BCPC and other stuff

So having set a target of maximised volume rather than higher ROI for September, I managed to conclude the month with over 800 tournaments completed. Sadly, not only did the ROI suffer.... it became non-existent, in fact having spent over $14,000 in tournament buy-ins, my month end profit was a whopping $3, and in line with the terms of my deal, I only received 60% of that! The volume bonus helped a little though. I decided to go to the other extreme for October and aim for quality over quantity, and try to achieve higher ROI and profits.... not a great start though as am over $300 down after one week. sigh........

Live poker seems to be going much better than my online failures at the moment though - and having just reached the finale of the 4th season on Black Country Poker Club, I secured my position as the season's champion, earning a nice little trophy, and a seat into a UKIPT £550 event.

BCPC was the brain-child of founder Brian Yates (although some might say bastard-child rather than brain-child). The concept was to allow like minded low stakes players to pool resources to pay for higher buy in tournaments, and then to play for the privilege of playing in those seats. Our season runs for 6 months with one tournament per month, where players score points dependant on their finishing position in each tournament, which in turn contribute to their overall league placing. The top places in the league then offer a seat to a higher buy in tournament ranging from £110 to £550, with the number of seats on offer being directly linked to the size of the membership.

In season 1, we ran with 8 members and produced 1 seat.... in season 4 we ran with 28 members and produced 9 seats.

The standard traverses the amateur range, with players who are relatively new to poker in any form, to those who bring many years of experience, and those who have done well on the APAT tour. We have members for whom trips to Vegas are the norm each year, members who regularly play the GUKPT, as well as several APAT champions. We claim to be the Best Home Game In The Midlands - and I think that is a more than reasonable claim. To finish atop the league for this season was something I was proud of.

I intend to use my £550 seat at the UKIPT event in Nottingham in Feb 2011, and knowing that the BCPC will be following my progress closely and rooting for success (ok, only cos all club members share 50% of any cash I make, whilst I keep the other 50% for myself) will hopefully spur me on to something huge.

The BCPC has developed a reputation within APAT over the past two years - there are very few who haven't heard of us (mainly cos Brian shouts really loud about it!), but our crowning moment came in the summer this year when we held a Deepstack one off event, and had a guest entry in the form of Paul "Action Jack" Jackson and his son, Ben. Paul is one of the UK's finest and most succesful poker pro's - to have him playing at our little event in a back street pub was a little surreal, but definitely a moment to remember. What was most amazing though was that Paul had only landed in Britain 36 hours earlier having spent several weeks in Las Vegas at the WSOP!!

Lastly, myself, Brian Yates, Tony Trippier, James Edwards, Andy Overton, and Andy Duncan have formed a team to play in a 16 match online league, culminating in a live final at Star City, the winner of which will receive a team trip to Las Vegas in 2011 worth $34,000, covering all flights and hotel expense, entry to a $1k deepstack event, spending money, and entry to a £1k event back in London on the return. Good luck to us!!!!

Time for a Kit-Kat, time for a break..?

Probably the worst mistake I've ever made was posting the previous blog entry. Within a day the downswing set in, and did so in some style. All profits earned early in the month have been washed away, along with another $300 - a $1.1k downswing across ~500 tourneys in three weeks!!

So I would like to take this opportunity to humbly apologise to the poker gods, who I seem to have offended in some way. I would offer up a sacrifice in your honour, but sadly through endless bad beats and lost races, I have nothing left to offer. I don't suppose a toasted lamb will do it?

This morning I watched a 20 min vid someone sent me - a film called The Secret. It talks about the law of attraction, and how negative thinking attracts negativity and negative results.... conversely therefore, the power of positive thinking should be embraced. So, in an effort to try anything to cut the downswing, I thought of all the nice thoughts I could muster, put some nice music on, and set about playing 20 STTs - 14 $10 games and 6 $20 games. I managed to come second in two of the $10 games and lost the rest.... total buy in $286 with a return of $36 - $250 down for the session.

In that 20 game session alone I ran KK into AA 4 times, ran AA into underpairs twice and lost both, and flopped set under set twice. Sighhhhh positive thoughts can go screw themselves!

I feel I need to take a break - not because I need to recover some positive thinking, but more because I just hate the game now, and there really is no point labouring over something I'm not enjoying. Problem is, I need to get through another 40 games in September to reach my next bonus cutoff point - but is it really worth playing those 40 games if all I manage to do is negate any bonus with more losses. Currently I've played 660 games in September over 149 hours for a loss of -$300, and my bonus at this point is +$190.... so if the month ends now I carry a -$110 deficit into October.

What's annoying most is that I'm not actually doing a great deal wrong and am happy with my game. Just once in a while it would be nice if I could win a race.

The Secret....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b1GKGWJbE8

Grinding Good

Back to the grind, and seem to be finding a rhythm - hope this isn't a huge bok though.

Whilst Jul and Aug were both only partial months (started this scheme part way through July, then was away for most of August), September is my first crack at a full month. Jul and Aug were barely profitable, and despite playing in excess of 220 tournaments each month, I ended up just the right side of break even.

September is going a little better though - just 7 days into the month, and having played 167 tournaments, I've sustained an ROI of over 20%, and am in profit for $718, of which I will be paid 60%, plus bonus dependant on volume.

Within the 167 tournaments in September, there were a few punts at MTTs.... however the bulk were 155 Turbo 6-max STTs, where the profit is $838, and ROI is 24.57. Happy days!!

Hope I can keep up the September win-rate....

Down To Earth With a Helluva Bump

I felt like a kid in the period building up to Christmas whilst I counted down the days (and the sleeps) until the APAT World Championships of Amateur Poker. Arrving at DuskTillDawn and donning the England shirt again was an incredible moment - sadly it was just about the last high I was to experience for the next five days, at least in poker terms anyway.

Five looooong days of wall to wall poker was "interesting", but not something I could repeat every week. Having stuck to 12 pints and 4 cooked meals per day, with the only exercise being an occasional walk to the gents, I can probably be excused the few pounds I gained. Unfortunately, they were the only type of pounds I was to gain this week.

In a previous blog entry, I questioned whether poker was a game of luck or a game of skill, and despite the fact that my results at that time proved that luck has a bearing, I set my stall very firmly in the game of skill camp. Variance is a wonderful thing, and does a good job of making sure that for every bad luck hand there is a good luck hand on another day - as poker players we just have to make the best of that, and minimise losses whilst maximising wins. However, this is tough when it comes to a team based tournament, and all four team members experience the downside and the bad luck at the same time.

From an England team perspective, the wheels were coming off from the very start of our campaign to beat last year's third place finish. We suffered the ignominy of being the first team to lose a player in the first round of single table tournaments - this was around 5 minutes after the event started, and the cruelness of the beat (JJ lost to 55 when all in preflop) was an indicator of things to come. In the course of the event, in the STTs alone, we suffered a total of 7 absolute outdraws when all in with overpairs against underpairs; and at the times that we were mathematically obliged to shove our holdings, there was always someone waiting with Aces or Kings to close us out. I don't mean to bemoan bad luck - as I have said before, it evens out over time.... unfortunately for our team though, the evening out process did not start during the Team Championships. We finished bottom of the 12 team table by some distance, yet having collectively analysed our play at length, none of us were able to point to any mistakes. Where normally some other other home country teams would take huge delight at England winning the wooden spoon, many expressed sympathy at the bad run that we endured - that's how bad it was!!

Many hours at the cash tables during the week saw similar fortunes for us as a team, where I don't believe any of us closed in profit. For me personally, having lost huge cash pots with AA v 89 (on a board of Q72JT!), with AK v T4 (on a board of KQ4xx!), with QQ v 99, and with KK v 35, my cash bankroll was utterly decimated.

Surely the Omaha, 6-max, HORSE, and Main Event, would see a turn of fortune? Nope. Having built my Main Event stack from 10k to 15k, I managed to lose (only) 2k with KK into AJ and A8 on a AAxxx board, then three hands later, lost the other 13k with KK into AA all in preflop. The most annoying part of that was that I just knew Matt Russell had AA, and even told him he had AA when I called and flipped my KK over. Until that moment I had been running over the table and had built my stack up with hardly a single showdown - until that moment I was feeling good about poker again, and fancied my chances of a deep run..... the poker gods clearly had other designs.

Results aside, this was a tremendous week, and a great opportunity to renew acquaintances and friendships, and to meet new people and new friends. It was nice to get home though - being away from home, drinking and playing poker, is okay, but you can't beat being with family. I just wish I could have brought a success story home for the kids to make it all worthwhile.

England Revisited

Absolutely delighted, over the moon, and chuffed to bits, to have been selected for the England Team for this year's World Team Amateur Poker Championships!!

Having been in the team for last year's event, I was hesitant about applying again this year, particularly given that this year's captain is Brian Yates, with whom I play regularly at the BCPC, and someone that I generally tour with. I didn't want to put Brian in an awkward position if he selected me, which might in turn invite suggestions of selection according to friendship rather than ability.

However, when I reflected on my poker achievements this year (and last), and the current state of my game, I figured I was as deserving of a place as anyone one else. Granted, I haven't achieved a massive amount on the APAT tour (so far) this year - in fact I've only played two live events, final tabling one and getting hugely unlucky in the other - however, I have been more successful from an overall financial standpoint this year than I was last year. This, coupled with my current dedication to STTs as part of the my sponsor deal, and the fact that the Team Champs is primarily focussed around STTs, I figured I was as eligible as anyone else, and gratefully accepted Brian's offer of a place.

I feel under much more pressure to perform than last year though - I know that people will question my selection this year, and I must live up to my claims in order that I can silence any critics. Game on!!

Pulling on that England shirt last year was an amazing and proud moment - see further down this blog for a related entry - I'm honoured and touched that I'm going to get a second go!

Last year we finished a really credible third - this year, only first will do!!

COME ON ENGLAND!!!

First month end

So, 10 days into this new venture and I've hit my first month end where the spoils are dished out and bonuses calculated.

Some stats:

• Days played - 8 (joined part way through month)
• STTs played - 221
• Total Buy in - $3,521
• Total Winnings - $3,550
• Total Profit - $29
• ROI - 0.8%

I get 60% of profit earned, so a whopping $17.40

On the face of it, a lot of effort for little reward. However it was all zero risk effort. In future months I anticipate earning volume related bonuses, which means break even is an ok result. I've found that I can maintain a much higher ROI when playing just one or two at a time, but when playing 6 to 8 at a time, the ROI declines to break even. I think I need to find the right balance between volume and profit.

It was a roller coaster period with early loss, followed by profit, ending in break even.

August will be another short month given that I'm holiday for the first two weeks, then away with APAT for the final week, so not expecting any miracles this month - will probably play when I can for max ROI rather than any futile attempts at volume.

Deep and Steep

On another note, played the £110 Deepstack at Walsall last night. What a pathetic attempt a depstack tourney!! Granted we started with 10,000 chips, and in the first level that equated to 200 big blinds.... but given that there was no 75/150 level and no 150/300 level, with 30 minute levels it wasn't long before we were playing 300/600 and the average stack was little more than 20 big blinds with a 100 runners still left in. On a table full of weak passive calling stations, on which 5 limpers per flop was about average, I just couldn't find a spot. On my BB with AK, there were 5 limpers, and I raised to 9xBB - and got 4 callers. A King on the flop (2 clubs on flop) and I bet pot with one caller. Another King on turn and I bet pot again and caller calls again. Club on the river and he bets 100 into a 7000 pot - thankfully, as I was stacking off there if had shoved. So shortstacked early on, recovered to starting stack by 300/600 but was still in shove mode. Looking around other tables, everywhere was in shove mode at this point - there was no poker left to be played..... and consider that we were only in the 5th 30 minute level at this point. A truly awful tourney, and a complete waste of £110.

Looking forward to APAT WCOAP at DuskTillDawn over the August Bank Holiday weekend - back to proper poker!!

Cyprus here we come - packing done, gardening to be done, then taking dog to kennels (poor fella). Leaving for Gatwick at 7am tomorrow.

Finding feet

That profit on Day3 made a significant difference to my mindset, even though it ended up being quite a very small profit in the end - $40 at 6% ROI..... but a profit is a profit, and it's wayyyy better than a loss!!

Importantly, it reminded me that I can play, and that I shouldn't play scared of losing someone else's money.

• Day4: 21 STTs, profit of $296, ROI 67%
• Day5: 8 STTs, profit of $146, ROI 121%

Total for first 5 days:

• STTs played - 120
• Buy in - $1,881
• Payout - $2,122
• Profit - $241
• ROI - 13%

So, feeling a little better, and looking to try and maximise profit for what's left of July. Am away for most of August, so again will looking to maximise ROI over a small number of games. September's target though will be to break even over a much larger set of games and to earn a volume based bonus - need to get in 1500 tourneys in the month for a $2k bonus on top of any profit.

Just wish I could do this on PokerStars instead of iPoker - the traffic volume on iPoker really is poor, even at peak times. That's my biggest challenge to getting through the significant volume requirements.

Sponsored losses!

So with nerves and trepidation in abundance, I got through my first two days of sponsored play.

Day1: Squeezed out 20 SNG tournaments at a cost of $286, with a return of $174 - a negative ROI of -39%. In summary, played ok, but ran real bad.

Day2: 29 tourneys at a cost of $396, with a return of $266 - a negative ROI of -32%. Bigger cash loss, but slightly improved negative ROI. Ran worse than day 1.

Start of Day3: Wrote email to mentor - worried about how these early resultswould be viewed, but apparently everyone loses in the first few days until they get used to the concept of playing with someone else's money, and find their feet with their standard game

Day 3 so far: 13 tourneys up to 14:30 today, cashed in 7, total buy in $187, with a return of $282 - positive ROI of 51%.

I like Day3 best.

Am playing a mix of $11 and $22 Single Table Tournaments, some 6 handed and some 10 handed, some standard clock and some turbo...... seem to be settling on the 6 handed turbos though as a means of getting through more volume (they also give me my best ROI at present at +18% for 37 tourneys)

Overall so far - 62 tourneys played, $869 buy in, $722 return, $147 loss, negative ROI -17%.

Summary - must do better.

Onwards and upwards?

Mildly excited, having just secured a sponsorship deal to play online poker!!

So, for the next few months I will become a "SNG Grinder" looking to achieve significant volume commitments (ideally need to get through 1500 tournaments per month - gulp) to qualify for volume based bonuses on top of any profit which is paid at 60%.

Have long dreamt about giving up work to play poker full time - that's still a thousand miles away, but 12 months ago it was at least a million miles away - this feels like progression to a desired goal.

Aside from this latest development, I have made the firm decision to get my ass to Vegas next year, and the savings account is filling up nicely from a decent winning streak over the past month (cashed the same tournament on Betfair for 7 nights in a row).

This poker feel good factor comes at a time when I'm winning the league at the Black Country Poker Club, and have just made my way to the top of the all time rankings for the club.

There that's it - I've probably just bokked myself beyond all reason, and the downturn to poorer times will return...... but until it does, I'm loving this rich run of form. Everything in poker is so good right now!

Is Poker a game of luck?

I say not. As the FullTilt advert says, if poker were a game of luck, how come the same faces consistently make the final tables of big tournaments.

The US government seem to believe it's a game of luck - they grouped it in with gambling and banned the online elements.

The UK taxman seems to believe it's a game of luck - he applied casino gaming tax to DuskTillDawn (despite it being a poker establishment with no table games) which so nearly put it out of business.

The unwise majority believe it's a game of luck, particularly those that wrinkle their noses when I say I play poker for a second income. For some, the word poker seems to conjure an image of a seedy basement room with degenerate gamblers drinking whisky and smoking fat cigars - personally I prefer the comparison to the wild west saloon, with 6-shooters laying at the side of the table waiting for that big showdown hand to go bad.

Flipping a coin and betting on the outcome - that's gambling on luck. The coin will either be heads or tails - a 50/50 gamble. Winning or losing is based purely on luck.

Backing horses, or betting on the outcome of sporting events - that's still gambling, but with knowledge and research, the winning gambler will reduce the impact of luck.

It's obvious that Chess is a game of pure skill - there is no luck in chess. So, if we play chess for money, we are gambling on the outcome of the game, but not betting on a luck variable. I say the same for poker.

Apparently, 90% of those who play poker are overall losers - therefore only 10% are overall winners. If poker were a game of luck, surely 50% of players would be losers, and 50% would be winners.

Poker is a skill game, despite what the US politicians say. The better poker players are the ones who negate the luck factor, use their skills to make the right decisions at the right times, and avoid situations where they would consistently lose money. The key word is consistency - to consistently win a gamble proves that luck is a minor factor when compared to the value of the skill factor. Clearly a poker player cannot win each and every hand they play - the random shuffle of the deck plays a part, and sometimes the poor or incorrect decisions of others will be rewarded - however over a significant volume of hands, these variables generally even out.

It's widely accepted that to judge a player as a winner or loser requires at least 10,000 hands to be analysed. The concept being that over a significant volume of hands, the luck factor will play less of a part. Thinking back to the tossing of a coin - toss it 10 times, it could land on tails 8 and heads 2. Toss it 10,000 times, and it's highly unlikely that it will land on tails 8,000 times.... it's far more likely to be nearer 5,000 each.... the 50/50 luck factor flattens itself out over time and volume.

From my own personal perspective, I recognise that winning a hand through luck, ie hitting that miracle 2 outer on the river, is nice but little to do with my skill as a player. I also understand that for every one of those I win, I'm just as likely to lose one. I stand firm to the long term view.

Now, the purpose of writing this??

In the past month, I have played well. I know I've played well, and I've done my best to stay upbeat about my game, despite being in the hole financially. Four weeks ago I was playing $1/$2 with a $200 buy in, and being successful. I made a decent sized withdrawal, and accepted that I was going to drop back down the limits to rebuild the bankroll. So, back at 25c/50c with a $50 buy in, and still playing well. But winning? No. Unlucky? Very.

It felt like every time I got my money in good, I was being outdrawn. At one point I was so low I felt like taking a break - poker just isn't working, and I am continually losing, therefore I must be playing badly, not well. BUT, I did some statistical analysis to try and identify the leaks, and found that my Expected Value, ie the amount I could expect to win at the point when my chips went into a pot was significantly higher than the amount I actually ended up winning - indication of numerous outdraws....... and did I get the upside to counter the downside? Not yet!!



The top line on this graph is my Expected Value over the last 7,000 hands, and shows a steady increase - the lower line is my Actual Value, which shows the exact opposite trend. The two lines are around $1,000 apart - ie, if luck were not a factor, I could be as much as $1,000 better off over the last 7,000 hands.

So yes, luck does play a significant part in poker, and yes I acknowledge I've had my moments where luck has played a part in my favour. But looking at this from a career perspective, would I really want to invest my livelihood in something where luck can be so damaging?

In my tournament poker, I am a consistent winning player, particularly in single table tournaments...... yet through this past month I have a negative ROI for the first time in 4 years, despite continually playing acceptably well.

There are two conclusions I can draw from this whole luck vs skill debate.

1. Poker is definitely a skill game.
2. In mid May, I must have run over a feckin robin!

That was the weekend that was

With the APAT UK Amateur champs looming, my chance to defend my title, and a loooooong weekend in prospect, an early night on Friday was in order. So, lets go and play the BCPC game instead - but it's ok cos every round this BCPC season, I've busted out well before 11pm and been home early. However, try as I might, I just couldn't lose my chips this time, and ended up hitting the final table at midnight. In a strange FT affair, their were 7 players out of 10 on the table who could still win the league if results went in their favour, but I could win nothing.... and I had the chip lead! Cue some fun and mayhem!! 45 minutes of relentless raising and 3-betting with rags, and I had more than half the chips in play, but nobody had busted (bunch of nits!). At 12:45 the first exit finally happened, and that meant Nathan had guaranteed enough points now to put him at the top of the league, subject to others now finishing in certain positions..... from here on in things loosened up and the other 8 exits took me just 30 minutes (4 bustouts in 3 hands was nice!). 8 of the 9 kindly volunteered the remainder of their chips to my stack and I took it down - nice ego boost ahead of the APAT weekend, but bed at 2.30am was not the best plan.

So bleary eyed I arrived at the Vic in London at 11am, and headed straight for the nearest cash table. It was plainly obvious that there was money to be made on this table - the standard was frankly awful. The standard raise seemed to be 10x the Big Blind! Three hands in and I'm on the Big Blind.... every single player at the table limped, and I found Aces in the BB.... raised to £20 (20xBB!!)....... and got 5 callers!! loooool. Ended up losing the hand, and an hour or so later, left the table £50 in arrears!

Met up with many APAT regulars, and had a few beers, followed by a few more. Interesting conversation with James Edwards - damned volcano caused his trip to Vegas to be cancelled the day before, hence his presence at the Vic.... unlucky James!

For me the Main Event was (ahem) short - I made it to level 4! Some defence that turned out to be!! No problem with my play though - got my stack all in on a flop of QJ10 whilst holding QJ, only to be called with Q10 (happy days?), but the rivered 10 was the end. Why do I always bust these APAT events to an 8% chance? I get my chips in as a 92% favourite again, and lose again.... and still the forum has notes about my luckbox status - unbelievable!

With not much else to do for the next 24 hours before the Razz side event on Sunday, I of course had £50 to recover on the cash tables..... spent an awesome 8 hours on a table with Paul Haycock where we fleeced the locals (ok, most were from Greece, but I class them as locals), and I closed the day around £300 up.

Hotel by 2.30am...... and back at the cash table by 10am (and many people from the night before were still there!!). Another 3 hours session - another £300. Now £600 up for the weekend. There was the most unbelievable fish at the table - a local asian lad who turned up with his missus, and she sat dutifully behind him continually handing him another £100 until the £1000 in her handbag was all gone. I was somewhat gutted when the call was made for the start of the Razz tourney - surely staying at this cash table would be far more profitable?! Meanwhile Andy Overton had busted the Main Event, and was looking for something to do while I played Razz...... a nudge and wink, and he took a seat at the cash game, and took the donkey's last £300 (no commission for me though!)

Played Razz. zzzzzzzzzz. Razz tourney still going. zzzzzzzzzz. Actually not that bad - had a huge laugh with the table, particularly Clare, Rudders, JPRound, and Aneurin. Made final table - missed the money. ho hum - had fun.

All in all - brilliant weekend. Great poker, great people, great food (bloody marvellous food actually!), shite beer (but couldn't really taste it by the end), and then a trip from Central London to Andy O's house in Malvern (130 miles) in under 1 hour 30!

So weekend over - no longer the UK Amateur Champion, but will never lose the feeling of holding that title for a year. Wish I could have gone deeper in the Main Event, but C'est La Vie and all that.

Spending my cash winnings on the £560 UKIPT Event in Nottingham in May. 24 sleeps til Notts :)

Back on track

It's strange how sometimes in life, the smallest things can provide the biggest kick start. Attention to detail on one area of life can lead to huge improvements in other areas for example. March has been a helluva month!

Throughout February, I've been dictating to my eldest that success doesn't come without effort and practise - he's ben training for a Biathlon. Having won the West Midland regional event last October, he qualified for the National event at Crystal Palace, and this took place last Sunday. I've been pushing him hard to train and improve his running - his swimming is all good, but his running was pretty poor. To have any chance at the finals, he needed to take a big chunk off his track time. His reluctance to train was so disappointing and frustrating, but with a boot up his backside he would get out for the odd run here and there. And boy, did those begrudged training runs do him good - in fact so good that he sliced 25 seconds off his personal best track time for a 1km run! On the day, it transpired that if he had extracted just 1 second more, he would have finished in the medals - an awe inspiring performance considering he arrived at the event ranked 25th!

Hats off to Anthony - well done lad... really proud of you!

I think the attention to detail that I forced upon Anthony in his training has done something to my poker mindset too. Before the GUKPT event at Walsall, I read a lot of MTT strategy articles to try and get my head in the right place, and to load up with tactics and strategies from the pros. I wasn't really sure that it would do me any good, but it felt right to be "training". At Walsall, I played just about the best tournament poker I've ever played, and in the end was unlucky.

Coming back to real life and the daily grind of online poker, I've come to realise how much I benefitted from that hard work and revision. Considering that last year online was a losing year for me, and I was down in 10 months of 12, I had started to question whether I had the patience for this game any more...... this year so far, I have yet to have a losing week, and am already more than $5k up.

In the past fortnight, I've cashed in the opening round of the APAT online season, also scoring valuable ranking points; have final tabled a $33 MTT on PokerStars for $760; have min-cashed in the PokerStars $215 Sunday Warm Up for $400ish; have min-cashed in a Betfair $22 MTT; have final tabled the same Betfair tourney the next night finishing 2nd for $640; have cashed in a $33 PLO tourney on PokerStars; then last night final tabled a $60 MTT on Betfair coming 4th for $960. All in all, a pretty good month. My mojo is back, and like Anthony, I'm back on track.

It was galling to miss the APAT Welsh Open last weekend - the opening event of APAT's live season, but family came first for a change. Katharine and Rebecca were off to the ballet on Saturday, and Sunday was our day at Crystal Palace. In some respects, missing the Welsh Open wasn't so bad - the memories of last year's event are not good ones... this was the time when the seriousness of Dad's illness became apparent and I had to rush home. Next month the tour is off to the Victoria Casino in London for the UK Amateur event - my chance to become the first APAT player to successfully defend a title.... to say I'm "up for it" is an under-statement. This run of form could not have come at a better time, and my seat was won during the very first satellite tournament (wonder if that's a sign?!).

In closing, this weekend will see the second weekend on the Worcestershire county swimming championships, at which I will be officiating, and hopefully Anthony will be adding to the two bronze medals he won at the first weekend a fortnight ago. The only problem with this weekend is that the clocks go back, meaning a lost hour of sleep in the middle of an extremely arduous and exhausting weekend - couple that with the fact that the next APAT online tourney is on Saturday night.... Sunday looks like being a really tough day. I won't even be able to get an early night on Sunday as I've qualified for a Battle of the Planets $50k shootout on PokerStars, courtesy of a strong performance in a string of 20 Sit And Goes earlier this month. I look forward to Monday, and getting back to work for a rest!!

Til next time...

The pinnacle (so far)

For winning the 2009 tour rankings, I was awarded a £1070 seat in a 2010 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Main Event. For reasons of posterity, I chose Walsall as my target event as that was the scene of my UK Amateur win (plus the fact that it's only 30 minutes from home and being a tight git, I didn't want to spend money on hotels etc!)

Whilst the tour isn't attracting the numbers that it did last year and the year before, there were enough entrants to develop a prize pool in excess of £200,000, with £55,000 to the winner. Almost as important from my perspective was the fact that it attracts a whole bunch of faces I know from TV, and not just from poker circles. (Remember Beppe?)

There were a number of other players from the APAT tour who had won seats for various accomplishments through last season, plus a couple of APAT players with deeper bankrolls who had bought in directly. It was great to have friends around to relieve the stress and tension (which was not insignificant!).

The first thing I did when the table draw was published was see if I recognised any names at my table, and figure out who I should be wary of. The best part of my first table was the inclusion of Tony Trippier (APAT and BCPC player) - was good to have a friendly face there. On my immediate left was a name I knew from the recent Poker press - Jake Cody... a 21 year old online pro who recently won the EPT event in Deauville for €750,000. and on Jake's left was Chaz Chattha, and a couple of seats further round to Stuart Rutter. Sigh!!

I had intended to follow the example set by Alan McBride at Luton last year, and record every hand I played for a write up afterwards (a la Gus Hansen's book), but the problem with this is that my approach to the early stages of a deep stack is to play lots of hands - hence simply no time to record details. That said, there were a few hands of note that stuck in my mind that I can share.

I had decided I was NOT going to play the first couple of hands as I just needed a moment to settle the nerves, and watch things go round for a fiew minutes. However, first hand on the button, an early position raises, and 4 people call.... I look down at 7c9c (my absolute favourite hand - ask Tod Wood!) and make the call. The flop comes 568 (rainbow) - WOW! Initial raiser makes the continuation, and Stuart Rutter raises..... Now comes my first mistake of the day.... rather than flat calling to try and maximise the value, I got over-excited and re-raised - both players insta-folded. ho hum - at least the nerves were settled, and I already had a good table image growing.

It was a relief when our table broke after about an hour - and even more of a relief when there were no big names at my new table. However, one young lad hiding behind his hoodie, proceeded to give me a lesson for four hours in the art of aggressive poker. I subsequently discovered him to be Tom MacDonald - a 19 year old with two decent wins to his name already. A little while later, Praz Bansi arrived on my left, and I had thought he would slow Tom down a bit - not to be.... in fact, Tom completely owned Praz (several times over!).

During that table - two massive hands of note (massive for opposing reasons).

1. With several limpers, I limp on the button with 3h5h. Flop was Tc 9c 5s. It checked round to me, and I bet around half the pot. A guy in the SB called so fast he nearly burnt his hands on the felt - and his hands were shaking like, well, like very shaky hands shake! All others folded. the turn bought the 5d, and the SB guy bet out about a quarter of the pot - I raised with my trip 5s, only for him to re-raise around half his stack. So, having played a raggy hand and made a very strong hand out of it, I was faced with a decision for my tourney - I knew that if I called here, I would have to call the rest on the river..... so my only option was to shove all in now, or fold. I didn't particularly want to shove my stack when I could be drawing dead to a made full house, so folded. I was desperate to see his cards, even if it was a weak hand or a bluff - so I showed my 5. He mucked, and the whole table, and a player on the next table, berated me for a terrible fold. I still maintain it was an ok fold at the time, and under the circumstances.

2. Shortly after that hand, and while people were still talking about me being a complete nit, I raised UTG with AQo. 2 callers. Blinds fold. Flop 345 (rainbow). I c-bet a third of the pot, and get one caller. Whilst the turn card was dealt I was watching his face, and his whole demeanour sank when a 7 was dealt - I just knew he hated that card so much, and figured he must have had an absolute monster - either A2 for a flopped straight, or a flopped set, and was now scared of the four to a straight on the board. I checked and he bet the pot - I knew now I was going to take this away from him, but figured that if I raised here he would call to chase his full house, so flat called (could see that he hated that too). When the river came a blank Jack, I insta-shoved with my Ace high. Nearly 5 minutes later I wanted to ask the dealer to call a clock, but didn't dare speak for fear that my voice would quiver and give my bluff away, so sat in silence...... eventually, he folded 33 - he did indeed have a set of threes and was miles ahead of my paltry AQ (I showed him the Q for good measure, just so he knew he had been taken off the better hand). For me, that was probably one of the best hands I have ever played - and would have been impossible to play online.... for probably the first time ever, I knew from body language exactly where he was, and how to play him off his hand.

So, another table broken and time to move to pastures new - with a decent stack of 40+ big blinds now. The best bit - moving away from Tom MacDonald. My new table had Brian Yates on my left, and I had to take seat 5 (seat 6 was also empty). Looked around at the stacks, and the only stack bigger than mine was on my immediate right - perfect. No sooner had I hung my coat on my chair, the other vacant seat on my immediate left was filled...... by Tom MacDonald. FML!!

Things were going well for a while though, and I grew my stack to over 70 big blinds, and was joint chip leader at the table, and in the top 10 for the tournament overall.

CRASH!!!

Don't know if it was tiredness, or just blind ambition, but the train fell right off the tracks. I raised UTG to 2.5xBB with AK, and the only other player at the table with a big stack re-raised to 10xBB. He was an extremely active player who had just fluked his way to a big stack by calling an all in shove with AQ v AK and spiking a Q. There was no way I was folding to this raise, but didn't want to make a standard re-raise as I couldn't see him folding, and I would then be playing the rest of the hand out of position. My gut was telling me to shove, but my head said shoving 73 big blinds at this stage was just spewy. I elected to call, with the intention of check/folding a flop that I missed, or getting it in if I hit...... flop was KQQ. I checked with the intention of raising........ but he insta-shoved for around 3x the pot. I thought for about 0.3 seconds, before making the call. What a donk! Clearly there was very little that I could actually beat here - had had AQ. On reflection my call was very poor, but I think his shove was so odd that it just threw me off track, after all who in their right mind would shove 3x pot with what is practically the nuts?! Still it worked for him, and he took my chips all the way to the final table for a decent payday.

I look back at that hand, and consider that if I had indeed shoved my 73xBB preflop, assuming he folded his AQo (of course he would, wouldn't he?), I would have been vying for the chip lead, and cruising to day two.

All in all, it was a fantastic day out, which has given me a wealth of new experience, and I am extremely grateful to APAT and to BlueSquare for the opportunity.

------------------------

Back home, still feeling a little hollow, I wanted to play a decent tourney on Sunday night, and made a deposit from the bank account to allow me to play the PokerStars Sunday Warm Up ($215 entry, 4000+ players, circa $155,000 to the winner). This is something that I've absolutely never done before, and felt the pressure from the off - I was using housekeeping money to play poker - bad move!! Confidence was high though, and after the first hour I never dropped out of the payzone - made the money, then proceeded to bust out shortly after the bubble. But at least I recovered the housekeeping :)

Also, in the meantime on Saturday night, had managed to gain my first points of the new APAT season in the Welsh online championship event, finishing 12th from 144. Let's hope that's a sign of another good APAT season to come........

The other guy ALWAYS has Aces!!

So with this new approach to bankroll management, and the continual small withdrawals, my bankroll doesn't build to a level from which I can take a shot at the $215 Sunday majors. Instead, I have to make do with the Pokerstars Sunday donkament - the $11 buy-in $250k guaranteed..... my attempt to try and win big from a small buy in.

It's such a fishy tournament that cashing is rarely a problem, despite the fields regularly growing to over 25000.... however cashing with a big enough stack to get really deep is a different issue.

Last night saw a field of just under 37,000 runners, and for the first time ever, I hit the money with a decent stack that might, just might, make a difference. Without getting many strong hands or situations, I somehow found my way to the last 300, and at one point was as high as 30th.

After a table move, and finding myself two the left of a humungous stack who seemed to be playing every hand, I found what felt like a great spot for a re-steal. In the Big Blind with pocket threes, it felt like the perfect spot to shove over the top of the humungous stack's button raise - so in went my 2x average stack, and of course he had...... AA, and despite a flush draw on the turn, I was out at 01:30 this morning for $150, falling 252 places short of a $30k payday.

Mildly gutted to say the least. Why do they always have Aces?

Busy Times

Wow what a start to 2010 - one of the busiest periods of my life so far in many respects. My poker life is re-ignited, my work life is booming, family life has been intense, Anthony's swimming season has started with a bang, and through all of that I've been looking after and closing Dad's affairs.

With Anthony's swimming, it seems that the poor performances of the last 18 months are now well and truly behind him, and he's working well with the new coach at the club. Every time he swims he turns in such a strong performance, and is breaking PBs for fun again. The downside is the new early morning training regime - every Friday or Monday (my choice to do Friday in case I go deep in a Sunday major!) I have to have him in the water by 5.30am! The early get-ups hurt, but I seem to play some excellent poker whilst sat in the car, and during these sesssions over the last month I have an ROI of over 300%!!

At home, Katharine has been under the knife for an operation that will hopefully bring an end to an escalating series of pains that she has endured for the last year. All seems to have gone well so far, and it won't be long before she's back on her feet. I never realised how many times the washing machine has to go on in a week!!

At work I made a terrible mistake - I flagged to my leadership that I had bandwidth to spare as my account was in a quiet spell. Another account was passed over, and within days my original account suffered a horrendous SOX audit resulting in a mass of remediation actions that have turned my nice quiet account into one requiring 14+ hour days! sigh - that's the last time I ever tell anyone I don't have enough work!

Had to go to court yesterday to confirm all that I had submitted in writing with respect to my application for probate for Dad's estate. Six weeks I had to wait for that appointment, then it lasted less than ten minutes, and now I have to wait another two weeks for them to send me the probate certificate - and who said the court system was slow!!

Through all this, I've found time to play a massive amount of poker. Since the re-emergence of my Pokerstars account in December, I've rediscovered the art of winning single table sit and go tournaments. What's more, I've found that I can play 6 of these at a time, rather than my usual 1 or 2, and have sustained a decent ROI through a hugely increased rate of tournaments. In December I played 151 STTs, was ITM 41% with an ROI of 2%, and a profit of $53. In January I played 192 STTs, was ITM 39%, with ROI of 11%, and profit of $630. BUT, in February when I started aggressively multi-tabling, I played 351 STTs (so far in first 15 days!), was ITM 36% with ROI of 7%, and profit of $614. So in conclusion, my earnings per day have doubled in February whilst playing slightly lower stakes - just need to keep this going now. When the bankroll allows, I hope to be multi-tabling $60 games and sustaining this level of ROI - then I can give up work!

Live poker's also been good to me since my last post. Apart from the local pub game where I run like a dog, I've cashed in every live game I've played since I lost my Dad! Twice in December at DTD, and once in January. The January one was particularly special. After a good run through 2009 on the APAT tour and finishing atop the rankings, I was included in TeamAPAT for the UK Poker Forum Team Championship event in Manchester. This was a 160 runner tournament, made up of 20 teams of 8 players, with everyone who made the top 40 scoring points for their team - 1 point for 40th, and 40 points for 1st. With 3 APAT players making the points (myself included for finishing 20th), we acccumulated enough points to win the event my a decent margin. Another APAT trophy for the collection (well, one eigth of an APAT trophy anyway).

With respect to the local Black Country Poker Tour - I must re-evaluate and reconsider my approach to these games. Last week I was knocked out whilst once again getting my chips in with the dominating hand only to see a cruel river end the night. I just run so bad in those games it hurts!

An interesting week to come - On Saturday I have my final practical assessment in my exam series to try and become a fully qualified British Swimming referee. Losing sleep over that one already, and it's only Wednesday! Then next Friday, I'm off to Walsall to particpate in a GUKPT (Grosvenor UK Poker Tour) Main Event - a £1,060 buy in three day event which should provide a first prize of over £80,000. By far my biggest event to date, and entry is a prize from APAT and Blue Square for winning last season's rankings. Whatever happens in the game, I fully intend to make the most of the experience. I think it might be best if I refrain from autograph hunting though :)

To close this entry - I had the wierdest of telephone experiences earlier this week. The phone rang, and the conversation went along the lines of:

Me: "Hello?"
Electronic voice: "This is Pipex customer services. You are being transferred. Please hold."
Three minutes on hold and waiting.... (ffs!!)
Pipex: "Hello. Please confirm your surname and first name"
Me: "Sorry, but why are you asking my name - you obviously already know it"
Pipex: "For data protection"
Me: "How does me telling you my name protect my data?"
Pipex: "Have to confirm you are the right person before I speak with you"
Me: "Steve Redfern"
Pipex: "Your address and postcode please?"
Me: ... gave address and postcode
Pipex: "Sorry your postcode is wrong - please tell me the right one"
Me: "Eh? What? I know my own postcode!! What is it you want to tell me? Why are you ringing?"
Pipex: "Can't tell you that sir, unless you tell me your correct postcode"
Me: "OK fine, don't tell me - I don't particularly care"
Pipex: "I have information I need to give you about your account"
Me: "OK so tell me..."
Pipex: "Not until you tell me your correct postcode for data protection"
Me: "How do we overcome this? I only have one postcode and I've told it to you already"
Pipex: "Could you call us back tomorrow with the correct postcode?"
Me: "No"
Pipex: "I will have to speak with my supervisor, then call you back on another day"
Me: "Fine! bye!"

12 minutes of my life lost!!

Letter arrived from Pipex today telling my I hadn't paid my January bill for Broadband. It's on Direct Debit, and the bank have not declined any DD requests for payment! sighhhh