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On reflection April was a very successful month for me. I started off with £87.88 in my account on the first, by the time play stopped on the thirtieth I held £256.59. The profit of £168.71 represents a growth of 192% and came off a fairly low volume. I knew there’d be scope for more rapid progress once I began to focus on MTTs, my preferred poker discipline, but a whopping 192% in 30 days is far more than I dared dream for.
I feel it’s unlikely I’ll enjoy such a successful month again (percentage wise) during this challenge, not that I won’t be trying of course. In fact it won’t surprise if at all if I have a losing month sooner or later. Variance is a funny thing in MTTs, month-long downswings are super-standard, when mine comes along I won’t be losing my hair over it.
Latest graph of progress;
http://imageshack.us/a/img51/8137/graphday124.jpg
Closing Balance £290.82
Up £14.67 today
I bricked my first two tournaments today; a £3.30 Freezeout and a £2.30 Bounty Hunter. In each I enjoyed soft tables but, couldn’t find a way past the calling stations. My exit in the freezeout summed it up; I busted with A2s>K9o of a guy who continued to defend his big blind on a QA3r flop. The turn and river were both kings.
My third tournament saved the day as I enjoyed a run to the final table of a £5.75 Bounty Hunter. To be honest I’m not quite sure how I got there. I never really felt in contention, apart from a good start I spent most of the tournament below average. A couple of late stages doubles kept me going and I laddered several times due to big confrontations between my opponents. My exit in 4/88 came in a totally standard spot. I open jammed AQs from the button with 12BB behind and lost the race against pocket 8s. I was a distant fourth at the time and needed to double ASAP if I were to have any chance of a higher finish. I’d have jammed even if I knew in advance an under-pair in the blinds would be calling.
Poker has made me feel very good for two reasons today. Firstly I have a new highest balance, that can never be a bad thing. Secondly it feels great knowing that I’ve already started earning cash thanks to the new Rewards scheme. While it may be only £1.00 at the moment it still feels damn good. Under the old scheme I got nothing back in April despite earning 409 points. If other low volume recreational players enjoy being recognised as a valuable customer as much as I do I’m sure Rewards will be a great success. Top marks Sky.
May Poker Points 100 (£1.00)
Today’s results;
7912454HNLB0.75GBPSkyPoker07/05/2013 14:30NL Hold'em £5 + £0.754/88£19.527911797HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker07/05/2013 13:45NL Hold'em £2 + £0.39/14-£1.557912624HNL 0.3GBPSkyPoker07/05/2013 13:00NL Hold'em £3 + £0.38/19-£3.3
great progress Gary
i'd settle for a graph like yours,right now. lol
very well played mate.
best wishes as always
dev
No is the answer to this question. The latest balance/closing balance shown does not include Rewards until they've actually been paid into my account.
Let's say on Day X I get to the point where I have £998.00 in my account and have accrued £3.00 in Rewards so far that month. Well, as far as I'm concerned I won't have finished, my balance is still £998, not £1,002.
This challenge will only be considered completed when I open my account and see £1K+ in cold hard cash ready to withdraw. Bring it on!
Hi Gary, Read the thread a lot but never comment. Great challenge. This shows what having talent, a level head and the motivation to beat the lower levels can do. IMO this thread should inspire any low stakes grinders and show the people who believe you can’t beat the lower levels what can be done with hard work. Great achievement so far and i have no doubt you will reach your target sooner rather than later.
You have probably been asked this before but you say in the above post that you will be withdrawing the final total. Will you not consider grinding that total up and taking on the bigger buy ins? You obviously have the talent and mentality to make a real go of it.
Whatever you decide, Gl in the future
I also agree about the new rewards format, having started laying only micro stakes this month, I'm pretty sure I'd have seen no C4P under the old scheme, but should be able to grind out at least a little from the new one, a great change for low stakes players IMO.
Good luck with the rest of the challenge
Closing Balance £290.07
Down 75p today
There was a disappointingly high number of bingo play at my tables in the morning £3.30 BHs today, a shame because you usually get a proper game in these. I survived the madness to make the late stages in the 9-45, however my back was against the wall after I lost my first big flip of the game with 99<KQo button v BB on the bubble. My exit came in 9/87 when my K4 was unable to hold against JT on a KQ6 flop, blind v blind.
In the 10-45 I was busted in only the third hand by a player who was going aipf every hand with any two cards, my pocket JJ couldn’t hold up against his K5. I was his third head-prize in three hands........crazy stuff!
In a small lunchtime £2.20 Rebuy I got second place for £10.50. It was a fun game at a friendly table, but I still managed to lose 50p having invested £11.00. In a rare slip I’d broken my 40 buy-in rule by taking three rebuys and the add-on, a mistake I’ll make sure I avoid in future.
In a £2.30 BH I made final table with the chip lead only to lose most of it to the guy in second place when my flopped nut-flush was coolered by his flopped second nut-flush. As the pre-flop raiser with my two overcards and the NFD I put him to a decision for his stack, unfortunately for me he held one of few combos I fear. I’m in it to win it so I have no regrets about my failure to cash. When he folds I win a big pot and extend my lead, when he calls and loses I have his head and >50% of the chips in play.
I got donked by a guy who calls preflop shoves with 83 in my only HU match.
My Poker Points balance has risen to 1,018 due to points earned during play. I can now therefore claim to have turned 1,000 Poker Points into 1,018 Poker Points and £290. That doesn’t sound too bad!
May Poker Points 120 (£1.20)
Today’s results;
7917796HNLHU0.05GBPSkyPoker08/05/2013 17:30NL Hold'em £1 + £0.052/2-£1.057915066HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker08/05/2013 13:45NL Hold'em £2 + £0.36/22-£1.557915970HNLR0.2GBPSkyPoker08/05/2013 12:00NL Hold'em £2R + £0.22/8£0.507914790HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker08/05/2013 10:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.383/85-£3.37914502HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker08/05/2013 09:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.39/87£5.65
Bingo Hunter. This is the third hand of a £3.30 tournament, the villain is going all-in pre-flop with any two cards every hand. I become his third victim in three hands. He got lucky this time but he’ll lose a lot of money in the long run playing like this.
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalance* Small blind 10.00 10.00 5990.00 scorpio006 Big blind 20.00 30.00 2050.00 Your hole cards J J grump Fold FunkyN Call 20.00 50.00 1950.00 GaryQQQ Raise 100.00 150.00 1870.00 * All-in 5990.00 6140.00 0.00 scorpio006 Fold FunkyN Fold GaryQQQ All-in 1870.00 8010.00 0.00 * Unmatched bet 4030.00 3980.00 4030.00 * Show K 5 GaryQQQ Show J J Flop K 4 8 Turn 4 River 9 * Win Two Pairs, Kings and 4s 3980.00 8010.00
After being gifted a free flop I extract maximum value with my full house in the 10-45.
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalance* Small blind 75.00 75.00 6750.00 GaryQQQ Big blind 150.00 225.00 2587.50 Your hole cards 9 7 DADDYSTU Fold SUPERSNEDD Fold BigCes Fold * Call 75.00 300.00 6675.00 GaryQQQ Check Flop 7 7 3 * Check GaryQQQ Check Turn J * Bet 150.00 450.00 6525.00 GaryQQQ Call 150.00 600.00 2437.50 River 9 *Bet 150.00 750.00 6375.00 GaryQQQ All-in 2437.50 3187.50 0.00 * Call 2287.50 5475.00 4087.50 * Show 9 J GaryQQQ Show 9 7 GaryQQQ Win Full House, 7s and 9s 5475.00 5475.
I'm not going to actually withdraw the whole £1K if/when I get there. I'll probably take off £500 and leave the rest on the site as my working bankroll.
Due to my work hours and other commitments I only have a fairly narrow late/morning early afternoon window in which I can enter MTTs. Only two games above £5.75 kick-off during that time; an £11 and a £22 Bounty Hunter. I fully intend to play in the £11 game when I'm sufficiently rolled (balance above £440 for 40 buy-ins). I've played in it many times before, profitably including at least one win. The £22 game is less appealing, it only runs with a small field and goes off a bit late for me.
Anything bigger than that runs in the evening when I'm asleep, a situation I'm perfectly happy with. Unlike many others on this forum I don't have aspirations to move up to bigger games for bigger stakes. I'm just a recreational player having fun at a time that suits me. I enjoy in playing poker tournaments, it's a hobby, having made money while doing so is just the icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned. I'd still be there if I was merely breaking even. Team Sky Poker, Super Rollers, UKOPS, etc; high profile games like those have no appeal to me, I'll leave them for others to fight out.
My question about rewards was asking whether you'll actualy include them as part of your challenge or withdraw them to leave it purely on money won. You've already answered that one.
Great stuff, keep it going and us updated.
Didn’t play
Day 128
Closing Balance £284.93
Down £5.14 today
No joy from 3 MTTs today. First up today was the 10-45 £3.30 Bounty Hunter. After a day off poker I wasn’t too pleased to find myself sat at a ridiculous bingo table (see below). I took one head in the pre-flop shovefest but didn’t pick up enough cards to run deep.
In a couple of lunchtime £5.75s there was proper poker being played at times but I didn’t get the cards to take me past the calling stations. I won a couple of HU STTs to claw back a little.
May Poker Points 143 (£1.43)
Today’s results;
7924658HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker10/05/2013 14:22NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97922656HNLB0.75GBPSkyPoker10/05/2013 13:30NL Hold'em £5 + £0.7545/71-£5.757924542HNLHU0.25GBPSkyPoker10/05/2013 13:15NL Hold'em £5 + £0.251/2£4.757922300HNLB0.75GBPSkyPoker10/05/2013 12:30NL Hold'em £5 + £0.7549/79-£3.877922378HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker10/05/2013 10:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.330/89-£2.17
Bounty Hunter madness. When all 5 opponents at my table went all-in preflop I expected to see at least a couple of monster hands.........wrong!
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalance Small blind 15.00 15.00 60.00 Big blind 30.00 45.00 1625.00 Your hole cards 10 Q Raise 60.00 105.00 2130.00 All-in 595.00 700.00 0.00 GaryQQQ Fold Call 595.00 1295.00 5160.00 All-in 60.00 1355.00 0.00 Call 565.00 1920.00 1060.00 All-in 2130.00 4050.00 0.00 Call 1595.00 5645.00 3565.00 All-in 1060.00 6705.00 0.00 Show A 3 Show J 8 Show A 6 Show 4 J Show 10 3 Flop 2 4 3 Turn 9 River 9 Win Flush to the Jack 5635.00 5635.00 Win Flush to the 9 1070.00 1070.00
Closing Balance £273.20
Down £11.73 today
No joy for me today.
When I logged-on in the late afternoon I jumped in the first tournament going, a £2.30 Bounty Hunter to which I paid minimal attention while watching the FA Cup Final. It was my only near miss of the day with a 4/45 finish. At the final table I thought it might have my name on it for a while after winning with AQs>QQ aipf then seeing my A8s crack a limper’s AA. However with the average stack down to only 15BB I was coolered when my suited ace made top-pair and a gutshot but ran into a flopped set.
In the evening Mini I was taken out in level 1 by a maniac who was opening most pots with an 8BB raise then shoving on any flop, coolered when my flopped trips were out-kicked by his. I was also an early casualty in £5.50 Deepstack when my pocket aces were out-flopped by pocket queens. I incorrectly put my opponent on a draw when he showed extreme aggression with his top set.
After losing a £3.15 Hyper due to failing to hold when all-in and ahead my final game was a £5.75 Bounty Hunter. I took a gross bad-beat after getting my stack in with 96% equity to bust in the second hand of the game (see below).
By then I’d lost nearly £20 in only 35 minutes of evening play. More than enough to persuade me to throw in the towel.
May Poker Points 149 (£1.49)
Today’s results;
7930897HNLT,HU0.15GBPSkyPoker11/05/2013 20:46NL Hold'em £3 + £0.152/2-£3.157926271HNLB0.75GBPSkyPoker11/05/2013 20:45NL Hold'em £5 + £0.75110/112-£5.757927658HNLB0.5GBPSkyPoker11/05/2013 20:15NL Hold'em £5 + £0.5517/532-£5.57928312HNL 0.5GBPSkyPoker11/05/2013 20:15NL Hold'em £5 + £0.552/54-£5.57930679HNLHU0.05GBPSkyPoker11/05/2013 20:03NL Hold'em £1 + £0.051/2£0.957927659HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker11/05/2013 16:15NL Hold'em £2 + £0.34/45£7.22
£5.75 Bounty Hunter exit hand……….no comment!
huntley3 Small blind 10.00 10.00 1970.00 * Big blind 20.00 30.00 1980.00 Your hole cards Q Q brisbo9 Fold Giant_Nit Fold GaryQQQ Raise 60.00 90.00 1930.00 huntley3 Call 50.00 140.00 1920.00 * Raise 200.00 340.00 1780.00 GaryQQQ Raise 535.00 875.00 1395.00 huntley3 Call 535.00 1410.00 1385.00 * Call 375.00 1785.00 1405.00 Flop Q 2 8 huntley3 Check * All-in 1405.00 3190.00 0.00 GaryQQQ All-in 1395.00 4585.00 0.00 huntley3 Fold * Unmatched bet 10.00 4575.00 10.00 * Show 5 5 GaryQQQ Show Q Q Turn A River K * Win Flush to the Ace 4575.00 4585.00
Closing Balance £256.35
Down £16.85 today
Another disappointing day as I played 5 MTTs without any success. I’m happy I’m playing well so I’m cool with the results. It’s just that I’m running badly in all-in situations for the moment, there's nothing I can do about that. I only won one flip out of many today, and that was probably the least important one of the lot. Several times my stack went in good for pots that would have set me up nicely for a deep run, each time I saw the chips go to an opponent.
May Poker Points 182 (£1.82)
Today’s results;
7931493HNL 0.2GBPSkyPoker12/05/2013 14:20NL Hold'em £2 + £0.26/18-£2.27931461HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker12/05/2013 14:15NL Hold'em £2 + £0.37/21-£2.37930963HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker12/05/2013 10:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.352/92-£3.37930833HNLB0.75GBPSkyPoker12/05/2013 10:15NL Hold'em £5 + £0.7530/39-£5.757930690HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker12/05/2013 09:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.366/83-£3.3
Flop of the day;
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalancePayney1978 Small blind 20.00 20.00 6520.00 tiggerace7 Big blind 40.00 60.00 3245.00 Your hole cards 8 9 Sus Call 40.00 100.00 8695.00 sammate23 Call 40.00 140.00 4015.00 GaryQQQ Call 40.00 180.00 7345.00 Payney1978 Fold tiggerace7 Check Flop 8 8 8
No good at all-ins at the moment. If I win this pot I go to final table as chipleader, saw several like this today;
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceGaryQQQ Small blind 75.00 75.00 5105.00 bd55 Big blind 150.00 225.00 2765.00 Your hole cards Q Q K All-in 1855.00 2080.00 0.00 T All-in 8777.50 10857.50 0.00 GaryQQQ All-in 5105.00 15962.50 0.00 bd55 Fold T Unmatched bet 3597.50 12365.00 3597.50 GaryQQQ Show Q Q K Show 10 10 T Show A 10 Flop J 4 7 Turn A River K T Win Pair of Aces 12365.00 15962.50
Closing Balance £266.47
Up £10.12 today
A busy day left me time for just one tournament. I enjoyed a deep run a £5.75 Bounty Hunter but came unstuck in my first big late stages race; my 66<AK aipf to bust in 9/74. I was playing for the win and was therefore happy to take the flip. I’d got lucky close to the bubble to bust an opponent when I 3-bet jammed A2 from the BB over one of his frequent SB open-raises and got there to crack AK, so I have no grounds to complain about all-in bad runnage today.
It’s pleasing to record a small profit after a few days of poor results. If I can keep getting myself to the late stages of these £5.75s a bink should follow sooner or later. I won’t losing those big late-stages coin flips forever.
May Poker Points 192 (£1.92)
Today’s result;
7935209HNLB0.75GBPSkyPoker13/05/2013 13:30NL Hold'em £5 + £0.759/74£10.12
'Action flop' of the day. I was tempted to gamble and stick in my stack in too with my open-ended straight draw. After a think I decided it was too likely I was in deep trouble against the combined ranges which might include hands the best I could hope for was to chop with. As soon as I saw the pocket jacks (which removed two of my potential outs from the deck) I was pleased with my decision.
An equity calculator backs this up; when the action came to me my draw had only 23% equity against the two players already all-in. Had I known their hole-cards it's a snap fold.
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalancekai5 Small blind 30.00 30.00 4145.00 G Big blind 60.00 90.00 1865.00 Your hole cards 9 9 porkmarc Fold n Call 60.00 150.00 2416.00 l Raise 120.00 270.00 2775.00 GaryQQQ Call 120.00 390.00 2650.00 kai5 Fold GCall 60.00 450.00 1805.00 n Call 60.00 510.00 2356.00 Flop 7 10 8 G Check n Bet 382.50 892.50 1973.50 l All-in 2775.00 3667.50 0.00 GaryQQQ Fold G All-in 1805.00 5472.50 0.00 n All-in 1973.50 7446.00 0.00 l Unmatched bet 419.00 7027.00 419.00 G Show 10 A n Show 8 7 l Show J J Turn 3 River A G Win Two Pairs, Aces and 10s 5925.00 5925.00 n Win Two Pairs, 8s and 7s 1102.00 1102.00
Closing Balance £280.64
Up £14.17 today
It was just the two MTTs and one HU STT for me today.
A frustrating min-cash in the 10-45 BH came first. I busted in 10th/78 after jamming my A9s into QQ in the blinds, a standard cooler with all stacks very shallow. Three players were shorter than me at the time, however you won’t catch me folding to ladder, I play for the win and have no fear of playing for my stack in the right spot, I was just unlucky to run into a premium pair this time.
Second was a £3.30 Freezeout in which I got second place. I fought as hard as I could during a long 3-handed battle but there was just no way past the seemingly invincible chipleader who was seeing flops with anything and hitting just about every time. The winning hand summed it up nicely; I three-bet jammed 16BB with my A9s from the BB over his SB min-raise. He made a loose call with A2s and got there in comfort with trip 2s. Sometimes you just have to accept that a tournament has a certain players name on it and that no matter how well you outplay him/her nothing is going to change that.
May Poker Points 198 (£1.98)
Today’s results;
7940415HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker14/05/2013 13:00NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17939689HNL 0.3GBPSkyPoker14/05/2013 13:00NL Hold'em £3 + £0.32/19£13.87938444HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker14/05/2013 10:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.310/78£2.47
Unfortunately I found myself facing an invincible opponent enjoying a hot run of cards in the £3.30 Freezeout. This is the final hand of the tournament.
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalance Small blind 250.00 250.00 29400.00 GaryQQQ Big blind 500.00 750.00 7850.00 Your hole cards 9 A Raise 750.00 1500.00 28650.00 GaryQQQ All-in 7850.00 9350.00 0.00 Call 7350.00 16700.00 21300.00 Show 2 A GaryQQQ Show 9 A Flop 6 2 3 Turn K River 2 Win Three 2s 16700.00 38000.0
should start getting easier when you get passed the £300 barrier,i'm assuming,as i'm sure you will be playing bigger buy-ins,or is it when you get passed £500 when that begins?
keep it up mate.
(been playing quite a bit myself lately,(well playing's a loose description lol),but you know what I mean,so haven't read as much of the book as I would have liked.
don't forget to give me a shout when you'd like it back.)
dev
I'm using a 40 buy-in rule. So at the moment I'm rolled to play any tournament up to and including £5.75 (40x £5.75 = £230). The next level up is £11 games, so I won't be buying into those until I reach £440. As the buy-ins get bigger the potential prizes become bigger too. Therefore hopefully the second £500 will be won more quickly than the first.
I'm in no hurry to get that book back at all, in fact I've just started reading the second book. I strongly recommend you read it when you can, most players get a lot out of it, it's not so widely praised for nothing.
Closing Balance £325.75
Up £45.11 today
First game today was the 9-45 £3.30 Bounty Hunter. I was an early casualty when my AK failed to crack pocket JJ aipf. The opponent with the jacks is a strong player, one of the best in these games. I knew he wouldn’t make a huge over-shove with aces or kings, so I put him on a range of TT-QQ, AK, maybe AQs at a push. My read was correct, I decided to take the flip but didn’t win the race so absolutely no complaints there.
Next up was the 10-45 Bounty Hunter which I was very pleased to win. I feel I’ve been playing well lately and a bink was due sooner or later. At last some good runnage came my way to help me get there. Twice I got lucky to bust short stacks in aipf pots. First with A3 /> AT close to the bubble. My opponent had no fold equity, any ace on the big blind was enough for me to call his 4BB shove. Then I cracked pocket AA with my 88 aipf during 4-handed play at the final table. It was a harsh beat for the guy with AA, it's not nice to see someone go out with aces at such a crucial stage of the tournament, however he's a decent winning player and knows full well that after opening from the button with pocket 88 there’s no way I’m ever folding pre-flop to an 11BB stack on the big blind.
I found myself heads-up against the guy who bizarrely open-jammed his 45BB stack with J2o and got there to crack my pocket AA in a £5.75 recently (see Day 113). He was up to the same tricks today making frequent over-shoves pre-flop, it worked once when he doubled after open-jamming 30BB with J4o. When he won a flip to take the lead soon after I began to think he was destined to win, however justice eventually prevailed. The final hand was another flip, this time it went my way. I limped pocket 88 and induced a shove (as hoped). His QJo didn’t improve, a sweet victory and revenge was mine.
With other things to do I decided to stop there for the day poker-wise. I’m very happy to have breached the £300 for the first time after a brief plateau of 10 days or so in the high £200s.
May Poker Points 204 (£2.04)
Today’s results;
7942227HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker15/05/2013 10:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.31/81£48.417941908HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker15/05/2013 09:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.366/83-£3.3
Well, if nobody else wants it I might as well take it. Winning a limped pot with no showdown value, final table bubble of the 10-45 Bounty Hunter;
GaryQQQ Big blind 600.00 900.00 26165.00 Your hole cards 2 8 j Call 600.00 1500.00 14430.00 m Call 600.00 2100.00 10415.00 FCall 300.00 2400.00 13817.50 GaryQQQ Check Flop Q 7 6 F Check GaryQQQ Check j Check m Check Turn 6 FCheck GaryQQQ Bet 1350.00 3750.00 24815.00 j Fold m Fold F Call 1350.00 5100.00 12467.50 River 6 F Check GaryQQQ Bet 2795.00 7895.00 22020.00 F Fold GaryQQQ Muck GaryQQQ Win 5100.00 27120.00 GaryQQQ Return 2795.00 0.00 29915.00
well played Gary
(* *)
^
dev
I make a point of keeping up with your progress, as it shows people that it is possible to turn a small amount into a large amount, if you stick to your guns in regards to bank roll management. Which is a point of my game I constantly fall down on.
Any pearls of wisdom for a bloke with a £10 bank roll and 60 points?... deposit more money i suspect, lol.
Best of luck going forward Gary
Smiley
I'm unable to give full advice because I only ever play tournament poker and never visit the cash tables. It depends what your best game is really. Personally I'd play standard speed £1.05 HU STTs and try to run it up there. Many opponents in those are pretty weak, any solid player stands a great chance of building the bankroll as long as a downswing can be avoided. Many would recommend DYMs. I'm not a big fan myself; the 15% rake at the the £1.00 level is hard to beat and I'm not too keen on a game in which the correct strategy is to fold most of the time.
You're much more likely to profit from real money games than Freerolls in my opinion. Though saying that you've nothing to lose; you might as well use your 60 points to enter a couple and see if you get lucky, after-all you can't do anything else with them. Whatever you do don't waste any of your precious cash balance paying for rebuys and add-ons in a Freeroll, I didn't at any stage of this challenge.
Good luck to you.
Didn’t play
Day 135
Closing Balance £321.88
Down £3.87 today
I’m too busy with other stuff to play much poker at the moment. After a day off yesterday I only had time for a £5.75 Bounty Hunter today. I enjoyed a bright start with my nut-flush earning me an early head-prize and (almost) a full double-up against a lower flush. However, soon that after that I lost a big chunk of those chips when I was badly donked. My large 3-bet with pocket KK over a raise and call was flatted (for 10% of his stack) by an OOP calling station holding 36o. The flop was 883, he called my flop and turn c-bets and got there with another 3 on the river. It was horrendous play that got lucky this time. I like to look at it like this; they were calls I’m begging for, he’ll miss his two-outer nine times out of ten, I’d happily have the same player sitting at my table in every poker tournament I ever play.
The same guy took me out a bit later in an AK<TT aipf flip. Good luck to him, I’ve got a feeling he’ll need it. The rest of the table seemed quite happy to see him sitting with a big pile of chips and me out of the game.
May Poker Points 212 (£2.12)
Today’s result;
7951058HNLB0.75GBPSkyPoker17/05/2013 14:30NL Hold'em £5 + £0.7568/85-£3.87
In a typical case of beginners luck I chopped a £25 Rebuy the first time I ever played live poker; a spur of the moment entry into a tournament at the G-Casino Blackpool during a weekend away with the family.
Since then I've attended 3 SPTs, I final-tabled the Friday night side-event at the first but have bricked everything since.
My only other live experience has been at The Venetian in Vegas a couple of months ago, as documented in this diary (page 16).
Closing Balance £333.93
Up £12.05 today
This afternoon today I played three Bounty Hunters. My exit hands in the first two were somewhat unfortunate; first pocket AA<K2o (the K2 called my raise from the SB, the flop was 822, my stack was only 18BB before opening the betting so there was no getting away), then AKs<AQo aipf in the second game.
The Poker Gods kindly evened things up in the third game, a small £2.30 which I won. While I’m happy that I played well I also have to acknowledge I got lucky three times at the final table. After winning two aipf 30/70s with out-kicked aces I then burst the bubble with 88>QQ aipf. Though I was dominated each time they were all standard shallow stack spots in which I was never folding. Funnily enough while I merrily winning all-ins as an underdog I couldn’t win a flip to save my life, losing all four out of four at the final table. At the start of heads-up play I had a 4/1 chip deficit to overcome but managed to fight back for a pleasing victory.
I'd been planning to play some poker in the evening too, but when it came down to it I felt too tired so opted to settle down with a few beers to watch the Eurovision Song Contest instead!
My balance has passed a pleasing landmark today. At £333.93 I’m now one third of the way to my target.
May Poker Points 226 (£2.26)
Today’s results;
7954371HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker18/05/2013 15:15NL Hold'em £2 + £0.31/25£18.227954217HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker18/05/2013 14:45NL Hold'em £2 + £0.311/14-£2.37953784HNLB0.75GBPSkyPoker18/05/2013 13:30NL Hold'em £5 + £0.7548/117-£3.87
Ship it! Running well to burst the bubble on the way to a small bink this afternoon;
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalancejoecole Small blind 400.00 400.00 17444.00 HotplayCM Big blind 800.00 1200.00 10767.00 Your hole cards 8 8 stuartno14 Raise 1600.00 2800.00 6456.00 GaryQQQ All-in 12533.00 15333.00 0.00 joecole Fold HotplayCM Fold stuartno14 All-in 6456.00 21789.00 0.00 GaryQQQ Unmatched bet 4477.00 17312.00 4477.00 stuartno14 Show Q Q GaryQQQ Show 8 8 Flop 8 2 2 Turn 3 River 10 GaryQQQ Win Full House, 8s and 2s 17312.00 21789.00