October Goals

Well I am no longer troubled by the rigours of pursuing a university degree so should be able to devote a decent amount of time to the tables this month. I hope to play at least 60k hands mainly on Party, but also testing the waters in the UB and FT games. I shall be concentrating on adopting good game selection and minimising my errors whilst exploiting the weakness of other players. I shall strive to continue good bankroll management, although this discipline has improved greatly recently. I haven't set a target win rate but I guess it would be nice to surpass 5PTBB/100.

in the croft

Hi y’all, I’m making this blog from the comfort of my adopted home claycroft. After the initial disappointment of not having Grundy living next door I’m getting used to it. I have a 24” monitor and Dave’s Xbox360 at the moment running at 1080 on the screen (although 1080i not 1080p coz using a composite cable not HDMI at the mo). So I’m staying amused on the long winter nights.

I started my lectures last Sunday and have had 10-1 and 2-5 every day with theory in the morning and examples classes in the afternoon. I have been missing the theory ones on the last day or two in favour of a lie in and then getting the question answering technique. Pretty reasonable considering we have an exam on Wednesday and we only have to answer questions.

Other than working I’ve been seeing Will, Jack, and Dave for a session at the Isle and some basketball. Also I have been taught big 2 which is a card game I suck at and don’t rate that much but its better than poker lol.

The isle was the £30 double chance and I basically folded my way down to 5BB for about 2 hours making a steal or two. Then CO raised, I shove AK (woooooo), BB calls (QT), CO has KK. gg. After, I sat about with Will for a while as Jack and Dave played the cash games.

The card room manager was very keen to get a cash game going so we sorted out a 1/1 game with around 6 players. Not without waiting 30 mins for the Chinese October moon celebrations to complete (groan). Only player in the game who had a clue was Will, and everyone else was weak/tight or weak/loose, so I played about 50/45 for a couple of orbits and fortunately found myself on £110 (sat with 50). Then I have AT, make it 5 pre, 2 callers, flop A62 I bet 10, shorty moves in for 11 total with A6, whatever. Dealer obv berates me because “he obviously has 2 pair there”.

Couple of hands later I try and value bet KJ on K high board on the river as he’s played it pretty weak on a non-drawy board. He turns up with AK. Played very few hands vs Will (he was setmining me a few times) then he raised up a hand in mp. Mental woman calls, I flat with JJ because I think a lot of the time I’m playing for a set and if I reraise Will probs shoves all better hands and folds worse so thought I’d try and play a multiway pot. Then the guy in position on me shoves for like £25 folds back to me, I say “that’s pretty gay” and fold face up. He showed QQ, ty. The mental oriental woman then goes “why you pass jacks?!!?!?!?!” so I obv replied “’coz he had queens.”

Last pot of the night I played called someone AI on TTQ with 99, he looked like he had been shot but he had KJ and hit a Q, basically flipaments. Left the game and pottered about checking out the waitresses like a dirty perv.

In other news at Isle I made like £30 at roulette and got cockwatched by some cleaner woman so it was not uneventful.

Since the isle I have been playing madden and sitting around basically, getting over the back end of a flu so I’m looking forward to playing some football or gym or whatever next week.

Online poker has been going a bit rubbish for me at the mo, lost like 6 buyins recently but only played about 6k hands this month due to being on hols/moving networks/moving to campus etc etc (just being lazy). So in my bad mood at online pokarz I cashed out a bit of money to buy a ps3, but it looks like a xbox 360 is a better bet at the moment so I have a lot more money to spend on games etc. The games I will buy when I purchase are Madden 2008, Halo 3, Gears of War. I don’t even like fps games but I’ve never played a halo game so whatever, plus I bet it’ll look really perty. Here is pic of setup and this months graph.

Back in Devon

Spent most of yesterday trying to configure Party poker to work with Vista. Also have now managed to get all my software functioning properly and thanks to Jambon have a decent paHud set up. Spadeye has enabled me to gameselect really well and I am always aware that as soon as table conditions tighten up there are plenty of donks ripe to donate else where. God has kissed my eyes over the last 24 hrs- see PT screenshot- AA and KK are indestructable. Long may this continue. The day was not quite glitch free, however, as the sheep broke out and will need to be moved tomorrow.

Busy week!

The trip to the Isle on Tuesday was great fun. Before the tournament there were 9 of us (Brad, Jags, Rupert, Tommo, Jambon, Flash, JD, Myself and Lauren) and we went for a meal at Farraday's steak house above the main casino floor. Quoting Jambon "Possibly the best steak I've had in the UK". Now that's saying something! I will be going there more often in the future. As for the tournament, I'm on a table with Jambon and Brad and manage to chip up early by getting awesome cards but after the break, I slowly grind down to 10xbbs and eventually shove with 7-7 on the button, only for the small-blind to tank for ages and then say: "Well I guess I got to gamble sometime" and calls (big blind folds) and reluctantly flips over J-J?!?! He also told someone off for not checking down with him whilst there was an all-in. Zzz what a joke.

I went to the dealer's choice cash game (1-2 Pot-Limit blinds) and sat down with Flash for 300 a piece. Since most of the games chosen were Pot-Limit omaha, I felt the game would be well suited for me. However, 7-card stud is a popular choice and this hand came up:

Me: (Q-T)-Q
Villain: (x-x)-K

The player with a King showing pots to 7quid. Myself and Flash (showing a Four) call. Fourth street brings:

Me: (Q-T)-Q-2.
Villian: (x-x)-K-8

This time he bets 15quid, Flash folds and I decide to peel one more card. It is pretty clear he has a King in the hole, but he seems spewey enough to pay me off if I hit.

Me: (Q-T)-Q-2-Q (yes!)
Villain: (x-x)-K-8-8

I'm thinking about what to do when Villain puts in some chips out of turn! I go ahead and check, he duly bets 50quid. I raise full-pot which (actually set him in for around 175 on top). The pot is over 500 quid and we flip our cards:

Me: (Q-T)-Q-2-Q
Villain: (K-x)-K-8-8

I'm in fantastic shape, especially when I fill up on sixth street with a Ten. Someone says they have mucked a King so there is just one King in the deck that will lose me the pot. He hits, I cry. Villain eventually runs his stack to over 900quid before losing it in two pots. He lost 550 of it with the 2nd nut flush against the nut flush (in IRISH...sheesh). Then tilted the remaining 300-odd to me when I 4-bet pre with A-A-Q-Qds in a straddled pot (thanks Jags!) and he saw a flop with A-K-4-2ds (it wasn't even high-low!!). Flop of Q-x-x and he shoved flop. I quad up on turn to get a bit of justice for the earlier pot. Hello Mr 600quid pot.

After dropping off JD at the airport the next morning, I went back home to find Tommo, Flash and Jambon all tucked up under the same duvet in my living room (I actually had photographic evidence of this but my phone crashed grrrrrr). Went for a late lunch with Jambon's friend Lindsay on campus then set off on our trip to London. Having had 4 hours sleep the journey would have been disaster had it not been for the "I'm going to a desert island..." game...(Avacado, banana boat, chimpanzee...). As we drove through the streets of Newham (highest crime-rate borough in London), I could see Tommo in the back seat looking slightly worried and trying not to make eye contact with the kids in hoodies on the streets.

We dropped off my sister at the flat and we were on our way to Flash's when I mentioned that we have just driven past Gutshot. Merely a passing comment, Flash notices it's 7:50pm and says that the evening tournys start at 8pm. We make a quick U-turn and park right outside Gutshot just in time for the first hand of a 75quid freezeout. With no players of any note on my table (except for Ade who was very tight), I quickly mixed things up by opening a lot of pots. This kid who had good chip-shuffling skills clearly fancied himself as a player and I'm pretty sure he suffered from FPS (fancy-play syndrome) and was just waiting for him to explode.

With blinds at 75-150, I opened up with A-J in mid position to 400, Button flat calls (tendency to call pre very weak) and FPS kid can-t resist and shoves for 2.5k total. I insta-call (button folds) and he flips over 6-4. Thank-you. I hit a couple of coolers (T-T vs Q-Q, etc) and have to play short-stack for sometime. I've made sure that I constantly know how many bb's I have and won a few showdowns to go to final above average. Tommo makes final too so we trade 10%. Early on Tommo finds A-Q and loses a big race vs T-T and drops to 3xbb. Next hand Tommo is all-in and wakes up with A-A (vs K-K) and he's back in the game!

Then come 3 pots in which myself and Tommo get involved in.

#1: Blinds 800-1600. I open with 6-6 in mid-position to 4k. Folds round to Tommo in small blind who shoves for 11k total. I had 35k before the hand so it's an easy call. He shows 9-9 and doubles up.

#2: Blinds 800-1600. I open with 7-7 in mid-position to 4k. Folds round to Tommo in small blind who shoves for 12k total. However, dealer tells me it's 22k to call and I insta-muck, only to be told shortly after that the dealer made a miscalculation. Yikes! Should be an insta-call :( Nevermind, I should have double-checked myself.

#3: Blinds 1k-2k. Tommo opens with J-J in mid-position to 5k. I wake up in small blind with A-K and we are off to the races. Tommo loses yet another race and is soon knocked out.

I open up a few pots to keep afloat and end up 3-handed with the chiplead. Now I negotiate 700 to myself and 600 to the other two whislt we play for the rest. I'm pretty confident since I have good reads on the other players. We end up heads-up and the other guy has the chip lead after knocked out 3rd place and I'm staying afloat for a while, having to push my button quite a lot. I build back up to 80k (to his 100k with blinds 4k/8k) and shove button with Q-8. Now I've been shoving the button a LOT for the past 25mins of heads up and he finally calls with J-T?!?!?!?!?! Ten on the flop and I'm second place. Nevermind, I'm pretty happy that I played heads-up for the prize since 700quid is still a really nice pay day. I plan to go back for the Saturday night 100 freezeout with the others. I love the 7k starting stack so hopefully I can get another deep run.

Just can't stay away...

So after dropping Dave's sister of in East London we witnessed crime, poverty, filth and depravity. Of course such an environment could not help but remind us all of the Gutshot club..So before we knew it we were heading out of the frying pan and into the fire, we were obviously in a state of denial "well it can't be as bad as last time", "at least they have recently added neon blue lights to the toilets" to prevent the delears shooting up in the toilets. So filled with a surge of euphoria and peach flavoured water coursing through our veins we were slicing through the London traffic.

Upon arrival we discovered that we would be playing a £75 freeze out which attracted 51 hopeful Gutshoters.I overheard the tournament director remarking his surprise at the limited number of runners, football of somekind was blamed, however, I expect his concern was probably due to the reduction in potential tip money.

I got of to a solid start and progressed to final with Dave, we then played a massive pot with Dave's AK improving enough to slaughter my JJ. I came in 7th for £215 with Dave going on to finish 2nd for a none to shabby £700-(the dealers were not forgotten).

I've always been a pretty easy going kind of fellow able to tolerate the ineptitude of others..However, the mug of tea served to me at Gutshot was a bridge too far, apparently due to the clubs financial difficulties, new cost cutting measures have been implemented- this meant that the tea bag used to "brew" my tea was 3rd hand. Upon complaining I was told that i should be grateful,as the tea bag had previously graced the mugs of Gutshot supremo's Ade Bayo and Neil Channing. My powers of negotiation ensured that I managed to secure a new tea bag to add to the hot water and milk. I've always felt you can judge a great deal about a person/establishment by quality of the tea they make, and the 'cuppa' served to me was dreary, grey and tired.

Flash had been badgering me into getting a massage and so I finally obliged. Now, it's not saying much to say that this young lady was far more aggressive than any player I have ever encountered at Gutshot. I've heard of deep tissue massage but as her elbows powered into my shoulder-blades I was in a far more tricky spot than any Gutshoter had previously put me in. Should I ask the masseuse to ease it up a little or endure the punishment. Thankfully the elbow treatment did not last too long and the massage was quite relaxing.

Flash and I were then introduced to a variation of chinese poker by a young lady who also finalled the £75 freeze and who had a great poker name JayLuck. the game benuses me, and I was worried the game may involve forfeits of downing noodle soup or something horrific so left to shortstack a rather juicy 2-2 plo game. Went ok as Chennifer reliably informed me I got my money in as a 70% favourite, but alas to no avail. Went back upstairs to check on the "Big 2" action, which was just winding down. Flash had to beat a rather hasty retreatas he had got in rather deep having lost £5k and didn't have the cash on him. Talk of triad hitmen was mention, but Dave Lu stepped up to the plate and sd hr was good for the five large or double or quits. Dave then chalked up an impressive victory ensuring that we headed back to Balham with all our fingers and toes intact.

a surprise visit

It’s 8am on Monday morning in Newcastle, due still glistening on the windowsill in my room, drunks waddling home after a good Sunday lunch. I hit my phone alarm and leap out of bed. Rarely has getting up been so anticipated, but today, I was going to Leamington.

I got to the airport a little drowsy but raring to go nevertheless. I checked in and headed through security. The obligatory trip to WHSmith was fruitful as ever, today I got FourFourTwo (complete with a 100 greatest players feature – Kaka won), and T3Home – essential for the more discerning balla. Eventually I got the call and went to the gate to be greeted only by a plump airport worker, in hope of a conversation I asked with a grin whether I was alone on the flight. “NO, there’s 8 in total.” was my reply. Oh lord, 8 people, is this a biplane I thought to myself. When the tardy had arrived we got the bus to the plane and I boarded a prop plane for the first time in about 7 years. It was far noisier than I remember and obviously the take off and landing were not for the faint hearted.

At the exit was a bright eyed and bushy tailed Dave Lu, complete with leftover Frankie and Bennies sandwiches. He whisked me to Leamington and Lauren’s new flat. Not without stopping at homebase to buy some gravel, compost, and heather for some reason.

At Lauren’s I popped my head through Tommo’s (Sarah’s) door to say hi, unfortunately Tommo was dead to the world, and without glasses I might as well have been Ghandi. A few hours passed and Flash and Tommo emerged, Flash particularly surprised to see me there. That afternoon we did some gardening (I’ll leave the details in anticipation of Dave’s timelapse photography) and went out for a meal at Café Rouge as Bistrot Pierre was shut. My meal was very nice, I had a selection of charcuterie meats, a sausage baguette for main, then a crepe for desert. The others however were not so lucky – ordering off the set menu. The French waitress failed to understand the order so we had to order a second timebefore anything had started. Flash, Dave, and Tommo all ordered a sticky toffee pudding, it in fact arrived cold with no custard or apology, needless to say – tipping was minimal.

The evening came around and we played a little cash game on the kitchen table before heading to TJs for a drink or two. We got to sleep around four and prepared for a busy Tuesday.

With talk of going to the zoo or drayton manor the night before – waking up at 1 wasn’t a great start. Still, we at least went to the driving range for a brief afternoon session, featuring Tommo destroying a £5 chip with a rented driver. By the evening it was time to head to the Isle the new casino in Coventry.

The casino was spacious and done out in reasonable taste somehow. The waitresses were wearing provocative clothes, and there was no rake. Unfortunately nausea, swollen glands, and a headache took over after the tournament so sitting about drinking water was the order of the day. The tournament went pretty badly for me, only played 2 hands before the first break and was fairly cold decked (unlike Rupert “I has quads” Elder). After the break I shoved on 4 limpers with AKd for about 7k (blinds 200-400), utg called – oh no. Ahhh, he was slowplaying the QTd, he hit 2pr and I was down to 3300. An orbit later and in fact the first hand I had Jambon and Brad on the table utg minraised to 1200, I stuck it in for 2400 total with AT, utg had QJ. gg. I will let Dave, Flash and Tommo keep you in the loop for cash games although I think the gist is – Tommo runs good at blackjack, Dave gets one outed in 7-stud then makes it back in 4O.

Small mention for the steakhouse beforehand – Farradays (sic?). My steak was pretty average and overpriced considering it wasn’t cooked especially well. But everyone elses was nice by the sounds and it was a nice place so I’m sure to be back to give them another chance – I’m kind like that.

I have unfortunately come down with pandemic flu by the looks of things so stay away from me, doctors have said that if my immune system was the same as normal humans I would be dead by now.

I’m going to bed.

The Isle

Right, so we (me, Lauren, Tommo and Flash) decided to go to the new Isle Casino in Coventry for a tenner rebuy. Yum! Let me tell you about this place first. It is amazing, the nicest casino in England at the moment. Wow! There is a steakhouse in the casino, as well as a swanky sports bar and food court. Yum! So I sit down at my table, and who should I find on my right but Lauren, and who should I find on my left but Flash. Awesome! So the tournament kicks off, and I am playing my standard spewy rebuy game. Lauren is playing very well but gets unlucky several times (AA vs K9, 77 vs 55 and AK vs T8 amongst others). Flash builds up a stack nicely despite this one pot where on a board of K-9-5-K and Flash shoves. There is an insta-call from 2-2 in late position and clearly he has a read on Flash since our hero flips over T-6 offsuit. What a read by late position!!!

I bust pretty quickly (doh!) and sit in a dealer's choice cash game with Tommo, who by this time is causing havoc (asking for 5/10 limit and courcheval). He then compromises by choosing hi-lo omaha but this does not go down well. Tommo is told to "go to the Vegas table over there, this is Coventry", as some old guy pointed to an empty table in the corner. Tommo compromises once more by choosing 4-card omaha zzz.

Flash is getting along nicely in the tournament, and Lauren has left for Leam as she is working the next day. Nice! Flash ends up coming 9th in the tourny for 50 quid, and by this time I am feeling absolutely shattered, but we soldier on anyway until the casino shuts at 6 in the morning. One of the highlights of the night is where Tommo has Q-Q-x-x on a board of Q-5-5-K-7 and he sets someone (Morgan Freeman look-a-like) all-in for 29 quid who calls. Tommo flips over his full house and his opponent flicks through his hand for a good 15 seconds before showing 5-5 for quads. A slowroll even I would have been proud of myself. Tommo is incensed and storms out of the cardroom with the dealer saying "If that happened to me, I'd take a break too." As soon as Tommo re-enters the cardroom, he asks for a seat change and moves to the seat directly opposite Morgan and proceeds to stare him down for the next 10 minutes. The rest of the cash-game is pretty uneventful except for the choices of games (7-card stud, badugi, 4-,5- and 6-card Omaha and of course holdem).

On a side note, we felt pretty welcome at The Isle Coventry - the players were friendly and the atmosphere was very nice. Players of note: Old Chinese Guy talking about China National Service; Karl the dealer who always kept things in line (even when the rowdy Greeks came to the table); Zeb who told Tommo to go to the Vegas table. He also said how he preferred women with "larger features around the waist"...interesting. We ended up staying until 6am (casino closing time). The service was awesome (zero rake, zero table charges...how much better can you get?). We'll be going back on Tuesday to take down the 30quid Double Chance. 6k starting stack. YUM YUM!