Now the new year is upon us I am setting myself some new challenges. I've had a really difficult few months since my break-up but now I'm going to try and have a fresh start. I've just got back from three weeks in Thailand (I had an absolutely incredible time), I'm currently looking for a new job and taking a small break from poker. Once I find a new job, I'll start back with the poker.
In terms of the beautiful game this year, I'm just looking to grind online. I'm going to try and cut out my visits to The International because I find myself getting too degen when I visit there frequently. I'm going to go back to what I do best, playing online PLO cash games.
I'm going to start small, really small, $500 bankroll and grind $0.05/$0.10 and $0.10/$0.25 PLO. It will be difficult to do, but I want to challenge myself. I want to grow and do this properly. This will help me get back in to the swing of things, once I get the bankroll I plan to move to HU PLO and concentrate predominately on that. Heads-up PLO is a really challenging game, but I believe that if I put in the effort I can beat it consistently.
I recently joined the Eat My Stack forum after a recommendation from my good friend, Sang. Sang (Likey) regularly contributes to EMS and speaks of it highly. I've tried twoplustwo before and it just wasn't for me, there are too many pricks on that forum and it seems really cliquey. I read and sometimes post on PocketFives, but that is mainly NL MTTers, EMS seems to have a nice balance of players in varying stacks. Hopefully the site will help me with my discipline. The PLO section is a bit light on posts, but once I get playing again I'm sure I'll help increase the traffic there.
But before any of that my main agenda is to get a new job, find a new place to live (easier said than done with Marley) and then start playing poker again. Hopefully I can get back to where I was a few months ago when I had a significant bankroll and could play the mid-stakes games.
Other Random Musings
I spent insane amounts in Thailand, that's why I now need to look for a job and can't concentrate on poker as I planned to. It's a real shame that I didn't get a chance to live the dream, but I wouldn't change my experiences in Thailand for anything.
Job hunting is such a bore. Fortunately I have an extensive DVD collection to keep me going.
A few big fights coming up in the boxing world, we've got Bradley-Alexander this month and Donaire-Montiel next month. I'm going for the Bradley in the first fight, but choosing the underdog in Montiel for the second fight. Donaire has been described as an uber-talent by most boxing writers, but there is just something about Montiel's quiet confidence. Plus every fighter they have in common Montiel has beaten far more efficiently! Both fights should be exciting.
Friday, 21 January 2011
Saturday, 20 November 2010
It's Been Awhile...
It's been awhile since I've written a blog entry but I'm going to get back on it. Over the last month and a half things have been really up and down for me, and unfortunately mostly down. Working somewhere that I hated really started to get to me, added to the fact that I was still having problems at home with my girlfriend all resulted in me entering a bit of a destructive cycle. I started gambling more, roulette, blackjack and just playing poker recklessly. I done a lot of money.
All of that came to a head a few days ago when my girlfriend and I broke up. So now I'm single, I miss my girlfriend desperately but I think its for the best. We've got a lot of things to sort out, most importantly the pets. At the moment Marley is with me and the kittens with Kat, I'm crashing as my parents for a little while.
As for work, I've handed in my notice. I hate it there and the only thing holding me back from quitting a long time ago was Kat. I felt so underappreciated and over worked there and I didn't enjoy it. I was watching Sean Locke on Soccer AM this morning and he was talking about how when he thought Ray Wilkins got fired from Chelsea because he never looked like he cared or looked busy. I can relate to that, I think my bosses think I don't do anything even when I am insanely busy because I don't moan, I just get on with my work. I get accused of being too laid back. It's been a nightmare, but I've quit now.
I'll be working until the end of the year, leaving cheap at my folks for a bit then from January I will be concentrating on poker. As I said, I've done a lot of money gambling but poker is still what I love and what I want to do and I will regain the discipline from earlier in the year. I'll be focusing primarily on my £1/£1 cash game (that will be my bread and butter) and online PLO cash games (that will eventually be my main income). I know I can win at $1/$2 up to $5/$10 so those are the limits I aim to get to again. To begin with I will start at $0.25/$0.50 (maybe lower) and I will start putting the time in and the hands in. I want to complete at least 50,000 hands at any limit before I move up. Just so I have a nice sized sample.
So that's a brief overview of what has happened to me over the last few weeks. It hasn't been great, in fact it's been one of the hardest times of my life. But now I need to look ahead and figure out how I'm going to make changes, I'm young and single with no real commitments so now is the time to take the plunge into the world of professional poker. I know it'll be hard to begin with, and I know I can't afford to let my discipline slip, but I know I can do it.
As for work, I haven't arranged a finish date yet, but I've essentially told my bosses I want my final two months pay (Nov and Dec) in full. Whether they let me finish early in Dec is up to them, hopefully they say here is the whole of Decembers pay, you can finish work at the end of November. That would be ideal so I can just get on with things.
My living situation is the most awkward now, I don't want to live with my parents. They want me to pay £50 a week house keeping, but if I'm doing that I might as well pay £70-80 and live elsewhere. I'm going to talk to my friend Ste about maybe sharing a room, he's looking for a new place and he wants to save money. This could be a good solution, if we share a room, get a couple of single beds in there then I've got someone to help keep me on the straight and narrow with poker, we will both be paying half rent and most importantly I can keep my dog (which I can't keep at my parents). I hope Ste goes for the idea.
Once I start playing poker more, if I'm successful which I am certain I will be, I can keep on the cheap with Ste for a little while. I'll be out at nights and sleeping in days a lot so we won't be getting in each others way. But after a few months I'll be able to get my own place. Perhaps I'll be a baller like Sam Grafton and start renting right in the heart of London, what a G. I'd love to move back to Camden, my mate Joe (from Ou Est Le Swimming Pool) used to live in a lovely one bedroom flat with his girlfriend just next to Koko. It was over two floors and decent size fo £250 a month. Fairly expensive but I think after a few months of playing I should be able to afford it.
That'd be ideal. But finally, I'm going to be following my dream.
All of that came to a head a few days ago when my girlfriend and I broke up. So now I'm single, I miss my girlfriend desperately but I think its for the best. We've got a lot of things to sort out, most importantly the pets. At the moment Marley is with me and the kittens with Kat, I'm crashing as my parents for a little while.
As for work, I've handed in my notice. I hate it there and the only thing holding me back from quitting a long time ago was Kat. I felt so underappreciated and over worked there and I didn't enjoy it. I was watching Sean Locke on Soccer AM this morning and he was talking about how when he thought Ray Wilkins got fired from Chelsea because he never looked like he cared or looked busy. I can relate to that, I think my bosses think I don't do anything even when I am insanely busy because I don't moan, I just get on with my work. I get accused of being too laid back. It's been a nightmare, but I've quit now.
I'll be working until the end of the year, leaving cheap at my folks for a bit then from January I will be concentrating on poker. As I said, I've done a lot of money gambling but poker is still what I love and what I want to do and I will regain the discipline from earlier in the year. I'll be focusing primarily on my £1/£1 cash game (that will be my bread and butter) and online PLO cash games (that will eventually be my main income). I know I can win at $1/$2 up to $5/$10 so those are the limits I aim to get to again. To begin with I will start at $0.25/$0.50 (maybe lower) and I will start putting the time in and the hands in. I want to complete at least 50,000 hands at any limit before I move up. Just so I have a nice sized sample.
So that's a brief overview of what has happened to me over the last few weeks. It hasn't been great, in fact it's been one of the hardest times of my life. But now I need to look ahead and figure out how I'm going to make changes, I'm young and single with no real commitments so now is the time to take the plunge into the world of professional poker. I know it'll be hard to begin with, and I know I can't afford to let my discipline slip, but I know I can do it.
As for work, I haven't arranged a finish date yet, but I've essentially told my bosses I want my final two months pay (Nov and Dec) in full. Whether they let me finish early in Dec is up to them, hopefully they say here is the whole of Decembers pay, you can finish work at the end of November. That would be ideal so I can just get on with things.
My living situation is the most awkward now, I don't want to live with my parents. They want me to pay £50 a week house keeping, but if I'm doing that I might as well pay £70-80 and live elsewhere. I'm going to talk to my friend Ste about maybe sharing a room, he's looking for a new place and he wants to save money. This could be a good solution, if we share a room, get a couple of single beds in there then I've got someone to help keep me on the straight and narrow with poker, we will both be paying half rent and most importantly I can keep my dog (which I can't keep at my parents). I hope Ste goes for the idea.
Once I start playing poker more, if I'm successful which I am certain I will be, I can keep on the cheap with Ste for a little while. I'll be out at nights and sleeping in days a lot so we won't be getting in each others way. But after a few months I'll be able to get my own place. Perhaps I'll be a baller like Sam Grafton and start renting right in the heart of London, what a G. I'd love to move back to Camden, my mate Joe (from Ou Est Le Swimming Pool) used to live in a lovely one bedroom flat with his girlfriend just next to Koko. It was over two floors and decent size fo £250 a month. Fairly expensive but I think after a few months of playing I should be able to afford it.
That'd be ideal. But finally, I'm going to be following my dream.
Monday, 4 October 2010
EPT London £1,000 + £100 PLO Tournament...
Below is the tournament report I posted up on the Gutshot forum to all of my backers after I played the £1,000 + £100 PLO event at EPT London. As a quick summary, the standard was surprisingly bad and if it wasn't for being utterly card dead and on a table where making moves was virtually impossible I could have had a real shot at shipping the title and the £19,000 that came with it, unfortunately this time it wasn't to be. Anyway, here's the report, enjoy!
£1,000 + £100 PLO Freezeout: Post Tournament Report
The Build-up...
So here is the requested Cliff style report on the tournament. I woke up nice and early at 8am and set straight out to The Vic to buy in to the event, this was the largest buy-in I've played before and I was eager to get registered and prepare myself for the day. The rest of my Saturday went as normal, I taught the private karate lesson I do every week, I watched some football, I shit, shower and shave. Beautiful.
I arrive at the Hilton Metropole at 6:15pm ready for the 7pm start. I thought I might feel about overwhelmed when I arrived but I didn't at all. Scanning the room for familiar faces (specifically Gabriel) I saw Marcel playing the £1,500 NLHE, Lisa Edwards from the club and a few other friendly faces. I decided not to approach them as I wanted to leave them to it.
At first I was a bit uneasy, not because I was worried about the tournament, but just because I felt a bit at a loss! There were about six tournaments going scattered all over the room with no signs indicating what table was what or where my event would be. I decided to just hang tight and wait for the inevitable annoucement that my event was about to begin and take it from there.
Cliff arrived at about 6:35 and I had a chat to him while he tucked in to a tasty looking salmon and rocket sarnie. It was good to chat to someone else who was quite new to this type of event, I also bumped in to Jerome Bradpiece who had played the NLH/PLO ROE tournament. It was no good, apparently they had antes in the PLO rounds which seemed bizaare. They also played the same blind levels twice for each game (i.e. 25/50, 50/100 NL then 25/50, 50/100 PLO) which also seemed a bit odd to me.
Hey Ho! Let's Go...
I take my seat at my table and the first thing I notice is that the tables are unusually large to the point where the dealers can't even reach the chips when you make a bet. The other surprising thing was the standards of the dealers was really appauling. We had five dealers while I was playing, only two knew how to calculate the pot themselves which was annoying that the table had to keep correcting them. But on top of that several could barely deal itself, they were slow, kept flipping cards up as they pitched them, shuffles took forever, it was really shoddy.
I have two familiar faces at my starting table, a guy named Steve who was also at my table during the £300 PLO Double Chance at the Vic around a month ago. He seems like a pretty standard old school type player, decent, limps a lot pre-flop, but definitely capable of moves too. The second player I reckonise was a guy named Zarion (I think) he final tables the PLO event at the club along with me. He is also fairly decent, I feel quite easy to outplay post-flop because he can be a bit too tight, however he was on my left and I know he is decent enough so I will try to avoid him. I'm also very aware that he probably does not think that I am a very good player because there was a spot in the PLO at the club where I called his river raise when he had quads and I had a King-high flush. I thought he was bluffing, he had the absolutes, nevermind.
With a 10K starting stack and a 50 minute clock, I have already decided that I will try to keep it a bit tighter to begin with at least until I get used to my table a bit.
My table is fairly active from the get-go, a few players I notice seem unable to let go of marginal hands like two pair even under heavy betting on straightening boards. Slowly I begin to realise that the standard at my table is not great, I have one player to my left (Zarion) who I know can play, the person to my immediate right who I do not recognise also seem decent, but overall I'm happy.
Then the dynamic takes a massive change, mid deal a guy comes over to take his seat, he's late, the dealer tells him his hand is dead because he needs to verify everything and the deal as already started. The guy argues saying why should his hand be dead, here is my ID, etc, etc. This dealer is clearly massively inexperienced and one of the worst dealers I've ever had, gives in and lets the guy play his hand.
UTG pots, UTG+1 calls, our maniac repots, the button calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 gets out of the way. The flop is A-9-6, UTG pots, maniac repots, button passes, UTG calls. Turn is K. UTG pots it again, basically putting himself all-in, maniac snaps him off and it's UTG's A-6-x-x vs the maniac's J-J-T-3, river is the predictable Q as he gets it in with a gutshot and hits. Now don't get me wrong, I think getting it in with A-6 there is horrible, but a gutshot!!
I another example he calls a guy all-in on the flop with Q-Q-6-7 on an A-K-4 board, it was a 20K pot at 50/100. It's A-K-x-x he's up against, of course he gets there with a 5 on the turn and a 3 on the river. Baller.
This guy starts bossing the table, he plays appaulingly, but he's potting most hands preflop and its tricky to play against him. I keep waking up with hands I have to call his raises with, I find Q-J-9-8 or 7-6-5-4 those type of hands, or pairs with good back hands. This are the kind of hands that I also like to three-bet sometimes, but I can't with this guy because he calls 100% of the time and 80% of the time will pot any flop. So I decide the best thing to do is keep the pots small and and hope I hit and which point I know I will get paid.
Except I miss every flop! All my hands are legit but I just can't seem to hit a board.
My stack dwindles down to 6.5K calling raises or raising myself and it going nowhere, we're approaching the end of the second level (50/100) and my stack is getting a bit small for my liking. Fortunately, before the break I pick up a couple of pots to take me more or less up to my original starting stack.
The first hand there are one limper there a raise to 450, I call in position with A-K-Q-J with clubs. One of the blinds call and the maniac surprisingly passes.
The flop comes A-T-6 with Ace of clubs, it's checked round to me and I decide to check as well. Under normal circumstances I might have a bet here, to build the pot when I do hit and so I've got the initiative to take it away on later streets when I don't. However with this table bluffing isn't really an option on the flop so my bet wouldn't achieve a great deal.
The turn is the King of clubs also known as GIN! It goes check, then pot, I'm definitely raising, but I've got the nuts with the nut flush draw. The guy who potted it who is new to the table I already have pegged as a huge calling station, earlier he had cold called a three-bet with J-J-J-A no suits. Terrible. There were a few other examples, but I won't go in to them, I elect to just pot it knowing he will at least call.
The blind gets out of the way, and my customer obliges and calls.
River is an off-suit four, a massive brick. It's checked to me, I bet around half the pot, but he passes, my guess is he had a flush draw that missed. That was a nice sized pot to pick up.
A few hands later I pick up another smaller pot, its folded to me and I pot it with 9-9-J-Q with one suit (JQ spades), Zarion calls on my immediate left and the loose-passive station from the previous hand also calls.
The flop comes Q-6-4, check to me, I play it safe and check also, and Z checks too. Turn is 9, check, I bet around 3/4 of the pot, Z dwells on the raise before passing and the station passes too. Those two hands take me back up to 9.2K with the break in less than two minutes. After the hand, Zarion asks me truthfully would I call if he shoved, I told him I would and that I had a set. To be honest I probs would have said the same thing if I had three napkins and an empty condom packet, but I was honest, at least this time.
Goodbye Mr Z...
A couple of hands before the break and Zarion, one of the better players at the table and the player to my immediate left busts in horrible circumstances. He's in the BB, it goes pot UTG, call, call, button calls, fold to Z who now repots, UTG and two calls get out of the way, button now repots it. Zarion has a think, I think he definitely has AAxx but they are probs weak Aces and he is deciding whether to pass, I think he's put too much of his short-ish stack in to fold so he makes the call all-in.
He turns over A-A-Q-7 with one suit (hearts), his opponent is crushed with Q-Q-9-A one suit, dominated hearts. But a Q on the flop seals it and Zarion is out the door. I gotta say, I wasn't at all disappointed, the one outer was sickening but it was nice not to have a decent player in position on me.
My Exit Hand...
Shortly after I'm back from the break and things are going the same as before. We've had a few new players joining our table who seem just as bad as the previous, I've noticed a few times that there have been raises, three-bets which always get called, but twice so far the four-bet has managed to get through. Also our loose-passive station from earlier in the tournament has been slowly getting through his massive stack, he keeps calling light big bets but folding to the shoves, it's a huge leak and a few of them seem to have a similar problem.
It seems to me they don't understand PLO properly and obviously think any four cards are good and can hit the flop. These are the kind of people that call three-bets with 8-3 off in hold'em saying "any hand can be a winner on the flop" but fold to shoves because they know their flith is behind. It's a dream if you're picking up big hands, but I am pretty card dead at the moment and not finding any spots.
Eventually when my stack has dropped to around 7.6K I decide that it is time to start sticking up for myself, I can't keep waiting for hands at this table. I know I will get paid if I do wait, but I'm so card dead and my stack is just dwindling away, so I find this spot to get it in.
I'm on the button with Q-T-9-8 double suited, clubs and hearts, the original maniac from before has raised it to 400 blind with the blinds at 75/150, lucky QQ man flats, passive station flats, I flat call, SB now makes it 1,800, BB passes, maniac calls, luckyman calls, station calls and its on me.
I decide I can't call 1,800 out of my stack as much as I would like to getting great odds with a hand that plays excellently multi-way, it's just way too much of my stack. So it's either a fold or a shove. Given that I've seen people pass to this pushes already in similar situations and that by now if someone had a monster they would have shown it by raising it up to the original 1,800 and knowing the awful preflop hand selections of my opponents, I decide I want to try and win the 7,000+ chips that are in the middle now.
I look at my stack which seems to be around 8K in total, I think that should just be enough to pick up the pot since my opponents have roughly the following stack sizes: SB: 16K, maniac: 14K, luckyman: 9K and station: 20K. I figure given those stack sizes anyone with a genuine hand would have definitely got it in by now, also my stack at around 8K should be a large enough portion of post of the players to make them pass. The person I'm most worried about is probs the SB, but he has four people behind him so I don't think he's calling.
I shove and my stack is counted out as 7,925.
Now things go a bit mental, SB shoves, maniac calls, luckyman calls and station calls!!
We all turn our hands face up and I am amazed to see the junk I've been called with.
My Hand: Q-T-9-8 with reds and greens
SB: K-K-7-2 with no suits
Maniac: 9-5-4-2 with hearts (I have him dominated)
Luckyman: A-T-5-2 with diamonds
Station: A-3-3-6 with spades
I'm in disbelief over the junk I've been called with but at the same time happy knowing that I am favourite against these hands.
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600600
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d
Omaha Hi: 201376 enumerated boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 74916 37.20 125794 62.47 666 0.33 0.374
2s Kc Kd 7h 37163 18.45 164213 81.55 0 0.00 0.185
4c 9d 5h 2h 12547 6.23 184915 91.83 3914 1.94 0.072
Td 5d 2d Ah 21590 10.72 175206 87.00 4580 2.27 0.119
As 3s 3c 6d 50580 25.12 150770 74.87 26 0.01 0.251
The flop comes J-J-7
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600608
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d -- jh js 7d
Omaha Hi: 406 enumerated boards containing Js Jc 7d
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 128 31.53 278 68.47 0 0.00 0.315
2s Kc Kd 7h 165 40.64 241 59.36 0 0.00 0.406
4c 9d 5h 2h 3 0.74 403 99.26 0 0.00 0.007
Td 5d 2d Ah 27 6.65 379 93.35 0 0.00 0.067
As 3s 3c 6d 83 20.44 323 79.56 0 0.00 0.204
The turn is a 5.
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600613
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d -- jh js 7d 5c
Omaha Hi: 28 enumerated boards containing Js 5c 7d Jh
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 10 35.71 18 64.29 0 0.00 0.357
2s Kc Kd 7h 10 35.71 18 64.29 0 0.00 0.357
4c 9d 5h 2h 0 0.00 28 100.00 0 0.00 0.000
Td 5d 2d Ah 3 10.71 25 89.29 0 0.00 0.107
As 3s 3c 6d 5 17.86 23 82.14 0 0.00 0.179
River is obviously another Jay.
Kings ship the lot, the station has turned his 20K stack into a 4K stack because he can't pass 3-3-A-6 and three more players including me hit the rail. I leave the tournament unable to believe how sick that hand was and how I was the only person to get it in with a genuine hand. I am not happy at all, I have a rant on the phone to my girlfriend, text my backers before heading to the club in disbelief.
Overall I would rate my play as 9.9 out of 10 because this is a Cliff style report and to rate myself anything less than a 9 would just be silly.
In all seriousness, I was happy with the way I played, I had a terrible players at my table but the way the dynamics were it was difficult to find spots. I thought I found a good spot to gamble and try to pick up some chips, but I was wrong. Maybe I needed a bigger stack to do what I did, but to be honest given the hands they called with I don't think it would have mattered. Maybe I should pass to the 1,800 (or even call it) but I decided to take a stand and try to get chips. Had I won that hand I definitely think I would have been in a great position to make a top three finish.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be this time.
Finally, thanks to everyone that has backed me, sorry I couldn't ship it this time.
Marcus
£1,000 + £100 PLO Freezeout: Post Tournament Report
The Build-up...
So here is the requested Cliff style report on the tournament. I woke up nice and early at 8am and set straight out to The Vic to buy in to the event, this was the largest buy-in I've played before and I was eager to get registered and prepare myself for the day. The rest of my Saturday went as normal, I taught the private karate lesson I do every week, I watched some football, I shit, shower and shave. Beautiful.
I arrive at the Hilton Metropole at 6:15pm ready for the 7pm start. I thought I might feel about overwhelmed when I arrived but I didn't at all. Scanning the room for familiar faces (specifically Gabriel) I saw Marcel playing the £1,500 NLHE, Lisa Edwards from the club and a few other friendly faces. I decided not to approach them as I wanted to leave them to it.
At first I was a bit uneasy, not because I was worried about the tournament, but just because I felt a bit at a loss! There were about six tournaments going scattered all over the room with no signs indicating what table was what or where my event would be. I decided to just hang tight and wait for the inevitable annoucement that my event was about to begin and take it from there.
Cliff arrived at about 6:35 and I had a chat to him while he tucked in to a tasty looking salmon and rocket sarnie. It was good to chat to someone else who was quite new to this type of event, I also bumped in to Jerome Bradpiece who had played the NLH/PLO ROE tournament. It was no good, apparently they had antes in the PLO rounds which seemed bizaare. They also played the same blind levels twice for each game (i.e. 25/50, 50/100 NL then 25/50, 50/100 PLO) which also seemed a bit odd to me.
Hey Ho! Let's Go...
I take my seat at my table and the first thing I notice is that the tables are unusually large to the point where the dealers can't even reach the chips when you make a bet. The other surprising thing was the standards of the dealers was really appauling. We had five dealers while I was playing, only two knew how to calculate the pot themselves which was annoying that the table had to keep correcting them. But on top of that several could barely deal itself, they were slow, kept flipping cards up as they pitched them, shuffles took forever, it was really shoddy.
I have two familiar faces at my starting table, a guy named Steve who was also at my table during the £300 PLO Double Chance at the Vic around a month ago. He seems like a pretty standard old school type player, decent, limps a lot pre-flop, but definitely capable of moves too. The second player I reckonise was a guy named Zarion (I think) he final tables the PLO event at the club along with me. He is also fairly decent, I feel quite easy to outplay post-flop because he can be a bit too tight, however he was on my left and I know he is decent enough so I will try to avoid him. I'm also very aware that he probably does not think that I am a very good player because there was a spot in the PLO at the club where I called his river raise when he had quads and I had a King-high flush. I thought he was bluffing, he had the absolutes, nevermind.
With a 10K starting stack and a 50 minute clock, I have already decided that I will try to keep it a bit tighter to begin with at least until I get used to my table a bit.
My table is fairly active from the get-go, a few players I notice seem unable to let go of marginal hands like two pair even under heavy betting on straightening boards. Slowly I begin to realise that the standard at my table is not great, I have one player to my left (Zarion) who I know can play, the person to my immediate right who I do not recognise also seem decent, but overall I'm happy.
Then the dynamic takes a massive change, mid deal a guy comes over to take his seat, he's late, the dealer tells him his hand is dead because he needs to verify everything and the deal as already started. The guy argues saying why should his hand be dead, here is my ID, etc, etc. This dealer is clearly massively inexperienced and one of the worst dealers I've ever had, gives in and lets the guy play his hand.
UTG pots, UTG+1 calls, our maniac repots, the button calls, UTG calls, UTG+1 gets out of the way. The flop is A-9-6, UTG pots, maniac repots, button passes, UTG calls. Turn is K. UTG pots it again, basically putting himself all-in, maniac snaps him off and it's UTG's A-6-x-x vs the maniac's J-J-T-3, river is the predictable Q as he gets it in with a gutshot and hits. Now don't get me wrong, I think getting it in with A-6 there is horrible, but a gutshot!!
I another example he calls a guy all-in on the flop with Q-Q-6-7 on an A-K-4 board, it was a 20K pot at 50/100. It's A-K-x-x he's up against, of course he gets there with a 5 on the turn and a 3 on the river. Baller.
This guy starts bossing the table, he plays appaulingly, but he's potting most hands preflop and its tricky to play against him. I keep waking up with hands I have to call his raises with, I find Q-J-9-8 or 7-6-5-4 those type of hands, or pairs with good back hands. This are the kind of hands that I also like to three-bet sometimes, but I can't with this guy because he calls 100% of the time and 80% of the time will pot any flop. So I decide the best thing to do is keep the pots small and and hope I hit and which point I know I will get paid.
Except I miss every flop! All my hands are legit but I just can't seem to hit a board.
My stack dwindles down to 6.5K calling raises or raising myself and it going nowhere, we're approaching the end of the second level (50/100) and my stack is getting a bit small for my liking. Fortunately, before the break I pick up a couple of pots to take me more or less up to my original starting stack.
The first hand there are one limper there a raise to 450, I call in position with A-K-Q-J with clubs. One of the blinds call and the maniac surprisingly passes.
The flop comes A-T-6 with Ace of clubs, it's checked round to me and I decide to check as well. Under normal circumstances I might have a bet here, to build the pot when I do hit and so I've got the initiative to take it away on later streets when I don't. However with this table bluffing isn't really an option on the flop so my bet wouldn't achieve a great deal.
The turn is the King of clubs also known as GIN! It goes check, then pot, I'm definitely raising, but I've got the nuts with the nut flush draw. The guy who potted it who is new to the table I already have pegged as a huge calling station, earlier he had cold called a three-bet with J-J-J-A no suits. Terrible. There were a few other examples, but I won't go in to them, I elect to just pot it knowing he will at least call.
The blind gets out of the way, and my customer obliges and calls.
River is an off-suit four, a massive brick. It's checked to me, I bet around half the pot, but he passes, my guess is he had a flush draw that missed. That was a nice sized pot to pick up.
A few hands later I pick up another smaller pot, its folded to me and I pot it with 9-9-J-Q with one suit (JQ spades), Zarion calls on my immediate left and the loose-passive station from the previous hand also calls.
The flop comes Q-6-4, check to me, I play it safe and check also, and Z checks too. Turn is 9, check, I bet around 3/4 of the pot, Z dwells on the raise before passing and the station passes too. Those two hands take me back up to 9.2K with the break in less than two minutes. After the hand, Zarion asks me truthfully would I call if he shoved, I told him I would and that I had a set. To be honest I probs would have said the same thing if I had three napkins and an empty condom packet, but I was honest, at least this time.
Goodbye Mr Z...
A couple of hands before the break and Zarion, one of the better players at the table and the player to my immediate left busts in horrible circumstances. He's in the BB, it goes pot UTG, call, call, button calls, fold to Z who now repots, UTG and two calls get out of the way, button now repots it. Zarion has a think, I think he definitely has AAxx but they are probs weak Aces and he is deciding whether to pass, I think he's put too much of his short-ish stack in to fold so he makes the call all-in.
He turns over A-A-Q-7 with one suit (hearts), his opponent is crushed with Q-Q-9-A one suit, dominated hearts. But a Q on the flop seals it and Zarion is out the door. I gotta say, I wasn't at all disappointed, the one outer was sickening but it was nice not to have a decent player in position on me.
My Exit Hand...
Shortly after I'm back from the break and things are going the same as before. We've had a few new players joining our table who seem just as bad as the previous, I've noticed a few times that there have been raises, three-bets which always get called, but twice so far the four-bet has managed to get through. Also our loose-passive station from earlier in the tournament has been slowly getting through his massive stack, he keeps calling light big bets but folding to the shoves, it's a huge leak and a few of them seem to have a similar problem.
It seems to me they don't understand PLO properly and obviously think any four cards are good and can hit the flop. These are the kind of people that call three-bets with 8-3 off in hold'em saying "any hand can be a winner on the flop" but fold to shoves because they know their flith is behind. It's a dream if you're picking up big hands, but I am pretty card dead at the moment and not finding any spots.
Eventually when my stack has dropped to around 7.6K I decide that it is time to start sticking up for myself, I can't keep waiting for hands at this table. I know I will get paid if I do wait, but I'm so card dead and my stack is just dwindling away, so I find this spot to get it in.
I'm on the button with Q-T-9-8 double suited, clubs and hearts, the original maniac from before has raised it to 400 blind with the blinds at 75/150, lucky QQ man flats, passive station flats, I flat call, SB now makes it 1,800, BB passes, maniac calls, luckyman calls, station calls and its on me.
I decide I can't call 1,800 out of my stack as much as I would like to getting great odds with a hand that plays excellently multi-way, it's just way too much of my stack. So it's either a fold or a shove. Given that I've seen people pass to this pushes already in similar situations and that by now if someone had a monster they would have shown it by raising it up to the original 1,800 and knowing the awful preflop hand selections of my opponents, I decide I want to try and win the 7,000+ chips that are in the middle now.
I look at my stack which seems to be around 8K in total, I think that should just be enough to pick up the pot since my opponents have roughly the following stack sizes: SB: 16K, maniac: 14K, luckyman: 9K and station: 20K. I figure given those stack sizes anyone with a genuine hand would have definitely got it in by now, also my stack at around 8K should be a large enough portion of post of the players to make them pass. The person I'm most worried about is probs the SB, but he has four people behind him so I don't think he's calling.
I shove and my stack is counted out as 7,925.
Now things go a bit mental, SB shoves, maniac calls, luckyman calls and station calls!!
We all turn our hands face up and I am amazed to see the junk I've been called with.
My Hand: Q-T-9-8 with reds and greens
SB: K-K-7-2 with no suits
Maniac: 9-5-4-2 with hearts (I have him dominated)
Luckyman: A-T-5-2 with diamonds
Station: A-3-3-6 with spades
I'm in disbelief over the junk I've been called with but at the same time happy knowing that I am favourite against these hands.
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600600
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d
Omaha Hi: 201376 enumerated boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 74916 37.20 125794 62.47 666 0.33 0.374
2s Kc Kd 7h 37163 18.45 164213 81.55 0 0.00 0.185
4c 9d 5h 2h 12547 6.23 184915 91.83 3914 1.94 0.072
Td 5d 2d Ah 21590 10.72 175206 87.00 4580 2.27 0.119
As 3s 3c 6d 50580 25.12 150770 74.87 26 0.01 0.251
The flop comes J-J-7
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600608
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d -- jh js 7d
Omaha Hi: 406 enumerated boards containing Js Jc 7d
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 128 31.53 278 68.47 0 0.00 0.315
2s Kc Kd 7h 165 40.64 241 59.36 0 0.00 0.406
4c 9d 5h 2h 3 0.74 403 99.26 0 0.00 0.007
Td 5d 2d Ah 27 6.65 379 93.35 0 0.00 0.067
As 3s 3c 6d 83 20.44 323 79.56 0 0.00 0.204
The turn is a 5.
http://twodimes.net/h/?z=7600613
pokenum -o qc tc 9h 8h - kd kc 7h 2s - 9d 5h 4c 2h - ah td 5d 2d - as 3s 3c 6d -- jh js 7d 5c
Omaha Hi: 28 enumerated boards containing Js 5c 7d Jh
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qc Tc 9h 8h 10 35.71 18 64.29 0 0.00 0.357
2s Kc Kd 7h 10 35.71 18 64.29 0 0.00 0.357
4c 9d 5h 2h 0 0.00 28 100.00 0 0.00 0.000
Td 5d 2d Ah 3 10.71 25 89.29 0 0.00 0.107
As 3s 3c 6d 5 17.86 23 82.14 0 0.00 0.179
River is obviously another Jay.
Kings ship the lot, the station has turned his 20K stack into a 4K stack because he can't pass 3-3-A-6 and three more players including me hit the rail. I leave the tournament unable to believe how sick that hand was and how I was the only person to get it in with a genuine hand. I am not happy at all, I have a rant on the phone to my girlfriend, text my backers before heading to the club in disbelief.
Overall I would rate my play as 9.9 out of 10 because this is a Cliff style report and to rate myself anything less than a 9 would just be silly.
In all seriousness, I was happy with the way I played, I had a terrible players at my table but the way the dynamics were it was difficult to find spots. I thought I found a good spot to gamble and try to pick up some chips, but I was wrong. Maybe I needed a bigger stack to do what I did, but to be honest given the hands they called with I don't think it would have mattered. Maybe I should pass to the 1,800 (or even call it) but I decided to take a stand and try to get chips. Had I won that hand I definitely think I would have been in a great position to make a top three finish.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be this time.
Finally, thanks to everyone that has backed me, sorry I couldn't ship it this time.
Marcus
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Tricky Times...
Poker wise not a great deal has happened for me since I've been back at The International I've been going down there fairly regularly. I haven't tracked all of my sessions, I think I missed the first three or four, but I've tracked my last six cash sessions down there and I've won in all of them and made over £2,300 profit so far. From that money, I used some of it to buy myself this nice Samsung N220 netbook.
Nice.
Perfect for carrying around with me whenever I wanna play PLO on the go.
Live tournaments have not gone as well, since I played the PLO Double Chance during the GSOP I haven't had a single cash, in fact I've busted early every single time.
Yesterday for example, I make a semi-bluff with a gutshot and a flush draw on the turn, and some fella with deuces wants to shove over my 2,800 bet for just 3,100 more. He has ZERO fold equity against me, the move made no sense, even my overs were live. I'm a 60-40 underdog, but getting the right price to call and the play was a good one, deuces should always be folding on a board that contained a flush draw, straight draw and four overcards including an Ace. Obviously, it bricks on the turn.
I could reel off examples where I believe I've played the hand well enough but my opponent has made a mistake which cost me but there is no point dwelling on it. I think I will take a break from live tournaments at the club and just concentrate on cash games, I seem more profitable.
In other news, I'm having a real tough time with my girlfriend. We've decided we need to take some time apart, in actual fact, it was more she decided, I just vocalised it because it looked like she couldn't. Basically for a few months now neither of us have been that happy with the way things are, a couple of weeks ago I told her that I was unhappy and thought we needed to both make an effort to change. We both agreed we would.
Then a couple of days ago we talk again. I've tried, or at least I think I've tried, but she says she doesn't know if she wants to try (or something along those lines). I was pretty destroyed by that. I wasn't happy, and I've had my doubts, but I really wanted to make it work, but she seems to be having more doubts than I am. Anyway, the point is it resulted in us deciding to take a break from one another so I'm crashing round a mates house for now.
The problem is, I didn't want a break, I only said it because that's what it felt like she wants. To me a break is just a break up being postponed a bit, dragging things on, and I don't want to break up with her. I want to try and make it work, its been six and a half years and I love her so much. We'll see how things go but hopefully they will work out. It's a real make or break time because our contract is up on a flat in about one months time so we need to know what we want by then.
My mate is due to move out of his place soon as well, so I think we may look for somewhere together, the problem is I still need to pay for one more months rent at my flat, if I then get another one, that is a month of double rent plus I'll need deposit money, and I just dunno if I can afford that. My mate was due to move out tomorrow, but we're discussing staying here for another month and then seeing if we can find a place together. That seems like a good solution.
I may even mention to my girlfriend the idea of us living in a houseshare with other people or living separately for awhile. I don't know if she will go for that idea though. I don't know if I want it. I miss her. I miss my pets. I miss having my own place. One thing I don't miss though is living out in the styx of Leytonstone, I hope things do work out between us, and if they do, moving back more centrally is definitely going to be important to me.
Nice.Perfect for carrying around with me whenever I wanna play PLO on the go.
Live tournaments have not gone as well, since I played the PLO Double Chance during the GSOP I haven't had a single cash, in fact I've busted early every single time.
Yesterday for example, I make a semi-bluff with a gutshot and a flush draw on the turn, and some fella with deuces wants to shove over my 2,800 bet for just 3,100 more. He has ZERO fold equity against me, the move made no sense, even my overs were live. I'm a 60-40 underdog, but getting the right price to call and the play was a good one, deuces should always be folding on a board that contained a flush draw, straight draw and four overcards including an Ace. Obviously, it bricks on the turn.
I could reel off examples where I believe I've played the hand well enough but my opponent has made a mistake which cost me but there is no point dwelling on it. I think I will take a break from live tournaments at the club and just concentrate on cash games, I seem more profitable.
In other news, I'm having a real tough time with my girlfriend. We've decided we need to take some time apart, in actual fact, it was more she decided, I just vocalised it because it looked like she couldn't. Basically for a few months now neither of us have been that happy with the way things are, a couple of weeks ago I told her that I was unhappy and thought we needed to both make an effort to change. We both agreed we would.
Then a couple of days ago we talk again. I've tried, or at least I think I've tried, but she says she doesn't know if she wants to try (or something along those lines). I was pretty destroyed by that. I wasn't happy, and I've had my doubts, but I really wanted to make it work, but she seems to be having more doubts than I am. Anyway, the point is it resulted in us deciding to take a break from one another so I'm crashing round a mates house for now.
The problem is, I didn't want a break, I only said it because that's what it felt like she wants. To me a break is just a break up being postponed a bit, dragging things on, and I don't want to break up with her. I want to try and make it work, its been six and a half years and I love her so much. We'll see how things go but hopefully they will work out. It's a real make or break time because our contract is up on a flat in about one months time so we need to know what we want by then.
My mate is due to move out of his place soon as well, so I think we may look for somewhere together, the problem is I still need to pay for one more months rent at my flat, if I then get another one, that is a month of double rent plus I'll need deposit money, and I just dunno if I can afford that. My mate was due to move out tomorrow, but we're discussing staying here for another month and then seeing if we can find a place together. That seems like a good solution.
I may even mention to my girlfriend the idea of us living in a houseshare with other people or living separately for awhile. I don't know if she will go for that idea though. I don't know if I want it. I miss her. I miss my pets. I miss having my own place. One thing I don't miss though is living out in the styx of Leytonstone, I hope things do work out between us, and if they do, moving back more centrally is definitely going to be important to me.
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Back to Square One
A lot has happened in the week or two since I last blogged. I used my bankroll to repay money I owed to various debt companies and people. I contacted Barry Martin from The International to regain my membership there and rekindle a lot of old friendships.
The worst thing is giving up my bankroll, while it was good to repay debts I now have just £2,000 to continue playing poker with, that means I'm going to either have to bink a tournament or start playing a lot lower. Grinding low stakes is difficult, ideally I wanna play a tournament a bink or go on one huge spin-up. The latter is definitely possible with a bit of luck, I'd just like to get a decent bankroll for $1/$2 then try to get 100,000 hands at that limit to be sure I can beat it comfortably.
Yesterday I had a good chat with a few old poker buddies about all things from spin-ups to bankroll management, bad beats to funny TV poker hands. It was really good to be at the poker club and just chill and chat, not to play, just sit down and chat to people. So much has changed at the club, a lot of players have improved a great deal and I've gotten worse because of the lengthy break.
I've got to put in a lot of work to try and improve. I should find an area of poker to focus on but the truth is I want to play both PLO cash games and NLHE tournaments. They both appeal to me a great deal, and I don't know if I'm willing to sacrafice one of them to focus solely on the other one. I need to make my mind up soon though.
Now on to my return to The International... Boy it's good to be back!
So nice to catch-up with people, I played my first tournament, the £200 PLO Double Chance, I reached the final table as chip leader with 135K with around 500K chips in play. I so desperately wanted to win it after 18 months out, it would've been nice to take it down straight away. With nine on the final table but only seven places pay, I took this as an opportunity to start applying pressure to the shorter stacks around me, it started well when UTG+1 raised the pot, I repotted with a double suited J-T-9-8 and the raiser called me with single suited Aces, the 5-2-2 flop was a dream for him, but the 8 on the turn and the 8 on the river was the dream for me.
I tried to keep the pressure up until people started talking about a deal, we decided to take money off the top three places to give 8th place their money back. Generally I don't like doing bubble deals, but I was too tired to protest. But here was the problem, once the bubble has burst I should've slowed down, I didn't. I was still raising marginal hands but when I got three-bet I called with position and a deep stack. I'd hit but I wouldn't hit solid then I'd have to call the shove getting priced in and failing to win the hand. Within 20 mins I went from chip leader to busto and finishing up in 8th place cashing just £220 instead of the £3000 that was available for first place.
I was disappointed in myself and thought I should've done much better. I think there are a few reasons why I performed so poorly. Firstly I was immensely tired, after working back to back 14 hour shifts at DoubleTake this week, by midnight I was exhausted. It was 3.30am by the time we reached the final table and I could barely stay awake. Furthermore, I wanted it too badly, I started forcing the action and that was a mistake.
All in all I think I played well, I got lucky in a few spots but doesn't everyone need to do so to win a tournament? I'm happy with my performance except on the final table.
I also had Luc (Cause I like you, CILY) on my table. CILY hates me, I'm not sure why, but he hates me. The following day after the tournament he gave me a scathing review about my performance and about me as a person. I dunno what this guys problem is, but he is a classless cunt, and I gotta say, if we met on the streets one day he may find himself waking up in hospital the following morning.
I was supposed to be going to the funeral of Charlie Haddon today. Sadly I got locked in my own flat! Basically my girlfriend and I lock up the door to our flat at nights because we're worried that we've had people in our flat in the past. When one of us leaves before the other one wakes up, we also lock the door while they're asleep. That's all fine, the problem is, I can't find my keys anywhere, I think may have left them at work.
I feel terrible, but these things happen, at least I've finally had time to update my blog!
The worst thing is giving up my bankroll, while it was good to repay debts I now have just £2,000 to continue playing poker with, that means I'm going to either have to bink a tournament or start playing a lot lower. Grinding low stakes is difficult, ideally I wanna play a tournament a bink or go on one huge spin-up. The latter is definitely possible with a bit of luck, I'd just like to get a decent bankroll for $1/$2 then try to get 100,000 hands at that limit to be sure I can beat it comfortably.
Yesterday I had a good chat with a few old poker buddies about all things from spin-ups to bankroll management, bad beats to funny TV poker hands. It was really good to be at the poker club and just chill and chat, not to play, just sit down and chat to people. So much has changed at the club, a lot of players have improved a great deal and I've gotten worse because of the lengthy break.
I've got to put in a lot of work to try and improve. I should find an area of poker to focus on but the truth is I want to play both PLO cash games and NLHE tournaments. They both appeal to me a great deal, and I don't know if I'm willing to sacrafice one of them to focus solely on the other one. I need to make my mind up soon though.
Now on to my return to The International... Boy it's good to be back!
So nice to catch-up with people, I played my first tournament, the £200 PLO Double Chance, I reached the final table as chip leader with 135K with around 500K chips in play. I so desperately wanted to win it after 18 months out, it would've been nice to take it down straight away. With nine on the final table but only seven places pay, I took this as an opportunity to start applying pressure to the shorter stacks around me, it started well when UTG+1 raised the pot, I repotted with a double suited J-T-9-8 and the raiser called me with single suited Aces, the 5-2-2 flop was a dream for him, but the 8 on the turn and the 8 on the river was the dream for me.
I tried to keep the pressure up until people started talking about a deal, we decided to take money off the top three places to give 8th place their money back. Generally I don't like doing bubble deals, but I was too tired to protest. But here was the problem, once the bubble has burst I should've slowed down, I didn't. I was still raising marginal hands but when I got three-bet I called with position and a deep stack. I'd hit but I wouldn't hit solid then I'd have to call the shove getting priced in and failing to win the hand. Within 20 mins I went from chip leader to busto and finishing up in 8th place cashing just £220 instead of the £3000 that was available for first place.
I was disappointed in myself and thought I should've done much better. I think there are a few reasons why I performed so poorly. Firstly I was immensely tired, after working back to back 14 hour shifts at DoubleTake this week, by midnight I was exhausted. It was 3.30am by the time we reached the final table and I could barely stay awake. Furthermore, I wanted it too badly, I started forcing the action and that was a mistake.
All in all I think I played well, I got lucky in a few spots but doesn't everyone need to do so to win a tournament? I'm happy with my performance except on the final table.
I also had Luc (Cause I like you, CILY) on my table. CILY hates me, I'm not sure why, but he hates me. The following day after the tournament he gave me a scathing review about my performance and about me as a person. I dunno what this guys problem is, but he is a classless cunt, and I gotta say, if we met on the streets one day he may find himself waking up in hospital the following morning.
I was supposed to be going to the funeral of Charlie Haddon today. Sadly I got locked in my own flat! Basically my girlfriend and I lock up the door to our flat at nights because we're worried that we've had people in our flat in the past. When one of us leaves before the other one wakes up, we also lock the door while they're asleep. That's all fine, the problem is, I can't find my keys anywhere, I think may have left them at work.
I feel terrible, but these things happen, at least I've finally had time to update my blog!
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Loss of a Friend, A Break from Online...
Apparently, he jumped from a telecommunications mast behind the stage shortly after the band finished their set. The reason is said to be because he severely injured a member of the crowd when performing a stage dive and was overcome with guilt. It is an incredibly sad time for his family, friends and all that loved him and his music.
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool was formed with Joe Hutchinson (right, along with Caan Kapan), a childhood friend of mine, through whom I met Charlie. Their music and popularity had really begun to take off, and deservedly so. This tragic event is a massive loss to the music world.
Charles Alexander Haddon R.I.P.
The sad loss of Charlie has made me decide to take a break from player poker online and rekindle my friendships and associations with The International. I've withdrawn the last of my dollars from PokerStars to bring my withdrawal total up to £5,000 this month. I have contacted my former boss, Barry Martin, and will be arranging to meet up with him when he returns from holiday.
Charlie's death made me think about friendships that I have lost in the past. The community and the group of friends I had at The International was a huge part of my life for a long time, I made a massive mistake while I was there and lost it. I want to rectify that and return there.
I know inevitably it will be hard at first and people will not look at me in the same way, but if I can regain their trust and friendship then I believe that will make me a happier person once more. I want to spend less time playing online and more time in the company of friends, I believe I can make just as much money live as I can online but playing live offers so much more. I miss it a great deal, The Vic just isn't the same.
Today will be the last day I play online for at least a month. I'm currently playing an $8 rebuy, I've already played some PLO cash (and lost, I don't think I'm concentrating properly). I will play the Sunday Warm-up and then that's it for a little while.
Hopefully I'll do well when I play it, it'd be nice to take it down!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)