On Friday, me and tipster, fresh from our Final Table exploits at the MGM in vegas, descended on Broadway Casino in Brum for their weekly £20 rebuy tourney. A decent structure but a bit of a muff fest during the 1 1/2 hour rebuy period as there is only 1000 starting chips.
I started well, only playing two hands in the first hour, both times pushing with AK and getting duly called by the fish with AT and A7. Marc Goodwin, in an article in a magazine recently desscribed the players at this casino as some of the finest in britain, I can only assume that he was on about the cash tables, cos in this tourney, have and Ace is like, well, having two aces. They just can't fold any ace preflop, no matter what the action has been.
I lost a couple of pots, before doubling back up to 2900 when my JJ hit the boat. No rebuys, just the add on and I was comfortable on 3900, which was about average at the break.
First hand back, blinds 100 200 and I found AK utg and raised 600. A shortstacked lady in mid position pushed for the rest of her stack, this would leave me with 1900 chips, so I decided to call, I groaned as she turned over AA, but the poker gods were with me as the flop came KKx and off she trotted, not even acknowledging the "vul" coming from all of the table, myself included (but smugly grinning inside)
A few hands later, I found AK again, but a raise and a rr before me, saw me lay them down, only to find the two of them all in with KQ vs A9, nothing hit and the A9 took it. I decided then, that the next time the buy to my right, who rr with A9, raised, I was going to make a move on him.
I managed to build my stack up to 18k winning a 3 way all in with QQ holding up against AK and KQ. I then made my only real mistake of the game, announcing raise in mid pos with 99, only to find I had not noticed the guy utg had already gone all in for 5k. I was stuck, the table had saw my weakness in my mistake, so I decided to push my stack. Luckly this stopped the Ace raggers calling as the A hit the flop, but the QQ stood, to put me back down to about 12k.
it was the round after that my moment came. I was dealt AT sooted in mid position, blinds were 300/600 now. A short stack limped from early position, which was suspicious and my man on my right made his move. He raised to 1800, I was thinking about Re raising him, when I noticed the player on my immediate left, who had me covered going for his chips, he normally did not do this. His movement and the suspicious short stack, I decided to fold. After a bit of a to do, the players all ended up all in preflop. Short stack flipped over QJ, my man on my right, as expected KQ, and the player on my left showed KK (I was right on my tell on him) I thought at this point I had made a great laydown with my AT suited, until the flop came down TTT. I screamed inside as this would of been a 40k pot and put me a 20k+ chipleader. In hindsight, my laydown was the correct one, but I could not stop thinking what could of been.
The tourney carried on, I made the best of my good hands and managed to get away when I was beat, until eventually it came down to the last 13. The blinds were now 1000/2000 and I was down to about 12k. It was folded around to me in the SB and I pushed with K8 sooted. The big blind had me well covered and called with AQ, annoyingly I hit my 8 on the river, but it gave him 4 to the flush and I was out after 6 hours in 13th place, with top 11 being payed.
Strangely I was not disappointed, as I felt I had played really well and only making mistake with the 99 and giving the player on my right too much respect and laying down AK.
Playing sobre (ish) def has its advantage as I can now remember things about a lot of the players who, I know, will be there next time.
Hopefully I can move one step further and make the FT, 3.5k+ for the winner is not to be sneezed at and from what I have seen, I do have the ability to play live at least as well as I do play online.
Just a bit more luck and balls the sized of plum12's at the moment and I will be ok.
Till the next time.
Goth.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Skalie the Hero
Well what can I say, this week is all about the great man himself, Jon Kalmar AKA "Skalie" after almost not entereing the WSOP main event, he qualified in the very last sat and then the rest is history, Jon went on to make the final table and end up coming 5th and taking home a cool 1.2 Million Dollars. An unbelieveable performance, skalie also played the game in true spirit and was a credit to the game of poker. He was also to donate a portion of his win to charity which just shows you the stature of the man. Utmost respect to you fella, you are an inspiration to us all. When I first started playing poker in dec 2003, the first few months were spent play $5/$10 STT's where I regularly used to come up against skalie, it just goes to show that with hard work and dedication, the dream is there for us all to chase.
Not to be outdone by Jon, I actually won my first MTT of the year "SHOCK" I have not played many this year, but I logged into Absolute Poker, to try and find out why my withdrawal from my account had not come out (I have recently emptied all my dormant accounts of sites I don't play anymore, and was more than happy to find about $2k dotted around) it seems that for some reason they cancelled my neteller withdrawal, so I thought while I am logged in, I'll have a look around. I noticed a $5 hi lo MTT just about to start and thought "why not" 3 hours later I was heads up. I flopped two pair on a KT8 board with T8 in my hand and ended up all in vs my oppos K8 in hand, runner runner spades gave me a back door flush muff and Gothman left the tourney in first place....woohoo. Only $137 and entry into some freeroll muff fest this coming weekend, but its always nice to win an MTT. Played it again last night and made the FT for the 2nd time on the trot, but got double muffed and went out 8th.
On the cash front, been grinding out very small profits and basically just ticking along. Had my first mentor session from Bad Beat and found it very interesting, I was glad to see that I was not doing much wrong, just lacked a little aggression which I was given some good advice on, also found I was wasting a lot of $$ over the course of the month limping from the small blind with shite just for value when other limpers are in the pot, I didn't really give this much thought, but if you are playing 10,0000 hands a month, I guess it adds up.
Still gonna stick with the cash for the foreseeable future, signed up to sun poker to play on there as well and get some rakeback and some of the decent deposit bonuses that they have on offer. Hopefully once I can get my 2nd monitor plugged in, I can then two table usa and two table sun poker at the same time and slowly build my roll up to a decent level. I also need to start doing some stts on stars as I have a $100 reload bonus still to get and need another 750 points to get it.
Quiz night tonight again, so out on the piss. Playing live at Broadway casino in Birmingham tomorrow night, so out on the piss. Friends 50th birthday party on saturday night, so errr out on the piss !! I think there is a trend forming here. Must be good next week, gonna set some new life goals, this time, will try to stick to them..........watch this space.
Goth
Not to be outdone by Jon, I actually won my first MTT of the year "SHOCK" I have not played many this year, but I logged into Absolute Poker, to try and find out why my withdrawal from my account had not come out (I have recently emptied all my dormant accounts of sites I don't play anymore, and was more than happy to find about $2k dotted around) it seems that for some reason they cancelled my neteller withdrawal, so I thought while I am logged in, I'll have a look around. I noticed a $5 hi lo MTT just about to start and thought "why not" 3 hours later I was heads up. I flopped two pair on a KT8 board with T8 in my hand and ended up all in vs my oppos K8 in hand, runner runner spades gave me a back door flush muff and Gothman left the tourney in first place....woohoo. Only $137 and entry into some freeroll muff fest this coming weekend, but its always nice to win an MTT. Played it again last night and made the FT for the 2nd time on the trot, but got double muffed and went out 8th.
On the cash front, been grinding out very small profits and basically just ticking along. Had my first mentor session from Bad Beat and found it very interesting, I was glad to see that I was not doing much wrong, just lacked a little aggression which I was given some good advice on, also found I was wasting a lot of $$ over the course of the month limping from the small blind with shite just for value when other limpers are in the pot, I didn't really give this much thought, but if you are playing 10,0000 hands a month, I guess it adds up.
Still gonna stick with the cash for the foreseeable future, signed up to sun poker to play on there as well and get some rakeback and some of the decent deposit bonuses that they have on offer. Hopefully once I can get my 2nd monitor plugged in, I can then two table usa and two table sun poker at the same time and slowly build my roll up to a decent level. I also need to start doing some stts on stars as I have a $100 reload bonus still to get and need another 750 points to get it.
Quiz night tonight again, so out on the piss. Playing live at Broadway casino in Birmingham tomorrow night, so out on the piss. Friends 50th birthday party on saturday night, so errr out on the piss !! I think there is a trend forming here. Must be good next week, gonna set some new life goals, this time, will try to stick to them..........watch this space.
Goth
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Grind Grind Grind
Sometimes, I feel just like a bot, sitting in front of my PC, playing hours and hours on end, for what reason I ask myself ?? Money of course I reply. Well, is it really worth all the hassle, the bad beats, the extreme bad launguage, the frightened dog, the bad calls, the ever diminshing bottle of Jack Daniels..........Well at this moment, I am not that sure, I have been putting a fair few hours in on the low level cash tables, but only had limited success. I keep trying to play solid hands in decent positions, but at 25c/50c tables, position and pot odds might as well be in a foreign language to most, put this with the sick beats, the slow playing my big hands that go wrong has left me only about $160 up after 6 weeks solid play. I won more than that coming 3rd in the laddies Hi/Lo the other weekend in 4 Hours !!!!
Should be speaking to my mentor in the next day or so, hopefully he can put my mind straight on the reasons I do what I do and that playing cash is the way forward to decent sustainable profit when played correctly, although I really do miss playing the odd MTTs and my old bread and butter the STTs.
The hours are starting to take there toll and I am thinking about 4 tabling instead of two, this way, I should be able to take more days off and play a few MTT's on my other logins, maybe even a bit of cash on other networks with some rakeback, just to tick over the bankroll and make it all worth while as you see bits of the winnings trickling into the old bank account and bringing my oversized mortgage down a bit.
Been following the WSOP updates and was gutted to find Kunku rivered in a huge pot with KK vs 22, sick sick sick, if he had piled up a very large stack he def could of gone all the way. Poker can be so cruel sometimes.
GL at the tables
Goth
Should be speaking to my mentor in the next day or so, hopefully he can put my mind straight on the reasons I do what I do and that playing cash is the way forward to decent sustainable profit when played correctly, although I really do miss playing the odd MTTs and my old bread and butter the STTs.
The hours are starting to take there toll and I am thinking about 4 tabling instead of two, this way, I should be able to take more days off and play a few MTT's on my other logins, maybe even a bit of cash on other networks with some rakeback, just to tick over the bankroll and make it all worth while as you see bits of the winnings trickling into the old bank account and bringing my oversized mortgage down a bit.
Been following the WSOP updates and was gutted to find Kunku rivered in a huge pot with KK vs 22, sick sick sick, if he had piled up a very large stack he def could of gone all the way. Poker can be so cruel sometimes.
GL at the tables
Goth
Thursday, July 05, 2007
The story so far.
Still annoyed with myself for not updating this blog as often as I would like, promised myself again to make a better effort, especially as have a lot of hands I would like to talk about.
Finished my first month as a trainee trader for bad beat approx $61 up............Hmmmmm, 200 table hours for $60, not quite what I was hoping for, but I guess its better than $60 down.
Still playing the 25c/50c 10 man tables. Generally sitting with $25 (not the full $50) this is due to the fact, if I am two tabling. I have only got 1 reload on each table. Two bad beats means I am finished for the day.
It was a strange sort of month, with what could of been a very profitable month destroyed by 5-6 large pots lost to incredible bad beats, but I guess thats poker, but still gets me angry.
My calmness is still getting tested to its limits, yesterday, I was $130 down at one point, having to reload 3 times on one table. Firstly calling a raise from a rock when I was on the button with J9, I had already put him on AA or KK, so thought I would see the flop. The flop was a perfect J97. I check raised him and he pushed. I called, he did indeed have AA, the turn bought his 7 for a higher two pair and me reloading. Second reload was a standard AA loss, large raise by me 3 callers, flop comes down all spades, I don't have the A of spades. I put in a pot sized bet of about $10, get rr. It folds around to me, I decided he has the bare A and push, he calls and shows AT spades.....Reload....I can't even remember the 3rd reload. Also reloaded on other table, can't remember why either. This had led me to a rather tilty mood as I was about $130 down at this point. I scraped a bit of loss back on one table, then, still angry, I was dealt KK. The rock of rocks raised, I min re-reaised him, he then Re-Re Raised me. I now know for a fact he has AA. So what do I do, I think fck it, the table owes be and I will probably muff him and I push.. Flop coms KxJ, Turn J, river x. He shows AA, and I take a muffy $85 pot. If I wasn't tilting I would have folded. But I am still not sure if I should ever ever lay down KK preflop in a cash game, even though I "knew" he had AA. One for the forums I guess, or if you can offer advice, please post on here.
I await a decision this week off bad-beat as to whether I carry on this month as a trainee trader. I have still not had any contact from my mentor, people keep saying they should contact me. Should I be allowed to carry on, I think I will push it a bit more, as at the end of the day, I did do the trainee thing to try and learn, I believe I am learning a lot, but without the mentoring, I think I will not be able to force out the weak traits that are in my game. Quite often I am in a situation where I think, If I do this, he will fold, but still just can't find the edge to do it. My instincts are getting a lot better, it just needs someone to "push" me to follow them through.
If I do get the all clear to carry on, I will try and post some of the key hands on here that I face and try and get some feedback/advice off anyone who cares to offer it.
Till then, its back to the grind, prob have today off as its "Quiz Night" and the braincell is in need of its Vitamin C..............Winona, here I come.
GL
Goth
Finished my first month as a trainee trader for bad beat approx $61 up............Hmmmmm, 200 table hours for $60, not quite what I was hoping for, but I guess its better than $60 down.
Still playing the 25c/50c 10 man tables. Generally sitting with $25 (not the full $50) this is due to the fact, if I am two tabling. I have only got 1 reload on each table. Two bad beats means I am finished for the day.
It was a strange sort of month, with what could of been a very profitable month destroyed by 5-6 large pots lost to incredible bad beats, but I guess thats poker, but still gets me angry.
My calmness is still getting tested to its limits, yesterday, I was $130 down at one point, having to reload 3 times on one table. Firstly calling a raise from a rock when I was on the button with J9, I had already put him on AA or KK, so thought I would see the flop. The flop was a perfect J97. I check raised him and he pushed. I called, he did indeed have AA, the turn bought his 7 for a higher two pair and me reloading. Second reload was a standard AA loss, large raise by me 3 callers, flop comes down all spades, I don't have the A of spades. I put in a pot sized bet of about $10, get rr. It folds around to me, I decided he has the bare A and push, he calls and shows AT spades.....Reload....I can't even remember the 3rd reload. Also reloaded on other table, can't remember why either. This had led me to a rather tilty mood as I was about $130 down at this point. I scraped a bit of loss back on one table, then, still angry, I was dealt KK. The rock of rocks raised, I min re-reaised him, he then Re-Re Raised me. I now know for a fact he has AA. So what do I do, I think fck it, the table owes be and I will probably muff him and I push.. Flop coms KxJ, Turn J, river x. He shows AA, and I take a muffy $85 pot. If I wasn't tilting I would have folded. But I am still not sure if I should ever ever lay down KK preflop in a cash game, even though I "knew" he had AA. One for the forums I guess, or if you can offer advice, please post on here.
I await a decision this week off bad-beat as to whether I carry on this month as a trainee trader. I have still not had any contact from my mentor, people keep saying they should contact me. Should I be allowed to carry on, I think I will push it a bit more, as at the end of the day, I did do the trainee thing to try and learn, I believe I am learning a lot, but without the mentoring, I think I will not be able to force out the weak traits that are in my game. Quite often I am in a situation where I think, If I do this, he will fold, but still just can't find the edge to do it. My instincts are getting a lot better, it just needs someone to "push" me to follow them through.
If I do get the all clear to carry on, I will try and post some of the key hands on here that I face and try and get some feedback/advice off anyone who cares to offer it.
Till then, its back to the grind, prob have today off as its "Quiz Night" and the braincell is in need of its Vitamin C..............Winona, here I come.
GL
Goth
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