Gimme Strength

So glad its new year tommorrow so i can put an end to this month of b*******. Wasnt gonna play then saw a hu hi lo game and went in it for over 90 mins. Swings up and down but always ahead then a 3rd guy joins, busts and reloads. He then loses big pot vs my hu guy then next hand sums up my month once again.

He raises button to 70 i repot to 230 but matey in bb flats it playing over 2000 at this point. Other guy only has 570 so his hand irrelevent but i hope he repotting as i have AA25 1 suit. He calls and flop J54 (2 clubs) i pot and bb raises and button allin (god knws what he had as irrelevent). Turn K river Q all clubs i have Ac but no other and pot gets shipped to bb with A245 (just 45suited). Come on gimme a break ive been playing the guy for 90mins straight and he makes the worst play of the session (such an easy fold preflop but he such a fish) only to be rewarded with the biggest pot, god i hate poker at the moment and frankley couldnt give a *** that ive made so much this year, the game sucks as does my health, my weight and my fitness level. So i say go *** yaself 2009 and go *** yaself poker.

Blehhhh

Loss was getting smaller in last week until yesterday. Was playing steady on good table then with pot at $1000 on 10/20 i got another $3000 each in on a AQ96 2 heart board with KQQ10 only for Ax9h7h7x to hit their 9 outter on river. $7,000 of sickness which would have put me +£1-3k ish for month. Instead im left in the -ve again and of course get done by runner runners a couple of times after just to complete a lovely -£4,000 day. -£5,874 currently for Dec , dunno if will play any more in the year. Got a stinking cold just to top it off so stuck indoors too, arrgggh.

Im hoping the new year i will launch myself back into the game. Was hoping to go for a 6-8 table low stakes grind 5 days a week but i know if the games are good higher i will have to play them. My roll is taking a massive hit with the house ive bought(im buying) so i need to have some sort of plan in case i go on a nasty downswing. Only problem i perceive is how lazy and undermotivated ive been the last 2 months but turn of a year is always a good time for change so just have to see what happens. As for the blog i intend to keep it going for now with at least a few updates a month if worthwhile. Some sort of year review due soon i guess but i will keep it short this time i think.

1st - Top 5 2009 Personal Poker Highlights

On Wednesday 27th May i flew to Las Vegas after a monster month and incredible 2009 so far in a very confident and optimistic frame of mind. I had never stayed more than 15 nights before and that time it was too long and did my head in. That said i knew i had matured more now and was really looking forward to seeing if i lasted the 6 weeks, let alone come away with a profit ! The condo i shared for the 2nd half of the stay worked out at only $40 a night so i knew i could afford to just ditch it and fly home any time after 3 weeks so the pressure of definitely staying there 6 weeks wasnt a factor at all.

I paid for extra legroom and managed to get the seat right by the exit door which meant i got off the plane 3rd. Hate queues and it was the quickest i ever got through customs. I had never taken > $10k through customs before but filled in the form and got no hassle, in fact i got a friendly "are you gonna play the big one ?" comment which is totally out of character for the normally stern customs staff.

My best poker highlight of 2009 was the $1,500 omaha hi lo limit event early at the WSOP from 29th - 31st May.

Normally my 1st night in vegas is booze 1/2NL for fun and stay awake till midnight+ to try to get on a decent body clock. Knowing i could play limit omaha hi lo almost with my eyes closed though i sat on the 30/60 game in the Bellagio and left a few hours later +$1,100 to crash.

The next day i entered a $1,070 Caesars game. They reduced the buyins shortly after this as they just werent competing with Venetian. Extract from post that night :

"Basically 138 players and i finished 30th. Final pot was AJ vs KK vs J10 to have got back to a under average but chunky stack. My key pot earlier was 22 vs AK to have prob gone about 5th with 40 left but i lost the flip and was left on only 10xbb. Overall was happy with my play and surprisingly i wasnt pissed off at all after busting 10 hours in. "

Fortunately for me if i had made the final table i would be playing the next day at 2pm and i would not have entered the $1,500 omaha hi lo limit game that night which started at midday. Lots of what ifs in poker which shouldnt be dwelled on imo (good or bad) but definitely a key good one for me this year.

After a long day 1 in the Omaha hi lo event this is extract from my blog, basically i was sitting 26th :

"Made day 2 of the omaha hi lo limit. At one point i was prob top 10 or so chipleaders with 40% of the field left and 3.5 x the average stack. Peaked at 46k but last level hit me a bit and final count was 34,300. Average is just over 20k so sounds good but blinds are getting nasty so 1 or 2 lost or won scoops can swing the stack big time. Over 900 entered with 197 left and pays 90. "

A quote from a random guy who approached me a few days later. "I was on your table in the Omaha hi lo the other day (day 2 of the event), how u get on in end etc etc ................." "My table was really tight and easy then Annie Duke turned up followed by you and the whole table dynamic changed with at least 1 of you 2 in nearly every pot" :) I should mention as i dont go into specific hands in this that it amazed me how many limpers there were in this event. For anyone with a basic knowledge of hi lo it was huge value although of course being limit theres a lot of luck in it too. Anyways after another long day (down to 19 players not the final table as scheduled) extract from blog was:

http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/event-3/chip-counts/day2/

"Back at 2pm today (10 hours time) 3rd/19. What will be will be and im remarkably relaxed about the whole situation. The type of game helps big time as i know if i was this deep in a nl holdem tourney i would be 100 times more nervy i think. I havent even looked at the payouts since day 1a start and wont unless i get a weaker stack as laddering is more of a tactic in omaha hi lo limit used for medium to weak stacks."

More extracts to cover day 3 :

"I was hoping day 3 would be a long day and it didnt disappoint. My 3rd place 387k stack (about 4 million in play) went straight down in the beginning with 19 of us left. Basically then i floated between 200 and 300k until we hit the final table. A couple of key hands just before we went 10handed were as follows:

Reraised an 120k stack with AdKxJdJx , blinds were 10/20 20/40 . and he called . Flop was huge Jd10x7d and he led at me obviously committed/ing so i raised. Turn 5d allin but river came a low card to give his AQ52 the split pot. If i had won that pot i was back to about 360k.

This other hand was last hand before we split and went 10handed. After this hand i was mad and it took me a long time to calm down and stop shaking my head in disgust. Was probably only time i got like that the whole tourney and thankfully we had 10mins break and time to chill a bit b4 goin 10handed.

Called a raise from sb with AK46 1 suit but not relevant. Flop came Q23 and i chk raised to 40k. Turn was a monster king d for me and i bet and was called. River was a sick 3 and also a 3rd diamond and i could not find the fold and had to check call after tanking for so long only to be shown 8834 no diamonds. If i scoop that pot i would have gone to 460k and my tourney could have took off from there with some extra lives to attack the many short stacks left 10handed.

So i hit the fake final table (10 handed only time in tourney) with only 100k at same blinds as above. There were actually 2 or 3 shorter than me but as much as i wanted to ladder if i found a good starting hand it was time to gamble. Couple of shorties doubled up and i stole 1 lot of blinds that gave me a tiny bit of room to go through the next blinds. Then came a hand i lucked out on which made me probably $40,000+ when i was out if i missed all.

I had AdKd9x2x and had raised but got 3 callers. Flop of 10,5,3 so i knew this was never being folded. 3 of us went to the river and it had come runner runner high diamonds for my nut flush. Instead of being just over 100k at start of hand i almost bust but i now had just under 400k !!!

Managed to push on from there and by dinner break i had peaked at 560k but lost some back to 460k and was joint 3rd with 2 others. We had lost players too including Freddie Deeb who had blinded out to like 3 chips in order to ladder for $4k more. Was unbelievable to watch i dunno what goes through some peoples heads sometimes. He got $4k more but had like 1% or less chance of winning now and justice was served when he quickly bust after. I say justice cos he had a go at the dealer 10handed which was nothing short of a disgrace in my opinion. Jordan bust shortly after in 6th i think before we lost the shortie friendly French chap.

Being the short stack in 4th i looked for any hand to shove with but actually blinded out more than i wanted too gettin junk like K975 all 1 suit and stuff . Final hand i was in with A,3,10,8 against Thangs AKxx. Board had come K229 and i tanked for over a minute on the turn as i knew i could be drawing dead but only had 65k left. I finally made the call with too much in the pot and was drawing dead. Most of online followers were probably misled following updates as i believe most if not all of them got myself and the chipleader mixed up by name despite us telling them throughout the day to change it.

I started 3rd that day but never got above 3rd in chips and my best position was at dinner when i was joint 3rd/6 with 2 others and i never got above 15% of chips in play. Anyways i busted 4th for $73,412 for my biggest single win ever but i think more importantly i did make a wsop final table :) at the 3rd attempt. I hope to return to one sometime in the future, watch this space :)

Merry Xmas

Still didnt feel like playin much since last post. Did sit down one day though about a week ago and done my nuts on 10/20 25/50 and limit 200/400. Basically lost £12,500 that session wiping out all Dec profits and more. Obviously struggled even more for motivation after that and only played a couple of times since losing another grand before winning a few hundred back yesterday.

Head seems a bit clearer today despite the 9 pints of lager last night so finally seem to be getting it into perspective. Still dunno if i will play much before the new year though, just see what mood im in and how the games are.

Dec So Far

The last 3 days ive played once for 5 minutes. Too hungover to play today really and busy all day tommorrow. Its been a lazy month so far. Basically made £0-£1,000 per day for 4 or 5 days then had 2 +£3,000 days. Even been on 25/50 as fish there whom i bust within 2 hands before the game stopped :) Might try and put some volume in next week but not concerned if i keep the laziness going really as long as i dont donate any profits back.

2nd - Top 5 2009 Personal Poker Highlights

I started Feb in Thailand and quickly turned an £11,000 profit in the first four days. I then dropped it all in one 2 hour session on the 5th. I was still full of motivation and confidence though and stuck many sessions in to finish +£4,000 upon leaving Thailand a couple of days later. The next week back home was a good one running that up to £40,000 by the end of the 14th after 7 winning days ranging from £800 to £8,550.



Number 2 on my list is Sunday 15th Feb running late into the morning of 16th.



I quote from my blog on the Saturday " It would be nice to enter some tournaments tommorrow for a change but easier said than done when the usual omaha urge kicks in, will have to see on the day" If you regularly read this blog this year you will often see this sort of comment kick in once a month or so when i try to motivate myself into entering a wad of tournaments for a change.



The usual omaha urge did kick in during the afternoon and the 10/20 and 25/50 games were kind to letting me log a +£10,500 session. Despite this i still hoped to enter some multis later and i think i played 5 or 6 in total that evening ranging from $129 to $530 buyins. The smallest one and the one i really entered for fun was the $129 ftops bounty game ($20 per player you knock out) which started with 9061 players.

I played this game for fun like i said to begin with. Any marginal spots were gambled on and it worked pushing my stack up early. I somehow managed to ride this stack through the field and was golden when i did make bad overaggressive plays. Four betting 66 and running into AA rings a bell , first card out 6. Oh then about 30mins later i did exactly the same thing and again first card out 6 :) At this point i had a huge chiplead and i was directed to a special thread on 2+2 about a "fish on a heater" obviously refferring to me. I know i had knocked out a couple of good players as thousands of railtards started abusing me in the chat so it was funny to see how they had looked me up one of them pokerstats site and assumed i was a terrible player as i had only played 1 game on full tilt in the previous 3 months. Anyways i must have done something right as i had the chiplead almost right up to the final table.

At the final table my stack moved up and down and all over the shop. A few times i had 40% of chips in play but the standard of the play was rediculously good for only a $129 game and a minefield of 9000+ players. I remember being only joint chiplead with a few others with 5 or 6 players left but i had been so active i got a near double up in a blind battle with KK vs AJ despite the 2 of us being 100xbb+ deep. When we got to 3 players left there was a lot of plays going on but it was clear that one guy was the weaker of the 3. Eventually he had lost chunks and shoved an A3 into the other guys JJ. River Ace cost me $38k more and a HU match. Soon after i committed to 77 preflop against the A3 guy but he had 99. The 7 flopped but a 4th diamond hit the river to give him a flush.

12 hours after it had started i was left with that feeling of sickness at not getting 1st or 2nd but it was still a massive result to finish 3rd for $54,366 which overtook my previous online mtt record win from Oct 2005 of $51,810. On the day though combining my cash winnings meant i was +£47,000 which remains my best day to date although "no 1" comes in a close 2nd in profits only.

3rd - Top 5 2009 Personal Poker Highlights

Jan was my best month to date but i was soon to dwarf it in Feb. The majority of the games were 10/20 or 25/50 the whole month and the swings were pretty scarey when i look back. That said i was high in confidence and fearless and found it easier back then to devolve myself from the money and just play poker. I had one of my best days on Feb 15 (see next post) but this post is about the day a week later whilst still riding the highs.

Number 3 on my list is Feb 23 when i had my best ever cash games only day in poker.

The two previous days were class examples of the stakes i was playing and the volatility. Saturday i had quickly dropped £6,000 before recovering and finishing £13,250 up. Sunday was even crazier. An earlier grind saw me lose £2,000 but when i returned i dropped to a low of - £32,000 missing everything before recovering to a loss of "only" £11,350. This almost felt like a win given the day i had endured.

Monday 23rd i actually woke up really late so didnt play until evening time. Games were slow and bad at first i just floated between £1,000 and £2,000 up for a while. When the good games did kick in it was mainly 25/50 but some 10/20 too and i managed to finish £9,500 up on the day. I took a break and assumed that would be end of play for the day but later on i spotted a bad player on 25/50. Ended up playing 2 tables with him for 90 minutes before recording a £13,000 winning session. Total profit on the day for cash games only (remains my best) was £22,550. It scares me a bit talking about these swings and its a tad worrying that as i write this party poker have finally introduced 25/50$ plo tables so temptation will be there a lot more often now.

Nov Review

Very happy in the end. The last days days saw a drunk poker session and a bitty one hopping around the best tables and £2k each profits. Final profit of £14,783. Havent played even half of what i did in October so its a great figure in terms of volume put in.

No plans yet for Dec, i hope to have another solid month to prop up my bankroll and pay for some fixtures and fittings for my house (still no completion date yet, hoping start of Jan ideally).

4th - Top 5 2009 Personal Poker Highlights

The year began so well with 2 amazing months so it was always likely i was going to hit a wall at some point. March and April i spent the majority of the time in profits only to end up -£12,000 at the end of each one. I had truly been taking a shot at higher stakes with nearly all my games being 10/20 and 25/50 , think i even ventured to 50/100 for a few sessions. At the beginning of May i had had enough and with vegas 4 weeks away for a 6 week stay i was determined to turn around any complacency and motivation issues and i felt i was really going to knuckle down. Result of this meant i tried to ban myself from anything higher than 10/20$ plo which i managed with the exception of one $2000 loss on 25/50.

Number 4 on my list is May 6th when i exclusively played 10/20$ and a tiny bit of 5/10$on both plo and plo hi lo cash games.

I started the day £600 down for the month. Six and a half hours in i had run as golden as i can which at that time meant draws hitting, bluffs getting through, and sets holding up. I was £21,000 up at peak but the last half hour i dropped a bit including losing a $6,000 allin preflop (60/40) AAK5 dbl suited vs QJ109 1 suit and shut down quickly after taking that as a good sign to leave.

I finished £17,500 up which remains my best day to date at time of writing when ive only played 10/20$ plo and hi lo max. More importantly it kick started an incredible month in terms of profit and volume played. On May 18th i wrote "Could do with leaving for Vegas now as my attitude, effort and enjoyment factors are all just right but i'll just have to keep it that way for one more week" and i still felt the same when i left 10days later with just under £75k profit (2nd best month to date) under my belt for May.

5th - Top 5 2009 Personal Poker Highlights

It was the week before last Xmas when i finally decided to book a trip to Australia and onto Thailand. On the back of my best year to date and having had such a great time at the Aussie Millions that January it seemed like a no brainer in the end. I had high hopes for 2009 at this time and was definitely riding a successful wave from the omaha cash games online.

Number 5 on my list covers three live tournaments between 8th and 12th January.

I arrived in Australia late in the evening on the 7th Jan and by 4:30pm the next day i was in my first event, an au$ 1,150 satellite to the main event. I know i pretty much just played my cards that tourney. I won hands that just played themselves including flips but never got it in bad. Six hours later and i was over the moon at securing a main event au$ 10,500 seat.

The following day was an au$ 1,050 live event with 2 starting days. I wasnt too tired so entered day 1a. I have never flopped so many sets in a live tournament and at the end of the day i was sitting on a very nice stack. http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/01/2009-aussie-millions-event-1-day-1a.htm

After day 1b had finished I was 9th in chips but basically joint 5th in reality. 731 players had entered and 110 remained going into day 2 with 72 being paid. Obviously i had high hopes and returned full of confidence. Abuse of the bubble was successful but i did lose a key pot Q6 vs AK to knock me back to my starting stack. I then peaked my stack at 93k before dropping away. Blinds caught me up and completely card dead day 2 as a whole as well. I could have gambled with a 22 when i was reraised but thought i would find more +ev spots at that time. I was still a good stack when i did bust raising allin on a J9x flop with KQ , utg raiser had QJ so i regret not reraising preflop with hindsight. Finished 41st in the end for au$ $3,290 which looking back was a good result but obviously at the time i was very disappointed.

Right i could lie and say it was 3 live tournament cashes in a row but it wasnt. After the bust above i played an au$ 1,050 the same day and got very drunk and obviously bust sharpish. The next day i entered the au$ 1,100 omaha hi lo limit game but bust 4 hours in. I almost went on omaha cash tables but in the end decided to enter the au$ 1,150 satellite at 6:15pm instead. Several hours later the fun really started when a guy i had only met the night before and got completely wasted with moves to my table. After an hour or so we were both stacked and "safe" with something like 12 seats and 15 players left. He totally understood satellite strategy so basically if he raised i was out of the pot and vice versa. I had won 2 flips for my tourney life in the whole and apart from that pretty much cruised into the seat this time. So au$ 10,500 cash in the end and a bizarre set of circumstances saw me make a new poker buddy http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=76956 who i ended up sharing a condo with in vegas for the 2nd half of WSOP in June.

These 3 live results helped towards my best ever month at that point and set up a good foundation for me in 2009.

Same

Profit followed familiar trend since last post. Dropped a few thou 1 day, grinded it back up other a few more days. Yesterday though i had a mad day losing few thou again but managed to recover it in the evening to finish £200 up. Today followed the same pattern losing 2 x $2k stacks on 10/20 really quickly before finishing about £500 up so far. Bust an account few days ago (which ive bust many times) and funded another site so trying out diff places a bit to see how i fair. May do some posts covering individual poker highlights of the year soon if i can b bothered.

MTT Madness

After listing a load of mtts (around $200 give or take each) sat night but not entering ne of them i tried the same technique 2nite and entered 6 of them at almost same time.

Bust 2 fairly early but went deep in other 4.

1st bubble come along in the one i had been 8-12bb whole time in and i bubbled 33rd pays 30. I didnt mind this too much as i won a $5500 pot on hi lo omaha at exactly the same time :)

Still in other 2 as per below update as i go or bust:

10/13 50euro rebuy 216 entrants
13/30 $50 rebuy 434 entrants

//////
arrrgh sick 450euros for finishing 10th in 1st one AA vs KK king on river for 113k pot at 4k bb level although would only have been 7/10 stack.
4/24 in other and trying not to tilt :(( arrrgh AK vs shortie 33 KQ10 flop turn 3 yuk. 12/22
.............

yuk jj vs QQ pot to go 4th , lost it and crippled 19/19
................

and out a6 vs QQ flop Q62 turn ace just to take piss bit more gg. $570


£3,200 up on day so nout to complain about, would been nice to have took 1 of those last 2 down for 7,500 euros or $14,200 but not to be.

Update Time

Since last post i climbed a bit more steadily in profit to around £4,500 over several days but i didnt play some of them. This week i seem to have got back into it a bit although i had a mare on Monday when i dropped £6,000 as quick as possible. I was on a 200/400$ hi lo limit game which the play was awful on but obv i know can hav high variance :(

Think it made me more determined to put the effort in though and got £3,000 each back Tues and Wed. Yesterday and today smaller profits and currently stand at +£6,600 for Nov. Out on the booze shortly and hope not to play drunk later on.

As Expected

In ftops hi lo mtt and pretty bored so thought i would post a quick update here. Hardly played at all this month. One day i played 1-2hrs and the rest of the month probably equated to the same in total. Still running as bad as i did at the end of last month and really havent felt like putting any volume in as a result. Game selection has been pretty dire too with the tables no where near as dead money as the first half of Oct. Only a small loss so far anyway cos ive played a bit lower and so little volume. Decided to stay at home Nov, havent ruled out a mid Dec vegas trip but hav to see how im running b4 that.

Oct Review

Incredibly poor last 7-10days resulting in a final profit for the month of £13,046. Now i can moan about that as i peaked at £38,500 but i would take it before the month started or 3 days in when i was £9,000 down. Im more concerned with how steep the variance and downswings were this month. Didnt particularly like playing the last week either as i know i played too much this month chasing a schrapnel bonus (could been bigger if lucky) after getting committed. Another couple of promising starts in live games resulted in no cashes again too.

Have taken the extreme measure of withdrawing nearly all my money from all sites for now. I dont want to be tempted to play when im not in the mood and im interested to see if i treat the games any different when im depositing in to play them. Gonna check my money situation shortly and see whether i can go for a week abroad mid Nov possibly Vegas. Not getting much out of blog at mo so dont be surprised if i dont update much this month too.

GL

HU Over

Unsure what to write basically played crap for 30-60mins then played out of my skin and dominated for the next hour or so. Supposed to be on challenge at some point but i wasnt on a hole cam table so guess will only see allins and a few clips here and there, oh and mayb a cringy interview.

1st hand i lose 4000 2 pair vs nut straight
2nd hand i double up rivering a straight, he mucked after callin river but at least 2 pair
3rd hand i 4 bet 44 allin and he has AA and holds

so its 16k vs 24k after 3 hands with my 20% shot to win over.
like said above played crap for bit, low was about 6500 i think.
suck out K7 vs AK 7 on river er that took me back to 14 or 15k i think.
peaked at about 23k after playing small ball poker from there on as much as poss

then huge hand playing 22k i call a raise out of position with 34off then check raise his continuation bet to 5000 on a Kc8c4x board. he moves allin 300/600 level and not too much of it left its 11k to call and my instinct is he has flush draw at best but i really thought he had AJ AQ or even worse to be honest. After about 2 minutes i went with my instinct (sommat i regret not doing in my first match enough) and made the call. He showed 75cc for gutshot flush draw and overs so i guess i maybe was 50% but irrelevent anyway as flush immediately hit the turn.

left with 4200 i double through Q4std vs K10 before the strangest of exit hands.

he limps button and i chk 93off
flop QQ3 and i check raise his about 700 bet to about 1600
turn is Kd making 2 diamonds on board and ive got bout 6500 left
read on flop was he had nothing, maybe king or ace high so i bet 2400ish so i had option of getting away but lookin committed at same time (obv would go with instinct or read if he shoves)
he flat calls and i still believe im ahead at this point , river was a low diamond and i shove my 4000ish allin
he says call and i thought he said jack high but no he says jack high flush and shows J7dd WTF
says he thought i was at it on flop but WTF if thats the case shove the turn and have some fold equityor reraise the flop, hate his play on this hand but whatever. I wanted him in i guess and i played so well the last hour i wasnt angry just disappointed.

Would have been mad with myself if i bust the K7 vs AK i truly played shocking up to that point and it definitely was a match of 2 halves. Took more from this match than the 1st one and hopefully will make my experience count to grab a live title one day in the future.


Online ive stayed level since that huge loss other night but (if im not pushing my luck as still playing) im up a couple of £k tonight so far. Looking forward to the 1st week in Nov where i hope to ease right off and chill out ,unless im in a complete addict mode and the games are good of course ;)

HU Win Online Loss

Mixed day, got a bye then made last 16 (pays 4 only 42 entered) after 3hrs 20mins beating Marc Goodwin. Dont play hu again till Thursday which is a good job cos i just dropped my biggest loss online for months in one session, arrrrrrrgh :(

As It Stands

Right heres how the month has gone in £ so far. Lost chunk first 3-4days -£9k at worst. Went on mad run for about 2 weeks after with only 1 small losing day. Peaked at £38,500 then hit real bad couple of days to drop £12k of that. Edged back up to £32k over nxt few days but lost a couple of thou yesterday before i drove to Bristol the play a £550 game so currently £30k + £3,300 HU package next week. Also having to play 3-4hrs a day min online for a promo which will prob net me $1000+ but with a huge slice of luck could nab an Aussie Millions package.

The £550 was fun, i thought i would have found it difficult focusing after such a good month and losing approx 4x buyin b4 i even started and this was true for the first couple of levels where i wasnt overly impressed with my game at all. Picked up after first break though and managed to hit some good hands which obviously helped. Was prob top 3 of not chip leader after 5.5 levels with 49k (starting 10k) but missed loads after that and got resistance in the wrong places. Dropped to 35k then back to 40k before i called a reraise with 99 and lost a pot to have gone to 77k vs AA on a AQ9 flop. 5xbb out a few hands later. Had fun though, dunno what it is but i really like Bristol Gala casino and was glad a made the effort to attend. Drove back after so didnt play any live cash games but glad to have played with some chips before the HU championship next week.

Downswing Time

Very poor day by my last 2 weeks standards. Even tilted a bit at one point which contributed to losing 1 stack. Bout £4,000 down today, sounds sick but if i published my total profit for the month it would be sicker so i cant complain, just posting here so can start a fresh tommorrow.

Edit...back on lost thousands more :((:((:((:((:(( , reverse variance kickin in big time :(:(:(:(:(

Yesterdays Loss

For the first day in a week i had a losing day. Also had memory loss after too many drinks and a nasty resulting hangover today :(

Actually only lost £500 yesterday but ive had my best week at the tables since June. Wont post figures yet in case i swing back down but i dont think i could be playing or running better. Had an offer accepted on a house and at this rate i wont need a family loan i had planned to keep my bankroll from being squeezed too tight.

May play the Bristol £550 next Saturday but ive got the World Heads Up £3,300 on the Tuesday after so havent quite decided yet. Defintely not going to the carribean now but hoping i might make a Florida/Vegas trip mid November if house doesnt get in the way. Similarly i would luv to go to the Aussie Millions again but completion date might clash with this so just to to see.

More Of This Please

Sucked out for $5,000 pot earlier near start of day. Got it in with low flush draw, gutshot and a set vs made nut straight and nut flush draw to fill up. Even sweeter was after this i won another big pot which i wouldnt have had without the stack so "implied luck" made it worth more ! Came back tonight and run good some more although i think i got it in ahead the majority of the time for a change :) Result is an excellent day, beginning to justify and eye up Carribean, Florida and Vegas trip again. Need to decide on that stuff by the end of the week really.

MTT Night

Pool cancelled so entered some mtts for a change.
2 x $500 1 x 150euros and 1 x 50euro rebuy.

7:55pm
So far bust the 150 euros. Should bust b4 i did but guy played his nut flush as bad as possible vs my lower flush so only lost 1/3 stack when river paired and he led into me. Sadly ran AK into KK 30mins later and gone.

doubled in 1 x $500 floppin 2 pair vs kk early but lost a 20% chunk in other with QQ vs AK on a Kxxxx board. Flying in 50 euro rebuy , was in top 10 last check 10mins ago.

Also entering $70 sat in mo, update later

9:40pm

Damn QQ vs AK lost finished 545th/1426 in one of the $500s pot was to go joint 6th :(:(:(
Still in the 2 others, ok stacks nout to report really
Also still in that $70 sat.

10pm

Arrgh just value bet KK big on a 10,9,5,10,J board and matey had checked the river to me with A10 and didnt raise but i lost a lot on that pot, would gone broke if he raised flop like ne half decent player mind

Also doubled short stack up 66 vs 89 on a 459 flop :( in other so weak in that too.

10:15pm

Doubled QJ vs A10 50rebuy.

Down to last 2 guaranteed $1,000, 1st gets $5,200 package.

10:40pm

Rubbish in 50euro rebuy guy minraises from mid to 1400 i make it 4200 playin my cursed 77 hand and he flat calls. I only have under 6000 left. Flop 998 looks good until he calls with J9std , nice call preflop chump :(

Anyways got rid of the disappointment, turned a 30k vs 42k deficit round against remarkably easy hu opponent to win a £3,300 package ($5,262) to the World Heads Up Championships at the end of this month.

http://www.littlewoodspoker.com/poker-lounge/World-Heads-Up-Poker-active.htm

Still in ipoker $1,000,000 479/703 , 1689 entries

12:10am
Doubled K6 vs AQ , nout other than that still 50% of average 350 left 200 paid.

12:30am
keep moving table :( did get KK but no action but also got a K2std shove through and a 74std steal. 228/288 average 58k although i will start ignoring that as my blinds ratio is more important now.

1:00am
timing well so far to raise and as a result moved to highest spot mo ago. currently 173/225

1:25am
Ah bust just after bubble for $800 33 vs 99, gg thats me lot for the night i hope :)

Donating Back

Had 3 days off and returned today all be a bit hungover. Run bad but played ok. Bad was 2nd set vs top set hu losing $6000 pot but worse was guy playing hand as bad as possible to win a $3600 pot. Its easier to describe here than copy and edit history:

I raise to $60 and get 2 callers im now in 2nd position on a flop of KJ6hhx. My hand is AAxxQ5hh. I check knowing reg guy bhind will nearly always bet and he bets weak 100 into 190 pot. Other guy flats and i make it pot 588 to go. Guy bhind folds but now other guy goes allin for $1600. Figure ive run into a set being slow played but obviously 0% fold equity the way ive played the hand. Nope he has Ah10h10x6x for as bad a played draw as possible.

If this complete muppet raises before it gets back to me i fold every time but no he plays it completely backwards for whole stack with no fold equity. Of course board comes 6x xx and i lose. So livid cant believe how bad his play is although i know the guys a complete loser that think hes great, ive played him hundreds times and he so easy to read.

Chucked it into odds calc and im amazed to see its 50/50 but makes no diff to above where guy takes down 288 uncalled if he plays the hand properly.

Still just in profit for month but annoyed big time obviously, prob done for night although may go back on afta long break :(

Thats A Bit Better

Didnt play till late as head all over shop after house offer refused and found out i might be in a bit of a bidding war.

Glad i hit the tables in the end though, was steady early evening and wiped out the £2,600 loss for Oct into a £500 profit.

After an hour break or so ive just had a 3hrs+ session till 4:15am and finally got some good games and hit some big pots on both plo and hi lo. Biggest pot was $7,400 when i managed to get $1200 in preflop with AA108 1 suit only to be called by 2 players (1 covering me and 1 with $1900 more behind) . Flop came Q22 with 2 of a diff suit (unfoldable) and the $1,900 check called allin with KKQJ no flush draw and my AA held.

Combined with some hi lo stuff i finished £4,700 up on the session and am finally in profit for October to the tune of £5,200. +£7,800 day on $10/$20 max is a rarity for me these days and i will savour the moment. Just hope i can push on from this and not be dragged down again :)

Example

Great stuff well played by this guy. Waits until no fold equity on turn and chk raises me and of course i miss half the pack outs.

10/20 OmahaGameTable (PL) - Mon Oct 05 18:10:30 EDT 2009
Table Table 135455 (Real Money) -- Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: Grind4Fun ( $4823.40)
Seat 2: me ( $2177)
Seat 3: Cille09 ( $1949)
Seat 4: bajawa ( $2057)
Seat 5: TheKung ( $1307)
Seat 6: spfjlkw ( $3768.46)
bajawa posts small blind (10)
TheKung posts big blind (20)
**Dealing down cards **Dealt to me [ Kc, Ah, Jh, Ts ]
spfjlkw folds
Grind4Fun raises (60) to 60
me raises (210) to 210
Cille09 folds
bajawa folds
TheKung folds
Grind4Fun calls (150)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 9h, 6s, 3c ]
Grind4Fun checks
me bets (300)
Grind4Fun calls (300)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Qh ]
Grind4Fun checks
me bets (1047)
Grind4Fun raises (4188) to 4188 (best raise of the year award wp)
me calls (620)
me is all-In.
** Dealing River ** : [ 7c ] (only 23outs thx)
Creating Main Pot with $4381
** Summary **Main Pot: $4381 Rake: $3
Board: [ 9h 6s 3c Qh 7c ]
Grind4Fun balance $7027.40, bet $4698, collected $6902, net +$2204 [ 5d 7h 4s 6c ] [ a straight, Three to Seven -- 7c,6s,5d,4s,3c ]

Another several hours put in already and still playing a bit. First 2.5hr session i went about £5,000 down before coming right back and finishing £2,000 up. Began winning this evening then the shit hit the fan with the above amongst many other hands. Fortunately hi lo has been kinder to me so far and im only £1,000 down at mo, may update later if this changes either way much.

...............later edit
went back on 10/20 hi lo 1 table for 2hrs+ and finally caught some hands. finished £1,600 up on the day so Oct balance lies at -£2,600 now.

Tough Start

Played Thursday and Today so far in October. Complete joke so far.

First day i went up a nice £1,500 but returned later to some really bad games only to lose all that and a couple of thou more to complete losers. Also managed to get a chat ban that day which bothers me more than i thought it would.

Today i lose £3,000 within the first hour running as well as i can (NOT). Guy stayed there though and got it all back over the course of 3 hours. Played again for a couple of hours after that and posted a £800 profit so only £1,200 down before session just now.

Just played/playing a 3 hour session now and was thinking i had saved the day again after dropping some to begin with. But no i managed to get $2,500 allin on a turn on a 922k board only to give matey a deuce on river for the $6,000 pot. Nice i run good. So if i finish now which is lookin likely as games are dying im a nice £4,000 down for October instead of about £300 down if that $6,000 pot held, lovely. Actually lets try and be honest , it bothers me more that this guy played his hand so bad more than the fact he rivered it. he min raised the flop to 400$ 922 (im 99A6) when i had continue bet 200. turn king and he only bets 500$ into whats now $1100+ but is all to happy to instant call $2,000 more when i chkraise allin with QQ42. Lets see , well unless im on a rediculously dumb bluff which is pretty much never there is no hand he can beat, oh wp u dumb ******.

On a positive note im playing well and the action and games are a complete joke, gg

Sept Review

Decent month in the end. Only tilted a couple of times which is good for me. Shame didnt get more luck in the live games at the business end but happy with my game which is the main thing. A few day 2s meant i didnt play as many live games as planned. Result of this is £3,230 spare cash i will chuck back into August where it came from. Omaha and Omaha hi lo action was probably best described as sporadic which kind of suited me with many days off when the games werent good. Overall seemed to enjoy the game a lot more live/online. Anyway final adjusted August profit and September profit are below:

Aug - £ 5,924
Sept - £ 15,590


As for Oct gonna take it as it comes. Im kind of distracted by houses again (thinking of putting offer in etc etc) so its difficult to think of much else or plan for future trips.

No EPT ?

Still not 100% decided but i think im edging towards not playing any events now. Had the last 3 days off from online poker but returned today a bit too hungova earlier and lost a bit. Came back just now though with a sommat clearer head and posted a nice profit. Also noticed an error on my excel spreadsheet which pushed the monthly profit up further.

Live Cashes

None for a long time, gonna try count it now. Last cash was that wsop final table start of the series ! 21 Tournaments (last 8 in the UK) buy ins ranging from $560 to $5,300 hmmmmm.

Fortunately online cash profits have picked up this last week for me and im hoping to keep it going the rest of the month. If i do post a decent profit and fancy some more live punishment ive got my eye on some EPT stuff in just over a weeks time in London. Possible schedule i may go for is below:

Wed 30th Sept 8pm - £1,100 PLH / PLO
Thur 1st Oct 2pm - £1,100 PLO 6 Max Double Chance
Fri 2nd Oct 5pm - £550 Super Sat to Main Event (1 Rebuy)
Sat 3rd Oct 8pm - £1,100 PLO Hi Lo Double Chance

Best Day 2 (This Month)

Lasted a round and a half before running into jacks with A8 shove, gg

3/3 or 3rd Time Lucky

Made day 2 , thats 3 day 2s from 3 live events this month. Question is will it be 3/3 without cashing or 3rd time lucky. Latter seems more likely as im under half average on 10,675 going back but anything can happen. Lost a pot to have gone to 36k with 30mins left 77 vs KK allin on a 8,9,10 flop missing the 10 outs. Happy overall anyway and can chuck tommorrows PLO £550 buyin back into this months profit as i cant play it now.

Final EPO Update

4 or 5 hands in reraised scandie looking chap and got 4 bet allin 7 handed. Hated calling AK racewise but was never folding and lost vs AQstd to a queen on the river for pot to go chipleader with 55 left. (130k if win , lost 89off vs 44 2 hands later for only a crippled 6kish pot)

Also had 20% in soap and 16% in my other mate luke both of which had similar beats for chunky pots in the hour or 2 after me with no cashes :( sick game but dtd is a great venue and it has strongbow on tap which ive had a few b4 writing this so roll on London 2moz, let me run better please.

Quick EPO Update

Absolutely knackered so need to be quick. 58 left from 215ish starters and ive got 66,200 , average 37k ish, pays 18. Very happy with my play apart from 1 stupid bloodrush with 7s where i sucked out. So far been fliptastic too winning 2/2 big pots, long may that continue. Restart at 2pm tommorrow down to final 9, hoping for a long day :) ......just looked and if read right joint 5th/58 long way to go though.

Hit & Run ------> Casino Madness --------> Lucky Escape

Thursday i sat down and played my usual 2 or 3 sites but found myself hit and run on them all as well as another site all within the space of 15 minutes or so. Totally lost it and fired up the casino and proceeded to lose £1,800ish on slots playing a rediculously high stake per spin. With 1 account bust i moved to another and sat on blackjack with 1000 euros playing 200 euros a spin. Almost lost that (down to 400) before going on a lucky streak. At 2800 i upped the bet to a maximum 300 euros and managed to stop at a 4200 balance.

So i succomb to my 3 monthly casino itch but this time escaped and got back some of the poker damage. Still lost £1,500 on the day but could have been £5,000-£6,000 and i know ive had a lucky escape this time. By posting here i hope i dont touch it again for at least another 3 months, i aint proud of being a dumb degenerate and playing these fools games.

Exit Details

Guess i could have updated before but couldnt be assed. My quickest day 2 exit lasted 5 minutes reraising AJ and losing to eventual title winners 10s. Better than 6 hours for nout so drove home and had good weekend on piss instead. Online has been steady so far without a big win or loss , doubt it will stay that way though. Expecting a swing either way soon. Gonna try put bit of volume in the next few days before heading out on the live trail again next Monday.

Stars $215 6handed PLO In Running

6-max Seat #6 is the buttonSeat 1: HornyAnimal (17207 in chips)
Seat 2: x_noriver_x (14785 in chips)
Seat 3: stauting (6143 in chips)
Seat 4: cobratatus4 (15380 in chips)
Seat 5: PRM10 (9890 in chips)
Seat 6: govshark2 (20704 in chips)
HornyAnimal: posts small blind 125
x_noriver_x: posts big blind 250*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to HornyAnimal [As Ah 8h 4s]x_noriver_x said, "thats what KK usually gets"stauting: folds cobratatus4: folds
PRM10: raises 625 to 875
govshark2: calls 875
HornyAnimal: raises 2875 to 3750
x_noriver_x: calls 3500
PRM10: folds
govshark2: calls 2875*** FLOP *** [3s 2d Ac]
HornyAnimal: bets 3000
x_noriver_x: folds
govshark2: calls 3000*** TURN *** [3s 2d Ac] [9s]
HornyAnimal: bets 10457 and is all-in
govshark2: calls 10457*** RIVER *** [3s 2d Ac 9s] [5h]***
SHOW DOWN ***HornyAnimal: shows [As Ah 8h 4s] (a straight, Ace to Five)govshark2: shows [4c Kd 3d 2c] (a straight, Ace to Five)
HornyAnimal said, "omfg"
HornyAnimal collected 19520 from pot
govshark2 collected 19519 from pot
x_noriver_x said, "LOL - great flop"*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 39039 Rake 0 Board [3s 2d Ac 9s 5h]
Seat 1: HornyAnimal (small blind) showed [As Ah 8h 4s] and won (19520) with a straight, Ace to Five
govshark2 (button) showed [4c Kd 3d 2c] and won (19519) with a straight, Ace to Five

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
tried to get this on here quick to try untilt as still stacked, kinda worked but then got cold decked against yeh guess who before i finished posting this.

2700 entrants $215 pot would have put me about 50th/700, GG

Cardiff Update

Made day 2 with just under average stack. Only a disappointing 49 players entered day 1a so we played down to 18 players before stopping early for the night at 11pm. I started off badly getting sucked out in a couple of pots which set the trend for a long difficult day. At end of level 6 my 10k starting stack had never been higher than 13k (think it actually took me 4 or 5 levels to go above 10k !!!) I was happy with my short stack play though which kept me in the game. Basically 2 allins saw me end on 23k.

1) playing about 8600 i make it 1800 (300/600/25) with A10off and get called behind. flop is A36 rainbow so i check looking for bet to shove in on. He only bets 1200 so i make it 2500. He tanks for over a minute cringing like mad so im convinced im ahead. Finally he puts me allin and i call but he flips over AQ !!! Turn is a 10 though and i double.

2) playing about 13000 i make it 2200 (400/800/50) with Q10off and bb calls. Flop 10,8,5 he chk raises me allin which i call. he shows 10,9 and i hold up.

Didnt play particularly well but made it through with ok stack after being lucky so a good bonus. heres the standings b4 day1b today.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=43996.0

The Nandos Challenge

This month sees me in Cardiff, Nottingham and London and im in range of my favourite restaurant/takeaway in all of them. In honour of this i will keep all receipts from Nandos and match the total amount spent to pass on to a chosen charity of my choice at the end of the month. Now i have extra incentive to eat as much as possible each visit (not that i need it) !

August Profits

Actual final profit finished at £9,501 thanks to another nice recovery today.

Take out staking and many planned live buyins in advance for next month and written down profit on excel sheet is £2,694.

Here is planned list of paid up front live buyins. (should i not play any of them i will make a final adjustment to the figure above at a later date) September will eclipse in volume the amount of live poker ive played in the UK which will make a nice change from the online grind.

2nd - £275 PLO Cardiff
3rd - £1,060 GUKPT Main Cardiff

15th - $5,200 EPO at DTD Nottingham (Paid from July Profits) (+30% stakes in other players)
16th - £560 DTD Side Event

17th - £220 PLO Rebuy (3xbuyin budget) (European Championships Grosvenor Victoria)
18th - £1,075 WSOPE (Less 10% sold and assuming Betfair allow seat transfer) Empire Casino
19th - £550 PLO EC at Vic
20th - £1,100 EC at Vic
21st - £550 EC at Vic
22nd - £330 PLO Rebuy (3xbuyin budget) EC at Vic

Sunday MTT Report

4 MTTs excluding fees were $300 , $500, 150euros and 50euro rebuy (effectively 150euros)

.

$500 started ok but folded AK to raise, reraise and allin halfstack b4 me a few levels in. was only 10s vs QQs so wish i had gambled as straight hit river too. I then lost QQ vs AK vs same guy that had that QQ and was left 40% of stack. Got back in a bit then lost bit being reraised before shoving 10xbb or sommat as level had gone up with Axstd to run into tightest player at tables AK

.

150euro game was sluggish for ages but didnt lose patience. Eventually hit a few hands as its total fish tourney u always get paid off and my stack went up nicely. Then came a nasty exit which would have put me top 10 with half of the 650ish entrants left. raise mid AQ and get 2 callers 1 behind. flop AJ3 2 hearts , i continue bet bout 1/2 pot and guy bhind huge stack covering me (i hav a big stack already obv) flats me almost instantly which i knew was weak and big draw at best. Other guy shoves in but only 70% of my orginal bet more so i couldnt isolate. Turn is a 7 and im left with like 6800 and 8500ish in the pot. I have to stick it in and idiot behind me has A7. Miss my 6 outs and im gone (other guy had missed flush draw).

.

50euro rebuy was sluggish at first too but similarly just waited for hands and was nearly always paid off nicely. Crucial hand was annoying as hell too as had average or better stack i think. Basically raised from cutoff to 1200 at 200/400 with chunky ante. BB only playing 8000odd flats me. I cant fold on a K24 flop when he chkraises me and his trappy call AK dominated my KQ. Such a bad call should be reraising pre with that stack imo. Sick flop too :( Anyways left with 2000 odd my 77 wasnt good enough for KJ utg+1 limper and i bust couple hands later.

.

$300 topped if off really. Cant complain bout start as raised with JJ and got J10x flop vs 10s. From there on i think i was only allin, called and almost covered once 99 vs A8 which held. Then approaching the bubble i knew a hijack raise was weak (guy had been on my table from start and folded all time to reraises too) so reraised with A10std but sb shoved allin for 35k odd. My reraise was 9500 and i almost had pot odds if he was on a KK type hand but being near the bubble and i knew it wasnt quite pot odds i let it go. Next hand i make a marginal K10off shove for 9xbb from cutoff only to be looked up by A3std in the bb (for almost half his stack) and i miss and go out 107th / 800odd with 100 paid sick as a parrot. Annoyed as lowest of my range there was K10 if i consider QJ to b better to shove with and i know i was folding nething below this so mad at being looked up by A3 nutcase.

.

Anyways cashwise had a bloody nightmare on hi lo yesterday. First time in ages top end stakes were goin and i got donked off all over shop. Fortunately got a bit back tonight and more than covered the entrance fees above but still annoyed to lose about £3,000 yesterday. Aint a lot in respect for me but ive been on lower stakes all week partly to grind and partly cos of this flu thing and had basically won that through hours and hours of play. I know i dont post omaha or hi lo history much but this one took the biscuit so i will put the details below:

.

5/10 omaha hi lo pl hu vs a regular that normally doesnt play me hu (also the **** left after this pot having only played about 8hands, i exploded and followed him around hurling the most abusive language i think ive used all year but thats another story)

.

Im bb and first to act postflop. preflop he makes it 30 and i pot it to 90 with AAK4 with 1 suit not relevant. Flop comes K94 rainbow and i bet 140 into 180 which he flat calls. Turn is 8 which is a 2nd spade. I bet pot 460 and he reraises allin for about another 800. I instant call and he has AsQx3s8x. 8x hits river and he scoops roughly $2,500 pot. Dont care about the outdraw but WTF is this guy thinking flat calling the K94 flop with AQ83. He is really really tight abc player normally full ring but i know we have history in chatbox so obviously it had effected his play on this instance but sickly was rewarded.

.

On a positive note i aint in as bad a mood as i might sound from above and should hopefully make it to Cardiff this week as feel a lot better than a week ago.

Little Swines

Timing could have been a lot worse (eg day b4 EPO open all paid for) but i finally caught this pesky flu. Luckily for me i seem to have recovered a lot faster than my dad and brother who both had the same symptoms. It probably helped getting Tamiflu very quickly having witnessed the others suffering so highly recommend this if anyone reading this thinks they have caught it.

.

Househunting has reached a disappointing lull with the half a dozen or so i 2nd viewed or wanted to 2nd view either being sold , above what i truly can afford (eg restricting my poker roll too much), or still way overpriced in my opinion.

.

On the poker front my heads been spinning too much to play last couple of days but have been surfing web looking at possible live stuff for autumn/winter. Im now considering travelling even more than i did last autumn/winter. I can still keep an eye on the housing market but hopefully i can bring in a few more bucks. I think i would rather buy a house i can see me living in for 10years+ rather than sommat im likely to want to upgrade in 2-5 years time.

Not The Month For Poker

Not feeling it this month pokerwise. After last post i played no more than 1.5hours in the 6 days after. I have played more this week but still not a large number of hours. Lots of break even sessions and finally a run bad, play bad, lose my head large loss a couple of days ago. Got a bit of that back yesterday and still good profit for month but that is in danger if i have another bad run and or lose my head again (would be only the 4th time this month, oops). Ideally i should drop down stakes and focus on some sort of promotion or race to get back into it but im not in a hurry until next month now really. Still undecided on Cardiff gukpt in 10ish days, see closer to time if i fancy it, maybe even a last minute decision.

Escapes (2)

Stop playing like a tilted miserable fool. Get a grip or take a few days off before u donk wads off. Lucky not to have just done £18,000. Went £12,000 down finally hitting the deck just before i would have bust an account and escaping with £1,000 loss. Dont play in a bad mood, oh i already knew that i just played anyway like a thicko. Abused other players enough so only fair i abuse myself here.

Luton Trip Report

I'll try keep this one short as not too much to talk about unless i mayb put a few hands down from the £1060 main event.

£330 omaha , less said the better. Lets just say a $10 online mtt or even a bingo hall were good comparisons.

£1060 main, couldnt have gone much worse at start anyway. After the first 2 levels i was down to 1675 from the 10k starting stack. Missed 4 or 5 draws and hit nout. One of those was an up and down straight flush draw vs a set (would/should gone broke in if raised pot pre). Another key pot was raising pre to 200 after a 50 limper with J10suited on button. Flop A1010 turn blank river blank. i got chk called on every street after betting 400, 650 and 2000. Matey took 1 minute to call on river and even used the sad "i dont like it" phrase to save embarressment if his 3rd nuts K10 was behind, lol.

I managed to get back to 3200 peak in the next level uncalled. About 3.5-4 hours in after making myself play the short stack as well as i felt i could i found the perfect spot to double with AK vs a mid position raise after a limper of 650. I had 2850 so didnt expect matey to fold to my allin but was surprised to see him call with K4ss as he had been pretty solid all day. Out came 963 with 1 spade turn 5s and river another spade and i was gone. Would have been nice to have got back to 6000 at that 100/200 level as i know i would have felt like i was freerolling then but not to be.

Annoyingly omaha cash didnt get going that night so i sat on a £1/£3 NLH for fun after/during a few ciders. 1st 2 hands i win £100 and about £400 hitting a full house 2nd hand. Just stayed levelish after and left a few hours later £400 up with a few free ciders paid from chips :)

Overall could been a better trip but couple days away and a change from the routine is good for me. Online i dropped maybe £1000 over those 2 days with not much time put in. I had won a lot more since last post without going into detail and ive just reversed that £1000 with a short session this afternoon since i got back too so the month still retains a very very good start.

To put it simply Luton isnt exactly the nicest place to go to for a trip away and i doubt i will go back after the December freeroll tourney.

Escapes

1) Luton: Wednesday - Friday unless i make day 2 of main event booked.

2) Incredibly volatile and lucky start to August yesterday. Lost £3,000 immediately, recovered and went £3,000 up then went on sick run and went £5,000 down. At that point i def tilted a bit and dumbly opened up a 25/50$ PLO table. 2 Incredibly lucky pots later and i was £2,000 up again on the day and i shut the 25/50$. Then proceeded to lose that £2,000 before winning a $9,300 pot on 10/20$ to finish £4,800 up shortly after. Despite vowing to finish there i returned 30mins later as was couple of shorthanded hi lo games going. Another 30mins or so later i had made another £2,000 so finished £6,800 up on the day. So easily could have lost £10,000 or slightly more on the day but truly escaped. Its only early today but just made a quick £1,000. I wonder if i can motivate myself to try some mtts later for a change, def shutting down now for the afternoon anyway, honest ;)

Very Late 6 Month Review

Just noticed i forgot to do one of these a month ago. I aint gonna waffle on but anyone that reads this blog regularly knows ive had a crazy year so far even with 2 losing months. Hopefully i wont be disappointed with the 2nd half of 2009, or lose too much back ;)

6 months to end June 2009 profit : £236,236

July Review

In the hope i dont play drunk tommorrow i will do most of this now as im busy and probably wont play much if at all during the day. The last week or so has been very steady with not a great number of hours put in on any single day. Most days were £500-£1,500 profits but i did manage a £1,000 loss yesterday before going out on the pop. Today i still didnt play much but action and luck were good and i ended up just under £5,000 up on the day.

After a quick golden quick run at start of July to +£18,000 i went right back down to £1,000 in the hole. I then became more motivated and didnt take things for granted so much and produced a steadier 2nd half of July to finish as shown below.

Final Cash Profit is (see below, edit changed.)

Notes:

Will edit below if changes or if i take out some buyins for Luton next week i havent decided on yet

Extras not included in above are EPO seat and stake purchased, also Champion of Champions seat in total all worth approximately £3,000.


No expectations for August, no live events if i dont go to Luton. Hopefully just produce another solid month whilst finding a nice house to spend my hard earned cash on. Be nice if the weather resembles summer too.

GL all.

Late Edit:

Did lose £2,000 Friday and ive also decided to buy into Luton omaha and main events for £1,390 so have taken this out of profit too.

Final July Cash Profit : £19,784

The English Poker Open

Right due to my lack of playing any holdem disciplines and discounted seats i have purchased a seat to this event in mid Septemper rather than attempt to qualify. Its held at Dawn Till Dusk in Nottingham which i am yet to visit but have wanted to for a while.

A seat is worth $5,300 but there are plenty of freerolls to this event all through raketherake for $7,000 packages.

Anyone who is interested and has not signed up for any accounts through raketherake can use the banner at the top of my blog to direct you to their sign up page. For the schedule of freerolls see the link below, most of which involve raking $1 if you are a new player at each site.

http://www.raketherake.com/english-poker-open.html


As for anyone else (like u Den if u reading this) seats are going for $3,500 currently (see link below) but if you hold out they may go even lower after each batch of freerolls left are played closer to the event.

http://www.raketherake.com/epo-team-rtr.html

Spot The Pattern

A few solid days since the last post. Didnt overplay, took breaks and had good game selection. Then today most of that went to pot today. Chase chase chase with no breaks and several hours poker non stop and im £4,000 down today. Could have been worse though as i lost my head a couple of times and was in one of my dumb rages. I was probably about double that down at one point and i even ventured onto 25/50 to try and make or break the damage. Fortunately got away with that but with a balance still in ipoker it will be difficult to resist being tempted back there in the coming days.



Right thats todays crap out the way, back to the positives. The 2 days before i made almost exactly £5,000 a day each on usual cash games. I even entered a NL holdem $550 tourney but made the final table only to lose a flip immediately then lose 10s vs J4std for remainder short 4xbb stack. Then yesterday i was down only £2000-£3000 most of the night but running good and playing solid in the bl sq $215 1 rebuy 1 addon tourney. Only 27 runners but pretty much chip leader from start to finsh and prob bust between 1/3-1/2 of the field myself :)) to win it. That $4900 for $615 wiped out my losses and later on an ok cash session put me about £1,000 up on the day. For 1st i also won entry to the GUKPT champion of champions event (added prize) on 5th Dec in Luton. Difficult to put a value on that as everyone starts with different stacks depending on which tourneys they won. Its another freeroll live event to look forward to though so im not complaining. See GUKPT link website for details.



Im busy looking at houses , 7 so far, 3 or 4 more 2moz. No idea what i want but gaining info with each viewing.



There are lots of live poker events in Sept/Oct which i have listed on excel and im trying to decide what sort of schedule will suit me best and which ones to travel too. Im still to rule out GUKPT Luton a week wednesday too, will probably decide about this time next week.



Oh and if u didnt spot the pattern its 2-3 solid days poker then a dodgy as *** day where i lose my head, get into a mad rage, and generally try to minimalise the losses after playing way too much of the wrong games and chasing as much as possible. Bring on the weekend of cider :))

Cink or Swim

Well since the last post i busted a few more accounts the same night i think. With my head in a bit better shape after 24 hours break i made sure my table choice was better and the last few days the profit returned. Today however i played too long again and managed to go on a £5,000 downswing before clawing it back. Lost my head a couple of times but happy enough with my effort as a whole in what was too long a session without breaks.

Couldnt resist my biggest sports bet to date (£580 or what happened to be my whole betfair balance) earlier after watching poor Tom Watson dropping a shot on the 18th to only go into a play off. I only looked at the odds out of interest but i expected Watson to be further out than 2.3 and couldnt resist lumping it on Cink at the start at what i thought was a juicy 1.7. (1.5 i def would not have bothered betting) . Poor Watson fell apart in the play off and i got about £480 profit i think. It will probably cost me more in the future now though as i have a taste for sports betting and will probably believe im some expert now after one winning bet :)

5 Mins of Madness

Absolutely livid again. Considered a day off but just didnt play until late afternoon when i knew my head was in the right place again. Made a quick few thousand and left again until the evening.

Back this evening and lose to begin with but fair enough pots. Then lose a stack to an idiot than flat calls my reraise with half his stack with 3 pair when i have straight draw and flush draw and representing made straight. Of course he fills up. That wasnt the worst though, more to come. After goin nuts in the chat i hit a few hands and got paid paid paid so back to level for the evening. Then in space of 5-10mins i lose all these hands.

10/20 button raise shortie flat, i repot to $300 odd , raiser only playin $1000 and is a reg who knows im goin nowhere. He repots. he has 9865 and cracks my AA, WTF i go nuts in chat. Seriously $1000 no fold equity with 9 high pre. A few seconds later i manage to get $500 in preflop on 5/10 with AAxx and the other big stack calls me with JJ42 and flops the deserved straight. JJ42 seriously WTF . a minute later and i get 3 bet on 5/10 so i 4 bet my AAxx and get about 350$ in preflop, chump only playin $1100. Flop comes AKx with 2 spades and he chk raises my $370 bet , check raises i MEAN WTF these people think a Kxxx spade draw with no fold equity is a great way to play this. Dont get me wrong i want these fools in but WTF goes through their brains, at least shove it in on the flop and u might get a marginal hand to fold and not hav to make your flush, but nah just chk raise like its some advanced play or sommat. errrr theres one more , the JJ42 guy reraises me and of course i flop KQ108, flop K9x so i raise his flop bet. he has KKxx , hit my straight on turn but yeh of course he still fills up just to wind me up good and proper. ive shut now despite these rediculously bad games goin on i cant take any more and am shutting for the night.

Need to calm down and learn to chill out more i obviously have issues which cause this mass rage when some player plays a pot bad and gets lucky i just go into an instant rage. yeh im over £230k for the year but WTF i cant seem to relax and just pocket the money any more, lose some fckin weight Animal and u might just start relaxing again, *** knws.

And message to u knw who if u read this post, i would never ever soft play even against my best mates, u can ask any of them. Its unethical imo although obv i knw its common place these days with messenger and in live regular games anyway but that doesnt make it right.

More Annoying Swings

Won £6k yesterday and was flying for the month again. Today though i played way too long with no breaks and ran rubbish. Result was -£9000 and ripped a key off my laptop in rage. **** it.

House Hunting

Time to spend a chunk of the hard earned poker dosh. Thanks to a very good year so far im able to spend a lot more on a house than i had kind of planned. The difficult part really is knowing how much of a roll i need to leave behind.

Its been a strange week or so since i got back. Was flying along with just a couple of small £1k-£2k loss days and lots of bigger winning days including a £12k one then had a mare Fri night and after being £4k up on the day finished £8k down, ooops. Dont play when tired and angry they dont mix ! Smaller profits since and a drunk session last night i remember nothing of resulting in +£2,500 see me sitting on +£8k for July so far. Action on the few sites i play on has been good and im really enjoying the majority of it since i got back.

Leaving Las Vegas

Finally im in the airport. Would luv to fast forward 20 hours. Had my last oversized american burger for another trip and fly in 3 hours. Had tiny regret when woke up today about main event starting and me not being in it but i dont think that regret will grow. Got 14% and 5% horses in it anyway so hopefully they will go deep for fun element.

Shame to say it but my 8th visit to vegas has me glad to leave. 5 weeks is a rediculous long time to spend in this city and i havent done myself any favours pacing myself throughout. Without details lessons have been learned.

Obviously my biggest win and my first wsop final table is my highlight but it seems almost another trip ago as was over 4 weeks ago and all ive done since is lose. That said i know i will be happy with what is a successful and profitable trip once i get home to some sort of "normal" routine.

Have upgraded to premium economy but couldnt justify to myself the £1,600 to upgrade to upper class, next time surely. I have spent more on food and booze this trip than ever but i still struggle when it comes to spending what are small chunks of my "hard earned" cash on treating myself properly.

Right onto the figures i guess although maybe still play a bit online in a mo.

£19,450 up from all live poker, staking and gambling (based on $1.6 xchange rate)
£3,140 up from online poker

Total £22,590 profit for wsop trip

Another Flight Change

My last night in Vegas and again i lose at credit card roulette for the 5th time in a row and pay for the lush meal at prime in Bellagio. Then head to Palms PKR party and hit the booze hard. Dunno what time i left there but headed to the 5/10/25 PLO at the Rio. Can remember bits of it inc losing about $6000 preflop on one of the first few hands trying to shut out a big stack with J982 dbl suited but he wasnt folding the aces, oops. Think i ended up level though at about 8am when i left. Remember winding some guy right up when he couldnt get me to stop talkin and i just rabbited on more to annoy the old fart. (Richard if you read this mayb u can enlighten me on that as i think u were behind me at that point!).

Woke up at 11:45am and had taxi booked for midday. Made a feable attempt at packing as quick as possible but knew i was goin nowhere when midway i was puking up hard. Managed to change the flight till tommorrow for another £50 so just been trying to sleep this mental hangova off all day but still feel rough as anything and just been puking more (now 7pm).

Enough

After being my usual indecisive self for a few days i realised ive had enough of vegas when i started to get excited about changing my flight home ! So ive done just that and now leave on Thursday 2nd July a week early at same usual virgin flight times. Im not sick of the place but i know ive had enough and dont want to overdo it and put myself off future trips.

Since my last post ive watched my good friend Oranges chop the Venetian for $20k (along with Julian Thew who took 1st) . Ive had 2 lush meals in Bellagio but lost both credit card roulettes (thats 4 losses from 4 out here HU though) . Ive also had 2 mammoth session on O8 making the most of the fact i cant play it live when i get home. Its by far my favourite live game and was even before my final table. Anyway the 1st session i ran as bad as ive done all trip and lost $5,850 . Yesterdays started as bad dropping over $3,000 in the first hour before eventually finishing $650 up (played over 13hours for that) . Woke up incred late today but gonna head for another all nighter session shortly as long as the action is there.

Day Off Attempt

Crashed out quick as expected in that day 2. Played cash for several hours goin well up before finishing only $200 up. Went for nice japanese meal though and ended up in the wynn playing carribean stud poker for free white russians.

The PL omaha hi lo yesterday went pretty much the same way as the $5000 event of same game. Basically lost a pot to go to over 9000 chips level 2 (4500 starting stack) with over pair and nut flush draw against a total fish with top 2 pair. Was crippled on 1200 chips but got lucky in the couple of gamble spots after to get back to 4-5k. Then managed to bust against the same guy with AhJh10d3d on a 9h4h2d flop. Turn Kd river 4d but he was holding AdQd10h4h. Was still only 3rd level and pot again was for over 9000 chips, not to be :(

Played cash the rest of the day and managed to finish $2,500 up so that covered the $1,500 and gave me profit on the day. Also went golden for 30 minutes play at 3am before bed online winning 2 x 50/50ishs.

As mentioned im trying to have a day off today to sort out how long i wanna stay out here clearer and recharge my batteries. I had a massive lie in until 3pm which was much needed and i still am yet to load up online poker. Definitely going by the pool shortly then decide later if i will give in to the live or online poker temptations :))

No more omaha tournaments out here now to look forward to which isnt great. I could do with sorting out my poor NL holdem game anyway so may have a bash or 2 at that in next couple of days.

Need A Lucky Day 2

Made Day 2 but with a disappointing 6500 stack. Was doin really well up until the last 2 levels. Peak stack was 27,000 but i had a horrendous last couple of levels and couldnt do much about it. Back at 2pm, prob get drunk if i make my expected quick exit.

2 More Events ?

Omaha hi lo $2,500 limit today and PL of it on Thursday. These could well be my last wsop events this year as im unsure of main event and may well leave b4 it starts anyway. Looking forward to both these events of course as they are my favourite game live.

The mixed event was a failure losing 2 chunky pots on the omaha section early. I proceeded to cash where i ran as bad and went $4,000 down on omaha hi lo before finally clawing some back to finish $2,500 down.

Yesterday was as much of a day off as i have out here. Couple of hours of online omaha for a $4,000 profit before going out for food drinks and drunken 1/2 poker session for fun with an old schoolmate which was just what i needed.

Mixed Day

Today is the 5pm $2,500 mixed event which i hope to play if i can get a little more sleep this afternoon first.

Yesterday wasnt quite my typical day. Made $5,000 online before heading to Bellagio 10mins late. Played like an idiot and bust 2nd level. Took frustration out on the slots posting my biggest loss on them this trip. Headed to Rio and was totally golden on omaha hi lo limit table again posting a $7,800 profit. Got pretty drunk in evening and ended up on blackjack in the early hours where i lost $2,300. I then was informed my $5k Rio chip could not be changed at Caesars in a rather rude fashion so headed home with just $40 in my pocket. Vowed not to play Harrahs casino side games for as long as i can as matter of principle, one phone call could hav verified my $5k chip but staff were a disgrace imo so gg them.

On the day +$9,200 overall :))

The Vegas Latest

Thursday i played online a bit then headed in late afternoon to the Rio. Sat on 5/10/25 pl omaha and decided i fancied a few drinks. Many many corona later i had lost a few k, won a few k then managed to lose a $14k pot near the end with gutshot f draw vs made straight. Ended up -$5k so wasnt the end of the world. Proceeded to carry on drinkin with few mates after in too a state.

Friday chill even though not too bad a hangova. did leave the complex at 10pm for a few hours but no poker and nout to report after from a slots loss again :(

Today been online and got nice £3k+ profit so far and trying to leave a table and go for the 2pm bellagio but currently failing cos table is so bad. Can turn up late for Bellagio though so not overly worried.

Highs, Lows , Omaha Hi/Lo And A New WSOP Personal Record

Following the "day off" i played a very abc game in the Bellagio $1,080 to no avail then proceeded to lose $800 on omaha hi lo limit. I couldnt help but notice last night that made it 9 live losing days in a row (excluding the day off obv) and i certainly was feeling a bit negative about that.

Today i entered the $5,000 plo event and set a personal record lasting a grand total of 10 minutes losing 2 50/50s ish and probably being the first person out. Feeling a tad sorry for myself i headed over to the omaha limit hi lo and spent 9.5 hours there instead. Fortunately i was golden and had my luckiest run since the $73k and managed to notch up $8,850 in profit to put me nicely into profit on the day !

Tommorrow i plan to only play the same with maybe some plo cash in there too.

Live Day Off

So far anyway and its 7:30pm and getting food and booze shortly. Horse lasted until last level and bust 9 hours in. Was planning Bellagio $1000 today but realised these long tourneys aint half taking it out of me and just been chillin in condo all day. OK chillin = sleeping and playing online omaha.

Swings all ova shop as tables were loosey goosey today. Initially went $3,500 up then lost all that back and went in the hole for a small amount. Ended up getting most of it back hu and 3 handed against a maniac and was cruising at $2000 up before this hand. i check raised a K93 flop with K9xx which was called. Pot was now $1000 (as raised pre) and matey leads at me on blank but 2nd diamond turn for $1000. I go allin for $3000 total and he calls with just Q10xx and diamonds, hmmmm he called $400 more on flop with just a gutshot no pair !!! Diamond reward comes and he scoops $7,000 pot in. Got a bit back after and finally finished $750 up but sick :(

My Quickest WSOP Exit

Just over 30 minutes. Called a raise with 55 and flop was 754. Managed to get the whole 4000ish chips in on the 10 turn and was luving it until matey tabled 77. gg.

Played some omaha afterwards and lost $2300 before getting well pissed up mixing my drinks. No hangova today but wasnt up early enough for the $2,500 plo so almost definitely playing the 5pm horse $1,500 instead.

Quick

Gotta go in like 5 mins to get to Rio for $1,500. Never really got going despite the table being pretty poor in the $5k. My 15k peaked at 22k before losing 2 allins and getting quartered on another. Structure was poor too for a $5k er. Heres hoping me or 1 of my 2 stakes make the money today at least and if not i sense a big piss up instead :)

New Location

Left Bellagio last night and now settling into Meridian Suites Condo. Seems very nice with only 1 or 2 small niggles. Actually managed a whole day off without live poker too which has probably done me a lot of good. Really looking forward to the wsop $5,000 PLO hi lo today at 5pm and hope to go deep but dont care if i dont despite it being my biggest direct cash buyin to date ($3000 horse other day was before this). Enough for now off to the pool for a couple of hours (something i dumbly managed to avoid at the Bellagio) before heading off to the Rio.

Bubble Time

Finished about 60th/450 in that horse (paid 48) so wasnt too happy after spending 19 hours (inc breaks) playing it. Think i need to play some NL or PL games after maybe overdoing it on the limit slog. Taking day off 2moz and moving to condo in evening. Then Friday is PLO hi lo $5000 so try and save my energy for that.

More Horse Stuff

Got a busy schedule for next week or so. Lots of wsop games i want to play and hope to go deep in. Played more cash last night for 6 hours after busting that smaller horse early. Went up $2,000 then chipped off gradually with junk so called it an "early" night at 11pm $1600 down.

Wanted to play the $3,000 horse today so it was probably good i got a good nights sleep. Horse was from 5pm until 3am and ive made day 2 with 34,700 (back at 2pm), average should be about 20k but blinds are getting a bit brutal so hope luck is still on my side. 450 entered, 198 left so long way to go yet. Seem to have taken a bit to horse although maybe im just running good. Its good fun live with the different games and not nearly as boring as holdem can often get.

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/tournament-chip-counts.asp?tid=7246&grid=607

The Romanian Blind Steal

Dnnno what and how much to post ere but i basically wasted an hour of my life with the floor people accusing a Romanian of stealing 10-20k yellow 1k chips off me in the horse. There is no conclusive evidence as camera was not on that table (normally casino part of venetian) but i spoke with Paul Parker who was on that table with me for that 20mins and he confirmed to me i had not lost a pot there so i know i was down 10-20k in chips when i got moved to another table near the end of the night. I had been on the white russians so i was not completely confident but i also wasnt as guarded as normal and now im completely sober i know it was a steal. It was confirmed when i spoke to Paul after bagging up and for no reason the Romanian in question came up to us to ask if there was a problem and acted exactly as i would expect once i told him i was thinking of asking for the cameras (already had done that and knew no result). Even wanted to shake my hand for some unknown reason as i hadnt accused him at that point as was in seat 2 so for all he knew i could have been after seat 1. soooooooooooo guilty.

I only entered this horse as a test for wsop horse events for razz, stud and stud hi lo and ive passed but i cant imagine what i might say to this guy 2moz. Gonna hav to restrain myself beyond belief or go to an extreme end of sarcasm to not get into trouble myself. Its so not about the money but im such a one for principles so i hope i dont disgrace myself with it.

As for the game itself back at 4pm no idea how many left etc but ive only got 20,500 as lost some at new table where i sat out half a level whilst talking to directors before losing 1 big pot. Started with 10k so thats pretty weak. Romanian has 80k+

PS: This is not a racial attack i know a couple of Romanian good chaps from poker but i do not know this guys name but he "befriended" me on a previous table so was obviously angling for this sort of move the whole time.

Quick Update

Damn thought the $550 horse at venetian today was 5pm start but its 4pm so im rushing off and prob b 30mins late or sommat. I wanna play it as only played horse once before and want to see if i can justify buying into any of the wsop horse events.

Was gonna play $1060 caesars but only got back to room at 5:30am after a 10 hour hi lo limit session. Dropped $4000 before running opposite and eventually finishing $2,450 up.

Friday i had a hi lo session for 100mins and ran good for $2,900 but i had dropped $1,500 online prior to that. Had mad piss up after that with Azi and Amatay who hav both flown home now.

Laterzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Made Day 2

$2,500 PLO/PLH starts in just over an hour.
peak stack for me was 55k but i did lose a pot with maybe errr 10outs allin on turn to have gone to 76k with an hour left.

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/tournament-chip-counts.asp?tid=7235&grid=607

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rP7qiVQ2nl7H6-datNk2lCQ

.......................................Edit

Lost first 3 pots to lose half my stack. Floated between 20 and 30k for ages before getting back to 39k. Then made a bad call and lost a chunk again. Final hand with 60ish left (pays 45) button makes it gay 3000 raise, im in 1200 bb and reraise to 9000 with 12000 behind (obviously committed) and he puts me allin with KJ. My A4 looks good until the river jack. Very very disappointed to have bust in such a fashion after lookin good for another cash but hey thats poker. Didnt play as well today as i could have too so mad at myself as well as the kj guy.

An Animals Day Off

Couldnt resist some online PLO as hadnt played for days. Went £3,500 up then lost it all back and several hundred more before finishing £200 up in the space of 1-2hours. Didnt leave the room till 7pm but went for food with Azi and Amatay. Left them fish about 9pm and figured i would play some cash for a short while at the Rio and register for the 5pm $2,500 PLO/PLH today. Sat on 75/150 omaha hi lo limit with a 100/200 kill and quickly realised how lucky i had been to final table that event. Could hardly win a pot and went about $6,000 down. Sickly i was still enjoying it and fortunately a few hours in my luck changed around. I finished exactly $2,000 down and obviously was very happy at that. On what was supposed to be my day off though i had spent almost 7 hours live cash (until 4am) and the online stuff too, ooooooops :)

PLO Review

$1,500 , 4500 chips start. Took huge pot level 1 after already stacking up to 8000 chips without any allins. Basically had 4679 on a A352 2 hearts board. 1 guy had A5xx and about 3k and other guy had me covered and had A4K5hh. River was a brick 7 and i pushed to 17500 at the end of level 1.

Moved tables shortly after and stack moved up and down as normal before another monster hand. 100/200 i had AcKd9c5d and raised it to 600 getting bb table fish donk callin. Flop was AdQh9d and he chk called my 900 bet. Turn was a 6h and he chkraised my pot 3100 bet allin for 6500ish more. He turned over A9xx but had 2 hearts so i could still lose this hand. Any diamond king or queen though and i scoop. River was a sick heart though and i was left on 8000 still average chips.

If i had won that pot i would have been 4 x average with 60% of field left which i reckon would have been top 10 stack for sure :( Anyways moved to another table lost a few thousand on a bluff before reraising pre with AKJJ 1 suit and losing to a 10,7,9,6 on what was almost a 50/50 flop. Out after 5 hours.

May play the $2,500 PLH/PLO game tommorrow 5pm start.

My Biggest Result

Pic courtesy of karlosextremeporn.com , thx for that :))

I was hoping day 3 would be a long day and it didnt disappoint. My 3rd place 387k stack (about 4 million in play) went straight down in the beginning with 19 of us left. Basically then i floated between 200 and 300k until we hit the final table. A couple of key hands just before we went 10handed were as follows:

Reraised an 120k stack with AdKxJdJx ,blinds were 10/20 20/40 . and he called . Flop was huge Jd10x7d and he led at me obviously committed/ing so i raised. Turn 5d allin but river came a low card to give his AQ52 the split pot. If i had won that pot i was back to about 360k.

This other hand was last hand before we split and went 10handed. After this hand i was mad and it took me a long time to calm down and stop shaking my head in disgust. Was probably only time i got like that the whole tourney and thankfully we had 10mins break and time to chill a bit b4 goin 10handed.

Called a raise from sb with AK46 1 suit but not relevant. Flop came Q23 and i chk raised to 40k. Turn was a monster king d for me and i bet and was called. River was a sick 3 and also a 3rd diamond and i could not find the fold and had to check call after tanking for so long only to be shown 8834 no diamonds. If i scoop that pot i would have gone to 460k and my tourney could have took off from there with some extra lives to attack the many short stacks left 10handed.

So i hit the fake final table (10 handed only time in tourney) with only 100k at same blinds as above. There were actually 2 or 3 shorter than me but as much as i wanted to ladder if i found a good starting hand it was time to gamble. Couple of shorties doubled up and i stole 1 lot of blinds that gave me a tiny bit of room to go through the next blinds. Then came a hand i lucked out on which made me probably $40,000+ when i was out if i missed all. I had AdKd9x2x and had raised but got 3 callers. Flop of 10,5,3 so i knew this was never being folded. 3 of us went to the river and it had come runner runner high diamonds for my nut flush. Instead of being just over 100k at start of hand i almost bust but i now had just under 400k !!!

Managed to push on from there and by dinner break i had peaked at 560k but lost some back to 460k and was joint 3rd with 2 others. We had lost players too including Freddie Deeb who had blinded out to like 3 chips in order to ladder for $4k more. Was unbelievable to watch i dunno what goes through some peoples heads sometimes. He got $4k more but had like 1% or less chance of winning now and justice was served when he quickly bust after. I say justice cos he had a go at the dealer 10handed which was nothing short of a disgrace in my opinion.

Also interesting was the guy that finished 2nd (reported as Robert Price for so long) . He murmoured something to Thang after Jordan had lost a massive pot to leave himself crippled. It got quite heated at opposite ends of the table when Jordan couldnt help but respond. Being a limit game and the fact that the player he was winding up was crippled this was a pointless arrogant act from a rude twat in my opinion. I didnt get involved and bit my tongue but it probably spoiled Jordans whole day as i know how riled i would have got if it had been me. Jordan bust shortly after in 6th i think before we lost the shortie friendly French chap.

Being the short stack in 4th i looked for any hand to shove with but actually blinded out more than i wanted too gettin junk like K975 all 1 suit and stuff . Final hand i was in with A,3,10,8 against Thangs AKxx. Board had come K229 and i tanked for over a minute on the turn as i knew i could be drawing dead but only had 65k left. I finally made the call with too much in the pot and was drawing dead and out in a happy 4th without ever having the stack to take it much further.

I will play more wsop events than i planned now i have an extra roll and im dreaming of making another final table, it was so much fun and there is no experience like it in my poker career to date. Just gutted its all over for now.

Thank You

So tired i dont think i would do my blog much justice by posting much right now but thanks for all the comments and texts ive received directly and indirectly, they are all much appreciated.

Just to clear one thing up though, most of you were probably misled following updates as i believe most if not all of them got myself and the chipleader mixed up by name despite us telling them throughout the day to change it.

I started 3rd today but never got above 3rd in chips and my best position was at dinner when i was joint 3rd/6 with 2 others and i never got above 15% of chips in play. Anyways i busted 4th for $73,412 for my biggest single win ever but i think more importantly i did make a wsop final table :) at the 3rd attempt.

One more thing, total addict that i am ive decided to play the $1,500 plo tommorrow at noon so registered tonight cos i knew i wouldnt get out of bed otherwise. Assuming i bust that tommorrow i will take at least a day off and probably get round to some sort of bigger post on my result.

All for now

1 Chuffed Animal

End of Omaha Hi Lo Day 2

http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/event-3/chip-counts/day2/


Back at 2pm today (10 hours time) 3rd/19 . Hoping i might get some sleep soon but need to wind down a bit more yet.

1st target was to cash
2nd target is to make final table
3rd target is to hear "god save the queen" as they play national anthems for bracelet winners this year :)

What will be will be and im remarkably relaxed about the whole situation. The type of game helps big time as i know if i was this deep in a nl holdem tourney i would be 100 times more nervy i think. I havent even looked at the payouts since day 1a start and wont unless i get a weaker stack as laddering is more of a tactic in omaha hi lo limit used for medium to weak stacks.

Vegas - Day 3 (in advance)

http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/event-3/chip-counts/day2/


Made day 2 of the omaha hi lo limit. At one point i was prob top 10 or so chipleaders with 40% of the field left and 3.5 x the average stack. Peaked at 46k but last level hit me a bit and final count was 34,300. Average is just over 20k so sounds good but blinds are getting nasty so 1 or 2 lost or won scoops can swing the stack big time. Over 900 entered with 197 left and pays 90. The fun starts at 2pm, need some sleep badly now but have to wind down a bit before i even try after a 14 hour long day.

Vegas - Day 2

Played the $1,070. Stack all over shop as norm for me but didnt get above starting stack until several levels in. Yesterday i felt like bloggin loads hands but i really cant b bothered now. Basically 138 players and i finished 30th. Final pot was AJ vs KK vs J10 to have got back to a under average but chunky stack. My key pot earlier was 22 vs AK to have prob gone about 5th with 40 left but i lost the flip and was left on only 10xbb. Overall was happy with my play and surprisingly i wasnt pissed off at all after busting 10 hours in.

Had some drinks and food with Amatay and Azi after the tourney and also made it to the Rio to register for the $1,500 today. Didnt sleep that great and guess im tired from that 10 hours effort yesterday but i can play omaha hi lo limit almost with my eyes shut so am not concerned. May play the $1,000 stimulus event Saturday if i bust the hi lo today. Apparently its capped at 2800 a day and as of last night had 1600/1100 entrants so is likely to sell out i think.