Archive for November, 2008

Presently in the UK, poker is classified as a game of chance, and not a game of skill.  Its been thru the courts, and that ruling is the reason why The Gutshot card room in London was forced to close.

Last nite i proved this to be true )

Mostly this week i’ve been happy enough with my play, and a few crucial outdraws at critical times have prevented me getting to final tables and doing well.  Such is life, and such is poker.  Last nite i played some frankly abysmal poker, was tired and lacked concentration, dealt some sick beats, and got paid.  Its a beautiful thing.

To begin at the beginning…  Last nite was the £200 freezeout.  There were 60 or so runners, and we started with 6k in chips.  I was off the ball from the moment we started.  With blinds at 25/50, I raised to 150 with pocket 4’s, to be re-raised to 550, which was subsequently called, so i folded.  It turned out i was up against A-A and Q-Q, so i felt it was a good fold.  Obviously a 4 flopped.  Various people suggested i should have called ‘for value’ but i’m 15% to win, and needed to called an extra 450 into a 1250 pot.  So i’m 6.5/1 to win the pot, and i’m only getting 3/1 on my money.   However, if i do hit my 6.5/1 shot, i’m going to get paid, probably both of their stacks, which would make my implied odds enormous, so really i proabably should have called.

However, that’s an aside.  This was how it went in the early stages – on 2 occasions i missed the fact that the blinds had gone up and my attempted 3x raise ended up as a min-raise which was called all over the place as people realised my mistake and i lost the pots.  Also, i flipped in a big chip to raise pre-flop but said nothing, so it was a call, and the same thing happened.  I just wasnt at the races at all, and was frustrated with myself, making it worse.  I folded A-Q and a couple of times and felt that was wrong in hindsight as well, and also flat-called what i felt was an A-K raise with my pocket 10’s, with the idea to jam the pot on a flop with no ace or king.  Obviously an ace appeared )  So at the first break i really needed to get my head together.

In the second session not a lot changed and i continued to be unfocussed.  Then i got moved twice in 20 mins, and in my distracted state i put some fairly heavy music onto the ipod and determined to jam it all with a decent hand, (i was quite low in chips at this point, for obvious reasons).  I got lower, until i found myself in the BB for 1600 with only 4k behind, so i decided to jam it in blind.  Looking at your cards in this situation doesnt help, you know what you have to do and if you look at your rubbish hand you might not have the balls to follow it thru, so why bother?  At Caesars Palace during their Megastack series i did this and flipped up 2-4, only to hit the flop and double-up, and went on to win several thousand dollars, and funnily enough i once more flipped up 2-4 once i called the inevitable all-in from across the table.  Spiked the 2, thanks very much.  Next up, K-Qs – pushed, got called by an ace, spiked the king.

So now i have playable chips – in behind twice, and 2 for 2 )  Now i pick up the A-A – bingo, lets ‘ave it.  A guy called Tony raises in early position.  Tony likes to raise and bet flops, he’s an older guy, and quite funny despite rarely smiling – he’s a bit of a Victor Meldrew type, but he is aggressive.  I flat-call the raise in the hope that he will bet the flop.  The flop comes J-4-8 with 2 diamonds, so i’m happy enough.  Tony checks, i want to look like i’m making a regulation continuation bet, so i push some chips in.  Tony raises me all-in and i call.  He has indeed hit the flop, as his pocket 4’s have made bottom set.  No sooner have seen how much trouble i’m in than BINGO – the big ace on the turn, and then WALLOP – quad aces on the river.  Ship send, its a game of skill y’know.  Now 3 for 3 when getting it all-in behind – it’s the new sensation sweeping poker.

Anyway, i’m pretty hefty in chips now and we’re approaching the final table.  I don’t get too many playable hands but i pinch a few blinds and when we get down to the final 9 I am second or third in chips.  This sounds better than it actually was, the structure of this tournament meant i still only had about 20 big-blinds…

After the break we came back, and i decided to keep the ipod on as my run had started when i began listening to it.  We sat down and I had the following brief conversation with a Spanish guy to my left:
“What are you listening to?”
“Electric Wizard”
“Electric…?  What is that?”
“It’s kinda vaguely Satanic, druggy doom metal”
“Oh my God!” (and moves ever so slightly aware from me)

Quiet start for me on the final, but stayed pretty much where i was as several were knocked out.  I hadn’t done much, and then I found K-K in the BB.  This was the one hand i actually played well all nite.  Now admittedly it’s not hard to play pocket kings well, but this was more about how much i could win, than if i could take the pot.  Sadly for me it folded around to the SB and i feared a walk, but thankfully the SB completed.  I thought for a while and decided to throw in a weak, ’stealy’ raise.  I bet an extra 4k into the 6400 pot, (blinds were 800/1600).  He thought for a minute, and called.  The flop was Q-x-x, no draws.  He checked.  Once again i wanted to make a standard c-bet, to look like i wanted to take it there and then, and  he’d hit enough to shove, (but hopefully not a set again…).  He had indeed hit the queen, and he check-raised me all-in.  Obviously i insta-called.  I needed to fade a queen or a 6, but the king on the turn killed it and he was gone, and i was massive.  The surprised at the table when i turned up the kings suggests everyone bought my weak-steal ruse.

I lost a couple of pots after that, but nothing sensational, but i was well above average when we went to another break.  We came back, and were down to 5 quite quickly.  Then the blinds hit 3k/6k with a running 600 ante, and i went card-dead.  One guy shoved on 3 consecutive hands and made over 30k without a showdown.  With raises and all-ins ahead of me i was dealt cod hand after cod hand and blinded 60% of my stack away.  With 35k left i found J-10s, and thankfully no-one opened the pot in front of me so i shoved on the button.  I got called by the BB, who showed pocket 5’s.  There was £720 for 5th place.  First card out was a 10 – happy days, and i’m 4 for 4 with my money in behind.  Now i’m comfortable enough for a while, and when we lost the 5th-placed player shortly after it was suggested that we chop it up.  We all had fairly even chips, give or take 20k, and it was 3am so we all agreed easily enough, and each took roughly 2nd place money at £2k.

So, another festival, another decent cash – 2 on the trot, and £5k in winnings over the 2 combined.  It is funny tho, all the time i was playing my usual game and feeling good, nothing would happen.  Then, when i bring my D-game to the table, (at least up until the final), i end up splitting the money.  It’s a game of skill – no doubt about it )

The lesson?  Put on some doom metal, and get your money in behind…

The £150 w/ 1 rebuy/addon last nite continued Sickness Week at the Rendezvous, Brighton.  This is a very good event, effectively a £300 freezeout with a 15k stack, as you start with 5k but after only an hour you can have a 10k addon/rebuy.

Prior to the break not a great deal happened, i went from 5k to about 6.5k but then on the last hand before the break i found K’s in the big blind, with blinds at 50-100.  The small blind called, i raised to 300, the SB called.  The flop was J-6-7 rainbow, which i was obviously pretty happy with.  SB fired out 300, i re-raised to 800 and he flat called me.  This sent out some warning signals – if he’d raised i would have been more comfortable and almost certainly put more chips in.  The turn was an 8, which i felt was a scare card.  SB checked, i decided to check behind.  The river was another J.  The SB checks again.  Now, anything he had on the flop could easily be beating me, so I just checked.  He showed 7’s for a full-house.  I got away with losing the minimum there, mainly due to scary turn and river cards.  I was back to 5k, where i started.

After the break, with 15k, i was card-dead for ages.  Then, in the big blind and with blinds at 200-400, i found K-Q and there were 2 limpers, so i checked.  Normally i’d raise here, but this table was a bit strange, the habit on the table seemed to be to limp-call.  Several times there had been 3 or 4 limpers, the blind would raise 6 times the BB and they would all call, and i have no intention of entering a huge multiway pot with K-Q.  Anyway, the flop was 10-J-Q all hearts, and my K was indeed the K of hearts, so i have top pair and an up & down royal draw.  The 2 limpers checked, i bet 800.  They both called.  The river was another Q, so now i have top set as well.  The 2nd limper bet 800.  I re-raised to 2k, both called.  The river was a K, so now i have a full-house.  Theres 8k in the pot.  The 2 limpers check.  I bet 5k.  The first limper insta-mucks, and the second guy thought for ages before folding.  A bet of 4k probably would have got paid off.

And that was it, i stuck around 20k forever, up a bit, down a bit etc, getting blinded down and then stealing a couple to get back up.  With blinds at 800-1600 a guy oved all-in for his last 13k, and i looked down at A-Q in the big blind.  I called.  He showed A-10.  Obviously he spiked his 10 and that was that.  Down to 7k, i moved all-in the small-blind with A-9, only to run into A-K in the big blind, and for the only time that night the bigger ace held up and i was out.

It was a night of out-draws – how about this.  First guy all-in with A-6, second guy calls with A-Q.  First card off the deck is a Q, second card is a 6, third card is a 6.  A-Q loses.  Then, pocket 7’s v pocket 6’s.  On the flop is a 7, then a 6.  Turn card is the case 6 for quads.

It was that kind of night.  Disappointing, coz with only 24 left at 2am i would have been comfortably just above average if my A-Q held up, with a chance to repeat my final table in this event from the festival in October.

Last chance tonight in the £200 freezeout…

So here we go again. another week off to play some poker and sleep late )  It’s back to the Rendezvous Casino at Brighton Marina – these festivals are pretty good and offer some real value.

For starters, a £30-rebuy satellite into the £500 Main Event.  Now last time, in the Harbour Lights festival, i qualified at the first time of asking.  A lot of that was down to a structure that meant you could get a double-rebuy at the break for £50.  Everybody did this, and that generated 2 more seats on its own, and lead to us having 5 seats available from 25 starters.  No such luck this time, that was abandoned and just a standard rebuy & add-on was the order of the day.  Altho this is only a difference of a tenner, the issue is that with not many rebuys, hardly anyone on the first table to reach the break went for it, and that meant that no-one could see the value, and in the end only 2 people added on, and so there were only 2 seats up for grabs.

This changed the whole thing from last time when there was plenty of play and a lot of action with so many seats in play.  Anyway, before the break i was pretty card-dead, but managed to get a useful stack when 8d-2d gave me an open-ended straight and a flush draw on the flop, (where i took it with a raise), and in another hand 7-5 gave me a straight on the turn, so after the break i had about 6k, with most people only having between 1.5k and 4k.  After the break it was a sad story of outdraws – in the big blind with A-9, the small blind pushed all-in for 2.5k.  I called and he showed Q-4.  He spiked the 4 on the flop.  A few hands later and the same guy pushed all-in again, for about 3k, (he’d lost a couple of hands since), and i called with A-Q.  He showed A-6, and spiked a 6 on the turn.

Nevertheless, i crawled to the final table with around 2k in chips, looking to get it in with blinds at 200-400.  I did so with pocket 10’s and got a caller who showed K-Q.  He spiked the K on the turn, and i was out in 8th.

I was pretty happy with how i played, the luck just wasn’t with me at all.  Thats poker.  Don’t know if i’ll try another satellite if they don’t bring back the double-add-on at the break.  The point of a satellite is to generate seats, and the new format actively prevents them being available, so i hope that changes.

Other plans for the week include the £150 + 1 rebuy (effectively a £300 freezeout), which is the event i came 3rd in for £3,000 in October, and the £200 freezeout the following day.  Watch this space…