Cars: Brooklands Museum–Mini day

After my build up for my Poker this coming Friday, it was nice to get a trip out to Brooklands Museum and look at some cars for a change

Being a mini day, there were hundreds of Mini’s to look at (what a surprise!)   We have been to previous Mini Days at Brooklands so knew what to expect, but this year seemed to be more Mini’s than ever.  

Being the first day of British Summer, it was a fantastic warm sunny day (what else do you expect from the British Summer!)  so perhaps this explained the huge turnout.    We had a nice picnic when we got there, walked around looking at the Mini’s (everywhere you looked!) and then watched some of them go up the test hill

 

A lovely day out, but we’ll have to go back on a “normal” day to catch up on all the other exhibits as we didn’t get time to look round everything !

Poker: game at Farnborough Poker Club

I managed to squeeze in another live game before London Live by going back to Sovereign Poker Club in Farnborough for their Friday night game

There were 47 runners and the top 5 pay out.

I decided to play cautious/passive to begin with, especially with a loose aggro player to my immediate right, who seemed to be getting involved with a lot of pots. 

My night didn’t start too well though as making top pair on flop with 4 players, played too passively and let a flush draw bet the flop and turn, before hitting their flush on the river.  Then my aggro friend to my right raised pre-flop against my big blind so we saw the flop   My A-8 hadn't improved so checked behind and just called his turn and flop bets.   Turned out I was right that he didn’t have much but sadly his 5-3o had hit trips on the turn !     I guess that’s the problem with playing passively….

I had done half my stack by the middle of the second level, so wanted to bust or double up.   My aggro friend again raised by Big Blind so decided to re-raise all-in with A-T spades.   Luckily for me, only he called showing a decent hand this time but was K-Q spades making me a decent favourite.   The K on the flop saw me needing to buy-in rather than doubling up though

I did have some good fortune though, as just before the break a tight player raised from the button and decided to call from the blind with T-9 hearts.   I flopped  an up and down straight so called the cBet and got the straight on the turn, phew at last !  

The first break saw me on 14’600 chips with the average at 12’368 so not too bad

After the break there are no more re-entries… but my loose aggro nemesis donks off all his chips and is out… sadly not to me though

T-9s seems to be my hand of the night as again in the blind decide to call a raise from tight player with it, but this time hit a flush draw.   His cBet scares off two other players who saw the flop, but I call and we both check the blank turn (the board paired)  HE put me all-in when I make my flush, and although do agonise for a few minutes, decide I can’t fold and am relieved he mucks his cards (showing A hearts)   This puts me to over 30’000 chips and am over double the average

After sitting back and picking my spots, get A-K diamonds UTG and decide to limp, hoping a short stack in late position will shove (he’d been getting more active in the last round) but actually a medium stack in early position shoves.  I know he’s quite tight so it might be a race, but have played my hand to call an all-in so do just that and am up against A-Qo so massive favourite.   Of course neither improve until the river, when he hit’’s his 3 outer and I’m back down to about 12’ooo chips (about 11 big blinds)

I can’t hang around with this chip stack size, and although make a couple of all-ins over the next couple of rounds and take the blinds, in the end I get A-Jo all-in against K-K and the K on the flop see’s me out in 24th place

Of course you can’t win them all, but if my 94% chance (AK-AQ) had held up then I feel I would have been a big favourite to cash again.   Overall I think I played pretty well, although a couple of my early passive hands should’ve been played more aggressively for a better outcome.     

London Live is my next live game, so just hope I can maintain focus and not make any stupid mistakes… roll on Friday !!

Music: Adele 21 album

I’d previously only really heard the single from this album, but having liked the previous album “19” was relishing my first listen of this new album.  

Each track is recognisably “Adele” but there are a good mix of rhythms and styles to make the whole album very listenable.  Vocally and musically very good throughout and wasn’t disappointed at all.

Great album and worthy addition to any album collection.

Poker: trip to Casino

Following on from my Farnborough Poker Club success, it’s back to Reading Casino this week to get more live practise.

It’s the £35+5 NL Hold’em Freezeout with 11’500 starting chips (incl bonus chips)     32 runners start and we’re playing 6 handed to begin with

I have young loose aggro players to my left and right, plus Alex 2 seats to my left so interesting table!    I start out passive and get involved in couple of pots with the young guns which don’t go anywhere for me and I’ve bled off 2’000 chips already…   we get another player so are now 7 handed then get into a hand that didn’t please me…..

I raise A-9o and get called by Alex in the SB, tight lady in the BB and very tight lady who had limped UTG.   Flop comes a nice 9-5-3 (2 clubs) so I bet out when checked to me.  Only the very tight lady calls.   The K on the turn is a bit of a concern, but with very tight lady checking think it likely she’s on a draw (probably clubs)  so make a near pot size bet.  Her call makes me re-evaluate likely holdings, especially as an A comes.    Although she checks to me again, I’m wondering what she called with on the turn, and she may have something like flopped trips, so check behind and she shows…… 4-2 for a flopped str8 draw which she hits on the river.   This suck out takes me down to about 5000 chips, but was actually pleased how I played the hand as in the past I might be shoving all-in assuming she' was on a busted club draw !

I make a small recovery but am still struggling and with the break coming soon I’m going to be very short so am looking to shove at earliest opportunity.   It’s not until the last hand before the break when UTG limps and tight lady shoves her remaining 2000 chips from SB that I decide I can gamble with my Q-Tc so shove for about 6000 chips.   UTG calls and shows Q-To ! and the lady had 8-8    Lucky for me I pick up flush draw on turn and hit it on the river and go into the break with 14’200 chips.  Alex has 7’300 chips and the average is around 12’500 with most of tht eplayers still in.

On the restart the table breaks which is always annoying and my new table seems tight.  I get involved a couple of hands and was quite pleased to loose the minimum with my A-4 on A-K-x board when I put a player on K and folded to another K on the river…. he showed pocket K-K so I was right twice

Alex got knocked out around this time, shame we didn’t have a last longer bet

Soon after my table broke up again and my new table has the young gun who was on my left on the original table now on my right (I think they called him “Titch” ?)      

Got involved in couple of hands, loosing 1/4 stack when UTG limps then shoves all-in to my raise.  (seen him play previously and thought him tight/solid) so am down to about 10’000 chips with the blinds at 800/400  and looking for spot to shove.

There are three tight short stacks to my left, and the other players seem pretty tight other than Titch to my immediate right.   I’m UTG and look at A-3s which seems pretty enough to shove for 11 BB  Curly calls with around 1800 chips and Titch decides I’ve bet too much so he’s gonna teach me a lesson by defending his BB with 7-6h   Curly shows 7-6s which is a bit of a result for me, despite taking some of my outs.  I guessed I was 60% to win overall (just checked and was 59% ) so am pretty happy so far…. the A-K-8 flop still looks good for me, despite the 2 hearts (I’m still 60% to win) but the 2h turn ends it and I’m out in around 26th place

The result wasn’t as I would have hoped, but the main objective was to get deep stack practise and practise evaluating people in a live environment.  In that regard I did think I am getting better at reading, was focussing well and overall played pretty good overall so not too disappointed really.

It was only around 11:20pm so decided to put my name down for the cash tables, but was only two of us on the list so decided to hang around to see if the game got going.    After a brief relax, decided to have a quick go at Roulette.  On the plus side I got about 7 or 8 spins before I lost my £50, but of course I’ve lost more playing Roulette than playing Poker, so decide to cross my name off the cash game list and go home before I make any more poor decisions

Music: Jessie J, “Who you are” album

I’ve been looking forward to listening to Jessie J’s “Who you are” album for ages…..  first I had to wait for the album to be released, then had to wait nearly a week to get it delivered… but finally I got it into the CD player (bit old school I know but hey… )

Jessie’s singing talent is beyond doubt and certainly her voice sounds excellent on each track.   Having seen her on various live shows and really only heard “Do it like a dude” and “Pricetag” singles she seemed to me very much hard core, out there, street type sound and image, so was quite shocked to find that a lot of the album tracks are pretty, flowery, soft R&B style (think Maria Carey)

The tracks are a mixture of different styles, which is a mistake (in my view) as I’m a bit confused what her style really is….  (a mistake Gwen Stefani also made on her solo album)   I guess Jessie is trying to be “different” and show how versatile she is, but for me it seemed more like a compilation album of different R&B artists, as sung by JessieJ, rather than the exciting raw sound I expecting.

Don’t get me wrong, overall it is a good album and nicely put together… but  just a little disappointing for me.

Poker: trip to Farnborough Poker Club

In order to get some deep stack live play practise for my Black Belt Poker London Live II event, decided to go to the Farnborough Poker Club for the Friday night game.

Apart from myself, Jon, Jock and Steve W also attended.     There were 54 entrants (although a few of these were “re-entries” which were allowed in the first two levels)

At the first break, we were all doing reasonably well, as with the average stack at 11’739 we had:

Mike : 11’500
Jon : 9’900
Jock : 16’500
Steve W  :14’400

I didn’t see Jock out of his seat, but when Jon was knocked out, discovered Jock was out before and was watching the cash games!     

Steve moved to my table, on my immediate right! and was a bit short, but in quick succession he doubled up with 6-6 then hit an A on the flop with his A-K.      I had gone the  other way and was a bit up and down, but at the 2nd break the average stack was around 24’500 and there are 22 players left.

Mike : 24’400
Steve W : 33’500

We get down to 20 players and we move tables, but Steve is still on my table.  He gets lucky to double up with K-4d but later on runs his J-J into A-J and A-A and is eliminated in around 18th place (?)

Most of the remaining players have roughly similar stacks, so it’s quite tight/tense, but I manage to maintain average and eventually get some good hands.  So eventually we have the last 9 players for the final table and take a break

With 9 players left, average is around 60k and I have 83k   There are a couple of similar size stacks, and around 3 short stacks left.  

I’ve still got some work to do, as only top 6 get paid.    Luckily I manage to pick on and take out a couple of short stacks and with 7 left and chip leader, which  maintain more or less all the way to the end.    There is a £60 bubble prize for 7th, so we are all now in the money, but I can afford to sit back and wait for hands, picking my spots.

As it turns out, we get down to three players and I’m big chip lead.    With my normal blind aggression I get stealing and end up with Q-T all-in against the short stack with K-Q, but I hit a str8 and we’re heads up!

I’ve got about 2:1 chip lead but the blinds are 16k/8k by now, so the short stack has <10 BB left.   After a couple of hands, I raise from the button and he shoves and I call with A-2 but he’s got K-K which holds up.    As we’ve both got very similar chip stacks, and it’s nearly 2am, we agree to chop the pot 50/50.    I’m very happy to have made a profit of around £485 on the nights proceedings

There is a final twist in the tail, which is the winner of the tournament also gets a seat in the £100 Sunday Special (this Sunday!)   To determine the winner, they dealt one hand face up to us and I managed to luck a str8 with my 7-3 and have got the seat as well !!

I told them I couldn’t make this Sunday, so will be attending a future Sunday special for free Reeesult !!

I’m also on the Leaderboard (30 pts) for the clubs Vegas Series 4 (whatever that is!)

Whilst the result is fantastic, my main reason for going was actually to get Live practise, so how do I think I did.   Well actually, overall I think I played pretty well.   I was able to maintain focus and was able to get good impressions of players playing styles fairly quickly which allowed me to make the right choices in the tricky/crucial spots.   There were a couple of hands when we were down to the final 3 where I think I should have folded rather than called, but was probably influenced by fatigue and my huge chip lead!    In one hand I knew I was behind for sure, but still called with my weak flush (and lost to the inevitable bigger flush) so just need to watch out for that in future.

All in all, am tired but very happy this morning and am looking forward to next weeks trip to Reading Casino

General: The Red House pub/restaurant

We met up with Simon and Lil for a lovely Sunday lunch out at The Red House at Marsh Benham (Nr Newbury)

It’s not far off the A4, but you immediately get the “out in the middle of nowhere” feel and inside is the ambience of a traditional olde worlde English Pub (which it is I suppose!)  but without being artificially so.

We were immediately welcomed by the staff and made to feel at home.   Service throughout was very good, although did get a bit sluggish when they were at their busiest, when every table was full (so make sure you book!)

The menu had a wide choice, and being Sunday had additional choices of Roast Beef, Pork or Chicken.   I had the Winter Veg. soup with Roast Pork as my main course and did struggle to get through as the portions were generous.   After a short rest, was able to get through my Sticky Toffee Pudding desert surprisingly easy

It’s not a cheap menu, but certainly felt I got good value for money.   We were not rushed away as soon as we’d finished, so overall definitely came away with a warm fuzzy feeling about my experience (and a full feeling tummy) so is a place I would recommend and like to go back myself sometime

Poker: Home Tourney–March 2011

It was a great turnout for the first £10 “special” of this year, with 14 players vying for the coveted final table seats.

My table started out quite passive, but was soon involved in a big pot with Daniel.  Sadly I was bluffing every street and Daniel found an easy call on the river, having hit his A on the flop, so I am already down to around 1200 chips in the first level !

Lucky for me, after I won a couple of small pots,  it wasn’t too long before Andy (to my immediate right) come to the rescue and makes a dodgy call to double me up getting me more or less back to my starting stack.. phew!

In another big pot, Jock makes a cheeky raise into me on a dangerous looking turn.  With Andy all-in and my chips looking perilous I decided to fold, so Jock won a few chips in the second pot with nothing (A-6o) which I had beat.. but Andy took the main pot and tripled up.

After that things quietened down a bit and got to the break a little above average chips.

Not much happens for me for a while…. mainly folding, but find occasional spots to attack the pot and take a couple of small pots

In another confrontation with Jock, I decide to go for it this time, but this time he has a decent hand and decimates my stack… ho hum, Jock you are a difficult man to read !

Luckily for me, Andy comes to my rescue again and makes a dodgy raise and all-in call with nothing but a middle pin str8 draw on an all clubs flop.   I’m way ahead with pair 3’s and flush draw !!  The Q comes on the river, but lucky for me makes my flush, so Andy is out !   This gives us out final table and I am a slight chip lead with around 17’000 chips

The blinds have just gone to 1000/500 so am happy to be in late position.

The first hand of the final table, Bill limps and all folds round to me.   I think about raising, but decide to be solid and fold my A-5s   The 5 on the flop doesn’t change my opinion of my hand, but another 5 on the turn is a bit galling… especially as Bill takes a punt at the pot with his A-4o and I would have won a decent pot.  

That was about my best hand of the final table, and just found no good spots to make a move and got no hands.    Sean took out Karen, who started up the cash table (being a degen gambler )  although it was only a couple of hands later when Sean had huge re-raise which Bill decided to call with A-7o but was actually ahead of Sean.   Neither improved and Sean was out and straight into the cash game!

The blinds have gone to 4’000 and I’ve got around 12’000 and am looking for a good spot to shove, but with no cards, find myself in BB shoving my K-Qd after Bill has limped the button.  Of course Bill calls with his A-8o and despite me picking up a str8 draw, don’t improve and am down to 1200 chips ! 

My all-in SB against Roger gives false hope, as I double up, but get no cards and am soon shoving UTG with T-9 or something and of course Bill has A-x and ends up with a Full House so am out in 5th place

In the final few hands, Bill somehow manages to call off a load of chips to Jock, then fold to his all-in on the River, before then being taken out by Roger (why can Bill never find a fold against me ? )

Jon is short stacked and although the result is already determined, play out the final hand with Roger’s 9-3 beating Jon’s 7-2

Jock wins on chip count, but was actually pretty close in the end to Roger’s stack  (around 44k to 40k) but a win that was well deserved

I was a little disappointed with my own result, but overall felt I played pretty well.   In any case it was a lot of fun (as normal) and with my previous finishes being 10th and 7th, at least I am moving in the right direction

The standard of play at our game is definitely improving and is always an interesting mix of styles to keep everyone on their toes.   It’s just a shame the club shuts at 11pm as it would be fascinating to play to a proper conclusion, which we rarely see.

So, well done to all and hope you all enjoyed it as much as me.  (from all the frivolity it seemed like fun was being had )

See you next time…..

Poker: Financial results for February

Posted on Black Belt Poker blog at http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/294043/sceaga/Financial-Results-for-February-2011/