Just a quick note to say I'm off to Vegas again in a few hours!!!
Got home from the Olympics and only had 3 days off before going back to work on Saturday, where I discovered they'd put me down for a week off next week. Not something I had planned and not 100% ideal given the fact I was not consulted as such, but welcome in some regards after a long 3 weeks in Beijing.
Anyway, I immediately joked "Ooh, chance of a quick trip to Vegas" and was soon looking up last-minute deals to see if I could get a bargain. Wasn't certain to go as I had planned on going in October, but got flights and six nights at The Orleans for just over £500 so eventually talked myself into it.
Booked it about 8pm on Sunday night, flight is 0745 Monday from Heathrow so I've got some packing to do, no sleep, long drive south but at least on empty roads and then hopefully sleep most of the way there.
Going to be first time in Vegas when it's red hot so plan on a bit of sunbathing during the day and poker all night. Orleans has good 4/8 limit 08 game and good cheap tourneys, 5/10 limit 08 at the Mirage, 10/20 at Wynn and hopefully some PLO too.
Wish me luck.
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Friday, 1 August 2008
Step 6 win!!!!!!
Will try to tidy this up later, but for now just GET THE FUCK IN!!!!
After a miserable few days I almost forgot about qualifying for step 6 on Party because they take ages to get started. Spotted one this afternoon that already had 5 players registered so signed up and didn't have to wait too long.
For those who don't know, it's effectively a $500 "buy-in" STT, 6th-10th get nothing, 4th and 5th get $500, third $700, second $1000 and winner $2,000.
We got down to 6 and it was very cagey as you can imagine, apart from the clown chipleader who could obviously push people around - I'd played the step 5 with him the night before so knew he would blow up eventually.
Anyway, with 6 left I was down to 1380 chips at one stage with the blinds at 150/300 but shoved twice and wasn't called and eventually two guys got knocked out and we were down to four. Won a flip with AQ v donk's 22 and suddenly I'm back in it. Next hand donk raises, I jam with AQ and he instacalls with A5. Now I'm CL HU.
Went on break and when we came back we traded a couple of small hands back and forth until a real cooler. I get AA and limp, he raises as hoped for, I flat call. Flop is K-high, he bets, I raise, he shoves and I call. He has JJ and $2k is mine :)
After a miserable few days I almost forgot about qualifying for step 6 on Party because they take ages to get started. Spotted one this afternoon that already had 5 players registered so signed up and didn't have to wait too long.
For those who don't know, it's effectively a $500 "buy-in" STT, 6th-10th get nothing, 4th and 5th get $500, third $700, second $1000 and winner $2,000.
We got down to 6 and it was very cagey as you can imagine, apart from the clown chipleader who could obviously push people around - I'd played the step 5 with him the night before so knew he would blow up eventually.
Anyway, with 6 left I was down to 1380 chips at one stage with the blinds at 150/300 but shoved twice and wasn't called and eventually two guys got knocked out and we were down to four. Won a flip with AQ v donk's 22 and suddenly I'm back in it. Next hand donk raises, I jam with AQ and he instacalls with A5. Now I'm CL HU.
Went on break and when we came back we traded a couple of small hands back and forth until a real cooler. I get AA and limp, he raises as hoped for, I flat call. Flop is K-high, he bets, I raise, he shoves and I call. He has JJ and $2k is mine :)
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
That joke isn't funny any more
Been a sick couple of days on Full Tilt so I'm taking the liberty of whining about it here.
Started yesterday with some 10/20 HORSE which started badly and just got worse and worse. Sick beat after sick beat which culminated in one guy (who had won a razz hand against another player despite having a K showing and caught runner runner runner low cards) hitting runner runner two pair to beat my KK in stud hi.
Worse was to come. Very next hand I get rolled up JJJ against a guy with AAx. Beautiful, I slowplay it nicely, drop the boom on fifth street and he now can't fold his one pair - he can't have a str8 or flush. Of course he rivers a 1-outer (one Ace had been folded) to make AAA.
So today I'm down to $63 in my account so sign up for 5 cheap STT/MTT's at once.
Bust-outs so far: KK v 99 all-in PF; JJ v A8 all-in pf; AKs v Q9s (he calls a re-raise OOP and flops an OESFD of course LOL) and my personal favourite....
I have 10 6o in BB but see a free flop. A Q 6 it gets checked around. 6 on turn, I shove and get called by KQ. You can guess the river.
I would say I've never been so disillusioned with the game but I probably have been before. But you know you're in trouble when you EXPECT to lose every single time as a 75 or 80% favourite.
That sounds like hyperbole, but it isn't. When I reraised with KK and he called with 99, I just expected him to hit a set, which he did on the turn. Even the flop was 887 to give him some additional outs anyway. And JJ v A8, not even a sweat. A8 on the flop and it's goodnight.
It's probably a good job I'm off to Beijing on Tuesday for the Olympics as I need a break. Also the weather has been really good recently so I've been getting more golf in and a bit of a tan.
Just wish someone would flip the doom switch off at Full Tilt for me too...
Started yesterday with some 10/20 HORSE which started badly and just got worse and worse. Sick beat after sick beat which culminated in one guy (who had won a razz hand against another player despite having a K showing and caught runner runner runner low cards) hitting runner runner two pair to beat my KK in stud hi.
Worse was to come. Very next hand I get rolled up JJJ against a guy with AAx. Beautiful, I slowplay it nicely, drop the boom on fifth street and he now can't fold his one pair - he can't have a str8 or flush. Of course he rivers a 1-outer (one Ace had been folded) to make AAA.
So today I'm down to $63 in my account so sign up for 5 cheap STT/MTT's at once.
Bust-outs so far: KK v 99 all-in PF; JJ v A8 all-in pf; AKs v Q9s (he calls a re-raise OOP and flops an OESFD of course LOL) and my personal favourite....
I have 10 6o in BB but see a free flop. A Q 6 it gets checked around. 6 on turn, I shove and get called by KQ. You can guess the river.
I would say I've never been so disillusioned with the game but I probably have been before. But you know you're in trouble when you EXPECT to lose every single time as a 75 or 80% favourite.
That sounds like hyperbole, but it isn't. When I reraised with KK and he called with 99, I just expected him to hit a set, which he did on the turn. Even the flop was 887 to give him some additional outs anyway. And JJ v A8, not even a sweat. A8 on the flop and it's goodnight.
It's probably a good job I'm off to Beijing on Tuesday for the Olympics as I need a break. Also the weather has been really good recently so I've been getting more golf in and a bit of a tan.
Just wish someone would flip the doom switch off at Full Tilt for me too...
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Open pics, Royal Birkdale 2008
Took a few photos while covering the Open at Royal Birkdale recently, and here they are. Nothing special but I'm obviously meant to be working and no cameras are allowed on championship days either so had to do what I could.
1 - Not that Drome will ever read this, but this is one of the fleet of Lexuses (Lexi?) which ferry the players around in Japanese "luxury"
2 - The Claret Jug; no explanation needed
3 - The 18th green and mostly empty grandstand during one of the practice days. This is the view from the press waiting area.
4 - Only took a picture of Norman because he was the most famous person on the putting green at the time, three days later he had a two-shot lead going into the final round before finishing third.
5 - Monty and friends!!! A few of us had a laugh at this. These are practice times the players sign up for during each day. Normally it's 2 or 3 at a time, each with their usual mates like Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Adam Scott etc; Not for Monty though, bless him...
6 - +1 at the Open, the view from my seat in the press centre. In front is one of the guys from Reuters and of course the giant scoreboard.
1 - Not that Drome will ever read this, but this is one of the fleet of Lexuses (Lexi?) which ferry the players around in Japanese "luxury"
2 - The Claret Jug; no explanation needed
3 - The 18th green and mostly empty grandstand during one of the practice days. This is the view from the press waiting area.
4 - Only took a picture of Norman because he was the most famous person on the putting green at the time, three days later he had a two-shot lead going into the final round before finishing third.
5 - Monty and friends!!! A few of us had a laugh at this. These are practice times the players sign up for during each day. Normally it's 2 or 3 at a time, each with their usual mates like Ian Poulter and Paul Casey, Justin Rose and Adam Scott etc; Not for Monty though, bless him...
6 - +1 at the Open, the view from my seat in the press centre. In front is one of the guys from Reuters and of course the giant scoreboard.
Friday, 25 July 2008
Frankly Mr Shankly....
...I'm deservedly kicking myself up the arse right now (were that physically possible).
Just busted out of the $17.5k guarantee on FT with the most idiotically played hand you are likely to see. Avert your eyes if you like...
I have a decent stack of around 19k, blinds are 150/300 I think. 1 limper, I have QJo on the button and just call (first meh moment). Small blind raises in what looks like a squeeze, limper calls and I call as well (moment 2).
Looks like I've got out of jail when the flop is QQ10, SB c-bets, limper jams and of course I instacall and lose to KQ.
Fucking idiot. Would have been 2nd in chips with the money bubble approaching and even a reasonable cash would have been nice after using a $75 satellite token to get in.
So lucky that I was up on my two omaha hi lo cash tables at the time otherwise I wouldn't have a keyboard to type this on.
Just busted out of the $17.5k guarantee on FT with the most idiotically played hand you are likely to see. Avert your eyes if you like...
I have a decent stack of around 19k, blinds are 150/300 I think. 1 limper, I have QJo on the button and just call (first meh moment). Small blind raises in what looks like a squeeze, limper calls and I call as well (moment 2).
Looks like I've got out of jail when the flop is QQ10, SB c-bets, limper jams and of course I instacall and lose to KQ.
Fucking idiot. Would have been 2nd in chips with the money bubble approaching and even a reasonable cash would have been nice after using a $75 satellite token to get in.
So lucky that I was up on my two omaha hi lo cash tables at the time otherwise I wouldn't have a keyboard to type this on.
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Back to the old house
You can all stop crying now, I'm back ;)
Been so busy with work I just haven't had the time to play, let alone post much, but managed to sneak in a quick session last night at the house we are renting for the Open at Royal Birkdale this week (house is in Formby, about 6 miles from the course and the owner kindly disabled his wireless security so we can use it).
Anyway, had a good session between a hit and run at 15/30 limit 08 and 1/2 PLO 6-max.
The PLO hand was debatable as I called a re-raise pre with 4678 (4 and 7 of diamonds), although I felt the re-raise meant villain had either AAxx or a big broadway pair.
Flop was 9 10 J with two diamonds so I flopped the idiot end of the straight and weak flush draw. All the money went in, villain had 9JJQ for a set (no flush draw) and I made an unnecessary flush on river to win.
Hi/lo hand was quite funny. I raised with A378ds and it gets re-raised and capped before it gets back to me. Hmmm. I call and the flop is 3 7 7. LOL
It goes bet-call and I raise, both call. Turn J, checked to me, I bet and both call.
River is another J, checked to me, I bet, one fold, other clown raises. I call and he shows A26K for nada. LOL, thanks for the extra $60 pal.
Been so busy with work I just haven't had the time to play, let alone post much, but managed to sneak in a quick session last night at the house we are renting for the Open at Royal Birkdale this week (house is in Formby, about 6 miles from the course and the owner kindly disabled his wireless security so we can use it).
Anyway, had a good session between a hit and run at 15/30 limit 08 and 1/2 PLO 6-max.
The PLO hand was debatable as I called a re-raise pre with 4678 (4 and 7 of diamonds), although I felt the re-raise meant villain had either AAxx or a big broadway pair.
Flop was 9 10 J with two diamonds so I flopped the idiot end of the straight and weak flush draw. All the money went in, villain had 9JJQ for a set (no flush draw) and I made an unnecessary flush on river to win.
Hi/lo hand was quite funny. I raised with A378ds and it gets re-raised and capped before it gets back to me. Hmmm. I call and the flop is 3 7 7. LOL
It goes bet-call and I raise, both call. Turn J, checked to me, I bet and both call.
River is another J, checked to me, I bet, one fold, other clown raises. I call and he shows A26K for nada. LOL, thanks for the extra $60 pal.
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Such a little thing...
Really small fry compared to people winning ME seats but this was a fun afternoon after finishing work at 1pm.
Thought I was going to get gayed out of the win despite a huge chip lead 3-handed when the guy I ended HU with sucked out a couple of times and woke up with KK in the BB as a shorty. This guy had no clue how to play short-handed, min-raising A7o from the button and shoving middle pair when checked to. I instacalled with top pair (QJ I think) and he sucked out an ace on the river.
He sucked out runner runner flush on me again when HU after I flopped broadway (QJ was the nuts today) but thankfully, as mentioned, he had no clue HU.
After I open shoved a couple of times with ATC he started just open folding and let me chip up from life support. After that I just kept the pressure on by shoving anything reasonable and came back for the win.
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