Finally!

Well I`ve just finished playing the K9 International Tour buy-in at GNUF Poker. This tour has been my personal nemesis, I`ve rarely managed a decent finish and I`ve certainly never even come close to winning one. Well today we had only four players, a better chance was unlikely to arise and if I could win I`d not only claim my seat in the finals but I`d take my tally of wins to five and claim the coveted shark award on the K9 wall.

When the game started we actually only had three active players, two I would classify as tight aggressive and me. I decided straight away to try and take control of the table and loosened up my play massively. As both players know me very well this tactic worked a treat and I was building my stack nicely until the fourth player finally sat down. This immediately changed the momentum considerably as I`d consider him a loose aggressive player. The chip stacks leveled out at one point but I finally managed to gain a considerable lead and was playing my big stack aggressively, from the button I raised with K-8 and British pushed back all-in, it was too cheap to lay down so I called and was pleasantly surprised to see his hand J-9. Unfortunately the board hit him hard and he doubled up. A pretty awful play as far as I was concerned, whilst as he said I was bullying his hand wasn`t a great choice to make a stand with.

To say I was annoyed would be an understatement but it didn`t tilt me it just fired up my determination all the more to win the game. By the time the two of us were heads-up he had a slight chip lead but during the break I gave myself a stiff talking to and decided that against such an aggressive player my best shot was to wait to hit a flop hard and trap and the tactic payed off perfectly. With 9-10 suited I put in a small raise from the SB, he re-raised and I called. The flop came x-9-10 and I checked hoping he would fire out a bet. Fire he did with an all-in raise, my call was instantaneous and he turned over QQ. Turn and river brought him no help and 2 hands later I`d wiped out his remaing few hundred chips.

This was one of those wins that I really felt I deserved. I had a definite strategy at every point of the game, I took the pots that no-one wanted, I stole blinds and I avoided falling into any big traps. The mistakes I did make were very small, all-in-all a very satisfying game.

It`s Hammer Time!

Now I have been known to drop the hammer (7-2 for those who don`t know) every now and again although I certainly don`t play it every time I get it. In actual fact the only reason I played it this time was because I was allowed to. In fact this post could just as easily be called "How NOT To Play KK".

I had an e-mail earlier informing me of a $3,000 added tourney, entry fee $2.25 over at Sun Poker. Even after finding out the levels were 6 minutes I decided to have a go. There were 1800 players and the top 500 were paid a minimum of $6.61, 1st place was worth nearly $600 a pretty good deal all-in-all.

Anyway I digress . . .The tourney had been going a while, blinds were rocketing up and I was getting pretty short-stacked. I was in the BB and dealt 7-2os so I`m just praying to see a free flop and with one limper from mid position and the SB completeing I get my wish. The flop comes 7-6-5, SB checks as do I and the other player makes a minimum bet, SB folds and without much hesitation I push all-in. I have my opponent on a rag ace that may have paired the board but hopefully not the 7, or maybe KQ - KJ. To say I`m surprised when he turns over KK is an understatement. I`m getting ready to say nh when the turn brings a lovely duck, the river is no help and my opponent leaves the table and is probably on his way to his favourite forum to berate my donkey play or cry over how unlucky he was.

Well if he did I have no sympathy whatsoever, the fact is he played the hand about as badly as anyone could. A minimum raise would have made me fold pre-flop. A big raise post flop might have made me fold, but he never appeared anything but weak. Was I lucky? Hell yes, but he gave me the chance to get lucky.

5th Street Forum New Player Freeroll

This is a message from Skinski and Cerberi from 5th Street Forum.

Over at the 5th Street Forum we are looking for some folk that like to play some serious poker and our pit-boss ( Cerberi from the River Demon ) over there has offered to put up another $50.00 for a freeroll for any new members between now and Saturday ! All we ask is to go to the 5th Street Forum (just click one of the links over on the right side of my blog) , become a member and introduce your self so we know who you are . If you are a serious online player , regardless of the type game that it is , we are looking for you ! We're all a good bunch that have a good time cuttin the fool , and you'll find some of the best games from any forum on the net . Over at 5th Street we don't tolerate foolish play , we believe that poker is a game of skill and wits and not just in luck , and expect our members to play as such . We hold a small buy-in every Saturday and Sunday and you'd be hard pressed to find any better played games anywhere on the net ! Most of the games are played at poker.com , so make sure you have it . This game will be played here !

Our exiting members can play this game as well . All you have to do is download Third Bullet Poker ( for some future 5th Street games coming soon ! ) from the forum or one of our blogs , tell us your name , and you will receive the password as well ! So come on out , and lets get ready for another great weekend of poker !! And don't forget to go visit Cerberi from the Home of the River Demon and say hello .

Till next time folk , ya'll have a good'un...

It`s A Funny Old Game . . .

I was waiting for some friends to turn up this afternoon so I signed up for a SNG. Sure enough not far into the game they turned up but I played it through and ended up winning. Spent the afternoon with them and then had a busy evening schedule of poker. First up was the 5h Street weekly buy-in where I bubbled. Then I had a Poker Forum Challenge freeroll for K9 with the top 5 qualifying for the multi-forum event later this month. No long story, I finished 2nd. If my AK had held up vs Murry`s AQ I feel I would have won but that`s poker as they say. Murry beat me in the HU his KK holding up against my AQ. Then in the 5th Street freeroll I managed to bubble again.

I was pretty disappointed until I thought through the day. A 1st, a 2nd and two 4th places. When you think about it it`s actually pretty decent. However I`m glad I was disappointed, it shows I now have high expectations for my play. I don`t feel that my expectations are unrealistic either. I play against some very good players and I feel that I hold my own. I`m by no means the best, many of them are much better players than I am, but I`m getting there. . .