Thursday 29 November 2007

Is nowhere safe?

My adoring fan (hello mum) asked for an update, so here goes.

Countdown to Vegas now stands at inside 5 days (flight is Tuesday lunchtime) and I'm glad to be heading for some live poker after yet more online shenanigans have come to light.

After the AP scandal and Full Tilt paying back money to people who were victims of bots on their site, it looks like more multi-accounting cheating has been going on at FT.

I'm not clear on the details yet but there are threads on 2+2 in which one of the "top online players" has been implicated/outed.

So far I've not been too concerned because it appeared the cheating was taking place at levels rather too elevated for my humble bankroll. But how many of these scandals can the online game stand before the fish decide it's just not worth the risk - however small - of being cheated???

Wednesday 21 November 2007

Sorry Paula

Went round to a friend's house to watch the England game last night. Hilariously bad performance, especially from Scott Carson and Wayne Bridge. Carson can't catch apparently which is a bit of an occupational hazard for a goalkeeper, while Bridge can only kick with one foot (badly) despite being a professional footballer who can surely spend one hour a day out of his busy schedule to try kicking the ball with his right foot.

Anyway, before the game we order a takeaway curry and nip up the road in my car to collect. Eventually they bring out the order in these two boxes and we're away.

Only problem is we've taken someone else's order as well as ours and don't realise till we get home and look at the name on the box. So, if your name is Paula and you live in Leeds or Bradford and had to wait a while longer for your food last night - humble apologies.

Me likey Omaha!!

Sat down this afternoon and blew through $300 at 2/4PL08 and it could have been a lot worse - two hands running I had trips with top kicker and the same guy had full houses each time but check called ???

So I switch to Omaha hi and proceed to hit a hot streak thanks to hands like this and some awful opponents.

If you're getting nowhere/stale at Hold em, I recommend Omaha if you have the ability to wait for the nuts or monster draws and push hard.

Party Poker
Pot Limit Omaha Ring game
Blinds: $2/$4
5 players

Stack sizes:
MackemPlus1: $1268.54
CO: $376.90
Button: $378.20
SB: $122.50
BB: $143.78

Pre-flop: (5 players) MackemPlus1 is UTG with 5h qh as 8s
MackemPlus1 calls, 2 folds, SB raises to $18, BB calls, MackemPlus1 calls.

Flop: 2s 3d 4d ($54, 3 players)
SB bets $46, BB calls, MackemPlus1 raises to $133.62, SB calls all-in $60.5, BB folds.
Uncalled bets: $27.12 returned to MackemPlus1.

Turn: 6d ($313, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $313)


River: 8d ($313, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $313)


Results:
Final pot: $313
MackemPlus1 balance 1451.04 bet 149.62 collected 332.12 net 182.50 5h Qh As 8s
SB balance 0 lost 122.50 Ac 9s 3s Ah

Made $1,000 in no time to end up approx $700 for the session.

Party account now at $5,086

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Shortstacking 5/10NL is +EV

Sit down and post, very first hand I get KK.

Two callers, villain donk bets, easy shove for me and I don't like the river, figuring him for a Q.

But check out what he flips up :)


Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $5/$10
10 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $1539.64
UTG+1: $560.50
UTG+2: $1594.35
MP1: $190
MP2: $1815.63
MP3: $885
MackemPlus1: $300
Button: $1137
SB: $292
BB: $282.35

Pre-flop: (10 players) MackemPlus1 is CO with kd kc
UTG calls, 2 folds, MP1 calls, 2 folds, MackemPlus1 raises to $60, 3 folds, UTG calls, MP1 calls.

Flop: 6h qh 6c ($195, 3 players)
UTG bets $100, MP1 folds, MackemPlus1 raises all-in $240, UTG calls.

Turn: tc ($675, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $675)


River: qc ($675, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $675)


Results:
Final pot: $675
MackemPlus1 balance 672 bet 300 collected 672 net 372 Kd Kc
UTG balance 1239.64 lost 300 Js 4s

Sunday 11 November 2007

Good betting weekend

Nice touch this weekend on the Premier League footy, backing Liverpool and Spurs at home to Fulham and Wigan respectively.

Had them in a double + a single on Spurs who were amazingly only 1/2 to beat Wigan at White Hart Lane.

Spurs are in a false position at the bottom of the table but duly thrashed a shit Wigan side 4-0 today, Liverpool having beaten Fulham 2-0 on Saturday.

Tonight's NFL tips come courtesy of Dwal who had 8 of 9 early matches last week before a late slip.

I'm going for Buffalo -3 at Miami; Browns +10 at Pittsburgh; Redskins -2.5 v Philly; Bears -3 against my Raiders and Indy -3.5 at San Diego.

Saturday 10 November 2007

Close but no cigar (+Vegas)

It never ceases to amaze me how badly some people play poker, especially when they make the effort to travel to a casino and play a £25 double chance tourney (so a total outlay of $100+ to my devoted American readership).

Not huge money to some people maybe, but not exactly micro limits either, but some of the play last night was hilarious.

Best one was possibly the guy with AQs who calls a raise pre-flop OOP, not too horrendous as we were deep stacked and he could obviously get a good flop.

JJx isn't that flop however, yet this clown calls big bets on the flop and K turn to catch runner runner flush to beat AJ and AK. Nice.

Thankfully this fool later gave me lots of those chips with A10 on a K72 flop, rag turn, 10 on river. I had two pair from the BB and bet it all the way :)

A different clown then raised A7 from MP and called my AK re-raise. AQ9 flop, I shove all-in and he gives it the old "I have to call" and doubles me up. Sadly I went out 13th - top 10 paying - with AJ v A7. Flop was 445, turn 5 for a likely split and river 7 LOL.

As for Vegas, the Rio finally got back to me with details of New Year's Eve. Basically $200 to get into the Voodoo Lounge, with packages of $1200upwards to reserve a table.

Not sure what Dave, Sucko and WC plan to do yet, watch this space....

Thursday 8 November 2007

Quick update

Couple of swingy days at the tables, both live and online.

Redeposited on FT because they bunged me $150 bonus money and was up a couple of hundred playing Omaha hi 6-max when I started missing everything. Was in danger of blowing everything but switched to SNG's, small MTT's and HU SNG's and am grinding it back.

Was also running bad at AP but pleased to say I stuck at it and didn't tilt for once, and eventually busted the clown who had been sucking out on me.

Playing 2/4PL I have A88J and call his PF raise as he's been raising very wide. Flop is A8x and obviously I'm only worried about the slim chance he has AA. I check, he bets and I raise the pot, he flat calls.

All worries are over when the turn is an ace though, making the board A8xA. I now bet $200 and donkey obliges by pushing in his stack with his AKxx and boooooomm...........$1800 pot shipped my way.

In a small live tourney in Leeds I folded my way to the last 18 players or so, tripled up once with 66 all-in from the button, instacalled by clown with A10o and one other player who didn't show.

Busted out with AJs v 1010 all-in PF but no love. Back there tomorrow after work for the same tourney.

Wish me luck.

Friday 2 November 2007

Slowrolling motherf****r

Just back from a live £100 tournament in my local casino. 70 starters, paying top 10 and we're down to about 21 when this happens.

I'm seriously shortstacked and push all-in with A8 for 36k, blinds are at 3k/6k (good structure early on, blinds go up too quick later). Anyway, this moron in the big blind starts thinking about calling, gives me the stare and all that s**t.

I've just been moved to the table a few hands ago and already I can tell it's full of idiots who watch too much poker on TV. They take forever to make the most basic decisions, they ask stupid stuff like "Do you want me to call?" when you raise, etc etc etc.

So after thinking about it for so long I actually think I might have the best hand, or that he's going to fold, he calls and flips over.............

KK.

Wtf???? What was all the Hollywood shit about??? Cocksucker. Never have I wanted to suck out more than at that moment. Of course I miss and I'm out but I know there's some good cash to be made in that tournament.

Many of the players shouldn't be playing a £2 buy-in, let alone a £100 tournament and they are the very definition of dead money.

And if that guy does that to me again with KK he'll be dead as well (joke, he was huge and would have crushed me :(