5/30/2007

King of the ocean

Ok so it has been a little while since the last update. Overall the poker recovery has marched forwards with me constantly picking up small wins here and there just outweighing the occasional big loss (yes they are always big losses where I am concerned).

I decided to play live for the first time in a while on Monday. I drove down to North Camp to visit TC Poker for their £10 re buy tournament and loose cash action. Anyway I ended up doing £90 in rebuys and the additional top up in the tournament, I have never EVER seen poker played like this anywhere in the world, absolutely absurd. For example Everyone limps for 100 points and I look down on the BB and find AT off (A premium hand in this game as you will see!) So i well up for a few seconds contemplating the best way to play this 'monster'. I have 3.5k in chips and the average in the tournement is probably 2.5k so I am relatively healthily stacked. I decide to move in and let the shot takers dance for their chips. I get called UTG and called by Grandad G next to the UTG caller, the utg had about 6k and GG had 3k. Cards on their backs. 87 suited for UTG and wait for it....... Q3 off for GG. Anyway the dealer deals out a board that contained both an 8 and a 3, so my premium hand finished in distant third on that oaccasion.

Another tiem i decide to move in with AQ then get called by wait for it..... q3 suited this time to see a flop that contained a rosy red three. It literally was crap shoot poker and by the interval there was 90k on the table and we had 4 of the chip leaders in the whole of the tournament on it! Actually i must tell of one final hand before I move on to the freezeout stage. AK called AI pre flop by KQ and the KQ gentlemen hitting ALL of his measly 3 outs....yes QQQ onboard.....who said this was a game of skill.

So we move to the freezeout (I very nearly didnt due to sheer frustration) I build to about 10k and pick up JQ, call a limp raise and see the miracle flop 89T, I lead out for 1k, 3 callers. turn pairs the Ten and I lead for 4k, another 2 callers. River pairs the 8 for a board of TT889. Check, check, all in for 6k. I instacall in frustration more than anything and the bettor smakes a big sigh. He goes on to show an 8 for the hand. Marvellous.

I proceed to iron out £200 in the cash and decide its time for an early night. I go back online when I get in and win £650 for a £350 winner on the night. I decided to jump straight into a 5/10 NL game with 250$. I had built my stack up to around $400 when this hand happened:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1134092

I then lose a $600 pot on the river when a King hits against my top pair of Jacks. Afterwards i regroup and get involved in the battle of the kickers on this hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1134103

Im not going anywhere on the flop and decide the best thing to do is get the money in there and then. When he calls Im thinking that i need to hit my kicker or flush. Im thinking i have 3 jacks, 2 queens and the rest of spades as clean outs.....actually I have every card but a ten that isnt a spade.


The next day i proceed to iron out £500 in double quick time. I was in for £500 and recovered to being even but with all my money on a 5/10NLHU game. This hand was an absolute killer, thinking back at it i should move on the flop to find out where i am or definitely fold the turn when the pot is bet out again from first position. I put him honestly on KQ, KK or AA. Only one of those hands I was beating, so i silly move in on my behalf that cost me $1000.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1134130

Today i have recovered again though to book a win of £350, some hands of interest were:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1133988 check my misclick out on the river bet!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1133991

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1134008 An ill timed bluff after missing my draw

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1134011

I am off to Wales now for a week as we are waiting for our house purchase to go through, completion date is next Fri. £20k was sent today as a deposit and between now and then we do not have anywhere to live so it is off the the parent's place for a holiday of sorts in south Wales.

Havent heard yet from the Murg out in Austrailia, heard he was due to be swimming with sharks. Attenborough wouldn't know who the predator was in a pool of sharks and Murgs, perhaps we have a new king of the Ocean?

5/22/2007

Recovery continues....

Right then lots to update since the last blog.

I have managed to profit about £2,000 since the last blog so things are finally looking up once again.

My plan is to drop down the limits from 2.50/5NL and 5-10NL to 1/2NL and 0.50/1PLO. After a good run to tend to go mad and do my nuts, usually on the Friday night on Betfair! So I think by dropping down the levels this will dilute the pain in terms of monies lost because I will be buying in for $100 on the 1-2 tables not my usual $250 on the 2.5-5 tables. Notice my continued trend of always buying in with half of the max amount, I don't know why I do this, it must be a psychological thing.

As promised in earlier blogs I am committed to improving my Pot Limit Omaha game and have been having good results of late on the 1-2 game as well as the 0.50/1 tables. I do find though that the 0.50/1 game is impossible to get anyone to fold pre flop, a raise to 3.50-6 dollars is nearly always called by all players as the ones round the back ate always getting favourable odds for their investment.

I got a phone call from the Professor the other day asking if I was adept at delivering speeches....to which I replied 'I guess....' He then went on to ask me to be best man for his July Wedding. This is truly a great honour and something that I am very proud to be part of. Unfortunately his wedding falls on the weekend that I had scheduled to go to Brno to visit the Hag, this has had to be put back to August 2nd and I am likely to be joined by the umpire who celebrates his birthday that weekend.

Ended up getting a ticket for the Champions League final but had to reluctantly give it to a mate who was going with his wife because of my house moving being imminent and flights being so damn expensive....last check was close to £1k for return to Athens :-(

I have played a bit of live poker in the last week, playing at Sovereign Poker in Farnborough on Wednesday for a £160 profit. Best hand of the night was A3o flop A37 all diamonds. Everyone called the fiver bet to see a turn of a black 3 for my house. 1st positions bets £25. I call after deliberating for a while deciding what my best course of action will be for the river. River brings a black 6 and the guy bets £20 into the pot which is now at about £100. I raise all in for £75 more and he calls with A6. A good river card to bring me my action.

Thurs I made the trip down to Brighton to visit the umpire, play a little online and see what action was happening at the Grosvenor Festival. The main event there was a 4 day £1,000 NL Holdem tournament, 300 runners and a prize pool of over £300k with £92k set aside for the lucky winner.

The Murg drove down to Brighton and we started off with the Umpire and I side by side online on Betfair, different tables and games with the Umpire playing mainly PLO and me favouring NLH.

I managed to profit £700 in 3 hours of play and we then decided to make the journey down to the Seafront to the Casino. I went straight up to the card room desk and put my name down for the £100PLH table and was informed that there was one seat remaining, which I duly took and sat in with 4 black £25 chips.

The table was full of all sorts of players, from the very young to the very old, black and white. My first impression of this table was amazement of how many chips were in play and how many of them were pink (denoting £100) Guys were sitting with stacks - yes plural of these and I counted a rough 13/15K on the table, obviously making my £100 very vulnerable.

Anyway I fold a couple of hands then pick up JT to a £15 pre flop raise, I call and flop the nuts with AKQ against a guys AJ. Quickly march onto £250 from the initial £100. Then the Umpire sits down at the table as a seat becomes available over the top of someone's unmanned stack. £500 is his pull up and I immediately notice the difference between our respective 'rolls'.

After about 3 hands I call a £5 extra bet because the whole table has called with the monster that is 62s. The dealer deals out a 623 flop giving me top and bottom pairs. I decide I am check raising all in on this flop. The umpire bets the pot everyone else folds and I raise all in for £150 more which the Umpire calls after umming and arring a bit. Turn 9, River 8. He tables 86o for the bigger two pair, another outdraw from the Umpire to the Binner....lots of history there! :-)

I feel my head go slightly hot after this as I pull up the further £200 in my wallet. This head heat lasts 2 hands (in which I call £25 pre flop with t6o!!) then I shout at myself internally to calm down and not to waste valuable money on shit calls.

I pick up AcJs to a £35 pre flop raise and decide to see a flop with 3 other players. Flop brings JK2 with 2 clubs. The turn is a Qc and all the money goes in with me against a loose player. His rag King holds for a decent sized pot and I am down to the felt in terms of money in the wallet.

I leave the table and make my way to the cash machine and withdraw £500 from there to sit back in the game with. I pull up £200 then whittle that down so have to pull up my final £300. AJ comes to me again and I see a flop of JT4. I have called £35 pre flop to see this sort of flop so I'm not in the mood to fold now when the loose player of the table bets £150. I move in immediately knowing he will call the remainder which he does. There is £600 now in the middle and the worse turn card in the world comes down from the Poker gods. a Q. He looks like he loves that card and I am resigned to losing the pot and take a quick £800 loss in a big game. River is a blank and I quickly table my cards hoping that maybe he is playing something that hasn't hit the board, I cant actually think of a hand that the queen hasn't improved. He shows J7 for one of the only hands I can beat and shakes my hand saying he is happy I have won. £600 with one pair is a rarity these days in the live games, have to go back to Reading Rugby Club back in the day for that sort of hand taking down that sort of pot.

The final hand of note from Brighton was my 66 and a board of 88769 against the Umpire's J8. That one made me another £250 profit for an eventual profit of £70 from the game. I decided to leave at this point. Only a couple of hours into the game but at my highest point.

We drove back to the Umpire's and I managed to negotiate another £700 profit online from a 1-2 game and a couple of 2.50/5 games for an overall profit of 1.5K for the night.

I travelled to the new Luton casino on Sat night for the £5k Guaranteed £20 re buy tournament. I saw no cards whatsoever in the tourn and ended up finishing in 75 out of 85 runners. I sat down in the £250NLH cash game and ended up losing that 200 quid when my T9s didn't improve on a board of J862 with 2 spades. I bluffed £85 off on the blank rivered 2 and was called by a tight player with QJ. Earlier I managed to lose with a house of sixes on a board of 69373 to a pre flop raised 99! sick.

Looking to play again soon and will post some hands as soon as I have uploaded them on my home PC.

5/08/2007

Recovery session

So the recovery starts in earnest with a heads up bowl stake match against the murg. 0.25/0.50NL cash game where the murg proceeds to luckbox 4 stacks out of me by hitting slightly better than me this was topped off with 8 high winning a $35 pot (stacks are only $25). I moved in with 53s on a k2h7h board, called by the 8 high flush draw and it remaining massive after the river drew a blank.

I decide to play one 2.5/5NL table while im playing the murg to try to make the session worth while in terms of profit.

I am up to $450 from $250 on that table when I take on the murg again on another small limit hu table. I take 2 stacks off him there including a lucky river for my A8 against his 45 on a A245 board with a 2 on the end after the money went in on the turn.

I then turn the original $250 into over $2k in an hour, good reading of the table and some nice hits like AK all in pre against JJ with a King on the flop.

AA won $300 in another pot when my pot bet was called on the flop and turn.

Other hands were good but cant actually remember them at the moment, might post some later when i'm back at home with the hand histories.

Managed to get round to sorting out all my DVDs prior to the house move at the end of May, I cant believe how many I have managed to accumulate in the last 3 years, incredible!

Lots of stuff to look forward to in the next few months:

England vs Brazil at Wembley have a ticket for that
Liverpool vs AC Milan in the Champs league final, am in the ballot for a ticket for that.
Long Weekend in Brno, Czech Republic visiting the hag for some poker and drinking
The Professor's stag night, will be Laurent Perrier all the way
Moving into my first house!

Will keep you posted.

5/06/2007

Poker Pig

So the weekend hasn't gone entirley to plan as I witnessed one of the worst games in Premiership Football history with Liverpool making 9 changes from their regular first team and Fulham looking every bit a 2nd division team.

I lost £650 online on Friday night to a mixture of 2nd best hands and badly run bluffs. One hand of interest and the final nail in my Friday night coffin was j2s in a 5-10NL game, everyone calling the mandatory $10 raise so there so 120 in the pot when the flop brough TQK with 2 spades. An aggressive player bets $50 utg and i move in for another $200 on top. Everyone passes behind back to the orginal bettor who wells up for 15 seconds and calls. The fourth and fifth streets bring utter blanks and his A8s wins with the high card. This sort of situation has been very typical of my form of late, lots of second best hands with no help for me as the dog.

Saturday morning I end up £350 down after a comeback late on.

I play again on Saturday evening after the footie round at Murg's house a typically good venue for my online results recently. I cash on £350 onto betfair and take that up to $3700 in 2 hours. Several hands of note are:

I have 44, call a raise of the pot pre to see a flop of A45 with the 45 being of spades. FP bets $30, i raise the pot to $120 and then the button re reaises all in for $450 total. FP folds, I call thinking im ahead to 2 pair or a big ace. He has indeed got an ace but a suited A9 of spades. He misses i hold up for $1000 + pot and suddenly my luck seems to be swinging to the good again. A couple of other hands that were interesting were KQ vs KJ on a King high flop for $600 and a bluff picked off with one pair for $180 on the river.

In another good hand I call a pot raise from a tight player with T8s to see a flop of TT5, he bets pot, i smooth call and the turn is another low rag. He pots again and I move in for the difference, he has 99 and the river doesnt help him.

I saw a sign by my local social club this evening saying that there was going to be 'poker' there tonight from 6.30pm onwards. I take a walk over there at 9.00pm just to see what the game is like and it turns out to be one of these annoying 'play for points not for cash' games. I probably the most annoying to watch poker game in the history which was shown by a player calling a bet of 200 another player raising 500 in total, the orginal raiser calling then the orginal caller of the first raise deciding to re raise another 200 ontop of the 500 and it being allowed to go without any objection! Incredible....at least if these games are to be run around the country then at least play by the correct rules.

My dismay was confounded when what can only be described as a warthog in seat one caught a favourable river to be followed by an outburst of whopping and snorting as if she'd won the lottery. Heads turned towards the beast but no one seemed bothered that such an animal was sitting in a public place drinking and playing cards....perhaps this could become the norm in years to come with animals like trained apes and monkeys playing in the WSOP.....just maybe.

5/03/2007

It's only on loan...in ancient Greece We'll bring it back home!

I had a brilliant night in Liverpool on Tuesday for the Champions League Semi Final. Left Camberley at 11.00am and was in the Sandon pub singing the anthems at 15.30. I had a great view of the game, 10 rows back in the main stand on the 18 yard line of the Kop end goal. Brilliant. Left the ground at 11.30 after nearly an hour of post match singing and celebration. An atmosphere I will never forget.

Cashed off my monthly rakeback from betfair last night, £230. The comeback will now start. I need to build a decent roll for the Czech Republic trip in July and ready for the house moving at the end of May.

I am toying with the idea of playing some PLO in the next few weeks, maybe low stakes at 0.50/1 and 1/2. Seems like a very mechanical game as opposed to the game based mostly on judgement that is holdem. Omaha really is a game where your holding counts for everything and you are either drawing to a monster/nut hand or already have the made hand....there isnt much in between. Will keep everyone posted on those developments.

Going to watch Liverpool away at Fulham on Sat which will be my first ever prem away game......its usually so hard to get tickets for the away section of premiership games due to the small allocation so I have been lucky that they were available on general sale.

I have also won an England vs Brazil ticket for Wembley in an online ballot, those tickets go on sale tomorrow at 11.00 so thats my morning taken up hitting the redial button!

Tomorrow night should be a game at Tadley supporting the Umpire who has decided to run a Friday night game. Should be £1-2NL HU so will probably take £300 for that and hope to book a win for drinks in Fulham on Saturday.


Until next time...adios.