The Mouse Trap

Welcome To The Bad Beat Tables!

2009-02-03T22:57:00.003Z

So I decided I should really practice what I`ve been preaching and venture onto the Bad Beat tables. To say it has been a roller-coaster ride so far would be an understatement.

I sat down at the table with just $20,and waited for the BB. It duly came and went and I saw no action in my first orbit of the table until I was UTG. I glance down and see QQ. I make it $2 to go and the action folds to the BB who makes it $3. I decide to just call and the flop comes down Ks-Qc-9d. Perfect I`ve flopped a set. He bets. I decided I could perhaps get a little more value on subsequent streets and smoothcalled. The turn is Ah and he checks, I bet $2 and he raises. Again I smoothcall. The river is another ace and he bets, I raise and he re-raises his remaining 60 cents. The cards flip and yes of course he has AK for a runner-runner fullhouse to beat my own queens full. Welcome to the bad beat tables! Unfortunately not bad enough for the jackpot. Looking at the hand afterwards I can see I played it pretty badly but as things turned out there was no way I was getting him to fold, especially after the turn gives him top two.

So I`ve only been there a few hands and I`m already down a buy-in. Still I wasn`t about to be deterred and reloaded. Only to see myself outdrawn time after time and I wave goodbye to another $20.

Again I reload and it looks like this money is going the way of the first $40. I was down to about $7 when I finally had a hand hold up and I was on the road to recovery. After about three hours and after picking up AA I was back up to around $58 and considering leaving. Of course I decided to stick around just a little longer and again caught AA. This time it wasn`t anyhere near as profitable. Costing me around $6.

I departed soon after down around $6 but relatively happy with the session. True I`d ended up down but I`d been patient and hadn`t become downtrodden. I`d maintained discipline and fought my way back from a pretty large deficit.

Onto today`s session. I`ve just finished playing and it was more of the same for the early part of the session. Now I`m the first to admit I`m not the greatest FL hold`em player but when you play nothing but premium hands you`d expect to be at least close to a break even player. Again though my KK was snapped on the river, my AK ran into KK and there`s no ace for me on the flop. Again I`m down about $40 and debateing wether I should just call it quits and maybe play some NLHE to try and rescue what remained of my roll at the site.

What I actually did was move tables. At first that looked a desperate tactic as I lost $10 in short order. Fortunately though salvation was waiting for me at this table and finally my quality hands started hitting and holding. I climbed back up to over $30 and then hit this monster of a hand.

I have 10-10 in the cut-off. The action folds round to me and I raise. The SB 3-bets and the BB calls as do I.

The flop is 9h-7d-6h giving me an overpair and an inside straight draw. SB bets, BB calls and I smoothcall on what looks a dangerous though good board.

The turn is the 10c giving me a set and leaving me extra options for winning the hand. The SB bets out and the BB re-raises and I figure I`m probably behind now but reasoning I still have draws to the nuts I coldcall the 2 bets. SB call as well and we`re onto the river.

The river is quite the most beautiful card in the world at that moment, the 10d. The case ten and I`m now holding the stone cold nuts. SB checks, BB bets and I raise. SB fold and BB re-raises. Obviously I re-raise again and at last realising he`s in trouble my opponent just calls and then mucks his hand. I rake in a $38.50 pot and I`m again pretty much back to even.

Now I asked what he had and he said the straight which I kind of figured him for. The funny thing is he was awfully annoyed about losing the hand. Now I`ve just checked the HH for this post and this guy called 2 bets with K-8o. In other words I have very little sympathy. Actually I have NO sympathy because I just can`t see how he could justify that call.

He actually left the table a couple of hands later when my A-10 outflopped his KK. The flop came 10-10-J and it was only because I figured that he might have JJ that he didn`t lose more money on that hand.

Anyway the good news is that I ended up about $10 in profit from todays session and up $3 or $4 over the two sessions. With that huge jackpot out there waiting to go I`m happy enough if I can pretty much break even all the while hoping that someone is going to hand me the best bad beat of my life.

So after all that I`d better add that the jackpot has now climed to over $1,120,000. That`s a huge chunk of cash and it has to go sooner or later. If you have the roll to play at the levels required and you can break even or better taking into account the deduction for the jackpot then you should be playing those bad beat tables. As they used to say on our lottery adverts "It could be YOU!"

Record Bad Beat Jackpot - Over $1,000,000

2009-01-30T20:37:00.002Z

That`s right folks the record for the largest bad beat jackpot is now held by PDC/Carbon Poker. It finally passed the $1,000,000 mark earlier this month and as I write is approaching $1.1 million.

So what does that mean?

Well if you`re lucky enough to have your quad sevens or better beaten at one of the bad beat tables you`ll receive over $350,000 in compensation! You`ll sort of have the last laugh because the guy who beats you will only get a little over $175,000! Those are some very pretty numbers and you`ll be pleased to know that if you just happen to be in the hand with those players you`ll receive a share of over $175,000. With a minimum of 4 players required to claim the jackpot you could get as much as half that figure but even at a full table you`ll still be looking at over $20,000.

And here are the official T&C put down by Carbon

Bad Beats happen to every player, but at CarbonPoker we have a way to potentially win big after losing with a monster hand!

In any Texas Hold'em game, you will be looking to maximise your value when you pick up Quads. The chance to go all-in is automatic, but what happens if your opponent is holding higher Quads, or eveHEn a Straight Flush?

These are the worst of the Bad Beats, and usually result in thousands of chips being passed over the table. Our new Bad Beat Jackpot will ensure thousands of dollars in cash will be won, all for losing a hand.

On specially labelled ring game jackpot tables, we will collect 50 cents from every pot which contributes to the Bad Beat Jackpot. As soon as a player has a monster hand cracked, the jackpot will be won, with every active player at the table receiving a portion of the prize money! The player with the losing hand will pick up the biggest percentage, so if you have Quad sevens or better using both hole cards, you should definitely hope to get beaten!

Bad Beat Jackpot requirements:
The losing hand must be at least a Four of a Kind 7s, with a 2 kicker
The winning hand must be at least a Four of a Kind 8s, with a 2 kicker
Both the winning and losing hands must include both hole cards, and in the case of a Four of a Kind must include a pocket pair.
At least four players must be dealt in at the start of the hand
The hand must have generated jackpot rake (ie. $0.50)
Two or more players must be active at the end of the hand, and it must go to showdown.

And the payouts

You can play for a chance at the jackpot on both fixed limit and no-limit tables at various stakes. So get on over to Carbon and start playing!

Lambs To The Slaughter . . .

2009-01-17T02:48:00.002Z

Hello again :-)

I`ve been trying to get a home game going for some time. Unfortunately I don`t really know many players in my area. Well we finally got one arranged and four players turned up at my door tonight to sit down, chat, drink and play a few hands of cards.

We`ve had a few of these in years past and they`re very relaxed affairs with more attention paid to chatting than the cards at times. I`ts not unusual for a hand to stretch out to over five minutes. As I actually enjoy the cards I tend to end up being the one telling people it`s time to act and how much it is to call etc.

Now I`d quite like a formal game but in all honesty the format we played tonight was ideal for me. We played for a little over five hours and put the blinds up just three times. That just gave me plenty of time to play cards and wait for reasonable hands to call with whilst they pretty much played every pot.

They tend to play very passively early on and when I came out firing at an early pot my aggressive betting obviously caused some consternation. So hoping for a repeat game in the near future I slowed down a little. The funny thing is no-one online would have considered the bets huge compared to the size of the pot. It didn`t really matter too much anyway. That first big pot I raked set me up for the game and I really never looked back.

The guy I was most worried about was pretty drunk and tired and his 2nd place stack gave me a huge lead when his AK ran into my AA and he made a crying call on the river with AK high for all his remaining chips.

We`d started with five players and by the time we were down to two I had a huge lead and knew I could only lose the game if I was impatient. My HU opponent proved very resilient raising pre-flop and making substantial bets on the flop. He had recovered to a nice healthy stack but I knew I was going to catch him eventually and get everything he`d won back to my side of the table. Again in part I think it was partly down to stamina that I finally won. I was prepared to play for as long as it took and knew I`d trap him for all his chips eventually. He staged a couple of recoveries along the way but I was not to be denied.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Winning was obviously very nice but it was a fun evening. I knew there was a possibilty I`d get donked at sometime but it only really happened once as far as I can recall.

I did enjoy making an attempt at picking up some tells and spotted a couple that helped me a couple of times. I really must read through Mike Caro`s book if we`re going to play again. I know there are more recent volumes but I think Mike`s book will be more than adequate against players who have no knowledge of the game. Certainly tonight I saw a player either glancing at or actually reaching for chips before it was his turn to bet. That saved me betting a few times and gave me a nice opportunity to trap.

I guess I`ve waffled on long enough in this phoenix like return to blogging. I`ve enjoyed writing this though so maybe I won`t wait three months for the next installment

Two Wins But No Accolade

2008-09-01T02:50:00.005Z

I was just chatting with one of my longtime internet mates Murry The Cat and he comented I hadn`t been writing much. He is of course correct. It`s partly because I`ve been playing a lot of ring games and I don`t really like to write up individual sessions because I`m trying to take the long view. It`s also all too easy to get out of the habit of blogging. However I`m here at the moment and I`ve had a pretty good weekend so I might as well bash out an update.

Friday I had a fun game with the MLP crew. We played PL 2-7 Triple Draw. I was one of the few players with any experience of the game although I`d never played it PL before. I had a few nice hands early on and was able to capitalise on a few mistakes made by other players and was up or around the chip leader for the first hour. I dropped down a bit as the field narrowed and decent starting hands became scarce. I was patient though and eventually found myself HU against Adam a player I know very little about. We swopped the chip lead about for a while neither of us getting much advantage then after he`d limped in I raised pot with a solid 4 card hand and he check-raised all-in. It was the first time he`d pulled that move on me and I decided to respect the raise and reluctantly folded. That and the next couple of hands left me with a 2-1 or so deficit. I picked my moments and clawed my way back to pretty much even and then came the key hand. I`d made a pat hand 8-7 high and put in a pot sized raise and he came right over the top to put me all-in. I knew my hand was vulnerable but decided it was too good to fold and made the call. It turned out his raise was a stone cold bluff and it took just a couple more hands to finish him off and give me my 4th MLP medal. As always it was great to win, and I suppose I was the pre-game favourite as I was the more experienced player. I know my opponent was the one with the bigger set of cheerleaders on the rail. A couple of people commented on the forum they would have liked him to win. Not through any dislike of me (at least I hope not) but because he`s a popular fellow and so far has just the one win on his record. I`ve no problem with that, I`m just pleased to take the win.

I had a short break and then it was into the First Depositors Freeroll on PDC. I`ve had a poor run in the ones I`ve played with only one final table (10th) and one other cash. I managed to build a chipstack this time though and found myself at the final table. I played patient and opportunistic poker and eventually found myself HU. My opponent had a 4 or 5-1 chip advantage though and although I rallied a little I was never able to really get on terms and ended up taking 2nd. A nice little cash but I was disappointed to miss out on the accolade.

I didn`t get to play on Saturday. I went down to see a couple of mates in the Midlands. Had a fun day and came back Sunday morning. I was shattered and crashed out for the afternoon before getting up for an MLP game and the 50K freeroll on Walker. I managed to bubble the MLP game. It was annoying not because I bubbled but because I lost connection at Nordice twice and saw KK, AQ and JJ autofold. The AQ and JJ were whilst we were six handed and the blinds were pretty steep. Of course I might have busted out with either of those hands but it was cruel to see them and not have the chance to play them.

Playing the MLP game had made me 45 minutes late for the 50k but I still ahd around 1800 chips and by the first break I`d managed to get myself up to approx 3500. I was eventually crippled after 3-betting QQ to put a player all-in. He called and turned over AK then hit a K on the flop. That left me with a couple of hundred chips and I was out a couple of hands later.

I wasn`t going to play again but after noticing there was an OPT game at 2am I decided to jump in. There were only 7 or 8 players and I played a nice game. I was chip leader for the most part. Myself, Murry amd Magooch were the final three. For the major part of the battle I had about half the chips on the table. Then I ended up with AKs in the SB. Blinds were 200/400 and I made it 1k to go. Murry called the 600 and the flop came 3 diamonds. I shut down and folded to a bet on the river. I flipped my cards and Murry showed me K-7d for a flopped flush. That hand cost me the chip lead and I was hoping I could take out Magooch just to get HU on even terms. That`s exactly what happened when I raised with J-10d and called the small amount extra that Magooch had pushed in. His Q-8h went further ahead on the flop pairing his 8. The river saved the day for me though delivering a jack to send him to the rail.

So it was another cat and mouse game. We went back and forth for a bit with very little post flop action. The key hand was when I pushed from the SB with A-5 and Murry called and showed AK. It looked all over but the flop came 6-7-8 rainbow to give me some hope. The turn was a blank but the river was a 9 to give me the straight. That left Murry with just 2xBB and it was all over the next hand with my K-10 holding up against his 8-10. I don`t like to win via suckout but with blinds so high I don`t think my play was bad. It`s just poker as they say.

Carbon Summer Championships

2008-08-01T18:01:00.002Z

These finished quite some time ago but I`ve been meaning to write up my results and here they are.

This was a month long series of games and 250 players would get a shot at the $15k jackpot at the end of the series. I didn`t really feel rolled enough to play all the events but I figured I could make a decent run on the leaderboard with a third to a half of the games.

First up for me was the FL Badugi a game I fancied my chances at and indeed proved reasonably successful at. I finished 14th/252 and my campaign was under way. The next game was the NLHE Turbo and wasn`t on my original list of games. However as I`d cashed in the previous nights game I decided to play. I had poor cards and a worse connection for most of the first hour but manged a slight recovery finishing in a respectable if not inspiring 113th/460. Not a great result but valuable points for later.

Next up was the PL 5 Card Draw another game I expected to do well in. I made a couple of errors throughout the game (although one did save me from elimination as it turned out) and never really managed to get any momentum going. Even so I finished 36th/232 an annoying six places shy of the money.

Then we had the Intercontinental Cup. No Americans in this one and subsequently a much shorter field. I played pretty well throughout and made my first final table of the series. I finished 9th/105 when as a shortstack my QQ was snapped by 99.

PLHE was next and I again managed a solid 67th/276. The next game for me was another I thought I would do well in,7 card stud. Unfortunately I was carddead throughout and finished a disappointing 110th/240. The next game was even worse and I wasn`t even going to play at first. PLOM8b is not a good game imo. As a FL game it`s great but it really doesn`t work in PL format. It certainly didn`t for me and I finished 193rd/251.

The next game gave me the chance to play a game I love but rarely get the chance to play, A-5 Triple Draw. Again I expected to do well, perhaps even win but in the end I only managed 47th/163. Not particularly my fault, I was outdrawn after standing pat with a very solid hand and was crippled after that. Amusingly I did make some profit from this game as Jazzer payed me a coaching fee after I`d given him a few tips and he cashed for $130.

The PLOM Second Chance was next on the menu and I played my usual tight omaha game to take 28th/216 without having to re-buy.

The NLHE Shootout was not on my initial list but as I was running ok and I wasn`t going to be able to play the HORSE game the next day I opted to play. I thought I might have done well Indeed I might have done had I not been still embroiled in the FTL HORSE MTT. We went on to take 1st,3rd and 4th in that and pretty much seal up the league. It really screwed up my Summer Champs game though and I crashed out 83rd/186.

Next up was the HORSE and although it was a game I knew I stood a great chance in I had guests and looked like missing it. Circumstances changed though and their unexpected and early departure saw me join 188 other hopefuls at the tables. I played solidly and well and went on to my second final table of the series finishing 7th/189.

The good run in the limit format continued the following evening as I finished a very reasonable 28th/227. Actually I probably should have done much better as I was in or around the top three for most of the game.

It was bounty time next and a game I really wasn`t looking forward to. That might have been why I ended up 103rd/281. Next up was Razz and I really wasn`t holding out too much hope as I`ve been running terribly in Razz of late. True to form I continued to hit brick after brick and finished a lousy 136th/179.

I was intending on missing the NLHE Rebuy but in the end decided to give it a whirl. I rebought once when my JJ ran into KK and I took the add-on at break managing a decent points position 97th/286.

The next game was the big one $20k GTD and I was freerolling. I had a coupon I`d won in a freeroll to cover the $60 entry and I`m glad I did. I felt full of energy and was buzzing to play when I first sat down. Within minutes though I knew my heart and mind wasn`t in it, or on it, or even remotely near it. I knew I was beat when I decided to call and just didn`t care. I don`t seem to have the number of players that entered but I know I was the 35th one out.

The disappointing result in the Main Event left me in 119th on the leaderboard where I`d expected to be inside the top 100. Only 231 of the qualifiers turned up and the field began witha staggered chip stack total relating to points scored throughout the series. Top stack was an online mate of mine Marjan with 6262 chips. The low stack had 1207 and I began with 2513. I just played pretty much ABC poker for the majority of the game. I was pretty short-stacked and looking like being eliminated but managed to double up on two consequetive hands and went from zero to hero challenging for the lead. I couldn`t maintain the pace though and ended up finishing 16th/231 for a nice little cash of $150.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed the series although the starting times were far too late for most Europeans. I was pleasantly surprised by just how well I did throughout. If I had played all the games and managed the same average I would have been in, or close to the top 10 players in the series. With the final game I made a nice enough little profit but it could have been much better if I`d managed to convert a final table into a top 3 position rather than 9th and 7th.

Negative Attitude = Positive EFffect?

2008-05-23T04:28:00.003Z

So can a negative attitude to poker actually result in a positive effect on your play?

It sounds a rather unusual question and you may be thinking that the answer is pretty obviously a resounding "No!". I`m not so sure though.

Now obviously I wouldn`t have asked this question if I didn`t think it related to my play. You see for the last couple of weeks I`ve hardly been playing. I went through a very bad patch losing so many hands as an 80%+ favourite on the turn or river that it became extremely annoying. Eventually that annoyance turned into resignation and I thought I`d take a few days off and only play again when the desire struck me again.

Well although I`ve hardly played since that decision, when I have played I`ve played extremely well. I won the Charity Ball and I`ve cashed in 7 of the 8 games I`ve played this week. None of them big wins, two of them just small free-roll cashes. Nonetheless I`ve played some very good poker in them.

So I`ve gone from being unable to cash to a very high success rate. Now there are several factors I can attribute this to. It could be that I`ve been luckier, hit a few more flops, sucked out more. But I don`t think that`s a big part of it.

It could be that I`ve made a significant advance in my play. Well I did read part of a book I was very impressed with that dealt with aggressive style play in NLHE tournaments. I do think that some of what I read sank in and helped my game. However, whilst I`d consider it a contributing factor I don`t think it`s the main reason.

I`ve also given HORSE a break and been playing mainly NLHE which is refreshing but whilst again it might be part of the reason I don`t consider it a huge factor.

So the main reason I think I`ve been playing well is this. I`ve played more aggressively and been much more willing to gamble than I usually am. As you can see that ties in with the book I read but I attribute it more to an uncaring attitude. I really haven`t cared wether I was going to win, or cash. As a result I`ve bet bigger, bluffed bigger, gambled a little more and as a result had a few more suckouts.They say a great high stakes player has to have a complete disregard for money and I truly understand what they mean. Not that I`m claiming to be a high stakes player. I just mean that not caring about the result grants you a level of mental freedom in your play. I haven`t been playing crazy loose just more aggressive. In situations I would normally call or fold in I`ve been far more likely to raise and for the most part it`s worked. All of this has given me an excellent set of results. The funny thing is I still feel rather disinterested in the game despite the fact I`m playing some very good poker. So has a negative attitude had a positive effect?

I think it has and hopefully as my enthusiasm for the game returns (as I`m sure it will) I`ll be able to take what I`ve learned and continue to employ it as a very effective weapon.

YES! YES! YES!

2008-05-04T00:05:00.003Z

No I`m not recreating that famous scence from "When Harry Met Sally" I am however extremely pleased with myself at the moment. Two wins in two days and this time it isn`t a little sng. In fact it`s a tournament I`ve wanted to win for absolutely ages. It`s not a tournament that has a huge payout because half of the buy-in goes to charity. Instead the winner is gifted with a rather nice shield accolade on their avatar. Run every month this is one of the best spirited games you`re ever likely to play. I guess the kind of people that get off bad mouthing players and generally annoying people aren`t the kind of people that are going to donate money to a charity. Go figure . . .

Anyway it means I`ve finally managed to pick up an accolade after about two years of trying. I`ve been close on numerous occasions but I`ve always fallen just short. But not tonight! What makes it even better is that I played what might well have been the best game of my life in winning it. I ran in 2nd and 3rd place for the major part of the game, only taking the lead when at the final table. It slipped away for a while when we got down to four players but after I eliminated 3rd place I had a 2-1 chip lead and was in no mood to let it slip away from me. I can`t recall a time I`ve played so aggressively throughout an entire tournament. There`s no doubt I had some very good cards but I took more than a few blinds betting out with mediocre hands against a pretty tight table. I had a couple of lucky breaks on the way too but that`s to be expected in a tournament.

If anyone wants to play this fun tourney it`s held on the first Saturday of every month on the Merge network. It`s called The 5th Street Charity Ball. It`s a $4+40 buy-in and $2 goes to the prize pool, the other $2 goes to The Make A Wish Foundation. It`s a great cause and I know you`d have a great time playing.

Finally A Win!

2008-05-02T19:14:00.002Z

Ok so it wasn`t exactly a massive cash. Actually it was just a bounty sng. But given that I`ve barely been able to win a hand, much less a tourney it was pretty pleasing.
The more so because I waited over 35 hands before I won one. I was getting terrible cards and the one time I actually had a hand I had to lay it down. That laydown was actually a mistake but I wasn`t to know that at the time and AJ isn`t exactly my favourite hand anyway.

I finally manged to pick up a couple of hands in a row and was getting back into the game when this hand played out.

Starting Hand #12789702-42
sharksbluffer is the Dealer
Shuffling Cards
Huxepa Posted Small Blind 100
DangerMouse420 Posted Big Blind 200
Dealing Cards
You Were Dealt (7s, 9s)
Bilko68 Folds
iceoptimist Folds
McPack Folds
sharksbluffer Calls 200
Huxepa Folds
DangerMouse420 Checks
Dealing Flop (2c,As,2s)
DangerMouse420 Checks
sharksbluffer Bets 200
DangerMouse420 All In
sharksbluffer Calls 1,375
sharksbluffer Shows (6s, Ah)
DangerMouse420 Shows (7s, 9s)
Dealing Turn (2d)
Dealing River (2h)
DangerMouse420 Wins 1,825 from Pot 1 with : Four of a Kind Twos
sharksbluffer Wins 1,825 from Pot 1 with : Four of a Kind Twos

Now I really wasn`t expecting a call. I thought the other guy was just trying a steal and so I pushed my draw. The turn was a killer and after the river card fell it took me a few seconds to realise I was still in the game.

After that narrow escape I started to feel confident and built my stack up very nicely eliminating a couple of players whilst doing so. We were down to three I think and I was stealing very nicely and finally a guy calls my bet. I really didn`t have much, K7o if I remember correctly, I think he had 88. I hit a 7 on the flop and turned a king. The river was a blank and I type in ul gg. The guy immediatley responds by calling me a donk and my only answer was "lol whatever".

I really found it quite amusing. The guy obviously had very little grasp of sng tactics. With blinds very high and a decent chipstack I was in a very aggressive frame of mind and I was willing to gamble against a shorter stack. Add in the bounty he was worth and this kind of aggressive play is definitely +EV. Plus I wasn`t calling with the hand I was betting it. In saying that I hope he continues to play in the same style and that I run into him a few more times.

Anyway I ended up HU versus a player who had been very aggressive since there were 5 players left. I was expecting more of the same but he became surprisingly passive and I quickly built up a 2-1 advantage. I had him on the ropes at around 1,500 chips and put him all-in with Kx. He had JJ and they held up and over the next few hands he clawed his way back to even. His lack of aggression finally killed him though. I whittled him down and finally won something for the first time in a while.

It was a good win though. I was patient throughout the early stages, dropping to around 700 chips at one point. When I did gather a few chips I was hugely aggressive and I kept that momentum going till the end. It`s been a while since I played a sng and I really should play them more often because I do well at them.

Jazzer Takes Down Bluff League

2008-04-17T00:54:00.004Z

Well I`m really pleased to announce that another member of my league team is going to play the WSOP Man Event. Jazzer has taken down the Bluff Magazine League and won his seat to the big one. Actually the final game is under way right now but it`s all over as second place cannot catch up. An amzing achievement, but I`m not at all surprised because he`s a great player. Two Blind Bullies at the WSOP! Outstanding!

What makes this story even better is that Jazzer only found out about the league by accident. Usually the Bluff games were only being held on the Carbon skin, not the Poker.com skin. The second game was however accidentally put on the Poker.com schedule and Jazzer notced it and decided to play. I believe he won that first game and then the next week when the game had been properly scheduled he had to go and register a Carbon account. He has also had to get up at 3am in the morning to play finishing just in time to go to work so it`s great his dedication has been rewarded.

So huge congratulations mate, enjoy the ME and let`s hope you make a real score out in Vegas.

Selling A Bluff

2008-04-13T01:17:00.002Z

We see some great plays on tv but this one really stood out to me. I thought this was a brilliantly played hand from Poker After Dark between Eli Elezra and Howard Lederer and I loved the way Eli Elezra played it. It`s the perfect example of how to sell a bluff. Eli tells a story from start to finish and Lederer falls for it.

Stacks are deep but HL has EE easily covered. (HL doubled up the first hand in this tourney, EE was allowed to rebuy)

blinds 150/300

EE raises from utg+1 to 900 with 9h 4s (Obviously EE is just trying to take the blinds here with an early position raise representing strength)

All fold to HL in BB with Js 9d, he calls

Pot is $1,950

Flop is Jd 10s 8d

both check ( EE is happy to take a free card here to see if he can catch his straight and Lederer was possibly planning a check-raise here as he has top pair and a straight draw )

Turn Ks

HL bets 1,100

EE re-raises to 2,200 (Despite everyone telling us never to min raise that`s just what EE does here. I`m guessing the raise is for several reasons. Firstly to find out wether HL really hit the king and secondly to knock him off balance if he was just taking a stab at the pot. It also sets up the bluff on the river)

HL calls

Pot $6,350

River 5s

HL checks

EE bets 5,000 (With HL having only called the re-raise on the turn and the possibility of a flush on the board it gives EE the perfect opportunity to "finish" his story so he fires out an almost potsized bet. HL spends some time thinking through the hand but as EE raised pre-flop, re-raised on the turn and fired on the river HL can`t believe his pair of jacks is good and folds)

Just a great play imo.

OMG

2008-04-09T15:01:00.002Z

I`m getting hassled to write something. My reader says he`s going to cancel his subscription if I don`t and as it`s been over a month since I posted now seems like a good time. But what to write that is the question? I actually have some notes from some ring games and a few hand histories saved that might be worth commenting on but for now I`ll just throw in a few details about the Forum Team League.

It`s the start of week 4 tonight and I`m pleased to say that we got off to a flying start and before tonights games we have a nice 240 point lead on the second place team Aces Up. We owe a lot of those points to Ramster who has been on fire so far this season finishing as follows in his first four games - 3rd/20, 4th/40, 3rd/20, 2nd/40. Before the season had really started we were joking amongst ourselves about who was going to score the most points and Ram said he was. As he only plays once or twice a week we said he had no chance. Not sure if that`s what fired him up, but if so we`ll have to do it more often.

Our new recruit Zackelwahn has proven a sound aquisition. He`s scored solid points in the 10 seaters and won his first 40 seat MTT with a display of power poker and a few "Zack Attacks". He`s also won himself a seat at this years WSOP Main Event although I`m not sure which site he won it on.

Even our new spare Novi got off to a flyer winning her first 10 seat Omaha game and topping it off by winning the 5x5.

My own season has been a bit up and down. A couple of disappointing results in the 10seaters and the first couple of 40 seaters. However I`m pleased to report I seem to have broken the 40MTT curse with Sundays Omaha game. I started well and took the chip lead when I eliminated two players, Chipraker420 and unfortunately my own captain jazzer32. Nothing we could do there, he was trying to make a play as a shortish stack and Chip called. With the nutflush draw I had to call and it hit on the river. Luckily Chip had a lower flush and called off his stack. From there it was a bit of a rollercoaster, my stack went up and down but I was feeling good and by the final table with 5 or 6 players left I was back in front with a sizeable chip lead. The game was mine for the taking and if I`d taken a decision to call a shortish stack I probably would have won. As it was he bluffed me off a pot and went on a rampage after that accumulating a huge stack by the time we were HU. I was left with no choice but to gamble and unfortunately it didn`t go in my favour and I had to settle for 2nd.

Although I was really pleased to get to the final table and thought I played really well I was sorely disappointed to come 2nd. I really should have won and hopefully it will be a lesson learned for the future.

Anyway that`s about all for now. Knowing me I`ll be back on later to post again. It seems to work that way. Once I`ve finally dragged myself over here to post after a long break I get back into the swing of things pretty quick so maybe I`ll dig out those hand histories or something.

I`m going to wrap it up by going back to those FTL points and our individual scores. If my maths is correct at present I`m leading the way with 320pts, Ram is 2nd with 270pts and Jazzer is 3rd with 215. With the 10 seat PLHE tonight I`ll be looking to expand that lead by as much as possible.

Amendment

2008-03-03T20:03:00.004Z

Nothing to do with the American Constitution, just about the forum team league.

I said I`d finished 2nd in points in the Blind Bullies to my captain Jazzer. Well after a brief msn conversation with the aforementioned I was told I needed to alter my blog. I wasn`t 2nd in the BB, I was 2nd in the entire league. I have to say I`m pretty pleased about that. There`s a wide mix of players in the league but all-in-all it`s a pretty strong field to play against.

These are our individual scores;

As I`ve said before I was very disappointed with my 40 seater results. If I`d converted one or two of those mid field finishes into solid final table results I would have finished 1st.

I`ve already told Jazzer I intend taking 1st next season lol.

Champions!!!!!!

2008-03-01T14:43:00.005Z

So on Sunday we took down the league championship. As Wellington said about Waterloo "It was a damn close run thing". We`d started witha slim lead of around 50 points and just needed to keep the Aces Up players behind us. They lost the first player in 38th but we lost two shortly after in 35th and 34th. Fortunately they lost two more players in quick succession shortly after taking 31st and 30th. That left myself and Jazzer to take the win. With AU`s remaining player 2PACO doing well whilst I struggled to hang on as poor cards continued to come my way. I hung in till 17th and by then we had secured the win versus AU. My exit came as I pushed from UTG with AQ only to run into the BB`s AK.

But the drama wasn`t over with our captain Jazzer running riot near the top of the pack we realised that the third placed team had enough players left in and enough points available to snatch victory away from us. With Jazzer needing to take 4th place it was a tense hour that followed but even though the Razor`s Edge players managed a great 1st and 2nd place sweep they fell short by 13 points and the Blind Bullies added another league trophy to their cabinet. It was my first though and I`m stoked about winning it. I`ve played a few seasons of the league and it`s the first time I`ve been in a team that was running near the top all season. I`m not entirely pleased with my performance over the season. I did very well in the 10 seater events but the 40 seaters I had very poor results, not a single final table. Even so I managed to be the 2nd high scorer for BB with Jazzer snatching the honour from me in the last tourney.

S-17 Games & Results

3rd/10
5th/10
2nd/10 (5x5)
12th/40
4th/10
8th/20
11th/40
3rd/10 PLOM
5th/20 FLO8
1st/10 OM (5x5)
26th/40 PLOM
2nd/10 PLHE
3rd/10 PLHE
2nd/10 Razz
2nd/10 Razz
9th/20 PL 7 Stud
25th/40 HORSE
10th/30
17th/40

Thursday was the staff match and although I was looking forward to playing it there was very little doubt in my mind that we would win. The staff are notoriously bad team players and often clash heads and take each other out. Our teamwork is spot on though and we wrapped up an easy win with overall victory going to Jazzer.

Chomsky With Dick Jokes

2008-02-26T15:12:00.006Z

I`m sat here playing a HORSE tourney and listening to "The Flying Saucer Tour". It`s not music, it`s a comedy album by my favourite comedian Bill Hicks. At any given time I might be found listening to Bill but I have it on now for a particular reason. You see February 26th is the anniversary of Bill`s death. To be exact he died at 11.20pm Saturday 26th February 1994 . . . He was thirty-two years old.

It`s tragic when anyone dies so young, but when Bill died we not only lost a great comedian. We were also deprived of a great social commentator, who wasn`t afraid to speak his mind. No subject was taboo to Bill, sex, drugs, politics, religion, were all discussed. He was one of the first comedians to do material on the Gulf War (the first one) and he pulled no punches, comparing America to the Jack Palance character from the movie Shane.

"I'm so sick of arming the world, then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we go and blow the shit out of them. We're like the bullies of the world, y'know. We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheepherder's feet.

"Pick it up."

"I don't wanna pick it up, Mister, you'll shoot me."

"Pick up the gun."

"Mister, I don't want no trouble. I just came downtown here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes through about ten rolls a week of that stuff. I ain't looking for no trouble, Mister."

"Pick up the gun."

(He picks it up. Three shots ring out.)

"You all saw him - he had a gun."

This kind of material might be why he never gained the popularity he deserved in his native America. He had an astonishing work rate playing around 300 shows a year for over a decade. But his audiences dwindled over time. That`s the reasoning behind the title of the album I`m listening to. He called it The Flying Saucer Tour because he was only seen by small numbers of drunken hillbillies in obscure southern towns. I`m a great fan of this album because the audience clearly doesn`t get his humour. He keeps working but you can sense his frustration and anger that his beautifully crafted material is falling on deaf ears. At one point he tells the crowd

"Here`s the deal. I editorialise for 40 minutes, the last 10 minutes, we pull our chutes and float down to Dick Joke Island together, ok?"

The comment gets a laugh but it`s clear Bill is frustrated that he has to resort to this kind of humour to amuse the crowd.

Fortunately though Bill did find an audience that loved his cynical, satirical angry brand of humour in the UK. The sharp, educated British audiences lapped up the material. My favourite performance of his (Revelations) was filmed at the Dominion Theatre in London. It`s a notoriously difficult venue to play. Other comedians talk about performing their material at breakneck speed and getting off the stage as fast as possible. Not Bill, he is obviously completely at ease. He stalks around the stage, pausing to consider what he will discuss next. At one point he seems to find the audience too easy and goes off into an extended improvised Goat boy routine (Goat boy is his alter ego, the dark side of his sexuality). He pushes the material further and further trying to knock the audience out of their comfort zone. It would be easy to write that kind of material off as sensationalism but it`s so beautifully crafted. Whilst it`s clear it`s intended to shock it is also intended to be thought provoking, hence Bill describing himself as Chomsky with dick jokes.

I could go on and on about Bill. I could give you many quotes or tell you all about his struggle with the American media but I`m going to wrap this piece up now. If you want to read more about him check out his wikipedia entry. If you hadn`t heard of Bill Hicks I hope you`ll look him up and watch some of his material because it has stood the test of time and is as funny and as relevent today as it was when it was first written.So I`ll close as Bill closed . . .

"The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question, is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey - don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because, this is just a ride..." And we... kill those people.
"We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." Just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter because: It's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defences each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace. Thank you very much, you've been great."

Bill Hicks (December 16, 1961 -- February 26, 1994) RIP

Fishing Season Is Open Again

2008-02-15T05:52:00.002Z

No I`m not talking the rod and line type. I mean I`ve started playing the beginners SNGs at Bodog again. I withdrew most of my cash from there and was left with $6 so I decided to try and build it up again playing in the fish ponds. I was playing these games a while back but the competition had increased a little and I was becoming bored with SNGs too so I stopped.

I`m pleased to report that pond life has returned to normal and although these games aren`t the most profitable because they pay 5 places, they are a very easy way for any half competent player to build a roll. I did have another motive in playing them and that was to get used to multi-tabling. I`ve found I can comfortably play 3 games and I think 4 wouldn`t make much difference. Any number beyond that might be challenging because I won`t be able to see all my tables.

Anyway I`ve played 9 or 10 now and only failed to cash once. I also had a 5th place which cost me 20 cents but that was unlucky as my JJ was beaten by 66. All my other results have been top 3 places and my roll is steadily building. My tactics for these is pretty simple. I only raise premium hands and I limp in with pocket pairs until we`re down to 5 or 6 players and then I shift gears and go for the win. It`s proving very successful so far.

I`m off to Newcastle in a few hours to play some live poker with the guys from Wass and my mates from Poker.com so I`ll have to wait until Sunday to go fishing again. Hopefully I`ll have good news from the live event to report on when I get back.

Snowman`s Poker Blog

2008-02-08T02:05:00.000Z

happened across this fantastic blog today. It`s called Diary Of A Crap Poker Player and it`s soooooooo funny. Basically the author, the eponymous Snowman has embarked upon a "Jesus" challenge (the poker variety not water into wine or feeding the masses with a few loaves and fish). He`s started from zero and is trying to work his way to 10k.

Now I know quite a few people have set out on this kind of thing and most blogs about such a subject are likely to be pretty dry reading. Trust me when I say this one isn`t dry or boring. Aside from his encounters with freeroll donkeys he also details his day to day life. His apparently volatile wife, his fiendish mother-in-law and their cat who likes using him to sharpen its claws on.

I read about 30 pages today and it`s consistently funny and at times absolutely hilarious. Whoever Snowman is, he has a real talent for writing. I urge everyone to check it out.

Mooooooove Over

2008-02-07T11:42:00.000Z

Last night was league night, 3 x 10 players razz tourneys and it was time for the alternate game specialists to step up to the plate. And step up we did, I took games 1+3 and Mad took game 2. The first game I had horrible cards and apparently someone had stuck the bring-in magnet under my chair because I had it time after time. These games start five handed and go to a traditional 8 seater after two players have been eliminated. I was the short-stack by the time that happened. Fortunately the bets were high enough to gain some fold equity and I hung in, bided my time, and slowly built myself a competitive stack. Players slowly fell by the wayside and after a long period of small door card raises everyone folds we burst the bubble. The eventual winner eliminated 4th and 3rd place leaving me HU against a much larger stack. That was when the bring-in curse struck again. As a rough guess I`d say I had to pay it 70-80% of the time and although I fought valiently for a while I eventually had to gamble and lost. Still, second place was good points and I`d finished ahead of our rivals.

Mad4Cards continued the run taking down game 2. So final game and this time I had a decent start. I took a couple of solid gambles and eliminated a tilting bluelips and 1CanadianGirl and we were at the final table. This game had a completely different dynamic. Three large stacks and everyone else pretty short-stacked. I avoided any confrontations and concentrated on picking off the weak stacks. After a while they started to drop like flies. Only one player at the table really mattered to our points and twice he escaped elimination at my hands building a healthy stack in the process. Then the bring-in curse struck again and for a while it looked as if I might bubble. Fortunately I was able to complete a few bets and pick up those all important antes and bring-ins. The bubble burst and the 3rd place finisher was eliminated leaving me HU with oioiMalloy. Again I was heavily out chipped and a gamble to double-up failed leaving me with another 2nd place finish.

So a fantastic team performance that`s seen us jump two places and take the lead in the league by 10 points. With more alternative poker to follow over the weekend we`ll be looking to extend our lead and then take down the trophy.

Bodog Bloggers WSOP Series

2008-02-05T15:14:00.000Z

Looks like the Tuesday Night BoDonkey tourney has taken a real step up. Read on for the details.

Bodog Introduces Poker Blogger Tournament Series

Bodog is proud to host the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series opened to any Online Poker Blogger. Join up and challenge other Poker Bloggers each week in our Bodog Poker Room and live to tell about it. Earn points and work your way up the Tournament Leader Board for a spot in the final tournament for your chance to win a $12,000 World Series of Poker* prize package and be a part of Team Bodog 2008.

How it Works
The Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series is composed of a series of 18 qualifying tournaments that run weekly beginning Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 to Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008. The top 30% of finishers in each qualifying tournament will earn points based on their finish. These points will be used to rank players over 4 months of qualifying. At the end of the qualifying series, the top 18 players on the Tournament Leader Board will play in the Final Tournament on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 with the first place finisher winning a $12,000 WSOP* prize package!

Prizes
Weekly Tournaments
Buy-in: $10 + $1
Prize Pool will be distributed as per Bodog's standard multi-table payout table. In addition, the top 5 players each week will also win T$109 to be used to buy-in to the $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament held every Sunday at 4:00 PM ET. The top 5 bubble players each week will win a free buy-in to next week's Weekly Tournament. (T$11 will be credited to these players' Bodog account within 24 hours after the completion of the tournament)

Final Tournament
Buy-in: $0 + $0 (must finish in the Top 18 on the TLB to be invited)
Grand Prize: $12,000 WSOP* Prize Package with Team Bodog
2nd place: T$540 to be used to buy-in to (2) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal
3rd place: T$379 to be used to buy-in to (1) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal and (1) $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament
4th: T$270 to be used to buy-in to (1) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal
5th: T$109 to be used to buy-in to (1) $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament

Bodog Blogger Tournament Leader Board
The Tournament Leader Board will be available at http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/ throughout the course of the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series. It will provide the point totals for every player that has played in the qualifying tournaments. The top 30% of players in each tournament will receive points according to finish which at the end of the qualifying tournaments will ultimately determine who will move on to the Final Event. The top 18 players on the TLB at the end of the qualifiers will earn their way to the Final Event.

How To Register
To register for the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series, poker bloggers must first go to http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/ and sign in with their Bodog account information in the upper right hand corner. Once this is completed, they then must click on "REGISTER NOW" to register themselves into the tournament series. Bloggers will each have to do this once in order to play in the series. Once this is done, they then need to find the "Online Poker Blogger Tournament" in the software and register as they normally would each and every week.

Bodog Blogger Tournament Host Site
Bodogbloggertournament.com will host this tournament series and will provide poker bloggers with weekly updates on:

tournament results for winners and losers
announcements for special promotions or guest players
the latest in Bodog Poker Room news and gossip
tips on how to succeed at Bodog Poker
What are you waiting for?
Sign up today and may the best poker blogger win!

Thank you and good luck at the tables!

Regards,

Bodog Poker

A Change of Diet

2008-01-31T09:42:00.000Z

I`ve backed off playing Razz and HORSE for a while, I`ve been getting frustrated, especially in Razz. The final straw was a 29 player tourney on Monday where I finished a miserable 20th. Constantly hitting bricks is annoying, if I remember correctly I only needed to hit a 10 or less that didn`t pair my hand and of course 7th street brings me a J.

On the brightside my hold em game is running pretty well. On Tuesday I played an online satellite to gain entry into the Virgin Poker festival. The sat. was arranged by the guys over at UK poker Life and we had a field of 24 take a shot at it. I had a warm feeling about the game as on the 2nd hand I limped in with 33 from late position, flopped a set, and turned quads. Unfortunately the payoff was small as no-one else hit anything but still a nice start. I really can`t fault my play throughout the game. I made very few mistakes, the only memorable one being tangling with the chip leader after I flopped top pair from the BB. I led out and he called, I fired again when a blank hit the turn but he re-raised me and I decided to lay it down. Given his style of play I strongly suspect he was just bullying.

I ended up finishing 4th. No seat but my buy-in back plus change and a thoroughly enjoyable game. I`m feeling lazy so if you want to see how things went down at the final table click here

The Mouse Roars Again

2008-01-28T05:56:00.000Z

Back in August I posted about a win I`d had whilst sparing in the Poker.com league (The Sweet Smell of Success). I`d ended up against three players from the same team (Blind Bullies) and ended up taking it down. Well I`m now a member of the Bullies, I think at least in part down to that particular game. They christened me the mouse that roared after those events and I managed to do it again yesterday.

It was the 5x5 omaha game against Smoking Aces and it wasn`t looking great for us. We`d lost a few players to some rough beats. SA weren`t particularly taking the game seriously and omaha can be a great game for donking. After our captain went out in 5th place it was just me against 3 of them. I managed to eliminate their captain Jonojazz at the second attempt setting a trap after I`d flopped 2 pair. As expected he bet out and I re-raised to put him all-in, pretty much pot committed he called. He`d escaped a hand or two earlier by hitting running threes but he wasn`t so lucky second time round.

I then found myself in a nice situation, the chipleader GoldAndBlack was on my right and BioRock the shortstack was on my left. If Gold had played team tactics I would have found this much harder to win but several times he raised his own players BB and after I folded my SB they neglected to chip dump (allowable in these team games). When Gold folded I had the option of putting pressure on Bio or trying to see a flop cheaply and I largely ignored my hands when Gold was in the BB, knowing if I limped he`d raise. The real turning point was when Gold flat called my BB, I had Qd 5h 6s 9s and the flop came 9c 8c 7h giving me the ignorant end of a straight. Gold min bet 300 and I re-raised to 1200, he put me all-in and I called. He had 8s Kc 2d Qc for middle pair and a flush draw, the turn was the scarey 8d adding a few extra outs for him but a 5d on the river meant my hand held up and I had the chip lead. Half a dozen hands later I was able to finish him off after calling his raise from the SB and catching 2 pair on the flop, he missed completely but pushed anyway and neither turn nor river helped him after I called. I now had about 80% of the chips in play and it only took 3 or 4 hands to send Bio to the rail and receive my accolade of MOOOOOOOO`s from my team mates. We ended up tying for points with SA in the match but given how bad things looked early on it was a good result.

I wish the rest of the evening had gone as well but we had a disaster in the 40 player omaha MTT with my 26th place our best result. We`ve dropped 4 places on the scoreboard because of it but there`s enough time to recover, especially if we have a good week in the mixed games.

LOL Donkaments

2008-01-24T09:34:00.000Z

The other night I decided to play a 90 seat sng over at Full Tilt. It was only a $3+30 buy-in but the play was unbelievable. In all honesty the 50 cent sngs at Vegas 24/7 are tighter games than this was. First hand 3 players are all-in, 10-10, 9-9 and A-J. A jack flops but a 9 hits the turn and triples the player up to over 9,000 chips. Now you`d think a healthy start like that would see a player deep into the tourney wouldn`t you? Well not this particular player, by hand number 27 she`d lost the lot!

I actually started off pretty well with AA a couple of times and it won both times. I was cruising along pretty nicely not playing anything stupid when I looked down at KK. UTG and UTG+1 both limp in and from middle position I raise it up to five or six times the BB. All fold round to UTG+1 who calls off a third of his stack. The flop looks perfect for me 10 high and he pushes his remaining chips in. I`m doing my online equivalent of Phil Helmuth, I can`t wait to hit call. He has Q-10 and of course turns another 10. I`m so amazed I can`t even be angry. I was actually laughing because I hadn`t played a hand for at least a couple of circuits and this idiot calls me for a third of his chips with trash like that.

Unfortunately I had to watch as he went on to accumulate more and more chips whilst my stack steadily dwindled away. I kept a close eye on the numbers and after 57 hands we`d lost 65 players. It just amazes me how quickly people lose chips. I mean this was a double-stacked game with reasonable levels.

My own demise came when very short-stacked I pushed in with QQ from early position. I had two callers, one of them Mr Q-10 himself. The flop came A-6-K and I was pretty resigned to losing. The first caller checked and then folded when Mr Q-10 bet out. He showed 66 for a flopped set. I`d like to attack his play but I suppose given the amount of chips he had he was sort of priced in. Anyway no help for me and I exited in 19th place. Sad as it may be I really wish someone else had knocked me out. Giving my last few chips to that muppet was the only thing that stung about losing.

Anyway I`ll finish this post as I started it . . .

LOL Donkaments

Alternative Poker

2008-01-23T19:29:00.000Z

I`m an avid participant in quite a few poker forums and without exception the game of choice and discussion for the huge majority of players is NLHE. Doyle Brunson described it as "the cadillac of poker" and in fairness to him, in the context he meant, it probably is. It is without doubt the most popular poker game in the world right now and the reasons for this are simple. It`s very easy to learn and it receives a lot of publicity through the medium of television. People watch their favourite players and aspire to play like them.

Like most other players it was the game that drew me into online poker and I still enjoy a good game but it`s no longer my game of choice. You`re far more likely to find me playing one of the many variations of poker instead. The same goes for many professionals that play online. Track them down and it`s much more likely they`ll be playing pot limit omaha or omaha hi/lo.

There are plenty of reasons for this. One is that PL omaha is an action game that generates large pots but a bigger reason is that the professionals aren`t just playing for entertainment. They`re playing to win money and if you want to win money at poker you really want to have an edge on your opponents. There is now so much information out there on NLHE that it`s very difficult to find that edge in either tournament or ring games these days. Add that information to the thousands of hands it`s possible to play in a very short time online and you are looking at educated and experienced players. These facts are the reason we are regularly seeing internet players taking down so many live tournaments.

Let`s take the biggest tournament in the world, the $10,000 buy-in WSOP Main Event. For many years now it has been won by completely or at least relatively unknown players. Every professional out there would like to win it but they know the chances of doing so against such a huge field are very slim. These days many of them seem to regard the $50,000 HORSE event as the real world championship. It`s a game that`s only played by those with the biggest bankrolls and who have skill at all the five variations of poker that are played in HORSE.

The same is true in cash games. The Big Game at the Bellagio is a mixed game. Presuming you have enough money to sit down and play at those nosebleed stakes you`d better have a great all-round game if you want to see a profit on your investment.

What I`m saying is that if you want to consistently make money at poker it`s worth spending some time trying out one of the omaha or seven card stud or draw poker varients. Aside from the fact it might prove a +EV decision you might also discover you prefer one of these games to NLHE. And just think, if HORSE or omaha etc becomes the next big poker craze you`ll be way ahead of the opposition and rubbing your hands in anticipation of the fish about to swim your way.

Catching Up

2007-12-24T22:08:00.000Z

So, it`s been a while since I posted anything here. One reason is that I went through a pretty bad patch at the tables. I didn`t lose a ton of money or anything, I was just card dead. On the rare occasions I picked up a hand I either missed the flop or everyone would fold. Some good did come of it. I looked up one of my aliases on one of these sites that datamines and rates your play. It highlighted a big leak in my game and I realised it was an accurate assessment so I set about improving things.

I went over to Vegas 24/7 and played one of their micro sngs and took 2nd place. The money was irrelevent I just needed something to boost my confidence. It worked too, I went on to cash in my next two games and not simply because I hit decent cards, I played well and deserved those cashes.

Fast forward to this weekend and the OFC events. Saturdays freeroll saw me finish 70th from a field of approximately 1,000. No cash but a good result given how few premium hands I had. Sundays buy-in was by comparison a little disappointing. I got off to a great start limping in with 77 and flopping a set. I picked up a thousand extra chips and knew I could afford to play pretty tight and choose my moments. Luck seemed to be on my side as a guy ran his KK into my AA. My QQ held up against AK and for a considerable length of time I was up in the top 5. It was the middle of the tourney where things started to go wrong. A lack of playable hands saw me dropping down the field and if I`m truthful the middle sector is an area of my game that needs work. With 300+ players this was a big field for me to play against, I much prefer games with less than 100 runners. The end came for me against a play I should have recognised and folded too. A limp in which I raised to 4xbb and he re-raised all-in. I had QQ and should have just laid it down even though it was a third of my stack. Instead I called and he had KK. The sickening thing was I flopped a Q but he flopped a K. I was more annoyed with myself about that than I was about my recent run of bad cards.

Tonight has however proved to be a good night. It being xmas eve I knew there was a good chance the sites would be a little quieter than usual. I checked in on the $10 rebuy sat for the $2500 GTD at Poker.com. Sure enough the field was about half its usual size. Only 23 runners for 4 tickets to the main event. I jumped in and knew I stood a good chance when my KK doubled me up after my opponent pushed all-in on a flush draw. That one hand gave me enough chips to play nice and steady and establish a good table image. At the break I had the choice of adding on 1500 chips for $10 and as I was in 5th place decided to add-on. It proved a good decision as did my rock like table image. Raising with A-8s from mid position with 6 players left a fellow leaguer told me he`d laid down 10-10. With 5 players left I can`t remember the last time I`ve felt so nervous about a game. It seemed no-one wanted to go out and we played five-handed for what felt like an age before finally the bubble burst and I`d won my big ticket.

My plan is to play tomorrow`s game because hopefully it will be a smaller than usual field and hopefully a couple of the big boys will be missing from the lineup. Whatever the result I intend to enjoy the game, if I`m lucky enough to cash it would represent my biggest poker win so here`s hoping for a nice xmas present from ther poker gods.

High Stakes Poker

2007-12-07T11:45:00.000Z

Like most poker players if I`m not playing or reading about the game I like to watch other people play. High Stakes Poker is one of my favourite shows, I love the action, I love the table banter, it`s a great show. However I have my reservations about the current series. Specifically about the $500,000 buy-in game that`s running at the moment. There`s no arguement that it`s a great way to attract viewers, even someone who has little or no interest in poker might be tempted to tune in at least once to see a game being played with $5 million on the table.

My problem with this series is I`m starting to feel cheated. I know we`ve seen some huge pots but we`re also seeing those pots being run an unprecedented number of times. Take Patrick Antonius vs Sammy Farha in a pot worth just shy of a million dollars, it was run four times for christ`s sake. I know the pro`s do that to cut down on variance, and I know they have to the right to negotiate how the cash game is run, but isn`t four times taking it a bit too far?

I watched episode 15 last night and there`s a huge hand between Guy Laliberte and David Benyamine. I can`t remember exactly how the action went but Benyamine ends up pushing all-in with the nut flush draw. Laliberte calls and flips over his cards to reveal 2 pair. You can pretty much see the colour drain from Benyamine`s face, he looks physically sick. Then the negotiation starts, at first they`re going to run it once, then they`re going to play for just the money in the pot (about 70k I think) and finally Guy takes the pot and no cards are seen. It was interesting TV but it could have been great TV. Even if they`d just dealt the cards after the deal had been made it would have been pretty good.

Don`t get me wrong, I`m not after seeing someone have their life ruined for the sake of entertainment. I think it was a genuinely nice thing that Guy did for David Benyamine, but that hand illustrates why this series isn`t as good as some of the shows with smaller buy-ins. The stake money means too much to almost every player sat at that table. Guy Laliberte is probably the only player at that table that really doesn`t care about his buy-in. He admits he`s just there for fun and whilst I`m sure he doesn`t want to lose 500k he can certainly afford to. How many of the other players could say that?

I know we`ve seen some huge pots but there was more action at the lower buy-in, Patrick Antonius made the same comment in episode 15. Hopefully they will go back to stakes that the players really are willing to gamble for and if someone wants to bring 500k or a million to the table then let them but don`t insist on it.

That Old Razzle Dazzle

2007-12-06T00:05:00.000Z

This is my favourite week in the Poker.com Forum Team League. Tonights games were Razz and I was down to play two of our three matches. I played very nicely and finished 3rd from 12 in the first match and 2nd from 12 in the second match. A pretty good night all-in-all. A win would have been nice but I`ll take those results and the nice chunk of points for the team.

League Shennanigans

2007-12-03T09:19:00.000Z

The only game I played yesterday was the Poker.com Forum league PLHE 48 seater. I got off to a cracking start then lost a huge chunk of my chips against a player who chased all the way to the river. Blinds were 25/50 and I`d raised to 150 with AKos from early position. I had just one caller. The flop comes A-Q-x rainbow, a decent flop for me but I`m worried that my opponent might have AQ. Nonetheless I fire off a bet for 200 into the 375 pot. It`s flat called and the turn is a blank so I fire another 200 in and agains it`s flat called. The river is a 10 and the possibility my opponent has hit a straight runs through my head but I fire another 200 into the pot. My bet is minimum raised to 400 and I know I`m beaten but I decided to pay just to see what cards my opponent had. They turn over KJ and for once I can`t resist making a comment so I type in "Nice chase". There`s a brief exchange of comments between us but I leave it alone until a couple of hands later.

The action had folded round to me in the SB, I had something like K-4 but decided I could pick up the BB with a raise. I`d met no resistance earlier in the game from the player I was targeting and again she folded showing 8-2. I mucked my cards but commented "I had that beat". Enter my straight chasing opponent who says something along the lines of "Oh I didn`t realise you were psychic, how do you know you`ve won before seeing the flop?".

Well I wasn`t in the mood to take that so I replied "You`re not qualified to comment on my play, just keep chasing your four outers". I get a torrent of abuse back and just reply "Showing your character now eh?" A couple of other players ask for it to be calmed down and that`s it for the rest of the game.

I ended up finishing 5th, solid points for me. The straight chaser went on to win despite doing her best to lose. It was sickening to watch her A-4 beat AK, A-9 beat A-10, A-9 beat AJ and then of course her AK holds up against AQ. I swear I`ve never seen anyone so lucky.

No complaints about my play though. I was solid and aggressive throughout. Took my chances when I needed to and played a couple of hands beautifully.

All`s Well That Ends Well

2007-11-29T04:35:00.000Z

I had my internet connection reinstalled today. It`s amazing how much you miss something when you don`t have it for a while. Three days without the net was very annoying, no poker, no forums, no msn chat. I`m extremely glad to have it back.

I had my final chance to win a seat in a live tourney today. For a while it was looking pretty good too. Thirteen players, 1st and 2nd won the seats. After a slightly shaky start I was chip leader or second for a good portion of the game. The final table arrived and I settled down to play some solid poker. We were down to six players and I really wanted to make the top 5 at minimum to pick up a little cash and get my hands on a free i-pod. I`d been pretty card dead for a lot of the time on the final table so I was happy to see AA in the cutoff seat. All I needed was some action and the shortest stack obliged me by pushing all-in from UTG. I had him covered by a couple of thousand and when it came to me I pushed over the top to isolate him, He revealed 33 and of course spiked a 3 on the flop. That was the beginning of the end for me and a couple of circuits later I was out. So frustrating to play solidly and well for two hours only to lose my chance as a 4-1 favourite. My mood was not helped by another player typing "N1". I waited a few seconds before replying "N1?" His answer was "yeah it`s nice to get lucky sometimes".

I`d decided that was my first and last game of the day but I ended up being dragged in to play a league game. I finished 11th from 12. Not tilt, just poor cards and a lost coinflip at the end.

I was seriously tired and crashed out for an hour or so. Fortunately I woke up in time to tune in to Rounders Radio. I`m very glad I did because I picked up a nice consolation prize. Annie Duke had been supposed to be the guest on Pumped on Poker but an illness in the family had led to her cancelling. By way of an apology UB had offered three 300 piece chip sets as giveaways. The question was typed up in the chatroom and having just read Annie`s page on Wikipedia I typed in my answer in lightning fast time and won the first set. As I don`t have a chip set it`s a really nice prize and I can`t wait for it to arrive.

Old News

2007-11-29T04:33:00.000Z

This post is a little late. Partly because I was too lazy to write it up at the time. And partly because as I write I have no internet connection. I woke up on Sunday and spent quite some time trying to log onto the wireless connection I`ve been using and finally found out that it had been locked. Bad timing for me but it has forced me to get reconnected which is a good thing.

Anyway enough of my internet problems and onto the poker. I played the Poker.com Affiliates tourney and found myself at a table with only one other player who was active. I had ood position on him that allowed me to claim the majority of the free blinds until I was moved. I would have rather had several active players because I hit a large number of excellent hands and only picked up the blinds with most of them. Once I moved tables the decent cards pretty much dried up and I was unable to advance my stack. Nonetheless I made it to the final table and played solid tight aggressive poker and watched as players fell to the wayside. I`d managed to win a few pots and I think we were down to 6 players when from UTG+1 I found myself with AA. The question was how was I going to get some value from the hand? I decided to bet about half my stack and hope someone would take the bait. My hopes and expectations were realised when the next player pushed over the top of me. Great I thought, I should double up with any luck. What I wasn`t expecting was for another player to also push all-in. I called and to go with my AA the first player had KK, and the second had AK. No unpleasant surprises hit the board and I tripled up and took the chip lead. After that we were down to the final three pretty quickly and things were looking very good for me. Unfortunately I bled off my lead trying to take one of the short-stacks out. A-2 vs his K-2 and of course he hit a set of kings to get back into the game. After that we ended up with the three of us pretty evenly stacked. I made it to HU still pretty much even but I wasn`t able to close the deal and ended up taking 2nd place. Disappointing not to take the win but it was an enjoyable game and I played very well on the final two tables.

Friday was the Poker.com Forum League game and it was scheduled for FL Om8b. One of my favourite games at the moment and I was really looking forward to it, as were quite a few other players. Unfortunately they`d cocked up the tournament and it was several hands in before we realised it was standard FL Omaha. I`m not used to playing omaha as a FL game and being annoyed about the mistake I openly said that no one had better bluff me because I really didn`t care too much if I lost. Wether it was that statement or the play it inspired me to I found myself on the final table and ended up HU against Mad4Cards. The lead went back and forth before Mad looked like she was going to steamroller me. I managed to claw it back though and looked on the verge of getting even or even slightly in front when I got my money in ahead on the flop with an over pair and the nut flush draw. Unfortunately she hit runner-runner for a flush and sent me to the rail in 2nd place. Good points for the team but another disappointing 2nd.

My final game report comes from my debut game against some of my old K9 mates. Drader has started his own forum - Hammer`s Hangout and they had a small buy-in at FullTilt. It was omaha but annoyingly it had been set up as NL. My early hands were terrible and the NL format wasn`t helping matters. Fortunately the highly aggressive player managed to get himself eliminated and things settled down a little. There were only four players left after that and one of those was sitting out due to a power loss. Lightning36 went out 4th and in effect I was HU with Philman. I continued to play fairly tight until Drader`s chips had been wiped out and then tried to make an impression on Philman`s impressive stack. I was outchipped by almost 4-1 but I held my nerve, hit a couple of hands and steadily accumulated a few chips. Then just before the break I hit a big hand and managed to reverse the situation so that I had the 4-1 advantage. I was determined that I wasn`t going to let him back into the game and applied pressure for a few hands before calling his all-in and ending the match by hitting my flush draw. A very modest win but one I was pleased with given the chip deficit I`d started the HU with.

Limit . . .ed Success

2007-11-19T02:34:00.000Z

I`ve been playing quite a few fixed limit tourneys on Vegas 24/7. Not hold `em, Razz, 7 Stud 8b and Omaha 8b. The fields range from 40 to 100 and they`re pretty soft. I`m cashing in them regularly and I`m starting to get a healthy little bankroll built up over there. It would be nice to win one but I`ve no complaints about my ROI at the site. I`ve cashed in the last three I`ve played. Two were Razz, and tonights was 7 Stud 8b. I took 5th place tonight from a field of 100. My $5 buy-in brought me a $36+ change prize and I thoroughly enjoyed playing. There were a few comments made about peoples play tonight but on the whole you don`t see the ill natured comments that are prevalent in NLHE tourneys. I`ll continue to play the odd NLHE games but on the whole I prefer my alternative poker.

Sunday League Game

2007-11-18T19:13:00.000Z

Managed a solid 9th from 48 in todays league game. Almost made the final table but was rivered by Noky. He was ahead preflop with A-9 vs my K-10 suited so I can`t complain too much.

Had quite a shock when I sat at my first table. Who should be sat there but bullitpete, Poker.com`s resident pro player. Apparently Scotlady had recruited him to spare for her team. I had the pleasure of sending him to the rail when he raised 3xBB from early position, oioimalloy his team mate pushed over the top for a total of 615 and I flat called from the BB with QQ. Pete just called and when the flop came J high I put him in for his remaining 750 chips. He thought for a while and called, revealing A-J. No help on the turn or river and I eliminated 2 Mad Jokers and claimed my first pro scalp.

HAMMERTIME!!!!

2007-11-15T03:41:00.000Z

I played a sng I`d won a seat at tonight. It was organised by Tony Guerrera as a prize for answering quiz questions on his radio show. There were four players who`d won a seat, Tony and Jon Vorhaus. It was a great game, lots of fun to play, with plenty of banter between Tony and JV.

I ended up finishing 4th after running my JJ into Tony`s KK. Tony took 3rd and JV was second with one of the amateurs winning.

I might not have cashed but I did get to drop the hammer on JV. The action had folded round to me in the SB so I popped it to 3x, JV called and the flop came K-7-2. I probably should have checked but I put out a half pot bet and he folded. Normally I have automuck set but I`d unchecked it just in case so I was able to show my hammer :-)

Not that they`ll read it here but big thanks to Tony and JV for setting it up and playing, it was a blast.

A Crazy Night

2007-11-13T07:18:00.000Z

I didn`t get chance to play until late tonight. I applied for a post as editor/copywriter at NeverWinPoker forum and had a review and a news article to write up before I could play. I`ve no idea if I`ll get the post but I`m keeping my fingers crossed.

Writing done I decided to play some razz at Vegas. It was an up and down game. I struggled early on then hit some nice hands and was in the top 10 for a lot of the game. In the middle of the tourney I was invited to play a HORSE sng. I declined at first but upon finding out bullitpete was playing I decided to play. It`s not that often a low stakes player like me gets the chance to tangle with a pro player. I didn`t do very well in the sng and it distracted me from the razz tourney. As I`ve said before multi-tabling isn`t usually a +EV move for me. I was very short-stacked by the final table but two of the chip leaders clashed and the loser ended up as the bubble. I clawed back a few chips and it looked like I might pick up a spot or two. I say looked like because I ended up finishing just in the money in 7th place.

As I was clinging on for dear life in the razz my Monday night football league game started. I sat out a few hands and joined in once I`d made the money in the razz. I played quite nicely in the league game before being knocked out in 4th place when I pushed all-in with AK. My opponent xTENSEx had called with A-7. The flop came 7-5-2 and I was left hoping I`d catch my king on the turn or river. That hope was snuffed out when the turn was a 7. It was obliterated as the river brought the case 7. If there`s a luckier player on that site I don`t know who it is. He`d already beaten AA with AQ by making broadway on the river. Truly sickening.

I was going to call it a night but as I went to close Vegas down I noticed another razz tourney. It was just too tempting and I regged. After the first hour I was really wishing I hadn`t bothered. I was pretty card dead and whenever I chose to see 4th street I inevitably either drew a face card or paired one of my other cards. I managed to draw the case card at least twice. I swear if it had been a 7 card stud tourney I would have won easily. I had so many pocket pairs and rolled up cards it was scary. I honestly can`t remember getting worse hands in a razz game. However by some miracle I managed to reach the final table and still be alive as we battled for the honour of bubbling. It was a forty minute battle but somehow I clung on and managed to finish in 5th and cash. That achievement feels something like a win given how unlikey it seemed throughout the tourney.

I`m hoping I can get the entire hand history to browse through. It should prove fascinating reading.

GRRRRRR . . . Damn . . . Woohoo

2007-11-11T07:43:00.000Z

A post in three parts here as you might guess by the title.

Although I don`t usually bother with freerolls very often these days there was a pretty good one at Rounders tonight. It was being held at Bodog and the top three places paid T$109. I logged into chat at Rounders and got the password then logged into Bodog where I spent a frustrating twenty minutes trying to register for the tourney. Unfortunately their stupid software refused to let me register. I`ve often had to try multiple times to register there for password protected tourneys but I`ve never been unable to get into one before it closed. Unamused to say the least I sent them an e-mail expressing my displeasure.

After that debacle I wasn`t going to bother playing anywhere else. However three hours later and still wide awake I decided I`d play a sng at Vegas. I was pretty card dead but took my chances at the right time to make it to the final four. Unfortunately I bubbled when my all-in with 33 from the button ran into JJ.

I`d also registered for a $5 HORSE tourney at Vegas and for quite a while it looked like my ill fortune was going to continue. By level five, the 7 stud 8b round I was heading for an early exit and had just 133 chips left, with 54 players remaining. I pushed them in with 2-3-7 and made my low hand by 5th street. On 7th street I hit the wheel but only ended up with half of the main pot when another player made a full house. Nonetheless it gave me some hope and from there I was able to slowly claw my way back and eventually finish in the money in 6th place. Not a win but definitely a result given the way the tourney started. The funny thing was two of the other players who made the final table had also been extremely short-stacked at some point in the tourney. One had been down to 150 chips, the other down to 450. Definitely proves the old adage about a chip and a chair.

Great Night

2007-11-08T05:46:00.000Z

I`ve had a great night tonight. It started off pretty badly with me unable to get a connection so that I could play my first league game but things got better.

Gary Wise had Dan Druff on his show talking about the AP scandal and then the Pumped on Poker show had Phil Helmuth as a guest. He was a great interview, very entertaining, very amusing and even though he obviously has a huge ego he is capable of laughing at himself when he`s away from the table. Quip of the night came when he was talking about his new merchandise and he said he night consider selling some of his sperm, part of the poker prodigy line lmao.

I jumped into the Pumped game on Vegas whilst I was listening. I wasn`t going to bother but I`m glad I did. Not because I won, or even cashed. I finished two spots out of the money in 7th place. I could have gotten away from the hand that crippled me too. I could probably have won the hand with a check-raise on the turn to represent the flush (I`d actually made a straight). Unfortunately I flat called and my opponent filled up a boat on the river. I could have folded there too but figured my opponent for a set of aces. I went out a couple of hands later but it was a great little tourney. It was played in good humour throughout and some amusing observer chat livened things up. I had the pleasure of playing with Murry and a couple of other Rounders regulars and really enjoyed the game. If all NLHE tourneys were like that I`d play more often. Unfortunately the donkey element or the foul mouthed bad losers usually ruins them.

I`m Back

2007-11-06T22:42:00.000Z

Not that I`ve actually been away. I was offline for a while whilst moving house. At present I`m "borrowing" someones wireless connection. I`ve no idea whosee it is but if they`re going to leave the network unsecured . . . I will be getting my own connection again soon, this one keeps cutting off which makes it a risky proposition to play any tourneys, although it is generally ok at night.

I took a bit of a break from playing tourneys because I was either playing bad or just hitting a run of poor cards. Probably a bit of both in truth. I made a pretty good return on Friday night in the $5 HORSE at Poker.com. I was horribly shortstacked by the second round of HE but hit a few hands and then clawed my way to the final table where I ended up finishing 2nd. I took a pretty bad beat HU or I would have stood a decent chance of taking it down IMHO. A two outer killed me off on the river but that`s poker.

As my connection hasn`t been too great I`ve been playing a few ring games, mainly FL and PL Omaha8b at Ultimate Bet. Only micro limit stuff but I`m just learning how to play rings, or trying to at least. I probably play too many hands which is why I`ve been pretty much breaking even. I may risk moving up stakes a little because that should tighten up my game. I`d love to become a decent ring game player. It`s certainly where the money is. I just hate NLHE rings though, and that`s unfortunate because it`s where the majority of players are at the moment.

I`m waiting for an article I sent in to the Carbon blog to be published. It`s called Alternative Poker and it basically promotes the idea of playing games other than NLHE. I think it`s going to be published, I`m presuming that`s where the coupon that appeared in my account came from. I`ve also got a piece I`m considering putting on Helium, a writers site that I`ve yet to contribute to. It`s a piece about turning pro, giving the pros and cons, mainly cons in fairness.

Anyway that`s about all for now see you soon.

Blogger Tourneys At Poker Nordica

2007-10-18T17:59:00.000Z

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

2007-10-14T03:18:00.000Z

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

2007-10-14T03:09:00.000Z

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 . . .

2007-10-12T04:55:00.000Z

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!

2007-10-10T08:17:00.000Z

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

2007-10-10T01:06:00.000Z

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

2007-10-08T22:27:00.000Z

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 . . .

2007-10-08T15:06:00.000Z

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

2007-10-07T08:58:00.000Z

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

2007-10-07T08:55:00.000Z

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

Wedded To Your Hand?

2007-10-07T08:29:00.000Z

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

2007-10-07T08:16:00.000Z

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

2007-10-04T18:30:00.000Z

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

2007-10-03T20:54:00.000Z

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.

Not Such A Good Day At The Track . . .

2007-09-28T23:32:00.000Z

Meaning of course that my run of form and cashes in the HORSE came to an end today. I played the earlier $2+20 buy-in and the usual $3+30. Burnt out mid field in the early game, about 15th from a field of thirty. Bigger than the regular games and paying 5 places I`m not sure how much value there is in playing it. Time will tell I guess . . . Crashed out 13th from 14 in the later game. I think I was too impatient pushing with some hands I should`t have. Not that I had many great cards in fairness to myself.

After that disaster I decided to kick back and watch some TV until the league OM8 game started. Fortunately for me England were playing Tonga in the Rugby World Cup so I watched us achieve a pretty nice win. We were favourites no doubt but given our recent form and the Tongan`s indominatable spirit anything was possible. Tonga actually took an early lead but The Chariot was soon rolling with a beautiful cross field kick by Wilkinson and resulting try by Sakey (unsure of spelling, I apologise if wrong, very nice try :-). We were pretty solid after that and although the Tongans were allowed a consolation try we looked pretty good. Of course things change when we come to the Southern hem. teams but it was a sign of progress and future hope, if not in this WC then for the next.

After that success I hit the red wine . . . A Montepulciano to be exact. A full bodied cheeky little number from Italy. I hit the league tourney shortly after. All-in-all I feel I played rather well. At the final table I tried to take out a player and failed. A little later she pushed again and I was left with the choice of calling or giving her the decent number of chips in the pot. It would cost me a third of my stack to call but eliminate a player and give me a decent stack if I won. Now I`d already called the BB and I was thinking of what to do, call or fold. The thought that I would call if I were playing a regular MTT went through my head but also the reasoning that I should be cautious because it was a league game. Fortunately selfishness won out and I called and won.

The bubble burst pretty quickly and I never looked back from that point. I played strictly to win but couldn`t overcome the evil one and took 2nd. Evil666 likes omaha and although he apparently doesn`t play hi/lo much he had the larger stack and although I took the lead once he won out in the end.

Late Night Update

2007-09-28T04:13:00.000Z

Or should that be early morning? What-ever, which-ever, who cares? Frankly I don`t and I`m guessing neither do you.

Enough of the rambling, why am I here? Why are we here?

That`s just too deep an issue to get into right now so I`ll stick to saying I`ve just topped off the day with a nice 2nd place in the Affiliates Tourney. Didn`t bag a bounty but I did pick up $40.

It wasn`t that I played a great game, I was just lucky enough to be able to pick up a lot of blinds from the sitouts. I then tried to play it cautious to reach final table and have a shot at the last available bounty. It nearly backfired, they couldn`t seem to eliminate a short stack and I was dwindling away. Fortunately I survived and played my short stack very well to finish 2nd. I was massively out chipped HU and it never looked likely I would win. Makes for a good day at the tables for me.

Changes, HORSE and Other Oddments

2007-09-28T00:27:00.000Z

No results for the last couple of days largely because of schedule changes at Poker.com. They removed the 7 stud and HORSE tourneys I`ve been playing. Fortunately they`ve added more HORSE and a Razz tourney. Played the razz today and bubbled from a field of eight. Made a stupid steal attempt and crippled myself. I put that down to playing HORSE at the same time. Fortunately I managed to sneak 3rd in the HORSE

I`ve just finished my second HORSE tourney for the day and guess what?

Yup 3rd again. I`m pleased to keep cashing but I really need to turn some of these places into wins.

As I mentioned I haven`t played too many tourneys but I have had a few ring game sessions at Ultimate Bet. I had to deposit there for the OFC so I`ve played two sessions of HORSE and one of 7 stud hi/lo. The first HORSE session went well, the second I lost and went back to even apart from a couple of bonus dollars I earnt. The stud hi/lo went better, I chased the first hand all the way to 7th, played pretty loose and then got lucky on a hand. My opponent was none too happy at his loss so I told the table I was new to the game. The action I got after that was pretty good and I finished the session nicely ahead.

It`s only 5c/10c but I`m clearing bonuses, making a few bucks and getting a lot of hands in at games I`m less skilled at. Actually from the stud hi/lo being one of my least liked games it`s becoming a firm favourite. There`s a lot of subtlety in it if you make the correct choices for starting hands. The great thing is that most players don`t seem to have much of a grasp on it.

Bodog Bloggers

2007-09-26T02:30:00.000Z

I played in this for the second time. Bad result of 8th, largely down to Lightning cracking my aces with 77. Still I won my buy-in back and had fun playing good solid poker.

Check out the details and come along.

Copied and pasted for your pleasure...

Please post or forward this information to fellow poker Bloggers.
Only 2 more weeks to make this tournament permanent!

Online Poker Blogger Tournament at Bodog Continues!

Bodog is pleased to invite poker bloggers to play in it’s first ever Poker Blogger Tournament with added prize money courtesy of Bodog.

Bodog is adding a total of $125 in bonus money and if you are one of the last 5 players to be eliminated prior to being paid out by the standard payout structure, you will get your buy-in returned by way of a $10 bonus. If you finish 2nd in the tournament, you will receive a $25 bonus. And if you finish first, you will be rewarded a $50 bonus.

The tournament runs weekly on Tuesday evenings and requires a password for entry that Bloggers can promote within their community.

Details of Tournament:

Dates: September 25 and Oct 2, 2007
Tournament Name: “Online Poker Blogger Tournament” at Bodog
Entry Password: bodogblogger
Buy-in + fee: $10 + $1
Starting Chips: 3000 (Double Stack)
Payout: Standard Bodog payout structure
Bonuses:

T$50 bonus paid to 1st place finisher.
T$25 bonus paid to 2nd place finisher.
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T$ = Tournament Credits. These can be used as a buy in to almost all scheduled tournaments at Bodog and have a ratio to cash of 1:1.
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Day of week: Tuesdays
Start time: 8:35pm ET

If participation warrant’s it, we will keep it the tournament running and increase the prizes and/or turn this into a poker league with an ongoing leader board!
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POKER BLOGGERS ARE TALKING!
Articles and Poker Blogs to Check out!

Bodog Poker Bloggerament at Wicked Chops Poker!
http://wickedchopspoker.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/09/bodog-bloggeram.html

Bodog is a Friend to the Bloggers
Written by Carmen of http://carmensincity.blogspot.com/
http://pokerworks.com/article-1199.html

Medicated To The One I Love
http://tripjax.blogspot.com/2007/09/medicated-to-one-i-love.html

12 suit up for this week's Bodonkey
http://smokkee.blogspot.com/2007/09/12-suit-up-for-this-weeks-bodonkey-two.html

Beer, Bodog, and Birdies
http://nickleanddimes.blogspot.com/2007/09/beer-bodog-and-birdies.html

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Ok I Admit It . . .

2007-09-24T17:14:00.000Z

I`m kinda hooked on HORSE. I`ve played every day since Wednesday apart from Sunday when the league took precedence. A solid 6th from 48 in that. One off the money but decent points. But I digress . . . The HORSE game is just so entertaining and such a challenge. The field ranges from 25 down to 14 and a lot of the players are fish just waiting to be snapped up. Most of them don`t play well at more than 2 or 3 games so with a decent grasp on all five there`s money to be made in this tourney. My stud hi/lo has improved, I seem to be getting a grasp of good hands to play and my om8 is proving up to the task. In fact it`s proving one of the most profitable rounds for me. The only round I`m not too keen on is the HE.

Saturday I finished mid field, 11th from 22 if I remember rightly. Today was better although it took a little luck to make it through. That wasn`t helped when some idiot bet out during the Razz with a player having just 30 chips left, and not just any player. It was Mad4Cards who is probably the best HORSE player there. I had a decent hand but I didn`t want to call 600 and folded, this joker had 2 pair and gave Mad over 1k in chips rather than letting me probably take her out and eliminate a player. Fortunately I finished the job a couple of hands later in a close race. The joker got his just rewards finishing on the bubble and I took another 3rd place.

So still looking for that elusive win but as long as this tourney remains +EV for me I`m happy to continue playing.

Still Horseing Around

2007-09-22T18:07:00.000Z

For Friday`s HORSE I set myself the target of cashing. After my 9th place I considered a cash within my expectations. It didn`t start well, the only pots I won were small or split and I was in terrible shape. I made final table though and through a series of lucky and well timed breaks actually achieved my goal for the day.

Seven card stud was a disaster, finished 13th from a field of 14. Ran my ace flush into a boat. I should have laid it down, I have a great read on this player, just stupidity or pride made me call.

Saturdays HORSE and I get a decent start before finally hitting a few hands in Razz and stud. I scoop a beauty of a hand in 7 stud hi lo, take out two players and set myself for the final table. That arrived soon enough and only three of us had decent stacks. It was largely a matter of steady play trying to wipe out the hangers on. That done we settled down to play for 1st. It wasn`t to be for me. I over extended myself running a bluff in the HE section and finished 2nd. A satisfying result but I`m annoyed not to have won.

The 7 Stud was no more than a 5 seater sng in effect. One poor player, one LAG, one solid, an unknown and me. Unknown player gets wiped out by LAG who proceeds to bleed off his chip advantage. Poor player gets sent to the rail in third. I settle back to wait to trap the LAG but the other player gets him. My opponent has over 4k, I have less than 1k and I`m unable to fight my way back finishing 2nd.

Rollercoaster Ride

2007-09-21T02:09:00.000Z

I`ve already detailed my HORSE and 7 card stud results below but I ended up playing a couple more games at Poker.com. First up was a $5+50 buy-in $1k GTD only 182 entrys. I sat back expecting to wait but QQ popped up whilst I was in the bb. With 5 limpers I raised from 10 to 75 and got 3 callers. The flop was 9-x-5 rainbow. I`m first to act and put a pot sized 350 chip bet in. I get one caller. turn is a 6. I don`t think my opponent has a set. maybe A-9 or 10-10 J-J. He calls and flips over 7-8 os. Yes this is another Murry Moment, this guy had about 1200 chips when he called that 350 with nothing more than a gutshot draw. I was out the following hand trying to double up with 66. Ran into AK and AQ, Q hit . . . go figure. Exit stage left for a disbelieving mouse.

I was going to call it quits but saw Blue Lizard Lounge had a $50 added $5+50 buy-in. Field of fifteen, money added, that`s my kinda game. I started well and was up whilst short-handed at 7. The final table saw me drop, climb back up and then almost plummet to the rail.

I picked up AJ, raised 5xbb and picked up the blinds.

Next hand I get AA in the sb. I`m praying for action, specifically I want the aggressive and loose player to raise. I`m chanting at the screen "raise to 600, you know you want to, RAISE!". Miracles do happen, he raises, he raises to 600 too, spooky huh? I consider smooth calling but I don`t want to give him a chance to hit and I raise to 1300. I only have around 600 chips left and he thinks for a while before folding.

Very next hand AQos, a couple of limpers at 200 each, I pop it to 1,000 and bb goes all-in. There`s 4,100 in the pot and it`s a crucial decision for me. If I fold I`m damaged but in ok shape. Call and miss and I`m virtually dead. Of course if I hit I`m in fantastic shape to win.

I call, he has 99 and I get no help. My head started to drop a little but I avoided depression and tilt and clawed my way back to still be in the final five. I took out the aggressive player with KK into his AA. I had him covered by a little but thought I was dead when I saw his hand. Flop was 9-10-J and I was praying for a king or queen. My lucky arrived on 5th street and I was chip leader.

We lost 4th and 5th together so there was no long drawn out bubble battle. It was even with 3 left but the first hand after the break in the bb I`m dealt 4,5os, utg calls and sb completes. The flop comes 7-6-2, I fire out a min bet and utg re-raises min. Sb folds and I re-pop it to 3,600. He calls and the turn is a 9. I push and he thinks before folding. Puts me in a great position and it`s only a couple of hands later we`re HU even stacked.

The HU was back and forth but eventually I had about a 2-1 advantage. My opponent was pushing hard to recover chips and all-in time after time. When I saw K-10 and he pushed again I decided to call, he had KQ and it held up. I ground away for a while but that stupid decision cost me the win. Nice cash for 2nd though I guess.

HORSEing Around And More Stud

2007-09-20T19:43:00.000Z

I finally remembered to play the $4+40 HORSE buy-in at Nordica today. Started off strong in the HE and Om8 rounds and was chip leader from early on. Razz is one of my favourite games and I was looking to consolidate my lead over what are my strongest games. It didn`t work out like that though, I bled off chips throughout Razz and 7 stud and began to drop down the field. I had a brief resurgence at 7 stud hi/lo before being wiped out over two hands by Mad4Cards who wins the HORSE a lot. Tough way to lose I flopped a boat, 2nd nuts, Mad also had a set and of course hit her Ace on the turn. Exit the Mouse in 9th/21.

Seven stud, what can I say? I had the full run of luck both good and bad. I was all-in before 4th street at least 4 times and won them all. It even looked like I might be able to challenge for the win but it wasn`t to be. I finished . . .drumroll . . . 3rd, yup 3rd again. You can`t get much more consistent I guess. Can`t complain though it`s a plus EV tourney for me that keeps the bankroll ticking over.

A Few Results

2007-09-20T01:09:00.000Z

I haven`t played a ton since I returned from my trip but I`ve managed to put together a decent collection of trophies.

Sunday saw my return to the pokercs.com league as a member of Cracked Aces. Another 48 seater and a solid 3rd place finish. I was up against two team mates so it was always going to be tough to take 2nd or 1st.

The QCAP game started whilst I was still at the final table of the league game. I pretty much ignored the early hands but once I was out of the league game I was fired up and determined to win. Aggression and some good cards saw me through. A peach of a final hand won it for me. HU I raise to about 3xbb with 3-5os, my opponent calls and flop is x-3-5, I check she bets, I re-raise and she pushes and flips over A-3. No help and I regain my trophy.

Monday and I crashed out of the 7 stud finishing 13th from 14. A shocking result. I played a HU tourney at K9. Lost 1st round playing too aggressive against a loose opponent.

Then it was onto Porkrind`s Monday Night Football League. Two games, the first a freeroll for a $60 satellite ticket. The second a regular buy-in. I took 5th in the buy-in but played a solid and aggressive game to win the sat coupon.

Tuesday. More 7 card stud action. Ran into chasers who improved and ended up crippled on 120 chips. Just a few hands later I was in 2nd place and was looking good for the win. Ran my full house into a bigger one but escaped with 1,000 chips. May publish the hand history from this. Pretty pleased that I didn`t go bust on it. Grimly fought back and managed 3rd

Played my first game against the bloggers at Bodog. Small field of 11, a $10+1 buy-in double stacked. There was $125 added to the prize money. I started off well but my KK was cracked by 99 and after that I just ground my way back into things. Finished 4th, normally the dreaded bubble but in this case I got my buy-in back because of how the extra money had been added.

Enjoyed the game and will try and play next week. Solid players, why aren`t you playing these Murry?

Wednesday. More 7 stud shennanigans, not much else to say . . . consistent at least

Stoke . . .

2007-09-19T21:42:00.000Z

Not usually a name to inspire much excitement in the average person . . . unless of course they are rapid Robbie Williams fans or have an interest in ceramics. But, for about 70 frenzied poker enthusiasts the location of the Wass and Pokercs.com (we kinda sneaked in) live game. The tourney for Friday night was a £10+£5 buy-in with each player also having a £10 bounty on their head.. I think it was 72 that started, I just sat back and settled in for most of the first hour, I won a small pot or two and at the break I was sitting with what I`d started with give or take a few chips.

The second hour was steady too, I didn`t see many good cards or positions and I was still at pretty much my starting stack, down a couple of hundred as I recall. The evening kinda blurs from here. . . No I hadn`t passed into an alcoholic haze, in fact I was on coffee all night . . . Time just drifted by, I know I had a few hands, AA and KK for sure but I never really managed to accumulate many chips.

It must have been 3 or 4 hours into the tourney when I moved seat for the first time. We were down to two tables but I was still very short-stacked. Sat next to me, on my right was Novice49 and a very drunk girl on my left, with a large stack and a boat load of chips. (sorry I couldn`t resist)

Novi had a similar stack of chips to me and was all-in with 44 just a few hands later and spiked a set to double up. The very next hand I look down at 44 and with the rapidly approaching blinds push. I`m horrified to get 3 callers but they hold up, I may have hit a set, I forget. Definitely the key hand of the tourney for me, it gave me enough chips to pose a threat.

Finally the bubble bursts and we`re at the final table. I`m still pretty short-stacked as is Novi but drunk girl is on a roll taking out players left, right and centre. Novi finishes in 6th and I claw my way to 4th for a £60 cash plus £20 of bounties. Drunk girl of course won the entire thing . . .

Considering it was only my third live tourney I`m pretty pleased with that result. Saturday night was a washout for me though. I finished 40 something from 62 I think. I made a move with top pair and no kicker and ran into top pair ace kicker. Frightening thing was he limped with A-10 whilst he was short-stacked. . . still it worked out nice for him. I didn`t play great, I never really settled and we had an upset at our table over a called bet that was allegedly short. I should explain that our dealers were volunteers not casino staff. It was a screw up and she got stiffed over it. We lost almost a full level of play getting it sorted and it broke my concentration I think.

I`ve got more stuff on Stoke and the days after but I don`t feel like doing it right now. I may post a few results later.

Quick shot of me doing my thing at the table.

I`m the one in the black baseball cap with his back to the camera lol.

Not A Win But . . .

2007-08-26T00:55:00.000Z

Not a win but a nice cash at Nordica in a $200 added game kindly provided by Skinski owner of 5th Street Forum and author of House of Poker Blues blog. There were two of these but I missed the first one. This week I remembered and played a solid patient game to take 2nd.

Wonders Will Never Cease!

2007-08-25T15:41:00.000Z

Having nothing better to do I was looking for a game to play but nothing really appealed until I logged onto Vegas poker 24/7. I saw a Razz sng but it didn`t look like it was going to fill up and I didn`t really want to wait. I was about to log off when I noticed a 7 stud hi/lo sng that needed one more player. Now I like Razz and regular 7 stud but I`ve always struggled a bit with the hi/lo version but as they say practice makes perfect and as it was only a .50+.10 I decided to give it a go. I started off ok then started to fall behind until I managed to scoop a huge pot when I hit a diamond on 7th street to give me a flush to go with my low hand. I never really looked back after that, with a decent chip lead I bullied the short stacks around once the bets became crippling to their stacks and by the time I was HU I had over 9k of the 12k chips on the table. My opponent almost staged a recovery but aggression won out and I took down my first 7 stud hi/lo sng. The winnings were only $2 but the pleasure comes from winning a game I consider myself pretty poor at.

Wingows Ring Session II

2007-08-22T22:20:00.000Z

Ventured onto the 6 seater rings again, this time I sat at a.10/.20c game. I sat down with $20 and left 45 minutes later with $22. A small gain but always better a small profit than a loss I guess. The game was definitely different to the slightly higher stakes I played last time with a couple of very loose and aggressive players joining at various times. Did I feel more comfortable? Well yes, at least initially, although I`m not sure wether that was down to the stakes or because I was in the mood to play. All-in-all I think I`ll play higher again next time, I found the players at that level easier to read. I may try a 9 seated game next time, I`m not convinced short-handed is ideal for me, I still tend to limp with hands I know more experienced players would raise with. The thing is I`ve spent over a year playing highly disciplined tight-aggressive poker and breaking those habits is pretty difficult.

Rounders Radio Freeroll

2007-08-21T03:46:00.000Z

This Monday night tourney only pays 1st place but it`s for a $60 coupon to the Sunday $20k GTD. I managed a respectable (but unprofitable) 5th place from 124 entrants. I probably wouldn`t even have bothered posting this except for a couple of hands that happened during the game.

Hand No1-For simplicity I`ll call SB seat 1

I`m in the cut-off seat with AA

Blinds 25/50
3)UTG Raises to 150
4)Fold
5)Fold
6)Calls 150
7)Calls 150
8)Calls 150
9)I raise to 500 (Hello I have a VERY strong hand)
10)Fold
1)SB calls (he only has around 100 chips left)
2)BB Folds

3) calls 350
6) calls 350
7) calls 350
8) calls 350

Ok no-one believes me

Flop 8d-3c-6h

Action is checked to me. I push all-in for 1330 chips
Everyone folds except for seat 7 who calls with his remaining 1325 chips
He turns over 10-10

Turn Qd
River 7s

DM wins 5305 chips (look no suck-out, this is not a bad beat story :D)

In certain respects I can understand the player who called my all-in, he did after-all have an overpair and I suppose it was possible that I was making a move with AK.

What mystifies me more are the other 3 players who called my significant re-raise in the first place. It wasn`t like I`d been playing loads of hands and although I`d certainly raised before at no time had I come over the top with a re-raise. Certainly no-one had AA,KK,QQ,JJ,88,33 or 66 (all these hands would surely have called- either that or someone made a great laydown) So I can only presume that 1 or 2 had an ace with whatever kicker, maybe the other/s had a small pp or KQ, KJ something in that range. Certainly it seems unlikely anyone had a hand I would consider worthy of calling a re-raise with.

It must be said I was a little worried to get so many callers, obviously not because I was worried over the strength of my hand, rather more about the possibility of being out-flopped. Once I saw the flop I knew that unless someone had flopped a set I was ahead which is why I elected to push and either take the pot there and then or at least narrow the field to 1 or 2 opponents.

Hand No2

This was at the final table with 8 or 9 players remaining. I was short-stacked with only around 7 or 8 BBs

UTG min raises
UTG+1 re-raises all-in (he has me covered but not by much)
I`m next to act and I have 10-10

Normally this is an insta-push hand given my stack size but with the action before me I go into the tank and virtually run the clock down before deciding to fold.

Everyone else folds round to UTG who calls, he has AA vs the UTG+1`s 33. No help from the board and the aces hold up and there is one less player at the table.

I commented to the table that I`d folded 10-10 and one player asked why?

It`s a reasonable enough question, my answer was a min-raise followed by an all-in was too much action for me to push against. I then jokingly replied that my Mousey sense was tingling.

Joking aside there was a certain amount of logic in my decision. Firstly people at final tables are usually pretty decent players. They`ve survived the minefield of maniacs and obviously haven`t made too many mistakes during the game.

Secondly play changes a little at final tables, more than ever players are looking to get paid off for their good cards and early position minimum raises are often the sign of huge strength. If someone sees it as weakness and re-raises they can either come over the top and either take a large pot uncontested or end up HU as an 80% favourite.

Thirdly the player who did go all-in had done so before a hand or two earlier and had turned over AQ. If I called I was likely to either be racing or either a massive favourite or dog against him. Normally I`d probably take that chance but there was the initial raiser to take into account.

If I had called there would have been 400+800+1600+6223+6100 = 15,123 in the pot, the initial bettor would have been calling 4623 chips to win that. That`s odds of 3.27 to 1. Given he raised from UTG we would have to put him on a decent hand, either a big pp or AK, AQ, AJ. With the size of the pot vs the amount he had to call and given that he knew he would see the turn and river for free he almost had to call whatever hand he had,we know of course he had AA.

Now I`m not saying that I worked all this out before making the decision to fold, much of this is post hand analysis. What I`m trying to get across is that although some decisions seem obvious it`s always worth thinking before you make your final decision and listening to those gut instincts. I`ve no doubt my mind had done some of this analysis even though I didn`t consciously realise it at the time.

I Won My Own Tourney!

2007-08-19T00:49:00.000Z

I set up a small buy-in for the regulars at the poker.com forum. This was its second week and I managed to win it. I was in the top 3 for most of the game then re-raised a call and a minimum raise with 10-10. I pushed all-in only to find that the minimum raise had KK. Fortunately I had him covered but it left me quite short-stacked and I had no choice but to push all-in several times just to take the blinds and rebuild my stack. I was called by a shorter stack at one point but my A-8 beat his JJ (We were 5 handed at the time) and I arrived at the final table with a decent enough stack to be competitive.

We got down to 3 just in time for the break and unfortunately one of the players experienced disconnection problems. I sympathise, it happened to me last Sunday and I blinded out of 2 tourneys because of it. He at least managed to get back on with some chips remaining but was soon eliminated. HU I felt in control even though our stacks were pretty even and after an interesting battle I crippled my opponent when we both limped into a pot and I flopped a flush. I checked, she raised, minimum I think, and I pushed all-in. I was expecting a fold but she called and revealed 2 pair. No help on the turn and river and she was automatically all-in next hand which I won.

This other 2nd place was earlier in the week. I nearly didn`t play because my bankroll was running low on the site. Final hand I was all-in with A-10 vs QJ and ahead on every street except the river where she completed a straight. If I`d won that hand we would have had even stacks and who knows. Nonetheless a nice boost to the old bankroll.

In Tribute . . . A Murry Moment

2007-08-19T00:32:00.000Z

Playing the Poker Dream skins freeroll tonight when this little gem occurred.

I have a stack of approx 3,600.

I`m dealt QQ UTG+1, blinds are 150/300 and I raise to 1,200.

Button is the only caller.(stack approx 5,000)

Flop K-7-8

Not a great flop for me but I fire out 1,200.

Button calls.

Turn 9

I check and button checks behind me

River 10

We both check.

He has 66, and makes a straight.

Firstly why would you call with 66 against an early position raise of that size?

Secondly why would you call with three overcards on board with your only hopes a set, which could already be insufficient or a backdoor straight draw? The only thing he could beat was a stone cold bluff or a lower pp. Mystifying play that I can`t get my head round at all.

Ring Game!!!

2007-08-17T03:38:00.000Z

Yep, you`re not misreading the title, I actually played in a ring game earlier. What`s more it was NLHE shorthanded, and .25/.50. Ok I realise that`s not exactly huge stakes but it`s the biggest I`ve played online. The thing is I have money at the old wingows site that I can`t withdraw at the moment so I thought what the hell I`ll try and build a few points with it and see if I can eventually withdraw it.

I really wanted to play at a full table but for some reason there aren`t any .25/.50 9-seaters and I didn`t want to sit at a .50/$1 and be shortstacked. So I sat down with $50 which gave me enough muscle not to be an easy target for being pushed around. I ended up only playing for about 30 minutes but left up $20 which I consider a pretty decent rate for my time. I left in part because I wasn`t really in the mood and partly because I was up close to 50% or my buy-in. I think that`s why I`ll never be a great ring game player. Once I`m up a reasonable amount I don`t want to lose it.

I`m not a huge fan of rings but I`m going to continue playing short sessions with that money and slowly build up the length of time I stay and hopefully end up with a decent amount to withdraw once I`ve built up enough points to do so. Maybe in doing so I`ll get comfortable with playing NLHE as a ring game. I will say that the play was less manic at that level (compared to the real micro-limits) and if I can build up my roll a little more I`ll step up to .50/$1. I know I`ll feel more comfortable at a full table but I can see even from that short session that short-handed is probably more profitable. I think I`ll be doing some serious reading on short-handed play over the next few days.

Crazy Night At Cake

2007-08-16T04:40:00.000Z

My intention for tonight was to play the Rounders HORSE freeroll but things didn`t quite work out as planned. I was registered for it but for some reason the table wouldn`t load. It was probably because I already had two games going at Cake poker. Now Cake is one of those sites I`ve just never got along with, in all the K9 games we played there I managed to reach a final table just once. I always seemed to go in with the best hand only for some miracle card to pop up and send me to the rail. Well I hand $3.50 in my account and decided I`d take it to a ring to try and work it up to $5.50 so I could enter the money added buy-in, and I thought I might as well play the freeroll whilst I was there. My very first hand at the ring I had KK and doubled up to $7 in that hand. I fled the table and registered for the buy-in.

Now the forum that had organised these games had described them as crazy payouts because the payout structure was all messed around with in the freeroll, 3rd place payed more than 1st etc. Well in the buy-in my usual luck struck, UTG+1 I min raised with AA (I was pretty short-stacked and wanted at least 1 caller or ideally a re-raise so that I`d end up HU), one caller and the flop comes king high. I check and the caller fires out a bet which I come straight over the top of. He instacalls and turns over AK. Two cards to come and I`m in the region of 85% to win the hand. Of course the turn is a king and I`m off to the rail cursing my luck.

The freeroll had started much better with me tripling up early on with KK but after that hands were few and far between but I didn`t really mind because there was a prize for bubbling that was better than actually cashing. That actually made for an interesting game, trying to finish in a particular place is actually rather difficult but I actually managed to do it finishing in 31st place.

The unfortunate thing is that I found out the better prize for bubbling was actually in the buy-in, not in the freeroll. That`ll teach me to read posts more carefully LMAO. At any other time I`d be furious with myself but as I have no real intention of playing at Cake again I`d rather someone win those few cents than me. Besides which I enjoyed the challenge of aiming for the bubble.

The Sweet Smell Of Success

2007-08-12T03:02:00.000Z

I`ve won my fair share of MTTs now and although I still get a kick out of winning it`s not the same rush that I had with my early wins. However sometimes a win has a special quality that has me pumping the air and shouting "YES!" and I`ve had one of those today.

I was asked if I`d mind sparing in the poker.com forum league again and as I had nothing better to do I said yes. It was a short-handed 6 table MTT and I started off ok but had a few setbacks and by the last 2 tables I was very short-stacked. I then hit a lucky hand that set me up to reach the final table. However I was still pretty short-stacked by the time I got there and I found myself down to just 900 chips with the blinds at 300/600 and 5 players left. The blinds were approaching when I looked down at 9s-10s and I decided it was time to go for it, UTG had folded and I pushed, the other 3 players all called and proceeded to check down the hand. Things were looking rather bleak on the flop but I hit runner runner spades to give me a flush and 3,600 chips. I was back in the running and it wasn`t long before we were down to four players, me and three players representing the same team as each other. I was still short-stacked and facing a strong line up. Well I picked my moments and to cut a long story short I took the chip lead and eventually won the entire thing.

More Rounders Success

2007-08-10T13:19:00.000Z

For the second night running I made the final table in the Rounders Radio freeroll. This time it was NLHE and I finished 3rd after playing a rocklike game throughout.

There are times I love some of the inept players who frequent these events and this key-hand illustrates why. Dealt 77 in the BB there were two limpers and the SB completed. I simply checked. The flop came 10-7-2, SB checked as did I, the third player to act made a minimum bet and was called by the button. The SB immediately pushed all-in and I couldn`t hit call fast enough. I was absolutely convinced he didn`t have 10-10 and after the other two players had folded I was proven right as he turned over 10-4. No help for him and I doubled through from 5.5k to around 12k. That hand set me up for the rest of the tourney, from then on I was able to just play solid ABC poker and although I had to get lucky once hitting a 2 outer to beat an overpair my progress to the final table was pretty smooth.

You Can`t Beat Luck

2007-08-09T06:46:00.000Z

I have just finished a marathon HORSE freeroll over at Vegas poker hosted by Rounders Radio. From a field of 178 I took 2nd place and I`m quite frankly depressed about it. I played badly at the start and I was down to 119 chips by the fifth level, the stud hi/lo. I then came back, with a little luck and clawed my way to the final table where I played great poker just to survive. I watched the bigger stacks fall by the wayside until I was HU. I even managed to get close to even at one point but I just couldn`t hit the right cards at the right time. It`s frustrating because my opponent was not a good player or maybe he was a genius so far above me in poker skills that I just couldn`t conceive what he was doing. However when a guy calls off 8-10% of his stack with 7-2 suited I tend to have doubts regarding his ability. He actually won with it too which is why this post is titled as it is. That wasn`t the hand he beat me with but all night I watched him hit, time after time after time. I probably should have had a little more patience and waited for the games I`m stronger in to come round but the antes and bring ins were getting heavy and I needed to pick up a pot every now and again just to stay in the running. I will say that he played quite well HU but with the cards he was getting it really wasn`t that difficult.

Storming Weekend

2007-08-06T20:15:00.000Z

I`m going to review this as a long weekend starting from Thursday when I took 3rd in the 7 card stud freezeout at Merge, no screenshot unfortunately. Friday I improved on my placing and took the entire thing down. I played solid throughout and ended up with a 2 to 1 deficit when it was HU. Things got worse and I was down to around 2,000 chips with my opponent on around 22,000. Well they say a cornered rat is dangerous and so is this mouse.

I love this tourney, it`s a regular little cash cow for me. I`ve monied in it probably 40% of the time I`ve played it. I also like it for the players, there`s rarely any of the bad graces that seem to be in most NLHE tourneys these days. The players are there because they like the game and there`s rarely any serious donk play there. Although I did get called that in todays game. Rightfully so as it happens. I wasn`t paying as much attention as I should have been, and noticed that I had been dealt K-x-K, everyone had either folded or limped and I raised only to notice as I clicked that the last player to act had an ace showing. He immediately re-raises, everyone else folds and I`m looking at a raise that will destroy my already small stack if I call and miss. I thought about it for a brief while and decided that it was unlikely he had rolled up aces and pushed all-in. He insta calls and the cards roll over to reveal he does indeed have A-x-A. Fortunately for me I hit a second pair and he doesn`t. This prompts the donkey smiley popping up on screen. My first comment is "whatever" followed by my explanation that I was aware of what he had and had decided to gamble. Surprisingly he apologised for the donkey comment and we finished the game in good spirits. See what I mean about the difference at these tables? Actually he had the last laugh anyway, I was shortstacked and pushed from late position with a pair of nines, he called and flipped up rolled up sevens and although I had a brief hope of stealing another win with a flush draw that was crushed when he hit his fourth 7.

Anyway back to the weekend, Saturday I hardly played but did manage a solid 13th in the Poker Dream Skins Freeroll. This is played purely for pride, a contest between the various skins that are hosted there. K9 Poker Room has won the last 2 months and we set off towards making it a hatrick with a solid performance from our members again in this game. 5 players in the top 20 (scoring positions) and 2 of those made the final table.

Sunday was where I had the really outstanding performance. I played the $2 limit badugi tourney for the first time.

A very enjoyable if tough game.

Then I was asked to spare for one of the poker.com league teams and took down 5th place and a small cash for the team I represented.

I finished that just in time for the QCAP buy-in and it looked like I was on for another win only to see it snatched away on the river when my opponent filled up her house to beat my straight. I can`t really blame her for calling on the turn with 2 pair although my check-raise did offer some clue that I had hit something pretty hard. Perhaps I could have gotten away from it but I thought she most likely had a set.

Finally I won some money for my Full Tilt account by calling in to Rounders Radio, I`ve no idea how much I missed the early part of the show. During the show the subject of all in or fold tourneys came up and I mentioned that we sometimes played them at poker.com by gentlemen`s agreement. We ended up having two with Ace Jones, myself and some other regulars participating. I won both and picked up not only the prize money but a Rounders Radio T-shirt too. No screenshots from those, not really worth it.

And finally today I played the badugi tourney again and guess what . . .

I`m consistent at least lol.

Catching Up

2007-08-06T16:36:00.000Z

It`s been a while since I wrote anything probably because I had a mini-break and if I don`t play much I don`t write much . . . well it is a poker blog.

Nothing significant to say right now but I`ll post a few recent results here then do a weekend report next because I had a stormer :-D

Not entirely sure when I picked up this addition to my rapidly expanding trophy cabinet but I`ve got to say I`m loving this tourney

Then there was another win in my friends forum game. We play a small buy-in every week with a freeroll for the regulars every now and again. Fun poker with nice people, just the kind of games I like.

A Good Morning

2007-07-21T11:59:00.000Z

Signed onto Bodog as soon as I got up this morning and decided I`d play a $2 Euro qualifier. No good reason to really as it pays in tourney dollars and I have a boatload already. Just fancied it as a warm up game, ended up finishing 2nd and picking up T$10. There was also a $6+60 buy-in tourney starting 30 minutes later and I decided what the hell I`ll play that too. Didn`t realise it was a turbo but it turned out ok. I Finished 4th and cashed for a little over $36 which is pure profit because I paid in T$. So I actually made a cash profit and a T$ profit.

I`ve never been a huge fan of the Bodog software but I have to admit that for multi-tabling it`s great with the little window on the left showing you your other table, and allowing you to play without having to flick backwards and forwards all the time if you have poor cards.

This Weekend Keeps Getting Better

2007-07-15T02:43:00.000Z

The 5th Street freeroll over at Poker Nordica. They say a picture paints a thousand words so . . .

Another Near Miss

2007-07-14T04:23:00.000Z

I played the Affiliates Summer Championships Tourney at Carbon last night. It was a $500 freeroll with just 45 entries, 2500 starting chips and a decent structure, exactly the kind of game I like. It started terribly, getting a few decent cards but either people folded or my pocket pairs missed the flop and I was forced to fold. Eventually though my patience paid off and I hit a nice hand and started to make some headway. I received a pleasant compliment when the Beer Guy identified me as one of the tough players to be up against. I`ve always enjoyed reading his blog and think he writes some great poker strategy articles and although we`ve been at a few tables together I didn`t think I`d registered on his radar.

The final table arrived and it was a pretty long battle to eliminate the necessary five players to get into the money places. My stack dwindled as the cards went cold but I stuck to my principles and kept a cool and patient head. I was lucky to river an ace against KK but shortstacked as I was it was the right move and things started to look up. I made the final three and if my final hand had held up I would have been in great shape to get the accolade I so desired. I was ahead pre-flop, on the flop and the turn but my opponent spiked his 2nd pair to drown me on the river.

Funny isn`t it, a few months ago I would have been made-up about winning the money but all I felt was disappointment at not winning the entire thing. I played very well at the final table and it was a huge disappointment to lose in the way I did. Not a bad beat I guess although certainly I was unlucky. I could perhaps have just raised a decnt amount and then taken it down on the flop but then again there`s no guarantee my opponent wouldn`t have put me all-in if I`d just bet. On a positive note I think the attitude I have at the moment that only a win will do is one of the factors in my recent improvement in form, and I have no intention of changing that attitude. My bankroll is more than sufficient for the games I want to play so I no longer have to worry about just scraping into the cash positions to build it up a little.

Published Again!!!

2007-07-12T22:10:00.000Z

Well they decided my latest entry into the blog article competition was good enough for general consumption and it`s up over at Carbon poker`s blog and you can also read it here. I`m surprised more people haven`t given this a go, $25 for a few hundred words seems a great payoff to me, but who am I to complain if there`s no one else interested? I`m happy to take advantage of Carbon`s generosity and I`m already thinking of my next article.

The Way of the Shark or Kung Fu Poker

2007-07-12T22:00:00.001Z

Once again in this article I`m taking you to the mystic east to try and make you look at our favourite game in a different light. In many respects this article is aimed more at the beginner but hopefully even the more experienced players amongst you will find some food for thought contained within it. I`m going to have to apologise for a slightly misleading title, I know very little about kung fu other than it means practiced skill (and therefore could be applied to poker). I have studied the martial arts but I practiced ju-jitsu, however I thought kung fu would be a far more familiar martial art to mention and quite frankly a better title for this article.

So why compare the two disciplines? At first glance there is very little about poker that relates to the martial arts. One involves hard physical training the other requires long hours sat at a table or in front of a monitor. Well the most obvious similarity is discipline. If you want to be good at either you`re going to have to practice and the more you practice the better you should get. In the martial arts your fitness, strength and dexterity are areas you should work on. In poker the majority of the work you do is going to be on your concentration and reading abilities. However even in poker physical fitness can be an advantage. Many of the top professionals keep themselves physically fit because it`s been proved that the fitter you are the better you are able to maintain concentration. For most of us that play for a couple of hours a day at home this isn`t going to have a huge effect. However if you`re intending to sit at a tournament or ring table for 12+ hours it`s worth considering.

What I really want to talk about is the process of learning and this is where I feel the major similarity between poker and the martial arts lies. When I attended my first ju-jitsu class I didn`t learn one-handed throat throw as my first technique (yes there really is one, and it`s just as nasty as it sounds), I learnt how to land from a throw, I learnt the basics of kicks and punches and how to stand. The same applies to poker, before you can learn those expert plays you see the pros make you need to master the basics. If you`re a beginner you really don`t want to be raising from middle position with 7-8 suited, you`re just going to get yourself into trouble most of the time. Stick to the basics, the top ten or twenty hands until you have a solid grasp on what you`re doing and more importantly why you`re doing it. That really is a key point of this game, you should always have a reason for every action you take. If you raise, bluff, check, limp,fold, re-raise, check-raise, smoothcall, all-in, make sure you know why and that you`re selecting the best technique/play at that time. The cards you choose to play are in effect the techniques the martial artist uses in sparring and you need to practice to perfect those

Even the way we choose to play has comparisons with the martial arts. A loose- aggressive player style could be comparable with someone who practiced a hard external style (Hard or external styles rely heavily on strikes, using force to overcome an opponent. Soft or internal martial arts concentrate more on defense and use throws and locks to disable an opponent using his own strength against him) like Wing Chun whilst a tight style of play probably compares better with something like Akido, defensive but just as effective. However as poker is a game of deception where we often rely on the mistakes of others to profit it is best to mix up our style to keep our opponent off balance, in other words we want to practice a hard/soft style where we can choose to either attack or defend with equal effectiveness.

Sticking with my martial arts analogy you`re progressing through the grades, from white belt to yellow, from yellow to green, from green to blue etc. As you progress through the grades you`re learning to play different hands and use different plays just as a martial artist learns different techniques as they progress through the grading system. Be patient, you can`t learn it all in a day, week, month or even a year. One day if you practise enough you`re going to be a black belt or in poker terms a shark. However just as in the martial arts once you`ve reached those lofty heights you`re going to realise that far from knowing everything about the game you`re really only just beginning. Doyle Brunson says he learns something new everytime he plays and he`s been playing for over fifty years. If it`s true for a legend like him then it`s certainly true for all of us.

7 Card Stud

2007-07-09T19:42:00.000Z

The results keep rolling in this month, I`ve just taken down the 7 card stud $2+20 freezeout at Nordica/Carbon. It`s a game I enjoy although I don`t play it a lot. I was pretty short stacked on getting to the final table but I played tight and waited to hit a few decent hole cards. A full house dragged me back into the game and from there I never really looked back. I took the chip lead and never lost it. I took a couple of gambles to eliminate players and by the time I was HU I had a commanding lead and it was just about pressure and a willingness to gamble a little. It didn`t take too long to wrap up and although cashwise it was a modest win it was nonetheless very satisfying.

A Quiet Weekend

2007-07-09T03:48:00.000Z

A quiet weekend pokerwise, I hardly played. Jumped in a Bodog sng whilst waiting for friends on Saturday morning and finished 3rd. It was a surprisingly tight game but I`ve noticed that during the day the players seem a little more clued up. The funny thing was one of my mates was watching me play and was completely shocked when I was mucking A-rag and hands like K-10, it gave me an insight into the mindset of someone who has only watched a little poker on tv and perhaps played a few friendly games.

I was shattered Saturday night having pulled an all-nighter but had promised to play a friends birthday tourney and of course the 5th Street Charity Ball. As I`ve said before on here I don`t play well when I`m tired and I made some horrible plays in Mimi`s game before busting out after an hour or so. In the charity game I was literally falling asleep and although it was still annoying when my AQ was beaten by AJ I was rather glad I could go to bed.

That meant I missed the Nordica badugi game, kind of a shame as only 7 played with the guy who got on my nerves the other night finishing in a fine 7th place lol.

Sunday I again had guests who left just as the 5th Street freeroll was starting. I had pretty awful cards throughout the early stages but made the final table where I picked up a few hands and finally took 3rd place for a little $20 cash.

It should have been the OPT Grand Final but the tourney wasn`t on the schedule so I`ll be playing it later in the week I guess. A 50k freeroll entry for 1st and 10k freeroll entries for 2nd and 3rd, only 17 players max I should stand a decent chance of cashing and there`s no reason I can`t win it.

Pretty Much A Break Even Day

2007-07-07T03:14:00.000Z

A funny old day at the tables, played a 7 card stud tourney and did well but failed to cash when some guy made what I considered a really stupid re-raise all-in after I raised for the first time in ages. I was showing a Q and had another in my hole cards. He was showing a 10 and turned over another 10 with an ace. We both ended up with two pair but he spiked his ace to win it. I had to wonder what he was thinking making that play but that`s the way it goes I guess.

Game 2 was the triple draw at OPT, which I was both looking forward to and dreading at the same time. With only 9 players I was hoping to get the full table and the one without Hurikan on. I saw him play hold em the other night and he just pushes and pushes. I ended up on the 4 man table with the aforementioned donkey, a double whammy. He played true to form raising the hell out of virtually every hand. It was very frustrating to play but I knew if I held back I`d nail him and I did several times. We made it to the final table where someone finally took the last of Hurikan`s breath away and then we actually started to play some decent poker. I fancied my chances but ended up bubbling in 3rd place making a push at a pot. No regrets there other than I shouldn`t have stood pat with my 9 high when I was called.

Game 3 was the K9 tour game at K9 Poker room. I sat out most of it playing triple draw and came back to find myself very shortstacked. I managed a double up and then I was cruising finally managing to get the chip lead for a while. Unfortunately I made a couple of moves with slightly raggy aces and ran into a pp and AK held by LarryKiller. That was the end of it for me, no kind saves from the poker gods tonight. Took down third place though for enough to cover my games for the day with a few of bucks profit.

There`s the badugi game tommorrow which I beieve has been changed to PL. I`m undecided as to wether I`ll play or not. Not sure if I want to chance a run in with Hurikan again. It`s been a long time since I`ve ragged on someone at the table but he annoyed the hell out of me so much that I made a few choice comments. Nothing abusive just a few quips about variance and expressions of general annoyance. I was pretty sure he wouldn`t win with such aggressive tactics in a lowball game, and I was right. Variance is such a killer in triple draw, if you don`t believe me go read Chris Fargas` blog Twenty-one Outs Twice. Such a shame the game wasn`t changed to limit, it would have been far more fun. One of the guys at OPT said they hadn`t been able to get it changed in time but concerns were expressed several days ago after the NL Razz fiasco. Still I know they`re out in Vegas for the WSOP and that Merge have had some server issues so perhaps it wasn`t just a lack of inclination on their part.

Poker Gods Come Good

2007-07-06T04:47:00.000Z

Well after last nights disappointment the poker gods saw fit to redress the balance tonight giving me a couple of lucky escapes and allowing me to take down my first win at OPT. Their main event in the Nordica series was a $10+1 buy-in with $200 added and amazingly only ten players bothered to show. A very tough table but given my present form in sngs I fancied my chances from the start. I played super tight for most of the game only opening up when half the field had gone. I was lucky not to bubble and then got lucky again when my Q-5 ran into AK as I attempted to steal jermn`s BB. After that I had a significant chip lead and mercilessly applied pressure with any piece of paint I was dealt. Murry took 3rd place and jermn was again unlucky against me when he called my raise with 55 against my Q-8 and I spiked an 8 to win the tourney.

Nice to put up a decnt showing though, I`ve had a terrible run in the games I`ve played in that series so far. The win also gets me a seat in the Grand Final and as it will be a small field I should have a decent chance in that.

There are two events left, A-5 lowball triple draw and Badugi. I like both games but unfortunately both are set up as NL games. Were the A-5 limit I would really fancy my chances as I doubt anyone else has played too much of the game. As a NL game it`s going to be tough because I`ll have to cope with the players who just want to gamble because they have little or no experience of the game. Despite saying I wasn`t going to play I think I probably will. The prizes are just too good to ignore ($100 added) especially with so few players turning up, same goes for the badugi game.

So Damn Close

2007-07-05T13:44:00.000Z

Well I just missed out on taking down the $500 First Depositors freeroll at Carbon last night.

It`s frustrating to play so well, get so close and then fall short of the mark. It wasn`t as if I`d had great cards. In fact I was the short stack for a long time, right from the bubble bursting in fact. I had to claw my way to the final table and then I played very well once I got there. I don`t think I made a single bad move, even the last hand I was ahead until the river. If my opponent doesn`t spike a pair I`m chip leader with a 2 to 1 advantage and although it`s not a sure thing I fancy my chances with that advantage HU.

The only question really is wether I could have laid down the A-10 from the BB when the SB pushed all-in. Three handed I rightly figured I was ahead (he had KQ) and decided to go for it. Hindsight is all too easy I guess but I can`t help but wonder if I should have let him take the blinds. The problem was that all of us only had around 10 big blinds and I`d mentally made the decision that I was going for the win and wasn`t going to be happy with 2nd place. Maybe I could have folded but at the time I was running well and hitting a fair few flops.

Still it`s my best result from those games so far. I`ve made the top twenty a few times but that was my first final table. I think I have one more shot tonight and if I do I`ll be giving my all to try and win that ribbon.

It`s Not Over Till The Fat Lady Sings

2007-07-02T17:59:00.000Z

I`ve just played a Rounders sngs at GNUF, you have to finish 1st or 2nd to qualify for the next level. Well early on I get AK and the flop come A-J-x, I bet and the guy re-raises. Stupidly I re-raise and of course he has AJ and ends up making a boat so I`m down to 100 chips with 9 players left. I didn`t tilt though, in fact it just made me real determined to win and that`s just what I did. Probably the best comeback I`ve ever made, to say I`m pleased is an understatement, in fact I think I`ve pulled a muscle in my arm after leaping to my feet and punching the air in victory lol.

Round 2 I have to finish 1st or 2nd again to move up, 3rd gets me a replay. After round 2 it gets progressively easier to qualify for the next level. The final level pays $3,000 for 1st, not bad for a $5+50 buy-in.

K9 Finals

2007-07-02T15:46:00.000Z

So last night we played the yearly finals for the Freeroll Tour and Money Tour. I was out pretty quick in the Freeroll final when my bottom set ran into top set. The eventual winner was Scott Drader who beat Bully HU to win his championship ring. I don`t think there could have been a more popular winner, Scott`s been with K9 since the beginning and although he`s clearly a good player he`s struggled to win events taking down only 1 I believe. Well he came good last night and took down the big one.

The Money Tour final went much better for me at least early on it did. I was in the top 3 for most of the game and genuinely fancied my chances once we were at the final table. The problem was the blinds, with the exception of the chip leader everyone was short-stacked and it became a bit of a lottery. My own demise came when I re-raised all-in with AKd and found out Moody had AA. I was so annoyed, I should have known his early position bet (as opposed to all-in) was a sign of strength and I should just have thrown that big slick straight into the muck. Still, hindsight and all that eh? I`ve got to learn to listen to those little voices in the back of my head. Desser eventually took the win battling back from a 5 to 1 chip deficit.

Don`t You Just Hate It When . . .

2007-06-27T12:25:00.000Z

Don`t you just hate it when you do everything right and still lose? Played the First Depositors FR at Carbon last night and had ground my way into the money despite having very few playable hands. We`re down to 15 players and I double my 3,500 stack with AQh. The next hand I`m the BB and I had AKos and there`s just me and the button who limped in the hand and I`ve checked because I know this guy (40k+ chips) will call me with almost anything and I want to see the flop. Well it comes king high and I check knowing he`ll try and push me off. Sure enough he pushes all-in nd I can`t call quick enough. He has 34os giving him a pair but the damned river makes him a straight Now it`s not a bad beat he had 9 outs but still it was frustrating, a double-up there would have given me an average stack and who knows how far I might have gone.

Still that`s poker as they say . . .

Crazy Weather

2007-06-26T07:19:00.000Z

Wow what a crazy day we`ve had locally with a months rain falling in one day. Rivers have burst their banks and some of the roads flooded so badly that cars were actually floating down them. Buildings have collapsed and people have had to be evacuated from their homes because there`s a possibility one of the local dams may burst, it has already cracked and they`re looking at possibly releasing the water in a controlled fashion. Helicopters where rescueing stranded people and according to the news the emergency services were receiving calls every thirty seconds. Our local council ran out of Road Closed signs.

Apart from losing power because of a flooded sub-station it hasn`t really affected me but it was literally impossible to get out of my area yesterday unless you had a boat or wanted to swim through the deeper puddles.

Fishing Trip

2007-06-22T18:53:00.000Z

I happened to start chatting to a mate of mine on MSN the other night and he mentioned he`d been playing the beginners sngs at Bodog. I`d played one recently myself and noticed that the opposition was pretty weak and we decided to sign up for a couple. The first was pretty much a slaughter margin with the two of us ending up HU and me taking it down. Army won the second one with me taking 4th and we played another tonight which I won and he took 5th.

The thing is these pay 5 places so any half decent, patient player should at worst get their stake back and probably should profit a little most of the time. I`ve played five in total now and placed 1st three times, 2nd and 4th once each. The 2nd place came from a $4 buy-in where the players seemed a little more clued up but it was still pretty easy to outplay most of them. I really should have won it but my opponent kept hitting against my better starting hands.

Now I know some people won`t regard these games as being worthwhile playing because of the extended payout structure but they really are a great way to build your bankroll in relative safety. They`re also a good place to try out some moves.

So if you fancy catching a few fish and making an easy profit check them out.

Published!

2007-04-28T12:12:00.000Z

Over at the Poker.com forum they had a competition to write an article that would be published on the Carbon/Poker.com blog. I`d had an idea for a piece rattling around in my head for a while but had never gotten around to writing it up. The competition was the inspiration I needed and I put fingers to keyboard and wrote up Sun Tzu and The Art of Poker. I was somewhat surprised, although pleasantly so when I heard my modest effort had won the competition. You can check it out at the Carbon Blog where the guys have added a nice graphic to the article and of course I`ve put it on here too.

I`d just like to say a quick thank you to the people I showed it too prior to entering the competition. Your words of encouragement helped give me the confidence to submit it.

Sun Tzu and the Art of Poker

2007-04-28T12:04:00.000Z

No doubt some of you are saying Sun who? So before I continue I`ll give you a very brief history lesson. Sun Tzu was born in China around 500B.C, around the same time as the great philosopher Confucious. Sun Tzu was a great strategist and commander and he wrote thirteen essays that comprised The Art of War. This text is still used in military schools today and although the equipment and style of war has changed immeasureably the lessons contained within the essays are still as sound as ever.

There, that`s it, history lesson over, it wasn`t too painful now was it? So why am I talking about an ancient Chinese strategist on a poker blog? Well there`s a quote that says "Cards are war in disguise of sport",and it`s very true, strategy plays a great part in poker as in war. We each have our troops (chips) our weapons (cards) and our battle field (the felt or cyber-felt) and we are the generals trying our best to achieve victory.

I`m not going to attempt to analyse the entire book because I don`t have the space or time to do so. I believe there is a poker book based on it but I haven`t read it. This is purely my interpretation of a very small, but very important part of it.

Chapter 3 is entitled Offensive Strategy and the closing statement of the chapter is:

"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant of both the enemy and yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every battle".

When you first join a table the first thing you should do is start to categorise the players are they loose, tight, aggressive, passive. The type of player they are is going to give you your strategy for beating them when you are in a hand with them. Against a tight aggressive player you can be more aggressive and bluff and steal more pots. You need to be wary when encountering resistance though. Against the loose aggressive player you`re going to need a better hand unless you too generally play in that style. Which brings me to the part of this quote that I really want to look at - knowing yourself.

In this game we have to know our own strengths and perhaps even more importantly our weaknesses. I love to watch Daniel Negreanu play, I have the greatest admiration for the loose aggressive style he has, the same goes for Phil Ivey. However I can`t play in the same way, I`ve tried upon occassion but inevitably my nature re-asserts itself and I go back to my tighter style of play.

We are what we are, there is no denying that. As the saying goes "The leopard cannot change its spots". Our nature determines to a great degree the type of poker player we are. Younger players tend to be more loose and aggressive, they are fearless and perhaps lack the patience of an older player. Some players will favour a mathematical game, others rely more on instinct. Get to know which style of play suits you best and play that way for the majority of the time. That`s not to say we can`t switch gears for short periods of time when the situation allows but that`s experience not nature.

To quote former world champion Walter "Puggy" Pearson

"Always remember, the first thing a gambler has to do is make friends with himself. A lot of people go through this world thinking they`re someone else. There are a lot of players sitting at this table with mistaken identities. You wouldn`t believe it."

To look at what I`ve said in a strategic sense, by playing in the way that suits your personality best you`re picking your battleground. You`re giving yourself the best chance of winning because you`re fighting on ground that suits you. The same strategy should be applied to the games you play. As popular as no-limit hold `em is you might find that your personality suits limit hold `em better or even one of the other varieties of poker.

So take a few moments, think about your personality, assess your strengths and your weaknesses, be honest with yourself. You may be able to find something that will allow you to improve your game.

A Hot Weekend

2007-04-17T04:16:00.000Z

The weather was unseasonably warm over the weekend but that isn`t what I really mean in the title of this post. Ever since Friday night I`ve been playing pretty darn good though I say so myself, actually I played well all last week and I think I know why. There was a post over at Rounders Radio that asks what 3 things you need to do to improve your game. Well I gave it some thought and identified a couple of things I could do to try to improve my game and going on recent results they seem to be working. I`m not going to list them here, too many people I play against regularly read this blog and they will have to figure it out for themselves lol.

Friday night I was on a high from winning the $20k GTD coupon and played in two simultaneous Rounders games, one at Full Tilt the other at Poker Stars. I played well in both and went out at Tilt on a truly sick hand that I should have folded. I had even decided to fold then called anyway. The sequence of events was a minimum raise from UTG or UTG+1, a re-raise from me with QQ and then an all-in by the shortstack on the button. The initial raiser then pushed all-in and as he had me covered I`1d mentally decided to fold, instead I called, he had AA the shortstack had KK. An ace came on the turn and a queen on the river just to taunt me. A stupid mistake his play screamed aces. I ended up around 60th from about 500 players. The field at Stars was much shorter and I quickly accumulated a huge stak that kept me in the top 3 for most of the game. It`s not a situation I`m really used to and I probably didn`t use it to my advantage enough. I ended up finishing 19th out of 150+ when my QQ was busted by KJ. I hit the set on the flop but the turn and river gave him broadway. Hindsight is all too easy in this game but I should probably have just re-raised rather than going all-in and trying to take his bet and the blinds. Nonetheless I was reasonably pleased with my games.

On Saturday I had a busy schedule, too busy if truth be known. First up was the Rounders WSOP freeroll at Bodog, then starting an hour later there was the Get Well Soon Game for Skinski and the finals for The Poker Forum Challenge. That`s where the problem lay, no way was I missing any of these games but I know I don`t multi table very well. I was going well at Bodog and then the other games started and I was doing pretty well in all three. I managed to get three very good hands simultaneously and I think that`s what got me knocked out at Bodog. AK in the pocket and a King high flop. I honestly think I would have gotten away from the hand if I had been at just the one table but I ran into KK and it was game over. In TPFC I had a flying start and ended up finishing 16th, a solid result and the highest placing from the K9 Team. In Skinski`s game I played very well overall although I did make a couple of stupid mistakes that meant I had to get lucky with pocket tens vs KK to claw my way back into the game. Picked up a nice pot from Hacksaw when I spotted a betting tell and check-raised him off his small pocket pair. That was my play of the game. He has such an aggressive table image that I usually hate to find myself in a pot with him. I managed to pick up a 5th place finish just in the money being slightly unlucky when my JJ was beaten by Margie`s AJ. She went on to win the game and thoroughly deserved it. She outplayed me on a pot earlier in the tourney and caught Hacksaw who was chip leader at the time with a nicely concealed full house.

The final game of the evening was a K9 satellite re-buy tourney that all I was playing for was fun and leaderboard points having already qualified. I`m not a fan of re-buys but at the start I added-on and hitting a few cards I was dominating my table and chip leader or 2nd for most of the game until the break. I then went from 2nd to 2nd last as everyone else did a double add-on. I just couldn`t see the point of spending more money and besides I felt confident that I could overcome the disadvantage. I really feel I was going to win but I took a horrible beat when my QQ were busted by a runner runner flush. It was pretty awful play by my opponent in the hand but having talked to them the next day I`m wondering if they misread the board and thought they had the flush draw on the turn and river.

Sunday I played a SNG with the K9 guys and won. It`s funny my confidence in these games is massive. I expect to cash and without meaning to sound conceited I actually expect to win. The results show it too, I think I`ve played about 13 and won 5 and cashed in 4 or 5 of the others.

Then it was onto the main event, the K9 game at Pharoahs. I was card dead for most of the game and made a real gamble when short stacked calling Zen who was also short stacked with ace high and an open ended straight draw. I hit it on the turn and after that I steadily accumulated chips until we were down to three players myself, Bully and coco.

It was the most enjoyable final three I ve had in a while. My opponents are great guys and great players. Bully is a monster who has more K9 wins than any other player. He`d probably have even more if this whole UIGEA thing hadn`t stopped him depositing. Coco is probably the most consistent K9 player who cashes so often it`s frightening. He was the shortstack and he hung on grimly until I took him out with 3-8. It was only 600 to call and I hit an 8 on the flop to send him to the rail.

That left me and Bully HU and I was determined to win. I feel that I played very well and eventually took it down after a good battle to give me my 6th piece of K9 bling. The funny thing about this tourney was that until someone mentioned the bubble it never crossed my mind. After winning I was almost surprised about the cash and had totally forgotten that I also won a webcam. All that mattered was the win, the external factors like money and prizes were truly irrelevent.

It`s Nice To Be Lucky

2007-04-13T22:05:00.000Z

Well for once it`s me putting the bad beat on someone, the hand in question K-3 vs JJ with a board of A-A-Q-Q-x making me the winner because of my kicker. It was without doubt the key hand of the tourney and I went on to win a coupon to the $20k GTD at Poker.com. There`s no doubt I`d rather have won without having to suckout but I don`t feel too guilty. It`s happened to me too many times, it`s just part of the game. Besides which I really had no choice my opponent had nearly a 4:1 chip lead and was pushing me about so I decided to make a stand whilst I had enough chips to even the odds up a little.

Let`s hope my luck holds up for the $20k.

A Change Is As Good As A Rest

2007-04-07T11:07:00.000Z

Had an unusual but very enjoyable night of poker tonight. A post over at 5th Street prompted me to go over to Third Bullet and whilst I was there I glanced at the tourney list and saw a $5 no fee tourney starting in about 5 mins. As I had some time to kill I thought I`d give it a shot. What I didn`t realise was that it was limit, in fact I didn`t even notice until several hands in. Still no big deal I`ve quite enjoyed playing limit tourneys in the past. The payout structure was pretty good too, 21 entries top 5 places paid. No long drawn out descriptions I took down 4th place for $15.75.

I then end up thinking that the K9 buy-in at Pitbull is on so I decide not to bother with the OPT freeroll. With twenty minutes to kick-off and only two of us registered I realise the tourney is scheduled for the next night - DOH! Not to worry though, I listen to the Rounders show and sign up for their Full Tilt freeroll. My result there isn`t worth recording but hey I had no better options at the time. I end up chatting with a bunch of my K9 mates on Skype until the early hours who eventually drift off until only myself and coco are left. The other day I withdrew most of my cash from Dream Poker leaving enough for a multi-table SnG so I decided to give that a shot. I sign up for a 30 seater and finish 13th, uninspiring to say the least.

I`m still chatting with coco who is over at Third Bullet playing a ring game so I decided to watch him for a while. Whilst I`m there I spot a $6+1 $50 added PL Omaha hi/lo tourney about to start. Now it isn`t really my game but I decided what the hell and registered. I figured even if I didn`t cash I`d still be slightly up for the night. Thirteen players regged, top four places paid, I clawed my way to 4th then hit a few hands and ended up finishing 3rd for a nice payout of $25.60.

I have to say I really enjoyed playing something other than NLHE, it made a refresing change as they say on a certain cider advert. It was also nice to play two tournaments where no-one was smack talking and most of the poker played was pretty solid.

My Anniversary!

2007-04-07T03:47:00.000Z

It`s official, 6th April 2006 I entered into the crazy world of online poker and I haven`t looked back since. When I started I was armed with some book learning but no real experience. I think I`ve come quite a long way in my rookie season, I`ve learnt a hell of a lot by playing against some really quality players so thanks to all the guys and gals at K9 and 5th Street who have helped me improve my game.

In pursuing this hobby I`ve had the chance to meet some great people from all over the world through the forums I`ve joined and of course at the tables. To the outsider I can see that online poker might seem a lonely pursuit but they couldn`t be further from the truth. At pretty much any time day or night I can turn on my pc, start msn or skype and chat with someone. Some of these people I will probably never meet and yet I`m able to share with them the ups and downs of life and poker. To anyone who thinks poker is a bad thing all I can say is you`re very wrong. For me it`s made the world a much smaller and friendlier place. I`ve won a few bucks at the game but the real riches are the friends I`ve made and the laughs I`ve had.

Special thanks must go out to Shaggy and Earl who both had the faith to make me a moderator at their respective forums.

Finally thanks to all my online friends, Novice, Jax, Leafy, Shaggy, Skinski, Bully, Coco, Nemises, ArmySSG, Masala, Brad, Mr Nobody and many many more far too numerous to mention. Thanks for the laughs, the games, the chats and even the bad beats, you guys are great.

Here`s to the next year of poker!

Weekend Games

2007-04-02T10:22:00.000Z

Another pretty good weekend for me results wise apart from Friday. Actually I had no business playing on Friday at all. Firstly I wasn`t in the mood, probably because I was tired and by the time I did start playing I`d had a few glasses of red wine and so wasn`t at my best concentration wise. Throw in the fact I was listening to Rounders Radio and chatting to someone at the same time and we have a recipe for disaster. I probably wouldn`t have played but I`d won entry into the K9 event at Vegas 24/7 and the Rounders freeroll was at Poker Stars where I`ve done pretty well the last two times I`ve played there. Anyway nothing special about either result, a mid field finish at Vegas and top third at Stars. It shows how tired I was at Stars when my aces were cracked and all I thought was good I can go to bed now.

Saturday I felt much more in the mood and first on the agenda was a Rounders freeroll at 3D poker, not my favourite site but I thought it would kill an hour whilst I waited for my 5th Street and TPFC qualifier games to start. I expected to be out at 3D by the time the other games started - I have a poor record there mainly because the blinds are killer. However for once I was doing prety well when both of my other games started.

So three different games on three different sites and me with a 15" monitor. Needless to say things were pretty hectic, so I was concentrating on 3D and 5th Street and just trying to hold my own in the TPFC game. At 3D I get As-Qs in the BB and UTG pushes all-in, it folds round to me. It cost me about 5k to call which left me with about 2,500. I almost layed it down but with blinds at 1k/2k and having already made the money I decided to call. My thoughts were that if I won the hand I had a great shot at winning and if I lost I could concentrate on my other games. Well my opponent had AA and I lost. A few hands later I`m out, immediately after I`m short-stacked at 5th Street with AK in the BB, two limpers so I push my remaining 800 chips in and Margie calls me with 66. The board fails to help me and I`m out of two tourneys in two hands.

On the bright side I`m still in the TPFC game, my stack is in decent shape and the field has thinned a little. We get to the final table and I`m trading the lead with Brad who is on a tequila inspired streak. I`ve enough chips that I can pretty much sit back and wait for the lesser stacks to get wiped out or until I hit a premium hand, which is exactly what I do until there are five of us left. With qualifying taken care of it`s now about finishing top 3 to pick up a little cash and of course winning the tourney. Shaggy the owner of K9 goes on an amazing streak and we`re down to three players with him having gone from short-stack to chip leader in a matter of a few hands. The tequila finally catches up with Brad, not to mention his KK running into AA and all of a sudden I`m heads-up with Shaggy.

We`ve been HU two times before but neither has been a long drawn out battle. On the first occasion the blinds were very high and it was pretty much a case of push with anything decent and hope it holds up. On the second I had so few chips it would have taken a miracle for me to get back into the game. So with the score at one all we finally had the chance for a real match. He had a decent chip lead about 17k to my 6-7k but the blinds were still relatively low and what developed was probably the toughest and best HU I`ve ever played.

The chip lead swung back and forth, everytime one of us seemed ready to finish the other off the right cards would come and the stacks would get back close to even. At one point after having him almost crushed, only to see him double up and pull back almost level I typed in "Just die" only to see his reply "I`m sat here saying the same thing lol". Well in the end I managed to pull it off and take down the win. I`ve got to say it`s a win I`m very proud of. I commented to a friend a while back that I held no fear for facing anyone HU and whilst I was a little nervous at times during this match I never felt overwhelmed.

Sunday night I played the 5th Street Leaderboard game but was denied the win when Ramster hit his king to beat my pocket fours. No complaints really, I limped with 4-4, he raised with Kc-9c (the irony eh)and I re-raised all-in. He had me covered by a little then flopped a four-flush giving him 15 outs twice. Shame though, it`s been a while since I won a 5th Street tourney and I fancied my chances.

Last game of the weekend was an OPT freeroll. It`s the first freeroll of theirs I`ve played and the donkeys were out in force. I spent most of the first hour dodging all-in and folding a lot. Finally managed to triple up with 9-9 and never really looked back from there. Played solid A-B-C poker and ground my way to the final table with only one major piece of luck when my A-K ran into K-K and I turned an ace. Unlucky for the other player but no guilt on my part, I was short-stacked and in the BB there was no way I could lay the hand down. So a solid 8th place to round off the night and the weekend. All-in-all a satisfactory performance.

Finally!

2007-03-29T22:35:00.000Z

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!

2007-03-21T01:08:00.000Z

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

2007-03-14T12:32:00.000Z

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 . . .

2007-03-11T01:44:00.000Z

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. . .

A Good Week!

2007-02-23T16:07:00.000Z

I said I was going to write up my CAP Euro trip but I don`t feel like doing it right now so instead I`m going to comment on my week so far. As the title says it`s been pretty good as far as poker is concerned at least. The funny thing is I was not feeling too good about my game. I`ve made plenty of final tables but been failing to cash and it seemed as if my bets were getting no respect at the table. So I decided to change a few things round. Mainly to do with my betting rather than hand selection.

I know the week starts Sunday but for the purposes of this piece it started last Friday. A whole bunch of Poker.com regulars converged on Liverpool for a live tourney, I should have been there too but my finances didn`t allow it so we had a little "The ones who didn`t go" SNG which I miraculousy won. I say miraculously because I`ve always seemed to have a bit of a block where SNGs are concerned. I`d cash occasionally but rarely win them. So fast forward to Monday night. At K9 we`ve started Skypecasting tourneys and a couple of regulars BigMoody1 and MoreMoody do their own show on a Monday night. Normally everyone just listens in or joins in the chat but recently we arranged a private SNG table at Vegas Poker 24/7 so whilst we listened to Moody Mondays we played a couple of SNGs. I had pretty amazing cards in the first one, developed a big chip advantage and pretty mercilessly cleaned up the table. No doubt I had great cards but I played my big stack very well and barely put a foot wrong. Then we played the second game and what do you know, I won that as well! Now the K9 crowd are a tough bunch so to win back to back games at a discipline I didn`t regard myself as excelling at was pretty special to me.

So, onto Wednesday Night, the K9 Poker Tour 7 card stud game. Now 7 card stud really isn`t my game at all. I quite enjoy playing it but I have very little clue when it comes to strategy. Call it luck, call it good judgement but I won! Now it was only a small tourney with nine runners but I eliminated either seven or eight players and it was epecially satisfying because the heads-up was cat vs mouse lol. For those not in the know MurryTheCat is one of the K9 regulars. He also happens to be a very good NLHE player and one of the few K9ers with any experience at 7 card stud. The win got me my fourth star on the leaderboard and one more win gets me the coveted shark accolade.

Thursday night and I`m playing at Third Bullet in a qualifier to win a ticket to a tourney where 1st place gets a trip to the Playboy mansion and 2nd place wins a seat in the Ultimate Poker Challenge televised game at the world famous Binnions Horseshoe. I`d already qualified in previous days but I`ve been playing to make sure they get enough players to get the games started. Well we reached the stage where everyone had qualified and now it was all about the pride of winning and the massive $1 prize! No that`s not a misprint, the winner gets a buck lol. Well I had a little luck but damned if I didn`t win it outright.

Friday morning, I`ve pulled an all-niter and although all I want to do is sleep I have to go out at lunchtime.I sat and caught up with Poker After Dark and then thought I might play a ring game for a while. I couldn`t find anything that appealed though so I signed up for a SNG on Vegas 24/7. I made a horrible error early on and lost a third of my stack but after I`d called myself stupid a few times and told myself why I`d lost I got on with playing. I doubled up with a slowplayed set of sevens, increased my stack still more with pocket queens and found myself 2nd in chips at a very passive table. My tight play hadn`t gone unnoticed and I suddenly realised that the majority of the table was just plain scared of tangling with me. My confidence was high and I felt like a shark in a fish pond. With four players left I had a decent chip advantage and I was murdering them. I got it to heads-up and was feeling very confident, perhaps too confident upon reflection as I ended up losing a hard fought HU match. I can put it down to one key hand where I allowed my opponent back in calling his all-in with K-10 only to find him with KK. I went a little card dead after that although I never felt he took control of the game. I was annoyed to lose but pleased with my game overall.

So that`s it so far for this week 3 x 1st and a 2nd place in four SNGs. Two small MTT wins and the prospect of a weekend of poker feeling great about my game and looking to catch up with Shaggy in the Money Tour and take down the coveted monthly title that I`ve yet to claim.

I love this game! . . . At least I do this week lol.

On a serious note I`m not sure if it`s to do with how I`ve adjusted my game, wether it`s a lot about confidence and attitude or I`m just running hot. Time will tell I suppose but as long as it lasts I intend to enjoy it.

Statement Of Intent

2007-02-18T16:41:00.000Z

A crappy title I know but the best I can come up with right now. I`ve been neglecting my blog the last month and this week I intend to get back on with it, and other peoples too. It`s been for a variety of reasons, some better than others, but I`m not going into details right now. I think for my next post I`ll give an account of my CAP Euro trip to London and then I`ll see where I go from there.