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Aces and Agony - An APAT'ers blog of the highs and lows of poker ( and life!)

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Santino67:
Enjoyed railing mate and value having the same encouragement when I play. Very well done on the nice cash and fine performance  8)

amcgrath1uk:
The mentality of a poker player with a target

As poker players, we all have a general target, ie to win/get all the chips/make as much profit as possible. When those targets are different to the usual, ie in satellites, team events, as a generalisation we tend to go into extreme tight aggressive mode.

I was faced with this dilemma last night. With approx 30 left in the league game, I was somehow still in with a chance of winning the individual player of the league standing. I only had 2 playing obstacles left, Tony Trippier and Damo Bailie (on my phone so excuse any spelling errors). I also had the small issue of getting to the final table where it would all be decided. It"s folded round to me on my sb and I have  8c 4c. I open shove my 12 or so bbs, the bb wakes up with AQos, and by the turn I"ve locked the hand up giving me a flush. In short order Tony is knocked out, and with 15 left I hold AK v AQ/J (can"t remember which).

We"re down to 11 quickly and I"ve locked up 5th overall. I"m sitting 10/11 but not worried. I know my strengths and weaknesses when short and I know what situations I want to get into. Twice I fold to all ins and a call, first with A9 which would have chopped a decent pot, then 99 which would"ve have been crushed. Happy with both folds quite comfortably. I have under 25k with just under 10bbs with my final hand. Early position opens and I have  Ah Qh. Without thinking I"m all in, and lose to 77. 11th on the night and 5th overall. It is in situations like this that there is a timebank!!!! I know in my heart that I"m never folding usually in this situation. And given hindsight yeah it"s a fold. A step back and think about it would have been the most sensible solution, and looking at the situation completely dispassionately.

5th overall is locked up. A 9th on the night gives me 4th overall and a free APAT seat. 5/6th overall (can"t quite remember which) gives me 2nd overall. But because I wanted it all, I"d have gone all in anyway.

A massive well done to Tony Trippier for his win. As I"d only played half of the events, I"ll be honest and say that in some respects a win for me would have been a tad unfair on his consistently excellent play!

Roll on to now and I"m stood outside work freezing as someone is late!

amcgrath1uk:
Just a very quick one today, to say thankyou for the rail last night on stars.

Was running ridic good in the Big $11, down to the last 300 as one of the chipleaders, then the rail started to appear. Big thanks to Ger, Adam and Chaz for helping keep me focused.

Ended up busting in 61st which was a tad annoying ( though not bad out of over 11k players). From roughly 10 past 1 till I was knocked out at just gone half 2, I had one pocket pair ( QQ where my standard raise was not called), apart from that, I saw 8 6 os so many times already facing 3 and 4 bets. It eventually cracked me, managing to lose 400k to a blind on blind hand (with 73os)

It"s at this point of the year we look back and we look forward.

I had 2 major goals, one is win a decent tournament on stars, another is an APAT medal. Managed both thankfully :)

It has taken me a couple of years, but I do think I am getting there on stars at last, as I used to cash often, but not final table.

07/11: 1/833 in a $5 1000 max NL
18/09: 3/588 in an $11 NL
08/04: 3/1000 in a $4.40 1000 max NL
04/07: 4/621 in a $4.40 1000 max NL
15/12: 7/500 in a $8.80 500 max NL

And obviously a live bronze and online gold. So pretty happy.

2013:

I"ll have to go for the following:

1) Win 2 tournaments on stars
2) Win over $1k in a tournament on stars
3) Hopefully finish as the no 1 ranked in APAT online games ( sitting 2nd at the moment)
4) Play a deepstack at DtD
5) Play A.N.Other event ( SPT, GUKPT, Genting etc) - staked or otherwise
6) Look at having a specific poker set up ( ie new PC/monitor(s)) rather than laptop

If I think of more I"ll add them

amcgrath1uk:
Wow really 10 days since my last update?

What to say...

Actually ended 2012 top of the online rankings which was good, wonder how many events are left to hold on to that?!

I generally give myself a Xmas/New Year poker present, so with working NYE and NYD, I decided to play the Big $55 on stars as it had a roughly $40k overlay. Ended up 43rd for $240 which was pleasing. Again getting deep with decent stacks, again blow it all ( poor play this time iirc). Already up to chrome on stars ( no surprise really) as I"ve played a few 180s, as well as mtt"s. Am down about $50-$100 so far. Early days so not worried.

Already booked DtD, for my first WCOAP ,and I"m looking forward to Luton to what is my favourite event of the season.

amcgrath1uk:
Luton team event

My trip down started at half 11 on Friday, making my way into Manchester for the first of a few trains. Even though my route took me to a good few places across the country, I don"t mind as I wasn"t in a huge rush. Of course, the first train to Sheffield gets cancelled, meaning I would instantly miss every connection. Thankfully, none of the conductors seemed to mind, so travelled all the way with no arguments, getting in to Luton at half 6.

As I"d booked fairly late, I"d gone for the Travelodge, won"t be making that mistake at Luton again ( wayyyy to far away, cost me more in taxis than sleeping for 2 of the nights!). The room itself was a bit meh, no remote control for the TV, no towel rail, the usual "high quality".

Get to Luton G just in time for their usual Friday night tournament, and proceed to play terribly the entire way. Had a few drinks with the usual suspects before making my way back fairly early as I was pretty tired. On the Saturday, get to the G in time to watch City play a very boring game vs Stoke ( is there any game exciting when playing Stoke?), and meet up with the team ready for the fun of the team game.

I start confidently, hitting a couple of disguised straights and trips, and win a decent pot KK v JJ. The last hand before the break managed to pull off a river bluff with J high into a decent pot, going into the 1st break at 27k. 20 mins after the break I"m up to 33k quite comfortably, my 3 bets and c bets being given lots of respect. Then it all starts to go wrong.

Call a 3 bet with 22, and despite the flop being A 3 5, I was comfortable. Stacking over 15k chasing wasn"t the greatest plan however. Meh folded the turn to a huge bet.

Find AK UTG and bet as usual. It"s 3bet from seat 10, have a think. This is the same guy I bet off the river with my J high, 4 bet him, eventually it"s all in, he has KK and I don"t bink an A. Down to 1.4k. Ooops. How do we get this back? Win blind vs blind hitting top pair on the flop, then JJ v AJ, so up to 8k. A few hands later, UTG again and I have AQ, blinds are just about to go 300/600, so just open shove. There"s a 3 bet from seat 3. Oops. Yeah he has KK, again I don"t hit.

Spend the next few hours getting drunk in the bar, then I hear "Asa, fancy dealing a cash game?", I was bored, had nothing to do so said sod it. Half 2 the game wraps up, good job really as I"m falling asleep. Was good fun to deal, and from watching, I picked quite a lot up.

Sunday, I manage to get up just in time to get to the 4pm Omaha as I didn"t manage to sleep very well initially. Bubble the final table after getting short. Had managed to hit a beautiful flop, holding QQJJ, flop KQJ, turn Q which was quite nice.

A nice weekend all in all, even if the poker didn"t go well.

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