Sunday 25 April 2010

BBT5 invitational tonight

Thanks again to Al for securing my invite to this tonight, and thanks for a 7pm EST start time which means I'll definitely be playing as it's only midnight here rather than the 3am starts previously mentioned.

Hopefully I'll run and play better than I did at DTD yesterday in their £50 tourney.

Couldn't get a handle on some of the odd players at my table who were making some really strange plays with awful bet sizing. I opened AJo in MP and got min re-raised by the guy directly to my left with what turned out to be QJo. He seemed to have a fetish for that hand and showed it down several times, often as a bluff or second or third pair.

The guy in seat 1 was equally bad and eventually went bust shoving AQ on a AxxK board against a decent player who had showed strength all the way.

But best of all was the Asian lady who arrived late, seemed to be playing super tight and then re-raise shoved AQ on a board of 844 against the decent player from above. She had raised UTG, he called from the BB with 45 of spades and CR'd the flop. The speed with which she shoved I thought at least she had an overpair but no, AQ, no hand, no draw. Nice.

I was finding nothing and when I eventually get JJ and open UTG I get two callers before the BB instashoves. I was getting pretty short and arguably could/should have called, but this guy had basically shown two hands in 4 hours and both of them were AA. Eventually I folded, one of the callers stacked off with 99 and the BB made a set with his QQ.

Chipped up slighthly with two all-in shoves which didn't get called and then ran A2s into AK in a BvB situation.

Worst part of the night was dusting off £200 playing 2/2 PLO. Missed a big draw against the table retard but must admit I played several hands poorly, mainly by calling re-raises pre with weak hands just because there was value in the pot.

Eventually, semi-tilted I get it all-in pre for £90 with JJ109ds and lose to AK84 who makes two pair with his 84. LOL.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Time is against me....

...but I'll be trying to play in this.

10pm EST is obviously 3am over here so it's not going to be easy, but the potential prizes make it worth a few late nights/early mornings.

Thanks to Al for setting this up.

Saturday 17 April 2010

In need of some discipline....

...Not that kind, although a good spanking never hurt anyone.

I'm talking bankroll discipline, certainly one of my weaknesses over the years. There's no question I find it hard to grind it out at the lower levels when winning hands or even stacks just doesn't seem to add up to much.

However, I also can't continue experiencing the highs and lows from technically playing limits outside my bankroll, so I've decided to set myself a challenge.

For the next 3 months (after which we'll re-assess), I'm not allowed to play higher than 0.10c/25c in cash games or $10 STT's and MTT's, unless I win tokens on FT.

Hopefully this will have the effect of:

a) Building a roll by playing at a level I can beat (LOL)

b) Prevent me from tilting as I'll be playing for smaller amounts.

It will also no doubt see my rakeback take a hit but hopefully the benefits will outweight the negatives.

Wish me luck.

PS - Before the new regime kicks in, I'll be sneaking in a live tourney at Dusk till Dawn in Nottingham tomorrow, £50 buy-in with £10k guarantee IIRC. Structure is decent and hopefully I can pick up some hands when it counts, rather than running good early on in the smaller pots.

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Live and kicking

Played a fair bit of live poker recently with my usual mixed results. (SICK hand alert at the bottom)

Was up £300 at Dusk Till Dawn a few weeks ago until meeting up with LJ for dinner and then foolishly returning for a second session.

Sucked out on LJ with some donktastic chasing but then karma maybe bit me in the ass in a massive pot with AK on an AKJx board, when 108s chased his flush draw by check-raising me on the turn and calling my shove. He got there obv.

Lost rest of my stack v same player when he called my pre-flop raise with KJo and flopped two pair, I had A10s so flopped a gutty str8 flush draw on the KJ10 flop, but obv missed.

DTD has just started a PLO tourney on Wednesday's and a PLO/PLH one on Sunday night. Made the final table of the PLO for a small profit but overplayed top set in Sunday's round of each tourney and went out to a turned str8.

That tourney has a huge overlay in terms of the Omaha round though. At least two people on my table openly discussed how they had never played Omaha before, and I overheard someone on the adjacent table asking how many cards he had to use.

After busting out of the tourney I played some cash games but the 2/2 PLO game didn't last long before breaking. Flopped one monster hand with nut str8 and nut flush redraw but the guy with a set who bet the flop and turn sadly found a fold when I raised the turn.

I was definitely contemplating just calling behind on the turn but slowplaying in Omaha almost never feels right and I actually figured we might both have a str8 and I was freerolling with the flush draw.

After that table broke I rejoined a 1/2 NL game and had a real rollercoaster session.

Lost to my customary 2-outer to the worst player in the club, who called my PFR with QJs (not too hideous in itself) and then shoved for £88 when I c-bet £55 on a Jxx flop. I obv call and equally obviously he hits a J on the turn.

Did win a nice big pot with AA though, new player raising to £13 in CO and I reraised to £30 from SB. He asked how much I had behind before re-raising to about £75, I shoved for £185 total and he called with QQ.

Sickest hand of the night came at the end.

This old guy had gone on major monkey tilt, dropping several buy-ins with mad river bluffs and raising/c-betting every hand. You could tell everyone at the table was itching to play a pot and bust him, so when he made it just £6 UTG, I called with A3s on the button.

Couple of others call and the flop is perfect, 245. Tilt monkey bets £20, I make it £50 knowing he will shove a huge range, but the BB spoils it all by raising to £150. Wtf? Tilt monkey already had a big pile of chips in his hand to raise my bet but now folds.

I obv hate folding here but I've played against this guy for a while and never seen him do anything silly and in the end I fold pretty quickly. He shows 3 6. Phew/puke.

Friday 18 September 2009

To all my new readers (yeah right)

Just to say if anyone has clicked here via LJ's blog and wants to read a trip report from me/her in Nottingham (EPO), leave a comment and I'll dig it up, including pics.

Otherwise I'm too lazy :)

Sunday 14 June 2009

Analyse

Good news at last for my loyal reader (Hi LJ!).

Finally going busto on all my online sites (barring a sliver of rakeback possibly) means a blessed end to bad beat posts (yeah right) and a commitment to effectively start from scratch when I redeposit next month.

I could redeposit right now of course, but with 16 days of Wimbledon looming, followed by a few days of athletics and The Open at Turnberry, there really isn't much point.

I've belatedly realised I've never really adhered to proper bankroll requirements, simply depositing randomly when required and refusing to grind it out at the appropriate levels.

So the plan is to finally do so when my work schedule allows, and then I'll be looking to fully pick the brains of the good players on +1 (better warn Kevin for me LJ :)) to improve my NL game in particular.

Edit: Just thought this hand was funny and summed up Stars perfectly. KK plays hit horribly, but love J2 getting there on turn, and then the gutshot on river as well :)

Poker Stars $0.25+$0.00 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50/t100 Blinds + t10 - 8 players - View hand 153223

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



UTG: t2735 M = 11.89

Hero (UTG+1): t1110 M = 4.83

MP1: t1940 M = 8.43

MP2: t1505 M = 6.54

CO: t6195 M = 26.93

BTN: t7838 M = 34.08

SB: t5525 M = 24.02

BB: t15780 M = 68.61



Pre Flop: (t230) Hero is UTG+1 with QQ of diamonds 55 of clubs

2 folds, MP1 calls t100, MP2 calls t100, CO raises to t200, 2 folds, BB raises to t300, MP1 calls t200, MP2 calls t200, CO calls t100



Flop: (t1330) 99 of spades JJ of spades 55 of diamonds (4 players)

BB bets t600, MP1 raises to t1630 all in, MP2 calls t1195 all in, CO folds, BB calls t1030



Turn: (t5785) 22 of hearts (3 players - 2 are all in)



River: (t5785) 66 of hearts (3 players - 2 are all in)



Final Pot: t5785

MP1 shows 22 of clubs JJ of clubs (two pair, Jacks and Deuces)

MP2 shows 88 of diamonds 77 of diamonds (a straight, Five to Nine)

BB shows KK of diamonds KK of clubs (a pair of Kings)

MP1 wins t870

MP2 wins t4915