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Things have been so hectic since coming back from Vegas. I've moved house and started a new job would be the short story. The long story would involve stories of lots of calls with furniture stores, lots of complaints, lots of delivery times rescheduled and of course getting to grips with my new job at the same time. Honestly I could write a book on it all. Not a very interesting book; but a massive, gigantic, enormous book that would rival the depth of even the biggest of Harry Potter books.
In amongst it all i've had approxiamately no time to play online poker. The fact that I only got internet today is besides the point - but thats another story.
I have however managed to venture to the local Genting Casino in Stoke. Its actually quite nice in there. Not quite on the same level as those in Vegas, but decent none-the-less. I have played a couple of tournaments and played a bit of cash. None of it has been successful as of yet. My run bad has continued by the looks of it. I just bust a rebuy JJ v KK and there was no way I could get away from it cause of stack sizes and the fact that my opposition was a bit of a loose cannon. I shall venture back soon enough though. I really do think I can make some money playing live. I seem to have a better grasp of the game than most there. I just need that little bit of luck on my side to make the difference.
I've been pondering over a few hands from Vegas in the past couple of weeks, wondering if I could have played a few differently. Here are a couple. Opinions would be greatly appreciated.
1) Im in the BB with AQo. 5 people limp into the pot. I decide not to squeeze. "why?" I hear you ask. Well it would have definitely been called in 5 spots, regardless of the amount of money I stick in the middle. I had squeezed a few times before, even up to 25BB but never got a fold. I decided not to squeeze cause id just end up being OOP in a huge pot with a vunerable hand.
Flop comes down KQ3 rainbow. It gets checked around to button who bets. I flat and everyone else folds. The turn is a K. I check. Button checks. River is an Ace. I bet out and he raises. I end up folding.
2) I have QJs in the BB. It gets raised mid position and 2 other people call. I flat and play the pot 4 way. The flop is JJ4. It gets checked around. Turn is a K. I decide to check/raise as there is an aggro guy behind me. He bets and I raise. He calls.
River comes a 9. I bet out and he flats. He has J9 - think i was just really unlucky there, but could have lost a lot more.
3) I have QJ on the button. UTG aggro guy raises pre flop and I flat and BB calls. flop is 10 10 9. He bets out the flop. I flat and BB folds. Turn is a 4o. UTG checks and I bet out. River is a 7. Back door flush came in. He bets out for about 1/4 of the pot. I put him on an overpair - one that can be folded if I raise. So I raise. I make his $80 bet $290. He ponders over it and shows Aces and ends up calling.
4) I have J9dd in BB. 3 others in the pot. Flop comes Qd8d4. I check/call. Turn is a diamond and I bet out. Aggro guy calls. River is a another 4 and I bet out again. Aggro guy calls with the second nut flush which was well out of character! Not sure I can play that any different either.
5) I have K10s mid postion. I raise and get called on the button and big blind. Flop is K106 rainbow. I bet. Button calls. BB folds. Turn is an 8. I bet and button calls again. River is an Ace. I bet out again and he raises. I end up folding.
Believe it or not all these hands happened within about 40 minutes. I pick up AA soon after the 5th hand, 4 bet shove pre flop, get called by JJ and a Jack pops up on the flop
Opinions more than welcome. It was a very difficult night for me and I lost a fair bit so have been thinking about it a lot.
ANYWAY MY JOB....
Its great. Going on Bet365's website or SkyBets website you don't really think about how much work goes behind the scenes. There is loads. LOADS. Im starting out of the football season so its likely to get a lot more busy during the football season. Settling some of the world cup matches has been a bit nerve-wracking though. Settling a market with tens of thousands of bets on it makes you very cautious as to what button you're pressing! Its good stuff though. Im getting trained for the first 6 weeks so not right into the deep end.
Still getting to grips with it all, but looking forward to what the jobs got in store for me.
Anyway, hopeful of getting back on Sky soon when I find the time.
Oops. Bit of a long post. Apologies.
I was ill at home today from work, as I was yesterday. But come 6 o'clock i found myself a little bored of staring at the ceiing feeling sorry for myself and decided id make use of my illness to try and make some money.
I reg a quarter final sat for the super roller for a fiver. I got through that and was into the LR Semi... and after another hour I was into the main. After a rather uneventful couple of hours I was short stacking with around 18 left. After a couple of successful double ups I found myself chip leader with 3 left against Divs and Jamie Burland. After a rather depressing 1010 v AA moment I was short again... and my exit hand was:
Ruling please on this play:
I have AQ in BB with 14BB. Button min raises. SB calls. I pick up my entire stack in one hand move it forward in one motion and one drops off the bottom as I drop the rest. Im talking about 0.2 seconds between the first one touched the felt and the rest of them... no joke. Dealer says its a call. Floor called. Floor agrees with dealer. Table is a bit bewildered as no one thought i was string betting.
And now im angry cause I ended up going out that very hand due to a K8os hand that never would have called the all in pre. Do I have the right to be?
Seems like you were hard done by for sure. Suppose my only advice in order to avoid this situation again would be to just verbally declare your intention first, then it doesn't matter how your chips go over the line.
Now you're living in Stoke, I assume you'll be growing an extra finger soon....that 'bonus' digit should mean an end to fumbling the chips
I knew I should have verbally said but I was genuinely flabbergasted (good word) at the ruling. I couldnt believe it.
Let me guess.....it's ruled a call and the steam is coming out your ears. In that moment, you vow to donk shove any flop. It comes down K 8 8 and true to your word, in your chips go as you glare at the dealer. Guy snaps with the old flopped FH and it's gg Gazza.
This happened yes?
Was 7/1 dog HU. Managed to wiggle my way into the chip lead then lose AJ v A7 AIP. To be honest I had demolished him HU. Absolutely crushed him without trying to sound too arrogant (LOL). But to be 7/1 dog then come back to be ahead winning lots of little pots show I had him beat in overall play. He started open shoving 40bb just to avoid post flop play. If it wasnt for a 7 on a river it would be the win. Sigh.
Oh well. Good signs though. Cant fault my play which is all you can do.
Was all going swimmingly until I ran into quad 8s... then shoved AQs with 14bb which couldn't get there v 55. Oh well. Positive signs though.
Boom
Boom
BOOM
I just won my first live tournament. The local gentings (the place from before) hold a rather perculiar mega stack thingy on a wednesday. I played it tonight. £30 buy in and it got 79 runners.
Im on a high at the minute. Cant face going to bed!
I late reg about an hour in. And even though it was a mega stack with hundreds of BB, I found myself short early on due to the structure. Blinds went up every 20 minutes, but the levels were mental. Loads of levels i'd stick in werent there and I found myself in shove or fold mode early on. I was card dead for the first two hours and picked up no spots to shove until I hit 7bb. My QQ held v 77. I then went card dead... went down to like 8bb and found a hand and doubled again. Rinse and repeat for a few hours. I flipped incredibly well all night. I didnt lose a single all in which is pretty mental thinking about it, but highlights the necessity of patience in the game.
Winning hand was A9s v J10o. Even got one of those photos with all of the chips
I really am enjoying playing live poker at the minute. I didnt have the opportunity to do it down south, but im loving having the opportunity to play on my days off at the minute. The banter at the tables is pretty decent, with a couple of brilliant characters popping up time and time again. It does beat sitting at home alone playing for sure.
I managed to win about £320 on the night which was pretty good. Thats even with somebody bluffing me off kings in a mega pot. The standard is pretty terrible. People will call so light its genuinely unbelievable. I feel like I could make some decent money playing a mix of mtts and cash there.... but we shall see!
I played a £30 mtt (the one I won the previous week) but after losing a flip with 77 I was out. Oh well... turns out it was a re-entry. Chips please!
An hour later I was out after losing a flip with.... 77. Clearly not my hand.
I decided id take a whirl at the cash table and see what I could do. The table was full. I sat down with £200 at 50p/£1 and looked around. Average stack for 8 out of the other 9 players was £35ish. Meh. Its hard to play live cash v very shallow stacks as people dont like folding much pre... even to a 6 or 7x raise. But there he was.... the 10th guy sat opposite me with £200 in front of him.
Now I can play.
I've found out very quickly that the way to play live cash is very much fit or fold poker. You decide relatively early whether or not to go with a hand and either fold straight off or look to get it in. With people playing very loose passive poker its the only way to play. I'm used to playing an aggressive style where I can barrel/raise and expect to get folds online... that stuff wont work live, especially if the average stack is so short. Theres little room to raise into draws and expect folds and if you think a 4 bet and 3 barrels is going to get rid of top pair weak kicker... not on your life.
So thats how ive been playing. Look for a good flop and just go for max value. Otherwise C/F.
I got caught in a beautiful spot about an hour in. The other bigger stack on the table wanted to tangle with me when I had KK. He led into me on a Kd Qd 4s flop and after I raised and shoved turn, I had his stack. The regulars started popping up later on in the night at roughly 3am but I started to get tired having gotten up 7am for work that day, so I called it a day.
Ended the night about £200 up despite the £60 tournament expense.
Im becoming quite the regular there. I just love it.
There was a guy who had never played poker before on my table on Friday night. He called me down with KQo on a A4679 board when I had A9 for his entire stack. I felt really bad actually winning that pot cause I knew he didnt know what he was doing and I have no idea if I could afford it. I suppose its still his choice to sit down and play the game though.
I ended up winning a £500 pot with quads despite the pot being limped. I had 44 in the bb and just checked everyones limps to see the flop come down 447. I got pretty much the max value from it too which was nice. Some guy kept betting strongly into me and I just called til I raised the river big. Got called by top pair which is pleasant.
Last night wasn't quite as succesful but i still finished in profit. Had a really fun table where we had a prop bet that if you had J9 and shoved pre and won the pot everyone would give you £2. I was the biggest stack on the table and low and behold I get dealt J9s about an hour in. We had a double straddle and a couple of callers and I shoved. Queue a load of laughs about me probably having AA/AK and not J9. I managed to get folds from the table and promptly turned over J9s for an extra few quid from everyone. The dynamic at the table was mental but a good laugh. I'll never play a game like that ever again.
I had sat into the UKPC final sat tonight from a quarter final... and after a couple of hours I am now into the final at DTD. I've asked for the Thursday/Friday off work which hopefully will be approved. Apparently I have no chance of getting the weekend off so even if i do well i wont be playing the final table. Yeah... 100k up top. We'll see about that. Something to look forward to though. Should bump into a few sky regs though and have a few drinks which will be nice.
Me: If someone gave me £100,000 I reckon I could use that £100,000 to play poker full time and survive off it for a good amount of time.
Villain: No mate. Never ever going to work out when you are trying to be over confident in gambling.
Me: Well with proper BRM and keeping to the right stakes I could ride variance and still make a decent wage. Surely my results over the last couple of years show im not completely cr*p at poker!
Villain: No mate. Not having it. You'd lose it all in a game of chance.
Me: Well yeah it is a game of chance but you can get an edge over your opponents through playing the right strategies etc. Look at all the other people who earn a living off poker. They arent all just really lucky are they?
Villain: Well maybe. What happens if you are just dealt cr*p cards all the time?
Me: You don't have to play every hand... and you arent going to get dealt rubbish cards over thousands of hands are you? Poker isnt a game where everyone just goes all in and the luckiest guy wins. Theres way more to it than that. I can get an edge over my opponent by using position, aggression, and applying ranges to my opponent and my hands and playing accordingly.
Villain: No mate. You'd just throw the money away. Its a game of luck. Its too risky to place your livelihood on gambling.
Me: Where do you work?
Villain: Bet365.
He did not get the irony.
Been one of those weeks.