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Monday, 27 June 2011
Viva Las Vegas
Greetings from sunny Las Vegas!
Last time I posted an update the UK was coated in snow, but now I find myself halfway round the world and the weather couldn’t be more contrasting.
But more on my Vegas jaunt in due course...
2011 Update
I must apologise that my blog has fallen by the wayside this year. Life is good and poker has been going alright – as ever things could be better, but could be much worse.
As a sort of half-arsed attempt to summarise 2011 so far, I’ve reviewed some of my bigger tournament successes. In a sort of reverse, but really rather arbitrary order, for dramatic effect...
5. Up To Speed
I have enjoyed continued success in my regular speed/turbo tourneys, with several outright wins including two biggies on bwin/OnGame:
1/284 in the daily $55 Turbo for $3k.
1/827 in Brazilian Rebuy for $2.4k (the second-largest field I have bested)
In March I finally took down PartyPoker’s $120 buy-in Speed, in doing so belatedly crossing off one of my resolutions from last year:
1/103 in $10K Gtd Speed for $3,172
I’m faring well in my regular haunts on Party:
1/300 in $11 Speed Rebuy for $2.5k
1/218 in $11 Speed Rebuy for $2k
1/133 in $33 Turbo for $1.1k
1/93 in $33 Turbo for $1.1k
Also I took $1.8k for shipping a PokerStars €30 Turbo Knockout against a field of 295.
4. The Big Game
In February I reached my first ever final table in one of the big-field Sunday majors, scoring $3,747 for a 9th place finish in PartyPoker’s $250K Guaranteed Sunday. There were a couple of interesting key hands that I should dig out some time, including a sort of hero-call with bottom set against the chip leader deep in the game.
Also encouragingly I’ve final-tabled Party’s $215 buy-in Friday Special twice, taking $2.3k for a 6th place finish in January after taking a bad beat (obv!) and also final-tabled the $90 rebuy $40K Super Thursday.
3. Big Guns
I’ve been holding my own against some of the big guns on the tougher sites, notably PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
In March I bubbled the final table of Full Tilt’s $129 Knockout, which had a huge $90k+ prize pool. After coming through a field of field of 936 players I had a big stack on the penultimate table, and induced the chip leader to 5-bet jam A9s into my QQ for 490k pot – a pot that could have catapulted me to second in chips. The dreaded ace fell on flop and I had to settle for a comparatively disappointing $1k. It was $10k just for coming third in this, a cool $21.5k for the win.
I really enjoy this tourney, and typical of mid-stakes Full Tilt MTTs it has a broad spectrum of players ranging from LOL-bad to scary-good. I felt very much in my comfort zone and made some powerful plays against the stronger players in the late stages.
Then in May I final-tabled the PokerStars $100 1R+1A Turbo, placing 5/331 for $4,625 – one of my biggest ever scores, although rather less exciting than the $15.8k first prize. Again I rate my play as spot on, and had a couple more flips gone my way that fifth place could well have been a third or a first.
I’ve made a number of other final tables on Stars and Tilt, including a runner-up finish in Full Tilt’s $55 buy-in $12.5k Gtd, placing 2/298 for $2.4k. No wins though.
From a glass-half-empty perspective, with all the near misses I feel I’m running somewhat below expectation. Some of these are high variance games though, so I have my own game selection to blame. It is exciting playing the bigger games and makes poker feel less of a grind.
From a glass-half-full perspective, the repeated brushes with big-field tourney success are highly encouraging, and the variance isn’t too big a problem for me. That elusive $10k+ score is surely just around the corner.
2. Top Scores
My other biggest wins of 2011:
In March I finally accomplished one of my New Year’s resolutions from last year, taking down Sky Poker’s weekly six-max Primo, placing 1/300 for £3,750. At approximately $6.1k this clocks in as my second-biggest ever online cash, after my $8.1k win in iPoker’s Super Tuesday $100 rebuy at Christmas.
My success in mid/high stakes tourneys didn’t stop there. In April I shipped Party’s $109 buy-in $15K Gtd, placing 1/160 for $4.4k. I enjoyed a ridiculous chip lead on the final table after speculating with Q-J against a fellow big stack who I suspected was trapping another player with A-A or K-K. I flopped two pair, check-jammed the flop, and sure enough he called with Aces. My hand held up and there was no looking back. Two other strong players made the final table, but I played my A-game, used ICM to my advantage, and 3-bet, 4-bet, floated and bluffed my way to victory. Weeee!
Recently I final-tabled Party’s Sunday night $109 game, the enhanced prize pool $20k Gtd. With 294 entrants the prize pool was actually almost $30k. Four-handed and short-stacked, I hesitantly agreed to chop for a reasonable $3k. It’s been a long while since I agreed to a deal, but the chip leader, strong player RheumaKaiser, opted to chop because apparently he wanted to watch the baseball!! It was a close decision for me, as there was still one bad player on the table and moreover I rather fancied a shot at the $7.6k top spot, but with a short stack and a strong player able to put pressure on me I agreed to take the cash.
I’ve also taken 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th places in Party’s nightly $99 freezeout, shipping it in February (for the second time) for $2.4k.
1. Going Live
I’ve been getting some more experience playing live poker. As well as some minor successes in local low-stakes donkaments, I have qualified for a couple of bigger live games, including PKR’s £750 buy-in PKR Live VI in London. This took place in May and unfortunately I busted at the end of day one. It was a fun experience, and although I struggled to make any big hands I had a good time and met some cool people.
I have landed another £1k GUKPT Main Event seat which I will play towards the end of the year. I qualified on Blue Square Poker and can choose between any of the remaining 2011 events, so I will probably play my local one in Blackpool.
Onto the big one:
This year I made a serious effort to qualify for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. I started playing satellites to the WSOP Main Event in February, suffering a near-miss at the start of April when I bubbled winning a $12k package on Full Tilt, placing 2nd out of 81 in a $216 Shootout qualifier. There was only one prize package available, although I did take a $2.1k cash prize for my runner-up finish which slightly softened the blow. (FWIW the $2.1k means I’ve made a net profit from all the WSOP satellites I’ve played this year.)
On April 17th I finally took down a $13k WSOP package on iPoker, placing joint first out of 55 entries. There were two packages available in the $535 satellite, for which I had qualified by winning a Super Satellite for $126 earlier in the week.
My fellow package winner was none other than fellow PartyGrinder PhilGreen111. As well as entry into the $10,000 Main Event, I get to stay in the prestigious Wynn hotel for seven nights, and also there’s about £1,000 towards flights and other expenses.
Of course I’m elated about qualifying for the biggest game in poker, and the icing on the cake is that several of my online chums on Party have also qualified. As well as PhilGreen111, I would also get to meet THEKID_88, ThundrXpress and KASABIAN_LSF for the first time.
Instead of just flying to Vegas for the WSOP Main Event, I thought I would get there a bit earlier, get settled, and get some practice in at the poker tables.
And so I find myself in Las Vegas, grinding live tourneys as a warm-up for the biggie, which begins two weeks from now.
I’m not going to promise much in the way of full blog updates while I’m here in the US. It just so happens I woke up early the last couple of mornings and have been seized by the compulsion to write something. (It’s my first ever experience of jetlag as I’ve never flown so far from the UK before – I have been warned the jetlag will be far worse when I get back to England, oh joy!)
I have created a Twitter account so I can post the occasional concise update on my donkament successes and failures, not to mention my experiences of American culture (i.e. stuffing my face with obscene quantities of food).
Time to sign off. Wish me luck at the tables...
Last time I posted an update the UK was coated in snow, but now I find myself halfway round the world and the weather couldn’t be more contrasting.
But more on my Vegas jaunt in due course...
2011 Update
I must apologise that my blog has fallen by the wayside this year. Life is good and poker has been going alright – as ever things could be better, but could be much worse.
As a sort of half-arsed attempt to summarise 2011 so far, I’ve reviewed some of my bigger tournament successes. In a sort of reverse, but really rather arbitrary order, for dramatic effect...
5. Up To Speed
I have enjoyed continued success in my regular speed/turbo tourneys, with several outright wins including two biggies on bwin/OnGame:
1/284 in the daily $55 Turbo for $3k.
1/827 in Brazilian Rebuy for $2.4k (the second-largest field I have bested)
In March I finally took down PartyPoker’s $120 buy-in Speed, in doing so belatedly crossing off one of my resolutions from last year:
1/103 in $10K Gtd Speed for $3,172
I’m faring well in my regular haunts on Party:
1/300 in $11 Speed Rebuy for $2.5k
1/218 in $11 Speed Rebuy for $2k
1/133 in $33 Turbo for $1.1k
1/93 in $33 Turbo for $1.1k
Also I took $1.8k for shipping a PokerStars €30 Turbo Knockout against a field of 295.
4. The Big Game
In February I reached my first ever final table in one of the big-field Sunday majors, scoring $3,747 for a 9th place finish in PartyPoker’s $250K Guaranteed Sunday. There were a couple of interesting key hands that I should dig out some time, including a sort of hero-call with bottom set against the chip leader deep in the game.
Also encouragingly I’ve final-tabled Party’s $215 buy-in Friday Special twice, taking $2.3k for a 6th place finish in January after taking a bad beat (obv!) and also final-tabled the $90 rebuy $40K Super Thursday.
3. Big Guns
I’ve been holding my own against some of the big guns on the tougher sites, notably PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
In March I bubbled the final table of Full Tilt’s $129 Knockout, which had a huge $90k+ prize pool. After coming through a field of field of 936 players I had a big stack on the penultimate table, and induced the chip leader to 5-bet jam A9s into my QQ for 490k pot – a pot that could have catapulted me to second in chips. The dreaded ace fell on flop and I had to settle for a comparatively disappointing $1k. It was $10k just for coming third in this, a cool $21.5k for the win.
I really enjoy this tourney, and typical of mid-stakes Full Tilt MTTs it has a broad spectrum of players ranging from LOL-bad to scary-good. I felt very much in my comfort zone and made some powerful plays against the stronger players in the late stages.
Then in May I final-tabled the PokerStars $100 1R+1A Turbo, placing 5/331 for $4,625 – one of my biggest ever scores, although rather less exciting than the $15.8k first prize. Again I rate my play as spot on, and had a couple more flips gone my way that fifth place could well have been a third or a first.
I’ve made a number of other final tables on Stars and Tilt, including a runner-up finish in Full Tilt’s $55 buy-in $12.5k Gtd, placing 2/298 for $2.4k. No wins though.
From a glass-half-empty perspective, with all the near misses I feel I’m running somewhat below expectation. Some of these are high variance games though, so I have my own game selection to blame. It is exciting playing the bigger games and makes poker feel less of a grind.
From a glass-half-full perspective, the repeated brushes with big-field tourney success are highly encouraging, and the variance isn’t too big a problem for me. That elusive $10k+ score is surely just around the corner.
2. Top Scores
My other biggest wins of 2011:
In March I finally accomplished one of my New Year’s resolutions from last year, taking down Sky Poker’s weekly six-max Primo, placing 1/300 for £3,750. At approximately $6.1k this clocks in as my second-biggest ever online cash, after my $8.1k win in iPoker’s Super Tuesday $100 rebuy at Christmas.
My success in mid/high stakes tourneys didn’t stop there. In April I shipped Party’s $109 buy-in $15K Gtd, placing 1/160 for $4.4k. I enjoyed a ridiculous chip lead on the final table after speculating with Q-J against a fellow big stack who I suspected was trapping another player with A-A or K-K. I flopped two pair, check-jammed the flop, and sure enough he called with Aces. My hand held up and there was no looking back. Two other strong players made the final table, but I played my A-game, used ICM to my advantage, and 3-bet, 4-bet, floated and bluffed my way to victory. Weeee!
Recently I final-tabled Party’s Sunday night $109 game, the enhanced prize pool $20k Gtd. With 294 entrants the prize pool was actually almost $30k. Four-handed and short-stacked, I hesitantly agreed to chop for a reasonable $3k. It’s been a long while since I agreed to a deal, but the chip leader, strong player RheumaKaiser, opted to chop because apparently he wanted to watch the baseball!! It was a close decision for me, as there was still one bad player on the table and moreover I rather fancied a shot at the $7.6k top spot, but with a short stack and a strong player able to put pressure on me I agreed to take the cash.
I’ve also taken 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th places in Party’s nightly $99 freezeout, shipping it in February (for the second time) for $2.4k.
1. Going Live
I’ve been getting some more experience playing live poker. As well as some minor successes in local low-stakes donkaments, I have qualified for a couple of bigger live games, including PKR’s £750 buy-in PKR Live VI in London. This took place in May and unfortunately I busted at the end of day one. It was a fun experience, and although I struggled to make any big hands I had a good time and met some cool people.
I have landed another £1k GUKPT Main Event seat which I will play towards the end of the year. I qualified on Blue Square Poker and can choose between any of the remaining 2011 events, so I will probably play my local one in Blackpool.
Onto the big one:
This year I made a serious effort to qualify for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. I started playing satellites to the WSOP Main Event in February, suffering a near-miss at the start of April when I bubbled winning a $12k package on Full Tilt, placing 2nd out of 81 in a $216 Shootout qualifier. There was only one prize package available, although I did take a $2.1k cash prize for my runner-up finish which slightly softened the blow. (FWIW the $2.1k means I’ve made a net profit from all the WSOP satellites I’ve played this year.)
On April 17th I finally took down a $13k WSOP package on iPoker, placing joint first out of 55 entries. There were two packages available in the $535 satellite, for which I had qualified by winning a Super Satellite for $126 earlier in the week.
My fellow package winner was none other than fellow PartyGrinder PhilGreen111. As well as entry into the $10,000 Main Event, I get to stay in the prestigious Wynn hotel for seven nights, and also there’s about £1,000 towards flights and other expenses.
Of course I’m elated about qualifying for the biggest game in poker, and the icing on the cake is that several of my online chums on Party have also qualified. As well as PhilGreen111, I would also get to meet THEKID_88, ThundrXpress and KASABIAN_LSF for the first time.
Instead of just flying to Vegas for the WSOP Main Event, I thought I would get there a bit earlier, get settled, and get some practice in at the poker tables.
And so I find myself in Las Vegas, grinding live tourneys as a warm-up for the biggie, which begins two weeks from now.
I’m not going to promise much in the way of full blog updates while I’m here in the US. It just so happens I woke up early the last couple of mornings and have been seized by the compulsion to write something. (It’s my first ever experience of jetlag as I’ve never flown so far from the UK before – I have been warned the jetlag will be far worse when I get back to England, oh joy!)
I have created a Twitter account so I can post the occasional concise update on my donkament successes and failures, not to mention my experiences of American culture (i.e. stuffing my face with obscene quantities of food).
Time to sign off. Wish me luck at the tables...
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Stocking Filler
Festive greetings from the UK, where we are enjoying (?) a white Christmas.
It’s mighty chilly out, I’m clad in a fiendishly fashionable stripy-new-dressing-gown and silly-Santa-hat combo (thank you Mum for posting that to me!!) and the radiators are cranked up.
Speaking of heaters...
The unremitting upswing soars ever skyward, another $2k+ of profit amassed last night – yes I was committed [sad?] enough to grind on Xmas Eve – courtesy of a runner-up finish in Absolute Poker’s $15K Gtd rebuy.
Going into heads-up play I had a 2:1 chip deficit, but felt I had the edge skill-wise, and a decent shot at nailing the $4.3k first prize.
My luck ran out when I shipped 26bb with pocket Sevens over a button-raise, my foe snap-called with K-Qs, and the board rolled out an unfavourable 3-Q-2-K-5.
I can’t grumble too much (bah humbug) as I spiked a gutshot on the final table, scooping a sizeable pot when my opponent shoved into my turned straight with Q-T versus my Q-8 on a J-9-5-T board, although I think I was unlucky to be drawing so thin on the flop.
You can’t win ’em all, but it makes for a cool stocking filler, this latest score ramping up my week’s profits up to around $15,000. A sick, sick week, and without question one of the highlights of my poker career!
Merry Christmas, and many thanks to THEKID_88, Philgreen111, ThundrXpress, TheOldBloke, DDB, BigAl37 et al, for your moral support – oh and the odd poker tip – over 2010. :)
It’s mighty chilly out, I’m clad in a fiendishly fashionable stripy-new-dressing-gown and silly-Santa-hat combo (thank you Mum for posting that to me!!) and the radiators are cranked up.
Speaking of heaters...The unremitting upswing soars ever skyward, another $2k+ of profit amassed last night – yes I was committed [sad?] enough to grind on Xmas Eve – courtesy of a runner-up finish in Absolute Poker’s $15K Gtd rebuy.
Going into heads-up play I had a 2:1 chip deficit, but felt I had the edge skill-wise, and a decent shot at nailing the $4.3k first prize.
My luck ran out when I shipped 26bb with pocket Sevens over a button-raise, my foe snap-called with K-Qs, and the board rolled out an unfavourable 3-Q-2-K-5.
I can’t grumble too much (bah humbug) as I spiked a gutshot on the final table, scooping a sizeable pot when my opponent shoved into my turned straight with Q-T versus my Q-8 on a J-9-5-T board, although I think I was unlucky to be drawing so thin on the flop.
You can’t win ’em all, but it makes for a cool stocking filler, this latest score ramping up my week’s profits up to around $15,000. A sick, sick week, and without question one of the highlights of my poker career!
Merry Christmas, and many thanks to THEKID_88, Philgreen111, ThundrXpress, TheOldBloke, DDB, BigAl37 et al, for your moral support – oh and the odd poker tip – over 2010. :)
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Elated!
Oh what a night...
Tuesday I landed the killer blow and knocked my downswing into submission. Over the course of eight hours I racked up nearly $10k profit. My best ever day at the tables!
The bulk of it came from my victory in iPoker’s $100 rebuy $30,000 GP Super Tuesday. It’s the first time I’ve won a 100r tourney, and my biggest online score to date, a cool $8,100.
I also placed 3rd in a €30 rebuy on the IPN/Boss Media network – another €1,875 (EUR) in the bank.
I’m absolutely delighted about my iPoker win, and it’s all the more satisfying having defeated two strong high-stakes players in 3-handed play.
Winning a crucial flip against scary-good Aussie pro Onadownswing (AKA El Spewtardo / The Spewtard, who has notched up around $1m in tournament cashes online), to take the chip lead in short-handed play.
What a wonderful surprise, and an almost fairytale end to 2010, clocking over £8,000 profit since returning from holiday on Friday.
Tuesday I landed the killer blow and knocked my downswing into submission. Over the course of eight hours I racked up nearly $10k profit. My best ever day at the tables!
The bulk of it came from my victory in iPoker’s $100 rebuy $30,000 GP Super Tuesday. It’s the first time I’ve won a 100r tourney, and my biggest online score to date, a cool $8,100.I also placed 3rd in a €30 rebuy on the IPN/Boss Media network – another €1,875 (EUR) in the bank.
I’m absolutely delighted about my iPoker win, and it’s all the more satisfying having defeated two strong high-stakes players in 3-handed play.
Winning a crucial flip against scary-good Aussie pro Onadownswing (AKA El Spewtardo / The Spewtard, who has notched up around $1m in tournament cashes online), to take the chip lead in short-handed play.What a wonderful surprise, and an almost fairytale end to 2010, clocking over £8,000 profit since returning from holiday on Friday.
Monday, 20 December 2010
Dreaming Of A White Christmas
It's that time of the year again: the pipes are frozen, people are slipping in the street, scarf sales are through the roof, and our transport system has ground to a halt. Britain is buried in snow.
It is a stark contrast to Gran Canaria, whence I returned on Friday. Oh, the joy of sunbathing in December! I acquired a modicum of colour, and even swam in the sea a couple of times. Alright, the sea was a bit chilly...
Tooth Abuse
One of the perks of my job is not having to commute to work. I could almost avoid any contact with the outside world, since I order nearly everything on the internet (supermarket deliveries included) though today I had to brave the weather for a visit to my dentist – or as a friend calls it, ‘paying for pain’.
Fortunately (or unfortunately?) the number 31 bus service was unaffected by the snowfall and I made it to the dental centre just in time for some routine eye-watering gum torture.
Now I’m £30 lighter, bleeding, and sulking after some bint jammed an ultrasonic device between my teeth. And I have a follow-up appointment in January for more tooth abuse, just fantastic!
Back In Action
Back to poker after a two week break.
As well as spending a week soaking up the sun and sangria in the Canaries, I took a few days out to assemble and set up a new desktop PC for my online gambling ventures.
Am I glad I got my computer up and running in time for the traditional Sunday grind...
The last few months I’ve run badly overall, so I was super-chuffed to rack up over $3,000 of profit last night.
Xmas Comes Early
The evening began well, with a torrent of delectable suck-outs securing me a victory in Party’s $10K Gtd Speed Rebuy. At $5 per rebuy it’s a low-stakes affair, but with fields of typically 500—700 the prize pool is fairly substantial.
In fact I placed 4/714 on my last attempt, but of course it’s all about winning, and my $2,688 cash for placing 1/629 made for a very welcome early Chrimbo present.
Disappointingly I went on to bubble the final table of PKR’s $162 buy-in six-max Sunday High Roller. Under $700 for my 7th place finish ... $6k for the winner ... meh!
I had the chip lead for a while but a series of ill-destined all-in plays saw me fall from grace. J-J lost to K-7o / K-Q lost to 7-7 / then I shoved trash and ran into Jacks. gg
I bought into three of the Sunday majors and enjoyed a deep run in OnGame’s ChampionChip $200,000 ($200 buy-in). Embarrassingly I think it’s only my second cash in this tourney, so it was nice to finally nail a four-figure score, placing 23/1300 for $1,211.
Reassuring that I still remember how to play poker after my break. :)
It is a stark contrast to Gran Canaria, whence I returned on Friday. Oh, the joy of sunbathing in December! I acquired a modicum of colour, and even swam in the sea a couple of times. Alright, the sea was a bit chilly...
Tooth Abuse
One of the perks of my job is not having to commute to work. I could almost avoid any contact with the outside world, since I order nearly everything on the internet (supermarket deliveries included) though today I had to brave the weather for a visit to my dentist – or as a friend calls it, ‘paying for pain’.
Fortunately (or unfortunately?) the number 31 bus service was unaffected by the snowfall and I made it to the dental centre just in time for some routine eye-watering gum torture.
Now I’m £30 lighter, bleeding, and sulking after some bint jammed an ultrasonic device between my teeth. And I have a follow-up appointment in January for more tooth abuse, just fantastic!
Back In Action
Back to poker after a two week break.
As well as spending a week soaking up the sun and sangria in the Canaries, I took a few days out to assemble and set up a new desktop PC for my online gambling ventures.
Am I glad I got my computer up and running in time for the traditional Sunday grind...
The last few months I’ve run badly overall, so I was super-chuffed to rack up over $3,000 of profit last night.
Xmas Comes Early
The evening began well, with a torrent of delectable suck-outs securing me a victory in Party’s $10K Gtd Speed Rebuy. At $5 per rebuy it’s a low-stakes affair, but with fields of typically 500—700 the prize pool is fairly substantial.
In fact I placed 4/714 on my last attempt, but of course it’s all about winning, and my $2,688 cash for placing 1/629 made for a very welcome early Chrimbo present.
Disappointingly I went on to bubble the final table of PKR’s $162 buy-in six-max Sunday High Roller. Under $700 for my 7th place finish ... $6k for the winner ... meh!
I had the chip lead for a while but a series of ill-destined all-in plays saw me fall from grace. J-J lost to K-7o / K-Q lost to 7-7 / then I shoved trash and ran into Jacks. gg
I bought into three of the Sunday majors and enjoyed a deep run in OnGame’s ChampionChip $200,000 ($200 buy-in). Embarrassingly I think it’s only my second cash in this tourney, so it was nice to finally nail a four-figure score, placing 23/1300 for $1,211.
Reassuring that I still remember how to play poker after my break. :)
Early Bust-Out
Well, day two of the GUKPT tourney went according to plan – apart from the bit where my second all-in push attracted a caller and I busted out!
There was a live video stream of the event on the web, and I’m strangely proud that apparently I was the first player to get all my chips in (I jammed Q-8o or similar from the button – no showdown). No guts no glory...
Sadly there would be no glory for me. About an hour in, now very short-stacked [M=4.5] I pushed J-To from earlyish/mid position and ran slap bang into A-K. No help on the flop, and a King on the turn meant I was drawing dead. Not an ounce of regret though.
Far from feeling disappointed, I went home feeling elated about my deep run (a respectable 21st place out of 153 entrants, six from the money), proud of my play and having a renewed enthusiasm for live poker.
I met some cool people too – I had a good natter with fellow ‘champions’ David Johnston, Cuong Tran and others, both of whom won big in GUKPT events in 2010.
In the New Year I intend to make a point of playing more satellites to live events, as well as entering a few more tourneys at my ‘local’ casino in Blackpool.
There was a live video stream of the event on the web, and I’m strangely proud that apparently I was the first player to get all my chips in (I jammed Q-8o or similar from the button – no showdown). No guts no glory...
Sadly there would be no glory for me. About an hour in, now very short-stacked [M=4.5] I pushed J-To from earlyish/mid position and ran slap bang into A-K. No help on the flop, and a King on the turn meant I was drawing dead. Not an ounce of regret though.
Far from feeling disappointed, I went home feeling elated about my deep run (a respectable 21st place out of 153 entrants, six from the money), proud of my play and having a renewed enthusiasm for live poker.
I met some cool people too – I had a good natter with fellow ‘champions’ David Johnston, Cuong Tran and others, both of whom won big in GUKPT events in 2010.
In the New Year I intend to make a point of playing more satellites to live events, as well as entering a few more tourneys at my ‘local’ casino in Blackpool.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
The Latest From Coventry
The coffee is a-flowin’ as I studiously digest my M=5 jamming charts.
It can mean only one thing: I have scraped my way to day two of the GUKPT Champion of Champions tournament with a short stack!
25 players remain from the field of 153. The prize pool is a cool £150,000, although with 2% of all the chips in play I am an underdog to get close to the £44k first prize. Stranger things have happened though, and I’m one double-up away from being in contention to cash...
I ran alright for the first few hours of the tourney, steadily building to four times my starting stack, but went mostly card dead in the last few levels, blinded down somewhat, before resuscitating my stack by winning a flip with A-Qo versus a shorter stack’s pocket Tens.
15 spots are paid, prizes starting at £2,250. I’m not afraid of risking the bubble in any +EV situation and may be able to exploit my nitty table image. I am far enough from the money, and short-stacked enough, that ICM has little bearing on my jamming ranges, so I will be pushing aggressively to chip up.
I got a few light shoves through towards the end, clawing back a few chips, so I head into day two with about 30k at the 1,200/2,400 level with 300 antes. Fingers crossed for today.
It can mean only one thing: I have scraped my way to day two of the GUKPT Champion of Champions tournament with a short stack!
25 players remain from the field of 153. The prize pool is a cool £150,000, although with 2% of all the chips in play I am an underdog to get close to the £44k first prize. Stranger things have happened though, and I’m one double-up away from being in contention to cash...
I ran alright for the first few hours of the tourney, steadily building to four times my starting stack, but went mostly card dead in the last few levels, blinded down somewhat, before resuscitating my stack by winning a flip with A-Qo versus a shorter stack’s pocket Tens.
15 spots are paid, prizes starting at £2,250. I’m not afraid of risking the bubble in any +EV situation and may be able to exploit my nitty table image. I am far enough from the money, and short-stacked enough, that ICM has little bearing on my jamming ranges, so I will be pushing aggressively to chip up.
I got a few light shoves through towards the end, clawing back a few chips, so I head into day two with about 30k at the 1,200/2,400 level with 300 antes. Fingers crossed for today.
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