Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Spew Up Spew Down.

THe last 2 months I made my first ever final tables. One on Full tilt in a $50 tourney and the other in a Stars $4 bounty tourney. I felt very happy about them because playing MTTs and not making the final tables are awful.

May was also my biggest ever winning session. Partially from final tabling the $4 on stars and taking $500 from it. But also min cashing in a UKIPT satelite for £720 and also playing in the Sunday Million for the first time ever and cashing $700. that accounts for over $2k in tournament winnings.

Since MTTs are such high variance, I was considering to reduce this by playing live tournaments and small tourney satelites. With MTTs, there's only one place that makes profitable money and that's making the top 10. Especially when you get fields of thousands and making the min-cash is not worth your time. Live tourneys are generally soft and I can treat these like small field sit and gos. (With more money to make out of them)

June has been awful for me so far. I cashed out some of my winnings to buy a new laptop and other bits and bobs. But also lost a lot playing live cash. It does tilt when you flop sets and flop the nut straights only to get sucked out by people out drawing. The best you can say is that you played it right and it just hasn't been going your way.

Anyway, I think I've done enough damage for this month so will probably not play anymore for the rest of the month until July to recouperate my bankroll.

Thursday, 16 June 2011

Day 2

After a late night playing cash. I got up still recovering from shingles (oh wait, I forgot to mention that I had shingles throughout my trip but didn't want to tell everyone).

Realising that I may have a shot of going to vegas this year, I decided to up my game and keep my usual poker rituals. No alcohol or performance enhancing drugs (except coffee, cola and red bull). It would be interesting if you got tested for drugs in poker. Would've been hilarious to see that Phil Ivey would've been denied his bracelets because he used brain pills to boost his thinking to outplay his opponents :P

Getting in, I make a prop bet at 3-1 for me to outlast the Perry. I had 3-1 chips compared to him and thought I was feeling quite confident in my play today. I also made a 5% trade with a warwick friend of mine since we were on similar chip stacks and so we had a sweat if one of us made vegas.

Coming in, I find out I'm 2nd chip leader in the tournament and ready to build my pyramid stacking once again. coming in with 147k. I immediately lose a 30k pot after after I call with Kx because it was a shove for 5 BBs into my BB so I thought I could afford the call. THen lost another pot with A9 into A8 and he outbinks me. I already lost half my stack after the first two orbits from playing like a maniac.

I then wake up under the gun with aces with just under 80k left and make my standard 2.5x raise (I think blinds were 1k/2k so I raised to 5k). Folds to the big blind who 3-bets me to 14k. I tank. My thinking was do I overshove and make him call lighter or do I make a small 4-bet and give him room to go over the top. He had me covered but not by much and I couldn't rate how well he played but I assumed if he's 3-bet me, he has a hand. I decide to 4-bet to 36k.

The guy seems quite frustrated. Decides to announce 'All-in' and obv I snap call. He has AK and is crushed. Back up to my starting point :).

The rest of the hands didn't really have nothing special. Other than some kid who slowrolls by slowplaying kings and tanks for ages before calling a donk bet on a 77x board. I just thought lol.

Another hand I had to think about was a few hands later on. Apparantly I've been getting this image that I'm some sort of maniac (I have no idea where they get this from :P ) and raise from the CO with KQs and the BB calls.

Flop comes something like Q93 with 2 diamonds (and I have none of them). He checks and I c-bet do something like 40% of the pot (roughly 20k in the pot, I have 180k at this point, other guy has about 120k and I bet 10k). Villain tanks and raises to 26k. He took a while to make this raise. It was quite an awkward spot to be in. I've only played one pot with this person and there wasn't any information about it. I thought he would have raised with a premium hand so QQ, KK, AA and 99 were out. I didn't class him as a crazy dude who would play odd cards like Q9, Q3 or 93. so it was either going to be a queen, a draw or a set. I don't think I can call this because I'll be facing some sort of shove on the turn or river and I don't want him to outdraw me. I think I could also throw him off AQ as well here so I decide to go all-in. The guy tanks for a long while asking me why I'm shoving. Takes a while but the shove gets through and I take down the pot.

(thoughts?)


Anyway, with my 200k stack, I made a light 3-bet with Janiner against a limp and a raise and it got through. (lol). and then knocked someone out with kings. I then make the worst bluff throughout the whole tournament by donk-betting on my gutshot on the turn and river. The other chip leader calls with middle pair and it's good. lost about 90k making that bluff.

At this stage, it instantly became deepstack to crapshoot after the blinds when from 1.5k/3 to 2.5k/5k which was a very big jump compared to the stack sizes.

I spent most of the time shoving and folding but I also made a stupid 3-bet fold with a 17BB stack with KJo and showed. Villain shows QT which did sort of tilt me not because of him but for me not calling with the odds.

Anyway, slipped down to 110k before it went down to 2 tables. I made some more chips afterwards from stealing and shoving and got to 150k at 4k/8k blinds when I wake up with AJ in MP and make a small raise. Button reships it who has me covered by about 40k and I go into a loooong tank....

I hate calling with AJ here because I'm either crushed or flipping. I was getting about the right odds to call I guess but was going to hate myself. Asked the rail to borrow a coin off someone and I flipped it 3 times. In my head I said to myself, two heads would be a call, two tails would be a fold. Came Tails, Heads, Tails. Just before I was about to fold, my heart said 'FUCK IT' and I called.

Run into 77 and lose the flip. FML for not trusting the coin.

But cash for 165 quid but I was more interested in the package than the money but I couldn't be too downhearted. Afterall, the whole 3 days paid off my overdraft and the trip overall so bought a round of drinks in for my rail crew :)

ok UKSPC trip report done.

I should get back to present soon.

Thursday, 2 June 2011

UKSPC Post Day 1....

Ended day 1 but I was still in the gambling mood so with my prop bets already taken down and money given, I decided to blackjack it up. A few friends have been trying to tempt me into a friend called 'Martin Gale' but I wasn't having any of it. Although it gave one person a very interesting night...

Anyway, after busting some money playing BJ (and baccarat...) I looked to see for a space at the cash games. 1/2 was full and I was on the waiting list so the only games available were 5/5 omaha or 1/2 omaha. Clearly I am not degenerate enough to join the 5/5 game so played 1/2 omaha for a while. I don't know omaha too well but most of the table seems like they're on the same level so I seemed fine. Decide to buy in for 50BBs. I start playing tight and wait for quad aces for a while when I realised that's impossible and a terrible hand so went and loosened my range for a bit. Came out up 100 primarily through flopping 2nd nut straight and holding to some draw.

Anyway the hold em game opened up and I transferred my winnings over to the next table. thought I'd play my standard move. The usual suspects were there, the sickos, the nits, the fishes and Rob.

Came out up 600 in the end. The only really special hand in the night was early on a few hands in. I flat to a button raise with J2suited (those wondering why, it's because sometimes, I don't like money). Flop comes 962 rainbow. I c/r to 30 quid to the OR's 8-9 quid bet. He tanks and decides to shove for what was just under 40 quid more to me. I'm thinking 'Fuck, I'm committed and this non-alcoholic drink is getting to me!'. Plus also thinking that I can't fold to such a tiny shove a cried and called thinking I had at least enough outs to justify a call (which I guessed was about 3-1 odds in my head. Turns out it wasn't...).

Anyway, the board fully runs out 9626J. The guy sighs and says 'Ace high?'. I turn the J2over and the table becomes shocked at how I won it. In my head, I'm thinking they must be shocked at the amazing call. But obviously I'm aware of how terrible the call was.

Way to go for me to run good.

But anyway, I finish at 6am and realise I gotta be up in 6 hours again to play day 2!

TBC