Poker Player Championship - Walsall

This was the first time I had been to the Walsall Grosvenor Casino and I must admit I was very impressed with the Venue, nice card room.

This time there were just over 90 players started, and I started a little flustered as I arrived later than I would have liked (the Sat Nav decided to take me on a tour of Walsall first). However I did settle in quickly and recognised 1 person on the table from the Bolton Leg, and he played exactly the same as he did there ... which was nice.

Nothing really astounding happened for the first 6 levels. I was getting relatively few hands and had to be content with stealing a few chips from one particular player on my right who would limp in and then fold to my position raise. This allowed me to get the blinds plus his extra bet on about 3 occasions. Just before the second break I managed to win quite a big pot to get me to about average chips. I basically bet my A high flush draw on the flop in position against one opponent who called. At this point I put him on small-mid pair or a draw himself, anyways I got him as weak. The turn came a higher card so I had another punt having missed my flush - again he flat called. When he checked the river to me I basically had to bet at the pot or show down A high. On announcing my bet he was already pushing his cards into the muck and I didn't even have to say how much!

First hand back after the 2nd break with about 45 players left I looked down at a JJ in early position, I raised it big and it folded around so I just won the blinds. 2nd hand and I look down at AQs UTG. I raise it up again and it folds around to me again. 4 hands later in the CO is where I really start to think this was going to be my day. I look down at a glorious KK. It folds around to me so I raise it up to just 2 and a half times the big blind (800 / 400) to 2000 expecting the blinds again, but no the button re-raises it up to 5000 leaving himself about 3000 left in chips, I have about 10,000 left behind so after calling his re raise and putting him all in I will be left with about 4000 in chips. Put him all in I did and he turned over the dreaded AA. No K came to help so I was crippled.

Could I have gotten away from KK. Looking back I think I could have. Heres why!

The guy was folding for England and seemed happy to be blinded away. Two hands before he managed to get all of his 4000 chips in as the BB with QQ to double to 8000. Now given that would he really put all his newly earned chips on the line with anything but the AA? Admittedly he could have had QQ again, but I firmly believe he wouldn't have re raised with a strong A or JJ. I did ask him if he had AA before going all in and I got the reaction which I am fast believing is a tell for someone who has a very big hand (but that is what live experience is about learning these tells). Finally I had only invested 2000 chips. Anyway my decision to put him all in was backed by the fact that this hand wouldn't be the end of the tournament for me and the result stood.

From there I took a turn of the table then pushed in with A2 suited of which surprisingly both were live cards but lost to someone who paired the flop with his KQ. Out this time about 40th.

I am quite sure my time will come. I am happy with the way I played again and have learnt some more valuable live game lessons ...

Until next time

Keep it tight!

Poker Player Championship Bolton Leg

Well my first try at the Poker Player Magazine Championship 2008 (Leg 1 Bolton) was met with mixed feelings. Initially I expected there to be more of a presence from the magazine, but they even turned up late after the tourney had started.

I recognised some of the field from the Virgin Poker Festival, Newcastle ... this is obviously in the catchment area for these players. I also believe that the Blogger Four King Hell (Michael Lott) was there on my second table (but never had the chance to introduce myself .. perhaps at Walsall Michael!)

I started off very well .. the best being able to limp in with pocket 4's and hitting a full house on the flop to add another half to my stack. Again as is often the story people were respecting my raises and I felt good, but thats where the poker fun stopped as I was moved tables.

On my second table I was sat to the right of a chap called Duncan Godfrey ... he actually knocked me out at Newcastle Virgin Poker Festival, but this time it was more social as I didn't get to play any hands against him. If you look at http://www.pokertube.com/ you will see him on the televised table of the 2008 Aussie millions sitting to the right of Phil Ivey.

Anyway I wanted to set about gaining my usual tight image but had to make a few raises early on as I was hitting strong Aces. I must have looked like a very loose aggressive, which arguably was or wasn't good for me when i looked down at AA under the gun. I think the blinds were at about 100 / 200 and I raised it to $1K. Only the big blind called and he had a stack that could cripple me. The flop came Q, T, 4 with 2 to the flush but I didn't have the A of that suit. I continuation bet into the Pot $2k and was called by my opponent. At this point I had no reads and to be honest was totally unsure where I was at - didn't know if he had hit a set, 2 pair or was flushing and was he prepared to call me all the way to the river? I had about $5000 chips left. The turn came an unsuited 8. He "acted" weak and checked to me, did I want to take another pop! No I decided to give the free card in fear that I was already behind and prepared to call any bet on the end which I deduced would be small if the guy was on a monster. The river came a clean 4 so no flush possibilities. He led out $2K and I called. He held A4 for his set of 4's.

I have replayed this in my mind and wondered whether I should have just pushed on the turn .. I am not sure I would have gotten him to fold though.

I was damaged and my exit hand came a circuit later with the blinds heading up I felt I need to get some chips quick. I got to see a cheap flop in the BB with 97 diamonds. Against 2 opponents and on a flop of 2 diamonds I decided to push my now short stack. I got called by a guy on a bigger flush draw and I exited in about 80th.

Not to worry though I am off to Walsall tomorrow to try again in Leg 2 off this tournament so will report back after that.

Until then ...

Keep it Tight!

Poker Player Championship 2008

I may have not yet been able to qualify for the WSOP. And I may not be able to buy myself into the GUKPT tour. But I can go for some glory in the Poker Player Magazine Championship 2008.

I have decided that I will enter all 5 events (Bolton, Walsall, Newcastle, Bristol and Brighton).

All events are £50 buy in with max 100 runners. Prize pool is £5000 guaranteed with a GUKPT seat for the winner of each leg.

Whats more all 5 winners will play for an extra £2500 and a GUKPT Grand Final Ticket.

So this is my own poor mans WPT ... Gonna keep you posted.

First Event Tomorrow (7th June)

For Now ...

Keep it Tight!

Multi Tables and Satellites

I have decided this month that I am going to invest in trying to get one of the last few tickets to the WSOP. I am not going to be putting big money down (mainly entering through sub qualifiers) but am quite prepared to make a loss this month in trying to do so.

I have also decided to play mainly multi tournaments this month. Cash games remain to be up and down in winnings. Whereas I have won two out of 13 multi tournaments and cashed in a further 3 last month, so multis seem to be my bankroll enhancer at the moment. I will be keeping my cash game playing to a minimum to allow me to clear my regular bonuses and gain entry to my regular private tournaments.

I will post my qualifying attempt results for all to see here in the coming weeks.

Keep it Tight!

A game of confidence!

I mentioned before that I had not been playing too much poker ... so why?

Well firstly I have been quite busy with personal chores, but this is not the underlying reason.

The underlying reason has been a bit of a loss of confidence.

I have read about poker players becoming jaded with the game and taking a break or even giving the game up all together. I remember thinking at the time "how can they give this game up?".

Well I have seen that side of the game recently.

Now bear in mind the sums of money I am playing for are not life changing! However winning is very important to me. So to play hard for the first part of the month to build a healthy profit only to see it dwindle to a few $$$ by both bad luck and (if truthful) a few poorly timed moves is very hard for the emotions. The constant up and down swing can be hard to take.

Having said that I have still not had a losing month in terms of being in negative dollars since the middle of last year. However a profit of approx $19 in March does not constitute winning in my books! This left me musing on other more lucrative past times.

I spent a bit of time on the betfair exchanges, but realise that it is not as easy to win there as it is on the poker tables.

So after a 2 month break the back end of last month saw me playing a $1/$2 cash game after a night out when I couldn't sleep. I hit a table profit of about $500 which whetted my appetite for poker once again.

Last week I took some work away and did not have access to a Wi Fi connection, only my poker magazine and book. I was reading about the game but was unable to play, I started to want to play and as soon as I got home Thursday evening, fired up my laptop and hit a small $11 Ten Man STT, coming 2nd.

I then went on to play a small MTT (58 players) and came 2nd in that for my troubles.

I have now gone back to my normal monthly routine of game play so poker is well and truly back in my life and I am starting to enjoy it again. I am going to do something new though in the next few months to keep it fresh and to introduce new challenges, they will be posted in the future.

But for now.

Keep it Tight

Virgin Poker Festival 2008

Virgin Poker Festival at Aspers Casino Newcastle April 12th and 13th 2008.

Well as you know I qualified for this tournament via a freeroll out of the PokerPlayer magazine. So off I trot to Newcastle to try and win my biggest prize to date. I had played very little poker prior to this tournament (I will explain why in a later post) but did play a couple of 10 man SnG, and won both the day before so felt great.

The general atmosphere on arrival at the tournament was buzzing. Plenty of drinkers and obviously card players all ready to do battle on the felt. There were quite a few people who knew each other from the forums, so I felt like a real "no mates" and just sat and observed for about 1/2 hour before the tourney was due to start.

So sitting down and being dealt my first cards in the 10,000 chip, 45 minute blinds 230 man £28,000 guaranteed tournament was very exciting ... but that was where the excitement stopped for the first hour and a half. I managed to see 3 hands in this time ... some rubbish in the BB, a called SB with 89s and a raised AQos on the button.

None of the hands won with the latter AQ seeing my continuation bet on the flop of 6 high called by a very tight player (he'd played as many hands as myself at this stage) checked on the turn and my calling of a 2/3 pot bet on an A river to lose to his A6.

Then I was moved table ... with about 6500 of my starting stack in tact ... to win my first hand in the BB with K3os as I neared 2 hours of play.

The table I was moved to was called the table of death as it saw about 5 all ins in 6 hands at one point. The MC regularly visited the table to call out the all in action over the PA for all to hear.

From here on in I basically played short stack poker ... over the topping any position "weak" raise all in (provided I could get heads up) and 1/3 raising my stack in position with anything promising. I had to fold a few strong hands in the face of raise and re raise, but thats poker and I stand by my decisions.

I managed to keep my stack level constant for about the next 4 levels when I hit upon AA in the BB to double up to around about average stack with approx 140 players left.

Now I was very happy with the way I was playing ... I was getting very little resistance to my raises and my flop bets were being respected ... so what happens ... yep I get moved to another table.

On this table I just couldn't get a position to get in and my stack dwindled to about 5BB. Then it was folded to me on the button. So I went all in and got reraised by the SB. The BB folded and the cards were tabled. I held K6os ... the SB had 99.

The flop was a glorious K63 ... ohh joy!! hang on whats that !! theyre all diamonds ... I don't have a diamond ... he has the 9 of diamonds ...

I just knew what was going to happen and had to wait for the river card for my exit. So shaking hands with my opponenet and wishing him and the rest of the table good luck I leave the table about 1/2 an hour before the end of day ones play.

So in my first deep stack tournament I came 60th. The prizes paid to 25 but I was happy with the way I played. I really should have been out at about level 5 but I managed to nurse the short stack through 5 more levels than that, and if only some cards had come at the right time may have done better.

What did I learn. Firstly how triring it is to play the short stack for about 5 hours. Watching people, looking for that moment to put your stack up for grabs or hopefully take it down there and then. I must say by the end of the day I felt physically unfit. Secondly that there are other factors that can affect the result of a tournament .. ie being moved to another table after getting a good table image. You have to basically start again. Finally patience, patience and patience.

So there we have it!

I will try to qualify again for the next one which is supposedly going to be at Dusk Till Dawn. You can only qualify on line through Virgin Poker but it is worth a punt just for the fun.

For now

Keep it tight!

Set over set is unlucky right?

Well I know I haven't been doing much blogging lately but just grinding it out at the tables for hard earned cash is not exactly that exciting ...

Early March gave me the upswing I wanted after a stagnant February .. only to be snatched back from me by unfortunate circumstances. My hard earned dollars went to the wind as my pocket KK went up against pocket AA no less than 3 times in 2 weeks. Who ever said "never fold KK pre flop for a 100 Big Blinds". I know! ... a whole host of players on 2 plus 2 forums ... and they are right!!! Anyways I still made a marginal profit taking my non losing streak to 10 months (but the bubble is close to bursting).

So just as I had had my 3rd KK dominated and had reloaded I get the following hand ... QQ in Cut Off position.

Now normally I am excited at getting such a big pocket pair (especially as it was to get folded to me) but following my recent form the QQ fills me with dread. Remembering what the books and statistics tell me, and ignoring past result orientated thinking, I give it a raise .. to 4 big blinds. Now I've noticed at the $0.50/$1 and $1/$2 levels more 3 - 4 x BB raises are being called with hands that are a 40% underdog or worse. With more people calling there is a tendency to increase your raises and push them out, but I think that is wrong! You need these people in the pot when you have a premium hand so a standard raise is fine.

But .. oh no! I get a call from the button and the big blind.

No A or K! No A or K! No A or K!

The flop comes Q,9,7 rainbow and I go into the evil villain mode!!! He .. He .. He.

A weak continuation bet I think ... half the pot.

This was called by the button then raised by the big blind.

"Wow" I think "No flushes no immediate straights" ... I didn't want an open ender drawing, the button being him as he just called, so I re raised.

The button called for his last chips and the big blind (who had me covered) went all in. Now i knew I had the big blind set over set, and was dodging the buttons draw, but I called.

So what did we all have?

Well I had QQ for QQQ as you all know.
The button had 99 for 999
and the big blind had 77 for 777

Well dodging the quads made up for my last loss with KK and left me astounded to what had just happened, SET over SET over SET and nearly a triple up in unbelievable circumstances.

Just to note .. if I needed to rely on my poker winnings for a living I would currently have to be playing at the $25/$50 level just to cover my outgoings. As it happens I am still content with just loving this game at the level I play at.

Still to come is my impending trip to Newcastle for the Virgin Poker Festival.

I will take lots of photos and ....... first prize!

Until then.

Keep it tight!