Sunday 28 December 2008

Three French Hens

Not much play over Christmas but took a stab at another EPT Deauville qualifier on Poker770 on Boxing Day and won that so now got 3 Deauville Finals to play - first of them is on 29th Dec, with two more in January if that doesnt come off. The mainly French players on this site are more mental than most on iPoker, but pay you off big when you hit a flop hard so it can pay to play a higher percentage of marginal hands, but imperative not to be bleeding chips at too high a rate when you miss the flops, so lowball and get away cheap has been my tactic in these. Seems to have worked, hope it carries through into the finals.

Out for some long overdue socialising last night, so no play at all yesterday, and nothing to speak of tonight, logged onto Circus Poker (another iPoker skin) to register for the live £100 game at Stoke on 4th Jan. This is going to be a terrfific event as the casino is adding £2500 to the prize pool, with circuspoker.co.uk adding £25 for every player on the site who plays too.

Saw they were running a $10 satellite so had a quick pop at that but went out second last - trying to represent a flush when my opponent couldnt lay down a straight - and didnt bother to rebuy, just bought in direct, save faffing about. Played another couple of cheap freezeout MTTs with hundreds of runners and did no good, so just popped into a $20 Sit n Go and won that so finished up ahead on the night - leaving aside my buyin for the 4th of course :-)

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Monday 22 December 2008

Suck it up!

It's frigging sad when you buy yourself a hoover for Xmas, innit? That's rhetorical, OK.

Anyway, did a bit of Xmas shopping after work, then had to try out my hoover (actually it's a not a hoover it's a dyson, but if carlsberg did hoovers etc etc). So not much time for poker tonight - too late for all the tournaments that might have been of interest - just a short spell of $1/$2 on Bluesquare to round off the evening and came away with just over $100 profit so that'll do. Thank you, I think I love Canadians.

Sunday 21 December 2008

Two Chances

Passed an idle Sunday afternoon by playing a freeroll on Poker 770 for another Final they are running between Christmas and New Year for the EPT Deauville - 1000 runners, top 3 qualified. No real hands of note, but dont you just love maniacal Frenchmen who think TPTK is the nuts when you have trips or a straight? You cant bluff the buggers most of the time, so patience is the key. Anyroads, now I have two shots at qualifying for Deauville. Good luck me ..... :-)

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Thursday 18 December 2008

From inept to the EPT ......

Well, who needs another poker blog? No-one, obviously. So this is just for me, in case I ever have to write my memoirs. Which is about as likely as Michael Aspel turning up to put me on This is Your Life. And I'm old enough to remember Eamonn Andrews with the old red book ....

Anyway. Around this time last year, at the end of 2007, I was a fairly chuffed recreational poker player. I'd not had a bad year, had a few live and online successes throughout the year, the best being for about £1200 live, and quite a number for slighty less online, so lets say a reasonably profitable recreational player. But in December 2007 I found myself in an online final for the EPT event of my choice. Different league.

This was on Virgin (Boss network) and if I'm honest I didnt go into it with a whole lot of confidence, but I ended up with a chip advantage heads up, and despite my comparative inexperience was decidedly hacked off when I lost - only winning €1400 (around £1000 at the time, how times change, eh?) for being outdrawn twice by a Lithuanian muppet. Ooops sorry, did the bitternesss peep through just then? Thankfully my teenage son brought me back to earth when he observed that I had at least won a grand, and that I'd have won fuck all in Copenhagen. So true. And at the end of the day it had only cost me a handful of Euros to qualify.

Ok, we are a year on, and I've just won a place in yet another EPT Online Final. Which kind of prompted me to start off this blog. This time the EPT qualifier is for Deauville, and I'd bloody love to go. Because although I'm still a recreational player, I have had a blast of a year, due in no small part to my membership of, and association with, aworldofpoker.com.

Let me say something about this crowd. Bear with me. I joined this forum on 1/1/07 because a pal told me I should. At first I was a bit of a lurker, then I posted a "where did I go wrong" type of post which I now cringe about, and although I was aware of their "Players Club" which offered rakeback and sponsorship it seemed (to a newcomer) to be a little bit cliquey and I didn't get involved. Bad decision me. When they moved their primary allegiance to Virgin Poker, and set up a VIP Club, I decided I would get involved. And bugger me, have I benefited or what?

Thanks to them, in 2008, I have played two GUKPT Main Events (three in total), two GCBPT Main Events, and a £500 side event at EPT London. All for free, thanks to their VIP Club, and the free bi-monthly satellites they run for their VIP Club members. I've done OK in other satellites too, seem to have a knack for avoiding the loonies early doors and acquiring myself some chips when I have the goods.

But I made a complete arse of my first GUKPT outing at my home gaff in Walsall. Put it down to nerves, whatever, it was my first £1000 event and I felt a little intimidated. Was unlucky (I'd say) to go out at GUKPT Manchester - QQ v KK in the BB - what ya gonna do? Got badly outdrawn in a couple of minor (i.e. £500) events they paid me into, but I never went in with the worst hand, no complaints, I want those sort of calls usually.

Oh, yeah, and fuelled by enthusiasm for bigger events that AWOP had given me taste for, I ended up at GUKPT Newcastle last May. Not through my pals at AWOP, this time, but via a magazine freeroll - thank you Poker Player Magazine - who provided a seat after I struggled through a 639 runner field in their online qualifier.

Luckily I overcame the first day nerves you would associate with having Liam Flood on your table, had to grind for about 3 hours with 1/3 of my starting stack but eventually came good on Day 1, ran with the chip lead for a while on Day 2, and managed to final table - eventually coming 5th for over £12K.

Not bad for an amateur. But it gave me a taste for this sort of event. And I made some good mates. So roll on 2009. And the EPT. And every other sort of shit. I aim to be there. :-)