No more needs to be said. I seem to misplay every hand in tournaments lately, can't catch a big hand, and in cash games it is worse. I had all the tickets for a raffle lately but I still lost.
Wah, wah, bitch, moan, moan, etc.
I hope to update once I start playing a bit better, but I am taking a few days off from love poker, and since I have Broadband again (hooray!) I can do other things. I have learnt that I am still bad at online poker too though, but I am promising myself that I will play more STT's even though they bore the hell out of me, as I have done ok in the few that I have played.
Oh look, there is some paint drying, yes I know, more interesting than this isn't it? I'll put you out of your misery. Bye now.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Monday, September 04, 2006
September 4th
Since the last post I played in the PokerEvents team game, the Fitz end of month and a few other games too. The team event started off fairly quietly after a scare that the Laois team would get broken due to no shows, but the Offaly team was the one to miss out instead. We got 2 of their players including Rory Liffey, and that turned out to be very good for us. I ended up busting out in 180th place out of 310 runners with a probably misplayed QQ which was very disappointing, but after a long second day spectating things finally worked out well when Rory's 7th place, allied with strong performances from Rob Taylor and Brian Murphy gained us enough points to finish joint second with Tyrone and behind Leitrim for a total of 2375 each which was nice.
I enjoyed watching the second days play, but to be honest I can't say I found some of the PE staff to be polite or reasonable, and I had to fight back arguments quite a lot. This wasn't with dealers but with the floor staff who I felt showed a lack of respect at times to people who had paid a lot of money to enter the tournament. At times alright there was a need to try and get players back from the table, but the rigidity of it, the allowance of certain 'favoured' people to walk around unfettered, and the rudeness at times didn't endear them to me. I have since heard that Stephen and Donal have left PE so there will be some new people coming on board it seems.
The end of month tournie in the Fitz was one I got into cheaply again via the one handed Omaha sats, so that was good, but I busted out just before midnight, walking into Paddy Hicks' AA preflop. I'll say no more about it. Friday night scalps then seen me build a big stack by the break and I had 17k which was probably more than 3x the average at the time. After the break I went into static mode, mindful of my occasional tendency when well stacked to try and get too clever and throw it away, so I decided to play solidly which went fine until I ran into the biggest maniac I have ever seen. He would reraise with any two cards, and call a big all in with any 2 suited cards. I managed to get into a 26k pot preflop at 200/400 against him with TT vs his A3o, and of course he hit an A on the river to cripple me. I got my shortstack back to soemthing palyable but then tried a move to isolate a shortstacks all in that ran into KK when I had JTs. No miracle and off to an unsuccessful session at the cash games.
So far this year I have had 6 profitable months, and 2 unprofitable months, and I am up somewhat for the year, but not as much as I was hoping at the start of the year. Hopefully I can avaoid any disastrous periods for the rest of the year and hopefully get a few decent tournament results which I haven't done in the longest of time except in the small tournaments.
I enjoyed watching the second days play, but to be honest I can't say I found some of the PE staff to be polite or reasonable, and I had to fight back arguments quite a lot. This wasn't with dealers but with the floor staff who I felt showed a lack of respect at times to people who had paid a lot of money to enter the tournament. At times alright there was a need to try and get players back from the table, but the rigidity of it, the allowance of certain 'favoured' people to walk around unfettered, and the rudeness at times didn't endear them to me. I have since heard that Stephen and Donal have left PE so there will be some new people coming on board it seems.
The end of month tournie in the Fitz was one I got into cheaply again via the one handed Omaha sats, so that was good, but I busted out just before midnight, walking into Paddy Hicks' AA preflop. I'll say no more about it. Friday night scalps then seen me build a big stack by the break and I had 17k which was probably more than 3x the average at the time. After the break I went into static mode, mindful of my occasional tendency when well stacked to try and get too clever and throw it away, so I decided to play solidly which went fine until I ran into the biggest maniac I have ever seen. He would reraise with any two cards, and call a big all in with any 2 suited cards. I managed to get into a 26k pot preflop at 200/400 against him with TT vs his A3o, and of course he hit an A on the river to cripple me. I got my shortstack back to soemthing palyable but then tried a move to isolate a shortstacks all in that ran into KK when I had JTs. No miracle and off to an unsuccessful session at the cash games.
So far this year I have had 6 profitable months, and 2 unprofitable months, and I am up somewhat for the year, but not as much as I was hoping at the start of the year. Hopefully I can avaoid any disastrous periods for the rest of the year and hopefully get a few decent tournament results which I haven't done in the longest of time except in the small tournaments.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Catching my Breath
I have just had my longest break from poker in 2 years, as I was at a wedding and then on holiday, so I had 17 days away from poker. I can't say that I didn't want to play at any time during this period but I resisted the temptation to go out of my way for this. I played last night just to get back in the swing of things but no luck, and I got bored and gave away the last of my chips in a spot of blind pushing rather than be shotstacked and hang on.
Before I left my good bubble had burst and so I went away on a bad patch, but that's what breaks are for isn't it? I am playing in the Laois team this weekend coming in the Irish Poker Championships team event run by PokerEvents and hopefully it will be a good event (for me and my team anyhow). I have absolutely no Laois ties apart from the fact that Andy, who was asked to pick the Laois team, knows me fairly well in a poker sense from the Fitz and asked me to play since they were short a couple of players. We have a decent enough team from the players that I know anyhow, but it is a pity that Paul Jackson cannot play as I was looking forward to seeing how he played against the field.
Hopefully I will be reporting on it next week in a positive light. It is just a pity that the Citywest hotel is so awkward to get to without a car, but I suppose it is a necessay evil since other venues are just too small.
Before I left my good bubble had burst and so I went away on a bad patch, but that's what breaks are for isn't it? I am playing in the Laois team this weekend coming in the Irish Poker Championships team event run by PokerEvents and hopefully it will be a good event (for me and my team anyhow). I have absolutely no Laois ties apart from the fact that Andy, who was asked to pick the Laois team, knows me fairly well in a poker sense from the Fitz and asked me to play since they were short a couple of players. We have a decent enough team from the players that I know anyhow, but it is a pity that Paul Jackson cannot play as I was looking forward to seeing how he played against the field.
Hopefully I will be reporting on it next week in a positive light. It is just a pity that the Citywest hotel is so awkward to get to without a car, but I suppose it is a necessay evil since other venues are just too small.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
After the Famine
I have meant to update this several times since I actually have, but better late than never. The last time I updated things were very different for me. I was living 20 mins from the Fitz, I couldn't make the money in a tournament to save my life, and things were just ticking along.
Business has picked up though, and that most cruel of mistresses - The River - is being kind to me.
Let me take myself back to the weekend before last (Sunday 2nd). I came in late into the Fitz after the football and sat straight into the 50 Omaha game. It was a well stacked game but not maniacal. I sat in with 250 which is about my standard sit in amount. Things were going fairly slowly until a Hold'em player (Hughie - never seen him play Omaha before) sat into the game. He proceeded to pump 100 into 4 pots in a row, 3 of them preflop. One of them I call the preflop action for 100 with KKJTds from the blinds. The flop (600 in pot) comes fairly raggy but with 2 spades on board. I have only 150 left so I go all in and get 3 callers. The turn blanks and the river comes a lovely spade and with no one on the nut flush draw I take the lot for over a grand in the pot, so happy days. I stick around for another couple of hours, and get rivered horribly by a middle pin straight (he had no other outs) in a fairly big pot, but I pick up enough others to recover to leave with about a grand in total, so not too bad.
I played the Monday night tournie then but I can't remember much about it, and was probably out early. I played cash games as well and my records show that I made about 100 from that, so I left pretty much even for the night. Details are great, aren't they?
The next time I played was in the 150 FO on Thursday. Before this tournie I noticed that I was on my worst run ever (since I began keeping records anyhow) without cashing or 10 tournaments to put it another way. The previous worst had been 7. This made me determined to make the money and I did that, but only just, reaching the final table as one of about 4 terminally short shortstacks. I exited in 8th when my Kd with a mystery card (5d as it turned out) got called by Dennis' TT. Only 50 profit, but at least my duck was technically broken.
I played the scalps tournament the next night and there was a huge turnout of 112 runners thanks to a load of English guys over for the Charity Headsup match the next day in the Fitz, and also due to a last longest bet posted on boards with Dave Masters generously adding 200 to the pot for this. I never threatened the last longest though. Before the break I won a few pots early on but I kept getting my raises reraised near the break. This was very frustrating, especially as I was out of position most of the time and I never had a premium hand to play back with. I always held AJ/AQ/middle pair or some such, not what I want to be calling an all in reraise with. After the break I went fairly card dead, and at one stage after losing a few chips in a pot I got dealt KK in EP. I decide to limp as there had been raises every hand, but no, not this one. I was shortstacked and tried to get cute (3k with blinds of 200-400) 6 players to the pot and up she pops, the dirty A. Needless to say there are interested parties and I run away with my tail between my legs. I go out a few hands later when on the blinds and I enter into the spirit of it, by playing blind (in 2 hands), and of course I lose. Cash game please!!!!!
Cash game (round of each) starts off badly for me when I hold 99xx on a board of 982 (with 2 clubs). I bet pot (only 10), get 5 callers. Turn is Ac putting the flush out there. checked all round, and the river is 2, filling me up. I bet 50, and get reraised to 120. Hmmm thinks I. I have about 150 back, and 70 more to me. I am suspicious but still call, and he turns over 22 for quads. Typical. I reload to 200 after losing the rest of it and the following pot happens.
Me 185
Button ~400
I limp in MP with A9o in the holdem round and it gets raised by the button to 10 (regular player, we know each others game reasonably well) and only I call. Flop comes 984r. I bet 25 into him and he calls. At this point I am fairly sure he is on a big A but doesn't believe me. Turn is the perfect card - A. I bet 50 into him, and he reraises me to 125. Since I only have 150 left I go all in fo course and he calls and is disgusted with my hand, and he has AK as I figured. No K and I win a decent pot. I play for another while and leave nearly 200 up in the cash game for a small profit for the night.
The next day I turn up for the Charity rebuy game in the Fitz, and it is sheer madness. I rebuy 5 times and topup (25 a time), but there are 2 guys who rebuy 27 and 20 times respectively. It was brilliant fun before and indeed after the break, but before the break it was sheer madness with allins on every hand practically. I had 11500 at the break after quadrupling my rebuy up (blind) on the last hand and topping up for 3500. There were loads of chips in play and after the break it settled into a really good tournament. There were pretty much only decent players left after the break when the madness ceased, and I was doing ok. A few hands in particular stand out for me, all happening on the second last table.
Hand 1: 5 or 6 handed I hold A9o in the SB (500/1000). Folded to the BB who raises to 4000. I know a lot of the time4 he is doing this with air as he had just tripled up recently and I got the feeling he was just pulling a move. This being the case I push with A9 for 21k, confident that I would take the pot there. I hadn't counte on the BB thinking and counting and then thinking soem more. After a few mins he eventually folds, and as I suspected the button raiser folds quickly. To my shock the BB shown his folded QQ. I have played with this guy a lot and I think he would have called me on my own but the presence of the button having open raised put him off. Thankfully for me.
Hand 2: A few hands after the first one and I have 66 in the SB. A guy who just lost most of his chips in the previous hand pushes for 6.5k. I call instantly, and he has AJo, much better than I thought, but still ok. flop of QT8 him a double belly buster with the overcards also. A 6 on the turn takes away the overcards, but a K on the river wins him the hand. I could have done without a 14k swing just then. This left me with about 17k.
I won a couple of hands in a row then, once when I flopped a set of 2's and another time betting with air. We were on the bubble with blinds of 1k/2k when the following hand happened:
Hand 3: I am in the BB. UTG raises to 5k. Folded back to me and I push for 22k. Called instantly and I cover, only just. Hands are AJd for me and AKc for UTG. Oops. I spike a J on the flop though to burst the bubble and I go to the final table with 45k and I am in 3rd place. Sorry Andy.
The final table has 6 of the e English guys on it along with myself, Mike Lacey and Mark Kenny. I don't make a move for the first while and I think 3 players are knocked out before I decide to raise with 78h from MP. BB goes all in and I think my original raise covered. He had overcards, but I hit my flush out he goes. When 4 handed there is only 1 of the 6 English guys left along with myself, Mark and Mike. I am in the SB at 4k/8k and it is folded to me. I have KQ off and raise to 24k (I only have 66k total). Mike instantly goes all in, and I call getting around 3-1 for the remainder of my money. He has A3 but I flop a K to win the hand. Mike busts out after losing the next 2 hands also, but in each hand he was ahead each time when the money went in, unlucky Mike. At 3 handed we played on for a while but with the blinds at 5k/10k and chips fairly even (I had about 140k to about 120k each) and the time at nearly 4am we split it 3 ways. So after deducting for dealers and for a donation to the charity fund I left about 600 in profit for the night so not too bad, and I really enjoyed the tournament, both the banter and the play.
The next time I played was on Wednesday night. I have not played this tournament lately, but since I was able to come into town in a borrowed car I thought why not. I was going to go to the SE but in the end decided not to and stuck with the Fitz. There were 44 runners so not too bad. I was playing fairly well but couldn't accumulate a mot of chips. An example of this is when AQ rivered a T to split the pot with me on a board of KQJ3T when I held AA. After the break (no rebuy, only topup) I was again not getting many chips. Turning point came when I had 77 in the SB, and Button had pushed. I also went all in and another shortie called. I was up against QJ and KJ and the first card seen on the flop was a nice 7. Despite 4 spades on the board I still held up as neither had a spade. Several of the people on my table were weak/tight players. They would call a preflop raise then fold almost every time on the flop. I gained a good few chips this way and was well stacked when I knocked someone out on the bubble.
I was second in chips on the FT at the start, well behind big Stuart who had been on a different table to me all night. A few hands into this I raise, Stuey calls and folds to a flop bet. I show AA as it is the first hand I showed on the table. I had won one decent pot before that. 3 crucial hands happen then.
Hand 1: I have AQo in the BB. 1.5k/3k, 1 limper 5 handed and the SB raises to 10k. She had been very aggressive and raised about 5 of the last 8 pots, showing a low pair, a raggy ace, KJ and a couple of no shows. I feel I am well ahead of her range, and would be very unlucky to be behind here so I push for 35k. Folded to her who calls quickly with 66?? Long story short I hit A on the river to cripple her.
Hand 2: Very next hand there was an UTG limper. I raise to 16k from SB with 88. UTG goes all in for about 22k, and I make the call. He had AQ this time. A on the flop isn't looking great for me but I hit 8 on the river (again) so knock him out. I soon knock out player from Hand 1 also.
Hand 3: This is the biggest luckbox hand but again not anything I was going to do differently. 3 handed, I am on the SB with AJo and button limps. 2k/4k. I open raise to 14k, BB folds and then button (Stuey) raises to 40k. This being Stuart could mean a monster or could mean a small pair or a raggy A. I cover him by about 40 so I push allin and he makes the call. Monster pot and I am not loving it at this stage. Sure enough as luck would have it he has AA and I am in big trouble. 3 hearts on the flop gives me hope though as I have Ah, and when turn and river both bring hearts too I win a monster pot and dog Stuey. AJ, 3 handed, against Stuey, I dare anyone to play it differently.
Heads up and I have about 150k to about 20k. This guy barely played a hand apart from doubling up early on the FT. I think it lasts about 5 hands when my JJ (slowplayed) beat his T7 on a K74 board. Turn and river blanks and I outright win for the first time in a while. Good feeling, and even though the competition was not exactly that strong in the whole there were some decent players there. I was hapy enough anyways, 1k for first.
I am in profit for the year now again, and hopefully this run will continue for a while, I could do with it.
On a side note I have purchased 1% of both Oscar Fred and Dave Masters for the World Series, so I would like to say good luck to them.
Hopefully I will still be in a happy mood the next time I post.
Business has picked up though, and that most cruel of mistresses - The River - is being kind to me.
Let me take myself back to the weekend before last (Sunday 2nd). I came in late into the Fitz after the football and sat straight into the 50 Omaha game. It was a well stacked game but not maniacal. I sat in with 250 which is about my standard sit in amount. Things were going fairly slowly until a Hold'em player (Hughie - never seen him play Omaha before) sat into the game. He proceeded to pump 100 into 4 pots in a row, 3 of them preflop. One of them I call the preflop action for 100 with KKJTds from the blinds. The flop (600 in pot) comes fairly raggy but with 2 spades on board. I have only 150 left so I go all in and get 3 callers. The turn blanks and the river comes a lovely spade and with no one on the nut flush draw I take the lot for over a grand in the pot, so happy days. I stick around for another couple of hours, and get rivered horribly by a middle pin straight (he had no other outs) in a fairly big pot, but I pick up enough others to recover to leave with about a grand in total, so not too bad.
I played the Monday night tournie then but I can't remember much about it, and was probably out early. I played cash games as well and my records show that I made about 100 from that, so I left pretty much even for the night. Details are great, aren't they?
The next time I played was in the 150 FO on Thursday. Before this tournie I noticed that I was on my worst run ever (since I began keeping records anyhow) without cashing or 10 tournaments to put it another way. The previous worst had been 7. This made me determined to make the money and I did that, but only just, reaching the final table as one of about 4 terminally short shortstacks. I exited in 8th when my Kd with a mystery card (5d as it turned out) got called by Dennis' TT. Only 50 profit, but at least my duck was technically broken.
I played the scalps tournament the next night and there was a huge turnout of 112 runners thanks to a load of English guys over for the Charity Headsup match the next day in the Fitz, and also due to a last longest bet posted on boards with Dave Masters generously adding 200 to the pot for this. I never threatened the last longest though. Before the break I won a few pots early on but I kept getting my raises reraised near the break. This was very frustrating, especially as I was out of position most of the time and I never had a premium hand to play back with. I always held AJ/AQ/middle pair or some such, not what I want to be calling an all in reraise with. After the break I went fairly card dead, and at one stage after losing a few chips in a pot I got dealt KK in EP. I decide to limp as there had been raises every hand, but no, not this one. I was shortstacked and tried to get cute (3k with blinds of 200-400) 6 players to the pot and up she pops, the dirty A. Needless to say there are interested parties and I run away with my tail between my legs. I go out a few hands later when on the blinds and I enter into the spirit of it, by playing blind (in 2 hands), and of course I lose. Cash game please!!!!!
Cash game (round of each) starts off badly for me when I hold 99xx on a board of 982 (with 2 clubs). I bet pot (only 10), get 5 callers. Turn is Ac putting the flush out there. checked all round, and the river is 2, filling me up. I bet 50, and get reraised to 120. Hmmm thinks I. I have about 150 back, and 70 more to me. I am suspicious but still call, and he turns over 22 for quads. Typical. I reload to 200 after losing the rest of it and the following pot happens.
Me 185
Button ~400
I limp in MP with A9o in the holdem round and it gets raised by the button to 10 (regular player, we know each others game reasonably well) and only I call. Flop comes 984r. I bet 25 into him and he calls. At this point I am fairly sure he is on a big A but doesn't believe me. Turn is the perfect card - A. I bet 50 into him, and he reraises me to 125. Since I only have 150 left I go all in fo course and he calls and is disgusted with my hand, and he has AK as I figured. No K and I win a decent pot. I play for another while and leave nearly 200 up in the cash game for a small profit for the night.
The next day I turn up for the Charity rebuy game in the Fitz, and it is sheer madness. I rebuy 5 times and topup (25 a time), but there are 2 guys who rebuy 27 and 20 times respectively. It was brilliant fun before and indeed after the break, but before the break it was sheer madness with allins on every hand practically. I had 11500 at the break after quadrupling my rebuy up (blind) on the last hand and topping up for 3500. There were loads of chips in play and after the break it settled into a really good tournament. There were pretty much only decent players left after the break when the madness ceased, and I was doing ok. A few hands in particular stand out for me, all happening on the second last table.
Hand 1: 5 or 6 handed I hold A9o in the SB (500/1000). Folded to the BB who raises to 4000. I know a lot of the time4 he is doing this with air as he had just tripled up recently and I got the feeling he was just pulling a move. This being the case I push with A9 for 21k, confident that I would take the pot there. I hadn't counte on the BB thinking and counting and then thinking soem more. After a few mins he eventually folds, and as I suspected the button raiser folds quickly. To my shock the BB shown his folded QQ. I have played with this guy a lot and I think he would have called me on my own but the presence of the button having open raised put him off. Thankfully for me.
Hand 2: A few hands after the first one and I have 66 in the SB. A guy who just lost most of his chips in the previous hand pushes for 6.5k. I call instantly, and he has AJo, much better than I thought, but still ok. flop of QT8 him a double belly buster with the overcards also. A 6 on the turn takes away the overcards, but a K on the river wins him the hand. I could have done without a 14k swing just then. This left me with about 17k.
I won a couple of hands in a row then, once when I flopped a set of 2's and another time betting with air. We were on the bubble with blinds of 1k/2k when the following hand happened:
Hand 3: I am in the BB. UTG raises to 5k. Folded back to me and I push for 22k. Called instantly and I cover, only just. Hands are AJd for me and AKc for UTG. Oops. I spike a J on the flop though to burst the bubble and I go to the final table with 45k and I am in 3rd place. Sorry Andy.
The final table has 6 of the e English guys on it along with myself, Mike Lacey and Mark Kenny. I don't make a move for the first while and I think 3 players are knocked out before I decide to raise with 78h from MP. BB goes all in and I think my original raise covered. He had overcards, but I hit my flush out he goes. When 4 handed there is only 1 of the 6 English guys left along with myself, Mark and Mike. I am in the SB at 4k/8k and it is folded to me. I have KQ off and raise to 24k (I only have 66k total). Mike instantly goes all in, and I call getting around 3-1 for the remainder of my money. He has A3 but I flop a K to win the hand. Mike busts out after losing the next 2 hands also, but in each hand he was ahead each time when the money went in, unlucky Mike. At 3 handed we played on for a while but with the blinds at 5k/10k and chips fairly even (I had about 140k to about 120k each) and the time at nearly 4am we split it 3 ways. So after deducting for dealers and for a donation to the charity fund I left about 600 in profit for the night so not too bad, and I really enjoyed the tournament, both the banter and the play.
The next time I played was on Wednesday night. I have not played this tournament lately, but since I was able to come into town in a borrowed car I thought why not. I was going to go to the SE but in the end decided not to and stuck with the Fitz. There were 44 runners so not too bad. I was playing fairly well but couldn't accumulate a mot of chips. An example of this is when AQ rivered a T to split the pot with me on a board of KQJ3T when I held AA. After the break (no rebuy, only topup) I was again not getting many chips. Turning point came when I had 77 in the SB, and Button had pushed. I also went all in and another shortie called. I was up against QJ and KJ and the first card seen on the flop was a nice 7. Despite 4 spades on the board I still held up as neither had a spade. Several of the people on my table were weak/tight players. They would call a preflop raise then fold almost every time on the flop. I gained a good few chips this way and was well stacked when I knocked someone out on the bubble.
I was second in chips on the FT at the start, well behind big Stuart who had been on a different table to me all night. A few hands into this I raise, Stuey calls and folds to a flop bet. I show AA as it is the first hand I showed on the table. I had won one decent pot before that. 3 crucial hands happen then.
Hand 1: I have AQo in the BB. 1.5k/3k, 1 limper 5 handed and the SB raises to 10k. She had been very aggressive and raised about 5 of the last 8 pots, showing a low pair, a raggy ace, KJ and a couple of no shows. I feel I am well ahead of her range, and would be very unlucky to be behind here so I push for 35k. Folded to her who calls quickly with 66?? Long story short I hit A on the river to cripple her.
Hand 2: Very next hand there was an UTG limper. I raise to 16k from SB with 88. UTG goes all in for about 22k, and I make the call. He had AQ this time. A on the flop isn't looking great for me but I hit 8 on the river (again) so knock him out. I soon knock out player from Hand 1 also.
Hand 3: This is the biggest luckbox hand but again not anything I was going to do differently. 3 handed, I am on the SB with AJo and button limps. 2k/4k. I open raise to 14k, BB folds and then button (Stuey) raises to 40k. This being Stuart could mean a monster or could mean a small pair or a raggy A. I cover him by about 40 so I push allin and he makes the call. Monster pot and I am not loving it at this stage. Sure enough as luck would have it he has AA and I am in big trouble. 3 hearts on the flop gives me hope though as I have Ah, and when turn and river both bring hearts too I win a monster pot and dog Stuey. AJ, 3 handed, against Stuey, I dare anyone to play it differently.
Heads up and I have about 150k to about 20k. This guy barely played a hand apart from doubling up early on the FT. I think it lasts about 5 hands when my JJ (slowplayed) beat his T7 on a K74 board. Turn and river blanks and I outright win for the first time in a while. Good feeling, and even though the competition was not exactly that strong in the whole there were some decent players there. I was hapy enough anyways, 1k for first.
I am in profit for the year now again, and hopefully this run will continue for a while, I could do with it.
On a side note I have purchased 1% of both Oscar Fred and Dave Masters for the World Series, so I would like to say good luck to them.
Hopefully I will still be in a happy mood the next time I post.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Fitz End of Month Game
I decided to play the Fitz end of month despite being undecided for most of the day, but the fact that I wanted to play even though I knew I probably shouldn't, decided it.
I was seated in Seat 1, Table 6 for the first few hours and the table was grand, a few familiar faces, a few decent Northern lads and a few random types. I won the first 2 pots for very small amounts, flopping a set of 4's in the first hand and raising and picking up the blinds only in the second hand with AQo. I wasn't doing an awful lot at this stage and the biggest pot I won before the break was when I raised with AQo to 425 at the 50-100 level with 2 limpers. All folded to the second limper who called. Flop comes Q54 with 2 diamonds, and there is a bet of 500 into me. The other guy in this pot is one of my favourite players to take chips off as he talks a good game - regularly - but doesn't play one. I raised him to 1750 and he called. Turn comes T, no flush on board and he checks. I duly go all in for about 2700, and he thinks and folds after a bit saying that he had a queen. That was a perfect example of how to leak away over 2k with a poor holding out of position.
Anyhow, I pick up a few more small pots before the break, mostly due to a lot of the tight play at the table, so at the break I have 7700. Not bad but not great. I have still not shown down a hand at this point. After the break I start of steady enough, winning a couple more small pots and I am around the 7.5k mark still when I decide to get creative with a call (100/200) with Q6d in the cutoff. BB checks his option (despite looking like raising at one point). Flop comes AdQs3d. Perfect thinks I. Obviously so did other players!!!! The BB bet 450, an EP limper raised to 1550 and it comes back to me. I have a few options here -
1. Fold - Not something I was considering really. Why else did I call if not to see a flop like that?
2. Call - The cautious me wanted to do this. The old me would have.
3. Raise - This is a better option in a more deepstacked situation. Raising here would pot commit anyhow.
4. Push - This is really the obvious one, and of course the one I went for.
So I pushed for a total of about 7.5k and the BB got out of the way quickly enough. The first raiser though had a good think and after a couple of minutes got the clock called on him (not by me I must add). He got the 30 second warning, the 15 second warning, the 10 second warning, the countdown from 5, and in true McGyver fashion he waited unti l second before making the fold. He showed what he folded and it was AJh. Didn't seem like the hand to go into the tank over to be honest, but there you go. He had about 9k back after his bet so it would have been for 2/3 of his remaining stack.
So I toddled along winning small pots and get to peak of 13k when I was moved table, and there were a few more faces on this table I was familiar with. The crucial hand on this table came when I had 88 UTG and decided to raise. This was after a couple of rounds of the table when I think I had played precisely 1 hand, and that was a battle of the blinds, which was split between myself and Reggie. Blinds 400-800 I raise to 2300 UTG. Kevin Fitzpatrick goes all in for 4500 and then another guy who was at my table all night before it broke, went all in for 5800. Folded back to me and I make the call after a small deliberation. I was happy when the showed AJ for Kevin, and AK for the other guy. Happy that was until the turn brought an A, and no help on the river meant I was back to around 6.5k. I worked my way back to around 10k with a few pushes and then t the 800-1500 level with the blinds approaching fast, UTG minraised and it came to me with KQs. Now I know this is a poor hand in a raised pot, but this guy was the type of player who minraises with a middling Ace because he 'thinks he should'.
I pushed anyhow, happy to either push him off it (calling was over 60% of his stack) or take an uneven race against Ax. I had less than 7BB and it was my BB in about 3 hands. He called with AT anyhow, ad neither of us connected so I was gone in around 24th.
Ah well. I thought I played well and considering I only got 3 pp's (44 twice, 88) and didn't see AK at all all night, I thought I did ok. I was disappointed though not to get further. Another night I would have folded the KQ and tried to pick a better spot, but there were a few shortish stacks so the chances of getting into a pot under favourable circumstances weren't great. I am going to miss the scalps tonight anyhow, and it will only be the 7th time this year I have not played on a Friday night. Maybe I should look for a life. I have only played on Saturday night 8 times though, so that isn't as damning a statistic.
Adios 'til next time.
I was seated in Seat 1, Table 6 for the first few hours and the table was grand, a few familiar faces, a few decent Northern lads and a few random types. I won the first 2 pots for very small amounts, flopping a set of 4's in the first hand and raising and picking up the blinds only in the second hand with AQo. I wasn't doing an awful lot at this stage and the biggest pot I won before the break was when I raised with AQo to 425 at the 50-100 level with 2 limpers. All folded to the second limper who called. Flop comes Q54 with 2 diamonds, and there is a bet of 500 into me. The other guy in this pot is one of my favourite players to take chips off as he talks a good game - regularly - but doesn't play one. I raised him to 1750 and he called. Turn comes T, no flush on board and he checks. I duly go all in for about 2700, and he thinks and folds after a bit saying that he had a queen. That was a perfect example of how to leak away over 2k with a poor holding out of position.
Anyhow, I pick up a few more small pots before the break, mostly due to a lot of the tight play at the table, so at the break I have 7700. Not bad but not great. I have still not shown down a hand at this point. After the break I start of steady enough, winning a couple more small pots and I am around the 7.5k mark still when I decide to get creative with a call (100/200) with Q6d in the cutoff. BB checks his option (despite looking like raising at one point). Flop comes AdQs3d. Perfect thinks I. Obviously so did other players!!!! The BB bet 450, an EP limper raised to 1550 and it comes back to me. I have a few options here -
1. Fold - Not something I was considering really. Why else did I call if not to see a flop like that?
2. Call - The cautious me wanted to do this. The old me would have.
3. Raise - This is a better option in a more deepstacked situation. Raising here would pot commit anyhow.
4. Push - This is really the obvious one, and of course the one I went for.
So I pushed for a total of about 7.5k and the BB got out of the way quickly enough. The first raiser though had a good think and after a couple of minutes got the clock called on him (not by me I must add). He got the 30 second warning, the 15 second warning, the 10 second warning, the countdown from 5, and in true McGyver fashion he waited unti l second before making the fold. He showed what he folded and it was AJh. Didn't seem like the hand to go into the tank over to be honest, but there you go. He had about 9k back after his bet so it would have been for 2/3 of his remaining stack.
So I toddled along winning small pots and get to peak of 13k when I was moved table, and there were a few more faces on this table I was familiar with. The crucial hand on this table came when I had 88 UTG and decided to raise. This was after a couple of rounds of the table when I think I had played precisely 1 hand, and that was a battle of the blinds, which was split between myself and Reggie. Blinds 400-800 I raise to 2300 UTG. Kevin Fitzpatrick goes all in for 4500 and then another guy who was at my table all night before it broke, went all in for 5800. Folded back to me and I make the call after a small deliberation. I was happy when the showed AJ for Kevin, and AK for the other guy. Happy that was until the turn brought an A, and no help on the river meant I was back to around 6.5k. I worked my way back to around 10k with a few pushes and then t the 800-1500 level with the blinds approaching fast, UTG minraised and it came to me with KQs. Now I know this is a poor hand in a raised pot, but this guy was the type of player who minraises with a middling Ace because he 'thinks he should'.
I pushed anyhow, happy to either push him off it (calling was over 60% of his stack) or take an uneven race against Ax. I had less than 7BB and it was my BB in about 3 hands. He called with AT anyhow, ad neither of us connected so I was gone in around 24th.
Ah well. I thought I played well and considering I only got 3 pp's (44 twice, 88) and didn't see AK at all all night, I thought I did ok. I was disappointed though not to get further. Another night I would have folded the KQ and tried to pick a better spot, but there were a few shortish stacks so the chances of getting into a pot under favourable circumstances weren't great. I am going to miss the scalps tonight anyhow, and it will only be the 7th time this year I have not played on a Friday night. Maybe I should look for a life. I have only played on Saturday night 8 times though, so that isn't as damning a statistic.
Adios 'til next time.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
At least I am consistent
In my last 7 tournaments (5 of them since my last post) I have finished in the top 20 - but only once made the FT and even then didn't make the money. The upshot of this of course is that while I am generally not going out early it is not good to me since I am making no money from it. I am however turning a small profit at the cash tables so overall June is a profitable month so far, if not one to have me rolling in the cash. After the disaster that was May though it is good to steady the ship.
I think part of the problem is that a lot of the tournies around dublin are way too shallow stacked so one mistake, bad timing, or one bad beat and you are dead, and usually one or the other seems to happen to me at some stage of the tournament.
I am probably going to play the Fitz EOM tournament tonight so we'll see how I do then. I am feeling that I am playing ok lately while not hitting the heights or getting the big breaks I need at the right time in big pots.
This is only a fairly short post so not much more to say, except I don't know how frequently I will be playing poker for the next while as sometime next week I am moving apartment and since I don't have a car (soon to be rectified hopefully) and this place is not near as centrally located I may be less conveniently placed to play as much. When you couple this with the fact that I don't know how long it will take to sort out broadband and tv access in this new place either I am possibly in for a frustrating while. Then again I do work in town (well nearly) so I may just stay in town after work and get a taxi home after the Fitz, but this approach could be expensive after a while. Just as well my SSIA is maturing (Cheers Charlie) in a months time and I will probably buy a wagon then and I can get back to normal.
Anyways, bye for now, sorry for wasting 49 seconds of your life by writing this tripe that you just wrote. I promise that my next one will be filled with hands where I ballsed things up and also lots of complaining that I never got got cards and when I did I never got action.
I think part of the problem is that a lot of the tournies around dublin are way too shallow stacked so one mistake, bad timing, or one bad beat and you are dead, and usually one or the other seems to happen to me at some stage of the tournament.
I am probably going to play the Fitz EOM tournament tonight so we'll see how I do then. I am feeling that I am playing ok lately while not hitting the heights or getting the big breaks I need at the right time in big pots.
This is only a fairly short post so not much more to say, except I don't know how frequently I will be playing poker for the next while as sometime next week I am moving apartment and since I don't have a car (soon to be rectified hopefully) and this place is not near as centrally located I may be less conveniently placed to play as much. When you couple this with the fact that I don't know how long it will take to sort out broadband and tv access in this new place either I am possibly in for a frustrating while. Then again I do work in town (well nearly) so I may just stay in town after work and get a taxi home after the Fitz, but this approach could be expensive after a while. Just as well my SSIA is maturing (Cheers Charlie) in a months time and I will probably buy a wagon then and I can get back to normal.
Anyways, bye for now, sorry for wasting 49 seconds of your life by writing this tripe that you just wrote. I promise that my next one will be filled with hands where I ballsed things up and also lots of complaining that I never got got cards and when I did I never got action.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Quiet Time
I haven't played much poker in the last while so not an awful lot to report. Since the last update I have played twice only. The first time was in the first run of the Fitz 150 game. This got 49 runners which isn't bad for the first time. Hopefully it will get a consistent 50-60 runners as it is a good structure, and there isn't an awful lot elase on a Thursday apart from the SE double chance which I am not that fond of to be honest.
Anyways, starting stack of 5k, 3x20 minute levels and then 30 min levels. There were one or two teething problme swith the clock but aside from this I enjoyed the tournament in general. Before the break I barely made a move, only playing 2 hands and barely picking up much in either of these pots. I have a tad over starting stack at the break.
After the break I got moved table and first hand I lost around 1500 when playing QTs from the button. A couple of hands later though I got dealt 88 in late position and raised to 700 (100/200). button called, and he was the guy who had taken the 1500 off me. He is an aggressive (usually) tricky and good player. Flop comes 78Ar so perfect flop. I check into him, he checks back. Turn is 7 filling me up. I bet 1200, calls quickly. River is T I think, I bet 2100 into him and he quickly calls. I flip my house over, he taps the table and shows an A and mucks. I got lucky then a couple of times once when raising in the cutoff with KQ in an unopened pot, and BB goes allin for less than double my raise so naturally I called. He showed AK and a Q on the flop meant I increase again. Sorry Jason.
At this point I lost a few more chips in 2 hands against a newcomer to the table who smacked of bullying with his chips but I never quite had the conviction to go over the top against him. Yet.
Then came another hand. I got dealt 66 in MP. Ronan then raised to 1500 (200/400) from EP and I pushed for 4100 hoping he would respect my raise and let me steal there cause I knew I wasn't in great shape. Ronan knows my game as well as anyone in the Fitz, as I play a lot of tournaments as well as cash games with him. It gets backto Ronan and he thinks about it for a bit and says 'I think we are in a race' and calls showing 88. Bugger. A 6 on the flop though gets me out of it though, the case 6 as it turns out as one lad afterwards says he had one.
Then I played 99 (nearly 9.5k now), raising to 1500 from lp on 200/400 with a limper. The button (bullying guy from above) called. Flop comes QT4r. I bet 1700 into the pot and he thinks for a bit and calls. Oh-Oh. I resolve now to push any blank (I have him on KQ at the worst(for me), probably a decent T though) and the turn duly obliges as it is a rainbow completing 7. I push for 6200 instantly into a pot of around 6500 so not an overbet at all. He thinks for ages which I think is a bit of bluster really as I don't think he was strong enough to call as I hadn't played it weakly. I think he was planning to push on any weakness from me, but there is a good chance I was behind so I didn't want this. He folded anyhow after a think.
Then came 'the hand' and just as I was starting to really enjoy the game. I was SB and Macker was BB (300/600). Folded to me and I complete with K7o. Flop comes a tasty KT7 with 2 hearts. I lead for 1000 which is promptly raised to 5k. He has me covered. There are 3 possibilites here I reckon. Flush draw and a pair. I have seen Macker do this a few times on this type of draw. T7 which was what I really wanted, or KT which I didn't. I pushed for 13k which was quickly called and the horrible KT was turned over. Turn was a K so I was dying here anyhow if we saw this.
My mistakes in this hand:
Not raising preflop. May not have worked against KT but it may have.
Not respecting Mackers reraise. I knew he had a decent hand, I just vainly hoped it was worse than mine. Macker doesn't raise with shit.
Not folding preflop.
Ah well. Out in 14th I think.
Not an awful lot to report from the Monday 100+10 game either. Only 36 runners, I lost a good few chips early on to mad Tom, and got them back a while later when I doubled up with KK then won a decent pot on a board of KK97 with 77 vs KQ. Thanks for checking the flop :)
I didn't really get going in this game and went out in 12th. I didn't play last weekend as I was in Hamburg getting very drunk on a mates stag party, and I won't be playing this weekend as I will be at home for my bimonthly visit. Assuming I don't go on Sunday evening either this will be 2 visits in 13 days, my most barren run for quite a while. No harm though with the World Cup and all. I haven't played online either really in the last 2-3 weeks. I will be moving apartment though in a few weeks so both online and offline will be more difficult for me so I may just go mad.
Bye now.
Anyways, starting stack of 5k, 3x20 minute levels and then 30 min levels. There were one or two teething problme swith the clock but aside from this I enjoyed the tournament in general. Before the break I barely made a move, only playing 2 hands and barely picking up much in either of these pots. I have a tad over starting stack at the break.
After the break I got moved table and first hand I lost around 1500 when playing QTs from the button. A couple of hands later though I got dealt 88 in late position and raised to 700 (100/200). button called, and he was the guy who had taken the 1500 off me. He is an aggressive (usually) tricky and good player. Flop comes 78Ar so perfect flop. I check into him, he checks back. Turn is 7 filling me up. I bet 1200, calls quickly. River is T I think, I bet 2100 into him and he quickly calls. I flip my house over, he taps the table and shows an A and mucks. I got lucky then a couple of times once when raising in the cutoff with KQ in an unopened pot, and BB goes allin for less than double my raise so naturally I called. He showed AK and a Q on the flop meant I increase again. Sorry Jason.
At this point I lost a few more chips in 2 hands against a newcomer to the table who smacked of bullying with his chips but I never quite had the conviction to go over the top against him. Yet.
Then came another hand. I got dealt 66 in MP. Ronan then raised to 1500 (200/400) from EP and I pushed for 4100 hoping he would respect my raise and let me steal there cause I knew I wasn't in great shape. Ronan knows my game as well as anyone in the Fitz, as I play a lot of tournaments as well as cash games with him. It gets backto Ronan and he thinks about it for a bit and says 'I think we are in a race' and calls showing 88. Bugger. A 6 on the flop though gets me out of it though, the case 6 as it turns out as one lad afterwards says he had one.
Then I played 99 (nearly 9.5k now), raising to 1500 from lp on 200/400 with a limper. The button (bullying guy from above) called. Flop comes QT4r. I bet 1700 into the pot and he thinks for a bit and calls. Oh-Oh. I resolve now to push any blank (I have him on KQ at the worst(for me), probably a decent T though) and the turn duly obliges as it is a rainbow completing 7. I push for 6200 instantly into a pot of around 6500 so not an overbet at all. He thinks for ages which I think is a bit of bluster really as I don't think he was strong enough to call as I hadn't played it weakly. I think he was planning to push on any weakness from me, but there is a good chance I was behind so I didn't want this. He folded anyhow after a think.
Then came 'the hand' and just as I was starting to really enjoy the game. I was SB and Macker was BB (300/600). Folded to me and I complete with K7o. Flop comes a tasty KT7 with 2 hearts. I lead for 1000 which is promptly raised to 5k. He has me covered. There are 3 possibilites here I reckon. Flush draw and a pair. I have seen Macker do this a few times on this type of draw. T7 which was what I really wanted, or KT which I didn't. I pushed for 13k which was quickly called and the horrible KT was turned over. Turn was a K so I was dying here anyhow if we saw this.
My mistakes in this hand:
Not raising preflop. May not have worked against KT but it may have.
Not respecting Mackers reraise. I knew he had a decent hand, I just vainly hoped it was worse than mine. Macker doesn't raise with shit.
Not folding preflop.
Ah well. Out in 14th I think.
Not an awful lot to report from the Monday 100+10 game either. Only 36 runners, I lost a good few chips early on to mad Tom, and got them back a while later when I doubled up with KK then won a decent pot on a board of KK97 with 77 vs KQ. Thanks for checking the flop :)
I didn't really get going in this game and went out in 12th. I didn't play last weekend as I was in Hamburg getting very drunk on a mates stag party, and I won't be playing this weekend as I will be at home for my bimonthly visit. Assuming I don't go on Sunday evening either this will be 2 visits in 13 days, my most barren run for quite a while. No harm though with the World Cup and all. I haven't played online either really in the last 2-3 weeks. I will be moving apartment though in a few weeks so both online and offline will be more difficult for me so I may just go mad.
Bye now.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Couldn't think of a title
The bank holiday weekend proved too much for me to resist and I got back into playing cash games I must report. Sunday started off with me going to the rebuy tournie in the Fitz. This was the oddest tournament I have played in a while. I had to rebuy after the first hand when I had AA, went all in again on the 3rd hand and won a race vs AK. Overall I had AA twice, KK, QQ twice, JJ, AK twice and I was still knocked out at 11.10 when my QQ got beaten by AJ. Ah well.
Onto the Omaha cash games and it started off reasonably slowly, My first decent hand of the night was when I flopped the nut flush from the BB and took a chance and checked it. One player bets 25, 1 caller and I call also. Turn is inconsequential. SB bets 50, I go all in for ~150 and take it there without a caller.
The biggest pot of the night is as follows. I have taken this as pretty much a cut and paste from a thread I started on boards.ie but I have filled in the gap at the bottom.
I make it €4 on the blind UTG, 5 callers, I have no live option. My hand AsTsKdTh.
Flop 9TJr (25)
I check (~400), next player (~375) bets pot, 1 caller (~150), I call to see turn.
Turn 5s (100).
This card gives me nut spade draw as well as the inside straight draw to the nuts and trips. This is the situation I am thinking about here. I have a huge draw (20 outs). Potentially the flop bet caller has a set of jacks but I dont think so (his call of the pony didn't look to confident). Even if he does, I still have 12 outs to the nuts (straight and flush).
Should I lead the betting into this pot in this big draw situation knowing that the player to my left almost certainly has KQ? He is normally a Hold'em only player. He knows enough about Omaha to know not to lead the betting with crap, but he is not a regular or tricky player. If I lead here there is a good chance all the money goes in now. If I check/call and hit there is a good likelyhood that I will not get paid, against most players anyhow.
Anyhow, I check, other guy bets pot (100), third player folds and I call.River J (300)Board now: JsTd9h5sJd
I lead with the underfull for 200, and after a think get called somehow and scoop the pot. I won a couple of other decent pots as well as missing a couple of draws and getting outdrawn a couiplf of times, but I leave at the bright and early time of 6.45 with a healthy profit.
Monday night I was going to give a miss, but have a trademark last minute change of heart and decide to play the 100 freezeout. There was a disappointing turnout of only around 45, and I was on a tough table featuring Vivian, Paddy, Niall O'Callaghan and Cecil, with Kevin Farrelly getting moved there too before the break.
There were 2 big hands that I was involved in before the break. Hand 1 (75-150) I get JTd in the BB and call a raise from Paddy (SB) to 650, and 3 of us see a flop of JcQdKd, so I have a pair and an open ended straight flush draw. Monster!
Paddy goes all in and I call for less than his bet (I had about 1800) and Cecil folds (had JT spades he says). I hit a 9 on the turn for my straight and Paddy's AQ is no good when the river is a blank.
Two hands later (100-200) I am on the button. It is folded around to Stewart (Loose, aggressive, shortstacked) and he goes in for 1025. Folded to me and I instantly call with AQo. SB goes all in for 550 citing value and then BB (Niall) thinks and calls. I wasn't too comfortable with this situation now to be honest as I felt that the size of the initial all in was big enough for me not to risk a raise to keep out marginal hands from the only 2 players still to act. Now I wish I had raised.
Anyhow, flop comes out A94r. Perfect thinks I, especially when Niall checks to me. I bet 2k into the pot and Niall reluctantly goes all in for 2475 which I call. Cards turned over and Stewart had KJo, I had AQo and Niall had AJo. SB had some other cards I can't recall, but irrelevant. Lovely thinks I, until the J on the turn cripples me and leaves me with only 2k to play with. Ouch.
I was thinking that I should perhaps have raised to isolate, but if I ran into a monster I would at least have had the opportunity to get away from it preflop which a flat call would allow. Ah well.
Things do not improve and I go out 3 hands after the break when my 44 run into KK. Stick my name on the Omaha there Denise, cheers.
Anyhoo, onto the Omaha cash game and it was a very uneventful game for me. The high point: 180 in profit. The low point: 90 down. I left at roughly the midpoint with 50 profit in this game and a small loss for the night.
Next up for me will probably be the new 150 game in the Fitz on Thursday night. I am away in Hamburg for a stag this weekend so won't be playing (poker at least).
Bye for now.
Onto the Omaha cash games and it started off reasonably slowly, My first decent hand of the night was when I flopped the nut flush from the BB and took a chance and checked it. One player bets 25, 1 caller and I call also. Turn is inconsequential. SB bets 50, I go all in for ~150 and take it there without a caller.
The biggest pot of the night is as follows. I have taken this as pretty much a cut and paste from a thread I started on boards.ie but I have filled in the gap at the bottom.
I make it €4 on the blind UTG, 5 callers, I have no live option. My hand AsTsKdTh.
Flop 9TJr (25)
I check (~400), next player (~375) bets pot, 1 caller (~150), I call to see turn.
Turn 5s (100).
This card gives me nut spade draw as well as the inside straight draw to the nuts and trips. This is the situation I am thinking about here. I have a huge draw (20 outs). Potentially the flop bet caller has a set of jacks but I dont think so (his call of the pony didn't look to confident). Even if he does, I still have 12 outs to the nuts (straight and flush).
Should I lead the betting into this pot in this big draw situation knowing that the player to my left almost certainly has KQ? He is normally a Hold'em only player. He knows enough about Omaha to know not to lead the betting with crap, but he is not a regular or tricky player. If I lead here there is a good chance all the money goes in now. If I check/call and hit there is a good likelyhood that I will not get paid, against most players anyhow.
Anyhow, I check, other guy bets pot (100), third player folds and I call.River J (300)Board now: JsTd9h5sJd
I lead with the underfull for 200, and after a think get called somehow and scoop the pot. I won a couple of other decent pots as well as missing a couple of draws and getting outdrawn a couiplf of times, but I leave at the bright and early time of 6.45 with a healthy profit.
Monday night I was going to give a miss, but have a trademark last minute change of heart and decide to play the 100 freezeout. There was a disappointing turnout of only around 45, and I was on a tough table featuring Vivian, Paddy, Niall O'Callaghan and Cecil, with Kevin Farrelly getting moved there too before the break.
There were 2 big hands that I was involved in before the break. Hand 1 (75-150) I get JTd in the BB and call a raise from Paddy (SB) to 650, and 3 of us see a flop of JcQdKd, so I have a pair and an open ended straight flush draw. Monster!
Paddy goes all in and I call for less than his bet (I had about 1800) and Cecil folds (had JT spades he says). I hit a 9 on the turn for my straight and Paddy's AQ is no good when the river is a blank.
Two hands later (100-200) I am on the button. It is folded around to Stewart (Loose, aggressive, shortstacked) and he goes in for 1025. Folded to me and I instantly call with AQo. SB goes all in for 550 citing value and then BB (Niall) thinks and calls. I wasn't too comfortable with this situation now to be honest as I felt that the size of the initial all in was big enough for me not to risk a raise to keep out marginal hands from the only 2 players still to act. Now I wish I had raised.
Anyhow, flop comes out A94r. Perfect thinks I, especially when Niall checks to me. I bet 2k into the pot and Niall reluctantly goes all in for 2475 which I call. Cards turned over and Stewart had KJo, I had AQo and Niall had AJo. SB had some other cards I can't recall, but irrelevant. Lovely thinks I, until the J on the turn cripples me and leaves me with only 2k to play with. Ouch.
I was thinking that I should perhaps have raised to isolate, but if I ran into a monster I would at least have had the opportunity to get away from it preflop which a flat call would allow. Ah well.
Things do not improve and I go out 3 hands after the break when my 44 run into KK. Stick my name on the Omaha there Denise, cheers.
Anyhoo, onto the Omaha cash game and it was a very uneventful game for me. The high point: 180 in profit. The low point: 90 down. I left at roughly the midpoint with 50 profit in this game and a small loss for the night.
Next up for me will probably be the new 150 game in the Fitz on Thursday night. I am away in Hamburg for a stag this weekend so won't be playing (poker at least).
Bye for now.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Ignore, Ignore
Firstly thanks to those brave few that read and post encouraging comments. Yes I know I probably should take a complete break for a couple of weeks, take deep breaths etc but even when things are running poorly I still enjoy it all in a perverted sense.
Since I last posted here I have played 3 nights on the trot. Thursday in the SE saw me doing ok for the first while. The main decent pot I won I kinda plumbed a bit for. I limped from MP with 9Th. Flop comes 7TA, 2 diamonds and 1 heart, 5 players 50-100. SB bets 200, BB calls, I think and call leaving 900 behind. 1 more caller so pot on the turn is 1300. My thinking here is that if the turn comes 9,T,8 or a heart I am going to push, if not I will get away from the pot. Turn comes 6h. Checked to me and I push. CO calls instantly and SB calls (all in for less than me) too. Oh oh I think. I would have been happy to take the pot ther. CO shows A5 for 2 pair (no flop raise???) and SB has J5d for the other flush draw. River come a nice Qh so I take the flush.
Maybe it was just me though but I thought the standard seemed better than normal for a Thursday in the SE. Not great still, but better, so I was hopeful of a decent run. I got moved table and the cards duly obliged my optimism by drying up completely. I barely played a hand before the table broke about an hour later and after the break which I had around 5k at, so ok.
At my new table I think I raised the first 2 hands with not much and took the blinds. Then I got involved in another pot when I hit top 2 on the flop with KJs so won that with a flop bet. I lost a significant pot when I was trying to semi-steal from the button with KQo with 2 limpers. BB went all in for about 40% of my stack, and almost twice my raise. I called anyways and wasn't too disappointed to see ATo. I hit my Q on the flop but an A on the river did for me. Next time in the BB I checked to see a battle of the blind flops with Q6o (I should prob have raised here irrespective of my holding tbh). Flop comes 999 and it is checked which I am happy to agree to. Turn is a Q giving me the house. SB bets out for 600 (blinds 200-400). I call. River is J, and SB bets 1100. To be honest I don't know why but I went all in, he called instantly with his 9 surprisingly. I don't know why I went all in there really, as the likelhood was that I would be splitting it at best as he showed interest only when the Q came and still bet the river. He had to have either a Q or a 9, but then again this being Thursday in the SE who knows. Ah well.
Scalps on Friday started off brilliantly and got up to over 6k early with TT vs 88 all in preflop and QQ vs J9 on the J high flop. After this though every time I made a bet or raise (even a reraise once) I got played back at strongly. I always had some of it but never enough to justify playing with this action. I was at less than starting stack at the break and the topup brought me to around 5k so a bit if work to do. Things restarted slowly but got better with me dogging people twice in quick succession when I had to make a move once with KQ vs AK and once when I misread the situation but got lucky. A reraise from the BB of a SB bet (loose, bad player) with K2 on a board of KQ64r won me another pot to take me to 25k with blinds at 400/800 so I was in good shape. I missed a couple of flops after raises preflop and had to lay down to action and this shortstacked me soon. I lasted a while longer but exited in 15th. Better but not good enough.
Onto the round of each game on Saturday night. For a while this was my non serious favourite game, but then I got pissed off with the standard of play in the Omaha and stopped going. Recently I have started playing it again and it has paid off with this being my only recent successes with a 1st and a 3rd in recent weeks. Not great money but a start. Tonight there was a massive 36 runners, and I played it properly from start to finish as opposed to my usualy manic style before then break. There were the usual dodgy players among the decent ones.
I got off to a quiet start but by the break had over 6k including topup with only 1 rebuy so in for €50. After the break I was moved table immediately and got blinded down to 2500 (with 1 played and lost raised pot too). With the blinds at 300-600 and Omaha starting I got my chips in with a fairly crap hand but flopped a flush in a 3 way pot so I tripled up (and a bit for the BB). Next hand I had KK88 and flopped another flush in a 4 way pot to nearly quadruple up, so from 2500 to 30k in 2 hands!!! Omaha is great. Things kept going ok and I made it to the FT with 40k, 4 places paid. 900, 480, 270 and 130 were the prizes. Things were still going ok when I raised with KKJJds and got reraised by Austin for around 33k (his whole stack). I called and he hit a heart flush even though his AA were good anyhow. This put me back to 14k and there were 8 left.
A couple of blind steals and one double up put me back to over 30k. I yoyoed between this and about 18k for a while until I got doubled up again. I was playing good, pressure poker, and really enjoying the game. When 4 handed we were going to freeze the blinds at 2k-4k with myself, Dave Whelan, Austin and Paul Fox left in it, but Austin objected (I would love to know why really, it turned into a crap shoot then). Paul got taken out by Dave and my aggressive play, sometimes with cards, sometimes not, got me into a decent position again. After a while of tooing and froing the stacks were fairly even with me on 61k, Austin on 67k and Dave on 70k. The blinds at this stage were 400-8000 and a raise committed nearly half a stack so crap shoot city it was. Due to this a deal was agreed and we took over 500 each with a few shekels for the dealers.
This is a welcome boost to the coffers but doesn't change my recent stance on cash games. I would need a bigger win than that for it.
I must say though that I did enjoy that game, and thinking back, about 80% of the pots I won were at Omaha, mostly just bets taking it down uncontested. I enjoy the feeling that I know I am one of the better Omaha players that play the game, although with Dave Whelan, Oscar, Austin, Paul Fox and Mark (kinaldo from boards) on the FT it was never going to be a cakewalk. I am not saying that I am a great Omaha player as I know I have loads to learn about at game, as at NL holdem, but considering most of the other players in the game I am always confident about my play in it in this tournament.
Anyways, post over, and hopefully I can get back to better results in general. I will need to if I am to make a 5th consecutive league final appearance at the Fitz as I am currently in 12th and even the legend that is Bob Battersby is ahead of me in it.
Plans for the week ahead? Who knows. Probably play Sunday night and either Monday or Tuesday. Next weekend I will be on a different mission when I jet to Hamburg for a workmates stag. Considering the World Cup is starting that weekend and Argentina play Ivory Coast (with their reverse Irish flag) on the Saturday in Hamburg it should be a good weekend.
Auf Weidersehn (I didn't check spelling, so apologies if it is incorrect) for now.
Since I last posted here I have played 3 nights on the trot. Thursday in the SE saw me doing ok for the first while. The main decent pot I won I kinda plumbed a bit for. I limped from MP with 9Th. Flop comes 7TA, 2 diamonds and 1 heart, 5 players 50-100. SB bets 200, BB calls, I think and call leaving 900 behind. 1 more caller so pot on the turn is 1300. My thinking here is that if the turn comes 9,T,8 or a heart I am going to push, if not I will get away from the pot. Turn comes 6h. Checked to me and I push. CO calls instantly and SB calls (all in for less than me) too. Oh oh I think. I would have been happy to take the pot ther. CO shows A5 for 2 pair (no flop raise???) and SB has J5d for the other flush draw. River come a nice Qh so I take the flush.
Maybe it was just me though but I thought the standard seemed better than normal for a Thursday in the SE. Not great still, but better, so I was hopeful of a decent run. I got moved table and the cards duly obliged my optimism by drying up completely. I barely played a hand before the table broke about an hour later and after the break which I had around 5k at, so ok.
At my new table I think I raised the first 2 hands with not much and took the blinds. Then I got involved in another pot when I hit top 2 on the flop with KJs so won that with a flop bet. I lost a significant pot when I was trying to semi-steal from the button with KQo with 2 limpers. BB went all in for about 40% of my stack, and almost twice my raise. I called anyways and wasn't too disappointed to see ATo. I hit my Q on the flop but an A on the river did for me. Next time in the BB I checked to see a battle of the blind flops with Q6o (I should prob have raised here irrespective of my holding tbh). Flop comes 999 and it is checked which I am happy to agree to. Turn is a Q giving me the house. SB bets out for 600 (blinds 200-400). I call. River is J, and SB bets 1100. To be honest I don't know why but I went all in, he called instantly with his 9 surprisingly. I don't know why I went all in there really, as the likelhood was that I would be splitting it at best as he showed interest only when the Q came and still bet the river. He had to have either a Q or a 9, but then again this being Thursday in the SE who knows. Ah well.
Scalps on Friday started off brilliantly and got up to over 6k early with TT vs 88 all in preflop and QQ vs J9 on the J high flop. After this though every time I made a bet or raise (even a reraise once) I got played back at strongly. I always had some of it but never enough to justify playing with this action. I was at less than starting stack at the break and the topup brought me to around 5k so a bit if work to do. Things restarted slowly but got better with me dogging people twice in quick succession when I had to make a move once with KQ vs AK and once when I misread the situation but got lucky. A reraise from the BB of a SB bet (loose, bad player) with K2 on a board of KQ64r won me another pot to take me to 25k with blinds at 400/800 so I was in good shape. I missed a couple of flops after raises preflop and had to lay down to action and this shortstacked me soon. I lasted a while longer but exited in 15th. Better but not good enough.
Onto the round of each game on Saturday night. For a while this was my non serious favourite game, but then I got pissed off with the standard of play in the Omaha and stopped going. Recently I have started playing it again and it has paid off with this being my only recent successes with a 1st and a 3rd in recent weeks. Not great money but a start. Tonight there was a massive 36 runners, and I played it properly from start to finish as opposed to my usualy manic style before then break. There were the usual dodgy players among the decent ones.
I got off to a quiet start but by the break had over 6k including topup with only 1 rebuy so in for €50. After the break I was moved table immediately and got blinded down to 2500 (with 1 played and lost raised pot too). With the blinds at 300-600 and Omaha starting I got my chips in with a fairly crap hand but flopped a flush in a 3 way pot so I tripled up (and a bit for the BB). Next hand I had KK88 and flopped another flush in a 4 way pot to nearly quadruple up, so from 2500 to 30k in 2 hands!!! Omaha is great. Things kept going ok and I made it to the FT with 40k, 4 places paid. 900, 480, 270 and 130 were the prizes. Things were still going ok when I raised with KKJJds and got reraised by Austin for around 33k (his whole stack). I called and he hit a heart flush even though his AA were good anyhow. This put me back to 14k and there were 8 left.
A couple of blind steals and one double up put me back to over 30k. I yoyoed between this and about 18k for a while until I got doubled up again. I was playing good, pressure poker, and really enjoying the game. When 4 handed we were going to freeze the blinds at 2k-4k with myself, Dave Whelan, Austin and Paul Fox left in it, but Austin objected (I would love to know why really, it turned into a crap shoot then). Paul got taken out by Dave and my aggressive play, sometimes with cards, sometimes not, got me into a decent position again. After a while of tooing and froing the stacks were fairly even with me on 61k, Austin on 67k and Dave on 70k. The blinds at this stage were 400-8000 and a raise committed nearly half a stack so crap shoot city it was. Due to this a deal was agreed and we took over 500 each with a few shekels for the dealers.
This is a welcome boost to the coffers but doesn't change my recent stance on cash games. I would need a bigger win than that for it.
I must say though that I did enjoy that game, and thinking back, about 80% of the pots I won were at Omaha, mostly just bets taking it down uncontested. I enjoy the feeling that I know I am one of the better Omaha players that play the game, although with Dave Whelan, Oscar, Austin, Paul Fox and Mark (kinaldo from boards) on the FT it was never going to be a cakewalk. I am not saying that I am a great Omaha player as I know I have loads to learn about at game, as at NL holdem, but considering most of the other players in the game I am always confident about my play in it in this tournament.
Anyways, post over, and hopefully I can get back to better results in general. I will need to if I am to make a 5th consecutive league final appearance at the Fitz as I am currently in 12th and even the legend that is Bob Battersby is ahead of me in it.
Plans for the week ahead? Who knows. Probably play Sunday night and either Monday or Tuesday. Next weekend I will be on a different mission when I jet to Hamburg for a workmates stag. Considering the World Cup is starting that weekend and Argentina play Ivory Coast (with their reverse Irish flag) on the Saturday in Hamburg it should be a good weekend.
Auf Weidersehn (I didn't check spelling, so apologies if it is incorrect) for now.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
SELECT MAX(PAIN) FROM CARDS;
Double chance didn't even give me one chance. I played thia last night and there was a decent turnout or about 70 players. I got off to a good start winning the first hand but sadly that was to be my nadir. My steals preflop got reraised a couple of times, I had to lay down top pair (Q) K kicker in the face of bets from an aggressive but good player, and played a hand nearly right,but ultimately wrong. On a limped pot 4 seen a flop. I was on the button and it was checked to me on a board of J63 with 2 hearts. I bet 2/3 the pot (I have none of it) and got one quick caller. Flush draw thought I. This being my thinking I somehow managed to contrive to check the turn behind when the 4 of clubs arrived. River brought another non heart and I bet again more than half the pot when it was checked to me. Of course I was called by missed flush draw and 4th pair which was good (9h4h). I messed that hand by not betting the turn which I knew myself and was said to me as well just after the break by another player. It is the things like that that I hjave stopped doing properly lately. It would be churlish of me to just blame the cards for my bad run as even though I know I play well in fits and starts, there is no consistency to my game, and I am bottling out of making the right decisions because I must subconsciously think 'there is no way I will win no matter what I do'.
No wonder I have Eeyore as my avatar on boards. Apt on 2 fronts.
1. I am a donkey
2. I am pessimistic
Anyways, after the failure of that bluff I was never presented with an opportunity to get chips. I stole blinds a couple of times, but never had a had where I wanted a caller despite needing one. I did get a caller though when I opened all in with 62. I lost surprisingly. 5 levels of poker and not one pocket pair of any size. I had AKo once and AJs once. I also had KQs once but way out of position. These are the only decent hands I got. The main problem I have with the double chance game is that there are never really enough chips to make plays, especially when the game is populated by guys who like middle or bottom pair too much to let you win with a bluff. It is all very well saying 'wait til you get a big hand then you will take their chips'. This never even close to happening.
I may or may not play the scalps game on Friday. I definitely will not play in the CityWest this weekend as apart from being an extremely awkward location for a carless person such as I currently am, I cannot justify spending between 300-3000 on tournaments at the moment. Ah well. Hopefully if Forest Gump was on the right tracks I have eaten all the coffee creams by now and am coming into the turkish delights (my personal favourites - they are either love em or hate em) now.
No wonder I have Eeyore as my avatar on boards. Apt on 2 fronts.
1. I am a donkey
2. I am pessimistic
Anyways, after the failure of that bluff I was never presented with an opportunity to get chips. I stole blinds a couple of times, but never had a had where I wanted a caller despite needing one. I did get a caller though when I opened all in with 62. I lost surprisingly. 5 levels of poker and not one pocket pair of any size. I had AKo once and AJs once. I also had KQs once but way out of position. These are the only decent hands I got. The main problem I have with the double chance game is that there are never really enough chips to make plays, especially when the game is populated by guys who like middle or bottom pair too much to let you win with a bluff. It is all very well saying 'wait til you get a big hand then you will take their chips'. This never even close to happening.
I may or may not play the scalps game on Friday. I definitely will not play in the CityWest this weekend as apart from being an extremely awkward location for a carless person such as I currently am, I cannot justify spending between 300-3000 on tournaments at the moment. Ah well. Hopefully if Forest Gump was on the right tracks I have eaten all the coffee creams by now and am coming into the turkish delights (my personal favourites - they are either love em or hate em) now.
Monday, May 29, 2006
On and On and On and Ariston.........
Ho Hum. It is official. May is now the worst recorded month (records since August and at least a few before that) ever, and possibly beyond records.
It is rigid game selection for me for a while though, I think double chance Tuesday and Friday scalps it seems, with no cash games. I know runs come and runs go, but this one seems particularly depressing. I have still had a few (very few though by my standards) final tables and cashes but they are generally minor placings so no advance.
One good thing about this is that I have to get more creative with my cards but considering some of the players who play in the Fitz tournies though bluffing can be a very expensive way to get involved in a hand. Lately big pairs get no action, I rarely flop big, and my big draws miss.
I did not intend this blog to be a vehicle for moaning and I hope it does not pan out that way over the long term. Anyways, onto the weekends poker action.
On Friday evening I left work to go into the Gresham Hotel to play a satellite for the 500 game in there that evening. I registered for a 2 ticket 100+5 satellite and their was a fairly tough line up at the table considering. People I knew(or knew of) were, Collette (Smurph), Dave Masters, Phil Harris, Tom Nolan (split the Fitz end of month 2 days earlier), and the inimitable player known to me only as Chief Brody (not a name I assigned to him, yet apt) from the Sporting Emporium.
It started out very slowly for me but I stole a few pots and then eventually took out the player in 4th place with JT vs 99. With 3 of us left and 2 tickets I was very confident having about 13000, Dave Masters about 14000 and Collette only about 3000 left. At this stage I was sure between us we would be able to take Collette out but once she doubled up via Dave and started stealing blinds with a more damaging stack eventually I called her all in bet with a suited K (terrible play but I was in gamble mode). She had AJ and it held up. This put me down to about 6k and Collette up to around 12k then. Next hand I pushed from the SB into Collettes BB with J8 suited. She called with KQo. I hit my straight on the turn but Collette hit a 4 flush on the river to knock me out. The most annoying thing is that I was te only one of the 3 of us who did not have a ticket. I don't know how I managed to keep it that way. No Gresham game for me then.
The next day I went to the Fitz for satellites for their 500 game, and again I was going well in the first satellite I played but lost a race to exit in 3rd. If I had won that I would have been all but heads up against an inexperienced palyer holding a big chip lead for the ticket. I played another sat and after being early chip lead I ran 77 into AA and then lost a race the next hand to be sent to the rails. I was annoyed with myself. To compound all this I went home and played some 1/2 Pot Limit Omaha and managed to lose an $800 pot with AAQQds when I flopped top set and nut flush draw on a Q73 board only to lose to runner runner flush (he had top 2 and backdoor draw when he pushed after my pot bet on the flop). Ouch. To bed with me.
Sunday I played the €40 rebuy game. I had €55 credit left so paid the entry with this and had a whole tenner left over for a rebuy/topup. I had a limit set in my head of 125 but knew if needed I would go to 165. However, things worked out fairly well. I got AA twice during the first 2 levels, but didnt get paid too well with them, I flopped a set of 8's after calling an all in bet vs AQ. I was also mixing my play up well and making some timed reraises. At this point I was happy with my play and up to about 8k from a start of 2k. Then came a hand when I convinced myself to do the wrong thing - twice. I held Q9 in the BB and checked to a flop of QJ9. I bet 3/4 pot and got one caller who looked like he was going to reraise. This guy was someone I have seen occasionally and is not a sophisticated player at all. He is the type who thinks about raising by handling lots of chips without realising that this is saying he has a big hand. I still ignored my own head though and check called turn and river blanks. I declare 2 pair and he says flush. I kindly point out that there is no flush on the board and he goes oh sorry, straight and turns over 8T and points out how he thought he had flopped a straight flush on a board with 2 Hearts and 1 Diamond. As I said to him, "as long as you know you have something I suppose". I was pissed off with myself more than his misdeclaration at this though. This cost me a few thousand and I won 1 more pot before the break to take me to 5k and with the 4k topup I was in ok shape, especially since I did not rebuy and only had to contribute 30 for my topup.
After the break I won a decent pot with 88 leading preflop, flop and turn on a board of J627. Chips went in on turn with him having floped a flush draw with K7d and turn a pair. My 88 held up though, and up to 11.5k for a healthy stack with blinds at 75/150 only. Then a few minutes later I got moved table and despite seeing AK on my first hand on that table I could not get a hand. 68o, 79o and Q2o are the very frequent hands I seen on this table. I moved in a few times but never got a caller. Any hands I tried to get creative on always backfired with players making moves just before I could do anything. Cards are very frustrating at times and not helped when most hands involving a 60-90 second dwell up (or longer). None by me though as my decisions were all easy. Seeing others turn over KK, AA, QQ etc at least let me know that the good cards were in the pack somewhere!!!!!! I was feeling good about my game and there were a couple of bad players and one or 2 bluffers as well so there were chips available should the opportunity present itself but it never did. I must reintroduce myself to opportunity though as I have a feeling the bitch has deleted my number and got a restraining order.
Oh ya, eventually I got KQs suited in the BB and the SB who tried to raise but failed (how hard is it to double 2??? Why try to minraise a shortstack??? Cause he is a bad player) called my allin for 9k at 1k/2k with AK and I got no reprieve. Adios. 1.35am and 14th. At least I read Olly and Gavin split it, and not the muppets. Well played lads, good to see good players getting the dosh.
I think the DC game tomorrow in the Fitz will be my next game, but who knows. I am in the process of buying an apartment and spent 2k on the weekend on couches and a bed so I need to save and earn money even though I am financewise a bit more would not go astray. As stated though cash games are def out for a while. I may just play more MTT's online as they are cheaper and might keep me out of trouble.
Soon maybe............
It is rigid game selection for me for a while though, I think double chance Tuesday and Friday scalps it seems, with no cash games. I know runs come and runs go, but this one seems particularly depressing. I have still had a few (very few though by my standards) final tables and cashes but they are generally minor placings so no advance.
One good thing about this is that I have to get more creative with my cards but considering some of the players who play in the Fitz tournies though bluffing can be a very expensive way to get involved in a hand. Lately big pairs get no action, I rarely flop big, and my big draws miss.
I did not intend this blog to be a vehicle for moaning and I hope it does not pan out that way over the long term. Anyways, onto the weekends poker action.
On Friday evening I left work to go into the Gresham Hotel to play a satellite for the 500 game in there that evening. I registered for a 2 ticket 100+5 satellite and their was a fairly tough line up at the table considering. People I knew(or knew of) were, Collette (Smurph), Dave Masters, Phil Harris, Tom Nolan (split the Fitz end of month 2 days earlier), and the inimitable player known to me only as Chief Brody (not a name I assigned to him, yet apt) from the Sporting Emporium.
It started out very slowly for me but I stole a few pots and then eventually took out the player in 4th place with JT vs 99. With 3 of us left and 2 tickets I was very confident having about 13000, Dave Masters about 14000 and Collette only about 3000 left. At this stage I was sure between us we would be able to take Collette out but once she doubled up via Dave and started stealing blinds with a more damaging stack eventually I called her all in bet with a suited K (terrible play but I was in gamble mode). She had AJ and it held up. This put me down to about 6k and Collette up to around 12k then. Next hand I pushed from the SB into Collettes BB with J8 suited. She called with KQo. I hit my straight on the turn but Collette hit a 4 flush on the river to knock me out. The most annoying thing is that I was te only one of the 3 of us who did not have a ticket. I don't know how I managed to keep it that way. No Gresham game for me then.
The next day I went to the Fitz for satellites for their 500 game, and again I was going well in the first satellite I played but lost a race to exit in 3rd. If I had won that I would have been all but heads up against an inexperienced palyer holding a big chip lead for the ticket. I played another sat and after being early chip lead I ran 77 into AA and then lost a race the next hand to be sent to the rails. I was annoyed with myself. To compound all this I went home and played some 1/2 Pot Limit Omaha and managed to lose an $800 pot with AAQQds when I flopped top set and nut flush draw on a Q73 board only to lose to runner runner flush (he had top 2 and backdoor draw when he pushed after my pot bet on the flop). Ouch. To bed with me.
Sunday I played the €40 rebuy game. I had €55 credit left so paid the entry with this and had a whole tenner left over for a rebuy/topup. I had a limit set in my head of 125 but knew if needed I would go to 165. However, things worked out fairly well. I got AA twice during the first 2 levels, but didnt get paid too well with them, I flopped a set of 8's after calling an all in bet vs AQ. I was also mixing my play up well and making some timed reraises. At this point I was happy with my play and up to about 8k from a start of 2k. Then came a hand when I convinced myself to do the wrong thing - twice. I held Q9 in the BB and checked to a flop of QJ9. I bet 3/4 pot and got one caller who looked like he was going to reraise. This guy was someone I have seen occasionally and is not a sophisticated player at all. He is the type who thinks about raising by handling lots of chips without realising that this is saying he has a big hand. I still ignored my own head though and check called turn and river blanks. I declare 2 pair and he says flush. I kindly point out that there is no flush on the board and he goes oh sorry, straight and turns over 8T and points out how he thought he had flopped a straight flush on a board with 2 Hearts and 1 Diamond. As I said to him, "as long as you know you have something I suppose". I was pissed off with myself more than his misdeclaration at this though. This cost me a few thousand and I won 1 more pot before the break to take me to 5k and with the 4k topup I was in ok shape, especially since I did not rebuy and only had to contribute 30 for my topup.
After the break I won a decent pot with 88 leading preflop, flop and turn on a board of J627. Chips went in on turn with him having floped a flush draw with K7d and turn a pair. My 88 held up though, and up to 11.5k for a healthy stack with blinds at 75/150 only. Then a few minutes later I got moved table and despite seeing AK on my first hand on that table I could not get a hand. 68o, 79o and Q2o are the very frequent hands I seen on this table. I moved in a few times but never got a caller. Any hands I tried to get creative on always backfired with players making moves just before I could do anything. Cards are very frustrating at times and not helped when most hands involving a 60-90 second dwell up (or longer). None by me though as my decisions were all easy. Seeing others turn over KK, AA, QQ etc at least let me know that the good cards were in the pack somewhere!!!!!! I was feeling good about my game and there were a couple of bad players and one or 2 bluffers as well so there were chips available should the opportunity present itself but it never did. I must reintroduce myself to opportunity though as I have a feeling the bitch has deleted my number and got a restraining order.
Oh ya, eventually I got KQs suited in the BB and the SB who tried to raise but failed (how hard is it to double 2??? Why try to minraise a shortstack??? Cause he is a bad player) called my allin for 9k at 1k/2k with AK and I got no reprieve. Adios. 1.35am and 14th. At least I read Olly and Gavin split it, and not the muppets. Well played lads, good to see good players getting the dosh.
I think the DC game tomorrow in the Fitz will be my next game, but who knows. I am in the process of buying an apartment and spent 2k on the weekend on couches and a bed so I need to save and earn money even though I am financewise a bit more would not go astray. As stated though cash games are def out for a while. I may just play more MTT's online as they are cheaper and might keep me out of trouble.
Soon maybe............
Monday, May 22, 2006
Silly game this anyways.......
Well there it is. Poker. What a bitch. It is nearly 3 weeks since I updated this blog and I have been on a bit of a streak, and not a good one really. The only positive result was in the saturday round of each tourney 2 weeks ago when I got third, and even then I lost most of that in a cash game.
The issue is not just bad beats, or bad play or bad cards, but a frustrating combination of all 3.
Here are 2 examples that I played properly (open to comment) but that both worked out wrong, and both from the scalps tournie, but different weeks.
First example is JJ in the cutoff. Blinds are just gone up to 800-1500 and I have approx 15k. UTG, not too long at the table, only seen one or two strong all in hands not called, goes all in for approx 8k. This I was calling. Before it gets to me a player very newly arrived to the table who I was not familiar with say call instantly, and puts all his chips in (15k) but he declared call so only 8k stays in. What to do? The recent blind increase had just cut my stack to 10BB, but with a full round of the table that wasn't on it's own enough. I thought about it and figured that I was at best against overcards, at worst a big dog. I laid it down with a bit of disgust as I had flopped quad Jacks about 10 mins earlier so I was fond of them at that point. First all in had AJ, second had AQ, double paired, low board meant a split that I would have taken. Just to clarify my decision was all in or fold, never contemplating call with my stack and a flat caller of the raise. It was the instant decision of the guy who turned out to have AQo that really was the clincher here. There were about 18 players on 2 tables left at this point. I know it was the right decision really given the action but it still rankles that I made the right decision when no reads were available and I would have nearly trebled up taking the blinds into account. Ah well. I didn't last much longer.
The next weeks tournament and this is the situation. TT in 3rd position. Blinds are 50/100, near the end of the second level. I had just rebought when my overcards and flush draw missed so I had exactly 3k. Action folded to me and I make it 400 to go. Guy to my left, first time in the Fitz, but had played before it seemed (hadn't made many moves) went all in for 1575. BB think and calls and it is decision time for me. Here is my thinking at this point.
1. I could fold and be left with 2600 and the blinds coming up soon, but they are still low so no matter.
2. I could flat call and evaluate leaving about half my stack to play with.
3. I could push and get a sidepot going with BB flat caller who I felt had over cards.
I went with option 3 and got called after a short think. Imagine my surprise when I turned over my TT to find 99 to my left and 77 in the BB. Happy days!!!! Jason in seat 1 had thrown a 7 in too so 3 cards to avoid, only one of which will knock me out, the other will put lose me 100 in this pot. Flop is AK6, turn is another 6 and river is the case 7. Gutted. The outcome is not as important here for thought purposes as the decision. I felt I was behind one player but ahead of the other, albeit him with over cards. I think my decision to go all in here was the right one to get a sidepot or else get a 2-1 shot (if BB folded) at either overcards or overpair (not sure whether my read percentages make this worthwhile or not). I may actually post this one boards to get opinions........
Cash games are not going well for me either so I am scaling down my poker for a while. I will play the end of month game in the fitz on Wednesday and maybe the Sunday game too as I have 325 credit to use, but I will not be comitting much of my own lolly to it. And no cash games I repeat.
I cannot make up my mind one one important issue in Omaha. Is it better to call a bet with no improvers when you have the nuts on the flop/turn to see what the next card brings (which could minimise profits and also losses) or raise this spot (which could maximise both profits and also losses). Usually I go with the second approach but lately I have been getting raped with this approach. People calling either with draws that hit or calling/reraising with the same hand and improvers and hitting. I know the short answer to this question is 'it depends' and the long answer is probably just a longer version of 'it depends' but it frustrates the hell out of me.
I cannot remember the last time in either tournament or cash when the deck hit me in the face. I can't believe it is only a couple of months since I had 9 winning cash sessions in a row. It seems like years. At least I get to whinge about it anyways.
The issue is not just bad beats, or bad play or bad cards, but a frustrating combination of all 3.
Here are 2 examples that I played properly (open to comment) but that both worked out wrong, and both from the scalps tournie, but different weeks.
First example is JJ in the cutoff. Blinds are just gone up to 800-1500 and I have approx 15k. UTG, not too long at the table, only seen one or two strong all in hands not called, goes all in for approx 8k. This I was calling. Before it gets to me a player very newly arrived to the table who I was not familiar with say call instantly, and puts all his chips in (15k) but he declared call so only 8k stays in. What to do? The recent blind increase had just cut my stack to 10BB, but with a full round of the table that wasn't on it's own enough. I thought about it and figured that I was at best against overcards, at worst a big dog. I laid it down with a bit of disgust as I had flopped quad Jacks about 10 mins earlier so I was fond of them at that point. First all in had AJ, second had AQ, double paired, low board meant a split that I would have taken. Just to clarify my decision was all in or fold, never contemplating call with my stack and a flat caller of the raise. It was the instant decision of the guy who turned out to have AQo that really was the clincher here. There were about 18 players on 2 tables left at this point. I know it was the right decision really given the action but it still rankles that I made the right decision when no reads were available and I would have nearly trebled up taking the blinds into account. Ah well. I didn't last much longer.
The next weeks tournament and this is the situation. TT in 3rd position. Blinds are 50/100, near the end of the second level. I had just rebought when my overcards and flush draw missed so I had exactly 3k. Action folded to me and I make it 400 to go. Guy to my left, first time in the Fitz, but had played before it seemed (hadn't made many moves) went all in for 1575. BB think and calls and it is decision time for me. Here is my thinking at this point.
1. I could fold and be left with 2600 and the blinds coming up soon, but they are still low so no matter.
2. I could flat call and evaluate leaving about half my stack to play with.
3. I could push and get a sidepot going with BB flat caller who I felt had over cards.
I went with option 3 and got called after a short think. Imagine my surprise when I turned over my TT to find 99 to my left and 77 in the BB. Happy days!!!! Jason in seat 1 had thrown a 7 in too so 3 cards to avoid, only one of which will knock me out, the other will put lose me 100 in this pot. Flop is AK6, turn is another 6 and river is the case 7. Gutted. The outcome is not as important here for thought purposes as the decision. I felt I was behind one player but ahead of the other, albeit him with over cards. I think my decision to go all in here was the right one to get a sidepot or else get a 2-1 shot (if BB folded) at either overcards or overpair (not sure whether my read percentages make this worthwhile or not). I may actually post this one boards to get opinions........
Cash games are not going well for me either so I am scaling down my poker for a while. I will play the end of month game in the fitz on Wednesday and maybe the Sunday game too as I have 325 credit to use, but I will not be comitting much of my own lolly to it. And no cash games I repeat.
I cannot make up my mind one one important issue in Omaha. Is it better to call a bet with no improvers when you have the nuts on the flop/turn to see what the next card brings (which could minimise profits and also losses) or raise this spot (which could maximise both profits and also losses). Usually I go with the second approach but lately I have been getting raped with this approach. People calling either with draws that hit or calling/reraising with the same hand and improvers and hitting. I know the short answer to this question is 'it depends' and the long answer is probably just a longer version of 'it depends' but it frustrates the hell out of me.
I cannot remember the last time in either tournament or cash when the deck hit me in the face. I can't believe it is only a couple of months since I had 9 winning cash sessions in a row. It seems like years. At least I get to whinge about it anyways.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Treading Water
I have played a few times in the last week. Not an awful lot to say about it, I won as much as I lost pretty much. I got myself into and then out of a big hole last Friday night, and over the weekend I was in the Fitz until closing on 2 nights.
The main thing that annoyed me about the weekend is the one occasion when I misread the board and was convinced when I had the nut flush and confidently put my money into the pot, when infact I only had the second nuts. I realised this as soon as I took my hand off the money, which was obviously too late at that point. I felt like banging my head off a wall. Instead I reloaded and things improved.
I also played a 'home' game on Sunday night with a few lads that I know from the Fitz and I couldn't get going, even when the switch was made to Omaha (briefly anyways) of which I was 1 of only 3 people there I think who are comfortable at playing Omaha for cash. One of the draws that I missed in particular was particularly mystifying (up to 23 outs twice I counted).
Ah well. I also played the league final in the Fitz and as per usual an accommodating deal was done and a few of us took 250 each in time for people to play the Monday night tournament which I missed due to the Boards World Cup Sweepstake Tournament which I bombed in too.
I need my poker mojo back.
The main thing that annoyed me about the weekend is the one occasion when I misread the board and was convinced when I had the nut flush and confidently put my money into the pot, when infact I only had the second nuts. I realised this as soon as I took my hand off the money, which was obviously too late at that point. I felt like banging my head off a wall. Instead I reloaded and things improved.
I also played a 'home' game on Sunday night with a few lads that I know from the Fitz and I couldn't get going, even when the switch was made to Omaha (briefly anyways) of which I was 1 of only 3 people there I think who are comfortable at playing Omaha for cash. One of the draws that I missed in particular was particularly mystifying (up to 23 outs twice I counted).
Ah well. I also played the league final in the Fitz and as per usual an accommodating deal was done and a few of us took 250 each in time for people to play the Monday night tournament which I missed due to the Boards World Cup Sweepstake Tournament which I bombed in too.
I need my poker mojo back.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Chip and a Chair
I went to the Fitz 100+10 game last night and there was as big a crowd at this as I can remember. 8 full tables, due in part to the fact that the PokerEvents thing in the Red Cow was not on last night for some reason.
Before the break I didn't see a single pair, and no A better than ATo. It was hard to pick up any chips with those but the few pots I did play and bluffed at when it was checked around to me on the flop I won. The advantage of being a rock I guess. At the break not much had happened and I had 5100 from a starting stack of 4k, not great, but just about playable.
After the break things improved a bit, I won a couple of pots preflop, took out a very shortstacked player from my BB and then this happened.
Dealt TT in the SB. Folded around to the cutoff who called (BB 600). Button, very LAG made it 2200. I pushed instantly from the SB (6800 total) as I knew I was ahead of a large percentage of his range. I would have been happy to pick up the pot there but was also happy to take my chances with TT against most of his likely holdings which I figured as any pair, any suited A, any 2 face broadways.
BB folds and cutoff thinks for a while. At this point the button says to the cutoff 'It'd be great if you called cause then I wouldn't have to'. Whether he viewed this as an enticement to call or whatever, the cutoff folded. Button then moans, groans, says he wished he didn't raise so much, and then calls under apparant discomfort (he had 100 less than me so I have change). He flips over 33 and happy days I am 80-20 to more than double up to 14700. Flop comes A high, no danger to me. Turn is the dreaded 3 and river no help to me. Chip and a chair time.
I go all in next hand on the blind from the button for my last 100 and triple up to 300 when my blind TT (ironically) wins the centre pot. I was a couple of hands before throwing in my 300 with A8s which wins vs QQ when A comes on the flop to quadruple me up to 1200. A couple of hands later I throw my money (2 BB's now!!!) with Q9o and against the 2 blinds the flop reads QTJ (2 spades). SB goes all in and BB calls. SB shows A7o and BB shows 93o ?????? Mad. Turn is J, river 9, I triple up to 3600 and SB knocked out on the river by BB. Game on. Or not. Cards turn to jelly then, blinds go up, I eventually went all in blind from BB with 800 of my 2400 in the pot and lost with 52s vs TT. They joined to the last 2 tables when I left.
Perhaps I should have been more aggressive when I had tripled up to 3600 and tried to pick up a couple more blinds on the steal. If I had been called though I would have been big underdog, and there were raises most hands into me so unopened pots were rare. Ah well. If, but, maybe. None of them any good to me. I was reasonably happy with the way I played but hopefully my luck and the cards are waiting for the end of month game on Thursday to come good.
I Michael McDowell follows through and is successful in his threats to get all casino type establishments closed down I will not be a happy bunny. To me it will be like getting sacked from my job with no hope of finding another one in this country. It will be like the dark days of emigration when people were forced to look overseas for a job. Except I wouldn't emigrate. i'd just complain, work my 'day job' and play more online.
Before the break I didn't see a single pair, and no A better than ATo. It was hard to pick up any chips with those but the few pots I did play and bluffed at when it was checked around to me on the flop I won. The advantage of being a rock I guess. At the break not much had happened and I had 5100 from a starting stack of 4k, not great, but just about playable.
After the break things improved a bit, I won a couple of pots preflop, took out a very shortstacked player from my BB and then this happened.
Dealt TT in the SB. Folded around to the cutoff who called (BB 600). Button, very LAG made it 2200. I pushed instantly from the SB (6800 total) as I knew I was ahead of a large percentage of his range. I would have been happy to pick up the pot there but was also happy to take my chances with TT against most of his likely holdings which I figured as any pair, any suited A, any 2 face broadways.
BB folds and cutoff thinks for a while. At this point the button says to the cutoff 'It'd be great if you called cause then I wouldn't have to'. Whether he viewed this as an enticement to call or whatever, the cutoff folded. Button then moans, groans, says he wished he didn't raise so much, and then calls under apparant discomfort (he had 100 less than me so I have change). He flips over 33 and happy days I am 80-20 to more than double up to 14700. Flop comes A high, no danger to me. Turn is the dreaded 3 and river no help to me. Chip and a chair time.
I go all in next hand on the blind from the button for my last 100 and triple up to 300 when my blind TT (ironically) wins the centre pot. I was a couple of hands before throwing in my 300 with A8s which wins vs QQ when A comes on the flop to quadruple me up to 1200. A couple of hands later I throw my money (2 BB's now!!!) with Q9o and against the 2 blinds the flop reads QTJ (2 spades). SB goes all in and BB calls. SB shows A7o and BB shows 93o ?????? Mad. Turn is J, river 9, I triple up to 3600 and SB knocked out on the river by BB. Game on. Or not. Cards turn to jelly then, blinds go up, I eventually went all in blind from BB with 800 of my 2400 in the pot and lost with 52s vs TT. They joined to the last 2 tables when I left.
Perhaps I should have been more aggressive when I had tripled up to 3600 and tried to pick up a couple more blinds on the steal. If I had been called though I would have been big underdog, and there were raises most hands into me so unopened pots were rare. Ah well. If, but, maybe. None of them any good to me. I was reasonably happy with the way I played but hopefully my luck and the cards are waiting for the end of month game on Thursday to come good.
I Michael McDowell follows through and is successful in his threats to get all casino type establishments closed down I will not be a happy bunny. To me it will be like getting sacked from my job with no hope of finding another one in this country. It will be like the dark days of emigration when people were forced to look overseas for a job. Except I wouldn't emigrate. i'd just complain, work my 'day job' and play more online.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Small break from the fray
One days poker in 7 is about as much of a break as I take these days, but last night I went down to the Fitz to play the stress free €20 rebuy tournament but I never got to play in it. Instead when i went in i decided to play a €110 freezeout satellite for a €550 satellite for the €5k game. There were 10 players and 2 tickets, and it was going ok for the first hour, I had won a good few small pots but no big ones. The end came for me when I had AK and the board came AJ8 only for me to run into a caller with JJ. Ah well. Played cash game and finished the night dead level after some to-ing and fro-ing up and down, so at least got my tournie entry back.
The how of the above is not really important though now. A couple of items I would like to mention are related to my tournament play. There are certain situations I have problems playing, and I will try to explain those here.
Firstly, the situation where I flop 2 pair with a holding such as AT on a 99T board. Invariably when this happens I cannot stop myself putting out a bet. When I get a caller there are three things that go through my head:
1. Does he have a 9?
2. Does he have similiar to me?
3. Is he calling intending to pick off the pot on the turn despite his own holding?
A lot of the way I treat this delends on what type of player I am playing against. Some players just will not do option 3. A lot of other players will not just flat call with a 9, they will raise outright. I seem to misplay this hand a lot by betting the flop, even out of position and then passively checking on the flop, and allowing it to be taken from me. I think the problem here is that it is rare that i am playing in a deep stacked tournament often enough that will allow me to bet the flop, and bet the turn again unsure where I am still. This is a hand that is much better played in position, as to be honest, most hands are, but when you are not sure whether you are ahead or not, the last thing you want is to build a pot that you are never convinced you will stand a raise on.
This should be basic stuff to most people, but I am struggling to come up with a reliable line on this type of holding OOP as a lot of the time a follow up bet will commit you to the pot in most of the regular tournaments I play in. this is another aspect of my game that I have to work on in tournament play. The first step as they say in AA (apparantly) is admitting you have a problem.
It is amazing that the more you play this game the more you realise that you don't know about it. 12 months ago I would have had a higher opinion of my game than I do now, but that is not saying I was better then, I wasn't - I just didn't know how much I didn't know. Sounds a bit Donald Rumsfeld, but you get the message. I think I am a decent tournament player. I know the ABC, and maybe this is what I revert to too often to be truly an effective player. When I feel myself playing well it is when I am mixing it up, playing a lot of hands aggressively and winning most of them. This is not a strategy that I employ often enough, and at times I will not feel able to do this at a table, whether it is due to the other players and who they are, or whether it is because it is I do not have enough chips to effectively do this. I do this more often at the multi rebuy lower stakes tournaments. This is probably due to a few things:
1. The generally lower standard of player (not a universal though by any means)
2. The safety net of multi rebuys.
3. Being less gutted if I crash out due to less potential winnings.
The above is not meant to imply that I play 'scared' at few rebuy or bigger buy in events/freezeouts, as that would not be true. I have not played a lot of big tournaments, none with a buy in of more than €500 (excepting reg fee) and about 18 between €250-€500 entry, but only cashing in 4 of these with no "big" finish - yet. I play tighter in these events generally but I still pick my spots when I can, especially in position. I think more and more of my 'play dilemmas' will involve playing hands out of position. It is hard to find a generic position on these type of hands though, as each one depends on all the usual factors.
This was just a series of general ramblings and there are one or two other things that I meant to write about but between trying to write this and trying to work, and trying to stay awake I cannot remember what they were. Early night for me tonight, and will probably play the Fitz Double chance tomorrow night.
One other thing I will probably be doing this week is having a session with a mate of mine online, analysing each others online play and seeing where we disagree and each can improve. The day I think I have it all learnt will either be the day I quit, or the day i win the WSOP main event, and I think everyone reading this knows which one is a tad more likely.
Happy flopping to ye all (I am being optimistic with the plural I know, but hey...)
The how of the above is not really important though now. A couple of items I would like to mention are related to my tournament play. There are certain situations I have problems playing, and I will try to explain those here.
Firstly, the situation where I flop 2 pair with a holding such as AT on a 99T board. Invariably when this happens I cannot stop myself putting out a bet. When I get a caller there are three things that go through my head:
1. Does he have a 9?
2. Does he have similiar to me?
3. Is he calling intending to pick off the pot on the turn despite his own holding?
A lot of the way I treat this delends on what type of player I am playing against. Some players just will not do option 3. A lot of other players will not just flat call with a 9, they will raise outright. I seem to misplay this hand a lot by betting the flop, even out of position and then passively checking on the flop, and allowing it to be taken from me. I think the problem here is that it is rare that i am playing in a deep stacked tournament often enough that will allow me to bet the flop, and bet the turn again unsure where I am still. This is a hand that is much better played in position, as to be honest, most hands are, but when you are not sure whether you are ahead or not, the last thing you want is to build a pot that you are never convinced you will stand a raise on.
This should be basic stuff to most people, but I am struggling to come up with a reliable line on this type of holding OOP as a lot of the time a follow up bet will commit you to the pot in most of the regular tournaments I play in. this is another aspect of my game that I have to work on in tournament play. The first step as they say in AA (apparantly) is admitting you have a problem.
It is amazing that the more you play this game the more you realise that you don't know about it. 12 months ago I would have had a higher opinion of my game than I do now, but that is not saying I was better then, I wasn't - I just didn't know how much I didn't know. Sounds a bit Donald Rumsfeld, but you get the message. I think I am a decent tournament player. I know the ABC, and maybe this is what I revert to too often to be truly an effective player. When I feel myself playing well it is when I am mixing it up, playing a lot of hands aggressively and winning most of them. This is not a strategy that I employ often enough, and at times I will not feel able to do this at a table, whether it is due to the other players and who they are, or whether it is because it is I do not have enough chips to effectively do this. I do this more often at the multi rebuy lower stakes tournaments. This is probably due to a few things:
1. The generally lower standard of player (not a universal though by any means)
2. The safety net of multi rebuys.
3. Being less gutted if I crash out due to less potential winnings.
The above is not meant to imply that I play 'scared' at few rebuy or bigger buy in events/freezeouts, as that would not be true. I have not played a lot of big tournaments, none with a buy in of more than €500 (excepting reg fee) and about 18 between €250-€500 entry, but only cashing in 4 of these with no "big" finish - yet. I play tighter in these events generally but I still pick my spots when I can, especially in position. I think more and more of my 'play dilemmas' will involve playing hands out of position. It is hard to find a generic position on these type of hands though, as each one depends on all the usual factors.
This was just a series of general ramblings and there are one or two other things that I meant to write about but between trying to write this and trying to work, and trying to stay awake I cannot remember what they were. Early night for me tonight, and will probably play the Fitz Double chance tomorrow night.
One other thing I will probably be doing this week is having a session with a mate of mine online, analysing each others online play and seeing where we disagree and each can improve. The day I think I have it all learnt will either be the day I quit, or the day i win the WSOP main event, and I think everyone reading this knows which one is a tad more likely.
Happy flopping to ye all (I am being optimistic with the plural I know, but hey...)
Friday, April 21, 2006
Another visit to the SE
Went to the SE 75+5 on Wednesday night. There were only 28 runners and there were only about 10 people I knew there, but none that I knew very well.
Started off brilliantly with AA in the first hand and Declan Fagan who was sitting to my left obliged with a raise which I flat call and and he bet/bluffed the flop only for me to raise and him to fold instantly. It was kinda going average by the break. I lost my first set of chips when my top pair got rivered by a flush, and then I doubled up with JJ vs TT which I nearly threw away when reraised all in preflop by a very aggressive player, but I had 400 out of my last 2k in there so if I was behind then so be it, I'd go home. The break came and I had 3400.
After the break I was moved table and Gholimoli from boards was scooping pots at a mad rate and knocked 3 players out in about 8 hands, once with a great read and call, and the other times with good cards too.
The standard in general at this table though was woeful. I can barely beleive some of the play, such as when I was called on a board of 2,3,5,6,3 when I turn bet it. 2 callers. I checked the river as I was sure there was a 5 in one of their hands and I was OOP. The winner? A2o. Another hand I was called by bottom pair again, and I won that time. Another hand I bet the J84r flop, a decent bet, was called and I checked it down when trun/river came Q/J with my 89 holding and my opponent had called the flop bet with Q9o and then checked the turn and river. Amazing play really. Anyways, I made the final table fairly shortstacked and then on the FT things turned around a bit. First with KJs I moved allin and was called by Gholi with 88. I hit a straight on the river to win that, and I think next hand I knocked him out with A6 vs 55 (he was fairly shortstacked, and I was BB and called). There was some shocking play at the FT too but I couldn't really take advantage of it and finished in 3rd for €310. Not too bad, but not what I was really hoping for either. Ah well. I have 3 Ft appearances from 5 visits to the SE. I may start going more regularly than I have been on Weds/Thurs esp when the midweek football starts.
This weekend I will be on a poker break since I will be at home, and won't play til either Sunday or Monday night. The Fitz end of month is on next week too so hopefully I will get a good run in that again soon as it has been a while since I got a touch there. I might even defend my 'Blind Omaha' champion status beforehand.
Started off brilliantly with AA in the first hand and Declan Fagan who was sitting to my left obliged with a raise which I flat call and and he bet/bluffed the flop only for me to raise and him to fold instantly. It was kinda going average by the break. I lost my first set of chips when my top pair got rivered by a flush, and then I doubled up with JJ vs TT which I nearly threw away when reraised all in preflop by a very aggressive player, but I had 400 out of my last 2k in there so if I was behind then so be it, I'd go home. The break came and I had 3400.
After the break I was moved table and Gholimoli from boards was scooping pots at a mad rate and knocked 3 players out in about 8 hands, once with a great read and call, and the other times with good cards too.
The standard in general at this table though was woeful. I can barely beleive some of the play, such as when I was called on a board of 2,3,5,6,3 when I turn bet it. 2 callers. I checked the river as I was sure there was a 5 in one of their hands and I was OOP. The winner? A2o. Another hand I was called by bottom pair again, and I won that time. Another hand I bet the J84r flop, a decent bet, was called and I checked it down when trun/river came Q/J with my 89 holding and my opponent had called the flop bet with Q9o and then checked the turn and river. Amazing play really. Anyways, I made the final table fairly shortstacked and then on the FT things turned around a bit. First with KJs I moved allin and was called by Gholi with 88. I hit a straight on the river to win that, and I think next hand I knocked him out with A6 vs 55 (he was fairly shortstacked, and I was BB and called). There was some shocking play at the FT too but I couldn't really take advantage of it and finished in 3rd for €310. Not too bad, but not what I was really hoping for either. Ah well. I have 3 Ft appearances from 5 visits to the SE. I may start going more regularly than I have been on Weds/Thurs esp when the midweek football starts.
This weekend I will be on a poker break since I will be at home, and won't play til either Sunday or Monday night. The Fitz end of month is on next week too so hopefully I will get a good run in that again soon as it has been a while since I got a touch there. I might even defend my 'Blind Omaha' champion status beforehand.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
More stuff
Short post coming up here. Went down Sunday, played ok in the 20 rebuy game, no good though. Played cash, no good though. Same nuts changed when his improvers came into play in a 650 pot so I went home.
On Monday night I played the second World Cup of Poker qualifier on Stars. There were only 19 people in it so win 4 heads up matches and I was on the team. Mad, and for only 50 FPP too!!!!
Unfortunately I only won one match and in short order lost my second one after believing that my opponent would call bets on every streeet including preflop without having hit something decent which I knew he didn't. Instead he called me with bottom pair terrible kicker which beat my bluff. Ah well, pity it wasn't 2/3.
I watched the Irish Open final last night and was amazed by the standard of most of the players. Just goes to show how much luck plays a part. Jon Wong was the guy I wanted to win it cause he seemed to have a good feel for what was going on, just couldn't pick up a premium hand, and any time he had a decent one someone else had a better one and he made the right laydowns.
A few days off from live poker now, may play a bit online. I am in a weekly final to a monthly qualifier for the WSOP next weekend on Sportingbet, so by Sunday evening I may have qualified for $6. Just a bit unlikely though but I can dream.
On Monday night I played the second World Cup of Poker qualifier on Stars. There were only 19 people in it so win 4 heads up matches and I was on the team. Mad, and for only 50 FPP too!!!!
Unfortunately I only won one match and in short order lost my second one after believing that my opponent would call bets on every streeet including preflop without having hit something decent which I knew he didn't. Instead he called me with bottom pair terrible kicker which beat my bluff. Ah well, pity it wasn't 2/3.
I watched the Irish Open final last night and was amazed by the standard of most of the players. Just goes to show how much luck plays a part. Jon Wong was the guy I wanted to win it cause he seemed to have a good feel for what was going on, just couldn't pick up a premium hand, and any time he had a decent one someone else had a better one and he made the right laydowns.
A few days off from live poker now, may play a bit online. I am in a weekly final to a monthly qualifier for the WSOP next weekend on Sportingbet, so by Sunday evening I may have qualified for $6. Just a bit unlikely though but I can dream.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
About time, and oh so close........
Last night I decided to forego the usual Saturday night drinks and play the round of each tournament instead. This is a tournament that I swore not to play again, but of course this only lasted about 2 months. There ere about 35 runners and before the break I was calling blind, raising blind and so on, and usually found monsters when I looked at my cards!!!
By the break, despite my best efforts I had no rebuys and about 7.5k including topup. After the break I played properly but couldn't increase my stack, it was win one, lose one. Then I decided to move allin on my BB if there were no raises, and I duly did and showed 35s when all folded. I think this helped me get callers on my next 2 monster Omaha hands so plan worked and I moved upt oone of the CL's. When the FT started I was the CL but not that much in it. Vernon got busy early on and knocked out 3 players to get a big chip lead, but then he pissed it all away to me thankfully when he called with second pair in a holdem hand to my weak top pair, and when he called my all in with a lower straight in Omaha when I had the nuts. I had the chance to knock out the 2 remaining other players in one fell swoop but I passed the winning hand when really I should have played as I had so many chips. When it got down to 2 I was bout 3-1 chiplead but when Alex suggested that we make it 700-500 instead of 800-400 I agreed and took the main chunk. Not a great prize but it'll do me.
Played the Omaha cash game then and a fairly uneventful night ended up with mr 50 down by closing time. There was a fair bit of needle in the game though which I wasn't too comfortable with as everyone knew each other, but there was no lasting damage, and due to the amount of swings created by dirty river cards I can understand it too.
The one controversial moment of the night came as follows:
Flop came Jc3c8h. All check.
Turn Tc. First Position allin for 35. Next to act and a few others folded.
River 9c. Snowy turns over KcQcxx fot he straight flush to the K. The allin drunk stranger turned over a straight. He had gone allin on a flush board with a straight!!! The bad thing here is that this made Neil fold his 7c8cxx which would have made a low striaght flush on the river. Snowy is adamant that he would have checked the turn for the bad beat with the pot small. The guy who had the straight tried to tell us that there were only 2 clubs when he bet, and when old there were 3 says 'ah sure, I didn't see them'. Muppet cost me and 6 others about 625 each, Snowy about 4250 and Neil abut 8500. Painful. Ah well, not much to be done for it. That is the nearest I have ever come to being on a bad beat table.
At least I still made about 600 profit last night, cancelled out Friday night.......
By the break, despite my best efforts I had no rebuys and about 7.5k including topup. After the break I played properly but couldn't increase my stack, it was win one, lose one. Then I decided to move allin on my BB if there were no raises, and I duly did and showed 35s when all folded. I think this helped me get callers on my next 2 monster Omaha hands so plan worked and I moved upt oone of the CL's. When the FT started I was the CL but not that much in it. Vernon got busy early on and knocked out 3 players to get a big chip lead, but then he pissed it all away to me thankfully when he called with second pair in a holdem hand to my weak top pair, and when he called my all in with a lower straight in Omaha when I had the nuts. I had the chance to knock out the 2 remaining other players in one fell swoop but I passed the winning hand when really I should have played as I had so many chips. When it got down to 2 I was bout 3-1 chiplead but when Alex suggested that we make it 700-500 instead of 800-400 I agreed and took the main chunk. Not a great prize but it'll do me.
Played the Omaha cash game then and a fairly uneventful night ended up with mr 50 down by closing time. There was a fair bit of needle in the game though which I wasn't too comfortable with as everyone knew each other, but there was no lasting damage, and due to the amount of swings created by dirty river cards I can understand it too.
The one controversial moment of the night came as follows:
Flop came Jc3c8h. All check.
Turn Tc. First Position allin for 35. Next to act and a few others folded.
River 9c. Snowy turns over KcQcxx fot he straight flush to the K. The allin drunk stranger turned over a straight. He had gone allin on a flush board with a straight!!! The bad thing here is that this made Neil fold his 7c8cxx which would have made a low striaght flush on the river. Snowy is adamant that he would have checked the turn for the bad beat with the pot small. The guy who had the straight tried to tell us that there were only 2 clubs when he bet, and when old there were 3 says 'ah sure, I didn't see them'. Muppet cost me and 6 others about 625 each, Snowy about 4250 and Neil abut 8500. Painful. Ah well, not much to be done for it. That is the nearest I have ever come to being on a bad beat table.
At least I still made about 600 profit last night, cancelled out Friday night.......
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Good Friday? Says who?
Not a great or even average Friday for me I am afraid. Played in the scalps tournament last night, with around 100 other brave souls. Before the break I was not involved in a lot of hands but won the last 2 to leave me with nearly 7k including topup after the break. Then instead of not being involved in many I got one of my legendary (with myself anyways) dry runs of cards, as opposed to Vinny 'Longlad' who came to the table and proceeded to go from 7900 to 35k in 3 hands in a row with QQ, KK and AK from the seat just to my right. Somehow I managed to make it to around 16th place, but didn't get the bit of luck I needed.
Cash game was bad too. Last hand of the night sums it up really. 25 in the pot on the flop. Flop comes AdJd2c. I have KJJ3. First to act bets 25, MP raises it to 100 immediately. The reason I knew I was ahead here is that MP would have reraised EP with any drawing hand or any 2 pair at all as they had clashed a few times and there was an element of 'I know you are at it' about the reraise. I had 125 left and went all in. Both players call so about 400 in the pot. Turn coms an A and I was sure that was me gone, and it was. MP turned over A2 with no other draws for top and bottom on the flop, and was fairly apologetic saying that he knew he was ahead of other guy etc etc. There you go. Bad night financially then. 110 + 500 in tournie and cash. Ah well, didnt make the magic 10 in a row cash game profit, but I can try and make it one in a row tonight.
I was going to go to the pub but I had decided that this weekend was for poker so I better stick to it. I might even play in the round of each game despite me swearing never to play it again the last time I was down. Too many people who don't know how to play Omaha frustrate me, and people never go away from a hand. Great if you hit the nuts though.........
Cash game was bad too. Last hand of the night sums it up really. 25 in the pot on the flop. Flop comes AdJd2c. I have KJJ3. First to act bets 25, MP raises it to 100 immediately. The reason I knew I was ahead here is that MP would have reraised EP with any drawing hand or any 2 pair at all as they had clashed a few times and there was an element of 'I know you are at it' about the reraise. I had 125 left and went all in. Both players call so about 400 in the pot. Turn coms an A and I was sure that was me gone, and it was. MP turned over A2 with no other draws for top and bottom on the flop, and was fairly apologetic saying that he knew he was ahead of other guy etc etc. There you go. Bad night financially then. 110 + 500 in tournie and cash. Ah well, didnt make the magic 10 in a row cash game profit, but I can try and make it one in a row tonight.
I was going to go to the pub but I had decided that this weekend was for poker so I better stick to it. I might even play in the round of each game despite me swearing never to play it again the last time I was down. Too many people who don't know how to play Omaha frustrate me, and people never go away from a hand. Great if you hit the nuts though.........
Friday, April 14, 2006
Holy Thursday Batman!!
Went down to the Fitz last night for the €75 rebuy satellite for the sdpt (doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it?) There were only about 20 runners for a total of €2500. I was first out on the final table when my AQ hit a Q high flop and ran into KK. Ah well.
On to the caah games then and sat into a Hold'em game with €100 while waiting for the Omaha and folded every hand from CO until I was UTG when I saw AA. Made it the max of€7 and had only the 4 callers. Flop comes 664, I bet the pot (€35), got raised by LP and this being the Fitz almost expected to see a holding of 64 when I called, but he never showed and I won. Omaha was then called and I sat down to that with my €210 or so, got that up to about 400 in the first hand when I won a side pot and split the centre on a board of JT784r when I held KQ92. Happy days and good start.
I managed to win another big pot soon, with the money in on a flop of 884 when I held A983 (from BB despite a small raise). Turn was T, river 3 to fill my boat. Opponent never showed and left the table then. That had me up to around 750 and this turned out to be the high point of my night as the cards dried up dramatically for a very lean spell. I ended up leaving at 4.30 with €405 for a total profit for the night of €155 (€150 for buyin and topup in tournie and €100 in cash game).
Scalps now tonight, and more than likely more Omaha after that. I am now on a record 9 winning cash sessions in a row. Long may it continue........
On to the caah games then and sat into a Hold'em game with €100 while waiting for the Omaha and folded every hand from CO until I was UTG when I saw AA. Made it the max of€7 and had only the 4 callers. Flop comes 664, I bet the pot (€35), got raised by LP and this being the Fitz almost expected to see a holding of 64 when I called, but he never showed and I won. Omaha was then called and I sat down to that with my €210 or so, got that up to about 400 in the first hand when I won a side pot and split the centre on a board of JT784r when I held KQ92. Happy days and good start.
I managed to win another big pot soon, with the money in on a flop of 884 when I held A983 (from BB despite a small raise). Turn was T, river 3 to fill my boat. Opponent never showed and left the table then. That had me up to around 750 and this turned out to be the high point of my night as the cards dried up dramatically for a very lean spell. I ended up leaving at 4.30 with €405 for a total profit for the night of €155 (€150 for buyin and topup in tournie and €100 in cash game).
Scalps now tonight, and more than likely more Omaha after that. I am now on a record 9 winning cash sessions in a row. Long may it continue........
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