the usual...

Just got 10 O'Clock and I am already out of a £20 rebuy at the casino thinking how? I played the sunday tournament , which was a sound structure I entered it having not played for a little over week and felt my game online was below par and also form was bad.Still, I played it and was playing relatively strong when my first big move fell badly, I had around 30,000 in chips when late position ( a young kid who riases all time in late) pumped it up, I decided this time to re raise , I had junk not that it was relevant , (4-7 off i think), he made it 3,800 I made it 10,800 and the bb pushed all in, he insta folded and I obviously laid fast knowing I have just walked into KK,AA, or maybe AK, he said KK and took it down.
Then in the same mtt later on with around 21 people left, 7 handed I found KK in sb , I raised after 2 limpers one of them pushed , I was suspicious but with short stack and KK i called and he flipped over AA. Sigh...Out.

Since then online I have been playing okay ish, I would say around 5/10 which is hard to beat sound players with and also I am running v badly, the reason I posted the image of AK is cos lately whenever I am all in and have AK which has been around the last 4/5 times I have ran into AA or KK. Just tonight in the casino with 11 bb I pushed with AK off and the button flat called and i said to my mate " yeah prolly walked into Aces or Kings here" and sure enough he had AA. It doesn't affect my play ya know? But its hard to win at the moment when I am not playing great and running badly.

Tommorow I will be playing live again cos its more enjoyable then online but I do hope I can start playing well again and luck evening out. I feel I take the bad times well enough still though, Aelred has been in my company online where I take a horrendous beat and I brush it off calmly. So I aint a tilt master or anything.

Sum up tonights tourney I had AQ i re raised all in over a lp bettor during rebuy period (only 2 rebuys though) he had kc6c and called my all in for 5,000 chips when he only put in 600 and river K. And then same guy later I had AsKs vs his 9-9 lost that too then I had no more rebuys got it back up though till post rebuy when my AK off was against Aces.

Still, thats poker and all that. I will probably play a bit online tonight and tonight just try and focus, if i can get back to thinking through every decision and justifying it then I will start final tabling again. Wish me luck!



Ciso

how to waste money playing tight then bubbling...

Okay I just finished playing the wednesdays $320 nightly hundred fifty grand. Its 5.45am and I am pretty hacked off, I pre strategised to play tight this mtt and it was working well. I was in top 20/30 stacks for much of the mtt past 1st 2 hrs then drawing close to the cash 2 critical hands come up that lead to my exit.

Hand 1 :
I have K-Q in sb, blinds are 300/600 and I have around 28,000. Button raises to 1,800, I decide to just call , out of position but with a hand that if connects on flop vs button riaser is likely to be a monster. Flop falls a non too thrilling A J 5 (2d),I decide to lead out for 3,100 into the 4,600 out there and he calls. At This point I know he has hit that flop, he has 10k behind after the call but I am thinking hes pretty weak since any strong hand worthy of an allin should push on that flop, so I am thinking a turn push could be a good move. Turn comes like a 7, I chicken out though and check , surprisingly he checks which gives me the green light to bluff the river. River J, I go against my instincts and checks , he flips up A-10.....This hand was there for the taking and I didnt play great past the flop.


Hand 2 - Lp riases to 1,600 I am in bb with K-5 and decide to re raise to 4,700 cos I have a tight image and I know this player can riase in late with a very wide range of hands, he calls. At this point I felt he most likely has a medium pair, 77-JJ. Flop falls , 4-5-J I decide this flop is nice enough to commit my chips in becuase 77,88,9s and 10s would fold, but if i lead these hands probably are more likely to continue so I checked HOPING for him to bet and he does a modest 4,500 when I move all in for 17k more he insta calls and has J J. OUT in 92nd and 2 off a $475 cash.


I am obviously disappointed in at least not cashing because with my stack and being in the top 20/30 stacks for much of the tourney , cashing is the minimum I was expecting. Still, this is poker. I feel my play on the last hand was still strong and that in a way is unlucky that he flops top set, I coulda waited till I cashed to make this kinda move however but I am not one to hang on for few bucks. Still hurts though :(.



Ciso

Another score and a silly sunday.

Yo, last night played and did a 6 way deal in the $150 f/o nightly on pokerstars for $11,000. I am playing relatively well at the moment, took a step off on the agression meter in these online mtts that aint rebuys and I think its better considering the guys I am up against.

Today, I woke up pretty late, ate, then tonight played the million gtd and sunday 2nd chance, Well in the million I twice found AK got it in and was both times against K- K and neither time won. Then in the 2nd chance I had okay stack, I was raising frequently small, like min riases, I get AQ with blinds at 150 my stack at 4,400 I made 300, big stack repopped 450 more and a shortie pushed all in for another 500 on top. I decided to do an all in here to isolate, I felt like the short stack (who just lost loads previous hand) was goin for value and that the big stack had probably seen me raising often and repopped with something not too strong, like medium pair etc, could be QQ,KK ,AK etc too but his raise looked like one to gather info not so much value. Anyway he thought for ages and called with KK. nice slowroll eh? Flop came J 10 K giving me the nut striaght but I knew id lose and rightly a 10 on the turn seeled my doom.

Still, last nights result and the 55k win a little while back is nice BR Booster and one I think I needed.

2 Live MTT Reports

Okay. So this week saw a festival come to gala nottingham. I chose to play in 2 events out of the first 3. The 1st one being a £100 Freezeout, 7500 chips, pro dealers, 30 mins blinds. Very Reasonable structure.

Anyway, 107 people registered and I entered without any pre tournament strategy. I drew a table of regulars mostly, I settled in, but wasn't getting anything near playable, my 1st key hand was 2nd level I think . I had Ac2c in bb, and 3 of us saw an A-2-6 flop (2d) the sb led for 100 I made it 300 he called. turn was a 3, he check called my 600 bet. River was a 7 and he check called another 600 turning over 6d-7d. Yay.
I limp many hands in position, J-8,6-7,A-4 etc. but fail to connect at all and am not really going to go crazy first few levels when people are betting the value of their hands not rubbish.
However I lose abit in blinds before doing my first big move, I beleive I had 6,800 with blinds at 400 when Mp raised it to 1,200and a LAG in CO flat called. I read the raiser for weakness and the LAG is likely to have a mediocre hand so I saw this as an oppurtunity to win back some chips and moved all in with my 10-9 suited. They both folded one claiming KQ the other A10. Nice to see this structure allows for people to fold such hands.
I began to up the agression a tad, Raising with AK getting an oop limper call and my 1,500 bet getting through on a 5-7-2 flop fortunately.
Then last hand before break I have Q-10 in bb and c/r a 800 bet to 2,800 after a limper bet and sb called. Flop was Q-9-6 (2c). 1st Break saw me sitting on around 14,000.
After the break I was moved and built up another 7500 when I limped EP with J-J, the BB shoved and I made the call holding up vs A-J.
I then got moved again and sadly was card dead for a long long time. Now, don't get me wrong I will play creative if i want/need to but hands like J-2,Q-4 etc arent hands I want to touch if I aint in kamikaze short stack mode. So My stack dwindled somewhat.
I found a hand with 25 people to go I beleive (top 10 pay) when a young agressive guy raised in EP, I looked down and found J-J. My stack wasn't big at all, I beleive I had 17,000 with the blinds at 1,400 or something. Anyhoo I studied him and sensed strength and also was aware the person in the BB looked very interested in playing the pot so I laid my Jacks perhaps unwisely, sure enough the BB repopped all in and the original raiser folded which made me feel a little silly inside but meh. Can't read people right every single time.
Then with 20 players left I was in danger big time, I found myself in the SB with around 10,100 chips and bb 3,000. People were moving all in frequently and when a loose young oriental lad pushed I felt obliged to gamble with my Q-J then to my surprise the bb called also. The first lad had A-K , I had Q-J and the BB had 8-8. The board showed 5-5-K-10-2 and I was out. 20th palce no money. Meh...

Tonight was the same structure but £200 entry fee. This time I decided I was going to play a bit looser and see where it gets me, first 2 hours again I saw nothing strong at all , I had Qd-10d limped. Flop came A-2-9 ,(2d) I lead for 1/2 pot got repopped by a TAG in position , I felt he had a strong hand like top pair or 2-2 , with 2.8-1 on the call and implied odds through the roof I made the call for 1,000 extra chips with my stack at 7,000 and missed on a 3c turn. I checked and got a free card which was a 9. I had no interest in bluffing here and checked, he also did and turned over weaker then I originally expected of A-8.
Post break I was short stacked with around 6k and blinds 300/600 I got it in when my stack was 5,000 with AQ vs JJ and luckily won then a while later decided to move all in from SBwith 7d9d after my stack was down to 6,600 he insta called with AcQc and I was unable to hit. I felt I played reasonably well both tourneys but cards didnt co-operate so I won't be too hard on myself. I feel all in is my only move there as the pot with blinds and antes stood at around 1,400 which is a huge % increase of my stack. I traded 10% with Aelred, and he is still at the casino now so hopefully he gets a Final Table to give some credit for us. Tommorow is a 2 day event £550 entry fee, If the tournament isnt full I will probably pay the fee since It's not often I get to play events with nice structures like this, plus FT is televised.

Ciso

Tourney Win

Good news is I took down the daily pokerstars $55k gtd yesterday for $10,800. I've had a bad month or so and I needed a win. Fortunately I played the $10 rebuy, people call these tourneys "donkaments " , I personally prefer the structure as it allows for more play and deep stack poker is always better. It's true the players are worser then in the $100 + mtts but that's a good thing as they are more liable to make errors.

Anyway, I played a creative but strong game and managed to bag 1st. It wasnt outright really though as I did a 4 way deal, 1st would have been $12,000 but I agreed to $10,800 which I felt was a very good deal for me as I wasnt a sure win by any means, I had more then my opponents but one double up for anyone and It could get tricky. We played on for TLB points and I racked up the win there too , so all went well.

I need to really get working for my exams but this is a positive result that hopefully will spark a run. I will probably do 1 of the events at gala this week if they aint really sold out as a reward for revision hopefully.


Ciso

Been A While...

Thought I'd write in this blog since it's been ages. I been writing on thpblog.com for the past 6 months ish. I probably come back over here now since its more professional layout.
1st update back , and basically coming to end of my first year doing history and the lack of work Ive done makes it likely I won't be a student next year, my roll is still steady but lower then what it was in january when I hit a nice score simply cos I been playing regularly and not winning last month or 2. Still Playing well though and optimistic of making lots of mula.

I gotta revise for next few weeks so I wont be playing AS much but I will post of any events regarding Poker in this blog from now on.