Grass Roots Poker

It has been a long time since I have played a live tournament, so when I saw a poster advertising a poker tournament at a pub near the hotel I stay at in London, I took the opportunity to go along.

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I have to say this is the first pub run tournament I have been to and didn't really know what to expect of the evening.

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The format was £5 rebuy for the first hour with unlimited rebuys if your starting stack of 2000 went down to 500 or below plus an add on after the first hour (with 15 minute blinds). There were about 24 players and 3 prizes being paid (max of £100 to the winner) so I wasn't intending to have many rebuys but maybe an add on.

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Well the first hour went very quickly and I ended up having about 7000 chips having just had my initial buy in.

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I was fairly happy and contemplating the add on when one of the smallest stacks (he had about 600 chips) sat back down bringing a further 8000 chips with him. "?????????" I thought. Totally bamboozled I asked the organiser what the add on was ... well it was a max of 4 further rebuys at £5 each for a further 2000 chips per rebuy.

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Well that put an end to my add on thoughts, I wasn't going to spend a total of £30 to win £100 when there were still about 16 players left in.

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From now on I was going to play hands for all my stack with the blinds already at 300/600, hope to get lucky and play from there.

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Well I went out when I raised on the button with QT diamonds and I got SB and BB calling. The flop came down A,Q 2 with two diamonds. Check, Check and I bet. SB reraises BB folds and I call all in.

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He shows Q8 os and the 8 turn seals my fate ... out about 14th.

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Having now gotten over the strange tournament structure and also over my own poker purist views I have to say the night was very enjoyable. All of the guys that played were really welcoming and good fun. There was a mix of players ... some that obviously play regular and some that like to hold two cards whilst they drink beer. The main thing is that they all enjoyed themselves and obviously are a group that meet weekly for this event.

I have to say also that the guy that organises it certainly does his bit and I think you earn points on a weekly basis for prizes at the end of the "season".

So if you are in the vicinity of the Bath Road near Heathrow and can get to the Jolly Waggoner pub I am sure that these lads would welcome you to play.

Will I be going again ... ?

Well I would personally like a to see a better structure; perhaps a freezeout from the start with 3000 chips or a limit of one add on at the end.

But it is what it is ... its only a fiver ... its poker ... and it gets me out of the hotel.

So if they'll have me back I'll be there.

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!

Stu Ungar - The man behind the shades

Not long finished reading this book and what a great read.

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It is impossible for me to even contemplate how good Stu Ungar was, even more impossible to imagine the amount of money that passed through his hands. Do the true greats of the gambling world have to have this nonchalance to monetary value, to treat money as if it is merely a tool to make more. If so then I can say I will never achieve more than a few grand a year profit.

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So definitely go out and buy this book you will not be disappointed.

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If you like the feeling of not being disappointed then definitely steer clear of the film "High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story" ... I watched it last night and that is an hour and a three quarters of my life I will never get back. If you want a good gambling movie to watch look up "21", this I really enjoyed.

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So what have I been up to for most of February on the Poker front.

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Well I have been taking some time to reflect on why I am making alot of inconsistent results. Still playing on the double ups I have been trying a number of different sites to try and get into my comfort zone again. I am happy to report that I have identified a change in my game; something that I was doing to great effect on the Ladbrokes site but had somehow forgotten along the way when I was suffering a bad run of results.

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This has been a somewhat similar process as it was when I used to play golf. When hitting the ball poorly I would spend hours breaking down my swing ... starting with the grip, stance, swing plane etc and trying to identify what it was that had changed.

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So now my results are showing some improvement:

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Played 79

Cashed 46

Win Percentage 58%

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Still not up to the 64% I was hitting prior to Christmas but an improvement on the 54% I hit in January.

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I haven't been playing many multi tourneys. Had a little $6 with 130 players last night, and only realised once I got my first playable hand that it was a limit tournament. Anyway I came 29th for no cash, but it was a change from the double up grind.

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I have played about 6 sessions of cash for just over break even, again just to vary my game from the double ups.

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So thats about it for now ...

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Until next post

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Keep it Tight

Is someone having a laugh - or are all the fish just dead?

I am sure we have all had the feeling that no matter what you do you can't win an online hand. No matter how many times you go in ahead, or how far ahead you are, the muppets still manage to out draw you. You sigh, reload or start up another Sit and Go and the same happens again and again until you start to question not luck, but the mechanics of the poker site on which you are playing.

Since day one of Internet poker there have been rumours of site fixing and a bias in poker software. I have never been one to back up this theory up and still hope (with all my heart) that this really is just a rumour.

However a bad run of cards can soon start these little gremlins of conspiracies past talking in your ear whilst sitting down to a game.

My most recent of these feelings were felt whilst playing on the ongame network. I have dropped and returned to a particular site on this network a number of times due to seemingly unfairness. The problem is that the site has such a good bonus structure, and this keeps me coming back.

This return started fine, I ran $50 up to $350 in the space of a couple of weeks and was getting close to completing my bonus. I was still seeing (or thought I saw), what appeared to be a dis proportionate amount of 60/40 and 70/30 hands going the wrong way, but it wasn't happening to me so I didn't care.

Then the mysterious "DOOM SWITCH" was flicked and I couldn't win a hand never mind a Sit and Go. I was constantly getting pushed into situations where I needed to go all in, yet couldn't win one if I was ahead or behind. Well the Gremlins got active ... my confidence dropped and I was starting to play poorly because I felt I couldn't win a hand whatever happened. One more fish had been added to the pond ... me!

So what was I doing here? What was I going to do about it? Well the bottom line is that I managed to clear my bonus and still make a profit before cashing out a little bit mentally worse for wear.

It is quite clear however that I held mental baggage from my previous playing history on this site. The rot from this luggage slowly set in until I couldn't play poker anymore. The only option was to cash out and play elsewhere where I haven't yet heard the demon on my shoulder telling me "this site aint right!"

So that's the ongame network struck off my playing list ...

Where next?

Well I have gone back to William Hill on Cryptologic (although I hear their time there is limited, a shame because I actually like Cryptologic) and have also been playing a few of the sub qualifiers on 888/Pacific for the Irish Open.

So far I have been playing OK and my slow profit building ability has returned ... this fish is now an amphibian and will hopefully be losing its gills somewhere in the near future.

In fact I am in an Irish Open qualifier tonight from a ticket I won this morning.

All I have to hope now is that I don't start to see an unlucky pattern setting in on these sites otherwise I will be fast having nowhere to play online poker.

So with my sanity slowly returning I will sign off for now ...

Keep it Tight!

GUKPT National League not exactly what it says on the tin

I played the $5.5 rebuy for the GUKPT League and again got to the final table from 46 players having had one rebuy and an add on. Finishing 8th didn't get me any prize money (paid to 5th) but got me a further 3 points, taking me to 14 points from 5 tournaments.

Well the Blue Square web site posted the first league table (link here: http://www.bluesq.com/bluesquare/bspoker/national_leaguestandings.html)

First place is sitting with 63 points .... "That's good from 10 possible tournaments" I thought. Hang on that's very good. Then I started talking to a couple of players on the table and they informed me that the casinos don't just play National League qualifying tournaments on the same day as they are held on the NET, they play almost every day. So that's a possible 16 tournaments for someone who has access to a G casino.

Even Leicester City could win the Premier league if they played twice as many games as everyone else ... well perhaps that analogy doesn't work ... but you get my point.

Couple this with one of the players saying he had 24 points up to Jan 31st (that is the date the league table is supposed to be updated to) yet his name didn't even feature, leaves me wondering whether Blue Square have gotten this one right!

This just makes the online National League tournaments a bit of fun playing players of a reasonable standard for someone who can't get to a G casino; they are superfluous ... eh!! ... to qualifying for the GUKPT tickets available.

Well I don't like lost causes so I may well be better spending my time otherwise trying to qualify for a ticket to the main events.

So for now, deflated and disillusioned.

Keep it Tight

Best Laid Plans, Made Hands and a Forlorn Hope

Tonight saw me with mixed feelings in the GUKPT National League $15 Freezeout. 52 Runners starting with prizes paying to 8th, and of course those valuable league points up for grabs. It was all going quite fine, I had played a mixed bag of hands and was sitting on an average chip stack 7th of 14 when I was looking for that hand to put me up into the top few players. I thought I had it when I got dealt 88. So how to play it, well it folded to me so I was open raising, and with the BB as the short stack I was going to push through the 2 players to my left and either take the blinds or hopefully get the better side of a 50/50 with the BB. The plans worked fine and the big blind called, but just look at the result.

Best Laid Plans

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Now that was a set back, I was looking to move up the positions and was instead putting myself in the danger zone. I was going to need a hand! A hand I got in the form of 88 again. It all folded to the short stack on the button who raised big, well I wasn't buying that ... I didn't think he had a lot so I re raised all in, he had to call and turned over Q6s. Good result? Look what happened here!

Made Hands

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Well now I was sick, looks like I'm missing the boat again! But wait AJs arrives. I raise from UTG ... HAVE THAT! ... wait! the SB is re raising and the BB goes all in ... WHAT? I gotta be behind, but the few chips I had left had to go in ... heres the Forlorn Hope ... my chips were going into battle as major underdogs.

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What Happens Next?

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Thats right! Runner, runner spades to give me the hand! Well it makes you wonder why we take so long studying the game, just put it in with any A eh?

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So am I happy with my result of 5th tonight? Well not really.

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OK, I probably shouldn't have made the final table, but once I had, AND got to the 3rd break in 2nd place, I felt this should be my night. However one hand where I was holding a small pair was re raised all in by a guy who had done the same with AK and KK. This left me a tough decision and resulted in me folding away my chips, leaving me at the bottom of the pile. From there on I could have gotten back into contention but the final TT didn't hold up against KJ and I was out in 5th.

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Should I have folded my small pair after putting chips in the pot ... lets just say I didn't fancy being 80/20 behind and the coin flip didn't look too enticing either ... in hindsight I'd like to call as it wouldn't have made any difference to my final standing ... another lesson learnt.

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By my calculations I now have 11 points from 4 league tournaments ... I'm going to need to find a win or two from somewhere!

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Until Next Time.

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Keep it Tight!

GUKPT National League - Final Table but no cash or points

Well Tuesday didn't show much in the way of the GUKPT League $5 rebuy. I sat 14th out of 37 having just had an add on at the break and was fairly happy. Then I got tied up in the hand below. What was I thinking? I had plenty of chips! This is an example of how bad I can play sometimes, but they say you don't learn unless you make mistakes, and a mistake this definitely was.


So on to the $25 league freezeout this evening (39 players starting with pays to 5).

I had only played 2 hands in the first 35 minutes and one of those was free in the BB ... this shows how card dead I was ... So when I got JJ in the Cut Off and raised 3xBB (at 30/60 blinds) it was no surprise that the chip leader and table commander re raised me in the BB, to which I just flat called. Luckily I hit a J on the K high flop and played it freaky enough to extract a further 900 chips from him with his holding of 88, even though the board paired the K with a spade showing 3 to the flush.

By the break I had still only seen 6 hands and was sitting just below average chips 15th out of 29.
5 hands in after the break I managed to double up again with JJ to take me into 3rd place .... honestly I don't just play pairs LOL.

At the second break I had managed to play a few more hands but nothing to substantially give me a chance to make a charge to the prizes, and was left sitting 8th of 12 remaining with 6500 chips.

Finally after 30 minutes of being the short stack on the 5 player table with 11 players left in the tourney the 11th player exited to give me my 4th final table of the year, unfortunately this one was yet to be a cash or league points.

It wasn't to be my night to cash as my exit hand, AQ pushed all in from early position, met with two players who both hit their sets.

I have no idea how many league points is likely to take to get you into the top 100 play off, but I already feel I will probably be well short. Still it is all practice and the next league event is Monday, so I'll be playing again then.

Keep it Tight!