Poker : 2009 roundup

The end of the year is always the time to take stock of how well you did and to plan for the future… so here are my end of year thoughts….

I re-read my end of 2008 reflections and think I stayed roughly on my anticipated path… although my big gains of the year were due to a couple of MTT tournaments that  I was meant to be cutting down on !    Having managed to get a profit on the year for the first time though, I cannot be too hard on myself  :-)     The end of Nov I was around $330 up for the year to date, so just had to avoid having the worse month of the year in my December results.   Unfortunately I was about $100 down YTD by mid-December but a couple of uncommonly good sessions saw me end the year with $202 profit for the year

With the 2nd Poker League victory and a good cash in one of my Casino sessions, seems 2009 was a good year for my Poker !

In the summer I decided to get really serious about Poker as a business.   I first tried Bankroll Supply as a potential backer… although they were rubbish as I never heard a peep out of them!  My attempts to get good results paid off as I ended up with about $350 profit from my playing the Mansion House site, so wasn’t a complete write off.    I them switched my attention to Black Belt Poker (BBP) and the three months of serious play only saw a tiny return of $15 (but a profit is still a profit :-) )    Part of the reason for poor results in BBP was that I was trying to multi-table all the time.   As I was getting a lot of mediocre results, I went back to one table at a time and did find a good improvement in my results… so doesn’t bode well for my future as an Online Poker professional :-)

My BBP Sharkscope graph for STT looks kindof OK I guess….  maybe I need to stick to STT rather than play cash (as I have been doing)

So what about 2010.   My current plan is to have a real go at the BBP grading and try to achieve Purple Belt status.  This will take a lot of hard work, luck and time (and possibly money) so is a little touch and go, but will give it a good try and see what happens.

If the BBP grading doesn’t work out, I will probably go back to PokerStars and build up my bankroll (hopefully) concentrating on STT with the odd MTT thrown in.  Might also have another go at qualifying for an EPT event…

Good luck and happy new year to all…

Poker : Home tournament – end of season reflections

The 2009 season seems to have been a success from an organisation point of view :-)    Everyone seems to enjoy themselves, some new faces have joined us to keep a good dynamic and mix up the play, and the mix of games seems about right.   

The standard of play generally also seems to be increasing so the new rules for next year are coming in at a good time

For me personally, 2009 seems to be a bit of a breakthrough year for my Poker game (at last!) and my second league win in a row showcases my better recent performances.   My average finish of 5th place was significantly dragged down by Sean’s double bad beats on me in March (Yes, I still remember ;-) ) so although being slightly worse than my 4.8 average last year, feel I played a lot better overall this year.   Like Jenson Button, I did most of my good work early in the season so a slightly lacklustre end to the season for me just kept it interesting until the end of the year.

Most people got a cash finish during the year, with Andy being the most experienced exception, despite his 7 points paying finishes! but in the end was not an expensive season for anyone (not for the Poker anyway!)

Our two newbie's Daniel and Janice both made a big splash… Daniel for his two 5th places in 3 games and Janice’s maiden victory which certainly caught our attention !

Other noteworthy performances this year (in my opinion) were Darren for his 4.9 average finish (bettered only by Janice’s 1st place average)  and Lee who had an impressive end to the season, but was let down by a few poor results in the summer after a solid start

Whilst in a mood to look back…. having forgotten the history of our gatherings when asked about it, I just had to look back on the previous years results.   We started the “CamberleyBoyz” in 2002 (16 month season ending Dec ‘02) having been inspired by watching Late Night Poker on TV.  The previous league victors  have been:-

2002 – Bill (5 wins during the season)
2003 – Andy (8 wins)
2004 – Jon (1 win)
2005 – Alex (4 wins)
2006 – Simon W (3 wins)
2007 – Jon (1 win)
2008 – Mike (3 wins)
2009 – Mike (3 wins)

The rules changes for 2010 should shake things up a bit and make things a bit more interesting, so am already looking forward to the first game of the season and my change to make it three in a row :-)

Good luck and see you soon……

Poker : Home tournament – December 2009

The last game of the season and a festive spirit is in the air as well !    With 15 players, both Derek and Alex have both got a chance to take the lead away from me, but will depend very much on them winning and taking out lots of players, and me scoring no more than 4 points (due to the best 8 game results rule)

We also have a new player in Janice so more unknowns to throw into the mix

The “special” games always feel different to the pot limit rebuys, and tonight's is no exception.   Everyone seems more serious and focusing more than normal.   My game starts out fairly poorly and don't get a decent hand to play.   In the third level, I was just doing an Andy (pointing out how poor my cards have been) when I get dealt AT and raise it so everyone folds :-)  Next hand I get AK so raise it again, but everyone folds again… on well you can’t have it all ways I suppose.   Couple of hands later I am on the BB and look down at 7-2o   Unusually, everyone folds to Steve on the SB who just completes, so I decide to steal the blind and as the blinds are already 125/75 make it a 500 raise.   Steve thinks briefly then calls (to my horror!)   The flop of T-4-2 and Steve’s check makes me think he has probably missed so decide to fire at the pot and bet 1000   Steve thinks for a long time then calls, leaving him with 1000 behind to my 650 chips.   The turn is a T and Steve checks again….. convinced he will call a bet I check behind and the river is another low card   As Steve checks again, I am pretty sure I am ahead, so go all in.  Steve calls to show K-Q and my 2 takes a sizeable pot !  Understandably, Steve thought i was bullying him out the pot (which I was of course) so was just unfortunate I out flopped him and he didn’t improve

We were already at the break and I was looking pretty good with around 7000 chips.  Everyone got lucky as Karen and Sean had kindly supplied some lovely cakes for us all to eat – thanks chaps :-)

After that my memory gets a bit vague as there were many significant hands and lots of action.   I remember one hand with against Andy where I had pocket 3’s in the SB and raised Andy’s BB  He flat called but I flopped a 3 and check called all-in   Andy was well behind with a middle pin str8 draw, but the river saw him catch his card and he doubled up.  I still had around 5500 chips which was about average at this stage.   The next hand saw me with K-9s on the button and everyone folded to me.  I raised to 1500 but Andy went all-in.   I decided he must have a middle to high pair and put him on either T’s or 8’s and folded in the end… he showed J-J so I made the right choice !

It took until level 7 with blinds at 1000/500 before we got to the final table.   Janice had made it on her first attempt and the chips were fairly evenly spread, although i had just over average at around 9500 chips

My final table was a roller coaster ride… I remember going up against Janice when I hit top pair and she showed a straight…. later I was all-in against her with A-J against her 9-9 but hit an A on the rover… I limped UTG with KQ and was against Lee in the BB.  He checked the A-3-4 flop but called my bet… so I put him on something like 7-4 and checked behind the turn and river and he had 5-4 and rivered the straight (although the 4 was enough to beat me :-) )

In the end we were down to the last 6 and 3 hands to play.  I was all in with AK, Simon was all-in with 9-8s, Daniel was all-in with K-x  but Janice had pair 9’s   I was pleased to see a K on the flop, but Janice hit another 9 as well and took three of us out !   

The last hand saw Jon and Lee both with 21’500 chips and Janice with 17’000   Jon was in the BB so needed to play to win, which meant Lee also had to play or settle for 2nd and Janice had nothing to loose, so all the chips went in the middle     Janice took the pot and the victory and left an unusual dead heat for 2nd place !

Wow, an unusual game but very exciting and interesting as usual !  There were lots of thrills and spills and for me personally it was a wild rollercoaster ride after a slow start!

I’ll do another post about the end of year League results soon, but was certainly a great game and a fitting end to a thrilling season

Roll on next year !

Merry Xmas and a happy and prosperous new year to all

Poker: Black Belt Poker update

I started playing Black Belt Poker (BBP) as my Poker site of choice back in September.   I chose BBP as they offer a grading system instead of rake back for playing, and also have an active user forum for which you also get benefits for participating in.

The basic idea is to earn points every month to get upgraded through the rankings, really aiming at Blue belt where you get sponsored for live play !

November was my first really serious attempt and managed to get from Yellow belt to the Orange belt level.   The side effect (so far at least) is to have made some money at it as well !!    Despite not liking playing cash so much, I made about £70 on cash games and another £50 on single table tournaments (STT) so a good month for me on the Poker tables :-)

My Sharkscope graph (which only shows the STT) also reflects my success !

December may be a bit more tricky to maintain my current good fortune, but will be giving it a good go and will report progress :-)