Last Games Of The Year

I played two tournaments at The Montesino card room in Vienna to finish off the year.
The Xmas special was a 30 euro entry fee with a guaranteed 50k prize pool. 4 casinos took part in it and I entered day 1d with 320 runners. I lost 2/3rds of my stack in the first two levels and then ground it back up until we got down to the last 50 but got busted out when I shoved my 10bb stack with A6 off to grab the blinds and the chip leader looked me up with KJ. Jack on the flop...

Last night there were a couple of hundred runners and I got busted pretty early when i got all the money in with a straight v 2 pairs on the turn. The 2 pairs improved on the river and It was the high road for me.

Its Not been a brilliant year all in, online poker and tournaments have been profitable, though a lot less so than last year. Cash poker and sport betting showing a loss. All in all, a modest profit for the year.
Anyway a Happy new year to you all and good fortune for 2013.3

Losing a million pounds in a day is pretty disgusting

BBC documentary with Luke Schwartz + Andrew Feldman where you get a fine bit of understatement with the comment "Losing a million pounds in a day is pretty disgusting"

When poker is beautiful - Flopping a boat

Results have been ok last few weeks, a few cashes here and there and I've been pretty happy with my game.
I played a  tournament last week where I got involved in a big pot with four other players.
To summarise the essentials:

Preflop raise to 4X from UTG

Me -  Seat 5 Pocket 3,s  I call

Seat 6 calls

Seat 8 calls.

Flop comes a sweet 6, 6, 3 with 2 hearts.

UTG checks,
 I check
 Seat 6 bets 800,
 Seat 8 calls,
 utg calls
 and I flat it.

Theres now about 7k in the pot.

Turn comes a jack of hearts. This is getting better and better. The flush just got there, but sadly its check, check, check, check.

Cooler

River comes Ace of spades.

This is about as good as it gets.
 The full house isn,t exactly the nuts, but with potential flushes and ace somethings getting there, its probably the perfect river for me and...

UTG bets 1200
I raise  to 2600, seat 6 folds, and seat 8 reraises to 7500.

After much deliberation, the initial raiser (UTG) folds.

 I reraise all in for about 15k.
Seat 8 snaps me off and tables pocket jacks.

Bollocks.

A Winner - Finally!

Results haven't exactly been red hot of late so it was good to get a decent result again.
There were 98 players for the £50 game - an entry of £10 + £20 + £20 add on. I never took the add on as I got enough chips early on to not see the point.

I played unspectacular ABC solid poker, nothing particularly aggressive or too bluffy but things just ran well from start to finish.

The key factors were.

A - Not getting any nut-flush-open-ender-top-pair type of hands where you dust alot of chips when you miss. In fact I never really had any massively hard decisions to make all night.

B - Big hands holding up in All-in situations

C - Not getting sucked-out on.

D - Folding big hands if I thought I was beat - like Queens on an ace high board.

E - Getting a lot of playable cards and hitting flops

I never got my money in bad from start to finish - (apart from one hand at the final table where the short stack had 2bb and I called the All-in bet blind and my 2, 3 off suit beat his 9, 2 off suit!!).
However - I had quite a few sweet spots where I picked up some massive pots.

Kings on the button - UTG opens with over bet, I reraise and she Jams with A - 9 (!)

I called UTG raise with pocket 10,s, flop 10 - 9  - 9 guy with AK jams and I snap him off.

I again called UTG raiser on button with pocket 3,s Flop comes 10s - Js  - 3h. I call the C bet and turn comes Ah, I bet and he goes all in. I eventually call and he tables 2 pair with AJ, rivers a blank. 
Guy accuses me of a slow roll! -a set of 3,s on 10, J, Ace board is hardly the nuts...

I call raise with K - 10 and flop comes J - Q - A. I slow play and get three streets of value.....



On the final table I did my fair share of robbing as my chipstack size mean,t I was pretty comfortable for most of the time and the short stacks got wiped out fairly quickly. In the end, it was five in the morning and I was getting up for work at 7, so although I was substantial chip leader, I agreed to a 3 way chop to get it ended and cashed up for just under a grand. Best result of year so far and drags the pokerings back into a healthy profit. 

I only dropped below 10bb once all night and got doubled up shortly after with set v 2 pair.


It would be nice to summarise by saying that I played out of my skin and out played the rest of the field with some incredible poker, but I didn't really. I just got a decent run of cards and played pretty solid.
Easy game when fortune smiles :-)

Losing money but winning - sort of.

Cock Up 1

At the same session at Planet Hollywood I saw two expensive cock - ups, one I was involved in and one I was not.
In the first, there was a fair bit of money in the middle after the flop had run out 4 - 4 - 5. The betting had reduced the field to two players and the turn brought another 5 and there was another raise reraise until there was around $250 dollars in the middle.
The river was a 7.
Now the guy who was first to act bets $40 dollars, and the other guy raises him to $80. The guy that was first to go asks him how many chips he has left and the guy pushes his chips out in front of him showing a stack of round about $150. The first guy pushes all his chips into the middle and says "I,m all in and I've got quads" and tables pocket 4's.
The 2nd guy to act says "I never called" and shows his 7, 5 for a full house!

Floorman is called and he agrees the guy just put his chips out in front of him to show him his stack, no call and the guy mucks.$150 dollars saved from what would have been an instacall.

Cock Up 2

I'd only sat down with some chips left over from the previous session and got involved in a couple of unsuccessful hands so my stack was sitting at around about $80, so I thought I would add $200 dollars to my stack after the next hand to bring it up to more like the rest of the table and put the money on the table. I looked down at my hand and it was pocket Aces! The dealer looks at me and says, is this that money in play? I don't know what sort of lunacy took hold of me, or if I was just to excited to see the big ones but, inexplicably I say"no its in play for the next hand" - mentally that was what I'd decided and if I'd changed my mind after looking at the cards, it would be a bit kind of obvious.
Anyway I raise, other guy reraises I ship it, he instacalls and tables pocket kings. I'm now looking to double up to about $160 instead of the $560 I would have had had the money been in play....

....however, the 2nd card out is a king and I,m busted. $200 saved - I go on to have a profitable session using the $200 - the whole thing was a kind of strange offering from the poker gods.

Donkey Or Not?

My Annual Vegas Trip wasn,t exactly a massive success this year. I only cashed 3 times in the tournaments and turned a small loss on the cash tables. The cost of the buy-ins is well over my winnings which is not good.
On the plus side I was basically freerolling anyway as the trip was paid for by winnings from this year.
However the line between success and failure in poker can be pretty thin, and I,m not too down about the whole trip, as looking through my results in many of the tournament exits I had I was either ahead or flipping and in later stages of the tournaments, if you,ve not built up a big enough stack and the antes are kicking in you often don,t have much choice but to ship decent hands and hope they hold up.
The one hand though that put me on massive tilt for the last couple of days was at the cash game at Planet Hollywood. I'm still not sure if I should have got away from it.
I mentioned it in the previous blog as well, but here in a bit more detail -


I sat down with $200 and pretty soon identified the two local sharks at each end of the table, feasting off the tourists, who would continuously buy in for $100 and one drunk French guy in particular who kept reloading relentlessly for $50 dollars and playing every single hand.
I got involved a bit and got my fair share off this particular guy as well and I managed to pull a few timely bluffs to build my stack up to $400 dollars pretty quickly.
No-one at the table had a massive stack apart from the two sharks, the one guy at the far end - the villain - had about $800 and the guy to my left who was on a slightly larger stack to me around $500 .
 The standard raise at the $1/2 was either $7 or $12, so when I got AK in utg + 4 I raised to $20 to clear the way abit, the 2 limpers left and I got 2 callers, the villain who was on the button and the guy to my left.
The flop came down Ace, 6, 2 rainbow. I c-betted to $33 the guy to my left folded and the Villain called (Alarm bells starting to ring in my head!).
The Villain had been playing solid poker, he no doubt did his share of stealing but wat able to lay down hands and he was obviously a dangerous player. 
The turn brought a pretty harmless looking 7 but, I chose to check, two reasons, pot control, and to maybe make it look like I had missed or had a hand like kings or queens..
The Villain puts in a hefty $75 bet - I ran through all the hands in my head which I could put him on. I knew he was pretty solid and had something but - a set? Possible, with the flop being rainbow, but I don,t think he would be trying to chase me away with a big bet if he had one. Ace rag - again seems unlikely as I,m repping the big Ace and the rags would have to be pretty low, Ace 6, Ace 7 Ace 3 or Ace 2. Pocket Aces? Ruled out for obvious reasons. There were no real draws there so I concluded he either had the same hand as me, or possibly AQ, AJ, A10 something like that, he doesn't want me in the hand either hence the big bet. So I decide to min raise him and see if it slows him down.
No such luck, he looks a little bit uncomfortable with the move but after a couple of minutes of deliberation and scrutinising me he announces "all in" - at this stage every alarm bell in my head is ringing full blast and I take an age running through the same calculations as previously, I can still fold and have $200 dollars odd left, but I just cannot see whats beating me. Every voice in my head is now screaming FOLD FOLD FOLD! but I just can't find the fold and find myself saying I call.
Theres now over $800 dollars in the middle of the table. The dealer turns over the river, and its nothing significant, in fact I can't even remember what it was, neither of us wants to turn the cards. He eventually announces "Two Pair" I say "Two pairs good" and he tables Ace 7 off .
I say "nice hand" and muck face down. Jacket on and I,m off out of the casino - I don't want to be there any longer, I am so steaming - and I feel like I've been trussed up like a turkey.
I've now ran through that hand so often in my head, and I still can,t make my mind up if it was simply bad play or unavoidable.

Bad Run

The last couple of days have been quite painful. Exited the $125 at the Aria with pocket jacks v pocket tens, the money was all in then runner runner flush. As I was meeting up with my cousin yesterday Night I played cash instead, just incase I had a deep run.
I lost first buy in at planet hollywood cash with pocket aces v pocket kings, that was all in pre as well, then yesterday I doubled my 2nd buy in before giving the lot to the chip leader with my ace king v the villains ace 7 on a harmless looking A, 2 6 board, when a 7 hit the turn I just couldn,t put him on it after calling my big c bet after the flop.

After that one, I headed back to hotel to cool off and at least I hit a straight flush on the video poker though when I got back to excalibur! $100 dollar compensation.

Aria $125 again today, so last chance to draft the trip into a profit..

Couple of cashes at Aria

Results have started to pick up a bit. It took a couple of days but finally cashed at the Aria. Day 1 I went out in 12th when 10 places were paid which is kind of sick, slowplaying a set cost me that one.
I then got busted 6th out of about 110 the next day for $400 dollars, when we we at 7 everyone agreed a $1500 dollar chop..apart from one guy and the rest is history as they say.
Cashed again last night, allbeit a min cash for an 8th place from 70. I,m getting closer, but just can,t nail the deal. Perseverance is the name of the game I guess.
When I,ve been busted out early I,ve played some of the smaller games on the strip and cannot believe how bad the structures were. The excaliburs daily tourny structure means that by level 3 everyones not much higher than 10bbs, and its 20 min blinds! A cool 25% casino makes this a pretty awful game, the one at the Luxor was basically the same, Planet hollywoods was a bit better as they guaranteed $ 2000 and when I went the were only 21 entries at $75 dollars each with 5 places paid! so that was probably the best value game I,ve seen.The standard of play was pretty dreadful, but unfortunately the biggest stations and biggest fish will take you out, I was taken out with someone who couldn,t lay down q3 off in the small blind to a 4x raise.

Anyway, onto the next 1pm game starts in 15....

Nailed On The River

This was my last chance for a score before hitting Vegas. There were about 100 entries. I got a few chips together and after 3 levels I was sitting on 20k with average being about 12.

I got involved in a big hand on an interesting J K A A A board . I thought the Ace on the river mean,t that my QK was now good enough for a minimum of a chop, but the villain had the final ace and I was mortally wounded.

From then on it was a battle to just to keep up with the blinds. With blinds at 300/ 600  an early position raiser had raised to 1800 so I pushed my last 3600 chips in blind, the rest of the table folded and he turns A 3.

I look at my cards and I,ve got 6,7 off suit. A six comes out and I,m doubled up to 8100.

Couple of hands later I pick up 7, 3 off suit in the BB and I,m delighted when noone raises. Flop comes out 7, 3, J with 2 clubs. SB checks, I check, button bets. I repop him and jam all in. He flips over AK clubs and we.re off to the races...

Ace on the turn, means I,m still good but more outs for him... boom! club on the river and I,m toast.

Interesting hand - The Hooks

I played an interesting hand online the other night against someone who is playing at a higher level than I can ever hope to achieve or understand.

It was a 50/50 10 seat SNG with a 7$ entry fee. It was only the 3rd hand into the tournament, so we were still at 10/20 with a starting stack of 1500 a reassuring 75 big blinds.
I pick up pocket jacks in the BB and its folded round to the SB who just limps.
I put in a 3x raise to 60 and the SB calls
.
Flop comes down a harmless looking 7 5 5 rainbow. The SB checks and I c-bet to 90. The SB re-raises to180. At this point I think the guy can only have a couple of hands - either he's caught a 5 or more likely something like Ace 7 or k 7. Other possibilities 4 6 or 6 8 - pocket 5's even or nothing. I don't think the guy actually has anything, certainly an overpair to mine seems highly unlikely with the lack of preflop raising, so I re-raise it to 360.
The SB then raises again to 480. After due consideration I think, if he's got it he's got it, I choose to jam all the chips in. - I,m all in for 1500, bear in mind this hand started at 10/20.
Anyway the SB instacalls and flips over k, 4 off! No pair, no draw. Nice call.
Turn card is a king and I,m dusted. Mmmmm

Decent Result

I,ll probably only play 2 more tournaments before heading out to Vegas again. I managed a decent 4th place finish out of the 80 runners yesterday so cashed for about £400. I played pretty solid nitty poker for first few hours which gave me the slack for pulling off some decent bluffs in later stages, and I managed to avoid any of the coin flip situations that can break you in the early levels.

First few levels were pretty card dead but I managed to find some some nice spots in the later stages:

Early position raiser min raises my big blind, SB calls as do I with 57o. Flop come 2, 5, 7 raiser shoves, SB folds I call and his Jacks don,t improve.
Same guy 4 bets me pre flop when I,m holding aces and eventually folds to my 5 bet

Two guys busted on the same hand when we were waiting on the bubble to burst with 3 pocket pairs being all in pre.
When I got to the final table, blinds and antes were 4k/8k/500  average stack was about 100k basically 10bbs. It was 9 places paid so we done a deal that the 10th place would be paid as well to open the game up a bit and right enough a few guys busted pretty early so we went down to 5 players pretty quickly.

Four Queens

 I'd lost a couple of hands early on having folded to the 4 bet when I pick up pocket queens and put in a raise,  the Chip leader reraises me all in-  I call and he flips over AK. First card in the window is an ace, so I get out of my seat say "nice hand" and about to leave the table when a queen hits on the turn and I,m back in action.

Two hands later and I get pocket queens again. I raise the  early position limper for about half of my stack and he calls. Flop comes down Ace, 7, 9 and I jam the last of my chips in. He instacalls and flips over ace 7, I don,t catch my 2 outer and I,m out. No real complaints, quite happy with the decent run the A7 call was a bit loose but, ultimately you pay your money and you can play any cards you like. I decided to commit my stack preflop no matter what came out which is pretty bad play I guess but, I was also trying to rep the big ace anyway. The guy was a bit of a station so I suspect even if I,d pushed pre. I would have got called off. Ah well, onto the next.....

Big Slick

Yesterdays tournament can be summarised nice and easy...

1st 3 levels accumulated chips nicely. Well over average.

Then:

Picked up big slick on the button.

3x raise.

One caller. Flop comes 5c,6s, 10s. I c-bet, villain calls.

Turn comes Qs, villain bets so I take a peek at my AK and the Ace is a spade, so I call, I can't fold right?

River is a nice black Ace..of clubs. His top pair has just been nailed on the river right?

He ships and I call.

Villain flips over Q 10 spades and that'll be me. No bad beat, no complaints, just nice easy busto.

Bah.

Europe To Take On Las Vegas - Heads Up

First minister for Scotland, Alex Salmond is keen to establish Scotland as a gambling destination if he can win Scottish independence in the forth coming elections.
His masterplan is to give tax breaks to high earners and embark on an ambitious super casino building plan and also to continue with the zero tax rate on winnings to try and establish a European rival for Las Vegas.
To draw attention to the plan he has had this eyecatching 4 storey poker chip constructed in the centre of the Scottish capital at a cost of $3.5 million dollars.

- Blip News Agency

Las Vegas Underground.

A fascinating 3 part documentary about the homeless people living in the tunnels under las vegas, and also shows the "urban historian" sneaking into the newly built Fontainebleau, which was never finished when the owners ran out of money. Its the tallest building in Vegas and the two guys filming it scale the 68 storey building only to get to the top and its hammering down with rain.
Part One Part Two Part 3 - Scaling the (derelict)Fontainebleau.

At The Races

The £10 + £20 + £20 at the Genting Casino in Edinburgh is apparently the busiest Monday game in Scotland.

There were 106 entries when I went, with a prize pool of a cool £5,000 exactly. They also allow reregistrations if you bust out early, which swells the prize pool a bit. I managed to blow my first entry before the end of level 3 after a couple of painful hands.
A limp on the button with q8 off was rewarded with a flop of j,10, 9. Not bad, though there were 2 diamonds and I had none. It was checked to me, I bet and get 2 callers. The turn is a king of diamonds, so I slow down a bit as me thinks someone is flushing and I check. River is a q of diamonds? The old lady bets and my near enough the nuts hand is now in the muck.
Couple of hands later I 3 bet pocket tens into Aces - ouch, and my final add on is polished off when I try to exert a bit of pressure with my suited AJ only for the button to repop with AK and I,m toast.
I re register, and manage to accumulate a decent stack, the blinds are at 1200/600/100, when the lady to my right raises utg to 4500. I look down at suited big slick and raise it up to 9500, the rest of the table bails out and then after a bit of posturing, my lady shoves all in for a bit more than my whole chip stack. I call and she flips over queens.
First card out is a queen, and I,m out.
I,m happy enough to take these flips alot more this year and my results seem to show that aggression isn,t really working for me though. If I,d flatted, missed flop I could have got away from it, (on the other hand had I won it, I would have forgotten about the hand and moved onto the next).
I see so many rocks who don't do the jam-any-two theory when they're under 10bb who seem to fold there way down to 2 or 3 blinds until they pick up a playable hand and end up at the final table, Whats the right approach? The eternal question...Vegas beckons, gotta make a decision.

Dragonara Casino - Malta

 "The Dragonara Casino is a 19th Century Palace built by the Marquis Scicluna as his Summer residence on a narrow peninsula of St Julians, Malta. It is a spectacular Mediterranean seaboard location and forms part of the wider original palace complex.
 - From the Dragonara Casino website




The scale of this place is nothing comparable to Las Vegas, but this is probably the most impressive place I've played at, mainly because it's actually real IE the building is a couple of hundred years old.



 I only played a couple of tournaments here which didn't go particularly well..
 The last one I remember particularly well, we were down to the last 6 or 7 players and I was at the 10-15bb level.
 I was in the big blind with pocket Aces and I was pretty sick to see everyone chucking there cards away until it got round to the small blind. He raised for about a 3rd of his stack. He had only slightly more chips than me and was in  a the same position as me, he either doubled up or started getting blinded away with the blinds starting to get heavy. His raise had pretty much made him pot committed. so after doing the obligatory Hollywood routine, I jammed all my chips in the middle and I was delighted to see him confidently insta-call and flip over AK of spades. He let out a sort of yelp when he saw my pocket aces and had his head in his hands cursing loudly. I was 87% favorite to scoop the lot.
The dealer duly delivered the flush on the river, so I put my jacket on and left the room to the sounds of the villain whooping and banging the table with delight.

Min cash

I managed a small cash at the monday night game. 10th place finish from the 120 players. Had some nice hands enroute. Best paid was 4s v a10 on 10 4 8 j 10 board. If only poker was always like this. At the later levels it started to turn into abit of a crap shoot, and I was down to about 7bb when I shipped pre with k 10 utg when we were at 6 players on the table. Called by 7's and that was that. £80 paid, £50 entry. Modest profit.

Stone Faced

Golden Nugget London

 I went in for the Saturday tournament. The tournament was pretty lame, I think there were only 20 players or so, and I never cashed, but I got a seat at the cash table after, which was  a pretty chilled game.
The thing I remember best about it was the guy a couple of seats to my left who had sunglasses on and a total stone faced expression. It was early in the morning probably 4 - 5 am just before they closed up and everyone was pretty knackered, I'd put quite a hefty raise in on a total bluff hoping to get the guy to fold. He sat there cool as a cucumber for the longest I can remember dwelling on the bet, with me clearly about to lose a chunk if he calls. I'm getting more and more convinced I was busted. After a pause of what must have been about 5 minutes, one of the guys at the table said "I think he's fallen asleep" and nudged him. He promptly woke up and folded his hand. Ha ha.
It was a nice feeling walking through the deserted streets afterwards to Kings Cross with a pocket full of notes. Lasted about 2 minutes on the train before I fell asleep and woke up at at home. Perfect

Paris Wagran Club

A summary of the key hands enroute to biggest win of the year so far - in chronological order:

Flopped 2 pr v turned set
Raised pre 10s hit set 3 all ins tripled up
26k at break
Turned nut flush v 2 players well paid
K 10 hit 10 v 2nd pair
Ks utg limped round ace on flop fold to a j
Flopped set turned house v str and 2 pr big pot
Raised pre ak got jammed on by 10s laid down too much chips
Raised limped button in sb with aq suited button shipped I call hit a on river v 9s
Short stack shoves 5bb I call in sb bb ships I fold for good chunk of stack -
Made final table with 65k
Went on a bit of a heater, finally flopped a set v a flopped two pair for the villain, and a pile of euros heading over to me. Beautiful.
C'est magnifique!