General : My first trip to casualty (and hope my only trip !)

Managed to get my finger slammed into Lynn’s car door on Saturday !     I was OK to begin with, but about 15 mins after (I guess when the adrenaline had subsided) I did begin to feel a bit queasy and sweaty and nearly fainted !   Luckily I was able to sit down and get a drink of water so was OK but the finger was a bit sore and bruised !!

On Sunday the fingernail was completely black so called NHS direct who went through some symptoms and in the end recommended me to go to casualty

I duly went and was actually only in there 2 hours, which I thought was pretty good… especially considering they did an X-Ray (luckily nothing fractured) and poked about with a needle (you don't want to know!)

I don't think it will stop me shuffling the cards on Thursday but am sure we can work something out if it does ;-)

Gadgets: New laptop (with Windows 7 !!)

I couldn’t resist :-)    Having had a good run with Poker recently, I decided to invest in a new laptop.     The netbook I previously bought is fine for what I originally wanted it for (and will still be used) but the screen size was bugging me when using it to play Poker, so have gone for the Dell Studio 17 laptop to give me a decent machine to play on in front of the TV :-)

 

The main criteria was screen size and resolution, so have gone for the 17 inch screen.   It also has Intel core 2 Duo processor T6600 (2.2GHz) 4GB RAM and ATI Mobility Radeon graphics with 512 MB dedicated memory (more powerful than my Desktop and about one third the price !!)

There wasn’t a choice of operating system, so had to have Windows 7    It has had a couple of random hangs so far, but the usability seems much better than Vista, although has many similarities.    

Overall I am pleased so far, and most importantly allows me to have 2 Poker tables going simultaneously wherever I am in the house so giving me more playing time :-)

Poker : Home Tournament – November 2009

All players seemed excited and keen to get stuck in today… maybe due to the week delay from the normal date ?  :-)

My table started out pretty steady and passive, but the other table was a bit riotous and they probably had about 2 rebuys every hand !   Karen had been volunteered to do the running and she must’ve been getting worn out !

My game was fairly standard, playing tight and getting a lot of respect for my raises.   After a slow start I had 8-5 on the BB which was un-raised and was pretty happy to see that I had flopped a straight !    I checked to Lee who bet out and the two of us got all in, with Lee showing AA    He was drawing deal on the turn and so I took his chips then berated him for slow playing AA in that situation :-)    This put me up to around 2000 chips where I pretty much stayed until the break

At the break, the average chips were 2700 and that was exactly how much I had !   Lee had a whole load of chips on my table, but on the other table, Bill and Sean seemed to have it all sew up already !

After the break, I managed to fritter away a fair number of chips and so getting 6-6 in late position saw the opportunity to re-raise after Daniel had made a raise… unfortunately for me he had K-K !   As it turned out, a 6 came on the turn and I had knocked him out !     

As the blinds went up and the players diminished, Jock went all in for 1200 and as I was in the BB for 1000 I called, although with 7-7 I probably would have called a bigger bet anyway…. but Jock had J-J   My outrageous fortune held up and a 7 came on the flop, so we are down to 9 players

It wasn't long before we were on the final table but only had a few minutes before the final blind level.    With lots of small stacks and high blinds, it was always going to get messy.   Darren was out first, then after a couple of hands we saw a quick flurry of exits… myself included when my A-4 got turned over by Sean’s T-x on the river !

The last few hands saw Roger go out, then Lee, leaving the three remaining players all went all-in on the last hand (it was that close)    Sean took it down on the chip count, but had a huge chip stack since well before the final table so was a well deserved victory.

See you all next time !

Poker : Casino trip

Due to the addicts not being able to wait another week to play Poker, we decided to go to the Casino for the normal £10 No limit re-buy tournament

My evening didn’t start fantastically well, as seeing a traffic jam on the A329M had a split decision to come off the motorway or stay on…. so decided to come off and go the back street route.  Unfortunately it took me about 30 minutes to work my way round the dark and wet country lanes… mainly due to having to follow a train of cards behind some “Sunday driver” who was obviously trying the same thing !   

Sean ummed and ahhhed about coming, but in the end decided to join myself, Bill, Lee and Alex for the tournament, with the game kicking off around 8:15pm with a total of 37 runners

My table had a mix of talents, some being loose aggressive, tight aggressive, loose weak and tight/weak, which combined with my getting absolutely no promising cards make it very tricky for me to pick a spot to play a hand.   Whenever I thought about making a move with rubbish (as rubbish was all I got dealt) someone would raise or there would be 5 callers….   Finally I did get something like A-7 which I got my first raise in with after about an hour and of course everyone folded so I won the blinds :-)  (OK, so I was really wanting them to all fold…;-) )  

I don’t know what happened to Alex, but saw him walking off just before the rebuy period was over… I guess he didn’t have a great night !

All through the re-buy period my chip stack varied between about 1300 and 1800 (starting stack was 2000) so on the last hand before the add-on, having less than 2000 chips that you can rebuy if you have none, I decided to just stick it all in without looking at my cards.   Two players called and I saw A-6, which was actually slight favorite at this stage.   The A on the flop and 6 on the turn saw me win a huge pot (well, it seemed huge to me!) and we were at the first break

Mike : 5000 chips
Bill : 3800
Lee : 4600
Sean : 3300

With play much tighter after the break, I sat there for a level (20 minutes) without playing a hand, but the next level I looked down at AA in late position.  My heart started racing as the UTG player raised 3x BB.   I min raised and it folded to the UTG player who wet all in with his QQ   My dream hand held up and suddenly I was the table chip lead with just over 10’000 in chips !

I noticed Bill walking away from the table, finishing about 25th ?

When it came to my BB, I got moved to Lee’s table and was immediately to his right.  Unfortunately, everyone on this new table seemed to have a significant amount of chips… especially Lee who had over 20’000 !  I had to sit there and re-assess all the players to get to know them, so didn’t get out of line with any hands.    After a couple of orbits, I looked down at A-A again !   All folded to me and I made a small raise from the SB into Lee’s BB.   With around 5000 in the pot and draws on the flop, decided to push all-in for my remaining 6000 chips, but Lee folded (telling me at the next break he had 7-4 but did consider calling with his straight draw on the flop!)

It all went quiet for me again but was pleasantly surprised when it only took another hour for Lee, Sean and myself to make the final table (10 players)

Mike : 13’700 chips
Lee : 24’000
Sean :19’600

The final table is playing pretty tight, with the blinds now 1600/800   A couple of the short stacks get taken out before Lee gets a bit fruity with K-T (?) against 4-4, taking him down to around 3000 chips.  He soon pushes those in and is out in 8th place

Sean by now has a significant amount of chips, but then gets involved in a three way pot and takes out 2 players !  Not only has he now got a huge chip lead, but we are down to the top 5 players who all get paid !   (Thanks Sean :-) )

The last 5 are playing tough, aggressive Poker, with chips being pushed around the table (normally towards the one who bets first)    The next break sees :-

Mike : 25’000 chips (about average stack size)
Sean : 65’000

After the break I am struggling a bit and am short stack for a long time.   The other fellow who is also short manages to double up so I am a long way behind.    Decided to get more aggressive, but luckily also get a run of about three decent  hands where I can get all-in but no-one calls.   

Eventually a couple of other players get knocked out, with Sean still the huge chip leader and me being the short stack.    After some tense play I get all-in with K-Ts against Q-T and manage to double up.

Sean 51’000
Mike : 46’000
The other chap : 40’000

At this stage we all agree to split the pot equally three ways and the game ended at around 2am with us each taking home £320

A great game, made all the more sweet with some cash to take home :-)  Bet Sean is pleased he decided to come along as well ;-)