Training FTW

Intended to play a GUKPT satellite last night but events conspired to prevent this happening when a simple trip into Stafford to pick my son up from the station resulted in me hanging around for hours waiting for him.

His journey back from his mother's in Warwick was delayed as a result of the discovery, in Birmingham, of a guy tied up in a car surrounded by canisters of unknown stuff which were assumed to be a bomb. As this was near the main railway line, all trains were being rerouted through the Midlands and his train was being shuffled around various back tracks in the Midlands - at one point I think his train ended up near Northampton.

Would have been easier and quicker to have told him to get off (somewhere!) and go and pick him up. Ah well, never mind. And nothing to look forward to poker-wise next weekend either, ho hum. Would LOVE to be at Dusk Till Dawn for their £300 comp with a £60k guarantee, but sadly I have allowed myself to be talked into attending (and I cant believe I'm saying this) an amateur production of South Pacific, which my girlfriend's best friend is appearing in. Deep joy.

Calling Station

Bumped into a respected local player at Walsall last night when we both played the live satellite for GUKPT Manchester - only a £30 rebuy. At the break we had our customary chat and I asked if he was busy at work – no, he said, his construction business had gone bust and he had to lay off 600+ people. Oops. He was quite philosophical about it, and his spirits seemed quite up. Well, they were up until he clashed with the famous Dave Smith on a QQx board – Dave had Q8, he had Q10, all went in on the turn which sadly for him was the 8.

I felt I played very well and was chip leader with 4 left; but only one seat was available and £590 for second, so not a huge field. At one point with about 7 players left I made a hero call having raised with AQ UTG only for a young guy to reraise all in from the button. Well, I say young, he was early 30s maybe, but a hoodie type with a manbag, who played like he thought he was a pro, which he may well be as I think I've seen him on the tour. But I had been watching him and he was always betting big in position, never getting called down, so I dwelled for an age and made the call, telling him if he had it good luck, but it looked like he didn’t want any action. He flipped 6 9, both spades, saying he thought I could have laid my hand down, faced with a reraise. I would have done, to a less blatant steal, but didn’t say so. First card out was a 6 of course, but next one was my Ace, phew. A nice double through and he was walking a few hands later.

Much later it all went horribly wrong when we were four-handed – a "cool guy" with sunglasses who has been playing like a maniac is in the BB, I’m on the SB with As2s, cutoff folds, I raise, BB calls. Flop 952, I check, he bets, I look at him, look at the flop, reckon he’s missed completely (he was a K 7 kinda guy, had played that sort of shite aggressively all night, and his stack had been up and down, with big swings) so I push all in, looking grateful for the action. He insta calls with 98, dammit, with no thoughts about overpairs, sets, or better kickers. So I’m down to about 16k with blinds at 2000/4000.

Cant play the next two hands and then have to sacrifice my BB, 3 4 off suit facing an all in from the button, then I’m up against the moron again in a SB/BB confrontation and get KK, push, he calls saying he has “an ace” and proceeds to hit it on the flop. So I imagine he’ll be at Manchester – the other two weren’t at the races, probably chopped the 2nd prize money, and he was now seriously chipped up.

Had the pleasure of playing with the be-hatted Dave Smith on my left at the final table, and he went out in 5th spot. Never played with him before, and found him to be a very nice fella, but he was also talking about his ill health and said the prospects dont seem to good. After all his GUKPT success, life seems to have turned around and kicked him in the teeth, and he said he didn’t play much during the second half of last year as a result. Here's hoping he has a turnaround in fortune and things work out well for him.

Another GUKPT League Match

Tonight was another online GUKPT National League match - a £25 freezeout on this occasion, hosted on Bluesquare. I dont play enough of these to figure in the league standings at the end of the series, but it can be fertile ground for some cash and tonight proved to be so, with another heads up battle leaving me runner up, having lost the chip lead on the second last hand. No idea who I was playing - b2988813 doesnt give me any clues - but on the penultimate hand I pushed with KdJd - as you would, probably, only to run into AQ, which doubled him up, then shoved AT into A6 off, and he turned the 6. Sods law, second again, and $120 for my trouble. Better than nowt.

Broke the Broadway Duck

Had a mad week when I played poker live for what seems like the first time in ages – both Tuesday and Thursday – and actually made final table at the Broadway on Tuesday for the first time ever; it's never been a lucky venue for me, and though I've only played there a handful of times, now I have that mental obstacle out of the way maybe I wont be so negative about the place.

Screwed it up on the final table, obviously – was probably second or third in chips and reraised all in with AQ to a standard raise UTG who called it with AK and half my stack was gone in an instant. I had some history with the original raiser and knew he was capable of laying a hand down, but he was also a gambler, so his previous laydowns may not have been as strong as I gave him credit for.

It got harder after that, with blinds getting big, and my exit hand was a SB steal that went wrong – Jh Qh, Asian lad in the BB had me covered but only just, and when I pushed he looked at his cards and his face lit up like A 10 off suit was the absolute mutts nuts, and so it proved after his insta-call. But 8th is a step in the right direction.

Had a long chat afterwards with a guy in his mid 30's who said he was an accountant, but fancied himself to one day play professionally. A good solid player, to be honest, but I had knocked him out, when I made a move from early position with pocket 3's (silly me) only to have him sitting in the small blind and unsurprising decide to look me up with pocket rockets - but a 3 on the flop sealed his fate. Better to be lucky than good.

Back to reality when some kid at Star City knocked me out of their £30 Triple Chance Freezeout on Thursday in 16th place – he felt 9 3 off suit was a playable hand and made up the SB. I was BB and just checked, after a suitably long dwell to let him infer I had something that was worth a raise. With 9 3, though, he obviously then HAD to call my push on the turn, after a 2 7 9 rainbow flop saw me bet and him just flat call. The queen on the turn, which led to my push after his check, just wasn’t a scare card for this guy, who wasn't to know if his 9 was good – “I put you on the 7”, he said, pathetically trying to justify his call when flipping his cards to the amusement of the incredulous table, many of whom, on several occasions, had already commented less than favourably when this moron made the wrong call and just got lucky – notably when his earlier 2 8 off suit caught a straight.

Now, as if I would have let myself get into trouble with middle pair, huh? How unlikely. I had 2 5 off suit of course. And a 7 came on the river, so I wished his read had been right and I had been on the 7! Shocking play all round.

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.