Weekend Play

Even my golf is turning very like my poker these days - steady, steady, donk moment, steady, steady, donk moment ...

On Saturday afternoon in the Medal I started 4,4 before an 11 at the 3rd. From the remaining 15 holes I posted 11 pars and a birdie 2 to shoot 84 (a nett 78)! A double bogey 5 at the par3 7th, a triple bogey 8 at the 8th and a double bogey at the 15th were mind-fuck blemishes on an otherwise very decent scorecard. Anyway, back to moaning about poker ... ;)

I've had another couple of decent results on the $10 SnGs so my SharkScope stats are back in the right direction again. I was home alone on Saturday night so was able to give 100% concentration to the 3 x two table sessions I played. From the 127 games I've played on BlueSq I now have an ROI of 23% and a total profit of $235. Hardly mind blowing I know but those stats were truly grim a month or so ago.

First up last night was the $10, $30k GTD R/A on BlueSq. Having re-bought on the first hand (when blinded 20 chips below the 1,500 starting stack) I managed to hold my own until the first break and end of the ReBuy period. First hand back though, and after establishing a tight table image, this donk calls my All-In ...


Hmmmfff! Not amused and it lead to me having to me 'hang about' long enough to make the money. From the 1,311 players that started, I exited 161st with top 150 getting paid.

On FT, I was in the $75, $17.5k GTD from 9pm. Playing well, stealing at all the right times and extracting maximum valyooo from many of my best hands, I managed to finish 12th of 556 for $422. Just five places higher and it'd have been a very, very nice pay day (in the region of $1,500). My exit hand was AJo into AQo on a A high non-flushing board. I shoved over the top on the flop at the wrong time obviously (not too bad a time in terms of strategy / blinds / money already in the pot) but I was playing to win and taking that hand down would have taken me to 2nd position. I have no complaints though as I played really well and it's my best MTT result in a while and I now have a 93% Rating on OPR, a 38% ROI and InTheMoney figures of 17/53 (32%). I just have to work on improving that Average Finish position in HoldEm NL games.

On the other tables, Derek was doing well too. He finished 11th in the $30k GTD as above and Mary managed 26th in the SHG on Stars. Congrats again to you both!

The $1k to $5k Challenge hasn't been brought up again yet. I think / hope we'll prob be ironing out the details later on this week / this weekend. Maybe Derek'll consider doing it on $10 R/A games now :)

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Before I knuckle down ...

... and commit myself to the $1k to $5k challenge with Zanshin, I'm gonna play 5 x $8 SnGs on FT (for $26 Tokens) for a 50/50 on profits deal with AceFilledDreams from RaiseTheRiver.

Having just railed him on the FT of his final attempt on a 'staked deal' he had with Cadmonkey, we got chatting on WLM and got onto his unanswered staking request for funding to play 10 of the above. As I now have $100 on FT from the Amatay 10k bet, investing $44 and three hours into something like seems worthwhile. I'm hoping that it'll teach me patience in the early stages of tourneys / SnGs as that's the key to these things.

See the RTR Forum post to keep up with our progress.

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APAT in Dublin / SnGs

The APAT Event in Dublin was almost two weeks ago now and I haven't blogged anything about it - woops. It was fairly uneventful for me anyway ...

On a day when I simply wasn't getting cards, I resorted to stealing and playing aggressively with suited connector type hands just to keep myself above average in chips. It worked in that I didn't spend much time below 7k in chips (or above 12k in chips). With AJd in early position I raised it up only to fold to an All-In by a similar stack in a middle position. From a middle position with TT I raised it up and folded again when re-raised by the same player above and an All-In by the SB. My exit hand was AQ on the BB. I raise it up and get called by Luca in his pink Hulk t-shirt. I considered him to be the best and most aggressive player at the table and with my tight image pretty well cemented in most folks' heads, I check the 763 rainbow flop over to him. As expected, he fires out a 2.5k into a 3.2k pot and I decide that I do stand a chance of being able to steal it right there and then by shoving my remaining 7k in. I shove, he thinks for a minute or so, then decides that, with 18k or so behind, it's valuable enough to call me with his 88. The 8s hold up. WP Mate.

The rest of the weekend was most enjoyable - the APAT regulars are great craic and I enjoyed every minute of the weekend despite throwing Euros away left right and centre. I did make a small profit on Roulette and on Prob Bets (one was that I couldn't go 2.5 hours without peeing) so all was not lost.


Where are we going ... ?

Derek and I have agreed that we have to look at our poker 'careers' in more detail and work out how to bring our game on from recreational donking to semi-serious low stake grinding / luckboxing. Details will be available once funds have been deposited and the terms agreed but the main objective is to turn $1k into $5k ($500 to $2.5k each) by the end of 2008 without going broke. We've arranged to start in July which means we now have only a few days to change our mindsets in preperation.


$10 SnG Success

Over the past few weeks I've made more time for poker despite still being as busy as ever with work. To take some strain off myself, I've contracted in a PC repair guy and an experienced Web Developer / Coder and I'm enjoying work (the medium amount I've left myself) a lot more. I've taken two nights off this week, I managed to fit in 4 holes of golf on Monday afternoon, an hour at the driving range this afternoon and half an hour this afternoon to updated my Blog ;)

Having been denied the chance to play 10 x $10 SnGs staked games for cadmonkey on RaiseTheRiver, I set myself the goal of playing them for myself to see how I'd do. I had recently moved up to the $20 SnGs but after a bankroll demise, I have quite wisely stepped back down for the time being.

So, by firing up two 6 Max tables at a time (one turbo and one standard being my preferred option), I hoped that it would stop me getting as bored as easily and stop me playing marginal hands just to keep in the action. And, from the results below, it appears to have worked ...



$222 won for a $110 stake. I'm happy with that!!! Now if I could only stop donking it all away on the 50c/$1 tables ... ;)

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Everest 20 WSOP ME Seats GTD - 40th :(

After reading an advert in PokerPlayer magazine where Everest Poker were offering new members a free entry into the $1,050 20 WSOP ME Seats GTD Event, Jim and I commenced battle against 300 others last night. 230 runners had reg'd through this promo and the other 72 players had satellited in / bought in directly for $1,050. And in the end my 40th place was actually quite fair. I was sooooo hoping for one of those $13k seats in the Main Event though - as everyone else was I'm sure.

As I'm going to be studying my HHs this week to find and plug leaks in my game ahead of Dublin this weekend, I post the following hands on here - the sickest ones of the night - just to keep it all fairly easy to find. Some of them are bad beats so, if that's not your thing, look away now!

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Starting game 3340631220.

the_jasper is at seat 3 with 3,749.
ganjou is at seat 8 with 8,572.

The dealer is seat 5.

the_jasper posts an ante of 25.
ganjou posts an ante of 25.

(ganjou is dealt 10s 10c.)

Pre-flop:

ganjou raises 500.
the_jasper calls for 800.

The flop comes
Kh Qd 8h.

ganjou bets 2,275.
the_jasper calls for 2,275.

The turn comes 9c.

ganjou goes all-in for 5,472.
the_jasper goes all-in for 649.
4,823 is pushed back to ganjou.

Showdown:

ganjou shows: 10s 10c
10s 10c Kh Qd 9c
A pair of Tens

the_jasper shows: Ad 9d
9c 9d Ad Kh Qd
A pair of Nines

The river comes 9h.

ganjou shows: 10s 10c
10s 10c 9c 9h Kh
Two Pair, Tens and Nines

the_jasper shows: Ad 9d
9c 9h 9d Ad Kh
Three Nines

the_jasper wins pot (8,123).

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Starting game 3340668013.

erica85 is at seat 0 with 8,247.
ajcairns is at seat 2 with 1,564.
the_jasper is at seat 3 with 9,423.
Nevertheless is at seat 4 with 1,935.
BERCETO is at seat 5 with 8,575.
PASTAFLY is at seat 6 with 1,842.
ashhen is at seat 7 with 8,457.
ganjou is at seat 8 with 6,423.
_Av_It_ is at seat 9 with 10,388.

The dealer is seat 5.

the_jasper posts an ante of 25.

BERCETO posts an ante of 25.

ganjou posts an ante of 25.

(ganjou is dealt Jd Jh.)

Pre-flop:

ganjou raises 500.
the_jasper calls for 800.
BERCETO raises 3,075.
ganjou calls for 3,075.
the_jasper folds.

The flop comes
7c 3h As.

ganjou goes all-in for 2,523.
BERCETO calls for 2,523.

Showdown:

ganjou shows: Jd Jh
Jd Jh As 7c 3h
A pair of Jacks

BERCETO shows: Kc Ks
Kc Ks As 7c 3h
A pair of Kings

The turn comes 10d.
The river comes Js.

ganjou shows: Jd Jh
Js Jd Jh As 10d
Three Jacks

BERCETO shows: Kc Ks
Kc Ks As Js 10d
A pair of Kings

ganjou wins pot (14,271).

THIS TOOK ME TO 4th / 71 left.

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I just know I'm ahead here ...

Starting game 3340741115.

erica85 is at seat 0 with 7,072.
ganjou is at seat 8 with 12,421.

The dealer is seat 6.

ashhen posts a blind of 300.
ganjou posts a blind of 600.
erica85 posts an ante of 75.

(ganjou is dealt Qc Qs.)

Pre-flop:

erica85 goes all-in for 6,997.

ganjou calls for 6,397.

Showdown:

ganjou shows: Qc Qs

erica85 shows: Ah Js

The flop comes
10d 10h Kh.
The turn comes Ac.
The river comes 5d.

erica85 shows: Ah Js
Ac Ah 10d 10h Kh
Two Pair, Aces and Tens

ganjou shows: Qc Qs
Qc Qs 10d 10h Ac
Two Pair, Queens and Tens

erica85 wins pot (14,969).

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Starting game 3340792134.

oceans007 is at seat 0 with 11,168.
Ragearama is at seat 1 with 6,295.
fradge26 is at seat 2 with 28,595.
the_jasper is at seat 3 with 3,873.
TG73 is at seat 4 with 5,890.
BERCETO is at seat 5 with 21,137.
PASTAFLY is at seat 6 with 2,093.
ashhen is at seat 7 with 6,257.
ganjou is at seat 8 with 4,524.
_Av_It_ is at seat 9 with 4,996.

The dealer is seat 0.

Ragearama posts a blind of 300.
fradge26 posts a blind of 600.
oceans007 posts an ante of 75.
Ragearama posts an ante of 75.
fradge26 posts an ante of 75.
the_jasper posts an ante of 75.
TG73 posts an ante of 75.
BERCETO posts an ante of 75.
PASTAFLY posts an ante of 75.
ashhen posts an ante of 75.
ganjou posts an ante of 75.
_Av_It_ posts an ante of 75.

(ganjou is dealt Kc Kh.)

Pre-flop:

BERCETO raises 2,250.

ganjou goes all-in for 4,449.
oceans007 goes all-in for 11,093.
Ragearama goes all-in for 5,920.

BERCETO folds.
4,873 is pushed back to oceans007.

Showdown:

Ragearama shows: Ks Kd

ganjou shows: Kc Kh

oceans007 shows: Jd Ad

The flop comes
6c Qc 9h.
The turn comes Qd.
The river comes 9c.

oceans007 shows: Jd Ad
Qc Qd 9h 9c Ad
Two Pair, Queens and Nines

Ragearama shows: Ks Kd
Ks Kd Qc Qd 9h
Two Pair, Kings and Queens

ganjou shows: Kc Kh
Kc Kh Qc Qd 9h
Two Pair, Kings and Queens

Ragearama splits pot (8,774 of 17,547).
ganjou splits pot (8,773 of 17,547).
Ragearama wins pot (3,542).


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The RTR post reporting my exit hand was;

Out in 40th. When I got kicked off my Hand History option was taken away from me.

BERC (who's KK I had beaten with JJ earlier) was raising every hand and was the table captain and bully. With an M of less than 4 and AdJc I shoved over his $2,600 raise. He took the full time to call and showed Ah5c.

Flop came three hearts, another heart on the turn and another on the river. I know I'm lucky to have got that far but I'm GUTTED nonetheless!


I had also played in a $75 Tourney on FT but with ATs got aggressive into a Q44 flop when he'd flopped the Full House. He slow-played me with QQ and hooked me in - eeesh.

MSOP Event # 7 / Will Hill, minus £60

Having swept work aside on Wednesday night to settle into some much missed poker time, I played in Event # 7 of the MSOP (Full Tilt's Mini Series of Poker). Having originally planned to spend some time with Julia I was delighted to hear that she had stuff to do in the office. Not only did this then mean that I was allowed to play, I was being actively encouraged to! So, after agreeing to both help her fulfill a wedding favour order and on a 50/50 split of any winnings with Mary, I took to the tables.

Having played as well as she did the night before when Mik and I staked her in a $26 MTT, Mary crashed out a hundred or so before the money. Me on the other hand, I was hitting rivers with monotonous regularity - sometimes from way behind. Examples will be posted shortly but I'm just not in the mood at the mo. To keep it brief, I finished 23rd of 2,056 for $123 and pennies. In many ways I'm glad to have had a fix and some MTT practice for APAT Irish Open next weekend. This and a quick blast through Harrington On HoldEm this week and hopefully I'll be OK.

And so, with £45 in Cash Game winnings from a Home Game last night, I've taken to the tables again this afternoon, depositing £50 onto WillHill to take advantage of their £25 / month Bonus. But it hasn't gone well. I joined a 6 max 50c/$1 table with $60 and managed to peak at $105 before a series of misreads and loose play on the following hand;

Game #7355498004: Hold'em NL ($0.50/$1) - 2008/06/07 - 11:09:24 (UK)
Table "Lethai" Seat 2 is the button.
Seat 1: Jimmmy001 ($106.95 in chips)
Seat 2: Lukybugur ($73.35 in chips)
Seat 3: Yax2323 ($49.36 in chips)
Seat 4: Miha30113 ($120.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Juli06039 ($125 in chips)
Seat 6: Mamaggie ($65.08 in chips)
Yax2323: posts small blind $0.50
Miha30113: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Lukybugur [Kc As]
Juli06039: raises to $4
Mamaggie: calls $4
Jimmmy001: folds
Lukybugur: raises to $8 (I had actually slid the slider up to $12 but I must have slid it down again before pressing 'Raise')
Yax2323: folds
Miha30113: folds
Juli06039: calls $4
Mamaggie: calls $4
----- FLOP ----- [Kd 9s 3s]
Juli06039: checks
Mamaggie: bets $57.08 and is all-in
Lukybugur: raises to $65.35 and is all-in
Juli06039: folds
Returned uncalled bets $8.27 to Lukybugur
----- TURN ----- [Kd 9s 3s][4c]
----- RIVER ----- [Kd 9s 3s 4c][5s]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Lukybugur: shows [Kc As] (A Pair of Kings, Ace high)
Mamaggie: shows [7s 6s] (A Flush, Nine high)
Mamaggie collected $136.66 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $139.66 Main pot $136.66 Rake $3
Board [Kd 9s 3s 4c 5s]
Seat 1: Jimmmy001 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Lukybugur (button) showed [Kc As] and lost with A Pair of Kings, Ace high
Seat 3: Yax2323 (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Miha30113 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Juli06039 folded on the Flop
Seat 6: Mamaggie showed [7s 6s] and won ($136.66) with A Flush, Nine high


So in true chasing my losses form but with a calm head (I did take a breather and composed myself - honest!) I re-deposit £10 and sit down at a 10 man 50c/$1 table with that and my $10 gift for about $29. After two hours (£10 more in Bonus) and after having run my stack up to $90 the following happens;

Game #7358263184: Hold'em NL ($0.50/$1) - 2008/06/07 - 16:40:07 (UK)
Table "Angelica" Seat 4 is the button.
Seat 2: Le_boom ($98.50 in chips)
Seat 4: johan13 ($134.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Lukybugur ($84.70 in chips)
Seat 6: poonjoe ($102.50 in chips)
Seat 7: Str8Edge ($146.60 in chips)
Seat 8: bonospoke ($66.43 in chips)
Seat 9: Delut0501 ($20 in chips)
Seat 10: Joche0907 sits out
Lukybugur: posts small blind $0.50
poonjoe: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Lukybugur [Kc Ks]
Str8Edge: folds
bonospoke: folds
Delut0501: folds
Le_boom: calls $1
johan13: calls $1
Lukybugur: raises to $4
poonjoe: folds
Le_boom: calls $3
johan13: calls $3
----- FLOP ----- [6s 7d 8h]
Lukybugur: bets $8
Le_boom: calls $8
johan13: raises to $25
Lukybugur: raises to $80.70 and is all-in
Le_boom: folds
johan13: calls $55.70
----- TURN ----- [6s 7d 8h][Jc]
----- RIVER ----- [6s 7d 8h Jc][Qd]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Lukybugur: shows [Kc Ks] (A Pair of Kings, Queen high)
johan13: shows [5d 4d] (A Straight, Eight high)
johan13 collected $179.40 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $182.40 Main pot $179.40 Rake $3
Board [6s 7d 8h Jc Qd]
Seat 2: Le_boom folded on the Flop
Seat 4: johan13 (button) showed [5d 4d] and won ($179.40) with A Straight, Eight high
Seat 5: Lukybugur (small blind) showed [Kc Ks] and lost with A Pair of Kings, Queen high
Seat 6: poonjoe (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Str8Edge folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: bonospoke folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Delut0501 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

So felted again, I sit here happy to be reporting on it than being back on chasing losses. I have a couple of games on tomorrow night that I can now look forward to - one a 230 runner Freeroll on Everest Poker with 20 Guaranteed WSOP Packages up for grabs! It should be a good one! And I'll maybe I'll get around to having a bash at a $75 Tourney on FT.

Real Poker Training - My Thoughts

Keen to try a Poker Training site, I signed up for the Newsletter at RealPokerTraining.com. After about three months of just reading the stuff they emailed me, I was offered 6 months free if I signed up for and generated just $1 of rake on Duplicate Poker.

My rake was met from having played just four or five $3 (+30c) tourneys on there and yesterday (three weeks after emailing RPT asking for an account to be activated) I started my 6 month Access All Areas Membership. I watched a couple of vids on there last night - three by David Williams, a Ryan Fisler one and a couple of Amateur Player Critique ones - and well, I'd give the ones I've seen so far about 6/10.

Having seen a couple of Cardrunner samples, it's nothing like that (but that's not to say CR are better or worse). Firstly each just runs as if these guys are playing live - there's no skipping to particular hands. David Williams admits 'that he still needs to get a feel for this' and during the 'dead time' does tell some pretty decent stories about some of the Pros he plays with regularly and some of the strange and interesting hands he's played in against them. When he gets side-tracked by the hand in play, which can easily happen three times in one story, they become hard to follow. I don't have the best memory and I'm not the most patient person in the world so I found my concentration wandering to the other screens I have open (RTR and APAT Forums mainly).

For $1 rake on Duplicate the 6 month Membership is a steal. Duplicate itself though is pretty grim (grim = different and complicated if you've never played this format before and don't fully understand what to expect).