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Markycash diary - Vegas 2017
i shall read
will you give deep analysis to certain hands and specific spots during hands and what your thought process is ?
will you talk about life and subjects other than poker ?
and what does ha$h tag mean when you put #1 #2 ect 
Comments
After some thought I have changed my mind for several reasons...
#1: Although some people cannot be bothered with them, some people do actually enjoy reading them, so... If you don't like them, don't read them
#2: Although I have had an account here for several years I only became active here relatively recently and, as I plan to stick around and play and post a lot on Sky poker, it seems an ideal way to get to know a few you (who seem a friendly and well informed bunch) better and vice versa.
#3: It seems a good vehicle to reflect on sessions/hands and generally what I am doing which is always positive for development in poker in my experience.
#4: I like writing (as my complete failure to be succinct will evidence).
#5: I plan to play a lot of live events with Sky and probably some other live poker outwith Sky so it may give a deeper insight into this side of the game for those thinking about getting involved in the live scene with Sky or elsewhere but who have not made the jump.
#6: Maybe years from now I can develop my writing style and get it somewhere near to Tikay's standard (I can but dream)
#7: There are other reasons but I thought these swung the pendulum in favour of starting a little blog/diary here.
I will try and make it a fun read with hand analysis, pictures, live updates etc etc
Introductory post incoming & thanks to those who give it a read!
I am using the 'hashtag' in the old fashion (pre-twitter sense) to mean 'number'
This should be a cracking read.
SUBSCRIBED.
First 2 questions.
In the £3.5k Vegas Final, you were cruising along nicely in snug mode, but then had something of a setback.
What was your mindset at that moment when you fell back amongst the field?
Also, "gooner" was giving you quite a hard time, repeatedly playing back at you. (Except when you had the Aces). How do you combat these guys, who have good game, & know exactly what you were trying to do?
Have to say, the late stages, from 2 tables out, were a delight to watch for anyone who wants to improve their game. So many poker players think they know everything, & bad results are down to bad luck, but good poker players MAKE things happen rather than LET things happen. If only I could be in the former camp.
What are you studying at Uni, & what Uni is it?
You live in Glasgow, right? Surely there are no Uni's in Scotland, are there?
Long term career aspirations?
Does being a Scot, & so unable to speak properly, hold you back?
I have went by the screennames Marky_Crash and MarkyCrash in the past and am 40 years years old and live on the west coast of Scotland. I started out in 2006 as someone who did not understand the rules of poker and had only played (making my own rules up) with a friend with smokes for stacks.
I decided to deposit $30 on another site and quickly lost this but thoroughly enjoyed the game! I deposited another $30 but this time got my bankroll into 3 figures quite quickly and then into the 4 figure bracket. Something akin to Sky, this site which is no longer active had a forum. The chat, friendly people and hand analysis helped me learn the game a bit better (hence I am always happy to talk strategy now).
Still as a total newb to poker who had been playing for a matter of months I found the beloved OH8 game and was completely hooked! I noticed a one off satellite to play a $1500 OH8 WSOP event with a $55 buy in and thought, hey why not. I forget exactly but there were something like 100 runners. I was actually having a bit of a house party at the time so I was sitting in the corner, not being the most sociable, playing this game and having a few drinks. To cut a long story slightly shorter I was sat there a few hours later, the party had died down, I was chilling with a few drinks and there were only around 12 people left and I was sitting 12/12. I then procede to go on a complete heater and went from 12th to first within about 5 minutes. We got down to the final table and everything seemed to go my way and I won.
I could not believe this as I was a newb and had never even set foot in a casino. I made one visit to the riverboat casino in Glasgow as preparation (yes lol) and it was time to go play my event in Vegas. I was nervous but got my seat number and shuffled over to the table. You couldn't make the table draw up... As a newb wondering how things would go and not even sure of how it all worked, who did I have on my immediate left, 10 time bracelet winner Johnny Chan. To make things even tougher I had pro Marcel Luske 3 to my left.
I couldn't get into the game for the 1st 2 hours but had above the starting stack then it folds to me in the small blind with KK23 with 2 hearts. I limp and Chan checks. The flop is AK6 and I have mid set, the nut flush draw and the nut low draw, I check to Chan who says 'pot' and I flat call. I think the turn was a 7 or 8 non heart giving me mid set, the nut low and the redraw to the nut flush, I check to let him continue betting and he pots it again. By this point he has like 2/3 of his stack in and I don't want to flat call then check to him on the river and see him check behind so I shove all in and he snap calls with 24 for the 2nd nut low a queen high flush draw so I have him all ends up and he is drawing only to a 3 to counterfeit my low which would give him a split pot.
I couldn't believe it I had him covered and my very first scalp in a live tourney is going to be Johnny Chan lol. Well the river is the dreaded 3 of hearts which gives me the nut flush but he has managed to scrape a split pot, sigh! I get into a few more pots and hit quad aces a few hands later in a 4 way pot and get a double up. After a few more orbits of junk hands I get AA24 and open for pot, Chan still there but working a short stack repots back and we get it all in, maybe I will get him after all! He has KK23 and again I am in great shape and even spike the set of aces on the flop but as before he snags a split pot and we chop it! Several hands later I get the AAxx again and I am quite a bit below the average stack now, I get 4 callers including Luske and there is no great flops this time and I bust the tourney.
I actually felt like I had won the WSOP main event though. As a relative novice I had got to play with some of the best or at least well known players in the game and held my own. I promptly headed to the Voodoo lounge on the Rio roof and got completely drunk and let my hair down (by myself as the trip was for 1 and there were no reps from the site in attendance).
I headed home and got on with the online grind with renewed vigour after my taster in Vegas. I was asked to be a moderator on the other sites forum as I had kept a blog which people seemed to enjoy at the time and I ran a weekly league on the site. I managed to keep profiting very consistently and won live trips to play events televised on Eurosport in Valencia, Czech Republic and London (Where I was lucky enough to meet SkyDave who was working for one of the poker mags and taught me the joys of Chinese poker). These were 9 handed events and if you managed to win one you got a place at a 6 handed televised final in Vienna with a $1/2 million prizepool. I lost key races in Valencia and the Czech Republic but things went my way in London and I secured my seat! (link to video for anyone with time to kill https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U9S5yGrywE ).
At the final in Vienna I got to heads up then lost a pot all in preflop with KJ versus 44 for most of the chips in play but luckily still won $100,000 for my efforts (would have been $285,000 if the flip went my way though). I had still only been playing poker for around 18 months and had so much to learn. Due to things starting so well though I had a false sense of how poker would pan out. I started to play full time over the coming 6 years I worked very steady profits in the low/mid 6 figure bracket online. I didn't understand bankroll management properly at the time (was far too conservative with my buy ins)
I paid for several live trips out of my own pocket but had no luck. The expenses of life over these 6 years meant that even though I was profiting and 'doing great' relatively speaking, my finances were actually nosediving as I had a family to support. Poker had turned into a grind to pay the bills and was not the adventure it had been.
I decided I didn't want to play poker full time simply to try and pay the bills (it is stressful playing for bills and the long hours take their toll on your health). I decided it was time to almost entirely quit (temporarily), go to uni, get a degree and have a sort of 5 year plan to get a job teaching at college as all my bills would be paid then and I could go and hammer the WSOP in the summers when the colleges wind down anyway. So I actually was doing all this study etc (and still am, 3 years into the 5 year plan) for my long term poker development lol.
Last year was tough personally as my mother and grandfather died in the same week in March, I had uni work and outside work/family commitments. I decided last summer when uni wound up that I would try and win a little package to play at the WSOP to get a break from things. Luckily on another site I managed to secure this at the first time of asking. My head wasn't in it though and we were given the buy in cash so I elected to play some smaller events outwith the WSOP as the structure wasn't that good in the event I was meant to be playing. The trip refreshed my interest in the game but I came back and got on with my studies. More personal turmoil with my gran dieing just after I got back rounded off the toughest year of my life by miles.
With uni winding up this year I decided it was time to try and win another package and searched around online and found out about the VLV promotion and it sounded good! I started playing some MTT's here and elsewhere last month and luckily am around a few thousand up and managed to win a £3.5k VLV package here on Saturday. I have enjoyed the welcome here so much (thanks Tikay and the other regs here) that I have decided to play semi full time @ least until September when uni goes back and maybe part time afterwards to keep my hand in at poker after that.
Either way I have enjoyed Sky so much I intend to stick around hence I started this blog and hope to play a good few live events with Sky in the future.
Sorry for the long read but now the introductions are out the way, you know where I am at currently and I can get onto more interesting stuff
Thanks to those who waded through that and made it to the end lol
I will try and keep this blog as a complete mix of hand discussion, general updates on life and poker progress and a few updates from live events and some photos etc.
I intended to be in hyper aggro mode (hence I was playing like that in the DYM's before it started lol).
It went well and I got up to 66k (average stack when packages are dished out would be just over 50k) so I had a decision to make. Do I now tighten up and try to tick over and fold my way to the package? Or do I keep active.
If these games had been 9 handed then I would have locked down, shut up shop and folded to the package just trying to pinch a few blinds here and there. These are obviously 6 max though and less than that at times (my table was 3 handed for quite a while). I decided the best way to protect my stack and hopefully tie up a package was to remain aggro. The table hadn't bought into this plan though and were playing back at almost everything I done. I went from 66k down to 18k chips, I won't lie there was a real danger of getting severly frustrated and blowing the rest of the chips.
I decided I needed to not tilt, shake it off and have a complete gear change. I mean if I start playing stronger hands and utterly alter my range then I should get paid off due to my aggro image and the fact opponents might think I am tilting my stack off.
This worked and I got up to 50k+ again and the big stack on the other table done us a favour and and turned the heat up on everyone at the other table.
Regarding Gooner, yes he/she was very troublesome. I personally think it is all about being fluid with your style. People will tag you as a certain type of player who plays a certain range. The key for me is adapting to their assumptions constantly. Gooner knew that I knew we were 3 handed and I was opening with a very wide range of hands. He correctly was 3 betting me so often (almost every time). This is fine if I run into some hands but 3 handed I didn't get too many real hands or hit many flops. I tried to play small pots with the other guy and tick over. In a non satellite game I would just have altered my 4 bet range against Gooner but due to the stack sizes it felt like he might be somewhat committed by 4 bet stage so I didn't want to be 4bet jamming stuff like TJo in that situation.
I felt Gooner was overly continuing with his aggressive line in hands though firing multiple bullets and I may draw a mistake out of them here. He/she had raised every one of my SB limps on their BB (without exception I think) so then my moment came and I got AA in the small blind and I limp waiting on the raise and Gooner checks behind... I check hoping to at least draw a bet from them on the flop but they check behind again. Same on the turn. On the river I could lead but I have no idea what they are holding, I mean why all these checks for the first time (I have done nothing differently) I thought they could be trapping so it was check check on the river and I collected the blinds lol.
I done an HNC in 'working with communities' then moved to a 4 year 'social sciences' BA. I am at the end of year 2 and we now choose whether to specialise in psychology, sociology, social policy or politics for the last 2 years and whichever we choose will be our degree title. I am torn between psychology and social policy and will need to decide this in the coming weeks.
lol @ the 'no unis in Scotland'
I am at the University of West Scotland in Paisley.
Long term I want to take a teaching position at college as the summer holidays fit in so well with the WSOP schedule lol. My aspirations are firmly in poker, the studying is a means to an end for a more solid footing on that quest.
Yes the accent can be troublesome lolz. I remember in LA asking a guy at a snack van for a ham sandwich. After about 6 failed attempts to explain what I wanted and a rather interesting game of charades... My partner (she is also Scottish) told him what I wanted and he got it first time...
I think my accent has mellowed a little over the years though and luckily I am usually understood these days
Yes they seem a great bunch, looking forward to meeting them and hopefully a few of you out there!
I played last night in the Some OH8 DYM's (3 or 4 I think) cashed in 3/4 but the one I busted was an £11 so no real profit there.
I then played my ticket in the £33 B/H that I got coutesy the PLO8 monthly league and the £110 superroller.
In the bounty hunter I worked up to 23k early then down to 16k when I got JJ in the BB I think at 200/400. A MP player raises to 1200 who had been quite active. I could do a few things here obviously but I elect to reraise this player and make it around 3500 putting about 8k in the middle. They lead for over 5k on the flop which was something like J37 rainbow. The fact they lead for so much and it was a raggy flop I could easily call here but by this stage I felt very strongly they had QQ KK or AA and would probably call a shove as I had been quite aggro. I shoved and I was correct on both assumptions, they snap called and had KK and I was in great shape.
The turn was Q and river 10 to turn and river them a straight and bust me (they had the only stack covering me at the table) would have been a top 3 stack with 100+ left and plenty room to collect bounties but it was not to be. I collected nearly £40 in bounties though so a small profit at least.
In the superroller I got lucky and rivered a straight versus a set and won a few other pots and hit a high of 22k. I thought it was going to go like last week where I had a big chiplead for quite some time before busting and minicashing for just over £200. This wasn't to be the case though, a few tricky spots and I was on 15k at 200/400 level. One weak player kept limping complete air, stuff like 47o and showing great pride in firing off lots of chips, getting folds and showing the bluffs. I had a few players behind me though so was trying to limp into pots with him and trying on occasion to reraise and isolate him and hoping he would ship his stack to me.
In one such pot he miniopens at 200/400 (I have AKs) and I flat to keep some pot control, disguise my hand and I will have position on him post flop. Ian Simpson is on the button and makes a sizeable 3bet (he has 10k chips), the weaker player gets out the way and I have no trouble 4betting all in pre with the AKs as Ian doesn't need a monster to make this play on the BTN and I am hoping I might have him dominated. He has AKs too though and we chop it.
A similar pot develops soon after and I have JQs. Ian 3bets from the BTN again and this time the weak player comes along too and I flat call. The flop is a raggy J high which hits me and we both check to Ian who has around 8k chips now. I am expecting a cbet here whether he has hit or not, he cleverly bets big enough that he looks committed to the pot and it is shove or fold time for me. I feel he could have AK AQ etc here (although in hindisght probably not with his bet sizing) I elect to shove but he has AA and holds and I don't recover from the setback.
I plodded off to another site to play some ZOOM $1 NLHE for half an hour before calling it a night and sit with $100. I hit quite a few hands and am lucky enough to run into a lot of opponents doing dumb stuff for lots of chips and leave 30 minutes later with $570 and at least turned my Sunday into a profitable experience.
As mentioned I will post a lot more NLHE and OH8 hand histories in future and hopefully get some decent in depth discussion going, just getting this up and running today
Thanks for reading, forgive any typos and GL on the felt folks!
On the BTN with 4Ts. 3 handed and obviously cannot wait on hands I think this seems fine to open. Stacks are quite level but we are all pretty shallow. Trying to small ball it a bit and tick over until a situation presents itself.
I am called which is not a great surprise as there was a lot of resistence at the table.
I lead very small on the flop for a few reasons...
Firstly pot control and these bets that didn't scream 'I am trying to buy the pot' seemed to be what was working the best. I also had it in the back of mind that there is no way he will only reraise draws, opponents reraise range had been very wide and I felt that the small bet might work or at least if he reraises back I may be able to float and represent one of the many draws that may land on the turn or river. Not sure if I would have done this but was happy to have the option there.
He flat calls and I pick up a small piece on the turn.
I feel I am probably ahead here but feel there is a high chance I may get reraised and possibly blown off the hand so I check behind and feel opponent will read this as I have gave up on the hand with my 'broadway cards' and he will fire the river.
On the river I snap called as I had tried to set up his bet by checking the turn so I couldn't then fold on the river.
Tricky little pot which actually gave me a slight cushion and made it a little easier to press on from here.
Opinions, flaming, tips etc very welcome on the hand
Hand 1
AJ in the BB and hand is against the opponent who gave me loads of resistence for most of the night.
Definitely a massive case for reraising here preflop and I am sure plenty will feel it is a mistake not too but I was trying to play a more small ball style and underrep my hand versus someone who I knew might call my 3 bet, was capable or 4betting and putting me in a tough spot. I felt by flatting I could play the hand out with more info (albeit out of position) and get a better idea of what was going on. I also felt they would continue their line and I could extract chips postflop anyway much of the time whether I hit or not. Incidently QK had been in their 3bet calling range and it could have went worse.
The continuation bet on the flop meant nothing IMO, they were cbetting there with 2 christmas cards close to 100% of the time IMO. My call was to float and weigh up plays back in later streets, it wasn't in the hope of spiking an ace or jack and folding if not.
The turn diamond I felt meant nothing as to the other players range because as I say I felt they were cbetting the flop most of the time with anything they opened. This seemed like a good spot where I had called 2 bullets to fire one out and get air hands out of the pot. I figured that they must have me on something even if they do not credit me with the flush and might even have me on a small pair with a diamond back up and fold a lot of their range. If not I feel I can represent on the river again and possibly fold out Ax with a diamond that they may be holding and called the turn with.
By the river I didn't feel I could win the pot any other way than to buy it and fired a 1/2 pot bet out but was called with their QKo.
Opinions more than welcome.
Always a pleasure playing with you even if not always profitable
Yes It was a choice of how to procede in that spot and I wanted to turn the heat right up after weighing up the factors.
I felt it was blind aggression though and wasn't happy I ended back so low although I feel the merits in the choice were okay. I was questioning myself though and was a bit deflated and in the end I was happy I managed to regroup, shake it off and come again.
Yes will be good to not be alone this time! Been a few times on my own but the Sky folks will be there and as we get a +1 I will bring my dad out who loves his poker. The grilfriend gets the short straw of watching our crazy dogs although she has been a few times and hates flying.
All very standard preflop and on the flop.
On the turn it appears opponent has shut down and any big bets will lose him, I also feel (wrongly) he will check behind. I bet 600 into the 6k or so pot. I know this might send alarm bells off for certain players, isn't getting proper value etc etc. I felt though that I could either be lucky and induce a reraise from certain players who think I am weak here or get some players to think I am giving them a great drawing price and am praying they hit.
On the river I bet a bit bigger hoping they have hit something, possibly with AK given the preflop betting and am just lucky they had a full house here.
Opinions welcome as always.
Only played for a little while tonight. Some OH8 DYMs and played the Mayhem freeroll for some fun on the side.
About £37 up in the DYM's and £10 in the Mayhem game.
One interesting hand I saved from a DYM (£5.50 BI I think)...
The player had been limping loads of pots and being very aggro post flop. I have a monster straight draw but no hand as of yet. He pots which I find suspect as it doesnt look like a flop even a wide ranging 2 way hand would hit hard so I call. The turn is a brick and changes nothing although it does give me a horrific low draw which 'could be good'. Opponent fires the pot again, now this is probably a fold with my stack but as the player was aggro constantly I decided to draw my line in the sand and call. The river is another brick for me but I can envisage a lot of hands that opponent has completely missed with and thought there was a fair chance he had no hand. I only have 1100 odd chips left and on the surface no fold equity, I figured if my read was correct though and I open shove the river he would have few options as his DYM game would be effectively ended and would have to fold.
I decided to go with the open shove and luckily on this occasion it worked out.
Not my best hand and probably one I should have got off at some point but due to the opponent I decided to play the pot.
Donked about in the Mayhem freeroll on the side and managed to take (I think 5 bounties but could be wrong) and built a nice stack only to run JJ into QQ for a 100k+ stack with 30 odd left. Still a free tenner is fine by me
So all in all £47 up for the short nights play.
I doubt I will be able to play much the coming week as it is the last week of uni (I finish after an exam next Monday) and I have a big essay to write for psychology by Friday. Will still try and squeeze a few DYM's and the Thursday night PLO8 league in though!
Looking forward to stopping uni next Monday as I will be hoping to up my poker volume in a big way!
Been very enjoyable playing over the holiday weekend and over £4,000 up in stuff counting the package win.
Comments on the play or x, y or z always welcome.
Thanks for reading and GL on the felt!
Wasn't really meant to be playing tonight (had some studying to do but was at uni all day and couldn't face it).
Played a couple of DYM's but the traffic was down, mainly due to Tikay being away I think and with only 1 or 2 tables at a time I got a bit bored and ended about £10 down.
Played the £5.50 PLO8 and £55 B/H and just couldnt get into them so ended on Sky about £70 down.
As I did on Sunday night I went and unwound with some $1 NLHE cash games for an hour or so and sat with $100. Left with $344 for a profit which equated to about a £100 overall profit for the night which I am happy enough with
On a side note, I planned to play the £1,100 qualifier for the WSOP main event but I am going to book flights for the £3.5k package very soon for me and my father who is going to come along for his first trip to Vegas. If I then qualify for the main event then I would have to mess about trying to change tickets (as I would need to be there a couple of days earlier) which I would do if it was just for me but don't really want to mess about with if my father is coming.
So I will leave the Main event quest for next year and hit a few other MTT's in Vegas if the $1111 buy in goes pear shaped.
Study all day tomorrow sadly but then a short session of OH8 DYM's in the evening.
Once uni winds up on Monday coming I will try and post a few interesting hands and hopefully get some discussion going
Thanks for reading