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Pokerpops ponders poker

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Fatcatstu:
you are all fish

pokerpops:
Week One of the Online League...

KQ is rarely better than AA, but how is it that oppo has AA when he"s down to 3 or 4 big blinds and I"ve committed myself with a distracted raise...

88 starts better than AK and when no A and no K arrive it hurts a little more to lose, but that rivered straight did for me in 170th

I was playing on the iPad whislt also playing a small tourney at G in Stockton. The new Cardroom Manager, Mike, had organised an unscheduled tournament because there were players in the Casino looking for a game.
£15+£15 (5,000 for first lot, 10,000 for rebuy/addon)
I joined midway through Level 1 and was the 10th entrant. Eventually we got to 13 runners. I done a win for £190 which was rather nice :-)

That makes my recent record in tournaments (excluding the Thursday night game)...

Thursday 19th - Gala Teesside. 10th of 50 or so in the £10+£10+£10 Had a big stack close to the bubble then lost a chunk with Q10 on a Q10x flop getting it all in vs 88... 9 turn, J river. Two hands later I get it in again vs same oppo with my KQ having hit a 10Jx flop pretty hard, but not as hard as his JJ. Final table and I"m shortstacked and get 33 in vs QQ. Min cash for £30

Sunday 22nd - Gala Teesside £75 FO + £25 bounty. A typical up and down run. Built a decent enough stack but busted in 12th of 40ish. No real tales from this - I"d secured one Bounty chip so it wasn"t a total wipe, and I felt as though I played well enough to have gone deeper but it wasn"t to be.

Tuesday 24th - Gala Teesside £30FO. 80+ runners. Go to final table with chip lead and insta-reduce field to 8 and increase chip lead to have something like 35% of chips in play. Lose chunk getting all in pre with 99 vs 88. Hit set on flop, runner runner straight reduces my lead as do a few positional raises running into shoves and reshoves. Then A10s on the button runs into KK  and 6th for £150

Wednesday 1 Feb - Aspers Northampton £20FO, Antes only tournament. Interesting experience this. I don"t think anyone in the tournament had played the format before and it took some adjusting to the idea that we would be playing a lot of flops 8-handed or more. No major highlights, other than the deal three ways where we split the prize fund leaving a chunk for 1st which meant that my win was worth more than the original top prize. Only £240, but a win"s a win.

Saturday 4th Feb - DTD £500 Deepstack. I satellited into this from a E4.40 feeder. Started badly with a misjudged bluff on the river of an AxxAx board. I only get called by someone with an A, but it should have been obvious that that was exactly what the lady in question had. Rebuilt the stack to something above average chips and felt fairly at home. Sadly I ran into a rivered full house where the river card completed my straight and instead of flat calling the river bet I opted to raise and then to call his reraise. A few hands later I played a hand that I"m still kind of unsure about, but suffice to say that my turn shove got called and although I wasn"t drawing dead on the river I didn"t hit either of my overcards and was out.
Saturday 4th Feb - DTD £50FO. I was out of the deepstack just in time to register for the SuperFifty with around 10 mins to spare. Apart from being totally owned by Tina Bandyle at the final table I had a good run and finished 5th for £660. The atmosphere in DTD that night was amazing - it was the snowy weekend and the team there just did everything they could for people. Lots were stuck there - no taxis running at all and hard for the locals even to drive away. So they put on an extra midnight tourney for those who didn"t want to play cash.

Sunday 5th Feb. DTD £150FO - two entries. The first ended early in a funky hand where three of us got all in on the low flop with JJ (shoved first), KK (me) and AA (winner). The second? Meh, I"ve erased all memory of it. I just donked it off I think.
Sunday 5th Feb DTD £15FO - had a proper stack pretty early on then lost a chunk with KK vs QJs (he 4bet shoved because "it"s the best hand I"ve seen since we sat down" and obv rivered the straight). Moved tables shortly after and ran into someone who couldn"t fold his big blind to the "new guy at the table" and flopped two pair with J2off.

had a little break for a week after the DTD trip

Tuesday 14th Feb - G Stockton £10+£10+£10 2nd to the Stockton Fossil. £120 i think. No major highlights other than a flopped set in the BB vs an aggressive SB which gave me a very useful double-up 4 handed with three paid.


Wednesday 22nd Aspers Newcastle £10 i re-entry (taken) - this was the tournament that finally started this blog. 4th for a massive £40.

Sunday 26th Feb Gala Teesside £75 +£25. Roller coaster ride which went up with 77 all in pre vs 66 and down (and out) with AK vs 10 10 (in the hands of a serial raiser - why do they always seem to have it when I shove...)

Wednesday 7th March - Gentings Newcastle £0+£10+£10. Winner £280

Sunday 11th March - G Casino Stockton. £15+£15. 1st for £190. Only 13 runners but a win"s a win. Got a touch lucky midway through to get a dominant stack and from there on in it was pretty much plain sailing.


So - buyin < =£50 I"m doing pretty well

buyin £75+... not so good

Have I found my level, or am I just running better in the smaller comps? Why couldn"t I have had all the rungood that I have undoubtedly had in making these results in the DTD £500?

pokerpops:
The winning streak obviously had to end.

Tuesday night"s tournament at G in Stockton is a £10+£10+£10 and is scheduled to start at 8pm.
The new Cardroom Manager is full of keen and has introduced a 1000 chip addition for registering pre start.
The place will take a lot to get it buzzing properly, but last night there were, for a change, enough players to start on time. Did we?
No - we waited because although we had 10 runners, we thought another two might arrive soon and that way we could start with two tables of six rather than break up a table of ten.
So an 8pm start turned into 8.45 and everybody, including the two we"d waited for got the extra chip...
Add on a break that is scheduled as 20minutes and turned into something well over 30 and nearly an hour has been added onto what should have been no more than a four hour tournament. (It lasted longer, mainly because people tank for ages over simple decisions and self-dealt tables that aren"t dealt by me are sooo slow)
I"m a recreational player, with a job to go to in the morning. I don"t play a lot of midweek tournaments because the size of field and the structure seem designed to produce a late finish. The lack of runners at G is one of it"s attractions for me because it will finish at a time I can handle. The delays began to frustrate me...

All this leads to excuse #1 for donking off my chips at the end. Which I did in spectacular style with a cut-off raise with 95off and a turn shove over a bet where I had virtually zero chance of getting a fold and a one in six chance of making a winning hand.

To be honest, I lost the mood for that tournament last night. I started out ok, but, (and here"s a trend, maybe a leak that needs addressing) I don"t cope well when having built a stack early on I lose a chunk of it being outdrawn. I"m fine when I lose some through my aggression running into legitimate hands. That"s the way it is sometimes. But when I get outdrawn by someone having sucked them into a hand with them having the worst of it... that seems to knock me off my game.

I was dealing too, which is fine when things are going along nicely, but it does mean that I can"t adopt one of my coping strategies for such situations which is to put the headphones on and listen to some music. I have loads on my ipod, and some more on my phone, but for poker I pretty much only listen to Arcade Fire with occasional bursts of The Hurts, Florence & the Machine and, when I"m just using the music to drown out the drivel The Stones.

So - a loss last night, but maybe a lesson learnt. There will always be losses, but I don"t need to make them happen!

pokerpops:
So it turns out that winning the Wednesday afternoon game at Gentings qualified me to play in the League Final with £2,000 added on Saturday last.
Same structure, 3,000 starting stack with 2 x £10 rebuy/addons (5,000 each) which can be taken whenever you choose up to the first break (end of level 4)

I travelled with some confidence given my recent run and had a whirlwind start.
Hand 2, blinds 25/50, I"m utg+1 and have AhAd
I raise to 200 over a limper
utg+2 3bets to 400
fold, fold, fold and cut off, a very nice lady of around my age looks at me, looks at the 3better and goes all in.
I"m not sure she even does that with KK, so I call, as does utg+2 - he has KK and we avoid all the nasty boards to split the pot.

Hand 4 - I have QQ in the big blind, 4 limpers so I raise to 275 and only the sb calls.
Flop K high with two hearts he check/calls 425
Turn blank chk/chk
River blank - no flush no reasonable chance of a straight and he shoves the last 1050 of his first stack...
I call and am good
Hand 6 - I raise J9o from the button and get one caller
I bet the J high flop he calls
I bet the blank turn, he calls
I bet the river he folds
The table consensus is that I have to have two pair or a set. I say nothing.

Within an orbit I"ve built my 3k into 8k+.
It goes wrong for a while - a touch of misfortune mainly. Nothing much I think I need to change, and nothing that changing my play would have avoided and my first stack goes all in with a flopped two pair and gutshot vs a flopped straight. No help on turn or river and I invest the £20 on a fresh 10k stack.

Approaching the break and I"m down to about 7k when three hands in succession seal my fate..
I raise A10 suited from utg, two callers and the flop is KQJ
I bet, utg+1 (still the same guy who had KK in the second hand) shoves...
the other caller agonises and folds, I call and hold aganist his 9 10 and now have 18k...

I then have a hand which I"m not convinced I played well and will post on the Academy for the usual abuse which results in me shoving JJ from the SB over an early raiser and not holding v KQ...

ah well - it was fun though.

pokerpops:
How to butcher a hand and be eliminated from a Tournament in two easy steps...

This is the hand that I asked for comments on in the Strategy Board.

Casino League Final £0+£10+£10 - £2,000 added. 60 runners

Level 4 150/300



Three limpers to my BB I raise QQ to 1050
Two callers inc SB

Stacks
MP - 7k. He"s been at the table from the start. Passive, called two streets and folded river a few times...
SB - 15k. Youngish female, joined the game late and sat down with the full 13k stack. No reads really other than she"s a regular...

Me - 18k. I"m probably the most active player on the table

Flop 764hh
sb checks

I have a moment of folly, prompted by the sudden feeling that, having just picked up a bundle of chips flopping broadway vs the lower straight (and having dodged a huge bullet by the other player in that hand having folded KJ for a flopped 2pair which would have filled up on the turn...)
I look at the flop and just dump 7x1,000 chips into the middle. Don"t ask what I was thinking because I truly have no idea.

I compound the error when the SB jams

First, I"ve started the hand with a misread of her stack - I had her on around 9k when in reality she has two 5,000 chips at the bottom of her stack not the one I thought she had
Second, I don"t pause to think - I just snap call, after all, I"ve got QQ, how can I be behind?

Obviously she has a set and obviously I don"t hit a saving Queen.

Such a huge wakeup call. I lost concentration for a moment when I needed it most. I paid the maximum price for that lapse.

As it happens, if I play the hand better I probably still lose a chunk, just not quite such a big chunk. The JJ in the next hand then costs me another chunk and maybe I leave the tournament bemoaning my luck and not my appalling play.

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