Tuesday 31 August 2010

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.

Friday 20 August 2010

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!!!

Sunday 1 August 2010

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.