YoyoPoker

2008-03-12T11:59:00.003Z

The Twilight Zone
It’s been a few months & this is the best I can come up with; here are one or two odd situations that have occurred over the past year or two:
Barcelona 2006
I have no logical explanation for the following hunch but the chap I eventually got heads up with in the 260 runner €500 side event, Daniel Dodet, was on my starting table. He was a pretty straightforward player and about two hours in I just got the strangest premonition that the two of us would get heads up. A vision of sorts & it really helped my focus throughout the day, looking over & seeing him plugging away.
Sure enough, the following day we had both made the final table & a few hours later we were heads-up.
Plymouth & Brighton UKPT’s
The Plymouth leg was my first big win for quite a while & was the turning point of my 2007 season. During the breaks I always like to try & get some fresh air & during one of my brief strolls I noticed a young guy walking towards me; he wasn’t beaten up or anything but he was balling his head off, very, very upset. This wasn’t a nice thing to witness & I was torn between checking he was OK & not disturbing my focus & getting back to the casino on time. I took the selfish option, hurried back to the game & thought no more of it.
Cut to January of this year & we’re down on the coast once again & I’m outside getting some air on the windswept promenade during one of the breaks – & the same thing happens, young guy, in bits, openly sobbing his heart out. Once again, I opt for the selfish route, but this time I see the incident as a sign that, as in Plymouth, I’m destined to win this thing.
I won’t be able to play the Manchester leg in April, but I’ll be on the lookout for a young broken-hearted male up in Newcastle in May.

2007-12-13T03:51:00.001Z

Don't Try This At Home
With the main EPT event over for me, the 500 side event in Prague was my last comp of the year; I really enjoyed myself, playing an open game, meaning there were swings aplenty, just like the old days. It got three hundred or so runners and first prize was € 80k. We started with 3000 chips, with one re-buy or top-up. I got involved in one or two very iffy situations - see what you think:
Marginal Play, Right Opponent
It was level 5, 150/300, average was about 10 or 11k and I had a 16 or 17k stack. I’d been fairly quiet for a revolution or two so when I found Qh-10h in LP and a raise to 900 and a call in front of me, I was more then happy to jump in and see a flop.
The flop was 8,Jc,Ac and the raiser who only had 4300 checked. A good, solid player, Benjamin Kang, bet 2500 and I called sensing all sorts of possibilities. The raiser sighed and then pushed all-in for a further 1900, which we both called.
The turn was the Qc and Kang checked. At this stage, with just one to come I wasn’t feeling too confident about the main pot but felt that I could perhaps get a little back in the way of a side pot so with about 11k left I bet 2k. Kang called. The river was a 5, Kang checked and I bet 3500. He dwelt for about fifteen seconds, showed A-Q and passed.
The raiser had K-K, stayed alive and I got the modest side pot, a 2000 return on my 5300 investment.
Everyone, perhaps barring Kang, thought I was nuts. I think, whilst there was a lot of risky stack exposure in the hand, it was an ok play, but it’s very opponent dependant and I would only have got that through against a good player.
Very Marginal Play, Wrong Opponent, Wrong Stack Sizes
Thirty minutes later then and I’ve been fairly inactive again, it’s passed to me on the button and I make it 1200 to go with what turns out to be 10d-2d. The erratic old boy in the SB re-raises a further 2k and I decide to take a shot and call (we have similar stack sizes). The flop is all spades, 2,4,Q.
He leads for 4k with just 6k back. I just decided then that that flop must be pretty terrifying for most hands and min-raised him, another 4k. Unfortunately he reluctantly called and led for his last 1900 when an offsuit ace hit. I of course couldn’t pass but got a momentary glimmer of hope as he started to stand, shaking his head.
Alas, his two red eights were massive and I was left red-faced and very short with just 1200 chips in front of me.
No, I didn’t go onto win it, but a minor miracle was performed when an admirable comeback was made; I somehow quadrupled-up on the very next hand with Ac-8h vs. A-K, Q-Q and K-2, I kid you not, somehow rivering the nut flush.

2007-11-16T10:59:00.000Z

As Good As It Gets
It’s been a while but I figured it would be nice to get some thoughts down on this dusty old blog regarding my recent hot streak. Not a hand orientated piece, but something that attempts to get over just what it’s like when you do actually snag that big win.
As was widely reported, the Baden EPT did coincide rather snugly with my fortieth birthday and, whilst chatting to my good friend Mad Harper the night before the final, I did suddenly remember a long forgotten goal that to be mortgage-free by the time that birthday rolled around would be pretty good. No sooner than those words had left my mouth, she hastily made her excuses and shot off to the press room, sound bite in hand.
Barring the first few levels (on Barry Greenstein’s table where I managed to call off 40% off my stack on the second hand of the tournament), the route to the final had been relatively straightforward - by that I mean I had run well and I never ran into any overly aggressive/pressuring players, which allowed me to play my game and on most tables, quietly captain the action.
After starting Day 2 with 26k I got off to a cracking start winning three 50/50’s against three short stacks and, by the time we were halfway through the day I had moved up to nearly a 100k. From that point on the pressure slowly built and I slept badly that night, finishing with 114k. By the time I’d made the final the following evening, with a double average 610k stack, I felt the hard work had been done, the pressure eased and I had a really good nights sleep.
I’m pretty sure I was the most relaxed player at the final table and my game plan was the same one I always use if I’ve got average chips or above; avoid all hero plays and attempt to keep the nose relatively clean until four or five-handed.
This, pleasingly, was how it panned out and once I won the 1.6 million pot for almost two thirds of the chips in play (four-handed with middle pair and a flush draw vs. bottom set), I figured it was as good as in the bag.
Heads-up then, despite nearly a 2:1 chip lead I was still eager to do some business. With € 375k for second and € 671k for first, I just wasn’t keen to play one on one for € 300k. I’m no deal-maker expert but a € 450/€ 550k chop with € 46k to play for felt about right and given that I went on to close it out an hour later, I’m not about to second guess that decision.
As in Plymouth a month earlier (where three of us did a chip count and played for the £14k of Blue Sq goodies), yeah for sure, a deal changes the play in a game, but looking back at the winning hands from both tournaments, I’m confident they don’t play like that if we’re playing for the whole enchilada.
It should be no surprise that it was the biggest of highs when that last hand was dealt out and I then knew that what I had dreamt, on a very good day, just might be possible, suddenly, became a reality.
Almost immediately Kara Scott was over for an on the spot closing interview and I was, all of a sudden, overwhelmed. A combination of the money just won and a realisation of a major European title finally under my belt, was just too much for my brain to compute in such a short time and, whilst I wasn’t blubbering, I did well up for a few seconds. Thankfully somebody placed a calming beer in my hand, I settled down and the next hour was a muddled blur of photographs and interviews.
Those who were left, mostly bloggers and the PokerStars crew, joined me at the bar where the bubbly flowed. I couldn’t go the distance though and had to make my excuses a couple of hours later, back to the hotel on my own, to start to let it all sink in. It took about three days.
I was a bit unsure of how much to tip and ended up leaving 1% which I hope found its way to all the dealers and valets. Bottom line then, and as an indication of just how well I ran, until quite recently where I would normally have about 15% out in swaps, Baden coincided with me deciding to stop swapping altogether; it was only Martin Wendt who ‘had a hunch’ and convinced me to swap 1%. That and the 10% claw-back that William Hill re-cycle back into my budget meant that it was a very profitable trip.
The money won ticks just about every box we had dreamed of and no, that list didn’t include a Porsche, although you might spot me in a new family friendly S-Max with all the toys, outside a card room near you soon. Finally, there is an amusing tale that I hope Praz Bansi won’t mind me re-telling on here:
We were down in Cardiff about three weeks ago for the Late Night Poker heats and (after a few drinks), the conversation moved onto how close to tears anyone had been after a bad day on the baize.
I chirped up that the closest I’d been was when I won the EPT and Praz then retold the tale of when he won his World Series bracelet in 2006.
Stephen Bartley did an interview with him for Gutshot and when Praz said, “every time I look at the bracelet I smile”, Stephen quoted him as saying, “every time I look at the bracelet I cry”. Ah, kindred spirits.
I should point out that this alleged misquote has yet to be verified by Stephen.

2007-11-04T10:21:00.000Z

From November 1st William Hill Poker will pay rakeback according to an updated and improved structure:
The updated structure means players will now receive a minimum rakeback of 30% gross, paid directly into their account every week.
For players earning 0-1199 MPPs each month, this represents a significant increase in rakeback, 100% compared to the current rate.
If you need to open a William Hill account please use the link at the top of the blog.

Oh, and a poker related post is pending!

2007-09-04T08:49:00.000Z

September Goodies
For every 1000 MPP's earned, William Hill will credit your account with a $100, up to a maximum of $500/month. Drool.

2007-08-23T15:47:00.000Z

What's Going On
August has been kind, with a win at the monthly 300 in Walsall and another at the new Circus casino in Nottingham. The latter was quite spectacular in that, once three-handed, I managed to flop back to back full-houses to snatch it, firstly with Q-Q, then a 2-9. Easy game really.
I should also mention a chop (eight-way no less) at the 33 runner main event in Sheffield - I won’t bore you with the details but the deal was too good to refuse ;o)
I’ve been playing more cash too and despite the occasional gaff we are showing a modest profit. I’m just back from two days in Brighton and I’m sorry to report that their midweek 500 had only thirty one runners. The 200 fared a little better with almost eighty but were it not for a nice score in the cash game afterwards the trip would have been a very bad decision.
It’s Barcelona next week where the second half of the season kicks off proper. Until then I’ll leave you with this little gem of conversation that took place at my table whilst playing the 300 at Walsall.
The young hero had been quite busy and was doing his best to go broke, but was clearly more concerned that folk were whispering about him:
“What did you say?”
“Nothing mate, I was talking to him”.
Listen, lets go up to the cash tables and I’ll play you for fifty grand right now if you want”.
Ok, just let me go to the cash point”.
“Who said anything about using a cash point?”
Oh to be blissfully wealthy and unaware.

2007-07-26T10:47:00.000Z

Bounties Ahoy!
7.30pm Thursdays:
William Hill are running an $18+2 comp where five of us have bounties on our heads...prizes escalate...knock out the last remaining Bounty and you win a $4000 Caribbean lite package.
Yum yum.
Use the above link if you need to set up an account.

2007-07-23T14:46:00.000Z

Hard To Beat
I enjoyed my second trip to Vegas, a $1000 down meaning an almost break even trip, which was pretty good considering the exposure I had. That was my fourth visit over a two year period and what is disappointing is that as yet, I've not managed to snag a decent score in the one town where decent scores are plentiful.
That being said, I did manage to scoop a $2900 pot in a $2-5 game at the Wynn, all-in pre, with K-2s. The White Russians had been flowing and one guy moved-in blind before his cards were dealt. Computer says a king high hand beats the average so obviously I called. An aggressive big stack then shoved three grand in, but with just $700 behind I was never passing.
Anyways, I flopped a king, the big stacks 5's were toast and the blind guy mucked. Happy memories.
Alas I didn't fair so well in the WPT. We started with 20k and despite having Andreas Hagen, Patrick Antonius and Jamie Gold all on my left, the early going was good as I snuck up to 30k.
With one level to go however, I was on about 22k with blinds at 300/600/100 I think. My image was pretty good so after limping UTG with 9-10s, I elected to represent and heave it all-in after two more had limped and one guy with about 17k had over-raised it to 6k on the button.
The limpers all ducked, the raiser then says, "well only a genius would pass this hand", called, flipping up kings, and marvellous, I now had to table my suited connectors. I actually flopped a ten, but it wasn't to improve and not long after I ran jacks into queens.
What's slightly annoying is that in the two 10k's that I played I made just one big move for everything in each and both times ran into a big hand.
Back home now and I had a fair run in the Newcastle UKPT, just about scraping into the last eighteen. I made Day 2 with slightly more than average chips, but never got much going and had good fun just shoving my six to eight BB's in once a round for a four hour stretch. Amazing that I never once got doubled up - hmm, perhaps, despite having such a short stack, I should have been a little more creative with my opening bets.
My last hand was a tad frustrating; I pushed 70k in at 4000/8000/500 with A-Qs, Mazhar Nawab pushed-in for about 140k with A-A and then the BB decided to come along for the ride with A-K. Best hand held up and well done to Maz for going on to win it.

2007-07-12T18:02:00.000Z

One Week Later
Well the World Series is over for me, although it actually felt like a success of sorts to actually bag up a handful of chips and make Day 2b. I had a fairly steady table on Day 1d with Padraig being the only face I recognised. I’m struggling to remember many hands, but suffice to say, they, and any sweet situations were very few.
Despite the fact that average chips was 55k, my 32k was by no means short, with the blinds at 500/1000/100. Once again I got a steady table with just one other player, another Julian, from Melbourne I think, sat bang on my left.
I got the perfect start, raising to 3000 with Ah-8h, the BB calling. 4h,7h,9h flop, he checked, I bet 5200, he pushed 80k in, I called, his Qh-2h missed, ace high good enough. Unfortunately, up to 60k it didn’t take too long to get a nose bleed and thirty minutes later I was back down to 25k.
Overplaying eights out of position against Julian started the rot; I made it 3000, he flat called. I check called his 6000 on a Q,Q,6 flop, we both checked the turn, I led for 10,500 on the river, he called with J-J. A vintage bad bet by me.
Then I raised on the button with A-3s and the short BB pushed for another 7500 with the boots. Marvellous.
I treaded water long time and right at the end of the 600/1200/200 level I thought I saw the perfect spot; big stack #1 raised to 3600, big stack #2 called - K-J looked just the ticket and I pushed for 25k but once again Julian woke up with a hand, Q-Q, end of.
That was yesterday but this being Vegas, there’s always another tournament and the Bellagio have added a third start day to their WPT event, so hey-ho, one more shot awaits at noon.
I’ve enjoyed the Mirage but the rooms aren’t nearly as nice as Bellagio’s, the bathroom’s are pokey and the towels have all seen better days. Still, it’s nice that the windows open, meaning I get to air my smalls, which is cool as I can eyeball my room from the swimming pool. Useful.
Hand of the trip (thus far) has been in a $1-2 game at the Venetian. Lovejoy and myself had been for steaks at the Outback and, slightly merry decided to rip it up in a $1-2 game. My $200 soon became $500 and I raised it up, $6 to go with J-3. I think I got re-popped but anyway, we ended up seeing an all club flop, something like K,9,6. I forget the flop betting but he ended up shoving $400 in. I had the 3c and of course made an excellent call. The turn and river bricked off. He was first to speak…and mucked, I kid you not. He looked pretty sick when I flipped em up.

2007-07-06T07:12:00.000Z

Thursday
Checked into the Mirage, so far so good, pool looks cool, will check it all out properly tomorrow.
Had dinner with DC, John Shipley and the Camel and family at Valentino's in the Venetian before heading on over to the Crypto party. A very nice room and view it was from atop the Playboy Tower, but my powers started to wane as the evening wore on and I managed to jump ship with Jiame(?) back to the Rio where I hoped to buy-in to the ME.
We bumped into Roy B which inevitably led onto a few pints at the Tilted Kilt with the Irish Mob and I guess it was midnight by the time I eventually made it down to the Amazon Room.
The queue was a good 200m long but being the sneak I am, I caught the eye of the ever smiling Stevie and got hot-footed to front of the queue in a very VIP like manner, only to then discover that as well as my WSOP ID card, a passport, as well as the 10k in cash was required to enable the purchase of a Day 1d ticket. Sigh.
Still, it was worth it just to cop the look on Dubai's face as I sailed past the masses, arf.
I can buy-in up until 1pm on Monday at the Rio so all that now needs to be decided is whether to play the 1pm $2500 5k stack at the Bellagio or the 5pm $1000 10k stack event at the Venetian....

2007-07-04T12:34:00.001Z

Easy Money, no really, it is.
William Hill have been running the Julian Thew MTT for the past three weeks, a £15 comp where the winner gets to play me, the following Tuesday, heads-up, for a $1000. If I win, the grand is rolled over to the next week.
Worringly, I'm 0 for 3 so far and before you ask, no I'm not required to take a dive.
Woe is me.

2007-06-27T11:01:00.000Z

Barring the odd blog or two I haven't followed events too much whilst back here at home. Reports of a special 10-handed final to accommodate a short stacked Hellmuth and yet another ridiculous structure in the PLO re-buy event really don't endear the WSOP to me.
As planned, I haven't played live since Vegas but I have been getting stuck into that most excellent Cardrunners site. This of course means that I have been dabbling online and to be honest I've quite enjoyed it and feel that I can at least see how it should be done....just give me some time.
During the week I had a pretty good run on the $2/4 tables working $600 up to $2800 before the lot went in a day; some unfocused play, couple of beats, induced chasing.
What continues to amaze me is just how easily I can steam whilst online. I mean, I'm a fairly sensible guy, but on an online table the smallest thing gets me all hot and bothered. The brother phoned up just as I was starting a session and we had to chuckle when I confessed to feeling tilty before I'd even played a hand, sigh.
I am at least glad to report that over the week I kind of got a handle on it, there's just a few rules I need to abide by. I know a few perpetual steamers, successful ones too, Grundy springs to mind, I must bend his ear next week to see how he handles it.
The thoughts of escaping this brutal summer are most pleasing and I'm really looking forward to hitting Vegas again next week. I get in the day before the Main Event starts, there's a Crypto party that evening over at the Palm's and I'll pop over to the Rio beforehand, where hopefully I can choose day 1c whilst buying in, freeing me up to play the $2500 at the Bellagio Cup on Friday.
Aye, I got it all planned out.

2007-06-14T14:43:00.001Z

End Game
No I didn't stop at the Wynn, but it is one of my favourite buildings and I just had to take a few pictures; I just love that look. That minimalist exterior sets you up for a fall though, as the interior is your safe bet, bog standard mock regency or some other such period re-hash. The Palms is the only casino I've been to in Vegas where the contemporary exterior ties in with what lies inside.
Onto the poker then and I closed out the trip with a $500 and a $1000 at the Venetian and Monday’s $1500 at the Bellagio. I didn‘t get any scores on the doors but really do feel the trip has restored some confidence back in my game and already I’m looking forward to July’s return leg. I’m getting chips again and have been playing my small and big stacks well and, the fact that out of nine comps, I only managed one final for the smallest of cashes isn’t bothering me as much as I’d have thought it would.
Personally, a big advantage over here is being an anonymous face again and I’m sure that has had something to do with my ability to once again garner chips; sometimes on home turf it feels like I only have to look at a pot to get someone reaching for chips - something that by now, I really should be able to take advantage of…
I moved up to the $5-10NL tables at the Bellagio and fared a lot better than when I’d played the $2-5 there, booking two out three winning sessions. Money-wise then, playing nine comps I booked a loss of $6310 and in eight cash game sessions I booked a $2445 profit. I as good as free-rolled in the two WSOP events I played thanks to William Hill which means that I’m $3865 down on the ten day trip - well worth the punt.
On Saturday evening myself, the Green/Sherwood combo and John Dwyer headed up to Aureole at the Mandalay Bay, where we all had the tasting menu with a wine pairing for each of the seven courses, mmm, hic. It was good, just lacked a bit of atmosphere, which was odd for what you would expect to be their busiest evening. Of course Martin then insisted we all donate another $200 to further his sick dice habit, I mean cunning, just as yet unprofitable strategy.
I also sampled a superb crab and shrimp salad followed by the duck at the Venetian’s Aquaknox with Frode, Jan Sjavik and Andy Ward on Monday evening and it was MGM’s Craftsteak with Milky, Gryko and Ali Masterman the following evening where I got to taste my first Kobe ribeye - alas, superb as it was I could only manage half of it. Feeling very, very full at this stage it was all too much when the waiters then loaded the table with complimentary desserts, no doubt entirely due to leaving Gryko in charge of the wine list.
The Bellagio has been a very pleasant hotel to stop at, my only gripe is that there’s no cheap eats, a Dunkin Donuts or Subway nearby, for that quick fix in between meals.
I don’t plan on lifting a card in the three weeks I’ve got at home and with a bit of luck I can run a little better out here in July.

2007-06-10T02:09:00.000Z

Middle Bit
Well my wire transfer never got verified at the Rio but I still managed to play my two WSOP events for the trip, the 2000NL on Wednesday and the 5000PL yesterday.
The poker room isn’t quite so stark as it used to be, they’ve subdued the lighting a little and there are big poster pictures of all the past main event winners hanging on the walls to break up the monotonous view.
Halfway through level 2 in the NL event I made it 300 to go with J-J UTG. The busy guy who had already doubled up re-raised to 800. That I liked, what I didn’t like was a young guy smooth calling from the BB.
I called the 500 and couldn’t decide whether I was happy or sad to see an A,K,J flop. The kid checked, I checked and the busy guy pushed 8000 all in to a 2500 pot. The kid called pretty quickly for 3000 and I pondered the fate of my last 3000. I’d love to be able to say I passed, but I’d be lying. Busy guy had A-K, young guy had the aces, end of.
I had a much better run in the 5000PL, getting the gambling calls and re-raises just about right. Willie Tann was on my starting table and we traded plenty of blows but the biggest pot I snagged was on my second table with John Hennigan two to my left.
I discovered pretty quickly that he loves to re-raise and I’d already laid down J-10 on a ten high flop after leading into him.
A few hands later he raised UTG, I flat called with J-J and the tight BB called too. I checked the 5,8,9 flop the BB led for 2500 and JH made it 10k with 5k back. Pretty sure he had zilch, I pushed for 18k and quickly realised I may have boo booed when the BB eventually called after like a two minute dwell. JH, I was at least pleased to see, looked pretty sick too but called for his last 5k. He flipped up A-10, the BB 5-8, both of which were irrelevant once I’d hit trips on the turn.
I pretty much hovered around the 40k mark for next few levels but after the dinner break not a lot went right; I made it 3200 with 10-10, one caller. I checked the J,J,4 flop, he checked to. I bet 5500 when a 3 hit, he called. I checked the 7, he checks behind and I nearly fell off my chair when he shows J-Q. Nice play sir.
I dribble a bit more then raise on the button with A-Q and as I’d suspected he would the BB re-raises, in it goes, he has tens, no help.
$2-5 cash at the Mirage has been my bread and butter game and its been fun building $5 towers. I’m not completely sure that all Americans understand the concept of pot odds. I mean it wouldn’t be my strongest suit but I do have a feel for it; two or three times over here though I’ve been in a pot, and lets say there’s $400 in the pot on the river. Geezer bets $100, I make it $300 and all he’s apparently concerned about is the fact that it’s like, ‘Wow, you bet another 200 bucks!’, never mind that there’s $800 in there. The weak ones, and there are many, will lay down some big hands if the last bet is big enough.
Eats-wise the 9” pork loin with sweet potato at Caesar’s Mesa Grill was as good as recommended and the Milky one and I shared some quick eats and tales of daring-do at Buzio’s over at the Rio during the 5k dinner break.
I don't plan on playing any of the other comps at the Rio until I return for the main event in July. I'll wind the trip down with a couple of games at the Venetian and then I'll hit the first of the Bellagio festival events on Monday.

2007-06-06T14:43:00.000Z

Early Doors
It’s day 3 over here now and I’m averaging a comp a day with two or three hours of early morning $2-5. Typically, when at home with the boys waking us at around 6am I dream of a week away with uninterrupted sleep…once away though it never seems to work out - too much excitement I guess.
I haven’t even played at the Rio yet and already it’s winding me up. A simple $17k wire transfer that has left its English account remains unfindable in the chaos that is the registration desk. I’ve already been down there twice which involved four taxis and an hour of queuing and the best they can do is give me a phone number of the woman who can sort it out, the only problem is she doesn’t want to answer her phone.
It gets worse; Nick Gibson told me about the $5k omaha with re-buys that he played on Monday. They took 6% of every re-buy and the blinds started at 100/200 - mind bogglingly stupid.
I got a result in the daily $1000 at the Bellagio yesterday which rather frustratingly just keeps me even on the trip. I played well but the final was a flat affair for me and I eventually went out eighth calling Martin Green’s push with 7-7. We were both low with 25k at 1500/3000/500 and I guess I knew I was racing…I was and he went on to get second with Rob Sherwood squeaking into sixth.
During the comp I was reminded what it is that I love about the game:
Four tables out I’m running well with 30k, double average. New guy sits on my left with 30k, brash, talking it up, mirrored sunglasses, raises the first two pots at the table and then it’s his BB, my SB.
One limper for 600, I make it up with A-10, he checks. I check the K,10,6 flop, he leads for 2k, limper passes I call.
I check the 8 on the turn, he pushes in 7k. I call.
River comes a 9, I check, he pushes 20k all-in, stares hard at me and gets up and leaves the table. The dealer calls him back, I comment that he can only make that move with the nuts and he immediately calls a clock. There’s a little bit of a commotion when I complain that I haven’t even had a minute yet and then when I ask the guy if he’s gonna whoop it up if he wins, Thang the floor man tells me I can’t talk during the hand.
Of course I did call and he flipped up a J-6. So sweet, it felt like the whole table wanted to shake my hand.
The Venetian are also running a very nice festival with good chips - I played the six hundred runner $340 on Monday and four hours in two thirds of the field had gone, but my inability to chuck A-Q meant the winners $52k wasn’t gonna be in my back pocket.
Food-wise I haven’t crossed any joints off my list yet, but it was an off-strip steak at Del Frisco’s with Iwan and big Trev on Monday (good wine, but walker crisps with onions on wouldn’t be my favourite side dish with a $40 filet) and then much merriment was had at the Bellagio’s pan-asian Sensi last night with Channing, Sherwood, Green, Frode and Muzza, the Green/Channing combo then costing me a further $200 when we spotted TJ on the dice tables…

2007-06-01T14:03:00.000Z

Here Comes The Summer
...and summer these days means Vegas. I'm doing a two-trip jaunt this year, more travelling but hopefully less burnout.
The plans for next week include at least two events at the Rio, the $5000PL and a $2000NL. In between I reckon I'll be found at either the Bellagio (where I'm staying) or over the road at the Venetian, both of which are running parallel festivals.
Good old sausage, mash and beans is this evenings last meal of choice at home in England and whilst away, I've got a short list of foodie-recommendations that I'm aiming to trough my way through:
The Grand Cafe at the Venetian, Nero's at Caesars, Chinese Grill at Mandalay Bay, Gallagher's Steakhouse at New York New York and Hugo's at the Four Queens - do please nudge me if anyone fancies joining in or has any suggestions for the list.
I had a great weekend in Drogheda at Mike Lacey's Green Joker Poker festival, playing the €1000, €500 and €300 events; once again, I couldn't hit a barn door in any of them but earned some slightly overdue wages hitting everything else in the lively side games. I should also point out that the Guinness they served next door went down a treat and that, coupled with the excellent structures means that it's very likely I'll return.
A big well done to Jen Mason, the original Blonde updater who appeared to win the main event with all the ease of a seasoned pro and I also noticed two of the good guys, Jeff Kimber and Dan Carter, got heads-up in the WHUPC in Barcelona last week...oh boy would I liked to have seen Dan, in his school uniform, getting the better of the Devilfish, titter, titter.

2007-05-24T08:16:00.000Z

Brighton Hand Histories
You might think that the seafront in Brighton would be a grand spot for a casino. I had such thoughts as I strolled up but they were swiftly dashed; given its location, the Grosvenor in Brighton is one of the grimmest I've experienced. The entrance is situated on the seafront but once you’re in and have climbed the four flights of stairs you could be anywhere. No windows, just a big tired box of a room.
The main event was hard work. Horribly card dead for the five hour duration I was bluffing my arse off just to stand still. The gist of my demise was running second best hands into near nut ones, not a thrilling script so I'll spare you the details.
I had a better run in the one hour clock 250 freeze-out and here are some of the more interesting hands.
We started with 8k and a couple of hours in I dropped to 2k after getting stuck to a flush. I suspect it was a raised pot, but I could be wrong. I bet 600 with Kc-9c when I flopped the flush. The caller led for 800 when the a six paired on the turn, I min raised, he min re-raised, I called.
He had a big stack, I had 5k left and he led for 3k when the Ac hit the river. I eventually, reluctantly called and lost to quad 6's. The guy wasn't a maniac and I probably should have passed on the turn and definitely should have folded on the river, as I really couldn’t see him making those bets with just a queen high flush.
Now's the fun part, 150/300, UTG raised and holding A-9 I was getting ready to muck when I heard the raiser comment that he was blind. I took him at his word and was rewarded with a double-up against a 4-5 off.
Up to 3.5k I pushed all-in with 9-9 after two limpers and the big stack generously called with 10-3s. No shockers and I was back.
J-J held off 8-8 on a 9,7,7 flop for a third double-up and soon I was up to 25k. It wasn’t all plain sailing though, as some young buck had been moved to my left with a big stack and I was struggling to get much past him.
Fortunately he soon got moved and with him out of the way I raised the new BB with J-6 from my SB. I led out for 800 on the 3,6,10 flop, he called. A good-looking jack appeared on the turn, I bet 1200, he raised 3000, I pushed and he eventually called for his last 8k with A-J.
Up to 45k and Ian Fraser joined us, chipped up. This guy is relentlessly aggressive and bullies as much with his east end verbal as he does with his cards. Whatever the outcome, dirt was gonna fly.
On his first hand he raised to 3000 UTG and I called with 7h-9h in the BB. Drooling, I checked the 3h,5h,6 flop, he overbet the pot, 20k to go. I mopped my chin and immediately pushed, got plenty of lip, but he did pass and we were both even with about 70k each. I probably should mention that this was four tables out and average for the final was 100k...
Of course we clashed again and I really don't think I played it well but here goes, a calling station am I, see what you think;
Ian raised and I called with 7-7 in the BB. I check-called 7k on the 4,5,10 flop and 15k when a jack hit the turn. A horrible queen fell on the river, I checked again and probably now having enough of it Ian checked as well, revealing an A-Q to scoop.
Clearly a raise on the flop or the turn was in order, but with big stacks and poor position against an aggressive opponent I guess I just feared the re-raise. My bad.
Twenty eight of us came back the following day and despite having dropped to 35k I felt good about my chances. Unfortunately, five minutes in I called a raise with K-Qs from the BB, checked the K,Q,7 flop and did my money against A-J when a 10 hit fourth street.

2007-05-16T13:13:00.000Z

The Tourist
Back on the road again and I've just arrived in Brighton. Alas, due to the everlasting rain we've been experiencing I've had to leave my Speedo's tucked up at home...probably a good thing.
I'm stopping at the quirky Pelirocco Hotel, in their 'Sputnik Room'; no.1 son would love it, the whole room is decked out like the inside of a space capsule, complete with a silver duvet set. Reasonably priced with free wifi and plenty of character it makes an agreeable change from the usual blandness that is present at the majority of hotels.
As mentioned, I'm fresh off a break and hit last weeks local GBPT festival full of beans. Whilst I didn't final in any of the four events I went deep-ish in two and was pretty happy with how I played.
There were one or two marginal situations along the way where caution might have appeared a better move, but I can live with it and feel sure that I'm gonna get chips and go deep in some of the upcoming festivals.
I got off to a fair start in the £500 main event, but doubling up short to middling stacks by running underpairs into Q-Q, K-K and A-A really isn't the best way to go about winning an event.
I had to smile when I doubled up one of the looser local Greek(?) players, Dasoss(?), the portly Danny DeVito look-alike:
He had 15k, I had 30k and everyone passed around to us in the blinds. He min raised, 1k with 1k. I had 6-6 and, just about controlling the urge to just re-raise him there, I called.
He bet 3k on the 3,4,10 flop and I put him in. He flipped up K-K and doubled up.
'Julian', he sighed, 'You know me, how can you play that!'
'Because I know you is how!' I replied.
How we chuckled.
It made a very nice change not having to travel and with 7pm starts, it meant that even with an early exit the evening wasn't a complete right off.

2007-05-11T21:48:00.000Z

For Ralph
I've been enjoying a couple weeks off, in fine weather, during which a box-type structure has slowly gone up in the wasteland that was the bottom corner of our garden.
We've been here for nearly two years now and when we arrived one of the first things we did was to fell a large conifer that obliterated the view. Once gone we discovered three smaller oaks, half a mini and about five tons of oily soil.
When I’d eventually cleared it I was left with a stump about 18” in diameter and without enough room to get a stump grinder in and around the old conservatory, it was a case of gradually hacking and sawing bits off until at last, it stood only 6" above ground level.

A deck was the only solution to finally getting it covered, the design and build of which almost felt like proper work and the whole experience really was most satisfying. All that remains is some planting in the raised beds and then, weather permitting, an alfresco summer awaits, hic.

A busy four week stint kicked off this week, starting at the local Gala where, for like the first time ever, they’ve got themselves a festival together. It’s been fun so far, but four days by the seaside in Brighton next week is what I'm really looking forward too.
Oh, and if anyone knows why the lawn feed I administered last week appears to have killed off most of our lawn I'd be most grateful...

2007-04-25T06:48:00.000Z

Plod
It was Leg 4 of the UKPT in Manchester last Friday and I went up feeling pretty confident, fresh from a final table appearance in Luton the week before. Sadly though, it was another frustratingly lack lustre performance and I’ll keep the analysis brief as I fear this blog is rapidly turning into a catalogue of woes:
On the second hand I did 1500 chips running K-Q into a set of jacks on a queen high board.
At 7500 I ran into Chris Sokrati’s kings full holding J-Q on a Q,6,7,K,Q board.
Down to 4500 we saw a ray of hope when I check raised all-in on a flush draw cracking aces with 9-10s.
Right after the dinner break though, I doubled up the tight guy Pete Singleton, with A-Q vs. A-K. I blame this poor state of affairs entirely on dinner at Groucho’s; a sirloin steak with béarnaise sauce, big chips, a tomato and red onion salad and some red to quench the thirst. We arrived back twenty minutes late and all I really felt like was a post meal snooze. My bad.
Short again with 4k I was only too happy to push into a re-raised pot against Nick Persaud with two seemingly beautiful queens...but he had the bullets.
Stuck in Manchester I dived straight into a cash game and wouldn't you know hit two or three nice flops with ease, which coupled with a wee saver from 4th place finisher Nick Slade meant that on paper at least, the evening wasn't a complete write-off.
I really can’t be bothered to travel to the WPT in Paris or the WHUPC in Barcelona next month, instead I shall be saving my pennies for an early WSOP hit and run in about five weeks time. In-between there’s Leg 5 at Brighton and then I’ll probably head over to Drogheda for the Green Joker Poker Festival a week later.
Oh and there’s a large project about to unfold in the garden involving twelve holes, some concrete and about 125m of timber; given that my DIY skills lie somewhere between those of Homer Simpson and Bob the Builder I’ll see how it all looks before I consider posting any pictures.

2007-04-16T22:05:00.000Z

Pressure Drop
I don’t recall the Bellagio or the Wynn having a dress code the last time I was in Vegas, but they treat such matters a little more gravely in Luton where ridiculousness is present at it’s very worst at their new G Casino. I mean it’s not like it’s in the middle of Mayfair or anything, but still they try to inflict the pettiest of dress codes on their male punters. I’m talking trainers, and whilst I just about got away with a pair of scuffed up Campers two others in front of me weren’t awarded such a generous welcome.
That gripe aside, the casino is a vast improvement on the bland multiplex styling’s of the former venue and the good news is that the very friendly staff are all still present.
I played two events, an early bath in the 500 and a final in the sixty runner 1500. I'll try and choose these events with more care in the future as the popularity of the UKPT means many will just avoid the more expensive in-between ones.
We got a 15,000 starting stack and by the beginning of Level 5 I was as low as 2900 but got some breaks and ended the day in a good position with 55k. Early on Day 2 I got up to 160k thanks to three big pots that all went my way (in front twice, chips in first on the third, cough, cough).
Despite this dominating chip lead, two tables out it very nearly went tits up when I doubled up Jeff Kimber three times on consecutive hands; A-K vs. 2-2, J-J vs. K-Q and then Q-Q vs. A-K; I still had a 100k but one expensive flush draw later I was slumming it back in the pack.
Play slowed for nearly two hours on the bubble and sick of getting played back at, I made an ill-timed all-in heave with a J-7 for 55k only to find my old mate Jeff Kimber with K-K. I sucked out hitting two pair and managed to final bang on average with a 100k.
Unfortunately, despite treading water I never really made any headway in the final and as soon as I attempted a change of gears I was out the door; six-handed and sitting on 85k it was an auto re-push in the BB with K-10s when a chipped up Willie Tann raised. Bad timing though as he had A-Q, made the right call and it held up.
Some wages then and a boost to the confidence, as it really does feel like a long time since I got a decent stack and have had a run at a decent win. Trajectory; onwards and upwards we hope.

2007-04-09T12:24:00.000Z

Glimmer
An improvement of sorts at the Irish Open and hey, I even made it through to Day 2. The first two levels were woeful, I played a whole bunch of hands, mostly crud, missed everything but still tried to get clever and all of a sudden I was down in the doldrums with just 4000.
I got a reprieve though, finding kings when someone had queens, swiftly followed by a Brucie bonus, getting ejected to another table. Paul Zimbler was chipped up and captaining the new line-up with ease. I managed to squeeze a couple of make or break moves past him, though given the amount of times he raised my blinds we probably ended up about even on a chips garnered count.
My biggest triumph of the day occurred when I was up to 11k. The button min raised to 600 and I called with K-Q from the SB. We checked the 3,4s,6s flop, I checked the jack on the turn and he bet 1600. I raised him 2800 back and he just called. With 5500 left I was pretty sure I’d fire once more on the river but when the Qs fell betting out no longer felt like the compulsory play. I checked it to him, he looked at my stack and bet 4500. I wearily called and breathed easy when he mucked an A-5.
Chipped up with average chips for the first time all day, I then donked-off 6000 making it 1900 to go with 8-9s. A short stack then pushed for 6000 with A-10s; I know that’s what he had because I called that bet. Perhaps a pass for the other 4100 would have been a better decision, but I guess I wanted to test my momentum; if you can win one or two of these punts you feel unstoppable: conclusion = poor momentum.
Eights then came to the rescue. I‘d made it 1900 again and got re-popped to 6000 by an aggressive Dane with a big stack. This guy ticked just enough boxes to make a stand for my last 10k and to my relief I was well in front of his sixes.
I was more than pleased to end up bagging 25,500 at the close of play, an average stack, after what had been a tough day with very few big hands or straightforward decisions.
My good fortune continued when, despite my raging thirst, I skipped the option of a Guinness or two and headed straight back home (Mum‘s house), running into a Garda checkpoint, my minty fresh breath meaning I was waved along.
Day 2 had all the makings of being something very special. In the first level I picked up K-K five times and A-K twice. Of course the two times I got action I got spanked, running into a set of sevens with the kings and missing everything in a re-raised, bet the flop pot with the A-K.
This meant that despite still having 25k I felt very hard done by. The gloves came off and a level or two of yoyo-ing then followed, with lows of 15k and highs of 35k.
I made my last stand with A-5 against Ian Woodley during one of the lows, re-pushing from the BB for 15k in the face of his 5k late position raise. He didn’t think too long, told me I was in front and called with K-Js. It was a good flop, A,J,5 but he hit a king on the river and I was gone.
Given my performance in the last three events I’m gonna have to continue managing my budget with care, which means skipping the 25k event at the Bellagio…a shame but as I don’t yet feel I’m playing even close to where I could, or should be it’s the sensible choice.
Finally, I’d like to wish Xuyen and Steve Vladar, formally aka Smokie and Badgirl all the best as they have chosen to move onto pastures new. Though they barely knew me, they were instrumental in helping me garner a sponsorship deal with William Hill in 2004 as well looking after me once I was in. We shared many great trips and Xuyen’s excellent, if short-lived babysitting potential will be missed.

2007-03-30T10:18:00.000Z

Doubt
Yes, I’m afraid it’s another dour title. I know some would have me pegged as very loose/aggressive but some days it just feels like dreadfully weak/passive.
I went out in level 5, with 7000 chips at 150/300. I made it 850 with J-J and got swiftly re-raised by Norbet Holting, the tight guy. I re-pushed and there was a momentary glimmer of hope when he dwelt and even after the call with Q-Q, I picked up more outs on the 9,10,Q flop, but a fourth queen sealed the deal.
I bumped into Andy Black on the beach yesterday morning and ran it past him.
‘Down to 7000 I was looking for a spot’, I said.
‘Why were you looking for a spot’, was his reply.
I enjoy our occasional chats, Andy comes at the game from a different angle to most and I always go away with something new to mull over.
The real damage was done when I just called a Barry Greenstein raise with K-K. He led for 1200 on the 2,6,8 flop, 3000 on the turn and 6500 on the river. The board was ten high and I guess having played the calling game all the way I wasn’t about to pass on the river. Result; I got to see his set of 2’s.
I dunno, barring a pre-flop re-raise, if I do raise him on the flop I'm really not sure if I believe his inevitable re-push, so maybe by playing the hand so meekly I lost the minimum.
The one other hand that could have been played better was a pair of nines. Again I just called a raise from the aggressive Dutch player on my right, Peter, who’s surname escapes me. The flop was ten high, I called his 1200 bet and when he checked the second club on fourth street I bet 2000. He called, we checked the red jack on the river and his Ac-Jc scooped the pot.
There were other hands of course and pots that went my way but looking back the overall fault appears to be a lack of pre-flop aggression, especially when, in the above situations I had position. I don’t think I was overawed by the moment, I just took a too cautious approach and perhaps a lack of pre-match focusing was the root cause.
A real shame as this event is set on the most spectacular of stages; the card-room is breathtaking, with eleven of the biggest, most beautiful, glass windows I’ve ever seen, separated by mirrored columns that gently taper into the room, all allowing a dramatic panoramic view over the bay to Monte Carlo. Oh and as you can see, the roof comes off, James Bond style, at the push of a button.
Finally, I feel duty bound to mention Barry Greenstein’s jumper. I’m sure you’ve seen it on the telly and believe me, it don’t improve much in the flesh. Think Alan Partridge on a bad day. Perhaps it’s a decoy, there to distract and pacify his foe; whatever, it seemed to work as I wasn’t alone in donating a nice chunk of chips over to him.

2007-03-26T15:23:00.000Z

Gold Soundz
I’ve always been into my sounds and grew up immersed in my Dads record collection; Beatles, ELO, Supertramp, Randy Newman some Billy Joel and by the time I was earning a few quid down at the local supermarket, it was regular trips into town on the bus to visit Dublin’s best second hand record store, Freebird in Grafton Street.
We picked up a new, deep bookcase recently which means that at long last, I can now get all my old vinyl out on display. Just seeing some of those old covers takes me right back, cataloguing my formative years into 12” size pieces.
Here’s a list of favourites, a little over the ten, with a crossover to CD about halfway through:
Friends, Beach Boys - very short, quirky and mellow, this sounds like it was knocked up in the garden shed using nursery instruments.
Tonight‘s the Night, Neil Young - Neil Young records manage to pull off the neat trick of feeling messy yet structured; a dark journey elevated by some alluring melodies.
Quadrophenia, The Who - a chunky double with a beautiful full size twenty page booklet containing grainy black and white stills depicting the gloomy scene. Quality product.
London Calling, The Clash - I was around at a friends house after school and he had managed to borrow this record for an evening - a double album in a single sleeve with handwritten lyrics on loose sheets. I was hooked after just one listen.
More Songs About Buildings and Food, Talking Heads - still so fresh and punchy after all these years.
Imperial Bedroom, Elvis Costello - twenty years on and I could still listen to this swish album every day.
Hatful of Hollow, The Smiths - the early Morrisey and Marr compilation.
Hawaii, High Llamas - one pot cooking with Brian Wilson, Burt Baccarach and Steely Dan
Dog Man Star, Suede - a sprawling, all encompassing, urban classic.
Wake Up! Boo Radley’s - sonic Beatles sounds.
XO, Elliot Smith - pained, beautiful voice with lyrics and irresistible tunes to match.
The Big Romance, David Kitt - complex, quirky, softly spoken electro folk.
A Ghost Is Born, Wilco - a great band, their best work.
The Trials Of Van Occupanther, Midlake - steeped in the 70’s its simple themes hark back to living in woods and hunting deer. Every track works and the two short closing tracks wind the album down beautifully.

2007-03-23T20:06:00.000Z

Sulk
I travelled down to the very friendly Grosvenor venue in Cardiff with Chris Bruce in a swift, ever so slightly dangerous, two and half hour run - him driving, me pumping an imaginary brake.
It was a busy morning and I just never got around to eating anything before we set off; luckily Chris had some wine gums in the car. The tournament started at four but for some reason the casino saw fit not to serve any food until the ‘eat it if you dare’ buffet which was set for nine. The food and one or two inexperienced dealers aside, Blue Square once again put on a very good show (one girl put the discards straight back onto the top of the deck, good job she was pretty).
Even with just half the field present on Thursday, the place was buzzing. Neil Channing organised seventy five runner £200 last longer which is sure to be a nice 15k sweetener for one of the finalists. Yes, I partook, but no, I won’t be picking that pot up.
I was really, really card dead over the seven hours with one A-Q, one K-K with which I managed to pocket a whole 450 in blinds and 10-10 twice, both of which had to be slung.
The biggest pot I snagged was got by making a patented iffy call, in a raised pot, with an 8-6 on a suited 8,7,7,4,J board. That rocketed me up to 18k and with another one or two modest pots going my way I actually reached the dizzy heights of a low to mid twenties stack; the makings of a good session all appeared to be present.
I then overplayed a flush draw when I could have taken a free turn card, promptly dropping back to 15k after feeling somewhat obliged to bluff the river when I missed everything. Two 50/50’s headed south during the next two levels and I was on life support for the last half hour with a puny 6k. I found just about the worst spot when I made my last stand, calling all-in holding K-J against Roberto Romanello‘s big stack and A-K.
Tournaments are tough and with the numbers now regularly hitting three hundred, realistically I guess I shouldn’t expect to be hitting as many final tables; less finals in theory then, but more wonga when you eventually get there.
Chris, who finished the day on a very comfortable 50k, managed to shave twenty minutes off on the return journey home - luckily for me I got to sleep through most of it.

2007-03-21T11:17:00.000Z

Here Comes The Weekend

We head down to Cardiff in the morning for Day 1a of the GUKPT. This is my third crack at it and it would be nice to get past level 5...in fact making Day 2 would feel like an achievement of sorts. Day 2's and final tables in Main Events have been something of a rarity in recent months and I have to go right back to last June at the Irish Poker Tour to remember what it's like.

I've done a little homework though, some tweaks and one or two small additions to the arsenal so yeah, I feel confident and am sure that I will get a good run at one soon, it's just that of course in doing so there may be many more early baths along the way.

We're straight onto Monte Carlo next week, with family in tow, for the EPT Grand Final and then it's the annual Easter pilgrimage to Dublin for what is bound to be the biggest ever Irish Open.

I'll decide whether or not to play the WPT Championship event at the Bellagio based on how I play/run at those three.

2007-03-12T22:30:00.000Z

Dortmund EPT
Let me get some of the more amazing plays I spotted out of the way:
· 300/600/75, new guy arrives, I limp, SB makes it up and BB promptly passes. After the hand I mentioned that he was in the BB and his reply was, ‘Yes, that is correct’;
I dunno, maybe he's onto something, he did have more than his starting stack.
· 150/300/25, EP makes it 700, MP makes it 1600 and new to the table, they both looked rocky, I passed A-K. Back to EP, he re-popped it up to 5100 and MP called.
On a Q,7,5 flop EP took his time, asked for a count and eventually fired out 6000. MP dwelt long time and passed J-J face up. EP flipped up 6-6.
· A Johnny Lodden hand. A big crowd had gathered on the adjacent table so I sneaked a peak. All his chips were in the middle on a raise, re-raise, re-re-raise 3,3,10 flop. There was nearly 70k in the pot and Johnny’s last all-in push meant that the unknown foe only had to call another 6, maybe 7k. Somehow, he passed and Johnny flipped up A-5. How does he get away with that shit?
The good news was that on the five tables I played on, each had a good mix of ability and I was pleased with how I handled myself against the tougher foe.
A good start meant I was up to 20k by the end of level 2 but I was unable to build on that and had to wait right up until the end of level 9, when I flopped Broadway with A-Q. I almost doubled through and was just stacking the 35k when I picked up 8-8 in the BB.
I called a 3000 raise having posted 800 in the BB and opted for a check raise on the baby 2,4,4 flop. He made it 3000 and I re-popped to 9600. He took along time and finally re-pushed all-in for a further 12,500. I kinda knew I was behind but couldn’t bear to release, hoping that this was a real rush - it wasn't though and sure enough I got to see his two aces.
Down to 10k I didn’t hang about too long but couldn’t manage a suck-out when I ran an A-9 into two tens.
In all, I played a patient game, just perhaps a little too patient. Cardiff next week, a little tweak here and there, we’ll see what happens.

2007-03-07T09:52:00.000Z

The Longest Day
The good people at Thomson neglected to let any of us know that they had postponed our flight home from Goa by 24hrs.
Just getting to the airport was a bit of an ordeal as the sun was very up by the time we eventually rolled back to the hotel...a few hours later, hungover and seedy, with minimum air con in the back of a mini Hiace, barrelling along the skinny and twisty roads really wasn't much fun.
When we finally arrived a Thomson rep broke the news, but luckily with just half an hour to spare I managed to get the last seat on the far superior Jet Airways plane; the only downside was a tedious eight hour stopover in Mumbia, where I at least managed to eventually get a cheap room and slept away the hangover.
I got into Heathrow at 7am this morning and am on my way to Luton for the afternoon flight to Dortmund.
I think i'll be skipping tonights welcoming party.

2007-03-05T11:10:00.000Z

At Ease
There were two more comps out here which of course I couldn’t resist, a $500 and a $1000. I never got going in either which at least meant that feet have been put up and I’ve had a couple of hot and sweaty trips outside of the resort.
The beach at Palolem is pretty amazing with lovely warm, rolling waves, twenty odd beach bars and huts and a brilliant backdrop of tall curving palm trees.
On Saturday I slipped on some rocks trying to get from one beach to another resulting in a nasty bout of rock-rash on my right arm and back; not nice, but it could have been a lot worse. The water appeared to be shallow but being sandy, I couldn’t see the bottom and suddenly I plunged down about five foot, scraping myself as I slipped.
I doubt it’s gonna fall off or anything, but it’s in an awkward spot and will be a tight, stinging nuisance for a few weeks to come - worryingly, it’s also my raising arm and I’ll need to get some left-handed practise in by the time I sit down in Dortmund this Thursday.
The internet connection is extremely wobbly out here and a few of the online hotshots have had more than a few nervous disconnects, but sickeningly it seems to add to the thrill of it all; and naturally, once again, after a few days away with these guys, I feel drawn into depositing onto the latest soft site and having another crack at the cash games.
March and early April are so busy though that I’m being a good boy and haven’t booted-up for a fortnight, the plan being to hold back until at least after Easter, by which time I hope to have had a little coaching, along with learning the ins and outs of Poker Tracker or something similar.
It’s a day off today then we fly back to Gatwick tomorrow evening where I stop over before heading to Dortmund in the morning, with a suitcase full of (dirty) shorts and T-shirts; I hope the German dress code isn't too strict.

2007-03-03T06:57:00.000Z

The Come Down
After seven hours of steady progress, I bombed out of the APC tournament in level 8. I was up to 20k by the end of level 4 and pretty much hovered around there for rest of the evening.
I’d played a patient game but just had one of those rash/frustrated/ray of hope type situations. I made it 1800 with A-J and the aggressive BB re-raised me to 5500.
I swear I meant to pass but this chap, aggressive as he was hadn’t yet played back at me and I just had a hunch that this might be the on cue re-steal, so all of a sudden I’ve kind of convinced myself that I can still pick this pot up and so I re-pushed, another 14k all-in, but he shrugged with a well I guess I have to call you type look and flipped up an A-K and out of the blue, just like that, I’m was out the door.
Cue rocketing body temperature, immediate depression and a frantic longing to be home; bad beats are nasty, but when you only have yourself to blame it feels a whole lot worse.
Fortunately, a gang of us left the resort not long after and headed down to one of the Palolem beach bars for some beers and a few hours later it didn’t seem quite so bad.

2007-03-01T19:51:00.000Z

The Run Up
Three days in and all is well. I played the lively super satellite yesterday, went deep, played well but just couldn’t muster a final push.
We played a few sit and goes in the wee small hours on Tuesday, £100 in and I found myself with a big chip lead heads-up. Dubai was bored though and bought the short stack for £400, went all-in blind on consecutive hands, I of course obliged; what on earth was I thinking, you can guess the rest.
A lot more players have turned up since we arrived and any doubts about various guarantees getting met can hopefully be forgotten.
I’ve been pretty lazy, not rising until lunch is almost over but I did manage an early-ish night tonight and will be rewarded with a beautiful pre-breakfast dip in the warm sea tomorrow morning.
Tan-wise, the arms and face are coming along nicely but any notions of a bronzed tummy, chest and legs are futile; it pains me to report that they will be, forever pale.
The tournament starts at one, great structure, good line-up, good overlay, lets try not to muck it up.

2007-02-28T14:08:00.000Z

Asian Poker Classic
Kingfisher, Pouilly Fuisse, mouth-watering curries, Lobster Thermidor, pool with bar and big sunsets over the Indian Ocean; it is very nice here.
Most of us arrived at the Inter Continental in Southern Goa yesterday, stopped up late in the bar and slept through until lunchtime. With just a five and a half hour time difference I think I’ve managed to avoid jet lag.
I’m torn between feeling terribly guilty that Amanda and the two boys couldn’t come along for the ride and rejoicing at the prospect of seven uninterrupted nights sleep, a week on the rip with a good crowd and a shot at a million dollar pot.
I’ll post more in a few days and hopefully get some snaps up if I can find someone with a downloader type thingy.

2007-02-22T18:25:00.000Z

Club II

I finally got to get a good nosey around the Dusk Till Dawn premises this afternoon. It looks great and the attention to detail is very impressive.

It's still kind of hard to imagine but I'm guessing this will be a very regular haunt of mine in the not too distant future. The thought of rolling up there one or two afternoons a week is most pleasing and I imagine it will be a great success.

Me in cash games, now there's a good advertisement, titter, titter.

2007-02-19T19:47:00.000Z

Av'it!
A few weeks of paternity leave appear to have worked wonders on my temperament with two 500NL finals in a week, resulting in a heads-up chop at the Broadway and a four way deal at Walsall.
Both events proved very tiring as Barney's arrival has meant that we have very little free time to ourselves. The few hours between Day 1 and Day 2 at the Broadway were particularly testing; twenty one of us finished the day at 5.30am and it was 6.30am by the time I'd driven back to a frosty Nottingham.
When I got in there was no electricity, it was -3° C outside, Reuben had thrown up in bed, Barney was bawling and Amanda was trying to light a fire, all by candlelight. I eventually got my head down at 8am, but had to set off through the snow at midday to make sure I was back for the 2pm start; not ideal preparation but it's hard to grumble when everything went to plan.
The most memorable hand occurred with fourteen left. With the average stack at about 60k, I was running well with 120k. At 1500/3000 Will Mitchell pushed all-in from first spot for 40k and Paul Jackson followed suit with a short 15k. I found A-K on the button and called. Will flipped up A-A, Paul had A-J and I shipped a third of my stack over.
In hindsight I don't really know if there's a right or a wrong play there. The big all-in looks suspicious and I think it's rare that you are gonna see someone turn over aces there. But on the flipside I didn't have a chip in the pot and perhaps the option of passing and not getting involved should have at least crossed my mind.
At Walsall a few days later the sickest/most amusing hand I played was the following: With a big stack two tables out and Burnley John and Mickey Wernick on my left, I was of course doing my best to keep them both out of trouble when they were in the blinds.
I expected one of them to look me up at some point and sure enough Mickey came along for the ride when I'd raised with a K-5s. We both checked the 10,6,7 flop and I bet 5k into the 13k pot when another blank hit the turn. I wasn't overly surprised when he called and was sure he'd lead out on the river. The seven paired and he led out for 11k, with about 9k behind.
Boy it pains me to leave any chips out there and I was sure this was one of his patented chip garnering plays, it looks strong and pot-committed but I just had a hunch he was on a J-Q or J-10 type hand. I pondered for a short while and called - he tapped the table, preparing to muck.
'Good call, king high', he said, and flipped over another K-5s.
'Aargh!' I lamented, as we chopped the pot,
'I shoulda pushed!'
My arm was twisted last week and as a result I head over to Goa for five short days at the end of the month. There's value of sorts in the million dollar guaranteed pot, but the catch is that the there's a very strong British posse heading over.
The short-term goals then will be to win the event, get a golden tan, eat spicey food for breakfast, lunch and tea and of course, wash it all down with something very chilled and dry.

2007-02-11T23:23:00.000Z

On The Box
The bulk of televised poker is pants but I caught two excellent shows last week.
The first was the second heat in last years William Hill Grand Prix. Johnny Lodden put on a beautiful display of how to play a one table satellite. Throw all your books away, all you need is to watch this one show, let it sink in, then watch it again;
he did half his chips early doors, made some terrific laydowns with ease and just appeared to be that little bit more aggressive than the opposition without ramming it down their throats.
Now I really do like and respect Ross Boatman’s game a lot and believe me, he ain‘t no slouch when it comes to closing out a final table, but when I spoke to Johnny a few weeks later he said there was just no way he could lose that heads-up match.
I’m guessing that Johnny and his ilk have just put in that many hours online that their game theory is spot on; they know just how much to push and how often to bet when it’s checked to them, giving them a big enough edge to prevail over the length of a match. Sounds easy.
The second show was the lead up to the big EPT final table in Monte Carlo. Five handed and on the bubble, with by far the lowest stack, how Ash Hussain didn’t go broke with 7-7 was not only a mystery, but more importantly an eye-opener to me.
Finally, it pained me to watch Ben Grundy’s demise at the hands of Marcel Luske (Marcel raised with rags, Ben re-raised with A-J but checked the flop and the turn, Marcel bet and showed the bluff).
Maybe I’m just too soft, I mean I know Ben has had a high tilt factor in the past and in all fairness this is a competition with big wonga up for grabs, but there’s no way I could ever bluff someone off a big pot and then large it up for the cameras while your opponent feels like chucking up.

2007-01-30T11:18:00.000Z

In It For The Money
William Hill confirmed my sponsorship for another year last week. How I got the deal in the first place is simply a tale of right place, right time. It all happened at around the time the EPT started up in 2004.
I didn't go to the first event in Barcelona but decided to play the London leg at the Vic. The entry fee was a huge three grand, which at that time represented about a third of my bankroll but I managed to sell 50% of my action and I was in.
After a very slow start where I'd dribbled down to 6k I sneaked a crucial move past Bambos Xanthos in a big pot to get me going. After that everything fell into place and I managed to finish the day as chip leader with about twenty five remaining. I carried that right through until there were nine of us left. I bet you can guess where this is going...
Well if I can't pass a hand now, I certainly couldn't pass one then and the first accident occurred when I ran tens into aces and then a few hands later when John Shipley raised I gave it the big heave-ho with an A-Ks only to see the same two aces yet again.
I felt near suicidal for a fortnight, but now with a little padding to the bankroll I headed over to Dublin for the next one. Early doors I cracked Rob Yong's aces with tens and then two tables out, after sitting next to Xuyen for six hours I cracked her kings with queens; she still mentions it from time to time, titter, titter.
A couple of hours later we were, once again nine-handed and I had a relatively straightforward pass with J-J thanks to my position at the table when the the action went all-in, call. The all-in's A-7 cracked Burnley John's Q-Q and we were all set for a final.
Low stacked I was the second man out for another modest cash, but when I got back into the office the next day I was perusing the Hendon Mob forum, (as you did back then) and I noticed that Steve Vladar had put a post up asking for me to contact him. I called him up and he mentioned that William Hill were looking for a third person to sponsor and that I should call up Phil Quayle, the poker boss.
Well call him up I did and thanks to some kind words from Steve and Xuyen plus a nice mention in a piece the Camel had written I was offered a few months to see how things panned out. To say I was shocked is an understatement, as barring a £100 comp at Sheffield and a sprinkling of £20 and £30 re-buys at Nottingham I hadn't won much.
The main event at the Masterclassics in 2004 was my first outing as logo'd up player and I remember feeling very uncomfortable and imposter-like wearing a shirt with my name on it, when on my opening table were big guns Marcel Luske, Lucy Rokach, George Mckeever and Christer Johannsen.
Over time I of course got used to it and lets be honest it ain't exactly the worst hardship to have to endure.

2007-01-29T12:57:00.000Z

Ramble On
I did an interview for Gambling Online Magazine a couple of weeks back. The list of questions was fairly broad and amongst them was this little gem that's been on my mind a bit since;
“How do you keep in top shape to be a better player?”
It is oh so easy to just move on from one comp to the next in this game, without ever really reflecting on the key hands that could have been played better or should have been passed.
I went out for dinner with Andy Black in Amsterdam last year - now here’s a guy who really does work on his game and he gave me a few pointers on better pre-match preparation and post-match analysis. God only knows what I’d have answered if it weren’t for that conversation. Talking of post-match analysis I really enjoyed reading Andy Ward’s thoughts on his WPT debut. There’s a link to his blog(s) on the side.
Interestingly, Andy (Black) used to do a bit of canoeing himself and we sort of promised to do the Liffey Descent in an open candian boat this September (worryingly he was sober). We’ll see how good his memory is.
Well it shouldn’t surprise but during this curfew I have been significantly upping my online comp sample size. I played about twenty five over the past five nights, ranging from $50 to $500 and rather frustratingly I bubbled or thereabouts in three, made six semi-finals and just one final, out ninth for a whopping £240.
Big stack or small, it mattered not as it all went poo-flavoured, like clockwork, at the last two tables. Don’t get me wrong, I mean this represents a significant upswing in my online stats - I’ll crack on this week and see if we can get out of it…
Back to reality then with some live musings and my exit hand from the Bolton leg of the UKPT:
It had been a pretty dull first four hours but I’d just started to get going during level 5 and I was feeling very comfortable and full of confidence; I really fancied I could win the whole thing.
At 150/300 and sitting on 18k I raised to 800 with Jc-10c. Lawrence Gosney called and then Theo Dalton made it another 2500 to go from the BB. Theo’s a very solid player and whilst I really couldn’t see him re-raising into the two of us without a big hand I felt like a punt and figured Lawrence would come in behind me.
What I didn’t take into account though was that with three of us now in a re-raised pot, the pot was getting very big which meant there would be little room for manoeuvre after the flop.
Well the flop came down 9,J,Qc and Theo led out for 4k into a 10k pot. Sitting on 14k, the 10k re-raise all-in was just too tempting to me and I pushed. Lawrence ducked and after the longest of dwells Theo called with K-K. I hit a ten but that was no longer an out and I was home within two hours.
Whilst I had no regrets with the play of the hand at the time, with hindsight I didn’t need to gamble everything against an effectively pot committed tight guy at that stage of the tournament. Busy players tend to get more opportunities to acquire chips than most and I’m sure I could have found plenty more better spots with less risk.
The other tournament I played was a 500 freeze-out at Luton two weeks back. Whilst chip-wise I never really got going, I felt I got the balance between carefree abandon and proper tournament strategy just about right; all being well I’ll grant this mindset another airing at the Broadway’s main event next week.

2007-01-23T23:43:00.000Z

Arrival
This is Barney at three days old. It's weird just how much he reminds us of our #1 son, Reuben, when he was born three years ago.
This baby-making stuff is pretty amazing - check this out;
I've got a tiny Spock-like nodule near the top of my left ear and young Barney's got just the same perfect-imperfection. So sweet.
Oh and clearly I'm thrilled that his hair is coming on so well so soon...atta boy.
Right, enough gushing & who knows I might even get around to posting some thought provoking tales of daring-do in the near future.

2007-01-08T19:02:00.000Z

Oi! Online! No!
Woke up this morning and as sometimes happens I really had the urge to post, but as I haven’t been up to much recently I was struggling to think of anything even remotely interesting. I then remembered that I’ve been shying away from an accurate bottom line for my 2006 online antics.
This is how it all pans out, in glorious pounds sterling;
PokerStars -5700
UB -600
BlueSq -1420
WilliamHill +8788
Ladbrokes -2844
Total -1766
(the nice draw on laddies that I recently reminisced about actually occurred in the dying days of 2005).
I can cope with a fairly modest deficit of two grand, but I’m pretty sure there’s anything up to another two or three grand of affiliate money that’s found it’s way, unaccounted, onto the tables over the year. Promises have since been made to fast-track those monies into the joint account as soon as they touchdown.
I’m also ashamed to admit that I got a healthy two grand cash injection into my stars account about seven weeks back thanks to (another) saver that came good. This seemed like a wonderful idea at the time, but it didn’t take long to see the back of it; $500 SNG’s when under the influence really aren’t very clever.
There was then one embarrassing, but enlightening moment on stars recently when, whilst on the tear in the $50 re-buy I was calling, hitting and outdrawing everybody and had amassed a 100k when the nearest rival had just 50k. The chat box was raging with the usual cretinous rants, but I sat up when one drone typed in the following;
“Microdisney, $2012 lifetime winnings on this site“.
Now, not even I knew that and I have since found out that on sites such as Sharkscope this information is readily available. Wow, a service like that has to be a necessity if I’m ever gonna take this venture seriously.
It’s far from all bad though and signs of what lies ahead are promising:
a) on the first hand dealt to me in 2007 at the 300 freeze in Walsall on New Years Day, I limped with a 3-3, flopped a set, turned a boat and trebled up.
b) some very iffy calls of late have either been good, or if momentarily suspect, have come good in the end.
Ahh, sweet form, you're almost within my grasp.

2006-12-30T19:57:00.000Z

Pump It Up
I managed to buff up my stats in the run up to Christmas shoe-horning in two more finals to see out the year. This did occur whilst supposedly on a two month sabbatical, but the resolve wavered and I just couldn’t resist the very local 250NL in Nottingham where I got a heads-up chop and the almost local 250NL at the Broadway where I scored my first win for 2006. In two words; most pleasing.
A clean slate awaits then and whilst still very sketchy, my rough aims for the first half of the new year are to play the Deauville, Dortmund and Monte Carlo EPT’s, the Irish Open at Easter and the majority of the Blue Square/Grosvenor UK Poker Tour events.
I always enjoy setting goals and the most obvious ones for me in 2007 are:
· Better preparation for the big tournaments.
· Buck up my patience in the 60 min+ events.
· A night on/night off regime for online poker alternating with a night on/night off the vino (the wife’s idea).
· Win enough money to get a funky extension built or I’ll be out there myself come 2008 with a shovel and a cement mixer.

2006-12-12T12:05:00.000Z

Most Humiliating Experience 2006 (not to be confused with Most Humiliating Exit From A Tournament 2006)
Cardiff. Morning after my Grand Prix heat. Feeling a little fragile and looking forward to getting home but I’ve got some time to kill before my train leaves.
I wandered into the breakfast area of the Hilton and a gruff Jeff Lisandro was sat at the nearest table. Now I didn’t really want a breakfast and especially a breakfast where I was gonna feel obliged to make small talk, but he’s bang in front of me and sure that by now he will have clocked me I guess I just wasn’t hardy enough to walk on by. A couple of swift pleasantries and I’ll move on was my thinking.
I mean it's not like I know the guy, but we had played in the same heat yesterday and had played a pretty big and crucial pot (for me anyway).
An awkward remark or two later the waitress approached and I asked for just a coffee please. Breakfast will be £18 she announced and by now, feeling a little embarrassed I declined.
At this point I was beginning to wonder whether he recognised me at all when, perhaps sensing the unease he asked me,
“Are you playing in the Grand Prix this week?”
Sigh. Suffice to say, I didn’t miss my train.

2006-12-06T14:32:00.000Z

Ding Dong
Well whadayya know my first year as a pro is over and whilst earnings-wise it fell a little short of a vintage 2005 it was still much better than I could ever hope to have eeked out from the 9 to 5; a tad more exciting too and if the mood grabs me I get to take an afternoon nap.
What is slightly worrying is that my sponsor, William Hill, put me into the majority of the tournaments I played and that their investment wasn't far shy of my net return. What jumps out when checking over my 2006 stats is that I ran well for the first half, right up to leaving for Vegas in July, but from there on I ran (and played) bad, making just two final tables compared to eight for the earlier half.
One hundred and eighteen tournaments were entered and at least when I did make a final I was going deep with two heads-up chops, five seconds and two third place finishes; I just gotta work on the kill.
Up to July, I'd been running consistently well for a good two years and one word, lethargy, probably best describes the cause of the rot since then. I played so bad at times I still wince at the memory; a woeful call all-in with a nine high three tables out in the Copenhagen EPT, and stupidly getting prematurely frustrated in just Level 1 of the nine day marathon that is the WSOP main event. These two are the easiest to recall, any others probably require some gentle prodding.
Having overplayed myself in Vegas I never made the smart move, taking a break to recover and instead ploughed on with no homework or a few steps back to see what had happened. New year approaches, a fresh start then, with a more disciplined approach to the game and oh yeah fingers crossed another year with sponsorship.
Well it wouldn’t be much of a review if I didn’t include some online musings; my flesh is weak and I'm unable to either improve or delete the software as it continues to frustrate and occasionally delight on a ratio of about, mmm, 27:1. The highs were a Who's The Daddy win for $21k on Laddies over the new year and a win in the Crypto biggie for £14k a few months back.
The lows are a bit of a blur, a steady trickle and unfortunately far more consistent; slouched, drinking, watching the telly and in general trying to do anything else rather than have to focus on 9, 18 or 27 pixel seats all point to why I am a far from successful online punter.
Will I improve? I keep telling myself that it’s possible but I know it will require a lot more concentration and probably a room with a door that can be locked; at the moment I’m just not sure that I’m hungry enough to devote the amount of discipline required.
I’m on a walkabout of sorts at the moment and with a brand new baby boy arriving in mid January I won’t be travelling until perhaps Deauville at the end of February. Plenty of time to take a step back, recharge the batteries and get the competitive juices flowing again.

2006-11-24T11:30:00.000Z

Club
I popped along to the new Dusk Till Dawn site this morning to see Smithers aka Nick Whitten in his portacabin and then remembered that the whole team have just headed over to St Kitts this morning on their jollies.
Nottingham has a lively poker scene but the bar will be raised when the five hundred player capacity DTD card room opens its doors next spring.
Casinos are far from my favourite places to hang out and I guess I like the idea of playing at a venue where I don’t have to walk past rows of roulette wheels and blackjack tables just to get to the poker room; surely the reason poker has had such a murky reputation until recent years must, in part, be down to the fact that casinos were the only venues that would host the games. The sooner more stand alone card rooms open the better.
I’m grateful that someone I know, Rob Yong, has taken the bull by the horns and is doing something about it. The club is about three miles away from where I live and if they install some bike racks I reckon I’ll be able to peddle there in about ten minutes; not really enough distance/effort to keep me fit but it might just be the start I need…

2006-11-07T15:14:00.000Z

Prelims At The Master Classics
It’s good to be back at Amsterdam again. This is my fifth visit to this festival and I think it is still the best on the circuit. I’ve had three shots at garnering some points this week and went pretty close in two, with two very minor money-back finishes. Still, it feels good to be once again getting some chips and going deep and hey, I even got to post a winning cash game session, what in the hell’s going on??
I was lucky to play in the first 200NL re-buy event, getting in as one of just ten alternates; my pre-registration by fax got messed up somehow, but lucky me, I mix with an impressive crowd, one of whom sent his butler type guy over on a plane last week to buy us all-in to the maxed out 1000NL and 5000NL events.
My name eventually got called for the 200NL with about thirty minutes remaining and initial signs of a good run weren’t promising. Fortunately, The Camel got moved to the table next to me, we got the beers in and I happily stayed out of trouble, blinding my already very lean 2000 stack down to 1000 before I found a favourable situation or two.
That table eventually broke and as I walked up to my new table I spotted them dealing me into the BB. What luck. Some bloke raised and then Kim Callow moved all-in on the button. It was probably the beer but I was unable to suppress a huge grin as I looked down and found the cowboys. The bullets arrived not long after to elevate me to the 20k mark and a few hours later, in the money, with three tables to go I was one of the chip leaders with 80k.
Unfortunately, three hands later I was out. The first was a raise (9-10s), bet the flop (Q,2,3) and pass type situation, the second J-J into Q-Q and the last was A-K into A-A. In hindsight perhaps I shouldn’t have stopped drinking.
Chips were got in the 1000NL but once again it was my hard to shake blind spot that got the better of me, as I couldn’t resist the all-in heave with tens against what turned out to be an unfoldable pair of aces.
Yesterday, after an embarrassing pocket lightening re-buy period during the Omaha comp I finally started to enjoy myself, completely over-valuing my hands but tending to get away with it. The Holland Casino add money for 27th thru to 19th with the real money starting at the last two tables.
Down to three tables again, I was by now getting low and we must have been playing on the real money bubble for an hour when, six handed, with 17k left I made it 7k holding Q,Q,8,6. There was one lady left in the comp who, if she raised, always had the aces. She immediately moved in behind me. Marvellous. She stood up and with nothing to lose I asked her if she had aces, to which she very kindly nodded. I swallowed and mucked and yes she showed me two aces. What a sick fold.
Marc Goodwin polished me off a couple of hands later when I took a stand from the BB with the mighty 10,5,3,2. In hindsight I didn’t have to go broke on that hand as everyone had passed to his SB and he just made it up. He was getting short too though and I elected to get my chips in first regardless of my hand, figuring him maybe a 50/50 for a fold, but he had been kinda trapping with a couple of high cards. What was more annoying was that Marcel Luske donked off his big stack like ten seconds later and got two grand compared to my pauper-like three hundred.
It’s super satellite day today, which means a day off and the coffee houses, I mean some shopping, beckons.

2006-11-02T15:36:00.000Z

Hard Sell
If any of you old Betfair punters want to stay and play on the Crypto network you can get 35% gross Rakeback by using the above link.
Just email me your details when it’s set up & you can look forward to receiving the payments direct into your account on or around the 5th of every month.
Happy hunting.

2006-10-31T14:02:00.000Z

Peanuts
The Dublin EPT was a bit of a flatliner for me although I did show a modest profit thanks to yet another saver that came good in the main event. I had a filthy (and moody) starting table facing Mats Rahmn (never smiles), Henrik Olander (never smiles), Juhha Helphi (rarely/never smiles), Andreas Hagen (smiles plenty), and four other fairly competent scandi’s (with a 3:1 never smiles ratio), with none of the usual one or two jittery onliners to balance things out.
In fairness I probably didn’t do too much smiling of my own and I promise I’ll change the record soon, but once again not a lot went right. The most interesting hand was probably the following and in hindsight I should have at least had a stab on fourth street although I‘m sure that wasn‘t the only mistake in there:
I had about 8700 and was in a limped pot at 25/50 with a Qh-7h. The blinds checked the Q,Kh,4h flop and the most aggressive guy bet 200. I just called and the SB raised it up to 1100. The bettor passed and I had three choices. A previous move had just gone awry and I didn’t fancy getting too aggressive so I just called. A blank, perhaps a 5 hit on the turn and he checked to me. I took a free card and eventually passed when he bet 2500 on the river (another blank) . Mmm, weak/passive springs to mind. My on the spot analysis appears to be non-existent at the moment, I mean how many hands can he check there on the turn? Methinks I have to bet there and be prepared to swallow if he‘s check-raising.
I guess I must be getting old because I’m gonna reminisce again. Dublin has been a good venue for me over the years and in the 2002 Irish Winter Festival I managed a double runners-up spot. This was in the days when I would regularly shit myself by massively over-playing my bankroll in the many expensive re-buy events that populated the festival weeks back then. The first was in the €400 Omaha comp where after flopping a straight against Carlo Citrone I got heads up against Ross Boatman. He eventually polished me off but I loved playing with him and remember being mightily impressed by his table presence.
The following night was the €1000NL main event (with re-buys, ahoy!) and in the wee small hours nine of us eventually made the final. I was the chip leader and Lucy Rokach wasn’t too far behind in second spot.
I remember being very excited at making two festival finals on the bounce. The brother drove me over for the 5 o’clock start on Sunday afternoon and we discussed how best to deal with Lucy; it’s worth pointing out that Lucy was probably in her prime in the early 00’s and was by far the most aggressive player on the circuit. We didn’t care though and Graham’s advice was to 'bully her back' and re-raise at the first opportunity regardless of what I had.
It didn’t take long; Lucy opened it up on the first hand, I looked down and saw two nines and moved all-in behind her. She eventually passed but boy, she wasn’t a happy camper and I got a right telling off along the lines of “you do that again and I’m calling regardless of what I’ve got“. Managing to suppress the giggles I called the brother at the first opportunity and shared the hilarious tale of daring-do.
We eventually got heads-up and I of course made a move at the worst time and she scooped yet another title. I’d picked up over 20k which was pretty huge back then and ten of us hit Il Primo, the best Italian in town and made merry until kicking out time.
The following week I won a FPP package to the Aussie Millions on Stars and all of a sudden things were starting to get very exciting.

2006-10-18T14:35:00.000Z

Sideways
I passed through Derby last week and it reminded me of a six month stint I did there for a small civil engineering company. A friend I used to paddle with got me the interview and we shared lifts over there every day and would then head straight down to the water sports centre at Holme Pierrepont as soon as we had clocked off.
I learnt to canoe at school in Dublin; we had a sports afternoon every Wednesday and canoeing lessons in the heated pool appealed far more than any ball sports on a damp field. From there I joined a local club and happily spent many Sundays wet and shivering, wearing an old woolly jumper and a cagoule, terrified on some swollen river with threatening weirs and rapids, all of which needed to be negotiated successfully in order to get picked up at the other end.
I eventually moved on and it wasn’t until I’d moved to London in 1987 that I stumbled across Shepperton Slalom Canoe Club; the Thames splits into three at Shepperton and the ramshackle prefab-style clubhouse was based on a small island behind the main locks which looked out onto two small weirs and ten sluice gates.I fell in love with that place, the people there and the lifestyle that it hinted at. Weekends now meant Friday and Sunday nights in a car with four or five boats on the roof as we hacked the length and breadth of the country in pursuit of white water. I was hooked.
A year or two later the recession hit the building industry and I was fortunate enough to find myself out of work for two years. That meant I was able to train twice a day and I slowly worked my way up through the divisions. Money-wise I got by odd-jobbing for friends at the club, some painting and decorating and the use of a white van for delivering exhausts around south west London. Financially it was a real struggle but they were the happiest of times. I never went to college or university but those couple of years were in a sense my college years where I came out of my shell, chilled out and for what felt like the first time, got good at something.
The restraints of training on the relatively flat Thames and the tedium of trying to get in and out of London at weekends meant that I decided to relocate to Nottingham in 1995. All of the top paddlers trained there and it was the place to go if you wanted to improve. Most of the guys I trained with were either full-time on a meagre sports aid grant or living the eternal student life. Unfortunately I needed a job which meant squeezing in a misty 7am session and then another later that evening.
By the time I hit thirty I’d well and truly peaked and gradually my enthusiasm started to wane. Like most sports, once the training drops off it gets a little frustrating when that sharpness just isn’t there.
After paddling I spent a year or two living a more ordinary life, with a steady girlfriend, pints after work and weekends away visiting friends. It was around then that I started to host a poker game once a fortnight; we had no idea what we were doing but the competitiveness appealed and it was only when I moved back to Dublin in 2000 that the bug really took hold. Here was a hobby that you could actually earn some money from. Oh happy day.
Team sports never appealed and slalom, much like poker was a singular pursuit and I guess for me that was the attraction, no third parties to let you down or blame, if you mess up it’s all down to you.
Like most sports canoeing had it seasons. This usually meant a three week break in November before a two or three month stretch of endurance based training. It was amazing what those few weeks away from the boat did for your motivation and I’m hoping to (at last) learn from those experiences and take a couple of months off at the end of the 2006 poker season. Oh yeah, we are expecting baby#2 at the end of January, but that’s beside the point….

2006-10-10T19:03:00.000Z

Accidents Will Happen
So an eight day away-trip with very little to show in the way of profit, ranking points or final tables. At least I got to eat well although that tends to go hand in hand with over indulging on the booze front...not a lot new there then. We stopped in a bland southern district of Vienna which meant the only sightseeing we got to do was from the back of the complimentary shuttle which ferried us to and from the Holiday Inn and the Concord Card Casino.
Unbeknown to me the main event at the CCC was actually the second leg of new European Poker Masters tour organised by Mel Juddah, complete with a televised eight player final. Rather disappointingly not only were we on a forty minute clock with just an 8000 starting stack but the event fielded just over a hundred runners.
I perished three tables out, cue the first accident: eight-handed I’d made it 5k to go with 8-8 and the chap on my left put a minimum re-raise in. I’d just arrived at the table with a 25k stack and had no information on anybody. My curious nature meant I felt obliged to take a flop but barring seeing an eight pop out I really was not gonna be any the wiser as to where I was in the hand. Barring a pre-flop fold perhaps I should have just auto-pushed on the pretty favourable ten high flop but caution got the better of me as I meekly check-folded. Very impressive stack management.
A little hot now, I wasted no time in pushing my last nine BB’s in on the very next hand with a suited A-7 but ran it right into somebody else’s 8-8. Very Tedious. Nick Slade went and made the TV final but finished an unlucky eighth, still at least percentages-wise we were up and running.
I can’t remember much about the following days €800 freeze-out, but I surprised myself getting to the last two tables in the Omaha event in very good shape.
Unfortunately I locked horns with the no.1 stack when I flopped top set on a K,10,2 flop and got rivered out of the game when he hit a backdoor flush. I knew there was a reason why I don’t like Omaha.
The cash games were far from successful and we all headed over to Baden for the EPT on Friday with significantly less euros than we had arrived with. The trip then took a welcome upswing as I booked my first win of the year in a single table satellite for the main event.
I got to play on the second day which meant a day of schmoozing on Saturday. After an early night I felt good about my chances and although I eventually went out late in Level 9, making a high risk all-in push from UTG with 9-9 (when I’d been re-raised from the SB who had A-A) I was happy with my play and focus throughout the day.
There were no big double ups but I’d slowly worked my stack up to 20k and believe it or not had a pretty solid image on the table. Perfect I thought, if the cards don’t hit during Level 9, I’ll go on the tear in the last level of the day. Alas, the guy who knocked me out had just arrived at the table and knew not of my new and improved image; and of course I was trying to represent what he actually had. How vexing.
The Presentable Studios in Cardiff beckon on Tuesday for my heat in the William Hill Grand Prix; it looks like one of the tighter heats, unfortunately it’s my birthday on Monday so I may look a little worse for wear as I board the 7am to Cardiff….

2006-10-02T12:31:00.000Z

Race For The Prize
John Duthies EPT team must have been wetting their pants in London late last Saturday night; not only was local girl Vicky Coren still in at the very late stages but it looked as though one Tom Parker Bowles might even squeak through; now that’d be sure to sell well over the pond. He eventually fell, but a big well done to Ms Coren who went all the way, snagging a huge purse in the process.
Just eleven weeks remain in the 2006 competitive season and I’ve managed to find myself up near the top of the European Rankings; I figure I’ve got a realistic chance of going top and my intention is to up the sample size between now and then and try to get ten significant results up on the board (and yes, thankfully, you can get right up there without actually winning anything).
With that in mind (and a generous nod from a heavily pregnant Amanda), I’ve headed out to Austria earlier than planned to join Nick Slade and Ash 'The Shadow' Hussain in Vienna this week for a €3000 freeze-out at the CCC before we head over to Baden for this weekends big EPT event.
Back to last week and it seemed only fitting that I should continue my trend of generous donations over the cash tables at the last of the William Hill Grand Prix qualifiers at the Broadway on Wednesday. I didn’t disappoint and am quite relieved that there are no more for at least another eleven months.
From there we headed down to The Sportsman for a £500 freeze-out. I got about halfway through the small field but tripped up jamming with A-3 on the button for my last nine BB’s; I’ll admit it ain’t pretty but it tends to work until you get called and in this case I was actually in front getting piped on the flop by a K-Q. Dang.
Walsall hold a £300 freeze-out once a month and it’s rare that I’m around to play it. Once a pass had been negotiated I headed over there on Saturday evening. Perhaps all my moaning about the lack of dealer cooperation of late actually accounted for something as I found myself on the winning end of three mouth watering situations within the first hour; A-A vs. A-J, nut flush vs. trips and trips vs. two pair.
Despite one perilously close to the felt nosedive I managed to maintain my stack and went back on Sunday with the chip lead. I carried this through to the final and was on my best behaviour which might explain why it had all evened out by the time we were five-handed. Everyone was happy to chop and the additional week in Vienna is now paid for.
Oh I almost forgot. I had a ball playing the $300 Omaha Hi-Lo event on Pokerstars on Tuesday evening. I kinda know the basics but this was the first comp I’d played and my intention was to have some fun and see as many flops as possible. Both those criteria were met and I was the big chip daddy for a long time; I had 25k when the nearest to me had just 10k and by the time I’d hit 100k they were slowly catching up with the nearest on a lowly 50k.
No of course I didn’t win, I mean it’s a numbers game right and the structure was just too slow for me to stay ahead all night. But hey, I lasted till 5am, a modest profit was shown and laugh a lot I did.

2006-09-24T04:32:00.000Z

Big Nothing
I’m gonna start off with an honest observation. Some may scoff, I mean I’m hardly running bad, but I’m sure I used to get dealt consistently better cards than those I’m having to endure over the past month or two. Perhaps more accurately, I used to get consistently better cards than the average joe. Whatever it is, I don’t seem to be getting a big stack as often as I once did. I’ll give it some more thought but for the moment ‘dealer error’ is near the top of the list.
Take this week, three shots at the Vic including the maxed out EPT with a drool inducing £500k for the winner. I eventually got a stack in the 1000NL but felt like a fish out of water in the other two which was disappointing as the winner of the latter would get £500,000.
Onto the best shot of the week then, the 1000NL freeze-out on Tuesday. I’d endured hours of dull low-stack survival but once the blinds and antes hit the 600/1200/150 level it’s amazing how quickly you can catch up with one or two well timed pushes.
Down to three shorthanded tables though I got myself into a bit of a pickle when I re-raised the opener with an A-Q. I’d put 35k in and was somewhat dismayed to then see the stack with tumbleweed blowing around it pushed into the middle from the BB. With just 25k left I couldn’t bring myself to pass and resigned myself to hunting for three outs at best; I didn’t find one though and his kings were good.
Despite one or two drinks the night before I felt good about the main event. Once again though I had to tolerate seven hours of tediousness as I struggled through to Level 7, getting very little in the way of cards and situations to work with. My position saved me in this one hand which was the biggest pot I‘d played up to that point; with 8500 I raised to 900 UTG with 10-10, a low stacked scandi along with one other called and Ross Boatman made it up from the BB. The 7,5,3 flop looked adequate and I led out for 2200, the scandi kid pushed for his last 4000 but RB then woke up and moved his big 25k stack in. I let it go, the scandi had 9-9 and RB’s set of 5’s took the pot.
My happiest memory was this little gem from the 200/400/50 level. I finally picked up an A-J UTG and pushed my last 3400 in but my heart soon sank when the other short guy pushed his last 4000 in behind me. The whole table did a double-take when he rolled over a 10-4s; he must have been eye-balling one of the waitresses as he hadn’t seen me move and thought he was the first in.
Brandishing a threatening 7k stack I treaded water for another hour until I locked horns with Ali Mallu. I opened for 1200 with K-Qs and Ali who had a huge stack, asked me how much I had left and then raised enough to put me in from the SB. I had 5300 left and eventually decided that my hand was to just too pretty to give up; I called, he rolled over a 5-7 in the same suit but flopped the 7 and I was gone.
I didn’t even feel like drinking, it was back to the hotel bed followed by the early train up to Nottingham in the morning. And very nice it is to be home again.

2006-09-17T22:35:00.000Z

Consolation Prize
So Phil Ivey strolls into town for his first EPT event and manages to breeze his way through a five hundred runner field and into a heads up battle for the best part of €700,000. I’m impressed.
I got to play Day 1a of the main event and had a fairly nasty table draw, the main culprit being Jeff Lissandro who was two to my left. He proved to be a persistent pain in the ass and contrary to how I’d perceived his game from seeing him on the telly, played a lot of pots and made it awkward to tackle when out of position.
I guess I’m just a little too sensitive, but not having met him before I politely inquired:
“You did pretty well in Vegas, right?”
And all I got was a one word and grumpy reply:
“Seventeenth.”
Some days I just don’t see the point.
I didn’t feel comfortable or in the groove until the table broke about four hours later. I left with my starting stack intact and managed to get some momentum going on the new table. I hit a high of 30k, but once again it was my inability to lay two hands down that halved that stack to 15k from where I never recovered:
The first was a pair of tens. I’d raised and Les Kerrigan called from the BB. We checked the Q,Q,J flop and I called two 2k bets on the last two streets just so I could see that yes, he did have a queen.
Not long after I raised with 6-6 and got one caller. He had 10k behind and I led out for 3500 on the J,J,4 flop - he quickly pushed and after some warped mathematical computations I eventually made the call only to see two wonderful kings this time.
The drop to 15k (deservedly) coincided with a card dead drought that saw me dribble down to 8k over the next three levels when I eventually made my last unsuccessful stand on the last hand of the night.
It wasn‘t all bad though as I was more than happy to nip a second place finish in the maxed-out two sixty runner 500NL with one re-buy. I got off to a slow start and there weren’t many memorable hands, although I do recall running into quads twice but by that time I had the stack to take the strain thanks to flopping a house with 10-3 in the BB against an A-10. The majority of my re-raises got through and given the pretty quick structure I was very happy to eventually make the final with bang on average chips.
Playing to win these fast paced events really does mean that it’s thinnest of margins between success and failure; twenty seven got paid and being one of the more aggressive players I got myself into quite a few pot-stuck situations where I was lucky not to run into a big hand.
Average chips equated to just eight BB’s and barring the huge chip leader I think we were all relieved when the TD moved us back two thirty minute levels. That of course meant that an hour later, with little movement, I was back to just eight BB’s. Finally players started to bust and once we got six-handed there were two huge stacks with the rest of very vulnerable with five or six BB’s left. I managed to survive with those blinds down to the last three and with a twenty thousand jump in prize money from third to second, I was clearly very happy to observe that the other two huge stacks weren’t about to shy away from one another.
We eventually got heads-up and I had about 250k to his 1.2m. I moved-in more than him and was up to about 350k when we both got it in, me with A-7, him with K-J. He flopped the nuts with a redraw to the royal flush…I’ve been in worse spots (but not many) and when he hit the lowly nut flush on the turn it was all over.
I’m London bound on Tuesday for three freeze-outs, one of which is another shot at an EPT title; the sample size growing can only be a good thing.

2006-09-14T09:49:00.000Z

Right Or Wrong Play?
Game theory isn’t my strongest suit so any feedback on my exit hand from the EPT is appreciated:
It’s Day 1a, we’ve played down from 240 to about 85 players, I’m short with 7400 and the blinds are 400/800 with a 100 ante. I’ve been looking for any spot/unopened pot for almost an hour, there have been precious few. It’s the last hand of the night, when we return on Day 2 the blinds will be 600/1200/100.
We’re seven handed, I’m one off the button, the first three players all pass and the button then passes out of turn. I push with 8c-4c but the SB calls with Ac-9c and I miss.
A number of people commented that ‘I just didn’t want to come back as a short stack on Day 2’.
I’m very happy to come back as a short stack but given a similar set of circumstances I’d have made the same play on the first hand of Day 2 so what difference does it make?

2006-09-12T10:54:00.000Z

Stuck On Amber
Tuesday at the Sportsman in London was the first port of call this week for the second Grand Prix qualifier (donating a modest 300 in the cash game), then on Thursday it was over to the Broadway in Birmingham for their 500NL freeze-out. The event was juice-free with 8000 chips and a one hour clock….not bad for a mid-weeker.
The cards didn’t co-operate much though and it was a pretty frustrating evening. I could be wrong but I think I even went one whole level without playing a pot, I’m such a rock these days.
Saturday was the Blonde Bash at Walsall which was good craic and despite my best efforts in the heads-up team event (three matches/three losses) we did get to the semi’s. With drink aplenty inside me I spent the majority of a four hour session in the lively and star-studded 2-2NL cash game just trying to get even and with one hand to go I had at last achieved that goal.
Unfortunately it all went in against Simon ‘Cuddles’ Nowab on that last hand. I’d re-raised him all-in on a 6,7,9 flop for about another four hundred with 3-3 (eek) and he announced, ‘it’s a bad call, you’re in great shape, but I call’. No he didn’t have 2-2 and holding two lowly threes I knew it couldn’t be that bad a call and his up and down draw hit on the river. You can see why a seat always becomes available when I’m in the room.
I flew into Barcelona yesterday for the first EPT of the season. I had originally planned to buy-in as soon as I arrived, but now that William Hill are running EPT satellites I managed to get bought-in in advance which was just as well as it was sold out long before we landed.
A good friend called me up last week. His many romantic entanglements out of the way, we got around to discussing poker and he very kindly steered the conversation around to my game, some adjustments that had been made and whether or not they were actually working. The ability to stand back far enough from yourself, see the whole picture and isolate where some problems might lay isn’t the easiest of tasks; we all need prodding from time to time and his comments were very welcome and I hope have hit a few protruding nails on the head. We shall see.

2006-09-08T13:26:00.000Z

Roll Up, Roll Up
There are 3 special tournaments this Saturday evening on William Hill with $10K plus a CPC Package added to each.
This week the site had some downtime so theyare adding $10,000 to each of three tournaments for their loyal players. They are also going to give the winner of each tournament a CPC Lite Package ($5,880 value including Return Airfare for 2 from London/Miami, All-inclusive meal package for 2, 9 nights stay, and Four $220 tournament vouchers for live Super Satellites in St Kitts).
7pm
Buyin $25+$2
MPPs earned 8/11 – 9/9 0 MPPs
8pm
Buyin $25+$2
MPPs earned 8/11 – 9/9 100 MPPs
9pm
Buyin $25+$2
MPPs earned 8/11 – 9/9 500 MPPs

2006-09-04T12:15:00.000Z

Up North
I headed up to Aspers Casino in Newcastle on Tuesday for the first of four live qualifiers for the William Hill grand Prix in Cardiff next month. The place had a good vibe and was a nice change from the bland Grosvenors where we get to spend most of our time.
I’ve played a bit of cash this week, the first of which was a couple of hours at a 1-2NL table whilst the Grand Prix satellite was running and I somehow managed to donate six hundred in a frustrating couple of hours….moving onto Friday, in my living room, thinking I’d catch the closing time crowd, I managed to donate another six hundred lump on the $2-5NL tables in half that time. What really stung was that I’d been a very good boy over the previous few days, pinching a little here and there and booking a six hundred win for the week; undone in a blink. Cut to Saturday and whilst waiting for a lift home from Bolton I was in for nine hundred on the 2-2PL table but managed to book a modest profit before kicking out time; it was text book stuff, set them up by playing like a fish for 90% of the time, then use all your guile and skill (get hit by the deck big time) for the last hour to reel them into your trap.
Saturday saw myself and Tikay driving up to yet another unfamiliar venue; Bolton. We were there for a 1000NL freeze-out and just as we arrived the last 5 minute single table crapshoot was called. Not thinking I’d get a seat I agreed a 50/50 swap with Matt Tyler and when it materialised that I could squeeze into the last seat Tikay offered me the same deal. I didn’t give the matter too much thought until myself and Matt got heads-up; luckily he won, handing me over £500, £250 of which I gave to Tikay. It was only later that we (hilariously) realised that had I won I’d have had to give £500 to Matt and £500 to Tikay….not the best proposition I’ve ever faced.
I was out too early in the main event (again) after a very yoyo game. Because of my position I lost the minimum with jacks on a 5,6,9 flop when I was facing K-K and Marc Goodwin’s nut 7-8. That minor set-back aside it wasn’t long before I’d worked my stack up to 15k thanks to flopping the nuts with a suited A-K followed by a patented sick call with 6-6 vs. 5-5 on a board with just too many over cards for it to be a long term winning play.
The wheels came off though when I took on Mickey Wernick on a ten high all diamond flop. I’d limped with a 9-10 and bet 400; Mickey called and then led out for 400 when a black nine hit the turn giving me two pair. I re-raised another 1000 and he quickly made it another 4000 leaving himself with 2700 behind. I shan’t bother going into my warped reasoning in too much detail but I plucked a hand off the top of my head, perhaps an Ad,10x and could just see him passing quickly if I pushed. I pushed and he of course didn’t pass quickly but called with the nuts, Ad-Qd, and I didn’t pair up. My wings were clipped and whilst 4500 wasn’t too desperate I’d dribbled down to 3500 by the time I got it in in a race with A-K vs. 5-5 and lost.
I’ve got another Grand Prix qualifier to visit this week at the Sportsman in London on Tuesday, then there’s a 500NL at the Broadway in Birmingham on Thursday before the Blonde Bash III up at Walsall over the weekend. The second half of the year really gets underway when the third EPT season starts next week so we’re all off in search of some form in sunny Barcelona on Monday….

2006-08-28T21:16:00.000Z

Surf’s Up
After spending almost a whole day recovering from the effects of the free bar at Rob Yong’s Dusk Til Dawn ‘we’re almost there’ party, we headed down to Cornwall for a very short summer break in search of sea, sun (and ice cream). The signs weren’t good as we battled through torrential rain for the most part of the tedious drive down but once there, the skies were at least occasionally blue.
Once back a few of us headed down to London on Friday for the Gutshot Series Of Poker main event, a £300 freeze-out whose structure replicates the $10k WSOP main event ie, a full stack, two hour levels, with a two hundred runner field played out over four days. I was a little sceptical about making the trip, four days is a long away stint for a relatively small buy-in comp but even sitting here on the rail as Day 3 starts I’m really glad I made the effort and am sure that getting to play another super-slow structured comp can only be good practise and will hopefully be of some benefit at some point in the future.
It’s been a year since I’ve been down there during which time the premises have been expanded to incorporate a second larger cardroom. It’s pretty cool, the double doors open up right onto Clerkenwell Road and to see a room full of two hundred card players riffling chips must be a strange and intriguing sight to the uninitiated passers by.
Performance-wise, I’m sorry to say that all I got to do was grind for nine hours on Day 1 followed by a further six hours on Day 2 before my short stack lost a race with 10-10 vs. A-K. I didn’t pick up many big hands and the majority of my plays were clearly woefully transparent in that I should have checked when I bet and bet when I checked etc, etc…you get the picture. God knows how many flops I saw with suited filth and small pairs, all to no avail - from an optimists point of view I can at least feel confident that a good rush awaits.
The two most memorable hands were ones where I didn’t really get to partake; the first was when I was dealt two kings but the second one flipped over before I could grab it - a bit unlucky, but boy did I feel sick when the action behind me went raise, re-raise, call, re-re-raise, call. The jack-high board was then checked through to the river where an all-in bet scooped it.
The second went some way to rectifying the bad luck of the first; at 300-600/75, I moved-in UTG with J-Q for 4000 and the rock on my left then announced that he was also all-in…somehow though the dealer managed to sweep his cards up (two red aces) and when all the commotion died down, the ruling was that it was deemed a passed hand and once everyone else had folded I picked up the blinds and antes.
A shameless plug now, but hey, it’s my blog; the good news for anyone who wants to sign up on William Hill through the above link is that not only will you get the best rake back deal on Crypto but now you will also get rake back on STT’s and MTT’s.

2006-08-15T17:44:00.000Z

The Worm Turns
The post-Vegas urge to play again didn’t take long to return as I squeezed in four of the seven events at the Grosvenor UK Open at Luton. The weird part was I actually felt something akin to a warm glow as I entered the card room on Monday evening - as someone who tries to spend as little time as possible in any casino, let alone the delights of Luton, this was mildly surprising.
For the sake of balance I feel it only fair to point out that my beatnik sandals and hoodie got frowned upon in the lobby and such items, I was told, will be no longer tolerated.
Good feelings aside I didn’t fare too well in the first two comps, a 200NL and a 500PL and had to wait until Thursdays 750NL to eventually get into my stride and go deep. I got chips early and generally had a great time calling raises with all sorts of filth and generally being a pain in the ass for anyone who had a legitimate hand. Two tables out and with just one 45 minute level remaining I was in great shape with 60k when the average was 35k.
Two raise, bet the flop, dwell and pass to the re-raise type situations later I was back in the pack though and with an overnight stop looming I was looking for one last situation to exploit, quickly.
Seven handed I made it 9k to go with A-J and Frode Gjesdal moved all-in for 28k. Not a nice decision to face, neither a clear fold or a clear call in my keen to gamble eye. A fold would be the third fold on the trot and as I normally do when faced with such a decision I opted for the one that meant I would at least get to see what I was up against, in this case a dominating A-K, right out of the text book and I bit the dust a couple of hands later.
(for the record Tikay did the exact opposite, refusing to commit his chips, coming back on Day 2 with just two BB’s and going on to lift the trophy later that evening).
“It is a bigger mistake to fold a potentially winning hand than it is to stay in with a potentially losing one”. I can’t remember who wrote that (it might be Barry Greenstein) but it stuck and I guess it helps me sleep a little easier some nights.
The main event sadly, was Dullsville Central, with no big hands or situations encountered in nearly five hours of play and I’d blinded down to 1600 when I finally found two picture cards but was unable to hold off the dreaded ace high.
It’s not all darkness and despair though: by the time I entered the Sunday 50k comp on William Hill I was but one glass away from polishing of a refreshing bottle of chilly white. I can’t remember how, but I did double up on the first hand and then again not long after. With four times the average I resisted all urges to ‘hurry it along’ and managed to keep my nose clean all the way through to a satisfying thirty minute heads-up duel where I eventually busted my opponents Q-Q with K-8 (8 on flop, K on river, tyvm WH) to clinch first place.

2006-08-08T10:42:00.000Z

Home Again
Boy it feels good. There were about ten Brits on the flight home and all of us were as excited about getting home as we were about heading out there in the first place.Vegas is unique, but you need to be running well to fully appreciate (tolerate) the glitz, all those people and the never-ending queues.
The house was great but too remote and next year I’ll just bite the bullet and book into one of the posh hotels in the middle of the strip, probably the Bellagio - every walk or taxi queue you can avoid is effort saved and money well spent.
To the main event then; what a big disappointment, again. It was scary just how much this years effort resembled last years. I got to sit next to a guy in a jack of spades costume and the whole table were happily over-betting pots, putting a third pre-flop raise in with a pair of 10’s and one memorable on there backs moment; an all-in call with 8-3 on a 2,6,7,8,9 board - a pretty crazy call, but when the guy who did the betting proudly rolled over his A-9 I knew this was gonna be no ordinary game of poker. Watching this and not being able to benefit didn’t have a positive effect and within the first two hour level my stack had been quartered, in part due to some marginal calls, but on this table it really was hard to bail out, but mainly due to a flopped set that got runner/runnered. To say I was steaming is putting it mildly.
Back from the break with 2500 I eventually check raised my last chips in from the SB with 9-10s on a 3,3,9 flop but the bettor on the button had aces.
In hindsight a squeaky tight game would have eventually reaped ample rewards on such a weak table, but all I saw was dollar signs with easy money written all over them and in no time at all I had deviated from my original game plan and jumped right in - hey the water was warm!
I apologise if this sounds like a bitter ‘woe is me’ rant about how bad everybody played, it’s not intended to be, I’m just disappointed. At the end of the day it’s just another trip and another handful of tournaments but there should be no doubt that this is the dead money tournament of the year. Forget the nay-sayers who claim it’s a two week luck-fest, the rewards if you can get off to a good start, build some momentum, take each day as it comes and run well really are worth the effort.

2006-07-30T18:20:00.000Z

One Last Push
At last a result of sorts. As soon as I saw Nick Slade double up on the first hand at the Bellagio on Friday I gave him the nod and we swapped 5% and the boy done good and went on to chop it up (this happened the other way around at Walsall the other month and I got to chop).
I had a great shot in the same comp yesterday and had so many chips it was embarrassing, but bluffing into quads with eleven left probably wasn’t the smartest move I’ve ever unleashed and then I got a little unlucky to get my Q-Q busted by A-3; lets try and be positive though, the deficit is at least slowly getting nibbled into…
Recent upswing aside, twelve days in and the trip so far has been pretty disappointing. I’m aware how important an asset confidence is and I do at least still feel upbeat about the remaining week and the main event which starts for me on Sunday, that’s today, in about an hour, gulp.
The game plan is sorted, nothing fancy or unique, I’m prepared for a long disciplined/boring day and just need to be a good boy, on my best behaviour to see it through.
Percentages-wise we’re looking at eleven swaps, mainly 2’s and 3’s, predominantly with grinders (Bushey) but there are one or two chip getters in there (Milkybarkid) just to keep it interesting.

2006-07-25T07:27:00.000Z

Come On Form, I Know You’re In There Somewhere
I squeezed two comps in today, the first of which was the $1500 limit shoot-out. It’s worth pointing out that I survived three situations where I would have gone broke had it been NL;
A-A on a ten high flop vs. 10-10,
A-6 on an A,J,6 flop vs. A-A in a limped pot and
5-7 on As,4,6s,8 board vs. a flush draw.
Inconceivable not going broke in a NL game and of all the short stacked events at the series this was the one I felt had the most play.
The second comp of the day was my sixth buy-in at the Bellagio. Six and all I have to show is a $100 saver from Bad Girl; god bless that little lady. That coupled with almost $15,000 of WSOP entries sure is a wake up call for someone who is used to getting William Hill to pick up the tab.
Tonight’s effort was truly woeful, please, somebody slap me around the chops quickly. Not only was I calling when I should be passing but what is probably even worse is that I was calling when I should have been raising. My spidey senses are normally a lot sharper, but I have to put my hand up and admit to overdoing the comps and after tomorrows last $1500 shot at the Rio I intend to start winding down before I play the main event on Sunday.
A poor tournament showing aside the cash games have been a revelation. Gone is the pressure of the rising blinds and of going broke in one hand. In Nottingham the cash games have had a very mixed reputation in the past and of course you can only get a game from about midnight to 4am. Over here the selection is huge and I’ve definitely found my comfort zone in the $2-5NL. I won $1500 in two hours at the Mandalay Bay on Saturday - here’s my favourite pot:
I raised with something like a Q-6s, bet $50 into a $80 pot on the A,7,7 flop, got two callers and bet a winning $10 into the $230 pot when a third seven hit the turn - pure hilarity.
It’s good to see that at last the brits/irish are slowly warming up with John Shipley going close once or twice, blondeite Bad Pab making a tough final in the $5000 short-handed, Stuart Fox, Julian Gardner and Padraig Parkinson grabbing some third spots and the nice guy John Gale winning a bracelet in the $2500NL.
Finally on a slightly unpleasant note, I got to witness Phil Hellmuth very, very slowly walking towards me on a very, very long and deserted corridor in the Rio yesterday evening; dressed in black, collar up, shades on, cap pulled low. I didn’t know which way to look.

2006-07-23T16:47:00.000Z

I Want To See The Bright Lights
The tournaments out here continue to frustrate although I felt I’d saved five grand on Thursday; intending to play the $5000 short handed we ordered a cab for 11 o’clock but it didn’t arrive until 1.30 by which time I was way too wound up to even consider it.
I’ve checked my records and it’s nine tournaments in Europe and another nine out here since I’ve made a final; come on sample size, do your stuff! There has been some sloppy play in there but I feel I’ve been playing pretty well during the last few days and am confident that I should go deep soon.
Since the last post I’ve played another Bellagio comp losing with A-10 to Q-10, I quickly got a big stack in the $2000NL but got into a “mine’s bigger than your’s” re-raise fest against the wrong guy and lost three coin tosses and in yesterdays $5000PL I actually turned the nuts on fourth street holding 6-7s on a 3,4,Q,5 board but his trip queens filled up on the river.
Xuyen and Steve arrived on Friday and after bumping into Danny Samson we headed over to the Mirage; my form in the cash games continues to surprise and it’s now four wins in four sessions. I haven’t ventured further than the Mirage yet but am told the Venetian and the Wynn both have games that are worth checking out (show a WSOP entry card at the Venetian and you get your rake back).
I move into the Luxor today; it’s only my second trip out here and whilst the house has everything we need it is too remote and the promised 10 minute ride from the strip is at least a half hour trip. Womble and Ariston move into the Rio on Thursday and with the main event starting on Friday it’ll be good to have a base in the hotel.

2006-07-20T16:36:00.000Z

Not Good Enough
Three days in and still no joy. Thankfully my confidence is being kept steady by some modest draws in the cash games. I got to last a full thirty minutes in yesterdays $1500NL on a table where the majority of the play truly was woeful with hands like A-8 being worthy of a pre-flop re-raise. Unable to capitalise on this though I eventually got pot stuck with K-Q on a king high flop but let the other guy hit his 10 kicker when I tried to get cute; not a good idea with so little chips in play.
Taxi! and straight over to the Bellagio (again) for a second shot at their daily $1000 event. I made the last four tables in good shape but got into a bit of a mess when I picked up a flush draw whilst out there on a random blind steal with a Qh-6h. The SB check raised me all-in with two pair and I got to take my medicine. Not very tasty.
I got to witness a pretty freaky hand whilst grinding out my refund for the comp in the $2-5NL game; a friendly table, it was on their backs after the all diamond A,K,Q flop. The hands were A-A and A-K. The dealer put a Jd followed by a 10d out there and they got to chop.
Talking of freaky hands Carlo Citrone told me of this pretty sick run of events. Bubble time with nineteen players left at the Bellagio and he’s huge chip leader:
Finds K-K, raises, short stack pushes with A-J and hits.
Next hand Carlo finds K-K again, raises and the same short stack pushes in again, this time he has 7-7 and hits trips.
Very next and last hand Carlo finds the K-K again, raises and the same guy pushes his stack in again with 10-10 and hits the 10. Now that’s gotta hurt.
I played my third WSOP event today, the $2500NL. The 2500 buy-in meant we got a much appreciated 2500 chips, almost enough to apportion the odd 6 or 700 for some gambling. I made it to the giddy heights of level 2 but my check raise all-in with a flush draw and over cards failed to materialise.
Overall I’d say I’m not playing great, yet; the no.1 culprit is patience and given the long levels some adjustments are needed.

2006-07-17T03:29:00.000Z

New Brat In Town
After a very long eleven hour flight we got a ride to the house, dumped our gear and headed straight to the Rio, buying into most of the events which got rid of most of the cash.
Five or six of the big online cardrooms have ‘player lounges’ and we popped into the Full Tilt one to see what was on offer. Once we realised that there were no free snacks or beverages we did a U-turn but not before one of the dolly birds pointed out to us that we could get our pictures taken with our favourite Full Tilt players in the lounge at the back; I popped my head in and got to see the lone figure of Andy Bloch, slumped in a chair, head in hands. I wasn’t tempted.
We ended up at the Rio’s American Diner with Ian Woodley, Mad Turk, Denis O’Mahoney and Kerry Taylor. Denis chose some very fine Texan red and a jumbo shrimp cocktail and mini rack of ribs later we really felt we’d arrived.
Late nights and odd sleeping routines mean that most poker players are pretty adept at warding off jet lag and I was very pleased with the nine hour sleep I managed last night. Our house is right at the foot of the hills behind the city and Ariston and myself nipped out to find a local shop for some milk and coffee. Luckily we set off early as it ended up a near 3 mile hike - 3 miles in this heat is a mighty achievement and luckily we did eventually manage to find a cab to get back.
All that walking in the morning sun took it’s toll though; bracelet fever took hold and against my better judgement I decided to play the 12pm $1500PL Omaha which lasted all of 20 minutes; the less said the better, but for the record and the sake of accuracy it’s only fair to point out that Ariston lasted just 15 minutes.
But this is Vegas and I saw a way out of it, immediately heading over to the Bellagio for the 2pm $1000NL. I lasted an hour in that one so the first Day has been far from successful, but hey, we’re talking tournament poker here so I’m far from despondent. I bluffed off 2/3’s of my chips and whilst I have no regrets about the play, the size of my bet on the river may well have cost me the pot:
We started with 5000 chips and at the end of level 1 I called a 600 re-raise with A-Qs from the BB. We both checked the ten high flop and I felt obliged to fire out a 1000 when a blank hit on the turn. The re-raiser mulled this over and eventually called. He had 2500 left and I had him covered by about 2000. The river was a blank and for some reason I elected to bet 2000. He thought for a good while though and eventually made a nice read, calling with A-K. What I should have done was either bet about 1250 which really does look like I want the call or bet the full 2500. In hindsight the 2000 is a fishy looking bet and there’s just too good a chance that the 500 I left him with if he was wrong might have swayed his decision towards a call.
We’re taking it easy this evening, it’s holdem all the way now and tomorrow we all play the $1500NL.

2006-07-12T10:11:00.000Z

Commence Countdown
Yes I am counting and yes I know that’s unlikely to speed the waiting process up but I just can’t help myself. Everything appears to be in place and I train it up to Manchester airport on Saturday evening. Woohoo!
Monday will be our first day out there and as it’s an Omaha comp at the Rio I’ll probably head over to the Bellagio and play the daily $1000 freeze-out.
Leading up to the main event I‘m pretty much intending to play all of the holdem events, including the $5000PL and the $5000 short-handed. I might even have a pop at the $1500 limit shoot-out; I know it goes against popular European practice but I can see myself having a grand old time gradually calling-off all my stack in a Limit event as opposed to fishing around in a Pot Limit Omaha game, never really knowing where I am in hand, where I’ve read somewhere that it isn’t always a bad idea to quietly pass the nuts on the flop. I mean, how sick is that?
Hopefully I’ll save a buy-in or two by making a few Day 2’s and maybe even a final table, I guess I’ll just have to see how I run. I’m not overly confident that my discipline will be good enough out there; sat here, counting down the days, the need to get over there and play, play, play is steadily building and it will take a lot of restraint to not over-do things and completely burn myself out during the first week.
(I think) I play the main event on Day1d which suits me just fine after what is bound to be a manic first week. I’ve actually booked my flight home on the rest day between Days 2 and 3 figuring if I’m out I’ll be pretty desperate to get home pronto and hey, if I get through I shan’t mind re-booking a later return flight.

2006-07-05T11:32:00.000Z

WSOP Madness
In one 24 hour period starting at 6pm on Saturday 15th July William Hill Poker are running six $140+14 super satellites with THIRTY ADDED $14k PACKAGES to the World Series Championship Event in Vegas.
As the blurb says, "WE MUST BE MAD!"

2006-07-05T10:58:00.000Z

Zzzz
I spent the majority of last week at the Maybury Casino in Edinburgh. I wish I’d stopped at home; five comps without ever getting my hands on a large pile of chips or getting a whiff of a final table. I played pretty solid and perhaps even a little too much ABC, but whatever the problem was I just couldn’t get any kind of momentum going and all the key confrontations went against me.
Being an optimist I'm viewing this as a positive, happy to get the dull and non eventful performances out of the way before we hit Vegas.
I had to go shopping for some new strides (cream corduroys/Gap sale) as my poor jeans had a small rip in each leg and I was warned that I wouldn’t be allowed into the casino a second time sporting such eclectic apparel. In fairness though it wasn’t all bad as sandals and male handbags were deemed to be OK.
It was pretty hot in there and unfortunately my trusty Brookstone fan just recently packed up. They’re impossible to find in the UK and I’m tempted to fill my suitcase with them for the return journey. I’m also tempted to push the boat out and give this bad boy a shot:
“The pump-action atomizer of our Mr. Mister™ fan cools you with an ultra-fine mist the second you need it. Flexible fan blades won’t hurt fingers. And the water reservoir holds up to 500 sprays.”
$25 and that baby's all mine.
Come to Papa.

2006-06-29T10:47:00.000Z

It Really Is More Expensive Down South
Boy-minding duties meant that I couldn’t get down to London for the earlier holdem comps at the Vic last week but I decided to take a shot at the pricey main event. Five grand is well out of most peoples comfort zones for one tournament and not surprisingly just forty seven satellite winners/sponsored players/wealthy punters coughed up the five large to play it.
The buzz that normally accompanies a main event was sadly absent but with the money squeezed into just four spots, 22k, 43k, 67k and 90k, there was still plenty to get excited about and with all five tables huddled together a moneyed-up finish felt within reach.
We started with a slow ninety minute clock and the usual 10,000 chips and I managed to hit the ground running sitting pretty with 25k within the first two levels. I often find that I play better when I really have to graft during the early part of a comp and unfortunately this was to prove the case here; two misplayed hands later I was back in the pack with 15k. In both cases I was re-raised, once before the flop and once on fourth street and in both cases I failed to respect or think enough about why I was being re-raised and stubbornly blundered on in hoping to outmanoeuvre the guy on the next card. It didn’t happen.
Midway through the evening Ram Vaswani moved into the vacant seat on my left and whilst it took some time before we eventually locked horns, a pot did ultimately develop in the last level of the day and all the chips went in.
At 150/300 I was sitting on 14k and made it 800 to go on the button with A-J. Ram looked as though he was considering a re-raise but just called from the SB. I was loving the A,6,5 flop and confidently bet a 1000 but he check re-raised another 1500.
Should I have bailed out then, did he think my bet was weak and was trying to bully the pot away? As I often do in these situations I took the easy way out and just called and was somewhat relieved to see a jack hit the turn. Ram checked again and I put a small 2500 bet out. He immediately announced “all-in” and I immediately called - he had pocket fives though for a set and I got my coat.
The Crazyhorse/Yoyo knockout ratio stands at about 8/1 and my one didn’t require much cunning as I’d flopped quads during the 2003 Aussie Millions festival. I feel a big swing is imminent.
The day wasn’t a complete waste though; I overheard Jeff Buffenbarger and Big Dave Clark agreeing to a £500 last longer bet. Dave was on my immediate left and I asked Jeff what cut I would get if I took him out - a generous 10% was agreed on and received with thanks a few hours later; hard lines Dave, I owe you a pint…

2006-06-15T22:34:00.000Z

Crushed, Like A Fly
What fun we had!
A tough table draw will always present more difficulties than opportunities and with the likes of an in-form Simon ‘Cuddles’ Nowab, Marcel Luske, Nick Slade and Mikael Thuritz on board it was never gonna be plain sailing at the Paris WPT, but the real problem was that a measly two tens were the biggest pair I saw all day and that the two biggest pots I was involved in both resulted in splits.
I was uncharacteristically nervous as we sat down. Whether it was the bigger than normal buy-in or the fact that there was a huge pot and a sexy WPT title up for grabs I’m not sure, but I definitely felt more pressure than usual.
Fortunately we started with a generous 15,000 chips and a slow ninety minute clock. I had to do a double take when I sat down and the dealer pushed me a stack of chips that looked like they’d come straight out of my home game; clearly no expense was to be spared for a €10,000 event and my main regret was that I didn’t bring a few white ones with me.
Those niggles aside the great structure meant I was able to fold my way through to Day 2 with the most modest of increases, a paltry 1525. Passing so many hands isn’t much fun and I was sure better situations awaited me on Day 2.
That over optimistic mindset probably wasn’t the best manner in which to approach the day as when my 16,525 was swiftly halved after a series of raise, bet and fold type situations I lacked the mental strength that got me through the day in Dublin a fortnight ago. Determined to stop the rot and at least pick up a much needed 1350 of blinds and antes I shipped the whole eight grand in on the button with an A-7 and immediately wished I’d made it the standard 1800 when Emile Petit called with an A-J from the SB. No miracle three outer’s to the rescue this time and within minutes I was walking the streets in a daze.
A far from pleasing performance capped by a very tilty exit, but as it always does, the gloom eventually lifted and within a few hours it was beer, pizza and wine aplenty as myself and all the other losers drowned our sorrows.
In contrast to my first trip to the Aviation in January I found little to applaud this time around. It was unbearably hot in the over crowded cardroom, the service was virtually non-existent and there was clearly a local pecking order when it came to getting any attention at the bar.
As the EPT has proven there are some cracking venues in France; the Aviation just isn’t at all suitable for a big field event. If I get the chance to play another WPT I’ll happily endure a few more hours on the plane and avail of some guaranteed American hospitality complete with air-con, bigger and softer fields and a smaller buy-in.

2006-06-14T10:32:00.000Z

Face, Deck, Hit
I made the final of the 300NL at Walsall last week in very good shape; I had 280k out of the 980k chips in play. John Hewston was second in chips with 200k and I figured it wouldn’t be too long before we clashed; I wasn’t wrong.
With blinds at 4000/8000 he and Mike McCool both limped. I made it 43k to go on the button with A-Q and John called. Marvellous. The dealer dealt the flop, burnt a card and before anyone could shout STOP! dealt the fourth card. We eventually got a ruling and the bogus turn card, a seemingly harmless four, was disposed of and a new one made ready, third of the bottom of the deck. The flop was ten high and into a pot of 116k John led out for 20k. Now my reading skills are far from perfect and seeing an out to scoop the pot I decided to push on and represent a big hand, preying his bet signalled weakness. I re-raised it to a 100k and he quickly pushed all-in for another 38k.
Boy did I feel sick. Pot committed I called, he flipped over an A-10 and was I somewhat relieved to see a king promptly followed by a jack on the river to leapfrog me from nowhere to the proud owner of the nuts. Clearly John was not best pleased by a) the dealer error and b) the perfect runner/runner and to be fair why should he be, but in my defence had he bet the flop proper, I’m outta there. As it was, he handed me the rope, I accepted with both hands and got lucky. That’s poker I guess.
One hundred and forty players started the comp and we all got 7000 chips. On the first hand of the tournament I’d doubled up with K-K vs. Q-Q and from that moment on I couldn’t do a lot wrong. How’s this for form; 100/200, Jeff Burke limps, I make it 800 to go with Kd-Kc, the SB and Jeff both call. We’re all in good shape with about 15k each. The flop was 8,7d,3d, the SB checked and Jeff made a huge over-bet and moved all-in for 13k. It smelt of a flush draw and never one to relinquish a big pair easily I called and was not best pleased to then witness the SB push all-in for 17k.
Marvellous. Pot stuck, I called for my last 3k and got to see the SB’s set of 7’s and Jeff’s Ad-9d. No dealer errors this time though as I hit a beautiful king on the river.
Back at the final Steve Walmsley played a short stack very well and by the time we got heads-up there was very little in it. We’re good mates and both took it as a good omen for the summer as we are sharing a house in Vegas for the WSOP; a chop was a very easy decision, allowing us an hour to recuperate in the curry house over the road with a bottle or two of white before that evenings 500NL kicked off.

2006-06-11T15:47:00.000Z

Train In Vain
Barring the odd comp or two I’ve decided to give the online play an indefinite rest; I logged a lot of hours (for me) over the past two months, with little monetary gain and as I tended to play in the evening it was hard/impossible to get the balance between playing and socialising right. Secondly my play was lazy and poor at best with little regard to the other players at the table.
Luckily, sponsorship makes this a pretty easy decision for me at the moment and hopefully less can be more.

2006-06-11T12:15:00.000Z

Warning Sign
Unusually for me I decided to play five of the six events at the Midlands Meltdown festival last week. The good news was I managed a final and a semi-final which meant two Day 2 returns but by the time the main event arrived on Saturday I’d probably only managed about thirteen hours sleep over three days. I hit the ground running spinning my initial 15k up to 40k but six hours in tiredness eventually caught up and my resolve started to wane; cue two very sloppy plays. I eventually dribbled down to 16k and whilst the exit hand was pretty much a no brainer (J-J vs. A-K) it serves as a timely reminder that any player with a sweet tooth will really need to pace themselves in Vegas.

2006-06-07T12:32:00.000Z

Structure Comes To The Rescue
Ten, twenty two, ten, eighteen, five, nine and five.
My chips got a full and proper yoyo airing on Day 1 of the €3000 Irish Poker Tour Finals. Every table appeared to have a good mix of ability but rather annoyingly getting my chips in against the right guy tended to result in me ending up with the worst of it.
We only played seven one hour levels on Day 1 and during that time I got to play with Julian Gardner and Mel Juddah. Julian and I never really got a chance to lock horns but it was great to see the original young British hotshot in action. Mel’s game appears to be the opposite of Julian’s and as I was short-stacked for most of the tournament I’m sure his steady composure had a positive effect on me.
I sat back down on Day 2 with just 5k and luckily found the aces straightaway. Still short but comfortable with 12k I then made one of my patented bad calls; Mike MgGee moved-in UTG for 9500, a massive over-raise and being a curious old soul I decided to gamble and called off 80% of my chips with a 9-9. He flipped up K-Q and flopped the king. Ugh.
Down to a puny 2500 at 300-600 with a 50 ante I managed to re-stabilise myself banging it in on the next two hands and getting both moves through. Then I got moved and experienced the weirdest three hours of my poker career to date. I raised, moved all-in, or won a blind on blind battle once a round for the next three hours and in that period not once was I doubled up. Inconceivable!
So three hours later I had worked it up to 15k and despite the average being 70k the fantastic structure allowed me to tread water. In that period the blinds and antes inched up like this;
500-1000/100
600-1200/100
800-1500/100
I really enjoyed myself as it became apparent that I could survive forever, albeit short, on this table. Two double-ups did eventually arrive and it only seemed fair that despite being behind in both cases (9-9 vs. Q-Q and A-K vs. J-J on a jack high flop…) my jamminess prevailed.
I went on to hit a high of 90k which momentarily got me above average, but managed to donk off some chips speculating and not releasing in two re-raised pots. Barring those two hands I paced my game and managed my stack well. We finally made the final at the end of a thirteen hour day.
Three of us were short and I was well under average with a 70k stack at 3000-6000/1000 but the true average was skewed as Mel and Ram had well over half the chips in play between them. I was crippled early on when my 10-10 ran into an even shorter stacks Q-Q, trebled back up to 60k with 4-4 against the blinds, but when I found A-6 on the button I was unable to resist making it 20k to go and was subsequently unable to release when Ram pumped it up from the SB.
Jeez, I hate going out with ace rag, perhaps a pass is the correct play here, the maths side has never been my strong point tho… Anyways, he flipped up A-9 and I was out in eighth spot for €12,000.
Finally a special mention and well done to Mohammed Shafiq aka Shaf. He had everyone in stitches throughout the tournament as he threatened to relocate and open a corner shop for himself, the wife and their five kids if he won the event. A heads-up chop almost qualifies and I’m sure he’d be very welcome over there.

2006-05-30T22:27:00.000Z

Short Stack
I was but halfway through a nice red on Wednesday evening and the damned moby kept on going off; I ignored it for half an hour but eventually gave in, only to find out that I was getting rapidly blinded off at the 100 re-buy in Sheffield… I don’t recall buying in but who knows, it could all be a part of the aging process - no winnings (or percentages) have been forthcoming as yet, I guess I didn’t figure too well.
And so to the Chelsea flower show. I thought I possessed at least moderate levels of stamina but I’m sorry to have to report that I peaked, big time, after just two hours. I figured I’d done pretty well considering the many horticultural treats I’d had to endure and fortunately even Amanda retired before kicking out time, finding me in the pub where I’d just managed to finish another poker book, Aces and Kings. A goodly portion did cover the well trodden territory of the old school Vegas legends but there were more than enough useful and interesting snippets about the newer American leading lights to make it a worthwhile read.
We head over to Dublin tomorrow and despite logging more than a few hours online I feel, in no particular order, refreshed, hungrier and sharper with hopefully fewer lazy autopilot plays, a steadier pace and better focus.
Sounds good on paper, just need to execute.

2006-05-24T12:22:00.000Z

What’s Going On
As this recent lull in live activity draws near to an end I can feel the anticipation starting to build as a busy and potentially lucrative June and July approaches. AF (after Chelsea) I head to Dublin for the Irish Poker Tour Grand Final, then it’s a week at the Midlands Meltdown in Walsall, a quick hop under the channel to Paris for my first WPT event followed by a day or two in London for at least one of the comps at the Grosvenor World Masters; some great festival names in there.
Then it’s the highlight of the year, the big trip to a scorching Vegas and the WSOP on the 16th of July. This year I’m heading over almost a fortnight before the main event begins and I plan to play five or six bracelet events, figuring that the bigger the sample size the better the chance of a nice score - I just need to be careful that I don’t burn myself out in the process. I can still remember how intense just a fortnight was over there last year. This time with a slightly longer trip I’m hoping that I can discipline and pace myself a little better with at least a day or two away from the poker rooms. Sounds good on paper I know, but with big pay days available around the clock it’s just sooo tempting to get involved.
I got a few hours in online last week, mostly tournaments and although I only made one final out of about ten it was a second in a $100 re-buy and more than made up for a relatively quiet May. I think I’m slowly starting to get into the groove online and have slowly figured out that the re-buy comps probably give me an edge over most of the field in that it allows me to try and garner a big stack in the early rounds without knocking myself out in the process :o). Tightening up in the later stages also appears to be prolonging my activities; I’m starting to reluctantly ditch the suited connectors from up front when the blinds are large as they have been far from profitable plays in the past, with me inevitably hitting a part of the flop and finding myself unable to extract my initial investment from the wrong end of a messy confrontation.
I’m happy to put my hand up and admit that when it comes to computers my knowledge is far from competent but of late it’s been a comedy of errors. Last week saw me neglecting to remove the wireless router from the living room when I was steaming off the last of the beautiful woodchip from the ceiling. That appears to have knackered the internet connection but what really burns my arse is that I must have spent nearly three sessions of 30-60 minutes on hold whilst attempting to get through to the technical support boffins. Intolerable. I won’t even attempt to go into why we had to buy a new PC last month….
Finally for those in need of something a little different get yourself onto Amazon and check out Gavin Bryers: A Man In A Room Gambling; it rocks!

2006-05-17T22:55:00.000Z

The Opportunist
I played two comps last week, a 300 freeze at Walsall and a 500 freeze at Luton. I played ok, but lately I’m aware that my competition focus is far from match fit and at the first sign of trouble my resolve starts to wane. With that in mind, unsurprisingly both performances were ho-hum at best, with little excitement to report. Here’s the grizzly exit hand from Walsall - I normally win these confrontations, what’s going on?
I was sitting happily, on my best behaviour with an average 8500 chips at the 200-400 level. Twice the button had been passed around to me and finding rags each time I passed. Both times the BB, who’s name escapes me but I think he’s Ash Hussain’s brother showed K-K. How we all laughed. On the next hand I found Jc-10c and made it 1200 to go. Mr H was now in the SB and raised it up another 2000. I really couldn’t see him making a play from here after what he’d just shown, but in the forefront of my mind was the fact that we’d had a few tussles of late and I was pretty sure I’d been getting the worst of it. Time to try and readdress the balance, our mutual fortunes were due to swing my way soon, a clear call. The flop was a drool inducing 9c,7c,5 and when Mr H checked I had just the right amount, about 4500, to push in. He quickly called with 9-9 though and the board finished up a tantalising but ultimately unacceptable Q,Qc.
Monday evening and I had a close call on Ladbrokes that potentially involved a $20k swing without a card in sight. I’d just busted from a Poker Million super satellite and a box popped-up announcing that if I was one of the first ten to visit Ladbrokes-winners.com I’d receive $10,000. Like all junk mail I ignored it, but when it popped up again a few minutes later (duh) I figured it was worth a shot. I was informed that I was visitor no.8 and just had to give them my credit card details to get my hands on the lolly.
I know, I know, how stupid can one guy be, but because it was through a site I use and trust the words hacker and scam never entered my mind. Thinking just how useful an unexpected 10k windfall was going to be I thought I’d share my good fortune with the masses on the Blondepoker forum. Just as I’d typed in the details Amanda entered the room and I proudly showed off my post;
“You did what“, she cried! “You idiot!”
“Calm down dear, calm down”, I soothingly replied, "of course it’s kosher, it’s Ladbrokes."
Just then, Tikay phoned and informed me that according to Ironside it was definitely a scam and that I should cancel my card immediately. I did and the good news was that it hadn’t been used. Bad news shortly followed though;
“Oh I see, ignore me, but as soon as Tony calls it’s never in doubt!!”
Dog house again. Evening ruined.
I’ll be reporting from the Chelsea Flower Show next week; a husbands duties are many and varied.

2006-05-10T10:19:00.000Z

Leaks and Tweaks
As expected the main event in Blackpool was virtually a capacity crowd with one hundred and fifty eight shelling out a grand for a shot at the forty eight grand first prize. I was toying with the idea of entering the new Showdown Poker Tour at the Gutshot but the €5000 entry fee was very high for an inaugural event with no track record and I really didn’t think they’d get too many runners, especially as there was another 500NL event being run in tandem. I’m sure if they’d aimed their first season at around the fifteen hundred mark, as the EPT did, they could have made a success of it; with just twenty four entering and four spots getting paid I shan’t be considering the second event.
I didn’t draw the easiest of starting tables in Blackpool but was pleased with my position getting Ali Mallu and Iwan Jones just to my right. I got off to a great start getting all of Ali’s chips, the first half legitimately when I flopped trips with 7-7, the second not so pretty; I limped with 10-10 under the gun and Ali raised to 550 from the BB. I re-raised to 1500 and he called. The flop came A,9,3 and he immediately moved his last 4500 in. Somehow I managed to convince myself that he didn’t have an ace and made a world class call...he flipped up A-K and I rather embarrassingly hit a ten on fourth street.
I played some hands so bad I can blush just remembering them. I raised with J-J UTG and the old boy in the BB called. The flop came K,Q,3 and to cut a long story short I didn’t bet once, just called a small bet from him on the river by which time I’d allowed him to fill a straight with 4-5.
Things did eventually turn in my favour and with fifteen minutes to go I was one of the big stacks with 85k. Unfortunately I didn’t think too hard about how to play my queens when Martin Cavanagh re-raised me from the button. I pushed and he obliged with a call holding aces. I’ve played with Martin before and with just my initial raise invested I think I should have at least considered what he might be re-raising me with and from there, perhaps even entertain the possibility of releasing the queens and locking up my healthy stack for the night.
During the evening I got a chance to lock horns with two young guns I hadn‘t come across before, Rory Matthews and Julian Adamson. They both impressed me with their temperaments at the table, are apparently coining it in online and if they start showing up at festivals regularly I’d expect the two of them to put on a good show.
Day 2 began with just thirty players remaining and despite being 20k below average I was still confident, as the excellent structure meant I still had twenty BB’s for another hour. Alas, all I did was pick up filth for two hours eventually busting out in nineteenth spot. At least I get to moan about it:
I would guess that in that two hour period I raised eight times. Four times I got shown Q-Q. Twice I passed to the re-raise, once I was already all-in and sucked out with an A-6 but I couldn’t hold off the last one with a 7-7 in the SB and Mickey Wernick knocked me out from the button. Attempt number five backfired spectacularly; seven-handed I raised from under the gun with Q-9, seat 2 folded 10-10, seat 3 re-raised with K-K, seat 4 re-re-raised all-in with A-K and seat 5 folded Q-Q! Even a calling station like me recognised the signs and passed. Raise number six followed that now familiar pattern; everyone folded, Mickey made up the SB, I raised with A-8s from the BB, he re-raised and feeling like a punch bag I managed to find one last fold - I’ll put that one down to respect for my elders I guess. Although a far from pleasing strike rate the good news was that out of the eight attempts two did actually get through.
In hindsight, over the two days I felt there were many gaps in my game, I played many hands poorly from early position and when in the blinds, didn’t manage my stack as well as I could on a couple of occasions and didn’t give some of my actions enough consideration before I opted for an aggressive action. With not a lot on until the Irish Poker Tour Finals in early June I’ll try and be good and do some homework.

2006-05-05T23:04:00.000Z

Moonrise In New Mexico
It's over seven months since I quit work and what an experience it has been. This of course has been helped by a sustained run of form that has seen me book five figure profits every month since October. For sure my sponsorship deal with William Hill has enabled me to get out there and play without the usual worries of where the buy-ins are coming from and given me the opportunity to consistently whet my feet in the bigger comps. Aside from getting to derive an income from what I love to do, the extra time I get at home, spent with the family, especially now that spring is here and a hot summer looms will be valued for a long time to come.
With just one small cash in April, a £750 draw at Luton, it was looking as if my run was faltering until bang, right on cue, in the last comp of the month I got a draw in The Sportsman last Friday. I caught the train down to London on Thursday afternoon and bombed out early of that evenings 500NL freeze-out, but despite sharing a room with a snoring for England Tikay, the form turned on Friday; the day got off to a good start when I won a satellite for the £2500 main event and followed that up with a heads-up chop in that evenings 200NL re-buy comp with Paul King. We'd wrapped it up by 5am and I caught the early train back to Nottingham arriving home in time for breakfast, swiftly followed by bed.
Earlier this week I had a crack at the first three events at the Blackpool Bonanza: so far, so bad; a full house ran into quads on Monday followed by kings getting beaten by aces on Tuesday and Wednesday, snivel, sob, snivel. I've been sunning myself in the garden since and now feel ready to head back up for the main event tomorrow for some more punishment - or to at least try and dish some out. On a positive note I at least managed to keep the expenses down; I doubt there are many venues on the circuit where you can get a room, with breakfast at any time in the afternoon, for just £20. Superb!
And so to the title. I remember the first time I played online; Old King Cole and I got talking at the bar at the Nottingham Gala before a comp and he was singing its praises. Back then there were just a handful of sites and he recommended Pokerstars. Later that week I made a small deposit and signed up. Struggling to think of a name I looked around our study and just above the monitor there sits a photo by Ansel Adams; 'Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941'. Five years later and I'm chatting to Greg Amoils at The Sportman and as often happens we're swapping screen names on various online sites. I mention "moonrise", who still gets dusted off on the occasional Sunday evening and straightaway he said "Moonrise, as in Ansel Adams?" I was impressed.

2006-04-26T14:36:00.000Z

I’m On Standby
I've had a couple of weeks off since Dublin which I'm sad to say has seen me fritter away almost two thirds of my once healthy online bankroll. As I've said before I know the pitfalls and have recognised my weaknesses but I still don't seem to be able to wrestle them down. In true yoyo style my account has gone from 500 up to 5000, woohoo, down to 1500, doh, back up to 5900, woohoo, and just recently back down to 2000, doh. The peaks are oh so sweet but I could really do without the unhappiness and frustration that comes with the lows.
I also know I should be cashing out at regular intervals when it’s on the up but there exists a powerful force field around the cashing out button; sheesh, I’m 38, surely good sense, regular withdrawals and a steady trickle into my current account is better than daydreaming that if left untouched it might swell to 50k by the end of the year.
In contrast to my online experiments I'm chomping at the bit to get out and hit the live scene again. Following the $25k event and the fortunes of Roland De Wolfe at the Bellagio has really whet my appetite. Here's a big cuddly guy whom I doubt many would have rated as a top tournament player despite his WPT win in Paris last year, but as proven, if he manages to stay on his feet, his high wire game is a style that can win these major events; a million bucks for a third spot ain’t too bad for a weeks work.
Anyway the pace picks up later this week; it’s the fifty pound re-buy at Sheffield tonight then I’m off to a new venue (for me anyway), the Sportsman in London for a couple of games followed by a familiar trek over to the Sandcastle at Blackpool next week.
Finally, some padding to up the word count - there are some bonuses for William Hill punters this bank holiday weekend:
Saturday 29th April: make the Sixpak final table in the 11pm 5000MPP satellite to the WSOP and get an extra $1,000 spending money which shall be put into your WH account within 3 days.
Sunday 30th April: make the final table in the 8pm £110+10 50K GTD Tourney and get an extra £500 which shall be put into your WH account within 3 days.

2006-04-19T18:34:00.000Z

Easter Bunnies In Dublin Suburb
Dublin in the new millennium is unrecognisable when compared to the city I left when I was nineteen way back in 1987. Drawn by work, the bright lights and the promise of pretty girls aplenty, myself and many others caught the ferry and the night train onto Euston Station. The rest of the small Thew clan still live over there and we always head back over at Easter which, I guess, is my excuse for not having to find a $25k buy-in for the Bellagio in Las Vegas, although sat back here in rainy Nottingham it sure is tempting. Maybe in 2007.…
The Big Event has just started and even though I’m nowhere near it I’m logged onto a couple of sites every night for their live updates. One of my favourite players, Dave Colclough was brutally unlucky on Day 1 in that he found K-K when a guy had Q-Q but some other geezer had the aces. It gets worse; this was swiftly followed by running a set of 8’s into a set of 10’s. What a cruel game we play.
Onto The Irish Open then. The opening 400NL got me off to a fair start in that despite trying, I didn’t re-buy, although to be honest having to have lost all of your chips did hinder my quest. Twenty seven got paid and woe was me, my pretty Q-Q got busted by A-A in about thirtieth spot. Ultimately a frustrating evening then but I did at least feel that things were running well.
With the booze-free Good Friday out of the way I felt obliged to take Amanda out to lunch on Saturday, where I must admit to sampling a little wine so as not to dehydrate you understand, a habit I don’t normally partake of before a game. Two hours and a pot of coffee later I was sat down with Roy The Boy, George McKeever, Mark Herron and his dad Micky147 with a 10,000 stack and a one hour clock ahead. Midway through the second level I got involved in a pot with Roy which knocked me out of the tournament. It was an opportunist play on my part as Roy had been showing down solid hands, but I fancied having a punt and as sometimes happens all of a sudden all of the chips were in the middle on fourth street. He’d raised from mid-position and having just picked up a couple of small pots I decided to test my momentum and called the 400 bet with a Qd-9d. The BB called too and Roy led out for 1500 on the 9,6d,3 flop. Roy tends the bet the pot and all of sudden this pot was getting big. I’m not ashamed to admit to having serious calling station tendencies, something most books advice against, but IMO that action does have many merits; a meaningful re-raise would have committed at least half of my chips and it felt a little early for such a big play, whereas a call with position will quite often slow the opponent down, get a free card and occasionally scare them into submission. So of course I just called and we both got to see a 10d hit the table on fourth street. Roy led out again for a small 2000 and I ambled right into his trap, moving-in for another 6000 with my flush draw and pair of nines. I got to see just how bad a shape I was in when he flipped up trip 10’s and another 9 on the river was of no use to me.
In hindsight a more aggressive stance on the flop would probably have stolen the pot for me and had Roy bet a 1000 instead of a pot sized 1500 that might have been my reaction. Looking back earlier still I also think I should refrain from a pre-match tipple as I didn’t feel in tip-top condition, although with or without a drink on board I can still see myself getting involved with that hand; it’s in my nature - cue a parable from Mr Cool aka Marc Goodwin:
The Scorpion And The Frog
Scorpion needs to cross the river but he can only get across on the back of Frog.
“I’m not sure“, says Frog, “How do I know you won’t sting me?”
“Why would I do that, I’ll drown if I sting you”, replied Scorpion.
Off they went, piggyback-style across the river and as the little Frog predicted Scorpion stung him.
“WTF did you do that for, now we’re both going to die!” wailed Frog.
“Shit” replied Scorpion, as they started to sink “I guess I just can’t help myself, it’s in my nature”.
I don’t mind reporting that I got out of there as fast as I could beating a hasty retreat to my old local, Searson’s in Ballsbridge where not long after I was disappointed, but also a little cheered up to see Matt Tyler walk through the door, also in need of Guinness.
I’m England bound now until the Paris leg of the WPT in June and then before we know it, it’s World Series time again. Realistically it’s going to be a three week trip to take the championship event seriously. Three weeks! I haven’t spent that long away from home since my teens and I know myself well enough to recognise how homesick I’m sure to get. Three weeks in a hotel would soon grate and I have chosen our accommodation wisely, getting interior design connoisseur Ariston to source a funky brat pack bungalow with all the trimmings; I’ll be booking my flight this week, how exciting!

2006-04-11T22:53:00.000Z

Ho Hum
A fifteenth spot was the best I could scramble together at the Springfest in Luton last week, a money back finish. It was the 750NL and I’d been yo-yoing between 50 and 70k for what seemed like days. The pattern went something like this; build up to 70k, double a short stack up, drop back down to 50k, repeat several times. With two tables left I finally broke into the comfortable 100k zone but just as soon as I got there I ran an A-J into an A-9 and got myself knocked out. Marvellous, 4pm on a Friday afternoon and I had to endure a northbound crawl on the M1.
The 1500NL main event saw me cracking aces twice in the early rounds, the second of which really tilted up the Milkybarkid (I was knee deep in doggy-doo when the chips went in and barring a spectacular runner/runner type situation I was essentially drawing to hit a two-outer on fourth street). Normally it bothers me not if a player wants to tilt-off his whole stack, but I must admit to having felt a little uneasy when I get on so well with the guy; calm down, it won’t happen again boss!
That fortuitous double up aside I struggled to get my hands on an average stack of chips all night and had to duck and dive my way through to the last level of the day when unfortunately my flush ran into Matt Tyler’s full house. The warning signs were there when he min-raised me on fourth street and I suspect if the hour hadn’t of been so late, I might, just maybe have gotten away from it, but with just thirty minutes of play remaining I wasn’t in the mood to play guessing games and pass up the opportunity of a tidy double up. At least the traffic wasn’t as bad at that time of night.
I’m continuing to enjoy my online trials (more than half the time anyway): I’ve avoided the SNG’s this week and for the moment seem to be plodding along quite nicely at the dizzy $5-10NL heights. It’s still a very small sample size and to be honest I have no idea whether it be largely skill or luck that's getting me through, let’s see how I feel in a fortnight. In the meantime I’ve teamed up with my 'on the next street' neighbour Chris Bruce; just like all the mums in the area we have started getting together for our own coffee mornings, laptops in hand, a tilt-free environment where hopefully we can hone our online temperaments or or at least get to guffaw at the gaffs.
Myself, Amanda and the boy are all off to Dublin in the morning for our annual Easter visit which rather conveniently coincides with the Irish Open; shame. I’m playing two events, Friday and Saturday , which means we’ll have a good chance to get out and see the bright lights, with time to recover if necessary.

2006-04-06T11:45:00.000Z

This Piece Has No Title
It’s been a while since I updated on my fitness status: Boy am I lazy, but what I have come to realise is that it’s only at night that the guilt pangs arrive by which time I’m either in a cardroom or halfway through a bottle of red. Fair enough, the cardroom is where I earn my living now, but I do need to go easy on the wine and getting into the habit of quaffing the best part of a bottle of wine on most free evenings is a trait that needs watering down. I am trying to do a few feeble sit ups and press ups when I remember and when this damned wind dies down I’ll try and knock a few miles out on the bike. With spring in the air and some gentle nudging from the wife these modest efforts might eventually bear some fruit.
This week I’m Luton bound for their Springfest and the four Holdem freeze-outs. So far, so bad, Mondays 200NL saw me nursing an embarrassingly short stack for a few hours with no light at the end of the tunnel. A good effort compared to Tuesdays 500PL though where I goofed-off a below average stack after Jeff Rogers beat me up in three pots. Consecutive hands at the start of level 3 saw me go from laying aces down on a menacing Kc,Qc,9 flop, to shipping my last 5k into the middle with K-Q on a 6,10,J,Q board. This was the second worrying trait of the week; how is it possible to go from making an astute laydown one minute to making a pretty dreadful call for all my stack in the next? I guess I still need to recognise the signs and have gotta learn to take a walk to cool off from time to time.
I appreciate all the online advice I’ve been receiving of late, it’s all been very informative. I’ve had a reasonably good week with a decent cash in the massively undersubscribed $600k Six-Pak on William Hills last Sunday - nigh on 20% of the field got paid, oh happy day! That excitement aside I’ve had a couple of short hit and run sessions on the $2-5NL tables and am probably just a few hundred bucks down on the SNG’s.
The good news is that I think I’ve discovered my biggest leak and I’ll hazard a guess that this probably applies to a lot of players; taking a random shot at the big tables and running the risk of severely denting the online bankroll. The bad news is that I’m not sure I’ll ever be strong enough to temper those urges. Why do I do this? One, because it’s there and oh so easy to have a go, but I suspect the main reason comes down to greed and ego. Why can’t I be content with trying to win a couple of hundred bucks a day, I’m sure it would be a very achievable goal and I doubt I’d have to break into too much of a sweat to get there.
Finally, in just a word or sentence, what is the skill in poker? This was a conversation a few of us had some weeks back and here are the answers we came up with, some of which were duplicated:
Discipline.
Aggression.
Timing.
Reading Players.
Not chucking it all-in pre-flop and relying on luck.
I think I can tick most boxes albeit in varying degrees, but I must admit to occasionally over indulging in one of the five from time to time…

2006-03-29T13:16:00.000Z

The Old Guard
John Kabbaj bettered his third place finish in last weeks 750NL by winning the 1500NL main event. John, who I’m guessing is still a fair way off from his forties seems to me at least to represent the old guard, that is, that batch of players who appear to have been on the circuit since it began. I guess I’ve played with John five or six times over the past four years and until last week whilst I respected his reputation, I wasn’t too wary of him. Everyone has good, indifferent and bad days and what’s important here is our sample size; the odd bout or two isn’t always enough to fully appreciate a player’s ability. We hooked up once again last week and I got to see just why this guy is held in such high repute amongst his peers. I got to see him blend into the background when nursing a short stack, saw him trap the tight guy beautifully with aces when he limped in the SB and oh yeah, he must have re-raised me at least three times on his way to a big stack….what cheek!
The lesson for me then, be wary judging a book by it’s cover or opening chapter. Speaking of which, rather annoyingly, I was but a tantalizing twenty odd pages from finishing the excellent ‘The Professor, the Banker and Suicide King’ when I went and left it on the train to Stansted Airport last week. The story of how one man takes on the most feared players in the world and gets them out of their comfort zone by raising the stakes, where one big blind costs $100,000, is one of the best page turners I’ve read in recent months. From Stansted we were Tallinn bound with the William Hill team as they hosted the inaugural three-event Baltic Open. The landscape was flat and very white and fortunately for us the sky was blue and the sun shone to make the daytime temperatures bearable.
Of late I find myself unable to get interested about even the most interesting hands that crop up in conversation if the telling looks like it‘s gonna take some time. Lawrence Gosney has a neat trick. If he senses somebody is about to relate a hand history he quickly asks them for a pound (they assume it’s to tip the valet for a cuppa). He pockets the quid and one night he cleared £38; it’s rare that he gets cornered now. With that in mind I’ll keep the specifics of the trip report very short, not even four words. Two v.frustrating sessions.
Matt Tyler continued his fine run of late by winning the opening 500NL event and with his constant banter the table captain hat is a natural fit. He looked to be going well in the 2000NL main event, or at least he was when I last spotted him; I’m ashamed to admit that I bailed out early and skipped the last re-buy event managing to get indoors for the dying hours of Mothers Day….ahh, brownie points aplenty.
The past fortnight has seen me investing some time and a little effort in trying to build up an online bankroll. I play the 8 o’clock tournament most nights and managed to final in a recent Sunday 40k comp to get the campaign off to a good start (my best yet, a 7TH). Cash-wise I’ve been dabbling in the $2-5NL tables with mixed results and overall I’m probably break even. The SNG’s have gone better but I’m aware that I’m overplaying my modest bankroll and that it would only take one or two bad sessions to see it all disappear. On the whole I’ve been enjoying myself and can sense the addiction just bubbling under the surface when running good. Whilst it’s still too early to tell whether I have it in me to grind out a weekly profit, I am aware of a couple of traits that need addressing:
I don’t know how the full-time onliners cope, but I’ve got an annoying habit of proudly announcing my humble wins, like a small child who’s washed his hands unaided before dinner, swiftly followed by then having to sheepishly admit to the inevitable downswing. Talking of swings, on the darker side my mood swings need to be handled better. Playing live I get over any disappointment on the drive home; online though it‘s different and if Amanda happens to be in the same room I’m along way from being able engage in a normal conversation in the minutes that follow either a cruel outdraw, or more likely, a move too many. All suggestions considered!

2006-03-22T23:51:00.000Z

Getting There
A new batch of William Hill merchandise arrived from HQ last week; new jacket, hoodie and a couple of cool sleeveless fleeces. Dress codes have always been a pet hate of mine and it’s great to see the majority of casino’s gradually relaxing their assessment of what they expect punters to wear in order to donate their hard earned lolly over the tables. The Victoria Club in London unfortunately still clings to the antiquated idea that gents really should wear a collar, or that at least some gents, primarily those unknown to the front desk adhere to this.
The fleece had a collar of sorts so I was hoping to get away without a shirt. I got through the checkpoint on Monday but when I returned on Tuesday, despite getting through the first wave of attendants, I was pulled back by a vigilant official as I tried to pass the coat check:
“You can’t wear that in here, there‘s no sleeves.”
“But if I take it off I won’t have a collar on…”
Life really is too short, an intolerable carry on.
That hardship aside, it was a worthwhile trip as I managed to get heads-up in the first big freeze-out of the week, the 750NL. I was out chipped about 3:1 but fancied my chances when holding two pair on a black 10,9,5 flop (you can guess which two lol). I checked, he bet, I raised and happy days, he pushed all-in with a red A-Q. It wasn’t to be though as my once favourite dealer J.D. dealt a jack followed by an eight to clinch the deal for my opponent. I’ve had a number of seconds recently, all of which have seen me relinquish a healthy chip lead, so whilst disappointed, there was at least some comfort in that I’d not done a lot wrong.
Getting there was fun. One hundred and seventy sat down on Monday evening and I got off to a good start not feeling any pressure until we were down to about four tables. There’s a nasty pattern emerging in my game as once again I mis-managed my stack badly, making two pretty reckless moves against the tight guy. That followed by losing a blind on blind coup with A-9 against Martin Green’s A-8 left me feeling very vulnerable. The gloves were officially off.
At my new table the French guy on my left immediately got under my skin by his slightly arrogant table manner; a clash was inevitable. All three were blind on blind, my small, his big. He won the first, then doubled me up on the second. We locked horns a third and final time and I got to scoop a chunky 60k pot off him, check-calling him down with Q-7 on an A,7,2,4,10 flop. He bet 4k, 10k and 10k and whilst I was pretty sure my hand was good it represented almost three quarters of my stack and had I been wrong the general consensus would most probably have been ‘shocking play’. I made one other big call just prior to that hand against James Vogl. I had him slightly covered, probably 25k to his 20k and I made it 4k with K-Qs. He moved-in from the BB and I called, hitting a queen on the turn to beat his 7-7.
Twenty came back on Tuesday afternoon and I maintained my healthy stack right up until the final when I took a big hit, my Q-Q losing to a 7-8s. At the final three of us were short and it was pretty important to win the first confrontation. Sitting on 70k I was delighted to see everyone pass around to me on the SB. I peeked down at a black A-4 and raised it up to 18k. In the BB Dave Barnes re-raised, making it 40k to go. Eek. Three options, non of which were too pleasing. I hated passing and giving it up, re-raising all-in was bound to elicit a call, whereas calling at least offered me a few more options on the flop - I get reverse position, first to move, first to bluff and just maybe he can pass on the flop. Well I guess it was a perfect flop, nine high, all diamonds, I pushed and he eventually passed.
By the time we got five handed I was still the short stack and got lucky flopping a straight with A-Q against Dan Samson’s A-K. John Kabbaj then doubled me up with K-K against 10-10 and for the first time I was relatively comfortable. We soon got down to three and after thirty minutes of cagey play we agreed to split the majority of the pot leaving another eleven to play for. Deals do alter the flow of the game and it was all over soon after. Well done to the winner Lawrence, a relatively new player; you know you’re doing something right when the two pro’s are asking for a deal.

2006-03-14T09:53:00.000Z

Flatliner In Monte Carlo
Over before it really started. I exited the €10,000 EPT grand final in the twenty second minute of the first ninety minute level. Not something to be proud of but given a similar set of circumstances I doubt I’d make it to minute twenty three. Within the first revolution of the table, the monsieur to my left had twice put bets ranging between three and five thousand in on the flop, massively over-betting each pot he was involved in. I’m sure it wasn’t just me who was drooling at the prospect of getting my paws on his stack.
I didn’t have wait long for an opportunity. I flat called an early position raise with K-K and when it got around to mateyboy he made it 1200 to go. The raiser called, as did I. We checked the 10,8,6 flop to him and he bet a modest 3000. The initial raiser passed and I calmly pushed all-in; in fairness, he took about twenty seconds to call with his aces and was rewarded with getting to see my two lowly kings.
The disappointment I felt was crushing and the immediate urge was to get home as fast as possible or failing an instantaneous northbound departure, do a Reggie Perrin into the very blue Mediterranean. It was still only Tuesday and after a couple of hours the pain had subsided enough to see the sense in not going back to a very grey England, instead stopping and waiting for Amanda to join me on the sunny Côte d’Azur on Friday.
There are varying degrees of disappointment and it’s hard to know who felt worse, the guy who busted out first or the one who just missed the final eight, the TV table and a shot at the €900,000 first prize. I was sorry to see the Milky One, Ben Grundy, go out in ninth spot. In last years event Ben played a short stack like his life depended on it to finish seventh. Just before the tournament started we were having a natter and agreed that it was unlikely he would ever go that deep again as a short stack, that he’d be sure to make a move and either double up or get busted. In contrast to last year he got there in great shape, but a big stack isn’t always easy to manage and two big pots later he was out.
In the meantime the two €500 side events I played saw me floundering and my exit from the last still gets me blushing when remembering how lame I played the exit hand. Struggling with 2800 I made it 800 to play with K-K. One of the limpers called and what happened next can only be described as a dealer error; an ace appeared on the flop. We both checked, surely a good sign for my two kings. Despite there being 2000 in the pot and just 2000 in front of me, when he checked the turn I failed to bet. Ugh. I’m not normally so passive - perhaps my recent good run has gone to my head and I don’t think I even need to make an action to pick up a pot. The river brought a rag and the board showed something like A,J,9,8,4. He hesitated and bet 2000. I called and saw that he had rivered a second pair, jacks over, to beat me.
With that last woeful pot in mind and after a pretty hectic month or two I’m gonna take a few days off before I hit the Baltic Open in Tallinn next week. Downturns are inevitable when things have been running well and there are a few leaks that need addressing and nipping in the bud before I sit down to play again.

2006-03-08T14:02:00.000Z

The Manager
It pains me to report that I was a very early casualty in the Monte Carlo EPT grand final, possibly even the first out. I’ll post a trip report on that next week but while I’m kicking my heels until Amanda gets out here on Friday I’m gonna see if I can help a good friend of mine, Brian ‘The Rookie’ Wilson, negotiate his way through Day 1.
In most competitive pursuits, especially those that involve large sums of money, there is rarely just one guy, the competitor, banging away on his own. At the top end it’s not unusual to have a coach, a sports psychologist and even a nutritionist at your disposal.
The mood swings we experience over a ten hour stint at the table can be devastating and many a tournament has been thrown away because of one slip, one moment of madness; with a coach or manager to shadow me and pull me off the table when he spots the signs, throwing that all important bucket of water over me and shaking off the gloom, all could be saved.
I always felt Simon Trumper had a small edge over the field when he sat the lovely Matilda behind him. Two pairs of eyes to study the table, if used properly, must be advantageous. The ethical boundaries are a little blurred here and I suspect over time it’ll be just players, no partners at the table.
So, somebody to watch over you, spot player patterns and pass on any previous knowledge. I’d happily consider paying, or being paid, a small fee, with a percentage thrown in for the right candidate. Watch this space, my shot is over but The Rookie awaits in the wings.

2006-03-07T17:32:00.000Z

Run Down In Vienna
We headed off to Vienna last Wednesday where five of us got to share a spacious apartment just a short walk from the city centre. The sun was out to greet us but by the time we left the pavements and rooftops were covered in snow.
The structure at the Concorde Card Casino is fantastic with the main event playing over four days, mirroring the WSOP championship event with ninety minute levels and a 10,000 starting stack. I didn’t perform well out here last year and hoped to put on a much better show this time around. It wasn’t to be though as once again it proved both disappointing and frustrating as I just couldn’t string anything together or get into my usual groove.
Mistakes then, there were a few. This is the one that still annoys me; I can’t remember the pre-flop action but I flopped bottom pair with 9-8 in the BB and decided to check-call my aggressive, in every pot, opponent. Two bets and two calls later we got to the river and for some reason I decided to lead out for 700 into a 1500 pot, a wishy-washy bet and when I got re-raised I had to swallow it and pass. He raised an eyebrow and showed me two bus tickets, a 7-3. The stop-bet is a nice play but against aggressive foe it can backfire if they sense weakness and with that in mind I should have stuck to the reasonably safe check-call strategy.
The second was a brutal hand I played against the tight guy, Ashley Alterman. Once again an aggressive player opened for a raise to 1200 and I spied an A-Q from the BB. Before I got a chance to act though, Ashley moved all-in, a big over-bet, 7k. I was sitting on a comfortable 14k but as I often do, I managed to find a reason to call, figuring that like me, he realised that the raiser more than likely didn’t have a hand and that he could pick up the pot with a re-raise. Big calls with A-K are one thing, but an A-Q in that spot really is just too big a call for half your stack - he’s the tight guy for ffs! Anyway, call I did and A-K I was shown. Ashley continued to play his rush and got to finish me off a few hands later when I ran 8-8 in his K-K.
On a happier note we got a first over here; Badgirl, Smokie and myself, the entire William Hill trio ended up on the same table halfway through the 500NL. It didn’t last long though, two hands to be precise, as I got to crack Xuyen’s pocket aces when I spiked a straight flush on the river with a cheeky 5-7s. To her credit she took it very well.
The Concord is someway out of the city in a very grey residential district and my early exits in all three comps meant I ended up dipping my feet into the lively NL cash games. I got off to a flyer, spinning one five hundred bullet up to five grand but my pants were glued to the chair and by the time I managed to eventually haul myself away half of the profit appeared to have evaporated. This deterioration continued and over the following three nights I gave it all back, with interest. I did at least get to ponder just what the differences are between cash games and tournaments. Personally, I enjoy the constantly changing pressures of a tournament, the ever increasing blinds and the fact that at some point you have to make a play just to survive. Sadly, in a cash game you are afforded the luxury of a sitting and waiting game and unless I’m picking up plenty of paint I just don’t have the patience.
The food in the club was pretty good and up to three times a day we methodically worked our way through the bulk of the menu. I could almost get away with claiming to be on a little bit of health kick thanks to the excellent salads that came with a mouth watering wet vinegary dressing, but despite these edible efforts I do now feel very run down and have picked up a nasty bout of man flu. There’s a very easy pattern that I tend to fall into on these trips; if I’m lucky I go deep in the tournament, otherwise it’s chin-wagging at the bar until the sun comes up, rolling out of bed mid afternoon and the cycle starts over. In hindsight it might have made sense to have skipped Vienna and arrive in Monte Carlo in tip-top shape. I get to play the first flight on Tuesday and I’m hoping I can get through on auto-pilot, making the most of the rest day while the second flight gets underway and come back fighting fit on Day 2.

2006-02-28T14:30:00.000Z

I’ve Done It Again
Tilt. I really thought all that was far behind me, but whaddaya know, it reared it’s head and bit me firmly in the ass last Sunday. I’ll start with some happier news from Wednesday and build up to my demise in the weekends main event.
I played three freeze-outs at the Midlands Medley in Walsall, the three, the five and the fifteen hundred main event. I nursed a short stack all the way through to the final in the 300NL but crashed out in seventh spot when I found A-K in the BB against a stubborn opponent who held aces. Just before I busted, that evenings 500NL was due to start and as we weren’t allowed to play both, talk of a deal was tabled. I declined, preferring to have a shot at the 22k for first spot rather than a big seven way chop, just so we could all jump straight into another two hundred runner field with a nine hour stretch in front of us.
Of course with my untimely exit I got to do just that and I can report that it ain’t much fun jumping from an exciting short handed end game to the tedious early rounds of a new tournament. I gave it a good shot, but it takes a big shift in focus and I really don’t think I was fresh enough to be a real contender. Pete Singleton put me out of my misery anyway, I’d raised to 600 with aces and narrowed the field down to just four callers; how do you play an 8000 stack when the tight guy leads out for 2000 on a Q,6,2 flop? Pete played his middle set perfectly and I was in bed before midnight.
The arrival of these two day events is great but unless you’re stopping over it really does take it out of you if you make consecutive day two’s. Even though home is only an hour away I‘ll consider finding a room next time; I got in at about 6.30am on Thursday, got the boy up, hit the sack at 7.30am, crawled out of it at noon and headed back down to Walsall an hour later. The good news was that I got to endure the same hardship in the main event a couple of days later.
Hats off to Grosvenor as we got a generous 15,000 chips to play with in a double chance format. My first half lasted all of twenty minutes when I ran a flopped flush into a full house. I bounce well though and ended the day in very good shape with 92k. Getting that stack wasn’t always pretty and I hit more than my fair share of 3-outers. The one that drew the most surprise was against a good friend of mine, Ralph Shalston, aka Karabiner. I was cruising with 70k, well above average, with just another thirty minutes of play before Day 1 was to finish. I raised to 4600 with K-9s on the Button and Ralph pushed all-in for another 18k from his BB. The pot was now 28k and whilst the odds were pretty grim, I know Ralph knows, that I know he’s a rock and with that in mind I felt that there was a chance he was just making a re-steal. I decided to call, knowing that even if I lost I’d still be in good shape with close on 50k. He flipped up Q-Q, but the first card off was a king and I got to add another 23k to my stack. I realise to most that it was a seemingly reckless call, but with a big stack I don't mind taking the odd shot - you'd be surprised how many times I find myself in front. I can empathise with the pain of a cruel 3-outer; a certain Ms Rokach has seen me off in many a similar situation and left me scratching my head and wondering for weeks “how could she do that?” Monkey see, monkey do I guess as there is quite a bit of that ladies game in my make up now.
Sunday, and Day 2 got off to a stressful start when the M6 got closed. Cunningly, I managed to reverse up the hard shoulder to the service station where there was an escape route but this then entailed a left foot and shin-deadening hour on the clutch negotiating my way through Wolverhampton at walking pace; not an experience I would wish on anyone. Despite me being an hour late I arrived just in time for the first hand and for the first hour all went very well as I built up to 140k. I then lost three pots, the third on a bluff when my draw missed and I found myself down to 80k. Still above average, still very healthy, but I should have noticed that anxious feeling welling up from inside and done something to ensure a swift re-focus, a new game plan; but I didn’t. I checked my cards as soon as they arrived and I knew I was going to go all the way with the A-Q I found. Before I got a chance to act though, a chipped up Tim (hi-diddly-ho) Flanders raised to 9k which was just about perfect; I pushed the whole lot in, a horrible, gigantic over bet and he had a pretty straightforward call with K-K.
I always think it’s an awful shame to fritter away a lucky run of cards and that’s exactly what I did. The good news is that I did feel very sick and although I did manage to get off to sleep that night, I awoke in the wee small hours and once again felt very sick. It’s Tuesday now, I’ve addressed the tilt issue and am pleased to report that my normal happy temperament is once again fully restored.

2006-02-28T14:10:00.000Z

Back To School
As a sideline, or in an effort to derive a non playing income of sorts I have teamed up with an old work colleague, Toby Reid, who now runs Heath Reid & People, a lifestyle membership service in Nottingham. We felt he might have the perfect target audience for a little poker tuition and came up with ‘Poker Nights’, the aim of which is to provide a taster course for people who have watched poker on the telly or perhaps dabbled online, but weren’t quite ready or prepared to enter a casino environment until they had a better understanding of the ins and outs of tournament poker. We did a one-off feeler session for a group of eight in December and have just followed that up with a keen group of seven who we met in the stylish Lace Market Hotel for the past three Monday evenings. One of the group was keen to point out that she too would very much like to be sponsored and as is the way of the world if she gets herself out there I’d fancy her chances. Alternatively you could take a chance and beat the rush; my finders fee is a very modest one.
I do now know why I never went into teaching (and appreciate that many would question my suitability to advise a novice on the range of hands one should play from an early position), but Toby is a great compere and the course I think, went well. Feedback was positive, and just to remind you how excited we all used to get when we first discovered the competitive joys of a game of poker, the group now plan to host a weekly home game of their own. I imagine we’ll line another course up for April and see how it goes.

2006-02-22T14:46:00.000Z

Odds and Ends
A slightly disjointed offering this week with some bits ands pieces that have been lying around for a while. Last week was a quiet one, the calm before the storm. I squeezed in two events at the Sheffield Steel City Festival, both ho hum, no draws. I played badly, or at least went out badly in the 250PL, calling off all my chips with a 10-8s when it was pretty clear the re-raiser had me beat. Still, we all need a slap around the chops from time to time, hopefully that’s mine sorted for a while now.
Where U Been?
Miraculously, Dylan, the cat who had been gone for a fortnight returned on Sunday evening. I’d just been elbowed out of the 40k comp on William Hills, and in need of comfort was heading into the kitchen to rustle up a late night snack when I heard a familiar howling at the back door. We were totally flabbergasted; I doubt this guy has ever crossed a road before and after the second day away we were both, silently, not expecting him back. He’s all hair and bone now but does appear to be enjoying the fast track beefing-up programme we‘ve put him on. Give it a few more days and I’m sure I’ll be cursing him regularly again.
On The Box
I’ve enjoyed watching the William Hill Grand Prix heats on Sky Sports 2 and feel I’ve learnt a bit from watching my own heat, or should I say, watching Ram tear up the field in that particular heat. What’s now clear from comparing his game to mine is that he doesn’t shy away from getting all of his chips in; he must have moved over the top of me three or four times and it doesn’t really matter who was in front, what matters is that he always managed to manipulate the betting so that he’d get his stack in first and for me to call I needed a very big hand. I suspect he realised and took advantage of the fact that in a televised situation most of us don’t want to look too daft and that a solid pass is a far easier decision to make that a potentially humiliating call. He was out on a limb a lot, but it’s true, fortune does favour the brave and in my opinion, in Heat 4 Ram delivers a master class on how to bully a table.
An Amusing Tale
This is a conversation that I’m sure Iwan Jones won’t have minded Tikay repeating to me; it does still make me smile. Way back in 2004 I knocked him out of a tournament in Walsall and although my memory is hazy I think I‘d raised with a K-10 and he moved-in with an A-K. I of course got stubborn and being the luckier player, called and got lucky. Later that evening Tikay came over and related this story:
Iwan: “Tikay, you’re mates with Julian right?”
Tikay: “Yes Iwan“.
Iwan: “He’s the worst player I have ever seen“.
This is what I love about the game - there are no rules and whilst good sense should normally prevail, for me, an unpredictable, capable of anything persona at the table appears to work. Iwan’s game has come on a treat over the past twelve months and I think now he’d happily forgive and perhaps even partake in the odd loose call or two.
Teamwork
Now to a guy who always makes me smile; Rolf Woods is the manager of the Norsemen Poker Team, a five-strong raiding party from Norway. I think this is their second year as a sponsored team and all five are very fine, strong players with Edgar Skjervold and Torstein Iversen probably being the most well known of the group. As well as planning and organising their trips Rolf gets the gang together once a week for a brainstorming session where they discuss and share their views on the play of any interesting hands or situations that might have recently arisen. With so much money now up for grabs as prize pools spiral ever upwards, a professional outlook and a solid team spirit is a definite edge in any competitive arena and I know that having a Smokie or a Badgirl around to steady the ship when I’m a bit wobbly after losing a big pot really does help.
The Storm Ahead
A glamorous Midlands Medley in Walsall, the EWOSP in Vienna, the EPT final in Monte Carlo and the Baltic Open in Tallinn. All I need is my form to hold out for another four weeks and who knows, just maybe an embarrassment of riches awaits. I’m sure I’d manage to cope.

2006-02-13T08:50:00.000Z

In The Groove. The Deauville EPT
Over four hundred punters made the difficult journey to an out of season Deauville in Normandy. As you can see it was an exhausting trip, tee hee. Despite there being a thick wedge of surly Frenchman in the mix the Brits were out in force and I was sure a handful would go deep. They did; with twelve players left we had 50% of the field covered, unfortunately it went bang, bang, bang and with seven left we were down to just one, the Crazyhorse himself, Ram Vaswani. Well I guess even he is human, as he encountered a bad day at the office to finish fifth.
I got drawn on Day 1b and forty four of us ducked and dived our way through the initial two hundred and twenty six runners in what felt like a very long ten hour day. I need to be careful around dinner time; I did my best not to over eat and managed to avoid the flowing wine, but even after just a light graze once we restarted I got that post dinner lethargy that only a snooze can remedy. Fortunately I wasn’t picking too much up and I managed to just plod through until the next break when a short walk in the bracing winds perked me up.
Once again the field was a very mixed bag and I witnessed many inexperienced players crack up after just three or four hours of play. I’ve played enough slow structured comps now to know that there really is no need to panic if you’ve done half your chips whilst everybody else appears to have doubled up with ease. Never mind the best way to play A-Q under the gun, if your temperament isn’t up to a ten hour stretch with swings a plenty, I don’t fancy your chances much.
I got off to a pretty spectacular start and although I won the pot, I’m still slightly troubled by the manner in which I won it and suspect that I made a somewhat dubious call for all my chips with just one pair. Comments welcomed. I made it 150 to go on the second hand with two red aces and Greg Raymer called behind me. I bet 300 on a 2d,8d,10 flop and he raised to a 1000. Marvellous, the pot has suddenly gone through the roof, I’ve got the prettiest of hands but am out of position facing a large, known aggressor, wearing reptile sunglasses and a platinum bracelet on his wrist. Just calling felt too timid a reaction so I re-raised to 3000. He wasted no time and swiftly announced “all-in”. Groan. He’d got his chips in before me and from where I was sat that was an enviable position to be in. I ruled out a set simply on the basis that if it were me I’d have tried to milk it a little more. It felt like a nasty 50/50 type situation at best, but the overriding urge I had was to not appear weak so early in the comp. It’s tough to bully a sponsored player who’s holding aces and it bothers me not to put my hand up and admit that yes, I am capable of making some very iffy decisions. So I called, got shown a Qd-10d and thankfully he missed all of his many outs.
Despite this golden start my run was far trouble free and within a couple of hours I was back down to 7k, but I stuck it out and eventually several levels spent plodding along paid off as I ended the day with a comfortable 65k. One hundred players returned for Day 2 and with forty getting paid we could all get a whiff of the money. Not a lot went right early on and I had to struggle along with a vulnerable 50k. The blinds really were beginning to pinch but this can work both ways; I managed to scoop two modest pots, including an all-in move from my BB (with the sexy Q-9s) against a Button raise, and this effectively doubled me up. With four tables left I got a quick stint on the TV table which served me well and by the time we were down to three tables of eight I was happy with an average stack of 200k. This is the most treacherous part of a tournament, the blinds and running antes are huge and your fortunes balance on a knife edge. The signs were good when a short stack shipped his last 70k into the middle with 2-2 and I found Q-Q on the button; alas, the BB who was sitting on 500k found A-A irresistible, called my all-in re-raise and I was out.
On a happier note it was good to see Smokie and The Bandit both get excellent finishes in the two supporting events. I am of course referring to Steve Vladar and Peter Evans, two of the ‘older school’ who can clearly still teach some of these young guns a move or two; I’d spotted Peter at the bar earlier that day and suspect his nerves were sufficiently dulled for the long slog ahead. I might join him next time.

2006-02-09T11:50:00.000Z

The Overlook (Heeeeeere's Johnny!)We're staying at the Hotel du Golf Barriere in Deauville this week, surely a European cousin of The Overlook in Colorado, the isolated, ghostly hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
No need to worry about kings running into aces when I'll not be surprised to spot an axe wielding Jack Nicholson leering at me from the end of a very long corridor, or worse still, these two sisters. Eek.

2006-02-07T06:54:00.000Z

How Green Was My Valley
Almost perfect: Having held a healthy chip lead from late on Saturday evening I finally got heads-up on Sunday evening holding a 3:1 advantage in the £500NL Welsh Championships at Cardiff. Unfortunately, as I have done in the past I made a move, when I absolutely didn’t need to and promptly ran into aces, doubling-up my popular Welsh opponent. With the chips now even, the momentum that had propelled me along for two days finally slipped away as I lost two big pots; the first was top pair against two pair and the second and final one finished it, when my flush draw with a gutshot ran into a flopped straight. Another good result then, but having led for so long, with so many chips, it was especially disappointing to take a clumsy fall at the last hurdle.
I’m really happy with how I played and managed my stack over the course of the game. The yoyo swings were kept to a minimum and whilst of course I cracked superior hands with inferior hands, that’s the fun you can have with a grand stack of ill-gotten chips. One gaff that still troubles me was a heads-up pot that I played too passively. I called a raise with 3-5 in the SB and opted for the check-raise on the 2,4,9 flop. The problem was he checked behind me and all of a sudden I didn’t fancy my draw so much with just one card to come. Having missed and with no other way to pick it up I finally bet it on the river, when it was too late and I got a call from an ace high. Once I’ve called a raise out of position with crud like 3-5, flopping an up and down draw is possibly one of the best scenario’s I can hope for and knowing I’m offering him a free card if I check, I really should have lead out with a bet. Not a huge pot, but when it represents a 15% swing to the other guy it really does illustrate the knife edge that an endgame balances on.
It’s train spotting again this week as I catch the Eurostar to Paris and then the slow train to Deauville in Normandy. BlondePoker’s hottest new updater, Snoopy1239 joined me for breakfast at Thew Towers this morning before we set off. He’s spent all his life in the murky depths of Birmingham so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised when it materialised that he had never heard of, or tried, Lemon Curd on his toast before; I think he approved although it could have been a misread.
We also had some sad news here at the weekend. Our cat Dylan, a big fluffy twelve year old Persian went out on Sunday afternoon and never returned. He’s a home-bird, can’t jump fences and never goes far so we fear the worst. I’ve cursed Dylan more times than I care to remember, his super-fine downy hair gets everywhere, playing havoc with my sensitive nose and covering countless dark jumpers and pants with an immovable matt of cream fuzz. We’ve blitzed the local area with flyers and hopefully something will show up, although the longer he’s away we have to accept the chances are getting slimmer. We miss him.

2006-02-01T13:34:00.000Z

A Week At Home
Wood chip, emulsion and a skip kept me and my little helper busy here last week. I’ll admit to slumming it and paying a decorator to strip the yellowing wood chip, patch up the walls and slap on the brilliant white paint, but it was good to do some work outside and I enjoyed filling the large 8yd skip with all the old carpets and other peoples left behind garden junk. There was a child-unfriendly pond to siphon off and amongst the rubbish I found an old bath, a car windscreen and a suspension rack. A second skip is on its way.
I have visited the local casino twice this year and both efforts have been poor at best. I set off on Monday determined to give it a better shot in the £30PL tournament and was pleased to get the end of the re-buy period with, a) cash in pocket, and b) a healthy stack of chips. The yoyo-dial was set to the max and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such swings whilst still managing to come out smelling of roses when to most observers, I deserved to be knee deep in the shit. Here’s a brief summary before I state my case for an aggressive strategy in these fast paced local tournaments.
Thirty minutes into the freeze-out I had quartered my stack after a re-raise with K-Q failed to topple a pair of eights. Our table broke and I quickly got lucky in two spots, the first picking up Q-Q and getting a rag ace to double me up. The second was more spectacular; I raised with A-10s, got re-raised in two spots, but pot committed I called all-in and somehow managed to crack Q-Q and A-Q with a ten high straight. Of course I donated some back en route to the last two tables but with short-handed play looming I was blessed with a succession of J-Q type raising hands and soon built back up. Then my J-J got turned over by A-J and I was down to ¾’s of a BB but managed a quadruple-up with 9-10. This was sheepishly followed by cracking A-A with K-9s and A-K with K-J to hit the final in excellent shape.
Often being card dead in the early stages of a final is no bad thing and I was happy to switch gears and patiently tread water, blinding off half of my stack whilst we lost half of the table, until I finally found a spot to move in. I had 50k and with blinds at 6k/12k when one guy limped I pushed in with 4-7s. Although he had big chips I figured there was a very good chance that he might pass. Another great read; he called with A-K which I guess was just about perfect and I hit two pair. Two hands later I found A-A against A-J and was back in front. I finally got my come-uppance slow playing A-A heads-up when the same guy flopped two pair and I had to settle for second on a chip count, a couple of hundred quid behind the winner.
Whilst I didn’t actually clinch first place, by balancing extreme aggression with stretches of docile patience I gave myself a great shot to win it outright. You simply cannot wait for premium hands and all this ABC stuff I’ve read about folding A-J from first position really has no place in this environment. Personally, when I make the first raise and an opponent moves-in on me, if I have a third of my stack out there in the middle I refuse to wave bye-bye to it when the blinds are as good as doubling every twenty minutes. Contrast this to the number of people who will make a solid pass in the same situation, but inevitably find themselves backed into a corner with a seriously depleted and vulnerable stack. With a third of my chips in the middle I am quite prepared to take my medicine and gamble with the re-raiser. Plenty of times I’ll be behind, but plenty I’ll be 50/50 on, and winning that sizeable pot has a twofold effect. Firstly it helps build some momentum which enables me to push my next hands hard and secondly, it sends out a very clear message to the rest of the table; pick on someone else.
William Hill are hosting the Baltic Open in Tallinn, Estonia at the end of March. Satellites start from just € 24 and with € 25,000 added to the prize pool it’s gotta be worth a shot. The rest of the calendar for the first half of the season is now starting to take shape as casino’s slowly release their festival schedules and once we hit Monte Carlo in March we should start to experience some warmer fronts. No danger of that this Saturday as we head off to Iwan Jones local in Cardiff for the first ever Welsh Championships. It should be lively.

2006-01-24T09:27:00.000Z

I Truly Am Capable Of Anything. The Copenhagen EPT
The temperature nosedived during our trip to Denmark, all the way down to -8° C, with the snow and an icy wind arriving on Thursday evening. I was leaving the Casino at 3am having gotten through Day 1 with forty nine others and there was a good inch of snow already settling, but what was really surprising was that the roads were like a skating rink, with no salt or grit out, and the taxi driver was having a great time showing off the power of his new E-Series as we swerved this way and that.
I had been a very good boy during the early levels, twice picking up jacks and twice not seeing a flop with them. The first was reasonably straightforward; there’d been a raise and a re-raise in front of me and with the blinds at 25/50 sometimes it just makes sense, and is easier, to wait for a better situation. So having dodged aces and queens it seemed only fair that I got to reward myself by playing a 6-7s in a raised pot. The flop was as pretty as a picture, an unsuited 3,4,5 and I as good as managed to double through.
Cruising and confident with 20k the eventual winner, Mads Anderson joined our table. I’d sat with him briefly in Barcelona last year and knew he would be the mover and the shaker on the table; someone to avoid perhaps? Well it didn’t take long before we locked horns and I doubled him up. I’d limped with 6-6 and when he led out from the BB on a 3h,5h,Q flop I was a non believer. I called another bet on the turn and when he moved-in on the river I was all set to pass, but whilst sitting there hoping to make him sweat a little, I managed to convince myself that he had a busted flush draw. I called and got to see his trip threes.
Back to where I started, I grafted away and a few hours later managed to pick up A-A when someone had K-K, cracked K-K with A-K (ace on the turn) and J-J with A-Q (ace on the river). I was probably one of the chip leaders with 70k and with only ninety minutes left I was determined not to do anything stupid. That didn‘t include not calling a raise whilst on the button holding 10h-8h though. The guy had about 45k in chips all I needed was a sweet flop and maybe I could extract the lot. He led out for 4k on the Jh,9,5 flop and I happily called. The mighty Qh fell on the turn and I happily bet 10k when he checked it to me. He dwelled and re-counted his stack for nearly a minute before eventually moving it all-in. I didn’t waste any time in calling and was dismayed to see a K-10 for the nuts. I missed my flush draw, and had to ship over almost two thirds of my stack. Groan. I managed to settle though and nursed my 24k through until the end of the day.
Whilst the second tier got underway we had Friday off and enjoyed seeing the city, although with biting winds and a steady snowfall it was hard work. Regular stops for red wine did seem to help thaw the senses. Back to the Casino the following day and I got a reasonable seat draw, in fact none of the tables I played on had been too tough, most had an excellent mix of ability if anyone was wondering about the value in these big main events. One hundred players returned and after about five hours we had made it into the money.
Looking back over the two days I’m really happy with how I played - barring the last hand, the knock-out from which the title of this piece was derived. I had Ram and Mads on my right and after grinding away all afternoon with low chips, it looked like I was finally getting some breaks. With five or six big messy red and yellow stacks in front of me I opened for a 12k raise with 8-9s in early position. Mads re-raised another 20k from his BB, but I wasn’t about to be pushed around and called. In hindsight against such an aggressive player I should have considered just pushing all-in or even meekly folding. The flop wasn’t too bad either, an offsuit 6,10,Q, a double belly buster. Perfect I thought, all I need now is a check from him and I can push in. Unfortunately, first to speak, he beat me to it. I wasn’t happy and immediately thought, ‘you have nothing, you can’t push me around‘. I called, all-in.
Mads didn’t look too happy as he flipped up a 10-5 and the horror of what I had done was beginning to dawn on me as I had to table my nine high. I missed my straight draw and feeling sick, wobbled away from the table. I still can’t quite believe that that’s what I did. Calling all-in with a draw is pretty much a cardinal sin in tournament poker. It’s important to give yourself the biggest out of all, giving your opponent the chance to fold by getting your chips in first. Edgar Skjevold summed it up perfectly as he shook his head; “You’re fucking crazy man, how can you call that?”

2006-01-19T08:45:00.000Z

Do The Right Thing
Or at least trying to. A mixed bag this week, I’m just back from a 200NL freeze-out at Luton. It was great to see the place packed to the gills and although I never really got going it was good to see plenty of familiar and friendly faces. The only other live comp was Friday’s £20 re-buy fest at my local. For some reason my heart wasn’t in it and I left before the period had ended. A year ago this would have been unthinkable and I’m not sure Amanda was best pleased to see me home so early, interrupting her quiet night in; when I remember the (occasional) arguments we used to have about me wanting to go out and play, we seem to have come full circle now.
Well I guess it’s about time I blew another big stack, it’s been, mmm, weeks. I played a $500 online comp on Sunday and pretty much from the off I was amongst the tournament leaders. Some days though, when I play online it’s like I’m using play money, I just don’t care about the outcome. After five hours, with nothing to watch on the box, crushing boredom was seeping in and I deployed the ‘if I raise, I don’t pass’ tactic. I purged this move from my live play years ago, but online it all too often rears it’s head. To cut a long story short I deservedly (and to the delight of the railbirds) busted out just before hour number six. I am at least pleased to report that when I woke on Monday morning I did feel queasy remembering the whole episode.
The facts: First prize money was about $265k. 2700 runners. They paid 200 spots. With 300 left I was top ten. I busted out about 250th. There must be a small part of my brain that doesn’t recognise online play as a serious venture, treats it as a distraction, like Solitaire or FreeCell. In future, when I sense lethargy approaching I think I’d be wise to phone a friend and hand over the reins. All suggestions welcomed.
Poker is a sedentary lifestyle and for sure I have put on a few pounds in the past year or two. A guilt pang appeared out of the blue last week and I quickly donned my trainers for a brief, but all I could manage six minute run. The great thing about not being fit is that you don’t need to worry about any time consuming change of clothes; tracksuit and shorts combo not required, you’re not out there long enough to work up much of a sweat. Just throw on the trainers and you’re off. Passers-by will assume your running for a bus, which must be far better than getting spotted in all the clobber, red faced, wheezing and running very slowly. The plan of course was to continue every night, and slowly build it up. Well that was last Thursday and the trainers have been waiting in the porch ever since.
We’re off to Denmark this evening for another shot at an EPT title. I thought the numbers might be down for this one, but even with two start days it’s been sold out for a couple of weeks now. Unless I make Sunday’s final I’ll be back just in time to play in another big online tournament; William Hill host their $500k guaranteed comp this Sunday at 7pm - with 999 runners the final ten will all receive a Deauville EPT package, that’s a € 4000 entry plus expenses. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to redeem myself, barring that, it should be a good table to be on….

2006-01-10T21:47:00.000Z

Paris via Southend
I picked Tikay up from Nottingham station on Wednesday afternoon and we headed south east to Southend. We had an enjoyable natter and made good progress getting there in about three hours. Once there we booked a room in a disturbingly seedy B+B (twin beds for those in any doubt) just in case we needed to stop over. We had travelled down to play the £250PL freeze-out and were disappointed to see an unusually small field of just forty nine runners show up. The good news is that my form doesn’t appear to have deserted me just yet as I managed to crack aces twice on the way to a handy third place finish.
A worthy of note observation from my recent jaunts to the Rendezvous casinos in Brighton and Southend is the abundant amount of valet cleavage on view; perhaps it really is warmer down south. We certainly don’t get anywhere near that amount up here in the Midlands, although now I think about it I’m sure when I first started playing in Sheffield, the valets there had to endure some sort of an odd swimming costume with just a large bow on their rears to permit a little modesty. Not very PC I guess, which might explain why they now wear strides.
I had a late night on Friday as we had a birthday to celebrate and I only managed to snatch a few hours kip before catching the 8.35am from Nottingham to London, and onto the Eurostar straight through to Paris. It was a reasonably effortless trip and made a welcome change from flying. There was snow on the tracks as I headed south but fortunately the sun was shining to welcome me into Paris five hours later.
I’d heard mixed reports about the Aviation Club but can report back that it is one of the finest casinos I’ve visited. I had expected a stuffy dress code and we got of to a grand start when I was able to walk in with jeans on. With oak panelled walls, enormous leather sofas, a fine restaurant and cosy bar it’s a far cry from the majority of tacky casinos in the UK. I hooked up with the William Hill crew and once the posters and props were set up for the next days European Poker Awards I decided to play the € 5000 main event. Amazingly this was the second € 5000 event they had hosted in a week, the first getting just eighteen runners, so I guess the forty that showed up for Saturdays comp felt like a huge field.
I got off to a very slow start with only Mickey Wernick and the Devilfish (for a short while) to keep me company on a very dull table. The slow, early levels really are a grind if you’re not picking up any hands and we must have been into the fifth hour of play before I finally started to build some chips.
Having got some, it seemed only fair to re-distribute some; I do struggle to resist the temptation of a short stacks chips and managed to double at least two up, probably making a bad call against Pascal Perrault when I called his A-K re-raise with A-Q. Fortunately for me I got the lot back once we were six handed, two tables out. Tired and fancying a flop I limped under the gun with Qc-8c and Pascal came along for the ride. The blinds checked the 4,4d,8d flop and I led out with a 4k bet into the 6k pot. Pascal called, and when a queen hit on fourth street I decided to try and end it there and moved-in, a big over-bet, 25k. Pascal called quickly with Kd-Qd and I had to sweat the river which was a beautiful black deuce.
The final started at 5pm the next day and my good friend, self proclaimed fashion icon Marc Goodwin, also made the final but came unstuck in fifth spot; our plans of a very swift heads-up duel dashed. We’d both got there with 60k, in good shape as the average was about 45k, but neither of us had picked much up and I had a narrow escape, managing to get a away from a pair of jacks pre-flop when thankfully I just called the chip leaders button raise from my SB, only to see the second chip leader move-in from the BB. Letting hands go is not a strong part of my game and I patted myself on the back when he showed me two queens. Four-handed I slipped right to the back of the pack and with the difference between fourth and third place money almost € 8000 I was delighted to see the two big stacks clash - cha-ching.
Three-handed play was mega frustrating. With 400k in play I survived with 40-50k for over an hour, and after working very hard with the poorest of cards I eventually managed to pull even with about 130k. Alas, it wasn’t to be my day; I raised with Kh-Jh and bet the J,3,3 flop. A second heart hit on fourth street and when the BB led out I put a pot-sized raise in. Worryingly, he called and unfortunately an eight on the river matched the two eights in his hand. That was a big pot to lose and despite trying to regroup I was very deflated. All that hard work undone - it’s usually me hitting those two outers on the river, what the hell’s going on? Back to 40k I didn’t hang about and tanked it all-in with 5-5, but was unable to hold of a mighty Q-9.
In some respects this was good timing as it coincided with the Awards ceremony and a lovely Beef Wellington in the restaurant. The food aside it was the other star of the show, No.1 ranked player, Mr Mickey Wernick who managed the neat feat of getting both the loudest applause, and good natured laughter, as he tripped up and fell over on his way to collect his cheque. Don’t worry, the 425 team were there to catch it all on camera and it should air later this week. Methinks the ten grand bonus Mickey earned courtesy of William Hill as 2005’s No.1 player should ease any embarrassment.

2006-01-03T22:15:00.000Z

New Start, New Year
We had a very relaxing Christmas break here in Nottingham and over at the in-laws in Shropshire. Not only did I manage to catch up with some good friends over the holiday period, but I also got a few more jobs done around the house, ate too much, which surely goes hand in hand with drinking too much, got to see our two year old Reuben tear into his pressies and almost got into synch with Amanda’s more normal, non poker, sleeping patterns.
I must admit to not getting a complete break from the cards, perhaps a three day hiatus was the most. With the internet always close at hand it’s very hard for the sick poker addict to resist temptation for too long. Perhaps in 2006 I’ll finally devote more time to improving my erratic online game. There’s no doubt that online and live poker differ enormously. Sit me down in a room with eight other players and I’ll happily sit there for a twelve hour stretch. I find online quite dull by comparison and that has been my achilles heel. To compensate I get busy, making moves all over the place and ultimately this gets me into all sorts of trouble. I’m of the opinion now that I need to tighten up my online play and just accept that I shouldn’t expect to be involved in a big pot every five minutes. I have been heeding this advice over the past month and am pleased to report that I am making some finals and actually snagged a win in a $300NL, two hundred runner field last week. What was really weird about that win was that I had just finished finishing my stats for the year and wasn’t surprised to see that I was a little down in the online column; one comp and seven hours later, hey presto, I’m comfortably up. Form is such a beautiful thing, lets hope it’s not too fleeting.
The season kicks of for me this Wednesday when I drive myself and the old man Tikay down to Southend for a £250 freeze-out, followed by boarding the Eurostar on Saturday morning where I finally get to visit the Aviation Club de France in Paris for the first time. William Hill sponsor the European Rankings and there’ll be a big representation out there for the European Poker Awards bash on Sunday, which rather conveniently coincides with their € 5000 Euro Finals Of Poker main event. I’m not quite sure what to expect as last years event only attracted forty five runners - I fancy my chances!
EPT time is fast approaching again and we head over to Copenhagen in a couple of weeks, then Deauville in February followed by the grand final in Monte Carlo in early March. In between there’s a whole bevy of local festivals and I imagine I’ll be visiting Luton, Brighton, Walsall and the Vic in London in-between trips abroad.
I like New Year, with its clean sheet of paper, waiting for ink or keystroke, and in an unpredictable venture, an unknown destiny awaits.

2005-12-21T10:58:00.000Z

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.

2005-12-14T17:10:00.000Z

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….

2005-12-09T21:34:00.000Z

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.