UKIPT Nottingham 2011

When I started writing this blog, it had been my intention to post an update after every significant poker event or achievement I experienced - whilst the intention is still good, finding the time between work, family, and poker is not so easy. That said, here is the next load of tripe.

Whilst playing a monthly league game with the Black Country Poker club is primarily about friendship, competition, and having a laugh, there is a serious undertone. For winning the league in Season 4, I was granted a £560 seat at UKIPT Nottingham which I would play on behalf of BCPC, and if I should make the money, I would keep the value of the buy in, plus 50% of the remainder - the rest going to the club to be split equally amongst all members.

I played UKIPT Notts last year, stumping up the buy in myself from recent tournament winnings, and having managed to get into a good position, proceeded to donk off most of my stack with a huge mistake. This time round I was desperate to do better, particularly as I had the BCPC club rooting me, and knowing that I would have to explain any silly donk failures - that added pressure helped me tremendously with focus.

My starting table was a bit weird - playing 10 handed, we were already tight for space, so having David Vamplew at the next table, surrounded by TV crew, it made for a real squash. My starting table would be the same table I would play at for the next 8 hours. I've tried to recall some hands of note - let's start with the very first hand of the day. With starting stacks of 15k, and blinds of 25/50, I'm in the big blind. There is an early position raise to 150, and three callers - I look down to find AA. Memories of last year are immediately flooding back!! I re-raise to 650 and get two callers. A rather attractive A82 rainbow flop, and I decide to make the donk lead of around 800 to try and induce some action - which comes with a raise to 1800 .... now, guessing that my loss with AA is now affecting my thinking, I 3-bet to 4000 when a flat call was quite obviously the better move - the other guy tank/folded claiming he had 88! I didn't show, but was feeling pretty good with a 20k stack after one hand!

The table turned out to be extremely tough for all those at my end of the table - the other end was where the action was developing, and chips were moving in one direction - away from our end! With Nick Slade at the table and prepared to play any two cards in or out of position, and seemingly careless about his stack, I was finding it really tough to get in a good spot to play back at him. During the early evening session of play, with blinds around 100/200, and my stack sat around 12k, I found a perfect spot - or so I thought. A loose aggro player raised to 450, and two people called - in the big blind I found 66 and chose to just call the extra 250. On a flop of a KKA, all four players checked - I was ready to insta-fold to any action at this point. The turn was a 6, giving me a full house. I checked again, and the original LAG raiser bet around half pot - the others in the hand folded, and it was back to me with my full house - I decided to raise, and given the relative weakness of my hand on that board, and knowing that he would never fold a K, I decided to make the raise a fairly large one in an effort to get stacks in the middle here and now, with him hopefully overplaying AQ/AJ, or any K - obviously if he has AK I'm on the way home - my raise was half of my stack, which left me a little surprised when after some thought the other guy flat called. A nightmare on the river as another K came, completely counterfieting any strength I may have had in the hand - now I'm losing to any A, the case K, and any pocket pair bigger than 66.... luckily for me the other guy lead out with a shove and I was able to get away, showing my 66 - he showed KQ :(

Now down to less than 15 big blinds, it was time for short stack ninja - and with many shoves and one double up I survived to the last level of the day. Now, for me to get home and then back to Nottingham, I would need to drive around 180 miles round trip, and would get little sleep - so going into the last level, I decided that if I was to come back it would be with a decent stack, and not with dregs - I lost count of the number of times I was all in during that final level. I started the level with 9k, and ended it with 36k - but remarkably, I was never at risk, and never took a hand to showdown. The comedy moment of my day came once the TD announced last three hands of play - I openly declared that I would be all in during these three hands, possibly as many as three times! I fold the first hand, but in the second I'm UTG and find AQs - shove and take the blinds and antes..... in the last hand I'm in the big blind, and ask politely for a walk - the whole table snap folds round to the small blind who starts to think about his action and counts out chips for a raise.... I moved my stack to the line and announced that I would not be folding. He duly raised to 3.5x, and I shoved blind - he sighed and folded AQs face up - I just flipped one card for good measure, it was a 3 :)

So with chips bagged up, I made a sharp exit at 1:40am, planning to race home, hit the sack, and then be back on the road for 10am ready for am 11:30am seat draw. I didn't count on the A453 out of Nottingham being closed for roadworks, meaning I had to go back through Nottingham, back past the door of DTD, and up the A52 toward Derby to get on the M1 at J25 - it's now 2am..... 90 miles in 50 minutes (!!!!) and I was in bed before 3am. Lying in the dark, seeing streetlights flash past in my mind's eye, I started recalling all those espressos and Red Bulls I'd drunk through the course of the evening. By around 5am, it became apparent that sleep was not going to come, and it was almost a relief when the alarm sounded at 8am.

Play started at noon, and with blinds at 1k/2k, my stack of 36k was short enough to only allow one move, but not so short that I couldn't wait for a hand. The table draw for day two was not too bad - no massive stacks, and no aggressive maniacs - a couple of 3-bet shove re-steals and I was beyond the 50k mark without any real danger. People dropping like flies at this stage, and tables breaking all over the place, including mine. This move was to be my last. Taking my seat at my next table, I wasn't overly chuffed to see a 300k+ stack on my immediate left, followed by two 100k+ stacks beyond that, and with 50k, I was easily the smallest stack at the table.

What happened next was a complete shock. When I started this tourney, my first goal had been to survive to the dinner break, and after that to make day two. In making day two, I had not really considered the next goal, and had just played hands as they arrived without really considering the context of the tournament in any way.... so when the TD announced we had reached the bubble and were now playing hand for hand, I was more than a little surprised to find myself on the brink of cashing. OK - time to play uber-tight and think about the money for the club, especially with the big stacked crazy Italian on my left.... first hand and it folds to me on the button and I find AQs..... so much for folding to the money - all in! Italian gives me a nervous moment when he asked for a count and stares me down, before folding. Next hand and there's a min-raise on the way round to me where I find AKs in the cut off - again, so much for folding to the money - all in! He folds, and I find myself being the one to pick up chips around the bubble.

Once the bubble burst, the usual deluge of exits occured and we were down to around 90 left. I find AA and get a huge double up to over 130k - happy days.

Then what turned out to be my last hand of the tournament unfolded. I found QsTs in early position, and having only played one hand for around three orbits (the AA hand), I decided to open to 2.5x. Everyone folded to the big blind who flat called. Now I had him pegged as a very weak player who would fold easily when pressurised, and I was more than happy to play a pot with him. A flop of 3h6s7s was exactly what I was looking for - he lead out for a full pot bet which given the way the table had been playing, was a little odd. I figured he might make that bet to protect any top pair hand, or indeed a low overpair - so with my overcards and my flush draw, I fancied I was in good shape for a big shove..... of course he snap called with 67 for top two pair, I missed my flush, and that was all she wrote.

The £1375 won, of which I kept a a little over £900, was very welcome..... but if I had won that final hand, I would have had a stack of over 250k, been up in the top 10, and fancying a tilt at the £109,000 first prize. C'est la vie - totally happy with my play all weekend, and wouldn't have done anything different at any stage. Definitely going to find the funds to play this one again next year.

Now one week to wait until my next live adventure - the live final of the Vegas Team Challenge at Star city in Birmingham......

Teaming up at APAT

The final leg of APAT's fourth season saw the UK Team Championships held in Bolton's G Casino. I entered this tournament as a reigning champion, having been part of the successful TeamAPAT in last year's competition, however this year I was teaming up with peers from the Black Country Poker Club.



The tournament contained 25 teams of 8 players, and played as a standard multi table tournament with 10k chips on a 45 minute clock over two days. The last 50 players would earn points for their teams, with 1 point for 50th, 2 points for 49th, and 50 points for 1st, etc.

Sadly, from a team perspective, we were never in the running having lost several players early on when just about every race went against us. Will Young and I were the only players to survive to day two, but with some teams still having 3 or 4 players in the last 30, we had no realistic chance of team glory.

From a personal perspective, the weekend was excellent! The atmosphere around the card room was fantastic, as it always is for an APAT event. The banter at my day one table was worth the buy in on it's own - Rob Swindells, Craig MacInnes, and myself, ruled that table, and had a good laugh in the process. That said, there were three players from that table who were to survive to the final table!

In season 3 - 2009 - I had the pleasure of making several day two's and final tables, but season 4 has been a washout - every single APAT tournament has seen me leave early, with me running KK into AA on three occasions to lose my stack. When my KK was run into AA for the fourth time on day one in Bolton, I feared the worst.... however this was to be time that KK would bink, and I just knew then that tables were turning back in my favour.

A couple of times I needed to rebuild having got unlucky, but other than that, was never in any real danger, and cruised to the end of day one, albeit with rather a short stack in the end.

Hand of note from day one: Button open shoved into my BB, and found JsJc and made a simple call for almost all of my stack - was left with less than 5 big blinds if I lost. Button had Ad2d. Flop Qc9c2c. So villain has flopped bottom pair, but I have all the clubs covered. The turn was a brick, but the rivered 2h was a killer.

After play finished around 01:30, I figured an "early night" was in order - however hunger got the better of me. Was walking through Bolton at around 2:30 en route to the hotel, when the quote of the weekend was made by Will Young - "this place is dead. It's Saturday night, yet there's nobody around the city centre." Turns out we were one street away from the nightspots - turned the next corner and a wall of sound, people, and bass deep enough to tremble the pavements hit us. 20 minutes of stepping over and around drunken girls showing more flesh than one would expect to see on a Mediterranean beach in mid summer, despite it being around -2C, coupled with wading thrugh the odd lake of vomit, and we were lost. Google navigator in hand, and half an hour later, we were back on track for what was supposed to be a 5 minute walk to the hotel! Pizza and doner kebab at 3am on the steps of the Holiday Inn, (bet they were chuffed with that image!), and then bed at 3:30. zzzzz.... until room mate Tony Trippier came to bed at 5:30.... then it was more volcanic snoring than zzzzzz. Still, after a 20 hour day, with 10+ pints, who needed more than two hours sleep anyway :)

At least I kept my clothes on when out and about in the hotel, unlike Jack Prime, who in a drunken state, mis-stook the room door for the bathroom door, and ended up in the hotel corridor in the wee hours stark bollock naked.

So day two - the first for a year... in fact, the last time I made day two was the equivalent team event last year in Jan-2010! Returning with a stack of 38k, and blinds at 2k/4k, I had committed to myself to be all in before the blinds reached me - luckily I was on the button first hand, so on an 8 handed table, had 6 hands to find something shoveable. In the third hand I found 88, shoved, and was called by AK.... 88 held, and I was up to around 20 big blinds.

A little while later, and I got engaged with my most notable hand of day two: It folds to me in the cutoff, and I raise to 16k (blinds 3k/6k) with 22, planning to fold to any shoves. The button and SB folded, but BB shoved. After a count, it turned out that I needed to call 23k to win 63k in the pot, but 22 still felt too dominated by his range which obviously contained all the overpairs. I asked a question and the BB responded, giving me a really strong read that he had an Ace rather than an overpair, therefore I was in a 50/50 situation, with the pot paying 3:1, and knowing that if I lost I still had 13 big blinds behind - I called, he showed AQ, and a board of xQ2A6 gave him hope along the way, but my 22 held. I think that in an online game, I probably fold there most of the time - but the value of a live read gave me an edge, and that's the hand I will remember most from the weekend.

A few hands later, and my tourney life was on a shoestring - having shoved 33 from UTG 6 handed, I was called by AA. *BINK* - a 3 first card out. That gave me a decent stack that I could carry to the final table.

6th in chips at the final, and knowing that team dynamics might make a difference to play, I was never going to sit back and watch the play go by - I wanted the monster stack, and was prepared to gamble for the win. A move with ThJc was called by AdKs - not too bad a spot for me, particularly when the flop was dealt Qh3h9h giving my the open ender, a flush draw, and live cards as well.... total 21 outs, and 66% favourite to win the hand....... yet I somehow managed to avoid the lot and was gone in 10th.

Congratulations to the London Poker Meetup team on their victory - was nice to catchup with Matt Carter again after so long.... deserving member of the winning team (hey Matt, were you printing those AKs?).

Thanks to APAT for another brilliant weekend.

Invigorated and rejuvenated, it's now back to the online slog to try and find a way out of a pretty deep hole. Still, with renewed confidence in hand, February could be an interesting month with the live final of the Vegas Team Challenge at Star City, as well as entry to the £560 UKIPT main even at DuskTillDawn.

Time for an honest appraisal

It's been a while since I posted on here - I was actually beginning to wonder if I would post again, or if I'd lost the will to keep it up. Thing is, at the moment, if I'm not working I'm at the swimming club, and if not swimming, then I'm playing poker.... and that doesn't leave a great deal of time for the important stuff, ie wife and kids (and blog). Neglecting the blog is one thing, but neglecting the wife and kids is unacceptable, and something that I must fix in order to return to an appropriate balance.

At 41, with a decent career, an awesome family, and everything going for me, I really shouldn't be losing sleep about things that don't matter. But I do, constantly.

In terms of my poker performances of late, I am a loser - how's that for honest!? However, this time last year, I was winning poker for fun, was already a couple of thousand ahead for the year, and had just bought in to a £560 UKIPT tournament with online winnings. In May 2010, for some unknown reason, the winning tailed off. In July I contracted with Bankroll Supply for a sponsorship deal, and with a slow but reasonably safe start, things were looking ok.

However, from October onward, it went bad - and when it goes bad, boy it hurts. Three big losing months on my BRS accounts, coupled with losses on my personal accounts, and I was in a hole that looked like I would need a ladder to get out. During the christmas holiday period, after some soul searching, I re-evaluated my poker approach, and figured that at the time, my approach was to spend 99.5% of my available poker time playing poker. Perhaps not a bad idea on the face of it, however it meant that I was spending only minimal time learning and analyising my game. My New Year resolution was to force this split to something nearer 90/10 - ie spend 10% of my available time learning and analysing..... that said though, if I achieve 5% I'll be happy. I spend around 30 hours a week playing - so I am committing to myself to use 3 hours a week for analysis.

After spending some time looking at previous STT hands, it didn't take long to identify a whole ruck of leaks - mostly -EV shoves in the late stages. It seems that I rarely call in -EV situations, but that my shove range is too wide. Personally, I would prefer to die from over-aggression as opposed to excessive passivity, so I don't feel that my major leak is one that will be the end of me - I just need to learn to better harness the aggression, and be more targetted.

Ironically, in MTTs my problem is the other way - I tighten up too much in the mid stages, when I should be opening my range and turning up the aggression.

For STTs, I've spent time with SNGWiz (an ICM tool that advises on correct shove/fold decisions in situations that the user defines) and with Pokerstove, and am trying to better define the ranges from which I shove or fold during the end game stage. If anyone's really interested, there are some great videos on this hosted by deucescracked, presented by Vandweller. I feel like I learned a great deal from those, and early results in January showed some evidence of improvement.

So, armed with newfound thought processes, redefined ranges, and a little confidence, I set about a recovery in early January with an aim to clear $2k profit and get my BRS accounts back in the black so I could actually get paid for my efforts for a change (I only get paid when my overall account is in profit - a percentage of a negative value equates to zero).... and it started pretty well with around $400 of recovery in the first week.

Poker is an amazing game - if you imagine going on the Pepsi Max Big One at Blackpool where you can go from 200 feet in the air to ground level at 80mph with your guts feeling like they are departing via your ears, that's what poker has felt like for me over the past week. I was in profit for the month and feeling good - 2 days later, and I'm at the lowest earnings point I've been at since I started, with all January profits wiped out and further losses induced in a handful of games. BUT, I'm content in the knowledge that I could not have done anything differently. I only played 27 games yesterday, and traversed PokerTracker data last night to review all of my exits - and every single one was played correctly according to SNGWiz, but I managed to finish 15 buy ins down for a $300 loss.

Tilt could play a major factor now - perhaps it's good that I'm off to Belguim on Sunday for the start of a mini-tour with work... Droitwich to Belgium on Sunday, Belgium to Newcastle on Tuesday, Newcastle to Dublin on Thursday, and back home on Friday. Busy times with the client = No Poker!! Hopefully will be refreshed and raring to play again by next weekend.

BCPC tonight - need to get some points on the board, but not much chancee of defending last season's title after a blank score in round 2, and will miss round 4 in February when I play the Nottingham leg of the UKIPT on behalf of BCPC.

Bolton later in the month where I will have the proud honour of captaining the BCPC team at the APAT UK Team Championships.... and although I will be representing a different team this year, I have the privilege of being defending champion from last year's event when I played and won with the APAT team.

So, an honest appraisal? Is my game dead? No. Does it need some work and effort? Certainly. Running bad and playing bad is not a good coincidental mix.

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

A month of highs and lows

Dececmber 2009 was a tough month that delivered a harsh reminder to stay aware of the important things in life. I realised too late that there were so many things I should have said to my Dad before he died, but sadly left it too late.

Dad was never a gambler, and hated anything that was associated with gambling. In my earlier years, I wasted so much money chasing my addiction to fruit machines, horses, and anything else that I could gamble on. Therefore, Dad found it difficult to accept that my time spent playing poker was a good thing. However, when he saw my consistent winnings, and particularly when he framed the photo of my UK Amateur win in Walsall, he came to accept that poker was perhaps something worthy for me. I was gobsmacked when for my 40th birthday last year, he paid my £200 entry to the Sky Poker Tour Grand Final - for him, this was a massive step.

As bad as a month December was for life in general, ironically it turned out to be my best month of 2009 for poker. I had been losing steadily online through 2009 and was finding it difficult to "get up" for poker. On 1st Dec I had $26 left if my PokerStars account, and challenged myself to do "something" with it. Through many $6 Single Table Tourneys, I managed to grow the $26 to $500. Along the way I also took down a $4 Omaha tournament for $450, giving me a PokerStars bankroll of over $900. Not bad for a month's effort, and hopefully a turn around in my online fortunes.

December then culminated in a final table at the DuskTillDawn 20/20 £20k tourney yesterday. From 227 runners, I picked my way to the final table having seen huge hands splashing all around me, but without any cards to speak of myself. My best two hands were 10 10, which was beaten by 33, and AK which was beaten by AQ. My chips had to be won the hard way, and it was over 7 hours before I took a hand to an all in showdown. The final exit was a sickener in the first hand of the final - matey shoved with 32o and I snap called with KJs, only for the flop to give two 3s! If I had won that hand, I would have found myself 3rd in chips, and confident of a deep finish. £427 prize for 9th, but £7,000 for 1st :(

Into 2010, and looking forward to more live play. It would be so nice to win another APAT national to give me something to dedicate to my Dad.

European Championships

So having counted down the hours, minutes, and seconds until the big day, it was suddenly upon me, in the wake of a sleepless night spent tossing and turning, and dreaming of what might be.

Ever since the moment when my selection was announced, I found myself doubting my ability, which tinged the excitement with nervousness about whether I would fail in the competition. I know there are many people in APAT who are far better poker players than I, and who probably felt they were more deserving of a place (and I would probably agree).... however my run this year has been good, and it was me who had secured the place in the team.

So we hit Luton's G Casino filled with a mix of eager excitement and apprehension - however all the apprehension about my own playing ability was about to be expunged with an extraordinary first day.

The competition was made up of several mini tournaments, mixed between 6 handed single table tournaments, and HeadsUp (1 v 1) tournaments. Each member of our 4 man team played 2 STTs and 1 HU on each of the two days.

My first table provided a pretty exciting start for me, with most of the players seeming equally apprehensive about busting out early - and between myself and Jason Jones (Wales), we ran over the table for most of the game. I did have a decent slice of luck in the midst of the game when all in with 10 10 v the very short stack's JJ and a big stack's AQ... I just needed to hold up against the AQ to profit, and the 10 on the flop gave me a monster stack that I was able to use to good effect and to close out the tourney for maximum points.

A better start than I could have hoped and prayed for - I just wanted to score a point to settle my nerves - all 5 points was a bonus!

Second table was much the same, and when I beat a French players Heads Up during the evening, I had concluded day one as only one of two players on maximum points! Even better - England were at the top of the table, albeit things were very close with just one point separating us from Poland.

Day two started equally well with a Heads Up round, and given my form of day one, I was paired with the Polish player...... a reasonably quick and straight forward game, and England were pulling away at the top!

Sadly, that's where it all started to go wrong - points were dropped throughout the rest of the day and England slipped off the top, and were looking like losing any hope of gaining even a bronze medal. Thankfully, my travelling companion (Brian Yates) was in even better nick than me by now, and scored 19 out of 24 possible points (I ended up with 16 - only 4 from day two having had a couple of yucky beats in the day's two STTs!), and his performance in the final session was enough to see us hang on to third place! Having said that, for the record it has to be noted that Brian did in fact lose headsup in STTs against a German girl..... twice!

France and Poland ended up tied at the top, and played a set of Heads Up deciders for the championship, with Poland coming through victorious.

In my opinion, Poland were very worthy winners, although it would have been nice to see the trophy go oversees into Europe - the Polish team are all resident in the UK, not that this really matters in the grand scheme of things I guess.

All in all, it was a magnificent experience, and I was just so chuffed to come away with a medal on behalf of my country, and even more chuffed to have played so well for most of the competition.

During the next two days, the Individual European Championship tournament was played out - I had the opportunity to score points for the rankings here and close out the 2009 rankings as winner. Sadly things didn't go quite as planned and I busted out 86th having never really got into a challenging position. Luckily, two of those in the chasing pack (Brian Martin and Andy Duncan) who made day two with commanding stacks, did not score sufficiently to overhaul my position at the top, and I was confirmed as 2009 APAT rankings winner. Put that with my England medal, and it was a pretty damned good weekend.

It was such a pleasure to meet so many new friends from various corners of Europe. The APAT just goes from strength to strength.

For The Honour

As a kid growing up in the 70s and 80s, I had a dream (like most lads) that I would one day represent my country. Sadly I turned out to be crap at football, rubbish at cricket, too lightwieght for rugby, and never quite good enough for snooker. Before I realised it, I was too old to have any chance, and my dream died.

I suspect that most young kids who love their sport have aspirations of emulating their heroes, but of all those who dream, only a microscopic proportion actually succeed. This year, completely out of the blue, my dream has been re-ignited, and I will finally have my chance to record a place in my own history that I can take pride in, and look forward to recounting to my grand-children in the future.

After a decent season on the APAT Amateur Poker Tour, my selection to the England team for the forthcoming European Championships of Amateur Poker was assured. It's with immense pride that I shall don the England shirt, and in my own small way I feel that I will have joined the ranks of Kevin Keegan, Steven Gerrard, Ian Botham, Freddie Flintoff, and many other of my sporting heroes, who have all been privileged to have represented their country.

OK so Amateur Poker is hardly Test Cricket or World Cup Football, but my selection is enough to fill me with pride, and my fervent Englishness means my desire to win will be up there with that of Keegan, Gerrard, etc.

With just six sleeps to go, I find myself going to bed and thinking about Luton, waking up in the night thinking about Luton, and going to work in the morning thinking about Luton. I just hope that when the day arrives, I'm able to do my selection justice, and not look back on my performances with regret.

Catchup

Not posted for a while, probably to do with the fact that "I only blog when I'm winning..... blog when I'm winning... etc", and I errr haven't won for a while. In fact, not only have I failed to win for a while, I'm actually losing - something I haven't done for a long time. Still, variance has to get me at some point and I can ride it out.

That said though, I did make a final table at the World Champs of Amateur Poker at DuskTillDawn last month.... and it was in the Omaha event, a discipline in which I have never played live before, and have never played a tournament live or online before. Was a little clumsy handling 4 cards, but got there in the end. Was nice to be back on an APAT final table, and taking another 5 points for the National Rankings.

More recently I experienced the delights of Bolton (sadly I must have missed the "delights" and just experienced the arse-end instead. What a horrible run-down place!) as the APAT tour hit town for the English Amateur Championships. Now, as bad as Bolton is as a town, the G casino is an awesome venue. If they could have figured out how to crank up the air-con and keep the temperature somewhere under 90, it would have been the perfect venue!

The game itself went reasonably well and I managed to move into top form. For the first two levels I played more than 50% of hands, moved my stack from 10k up to 18k, and never showed a hand! The dynamics of the table changed with the late arrival of a couple of players, and I had to reign in my uber aggressive loose nature, but still managed to stay right on top of the table and drive my stack upwards. A minor accident saw me double up a short stack, who when counted his chips and was a little less short than I had realised - gulp.

It was a horrible feeling when that table broke, and I moved to a new spot with a known aggressive player on my immediate left who was sporting a monster stack of over 90k, making my 30k look a little weak. Still I had enough to make him respect my plays, and history between us in Dublin led us both to avoid each other like the plague. At one point when I raised from the cutoff with A3, and bigstack flat called behind, I thought I woould be taking a huge pot as the flop came 245 (MBN!!). The Ace on the turn both made some action for me (matey had AJ) but also killed the action as my check/min-raise set off too many alarm bells and he was able to get away.

Shortly after, having donked a few chips around trying and failing to get moves thr0ugh, I found myself at risk against the not-so-short-stack that I had inadvertently doubled up a while ago... my 66 was looking very poorly against his QQ, and a board of 742J wasn't helping..... my coat was on, ipod and glasses packed away, hand extended to shake............. til BINK 6 on the river saved the day!

Zero decent hands, several more failed steals, and I'm short stacked. A couple of table moves resulting in complete lack of knowledge of players around me, and a necessity to get my chips in as early as possible, left me in a complete hole. I was down to 10xBB and needing to shove to stay alive - and the guy two to my left had enough chips in front of him to build Westminster and Buckingham Palace!! On the button to his BB I found A6o and open shoved successfully taking the blinds and antes.... and on the next hand found AQs. Wanting a call from a weaker Ace and most pocket pairs, I hoped another open-shove would look weak, and apparently it did as the Big Blind called with ATo for more than half of his stack!! Happy days.... but of course this was to be the one time in five that AT beats AQ.

I was out in 46th, where if my hand had held I would be up to 48k with blinds at 1k/2k, and an above average stack. C'est la vie - need to keep reminding myself I wanted that call from the AT.

So back home early on Sunday afternoon, and resolved to make use of my "poker pass" and play some online cash during the afternoon and tourneys in the evening. Cash was hopeless - in half an hour I ran QQ into KK for one buy in, and a flopped straight into a rivered house for a second buy in. All the evening tourneys saw early exits, except the Sunday 250k on Pokerstars where I managed to finish araound 600th from 30,000 runners - 4 hours work and a late night for a whopping $50 profit, only recouping half of my cash losses. Great. Whilst sitting 12th from 20k+ still in the tourney, I had my eye firmly on the $27,000 first prize :)

So, next stop Luton in November for the European team and individual championships. Did I mention I had been selected to play for England in the European Amateur Team Championships? What an absolute honour and a privilege.

Contemplation

As I sit here in the home office on what is turining out to be a very quiet day at work, I contemplate the sunshine and 25C temperature, and how I wish I was jetting off somewhere to a summer holiday of beer, sun, beer, family time, beer, fun, beer, and sun.

My email inbox is empty, my To Do list is complete, my admin is all up to date. A little surfing, but Facebook is quiet today, the poker forums even quieter.

I mention to a friend online that I haven't played much live poker for a while and am longing for the World Championships of Amateur Poker in late August. Online poker is proving a fruitless exercise right now, and has become a little tedious. Gone are the days of playing at levels that made my heart race - my bankroll is decimated, and the rebuilding is proving to be very very boring. Somehow sitting for hours playing online for pennies is losing the appeal - this time last year I was played in pots that on occasion exceeded $1,000 - now the biggest I see is $20!

It's live tournament poker that gets my juices flowing now, and I wish I could play a little more often.

Whilst I'm sitting in a period of almost meditation, Katharine appears at the office door to check her diary with me as she has an entry that says I'm playing a team game at DuskTilDawn tonight and tomorrow. I ruefully point out that the event was cancelled due to lack of interest....... but then the little imp on my shoulder points out that as I was not expected to be home tonight, perhaps I wouldn't be missed.........

.........and now instead of waiting for the WCOAP in three weeks for my next live poker, I only have to wait til tonight!! Suddenly feeling awake again.

Hopefully my next entry on this blog will be made tomorrow morning in celebration of a win tonight.

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

EDIT Saturday morning......

Well, nursed a short stack all evening and finally finished 18th. Had two decent pros (Tom McCready and Tony Phillips) at my table for most of the game, and between them they made play quite tough. Spent three hours playing cash after my tourney exit, and managed a whopping profit of £5. At an earnings rate of £1.67/hour I won't be giving up work any time soon :(

Got home at 3.35 this morning...... yawwwwn

The story of the Keys and The Pies

Note that the title of this item is nothing to do with poker, and at times, that reflected the mood of the recent weekend at the latest APAT event in Edinburgh. Usually I return home from these events feeling fulfilled, and eager to write about my experiences - this weekend just wasn't a "normal" APAT weekend though, and was in truth ultimately disappointing.

The usual build up of tension and excitement from a few days out were there alright, and the journey to Scotland was filled with the now familiar butterflies and nervous energy. However, by the time we had arrived at the casino and found the card room, the crappy attitude of the card room staff partially quelled the excitement.

The tournament itself for me was an uneventful affair, mixed with frustrations at the inexperienced dealer (we had the same dealer for 4 hours straight!), the poor quality chipset, the split card room, and the absolutely terrible food. As far as the cards go, I didn't get anything of note, other than making a huge preflop laydown of QQ and feeling ecstatic when two other players reached showdown with KK and AA!!

Dinner break was incredible (incredibly bad that is). I filled my plate at the buffet with two sausage rolls, a "scotch pie", and a number of brown things that looked like something my dog produces when he has a bad belly. The brown things were ok and tasted vaguely of some sort of curry spice, the sausage rolls were ok, but the pies? OMG the pies!!!! I took a huge bite, then spent the next couple of minutes trying to swallow, but the instant film of grease on the roof of my mouth was making me gag. Whilst standing chatting with Brian, trying not to be sick, I tipped the pie up and watched a huge stream of liquid grease run out on to the plate. Brian's untouched pie promptly went in the bin.

My tournament exit hand just about summed up the whole day for me - a push on the button with A2, snap called by KK in the blinds..... flop was AJA (elation), turn was 4, river was...... K (gutted). My only other hand of note was when I doubled up against the eventual winner who called my all in open shove for 15xBB - he held 10 10....... I had the monster that is 2c4c.

As for the dealer - I was on tilt from the third hand or so...... caused by his constant odd remarks when betting had finished for a round, and he would say "any more players? no more bets". Clearly he thought he was at a roulette table rather than in the card room.

My travelling companion, Brian Yates, and I were sharing a room at a small B&B about a mile from the casino. We had one set of keys which opened the front door and the bedroom door. Brian who wasn't feeling so good left the casino early evening, and suggested I call him when I arrived back at the B&B so he could let me in. At around 11.30, feeling dead tired, I trudged the mile walk along the Glasgow Road and rang Brian's mobile....... the conversation was along the lines of:

Brian "Hello"

Steve "It's me. Let me in please"

Brian "I'll throw the keys out of the window"

Steve "Don't be a twat - just come and let me in the door"

Skylight window opens and Brian appears...

Brian "Here you go - catch"

Steve "Make sure you throw them far enough - mind the gutter"

Brian "Oops, they landed in the gutter"

Steve "Daft twat"

Brian "Sorry mate"

Steve "It's raining, cold, and I can't get in"

A mile in the rain to get back to the casino to find Paul (he was staying in the same B&B). Waited til 2am for close of play and walked back with Paul. Another mile!

It was an interesting conversation next morning when Brian had to ask the old boy who owned the B&B for a ladder to get on his roof!!

So, breakfasted and raring to go, it was off to the snooker hall for the rest of breakfast - several pints of Stella, followed by a trip to a different Edinburgh casino to take the locals on in a £40 tourney.

Well, there was I thinking I would outplay the locals - but it seems that they don't understand "poker", and after several moves that ran into very ropey calls, I was out. At that point an old geezer asked me if I would like to start a cash table with him and two others. hmmmmmm thinks I - if the standard is anything like the tourney play, this could be lucrative....... and it didn't disappoint. Four hours of £1/£1 NLH, and I had won enough to cover all costs from the weekend - £100 became £375 with ease. For Paul, £200 became over £800!!

I flew home on Monday and logged into the APAT forum to post my updates and thanks, and saw some pretty interesting recollections of drunken aggression, cheating, crap food, crap dealers, and crap casino. Just about summed it up nicely.

The next round of the APAT tour is at DuskTillDawn ("Europe's Premier Cardroom") in Nottingham. Having played there a few times, I know that the dealers and other staff are top notch, that the facilities are second to none, the food is awesome, and loud drunken and aggressive behaviour is pounced on and penalised. I can't wait - normal APAT service will be resumed.