Archive for October, 2008

It was a great turn-out for the Main Event, a £40k prize-pool with 80 runners including ‘Maltese’ Jo Grech, Dave Colclough and Jeff Kimber, among others. Sadly for me it wasn’t anywhere near as eventful as the £300, i played a single hand before the break – aces. I raised, got re-raised, i 3-bet it and he folded a pair of kings. Fair play to him, it was a good fold, but the fact that i didn’t play a hand perhaps telegraphed it and maybe i should have flat-called and got more off him on the flop. Nevertheless, a couple of thousand chips won. After the break it continued in much the same fashion. Paul Parker was min-raising a lot pre-flop and i played a few hands in position by calling these with middling hands, when perhaps a re-raise would’ve been better. Even so, i didn’t connect with flop all night and so gradually got whittled down until had about 7k left.

Then i found pocket kings in first position and raised to 800, (150/300 blinds). The big-blind called. I thought he was a pretty poor player and wasn’t unhappy to see him in the pot. He held his cards up to his chest to look at them, which, although it isn’t exactly telling in terms of his bets, is kind of indicative of his level. Anyway, on a 6-high flop, he fired out 1.5k, and i had to think about whether to flat-call and hope he’d fire out again on the turn, or just to shove there and then. I decided on the former, and the dreaded ace came on the turn. He bet out with 2.5k and it was fold or shove for me. My first thought was that he probably had some kind of middle-ace and had tried to steal the flop, but had now actually hit his ace. Nevertheless, i’d played so few hands and was pretty frustrated, and couldn’t lay down my kings, (which is sad, i’m well aware), so i shoved, he called and showed A-6, so he’d fired out with top pair on the flop and had indeed hit his fishy ace on the turn. The river bricked and i was out. I have to admit to being surprised with the weakness of the hand he’d chosen to call the pre-flop raise with, but there you go.

Never mind, if i got all my good playable hands and decent flops the day before then so be it. All in all, i’m very happy with the week, which started out with me winning my Main Event seat in a satellite and getting my best festival result before playing in the biggest event i’ve yet played in the UK, alongside some great players, (tho I’ve played bigger in Vegas). A great result for the first time i’ve taken the time off to focus on a festival over here, and £2.5k profit, so no complaints here.

Can’t wait for the next one )

So, play began at 3pm with me having 47k, 20 players left and the top 9 being paid.  The blinds were rising and i couldn’t find any hands to either attack the blinds or defend my own, but people were going out, so it was a tricky situation.  A guy known as Tikay, who presents Sky Poker, got moved to my table, on my right, and at one point he raised on the button.  I needed to act as the rounds were crippling me, so i shoved with J-10 hoping he was either bluffing or just not that strong.  He took a while to decide, before mucking and showing A-J suited, which was far stronger than i thought, so i got away with that.  More players out, and me down to below 40k.  On the button, play had actually folded round to me for the first time in ages, and i had Ks-4s so i shoved, intending to win the blinds.  Sadly the big-blind called with A-10 so i was in trouble.  A 10-high flop with 2 spades gave him the top pair and me the flush draw.  Fortunately I hit the flush on the river, when the 10 of spades hit, and i doubled up.  That took me thru to 10th, where a deal was made to give 10th spot £300, (the entry money back), so the heat was off.  7th-placed money was only £700, so i wasn’t prepared to just try to eke it out and climb the ladder, i was prepared to gamble it up and go for the win.  With 10 players left and just one to go out before the final table i found As-Ks int eh big blind.  There was a raise and a heft re-raise and i shoved all-in with my 60k stack.  The re-raiser, James Browning, took ages to fold, but did so, leaving me with 80k+, and soon after, a final table spot.

On teh final table i was sat next to a pro-gambler from Stoke, and early on he raised under-the-gun.  I found pocket queens and re-raised big, he thought about it hard before re-raising all-in, and i called.  he showed A-K.  He hit the A, then i hit the Q, and i doubled up.  Now i had 180k or so, and was feeling pretty good.  However, with blinds now 3k-6k and with a 400 ante, a few pots took their toll on my stack, and i was back to 120k or so.  I then found pocket 4’s and raised on the button.  The small-blind pushed all-in, and i called as it wasn’t much more.  He showed A-8, and he hit his ace on the turn, but i hit a set of 4’s on the river to knock him out.  Now there were 7 of us.  Strangely, i found queens again, and ended up with them all-in, once more against the guy from Stoke, who once again had A-K.  This time he hit and i didn’t, and i was back down to around 50k, and that’s when we had a break.  With blinds at 4k-8k and a 400 ante i had less than 10 rounds, and needed to shove.

When we came back i managed to get my stack up to around 60k by stealing some blinds in position, until i woke up with pocket 10’s in early position and pushed all-in.  A guy in late position went into the tank.  He looked at me and said:
“can i ask you a question?”
“fire away” i said.
“do you have a pair?”
“yes”
“really?”
“oh yes, absolutely”
“are you sure?”
I looked at my cards.
“yes, definitely a pair”
He called, showing A-K, and was as surprised as the rest of the table when i showed my pair.  Everyone just assumed i was lying.  Didn’t make much difference, i felt it was a certain call anyway, and handily my 10’s held up and i was back with a playable stack.

I was whittled back down to around 90k, and time was moving on.  Another tournament had started and 4 of the 6 remaining players wanted to play in it, so talk of a deal began.  Eventually it was suggested that we would play one more round and then talk.  Blinds now were 5k-10k with a 1k ante, so 90k wasn’t that big.  A proposed deal with centre around the percentage of the total chips in play that your stack represented, so the biugger your stack, the more money you would get.  At that point, if a deal was done i would be in 5th spot, and get around £1.5k.  However, if i busted before a deal was done i’d get £800.  Halfway thru the round, the big-stack raised 40k.  I found pocket 10’s and re-raised all-in, knowing it would be an insta-call for the big-stack.  However, he had a large range and had called with some pretty weak hands during the game.  He did indeed call.  If i won the hand, it might go on to win me a lot more money, but if i lost, i’d be out with £800 and they would all do a deal without me.  He turned up pocket 8’s, my 10’s held up and now i had £180k and was in 3rd position.

The deal was done 2 hands later.  First place ended up with £3.5k, i took around £3k and officially, 3rd place, (with was pretty much 2nd-place money).  My best result so far, and pretty happy with it.  I’d had some luck, both good & bad, and i’d had no shortage of playable hands, despite the occasional drought.  Mainly, i was pleased that i’d been happy to gamble it up to make the big money, and not meekly try to stay out of harm’s way and crawl up the pay-scale.

So, £2.5k profit for the week so far, and now i’m free-rolling in the Main Event tomorrow, and i’m looking forward to that.  Winning the satellite to the Main Event and taking 3rd today have totally justified me taking the time off to do this and it’s been great fun so far.  Feel i’m moving on with my game too, and that’s cool.

Doyle Brunson said “when luck shuts the door, you gotta climb in thru the window”.  I’m not sure that’s relevant here, but i kinda like it )

This event starts you off with 5k in chips for £150, with one rebuy or add-on for a further £150 for another 10k in chips, so basically its a £300 freeze-out with a 15k starting stack.

And this could not have been any more different to the non-event of last night. My table draw was tough, with my mate Adam, who’s been running really hot online, and several high calibre players at my table, including a very good player called James Dempsey, who has played in many big events around the world – of who more later.

Early on I wasn’t really at the races, and didn’t adjust to the better players at my table compared to the much lower standard i’d played against for the past 2 days. I was pretty inconsistent, but on the other hand i didn’t lose many chips either and was in a pretty average position with 14k at the break. After the break things got more interesting, i got a few hands i could play, and got my stack up to the mid 20’s without much drama. One particular hand saw me bet out with my jacks on a 10-high board, only to be asked how much i had behind before being flat-called. This was a concern, with me being out of position. Anyway, i checked to see what my opponent would do and he checked after me on both turn and river and i took it down – he didn’t show. Very odd.

Then it all happened – First i made pretty standard raise with A-9 and followed up on a 9-high flop to win a pot, which most people thought i’d bluffed on. Next hand i was up against Dempsey, who had built up a big stack of over 50k when i got aces against him. On a pretty harmless board he check-called me the whole way, resulting in me doubling up from him. The very next hand i got pocket queens, and made the same raise for a 3rd time. Dempsey called, i hit a set on the flop and we got it all in, with him showing aces and going out. I’d busted his huge stack in 2 hands, (that any novice could have played equally well), and soon i had a stack of over 80k, a really ginongous stack.

At that point it was around 2am and i had thoughts of getting thru the next 2 hours, just nursiong it up to around 100k and being in great shape for the final. However, blinds got high and i lost a couple of pots when i was re-popped after opening with decent hands but not feeling i could call, and eventually, at 4.30am, we broke up with 20 players left, and me with a stack of 47k. I reckon that i lost about 10k more than i should have done, and it’s easy to feel disappointed at this stack after having so much, but the key is that i’m still above average and in as good a shape as anyone, so the overnight break gives me a chance to re-focus and come back fresh.

It’s now nearly 5.30am and we start again at 3pm tomorrow. The final 9 get paid, so there’s still a lot of work to do yet, to get 11 players out. I wont be able to coast as i’d hoped when i had 80k+, so i’ll need my game-head on.

Now THIS is why i took the week off – had i been working i couldn’t have played the satellite that got me my Main Event ticket, and i couldn’t have played a 2-day event, at least not without much rushing around and being shattered. If i can cash then my week’s events will be paid for, and who knows, i might even take it down… Watch this space for the conclusion.

This was pretty uneventful to be honest.  We started at 5k and i was up to 9k at the break and going pretty smoothly.  Got some luck with pocket jacks on a seemingly very safe board, i was betting it all the way but unfortunately a guy had flopped a set of 3’s.  The luck came on the river.  After the break that luck was conspicuous by it’s absence as i was completely card-dead until i picked up pocket 10’s.  A guy in early position shoved all-in for 6k, and i had 9k, so i shoved as well.  He showed pocket 2’s, but the sickness came with a deuce on the turn and that was me crippled, and out shortly thereafter.  The 15k i’d have had if it had held up would seen me comfortable for quite a while.

The only other entertainment was a older guy at the table with a heart-felt and totally irrational hatred of Bruce Forsyth.   The list of potential death then began to extend thru various old-school comedians such as Arthur Askey, Max Wall and even Tommy Cooper.  He hadn’t met Bruce, or any of the others, and to be fair, i hope for Briuce’s sake that he never does )

Tonight, the £150 double chance, (basically a £300 event, with 15k chips)…

I kicked off my week of poker today at the Rendezvous Casino in Brighton Marina with a £30 rebuys satellite to Saturday’s £500 Main Event.  I’ve never played a live satellite before, and i’ve very rarely played them online either.  Being terrible online doesn’t help, and there aren’t many live ones.  Also, i haven’t played much casino poker for a while, so really it was a case of taking it easy, play by the book and settle back into things.  A satellite is a nice way to start.

So there were 23 runners in this thing, and i kicked it off playing very tight.  When playing very tight, getting some cards helps (!) and i managed to make aces pay off when i limped with them in first position and got raised, which was then called, and then my re-raise got paid.  I rarely do the limp-in-early-position-with-a-monster thing, but given the rebuy situation it seemed like the best way to get paid.  I didnt do much after that, and didnt rebuy until the break, when i topped up with 3000 chips for £50, giving me aroudn 6000 chips.

The rebuys and add-ons meant there were 5 seats up for grabs, and without any more rebuys it was time to get involved.  Over the next few rounds i won a fair number of chips without seeing any showdowns, by raising and re-raising pre-flop.  I had an image as a very tight player, (becuase i was), and so the big stack would routinely lay down to a re-raise from me.  He didnt like it, but he did it.  I got beat when a pair of 7’s beat my A-K, and i got the rub-down for it too, which was nice, but i called an all-in with Q’s and won, and that saw me to the final table of 9 with a good stack of 25k, so i was really just intending to fold my way thru to a ticket.  I hadn’t ever been in danger, had played good hands, in position, with solid raises, and so i was feeling quite good about things.

One hand of note, that didn’t involve me, was when a guy went all-in, and was horribly skow-rolled by a guy with aces, who was chatting with someone else, counting his chips, thinking about what to do etc, before turning them over.  No need.

Anyway, on the final table we needed to lose 4 people for the 5 remaining to get thru to Saturday’s event.  After a lot of very tight play, 2 people went, and then i witnessed some diabolical play.  Some of these guys had no idea of how to play a satellite.  3 hands to mention:

1.   The action folds round to the small blind, who has a big stack.  He raises, 3x.  The big blind moves all-in quite quickly, with a stack only slightly smaller.  The raiser thinks, then calls.  Both turn over ACE-JACK!  The raiser said “well, it was suited, so that made the difference”.  He was prepared to put all his chips on the line by calling with A-J, when there were a good few short-stacks at the table.
2.   So, at one end of the table were two people, a girl and a guy, who had both been whittled down to having one big blind each left, with the rest of the table being pretty comfortable.  We’re donw to 6 now, so only 1 left to go out.  We get to a stage where the girl is the big blind, and is all-in.  The short-stack under the gun folds, as he should, hoping she will go out this hand.  Then, the big stack in 2nd pos folds!  Then the guy in 3rd pos folds!  Unreal – I, and the others, were expecting everyone to flat call, knock her out, and it’s all over.  This is clearly a kind of ‘conspiring’, but we all know thats how it works at this stage, like when everyone just checks a hand down with someone all-in.  But no, not this time.  I auto-call with 7-5 and the small blind calls, and she ended up winning the pot.  If either of the other 2 had played, she’d have lost and we’d have gone home.
3.   Next hand, the guy with the short-stack is now all-in with the big-blind.  Again, i expect it to call all-round, as it should have last hand with such a call not damaging anyone else’s stack.  However, the big-stack under the gun RAISES!  Yes, he actually raised.  Unreal.  That meant the rest of us were forced to fold.  At least we all thought he must have a monster to do that, but no – he turned over QUEEN-JACK, the big-blind got to play heads-up against him and won.  Again, he’d have been out if the rest of us had called.  The raiser deliberatley played to force us out of the hand – quite incredible.

The guy who was a short-stack went out several hands later and so the rest of us got our tickets to the Main Event on Saturday, but there were a few of us who were left wondering what on earth goes thru some people’s heads when they sit at a poker table.  I’m no Doyle Brunson, but this is schoolboy stuff, surely?

Tomorrow, a £150 freezeout.  Hopefully i can take some of this momentum forward and do well.  Watch this space…