to a decent stack by the time we are about 15 deep. At this point I'm chip lead and cruising.

I pick up AA in early positon. There's a short stack itching to get it in on a value pot and Greek boy sat just behind him. I juice the pot with a min raise and short stack takes the bait and jams. Greek boy has obviously read the script and moves all in to isolate for the 40th time. Bingo!!!

First bleeding card off the deck is a Ten... but its ok cos the 3rd card is an Ace :)

4th is another Ten!! I mean come on!!!

The only scant consolation is that the fking idiot busted out on the bubble in 10th with an Ace high all in bluff into two pair and I just managed to scrape 9th place again for a few hundred.

I'm going to win the $5k before too long... watch this space.

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