PartyPoker.FR Leaderboard Pays Off

Not a big pay off but a nice little bonus.

I finished 56th in the monthly tournament leaderboard for a 35 euro bonus ...

... and for finishing in the weekly leaderboard I again got to play in the weekly leaderboard 250 euro freeroll.

Despite doubling up early with JJ against 3 opponents and then losing most of my stack KK against AA, I managed to manouver my way to the final table as the short stack.

From there on in I was never going to win it but I did manage to push and fold my way to 4th place for another 25 euro.

So how many sit and goes did I have to play to get to this position?

A measly 503 SnG's in the month...

... I don't think I can play any more than that with the time I have ...

... but I will try!!!

Until next time

Keep it Tight!

Is this what they mean when your "On a Heater"

What an unbelievable run of form I'm on at the moment.

Its as if I'm in tune with the game!

If I have a big hand I can get it paid off ...

If I have to bluff, its the right amount to get a fold ...

When I have to push I get called by a worse hand ...

... and when I need some luck I'm getting it.

These moments have led to me having my longest ever run of 20 double up SnG cashes in a row before losing one.

This is when Poker is at its best!

So now .... now that I have probably cursed my game by airing this joy ....

... I must remember to re read this post when I hit my next downswing.

You can't win them all ... but this feels damn close to it!

Until Next Time

Keep it tight!

Made it ... but Oh No!

Yep I made the PartyPoker.FR weekly leaderboard ....

Yes it was relatively easy to reach ...

Yes I got my entrance to the 250 euro guaranteed ...

Yes there were only 43 entered ...

... a great chance for just under 100 euro first prize!

But OH NO!

I had to go out the evening of the tournament.

Basically I could squeeze 45 minutes out of the tourney, and after 30 minutes I was sitting in 9th.

So my plan was to try a gamble double up and then see if I could leave the tournament running and fold into 6th place prize money.

Just my look when I push my A7 suited as I was leaving for the pub that another player called with QQ. Despite two of my suit on the flop his hand held up and I was out.

So the moral of the story is ...

If you are going to try and qualify for a tournament, at least know you will be able to play it.

Until Next Time.

Keep it Tight!

Going for the PartyPoker.FR leaderboards

This week I have decided to try for the French Weekly Leaderboard. This starts on Mondays at 00:01 and finishes Sunday night at 00:00.

Top Player gets 250 euro

2nd and 3rd get entry to the 250K guaranteed

4th to 150th get entry into the 250 euro guaranteed tourney

Up until Yesterday I had played every night from about 8pm until midnight 4 tabling 3 euro Double Up STT. This had gotten me into 84th position. However I didn't play at all yesterday as I was travelling back to the UK, now I have dropped to 135th.

So still on target for my target 250Euro tourney entrance.

At present on these stakes whilst still building my French bank roll there is no chance of reaching positions 1-3 .... I'll save that for a later challenge.

The side effect of this effort is that I was also 85th on the monthly leaderboard where cash prizes are paid to 100th. However after my little break yesterday I have dropped back to 109th.

So my new target is to also hit the top 100 on the monthly leaderboard.

To give you an idea of how my French Bankroll is progressing (now just over 300 euro with bonuses from my initial deposit of 100 euro) I have posted my latest Sharkscope Graph.

So heres to another afternoon of SnG grind!

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!

Slowly coming to terms with the French game!

After a couple of months on the small stakes tables I am finally making some progress on PartyPoker.fr.

As you can see from my sharkscope SnG graph I am at last making some profit. Add this to my small multi tournament 3rd out of 51 last night my account is sitting at 185 euro (initial deposit of 100) and I am 80% of the way through a 40 euro bonus.

So I am feeling a little more at home on the poker tables here in France.

All I need to do now is start increasing the stakes I'm playing at ... same old story eh?

Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!

A small live win!

At last I have got another live win to add to those of Gala Casino Leicester circa 2008 and Paris Casino Las Vegas circa 2007.
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Yes it is the Victoria Inn Truro Thursday night pub league.
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First off a little about the Pub ...
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It is in a village called Three Milestone just on the outskirts of Truro City. A very nice pub that has previously been ticking over ... until recently.
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Under new management it has had a full refit of TV's in the Pool room, new carpets and a splash of paint in the bedrooms.
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The food there has always been fairly good but has now got a very reasonable Tuesday steak menu to add to their existing varied offerings. In addition to this the new management are starting to add a few events to the weekly calendar and this Thursday I was able to sample the new Thursday Poker League.
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Now I have played pub leagues before but it has to be said that this one is one of the better ones I have played in.
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Firstly the guys that run it have 4 good quality poker playing surfaces with padded edges, non dog eared packs of cards and a reasonable set of chips.
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Secondly the people that play in it want to play poker and not just hold 2 cards whilst they drink. You can hear from the table chat that they play regularly together a few times a week and enjoy their games.
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The format is a NLH freeze out, £4 buy in for 2150 chips starting blinds of 25/50 with about 1/2 hour for the first level then 10 minute (approx) for the rest of the levels. You have to bear in mind the game has to be finished by closing time and with 32 players max the levels have to be quite short.
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So on Thursday they had a full complement of 32 players (sign in at 19:30ish to get a place for an 20:00 - 20:15 start).
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I just took it steady for the first couple of levels not winning any hands at all until, with about 1500 chips left, I got into a hand by completing in the SB after the lady on my right had called in the BB. Three to the flop I had AK and on a flop of A## all hearts I didn't like the fact that I didn't have a heart (no pun intended!). The lady put a small bet in so I called, no heart on the turn and she goes all in for 700 more, I deliberate then call. Q of hearts on river and I think I'm dead but am forced to call leaving me 400 chips. She had AQ no heart ... gutted!

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AK pre flop should be reraised I know ... but we would have ended with the same result!
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Anyway with the blinds raising immeadiately after to 300/600 I couldn't wait for a decent hand and had to put my chips in. Luckily I had AJ on the button and managed a triple up. Then I had another triple up before the blinds had reached me again holding a better A high than the next highest A7 high.
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Then came the hand that gave me the chance to the final table:
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A lad who had been raising with weak holdings raised to 1800 and only the SB and BB were behind me. I look down at A9 and thinking the lad was 1800 all in I raised my stack all in to isolate him. The blinds fold and then the lad asks how much is it ... he moves his arms aside and there I saw enough chips to have me covered ... whats more he'd called .... Damn!
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Any way he had A2, I dealt the flop turn and river really quickly not wanting any agony and my A9 held ... wow! ... I had masses of chips.
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With high blinds and plenty of short stacks I didn't have to play a hand to the final table of 9 players.
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On the final table I just played my usual game until 5 left (which was the money) and having identified the tighter players on my left just raised in position to keep me afloat with the blinds.
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I did get very unlucky ... then lucky with 3 left when I put a guy all in holding 99 and he made a stand with 9T ... T on the flop and I was feeling crushed ... 9 on the turn saved my depression.
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So going in to heads up we did a deal on the £60 first place £30 2nd place by having £40 each and playing for the last tenner with very even chip stacks.
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First hand I get AKos - all in he calls with K7s ... I win the hand and he hasn't enough left for the blind. All his chips are in and my any 2 card hand beats his for the victory.
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Not the WSOP ... but still beating 31 players holding 2 cards.
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Until Next Time
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Keep it Tight!

Settling in and underway

First off a little about France ... (if this bores you just skip to the next section where I will be talking poker) ...

We've been here almost a month now and are settling in nicely .. it is great not getting up until 10am every morning (despite wanting to get up earlier). The problem with getting up later here is that by the time you are washed, dressed and breakfasted all the shops are closed (between 12.00 and 2.00 pm). So I will soon have to set an alarm so that we can get more things done.

We have made a lot of headway with the garden and our attached small building (this needs completely renovating) ... oh yeah and we have already smartened up the bedroom with a fresh coat of paint.

I have lots of photos on my phone but am unable to get them onto the PC so I will post a few in later posts.

However in an attempt to NOT make this my "French Adventure" blog I have also been playing some poker.

As I have posted before, France have introduced some new internet gambling laws. This doesn't stop the individual from playing on non approved sites but it does make it illegal for sites to open accounts with french residents (at least thats the way I think it works). In response most of the major sites have initially blocked French IP addresses so as not to Pee off the French government in the hope that they may get a legal license.

The whole thing is run by an association called ARJEL and a full list of approved sites is available on their website ... http://www.arjel.fr/

So I have opted to initialy join PartyPoker.fr under the affiliate pokerlistings.fr until I have done some more research on affiliates to find out who offers the best benefits. However they are very hot on ID etc so if it wasn't for the fact I have a French bank account I may not have been playing in France.

So far I have started on the low limit tables - up to 6 euro buy ins - and have had a bit of a culture shock ... just look at this sharkscope page of a typical evenings SnG quality (even at the low levels) ....
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First off my initial 100 euro deposit fell to 50 euros.
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However I have played 3 of their 250 euro guaranteed and had 3 cashes -a 16th, a 12th and a final table 3rd out of an average of about 250 entrants per tourney.
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So now with those cashes and a few heads up wins my balance is sitting back at 110 euro.

I am also keeping my eye on the leaderboards and do want to attack the weekly SnG leaderboard just once to see where I can get.

So for now I am very happy with the move, extremely happy with the pace of life here but frustrated at not being able to play the bonuses I am constantly sent by email from my UK gambling sites.
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Some of that will be rectified next week however because I am back in the UK for a couple of weeks; one for work and one for pleasure.
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So Until Next Time

Keep it Tight!