Gala Leicester £60 Double Chance

It has been a while since I played live so thought it was about time to visit the Gala Leicester again last Thursday night.

The tournament is a £60 buy in with 4000 starting chips plus 4000 more to be had by the end of level 2 (oh and a £6 meal voucher). With blinds starting at 50 / 100 and 40 minute blinds this gives for plenty of play.

All the card room regulars were there including our own APAT and GBPT champion Neil Blatchley. The only down side was that the Gala had capped the tournament at 30 because of a lack of dealers even though there were plenty more who wanted to play.

Well I started on table 2 (which turned out to be the table of death) as this table had many knockouts. As happens in these circumstances this resulted in our table having more of the fair share of chips to play for which would put any survivors going to the Table 1 final table in good position.

The table dynamics were absolutely excellent; 1 very loose aggressive player and about 5 other very experienced players.

I have to say I was very happy with the way I played only really making one bad play in position attempting to bluff someone off of a board showing A33 on both the flop and the river after my opening raise then having to fold to his large river bet.

I had a little bad luck early on when my top pair Q's (holding AQ) saw a short stack all in with an open ender for him to hit his 8 outer.

The loose aggressive openly stated to the table he was trying to dictate that I, [i.e. me!] only played with an ace in my hand. This information was put to great effect as I used the board cards to take him off the hands when premium cards showed ... lovely. Equally nice as he always had a stack to draw from as others folded in his wake.

So I hit the final table with a stack of about 32,000 with blinds at 1000 /2000. After a couple of rounds my exit hand came.

Finding AK suited on the button I open raised to 6,000. The loose aggressive who was now on my left called (as I knew he would) and then the BB went all in. Now this guy had only made this move with AJ and better as I had been playing with him on table 2. The LAG then helped me out by mucking his cards out of turn (despite trying his best to get them back). I decided that this was my moment, either I am crushed or I could win this hand and get to the top 4 places for the prize money.

I called and he table the same AK. However he went on to hit his one card flush on a board of 4 diamonds and I was out stunned and shocked.

Still it was a great game and I was happy to finish 8th in the freaky way I did to that field.

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!

Some belated August tournament results

I have played 4 multi tourneys so far this month.

The first being on Interpoker.

This was on an evening where I was too tired to play normal cash games for fear of my concentration levels being too low. So I signed up for a micro rebuy at about 9pm thinking that I could play for an hour or so then get to bed without losing too much money.

However at around 2am I came in 8th out of the 168 runners for what amounted to next to nothing in prize money ... my pride just wouldn't let me get to bed and leave my cards folding to the table ... that's the competitive nature in me.

The second in the poker listings $1k I came 308 out of 436 ... not too good eh?

The third was the poker listings $5K.

In this tournament I had very few cards early on and was forced to push with 89 suited and 9T suited in position and doubled up twice to get to the cash stage.

After this I waited for my hand and got KK ... not once but twice in consecutive hands. The first time it doubled me up leaving me about 20th of 33 left, the second when I raised UTG 3 x BB at $2000/$4,000 blinds ... only the BB called leaving him $18000 chips to my $13500 chips with a pot of 24,000. On a flop of 3TJ I pushed the rest of my stack and got called by his 88 only for him to hit his runner runner flush.

I think he played his hand horribly for the following reasons:

1. Why call as if to hit a set if he has such little implied odds from my stack?

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2. Calling with 88 in this spot I can only see as a valid play if you are to use your first to act position to bully the pot if you do not hit your set; he did neither and checked as first to act.

3. When I go all in why does he call. Surely if he thinks he has the best hand he would lead out ... is this a valid trap play with 88 after an UTG raiser?

Should he have folded or all in preflop? I can't see a call preflop... call flop play here as great ...

However I ended up 33rd out of 701 starters.

My last was this morning, a therapeutic game with some of the free cash Party has given me. Turning a starting tournament of 194 players into a 7th place small cash.

Until Next Time

Keep it tight.

Bonus City

The websites really are crazy with bonuses at the moment.

On Full Tilt I have to earn 1 more point a day for 4 more days and they will wing me a free $50. Add this to my current balance of $65 built from the last free $10 they gave me and I have a tidy free bank roll for what amounts to about 15 minutes play on Full Tilt an evening.

Also Party have just added another $50 free bankroll (restricted on earning 300 points) which stands for 60 days.

Rakeback on Interpoker is slow and I am beginning to think it will not pay me to play there at the stakes I am playing. Currently on the .25 / .50 tables I am only a fifth of the way to the $100 minimum rake needed to be paid my 30% rakeback. This is compounded buy the fact that the SnG tourneys seem incredibly difficult to beat on the Boss media network hence I haven't been playing SnG's there, unfortunately this is where a large amount of my rake would normally come from.

I am trying to boost my playing bankroll on Interpoker by adding my Betfair winnings to that poker pot to take me up the levels.

Anyway I am going to give it a go at the .5 /1 tables and see if it will help me reach my rakeback next month, if not I will have to ditch this site because I can earn smaller easier bonuses elsewhere.

Other than this there is nothing much to report for my poker life at the moment, a true reflection of what the poker grind is truly like.

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!

Where's my rake?

So far I have not earned myself rake back ...

Why not?

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Well I did start late in the month so only generated $8 of rakeback. However it is a boss media term and condition that rakeback only gets paid if the rake is over $30.

I kept an eye on my account and it looked like they would roll my $8 over to the next month, however today my previous balance has been reduced to zero.

So I am now playing on the $.25 / .50 tables to see if I can generate enough rake for rakeback this month.

Once I settle into the routine I think it will pay.

One other thing about Interpoker though ... the SnG's are tough. If you Sharkscope the tourneys you will see many are in the 2-4 shark band ... best stick to the cash games I think.

Until Next Time!

Keep it tight!

Best Bonus for a While

Has any body else noticed how the poker sites are throwing bonuses at people at the moment.

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Last month I had another $50 put into my account on Party (bonus clearing terms pending).

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This month CD poker are giving me about 5 qualifying tickets for live events.

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And to cap it all off Full Tilt are providing us with the Take 2 bonus for September.

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This has to be the easiest bonus to clear in the history of bonuses. All you have to do is play two ring game tables simultaneously and earn at least one point ... If you do this for 5 days they will give you $5. If you do this for 10 days they give you $10 ... but wait ... they also add it to the $5 you've already earned.

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The maximum you can earn is if you do it for 25 days they will add $25 to your account in addition to the $25 you will already have earned for playing for 5, 10 and 15 day durations.

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So a whopping $50 for what amounts to about 20 minutes play an evening at most.

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For any poker player $50 is quite a nice bonus and will very thankfully be added to my struggling yearly profits.

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Bless you Full Tilt!!

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Until next time.

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Keep it Tight1