It always amazes me that those that live in England have to pay for the privilege of travelling to Wales, yet those in Wales are allowed into England for free. I suppose in that regard, England is following the general Euro mantra of freedom of movement and immigration, whilst Wales takes the more sensible approach.
Luckily for me, I live in a part of England that negates the need to pay the exorbitant bridge toll when I travel to Wales - I get to use the two lane racetrack that is the M50. Like the M45 in Northamptonshire, I've never seen a police car or a speed trap on the M50, and it's a great opportunity to test Peugeot's claims to the top speed of my car. For this reason, I like travelling to Wales. I'm sure there are other reasons as well, but as my Welsh wife no longer lives there, I can't really think of any other good reasons right now. What a pain in the ass it was on Saturday when I trudged along the M50 at 40mph through the seemingly endless single lane average speed check area with neither another vehicle in sight, nor any workmen to be seen behind the the cones. In fact, if it wasn't for the odd vehicle trudging equally slowly in the other direction, I might have thought I had entered some parallel universe devoid of life, yet still I crawled along at 40mph.
Still, at least I had the 40mph single lane trudge to look forward to on the way home at 1am.
I found the casino at the first time of asking. Now, given that I have TomTom in the car, this might not sound as much of an achievement as it actually was - on the two previous occasions that I've been to the Cardiff Grosvenor, TomTom has misdirected me to the point of being utterly lost (yeah I should have learned ahead of the second trip I guess) - however it seems a map update has actually put the centre of Cardiff properly on the TomTom map!
Back in 2008, in APAT's season two, I played my very first APAT game, and coincidentally it happened to be at Cardiff, which is actually quite lucky as if it was elsewhere, this whole paragraph would have been a bit pointless. I was completely hooked with the whole APAT live tour from the very moment that I joined that event in 2008, and what a journey it started for me. For that reason, I like going back to Cardiff to play.
On a more sour note though, Cardiff holds painful memories. In Season 3 in 2009, I was flying in the APAT event when I got the call that my Dad was in intensive care, and had to abandon poker to be at his side. Luckily he survived that scare, and lived more than six months afterward. It now holds another painful memory though. In 2008 the first player I ever played an APAT hand with was a guy called Rich Stevenson who was sat on my immediate left, and was my absolute nemesis for the whole day. I've met Rich many times since, and hugely enjoyed my converations with him - his humour and dry wit are just amazing. It was an awful moment just before the start of play on Saturday when Des announced the death of Rich. Although I never knew him well, I will cherish the memories of him.
The tournament was a strange one for me. Within two orbits I had caused the first exit, and was early chip leader. Having raised in early position to 125 with AQs, the button and blinds called, and we saw a flop of QQJ. Nirvana thought I. The blinds checked, and I elected to slow play and also checked, allowing the button to have a stab, which he duly did, betting 250 into the 500 pot - the blinds folded, and I called. The 5 on the turn was inconsequential, and I checked again - now the guy on the button was itching to get chips in, and I was quite sure when he bet 400 into the 1000 pot with shaking hands that he also had a Q... but I had the best kicker so was highly likely to be in good shape unless he had a full house already - and his demeanour was setting off alarm bells. For me now, the right play was to check call the turn with a view to doing the same on the river - far too early to get coolered unnecessarily. However, the A on the river just about gave me the nuts, unless he had a very unlikely AA. Praying that he did indeed have a Q, I tried to make my hand look like an Ax hand that just got there, and bet 3000 into the 1800 pot - and was then faced with an immediate min-raise! Stacks went in and he flipped QJ - unlucky for him, and very cold deck, but I'll gladly ship the early double up.
From that moment on, I never got involved in any significant pot, and my 600bb stack dwindled through the day until the tourney reached 50 players remaining around 11:30, and I was down to around 20bb. Raises were rarely getting through, squeezes and bluffs were always called, and the best hand I saw all day after the AQ was AJ, and that was only once! Never have I been so utterly card dead, and so completely unable to manipulate proceedings with chips rather than cards. Eventually I open shoved AKs for 15bb, and the young lad in the small blind then asked for a count and scratched his head and ummed and arred before calling with AA!! Yeah I know there was still a player to act in the big blind and the lad wanted the big blind to come along, however when the big blind insta folded, and the cards were flipped, it sure did feel like a horrible slowroll, and not a nice way to end the day.
On a more positive note, the APAT ECOAP (European Championship of Amateur Poker) is scheduled for August bank holiday weekend at DusktillDawn, and will once again be a four day festival. I've played for the England team twice before with varying degrees of success - a bronze medal in 2009, and wooden spoon in 2010. Having played before and so recently, I would not be applying for a team place for a few years yet - the English player pool is so huge that the opportunity should be spread around - however when Des asked for applications for country captaincy, I found myself responding and applying. This was done with the mindset that if one doesn't ask, one will never get..... and I certainly did not expect the application to be successful, however to my complete surprise (and I really do mean that!!!) a week later I was confirmed as England captain. It's actually quite hard to convey how proud that makes me feel - my vocabulary doesn't contain words that do the feeling justice. Selecting a team for this from the applications received is possibly one of the hardest things I've done in recent times - I hate saying no to people, or feeling like I've let anyone down, but the team can contain only four selections (the fifth player gets a place by default by virtue of online APAT league placing). Hopefully the team that I select will take up the challenge of taking England to glory.
No more live poker for a while - back to the online grind!!
Edit: Footnote. Congratz to JP Round on his runner up finish - would loved to have seen him win this, and am sure that one day he will. One of the good guys!
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Friday, 27 April 2012
Recovery. PLO8. Progression.
When Paul Jackson offered me the chance to stick with it at BRS, but on less demanding volume related terms, I started to give more focus to my PLO8 MTT game, and for a while this became my exclusive game of choice. I had found reasonable success on occasion in the past playing PLO8 MTTs, but probably only because I had slightly more clue than the multitude of clueless players out there. I was winning, and that was important for confidence, as well as for the recovery of my P&L.
One night, having busted a tourney from a decent position, and missed the money, I got a pretty intense email from Paul telling me just how badly I had played a hand, and how my starting hand range needed some serious review. It was at that point that I decided to try and really learn the game properly, and spent some considerable time reading strategy articles, exploring forums for hand reviews (not that many around for PLO8 though), and attending sessions with an experienced PLO8 mentor.
I know my game improved dramatically, although I still have moments of stupidity. It seems that to win regularly at PLO8 in online low stakes MTTs, one does not have to be a complete master of the game, but simply to play a tight conservative range, to play cautiously, and to just stay one step ahead of the masses of morons who frequent these tourneys. In Holdem MTTs, over a large sample, I figure I can hold my own to some extent, and am probably better than half the players out there.... however that means that the other half of players out there are better than me. In any given Holdem MTT online at the $10 type stakes, there will be a mix of morons, good players, and experts, and lately the bar seems to be rising steadily - there are still gamblers and bad players around, but the standard of play is generally increasing, and the good players getting better. In a PLO8 MTT, in my opinion, 90% of players lean more toward the moronic end of the spectrum, with less good players around, and very few experts, and that makes the game so much more beatable.
Playing PLO8 MTTs on iPoker and MicroGaming every night, tends to mean the same players show up with regularity - both good and bad players, and the fields are much smaller than Holdem MTTs, therefore it becomes much easier to build up player profiles and to stack up decent hand histories on players. Profits this year are far healthier than they've been for some time - from $3k down to $2k up. It was a pretty good feeling in March to actually get paid at the end of the month - that's not happened for a while!
I don't much like the downswing that's come in April, but on reflection and review, I know with some degree of certainty that it's come mostly from running bad rather than playing bad, and I have every faith that it will recover again.
Live exploits at the latest APAT event in Coventry were going really well, until a massive call preflop with 88 against a 30xBB shove - based on reads, and actually pinpointed his hand to 55/66/77 - went unrewarded after he showed 77 and outflopped me. Next live outing is in late May, with a trip to Cardiff for the next APAT leg. Looking forward to it already.
Big night out tonight with BCPC as we play out the live final of the BCPC Premier League III, for which I have qualified as joint chip leader. During the league format, over ten rounds, I manage to finish 2nd on five occasions - seems there is a trend with my headsup game that I need to review and attend to! That said, was chuffed to finish so high on so many occasions in a field of pretty strong players.
A couple of seats for major events picked up recently as well, having won a satellite for the Genting Tour for a £430 main event seat (the one I was supposed to play in January, but will now play Sheffield in November), a Genting seat won through BRS which will be played at the Stoke leg in August, and a £220 seat for coming fourth in the latest BCPC season - no sure where to play that yet though.
One night, having busted a tourney from a decent position, and missed the money, I got a pretty intense email from Paul telling me just how badly I had played a hand, and how my starting hand range needed some serious review. It was at that point that I decided to try and really learn the game properly, and spent some considerable time reading strategy articles, exploring forums for hand reviews (not that many around for PLO8 though), and attending sessions with an experienced PLO8 mentor.
I know my game improved dramatically, although I still have moments of stupidity. It seems that to win regularly at PLO8 in online low stakes MTTs, one does not have to be a complete master of the game, but simply to play a tight conservative range, to play cautiously, and to just stay one step ahead of the masses of morons who frequent these tourneys. In Holdem MTTs, over a large sample, I figure I can hold my own to some extent, and am probably better than half the players out there.... however that means that the other half of players out there are better than me. In any given Holdem MTT online at the $10 type stakes, there will be a mix of morons, good players, and experts, and lately the bar seems to be rising steadily - there are still gamblers and bad players around, but the standard of play is generally increasing, and the good players getting better. In a PLO8 MTT, in my opinion, 90% of players lean more toward the moronic end of the spectrum, with less good players around, and very few experts, and that makes the game so much more beatable.
Playing PLO8 MTTs on iPoker and MicroGaming every night, tends to mean the same players show up with regularity - both good and bad players, and the fields are much smaller than Holdem MTTs, therefore it becomes much easier to build up player profiles and to stack up decent hand histories on players. Profits this year are far healthier than they've been for some time - from $3k down to $2k up. It was a pretty good feeling in March to actually get paid at the end of the month - that's not happened for a while!
Live exploits at the latest APAT event in Coventry were going really well, until a massive call preflop with 88 against a 30xBB shove - based on reads, and actually pinpointed his hand to 55/66/77 - went unrewarded after he showed 77 and outflopped me. Next live outing is in late May, with a trip to Cardiff for the next APAT leg. Looking forward to it already.
Big night out tonight with BCPC as we play out the live final of the BCPC Premier League III, for which I have qualified as joint chip leader. During the league format, over ten rounds, I manage to finish 2nd on five occasions - seems there is a trend with my headsup game that I need to review and attend to! That said, was chuffed to finish so high on so many occasions in a field of pretty strong players.
A couple of seats for major events picked up recently as well, having won a satellite for the Genting Tour for a £430 main event seat (the one I was supposed to play in January, but will now play Sheffield in November), a Genting seat won through BRS which will be played at the Stoke leg in August, and a £220 seat for coming fourth in the latest BCPC season - no sure where to play that yet though.
Sunday, 8 January 2012
MPF and DTD 560
Firstly, following my previous post, the relief of no longer trying to grind out SNGs around a day job and busy family life is immense. That said, when I resigned from BRS, I was kinda chuffed that Paul Jackson offered me the chance to stick with it and just play selective MTTs. For me, quality seems to be better than quantity, and my P&L is recovering following several cashes and several final tables - I just need to run better on final tables and turn small cashes into a win for a decent payday.
In the midst of 2011, Dave Allan created a great new poker community for Midland based poker players - The Midland Poker Forum was born, and as part of the promotion to get the site off the ground, and in conjunction with new sponsors RedBet poker, he created a short league for all forumites, the prize for which was a £336 seat in the Dusk Till Dawn monthly DeepStack event. Despite not actually winning single round, my consistent second and third places earned enough points to win the league and the £336 seat.
Now, the seat was supposed to be played in December but I was otherwise engaged in Manchester with APAT, so pushed for entry to the January event instead..... but forces conspired against me when DTD upped the buyin for the January event to £560, and my meagre bankroll meant the uplift of £224 was beyond me. I posted on Facebook to see if I could sell some shares to raise the difference - didn't really expect much positive response, and was gobsmacked when I managed to sell 30% within 5 minutes of posting! Huge thanks and gratitude to my stakers for their confidence!
So, off to DTD on 7th Jan.
The day started with the strangest possible moment which almost felt like an omen. On arrival at DTD I couldn't find anyone I knew to pass the time with, so went for the big screen to watch the Wolves v Bham cup game. I perched against a seat by one of the poker tables, and watched the pretty poor game wishing for something better on TV. The seat draw was made, but not yet posted on the screens, however the TD was distributing papers to each tournament table with the draw for each table so the dealers would be able to check they had the right players in the right seat. I happened to glance at the sheet for the table I was on and by some sheer fluke spotted my name.... now for the weird but, I was drawn in seat 5.... and that just happened to be the seat I was perched on to watch the footy! So out of 282 entries and 282 seats, I had happened to sit on the seat that would become mine for the rest of the day. Surely an omen of sorts.
I knew nobody at my table by the names on the sheet, although I thought I recognised the name in seat 1 from somewhere - Anthony Kendall - but couldn't recall a face. Of course when Tikay turned up, the connection was made. Funny how we can know someone by their nickname, but fail to recognise the full version of their real name. I've spoken with Tikay a few times, and he's a proper gent - spending several hours playing poker with him was a privilege... what a nice guy, and huge fun at the table! It was a bit of a bonus that it would eventually be me that took him out :)
The tourney started with a monstrous 30,000 stack - bigger than I've ever started with before. For four levels I hardly played a hand in anger - there were many limps pre followed by folds when missed the flop, and I shed a few chips and cultured a nice weak/passive image. By level 5 and the antes, I had pretty much figured the table out, and knew I had the ideal seat - the two fish at the table were seat 2 and seat 3, and I had position in seat 5. By the end of level 6 I had almost doubled my starting stack without ever reaching showdown - mostly by 3 or 4 betting pre.
By the end of level 9, I was double the average, biggest stack on the table, and generally crushing! I had never played this well in a live tourney before, and almost felt that I could see everyone's cards face up. At this point I had only been to showdown once with a top two pair hand that I checked back in position after a scary river card hit - to be shown that the other guy had called me pre, flop, and turn, with an underpair to the board and no draws. Easy money!
There was a flurry of small stack bustouts and four new players with biggish stacks arrived - I failed to switch gears here, and assumed that my uber-aggressive game could continue to get through, and before I knew it, my 100k was down to 70k, and I was folding pre to a 5 bet, only for the guy to flash a 3. Time to tighten up and re-evaluate.
Hand of note for the day came in level 11. I min-raised in mid position with 66, and Tikay called in the BB. Flop 456 (two clubs) - about as wet as it could be, and could easily have smashed into the BB's hand. Tikay had around 28k behind to my 70k. Rather than getting fruity and allowing the board to get any wetter, I bet almost full pot - around 9k. Tikay flat called! Turn was a 2 - now any 3 wins. Tikay checked - I shoved, he called, and showed 44 from a slow played smaller set - unlucky.
End of level 12, and I'm back to around 88k - the average was 82k, and if I didn't play another hand I would would finish the day near average stack... I was set fair to hit day two with at least 30 to 40 big blinds.
We had a 5 minute break before the last level and I went outside for a breath of air, and to ring Katharine to say goodnight. I also needed a pee rather desperately. Back in the cardroom and heading for the loo, but there was only 20 seconds left of the break and I was in the small blind first hand - better to play the hand, then go for a wee after.
The table folds round to me and I find AKs. Now, the guy on my left has a similar stack, and has played in the true fashion of an old school player - always open-raising 3.5x, yet folding to any resistance, and always squeezing from the BB in a limped pot. Three times today I had limped in the SB, and he had raised big from the BB forcing me to fold. Also three times today, I had open-raised from the SB and he had folded. So, in this AKs spot, I figured the best action was to limp to induce, and sure as eggs is eggs, he obliged. With a bet of 8k on top of the 2.4k blind, there was a total of 15.5k in the middle and I had 85k behind. I didn't want to be playing the hand out of position post flop with a hugely bloated pot so elected to shove the lot here, and take down the 18% increase to my stack. I, and the rest of the table, were abso-gobsmacked when he snap called the 35x shove with KJo. Naturally the flop was QT9 and I was out. I congratulated him on his expert play, and used a few expletives that I should probably have saved for other circumstances. I loved his call before the flop was dealt - just have to hang on to that thought.
All in all, I have never played better. I stayed away from usual distractions - alcohol and iPod - and found a new zone. I didn't lose a single hand at showdown until the end, I won several hands that I knew I had no right to win but was able to make the right plays at the right time, and I made two significant and correct read-based laydowns preflop (JJ and QQ), both to single raises.
I can't wait til next week for my next live venture, back at DTD for the Grand Prix (£100k gtd prize pool, and I bagged my £60 in a €2 satellite!)
Sorry to those that staked me - I was in a great spot to pay something back, and feel pretty bad about the outcome.... however I couldn't and wouldn't play anything differently.
Thanks to Dave Allan and the MPF for the opportunity - here's hoping there is another promotion soon :)
In the midst of 2011, Dave Allan created a great new poker community for Midland based poker players - The Midland Poker Forum was born, and as part of the promotion to get the site off the ground, and in conjunction with new sponsors RedBet poker, he created a short league for all forumites, the prize for which was a £336 seat in the Dusk Till Dawn monthly DeepStack event. Despite not actually winning single round, my consistent second and third places earned enough points to win the league and the £336 seat.
Now, the seat was supposed to be played in December but I was otherwise engaged in Manchester with APAT, so pushed for entry to the January event instead..... but forces conspired against me when DTD upped the buyin for the January event to £560, and my meagre bankroll meant the uplift of £224 was beyond me. I posted on Facebook to see if I could sell some shares to raise the difference - didn't really expect much positive response, and was gobsmacked when I managed to sell 30% within 5 minutes of posting! Huge thanks and gratitude to my stakers for their confidence!
So, off to DTD on 7th Jan.
The day started with the strangest possible moment which almost felt like an omen. On arrival at DTD I couldn't find anyone I knew to pass the time with, so went for the big screen to watch the Wolves v Bham cup game. I perched against a seat by one of the poker tables, and watched the pretty poor game wishing for something better on TV. The seat draw was made, but not yet posted on the screens, however the TD was distributing papers to each tournament table with the draw for each table so the dealers would be able to check they had the right players in the right seat. I happened to glance at the sheet for the table I was on and by some sheer fluke spotted my name.... now for the weird but, I was drawn in seat 5.... and that just happened to be the seat I was perched on to watch the footy! So out of 282 entries and 282 seats, I had happened to sit on the seat that would become mine for the rest of the day. Surely an omen of sorts.
I knew nobody at my table by the names on the sheet, although I thought I recognised the name in seat 1 from somewhere - Anthony Kendall - but couldn't recall a face. Of course when Tikay turned up, the connection was made. Funny how we can know someone by their nickname, but fail to recognise the full version of their real name. I've spoken with Tikay a few times, and he's a proper gent - spending several hours playing poker with him was a privilege... what a nice guy, and huge fun at the table! It was a bit of a bonus that it would eventually be me that took him out :)
The tourney started with a monstrous 30,000 stack - bigger than I've ever started with before. For four levels I hardly played a hand in anger - there were many limps pre followed by folds when missed the flop, and I shed a few chips and cultured a nice weak/passive image. By level 5 and the antes, I had pretty much figured the table out, and knew I had the ideal seat - the two fish at the table were seat 2 and seat 3, and I had position in seat 5. By the end of level 6 I had almost doubled my starting stack without ever reaching showdown - mostly by 3 or 4 betting pre.
By the end of level 9, I was double the average, biggest stack on the table, and generally crushing! I had never played this well in a live tourney before, and almost felt that I could see everyone's cards face up. At this point I had only been to showdown once with a top two pair hand that I checked back in position after a scary river card hit - to be shown that the other guy had called me pre, flop, and turn, with an underpair to the board and no draws. Easy money!
There was a flurry of small stack bustouts and four new players with biggish stacks arrived - I failed to switch gears here, and assumed that my uber-aggressive game could continue to get through, and before I knew it, my 100k was down to 70k, and I was folding pre to a 5 bet, only for the guy to flash a 3. Time to tighten up and re-evaluate.
Hand of note for the day came in level 11. I min-raised in mid position with 66, and Tikay called in the BB. Flop 456 (two clubs) - about as wet as it could be, and could easily have smashed into the BB's hand. Tikay had around 28k behind to my 70k. Rather than getting fruity and allowing the board to get any wetter, I bet almost full pot - around 9k. Tikay flat called! Turn was a 2 - now any 3 wins. Tikay checked - I shoved, he called, and showed 44 from a slow played smaller set - unlucky.
End of level 12, and I'm back to around 88k - the average was 82k, and if I didn't play another hand I would would finish the day near average stack... I was set fair to hit day two with at least 30 to 40 big blinds.
We had a 5 minute break before the last level and I went outside for a breath of air, and to ring Katharine to say goodnight. I also needed a pee rather desperately. Back in the cardroom and heading for the loo, but there was only 20 seconds left of the break and I was in the small blind first hand - better to play the hand, then go for a wee after.
The table folds round to me and I find AKs. Now, the guy on my left has a similar stack, and has played in the true fashion of an old school player - always open-raising 3.5x, yet folding to any resistance, and always squeezing from the BB in a limped pot. Three times today I had limped in the SB, and he had raised big from the BB forcing me to fold. Also three times today, I had open-raised from the SB and he had folded. So, in this AKs spot, I figured the best action was to limp to induce, and sure as eggs is eggs, he obliged. With a bet of 8k on top of the 2.4k blind, there was a total of 15.5k in the middle and I had 85k behind. I didn't want to be playing the hand out of position post flop with a hugely bloated pot so elected to shove the lot here, and take down the 18% increase to my stack. I, and the rest of the table, were abso-gobsmacked when he snap called the 35x shove with KJo. Naturally the flop was QT9 and I was out. I congratulated him on his expert play, and used a few expletives that I should probably have saved for other circumstances. I loved his call before the flop was dealt - just have to hang on to that thought.
All in all, I have never played better. I stayed away from usual distractions - alcohol and iPod - and found a new zone. I didn't lose a single hand at showdown until the end, I won several hands that I knew I had no right to win but was able to make the right plays at the right time, and I made two significant and correct read-based laydowns preflop (JJ and QQ), both to single raises.
I can't wait til next week for my next live venture, back at DTD for the Grand Prix (£100k gtd prize pool, and I bagged my £60 in a €2 satellite!)
Sorry to those that staked me - I was in a great spot to pay something back, and feel pretty bad about the outcome.... however I couldn't and wouldn't play anything differently.
Thanks to Dave Allan and the MPF for the opportunity - here's hoping there is another promotion soon :)
Thursday, 1 December 2011
End of an era - new beginnings
Around 18 months ago, I thought I was taking my poker to a new level when I joined up with BankrollSupply, and became a "Sponsored Pro", or semi-pro in my case. To be bankrolled to play poker, and to be able to play with zero risk, was liberating, but came with it's own different pressures - playing with someone else's money took some getting used to.
During that 18 months, I have strived to improve my STT game, have developed a decent understanding of ICM and of the general push/fold strategy and assocated range parameters, but for whatever reason, have never managed to sustain any decent level of profitablity in STTs.
The lack of sustained profits, and therefore lack of payback, meant I was spending hours upon hours upon hours playing a pretty boring format for no return, and justifying that to Katharine became harder and harder. I'm a career person with a good job and a reasonable career future, however with a massive mortgage and other debts, the concept of earning a bit on the side through poker is always attractive as it's the only way we can afford those little extras (like holidays, new car, renovations around the house, etc) - hence I am always prepared to put the effort into my poker game to try and improve the reward. However, despite playing with zero risk on my BRS accounts, I just couldn't seem to make it pay.
Early in November, I measured a run of ~500 STTs where my actul chip return at the point of a hand being All In (pre river) was around 10% of chip EV - this was just about the worst bad run I have ever experienced, and it was painful to say the least. So much so that I decided to take a break for the rest of November and just play my own accounts.
During that time playing on my own dollar, I finished 7th of 5325 in the Pokerstars Sunday $200k for $6000, won two small MTTs on 888 for around $2000, had some fun splashing around the .25/.50 PLO cash tables for a small profit, won satellites for seats at the DTD Grand Prix, and Genting Poker Series, and won the Midland Poker Forum league for a seat at the DTD Deepstack - over £800 worth of tourney seats for total outlay of £7.
Away from the daily STT grind, poker has become fun again. I know it won't always be that hot, and I will have the downturns to offset the good months, and that this will be at my own risk, however I actually feel like I can play my own game under my own steam, without the added pressure of having to achieve certain rake volumes, and can actually enjoy the game for what it is again.
I appreciate the chance Paul Jackson gave me, and for sticking with me for so long given that I wasn't delivering any signficant return other than rake paid. I also value the mentoring received in the last month or so from Dan Morgan - the guy has an incredible mind for the maths of poker.
I would love to be able to play poker full time, but sadly the mortgage and debt profile means my job and career are exclusively vital to me. So, back to the search for the one big Sunday night success... pay off the mortgage in one go, and then re-evaulate.
Off to Manchester for the APAT UK Open on Saturday, and going full of confidence and in decent form.... can't wait.
During that 18 months, I have strived to improve my STT game, have developed a decent understanding of ICM and of the general push/fold strategy and assocated range parameters, but for whatever reason, have never managed to sustain any decent level of profitablity in STTs.
The lack of sustained profits, and therefore lack of payback, meant I was spending hours upon hours upon hours playing a pretty boring format for no return, and justifying that to Katharine became harder and harder. I'm a career person with a good job and a reasonable career future, however with a massive mortgage and other debts, the concept of earning a bit on the side through poker is always attractive as it's the only way we can afford those little extras (like holidays, new car, renovations around the house, etc) - hence I am always prepared to put the effort into my poker game to try and improve the reward. However, despite playing with zero risk on my BRS accounts, I just couldn't seem to make it pay.
Early in November, I measured a run of ~500 STTs where my actul chip return at the point of a hand being All In (pre river) was around 10% of chip EV - this was just about the worst bad run I have ever experienced, and it was painful to say the least. So much so that I decided to take a break for the rest of November and just play my own accounts.
During that time playing on my own dollar, I finished 7th of 5325 in the Pokerstars Sunday $200k for $6000, won two small MTTs on 888 for around $2000, had some fun splashing around the .25/.50 PLO cash tables for a small profit, won satellites for seats at the DTD Grand Prix, and Genting Poker Series, and won the Midland Poker Forum league for a seat at the DTD Deepstack - over £800 worth of tourney seats for total outlay of £7.
Away from the daily STT grind, poker has become fun again. I know it won't always be that hot, and I will have the downturns to offset the good months, and that this will be at my own risk, however I actually feel like I can play my own game under my own steam, without the added pressure of having to achieve certain rake volumes, and can actually enjoy the game for what it is again.
I appreciate the chance Paul Jackson gave me, and for sticking with me for so long given that I wasn't delivering any signficant return other than rake paid. I also value the mentoring received in the last month or so from Dan Morgan - the guy has an incredible mind for the maths of poker.
I would love to be able to play poker full time, but sadly the mortgage and debt profile means my job and career are exclusively vital to me. So, back to the search for the one big Sunday night success... pay off the mortgage in one go, and then re-evaulate.
Off to Manchester for the APAT UK Open on Saturday, and going full of confidence and in decent form.... can't wait.
Monday, 27 June 2011
Blackpool rocks!
This was a fun weekend! The APAT contingent descended on the G Casino in Blackpool for the UK Pub Poker Championships, and resplendent in our new branded shirts, I joined with members of the (in)famous Black Country Poker Club to represent our sponsor - The New Talbot.
This team tournament was all about 8 members surviving as long as possible to ensure that each individual player could contribute the highest possible number of points to the team's cause. With 128 runners, only the top 50 would score points (1 point to 50th place, 50 points to 1st place, and a sliding scale to all places between. We scored 98 points, which on the face of it sounds ok - however considering that only two people made the points and just happened to finish 1st and 3rd, kinda suggests that the rest of the team were an epic failure.
Massive congratz to Tony Trippier on his tournament win, and to Brian Yates on another APAT final table... both hugely well deserved.
I finished a paltry 98th, but bad as that may sound, I reckon this was probably one of the best games I've played, certainly in terms of where my head was at and some of the reads I made. My game was summed up into 5 key hands:
Hand 1: Blinds 50/100. UTG aggro maniac who had played almost every hand since the tourney started, and who had already been seen to 4-bet preflop with 88 and TT, opened UTG to 300. I raised in mid position to 850 with QQ. He re-raised to 2000. At this point I consider I'm never folding here, but didn't really want to shove knowing he could have AK and I don’t really want to race for my stack this early... I decided to flat call, and play the flop in position, ready to be wary of an A or K on the board. Flop was 743 rainbow. He checked, I bet around half pot, and he insta-shoved. I called, albeit a little reluctantly - I knew his range included a fair amount of hands that QQ beats, but his body language was strong - he did indeed show up with AA...... and I binked a Q on the river.
Hand 2: Blinds 75/150. UTG tight player opened to 350. I re-raised to 900 with QQ. He flat called. Flop was J82 rainbow. He checked, I bet 1000, and he called. Turn was another J. He checked, I bet 2000, and he shoved. I couldn't put AJ into his range - didn't think he would have flat called out of position pre-flop with AJ – but I just knew I was beat. I told him he didn't have a J and that I would fold QQ to his overpair - he showed KK! Really happy with the read and laydown.
Hand 3: Blinds 75/150. New player to the table raised UTG to 450. Changing tack a little, I flat call in mid position with QQ, everyone else folds. Flop is J94 rainbow. She checks, I bet half pot, and she min-raises. This one was easy - I just knew she had AA and folded my QQ face up - she did indeed show AA. Even happier with that read and laydown, although getting a bit pissed about having to fold QQ on J high boards!
Hand 4: Blinds 100/200. I open on the button for 400 with QJ, the SB folds, and the BB calls. Flop is ATT and the BB checks. I figure this isn't the best flop to c-bet as although I can reasonably represent the Ace, he can check-raise and represent the 10 - it could get pretty messy at this point if I then re-raise with air, so I take the pot control safe option and just check behind. The turn is a 2, and he checks again - I now figure that after two checks, my Q might actually be good, and take a stab at closing the hand here with a 400 bet into the 900 pot - he flat calls. The river is a K and of course this is my gin card giving me the broadway straight. But here it all gets weird - having taken the passive line all the way, the BB comes out with a 1000 bet into the 1700 pot. I figure that I have the best hand here almost all the time and have to raise for value, hoping to get a call from any random A or K hand - I raise to 2600..... the BB shoves for 13k! Shit! I need to call around 10k to win 16k, and have 15k behind. This one takes a while, and I actually end up calling a clock on myself - I eventually fold knowing that he isn't shoving with anything that I can beat - at best I'm calling to split the pot. We both agree to show, and he had AT for a flopped house!! Now I'm cooking, and the table image is pretty immense after some decent laydowns. What's more, after three potential coolers, I still have 15k, whilst the tournament average is just over 12k.
Hand 5: Blinds 100/200/25. For nearly two hours, I've been trying to summon a valet so I could order food - frankly, I was starving! 13 tournament tables, and only 1 valet - service was slow. A hand evolved where two early position players limped, and I looked down hoping to see a nice squeezing type hand - AJo was good enough to squeeze. At that exact moment a hand tapped my shoulder and the valet asked what I wanted to order - I politely asked him to wait a second whilst I played out this hand, but he said he would come back later.... NO don't do that, I've waited too long already - back at the table, I'll fold, no I'll raise, oh too flustered now, I'll limp as well. Sigh what a bad move. Club sandwich and chips ordered in a hurry, and the flop is dealt in a 4-way pot. Qc 9c 6c, and I have the Ac - happy days thinks I! The player in the SB donk-leads 600 into the 1250 pot, the BB calls, as does one of the limpers - actions gets to me with a pot of 3050, and I have 13k behind. I hate flat calling here, as if I hit another club, I probably don't get paid off with 4 clubs on the board. I want to make a standard raise, but two of the players in the hand are unlikely to fold top pair, and at this moment I only have Ace high. I take the aggro stance and semi-bluff shove (although I know it effectively turns my hand face up to some degree) hoping to fold out all one or two pair hands - the guy in the SB tanks and eventually calls for most of his stack with 3c 5c. OK he had a made flush, but not a great one, and with two players to act behind him, and with the obvious tight image that I had shown throughout this tourney, I think his call was probably not the best. I missed my draw, and was out. C’est la vie – I wouldn’t do anything different in that spot next time.
So – disappointed to be out, but not disappointed with my play.
With cash tables and evening tourney to console myself, I headed for a spot of BlackJack and made enough to pay for dinner and drinks.
With two of our team players still in the tourney, a stay for day two was obligatory. A morning in the sun on Blackpool prom with some really nice people and great friends, drinking Magners over ice – how much better can it get than that?
Sunday afternoon was spent on just about the craziest cash table I’ve ever played, along with Steve Bayliff, Craig MacInnes and Andy Overton. Playing a round of each – one round of No Limit Holdem, followed by a round of 4, 5, or 6 card Omaha, was just about enough to confuse the locals into giving us all their money. I spent four hours turning £140 into £540, then 10 minutes turning it back into £140. Ho hum
APAT weekends are usually great fun, and there are so many great people that I just love spending time with at these events….. when we end up in a casino as good as the G in Blackpool, it just makes for a perfect poker weekend away.
Special mention to Aneurin Venables for spending hours and vast amounts of money playing Arabian Derby on Blackpool pier to win an array of soft toys, that he then assigned as bounties on the heads of a number of BCPC players - cheers mate... good for a laugh!
Back to work today, and to the STT grind tonight. Reality beckons.
This team tournament was all about 8 members surviving as long as possible to ensure that each individual player could contribute the highest possible number of points to the team's cause. With 128 runners, only the top 50 would score points (1 point to 50th place, 50 points to 1st place, and a sliding scale to all places between. We scored 98 points, which on the face of it sounds ok - however considering that only two people made the points and just happened to finish 1st and 3rd, kinda suggests that the rest of the team were an epic failure.
Massive congratz to Tony Trippier on his tournament win, and to Brian Yates on another APAT final table... both hugely well deserved.
I finished a paltry 98th, but bad as that may sound, I reckon this was probably one of the best games I've played, certainly in terms of where my head was at and some of the reads I made. My game was summed up into 5 key hands:
Hand 1: Blinds 50/100. UTG aggro maniac who had played almost every hand since the tourney started, and who had already been seen to 4-bet preflop with 88 and TT, opened UTG to 300. I raised in mid position to 850 with QQ. He re-raised to 2000. At this point I consider I'm never folding here, but didn't really want to shove knowing he could have AK and I don’t really want to race for my stack this early... I decided to flat call, and play the flop in position, ready to be wary of an A or K on the board. Flop was 743 rainbow. He checked, I bet around half pot, and he insta-shoved. I called, albeit a little reluctantly - I knew his range included a fair amount of hands that QQ beats, but his body language was strong - he did indeed show up with AA...... and I binked a Q on the river.
Hand 2: Blinds 75/150. UTG tight player opened to 350. I re-raised to 900 with QQ. He flat called. Flop was J82 rainbow. He checked, I bet 1000, and he called. Turn was another J. He checked, I bet 2000, and he shoved. I couldn't put AJ into his range - didn't think he would have flat called out of position pre-flop with AJ – but I just knew I was beat. I told him he didn't have a J and that I would fold QQ to his overpair - he showed KK! Really happy with the read and laydown.
Hand 3: Blinds 75/150. New player to the table raised UTG to 450. Changing tack a little, I flat call in mid position with QQ, everyone else folds. Flop is J94 rainbow. She checks, I bet half pot, and she min-raises. This one was easy - I just knew she had AA and folded my QQ face up - she did indeed show AA. Even happier with that read and laydown, although getting a bit pissed about having to fold QQ on J high boards!
Hand 4: Blinds 100/200. I open on the button for 400 with QJ, the SB folds, and the BB calls. Flop is ATT and the BB checks. I figure this isn't the best flop to c-bet as although I can reasonably represent the Ace, he can check-raise and represent the 10 - it could get pretty messy at this point if I then re-raise with air, so I take the pot control safe option and just check behind. The turn is a 2, and he checks again - I now figure that after two checks, my Q might actually be good, and take a stab at closing the hand here with a 400 bet into the 900 pot - he flat calls. The river is a K and of course this is my gin card giving me the broadway straight. But here it all gets weird - having taken the passive line all the way, the BB comes out with a 1000 bet into the 1700 pot. I figure that I have the best hand here almost all the time and have to raise for value, hoping to get a call from any random A or K hand - I raise to 2600..... the BB shoves for 13k! Shit! I need to call around 10k to win 16k, and have 15k behind. This one takes a while, and I actually end up calling a clock on myself - I eventually fold knowing that he isn't shoving with anything that I can beat - at best I'm calling to split the pot. We both agree to show, and he had AT for a flopped house!! Now I'm cooking, and the table image is pretty immense after some decent laydowns. What's more, after three potential coolers, I still have 15k, whilst the tournament average is just over 12k.
Hand 5: Blinds 100/200/25. For nearly two hours, I've been trying to summon a valet so I could order food - frankly, I was starving! 13 tournament tables, and only 1 valet - service was slow. A hand evolved where two early position players limped, and I looked down hoping to see a nice squeezing type hand - AJo was good enough to squeeze. At that exact moment a hand tapped my shoulder and the valet asked what I wanted to order - I politely asked him to wait a second whilst I played out this hand, but he said he would come back later.... NO don't do that, I've waited too long already - back at the table, I'll fold, no I'll raise, oh too flustered now, I'll limp as well. Sigh what a bad move. Club sandwich and chips ordered in a hurry, and the flop is dealt in a 4-way pot. Qc 9c 6c, and I have the Ac - happy days thinks I! The player in the SB donk-leads 600 into the 1250 pot, the BB calls, as does one of the limpers - actions gets to me with a pot of 3050, and I have 13k behind. I hate flat calling here, as if I hit another club, I probably don't get paid off with 4 clubs on the board. I want to make a standard raise, but two of the players in the hand are unlikely to fold top pair, and at this moment I only have Ace high. I take the aggro stance and semi-bluff shove (although I know it effectively turns my hand face up to some degree) hoping to fold out all one or two pair hands - the guy in the SB tanks and eventually calls for most of his stack with 3c 5c. OK he had a made flush, but not a great one, and with two players to act behind him, and with the obvious tight image that I had shown throughout this tourney, I think his call was probably not the best. I missed my draw, and was out. C’est la vie – I wouldn’t do anything different in that spot next time.
So – disappointed to be out, but not disappointed with my play.
With cash tables and evening tourney to console myself, I headed for a spot of BlackJack and made enough to pay for dinner and drinks.
With two of our team players still in the tourney, a stay for day two was obligatory. A morning in the sun on Blackpool prom with some really nice people and great friends, drinking Magners over ice – how much better can it get than that?
Sunday afternoon was spent on just about the craziest cash table I’ve ever played, along with Steve Bayliff, Craig MacInnes and Andy Overton. Playing a round of each – one round of No Limit Holdem, followed by a round of 4, 5, or 6 card Omaha, was just about enough to confuse the locals into giving us all their money. I spent four hours turning £140 into £540, then 10 minutes turning it back into £140. Ho hum
APAT weekends are usually great fun, and there are so many great people that I just love spending time with at these events….. when we end up in a casino as good as the G in Blackpool, it just makes for a perfect poker weekend away.
Special mention to Aneurin Venables for spending hours and vast amounts of money playing Arabian Derby on Blackpool pier to win an array of soft toys, that he then assigned as bounties on the heads of a number of BCPC players - cheers mate... good for a laugh!
Back to work today, and to the STT grind tonight. Reality beckons.
Monday, 28 February 2011
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......
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......
Monday, 31 January 2011
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.
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.
Friday, 14 January 2011
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.
Monday, 11 October 2010
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!!!!
Monday, 27 September 2010
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
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
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
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....
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.
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!!!
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:
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.
Monday, 26 July 2010
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.
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.
Friday, 23 July 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
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!
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!
Monday, 19 April 2010
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 :)
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 :)
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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...
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...
Monday, 1 March 2010
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........
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........
Monday, 22 February 2010
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?
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?
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