Mental Preparation

Yesterday and today has basically been a chill out session.

Yesterday we took Azimuts limo downtown and walked around before going into binions and the mansion poker dome. Im strictly on no booze in the 48 hours leading up to the main event. (Once it starts it maybe a different story if im nervous or feel i need to play more agressively)
Played $1,$2 NL for an hour or so which was an eye opener to say the least. It makes the micro limits cash games on crytologic look tight. Regular raises preflop of between 10 and 30$ and callers all over the shop. Anyway i actually sat down with $400 and got up later with exactly ......$400 !!!

Only got about 5 hours sleep last night as i woke up at 8am and couldnt drop off again. Its 7pm here now and i do feel tired but will only try to sleep midnight or later as i could be playing 12 noon until 3:30am if the first 2 days are anything to go by.
Just been hanging around today in the pool , the cryptologic lounge or the room. Looks like the CPC 2005 will be on challenge TV later in the year as ive seen some DVDs , it remains to be seen whether any of my TV table bits are shown but ive seen myself in the background once of twice.

The only downside of today is because ive qualified through a littlewoods promotion and not a room wide cryptologic one i may not be able to enter the $200k freeroll on 5 August for those that havent cashed in the main event. On paper this is worth $2000+ with only around 100 runners and bounties on some players as well. There is still a chance though but if i cash in the main event it is all irrelevant anyway !!!

Congratulations to you Pete (oranges) if you are reading this as i see you made the 2006 CPC today. (see comments on earlier post below)

OK im off , dunno what to do, i hadnt ruled out going in the gym for a bit but i think its getting a bit late for that now.

I hope the next post is a happy one :))

Steve Davis / Rumjungle Juice

Saw Steve Davis at breakfast yesterday. He declined the offer to join us when i called him a legend as he was looking for his mates already sat down.

Chilled out most of the day by pool and picking up wad of free stuff from WSOP stands various poker sites were giving away to promote. Best thing was the girls everywhere in skimpy outfits , these americans know how to get your attention when advertising !!!

Got very drunk in the evening , think the cocktail called rumjungle juice at $12 a piece done us all. Rum + various other ingredients that we didnt even bother reading. Anyway got a smacking hangover this morning but plenty of time to recover. Is very good meeting up with the guys we met in St Kitts. Kev (Azimut), Luke (Meg80), Mark (Unstable) mixing with me (Animal) and Gary (3jacksjb) makes for a lethal combination of booze, gambling and general good humour.

We all played a crapshoot $70 NL tourney at Caesars Palace at the end of last night which was funny after so much drink. Started 11pm but me and Gary were out and back at the Rio by 1:30am so dunno how the other 2 finished (Mark had crashed a bit earlier without playing)

As for the WSOP day 1A is over, its definitely 2 hour levels and they have played down to 800 players as well. 12 noon through to 3:15am ish = 15 hours including breaks so its a long day to survive. Luke was a casualty at level 2 (50,100) when a guy called a reraise of $2700 with KK only to flop K77 against Lukes AA, nasty. Just over 8500 entrants were registered in the end , crazy.

Most people i know seem to have day 1C (sunday), as for today once i get rid of this hangover i think its basically a chill out session all day again with some poker in the evening. Definitely only light booze between now and Monday so my heads hopefully in the right place.

Arrived and time to settle in

Absolutely knackered but finally made it into our room at 3pm (local time)

My god it is hot outside i dont think i will spend much time outside in the next 2 weeks at all. 41 degrees when we landed !!!

Good news, after being told all littlewoods players were playing day 1A, they have changed it for several of us and im now playing day 1D so i have 3 full days to settle in before the main tournament.

Seems gary's laptop is gonna be constantly connected so should be a fair few blog updates out here as well.

Time to chill out for a few hours before the welcome meeting and then ill certainly be having a good look at the poker room.

PS: Van Rensburg if u r reading this u are probably at work first thing in the morning while we are getting pissed last thing at night over here. Enjoy :)

Viva Las Vegas

Ok its just over twelve hours before i leave and i just cant wait to get out there at the moment. I have not heard which day 1 im on yet , i just hope its not Day 1A so ive got a bit of time to refresh from the travelling.

Technically i am now at the end of July for my monthly profit. Any cashes (please be cashes :)) ) in vegas will go into my August profit.

July 2006 profit = £812

Not gonna analyse that too much as its been a strange month, far too hot for a lot of multis. Ive placed close enough to big or huge wins without getting that extra bit of luck for the huge stuff and lets face it my mind is totally on the build up to the WSOP main event.

On another note, on 1 August 2006 i will have been playing poker full time online for exactly a whole year. ( Was part time from 1 Feb 2005)
My records show £64,788 profit for that year which im sure i would have grabbed if i knew that 12 months ago. Ive justified quitting my job to myself and others anyway !

Its just over a year (23 July 2005) since i played in the late night poker series in Cardiff and got in front of the tv cameras for the first time. Lets hope theres more tv appearances to come ! Unfortunately i was unable to try and qualify for late night poker again this year as it appeared strict that you cant be a professional to play in it :(

Hopefully access to a computer should be frequent enough for me to keep this blog updated in vegas. If not follow my progress using the "Clinton Cards" link to the right as he's mentioned he will be updating littlewoods players progress.

The 50k

Well i cashed for a crap £300 for 32nd/414 entrants.
Positives:
1) over 4 hours of play 10 handed , ups and downs , emotions all over the shop, good practise for vegas
2) consider myself to have played very well escaping a couple of bustable situations and making what was probably the biggest call of the month for me

Negatives:
1) Lost an AQ vs A5 for a 9k pot when about 100 players left , was left on 7k.
2) Bit annoyed about the way i lost a 40k pot (luck ran out) , details below.

Right where to start , i cant be assed to go through loads of hand historys so ill do a summary with approx. figures of some hands.

a) Hand 4 of the tournament:
Dealt AA on the button , immediately think raise big i dont wanna bust a 2500 stack at 10,20 without making someone pay. Anyway no need worry utg raises to 500 and next guy moves allin. I call and so does initial mad raiser !
AA vs AK vs AQ and i hold up to take a triple up early chiplead.

I float between 7500 and 8200 before the next hand

b) Blinds 25,50 1 caller i make it 150 with AhKh and guy calls behind me and initial caller calls.
Flop is K75 rainbow check i bet 300 guy behind folds and other guy flat calls. Consider this suspicious as no raise if KQ and what can he be holding to flat call, 86std mayb or something bigger.
Turn = 10h giving me the flush draw as well as top pair. Chk Chk (As im suspicious of flop call and wanna take free shot at nut flush)
River = 5h giving me the flush but pairing the board , hmm. At this point my brother standing behind me looks excited but im explaining how i didnt like the flop call and wanna see if he bets the 600 i expect him to into the 1075 pot with a full house (or hopefully a bluff or KQ) . He bets 550 and i cant fold this online so im glad ive slowed the betting up because i tell my brother ive gotta call and i expect him to hold 77.
77 is shown and i lose to a full house with nut flush (ask my brother if u dont believe me !!)
He had a good stack of over 3k at this point and i wonder how much i would have got if the heart hadnt paired the board but escaped well so happy enough.

Anyway i get back to 8k again soon after this and stay at this stack for a long time as the blinds go up. I then get a few hands and get up to 12k before the hand ive mentioned above.

c) Button AQ raise 300 blind to 900, small blind goes 4200 allin , i call hoping its a resteal , he shows A5off and catches a 4th heart on the river to give him a flush with the 5 in his hand , OUCH. Down to 7k at 150,300 and very annoyed. Pot was to get back into the top 10 with hmm maybe 80-90 players left.

Still fuming from the above and only about 6-7hands later

d) KK early position, i flat call 300 determined to trap someone and risk my chips after the above. Guy 2 to my left raises to 1200, now its been a long time since i havent gone back over the top allin (8-9 times/10 i probably would) but i dont wanna give this guy a chance to fold when im playing 7k and still well away from the money (pays to 50).
Flop is a awful A97 (2 diamonds) and i reluctantly check hoping to pick up on his bet size.
He bets 2700 of his 6k stack into the 3k pot, i take until nearly the last second to decide on instinct he would have bet less if he had a big ace so i shut my eyes (not really) and move 6k all in. Appears the time i took helped because he called me instantly with 1010 and i was up to 15k and into the top 10 or so. Probably without doubt the call (or raise) of the month for me.

Anyway i springboarded forwards with this stack picking up JJ on a ten high flop for a nice pot and then busting a 8k stack playing JJ slow and hitting trips, fortunately he obliged by betting his last 5k at the river with king high !

Went a bit card dead around the bubble and below but did steal enough to sustain my 30k stack and was basically drifting from top few to 10th or 11th. I did lose a 55 vs 88 for 15k that didnt help when i was pot committed to a short stacks allin.

Anyway into the last 40 and i tightened up 10 handed. Playing a 25k stack i then decided to play aa slow when utg raised the 1200 big blind to 3600. Flop was a J85 (2 spades) and he bet 8400 into the approx 10k pot, ideal i must be ahead and i decide to flat call hoping he puts me on a draw and moves in on the turn with or without a hand. Turn is a nasty looking J but im still convinced im ahead and decide to check after he checks hoping to induce a river call or bet. River is a 10 and he now bets 7k and i decide i have to call , still believing im ahead if im honest but not believing enough to stick my last 6k in as well. The guy shows JJ for quad Jacks ......!!! OUCH.

I immediately recognise that if i had overraised preflop or played the hand at my normal speed of betting i would have bust completely but im left with a 6k stack and chance to recover.

I push with J10off and am uncalled to get to 7-8k then i push allin on my small blind with A7off only to run into the chipleaders 1010 in the big blind !!! No help and im out 32nd for a 15k pot, no 2nd chance with the 6k i somehow kept from the quad jacks hand , damn.

For the record i lost a 40k pot on the JJJJ and im convinced ive played it well anyway and have just been very unluck not to get a double up and move into the top 5 at the time.

Summary

No big money but a cash and some nice poker play by myself before running into the quads. Had some nice pocket and flop cards but not everything held up or got lucky so overall the luck factor could have been better or worse and i believe was somewhere in the middle.

Other tournaments included busting AA vs AQstd for a pot to go 70/138 stack of 5500 on blinds of 100,200 in the £27 10k. 414 entrants so bit annoying but at the time left me just in the 50k and i hoped the luck would balance out in that.