Poker: SCOOP-07 (low stakes) report

My reduced schedule for Pokerstars SCOOP finally started today, with the No Limit Hold’em Heads Up game

My luck started out well, when at the 2nd attempt to win my seat in a 10 seater freeroll (well it actually cost me 150 FPP, which I don’t use for anything else) I managed to win the STT and therefore win my seat in the Low Stakes SCOOP-07 event, effectively for nothing

It started at 7pm UK time,  with 10’695 entrants !   With the $15+1.5 entry fee,  this gives $160’000 prize fund, of which £21’000 is for the winner.    1’024 get paid.

The structure is to start with 5000 chips and 50/25 blinds, which increase every 5 mins, so quite a deep stack HU tournament.

At first I wasn’t sure what was happening as I didn't have an opponent to play on my table, then it became clear that I had a bye to the 2nd round in order to get the number of players to a power of 2 (8192)  Nice start to the tournament.

Only problem is that I end up waiting until gone 8pm before I actually got to play in round 2!   First hand my opponent nearly times out… then he sits out for 10 hands,  then seems to be very slow to respond…. great !!   Eventually it all settled down, and I managed to run good and overcome my opponent in around 25 mins of play… now just got to sit and wait until we’re down to 4096 players for round 3 to start

At last round 3 starts at 9:07pm.   Definitely a pain having to wait so long between rounds!!   This time, I get a very aggro opponent and it’s all over in 3 hands…  and I’m though to round 4 already Got to watch most of The Apprentice whilst waiting, another result

Round 4 starts at 10:06pm and if I can get through this match, then I’m in the money!   All is going pretty good, although is a tough match.   Then a key hand occurs when I get A-A in BB and raise after the villain completes the button, but he calls.   The flop of 9-5-2 looks fairly safe (but the villain will have a wide range here) so with 2 diamonds on the board decide to lead out and get called.   The 8d isn’t a great card, but with 1900 in the pot and the villain only with 2100 left, we’re likely to get all-in one way or another, but would rather see the river first so check.   The villain bets half his stack, so it’s going all-in and I shove and sure enough he calls and shows Ad4c making me 70% to win the hand and the match…. sadly the Jd river ruins my night and I’m down to 3750 chips.   After that I stay focussed but find myself dribbling my stack away and with the blinds increasing every 5 mins, inevitably I am down to 12 BB and have to shove/fold.  After a couple of hands my T-2 shove gets called by Q-J and it’s all over.

Officially I’m out in 1162nd place.

A little disappointing end to what was looking like a reasonable session, but can’t be too unhappy as it was a free shot and felt I played pretty well overall.

Poker: Home Tourney–May 2011

Its Poker League time again.  Seems to have come round quick this time, which is a good thing of course!

The table draw was a bit weird this month, in that I was on the “sensible” solid table with 6 players, and the other table of 7 was wild and raucous !    We had a total of 6 buy-ins on our table, but it was more like 6 buy-ins for everyone on the other table!

I had trouble getting off the ground and remained firmly below starting stack for a long time.   As we got towards the end of rebuys I started pushing a bit more and got all-in with a flush draw, but was up against Karen’s pair and Simon with a higher flush draw !    Karen won that one, so both Simon and I had to double rebuy.      On the last hand before the rebuy’s ended, I got another flush draw and stuck it all in, to be called by Andy with pocket A’s   Unluckily for him,  I hit this time and had a nice double up.

I was quite happy to have around average chips on the restart (about 6500) with Karen and Darren both on around 7000 and chip leaders on my table.   

With no more rebuys and a few chips behind me, I was able to get a bit more aggressive and take some pots uncontested and eventually got to around 8000 chips and table chip lead.  

Towards the end of level 4 the other table had a couple of bust outs, then level 5 saw some of our short stacks getting desperate, so Simon went all-in, Jon shoved and Andy re-shoved.   Karen had the decision to make and ended up calling.   No-one had a pair so when Karen hit one of her cards on the flop, it ended up being enough to take out 3 players in one hand!     Simultaneously Alex was busted on the other table, so we were down to 7 players already and the final table.

On the final table I came in on the Big Blind, which was now 600 and only had around 6600 to start which was the shortest stack.     Of course myself, Darren and Karen were relatively short stacked compared to the huge amounts of chips sloshing around the other table, so were always at a disadvantage, so not wishing to hang around, on my SB I make up the blind and see a flop with 3 others.   The Qxx flop looks OK for my Q-T so shove my 9 big blinds.  Both Roger and Derek call, but then check the turn and river, so am hoping I’m ahead, but Rogers K-Q takes the pot and knocks me out.

A couple of hands later, Darren (who was the other really short stack) got taken out by Jock

With everyone now having a decent amount of chips, it settles down for a while until the next blind levels (2000/1000) and then we see Steve W taken out by Roger and Jock by Derek in quick succession.

The remaining players have all got around the same amount of chips, so it’s game on.   In the last level, Roger starts shoving a lot of hands but it takes until the last hand of normal time before Karen gets a better hand to call with and takes out Roger.     Karen has a 2:1 chip lead and with Derek shoving each hand Karen has no choice than to fold her was to a well earned victory

Phew, what a game.   There was brilliance and madness as well as the normal mix of fun and frivolity, must be the weather patterns or something in the water

Roll on next month!

General: New Inn pub

One of our local pubs, The New Inn has recently re-opened after a refit and as it was Bank Holiday Monday and the Pub is part of the Hungry Horse chain… so seemed a good idea to take a leisurely stroll down there to see what they had done to it

As it turned out, the decor was pretty OK and the menu was as expected, so had a reasonable meal for a reasonable price.  

The walk there and back is mainly busy road, but it’s easy to forget there is some nice scenery right on our doorstep that is often overlooked.

Despite my having had a pudding already, by the time we walked back it was Ice Cream time again

Nice relaxing day to end another long weekend as need to build my energy reserves in order to work a 4 day week

General: Trip out to Polesden Lacey

Another lovely sunny day on the Bank Holiday weekend (Unheard of!) so we are taking advantage of the weather and using our National Trust membership to go see Polesden Lacey near Dorking

We had a nice walk round the house, then had a roast dinner in the restaurant, then walked round the gardens before the obligatory Tea and slice of cake

 

Was very pleasant and worthwhile trip so pleased we went.

General: Stephan Langton Inn pub/restaurant

We decided to go out for lunch today, so aimed for Stephan Langton Inn from the Michelin Guide

It was a lovely warm sunny day and followed the sat nav through the wilds of the Surrey Hills to the destination.  We got the lake OK, but missed the sign for the pub, so had a small detour before we came back and found it.  

Being sunny day, everyone was eating outside and the pub was quite bust.   The standard menu looked OK but was a bit “posh”, but we both fancied the lunch specials on the blackboard, with Lynn ending up with Sausage and Mash, me with the Beefburger.  Both were nice enough and portions were decent size, but did seem a little pricey for what was basically normal pub grub.    You can’t fault the location though, it was certainly an event to get to the pub and was sat in the middle of nowhere.   It was a shame there were no real views to look at from the pub itself, but all in all, definitely worth the effort to get there.   

We then stopped off in Dorking on route home as we’d been through it a few times but never really stopped before to look around.

I think you probably don’t need to stop to see the bulk of the town, as it basically sits along the main road and there didn’t seem much else other than houses off the main road. 

 

In fairness, there were some beautiful views to be had just off the main road, and with the lovely sunny weather it was very pleasant stop we had for coffee (if you could ignore the car park in the immediate foreground)

In summary, Dorking is a fairly nice place for a quick pit stop, but not a great place for shopping or a quiet country tea room (Box Hill car park just up the road would be a better place to stop for a cup of coffee really….)  

We also stopped at Cobham for our Ice Cream, which had a much nicer feel than Dorking and just as many coffee shops, etc..

Poker: Financial results for April 2011

April was always going to be an awkward month, but turned out a bit more awkward that I expected!

Plan

My monthly targets are:
- Play 1000 hands of cash on NLHE $0.50, 1000 cash hands on PLO $0.20 and 500 cash hands of PLO8 $0.20 (all 6-max) with profit target of 2 BB per hour. ($16.00 for NLHE, $6.40 for PLO, $3.20 for PLO8 = $25.60 per month)
- Play 20 STT hoping for 10% ROI (around $20 per month)

Monitor

Overall results for the month :

PokerStars - $114.39
BBP - $432.39 (-£269.54)
Live play -£193.13

Comparing to April 2010, I had only lost $18.76 in total, although I played very little in April last year, so probably not a fair comparison

My live games have already been discussed in previous articles, London Live, Farnborough and Casino trip so won’t dwell on those, but these results fall in line with expectations.

My Pokerstars activities were meant to all be SCOOP related this month, but in the end probably spent more time looking for and waiting on a SCOOP Satellite than actually playing ! In the end only played 2 satellite’s, getting close first time but not getting anywhere in the second. In my frustration ended up deciding to try and spin up my bankroll, but ended up loosing $66 playing NLHE cash, dropping $56 playing 12 STT (with several horrid bad beats!) but my MTT were a little better with a profit of $12 and my normal “8 game” game’s showed a $4 loss over 6 games.

The breakdown of my BBP results for April 2011 :

Cash results (£185.81 loss overall)
NLHE ($0.50) 1054 hands +£10.23
NLHE ($1.00) 107 hands -£142.75
PLO ($0.20) 608 hands -£53.29

Tournaments (£83.73 loss overall)
6x MTT -£ 33.52
13x 2 seat STT +£ 19.09
13x 6 seat STT -£27.45
1x 9 seat STT -£16.64
7x 10 seat STT -£ 25.21

Reflect

I was very ill disciplined on my Pokerstars activities but that was a bit of a one-off so am happy to ignore my poor performance on the NLHE games.

Umm, hold on a moment… where did all those $1 NLHE cash hands come from ? I wasn’t meant to be playing any $1 anymore !! OK so I had a couple of unexpected $1 cash sessions…. so obviously need to plug that leak! The $0.50 was actually break even, which is pretty pleasing so just need to carry on with that as is. The PLO is very patchy still but am feeling quite comfortable with my learning process and just need to tighten up my calling on the river when beat!

Royal Wedding day was my worse single day loss since the last Grading in October last year…. can’t really blame anyone but myself though, as was mostly by playing $1 Cash !

I didn’t play a huge number of tournaments so not a big sample to make any firm conclusions, but pretty comfortable with my performance overall

Adjust

Definitely will be sticking rigidly to 8 game and special events such as SCOOP in the future for Pokerstars. May will obviously be all about SCOOP but will only end up playing 3 or 4 games, due to the change of times making several of my planned games a bit inconvenient.

BBP I need to stick to my plan a bit better…. although May will also be a bit disjointed due to Kitchen being refitted, days off, bank holiday weekends and playing the SCOOP games… but hope it will stay more or less on track in May!

References

January 2011 results
http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/259109/sceaga/Financial-results-for-January-2011/)

February 2011 results http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/294043/sceaga/Financial-Results-for-February-2011/

March 2011 results
http://sceaga.blogspot.com/2011/04/poker-financial-results-for-march-2011.html
** accidently overwrote this posting and had to reconstitute

Poker: Casino Trip

Decided to get back to Reading Maxims Casino for their £35+5 NL Hold’em tourney, as haven’t been there for this (my “normal” game) since December!…

Being the Thursday night before Good Friday, wasn’t sure what the turnout would be like… and as the roads were the quietest I’ve ever seen them was worrying we might struggle to get 10 players.

As it happened, there were 52 runners, so I needn’t have worried.

By some bizarre fluke, Alex was not only seated on my table again but was on my immediate left!    With 11’500 starting stack and 50/100 blinds, we are pretty deep stacked so can sit back and relax…. but no, I get 44 first hand (limp/folded flop)   88 next hand (limp/folded flop) nothing the next hand, then 88 again!     Sadly I was missing all the flops but in the first 45 mins level had a huge variety of good starting hands…. but at the end of the level I had dropped to 10’000 chips.   Then I went completely card dead and only saw A-Qo UTG for the next 45 mins (which did me no good either) so was still at 10’000 chips the end of that level.    The third level saw me with A-T twice, once taking the blinds then second time I raised from late position and was re-raised to 2000 from button.  The SB called and I called so we had over 6000 chips in the pot    The flop came Txx and SB checked.  With only about 8000 behind and the button being aggressive player, I knew he was betting big if I checked… so shoved all-in!  After a long dwell and much talking, the button folded and SB folded, giving me a nice pot to add to my stack.… phew!

At the break, I was at 14’900 chips with 44 players left and the average being about 12’000  

Sadly Alex had been busted on the last hand before the break when he raised AA and got called by two players… he hit A on the flop and got it all-in against one of the players, but the villain had flopped a straight and Alex didn’t improve so was out in 44th place!

After the break I didn’t get much I could play with and just held station.   With the blinds up to 1000 by now I had around 12’500 on the button and look down at 5-5    One of the Lady regulars min-raised from mid position.    She had only recently joined the table and had been insisting the dealer kept her cards to show what good hands she was folding to raises (they weren’t always all that good ), but anyway knew she was fairly solid.  I guessed she could fold small pairs and weak aces, but would call bigger Aces and pairs, so decided to go for it.   She shows A-Jo so we’re racing and the flop and turn comes small cards and gives me a str8 draw as well, but the J on the river cruelly took me out in 27th place

I was actually pretty happy with my play overall… but never really got much over my starting stack so was always going to be one hand I had to commit to in order to double up or get knocked out.   Sadly I was knocked out this time……  oh well, there’s always another game round the corner

As it happens there was a £1/£2 cash game running, so decided to join as it was only 11:30pm, so bought in for £100.   First hand I got dealt Q-Q and raised and was happy to get a re-raise all-in from a short stack (he had around £15)    His K-T didn’t hit so I was up around £15 already, so a good start.   My hope was to make back the £40 entry to the tournament, but realistically my target would be to make £8 per hour at this stack levels, so this was certainly the best start I could hope for.   

Sadly the next hour saw me hold station between £110-£90 stack size and the player numbers went from 7 to 3 then gradually more players joined, eventually getting up to 8 players by the time I left.     A few hands after a new player had joined, I got A-Q and raised, seeing only the new player call.   I bet the 8xx flop, checked the low card on the turn, then decided to put him all-in for £25 on another low card river when he checked to me.  Despite the possible straights, draws and full houses, he decided his J-8 was good for top pair, which sadly it was!      This took me down to about £50 which definitely wasn’t in the plan!

The next hour or so saw me grinding away, playing tight aggressive and managed to get back to a peak of £118 before finally leaving the table around 2am with £116.   The £16 profit for 2.5 hours wasn’t too far off my target so pretty pleased on reflection, although slightly disappointing to not have made more (if only I hadn’t made that reckless big bluff on that one hand!)

All in all, an enjoyable and cheap night out , getting in nearly 6 hours of playing Poker  which can’t be a bad thing

Poker: trip to Farnborough Poker Club

Having won my seat in their £100 game in a previous game, it seemed sensible to take the earliest opportunity to play, so went to the Sovereign Poker club in Farnborough last night to play their monthly “Main Event”

There were 65 runners and top 6 pay

On my table I had an old guy who was limp/calling pretty much everything to the river on my immediate left, a younger sunburnt chap three to my right and a foreign guy opposite who between them provided all the action on the table and a heck of a lot of chatter!    It did make for an entertaining game though…   

I got involved in a pot with T-9s from BB, and the old guy and sunburn saw the flop.  I picked up up&down str8 draw on the flop so chk/called sunburn’s bet as did old guy.    The turn gave me the str8 so chk/raised Sunburn’s big bet thinking he must have something good, but both fold.   Was a nice start.

Later on got K-7s and decided to raise (purely as I hadn’t raised any hand to date)  Old guy called (should’ve guessed) but hit my 7 so decided to bet out.   Old guy just wasn’t budging and so checked the turn and saw K on the river.  I was pretty sure I was likely to be well ahead of his range so bet out and called his min raise… of course he had made runner-runner str8 so I dropped a fair portion of my stack.  

In another hand against Sunburn, I raised A-Jh and the flop came AsTs4h and bet out.    The turn came 8h so bet out again and Sunburn re-raised so I shoved.   He dwelt for a long time then folded, claiming to have folded A-K.   He was quite affronted I didn’t show and wouldn’t tell him what I had, even to the extent he even asked me about the hand when we were in the toilet later on!  (although he was now claiming he had A-Q, so who knows)   

At the first break I had 14’400 (avg 17’105) and there were 55 runners left

On the restart I got moved to another table, but this seemed to immediately change my luck as soon got pocket 8’s and hit 8xx flop.   The 9 turn saw my opponents fold to my bet but was up to 16’000 odd

Soon after got J’s and raised it up.  Got called by tight blind who chk/called my cBet on Qxx flop and chk/called my bet turn (which I thought by now was a semi-bluff)   I was lucky to hit str8 on river so bet out to his third check and he folded, moaning that I must’ve hit the str8

Not long after that I had A-6c on the BB and decided to call short stack small raise from button.   The A-8-6 flop looked good so chk/called button, another A came and we both checked, the J on the end could have been a problem, but felt I must be ahead so bet out and got called by A-2o !    I was up to about 35’000 now.

The second break saw me on 47’000 with the average 29’500 and 33 players left, so in good shape.

After the break I had few playable cards and there were a few 20 BB stacks who were getting active so most pots were now being raised by someone.   I did manage to win another pot here and there and peak chips were about 55’000, but as the ante’s came in I just wasn’t getting any hands or opportunities to make a move.  

With the blinds now 3000/1500/200 I hadn’t played a hand for ages and was down to about 40k, so raised 7.5k with A-6o from mid (hoping to pick up the pot) but got re-raised all-in by tight player to my left so had to fold (he showed K-K)

Soon after I got moved, back to the original seat where I started.  I recognised a few faces, old guy was still there and several tight players still plugging away.

After waiting patiently I was down to around 31’000 so when I saw 9-9 from mid position, decided to lay it aggressively and raised to 10’000 (planning to shove any flop)   Tight lady called from late position (which was a good thing) but BB re-raised all-in.   I didn’t know the BB player but felt there was a good chance I’d be racing, or he might be shoving light on a squeeze play so called hoping to be racing.   Sadly for me, he showed K-K and I’m out in 18th place at 11:25pm  

Overall I feel I played well and didn’t make any huge errors.   I could maybe have got more value on some of my big hands, so need to pay more attention to my bet sizing and value betting.

In the end, it was a freeroll for me, with the chance to made the money so was a worthwhile and enjoyable game.   

Poker: Home Tourney - April 2011

It’s already been a busy Poker month, but am always pleased to be able to enjoy our monthly Poker League game at he club.   Despite the friendliness, there is always a keen competitive spirit with everyone always looking for the win.

Both tables started out cautiously with no-one having any rebuys for well over half hour!    I started out steady, seeing flops cheap and folding when missing, so was down to about 1500 chips (from 2000 start) then Derek starting getting busy and I managed to out flop him a couple of times and take his stack. 

As we got towards the end of rebuys, the action started to pick up as short stacks were trying to accumulate chips before the break.    I got some good cards and some good luck and managed to take Sean’s stack two or three times right before the break.

Derek had also picked up some chips and was actually chip leader at the break with around 10’200 to my 10’000 chips

Things got a bit tougher for me and started losing pots and went down to around 7500 before managing to win back a few small pots and built back up to 10’000 by the time we’d got to 5th level.   We’d seen a few bust outs, then suddenly Derek busted Darren and Karen in one hand and simultaneously Jon busted Bill on the other table, and all of a sudden we have our final table… pretty early for a change !

With a couple of short stacks, it’s not long before Andy want’s to get off fishing and he shoves with A high and gets taken out by Alex

Sean is soon all-in with his short stack, and I am tempted enough to call with my K-Ts thinking I’m ahead but Jon also calls from the SB.    The Q-J-x flop gives me flush and straight draws but Jon Check/calls so have to give him credit for something…. the turn is a 2 and we both check, then the river is also a 2 and Jon checks again.  I am sorely tempted to shove my last 4500 here into a huge pot (3000 side pot and around 7000 odd for main pot) but Jon has me covered and am not certain he would fold with likely Q, so check behind.   Jon’s A-K takes the side pot and Sean has Q-x to take the main pot !  (Maybe I should’ve shoved after all )

After that I limped along short stacked and although managed to knock out fellow short stacker Roger (and got the £2 bounty) it merely delayed my demise as I didn’t get a spot to shove and the blinds were soon at 1000/500.  I ended up calling Derek’s raise from BB with Q-Ts against Derek’s T-T and so went out with a whimper in 5th (again!)

After that the table hotted up, Derek got K-K in against Sean’s A-J and hit K on flop, but Sean hit Straight and took a huge chip lead!

The remaining three were all relatively short, with Alex being taken out by Sean next.

With Derek down to 2x BB and Jon with 1, it looked like it was all over, but both players managed to double up, however with blinds up to 4000/2000 Derek was soon down to 2x BB again and Sean took him out.

Jon clung on to the end and managed to build up to around 34’000 chips but Sean was always managing his stack and deservedly took the victory (despite looking like he might fritter it away for a while)

Great game as always and was exciting to play and watch.   Despite my moaning I ended up £0.50 on the night (I didn’t take any rebuys or add-on’s)    so not too bad a result for me.

Poker: Financial Results for March 2011

*** oops, I somehow managed to overwrite my March 2011 results blog with my April report !!  Uggghhhh!!!!

Plan

My monthly targets are:
- Play 1000 hands of cash on NLHE $0.50, 1000 cash hands on PLO $0.20 and 500 cash hands of PLO8 $0.20  (all 6-max) with profit target of 2 BB per hour. ($16.00 for NLHE,  $6.40 for PLO,  $3.20 for PLO8 = $25.60 per month)  
- Play 20 STT hoping for 10% ROI (around $20 per month)

Monitor

Overall results for the month :

PokerStars     - $29.20
BBP                  - $18.46 (-£11.51)
Live play      +£355.00

The breakdown of my BBP results for March 2011 :

Cash results (£27.98 loss overall)
   NLHE  ($0.50) 1043 hands +£70.91  
   NLHE  ($1.00)  760 hands  -£80.73  
   PLO   ($0.20)  659 hands  -£18.16

Tournaments (£16.47 profit overall)  
    13x MTT               +£8.02  
   23x  2 seat STT  -£ 35.24
   11x  6 seat STT  +£108.46  
     9x 10 seat STT  -£64.77

Reflect

.

Adjust

.

References

January 2011 results
http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/259109/sceaga/Financial-results-for-January-2011/)

February 2011 results http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/294043/sceaga/Financial-Results-for-February-2011/

Poker: BBP London Live update

The fact that I’m writing my blog from home at 6pm maybe indicates I didn’t do as well in London Live II as I’d hoped!

The day started with a bit of a shock when I found out that Jake Cody was seated to my immediate right !   Could’ve been worse, I suppose, he could’ve been on my immediate left

We started just after 12pm with 5 players on my table.  With so many missing players there was lots of limping and raising when the missing players were in the blinds, but I kept out of it mostly.    I did decide to limp T-5s in one case and got four saw the flop, which came 8-6-3 (or something like) with two spades.    Three limped to late position player who bet,  two called.  The turn brought 7 giving me a few more outs, we checked to late position who bet and two of us called.  The river brought my ideal card 4 to give me the straight, but we all checked this time.  Won a nice pot though and showed I wasn’t afraid to play rubbish

The table was joined by a couple of other players, then Tom Drew also joined the table.   He looked a bit tilted already when he sat down, and his mood didn’t improve when he seemed to be calling down pots and lost a fair bit of his stack pretty quickly.

I played a couple of other hands which were insignificant, then woke up with A-Ko and called tight player raise pre-flop.    The K-7-2 flop looked good to me, but decided to flat call the pre-flop raiser’s cBet.   The K on the turn looked like Xmas for me, so bet out when checked to and got called.  The Q on the river looked harmless, but didn’t feel all that comfortable for some reason with the pre-flop raisers check, so checked behind and he showed K-Q to take a sizeable pot!   

Played another couple of small hands by which time it was 1st break

There were 212 runners of which 193 were still going.   Average stack was 22’000 and I was on 20’600  At this stage I am pretty content with my play so far and chip stack.

On the restart, blinds were 200/100.   A few hands in, I got 9-9 on the big blind.   A loose aggro player raised from early position and it folded to me.  I wasn’t worried by the raise as he’d done this quite a bit to date with some weird holdings… so my decision was call or raise…. duly deciding to call.   The flop came J-7-2 with 2 hearts.  I was expecting a cBet 100% of the time, so check/called the expected bet, waiting for the hand to develop.   The 9 on the turn looked good for me, so check/raised this time.   The pot was around 2700 and the villain bet around 1000, so I raised to 4000 which he called.  The pot was now 10’700 and another J came on the river.    I knew the villain was aggro and not afraid to escalate the pot, so bet out small at 1500 thinking he might call with one pair type hands, but he re-raised all-in.  He had me covered, so it was my remaining 15’000 odd to call which was just under 2:1 (but my tournament life if I lost).    I guessed he saw me as tight/weak and I was concerned he may have had J-7 or J-2 but more likely a busted flush or A-J perhaps…. it was definitely my perception of his table image that made me decide to call (more or less anyone else on the table I likely would’ve folded!)… and he show’s J-9 !!    To be honest I had discounted that specific hand from my calculations so he had to have it obv….

So it’s all over for me and am very disappointed not to have got further.   Having thought the hand through (over and over and over ), I am actually still happy with my river call against that particular player so fairly content with my game… just the result is the disappointment.

Decided to go straight home rather than hit the cash tables (I’m certain that decision was the right one!) and got back in time to go to Tesco’s (lucky me ) but at least I didn’t have any problems getting home that time of day on public transport.

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.