And That’s a Wrap
With only a few days to go until Christmas it seems fitting to sum up what was good and what was bad in the poker world in 2005.
The event of the year for me was the William Hill Grand Prix. With added money, a great structure and an all-star line up, that week in Cardiff just felt like the place to be. It should get aired next month and with each heat getting a two hour show we should get to see all the nitty gritty small pot action as well as the big all-in moves.
Other high points include witnessing Tikay’s meteoric rise to stardom in the guise of a journo/TV poker pundit and it would be no exaggeration to consider him now as the No.1 leader of the pack in that field. Player-wise it was great to see some of the younger British guns shine, Roland De Wolfe steam-rolled the field at the Paris WPT, whilst JP Kelly, Ian Bradley and Greg Hill all left their calling cards. I think big Barry Neville surprised everybody except himself; he played his first ranking event in May and has somehow managed to win five since then. In my book the big man and JP should go down as worthy rookie of the year nominees. Further afield I saw good friends Lawrence Gosney, Willie Tann and Brian Wilson all pick up bracelets at the WSOP, and on a slightly smaller scale I was thrilled to witness Phil Quayle, my William Hill manager, win the $500NL comp in St Kitts. Perhaps he does after all listen when I bang on about another misplayed hand.
On a personnel note, getting to Vegas for my first WSOP is right up there, as is winning the Luton Main Event in January and finishing eighth overall in the European Rankings. My best move of the year was quitting my job as a freelance draughtsman; juggling a poker career whilst attempting to hot desk with up to two other people just got to be too much, and whilst it may just be a happy coincidence, my results improved overnight. On the downside I still managed to blow off some big stacks but I’m gradually learning and I think I’m starting to get the balance right.
I got back into reading poker books this year and whilst there are still a few turkeys out there I thoroughly enjoyed the poignant Behind The Shades, the Stuey Ungar biography, Harrington On Holdem II all made sense and I particularly enjoyed the closing heads up chapter, and parts of the glossy Greenstein book gave me a rare insight into what it takes to play in the biggest cash game in Vegas; not that I am or ever will be tempted, lol. Talking about the big game I hear that Frenchman David Benyamine is making a mark and that this years runaway Scandi sensation Patrick Antonius is now living out there, and after finishing an unlucky second in the Five Diamond WPT is looking for an open seat in the same game. Cardplayer launched it’s European magazine, and it’s been a real pleasure reading regular articles by the likes of Lucy Rokach, The Camel, Padraig Parkinson & Jesse May. Unfortunately recent months have seen the input of American authors soar which surely defeats the purpose; come on guys, there’s plenty of European talent out there, if I’d wanted to read another Roy Cooke piece I’d have looked elsewhere.
TV-wise poker is everywhere and unfortunately the majority is poor at best. The WPT’s remain my favourite, but it grates when I read about the influence the TV companies have with regard to speeding up the structures. This years Paris leg was a disgrace with the final six seeing their one hour clock reduced to a thirty minute crap shoot. I was looking forward to the ESPN WSOP coverage, but again that proved disappointing; perhaps it was the same in 2004, but this year appeared to be really biased to a handful of American ‘star’ players. The whole show just brought home what is so very wrong with televised poker at the moment; the players, on the whole, get diddly squat. Nearly six thousand punters forked out $10,000 and were then required to sign a piece of paper that effectively meant ESPN could do as they pleased. Stories abounded of overseas winners being fleeced for getting what was a pretty straightforward ITIN tax rebate form. The Bellagio processed mine overnight, free of charge; one guy was told it would cost 10% of his winnings which amounted to $30k, but “I can do it for you for $10k….” This was my first WSOP and I guess I’m optimistic that change will come but I can only wonder what the older brigade make of it all.
With another year of sponsorship ahead it’s not unfair to say that I’ve already got an edge on the rest of the field. And as for next years goals, well another year avoiding the nine to five grind, in profit, with the bills paid would be sweet and obviously it’s good to dream about a big, huge, life-changing, sort the family out and never worry again, a late sixes to an early seven figure win.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Worst Play Ever?
As we draw near to the end of another year I thought I’d share some of my favourite gaffs with you. Bearing in mind how much I hate having to get up from my chair, mid-tournament, and bid everyone “good luck”, I’d have thought that by now I might check myself the moment just before I do anything stupid. Facing up to our most embarrassing mistakes can be therapeutic and sharing them with others often gives you the kick up the arse that is required; where’s your Dad when you need him?
OK, lets go back to January at the Copenhagen leg of the EPT and start with a run of the mill bad play. Midway through I’m in good shape, raise with A-J and a player moves-in on me. I had the chap covered and whether it was because I didn’t want to appear weak, raising and passing, or just a blatant disregard for what A-J might be beating (certainly not A-K in this case), I called and donated half of my very healthy stack. Jeopardising too big a chunk of my stack with a marginal hand like A-J has been a pretty steady leak in my game, and is one that I’ve been trying to plug over recent months.
February saw this little beauty in a 500NL at Walsall. In good shape, down to three tables, a rock minimum raised and I of course called with the powerful 4-8s from my BB. I check raised him on the 9,10,J flop and led out for the rest of my healthy stack when a brick fell on fourth street. Unfortunately he called and his two kings were very good. Taking a shot on the flop is fine but once he calls the check raise I should immediately reassess the situation, compute that the outlook isn’t good, and give it up; what made this play even worse was that it was a great table and I’m sure I could have built my stack up comfortably without risking the lot in one rash move.
I’d never played in Vienna before so when we headed over there in March for the penultimate EPT of the season I was really excited about it. Three hours into the competition and not a lot had gone right, half my chips had either been frittered or second bested away, my temperament was all over the place and I eventually let frustration get the better of me. With 5000 chips and blinds still only at 75/150 I just called with 9-9 when the aggressive Robert Mizrachi raised. The BB also called and when Mizrachi bet the J,3d,4d flop I moved-in behind him. The BB called with 5d-6d and Mizrachi called with J-4. What a horrible way to get your chips in. I was furious with myself; 5000 was still plenty given the extremely good structure. I’m usually pretty focused in a relaxed sort of way and this was a much needed reminder that lethargy can creep up and strike at anytime.
I’ll finish with a series of finals I made in Vegas during the summer. I made two at the Bellagio, a $500 and a $1000, and another $1000 at the Palms. I finalled in all three as chip leader and first place money ranged from $25k to $70k. I blew all three, not even making the last four spots and it was only afterwards when Badgirl looked me in the eye and said “You play big stack terrible” that it finally dawned on me. I play big stack terrible.
Plenty of gaffs then and these only get us half way through the year. In my defence, the majority of my mistakes do at least see me pushing my chips in before the other guy, meaning he needs at least some semblance of hand to call me with, and in a lot of cases a very big hand; hey, last time I checked, big hands don’t come along very often. And finally it’s worth mentioning that I’m not mentioning the many times that a risky play got through and won me a nice pot. Hmm, now I think about it maybe it’s good to have a little bit of something bad in your game….
As we draw near to the end of another year I thought I’d share some of my favourite gaffs with you. Bearing in mind how much I hate having to get up from my chair, mid-tournament, and bid everyone “good luck”, I’d have thought that by now I might check myself the moment just before I do anything stupid. Facing up to our most embarrassing mistakes can be therapeutic and sharing them with others often gives you the kick up the arse that is required; where’s your Dad when you need him?
OK, lets go back to January at the Copenhagen leg of the EPT and start with a run of the mill bad play. Midway through I’m in good shape, raise with A-J and a player moves-in on me. I had the chap covered and whether it was because I didn’t want to appear weak, raising and passing, or just a blatant disregard for what A-J might be beating (certainly not A-K in this case), I called and donated half of my very healthy stack. Jeopardising too big a chunk of my stack with a marginal hand like A-J has been a pretty steady leak in my game, and is one that I’ve been trying to plug over recent months.
February saw this little beauty in a 500NL at Walsall. In good shape, down to three tables, a rock minimum raised and I of course called with the powerful 4-8s from my BB. I check raised him on the 9,10,J flop and led out for the rest of my healthy stack when a brick fell on fourth street. Unfortunately he called and his two kings were very good. Taking a shot on the flop is fine but once he calls the check raise I should immediately reassess the situation, compute that the outlook isn’t good, and give it up; what made this play even worse was that it was a great table and I’m sure I could have built my stack up comfortably without risking the lot in one rash move.
I’d never played in Vienna before so when we headed over there in March for the penultimate EPT of the season I was really excited about it. Three hours into the competition and not a lot had gone right, half my chips had either been frittered or second bested away, my temperament was all over the place and I eventually let frustration get the better of me. With 5000 chips and blinds still only at 75/150 I just called with 9-9 when the aggressive Robert Mizrachi raised. The BB also called and when Mizrachi bet the J,3d,4d flop I moved-in behind him. The BB called with 5d-6d and Mizrachi called with J-4. What a horrible way to get your chips in. I was furious with myself; 5000 was still plenty given the extremely good structure. I’m usually pretty focused in a relaxed sort of way and this was a much needed reminder that lethargy can creep up and strike at anytime.
I’ll finish with a series of finals I made in Vegas during the summer. I made two at the Bellagio, a $500 and a $1000, and another $1000 at the Palms. I finalled in all three as chip leader and first place money ranged from $25k to $70k. I blew all three, not even making the last four spots and it was only afterwards when Badgirl looked me in the eye and said “You play big stack terrible” that it finally dawned on me. I play big stack terrible.
Plenty of gaffs then and these only get us half way through the year. In my defence, the majority of my mistakes do at least see me pushing my chips in before the other guy, meaning he needs at least some semblance of hand to call me with, and in a lot of cases a very big hand; hey, last time I checked, big hands don’t come along very often. And finally it’s worth mentioning that I’m not mentioning the many times that a risky play got through and won me a nice pot. Hmm, now I think about it maybe it’s good to have a little bit of something bad in your game….
Friday, December 09, 2005
Taking It Easy In The Caribbean
I’m ashamed to say that I only got out of the Marriott resort once; four of us hired mopeds for the day and headed down the skinny southern peninsula. We spotted a pristine sandy beach with huge breaking waves and couldn’t wait to get in there. The waves were easily ten feet high and it was surprisingly easy to swim out under them but a little trickier to get back in, as the backwash after the break was worryingly strong; Smokie appeared to be struggling a little, but having forgotten his trunks and with one hand holding his underpants up, it was no wonder that we both started to get a little concerned. Fortunately we kept our calm and eventually managed to make it back to shore, underpants intact.
The Main Event was a big disappointment for me, in fact I’m almost certain I was first out. Fifteen minutes in I called a small raise from my BB with 4d-7d and check raised to 800 on the all spade 3,4,7 flop. The bettor then re-re-raised to 2500 and I didn’t waste too much time pushing all in, convinced he had a big over pair; what I didn’t want to see was him calling as it almost certainly meant he had a spade. Well he did call, with aces, and he did have a spade, and when not one but two more spades arrived I was toast. I doubt I’m gonna pass his hand in that spot either and I’ve been knocked out in far worse locations than sunny St Kitts so I really can’t grumble too much…
I was thrilled to get a chance to play in the Pro-Am Six-Pak competition; the buy-in was $2500 and Cryptologic added $55,000 meaning that the winner would walk of with the lot, a cool $100,000. There were three tables of six with the top two going through to the final. I probably got the easier of the three heats, with just one Lunatic, that being Brian Wilson, one Cowboy, Kenna James who whooped it up big time for the cameras (groan), one former World Champion, Robert Varkonyi, last years CPC Main Event winner, John Earl and one Hollywood celebrity, who happens to own a bracelet of her own, Ms Jennifer Tilly (who it’s worth mentioning wore a lovely black dress with THE most plunging neckline you’re likely to see at a card table - my shades went on immediately). Game on!
Well in true Yoyo style I managed to bluff of more than half my chips against Kenna in an un-raised blind on blind confrontation. Why do I do that? I had absolute filth, eight high, and I managed to minimum re-raise him on the flop, get a half the pot re-raise in on fourth street with a final desperate lead out bet on the river which extracted a long and slow cowboy whistle before he eventually called with top pair, disgusting kicker; well he had done a Google search on me, God only knows what horror stories, no doubt penned by Tikay, or worse, by myself, that he might have raked up.
Downswing out of the way I upped it a gear and managed to scoop a few pots and at one point nudged into the lead. I couldn’t hold onto it though as I was unable to resist re-raising Varkonyi with A-5 when he raised my SB from the button (we had tangled in one pot previously - he kept his eyes on me throughout the flop and lead out, still blind and still looking at me, on fourth street - an easy call for a calling station like me with second pair; bizarre). Anyway, he called all-in with J-Q and spiked a jack. On the next hand it was my turn on the button, and I couldn’t resist raising Brian’s BB with K-Q; I wasn’t overly surprised when he moved-in on me and this is one guy I refuse to lay down to, the odds of him moving over the top with any two are just too strong. Alas, he flipped over A-K and I was out in fifth spot.
A thoroughly enjoyable week then, and the William Hill team had a very successful week, with Steve Vladar and the Poker Boss Phil Quayle both scoring wins in the $1000NL and the $500NL events. Steve nearly did the double, finishing second to Tony Cascarino in the Pro-Am event; Bad Girl won her heat but had to settle for fourth spot in the final when her semi bluff got rumbled by the former soccer star. As the last hand was dealt and Tony knew he’d won he shouted, “That’s the first thing I’ve ever won!”.
I’m back in England now for the rest of the year and I’ll be playing a couple of events at the Luton and Brighton Christmas Cracker Festivals. I’ve made a late surge in the rankings, a top ten finish is now a realistic goal, and a win, albeit a long shot is possible. I was the early leader way back in January and who knows, maybe the yoyo will go full swing.
I’m ashamed to say that I only got out of the Marriott resort once; four of us hired mopeds for the day and headed down the skinny southern peninsula. We spotted a pristine sandy beach with huge breaking waves and couldn’t wait to get in there. The waves were easily ten feet high and it was surprisingly easy to swim out under them but a little trickier to get back in, as the backwash after the break was worryingly strong; Smokie appeared to be struggling a little, but having forgotten his trunks and with one hand holding his underpants up, it was no wonder that we both started to get a little concerned. Fortunately we kept our calm and eventually managed to make it back to shore, underpants intact.
The Main Event was a big disappointment for me, in fact I’m almost certain I was first out. Fifteen minutes in I called a small raise from my BB with 4d-7d and check raised to 800 on the all spade 3,4,7 flop. The bettor then re-re-raised to 2500 and I didn’t waste too much time pushing all in, convinced he had a big over pair; what I didn’t want to see was him calling as it almost certainly meant he had a spade. Well he did call, with aces, and he did have a spade, and when not one but two more spades arrived I was toast. I doubt I’m gonna pass his hand in that spot either and I’ve been knocked out in far worse locations than sunny St Kitts so I really can’t grumble too much…
I was thrilled to get a chance to play in the Pro-Am Six-Pak competition; the buy-in was $2500 and Cryptologic added $55,000 meaning that the winner would walk of with the lot, a cool $100,000. There were three tables of six with the top two going through to the final. I probably got the easier of the three heats, with just one Lunatic, that being Brian Wilson, one Cowboy, Kenna James who whooped it up big time for the cameras (groan), one former World Champion, Robert Varkonyi, last years CPC Main Event winner, John Earl and one Hollywood celebrity, who happens to own a bracelet of her own, Ms Jennifer Tilly (who it’s worth mentioning wore a lovely black dress with THE most plunging neckline you’re likely to see at a card table - my shades went on immediately). Game on!
Well in true Yoyo style I managed to bluff of more than half my chips against Kenna in an un-raised blind on blind confrontation. Why do I do that? I had absolute filth, eight high, and I managed to minimum re-raise him on the flop, get a half the pot re-raise in on fourth street with a final desperate lead out bet on the river which extracted a long and slow cowboy whistle before he eventually called with top pair, disgusting kicker; well he had done a Google search on me, God only knows what horror stories, no doubt penned by Tikay, or worse, by myself, that he might have raked up.
Downswing out of the way I upped it a gear and managed to scoop a few pots and at one point nudged into the lead. I couldn’t hold onto it though as I was unable to resist re-raising Varkonyi with A-5 when he raised my SB from the button (we had tangled in one pot previously - he kept his eyes on me throughout the flop and lead out, still blind and still looking at me, on fourth street - an easy call for a calling station like me with second pair; bizarre). Anyway, he called all-in with J-Q and spiked a jack. On the next hand it was my turn on the button, and I couldn’t resist raising Brian’s BB with K-Q; I wasn’t overly surprised when he moved-in on me and this is one guy I refuse to lay down to, the odds of him moving over the top with any two are just too strong. Alas, he flipped over A-K and I was out in fifth spot.
A thoroughly enjoyable week then, and the William Hill team had a very successful week, with Steve Vladar and the Poker Boss Phil Quayle both scoring wins in the $1000NL and the $500NL events. Steve nearly did the double, finishing second to Tony Cascarino in the Pro-Am event; Bad Girl won her heat but had to settle for fourth spot in the final when her semi bluff got rumbled by the former soccer star. As the last hand was dealt and Tony knew he’d won he shouted, “That’s the first thing I’ve ever won!”.
I’m back in England now for the rest of the year and I’ll be playing a couple of events at the Luton and Brighton Christmas Cracker Festivals. I’ve made a late surge in the rankings, a top ten finish is now a realistic goal, and a win, albeit a long shot is possible. I was the early leader way back in January and who knows, maybe the yoyo will go full swing.
“Hi, my name is Brian Wilson….
…and I’ll be your table captain tonight.” Four days into our Caribbean Poker Classic trip in St Kitts and this appears to be the front runner for the catchiest phrase of the week competition. It’s close though, “Oh my god, this is the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make IN MY LIFE” is a very close second. OK, maybe it’s time to get things into context; the flamboyant Brian ‘The Rookie’ Wilson is in St Kitts for the Caribbean Poker Classic, talking it up, raising with any two, and applying the maximum pressure in every pot he’s in. This guy would have terrified me a few years ago; fortunately for me I cut my teeth playing with the likes of Lucy Rokach and Pete Costa and the one thing you learn quickly is that you have to stand up for yourself.
In Tuesday’s 500NL he knocked out a staggering eighteen players (I guess he must keep count), and throughout the day I could hear a succession of “hey, I got two live cards” and we knew that some poor short stack was having to sweat their A-Q against The Rookies 4-7 (his favourite hand). So a table breaks and a new guy arrives at the table. Cue Brian, “Hi, my name is Brian Wilson and I’ll be your table captain tonight”. The first time the newbie raises, Brian moves all-in, he doesn’t even look at his hole cards. Crazy play, but it does have an affect on the table, when The Rookie gets a hand, he gets paid. This strategy is clearly in the fast lane and whilst I do think that Brian needs to move over from time to time and let some traffic get past, there’s no denying that this guy can get chips, and lots of them.
I was lucky to make the final, American Airlines arrived just in time to give me a leg up after consecutive yo-yo downswings when I tried to take a couple of short stacks out. The late stages of the comp is a good time to open up and I find it’s not always a good idea to back down if someone moves-in on you. I get a lot of chips by making big/marginal calls, some days they work, some days they don’t, but it gives me a shot at making the final with a big dirty stack of chips.
So the final got underway and I had to snooze for the first hour and blind off about a third of my stack as I just wasn’t picking anything up. I wasn’t too bothered though as we lost four players very quickly, The Rookies exit being the most spectacular. London based Gary Mills was chip leader with Brian in a very close second spot. Brian raised to 10k under the gun and Gary announced “all-in”, a huge over bet, about 110k. The Rookie jumped up and shouted “Oh my god, this is the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make IN MY LIFE!!!”. He carried on in this manner for about a minute and it became pretty clear to me what he had; “You’ve got 4-7 haven’t you?” I asked, “Yeah, and IT’S SUITED!!!” he roared; “I CALL!!!”. It was a mix of stunned silence and pure comedy when he flipped it up against Gary’s A-K, and the colour soon drained out of Gary’s face on a 2,5,6 flop; “That’s what I’m talking about”, Brian shouted, but the mysterious powers of 4-7 were weak, or all used up and he missed all his outs, and was out, in 7th spot.
With the danger man gone, I finally found a couple of hands and got back into the game. I had a great cheering section of William Hill shirts supporting me and by the time I knocked out the dangerous Paul Alterman in 3rd spot, I had a good chip lead over the American pro, Kathy Liebert. Alas, this one wasn’t to go my way; after limping from the small blind and passing to her raise on consecutive hands, I made up my mind to move it all-in if she did it a third time; she did, and I did, unfortunately my J-4 got no help against her A-10. I survived another twenty minutes or so, and eventually check raised her all-in with bottom pair, 9-3 on a 3,8,Q flop and she made a great call with 8-2 to win it.
And finally, Day 2 at the 300NL in Walsall last week all went to plan, I was a good boy and kept my nose clean cruising to the final as the chip leader, somehow managing to knock out the last seven players. By the time I got heads-up with Mickey Wernick I had a huge 5 to 1 advantage and despite foolishly doubling him up once, I managed to secure first place when my A-10 held up against his K-Q.
Form is a funny old thing, it’s like the buses, you wait ages for one, then three or four arrive all at once.
…and I’ll be your table captain tonight.” Four days into our Caribbean Poker Classic trip in St Kitts and this appears to be the front runner for the catchiest phrase of the week competition. It’s close though, “Oh my god, this is the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make IN MY LIFE” is a very close second. OK, maybe it’s time to get things into context; the flamboyant Brian ‘The Rookie’ Wilson is in St Kitts for the Caribbean Poker Classic, talking it up, raising with any two, and applying the maximum pressure in every pot he’s in. This guy would have terrified me a few years ago; fortunately for me I cut my teeth playing with the likes of Lucy Rokach and Pete Costa and the one thing you learn quickly is that you have to stand up for yourself.
In Tuesday’s 500NL he knocked out a staggering eighteen players (I guess he must keep count), and throughout the day I could hear a succession of “hey, I got two live cards” and we knew that some poor short stack was having to sweat their A-Q against The Rookies 4-7 (his favourite hand). So a table breaks and a new guy arrives at the table. Cue Brian, “Hi, my name is Brian Wilson and I’ll be your table captain tonight”. The first time the newbie raises, Brian moves all-in, he doesn’t even look at his hole cards. Crazy play, but it does have an affect on the table, when The Rookie gets a hand, he gets paid. This strategy is clearly in the fast lane and whilst I do think that Brian needs to move over from time to time and let some traffic get past, there’s no denying that this guy can get chips, and lots of them.
I was lucky to make the final, American Airlines arrived just in time to give me a leg up after consecutive yo-yo downswings when I tried to take a couple of short stacks out. The late stages of the comp is a good time to open up and I find it’s not always a good idea to back down if someone moves-in on you. I get a lot of chips by making big/marginal calls, some days they work, some days they don’t, but it gives me a shot at making the final with a big dirty stack of chips.
So the final got underway and I had to snooze for the first hour and blind off about a third of my stack as I just wasn’t picking anything up. I wasn’t too bothered though as we lost four players very quickly, The Rookies exit being the most spectacular. London based Gary Mills was chip leader with Brian in a very close second spot. Brian raised to 10k under the gun and Gary announced “all-in”, a huge over bet, about 110k. The Rookie jumped up and shouted “Oh my god, this is the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make IN MY LIFE!!!”. He carried on in this manner for about a minute and it became pretty clear to me what he had; “You’ve got 4-7 haven’t you?” I asked, “Yeah, and IT’S SUITED!!!” he roared; “I CALL!!!”. It was a mix of stunned silence and pure comedy when he flipped it up against Gary’s A-K, and the colour soon drained out of Gary’s face on a 2,5,6 flop; “That’s what I’m talking about”, Brian shouted, but the mysterious powers of 4-7 were weak, or all used up and he missed all his outs, and was out, in 7th spot.
With the danger man gone, I finally found a couple of hands and got back into the game. I had a great cheering section of William Hill shirts supporting me and by the time I knocked out the dangerous Paul Alterman in 3rd spot, I had a good chip lead over the American pro, Kathy Liebert. Alas, this one wasn’t to go my way; after limping from the small blind and passing to her raise on consecutive hands, I made up my mind to move it all-in if she did it a third time; she did, and I did, unfortunately my J-4 got no help against her A-10. I survived another twenty minutes or so, and eventually check raised her all-in with bottom pair, 9-3 on a 3,8,Q flop and she made a great call with 8-2 to win it.
And finally, Day 2 at the 300NL in Walsall last week all went to plan, I was a good boy and kept my nose clean cruising to the final as the chip leader, somehow managing to knock out the last seven players. By the time I got heads-up with Mickey Wernick I had a huge 5 to 1 advantage and despite foolishly doubling him up once, I managed to secure first place when my A-10 held up against his K-Q.
Form is a funny old thing, it’s like the buses, you wait ages for one, then three or four arrive all at once.
Northern Lights and Midland Masters
I set off for Saturdays £1000NL Main Event at 3.00pm from Nottingham, enjoying the frosty sunset over the peaks as I barrelled along the M62, arriving at the South Shore at about 5.50pm. The comp started, as they all do in Blackpool, on time at 6.00pm, and I was back in the car, facing another three hour stint behind the wheel at 6.15pm, with only the moon to keep me company. Marvellous.
This was my second sharp exit of the week, although I did manage to last almost an hour in Wednesdays £500NL comp. Ever the opportunist I called a raise with 5-6s, flopped an up and down flush draw, got it all-in against a set and an over-pair and missed. I can live with that, it was Saturdays exit that was a little more suspect; within ten minutes I had spotted the Value player on the table and after raising with Q-Q I was happy to see him come along for the ride. The pot got re-raised and the Rock on the button also called. Four of us saw a 10h,7h,5 flop and I lead out for a 1000, the Value called, the re-raiser passed and the Rock called. An offsuit 4 dropped on the turn, I lead out again for 3200, the Value moved-in and the Rock pondered for a moment and also called. Bugger. Had I checked fourth street it’s a pretty straightforward pass even for a calling station like me.
Optimism isn’t always a good trait at the poker table and all I could see was 25,000 in the pot and 5000 left sitting in front of me. I was also disheartened to think that all that Value might end up going to the Rock. So with J-J being about the only remote possibility of a hand that I could be beating I still called and lost to the Rocks K-K. The Value had Ah-Qh and missed his flush.
I’m just playing one comp at Walsall this week, the £300NL freeze-out. It’s great to see more and more freeze-outs dominating these festival weeks, and at last it looks like casino‘s are listening to the punters and giving them what they want. News just in off the hot press is that I have made Day 2 in good shape, chip leader I think with 148k; average for the final is 120k, so barring any brain freezes I should final with ease and hopefully go on to garner some much needed ranking points, oh, and of course win lots of money. I played a very patient game yesterday and this is the beauty of No Limit Hold’em; you can tread water for hours and then bang, bang, you can be one of the chip leaders within a couple of hands. Three big pots went my way, all against big stacks; my two A-K’s cracked J-J and 10-10 and after calling a raise with J-8s from the BB I busted Q-Q when I managed to hit trip 8’s.
We head over to St Kitts on Friday for the Caribbean Poker Classic and that’s where I’ll finish this report, hopefully it’ll have a happy ending.
I set off for Saturdays £1000NL Main Event at 3.00pm from Nottingham, enjoying the frosty sunset over the peaks as I barrelled along the M62, arriving at the South Shore at about 5.50pm. The comp started, as they all do in Blackpool, on time at 6.00pm, and I was back in the car, facing another three hour stint behind the wheel at 6.15pm, with only the moon to keep me company. Marvellous.
This was my second sharp exit of the week, although I did manage to last almost an hour in Wednesdays £500NL comp. Ever the opportunist I called a raise with 5-6s, flopped an up and down flush draw, got it all-in against a set and an over-pair and missed. I can live with that, it was Saturdays exit that was a little more suspect; within ten minutes I had spotted the Value player on the table and after raising with Q-Q I was happy to see him come along for the ride. The pot got re-raised and the Rock on the button also called. Four of us saw a 10h,7h,5 flop and I lead out for a 1000, the Value called, the re-raiser passed and the Rock called. An offsuit 4 dropped on the turn, I lead out again for 3200, the Value moved-in and the Rock pondered for a moment and also called. Bugger. Had I checked fourth street it’s a pretty straightforward pass even for a calling station like me.
Optimism isn’t always a good trait at the poker table and all I could see was 25,000 in the pot and 5000 left sitting in front of me. I was also disheartened to think that all that Value might end up going to the Rock. So with J-J being about the only remote possibility of a hand that I could be beating I still called and lost to the Rocks K-K. The Value had Ah-Qh and missed his flush.
I’m just playing one comp at Walsall this week, the £300NL freeze-out. It’s great to see more and more freeze-outs dominating these festival weeks, and at last it looks like casino‘s are listening to the punters and giving them what they want. News just in off the hot press is that I have made Day 2 in good shape, chip leader I think with 148k; average for the final is 120k, so barring any brain freezes I should final with ease and hopefully go on to garner some much needed ranking points, oh, and of course win lots of money. I played a very patient game yesterday and this is the beauty of No Limit Hold’em; you can tread water for hours and then bang, bang, you can be one of the chip leaders within a couple of hands. Three big pots went my way, all against big stacks; my two A-K’s cracked J-J and 10-10 and after calling a raise with J-8s from the BB I busted Q-Q when I managed to hit trip 8’s.
We head over to St Kitts on Friday for the Caribbean Poker Classic and that’s where I’ll finish this report, hopefully it’ll have a happy ending.
A Week In Amsterdam. Part 2There were two more comps to play before the Main Event, the Omaha was over very quickly, I don’t think I lasted an hour and although I had a better run in the Limit on Tuesday, getting pretty deep, once again I failed to release an A-K that missed on every street against an aggressive big stack. Limit poker requires such discipline and I’m sure if I played it a little more and made some better decisions on all the streets I could get pretty handy.
The €5000 Main Event was played over three days with a seventy five minute clock and 10,000 chips. I got off to a great start and was sorry to see my starting table break. In one fifteen minute period I picked up A-A, K-K and 9-9 and flopped a set with each one! It sure is an easy game when you’re hitting cards like that. I moved tables with about 28k which was very comfortable six hours in, but at the new table I got played back at once or twice and that coupled with not picking anything up for a level or two saw me drop back to 18k. Then I got myself into all sorts of trouble and was all-in with A-K against K-K, but for the second time that week managed to hit the ace on the river. That got me up to 40k which I managed to keep out of trouble for the rest of the day.
Mrs Thew arrived on the early flight the following morning, minus the boy who was at home with the in-laws; we had planned a relaxing city break but getting through Day 2 was now the main objective and my poor wife had to content herself with one or two short bouts of shopping in and around watching a bit of poker. She loves it really. I can remember three big hands from Day 2, and yes of course there is a bad beat or two in there somewhere. The first was busting Paul Alterman when I managed to crack his Q-Q with K-Js. He raised to 3k, I re-re-raised to 12k, protecting my BB and he moved-in for another 12k; I’m not sure if I was getting the right price, but I had him covered and sometimes you just have to take your medicine and make that stand. Anyways, it worked as whilst I missed the king I hit the flush. The second was against a Scandi kid sat directly to my left. He was the most aggressive player on the table and when I found J-Q on the button I decided to just limp as I didn’t want to face an expensive re-raise if I raised. Good call. He raised from the SB and sure he was ‘at it‘, I called. The flop came 3,8,10 and he lead out with a bet. Still sure he was at it, I called, hoping that that would slow him down and perhaps give me the opportunity to pinch it on the turn. Well I hit a beautiful nine for the nuts and didn’t have to worry about how to get his chips into the middle as he quickly moved in, holding A-A. I hate to think how many chips I might have done in that coup if I hadn’t hit the nine & he’d checked to me on the turn…. That got me up to the 200k mark and just when I thought things couldn’t get much better I found Q-Q and somehow managed to elicit a double up off a lovely American chap who played J-10 like it was A-A on a ten high flop. Some days you just can’t do much wrong.
Making the final of a Main Event is special and making a final table in Amsterdam is very special. I’d watched the final of the 800NL earlier that week when Alan Betson finished a very unlucky second and if ever you need motivation to fire your game up, the rail is as good a place as any to get those juices flowing.
I had a bad seat with the tight players all to my right and four of the strongest to my left. I was fourth in chips with 380k and after two rounds of passing junk I opened under the gun for 30k with some suited connectors, but let it go when the BB pushed 200k in. It’s never nice to have to let your opening raise go on a new table, but things would at least for a while get a lot worse. Not long after I picked up A-K in the BB and when the youngest player on the table, Thomas Middleton from Norway, raised to 30k I re-raised to 100k. Unfortunately he pushed all-in and he had me covered. I wasn’t a 100% convinced I was beat (he is a Scandi and is under 25) but with eight people left I just hated to call all-in with A-K, so I decided to pass and hoped that I would find a better spot for my remaining 220k.
The weird part is that after making that big lay down I suddenly felt invincible. Sometimes a bloody nose can be a good thing, it opens up your game, you lose the fear and feel renewed.
So I ducked and dived and eventually worked my chips back up to the 350k mark by the time we got six handed. With blinds at 10k/20k with a 2k running ante I made up my SB with 5-9s and Marcel Luske checked from the BB. We checked the 3,3,4 flop and I when a 6 hit on fourth street I decided he would probably have a stab at it and I would check raise all-in. He made to check but then bet 50k and I automatically announced all-in and slowly pushed my chips into the middle. I felt sick when I heard ‘I call’ and saw the 3-5 in his hand. From winning if he passes, to winning with eight outs if he calls, down to eight outs to split. A very bad spot. No more miracle river cards and I was out, a disappointing 6th.
A Week In Amsterdam. Part 1
I’m in Amsterdam this week, my fourth year over here. Back in 2002 when I was keen to wet my feet on the international stage the Master Classics Of Poker in Amsterdam was the festival to be at. The main event aside, the schedule manages to cater for all pockets with two, three, five and eight hundred euro competitions, the majority of which only allow one buy-in, with no top-ups.
My first gaff of the week occurred in Saturdays 300NL game. You had to lose all your chips to get a re-buy, it’s the last hand of the re-buy period and with just 800 chips I made it 200 to go with J-Q on the button and Ian McDonald from Nottingham moved in from the SB for 600. Marvellous I thought, well at least I can avail of a top-up if I call & lose. I called and lost and then found out that there were no top-ups. Perhaps I should have read the instructions. I guess I should have avoided tangling with Ian as he had proved invincible on one or two occasions; a chap raised and Ian moved-in with A-Ks, the raiser called him all-in but the dealer mucked his cards. Hand over. “I had aces he cried”. I believed him, but in the seat next to the dealer he really should have protected his cards.
I played very well for 90% of the time in Sundays 800NL, two hands still bring a smile to my face, I sucked out in one big one and made one huge move that went horribly, horribly wrong. First though a hand that really unsettled me. At 150/300 sitting on 20k I found J-J under the gun and raised to 800. Pascal Perrault immediately re-raised to 2000 in the next seat. Now I haven’t played with Pascal before but know of his reputation as an aggressive player and I guess I figured he was playing fast so I moved-in. He called with K-K and in a flash I’d done half my chips. A rash play but rather than pushing it to one side to mull over later on I just couldn’t get it out of my head. Fortunately the dinner break arrived half an hour later and after phoning home the gloom started to lift. The emotional swings in a game of poker can have a devastating effect on your play and a stronger mental fortitude is needed to cope with the inevitable blunders and bad beats that occur.
OK the good plays; at 100/200 I raised to 600 in late position with 2-2. I had 8000 chips & the BB who had 9000 chips called. He checked the A,J,5 flop. I bet 850. He re-raised, making it 2000 to go. I had a pretty good handle on his game, he’d been caught with his pants down on one occasion and I sensed he was making a move. Rather than raise him back straight away I decided to opt for the softer approach and just called, to try and take the pot on fourth street. The plan worked, he checked to me on the turn and I bet 2000 into a 5300 pot, leaving me with 3000; even I was convinced, and he passed. The second hand occurred four or five tables out, and at 500/1000 I made it 3000 to go with K-J on the button . I was a little below average with a 20k stack and the BB immediately moved all-in for 25k. We’d been bantering a while and I was pretty sure he had me down as a solid player, perhaps somebody he could push around once in a while; my table talk is coming on a treat…. Again, it just looked like a move, so I called. He was none to happy and fortunately for me his Q-6 missed and I doubled up.
The suck-out; at 500/1000 it went limp, raise and I re-raised all-in for 15k with A-Q. The limper called all-in with Q-Q and the raiser called all-in with K-K. I rivered an ace.
So now the horrible bit; with twenty five players left I was fairly comfortable with an above average 70k. The blinds were 1500/3000 and Poker Million winner Anthony Jones raised to 10k. He has a slightly nervy presence at the table and without wanting to sound too much like Monty Burn’s, there’s a man I thought, who might be easily intimidated. I had K-Q in the BB and called the raise. The flop came rags, all clubs. I had the queen of clubs. Could be worse. I checked, he checked. Nothing new on the turn so I took a first stab at it and bet 12k. I looked over and yep, he’s not calling, looks too nervous. He called. Another blank hit the river, he had 25k left, I had 45k left. About 48k in the pot now. I moved all-in and in the two seconds it took him to gather his chips I’m still a 100% certain his hand is going in the muck. He called though, Ac-Kc. Flopped the nuts and got some idiot to bet it for him. Another nice read.
By the time I picked up the button I was down to five BB’s and was more than happy to tank it in with 8-9s, but the blinds weren‘t about to roll over, one had A-K, the other had Q-Q.
I’m in Amsterdam this week, my fourth year over here. Back in 2002 when I was keen to wet my feet on the international stage the Master Classics Of Poker in Amsterdam was the festival to be at. The main event aside, the schedule manages to cater for all pockets with two, three, five and eight hundred euro competitions, the majority of which only allow one buy-in, with no top-ups.
My first gaff of the week occurred in Saturdays 300NL game. You had to lose all your chips to get a re-buy, it’s the last hand of the re-buy period and with just 800 chips I made it 200 to go with J-Q on the button and Ian McDonald from Nottingham moved in from the SB for 600. Marvellous I thought, well at least I can avail of a top-up if I call & lose. I called and lost and then found out that there were no top-ups. Perhaps I should have read the instructions. I guess I should have avoided tangling with Ian as he had proved invincible on one or two occasions; a chap raised and Ian moved-in with A-Ks, the raiser called him all-in but the dealer mucked his cards. Hand over. “I had aces he cried”. I believed him, but in the seat next to the dealer he really should have protected his cards.
I played very well for 90% of the time in Sundays 800NL, two hands still bring a smile to my face, I sucked out in one big one and made one huge move that went horribly, horribly wrong. First though a hand that really unsettled me. At 150/300 sitting on 20k I found J-J under the gun and raised to 800. Pascal Perrault immediately re-raised to 2000 in the next seat. Now I haven’t played with Pascal before but know of his reputation as an aggressive player and I guess I figured he was playing fast so I moved-in. He called with K-K and in a flash I’d done half my chips. A rash play but rather than pushing it to one side to mull over later on I just couldn’t get it out of my head. Fortunately the dinner break arrived half an hour later and after phoning home the gloom started to lift. The emotional swings in a game of poker can have a devastating effect on your play and a stronger mental fortitude is needed to cope with the inevitable blunders and bad beats that occur.
OK the good plays; at 100/200 I raised to 600 in late position with 2-2. I had 8000 chips & the BB who had 9000 chips called. He checked the A,J,5 flop. I bet 850. He re-raised, making it 2000 to go. I had a pretty good handle on his game, he’d been caught with his pants down on one occasion and I sensed he was making a move. Rather than raise him back straight away I decided to opt for the softer approach and just called, to try and take the pot on fourth street. The plan worked, he checked to me on the turn and I bet 2000 into a 5300 pot, leaving me with 3000; even I was convinced, and he passed. The second hand occurred four or five tables out, and at 500/1000 I made it 3000 to go with K-J on the button . I was a little below average with a 20k stack and the BB immediately moved all-in for 25k. We’d been bantering a while and I was pretty sure he had me down as a solid player, perhaps somebody he could push around once in a while; my table talk is coming on a treat…. Again, it just looked like a move, so I called. He was none to happy and fortunately for me his Q-6 missed and I doubled up.
The suck-out; at 500/1000 it went limp, raise and I re-raised all-in for 15k with A-Q. The limper called all-in with Q-Q and the raiser called all-in with K-K. I rivered an ace.
So now the horrible bit; with twenty five players left I was fairly comfortable with an above average 70k. The blinds were 1500/3000 and Poker Million winner Anthony Jones raised to 10k. He has a slightly nervy presence at the table and without wanting to sound too much like Monty Burn’s, there’s a man I thought, who might be easily intimidated. I had K-Q in the BB and called the raise. The flop came rags, all clubs. I had the queen of clubs. Could be worse. I checked, he checked. Nothing new on the turn so I took a first stab at it and bet 12k. I looked over and yep, he’s not calling, looks too nervous. He called. Another blank hit the river, he had 25k left, I had 45k left. About 48k in the pot now. I moved all-in and in the two seconds it took him to gather his chips I’m still a 100% certain his hand is going in the muck. He called though, Ac-Kc. Flopped the nuts and got some idiot to bet it for him. Another nice read.
By the time I picked up the button I was down to five BB’s and was more than happy to tank it in with 8-9s, but the blinds weren‘t about to roll over, one had A-K, the other had Q-Q.
Note To Self: Remember To Engage Brain. The Dublin EPT The Merrion Casino in Dublin is one of my oldest and favourite venues, and with my family all living over there it always makes for an enjoyable week. We arrived and picked up the hire car on Wednesday, somehow wangled a free upgrade, no Cinquecento for us, we lorded it around the city streets in an Astra, woohoo, and were soon to avail of the full board and hospitality that was up for grabs at Mum’s house. What a start. This roll continued the following day as I grabbed the last seat going in a fifty euro satellite and won my entry into that nights €400 NL tournament. Thinking that would be it for the rest of the week, all form used up in one single table jaunt I surprised myself by making the final the following afternoon and finishing a slightly unlucky 7th for €3600. I can't grumble too much though and why would I, picking up aces three times the night before and getting paid each time. I even employed a ‘Tikay Style Play’ and OMG it worked, kind of, well it didn’t actually work as planned, but I got my money in first and hit my draw. I had Q-10 on the button and four guys limped into the pot. I raised, hoping to scoop (the Tikay bit), but got two callers. The flop was ace high, all spades, and holding the queen of spades once they checked it to me I couldn’t shovel my chips in fast enough, massively over-betting the pot, eventually getting called by a rag ace but making my flush on fourth street. I spent three happy minutes raking in & stacking up that pot, eventually going with the ‘four tall stacks all in a line’ arrangement. Very intimidating. I was lucky to secure one of the last few seats for the EPT event and with the Main Event starting at 3pm on Saturday we decided to see the bright lights on Friday night and visited a few of our old haunts. A few pints of Guinness later and it was off to the best Pizza joint I know, Millers Pizza Kitchen in leafy Ballsbridge; a ten minute walk from the Casino and well worth a visit if your taste buds need perking up. So a relatively early night, nice and fresh for a mid afternoon start the following day.
Play started almost on time, the event ran smoothly and well done to Mags the cardroom manager, who ensured that the levels ran smoothly into one another with no big gaps. I was focused and played well for the first few levels despite my chip stack pretty much staying where it started. Perhaps a little bit of frustration was creeping in as in retrospect my tournament hinged on three hands, which all took place just prior to the first break at the end of level three. The first hand wasn’t so much as a mistake, more a missed opportunity; I had a hunch I could push a guy off a hand but bottled it. Pretty innocuous, but it affected me and I subsequently made two larger gaffs because I was unable to forget the first.
To my left was a gregarious young American chap, from Miami I think, with a little too much chirpy banter for my liking. In one blind on blind confrontation I checked the flop to him with nothing and he predictably fired out a bet. It was 500 and I knew all I had to do was make it 1500 and not only would I scoop, I’d politely let him know to look elsewhere for easy chips. Inexplicably I passed and of course he had to make some comment about nine high being good on that flop. Sigh. So anyway, clearly rattled at the kids antics I set about introducing a few plays of my own to the table. The French guy on my right was solid, a good candidate to gets some chips of perhaps, but not when he’s raised and definitely not when he’s lead out on every street. So of course I tried the re-raise on fourth street, to find out if he really did have a hand, got my answer and all of a sudden I’d lost a quarter of my stack. Right Move, Right Opponent, at the Worst Time.
Lesson learnt. Not. Here’s the Wrong Move against the Wrong Player, albeit with the right hand. One of Dublin’s most colourful players is Norman the bus driver. Plays a lot of pots, raises with all sorts and most importantly his chips are always up for grabs. So Norman raised and I meekly called with 8-8 from the SB. The two over cards on the flop bothered me not as I called small bets on the flop and turn. Up to my knees in it now I was obliged to fire a modest bet on the river, but Norman’s not one to pass and his top pair with a sad suited kicker was good.
I steadied myself during the break and nursed my stack through the next few levels, managing to get to the 200/400 with a 50 ante stage which is where the game can really open up. Unfortunately I had just abandoned a pre-flop raise when I found J-J in first position. I made it 1200 to go leaving me with 4000. Birgitta Johansson called on the button and with just one over card on the flop, a king, I moved in. She called pretty quickly with aces and it was all over. I dunno. I pass if she had moved in on me before the flop, but once we see the flop I hate checking into anybody with such a short stack. Maybe I should have lead out for 1600, but I really don’t know if I can put that down with so much in there. I know plenty who wouldn’t think twice about it.
Bust The Tight Guy
I spent four happy days at the Presentable Studios in Cardiff last week, playing in and watching the William Hill Grand Prix. In fact once there, it was pretty hard to leave. The green room was very chilled, with four large sofas, a large plasma screen to watch the live poker, daily newspapers, breakfast, lunch and dinner, a selection of beverages, running commentary and a sports book from one of my favourite poker writers (when he can be bothered), resplendent with headband, looking like a cross between Bjorn Borg and AC/DC's Angus, the one and only Jesse May.
Other poker luminaries included the lady who has brought water to my eyes on many an occasion, Lucy Rokach. It was good to hear that she'll be in the commentary box with Jesse; I remember her commentating on one or two of the old LNP shows, you mess up, check when you should have bet, and she’s on it right away. Now there's an incentive to get the A-Game out. Talking to Lucy is always a pleasure, she posesses so much knowledge on the game and is always happy to talk a hand over or offer advice. If she ever wanted to get into coaching or player management I’m sure she’d have to beat them off with a big fat stick.
A typical day would see us rolling into the studio at about noon, a little lunch, listen in on Vicky Coren's pre-match interviews, then find a comfy seat and settle in for eight hours of live poker. There was a steady stream of players and partners rolling in throughout each day; Ian 'At It' Bradley had had his hair done, full tints with gel supplements, WSOP bracelet winner Brian Wilson is still blonde and was brimming with confidence and BadGirl looked very glam and her table talk had Andy Black cracking up back stage. The Mob were out in force, fatherhood sure hasn't dulled Ram's senses, Liam Flood was suited up as usual, I didn't know you could still buy ties that bright and Peter Costa was as always, a pleasure to watch, playing at the top of his game.
The majority of players were logo'd up and at six grand a pop there really can't be too many players who can afford this without overplaying their bankroll. Plenty will have sold shares in themselves to ease the finances and these days the benefits can reach far beyond just a potential big win.
So after all that hard work it was back to the hotel to unwind and a lively thirteen handed sit and go was normally underway by about one in the morning. Jesse May is a very tight player and it was with glee that At-It Bradley came up with snappiest one liner of the week; you just gotta try and “bust the tight guy". It didn't take long.
A big up to the William Hill team then, there'll be a long queue to sign up for this one next year. For once the players got respect for their trade and respect for the amount of money that they had handed over. More than a hundred grand was added to the prize pool, but equally important this was a televised tournament with a proper structure. Two hundred big blinds for the first forty minutes. It should be out before Christmas, it’s gonna be huge, don’t miss it.
I spent four happy days at the Presentable Studios in Cardiff last week, playing in and watching the William Hill Grand Prix. In fact once there, it was pretty hard to leave. The green room was very chilled, with four large sofas, a large plasma screen to watch the live poker, daily newspapers, breakfast, lunch and dinner, a selection of beverages, running commentary and a sports book from one of my favourite poker writers (when he can be bothered), resplendent with headband, looking like a cross between Bjorn Borg and AC/DC's Angus, the one and only Jesse May.
Other poker luminaries included the lady who has brought water to my eyes on many an occasion, Lucy Rokach. It was good to hear that she'll be in the commentary box with Jesse; I remember her commentating on one or two of the old LNP shows, you mess up, check when you should have bet, and she’s on it right away. Now there's an incentive to get the A-Game out. Talking to Lucy is always a pleasure, she posesses so much knowledge on the game and is always happy to talk a hand over or offer advice. If she ever wanted to get into coaching or player management I’m sure she’d have to beat them off with a big fat stick.
A typical day would see us rolling into the studio at about noon, a little lunch, listen in on Vicky Coren's pre-match interviews, then find a comfy seat and settle in for eight hours of live poker. There was a steady stream of players and partners rolling in throughout each day; Ian 'At It' Bradley had had his hair done, full tints with gel supplements, WSOP bracelet winner Brian Wilson is still blonde and was brimming with confidence and BadGirl looked very glam and her table talk had Andy Black cracking up back stage. The Mob were out in force, fatherhood sure hasn't dulled Ram's senses, Liam Flood was suited up as usual, I didn't know you could still buy ties that bright and Peter Costa was as always, a pleasure to watch, playing at the top of his game.
The majority of players were logo'd up and at six grand a pop there really can't be too many players who can afford this without overplaying their bankroll. Plenty will have sold shares in themselves to ease the finances and these days the benefits can reach far beyond just a potential big win.
So after all that hard work it was back to the hotel to unwind and a lively thirteen handed sit and go was normally underway by about one in the morning. Jesse May is a very tight player and it was with glee that At-It Bradley came up with snappiest one liner of the week; you just gotta try and “bust the tight guy". It didn't take long.
A big up to the William Hill team then, there'll be a long queue to sign up for this one next year. For once the players got respect for their trade and respect for the amount of money that they had handed over. More than a hundred grand was added to the prize pool, but equally important this was a televised tournament with a proper structure. Two hundred big blinds for the first forty minutes. It should be out before Christmas, it’s gonna be huge, don’t miss it.
Seize the Day
So two weeks into my new role as full time poker playing, child minding, house mending husband I find myself wondering how I managed to leave it this long before jumping the nine to five ship. I feel renewed and whilst I wonder what this motivation might lead to I am confident that my compulsive/obsessive make-up will ensure that at least one light bulb goes off in my head, leading me down some new path. In the meantime I guess that this is the honeymoon period and I intend to make the most of it.
A nice start has eased the transition bringing a few of those lovely large denomination euro notes back from Baden last week and I had a successful sortie down at the local £30PL comp on Monday where I got a heads up chop. I might normally have played it out and I’m not sure whether this is the professional attitude or not but I decided to take the safe option and covered all my outgoings for the rest of the month in one fell swoop.
We should finally get an internet connection here this week, so I intend to unleash my next online poker attack pretty soon. Be afraid, lol. I’m hoping that with more time on my hands I will pick and choose my online stints with greater care, as opposed to shoe horning them in around other important matters such as an evening on the sofa, well fed, with a red in hand, nodding off in front of the telly. My online form has been erratic for some time now and my current thinking is that I’ll try and limit my sessions to around the two hour mark, with perhaps up to ten sessions a week, cutting down on tournaments and concentrating on the sit’n’goes, maybe even wetting my feet in the cash games if I'm brave enough. Surely it’s impossible not to succeed with a disciplined regime? I'll get back to you with a progress report.
Some comments Tony G made during his 425 interview on last weeks show really hit home. He reckoned that his greatest achievement in poker has been adapting to and mastering every element of the game. I’m strictly a Holdem Tournament player with gaping holes in all other games & disciplines and it has made me think that perhaps it's time to dust off some of those books I never got around to reading properly and try to become a more well rounded player.
It’s down to Cardiff next week for the William Hill Grand Prix. It takes place at the Presentable Studios where the legend that is Late Night Poker was filmed. I’m gonna head down on Wednesday morning & sweat Badgirl & At-It Bradley, two of my 5% swaps in one heat, what was I thinking, it’ll be need to be a cosy one/two if they are to uphold my reputation as an astute swapper of percentages. Don’t let me down guys. My plan is to try and avoid trouble until four or five handed; I've watched plenty of made for TV poker and mixing it up early often has little bearing on the final result, often with more to lose than to gain. That's the plan anyhow, although knowing me it'll be easier said than done. I play on Thursday so I’ll need to fit in a haircut at some point, that’ll be Monday taken care of, and there was me thinking I’d struggle to fill my days.
So two weeks into my new role as full time poker playing, child minding, house mending husband I find myself wondering how I managed to leave it this long before jumping the nine to five ship. I feel renewed and whilst I wonder what this motivation might lead to I am confident that my compulsive/obsessive make-up will ensure that at least one light bulb goes off in my head, leading me down some new path. In the meantime I guess that this is the honeymoon period and I intend to make the most of it.
A nice start has eased the transition bringing a few of those lovely large denomination euro notes back from Baden last week and I had a successful sortie down at the local £30PL comp on Monday where I got a heads up chop. I might normally have played it out and I’m not sure whether this is the professional attitude or not but I decided to take the safe option and covered all my outgoings for the rest of the month in one fell swoop.
We should finally get an internet connection here this week, so I intend to unleash my next online poker attack pretty soon. Be afraid, lol. I’m hoping that with more time on my hands I will pick and choose my online stints with greater care, as opposed to shoe horning them in around other important matters such as an evening on the sofa, well fed, with a red in hand, nodding off in front of the telly. My online form has been erratic for some time now and my current thinking is that I’ll try and limit my sessions to around the two hour mark, with perhaps up to ten sessions a week, cutting down on tournaments and concentrating on the sit’n’goes, maybe even wetting my feet in the cash games if I'm brave enough. Surely it’s impossible not to succeed with a disciplined regime? I'll get back to you with a progress report.
Some comments Tony G made during his 425 interview on last weeks show really hit home. He reckoned that his greatest achievement in poker has been adapting to and mastering every element of the game. I’m strictly a Holdem Tournament player with gaping holes in all other games & disciplines and it has made me think that perhaps it's time to dust off some of those books I never got around to reading properly and try to become a more well rounded player.
It’s down to Cardiff next week for the William Hill Grand Prix. It takes place at the Presentable Studios where the legend that is Late Night Poker was filmed. I’m gonna head down on Wednesday morning & sweat Badgirl & At-It Bradley, two of my 5% swaps in one heat, what was I thinking, it’ll be need to be a cosy one/two if they are to uphold my reputation as an astute swapper of percentages. Don’t let me down guys. My plan is to try and avoid trouble until four or five handed; I've watched plenty of made for TV poker and mixing it up early often has little bearing on the final result, often with more to lose than to gain. That's the plan anyhow, although knowing me it'll be easier said than done. I play on Thursday so I’ll need to fit in a haircut at some point, that’ll be Monday taken care of, and there was me thinking I’d struggle to fill my days.
Boys Keep Swinging. The Baden EPT
A modest 180 runners showed up for the third leg of this seasons EPT. This event followed real close on the heels of the London leg and British and Irish numbers were thin on the ground as a result, but the boys from Scandinavia were out in force once again, a mighty six of them getting through to the eight handed televised final. Heads Up play could easily have been mistaken for an X-Factor audition – these boys look as good as they play. I had a pretty good run, getting myself into contention but never really gaining enough momentum to make that final push, eventually finishing 19th for a money-back finish. Here are some of the more interesting hands, the good, and for the sake of balance, the head scratchers.
Once again I got off to a shaky start and had to endure several hours of nursing a short stack until my patience eventually paid off and I got some breaks. I’d just moved to a busy table with EPT champ Rob Hollink and at least four, possibly five or even six young Scandies, hanging on with 3000, looking for any reasonable spot. We were playing 200/400 with a running ante and I had just managed to pinch some blinds when I picked up a genuine hand, the always playable K-K. A young American had raised and despite my pretty obvious minimum re-raise with a short stack, I managed to elicit a call off J-10 by which time the pot was too big for him to get away from. The first double-up out of the way normal service was resumed and an hour or so later I had worked it up to a comfortable 20k.
Later on I made it 3000 to go with A-Js on the Button. I could tell that the SB wasn't happy at having to surrender another one of his blinds as he swiftly put in a hefty re-raise, making it 18,000 to go. It all smelt a bit fishy and although I hate to call off all my chips with a hand like A-J my instincts put him on a move. I pushed all-in knowing he couldn't possibly fold and was relieved to see A-10. That was close. No accidents and all of a sudden I was in great shape with almost 50k. OK, I’ll put my hand up and admit that this is probably one of those spots where being sponsored can come into play, sometimes nudging a borderline decision one way or the other. Had I been one off the televised final and I might well have gone the other way.
Once again though, having finally gotten my paws on some chips I probably could have managed my stack better. One of the eventual finalists raised and when I saw A-Q in the SB I took an aggressive stance and re-raised enough to let him know that I wasn’t about to back down. He took a long time to decide, eventually moving the rest in with 10-10 and just like that I was near the back of the pack again with 20k. Had I just called I probably don't do any more chips in that pot and am still in good shape. I dunno, I'm not a numbers guy, all I know is that once I've re-raised there are three scenario's, two good, one bad; he calls and I win, he passes and I win less, and the bad one. Back to survival mode, the slow clock allowed me to hang around making the last thirty six, albeit third low with just 15,775.
Day 2 started early at 11am and although we were playing 800/1600 with a 300 ante I still had a few rounds before I needed to deploy the 'any two will do' tactic. I got off to a good start picking up two sets of blinds before I had to post. Still four or five spots off the money play was cagey and amazingly nobody attacked my SB. I looked down at 2-2 and slid the lot in against the BB but quickly got that sinking feeling when he called. He had A-9 and hit the flop but as I made to get my coat we realised that I had some change. 1800, a chip and a chair. And here’s why I love the game; never give up because anything can happen. Down to just one BB I got an incredibly jammy break, the BB passed out of turn. Nobody else moved at the pot, and I got heads-up with Q-8 against the SB’s 7-9s. Life line firmly in hand, Harrington would have been proud of me as I pushed in again on the next hand with K-8 spiking a king to hold off A-Q. I squeezed one more suck-out in when I cracked Q-Q with a K-J and suddenly it was cue the fanfare. I managed to duck and dive for another hour but eventually the blinds and antes wore me down and I took a shot, calling a raise with 9-10s from my BB for a quarter of my stack. The Q,9,8 flop looked just the ticket and of course I was able to get my chips in first, but some people just can’t pass a hand and I got called by K-K; no lucky escapes, you can guess the rest, a walk to cool off, tried to get an earlier flight, ordered lunch, hit the bar….
Full marks to John Duthie & his team for taking the EPT to Baden, the venue was fantastic, every player being well fed & watered with the first class service available right around the clock. After an erratic start to the 2nd season the bar has at last been raised & this is what we should expect at the pinnacle of Tournament Poker in Europe.
A modest 180 runners showed up for the third leg of this seasons EPT. This event followed real close on the heels of the London leg and British and Irish numbers were thin on the ground as a result, but the boys from Scandinavia were out in force once again, a mighty six of them getting through to the eight handed televised final. Heads Up play could easily have been mistaken for an X-Factor audition – these boys look as good as they play. I had a pretty good run, getting myself into contention but never really gaining enough momentum to make that final push, eventually finishing 19th for a money-back finish. Here are some of the more interesting hands, the good, and for the sake of balance, the head scratchers.
Once again I got off to a shaky start and had to endure several hours of nursing a short stack until my patience eventually paid off and I got some breaks. I’d just moved to a busy table with EPT champ Rob Hollink and at least four, possibly five or even six young Scandies, hanging on with 3000, looking for any reasonable spot. We were playing 200/400 with a running ante and I had just managed to pinch some blinds when I picked up a genuine hand, the always playable K-K. A young American had raised and despite my pretty obvious minimum re-raise with a short stack, I managed to elicit a call off J-10 by which time the pot was too big for him to get away from. The first double-up out of the way normal service was resumed and an hour or so later I had worked it up to a comfortable 20k.
Later on I made it 3000 to go with A-Js on the Button. I could tell that the SB wasn't happy at having to surrender another one of his blinds as he swiftly put in a hefty re-raise, making it 18,000 to go. It all smelt a bit fishy and although I hate to call off all my chips with a hand like A-J my instincts put him on a move. I pushed all-in knowing he couldn't possibly fold and was relieved to see A-10. That was close. No accidents and all of a sudden I was in great shape with almost 50k. OK, I’ll put my hand up and admit that this is probably one of those spots where being sponsored can come into play, sometimes nudging a borderline decision one way or the other. Had I been one off the televised final and I might well have gone the other way.
Once again though, having finally gotten my paws on some chips I probably could have managed my stack better. One of the eventual finalists raised and when I saw A-Q in the SB I took an aggressive stance and re-raised enough to let him know that I wasn’t about to back down. He took a long time to decide, eventually moving the rest in with 10-10 and just like that I was near the back of the pack again with 20k. Had I just called I probably don't do any more chips in that pot and am still in good shape. I dunno, I'm not a numbers guy, all I know is that once I've re-raised there are three scenario's, two good, one bad; he calls and I win, he passes and I win less, and the bad one. Back to survival mode, the slow clock allowed me to hang around making the last thirty six, albeit third low with just 15,775.
Day 2 started early at 11am and although we were playing 800/1600 with a 300 ante I still had a few rounds before I needed to deploy the 'any two will do' tactic. I got off to a good start picking up two sets of blinds before I had to post. Still four or five spots off the money play was cagey and amazingly nobody attacked my SB. I looked down at 2-2 and slid the lot in against the BB but quickly got that sinking feeling when he called. He had A-9 and hit the flop but as I made to get my coat we realised that I had some change. 1800, a chip and a chair. And here’s why I love the game; never give up because anything can happen. Down to just one BB I got an incredibly jammy break, the BB passed out of turn. Nobody else moved at the pot, and I got heads-up with Q-8 against the SB’s 7-9s. Life line firmly in hand, Harrington would have been proud of me as I pushed in again on the next hand with K-8 spiking a king to hold off A-Q. I squeezed one more suck-out in when I cracked Q-Q with a K-J and suddenly it was cue the fanfare. I managed to duck and dive for another hour but eventually the blinds and antes wore me down and I took a shot, calling a raise with 9-10s from my BB for a quarter of my stack. The Q,9,8 flop looked just the ticket and of course I was able to get my chips in first, but some people just can’t pass a hand and I got called by K-K; no lucky escapes, you can guess the rest, a walk to cool off, tried to get an earlier flight, ordered lunch, hit the bar….
Full marks to John Duthie & his team for taking the EPT to Baden, the venue was fantastic, every player being well fed & watered with the first class service available right around the clock. After an erratic start to the 2nd season the bar has at last been raised & this is what we should expect at the pinnacle of Tournament Poker in Europe.
One False Move. The London EPT
I travelleded down to the Vic in London last week for the last two tournaments of their World Masters week. I guess it's a sign of the times that these days players are happy to fork over a grand for a one day, fast structured tournament as was the case with Thursday's PL Omaha. I really do need to re-read my Omaha books as two hours in, nursing average chips, I called off the lot within about 15 minutes in four pots. You can tell I’m a Holdem player, I see potential in every Omaha hand I pick up. More discipline required. What's worse though is that as I never feel a 100% confident of where I am in a hand, I tend to revert to a very passive game which just isn't strong poker. Given a passive or an aggressive tag most people would I think label me with the latter & you will certainly win more pots if you take the initiative rather than meekly checking & calling. I know this so why do I find myself slipping into this mode so often lately?
The Main Event was split into two halves, but we all had to be there at 2.30 on Friday to find out what day we started. Although I appreciate the need to do it, I'm really not a fan of split field comps as I find it hard to get focused pre-comp when up to an hour before the start you still don't know whether you're on today or tomorrow. Once again the structure was poor for such an expensive event with a forty five minute clock & some big jumps between levels. I got to play on Day 1 & was pleased to get the chance to play with two well respected Tournament Pro's, Kirill Gerasimov & Chris Bjorin. A real contrast of styles, Kirill was in about 50% of all pots, constantly pressuring my precious blinds & did get the better of me with his persistent raising. I took him on once or twice, but rather than trying to end it quickly with a pre-flop re-raise I was seeing flops & later streets with him, the pots slowly growing & I could never quite find the bottle to pull the trigger.
After a mind numbing slow start I eventually built up to 30,000 but should have managed my stack better. I had just come over the top of the guy to my right with a genuine A-K & a couple of hands later I made it 3000 to go with 8-8. Perhaps sensing I was playing fast the button called. I checked the Q,9,7 flop to him, he bet one lovely blue 5000 chip & I decided to make a move on him, throwing three blue ones into the middle, which as good as set him in. He took about two minutes, but the longer he took, the worse I was beginning to feel, pretty sure he was going to call with a queen & sure enough, although I doubt he liked it he made the right play & called with K-Q. Bugger. Another great play. Crippled now. Engaged grind mode & survived another level but eventually when down to just four BB's I stuck it in under the gun with such a pretty hand, 10-8s, running into A-Q which could have been worse, but the dealer made an awful hash of it giving the A-Q a cruel two pair.
Long standing negotiations have been ongoing with Mrs T about my erratic hours of work & like our resident Pro Tipster Mr Andy Ward, I have always thought that poker was at its best when balanced with the financial & mental stability that part-time work can provide. Lately though juggling the job alongside a serious poker commitment has been taking its toll, hot desking with up to three people isn't easy to manage at the best of times & I have decided to take some time out from the nine to five regime to see if the additional free time improves my game. You only live once & I’ll give it until Easter to see how I’m bearing up. The majority of my poker income has come from tournaments, a good mix of the local £20'ers, the big Freeze-outs & everything in-between. I rarely play cash games & have never really had the time to devote to online poker that many of it's big winners do, but both are disciplines that I would like to learn & improve - I suspect I’ll need some serious coaching & guidance, perhaps I’ll drop in on Actionjack one of these days & see how the superstars manage it.
And to finish, two big thumbs up to the Old Dandy of poker himself, stand up Mr Tony 'Tikay' Kendall who must have kept his reading glasses on over both days of play, managing to negotiate his way to a heads-up situation at the 140 runner £500 Gutshot Main Event last Saturday. His star continues to rise & this is the boost to his confidence that every player needs once in a while.
I travelleded down to the Vic in London last week for the last two tournaments of their World Masters week. I guess it's a sign of the times that these days players are happy to fork over a grand for a one day, fast structured tournament as was the case with Thursday's PL Omaha. I really do need to re-read my Omaha books as two hours in, nursing average chips, I called off the lot within about 15 minutes in four pots. You can tell I’m a Holdem player, I see potential in every Omaha hand I pick up. More discipline required. What's worse though is that as I never feel a 100% confident of where I am in a hand, I tend to revert to a very passive game which just isn't strong poker. Given a passive or an aggressive tag most people would I think label me with the latter & you will certainly win more pots if you take the initiative rather than meekly checking & calling. I know this so why do I find myself slipping into this mode so often lately?
The Main Event was split into two halves, but we all had to be there at 2.30 on Friday to find out what day we started. Although I appreciate the need to do it, I'm really not a fan of split field comps as I find it hard to get focused pre-comp when up to an hour before the start you still don't know whether you're on today or tomorrow. Once again the structure was poor for such an expensive event with a forty five minute clock & some big jumps between levels. I got to play on Day 1 & was pleased to get the chance to play with two well respected Tournament Pro's, Kirill Gerasimov & Chris Bjorin. A real contrast of styles, Kirill was in about 50% of all pots, constantly pressuring my precious blinds & did get the better of me with his persistent raising. I took him on once or twice, but rather than trying to end it quickly with a pre-flop re-raise I was seeing flops & later streets with him, the pots slowly growing & I could never quite find the bottle to pull the trigger.
After a mind numbing slow start I eventually built up to 30,000 but should have managed my stack better. I had just come over the top of the guy to my right with a genuine A-K & a couple of hands later I made it 3000 to go with 8-8. Perhaps sensing I was playing fast the button called. I checked the Q,9,7 flop to him, he bet one lovely blue 5000 chip & I decided to make a move on him, throwing three blue ones into the middle, which as good as set him in. He took about two minutes, but the longer he took, the worse I was beginning to feel, pretty sure he was going to call with a queen & sure enough, although I doubt he liked it he made the right play & called with K-Q. Bugger. Another great play. Crippled now. Engaged grind mode & survived another level but eventually when down to just four BB's I stuck it in under the gun with such a pretty hand, 10-8s, running into A-Q which could have been worse, but the dealer made an awful hash of it giving the A-Q a cruel two pair.
Long standing negotiations have been ongoing with Mrs T about my erratic hours of work & like our resident Pro Tipster Mr Andy Ward, I have always thought that poker was at its best when balanced with the financial & mental stability that part-time work can provide. Lately though juggling the job alongside a serious poker commitment has been taking its toll, hot desking with up to three people isn't easy to manage at the best of times & I have decided to take some time out from the nine to five regime to see if the additional free time improves my game. You only live once & I’ll give it until Easter to see how I’m bearing up. The majority of my poker income has come from tournaments, a good mix of the local £20'ers, the big Freeze-outs & everything in-between. I rarely play cash games & have never really had the time to devote to online poker that many of it's big winners do, but both are disciplines that I would like to learn & improve - I suspect I’ll need some serious coaching & guidance, perhaps I’ll drop in on Actionjack one of these days & see how the superstars manage it.
And to finish, two big thumbs up to the Old Dandy of poker himself, stand up Mr Tony 'Tikay' Kendall who must have kept his reading glasses on over both days of play, managing to negotiate his way to a heads-up situation at the 140 runner £500 Gutshot Main Event last Saturday. His star continues to rise & this is the boost to his confidence that every player needs once in a while.
Disappointment? Get Used To It. The Barcelona EPT
This is my second trip to Barcelona this year & the Gran Casino is one of my favourite venues on the circuit. With the city to explore during the day, the cards in the air at six o’clock every evening & a great buffet with wine flowing at nine it's a pretty tough life. To make matters worse my hotel was located opposite the nudist beach & what normally would only be a twenty minute walk became a one hour ramble with the ever vigilant Willie Tann. I expected this event to fill & flew out earlier than planned to make sure I got a seat. With 24 hours to go the event was sold out & a lot of players who had been here all week were caught out - these days early registration is a must as European casinos simply aren't big enough to accommodate the swelling numbers. The buy-ins have now all been standardised for this 2nd season at 4000 euro, but unfortunately the structure does still seem to vary from venue to venue, Barcelona being one of the quicker ones, jammed into just two days with a 45 minute clock.
The comp finally got underway an hour late, 290 seated, with 90 players on the alternates list. A frustrating day for me, calling too much in the early levels & then getting moved to a small heads up table & having to play seven handed when short stacked, eventually finding A-K but running it right into the big blinds kings.
After a walk outside to cool off I booked a new flight home for the following morning & then set about kick starting the healing process, in the restaurant with a fillet steak, plenty of wine & lots of company. Suitably numbed from the effects I went & had a look at the last seven or so tables. It always amazes me how you can go from not wanting to see a deck of cards for a very long time to drooling & craning your neck like an idiot as you watch the action heat up & get some serious chip envy. Disappointment is an all too regular occurrence in tournament poker, the pain & shame of getting knocked out engulfing you as soon as the last losing card is dealt. If there is an up side to this it’s that it is the same for everyone, no matter how good you are you simply can’t win every comp you play.
Despite 2005 being my most lucrative year so far, my final percentages are my lowest yet, a paltry 14% from just over a hundred tournaments, compared to 27% last year. Whilst this is mainly due to playing bigger events with larger fields I still find it disappointing. A few years ago I had a column in my stats that listed how I exited from a comp, a bad beat, calling a raise with a weak hand, a bluff gone wrong, losing a 50/50, a no brainer had to be played, or just a plain stupid move. I stopped that list as I realised that quite often getting busted is a culmination of plays rather than just one hand. In this EPT twice I thought I was bringing it in for a raise, when in fact someone had already raised in front of me – clearly I wasn’t as sharp or paying enough attention as I should have been & these two, albeit small pots, when already struggling represented over 10% of my below average stack. Sure, eventually I was unlucky to find the BB with K-K when I’ve made it 1200 out of my 4000 stack with A-K, but had I more chips perhaps I could have gotten away from the hand.
We finally move house this week having outgrown Thew Towers. TT Mk II is a bit of a project with plenty of work to do, so there probably won't be too much poker over the next fortnight, the next big comp being the London leg of the EPT at the Vic. Then things really pick up with two more EPT's, Baden & Dublin, the televised William Hill Grand Prix, the Sheffield autumn festival, a week at the Master Classics Of Poker in Amsterdam, Blackpool, the Caribbean Poker Classic in St. Kitts, sunny Luton, lol & then the last event of the year, the Helsinki Freeze-out. I think I might struggle to maintain my not very strict three days a week in the office regime.…
This is my second trip to Barcelona this year & the Gran Casino is one of my favourite venues on the circuit. With the city to explore during the day, the cards in the air at six o’clock every evening & a great buffet with wine flowing at nine it's a pretty tough life. To make matters worse my hotel was located opposite the nudist beach & what normally would only be a twenty minute walk became a one hour ramble with the ever vigilant Willie Tann. I expected this event to fill & flew out earlier than planned to make sure I got a seat. With 24 hours to go the event was sold out & a lot of players who had been here all week were caught out - these days early registration is a must as European casinos simply aren't big enough to accommodate the swelling numbers. The buy-ins have now all been standardised for this 2nd season at 4000 euro, but unfortunately the structure does still seem to vary from venue to venue, Barcelona being one of the quicker ones, jammed into just two days with a 45 minute clock.
The comp finally got underway an hour late, 290 seated, with 90 players on the alternates list. A frustrating day for me, calling too much in the early levels & then getting moved to a small heads up table & having to play seven handed when short stacked, eventually finding A-K but running it right into the big blinds kings.
After a walk outside to cool off I booked a new flight home for the following morning & then set about kick starting the healing process, in the restaurant with a fillet steak, plenty of wine & lots of company. Suitably numbed from the effects I went & had a look at the last seven or so tables. It always amazes me how you can go from not wanting to see a deck of cards for a very long time to drooling & craning your neck like an idiot as you watch the action heat up & get some serious chip envy. Disappointment is an all too regular occurrence in tournament poker, the pain & shame of getting knocked out engulfing you as soon as the last losing card is dealt. If there is an up side to this it’s that it is the same for everyone, no matter how good you are you simply can’t win every comp you play.
Despite 2005 being my most lucrative year so far, my final percentages are my lowest yet, a paltry 14% from just over a hundred tournaments, compared to 27% last year. Whilst this is mainly due to playing bigger events with larger fields I still find it disappointing. A few years ago I had a column in my stats that listed how I exited from a comp, a bad beat, calling a raise with a weak hand, a bluff gone wrong, losing a 50/50, a no brainer had to be played, or just a plain stupid move. I stopped that list as I realised that quite often getting busted is a culmination of plays rather than just one hand. In this EPT twice I thought I was bringing it in for a raise, when in fact someone had already raised in front of me – clearly I wasn’t as sharp or paying enough attention as I should have been & these two, albeit small pots, when already struggling represented over 10% of my below average stack. Sure, eventually I was unlucky to find the BB with K-K when I’ve made it 1200 out of my 4000 stack with A-K, but had I more chips perhaps I could have gotten away from the hand.
We finally move house this week having outgrown Thew Towers. TT Mk II is a bit of a project with plenty of work to do, so there probably won't be too much poker over the next fortnight, the next big comp being the London leg of the EPT at the Vic. Then things really pick up with two more EPT's, Baden & Dublin, the televised William Hill Grand Prix, the Sheffield autumn festival, a week at the Master Classics Of Poker in Amsterdam, Blackpool, the Caribbean Poker Classic in St. Kitts, sunny Luton, lol & then the last event of the year, the Helsinki Freeze-out. I think I might struggle to maintain my not very strict three days a week in the office regime.…
A Tale of Two Comps, One City
I caught the tail end of ‘The Rules of Attraction’ late one night last week, written by American Psycho, Brett Easton Ellis. There’s an amazing sequence where we follow this guy & his sexual antics as he travels around Europe, all chopped & sped up, on f>fwd & crammed into one three minute sequence. I doubt my sexual antics warrant an article but I thought I’d see if I could get one comp done & dusted in one or two paragraphs, as I went quite deep at the Star City Grand Prix but don’t want to bore you with a monotonous hand after hand monologue:
Star City, big casino, 190 runners, a sprinkling of celebs, four hours of grinding Tikay style just to hang onto my original 10k, an habitual limper being my main source of income every so often, got moved, made a nice play against one of the pro’s, he raises, I call with some suited type semi-connectors, we miss & check the flop, he bets 1600 on turn, I make it 4k, half my stack, he passes, I enjoyed that, up to 13k for first time, work it up to 16k, but A-K runs into trip 2’s on an ace high flop, groan, back down to 5k, but I double up against a desperate short stack with A-Qs vs. K-6, get moved again, eventually find Q-Q in the BB facing a raise & call, I move in for another 9k, Martin Green dwells for one minute & passes, but my new best friend calls with Q-9s & I’m up to 37k, finishing Day 1 a shade below average with 32k.
At 1500/3000 & a 300 running ante, you can’t just sit there, Day 2 starts on time, chips get perilously close to Harrington’s Red Zone, but manage to steal my way back into contention, knock out Mickey Wernick when my A-Q counterfeits his 8-8 on a 10,10,9,K,9 board, hehe, guess I’ll be hearing about that one for a while, still under blind & ante pressure, last two tables, I manage to open up a little more finding another new best friend who doubles me up with 4-4 when I had 10-10 in the BB, thank you Poker Gods, manage to final above average, Thomas Kremser knocks the blinds back, tournament directors everywhere take note please, prize structure really top heavy but chip leader not concerned yet, fair enough, to make matters worse he’s on my immediate left & has a habit of calling every raise I make, why is he picking on me, down to five we chop up the majority of the lolly, 44k, 30k, 25k, 25k & 20k, me in the middle, with 10k to play for, feels a bit weird on the TV table, although deal is done it will be portrayed as the winner getting a 100k, get no cards as is usual for all of my TV appearances, yes it is terribly unfair, decide to make a play with my 180k against Martin who’s sitting on a million, I call his raise from the BB with Q-5s & check raise him all-in on the rag flop, but he doesn’t pass quickly, he’s taking too much time, this is bad, he has A-K & makes the right play, marvellous, pants down in spectacular style on the telly & I can’t even mention the deal in the interview, these Sponsored Players eh, at it all the time, it was only One Hundred Thousand Pounds for the winner & he sticks it in with filth, that bloke must be loaded.
The exit aside, a well balanced & disciplined performance with just two double ups & some kind of ever present force field surrounding me that deflected any bad beats. Maybe these fast structured events suit my style of play after all, although I’m forever moaning about them. Certainly a lot of players didn’t adjust their game accordingly & I think should have got busier sooner rather than later, blinding down until any move they make is gonna get a mandatory call from the BB. Well done to the eventual winner George Geary & unlucky to Martin Green who railroaded the whole final, just getting unlucky four times when heads up, I just hope for the sake of the poor mans pride that they show all four.
So with renewed confidence I set off to the new Broadway Casino on Saturday evening. Wow, this is by far the best casino in the country, it has a clubby feel, the bar food is fantastic, the restaurant looked great & the cocktail waitress’s were, I happened to notice, all very pleasing on the eye. Numbers were disappointing, but a strong 45 player line-up sat down for the £1000 freeze-out. In contrast to Wednesday’s event I got off to a lovely start cracking K-K with 10-7s on a 10,10,6 flop, but again in contrast to Wednesday’s event I did the lot shortly after, making a horrible play against a persistent raiser. I limped with K-J, he raised, again, I re-raised, he re-re-raised & not one to be bullied off a pot I put him all-in. He had A-K & the best hand held up. Worst play ever? Probably not, that’s another article for a quiet week…. I confess I’m not a great online player, I get distracted easily & don’t have the patience & this was straight out of my online playbook. So back to earth with a bump & although it pains me to have to write about it, how else will I learn?
I caught the tail end of ‘The Rules of Attraction’ late one night last week, written by American Psycho, Brett Easton Ellis. There’s an amazing sequence where we follow this guy & his sexual antics as he travels around Europe, all chopped & sped up, on f>fwd & crammed into one three minute sequence. I doubt my sexual antics warrant an article but I thought I’d see if I could get one comp done & dusted in one or two paragraphs, as I went quite deep at the Star City Grand Prix but don’t want to bore you with a monotonous hand after hand monologue:
Star City, big casino, 190 runners, a sprinkling of celebs, four hours of grinding Tikay style just to hang onto my original 10k, an habitual limper being my main source of income every so often, got moved, made a nice play against one of the pro’s, he raises, I call with some suited type semi-connectors, we miss & check the flop, he bets 1600 on turn, I make it 4k, half my stack, he passes, I enjoyed that, up to 13k for first time, work it up to 16k, but A-K runs into trip 2’s on an ace high flop, groan, back down to 5k, but I double up against a desperate short stack with A-Qs vs. K-6, get moved again, eventually find Q-Q in the BB facing a raise & call, I move in for another 9k, Martin Green dwells for one minute & passes, but my new best friend calls with Q-9s & I’m up to 37k, finishing Day 1 a shade below average with 32k.
At 1500/3000 & a 300 running ante, you can’t just sit there, Day 2 starts on time, chips get perilously close to Harrington’s Red Zone, but manage to steal my way back into contention, knock out Mickey Wernick when my A-Q counterfeits his 8-8 on a 10,10,9,K,9 board, hehe, guess I’ll be hearing about that one for a while, still under blind & ante pressure, last two tables, I manage to open up a little more finding another new best friend who doubles me up with 4-4 when I had 10-10 in the BB, thank you Poker Gods, manage to final above average, Thomas Kremser knocks the blinds back, tournament directors everywhere take note please, prize structure really top heavy but chip leader not concerned yet, fair enough, to make matters worse he’s on my immediate left & has a habit of calling every raise I make, why is he picking on me, down to five we chop up the majority of the lolly, 44k, 30k, 25k, 25k & 20k, me in the middle, with 10k to play for, feels a bit weird on the TV table, although deal is done it will be portrayed as the winner getting a 100k, get no cards as is usual for all of my TV appearances, yes it is terribly unfair, decide to make a play with my 180k against Martin who’s sitting on a million, I call his raise from the BB with Q-5s & check raise him all-in on the rag flop, but he doesn’t pass quickly, he’s taking too much time, this is bad, he has A-K & makes the right play, marvellous, pants down in spectacular style on the telly & I can’t even mention the deal in the interview, these Sponsored Players eh, at it all the time, it was only One Hundred Thousand Pounds for the winner & he sticks it in with filth, that bloke must be loaded.
The exit aside, a well balanced & disciplined performance with just two double ups & some kind of ever present force field surrounding me that deflected any bad beats. Maybe these fast structured events suit my style of play after all, although I’m forever moaning about them. Certainly a lot of players didn’t adjust their game accordingly & I think should have got busier sooner rather than later, blinding down until any move they make is gonna get a mandatory call from the BB. Well done to the eventual winner George Geary & unlucky to Martin Green who railroaded the whole final, just getting unlucky four times when heads up, I just hope for the sake of the poor mans pride that they show all four.
So with renewed confidence I set off to the new Broadway Casino on Saturday evening. Wow, this is by far the best casino in the country, it has a clubby feel, the bar food is fantastic, the restaurant looked great & the cocktail waitress’s were, I happened to notice, all very pleasing on the eye. Numbers were disappointing, but a strong 45 player line-up sat down for the £1000 freeze-out. In contrast to Wednesday’s event I got off to a lovely start cracking K-K with 10-7s on a 10,10,6 flop, but again in contrast to Wednesday’s event I did the lot shortly after, making a horrible play against a persistent raiser. I limped with K-J, he raised, again, I re-raised, he re-re-raised & not one to be bullied off a pot I put him all-in. He had A-K & the best hand held up. Worst play ever? Probably not, that’s another article for a quiet week…. I confess I’m not a great online player, I get distracted easily & don’t have the patience & this was straight out of my online playbook. So back to earth with a bump & although it pains me to have to write about it, how else will I learn?
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