Royal Flush's blog

God i am lazy

2007-06-07T19:27:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since i updated this, over the last 5 months i have taken most of the time of playing on-line and have been playing the live cash action in Brighton, i have had a few results in the Brighton festivals as well, keeping my head above water. What i really want to do though is get back into the on-line poker scene and hopefully that will start this month :D

I have only one weekend planned away, a freebie at the GBPT in Bournemouth, i might pop out to Vegas as well but i want to only do that if i do well on-line. So in the meantime its nose to the grindstone!

Tonight's plan is to win the $17.5k and $7.5k gtd comps on playtech and take down the £150 limit comp on Crypto......

GPT Leg 1 Part 1

2007-01-21T05:46:00.001Z

So off i set for the inaugural GPT event to be hosted in the glamours Bolton equipped with my new laptop and a couple of films i started the 5hr Journey, my plan was to get there in time to check in have a quick rest then get to the casino for the £200+£20 The Claimer had already taken care of registering me so no panic over seats!

I got to the hotel in time although sadly the train was a bit quick so i hadn't quite finished watching Casino Royale (quite enjoyed it) when i arrived i saw Lord Wernick in the Lobby trying to check in, it turns out there had been some miscommunication and he was not due to arrive till the following day! Luckily for Mickey there was another chap named Karl who turned up and had an extra room, problem sorted! Mickey then took the 3 of us over to the casino.

We arrived at the casino to find a rather large field for this £200 event and a lot of them were friendly faces so the wait for the comp went pretty fast, it wasn't long till we were underway. 16 tables in total, and of course myself Mickey and Karl were all on the same table, other players on the table were Burnley John and Stuart Rutter, it was my first time playing the latter and he did the damage to me in a cooler of a hand. I was impressed by his play though.

Sadly for me level 2 was an impossible place to pass and i was one of the first players to bite the dust, thankfully i had 10% of the Claimer to keep me interested, i hung around for the rest of the night chatting to some players i hadn't seen for a while whilst railing The Claimer. He ended up busting in 12th when his KK failed vs KQ for a huge pot. Would have been nice to see him take the 12k for first and get me my buy ins back!

Friday was what it was all about, i met up with Paul King in the hotel and we travelled across to the casino for the main event, i was very excited about this event. I have never played a UK event with a running ante before, this is something that really hurts the nits and helps my game so i was confident going in. When i got there i met up with the usual crowd at these events made up of the on-line qualifiers from blonde poker and the blonde circuit players. I checked out the table draw and say i was playing with Stuart again, other than that the table was completely unknown to me. My first bit of good luck! already. Especially when i looked at some of the table line-ups.

I got of to a good start when i took about 2000 chips of Stuart when my SB A4 connected well on the A84A2 board vs his A7. It became clear pretty quickly that the table standard was very poor, one very old lady on hand 3 open raised to 1k on 25-50 and complained "i never get action with these" as she showed JJ........it appeared to me that the only two decent players on the table were the two on my right, Stuart two to my right and a Bad Beat Trader between us who was very tight. So i really couldn't complain with the table and this showed through the evenings play, we only played 5 levels and after 4 levels i was up to about 20k from taking small pots down, it also helped that i only lost 800 with QQ vs KK, thanks to my opponents shocking play.

Of course i couldn't go and play well all session, i knew i had to make one big mistake........it came when one of the weaker players had started motoring a bit, he had upped his aggression after winning a bit AA cracking pot with a set. I had bet him of a few pots but knew the playback was coming soon. On 150-300 Stuart open limps and i make it 1200 with AJ, mateyboy calls on the button and Stuart passes, the flop comes KQJ, we all check. The turn brings a 9, Stuart checks i think about the bet but check again, the button guy now bets 1500, Stuart passes and i call pretty quickly. The river bring a 2, i think i am ahead but don't really know how to play it, i decide to opt for a check to induce a bluff, he ends up betting 3500, quite a decent bet i end up calling and being show AT for the absolute nuts, i am still not sure about the call. In terms of the actual hand itself its ok i think, Stuart says he calls vs the guy as well, the thing is though the table was weak and there was no need to play big pots with marginal hands OOP. Tournament strategy makes this hand a pass on the turn.

Anyway it was not all a loss i was carrying an average stack into Day 2 and there were far worse situations to be in than that! The first level would also be the first level of ante's and the higher the blinds and ante's get the bigger my edge so onwards and upwards!

A mixed bag

2007-01-20T01:28:00.000Z

Since i posted my intention for the year i have had mixed results, i took a trip to the Western when at Jamie's and won a little cash in the £50 Freeze, nothing special but it was a bit of fun. The better result was still to come though, when we got back i played the $5k 1am comp on Tribeca that i haven't played for ages. I was reduced to 200 chips on the first level (20-40) yet somehow managed to come back and then go on to crush the field, i was playing a super LAG style and had 50% of the chips before the final had even begun. I took it down for just short of $3k. A good result and nice to log the first victory of the year.

I returned home the next day happy that i was off the mark, i was going to play a heavy few days then go to the GPT event. I played my usual Sunday comps but also noticed a GPT $250FO sat on BSQ so thought i may as well. The comp ran golden for me, i was up to 5k pretty quickly and up to 10k way before the rest of the players. I never got myself into any trouble and found myself with a $2.5k package. Even though the later stages were plagued with my mates Steve and Jacko who were staying at the flat coming in drunk, having schooled Jungle at a few games of pool.

So not a bad start to the year just under 6k up by this point, unfortunately thats where it ended, i went on a very cold run up to the GPT, i cashed one other time for the rest of the week over 35 comps. Such is the joy of tournament poker, since getting back from the GPT i have been quite ill but have started playing again and it seems the run is set to continue. I have dropped just under 4k in tournament buyins since winning that sat which is one of my more impressive down-swings. I am confident it will improve though and if not no worry i can leave the net along next week as its the Brighton January sales festival!

I'll be posting a GPT report either later today or tomorrow aswell.

A new year a new outlook.

2007-01-08T13:32:00.000Z

Last year i was happy with my performance i made 88k from 880 tournaments, $100/comp. Thats pretty good and although 880 tournaments sounds a lot it really isn't, i have started the new year on a new regime. I am play a set tournament schedule each night that improves my efficiency and hopefully my bottom line!

This approach was partially brought about by the forthcoming closure of Tribeca, i have been very reliant on Tribeca to provide my gaming, i now realise it is risky to rely entirely on 1 site. So i have spread my play more, extending too DTD, Full Tilt and Poker Stars, i may even make a return to Party.....ok maybe not.

Anyway as of this year i am following a schedule that means i start playing at 8PM each night with 4 tournaments. They are the Tribeca $20k ($19.8 rebuy) the DTD £12k (£50+£5 freeze) the Poker Stars $25k ($50+$5) and the Full Tilt $20k ($150+$13 freeze) playing just these 4 comps each day would massively increase the number from last year. I am though adding more, dependent on my state in the '8PM 4' the other comps that fit on my short-list are the $10k $69+$6 freeze on Full tilt at 9PM the £8k (£25+£2) on DTD at 9:30pm the $50+$5 freezeouts on both DTD and Stars at 10PM and the $15k ($28.35 rebuy) on Tribeca at 10:45PM

The big surprise for me is that lack of the $100+$9 on BSQ (Tribeca) at 10PM, they went and removed the guarantee on it just before Christmas and i now no longer see it warranting screen space as it takes a long time for little potential reward.

After that first wave of tournaments i have the second wave that consist of a $20 rebuy omaha and holdem comps on stars, together with the $50 freeze and $28.35 rebuy on tribeca. This month also see's the best comp of the night, the $100 Freezeout on Mansion with a $100,000 g'td pool every night! It starts at 3PM and as far i haven't seen it break 500 runners. Valoooooooo.

The question is how often am i going to play these 'full shifts' part of the enjoyment of playing poker full time is allowing yourself time of when you want, i think last year i got the balance wrong, i took far too much time off and wasted potential earnings, this year i want to really knuckle down and be more professional about it, i want to be able to purchase some property so i have another source of income, then i can sit back and let the money roll in.....well not quite.

So how often will i play this year, at the moment i have it in my head to play all the GUKPT events and each of the Brighton Festivals, that actually equates to quite a lot of festivals (10 GUKPT and i think 8 Brighton) the key here is that they are not week long excursions where i am wasting money on expenses etc, in Brighton i will be able to play online if i am knocked out early and the GUKPT are 3 day events so i will spend minimal time away and less on expenses. There is of course the need for days off to enjoy myself, at the moment i can't see myself 'working' on Tuesdays, i am having a lot of fun down in the Casino on Tuesday nights in the £20 rebuy, it might not seem like a 'night off' but it is, much enjoyment to be had. I will also take time out for little trips away, i would like to go to Vegas a couple of times this year and i would also like to head to Florida for a bit and rent a plane (i am a commercial pilot for those of you who are new to the blog) and have some fun doing that, it was the best time of my life when i was living there whilst training, even though i was a little poorer!

I know i haven't mentioned cash games yet, and that's for good reason, i am just shit at them, the sooner i convince myself of that the better, i made dust last year on them, it's just a waste of time for me, i could spend the time to get better and really learn them but i really don't see the need, i can make enough through tournaments. The one game i will be coming back too though is NLHE HU SNG's these are a great little money spinner for me and i will play these when i find myself not in a game, so before 8PM if i am up and at the PC, and then after the nights comps if i bust early.

I guess what i am saying is no more pissing about, lets earn some money!

For now though i am on a train bound for Reevio's house (Jamie-Host from Blue Square) which basically undermines all of what i just said about taking time off, still it should be fun!

Merry Christmas and a happy $15k to you

2006-12-30T14:23:00.000Z

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, for me it was a nice break from poker for a few days.

I have not been doing to well this month, running at break even point, that was until last night when i managed to take the $15k down on Tribeca again, it was a very good comp for me, i picked up a stack early and never really looked back, had an unlucky spot on the final table but i outdrew my way out of it and then played the most passive HU game ever, 45 minutes and he never raised a hand!

I am going to post a few hands in a separate post when i sort them out so i can post some thoughts up, i played some hands in a very unorthodox manner.

I am updating a few things on the blog, i have added two new bloglinks, the claimer and Alex Martin, both play a fair bit on Tribeca, however they have massively different styles, both blogs are a good read.

I will also be adding a banner when i can figure out how, its for DTD and will take you directly to this page where you can download the DTD software, please note there is a $25k freeroll at the end of Jan for new players, it breaks down like this:

1st = $15,000 WSOP Package
2nd = $4,000
3rd = $3,000
4th = $2,000
5th = $1,000

If you download via the link above, or by clicking the banner you are eligible to play this raked hands freeroll just by making a deposit! as well as receiving 30% rakeback.

I almost forgot, i have been engaged in a rather amusing debate on the hendon mob forum with a chap named Mick McCool, i will post a summary of it once the thread has died, its most amusing.

It's been a while

2006-12-16T23:52:00.000Z

I have been wanting to get this blog moving again with a nice win of some sort, sadly i am not doing to well this month, at the time of writing i am -$133 for the month, lol.

Singapore was great fun, i didn't last too long in the main event running 23 into 92 on a 239 board. There is not a whole lot you can do in those situations.

I played some of the side events, i finaled in the $300 FLHE event with a whole 500 chips with the level at 1500-3000, lol. I went deep with a big stack in the $500 as well but busted out just before the money with AKs vs QQ.

The week after i went to Vegas and stayed at the fabulous Venetian hotel, what an impressive place that is, with a great card room and the best of the 'cheap' MTT's $180 gets you 5k and a 30 minute clock. I didn't do any good in it thought but that was never the purpose of the trip, i only played 2 serious sessions of poker. One was the $500 FO at the Wynn where i lasted 20 minutes, the other was a nice FLO8 game in the Venetian.

I really can't wait to get back to Vegas!

Anyway this month i have been playing the usual comps with the addition, during this last week, of the 5 gold rings festival on Blue Square. I played the $200 NLHE, $300 PLHE, $100 PLO rebuy and the $500 NLHE. I had a minor cash in the $200, busted early in the $300, spent a fortune in the PLO and got deep in the $500 only to run KK into AA. Not a succesfull week!

Anyway i just wanted to say i am still here and will be back blogging more regularly. I have one piece of news that i would like to share. The Dusk Till Dawn online card room has just launched, i have been tasked with assisting in the growth of the online card room. It's a skin on the Cryptologic network, which looks like it is positiong itself very well in the post US player market. Anyway quick spam about DTD, you will not be able to get more rake back on Crypto than you can through DTD, you will also as a member of the on-line site you will enjoy other benefits such as being able to register for tournaments in the DTD Live club which will open in the Spring. Anyway if you want to check it out click here when you download it if you would be so kind as to put "flushy" in the DTD code field. Thank you.

Also those of you who may be interested in DTD player sponsorship please take a moment to check out the DTD Trader scheme page here

Right now i am off to grind my short stack in the Tribeca $15k!

Watch this space

2006-12-01T23:18:00.000Z

Hello one and all, i have been away for a couple of weeks in Singapore and Vegas and we are now mid Brighton festival, i will post a proper update soon.

One month of blogging.

2006-11-08T15:10:00.000Z

I have just noticed i restarted this blog a month ago yesterday. I can safely say blogging is +EV! In that month i have made a profit of $41,800 :D Shameless chirp i know but it's my blog and i will cry if i want too!

Southampton, Dublin and good old Tribeca!

2006-11-08T14:50:00.000Z

I haven't been on to update for a while, sorry about that, i haven't played a massive amount though.

Since the last update i managed to win the $200 fo and $20 rebuy on Tribeca on the 28th. That got me $4000 and $1500 on the first i had my first decent Full Tilt cash, $1700 for 3rd in the $75 fo, i got very unlucky in this but what's new! On the 12th i had a good score in the $100 freezeout on William Hill i got 2nd to a very deserving opponent for $4850, if he wasn't sat 1 to my left on the final i think i might have won it! I didn't play again till last night when i got a 3rd in the blue square 100 and then 2nd in the 15k, the guy who won it was very drunk which was rather annoying as i got in a pot HU for half the chips that i am pretty sure would have given me the win, even more annoying with tribeca's new payouts. $2750 for 2nd and $5900 for 1st!

In between all this i played the Southampton main event, i managed to turn my 10k starting stack into 68k by level 4! With 680k in play this was awesome, sadly i went card dead then cold decked and never made day 2!

This weekend saw the ICHUC 4 nations challenge, i captained the 8 strong English team into battle over in Dublin. We had a good run in it, with 32 runners the comp ended with an all Irish semi and an all English Semi (cheers Wales and Scotland for donating) the situation was if Ireland won the final they won and if we won it would be a draw (was a team points system) Ken Doherty triumphed over our Kevin Conway (a qualifier from VC, plays as AAplz)

It was a great fun weekend though, if only to see Matthew Stevens that drunk! The next day myself Pab and TheClaimer played a €250 freezeout in Drogheda, a town about 45mins from Dublin, it was a very good comp and although myself and Pab busted out Rick (TheClaimer) managed a credible 3rd place.

I know this hasnt been the best update! Not much detail but i wanted to get caught up! I am off to Singapore on Saturday for a week, then off to Vegas the day after i get back as well. Singapore is the Betfair Asian Poker Tour, should be great fun!

Also a note, i have added a couple of blog links on the right, please do check these out!

The return from Cardiff

2006-10-26T16:02:00.000+01:00

As i said in my last post i went to watch one of the heats at the William Hill GP, this is labelled as the best 'TV Tournament' it has a proper structure and the heats last a decent amount of time (similar to the old LNP series) obviously this costs a lot more to make with extra studio time but the finished product is much better. Will Hill also go to the trouble of adding a shed load of money to the event, and best yet looking after their guests! They put us up in the Cardiff Hilton and arranged travel between the Hilton and the Studio, they also had a tab at the Hilton so it was free drinks all night. Kudos to Hills and especially to Phil Quayle, the man knows what he is doing!

I can't tell you anything about the heat, you will have to wait till it's on telly, what i can tell you is that it was excellent viewing! In fact i think it will be the first heat shown a 'grand opening'

Back to poker closer to home, i came back from Cardiff and started playing again on Monday, no real joy, this was followed by an equally unspectacular Tuesday. Although now that full tilt have changed the Cap games to 40BB caps and the game has dried up i have reverted back to the HU SNG's i only played 7 but won 6-1. Thankfully last night (Wednesday) was a bit better! I had a small result in the afternoon $3500 $20 rebuy on Tribeca which set me up for good runs in both the 20 and 15k. The 20k i ended up coming 4th, a complete loon knocked me out when he called my re-raise all in with J8....how do these people get that far?!? I also built a stack in the 15k but came 19th when i ran JJ into the table numpty who happened to have AA!

The $20k is finally starting to pay though, the last 7 attempts have netted a 2nd a 3rd and a 4th. Anyway i am going to get stuck into some HU SNG's before the evening's comps (although i will probably watch Jericho first, if you haven't seen it yet download it! Its a very captivating programme about an American small town in the wake of a nuclear war!)

I also wanted to say if anyone reading this blog has a poker blog of their and they wish to 'trade links' then please leave me a comment.

William Hill GP

2006-10-21T10:15:00.000+01:00

Thursday was a bit of a blank for me, i had a couple of finals but they were minor placings and i ended up a few hundred. Friday was a better day i was up early so played all 3 of the $20 rebuys on tribeca. I managed a 2nd in the $3k for about $750 and a 2nd in the $5k for $1400! I then went on to claim 3rd in the $20k for another $2500 :D

It's very aleary Saturday morning, 10am, well for me anyway! I am off out the door to watch the Will Hill GP in Cardiff as a guest of William Hill/Phil Quayle. The heat i am watching has Tony G, Devilfish and Brian Wilson in it so it should be very entertaining!!

Thats all for now, gl.

Monday-Wednesday

2006-10-19T15:32:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted my results for the last 3 days, so will just say things have been running super hot.

I gave the betfair £15k another go on Monday and found myself the winner and proud new owner of £4100. The next night i found myself the runner up in the $20k on tribeca, $4100 that time. Last night (wednesday) i made 3 finals but came 6th 6th 4th so only a small result in the end, especially after 9 rebuys in the $15k!

I have decided to see if i can buy a BAPT package, i am currently talking with 2 people who are selling so i will see how things go, i really want to go but i am not going to pay over the odds for it.

Hopefully i will have good news to report tomorrow :D

The Grosvenor Grand Prix

2006-10-17T16:56:00.000+01:00

Off to Walsall for a weekend of glamour, well maybe not, it was for the grosvenor grand prix. Still with a £303,200 prize pool, £100k for first and 240 runners it's a damn fine tournament.

I sat down at table 12 seat 2, seat 1 was Lawrence Gosney and seat 9 was a very strong young player, Ben Turnstill(some might know him as RookieITB) such is the nature of a PL comp with a 200BB starting stack the first level is just pointless, nothing happens. Well thats what is supposed to happen but how wrong i was, Ben managed to get knocked out in truly shocking fashion. He got 80% of his stack in on the turn when the board read T732, his oppo had AA and when an Ace dropped on the end that was the end of his tournament.

After the first break we came back to the comp at 100-200 (the real start of the tournament) soon after i found AK on a stack of 8400. I made it 600 to go in EP and got it around to the BB who flat called. The flop came KKT, in went the money, i cover the BB by 800. He shows KJ, turn 3 river J.

Now with just 800 left i raise pot from UTG the next hand with K8 and manage a treble up! Soon after the table breaks and i find myself sharing a table with 'Red-Dog' this table was far more enjoyable for me, i play live poker for fun and my starting table would make a funeral look more enjoyable. I stayed around for a bit, got a double up back to 4800. Then on 300-600 found A9d pumped in a pot raise, got around to the BB again, he had 5200 total and put the lot in, i can't pass now, on their backs. He has 55, KK372 board dispatches me to the rail (he went on to final!)

No complaints i can't have played any better and at the end of the day it only cost me the expense of the hotel. Speaking of which about 3am myself Barry Neville and Colchester Kev sat around my lappy in the lobby and played the $5000 g'td tournament on tribeca (well i played they watched) some time around 5:30 it was over and despite a couple of outdraws HU i was happy to take 2nd for $1400. Not such a bad day afterall!

I went back on the Sunday to watch some of day 2, 110 players came back with the average at 20k, blinds of 800-1600. Someone really needs to look at ways of adjusting this structure, its the biggest PL comp in Europe and is nothing more than a crapshoot.

A classic comment on Day 2 though, Paul Parker gets his opponent all in pre flop with AA, his oppo shows AT. Paul comments "how are you going to get out of this one then?" the flop swiftly gets dealt out.....KQJ.

It was an enjoyable weekend and congratulations to "ImMrAlex2u" one of the 'Jersey boys' and a tribeca regular who managed to lock up £10k in a deal coming 13th, also to Tony from Brighton who was in the chop 4 handed and he took £40,000!

Full Tilt what have you done!

2006-10-12T19:46:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post today, I had a run in the $20k last night but fizzled out around 20th for a small return (about $215) I then retreated to my 3-6 Tilt game but again felt the other side of variance, at least I wasn't playing like a donkey this time!

Today I fired up the PC and went to full tilt, it was down so I decided to play the $20 rebuy on blue square instead. After a truly shocking call with JJ 6 handed when the 2nd and 3rd CL's had put their stacks in I was left with 45k on 5k-10k with 722k in play. Well I managed to take out the other shortstack with KJ vs KT then, found myself 3 handed and bullied my way to the CL! God knows how, they just let me. Then with the CL I pushed in with 66 on the button, the SB who had only 80k folded and the BB who just had to fold to come 2nd called with AQ, he missed and I was headsup with a lead I couldn't really lose! So I took it down for $2100+

I then wandered over to full tilt to have a crack at the 3-6 Cap game, they have removed it!!!! The cap games are gone! Throw into that I forgot the Betfair sat, well that's not true I remembered it at 7:35 when it started at 7:30......

I have decided to play the Â£15k on Betfair seeing asIi have the cash there andIi will play the tribeca 20k+15k.

Good luck to you all.

Harbour Lights festival £100 Rebuy

2006-10-11T19:27:00.000+01:00

So i rolled up and was met with a larger field than i expected, 72. This was going to lead to a rather tasty prizepool, happy days!! The format was a limited rebuy tournament, you can have 1 rebuy and 1 addon, but not 2 rebuys 0 addon! (strange but true)

I started off slow but before long managed to bluff of my first set of chips, apart from 1k, so i took the rebuy which got me 4k. I then had to play tight and wait for the end of level 3 so i could buy my extra 3k. During this process i was sat in the SB with JJ on the 75-150 level, the hijack made it 600 to go and the button flat called the 600. This was a good spot to put the squeeze on, even though i had a hand, so i re-rased 2k more leaving 1400 back. The original raiser passed (thats what usually happens) then next guy then thought for a while, and eventually passed AK Mikface up! My reputation clearly does not spread too far!

That however was about it for me in this comp, i got to the last 20 with 24,000 never having found a hand (luckily this is England and people dont know how to play poker, only cards, so i could steal enough to keep my stack growing) the blinds rose to 1k-2k with the average stack at 22k. I then ran A5 into AT then A5 into TT in consecutive hands. There is not a lot you can do in a top heavy payout structure when the average stack is so short, you have to look to build a lead so you can take a hit.

I came back and ventured into the world of the Full Tilt PLO with a view to winning back my £300, thats not exactly how it went. For the first time on there i had a proper losing session, -$750, it was a combination of bad beats and bad moves, combined with one guy, EngineOfProfit, who owned me! Every pot we got in he would pass to my value bets and raise my bluffs, he also took it upon himself to win all the small uncontested pots....my source of income! One funny bluff that went wrong was this one....

Seat 1: ChesterBadAss ($471)
Seat 2: bigbadshark7 ($405)
Seat 3: The Norse Horse ($564.80)
Seat 4: Man of Pride ($557.30)
Seat 5: The Jolly Giant ($754.75)
Seat 6: EngineofProfit ($1,186.65)
ChesterBadAss posts the small blind of $3
bigbadshark7 posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to The Norse Horse []
The Norse Horse calls $6
Man of Pride raises to $27
The Jolly Giant calls $27
EngineofProfit folds
ChesterBadAss folds
bigbadshark7 calls $21
The Norse Horse calls $21
*** FLOP *** []
bigbadshark7 checks
The Norse Horse checks
Man of Pride checks
The Jolly Giant checks
*** TURN *** [] []
bigbadshark7 checks
The Norse Horse bets $60
Man of Pride folds
The Jolly Giant calls $60
bigbadshark7 folds
*** RIVER *** [] []
The Norse Horse bets $93, and is capped
The Jolly Giant: I'm so on tilt right now
The Jolly Giant: I'm going to call you with these rags
The Jolly Giant calls $93, and is capped
*** SHOW DOWN ***
The Norse Horse shows [] (two pair, Queens and Threes)
The Jolly Giant shows [] (a flush, Ten high)
The Jolly Giant wins the pot ($414) with a flush, Ten high

Not the words you want to see typed when you are on the bare ace play!

I did still manage to get paid off in one amusing pot, another case of the morons value raising with hands that you cant value raise with!!!

Seat 1: ChesterBadAss ($0), is sitting out
Seat 2: bigbadshark7 ($542.10)
Seat 3: The Norse Horse ($512.60)
Seat 4: Man of Pride ($512.30)
Seat 5: wr9966 ($427.60)
Seat 6: EngineofProfit ($1,363.65)
The Norse Horse posts the small blind of $3
Man of Pride posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to The Norse Horse []
wr9966 calls $6
EngineofProfit folds
bigbadshark7 calls $6
The Norse Horse calls $3
Man of Pride checks
*** FLOP *** []
The Norse Horse checks
Man of Pride checks
wr9966 bets $24
bigbadshark7 folds
The Norse Horse calls $24
Man of Pride folds
*** TURN *** [] []
The Norse Horse checks
wr9966 checks
*** RIVER *** [] []
The Norse Horse bets $48
wr9966 raises to $96
The Norse Horse calls $48
*** SHOW DOWN ***
wr9966 shows [] (a full house, Fours full of Fives)
The Norse Horse shows [] (a full house, Fives full of Kings)
The Norse Horse wins the pot ($261) with a full house, Fives full of Kings

After a while longer and having lost a 3 way all in coup with a monster draw, followed by a bad beat in another pot i found myself down that $750 and decided to retire for the evening and re-group for the next days play!

I am pleased to report that a quick 30 minute session this evening has resulted in a $375 gain, the first pot i played was HU vs a guy who again appears to be value betting and bluffing at the same time!!!

Seat 3: The Norse Horse ($511)
Seat 6: mannydominguez ($594)
mannydominguez posts the small blind of $3
The Norse Horse posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to The Norse Horse []
mannydominguez calls $3
The Norse Horse raises to $12
mannydominguez calls $6
*** FLOP *** []
The Norse Horse bets $12
mannydominguez calls $12
*** TURN *** [] []
The Norse Horse checks
mannydominguez bets $24
The Norse Horse calls $24
*** RIVER *** [] []
The Norse Horse checks
mannydominguez bets $48
The Norse Horse calls $48
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mannydominguez shows [] (a straight, Seven high)
The Norse Horse shows [] (a flush, Ace high)
The Norse Horse wins the pot ($191.50) with a flush, Ace high

That really did confuse me! Another guy got me good chasing a gutshot but i dont want to turn this into a bad beat blog!

Tonights plan is to hit the 20k 15k and 100fo again, no doubt throw in a couple more as the night goes on, maybe even revisit the $100 HU SNG's

Also i would like to say thanks to MikkyT from the blonde poker forum for providing me with these cards for the Hand History's. If you have time check out his site, he has just launched a new poker podcast and is eagerly seaking feedback!

Full Tilt PLO

2006-10-10T15:34:00.000+01:00

Well i played the usual comps again last night, drew a blank across the board, had a good run in the 20k but lost a big pot with KK vs A5 :(

I had another good day on the 3-6 PLO on Full Tilt, was up just over $1900 in the end. I have never really played much short handed PLO before, it really is a good game. A couple of example hands:

Full Tilt Poker Game #1084826715: Table Grand Isle (6 max) - $3/$6 - $180 Cap Pot Limit Omaha - 22:01:35 ET - 2006/10/09
Seat 1: The Norse Horse ($985.25)
Seat 2: vegasin2006 ($337.05)
Seat 3: Freerollin27 ($725.65)
Seat 4: Need Turn ($223.30)
Seat 5: deecay ($357)
Seat 6: shaun1119 ($307.50)
vegasin2006 posts the small blind of $3
Freerollin27 posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to The Norse Horse [3c 3d Ks As]
Need Turn folds
deecay calls $6
shaun1119 calls $6
The Norse Horse calls $6
vegasin2006 calls $3
Freerollin27 checks
*** FLOP *** [2c 4s 5h]
vegasin2006 checks
Freerollin27 checks
deecay checks
shaun1119 checks
The Norse Horse bets $24
vegasin2006 folds
Freerollin27 folds
deecay folds
shaun1119 calls $24
*** TURN *** [2c 4s 5h] [2s]
shaun1119 checks
The Norse Horse checks
*** RIVER *** [2c 4s 5h 2s] [7s]
shaun1119 checks
The Norse Horse bets $30
shaun1119 calls $30
*** SHOW DOWN ***
The Norse Horse shows [3c 3d Ks As] (a flush, Ace high)
shaun1119 mucks
The Norse Horse wins the pot ($135) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 6: shaun1119 mucked [Ac 9h 7c 6h] - two pair, Sevens and Twos

Honestly why does he call on the end? I really don't know what went through his head!!

Full Tilt Poker Game #1084859133: Table Grand Isle (6 max) - $3/$6 - $180 Cap Pot Limit Omaha - 22:09:40 ET - 2006/10/09
Seat 1: The Norse Horse ($1,072.85)
Seat 2: vegasin2006 ($367.05)
Seat 3: 008badsbeat ($180.70)
Seat 4: Need Turn ($208.45)
Seat 5: deecay ($147)
Seat 6: shaun1119 ($409.50)
vegasin2006 posts the small blind of $3
008badsbeat has 5 seconds left to act
008badsbeat posts the big blind of $6
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to The Norse Horse [Jc 2s Th Kh]
Need Turn folds
deecay calls $6
shaun1119 calls $6
The Norse Horse calls $6
vegasin2006 calls $3
008badsbeat checks
*** FLOP *** [2c 2h 3c]
vegasin2006 checks
008badsbeat checks
deecay bets $30
shaun1119 calls $30
The Norse Horse calls $30
vegasin2006 folds
008badsbeat folds
*** TURN *** [2c 2h 3c] [6c]
deecay checks
shaun1119 checks
The Norse Horse checks
*** RIVER *** [2c 2h 3c 6c] [Kc]
008badsbeat stands up
deecay checks
shaun1119 bets $45
The Norse Horse raises to $144, and is capped
deecay folds
shaun1119 calls $99, and is capped
*** SHOW DOWN ***
The Norse Horse shows [Jc 2s Th Kh] (a full house, Twos full of Kings)
shaun1119 mucks
The Norse Horse wins the pot ($405) with a full house, Twos full of Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $408 | Rake $3
Board: [2c 2h 3c 6c Kc]
Seat 1: The Norse Horse (button) showed [Jc 2s Th Kh] and won ($405) with a full house, Twos full of Kings
Seat 6: shaun1119 mucked [4h 6h 4c Ac] - a flush, Ace high

Clearly this is not normally a raising situation, however, given his previous calling requirements i felt i can raise and get called by worse!

The guy was horrible, i picked out 2 of his hands but honestly he was not that much worse than the table standard! The majority are passive, and passive Omaha is not winning Omaha!

Anyway onto tonight, i am off the play the £100 rebuy in the Brighton Rendezvous, it should be a good comp, the regular crowd in Brighton are all a good laugh, it has a great atmosphere in there. I pitty the poor fools in the Vic!

That's a bit better!

2006-10-09T17:28:00.000+01:00

I said last night I would be playing the BAPT sat, well it had 39 runners which generated 1 seat and cash for 2nd and 3rd. I got in a huge pot with 30 left where I got outdrawn. No worries, these things happen!!

The rest of the evening I played the 20k 15k 60k and the 150 super blinds, I was first out of super blinds, lol. The 15k and 20k were blanks but I managed to get 3rd in the $60k for just over $6,700! I then decided to play the $50 Freezeout as a wind down comp and managed to win that for another $1100!!! In the process knocking my tournament partner, JungleCat, out in 5th. So I owed him less of a share, lol.

This is my exit hand from the $60k:

Table Name Hand ID Game Stakes
MTT Table 1 12054580-360 Holdem No Limit 15,000/30,000
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : Hand Start.
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : Seat 1 : mummrik has $1,288,455.10
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : Seat 5 : unice has $1,439,030.43
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : Seat 7 : Flush Royal has $662,514.47
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : mummrik is the dealer.
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : unice posted small blind.
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : Flush Royal posted big blind.
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : Game [360] started with 3 players.
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Oct 9 00:55:11] : Seat 7 : Flush Royal has Ts Qc
[Oct 9 00:55:14] : mummrik folded.
[Oct 9 00:55:17] : unice called 15,000 and raised 60,000
[Oct 9 00:55:19] : Flush Royal called 60,000
[Oct 9 00:55:19] : Dealing flop.
[Oct 9 00:55:19] : Board cards [6s Kc Jh]
[Oct 9 00:55:24] : unice bet 60,000
[Oct 9 00:55:26] : Flush Royal called 60,000 and raised 240,000
[Oct 9 00:55:34] : unice called 240,000 and raised 240,000
[Oct 9 00:55:36] : Flush Royal called 240,000 and raised 32,514.47 and is All-in
[Oct 9 00:55:36] : Under-Raise rules are now in effect.
[Oct 9 00:55:39] : unice called 32,514.47
[Oct 9 00:55:39] : Showdown!
[Oct 9 00:55:39] : Seat 7 : Flush Royal has Ts Qc
[Oct 9 00:55:41] : Seat 5 : unice has Jc Js
[Oct 9 00:55:47] : Board cards [6s Kc Jh 7h 5s]
[Oct 9 00:55:47] : Flush Royal has High Card : King
[Oct 9 00:55:47] : unice has 3 of a Kind: Jacks
[Oct 9 00:55:47] : unice wins 1,325,028.94 with 3 of a Kind: Jacks
[Oct 9 00:55:57] : Hand is over.

There was nothing I could really do here after he leads with the set, I am destined to go broke. I played really well though all comp and managed to go from 90k shortstacked with 2 tables left to 660k CL at the start of the final by ducking and diving, and 1 moron gift when I had KK!

I was only all in four times in the entire comp! One time when I had A6s vs KQ on a K63 2 spade flop during the 2nd hour, the 3rd was around the same time, an amusing hand:

[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Hand Start.
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 1 : db48 has $4,200
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 2 : JeanTr has $9,705
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 3 : rondave has $15,480
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 4 : Flush Royal has $10,520
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 5 : Robywan has $4,220
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 6 : merlin28 has $15,850
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 7 : CasinoJack has $11,080
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 8 : Turntable has $19,530
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 9 : partnera43 has $22,960
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : rondave is the dealer.
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Flush Royal posted small blind.
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Robywan posted big blind.
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Game [100] started with 9 players.
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Dealing Hole Cards.
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : Seat 4 : Flush Royal has Kh Ac
[Oct 8 21:17:32] : merlin28 folded.
[Oct 8 21:17:34] : CasinoJack folded.
[Oct 8 21:17:37] : Turntable folded.
[Oct 8 21:17:40] : partnera43 called 400 and raised 1,600
[Oct 8 21:17:44] : db48 folded.
[Oct 8 21:17:45] : JeanTr folded.
[Oct 8 21:17:46] : rondave folded.
[Oct 8 21:17:50] : Flush Royal called 1,800 and raised 4,000
[Oct 8 21:17:51] : Robywan folded.
[Oct 8 21:17:55] : partnera43 called 4,000
[Oct 8 21:17:55] : Dealing flop.
[Oct 8 21:17:55] : Board cards [Kd 6h 9c]
[Oct 8 21:17:57] : Flush Royal bet 4,520 and is All-in
[Oct 8 21:17:59] : partnera43 called 4,520
[Oct 8 21:17:59] : Showdown!
[Oct 8 21:17:59] : Seat 4 : Flush Royal has Kh Ac
[Oct 8 21:18:07] : Board cards [Kd 6h 9c Qd 4d]
[Oct 8 21:18:07] : Flush Royal has Pair: Kings
[Oct 8 21:18:07] : partnera43 has Pair: 6s
[Oct 8 21:18:07] : Flush Royal wins 21,440 with Pair: Kings
[Oct 8 21:18:17] : Hand is over.

The 3rd with KK on a Q hi flop vs QT and the 4th being my exit hand. Phil Hellmuth would be impressed. I forgot how easy the bubble is to play in these large field tight payout comps, roll on next Sunday!

I thought I would give a quick shout to my mate Chris who is doing an experiment this month on full time play, he is going to put in 180hrs of time and see how he would fair if he did this full time. Goodluck to him!

Whilst writing this i have been railing JC, just came 10th in the afternoon $5k on tribeca, ul m8. And playing my new fave game, the 3-6 PLO on full tilt, the play is so shocking its amazing, the 30 minutes i just played made me another $625! That should pay for tonights comps, the 20k 15k $100 fo and no doubt some more i will add!

Drawn a blank

2006-10-08T17:50:00.000+01:00

Last night as planned I played the $20k $15k $5k $9k (200fo) $50 fo $25fo and another $50 fo. I managed to draw blank across the board, I took 2 beats in the $20k and $15k that would have left me in good shape. The other comps were a combination of never getting going or poor timing.

thankfully I managed to still end up about $650 for the day, courtesy of the 3-6 PLO cap game on full tilt. I played an early session where I left $185 down then I played 4 more sessions +$165 +$85 +$275 +$816 amazingly none of those sessions lasted more than 1 hr.

They are great games but I feel I cant play them too long as I open up too much, also if I stay to long people start to play back at me and I am not sure how to come with that in short handed PLO!

Anyway tonight I have registered myself for the $20k $60k $15k and $150 freeze on blue square, I might also combat the $8k $200 fo depending on how many tables I have going. My main focus though tonight is my first go at the Betfair Asian Poker Tour, as I said yesterday my mate Kev is in and I would love to go along with him so I may as well win a seat!

Back Blogging

2006-10-07T20:14:00.000+01:00

Ok I haven't been the best at this blogging lark but I thought I would have another go at it.

Mayaswell start by congratulateing my m8 Colchester Kev on winning the Betfair Grand Prix 2 and netting himself a package to the Asian Open in Singapore worth $8000!

Over the last few months people have been prospering all around me, Pirate-Pab with a WSOP final table and some huge online wins, JP with his now fixed sponsorship deal and main event tiltle, Ben Grundy with a final table in the WCOOP.

Hopefully I will be next! I have the Grosvenor Grand Prix just around the corner, hopefully I can get myself a result in that!

In the mean time tonight I will be playing the $20k, $15k, $50 Freezeout and probably the $200 freezeout and the $5k comp. I will post how I do later!