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Switched to cash tables 15/30 to warm up ..... lost a buy-in so not a good warm up.
Played a couple of hours on 25/50 and 50/100. Ended up all square on the 50/100 and a BI and a bit up on the 25/50. A small profit of £20 on the night.
I'd had a busy day and was very tired and really shouldn't have played. Lucky to get away ahead probably.
Last night was good considering what i played. I played the £5k B/H and those that have read through some of my posts may have gleaned the info that i'm not that keen on Bounty Hunters. Even odder than me playing that bounty hunter was the fact that i bought into it, not the norm for me as if i'm going to play a BH I like to do it on the cheap and sat into it (getting held up at work made me 40 mins late for the qualifier i had registered for and when i finaly got home to put on the lappy i had 3 1/2 bb's left lol)
I had a nice deep run in it finishing in 40 something place - cashing and taking a couple of heads along the way. Took about £30 off the BH which is modest but a profit none the less.
Played some cash, lost some cash lol. I'd like to say im on a down swing but truth be known i'm just playing cash badly at the moment. About to enter a period of reflection on my cash game i think, i've got MAJOR leaks to plug that i seem to have developed and will be sorting my head and then my account balance as the month of may progresses
As someone who cashes out when i do well i've not yet joined Mr Orfords Bankroll challange but will make a decision on how much i want to play with next month by the end of this month and join in with the spin up challange i think
GL at the Felt - Chris
Sunday.
Went to Brighton, as a Guest of The Weekly Poker Club, a very large Pub Poker League, who held their National Finals at Brighton Racecourse.
They run two National Finals, & they kindly invited me to play in one of them, & we started at 1.30pm, & somehow I luckboxed my way to the Final Table. With 7 left, I got in a massive three way Pot for the Chip-Lead with my 10-10, v 7-7 & A-Q, but the 7 river-binked, & that was that.
The actual Final Table took place at the Rendezvous Casino, right by Brighton Marina, where I have many long-standing friends from the poker circuit.
After awarding the Prizes, & having all the photos taken, it was just after 8pm, so chance of an early night, as it's barely an hours drive from Brighton to the Hotel I stay at in Heathrow. (I had driven down from Derby in the morning, which took a groanful 5 hours).
But the evening's £100 freezeout was just starting, &, well, you know how it is.....
It was a Double Chance - you get 6,000 chips twice - with the second tranche any time within the first 3 levels.
I sat down 10 minutes late, & I was in the BB with A-K suited. There were 7 (SEVEN!) Limpers at 25-50, so I said "raise" & "accidentally" threw in two 1k chips, just for the craic. And got two callers! What?!!!
It came K high, I bet, & they BOTH called. I shoved on the blank turn, both called with poo, & so after 1 hand, my 6,000 was 18,000.......
I played very fast & open, & the 18,000 was 30,000 by the end of Level Three, when I took my 6,000 second chance tranche, so I had 36k at 100-200 now!
Two brutal outdraws slowed me down, & I eventually crept into the Final as Billy Low Stack, but with nearly £2,000 up top, I thought I'd give it a good go.
I managed to get a few shoves through, but then some old geezer pegged me good & proper, & called my shove with J-8. In fact, I had a hand this time - A-Q - but he gutterballed the River, & that was that, £140 for 7th place. Great day, great evening, & a bit of profit. The snag was it was now 4am, so it was almost 5am before I got to bed, & I was up at 7am for work.
Still, 2 Finals in one day is rare in Live Poker, & I had a really lovely day.
An up and down night last night, win some lose some
Monday.
Luton for the £30 + £20 + £10, 3 x 3,500 chip jobbie. It's impossible not to go deep in this, it plays so nice, the players are, well, not so good, & I am running seriously hot in Live Poker at the mo.
I gambled 5 minutes in with a huge combi-draw, to the str8 & NFD, so I played it super aggro, but Moanalot Ian was never passing his Kings on a Q high flop, so I had to hit. And failed. Rebuy.
You only get ONE rebuy, & the add-on becomes available after 2 x 45 minute Levels, so I needed to steady down now, as I could not afford another accident.
ChompyImo - who's put on a lot of weight recently - was on my Table, & he's well aggro, Raising every hand with ATC, & I mixed it up with him for a bit, & he outplayed me every time. Then I made a move on him - he clearly hated the A River - & he snapped & trapped with top two. Whoops, my 2nd 3,500 was now 900, & we were only 20 minutes into the 90 minutes before I could get my Add-On.
I got it up to 2,000, then found Kings, & Chomps had popped it up nicely for me, so I re-popped to 400, & he made the Call. The 8-8-3 flop looked safe, but all the chips went in, & he turned over his Q-8 to bust me good & proper. The Tourney was 28 minutes old when I did my walk of shame out of the Cardroom, to much cheering & abuse........
Back to the Hotel by 10pm, & I had a lovely 25p-50p Omaha Cash Session, on two full Tables, with a bunch of regulars. I dropped a buy-in early, but then my draws started to hit, & I ran my stacks up to £175 & £125, so it all ended pleasingly profitably.
I love playing poker with nice people, & whether I win or lose it matters not.
Nice Post that, Jock, thanks.
Tuesday.
Played TKO II, & my opening Table consisted of me, & 5 players who were "AWAY"! Contrary to my normal practice in this situation, I decided to Raise every hand & mop up the chips, which was oddly unfulfilling.
So, armed with all those ill-gotten gains, the Tourney started in earnest once all the "AWAY"s had departed, & I managed to finish about 35th I think, for about a fiver I guess. Ill-gotten gains.
After Updating the TKO Thread with the results, I sat & played Omaha Cash for 2 or 3 hours.
Mistakenly, & stupidly, I sat at a NO-LIMIT Omaha Table, which annoyed me intensely, as I don't like No-limit Omaha, in fact I think the game should not be played, & it makes no sense whatsoever to me, it just becomes like Roulette, & a shove-fest, removing any vestige of skill from an otherwise beautiful & skilled game.
Which may explain why I doubled up early, when a player raised HUGE & I re-shoved with A-A-J-T DS, & he snapped with, wait for it, Q-9-4-4 rainbow. I housed up with a card to spare, so could not leave the Table now, as I'm already in trouble for being a Hit & Run Merchant.
I also opened a PLO Table, & just sat nice & quietly for 3 hours or so on both.
ChompyImo arrived to liven up the action, though his Omaha skillz are, shall we say, "thin".
Both Tables were 5p-10p - I was on my "Company Account", & I don't much like gambling with other people's money, so I keep the stakes low - and I ended up turning my original £20 (2 x £10) into £65, so very satisfactory, & the Table Company was good throughout.
I think when I eventually retire, I'll just play small-stakes Omaha Cash for a few hours every night, & that'll be my pension top-up. It's really hard to lose if you keep your discipline, especially as to starting-hand criteria. I see players playing every single hand in Omaha, which, truth to tell, makes me very sad, as they are 100% guaranteed to lose their money.
After a couple of near misses over the last 6 months. Decided to play markedly differently, at the three main stages of the tournament, aggression, passive unless massive and then aggressive again at the real business end.
Made a massive difference - but had my share of luck too... memorably, sorry to JACKALLY, when he'd made top pair on a KQ7 and my AJ still came out on top.
Here's to a few more nights like last night - so jittery I couldn't sleep afterwards though.
I played a couple of successful STTs during the day, which covered my four tournaments in the evening. But in every one I never got going at all. No good starting hands, and every time I tried a move I ran into something.
Had opposite problem earlier in week, when making final tables and not making it pay. Was playing FTs in main event and Ik BH at the same time on Monday. 6th in one and 2nd in other, £350 in total but a wasted opportunity.
Seriously, if you want to improve your tourny form, you have to play more better structured tournies ( not the velocity). I know you find deepstacks a bit tedious, but playing two or three at once its not so bad, and it does get more exciting when you get to the sharp end !
And you can still make your profit after midnight.
Wednesday.
Had a L-L with Rich Orford, both of us had been in the Studio all day recording "The Club", "Play The Presenter" & "Primo Final", & we finished at 6.45pm, so sat down on adjoining desks in the deserted Feltham Office for the evening's pokersz, with the Barca match on telly for added value.
In the 7pm tikay, as usual, the haren scarem merchants exited the blocks at 100mph, playing every single hand, & I just sat out for Hour One watching bemusedly as players busted left right & centre. That is NOT how to play a Deepie, guys!
Meanwhile, in the 8pm Double Stack I was the idiot, as I exited very early due to a bit of a daft play on my part. I found J-J, and a Raise to 150 (25-50) from a speed merchant in front of me, so I re-popped it to 450 & he snap-called.
The Flop was J- (Wiiiii!) T-2, he check-called me, the turn was a blank, rinse repeat, & the river came a ghastly looking Q. Now he wants to jam all in, the Pot was 8k, & I had 1,300 behind. A-K for the nuts? Badly played A-Q? No, & no, he had 8-9, & realistically, if he can call a RR pre with 8-9, he's never going away on a J-T-x flop. Bad play by me, & I was a bit cross with myself for such an early exit, it was very getoffable.
Meanwhile, in the tikay, most of the speed merchants had gone by now, the Tourney was now playing sensibly, so I started to get involved, aided by a few nice situations.
Eventually we made the Final Table, with some well good players - Mere, Ozzie, TREV, eon, etc, JaegerPlop, & CowGoPlop. Oddly, both eon & I had the identical field address - "Ilkeston" - what are the chances of that?
I had a right corking hand v Cow, my A-K v his 6-6, I turned the K, he rivered the 6!
Eventually we were three-handed, Ozzie, eon & myself, then Ozzie departed.
Heads-Up was never going to last long v eon, as he jams a lot, & I thought A-T was enough to go to war with, & when he flipped K-Q I was happy, but a King on both flop & turn sealed the deal, & eon took the spoils, & I was more than happy with £94 for 2nd. I'd had neutral luck throughout - outdrawn a few, been outdrawn a few, so no complaints at all.
Urged on by Orford, I also entered the 176 runner £1,500 BH, & was top ten throughout after some nice hands held up early doors, & I played very aggro throughout. But I sort of "fell asleep" when we got down to the last 20, partly because I was focusing on the tikay, & was soon in shove mode, eventually finishing 15th for exactly £20 including Head Prizes.
Another most enjoyable evening at the pokers.
Tonight (Thursday) no poker playing for me, as I'm doing the Show.
Big congrats to Ozzioe, who won his seat in the tikay on the Russian Roulette thread.
He got 3rd for £52 I think - nice return for a freebie, & I admired his game muchly.
He was SB to my BB, & when the Blinds were big, he did what I do in the SB - he never ONCE "made up", he either walked me, or popped it up.
He also found Q-Q in the SB & this once "made up", I shoulda smelt a rat but missed the clue & went to war with my putridly feeble looking A-7. I hit my Ace, but fortunately, Ozz binked a Queen, too, so justice was done & Oz got a double-up. I had a huge stack at the time, so was freerolling really, but I don't play a big stack at all well.
Well done Ozz.
I've made the final table of the Sleepstack each week despite (because of?) having connection problems last week. It's a small field so it's not that impressive!
Both games allow for plenty of play (particularly the Sleepstack) and are full of fun.
Last night I was running pretty well in both nearing the bubble and thinking that I had a good chance of cashing in at least one. Then my over-confidence was dealt a double-blow within about 5 minutes.
In the Sleepstack I shoved for 10bb UTG with AdKd and got called by TT and AJ. I didn't improve and exited in 8th place (with 5 paid). No complaints about that.
I'd earlier been egged into shoving aipf with AQ in the BB against a mid-position raise from a wily old fox who used some hackneyed speech play to tempt me. He snap called with KK (I could have sworn he had KQ) and he got very lucky as the KK held.
In the Doublestack I was 41 of about 55 with 40 paid places so felt that one double through would put me in a good position. The SB who just outchipped me limped in to my big blind and I checked with two rags. I flopped two pairs and the SB min bet the flop. I jammed the lot in and he called with an open-ended straight draw. The turn and river gave him both ends of his straight draw so that was pretty conclusive.
I'd had plenty of luck earlier in both tournaments so can have no complaints at all.
Overall I was disappointed not to cash in either game but enjoyed the games throughout. I recommend playing these tournaments next week to anyone.
As to your last point, I could not agree more. I have played Online poker since it was invented, & have Accounts with, & have played on, over 40 different Online Sites, I even owned my own Cardroom until very recently, & I still have a business interest in another Site.
But I've never played a Comp or an Online Room where the banter & atmo is so good, and it adds so much to poker to play it like that, its almost as good as Live Poker with a bunch of mates.
Long may it last.
As ever, Vince, you assembled a healthy stack in a deceptively easy manner, as you seem to in every Tourney. It's an art I've yet to master, but you play the game extremely well. For a man of your age, I mean.
Congrats on your 2nd place last night, excellent very well done good sir
I decided to have a look at the MTT schedule after reading some recent comments on this forum about the lack of games available and the poor structure of MTTs for lower buy-in games.
Having looked at the available tournaments, I'd have to say that I couldn't disagree more. There were hourly Bounty Hunter, standard Freeze Out and DeepStack NLHE tournaments throughout the night. The blinds increased every 10 minutes for the first two tournament types and every 12 minutes for the Deepstack. Not only was it a slow clock but the blind structure was remarkable for each of the tournaments.
Here is a sample:
Here endeth the commercial.
Anyway, the real reason for this post is a blatant brag. For the first time in months I decided to play some Bounty Hunter tournaments. I played the following three:
2:30am 1st of 20
3:30am 1st of 2
6:30am 1st of 4
I'm making a determined run at the "luckbox" title.
Congratulations on the wins.