Poker: Reading Casino Trip

Went to Reading Casino for the £50+5 No Limit Freezeout tournament yesterday.    The first problem was getting in as due to the Reading Festival, there were people everywhere and was temporary railings blocking access all along the road.  Of course the Casino was open and had a couple of people on the gate to let people in!

I was the first to buy-in and also went for the optional extra 1000 chips for an additional £5, so will be starting with 6000 chips in total.    Whilst waiting for the tourney to start, went on the Roulette.  Had a pleasant half hour with my funds going up and down (well, down then up actually) but in the end decided to cash in when I had got back to my starting level.   Then tried my luck at Blackjack, which went down then up again... so only played around 20 minutes and left the table £10 up !   Then had a final bet on Roulette to try and break even for the night, but lost £50 instead... of well, that's gambling for you :-)

At last it was time for the Poker to start.  There were a total of 20 runners in the end, although several were late comers,  so was never more than 9 players on each table at any one time.  My table was playing mainly tight, with a one chap looking like a novice and one other who was a bit of a chance taker.   I had "Granny" to my immediate left who seemed to call with two high cards and raise with any pair over 8, so seemed easy to read.

As the game progressed I was playing mainly tight but limping in cheap when I could.   My first real hand was poker jacks in early position, so played them fast.  I got one caller and was very happy to see another Jack it the table, but there was a flush draw possibility so bet out again and got called.    The turn paired the board so had the nuts and checked, hoping for some action but it got checked for the river.  The river brought a Q and completed the flush draw, but my bet didn't get any action, bit of a shame but was happy enough to take reasonable pot.

By the first break I was around 8000 chips, slightly over average.   The restart saw me build up my chips a little bit, but then I raised with KJ clubs and had Granny re-raise all-in.    I presumed I was behind but was only another 2500 to call, and sure enough she had AT     She hit T on the flop but a Q came on the turn to give me more outs, but none of them came and I was down to around 4500 chips.

I struggled after that and the next break came when we got down to the final table, and I was around 4000 chips with the average now around 11'000.    Luckily I drew seat 8 so had some time before the blinds came round.   With 10 players there was a reasonable amount of action so didn't get any opportunity to make a move.   

Another player went down when Granny got pocket 8's and went all-in.   Pocket 8's had been the pair of the night, having seen them showdown (and win!) at least 3 times before, and sure enough Granny took the pot and we're down to 9 players

With the blinds now 800/400 and approaching me fast, I look down at A-Q offsuit.  With the UTG player limping in and the next two players folding, I stick my chips into the middle and only get called by the UTG player... but he has got the dreaded pocket 8's !   Sure enough I don't improve (he actually made a straight on the river as well) and I am out in 9th.   (only the top 3 places paid out)

After a quick consolation go on Roulette, I end up having played in the Casino for over 4 hours at a total cost on the night of £50... which isn't bad in my view. 

On reflection, I think I played OK and didn't make any huge mistakes.   Had a couple of chances to get chips and would have played the final hand the same way with the cards face up.... so not a bad nights poker either.  

General: London trip

This weekend the weather forecast wasn’t great, and being bank holiday was bound to rain :-)  so decided to go to London for the day.

Although we didn’t want to buy anything specific, our plan was to start out in Camden Lock Market, then go to Trafalgar Square for the festival being held there there and also look in the National Gallery. mostly because we hadn’t been to either place before.

Got the train from to Waterloo and the tube up to Camden and got to Camden Lock Market about midday.   Had a good walk about and Lynn bought a dress…. I nearly bought some jeans but found they didn’t take credit card (and didn’t have any cash!) so missed out on the bargain…   Weather was warm and sunny so was very pleasant walking around and had a nice lunch there as well.

Feeling refreshed, we decided to walk back to Trafalgar Square, which took 45 mins or so, but allowed us to stroll through some parts of London we hadn’t seen before and was interesting to see what was going on.

On arriving at Trafalgar Square we wanted to see what was going on.  There were a lot of people and a large screen showing the Olympics, but apart from a few people prancing around in leotards there wasn’t much happening…. so went into the National Gallery.    Neither of us had been before, so was interesting to look around.  I was a little disappointed at first as all the pictures seemed to be religious, with a few mythological scenes thrown in, after all once you have seen one picture of Christ's crucifixion, you have seen them all!     We persevered and the second part of the gallery had more of what I was expecting to see, with Constable, Turner, Van Gogh and the other famous painters all being represented.  

We then went onto Hamleys to have a nose around like we normally do, but didn’t get tempted to make any purchases.

As time was marching on, we decided to march on as well, so walked back to Waterloo via the Hungerford Bridge Footway.  We were both glad of the rest by the time we got onto the train, and didn’t even need to walk far for our dinner as we stopped at Jagz in Ascot where we needed to change trains anyway.   All in all, a very nice trip out and even the weather stayed nice :-)

Gambling: Golden Tiger online casino

Last week I got a "gold" CD through the post from Golden Tiger online casino.  I am normally skeptical about these sorts of "offers" but this introduction offer seemed to be offering me £1500 for free.... surely too good to be true, but my curiosity got the better of me :-)

On further investigation, you actually get £1500 PLAY chips to spend on their casino games and have one hour to use these chips to try and increase your stake... keeping anything over the £1500 that you win (although it turned out the maximum win was £200)

I thought "why not, its a bit of fun" so had a go at the roulette.   I fired up the software on Monday and was pretty lucky,  ending up winning £200 so seemed like I was quid's in.

Of course on reading the full terms and conditions, you can't just withdraw the £200 bonus, you have to deposit at least £40 and then cycle through the bonus 30 times before you can withdraw it (actually more times than this if you play anything other than the slot machines!!)

Having won the £200 it seemed silly not to continue, despite the restrictions.... so tried to deposit £40.   Unfortunately it wouldn't allow me to register a debit or credit card... apparently I am some sort of risk !    After talking to Support online and emailing various people, they ended up telling me a couple of days later that I couldn't use a card, so would have to use an e-pay method, such as Neteller.   I wasn't particularly impressed but on Friday (yesterday) went ahead and setup a Neteller account and made the deposit there.   

The next twist in the tale was that when trying to deposit in the Casino using my Neteller account I still couldn't make the deposit, although soon realised this was because of Neteller's security processes so had to talk to Neteller's Support to get my account properly opened.

Phew, now at last I have got my deposit into the Casino, but wait a moment, where is my £200 bonus ???!!!  Another conversation with Support later, and it turns out it can take up to 2 hours for the bonus to be registered in your account, rather than the 30 minutes advertised....   After an impatient wait, finally my account gets updated with my £200 bonus and at last can start playing some games for real money to capitalise on my "free" funds!!

As it had taken about 2 hours of waiting and calling, I only spent a little bit of time playing roulette again (this time for real!)   After a bit of losing and a bit of winning, ended up logging off after about 20 minutes play, with exactly £240 - the same as I started with... on well, at least it is mainly their money and I'm having fun :-)

Today (Saturday) I had a quick 15 mins playing the 5 card poker and after a bit of losing and a bit of winning logged off with £241... a profit is a profit....

So has it all been worth it so far ?      I was wondering at one point whether I would ever get to see my bonus, but I normally judge the quality of an organisation by the service you get when things go wrong.... and in fairness both Golden Tiger and Neteller their Support and response times were prompt,  professional and were able to solve the issues being experienced - so I am happy and confident to use these organisations

As far as the gambling goes, I am realistic enough to expect that I will probably blow my £40 and leave it at that, but you never know...  I might double up and then be able to make a sizeable withdrawal... either way I am sure I will get many hours of entertainment from the games.   Lets see what happens.......

Poker: Home Poker Tournament - August 2008

Slightly surprised to turn up at the club and find our room full of furniture !   Seems like there is some refurb going on, so had to setup the tables in the main club room.   Ended up being OK as the club wasn't that busy.   Also had the effect that Andy didn't swear or stomp about at all, no matter what happened !!

There were two tables of six this time, with Lee joining us for the first time.    On my table were Bill, Steve, Andy, Darren and Simon.    The game started fairly typically with lots of calling and at least one person all-in for the first few hands.   Luckily for me, when I got involved early on with J-T suited I flopped a straight against Steve and Andy.  Despite my going all-in both called me and I pretty much tripled up which set me up for the early part of the game.   I was then able to sit back and pick my moments and build up my stack slowly.   

Meanwhile Andy was having a bit of a mare, going all-in with almost any two cards, or not hitting the flop when he did have a hand, so was in rebuy city!

Overall my luck went up and down.  I don't remember much of the detail now, but was calling with medium hands and raising with good hands so played solidly.   Bill amassed a reasonable stack, but then called them off against Darren on some wild chase of a runner-runner flush, leaving him down to the felt and rebuying a lot.   

At the break, I had a reasonable stack of around 3500 but Darren had chip leave of around 6000, but the other table had been rebuying more than us and all seemed to have around 5000 or more !

First hand after the break saw Bill chasing with A-T but Darren had hit the flop already and Bill was left with 300 chips.   Typical of his luck, I raised from the SB to put him all-in and his 6-3 was dominated by my Q-6  but we both ended up with a straight to split !   It didn't last much longer for Bill as he went out first on the table after a spirited defence

I had been playing pretty tight and was starting to get a little low.  There were at least 3 hands where I would have won the pot if I hadn't folded so was feeling a little under pressure.   I was a bit card dead so wasn't getting any good spots, but despite my fears other players getting knocked out on the other table suddenly saw us down to the last 8 and I'm in the points !

The final table sees me on the SB with around 3500, 2nd lowest to Andy who has 700.    Sean, Alex and Lee join us from the other table, but they all bring a bundle of chips with them.   Simon and Darren from my original table are holding their own and Steve in the BB has around 2000 odd

The first hand on the final table sees Steve all-in but gets busted by Alex, who is probably the chip lead by now.    Andy is delighted as it gives him another point, but he is all-in the next hand and manages to double up to give him a respite.   As it happens it just gives him more chips to give to Alex who busts him out the next hand!

With the blinds up to 500/1000 and still low on chips, I need to get busy so go all-in with pocket 3's.  Lee calls with K-5 on the BB and neither improve so I have got a reasonable stack of chips now.   Lee is a now the short stack so goes all-in and is called by Sean.  Lee's A-A against Sean's J-8 looks in good shape, even when a 8 comes on the flop, but a J on the river takes Lee out in a very respectable 6th place

With the blinds hurting, Simon is all-in with T-T but gets done by Darren's A-K and we are down to 4 players for the last blind level (1000/2000)     I start to get some luck at this crucial stage and manage to take Sean out.  This also leaves the remaining 3 on roughly the same chip stack.

Play gets a little cagey for a few hands, but with time running out the status quo was not going to last long.   Sure enough I get a bit fruity with my Q-J suited, but am behind to Alex's A-K   The flop is kind to me by giving me a Q but there is plenty of outs for Alex... luckily for me they don't come and I take Alex out and get a huge chip lead.

With just two hands to play I have the luxury of being able to fold and win... luckily for me I get rubbish cards so don't feel embarrassed by folding both hands face up and take the win for the night

It was a really good game (not just because I won!) and seemed to me that everyone was playing well tonight.   I just happened to catch cards at the right time, which gives me the tournament lead for the moment, but there is still plenty of games left for anything to happen.

Roll on next month !

General: Fitness, half year report

In my previous report I was doing OK, but having just had a BUPA health check decided to capture my current stats to see how I compare.   The BUPA health check results for my fitness were pretty good, so just got to improve my eating habits to cut down on fat, sugar and all the other stuff that tastes nice !!  (there is always something they pick up on!)

Monday (Running)
Run at 10 kph for 25 minutes, then 12kph for 5 mins, plus 5 minutes cool down. Total of 5.16 km covered (excluding the cool down)    Heart rate peak at 180 bpm

Tuesday (Rowing)
25 minutes at around 30 spm, then 5 mins at 35 spm, plus 3 minutes cool down.   All done at maximum resistance    Cover 5440 metres.   Heart rate peak at 161 bpm

Wednesday (Cycling)
Pedal at around 80 rpm at level 11 resistance for 10 minutes, then 10 minutes at 85 rpm at level 12, the 10 minutes at level 13 at 90 rpm, plus 5 minutes cooldown. Cover 13.88 km.   Heart rate peak at 163 bpm

Thursday (Swimming)
Swim 25 lengths in around 25 minutes. Do alternate breast stroke and crawl, with 1 minute rest after each set of 10 lengths.

Friday (Running again)
Same activities as Monday, but didn't measure this time round.

Interestingly the rowing is less distance, so must be putting in less effort !   Otherwise the results are around the same as in February, which kind of makes sense.

Just need to keep going at my current rates, but maybe try to pull a bit harder in the rowing.