Ok so I haven´t been playing much for personal reasons. I´m now looking for somewhere else to live in Barcelona and this is taking a lot of my time so at the moment I don´t have much time to play poker. I didn´t play at all on Saturday and I only played briefly yesterday. I decided to do a short session and played two $5 stt´s and a $5 20 man stt, coming 5th in one, getting it all in on a QJx 2 spade flop vs A8s and losing to a nailed river flush. The other one I came 3rd in and I won the 20 man sng for $50, so all in all a quick and small profit.
I´m not sure when I´ll be back to a full schedule, the sooner the better I guess, I don´t really need a bad start to the month, yet at the same time I need to find somewhere to live and have a whole host of other shit to sort out. I´ll post again as soon as possible, until then thanks and good luck.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
A new month
Ok so I´m starting pretty much all over again with a few hundred extra dollars in my accounts, I´ve not been playing that much for reasons I won´t go into but I´ve found it hard to adjust back to smaller buy ins and have carried on playing as if I have the same amount of money in my accounts. This is something I need to sort out, as hard as it is moving back down for a while it´s something that I have to do. On Thursday I played 5 tourneys and here are the results:
$6fo on VC 218/228 LOL a good start, nice and deep, I button raise AKs 5x with 10/20 blinds, BB shoves and from what I know of this tourney its not a +EV move to fold here so I make the call and he has JJ and I don´t win the race.
$15fo on VC 115/245
$5fo on FTP 28/228 (27 paid) I shove TT otb and get called from the BB with K8 and obv he hits an K to felt me on the bubble.
$7rb on VC 24/156 (20 paid) 77 into AA, and another bubble.
$5rb on FTP 5/89 I had a great start in this thanks to KK and AA both holding up and plenty of tard action on my table, here is a great example of what I mean by that: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1626832 No need mate, but thanks. Then I win this huge pot to become chip leader with 30k and 2nd place on about 20k: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1626866 Things stay pretty much like this with me being chip leader of the tourney right until the final table, when I lose a big race and with 5 left I´m sitting in around third but still fancying my chances until this: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627342 Obviously I just can´t fold here and it´s a serious cooler 5 handed, note wtf was 99 doing? So I finish 5th for $110.
Friday I didn´t play much at all, only the $10fo on FTP, 331/400 getting tarded when getting it all in on the flop with top pair top kicker, by a guy who calls and then procedes to nail his gutshot, sigh.
I decided to try my luck at a couple of ten seat $5 stt´s on VC to try and make back my tourney buy ins for the day but came 6th in one losing with KK vs AK and JJ for a big treble and 4th in the other shoving ATo BoB and BB wakes up with AK, so no joy there. Finally I played the $7rb on VC coming 53/282, I was pretty short with about an M of 7-8, button raises and had been a lot so I knew he had a huge range. I decide to reshove A7o knowing that I have no fold equity and that he´s probably going to call but being pretty sure that I´m ahead and hoping my hand holds up, sure enough he calls with K8o and obviously hits a K to felt me.
That´s it for the last few days, I´m not sure how much I´m going to be playing today but one thing is sure, I really need to get back to a full schedule as quick as possible, build my accounts and start playing the $10rb´s and $15fo´s as soon as possible. Until tomorrow, thanks and good luck.
$6fo on VC 218/228 LOL a good start, nice and deep, I button raise AKs 5x with 10/20 blinds, BB shoves and from what I know of this tourney its not a +EV move to fold here so I make the call and he has JJ and I don´t win the race.
$15fo on VC 115/245
$5fo on FTP 28/228 (27 paid) I shove TT otb and get called from the BB with K8 and obv he hits an K to felt me on the bubble.
$7rb on VC 24/156 (20 paid) 77 into AA, and another bubble.
$5rb on FTP 5/89 I had a great start in this thanks to KK and AA both holding up and plenty of tard action on my table, here is a great example of what I mean by that: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1626832 No need mate, but thanks. Then I win this huge pot to become chip leader with 30k and 2nd place on about 20k: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1626866 Things stay pretty much like this with me being chip leader of the tourney right until the final table, when I lose a big race and with 5 left I´m sitting in around third but still fancying my chances until this: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627342 Obviously I just can´t fold here and it´s a serious cooler 5 handed, note wtf was 99 doing? So I finish 5th for $110.
Friday I didn´t play much at all, only the $10fo on FTP, 331/400 getting tarded when getting it all in on the flop with top pair top kicker, by a guy who calls and then procedes to nail his gutshot, sigh.
I decided to try my luck at a couple of ten seat $5 stt´s on VC to try and make back my tourney buy ins for the day but came 6th in one losing with KK vs AK and JJ for a big treble and 4th in the other shoving ATo BoB and BB wakes up with AK, so no joy there. Finally I played the $7rb on VC coming 53/282, I was pretty short with about an M of 7-8, button raises and had been a lot so I knew he had a huge range. I decide to reshove A7o knowing that I have no fold equity and that he´s probably going to call but being pretty sure that I´m ahead and hoping my hand holds up, sure enough he calls with K8o and obviously hits a K to felt me.
That´s it for the last few days, I´m not sure how much I´m going to be playing today but one thing is sure, I really need to get back to a full schedule as quick as possible, build my accounts and start playing the $10rb´s and $15fo´s as soon as possible. Until tomorrow, thanks and good luck.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Monthly Summary
Ok my first whole month of this project is up, time for a summary. My target for the month was 1000 Euros or $1,430, I started the month with $50 on my FTP account and $500 in my VC account. I finished the month with $750 in my FTP account and $2300 in my VC account so after I cashed out my $1,430 I managed to leave an extra $700 in my FTP acc and an extra $500 in my VC acc. I´m happy with this, I´m really not looking forward to going back to the smaller tourneys again and grinding until I can rebuild but it has to be done, I´d just started doing well in the $15fo aswell, shame. My only consolation is that I´m hoping that at the end of November I will be above the $1k mark in FTP and above the $2k mark on VC after cashing out, meaning in December I will be able to keep playing the $10 and $15 tourneys. Hopefully anyway, fingers crossed.
As for results, I managed a healthy 27 final tables, with 3 wins. I think this goes to show I need to work on my endgame, especially on and around the final table. I´m hoping as my accounts grow I´ll be less concerned with moving up spots in the cash and try to play for the win more often. With a small roll in each account this can be psychologically quite difficult to do, when roll isn´t an issue obviously the best way to play is to play to win.
I still haven´t managed to sort out neteller which is something I need to do this month and also I haven´t invested in PAHUD yet, although atm this isn´t a priority since I´ve mostly been playing tournaments.
As for rankings on pocket fives, I´ve managed to come from nowhere at the beginning of the month to be in 33rd for Spain after only a few small cashes. I´m hoping I can focus a bit more on my FTP acc this month and get a few decent results and hopefully push into the top 20 or 25 by the end of the month, we´ll see how things go. Well that´s all from me for my monthly summary, all in all I´m happy with how the month has gone and if next month I can manage the same sort of results then I will be very happy and looking good to move up to slightly larger tournaments. So..... back to grinding small tourneys. I´m probably not going to play a full shedule today but I´ll post my results later or tomorrow anyway. Until then, thanks and good luck.
As for results, I managed a healthy 27 final tables, with 3 wins. I think this goes to show I need to work on my endgame, especially on and around the final table. I´m hoping as my accounts grow I´ll be less concerned with moving up spots in the cash and try to play for the win more often. With a small roll in each account this can be psychologically quite difficult to do, when roll isn´t an issue obviously the best way to play is to play to win.
I still haven´t managed to sort out neteller which is something I need to do this month and also I haven´t invested in PAHUD yet, although atm this isn´t a priority since I´ve mostly been playing tournaments.
As for rankings on pocket fives, I´ve managed to come from nowhere at the beginning of the month to be in 33rd for Spain after only a few small cashes. I´m hoping I can focus a bit more on my FTP acc this month and get a few decent results and hopefully push into the top 20 or 25 by the end of the month, we´ll see how things go. Well that´s all from me for my monthly summary, all in all I´m happy with how the month has gone and if next month I can manage the same sort of results then I will be very happy and looking good to move up to slightly larger tournaments. So..... back to grinding small tourneys. I´m probably not going to play a full shedule today but I´ll post my results later or tomorrow anyway. Until then, thanks and good luck.
Wow I didn´t bubble the $15fo
Ok yesterday I played 7 tournaments, not quite a full shedule but the day went so well I took the rest of the night off. First off I decided to take a shot at a bigger tournament on FTP, and as my good friend Frobenius was playing the $24+2 $7,000 Freezeout, I decided to join him. I started off pretty slowly and was flagging until around the hour mark when I doubled w AK vs 44, a little while later I pick up KK and standard raise with 2 callers, the flop came 843 with 2 hearts and I bet 3/4 of the pot. I got a min raise from one of the callers and was put in a tough spot, I thought maybe he had a set but more likely that he was making a move with 99-JJ or with that very draw heavy board maybe something like 56, or the flush draw. Anyway, I decided to go with it and here is the result: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622737 A bit of a bugger but maybe my raise preflop was a bit weak. Anyway I bust out of that 219/457 and Frobenius went on pretty deep before busting out on the bubble.
Next was the $5fo on FTP where i come 66/240 after this blind on blind hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622829 Well done me for trying to get tricky and playing it very badly.
65/258 in $6fo on VC, I was totally card dead and had no opportunities throughout the tourney.
Next another $5fo on FTP where I come 206/241 after this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622857 I kind of figured he might have a big pair but wasn´t going to fold top pair top kicker at this stage of the tourney.
$2rb on FTP, A really bad rebuy period where I rebought 7 times and was in for $16 and still only managed to finish the rebuy period with my starting stack + add on and it didn´t get any better in the freezeout stage. My bust hand was after raising 99 from the cut off and the BB flat calls, flop K97 rainbow and I bet out a standard continuation bet of 1/3 to 1/2 the pot, BB calls and the turn is a Ten, we then get it all in and i´m thinking I´m looking good for a double when he flips TT and had turned a higher set, bit of a cooler and i finish 64/107.
Next up was the $15fo $3k gt on VC that I usually bubble but got 11th in yesterday. Wow, a result, for once I won a few races deep including a big one when i was pretty short and shoved 22 and got called by AQs and somehow managed to win. On the final table I got it all in a few times when dominating, once with AK vs AQ and once with AJ vs AT and they both held (WTF?) Finally we get 3 way and I´m short with about 40k and 4/8k blinds, the other 2 guys had 180k and 250k so I knew I had some work to do, so first hand I´m on the button and shove KTo get called by K8 and double, a few hands go by and I´m down to 65k again and sitting in the BB w A5o, SB raises and I figure my A is good and reshove knowing I have no fold equity but just hoping it will hold on its own. He calls with KJo and we see a ATx flop and x on the turn, I´m thinking I´m looking pretty good to double again and be in with a shot at winning with all 3 of us on roughly the same size stacks if I can just avoid a Q on the river, obviously not to be though as sure as anything he hits his 4 outer, Q on the river and I´m felted in 3rd (3/258) Still a pretty good result of $350 and this one result has turned my ROI in this tournament from - to +. Like I said yesterday, in the long run.....
Last tournament of the day was the $7rb $3kgt on VC, after an awful start I hit a rush in the middle of the tourney and find myself 3/30 and in a good spot. Unfortunately I lose a few hands and blind down but manage to hang on to the final table and eventually bust out 6/129 for a cash of $100, not bad.
All in all I made a nice profit of about $450 on VC and a loss of about $50 on FTP. I just seem to be stuck at the same amount on FTP at the moment fluctuating around $800, hopefully I can get a result on there soon and make it over the $1k mark. That´s it from me, pocket fives have just done a special about the top 10 players in Spain which is interesting (I´m 33rd atm) If anyone wants to check it out here´s the link: http://www.pocketfives.com/67AE04CF-4DA4-4824-A19C-D1453637B6CD.aspx Until later thanks and good luck.
Next was the $5fo on FTP where i come 66/240 after this blind on blind hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622829 Well done me for trying to get tricky and playing it very badly.
65/258 in $6fo on VC, I was totally card dead and had no opportunities throughout the tourney.
Next another $5fo on FTP where I come 206/241 after this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622857 I kind of figured he might have a big pair but wasn´t going to fold top pair top kicker at this stage of the tourney.
$2rb on FTP, A really bad rebuy period where I rebought 7 times and was in for $16 and still only managed to finish the rebuy period with my starting stack + add on and it didn´t get any better in the freezeout stage. My bust hand was after raising 99 from the cut off and the BB flat calls, flop K97 rainbow and I bet out a standard continuation bet of 1/3 to 1/2 the pot, BB calls and the turn is a Ten, we then get it all in and i´m thinking I´m looking good for a double when he flips TT and had turned a higher set, bit of a cooler and i finish 64/107.
Next up was the $15fo $3k gt on VC that I usually bubble but got 11th in yesterday. Wow, a result, for once I won a few races deep including a big one when i was pretty short and shoved 22 and got called by AQs and somehow managed to win. On the final table I got it all in a few times when dominating, once with AK vs AQ and once with AJ vs AT and they both held (WTF?) Finally we get 3 way and I´m short with about 40k and 4/8k blinds, the other 2 guys had 180k and 250k so I knew I had some work to do, so first hand I´m on the button and shove KTo get called by K8 and double, a few hands go by and I´m down to 65k again and sitting in the BB w A5o, SB raises and I figure my A is good and reshove knowing I have no fold equity but just hoping it will hold on its own. He calls with KJo and we see a ATx flop and x on the turn, I´m thinking I´m looking pretty good to double again and be in with a shot at winning with all 3 of us on roughly the same size stacks if I can just avoid a Q on the river, obviously not to be though as sure as anything he hits his 4 outer, Q on the river and I´m felted in 3rd (3/258) Still a pretty good result of $350 and this one result has turned my ROI in this tournament from - to +. Like I said yesterday, in the long run.....
Last tournament of the day was the $7rb $3kgt on VC, after an awful start I hit a rush in the middle of the tourney and find myself 3/30 and in a good spot. Unfortunately I lose a few hands and blind down but manage to hang on to the final table and eventually bust out 6/129 for a cash of $100, not bad.
All in all I made a nice profit of about $450 on VC and a loss of about $50 on FTP. I just seem to be stuck at the same amount on FTP at the moment fluctuating around $800, hopefully I can get a result on there soon and make it over the $1k mark. That´s it from me, pocket fives have just done a special about the top 10 players in Spain which is interesting (I´m 33rd atm) If anyone wants to check it out here´s the link: http://www.pocketfives.com/67AE04CF-4DA4-4824-A19C-D1453637B6CD.aspx Until later thanks and good luck.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Back to the Grind
Ok sorry for not posting for a few days, I´ve been sorting some stuff out and haven´t really played over the last few days. I´ve been out a lot and Saturday was a heavy one, with the final of the rugby (good effort England) and also my South African friends last weekend in Barcelona. I can´t remember much after the rugby, those damn green and golds again, but I do remember going to a Mexican mate´s house party, which was crazy.
Saturday I played two stt´s, one 9 seat $10 and one 18 seat $10. I went out of the 9 seat one fifth after bluffing off all my chips with 67s, lol. However I managed to win the 18 seat one and made a nice profit for a small session. Sunday I played 2 tournaments during the day as I had plans for the evening. I played the $15fo on VC again even though I always bubble it and for the last month I have -100% ROI in that tourney. Still, I do think in the long run I can do well at it, all it takes is one result and I think over a 3-6 month period I can achieve a good positive ROI. We´ll see. It was a bigger field than usual with 301 runners, so 50 were paid but I still managed to bubble coming 57th. I was in SB with AJs, there were 2 limpers so I thought I was probably good and shoved it in with an M of around 8, the limper in last position almost timed out but made the call with 88 and I lose the race. The other tourney I played on Sunday was the $5fo on Tilt, just scraping the money coming 22/214 and going out with this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1615575 which if I win puts me nicely in the top 5.
Monday I didn´t play but last night I went back to a full schedule, playing 12 tournaments:
$2fo on VC 209/369
$5fo on FTP 167/241 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1619118
$6fo on VC 150/237
$15fo on VC 11/242 Finally I don´t bubble this, Short with M of 5 and shoved KTs, BB calls w Q3o and hits a Q and even though after the turn any K, A, 9 or club would save me I don´t hit on the river.
$5fo on VC 27/96 (20 paid)
$5fo on FTP 30/253 (30 paid)
$1rb (1kvgt) on VC 28/140 (20 paid)
$10fo on FTP 152/327 Lose race with AK vs 99
$5rb on VC 6/66 Final table but blinds were huge and I was forced to shove K5s from CO and SB woke up with JJ, but a $120 cash
$7rb on VC 83/234 I lose a huge pot for top 10 in chips with AQ vs A9 all in preflop.
$3rb on VC 22/85 (10 paid) Was getting short, shoved A3s from button BB wakes up with JJ.
$10fo on FTP 51/278 Lose big pot with 99 to 44 all in preflop.
So all in all for the day a small profit of about $100 on VC and a small loss of $20 on FTP. I´ll be playing again today and can hopefully pick up a result. Until later, thanks and good luck.
Saturday I played two stt´s, one 9 seat $10 and one 18 seat $10. I went out of the 9 seat one fifth after bluffing off all my chips with 67s, lol. However I managed to win the 18 seat one and made a nice profit for a small session. Sunday I played 2 tournaments during the day as I had plans for the evening. I played the $15fo on VC again even though I always bubble it and for the last month I have -100% ROI in that tourney. Still, I do think in the long run I can do well at it, all it takes is one result and I think over a 3-6 month period I can achieve a good positive ROI. We´ll see. It was a bigger field than usual with 301 runners, so 50 were paid but I still managed to bubble coming 57th. I was in SB with AJs, there were 2 limpers so I thought I was probably good and shoved it in with an M of around 8, the limper in last position almost timed out but made the call with 88 and I lose the race. The other tourney I played on Sunday was the $5fo on Tilt, just scraping the money coming 22/214 and going out with this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1615575 which if I win puts me nicely in the top 5.
Monday I didn´t play but last night I went back to a full schedule, playing 12 tournaments:
$2fo on VC 209/369
$5fo on FTP 167/241 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1619118
$6fo on VC 150/237
$15fo on VC 11/242 Finally I don´t bubble this, Short with M of 5 and shoved KTs, BB calls w Q3o and hits a Q and even though after the turn any K, A, 9 or club would save me I don´t hit on the river.
$5fo on VC 27/96 (20 paid)
$5fo on FTP 30/253 (30 paid)
$1rb (1kvgt) on VC 28/140 (20 paid)
$10fo on FTP 152/327 Lose race with AK vs 99
$5rb on VC 6/66 Final table but blinds were huge and I was forced to shove K5s from CO and SB woke up with JJ, but a $120 cash
$7rb on VC 83/234 I lose a huge pot for top 10 in chips with AQ vs A9 all in preflop.
$3rb on VC 22/85 (10 paid) Was getting short, shoved A3s from button BB wakes up with JJ.
$10fo on FTP 51/278 Lose big pot with 99 to 44 all in preflop.
So all in all for the day a small profit of about $100 on VC and a small loss of $20 on FTP. I´ll be playing again today and can hopefully pick up a result. Until later, thanks and good luck.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!
Ok I feel a lot less frustrated, finally I won another tournament. So I´ll run through the days play, I know I said I was going to take the night off but my friend who I was going to go out with cancelled and I took the plunge into tournament poker for the 4th night running. I definately am going to take tonight off whatever, playing for more than a couple of days/nights with out taking a whole day off is a big mistake I think, for me personally anyway.
Ok first off commiserations to Moor, who busted the GUKPT yesterday with a dirty KK vs QQ situation. Unlucky mate, I know how good KK is for you usually, lol.
My first tourney of the day was a 180 man sng on full tilt, with 19 left and 18 paid I was determined not to let my recent bubble run influence my decisions and so reshoved a guys button raise from the small blind with TT, only to have him call with AJs and subsequently I lose the race and go out bubble boy again. Fair play I think, right move by me and I got unlucky, no point getting bogged down by it or letting it annoy me.
Next up was the 1k vgt tourney on VC 4/136 The blinds in this are crazy and basically at the end it´s a crapshoot, I got it in with AK vs T7 soooooted lol and although I flopped an A on a A96 flop, the turn was an 8 completing his gutshot. I didn´t rebuy in this, just added on so it was $78 profit, not bad for a $1rb. The good thing about the value guarantee tourneys on Vc is that there are 3 a night and there is usually around 40-50% overlay, which really is good value even if the blind structure tends to make it a bit crap-shooty.
Yet another bubble in the 3kgt, coming 37/248 with 30 paid, I seem to consistently bubble this one, lol!
The $2.75k guaranteed, $10 rb was probably the most frustrating of the night for me, I managed to build a stack during and shortly after the rebuy period so only added on and was in for $20. 27 left I pick up KK and I´ve got a fairly healthy stack, from MP i raise 3x and get a call from the BB, he has about the same size stack as me and we see a Q73 rainbow flop, perfect, he open shoves the flop and I´m thinking he´s prob got AQ, possibly QJ or QK and maybe even a set but it´s a pretty easy call. He flips AQ and I shout 1 time! turn Q river Q, urgh! Another bubble 27 with 20 paid.
The 1.5k vgt, $3rb I came 5/77 and was 2/5 on the final table when I lose 2 races in a row, the first AQs vs 66 for most of my stack and then shortly after QJs vs 77 to bow out 5th. Oh well another $120.
My best result of the night was in the $1k gt, $5rb on VC, I managed to pick up a nice 10k stack in the rebuy period without rebuying, which was a nice start. I grind my way up to around 18k picking off a few small pots here and there. Then I´m in the big blind with T8d, it´s folded to the button who min raises, sb folds and I see a flop, why not, HU for a min raise when the guy has about a 12k stack, I might flop something nice, and I do, flop brings QTT and I check raise the guys flop bet pretty weakly trying to make it look like I have something weak like a small PP or a Q with a shit kicker. He calls and I bet out weakly on the turn which was an 8 now giving me a full house, he insta-shoves over the top for the rest of his stack and I snap call. We flip and he has JJ, and in my opinion played it very poorly lol. He doesn´t river his miracle J and I´m nicely up to 30k.
From here it was pretty plain sailing to the final table, which when we start I'm 8/10. I double up with AJ in BB after calling a min raise from a guy in MP and seeing an A high flop, the preflop raiser insta shoves and I call, he flips JJ so no 1 outer please. A couple go out and then we have a pot where a few players limp and I'm in the BB with KJo, I think about making a move but just elect to check and we see an AJx flop, its checked around and the turn comes K, I check planning to either check raise or just trap, the big stack at the table min bets and for some reason this worries me, 1 caller and I call too. River K, lovely, i bet out half the pot and he min raises, obviously i shove it in and he calls with QT, he'd turned the straight, what a nice river for me, glad I didn't get too aggressive on the turn. After that I'm chip daddy and quickly get to bullying the table, I build my stack up to a healthy 90k and then raise AQs from the cutoff, 1 caller and we see an AQT flop, i bet out half the pot and the caller insta shoves, I'm a bit worried about KJ but have to make the call, he flips QQ and I lose a huge pot and I'm back to last place. Somehow manage to grind back to chip leader. Having aces twice def helped lol, I run good 1 time. HU I have 250k and other guy has 150k it goes on for a while and the stacks stay pretty much the same. The last hand was an interesting one, I raise QJ sooted out of position 3x and he flat calls, we see a 8h 9h 2c flop and I fire 40k into a 60k pot, he insta shoves and I time out and make the call figuring either he's on a draw and I'm good as is or maybe he has a pair but with 2 overs, a gutshot and so much in the pot already I decide to go for it. If i lose I still have 100k and if I win then great. He flips Tc 7c and I hold, wow. I'd be really interested to hear any comments about this hand and I'll definately be asking Moorman about it next time I speak to him.
All in all a solid night, nice to get another win under my belt and nice to make $500+ profit. The only downside of the day was that England lost the football, TARDS. I'm off for the night, taking a well deserved break. Until tomorrow, thanks and good luck.
Ok first off commiserations to Moor, who busted the GUKPT yesterday with a dirty KK vs QQ situation. Unlucky mate, I know how good KK is for you usually, lol.
My first tourney of the day was a 180 man sng on full tilt, with 19 left and 18 paid I was determined not to let my recent bubble run influence my decisions and so reshoved a guys button raise from the small blind with TT, only to have him call with AJs and subsequently I lose the race and go out bubble boy again. Fair play I think, right move by me and I got unlucky, no point getting bogged down by it or letting it annoy me.
Next up was the 1k vgt tourney on VC 4/136 The blinds in this are crazy and basically at the end it´s a crapshoot, I got it in with AK vs T7 soooooted lol and although I flopped an A on a A96 flop, the turn was an 8 completing his gutshot. I didn´t rebuy in this, just added on so it was $78 profit, not bad for a $1rb. The good thing about the value guarantee tourneys on Vc is that there are 3 a night and there is usually around 40-50% overlay, which really is good value even if the blind structure tends to make it a bit crap-shooty.
Yet another bubble in the 3kgt, coming 37/248 with 30 paid, I seem to consistently bubble this one, lol!
The $2.75k guaranteed, $10 rb was probably the most frustrating of the night for me, I managed to build a stack during and shortly after the rebuy period so only added on and was in for $20. 27 left I pick up KK and I´ve got a fairly healthy stack, from MP i raise 3x and get a call from the BB, he has about the same size stack as me and we see a Q73 rainbow flop, perfect, he open shoves the flop and I´m thinking he´s prob got AQ, possibly QJ or QK and maybe even a set but it´s a pretty easy call. He flips AQ and I shout 1 time! turn Q river Q, urgh! Another bubble 27 with 20 paid.
The 1.5k vgt, $3rb I came 5/77 and was 2/5 on the final table when I lose 2 races in a row, the first AQs vs 66 for most of my stack and then shortly after QJs vs 77 to bow out 5th. Oh well another $120.
My best result of the night was in the $1k gt, $5rb on VC, I managed to pick up a nice 10k stack in the rebuy period without rebuying, which was a nice start. I grind my way up to around 18k picking off a few small pots here and there. Then I´m in the big blind with T8d, it´s folded to the button who min raises, sb folds and I see a flop, why not, HU for a min raise when the guy has about a 12k stack, I might flop something nice, and I do, flop brings QTT and I check raise the guys flop bet pretty weakly trying to make it look like I have something weak like a small PP or a Q with a shit kicker. He calls and I bet out weakly on the turn which was an 8 now giving me a full house, he insta-shoves over the top for the rest of his stack and I snap call. We flip and he has JJ, and in my opinion played it very poorly lol. He doesn´t river his miracle J and I´m nicely up to 30k.
From here it was pretty plain sailing to the final table, which when we start I'm 8/10. I double up with AJ in BB after calling a min raise from a guy in MP and seeing an A high flop, the preflop raiser insta shoves and I call, he flips JJ so no 1 outer please. A couple go out and then we have a pot where a few players limp and I'm in the BB with KJo, I think about making a move but just elect to check and we see an AJx flop, its checked around and the turn comes K, I check planning to either check raise or just trap, the big stack at the table min bets and for some reason this worries me, 1 caller and I call too. River K, lovely, i bet out half the pot and he min raises, obviously i shove it in and he calls with QT, he'd turned the straight, what a nice river for me, glad I didn't get too aggressive on the turn. After that I'm chip daddy and quickly get to bullying the table, I build my stack up to a healthy 90k and then raise AQs from the cutoff, 1 caller and we see an AQT flop, i bet out half the pot and the caller insta shoves, I'm a bit worried about KJ but have to make the call, he flips QQ and I lose a huge pot and I'm back to last place. Somehow manage to grind back to chip leader. Having aces twice def helped lol, I run good 1 time. HU I have 250k and other guy has 150k it goes on for a while and the stacks stay pretty much the same. The last hand was an interesting one, I raise QJ sooted out of position 3x and he flat calls, we see a 8h 9h 2c flop and I fire 40k into a 60k pot, he insta shoves and I time out and make the call figuring either he's on a draw and I'm good as is or maybe he has a pair but with 2 overs, a gutshot and so much in the pot already I decide to go for it. If i lose I still have 100k and if I win then great. He flips Tc 7c and I hold, wow. I'd be really interested to hear any comments about this hand and I'll definately be asking Moorman about it next time I speak to him.
All in all a solid night, nice to get another win under my belt and nice to make $500+ profit. The only downside of the day was that England lost the football, TARDS. I'm off for the night, taking a well deserved break. Until tomorrow, thanks and good luck.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Breaking even
Sigh, the last few days have been very frustrating. I´ve played 24 tournaments, made 4 final tables, bubbled a few and scraped the money in a few. All in all I´ve broken even, even with the 4 final tables. Tournament poker can be like this sometimes, I think I´m going to take a break today and hopefully come back tomorrow strong. I´m not going to go into the details of all of the tourneys I played, just the ones where I made the final table and some of the other ones where there were interesting hands or situations.
First off, the $3rb, 1.5kgt on VC, 6/73. With $450 for the win and sitting second in chips with 6 left I felt pretty confident. I had played well and really got into the grind on the bubble and at the start of the final table, working my way from 8/10 to 2/6 until this hand: Chip leader shoves utg and I see AA, easy call? lol, i know how I´m running atm but yeh, I call he has JJ, one time please hold I cry! Obviously he spikes the J and i´m out, sigh, only guy at the tabe that can cover me hits his 20% and it´s gg me.
Next up, 3kgt on VC, 212 start and I come 21st with 20 paid. I shove A7 suited otb with a pretty low M, just hoping to get it through and steal the blinds. Standard though, BB wakes up with AA and its another bubble for me.
$3rb on VC, 107 start and I come 25th with 20 paid, losing a huge race with QQ vs AKo for top 5 in chips and a shot.
$6rb on VC, i scrape the money coming 17th out of 144 and pretty much just get my money back.
Full tilt $3rb, 83/597 with 90 paid, I just scrape the money and I´m short enough to jump at the chance of shoving when it´s folded to me in SB w QJo, unfortunately BB wakes up w AK and I don´t suck out.
$15fo on VC 39/280 with 30 paid. I reshove TT to a raise from MP and he insta calls w KQo and hits both K and Q lol.
Full Tilt $5rb, 8/70, short on final table and shove A4o from otb, BB insta calls w QJo the monster that it is and obviously I don´t win 60/40´s.
$3kgt on vc again, 21/153 with 20 paid, lol I manage to bubble this 2 nights in a row. 1 limper utg which I´m a bit worried about but still shove TT from cut off, not really wanting to see a flop at all cos I know I´m gonna lose, lol. UTG limper insta-calls w A4o, awesome call considering he knew the flop was gonna be 448, another bubble gg me.
Full tilt $2rb, 5/107 http://www.pokerhand.org/?1594820 Good call 42, psychic.
Full tilt $5rb 41/332 After amassing a nice 18k stack in the rebuy period, trebling up in the first 5 mins thanks to this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1595331, and building to around 30k I lose a 20k race and am back down to 20k when I have this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1595727 A tough spot and tough to lay down top set. WOW, I suck out for once and I´m sitting pretty in 6th with 100 odd left. Over the next hour or so I lose 3 races all to the same guy on the table JJ to AK, TT to KQo and A8s to 77 and eventually finish just in the money. Atm I race like a 3 legged horse at Epsom Derby day.
VC $5rb 28/109 with 20 paid, After seeing a bigstacks ep raise I shove AKo with plenty of fold equity, however, he insta calls me for over half of his stack w QTs, flop A high but 2 spades and (standard) he rivers it. Awesome play from him, from now on I know QT suited for the monster that it is.
Finally the $6rb on VC 8/149 Folded to SB who puts me all in, blinds 1/2k he has about 30k, me 20k, I have K8d and make the call, he flips 69d but its all over after he hits a 9 and yet another final table without a serious cash.
As you can probably tell I´m pretty frustrated, I can´t seem to win the races or the 60/40´s at the crucial time. I feel like I´m playing pretty well and consistently getting deep but just can´t catch the breaks at the moment. I guess that´s a part of tournament poker. Just got to keep on going and sooner or later things will happen. Maybe I´ll take a break from tourneys for a while and see how I fare on cash, I´m really not sure.
That´s enough from me anyway, I´m sure you´re probably bored shitless about hearing about my crummy luck. One final thing, Good Luck to Chris Moorman (Moorman1) as he starts his assault on London´s GUKPT today, live poker one time mate! If anyone wants to keep up to date with what´s going on there, check out http://www.blondepoker.com/
Back tomorrow, thanks and good luck.
First off, the $3rb, 1.5kgt on VC, 6/73. With $450 for the win and sitting second in chips with 6 left I felt pretty confident. I had played well and really got into the grind on the bubble and at the start of the final table, working my way from 8/10 to 2/6 until this hand: Chip leader shoves utg and I see AA, easy call? lol, i know how I´m running atm but yeh, I call he has JJ, one time please hold I cry! Obviously he spikes the J and i´m out, sigh, only guy at the tabe that can cover me hits his 20% and it´s gg me.
Next up, 3kgt on VC, 212 start and I come 21st with 20 paid. I shove A7 suited otb with a pretty low M, just hoping to get it through and steal the blinds. Standard though, BB wakes up with AA and its another bubble for me.
$3rb on VC, 107 start and I come 25th with 20 paid, losing a huge race with QQ vs AKo for top 5 in chips and a shot.
$6rb on VC, i scrape the money coming 17th out of 144 and pretty much just get my money back.
Full tilt $3rb, 83/597 with 90 paid, I just scrape the money and I´m short enough to jump at the chance of shoving when it´s folded to me in SB w QJo, unfortunately BB wakes up w AK and I don´t suck out.
$15fo on VC 39/280 with 30 paid. I reshove TT to a raise from MP and he insta calls w KQo and hits both K and Q lol.
Full Tilt $5rb, 8/70, short on final table and shove A4o from otb, BB insta calls w QJo the monster that it is and obviously I don´t win 60/40´s.
$3kgt on vc again, 21/153 with 20 paid, lol I manage to bubble this 2 nights in a row. 1 limper utg which I´m a bit worried about but still shove TT from cut off, not really wanting to see a flop at all cos I know I´m gonna lose, lol. UTG limper insta-calls w A4o, awesome call considering he knew the flop was gonna be 448, another bubble gg me.
Full tilt $2rb, 5/107 http://www.pokerhand.org/?1594820 Good call 42, psychic.
Full tilt $5rb 41/332 After amassing a nice 18k stack in the rebuy period, trebling up in the first 5 mins thanks to this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1595331, and building to around 30k I lose a 20k race and am back down to 20k when I have this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1595727 A tough spot and tough to lay down top set. WOW, I suck out for once and I´m sitting pretty in 6th with 100 odd left. Over the next hour or so I lose 3 races all to the same guy on the table JJ to AK, TT to KQo and A8s to 77 and eventually finish just in the money. Atm I race like a 3 legged horse at Epsom Derby day.
VC $5rb 28/109 with 20 paid, After seeing a bigstacks ep raise I shove AKo with plenty of fold equity, however, he insta calls me for over half of his stack w QTs, flop A high but 2 spades and (standard) he rivers it. Awesome play from him, from now on I know QT suited for the monster that it is.
Finally the $6rb on VC 8/149 Folded to SB who puts me all in, blinds 1/2k he has about 30k, me 20k, I have K8d and make the call, he flips 69d but its all over after he hits a 9 and yet another final table without a serious cash.
As you can probably tell I´m pretty frustrated, I can´t seem to win the races or the 60/40´s at the crucial time. I feel like I´m playing pretty well and consistently getting deep but just can´t catch the breaks at the moment. I guess that´s a part of tournament poker. Just got to keep on going and sooner or later things will happen. Maybe I´ll take a break from tourneys for a while and see how I fare on cash, I´m really not sure.
That´s enough from me anyway, I´m sure you´re probably bored shitless about hearing about my crummy luck. One final thing, Good Luck to Chris Moorman (Moorman1) as he starts his assault on London´s GUKPT today, live poker one time mate! If anyone wants to keep up to date with what´s going on there, check out http://www.blondepoker.com/
Back tomorrow, thanks and good luck.
Monday, October 15, 2007
It´s a small world
Today I have an awful hangover. I went to watch the SA-Argentina match last night with some mates. It was a pretty good game and South Africa were just too good so it looks like a SA-England final. I can´t wait but I´m not too expectant since last time we played SA they whooped us. Adam, one of my SA mates had a bet with a kiwi that SA would get further than New Zealand, so collected his 50 euros last night and then spent it all on booze over the next hour or so, one reason why I am so hungover. God know hows many gold and green (don´t have a clue what they are) shooters we did and I lost count of how many pints of FranzFerdinand I had. Later I get chatting to a Mexican guy at the bar and low and behold he studied at Essex uni and was mates with a good friend of mine, Patrick. We get talking about uni days and what we are both doing here in Barcelona, head back to his and finish the night off drinking his single barrel Jack Daniels, another reason why I´m so hungover. I stumble off into the night without a clue where I´m going, fall asleep on the metro and end up taking 2 hours to get home instead of 20 minutes, well played me.
Yesterday I decide that because I only have 4 hours to play I will play a higher buy in tourney and really try to focus on it rather than multi tabling and playing 4-5 at once. So I decide to play the $30 fo on VC only to discover 10 mins in that its a $30 rebuy, well done me. For the first 59 mins I get absolutely nothing, raise a few times on the button and steal a few pots and generally manage to maintain my stack at what I started with. Then 1 min before the rebuy finishes I´m in small blind with KK, its folded to me and I think, typical. I standard 3x raise and to my surprise BB reraises, wahey I think and reraise, he shoves and I insta call only to see AA. I don´t bother rebuying as I can´t see the point in spending another $60 for a stack of less than average after the break.
The only other tourney I play is the $5 rebuy on Full Tilt, I don´t really do too much in the rebuy apart from win small pots with AA and KK, then after the rebuy period I double nicely with this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1586338 Nothing too notable happens until about 15 left where I lose a big race and I´m short stack with 9 paid. I shove 33 from EP and get a call from AK:http://www.pokerhand.org/?1586719 standard! I hang in there for a bit and finally go out 12th after shoving this otb and failing to suck out even on this flop: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1586734
I am about to start for the evening and will be playing a full shedule tonight. Until tomorrow, thanks and good luck.
Yesterday I decide that because I only have 4 hours to play I will play a higher buy in tourney and really try to focus on it rather than multi tabling and playing 4-5 at once. So I decide to play the $30 fo on VC only to discover 10 mins in that its a $30 rebuy, well done me. For the first 59 mins I get absolutely nothing, raise a few times on the button and steal a few pots and generally manage to maintain my stack at what I started with. Then 1 min before the rebuy finishes I´m in small blind with KK, its folded to me and I think, typical. I standard 3x raise and to my surprise BB reraises, wahey I think and reraise, he shoves and I insta call only to see AA. I don´t bother rebuying as I can´t see the point in spending another $60 for a stack of less than average after the break.
The only other tourney I play is the $5 rebuy on Full Tilt, I don´t really do too much in the rebuy apart from win small pots with AA and KK, then after the rebuy period I double nicely with this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1586338 Nothing too notable happens until about 15 left where I lose a big race and I´m short stack with 9 paid. I shove 33 from EP and get a call from AK:http://www.pokerhand.org/?1586719 standard! I hang in there for a bit and finally go out 12th after shoving this otb and failing to suck out even on this flop: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1586734
I am about to start for the evening and will be playing a full shedule tonight. Until tomorrow, thanks and good luck.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
A Good Day for English Sport
Well, the 3-0 result for England vs Estonia looks good to have set them up for the big match against Russia on Wednesday. I still can´t believe we beat France last night in the semi-final of the rugby world cup. What a match, utter tension throughout, I have just stumps where my fingers used to be from all the nailbiting. Well done England! It wasn´t pretty but it was effective, the determination, the grit and the heart of the England team pulled them through, wooohooo!! Reading some of the things people said last night after the match today I found this particular gem from the BBC sport correspondant in Paris:
"I could spout forth forever, like Sue Pollard on speed, on the staggering, gob-smacking events I’ve just witnessed......How did England win that? How has an England team that lay smashed in pieces four weeks ago made the World Cup Final? If this England team were a man out on the pull, they’d be Dean Gaffney bagging Cameron Diaz". Which I thought was a cracker.
I´ll be going out later to watch the other semi-final, South Africa vs Argentina and will definately be supporting Argentina, not only because I´ll be watching it with one of my South African mates but because they´ll be the underdog and I would much prefer England to have to play them than SA in the final. Come on Argentina!
OK so onto friday´s results:
FT $5fo MTT 250/260 AK vs JJ
VC $15fo MTT 189/257 Get it all in on flop w mid set vs flush draw, which he nails on river.
VC $8rb MTT feeder to 100k 39 seats 54/155 Short, reshove A4 off in BB to button raise, he has AK.
FT $5fo 127/249 Lose big pot w AA vs bottom pair+flush draw, then shove KJo otb into sb´s JJ
VC $6fo MTT 7/259 On final table, everyone has pretty low M´s, i raise AQs from cutoff 2.75x, SB shoves, I got 32k back but M of 4-5 if I fold, I call he has AK. Felt like a bit of a donkey after that call but I spoke to Moorman afterwards and he said he would have "snap called and high fived the monitor" lol, so I felt a bit better.
FT $2fo MTT 7/205 On final table and short, shove AJo UTG, big stack calls w 44 and I lose the race.
FT $2 rebuy MTT 20/136 (18 paid) Get it all in preflop w KK vs JJ for a 40k pot and top 3 in chip lead, flop 89T turn 7, gg me.
VC $1rb MTT 16/170 (20 paid) Shove A7 suited with M of 4 from cutoff, sb calls w TT.
VC $5rebuy MTT 10/60 (10 paid) Scrape final table and go out shortly after.
VC $3 rebuy MTT 11/91 (10 paid) I had made the mistake of blinding down too much in the $5rb and didnt want to do the same thing again. I shoved Q2s from the button hoping to get it through and steal the blinds but BB makes the call w KJo and I don´t suck out.
VC $7rebuy MTT 88/243 Utterly card dead throughout.
So all in all I make a small profit on VC and a small loss on Full tilt for the day and bubble a few more tourneys. I feel like I am playing pretty well but still need to work on my endgame. Too often I end up getting to the final table too short to really do much. That´s also one of the problems of tournaments on VC, by the time you get to the final table it´s pretty much a crapshoot. I much prefer Full Tilt´s tourney structure.
Saturday I don´t have time to play tourneys because of the sport, but I do manage to get in 2 hours of cash, multi tabling four 25/50c tables, I manage to finish the session a buy in up and I can´t remember actually hitting a big hand so I´ll take it.
I´ll post again later on tonight about today´s play, but I doubt I will be playing too much poker today. Thanks and good luck.
"I could spout forth forever, like Sue Pollard on speed, on the staggering, gob-smacking events I’ve just witnessed......How did England win that? How has an England team that lay smashed in pieces four weeks ago made the World Cup Final? If this England team were a man out on the pull, they’d be Dean Gaffney bagging Cameron Diaz". Which I thought was a cracker.
I´ll be going out later to watch the other semi-final, South Africa vs Argentina and will definately be supporting Argentina, not only because I´ll be watching it with one of my South African mates but because they´ll be the underdog and I would much prefer England to have to play them than SA in the final. Come on Argentina!
OK so onto friday´s results:
FT $5fo MTT 250/260 AK vs JJ
VC $15fo MTT 189/257 Get it all in on flop w mid set vs flush draw, which he nails on river.
VC $8rb MTT feeder to 100k 39 seats 54/155 Short, reshove A4 off in BB to button raise, he has AK.
FT $5fo 127/249 Lose big pot w AA vs bottom pair+flush draw, then shove KJo otb into sb´s JJ
VC $6fo MTT 7/259 On final table, everyone has pretty low M´s, i raise AQs from cutoff 2.75x, SB shoves, I got 32k back but M of 4-5 if I fold, I call he has AK. Felt like a bit of a donkey after that call but I spoke to Moorman afterwards and he said he would have "snap called and high fived the monitor" lol, so I felt a bit better.
FT $2fo MTT 7/205 On final table and short, shove AJo UTG, big stack calls w 44 and I lose the race.
FT $2 rebuy MTT 20/136 (18 paid) Get it all in preflop w KK vs JJ for a 40k pot and top 3 in chip lead, flop 89T turn 7, gg me.
VC $1rb MTT 16/170 (20 paid) Shove A7 suited with M of 4 from cutoff, sb calls w TT.
VC $5rebuy MTT 10/60 (10 paid) Scrape final table and go out shortly after.
VC $3 rebuy MTT 11/91 (10 paid) I had made the mistake of blinding down too much in the $5rb and didnt want to do the same thing again. I shoved Q2s from the button hoping to get it through and steal the blinds but BB makes the call w KJo and I don´t suck out.
VC $7rebuy MTT 88/243 Utterly card dead throughout.
So all in all I make a small profit on VC and a small loss on Full tilt for the day and bubble a few more tourneys. I feel like I am playing pretty well but still need to work on my endgame. Too often I end up getting to the final table too short to really do much. That´s also one of the problems of tournaments on VC, by the time you get to the final table it´s pretty much a crapshoot. I much prefer Full Tilt´s tourney structure.
Saturday I don´t have time to play tourneys because of the sport, but I do manage to get in 2 hours of cash, multi tabling four 25/50c tables, I manage to finish the session a buy in up and I can´t remember actually hitting a big hand so I´ll take it.
I´ll post again later on tonight about today´s play, but I doubt I will be playing too much poker today. Thanks and good luck.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Bubble Boy Blues
Yesterday I started very optomistically, but soon things went wrong as they usually do. I came 40/263 in the $15fo on VC with 30 paid after losing a race w AQo vs TT. Then I bubbled the $6fo 31/263 with 30 paid, it´s folded to me in SB and I have A3o and shove, bb calls w KQo and hits 2 Q´s. Next up is the $5 rebuy on Full Tilt and I dont get near the money coming 29/88 after shoving A7s on the button and running it into BB´s AJo. Next is the $5fo on FT, i come 23/187 with 18 paid after reshoving a button raise w 99 and then losing the subsequent race to the guys KTo. Bah! i´m thinking, and start to get really annoyed. I feel really fed up and no longer in the mood to play so I start shoving every hand of the only tournament i´m left in, the $2rb on FT and it was only a matter of time before one of my constant all ins got called and I´m sitting staring at the space on the table where I was just sitting before donking off. So I decide that it would be stupid to play any more and head off out to the pub.
The Republican is about 2 metro stops from where I live. It´s a nice little bar, I get on really well with the owners, they have good beer, the music is good and the clientel is mostly Catalans and Spanish with a nice mix of other Europeans and the odd kiwi. Kieran, the owner, puts on some classic Pearl Jam and we get talking about poker, what else! He tells me he´s been meaning to deposit and play a bit online and then procedes to download and deposit on VC, lol. I sit and watch him play 1/2c limit for a while, drinking a nice German white beer they have there called Franziskeiner or something like that. Then he logs off and I get talking to a Spanish bloke about the History of Spain, languages and various other stuff. A few FranzFerdinands later and I´m eyeing up the computer on the bar and thinking I should show these guys how great I am at poker. Within minutes I´m multi-tabling five 25/50c tables, I make a big laydown of KK on a QT7 flop with loads of action from the 2 preflop callers in front of me on the flop, one flips QT and the other 77. Moments later I lose with KK again on a different table to a guy that called the flop with bottom pair, turned a flush draw and nails it on the river. A buy in and a half later I realise that 5 tabling after several pints probably wasn´t the genius idea that I had thought it was and concede that I am an utter donkey.
I pop outside for a quick oneskin and return bleary eyed. I quickly get speaking to a guy who says he worked for the government, something to do with intelligence. He is very strongly Nationalist and declared himself to be very conservative. Soon we are having a discussion about what it means to be Catalan and identity. They have a very strong regional identity here and most Catalans would like Cataluña to be seperate from the rest of Spain, to have full autonomy. Politics and History in Spain are very complicated, it is a very new democracy, up until the mid 70´s there was a dictator in charge and history is not something many people like to talk about here. It seems as though after being suppressed for such a long time people now just go all out to have a good time, the Spanish sure know how to do that. After several more Ferdinands I stumble home with another oneskin and sit down in the living room to contemplate the nights discussions, get really paranoid that the guy I was chatting to was still working for intelligence and was on an undercover op staking me out and that all my doings here are under close scrutiny. I wake up on the settee 8 hours later, well played me.
The Republican is about 2 metro stops from where I live. It´s a nice little bar, I get on really well with the owners, they have good beer, the music is good and the clientel is mostly Catalans and Spanish with a nice mix of other Europeans and the odd kiwi. Kieran, the owner, puts on some classic Pearl Jam and we get talking about poker, what else! He tells me he´s been meaning to deposit and play a bit online and then procedes to download and deposit on VC, lol. I sit and watch him play 1/2c limit for a while, drinking a nice German white beer they have there called Franziskeiner or something like that. Then he logs off and I get talking to a Spanish bloke about the History of Spain, languages and various other stuff. A few FranzFerdinands later and I´m eyeing up the computer on the bar and thinking I should show these guys how great I am at poker. Within minutes I´m multi-tabling five 25/50c tables, I make a big laydown of KK on a QT7 flop with loads of action from the 2 preflop callers in front of me on the flop, one flips QT and the other 77. Moments later I lose with KK again on a different table to a guy that called the flop with bottom pair, turned a flush draw and nails it on the river. A buy in and a half later I realise that 5 tabling after several pints probably wasn´t the genius idea that I had thought it was and concede that I am an utter donkey.
I pop outside for a quick oneskin and return bleary eyed. I quickly get speaking to a guy who says he worked for the government, something to do with intelligence. He is very strongly Nationalist and declared himself to be very conservative. Soon we are having a discussion about what it means to be Catalan and identity. They have a very strong regional identity here and most Catalans would like Cataluña to be seperate from the rest of Spain, to have full autonomy. Politics and History in Spain are very complicated, it is a very new democracy, up until the mid 70´s there was a dictator in charge and history is not something many people like to talk about here. It seems as though after being suppressed for such a long time people now just go all out to have a good time, the Spanish sure know how to do that. After several more Ferdinands I stumble home with another oneskin and sit down in the living room to contemplate the nights discussions, get really paranoid that the guy I was chatting to was still working for intelligence and was on an undercover op staking me out and that all my doings here are under close scrutiny. I wake up on the settee 8 hours later, well played me.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Goals
Ok, I decided to post today before I played, that way I might not ramble on so much about the intricate details of hands, I think I´ll just post results and any specific hands of interest, especially those that occur on Full Tilt because I can post the hand using http://www.pokerhand.org/ and if anyone does read this then they might be able to offer me some "constructive" criticism on how I played the hand or what I did wrong. Any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated, indeed anything that would help me to learn to be a better poker player or understand any aspect of the game better would be a great help.
So my short term goals at the moment are just to survive and build a bankroll both on Full Tilt and VC on the ipoker network. At the start of October my goal was just to make enough money to pay the bills and hopefully when I´ve cashed out at the end of the month, have more money in my bankroll than when I started. I know this is a very basic goal, lol! I have decided to give myself an allowance of 1000 Euros per month, which although it does not seem much is plenty as my total outgoings for the month are around 400 Euros and 600 Euros goes a long way in spain, for instance: you can travel from one side of the city of Barcelona to the other for 0.69c which is about 48p. Also, you can easily have a 3 course meal if you know the right places for 12-15 Euros and half a dozen bottles of beer from the shop come to the grand total of 2.10 Euros, lol.
Hopefully then at the end of each month I´ll have a few hundred dollars more in each of my bankrolls and can eventually move up the cash tables and play higher buy in tournaments. October has started off well, after the expense of moving, paying rent in two places at once for a couple of months and all the travelling I had to do my roll was looking in pretty awful shape. I had $500 in my VC acc and another $50 which I had deposited into Full Tilt. We´re only 10 days into October and already I have managed to build my VC account to $1400 and my FT acc to $800 so things are looking good so far. I have another few weeks before I have to cash out and hopefully if I can get a few more results I´ll be making good progress.
I recently invested in PokerTracker and I plan to try to get to grips with that and possibly pokerace hud in the near future but that´s not so important now as I´m mainly playing tournaments.
My long term goals are to be playing $20-$50 buy in tournaments by Christmas with a roll of about $2-3k on both sites. I really would like to get into the top 15/20 online ranked players on pocket5´s in Spain by Christmas. There aren´t a huge amount of players (I think 63) who are in the rankings at the moment and I have already managed to get to 38th with only a few small results. Breaking the top 15/20 will be much more difficult. A few online players you might recognise who are based in Spain are: The_D_RY, TheHero, rkruok and Zpaceman.
I won´t speculate too much on what will happen after Christmas, I think it´ll be best to see how the next few months go and take it from there. I will probably do a short post later about my results today so until then thanks and good luck.
So my short term goals at the moment are just to survive and build a bankroll both on Full Tilt and VC on the ipoker network. At the start of October my goal was just to make enough money to pay the bills and hopefully when I´ve cashed out at the end of the month, have more money in my bankroll than when I started. I know this is a very basic goal, lol! I have decided to give myself an allowance of 1000 Euros per month, which although it does not seem much is plenty as my total outgoings for the month are around 400 Euros and 600 Euros goes a long way in spain, for instance: you can travel from one side of the city of Barcelona to the other for 0.69c which is about 48p. Also, you can easily have a 3 course meal if you know the right places for 12-15 Euros and half a dozen bottles of beer from the shop come to the grand total of 2.10 Euros, lol.
Hopefully then at the end of each month I´ll have a few hundred dollars more in each of my bankrolls and can eventually move up the cash tables and play higher buy in tournaments. October has started off well, after the expense of moving, paying rent in two places at once for a couple of months and all the travelling I had to do my roll was looking in pretty awful shape. I had $500 in my VC acc and another $50 which I had deposited into Full Tilt. We´re only 10 days into October and already I have managed to build my VC account to $1400 and my FT acc to $800 so things are looking good so far. I have another few weeks before I have to cash out and hopefully if I can get a few more results I´ll be making good progress.
I recently invested in PokerTracker and I plan to try to get to grips with that and possibly pokerace hud in the near future but that´s not so important now as I´m mainly playing tournaments.
My long term goals are to be playing $20-$50 buy in tournaments by Christmas with a roll of about $2-3k on both sites. I really would like to get into the top 15/20 online ranked players on pocket5´s in Spain by Christmas. There aren´t a huge amount of players (I think 63) who are in the rankings at the moment and I have already managed to get to 38th with only a few small results. Breaking the top 15/20 will be much more difficult. A few online players you might recognise who are based in Spain are: The_D_RY, TheHero, rkruok and Zpaceman.
I won´t speculate too much on what will happen after Christmas, I think it´ll be best to see how the next few months go and take it from there. I will probably do a short post later about my results today so until then thanks and good luck.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Gotta Love $2 rebuys
Today I played 6 tournaments, I probably would have played more but I had to give the computer up at 22.30 so couldn´t play the value guarantee tournaments on VC. Still, the day started well with a 2nd in the $2rb on VC, I managed to get a nice stack very early on thanks to KK holding up, not once but twice! I managed to get a 15k stack by the end of the rebuy period and it was pretty plain sailing up to the bubble where I won a huge race w QQ vs AK. I kept busy all the way to the final table where I was a bit card dead for a while. No matter though because all of the donks went mental trying to take each other out. Finally got HU with a chip deficit of 3-1 so I knew I had work to do. To start off with the guy was really aggressive, then he calmed down a bit and we saw a few flops. My big double came when he completed the SB and I checked in BB w 67o, the flop came A62 and I figured if he had an A or pp higher than 6´s he would have raised preflop so i check raised him all in and he called w Q8 lol! Luckily my pair of 6´s held and I piled the pressure on to go 750k-250k up. then he started open shoving every hand so I knew I had to pick a hand and go with it before he had time to build up his stack again. Finally I picked up something worth calling with K7d, so I make the call and he flips Q9o, the flop brings no pair for either of us but it does bring 2 diamonds, the turn is x so now I´m thinking weeeeee only have to avoid 4 outs. Obviously a non-diamond Q hits on the river, urgh. So now we´re about even again and he gets really aggressive, I fold a few hands which are utter rags and then he raises again, I see K7 off and make the reraise, he shoves and I´m comitted so make the call. He turns over Q7o so I´m looking in pretty good shape to double up until he rivers a 7 high spade flush, aaaarrrgh! Oh well $250 for a few hours so cant complain.
2nd tournament of the day is the $5 fo on full Tilt, I manage to get a reasonable stack going but then run QQ into AA leaving me very short. Next hand I open shove K9o from the cut off and BB calls with 78 suited and obviously hits a 7, gg me. Managed to bubble the next 2 tourneys, the $6fo and $15fo on VC, I managed to shove A6 suited on the button in $15fo into SB with KK and BB with AA, lol!
Lastly I decide to play the 2 $2 tournaments on Full Tilt, one freezeout and one rebuy. I have a pretty good record in these so I was hoping I might get a result and push past the $1k mark for my bankroll on full tilt. Wow, all goes to plan, I get a big stack near the bubble in the freezeout and bully the table relentlessly, pushing my way from 20k odd to 50k by the time the bubble has broken. Plain sailing until I get HU where the final hand my opponent raises 3x and I repop to 22,500 w A6 suited, he makes the call and we see an A4x flop, i bet out 18k and he raises. I´m too commited do do anything else other than shove and he makes the call and turns over A4 :( oh well another $75 odd, pushing me over the $800 mark in my FT account. In the rebuy one I make 15th, shoving KTo on the button into AK, gg.
All in all not a bad day, $300 odd profit and I´m getting closer to my short term goals, which I will definately elaborate on tomorrow, I´m too tired now. Thanks and good luck.
2nd tournament of the day is the $5 fo on full Tilt, I manage to get a reasonable stack going but then run QQ into AA leaving me very short. Next hand I open shove K9o from the cut off and BB calls with 78 suited and obviously hits a 7, gg me. Managed to bubble the next 2 tourneys, the $6fo and $15fo on VC, I managed to shove A6 suited on the button in $15fo into SB with KK and BB with AA, lol!
Lastly I decide to play the 2 $2 tournaments on Full Tilt, one freezeout and one rebuy. I have a pretty good record in these so I was hoping I might get a result and push past the $1k mark for my bankroll on full tilt. Wow, all goes to plan, I get a big stack near the bubble in the freezeout and bully the table relentlessly, pushing my way from 20k odd to 50k by the time the bubble has broken. Plain sailing until I get HU where the final hand my opponent raises 3x and I repop to 22,500 w A6 suited, he makes the call and we see an A4x flop, i bet out 18k and he raises. I´m too commited do do anything else other than shove and he makes the call and turns over A4 :( oh well another $75 odd, pushing me over the $800 mark in my FT account. In the rebuy one I make 15th, shoving KTo on the button into AK, gg.
All in all not a bad day, $300 odd profit and I´m getting closer to my short term goals, which I will definately elaborate on tomorrow, I´m too tired now. Thanks and good luck.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Intro
I guess I better introduce myself, my name is Ben, I´ve been playing poker now for around two and a half years. I first got into it at University when I found out about a free weekly student tournament hosted on Victor Chandler. It was the first time I´d played Texas Holdem although I had played draw poker with mates at school for coppers and other shrapnel, so I knew what beat what and the basics of the game. Fortunately, I managed to come 3rd or 4th, I can´t remember exactly and picked up around $35. Being the innocent fool that I was I proceded to buy into a $24 tournament and somehow managed to scrape the final table in that for about $170. From then on I was hooked and over the next 3 weeks managed to build my account up to $670 playing micro sng´s and 5/10c cash games. Over the next year or so I played poker on and off and learnt the concept of bankroll management, slowly building my account up every time I withdrew.
It was at this point that I broke both of my calcaneai (heels) in drunken accident, resulting in a month in a wheelchair and another 6 weeks on crutches. Obviously I couldn´t work so I turned to poker as a form of income, which is when I got a lot more serious about the game. Soon I moved in with some mates for the summer (most notably Chris Moorman aka Moorman1) and we all played small stakes cash and $5 and $10 buy in tourneys etc.
I lacked discipline then though and at times I played far too above my bankroll and would sometimes lose big chunks and have to drop right back to micro limits again. I remember once being absolutely hammered on absinthe and playing HU 3/6 when my usual game was 9 seat 10/20c. Obviously I lost most of my account and had to rebuild back from the $87 I was left with, lol. Another time I sat on $10/20 with my whole account ($1500) and was relentlessly bullied down to around $700 until I won a $1800 pot with a set of 4´s and then sharply left.
Gradually I gained discipline and applied the 10x max buy in rule for cash games (which I know is 10x short, but it seemed to work for me as I had a very tight/aggressive style at the time) playing $1/2 9 seat and occasionally $2/4, building my account up to $9.8k before cashing down to $2k and starting again. That´s how it went for a long time gradually building up and then cashing out. In September last year I moved in with the same mates I had lived with the previous summer, Chris had moved up to 3/6 short ring cash games, high buy in tournaments and was doing well for himself in both but particularly in tournaments. I however had moved down the stakes and my staple game now was 25/50c and occasionally small buy in tourneys. I had lost the motivation to play poker, to want to build and move up the stakes and for a long period I played to grind out some cash and not because I really enjoyed playing the game. Sometimes I didn´t want to play and would put it off for days and would just lounge around watching sky tv and smoking hydroponically grown weed. I would also spend 1 week per month in Barcelona visiting my girlfriend and would only play for an hour or two a few days while I was there.
6 months ago I started taking mtt´s a bit more seriously, I read all the Harrington and Sklansky books, talked a lot with Chris, discussed hands and specific situations with him and sometimes sat and watched him play, especially when he was deep or on a final table of a tournament, and so I started getting some more regular results. The next month I made 27 final tables, mostly small $3 and $5 rebuys with fields of about 100-200 but also a few other tournaments with 500+ and 1000+ players. I really started putting the hours in, focussing on mtt´s and really started to enjoy the game again. Over the next few months I won most of the $10 or under freezeouts and rebuys on Victor Chandler at least once and was final tabling somewhere between 15-20 times a month.
Two months ago I moved to Barcelona and got a job working for an online marketing company, the people I worked with were brilliant and I enjoyed the routine for a while. I hardly played poker at all, maybe half a dozen times in those 6 weeks but I managed a 2nd place in the monthly 10k freeroll on VC for $1.8k. Sadly that went downhill and two weeks ago I found myself unemployed again. I had to make a decision, play poker or get another job. So I´ve decided to give poker another go and if need be get a part time job purely to get me out of the house and also to meet people in non alcohol related social stuations, lol.
So I´ve decided to try and take it up a level, I´ve started reading the 2+2 forum a lot more, watching videos and reading as many articles and posts as I could get my (cyber) hands on. I plan to join cardrunners soon as I hear they have great mtt and cash game videos. I also joined the pocket 5´s site so I could try to get ranked in Spain. Unfortunately VC tournaments aren´t eligible for ranking points as pocket 5´s only take the results from the big American poker sites. So last week I put $50 in full tilt and decided to try and build a bankroll which, when it was big enough would enable me to play in tournaments where I could get ranking points. I´m now up to $770 thanks to two $2rb wins, a $2rb 4th place and a $5fo 4th place.
So there you have it, thats my story, incredibly dull I´m sure and I do tend to have a tendency to ramble, especially after I´ve smoked some Morrocan Hash, lol. If you see me on the ipoker network (alias ElRetorcido) or on Full Tilt (TwistedOne111) please say hi. I will try and post on here daily if not at least 5 times a week. My next post will be about my short term and long term goals. Thanks and good luck.
Ben
It was at this point that I broke both of my calcaneai (heels) in drunken accident, resulting in a month in a wheelchair and another 6 weeks on crutches. Obviously I couldn´t work so I turned to poker as a form of income, which is when I got a lot more serious about the game. Soon I moved in with some mates for the summer (most notably Chris Moorman aka Moorman1) and we all played small stakes cash and $5 and $10 buy in tourneys etc.
I lacked discipline then though and at times I played far too above my bankroll and would sometimes lose big chunks and have to drop right back to micro limits again. I remember once being absolutely hammered on absinthe and playing HU 3/6 when my usual game was 9 seat 10/20c. Obviously I lost most of my account and had to rebuild back from the $87 I was left with, lol. Another time I sat on $10/20 with my whole account ($1500) and was relentlessly bullied down to around $700 until I won a $1800 pot with a set of 4´s and then sharply left.
Gradually I gained discipline and applied the 10x max buy in rule for cash games (which I know is 10x short, but it seemed to work for me as I had a very tight/aggressive style at the time) playing $1/2 9 seat and occasionally $2/4, building my account up to $9.8k before cashing down to $2k and starting again. That´s how it went for a long time gradually building up and then cashing out. In September last year I moved in with the same mates I had lived with the previous summer, Chris had moved up to 3/6 short ring cash games, high buy in tournaments and was doing well for himself in both but particularly in tournaments. I however had moved down the stakes and my staple game now was 25/50c and occasionally small buy in tourneys. I had lost the motivation to play poker, to want to build and move up the stakes and for a long period I played to grind out some cash and not because I really enjoyed playing the game. Sometimes I didn´t want to play and would put it off for days and would just lounge around watching sky tv and smoking hydroponically grown weed. I would also spend 1 week per month in Barcelona visiting my girlfriend and would only play for an hour or two a few days while I was there.
6 months ago I started taking mtt´s a bit more seriously, I read all the Harrington and Sklansky books, talked a lot with Chris, discussed hands and specific situations with him and sometimes sat and watched him play, especially when he was deep or on a final table of a tournament, and so I started getting some more regular results. The next month I made 27 final tables, mostly small $3 and $5 rebuys with fields of about 100-200 but also a few other tournaments with 500+ and 1000+ players. I really started putting the hours in, focussing on mtt´s and really started to enjoy the game again. Over the next few months I won most of the $10 or under freezeouts and rebuys on Victor Chandler at least once and was final tabling somewhere between 15-20 times a month.
Two months ago I moved to Barcelona and got a job working for an online marketing company, the people I worked with were brilliant and I enjoyed the routine for a while. I hardly played poker at all, maybe half a dozen times in those 6 weeks but I managed a 2nd place in the monthly 10k freeroll on VC for $1.8k. Sadly that went downhill and two weeks ago I found myself unemployed again. I had to make a decision, play poker or get another job. So I´ve decided to give poker another go and if need be get a part time job purely to get me out of the house and also to meet people in non alcohol related social stuations, lol.
So I´ve decided to try and take it up a level, I´ve started reading the 2+2 forum a lot more, watching videos and reading as many articles and posts as I could get my (cyber) hands on. I plan to join cardrunners soon as I hear they have great mtt and cash game videos. I also joined the pocket 5´s site so I could try to get ranked in Spain. Unfortunately VC tournaments aren´t eligible for ranking points as pocket 5´s only take the results from the big American poker sites. So last week I put $50 in full tilt and decided to try and build a bankroll which, when it was big enough would enable me to play in tournaments where I could get ranking points. I´m now up to $770 thanks to two $2rb wins, a $2rb 4th place and a $5fo 4th place.
So there you have it, thats my story, incredibly dull I´m sure and I do tend to have a tendency to ramble, especially after I´ve smoked some Morrocan Hash, lol. If you see me on the ipoker network (alias ElRetorcido) or on Full Tilt (TwistedOne111) please say hi. I will try and post on here daily if not at least 5 times a week. My next post will be about my short term and long term goals. Thanks and good luck.
Ben
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