Thursday, April 26, 2007

More Stuff

I nearly had a very good weekend last weekend. But I didn't. It wasn't bad either, but I lost one big flip, and palyed another hand wrongly which led to me losing my €450 profit and €300 buyin in one hand in the 50 Omaha, which I really don't want to go into as I know how I played it wrongly and will learn from it. Damn you Laurence and damn me for my bad play that allowed you into the pot.

The flop I lost was in the scalps game in the Fitz on Friday, when I went out in 8th place in a pot for 1/3 of the chips in play. I had raised to 12k (2k/4k) UTG with AKs and Ronan, who covered, came over the top all in. I had 56k total, and the way this tournie was I didn't really consider folding before I called as the blinds were going up next hand to 2500/5k. Two spades on the flop gave me plenty of hope but I missed. Ah well, at least I made the final table. the cash hand from above happened about an hour later too, so double whammy. I was still only down a little over 200 for the night so not too bad.

Sunday I played in the €40 rebuy game. This hasn't been getting many numbers unfortunately, despite it being a decent enough game with plenty of chips in play, relative to other games anyways. A series of hands being cracked led to me going all in blind UTG the last hand before the break with 700 chips (50/100) which I won, and from there on I didn't look back and finished second. It was only for €500, but important for my tournie confidence, despite that game hardly being populated by world beaters.

I have also decided to play the GJP main event for €1k. I shouldn't really play this, but I have secured backers to the tune of 40%, and I also feel my game is a lot more focused and together than it has been recently, and I am looking forward to this game. I played well for the first half of day one the last time this was on, only to shit away 10k on a bluff soon after, and then find myself under a bit of pressure later, and going out on the second day with QQ vs JJ in a pot to get me back to over average. Hopefully this won't happen again. Also, I have played in 3 tournies that have 3 or more days designed for them and I have at least made day two each time, so I am hopeful of another fairly deep run. This game is on May 25th in Drogheda, and I can't wait now.

On a different note, the Fitz are making changes to their tournies for the better, as the Monday, Tuesday and Friday games are getting more chips and extended blind levels. This can only be good for the games and the Dublin scene as a whole, and bring the Fitz game broadly into line with the structures of the Sporting Emporium, which has had improved games for a while now. There are three main reasons why I don't play more in the Sporting Emporium, and these are:

1. Parking is a nightmare.
2. There is no food menu there.
3. There are rarely any Omaha cash games.

If these things change, or even numbers two and three as number one is unlikely to, then I would definitely consider going there more, as now I rarely go outside of their €200 game and their satellites, which I have a good record in too. Until then though I'll mostly stick with the Fitz, and even though I had decided not to, I will probably play the end of month game tonight. I was planning to get up early tomorrow in order to leave Dublin at 4, but I can delay that by a while and not get into work until 10, and that is sounding like a good idea to me at this point.

The Fitz also have 5 great Ladbrokes packages to give away this year for the WSOP, so I will probably play in a couple of those at least. Hopefully the next few months will be an exciting time, and one way or another I am looking forward to going to Vegas in July.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Stuff

I have no idea what this post is going to be about at this point, probably a rant, a bad beat and a few complaints as usual!!!!

These posts are like buses it seems at present, except without the incumbent knackers and the piss of course.

At the moment I am mostly in anticapation of things to come, namely the Champions League semi finals when Liverpool can hopefully recreate what happened a couple of years ago, and also to my Vegas trip at the start of July. I have been playing a good bit more in the way of cash games lately and in general they have been going alright. I haven't had a substantial win but most of my wins have been in the 600-900 profit, so still good, especially since I am not generally the type of player to push it too much after I get into good profit like that.

I nearly had another good night last night in the Fitz €100 game but a 2 outer on a JT2r board when I held TT62, vs JTX2. All the money went in on the flop, so about a €1200 pot went south when one of the remaining two Jacks in the deck hit on fourth street. Ah well, not much can be done about it. And, yes, I know TT62 is a rubbish hand.

This weather is depressing me, not that it takes much to depress me when I am in work. Hot,cold, wet or dry, they all usually make me feel depressed in work. The good thing is that due to me forgetting about this post it is now Friday evening so I get to go in about 30 mins or so.

I will play the Fitz scalps game tonight and probably a cash game after my 14th place finish in that.

Also, I have been thinking about getting an Omaha book and I believe the one by Rolf Sltobloom is the one to read. I might check with my 'cousins' (force of habit) first, might actually resort to buying it!!!!

That's me for now, it helped pass a bit of my day anyways.

Adios.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Happy Birthday!!!!

It's been one year (and a few days, but who is counting) since this blog was born and probably serves as a microcosm of my life to date.

Early years: Willing to learn and enthusiastic.

Middle years: Some exciting developments make me optimistic for the future.

Later years: Laziness bites and I settle into a not very good rut.

Since my last post a fair bit has happened me pokerwise, but also very little movement paradoxically. I am generally playing less tournaments that I have been, and they are still not turning into a profitable venture for me. I did however manage to jambag my way into the Irish Open at pretty much the last hurdle in the SE. There were 125 runners and 10 tickets as it turned out. I started off pretty slowly but a few good hands after the break, including one (and only) pivotal dogging of someone when I pot committed myself to a raise with AT, and I pretty much cruised to a ticket in the end. I was really looking forward to this.

My Irish Open day started when I got up around 1pm on Good Friday (early for me on a day off), scraped the dirt off, consumed some nutrition, and drove into town. I got to the Burlington at around 3 o'clock, about an hour before scheduled start. When my seat assignment came up on screen I scanned it for any familiar faces or well known names. Blank on both counts, although I did recognise a couple of names vaguely.

I take my seat anyhow (seat 2) and the table isn't exactly the hardest table I have ever been at to be honest, with a coupld of loose raisers, a couple of absolute calling stations, a couple of donkeys and a couple of good players. All in all not too shabby. However, the 2 calling stations are proving to be problematic as I can't ever get them to move off the hand, and one had a tendency to call flop and turn bets and then hugely overbet the river. Sadly I couldn't catch anything to exploit the situation and the chips went elsewhere. I won a few hands at this table but was between 6k and 11k the whole time I was there. I was briefly moved to another table before that too was broken and not much changed for me there.

On my 3rd table things were a bit more interesting with several faces I knew and a couple I recognised. At this table I got up to my day 1 high of around 13.5k before falling back to an 8k stack overnight. Great. There were only 9 stacks lower than me remaining after day 1, and there were only 2 stacks in total at our table that were above average, so the situation was a bit desperate really.

On day 2 I briefly came back, and in the course of 25 mins I was all in 5 times.

33 vs K8o - 2nd hand of the day, my 33 was too strong for Vincent Melinns K8o.
AA vs 55 - My AA no match for a flopped set all in preflop. Win this I was up to 30k.
A8o vs A4s - Same muppet that had the 55 limp called my allin (next hand after AA) for 2/3rds of his stack. Split pot.
66 vs 44 vs J8s - Win this I am up to 30k also. J8 hits a flush, I win side pot.
J9s vs QQ - First hand I have gone in behind and I stay there. BB was not meant to have a hand that strong. Ah well, at least I went out with a bang.

I also played the Omaha rebuy event (€300) and rebought after the first hand. Action like this.

I am BB (25/50) with 89TT (diamonds). A couple of limpers, MP makes it 325. A couple of callers and I call also as do a couple more. 6 to the flop.

AdTh7d - middle set, open ender, diamonds. Preflop raiser checks, and next to act bets the pot (~2k). I am loving this flop so I move in and he quickly calls with AAxx. I miss and it is rebuy time. Oh well. I don't win a single hand and don't rebuy again, so I am out before the break. Great.

Cash games have been going somewhat better for me recently, with several wins in the region of €700 profit, but I just can't get a breakthrough in a tournament. Even when I am motoring along nicely I lose vital races, or get done in crucial pots. It is very frustrating to be honest.

Last night as well I played online for the first time in a few weeks, and it was all going well until I got stacked on 2 tables simultaneously. AK vs 88 on an AK6 flop when all the money went in. 8 on the turn. KKxx on a KQxr board on a 3 way all in on the flop when one gimp made a runner runner flush to go with his top 2 pair. This is the closest I have been to being on tilt in a long while but I managed to calm myself down a bit. I think I broke even, so with some bonus cleared and rakeback I made a marginal profit. Great. After that session I realised why I don't play NLHE cash games either live or online - I get bored or just play badly sometimes and generally lose. I haven't adapted to them as opposed to tournies.

I don't really have any poker plans for the immediate future to be honest. I would like to play in the GJP main event, but I can't be arsed to deposit money in another site to be honest, especially one with a decent deposit bonus that I know I am not going to clear. Maybe at some point in the future I will be in a better position, or more likely to clear it, but that time is not now. I may play one of the sats in the Jackpot, or maybe the SE or Fitz might have some for it as well.

I should really do what I have been promising myself as well and at least try to qualify for the WSOP in the summer since I am going to be there in 11 weeks. I hope I have enough dosh to be able to enjoy myself properly over there, as there are a few unexpected non poker related things happening now.

Bye for now, hopefully it won't be 2 months before my next update.

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