3 Month Update

I literally have not played poker since the Reading Series of Poker back in February, until just recently.

Went up to London on Friday night for a cheeky 10p/20p cash game at Liam/Ed/Ant/Alpy's flat. Arrived and was straight into a game of snooker against the Cannon, easiest tenner I've ever made... to the cash game then and I bought in for £40, average stack was probably about £60 between the 6 of us. Not much to write home about cards wise for the night, we played for about 7 hours and in that time I saw AK once, Kings once, AQ a few times and that was pretty much it.

The AK hand I flat called an early raise atempting to mix things up. Unfortunately so did everyone else and we went to the flop 6-way! Flop comes a beautiful AAx and I check call a CashyP bet. Can't remember exactly what happened next but I think we got it all in on the turn with him pretty much sure he was behind, I think his words were "well if I'm beat, I'm beat" or something to that effect. I didn't win very many hands all night and stayed around the £70 mark for a long while before leaking money in the last couple of hours and ending up at about £50. Oh...almost forgot...I folded Kings pre-flop for the first time in my life. Standard. Of course Big Tone had aces for about the millionth time in the night, he's such a card rack.

Had a brief look at my pokertracker stats and managed to peel off a couple of graphs. The first is evidence of my lack of cash game prowess:



This is for about the last year I think as that is when I got pokertracker. So up about $150, would have been $200 if I hadnt just recieved a sick outdraw just now. Holding 22 on a 266A board I got it all in vs 69 on the turn, of course the 9 hit the river.

Here is my graph of Sit and Go's, I think just on Party and there's only 95 in the last year and I'm fairly certain I've played more than this considering I've played 20 in the last 2 days!



Big upswing near the end I cashed in 8 consecutive sng's, 3rd 3 times, 2nd 3 times and 1st twice, I ran like God in some of those. Big downswing at the end was last night where I cashed in just 1 out of 8 sng's, I ran like Cheese for them...

All Change...

You may have noticed a little colour change to the blog...and if you haven't you must be a bit of an idiot (Cashy).

The reason for the change is that it looks less obvious when I'm looking at it at work. In fact I think there should be an option where you can make every page you look at on the whole internet simple black and white text and background so people wouldn't notice what you're looking at because your screen's all black etc...

Anyway, haven't posted in a while and as I finally have something worth posting about thought I'd better keep my reader (there is no s on the end of that for a reason) happy and write aboout my experiences of my first visit back to Reading for the annual Reading Series of Poker.

There's quite alot to write about so I'll split it over a few posts as I haven't got the time to write it all out at once. In fact a good method would be 3 posts, one for Thursday (Omaha tourney + Club Risa), one for Friday (Golf + IHO tourney + Random games at hotel) and one for the weekend (Main Event + Union)...bet you're all wetting yourself with excitement...

Ouch...

Sat down with $30 at $0.25/0.50 and $15 at $0.10/0.25, wait for big blind in bigger game, am in the BB immediately in smaller game. Third hand in I pick up 88 on the button, folded round so I pop it up and as I do it I think "I can't remember the last time I flopped a set". Then boom... flop comes QT8...

PokerStars Game #15238519718: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2008/02/12 - 14:40:49 (ET)
Table 'Fogelin IV' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Benw2004 ($14.60 in chips)
Seat 2: ilovegyoza ($20 in chips)
Seat 3: wateendag ($14.45 in chips)
Seat 4: camojy ($24.30 in chips)
Seat 5: Fupeg ($8.90 in chips)
ilovegyoza: posts small blind $0.10
wateendag: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Benw2004 [8c 8d]
camojy: folds
Fupeg: folds
Benw2004: raises $0.50 to $0.75
ilovegyoza: folds
wateendag: calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [Th 8h Qc]
wateendag: checks
Benw2004: bets $1.50
wateendag: calls $1.50
*** TURN *** [Th 8h Qc] [6c]
wateendag: checks
Benw2004: bets $4
wateendag: raises $5 to $9
Benw2004: raises $3.35 to $12.35 and is all-in
wateendag: calls $3.20 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [Th 8h Qc 6c] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
wateendag: shows [9d Jc] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Benw2004: shows [8c 8d] (three of a kind, Eights)
wateendag collected $27.60 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $29 | Rake $1.40
Board [Th 8h Qc 6c 2d]
Seat 1: Benw2004 (button) showed [8c 8d] and lost with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 2: ilovegyoza (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: wateendag (big blind) showed [9d Jc] and won ($27.60) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 4: camojy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Fupeg folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Of course he flops the nuts...

So I stand up from both tables and walk away...a good 2 minutes poker and I'm steaming already.

Little Poker...

Have played for a grand total of 30 minutes since last Wednesday, sat down with my whole Stars bankroll ($33) for a quick 30 minute session last night whilst watching the Arsenal game and managed to grind my way to $51 in that time. I'm not planning on playing too much before the RSOP next week which I've taken the Thursday and Friday off work for it.

Plan as it stands at the moment is to meet at the Cannon's pad in London Thursday morning, travel down to Reading in some sort of convoy and then play golf during the day if we have time before the £20 PL Omaha on Thursday night at the Cotton Club. Friday is either golf if we didn't play Thursday or maybe a trip down Riley's to lose plenty of money to the N-Dog. Hopefully the Reading Poker Committee will manage to organise the IHO (Irish/Hold'em/Omaha) tournament for Friday night as was a good laugh last year but failing that I'm sure we'll find some other way to amuse ourselves. Then the main event on Saturday, £55 freezeout with 10k stacks and then a night at the union with the other players (or ballas as they like to be called) as well as my missus and her little brother who are coming down. Sunday fingers crossed will still be in the main event but if not will just find somewhere to watch the Carling Cup final, c'mon you Spurs...

As for the rest of this week, I'm going to see Strictly Come Dancing at the O2 Wednesday night (was forced into it) and then embarking on a long romantic weekend with the missus down to...Dover...well near there anyway....looking forward to it. Seriously.

No Point anymore...

That's right, there is no way I am playing online with the Cashpoint anymore. I log on to my Stars account yesterday night and see a $0.50/$1 table with a few short stacks on it and think I'll take a little shot at it so stick in $60 of my $135 bankroll. I soundly grind away, nothing too spectacular and get up to about $95 when I see in the chat box:

CashyP: This is more like it Cheese

Now that is the point where I should have taken my money from the table and called it a night...but no. For some reason when I play with people I know I feel the need to play like a complete tw*t. And so that's what I did, donking off chips with plays that I would never make if Cashy hadn't turned up. I was down to about $35 when I made a bad tilt call with a rivered pair of 5's on a four-to-a-straight board versus an opponent that had bet the whole way (I was for some reason drawing to the low straight), fortunately he only had a pair of 4's and I picked up a pot which took my stack back up to $55.

Again this was another point where I should have just left the table...and I did a few hands later...having been stacked by the Point. Now he had just reloaded back to $100 having lost a couple of big hands and about $65 on the table as well as an $800 pot on the $2/$4 table I was railing so he seemed pretty tilty and I pick up 85 SOOTED and call his raise along another fish and the flop is a pleasant 776. I check-call the flop thinking with Cashy in this state he may donk off his whole stack if I hit my open-ended draw. The turn is a 5 and I check call $10 into a pot of about $12 (what was I doing) the river is then a 3 and my check is met with a bet for the size of my stack (about $38) and I really did not believe him, but then again I never do. So I call and he shows 67 for the flopped boat. Had it been anyone else on the table or even in the universe maybe I probably would have done one of the following things:

1. Fold Pre-Flop
2. Fold on the Flop
3. Fold on the Turn
4. Fold on the River

Instead I chose option 5:

5. Check-call the whole way like a complete and utter d*ckhead.

Ah well, you live and learn, or in my case just live...

So I've now got about $70 in my Stars account so might just stick that on a couple of $0.25/$0.50 table tonight and try and run it up a bit. I've managed to accumulate about 325 FPP's and will get $75 free if I can get that up to 500 before busting so that will be my aim I think.

And let me tell you now Cashpoint, if you sit at my table I will sit out like a big pansy :-)

A little shot...

Had a little crack at $0.50/$1 yesterday on Party. Sat down with $70 and very first hand lost $18 of it:

***** Hand History for Game 6750218131 *****
$100 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, February 03, 14:01:20 ET 2008
Table Table 127359 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: ArtiArena ( $100.86 USD )
Seat 2: drunkmonk999 ( $25.93 USD )
Seat 3: yeyeyee ( $71 USD )
Seat 5: joy0505 ( $101.50 USD )
Seat 6: Cidertoppler ( $17.88 USD )
Seat 4: ben_w_2004 ( $70 USD )
drunkmonk999 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
yeyeyee is sitting out
yeyeyee has left the table.
ben_w_2004 posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ben_w_2004 [ As Qc ]
joy0505 folds.
Cidertoppler calls [$1 USD]
ArtiArena calls [$1 USD]
drunkmonk999 calls [$0.50 USD]
ben_w_2004 raises [$4.50 USD]
Cidertoppler calls [$4.50 USD]
ArtiArena folds.
drunkmonk999 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, 7c, 5d ]
ben_w_2004 bets [$12.38 USD]
Cidertoppler is all-In.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]
** Dealing River ** [ Ks ]
ben_w_2004 shows [ As, Qc ]a pair of Fives.
Cidertoppler shows [ 3h, 7h ]two pairs, Sevens and Fives.
Cidertoppler wins $35.88 USD from the main pot with two pairs, Sevens and Fives.

Oops...

A few hands later won most of it back with a nicely timed semi-bluff on the turn:

***** Hand History for Game 6750233373 *****
$100 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, February 03, 14:05:52 ET 2008
Table Table 127359 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: ArtiArena ( $117.72 USD )
Seat 2: drunkmonk999 ( $0 USD )
Seat 5: joy0505 ( $100 USD )
Seat 6: Cidertoppler ( $42.18 USD )
Seat 4: ben_w_2004 ( $53.12 USD )
Seat 3: tieftaucher3 ( $97 USD )
tieftaucher3 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
ben_w_2004 posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ben_w_2004 [ Ts Qs ]
drunkmonk999: nh
joy0505 folds.
Cidertoppler folds.
drunkmonk999 has left the table.
ArtiArena: thanks
ArtiArena calls [$1 USD]
tieftaucher3 calls [$0.50 USD]
ExtremeFuse has joined the table.
ben_w_2004 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, 4d, Js ]
tieftaucher3 checks.
ben_w_2004 bets [$2 USD]
ArtiArena calls [$2 USD]
tieftaucher3 calls [$2 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kc ]
tieftaucher3 checks.
ben_w_2004 checks.
ArtiArena bets [$5 USD]
tieftaucher3 calls [$5 USD]
ben_w_2004 raises [$21 USD]
ArtiArena folds.
tieftaucher3 folds.
ben_w_2004 does not show cards.
ben_w_2004 wins $38.80 USD

Like I say, nicely timed... Then made a fairly simple laydown on a pretty scary board for top pair top kicker:

***** Hand History for Game 6750265240 *****
$100 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, February 03, 14:15:13 ET 2008
Table Table 127359 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: ArtiArena ( $48.05 USD )
Seat 5: joy0505 ( $99 USD )
Seat 6: Cidertoppler ( $73.21 USD )
Seat 4: ben_w_2004 ( $61.42 USD )
Seat 3: tieftaucher3 ( $125.12 USD )
Seat 2: ExtremeFuse ( $97.50 USD )
ExtremeFuse posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
tieftaucher3 posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ben_w_2004 [ Ah Kd ]
ben_w_2004 raises [$3.50 USD]
Cidertoppler folds.
ArtiArena calls [$3.50 USD]
ExtremeFuse folds.
tieftaucher3 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9h, 6h, Qs ]
ben_w_2004 checks.
ArtiArena checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
ben_w_2004 bets [$6.50 USD]
ArtiArena calls [$6.50 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ Jc ]
ben_w_2004 checks.
ArtiArena is all-In.
ben_w_2004 folds.
ArtiArena does not show cards.
ArtiArena wins $58.48 USD

I just didn't know what I beat to justify a call even though from what I'd seen in 25 or so hands this guy didn't seem to play that great. I then ground away for a bit, doubled up with 8's vs K's allin after I pushed an Ace high flop, I don't know where he got the call from.

Then this beauty happened:

***** Hand History for Game 6750505116 *****
$100 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, February 03, 15:23:43 ET 2008
Table Table 127359 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 6: Cidertoppler ( $84.59 USD )
Seat 4: ben_w_2004 ( $93.49 USD )
Seat 1: x25rus ( $105.36 USD )
Seat 2: Timdan333 ( $157.79 USD )
Seat 3: Mojo652 ( $130.55 USD )
Seat 5: kryptonian_ ( $104.08 USD )
ben_w_2004 posts small blind [$0.50 USD].
kryptonian_ posts big blind [$1 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ben_w_2004 [ Td Kc ]
Cidertoppler folds.
x25rus folds.
Timdan333 folds.
Mojo652 folds.
ben_w_2004 calls [$0.50 USD]
kryptonian_ raises [$3 USD]
ben_w_2004 raises [$14 USD]
kryptonian_ raises [$22 USD]
ben_w_2004 calls [$11 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5d, 5c, 6d ]
ben_w_2004 checks.
kryptonian_ bets [$28 USD]
ben_w_2004 is all-In.
kryptonian_ folds.
ben_w_2004 shows [ Td, Kc ]a pair of Fives.
ben_w_2004 wins $144.49 USD from the main pot with a pair of Fives.

This guy had been raising one in three hands and I knew what line I was going to take as soon as it got folded to me. I flat called, he duly popped it up so I repopped hoping to take it down there. He then min-reraises me and I do the classic "what would I do if I had aces here" and make the flat call (even though with aces I probably shove). I then check a low flop and he bets about half the pot. I insta-shove for about $40 more and he lays down his hand, I then show the king ten offsuit and he proceeds to tilt off the rest of his stack within 10 hands, unfortunately not to me. I call it a day a little bit later and end up with $55 profit for my 90 minutes play. Although I got pretty lucky with the 8's vs Kings, I feel I've got what it takes at this level and I hardly had any cards when I played and my main money came from well timed bluffs. But on another day I'm sure the guy calls the $40 with his Jacks or AK or whatever he had and I leave with nothing...

But for now...BOOOOOOM!!!

Sit and Go Fuck yourself...

Ha ha, I actually started cracking up as I wrote that title, which is probably a good thing as I'm absolutely steaming at the moment. I've played 6 sit and go's so far tonight and failed to cash in one. Lost 2 out of 2 coin flips, both on the bubble when I've been the shortest stack, lost with AQ vs KJ in another for basically all my chips to bubble again and ran AJ into AA in one straight after in a pot I should never have got involved in. In the other two I just never got going and got to the stage where I had to push at every opportunity and unfortunately ran into bigger hands.

I'm in 4 more at the moment so need to make $110 just to break even from them.

Oh dear God! Just as I wrote that this happened:

***** Hand History for Game 6735170227 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $11 USD Buy-in Trny: 38128445 Level: 4 Blinds(100/200) - Tuesday, January 29, 15:09:28 ET 2008
Table Table 131082 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 6: MikeyMatusow ( 1,560 )
Seat 2: shons82 ( 4,070 )
Seat 1: ben_w_2004 ( 2,390 )
Seat 8: Lex040180 ( 4,310 )
Seat 4: gerraldv ( 5,170 )
Seat 7: Sorrowfully ( 2,500 )
Trny: 38128445 Level: 4
Blinds(100/200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ben_w_2004 [ Kh Kd ]
ben_w_2004 raises [600]
shons82 folds.
gerraldv folds.
MikeyMatusow folds.
Sorrowfully folds.
Lex040180 calls [400]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, 4s, 5c ]
Lex040180 checks.
ben_w_2004 is all-In.
Lex040180 calls [1,790]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 6s ]
Lex040180 shows [ 2d, 7h ]a straight Three to Seven.
ben_w_2004 shows [ Kh, Kd ]two pairs, Kings and Sixes.
Lex040180 wins 4,880 chips from the main pot with a straight, Three to Seven.
ben_w_2004 finished in 6 place.
>You have options at Table 130836 Table!.

And no your eyes do not deceive you that is seven-deuce that he not only called my pre-flop raise with, but called my all-in for over the size of the pot with for a open ender straight draw. As if he could miss. WOW.

And here is the up-side of having complete and utter muppets playing at your table:

***** Hand History for Game 6735126165 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $11 USD Buy-in Trny: 38128800 Level: 1 Blinds(20/40) - Tuesday, January 29, 14:56:48 ET 2008
Table Table 130836 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 6: Doenhardt75 ( 2,000 )
Seat 4: ben_w_2004 ( 2,080 )
Seat 2: chasmcgill ( 1,520 )
Seat 1: faqutoo ( 1,540 )
Seat 8: mariodb ( 1,900 )
Seat 7: GBod81 ( 2,780 )
Seat 3: Hagbardius ( 1,940 )
Seat 5: liverpool049 ( 2,400 )
Seat 9: hadum ( 1,900 )
Seat 10: borqblow ( 1,940 )
Trny: 38128800 Level: 1
Blinds(20/40)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ben_w_2004 [ Ah As ]
>You have options at Table 131066 Table!.
GBod81 raises [200]
mariodb raises [440]
hadum folds
borqblow folds
faqutoo folds
chasmcgill folds
Hagbardius folds
ben_w_2004 raises [980]
liverpool049 folds
Doenhardt75 folds
GBod81 calls [780]
mariodb is all-In [1,460]
ben_w_2004 is all-In [1,100]
GBod81 calls [1,100]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8c, 8d, Ad ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ac ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]
>You have options at Table 131066 Table!.
ben_w_2004 shows [ Ah, As ]four of a kind, Aces.
GBod81 shows [ Jc, Jd ]two pairs, Aces and Jacks.
mariodb shows [ Kd, Kh ]two pairs, Aces and Kings.
ben_w_2004 wins 360 chips from side pot #1 with four of a kind, Aces.
ben_w_2004 wins 5,760 chips from the main pot with four of a kind, Aces.
mariodb finished in 10 place.

Now the guy with Kings I can understand, but the guy with Jacks? How on earth does he get his money in in this pot? Surely he can't expect to be winning here after the pot has been raised 5 times and 2 people are already all-in. Oh well, always nice to hit quads...

How are things going in your 3 remaining games I hear you cry! Well I can tell you I'm out of one, you guessed it, lost another 50/50. BUT stop the press, I've won 2 other coinflips in one game to double up twice with 5 left iand I'm in good shape in the final one (the one where I hit quads) still with 6 left though.

Hello Mr Boomswitch...just won one and finished second in the other. The second place was fairly standard, but my god the win was awesome, I think I now know how the Cannon feels 95% of the time. Lets pick up from where I left off, having one 2 coinflips in close succession, unheard of in itself I then knocked the two short-stacked players in one fowl swoop makin a sick call from the big blind. I use sick not in the good sense, but in the way it was probably a bad call, I just didn't have time to work out odds etc. and saw the opportunity to get in the money without making too much of a dent in my own stack, see what you think:

***** Hand History for Game 6735238348 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $11 USD Buy-in Trny: 38128584 Level: 5 Blinds(200/400) - Tuesday, January 29, 15:27:26 ET 2008
Table Table 131066 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: Bidness632 ( 1,360 )
Seat 3: funkypayz ( 1,460 )
Seat 8: wazzzz111 ( 4,400 )
Seat 10: ben_w_2004 ( 7,400 )
Seat 9: hoodwink49 ( 5,380 )
Trny: 38128584 Level: 5
Blinds(200/400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ben_w_2004 [ Th 9d ]
Bidness632 is all-In.
funkypayz is all-In.
wazzzz111 folds.
hoodwink49 folds.
ben_w_2004 calls [1,060]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Js, 2h, Qh ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ks ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5d ]
Bidness632 shows [ Jc, Kd ]two pairs, Kings and Jacks.
funkypayz shows [ Ad, 8c ]high card Ace.
ben_w_2004 shows [ Th, 9d ]a straight Nine to King.
ben_w_2004 wins 200 chips from side pot #1 with a straight, Nine to King.
ben_w_2004 wins 4,280 chips from the main pot with a straight, Nine to King.
Bidness632 finished in 5 place.
funkypayz finished in 4 place.

The game was then over in two hands as I found KQ against KJ and then to finish it off I managed to suck out with K7 versus AK...BOOM...

So only $30 down for the night now and on a roll I hope. I was going to stop for the night but may as well play the rush and I've fired up 4 more tables.

Maybe the title wasn't so relevant after all...

Good weekend...and Q6 SOOTED!!!

Had a cracking time up in London on Friday night at Cannon and Big Tone's pad. But before I give the details what is it about people calling my all-ins with 67off when I have queens? Obviously they win...

Game #5180021813: Thunder £2 (ID6368033) £2+£0.25 - Hold'em NL (25/50) - 2008/01/27 - 13:18:03 (EST)
Table "6368033 - 9" Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: Cjwins (1260 in chips)
Seat 2: Sgt_bash (1435 in chips)
Seat 4: Phil55 (3275 in chips)
Seat 5: Colle1910 (755 in chips)
Seat 6: Tetleyimp (930 in chips)
Seat 7: Odin13 (4130 in chips)
Seat 8: Jonletaxi (4380 in chips)
Seat 9: Gandl112 (1790 in chips)
Seat 10: Joanne10 (1440 in chips)
Tetleyimp: posts small blind 25
Odin13: posts big blind 50
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Joanne10 [Qh Qc]
Jonletaxi: raises to 100
Gandl112: folds
Joanne10: raises to 1440 and is all-in
Cjwins: folds
Sgt_bash: folds
Phil55: folds
Colle1910: folds
Tetleyimp: folds
Odin13: folds
Jonletaxi: calls 1340
----- FLOP ----- [8h 6c Ac]
----- TURN ----- [8h 6c Ac][6h]
----- RIVER ----- [8h 6c Ac 6h][8s]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Joanne10: shows [Qh Qc] (Two Pairs, Queens and Eights, Ace high)
Jonletaxi: shows [7c 6d] (A Full House, Sixes full of Eights)
Jonletaxi collected 2955 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot 2955 Main pot 2955 Rake 0
Board [8h 6c Ac 6h 8s]
Seat 1: Cjwins folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Sgt_bash folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Phil55 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Colle1910 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Tetleyimp (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Odin13 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Jonletaxi showed [7c 6d] and won (2955) with A Full House, Sixes full of Eights
Seat 9: Gandl112 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 10: Joanne10 showed [Qh Qc] and lost with Two Pairs, Queens and Eights, Ace high

I just don't understand this play. Firstly raising under the gun with 6 7, then calling the 30 big blind shove? Oh well.

Back to Friday night then, turned up at the Cannon and Big Tone's pad at 8-ish and was straight into the gambling, winning 3 games of Pro Evo for a total of £15. The others then arrived and we got down to poker at just after 9. I bought in for £40, with the £15 from Pro Evo added from the others to give me a starting stack of £55, playing classic 10p/20p blinds. There were 7 of us in the end and I was in a fairly good position on the table being on Ed's left. To my left was Big Tone, then N-Dog, Cashy P, Blubs, and Simon. I can't remember who bought in for what but roughly Ed £100, Cashy £190, N-dog £50-60?, Big Tone £100, Blubs £100 and Si £50.

So the action started and Cashy was as usual raising pretty much raising every hand and soon found himself up about £100, mainly at Big Tone's expense, showing a mixture of big bluffs and made hands. It was my first time playing with Blubs and he made a pretty outrageous 3-barrelled bluff early on betting into Si's trip aces so I wasn't too sure how he was going to play. I made a couple of well-timed bluffs, versus him to win small pots but the action was pretty much passing me by. Then I pick up 7 2 off on the button and pop it up after it's folded to me (we were playing the 7-2 game to win a pound of everyone else if you won a hand with that hand) I then proceeded to pump it up on all 3 occasions when it was checked to me after Big Tone had called from the small blind and luckily the 3rd got through for a pot of around £15 and the £6 from everyone. I kept on grinding away, not playing many pots until my first real playable hand of the night popped up. Queens. I was effectively UTG as Cannon had put the straddle on and flat called hoping either Cashy or the Cannnon would pop it up. Big Tone limps behind me and Cashy duly obliges to make it £2.80 to go. It folds round to me and I pop it up to about £12, Big Tone calls this pretty quickly which was fairly worrying. Flop comes 522 and I check it with the aim of check-raising any bet I face. Big Tone fires out £15 and I think a little and raise to £40, Big Tone then announces all-in and I go into the tank. We worked out that we had pretty similar stacks at about £55 and I say to Big Tone "shall we just play for £20 more" not the whole £35. He deliberates for a while and says ok and so I make the call and he of course turns over pocket 5's for the house. Bam!!! Queen on the river and I ship a very lucky, and healthy pot. I give Big Tone back his £20 extra he put in out of kindness and probably because I knew that, as Cannon later pointed out, I probably wouldn't have called had it been for my whole stack.

Very next hand and I call a CashyP raise from the big blind with 89 sooted to see a flop of A89. I check it, short-stacked Simon puts £2 in and I raise it to £7, he calls pretty quick and I set him all-in on an innocuos looking 3 turn card only for him to call with A3, and I'm back to about £130.

So we get to about 6:30am and I am very tired and haven't won a pot for a while and spot a nice duvet in the corner which I want to curl up and go to sleep on. I'm UTG and I figure I'll just play this hand and then sit out for a while and sleep. I look down at Q6 SOOTED and pump it up to 80p. The Cannon in the small blind repops to about £2.50 and I, knowing that he knows I don't make moves preflop (he had told everyone me earlier in the night)pop it up again hoping to take the pot down there and then. The Cannon being a gigantic fish announces "I know you have Kings" but still makes the call.

Flop comes a fairly friendly JJ4 and he checks hoping to entice a bet from me (and now knowing his hand why wouldn't he) and I make a typically Cheese-like weak check behind. So we go to the turn, an Ace. He fires £10. I think to myself "what would I do if I had aces here" and I make the call. The river comes and it's a King. Action to Ed and he bets out £25, I pop it up around £40 and he insta-passes AJ to fold Jacks full of Aces. WOW!!! I turn over Q6 SOOTED and I think I saw a bit of vomit come up in his mouth. Ed then tries to explain his laydown but is met by a barrage of abuse and proceeds to tilt off the rest of his stack. He then reloads for £200 and manages to tilt that off in about half an hour, all to Big Tone who until then had been the big loser for the night! Things were getting pretty ridiculous, there was over a grand on the table playing 10p/20p for christ's sake! That's 5000 big blinds. So at about 8:30am we call it a day for poker, and after an 11 hour session I cash out for £155 for £100 poker profit. Cashy I think had £2 profit in the end (that's a steady 18p an hour income), Ed was the big loser for over £300, and the rest had smallish profits I think, including N-dog who had been playing terribly and had been reluctant to rebuy having lost his stack coming back nicely.

Then Ed and Ant played a £100 pro evo game with the rules being that they were the same team and Ed got to choose the team. Bayern Munich of course. Ant took it down 6-3 and Ed was stuck £100 more!

So having not slept since 7am friday morning we went down the local cafe for a fry-up and on the way back stopped off at the bookies for a couple of quick bets from the others. (Cannon how did your £40 bet go? I saw Walsall and Middlesborough won but who was the other team?)

We got back to the flat and as I was playing football and had to leave at 12 I decided it probably wasn't a good idea to try and get some sleep so we had a Pro Evo fivers in tourney, 5 minute matches and 2 groups of 3 (Big Tone had gone to sleep by then) followed by semi's and then a final. My group was a fairly easy looking N-dog and Blubs but I fell 1-0 as my Pompy side were no match for his Bolton. He then drew with N-dog meaning that I had to beat N-dog to stay in the competition. I duly did and was through to face Cashy in the semi's with Si taking on Blubs in the other having knocked out the Cannon in one of the shocks of Pro Evo history (sarcastic?).

The Point was duly dispatched and I came up against surprise package Blubs in the final. Four goals later and I was picking up another £20 from Pro Evo to take my total profit to £135. Whilst this was happening the Cannon managed to win back what he'd lost playing with us by going online playing $2/$4.

I went to football at 12 thinking it was probably a bad idea not to have slept at all but played okay in a 3-1 win and even managed to smash the bar from 25 yards with about my 2nd touch! The match served to wake me up a bit and I didnt really feel tired as I left the ground and went to pick the missus up from Bluewater. We had a nice dinner and then went and watched Superbad in bed. Was an absolute cracker and I'm sure would have been even better if I hadn't of been struggling to keep my eyes open! I finally fell asleep at 8pm after 37 hours awake and managed to sleep for 14 hours which I haven't done for a while. Went to see the missus's brother and his wife and kids today and watched Spurs lose to United but all in all has been a quality weekend and has in a way reminded me of the quality Uni days we used to have and made me look forward to the Reading Series of Poker even more.

In summary of tonight...

Dropped $26 on Stars and $33 on Party. Twice managed to get flushes flopped against me in pots I'd raised to get stacked. But to sum up the night this happened:

***** Hand History for Game 6715995665 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $11 USD Buy-in Trny: 38016588 Level: 3 Blinds(50/100) - Wednesday, January 23, 15:34:11 ET 2008
Table Table 127798 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: GorgarXL ( 2,440 )
Seat 3: mattydubb ( 3,660 )
Seat 5: JimmyK13 ( 2,570 )
Seat 8: edietheeagle ( 1,620 )
Seat 6: crazychick13 ( 1,570 )
Seat 4: ben_w_2004 ( 1,910 )
Seat 9: the_peasant ( 1,970 )
Seat 10: greob ( 1,380 )
Seat 2: stex22 ( 2,880 )
Trny: 38016588 Level: 3
Blinds(50/100)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ben_w_2004 [ Qh Qs ]
crazychick13 folds.
edietheeagle folds.
the_peasant did not respond in time
the_peasant folds.
greob folds.
GorgarXL folds.
stex22 folds.
mattydubb raises [500]
ben_w_2004 is all-In.
JimmyK13 folds.
mattydubb calls [1,410]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kc, 2c, 8h ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5c ]
mattydubb shows [ 6c, 7s ]a straight Four to Eight.
ben_w_2004 shows [ Qh, Qs ]a pair of Queens.
mattydubb wins 3,920 chips from the main pot with a straight, Four to Eight.
ben_w_2004 finished in 9 place.

The conversation afterwards was a bit of a crack up, shame I couldn't get involved as I was out:

JimmyK13: "LOL nice hand"
mattydubb: "Lol thanks, I was priced in"
JimmyK13: "What do you mean?"
mattydubb: "I mean once I had raised I pretty much had to call"
JimmyK13: "Oh I see, you mean once you had put 500 in and only had to call 1400 more?"
mattydubb: "Exactly, I had the odds to call"
JimmyK13: "Does it not depend on what the other player has though?"
mattydubb: "I suppose so, it depends on the range I put him on."
GorgarXL: "Are you guys being serious? What "range" did you put him on then matt?"
mattydubb: "I thought he might have pocket 2's or 3's or something like that"
GorgarXL: "Well at least you got it quite close"

Satellites and the big score...

I was reading SG's blog the other day (see link to right) and he was talking about how he grinds away in STT's and cash games and looks to give a big boost to his bankroll by finishing well in a MTT. Now this is basically what I have been doing for the last couple of years, playing $5/$10 MTT's on the side looking for that big win. However, what SG looks to do is satellite into bigger buy-in tournies which makes alot of sense.

So I enter a $4 rebuy turbo satellite to a $55 13k guarenteed tourney and lo and behold qualify comfortably! When I play rebuys online I usually limit myself to an immediate rebuy if there's one available and an add-on at the end of the rebuy period. In this particular satellite I have an outlay of $8 max and therefore only have to qualify once in 7 attempts to make it profitable.

So to the $55 tourney and it was a story of making the big hands pay. The big hands being aces, which I got 3 times in the first 2 hours, doubling up each time I had them. The other playable hands I had were AK, which I had 5 times in the first hour! I broke even on these AK's, winning 3 small pots, losing a small one and losing a medium one when I ran into aces luckily on a scary board. After the second break however the cards just dried up, I had about 25bb's at one stage but this was whittled down to 10bb's, with stealing and restealing opportunities very limited in what was a very aggressive tournament. Then UTG pumps it to 3xbb, I look at QQ in late position and push over the top and get called by the UTG player who had AQ and spiked an Ace on the turn to send me packing in 41st out of 220 with 30 getting paid. A shame as I think winning that hand would have pretty much guarenteed a cash at my first attempt in this level of tournament. One thing I noticed when playing this tournament was the number of bad, and I mean very bad, players. I'm talking about things like min-raising from the button when there have been 3 limpers in front, calling pot-sized all-ins on the turn with bare flush draws it was almost embarassing at times. I was paying full attention to this tournament and making notes on each player categorising them into "bad/rubbish/solid/tricky" and then making notes of how they played particular hands, something I would definately recommend doing, especially at this sort of level and below when it is very rare that someone will mix up their game meaning that you can pretty much guess their hand by looking back at betting patterns. Obviously this is a very simplistic view with rising blind levels greatly changing the dynamics of play but it certainly helped me and also made sure I kept concentrating.

Anyway on my first table I made notes on all the players and I categorised just one as "solid", one as "tricky" and the rest were either "rubbish" or "bad" and I was loving it. Unfortunately I got moved from this table to one with a slightly better standard but still nothing special and my first impressions are certainly that I can make this a profitable tournament for myself, especially if I can keep qualifying for so little. I tried qualifying from the same rebuy on Friday night and finished 9th with the top 8 getting seats having seen 4 short stacks be all-in before me with the worst hand and suck out, it was sickening to watch as I knew what was coming...


ps. Get in there Tottenham...5-1...Spurs are on their way to Wembley, Tottenham's gonnna do it again...(The Cannon will appreciate that I'm sure).