Amateur Poker Association & Tour
Poker Forum => General Discussion => Member Blogs => Topic started by: amcgrath1uk on February 02, 2012, 00:52:21 AM
-
Well most of the regular APAT members know who i am by now, but I shall introduce myself anyway!
My name is Asa, and I"m starting to play the live APAT games more regularly, and am vastly enjoying them ( if not the results as of yet), as well as meeting all the fantastic people that make the weekends what they are ( and in some cases the weeks!)
I will at some point over the next few weeks go over the way I started playing poker, the successes I"ve had, the failures I"ve endured and some of the awesome cock ups I"ve managed to do whilst playing this game!
The reason I"ve started the blog is that as of Friday, I will be attempting to grind a bankroll for the first time ever online, as previously, I"ve played when I felt like, the games I"ve felt like playing with no thoughts to keeping a roll. In the past, if I"ve won big, I withdraw, if I win small it just sits there.
I"ll be sticking to one site, to one game ( most likely just standard sit n go"s), and seeing if I can actually stick to it, going up and down the levels properly. I won"t be setting myself any sort of playing targets or profit targets, as my work week fluctuates quite a lot from week to week.
-
Good luck with the blog and the grind Asa
-
Good luck with the blog and the grind Asa
-
good luck with this Asa.
I gave up grinding SnGs a long time ago as the ROI is so low and the standard is so much better these days.
-
good luck with this Asa.
I gave up grinding SnGs a long time ago as the ROI is so low and the standard is so much better these days.
Same here, but I don't play regular so I just kept to the MTT and the odd STT
Good luck with it Ash
-
I wont be reading this as i still havent forgiven you for having the aces in the aria tourny in vegas :p
good luck with it mate
-
Looks like my post earlier didn"t post!
Looking forward to this blog ... gl gl gl with the online grind sweetie.
Asa was the person who introduced me to APAT and other poker events ... so blame him ;D
-
I wont be reading this as i still havent forgiven you for having the aces in the aria tourny in vegas :p
good luck with it mate
I hear you ..... I don"t read Brian (aka Card Rack) Fossil diary for same reason ... not sulking at all, no, really, I"m not ;)
Then to top the lot I didn"t get my food afterwards either whilst others merrily pissed off and got their chili pots :P
-
I wont be reading this as i still havent forgiven you for having the aces in the aria tourny in vegas :p
good luck with it mate
I hear you ..... I don"t read Brian (aka Card Rack) Fossil diary for same reason ... not sulking at all, no, really, I"m not ;)
Then to top the lot I didn"t get my food afterwards either whilst others merrily pissed off and got their chili pots :P
Yeah, I don"t read that Texan"s blog either for the same reason :-)
GL Asa
-
Gl with the grind.. will be intresting viewing :).
Will you be posting your starting roll? your SNG buy ins at start? poker site etc etc.
-
I wont be reading this as i still havent forgiven you for having the aces in the aria tourny in vegas :p
good luck with it mate
I hear you ..... I don"t read Brian (aka Card Rack) Fossil diary for same reason ... not sulking at all, no, really, I"m not ;)
Then to top the lot I didn"t get my food afterwards either whilst others merrily pissed off and got their chili pots :P
Pffft and we used to be friends as well ;)
Good luck with the blog Asa look forward to the grind updates.. if you"re after a spreadsheet for Sng"s think I"ve got one somewheres when I was grinding them a year or 2 ago x
-
I wont be reading this as i still havent forgiven you for having the aces in the aria tourny in vegas :p
good luck with it mate
That bloke in the Aria game still hasn"t forgiven you for having J5 against his aces either.
Good luck with the Grind Asa, tend to agree with Rob regarding the sngs, on Stars where there is a good volume even the $7 games are reg filled and not a lot of fish about.
I tend to play a couple of sngs along side mtts or cash if I win one just use cash for a higher buy in mtt use them as sats, run good any way hope it works for you.
-
Good luck with this Asa I will look forward to this, it might even be the kick up the behin I need to keep mine going, have you befriended Debra Worley Roberts yet ;D
I did get her back for you m8 :D
-
Thanks for all the good lucks etc :)
Will reply properly to people tomorrow, as I"m on the dreaded late then early, ie, just get home now, have to leave at half 6 :(
I wont be reading this as i still havent forgiven you for having the aces in the aria tourny in vegas :p
good luck with it mate
I hear you ..... I don"t read Brian (aka Card Rack) Fossil diary for same reason ... not sulking at all, no, really, I"m not ;)
Then to top the lot I didn"t get my food afterwards either whilst others merrily pissed off and got their chili pots :P
Pffft and we used to be friends as well ;)
Good luck with the blog Asa look forward to the grind updates.. if you"re after a spreadsheet for Sng"s think I"ve got one somewheres when I was grinding them a year or 2 ago x
am mega interested in the spreadsheet if you can find it! Have tried and failed with my own!
-
The grind
[/u][/color]
Purely and simply due to traffic I"ll be playing ( initially at least) on pokerstars for the grind.
I will be starting right at the bottom end, bankroll starting at just $150, and playing the $1.50 turbos.
I have absolutely no idea how many I"ll play, what my ROI will be ( or even what I"ll be aiming for for either of them) or how I"ll actually manage to retain my love for poker whilst going through this.
I"ll post the number of games played and my current bankroll when I"ve played a day"s worth, and maybe an interesting hand or 2 throughout the session.
PS. Why are there 2 ad1 in the cards above the post? ???
-
First of all before you play - slowly get off the drugs ;D
-
First of all before you play - slowly get off the drugs ;D
::)
Played 6 tonight, lost 70c after 1 2nd place and 2 3rd places. Had some corking river beats as well to deny me a couple more cashes, but meh, whatever.
The real grind will start Sunday night and Monday, as I"m off work on Monday, so it"ll be interesting for myself to see how many I can play without losing the will to live!!
Games played : 6
Running bankroll: $149.30
-
Gl asa....ur gonna need it at that lvl.....they say if you can"t beat the lowest of lvls then how can u win higher,the $1 lvl will fry your brain imo.....u not fancy saving a bit n starting at $5 lvl....ur old skool....u can handle that
-
Have to agree with Charlie and others....spare yourself the agony of $1 turbos on stars.
Good Luck with this x
Tempted to do something similar as my faith in my poker skillz has taken a beating lately.
-
You certainly don"t need 100 buy ins at this level. You could grind your nuts off for a week. Play 100 of these games (or more), play well and have $170 to your name if you run well enough. Is $20 really worth the effort?
Stick to a 30 buy in rule and start with $5 games. you will double your roll by the end of the month if you play and run well.
-
Good luck with the blog and the grind sweetie -xXx-
-
Thanks for all the good luck wishes and comments :)
There are a few reasons why I"m starting as I am and doing this the way I am:
1) Bankroll - At the moment my bankroll is pretty low. A combination of running bad when deep in mtt"s combined with money shortages away from poker ( ie no pay rise in 3 years now and some pretty big rises in costs etc) means it"s at an all time low. In 2011 I pretty much exclusively only played mtt"s on stars ( all $11"s and under) and had a massive top cash of $90. Looking back at all the results, there"s so many times I"ve gone out between 13th and 40th it"s silly. In 2010, I played mainly on Betfair and withdrew over 4k playing the same type of tournaments, and 2009 was pretty much the same on Blonde. Late 2007 into 2008 I was able to play tons and had a good few $1k+ wins across a few sites.
And the question why I don"t play on these sites at the mo I"ll get to another time.
I don"t have a live roll as such, but 2011 was also a bad year, my 1st live cash actually being in Vegas ( again compared to 2010 where I was probably 3 or 4k in profit playing just the £10-£25 mtt"s at the G in Manchester), it all hinders the roll.
2) To add variety to my game - I have been an mtt player since day 1. Playing cash is not something I find comfortable doing at the moment, and I want to see if I can actually play stt"s and make money.
3) The challenge - I know I can go and play $5 stt"s if I felt like it off $150 roll, but I want to give it a go, where I can 4/6 table for a few hours, play well, enjoy it, and not have to worry about it if I have a bad day. Playing $5stt"s, and I have a bad day or 2, that"s also me not playing poker for the rest of the month.
I won"t be waiting to get to $350 to play the $3.50"s on stars, I"d already decided that, nor am I going to just start playing them if I get bored at the $1.50"s.
-
Working lates and weekends means I won"t get much chance to play, on an early and I can probably put a good 2/3 hours in if the mood takes me.
So tonight, by the time I"d got home after an hour walk ( thanks public transport), showered and eaten etc, it was gone 10.
Didn"t fancy playing so had 90 mins of watching Barca, then just felt like a game or 2, so fired up stars and away I went.
Played a grand total of 4 stt"s, won 3 of them ;D
Games played: 10
Current bankroll: $164.21 (+$11.15)
I somehow doubt I"ll keep that ROI up ::)
-
GL Asa.
Whats you Stars Name.
-
GL with this Asa
If you haven"t played many stts before it will defo help the late stages of mtts/FTs
Sooo many short handed, short stack, big blinds situations that you soon become very good at them.
-
GL with this Asa
If you haven"t played many stts before it will defo help the late stages of mtts/FTs
Sooo many short handed, short stack, big blinds situations that you soon become very good at them.
That"s partly what I"m hoping. I know I need to loosen up a little bit, and play situationally when it gets down to say under 30 runners in an mtt.
GL Asa.
Whats you Stars Name.
same as on here
-
Played just the 8 last night as working all weekend was pretty tiring.
I definitely found the other side of variance, in 5 of the 8 I lost all in pre"s with pocket pairs ( once 88 and the rest JJ+) vs A rags, including one KK v A2, where the chip leader with approx 7k decided to call my 3.5k shove with 5 left.
Managed to win the last of the 8 to stop it being a total disaster however!
Will be playing a fair few of these this afternoon and evening.
Games played: 18
Bankroll: $158.16 (+$5.20)
-
Fairly decent day results wise, won"t be playing any later now as I"m up at 6 :(
Played 20 in total, won 7 of them and 3rd in another, should really have done better as well, so I know I"m playing decently at this level.
Games played: 38
Bankroll: $172.18 (+$19.22)
Currently experimenting between 4 and 6 tabling on my laptop as I much prefer to tile my tables, 6 seems to be comfortable which is good news.
Very happy with the news regarding Blonde and DtD, especially regarding the Blondebash in early April, and obviously I"m hoping to go to that, as there"s a fair few I"d like to bump into again ( especially if we get the football on Saturday morning going again), and it"s been too long since I"ve managed to get to DtD. I"ve been to 2 Blondebashes at DtD, helping win the HU event 1st time ( twice I won when the pressure was on at 2-2) as well as winning in the final of the HU tournament, and 2nd time even managed to cash the main event. Luton Blondebash was absolutely epic for the Saturday night and the Sunday ( £2 turnover was absolutely amazing), whereas Leeds, even though not as well attended as the others, for me from a social side was epic, cannot remember laughing as much as I did in Leeds, midnight cricket, lampost hiding and a comedy cash game.
-
Well I"m stopping for today as I"m not loving poker tonight.
12 sit and go"s, 5 bubbles, 1 1st, again the last of the 12.The last bubble was pretty fantastic...
PokerStars Hand #75202666001: Tournament #513129096, $1.32+$0.18 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2012/02/07 20:57:29 WET [2012/02/07 15:57:29 ET]
Table "513129096 1" 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: vrag81 (1980 in chips)
Seat 3: hoferboy (5675 in chips)
Seat 7: SennaNo1 (4005 in chips)
Seat 8: amcgrath1uk (1840 in chips)
vrag81: posts the ante 25
hoferboy: posts the ante 25
SennaNo1: posts the ante 25
amcgrath1uk: posts the ante 25
vrag81: posts small blind 150
hoferboy: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to amcgrath1uk [Tc 9d]
SennaNo1: folds
amcgrath1uk: raises 1515 to 1815 and is all-in
vrag81: folds
hoferboy: calls 1515
*** FLOP *** [Td 7d 4s]
*** TURN *** [Td 7d 4s] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [Td 7d 4s Qh] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hoferboy: shows [Qd 3s] (a pair of Queens)
amcgrath1uk: shows [Tc 9d] (a pair of Tens)
hoferboy collected 3880 from pot
amcgrath1uk finished the tournament in 4th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3880 | Rake 0
Board [Td 7d 4s Qh Ac]
Seat 1: vrag81 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: hoferboy (big blind) showed [Qd 3s] and won (3880) with a pair of Queens
Seat 7: SennaNo1 folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 8: amcgrath1uk (button) showed [Tc 9d] and lost with a pair of Tens
thoughts on his call? And I wasn"t particularly shoving much either!
Games played: 50
Bankroll: $160.13 (+$7.17)
-
thoughts on his call?
Pretty nifty, he was ahead when the chips all went in - obv had your number.
-
I wont be reading this as i still havent forgiven you for having the aces in the aria tourny in vegas :p
good luck with it mate
Oh yeah Stu, Aces! He likes those Aces does our Asa ::)
Good luck with this Asa, look forward to reading and learning more, It"s been a pleasure getting to know you a bit through season 5 mate.
-
I wont be reading this as i still havent forgiven you for having the aces in the aria tourny in vegas :p
good luck with it mate
Oh yeah Stu, Aces! He likes those Aces does our Asa ::)
Good luck with this Asa, look forward to reading and learning more, It"s been a pleasure getting to know you a bit through season 5 mate.
::)
Like those Aces haha... in that Aria tournament, the 1st pocket pair I had over 4"s were those Aces with 11 of us left, then on the final table, 1st hand won a big pot vs Mich where I had QQ! That was bluntly the hardest and toughest grind of a tournament I"d ever had!
And I"m still pretty shocked your good self managed to lay down QQ to me on that flop! I know if the roles were reversed I"d have probably shoved - aka Billy bigstack has just come onto my table, and is reraising more than most people have on the table... I have QQ on a 9 hi flop, it"s going in!!
I will say it has been an utter pleasure spending time with you in both Manchester and Brighton, and I"m looking forward in season 6 to firstly be playing more of the tournaments, and secondly spending times with people like yourself, Rich Baker as well as the guys n girls I know from Blonde, as well as, no doubt, the new people I"ll be spending time with at and away from the table in whichever towns, cities, countries or continents we end up on this season!
-
No online poker for 3 days now, working lates kills that! I"m off work now until Tuesday, have a few lil bits here n there to do, but hoping to get some good volume in, assuming I don"t get the CBA hitting me!
However, tonight is going to be in the land of the G in Salford, and their Friday night £10 + one £5 rebuy, which usually gets between 60 and 160 runners. It"s time to outfish everyone :)
-
Got down to the last 2 tables last night, however luck eluded me, picked up Ah Qh in the bb, with just over 12bb"s at 1k-2k, I was calling anything, and did, however, the other bloke had Ac Kc
Played 30 sng"s today, run horribly, with just 3 wins. The problem was the 4th set of 6, where I bubbled 4 times, once when shortstacked, the other 3 when being in well ahead ( AQ v Q4 sticks to the mind). Take that out of the equation and I finish up for the 30.
Games played: 80
Bankroll: $151.95 (-$1.01)
No plans tonight as I"m working tomorrow and saving the pennies up in order to play more APAT's, the Blondebash and the Chezger home game. It"s tough to say which I"m looking forward to most. Will obviously wait and see, as it all depends when and where everything is happening!
At the moment though, it looks like I won"t be going to the Blonde bash as I"m off the 2 weeks before it, so it means I"m 99% certain to be working that weekend. However, if it seems to be, as planned for the Sunday only, I won"t be quite as fussed.
Right, time for food after watching the rest of this England v Italy game, then will either grind some more or a bit of COD.
-
Played the £15 f/out in the G last night, got a whopping 28 runners. Having now 5 casinos offering poker within 10 miles of each other, generally all around the same buy ins has pretty much killed some of the tournaments.
Table I was on was a laugh, some decent banter flying about.
In the 2nd level, get dealt KK in middle position, and the active player in seat 1 has already raised to 500. Decide to flat call and play him on the flop. Not in the plan, was a tight bloke raising to 3.5k ( 7k starting stacks). Can"t fold KK so go all in, he has AA obviously. Get lucky with the K on the flop to double up.
Manage to get a double up with K5 on the bb later on, turning trip K"s, but as with Friday, my luck was to run out. Shove A6 suited and ran into KK, had the flush and straight draws on the turn but missed.
Have spent the afternoon experimenting with cascading tables rather than tiling them which is what I"m completely used to.
Played 2 sets of 8 and 1 set of 10, and I actually focused more and played better in the 10, was up in 2 sessions and down in 1. Will play another set of 10 later after food, and possibly 2. It would be more, however I have to, by Wednesday, complete the most dreaded of things, the "self-appraisal". I absolutely loathe doing them as I can never think of what to write, whilst being objective and sensible, so as usual, will probably do it last minute on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.
Anyways, enough rambling, it"s time for sausages and wedges!
-
it"s time for sausages and wedges!
Good diary and even better dinner choice.. picture for the fans? Love the sausage and wedge combo!
-
it"s time for sausages and wedges!
Good diary and even better dinner choice.. picture for the fans? Love the sausage and wedge combo!
Thankyou :)
I"ll give it a go, but I am awful with computers ( especially as I sell them), so no promises!
-
Who do you sell them to? Do you mind talking about what you do - sounds interesting as I also work in that area.
-
Who do you sell them to? Do you mind talking about what you do - sounds interesting as I also work in that area.
Joe Public. I work for Staples, so it"s part of the job. It"s not my area of expertise, but I"m bloody good at matching up what people want based on how much they want to spend. I know a hell of a lot about computers, but using them is another matter ;D
-
Last set of 10 went well. 1 3rd. 7 bubbles. Sigh
Games played: 128
Bankroll : $140.51 (-$12.45)
-
Just 2 quick 8 game sessions tonight, cashed in dead on half of them for a modest increase, nearly making up for the horror last session last night.
Games played: 144
Bankroll : $148.58 (-$4.38)
Got the joy of joys on Friday morning, a store visit from senior management. Everyone will be rushing around like crazy, whereas I"ll continue as I always do.. I don"t change how I am for any visit ( and once got praised by the no 2 in the company for telling him to get out of the way as I was serving a customer and he was getting in the way of me doing so!)
What it does mean though, is that I"ll probably not get much chance to play until the weekend which sucks.
-
It"s been a bloody tough week at work, so no real chance to grind.
Not managed to play for 3 days, so just to keep in touch, put a small session in tonight.
Played 2 sets of 8, won 2 and finished 3rd in both sets for small profits, and it managed to get back from the horror session.
Games played: 160
Bankroll: $153.12 (+0.16)
Great win rate ;D
-
Hopefully I"m starting to get the hang of these $1.50 turbos.
Over the last 48 of them, I"m $27 up which isn"t too bad, 12 wins, 5 2nds and 4 3rds. Winning 25% I enter, and cashing in just under 45%.
Starting to get to know some of the regulars which definitely helps.
Games played: 176
Bankroll : $167.19 (+$14.23)
Hopefully be able to grind a hell of a lot after work tomorrow, don"t tend to arrange anything for after work. I"m off work on Monday but think I"ll be spending it sleeping!
-
Not managed to update for a while, not going to tonight either, as it"s the Friday night donkathon at the G in Manchester!
Will be updating where I"m up to tomorrow, and my plans going forward.
Loving the tour for season 6 and will be attempting to play as many as I can this season!
-
Last grinding update was on the 19th Feb. Since then, I seem to have worked every hour under the sun, discovered pokerstars mobile ( a great way to spend travelling home), and not really had any time to relax.
I"ve got the weekend off, am working Monday morning, off Tuesday, and not in until Wednesday afternoon, so I"m hoping to have a lot of downtime.
Plans for today are, watching the rugby until about half 5, watching City hopefully destroy Blackburn, then to the G in Manchester for poker tonight.
Will spend the time watching rugby playing the grind.
This is where we are up to so far:
Games played: 274
Bankroll: $148.81 (-$4.15).
Looking through the results, I"ve been as high as $170 with the roll. 7 out of the next 10 8 game sessions were losses, which is very frustrating to say the least!
What I"m going to do going forward is
Continue these till the end of the month to see where I end up. The lure of the micromillions on stars ( and being off work for the majority of these) means I"m definitely going to be playing a lot of this.
Will I stop playing stt"s? No. What I will be doing, is taking advantage of the deposit bonuses with William Hill and working them off on there. How much I will put on there, and the level I"ll be playing at will depend firstly on whether or not I can make Coventry ( which I"ll know on Monday) and whether I plan to spend my time off going off to play poker somewhere ( probably DtD if I do), and lastly, if anyone would have the confidence to add to my bankroll and stake me at a higher level. I"m not going to specifically look for staking, as at the levels I"ll be playing at, I can"t imagine massive profits instantly, but you never know!
-
Well for me the month of grinding is over ( I know it"s tomorrow but I doubt I"ll be playing)
First of all results:
Games played: 370
Starting bankroll: $152.96
Finishing bankroll: $124.85
Loss $28.11
No of 1st place finishes: 55 (14.8% of tournaments played, 44.3% of cashes)
No of 2nd place finishes: 29 (7.8% of tournaments played, 23.4% of cashes)
No of 3rd place finishes: 40 (10.8% of tournaments played, 32.3% of cashes)
No of cashes: 124 (33.5%)
Analysis
If I get to the cash, I seem to do ok. If I get heads up, I win a significant amount of them @ 65%. However, if I"m right, I"d need to cash in approx 38-40% of these tournaments to make a profit. I"ll assume someone on here will have the right figures. I also would like to know how many bubbles I had ( it felt a hell of a lot), but as I don"t suscribe to any particular tracking software I"ll have to not know.
Do I feel I"ve run -ve? Definitely. 370 sng"s is a very small sample I know! For example, since the 20th, I"ve had 23 set"s of 8, having 15 losing sessions and 8 winning. The majority of the winning sessions were tiny, and a lot of the losing sessions in comparison were large!
Can I play sng"s? I believe so. As opposed to the previous post, I am going to continue playing on stars for them, purely due to traffic, will make a small deposit after the weekend and move up to the $3.50s. I"ve attempted to play them on William Hill, but they take way too long to fill up. I"ll get my mtt practise in on Will Hill I think.
I will give myself some targets in March, especially as I have some time off.
1) Play 500 in a month. Definitely achieveable, but way more than any other month.
2) Make a profit.
3) Decide to 6 or 8 table. I can tile 6 tables on my laptop, I have to stack or cascade 8 tables.
4) Attempt to play with much less distraction, ie no TV on/xbox on etc to see if it makes a difference.
Thoughts?
-
Invest in sngwiz....pokertracker 2 month free trial
Spend a few days using the software..practising....could pay dividends m8
Gl
-
If you"re going to play volume it"s probs worthwhile you d/l table ninja. Get a free trial too. Then you will be able to stack very easily, can always pull ITM games into another pile to keep your focus on the business end.
The $5 and upwards games on willhill(ipoker) that are 10% rake are probs softer than the ones you currently play and you can get some decent RB on them sites
-
Cheers for the feedback...
Downloaded PT3, now to figure how to use it ::)
-
Cheers for the feedback...
Downloaded PT3, now to figure how to use it ::)
I"ll give you one very, very important tip on using PT3.
Don"t.
Use HEM instead.
-
Cheers for the feedback...
Downloaded PT3, now to figure how to use it ::)
I"ll give you one very, very important tip on using PT3.
Don"t.
Use HEM instead.
LOL now you tell me! I"ll give it a look.
-
Yeah I"ve no idea even after reading everything what to do with PT3 ::)
Just had my best set of 8 sit n go"s, which just after moving up to the $3.50"s, is pretty good timing.
Won 3 and 3rd in 2 which is good.
That"s it for now till probably Sunday night.
-
Played a few against you last night, have a look on sharkscope and it should tell you how many fourth place (bubbles) you have had
Chris
-
Very quick update.
Played just the 84 $3.50"s so far and without looking too hard I"m within $5 of starting bankroll. 2 weeks off work now so after chilling today, will spend a day grinding tomorrow as I"ve no specific plans.
I"ve also set myself a target of playing 8 live games before Coventry, I"ve played 2 of those so far. The joyous £15 bounty on Monday, where despite being up to 9k from a 6k starting stack, I was knocked out in 5 hands, facing a river shove on a 9 4 2 A A board, when holding AK. He had 99 meh. Also played the £15 f/out on Wednesday. A whopping 34 runners took part in this, as a combined freeroll at one of the local casinos plus the recent opening of the G in Didsbury has diluted the runners. Happily, I managed to win the tourny which is always good :)
I"ve not fully decided what I"m playing in the next 2 weeks, but am looking at:
Tonight: £10 + £5 rebuy, usually gets 100+ runners.
Saturday 3pm: £10 + £10 rebuy
Tuesday: £50 f/out, again usually above 100 runners.
Wednesday: £15 f/out.
That"s to start with, will decide about next week after Weds I think.
-
So I went and played the £50 freezeout last night.Had approx 80 runners which is a little low compared to normal, the effect of having 5 casinos within 10 miles all offering poker is definitely diluting numbers. This is a tournament I"ve always struggled with, never having made the first break in the previous 2 attempts. It seemed to be going the same last night, starting stack of 12k was quickly 5k, looked like one of those nights, I have 99 board comes AKx, I have AK, board comes 9xx etc etc. It did take me a good while to size up my table, and as soon as I did, my chips went in the right direction.
Shoved a K K 10 10 2 board with 77 that took down a 6k pot, then called down a 10 hi board with J 10 against AK, and I was soon up to 18k.
At this point it was the break and then got moved tables. Sit down, first hand into the bb, facing a raise, look down at AA, reraise get shoved on, he had AJ. Thanks for the donation. 4 times in the bb in a row I get huge hands facing raises and each time, my reraise produces folds.... I must have a tell!
We finally get down to 2 tables, and the story of my night is told over 3 hands. In the bb with 8d 2d, see a flop of J 8 2, and we get it in the middle, sb had KJ and turned the K. This leaves me at 40k at 2k/4k. 2 hands later on the bubble I fold my favourite hand Q9 with several limpers. Board comes Q 9 4 and 3 players get it all in. Sigh.
Next hand, find Ah Kh, facing a min raise, I shove, and the big stack next to me instashoves too. He had QQ and I miss. Enjoyed the night apart from some ridiculous I"ve got a bigger cock banter by one bloke who was knocked out.
On the grinding front, it got to Monday night and my roll was down at $141, which is the second lowest it"s been. Carried on, and slightly changed my calling/raising ranges at different points.
Since then, I"ve played 40, 9 wins, 6 2nds, 8 3rds, and the bankroll is now at $226.11.
Going as planned to the £15 f/out tonight, City tomorrow night and then we shall see.
Here"s hoping the grind continues going well :)
-
Sit down, first hand into the bb, facing a raise, look down at AA
*cough cough* deja vu :P
-
Sit down, first hand into the bb, facing a raise, look down at AA
*cough cough* deja vu :P
It is nice when that happens ::)
Backed up last week"s win in the £15 f/out with a 4th, eventually going out to the massive CL who called my all in with 6d 5d and binked the 6. Win that flip ( I had overs) and I"d be confident of going HU.
Last night and the game. In the first half the only word I could use to describe City is dreadful. Simple 5 yard passes were going straight to the opposition. The start of the second half wasn"t any better, and it was only when we went 3 up top when Dzeko came on we seemed to spark to life. I was confident we"d get one decent chance and we did, it was a cracking header from Joe Hart considering how much he was getting his shirt pulled, and a good save from an out of position keeper. Fairly agonising but on balance we did not deserve to go through.
Playing the fun Friday night £10 + 1 £5 r/buy tonight, will spend tomorrow watching footy and rugby before working on Sunday. Will continue the grind and then look at playing the new schedule at the G next week as I"m still off.
All nightly tournaments now start at 8pm rather than 9pm which is excellent news for me.
Monday: 7k chips - £20 bounty ( up from £15 and 6k chips)
Tuesday: 12 chips - £50 + 1 optional rebuy ( the rebuy is new)
Wednesday: 15k chips - £15 ( up from 7k chips)
Thursday: 2k chips - free to play, 1st rebuy £20 4k 2nd rebuy £20 6k chips
Friday: 5k chips - £10 + 2 x £5 r/buys ( up from 4k chips and 1 rebuy)
Saturday: 2k chips - £20 r/buy for 90 mins with a 4 guarantee with 80 runners min
Sunday: 20k chips - £25 f/o
Loving the Sunday and Wednesdays :)
-
I will give myself some targets in March, especially as I have some time off.
1) Play 500 in a month. Definitely achieveable, but way more than any other month.
2) Make a profit.
3) Decide to 6 or 8 table. I can tile 6 tables on my laptop, I have to stack or cascade 8 tables.
4) Attempt to play with much less distraction, ie no TV on/xbox on etc to see if it makes a difference.
Thoughts?
You know 1 & 2 are achievable mate, 3 whatever you"re most comfortable with, 4 background music FTW ;)
Going along nicely mate, keep it up!
-
I will give myself some targets in March, especially as I have some time off.
1) Play 500 in a month. Definitely achieveable, but way more than any other month.
2) Make a profit.
3) Decide to 6 or 8 table. I can tile 6 tables on my laptop, I have to stack or cascade 8 tables.
4) Attempt to play with much less distraction, ie no TV on/xbox on etc to see if it makes a difference.
Thoughts?
You know 1 & 2 are achievable mate, 3 whatever you"re most comfortable with, 4 background music FTW ;)
Going along nicely mate, keep it up!
8 tabling quite comfortably now. 262 played and have a lot less on this week so will be hammering the tables I think. Am running up at the mo, but will update at the end of the month, or when I get to 500. ( mainly as I deposited to cover some mtt"s I played last Sunday)
-
I will give myself some targets in March, especially as I have some time off.
1) Play 500 in a month. Definitely achieveable, but way more than any other month.
2) Make a profit.
3) Decide to 6 or 8 table. I can tile 6 tables on my laptop, I have to stack or cascade 8 tables.
4) Attempt to play with much less distraction, ie no TV on/xbox on etc to see if it makes a difference.
Thoughts?
You know 1 & 2 are achievable mate, 3 whatever you"re most comfortable with, 4 background music FTW ;)
Going along nicely mate, keep it up!
8 tabling quite comfortably now. 262 played and have a lot less on this week so will be hammering the tables I think. Am running up at the mo, but will update at the end of the month, or when I get to 500. ( mainly as I deposited to cover some mtt"s I played last Sunday)
..................and your choice of background music?
-
I will give myself some targets in March, especially as I have some time off.
1) Play 500 in a month. Definitely achieveable, but way more than any other month.
2) Make a profit.
3) Decide to 6 or 8 table. I can tile 6 tables on my laptop, I have to stack or cascade 8 tables.
4) Attempt to play with much less distraction, ie no TV on/xbox on etc to see if it makes a difference.
Thoughts?
You know 1 & 2 are achievable mate, 3 whatever you"re most comfortable with, 4 background music FTW ;)
Going along nicely mate, keep it up!
8 tabling quite comfortably now. 262 played and have a lot less on this week so will be hammering the tables I think. Am running up at the mo, but will update at the end of the month, or when I get to 500. ( mainly as I deposited to cover some mtt"s I played last Sunday)
..................and your choice of background music?
generally have it on my iPhone so not really background, with it 90% of the time being Eminem. I"m not a huge music person tbh.
-
wats ememem
-
wats ememem
Just magical Ray ;D
-
wats ememem
Just magical Ray ;D
;D
was gonna say he"s a wrapper but...
-
Well as it"s now April, I think I better update this!
APAT wise, I"m ready for Coventry, and have also booked for Cardiff. In particular looking forward to Cardiff as I haven"t been down that way for a very long time. ( and the fact I"m there Fri-Mon meaning a few drinks will be consumed on the Friday), unfortunately I"m having to work this Friday, and until last week I was unsure what I was going to be working, so there was pretty much no point booking the hotel and travel for the Friday.
APAT leagues I"ve played 3 of the 4, deepest was last Sunday, where I managed to get to the last 90. For me, on stars, that"s a vast improvement! The APAT English main event, the less said, the better.
Somehow managed to luckbox my way to the final table in the Omaha, considering it was my first proper ( ie non turbo) Omaha tournament, I was pretty happy to finish 5th, losing a massive 350k pot with AA xx vs JJxx. Managed to spin back from 2k back up to 50k but alas was not to be.
Work wise, as I"ve said previously, I had 2 weeks off in March, so although I enjoyed the time off, as the job I do is fairly unique, in effect I have 2 weeks of work to catch up and check.
The sit n go challenge for March
Was a good time to go on a significant downswing :-\
Games played: 550
Starting bankroll: $124.85
Ending bankroll: $16.67
Total loss: $108.18
On the 14th March, my roll was at $226.11. On the 20th and 21st, I ran awfully. In those 2 days, I played 96, won just 6, 9 2nd places and 9 3rd places. Cashed in just 24/96, a dead on 25% cash rate. That alone put me down to a roll of $70! It also dented the confidence severely I must say.
Positives:
1) I can play a decent volume
2) I can play 8 tables comfortably.
3) 1st time ever as a silver star on pokerstars
Negatives:
1) I lost a fair bit of bankroll.
2) As an overall, I don"t think I"ve quite got the balance between playing tight and loose, at the right stages.
3) I don"t think I am aggressive enough when we"re down to 5/6 players to cash often enough.
April"s challenge
Errr no idea. Thinking of continuing playing sit n go"s, but with missing a weekend playing in Coventry, my volume will be way down. If anyone has any suggestions, please post them.
Here"s hoping I continue to improve my performances in the APAT's and get deep into day 2!
-
I haven"t forgotten this blog, just been working so much and very little free time.
I haven"t played much online at all, and live even less so.
I"ll update properly over the weekend as I have a little bit of free time on Sunday/Monday!
-
How many you aiming to play this month?
-
How many you aiming to play this month?
Very few. Lots of holidays at work, and a stocktake coming up which I run. I"ll be playing when I fancy and when I"m not falling asleep.
Have a couple of days off now, but having taken out my bankroll earlier in the year ( and Cardiff being good), my online bankroll is minimal, and after Cardiff, it"s definitely awakened my want to play live. So today, it"s off to the G in Salford. Will either play this afternoon or evening, or possibly even both as I"m also off tomorrow. My next day off is then next Sunday.
Just a quick roll back to Cardiff first.
Had an arduous 4 hour train journey down. A lovely 2 carraige train, no free tables, no wifi, no plug sockets. I"ve been through worse so was a case of get the Ipod on and wile away the time.
Get to Cardiff, most impressed with the Future Inn, and meet up with Sharon, Rodders and Darren, and end up playing the Friday night tourny at the G. Darren did his stack 1st hand, he re-entered. I did mine 2nd hand to Darren! Was a good laugh, ended up bubbling the final table.
In the main event ran up to 35k quickly, in the process wininng a decent pot with 7d 6d on a 7 K Q 10 6 board. Then made 4 raises in a row, losing a flip with AK vs QQ, then knocking out Ben Young AK v A9, 9 1st card, K on the turn. Get moved tables then proceed to go card dead, having to fold my 2 best hands, 10 10 and 99 to raises and reraises before the action reached me.
End up being fairly short, into shove mode, then faced with a raiser in my small blind, look down at AKos and the caller has the same AKos. He 4 flushes. Puke.
Play the Omaha and somehow lukcbox to 3rd despite not particularly knowing what I was doing. Get 3 handed and Luca is raising everything. I have KK44 and come over the top, of course he has AA88. Damn good fun though.
Have to definitely give Cork a miss which is disappointing, and at the mo, I"m 99% certain to miss Dtd but will do what I can. Glasgow is a definite and looking at booking everything asap.
-
Very little time to play and having to withdraw pretty much everything from my bankroll sucks.
Managed to play a lil bit during the week. Managed to win my 1st tourny of the year on Stars, however was the $3.30 Horse for a whopping $44.
Will update properly when I get time ( I think tomorrow afternoon as I"ve a few things I want to post!)
-
Very little time to play and having to withdraw pretty much everything from my bankroll sucks.
Managed to play a lil bit during the week. Managed to win my 1st tourny of the year on Stars, however was the $3.30 Horse for a whopping $44.
Will update properly when I get time ( I think tomorrow afternoon as I"ve a few things I want to post!)
That"s a great result though, I would be really happy to get $44 in a $3.30 tournament ROI ftw.
Also if you want a bigger BR why not sell some action. APAT has a staking board now. I would buy a piece and I would not be the only one I know.
-
Very little time to play and having to withdraw pretty much everything from my bankroll sucks.
Managed to play a lil bit during the week. Managed to win my 1st tourny of the year on Stars, however was the $3.30 Horse for a whopping $44.
Will update properly when I get time ( I think tomorrow afternoon as I"ve a few things I want to post!)
That"s a great result though, I would be really happy to get $44 in a $3.30 tournament ROI ftw.
Also if you want a bigger BR why not sell some action. APAT has a staking board now. I would buy a piece and I would not be the only one I know.
Cheers Rodders for the confidence :)
Just watching the rest of the footy, and if I don"t fall asleep after I"ll respond!
-
Stocktake is over and done with, and the important thing is the result was good meaning I can relax a little bit! Not much time to relax however. I"m off today, working late tomorrow and early, if for a short time on Friday. Then I have the weekend off, but starting Monday I have the joys of leading a team in moving our stock around to make room for new stock. It means a hell of a lot of work, both in terms of preparation and actual grafting. The full joy of this is the end date, 9th July, happens to be the start date of our seasonal promotion, basically means I"ll be putting really long shifts in combined with imaginitive time management!
What it does mean is that I have today off so am putting my meagre bankroll to the test on stars.
16 tournaments with a total buy in of $82. Playing all sorts, HORSE, Omaha, Hyper Turbo NL Holdem, Omaha Hi/Lo and the usual structure NL Holdem.
Have done fairly well in the Horse/8 games recently, last 4 I"ve played Ive won 1, finished 4th, finished 10th and bubbled. Seem to do particularly well in Razz and Triple Draw Lowball for some reason. ( No skill involved proberly)
The weekend off also means I get the opportunity to play live for the first time since Cardiff. Pretty certain to be playing Friday night and Sunday afternoon but will see how I am.
-
Also wanted to mention that I love how APAT has set up it"s Staking Board. It is something that I will be looking to use in the future, but not quite yet, purely as there are a couple of spots in my game I want to improve upon before I do. Also a couple of results would also help! Unfortunately, the lack of a stable rota at the moment means I never know too far in advance what I can play ( unless I book time off).
I"ve been staked in the past, and through it, ended up winning my biggest buy in tournament online, so I would quite enjoy doing so again!
Anyways, let"s see how today goes!
-
16 tournaments, just 1 cash, a frustrating 39th in the $11 turbo for $72, where I ran Ad 10d into the bb"s JJ.
-
Finished earlyish on Friday so played both Friday and Saturday night at the G in Manchester.
The last time I played the Friday, it was £10 for 5k chips, then £5 for a further 5k twice. This time, it was £10 for 5k chips, then £10 for 5k more chips. Not a problem either way in my eyes. The fact they moved the blind starting at 50/100 from 25/50 meant that by level 4, the ave bb was 20!
Anyway, managed to get up to 8.5k 1st hand with a flush over flush, then rivered twice, holding Q6 on a Q672 board, with some random French bloke deciding Q10 was good despite I"d reraised on the flop and reshoved all in on the turn. 10 on the river. Thanks dealer.
2 hands later, get it in on a 235J board with A4, called by 32, river 2.
I was only intending to play Friday night, but was at a loose end on Saturday so went and played the new £30 f/out with 8k chips. Again starting at 50/100 not exactly the greatest structure. Maybe that"s why it only got 27 runners? Or possibly something to do with the ridiculous traffic around Manchester thanks to a small concert going on!
Again, get up to 14k quickly, lose 3k with JJ v 10 9 on a 10 hi flop, then lose 7.5k KK v JJ, J on the flop. Nearly managed to check behind on the river but it wasn"t a scary board. So we get to 200/400 in level 4 and I have 3.2k. Shove with 9h 4h on the button, hit the 9 to double up 2 hands before the break.
Sit down in the sports lounge for 25 mins watching Murray then back to it. Get up to 9k again quickly, then call a min raise with JJ in the bb, QJx flop, and get a full double up from AQ. Play at the table was absolutely manic, we were down to 15 in no time at all, and before we get down to 10, win KK v AQ and then the vital hand. A raise from mid position and a caller, and with 4500 in the pot, I"m calling any 2 in my bb. I look down at Ah Kh. I have been pretty active and with both stacks having just less than me, I just open shove. Get a rather surprising call from A 10 os and a K on the flop makes me the big stack on the final.
I try not to play first hand on the final table, and I"m glad I didn"t! I had QJ suited after a limper, so fold, 2 shorties shove and the limper ( called 800) decided to call 15k off with 32os, and of course flops 2 pair. The same guy kept on making crazy plays and calls, and we"re on the bubble with 5 left at 600/1200! The mad drunk old guy is raising everything, so I just pick my spots and reraise strongly and he folds every time!
Crazy old guy continues his mayhem and knocks out the others so we"re heads up and he has a 6:1 chip advantage. Within 10 minutes, I"m level, as he calls me off with everything. Then the flip A8 vs QJ and he of course hits.
So 2nd for £270 which was decent enough. Go to take my wallet out at the cash desk, oh ****. Could I find it? Check everywhere I"d been in the casino, then talk to the manager on duty. She goes back to where I was sat in the sports lounge, there"s some random bloke sat where I had been, he gets up, he"s only sat on it! Nothing missing. Mega bonus!!
-
Despite 3 bloody long days in work, I had the poker bug last night so played a small session online.
Regged for everthing under $11 starting between 6 and 7. Managed 3 cashes out of 8 which isn"t too bad. Min cashed the big $11, after being down to 4k on the bubble ( 500/1k blinds), managed to grind it up to 24k, then got it in QQ v JJ and lost.
The $8 6max went really well, after cashing proceeded to go completely card dead and went out approx 20th, where my oppponent couldn"t put down bottom pair on the flop after I"d raised pre ( I had an open ended straight flush draw).
The $4.40 8 max I managed to finish 4th. I don"t think I played particularly well from 50 out, just getting hands when I needed a double up. I think when I got down to 6 handed I started playing well, not particularly aggressive, just picking my spots, and only a semi cooler, 44 into JJ 4 handed, stopped me from finishing higher. Not going to complain about nearly $200 picked up from this, and it takes a lil bit of pressure off my bankroll which is always good.
I"ve got the day off after 3 tough long days at work, so going to ensure I have a relaxing day, as the next 10 days at work are going to be even tougher. It"s the time of year for the set up to our biggest promotional period and preceeding the busiest time of the year for us. Each and every year, we ask for 2 things, the stock early and the plans early. This means we"re not getting tons of stock last minute not knowing where it"s all going. This year we got the majority of stock nice and early. The plans only came down last Friday night, which meant I didn"t see them till Monday. Seeing as on Monday through Wednesday this week, all I was doing was a store reflow to incorporate new stock, it has pretty much meant that when I start the set up, I"ll be in effect, making it up as I go along. Not ideal, but meh. It"s also a good weekend for both my managers to have booked the weekend off :D
What it all means is that I"m going to do not much today, a lil bit of online poker ( some 180s on stars I think), then I"ll potter down to the G and play the £40 f/out with 10k starting. Now that every night in there is dealer dealt, it means I can actually focus more on my game and enjoy the thing too!
-
Interesting few days. Played Thursday night at the G ran KK into AA 1st hand. Saturday night ran 10 10 into QQ 1st hand on the final table... the Q J 9 flop ensured I couldn"t fold.. the Q turn didn"t really help matters ;D
Worked all weekend, culminating in a 9pm finish last night. No food available at the hotel I was staying, and someone"s lovely underwear waiting for me when I finally got up to my room. Too tired to do anything about it, just emailed them about it now.
Left for work at 6.45, get half way across the road, step onto the middle instantly slip forward straight onto my hand and knees. My left knee has the brunt of the damage, requiring a clean up at a drop in centre after some lovely needles to numb it all. It was an experience when it wore off! After all that, didn"t get home till 7 and I"m shattered but wide awake!
So what it means for my day off tomorrow, is that I"m likely to not be on my feet, so I think I might well have to play poker tomorrow! Will play a good few small mtt"s me thinks!
-
So then, my knee has completely seized up, have been out and about once and it"s not helped much so am going down the other way of completely resting it.
Going to play a small schedule on stars me thinks:
14:45 $5.40 NLHE Turbo Knockout
14:50 $3.30 7 card Stud Hi/Lo
15:15 $5.50 NLHE 1000 cap
15:25 $2.20 8 game mix
15:35 $3.30 PL Omaha Hi/Lo
15:45 $5.10 Hyper Turbo 6 max
15:45 $11 NLHE
15:45 $4.40 8 max 1000 cap
16:00 $1.10 NLHE
16:00 The Big $8.80
16:30 $2.20 NLHE Turbo
16:35 $4.40 PL Omaha
16:45 $5.50 NLHE 1000 cap
17:00 $3.30 NLHE
17:15 $8.80 NLHE 500 cap
17:15 $2.70 NLHE Turbo Knockout
17:25 $3.30 HORSE ( Favourite tournament)
17:30 $11 HOT Turbo
17:35 $2.20 PL Omaha Hi/Lo
17:45 $5.40NLHE Turbo Knockout
18:00 $5.50 NLHE
A nice mix of tournaments in there, depending on how it goes, I might throw a few 180 man games in, hopefully won"t need to!
An hour to chill then down to business!
-
Schedule looks good. Ever thought of selling any percentages? I am sure you would be a popular addition to the stakers boards and this is the sort of schedule that has lots of value.
-
Schedule looks good. Ever thought of selling any percentages? I am sure you would be a popular addition to the stakers boards and this is the sort of schedule that has lots of value.
The schedule has mighty changed, kinda not feeling it, as I"m pretty down today, dropped more than half the schedule after a bad start. Going ok in a couple, going well in the 7 card stud ( 1/13 despite playing it about 5 times max before)
I"ve done staking before. Had a fairly lengthy one on Blonde which went ok. I have looked at it, but facts are facts, on Stars which is where I usually play, I am a losing mtt player. Not massively or anything but I am. I know I just need one decent result to get in profit. I play on there for the challenge of going deep and to improve my game. The results will come...
-
Try some of the mtt"s on 888? decentish prizes still, smaller more managable fields and worse play in general?
-
Schedule looks good. Ever thought of selling any percentages? I am sure you would be a popular addition to the stakers boards and this is the sort of schedule that has lots of value.
The schedule has mighty changed, kinda not feeling it, as I"m pretty down today, dropped more than half the schedule after a bad start. Going ok in a couple, going well in the 7 card stud ( 1/13 despite playing it about 5 times max before)
I"ve done staking before. Had a fairly lengthy one on Blonde which went ok. I have looked at it, but facts are facts, on Stars which is where I usually play, I am a losing mtt player. Not massively or anything but I am. I know I just need one decent result to get in profit. I play on there for the challenge of going deep and to improve my game. The results will come...
Losing player does not equal bad player. I think I read somewhere that only 10% of poker players are actually "winning". The schedule is great value as plenty of people playing the mixed games won"t even understand how to play them.
-
Try some of the mtt"s on 888? decentish prizes still, smaller more managable fields and worse play in general?
888 ... if someone staked me and said, you can keep the profits, I genuinely still wouldn"t go on there. I just have never liked the software! My "other" site I play on is Betfair, which I do enjoy, just having a break from there at this current time. Do tend to make a lot of money on there, but I find it completely destroys my game due to the style of play on there.
-
Schedule looks good. Ever thought of selling any percentages? I am sure you would be a popular addition to the stakers boards and this is the sort of schedule that has lots of value.
The schedule has mighty changed, kinda not feeling it, as I"m pretty down today, dropped more than half the schedule after a bad start. Going ok in a couple, going well in the 7 card stud ( 1/13 despite playing it about 5 times max before)
I"ve done staking before. Had a fairly lengthy one on Blonde which went ok. I have looked at it, but facts are facts, on Stars which is where I usually play, I am a losing mtt player. Not massively or anything but I am. I know I just need one decent result to get in profit. I play on there for the challenge of going deep and to improve my game. The results will come...
Losing player does not equal bad player. I think I read somewhere that only 10% of poker players are actually "winning". The schedule is great value as plenty of people playing the mixed games won"t even understand how to play them.
I think I"m one of them ;D
Naaa gotta say I do decent at the mixed games, managed a 5th in the 7 card stud!
I"ve got 3 tournies left today
5/53/666 in the $4.40 8 max
88/881/1434 in the $5.50
14/180/500 in the $8.80 having just lost a CL pot QQ vs 10 10 :(
-
meh 18th in the $4.40, AQ < AK after a 6 Q 6 flop. Lost 3 flips in a row in the $5 to go out 340th, 61/71 in the $8.80 need a good double up or 2.
-
APAT Glasgow is a certainty now. Time booked off work and the hotel is booked and paid for. Certainly looking forward to a Friday night led by Grant, Chas and Jamie.
Work has slightly calmed down now, after a very tough month, I probably have 2 weeks before it starts to get busy. Getting a lil bit of time back from work, so am in the middle of 2 days off, 3 days in, then a very rare long weekend off. As it"s payday on Friday, I"ll more than likely play Friday through Sunday night live as I know through the rest of the month I don"t have many opportunities to go.
Tonight however is online, I have nothing on apart from having to be somewhere at 1pm tomorrow, so I"m hitting it hard. Got 9 tables going at the mo, with 3 more in 5 mins time :o eek!!!
-
Finally had a full weekend off for the first time in 2 months, so I"ve got a few things sorted.
Friday night
Played the £10 + £10 at the G, and despite it now being dealer dealt, it was mega quiet. Or it might just be I went out in storming fashion. Dropped from 5k to 2k missing my straight flush draw, take the rebuy. 3 hands later get QQ in early position and raise, bb 3bets and I flat. Flop is Ah Qh 6h and I just open shove. He tanks for 2 mins and calls with Kh Ks. No need to mention the river.
Get home nice n early and start up with my Xbox for the 1st time in 3 months, straight onto COD and like I"d never been away. Next thing it"s 3am and time for bed!
Saturday
Chill watching the cricket, golf and F1 most of the day, then head off to the G for the £30 f/out with 8k starting chips.
2nd hand get dealt AA and someone has raised to 500 and 50/100, I repop to 1700 and he calls. Flop is 983 I bet, he calls, 8 on the turn I shove he calls with 33. Sigh. He"d lost 1200 first hand so that"s what I had. Shove the sb next hand, get a caller. Typically I have KK ( I did look) and double up. Build back up to 7k and still in level 2. Facing a raise to 600, I have ad1 Qd on the bb, and repop to 1500. He calls, flop 2d 4d Jh. I bet, he shoves I call. He has Kd Jd. Brick brick. GG me.
Sunday
Spent the morning in bed, and the afternoon at a relatives. A cousin had been away for a year in Japan, and came back on Sunday, his b/day on Monday so a good surprise party was to be had. Got home at 7 so went for the £25 deepstack with 20k starting. Some might have seen this hand on facebook so bear with me.
I"d built up to 28k when this happened. A multi limped pot, and I"m one of them with 9d Jd. Flop Qs 10s 8h was lovely, especially as the bb bet into it. Knowing the player plays and calls any 2, I repop, he shoves, I snap. He shows Qh 3h.
Turn 8
River Q
Was enjoyable losing 18k that way!!!!!!!
Get the last 10k in in a 3 way pot last hand, as Simon Trumper was on the table on his way back from Bolton, shoving blind every hand. The same bloke shoved his now 50k stack, Simon called blind, I"m not folding anything remotely decent, and I have 10 10. Up against QJ and Simon"s J4, Q on the river.
A marv weekend then!!! I"d quite like the poker gods to smile upon me rather than taking me roughly from behind as they are at the moment. It"s kind of a good job I"m now busy for the next 3 weeks at the weekend, and at the moment, I can"t play midweek. I"m obviously hoping a break is good for me. I am looking forward to the next few weeks though. On the 11th August I"ll be playing 18 holes of golf for the first time ever, and I actually haven"t swung a club in over 20 years, and being left handed, getting clubs will be interesting!!
-
The good news for me is that advance train tickets for my return from Glasgow aren"t actually released until next week :)
Looks like it"s a bit of reconnaissance for me too, as I"m up Glasgow way tomorrow as one of the stores up there need an expert ( for some reason the DM thought me), so trekking up tomorrow morning, staying and back on Thursday afternoon. I highly doubt I"ll have the opportunity to play poker but I think I"ll give it a crack if possible!
-
Managed to sort out my Glasgow tickets, so all is good there.
I"m struggling with my game in specific spots at the moment. I"m having no issues with bubble play, or with the start of tournies. My struggles seem to be in the middle.
The examples I will give are:
APAT Manchester, up to 40k in no time. Then proceed to go nowhere for 4 hours till I get knocked out. Same sort of thing in Cardiff. On Sunday I played the £25 20k f/out in Manchester. Within 45 minutes, I"ve got under 60k. I"ve picked perfect spots, I"ve applied pressure and made cracking reads. As soon as I hear "the blinds are up to ........." my game disappears completely.
Any suggestions?
-
Try playing a bit more? I would assume (after playing in vegas together a bit) that you kind of blinded away a bit?
Perhaps putting yourself in a position to win more pots would help?
-
Try playing a bit more? I would assume (after playing in vegas together a bit) that you kind of blinded away a bit?
Perhaps putting yourself in a position to win more pots would help?
It is pretty much what I thought, but it is tough to get yourself out of the mentality...
-
Having a minor break from poker at the moment. No specific reason apart from being busy with other things.
For those that don"t know, Mon-Fri I look after my brothers place while he works down south, which means I don"t get chance to play during the week even when I"m off work. It means I can generally play live every other weekend, however being busy this weekend and in 2 weeks time means a break which is good I think.
Yesterday I played golf for the first time ever. The occasion is a memorial for family members we have lost. There are 3 main prizes. Overall winner after handicap, nearest to the pin on hole 3, and longest drive on hole 12.
The course we played at is called Castle Hawk in Rochdale, and is basically an 18 hole course, all par 3"s barring one par 4 ( hole 12). In my group of 5 players, I teed off 3rd, and obviously, there are quite a few watching at the first. Now, I know nothing about golf, and the 1st is 120yd hole, and downhill. From the half bag, I have a choice of 3, 4, 6 iron or sand wedge. Choose the 6 iron ( some take woods) and connect damn well. It lands, well, about 50 yards past the hole! End up shooting a 6, as I do exactly on average over the 1st 9 holes, some 5s some 7s. I get nowhere near the pin on hole 3, and on hole 11,I managed to take a 9! So step up on hole 12 last, there have been a couple of huge drives but off the fairway. I step up just as the last group of us catches us up, so there"s about 12 people in total watching. Somehow I manage to smoke one, and on a 255yd hole, it lands just 20yds short of the green. So I do end up winning something!
The best rounds after handicap were 66"s, I shoot 113, or 85 nett which I"ll be honest, I"m very happy with that!
Tonight is the closing ceremony of the Olympics, I"ve watched as much as I could, enjoyed every minute of it, and cannot wait to see the end. Hate to see it finish but loved the show that we have put on!
-
Ch....Ch....... Changes
Long post alert
I"ve always been absolutely mad on sports. As in, I"d play whatever, whenever I can. Football, cricket and rugby league were the main 3 I"ve played, however I"ve dabbled at athletics ( several events), basketball, hockey to name but a few.
Sports were what I looked forward to, daily, weekly, monthly, as a youngster and certainly into my late teens, it pretty much drove my life. I could play sports all day without getting too tired, I wasn"t the biggest fan of running but, certainly with football, I could read the game from a very early age, meaning I always seemed to be in the right position at the right time. I guess this is why, at a very early age (8ish) I was put in at centre back for my primary school as the non-marking one. Still remember lots of the results from my first 2 proper seasons of football at primary school. Even in slightly smaller nets on 80% size pitches, we destroyed pretty much every team we played. We only lost 2 games in 2 years, one a severly snow affected game and another in the QF"s of the Greater Manchester Cup, losing in a highly controversional match.
Several of the players in my team also played club football, I was invited, made the team straight away as well as being made captain. 6 of us from primary school played for the club side, again we were fairly successful, generally finishing top 3 without ever winning the league or cup ( there was one outstanding side who were basically impossible to beat). After a few seasons, getting to 13/14 some were being picked up by the local professional clubs. In one such game, I received my only outfield serious injury, fracturing my patella ( knee for those who don"t know). As there was no pain, and not much could be done to help repair it, I was playing again in 6 weeks.... SILLY eh?
I was fairly sensible, started playing in goal for my school side ( at high school we were a rugby league school) and seemed to do ok. Until I was in my late 20s, it"s where I played. I seemed to be a flair keeper, making amazing saves, making amazing cock ups.
The big point of all this is..... I"ve always had a huge metabolism, and masses of energy, so ate what I wanted when I wanted. As over the last few years, my job has become less physically demanding and I really don"t find time to do anything remotely tough in terms of a workout, I now find myself the least fit I"ve ever been and my belly is growing in size. I intend to do something about it. I"m not going to set myself lofty goals ( ie London Marathon although I"ve always wanted to do it), I"m going to start off realistic and just initially get started with exercise again. My long term goal will be to raise a sh*t load of money for the MacMillan nurses, who helped my family so much when my dad initially got cancer, and then as he deteriorated until he passed away. It was a long time ago now, but their support was exceptional ( even though I"m probably only realising this now).
Being a poker player ( recreationally) definitely doesn"t help this, but I am finding myself playing less and less apart from APAT events, and have pulled back my online play to minimum levels compared to what I have done in the past, so the balance is probably coming back in my life allowing myself more free time to do so. Doing shift work definitely doesn"t help, but I"ll just have to plan better!
-
Not much to report recently. Only played twice live in the last month, last night flopped 2 pair twice and lost quite simple really. Had a 6th in a Weds night a couple of weeks ago for a min cash, playing ok without playing particularly well.
Started to get to grips with what I"m playing on stars now, still $11 or lower tournies, with some 180s thrown in. Playing lots of 8 game and Horse tournies as I seem to go ok in them.
Had a 2nd in a $8 8game, and a 3rd in a $4.50 180er, and a 20th in an $11mtt which was a good, but frustrating result.
Coming up, looking forward to the Chezger home game, see if I can repeat or improve on my cash last time. Also not too far off Glasgow now, which I"m well looking forward to, as I missed Cork and DtD I"m looking forward to spending time with quality people again!
-
Ger says I"m not allowed to cook this time. I"m screwed if I"m made sit at the table to actually play poker, so you"re sure to do better. :D
-
Ger says I"m not allowed to cook this time. I"m screwed if I"m made sit at the table to actually play poker, so you"re sure to do better. :D
Feck that.
The best part of the last Chezger game was the trip around ASDA Queensferry!
Need I say more?
-
Ger says I"m not allowed to cook this time. I"m screwed if I"m made sit at the table to actually play poker, so you"re sure to do better. :D
Feck that.
The best part of the last Chezger game was the trip around ASDA Queensferry!
Need I say more?
Feck that indeed, it"s gonna be a long night so food is a definite!!!
-
Ger says I"m not allowed to cook this time. I"m screwed if I"m made sit at the table to actually play poker, so you"re sure to do better. :D
Feck that.
The best part of the last Chezger game was the trip around ASDA Queensferry!
Need I say more?
Feck that indeed, it"s gonna be a long night so food is a definite!!!
That trip around ASDA was, errrrm...memorable. And for the record - I was SOBER at the time! lol
Picture two very large mean looking biker dudes covered in tattoos. We sure can pick "em. Obviously Joobs chatted these guys up whilst Adam, JonMW and myself stood looking on. Not sure how it came about, but I called one of them a Queen followed quickly by some version of a fumbled apology for fear they"d kick my arse. Instead of getting crushed, the other one leaned in to me and whispered with a wink and a grin, "You"re right...he is." Now I reckon I"m safe, can"t help coming out with..."Phew. Thank god. Was worried my gaydar was broke."
Really shouldn"t be left out unsupervised. :D
-
You called "em both Tattoo Queens. Then tried to backtrack and call them Tattoo Kings instead.
Then the bigger one said to Joobs "she was right the first time..."
-
You called "em both Tattoo Queens. Then tried to backtrack and call them Tattoo Kings instead.
Then the bigger one said to Joobs "she was right the first time..."
Ah yeah, forgot I had managed to include both of them. If you"re gonna do it, do it right...
-
Not huge amounts to catch up on. Not had the chance to play live at all, so everything has been online.
Playing the 180s on stars generally with some small mtt"s when I fancy it. No major ups or downswings, just a small downswing at the mo.
Managed to bink another 3rd in the Irish online Omaha, despite having very little experience of the game :) Being dealt AAxx several times definitely helped, and lost the majority of my chips 3way with QQxx vs AAxx.
The less said about the ME the better, always card dead, never really above starting stack. 3 bet with AK and get a call, and we get it in on an AJ8 flop.. he had A8 sigh ( called 30% of his stack pre with it)
This weekend sees a trip to Chezger for my 2nd home game at Ger"s. Min cashed last time, this time the tables look tougher and with 36 of us, it"s gonna be a long one! Nice easy table draw for me. Raising into Ger, Mike B, Lax and Adam, and have Andy K and JP to my immediate right. JOY! So looking forward to it though!
Glasgow is not too far off either, all booked and sorted, travelling most of the way up with Rodders which is a huge bonus and should cut into the tedium!
-
Wiiiii
Finally managed a semi-decent result, and if I"d run a bit better 4 handed, I think I"d have had a slightly better result.
Hand 1
Blinds 8k/16k, shorty shoves for ~150k, I auto call in the blinds with QQ, he has AJ... 1st card A
Hand 2
We"re 3 way, CL shoves on my bb, I have KJ and it"s an auto call, delighted to see he has K8, flop K 9 7 which I"m happy with, can"t remember turn, 8 river :(
Still over $500 from an $11 tourny I"m pretty happy with, especially going onto the FT 8/9, definitely think I got tons of respect for my raises and 3bets which is always nice to see. Sets me up nicely coming into the weekend :)
-
definitely think I got tons of respect for my raises and 3bets which is always nice to see. Sets me up nicely coming into the weekend :)
Ya think ;D
-
definitely think I got tons of respect for my raises and 3bets which is always nice to see. Sets me up nicely coming into the weekend :)
Ya think ;D
You were saying :P
The inevitable downer after an epic weekend hit hard on Sunday night, and was exacerbated by a couple of tough days at work Monday and Tuesday ( which was supposed to be a day off), all meant I got out of bed at midday today ;D
Travel was ok to Chester, no issues at all, met up with the gang as they were finishing off food and then it was off to Ger"s, for an hour of socialising before the game started. One of the most important things for me in playing poker ( certainly in my case playing weekends away), is the socialising with everyone before, during and after the poker. It was fantastic to catch up with people after missing the last 2 live APATs.
The table was fun, had JP and Andy K to my right, with JP raising my bb mercilessly.
Managed to start off ok, pocket 4"s being my strength, 1st time flopping trips, second time a FH. Only played one hand of significance with Adam as he was battering the table, his rivered straight killing my rivered 2 pairs.
As the tournament got deeper, managed to get a good few pots, and reached the final table comfortably, about 5th in chips. The major hand for me, was against Adam, where he basically put me all in on a very straightening and flushing board. I had 2 pair, and he"d played it more aggressively than previously, decided he"d got neither, and was very happy to be right. Ended up HU with the APAT legend Darren Shallis, and before it had started, it was over ( He had approx a 5:1 chip lead), I raised with Q9, he shipped, I snapped and missed. A quality night, nicely profitable, and with an amazing group of people. It has really fired up my love of live poker, and I"m really looking forward to Glasgow APAT, and meeting up with another awesome group of people!
To Ger, the biggest thankyou I can muster. The hospitality and friendship you have shown is simply awesome, and I cannot wait for the next one!
-
Crikey has it been a month since I last updated this?
Glasgow - didn"t go too well for me, poker or personal wise. In the ME I did get up to about 23k at one point after the 1st break, however, as I was feeling absolutely awful, I struggled concentrating, was constantly away from the table feeling lousy, sick and everything in between ( which I never do), and was knocked out level 6/7ish. Just want to say a big well done and thanks to Rodders, for another amazing result, and for providing excellent company for the weekend!!
Online series - took me till Weds to start feeling well again, managed to win the HU after an epic 1st match with John Murray, won a big flip in the 2nd, KK on a K98 board with 2 spades vs AJ spades. Flopped a massive nut flush draw, turned it and got shoved on in the semi final, then won a huge hand early in the final and finished things off quickly.
With 13 left in the ME, lost a big hand AJ v AQ to leave me with under 800 chips. Somehow get on the final table with 50k, then lose AA v Shug"s 77. Think the AJ hand is the only hand I played poorly all night ( which was rightly commented on by Carl), a bit sickening to go out that way in 10th ( with no extra points or cash -8th would have been cash and got me 5th place overall and a freeby into another online ME)
After spending the rest of the week off work, I am feeling much better, and looking forward to Stoke. I don"t think I"ll be able to play much online or live until then ( just the odd occasion I think) as work is very tough at the moment.
-
Managed to play live on weds and Friday night this week, got slowrolled on weds night and set over set on Friday night. Online isn"t going too badly, I"m sitting 3rd in the online rankings after good consistent performances so far without setting the world on fire, finally managed to play a league game last night and ended up 2nd. Won a few chips early then literally went on a rampage. At one point I had 130k in chips with 30 left, 2nd had 50k! Managed to lose a 90k pot KK vs AQ all in pre, flop K J 10, and still have 100k and the chip lead. Finalled as the chip leader, knocked out a shorty or 2, but never really got going, ending up going HU with a 5:1 chip deficit. Pulled that back with a quick double up, then butchered a hand chasing a straight. Can"t complain with a 2nd however. Congrats to Suz for leading the online league rankings at the mo, I"ve known her a very long time, and though I wouldn"t call myself a great judge, her game this year is excelling which shows up in her results. Stoke announcement is coming tomorrow and I"m not envying the England captains their job. Whittling a minimum of 40 down to 12 must be difficult, especially as I"m sure they"re going to have to say no to a number of good players and a number of friends as well. Looking forward to seeing the teams!
-
So in the last week, I"ve found out I"ll be playing for the England "B" team in Stoke. To say I"m immensely proud and honoured is a complete understatement. My plans were to stay up till midnight ( due up at 6am) however working all weekend had taken its toll and I was zonked out by half 10. Randomly woke up at half 1 to a load of messages waiting for me on facebook as well as on here. Sleep didn"t really happen again on Monday night, with the same issue on Tuesday night!! It"s something I simply cannot wait for!
Went to play the Saturday night £30 f/out in Manchester, it got a grand total of 4 runners!! As most people are aware, I"m not a cash game player, but as there was a 25p/25p table, decided to sit down and have a laugh with my buy in. Managed to stack 2 players with 72os, flopping trips in one, and 2 pair in another hand. Also managed to stack AK holding 86os as well. All the good work undone in one hand. Holding Q9os, called a £15 4bet to a new player ( I know before any comments), the board comes Jh 10h 8h and he open shoves. I have no hearts. Call anyway. He shows Qh Qc and the turn and river couldn"t be worse. A black 9 to kill my hand, then a 3h on the river . Ooops. Anyways!
I have the day off, got not much to do, so I think I"ll be playing a good few games today. All on stars. ( Apart from the APAT game later)
Schedule
15:15 $5.50 NLHE 1000 cap
15:25 $2.20 8 game
15:35 $3.30 PL Omaha Hi/Lo
15:45 $11 NLHE
15:45 $4.40 NLHE 8 max 1000 cap gone in 2 mins QQ on a AQJ board, all in on the J turn, obv someone has JJ
16:00 $8.80 The BIG $8.80
16:00 $1.10 NLHE
16:05 $2.20 NL Omaha Hi/Lo 6 max Turbo
16:30 $2.20 NLHE Turbo
16:45 $5.50 NLHE 1000 cap
17:00 $3.30 NLHE
17:15 $8.80 NLHE 500 cap
17:15 $2.70 NLHE Turbo Knockout
17:25 $3.30 HORSE
17:30 $11 The HOT $11 Turbo
17:45 $5.40 NLHE Turbo Knockout
18:00 $5.50 NLHE
18:15 $11 NLHE
18:15 $8.80 NLHE 6 max 500 cap
18:45 $2.20 NLHE Turbo
19:00 $11 The BIG $11
19:00 $3.30 NLHE
19:15 $4.40 NLHE 8 max 1000 cap
19:40 $2.20 8 game
19:45 $4.40 NLHE Turbo
20:00 $5.50 NLHE Turbo
-
Knocked everything off from 19:00 on the above tournament, as I was 15 tabling at one point on my laptop.
Rather than grind all of them, I took a few risks and got some decent stacks. The 16:45 $5.50 1000 cap was the one I was running deepest in,and eventually was concentrating on that one at the expense of others.
Have tried looking at the Hand History for some interesting hands, but I can only seem to get the first 475 hands ???
Anyways, I get to the final table in 1st, then go card dead for an hour. I basically get bored and frustrated, and with only 4 left, decided to up my aggression. 1st hand, get 10d 6d, button raises, sb calls ( for 40k) and I shove approx 280k. Sb calls with 4s 4h and I hit to double up. 3 hands later, get KK and eventually beat AQ after a scary J 10 9 flop to have 60% of the chips 4 ways. By the time I"m heads up, I have a 4:1 chip lead, HU I"m pretty comfortable, play it right, eventually get 6 6 and get it all in vs A 6 which holds. Nice ROI :)
-
PokerStars Hand #89082244042: Tournament #638721703, $8.00+$0.80 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level III (20/40) - 2012/11/11 17:37:52 WET [2012/11/11 12:37:52 ET]
Table "638721703 27" 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: VaDimUgoLeK (2575 in chips)
Seat 3: BiGRpKcTDukS (3095 in chips)
Seat 4: Shenets (3010 in chips)
Seat 5: NOTE 377 (3680 in chips)
Seat 6: heyalisson (2539 in chips)
Seat 7: Pantelija1 (3000 in chips)
Seat 8: amcgrath1uk (6096 in chips)
Seat 9: jaska80 (2405 in chips)
jaska80: posts small blind 20
VaDimUgoLeK: posts big blind 40
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to amcgrath1uk [Ks Qs]
BiGRpKcTDukS: raises 40 to 80
Shenets: calls 80
NOTE 377: calls 80
heyalisson: folds
Pantelija1: folds
amcgrath1uk: calls 80
jaska80: folds
VaDimUgoLeK: folds
*** FLOP *** [Js As Ts]
BiGRpKcTDukS: checks
Shenets: bets 280
NOTE 377: calls 280
amcgrath1uk: calls 280
BiGRpKcTDukS: folds
*** TURN *** [Js As Ts] [Kh]
Shenets: checks
NOTE 377: checks
amcgrath1uk: checks
*** RIVER *** [Js As Ts Kh] [7s]
Shenets: checks
NOTE 377: checks
amcgrath1uk: bets 340
Shenets: folds
NOTE 377: folds
Uncalled bet (340) returned to amcgrath1uk
amcgrath1uk collected 1220 from pot
amcgrath1uk: shows [Ks Qs] (a Royal Flush)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1220 | Rake 0
Board [Js As Ts Kh 7s]
Seat 1: VaDimUgoLeK (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: BiGRpKcTDukS folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Shenets folded on the River
Seat 5: NOTE 377 folded on the River
Seat 6: heyalisson folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 7: Pantelija1 folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 8: amcgrath1uk (button) collected (1220)
Seat 9: jaska80 (small blind) folded before Flop
-
Played 4 180s on Sunday night only as I was tired, and managed a 3rd and a 4th which was nice. Been off today and have taken it easy, as I"m working tons now. The rest of the next couple of weeks is late, late, late, late, all day, help in Wigan, late, late, late, off, late, all day. So in one sense it"ll be a break for 2 weeks of playing freshening me up for Stoke, however, as I"m playing and running fairly well, it is kind of frustrating. I"ll just save it all for Stoke ;)
-
Is it me, or are the APAT events getting better? The people are just awesome!
Cracking weekend....
Cliffs for me...
The camaraderie between the England B team, as well as with all the other players was immense, how poker should be.
Being on the feature table all day Saturday was damn tough but bloody good fun.. I do hope some of my more "creative plays" caused a bit of headscratching..
Being completely owned in about 10 pots by John Murray
Oh... and Adam Sharples tripping into a taxi...
-
ffs...
-
ffs...
What can I say... any nerves I had completely vanished...
-
Is it me, or are the APAT events getting better? The people are just awesome!
Said just about the same thing on my blog as well :)
-
From an APAT point of view, the last week in personal terms have been damn good. First medal, bronze in the team event, first cash in a live event, even though it was 17th, I know I played damn bloody well, and if not running QQ into AA, I"m certain I could have gone deeper.
Then, because of work, I only managed to play 2 events in the online series, the PLO HL which went badly, and the main event, as well as the league game. I managed a 2nd in the league game, which initially I was slightly disappointed as I had a 3:1 chiplead HU, but by that stage I was down to the last 4 in the main event, and because I was really concentrating on the ME, I was chipped away solidly, then managed to run 99 into KK. That gives me 44 points ( I think from 3 or 4 weeks only) and a chance to get a bit of added value after next weeks game.
In the ME, I eventually went from 4/4 in chips to 1/4 after a good series of hands, eventually getting HU with Matt Carter, and managed to bink a river A8 vs A10 to take the win for my first gold. To say I was thrilled is a complete understatement, and as Leigh put it, what an APAT week for me!
-
From an APAT point of view, the last week in personal terms have been damn good. First medal, bronze in the team event, first cash in a live event, even though it was 17th, I know I played damn bloody well, and if not running QQ into AA, I"m certain I could have gone deeper.
Then, because of work, I only managed to play 2 events in the online series, the PLO HL which went badly, and the main event, as well as the league game. I managed a 2nd in the league game, which initially I was slightly disappointed as I had a 3:1 chiplead HU, but by that stage I was down to the last 4 in the main event, and because I was really concentrating on the ME, I was chipped away solidly, then managed to run 99 into KK. That gives me 44 points ( I think from 3 or 4 weeks only) and a chance to get a bit of added value after next weeks game.
In the ME, I eventually went from 4/4 in chips to 1/4 after a good series of hands, eventually getting HU with Matt Carter, and managed to bink a river A8 vs A10 to take the win for my first gold. To say I was thrilled is a complete understatement, and as Leigh put it, what an APAT week for me!
Your week sounds rather similar to mine sir, many congrats Asa.. i owe you a drinky at DTD btw ;D.. your ME bink gave me a free buy in to the worlds..(sorry Matt).
Enjoy your GOLD!! and a nice little pay day with Xmas fast approaching :)
-
Two APAT medals and a pile of cash all in one week... awesome performances ! VWP ;)
-
Getting to HU in both events last night is an awesome achievement.
Well done on gold.
-
Just want to say thanks to everyone either on here or elsewhere sending me congrats etc for last weekend. It"s very much appreciated :)
I think I"ve played just 4 of the online league games so far, so to sit 7th with an outside ( very much outside) chance of finishing as one of the top individual performers. In one sense it has helped in a weird way that the NW team hasn"t a chance of a top 3 finish.
The online main events have been pretty good to me, I"m sitting 2nd overall which I"m obviously very happy with!
Weekend off, no real plans, just watching the footy now, then an afternoon of small stakes mtt grinding on stars.
Tomorrow will literally be waiting for the league game. Taking things easy this weekend as I"ve only one more day off before Xmas!
-
Only ended up playing 4 tournies as I am fairly tired at the moment, and I think concentrating on more would"ve been tough.
Managed 3rd in the $3.30 HORSE ( my ROI must be fairly decent in that), as well as a 7th in a $8.80 500 max mtt. Big thanks to Grant, Tom and Rodders for the rail, helping me focus from 14 left onwards, where I could literally have shoved my micro stack at any time... as there were people watching, I ground it out more than I usually would, which probably made me another $80 or so.
I don"t have a specific bankroll, as I play for the enjoyment more than anything, but at the moment, things are healthy :)
-
Enjoyed railing mate and value having the same encouragement when I play. Very well done on the nice cash and fine performance 8)
-
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!
-
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
-
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.
-
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.
-
No poker live for a while for me. My days off equate with tournaments I don"t particularly want to play and my next weekend off when I"m not actually busy is at least 3 weeks ( more likely 5 or 7 weeks) away. Going after work with the next day off will be my only other possibility, however, I know I play nowhere near as well "tired", so am trying to reduce those.
Tuesday is my next day off and have a fully planned day. Waiting in for a parcel, then a touch of shopping for new work shoes ( so Wednesday is going to be painful), then onwards to play snooker.
I play snooker with a friend, Dan, who strangely, went to school with Adam Sharples. Considering we flatshares for a year, worked together for 3 years and played snooker twice a week for about 18 months, I haven"t actually seen him for a fair while. We"re both equally bad at snooker, yet we both enjoy the challenge. We actually used to take it pretty seriously and not drink whilst playing, I doubt that"ll happen on Tuesday!
-
Not a huge amount to report.
Managed to win the snooker, but still managed to be as terrible as usual.
I"ve played a grand total of 8 $2.50 180"s this week, but I have managed a 2nd and a 3rd so not going to complain at that :)
Helping my sister move this weekend which should be "fun"
-
Well, my last 2 weeks have been pretty much busy as hell. Every day off I"ve had, I"ve had tons to do and every work day has left me absolutely shattered.
So, being off tomorrow, with not a huge amount to do, means I"m thinking it"s time to get back on the poker grind.
I cannot wait to do so :)
-
Again 2 weeks since my last update, however to be fair, there"s not much going on in life or poker.
Until this week obviously!!
Work is a hard slog at the moment. I"m generally going home absolutely shattered and not in the mood to play poker or do much at all to be honest!
I"ve played live once in the last 3 weeks which was yesterday afternoon, where I ran A10 into AK in a multiway pot.
Came home, regged for the APAT sat for the mini masters, and ended up with 1/2 the chips 4 way, eventually finishing in the top 2.
However by far the biggest news is my selection for the England team in the WCOAP in less than 4 weeks. Words cannot describe the pride I felt when Steve let me know, and then he tells me he"s announcing it in the morning so I have to keep it quiet!! ( then he announces it 20 mins later!!) I honestly was ready to burst!
As well as the team event, and actually being back at Dtd for the first time in 2 years, the fact I finally get to play HORSE live, I"m most looking forward to being back with the APAT crew. ( and spending 5 days in their company is going to be awesome!)
-
Huge congrats on the call up mate, very well deserved. You country is proud of you.
-
Not a bad couple of days on the poker front.
Won the $2.20 8 game on stars yesterday and the 5 euro deep n steep tonight on APAT. Not mega bucks but it"s winning poker so I"ll take it.
-
Wp Asa, every little helps, ty for the rail today really thought I was in for a big one.
-
A decent day, City are in the semi finals of the FA Cup, and I"m still laughing about last night.
I went to the G in Manchester to play their "quality" Friday night game, £10 + 1 £10 rebuy. 5k chips and blinds start at 50/100 meaning your first set, with any mistakes or bad luck you need your rebuy. I was down to 2.2k after having to fold AK on an obvious straighting board ( he showed the straight), and about to shout for the 5k extra, when I"m in early position with QQ, I make a standard raise, carnage happens and there"s 4 of us all. QQ, AK, KJ and AQ.
When the flop comes down Q99 I sit back, exclaim that"ll do and think about how to play with my new stack. The poker gods then decide to laugh at me bringing down the 2 remaining Kings....
10 mins later I"m on my way home when my JJ loses to 99...
I"m just getting all the bad luck out of the way before DtD me thinks...
-
I think JP put it superbly in his blog, and I can pretty much only echo what he has said.
I am completely and utterly humbled to be nominated for 2 APAT awards.
Especially so as the 2 awards are for Player of the Year and Breakthrough Player of the Year.
I"m honest in that the main reason I haven"t posted about it so far is that I"m pretty much in shock about them! To be mentioned in the same awards as Carl, Tom, Mark, Anthony, Matt, Liam, Suz, Sharon and JP, given the season that they have all had, speaks volumes for how well I"ve run in the online tournaments :)
I have voted for the people I believe who most deserve the award, and haven"t voted for myself :)
-
Errr wow. Sitting at home after 6 days in Nottingham. It's a strange sensation. The stresses of the team event and the joy of playing the main event have passed and it's a weird feeling. I'm definitely on a come down adrenaline wise, however, for obvious reasons, I'm on quite a big high.
24th Feb at 23:42 it all started for me. A message out of the blue from Steve, asking me if I was in the stud and 6-max. A puzzled yeah was the answer, as I was basically getting ready for bed... then he told me I was in the team... WOW! I've had a great season online, but only an ok live so wasn't really thinking about getting in.
Fast forward to last Wednesday, I've gone down a day early to DTD, to get my eye in and get my mindset ready for the team event. Start with 10k, get a nice 8k pot earlier, raising pre and all 3 streets with 63os, and getting a fold on the river of a dangerous board. In the bb with Q10ss call an early position raise after 4/5 callers, flop was AKJ ( must be nice), it's checked round, turn is an off suit 3 ( no flush draws), and 1st to act shoves. I obviously call, and dominate against A9. Keep building my stack until I'm up 40k, where it hovers till my exit hand. Table chip leader has been opening loads, and he does so again from UTG, I look down at 99, that's good enough for me, eventually the chips all go in preflop, he has AK, and hits the K on the river. Disappointing, but can't really complain as it was a flip.
Wake up at a decent time on Thursday, have a good chill, then pop over to Frankie & Benny's for a pre match meal and chat with the team. Get there just as Stu and Lucy pull up, all good timing ;) Carl and Emma aren't far behind, with Steve and Tony finally turning up. Although I've spent a bit of time with Stu, Carl, Lucy and Emma, I've not spent a huge amount of time with them, and I've spent very little time with Steve or Tony before. It's fair to say, I was a little nervous. I had no need to be, all of them were extremely friendly and before we knew it, it was time to head over. Before we did, both Emma and Steve had come prepared with extra England branded things, sunglasses, wristbands and tattoos, a nice add on ?
The plans were simple as a team. I was going to play the 6 max NL games, with Stu the 6 max Omaha. I think we all felt that was a good plan, but probably for different reasons. I personally felt that some teams would see it as an opportunity for easy points, and others would see it as an opportunity for points for the weaker members of the team? I've no actual idea to be honest either way.
My game plan going in was very simple. Nothing stupid. No daft pots. No early bluffing. Play sensibly. Even in 6 max, I wanted to maximise the start. Played sensibly, slowly building my chips. Took one player out when they'd lost most of their chips earlier, then the big hand. At 200/400 blinds, raise to 1100 on the button with 55. Both the blinds called, and after the J75ss flop, the sb shoved. I was never folding trips with that many chips in the pot, she had KK with no spades, and that was 2 gone. End up being heads up with Fergus after he knocks Paul McGuiness out in 3rd, the crucial pot being 99 vs AJ, most of the chips went in pre, J10x board, turn and river Q and 8....
That's it for now, to come, Omahaha shenanigans, day 2... and that magical feeling
-
Just a lil brag
Played 4 tournies on APAT.co.uk in the last 2 evenings, the 5 euro deep n steep and the 10 euro rebuy on both nights. yesterday finished 7th in the rebuy, today won the deep n steep and 2nd in the rebuy.
#heater
-
Ride the wave as long as it lasts!!
-
No energy tonight to continue my WCOAP journey, or to play tournaments, so just for a change ( massive change for me), I"ve stuck 10 euros onto a 0.05/0.10 NL cash table... results to follow..
-
Well, last night, I played for all of 15 mins before I got bored, but made a few $$!
Finally got round to getting my staking licence, so look out for some opportunities soon!
The next part of my WCOAP adventure is coming...
-
It"s an APAT "soon" which should be tomorrow.
No rest for the wicked, straight into it at work since Wednesday, got the next 2 days off so will be looking to finish things off. Will also have a peek at the video of my stt at the WCOAP.
With the winnings from my online, I treated myself to a new PC set up just for poker ( to stop using the laptop as much), as well as an iPad mini :)
-
Nice work Asa.
Much deserved.
-
Nice work Asa.
Much deserved.
+1
good news :)
xxx
-
I think you"re taking the old adage "always leave your audience wanting more" too far... so c"mon and give us Day 2 ;)
-
I think you"re taking the old adage "always leave your audience wanting more" too far... so c"mon and give us Day 2 ;)
;)
to be honest, even though I"ve been off for the last couple of days, I"ve been fairly busy. Got my stocktake this weekend, which I run, plan, and sort out.
Also a new MD who insists that every store should look perfect all the time. Which after 10 years of neglect and payroll cuts after cuts, is making life muchos fun at the mo.
Omaha Day 1
I"ll be honest, I don"t remember too much about it. It"s a blur until I get 3 handed, get it all in pre with QQxx against AJxx, A on the flop, Q on the river. And win again. I know I played decently well, put pressure on in the right spots etc but considering it is the weaker of the games I play, I was pretty happy ( goes without saying!)
Not much more to add about day 1, we were in the lead, we were happy, but we also knew we"d done 40% of the job.
The plans we"d put in place were working. Stu was a little down as Carl and myself had had an awesome 1st day, but as we all said to him, Friday would be his day...
-
Day 2
Woke up a lil bit tired but absolutely raring to go. At 8.30am. SIGHHHHH!! Made myself go back to sleep until 11, then sorted food out and strolled over to DtD.
The plan for day 2 was pretty much the same to start with. I was to continue playing the NL 6 max tables and Stu the Omaha 6 max.
We"d gone into the day as leaders of the team event, but we also knew that we"d only done 40% of the job. No difference at all to the style of the play. Again the target was top 3. Amazingly, I didn"t win the 3rd game, only finishing 3rd. Again, the details are now a bit hazy on how I managed it, no scares until the last 3, and then lost a standard race.
And as I"m sitting in a bar after stocktake, having a quick drink and it"s quite late with an early start, that"s it for today!
-
Day 2- The rest
After the 1st round of holdem, we'd had a good round, and England had extended their lead with a 28 point gap to 3rd place. We all knew that we only had to finish in the top 2, so in a lot of senses, we all just had to play sensible, grind the points to guarantee top 2.
I sit down, and have a decent start. Then get AAKx double suited, and get it all in pre vs a short stack Canadian, who has QQJJ, Q on the flop and all of a sudden I'm a short stack. Within 5 minutes, both Steve and Tony are out 1st, both with AAxx pre and losing. It's fair to say, Steve was annoyed at himself, he told Tony, they had a lil barney, and Tony, next hand gets his AAxx and loses. There's thoughts going through my mind, which is, is this where the wheels come off? Nope, not with Stu Ward and Carl Pilgrim still in. I changed my game slightly, played mega tight, mega aggressive. Before I know it, we've lost 3 players and I relax a little. Twice I've been potted on the bb, I have AAxx get it all in and win. One of them was vs AAxx but my other 2 cards hit 2 pair on the flop. Even with all that, I was still mega short stacked compared to the others on my table. We go 3 handed very quickly, and I have less than 5bb's. Both Carl and Stu have finished 3rd, so I have nothing to lose. I double up on my next bb, then proceed to pot every possible hand. I end up being heads up with either one of the Portuguese guys or Luca ( my memory is terrible), and I have slightly more chips. I get JJ84 and raise, my opponent pots, and I have a good long think. I can easily fold here and continue the pressure. The chirp starts.. I have such a pretty hand here.... which says to me, I have the top pair. It all goes in and he had AKQ9 double suited. Somehow I hold!! Which means I've had 3 wins and a 3rd out of the 4 events so far, and that propels me back to the top of the individual leaderboard!
We have about 20/25 mins before the start of the last round of NLHE STTs, so we all go and chill by the bar. The Italians, Portuguese, Spanish and Canadians are now all within striking distance of us. But we do know that fate is within our hands. We all have a discussion, and we decide to change things a little. As Carl and myself were the top 2 scorers, we were put on the 2 tables with all the above teams represented, as an attempt to control any surges by these teams, and, to hopefully, knock those players out early. We were also realistic in what we needed to achieve. The main thing was not to go gung ho, as 30 points pretty much guaranteed us a top 2 finish, unless 2 of those teams scored well over 50 points in the last round. We also knew that if the teams at the lower end of the table had a great last round, it wouldn't really affect us. As you can probably imagine, our heads were a bit full and swimming with information. My table ends up being the feature table, and that was a barrel of laughs :/ A combination of poor cards, poor play, and significant pressure meant that I literally folded for 2 hours. The only positive is that Portugal had a horrendous session, and as they were the most likely beforehand to take over the top 2, the pressure was slightly off. But I have never known poker like it. Stu had again been knocked out early in another puke pot, and Tony had gone relatively early in his 6 max. I decided to just total grind. If that meant folding every hand, so be it. If it meant tank folding, so be it. The longer I lasted on the feature table, the more pressure it would heap back onto our opponents.
There are 2 hands that spring to mind. The first was early on, where I folded 44 from mid position. Normally, I'd have ensured I'd seen a cheap flop, however decided to play no risk and folded. Of course, in a multi way pot, the 4 hits the flop and would have won a decent enough pot. The other, after being passive for a while, I raise with AQ UTG, and the oh so lovely Paul McGuiness 3 bets. He knows the situation I'm in, I know he knows that, and he's aware I'd know that ( following?). I have 3 choices, fold/call/all in. I discounted the call straight away, so was literally a coin flip between shove and fold. If I shove and lose, I get 2 points. If i fold, I may get more. I very rarely tank decisions, but with this one, I spent a fair bit of time over. As I'm agonising over the decision, I see that a couple of our rivals have lost a player, and with that, I make the decision to fold. Paul claimed after he had JJ in this spot and would have folded to a shove, however, I'm never folding JJ in that spot. I know I get a lot of criticism on the live feed over my play throughout the table, but I'm honestly not bothered. It's not my normal game ( those who watched me play the feature table day 1 at Stoke will know it doesn't really influence me), it was a tense and stressful time, and looking back, I'm ok with how I played. I still haven't watched the video of the table as of yet, and probably will do when I have a free bit of time. Then I can see if Paul was telling the truth!!
I eventually still get knocked out in 7th place, with my QQ in the sb no match for John Murray and his A10, the AAJ flop overkill imo ;) No matter, we're still in a good position, Wales, Ireland and Italy are all doing well which means that Steve and Carl just have to finish 4th in both their games and make sure that Spain don't win every event. Both of the guys get down to the last 3, where Stu, Tony and myself were railing the boys hard, as well as going back to the updating table what seemed like every minute to get the updates, as well as JB who was helping with the updates. At one point, I was absolutely certain we had made it, and whilst going to 100% confirm it, Steve folded JJ and Carl folded AK, both on the button!! 30 seconds later, we were confirmed top 2, alongside Italy. Quickly had a celebratory hug with Tony and Stu, then Steve and Carl. And went and chilled. I wanted 20 mins away from poker, found the table at the bar with Emma and Lucy and just took it easy.
Going into the HU, I was confident. I'm comfortable sitting across the table from most players and being able to play against them, picking up their habits, starting hands and what my ranges should be to play against them. The initial plans were that we'd have an order to play in, and my personal choice is to play 5th. I play better under pressure, always have done, and no idea why. I know that Steve was nervous as hell going into HU, I could see how badly he wanted to win. Hopefully, with my super chilled and calm manner helped him and the other guys relax. In the end, we played all the HU at the same time, and I was sat on the extreme right of the group. Again, I was pretty happy with this, as I could zone out and focus on my game.
I'm determined to play small ball. I feel that the longer I can drag the game, the better I will do, as I tend to play HU in a very certain style. After level 1 I check my stack, I'm slightly ahead. I think back over my hands, he's had and showed trips or better 7 times...
Level 3 is where I start putting more pressure on. Stu has already won his game, and I can see my opponent slightly deflating. I try and project pure confidence. One pot in particular sticks in my mind. I've called a raise pre with 98os, called bets on the flop and turn with the board running KQQJ. The river comes another K. Again I check, deciding that if he has a hand, he's probably scared of betting behind ( maybe losing to A hi), if he has nothing, he bets. He bets, so I have a small tank and 3 bet it hard, he instantly folds. I keep the pressure on, more raises pre, more 3 bets pre. We get to 200/400 and I've 7.5k opposed to 2.5k, so I'm now looking to get him to get it in weak and be ahead. I hear a shout and straight away can see Carl has won, within 2 minutes, all in and a call from Tony on the table next to me, who I know has more chips, get up and see the hand. He wins. Cue pandemonium!! Run round to celebrate with him, then Stu, Steve and then literally shoving tables and chairs out of the way to celebrate with Carl, Lucy and Emma as well. All the boys get there too and we have a bloody big group hug. Of course, my celebration pictures are with Lucy and Emma, Tony and Stu had to put up with each other!! ( definite run good!!)
I quickly pop back to shake hands with my opponent and the rest of the Italian boys, obviously they were completely gutted but very very gracious. Back with the team to celebrate was next on the agenda, most of the rest of the night is a blur, not from drinking I hasten to add! I was literally in a daze from what we had accomplished, it hadn't hit us that night to be honest, but we did have a few drinks, the presentations and the smiling. We were all completely shattered after playing so much pressure poker, and coming out on top. We were World Champions!!
TEAM ENGLAND FTW!!!!
There is more to come on the team event....
As an addition, had my work stocktake over this weekend. I usually put in extra hours in the weeks leading up to it, doing extra checking etc. This year with the WCOAP, I instead took 10 days off work 10 days before it happened. However, the results were good, and I"ll be spending tomorrow doing the final post stocktake checks before having a well deserved 2 days off before starting a few night shifts....
-
Great read Asa ;)
-
Great read Asa ;)
Thankyou :)
We still have some business to conduct do we not?
-
Great read Asa ;)
Thankyou :)
We still have some business to conduct do we not?
Just whenever is most convenient for you matey, just let me know ;) this will have your readers wondering... :D
-
Great read Asa ;)
Thankyou :)
We still have some business to conduct do we not?
Just whenever is most convenient for you matey, just let me know ;) this will have your readers wondering... :D
some will know, others won"t have a clue. Looking at my work rotas now for the next couple of weeks ( but FYI I"m playing at the G Manchester 2moro night....)
-
If you"re playing the 8pm at BNRd I"ll see you there, it"s been a while since I played there.
-
If you"re playing the 8pm at BNRd I"ll see you there, it"s been a while since I played there.
Yup that"s the one. I"ll be there nice and early.
-
The teammates and the joy/relief of winning
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-QFEfP8ZuFt4/UVSFCUaokfI/AAAAAAAAzUw/V9u6TEAUyJg/s512/DSC00007.JPG)
What more can be said about this man. He is forever cementing his place as an APAT legend. His performances during the stt's were amazing, he played all 8 seaters, 1 1st place, 2 2nd and 2 3rd places. One of those 2nd places he had a 29 to 1 chip lead heads up and lost ( see everyone, it is possible!!) He won his heads up match for good measure!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TCgrZaWxkpM/UVSGQlH2rDI/AAAAAAAAzWE/0Bv3n6sdy80/s512/DSC00018.JPG)
TT actually ended up the lowest points scorer on the England team ( serves him right for being a Man U fan imo), but to be fair, apart from his 1 point in the 2nd day Omaha, was consistent in his performances. A great fella to have around the team, amazing supporter and won the important 3rd HU match to win us the gold. That bronze in the stud might have to be forgotten about...
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-AixGkJ4B1a0/UVSHvyyoOmI/AAAAAAAAzXo/oNJ6DAp9br8/s512/DSC00029.JPG)
I've got a ton of time for Stu. The beats he received on day 1 were terrible in any tournament, let alone sit n go's, and to turn up with the added pressure he was going under, the comeback on day 2 with 2 excellent 3rd places, as well as setting us up with the 1st HU win, speak absolute volumes about the guy. His support was utterly astonishing, his boundless enthusiasm ( yes I'm still talking about Stu), certainly helped me continue playing to the highest standard.
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-pZFZIcZNwyM/UVSLUltahPI/AAAAAAAAzbA/KLh2-YXbq7M/s512/DSC00053.JPG)
Steve "The Captain"! Steve acknowledged to the team in advance of the tournament of the enormous pressure he was under. He was chosen for the captaincy again, and he was well aware that if he didn't produce results this time, there would be quite a lot of "well he shouldn't have been chosen & he should have chosen x, y and z instead". He instilled confidence in all of us, told us all we completely deserved to be there and led from the front. A lot of people have commented that because of how well Carl and myself scored, we got to the final 2. Steve also finished in the top 10 individual scorers, 2 2nd places, 2 3rd places, and his blow up in day 2 Omaha... Steve was extremely nervous going into the HU, and hopefully, this is where I helped him. I was extremely relaxed going into it ( almost horizontally so), and I can't remember the exact words, but something along the lines of, "this is why we're here". When we won, I was obviously completely delighted, but more so for Steve. Which then led to another win in the cash tournament. An epic few days for Steve!
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-U-OOmxmQ3Xc/UVZV_jwpcxI/AAAAAAAA1HM/FLXA47nQHQU/s720/IMG_3777.JPG)
A quick word about these 2 wonderful ladies. Emma and Lucy railed the England team tirelessly for 2 days, backed us to the hilt for every moment of it, supported us immensely, and I know I can speak for all of the team in that we completely appreciated it, and as the picture shows, they revelled in the joy of the winning moment!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-NP1Zwtxi5UQ/UVZV9NYagTI/AAAAAAAA1Gc/PrazNypbNXg/s720/IMG_3770.JPG)
The actual moment we won, Carl at the time was out of sight and hadn't seen we'd won. We soon remedied that! Carl is there somewhere!!
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-thXikZ2_msU/UVZV-oq5wVI/AAAAAAAA1G0/UsJ6MPmBAKQ/s720/IMG_3774.JPG)
The celebrations were a little bit muted. I think we initially were relieved it was all over and we'd done what we'd set out to achieve!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F-lgSKloI3E/UVZWQYYRtoI/AAAAAAAA1NI/43ax6yCUFBc/s720/IMG_3848.JPG)
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5ShHO34c_lU/UVZWRSlG21I/AAAAAAAA1Ng/90VkOrop7Cs/s720/IMG_3854.JPG)
-
Asa - great write ups. It"s all coming back! :)
-
Cracking write up Asa mate :) As Steve says, its all coming back, it brings a lump to my throat :)
I would do anything to be back in a team with you guys representing our country again, I mean that. You are all superstars :)
-
I know I speak for Emma too when I say that it was our pleasure! Regardless of the result we were both already so proud of you all for your attitudes towards playing for your country and playing as a team but we so desperately wanted you guys to win, each for your own reasons and as a team and, you did it in pure style!!! :D
Well done again , boys - jangle jangle ;)
xxx
-
Online success
The obvious success on APAT I've had this season, which enabled me to get into the 2 England teams, has been online.
I've been highly fortunate to win the online rankings for the season, and if memory serves me correctly, I didn't play any of the ECOAP because of work. The obvious highlight was winning the UK online, looking at the entire year though, I did perform fairly well.
England PLO 5th 5 points
Wales Main 8th 11 points
Ireland PLO 3rd 7 points
Scotland Main 10th 9 points
UK Main Champion 18 points
League (2) 5th 14 points
WCOAP Stud 7th 3 points
WCOAP PLO 8th 2 points
WCOAP PLO H/L 8th 2 points
WCOAP Main 17th 2 points
Thanks to JonMW for the information ?
-
Fish
-
Fish
And to add to that the story of my exit tonight..
Had my re-entry in level 3, run 15k down to 6k, double up KJ v QQ, then win a multiway pot with A 10 to go over 23k.
One limper at 200/400, look down at 8s 6s raise to 1700 and get 2 callers. Flop 10s 9s 3s . Not bad. I c/bet 2200, responses are all in, all in. I"m never folding. The 2 hands are 9d 3d and A s 7d. Turn 10c River 10d :-\
-
I rest my case ;D ;D ;D ;D
-
Well, this week has been fun!
Thurs-Tues was stocktake prep, stocktake and post stocktake checking, average 10-11 hour days, so pretty exhausting.
Had Wednesday off, went and met Ian at the G for a quick drink before the tourny, was home before the 1st break :)
Worked overnight Thurs & Fri, totally shattering when you"re not used to it!
I"ve got at least 3 more nights of them this week, if not 4.
Then Saturday, for the first time in 2 years, and probably first time properly in 8 years, I"ll be playing cricket. I"m really looking forward to it, and as I"ll be playing on the same team as Adam Sharples, it should be damn good fun!
-
Great write ups from the WCOAP Asa.. Memories that will stick with me for ever.. Unbelievable team spirit throughout the two days.
Let"s hope we all run well next season, and have a shot to perhaps defend our title..
-
Oh good god, Saturday is going to be fun.
Assuming, of course, that it doesn"t rain.
-
Then Saturday, for the first time in 2 years, and probably first time properly in 8 years, I"ll be playing cricket. I"m really looking forward to it, and as I"ll be playing on the same team as Adam Sharples, it should be damn good fun!
Hmm That"s Saturday afternoon taken care of ;D ;D ;D ;D
-
Then Saturday, for the first time in 2 years, and probably first time properly in 8 years, I"ll be playing cricket. I"m really looking forward to it, and as I"ll be playing on the same team as Adam Sharples, it should be damn good fun!
Hmm That"s Saturday afternoon taken care of ;D ;D ;D ;D
Unfortunately for you Ger, it"s an away game somewhere in Warrington I believe :p
-
Then Saturday, for the first time in 2 years, and probably first time properly in 8 years, I"ll be playing cricket. I"m really looking forward to it, and as I"ll be playing on the same team as Adam Sharples, it should be damn good fun!
Hmm That"s Saturday afternoon taken care of ;D ;D ;D ;D
Unfortunately for you Ger, it"s an away game somewhere in Warrington I believe :p
And ?
-
Then Saturday, for the first time in 2 years, and probably first time properly in 8 years, I"ll be playing cricket. I"m really looking forward to it, and as I"ll be playing on the same team as Adam Sharples, it should be damn good fun!
Hmm That"s Saturday afternoon taken care of ;D ;D ;D ;D
Unfortunately for you Ger, it"s an away game somewhere in Warrington I believe :p
And ?
Damn that doesn"t put you off? ;)
-
Just awaiting to get the train to Warrington to meet up with Adam to go play this thing called cricket. So far, it"s a typical spring day, sunshine and showers. I honestly can"t wait to get in the field and start diving and sliding everywhere. It"ll be interesting to see how the throwing arm holds up, and to see if I remember how to hold a bat!
-
Just awaiting to get the train to Warrington to meet up with Adam to go play this thing called cricket. So far, it"s a typical spring day, sunshine and showers. I honestly can"t wait to get in the field and start diving and sliding everywhere. It"ll be interesting to see how the throwing arm holds up, and to see if I remember how to hold a bat!
Enjoy yourselves, i"m sure you will be fine :D
xxx
-
Serious. Pain.
-
Serious. Pain.
Yep I know that one. Home and hurting!
-
So, we fielded first, and the opposition got off to a bit of a flyer. Adam and myself came on to bowl at roughly the same time, my 1st over was a bit all over the place, 1st ball of the 2nd over was a terrible, leg side half tracker that the batsman skied to fine leg where it was taken very well :) Managed to get 2 more bats caught, and still had a lot left in the tank speed wise, but as my control wasn"t where I"d like, I kept the speed down to help it. Hit one bloke on the helmet off a length which was interesting! Managed to take an absolute skier from midwicket which ended up behind long on! Also some very pleasing diving around the field.
Adam gave me the choice of 6 or 9 batting, so I plumped for 9, Adam batted at 6 which ended up being a good choice as he top scored with an excellent 44, until he played a dire shot just after I"d come in. Happy with my batting, seeing the ball well, played inside the line a few times when just outside off stump, some good forward and back foot defensive shots. First scoring shot a lovely sweep along the floor for 2. Also hit by far their best bowler for 4, after 8 overs his figures were 8-7-2-1, we"d obviously got myself and no 10 in, so I started playing a few shots, and hit him through long on for a good 4, which surprised their fielders as I"d been fairly defensive until then! Once the no 10 was out, I started advancing down the wicket and moving about the crease, then tickled one round the corner to the keeper which was frustrating!
All in all, absolutely enjoyed it, looking forward to next week already, if not the pain and aches afterwards!!
-
After a swift consultation I am still none the wiser, but hey the tone was that you enjoyed it.......
(http://www.sporting-gifts.com/csp/sport/products/large/opt1/37919.jpg)
-
And we do exactly the same next week...
-
And we do exactly the same next week...
Yup :)
Ordered everything except a bat btw, gotta find somewhere close that sells them to try them out
-
Your team takes catches???!?!?!?! I hate you!
I just returned from a 7 wicket defeat, my Leg Spin taking 7-1-22-1 with 2 drops and a missed stumping off my bowling.
[ ] I took it really well and didnt scream, shout and swear at our wicketkeeper.
-
All 8 wickets were to catches ;D
To be fair, a good few went down as well!
-
Game 2
First home game for me, get there nice and early with Adam, and have a very long warm up. I managed to tweak a groin muscle last week, so for me to bowl, I wanted to be 100%. It felt ok warming up, first ball I fielded in the match I managed to re-tweak it, so no bowling for me. The boys bowled superbly, restricting the opposition to just 117-5. Adam then surprised me by putting me at 4 ( 9 last week remember), and took my chance fairly well, scoring 27 with some very pleasing offside shots ( 6 boundaries). Adam came in and smashed a quick 26no to bring us home :)
Very enjoyable, looking forward to next week, and just hoping I can recover to be able to bowl next week.
-
Thankfully feeling much better already, so should be back to 100% for next week"s game.
Poker wise... errr not done anything... however..
I have the next 2 days off, I won"t be playing live unless the G puts something decent on, as far as I know, it"s just the usual £10+£10 which most get in free for ( if you play over the weekend), which I won"t be bothering with. I"m up early on Wednesday, so Monday is looking good for a few games online.
Most likely I"ll be putting a staking thread up once I wake up and look at the schedules across the sites ;)
-
Would quite like to stars to have their schedule up past 6pm :-[
-
Has it really been 2 weeks since I"ve been on here!
Poker - played a couple of small schedules, ran into the last 100 on consecutive nights in $3 mtt"s, in one lost a big pot AK v 88, the second AK v KQ which hurt. And that"s it! Why? Well...
Work - over pretty much the last month, I"ve worked either 12 hour days or 12 hour nights in order to get my store up to the next "expected standards". Over the last few years, work have cut to avoid us dropping during the recession, and now we"re getting there, they are now looking to spend money to update the stores and make them look superb. We had the visits from the directors on Saturday morning at 8.30am, and thankfully they were very impressed. I"ve seen the plans for the store going forward and it all looks good, the only downside being that as you"d expect, most of the work will be overnight. After a month of that, there have been a few effects on me, firstly I"m absolutely shattered, those that know me know I"m a late night person, every night I"ve been in bed on the right side of midnight! I"ve also definitely lost a fair bit of weight as well as a fair bit of belly which is also good news. The other positive is that I have built up quite a lot of lieu time which I"ll be taking starting next week, so I might just be able to get a game or 2 of live poker in. I"ve also spent a good couple of hundred quid on expenses, so when I get that back, it"s hello online bankroll again.
Plans for June poker:
Stars - gonna stick about $250 on and just play $2.50 180mans, nothing else. I think I can beat these and due to the nature of the tournaments, I won"t be getting bored.
APAT - not been on properly for a few months, will stick the rest of my expenses on there just to play low stakes mtt"s. Hopefully, will be able to bink on there as I did in 2012.
Coventry - at the moment I won"t be playing it, purely as I have too much on. But who knows!
Cricket - still just the 2 games played so far, missed the last 2 games, one rained off, and couldn"t play last weekend due to work. Sooooo looking forward to playing this weekend ( if I get picked!!).
-
Looking like a perfect day to bat. Completely gorgeous it is :)
Played a lil bit online last night, last 130 in the 7pm $3 before bluffing most of my stack off. Easily cashed in the big $11 despite losing a 70k hand, KK v A7 v A8. Ended up doing the last AK vs AJ all in pre. Ran like a yoyo in the low horse, getting up to 12k very early, down to under 1k, back up to 16k then getting 3 other people to put 4k each in pre then on a 9 hi flop, I had nut low and flush draws and managed to miss everything in a 70k pot.
-
So... the day to bat ended up with us bowling and conceding 200+, I opened the bowling, up the hill and into the wind ( I wasn"t happy about this), bowled ok, and finished with 7-0-27-0. I really struggled with my run up, no issues with no balls or anything, just couldn"t settle into a rhythm. Was focusing so much on run up the bowling wasn"t hostile and didn"t have any big chances. Within that score, we managed a total of 12 drops ( none to me I hasten to add), as I ended up for most of the game sweeping on the boundary. Adam complained towards the end of his spell he had a niggle, so I started warming up to bowl again, but he was fine. Then I get asked to open the batting. ( I"ve batted twice in 6 years at this point). I don"t mind where I bat, so said ok. Got out there, and we were soon 2 down, with their opening bowler coming fast down the hill with the wind getting 1 wicket, then his replacement getting one second ball. He seemed a bloody good bowler, and afterwards, we found out he was a 1st team bowler who had to go early this week. Whilst the guy batting at the other end was scoring quickly, I became pre-occupied with keeping this guy out. Next I know, I"ve batted for 26 overs, he comes down to my end after bowling where he says well batted, and off he popped.
The opposition now have 10 players, they"ve got a spinner at one end and I"m looking forward to accelerating. Of course, I know get out, mistiming a shot to mid on straight to the bowler. I"ve scored 15 after all that time ;D The team accelerates and we eventually score 177-7 to get a draw.
From there, we get a lift to New Brighton casino, and sit down in a poker tourny straight away, where Ger, Carl and Michelle are already in. Ger is on my table and already has tons of chips. 1st hand get QQ, raise UTG, 3 callers and my c bet on a K hi flop gets through. Manage to double up after a raise and several callers, I call with 53os in my bb, hit my straight on the turn and the other guy open shoves it :)
Adam and myself both get to the final table, I go out 9th or 10th and Adam min cashes. Spend the night on the floor at Adam and Joobs" which was a good sleep and not interrupted by cats at all. A good brekkie spent with all in Chester, before Adam and myself head back to Manchester. Pop by mine to clean up after the cats and feed them, then off to the G for their £30 f/out. It starts with an entire 8 runners, never gets over the opening table.... not quite sure what"s going on there at the moment...
Anyways, both Adam and myself start to run over the table, and we have just under half the chips in play with 8 left. I raise UTG with Ad Kd get 2 callers, then Adam 3 bets. I have a good think here. I know Adam quite well as a player, and I know he knows me. He is aware of my opening ranges, and he knows I can fold if I think I"m behind. Wasn"t happening this time however :P I put a decent size 4 bet in to see what happens... he 5 bets.. so we get it all in, and I"m a little surprise to see he has Ah Qc ( can"t remember the suits he had)
The 10h 10d 8d I was pretty happy with... less so the Qs river... and I"m crippled and out next hand. Adam still didn"t win, running decent pp"s into KK and AA twice. I go and sit and play Larry for an hour at min levels, then stick my last £20 at £2 spins, get on the special feature last spin to win £60, then in the next £10, twice more to end up with £250.
Monday is spent mainly shopping in Manc with Adam, bought a couple of good cricket bats which I needed, and I"ve spent a fair bit of time over the last 2 weeks knocking them in.
This Saturday, I"ve been asked to play for the 1st team ( they must be short of bowlers), so looking forward to that in this weather...
-
26 overs for 15.....
Asa "worm killer" McGrath
-
26 overs for 15.....
Asa "worm killer" McGrath
Tell me about it. I had no idea, I was completely focused on keeping this bloody good bowler out. My timing was terrible which didn"t help matters. Hopefully now I"ve got a bat that weighs a fair bit and isn"t a teenagers spare bat....
-
Quick note on the above:
I am lucky enough to have a pretty large living room. Asa slept on the double mattress which had a full duvet set on it - most comfortable floor ever!
-
Quick note on the above:
I am lucky enough to have a pretty large living room. Asa slept on the double mattress which had a full duvet set on it - most comfortable floor ever!
Definitely :) No complaints whatsoever :)
-
...then off to the G for their £30 f/out. It starts with an entire 8 runners, never gets over the opening table.... not quite sure what"s going on there at the moment...
I was in there on Monday for the 25/25 Sat which started with 4 runners... eventually got 15 runners but the place is such a dump. There was a glossy flyer on the table announcing a massive refurb... grand opening July 2013, yeah right !
-
...then off to the G for their £30 f/out. It starts with an entire 8 runners, never gets over the opening table.... not quite sure what"s going on there at the moment...
I was in there on Monday for the 25/25 Sat which started with 4 runners... eventually got 15 runners but the place is such a dump. There was a glossy flyer on the table announcing a massive refurb... grand opening July 2013, yeah right !
And the lack of runners can only be blamed in a few areas.
1) why build a new G less than 5 miles away in an area that is already overpopulated with card rooms.
2) removing the 25/50 level means unless you massively chip up early, it"s a complete crapshoot within 5 levels.
3) they don"t seem to plan ahead. For months I asked for decent freeze outs on a Saturday night, they stuck it on Sunday...
4) no bank holiday event? Perfect day to run a guaranteed comp starting at 4?
5) very little consistency in rulings. Perfectly good rulings overturned because the regular player wasn"t happy. Also same situations different rulings etc
I"ve honestly no idea how they can get players back apart from point 2. The casino is getting a 25 table card room. Will look like a barn and be empty a lot then..
-
Still very little poker to report on and just the 1 game of cricket, where on Saturday I played for the 1sts as they were short of players, and we got battered by a Sri Lankan side carrying a former u19 international ( who incidentally bowled like lightning, took 6-12 inc a hattrick and hit me in 4 places!) Managed to bag a wicket bowling as well.
Playing for the 1sts again next week in a much more winnable game, before hopefully going back to the 2nds the week after.
-
Day off so playing a few tournies and 180s on stars
Nice start in a few tournies, now it"s all going wrong...
PokerStars Hand #99894163743: Tournament #743314419, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level X (125/250) - 2013/06/11 18:35:39 WET [2013/06/11 13:35:39 ET]
Table "743314419 45" 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: balzacm (3810 in chips)
Seat 2: amcgrath1uk (15408 in chips)
Seat 3: ntredicci (11410 in chips)
Seat 4: Rsousa924 (5585 in chips)
Seat 5: Svetik70296 (13818 in chips)
Seat 6: FRESHGAMER (135 in chips)
Seat 7: Grigsharowka (5419 in chips)
Seat 8: dwerff (11898 in chips)
Seat 9: rowseanaitor (10558 in chips)
balzacm: posts the ante 30
amcgrath1uk: posts the ante 30
ntredicci: posts the ante 30
Rsousa924: posts the ante 30
Svetik70296: posts the ante 30
FRESHGAMER: posts the ante 30
Grigsharowka: posts the ante 30
dwerff: posts the ante 30
rowseanaitor: posts the ante 30
FRESHGAMER: posts small blind 105 and is all-in
Grigsharowka: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to amcgrath1uk [3h 3c]
dwerff: folds
rowseanaitor: folds
balzacm: folds
amcgrath1uk: raises 500 to 750
ntredicci: folds
Rsousa924: folds
Svetik70296: calls 750
Grigsharowka: folds
*** FLOP *** [3s 5s 9d]
amcgrath1uk: bets 1250
Svetik70296: raises 5500 to 6750
amcgrath1uk: raises 7878 to 14628 and is all-in
Svetik70296: calls 6288 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1590) returned to amcgrath1uk
*** TURN *** [3s 5s 9d] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [3s 5s 9d 4d] [8d]
FRESHGAMER said, "wtf sveta?"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
amcgrath1uk: shows [3h 3c] (three of a kind, Threes)
Svetik70296: shows [9s 9h] (three of a kind, Nines)
amcgrath1uk said, "sick"
Svetik70296 collected 27511 from side pot
FRESHGAMER: shows [4h As] (a pair of Fours)
Svetik70296 collected 690 from main pot
FRESHGAMER finished the tournament in 220th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 28201 Main pot 690. Side pot 27511. | Rake 0
Board [3s 5s 9d 4d 8d]
Seat 1: balzacm folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 2: amcgrath1uk showed [3h 3c] and lost with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 3: ntredicci folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 4: Rsousa924 folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 5: Svetik70296 (button) showed [9s 9h] and won (28201) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 6: FRESHGAMER (small blind) showed [4h As] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 7: Grigsharowka (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: dwerff folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
Seat 9: rowseanaitor folded before Flop (didn"t bet)
-
Not a huge amount to update. Been playing batches of 6 of the 180s and it"s fair to say I"m running like dog. 3 times I"ve got onto the FT bubble in the CL, twice I"ve finished 10th, 1st time dealt AA in bb, sb shoves with 98sh, even though I hit the A, I lose, next hand 10 10 in sb, UTG has shoved, he has K 10 and spikes :/
Very last one of the night last night I finish 5th, being one of 3 with chips, and the 2 shorties contiually double up, eventually I shoved AJ called by AK and, even though I picked up a flush draw on the flop, it obviously didn"t come.
Will play a few more of these today, but running low on funds so need a good day. Not so far, at 25/50 with 4 limpers, I bump it up to 300, and someone decides K 3os is a good hand UTG at this point?
Cricket went well on Saturday. We bowled first, had them 31-4 but they recovered to 149ao. I didn"t really help the cause, dropping a tough one at point ( my least favourite fielding position), my second ball got an edge through to the keeper which he caught, I go up to celebrate, no he hadn"t hit it, it"d just seamed that much :( Then get a difficult caught and bowled chance where he was through the shot and got a leading edge, the ball went pretty much straight up and down and despite a full length dive, only got by fingertips to it. Only bowled 5 overs, went 5-0-20-0. Was batting at 5, but we scored at a run a ball from the start more or less, winning by 8 wickets.
This Saturday, we have a very good team away from home, and these guys turned over the Sri Lankan team who destroyed us. Think I may get a bat in this one ;D
It"s the last of my extra days off work today, so going to play a little bit online, already been for a good long walk for an hour to stretch my legs after watching England get S Africa 80-8 then let them get away.
-
Not a huge amount to update. Been playing batches of 6 of the 180s and it"s fair to say I"m running like dog. 3 times I"ve got onto the FT bubble in the CL, twice I"ve finished 10th, 1st time dealt AA in bb, sb shoves with 98sh, even though I hit the A, I lose, next hand 10 10 in sb, UTG has shoved, he has K 10 and spikes :/
Very last one of the night last night I finish 5th, being one of 3 with chips, and the 2 shorties contiually double up, eventually I shoved AJ called by AK and, even though I picked up a flush draw on the flop, it obviously didn"t come.
Will play a few more of these today, but running low on funds so need a good day. Not so far, at 25/50 with 4 limpers, I bump it up to 300, and someone decides K 3os is a good hand UTG at this point?
Go On I will ask :-)
Why?
-
Not a huge amount to update. Been playing batches of 6 of the 180s and it"s fair to say I"m running like dog. 3 times I"ve got onto the FT bubble in the CL, twice I"ve finished 10th, 1st time dealt AA in bb, sb shoves with 98sh, even though I hit the A, I lose, next hand 10 10 in sb, UTG has shoved, he has K 10 and spikes :/
Very last one of the night last night I finish 5th, being one of 3 with chips, and the 2 shorties contiually double up, eventually I shoved AJ called by AK and, even though I picked up a flush draw on the flop, it obviously didn"t come.
Will play a few more of these today, but running low on funds so need a good day. Not so far, at 25/50 with 4 limpers, I bump it up to 300, and someone decides K 3os is a good hand UTG at this point?
Go On I will ask :-)
Why?
Against me for 20% of his chips? No idea. I have AQ with the Ah on a 3 hearts board, and he calls my shove with it
( no hearts)????
Anyways, I"ve got a ton on coming up so going to be a busy boy. Will continue attempting to grind the 180s for the rest of the month, and pokerwise that should be it, no opportunity to play live at the moment, and no chance of playing Coventry :(
However, then I have Cardiff in August, hopefully HOPEFULLY at least some of DtD in August, then the GPS in Stoke in September, using the added value seat I won for winning the online rankings, and hoping for a decent result in something in one of these events, as compared to my online results, my live APAT results, for me, are a little disappointing. I will be giving it a damn good go this season.
Work wise, I have a store reflow to do for the end of July, which will be joyous. Cricket tomorrow will be played just outside Sandbach, assuming we get a game in.
-
Not a huge amount to update. Been playing batches of 6 of the 180s and it"s fair to say I"m running like dog. 3 times I"ve got onto the FT bubble in the CL, twice I"ve finished 10th, 1st time dealt AA in bb, sb shoves with 98sh, even though I hit the A, I lose, next hand 10 10 in sb, UTG has shoved, he has K 10 and spikes :/
Very last one of the night last night I finish 5th, being one of 3 with chips, and the 2 shorties contiually double up, eventually I shoved AJ called by AK and, even though I picked up a flush draw on the flop, it obviously didn"t come.
Will play a few more of these today, but running low on funds so need a good day. Not so far, at 25/50 with 4 limpers, I bump it up to 300, and someone decides K 3os is a good hand UTG at this point?
Go On I will ask :-)
Why?
Against me for 20% of his chips? No idea. I have AQ with the Ah on a 3 hearts board, and he calls my shove with it
( no hearts)????
Anyways, I"ve got a ton on coming up so going to be a busy boy. Will continue attempting to grind the 180s for the rest of the month, and pokerwise that should be it, no opportunity to play live at the moment, and no chance of playing Coventry :(
However, then I have Cardiff in August, hopefully HOPEFULLY at least some of DtD in August, then the GPS in Stoke in September, using the added value seat I won for winning the online rankings, and hoping for a decent result in something in one of these events, as compared to my online results, my live APAT results, for me, are a little disappointing. I will be giving it a damn good go this season.
Work wise, I have a store reflow to do for the end of July, which will be joyous. Cricket tomorrow will be played just outside Sandbach, assuming we get a game in.
I meant why do you make it 300 at 25/50. This makes no sense in these, you don"t thin the field very often and if you miss the flop you have to check/fold. Just raise smaller, it achieves the same goal but costs you less when you have to check/fold on a load of boards. Also gives you room to make a profitable cbet in some circumstances (pretty rare but possible)
-
Not a huge amount to update. Been playing batches of 6 of the 180s and it"s fair to say I"m running like dog. 3 times I"ve got onto the FT bubble in the CL, twice I"ve finished 10th, 1st time dealt AA in bb, sb shoves with 98sh, even though I hit the A, I lose, next hand 10 10 in sb, UTG has shoved, he has K 10 and spikes :/
Very last one of the night last night I finish 5th, being one of 3 with chips, and the 2 shorties contiually double up, eventually I shoved AJ called by AK and, even though I picked up a flush draw on the flop, it obviously didn"t come.
Will play a few more of these today, but running low on funds so need a good day. Not so far, at 25/50 with 4 limpers, I bump it up to 300, and someone decides K 3os is a good hand UTG at this point?
Go On I will ask :-)
Why?
Against me for 20% of his chips? No idea. I have AQ with the Ah on a 3 hearts board, and he calls my shove with it
( no hearts)????
Anyways, I"ve got a ton on coming up so going to be a busy boy. Will continue attempting to grind the 180s for the rest of the month, and pokerwise that should be it, no opportunity to play live at the moment, and no chance of playing Coventry :(
However, then I have Cardiff in August, hopefully HOPEFULLY at least some of DtD in August, then the GPS in Stoke in September, using the added value seat I won for winning the online rankings, and hoping for a decent result in something in one of these events, as compared to my online results, my live APAT results, for me, are a little disappointing. I will be giving it a damn good go this season.
Work wise, I have a store reflow to do for the end of July, which will be joyous. Cricket tomorrow will be played just outside Sandbach, assuming we get a game in.
I meant why do you make it 300 at 25/50. This makes no sense in these, you don"t thin the field very often and if you miss the flop you have to check/fold. Just raise smaller, it achieves the same goal but costs you less when you have to check/fold on a load of boards. Also gives you room to make a profitable cbet in some circumstances (pretty rare but possible)
Cool ok fair enough. He then compounded the call, by calling with 3rd pair with 3 hearts on the flop and no heart to my shove. Haha.
-
Poker - the less said about 180s the better, getting to the last 27 without issue, sometimes on 4/6 I"m playing, then it all goes horribly wrong.
Work - all change, we"ve had a 4 person management team, and the same 4 for 3 years, and within 48 hours, 2 have founf other jobs. What this means at the moment however, is outside of Cardiff and GPS Stoke, I can"t see how i can possibly get the UK @ DTD off, I MIGHT be able to squeeze Sunday/Monday, but until I find out who the new boss is, I won"t know.
Cricket - We had just 10 for our 1st team game on Saturday, and then we find out we only have 3 actual bowlers. Usual opening bowler wasn"t there, so 2nd and 3rd bowled about 15 overs, then I come on, score is about 70-0 iirc, and pretty quickly get both opening bats, then the no 3 out, 2 LBW, one caught & bowled, the c & b was smashed straight back at me, a foot either side it was 4 runs, but it was straight at me. Ended up with 11-0-56-3 with my last over going for 17 as they slogged out, 10-0-39-3 was the initial spell, all up the hill into a bloody strong wind. Batting, the less said the better, a 3 ball duck, bowled by a spinner, and one that I somehow lost in flight :-\ We lost by 100+ runs, not really a surprise as they"re a good team ( just lookiing at the table anyway)
I hope all APAT"ers have an awesome weekend in Coventry, absolutely gutting I can"t be there :(
-
Not a huge amount to update. Been playing batches of 6 of the 180s and it"s fair to say I"m running like dog. 3 times I"ve got onto the FT bubble in the CL, twice I"ve finished 10th, 1st time dealt AA in bb, sb shoves with 98sh, even though I hit the A, I lose, next hand 10 10 in sb, UTG has shoved, he has K 10 and spikes :/
Very last one of the night last night I finish 5th, being one of 3 with chips, and the 2 shorties contiually double up, eventually I shoved AJ called by AK and, even though I picked up a flush draw on the flop, it obviously didn"t come.
Will play a few more of these today, but running low on funds so need a good day. Not so far, at 25/50 with 4 limpers, I bump it up to 300, and someone decides K 3os is a good hand UTG at this point?
Go On I will ask :-)
Why?
Against me for 20% of his chips? No idea. I have AQ with the Ah on a 3 hearts board, and he calls my shove with it
( no hearts)????
Anyways, I"ve got a ton on coming up so going to be a busy boy. Will continue attempting to grind the 180s for the rest of the month, and pokerwise that should be it, no opportunity to play live at the moment, and no chance of playing Coventry :(
However, then I have Cardiff in August, hopefully HOPEFULLY at least some of DtD in August, then the GPS in Stoke in September, using the added value seat I won for winning the online rankings, and hoping for a decent result in something in one of these events, as compared to my online results, my live APAT results, for me, are a little disappointing. I will be giving it a damn good go this season.
Work wise, I have a store reflow to do for the end of July, which will be joyous. Cricket tomorrow will be played just outside Sandbach, assuming we get a game in.
I meant why do you make it 300 at 25/50. This makes no sense in these, you don"t thin the field very often and if you miss the flop you have to check/fold. Just raise smaller, it achieves the same goal but costs you less when you have to check/fold on a load of boards. Also gives you room to make a profitable cbet in some circumstances (pretty rare but possible)
Cool ok fair enough. He then compounded the call, by calling with 3rd pair with 3 hearts on the flop and no heart to my shove. Haha.
Think our play is generally fine obviously, these 180 turbos plat strange though. I think plays that (like shoving vs 3 limpers preflop) actually become good plays. I could be totally wrong of course.
-
Quick updates but nothing major going on. Woeful running in the 2.50"s continues, but hit a 2nd in one of only 2 $8"s that I bothered playing, which profit wise, more or less makes up for the rest. Easily won at cricket this week, didn"t come on to bowl until the 38th over, and went 3-1-8-2, figures look good, truth being I bowled absolute filth, took both wickets in my 1st over which were both half trackers and missed, one bowled, one LBW. Chasing 147 to win, they asked me to open, I lasted 4 balls without scoring, where coming forward to defend, one spat off the pitch hit the top edge of my bat and looped slowly to slip. Sigh. The other opener and no 3 put on 142 in quick time, and we won with 15 overs or so to spare.
-
I might be a little bit tired today!
10am yesterday and I"m getting ready to set off for Chester, get a call, the game is off, fancy playing for the 2nds. Why not eh? Get to Chester just before midday, meet Adam, 2nds called off FML. Decide to wait for the next train and watch the Lions in the pub over the road. An hour later, celebrations done, I"ve missed my train, next thing, I"ve agreed to go to New Brighton to play a lil bit of crazy golf with Adam, Joobs and the rest.... after an obligatory and decent pub lunch that is...
Fancy a sit n go? Oh go on then... turns into getting home at 4am, when I"m up at 8am for work...
All I can say is epic day, well worth being this tired, mahoosive thanks to Mich for getting me back to Manchester at 4am!!!
Cracking day, awesome people, and a mega well done to Mich for her online FT, and Ger for yet another medal!
Now... a bloody cold shower after some food, then a damn long sleep
-
The golf was fun and it has a new name. It"s now called the "Hard Luck & Feck It" game........
-
Was a cool day indeed, spur of the moment days like that often turn out to be the better ones :D Fantastic company as always ;D
The evening was funny listening to bouts of "Get in there" from Ger .... was amusing trying to play live round of each whilst playing APAT's NLHE and Omaha at the same time. Chuffed to have finished 6th in the end.
Highlight for me was asking you half the way home, ""Sooooo, whereabouts on the motorway do we come off for yours then"" for you to reply ""No idea, I don"t drive". pmsl, big Okkkkaaaaayyyyyyyyy well I"ll get you to manchester and we"ll drive around til you recognise where you are hahahahahahahahahahaha ;D ;D ;D
Was also looking forward to nice hot chillaxing bath before an awesome sleeeep .... but alas my powers of blowing light bulbs went a step higher this evening when this time I blew the whole lights ring main ... fml .... it"s a very old fuse box, one of the metal ones with "fat fuses" and i have 30A fat fuses but no 13A fat fuses ..... bed it is then.
(why start a blog when I can just boot-leg off yours haha)
-
pmsl, just remembered hugging Adam on arrival and getting "doofed" in th eface by his incredibly tough BBP cap .... it may be made of material but fml it did smart a bit. Poker players are dangerous I tells ya ;)
-
Not much to report this week, had some bloody deep runs in poker, nothing higher than 8th though, that bit of luck on the final table is eluding me at the mo.
Struggling to get to live poker whatsoever, at the moment it looks like the next live for me is APAT Cardiff, where I will be extremely hungover... then again, I was the same at the WCOAP ME when I had a pretty good start...
Cricket - well, it was a tad hot yesterday... we lost the toss and had to field. The outfield was like concrete and lightning!!
We quite obviously wilted in the heat, they scored over 200, we were quickly 20-5 and eventually 75ao. At least I didn"t get a 0 this week, a whopping 5 this time. Only bowled 2 overs :/ Next week all being well, I"ll be playing for the 2nds so I can get some bowling in.
-
Did get to play for the 2nds this week, and did get some bowling in!
However, we bowled the opposition out for just 123, i went 7-1-35-1! Well too expensive! My 3rd and 4th overs were the best, getting the very decent opener out, and beating the bat on several occasions. The other 5 were complete crap. I got a wicket though, more than Adam managed ;D The plan for me batting wise was to go in middle order, however, Adam dropped a catch at slip which damaged his hand, meaning he didn"t want to bat. So i go and open, and get bowled behind my legs ( again!) for 0. Despite us being 21-3, we knock the runs off in under 20 overs.
As the game finished early, a quick pub dinner with Adam and Joobs which was pretty good, then home, getting in after 11pm! Just the 14 hour day then!
Poker - played online tonight, shouldn"t have bothered. Hoping to play this or next Weds night to get my eye back in before Cardiff.
-
Poker - played last Weds night - the G card room in Manchester looks fantastic, the dealers/valets of the usual quality lets it down a touch. Managed to dust off everything within 4 levels, QQ no match for 98.
Work - madness has finally ended. 2 months of solid work has come to fruition, and it"s probably been worth it.
Personal - nothing much going on as per usual, way too busy with work, dealing with the animals and all the hassles that comes with, on the plus side only 5 ish months to go, downside being it"s only been 3 months so far. It does mean that Vegas is an absolute definite no this year :(
Cricket - as were very short of players, only the 1sts played, away at Hartford who by all accounts were very good. We lost the toss, and they batted on another hot hot day. We get a relatively early wicket, and their no 3 comes in, scorer of just under 800 runs this season with an average of 107. First ball he gets off the mark, 1st attacking shot of his next over, he absolutely creams on through midwicket, as hard as I"ve ever seen one hit. Unfortunately for him, he hit it straight at me. It was hit with such ferocity it knocked me off my feet, dropping it. Still on my way down, I manage to grab on again and he was out. As a byproduct, I land very heavily on my back, and also crack my head pretty hard. It certainly had an impact, and until even yesterday, I was pretty woozy.
I bowled 5 overs, 1st 3 n a half were decent, last 9 deliveries weren"t. They were a big bulky team, and they eventually declared on 176-7.
As I"ve often been asked to do as a left hander, I opened the batting, we had a good start with lots of wides and poor deliveries, as well as their best bowler pulling a hamstring in his second over. There was tons of banter going on between their erratic fast bowler and our top bat. We managed to put on 58 for the 1st wicket, where I managed to edge to slip from a spinner, eventually caught by a juggling catch from the guy I caught earlier... I couldn"t resist as I walked off... nice catch.. mine was still better though ;) We were soon 70-4 and 110-7. One of the young second teamers came in at 9, with one of the decent bats then steered us sensibly, until we needed 12 from 2 overs. The main batter was on strike, but because he was shattered and with smallish boundaries, 2s weren"t happening, they stuck 9 on the boundary, and we ended up drawing a quality game.
3 short sleeps until my 1st APAT live event of the season and it"s fair to say I CANNOT wait. If you"re in Cardiff, I hope to spend some quality time with you all!
-
Reminders to self to post:
Cardiff
G Manchester deep run
Pokerstars deep run
Complete lack of sleep
The next few weeks
( When I find time to )
-
Reminders to self to post:
Cardiff
G Manchester deep run
Pokerstars deep run
Complete lack of sleep
The next few weeks
( When I find time to )
Get some sleep first mate ;)
-
Reminders to self to post:
Cardiff
G Manchester deep run
Pokerstars deep run
Complete lack of sleep
The next few weeks
( When I find time to )
Get some sleep first mate ;)
Indeed, that"s why I posted those as a reminder last night, knew I"d be too tired after work today but I"m off tomorrow so should be able to catch up on everything :) Hope you"re ok Grant, have definitely missed having a good ol" drink with you!
-
Finally get the chance as well as the botheredness to do a catch up..
Cardiff: The trip down was decent, shared mainly with Adam, and seemed to pass quickly enough. Then a quick shower and change and out with the APAT lot for TC"s stag do. However many of us it was outside and inside the Terranova was a cracking start, then off into town, vaguely remembering feeling pretty hammered, getting back to the casino and hotel feeling very hammered, and decided discretion was definitely a good idea, so headed up to my room for a long night.
Felt fine on Saturday, raring to go:
Nice easy table then:
Seat 1 Josephine Rees
Seat 2 Dawn Dineen
Seat 3 Ben Turnstill
Seat 4 Paul Davis
Seat 5 Patrick Godfrey
Seat 6 Asa McGrath
Seat 7 Gavin Jones
Seat 8 Gerard Smyth
Seat 9 Tom Steuart Fielding
Seat 10 Richard Sutton
Had the feeling when I worked out the table I"d either get lots of chips or be out fairly early...
The latter obviously happened with Ben destroying AA with 65 and JJ with A5. Just chilled for the rest of the day, had a a few drinks, a good chat with a good crowd then bed.
Omaha was decent despite having Dan Owston sat next to me, got off to a good start, lost a couple of hands then decided 7654 was good to reshove. Out in 12th/13th ish. Then played the night tournament, started really well, and bluffed off my 80k stack with 10 hi, called down by 5th pair...
Another highly fun and quality weekend, just needing the poker to start firing... so.....
Played a nice Friday night tournament at the G in Manchester, £20 f/out 1.5k guarantee. Played as well as I have for a long time, made the right calls, right decisions, and had mountains with about 23 left. Then the crucial hand. Raised UTG with QQ, bb is the only caller. Flop is 10 hi, and she open shoves. Easy call, she has A 10, river 10. Manage to claw a good few chips back, but only had one move being shortstack, and eventually ran Q9 into 10 10.
3 times in the last couple of weeks I"ve got down to the last 2/3 tables in mtt"s on stars, all highly frustrating as I"ve played really well and gone out in huge hands twice. JJ v 10 9 after a QJxKA board, and managed to run into AAxx 4 handed with 7 left in a 6 max omaha ( I had AKQ4 double suited). The cashes are obviously quite nice, but the big one still eludes me.
Sleep - until this week, sleep has been horrible, not more than 4 hours per night, coupled with falling asleep at odd times. This week it seems to have self corrected at last, with a good 8 hours 3 times :)
Cricket - didn"t play 2 weeks ago as I"d managed to trap a nerve in my neck. Played last Saturday, and despite it raining everywhere else, we got a full game in! Was 10 a side as Adam had to pull out for us, we fielded like demons at the start with one of the bowlers going 10-5-10-1 at the start of his first spell, and restricted them to just 143, I got 3 overs, got another wicket so the strike rate isn"t bad! ( 3rd best in the club!) We knocked off the runs ok ( I was at no 6 so no batting). Only 2 games to go for me because...
Upcoming... obviously we"re all at DtD this weekend, am so looking forward to playing the 6 max in particular as I believe I"m going to be tough to play against. Also I tend to run quite well at DtD so the whole weekend is a definite one to look forward to.. that and spending the time with the APAT crew. Then I"m off in 2 weeks to GPS Stoke as part of my prize for winning the online rankings in season 6. Absolutely looking forward to it!
-
Soooo again a fair bit to update...
DtD was an absolute blast as usual. The banter at the tables was flying, all in good spirits though, and put some faces to names ( wrong initially in some cases) that I hadn"t yet properly bumped into.
Omaha was a blast, had a good run and ended up finishing 7th, so yet another Omaha FT for me. The strength of the final table shows it was never going to be easy, especially as I ended up doubling a shortstack on the FT bubble, KKxx vs AAxx. Unavoidable that one with me being the bb.
1 Asa Mcgrath 45,500
2 Sean Belton 51,700
3 Ben Burnhill 34,500
4 Dave Burt 28,000
5 John Wood 59,000
6 Leon Blackwell 87,700
7 Lee Strange 91,000
8 Steve Redfern 73,500
9 Chris Webber 132,000
That was the start of the FT, Steve is obviously a very good Omaha player, I"ve played a few times with Leon and always been impressed, Ben is obviously a great non HL player ( not sure about NLHE ;) ) and Chris, well Chris with chips and being aggressive as he is, will always be there and there abouts. He was one of 2 players this weekend that I was truly impressed with.
We lose a couple of players, then whilst I"m on the blinds, Leon min raises, I look down at 33KA, decide it"s good enough. Leon isn"t folding KK75, the flop comes down 356, I"m ahead, turn Q river 4 to give Leon the straight. No complaints, then a good couple of hours in the bar catching up with one and all then finally, eventually, go to the hotel.
The 6 max followed on the Saturday, and this was the one I was really looking forward to. I get this little beauty of a starting table
32 1 Eric Myers
32 2 Marc Barr
32 3 Dwayne Stacey
32 4 Asa Mcgrath
32 5 James Edwards
32 6 Mohammed Istakhar Sadiq
I"ve known James a while, Mohammed I"ve seen several times from updates at DtD, and Dwayne I"d heard about but not seen play. What followed was about 4/5 hours of seeing one player completely dominate the table, so much so, that he had people on the table all in 9 times, and doubled each one of them up. ( Against me he shoved Q 10 on a K hi flop, my AK was always massive)... and that player was Dwayne. He seemed to have a bloody good insight into how the others were playing within minutes, and took it to full advantage. I must say, rarely have I enjoyed receiving a lesson so much, but it was damn good fun, we had a good laugh and I was pretty gutted when the table broke. Within 5 minutes of changing tables, it was time for a break, I had 12bbs, anything was going in... so when facing a raise on the button holding 77, they looked massive, until the sb reshoved.. he had QQ, no sweats and out 50th.
I basically spent the rest of the night in the bar with the reprobates, drinking, and having fun with the photo app Curly had, which had us all in giggles for the night.
Sunday lunch was spent in Hooters which was a good laugh, before heading in for the ME.
23 1 Asa Mcgrath
23 2 Tom Clark
23 3 Mark Porter
23 4 Roy Forster
23 5 Sarah Spillings
23 6 Mark Morris
23 7 Chen Tam
23 8 Tasos Grigoriou
23 9 Andrew Mcbean
Another simple starting table then ;D It started ok, then went downhill, losing about 10k in a pot vs Chen where trip Js were no good against a turned straight. I got down to a low of 3.3k, then battled right back to 22k. And from then on my memory is blank! I can"t remember for the life of me at the moment how I went out, but it was pretty soon afterwards in 111th. I think I lost a good few chasing a straight flush that bricked, then got it in pair vs overs, but no matter. Again was great fun, and the rest of the evening passed not too quickly again in the bar.
This weekend coming is Stoke ( IF my token turns up!!) which I"m bloody looking forward to, will be giving it my best shot, as it"s unlikely I"ll be playing much more until next year :(
Cricket has been going well. When I"ve played, we seem to win... not sure it"s my batting that"s helped...
Yesterday we successfully chased 172 despite having only 10 men, I managed to take 4-47 and actually got a few deliveries in at top speed for the first time this season ( the first one yorked someone so might have to try it again)..and got a 0, very easy cuttable ball that I edged to slip sigh...
Last week we chased down 169 to win again despite having 10 men, another 0 for me opening the batting this time, bowled by one that rolled... I wasn"t going to bowl, however the 3rd change bowler bowled one, felt his knee, so I bowled the last 5 overs and took 2-30.
2 weeks ago I didn"t play against the league leaders ( good timing IMO), as we got hammered. all out for 62 batting first with their opening bowler taking 9-12.
Hopefully, I won"t get another game in as the last game is this Saturday and I obviously intend to still be in the GPS!
-
Lost to catch up on, really enjoyed GPS Stoke, and would love to play more of them, but ran bad when it mattered.
Played the last game of the season for cricket, and we were on what looked like a green seamer. It ended up having 450 runs scored on it, one of the opposition scored 99 before I got him out. My 1st over went for 18, so was quite happy taking 3-55 from 7, and even happier I managed to bowl 4 straight overs off my full run up. Once I stopped bowling, I was in quite a lot of pain. In the very first over, I"d dived to stop a ball that eventually went for 4, and after that had a twinge. After finishing bowling it got worse and worse, and by the time we were batting I was in agony. Luckily I was not needed!
Got to say I"ve really enjoyed the season, loved being back doing it and looking forward to next season already.
A big thanks to Adam and in particularly Joobs for all her driving, and I hope the food on the Saturday helped pay a lil towards the gratitude I have. ( Even though Adam and mine eating attempts were pathetic)
Cracked ribs are eventually diagnosed, but there"s not much to do with that but grin and bear it.
With all that"s been going on in life, my online bankroll has taken a severe battering. As of 09/09 I had $10.30 in my stars roll, and nothing in any other site. When I had a spare 2 hours, I played 4 $2.50 180 man"s, and managed to cash in one, and finish 2nd in another which was a boost. On Saturday, having a free evening, I played a few low mtt"s, and managed to luckbox a 5th in the $5 turbo for $552, so happy days :)
Managed to miss the Manchester derby being asleep from 2-9pm on Sunday after going home from work early as I really wasn"t well. I can live with missing such things when we play so well and win :)
-
56.2 2 303 17 4/47 0 5.38 19.87 17.82
My bowling figures for the season for the 1st team.
Apart from my economy rate being fairly high at 5.38 runs per over, I"m actually very happy with them. I do tend to bowl overs 30-48 when the opposition is actually trying to score quickly, I"ve bowled quite a few 2/3 over spells and that"s it .
My bowling average ( runs per wicket) is comparable with our 2nd best bowler, and I actually had the best strike rate (average number of deliveries to take a wicket), at 19.87
I would post my batting figures for the 1st team, but as I scored a massive 16 runs in 7 innings there"s not much point :P
-
56.2 2 303 17 4/47 0 5.38 19.87 17.82
OK you explained the 5.38 and the 19.87 - WTF do the rest of these numbers mean - which one is the number of maidens bowled over in Chester after the match :)
-
56.2 2 303 17 4/47 0 5.38 19.87 17.82
OK you explained the 5.38 and the 19.87 - WTF do the rest of these numbers mean - which one is the number of maidens bowled over in Chester after the match :)
I"m guessing the "0" :p
-
56.2 2 303 17 4/47 0 5.38 19.87 17.82
OK you explained the 5.38 and the 19.87 - WTF do the rest of these numbers mean - which one is the number of maidens bowled over in Chester after the match :)
I"m guessing the "0" :p
Sigh correct. In my defence, only twice have I remained in Chester after a game, both times kipping at Adam and joobs...
-
Sooo last night, went to G Salford with Adam for another go at the Friday night donkfest, got there an hour early with intentions to chill, only to find out it started at 7 due to the card room being booked from 3am! ( league of legends live stream???) Anyways had a decent start was up to 55k, second in chips on my table, blinds 1k/2k/300 when the following happened.
Raised for the 3rd hand running from early position with 10 10 and get 2 callers, flop was Q 10 x with 2 clubs, I check, there"s a raise, call, and I just open shove. The bb tanks and tanks, and eventually calls with QJ, with Jc, and hits runner runner clubs to knock me down to 20k. I"m obviously a little tilted, get up to 35k straight away, raise with 77, again 2 callers, flop 6 4 3 I just open ship the rest, get called by the same guy with A5, turn 2. wp mate, 2 great calls.
I"m obviously a little bit tilted by this, so go sit with £50 on 3 card, and eventually start playing blind. £30 in wins me £40 on prime, that wins me £30, then go on a sick run, hitting 2 flushes, 2 pairs ( all the same colour) and a prime, all in blind every one. Walk away with over £500 :)
-
MBSFN
-
The 6 max followed on the Saturday, and this was the one I was really looking forward to. I get this little beauty of a starting table
32 1 Eric Myers
32 2 Marc Barr
32 3 Dwayne Stacey
32 4 Asa Mcgrath
32 5 James Edwards
32 6 Mohammed Istakhar Sadiq
I"ve known James a while, Mohammed I"ve seen several times from updates at DtD, and Dwayne I"d heard about but not seen play. What followed was about 4/5 hours of seeing one player completely dominate the table, so much so, that he had people on the table all in 9 times, and doubled each one of them up. ( Against me he shoved Q 10 on a K hi flop, my AK was always massive)... and that player was Dwayne. He seemed to have a bloody good insight into how the others were playing within minutes, and took it to full advantage. I must say, rarely have I enjoyed receiving a lesson so much, but it was damn good fun, we had a good laugh and I was pretty gutted when the table broke.
You forgot to point out that I was actually ahead on the other 8 occasions.
-
The 6 max followed on the Saturday, and this was the one I was really looking forward to. I get this little beauty of a starting table
32 1 Eric Myers
32 2 Marc Barr
32 3 Dwayne Stacey
32 4 Asa Mcgrath
32 5 James Edwards
32 6 Mohammed Istakhar Sadiq
I"ve known James a while, Mohammed I"ve seen several times from updates at DtD, and Dwayne I"d heard about but not seen play. What followed was about 4/5 hours of seeing one player completely dominate the table, so much so, that he had people on the table all in 9 times, and doubled each one of them up. ( Against me he shoved Q 10 on a K hi flop, my AK was always massive)... and that player was Dwayne. He seemed to have a bloody good insight into how the others were playing within minutes, and took it to full advantage. I must say, rarely have I enjoyed receiving a lesson so much, but it was damn good fun, we had a good laugh and I was pretty gutted when the table broke.
You forgot to point out that I was actually ahead on the other 8 occasions.
Shhhhhh was giving you an image ;)
-
Quick catch up
Missed Glasgow which was gutting as I loved last year ( apart from not being well and the casino not the best for poker - again this season it seems).. and also Vegas is not happening, as I just haven"t hit a big bink yet this year.
I am actually trying to knuckle down for the first time ever and play within a bankroll, as well as playing just 1 type of tournament. So at the moment, it"s the old $2.50 180"s on stars. And to be honest, it ain"t going too badly. The bankroll was about $150, now sitting on $400, and I"ve shipped $50 out of that as well. Out of approx 135 tournaments, I"ve 29 cashes and 13 FT"s, averaging about 4th on the FT. All fairly happy, hit silverstar just playing these, and am off till a week on Friday, so hoping to get a good grind in. Playing live tonight, Friday and probably Saturday afternoon..
To counter this complete laziness, and kind of inspired by a few of the APAT crew getting fit, and despite a complete hatred of running, I"ve bought myself a pretty decent exercise bike, full monitors including pulse monitor, so I can build up the aerobic stamina which I"ve definitely lost, anaerobically I"ve been fine which I showed in my bowling spells this season. So to build that up, I"ll be warming up, then looking at nice easy 20 minute stints to start with, slowly building up over the next few weeks. Also got myself some decent headphones, and will take some time in choosing how I"m actually going to take this forward.
-
Wow it"d been a while.
Cliffs for the last month: Working my arse off at work, we"re a manager short at the moment, and 2 of them are very new at the position. Which means as well as doing my job ( which is in effect 2 jobs anyway), I"m having to help those as well.
Live poker : I"ve played live an entire once in the past 5 weeks, just at the Aquarium at long last. Was a good laugh and I knocked Adam out which is always a bonus ;)
Online poker: Managed to keep silverstar for the 2nd month running, I should make it this month as well. Grinding hard at just over even, I still have spots to improve in. I could definitely do with something like HEM etc to help me identify these spots better.
I"m really looking forward to the team championships in Stoke. They are the reason I became involved with APAT in the first place, and this time, I have the fortune of captaining the Blonde poker team. I"ve managed to get a nice mix of APAT regulars, Blondes who have been around forever, and Blondes who are new and up and coming. Should be fun!
-
A reminder that I need to update this soon...
Reminders:
Team event
Luton
Online.. if I must meh
WCOAP plans
Everything non poker
-
Finally finally getting round to updating this... for the simple reason the last month or so has generally been all work and no play!
Work - let"s get rid of this quickly... we"ve been a manager down for 3 months, that"s finally sorted. Is it any surprise that in the space of a week with a full team in that I"ve caught up with everything! Pre Xmas was busy, post Xmas was bloody insane!
Luton - epic weekend in which I drank too much, spent WAY too much, but was basically a cracking weekend. Think most have seen the photos on facebook. Poker went really well for once, didn"t win anything bar a saver, but ran deep in all 3 of the games I played in, as well as actually playing well!
Online - has been a bad finish to 2013 and start to 2014. Best result in ANY 180 in the last 120 days is 4th. Which in over 300 games is very very poo. Played really well and got tons of bad beats, then played crap. It"s only now I"ve started playing better again, managed a 5th in an $8 which I played with my last $8 which has helped, playing a set of them now, and in the last 4 of one... ss but you never know!
WCOAP plans - is to play from the Weds onwards, I am planning a staking thread, total buy ins approx £500-£550, so if people fancy a piece reserving, let me know.Will put a thread up after Stoke. Haven"t decided between which Omaha variants I want to play yet though. As part of this I will be making a charity donation out of the winning pot rather than selling at a higher rate. Already have some reserved but will have plenty left.
-
Getting fitter - I was cycling an hour at a time without issue mid December, and I"ve done a single km since. Unfortunately, I"ve both tweaked my lower back ( coccyx area) and struggling with the arch of my left foot, which means even walking is painful. And to top that off I"ve tweaked my neck whilst asleep, so it"s fun at the moment!
Team game - well, will post after next weekend I think... it"s going to be epic!
-
See what happen"s with old age.
Really looking forward to the team event myself, never played one before so a new experience.
See you friday for the cash?
-
Sod boring poker :) Its Jacks birthday drinking session :D
-
See what happen"s with old age.
Really looking forward to the team event myself, never played one before so a new experience.
See you friday for the cash?
Tell me about it :/
It"s my 4th team event, had huge stacks on day 1 in 2 of them, and both I"ve had trips on the flop and lost ( one a 100k pot where I couldn"t put down A9 on an AA4 flop against 2 other people)... It"s enormous fun. I won"t be at the cash ( mainly because I am yet to play cash)
Sod boring poker :) Its Jacks birthday drinking session :D
And I won"t be there for that either :(
-
A little update
The team event went badly, both for the team and myself. It happens. next. It was still a fun weekend though.
Found out yesterday I"m off for the entire Newcastle weekend, and I can"t afford to go :(
As most who were at Stoke will attest to, I"ve damaged the muscles in my neck/shoulder, will find out tomorrow about physio, I hope I can sort it quickly as it is bloody annoying.
My stats in the 180s are as follows:
Total played: 239
ROI : -4% ( including a few mtt"s)
How I"m running: Approx -$120ev
Best hand I"m losing with: 10 10 - 41bbs across all blind levels
6 at a time is going ok, ready to step up to 8 shortly.
-
I need to update this. LOL. Oh well.
-
Suppose I better do a little update on this thing...
Tomorrow's job methinks!
-
Where to start? Difficult to say really, it's been an epic couple of weeks for me.
As people are probably aware, I've not been about much this season before the Worlds, just hitting Portsmouth, as work as kept me exceptionally busy for the last year. However, with the Worlds being in my "home" casino in Manchester, I made sure I had the finances to play and the time booked off work. My schedule was as follows:
8 game, Turbo, HORSE, ROE, Main 1b, PLO, PLO 8 and Crazy Pineapple.
These days I don't have the opportunity to play online often, but when I do it is in the mixed games, and feel comfortable playing any of them.
A midday start for the 8 game on Saturday was the wake up call for the 9 days ahead. It wasn't exactly an easy table to start with
Marcin Rejmak 4 1
Philip Henze 4 2
Asa Mcgrath 4 3
Vincent Eley 4 4
Rieuwert Fleer 4 5
Andrew Duncan 4 6
The first few hours were fairly unremarkable with the blinds being low in comparison to the starting stack. 50k starting, 51k at the first break, just 33k at the dinner break and when moved to the feature table, I'd gone up to 185k. I'll be honest and say I don't remember any specific hands at this point to get me there, barring one hand, where I re-jammed QJos blind on blind in NLHE and got there on the river vs AK. End of the day I have 370k and sitting comfortably 3/7.
Final table as follows:
Glenn Laming 1 1 173k
Ross Freeman 1 2 173k
Asa Mcgrath 1 3 370k
Michael Perry 1 4 699k
Nerchabouh Tachajian 1 5 301k
Warren Brooks 1 6 574k
Simon A Lawlor 1 7 79k
On day 2 we lose Simon, Glenn and Ross pretty quickly so are on the medal bubble. Pretty quickly Nino is short and I auto call his all in in NLHE with 67, Nino has J3 and holds. Next hand he ships again, this time I have 88 and beat his A7. So we're in the medals in the 1st event, and damn happy. One person I wouldn't choose to play 3 handed with in any game is Michael Perry as he is super aggressive and a damn good player. The other player, Warren, I found out that this was his first ever APAT game, so no doubt also a good player.
In PLO I lose a pretty big pot, betting heavily on the river where all the draws missed, to be called down by Warren's top pair which was good. 3 handed going in to Deuce - Seven triple draw, I had 180k, Michael had 850k and Warren 1.3m. Win the 1st hand against Michael to double up, manage to hold my own through the rest of 2-7, FLHE then manage to win 3/4 of the pot against Michael in Omaha Hi/low with virtually the same hand, my 2 pair just beating Michael's 2 pair, then win another 300k pot against Warren. Michael loses a similar pot against Warren to leave him short stacked.
Michael and myself then get it all in during Razz, end up having 7543A to beat Michael and be Heads up, both of us sitting on approx 1.2m each. We go through a full cycle of rounds not really doing much but swapping chips, but I manage to go on a run of hands to get a good chip lead, a K hi flush in 7 card stud by 5th street won a good few chips, and get Warren down to 700k by betting a board of 42A69 with 3 hearts, missed by straight draw but hit the flush on the river.
Final hand is in PLO, I raise with ad1 3h 6d 6c and Warren pots it. I call to see a flop of 2d 9s 7d. We get it it on that flop, to see to my amazement, the pair of 6s are ahead with Warren showing Ah 4c Qs Kh. Nothing changes on the 2c turn with the river being the right Queen, the Qd to hit the nut flush and win.
After watching the video, I'm aware that John Murray attempted to draw me out in an interview, it's fair to say I was completely in shock at winning and gave some very non descript answers.
There was a post on the Degens from last years winner of the 8 game, saying he couldn't make this year and wanted a Degen member to win it. I commented " will give it a go". Couldn't resist afterwards saying "gave it a go!".
-
Excellent post to return with, Asa!
:)
-
After the couple of hours of taking it easy, it was turbo time. Another nice, easy table to start with...
Mustak Alli 12 1
Gary Jackson 12 2
David Griffiths 12 3
Asa McGrath 12 4
Darren Sutton 12 5
Brian Beekers 12 6
Ronald Greenberg 12 7
I've come across David a number of times and we've had some battles where I usually lose. We're rapidly joined by Mark Lassman and Ben Burnhill as late entry ends. At the first break I'm on 28k from a start of 10k, with pretty much no recollection of how that happened. Literally float along paying no attention to what's going on, then we're down to 12, and I'm sitting on 30k at 800/1600. Manage to win a race to double up, steal a few blinds, and we're on the final table. Get there as the chip leader with 115k, no idea how. Table lined up as:
Glenn Laming 57500 1
Sebastian Mikolajczyk 14300 2
Steve Hollinshead 94000 3
Christian Garvin 23000 4
Neville Betty 90000 5
John Murray 30500 6
Mark Lassman 40000 7
Norbert Bobra 42500 8
Asa McGrath 115000 9
John Hanley 36000 10
Glenn's second final table of the day, Steve won the 6 max, Norbert finished 3rd in the Irish, Christian and Neville I knew from the G in Manchester, we all know Mark Lassman and John Murray.
Very quickly, Seb shoves, folded to me in the small blind, not folding Kd Jd in this situation, Seb has KQ and I flop the J to knock him out. An orbit later, I'm on the small blind again, folded round to me, I shove Ad 2d just to steal. John calls with K6, and I turn the flush. 4 or 5 hands later Glenn departs, then quickly Mark departs.
Double up Neville, who shoved for roughly 4bbs, any picture card is a call, I have Q6, run into KK to double him up. John Murray soon departs AK v KQ, Q on the river. When down to 5, Norbert shoves on me, I have Kd Jd again, Norbert 86os and he flops the 8 to double. Christian then busts in a cooler, A s Kd v 88 all in pre, with a flop 9s 10s Js and somehow doesn't hit to exit 5th. A few double ups for the shorter stacks, then Neville shoves, I'm priced in to call with 10s 7s, he had 55, and I turn and river 2 10s.
So we're playing for medals again, 3 handed with Norbert who finished 3rd in the Irish, Steven who won the 6 max and myself. Distinctly remember looking up at Tom Clark at this point thinking, how the hell has this happened??
Less than 5 mins later, Steve knocks Norbert out, and the 2 of us are HU to win 2 bracelets in a day. Utterly ridiculous.
Heads up was actually more passive and lasted longer than I expected. A whole 20 mins!
We eventually clash.. Steve shoves with Ks Js I call with 2d 2s
No idea how I held through this... Ac Qs 5d 6s 7c
After this hand I have 430k v 120k, fold the next small blind which was 72os, Steve shoves the next hand, K 7 is more than good enough to call with the structure, Steve flops the Q but I flopped the K and hold...
So I win 2 bracelets in a day. Gobsmacked is the understatement of the century...
-
Rolling forward to Wednesday, and it was HORSE time. Again, such a simple opening table..
Asa McGrath 12 1
David Griffiths 12 2
Gary Jackson 12 3
Jacob Andersen 12 4
Stuart Ward 12 5
Ricky Hale 12 6
Simon Brooke 12 7
What transpired was a good 5 hours of fun, but mainly abuse from David, Simon and Stuart, all good natured of course, but still fun :) Simon effectively steamrollers the table early on, getting to 25k at the first break, and I'm down at 3.5k. Basically have to get lucky a couple of times and grind away, make the 2nd break with 8k, the 3rd break with 12.4k, only 14 left but sitting 13/14. No fairy tales this time as I bust about 10 mins after the break.
ROE I was really looking forward to on the Thursday, table draw:
Mark Lassman 11 1
Santo Toscano 11 2
Ashley Whitfield 11 3
Simon Brooke 11 4
Steven Bradbury 11 5
Asa McGrath 11 6
Jonathan Seal 11 7
Jonathan Berry 11 8
Never got going in this, was out very early on ( before the end of level 2)
Main event on Friday, table draw
David Garden 6 1
Martin Gate 6 2
Asa McGrath 6 3
Jason Mcburnie 6 4
Joshua Thomas Jones 6 5
Linda Iwaniak 6 6
Santo Toscano 6 7
Again this didn't go too well, I lose about 6k early on, then raise out of my bb with a few limpers, and Linda calls. Flop is 965, I lead, Linda reraises, I shove, she says, I've put too much in to fold, and calls with 67. My KK is looking nice until the 6 turn, then the 7 river just to finish me off.
-
PLO day on Saturday, and was totally looking forward to this one, charity last longer with Stuart Ward, so it was obvious what was coming with the table draw
Stuart Ward 12 1
Cody Wagner 12 2
Paul Jackson 12 3
Santo Toscano 12 4
Marco Maas 12 5
Asa Mcgrath 12 6
Dawn Cooke 12 7
Linda Iwaniak 12 8
Alvaro Dossantoscarvalho 12 9
Generally keep myself out of trouble, and at the 500/1k level, have 28k. Play pretty much standard PLO, raising in the right spots, and somehow find myself on the final table bubble with about 180k, exploit this as much as possible, so that when the bubble bursts, I'm on 235k and sitting 4/9 overnight. Final table was:
McGrath Asa 1 235,500
Payan Elie 2 327,000
Davis Paul 3 211,500
Lao Cheok 4 341,500
Tyler Dave 5 273,000
Porter Mark 6 108,000
Parkhomenko Stanislav 7 145,500
Clerbaut Tom 8 129,000
Wiemker Christian 9 29,000
Final table starts quietly, but I lose about 80k in the first 2 orbits before gaining some back. It takes over an hour to bust one player! Another 45 mins to bust 2 more. At this stage, blinds were getting high, and the 3 shorter stacks, of which I was on, was going to be a case of double up or bust. Cheok and Dave between them were running over the table, but quite quietly, Paulie had accumulated a ton of chips. Cheok or Dave are raising every hand by this point, and on my bb, Cheok raises. I look down at JJ65 take a couple of minutes thinking it through, and decide it's well worth it. Cheok has Q1074, so I'm therefore pretty happy. Flop comes down 4 7 10 which gives Cheok 2 pair, and I don't improve. So a 6th place to add to the double 1sts, happy obviously so far.. One event to come, the Crazy Pineapple!
-
The last day, and we're on to Crazy Pineapple. Last event of the week and it was a case of let's have some enjoyment! Have a laugh with the table I'm on, and what happens, happens.
When my first table splits, I have maybe 16k, manage to get a double up or 2, and we're suddenly playing hand for hand.
There's a player all in for less than a bb on my table, Ian and myself check it to the river, where I have to bet in last position having flopped 2 pair and turning the full house.
We get to a final table:
Seat 1: Brian Beekers - 120k
Seat 2: Maike Tigchelaar - 59k
Seat 3: Asa McGrath - 102k
Seat 4: Robert Dove - 37k
Seat 5: Danny Op 't Hof - 126k
Seat 6: Ian Thompson - 48k
Seat 7: Shruti Shete - 41k
Seat 8: Maarten Kok - 165k
With 6 left, I get dealt QQx and are all in pre, with both Ian and Danny. Happy that the flop comes KQ9, especially seeing Danny have AK, and Ian with AJ. Ian get there on the river but I still manage to win a significant pot. Couple of hands later, Danny is all in after I've raised, I auto call. Flop AQQ, sitting with A9 I'm fairly happy until Danny turns over AQ! Danny 3 hands later has the chip lead and raises again, I have JJ5 on my bb and call, flop is J64, he shoves I obviously call, and I beat his AA.
A few hands later, Danny raises all in and again it's an auto call. Flop is Qc 10c 6c and I pretty much am playing my pocket pair under, which is 2c 2s, Danny has 7s 5c and I hold.
Another medal bubble! Manage to win a good pot slow playing a nut flush, and there's a double up for Ian who was short stacked. About 10 mins later, I raise Ian's bb and he shoves. I take a while but call. Flop is 4h 3c 4c and I take a while, I'm holding Q77 with 2 clubs, decide Ian has probably got an overpair and go with the flush draw. He turns over AJ, and I get there straight away, so into another medal battle!!
3 handed I have 350k with the others having that between them. Brian eventually busts Maarten after a cagey few rounds and HU for another bracelet!
Lose a big hand early on where my K7 on a AK7 board is battered by his A7. Chop a pot all in where I threw my pair to chase a flush, but the board played whichever way I went. Managed to work my way into a chip lead again, when we had another all in. I held K7 on a K78 all hearts, Brian had Ah Ac and hit the flush on the turn. Managed to double back up with Ace high vs K hi and again take the chip lead. We get it in all in pre again, Ks 6d 5s flop, Brian holds Js 10s to my 10 10 and turns the flush again. Down to less than 100k again, all in with the flop A 2 3, I hold K 3, and Brian J 10, board runs out K ( yay) and then Q to give Brian the straight and the win.
Annoying way for the board to run out obviously, but no complaints from me. 2 wins, 2 bracelets, a 2nd and a 6th in the week. Coming into the week, I was hoping for one final table, and maybe even a medal, but what happened was beyond any expectations.
It also meant, that after the online series, I ended up being Player of the Series, gaining a main event and 2 side entries for free to next seasons Worlds.
The whole experience has only started to hit me in the last couple of days. Winning 2 in a day has never been done before. Running as well as I obviously have done also massively helped. I just remember, going into the final table of the 8 game, thinking 2 things. One was I'm going to bloody enjoy myself no matter what happens. The second was thinking back a few years, to when Chris Moormans father, Simon, won the GUKPT in Manchester, where I railed with Chris for the whole final table. I knew that Simon had never played big poker events before, but he looked totally at ease with himself and the situation he found himself in. So I told myself, chill, be yourself and try and portray that image. Seemed to work!
-
Nice read mate and well played 👍👍