Blogger Tourneys At Poker Nordica

I`m in the process of arranging a tournament for bloggers over at PokerNordica. I`m thinking either Friday night or sometime Sunday. There will be some money added and some tickets to the big monthly freerolls to be won. I`m considering wether to keep it NLHE or possibly to have various games included. One possibility is that the winner of the tourney will be able to choose which game is played the week after.

Keep your eyes peeled for more news and please leave me some comments as to which day would be best and if you`d prefer a NLHE or a mixed format.

Thanks

DangerMouse

Horse-Play

Jumped into the $5 HORSE at Poker.com which has a bigger field than the daytime tourneys. Thirty-three runners tonight and I played very well. I don`t recall making a single mistake until reaching the final table. I was pretty much the short-stack when I got there. Then I made a great call in the Om8 round that put me right back into the game. Unusually for me I made a boatload of chips in the hold-em round and had a 2-1 chip lead on the next player. Great feeling to have the chips to push players around and to call speculative hands.

We got rid of the bubble then whittled our way down to three where I lost the chip lead for a while. Third place was resolved and it was me and HORSE final table regular Marjan77 playing HU. We finished the 7 stud 8b round and I suggested we skip the hold-em round as neither of us likes it too much. It would have been pretty crazy, blinds were 2,500/5,000 with just 66,000 chips on the table evenly spread between us.

It must have been confusing for any of the onlookers if they`d missed the discussion. Both of us folding, showing and rabbiting and laughing about it. We resumed play in the Om8 round and Marjan took the win in just a few hands. He`d made a great recovery to be HU and although it was disappointing to lose, at least I lost to a good player and had a lot of fun playing.

A Good Day At The Cyber-Felt

Actually a good day all-round. England beat France in the rugby world cup and we`re in the final next week. Not bad for a team that was written off by most people after the first game. It wasn`t pretty rugby but it did the trick and the win was all that mattered.

I played a gin rummy freeroll today too. First time I`ve tried that and it was good fun, especially as I won. By the time we were down to two players I only needed to win a single hand because my opponent had 149 points and would bust out at 150. It took four or five games for me to finish her off and I was begining to think she was going to steal the win from me.

I also played my eponymous (or should that be eponymouse) tourney at Carbon and bubbled after leading for most of it. Button raised about half my stack and as I had 10-10 I re-raised and was called. With good old 20-20 hindsight I should have flat called then pushed on the flop but hey-ho.

Wins Are Like Buses . . .

You wait for ages then two come along at the same time. I made it back to back wins in the HORSE. By the first break there were just four left and I had a minor chip lead but by the end of the omaha round I was HU against speedbump and we were pretty much even in chips. I took a few chips from him in the early razz rounds and then proceeded to bludgeon him until I had a 3-1 advantage. He staged a comeback in the seven stud as he took an aggressive stance but I waited patiently knowing the game was mine as long as I didn`t make any foolish mistakes. I was pleased when we switched to stud hi/lo and it was during this round that I finished him off. I had a solid draw on the lo and kept smooth calling his bets with the result that I made a straight on either 6th or 7th street to condemn him to 2nd place and make it two in a row for me.

Finally!

Well my NLHE game may suck but I finally managed to win a HORSE tourney. Funnily enough I wasn`t even going to play but as I was still awake . . . just. I registered for the early morning $3 buy-in. I really can`t believe just how bad some of the people who register for this game are. They clearly have no clue how to play some of the varients. Still I suppose I shouldn`t complain, they`re contributing nicely to my bankroll.

The final table arrived pretty rapidly with one player grabbing an early lead. Tweaker22 can only be described as hyper-aggressive. He was hammering away on every street and it worked for a while. Ultimately though he chipped me up rather nicely in the razz round. We reached the final three with two places paying and one extremely small stack. But hyper-donk just wouldn`t check down pots to try and get rid of the short-stack. It cost Tweaker in the end, the other player got back into it and I was able to cripple Tweaker during the HE round. I had AK, raised, he re-raised and we ended up capping the betting. The flop came K-Q-x and off we went again. When the final card had fallen he turned over Q-J. I guess he though he could just blast me away with aggression but he was wrong.

When I finally sent him to the rail I couldn`t resist throwing a few choice words after him. He probably didn`t see them but they made me feel better. Rarely have I been so pleased to see a player bubble.

My opponent made a valient scrap of it but I was merciless during the razz round completing the bet probably 90% of the time and using my huge chip lead to good advantage. Finally a win at HORSE.



I also picked up a win yesterday in the early morning razz. The field was only five but a win`s a win. More gold for the trophy cabinet.

Bodonkey

This one had an interesting start this week. Can you spot the mistake?



Did you see it? The tourney had been set up to have 60 minute levels but we were getting a break every 15 minutes. I like deepstack with long levels but that would have been ridiculous. Abort one tourney lol.

Fortunately Bodog were able to sort it out by re-scheduling the game. Most of us re signed up and away we went. I started off ok picking up a lot of blinds with small raises but then went completely card dead. I was getting pretty short-stacked but decided to limp in with 10-Js. No raises and the flop came 10-9-2. I fired a bet of about half the pot and was re-raised by Kajagugu. I went into the tank for a while and then called. The turn was a K and I pushed all-in realising that I couldn`t call a bet. Kajagugu enquired in chat Q-J? and I remained silent until he folded. I then said nope and flipped over my cards. It was the best hand I played all-night. As semi-bluffs go I think it was pretty solid play. It wasn`t unreasonable for me to bet a draw and the time I took thinking over calling the re-raise probably added authenticity.

That single hand gave me a lot more confidence for the rest of the game. I should point out that some of these bloggers are damn good players and at the moment my NLHE game is way off par. That`s probably because I`m not really playing it much, I`ve been playing HORSE, Razz and Om8 instead.

I made final table and finished 8th after making what was probably the worst play I`ve ever made at a NLHE table. With 9-9 in the BB I was praying for a cheap flop. Smokkee was the only player in the hand and he made a minimum raise from the button. I assumed he was stealing and for some reason I still can`t fathom I pushed all-in. He insta called and of course had A-A. No miracle card for me and all that remained was for me to say good game and good luck, see y`all next week.

It was such an idiotic play. I could have called and seen a flop, or even re-raised a little to find out where I was. I had around 5k in chips and was pretty comfortable.

A momentary lapse of reason, tiredness, a rush of blood to the head. Whatever excuse I might like to attribute it too it was just dumb. The only bright side to the situation is that I had at least won my buy-in back by that stage.

Razzle Dazzle

I was over at Vegas 24/7 today looking for a sng to kill some time in. I`d found a couple that looked interesting when it occured to me that I never look at the tournaments there. I don`t know why I`ve never looked, I think they have a great blinds structure. Anyway I spotted a $3 limit razz game and jumped into it.

I started off well then went pretty card dead for a while slipping from the top three downwards. I was patient though and waited for a decent starting hand. The big stack at the table was obviously not the greatest razz player judging by some of the hands he showed. Don`t get me wrong he was winning plenty but I knew he`d pay me off in due time. Well he did just that and I went from midfield to first place in one hand.

I stayed in either first or second for the majority of the rest of the tourney. The final table arrived and the eventual winner took a huge lead after eliminating a large stack. With four left I took out one in a close hand and he took out the other to leave us HU. We proceeded to exchange bring-ins for a while before both of us caught a hand worth betting on. That hand cost me 75% of my stack as he narrowly beat me and although I made a valient attempt to get back into the game his chip lead was too big and I was forced to settle for 2nd place. An enjoyable game though.

Hi Lo, Hi Lo, It`s Off To Work We Go . . .

I`m starting to really enjoy playing Om8 especially in the limit format. I decided to play a buy-in yesterday and had a really fun game. I was pretty card dead early on and ended up risking my tournament life on a low draw on the river. The river ended up giving me a set instead and I was called a fish by a Poker.com regular Rabbitgirl75. That kind of amused me as she`s certainly not the greatest player herself. I ran with it though and called myself a fish when I took down a big pot a few hands later. I can`t be bothered to get the hand history but by the turn I had the nut high and low and was freerolling for the nut flush on the river on an unpaired board. Just call me DangerFish lol.

Anyway, Rabbitgirl was the bubble . . .

Saturday Successes

I pulled an all-nighter Friday. I listened in to Rounders and managed to win myself an entry into a short-handed SNG that will have a prizepool equivalent to a $20 buy-in and I`ll be playing four other Rounders listeners and Tony Guerrera. For those of you that don`t know, Tony is the author of Killer Poker By The Numbers. He`s a maths whizz, writer and short-handed cash game specialist. He`s written some great articles that you can check out here

After that I played the Full Tilt freeroll to kill some time and ended up chatting about music with a bunch of guys in the Rounders chatroom.

I played the early morning HORSE game at Poker.com but failed to cash. I was rather unlucky when short-stacked my QQ was beaten by 33 when he flopped a set. Undeterred I jumped into a Razz tourney and took 2nd place. I possibly could have won it but I really needed to pop out so I gambled more than I needed to. Razz HU is a bit of a nightmare, low card bets and usually your opponent folds.



I was busy all day and then ended up playing a 5th Street game at the same time as the weekly tourney I set up. I don`t really like multi-tabling and things were a little manic. Once the Charity Ball started too it was REALLY manic. I was just constantly flicking between the three tables and playing largely by instinct and making snap decisions.

HU at the 5th Street game I had Q-10s and decided to risk calling Scottishlad`s all-in. I was pretty sure he had an ace but really needed to get the game wrapped up and figured I would probably be only a small dog. I was right he had A-7, I paired my 10 on the flop but he hit his ace too and that was the end of that.



I went out of the Charity Ball a little later. I have no luck in this tourney whenever I play it. I had QQ, A-Q, A-10 back to back and didn`t win a single chip. I exited mid-field.

At least that allowed me to concentrate on my final game. I made it to HU again against Scottishlad but this time I had a significant chip lead having hit a huge run of cards. I finally took him out with jack high to make it one all on the evening. So satisfying to pick up a win after the recent run of near misses I`ve had

Back On The HORSE

Didn`t play too much last week but I did manage to pick up this cash from one game.

Wedded To Your Hand?

I used the coupon I won in the Monday night game to enter the $10 rebuy satellite to the $2k GTD. This lovely smack in the face happened early on in that tourney. I wasn`t going to write this up but I mentioned it to Murry so here it is.

Blinds were still at 5/10, we were maybe eight or so hands into the game when I find myself with AA in middle position. A couple of players limp into the pot and then the next player raises to 50. I re-raise to 150 and much to my surprise the cutoff flat calls. Everyone folds round to the initial raiser who promptly pushes all-in. Obviously I insta-call and I`m pretty surprised when the cutoff also calls.

I`m up against KK from the initial raiser and JJ from the cutoff. A jack hits the flop and I get no help on the turn and river and I leave in disgust. Rebuying would have been pointless given my frustration at losing that hand.

I really had to bite my tongue because I just couldn`t see how the JJ could make that call. Ok it`s a rebuy but look at the action before he even calls the first bet never mind the all-in... 5xBB from early position, re-raised to 15xBB and then after he makes the initial call he faces two all-ins.

I`d ask what he was thinking but that`s obviously pointless. The answer is he wasn`t thinking, he saw that big pair and couldn`t let it go. Don`t get me wrong, it worked out for him but he should have realised the best situation he could be in would be to be up against two big aces with big kickers. Worst case he`s up against a bigger pair/pairs.

That would have been an easy fold for me once the initial raiser was re-raised and definitely a mucking hand vs two all-ins.

Monday Night Football League

Much as I enjoy these games the time they run is a killer even for me, 4am starts are not condusive to a normal lifestyle. But at least I`ve had some success in them. Took 2nd this week from the biggest field so far. I really should have won as I think I had the edge on my opponent. I really must stop risking all on pre-flop all-ins.

Poker Stars - World Blogger Championship Of Online Poker

Those kind folks over at Poker Stars have set up a tourney just for us bloggers. So don`t delay register your blog now and lets get playing.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7436816

Lightning Strikes . . . Again

The weekly Bodonkey bash started off pretty nice for me with a hand I normally dread. I had JJ in the SB and was facing a 4xBB raise that I just knew was aces. Nonetheless it was cheap enough to call and play from the flop. Well with a J on the flop I check-raised, with a possible flush draw on the board. The turn looked unhelpful and I pushed in. My opponent had AA and no miracle river saved him.

It was going nicely until 5 handed I decided to put in a raise with A-9. Lightning called and checked the 9 high flop. I bet out and was called. I was pretty much done at that point but the turn was another 9. It was checked to me again and then I was check-raised when I bet out. I should have let it go there and then but I was distracted and re-raised only to realise just after I`d hit bet that Light had just filled up a boat with his 44. The fours were deadly last night. Irongirl won a big pot from Lightning with them and Light got me, they also held up vs AK to eliminate a player. Definitely a case of may the fours be with you.

Lightning went on to win it whilst I could only call myself names. Losing to a bad beat is one thing . . . losing when I make a mistake is far more irritating.