The Joker in Vegas

[Curlarge]

Best of luck us....................I can smell 5,000,000  

[Joker161]

Level 1 - (50/100) - 29,150 chips left.

I played no hands for 20 minutes. My first hand is a speculative call with KQs in the SB after a raise and a call. The flop is AJ5. I check and so do the other two. Turn a ten. Nice. But there are two diamonds and two clubs. So I bet 500 (nearly the size of the pot) and they both call. River the queen of clubs. Annoying. I check, next bloke bets, the other bloke raises! I fold and the other bloke calls. The re-raiser has the nut flush.

Hand 2: about 40 minutes in I get JJ in the SB. There"s a raise and a call (from the loose bloke who looks like Chan the dual Main Event winner) and I re-raise. They both call. Hmm. The flop is T66, so I bet and they both fold. That was my only decent hand.

Hand 3: I have ATs and raise from mid-position. SB and BB both call (Chan is the BB). Flop is Q87. Check, check, and I bet. The SB raises. Oops! Should have taken the free card.

I raise a couple of times to steal and they get through, so I"ve lost less that a thousand, but Chan is out already. He played every other hand! Apparently he is a pro and does very well. Not in two-hour level tournaments. One bloke is already on about 50k. The bloke to my right is nice, and he is hitting all sorts of cards. He"s had two boats already! He"s on about 45k. There"s a very nervous Italian opposite me in seat one (I"m in seat 4) and in seat 7 is a bloke who looks like Ross Boatman. Nice table. I"ll get back to you in two hours. Still a bit annoyed they took two of the smaller levels out. The pot already get quite big at times.

[AceOnTheRiver]

Good Luck Joe, keep calm and smash it to pieces!

[mylesfdo]

Keep it up Joe....marathon not a sprint!

[Joker161]

Level 2 - 100/200 - 31,325 chips left.

Lots more going on in this level. First hand back I get QQ. I raise and get one caller. Flop is J43, two clubs. I bet and he calls. We both check the eight of clubs and then both check the two of clubs. Nasty. I show and he mucks. Then Beppe from Eastenders turns up in seat 9 to replace Chan. Nice. Then there was an annoying one where I almost call with QT in the SB (probably shouldn"t anyway) and the flop is J98. Cheers then! Then I get AQs in the BB. UTG just calls, there are three other callers, so I raise it up to 900. Only UTG calls (dodgy!). I bet the Q77 flop and he calls. I bet the turn and he folds. Phew! I thought he might be doing one of those UTG calls with AA. I then get AA, finally! I raise. Everyone folds. Hmm. I"m now up to about 38k, but I then have a bad 45 minutes. The same UTG just calls, Beppe raises to 800, SB calls and I call, then UTG makes it 3300. Annoying. I had to fold 99. Then the same UTG raises when I have JT in the BB. The Italian bloke in seat 1 calls as well, so if he had made it 500 I would definitely call, but I decide to fold. Flop is KQ9 rainbow. Grrrr! I then decide to steal from the button with 75 and a tricky player (Boatman lookalike) calls. The flop is 998. He checks, I bet an he calls. We check the turn, and I fold to his bet on the river. More chips gone. Finally, I get AK and raise, and the big stack calls in the BB. Flop is QT5. I bet and he calls. Turn is a 9 and we both check. The river is a king, which is great, except there are three hearts and only a jack is required for a straight. He bets 2k and I know I should fold but can"t help myself. He has J9. So back to square one. The bloke to my right is still hitting all sorts. He hit two sets in two hands, and showed them both. I sense he will lose a very big pot soon. Hopefully to me! Beppe is on 20k, if your interested!

[Curlarge]

All good mate. You"re obv. reading things well, apart from the pre-flop folds  .

Grind away my boy, grind away.

[AJDUK]

Great updates BOL Joe

[Joker161]

Level 3 - 150/300 - 34,050 chips left at the end of the level.

Another busy level. I"ll try and use paragraphs this time!

Hand 1: I raise UTG with 99 (is that too loose in the ME?), one caller. Flop J74, I bet 1,100 and he calls. Turn the giving three hearts. I bet 2,500 and he calls. I don"t like this! The river is a two and I check fold. Annoying. Down to 26k.

Hand 2: Mr UTG does one of his UTG calls and Beppe makes it 1500. I make it 4k from the BB with TT. Beppe gives me a right old stare before folding. Up to 29k.

Hand 3: seat 8 raises (the big stack) to 900, the loose bloke to my right calls, so I go for a squeeze on the button with 22. I make it 3,200. The big stack makes it 8k. Oops.

Hand 4: the very next hand I get AK and raise, no callers. On 25k.

Hand 5: I raise the button with As9s and the BB calls. The flop is jack high with two spades. He bets 1300 and I call (I think I should have raised). The turn is the and he bets 2,300. I fold, painfully.

Hand 6: I get QQ against the same bloke and he calls my raise. Flop is JT5. I bet and he calls. Turn is an eight. I check call. River is another ten. I check and so does he. My queens are good. He says he was thinking of pushing. I was planning to call a smaller bet, but calling a push? Not sure I would have.

Hand 7: the Italian raises in late position and I call from the SB with KJ. A bit loose, but he has show some dodgy hands and folded to bets/raises. The flop is A42. I bet to rep the ace and he calls. Hmm. Jack on the turn, although I"m not sure that helps. I check, he makes it 1,300 and I raise to 4k. He folds. So a nice last 20 minutes that puts me up to 34k.

This is a tough grind! Also, although the levels are two hours, we are up to 150/300 already, and the pots can get out of hand very quickly. I still have over 100 BBs, though, so nothing to worry about. I should go and get something to eat...

[Joker161]

Forgot to mention - the Beppe banter has got quite amusing. I"m clearly the only one who knows he was on Eastenders. Actually, I"m the only one who knows what Eastenders is! Beppe is pretending that he plays football in Japan or some s**t like that. All very amusing. Plus, Liz Hurley has turned up to watch Warne. Reasonably attractive...

[Curlarge]

Head down feed the winger. Keep going matey

[Joker161]

Level 4 - 150/300/25 - 28,975 chips left at the end of the level.

In the first 15 minutes I have AK, two callers and they fold the flop bet, then I have QQ and they all fold to my raise. Then I get QQ again and Beppe calls the button. Flop K66, I bet and he calls. This turn is a jack, I bet and he folds.

After an hour there is a hand where the Italian raises, loose bloke next to me calls and I make it 2300 from the BB. They both call, then the flop has a king and a queen so that"s the end for me in that hand. They tell me afterwards (and they are believable) that they had JJ and KJ. The Italian said he almost folded the JJ and the loose bloke said he would have folded if the Italian had folded. Hmm.

Next, the big stack (I can"t win anything from him!) raises and the loose bloke calls on the button so I call in the SB with AdJd. Flop is 983 with two diamonds. So I check raise and the big stack calls. There is an eight on the turn and I bottle it and check, he bets and I fold. He shows QT for the gutshot, so I was ahead regardless on the flush draw. Very annoying. I need to grow a pair.

Not much after that. With 15 minutes of the level left we all get moved, which is a shame. I play no hands on the new table. One level to go before Day 2! I"d love to chip up a bit, but making Day 2 would be great too, so we shall see. I"m quite tired so I must avoid any "fancy play syndrome". Back in two hours...

[AceOnTheRiver]

Keep Calm and Make Day 2

[Joker161]

Level 5 - 200/400/50 - 36,675 chips left at the end of the level.

So I"m at a new table, and it"s one of those tables where everyone is young enough to be my son, all deadly serious and raises are ALWAYS 800, or some s**t like 825, like it makes a difference. I try and buck the trend with raises of 900; I daren"t go into 1100/1200 zone because they would think I was mad. And anyway, they actually fold when someone makes these small raises.

So I have nothing for 45 minutes. I steal once to keep my stack at about 27k. Then I get JJ in the SB. There"s a raise, a call, so obviously I re-raise and I get one caller. The flop is all low, so I bet and he folds. Easy game! The very next hand I have A8s on the button (clearly). This bloke to my immediate right is raising nearly every hand, so I re-raise, only to see the short stack in the BB go all in for about 8k. Just a little too much. I fold. Two steps forward; one step back.

Into the last hour, and I raise with KQ and get one caller. It"s a low flop, he checks, I bet, he folds. Nice. For the first time in ages I am over 30k. I then decide to get all tight and fold AJ when UTG+1 and see two blokes get busy on a flop that is jack high rainbow, and another jack on the turn. Annoying. I re-raise a stealer from the SB with 87 and it gets through. I raise with KQ and some old bloke to my immediate left calls. Flop is 862, I bet and he calls. Turn is a 2. I bet and he calls. Oops! River is a queen (result!) and I check hoping to check/call, but he checks too and has 87. Still a result! It"s the first river I"ve hit all day! Right at the end I get a nice little AQ with one caller, a queen high flop and he folds to my bet. So a very productive last half hour. Day 2 is on Tuesday. Bring it on!

[AMRN]

Thanks for the great write ups Joe. Good luck on Tuesday............!!

[Paulie_D]

Very nice result for the day.

Rest up and just play your game on Day 2.