Playing Against Donkeys!!

$22 MTT Rebuy Party Poker - VIDEO!

2007-10-20T10:56:00.000+01:00

MTT Video

Only have a few more days left on my trial 30 day period with all the online video equipment so i thought i would use it while i was doing quite well in a Party Poker $22 rebuy, about 28 runners started and i think Part one shows when there are 3 or 4 tables left

Hope you like it and i hope you sweat me along the way!!!

Part One

http://www.zshare.net/video/4326738bc99c4f/

Part Two

http://www.zshare.net/video/432685996d0461/

Part Three

http://www.zshare.net/video/43266956b8d56b/

Part Four

http://www.zshare.net/video/4332739c5a51a6/

Please give me some comments on my game, i am always looking to improve!

VIDEOsssssssss!!!

2007-10-06T19:28:00.000+01:00

As you can guess, ive lost interest in bloggin!! Sorry, i work now so dont play too much But made some videos hope you enjoy!!

Here is a $1/$2 game

http://www.screencast.com/t/ReIX3QnYxa or use http://www.zshare.net/video/4055452a8a66a7/

Then made a MTT and Cash video

http://www.zshare.net/video/4059503444d658/

Then made a STT speed video x 2

http://www.zshare.net/video/40742800bf0cb5/

Please feel free to make any comments!!

Vegas Tournament Part 1

2007-08-04T20:38:00.000+01:00

Venetian Deep Stack $340

The deep stacked looked like a great structure with 6,000 starting chips but during the tournament you notice when the antes kick in, it gets really shooty which I guess is expected, although this meant in the middle stages stealing the blinds and antes is crucial. I played pretty tight early on and got to a good start. There were about 650 runners but only the top 40 or 48 got paid, this was because at one time there was never more than 480 runners in the tournament as the other 270 were on the alternate list. This was our 2nd day in Vegas and clearly the poker fever was everywhere for there to be that many alternates.

I cannot remember to many hands but I did play very tight and played position more importantly. I got aggressive after I had worked out the table. I was looking really good until about 150 runners left when this one guy came to my table, who pretty much owned me! Everytime I entered the pot he would call or raise and then take me off the flop. He came to the table short stacked but doubled off another guy who bluffed him and then me and him had the most chips on the table. He raised in early position but he was raising every 3 to 4 hands, I was on the button with 44s and called, the flop came 3 5 Q, he bet and I called. The turn was an Ace and he checked to me. I thought for a while and fired a 2/3 pot bet. He thinks for a while and raises half my stack! Yikes! I had him covered by just a little bit but was not sure if I had fold equity here but there was still a chance I had the best hand. This was a make or break hand, yes I only have a pair of 4s but something was up, especially as he only bet half my stack and not the lot. I thought for a very long time and mucked.

I was left with 15xBB and it was push fold poker, I got it allin blind on 4/5 occasions which is my standard move in certain positions when it folds round to me. I then pick up my 1st legit hand for a while in Middle position and I had got my stack up enough that I could make a standard raise and not look like I am milking a hand. So I raise 2.5xBB and the BB asks me how much I have left (Sweeet!) but he ops to just call. The flop is Jack high with 2 spades and he insta shoves I insta call flipping my hand over and hoping to see a King of Spade but I have the K of clubs and a red K. He shows AJ no spade. So I am in good shape but the turn brings the Ace and I got out with 80 to go!

$1500 WSOP Event 49

Playing a WSOP bracelet event was definatley exiciting but after speaking to Jambon about the structure as he played this same event the week earlier I was going to have to accumulate some chips in the 4th and 5th level. There was 3200 runners making it the 4th largest tournament ever! I was certainly not expecting that many runners but that’s to rivercard.com I was free rolling in the event. I took some notes down after the tournament so I can talk about certain key hand accurately.

The first key hand I played was Q9, I had been raising a lot on the cut off and this guy in the BB got fed up. I made it 125 to go and he called, I flopped the straight! He fired out and I smooth called, the turn was a blank and I bet out, he called, He check folded the river and I was off to a nice start. I was raising this guys BB so much that when it folded round to me, he said. ‘oh I bet he raises’ so I did with 6-2off. The flop came 6 high that was good, he checked and I checked behind thinking I might get check raised here. The turn is a 2. He bets out and I call, the river completes the flush but its also a 6! He bets out and I over raise hoping he had a 6 to or maybe 77s or 88s, he mucks after giving a speech how I hit a flush! I smiled and we went on to the next hand.

The Table was pretty soft except one guy who was definitely related to the Tran family, JC Tran walked by and they shook hands, and other big pros nooded to him, so he was definitely going to be a problem on the table. He was very careful the way he played his button SB and BB, he was on my left so I knew I would have to play careful in the SB vs BB war but I fancy myself in that position. It then folds round to me in the SB and I limp with 77s he checks. The flop is K J 5, I check and he puts in a bet that he used on someone else that meant ‘I am betting in positon.’ We both started the hand as the chip leaders on the table with around 5/6k each. I call and the turn is an Ace. I check again and he bets out a larger bet. I decide to raise representing the QT or just an Ace which I know he does not have. He tanks for a while and calls, Yikes!!! Half my chips are in the middle! The river is a T, ok this is a very good card or a very bad card. If he had a Q to make the nuts I am screwed but it also makes it very hard for him to call me without the straight. But I had no real time to think as I wanted to show strength, I quickly fire out half my stack, he thinks for about 20 secs which felt like AGES!! And folds! Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I got my stack to about 8k and I get moved table. I did not play a hand for a full orbit then saw a few limpers limp on my button and I raise with 74, got one caller and I bet on all streets with a gutshot that missed! And he had top pair! I bluffed about 5k of my chips!! What was I doing!!! I should have shut down earlier on in the hand as I did not know the player very well! The next hand the table breaks!! I feel sick, playing so well then played one hand like a muppet!!

New table and I had work to do, with about 9 BB it was ALL in time! I shoved with 6d7d and got called by AK, I hit a 7 and double up. Then a few people limped and I found AT on cut off and shoved, no callers and that meant more and more chips! I then had enough chips to re raise and get people to fold which is always needed!

John Phan then sat down on m table! He was very lively and was showing off his great looking silver bracelet. However he lasted one hand! He sat down and someone raised his BB, he had AK and shoved and TTs held up!

I get on a little run and starting taking pots raising in late postion, it was just going right, for example I got a caller when I raised with 94, the flop was A 8 3 and I c/bet and it works! Its not great poker but it is great timing! Which is so crucial in tournaments like this with soooooo many runners! It was also announced that the top prize was $750,000!!! Hmmmm that could be useful!

I then win a coin flip for about a 12 BB pot and my stack was now something to use. I raise up with 3-5 and get raised! But the raise was almost a min raise, I felt I needed to call just to show I was not raising with nothing, also there is always a chance to get likely with a hand like 3-5, I mean I probably muck AJ and AT instantly. The flop is 7 5 2. I check and he bets out, I studied him and he did not look to comfortable and his bet was not very strong, so I set him allin!! He does not instant call which was nice and eventually mucks.

I then get my double, I know it tournaments like this the Allin move is sooooo important, I don’t think you can go the whole way with small pot poker or always betting less than the pot. The guy on my right raises and I mucked 99s earlier but decided to call this time with my 99s. The flop is T 8 6, he c/bets and I call, the turn is a 3 and he checks, I thought about firing here but decided I wanted to see a free card and was willing to fold if an Ace pealed off. The turn is a 7 and he checks again to me, I decided to use the Allin move here and I shove! He thinks for ages and asks me do you have a 9, I felt like saying No, but I kept quiet. He eventually calls with QT!!! I was feeling very good now!

There was this lady on my table who was a very strong player, she raised on the Cut off a fair few times which was my SB, she does so again but I pick up AK and then I shove her in, she thinks for a while and calls with TTs, which I thought was slightly weak, she was playing so well and I thinking getting all those chips in with TTs was a –EV move in terms of the tournament. I win the race and had a LOT of chips! Something like 48k, our table broke and I got moved to table 6, from 184 which meant I would be on this table a while!

Then everything went pear shaped again! I was raising more and won a lot of pots with no showdowns but then people started to shoved and I had to call as I was always getting more than 2 and a bit to 1. But they kept having AA and KKs!!!! I still had a good stack then this new played came on the table with over 100k in chips next to my 60k. There were about 400 left with 324 getting paid when he moved over. We played a few pots with him always having the best out of me! This seems to happen a lot, I get phased by a new player when I know the table so well! I need to maybe take a step back and pick on the weaker players in the future.

Then lost a big pot with KJ vs KKs, opppps!! Then the bubble kicked in and I was down to 15 BB, the chip leader on our table raised every hand which was very smart! However there was one hand which I think he really misplayed, he raised like he had been doing. Then he gets re raised, and he sets the person in, who was clearly committed! The whole point of exploiting the bubble is to win the blinds and antes, knocking people out is –EV because once the bubble burst it will be harder to win uncontested pots. Oh well atleast he was lucky enough to be in that position to even make that mistake!

I get through the bubble and shove with KT on the button, A9 thinks for a while in the BB and calls, no help for me and I am out in 307th out of a 3200+ and cash in my first WSOP event!

Thought I played well but there was definitely at time where I lsot concentration and tried to be a bit to clever! Think I might need to walk away from the table when I get that feeling next time. I also had 5% in Scott O Reilly who came 200thish

Will report on the other tournaments later otherwise the blog will get tooooooo long! But then again my loyal readers must be used to it by now! Hopefully these 2,000 words will keep you busy for the next couple days!

Life During and After Vegas!!!

2007-08-03T12:39:00.000+01:00

Wow!!! First of all just want to say sorry to all my regular readers for not updating for such a long time, I know it can be annoying to keep checking my blog and seeing no updates! I guess I just lost the passion to write for the time being but hopefully it will come back!!!

Quick Life update – Graduated from Warwick Business School in Accounting and Finance, moved house to Purley, South London and starting work on the 28th August for Doshi & Co.

Let me just summarise Vegas Quickly, I obviously cannot remember all the hands I played in the great 18 days but will do the best I can in by going over one key tournament. But first lets do the quick summary

Cash Games

Well it started off really well taking a few $100s off every game I sat in but then a
few bad nights got me down but I either took a break or fought hard to get over it, I think I went a few days playing cash with no AA KK or QQ, But hey that’s poker!! Should not be complaining about stuff like that but when I dropped $1.1k in one night I was pretty annoyed and maybe complained a lot more than usual to my room mates Dave and Tom. The best place to play cash was definitely the Venetian, it was an awesome place! Everything was run a lot better than everywhere else although the MGM was pretty swish as well but did not attract as many plays as the Venetian as they had no real big tournaments. At the MGM instead of the dealing saying MAN DOWN they would press a button on the side to let the card room manager know. Unlike in the Bellagio, which was really poor, the so called most famous card room in Vegas was very small crowded and used a pen and paper to put names down for the cash list, which meant a lot of people were paying to get to the top of the lists, which I was not willing to do! Here is a quick run of my results over the 18 days playing cash

Ballys $2/$5 +£95

Ballys $1/$2 +£197

MGM $1/$2 + £75

Luxor $1/$2 -£160

Venetian $2/$5 + £155

Bellagio $2/$5 -£550

Wynn $2/$5 -£225

Wynn $5/$10 + £325

Venetian $2/$5 +£200

Venetian $2/$5 +£275

Ballys $2/$5 +£40

Venetian $2/$5 -£400

MGM $2/$5 +£100

Bellagio $2/$5 +£485

Wynn $2/$5 -£450

Caesars Palace $2/$5 +£65

Venetian $2/$5 +£10

So it was not the best hourly rate! But at least I was £237 up! I thought I played quite well but the nights I was losing I was finding hard to walk away. I remember losing a double stack with QhTh on an Ac Jh 8h board. I was on the CO and the SB check, BB bet $20 I called, SB made it $80 and the BB made it $200, I then shoved $1,000, SB folded and the BB went into the tank. He was very close to folding but then someone decided to call a clock on him, The card room manager said 3 – 2 ….. CALL. I said nice call, he had A8 for top and bottom pair and it goes blank blank! Reload! I honest cannot remember many other key hands apart from the hands I lost!! I definitely saw some crazy stuff out there! I lost a pot, which I was very annoyed about but more about the etiquette than the poker! I raised with AdJd and get a few standard callers, flop is Qd Jc Td, Bingo Bango Bongo!! (see Mikes Sexton comments further down) I check and someone bets out, I raise and he calls, turn is a 4d, which gives me the nuts, I check and the guy bets half my stack. Sweeeeeet! Ok I decide I do not need to get it all in at the moment, I feel he may have one pair with a dead flush draw. I basically close my eyes, call and shove the river. The river was a T, (Yikes!) I still shoved, he thinks for about 2 mins and calls. I then turn my hand over and show the flush, he then waits and looks at me, I say ‘AM I being Slow rolled??’ He says nothing and the dealer tells him to turn his hand over, he does so with 44, so not only I lost a $1,000 pot with as 94% favourite, I got a huge slow roll, I then got up and said ‘You f**king Pr*ck’ just as I left the card room I then heard a loud cheer from the guy!! That felt nice!!! But over all I really enjoyed the cash games, had ago at $5/$10 after I played bad in a tournament and felt I owed it to myself to really focus and give it ago, I was up to $2,000+ after buyin in for $1,500 so I was happy although I did not play it again.

Entertainment! Life outside the Poker Room

Ok in Vegas you can do everything!! There is so much to do! Its not just about the poker!! Dave Tom and I saw plenty of shows that were really good and some not so great but it was a different experience! We saw two topless shows, which were not erotic at all despite what the adverts say or suggest. We saw three magicians Hans Klock with Pamela Anderson, David Copperfield and Lance Burton. We saw the comedy George Wallace. Dave and Tom went to see ‘O’, which I missed!! Bought my tickets then played at Sat to the $10,000 WSOP Main Event, the Sat started one hour late and then out of the 650 runners I got down to the final 40 with 15BB. I then go out with JJ vs KQ vs AQ (Yes the Q still came!) With top 28 getting the seat I was pretty annoyed! Especially as I also missed the show! Now that’s a bad beat!!!

Most of the cab drives were interesting! Make up stories to entertain Dave and Tom was amusing to me, I would say I was married or had kids, or love strippers to come to my room or anything out of the blue to get the cab drives attention, late at night most of the cab drives are really horny and want to talk about the Girls!!

Mark Vos a poker pro from Full Tilt was trying to get into the club at Venetin, but he did not have any shoes, so he came to the poker room trying to BUY some!! He asked me but I had trainers on. But I said I know a guy, Tom. So I went to Toms table and got the bidding going, Vos says $150 and I said $300 and Tom said he will throw in the socks! Deal!! Plus we got two Full Tilt Badges that all the pros wear! Pretty sick! Tom bought me a Bellagio Buffet as a commission for the sale!

We also met Juha Hellpi, who actually chilled with us for about 45 minutes at a playboy party and DTD invited us to. Then we met Joe Hachem down stairs at the Palms. Also Shannon Elizabeth and Joe Seebok were there so I went to speak to them, I spoke to Seebok first as it was easier then wormed my way to speak to Shannon as the other guys followed behind. Got some dirty that Shannon does not like Jennifer Tilly, which is cool as most people know I hate Jennifer Tilly! Saw her at the Bellagio doing well in a competition and she did not have her Tits out! Was pretty hard to recognise her without them hanging out! Got a few pictures done with all these people! I managed to get Shannon next to me after telling her come in the middle you the best looking one here! We also met the man himself Mike Sexton!! Scott got us in a Party Poker party and Sexton was there with his wife, he looked like an action doll, that was the only way to describe him. So anyway we get a picture with him and I tell him, ‘I love bingo bango bongo!! I use it in my blog’ It put a big smile on his face and he says I’m going to use it more now on the World Poker Tour!!’

Well that the summary of Vegas so far with no mention of tournaments yet!! That will be in the next blog!!

Vegas Updates ??????

2007-07-09T01:13:00.000+01:00

Just a quick message to say, i am not broke in vegas! I am just having such a wicked time, i do not really have time to blog at the moment, but i have done little reports on my laptop and will upload them and fill in the blanks when i get home to England!!

So just blogging to say 'dont worry' i will blog soon when i get back and btw VEGAS is wicked!!!! Absolutely loving it and cannot wait to come back next year!!!

I am back in England on the 14th so should be blogging up during that week!!!

(wow this must be my shortest blog ever!!!)

p.s http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=87492 (hint of what one of my next blog entries will be about)

DSOP Main Event Deep Stack

2007-06-29T23:12:00.000+01:00

Tommo quoted in the early morning of the 21st of June how the sun was rising yet the sun was setting on DSOP; this was going to be the last DSOP of all time at Warwick University. This was definitely going to be a sad day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most people, including me, look forward to the DSOP events where the structure, the banter and the players are of a fairly high standard. The Main Event was a £50 Freeze out with 11 runners, 25k in chips meant this was going to be an awesome tournament with plenty of moves and plays!

Ok as University is over now I am going to go into as much detail as possible of my reads and how they play. I was in seat two so I will relative to what I was thinking after the seat draw, as position is so vital certain players in different position totally changes my read of them and how to play against them.

Seat One – JD – Ok I have position of JD and he is not afraid to three barrel against me, which means I can flat call with big hands and hopefully get paid off later down the line.
Seat Two – ME!!!! Great Poker Player!!!! And Great Blog writer!!!!!! (I heard!!)
Seat Three - Sam Granger – Now here is a tricky player!! He is certainly a nice guy but can be very unpredictiable and do some crazy stuff! I heard he likes to min raise A LOT!!! The problem in this tournament which I did not like was that he was on my left, because he calls a lot pre flop, so I find it difficult to know where I am, as his range is sooooooooo wide.
Seat Four – Saef – Again calls a lot and unpredictable player, tends to be quite tight and waits for cards, so definitely can exploit that later down the line when I am on the button when the blinds are higher, he also likes to see more cards and keep the pot small but he does like to defend his big blind!!!
Seat Five – Gary Fernades – I think this was his 1st DSOP and knows the game very well but for some reason I seem to have a strong read on him, he tends to give this funny look when he is up to something funny, so I would look to play pots in position with him, but he can be very aggressively and pots can get quite big against him.
Seat Six – Guv – Well I know how he plays and I tend to play quite tight against him and bet big when I have it, as he likes to make ‘classic calls’
Seat Seven – Jagger – Who I find very difficult to play and we never normally clash against each other, he is more than capable of getting his chips in at any moment with the nuts or the nut low!! (no matter how much is in the pot), which makes him a very dangerous player in my mind!!
Seat Eight – Flash – DSOP player of the year last year and in the lead this year, I needed to win the £50 freeze and for him to come at highest in sixith place, so I had to agenda in this tournament, to win it but also try and pick some chips of flash, this has to be a –ev move in terms of this tournament as I find out later.

Seat Nine – Tommo – Again a very tough opponent who can get his chips in, someone I like to stay clear off in pots, especially early on when we are sitting
very deep stacked.
Seat Ten – Dave – Who likes to play a lot early and play basically any two cards in the 1st 3 levels, he likes small pot poker and I am happy to tangle with Dave
Seat Eleven - Mitesh who likes calling a lot but can be dangerous with a lot of chips.

The tournaments started and I did not really get too involved, I played rounders earlier in the day and I was really tired. As it was 11 handed I thought this may help, I basically put my head down on the table I switched off for the 1st 30 minute level. Early on with 11 players I folded a lot, trying not to call with 55s and 66s. I then woke up in the 2nd level and decided to play a pot, also picking up KK helped! Flash limped and I raised with my KKs and Sam called and so did Tom as the blinds folded. The flop is Jh Ts 9s, not a great flop for KKs especially given the range of hands I am getting called by in the early levels. Tom checks and I decide to check thinking a check raise would help me find out where I am rather than a bet followed by a call. Sam bets out and Flash raises but a small raise about 2.5x Sam’s bet. I then decide to re raise to find out where I am. I do so and Sam folds and Flash thinks and calls, at this point I put him on bottom set or maybe a big draw. The turn is a check and we check check, the river is another blank and he checks, I normally value bet here but I decided to check to keep the pot small and not be out played by the hand and I cannot think of too many hands that call me in this spot on the river which had also called the re raise on the flop, I win the pot and Flash mucks his Ks5s.

I then decided about 20 minutes later to play a pot. Tommo limps, I limp with Ktoff and another calls, Gary in the small blind raises it up, Tommo thinks for a while before folding and Gary did not seem to happy that Tommo was thinking to re raise or call, so I decided to call with position and there was some vibe I got from Gary that he was up to something. Everyone folds and its two to the flop. Flop is Ah 9h 8c. Gary fires out and I quickly call, thinking to take
this away later, the turn is a 7, which gives me an up and down, but I was really drawing to my bluffing outs, which is the hearts. Gary then fires out another big bet, which seems strange, why is he betting so much? Could he possibly have something like KQ? or a small pocket pair? I do not think he fires so much out with AK or a set because he loses his customer and may make the pot to big with AK. I decide to call thinking in my head I have a ‘flush’ draw and a straight draw with position. The river is a heart and Gary checks, I have about 16k back and the pot was about 12k, I fire out two 5k chips, Gary thinks for a while and eventually mucks, he claims he had KQ but we will never know!!

Dave Lu also lost a big pot where he ‘misread’ his hand for a set against Gary AK on a AK2xx board where Dave thought he had 22, but turns out he had 23! Opppps!

Rob Jagger also picked up some chips of Tommo after he re raised all in on the river with T high on a A J J 5 3 board. Flash Jagger Gary and Mitesh were the early chip leaders picking up a lot of big pots, while I was somewhere behind them and the rest not doing so great.

Dave got knocked out when it was SB vs BB against flash, where flash flopped a set and Dave moved in on a bluff with Ace high.

Everyone seemed obsessed with re raising each other pre flop and a lot of squeezing going on with these deep stacks, I tend to like to play more flops with a lot of chips as I think I have a better edge with a flop game than pre flop. I think people got carried away with this, hence why I think Guv went out, he re raised Mitesh with AJ and Mitesh shoves and Guv makes the call, which I think is pretty bad, he claims he is ahead of Mitesh’s range, which is ridiculous!! Mitesh min hand is JJ+ imo and AQ+. Mitesh had AQ which at the bottom of his range. I just think the table got the best of Guv there.

JD Flash and Sam got in a big pot which saw Flash raising, JD re raising with AK, Sam moving in with JJs and Flash thiking for a while and then moving in with KKs and JD thought for while before calling. So AK vs KK vs JJ, with a K high flop Flash knocked two players out!!! Not good for me in terms of player of the year and especially considering the tournament it self you never really want to see Flash with too many chips!!

I found myself quite short after playing a lot of pots with Flash trying to take him down a notch but that had the opposite effect and chipped him up more, my 24 and 35 were just not working!!
There was 6 of us left and I was in trouble, I got lucky by raising with JT and Saef moved in with KJ and I had the odds to call, I hit a straight and Saef goes busto, this was definitely a double edge sword situation as by knocking Saef out I got some nice chips but with Flash still in it also meant I could not win the Tinoyta player of the year.

So it was between me Mitesh Gary Flash and Rob all with chips to play, I got involved more and raised a lot of pots and with the antes in play the pots were definitely worth taking. I won a nice pot with AJ when I raised and Gary re raised, I thought for a while and decided to shove and he folded.

Mitesh got short and pushed with 22 and Flashed knocked him out with AT, Gary was next to go when I called his allin with 66 and he showed AJ, I called as if I lost the pot I would still have an average sized stack. I won a flip and Gary goes out on the bubble

.
Then three way we got some action going, a lot of allin and double ups, Flash and and Jags got involved in a big pot, Flash raised with Q9 and Jags called in the Big blind, Flop 8 6 T, Jags lead out and Flash moved in, Jags thought for a while and makes a great call with QJ high, unfortunately greats calls do not always get paid off and with a J on the river Flash doubles up. Jagger then moved in with AK and Flash calls with KT and I call with AQ, no pairs for anyone
and Jags triples up!!

I am in the chip lead with taking a few uncontested pots, Jagger moves in with Q9 Flash then shoves with A9 and I look down and see AK, and make the call. The Q hits and Jags triples up again, I take the side pot and knock Flash out.

It was me and jags heads up, I did not expect this to last long, jagger is very aggressive and it was 4am. 1st hand in a pick up 99s and raise, jagger moves in and I call, I don’t like to flip but he does the same with lower pairs and A rag, but he has QJ and we are off to the races, I win another flip, take £275 and take down DSOP main event!!!

Its been a great three years at DSOP and its sad that it is coming to the end. I definitely feel that playing with great players and with a great structure has really improved my game, we are not always playing with a lot of money but it is always interesting playing with the same group of people where you can discuss the hands later and really improve, would like to thank everyone that has played DSOP in the last three years and I hope I can host some more
fantastic games in the future!!!!

Dave Lu ‘Having run PokerSoc during the baby years of DSOP, it’s been pretty awesome to see the growing popularity of DSOP. Each week there are at least a handful of people on the waiting list, complimenting the PokerSoc schedule by offering higher buy-ins and more challenging fields. I personally loved the slow and consistent structure of the tournaments. This provided great practice for structures more commonly seen in major buy-in tournaments. No doubt many former DSOP attendees will find this useful in the future. Long-live DSOP!!!!'

Thomas Grundy 'I'd just like to say thanks to Doshi for running DSOP for the last three years.I think that DSOP offered something a little different to poker soc, with thehigher buy-ins and smaller fields. I always looked forward to playing thesedeeper events, and think that the standard of play has not only helped improvemy game, but has also prepared me for some of the bigger live tournaments.Winning DSOP for the last two years is an achievement I am very proud of,and I can honestly say that I will miss playing the events next year.'

DSOP 2005

1) Dhruv Doshi - 1040
2) Alex Lukin - 870
3) Guv Singh - 853

DSOP 2006

1) Tom Grundy - 1485

2) Dhruv Doshi - 1257

30 Jamie Brown - 1211

DSOP 2007

1) Tom Grundy - 2456

2) Dhruv Doshi - 2315

3) Mitesh Desai - 1766

2nd to Last DSOP!!

2007-06-23T20:40:00.000+01:00

DSOP Event # 8

The second to last DSOP was a £15 double chance tournament with 4k plus 4k starting chips, we had 9 runners and the game was nicely hosted by Dave Lu in his garage with the Warwick poker table! We looked like real gamblers! Playing poker in a garage at 1.30pm!

I started off really well picking up KKs twice and playing them very slow. I just flat call a raise, which I have been doing a lot earlier in LIVE tournaments with players I know very well. I feel confident enough to play flops with big pairs a lot better in LIVE tournaments when I know the players, I have a fairly tight image early on in tournament so re raising = easy fold for most players which I do not want. However in online tournament I tend to re raise as they always call anyway, especially when there is like 1000+ runners. I would not advise flat calling with AA and KKs early on unless you really know the players well. Played KKs when someone opened, I called and the BB called, Flop is 3 low cards and the initial raiser checks, I bet and BB calls and the initial raiser folds, the turn is an Ace, which should be a scare card but not against this BB who loves to out play people and the fact he flat called in the BB it is unlikely he had an Ace and called the flop unless he had A9 for top pair top kicker. I then slow down but I am calling bets. He fires the turn I call and we check the river he mucks as I show KKs. I then flat call with KKs later on and the flop is Ace high, it was a 3 way pot and I quickly muck when the Ace hits and there was a bet, later he showed his AT. So this does not always work!!

Last hand of the rebuy period, I open with AK and get called, the Will re raises who is a ROCK, it gets back to me and I immediately move all in! Caller (who thinks he is a baler, JD) folds (who flops a straight flush) (SHAME!!) Will goes into the tank, and at this point I think he has AK, which is why I moved in, trying to win the pot or get him off JJ here. He thinks and I am a tight player and in the last hand of the double chance he might not want to gamble here, he eventually calls with QQs. We are off to the races!!! No A or K and Will doubles up!!! I am left with basically no chips and take my top up!

I then picked up AAs and JD opened up, Flash then moved in and I called! This was especially sweet because DSOP also assigns points for every tournament to crown the Tinoyta Player of the Year. I won it in 2005, Flash won it in 2006 and 2007 was the last one and the decider. With two tournaments left Flash was 1st by a long way and I was 2nd, with 25 people on the leader board it is nice to be 2nd but I want 1st!! My AAs held up against Flashes 99s and he was out leaving him with 60 points, with 1st place getting 270 points I needed a win, to have a chance to catch up with him as he was 500 points ahead of me before this tournament.

Few players get knocked out and I stayed pretty clear of it all, just playing my hands as I did not see too many opportunities to exploit with air. The tournament got 3 handed pretty quickly with Dave and Will left in with me. The chips were evenly with Dave and Will with me in 3rd, I then call Wills raise with KT and the flop is K K T, he bets out and I shove! I have the nuts why am I shoving! Hmmmmmm well if I flat call I think it shouts out I have a K, by shoving it may look like I am drawing or have the T and trying to protect it and I am sure he has enough chips to make a hero call with a Draw or with JJs or AT, he calls and has K7, which is a pretty sick flop and a cooler for him. I double up and then get aggressive, started moving in a bit on Will as he has the shorter stack. I then call his raise with KQ, flop is K high and I check to him, I then give a little talk saying I am playing crazy, he bets out and I instant shove! He folds and seems a bit annoyed, the next hand I raise on the button with A7, Dave folds and Will moves in. Hmmmmmmmmm He is a rock!! However I feel he is on semi tilt, I do not have the odds to call if he has a higher Ace so odds was not a factor, I need to find out whether I had the best hand or not, I thought he was tilting after the last hand, so I called, he flips KJ and my A7 holds!!

So now I am Heads up with Dave Lu with about a 2:1 chip leader, I played the big stack and position very well and Dave could not do much. He then opens and I put him in with 22s he calls with KcQc and I win the race and take down DSOP and 270 points!!!!

Will post about the end of year final DSOP of all time in the next few days! hopefully before i leave for vegas!!

Oxford Cup and Poker Soc

2007-06-14T22:21:00.000+01:00

The Oxford cup is run every year for the last six years I think and this was my last inter student poker tournament and was focused on 1st prize which was also a seat into the GUKPT London which is valued at £1,050 added by the sponsors of the Oxford cup this year. The format was a £20 rebuy and I drew my seat next to Tommo, which meant the £20 rebuy format could get expensive but on our table there were 5 dead stacks and 5 players. The tournament kicked off at around 11am and by 11.20am Tommo and I had been sworn at by the other players, one a young lady. Great stuff!! According to them string bets were allowed and swearing is the way to make a valid argument!!

The table broke quickly as there were only 5 of us and we all moved around, I found myself on Tom’s table (Flash), this would certainly get interesting apart from the fact I am his luck box! He does awesome whenever I am near by!! It helps that he is awesome at poker as well though! So anyway the rebuy period was going very slow so I stuck to my usual plan of doing the opposite of what the table does in the rebuy period, so I started raising every pot as everyone was sooooo passive. A strange point to mention is that there were a lot of beginners at the tournament who had never played live poker or had very limited experience as the way they moved their chips, sat in their seats and dealt the cards gave a lot of signs of how limited the experience was, which is surprising for a £20 rebuy which is relative quite expensive for people starting out to play poker especially students!!!

Currently writing this blog entry while playing the $50 rebuy on rivercard and the $100 freeze out, tired of playing cash today so thought I’d try the tournaments out on rivercard, especially as I lost my sats money on poker stars!! In the $50 rebuy there are 87 left from the 182 that started I am 15th in chips and in the $100 freeze 70 started and there are 59 left with me 42nd in chips! Will update the progress if i'm still in as I write this entry, so I guess this blog will turn into a love report as well!!
In the rebuy period at Oxford I helped create a 5 way Allin that was announced on the microphone! I was holding 34 against 57, 57, 99 and AJ. AJ scooped the pot and we got some rebuys are my table! I then doubled up later on with AK vs xx and then tripled up with A9 vs AQ vs KJ, lucky me!!! Flash also got a huge stack in a 5 way all in with KJ and flopped a flush!! The break came very quickly as the rebuy period was only 60 minutes long and with self dealt tables are slow players not many hands were dealt, about 140 odd runners turn up to play with about 130 odd surviving the 1st hour

I then picked up a few uncontested pots in the freeze out and took a few blinds before I went card dead and dead dead as I played no hands!! There was nothing I could really do, every time I had junk or people were beating me into the pot! Then I became short stacked as blinds went up. I had a tough player on my right, and when it was SB vs BB he would just shove against me, I kept looking down at 6-2 and kept losing my blinds!

UPDATE $50 Rebuy : Just won a nice pot with 56 as I missed my straight on the river and bluffed the guy off! Phhhhhewwwwwwwwww!

So the Oxford Cup tournament was pretty much dying for me. I then got moved to the final three tables. I survived by stealing blinds once every 2 rounds, which were the only spots I could really find, which meant my stack was decreasing a fair bit. We are playing 8 handed and UTG goes all in , I have AJ in the SB and decided with only 5 BB to call after thinking a while, the BB Simon Trumper also calls off his 4BB with 7-5 off, don’t know why to be honest. UTG had KKs and I go busto in 33rd or something like that! On the good side Guv and Flash made final with Guv coming in 5th and Flash coming FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Winning the seating and chopping the cash for a nice £2,200!!! Well Done Flash!!! I did not see much action but he was average for most of the comp and then excelled with 3 tables to go, he lost a big pot on final with JJ vs T4!! But came back strong, he even knocked Guv out who shoved with 99s and Flash woke up with QQs in the SB. So a big congrats to my boys!! Who represented Warwick well!!!!

UPDATE: $50 rebuy, odds call with A4 lost me some chips
$100 freeze 25th with 50 left

As I busted out I went and played a 25p/50p cash game which was short handed and had about £1,000 in the pot between 6 people, I bought in for £100 and played like a rock in the dealer choice game, it was a round of each with some good student poker players. It was a bit of a sad sight when I left the game thinking that was probably the last time I will play with these random student poker players that I see at every student poker competition across the UK, I wont go into hand detail but we played Omaha hi –lo, holdem, Omaha hi, Irish and 2-7 triple draw, where I pulled off the check call draw check call draw check raise stand pat bet with a pair!! Bascially some guy stood pat (no changes in 2 rounds) then I checked raised him with air and he called and then took another card! He paired up and could not call my river bet. I ended up about £145, which covered my tournament cost with a bit more cash in my pocket! Definitely helping me recover from my $2,000 downswing on rivercard on Friday!!

Poker Soc

£5 rebuy + Add on Comp at poker soc! Draw a tough table to start off with, Flash hot off the Oxford cup win, mongy and JD, I play QQs very slow early on a loses a lot of my stack and fold on the river on a T high board when flash pushed the river which smelt like a set although later he said he had the straight. I then started pushing all in as my chips were getting shorter and shorter. I then got a double up when I pushed with 55s and QT called me. But I was still short. I got very lucky against Flash as I shove with 4-6 suited UTG and he calls with 77s, I hit two pair!!! Then I lost a big flip when the button pushed and I was in the BB with 55s, this I always think is a tough spot. Blinds are 400-800 and the button pushes for 7k total, I have 15k behind, if I lose I still have 10BB and if I win I can play some poker. Now lets look at the button range, any pair, so I am crushed most of the time and any two high cards so a flip, and any Ace, which is a flip apart from A2 A3 A4 and A5. So against the range I am flipping most of the time and the way I see it if I am flipping I might as well be the 53% than the 47%, I decided to call with 3 tables to go thinking I need the chips and this could be a good spot, he shows KT and a King on the flop puts me to 8k. I stay in with two tables left then I find a great spot. Early position raises to 3k, MP is Allin for 3.2k, MP calls, I look and see KK in the SB and shove for 6k total, EP calls and Mp dwells and calls! Ok I cannot be in good shape with KKs here!! The flop is all middling cards and the dry side pot ends up with 2 Allin by the turn. I am up against 99s KQ and AT, on the T high flop!! So I am looking good also there are 3 clubs on board I have Kc and no one has a higher club! The river is a club and I scoop!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!

UPDATE: $50 rebuy Busto!! I raise with AK, and bigger stack shoves, he shoved on me earlier when I raised with A7 and he just won a big pot with AA, so I figured he was quite confident to move on me, I call and he shows AA again!! The pot was 30k, which put him 1st in chips! I went Busto in 50th! Top 20 pay oh well!! A very big pot, I like to fold there most of the time but I felt he was just getting busy but turns out he just picked up a few nice hands in a row! Fair play to him, I hate calling my stack off with AK but if I win that pot I have a great shot for 1st place and $5,000 but instead I went broke!!
$100 Freeze fell below average as I was checked raised all in on a Ace high flop when I was holding KJ, but still got over 30BB so not to worry.

So back to the poker tournament at poker soc, blinds were getting high and with two table left I aimed to steal once a round to get me to final and get some points on the player of the year leader board, http://www.sunion.warwick.ac.uk/poker/rankings/players.asp Flash was still in as well, infact me and him were next to each other for the whole tournament. We both get to final, he had a lot of chips and I was quite average. Then blinds were huge and it was allin or fold time! It quickly got 3 handed and Flash got knocked out and I was Heads up playing for £200 which is pretty nice for a poker soc tournament, I win a few 60/40 and take down another poker soc tournament this year! Which feels really good and takes me that step closer to player of the year!!!

Still in the $100 Freeze 41 left 22nd on chips

Rivercard Roll : $2,000 Live Roll : $2,010

72 Hours and 10 Hours of Sleep!

2007-06-11T16:39:00.000+01:00

Wow the Downswing really hit on Friday! I woke up and played some $2/$4 Heads up that went really bad, this one guy just had me in a choke hold, no matter what I did or how the cards fell I just could not get going, this is where I definitely lack discipline, I really need to learn to just walk away from games like that especially heads up games. I lost a $1,100 pot with AK on a A J 9 K board, money in on the turn he held QT, and had QQs and AAs cracked by 24 and 95, but hey that’s poker!!!! I really should have realised when to stop and or to take a break but I kept playing and kept looking at my poker balance decreasing and decreasing!!! I ended up losing $2000 in one day!!! Which made me feel just sick!!!!!!!!

On the bright side I have reached the million points on rivercard!!! Which means they will pay out a $1,000 although speaking to them recently they mentioned they may buy me in the $1,500 anyway as I think I will get enough points for maybe $1,300 and just pay them back in time in terms of points, which is very nice of them!!!

After realising I need to stop playing online I watched more episodes of heroes!! I saw the whole season in about 4 days! Pretty impressive I think! Or just sad! The thing I love about the show is that it seems so mystical and different almost spooky, which gives it an edge on the rather series at the moment!! Definitely a must watch!!!

I head down to London on Friday night to pick up my passport, planning to go Spain with uni lot before Vegas so driving back to London seemed ideal with the Oxford cup on Sunday. I drove straight to Gutshot and sat down at the £50 No Limit game, 1st time I have played no limit there but the £50 pot limit games were two tables full!! There is no max buyin and people were in for £50 , £100, £200 and I was in for £250 although someone else was in for £1,000. It was a soft soft table the pot limit vs no limit game did not make much of a difference to me as I never bet pot (except pre) but this definitely allows the weaker players to make larger mistakes. Not too many interesting hands to be honest I played pretty simple poker and got paid off when I had a hand, I tried bluffing early on but that really did not work but helped to build me a loosish image, which is fine by me. I struggle between £250 and £200 but once I got over the £250 mark I never looked back. I won a nice pot with 33s, I limp with a few others and the BB makes it £7 to go, 4 callers. Flop is 4 4 6, a good flop for me assuming no over pairs. The initial raisers checks and it checks to me, I bet out £30 and everyone folds the initial raisers then goes in for another £15 more, I call! Not happy but not folding to a small raise and I don’t want people on the table thinking I will fold to a small raise later on in the game. The turn is a 3 and the river is an Ace. I show my house! And he is upset and a bit angry saying how unlucky he is, but the truth is he had Ace high when the money went in, he was drawing dead on the turn and hit his pair on the river!!! But people love to complain!!!

I won a few nice pots with 78’s the same seemed to work for me and I managed to get maximum value out of people! In live poker certain people just do not want to be bluffed especially by a young looking Asian guy.

A topic I would like to introduce is ‘Friends at a Poker Table’, yes yes there are no friends at a poker tables, and in tournaments I totally agree!!! But in Cash games especially Live and in a non home game environment I do not like to sit on the same table as a friend of mine, so I avoid it but what happens when the guy next to you becomes your best friend after talking to him for four hours, which is just delaying the big pot you two are meant to play! If you play a lot of live cash you end up talking to people well I do! I know some people stay VERY quiet but its just boring after a while, also by talking to people you can gain soooooo much information. But there comes a point where this can cost you. For example there is this very very aggressive player who does not fold draws full stop, he loves them and willing to get his money in but he also been talking to me all day! He has won huge pots by getting lucky and paid off a lot of people, I raise with QdTd and he calls, flop is Jd 8c 9d!!! Bingo!! Bango!!!! Bongo!!! Oh btw this was a while ago at gutshot and I was stuck about £400 and waiting for a hand like this to get my money back against the perfect player! I bet out and he calls! The turn is a brick I bet again and he folds his lower flush draw!!! HUHHHHHHHH!!!! He is NOT supposed to do that! The dealer the rabbit hunts for some reason and the flush hits, he then says look I hit a flush I saved you money cause I like you!!! I go on mad tilt in my head, thinking I have you beat!!!!

So where do you draw the line? (in cash) I like to be the nice guy at the poker table because I am a nice guy and I respect the rules and the game. Therefore I tend to make friends which allows me to bluff more and get away with pots, I think the key here is do not be too friendly with pay off wizards!!!

I then went home and watched more Heroes with about £505 in my back pocket, so I made back some cash I lost playing online! But still down for the day!!!

I woke up the next day eagerly waiting to watch more heroes!! I’m starting to wish I had a super power!! If I did have one it would not be anything to do with poker!!! That’s just cheating!!!!

Then went out to see Oceans 13’s ---- Really bad films!! Do not watch it!!! No twists no turns nothing special just a bunch of technical jargon in my opinion. Then went to go eat at Nandos with my brother Veer, my cousin Amar and my mate Niraj, they liked the film but I did not!! I then watched Pirates of the Caribbean, the 1st one! I know I am a bit slow but planning to see the 3rd one so got to see the other two soon! Well other one now! Dam I bet all those people who work are thinking! This student is really having a good time!! Well dam straight!! Life has to be enjoyed before all the responsibilities kick in when work starts!! You are only young once!!!

I stay up till about 6am finishing off the series of heroes, get one-hour sleep and woke up to drive to Oxford for the 9am registration!! This blog entry is getting a bit long like all my other! So will blog about the Oxford cup in a couple of days! As well as more online and live poker experiences!!!

Rivercard : $1,500 Poker Stars : BUSTO!!! Live: $1,650

Star City , Poker Soc, Rivercard and Poker Stars

2007-06-07T21:06:00.000+01:00

So I last blogged mentioning I was going to star City played the early tournament at 4.30pm a £20 rebuy, I played very tight as I normally do in the 1st level, watching who actually can play poker, who you should bluff, who you should not bluff and who is willing to rebuy.

In the 1st 45 minutes I did not play one hand! I know that sounds like an exaggeration but seriously it is not, I checked my BB and limp in SB but never got to a turn. I finally played my 1st hand a minute into the 2nd level with TTs, I limped in early, someone raised with 3 callers and I shoved. Somehow it helped up!! Then I saw there hands was up against Q9 A7 and Q9 so I guess it was not that hard to believe. I then played a few pots and started moving in a bit, hey it’s a rebuy after all!!! But I could not win a hand! I ended up in for £160!!! I shoved blind twice getting called by JJ and AQ was not goooood!

So I start the freeze out with 10xBB the minimum chips possible! Oh well!! The guy next to me says, ‘oh looks like you not going to be here for long!’ which I did not appreciate, although 10 hands in i doubled up off him when he limped on the button with JT and I shoved with A8, he calls! And I win! Then I looked at his stack and laughed at him :-) (I know that is bad but I really didn’t like this guy)

I get my stack up but still in the 15-20BB bracket where the only move in a place like that with the blind structure is allin allin allin!!! Someone opens up, I see AJ and I shove! This is not a move I will always do but it felt right and I feel I am ahead of his range or flipping which I don’t mind at that stage of the tournament. The short stack in the blinds finds QQs and calls, the opener thinks for a while and says I cannot fold this hand! Thinking it something like 88s or 99s, but he calls and shows JT!!!! The flop came J T x and he scooped the pot! He then tells me as I get up, JT is statistically the best drawing hand agasint any other hand, I said not against AJ, he says YES IT is!!! I left and smiled! Guv went on to make final and cashing £144 in 7th place

I played cash and just played a lot of pots, I was in for £160 and could not hit a hand, I eventually went on a little rush, and when you hit on that table you got paid!!! I lost a £100 pot with AA vs J8 allin on the flop of J 5 5 board which was annoying (Jack on the river) but somehow I was £80 up!!!

At poker soc played a shootout out style tournament £10 freeze out, I drew a tough table with Flash Dave Jambon and with only 2 going through it was not going to be easy. I played tight and was really focused on going through but going through with chips was important! (Shootout is basically the top 2 from every table go through to the next round and take their chips forward to the final table) But with only 8 getting paid and given points you need chips!

I play a sick pot with Dave in the 4th or 5th level. I’m on the button with K2 and limp. Dave is in the SB and Flash in the BB, Dave calls and Flash checks and we see a flop. Flop is Q 8 5, they check to me and I bet half pot (to look weak), I know that one of them are going to make a play at me. Tom even gives me a cheeky look when I bet half pot. Dave then raises and Tom folds, I call with air. Dave bets the turn and instant shove and Dave mucks quickly! Shiiiiiip Ittttttt!!! Apart from that move I played really solid poker, although I actually flipped a coin to decide whether to call Dave’s allin with K high! He called Heads and it landed on Tails which meant I had to fold!

We get three handed and the structure is awesome me flash and a wild guy are still in, he opens shove on the button with like 30 BBs, I look down and see 99s, hmmmmm I think this is a really tough spot, I know that I can play small ball and steal blinds very well and take chips instead of getting all in with 99s. I lay it down! Although I don’t think a lot of top players do but I felt I could go through with more chips with a lot less risk even though 99s is a huge hand 3 handed. The exact same thing happens again a level after where Flash had a lot of chips and me and the aggressive guy had a bit less, he shoves but this time I see JJs and call, he has A4, flop is Ace high and Im down to virtually nothing. Few hands later flash gets all his chips with QQs on a 9 7 3 board where the guy had A7. Moved to final with no chips but 3BB!!! Did someone say Drupoker????????

Somehow I get lucky I shove with no callers, then I shove with 7s8s, Kader raises with TTs and Flash moves in with AK, which I felt was unnecessary. Kader clearly commiteed himself with his re raise and Flash had no fold equity and they both had huge stacks, without fold equity in that spot with AK I don’t think it’s a great move because most of the time you are beat and at best splitting, only a few times Kader has AQ there imo, plus Flash had a lot of chips to dominate the table rather than gambling there, I hit a flush, Kader hits a set and Flash loses a big pot! I then shove a few more times with no calls and then got 4 handed, Button opens I see an Ace and shoved he calls with 44s, I have A3 and go home! Good Game! I got lucky to get that far, so got nothing to complain about!!

Rivercard been going really well although a couple of bad hands hurt but that’s poker! Playing a lot of poker atm so cant complain about all the bad beats because if I do see over 100 times and if my KK loses to TT it should do Twenty times!!

Poker stars on the other hand is just sick!!! I keep coming 2nd for the $650 seat! Played a $50 freeze at DSOP last night after I went busto on the big screen, I limp with QQs about 3 hands in, BB makes it 300 to go and I shove for 3k he insta calls with K2 and flop is K 2 x, oh well!!!! That’s just sooooooo standard atm, need to take a break from stars I think! Lost in a Double shoot out for the $650 seat with 4 to go with JJ vs 44 on a 44J board!!! Just sickness constantly!!!!

Rivercard : $3,600 Poker Stars : $270 Live : $940

1st few days of roll building!

2007-06-03T15:23:00.000+01:00

So I played for quite a while yesterday, 1st notable hand I played was pocket ducks. I call on the button and the SB raises. BB calls and so do I. Flop is K Q 2 Bingo Bango Bongo!!! SB checks and BB bets out $20 (this is on $1/$2) I call, SB raises to $40, hmmmmm do not really like that but I don’t think I can get away. BB calls and I make it $70 ish to play. SB calls, pretty sure he has AK there and the BB folds. The SB then shoves on the turn! I instant call with my set and he flips over QQs, the BB claimed he had AK!! Oh well good start!!!! I managed to get my buyin back and the table broke, then played some $2/$4 and was doing well raising and c/bet a lot of flops.

I went through this time where people kept raising me on flops after my c/bet and of course I have air like always, so I decided to slow down a bit and really think about what kind of flops could c/bet with and what I shouldn’t. Read some thread on pocket fives where someone was having the exact same problem, he mentioned that so many players are raising flops with air and just trying to take pots away as they always put you on AK if you pop it pre, which is definitely not the case with me!!

I have also started playing AAs a lot differently; this is definitely the hand that you make a lot of money with on cash and in tournaments. I basically been playing it very slow, just limping and trying to get the pot heads up but if I limp and four go to the flop I will definitely be able to let it go. But most of the time I get it heads up and try and really go for the big pots even if that means checking the flop and the turn and giving them a chance to catch up. So far the plan has worked making a lot of money with AAs, although lost a $900 pot yday with AA against 44 after I limped re raise from UTG flop was 4 7 9 all spades and I was holding the As, we get the money in the turn was a spade! But the river paired the board!! Yuk! But AAs still my favourite hand!!!

Another interesting hand at $2/$4 was UTG opens I call with Akoff and the button re raises to $55. UTG calls and I call. Obviously could play the hand differently but I was in the mood to see a flop, also had position on the UTG raiser although it had now been taken away. In terms of reads I guessed the re raiser had AK JJ QQ KK AA, had not seen him get out of line at all. Flop K J x, ok good flop for hitting top pair but since I played the hand slow pre I like to stick to that line of thought and play pretty snug in this spot. UTG checks I follow and the button bets out $110, UTG calls and I call. The turn is a brick we checked to the button who now checks, ok pretty sure he has QQs here. But I have know idea what UTG I doing! The river was another brick and UTG checks, now I should be valuing betting here to try and get QQs to pay me off but the pot was pretty big and I was still a little bit worried about UTG, also I give the button a chance to bluff at the pot. Also if he has AAs here which is possible I think he checks behind and I get away from another bet. He could easily be controlling the size of the pot with the bullets here and be happy with the $500 in the middle. He then checks behind and shows QQs my AK is good and maybe missed a bet there but oh well, UTG had T9, just a gutshot hoping to get lucky!!

Controlling pots is something I have stopped doing on the turn, this is more of a Barry Greenstein play. If people are check calling and calling they are probably on a draw or on too sure about their hand, I am more than happy to check the river in position but checking turns with Top pair hoping to control the pot is something I used to do, which I feel is really weak, especially as you give them a chance to bluff you on the river if they miss a draw and you can only beat a bluff. You basically give yourself a tough decision, which I don’t like to do in poker. So for example, I have KJ and raised and get one caller, flop is J 9 3 with two hearts, he check I bet, he calls, now I will always bet out on the turn and not control the pot even if a Q/T/8 or a heart peels off. Then on the river he is more likely to check to me as I have fired 2 shells, I will check behind if I feel I am beat. (but depends on the board.) If I am out of position I will fire the river and fold to a raise, basically put a blocker bet out to avoid calling a larger bet or folding the best hand. If I get raised and depending on the player I say well done fold and move on. A lot of the times yday I was betting the whole way ahead even when I just had T high, they catch up on the river and I checked behind them, meaning I got all the money in the pot ahead and nothing when I was behind which is pretty much all you can do! Ship those Slanksy bucks!!!

Currently about $650 up on Rivercard! And some more action points for my $1500 seat!

Poker Stars!! Hates me!! And I hate them!!! Played a few 1000 runner comps and keep getting deep like in the top 2-5% but cant seem to do better, this really sucks as you play for 5 hours and get about 4x your money back, considering these are $8, $10 rebuys its not a great amount especially when 1st gets around $5-$7k!!

Just played a few sats just now for the million and WSOP qualify as well as a $10 rebuy, lost with A8 vs T3 all in pre, QQ vs AK vs A7 all in pre, KKs vs AJ all in pre and some other crap along the way!!! Was pretty sick considering it happened in the space of ten minutes with my housemate wondering what is going on! As I am not doing great online Guv has suggested going to StarCity in Birmingham to play the £20 rebuy at 4.30pm and the £20 at 9pm, if we want, so I decided to go as my luck online ain't great at the moment! Playing some $2/$4 now which is going ok SO FAR!!!

Rivercard : $2,600
Poker Stars : $450
Live : $1000

The Eve Eve of My Last Exam!!! = The Start of Vegas Roll Building!!

2007-05-31T14:43:00.000+01:00

Exams

Gone terrible! So far, well actually gone ok but my last one went really bad, which means the chances of me getting a 2:1 is very low! Probably the same chance of hitting a 2 outer on the turn or river! I am not a big fan of the education system of univerisity, i may have not put alot of effort into my studies while at Warwick but i feel i have not really learnt anything in three years, Uni seems alot about what you can find out, rather than what you can think about, i think the ability to think is more important than the ability to go to the library or the internet and find out Evans and Jovanvic view on finanical contraints of the level of talent of the new entreprenuer! The system at Warwick Busines School seems to not allow you to think and put your views across, which is a shame, oh well i felt i proved myself in the academic world after getting all As at A level and three years at University in terms of education was not for me! Although University is still great as it helps you develop into a well growned adult!

Roll Building and Vegas

OK! Back to the poker! I am going to get a bit more personal in my blog by including more figures of actual $$$s, i have tried not to do this too much before as i do not want people to think i am bragging, or the higher limit players to think, this guy is playing for peanuts or any other sterotype i might convey playing the limits i play. But then i thought! Hey! this blog is for me mainly and will hopefully give me something to look back on later on in life and hopefully to help my game.

For those who do not know i am going to Vegas on the 27th June and i am very excited! I am going with Dave Lu and Thomas Grundy, others will be around including Jambon Kader Porno (STA boys) and Scott O Reily. So there will be a good amount of warwick boys representing in Vegas! Now it will be my first time and the plan is to play at the Veintien for the $340 Deep Stack on the 28th June, the $1500 Braclet WSOP event 49 on the 30th June. I have about $9,000 which i am willing to spend in Vegas on everything!! Including tournaments, cash, food, entertainment, accomadtion and flights. Flights costing $1,600 and Accomadtion around $900. The $1,500 event for the WSOP event i am looking for rivercard to pay that for me with my action points, which leaves me with $7,000 - Hotel - Flights - Deepstack = $5,160, I have put in $2000 on therivercard.com, about $600 on Poker Stars and also have about $1,000 in cash lying around for Live games. I am just playing $1/$2 and $2/$4 on rivercard and playing tournament on stars to try and qualify for the Main Event $10,000 buyin. If i lose all of this money i will have $2,500ish left to play cash and cover other expenses food etc in vegas.

I will do daily blog up dates about my vegas roll, which in short is $2,000 on rivercard and $600 on poker stars and any other poker i will play from the 2nd June to the 27th June, which includes the Oxford Cup, DSOP event 7 and 8, Warwick Poker Soc tournaments and im sure a few visits to Stanely Casino and Star City.

Rivercard = $2,000 Poker Stars = $600 Live = $1,000

Wish me luck and Watch this Space!!!

VC Student Poker Championships!

2007-05-13T00:55:00.000+01:00

My first TV tournament! I was very excited about playing this competition as it was a new place to play and there was a lot of money at stakes. My seat was worth about $3.1k in this 17 runner $50,000 free roll!!! !7th got $500 and 1st gets $20,000. Before the event Dave Jamie and I were thinking if we win the money do we buyin into the WSOP main event! Most of us were thinking YES!!

6 out of the 17 runners in this student comp were players from Warwick University, which is pretty sweet and a great achievement. Well the day did not start well, I woke up an hour late and then I fell down the stairs!!! (In my house as I was half a sleep and in a rush). Then on the tube I left my phone on the seat as I got out I quickly saw it and jumped in and out of the tube just in time! Things were not going well! When I arrived I was told I had to wear a VC student poker T shirt, which is fair enough as VC have given about $100,000 away in terms of free roll, cash prizes and a few ipods and laptops! I drew seat 1 table 1, which meant I would be on the TV table.

The first few hands in and the table was crazy! The blinds were 25-50 and the average pot was like 2k!! Players were raising re raising so much in the early levels, which I am not a fan off as there is nothing in the pot to really win. I then played my 1st pot. I raised in middle position with As3s, the BB calls and the flop is 9 6 3. He checks and I bet out, he then raises me and he looked kind of weak, so I thought I’d re pop it and find out where I am. I was pretty sure he put me on AQ, KQ or something like that and would not have connecting with the flop. He then re re raises me! Opps!! I fold thinking he must have at least a set to make that play so early on, he then turns over 8-2 no draw no hand!! What a Player!!!! Hmmmmmm got me thinking. Was everyone playing for the cameras? I and Jambon were on the same table just making funny looks at each other thinking what the hell is going on! Then we remember its STUDENT POKER which means everyone bluffs! Everyone re raises and everyone goes all in! They play way to aggressive at the wrong time in my opinion. I then decided to sit back and wait for people to go crazy.

I remember two hands which illustrates my point. Pre flop two people limp to 200 and the BB raises to 4.2k!!!! What a Player!!!!! Another hand was about a 5k pot at 50-100 where the players had 3rd pair, which was good after someone else called a bet and a raise on the turn! It was just crazy stuff!!!!

I then get my self in trouble again with 66s. This Muppet who has been calling down with poor poor hands raises and I call. Flop is Q 5 3, he bets 400, he raised 400 pre so I saw this as quite weak, I did not want to raise as this guy could not spell fold, so I thought I’d see another card. The turn pairs the 5, and he bets 1,000. Now if i'm good on the flop I should still be good. I then decided to put him under pressure as I had position but I felt raising was not the best option. I thought seeing a free showdown on the river would be more valuable. So I ask him how many chips does he have left. He was not comfortable with this chips and took a while counting. I then call. The river is a safe 2 and he FIRES OUT!!!! Opppps that’s trick did not work! (btw any home game buddies, I will use this as a reverse trick next time or a reverse – reverse trick, so don’t read too much into it!) BUT he fires out 1,000 again. Now he should only bet here with a bluff or a strong hand. There was 50+100+400+400+400+400+1000+1000+1000= 4750 in the pot and I didn’t think I could fold for 1,000 with that many chips in the middle. I call and he shows KQ! Nice hand sir!!!!

I then play my last hand! I raise with AK and get re raised for the 5th time in the tournament! I then think for a while I have about 4.9k left if I fold and blinds were going up soon to 200-400. So I commit the rest of my chips the eventually winner calls with KKs, no help on the flop and I am out 1st!!!!! Booooooooooo!!!!!

Such high hopes in a 17 runner $50,000 free roll, especially as the talent was not very strong. Warwick ended up winning the tournament! The Clutch won taking $20,000 straight no deals!

Oh well guess next time I have to do better, although I still got $500 and £150 for travel. Was a shame as this was my last student poker tournament and I was hoping to go out on a high!!! The show will be on poker zone in 5 weeks or so, hopefully I don’t look too stupid on it but not sure if I’ll even be on it!!! But that’s poker! Sometimes things just do not go your way!!!

Dealers Choice Cash £200 Sit Down

2007-04-16T20:04:00.000+01:00

Stanley Casino, Coventry

Its late Saturday afternoon and I’m ‘working’ in the IT centre for my final piece of coursework and to do some research on investing in some shares. Dave pops in and we end up talking for like 3 hours and do research on where to stay in Vegas, anyone know any good places near the Rio and on the strip. We email imperial palace, the golden nugget and somewhere else, can’t remember at the moment. I then realised I am not going get any work done and tell Dave to come with me to check out Stanley Casino in Coventry where they just started doing poker every Tuesday and Saturday, as I don’t have any online poker I need my fix somewhere!!

We head down get some food and put our names down for the Cash Game, Blinds are £1/£1 and all the games were pot limit, But it was dealer choice, normally I hear that and it’s a mix of Omaha and Holdem but this was very difficult! The Game available were Holdem, Omaha 4 Card 5 or 6, Irish 4 5 or 6, 5 card Draw Jacks or Better and 7 card stud, late late during the night someone asked for Pineapple!!

Ok I know how to pick up games quite quickly but I was not at all too optimistic and decided to sit back in the 1st few rounds of the game, me and Dave both sat with £200 in front of us. Most of the games picked were MAXIMUS! Better known as 6 card Omaha! A True gamblers game to the locals at the Casino, I was awful at the game and called off a lot of chips with draws and marginal hands, I lost about £50 just calling off my chips and never holding a strong hand, my plan was to play boards! Not jus flops but the turn and the rivers! Dave was contempt bumping it up pre flop, which I do not think is the ideal strategy in these games as preflop your edge is never more than 55% (I think!) Dave tangled in a few re raised pots, where I would fold almost anything! Didn’t want to gamble too much early on as I did not have cash to reload with. Dave was in an interesting hand in irish where he flopped the nuts with 42 on a 4 2 4 board, The local man bets and dave raises. The local has about £40 in front of him in chips and about £80 to £100 in cash, (cash does play!) He then says I call using his chips! But does not put the cash in. He then turns his hand over (after discarding his 2 cards, as you do in 4 Irish) Dave looks at me confused and there is not much you can do! The guy had Q4 and dave wins the pot but loses out on £100! This is typical of places where the locals run the game and the dealer is a local himself! There is not much you can do except ask what are you playing in front before you bet or raise, but asking that question gets them very very pissed off! Which can also help!!!

I played loads and loads of hands but its difficult to recap as I saw a lot of hands and flops. I worked out which players played what hands and I made a few moves even though I did not want to, I guess its just instinct to see weakness and exploit, I managed to get someone to lay down 3As which was nice when I had Q high! Started playing more tight (apart from the moves!) and got my stack up to £300 odd playing £50 - £60 pots!

Took a nice pot with AAxxxx on a A K 8 3 8 board, was a strange round of betting though. He bets into me, I raise, he called, he bets the turn I raise he calls, now the river was an 8 which meant if he had 88 he has quads (not that far off, saw a few quads that night) Also he could only have KK or 88 no other hand imo. He then bet the river when the 8 hit, I had a disguised look on my face and called, he showed KK full. Sweeeeeeeet!!!!!

I started understanding 6O a lot better which helped me limit my loses and maximise the wins. Then a huge pot came up. Had TTAJxx in 6O and the flop was T Q x with 2 clubs. The pot was limped pre and I bet the flop. Two callers. Turn was a K, now I have the nuts with AJ for the straight and the redraw to the house. I bet out pot, and then got raised, then a short stacked pushed with KKKs and Dave let go of AJ, I then re raised all in with AJ (which im not sure I do with out the redraw to the house) Then re raiser calls with the bare straight the main pot is about £150 and the side pot is about £350. The river is a Q , gives the short stack KKKQQ and me TTTQQ and the other guy AJ a no good straight. VERY NICE POT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The lady with the KKK also had a flush draw, which makes calling with just AJ a bad one I think, in this game there are so many dangerous cards and a straight on a flushing board is never that strong!

I then pick off a nice pot in holdem with Q6 on a 6 6 T board, but again a little trouble. The lady bets out, and I call, at this point I know she has JJ+. She is not sitting with much so I figured not to get too busy now and get it in on the turn. She bets the turn and I raise, she goes allin!!! I call, she has KKs but wait!!! She asks me do you have the 6 I say yep! (do not want to be excused of slow rolling). Then dealer moves her chips in and she says NO! I did not put them in, he has a 6!!! I looked a Dave confused and did not care too much was around £350 up and was not to bothered about £15-£20, but next time I know to only show my hands or comment once the pot is sorted! So maybe my fault I guess!!!

Again more happened but hard to remember I was about £420 up for the night and was very happy, also had a good time play these over games, even though I was supposed to have a –EV edge I felt I had a +ve EV! I think I can pick up games quickly and plus poker is poker!!! Dave was about £120 odd up after losing a £300 pot with AA77 to JJxx on a 7 J 4 board. He might blog in his blog about the game if you want another read of the game, check links on the right hand side.

Overall Great fun and good money!! Loving 4 Irish btw!!!

My 1st TV Tournament!!!!!!!

2007-04-07T14:10:00.000+01:00

Whoooooooooooohooooooooooooo!!!!

I qualified yday for the VC Student Poker Championship, i know i said i would not play online poker til my exams were over but i had won my seat to the semi final through a $5 sat ages ago. This was invite only and you had to qualify to the semi-final!

Yday there were 111 runners with the top 18 making it to the live tv final in london, i doubt the whole tournamnet will be on TV, most likely the last 6 but its still a 'TV' tournamnet, so i am quite excited!!! Congrats to Dave Lu Jambon JD and Ged who also got their seat! Warwick really showing their strength in that tournament!!!!!

On the side note, i thought i would play something on the side, so i put some cash on stars and played a 2 x $50 freeze outs which i did awful in and a $11 rebuy which i did even worse in. Also played two omaha comps a $8 freeze out and a $20 6 max freeze out but hi-lo. I won both of them!!! Sweeeeeeeeeeet!!!!!! Not alot of cash but always nice to win a tournamnet with oer 150 runners (the $8 one)!!!!!!

Thats about it! Not much to comment on as i have been 'working'!! Seen some good poker on TV thought the Will Hill Grand Prix 2 is definately worth a look, also the new season of the WPT is comming out which is always good fun to hear Vince and Mike but its basically an allin fest and re raising poker!!! To Finish off i'll quote Vince Van Pattern

Poker is like making Love its all about Position!!!!!!!!!!!

‘The Pros Favourite Starting Hand’ – Hmmmmm?

2007-03-24T05:40:00.000+01:00

Suited Connectors!!

When you seat down at a poker table and you have a great feel about the tournament you are about to play and everything is going right, you hit no red lights on your way to the club, your favourite dealer is dealing out the first hand and you see a very nice amount of money for 1st prize with your name written all over it, you look down and see your cards, you squeeze them out together and see 78 soooooooted in hearts!!!! You call a raise and the flop comes Ac Kh 9h
Did your day get a lot better?? Or have you walked into trouble??

The quote on the title refers to the pros who love their suited connectors as well as a lot of bad good and very good players. Everyone likes to see the 67 of clubs and everyone starts to dream about the endless possibilities that may come up on the flop.

I disagree!! I am not a big fan of the old suited connectors, sure I like to play them but I’d much rather see AK suited and AAs or KKs! Just going to talk about tournament for tonight, I got work to do and writing more than 1000 words on this is not very productive!

Tournaments and Suited Connectors

So in the early stages of the tournament a suited connector is a good hand to start with. I feel if you know what you are trying to hit and know the player, suited connectors can be very dangers, however it can also be very dangerous for you! For example you tend not to be drawing to the nut flush and maybe not the nut straight as well, early on in the tournaments I like to play quite tight as there is not much in the middle to win, therefore when you are sticking in a lot of chips I want to have the best hand and not take too many chances as I feel early on it is harder to get people to fold, which means you need showdown value.

Early in the tournament however is where there are huge implied odds with suited connectors, they are the best hand to crack AAs and especially at low level competition people will not fold AAs full stop!! They may not get all their chips in the middle but are unlikely to fold (basically call off a lot of chips, once faced with some resistance). However the big problem with suited connectors here is that when you call a raise, how do you know they have a big hand like AAs??? Also will you fold a 6h7h on a Ac 5c 4h 3s 3h board? Also even though they are the best hand to crack AAs it is still only a 23% shot! And that is with 5 cards showing, most of the time you will get bet off the flop. Also suited connector only hit 5% at most of flops, so calling a raise all the time with suited connectors may not be very profitable. Also what if they do not have AAs. The flop hits you big and Mr ‘AA’ checks and you bet the big draw and he folds. You have now called a raise of 3xBB and won 6.5xBB if you hit the flop big without him hitting it. 95% of the time you call off 3xBB and lose interest on the flop.

Middle stages I think is the time to play suited connectors more, when you have established a good stack only. I think they are the kind of hands to raise with in LPs and bully players. You can nicely represent a AK type hand with position if the flop is high and if the flop is something else hopefully you have hit it! On the short stack I would certainly avoid these hands, if you push and know you are getting called (no fold equity) do not push with 6c5c, you have 6 high!

Later Stage depending on the structure which is normally not good wherever you go, I try to avoid these hands completely, I will raise with them (but like I would raise with any two cards) but never call to see a flop. They are very weak hands when the blinds are huge and there are really no implied odds. The chances are a 3xBB would be a lot of chips and wasting them on the shot of hitting a big flop is not great especially if you end up drawing to a flush when you are only 1/3 shot anyway.

I think a lot of people get in trouble when playing these cards. A lot of good players get in trouble as well. Good players tend to tell bad players they over play hands like QJ and KJ well I have the same feeling about the 67 and 78s out there.

It must be remember that suited connectors tends to lead to drawing on the flop, and TJ Coultier always says draws are the death of holdem! When drawing you are always behind, even with a massive draw you are at best 50/50 (odd exception) assuming all your outs are live. Would you get it all in with AK vs 22 in the 1st level of a deep deep stack comp where you feel you have an edge? Not likely!!

That’s the best I can come up with today at 430am! Just trying to put off my work for another night

On a personal note, just being playing on UB, playing the $20 Omaha comps and the $35 and $120 bounty comps, good fun! Until I get coolered everywhere I go!!!!!

3rd in a $20 Omaha hi lo yesterday for $200 (good fun)
5th in a $30 Ultra Turbo Sat for $70, top 4 got a $215 seat
32nd in the $35 bounty top 30 pay, allin with pair and flush draw vs an up and down!
21st in the $50 top 20 pay AJ vs AK Button vs SB
22nd in a $10 rebuy with top 20 pay! AJ vs AK BB vs Button
30th in $120 bounty TT vs QQs on a 8 high flop to be 4th in chips, top prize $7.8k (cashed $100 worth of bounty’s and paid $195)
60+ish in $120 bounty KK vs AA
36th in $35 bounty 96 vs 64 on a Q 8 6 6 4 board, to be 2nd in chips

ALL GOOOOOOOOOOOOD FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WaSOP and WSOP Sats

2007-03-12T19:22:00.000+01:00

Jus a QUICK report, just taking a break from revision, got a International Financial Management test tomorrow, so if poker fails there is always investing! Then again on the side note have just formed an investment club with two of my university mates, Draw Finance!

Back to the Poker!

WaSOP (The Warwick Series of Poker)

Great event, great atmosphere and great to see all the students across the country come and play the WaSOP the buyin was a$100 and it had a great structure to allow play across the two days.

Day One

Played really well i thought, was only a few levels in the day which started with 100 runner and drop to about 70ish. I ended the day with 20K in chips which put me about 8th in chips overall i think. I got some really nice cards AA a few times and KK a few times. Although im not a big fan of getting premium hands like this in the 25-25 level with 10k behind. As the chances of winning a big pot is quite small and losing is quite high, so i played the pots as smal as possible, lets face it KKs are that strong when you make it 75 to go and get 4 callers. But i got more chips through position poker. I played my button quite strong and raised a lot in the cut off. I also one a nice pot when the eventual winner of the comp fired three shells at me and i called with 2nd pair, which was good. It was early on and i wanted to see how he was playing his button. It was checked to him on every street and i wanted to see if he had the ability to keep firing. Not much else i could remember in the day, mainly because everything ran smoothly, i won pots i was suppose to and lost pots i was meant to.

Day Two

Had a nice table draw, with low stacks and big stack and had reads on most of the players. I was winning alot of uncontested pots. Got up to 28k with one showdown. Then picked up JJ and raised, a tight player re raises and looks scared but commited, screamed out AK to me. I thought for a while and thought to take the flip. He calls and shows AK, flop is 8 high but the Ace on the turn cost me 10k of my stack. Was annoyed at myself thinking why take the coin flip, i was in such good shape and didnt need to gamble. But i guess i didnt think long enough.

Then got my chips back up again with AQ on a A high flop, someone check raised me basically allin and i thought for ages and saw his heart rate beating ridiculasly fast, i figured he was bluffin and shoved for 3k more into a 25k pot on the flop and he folded!!! Sweet!. Then lost a huge pot! about 55k which would put me in the chip lead of the tournament with 5 tables to go. i have KT on a KJ75K board. I raise a better on the river and then another guy moves in for 12k more into a 40 odd k pot. I thought for a while, then someone came on my table during the hand and called a clock on me, which i didnt appreciate, it is in his right to do so but not if you have just moved to the table during the hand. I thought for the full clock and eventually called, thinking im getting such a great price, and if wrong still have ten BB, which is plently for me! Also i only had to be right 1 in 4 times there and i went with it. Unfortunaltey he had a full house he turn a set and rivered the house! oPPs!!!!

Back down to ten BB and i move in or fold for the next level with no callers, i get a double up when the button raises my SB and i shove with KT , he has T8 nice! Then i steal steal steal and with two tables to go got my way to 20BB!!! There was about 14 left and Rob raised up and i moved in with AQ. The BB thought for a while and called with JJs as Rob folded. I lose the flip and out in 14th!!! On the plus side, i won a £5 sat to the comp at poker soc and won £50 in the last longer bet! So actually made money in the end!!!

WSOP Sats

Ok i have stopped playing cash online because of exams and courseworks etc.. balh ablah balh

But put some cash into full tilt poker and poker stars. I won to seats to the $650 main event sat on poker stars, and on ful tilt i keep making final table for $530 sats and $2k packages for braclet event in the WSOP playing $30 rebuys and $69 freezeouts!!! Very frustrating!! i keep gettin like $100 back but no seats!!!!

I played the $650 sat on stars yday and went out in 180th out of 770 with top 41 getting seats, lost a huge pot with AA vs JJ vs AQ in the middle stages which would have set me up nicely but i grinding it back up only to lose with AK on a K high board against A6 who river a flush, played the hand a little bit bad but the money goes in as the turn gave him a pair and a flush draw! But instead of shoving i just raised, he called, hit the flush on the river and shoved, i then called! As 75% of my stack was already in the pot! I played it bad on the turn! But thats my fault, although he got lucky on the river

The tournament is great though 2500 chips with a 30 min clock!
On a nice not two warwick mates won their seat yday Kader and Porno mark, link on right STA blog!!! Hopefully i will be there next week!!1 (already won my $650 seat)!!!!

Thats all folks! Hopefully next report will be me boasting about playing in the WSOP !!!!

£330 Freeze out at Big Slick!!!!

2007-02-25T14:51:00.000+01:00

Friday

I came bk from uni on a friday night, dropped a mate off in Croydon and went straight to Big Slick to buyin into the £330 freeze out. I then sat down and played some cash. I sat with £160 on the £50 game and got a bit bored, got it up to £220 but saw the bigger game was getting some more players and people who are probably playing the £330 comp the next day. i felt i could create a bit of an image and at the same time learn how some of the players play. Will not go into to much detail about the game but i took a nice pot down on a bluff with Jack high, and took a nicer pot with two pair. I ended up about £185 up just playing solid poker and alot in position, played my button quite hard, although i did not play many hands, hopefully creating a tight image.

Saturday

I get to big slick at around 7 when the comp was meant to start but it was running a bit late. I saw some old new faces and it was good to catch up been atleast 9 weeks since the last time i played there and there was a great atmosphere at the club. I then found out that Nick the owner actually added the £5,000 to the prize pool and not a sponser like Betfair or King Soloman or their new sponser party poker. There were 91 runners and I drew seat 7 at table flamingo in the corner of the room, not the best seat in the house but i could see my table and also being the corner table it was unlikely to break til the very end, which meant i could spent good time reading the table as the table will not be one of the first to break, therefore creating an image was definately on my agenda. The table seemed ok, nothing too impressive. although looking around the room there were some big and better players than the usual big slick crowd, to mention a few Action Jack and his 'crew' were there as well as Praz and two of his boys. Also a few more had travel to croydon for the comp, so it was by no means the usual Big slick player, who are fairly weak overall for a £330 freeze out (no offensive to the good players at the club) Looking at the structure i was not too impressed. There was no 75-150 level and after the 400-800 it went to 600-1200 and after 1,000-2,000 it went to 1,500-3,000 which is when i believed the crapshoot would happen!

I start off very very solid, folding a few hands here and there, and just trying to play in position. i limped in with small pocker pairs, like 33 and 22 but never connected. I create a tight image and started raising limpers and c/bettin the flop, which got me to 15k after the 1st three levels. I still had not picked up a hand. The blinds were 40 minutes each. The best hand i picked up was Q8 which i raised two limpers and c/bet the flop. Also one a nice pot with 79. Some what a family pot and i called on the button, flop came 9 high and it check to me i bet. SB tight player called. turn paired the board and also brought the third diamond. He checked and bet again, he thought for a while and folded. The TD just stated before the tournament started that moodies do not go. The 2nd hand in a player on my table on a board of AKxAx three spades bets and someone thinks saying, 'oh have you hit the flush' he then raises!!! hmmmmmmmm Thats not allowed! No one seemed to notice, the guy folded and mr 'oh no i'm worried about the flush' has AK (of course) for the house! I then asked the dealer is that allowed?

Feeling good at the break and going into the 4th level. I still had not shown a hand or being given a hand better than 66s. I then kept raising on the cut off and folding pretty much anything else. I then raise on 1+ the Cut off with 98. The BB thinks and calls. Flop is K Q J, he checks and i bet out. he calls. Turn is a 2 and he checks and i fire out another shell, he calls, im sure he is on a draw, something like JT or T8, definately holding a T, maybe QT. The river is a nice 3. He checks and the pot is quite big now, i cannot afford to check with 9 high as im sure his T high would take it. Also i wanted to keep my hole cards a secret to the players on the table and create an image where you are getting no free cards. I then fired out the fourth shell, and then he called with KT!!!!!! Yikes! I then said nice call and showed my 9 high. The table looked quite stunned as he scooped at 20k pot. The did not help my attended image but at least they knew i was aggressive! However i did not have that many chips now, down to about 4k and with blinds 200-400 it was ALLIN time!

I then shove allin about 5 times picking up the blinds, which was nice. Especially as the best hand i had was AJ. The others were Ax in position. I then got up to 6k. I picked up AK!! Whooohooo my first big hand!!! BUT!!! some guy limps UTG and then some one makes it 1200 to go!! hmmm ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLIN!!!!!!!!!! I was quite sure this was an automatic call for the raises but he thinks for a while and folds his TTs face up! hmmm, im happy with the pot but would mind a double up, still over 60 players and needed some chips, but any uncontested pot pre flop is not toooo bad!

Then the poker gods sent down the lunatic!! to our table, he was on 70k!!! Average stack on final would be 91k!!! he was not far away but when every i see someone with that many chips early on, you know he must be very aggressive and very lucky (in most cases) I picked upAJ and raised his BB, he called as well as the button. Flop is J high and he checks, i check and the button checks oppps! The turn is a low card and the BB checks i bet, the button folds and the BB puts my all in, i call. He has Q8! A gutshot and an over card! A blank on the river and i double up. I slow down alot now, i was not picking my any hands and you do not need to bluff the unbluffable!!! This guy later cracks two sets with str8 and flushes. I was showing his 5 high bluffs while i waited and waited. He got to 90k!!! He then raised my BB, there was a flat call in the middle, this was at 300/600, i have AK in my BB and think for a while and shove! i know i am getting called! Was just thinkin if i might want to see a flop but i only had 14k and thought i need to build up and take a risk. He thinks for a while and says im calling because this hand has one me three big pots today!! I thought okkkkkkkkayyy! The caller folds and he shows K3!!! I cannot be in better shape than that, i take the pot down!!!!

I then win a good pot with QJ, i raise and get a caller and the blinds fold, flop comes 8 high and i bet the flop, the guy sweats me out for a while and folds AK! I obvious say i had a pocket pair! I just picked up pots like that to be honest, not much really happened, i still had no big pairs and still not flopped more than one pair or an over pair! But i was doing well and on 35k with average stack around 22k.

Now here is a point i would like to mention that i was not too happy about. In a tournament you expect to pay a reg fee of about 10% or the club can take 10% out the prize pool. But when the top prize of £11.6k was announced the prize pool did not seem to add up. Big Slick had taken £30 off every player and also took a cut from the prize pool!!! I was not happy about this!!! As each player ends up paying about £50 each!!! Just to play in the competetion, i would not mind so much if this information was given up front but no such luck, there was not any free food or anything else. The £5k added was soon recoupped by the reg fee and the rake from the tournament! I am not happy about this but what can you do! I really like big slick, it is a great place and the people behind it are great people! But this was certainly a point i did not agree with especially as the structure was not so great, if you paying more than 10% you should atleast get an awesome tournament given to you!!

Got to about 3 tables left with avergae stack but the 1,500-3,000 level kicked in. This was about 6 hours and 40 minutes in and i still had not picked up AAs, KKs, QQs, JJs or AQ! I picked up TTs but i actually folded them pre, as it was raised and re raised. Normallly i would not complain as you do not need cards to win! But only when the tournament has a good structure. I noticed this when i raised with AT and got one caller on the button, the flop was Q high and i bet out a standard amount. The guy then asked how much do i have left. I counted and i only had 21k pot after betting 10k, there was clearly no room to play! It was a 2 bet game and you were committed! It was an allin game which i am pretty confident in however there is a lot of money to play for and i could not buy a hand!

Then got down to two table with about 16 left i was still on average trying to take the blinds once a round but that plan was not working and was every two rounds which caused me to lose a few chips at the 2,000/4,000 level. Someone then moved in for about 20k+ with A7 and i found 77s in the BB! A huge! hand for me!!! i call and the 1st card is a Ace! ouch!! I then go to about 40k with blinds at 2/4k my ten BBs meant allllllllllllin time!! Not that is wasnt all in time before!!! The strucute was soooooo annoying!!! I heard that at the Walsall GUPKT they negoiated some blind structure change but it was 5am and the club closes at 6am and they wanted to get down to the final table for play to continue tommorow with everyone comming back to have a pay day. The thing i do not understand is why not make it a proper two day event, why play to final table and finish play at 6am where people are tired. As the next day is a sunday it is more than reasonable to start at 2pm and then finish at 11pm or later and allowed a lot of room to play!! But this was not the case.

UTG moves in and i have AJ in the BB with 14 players left!! i think for ages! The blinds were still 2k-4k and going up very soon. I thought for ages! But i hate calling off my stack than less than AQ especially so close to the end! But AJ was such a big hand for me, i still did not get a bigger pair than TTs all night in 8 hours of play and felt i could be winning! But i let it go! He claims he had KQ! but who knows!! I then really get short, down to about 6BB. 14 left and EP limps in for 4k, i find 88s shove!! I am not afriad of the EP limp, i know he has A rag and pretty sure he will not call, also harder for the blinds to call knowing EP has limped! the guy behind me then moves in!!! DAMM!! At best i must be racing! The EP limper folds his A2, and i show my 88s as the re raisers shows his JJs!! I go busto in 14th!!!!!!

I was happy the way i played! i didnt get any hands and played position well. If the structure was better the hands definately would not have mattered, but oh well! another tournament is over!!! Top 9 got paid and im sure there would have been a small bubble prize for 10th!!

Thats all from me and will be for awhile, ive cashed out my online accounts and looking to get some work done at uni, just going to play at poker soc, DSOP and warwick HSP!!! Good luck all!!!

WooooooHooooooo!!!

2007-02-19T03:06:00.000+01:00

Having a good week so i thought i would share the news after last weeks disappointment in the 'five minutes of fun' post!

Monday Night

Came 1st at Poker soc and Guv came 3rd, we are in the same mob and showed we are a contender for mob of the year (see warwickpoker.com mob section) BUT on top of that we took a massive leap in getting our own mob name back. We are called club medusa named after a visit to a strip club in birmingham (house invational for me!) Anyway saef the loser on the left stole the name and made a mob with the same name, we bet on who ever has more points get the name at the end of term! But they have not accepted as they are way behind as we are soooo much better than them at poker!! Saef came 7th that week and was crying the whole way watchin me and Guv tear down the tournament!!!

Wednesday! Vday! Dont worry no romatic stories here! Just good fun watching Arsenal beat Bolton in the FA cup and playing some Tiger Woods and Drinking Game (i dont drink!) at jambon and Kaders place!

Thursday! - Bowling!!! Poker Soc social they went Wing wah 1st but i hate chinese food so came for the bowling after! it was great fun! the funniest thing was on the drive there, we saw Dave Lus car and flashed him, JD jags and Dave got scared! And drove in the other direction to aviod us! (obviously not knowing it was us, thinking it was so mad pikes on tilt!) Anyway got to the bowling place and got some bets going!
1) £10 vs Guv 2) £10 vs Jambon 3) £10 vs Flash but he had a handicap of +91/2pts so i had to win by more than 9.5 pts to win the bet. 4) £5 vs JD 5) £5 vs Suzie with a 60 pt handi cap!!
I bowl a 183! My best score ever!!! And take a cool £40!!!! Sweeeeeeeeeeet

Next Game New bets! Tom and Guv wimped out! 1) Jambon £10 2) Lauren with a 115 handicap 3) Saef with a 75 Handicap and 4) Sarah with a 55 handicap!
I beat Jambon, only beat saef by 50 points so he won, i beat Sarah by 75ish points. Then it was down to Lauren!
i finshed on 162 and she had 44! She had her last go! She needed 4 points!!! She throws it down and gets a gutter bowl! As i jump up!!!! Next one she throws rolls down the gutter! Hits the 10th pin! Which drops three other pins!!!!!!! BOooooooooooooooooooooOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She wins by ONE point!!! (although i won by 114 points!!) Gd game lauren!!!

Sunday Night!
Played in the stars million with no success
Played in the $75k gtd on Rivercard $54 rebuy! About $88k was in the middle for $22k for 1st! 690+ runners and i came 5th! for $3.7k, not too bad! Cant really complain! I won a few 50/50s which is really nice! Lost a big pot with two tables left with AQ vs JT but honest can not complain, got some nice hands and like i said i won some RACES!!!!

Ok that about it! poker Soc 2mr, hopefully get so more points for Club Medusa and also move on the ladder for Player of the Year!!!!

Also qualified for WaSOP last year which was good! Every year i have satted my way in!!! For those who dont know WaSOP is the Warwick Series of Poker a yearly event held by Warwick University and sponsered by Rivercard!!!

Warwick High Stakes Poker - Four

2007-02-14T15:40:00.000+01:00

Warwick High Stakes Poker Episode Three

The game was on again! The fortnightly game was soon becoming my favourite game to take part, I stated last night I would be happy even if I go home broke (lose the money I came with, not literally!) as at least the money goes into a nice poker community and not to some muppets at Walsall or some online player I would never play with again.

In seat order the line up was, Jamie, Scott, James, Dhruv (me! I like seat 4!), Rob, Guv, Kader, Dave, Tom and Nick. On the way to Leamington, James asked me what the line was and I said this is the toughest line up so far!! So it was definitely going to be an interesting night ahead of us.

The game starts off nicely for me I pick up AQ 1st hand and get a call. Flop is Ace high and I get a call on the flop and a fold on the turn. Oh btw I brought in for £120. James and Nick bought in for £100 and the rest for the max of £150.

I picked up 99s in EP and Guv made a raise, he got a few callers and I called, Flop was two low cards and a Q. It checked round to Guv and he checked. Turn was another low card which gave me an open ended straight draw, so the cards must have been 678 (not sure in which order). I fire out at the pot, with at least ten outs, although there is a good chance I have the best hand here, the flush draw was out on the turn as well. Guv called and the rest folded. The river was a blank and I checked. Guv bet £20 and I called thinking he may have AK and it was about a half pot bet that I was happy to call. He flips over AAs….. hmmmmmmmmmmmm! I really do not like his play there. There is playing slow but against four other players is asking for trouble!

I started losing a bit of my stack by limping then calling raises. This was a tough game where limping was basically not allowed for about an hour. Kader and Jamie took some nice pots down by ‘punishing the limpers’, between them they were playing at least 80% of the pots! I then topped up another £80 and decided not to that anymore!!!

The first allin of the night came with Guv raised pre and Kader re raises. Guv calls and the flop is 7 high with 2 clubs. Guv checks and Kader bets, Guv calls and checks the turn which is another club and Kader moves in. Guv thinks for a while and folds QQs, while Kader claims he had AA with Ac, very believeable.

I took a nice multi way pot down with 97, there was a £2 straddle on. I was in the cutoff and called. Flop was Q9x and Kader lead out for £12, I felt there is a good chance he would bet the flop and shut down the rest of the way. Flash could as well and I called to take it away later as the pot was becoming quite health. Guv then also calles, I got a bit worried here wondering if Tom or Guv had something big. The turn is a blank and Guv Kader and Tom check to me, I fire out £30 and Guv and Kader quickly fold, Tom thinks for a lil while and folds.

I was not getting involved in many big pots but take pots like that down got me back to my £200 total buyin, which is always nice psychological. I then limp with 85 and call a raise from Dave, who has played about 2 hands in two hours. The flop was very sweet 585!!! Bingo Bango Bongo!!! I check and Dave fires out. The turn is the Ace clubs, which gives three clubs out there, which is the worse card in the deck for me, because if I was drawing I have hit, well I guess the 9 clubs would be worse but the Ace is not nice. I check and Dave checks right behind. The river I fire out £50 and Dave folds! Still a nice £65+ pot to take down.

Flash then decided to switch gears I started I re raise every time he entered the pot! The straddle made the game interesting but then Kader started making it £3 utg and wins a huge pot when he finds KKs and gets an allin vs AK.

I then lose a huge pot! I raise with AK and get a few callers, Flop is J x J. It checks round, turn is a Q and I bet out thinking my hand is probably good here. Kader calls and the rest folds, now me and Kader have not ever really tangled and I have no reason to believe he is making a move on me, also thinking he probably is not drawing. Therefore has a Q or maybe a J. The river is a sweet T, however the board is paired! I fire out £50 with £130ish back, Kader immediately asks me, how much I have left, And bets half my stack hmmmmmmm. Can a straight be good here? I’m sure online I call off and against a player I do not know well I call but I honestly feel Kader can only make this play with a full house, I put him on JT. I think for a lil bit and fold and he shows JJ for quads!! Nice hand Sir!!! I then try to annoy Kader saying if you shove I call, which probably was not the case!! Lol Sorry mate, just trying to wind you up a little bit!

I get a few more chips back by flopping a set of 44s against Dave. I check called the flop and bet the turn, which brought out the str8 and flush, but I was not sitting to deep. Dave then raised me and I instantly shoved allin, thinking he has the Ace of spades and maybe with a pair. He thinks for a while and lets the hand go.

Dave had done a lot of squeezing pre flop and when I found AK and raised and he re raised the shove was an easy move for me to make, especially as Dave was not too deep. He calls and shows KK, and I lose another big pot with AK.

Then the most interesting hand of the night took place. Flash makes a raise in late position. Jambon calls. Also on the side a bit of prop betting took place, with Guv who was now broke and out the game bet £20 on black and Kader took the bet. Scott and Jamie also had a bet on red or black. The flop was Ah Js 6s. Flash bet and Jamie shoved and Flash called (I think, basically they got it all in on the flop). This pot was at least £400 and guessing the hands was not easy. Jamie had Qs8s!!!! and Flash who made the CALL had middle Pair!!! These hands shocked the table, and Jamie was not happy to be called with middle pair as it was good! I think Jamie is going to post about this hand on his blog, check right hand side links section, Super Try Again Blog. In my opinion in think this was a tournament hand the way Tom played it out, I do not think you need to pick a spot like this in a cash especially the way he was playing, he was playing very well and I don’t remember him losing a big pot. Most people were shocked with the call but in my head I was just thinking, that’s Thomas Grundy!! He does not make his tournament winnings from not making marginal calls like that! Very well played sir! Although I don’t like the call even if he knows Jamie’s hand jus because why play a pot like that when your game was running soooo good. They end up chopping the pot and play for £100 on the side. Flashes hand holds!

Then I had to make a tough call. Tom raised and I called with 98. The flop was 7h 8c 9h. I check, Rob check and Tom bet out £32. Jamie then made it £100 total!!! I have about £190 in my stack. I have lost £10 in the call. Now its to work out whether I am willing to commit my whole stack. As calling is not an option. I looked over at Jamie and he looked like an irremovable object. I looked at Tom and he looked laid back and it was clear he was no longer interesting in the hand. I then looked at Rob who looked very interested. Jamie had me and Rob covered but I have Rob covered by about £120. I figured Jamie had a big draw and puts Tom on something like AJ or AQ and just c/betting the flop. I think for a while and did not appreciate everyone talking at the table, as it made it more difficult to think. I eventually shoved allin putting Jamie on a steal/ big draw. Rob called as well with KT, for an up and down, Flash folded and Jamie called with Ah8h for a pair and a flush draw! The pot was £350+ in the main and £220 on the side, which me and Jamie were in for. We went on our backs. The hands were shown and I asked Jamie if he wanted to take £100 back from our side pot. I didn’t want to reload, and I wanted some insurance by taking a £100 I could play with that stack (although it ended up being the last hand of the night! If I knew that I would have played for the whole pot) Anyway! The odds here are interesting, I have the best hand but in the 3 way pot Jamie is a 42% fav, im 35% and Rob is 25%. In the side pot between me and Jamie I am a 53% fav! The turn is a club! Which gave rob a flush draw, so I have half the deck to dodge! The river is another club and Rob scoops the main pot with a runner runner flush!!!!!

That was it! I was £75 down which was not too bad considering I got some pizza paid the dealer and had some fun! Also running into big hands did not help. What was really interesting was Kader, Dave and Tom were the only three up by more than a reasonable amount. I feel Kader and Jamie dictated the game a lot. Kader although had more influence because he was playing well and also hit the deck nicely! The two players with position to Kader was Dave and Tom!! So position was very important in my eyes in this game!! Which shows what kind of edge there is in this game in the long run!!!

5 Minutes of 'FUN'!!!!!!!!

2007-02-12T16:20:00.000+01:00

OK i am STEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAMMMMMING!!!!!!

I dont normally likely to complain about bad beats as its a part of poker and in the long run focusing on bad beats will have a negative effect on your overall game! (also trying to aviod doing my coursework)

BUT I just need to let off some steam about 4 hands i played in about 5 minutes!!!

Poker Stars : Buyin $215 : Million Gtd!

I have basically not won a hand for an hour. I just shoved in the last hand with 88s and the limpers folded as well as the blinds.

I find QQs!! next hand and CO+1 raises 3xBB and i shove with QQs, he thinks for a while and calls with 55s!!! The 5 hits on the turn and i am outtttttttttter of here!!!

Fair enough not too bothered, wasnt deep into the comp and i was only a 80% fav

Rivercard: $2/$4 NL : Stack : $380

I call a raise with AJ and another player does aswell. Flop is K J J. They check to me and i bet out $32, the initial raiser folds. The caller re raises to $90. I shove for my stack and he calls with KQ!!!! and the KING hits on the river!!!

Ok another two outer, very annoyed but that poker!

Ultimate Bet: Buyin $215 : 200k Gtd

Just donked off most of my stack to Action Jeff he called me down with middle pair. I know you thinking what a player but he then called an allin with Q2 (2 high flush draw) and got it in with AK with 69 or some rubbish like that. The annoying thing here is that i did not relaise he came on the table to have some fun, he is a high high stakes player who was clearly messin about in the tournament, the unfortunately thing is that i had to be the sacrifice for the table to find out that information!!! anywaysssss

In BB with 6 2 and check. FLOP 2 Q 6 i check and someone bets pot, i then shove and he calls with 65!! Bit strange but to be fair i didnt have too many chips. Turn K and river K!!! CHOP CHOP!!!

Ok REALLY PISSED OFF NOW with in a few minutes i cannot seem to win a pot!!

NEXT HAND i find AK, someone raises and i shove, he calls with AQ! I turn round and say hmmmm he got 3 outs! thats plently!!! The RIVER IS A QQQQQQQQQQQ!

HAVE A NICE DAY EVERYONE!!!!!

Back to $2/$4!!

2007-02-10T15:11:00.000+01:00

Not posted for a while!!!

Thought i'd do a quick update

Been playing at lot of tournament online (156% ROI on UB) and some cash, live poker is a monday and tuesday night for me now. Where every monday is poker soc and every tuesday alternatives from DSOP (deep stack tournament, www.warwickpoker.com -home games) and Warwick High Stakes Poker on the other tuesdays (which is the most fun!)

Last month had a really good month and feel that i had the roll to give $2/$4 another shot, Started last night and turned $392 into $1600 in two hands. Limp with J9 and BB raises. I call, flop J Q 9, he bets i call, turn a big blank and he bets and i raise, he calls, river blank and he checks. i bet my last $149 (although i do not agree with making this play 100% of the time, hard to get called by a worse hand but i feel AQ KK and AA will not fold as its not alot. but i do not like saying that line too much these days, ie only betting with near nuts on the river, by playin like that definately miss out a lot of value bets.)

Next hand find J9 i limp and BB and crazy guy calls. Flop Q T x, BB bets outs $16 and me and the crazy guy call. Turn was a sweeeeeeeet 8! It checks to me and i bet $50, muppet calls. River is an even better blank and the crazy guy goes allin for $850 and i could not call quicker with my last $700+!!!!!

Need to try and cut down a bit now on poker! (sayin this while playing $2/$4), assignments comming fast at uni and need to get down to some work!!

On a nice note just brought ProEvo6 and Micro machines on the Nintendo DS!!!!

Warwick High Stakes Poker - 3

2007-01-31T16:22:00.000+01:00

Warwick High Stakes Poker Episode Three

Ok the Game was set up for the 3rd time, we had 11 players ready to play with Dave Lu acting as a substitute as Jambon was running late. Line up was in seat order Dhruv (I hate seat one!!!) Dave Lu (Jambon) Scott, Guv, James B, Nick, Tryf, Tom, Mitesh and Jack. I bought in for £100 again and half the field went for the max of £150 and others went between £70 and £100. Initial cash on the table was £1050. But always likely to go up with top ups and rebuys but hopefully not from me!

The 1st hand I pick up KKs and Mitesh makes the gay raise (min raise) to £1. He s clearly just messing about as it is the 1st hand, although normally min raise = AAs!! I make it something like £6 more and he calls and check calls a Q high flop. Next hand I pick up a suited Q on the cut off and called. I flopped a flush draw and a gutshot str8 draw, it checked round to me and I bet, with one caller. Turn a blank and it checked to me and I bet and I took the pot down. The game seemed quite slow as expected. The last few cash games we played the 1st 10 –15 hands tend to be quite slow and bets on flops took many pots down. This also happens in other cash games I have played around the country, so I felt to open up my game early on. I think people started to see what I was doing, as I got re raised 3 times in the 1st hour!!! (I’m a ROCK!!!)

I raised up with 10c7c (still a rock honest!) and I get re raised! This was the 2nd time I had been re raised early on and James made the raise. But the raise was not too big, so I thought I can call with position and either flop big hand, try and take it away or atleast show that I will not fold to a re raised all the time and be bullied off pots pre flop. The flop came Ace high with all spades!! Sort of MiSSed the flop! James bets out and I’m about to muck but I see he only bet £8 into a pot of about £28, ok now he has the nuts or close to the nuts AAA or AxKs or something like KK or QQ. Maybe AK no spade, either way I was going to find out. Even if just information that I can use later on. I call and the turn is another spade, he checks to me! Bingo! He is either trapping me or I’m very likely to take this pot away, I make it something like £30 to go and he eventually folds!

I then call Toms raise with a suited K, the flop comes K high with two hearts. He bets and I just call, turn gives me my flush and he checks, I bet and he calls, river a blank and he check, I bet and he calls and mucks. I was doing well in the game taking £40-£50 pots down with no real problem, I had some nice cards but also playing position well especially to pre flop raisers.

I then pick up 44s and limp in early. Another call and Nick raised it up. Me and Scott called. With Nick in position. Flop is Ace high and a big miss for me. However it checks round. The Turn is a lovely 4, although I start to get paranoid, thinking why did Nick check that flop, he was likely to raise with Ax , a PP or broadway cards, but the fact that he did not bet the flop which he properly would of done with JJ QQ KK or any Ace he checked! I think for a moment he might have AAA! Anyway I check and so does Scott. Nick now bets and I think whether to jam it now to find out where I am or to call and keep the pot small. Then I studied his bet, I felt it was slightly weak. I thought ok maybe he does have QQ or KK or he was playing AK weak. I thought I would call and maybe make him think I was drawing, Scott folds and the turn is a K, hmmmmm. Ok now I’m a bit worried but I am not folding. I do not really want to get re raised here, which he would do with KK or AK or AA if I bet out, as I only can beat one of those hands, so I decided to check and let him do the betting. He checked straight behind and I felt like I lost some chips there when he showed AQ. Guess that read was completely wrong!!! ( See I do get it wrong sometimes people)

I’m doing ok and on just over £180 and pick up AdKd. I limp UTG and Guv pops it up to £5. He had only raised once before and everyone folded to me, I did not need to re raise to narrow the field and was willing to take a flop heads up. The flop is very sweet as three diamonds fall! Bingo! Bango! Bongo! I check and Guv bets a standard c/bet amount. I just call. The turn is a blank and Guv bets £40 into a £42 pot, which was very strong. I went into the tank to think what kind of hand he has. He had a hand that he was protecting for sure, which was conveyed by the £40 bet on the turn. So three hands stood out for me. JJ (top set), QQ (with a Qd) and KK (no diamond). I was hoping he did not have the latter as I’m sure he can get away. If he had JJ there are a lot of bad cards on the river any pair of the board is bad for me but also if a diamond falls, yes I do have the nuts but makes it hard for Guv to call me, even if he has the Qd he should not lose anymore money as what did I call the flop and turn with. I raise it up and he shoves and I instant call. He had top set and the river is a nice blank and take down a £210+ pot!

I then call Flashs raise on the button with AhTs. The flop is all SPADES again! There is also an Ace on the board. Flash bets outs, I think he has something like AK, AQ and hope he does not have a spade with it. I thought also I could play off the previous hand mentioned against Guv when I flopped the flush. I flat call, Turn is a blank and he bets out £30ish and I make is £80ish to go thinking he can only call with AxKs. He thinks for a while and mucks AJ (told me later).

I was up to about £400 ish and that was as high as it got, the moves I started to make were not working and the cards dried up. I was trying to take a pot away from Mitesh to his pre flop raise when the flop came T 6 6, where I was not convinced about his c/bet, the turn was then a K and he bets out and I called. The river card absolutely sucked! The 6 hits which would give him a house if he had the K and makes it impossible for him to give me credit for a 6 in the hole. If I moved in I’m show he would call, saying something like, if you got it you got it but I cannot fold. So I decide to lay the hand down.

I then bluffed into AA and AAA! Not the smartest thing to do! My stack slowly died out to about £250ish, losts some more small pots when I had the suck str8 vs the higher str8.

Then found QQs and made it £5 to go. Got 4 callers before Flash re raised it. I went into the tank and made it £95 more. He thought for a while and shoved and I called thinking he shoves instantly with AA and KKs. He had AK when I show my QQs, I offer to play for £50 each rather than our whole stacks. He agrees and when the King hits he scoops the pot.

Not much really happened in the game overall, Jambon gave a sick beat to Trfy with his top two vs str8 in a £250 pot and the river paired his top pair for the house. Guv took some nice pots as well helping him recovering from the set vs flush. James B was the big winner with everyone else up or down £50 to £100. I was up £67!

Oh almost forgot one big pot, that really confused me. I open up with AJ and Jambon, James and Trfy call and Flash re raise (again I got re raised!!) I muck and so does Jambon. James call and Trfy fold. Flop is all clubs! Flashes bets out £45 and James moves in for £70 more. Flash thinks for a while but James seemed really confident about his hand after Flash did not call instantly, which gave the impression he had a K high flush and might have been worried about top set. But once Tom thinks for a while and does not call, he knows he is in good shape. Tom eventually calls and James shows AcQc for the nuts and Flash mucks! No pair no draw, he claims AQ high which I believe but cannot get my hand around it. He mentioned if james had KcJx (J high flop) he still has 6 outs and there was a lot in the middle but I think you had to play the player there, no offensive to James but I do not think he was going to bluff off his stack on a big draw early in the game, I definitely felt james had JJ or maybe flopped flush with AK, as those are two hand I can see him calling an Early Position raise with and also calling a re raise with. I think QQs is also in his range there with the Qc which means Flash would only have two outs! Tom if you care to explain you logic I would like to hear it (post a comment). For those of you that do not know Tom he is not a donkey, he is a great player who has cashed over $50,000 in tournaments on poker stars alone and his maths skills are awesome. Im sure he has a legimate reasons but I cannot work it out!!!

Poker Soc

One hand I was very annoyed about. Pav and Me and have all the chips on the table with 3 tables to go. He opens up for 3k, he gets a caller and someone then shoves for 13k, I then see JJs, ok I do not want to take a coin flip but im confident that with the action so far, people have AK AQ AJ KQ QJ, I feel if I make a move and don’t walk into AA or KK or QQ I’m good and not in a 50/50 situation. I shove for 30k and Pav calls quickly. He shows AK, ok in my view this is a very bad call. At best he is splitting the pot, (I have AK), likely to have QQs up wards which means 2/3 he is locked up against, but a factor which I feel people forget to do is use all available information on the table. The factor that someone called him, it is likely he had broadway cards, if he had a K that out is gone. The guy who shoves if he has AQ or AK , more outs gone, now you have invested 3k and now calling for 30k more and leaving yourself with about 7xBB when you are the chip leader on the table, I know most people call here especially at poker soc but in my opinion you have to use all the information given to you to make a call especially if you think it is 50/50 at best!

Quick Tournament Boast!!!

2007-01-28T17:08:00.000+01:00

Just switched my blog to the google blog thing, i dont really know what it means so i thought i'd do a quick post and see if it is different!

Basically started to play more poker and my results are certainly improving especially tournaments online! which i have always found difficult. The main reason why i have been doing better is that i am playing less freeze outs and more rebuys where you can really get some chips early on and play some good poker later down the line. For example on Ultimate Bet you can take a double top up and a double addon , which can get you to 10.5k without playing a hand after the rebuy period. with binds at 100-200 (or less) this is a huge stack to play with! But this can get quite expensive so i have been playing $10 rebuys in holdem and Omaha!! Played the $10 rebuy on omaha and holdem yday and cashed twice, i won the $10 omaha with 78+ runners for $840 and just got in the money in the holdem with 144 runners for $42 ( aloss but something i guess) Got knocked out with TT vs A5 vs AK when the Ace hits i had two outs which missed! Also been playing a lot of $5/$10 turbo rebuys to win a $109/$215 seat. I tend to just cash it out and take some UB tournament $s and play some sit n go with it! Loving the $20 turbos on UB!!!

Played two tournaments on stars, i dont know why! i never do well in stars! Played a $10 freeze in omaha and was out in 5 hands, when i was in for a treble up, with a big draw but missed! and played the $55 freeze as well with 900+ runners and a $10,000+ top prize, was playing really well and making alot of moves early on. With about 400 left i lost half my stack with TTs vs AQ after i re raised allin, then lost the rest of my stack with AK vs JJ when i again re raised allin! Two annoying coin flips! (even in the UB holdem lost a big 'coin flip' to knock me out!

On Rivercard i keep playing the speed tournament as they are sooooo much fun! i mean the stucture is awful but you can win $2,000+ in just over an hour! I won the $5k gtd the other day taking over $2,200 which was nice, did nothing special just got the right cards at the right time!! Jus played the same tournament tonight and came 5th for a $450+ cash!

Dsop went ok last week, was a £5 rebuy and i came 5th, just cashing but making a £10 lost in the end!!! Was a good laugh but having two table meant the structure was not as good as it normal is, so will definately being making DSOP a one table tournament again! Congrats to Richard Mylles, Thomas Grundy , Guruvinder Khabra and Jamie Brown for also cashing in the event!!!

Ok thats about it!!! Tournaments going well and so is Cash, up just over $5400 this month which aint to bad considering i'm back at uni 'working'!!!!

Home Game - Great Fun - True Poker!!

2007-01-16T20:32:00.000+01:00

50 Rebuy!!!!!!

Pence that is!!!! I and two housemates Guv and Pav played an awesome home game! The stakes were high and table was tense and the game was Omaha! I was feeling confident after my online win in Omaha and I knew Pav and Guvs ability in the game! Pav always trying to make plays and Guv overvaluing hands! But all that was out the window in the rebuy period!! This was great fun!!!! Pav kept losing everything!!!! He re bought loads!!! I and Guv were in for almost the minimum of £2 as there was a double top up! I had a very nice stack and Pav and Guv were close to each other!!!! It was £8.50 to the winner! The rebuy period was basically seeing every flop and I had the better of it!

This was our 1st game on our new table, which is really nice and increases when needed, which means there will definitely be some future poker games! Pav then took a massive pot from me! I had 8xxx and the flop was 8 high, I checked he checked, turn was a 3 which put a straight out there which I felt I could represent. So I bet quite big, he called, the river was an 8! Nice card for me but what did he call with on the turn. I thought I’d put a blocker bet out here, which I do a lot in Omaha and get away to a raise. At lower levels so many people forget Omaha is still poker and you can bet people off hands etc. whereas so many people play for the nuts and call with 5th to 2nd nuts. I put the bet out and Pav raises me!!! Doh!!!! Ooooh well it was a blocker bet and I felt he had the str8 but then I thought why would he raises when the board paired up, did he have nothing? Or a house? But then I remember it was Classic Pav plays it poorly, he slow plays soooo much and always ends up having the nuts on the flop or turn but only bets the river when he doesn’t have the nuts! He does it all the time! I felt I cannot call with 888, as I think he has the str8. I could either move in or fold! I decided to let it go as he shows 2 3 for a counterfeited two pair! OpppS!!

I then slowly lost some pots by calling off my chips and missing flops. I then called a raise from Guv. With As8s5cTh or something like that, flop came 2 3 5, I check and he bets pot, leaving himself with basically nothing, so it was basically an all in move. Ok I should probably muck my gutshot with top pair, however there was a nice amount in the pot and it was clear he had JJ or QQ to me by the way he bet, the flop was a rainbow so no flush draws out there. IF he has a bare JJ, I can hit an Ace, a Four, a Five, a Eight and a Ten. 3 + 4 + 2 + 3 + 3 = 15 outs! If my read is right! I took the gamble and I was right he had 99s!!! But a big blank blank came and I was crippled!!!!

But hey!! Short stack poker!!! That’s is my game!!! Bring it on I thought to myself!!! Dru Poker all the way!!!! I steal a few blinds but lose them back as Pav steps up a gear with a huge lead. Guv then loses a few pots to Pav as well! Other house mates Kyle and Kavit watch for a bit seeing Pavs chips rising and rising! I then got close to Guv by taking down small pots as the blinds increased. Then Guv raised pot and I found AKQT doubled suited and moved in, Guv had to call with JJxx. I hit the flop quite nicely and take the pot down! Guv is now short and loses his chips quickly after. Its now me and Pav HUs! I love HUs poker but my Omaha heads up record is not great! But hey I fancy my chance even though he had a huge chip lead. I honestly cannot remember much apart from me hitting four pair on a board but Pavs flush was good and very well played (not plays it poorly that time!) I was very short and found JJxx double suited and pushed Pav called with a random bunch of cards (good call as he had such a chip lead, everything in Omaha is 52/48 anyway) he hit two and took it down!!!!!!

BUT THE NIGHT WAS NOT OVER!!!!!!

We then played a Holdem £2 freeze out!!! Which was sooooo much fun! Pav kept bluffing me with the best hand in Omaha and rubbing it in! I thought I ‘d take this next tournament to school him in poker!!! Pav kept calling with anything and kept betting showing J high or bottom pair. I then won a big pot off him when he was close to call me with T high which was good as I was representings Guvs 74sooooooted for 7 High!!! SHiiiiiiip Itttttt!!!! Pav on manager tilt as I hit trips the next hand and he called me with some filth! It was so bad that Guv looked at his hand and started cracking up!!!!! Guv stacks disappeared somehow but cannot remember exactly how! He was tooo busy laughing at mine and Pavs battle to play any poker!! This was a really funny game! You had to be there to understand it!!!! Pav knocked Pav out with AK vs A5 after Guv pushed with A5 in SB and Pav found AK. The flop was 2 3 3 , gd flop for Guv, turn a 5! As he starts to take his chips the river a K!!!!!

It was a rematch me and Pav HU again but this time I had the chip lead, and took it down very quickly!!! Pav just could not do anything!!!!!

So Now I was £4 up and Guv was £4 down and Pav was even!!!

BUT THERE WAS MORE!!!!!

As we were playing for loose change we started playing whore poker!!!

For those who do not know the game it was created (to me) at South Norwood in the Summer Home Games of 2005 with Gary Zenal Shane Myron Pete and Phil. Since there I have shown people at poker soc the game in Scotland and Guv loves the game! Basically it’s a good way of sorting out the loose change in a home game. You get dealt a hand face up and everyone agrees to put it £3.50 or £5 or even £20 and its winner takes all! Everything is dealt face and up and the river is always exciting!! There are other ways of playing, like doing the community cards 1st and then exposing the hole cards one at a time! Either way it’s exciting especially in our game as we did Omaha Whore Poker!!! Even crazier!!

Guv and I played the 1st one and I won, then he went broke and left to go to his room while me and Pav played a few hands with our other housemates Kyle and Kavit dealing the cards! The Atmosphere was hilarious! Watching shocking cards turn over! Then Guv heard the noise and came back with a wallet full of cash! Normally Guv is the luckiest guy in the world and could not understand how he was losing in a game of lucky especially to me!! I mean when his number does not hit in roulette he is surprised to be fair so am I ! Well tonight was not Guvs night as I took all his money!!! SHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPP IIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTT!!!

The best hand was in Omaha when my pair of 3s on the board held up!! Guv could not believe it! I also had a maverick moment where I needed to expose my last hole card on a board of 3 5 9 J K, Guv had a pair of 5s and I had three overs exposed but no pair! I slowly lifted my card with two hands with the card sandwich in my hand, raised it higher than my head and dropped it to the table (was standing up) It was a swwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttt 9! To ship the last of Guvs money that he had on him!!! Oh btw Whore poker is more fun because rub downs are necessary!!!!!!

Next Blog will probably be about the return of DSOP, for those who do not know about it. It’s the Dhruv Series Of Poker, (I know you are probably laughing) but this is an awesome event at my uni. It is basically about ten events where Tinoyta Player of The Year Points are award with various buyins and games. This is the 3rd and final year of DSOP and hoping to make it big and better than ever. The 1st event is a £5 rebuy taking place next Tuesday, its normally a STT but the 1st event had so much interest we will be having 20 runners. The tournament is great because the game moves fast, there are strict rules, two decks running with good dealers and a great structure to allow moves and a lot more skill in the game. I actually won DSOP in 2005 and Thomas Grundy won it in 2006 (I came 2nd boooooooo!) If interested about the other players and events, can always check out www.warwickpoker.com in the home games forums, I tend to put reviews of the game on there but now will do it on my blog, soooooo sorry to bore the non Warwick people out there!!!

14 Hour Session!!!!! Holdem Omaha 5 card STUD!!!!

2007-01-11T19:20:00.000+01:00

Wow!!!! You should be saying when you see that title!! Considering I have lost a lot of interest in poker recently!! And now before you think. ‘Another wannabe must have gone broke!’ That is not the case. Over the Xmas holidays just started to think where will I be in the next year. I came to realise that I would be taking a huge step down in poker when I start working full time. It would not be possible to go to casino’s or gutshot and big slick everyday til 3am and wake up for work at 8am! Especially if you know how much I love my sleep!!! That’s the main reason why I have not been bloging as well. My romance for the game has decreased a lot. This was in the development stages after the midland master and thinking about whether I enjoy playing these long frustrating tournaments that after ten hours of sitting next to certain people it becomes work. Poker is a very mental game and after a while of things not going your well it is difficult to stay motivated. I have felt like this in a number of tournaments and doing that in a WPT for a lot of money in the future does not sound too appealing! Before everyone starts saying its not the cards etc.. I am not talking about getting dealt premium hands, just talking about ten hours of sitting at a table straight and not picking up any pots, no matter what you do. It is hard to explain but sometimes you just feel what is the point!!! I guess this must be surprising for someone writing a blog about poker to say this!!! So I decided to start picking my games more carefully and playing less.

So I get back from uni after handing in my coursework at about 4pm and everyone else is working still so I cannot do anything fun!!! So I decide to play some poker! I have been doing well playing $0.50/$1 on rivercard and decided to step back up to $1/$2, the other night I got a $200 stack up to about $890ish. There was one donkey on the table who was just going crazy. It was great! But he was doing very well at one point, He sat with $40 and got it to $400 then lost it reloaded to $200 and got that to $500 but lost that too! A lot to me!! :) Did not do anything too clever to get my stack up just playing well and choosing my spots carefully. So I decided too keep playing 2 tables at $1/$2 six handed and keep one Omaha $0.5/$1 game open. The game on rivercard for Omaha is not a great skill game, you always see the river card so playing position and taking pots down was not on my agenda, I felt just playing solid hands will do. I ended up about $100 up from the session. In holdem I was one buyin up one table and 2 buyin’s up on the other. Guv was playing next to me and he was doing well at one stage but lost a bit on holdem but made more back on the $1/$2 omaha game. We were playing in his room as the wireless connection in the house collapsed. I decided to play a $27 speed tournament, with 35 left was chip leader and called off most of my stack with 99s vs A4 x x x x A!!! I lose a pot which would have put me double stacked from 2nd chip leader. But I claw my way back in classic Dru Poker style of short stack poker and manage to come 7th for something like $269

At 730pm there was a home game in Leamington organised by Lauren. She created the DOH tournament, a £10 Double Chance (£20 max buyin) of a round of 5 card stud. Omaha and Holdem!!! This is an example of me picking my game! Jambon was meant to come round and pick me and Guv up at 7pm but was a little late, so I decided to play some roulette just one £50 spend on the rivercard software. I hit and double up! Cashed out immediate happy with my winnings, Guv did the same thing but the luck box made like £300!! Jambon arrives and we head off to leamington, on the way talking about how the hell do you play 5 card stud!!!

The game had 8 runners, Dave Lu, Guv, Jambon, Tom, Dhruv (ME!), Lauren, Tommo and Ollie. The structure was awesome and the game was ready once we all confirmed how 5 card stud was played. I will not go into too much detail about the tournament, otherwise this blog entry will be tooo long! But the game was great!!!! 5 card stud was really enjoyable even though it was a limit game. It was all about pressure on the opponent. The game is basically one card up (your own card) and 4 up (again you own but for all to see) So you need to work out one card of your opponent to put them on a hand. Due to the new game Lauren allowed speech play and I was always trying to put people on hands, like if someone raised showing a 6s, you have to assume the rolled up card is another 6 or a As 7s 5s. This was fun!! I tried to make a move on Lauren with Jack high knowing she had a pair of three against my 4 over card but it did not work! She also made an very good call against Guv with AJ high!!! Sweet!!!! Dave Lu managed to call out my hole card correctly but went against his read to allow me to take a pot. Flash as usual didn’t play much of stud he hates anything that is not holdem!!! Omaha was not too good for him as he kept re potting with a flush and wrap draw against top/middle set and could not hit! Tommo was of course the action player early on and was the 1st to go. Guv was surprisingly quiet but went out next. I was next to go and Dave Lu followed in a Huge huge huge pot against Jambon str8 vs top set + gutshot (in Omaha). Jambon dominated the rest of the table with his huge stack. I logged on to Lauren computer downloaded therivercard.com and started back on $1/$2, was playing two table, Guv was on Ollies and Tommo was on Daves laptop! Life of a student eh!! I made $200 on one table and about $30 on the other with in the next hour and a half which was quite nice!!! Ollie was next to go on the bubble and Lauren followed in 3rd, Flash the tournament serial killer ended up 2nd as he slowed played his AA and Jambon took it down with a full house!!!!!

So Jambon Guv and I head back to Coventry! It was about 130ish I think and Guv and I were still awake, I wanted to watch TV but my external hardrive is messed up so POKER! It was again!!! We both wanted to play a tournament, so I opened up Ultimate bet, Poker Stars and the rivercard. There was a $10 omaha rebuy, a $22 rebuy on Stars and a $18 speed on rivercard!!! Well you I was in the $18 rebuy on rivercard in a shot!! The stars tournament had about 555 runners which was not appealing at 2am, the Omaha $10 rebuy on UB sounded gd though! So played those two comps with 20% in Guv and visa versa!

The river card tournament did not go well, go to the middle stage the crucial part and got knocked out 99s vs JJs, although I never really got going. Guv lost a big pot with JJ vs AT and A6!!! I swear that tournament is all about A rag!!!!!!

The UB tournament went well in the rebuy period. There seemed to be a change in the tournament as I notice during the addon period people were taking a double addon. When I was asked for mine I scrolled down and there was a double addon for $20. So the buyin is $10 for 1500, the top up $10 for another 1500, the double addon for $20 get you 6000 more! So you can fold the rebuy period and end up on about $9k for $40, average stack was about $11k though but the structure is soooo good on UB that sense poker in the rebuy period was in order! I played a solid game and tried not to chase too much! I ended the rebuy period on 19k and there was 890,000 in play with 110 runners left, not sure how many started as they have the alternate list on UB.

I was looking really good and I said t my self I do not know how I can go out, I was just playing really well even though this was Omaha! I think because the stacks are soo deep it is so easy to get away from hands, The rebuy tournaments are soooo sweet on UB as you end up really deep although they go on for ages. Guv goes out early and needs me to cash for his 20%. I get to the final 40 at about 5am and Guv falls asleep but before he does he sits on a Black jack table and spins up $40 to $400 or something crazy like that! Its crazy how lucky the boy is! I think he should give up poker and play as a professional casino player!!!! Lol

So I get near the money and I still was playing a solid game on flops but raising more pre flop, came across a few top pros playing surprised they were playing a low level comp but oh well. It was Omaha after all. P0ker H0 was on my table and played very well. It was definitely about taking advantages of the bubble people, one guy even typed in the chat box he really cannot afford to bubble and one guy folded top set and an up and down str8 draw with no chips on the bubble to a raise. The annoying thing on UB is that they pay top 20 with only 150ish runners, they have a friendly payout system so people come back, which is annoying for the top three finishers. Anyway we get pass the bubble and on to the final two tables, I cannot remember too many hands and cannot really analyse them because it was 6am! It was online poker which I have seen too many hands and it was Omaha!!! I was raising with good hands like four way connectors and double suited str8 cards. The tournaments was quite deep for me still as I maintained a top 7 place from 40 players to the final two tables. P0ker H0 was getting a lot of support from the rail and players were laying down a lot of hands to him. His repuatation certainly helped. Jambon was online play the Mansion 100k Overlay comp and I asked him on msn who was P0ker H0, I had heard of him but didn’t really know him, I’m really bad with the online world. So we get to the final table which was annoying because short handed Omaha was going really well for me, I got my self to the top 4 in chips and the top 5 players were miles ahead of the bottom 6- 8 players.

When the final table began I was 4th in chips with about, 120k, Chip leader had about 300k in chips and the bottom four had 40k max. It was a nice situation. I decided to sit back. I wanted to get the game down short handed before I started playing poker. I played a full hands but didn’t like the look of the ten handed table. The short stacks did not play a hand at all, just played their blinds and looked to push. It got to 6/7 handed quite quickly. I got lucky in one hand when I raised with QQJ6 and two people shoved, They were both short and I felt this was a gamble worth taking. I had the 2nd best hand but by the river I had the best taking 2 out. 5 handed was very interesting. There was a lot of raising pre flop. I called a raised from P0ker H0 with JT78 double suited from my BB and flopped the nuts, I checked and he bet pot, I moved in and he called with a higher str8 draw, it came blank blank and I got up to 400k! P0ker H0 was out in the next few hands, and 4 handed went on for ages. The chips were flying about and at one point everyone hand the chip leader. Player A got the chip leader after getting it in with AAxx vs KKxx SB vs BB and we were 3 handed, the other guy got knocked out by player A as well. And we were heads up. He had a big chip leader but I felt confident. Top prize was $1600+ and 2nd was $900+, there was a lot to play for but I was very tired, approaching 7am. I made a call on the turn with the plan to take it away from him on the river but he had the 2nd nuts and when I bet pot he quickly called. I was crippled and I got it in with AAxx 3 hands later and his massive draw hand something like 789J hit big and he took 1st place!!! Was a good result considering I don’t really know how to play Omaha that well!!! Guv gets another paid day off me! Really got to stop doing deals! Just worry when he wins big I’ll miss out!!! But that’s the gamble I guess! At least the money is going to a mate.

So for all of you who missed my blog here is 2500 words for you to read! Sorry about the lack of analysis! Just don’t remember online hands too well and especially Omaha hands!!!!

21 Days On...............

2006-12-27T21:39:00.000+01:00

So i have not posted for a while again!!!!!! (sorry about this, just do not seem to have the time and my passion of writting has gone down!)

Definately finding my way moving away from poker, i have people asking me about next year, life after uni and i realise that my poker opportunities will decrease dramatically once i start working full time. So i have stopped playing big online in the hope to one day 'make it'. I am playing $0.5/$1 NL cash on rivercard and i am loving it! Making over a buyin a day is keeping me alot happier than worrying about the swings in the slightly bigger games. However in my live games i have been playing some fairly big games.

In the last 21 days played a fair amount of poker, as i have been very bored during the Xmas holidays. On a side note completely addicted to 24!!! Watched season one and two in about 10 days! if you watch it.....how annoying is Cherry Parmer!!!!

Ok just going to do a quick review on the last month....

Played at the New Mint Casino in Coventry, a £5 rebuy!!! Was great fun and managing to do 11 rebuys was annoying but fun! I ended up comming 5th i think and making £35 which did not cover my buy in but oh well, on a nice note a friend from uni Mitesh took the tournament down for £350ish!!! He had a great hand on final where 54 people went all in on his BB and he found AAs!!!!!

Then i returned to Big Slick on a sunday and saw some very warm friendly faces which was nice. i played awful!!!! welll to be honest i played well but not under Big Slick circumstances. i was still in the mood of bluffing people off top pair and that is not going to happen in a £50 2nd chance!!! This caused me to bluff most of my chips away after getting a decent stack, ended up all in with AK vs 99s lost the race and was off to the cash game where i could not hit a hand or get people off hands!!! Just an overall bad night where i should have left earlier, i guess!!!!

Played the £75 freeze out at gutshot on thier goscar night where i made final last year but no such luck this year! The play on my starting table was abosolute awful !!! (as bad as my spelling!) People were all in every 3 hands!! It was crazy, unfortunately i could not pick up a hand at all. I did not actually play a hand for the 1st two levels! i eventually picked up some hands as i decided bluffing was not an option. I cannnot remember much but i was in the all in or fold situtation a few hours in, i pushed with Q2 and got caught by 88s no luck i off to the cash!!!!

Played well in cash early on and got some chips, was sitting on £350 at one stage (in for £200) then the game switched with new faces pot and re pot alot pre flop. I decided to leave early as Tom was taking down all the stars tournaments in the internet room. This was all about game selection and this was not the game for me!

Played a few more comps at Big slick with no success, just getting my chips in a coin flip and comming out the wrong end. Also got it in with K7 one hand after someone limped, i thought a good stealing opportunity but the limp found JT!!! and could not pass!!! K hits but so does a J and a T, oh well!!!!!!

Made final in the £10 super addon last week which was nice, had been a while and £320 was not too bad. Although most people on final could not understand my final move off the night, i was UTG 7 handed with 65k, the blinds just went up to 10k - 25k with a 2k ante. I pushed blind thinking i had no fold equity for the next round. It folded round to the SB who called with KQ. i had 45 and the 4 hit, then the K then the 5 then the Q on the river!!! (everyone shouting except me! I do not really find things like that exicting, if all the money in pre flop, i say lets see all 5 cards then react!!) After i told people i moved in blind they said why, why not wait, i explained about fold equity but there did not agreeed feeling i could have waited for a better spot!!! They might be right but i felt picking up 14K + 10K a + 20K was tooo huge to pass up!

Played a bit online, trying to rake up those action points!. on about 650k now! Still a long way to go for that million!!!!!!

Thats all folks!! Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!!!!!

End of Term Deep Stack

2006-12-06T14:41:00.000+01:00

Warwick Poker End of Term Deep Stack Tournament

The game was set on a sunday and it would be a two day event. £20 buy in and 10k in chips with a 30min clock and every blind level you could think off, this was something i was looking forward to. HOWEVER in terms of preparation i was not gooooood! Saturday night was my mates 21st!!! (Happy bday KAVIT!!!) and our mate came from France (Bijal!!!!) but she could only come if i could drop her to the airport by 8am on sunday!!! So we got back from birmingham to warwick at 2ish, we then chilled to 615am (i had a lil nap in the middle) then me Guv, Pav and Bij went down to Stanstead! Pav fell asleep straight away and we were tired after a stop at little chief we dropped bijal to the airport on time, we got back home at 12pm! The poker soc tournament started at 430 so straight to bed!!!!! Got 4 hours sleep and headed off to uni!

My table was better than average, few solid player and played with everyone bar one of the 7 players at my table. I tried to play a tight game at the start as i was very tired and didnt want to make mistakes early on. I pick up TT early on and call raise in position. My strategy today was to get people off hands by playing position position position , The flop came J high, with a 6 and a 5. He bets out 300 and i call, turn is another 6 and he bets out 300, such a small bet here and i feel he has to bet more with KJ / AJ or an over pair. i call, river is another 5, which is a very nice card, only one over card and very unlucky for him to have hit a 5 or 6. he then bets out 1200!!! hmmm i said 'thats a big bet' when i say that it means they got the bollocks or have nothing, soooo i think, its a big part of my stack and i know this guys likes to bluff but because of my rep he had not bluffed me in the passed and has passed a few solids hands to me, but this time he is betting the whole way and there is a change in betting pattern which meant something was fishy!! So i called and he instantly mucked, someone said AJ to me, while i showed TTs!! Off to go good start!!!

Then pick up AQ and hit a Q high flop after a raise, i check the flop as does he, i bet the turn and the river and get both calls, AQ is good and this is my 2nd showdown and my last for a while!

Ok keeping the girls even happier! Here is a picture for you!!!

Now back to the poker!!!

With about 12k in chips i started playing my button very hard, when ever someone raised and i was on the button and called and succesfully took down 8/10 pots at least without a showdown. I then limp with 7c5c and then call a raise. The player is tightish pre flop especially in early stages of the tournament but knows how to switch gears later on. Also is able to make some good calls, so i was hoping to out flop him rather than bluff him out of this one but again i had position. The flop is A K 3 all diamonds. This is a great flop for me, i feel he has AQ AK and that means there is a very low chance he has a diamond in his hand, now the bluffing part of my brain kicks in. He bets outs and i call, then turn is a blank and he checks, i bet out here just incase he was holding something like TTs or JJs and was just c/betting the flop but he calls. Now i think he is just controlling the pot with AJ or AQ and hoping he is not trapping me at this point im drawing dead as long as he has 88s or better. The river is a 4th diamond, i was slighlty worried he may have had the Qd in the hole but when he checked to me i have to bet otherwise i would be surrending the hand. I fire out and he thinks for a while and mucks AQ! Sweet!

I get to the break with about 16k in chips and feeling good about the way i'm playing, also had a nice hand with Q5 but cannot remember what happened. The table was still all alive and we still had the starting 7. After the break early on a short stack raised it up and i re raised him in with AQ and he called 'feeling' he was commiteed with 94sooooted! AQ holds and we lose one. A similar thing happens later after i re raised with AQ and someone behind found KKs and shoved, i had to call with the money in the middle but always a danger when you re raise to commite a player when there is futher action behind you. But i was feeling in the mood and raising with anything and beat players off alot of pots.

I find AdKd and i raise UTG, the short stack then moves in, then there is a big dwell up, someone passes JJs (nice fold) although as he took a while if he smooth calls the allin i re raise him all in. Then someone else moves in!!! for about 7k, i had commiteed 650 i chips and know at best i am 50/50 also with the dwell up in the midddle and the short stack pushes i really do not know how live my A and K are. I fold quickly as the other two show AK and QQs!! Gd fold! I guess!! Annoying when the Ace hits on the turn though!!!

After the same player who just over doubled up, calls my raise but he looked like he wanted to re raise, i got QT so i know i'm in bad shape. The flop is Q high and i check to him. He bets out 2.5k, he had around 9k left and i got into the tank! I think for ages trying to put him on a hand, he then started counting his chips as if i wanted a chip count but i already knew how much he had. This was trying to show strengthen which i read for as weakness, i started going through the re raising hands pre flop. AA, KK and AK he would have re raised, QQ, unlikely if so on a Q high board with a Q in my hand thats just to sick, but that is poker, also i think he checks the flop. JJs or TTs maybe, only one over card! Im stearing towards JJs, at this point i take 2 black chips in my hand (5k each), then someone calls the clock on me (fair enough) and im still thinking, i then throw in the 2 black chips sticking him all in, he thinks for a while and folds AQ!!!!

Im on about 25k when this hand pops up, new player at the table opens up and i call with AK, flop is Ace high and he bets and i call. Turn is a T and he bets but it also brings out a 3rd diamond. I then bump it up 5k, which means if he called he would be below the 10k mark, which is a barrier for most players as they never want to go below starting stack, so i always try and bluff when i see that in them, which also allows me to bet the minimum in case the bluff goes wrong. He thinks for ages and ages and ages and folds top two!!!! Wooaaah was not expecting that! i end the 2nd level with about 30k in chips and feeling very good, i have picked up a few good hands but i always seem to have to bluff my way through

In the 3rd level i pick up QQs and someone min raises!! hmmmm min raise can mean AAs so i made a smallisjh re raise to find out where i was, and he flat calls so i guess he does not have AAs, i also have position on him and felt good about the hand. The flop is K K x and he checks and i check behind, then turn is a blank and he checks and i bet small and he calls. The river is a J, not a great card, as he played JJs like this to a re raise earlier on, he checked and i checked behind thinking i'm only getting called behind or getting re raised. I showed QQs and he showed AT! QQs are goooooooood! I then found TTs after the SB pushed with J7 and the J hits! But i was doing ok, We get down to about three tables and i feel very comfortable with plently of chips in play

We are 6 handed and i pick up 88s in the SB, UTG opens up and i call, the flop is Q high again just one over card, he bets and i move in instantly (putting him all in) He thinks for ages and really did not want to be bluffed off the hand, i think he recently doubled up if i remember correctly so here another factor comes me, when people just double up they do not want to lose their chips striaght after. He eventually folds and is shocked when he sees my hand, he folded top pair 3rd kicker!

I do not get involved much just stealing when possible, when we are down to 2 tables my stack flips over!!!!! I was on 5ok and probably 1st or 2nd in chips in the tournament, Player A opens up and i re raise with AK, he then moves in and i had to call only 12k more into a pot of 50k. Plus i still have 20k back if i lose with average being 30k and if i win im huge!! i really do not think i can pass here. He flips over KKs and i lose a 62K pot!!!!!! I played so well not to get the chips in pre flop and played awesome flop poker! Just annoyed about that! Really really annoyed, especially when all your chips go else where!!!!! after working so hard!!!! Near the close of play and i raise with KQ and BB the short moves in more a little bit more and unless he has KK AA AK or AQ im getting the odds and i call, he shows A5 which i felt was a weak play as he knows im calling, i miss and he doubles up!! I'm left with 11.3k going into day two!!!!!

I go into day two with nothing and 3 hands in i find JJs, Player A who has knocked me out of 2 poker soc as a huge under dog (AA vs KK and Top Pair vs Middle Pair) raises and i shove, he calls with A9 and the flop is 2 4 6, turn is a 9 and the river a sweeet ACE and i go busto!!!!

Overall i feel i played really well, the AK hand was very annoying as i hate getting my chips in, in a well structure tournament with less than QQs to be honest. But thats the highs and lows of poker!!!

Riddle of the Day

If a Mother is 21 years older than her son
And in 6 years time the mother is 5 times older than her son
Where is the father????????
Clue : Find Mother and Sons ages!
Answer is goooooooddd will share it in the next blog entry

High Stakes Poker Warwick Style!!

2006-11-29T18:27:00.000+01:00

HSWP (High Stakes Warwick Poker)

The game was set!!! After 2 weeks we brought the game back, we had a few changes and a much stronger line up (no offence to who played last time). This was something I was really looking forward to as was at least half the players involved. The game was now 50/£1 blinds with a max buyin of £150 and a min buyin of £40. I advertised the game to the usual lot by text and then posted on the forum, the game was filled with 2 days and the game was on! We had ten players in the game and even someone on the waiting list. Just a quick note I will and cannot go into too much detail about certain hands and moves taken place in the cash game. Most of the players in play last night read my blog and it certainly an –EV play for me to reveal all my thoughts about the game. Sorry!

Last time we played the blinds were £1/£1 and I played terrible, I lose most of my chips with KKs and two pair but I was calling off my chips way to much. I actually lost most of my chips picking up ‘playable’ cards and calling raises, missing flops and folding to any heat sent my way. This is just awful, these are the kind of player you loved to play against and I certainly was not going to play like this again. My key thoughts were to think of position position position. Upon two requests to do seat draw I agreed. So we pick our seats from ten and I picked someone picked seat two for me, in case you do not know I never like to pick my seating card, I always get a dealer or another player to pick it for me, just a silly superstition thing I guess. I like seat two as you can clearly see the whole game from the side, I hate seat 1 and 10 as you on next to the dealer and cannot see the whole game while seat 5 is too much in the middle and sometimes gives you too much attention, which does not suit my game.

Players – Seat 1 – Guv, Seat 2 – Dhruv (me!), Seat 3 – Scott, Seat 4 – Tom, Seat 5 – Mark, Seat 6 – Nick, Seat 7 – Kader, Seat 8 – Mitesh, Seat 9 – Jaime and Seat 10 – Rob
If you know the players we have a tough game ahead. I have certain reads and ways I would play these players but as most of them read my blog I cannot be too detailed as mentioned earlier. I would normal go into detail here and explain my views on each player, but here is generally and pre game game plan, Guv very aggressive and can make moves with anything, was simply going to play position against him and hope for him to fire out some bluff. Against Scott was going to play big pots when I had it, as the money does not mean as much to him so I feel he is more likely to call, Tom I tend to stay out of his way playing cash as he tends to be quite conservative, if he is calling me he probably got me, Mark is a rock of rock not wanting to get involved with him with an Ace in the hole, only would play very creative cards, Nick the wildcard!!! The non Warwick boy! He texted me out of nowhere asking about the game and I said why not! Kader another potential wild card in the game, have not played cash with him for ages so I felt I would wait and see how he plays before attaching any reads to him. Mitesh is trick and can go either way, sometimes folding the 3rd nuts but then calling all in with top pair, was going to play tightish against him but definitely not afraid to bet him off hands. Jaime was someone I am likely to check call a lot from. I know he loves big pots and I would be control the pot more than anything against him. Rob!! Hate playing rob!! Most people who think why as I win a lot of money against him in the past but Rob is the type of player who wins or loses £200+ pots, I like to win £30 pots and grind on my stack up and Rob definitely does not like letting me do that!

Ok, sorry poker fans out there but my girl mates are all annoyed that i do not mention them in my POKER blog! So i have decided to keep them happy!! Hello girls!!! I hope this keeps you happy and you might check the blog once in a while!!!

Back to the Poker!!

So the game starts off very slow. More than half the table brought in for £150, a few for £100 and one for £40, so we had the range in their, I normally like to sit with the max in any game but my limit was £250 again tonight, and felt if I sit with a £100 and go broke I can rebuy for £150 knowing the game will be deeper then. So it made more sense to have £150 when the game is deeper rather than rebuying for £100 or going £125 each way. The game was seeing some normally raises and most pots were taken down on the flop. Mark moved in early on twice I think but no caller. The game was definitely going to pick up. I then limp with AK in late position. Scott and Nick call. Flop is 7 7 T. No good for me and I check after Nick checks Scott follows. Turn is a Q and I pick up a gutshot and two overs. Nick bets out £5 and I call, ok not a great call with just a gutshot on a paired board but if he has a 7 I might get a few chips here. Scott then makes it £18ish to go, Nick thinks for a while and makes it £35 more, I quickly fold and Scott calls. The river is a 5 and Nick checks instantly, Scott gets a chips count of Nick and moves him in for another £45ish , so the pot is around £170 and Nick slowly decides to call, They both say 7, and Nick with the A kicker scoops a £200+ pot!

I tried to get involved in some pots but not much was happening for me and I refused to play rags, especially with a £100 stack and raises up to £7 pre flop (with limpers) I decided I would be more selective in the hands I was playing. The next interesting hand that happened was against Tom and Kader. Not really sure what happened in the had but Kader flopped a set on a three spade board and lead out, Tom called and the turn paired the board giving Kader the house, Tom had A3, three of a kind. On the river Kader gets it all in and Tom calls. Kader get just under a double up.

There were a few limpers in the pot and Guv makes it £5 to go, which was way to small a bet. He gets 4 callers while holding the two ladies QQ. Flop is 6 6 2, a nice flop for Qs, ok the paired board is not nice but a 6 is less dangerous then two Ts or 9s or 8s in my opinion. It check to Guv and he fires out £20. Mitesh smooth calls and Jamie makes it £55 total. Guv then calls!!! Hmmmmmm Ok I think QQs need to run away here, he has lost £25 in total and calling another £35 and sitting with only £100 behind makes me think you are commiting too much here with a turn and river to come, also what does Mitesh have, a 2?? More likely a 6 in my mind. At this point I knew Guv had a big pocket pair and could not let go! I figured Jabon to have something like 88s or 99s finding out where he is but I definitely read Mitesh for a big hand. Mitesh then moves in!!! Jamie says he cannot fold was only another £35ish more (at most) and Guv slowly folds! Mitesh flips A6 and Jamie has K6!!!! Ok you might be thinking why did they flip it well at High Stakes Warwick Poker we give the option to take insurance (ie split the pot there like 80/20). Run it twice or run it three times. Mitesh took his advantage and said to run it once. The turn is a heart giving Jamie a flush draw, he not could hit a heart or a K to win, or a 2 or a 4 to split. Jamie then asking if Mitesh wanted two rivers but Mitesh kept to his word and said just once, the river was a K!! Jamie wins a £275ish pot! Seems like 3 of a kind is a dangerous hand to have in this game!!!

Mitesh leaves the game and Richard Myles joins in. He is a interesting player but not played with him a lot, I thought I’d see how he plays before making any reads. At this time I played a few small pots and lost a few and won a few. I was sitting on about £130, so about £30 up without anyone taking much notice.

Rob Jagger then gets involved in a few all in moves after calling Jambons re raise with 63 and flopping two pair against his AAs, I think they run it 3 times with Rob taking 2/3 of the pot. Jagger then out drew AA with a pair and a gutshot! In the middle he tried to bluff Guv off KKs which did not pay off as he instant mucked after Guv called his river bet, classic Rob! Last time Tom called Rob with J7 high to see Rob instant muck!!!

After playing for a while I was impressed by the way Kader was playing he was picking up a lot of pots with his continuation bets and kept the pressure on, But I picked up on his style of play later on which caused me to have a few battles with him. I like to play pots against people who I have a comfortable read on, as its no long about cards vs cards its player vs player the true art of poker comes into play. I limp with 4s5c and Kader makes a raise which gave me the impression of a steal raise, so I call, the flop is 3d 3h 5h and I check, he checks behind, then turn is another heart and I feel I could represent the flush here but decide to check to see where he was, he lead out £18 and I quickly called, I feel he may have a big heart so I want to see a blank on the river and then come out firing, the river however was a Jh, YUK!!! I think for a while, thinking whether to put a stop bet out there or not but then I thought Kader might not be able to fire another shell and might check behind. I check and he fires out £40, I had around £90 in my stack and felt pushing was not an opposition. I really wanted to make the call but the way he was playing before I felt he was not going to fire out without a Kh here. I felt he had the big heart on the turn and kept to my read and eventually fold, he claims he had Ad9d, if so well played sir!

Richard Myles had been playing for just under an hour and must of got bored or something, I do not know what happened pre flop but on the flop of J 3 6 two hearts, Nick bets out, Rob raises and Richard Re raises! Nick then moves in and Jagger folds. Richard then calls with AQ high!!!! HUH!!!!! Nick is slightly confused as was the rest of the table! Nick had Ah3h and had Richard crushed, Richard had 3 outs, They decide to run it once as Nick is a huge favourite and the pot was over £300+ The turn is a T and the river is a off suit K giving Richard the NUTS!!!! So so so so siccccccckkkkkkkkk! Nick took it really well and re loaded! The deck was just sick!!!

I was still grinding my stack! Just thinking position position position! Was up to around £130 now, and I limp with QJ, Mark raises it up and I call. The flop is J high and I check, Mark checks as well, I’m thinking he could have TTs JJs or AK here. The turn is a T and I bet out Mark calls, I then check in the dark. The pot is about £30 ish and the river is a Q, now I cannot beat AK!! Mark bets £7! What a value bet! I pay him off just to see if he called with the gutshot or not, he did and AK is good! Bet more Mark then I can fold!!!!

PIZZA BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (the game was meant to start at 730 and finish at midnight but rumour had it we would play to 3am!! Life as student hey!)

I then pick up AK and make one of my 1st raises of the night. I get about 6 callers! Nice!!! I almost see the pot as an unraised pot in my mind, and I hate going broke in an unraised pot so I was not going to get too busy. The flop is 5 A 4 two hearts. It checks to me and I bet out £18 and Jambom calls, Rob then moves!! Woaaaahhh!!! Classic Rob using his chips here, I thought I might be a slightly favourite here but I have only commited about £25 and thought I could get my stack in a better spot, if he has a pair + a flush draw, also worried about Jambon calling with a set in the middle. Jambon folded anyway and Rob scoops the pot. This is probably one of my weakness as a poker player, I always fold with the small edge I feel I have which stops me from taking down big big pots with just one pair. I do not know if I should be working on things like that or not, I feel in a tournament the strategy is different depending on stack sizes and the blind structure but in a cash game you can always reload! This is definitely an interesting topic because do you need to win pots like that! I was comfortably grinding out £20-£30 pots without too many showdowns and making money. Something I certainly need to think about put a comment on my blog!! Would like to here some people views on this.

The very next hand I pick up 66s and limp, Scott raises behind me and I call, no other calls. Flop is 3 6 7 ! Bingo Bango Bongo! I check and Scott bets out £8 and I call. The turn is an 8, bit of a danger card and I check, her bets out £18 and I move in for another £55ish. Scott immediately tells me ‘Did you flop your set’, I said nothing and he eventually calls, with what I think was QQs, I showed and he did not so we just ran in once. I thought he might have got away from the hand there but I could have easily had 89 and playing it fast after maybe being taken off my AK the hand before. As my £55 bet was an over bet that might have helped me get the call. That got my stack up to about £180

I pick up JJs later on in my BB, Jagger limped on Scotts straddle of £2 and Guv called as well, I made it £10 to go and Scott and Guv folded while Rob called leaving to just me and him!!! Not happy hate playing him when we are both fairly deep and I have a had like JJs which is difficult to improve on. The flop is a good one 2 T 3 rainbow, I check trying to give Rob the impression I had AK/AQ, (early I bluffed rob in a £60 pot on the river with AQ high) He fired out £20 in a £24 pot, I check raise to £55 and Rob calls, Boooooooooooo!!! What has he got! I know he likes playing 10-2 ! But really??? Does he have the set , I could not but him on 45 as I think he moves in or folds on the flop rather than flat calls my raise. So I’m not happy I still have £120is back and looking to shutdown! The turn is a J!!!!!! Bingo!!! I think for a while hoping Rob does have a set and I check, he moves in and I call! He has 222, ouch! Sorry Rob! My JJJ holds and I double up to £370ish!

Ollie the dealer then needed a break! So I dealt for a bit while our dealer went downstairs to relax. I decided not to play and deal, which was nice to give me a small break. Once Ollie came back I played a few more pots looking to take more pots down and called with connecting rags pre with my deep stack. We saw a few more all in with Rob getting unlucky picking up KKs when Tom limped with AAs and Mark kept finding AK against others people AA and KKs.

This interesting hand developed as well. It fold round to Guv on the button and he makes it £5 to go. I see AK and smooth call. Scott then makes it £30 more, Guv moves in!!!!! Woooaaahhhhhhhhhhhh! What just happened here! Guvs all in was about £130sih. I had nearly £380 in front of me, I then asked Scott for a chip counts, he had around £120. I looked back and saw I have invested £5! I was not worried about Guv at all to be honest. I felt he was getting bored and had not played much recently and wanted to play. At best I put him on TTs or AQs AT BEST!! Now Scott worried me, the side pot was clearly not enough against Guv to get involved just to play Guv, as it was quite clear Scott was commited to the pot. Then I went into the memory tank, I played against Scott about 6 months ago when there were two limpers UTG and UTG +1 and a raise in UTG + 2 and he re raised with KKs, I then moved in with AsKs in the SB. Later he said, you must put me on KK AA or maybe QQs there if he calls me. So that was running through my head as well, thinking Scott is not re stealing was also running through my head and on that knowledge I felt AK was at best a split and if Guv had TTs or a Ace in the whole or Scott has QQs and Guv has an Ace my outs are less. But also it was button (Guv) vs SB (me) vs BB (Scott) which can make people do some crazy things! BUT I decide to fold! Guv has QJ and Scott had AK!!!!!!! Right fold? Maybe in the long run, especially after only investing £5! Guv sucks out!!! The Jack hits! And Scott loses another big pot. He then got it in with QQs vs AK later on and Jambon hits the A then continues to hit the flush as well!

I played a few interesting pots with Kader. I picked up 35 against him and called his raise, he fired out the flop and I called with air and then he checked the turn for me to beat it away from him, I then had Qh8h against him on the cut off 7 handed (Rob and Scott left and Tom cashed out) I just limped and Kader checked his BB. The flop was 9h 7h 2c. He checks and I bet out £5, he calls, turn is a 5d, He checks and I bet out £8, he makes it £24 to go, I quickly call, to represent strengthen and knowing I had a lot of outs and position on him on the river. The river is an 8 and I miss everything! Except hitting one pair. He checks and I lead out £35. He quickly folds 7 5 face up!!! I was like pheww!!!!!! I was surprised he folded but he later explained the range of hands I could be on and I win every time minus the busted flush draw! I got my stack up to about £420ish

The very next hand I limp with Ah6h, approaching 3am. Kader makes it £11 to go and Guv calls and I calls as Kader was on about £380ish and felt I could take a big pot here, although Kader had played me well one I was drawing. He got me off the nut flush early on when he over bet the pot in position, I just didn’t call as I felt if I hit I was not getting paid off. The flop is T 4 2 all hearts!!! BINGO!!! BANGO BONGO!!!!! Guv fires out £25 and I go into the tank. Guv only had another £90 back so I know he is committing here, putting him on a small flush. So I need Kader in, I think for a while check my cards and eventually call. Kader then asks Guv how much does he have left (Bingo!) Kader then bets £125 Guv only having £112ish left. Guv instantly calls the his allin, and I instantly move allin!!! Kader asks for a count as I count out another £400! At this point I put Kader on top set and I get nervous. I feel this is the only hand he is thinking with and raising £11 pre flop with. The joker! Was just sweating me out! He had Pocket JJs with Jh and he was never calling!! Guv is the one with top set though! At one point there was almost £700 in the middle!! Eat your heart out GSN with your High Stakes Poker! I decide to run it three times with Guv, thinking I would take two pots down, which did happen. I won a £12 side pot off Kader, and 2/3 of the main pot!!!!!!

What a game!!!!!!! Definitely looking to hold another game like this and Ollie’s services of £5 an hour was awesome! I ended up with £545!! and I think Jambon just over doubled up his buyin and Kader just under doubled up with his. Definitely felt I played well was a bit annoying I did not make the call against Kader with the 45 but over was happy with the way I played, although it is nice when cards go your way!!!

Girls this one is for you!!!! (wow 3,800+ words damm!!!)

Midland Masters at Walsall Casino

2006-11-23T15:54:00.000+01:00

So i return to Walsall to play in the Midland Master Event # 2 the £200 freeze out. For those who do not know, i used to regular go to Walsall casino once ot twice a week last year at University but after a £20 rebuy night i stopped going after i felt i had been cheated in a game. The outline of what happened was i had made final table and there were 6 left, me and outsider and 4 locals, the money only really got interesting for top 3 as there were only 35-40 runners. I was doing well and started to notice that the tournament was taking a while after one of the dealers mentioned it. I then started wondering why were there no big pots. I then notice that chips were moving left to right between the locals. They were in seat 1-4 and 5 was the outsider and 6 was me. I felt maybe i was reading too much into but then i saw JJ s in the BB being checked all the way down and some flopped top pair, turned a str8 draw and did not bet on any street. It was getting late and looked more and more suspious as the hands went by. I then picked up a few hands and got aggressive while i was disgusted at the play from the other players. I had recently heard a story about Barry Greenstein who said that if you feel cheat take your money and go, as this was a tournament i couldnt exactly leave but i could not wait to get out of there. Barry G also mentions there is also no point in complaining to the management, especially as these locals actually run the card room in the casino. So i never went back and told myself i would not unless it was a festival where the locals were out numbered.

The Start of the Tournament

I was not thinking too much about the tournament before, it was a healthy buyin but i felt i was comfortable playing this tournament especially as i had $150 bought in for me by rivercard.com (link on the right side). Also winning £100 on roulettle before the tournament started helped! (stop gambling DHRUV!!) The screen came up with the table and i was put on table 17! With 170 runners that means it was the last table, i walked over and it was the 'bum' table, it had lower chairs and not a great look to it compared to the other tables. I knew it would be the 1st table to break so it was not too important to create a reputation or spend too much time reading people at a price (in terms of chips) Dave Lu was also drawn to my table as well as this 'pro' which Flash mentioned to me.

So normally when i sit down i look for reads in terms of how people sit, move their chips, talk on the table or see how they look at their cards. i picked up nothing for once! Apart from one chump on the table everyone seemed like they have played for a while. This was not great as it meant it would be a tough table which in turned out to be, but with the 5k starting stack i'm sure we would lose 10 runners soon for our table to break.

I pick up AAs early on and make the raise to 150 and the BB calls in c/bet the flop and he lays it down, nice start. The play on our table was not to my liking. They were strong players, the 'pro' was making it 125 to go pre flop when on the other side some guy bet into a 700 into a 250-300 pot 8 hands in. There was another player who caught my eye. He was talking to the 'pro' alot and i felt they travelled together. He seemed like a strong player. He has just lost the biggest pot on the table with AT vs AJ on a A high board in a limped pot. He then raises on the c/off and i call with Ah4h on the button. The flop is 4 Q J two spades. He bets out and i quickly call, trying to freeze him on the turn. The turn was a 9 and he checks, i feel i can take this away and bet out, maybe even with the best hand. He then moves in!!! hmmmmmmm Opps! I felt he was tilting from the hand before and felt he might be on a big draw with like AsTs or something like that, i let the hand go as i was not about to call of my chips here with bottom pair.

The 'pro' then does something very strange. There is a limp in MP and i limp on the button with rags and the SB pro raises to 550, very big raise considered earlier he made it 125 to go and with one limper before he made it 150 to go. I figured he had AA, AK or rags and was on the steal. I was very surprised by this raise. The more i think about it, it seems like he really wanted the pot here as he was out of position the rest of the hand and maybe he had a hand he could not get away from like KK and AA in a non-deep stacked tournament. So he gets one caller and i fold. The flop bring two diamonds and a Q and a T, he bets out 1500 and the limper moves in while standing up saying he has to go 'classic!' The pro calls with AAs but does not like it. The limper has AdJd, gutshot and a flush draw. The diamond hits instantly and the guy doubles up. Now lets look at the hand if the pot was player smaller. If he makes it 250 to go pre and gets called his flop bet would be around 500 not 1500 and if the guy calls the next card is very scary, he can now get away from AAs. Phil Hellmuth likes to play AAs slow so he can play the flop especially in early stages where it is difficult to get people to fold pre flop. This allows you to get away from the hand at a cheap price and if you need to pay someone off it will not cost too much. I remember hearing Phil on the Circuit on cardplayer saying the one time he played AAs fast he went broke on the flop when the guy floped a set, but if he saw the last few cards it came like K,Q and there was a T on the flop (the guys had a set of Ts) He claims he would not lose his stack with danger cards comming off later. But then again AAs are infront!!!! Why not make it a big pot! When the money went in AJ was a slightly dog and AAs did have an edge. The more i play i see that pocket pairs are very difficult to play, the reason being because its hard for them to improve! AK and 78 is nothing! But when it hits a flops it great. I prefer hands like that in deep comps and at early stages of any comp, give me AAs towards the end pleeeeasssseee!!! If you have read my GSOP post, i only got dealt pocket pairs and found them difficult to make money on.

Talking of pocket pairs i pick up AAs again, my stack is about 3.5k and i make it 150 to go, i get two callers including Dave Lu, i'm UTG and i am out of position for the rest of the hand. The flop came 8 J 8. I decided to play this small. They cannot hit two pair against me. If they have an 8 they have me and if they have a draw i think i get away cheap. I check and the old guy bets and Dave folds, i call. turn is a blank card and i check and he bets 500 and i call. The river is a K so no str8 out, no flush just an 8 to beat me really or a lower set for a house, i was hoping he had KJ and he would bet big which i could call but not raise incase he lead out with the 8 the whole time. I check and he fires out 1k and i quickly call he slowly turns his hand over i see an A and a non picture card! I felt like crap, plz no 8! It was a 6! Pheww i scoop a nice pot.

Table Breaks!!!! I get put on table 16!!!! which means that will break soon! So again i dont need any good reads. I then see my table, Guv(house mate) was there, Scott O Reily (ex Warwick 54th in WSOP 2006 Main Event) was there and to my right was David Colclough (one of the UKs most well known players). This table was sooo much better they were limping into pots and checking. It was a much softer table! Also another note about table behaviour was that they all knew how to play, i remember saying 'wow this people even fold like pros' I picked a few small pots here just betting in position with draws or middles pairs. There was no re raise bets towards me which is always nice. Colclough then gets involved UTG and a few others limp. Flop is very low and Colclough bets outs, he get raised by someone and action back to DaveC he then starts to talk to himself. Saying why i have you left your self with 225 chips, what he could not see was the guy had another 1k chip back on his card protector. DaveC then says ok and throws in enough to put the guy all in but thinking he only had 225 left not 1.225k. I then say he still has chips and DaveC was like oh shit, i've lost now! Then turn comes out and DaveC puts the guy in who shows bottom set for the scoop against his JJs, I then ask did the chip protector get in your way he said maybe but 'i have really bad eye sight' Guess even the pros make fundamental mistakes!!!

Move table!!! I get put on table 15!!! What a joke!!! It will not be long until 15 breaks as well!! This was really ruining my game, i had no time to get to know the players at all and when i did the table broke, i was on table 15 for about 6 hands and guess what the table breaks!!!!

Table THREE Whooooo hoooo, so i guess i can finally get comfortable on a table. The break started in a few minutes so i left my 6.5k in chips at the table and went to the bathroom. Better to go now than 150+ players heading their during the break! I bump into Tom and he is out, going out with top two pair against bottom set, yuk! Tom points out to me that Action Jack (Paul Jackson, got heads up in Monte Carlo this year and one of the best Uk players about) is on my table. This table was even tougher than the 1st one. But i had some chips and a good feeling about the competetion so far.

I pick up 9s7s on the button and call as did Action Jack in MP, SB and BB are in too. Flop is 9d Jd 7c! Nice flop for me! Not liking the Jack connecting the cards though. Action Jack bets out and i smooth call. Other fold the turn is a 5 and he checks instantly as if he knows his hand is no good. That gave me the impression he was on a pair + a draw. I think he still bets out with a pair and a flush/str8 draw so i figured he has a pair J or 9 with a gutshot, therefore JT, J8, 98, 9T hands he is likely to want to see a cheap flop with. i check on the turn (maybe should have bet) but by checking wanted him to think i had a flush draw, so he might call a bigger bet on the river if the diamond does not fall. The River is an 8!! Ok so the board is 5789J. I have two pair which is awful, i can beat KJ but no gutshot + pair draws, but he quickly checks again, i think he is scared of the str8 so i know he does not have a T in his hand, he couldnt have a 6 just because of the flop and the check on the turn. So if has 98 or J8 or 78 but hopefully KJ and looking to check call. SO i decide i can beat 2/4 hands so i need to bluff! I bet out around 50% of the pot making it look like a value bet, like i have hit my str8. He goes into the tank saying you cannot have missed diamonds, and started talking to himself. He had the chips in his hand hovering over the line and was taking a while. He eventually makes an absolute crying call, one of those calls where people say 'i know i'm behind but i have to call' (not that he said it but thats the look he had in his face). He calls! I turn over my hand and he says. ' oooh i can beat that '. he shows J8 and rivered two pair. He then said to me surprised you bet two pair on the river, i said ' i did not think two pair was good '. He gave a look of confusion, maybe thinking this kid knows something about poker, i think or he thought what an idiot! Who knows!

The dealer then started dealing some wild hands and with the blinds increasing people were dropping like flies. We were down to 80ish pretty soon. I started raising in LP with rags and got re raised three times!!!! Hate when that happens! Oh well! I then get it in with KcQc with about 4BB and get called by AQ, but i hit a K! I got lucky!!!

Then i wished i was a bad bad poker player! Big stack opens up and Action Jack re raises i look down and see TTs!!!! At absoulte best i am 50/50 and about 60/40 (or better) if they both have AQ and AK as the AQ would fold and some outs gone but due to the size of the re raise (smallish) i knew he had a big pair. I fold! Then a short stack pushes with AQ and the big stack calls. Hands : Big Stack 99s, Action Jack QQs and AQ with Short stack, so i make the right fold! Board comes with an Ace and the river the T!!!!!! The pot was about 18K i would have tripled up (ish) and be the chip leader or 2nd in chips! on the table and with a good good shot at makes some moves! But NO!!! I fold! Oh well i guess it all about long term poker!!

I was then back on the steal just moving in with any Ace in late posistion and connecting cards as well. A donkey came over to the table who i remember from the last time i went Walsall. Blinds were 200-400, he has 1600 and limps. Someone else then calls and i shove with K7 for about 3.7k, blinds fold and the donkey with 1200 left folds (i knew he would), the other limper gives me a 60 second swet before he mucks AJ and i go on tto claim i had 99s.

I then found JJs and the guy to my right opens the pot with 3.5xBB i have about 8BB and shove! He calls and flips over AAs! No help and i go out! With about 7 tables left! Overall a great tournament well structure and the standard was good enough to keep the game going at a great speed, no one was dwelling up or slow rolling or asking the dealer how much it is to go or when it was there turn. The standard was much higher than the £100 freeze at Gutshot on saturday nights.

Online on UB

I do not like to complain about bad beats but i played a $50 MTT yday on ulitmate bet and i was moving along nicely in the 1st three levels increasing my stack by 70% with out any big showdowns. I then get TTs in my BB and i call a raise, flop is Td 3c Kc, i check, he best min i call, turn is a blank i checkm he bets i raise and he shoves i call, he has KKK!!!!!!

Then i have no chips but still 6xBB, i have 10c7c and check my BB. About 4 others in the pot. Flop is 3c 7d Qc, great flop! i do not have alot of chips but its going in!. i want to check raise, so i check and it checks round opps! I check on the turn as the Kc falls (giving me the flush) Guy bets out and is called a raise basically all in, get 2 callers, and the river a blank and they both push!!! Guess what! The so called pair and flush draw flop being so great i was a 2.1% favourite to win the flop!!! One guy had a set of 3s and the other the A high flush draw! I was drawing to running 7s or 7, T or TT. So sick!!!! Two great flops and basically drawing dead on both of them!!!!!! Something tells me someone did not want me to play that comp!!!! Maybe it was because i had a 9am the next day (which i missed!!!)

Online Poker Boring!!!!!!!

2006-11-20T17:05:00.000+01:00

So its time to play another 2 day tournament!! The buy in is £200 however I have been lucky enough to be sponsored $150 by Rivercard! So I am in the tournament for about £120 which doesn’t make a huge difference but every little helps. Thanks again to rivercard!!!

By the way plz check out Tommo's blog (link on the right hand side) there is a video of Tony G and Ralph Perry that has to be seen! 'Get out Russian!!!'

I have not had a great month this month but yday I came 4th in the $100 freeze on UB certainly helped. I have started to play Heads up cash and tournaments just on Ultimate bet while I will only play full ring cash games on the rivercard. I actually qualified for the $100 freeze a while go in a $5 rebuy (in for a totally of $15, the absolute min with instant top up) but unregistered and took the Tournament Dollars instead.

The $100 freeze on UB was a good structured tournament like most UB tournaments are. I started off very well but then lost a few chips when check calling with top pair vs bottom set of the flop. I picked up some nice hands but had to play a lot of poker as well. I actually picked up AAs 4 times and KK 3 times. Although when I picked up QQs I lose about 70% of my stack. Although I think I played the hand quite poorly. I had been playing big hands quite strong due to the good structure. In a crap shoot if you pick up big hands like AA KK or QQs (not so much AK) I feel you need to get paid therefore I may be encouraged to play certain hands slow to extract the max. But with the good structure playing them strong was key and sometimes checking the turn was needed to control the pot size.

SO back to the QQs, I have about 5k ish and the average stack is about 3.5k+. I raise 3xBB in MP and both the blinds call. Flop is 5 6 9 2 clubs. Hmmmm no Ace or King but its a very textures board, a lot of draws possible and I feel I need to shut people out. I have both players covered. SB had 1700 and the BB has 3.5k. They both check to me and I decide to bet over the pot! This may come to a surprise to most people as I love small pot poker, but over the pot was half the SBs stack so I feel he will get away even if he has a draw. I also wanted to end the hand now. I also feel if a blank comes on the turn and they play back especially the BB 9as he has more chips, not to concerned with SB) I could get away from the hand but I hope they both fold! They both call!! Turn is a 10c! Not a great card and the SB moves in for about 800 with the pot being over 4k. I also have the Qc!!! I feel he had the flush draw and made it! The standard of players I never rate (as you can see in my last post I rate a few amount of players) so I convince myself he did call off 55% of his stack on a flush draw but likely a small one, I felt the Qc was good. But also the bet was sooooo small I had to call either way but before I come to my decision the BB pushes for about 2k!!!!! (1200 ish more) (the numbers maybe slightly off, hence one of the reason I do not like writing about online poker as I find it hard to remember things after seeing so many hands) Anyway!! Now what!!! Looking at the hand now my decision has changed! The key problem here is, knowing your players, I had recently got moved to this table and I didn’t really know the players. Is he moving in with an A of clubs or top pair or pair + flush draw or a flush, if so how big! I eventually calling convincing my self I have someone beat! And if not I had outs!!!!! I came to the conclusion the SB had a small flush and the BB had Top pair on flop with maybe a Jc something like JT, (very bad read when thinking about it afterwards! Why would he call on the flop!!!! But then again I do not know the players and some people never fold top pair!) I was wrong!!! SB had a made the nut str8 off the flop which was played awfully I bet over half his stack on the flop, he got greedy and didn’t move in! While BB has Kc 7c another big flop for him with an over card flush draw and a gutshot str8 draw! So I was drawing dead!

Looking back after betting big on the flop that was enough information to realise they called with more than just a draw and the 10c is the opposite of a blank!! But the pot was fairly big and I felt the Qc was in play, I would try not to call off my chips again like this! But hey we all make mistakes!!! So I get down to 1400 ish and get three huge hands in a row!

I pick up AA and someone raises in front and I pushed he calls with JJ and AAs hold. Up to 3.2k ish

Next hand AA again!!! Shocking!!! Someone raised, another guy calls, I re-raise and they both fold. Up to 5k ish

Next hand AK, Guy raises, I re raise, and the guy next to me moves in for 4k. I felt I had to call here as I had just raised 3 hands in a row after losing with QQs so I felt people may play back and plus a lot of dead money in the pot and I feel AK cant be in too bad shape, he has QQs and I win a race! Up to something like 8.9k in 3 hands!!! What a rush!!!!

I grind my way to final 2 tables and in the money, making a lot of plays along the way on flops and turns. Did not have to fire three shells which is nice and it is very difficult to do. A play I made quite a few times was when raising pre flop out of position to the caller on a missed flop, e.g. I raise with AK and someone calls, flop Q 3 8 I check he bets I call, turn a 2 and I would fire out! This play helped me a lot. I feel it is a strong play that can be made against good players, as that think back thinking why is he firing now?? I had AJ once and got someone to lay down AK on the turn, he had no pair but he was not happy to fold, in the chat box he said WTF, he couldn’t understand the play, I feel if I confuse them they will or should let go on the turn or river. I then chat in the chat box I flopped a set! Which is the way I would play a set(although on that occasion it helps he had nothing but A high)

I then lose basically all my stack with 12 players left, top 20 paid but only (11th to 20th) get $104, (tournament cost $109) was a very friendly comp in terms of payout, just trying to encourage people to play again I guess. Not a fan of that. Anyway in the BB with 9s8s and one limper and the SB checks I check too. Flop J 9 3 2 spades! Nice flop, I would probably check raise a pre flop raiser her but as know one did I felt I could lead out. The limper calls, the turn is a T, not a great card but if he had T8 or QT or spades the T gives him the best hand but it cannot beat a J which is what I am representing so I fire out. He calls hmmmmmmm I think he has QT, hopefully not 333! River I miss my draw or fail to improve my hand however its a Jack, which is a nice card, It means it is very unlikely he had a J on the flop and I feel another bet here will get him off a T and obviously he would fold if he had a flush draw. Now you might say why bet, well the pot is about 22k at this stage I have about 16k back, if he had AT of spades or QT and I check he wins! So I essentially bluffing, by showing strengthen the whole way I feel I have done my job to get him off a T if he has one. So I fire out 12k making it look like a value bet. if he has 333JJ he moves in and I leave my self with 4k (about 5/6BBs) . Ok I left myself with something, I did this to show I was trying to extract the max as I would if I had the J for JJJs. He calls instantly with KT!!!! YUk yuk yuk!!!! Gutshot on the flop!!! Was it a great call?? it was the right call but I do not know how he makes it, with hindsight I think the Jack helps him, it makes it unlikely he has a J which means in his head he is thinking that I cannot have a J I guess! I felt terrible!! I didn’t need to make that play but sick at his gutshot call on the 2 spade board, I know I double up if the Q of spades falls!! Oh well!!!!!

Now to DRU poker!!!! I move in with 5BB with A4 6 handed and the BB calls with 6d7d and I hold. Then the big stack limps with 7s8s and I move in on my BB with AA (yes again!) He calls for like 10BB a bad call (same guy with the KT, now I know the player) I hold up!!! Back with a shot to win it! Final tables starts a few hands later.

A point to make just before final table! I had my eye on both tables as the bubble for final started and would it extremely funny and disappointing, when Rusellxxx moves in for a totally of 1330 and the BB folds!!! Oh btw the blinds were 600/1200!!!! with a 125 ante!!!! he folded for 130 into a pot of 3750!!!! WOW!!!!!!

So I make final and try to steal as much as possible especially after people were folding big hands to all in moves, I didn’t have a lot so there was a lot of allin poker for me. I got 4 handed and moves in a number of times and not getting called. Then found AJ in my BB and told Guv who was railing me that this is the hand unless two people are all-in. UTG raises and I push, he thinks for a while and calls with AK!!! no help for me and i'm out in 4th for $884! A bit annoyed as 3rd upwards get the 1K + to their name! A few badly played hands but happy overall but I am improving online!!!!

Head Up

Due to been a uni I find it difficult to have a long ring game or a long structure tournament on weekdays so I have started playing some heads up poker on UB while playing Black Jack sit and gos!! (gotta stop gambling!) Been playing 50c/$1 and $1/$2 pot limit games! Being doing very well but its all about finding some breaking them and watch them reload after reload after reload with no where to go. The $1/$2 is quite high considering I started with only $93 into my account but with a few tournament results in $10 $20 and $30 comps I have built it up to over $1500 in the last 2 weeks. Although I need to know when to walk away I guess, I find it difficult to play aggressive players but I feel I can read people in the first ten minutes of a game, which is why I love heads up poker it really is the true form of pure poker!

Quotes

'I was in early late middle posistion' Found on the Gutshot Forum

'Its a good thing the English made good trains, you will be home in two hours!' Tony G at the WPT in Paris

Wish me luck 2mr at the Midland Masters!

Donkeys Donkeys and More Donkeys!!!!

2006-11-14T18:47:00.000+01:00

Ok I have not written in my blog for a while and the main reasons is not because I have gone broke or anything like that it is simply because live poker had dried up for me. I have been playing a fair bit online but as I have mentioned earlier I don’t really like writing about online poker. But I’m back but most of the focus on this entry will be on Poker Society the Monday night Tournaments!

Just a quick message to myself! I’m 21 tomorrow!!!!! Damm I feel so old but on the poker note look out America! Dhruv Doshi is now legal to play in the big comps!!! Obviously my roll does not allow me to buyin yet but I will definitely be thinking about some satellites soon enough, although I promised myself I will work harder at uni this year so sats might not be on the top of my list!

My next blog entry will probably be about the £200 freeze out at Walsall Casino for the Midland Masters! Some good news for me is that $150 of that will be paid for by River Card.com!!! The are just asking me to wear their T Shirt which is a very nice deal!! Also if you are looking for a new site and what some bonuses! Rivercard is the site to go on!!! If you click the link below and type in my promotional code DOSHI

while making your 1st deposit you will get a 30% bonus on that deposit and if you would like me to hook you up with a 5% rake back deal just drop me an email at tripled009@hotmail.com. Lets be honest 5% is not a lot but its something, I get just under £100 a month and its free money!!1 Also those of you on VC or Blue Sq on any other similar site just, it’s the same site so no need to sign up you just have to download the rivercard software and play with the same screen name as before. So if you are interesting in switching sites just for the bonus then just do that, if you don’t like it, clear your bonus and go back to your site!

Univeristy of Warwick Poker Society

Ok I normally pride myself on the fact that I went to Warwick poker soc, it where my game has developed dramatically but these days I have lost my ‘romance’ (to quote Saef) for the game on Monday nights. In my 1st year I was ready to learn watching great players play and talk the talk but nower days no one wants to learn or they think they know it all! I know I don’t know it all and I still have the nerve to write a blog about the sport. To quote someone (forgot who….i want to say Mike Sexton) It takes a minute to learn and a life time to master! I coming in on Monday nights and see my table, there is normally one regular who I have respect for but the rest are just awful, players who do not learn from their mistakes, players who don’t realise that getting lucky is a bad thing in the long run (by making that move), players make up pots odds!!! That really annoys me

I feel that this is what the World Series of Poker must be like. I think that Poker soc is a great way of getting passed the first day at the WSOP because the players are sooooooo bad!!!! The number one rule I adopt at poker soc is DO NOT BLUFF!!!!!! I have seen re re raises called with bottom pairs and yes you could say it’s a great call but if you look at peoples faces when they make the call they almost do it just to see the other guys hand.

At poker soc there are 4 types of players, the All in guy, the quiet rock, the good player and the elite players. The players I like to play against are the rocks and the good players. I will pull bluff only on them and occasionally on the elite players. The reasons behind this are simple, rocks will fold, good players feel they can always wait for a better opportunity. I only bluff occasionally the elite players as I really don’t need to dump any chips onto them. I need them to earn their chips. The allin guy! I’m shit scared of this guy! I can never work them out but my general rule is play for the nuts against them. Try not to play too any draws because it will cost a lot and you have no fold equity when pushing against these players. Here is an example of a hand I played yesterday I find 88s and raise and an allin guy calls. Flop comes 8 high with 3 dimonds, ok its not the best flop for me but I’m 90% sure my top set is good but I know if he has a Ad Kd or Qd he will chase. So the plan is to see all the cards. Some might say you are a favourite push and if he call you are a 67% favourite. But my rule against these players is see all 5 cards! Ok I give them a chance to catch up but I never commit all my chips against that kind of player without a big hand. Also 67% is not a lot to me!! I want to be at least a 80% favourite when I get all my chips in! So I check and he does behind the Ad falls on the turn and I check and he follows river a blank no pair on the board and I check and he shows Qd! Surprised he did not bet but he was always calling if I bet. I find these players difficult to play but when I pick up a big hand or a flop I do get paid which is nice.

SIDE POTS!!!!!!! I have had some debates with people about this! At poker soc the play is not great but betting into an empty side pot with bottom pair or a nice draw really annoys me! 2 weeks ago, 6 hand with 12 left UTG moves in and I call in the SB with KQ and the BB call flops is Q high, check check, turn x check check river I check and the BB bets! I have top pair with K kicker nice hand but the person who bet was in the elite group of players, I folded and he shows two pair. Ok I did not protect my hand but if I did on the flop UTG triples up as he had AQ! This is a very simple game! And side pots is not too much harder! I may say this but I see on WSOP bracelet events when John Pham bets into an empty side pot with the nut flush draw! The other player folds and when the hands were shown, a player at the table said why did you bet! John Pham replies I have nut flush draw I want to protect my hand! That makes no sense to me, you have A high and if the flush hit you will have the nuts. There is no hand to protect. Having an over pair is different! So if the top pros are doing it does that mean we should?? This is the part in poker as in life where we have different opinions, which is what makes the game great but if I’m playing do not bet into an empty side pot with nothing!

People at poker soc, As I said its like the WSOP main event, most of the pros out there feel that over 75% of the field are fishes! Same at poker soc, we get around 80-90 runners on average and only 20 ish people fit into the elite/good player bracket . We have people who argue with the dealers about everything and feel they are always right. We have people who do not pay attention at all and need to be told how much it is to go. We have people who stare people down when really they have no idea how to read people! All these things really slow the game down. I know they are beginners but I see the same people doing the same thing week after week, its so frustrating. I feel I am quite good at reading people just by the way they talk, sit, look at people, the way they move and stack they chips. I even told some one at poker soc stack like chips up probably they say no I like it like this! They make like flower patterns with they green blue and red chips!!! Its sooooo bad! It just gives away so much information! Some people have like 25 of each colour and stack them up in 5’s which is soooooo annoying they cover like half the length of the table! Here is a tip stack the chips in 1 to 4 piles and make sure they are easy to count!! Also stop hiding your chips!!!! People actually hide they chips!!!! It is a rule to keep your big chips visible to all players, I told someone that and they thought I was lying!!!

Facial expressions are soooo dreadful at poker soc, people try to act! Its obvious!!! Don’t sigh act all unhappy then move in!!! Who are you fooling seriously!! Most people at Warwick are well educated which gives you a big advantage, why play like a fool! Also the whole defending the Big Blind is great but take 3 minutes to fold!!! Why!!!! Any good players knows what you are doing in the first 3 secs when the action gets round to you, I’m not saying to act too quickly but pretending to dwell up to send the message ‘do not steal my BB I will go all in next time!’

ALL IN!!!!! The famous words in poker that has ruined the game!!! All you see on TV is the All in hands because it is exciting moments that average America poker players want to see! SO lets do what the TV does! Lets go all in every other hand!!! You have to remember that they miss out all the hours of real poker where people are betting ¼ to ¾ of the pot and people just fold. Sometimes…. Well most of the time in poker there will be a raise and a fold or a raise call bet and a fold. Its not always AK and KKs! But at poker soc there is enough people battling each other in that way that some one will have a stupid amount of chips very quickly while the other maniac is out! So we have a lot of players who will make one final table a year and never be seen again they either double up or go broke! This is a game plan I know how to play against however when the blinds are big as they normally are (finishing a 80 man tournament in 4 1/2 hours is always difficult) my game plan fails which is waiting for the big hands hence why I keep making final table with a few amount of chips. Its not that I’m not aggressive enough but people just keep moving with KJ and 66 and when I see hands like 73 and K7 there is not much I can do!!

When I 1st came to poker soc I was eager to learn and on each table there was a table captain who runs the game and talks about the game, the other players would show respect to them and listen but these days I’m one of the table captains or someone on the exec is there is always a new face on the table who knows it all and disagrees with the table captains and ruling have to be called, I’m not saying this about everyone but some people do not know how to listen and take advice. Some guy had an argument with me about odds of pocket pair vs pockets pair vs AA, someone argued about losing chips, someone argued about acting out of turn. I do not know what it is but everyone thinks their a pro!!!!!

Ok enough bitching!!!! I actually need these players to be soooooo bad at poker it makes it easy money I guess. I have played 6 comps at poker soc now making 3 final tables and twice final two and once final 4 all with AA vs KK in a huge pot!!!! Poker in my eyes is dying out!!! Why ???? Who knows! There are trips once and a while to other societies but they all seem to fade away. I think people want to play on the internet more these days or feel they are too good for the society but we have some awesome players at poker soc and if you attend and listen and try to learn you will definitely improve!!

I have recently put up a challenge which I hope a few people will sign up to, a £25 prop bet of who can make the most final tables this year at poker soc!!! I think around 5 people will join the pool which will give the winner a nice £125!!!

So wish me good luck at the £200 freeze at Walsall Casino and if you want some rake back on rivercard click the link above or at the side of the page or drop me an email!!!!!

Another Final Table at Star City!!

2006-10-19T19:11:00.000+01:00

Tuesday night! My brand new car gets hit!!! What a joke, it is only 25 hours old! What are the odds!! This just emphassisisisisisi how unlucky i am!!! OK despite the crash i still decide to go Star City with Guv, I like playing poker live when i'm pissed off because i forget about everything and just see the people the chips and the cards. However this is not the case for online poker!!!

We arrive a bit late and Jambon (STA member check links on the side) buys us in. It was a £10 rebuy with no instant top up, so it was actually a £10 rebuy unlike the £10 rebuys i played over the summer so this was quite a small stake rebuy for me, which was good, meant i could play a little looser and there was still a nice £1200 top prize to play for. For some reason there is a stupid £1500 guarantee on the tounry! With 94 runner its going to be hard not to meet the guarantee but something unusual about Star City's poker tournaments which not many people know about is that it is rake FREE! Every other place either charges 10% entry fee or take 10% out of the prize pool to make money! There is nothing wrong with that after all people who run poker tournaments need to make money themselves otherwise they would not hold them and i would have no where to go when someone smacks into the back of my car!! Also they have a free buffet during the break of every comp, so im starting to like this place a little bit more, the only draw back is that it starts at 930pm! Bit latE!!

Rebuy Period i play quite rocky until my AAs gets cracked by two people. I limped with AAs someone raised and i re raised, GUV and someone else called, flop T T 3 2hearts and we all go in, Guv with nut flush draw and other guy had me drawing to one out with KT in the hole! Oh well REBUY!!!! Again im not going to talk to much about the rebuy period as its not real poker and i see no point in analysis this part of a poker tournament. Although i will mention this hand! I saw there was 20 minutes to end of rebuy and i had 1200 chips, 1000 starting and i was only in for £40 i thought hmmmmmm If this was a £20 rebuy £40 is the minimum! SO lets gamble, next hand i raise to 600 blind! (yes thats right! Tight conservative Dhruv is doing something funny!) i get two callers including Guv who by the way has a 30% share in me again! He has made £470 off me in 2 weeks via deals so far! Flop is 3 random cards. Guv checks and i go all in with my last 600 (still BLind!) Other guy folds and Guv says is my Ace high good, i said i do not know! which is the truth (bit if Jamie Gold there) I then said no matter what happens you will see my hand! which is true again because i wanted to see my cards!! He eventually calls with A5 high!!!! I tell him good call i have not looked! I then say as i look at my cards i have one 7! i have two 7s! ( i sound like an espen commentator!) I have pocket 7s and they hold for a nice pot! I end the rebuy with about 7.2k after the top up which is very health stack and in for £50 which is nice as 10th place was £70, i hate spending more than the 1st place payout, it does not make sense to me otherwise, so if i come 10th i actuall break even after giving Guv his 30% but hopefully he might place!

Now its down to small pot poker with me, like i have mentioned before the players are not good, they do not like to fold so when i bluff i make small bets if they have a piece i get away cheap and if they do not they fold, for example if the pot is 1600 and the blinds 200/400 a 7oo to 800 bet will easily take the pot away. i think if you bluff you want to bet the minimum amout which is large enough to take the pot away, this way if they are trapping or fishing it will cost you very little and as the pot stays small you can bluff the river for cheap if you feel they have missed a draw and if you are wrong its still cheap. Playing this style i took a lot of uncontested pots in the next 3 levels after the break, which is the only time to play poker, after that its all in or fold!

I get moved table which is annoying as i had such a good read of players but just before i move Guv gets all his chips bar 500 (blinds 200/400), MP limps, Guv on the short stack thinks for a while and calls, im in the SB i call with A9 and the BB raises, btw he has not played a hand for 4 orbits so that is about 36 hands! MP folds, and Guv starts to think i immediate put Guv on 88s, Guv is short and i think its worth a 50/50 here with some dead money in the pot and a chance to double up, he pushes allin, i fold and the BB cant get his chips in quick enough, i say '88s' Guv flips 88s and the other guys shows AAs! Not luck for Guv and he down to basically a chip and a chair! But hey still in!!!

New table and there is Mr Loud mouth! Also talking trash but he is such a rock! Its a good tactic as people feel he is in a lot of pots but he is not, he justs talks so much that people feel he is in every pot. Jambon was on this table as well, he looked very frustrated but he had like 10xBB which i feel is plently but its not his style, he likes to get a stack or go busto! He has an awesome tournament record but i do not like the stlye of play in this kind of tournament but then again he has won $25,000 in two tournaments online! A few hands in i'm the only BB and Jambon moves in UTG and i think for a while with 66s, i was hovering the 7-8k mark since the break and knew it was a 50/50 and decided to go for it.But was about half my stack, he flips AT and i win a race but unfortunately knock Jambon out!

Not much happens til final 2 tables, oh Guv went out before Jambon, and Guv saw my stack and thought he getting another pay day off me! I'm average stack with two tables to go which means all in or fold poker. I pick up a few uncontested pots moving in with AJ AT KQ and Q2 (late position) to stay alive, sometimes i feel i need a caller just so i could double up but you never want a caller unless you got AAs or KKs!! Especially at this stage. UTG moves in and Mr loudmouth on no chips calls and i move in with QQs. Up against 88 and KT, I did not mind a K coming because the side pot was bigger, im about a 55% favourite to take the whole pot, the flop comes 3 diamonds and i'm the only one with a diamond! it looks good aa a 88% favourite until the black K comes on the turn, i still have a 25% shot but i miss, mr loud mouth stays in but the other guy is out i end up, up in the pot but would like to have knocked the other guy out! A few hands later mr loud mouth moves in on the button in my SB, i have him covered by 2 to 1 and i see KdTd, i know this is the best hand! He moves in on the button with any two, his 83 last time took out AJ but given i have the best hand do i still call and gamble! i decide to and he flips over J2!! He hits a J and i double him up again!

We get to final and just before i pushed with JK for someone to call with 77s, i get lucky and hit a J and double up. On final i have 20k in chips with 33k being average. I told Guv if i can double up early i can win this! In MP a young kid moves in and i see AQ after a quick thought of the hands he has raised with pre flop i feel AQ is good, he calls as only a little bit more and he flips over AQ!! CHopp CHOP!
I then fold most my hands and just move in blind from the SB the BB literally looks at his cards when given and shakes his head implying he has flith and he cannot beileve he has been dealt bad cards again! This is not a joke he would shake his heads and say to himself i cannot beleive it! So he was asking me to move in like that! About 8 handed i pick up QQs and A7 raises up and i go in on top and he calls, he had to, as he commited himself, my QQs hold and now i feel i can win this. Sb vs BB i raise with 99s and he shoves i call, he flips AT and i win another coin flip! It was quite funny on the flop, it came 9! A! A! and he cheered thinking he had won!!!

We get down to 5 handed and i'm just below average. This is when i like to open up my game, i do not like getting involved in final tables at the start. Mr loud mouth is somehow still in he tripled up with J6 vs 95 vs J9 when a 6 hit and he could not miss all night but to be fair he never called off his chips he was always pushing. Due to his table talk he got this guy on tilt and the guy pushed with J7 and i looked down and saw KKs! ( i know in this report it sounds like im a card rack with the hands i got but it was over the space of 8 hours! ) My KKs hold and we are down to four, i feel the payout is very to heavy and even though i was the chips leader with 90k vs 70k vs 75k vs 65k i asked for a change in payout, we agreed to take £500 each and £160 extra for 2nd and £300 for 1st, giving £60 to waitress.

I end up getting it all in with 44s vs AJ, board came K 7 3 K and the river was a 7!!! Hate losing like that! The guy actually got up and i said mate you win! He jumps up and down and i'm down to 2xBB, more than i need! lol! I then triple up buit then move in blind UTG to only have the BB call with AK!! My T3 was no good and i got out with £500 of which Guv got £150!!! You owe me some Nandos!!!!!

Played a few online tournaments and no success!!! Getting in good spots but always doing something silly and again i cannt seem to win on cash! need to find some more online tournaments!!! Definately looking to play some £100/£200 freeze outs soon!!

Poker back at Warwick Uni

2006-10-15T18:36:00.000+01:00

Ok! As i have not posted recently you can clear guess that i have not been playing much poker which is true! I am definately happy about that, as i want to cut down as it is the last year for me at uni, not that i want to work more but want enjoy the uni life style as i only have one more year left. Also my car broke down again!!!! I had to take the bus today!!! (poor me!!) oh well but also went to some car dealership in birmingham to buy a new car!!! Getting a Black Ford Mondeo Diesel! Looks sweet!! But to be honest i just want a reliable car that does not break down!!! (my old car broke down like 4 times on the motowayy at like 3am!!!)
Ok back to poker!!!!

Star City

Went last to Star City last sunday to play the £20 rebuy. Me and my house mate Guv went with a 70/30 deal in each other, i was running well with good cases in online tournaments and also have a very good history at Star City, i have never played a cash game there purely due to the fact i always get deep into the tournament, when you hear me playing a tournament then playing cash after that means i did badly in the comp, and i didnt get my poker fix for the nite. So i was feel good going into the comp. The tournament director remembered me from last time i went which was about 4 months ago, ask where have i been?

The £20 rebuy had about 70 runners and we started off 12 handed!!! Ok with so many players on the table i felt in the 1st level just play very big hands! I picked me AAs early on and doubled through after someone check raised me all in on a flop with top pair. I then could play a few more interesting hands with my bigger stack and also a few ppl droped out, so we were down to 10/9 handed within 35 mintues. The clock was 45 minutes for the 2 rebuy levels then 20 minutes there after. By playing this 'interesting' cards such as 52, 57, 79, 8T, QJ to raises my stack quickly disappeared. I then took a rebuy and picked my AT raised and got re raised i moved in and AT was clearly no good against AQ but i did pick up a tell on the young guy. Apart of me called to get lucky, another part to see his hand for future reasons and another part just felt AT might be good! I then rebuy and get my stack up quickly, cant rememeber the hands to be honest but i remember taking a nice pot with 52, on a 345 board, two people moved in infront of me and i raised all in. Was up against 69 and Q6! I had the best hand!!!! My hand held up aswel!

Guv then moves over to my table near the end of the rebuy period. So about 10 runners had dropped out. You start with 1k in chips and i got my stack up to 9k and spent £80 included the top up. Guv had a reasonable stack as well. Things were looking good, another reason why i was feeling confident was the fact the players are RUBBISH!!Im talking really really bad! They have no idea how to play the game, so many people over valuing hands, no betting when checked to them three times in position, betting into empty side pots, just really bad poker!I felt that the £1600 1st plzce was in my pocket well atleast 70% of that!!!! (Damm you Guv!)

After the rebuy period there is a break with a free buffet which was really nice, chips, sandwichs, pasta, and some sort of meat curry which i'm clearly not interested in. also free coke and orange juice, i wasnt too hungry but ate a bit to get some of the £60 i wasted on roulette back! Also apparenlty been on a full stomach can really mess your game up!!! Well thats what doyle says! He claims he has been out in more tournaments straight after eating then at any other time! But to be fair he is a big guy so he must eat a lot!!! Oh No! Have i just insulted the grand father of poker on my blog!! Hmmmmmm! I didnt mean it doyle!! But i did hear he used to be a lot bigger, apparently he won a $1million bet to see if he could lose 1oolbs in a year! which he did successfully!!! Nice!!!

Ok back on the poker!! Star City in birmingham have a nice poker room but they have alot of inexperienced poker players and some people who just seems dumb to me, so they have placed this rule to aviod string betting, if you want to RAISE you must say the word RAISE! It does not matter if you stick all your chips in , it still goes as a call unless you say raise! Which is fair enough and everyone knows that there but i do not like it. But i always say if it is consistent i do not mind!

The reason i mentioned this was because Guv tried to raise in MP and he moved 3/4 chips in but it went as a call. I was in the SB with A4 and called and the BB checks. Flop came J 2 9, i check, BB checks and Guv bets outs, i fold and the BB calls, turn is a 2! The BB fires out!!! (not good news! These ppl cannot play poker, they just play there cards, i hope Guv can beat 222 or is able to throw his hand away, i was hoping he didnt have KK AA QQ or AJ) Guv thinks for a while and moves all his chips in! BUT WAIT he didnt say RAISE!!! It goes as a call, i get worried thinking Guv has not worked out that this guy has a 2! River is a blank and the guy goes all in and Guv calls instantly by now, quite pot commited, guy flips over 72! (as expected) and Guv gets up and leaves showing KJ!!! Guv was does hellmuth say!! Never get your money in with KJ!!! Just kidding that is unlucky i suppose he did call a bet on the flop with bottom pair! But to me these kind of players love their pairs!!! Another thing i reminded Guv of at the end of the night! Never go BROKE in an unraised pot!!!!

So just me left in comp and my stack built up a bit, got quite chatty to this guy and he gave me the impression he was a super rock so i took his BB on more than one ocassion. I tried to took tangle with the chip stacks and tried to pick off the small stacks as there were alot of them. I do not play a hand for 3 orbits and there was a raise pre flop every hand. I was dying! i could even find spots to take the blinds down which was annoying but i was still on about 15xBB but the next few level jumps were going to be huge. I then pick up AAs!!! I needed to get paid off this hand so i limped UTG, hoping to get a raiser and shove, the players are soooo bad they would put me on pockets 55s rather AAs for sure. So i limp and so does 3 others and the SB and BB check! Shit!!! Thats not good! I say to myself get ready to fold AAs. Flop is 9 5 4 rainbow. Sb fires out and BB fold i smooth call. reason for this is because i do not want to lose my chips in this hand, against 5 other players it is difficult for AAs to hold. Also very difficult to know where you stand in a shooty tournament without committing your stack. I called thinking if someone else calls behind or raise i will dump the hand. Lucky no one else calls. So i'm heads up with someone who bet the flop, which means he is unlikely to have a big hand. I decide if no 9 on the turn i move in. The turn was a 6 and he bets and i move in, he calls instantly and i say, ' i think you got me, i got one pair' He says one pair to! Big smile on my face but he has 97, up and down str8 draw with a pair so he has alot of outs!! Any of the 2 9s, 3 7s, 4 8s, and 4 3s so 13 outs! he is about 28% to cripple my stack, the river is a sweet 4 and i knock him out and pretty much double my stack to double the average stack with 3 tables left!!!

Final two tables takes ages!!! Didnt play too many hands, made a bad call with A4 against AQ when i raised and he re raised all in, i was not quite getting the odds but i felt he may have KQ but when he flipped AQ i was not surprised! Also i witnessed some really bad poker where people moved all in for like 24xBB and only to be called by KK and QQs but the Ace always managed to fall. Also people did not understand odds and not even close odds i'm talking about someone getting 14 to 1 on their money to knock someone out and they fold!!! It sooooo bad!!!!

I get to final but the bubble tooooook so long that the clock had worn out so much that average stack on final was 5xBB. I picked up AQ and pushed and got called by KKs, i was out in 7th place and took £127 gave Guv 30% which left me with £10 up!! Very annoyed by the end of the night, so many bad players helped keep more bad players in the comp. For example on final this guy limped into every pot, and when the BB had 2 BB left and pushed on the flop for one BB the limper folded unless he had a pair!! It was so annoying to watch! The tournament ended about 30 minutes after i went out and i felt like one extra hand to hold up or one lucky hand would have got me into top 2 or 3, oh well there is always another tournament!

Poker Soc

In week two but the 1st official week poker soc got 184 runners for the £5 free buy in double chance. Thats a lot of runners! Made final table last week but there was only 42 runners but i was still confident, i walked in late as i had a lecture just before and it felt like walking into the WSOP, so many new faces and so many FISH!! I mean seriously there were people who could not hold they cards right, and people whose body language suggested they have never seen a pack of cards before. As soon as a walked in someone asked me for ruling!! Was madness, one guy was actually wearing massive sun glasses!! On a nice note relating to the WSOP poker we had one of ou former student make appearance a player who came 54th in this years WSOP cashing in the region of $165,000!! A Mr Scott O'Reily (hope i spelt that right!)

I ended up making final 3 tables where i got all my chips in pre flop with AAs (nothing less) against KKs and with a K on the flop i needed an Ace but no such luck! I bust out in a massive pot!!! If i win that pot i definatley make final and maybe defeat the 184 runners! which is very impressive even though there were some awful players is still a good acheievment! Oh well not for me though!

The guy who actually won it got given an extra life! What i mean is that with 2 tables to go (all in the money) Mr Winner moves in and is called by the SB and the BB (a very experienced player) a Mr Lu decides to push all in with A3 to get the SB to fold and let him take a shot at a bigger pot against one oppenent!!! Ok is this the right play?? At this stage of the tournament i do not like it! You want to knock people out and A3 is not good enough to come over the top with, i just do not see the value in you gained better 'odds' at the pot than knocking someone out of the competetion, the SB folds 22 and would have rivered a set and knocked out the eventual winner, so Dave Why would you do this???? Im not saying this with hindsight i actually mentioned it while it happened, i was shocked, i have seen him do this on more than one occasion and he did it later in the tournament again! Dave POST HERE ! I want you to put your arguement across (he is an awesome player, thats why i care, but he does win donkey of the day AGAIN!!)! I just really do not like the play, you need to knock players out!!!

All these tournaments have really messed on my $1/$2 game on rivercard! I'm moving along in the action points up to 555,000 + but slow down so much because of uni! I should still make the million mark and get a $1000 entry into a WSOP event! Running bad on cash dropped about £500 ish this month!!! Made more iin tournaments but i like to focus on cash as its something that you can win at every day, in tournaments certain things need to go you way! I cant remember too many hands, like i said i do not like to describe internet poker! But i kept losing alot with top twp pairs!!!!

Long time!!!! Gutshot Cash / Tournaments online

2006-10-06T18:15:00.000+01:00

I guess the novelty of the poker blog has wore off me! I have not been posting too much since i got back to uni, mainly because i have just been playing less poker and when i do play im having like 20 min sessions on the internet, and to be honest writting about those interent sessions are just really boring to me!!! i also tend to be watching prison break or smallville while i play so not really focusing that much!

Ok last time i posted i left you hanging at the edge of your seat after i played a cash game at gutshot! Ok well the wait is no more!!! Ok so i sat with about £240ish. The table did not look too impressive, a few regular faces that have certain repuations of rockyness and fishness but i decided that since i had not been there for a while i will wait to see how they play before making any reads based on past experiences, which is what i normally do

1st hand i played i almost went on SUPER SUPER Tilt!! Im in the BB with 5s2s the gutshot powerhouse!!!! (its like their hand!) It had been straddled to £5, im in for £2. It folds round to the button who calls and the Sb folds. I call the £5 and the straddle raises to £16 more and the button calls say i decide to call. Flop comes 9 4 4, not what i am looking for and it checks round. The turn is a 6, which gives me a gutshot str8 draw. I check straddled checks and the button moves in for a massive £5 into a £60 ish pot, i decide he has nothing, he has had it checked to him twice and maybe he is on a draw. i decide to raise and maybe get the straddle off a small pair or off his AK higher, or atleast juice up the pot if i hit my straight. Soooo i raise £25 on top, the straddle folds, i also wanted to get a poor table image, i was playing to seat there for a while and was willing to lose some cash for repuation purpose, basically a short term EV play for a long run EV play. Straddler folds and the last card is a blank, i say you win, he shows pocket 88s and takes the pot down. Now you must be thinking why would i go on tilt! Well mr i know everything about poker tells me i want to see your cards! he was not in the hand but wanted to see my hand which i think is very rude. He then later excuses me of collusion, which really really pissed me off. Anyone who knows me knows that i would not even think of cheating and he just got me on tilt. i then turned my ipod on full blast and shut everyone out the game! i just kept thinking they want you on tilt chill out and focus on taking their money! I have been told by more experience players not to get into personal issues with people in the game, whether its the players, TD or the dealer!

I focused and picked up a few drawing hands like AQ and AJ and a few 108, not too much connecting though, about 30 minutes in i picked up AQ and someone raised in the cut off, i was in the SB. i flat call as well as a few others the pot was around £50. Flop was very nice Ace high and quite a dry flop (no str8 draws and flush draws). i check and someone fires out £50 to the raiser, this in my mind is a strange play, why fire out on an Ace high flop to the pre flop raiser. If they have an Ace which you can beat they will i would check raise and even if they do not have an Ace they will represent it most of the time and you can check raise then. But he seemed like a weak player, i had not seen him play many hands but his body language suggests he had not played alot. The raisers then thinks for ages and eventually mucks, while she was thinking i decided if she folds i will re raises him all in for £110 more but if she was to call or raise i would muck, i had only invested £10 and didnt need to commit my stack against someone who could easily have AK, AA or KK. Also by making my decision before she acted i could act quickly, she folded and i moved in instantly! It looks like i had made my hand and my decison when the flop came (which was not the case, i can easily fold AQ here!) The guy thinks for ages and mucks saying i have 2 pair or better. I then say i will show if you show, he mucks quicker! He had nothing! i'm sure of that, pre flop raiser had TTs which was fair enough.

I was now on about £300ish and it was going nicely, i picked up a few hands and kept taking pots of around £50, i took a nice pot with TT on a board of 5s4c5c, it checked round to me on the button and i checked, i felt my hand was winning but wanted to see one more card and also keep the pot small if i have to pay off someone with a 5 in their hand, the turn is a sweet Ts!!!! Someone fires out and i smooth call and someone else calls, i'm hoping a spade/club peal off if someone flushing and now hoping someone has the four, again i pre determined my str8, i said if a black card is on the turn i will raise/re raise POT, a black J comes on the river! Someone fires out £25 and i raises it up to something like £120, a big bet!! One quickly folds and the beter folds slowly, hmmmmm maybe could have value better but atleast no one saw my hands, been playing for a while and still have shown no hands!!!

Mr i know anything about poker did not get in my pots and i never got in his, not because of the hidden tension but more because we did not have hands that clashed but i really wanted a pot of him. im in the BB with Q4 and 3 others in the pot flop and turn is 2 3 T 5 and the river is a sweet A, Mr Poker checks i bet out £15 and get a caller reclutantly from someone, Mr Poker then raises to £40 and i quickly look at the board and smooth called with 2nd nuts as the other guy mucks, i quickly shows the hand and he mucks! OK i could have been such a dick and said show me your hand! But i was happy, i was steaming about the accusation but i clearly came over it and with a stack fo £400 i was not complaninng.

I really could not lose big pots the way i was playing, i was always getting away cheap and fold draws if too expensive. I made a str8 on the river on a paired board and just flat called a guy with a house. The game was quite soft it was quite obvious when they had it or not just based on betting patterns.

I then get in a big hand, i'm on about £450 and a new big guy comes and sits down, he looks like one of those guys who goes POT POT POT!! On every street, the other players were soft enough for me to make cash off them so i did not need to tangle. I then pick up 7s8s and limp £2, Mr Pot raises up to £10 and he gets 3 callers i call! Flop Qs 8d 5s !!!! Bingo Bango Bongo!!! Or is it???? i start getting pariod and start thinking i could be getting alot of chips in here that i do not need to, i was winning these £50 pots with almost no showdowns did i need to get involved in this massive draw?? Then i thought is this why i do not make big wins on cash? These or crucial hands which tend to be 50/50 if cards were shown but in a tournament i never try and get my money in on a 50/50 why do it here, when i know there is an easier way to make money??? Anyway i check and he bets pot £35 and someone else calls and i call but i was thinking of folding, i got worried thinking does one guy have As3s and Mr Pot have KKs or even QQs, who knows!!! I said to myself you can afford to call and you have a massive draw but another thing holding me back was that i knew i only had one shot at this pot, if i miss on the turn another pot bet would be £140 and i would not call that. So i call with my one shot! I get immediate services with the 6s! which also gives me an up and down str8 flush draw!! (incase i was up against AsKs i got outs!!!) So i check and the guy bets pot, other guy thinks for a while and folds AQ, i then moved in!!!! Against one oppennet there is only one hand i put him on that he could bet pot with pre and on flop and on turn and be winning with and that was AsKs, he didnot call instantly so i felt safe!!! I was now 100% ahead in this hand but he had not folded, now i wanted the call, pot was about £650 and would be £950 if he calls, he eventually folds!!! I was happy either way!!!!!

I end up on about £650ish and a nice profit to take home!!! One thing that stood out was i never raised once pre flop, the biggests hands in picked up was AQ AK and TTs and each time someone else raised the pot before me, so i was happy to smooth call. i'm kind of glad i didnt pick up AAs or KKs though, i was playing great flop poker and its easy to getting blinded by the strethgen of your starting hand.

Online Tournaments

Moved into my new house and not played alot of poker played 4 online comps on rivercard and i'm doing quite well at the moment maybe not making alot but getting results, oh placed at poker soc £10 freeze out ended up comming 6th which paid out £20, got one beat which was sooooo sick but just because the way it happened, guy limps, i see KKs (2 tables left) and raise it up he then moves in and i call instantly. He shows AT and my KKs in good shape FLOP T 4 4, (not a gd start but still a good favourite against his 5 outs,) turn is a 4, i got a house and i feel good, river another 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So sick!!! I have quads with a K high he has it with a A high!! YUK!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway played a $10 speed (blinds up every 3 mins) and came 3rd out of 173 runners won about $200 there, then played the 15k gtd a $27 rebuy with a good structure and a 15 min clock, did a deal with my house mate for 30% and i had 30% in him, he gets in the money for $174 and i come 6th for $609 so i paid him some money but was a nice win another on final my KKs lose to JJs when 7 handed and it was a HUUUUUGEEEEEE pot!!!!

Played the $27 speed 5 gtd just now on River card was in for like $140 bucks! which meant i would need to make final to make profit and Guv had 30% in me again and visa versa, with 3 tables left (top 18 pay) me and Guv 1st and 2nd in chips and we were both looking for that $2,681 top prize and 2nd $1,700, but as its a speed tournament no one has more than 20 BB and guv lose his stack quick time! I make final and took the blinds and doubled up in crucial moment, My AK/Q always held up against the Axrags and i won a huge pot with AQ vs 44s!!!! I actually WON tournament!!! Igot $2,681!!!!! which was so sweet but Guv was loving it as i owe him £425 !!! he was jumping up and down!!! Only becuase every time we do not do a deal he cashes and when ever we do, i win!!!! So annoying!!! he is such a luck box!!! But hey £1000 aint tooooo bad!!!!!

Hendon Mob

Just a quick note on this, i randomly got an email from the hendon mob saying that they added my blog on their site, which was quite flatteren to be honest!!!! i m not too sure why but hey i do not mind at all!!! A little bit of fame i guess!!! I guess my blog must be kind of interesting then????!!!! Well i hope it is!!!!!
Here is the link below
http://www.thehendonmob.com/links/poker_blogs.html

Thanks all folks!!!

The Week in a Flash

2006-10-01T13:48:00.000+01:00

Just got back to uni and been out abit especially to birmingham and a few spins at a casio which did not go wel!!! (why do i keep playing!!!)
Ok i'm about to go play some basket ball so going to keep this brief.

Tuesday

Went to gutshot to play the £5 rebuy for fun!!! I have not played at Gutshot since the GSOP and thought it would be fun to play the £5 rebuy which i had not played since Decemeber when i actually won it!!!! But got very lucky! With only 500 in chips as starting stack and alot of runners the clock does not help! Therefore you need to get lucky or get alot of chips in the beginning. I was actually the dealer on my table which meant i got a free entry!!! (did not do it for that reason just did it so i would not get some idiot dealing and slowing down the game)

My aim was just to go crazy!!!! Moving in blind etc!!! Hey i'm used to a £20 rebuy, £5 should be fun!!! I tried to play mental but the table was soooooooooooo tight!!!! When ever i got called they had KK or AA!!!! Which is annoying i want them to have AQ and AK!!!! So instead of pushing i would raise like half my stack pre and stick it in on any flop! Someone called me with Q high once ! it was good! :( !!!!

Last 10 hands or so i got a big stack but then found my 1st legit hand AJ!!! I raised and people moved in! I called! Massive hand!!!! They had KK and AQ !!! hmmmmmm couldnt get out of that one but it was a huge!!! Pot, so a bit well a lot of luck there would have really helped!!!!!

Then i get 99 in the last hand i move in and get called by J8, Flop 9 8 3 and i think i cannot lose this, then i see Tom near the table shouting for the cards to hit my face! and they do! it comes 7 T for him to scoop!!! Ouch!!! How big a fav im i on the flop!!!

i went out shortly after the rebuy period as i had no chips!!! Someone told me ' you doing your xxxxx in the £5 rebuy!!!!' I said NO!!! £35 is a good night for me!!!!!

The main reason i went to gutshot though was to give the big game (£1/£2) a go. i sat with £250.............. but i gotta go so will post later what happened!!! ohhhhhhhh i bet you on the edge of your seat now!!!!

Another Win at Big Slick!!!

2006-09-22T16:20:00.000+01:00

£20 buyin with £10 rebuys yday, which means a £20 rebuy for me. I came a little bit late as usual and had an interesting table, which got more interesting as it filled up. Big Slick runs a monthly leader board, which I’m currently 3rd in. It is basically a four horse race with the winner getting a free £330 seat into the big main event in October. All 4 of us just happened to be on the same table.

The Rebuy period was crazy as ever with a few blind all in! I get AQ and double up early on but eventually lose it all by calling away up chips with small suited connectors. Got involved in a 4 way all in with 67 on a flop of 7 5 4 up against 85, JJ and 55s, I had outs but they all missed but a J hit on the river giving a newbie a lot of chips!! The pot was about 14/15k, which is plenty for after the break. A few more rushing allin and I benefit with a 53 calling two allins, I hit and got a nice stack. After the break plus the double add on was on about 8k and in for £60

In the freeze out stage I picked up JJ 2nd hand in a raised and took the pot down, then picked up AhKh and made the same raise the next hand and the BB called, I needed a caller here, blinds at 200/400 are high at the stage but I need to win big pots to get a stack. Flop is very nice; it comes 2h 5h and 4c. I have the nut flush draw and a gutshot str8 with over cards, he checks and I bet out 1400, he calls, he has around 4/5k left, the turn is a blank and he checks and I move all in, I feel he has hit a small pair and is winning. I am no longer favourite if this is the case and I need to push him off the hand and if I get called I got outs, if I lose I still have 4/5k left. He folds, later I find out he was flushing too! Dam!! Needed that heart to fall but then again he may push on the river if he misses and I would have to fold A high. I then pick up 22 and decide not to raise 3 hands in a row, on my immediate left someone makes the standard raise and its folded round to me, he had around 4k and I have almost 15k, I decide to stop n go, if no Ace hits the flop I’ll stick it in. Flop is 9 high and I go all in, he calls instantly and I think he mite have JJs but he does not just AQ, a miss on the turn and river gives me some more chips.

Me and this lady were both chip leaders on the table and things were going well for me, I pick my another nice hand with AK and raise, she calls in the BB, she was playing quite tight but I think overvalued certain Aces and PP. Flop came AK4, sweet!!! She bets out though! She was clearly new to the game and I feel she has hit her Ace, but she has a big stack and do not want get too much involved so I make a raise to 2k after she bet out 500, she quickly called. Turn is a 8 and she goes allin for about 9k! HUH!!! She cannot have a set can she? That would be sooooo sick! I eventually call and she flips over AT and is drawing dead I get up to 32k in chips!!! That actually enough chips for final table but there were still three tables left! So was in good shape, I never get a big stack but I like to think I play it well, so here was on chance!

There was a situation where someone was allin and there were 4 of us checking him down, by the river I had a pair of As, someone else had a pairs of As with a Q kicker and someone had AT for two pair. I mentioned to AT it may have been worth betting out the river to get one of us to call, I would have folded but i’m sure AQ would have called if it was a small bet. The advise was not taken well and a debate over empty side pots kicked out, I just felt he lose maybe a 1k bet here but I will right about that another day.

Get moved tables as the table break and I come across 2 new guys, who I had never played with before, the rest I knew quite well. We got down to about 7 on the last two tables when the SB raises my BB I see A5 and was thinking of shoving, he did not have lot of chips and I felt he might be making a move but I decide to call and see a flop, as I never seen him before. Flop is a big miss for me and he shoves, I then say you were pushing on any flop right, he said nothing but that was the vibe I was getting therefore my A high if good pre flop is probably good 2/3 time here as he misses the flop. But then again I had not played with him and I had only lost a few chips to his raise. I fold and he shows 9 high! Doh!!!!

We then get 7 handed on each table, and everyone rocks up as they can smell the final table. I was chip leader but one other new guy was close to me, so I politely asked him how many chips he had, he said ‘no’, hmmm ok I thought he was joking and said seriously how many do you have?, he refused saying count them yourself, me being at the other end of the table, it was not possible, I thought he was being a complete idiot about it, its is fair question and he really annoyed, he then made the dealer count it out, which I felt is just rude as the dealer is a mate of mine and I do not want to waste time giving him extra work. I said to myself I’m raising his BB next!! I know its very immature and stupid but he did really annoy me, especially as he claims to have played an EPT (which turned out to be a £300 freeze and not the main event) and he had just gone to the WSOP and was very proud about it. That actually made it more annoying about his table behaviour, that he had played a lot and still was acting like a muppet. He then tries to be cheeky and I asked me for a chip count at, which I immediately reply 29 thousands with out any hesitation, of course I did not have that many chips but I was roughly right. But I did say to myself I’m going to bust him out.

He limps UTG 6 handed I find KKs and say here we go! I’ll get him here, I’m in the SB and I raise it up but he folds, what was he limping with 6 handed. Really do not like that play limp UTG then fold to a standard raise. My stack was ok on about 40k just trying to take the blinds down once a round and get to final. Won a nice pot with J8, in the SB I call and the BB checks, Flop is 3 7 5 and we both check, turn is a Q and I check, he bets and I call planning to take this away on the river. River is a T and I fire out, he thinks for while and thankfully folds.

Made it to final about 4th in chips, which I was happy with, normally I’m at final with 4 BB but had few more than that today.

Final table started off dangerously as we had a MP raise, an all in and another all in. Folded round to the MP raisers who fold AJ and KQ vs KK was the 1st hand on final, KKs hold up but we still have 9 players. We get down to 7 people and I have not really played a hand, took the blinds with J8 and K9 and lost a small pot with AK.

7 left and someone raises in EP I see KKs in the BB and move all in, he calls with JJs and my KKs hold!. Few more go out and we were 5 handed for a while.

A normally sensible good player then goes a bit crazy and string bets an all in with KQ, he is forced to call and I see a flop and turn hitting a pair with my A4. I bet and he folds, so I mite have knocked him out if he didn’t string bet, but not 100% sure I would have called. He then later goes all in out of turn on a bluff, which had to stand and someone calls and he hit runner runner str8!!! He is not normally like this, I think it was the maowi sweet!! I was now getting short and was in allin mode, moved in with QJ on the button and the BB mucks AT, phew!!

I then push in the SB with A6 and get called by Q2 (short stacked) and lose that flip, it was taking a while to lose a player, eventually there were a few BB SB battle and situations where the BB had to call the raises all in. Mr I will not count chips, makes some very bad tournament plays as he kept folded when some with 2xBB moved all in on his BB. He then says to me, you call him! I say I have zero invest and no odds. He clear had more talk in his mouth than his poker game. He called the 1st two times and lose flips and then refused to do it after that, he kept two people in the game because he was not willing to gamble with 2 live cards when getting more than generous odds, so he annoyed me even more by bad poker comments. He then choose this time to mention he was chip leader for 3 hours at this years WSOP! Hmmmmmm
We get 4 handed and SB vs BB, the SB moves in on my BB I look and see 99s and call he has 44s and I win!

I then offer a deal, not a chop but a change in prize pool, stacks were 20k, 70k, 110k and prize were roughly £200-£395-£740 blinds were also very high but the chip leader said no, which is fair enough, but we all know what the curse is!!! He will go out next! Next hand he doubles up the short stack and then loses a big flip and he is out! We actually did a deal just before he went out and took £40 off the top to give to 3rd. Do not reject the deal people!!!

Get heads up with the guy I so badly wanted to take out but I only had 40k and he had 150k in chips! But I love Heads up poker! I was more than willing to take him on! I was short so was in allin or fold mode, this happened for 5 hands and then he makes a huge mistake!!! He says lets play some poker and flops, too much all in all in!! He clearly underestimated me!! If we play flops (my kind of game) I got this, he was the big stack and should be putting pressure on me every hand but he failed to do so. I was very happy when he said to play flops because I was more than confident to out play him. The very next hand I double up!! I hit the str8 while he had two pair, but if me or him moved in or fold pre flop he loses next to nothing. I got up to 140k and he now had 50k. He moves in next hand, I say to myself calling with any Ace and high K, I see Qd8d and think this is worth a gamble, if I lose I still have enough chips to come back and I call! He shows 45 and my Q8 is good for 1st place and 2nd on the big slick leader board but more importantly another win!!!! (oh and £700!!)

Gary's Home Game and £30 Second Chance

2006-09-21T03:04:00.000+01:00

Monday

Gary invited me to his home game on Monday what was meant to be a £20 rebuy but changed into a £10 rebuy. Then he texted me later saying bring a jumper! I was slightly confused but as i asked for directions to his new (very nice) house he said we are playing outside!! Which reminded me of the Artic Freezeout where people played in the north pole and could buy chips with cloths, was an Inter Poker tournament with the WSOP 2002 winner R. Varkoni.

I arrived with Zenal and we had 10 players but one was under age!!! Gary little son was playing, Jay, which was nice. Atleast one new face the rest were the usual from the home game i used to play regularly last summer. I'm like the kid where there is a few 28+ and a few 34+ and one 45+ so alot of experience in there. But it a nice friendly game but for once i was not the youngest. There is a big divide among the players at this game. 3 never fold, 3 always fold and 3 mix it up! So its all about playing the player. ]I set the chips (as usual!) and we were ready to go!

The Rebuy period was slow to start off with but got more interesting at the end. folded most of my hands until the 3rd level. (20 min clock, rebuys for the 1st hour, 1k starting stack, with double addons at the end for £20) I got involved in a family pot with J2 in the BB and the flop came J A 3 and Jay goes all in and i call with middle pair, just looking to gamble, i had only had one rebuy and there were some big stacks on the table. Jay flips over AT and i needed help. The next card was a J! Bingo and i scoop the pot, but then Jays goes off crying!!!! Opps!!! I felt really bad he is really young! But Gary told him its apart of the game you got to learn!!! i felt really bad but its poker!!!

I ended the rebuy period with about average and with the 10 players we managed a prize pool of £430 and £200 to the winner, 2nd - £140, 3rd - £70 and 4th-£20, i was in for £50 totally so was in good shape. I decided to play ultra tight and let the rest fight it out. With in 30 minutes we lost half the field and i had not played a hand. Even though the blinds are low in this game it means nothing. People raising stupids amounts and still get action. One hand there were a few limpers, so i limped on the button with As5s, the BB (Mr aggressive) moves all in and gets a caller. Then a tight players goes all in on top and the caller calls as well. Now i know what you are thinking, there has to be a AK or AQ or JJ out there but nope!! Just KJ vs KJ vs 66!!!! The KJ wins with a flush!! The other KJ wins the side pot after hitting a Jack. Crazy game!! But its fun!

We are 5 handed before i play a hand, i find JT and call from the SB, we have a family pot.
Flop K Q 3 rainbow, i check and Myron (mr aggressive) bets out and Minh calls (never folds) and i call, the rest fold, turn is a sweet sweet 9! Nuts!!! i check and mryon checks (very surprising and i'm not happy but Minh bets out 500 (same bet on flop) i make it 1500 to go, (they will pay anything with top pair or a draw so i feel i need to bump it up now other wise if they miss the draw i get nothing, when i say draw i mean any draw even a gutshot or a bottom two pair draw!) Myron then moves allin!!! Bingo!!!! Minh thinks for ages and folds his J9!! i call and Myron has pocket AAs (damm!!!) the one hand he slow plays!!!

We get 4 handed and in the money and i win a few pots, i checked round i always fired out a small bet to steal and it worked a few times. Mryon was on the short stacked but kept doubling up and before we knew it he was chip leader again. Last time we played a comp it was me and him heads up. He is so aggressive and crazy but he is so fearless a quality i do not really have in my arsenal. In cash games or a slow clock tournament he will be hurt but in this kind of game it works!! Minh goes out next when he moves in with Ax and i call with AQ. Then Gary loses a big pot, he flops an opened str8 flush draw when Myron has flopped the str8. Gary misses and on the river with just a pair bets out 4k (average stack 15k) and Mryon makes it 8k, Gary shows me his hand i see a pair of 9s and suddenly he calls! i was like huh and he misread his cards!!! Donkey move!! HE thought he had a str8 and Myron leaves Gary with a BB. Next hand im in the SB with J6 and move in, Gary has to call with JT, and i hit 3 6s! Sorry mate!!!

Heads up again with Myron, last time we played he won! I remember i floped a royal flush draw and he floped the flush and we got it all in and his hand held up, i really wanted the win this time. There was only £60 difference in prize money, so it was all about the win and i love heads poker!!!

BLinds were quite high and Mryon had a 3 to 1 lead on me but i felt confident i was sure he would bluff at the wrong time, but too be fair he had not bluffed all night!! We play a few small pots mostly checked down or a bet on the flop took it. Blinds went up again and i picked my AJ. I raised and he called. Flop came J K 3 and he checked and i bet, he called. Turn a 8 and we both checked, river a blank and he checks i bets out and he is about to fold, then he changed his mind and moved all in!!! HUH!!! He had me covered so the wrong move here and he wins, i got middle pair which is very stong HU but why as he check raised me all in here. I thought for ages thinking he has not bluffed all night, but then i thought why would he play a K like that , then i thought if he sucked out 2 small pairs on the river gd luck to him!! I figured he mite have a weak J and i called! He shows 22!!! My AJ was good!!!!!! later he said he just wanted to show me a bluff! and give me a rub down!!

We then were all in 3 hands in a row, after the last pot crippled in and my A2 lost to his QT and then T9 lost to his KQ and then my A6 beat his KT and i won!!! Another win for me!!! I guess they come together!!!! Was a good game, hadnt had a home game for a while and was some good fun apart from making J cry!!! Sorry mate!! You will get me in the end!!!

Tuesday

£30 Second chance at big slick, not much happened played alot of hands at the start to get a lead, called a raise with T 8 after another caller and flop came T high and i pushed was immediate called by the raiser, at this point i say ' can i get me chips bk thought she had JJs but she had KKs instead! Doh!!!!!
Buyin for 3k and now in trouble, but blinds still low, pick up 88s and flop a set and win about 1k, i then go up and down a bit.
One hand annoyed me, i got my stack to 7k, which is alot, was the only guy on the table who had to rebuy so everyones 'average' was 2k while mine was 5k. Anyway it folds round to the SB who calls the 75 (blinds 75/150) and i check in the BB with T7, flop comes Tc 3d 8d, SB checks and i check, hate betting out top pair heads ups. Turn is 9d but i'm not too worried about him having a flush, i also pick up a str8 draw. He checks and i bet out here, he calls, hoping no more diamonds. River is a black 2 i miss my st8 but i still have top pair and he checks to me, i then bets out 550 and he raises to 1500, hmmmmmmmm, ok he is a solid player, not played long enough with him to think he is a rock. He might be looking to out play me as he seemed a confident player. I eventually call thinking he wouldnt have check the flush draw HU and checked it to me on the river, i felt the only hand i could lose to was 8 2 for two pair. So i call and he flips over the flush! Opps! Apparently to the table it was obvious he had the flush! But not to me! Maybe i over thought the hand, oh well atleast i got some information, unfortunately i had to pay for it.

I then get my stack up back to 7k ish and the short stacked raised it folds to me and i have 99s, i could stick it all in but i thought i would stop and go instead. Stop and go means see the flop and stick it in after (if no Ace), if he has AK he is calling all in pre flop, against any pocket pair you therefore do not want to raise because he is called and it will be a 50/50 instead if you see the flop and go all in he only sees 3 cards, which he is only likely to hit the flop 1 in 3 times. I see the flop and it is 9 J 3, bingo!!! Forget the stop and go!, i check and so does he, the turn is a 3rd club, i move in hoping he has the Ac, he calls and i flip 999s quite confidently then he shows JJJ! Ouch set over set!!! So sick!!!!! Atleast he did not have too many chips, so i lose another 3.5k!

After the break, i didnt get going and joined in with some prop betting, i picked my mates favourite hands , Guvs 74, Pratik K9, Zenal K2, Nirajs, J3 and my A9, nothing came in and Mr Riveru won a fiver of me!!! I was soon out when i moved in with A8 and got called by JJ and AK! Opps!!! oh well £60 down!!!

No Poker All Weekend!!!!

2006-09-19T13:59:00.000+01:00

Did not play any poker this whole weekend!!!!
But i kept myself busy! Went to PeterB' for mates nephews bday party and went to see ARSENAL!!!! Beat Man Utd 1-0!!!! In their own back yard!!!!!!! Go on ARSENAL!!!!!!!
On a side note i was in the Man Utd Stand sitting with my friend PAV a Manchester Utd fan! hahahaha, i have never been so quiet when Arsenal scored!!! I jumped up and was about to open my mouth and then stopped as i saw 70,000 Man Utd fans drop their jaws in slience!! I look over to the Arsenal Section and they are going mental!!! I would have done anything to be in that stand!!! Oh well, still a great results!!! Guess Ashely Cole has no idea what he is talking about! Oh btw we did this without Henry and Van Perise!

To keep all the poker readers happy i dug up an trip report i wrote about the UK student Poker Championships 2005 and 2006, enjoy!!! (sorry for the poor English!!)

2005

I started off quite slow (after spending the night in James’s Volvo) and became increasingly bored after not playing the first 12 to 15 hands, so I decided to make a move, dealt Qd6d and raised in mid position. There were two callers (inc. Lego) and flop came A K J, the callers checked, which invited me to bet, one folded one called, on the turn was a 3 and it was checked to me and with a stronger bet took down my first pot, which after that hand I never went lower than 10k (starting chips)

The next crucial hand was a few hours in. Dealt QQ raised and then there was an immediate re-raise to my right. I flat called and flop came 3 rags with 2 hearts. I moved all in and the player to my right called instantly with a flush draw with his Ah Kh. He hit his flush on the turn, in a pot of 40k.

Was on slight tilt after the hand and got Ad Kd in the big blind a few hands later. Few limpers and I moved all in with my last 14k. One caller with Qd Jd (a bit loose!) and my AK held up and it was my first and last time I committed all my chips in day one!
The rest of day one was good for me slowly winning chips and knocking at least 9 people out on the way. Although with the increasing blinds towards the end my chips stack started to decrease as my attempts to steal the blinds were not always successful.
Finished day one with 48K, which left me 23rd out of the remaining 30.

After a long night (but thankfully in a bed!!) talking to the Warwick boys I picked up a lot of advice, which was thrown at me and was much appreciated, I had the confidence in myself to go on and succeed. On day 2 there was a roll back on blinds, which allowed more room for poker to be played. I quickly found myself short stacked and found Ah Kh after a strong raise by who I believe will be the next Scotty Nyguen (table talk!). I moved all in for my make or break hand. He called as the raise was very little with his pocket 8s. Flop came three hearts!

After accumulating more chips, I found myself flat calling a 1/3 of my chips away and was extremely frustrated. During the break I spoke to Dave Lu who gave some strong advice about calling my chips away and told me to either fold the big hands or move all in! This was some great advice and yet so simple. After the break and playing more poker my chip stack increased to 96k but the average stack was 140k but I felt comfortable. I again found Ak off suit in late position. Then ‘Scotty Nyguen’ again raised the same amount as he did with his 8s. I decided to take Dave Lu advice and move all in or fold after thinking for at least two minutes (which is a long time for me) I mucked the cards, decided I had enough chips not to race with. Scotty whose actual name is Alvin flipped over KK!!! The hand felt like a winning hand after making a strong fold and gave me great belief in myself to make the final table. An hour later I found myself all in again after finding pocket 8s after Phil (Mong Mob) made a raise. He had to call with value but only with an A2. The 8s held up which doubled my chips.

I made the final table by winning a few pots and trying to steal the blinds every 2 rounds, so the blinds would not affect me. I found myself in the final table on roughly 230k which left me in middle position. After an hour in a few players were out. A short stacked moved all in and I found pocket 7s which I pushed with and held up against his AJ. Later I raised with A10 and Lego found A9 (my favourite hand!!) and moved all in, which was less than my raise. A10 held up and unfortunately lost Lego who played extremely solid poker for a good 15 hours!

When four handed the poker chips were quite even and chips were swing all over the table. I could not pick up many hands and stealing the blinds were essential. The next big hand was against Darius who had 200k less than me. I limped in with 9h 7h and he checked in the Big Blind. Flop was A 7 2, I bet 50k and he raised after thinking for a while. I then thought about the size of the pot and it was difficult to put him on a high Ace with no raise pre flop. So I re-raised to put doubt into his mind of how strong his Ace was or if he was bluffing. The pot became over 400k and my heart was beating extremely hard. But he came over the top all in. I folded but felt I made the right move. But it did do me some good as it gave me the table image of someone who will try to win every pot.

I moved up in chips after the beat and the table had more swings with Calum from St Andrew taking a chip lead. He then found KJ under the gun and moved all in. Dice man then moved all in with QQ, I folded my KQ quickly while Darius called with his AJ (but had low chips) the board came with 2 Jacks and 2 Fours, knocking Dice man out and giving Calum over 2 million in chips. Darius survived one more hand with the high blinds and it was heads up between me and Calum.

The heads up was a fantastic experience with the crowd cheering and the trophy on the table! (unfortunately the money was not there!) It was £1,180 each but the winner gets a seat into the WSOP 2005. Although I started with only 300,000 chips and Calum had a commanding chip lead with 2.25million. The heads up lasted about 15 minutes with Calum moving all in with any two cards (Also known as the Argyris approach.) I won 3 double ups but with the high blinds every fold almost took a 1/3 of my chips away.

Calum limped in under the gun, I saw 98 off suit and checked. The flop came 9 high, with me hitting top pair. I checked and Calum moved all in. I immediately called and stood up thinking this was my chance. A win here would put me on 900k and with a good chance to win. When I stood up Calum turned over pocket QQ and my heart dropped! The tournament was over!

2006
The Official Poker Tour of 2006 to the UKSPC Part One by Dhruv ‘The Kid’ Doshi

It was that time of year again for the Warwick elite to step up and travel to the annual UK Student Poker Championships and once again show their domainance in the field of Poker. We certainly have the largest poker society in the UK and in my belief we have the best Poker players on average then any other university. This was our chance to prove that statement as a team of 24 Warwick students came together to play in the UKSPC 2006.
However there already signs of problematic trip as a week before the main event, which was a £30 freeze out and with a seat up for grabs to the WSOP or WPT in Paris, the venue changed from the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh to St Andrews Student union, which created a big problem as we had booked into a hostel weeks in advance in Edinburgh but now we had to travel during the Saturday and Sundays mornings to arrive to the poker competition. It was absolute disgraceful that they move a 300 runner event 7 days before the event, even though details for the event were posted 6 months ago! It really reflects poorly on the student organization or the organization of the sponsors Betfred.

It is 30th March Thursday night and Tom Grundy, Gurvinder Singh and myself Dhruv Doshi leave my house in London just after watching Eastenders where Phil Mitchell escape death some how by 2 large skips crash his car with him inside but he manages to be ok. We head off to pick up the one member of the Warwick team who does not go to Warwick, my friend from London, Niraj or Neal as he likes to be called. We then set off but we were delayed about 5-10 minutes as my Navman was taking ages to find the route to Coventry. Eventually I gave up on the satnav and went ahead although 5 minutes after driving it started to work so things were looking good. We then have numerous conversations about the tournament and previous poker situations we have had. The next stop was Park Royale (Dave Lu you would love this place) where we were to meant another member of the Warwick Team Saef Shah. We got some food at KFC before Saef arrived and that we went to the megabowl to play some Arcades and the IT box. Both Tom and I cashed out some money, Tom playing Hex and myself playing Turbo 21, the machine was paying out!!! It was very difficult to walk away!!!

So we were off to Coventry, after driving for another 30 minutes we hit some traffic on the M40, which was surprising, it then came to a halt. We then saw police cars, ambulances and fire trucks driving by, this was not a good sign. Five of us we in the car in total darkness as all the cars had their engines off and cars lights off. The other decided to go for a walk on the M40 and see what was happening, they walked about ½ mile away from the car asking people if they wanted to play some poker, although another was asking them for some weed. Guv came back first and told me that it could take up to four hours and I was like ‘No way’ as we were playing to play a home game that night but a four delay would mean arriving at Coventry at around 4 am. It was about 12am and Tom said lets opening up a book to see how long we would be here. Neal optimistically took the first time slot of 1220-1230 and I went for 1230-1240, Guv and Saef argued for the 1250-1am time slot and Tom took the pessimstic view of 100-110am we were all along way away. We decided to play a game! (One of the first steps of a real road trip). Tom suggested some sort of mental poker. Then I refined some rules were we had a 5 man game. Tom and I went heads up. Saef gave Tom a random hand, Guv gave me a random hand and Neal the independent player would deal a random flop. Tom and I started on 100 chips with blinds at 5/10. The game did not sound exciting at first but we got a real kick out of it. Especially when we went all in and stated our hands, which we could not do as Neal would know what we had. If anyone wants the exact rules of Mental Holdem or any questions please contact me. The best moment of mental holdem was the matching up between Saef and Guv. Saef was short stacked to around 30 chips and gave had the lead with 170. Tom whispers to Saef ear a certain hand. I whisper to Guv Jack of clubs, Jack of Diamonds. Guv calls the BB and Saef pushes all in and Guv immediately calls and says ‘Jacks!’ we all start laughing as now Neal job of dealing a flop could not be random. A ruling was made and Saef said he was given QUEENS!!!! He is an 80% favorite! So to keep the game fair I gave a number between one to five to Guv and Neal had to pick the number. Guv has a 20% chance and this seemed like the best solution, a real deal could not happen as Saef had such a strong lead to double up. I gave Guv the number 3, we all looked towards Niraj, he thinks and looks towards the roof of the car and say ‘THREE!!!!’ Guv wins!!! Guv gets the outdraw!!!! (A sign of things to come maybe!) We had created a game with everything!!! We then heard word that a lorry had tipped over and spilt its content. By now it was 2 am and no one won the book! We then played some 5 card draw using some Landora cards I found in the boot my car, I have like 20 packs!! Then we played a word game, which did not last long. Tom the token white guy in the car won every game we played!!!! And in theory he sort of won the book of how long we were stuck in traffic as he picked the latest time slot. Time went by quite quickly and before we knew it, it was 330am and the cars started to move! YES!!!!! Only 3 and a half hours waiting on the M40!!!!!! We got to Leamington at around 4ish and dropped Tom off and then went to Coventry to drop Guv and Saef off while Niraj stayed at mine in Coventry.

Friday 31st March, I picked Guv and Saef up and we went to Warwick University to meet up with the rest of the Warwick poker team and to pick up the new token white guy Stuart Black who knows a lot about Everything! We all met up at the Car park with 2 other cars there however we were short two cars, porno Mark’s car had car problems and Dave Lu’s car team were meeting us at the first stop off point, as he was getting back from Reno in USA after playing the WPT event and reaching day two. We got given the car challenge sheet, where we had to take part in various car challenges. The win would apparently get a free diner trip to wing wah. We completed the first challenge very quickly with a photo of people standing on a round about! Then we were off to the first services stop about 120 miles away. Was a good trip with standard talk but we moved away from poker for a world and experienced the knowledge Stuart had on the Wrestling world. A point which was quite interesting was how clever everyone was in shot gunning the front seat or trying to seat behind me, (as the leg room was more on my side than behind the passengers seat) Guv was very clear in that respect going for that position rather than the difficult job of shot gunning the front seat, Saef was amazingly quickly at doing so to be fair. He managed to get the front seat on more than 80% of the time. We got to our first stop and decided lets complete Time Crisis 3 between my car and Andy Fong, we failed big time! And moved on to the pool challenge which never cashes out but Saef managed to win back his pound! After the rest of us wasted a £1 each! The next stop was another 100 odd miles away at Gretna in Scotland. We played some dodge 5 card draw with lives, instead of chips, started with 10 lives and each round you ante one life and if you wish to change cards it would cost a life, then if you win the showdown you gain a life, was a great game but a little bit dodge as I was driving on the right lane and was swaying along and rub my car against the barrier, while trying to look at my cards! Do not try this at home! I eventually won the game! Playing heads up with Guv and changed all five cards and getting 5 jokers in return! (What a Fish!) YES!! We got to Gretna and got some food and were off quite quickly, this was our last stop before Edinburgh and to be honest I was very disappointed that we could not find the Monopoly roulette that we found last year on the summer poker tour!!! Oh well!

We arrived in Edinburgh at about 9-10pm, although we made our first Scottish visits at a pizza pasta kebab place but we walked in and there was an Italian TV programme was on and the people in their were Italian! Oh well we tried to get some Scottish culture in us! We got to the hostel and was very impressed, they had a cinema room an internet lounge with around ten computers, the rooms were small but nice and also a bar. We finally got some poker going. We had to cash games running. One was a 10p/20p and the other was a 20p/40p games, they had a TV lounge also which was perfect for a good poker game. Decided to keep the game quite small as we do not really want to go broke before we even got to St Andrews. The games were very lively and we had a waiting list on both games! By the end of it everyone was up or down £5 no real big swings but we had a good game. I probably should mention at least one hand as this is a poker report and so far I have not talked much about poker. One hand that stuck out in my memory was when I got bored of playing quite nutsy I thought I was time to make a move. I limped UTG and I think Tom raised on the button. Niraj called and I re raised. Tom call as I’m sure he was playing a type of hand we all like to crack big hands, and the Niraj called as well. The flop cam down J high and two rags, Niraj bet out and I raised with Ace high, I think I had something like As10s. Tom quickly mucked and Niraj thought for while folded and showed me top pair. Then at the end of the night I cashed everyone out and a few people went straight to bed. As we know in all cash games there is always like an odd or difficult number to cash out because people have like £2.25 owed or £0.60 and in the pot is all £5 notes at the minimum. So I introduced ‘Whore Poker’ which is something my local home game does at the end of the night. Anyone with a random amount of changed left over gets to play. Whether it is £3 or 20p they get to play. It ends up that there is around £10 or £5 left over, in this case there was £10.10 left over. Myself, Jaime, Kader and Neal all had a round amount left over. So I deal everyone a hand. I had AK, Jaime had K9, Kader KQ and Neal 53. I was looking strong but a lot of cards to dodge, I needed an Ace. Flop
8 8 8!!!! Looking good for me. Turn J even better river Q!!!! Kader rivers me and scoops £10.10!!!!! We then went to sleep however it took another hour to get to sleep as people were making prank calls and making jokes. I tried to knock knock trick but no one fell for it. This was me knocking on the wall expected people to think someone was at the door! We had bunk bed by the way! I think we got to sleep by 4ish and ready to wake up ay 845 am!!!!!

PART TWO

It’s the early hours of the day and I’m awake after Saef shouts at me as he is leaving the room to get up! Its 845am and to anyone who knows me that is very very early for especially as I went to sleep at 4ish the night before. We all got ready and met for breakfast downstairs where they gave us bread and butter but we had to make our own toast which was fun was good to get some food in us. We left for the main event. I set my Satnav to St Andrews, I was on my way with Stuart Guv Niraj and Saef in my car, I forgot to mention in the report part one before that Stuart came up with a team name for us, which was the BCKs, which was the Brutal Collusion Kids team. For those who do not understand the name, it’s basically a combination of all our nicknames. Stuart is known as Brutal Stack, Guv and Saef’s mob name is CC with they phrase being ‘collusion’ and as you know I’m the Kid, Niraj did not get in but he became an honorary member of all three groups! So the BCKs were off, my Satnav said the trip would take 74miles! Ouch!! Was not happy to see that but we were off, Tom ‘Animal’ was following me to St Andrews and later on Dave Ralph who was in Animals car mentioned I was going the wrong way! The problem with the Satnav was it avoids toll roads and therefore took a route, which tool an extra 30 miles DOH!! But as we had started the trip and already 45minutes in , I thought turning rounds would not make a difference so we continued! It ended up taking two hours to get to St Andrews instead of one, another and not the last problems my car had on the trip. This was very frustrating as it added more time to the journey and I was very tired. Everyone in the car except Stuart I think actually went to sleep on the way to St Andrews, which is fair enough but left me half awake on the road! But lucky nothing went wrong.

We arrived at St Andrews and from the start they did not fix problems that I think occurred last year. When drawing the seats last year they would make you register then pick your own seat by picking a random card out of the 300 available. On the UK student forums Betfred and St Andrews university asked for some feedback and this was a problems many people commented on as people found themselves on the same table as the guy behind them in the queue, which tended to be people from the same university. So I expected this year to be different to avoid this, however they did something even worse. They had 3 different stalls where universities would go to. Therefore all the Warwick players went to the same stall to pick their cards, which makes it less random. What’s the point in asking for feedback if they are not going to listen to people’s suggestions? I also heard that the organizes did not even have a Tournament Director program on the day of the event and they had to get one of a student at the last minute. This unfortunately was not the last of the problems the tournament had. I drew seat 3 table 3 and headed towards the venue one room where the tournament was bring held. I looked around at a very familiar scenery with a bunch of young poker players, chip riffling, wearing hats, sun glasses and one guy had a mask on like in the film Jason X. I looked at my table and I was on the feature table and a little smile was put on my face and realised this has to be a sign of things to come. Then I heard Rob Jagger was on my table and I enjoy playing with Rob but I realised it would be difficult to be table captain as he is a very strong player and can be very aggressive, no one else on my table looked familiar or looked the part to be honest and I was feeling confident and felt playing small pot poker would payoff in the long run as the blinds are very low early on and there was time to play, although this was not the case later on in the tournament. Ok now the poker talk begins!

Just before I sat down I went over to Guv and said this was the table I sat on last year, which eventually led me to second place so good luck! To see Guvs report click here

I played a quite tight in the first level but picked up a few interesting hands like tens, Ak, AA and some suited connectors, unfortunately I did not connect on any flop for a while and lost 2k in calls and raises The table was not as I expected. Last year players were very tight and did not want to go out but on my table people were very aggressive at the wrong times. I explained to people at the break that it was Donkey vs Donkey on my table and the outcome was a Donkey gets a double up early on. For example one guy raises 6-7 x BB when he raises. One guy slow plays A10 on an Ad 4x 8d 5x board and when he hits his two pair, which gives the flush out he bets and gets raised and then he pushes and the guy had KdJd, and calls with the nuts. Another hand someone raises 7 x BB UTG and pocket 55 calls, by the way the raiser has not played a hand for 50 minutes. Flop comes A K 5 and UTG goes all in for 9k and the guy with 55 calls in a flash, I felt I dealt out AA and KK. UTG has KK and takes a 20k pot down. I won my first pot when Rob raised up 3 x BB I looked down and saw tens and flat called and so did the cutoff and the BB. Flop A 10 5 - 2 clubs. BB checks and so does Rob, I bet as I like betting sets when there is an Ace on board and I feel Rob may check raise me here. As Rob is a very strong player if he feels that you are slightly weak he is not afraid to put his chips in to find out and I know that so I feel I strong bet here may induce a steal however Rob gets a good read on me and put me on a monster. The cut off calls and everyone else folds. Turn brings a 5 and I have my house, feeling the guy is drawing to a flush which I now hope he makes. I check and see what he does, if he comes out betting I feel he does not have the flush draw maybe a rag Ace or he was fishing around with a KQ or a J10, which means I would flat call and value bet the river. I feel if he checks behind he looks to be flushing and if the flush hits on the river I can put a bigger bet out and if it does not hit I mite check the river and induce a bluff. He ends up checking behind me and I feel he is weak and I am not getting paid. The river is a big card but cannot remember so if he was gutshoting or playing to high cards he has connected, so I bet out and he takes a while to call and shows A8 off he says ‘I called because I’m interested in seeing what you have’. My read was wrong but I guess I was just hoping he had a bigger hand. I’m up to about 12k. Then something really bad happened. I did not want to be there! I felt really tired and started to walk about. When I was at the table I kept my head down on the table. I was not watching the game and was just playing my cards and playing badly. I was extremely tired but that is no excuse I should have been able to focus on move away from the table for a while until I was focus. I then made a move on a very tight player with J high on a As Qs 8c 3c 7c board with 3 clubs. He checked all the way and so did I as I had a flush draw on the flop. He then bet the river and he was a solid player and raised him, he thought for a while and called, I mucked and he showed three 7s. Word got round that the winner of last year was out! In the first or second level! I thought that would have encouraged me but it did not help. Lucky the break was close and I felt I needed a break to get me focused. I then won a big pot with AK which was a 3 way pot but checked down till the river and the BB bet out when the Ace came, I smoothed called and it was good. The break came and I was very annoyed with myself I knew I was not going to do well as mental I was not in the mood for the tournament, I spoke to Jaime another driver and he felt the same way as I did. We could not really hack it, which I think now Dave Lu needs a mention as he was playing great poker and he had a very long trip indeed. After being knocked out in Reno at the WPT, which must have felt horrible he went on back to England and drove straight from Heathrow to Scotland, which really must have taken it out of him but Dave was going strong. At the break Warwick had lost a few men. Niraj won the fisherman prize of first out, which was one of the car challenges so BCKs got some more points but he was unlucky as he had middle set and was raised on the flop by top set only for it to go all in on the flop. That is a very difficult situation and you will not find many players who could get away from that. Most Warwick players were sitting on around 6k – 12k with Stuart and Guv on about 14-16k.

After the break I found myself short stacked as many people were doubling my on my table. Rob went out before the break after moving in on a gutshot against a player with two pair. We had a few new players and the players were not of great standard but they getting chips by battling the donkeys on the table, I was just praying to get into a hand with one of them. I was left with 7k and blinds were 150/300. I found JJ UTG and raised up to 900. I got called by two very fishy players and thought great. But needed a half decent flop. Flop comes K 5 3 and I check. The other two check behind. Turn brings a 2 and now two hearts. I check and plan to move in if one player bets. The next player bets out my stack and I was definitely calling. But the other player in the hand pushes for 4.3k. I had about 6k left and the first to bet was on 18k. The other player pushed and I had a decision. I know I am beating the first better however I cannot call to go to win a side pot. I eventually put the second player on K6 or a similar hand. I then said I’m beating you to the initial raiser and showed JJ, he goes you are right as I fold. He shows 77 and the other guy has Qh8h. I could not believe it! I did not think he would put all his chips in on a flush draw and he was flat calling draws and not sticking all his chips in previously. 77s hold up and I feel absolutely gutted. I was steaming as that pot would tripled me up and got me in a position to play some poker. A level later I push with 77 and someone thinks for a while and calls with KKs. Nice! I walk away from the table disappointed but felt I did not deserve anything especially as I was playing poor poker and was not in the right frame of mind. As I spoke to other Warwick poker players I found out we had lost about 10 out of the 24 who entered. It was not going well however Guv Dave Lu and Animal were going strong.

Fruit!!!! Move to the side Johnny Chan because the Warwick poker society has out done you. The last week of term we had a fancy dress poker tournament with Dave Lu going as Johnny Chan by bringing an orange with him to the table. Tom, Flash went to Tescos and bought some Kiwi, a Lemon, an Orange, a Banana, some grapes, a Cabbage, a Melon and a Mango and gave to all the players still left in the tournament. After the lunch break and a few levels down the line we only had six players left. Guv, Dave Lu, Sunny, Animal, Porno Mark and Andy Fong. It was not going well for Warwick poker soc but the players left in all had the ability to get to day two. I was watching Dave Lu and Guv a lot. From what I saw Dave was controlling his table without showing any cards and he chip stack was growing and even started to cover his Cabbage! Guv was hitting a series of hands and may have outdrawn a few players but was playing great poker and one hand I remember he called someone down with Ace High in a nice pot and it was very good.

Cash games got going and Sit and Go’s as well on the side. I played some cash and donked off my stack. Rob replace my seat in this very loose game and called a guy down in a £100+ pot with 33 on a Q 9 5 7 A board and it was very good! Go Rob!! I played a Sit and Go after for £10 and did a 50/50 deal with Saef who was also playing. I told Tom that I would play like a lunatic and limp UTG and re raise as much as possible, I also missed the first level off play. So I played my first hand and we were down to 8 players from ten I was UTG and limped. Tom was in the background laughing and I could not keep a straight face. But anyway everyone follows the limp and the flop comes down and is checked to me. I bet and everyone folds. I then raised many pots and overbet the flop if I had it on not. When down to 5 players I raised with Q2 UTG and SB pushed I called in a flash. He had JJ, first card out was a Q!!!! Oh well!!! It got to heads up and I took it down with £50, Saef came in 3rd. So we took £70 between us and split it.

Then news came that Andy was out and only 5 Warwick players left with 50 players to go. The support was great for the players as many of us stayed to watch and support our fellow Warwick players. Tom ‘Flash’ was the biggest cheerleader of them all and I quote claims ‘Dru I sweat Warwick Blood’. What a line! How is he not going to be president next year! Suddenly there is a big pot and Animal has moved in, the Warwick Mob cover the table and surrounded it, but wait! Porno is thinking! And he goes allin!!!! Someone from Warwick is going to get some chips! By wait the BB calls and I’m thinking this can not be good; there are only 2 hands he can call with in this spot. (Assuming he is a good player) Big Blind turns over KK, Animal AQ and Mark AK. Flop JKJ!!! Warwick lost two players in one hand!!! But they played great and did well to get that far into the tournament which started to become a crap shoot. Only Guv Sunny and Dave left. 31 players left and Guv is second to act on his table and see he has a tough decision. He had jus doubled up with 10s against 22s and was comfortable, he looked troubled and folded. He then came over to me and told me he had KKs!!! I was not happy! I thought he had AQ or 99 and maybe AK, but he felt a raising war with the Big stack in the BB would not be good, I felt it’s the wrong move as more chips tomorrow the better even though it was the bubble. Speaking of the bubble Betred’s ‘Tournament Directors’ were awful, early in the day they made a poor ruling on my table about the wrong turn card and on the bubble there was no hand for hand!!!!! That is shocking, everyone tournament whether small or big or online or landbase goes hand for hand but this tournament did not!!! However Guv Sunny and Dave got through to the next day, a great achievement by all. Guv had 110k, Sunny on 80k and Dave on 70k, with the blinds rolling back to 1k/2k for day two it looked promising.

We then went all together to get some food at a Pizza Kebab place, which was too funny! We packed out the place and the owner started dancing about when some 50 cent music came out, we got a group picture with everyone, I’l try and upload them soon, should be in the picture section.

We then got to the hostel played some Omaha and the STA casino, which was great fun and I eventually got to sleep by 5am!

PART THREE

I have woken up again at 845am! On the 2nd of April 2006. After going to sleep at around 5am after taking part in the Kader Jac and Jambon Casino, when I say taking part I’m mean dropping £15 to the house after Jambon constant hit amazing cards in blackjack, even if felt sorry for me and he was the house! So I woke up feeling very tired but knew I had to get out of the hostel as we were an hour away from St Andrews and a £20 freeze out was starting at 11am with registration ended at 1045am and with 100 capped players. So we had a quick breakfast and we were off. I set up the Satnav so it took the toll road, which meant it would only take an hour and I also followed Jambon just incase anything went wrong. So got to St Andrews in just under an hour and rushed to the door and the little bold man told us we are not open yet, it was 1050am. We were confused but realised it was down to another poor student organised event. We waited about in our cars as it was cold and wet eventually the doors opened and they started to register us. A few of the Warwick lads including myself and Flash decided we were going to play like donkey and do new crazy stuff in this tournament that we would not normal do. My normal game is appear as the table captain who deals the table and control the pots, in term of presentation and helps out people or certain rules but I went for the flip side. I looked at my cards by picking them up and putting them next to my eyes, started to raise with abosulte junk in early position and so forth. Flash claimed he would do the same and check raise on any draw. Jamie got a last long bet going. Everyone put £5 into the pot and the person who lasted the longest wins the lot. We had 7 entries, Jamie, Tom, Rob Crowley, Niraj, Chris Burton, Andy Fong and Myself. As me and Tom were going to play like donkeys we did a 50/50 on the last long bet, as with our new style we would either get a lot of chips or be out early. However Tom did not play this style as two hands in he flopped a set against two players who had 2 pair and more than trebles up. I however played like a fool and started raising up and was re raised twice but still called with J5 and 106. Lost a few chips but gained a few with Q6. I limped UTG and mid position raises, SB calls as so does the BB, I re raises Q6 and the table folds although the initial raiser thinks for ages. He later shows JJ and I’m outraged clamming I had QQ, I went on for about 5 minutes going how can you fold, you should have doubled me up etc. My table broke and word got out that Warwick had lost about 4 players already! I moved to Jambon’s table and we both smiled at each other as he knew how I was playing. First hand I find Ad3d UTG and raise and everyone folds to Jamie he thinks for a while gives me a smile and folds, I show the Ace. I then re raise someone pre flop with KcJc (Happy Guv!) the raiser flat calls and the flop comes two clubs and 9 high. I push all in and the raiser folds. The player on my left says you are lucky I folded. I said why he said he folded 99s, the nuts on the flop, could have been trouble for me. I actually had a nice stack about 4k, starting stack 2.5k, with around 70 of the 90 players still left. I then actually fold a hand QQ and I raise and I get flat called. Flop comes 10 high and I push only to be instantly called by AA… ouch!
I then start to walk around got some food and saw Flash was doing well. I came over to him and he tells me, ‘that the guy in the car was well happy he folded JJ pre flop’ I looked at him and he was the guy I re raised with Q6 to, as I had something invested in Flash I tried to tilt him and said I had pocket 10s.

Main Event Day Two
Sunny and Dave Lu were put on the same table as play resumed at 12pm. Guv was on the feature table, again where I started off last year with 30 players left. Although there were only 29 left this year. The atmosphere was not great but the Warwick boys got a lot of supported, but every once and a while we kept hearing bad news, Guv lost a big pot with top pair against a set, all in on the flop and Dave couldn’t pick up any hands however was grinding it out, he didn’t get many chips but was winning small pots with cards he was getting. Sunny was going strong but was stealing the blinds on the button a bit too much and it cost him some chips. After Guv lost a big pot with AQ against the set, he pushed with 86 and 72 both times hitting to stay alive and got his chips up. He then found tens and raised, he got re raised and called. The other guy had QQ and hit quads! Unlucky Guv but well done. You may have got lucky in some hands but you played very good poker to get to day two. A mention must be made about the blind structure, it was a crap shoot!!! Blinds were doubling up every 30 minutes and there was no room for play. We then hear news that Dave was out. Mid position raises with K10 and Dave in the SB finds AQ. Dave thinks about folding knowing it’s a 60/40 but also knows that you rather push all in than call an all in. Also Dave’s game on the flop is amazing and never needs to stick it all in pre. But Dave made the correct decision and pushed, which the other guy had to call. River is a ten and we lose Dave. Again well played, he must have been exhausted especially coming from Reno to London to Scotland in a very short period of time. A few moments later we got to the final table with Su-Ho representing Warwick!!!!!

Black Jack
On the side action, Rob Crowley and Flash were going very strong in the tournament. I was offered a chess game by Stuart after stating I do not want to play any more poker but he is too good and it would not even be a challenge for him. I then saw a 3 packs of cards I said, ‘I’m going to try and get a blackjack game going’, as I thought I cannot be the only one tired of poker, this is me nicking the STA casino idea. So I sit with Alex Straight making sure everything works out. I made a blackjack table, with min bet of 20p and max bet of £1. I started to walk around the room asking people if they wished to play, but most people laughed and walked away. I got one customer though and the game started of small and he bought in for £5 using 20ps and 50ps, which was good as it is easy to pay people out. We played for about 5 minutes and it was quite even. Then people started to watch and Jambon came to play as to a few other students. I allowed 7 boxes max with max of 4 players playing. The game got very popular and we had a waiting list of 3 players. Jambon then decided to set up another game. He did so and he filled upped his seats very quickly. Was a great laugh and shows you do not have to play poker all weekend. I ended up about £30 up and had a great time, even the people who lost a few £s here and they were happy to play! It was probably the cheapest game around as well.

Final Table
Ok Final table! As soon as it started I crashed the black jack table, although Jamie kept going, which proved to be a mistake as he was paying out big! Just as the final table started Flash bubbled in the £20 freeze out and Rob Crowley was flying the Warwick Flag. He ended up in 4th place and took around £150 but I’m not sure exactly how much it was. Sunny was very short stacked on the final table and could not do much but fold or push. Sunny was in the SB and pushed against the BB who folded and the Warwick fans cheered very loudly, it seemed we were the only ones who cared as others played cash games on the side. As the blinds were so huge most players were short stacked and Sunny called an all in against a big stacked, at the time he felt it was the right decision because he knew the blinds were folding and felt he was getting good odds against anything but an over pair. But the guy had KK and Sunny’s 65off suit was no good and Sunny finishes in 8th place with £385! Well done Sunny a great weekend and you did Warwick proud! The Warwick team left St Andrews slightly disappointed as we just expect great things as we are clearly the elite society in the UK, especially after seeing the shocking bad play by some players in the tournament, which I like to see as Donkey vs Donkey.

Mission ImpossibleWe left St Andrews at around 545pm. But the car had changed Stuart was replaced by Tom and the token white guy remained in my car for the whole journey back to London. I set up my Satnav to Coventry where we would lose Guv. The Satnav said 365 miles and my eyes dropped! I was on about 3 hours and an half hours sleep. We were driving pass a country home in Scotland and Tom said look at that sign, it was outside someone’s house, a sign that said ‘Honeysuckle Cottage’, we thought it was hilarious and felt this could be our team steal. Saef ran out of the car and ran back into the car in a panic as the people were at home and vision of an angry Scotsman coming out was not pleasant. But there was a problem the sign was too big and Saef just managed to get it into the front seat as I sped off the edge of the sign was about half an inch away from my eye. We then laughed for about 5 minutes as we got off the country and safety put the sign in the back seat! So we set off and before you knew it the whole car was sleep, which is fair enough I would do the same thing in their position. My eyes started to feel very heavy and I woke half the car up as I drift off and the car drifted from one lane to another! That woke up realising I nearly killed everyone! I told everyone that I need to stop so we stopped at the next services station and I got some food. I woke up a bit and the car set off and everyone was talking again. But an hour later everyone was back to sleep and I was very tired. The loud music did not help and looking at the same M74 road for an hour got my very sleepy. So the next service stop at Gretna we stopped and I told the lads to go inside the service stop while I slept in the car and I said come back in an hour. I started to drift off then the car next doors alarm went off and did so for the next 15 minutes. Then I started to drift off but then Tom came knocking on my door! Asking for poker chips! Which I gave and then said ‘Do not come back!’ I then woke up an hour later and we were off. Apparently the guys played a very crazy Omaha game, which I could just about follow. We stopped off at the next services stop but just to fill up on petrol and the un thinkable happens. I was still a bi tired and drove into the lorry petrol stop instead of the car petrol stop. As I drive away from the petrol stop I hit the risen up curb and drove up above it to get back down but there was a problem, I could not move! One of my wheels were in the air! The wheel was spinning but there was only movement at the back wheels. We were stuck on a sort of curb! We were all tired and had no idea what to do. Saef got out the Honeysuckle sign and placed it under the wheel to allow it to touch the ground and I would drive off it but it did not help! We had no idea what to do! I decided we need to lift the car, there was five us but we could do it, we lifted and tried to pivot the car round but it was useless, we made some progress but the car was in trouble. Then a huge lorry drove in to fill up his tank and a giant of a man came out and like five little girls we asked for ‘help’ He said he a deep husky voice, ‘there are 5 of you LIFT the car’ So we all got on the side of the car and lifted and the car moved with ease as Colossus moved the car single handily, it was an incredible sight! We were shocked, stunned by this Colossus. He then kicked the front of the car and it came straight off the curb! I felt a lot more alive and it was another 220 miles to Coventry! I told Saef in the front seat who kept winning the shot gun that I think I can drive all the way back, no more stops! I felt alive and so did the car. It was just passing midnight and we called up Pav to sing happy birthday to him! Then to try and keep everyone awake Tom suggested a memory game, where each of us had to remember the last thing the other guy said. So Saef started of saying ‘I went to shop and bought a bag’ then I would say ‘I went to the shop and bought a bad and some underwear’ then Guv would say ‘I went to the shop and bought a bad and some underwear and a leather jacket and so one, we ended up getting 24 items before the game ended, if you get an item wrong you are out! It is a lot harder than it sounds! Please contact me for full rules of the game! Then game last about an hour and the drive was going well. We stopped off at Guv’s house in Coventry and left to London another 112 miles away and I was feeling good! An hour later I dropped Saef off in Central London and an hour after that Tom in Balham and 10 minutes later Niraj in Norbury and 2 minutes later arrived home at 6am!!!! The trip took about 12 hours!!!! It was crazy! But it was done, the travel was crazy but it was an amazing trip!!!!!

Tue/Wed/Thursday at Big Slick

2006-09-15T14:11:00.000+01:00

Tuesday

£30 second chance and another 10th place for me! That’s two weeks in a row! Very frustrating, ok only 6 or 7 actually get paid however its still annoying to get close and blow out at the end. Also at Big Slick I’m currently 3rd on the leader board and every one on final (9) get extra points, which would help me get closer to a free £330 seat!

Anyway at the end of this tournament my mate said to me, ‘That must have been very boring I do not remember you playing a hand!’ He was right! My stack stayed at 5k for like 3 hours, which does not help at the end when blinds are 800/1600. Once again I could not pick up a big hand in a big situation. I mean that when someone raises I did not have enough of a hand or enough chips to chuck it in and get him to call/fold. I just remember folding a lot and when I moved in I never really got called. My last hand was 5 handed and 1st to act bets out like 3xBB and with my 5xBB I move in with A10, saying, ‘ This has to be good’, When 5 handed the strength of hands increase a lot. Also there is a lot of raising hands that I’m ahead of and a few I’m coin flipping with, which I would take at this stage! But of course he has AK and I go home! But at least I avoided the cash games!!

Wednesday

£20 Rebuy at Big Slick. I actually did a Phil Hellmuth again as the Arsenal match was on against Hamburg. So I called up ahead and told Big Sick to register me and I then left home as the Arsenal match was dying down. We were comfortably winning 2-0 and I heard the rest of the match on the radio on my way to Big Slick. (Going to see Man Utd Arsenal on the weekend!!!!) So I turned up about an hour into the comp which left me with 15 minutes plus 3 hands to play the rebuy period, which is good enough. Did not feel like going crazy in the rebuy period and this helps if not there for long. I took a top up, then doubled up, then took the double add on. So had around 7.5k going in after the break, which is enough. Only a 3 table comp, so felt I had enough.

After the break again I did not play too many hands. One guy moves in UTG and I pick up AQ and think for a while, I have invested zero into the pot and do not need to get involved thinking it probably a coin flip for 80% of my stack, but then he started talking about A rag and then I got the impression he had AJ!! So I call the BB then calls with A7 for value, which was fair enough as he was short stacked. UTG has AJ and a 7, hits meaning I lose the main pot but win the side pot, I think I broke even in the hand. Again not much happened, I raised a few pots and took then uncontested, but raised twice and got called twice and got checked rasied all in on the flop, which is not nice! I never have anything!!! There were about 15 left and I’m looking around the remaining to two tables and I just see a wall of chips everywhere!!! I had nothing, as usual! At this point I start to think, what am I doing wrong!!! I cannot ‘gamble’ when someone has already rasied and another guy has called, I’m not good enough to play Q7 and J5 and hit two pair on flops, I was just really annoyed. I’m mean all the big pots that were one were with AA or KK or AAs and KKs getting cracked and I could not get the cards to do that. A few hands later a big stack limps in MP and I got KhJh in the SB and push all in, he calls with out thinking (opps!!) Should have realised that I had fold equity against other players but not this guy, he really was a calling station, even when he had AAs he called off all his chips. He flips over A3 and I’m not in that bad shape, he is a 54% favourite, the flop helped me giving 2 hearts but I miss and go home! I got to do something different!!!!

Thursday

£10 rebuy with a £5 bounty. Pratik just came back from Prague and Neal was up for Big Slick tonight as well which was cool, he had not played live for a while. There were some other games on tonight a big sat to EPT at the Vic and a big £200 freeze at South end where Zenal went for the night, last time I spoke to him there were 16 left and he was still in.

Had Pratik on my table at the start of the comp and I doubled up the rock of all rocks in the 1st hand! Opps!!! Then lost a few other hands and before I knew it I was in for £65!! Not a good start!!! But played more tight and got my stack up to 7.5k going into the break, which is again very nice and in for £75, definitely wanted to get more aggressive in the middle stages.

I do get aggressive but in a different way, I wanted to make even small raises then I normally do so the BB and others will get involved cheap, I then played position and my hand strong. But getting them to call pre flop makes pots a lot nicer. I won 2 nice hands with 55s and Q9, I made smaller raise like at blinds at 400/800 I made it 900 more to go and so forth. Getting two callers, pot = 1700+1700+1700+400 = 5,500, my stack after the raise was only 6k and to take a pot that big on the flop was very nice. I then pick up AK and raise it up the BB calls and the flop comes A high, bingo!, he checks to me and I bet out, he then mucks! AJ!!! Huh!!!! That was meant to be my double up hand but he lets it go! Great fold sir!!!

I still do not have a bounty chip!!! 12 players left and I get moved to a new table where to my surprise I’m on a table and I have only played one of the players before!! That’s is quite shocking to me and annoying. As I move Pratik gets knocked out of the comp, Neal was out as well, so just me left in. I pick up Q9 in the BB and we are 6 handed and the button limps (never seen him before) and the SB calls and I check. Flop 9 T 7, checked round, I feel strong about my hand then the turn is a 6 but gives 3 spades on board and I have the Qs. SB checks and I check (mistake, should have bet) and the button checks, was also thinking maybe to check raise. Annoying when u get thrown into a hand with people you have never played with late into a comp. River is a Q and I have two pair. SB bets out 2k and I think about it and call. Picked the safer options and now the button goes all in for 2.2k more! SB instant mucks and I think, I say to him, ‘You really raising here with AQ,’ sort of the only hand I can beat, maybe KQ, I then look at the pot and it was 12k and if I call it would be another 4k on top, so was a nice pot and I still had just below average if I make the call, so I call and he got KJ for the straight!! Yuk!!!

Final!!! I have about 14k and blinds are 1k/2k 7 BB!! Plenty for me!! Pick up a few hands and move all in and get no callers built my stack up but then lost it back in the blinds. We get down to 7 handed and did £30 off the top for a bubble prize. I’m in the BB and UTG moves in for 8k, Blinds 2k/4k and then someone else moves in for 12k total. Its folded to me and it cost me 8k more to win 2k+4k+8k+12k = 26k. I look down and see 10c 2c! Doyle!!!! I decide to call thinking here is my chance to win the comp, as long as the do not have pocket 10s or higher I’m not in too bad shape, people not happy when I flip my cards over! But here are the number, UTG has 62 and MP has 99 against my 10 2, 99s are a 58% fav, my 102 is a 28% and 62 a 13%. Ok so I am just very slightly priced out but if you add the value of knocking two players out and moving up the money I felt it was right to do, plus I had 2k left if I lost and could fold the next few hands hoping to move up. The flop is 6 3 5 two clubs!! Bingo! Turn is another club and they are drawing dead! Sweet!!! After the hand I was 3rd in chips and thought to my self, I’m in a position to actually win a comp at Big Slick.

My plan now was to stay out of people way. There was one very aggressive player and I did not want to get in his way, he never raised just all in or fold!! Very difficult to play against players like that. We got down to 4 handed and I had not played a lot of hands and my stack was decreasing, I was in the SB and moved in blind just to pick up the pot as the BB looked like a quite tight player. I then did it again and he called with A7 and I turned over QT, I hit a T and we are 3 handed. We asked to cut a deal to flatten the price structure but the chip leader said no, and the curse of that it, you are going to be out next!!! Button (chip leader) raises to 8k and I have As8s and call and the BB moves in for 24k. Button calls, I know I have the button beat, I know I’m losing to the BB but I was thinking of maybe getting a side pot going with the button, if I move in he has to call. But I worked out the side pot even if I won would be less than the main pot which I had invested, so I folded. BB had 99s vs buttons K8 and 99s held. My A8 would have won the side pot! Oh well. The hyper aggressive player then gets involved with the other guy again and he takes him out, we are now heads up and there is about 185k in play and I have 35k and he has around 150k. So he has just over a 4 to 1 chip leader and he offers me some extra money to walk away. I reject the offer saying I love heads up poker, plus the blinds were not too high and I was willing to play, I really enjoy heads up poker, its pure poker to me. Plus I want to win a comp!!

Ok so 1st hand I limp with 67 and flop the nuts we check all the way and on the river I move all in, he folds. Then limped a few times and made small bets when I missed, got caught a few times but succeed a few times as well. He then moved in a few times on me and I was lucky not to find a big hand as he flipped over AK and AQ those times. I was getting a bit low and found K3 on the button and moved in, he called instantly with A2 and my 3 hit twice giving me some chips but still in 2nd place. I pick up J8 and limp and he checks, Flop J 9 3, he checks and I check, turn is a 4 and he goes all in and I call. He has 97 and no help on the river gives me the chip lead. We then do another deal and took £50 off the top and gave it to 2nd which meant we were playing for less. I then take a few more pots and have a nice chip lead, I then raise with 10 5 and he moves in, I call instantly just because there is too much in there to fold, he has A3 and I have a 40% chance of winning the comp and I hit a T followed by a 5!!! I finally win a comp at Big Slick!! £502 plus £25 in bounty chips, which I gave to the dealers as a tip!!!!!
Felt good to win a comp and now I have a chance to get player of the month and win a free seat into the £330 comp! I do not think I did anything different, I kept to my game plan and just won a few coin flips!!!!

Bounty Tournament and the Big Game!

2006-09-10T23:28:00.000+01:00

Played the bounty comp at Big Slick, where it’s a £10 rebuy but if you knock someone out, as in make them leave the comp, you get a fiver!
I do really well in the rebuy period and get my stack up to around 17k, which is plenty and I got up to 14k after 50 odd minutes so I actually left the table for 15 minutes to make sure I don’t blow my stack away. Ended up spending £40 in chips + the £5 bounty chip. Did not really do anything different in terms of hands I played, my hands just held up and sometimes I got lucky. A big hand was when my AK held against K9 and A7, I started thinking this is not right, there is no way the poker gods will allow this and they will get me back when the rebuy period ends!!!!

2nd hand into the rebuy period 1+UTG raises like 7xBB, which is over half his stack, a strange move in my mind. He was below average but his raise threw out the idea of 88s or 77s to me I’m in the BB and have not looked yet. It folds round to me, and I say to the guy, ‘that’s a big raise, 3xBB is probably enough’ I then look down and see JJ and say ‘ok Allin’ he is not happy but calls with A9. The £5 chip is in the pot!!! I’m a good favourite to take the pot and take home a guarantee of £5! But two aces hit the board! Ok so not down to about average stack. I play nothing for ages!!!! The cards were sick. Just could not do anything, yes I know a good poker player does not need cards but if you have trash every time and people raise in front of you its very difficult in these kind of comps to push them off and make a successful move.

But I had to do something and I played a very bad hand. I’m on the button and someone limps in front of me. 7 handed 3 tables left (started with 4 tables) I have A2 and I raise it up and the blinds fold and he calls. Ok not great that he called but I do not put him on the A (would have raised on Cut off) and at least I got position. Flop comes K high, which in my mind is the worst possible flop as I give him a range of hands like KJ, KT, QJ, KQ basically broad way cards. He played a KT to a big raise, so that plays in my mind but he checks to me, as he should, always check to the raiser so you can check raise or let him bluff out. I decide to check behind, turn and river he checks to me and I just check behind thinking he has a bad K or a small pocket pair and would not bet it. He flips over A7, which is good! Doh!!!! He checks to me three times and I did not bet! What is wrong with me!!! I feel I should have at least bet the turn to at least find out where I was. Arggg!!!!!!

I end up play no more hand and I was down to 5 BB and the blinds were about to go up. I was in the SB and feel if folded around I got move in as I lose all my fold equity when the clock goes up, I find J7 and go all in, the BB finds AT and was close to folding for some reason!! Call Quicker!!!! He does in the end and I get no help and I’m out with 17 player left.

One good thing about that day was that I had 3 aims, not to spend to much on the rebuy period, not to play cash live and not to waste any money on the roulette machine!!! 3/3!!! I guess next time I play my aim should be to get in the top 3!!!
Big Game!!! 200 Buyin 3 Players, 1st gets 500 and 2nd gets 100!!! Wait it gets even better! We are playing 6 games not just Holdem, each player chooses two games each

Amar : Holdem and Pineapple
Niraj : Royal Holdem, 5 Card Draw
Yours truly, Dhruv : A-5 low ball double draw and Omaha Hi-Lo (feeling the low ball games)

(p.s when I say the buy in was 200 I meant 200 pence!! What did you think I meant?)

This was the most fun I had playing poker for such a long time!!! We are all new to most of these game, although Niraj played a bit of 5 Card Draw and you know I like my Omaha Hi-Lo but the rest is all new. Amar commented that ‘why play these games, we know good’ me and Neal replied ‘we did not how to play holdem a few years ago!’ I learnt with these two boys, we started off with 3 card poker and monopoly money! Fun times for sure!! So when I make my millions and millions leaving in Vegas I wont forget you two! Lol (I wish!!!)

But the games were really fun, but obviously we did not know what was a good hand so there was a lot of bluffing and bluffing with the best hand situation. I’ll try and remember a big hand from each game

Holdem : I raise for like the 4th hand in a row with JJ, they both call (fish) Flop A Q 3, checked round, turn a T and checked to me and I bet out, Amar calls, Niraj folds, river the sweet K to give me the straight and Amar checks to me, I bet big and Amar instant calls (does not even move his chips in) so I think it must be a chop. I shows JJ and Amar mucks saying RIVERED!!!

Royal Holdem : I get JJ and Boards ends up something like A K Q Q T and Amar fires out on the river and I fold saying I cannot beat anything!!! Amar shows AT!! Doh!!!

Omaha Hi-Lo : This was the final hand of the night, me and neal heads up. Flop came 9 6 7 2 hearts, I’m holding QQ45 2 hearts and Niraj bets and I move in he calls instant, claiming he has a low! There is no low out there!!! Opps!!! He has a low DRAW though but misses and I take the 500p!!!

Pineapple: Cannot remember, boring game!!

5 Card Draw: Big hand early on, Niraj on the button and I’m in SB. Neal limps and I raise with 6644Q, Amar calls with JJxx, and Neal re raises!!!! I smooth call and Amar folds. I change one and so does Niraj, ok so I put him on 2 pair, ok a big draw like 789T all spades or something like that. I change my Q and pick up an Ace, we playing double draw so I got one more draw, I check and Neal bets out and I call. Neal got more experience than me at this game so I do not know how strong my hand is. I throw the A and pick up a 2, ok some people keep the A but why? Only helps if he got 6644x, which is quite unlikely. Anyway Niraj stand pats! Doh!! He is representing a 5 card hand as he is not changing. But there was something in his voice about the way he said ‘stand pat’ like he was too confident! So I check and saying to myself you can call his bet, he may have been trying to make a move before the cards were dealt. When I check he thinks and checks behind, so I think I must be good. I say two pair and he goes samem I say you win, he says I cannot! I was like I got 6s and 4s and shows 6s and 3s!! Yeh!!!!!

Low Ball: Was fun but nothing to big to remember.

Ok now here is something for you to do! Basically I only know a few of these games, leave a comment if you have any advise about the games in question or if you have any other fun games that are worth try, please leave a comment and let me know!!!

Dropping Back to $1/$2

2006-09-09T05:56:00.000+01:00

Ok i have had my fun playing $2/$4 but i have realised in the last week that i really do not have the bank roll to maintain that high level of play, i say this after i just dropped £700 playing it in the last week and its just some crazy hands where i lose it all. Here are some examples

Button raises i call with 4d5d 6 handed. Flop 4 5 9, i check and he bets out $16, i call, turn a 2 and he bets out $32 and i move in for another $180ish and he instantly calls with TTs fair enough, all though he has put in no thought to what i have, fair enough, he sees an over pair he thinks its good. So he has 8 outs to out draw me a T 9 or 2, and the 2 hits!

I pick up QQs and some guy who raises every other hand raises to $12 and i make it $44 to go, and the guy next to me moves in for about $180, i think for ages thinking he would do the same with AK, JJ and low but also KK and AA but i call and he flips over A5 Sweet!! First card down is a A! Doh!!!!

Hands like that just kept on happening, AA vs top pair and then he hits two pair on river, etc and the classic over pair vs set, also had a set over set the other day that hurt $900 pot especially as the board paired giving both of us a full house, he rivered the set/house.

Ok i know this sounds like a bad beat post but it aint!! Just explaining why jumping up to $2/$4 was clearly a bad idea. I just dont have the bank balance at the moment to with stand all these beats/ cold decks and to play at that level you need it, so i'm going back to $1/$2 and try and stick there for at least 6 months and re build my roll until i can afford to lose big on $2/$4!!!!

3 Bad Nights at Big Slick!

2006-09-07T04:33:00.000+01:00

Monday

£10 rebuy! Managed not to spend too much in the rebuy period but had a very dead table in terms of rebuys which meant that if anyone got moved on our table broke we would in trouble as there were not many chips on the table, I had aroun 7k after the break which is ok but not alot, lost a big pot with AK vs JJ all in pre, which was during the rebuy. Not too many interesting hands that i can remember i pick up 88 on the short stack a few levels in after the break and move in, one guy calls and the SB dwells up, he had less than both me and the caller, he eventually calls and shows QQs lol!!!! SLow roll??? I think so!!! QQs hold up but my 88s were gd against AK and i win a BB!!!! Yes!!! Literally a chip and a chair, fold the next hand i find AA the hand after i move in!! 5 callers and its checked down! Some one rivered a flush and i'm out!!! Oh well atleast i was only in for £40

Sat on the small cash with £100 and found Q10 and called the BB from the SB was about 4 others in the pot. Flop Q T A, gd flop with two pair, str8 out there but hopefully get action out of the A on board, i check, planning to check, bottom two never too strong, but it checks round, now im thinking some has KJ, not a set as no raise pre flop OR no one has anything. Turn is a lovely T Bingo! Bango Bongo! i now check hoping some else has hit the T. BB takes a deep breathe and bets like someone put a gun to his head, he gets a caller from the button for £8 and i feel he is soooooo strong so i bump it up to £20 and he mucks instantly i was like HUH!! Bad read but the button still called me! River was a blank and i bet £35, she moves in instantly and i call, was not sitting deep enough to even think about her having A10. She shows the str8 and i show the house. I eventually lose my winnings to one guy who quintupled up! With a str8 flush against my top pair, another guys flush draw and another’s guy weak Ace.

i move to the bigger game as this game was drying up. I play very solid on this table as people do not fold anything so it is very difficult to put people on hands, i try to play flops and nothing else, i need to hit but when you do its pay day!! Unfortunately i lose a lot trying to hit flops and i just could not connect. I pick up 45 and call, Flop comes 4 5 3, looks good but there is a str8 out there and a flush draw, but im happy to take on a flush draw, again i plan to check raise the raiser pre who WILL bet the flop, he bets out £20 and is raised to £50 by a solid player, i'm guessing 88s here but then a player re raised to £150 and this play is a very tight player and does not mess about, i think for a while and muck my top two pair thinking the last raiser has atleast a set if not a str8, the orginal better calls with Q6!! and the raiser calls, The tight player had A2, turn is a 2 and the Q6 takes a £500 pot!!! Mr A2 takes the beat VERy well and reloads for another £500, dont worry you will get it all one day!!!

I then pick up JJs and flat call a raise, flop comes A high with two middle cards and i call a bet, turn brings another middle card followed up by a £150 bet and a call, i muck not putting them on an Ace but one two pair or a str8, i think i can wait for a better spot, river a blank and player A shows a str8! i then pick up two big flush + gutshot draws and lose all my money because i never hit those draws! when i;m gettin great odds!!! So sick sometimes, especially when you see some guys who just do not miss at all!!!

Not a good night for me but made back some money online.

Tuesday

£30 second chance a comp i really like. good structure and a nice amount of chips i turn up a bit later but only missed a few hands. It was a really strange table, i only played with 2 players on that table before! which is not normally the case these days at big slick, so i sat there patiently at the start just working out how everyone is playing. Same old bad play i see, people raising way too much and players not taking the pot down when checked to them twice and even three times but hey i like to see that. I cannot remember too many big hands before the rebuy period, i was on about 8k after the break which is a nice amount.

I take a few uncontested pots down, find AJ in early i raise it up, guy calls me, with only 2400 chips left and i think i made it something like 2k to go, so there was around 4.5k in the pot and i basically put him all in blind, flop came Q T 9, so i am up and down and he calls, he has AK with which gave him a gutshot and a flush draw! surprised he did not stick it all in pre to be honest. Anyway i miss and double him up. I then win with 99s vs AQ yes i know i won a RACE! shocking!! On about 10k and UTG a solid player raise, i find KK and think for a while and decide to move allin, some guy thinks for ages and said 'i cannot fold this, it would make me a German!' What the hell does that mean!!! But it put a smile on my face as he must be behind KKs and looks like he has to call! otherwise he will be a 'German' i figured he had AK or TTs, he thinks for ages and lets it go, damm! and Utg quickly mucks. The now ‘German’ folded JJs! Damm that was a missed opportunity for me, but I wanted to try the all in move more to try and get more chips! Guess it was not the right time to do so.

Blinds are now quite big with three tables left and I I’m in the BB we are 6 handed on each table and UTG moves in for 5k and blinds are 1k/2k I find A6, ok UTG has moved in what does that mean, according to all the books he must have a strong hand to moves in early, however I’m very suspicious of people who move in UTG, when blinds are high because they know they are the BB next and the SB after that and those blinds will cripple they stack and moving in now will give them a ‘free round’. Another point is the player is the time who wants chips, he doesn’t like been short. Also my A6 is ahead of KQ KJ QJ, which are legitimate hands to move in with 6 handed on the short stack, but the problem is even if I am ahead I’m never going to be too far ahead also he could have a big hand!! Like AJ AQ AK!!! I decide to call, I’m so tired of getting to final with so few chips, he had K4 and I’m a 63% fav but the 4 hits and I lose, later on I raise with AT UTG and the short stack the the BB says if I don’t not have an Ace I’m calling, he does not and calls with J2, which was fair enough as he was quite short stacked. I was a 67% fav this time but the 2 hit Twice! And I lose another pot!!!

Then I moved in on the button with Ah2h and the BB thinks for a while and calls with JJs!! Call quicker!! I’m stealing!!!! But guess what I get LUCKY!!! I hit an Ace!! Whoo hoo!! A few hands later I make final and one guy went out 2nd hand and we said £60 off the top for 8th place and I was all in next hand in the SB with A3 after a loose ish player raised it up with KJ, I lose and I’m out!!! Oh well a break even night, getting very annoyed with these 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th places had soooo many yes I know I make some money but I need that big win!! Its so frustrating, ive tried not taking on those 55/45 situation and ive tried taking them on but nothing works and those hands are crucial in these night time tournament, which are quite shooty. Oh wel!!

Wednesday

Played the £20 buy in with £10 rebuy comp, played very tight in the rebuy and did not even re buy!! I took the double add on and was in for £40 total which was nice, also had 10% in mr Riveru. I got my stack up with a few drawing hands and hit a few flops, then lost a lot with AK (again to 99s) I never win those races in the rebuy period, which can really build my stack! I then get most of it back with AJ vs QQs ( I got lucky but it does not count in the rebuy period in my books) I end the rebuy period with 8.9k which is good as only 3 tables in this comps.

Interesting hand came up when I was in the BB with A4, EP limped and the SB folded and I checked. Flop came 6 4 2, I check and EP checks, ok now I think my 4 is good, he would have bet the flop if he limped with a pocket pair and my 4 should be good unless he got 666, turn is a J not a nice card for me to see and I check, he bets out and I call, I feel I’m good here but do not want to raise as I don’t think he will fire another shell on the river, river is a J, ok this is a great card for, it makes it less likely for him to have a J, so the only hand I’m worried about is 666, which would give him a full house. I check and he bets out 3k and I have 5.8k left, hmmmmmmmmm it’s a nice pot to win and something told me that I should call this. As I was the only one in the pot I started to talk out loud, I said what did you limp with, not a PP because you have to bet that flop unless you have 666, so you cannot have 88s or 77s, I then say I can beat KT, you would have raised with an Ace or KQ etc, I kept saying I can beat KT, so I called and he looks at me, waiting for me to show my cards, but the rules of game say the last better should show 1st, he shows KT!!! OHHHH yeh!!! I guess I do know something about this game!! Got some surprised looks after the hand though!! I just smiled!

I felt this was my time now to get into the game and make final with plenty of chips, I then have KJ in the SB and limp to disguise my hand, the BB then moves in and I have him covered, if I lose, I’ll be just below average. I call and he flips over K2, he did it blind! Great for me and my KJ holds and I’ve got some chips to play with!!!

Ok I have made the change to gamble and get those chips and it was working, I had about 21k with 12k being the average chips size, with two tables to go I was in the BB with 67 and the button moves in for 5.8k and the SB calls for 4.9k, I have 1.2k invested in the BB and it was another 4.6k to call and I said I need to do some maths, the pot is 5.8k + 5.4k + 1.2k = 12.4k and its 4.6k more for me to call so I’m getting 2.7 to 1 to call and knock out 2 people with only 16 left. On the people side they moved in, in a desperate way so I did not read them for a big pocket pair. I call and they flip over AQ and AJ and I loved it, I’m a 33% fav to win the hand and the odds I was getting were huge. But I miss and lose 5.8k.

I then tried to take the blinds once a round but got card dead and people kept going all in before me, blind were 2k/4k and average was about 20k I had 12K and called an allin with KQ, I felt I needed to gamble and with the blinds folding and extra dead 6k helped! But he had AQ and I go out in 10th!
On a happy note mr RiverU chopped 1st place and I took £45 off him! So I ended up £5 up in the tournament!

I sat in cash which I tried to stay away from. I played two hands and there is no happy ending! Played KJ flop came J T Q, not a bad flop I check in the SB and 4 people were all in by the time it got back to me and I decide to fold on my up and down draw with middle pair, one guy had the flush draw, one str8 draw, one 2 pair and one set of Qs, which held up.

I then find AA and raised the pot and got 6 callers! That’s not good, flop comes Q J 2 and one guy bets £15 (loose player) everyone folds to me and I raise £60 more, loose guy calls and so does the rock on the table, not happy thinking rock may have QJ, turn is a 2! That’s a great card as I got the nut two pair. Other 2 guys end up all in and one got 10 9 and the other Q5, ok not K Q 8 and I take a £350 pot!!! River K!!!!!

Good night Big slick!!

Omaha Hi-Lo!!!!! / More Cash

2006-09-04T14:34:00.000+01:00

From the post before i mentioned that i was playing a omaha hi-lo comp, $33 limit one, which i love to play. I like this game more than Omaha hi because i feel the weak players get punished more. Davey Lu thinks that in hi-lo the players mistake are rewarded with sometimes half the pot, but i feel that the weak players tend to get 1/4 of the pot as we chop the low and i win the high. Also there is always dead money in these multiway pots, where one person just going for the low, one with just a high and 2 others going for both (me!) Its just so sweet when they bet and raise the whole way with just a low and i come in to scoop or atleast take 3/4 of the pot.

Like i said im not going to give a proper report because it is a confusing game to talk about, i WON!!!!!! YEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH i got $1306 comming 1st out of 162 runners was pretty sweet. i dont normally win comps, i have a lot of 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th to my name, which is soooo annoying so nice to win this to go with my big win on UB last week. We did a deal heads up and changed it from 1st - $1450ish and 2nd - $970ish, to $1300 and $1100, i was more than happy to deal as we were both tired and happy with over a $1k. We tried to deal 4 handed but one guy kept on rejecting the offer so we played on and it was sweet when i knocked him out. When then dealt heads up even though i had more chips, i just do not like going back on my word. By the way this was an online comp and you mite be thinkin how are you doing deals!!! Well on Poker stars you can call the manager to the table who will stop the clock as long as everyone is sitting out. Then the manager will 'run the numbers' according to chips in play and the prize pool and offer the chop. Its a nice feature to have when the game is going no where and there is a big jump between 1st and 4th, when all it takes is one hand, lucky for me after the deal got rejected i was on the winning side of that one hand when i got aggressive with 24JJ on a 355 flop turn a 6 giving me the str8 and a 65432 low, he had 555 and couldnot let go!! Sweet!!!!

So played some cash yday which went well, ended up about £250 up in the day, cannot remember any hands in detail right now, played so many, in about 370k in term of action points. Oh yeh there was one lucky hand, well not lucky more timming, there was a 5 minute break in the omaha hi-lo comp and i thought lets play some holdem on rivercard! I like poker star comps because when i get deep you can blow up the size of the table to the size of your laptop screen, which gives a nie focus on the game. Anyway during the break i got on to a table sat with $250 and as i sat down there were 2 ppl on their backs, A9 vs AA all in pre flop, this was obviously surprising. So player in seat 3 had the A9 which lost. Anyway i pick up QQ UTG after auto posting and make it $15 to play, Seat 3 raises to $40 and i flat call to see a flop. Flop comes Ten high and i check to the re raiser, i could have pushed, or checked to see where i stood but i decided on that flop to check raise all in, if he had KK or AA gd luck to him! Although in the pass i have thrown away QQs on a J or T high board putting someone on AA or K but this guy seemed a bit funny especially after the hand before, he then checks behind and i feel he has AK or 3 Ts which would be sick, turn is a Jc and i bet out $80 and he moves in, there are 3c on board and i have the Qc, if he has 3Ts i got 11 outs lets just hope he doesnot have AcKc, i call and he flips over Qh 7c, he is drawing dead! Sweet river gives me the flush and $515 in my hand, i stay for a little while but the table crashed as this guy moved all in every hand after that, but i did not get a hand, he take down a nice pot with 62 allin vs AJ and then lost it all with J5 vs KQ, crazy game! But great timing for me!!!!
Mite go Big slick tonite but not sure, parents came back from india yday so mite jus chil at home, we'll see

£200 Freeze at Big Slick! / Brothers Home Game

2006-09-04T01:35:00.000+01:00

So i qualified for the monthly £200 comp at Big Slick in a £10 rebuy for£50. The structure looked good, 7.5k starting stack and a 30 minute clock. But unfortunately no 75/150 level booooo!! I really like that level. The structure looked good but by the 4th level if you had not moved you would have 20BB, so not a deep stack comp, but a good one for a one day comp, About 85 runners signed up and we were off to go. Tourny started at 7pm, early than usual which is a good idea considered the chips in play, something gutshot should think of doing as well, but it does lead to some confusion, as mate Gary hadnot arrived by the time i had my seating card, so i called him to make sure he knew the time! But he didnt and he rushed over 30 minutes later, So i was ready to play even left my wallet in my car so i would not play cash in a live card room and also to stop playin any roulettE!!! I had a 7% deal with someone who i rate quite highly, he offered me the deal on the wednesday and i gladly except.

So the tourny started and i look around the table, 3 familiar faces and the 5 unknown to me. So i do not play any hand in first 20 minutes, just sizing up the table. One guy makes it 500 to go pre flop with blinds 25-50! Then looks disappointed when he looks back at his cards to why no one called, hmmmm DONT RAISE 10xBB next time!!! One guy moves all in on a pot of 2k on the river as he missed his flush draw and proudly shows it, i wish i was in that hand it was so clear! So not really impressed with the table people raising way to much, but i just could not find a hand!!! i picked up KKs on the button a few ppl limped and i made it 525 to go in the 2nd level, i would normally make it 300 to go but with 2 limpers and the SB and BB behind me i feel 425 is the right price also KKs is a nice hand, but everyone folds, which is fine. I then pick me Jh9h in the SB as UTG raises to 350 and i think, i can call this, the button then goes all in for 5k, HUH!!!! why would you do that??? If you get called you will well should be fucked and at best 50/50 if the guy wants to call with QQs or JJs, i fold and UTG says he has to call!!! HUH???? They both flip over AK and i realise i'm not playing with the greatest players in this £200 freeze which is great!!! I just need a hand and of course the flop comes 10 8 7, which would have given me the nuts! DOH! The guy who made it 500 to pre at 25-50 then doubles up with 52 and suddenly starts to talk, he was not before, he felt so proud, a sign of inexperience, he then goes on to mention that he made final table at Big SLicks last comp the £300 freeze!! i felt like damm! How did he get that far! i was not impressed at all, sorry mate.

I then pick up A7 in the SB and this guy who has played every pot limps, i call, BB checks, flop Ac 7c 3c, ok i got top two!! but flush is out there but i dont put him on it, i check the BB does as as well, and he bets out i call, BB folds, turn a x and i check call, river i check and he bets out a big amount basically all my chips, now i'm thinking does he have a set? but he did not raise pre flop, does he have the flush? Do not think he would have bet the whole way especially as early he rivered a flush against two opponents and checked it waiting for the other guy to bet. (WOW sorry just playin a Omaha Hi-Lo comp on starts, 60 left and i just won a big pot with a pair of 2s, i missed my low and flush draw and he checks the river and the 22 is gd! Sweet!! currently 14 with 60 left! top 18 pay!) So anyway bk the the hand, i think i must be good, i only have 4.3k left and he bet out 4k blinds at 150/300, this would be a nice pot for me, i call, he flips over the kc6c! he flopped nuts! Well played Sir!! Ok should i have raised on the flop to find out where i was, but if he shoves bk at me i'm called, i thought he must have the Kc and maybe a 9 with it but not two clubs. He shoved all in early when he missed his flush and i felt he would do it again hence the check calling, i felt i could double up here with him doing all the work, but he suckered me in!!! I go allin next hand with As2s and 3 ppl limped in, i felt no one hand an Ace and people were raising with any A or pocket pair. Get 6 callers! hmm if i win this i'm looking good, flop Js 8s 8c so got the nut flush draw, lady bets out and everyone folds, she has QJ, i got 12 outs and miss! oh well!!! Well done to the winner of the comp, lets call you player A (people dont like it when i mention names!!) But a big congrats!!!

So i head off home, dissappointed but you cannot win them all, then get home and see my brothers home games has kicked off with 8 other playeys, was a 5p/10p game but raises pre flop were to £1, so i saw it as a 50p/£1 game in my head. Was a good game i bought in for £20 and everyone else was in for £10 or two lots of £10, game had been running for about 45 minutes before i joined. Was a nice relaxing game and quicker than usual. I won my 1st hand with 99s on a 7 7 K 7 9 board! yes a nice river but i didnt need it, as my brothers mate called allin with Ace high!! I get no respect! im a ROCK!!!

Game was going well built up to about £32 from my £20 and was playing solid, but then got bored and mixed it up a bit, raised with 75 and some guy moved in for £5 after my £1.50 raise, he gets 3 callers and i re raise £12 getting everyone to fold he had 88 and it held! But i love that play so much in the middle for me to win now and 75 heads up aint that fair behind any hand apart for pocket 77s and higher! which he had DOH!!!
I got TT and limped someone raised and i re raised, one caller and i put in his last £4 in in the dark total of like £11 and the flop is Q J 7, he calls, go u got me as he flips over 67! Sweet, he then turns a flush draws and hits it on the river ouch!!
I then get annoyed and raise with 9s8s and the rock of all rocks pratik re raises, i move in and he calls, i just wanted to bust his AA! But he had JJ instead which were good and he takes in a £45 pot thanks to me! RELOAD!!!
I then piss away some more cash playing every hand and every draw! Not good poker but hey was a fun game. The pot ended up at just under £300 not bad for 5p/10p blinds!!!!

Overall not a good day for me in live poker but went online and made about £150 to make my balance sheet look a bit better!!

Oh well, still in this omaha hi-lo comp, $30 buy in fixed limit!!! 35 left i'm 9th in chips, top 18 pay out $58 with 1st getting $1400, which i could do with!!! I will let you know the results 2mr!!! But not going to give a report on it, i'm just a rock and play premium cards but i always play for both pots, i easily throw away AAKT and JJT9, look so nice though!!!! So need to report on it, otherwise these reports will be even more messes and long!!

Gd nite and wish me NOT to get unlucky!!

Summary of Month / Cash Games

2006-09-02T14:42:00.000+01:00

Ok i have taken 2 days off live poker!! That is a big deal!!! Although did not find it to difficult, but this is rare for me in my summer holidays especially as i'l be back at uni in 25 days and my parents are still in India but even with the freedom i spent a few days at home.

So i have just been playing Cash online, I need those action points to increase, if i want a free entry to a WSOP 2007 event, also as August was ended their offer of increase august points by 20% was fading, so i took advatage of that and played cash at home. August promotion basically means that if i earn 100,000 points they will throw in another 20,000, which is nice. August is up but they still have not given the extra points. I made something like 150,000 points this month via rake on this site, which with my 5% rake deal will get me $150 as well, not a lot but every little helps, anyone want the same rake bk deal let me know!! (same skin as VC, Doyle's Room and Blue Sq)

I keep an excel spread sheet of my monthly poker record, which will hopefully sure where i am losing money and winning money, my results this month are as follows

Tournament £654
Cash Games £1,091
Online £2,604
Landbase -£859

By the end of the year i'll take all this extra data and try to work out whats going right and wrong. All the top pros say game selection is vital so need to find my strong game and focus on that. From the results in August we can see that i should play more online cash games than anything else. But the results are bais as i had a bad month on tournament, especially spending £300 at GSOP and winning the $2,900 on Ultimate Bet the other day.

Most of the consistent money had been made playing $2/$4 on the river card site. When i started this blog i was playing $1/$2 but i feel a lot more comfortable playing $2/4 and have the roll to keep to it, (unless i go crazy one night!), Each month the plan is to deposit £500 and use that to play on the site, so i will just be depositing once a month. Each night depending on how much i have in my river card account will depend on what game i will play,
e.g £300 or less play $1/$2 and comps
£400 or less play $2/$4 and no comps
£500 or less play $2/$4 and no speed comps (speed = crap shoot fun but expensive)
£600 or less play $2/$4 and no speed comps
£ 700 or less play $2/$4 and all comps
£800 or more cash out to £700

Been doing well at the cash tables at the moment and hoping to maybe build myself my to $3/$6 in about 6 months or so, i'm not sure how realistic that is but we'll see!

Last Two Nights At Big Slick

2006-08-31T11:13:00.000+01:00

Played the £30 second chance at big slick the other night, not too much to comment on, did not really play a hand in the 'rebuy' period. The reason is use the quote is that a feel a second chance or a double chance or even a triple chance tournaments should be played like freeze outs, if you can take your chips at the end of the 'rebuy' period then that is the best time to take it. If you gamble too much ie calling off all your chips on a flush draw and lose you not going to have more chips than if you played it normally. Some people feel they can gamble away thier 1st set of chips but those chips are still worth the same! Also if you take your chips at the end, you will have more!

Like i said not much happened, ended the rebuy period on about 3.5k (from 2k) and topped up 3k to 6.5k, did not even show a hand for the whole period, except one when i was in the BB and my Q4 held for Q high in a three way pot!! Nice! With two tables left i was below average (started with 5 tables), got moved tables as my table crash and 2nd hand in i was in the BB with my 2nd hand all night and i actually mean it the best hand before that was JJs early on. I really did not play too many hands, oh yeh had like QJ and 55s but i really do not seen them as hands. So it folds round and to be honest even though QQs is not a monster i needed some action, i'm mean at least someone trying to knick is fine, jus something, a double up here would put me in a great position for final and a good chance to win the £900 top prize. The button gets up to its usual tricks and raise to 7k, blinds at 800/1600 bit of an over bet. SB folds and i shove for 10.5k, auto call for the girl who raised but she took ages to call!!! At this point i want a calling thinking she had like J3 (yes niraj i know its your hand but against my QQs Loving it!!), she needed to calling 3.5k to win like 22k was an auto call, she eventually calls showing A4, im thinking, what took her so long, she clearly does not understand the game, if you going to knick the blinds and then want to fold when they shove you need to raise less so you can get away from the hand, otherwise you might as well go all in. That is just basic poker, why commit yourself when you do not need too, anyway the ACE hit! Damm although i picked up a flush draw on the flop giving me 11 outs twice but i miss and go home!!!

Played the £20 buy in with £10 rebuy yday but when i say £10 rebuy you are allowed to doube rebuy so i see it as a £20 rebuy, i feel you always want as many chips as possible so you should always double rebuy unless it gets too expensive.

Ok lets look at the rebuy situation, its a 3 table tournament where only top 5 get paid. Recently i have played these comps i end up spending £100 to £120, this is just stupid in my opionon, because i need 3rd or higher to Break even. The whole point of poker is to make money and you cannot expect to win every tournament no matter how good you are, so you do not want to be in a position where you only make monet if you come 3rd or higher, so i tried to budget my self to £60- £80

I succeed!!! Spent only £60, i took ten minutes out when i got a stack to make sure i would not rebuy. Although i was allin on the last hand for all my chips with K10 vs AJ vs AJ and i got lucky with a K. Although i'm only a 60% underdog, i end the rebuy period after a 3k top up for £20, with 10.5k and £60 down which is nice, i always want 10k after the break as blinds are up to 200/400, which gives me room to play. Again did not play too many hand, although a hyper aggressive player moves in UTG +1 on a 7 handed table and i move in with KQ off, he only had half my chips but i need to get everyone else away. Lucky for me no one else called, was a bit risky in such an early posistion but hey i needed a gamble, and i win a race!! whoo hoo!!

I some how get to final after doubling one guy up twice, i kept raising with junky hands like Q10, KJ and he kept moving in and i had to call him, (damm odds!!). I get to final and 1st hand in with have AK vs AA, ouch!!!, top 5 got paid so down to 8, i have no cihps btw and get a double up with 55s vs AQ, another race!!!, we lose one more and the chip leader limps in 2nd position! Limping on final table, hmmm not something i would do to be honest, but he is a good player and won the comp yday, but i feel he does not have a strong hand, maybe something like 109s or 65s or a small pocket pair, im on the button and see A10 and i'm sure im ahead and go allin. I still had some fold equity so if everyone folds i take a nice pot, as blinds are high. SB gets in his chips before me! i dont like that!!!! Then the BB calls for 'value' not sure why but fair enough, was turning into a big pot, the limper now HAS to call there is so much out there and got a chance to knock 3 people out!. He does call, Limper has Qc8c, i can beat that, BB had Kh7h i can beat that, SB has JJ DOH!!! Flop comes Q high, turn a T and now 4 diamonds, and i have the Ace of diamonds, any Ten! any Ace, any Diamond!! 14 outs!!! COME ON!!!!
NOPE!!!! blank on river and i'm out in 7th place!!!

Up to 320k action points on rivercard, doing really well playing $2/$4 and went home after each big slick night to make all my money back, hope im not turning into an online player like Flash!! Got the Big slick £200 on saturday should be fun, looks like a good structure!!! Wish me not to get unlucky!! I never wish for luck, just not to get unlucky! Its a game of skill after all (hmmm!!)

£300 Gutshot Series of Poker Main Event

2006-08-30T01:57:00.000+01:00

10k Starting Stack, Two Hour Levels, £17,000 top prize OHHHH YEHHHH!!!!
I said to myself if I make £300 this month I will play in this event that I got to the final day in last year. I made £1400, so I could play in this event. A while ago I was looking forward to the comp but as the day came nearer I was not too excited. I felt I should be too determined or too focused or have such a high expectation on just one tournament. I’m not saying that it is bad to be focused but if I think too much about it I will play hands badly. I would try to stay in and I might miss an opportunity to get more chips. Phil Ivey says to be a good poker player you should be able to take a $50 note and burn it!! Ok I don’t want to be that good but the principle should be there that this is just another tournament even though it cost a lot more. For the £10 re buy or £100 freeze I do not think about the comps before so why should I do the same here.

I look around at my table. The most important thing in poker (deep stack tourney) is the table draw. Poker is a people game and the people who you will sit next to for the next 7 hours (7 hours to be played on day one) is crucial. So I look around, some familiar faces but nothing to be scared of. There were some strong players in this tournament but I felt my table was not if a high standard but some good players. Here is a quick round up of what I thought of my table in the 1st ten minutes I picked this up.

Seat 1 - a young kid who thinks he knows the game well, can tell by the way he moves his chips he has not played a lot live but liked to dwell up on decision to give the impression he always has a hand. He also had a lot of facial expression, which makes him very easy to read
Seat 2 – Did not want to go out today. He won a pot early on and kept 10k in chips to the side and the rest of his chips on the other side. He did not want to lose his 10k, which was nice to pick on
Seat 4 – Played a bit of cash with him but gave nothing away about his tournament game
Seat 5 – ME!!!!!!!!!
Seat 3, 6 and 7 gave nothing away
Seat 8 – Seen him play online at gutshot, very solid player, heard him talk about poker and he does not understand how big pairs lose to small cards
Seat 9 – Laid out his chips like he had all the room in the world, sign of a player who has not played a lot or never had a lot of chips
Seat 10 – Talked a lot about how he went to play the main event in the WSOP this year, played with him before, very solid
So that’s the line up, seat 3, 6 and 7 were a worry, just because they did not give anything away, which meant it might cost me a little bit to find out but the rest I knew where I stood.

1st hand I’m on the cut off as the button was placed on to seat 6. I find KQ I just limp and the SB calls and the BB a solid player raises to 300!!! Woo that’s a big bet. Blinds are 25-50, I would make it like 150 to go maybe 200, I decide to just lay the hand down as he made it too much to go. I want to play small ball early on.

3rd hand in I get 66 and seat one has already limped, so I limp for 25, the button the solid player in seat 8 makes it 200 to go, the limper thinks for a while and calls, I call as well. Pot 675, Flop , 3 6 5 Bingo Bango Bongo! I got top set, not the nuts but a very nice hand. Seat one check, I check to the raise and he bets out 400, seat one raise to 900, hmmmmm ok do I raise here or smooth call, I don’t have the nuts but folding is out of the question. I decide to smooth call. The button decides to call as well, which make me believe he must have an over pair to raise, bet and still call a raise on a raggy flop. Seat one could have a drawing hand like a pair and a gutshot or the nuts, lets hope not! Turn is a 7 , not the best card if seat one was drawing. But he checks and I lead out, the button thinks for a while and calls and seat one folds, so seat one must have been making a move as he folded quickly. So now I know I have this guy trapped! River A , hmmmmmmmmmmmm. My read is a big over pair, has he really got pocket AAs and not hit a higher set, going with keeping the pot small I decide to check the river and call a bet. I think I would check the river also if a K comes at the end. He looks really puzzled and checks, I show my pocket pair thinking its good and he flips over his three ACES!!!! Ouch!!! Down to 7.5k early on, not a good start

I then pick up 65s in MP and too be honest I feel sick at the moment, I have just lost a big pot and I think a lot of people would go broke there or at least lose half their stack, on the bright side I felt I lose the minimum in that hand, as I’m sure the guy is not folding AAs, the level of skill just is not that good. Now it folds round to the SB who calls and the BB makes it 150 more to go, I call and the SB folds. Ok I do not need to be playing this kind of hand heads up, as it works a lot better in a multi way pot but I have position and I’m steaming just a little bit. Flop 4 Q 3 , ok that’s is a nice flop for me, but also it’s a flop that I feel has missed him, I feel there are only 4 raising hands in that position that would like that flop AQ, AA, KK, QQ, everything else has missed or has an over card. He checks to me and I check behind, sense he may want to check raise me, which I cannot let him do as I would fold my draw and if he has something like QQQ or AQ I think I can win a big pot with my free card. Turn is a J , and he checks to me again. I have to bet here now, if someone checks to me twice I have to bet out, otherwise no point in calling with position, he called but did not seem too happy. I immediately put him on AK, he has a gutshot and 2 overs, which he feels he needs to hit to win. River is a sweet 7 giving me the nuts and checks again, before the river was dealt I was just thinking please no A K or T, any other card and I fire out, its irrelevant that the 7 came to make my straight once he checks to me I’m betting to take the pot away but now I’m betting to get a call, he dwells and I know he has AK but I need a call so I decide to give a bit of talk. I have seen this guy at gutshot who gets quite annoyed about people and hates being bluffed. So I just say ‘It cannot take that long to fold AK’, he got very annoyed (this is not my usual style, I was still annoyed about the set of 6s against As and now I have the nuts, I want a pay day). He tells me ‘yes I do have AK what do you have, do you have a pair, I truthfully said NOPE!’ He eventually folded and I mucked my hand and take a small pot down.

I then pick up AA a few rounds later and lose to 33, who flops a set, I lose around 2k there as well. I then picked up a lot of small pots, when ever some one checked to me I just fired out. I won a lot of pots in the SB, when a ‘family pot occurs’ ( a lot of limpers) and im in the SB I called, BB checked and a flop would come down, Everyone would check to the turn and I would fire out. No one would expect the SB to be stealing! I took about 7/10 pots like that but a few times I got a caller. When I did I just put them on a draw and if a safe cards comes on the river I bet out again. I then got to the 1st break which was the 1st change of blind level with 9.6k in chips, which I felt was enough considering the dealer wanted to knock me out! I wanted about 10.5k to 12k after the 1st level but I still had plenty of chips.

At the break just checked up on my mates Dave, Niraj Jamie and Tom all had entered and all were still in, Niraj going strong after hitting a straight flush!!

So off to the new blind level of 50/100. I didn’t play too many hands. I picked up KKs and won a nice pot. Got one caller from the BB who fires out on a J high board, I just smooth call, disguising the strength of my hand, although I give him a chance to out draw me. Turn comes a blank and he fires out and I call, river a blank he checks, I value bet and he fold 10s and is absolutely disgusted. I show my KKs to say look I had you. In my opinion, playing 10s out of position is difficult, but I would check raise the flop with the J only being the over card, if it was an ace I mite check fold but I would check raise here as a Jack flop would miss a lot of my ranging hands. Also by check raising you have taken control of the hand, by him just betting and getting called he had no idea where he was in the hand.

I then pick my QQ I raise it up and get an immediate call to my left, which a poker player never likes, he was a quite tight player so I do not like being out of position against him. Flop comes Ad 8d 3d , ok I got the 2nd nut flush draw but the Ace on board takes away a lot of my hand, but I bet out and the guy raises me, hmmmmmmm I wish I checked and called the flop instead. I felt I could not call as I feel he was a tight player, he didn’t re raise with KKs early and check call 3 fours on a 4 4 A 7 T board as he was worried about his kicker. SO!!! Is my QQs good, I don’t think so, is my flush draw good I think so, I got 11 outs but the pot has got a lot bigger, now if I call on the flop I’m out of position and if I miss it will be very expensive on the turn, I decide to lay it down and waiting for a better spot. (Sweet just won a $500 pot in my online cash game, flop KhJh4h, I got JJ and check raise, he then pushes I have to call for $85 more, he has KcQh, poor play by him, only 2nd nut flush draw with top pair, oh well, he doesnot catch up!!! YAAAAA)

I pick up QQ again and I make the raise to 300 and the same guy calls, yuk! I hated playing this guy. Ok flop comes A Q A Bingo Bango Bongo!!!!!!, I decide to check, and he checks behind, turn is a blank and I bet out, he then raises me, hmmmm ok I have the 3 nuts, AQ wins and so does A+turn card. I was feeling really paranoid so I just smooth called putting him on AK AJ maybe AQ but that would just be sick. So in my head I’m thinking no picture card (although a Q would be nice). River bring a baby card and I get off my paranoid issue and fire out, he thinks for a while and says this is a bad call but I will call, now I feel safe as he flips over AJ and I win a nice pot! I end the next level on 12.5k and things are looking good.

Blinds up!!!! Oh a funny point, I raise with 109 in MP and the SB thinks in seat ten while seat one shows me his cards!!! Jake the dealer calls John I the Tournament Director over, and explains the situation. Seat one is told to show the hand to seat ten as well, but he folds and I take the pot, John I then tells the kid you now have a 10-minute penalty, lol. The Kid did not take it well and said you have to be kidding me and just sat there, I said politely mate just go before it gets worse, (you can tell I went to private school!! Lol). Ok for the people who think that was harsh, it is in the rules and John I is always firm but fair, he is recognised as one of the best Tournament Directors in Europe.

Back to the poker, well I try to bluff a few pots and got my hand caught in the cookie jar, showing K high in one hand, opps. I then pick up, yes you guess it QQ again! EP raises up, solid player made about 4 raises pre flop in last 5 hours, so I just smooth call in the BB, did not feel to tangle too much and would chuck on a Ace high board. BB calls as well. Flop 10 6 3 , good flop for me and I check, BB check and the raiser bets out 1.6k, I then decide to take the lead and raise to 3.5k and the BB CALLSS!!!!! OUCH!!!!! HUH!!! Im screwed!!!!! I started the hand with about 10.k and now only have 6k left after my raise but what the hell does he have!!! The oringinal raiser fold after taking awhile. I’m compelety done with the hand, There is no hand I’m beating that he can call a check raise with, The turn is a K and I check, he bets and I muck QQs face up instantly!!! That crippled me, ok where did I go wrong??? Should I have re raised pre, as I was out of position for the rest of the hand or did I get away with it for less chips. The BB claimed he would have called a re raise pre flop. In that case I would have lost my stack on that flop. Hmmmm this hand killed me, I was down to 6k, the blinds were still low but mentally felt really hurt. I make it to the next break with 5.3k and in big trouble, blinds were still 100/200 but now with a 25 ante. So each round is costing 550, and I have 10 rounds to go.

Now I get aggressive looking to double up. I pick up A8 and raise and everyone folds, I then pick up 63 and raise and everyone fold. I then pick up Jc7c and raise and the solid player on the button who has only raised twice in 6 hours (AA once) re raise but not a lot, the SB then calls, I then think! Hmmm do I call, im out of position on the raiser and could push if no Ace falls, but then I got to worry about the SB aswell. I am suited (poor excuse) but gives something extra, but I feel there are too many dangerous flops for me to call. Flop comes 3 clubs!!!! Sick!!! SB bets half his stack and the button moves in and the SB folds!?!?! Yuk!!! What did he have, I felt he had KK or AA with big club in his hand! SO annoying but that’s what I get with raising with that crap! This was the big missed opportunity for me, but then again he mite have hit the higher flush or may have flopped a set as the flop came Q high, but then I could have said, ‘ PASS THE SUGAR!!!’ (Club flush vs QQQ. Joe Hachem WSOP 2005). I become really short when I pick up pocket 10s against AA on a 8 high board! Just nothing was going right for me, I get down to 2,8k and Donna (other TD) mentions that there is 20 minutes left until day one is over, I looked at my stack and I did not want to come back with that many chips, so I started to move in, I moved in UTG with A10 and pushed with J9 on the cutoff, then the last hand of the night came I found 55s UTG and pushed, the SB called with A10 and I lose the race!

Not much went right for me, picked up some nice hands but no good flops for me, I was not aggressive enough on flops and pre flop in my opinion but that was not my game planned I wanted to play flops turns and river which is what the structure allows, surpirisingly I did not pick up AK or AQ once in the 7 hours of play, they are great drawing hands but I mainly picked up made hands which are hard to improve on. Oh well, got the £200 comp at Big Slick next Saturday and want to focus more on my cash games online, on about 300,000 action points on rivercard only 1.7million to go and I get my $2000 buyin into the WSOP!!!!!

Tag Team Holdem at Gutshot and a $30 Rebuy on Ultimate Bet

2006-08-28T01:07:00.000+01:00

Ok went to the play the £100 tag team holdem at Gutshot 2nite and was really looking forward to it. It has a 30 min clock with 4k starting stack, which is nice. The way it works me and my partner Pratik, Patrick, will tag in and out every 15 minutes as will everyone else in the room. Its as simple as that.

I take the 1st level and win the 1st 3 out of 5 hands, with AJs, QQs and K6. I made small raises pre and bet small on flops turns and rivers. Even flat called a river bet with two pair with AJ just to keep the pot small, was not looking to play big pots early on, there is just no need, I was really enjoying myself and started to look forward to the main event on Friday which is a real deep stack comp.

Pratik, Patrick comes on and plays solid, I don’t think he picks up many hands as when I come back the stack is the same. Ok so I come back and limp in with a few pairs and not really hit much. Pratik comes back on and doubles the eventual winners up. He limps with AQ in middle position (mp), which I do not like at all. The SB then moves in for about 2k as he sees weakness in limpers and feels he can pick up the pot, which is fair enough. Pratik calls knowing the style of player he was up against. The guy has 94, 1st card out is an Ace followed by two 9s! Oh well we lose some chips, down just below average.

I come back to the table and the dealer goes oh your partner got unlucky, I said not really he played it badly and AQ vs 94 is not unlucky, just poker, I mean two live cards against two unpaired big card is not too far behind. Not much really happens, we are down to short stacked poker and its all in or fold. I move in UTG with 97 and no one calls, I later raise with A10 and someone pushes, I wanted to call but we had enough chips to get people of hands later. I hate calling of my chips without a big big hand, although I will raise with a large number of hands. While pratik was in he picked up AAs and doubled up and then we had a nice stack. Then he was back in he picked up JJs after UTG pushed allin he had a decision. We had more chips than UTG by about 5 BBs. What should he do? The player who pushed is a solid player who is aware of his position on the table and I feel he pushed with AQ minimum and 99s or higher. However many players also push UTG on the short stacked with marginal hands as they are in the BB next and then the SB. This is also a good position to bluff at, which is why I pushed with 97 earlier. So pratik eventually call, which I think is a good call in this type of tourney. When the structure is not great you have to take gambles. Hopefully he has a small pair, he had AK and we are off to the races!! Ace hits and we are crippled, was a big pot and a win there with 4 tables left would have been very nice. We then get bk to allin or fold poker. We are down to 3 tables and im in the SB with 4 BB. The button raises. But what was interesting was that his raise was in his hand before the action got to him or before he looked at his cards. This gave me the impression he is raising with any two cards, which is fair enough when the BB and SB are short stacked. So he makes his raise and I look down and see an Ace and I go all in, he has to call as it is just a little bit more. Ok I have looked at one card, not the best poker but I know my A high is good 90% of the time, it does not matter about the other card. Ok I also know what if I have A rag I’m at best a 50/50 to a KJ, J10 but I felt we did not have enough chips to pass the small edge we had pre flop. He flips over Q10 and a few Qs come down and we are out!!!! On a nice note my good mates Gary and Zenal end up 2nd place and take home £1300!!

So went home early as I wanted to stay away from cash games as the main event was just around the corner. Do not think I had ever left gutshot so early, was about 12ish. So got home early and decide to play some online poker while watching some High stakes poker, which I downloaded the other day. So I tried to play some Royal Holdem and Pineapple on Ultimate Bet but no one was on the site, I looked over to the tournament section and saw there was a nice $30 rebuy a 10k Gtd but had already started. But UB does this thing called alternative list, which means you can come into the tournament when someone get knocked out but out but only in the 1st hour, I was 14th on the list and felt I probably would not get a game but I thought I just sign up anyway, plus if I get in it will be towards the end of the comp which would be good for me as a $30 rebuy is quite expensive, as I always take the double top up, which would turn it into a $60 rebuy. I eventually get the seat 3 minutes before the rebuy is over. I take the instant top up and then add on at the end of the level. I spent $90 and had 6k but average was only 7k and the UB structure is quite nice. So I had a fair shot and spent the minimum.

I play a very tight game early on and get a double up with some drawing hand, cant remember off the top of my head. But I like playing a tight game when I have average chips on the table. But when I got up double up I started raising every 3 hands, putting pressure on especially the short stacks. I played a lot of position poker by raising on the cut off a lot so if I got a call I would be in late position. Played a nice hand with 63, where I raised in late position, one of the blinds called. Flop came A 4 5, he bets out, I call, turn he bets, I call, river he checks and I push half of his stack in with 6 high, knowing he feels if he re raises I have to call (which I would not with my hand) as I made it looked like I am committed so he needs a hand to play back, he folds, which was nice. I played a lot hands like that just betting and betting, which is what I like to do. Also flopped some nice hands and picked up a few big hands which didn’t get cracked which was very nice. I was in the top 3 chip position when 50 left until final 2 tables. I slowly went down the order just because I kept playing small pot poker, which I feel I do better than a lot of people. I love keeping the pots small as the bluffs and suck outs are cheaper and you can call on scary boards cheaply. But with everyone else playing big pots more people went out and stacks got bigger. This is what I feel is a weakness to my game, especially it not so deep stacked tourneys, as I avoid big pots. So I never pick up massive pots unless someone is doing something silly or I get lucky (So not often!). I get to final and everyone is paid $200 (top 20 got paid) So now I at least double my money and I have my eye on the $2.9k 1st prize.

I’m about 5th in chips going into the final table. Now my strategy for final is to play quite tight, as now every decision can cost real money. The blinds were nice, they got the game moving but were not to high. The way I like to play final is quite tight when 9 – 7 handed. I like to sit back and let others knock each other out. I would prefer to stay out of their way and move up the money and get my self in a good position to win, which is easier when u have moved up to $800 in real money. Many people say , oh I play for 1st! and most people say that straight after they have been knocked out of a competition, which I think is just an excuse, I like to wait for good opportunities. Even last years world series of poker champion said that you cannot knock everyone out, as he sat back on final and let the others battle it out. I have spoke to a few mates about this, the whole I play for 1st thing. I strongly feel its not that important. However I’m not going to go into detail about that for now, as this entry is getting long enough, I will come back to this issue later on as it is a key one.

Back to the final, so plan is to sit back, 1st hand, I get AK in LP and someone in MP goes all in for less chips than me. I call and the BB (chip leader thinks for a while) I do not like that, he folds and types in he had AK. While the cards turn over I see I’m up against the cowboys KK, opps! So much for staying out of trouble. I lose and now on the short stack. A few people go out while I just steal on the cut off or in LP. We get down to 6 handed and I move in with A3 and the BB calls with A6. Well I’m completely dominated and need a 3 to take the lead however there is a 25% of winning and a 35% chance of splitting the pot so there is only a 40% chance of me going out, we end up splitting the pot which I am more than happy with. I then move in with A9 and big stack calls me with QJ and my A9 holds up. I move up to 2nd in chips. We then lose a few more people. When I doubled up I started raising most hands but not the big stacks blinds, I felt I should stay out of his way. I felt good with a few of us left and wanting it to get heads up. With the blinds reasonable I felt I could take anyone on heads ups as long as I’m not out chipped by more than 4 to 1. So we get 3 handed and the short stack raises in SB I got 77s and shove it in. He thinks for while and calls with K10, I win a RACE!!!! Whoooooooo!

So we are heads up. 1st gets $2960 and 2nd gets $1700+ so we are playing for $1200ish. He has a slight chip lead. I play a lot of small pots at the start to see what kind of hands he is playing heads up. I even call with K high just to see what he had, hoping K high was good to but it wasn’t L. I edge up with these small pots, so I have a chip lead of about 90k with 590k in play. I pick up the big hand AA! In a full ring game AA is massive but needs protecting, when heads up its soooo big that I wanted to take a gamble on them to win a big pot. He limps in SB and I 2x raise. He calls. Flop 6 5 2. He bets and I call. Turn 9 he bets I raise and he pushes!! HUH!!!! Now the pot got big! Like I said I love small pots but can never win a big pot here is my chance for a big pot and the win! (been a while) This would also be my biggest win ever!. I think for ages and final put him on a pair + a gutshot! I call, he has J5!!! SWEEET!!! River a J!!!!! YUK!!!!!!!!!!!
I now have 90k and he has about 500k blinds at 3k/6k, I’m in trouble!! I feel sick and almost give up, I fold the next few hands as I pick up 104, 62, 83, 82. I then say to my self if I fold the next hand I have no fold equity (enough chips to get the BB to fold to an all in raise) So I say to myself, I’m all in next hand. I pick up good old 10 4 and push and he folds. I’m now down to 32k btw he should not have folded any two cards there. So I then go allin with a A rag and get called by QJ and win! Get back up to about 90 k, I then push with KQ and he calls with K10. I get back to around 200k and type in the chat box, the game is back on, in other words no more all in rubbish, lets play poker! Back to small ball and I grind up above him, Blinds were going up so even the small pots were nice. With the chip lead I raise with KJ and get called, flop Q 10 8, nice flop, over card plus open an ended, he checks I bets he calls, turn a J, he bets I call, river the 9, he goes all in! I got the nuts and call! He has two pair and my straight is good!! I win a tournament!!!! My biggest tourney to date!! And with GSOP round the corner it should be sweet!!!! WHOOooooooooooooo!

Donkey of the Day
Award goes to DWEBB85 (or 86.87.88.89) who played heads up really badly!! He played the tourny really well got lucky on me heads up, which is fine but he should have stuck me all in every hand once he had that monster chip lead on me! But thanks i'm £1200 richer thanks to you! Royal Holdem here i come!!

£30 Second Chance at Big Slick

2006-08-23T03:21:00.000+01:00

Not much to say today, i have not played too much online poker, as i want to get ready for the Gutshot Series of Poker Main event, which will hopefully be a 4 day a event for me! I feel my online game can affect my live game so i want to stay clear of big games, so recently been playing some omaha hi-lo and badgui games instead. Just opened up an ultimate bet account, going to deposit £100 and just play some fun games like Royal Holdem and Pineapple at some low stakes just for fun.

Went to Big SLick and took the rebuy after 3 hands. UTG raises and i flat call with AK, the SB then re raises and UTG folds i then decide to push, thinking here is a good chance to double up and if not just rebuy. I felt i was ahead as the SB was a gd player i mite have been squezzing to take the pot down, as i showed weakness by flat calling a raise, therefore he cannot put me on strength. Here i decided not to play a small pot with AK, which i normally like to do in the early levels, but i felt this may set up a good image for me as well. People may not decide to make moves against me, if they know im not afraid to stick all my chips in. He calls in a flash with KKs, oppps! and i dont get lucky REBUY!!! the rebuy gives you 3k and the buyin gives you 2k, so i got more chips than everyone but the guy i gave my chips too. I play a more solid game and get to the 1st break with 3.5k, although i was targeting around 5k. Not much else to say really i played quite a solid game and my hands held up. One interesting hand before final was a nice battle of the blinds, SB limps and i check with 104. Flop 3 Q 10, SB checks but looked like he wanted to bet out. So i feel he wants this pot and may check raise me if i bet. That was the 1st impression i got, he is a solid player but is willing to bluff to take a pot down. So i decide to go on my read and bet out to see what he does, he makes a fairly quick raise, so i feel this was definatley pre determined, now the question is does he have a had? I feel he may have had a draw or just air. I decide to find out and re raise him back, to which he folds. Apart from that i took the blinds once every 2 rounds and stayed about average til final

Final was quite shooty and with 6 to be paid we were a long way away. We get down to 5 handed and i pick up my biggest hand of the night in the SB, it folds round to me (im the shortest stack) i look and see one Q and say allin, then see the other card is a Q (oppps!!!) i really wanted to slow play this hand, i couldnot afford not to get paid at that stage, the BB folds and i miss an opportunity, Im out next hand when i push on the button with a K, SB finds JJs and no suck out
Ended up £24 up!!! Whooo!!!
Sorry not too interesting today, 2mr should be a good write up, going to gutshot to play the tag team event with Pratik and also buyin into the GSOP main event, so 2mr costing quite abit!!