Sunday, November 30, 2008

No Drunk Damages

Can barely remember playing last night, i was that drunk but knew it was unavoidable as i was craving a drunk gamble all night.

Anyway 30/60 limit and 25/50,10/20 and 5/10 omaha resulted in a £2000 profit, god knows how but im going to look at some of the hand histories now for fun.

Hangover could be a lot worse so i may enter some Sunday multis in bit.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Tilty

Playing when not really in the mood tonight wasnt a good idea. Stayed level for ages then eventually tilted a bit. Managed to lose £800 odd before recovering to finish about £200 down on the day. Fortunately i finally managed to leave the tables when an urge for higher stakes would not have been a good idea with my mindset tonight. May need to do some damage limitation withdrawals before tommorrow, more so if i go out drinking.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Stuck In Another Time Zone

Just played ecoop hi lo $220 tourney and went deep, in top 10 for 3 of the 3.5hrs. Then it went wrong , i bluffed at wrong time then hand played itself forced me in as i wasnt trying to creep into the cash. Pot was huge and had plenty of outs against a clueless "pro" who i wont mention but missed em all to have probably gone chipleader on close on a monster stack. Not to worry, just a shame they dont have more of these tourneys with decent buyin on european sites. If anyone knows of any ive missed let me know. Cant be assed with tilt or stars as players a lot tighter so not as easy money in em.

Body clock is horrendous at mo gettin up 5-5:30pm last 2 days , oops. Just sorted out to play in Gala Bristol next week though in a £1,600 event. Probably go down on the Tuesday and play the £550 as well. Have taken the £550 out of my monthly profits and the main event is the package i won recently. Just hope they dont fill before i get there as ringing them was useless, and the online guy recommended i buyin before at a Gala. Yeah cheers for that, like im gonna drive 150miles to buyin b4 the day.

http://www.gcbpokertour.com/festivals/grand-final-2008.html

Played fair bit of cash alongside that multi today, currently about £300 up unsure if im going to play later or not yet. No high stakes today anyway.

Warning: Profits At Risk

Played shedloads today after waking up at 5pm ! Aint gonna list everything as been on mtts, omaha, omaha hi lo across all stakes hu - full ring games. Highest though was a 25/50$ omaha gamble where i lost $2500 before spinning up to $9000 and leaving. Unfortunately i had lost $3000 on the other hu 25/50 though. Still cant resist the big games at the end of a month and i know my profit is totally at risk for the month but i dont really care to be honest. Maybe i need to lose it so that im tighter with future months profits but i certainly am not trying to lose it. Be interesting to see what my mood is like tommorrow and what sort of stakes and games i play anyway. In the end made £1000 today but was £3000 in the hole at worst and i did lose £4000 yesterday so this rollercoaster could crash or go higher very soon methinks.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

*** Poker

What a complete load of total and utter bull****. Huge chunk out of monthly profit a gonna despite winning this afternoon every decent pot i touched tonight seems to have gone against me. Ah well was due a downswing, serves me right for pushing stakes a bit higher than normal.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Home At Last :(

Got a feeling this could be a long post, u hav been warned !

Just woke up from 15 hours sleep after getting back last night. Hit the scales to read 3/4 stone increase, about what expected but still oooops. I basically carried on my bad eating and drinking habits from vegas the whole time on the cruise ship and told myself i would worry about it when i got home.

The cruise as a whole was fantastic. Wouldnt know where to start, can see why they are normally full of oldies but this one wasnt and i will 100% try and get on any poker cruise package in future for sure. I ended up $2000 in profit for poker/gambling which im happy enough with, one day i will bring back a large wedge from one of these things though. Puerto Rico was nice but seemed a bit too built up for my liking. St Thomas and St Maarten were both fantastic with the latter being my favourite. I even preferred what i saw to St Kitts there, the beach was lush and i definitely want to go back there for poker or otherwise asap. There is poker on there now and if the same St Maarten open runs next year im defintely 50% or more to go i think. I got so relaxed on the trip and only niggles i could find were high internet fee & slightly bad weather compared to what we could have got. Right on to the poker i guess:

I played 4 tourneys in total i think. 3 stts and cash omaha filled in some other time in the room. Cashed in all 3 stts winning 2 but the drunk omaha resulted in an overall loss. Unsure exact figure as only kept a running total of profit for the trip. So onto the tourneys:

First one was $270+ $100 rebuys and i crashed out at 100/200 level slow playing aces against a big raise preflop, guy hit trip 10s on flop and i was a gonna.

$440 i am struggling to remember so couldnt have been great. Oh comes back to me now, yeah fished missed, raised missed then shoved in on a draw to be called by a better draw and lost. Table i had was so slow i remember it doing my head in totally tbh.

Wasnt planning others besides main event but stood drunk one night watching others playing the next $270 + $100 rebuys satellite and suddenly got an urge to enter at the end of the 3 levels at the last possible time. Was dealt no hands before the break and addon so started with 6000 from buyin rebuy and addon. This went against all tourneys i play normally where i hate missing a hand. I had missed 75 minutes of hands but for some reason fancied my chances ! Anyways i played on instinct which fortunately was right the majority of the time. My reraises all got through, junk often but there were probably 3-4 key hands that got me a $2700 seat = $2700 cash as already had a seat.

Playing 10k+ 150/300 ante 25 i called a min raise in the bb with 82cc after button had called also. Lead for a 1000 on a 875ccx board, called before button made it 4000. I allin and button committed with 66 missed for a huge pot relative to stacks at that point.

Cant remember all the details as got egg on my face on this one. Had about 20k b4 the hand and if lost would have had 13-14k which was still above average so when i raised with 85dd i called an allin genuinely thinking i was live but with poor pot odds. Think i would have folded if it wasnt a satellite but was lookin to get a stack that would secure a seat later and had spare. Anyway he had AA but i sucked out and never looked back.

Playing over 20k sb pushed 7xbb at 600bb with K2, i called with A10 but he hit.
Next hand i put bb allin from sb with A3 and he instant calls 20xbb with J8std, WTF. Would have lost it if i didnt hold but fortunately i did and despite being well off the seat i now had the stack to finally secure it even though the bubble for the 12 seats only finally broke at 3000/6000 blinds.

So onto the $2700 main event. Summary, didnt last long but was very happy with my play. Key/interesting hands maybe including my biggest laydown in almost 5 years of poker (live or online) i will try to remember them all, laydown first anyway.

Playing 10,000 ish (starting stack) and limp for 50 with 94dd after an utg limper. 4 of us go to the flop and utg bets 150 on a KQ10 2 diamonds board. I make it 450 total and he calls. Turn is 5d and he chk calls my 750 bet. River is a 2h and he checks. I bet 2250, he thinks for a small time and makes it 6000 total. I tank for 4-5minutes i reckon. Basically the first minute or so i was calling. The 2nd minute i reviewed all the streets in my head and put myself in his position. Hadnt ruled out beating 76 or 87dd (as well as complete bluff obviously) but had this guy down as a good player from what i had seen so far so just couldnt put him on any of those 3 hands. Basically knew i was beat from that time on but took over 2 minutes to finally fold. Asked if i could expose my hand then decide but wasnt allowed and matey wasnt talking so couldnt know if he would show. Fortunately the guy told me he was happy to tell me when he or i bust or end of day etc. When i finally bust he confirmed he had A3dd and i 100% believe him. That guy went on to finish 2nd/114 by the way !

Playing 7000 50/100 i make it 400 on button knowing lady fish limping utg will call. A10off me. Flop is 984 and chk chk. turn is a 10 and she check calls 650 obviously chasing a draw. River is a lovely 7 and she bets 1650 in a way she had done earlier with the nuts. Easiest player at the table by a mile to read and i instant muck showing the 10 face up. This lady showed nearly every hand she won and this was no diff turning over KJoff immediately.

Playing 10,000 i limped for 50 with Q8hh. 3 of us see a flop, me in mid position. I bet 75 on a QJ7 flop only to be min raised by scandie next to me. Put him on a draw on a sim hand to me so call. Turn is a Q and i check call 350. River is a 6 and i check call 800 to be shown Q10off :(

Playing 4500ish at 75/150 i make it 400 utg with QQ. Get caller(s) before bb bumps it up to 1500 total. I flat call (wouldnt do on internet) putting the guy on AK. Its same guy i made laydown to so have seen enough hands to be confident he didnt have KK or AA from his bet size and action. Flop comes J73 all spades and i have Qs, he puts me in and i call. He has QQ but i hit and get back to 10600 stack.

Playing 8-10k i call an utg raise with AJoff on the button and sb lady comes along too. Flop is AK3 with 2 clubs and i make it 2000 after utg bets 600. sb moves in for 8000 total. She had just lost a silly 20k pot the hand b4 paying off aces from tight player with 10s on a 44523 board so i had to tank this one as well as couldnt rule out the flush draw on tilt from a weak player even though they were tight in terms of raising without a hand. Eventually i decide to probably fold but ask her not to show me a flush draw if i fold. She instantly responds with i promise not to which actually told me 100% she didnt have one. I wasnt angling for info i just didnt want to be annoyed with myself but by asking i had got all the info i needed. I should try speech talk more often it does make the game more fun and can help, more so on big decisions. Anyway she shows 333 and im left thinking why the heck im having such tough decisions today.

100/200 and tight abc guy makes it 550 weakly from mid position. Got instinct he had a hand he knw standard to raise with but didnt feel comfortable doing so. Cutoff calls and i make it 2650 from the button with Q2cc. Folds to raiser who folds fairly quickly but cutoff dwell then shoves in. Obviously im committed to the 4800 more to call, he shows AA. Board came A34K which 2 clubs but i bricked with no suckout on river, 3200 left after what i call the right move at the wrong time :(

100/200 button makes it 500 and i have 99. 2700 total stack goes in and i know he is calling as 2200 is small change to him. He shows K10off and board comes J10108x and im gone.


Next event, unsure yet. There is a gala final at Bristol shortly and an anniversary game at DTD. Beyond that i need to look at next years GUKPT schedule as well as consider sats for aussie millions or anything else which looks hot and appealing poker wise.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

St Thomas

Sitting in dock about to leave St Thomas. Been incredible so far, so much fun and so relaxing. Anyways its costing $30 an hour to connect to the internet. The "nominal" fee not quite so nominal in most peoples opinions ! Anyways i prob wont blog until i get back for above reasons im just not online at all.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Las Vegas

Final day took 4th in Bellagio $1060 for money back. Split AQ vs Ax8s on a AsQsxs for 45% chips in play with 4 left then finally bust for same size pot AQ vs JJ.

Summary for trip. Lost $1300 on tourneys, won $1200 on cash, won $2200 on other gambling.

In Hilton now,cruise tommorrow, laters......

Friday, November 14, 2008

Jackpot

On the back of the hangover to avoid not leaving the room all day i thought i would visit a casino or 2 near my hotel. Despite staying here 3 times ive never been to any of Sahara, Stratosphere or Circus Circus. Main objective though was to stuff my face to get rid of my hangova. As i left the hotel i decided against the first 2 and headed for Circus Circus instead. Decided on chilli con carne and could hardly move without even finishing the plate in front of me !

Anyway decided to have a few goes on slots before heading back. Started on video poker and lost $100 before going onto an Ebay slot machine and winning the $100 back. Was heading towards the exit when a Monopoly machine caught my eye so i sat down there. Playing 9 lines @ 5 credits per line x 5 cents i was spinning $2.25 a spin when it rolled it the jackpot for 50,000 credits = $2,500 !!! At first i didnt see the wild symbol on the 5th reel but within seconds realised i had finally got the top payout on a vegas slot machine. Could go a whole lifetime without that. I walk past people playing machines all the time and i have never seen someone win a jackpot in my time over here before !!!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Rough Times

Spending most of today in room thanks to a white russian attack on an empty stomach, was fun but not recommended. Anyway yesterdays summary:

Bellagio $540 went to form eventually losing KK vs AQ to go above average chips with half of the 28 entrants left.

After i bust i looked around for this complete calling station european chap who never folds to see if he was on a cash table. I found him and sat on 2/5$ NL hoping i good get some. I ended up playing on this table for 11 hours and peaked at $2300 down before finishing only $1300 down. Im happy with this as i ran so bad it was a good result in the end as far as im concerned. Some sample hands i can remember before i hit the booze:

Get $240 in preflop with AK and CS (callin station) flops 63off to double off me. He only had about the same behind so i was committed anyway.

Call a $15 raise with 78ss on the button (CS is sat nxt to me i hav position). Flop is Kxx all spades and he bets 60 which i call and another does. Turn is a blank and i bet $160 which only he calls. River is 10s and chk chk for him to show 10x9s.

Call a $15 raise on button with A5hh, bout 6 go to flop which is A,10,3. CS bets 25$ gets a weak caller and i make it $100 to go. Just CS calls and turn is a Q. Chk chk and its early days so i cant help callin the $200 river bet to be shown QQ.

CS makes it 15 and i make it 90$ with AA. 1 caller + CS and flop is KQx , other caller has KK and despite a small tell i kind of hoped he was on AK when he flat called the flop and couldnt resist doubling him up and losing several hundred on the hand. I had a raport with CS now and he told me he had folded KJ. Nice flop for me then :(

I managed to get some back playing the drunken pissed english tourist anyway and probably pissed off several well serious boring locals in the process. Also got some angle shooting (if thats whats its called) when local guy tells me i win when i call his river bet. Fortunately my cards went nowhere near the muck when he did a fake muck and turned his 9high face up. The ruling went in my favour which wound up the **** big time and actually made me more comfortable at the table than had been before (prob thx to the booze). Had to be seen to be believed but this guy was scum and ive never seen someone try this before. Lowest of the low and worse than slowrolling in my opinion. Fortunately i was at the opposite end of the table and just put mp3 on max and chilled instead of getting over involved in after talk when he was throwing his toys out of his pram. All experience gained i guess lol.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Bad, Good & Sober

Bad: Lost £1000 on omaha before i left the hotel room today (Tuesday) . Got to Caesars 15mins late (3:15pm) for what i was told when registering was a PL omaha hi lo $210 game, turns out it was limit (although still wanted to enter and have a non serious afternoon/day). Game went on several hours and only was 20 entrants.

Good/Sober: Took a good deal 5 way to be the winner effectively (had 50% ish chips in play) and got $1,220 back for my slog. Had nice Mahi-mahi meal afterwards with 1 pint of lager, time for some shut eye now.

May donate to Bellagio tommorrow but no plans just gonna see what i fancy when i wake up.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Bad, Good & Pissed

Monday went as follows:

Online for couple hours level but couple suck outs against me so fine.

Bellagio $540 2pm, bust at end of 2nd level !!! Missed all flops and fish called bluff and generally others all hit the flops i missed :( BUT funny hand which sums up Vegas and some of the shit ive seen this week:

25/50 utg limps i make it 225 with AA playing 5-6k and just the button calls. Flop is 544 and i make it 325 which he calls. Turn is a 7 and we both check. River is another 4 and i value bet for 1325. The guy looks disgusted so im itching for a call. He then says "i'll give it to you" holding 55 up in the air. I ask if he means he is folding and he chucks it down in the muck and confirms he is. I muck while seat 1 & 2 are trying not to laugh but cutoff tells button his mistake immediately just to embarress the poor sod even more.

Headed back to Venetian and got into a Omaha PL 2/5 game soon after i got there. Sat with $500 looking to gamble and peaked at $2100 before finishing at $1575 nearly 3 hours later. Was fun definitely will play again.

After a steak we all went walking up the top end of the strip. After many cocktails, slots, blackjack, wheel of fortune etc Punterz and i finished back on 1/2 in Venetian for a laugh. Sat down maybe 12:30am and stayed till 4am. Made $100 there then went looking for food. Got a subway sandwich but not before playing more slots after some video poker and winning another $170, happy days :)

Finally got back to room around 5am shattered but had ok nights sleep but unsure what im doing today. Options are pool, gym, online, bellagio 2pm, caesars 3pm omaha hi lo tourney (only $200 but could be a laugh), or i guess Venetian pl omaha again. Gonna try having a day off the drink again anyway now the others have headed back to Florida.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Unbelievable

Venetian $550 15,000 starting stack. Played much better in this, also much tighter by my standards with a few moves, bluffs, madness, whateva u wnna call it mixed in. 5 hands of interest:

1) Playing 16k 50/100 i pick up KK in the cutoff. several limpers b4 me and i make it 600 hoping for 1 mayb 2 max callers. We are 9 handed and i get 7 callers !!! 8 going to the flop lol. Anyway flop is K94 2 spades and luckily for me setminer had 44 and i go to 30k.

2) New table only got there and fancied some aggression to get an image immediately. On the button several hands in i make it 2000 to go with 10,7off (blinds 300/600 50 ante) and bb calls. Flop is A78 with 2 clubs and he leads for 3000, we r both in region of 40k and i make it 8000 total, he flat calls. cant remember turn and river think 3rd club on turn and blank but we check it down and he has 9,10hh and i take a nice pot down.

3) Same table people are vocally going on bout the 10,7 and ive tightened up a bit hopin to pick up a hand and get paid. Anyway folds to sb and he tops up to 800. I look at KK in the bb and make it standard raise 2600 as done few times already at this level. He calls. Flop is 98x and he chk raises me allin. I instant call and he shows 9,10off and i hold to up to peak stack at that point. New we were spliting not long after though so tightened up completely and didnt pick any more hands up there.

4) New table although 1 guy friendly but nervy tight abc player from my first table there. I knw he folds to reraises unless top premium hand. Several hands in he makes it 3400 (1200bb) from mid late position. I have the golden 10,7 off and make it 10k looking to take it down from the cutoff. BB moves allin 15k and i shabily call. He shows 10s and board comes 88469 , golden and peak stack again. Anyway just before dinner i lost a Q10std vs 6s to have gone prob top5 chippy on 110k at 1600bb and was left with 65k, still an ok stack.

5) After that though big chippy moves to our table and so many big hands at our table none of which im getting. I remember moving allin 45k after a 4k limper utg with Q9dd in the cutoff and he folded 8s face up but opportunities were slim and i felt i couldnt have done much more than i did. With 33 players left, pays 27 (280 runners, $33k 1st) and blinds 4k but 2 mins b4 6k i moved allin 8handed on the button with 4s and ran into jacks. Gutted not to get into the cash and have a chance at big stuff but took it on the chin although 10 hours for nout aint the best feeling. Dnt regret the shove 1 bit, if ive got 60k there i either fold preflop or make it 12k ish then fold to reraise.

To sum up a much more solid performance, luck both ways to be honest but 33/280 aint so bad. Only twice almost allin b4 exit hand and called when sim stacks that KK vs 9,10 and kk vs 44 so cant do that much else.

Played some tired 1/3 after and went $300 down quickly before finishing $450 up so only $100 down live on the day anyway ! Today ive gone for couple of mtts online and fair bit of cash for a few hours. The others goin rio later for seafood buffet so may go over there but unsure yet. Obviously wsop final table on, think its there not binions so that may swing it.

///...............

Just played 2/5$ omaha and 2/5£ omaha hi lo for 3 hours and played/ran well. Bout £2000 profit :)) Right pool time and seafood buffet apparantly lol

Saturday, November 08, 2008

So Far

Plane journey was great, immed through customs and bag out one of first. Was quickest ive ever got to my hotel from touching down ever in Vegas. Rest of day was just drunk 1/3, ended up losing $100 and getting the usual reminder that only well timed bluffs wont get called out here.

Thursday i played the $540 2pm Bellagio. First time ive played there but again i bluffed at the wrong time and was out a few levels in. Only 30ish runners otherwise i would play them daily. Anyway went onto 1/3 in Caesars same table as Punterz and ended up $900 up b4 meal etc to finish it off. One hand of note ive been ordered to blog:

53dd early position and i limp as 2 a couple others b4 punterz pot boosts to 15 on the button. Bout 2 callers + me and flop is a juicy 24K with 2 diamonds. I lead for 25$ and just Punterz calls. Turn is a 2nd club but a 7 and now i lead for $50 after Punterz does a luvly im callin whateva u bet act and if u dont bet i will check the river. He then proceeds to say if i bet he is calling then putting all "these" chips in on river. He grabs 2 handfuls of what i would estimate to be around $200 give or take. River is a blank 10 and i dwell a while, he is giving his threatening speech hanging his handfuls of chips over the line. I so wanna win with the nut low :) and have to bet. I make it a $100 (looks like a good blocker or value bet to him). He looks disgusted and i immediately say come on you cant foold now. He reluctantly does but shows 63cc proudly saying i cant beat you anyway. When i show him and the table the 5 high where the 6 would have played he nearly collapsed and the rest of the table were in complete hoots. Think he luvved it more than i did claiming its one of best hands he has had. I guess it would have been for me too but i did bluff a similar amount off to him before. Anyway for entertainment value it was on the 10/10 scale and for image which paid off after that hand it helped me win the $900 profit too in the end, no one was ever folding to me again :)

Yesterday i stayed sober and played $540 venetian, again a badly timed bluff cost me loads level 2 but i had lost a chunk value bettting with trip 10s against a straight which could have took a lot more off me level 1. I played the short stack well though and patient but the hand to go out on wasnt huge but was a ridiculous gutshot flush draw and overs against a guy check raising me with 2nd pair when i had already committed to the pot and i miss, ah well. Played a $130 satellite to get $570 tourney chips more to cool off that anything and got through on what was an awful standard table as expected. The 3 of us then (pirus beign the 3rd) for fun played a $125 bounty in Treasure Island. Punterz pissed as a fart making most people luv or hate him, whats new. I got labelled a fish calling station cos i was first couple levels, so funny how serious people take the game in these tiny crapshoot fish type tourneys. Believe me if i told them how much i made from poker they just wouldnt have believed it :) Finished off with a steak and a good nights sleep.

Think im gonna play the Venetian again today $540 which is in 75mins. Could see me drinkin if i dont go deep although i wouldnt mind giving the $1000 a go tommorrow or played a wad of sunday mtts online so ill have to make that nice choice later as i go along.

Only played online for an hour or so since i got here and made a quick buck or 2. I keep that separate for the trip though and my Vegas gambling is +$235 currently....laters

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Nearly There

A boozy Saturday was followed up by some relief when i checked my accounts the next day to confirm i hadnt played at all drunk. Too hungover to play properly or enjoy it so i didnt touch poker yesterday.

Today i got some nice rakeback and bonus to boost this months $£ tally. Ive been busy getting ready to leave 2moz and was still fairly tired but i did sit for 60-90 minutes just before midnight and made a tidy profit although bit gutted could/should been more but lost a £400 to a chaser chk caller on £2/5 omaha. He didnt even bet river when he hit and let me check in position for what was easiest non value bet of the night :( Still £1300 up on the day inc. bonuses and rakeback so happy with that obviously.

Next post should be from Vegas !!! yippeeeeeee

PS: also got cabin details for cruise 2nite, got private balcony which wasnt guaranteed (i think) so another bonus :)

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Loss

Quick loss post £1200, wasnt playing that great and didnt run well. Hope this blogs it out of my system as its time to go out on the piss....laters

3 Hour Review

Normally i let anything beyond midnight last day of month go into that month but i decided against that b4 tonight cos i knew i was drinking. Was supposed to discourage me but it didnt and a few hours into November and already £2800 up. All 2/4 - 10/20 although the 10/20 i had no allins just float steals etc so not as much luck as need sometimes. Keep it up all easy when running ok or good. Recession yeh not in poker loooooooooool.