Super Turbo Update

Hello Reader

Sorry about the lack of updates, went on holiday to Spain and never got round to putting some words together. Strange, 2 weeks off and it was not quite like I had never played before, but it was pretty close. Ended up down $100 for August overall, but got my mojo back and am already up almost $250 for September.

Still messing around on Full Tilt with the 300 chip PLO super turbo's. Have played 188 of the $7.50 buy-in ones so far, most frequent finishing position is 1st at 37, bubbled 26 times and 3rd 24 times. Overall profit $379 for about 27% ROI.

Also deposited some money onto Pokerstars for the first time, did this so could play in a 180-man $11 SNG with the Betfair flashmob, managed to get my stack up to a decent level, before donking out in 37th with AK vs AJ on a JJx flop. I still managed to work out that continuation betting the flop was a very easy way to build a stack. Still, not that fussed about Holdem so have started looking at the Omaha hilo STTs. Standard early in these is absolutely woeful as a rule, just need to get used to the interface and work out how to click a button just the once instead of multiple times to make it work. Played 8, cashed in 4, but bubbled twice as well.

Anyway, without doubt the most frustrating hand I have played since the last update is this one. Villain was overplaying bad O8 hands, so when the flop came I thought I had hit the jackpot. On checking the hands on cardplayer I found I had an overall expectation of 0.79, which was a little more than I thought. But to lose to a pair of 3s...

Full Tilt Poker Game #14351273137: $10 + $1 Tournament (105429995), Table 1 - 1200/2400 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 18:48:35 ET - 2009/08/29
Seat 1: electric chair (40,598)
Seat 2: Rdevil14 (42,871)
Seat 3: Mrs ACE 84 (44,004)
Seat 6: c3events (87,388)
c3events posts the small blind of 1,200
electric chair posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Ad 5h 4h 2d]
Rdevil14 folds
Mrs ACE 84 folds
c3events raises to 7,200
electric chair raises to 21,600
c3events calls 14,400
*** FLOP *** [2h Kc 3h]
c3events bets 43,200
electric chair calls 18,998, and is all in
c3events shows [3s Js 6d Ac]
electric chair shows [Ad 5h 4h 2d]
Uncalled bet of 24,202 returned to c3events
*** TURN *** [2h Kc 3h] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [2h Kc 3h 9d] [Ts]
c3events shows a pair of Threes, for high
electric chair shows a pair of Twos, for high
c3events wins the pot (81,196) with a pair of Threes

"M"

First Half Summary

After another abysmal start to the year, I rescued the whole lot in April with a my first $1k month and followed up by dumping nearly half of it back in May. I have still not worked out how I managed it, cash mostly. Up in all the various formats of STTs I played, up overall in MTTs, but only made a profit in the rebuys.

Following the mid-month posting, I managed to spin the profit up to $609 for the month, and $450 for the whole year. Might have to rethink the targets for the year now I have missed the WSOP and will need to run really well to buy into any of the WSOPE tourneys.

Still doing well on the 300 chip super turbos as well, maintaining ROI in excess of 20%. Have also done a little bit of research on Sharkscope. Odd how I think the largest winners are some of the biggest donks I play, especially at the $22 and $33 level. Anyway, will end with a small brag post, my Full Tilt account has just squeaked past the $1k profit mark on Sharkscope - see my roller-coaster graph below :)

The Butterfly Effect

Oops, it's half way through June and no summary for May yet. $465 down sums it all up really, mostly on Sun, mostly related to not playing well on cash tables. June has perked up though, with a nice multi-table win in a PLO rebuy for $550. Played it very well, if a little tight, got to the rebuy break with about 4000 chips, added on to take me up to 6k, noticed the leader was on 60k (or 40 buy-ins!). He was still there on the final table and doubled me up to first when I slow played a flopped top set Qs.

Anyway, reason for the title of this post is my further adventures into the 300 chip PLO super turbos. Have played nearly 100 of the 9-seat $7.50 buy-ins and my ROI is getting on for 25%. With chip stacks so short, a single mistake can be magnified and cost you the chance of cashing, or winning. Becoming chip leader is also very important, as it gives you the ability to push all the other stacks around. I played 1 game last night, here is how it went (warning, you will not run this good, ever!)

Hand 1:
Dealt to electric chair [Js 7s Ks Kh] - ooo, nice starting hand, will reraise pre
NeedLuck2day folds
free-dic-u-lust raises to 60 - I will always reraise this with any kind of start hand
lost pension calls 60 - calling just builds the pot for me to raise with
CedarValley calls 60 - see above
Simsas folds
snipes2k1 folds
pokerdegree folds
electric chair raises to 300, and is all in - sometimes this will give you an uncontested pot as weak raisers and limpers will often fold here

free-dic-u-lust calls 240, and is all in
lost pension calls 240, and is all in
CedarValley calls 240, and is all in

- hmmm, not really expecting 3 callers, let's see if we have two AAs out there:

electric chair shows [Js 7s Ks Kh]
free-dic-u-lust shows [5c 8d 8s 5s]
lost pension shows [9c 6c 6h 2h]
CedarValley shows [Ac 4h Qh Qd]

lol, wtf, I am ahead, main worry being the A or Q outs

*** FLOP *** [Jd Th Jh] - yay, top set
*** TURN *** [Jd Th Jh] [8c] - hmm, behind to the str8
*** RIVER *** [Jd Th Jh 8c] [7d] - RIVER!!!!!

electric chair wins the pot (1,230) :) :) :)

This really is the nuts position to be in, 1 hand gone, 3 out, I have quadrupled.

Hands 2-5, folded all, hand 6 was my BB and I got a walk. Hand 7, my SB:

Dealt to electric chair [5s Ac Qh Th] - folded round to me so I obviously raise:
electric chair raises to 120
yves34 raises to 300, and is all in - BB raises all in, just what I wanted
electric chair calls 180
yves34 shows [9s Kc 7d 8h]
electric chair shows [5s Ac Qh Th] - I like my hand, my straight potential is higher and my A my be good if it pairs

*** FLOP *** [5c As Qd]
*** TURN *** [5c As Qd] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [5c As Qd Qs] [Ad]
yves34 shows a pair of Aces
electric chair shows a full house, Aces full of Queens

Two hands played, two full houses, 5x starting stack.

Hand 8, raise AQQ4 preflop from button and pick up the blinds.
Hand 9 fold
Hand 10 raise AA97 preflop and pick up the blinds
Hand 11 fold
Hand 12 all fold to my BB for another walk

Hand 13
Dealt to electric chair [Jh 6s Jd 4c]
- I got outs
electric chair raises to 120

NeedLuck2day raises to 255, and is all in
electric chair calls 135
NeedLuck2day shows [4h 3d 5c 4d] - LOL, I am so far ahead
electric chair shows [Jh 6s Jd 4c]

*** FLOP *** [Ac Js 4s]
*** TURN *** [Ac Js 4s] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [Ac Js 4s 7c] [As]
NeedLuck2day shows a full house, Fours full of Aces
electric chair shows a full house, Jacks full of Aces
electric chair wins the pot (510)

Oooh, that's gotta hurt, my 3rd boat of the game in only 13 hands

Hand 14, fold
Hand 15
Dealt to electric chair [2s Jc Th Ah]

- I have an Ace and the button, so...
electric chair raises to 175

snipes2k1 raises to 205, and is all in
electric chair calls 30
snipes2k1 shows [Ac Ts As 7c]
electric chair shows [2s Jc Th Ah] - ah, I am in trouble

*** FLOP *** [3h 2d 9h] - I have some outs
*** TURN *** [3h 2d 9h] [4c] - I have more outs
*** RIVER *** [3h 2d 9h 4c] [8h] - Jackpot!

Hand 16 and through the bubble, I lose an all in preflop race:
pokerdegree shows [6s Ad Td As]
electric chair shows [Qh Kc Qs 5s]
*** FLOP *** [Jc 7d Ac]
*** TURN *** [Jc 7d Ac] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 7d Ac 9c] [Qc]
pokerdegree shows three of a kind, Aces
electric chair shows three of a kind, Queens
pokerdegree wins the pot (630)

Hand 17, I have to fold my probe bet on the flop to a reraise
Dealt to electric chair [Kc Ah 8c 4h]
Simsas folds
pokerdegree calls 25
electric chair raises to 150
pokerdegree calls 100
*** FLOP *** [Qd 6c Qs]
pokerdegree checks
electric chair bets 150
pokerdegree raises to 480, and is all in

Hand 18
Dealt to electric chair [Jc 7d Js Tc]
pokerdegree calls 50
electric chair calls 25 - let's see what happens on the flop and disguise my hand
Simsas checks

*** FLOP *** [6h 2h Jd]
- nice, 1/2 pot bet to see if we have anyone chasing a flush
electric chair bets 75
Simsas folds
pokerdegree calls 75 - we do :)

*** TURN *** [6h 2h Jd] [6s] - time to slow play
electric chair checks
pokerdegree checks
*** RIVER *** [6h 2h Jd 6s] [Jh] - too nice, only option is to value bet and hope for a call
electric chair bets 150
pokerdegree calls 150

Hand 19, fold
Hand 20, walk
Hand 21,22, fold
Hand 23, my BB
Dealt to electric chair [9c Ah Tc 7s]
- I have an Ace, with connected cards in the rest of the hand
Simsas folds
pokerdegree raises to 180
electric chair raises to 300
pokerdegree calls 110, and is all in
electric chair shows [9c Ah Tc 7s]
pokerdegree shows [Qs Th Kd Jc] - I think it is about 50:50 here

*** FLOP *** [5c 4c Qc] - floptastic
*** TURN *** [5c 4c Qc] [Ts] - he has outs
*** RIVER *** [5c 4c Qc Ts] [6h] - held...
electric chair shows a flush, Queen high

6 hands later...
Dealt to electric chair [Kc Kh 7h Ts]
Simsas calls 40
electric chair raises to 240
Simsas raises to 400, and is all in
electric chair calls 160
Simsas shows [4h 7d Tc 5c]
electric chair shows [Kc Kh 7h Ts]
*** FLOP *** [As 6c Jd]
*** TURN *** [As 6c Jd] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [As 6c Jd 8d] [6s]
Simsas shows a pair of Sixes
electric chair shows two pair, Kings and Sixes
electric chair wins the pot (800)

Not every game goes this way, but when you hit a few cards it can be very satisfying. A few tips: get more than starting stack quickly, that way you can put pressure on everyone with a shorter stack than you. Do this by raising preflop. Bet in position when it comes round unopened, almost never call (except when you know that you are hitting the deck and quads are coming). Fold most hands that have been raised before it is your turn to act, (re)raise AAxx, KKxx and QQxx with the intent to get all the chips in.

Looking back at the MTT win, I know that my pre-flop play was improved by playing these short stack games. This meant I was able to get away with some outrageous bluffs at important times, with a short stack. For that reason alone it would be worth playing these if you are at all unsure where you are with your preflop game.

Lastly, have played 3 STTs tonight, cashed in 2, total in for June $465.46, total out in May $465.15 = down-swing reversed.

Going to Duffs Full House tomorrow in Waterlooville for the opening night. New poker club being opened by a couple of posters on the Betfair forum. Hope it works out for them and that they can organize some events when I am not on holiday, see you there if you are going.

BOOOOOOMMMMM

End of the month and finally, for the first time since I started keeping records, I have gone past $1k profit from poker for the month, $1,005.53 to be exact. I was up to $1050 a few days ago, but managed to get back down to $900 before recovering in the last 3 days of the month. This means I am also in profit for the whole of 2009, to the tune of $300. Not much in the big scheme of things, but poker is always more satisfying when you are winning.

I continued to run golden (or play well) on SNGs, in the money in 60/114 (53%) of the ones I played in April with an overall ROI of 48%. What helped here was moving up to the $22 tables. I have a pretty good strike rate at this level and have noticed that the players I think are the biggest fish tend to be the ones at the top of the sharkscope leaderboards. The Brazilians in particular seem to be running good, which suits me because I know I am a favourite every time the chips go in against them.

Lastly, have dabbled in the super turbo PLO SNGs on full tilt. You start with 300 chips and blinds at 15-30. Instantaneous action that definitely seems to suit my game, or maybe it's because the $7.50 buy-in encourages the fish to participate when they don't have a clue about starting hands. Generally, only 1 other player seems to be competent, which is why you can be HU at 30-60 blinds and still going at 100-200.

Here's hoping next month is as fruitful, might even dig out some hand histories for the next update.

Swongs

So as usual, no updates means I have been losing. Not sure exactly how, so can probably chalk it up to variance. Luckily, I have just hit a purple patch*, which means 12 straight days of profitable poker (+$750), 80%+ ROI on Full Tilt SNGs so far in April for $500 profit, and looking at OPR I reckon I have cashed in 23/39 9-seaters. Long may it continue, I have now made a net $3.81 profit on poker in 2009, including rake back. I have played nearly 300 SNGs and MTTs, cashing in 35% of them. Oddly, in February I was in the money 37% of the time, but still ended up with a -11% ROI, WTF? All this was offset by my cash endeavours, where I managed to lose about $350 on PLO, with another $50 on O8 for good measure.

I have not consciously changed my style, but in the last couple of days I have increased the buy-in level a bit and have now played a few $22 and $33 SNGs. The game is a bit less tight than the $11 and $6 versions, which obviously suits me quite nicely. This is as a result of winning $500 on the Grand National, being handed the 2nd placed horse. First thing I did when the money came back to my Tilt account was to try and send it back, which Tilt immediately barred, saying something like they were not a bank. Still, with a new deeper balance (hesitate to use the word roll because I can always deposit if the balance empties out) I have probably been more confident about moving up to higher stakes.

In my records I made a note saying I played a perfect game. Don't actually remember thinking that before about a whole SNG, but this was the final hand and it sure helps when the deck hits you in the face.

Full Tilt Poker Game #11524930979: $22 + $2 Sit & Go (Turbo) (86531154), Table 1 - 400/800 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 16:28:34 ET - 2009/04/05
Seat 7: makoman11 (5,356)
Seat 8: electric chair (8,144)
electric chair posts the small blind of 400
makoman11 posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [8s 6s 9h Td]
electric chair calls 400
makoman11 raises to 2,400
electric chair calls 1,600
*** FLOP *** [Th Jh 8h]
makoman11 bets 2,956, and is all in
electric chair calls 2,956
makoman11 shows [Jc Kc 5d Kh]
electric chair shows [8s 6s 9h Td]
*** TURN *** [Th Jh 8h] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [Th Jh 8h 7s] [6h]
makoman11 shows a pair of Kings, for high
electric chair shows a straight, Jack high, for high
electric chair wins the pot (10,712) with a straight, Jack high
makoman11 stands up
electric chair stands up
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 10,712 | Rake 0
Board: [Th Jh 8h 7s 6h]
Seat 7: makoman11 (big blind) showed [Jc Kc 5d Kh] and lost with HI: a pair of Kings
Seat 8: electric chair (small blind) showed [8s 6s 9h Td] and won (10,712) with HI: a straight, Jack high

* I think this might possibly be the biggest ever understatement looking at those numbers above. Sharkscope graph below shows just how sick I have run - all the recent upswing has been in the last 2 weeks.

Slight Poker Derailment

Hello reader.

Well, no updates for a while usually means I have been running bad. True to form, I was down $250 in January and a further $190 so far this month. This is a slight recovery from where I was, but it's still been a bitch of a bad spell. Generally, I got sucked into playing cash (see previous post), where I always start well then fade away. Probably means my game is too predictable or I am prone to tilt, or both.

Have switched back to SNGs and am in profit on Full Tilt for this month at least. Tried playing a few rebuys, but have been hitting some bad hands at the wrong time. This weekend was typical, in a $5 PLO8 rebuy, I call from early position with A356, chip leader SB makes up and flop is 455 and I have a flush draw. Check to induce the bet from the SB and we end up all in on the flop. He has KK510, so is drawing to 2 cards for the hi and no cards for the lo. Turn comes K, river is also high and instead of moving into the top 10, I am out in 52nd. On reflection, I played that hand well enough, just needed to win my 1:4 shot, so at least in that case I did not go out because I was playing bad.

Tried the DYM games on Sun, which to start with were piss easy to win. Now though, they have turned into rock-up SNGs, where it just comes down to the cards. Went out 9/10 in a $5 one earlier, on 300-600 blinds, just after my KKxx was cracked by AQ99 with a single preflop bet getting both of us all in. Time to give up on those and go back to the PLO and PLO8 MTTs on there I think.

Thankfully, have other things to keep me busy, work going well and am now producing reports that keep getting circulated to our exec leadership team, with good feedback. Home wise have just taken on a second Viszla dog, same breed as the first, but this time a 9 month old dog. He looks stunning and is very well behaved, and is still an entire, so might see if I can pimp him out as a stud dog for some extra bankroll. Going to rename him when my wife accepts that he is staying, Rupert is not a good name for a dog, current favourite options are rufus or rocky.

Plans to fund the number plate out of poker might be put on hold, since I reckon I can pay for it outright anyway. I also now have enough American miles for a business class trip to Vegas. Anyone fancy going out late May or June in time for the cheaper Omaha events at the WSOP?

A Feeling of Deja Vu?

So, started this year off playing on a relatively new site (for me) more often (iPoker through Blue Square and Sun), which is a bit like I did late 2007, when I signed up for Full Tilt in December. Hmm, results last year were good in December, then I had an awful January playing beyond my capability and hitting the cash tables too much. Net result was $325 down for the month, with 21 losing days.

Fast forward to 2009. I have had 7 losing days so far this month out of 12 completed, with a $150 down day. Yet I am still up, a princely $6.67, but that puts me about $150 ahead of where I was in 2008. Main reason for this is my cash game results have improved. I know I am far more aggressive now and it has really started to show. The big down day was just a car crash, I was 5-buy-ins deep in a O8 rebuy and got runner-runnered for a straight when I flopped a set of Ks, whilst playing cash at the same time. Both of the buy-ins on the cash tables went as well, I stayed on beyond when I knew I should get up and leave (like when I went out of the MTT).

Anyway, back later in the month hopefully with some improved results. Currently 7/17 in a PLO rebuy on Full Tilt, so hopefully will have an emergency late update FTW later.

[2.5 hours later - 3rd for $250 :)]

Save the buy-ins, save the stack, or something like that anyway.

2008 Round-up

Well that's a wrap then, I definitely hit a rich vein of form in the second half of the year, with six months consecutive profit and an overall $3,080 in profit for the year, making up for the nearly $600 down in the first 6 months. Looking back on Official Poker Rankings (Full Tilt) reinforces what I felt at the time, that I was on a massive heater for the HILO STTs. I actually cashed in 46% of them in the month, playing 9 seat tables. This was the foundation for the rest of the year and helped me develop my game to the extent that I am now playing O8 and PLO cash games without fear of emptying my poker accounts.

In addition to that I also had some nice MTT results for a small stake player, the best of which came just in time to pay for some Christmas extras (see the last post). I am quite pleased that I managed to win MTTs on 3 different sites, results in both regular, rebuy and knockout tourneys.

At the end of the year I received an email from Sun poker announcing a migration to iPoker, where I would retain the rakeback privileges I had picked up when I first created the account. I stopped playing because I never really adjusted to the Cryptologic structures and games. Not sure why, maybe with another year of learning behind me I would have coped. However, I am quite comfortable with iPoker and proved it to myself by final tabling my first O8 rebuy on New Years Day with a shiny new Sun account. I am also now registered in 9 freerolls over the coming weeks, which means I am going to have to remember how to play Hold Em again. New account name is uncontrolled, say hello if you see me on the tables.

I will split my play mostly on Full Tilt and iPoker, with some small games on Betfair, where I will also try and play the weekly $3k gtd PLO by qualifying through the satellite. At least, while it lasts, I was in a game 2 weeks ago with 5 seats gtd and only 8 runners - and it still started!

Lastly, I have a couple of small aims for 2009, which represent a small improvement on the overall results from 2008. One is to buy a new number plate for my car, cost about £1k. Second is to try and get out to Vegas for a $1500 PLO or O8 event in the WSOP. I have enough air miles to fly there, so reckon could do the whole trip for about $2500 including some spends while I am there. There are a couple of hurdles to overcome here that are not just financial related, like can I persuade my wife that it is a good idea and can I book the flights. But other than that I am planning on making a profit, which is probably more than I was this time last year, when I would have been happy to make anything.

Spend, Spend, Spend!

Bloody hell, I thought there was a credit crunch on. Savacentre was absolutely mobbed, it took me 5 minutes to get out of the petrol station because there were so many cars going into the main shop, and that was 7:00pm at night. Luckily, once we had pushed the booze into the trolley, we were walking past a till as it was opened up so only had 5 minutes to queue. For a change, everyone was being nice, reasonable and pleasant, none of the usual tension you get when the place is heaving.

Personally, I am doing my best to help spend our way out of recession, or rather, my wife is. Fortunately this month I have been able to withdraw £900 from my various poker accounts, with the £ so weak it would be a little bit stupid not to average out a bit at a very nice rate. What was £320 back in September is now coming out at £402 :)

Latest result was my biggest single payout since I started keeping records, with a 1st place in a $2.5k GTD O8 gtd on Blue Square. This was a $10 rebuy, but I only bought in once and did not add-on because I was 5th at the break. Ended up HU about 3:1 down, but the player I was up against had no clue about post-flop play, as the 3rd place finisher kept reminding him while we were playing out. Eventually, this hand gave me the win for $980, an 88/1 result for the $11 buy-in. Once I had more chips than he did the result was never in doubt.

GAME #1935680483: Omaha Hi-Lo PL Tournament 2008-12-21 00:27:53
Table 239203165 (Tournament: $2,500 GP Omaha PL Hi/Lo Buy-In: $10+$1)
Seat 4: brevity ($463888 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: paskl ($108611 in chips)
brevity: Post SB $8,000
paskl: Post BB $16,000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to brevity [4 As 5h Ac]
Dealt to paskl [4h 9h 10d Jh]
brevity: Raise (NF) $32,000
paskl: Call $16,000
*** FLOP *** [3h 9c 8d]
paskl: Check
brevity: Bet $32,000
paskl: Call $32,000
*** TURN *** [2c]
paskl: Check
brevity: Bet $64,000
paskl: Allin $44,611
*** RIVER *** [2h]
*** SUMMARY ***
brevity: wins $236,611

I cashed in the same tourney the night after in 13th, but only for the minimum, while at the same time finishing 14th in a $5 PLO rebuy on the same site. This is handy, because my results on Full Tilt have gone absolutely toilet. I think maybe 3-tabling the MTTs is reducing my feel for the players, so I am not making the moves I should be at the right time. Case in point in the 2nd BSq rebuy, I dithered about making a call UTG with a semi-decent starting hand, against a short stack BB. I would have upped my stack by 50% with that call, which would have meant a 2nd final table running, and it was a call I knew I should have made.

Alternative theory is that since the beginning of November, the games on FT have become much harder. Maybe the casual US players are starting to hold off playing because of the combined effect of the UIGEA and credit crunch hitting at the same time?

On Betfair I have not played that much, managed to qualify for the $3k GTD via the 5-seat gtd satellite (8 runners!) again. My out hand in the tournament itself is as follows.

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 458788694 *****
PL Omaha $100 Buy-in + $5 Entry Fee, Level:4 Blinds(75/150-(no ante)) - Sunday, December 21, 22:40:18 GMT 2008
Sunday Special PL Omaha $3,000 GTD #188108
Table 2 9-max (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of active players : 6
Seat 1: harayir ( 3,699 )
Seat 2: il freddo ( 3,875 )
Seat 3: lesleybeard ( 5,775 )
Seat 4: bmcg_2005 ( 4,837.50 )
Seat 8: danko02538 ( 6,655 )
Seat 9: bazza90 ( 2,005 )
Tourney Level:4 Blinds(75/150-(no ante))
bmcg_2005 posts small blind [75]
danko02538 posts big blind [150]
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to harayir [ Ah, Ts, 3h, Ad ]
bazza90 folds
harayir raises to [525]
il freddo folds
lesleybeard folds
bmcg_2005 folds
danko02538 calls [375]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, Kd, 3c ]
danko02538 bets [1,125]
harayir goes all-in
harayir raises to [3,174]
danko02538 calls [2,049]
** Showdown **
harayir shows [ Ah, Ts, 3h, Ad ]
danko02538 shows [ 9h, Jd, Qs, 3s ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9d ]
** Hand Conclusion **
danko02538 wins 7,473 from main pot with a straight, King to Nine
************ Game 458788694 ends ************

I did think I was ahead on the flop at the time, which is why I re-raised him. Turns out I was 65% to win, which reinforces my read. Even on the turn I was still 58%. Anyone have comments on how I played this?

Will do an end of year round up and 2009 aims some time, but unless I take all my outstanding balances to the tables at the same time, I am not likely to be on a losing month in December, which makes 6 straight months of profit, from $100 up to $900, and a total of $2.9k for the year as whole.

End of the Month Update

Since the last update I have managed some really strong results. I have crept back onto the cash tables and managed $100 profit on small stakes Omaha, without really being in much danger of losing. Have also run into some extremely good form in some multis: 4th on Blue Square in a $10 hilo rebuy for $210 profit (hand that did me in was the first hi only hand I had raised with throughout the whole tournament QQJ10 not good enough for 78910). Last weekend managed to satellite into the $3k GTD PLO on Betfair, $27.50 for the satellite for a $105 buyin, with an overlay on both the satellite and the game itself. Played some really good poker, with my out hand in 3rd (for $600) the only time I made a mistake.

Then Friday I played the 22:15 $5 PLO on Betfair and was utterly dominant. Started with 49 runners, by the time we were down to 21 I had 25% of the chips and stayed like that until we were 3 way, when I doubled someone and we were all about even (40k stacks). Not to worry, I got it all back 2 hands later courtesy of my somewhat loose image and then a 2:1 chip lead meant that all I had to do was wait for a flopped straight and just slow play it. I wonder if playing a slightly higher level of game is making the smaller stake buy-ins that much more easy?

As I type I am in the $3k GTD again, having won a seat in a 5 seat GTD with only 12 entrants. Did have to luckbox a 4-way all in to take out positions 9-7 when I was shortish, but once I had some chips I was never in danger. Going to have to make the most of this as the number of runners in the event itself is 22, which is 2 down from last weeks 24 and there is no way any site will continue this much support for a tournament that is not pulling in the players.

Anyway, total profit for the month so far is $866, which is an improvement on this time last year (~$600) and will only look better if I manage to cash in the PLO tonight as well. TY for reading :)

An Almost Perfect Game

Soz about the long time between updates, been busy :)

Hardly played in October after BFWCOP, had a week away in Devon with my family. Overall, ended $100 up for the month. Must have got tilted on holiday as came back and could not win a pot for the first 2 weeks of November. I dare not look at the number of hilo STTs I played as I am sure I must have blanked in about 10 consecutive games. Same went on Betfair where the new buy-in prices seemed to destabilize the rhythm I was used to on the PLO STTs as well. What didn't help was having a cold for a week which really dulled my thinking.

So, eventually decided I was going to play the $10 plo rebuy on BF again. I used to do well in this, but last few times I had played it I was nowhere near the money. Indeed this time I was on my way out, with the 2nd rebuy being a complete accident when I meant to click Cancel and hit OK instead. With only 14 runners, the add-on break arrived and I was one of only 5 left, so the addon was a no-brainer and I had bought in for $41. Top 3 paid and 3rd place was $44 - which to be honest was what I was playing for at that stage. Ended up getting 2nd after some confidence boosting railing from gummybaggie for $66.

Also started to get in the money in a few STTs as well, then Tuesday I decided that it would be a good idea to play the 20:45 $5 plo rebuy on Full Tilt. In many respects it was, because I had a clear head, no alcohol and I did not feel too tired (to start with anyway). I played pretty much perfect throughout the whole game, even though I had 2 double buy-ins and an add-on at the break. Critical hand for me came with about 15 left:

Full Tilt Poker Game #9044577128: $5 + $0.50 Rebuy (69072648), Table 4 - 120/240 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 17:30:31 ET - 2008/11/18
Seat 1: meliina (7,152)
Seat 2: geodsdb (13,463)
Seat 3: jnt99 (11,022)
Seat 5: bambii (18,310)
Seat 6: iwilllie (11,768)
Seat 7: Wolfbagger (5,360)
Seat 8: electric chair (15,450)
Seat 9: Greengoz (15,899)
Greengoz posts the small blind of 120
meliina posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Th Ks Ts 9s] ===> decent starting hand
geodsdb raises to 840
jnt99 folds
bambii folds
iwilllie calls 840
Wolfbagger folds
electric chair calls 840
Greengoz folds
meliina folds
*** FLOP *** [4h Td 9h] ===> jackpot flop
geodsdb has 15 seconds left to act
geodsdb bets 2,880
iwilllie calls 2,880 ===> even better, probably 2 playing for a flush here so blockers in play
electric chair raises to 14,400
geodsdb has 15 seconds left to act
geodsdb folds ===> good, going to be up against only 1 with nearly 2:1 chance
iwilllie calls 8,048, and is all in
electric chair shows [Th Ks Ts 9s]
iwilllie shows [6h 7c Kd Ah]
Uncalled bet of 3,472 returned to electric chair
*** TURN *** [4h Td 9h] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [4h Td 9h Jd] [5d] ===> phew, held
electric chair shows three of a kind, Tens
iwilllie shows Ace King high
electric chair wins the pot (27,616) with three of a kind, Tens

Was in fact only 61:38 on the flop to win, but that's not allowing for the potential for the other player to have any hearts, which would have made my hand bigger.

After this I was just about untouchable, once the bubble burst and we reached the final table I was doubled when I had nut straight and bet 10% of the pot on the river, only to be reraised all in by 2 pair and straight to chip lead. The one mistake I made was HU, wtf was I doing staying in with this hand on a paired flop?

FullTiltPoker Game #9046798785: $5 + $0.50 Rebuy (69072648), Table 7 - 2500/5000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 19:50:46 ET - 2008/11/18
Seat 6: sky78 (90,950)
Seat 9: electric chair (299,550)
electric chair posts the small blind of 2,500
sky78 posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [6d 5h 3c 4c]
electric chair raises to 10,000
sky78 raises to 30,000
electric chair calls 20,000
*** FLOP *** [As 2c 2s]
sky78 bets 60,000
electric chair calls 60,000
*** TURN *** [As 2c 2s] [Jc]
sky78 bets 950, and is all in
electric chair calls 950
sky78 shows [Ac Ah 6s Tc]
electric chair shows [6d 5h 3c 4c]
*** RIVER *** [As 2c 2s Jc] [6c]
sky78 shows a full house, Aces full of Twos
electric chair shows a flush, Jack high
sky78 wins the pot (181,900) with a full house, Aces full of Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 181,900 | Rake 0
Board: [As 2c 2s Jc 6c]
Seat 6: sky78 (big blind) showed [Ac Ah 6s Tc] and won (181,900) with a full house, Aces full of Twos
Seat 9: electric chair (small blind) showed [6d 5h 3c 4c] and lost with a flush, Jack high

Still, after 55 hands heads up I get dealt QQ with a 5:3 chip lead, get all in on the flop and hit my set on the turn to post a $400 win. OPR still has me running around 8,000th out of 500k runners on FT too, which is nice.

Ty for reading - and the comment from gatsby to prove that someone else is looking at this page apart from me :)

BFWCOP IV Report

Aren't poker players fantastic? You don't see them for 1 or 2 years, but as soon as you meet up with them they are remembering the hands you played together and pushing a beer in your direction.

Arrived late on Thursday evening after managing to book a flight to Bilbao from Birmingham, dumped my bags in the hotel and set off to the Sports Cafe - all of about 100 yds walk from the front door. Perfect organization from Boro. Met up with Sunday8pm, SoC, Zelda, Boro, Chilin, Tank, Mavis, Dealem, Waheyyyy and probably a few more. Couple of games of pool and several pints later it was time to congregate on the pavement outside the bar, buy a few pink cowboy hats and make some charitable donations to the local tramps (before you ask, no Shaa did not turn up). Not to be outdone, the tramp donated his lighter to Boro, though I think we might have paid for a night of bed and breakfast so he had himself a good deal.

It was 3:30am by the time we had paid a visit to the kebab shop, so I went back to the room to crash, only to be woken up at 6:15 when Boro and Sunday came back having been to the casino and had ordered breakfast to be delivered to the room. Spent most of an hour laughing at deejays drunken forum rant having been thrown out of the Ramsgate tournament. Sadly the thread was removed by the time I woke up to go play golf, but I have never seen a typo in every word in a thread before. Managed to go round in about my usual standard, 56 for 9 holes and managed a par 4 on the final hole to make me feel better :)

Team event took place on the Friday night, signing into the casino was taking too long, so they gave us some yellow string bracelets and pushed us all in for 8:00pm, nice to see someone using common sense for once. I was on the same table as my team joker (dests) and was also up against a random BPPC sub for the Northern Monkeys, Twaddles from Betfair, coops, dealem, honeybear and boro. Both double teams ended up sitting next to each other, which limited our ability to coordinate play. The game itself was pretty tough, took ages for first person to go, which was dests unfortunately just after the break. Not sure that getting hammered pre-event had the desired effect of loosening up her game.

Played some good poker, made some good folds and got quite outplayed at times by dealem. He always seemed to make the right move at the right time, squeezing my pre-flop and post-flop raises all in when I had trash. Eventually, got a reasonable hand and doubled on honeybear (I think) and entered the final 3 in 3rd place. At this stage, I was up against dealem and coops. Took ages for the action to get going, so long in fact that we were the last table running by a long way - very different to last year when I won my table before some tables had lost 1 player. Both coops and dealem were down to about 2k at one time or another, before we all ended up on roughly even stacks with blinds at 600-1200ish. I was dealt KQc on the BB and coops raised to 8k from the button. I had just over 20k chips in my stack, so after dealem folded decided (correctly) that this was an overbet from a weak hand and pushed, with the intention that coops would fold. He didn't, called and flipped over A4o, don't think either of us improved and since he had me covered I was out in 3rd. Not sure if he would have folded even if I had a dominating stack as his team was out of the running for the prize money. Not beating dealem meant that the Flashmob team came second overall, and in a surprise move by Carl, we picked up some prize money for it too.

Another night on the lash was followed by a full English in the local cafe and a short walk up to the casino for the Main Event. With 62 runners it was a lot smaller than last year, but with casino blind structures it meant that some of the later action was going to be a bit of a crap shoot. Early doors I was being dealt trash, and with strak two to my right, my blinds were vapourizing frequently. Really only had 3 hands of note: Reasonably early on I was dealt QQ on the BB. Rich from Betfair raised from UTG+1 for 500 chips, with a chipset on his head strak made it 3k which would have put Rich all in. Since I was playing for the chips, I pushed all in and put myself up towards average stack when they both folded.

Next hand was against gummybaggie, blinds were either 200-400 or 300-600 and I was dealt KQc in mid-position. Pot was folded round to me, so I made it 1800 which was folded to wonky in the SB, who called, then gummy pushed all in from the BB for about 5k. I had about 11k behind and decided that I would be racing, so pushed all in aiming to get heads up, wonky folded a Q and gummy flipped over 1010. I spiked a pair and he was gone. Worked out later I was 46:53 in that hand, so was definitely right to take it for the pot odds.

My nearly final hand was the 1st one after the break. I was BB and was dealt QQ with blinds at 400-800. Dests opened the betting and raised to 2200 from the button, so with about 16k I raised it up to 5600 and dests pushed all in. Decided I was probably ahead, so called and she turned over 99 Flop gave her a 9 and the river made it quads. This left me with about 4k, so I was pretty much crippled and I eventually went out in 38th with KCc to AKd all in preflop with the over short stack on the table.

The whole weekend was a real blast, if you go to Birmingham, the City Inn is a really nice hotel with Apple iMacs in the rooms, with free internet and very centrally located for a Broad Street night out. The Broadway Casino was very accomodating, even allowing tank to wander round pissed for a couple of hours before asking him to leave. Zelda organized the whole event really well and the team game was very competitive with a nice twist from Mandylou, doubling up the jokers and captains. Hope to go next year if we can find someone to organize it, though Boro did say he was seriously considering doing it, though he was quite pissed at the time. Might have to put in some Holdem practice next time though, worked out I have only really played about 3 Holdem games online in the last 2 months - all of which were freerolls.

Played the £30 9:00pm freezeout in the casino, which was a kind of rebuy, where you could hold off adding on extra free chips for the 1st hour. Bizarre, but played it too tight and seriously underestimated the power of top pair in a "rebuy" flop situation. Had I called, I would have trebled and would have had enough of a stack to avoid being bullied later on when the blinds started to bite, out in about 45th of 120.

Hopefully not dissed too many folks in this update, but if you do feel offended, tough! Leave me a comment and let me know, only spam gets deleted. :)

Late September Summary

September was a cracking month, right up until the last day, where I managed to turn a $1k up month into a $900 up month on 2 easy tables. Still, that's the biggest month I have had since I started keeping detailed records. Managed to qualify for 2 freerolls coming up this weekend, a $2k one for earning at least 1 FTP point every day in the month, with the other a $20k TITN for earning 500 FTP points in the month. Am going down with a cold at the moment, so hope to be fit for the weekend to make the most of them.

The Betfair account has gone a bit the wrong way recently, must be the STT challenge making the games a bit crazy, so is down to about £160. Full Tilt now $988, but that include my first staking of $75 for a hilo tournament. I had the table up and was watching when the jockey made a decent push on a 99x flop, only to be called by KKxx - wtf? Still, made me think that if I was going to pay for someone to make a play that I would have considered doing myself (maybe not on Level 1) I might as well play it myself.

PokerTracker stuff is quite useful, but am not sure it does me any good to have a tourney time window up while I am playing STTs. Usually I can smell the bad players without having to check their stats and it almost seems to distract me from making the decisions I would normally make. Cash and MTTs are a bit different and if I can work it out I think it would be more useful. Running around 35% VPIP, which seems to be at the high end of the scale for players who are winning at hilo, but maybe still reflects the fact I make the end-game quite regularly. Did seem to lose the knack of finishing games off for a bit, but put that right tonight winning 3 STTs on the bounce, before going out in 7th in the 4th and final hilo of the night.

OPR website now has me ranked 8,759 of 463,111 in the last 120 days, which puts me in the top 2% of players in their database for FT. Not sure how it is worked out, but it certainly ranks alongside some of the numbers that have been posted onto the Betfair forum in the staking thread. On profit I am about 11000th of 102k players, which suggests somewhat less than 25% of players make a profit. Remind myself, why do I need to pay anyone else to play?

Going to bfwcop in Birmingham next week, via Bilbao on a business trip. As "luck" would have it, just about the only flights from the UK to Bilbao are from Birmingham via Munich. Guess it means I will be fresh and ready for anything on Friday morning anyway, hopefully get a round of golf in and see if I can crack the 110 barrier again :)

A Half Century

This is apparently my 50th post, hard to believe when you look back at my first post and the reasons for creating the blog. It has also been running for over 2 years as well. Hope you have enjoyed reading it, tried not to make it too much of a bad beat listing. So, for a bit of a change, here is a hand history.

Here's a playing to win mistake I made last night. On reflection, my 35% for the hand on the flop when the money went in, would have paid 2:1 in chips but only have doubled my payout (assuming that I can play a big stack effectively). Maxemus must have thought it was his lucky day, though based on his play throughout this table, pooh could have had anything. 3rd paid about $600, 1st about $1200. Live and learn.

Game #8143681553: $2,500 KO Guarantee (61186768), Table 23 - 4000/8000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 20:48:05 ET - 2008/09/19
Seat 2: MAXEMUS126 (192,314)
Seat 6: whoflungpooh (359,338)
Seat 8: electric chair (189,348)
electric chair posts the small blind of 4,000
MAXEMUS126 posts the big blind of 8,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to electric chair [Qh Ks As 6s]
whoflungpooh calls 8,000
electric chair raises to 20,000
MAXEMUS126 folds
whoflungpooh calls 12,000
*** FLOP *** [3s 2s Ah]
electric chair has 15 seconds left to act
electric chair bets 36,000
whoflungpooh has 15 seconds left to act
whoflungpooh raises to 156,000
electric chair raises to 169,348, and is all in
whoflungpooh calls 13,348
electric chair shows [Qh Ks As 6s]
whoflungpooh shows [Th 5s 4h 6h]
*** TURN *** [3s 2s Ah] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [3s 2s Ah Jc] [9c]
electric chair shows a pair of Aces
whoflungpooh shows a straight, Five high
whoflungpooh wins the pot (386,696) with a straight, Five high
electric chair stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 386,696 | Rake 0
Board: [3s 2s Ah Jc 9c]
Seat 2: MAXEMUS126 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: whoflungpooh (button) showed [Th 5s 4h 6h] and won (386,696) with a straight, Five high
Seat 8: electric chair (small blind) showed [Qh Ks As 6s] and lost with a pair of Aces

This was actually on the final table of a $24 knockout plo tournament on Full Tilt. With 247 runners I was paid out just over $650 including 8 bounties. I only entered it because late registration was open when I logged in.

On other fronts, my Full Tilt account is looking nice and healthy. Earlier this week I went past the $1k mark and after last night, I was up to $1.6k. Have withdrawn $600 today, which obviously means I played like a donk tonight and went 0/4. Mostly playing hilo STTs at the moment. Having built my bank up with a selection of $6 and $11 STTs I decided to try out a few $22 games as well. Initial results have been very good, though I have had too many 2nd places from a lead to be happy.

On Betfair, the balance is now up to £180, a result entirely driven by Omaha, including one profitable cash session when I was earning points for the merchandise mountain promotion. Managed 3 back to back $10 STT wins yesterday, followed by a 2nd, making it my best overall profit day since I won a trip to NY 2 years ago.

My Sharkscope graphs are still looking good, on both the Betfair and Full Tilt accounts, the upward tendency is still there, but August ROI took a bit of a battering due to low volume. I was quite pleased with myself until I checked markwales on Stars. He has been killing the 180 runner SNGs recently and his profit line has turned vertical, just so sick. Not played much on Blue Square or Everest lately, not really worth learning another couple of sites when I can make money at 20-40% ROI on the ones I focus on already.

Lastly, have invested in Poker Tracker Omaha version. I can't say I fully understand it, nor that it works 100% accurately, but it has verified a couple of things I guessed about my game before. Typically, I see 38% of the flops in Omaha in tournaments. Somewhat surprisingly, I VPIP 60%+ from the small blind, with only a very small negative ROI. I guess this is related to the number of tables I get HU at the end, often running 20-30 hands before a conclusion is reached.

My last game of the day is running now, a $33 18-man hilo SNG on Full Tilt. Currently 3rd of 7 left and the action is about to start getting interesting, so I must go and focus on that.

A Posting for Ray

A few days ago I said I would send Ray an email about getting rakeback on poker sites other than Betfair, instead of posting on the Betfair forum. It occurs to me that as this is my blog, I can promote other sites on here if I want, so here it is.

Firstly, even if you don't turn over a huge amount of rake, you can get reasonable deals from a number of rake aggregation sites. They don't really care how much you bring in, they just add it all up at the end of the month and send a bill to the networks. I signed up in Dec-07 with http://www.thisisthenuts.com after a conversation with Smart Money - this was the site he used. It gives you access to about 15 poker rooms including Betfair, with rakeback ranging from 27% (Full Tilt) through to 37% (Betfair, volume dependent). Most sites seem to be offering 30%, and although the Full Tilt is the lowest %, I did some research and it seems to be their standard rate.

They also have bonuses on offer, if you play Full Tilt and earn 500 FT points in a month, you get entry to a $20k freeroll. I have managed to qualify for this once and from 600 runners I got a top 50 finish and $60. Rake more than $500 in a month and you get a 1 month subscription to the Stoxpoker training site.

Until this week, my rake was paid back to TITN from Full Tilt, with cash out options back to Full Tilt, Absolute, Ultimate or Cake poker networks. As of Monday, the Full Tilt rake will be paid weekly direct into my Full Tilt account. Rake from other sites can still go back to TITN and then be cashed out to one of the sites.

If you do sign up through here, putting in my referral code (miltonb) will get me a bonus and a guaranteed couple of beers for you if we meet up at any time. A lot of the sites offer sign up bonuses, including FT, which will pay out up to $600 incrementally on a 1:1 basis depending on rake earned. When you do earn this sign up bonus, your rake back will be reduced by 27% as they would otherwise be paying you twice.

I like Full Tilt, it is generally easy to find a game whenever I want one. The tables are easy to move around and resize, plus whatever poker tool is your favourite, it will work with it. I mostly play low stakes HiLo STTs from $6 to $22 and if you want to find me, look up "electric chair" in the players list. I have found that for me, the $5 rebuys are profitable, having cashed (and won a couple) at Holdem, PLO and HiLo. Whatever your game though, there are so many more options than Betfair. However, because it is not linked to a betting site or Exchange, the players are probably a slightly better standard. It did take me a month or two to get used to the feel of the games and the players (see the Sharkscope graph for evidence of this), but have now found my feet and can play games without fear of being the worst on the table.

August Half-Month Progress

First half of the month was a no poker zone, decided it was cheaper to stay married than get a 3G dongle to play poker on holiday, at least this year anyway (no, she does not read my blog!).

Once I got back I had the APAT WCOAP Omaha to look forward to at the end of the month, so started playing a few PLO games on BF again. Having played 31 games, I managed to cash in 19 of them and won 8, 29 of these were 9 seaters, only played 2 6-paks and did not cash in either of them. End of month balance moved up over £100 and I easily met the Stax improve goal for an additional $25.

On Full Tilt, I had a bit of a topsy turvey month, managed to win a couple of $22 Hilo STTs, but ran sick bad towards the end of the month and think I went 6 without a cash. Also managed a 2nd in a Hilo $5 rebuy for nearly $300 profit in one go. Overall, managed to end the month with a balance of about $900, having been one STT result from going over the $1k barrier a couple of time, I have slipped back to $800 since. I don't think I am actually playing too bad, but will probably be investing in some kind of tracker this month to work out if this is really the case or if I was just running uber-lucky before. Poker Tracker Omaha looking favourite, though Omaha Indicator looks interesting, will probably see if I can make it work on the play money games and see if it is any good.

End of July Update

Quick summary for July before I set off for Cornwall and probably no poker for a couple of weeks.

After what I thought was a good start I carried on and had an absolute steamer up until about the 20th of the month. At that stage I was still showing an ROI of 80% on STTs on Sharkscope after 35 games or so. Inevitably, the run came to an end, but it happened when I stepped up to a $24 STT, made the final 4 easily and then my laptop froze. First time it had happened that I can remember. Managed to get back in about 1 hand after I had been blinded out and then dumped another $24 and $12 STT in quick succession when I was obviously on tilt.

End of the month numbers for Full Tilt shows 55 STTs, with an ROI of about 50% for $250+. Add to that another $150 on MTTs and cash, with just under another $100 from Betfair, Everest and Blue Square and I very nearly broke the $500 barrier for the month, +$492 in the end. That finally also makes 2008 a profitable year on poker too, for about $25... plus about $40 in rakeback from TITN to come as well.

In other news, I played a satellite for the APAT WCOAP Omaha on Blue Square for $15 and played a near perfect game. Made the final table about 6th, but by the time we reached the bubble I was 2nd and nobody was calling my bets. This will be my frst live Omaha MTT and I am really looking forward to it.

Lastly, bought a 3G iPhone on Sunday, it is the coolest gadget I have ever owned and as a mobile device I have not seen anything better. It is perfect apart from the fact that you can't use the network connection for your laptop. Still, suppose I could get a 3 pay as you go 3G modem as well - depends on whether I think it would be worth the moaning taking it on holiday and using it to play poker.

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Summary for June: down on Full Tilt and Betfair, up on Blue Square and Everest, net -$40.

Summary for July so far: up $150 net, $200 on Full Tilt.

Most of this has been the Omaha HiLo Turbo STTs on FT, but did get a 4th in a PLO rebuy. That was a bit annoying, since I really should have won it hands down after moving into 1st place 3 hands before I went out.

On the STT front, having completed 12 games of hilo, I have cashed in 6, winning 5 of them. Also played and won against the best player I have seen on these tables at this level, LakePlacid Kid - loads of chat in the box and even offered to buy the win off me for $10 when he was 40:60 down in chips. He seemed to give up when I lol'd that request off and lasted only 2 more hands after I slow played a nut flush and lo.

Graph on the right comes from Sharkscope and shows the progress I have made on STTs since I started playing on Full Tilt - nice to see it going upwards on all fronts.

The 40th Best Amateur Poker Player in Ireland

Always like Dublin and reckon this could become an annual trip, though maybe next time not worry about being in the poker tournament.

Arrived with my mates on Friday night, checked into the hostel and worked out that we were sharing the room with a random. Never mind, went out and got trashed, eventually getting back about 4:30am. Breakfast round the corner about 11:30 and we headed off to the Fitzwilliam to register. This plan worked at BFWCOP II, but unfortunately this time I was about 5-6 pints ahead of the game and only just kept down the half breakfast I had managed to eat.


The club was nice enough, albeit in the middle of replacing the carpets. A couple of coffees later and I was ready for the off. Kept it quiet to start and never really got in trouble early. Found the calling station at the table who managed to stay in with K9s from the big blind and missed his flush but rivered a 9 to make a higher pair than I was playing. First big hand of note for me was QQ on UTG+1. Rock like image meant my 3BB raise to 200 was passed back to the UTG who called. Flop was 10-8-4 with 3 suits, so I raised another 1200 when UTG checked which he then called. Turn was a 10, so I thought about it for a bit and bet another 1800. This time, UTG took an age to call, which looked a bit like he was hamming it up, so I checked his river check and he showed JJ and my stack was 15k.

It took almost 6 hours to lose the first player on our table, with some great banter and a horrible hand where the table LAG stated he would bet 5k (out of 9k behind) on the flop - table talkbox who was pretty good checked from the BB and on a 10JQ flop said "you won't dare to bet 5k" and checked. This would have set my alarm bells off, but LAG bet his 50% and was immediately re-raised all in. He called and the talkbox showed K9 for a flopped straight - which I thought was probably AK, but the effect was the same. A river Q gave LAG the full house and the talkbox was crippled and out a few hands later.

This was about the time when the blinds were 400-800 and we started to get a few new faces on the table. I had noticed that the next jump was to 600-1200 and and knew that this was when the blinds were going to be significant. Try as I might though, I could not raise pre-flop with anything because I had 4 to my right who did not let an unraised pot pass. This combined with the lack of sleep and alcohol abuse kicking in led to two mistakes when I should have pushed all-in on the raiser but just folded. With 1-2k blinds and 7k raises I would have probably been out, or up to 40k instead of struggling on 20k when the table finally folded. I was moved to a new table and with the blinds about to go to 1.5-3k I pushed K9 from the SB into the BBs A4 and a flopped set 4s took me out.

The organization was excellent and I am pretty sure we started promptly, with everyone I talked to being very friendly and up for a bit of banter. All of the dealers were excellent, especially Lilly who dealt me all my best hands. Overall it was a bit like the BFWCOP games apart from the on-time start really. Might go for one of the London events in August, but maybe pick the Omaha game as that is just a one-dayer and I won't be tempted to go out on the piss the night before.

Still, finishing at 11:30pm as I did meant that I got another night out on the craic in Dublin and we woke the random up at 4:30am again. This time I think he was a bit upset because of all the banging on the wall to the Essex girls in the room next door, but sadly I missed his hissy fit because I was out like a light.

End of May Update

Had a bit of an up and down month, finished down about $200 in the end, but that includes a $109 buyin on another FTOPs PLO. This time it was a rebuy and as soon as it started I knew I was out of my depth buy-in wise. Struggled through to just before the break and decided to push with a paired hand and got busted by a big stack.

Added Blue Square and Everest accounts to my stable this month as well. Everest is a reasonable interface, but the players are truly awful. Long may it continue, up $75 on there in May and another $62 so far in June. Blue Square is on the same network as VC which has always been my worst account. Signed up so I could play in the APAT Ireland satellites and failed to qualify from both that I entered. Allowing for that, the balance is about $10 down from where I started and me and 4 mates have all bought in direct.

Full Tilt was down about $100 and I have focused on playing the 9 seater HILO turbos. This has started to come through in my results now and sharkscope reckons my sit n go results have been picking up month over month (June so far is a bit sick at about +40% mostly playing $11s). Balance now back up to about $360.

Biggest disappointment was on Betfair, down about $110 - almost all as a result of playing in the $350 gtd PLO rebuy a few times. Just before Christmas I picked up a couple of nice results in this tourney, now I can't buy a hand.

GL in your games and if you are in Dublin next week I will be in Temple Bar on Friday and Saturday night, or the Fitzwilliam casino during the day. If I make the final table I will miss my flight back, but if I do I will worry about it after I have sobered up.