Stand clear, lemmings, I'm coming through!

Following on from my stunning success (not!) at Walsall on Wednesday, I opted to go to Star City instead of Stoke on Friday, because I noticed that their Friday rebuy had attracted large numbers the previous week and a huge prize pool. When I got there, I discovered why – the previous weekend they had been staging some big tournament for online players who had come as far as Sweden, and the ones who arrived early played the Friday night game, hence the boost in numbers and prizes. One London player apparently had 32 rebuys and needed to come 4th to break even. He didn’t make the money.

Only 65 on Friday, so never mind. Ended up on the same table as Jim “The Cod” Farrell, who I had done a chop with when we were three handed last time I played there about six months ago; no notable hands, KK during the first level of the rebuy period where I missed out on a few hundred extra chips – I raised on the bb after about 6 limpers, all fold to Jim, didn’t realise he was still in the hand and showed, so he kept back the 300 he was about to throw in lol. Silly me. Eventually bloody annoyed when I needed a double up and had my QQ called by 99, who hit his set, sigh. All fairly standard but pales into insignificance compared to what happened at the Broadway on Saturday.

Never really got going on Saturday, and at the break was bumping along with about 6.5k. (6k starting) Treading water for an age, card dead, making a few steals here and there but getting respect and taking the blinds. The guy on my right was a complete moron – been playing J2 off, K4 off all night, suffering big swings, down then up, pretty bad standard and obviously noted by the rest of the table. So with blinds at 300/600, and having bled down to about 5.4k chips, I made the mistake of just raising with KdQd UTG, instead of pushing. With an ‘M’ of only 6, my only move was a push really, and I thought about it, but felt sure I could get it through with a raise to 2400 as it looked like I wanted action, and probably wouldnt be in too bad a shape if I got it.

All fold to the genius, who asks how much it is for him to call – he’s only on about 7k at this stage so he cant afford to bleed chips any more than I can, but he elects to make the call. Flop is 334, one diamond, and he puts me all in – standard float bet, I gotta call for 3k into a 8.1k pot, but NO! He’s only called me preflop with 3 7 of diamonds, the muppet. And then spiked the 7 on the river just for good measure. First time I’ve ever risen from the table with an ill-tempered derogatory comment to my opponent. What a call preflop, I ask ya. A couple of others on the table asked him what he thought he was playing at with that call, but he was oblivious.

But muppet calls were the order of the day at Broadway – a friend of mine made the break with over 20k. How? He got dealt 9 2 off suit in the BB. Flop 8 9 10. All check to cutoff who bets 300. Matey “doesn’t believe he’s got it”, so reraises to 900. The other guy pushes – so he calls, saying aloud “I don’t believe you have it”. The guy flipped 10 7 for top pair and the up and down draw. My buddy hit another 9 on the river. Muppet!

Ran better online last night. DTD have moved from Crypto to Boss Media (IPN), and anyone who had an account and downloaded the new software could enter a freeroll last night for a seat in their £300 event at the Easter weekend. 514 runners I think, only one prize, and I came 26th. Might have done better if I hadnt been under pressure to go to bed, but the girlfriend had been away for 5 days, and was getting impatient watching me play online, so I just banged it all in with Ah 10h when the table luckbox had raised 4BB UTG – all fold to him and he made the call for another 17k with pocket 4’s, great call, I never hit and the 4 on the river was irrelevant. Still, felt OK on Boss again, I’ve been boycotting it/Virgin for at least eight months because I couldn’t win a sit’n’go on that network – the outdraws were so bad it felt rigged. And when someone calls a large raise on a cash table with 3 9 os only to flop a house you start wondering if they know what cards are coming. Still, may give it another go ..... stand clear, lemmings, I'm coming through.

Always Ahead, Just Not After The River

Went to Walsall last night for the £30 DC Freezout. Only 54 runners, went out about 20 something, home by 12.30. Card dead after the break, made one mistake when I limped in mid pos with Kh Jh only for buttton to push – huge range for him to do that as he was short, made the call for an extra 2700 only for him to have AK. Oh well. Still had 5.5k or thereabouts, but that hand took me below average for the first time.

Exit hand was annoying. Pocket 10s in BB, button pushed. SB has just doubled up with a ridiculous call holding AJ and outdrawing a decent player. So he decides to call. I go over the top and the SB makes the statement “jeez, what am I up against then?”. He calls anyway.

He had AQ. Original raiser had K7os. K on the flop – no probs, I’ll take the side pot – blank turn, and the inevitable Ace on the river. Goodnight Vienna. Had been playing well up till then. If I hadnt squandered around 3k on the KJ hand I may have had more chips to deter his call on my exit hand, maybe not. Either way I made the wrong play, even though I got them in ahead, with two opponents holding 3 overcards they had 9 outs to beat me and five chances to hit their outs, so I’m not favourite in that spot. Possibly Stoke Friday, Broadway Saturday. Girlfriend in Spain visiting her Dad so better make the most of it.

Southend Road Trip

A pain in the arse week with work requiring me to be in Southend and London. Had intended to play the £50 at the Mint in Southend on Tuesday night but a colleague wanted to play a lower-stakes game so we just went to the Rendezvous casino for their £10 rebuy.

Came 17th of 37 but just a bit of a laugh really, didnt take it very seriously, and crippled myself when I didnt believe one of the locals could have possibly flopped his flush against my trips. He had.

Now I need to start focusing on my satellites; have even been missing them out and no chance of qualifying for the Vic now unless I go down to London and play the £250 live Super Satellite. Not very likely, but a missed opportunity. Satellites on Wednesday Friday and Sunday don’t really fit in with my schedule these days, I’d better have a word with my lady.

GUKPT Super Satellite

When I won my seat to this I joked that I'd run like god in the feeder so would probably be out first hand. Not so - I lasted 20 hands. The 19th hand was the sickener - UTG+1 I find AA which is always so pretty. A standard raise to 120 gets one caller. Flop Q25 with two hearts, I bet the pot (285) to discourage a flusher, he reraises to 720, I shove, he calls with KcQd, happy days. He then (of course) hit his K on the river for two pair. The five outers always tilt me and I did not reload. Next hand my pocket 4s are no match for 10-2, so I lick my wounds.

Feeder Fun and Frolics

Had the afternoon to myself; got a text from a pal to see if I was planning to play the feeder for a Super Satellite to GUKPT London, and I hadnt been but did log on and sign up for it. It was a $10 feeder for the Super Satellite which is on Thursday. No biggy really, but 81 runners, so a fair enough little exercise. Well, you don’t need that many attempts at satellites really, if you do it right. I used to always like to play my way into into the $250 FO on Sundays, but they have reduced the number of feeders to that (last year there used to be 3 feeders on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon which were often piss easy, now they are only on Friday and Saturday evenings, when I am out).

Anyway, I won the feeder (knocking my mate out on the bubble lmao) Feel that I'm in decent form at the moment, not that I have had a chance to play much – but ran all over them in that satellite, finishing with about 75k chips when my next nearest opponent has about 20k. multiple seats, so never played it out. Fingers crossed my run continues on Thursday, probably be out first.

GUKPT Walsall Main Event

Seeing the girlfriend multiple times a week has caused me to shoehorn poker out of my schedule more and more, and that’s healthy, but after yesterday at GUKPT Walsall I want to shoehorn it back in a bit, now I've got a taste for live play again.

I did REALLY enjoy the game yesterday even though I bust out just after 9pm. First 4 hours were on a table with James Akenhead, Dave Maudlin, Dan Carter, and a guy called Jeff who told me later he’d played on the first series of Late Night Poker (he did, I checked, he played one heat, which Malcolm Harwood won), and some other decent players whose names I dont know. One of the unknowns remarked that he wished the table would break because after the departure of some old guy who donked himself out in less than an hour he was finding it a tough table with not a bad player on it – if he wasn’t taking the piss that was quite encouraging to hear, actually I thought he was the bad player but there you go, he obviously had experience and knew everyone, but thought he was better than he is and kept getting himself into tight spots. In fairness, he then lasted longer than me. So, I was bumping along on above average chips despite having had no real hands of note. I had dropped down to about 8200-ish at one point when I got involved in a couple of hands then opted to give up on good draws on the turn, no need to be a hero, then got right back into it with blinds at 100/200 when there were two limpers on my BB, SB folds, and I have 2 7 off. I check, unsurprisingly.

With a pot of 700, the flop comes Q 7 7 – Lovely - I check – UTG bets 600, UTG+1 calls, I call. Pot 2500.

And the turn card is the case 7 - Whoop whoop, quadzilla. Have had them at Walsall before, always nice. UTG bets 600, UTG+1 folds, I just call, dont want to drive him away. Pot now 3700.

River Q. Mmmmh. I don’t put him on QQ, he’d have raised pre, so it has to be a QJ or KQ kind of hand, but want to maximise my return and don’t want him checking behind, so lob in 1500. He calls and shows KQ asking if I have the 7. Er, duh! I was tempted to do a bit of amateur dramatics with a “suppose we’re splitting this one then” but he might have smelled a rat. Think I got the maximum out of that – he had odds of 3.5 to 1 to see if his house was good, I might have scared him off with more, though it's tempting to think I would have got paid off with a 2000 or 2500 bet.

So I carried on quite comfortably and was nicely up on starting stack but despite this my stack was actually slightly below average when we hit the dinner break, and they split our table 3 or 4 hands before the break. I was gutted, as I was enjoying that table. My new table contained Marcus Bebb Jones, Iwan Jones, Tim & Pippa Flanders, Julian Thew, Greek Jack, another face I should know, but no name to go with it, and a couple of short stacks.

Went completely card dead for 3 hours, got jacks once with blinds 150/300, raised UTG to 900, Iwan called in late position and the blinds folded. Flop AKJ, check check, blank on the turn, so I reach for chips and he mucks before I'd even decided how much. Had to fold when some new guy on the table came over the top after I put 1700 in with top-pair-up-and-down-draw, so discretion the better part of valour and all that, as I had no read on him, and assumed an overpair. I was quickly getting eroded by the blinds so started pushing. Best hand I saw was pocket 7’s and picked up the blinds. Anyway, down to 3500 at worst, I claw back to 5.5k which is still crap – average about 16k now – and get AQ on the button. Marcus is the BB and he has been a cardrack, made some hero calls and they have been ahead on unpromising boards, but fair play to him and he has about 35k now.

Instead of pushing this time I just raise to 1600, which was bordering on stupid as my 'M' was less than 10, so I am a cats whisker from push-or-fold being my only serious options, and he was bound to play his stack against mine with pretty much any two. Marcus reraises to 3200 which he would do, so I push and he has AK. He would never have laid it down to a push from me so the result was probably the same. Naturally there was a K on the flop, a Q on the turn to give me a glimmer of hope, but no miracle on the river and I am gone. Julian Thew, who was shorter than me at one point, had better luck after I departed, and had a series of double ups finishing the day with nearly 30k I think. Not bitter, I think you’ll find.

Beleaguered

Girlfriend went home early enough today for me to be able to play in another of these GUKPT Online League things on bluesq. Came second (again). Crippled by a muppet call (again) when heads up – my AQ looked good against the optimist’s A6 till the low straight completed on the river. Then it was uphill all the way, managed one double up before he knocked me out. Hate it when they say gg after they play so horrendously themselves. Would it be out of order to say "I know, can't say likewise"? Still, got $177 for 2nd, it all helps. Looking forward to Thursday now and the GUKPT Main Event at Walsall.

See that Mickey Wernick has cashed a couple of times at the Broadway Festival but heard an interview with him last night when he sounded crestfallen after finishing 11th in the Main Event – he said he’d got involved in a pot with pocket 7s that he had to lay down and the guy showed JJ, so that was fair enough, but when he pushed with AQ he got a call from “some kid with Js9s, they like their suited cards”. Thought he was OK when he hit an Ace on the flop, turn J, river J. Now that's BAD. Then with next to no chips left he was all in on his BB with K3 or something and eventual winner Andy Bradshaw slow rolled a rag Ace to knock Mickey out. He seemed as if he was at his lowest ebb for years so he’ll probably win the GUKPT event at Walsall now!!