Pokerpops ponders poker

[gjp100]

If you don"t win at the table football Pops, you might as well give up!  I beat Fiddy last time we were there, and I"ve got the reflexes of a dead Sloth!  

[pokerpops]

If you don"t win at the table football Pops, you might as well give up!  I beat Fiddy last time we were there, and I"ve got the reflexes of a dead Sloth!  

sigh

Thanks Gary

[Fatcatstu]

My maternal Grandmother was a wise woman. She was born around 1900 and lived through two world wars a depression and all the rest in between. She had a shop, and sold pretty much anything and everything. To everyone.
Like most small shopkeepers of the day she had a little brown book to record purchases on credit, or "tick". She knew everyone in the area, and knew their stories. She knew their good points and their bad.
But she never ever uttered a word against anyone. Her mantra was " if you can"t say something positive, say nothing".
Now, that may not be a fashionable stance these days, but it"s one that I"ve tried to follow. The world would maybe be a better, friendlier place if others took the same approach.

donkey.

[pokerpops]

donkey.

Love you too PokerSon x

[pokerpops]

Decided to play some Pokerstars tourneys last night, not something I do on a regular basis, but I was at home on my own and it seemed a good idea to get reacquainted with the site in readiness for the online season. It"s a while since I played much on there and I"d mostly played the smaller SnGs before.

Reg"d for a couple, using the iPad and it was so easy playing two that I soon topped up to play four and kept half an eye on the tv. Had a min(ish) cash in one tourney with around 1300 runners and exited another and decided to maybe try one more, and some 90seaters

So, at somewhere around 8.30 ish, I registered for something called "The Big $4.40"

It had around 350 when I entered. Late reg went on for something like two hours and by the time registration closed it had accumulated just short of 7000 runners

Ticking along quite nicely with around 2.5x avge stack with around 700 left then maybe made a mistake with JJ when we got it in on a "safe" flop but had run into KK... rebuilt for a while, but it"s now past 3am, and then ran my KQ into short(ish) stacks QJ and guess how that goes... rebuild again before finally exitiing in 288th for $22.24

A small + for the night and I"ll be happy to play on Stars using the laptop, the iPad or the phone. Really comfortable playing four tables on the iPad. Found it easier than the same on the laptop tbh.

Can"t get Holdem Manager working right on Stars at the moment. Nor have I worked out how to get Player Notes on the iPad/Phone apps. I see there"s an iPad app for HEM, but that requires making, and paying for, the upgrade. Probably have to do that if I play much more on Stars.

Tonight I may venture out to the local G in the hope of a midweek game that ends before 2am. Mixed feelings about the place at the moment. It"s a much better venue than Gala, but they really need to do something to get the numbers up.

[pokerpops]

Slipped off to Newcastle to try the Gentings afternoon game yesterday. £3 reg fee for 3000 chips with £10 rebuy and add-on each for 5000.
71 runners and £950 prize pool
As is my usual I built a stack early. Had a couple of mishaps close to the break/end of rebuy period and stuck the £20 in for the extra chips.
Picked up a fair few chips without showdown till we we"re down to two tables then had AA v AK aipf, and 66 which turned a set and where I"m sure my image got me a call for an extra 25000 on the river. Had a couple of nasty tangles with one guy where I had to bet fold on the flop or turn. Nothing too bad, just boards where I have to c-bet and he found a raise, or a call and then a bet on the turn. I"m 100% he"s not doing this with air so fold is irritating but no more.
Final table was on the feature table which apparently may have been streamed with a 15 min delay. Regulars reckoned they have been able to view this, in the club, or even at the final table... I said nothing at the time but, really?
I picked up a few chips and the final table had maybe 4 stacks of 100k with 585 in play
I get a few hands and accumulate a few chips before I find the value bet button on a hand where I"d opted to flat call the button with   behind one limper and get to see a flop four ways in position.
Flop brought 2 diamonds and it"s checked round to me. I check behind.
Blinds were 3000/6000 so there"s 24,000 in the pot when the turn makes a pair on the board and there"s a bet of 6,000 from BB. Limper folds, I flat call, as does the SB. Pretty sure he doesn"t bet a house here.
Pot is now 42,000 and the diamond on the river also completes a straight draw.
BB leads for 6,000 (his bet-sizing was like this in every hand he got involved in..)
I contemplate flatting but I"ve been working on my value betting and remembered a few PHA threads where bet"fold is vaunted as being a better option than just calling in spots like this.
He calls with worse and pretty much only shoves the absolute nuts, so I raise to 31,000. SB folds, BB tanks and as soon as it takes him more than 20seconds I know I want a call. Which I get  
So now I have c200,000 chips and the lead.

Then I made a rather horrible mistake vs the same guy
At the same 3000/6000 I open raise to 14000 with 44 from the button. sb folds, my man, in BB calls.
Flop 88T, he checks, I bet he shoves...
I level myself into thinking he"s doing it with overs and flush draw... And I tell myself I still have 100k if I"m wrong, or if I"m right and he gets there..
He has JJ
Hello 4 on the turn :-)

After that, I have 50%+ of the chips and I pick off chips and players and win without ever really being in trouble.

The final was played on the live stream table. Apparently, had I so wished, I could have been watching the stream at the table on a 15 minute delay. As it happened, one of the others logged on and it wasn"t working, but even so... it must change the whole dynamic of the table if holecard information is available so quickly. It must also slow the game if they put it on the tv screen above the table (as I believe they have been known to do)

[PHIL_TC]

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Well done Dave.... more rebuy for tonight?   x

[Swinebag]

Boooooommmm!!!

Nice win- top v betting on river in JT hand!!

[pokerpops]

Poker karma...

Tonight"s home game highlight

Mr Stuart Ward, former APAT European Champion raises (a not uncommon occurrence)
I call with
Flop is Jxx
Young Mr Ward ships

I find a  call with top pair Q kicker and it"s a good call
A very good call in fact
FatCatStu has a 7 & a deuce

But all is not done, the turn and river card are both spades
as were two of the flop
and my PokerSon"s deuce....

#lovethegame

[PHIL_TC]

Don"t worry Dave.... I got revenge later and put him in his usual "i"m not going to play poker ever again" "can"t win when I"m ahead...can"t win when I"m behind" "don"t know why I bother" etc etc...

My epic J/10o > Fiddys AK > Stu"s pocket 2"s. My push.... Stu"s all in... then Fiddy calls us both.

Ace and a Jack on the flop... Jack on the turn... binkety bink x

[Fatcatstu]

you are all fish

[pokerpops]

Week One of the Online League...

KQ is rarely better than AA, but how is it that oppo has AA when he"s down to 3 or 4 big blinds and I"ve committed myself with a distracted raise...

88 starts better than AK and when no A and no K arrive it hurts a little more to lose, but that rivered straight did for me in 170th

I was playing on the iPad whislt also playing a small tourney at G in Stockton. The new Cardroom Manager, Mike, had organised an unscheduled tournament because there were players in the Casino looking for a game.
£15+£15 (5,000 for first lot, 10,000 for rebuy/addon)
I joined midway through Level 1 and was the 10th entrant. Eventually we got to 13 runners. I done a win for £190 which was rather nice :-)

That makes my recent record in tournaments (excluding the Thursday night game)...

Thursday 19th - Gala Teesside. 10th of 50 or so in the £10+£10+£10 Had a big stack close to the bubble then lost a chunk with Q10 on a Q10x flop getting it all in vs 88... 9 turn, J river. Two hands later I get it in again vs same oppo with my KQ having hit a 10Jx flop pretty hard, but not as hard as his JJ. Final table and I"m shortstacked and get 33 in vs QQ. Min cash for £30

Sunday 22nd - Gala Teesside £75 FO + £25 bounty. A typical up and down run. Built a decent enough stack but busted in 12th of 40ish. No real tales from this - I"d secured one Bounty chip so it wasn"t a total wipe, and I felt as though I played well enough to have gone deeper but it wasn"t to be.

Tuesday 24th - Gala Teesside £30FO. 80+ runners. Go to final table with chip lead and insta-reduce field to 8 and increase chip lead to have something like 35% of chips in play. Lose chunk getting all in pre with 99 vs 88. Hit set on flop, runner runner straight reduces my lead as do a few positional raises running into shoves and reshoves. Then A10s on the button runs into KK  and 6th for £150

Wednesday 1 Feb - Aspers Northampton £20FO, Antes only tournament. Interesting experience this. I don"t think anyone in the tournament had played the format before and it took some adjusting to the idea that we would be playing a lot of flops 8-handed or more. No major highlights, other than the deal three ways where we split the prize fund leaving a chunk for 1st which meant that my win was worth more than the original top prize. Only £240, but a win"s a win.

Saturday 4th Feb - DTD £500 Deepstack. I satellited into this from a E4.40 feeder. Started badly with a misjudged bluff on the river of an AxxAx board. I only get called by someone with an A, but it should have been obvious that that was exactly what the lady in question had. Rebuilt the stack to something above average chips and felt fairly at home. Sadly I ran into a rivered full house where the river card completed my straight and instead of flat calling the river bet I opted to raise and then to call his reraise. A few hands later I played a hand that I"m still kind of unsure about, but suffice to say that my turn shove got called and although I wasn"t drawing dead on the river I didn"t hit either of my overcards and was out.
Saturday 4th Feb - DTD £50FO. I was out of the deepstack just in time to register for the SuperFifty with around 10 mins to spare. Apart from being totally owned by Tina Bandyle at the final table I had a good run and finished 5th for £660. The atmosphere in DTD that night was amazing - it was the snowy weekend and the team there just did everything they could for people. Lots were stuck there - no taxis running at all and hard for the locals even to drive away. So they put on an extra midnight tourney for those who didn"t want to play cash.

Sunday 5th Feb. DTD £150FO - two entries. The first ended early in a funky hand where three of us got all in on the low flop with JJ (shoved first), KK (me) and AA (winner). The second? Meh, I"ve erased all memory of it. I just donked it off I think.
Sunday 5th Feb DTD £15FO - had a proper stack pretty early on then lost a chunk with KK vs QJs (he 4bet shoved because "it"s the best hand I"ve seen since we sat down" and obv rivered the straight). Moved tables shortly after and ran into someone who couldn"t fold his big blind to the "new guy at the table" and flopped two pair with J2off.

had a little break for a week after the DTD trip

Tuesday 14th Feb - G Stockton £10+£10+£10 2nd to the Stockton Fossil. £120 i think. No major highlights other than a flopped set in the BB vs an aggressive SB which gave me a very useful double-up 4 handed with three paid.


Wednesday 22nd Aspers Newcastle £10 i re-entry (taken) - this was the tournament that finally started this blog. 4th for a massive £40.

Sunday 26th Feb Gala Teesside £75 +£25. Roller coaster ride which went up with 77 all in pre vs 66 and down (and out) with AK vs 10 10 (in the hands of a serial raiser - why do they always seem to have it when I shove...)

Wednesday 7th March - Gentings Newcastle £0+£10+£10. Winner £280

Sunday 11th March - G Casino Stockton. £15+£15. 1st for £190. Only 13 runners but a win"s a win. Got a touch lucky midway through to get a dominant stack and from there on in it was pretty much plain sailing.


So - buyin < =£50 I"m doing pretty well

buyin £75+... not so good

Have I found my level, or am I just running better in the smaller comps? Why couldn"t I have had all the rungood that I have undoubtedly had in making these results in the DTD £500?

[pokerpops]

The winning streak obviously had to end.

Tuesday night"s tournament at G in Stockton is a £10+£10+£10 and is scheduled to start at 8pm.
The new Cardroom Manager is full of keen and has introduced a 1000 chip addition for registering pre start.
The place will take a lot to get it buzzing properly, but last night there were, for a change, enough players to start on time. Did we?
No - we waited because although we had 10 runners, we thought another two might arrive soon and that way we could start with two tables of six rather than break up a table of ten.
So an 8pm start turned into 8.45 and everybody, including the two we"d waited for got the extra chip...
Add on a break that is scheduled as 20minutes and turned into something well over 30 and nearly an hour has been added onto what should have been no more than a four hour tournament. (It lasted longer, mainly because people tank for ages over simple decisions and self-dealt tables that aren"t dealt by me are sooo slow)
I"m a recreational player, with a job to go to in the morning. I don"t play a lot of midweek tournaments because the size of field and the structure seem designed to produce a late finish. The lack of runners at G is one of it"s attractions for me because it will finish at a time I can handle. The delays began to frustrate me...

All this leads to excuse #1 for donking off my chips at the end. Which I did in spectacular style with a cut-off raise with 95off and a turn shove over a bet where I had virtually zero chance of getting a fold and a one in six chance of making a winning hand.

To be honest, I lost the mood for that tournament last night. I started out ok, but, (and here"s a trend, maybe a leak that needs addressing) I don"t cope well when having built a stack early on I lose a chunk of it being outdrawn. I"m fine when I lose some through my aggression running into legitimate hands. That"s the way it is sometimes. But when I get outdrawn by someone having sucked them into a hand with them having the worst of it... that seems to knock me off my game.

I was dealing too, which is fine when things are going along nicely, but it does mean that I can"t adopt one of my coping strategies for such situations which is to put the headphones on and listen to some music. I have loads on my ipod, and some more on my phone, but for poker I pretty much only listen to Arcade Fire with occasional bursts of The Hurts, Florence & the Machine and, when I"m just using the music to drown out the drivel The Stones.

So - a loss last night, but maybe a lesson learnt. There will always be losses, but I don"t need to make them happen!

[pokerpops]

So it turns out that winning the Wednesday afternoon game at Gentings qualified me to play in the League Final with £2,000 added on Saturday last.
Same structure, 3,000 starting stack with 2 x £10 rebuy/addons (5,000 each) which can be taken whenever you choose up to the first break (end of level 4)

I travelled with some confidence given my recent run and had a whirlwind start.
Hand 2, blinds 25/50, I"m utg+1 and have AhAd
I raise to 200 over a limper
utg+2 3bets to 400
fold, fold, fold and cut off, a very nice lady of around my age looks at me, looks at the 3better and goes all in.
I"m not sure she even does that with KK, so I call, as does utg+2 - he has KK and we avoid all the nasty boards to split the pot.

Hand 4 - I have QQ in the big blind, 4 limpers so I raise to 275 and only the sb calls.
Flop K high with two hearts he check/calls 425
Turn blank chk/chk
River blank - no flush no reasonable chance of a straight and he shoves the last 1050 of his first stack...
I call and am good
Hand 6 - I raise J9o from the button and get one caller
I bet the J high flop he calls
I bet the blank turn, he calls
I bet the river he folds
The table consensus is that I have to have two pair or a set. I say nothing.

Within an orbit I"ve built my 3k into 8k+.
It goes wrong for a while - a touch of misfortune mainly. Nothing much I think I need to change, and nothing that changing my play would have avoided and my first stack goes all in with a flopped two pair and gutshot vs a flopped straight. No help on turn or river and I invest the £20 on a fresh 10k stack.

Approaching the break and I"m down to about 7k when three hands in succession seal my fate..
I raise A10 suited from utg, two callers and the flop is KQJ
I bet, utg+1 (still the same guy who had KK in the second hand) shoves...
the other caller agonises and folds, I call and hold aganist his 9 10 and now have 18k...

I then have a hand which I"m not convinced I played well and will post on the Academy for the usual abuse which results in me shoving JJ from the SB over an early raiser and not holding v KQ...

ah well - it was fun though.

[pokerpops]

How to butcher a hand and be eliminated from a Tournament in two easy steps...

This is the hand that I asked for comments on in the Strategy Board.

Casino League Final £0+£10+£10 - £2,000 added. 60 runners

Level 4 150/300



Three limpers to my BB I raise QQ to 1050
Two callers inc SB

Stacks
MP - 7k. He"s been at the table from the start. Passive, called two streets and folded river a few times...
SB - 15k. Youngish female, joined the game late and sat down with the full 13k stack. No reads really other than she"s a regular...

Me - 18k. I"m probably the most active player on the table

Flop 764hh
sb checks

I have a moment of folly, prompted by the sudden feeling that, having just picked up a bundle of chips flopping broadway vs the lower straight (and having dodged a huge bullet by the other player in that hand having folded KJ for a flopped 2pair which would have filled up on the turn...)
I look at the flop and just dump 7x1,000 chips into the middle. Don"t ask what I was thinking because I truly have no idea.

I compound the error when the SB jams

First, I"ve started the hand with a misread of her stack - I had her on around 9k when in reality she has two 5,000 chips at the bottom of her stack not the one I thought she had
Second, I don"t pause to think - I just snap call, after all, I"ve got QQ, how can I be behind?

Obviously she has a set and obviously I don"t hit a saving Queen.

Such a huge wakeup call. I lost concentration for a moment when I needed it most. I paid the maximum price for that lapse.

As it happens, if I play the hand better I probably still lose a chunk, just not quite such a big chunk. The JJ in the next hand then costs me another chunk and maybe I leave the tournament bemoaning my luck and not my appalling play.