Poker Forum > Member Blogs

Pokerpops ponders poker

<< < (34/93) > >>

pokerpops:
for the few that are interested in my progress this weekend I now have a tw*tter account

amospokerpops

I am somewhat ashamed of myself tbh since this is one of my favourite t-shirts



I"ll be wearing it at some stage this weekend and reminding myself of that strapline

pokerpops:
a dull day"s poker

Not a lot happened - a succession of small pots won and slightly larger pots lost - my tens beaten on the river by Captain Calling Station who rivered a jack having limped in with J7.
This was the third hand in a row where I had had a hand worthy of a raise, the two previous had resulted in small wins AQ and JJ both winning the pot with a c-bet. Tens utg and I opted to limp with the intention of 3betting most raises. None came, my bad.
My stack dwindled down to under 20,000 when I picked up fours in mid position and called a small raise.
Q 2 4 rainbow flop is bet by the original raiser, I flat as does one other. 4 on turn - happy days - bet again, I flat and the other player folds
8 river, I push my stack over the line and he snap calls - he declared a set, which seems likely to have been twos...

I go back to being card dead until the Captain raises again and I find  Ks Js and 3 bet. he flats.
Flop 6 8 10 two spades, I lead, he raises, I shove and he calls with  A s 2s... A on turn and I"m dead to a non spade Q which fails to arrive and I"m off to arrange to use my second satellite win for a re-entry.

The pattern is repeated,  I don"t feel as though I played particularly well for long spells of this - too much calling of raises pre and folding on flop or, worse, calling flop and folding turn/river
I get fours again and again the flop is Q 2 4 this time with two hearts. I lead for 3/4 pot and get one caller.
Turn is another heart which we both check and I find myself calling a river bet just knowing that I"m behind 8 or 9 times out of 10. This was one of those times

Eventually I get a table move and am two seats to the left of cambridgeAlex of Blonde fame. Alex Goulder, winner of the Monte Carlo last year and a good winning cash and tourney player.
I love the chance to tangle with these guys and he"s raising my big blind pretty much 100% when it"s folded to him.
Eventually I make a stand and 3bet (with  3c 5s), he flats. that wasn"t in the plan.
Flop is  3d 6s 8h and I bet 4800 into c 6000. he calls. That definitely wasn"t in the plan.
Turn is  10d and I bet 10000. He deliberates for a while and eventually folds. That was in the plan, although I think I was probably ahead.
My stack is pretty static, I win a pot or two, give up my blinds win a pot, lose a pot, it"s just nothingness.
I 3bet  Ah Jh and donk shove a 9 high flop to get me back up to around 2/3 average stack and c 25BB and then...
My big blind again.
Alex raises again - to 2500 at 600/1200/200
I make it 6500 with  10s 10d
he shoves, covering me, and I call
he holds  7d 7h
The board runs out with four hearts to give him the flush....

somedays you hold, other days you don"t

this was an "other" day

Overall, I played below my standard today. Lost far too many chips unnecessarily, failed to press home the advantage too often. I felt less than confident and less than capable. I wish I knew why - there were spots throughout the day where I know that on a better day I"d have taken the pot with a confident second barrel, but today wasn"t a better day.

I will return. Better for the experience. I take heart from the fact that I got it in with very much the best of it. But I really need to not dribble chips away in bad spots.

pokerpops:
I had a week off poker following the DTD trip - partly through feeling not right for the game but mostly because I was going to be away last weekend at Wychwood Festival - four days of wind, rain, sunshine, camping and music. Surrounded by my immediate family. Wife; two daughters; one son-in-law; one granddaughter; four grandsons.
It was marvellous. Once we"d got through the worst of the weather on Thursday / Friday it got a lot easier and by Sunday the sun was shining and we were able to pack away the tents totally dry and ready for their next outing.

Wychwood is very much a family festival - lots of activities for the youngsters and music for those old enough to be parents, or indeed grandparents. Main Stage acts included James, Hawkwind, The Saw Doctors and Dr & The Medics.
The latter put on a tremendous high energy set filled with cover versions of everything from I Fought the Law, through Proud Mary to Spirit in the Sky. Showmen, every last one of them.

I returned to the felt last night in the G £10+£10+£10.
A young lad, student type, never seen him before tooke the first two pots and showed his bluff on both occasions
he won the first sizable pot of the night too with a river check raise all in vs the pre flop aggressor who had flopped a flush draw, turned the OESD and bricked the river. I wondered at the time if this was a sick read or just spew

Turned out it was spew - he raise folded a lot after that and opted not to take his rebuys when he bust out. It"s a sign that I"m not in the best of form that despite my winning  significant chunks of his chips, and administering the coup de grace I can"t recall a single hand vs him.

I chipped up ok and then got stuck with FatBoyStu to my left - this generally doesn"t bother me but last night he was an utter cardrack for the duration of his stay at my table. Hoovering up chips from all and sundry.

I bust out with a moment of pure "Old David" spew that I am still cringing about. I raised A3ss from UTG and got two callers. When the flop came J high and the BB checked I open shipped my last 11000 and was called by AJ and JJ...

I can usually take some solace from the cash table at G but even that was denied me last night.
KK in the straddle was enough to repop the opening raise of £3.50 to £11.50.
1 caller and a 10 high flop I bet £15 and get a call
Blank turn, I bet £25 and get another call. There are two spades on the board now and I am resolved to ship the last £50 on any non spade, non ace river.

FML - Ace on the river - my opponent pretty much always has an ace here and I check wondering how much it might cost me to confirm that belief.
he checks behind and turns over AK to claim the pot...
I should leave at that point but stubborn belief in something kept me at the table until I"d donked the rest of the stack into the same guy"s pockets when he limp reraised from EP with AA for the second time in under an hour...

I may take a short break from live poker - the G game finishes late and even the Sunday tournament which starts at 6pm seems to go on forever. Mainly due to the continued propensity of people to fold their big blind with 3 BB left.
Antes needed I think.

A run at the DTD satellites calls, and a look at the UKIPT Newcastle satellites on Stars.

pokerpops:
So, my short break from live poker didn"t last long... last night I was to be found at the G playing the £15+£15. In my defence I played mostly because my daughter wanted to play.

I arrived late having watched the Olympic Torch as it passed through Stockton. If you have the chance, do get along and see it. It"s over very quickly after a long build up, a bit like ...

Anyway - A few hands into the tournament and I decide to raise from mid-position with  Qh Jd (virtually suited). We were playing with the away strip chips due to the 2day £100 tourney still being in play and I mistakenly raised to 1025 (note to self - verbalise raises!)
I get one caller and a flop of  Qd  10s 6c - I ship the rest of my stack c 4500 expecting to get a fold and instead I get a call from  Ks Jc and daughter dear turns him a K. "CHIPS PLEASE"

From there to the final table I play snug and smart and we get to 10 handed with me as one of the 3 big stacks (all is relative, I had 45,000 at 800/1600).
AJ is good enough to make it 3700 pre from UTG+1, one caller and a shove from a shortstack with 6000.
I hadn"t noticed the call from one of the other big stacks and flat called the shove, as did the random...
Jack high flop, J53 to be precise - happy days - I announce all in and get a call from Mr Bink with 45.
4 on the turn
50p in the box

Luckily the cash table was more generous and included a flopped set from which I extracted good value vs one of the local "pros"

Comedic moment of the night was when one of the Gala regulars who had apparently sat at this 25p/50p table earlier with £600 and had left for a while to "blow it on roulette" returned to the table and emptied his cap of chips and announced he was playing £6500 - having £175 on a number at roulette can do that for you!

Off to London on wednesday for a day trip - if time permits I may have a look at the Vic just to see what it"s all about.

pokerpops:
So, I spent last Wednesday here


The Royal Chelsea Hospital, home of the famous Chelsea Pensioners


Dad"s 86 soon and having had a triple bypass op two years ago and recovered very well from it he decided that he wants to up sticks from his home town and spend the rest of his days as a Chelsea Pensioner.
It"s not a bad life, they get a room of their own; activities from bowls to courses on IT and more; three meals a day and the chance to attend all sorts of functions. From the Remembrance Service at The Albert Hall and the parade at The Cenotaph to a free trip to Ascot or the Cup Final. Wearing that famous Scarlet Coat they add something to whichever event they attend.
We"re waiting for the confirmation but it seems that he has secured his place.
I"ve recovered from the shock and having been down whilst he was on his Four Day Visit which is designed to establish both his suitaility and to allow him to be sure he"ll be happy there I"m convinced this is a good move for him.

All I have to do now is assist with the move and take charge of the clearance of his current bungalow. Anyone know of any charities in Northampton that would want secondhand furniture??

I made two other visits after I left him, one here

The cardroom at The Vic.
This wasn"t a happy experience with my flopped two pair meeting a straight for most of a buy in and my AJhh not finding the fifth heart on a 33xhh flop for a chunk of the second bullet.

Happily my car turned the right way out of the station car park back in Northampton and the gods allowed me a parking space where I wanted one to encourage me to visit Aspers Northampton

where I enjoyed a 5 buy in profit at the rate of one an hour. Despite having my aces cracked by 84.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page