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Wherever I lay my hat - as long as its Vegas
duncthehat:
I AM A LOSING PLAYER AND I SUCK AT NLH
There thats out in the open. No need for a discussion.
I love poker, I love playing it, I love the competiveness, the strategy, the chat, the banter. And playing poker cured my addiction to the gee gees and sports betting.
And I am hooked on poker in vegas which can be damn expensive if you are a fish!!. I am hooked on Vegas in June - WSOP time. now that can be really expensive!!!
I dont do twitter and use facebook to lurk more than contribute. But the one thing i do regret is not writing down events of the past. My short term memory is poor so I thought this year what the hell lets do a blog/diary. I hope i dont bore you all to death. Half the reason I am doing it is for memories for me in the future:
So a little about me as I am only intermittent on the APAT scene these days.
I was there at the beginning. Season 1. Daniel winning that first event and becoming an APAT God (sic). Think it was what 2007 maybe or 2006 I am not sure. Hadnt played Poker for some 15 years and then it was in dodgy dark backrooms against Asians and Germans in the heart of the reeperbahn in Hamburg.
I played real ABC then and ended up Final tabling in Cardiff and Edinburgh. Dreams of being the next big thing and all that. And it was downhill from there!!
I love the mixed games, its where I find I do have an edge and am a winning player. I love Horse Razz Stud PLO and Limit hold em cash. My bucket list consisted of 1 item. Play the WSOP. I am a realist $10000 is above my paygrade but hey 1500, no that is do able.
So 2010 I pencilled in Vegas. My best mate a one time top pro pre moneymaker era, who had been off the circuit for 10 years said he would have a trip out too and all was getting booked. Then my Dad died...............
Move forward a year we managed to do the trip. Once in a lifetime I said to the wife (2014 will be my fourth trip!!) One WSOP bullet for the 1500 Horse.
I loved it, I was hooked. Great table Bonomo Zolotow Dwan Gavin Smith (not all at the same time). Out of my depth ermmmmmmmm???.
Bonomo plays Limit like its No limit. My first scalp. Dwan..... 2 down. Zolotow behaves like an idiot in his Full Tilt shirt and Gavin Smith chips up as do I. I love it. The sweaty palms of the first hour go. The chip handling returns. A great looking railbird mistakes me for someone famous and asks for a photo.......... life is good. And then I am bagging chips. 120 players left. 90 get payed. Day 2 dawns. 14000 Chips Amazon Room Seat 4 Table... Duncan Hodgkins Estonia.
WTF?????????????
Seated right next to the stage with the feature table. Day 2 is tight and tough. Not so many internet kids left now. Average age of the table is definitely nearer the 40 mark!! I am short stacked but pick your moment dunc and you can double up. Dont risk the Hold em round wait for the Stud games.
95 left. Bursting for a pee. 10 minutes to break and the massive queues for the toilet. go now be quick maybe miss 2 hands. Run down the corridor. Piss, wash hands, run back...... Stud 8, Ac 2c 3c raise..................
Erimus:
Nice start, makes my tales from the 15/15 at the G even more trivial, more please. We do have a runner up of a bracelet event from a few years ago grace our local tables every now and then, love him at the tables actually, can"t fold, pleasant bloke though.
One of the reasons I started the blog was to remember my first visit to Vegas still read the first few pages, happy times.
duncthehat:
Ac 2c 3c............
Jc :) :) 5d Up against 2 players . Looking like a scoop!!! 9d 9h
Time to leave. Short of the money. My shot is over. This once in a lifetime dream for this £50 Club player is over......
Back to wheeling and dealing in the recession hit antique trade. Online sales are down. Earnings down
Back in the UK it really hits me. After planning a Vegas trip for nearly 18 months there is now an empty void. Its nearly 2 hours to DTD best part of an hour to birmingham or coventry. I cant motivate myself to play. I slump into a depression. I had focused 18 months on building up a bank roll / spending money to play in Vegas. I bought half the roll back. Back in the UK its NLH or nothing except for the APAT mixed games. I play the Goliath in Coventry do crap and dont play again live until 2012.
Start reading the vegas forums. The vegas news channel. Start looking at hotel rates. Then the 2012 Schedule comes out. I find myself on the Virgin Atlantic Web site.
I phone my mate up. "Ive booked my flight"
duncthehat:
2012 Vegas During the WSOP
I.m back. Old hand now lol. Point to prove to myself. Convinced my mixed game is good enough to play the best. 2 WSOP Bullets this year. 1500 Horse and 1500 Stud 8. But money tight and i need to satellite in. Maybe some NL Deepstack side events, otherwise its the Nugget and their mixed game series with massive rake.
Trouble with the satelitte system is its mostly Single Table Sats, which is fine BUT its all NL except for the night before a mixed event where they have that mixed games STTs. So a late night before the Stud 8 and a very late night for the Horse and I have got my tickets for both.
The Stud 8 is tough. Table full of old timers. Probably some bracelet winners from the old days but noone I recognise. There is this one guy, grey beard in his fifties. He owns me. Cannot win a hand against him. Any sign of weakness he pounces. Look him up at the break. Tom Schneider 2 Bracelets in 2007. One in Stud 8 the other in Omaha 8 / Stud 8 mixed. Try to avoid him as much as possible from then on. (in 2013 he wins both the 1500 and 5000 Horse. Possibly the best mixed game player there has ever been)
Can never get going yet I make day 2. I am a shortie and like the Horse the year before I bust before the money. I dont feel I played well at all
Onwards and upwards to the Horse. The Brasilia room this year. sit down at the table. Again mostly oldies but a couple of interweb generation lack of social skills kids. One is Tommy Chen he pretty quickly upsets an oldie but I find him pretty amiable really. He is in my Big Blind and we hit it off. The first level is over. I am up on chips. Table is beatable. Seat 8 is empty. I am in Seat 1. My main concern is making sure the dealer doesnt nick my cards!! Then Seat 8 turns up......... Tom Schneider. Fuuuuuuuuuuck. He has already cashed 3 times in the WSOP this year and its only the 13th June. (He goes on to run deep in this event and cash in another).
He is not going to own me this time!! He raises nearly every hand in Limit hold em. This time I fight back. I am reraising. I am donk leading out. He is folding. Life is good. Raymer is on the table behind. big lad!! Looks a state and smells like ****!!. He is out pretty quick and fresh air returns to my nose.
Dinner break already. I am loving it. Why o why have Horse tournaments never taken off in the UK. I love em.
My mates John and Danny have left the cash tables and are midway through a Steak dinner. I dash over to the gold coast for a healthy Chicken Piccan Salad at TGIs.
Our table breaks Tommy and I exchange pleasantries and off I move. I have double starting chips on 9k which is well above average. Pretty quickly I am involved in a Razz hand. I have a made 9 6432 on fifth. My opponent has a made 10 7432. bet 2 bet 3 bet. 6th is bricks bet 2 bet 3 bet. 7 on 7th street for a 76 low. He hits a 5 for a 75 low and I am crippled. He becomes one of chip leaders. I eye his chips with envy. They should be mine. 20 minutes later I am out. I look up later and see he didnt even make the money. Wasted my chips as well.
Thats my WSOP over. The trip itself though is a winning trip. A decent cash at the Aria in a NL tourney!! 12th in the Horse at the Grand Poker Series. A winning last longer bet with RedSimon in the same Horse tourney which was even sweeter than the cash!! (He did well too coming 15th). Played 2-4 3-6 and 4-8 limit hold em cash and came out well on top. $600 at 2-4 limit hold em cash in one hour???? I challenge anyone to beat that. did help that 7 of the 9 players were new to the game mind :) I love the low limit cash tables in vegas at a weekend!!!!!
So 2012 over. WSOP lifetime : 3 events played. Zero cashes. I am still hooked. Time to plan next year!!
duncthehat:
This blog is about the future.
I know it has been retrospective so far BUT I have started it to record the run up to Vegas 2014 and then a daily diary whilst I am there. Something for me to look back on if nothing else.
My aim is simple: A deep WSOP run. Not just a cash but a deep run. The 1500 Horse is a given. The Seniors is 3 days after I arrive. As a 50 year old young un that is a cert this year too. The 1500 Stud 8 is a day after the Horse and is the back up event if I exit early.
The Grand Poker Series , Rio Canivale, Venetian Horse Orleans Horse and at least one tourney at Binions are part of the agenda for the just 2 week stay this year. The Grand Poker Series starts off with a couple of days of satellites $100 buy ins paying out $1000, so my first 2 days will be there. As well as playing their Seniors event (I played last year as an underage 49 year old... tut tut)
Its 100 days to go today before I fly. Will play the APAT Horse and Razz events in April, that will probably be all I play in East London, I dont know for sure. Otherwise the odd visit to Birmingham and DTD and that will be all live.
Concentrating online playing almost exclusively mixed games and low limit PLO cash.
And what a week the first week of concentrating more on Poker has been
John came 14th in the Sky UK Poker for £6500. He is gutted mind. My fingers ache from pressing refresh on tightys updates!!
And me, well chopped a 11 buck Horse on stars for $180 and chopped the 33 Horse last night for $435, so life is good.......... Nearly £400 up for the week and tomorrow its only 99 days to go!!.
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