Pokerpops ponders poker

[pokerpops]

for the few that are interested in my progress this weekend I now have a tw*tter account

amospokerpops

I am somewhat ashamed of myself tbh since this is one of my favourite t-shirts



I"ll be wearing it at some stage this weekend and reminding myself of that strapline

[pokerpops]

a dull day"s poker

Not a lot happened - a succession of small pots won and slightly larger pots lost - my tens beaten on the river by Captain Calling Station who rivered a jack having limped in with J7.
This was the third hand in a row where I had had a hand worthy of a raise, the two previous had resulted in small wins AQ and JJ both winning the pot with a c-bet. Tens utg and I opted to limp with the intention of 3betting most raises. None came, my bad.
My stack dwindled down to under 20,000 when I picked up fours in mid position and called a small raise.
Q 2 4 rainbow flop is bet by the original raiser, I flat as does one other. 4 on turn - happy days - bet again, I flat and the other player folds
8 river, I push my stack over the line and he snap calls - he declared a set, which seems likely to have been twos...

I go back to being card dead until the Captain raises again and I find   and 3 bet. he flats.
Flop 6 8 10 two spades, I lead, he raises, I shove and he calls with   ... A on turn and I"m dead to a non spade Q which fails to arrive and I"m off to arrange to use my second satellite win for a re-entry.

The pattern is repeated,  I don"t feel as though I played particularly well for long spells of this - too much calling of raises pre and folding on flop or, worse, calling flop and folding turn/river
I get fours again and again the flop is Q 2 4 this time with two hearts. I lead for 3/4 pot and get one caller.
Turn is another heart which we both check and I find myself calling a river bet just knowing that I"m behind 8 or 9 times out of 10. This was one of those times

Eventually I get a table move and am two seats to the left of cambridgeAlex of Blonde fame. Alex Goulder, winner of the Monte Carlo last year and a good winning cash and tourney player.
I love the chance to tangle with these guys and he"s raising my big blind pretty much 100% when it"s folded to him.
Eventually I make a stand and 3bet (with   ), he flats. that wasn"t in the plan.
Flop is   and I bet 4800 into c 6000. he calls. That definitely wasn"t in the plan.
Turn is   and I bet 10000. He deliberates for a while and eventually folds. That was in the plan, although I think I was probably ahead.
My stack is pretty static, I win a pot or two, give up my blinds win a pot, lose a pot, it"s just nothingness.
I 3bet   and donk shove a 9 high flop to get me back up to around 2/3 average stack and c 25BB and then...
My big blind again.
Alex raises again - to 2500 at 600/1200/200
I make it 6500 with  
he shoves, covering me, and I call
he holds  
The board runs out with four hearts to give him the flush....

somedays you hold, other days you don"t

this was an "other" day

Overall, I played below my standard today. Lost far too many chips unnecessarily, failed to press home the advantage too often. I felt less than confident and less than capable. I wish I knew why - there were spots throughout the day where I know that on a better day I"d have taken the pot with a confident second barrel, but today wasn"t a better day.

I will return. Better for the experience. I take heart from the fact that I got it in with very much the best of it. But I really need to not dribble chips away in bad spots.

[pokerpops]

I had a week off poker following the DTD trip - partly through feeling not right for the game but mostly because I was going to be away last weekend at Wychwood Festival - four days of wind, rain, sunshine, camping and music. Surrounded by my immediate family. Wife; two daughters; one son-in-law; one granddaughter; four grandsons.
It was marvellous. Once we"d got through the worst of the weather on Thursday / Friday it got a lot easier and by Sunday the sun was shining and we were able to pack away the tents totally dry and ready for their next outing.

Wychwood is very much a family festival - lots of activities for the youngsters and music for those old enough to be parents, or indeed grandparents. Main Stage acts included James, Hawkwind, The Saw Doctors and Dr & The Medics.
The latter put on a tremendous high energy set filled with cover versions of everything from I Fought the Law, through Proud Mary to Spirit in the Sky. Showmen, every last one of them.

I returned to the felt last night in the G £10+£10+£10.
A young lad, student type, never seen him before tooke the first two pots and showed his bluff on both occasions
he won the first sizable pot of the night too with a river check raise all in vs the pre flop aggressor who had flopped a flush draw, turned the OESD and bricked the river. I wondered at the time if this was a sick read or just spew

Turned out it was spew - he raise folded a lot after that and opted not to take his rebuys when he bust out. It"s a sign that I"m not in the best of form that despite my winning  significant chunks of his chips, and administering the coup de grace I can"t recall a single hand vs him.

I chipped up ok and then got stuck with FatBoyStu to my left - this generally doesn"t bother me but last night he was an utter cardrack for the duration of his stay at my table. Hoovering up chips from all and sundry.

I bust out with a moment of pure "Old David" spew that I am still cringing about. I raised A3ss from UTG and got two callers. When the flop came J high and the BB checked I open shipped my last 11000 and was called by AJ and JJ...

I can usually take some solace from the cash table at G but even that was denied me last night.
KK in the straddle was enough to repop the opening raise of £3.50 to £11.50.
1 caller and a 10 high flop I bet £15 and get a call
Blank turn, I bet £25 and get another call. There are two spades on the board now and I am resolved to ship the last £50 on any non spade, non ace river.

FML - Ace on the river - my opponent pretty much always has an ace here and I check wondering how much it might cost me to confirm that belief.
he checks behind and turns over AK to claim the pot...
I should leave at that point but stubborn belief in something kept me at the table until I"d donked the rest of the stack into the same guy"s pockets when he limp reraised from EP with AA for the second time in under an hour...

I may take a short break from live poker - the G game finishes late and even the Sunday tournament which starts at 6pm seems to go on forever. Mainly due to the continued propensity of people to fold their big blind with 3 BB left.
Antes needed I think.

A run at the DTD satellites calls, and a look at the UKIPT Newcastle satellites on Stars.

[pokerpops]

So, my short break from live poker didn"t last long... last night I was to be found at the G playing the £15+£15. In my defence I played mostly because my daughter wanted to play.

I arrived late having watched the Olympic Torch as it passed through Stockton. If you have the chance, do get along and see it. It"s over very quickly after a long build up, a bit like ...

Anyway - A few hands into the tournament and I decide to raise from mid-position with   (virtually suited). We were playing with the away strip chips due to the 2day £100 tourney still being in play and I mistakenly raised to 1025 (note to self - verbalise raises!)
I get one caller and a flop of     - I ship the rest of my stack c 4500 expecting to get a fold and instead I get a call from   and daughter dear turns him a K. "CHIPS PLEASE"

From there to the final table I play snug and smart and we get to 10 handed with me as one of the 3 big stacks (all is relative, I had 45,000 at 800/1600).
AJ is good enough to make it 3700 pre from UTG+1, one caller and a shove from a shortstack with 6000.
I hadn"t noticed the call from one of the other big stacks and flat called the shove, as did the random...
Jack high flop, J53 to be precise - happy days - I announce all in and get a call from Mr Bink with 45.
4 on the turn
50p in the box

Luckily the cash table was more generous and included a flopped set from which I extracted good value vs one of the local "pros"

Comedic moment of the night was when one of the Gala regulars who had apparently sat at this 25p/50p table earlier with £600 and had left for a while to "blow it on roulette" returned to the table and emptied his cap of chips and announced he was playing £6500 - having £175 on a number at roulette can do that for you!

Off to London on wednesday for a day trip - if time permits I may have a look at the Vic just to see what it"s all about.

[pokerpops]

So, I spent last Wednesday here


The Royal Chelsea Hospital, home of the famous Chelsea Pensioners


Dad"s 86 soon and having had a triple bypass op two years ago and recovered very well from it he decided that he wants to up sticks from his home town and spend the rest of his days as a Chelsea Pensioner.
It"s not a bad life, they get a room of their own; activities from bowls to courses on IT and more; three meals a day and the chance to attend all sorts of functions. From the Remembrance Service at The Albert Hall and the parade at The Cenotaph to a free trip to Ascot or the Cup Final. Wearing that famous Scarlet Coat they add something to whichever event they attend.
We"re waiting for the confirmation but it seems that he has secured his place.
I"ve recovered from the shock and having been down whilst he was on his Four Day Visit which is designed to establish both his suitaility and to allow him to be sure he"ll be happy there I"m convinced this is a good move for him.

All I have to do now is assist with the move and take charge of the clearance of his current bungalow. Anyone know of any charities in Northampton that would want secondhand furniture??

I made two other visits after I left him, one here

The cardroom at The Vic.
This wasn"t a happy experience with my flopped two pair meeting a straight for most of a buy in and my AJhh not finding the fifth heart on a 33xhh flop for a chunk of the second bullet.

Happily my car turned the right way out of the station car park back in Northampton and the gods allowed me a parking space where I wanted one to encourage me to visit Aspers Northampton

where I enjoyed a 5 buy in profit at the rate of one an hour. Despite having my aces cracked by 84.

[pokerpops]

Sunday Night at the G

£15 + 1rb/addon - the first £15 gets you 5,000 chips, the second gets you 10,000.
I registered in the second level and cruised to the end of the rebuy period with a steady accumulation of chips, assisted by one marginal spot where I made an error in c-betting a Q high flop holding AK. Facing an allin I made the call, cursing myself for having made the bet and putting my opponent on no better than a pair with a flush draw and figuring that as long as I wasn"t drawing dead I pretty much had no choice  (in fact he had a pair and backdoor flush/straight draws) and hit the K on the river.
At the second break I had double the average chips and had it not been for the fact that the addon is double value and there was one player at the table who had a similar stack I might not have taken it.
It continued to go smoothly, with Dr Donk donating his stack to me by calling my preflop raise with   and shoving the turn on   when I held  
And then...
From monster to out in three simple steps.
AK < JJ
AK < Q9
88 < AK

#embracethevariance

It"s a really good tournament this one - the structure allows for plenty of play right up to the final table and with the earlier start (6pm rather than midweek"s 8pm) I think it may be my only game most weeks because now that the midweek games get more runners a deep run means a 2am or later finish. I"m getting too old to do that and still get up at 7am.

[pokerpops]

Seriously?

This in a $15 buyin game

50p doesn"t seem enough

http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $250(BB) Pacific Game#396944446

nikkib8 ($8,489)
tpturner ($7,095)
theblackfox ($3,530)
itzpayday ($9,325)
pokerpops ($4,205)
dizzdd ($4,815)
kmacak ($8,398)
thesundancek ($5,283)
chatisoff ($12,530)

pokerpops antes $25
dizzdd antes $25
kmacak antes $25
thesundancek antes $25
chatisoff antes $25
nikkib8 antes $25
tpturner antes $25
theblackfox antes $25
itzpayday antes $25
nikkib8 posts (SB) $125
tpturner posts (BB) $250

Dealt to pokerpops  As  
theblackfox raises to $500
fold,
pokerpops raises to $1,075
fold, fold, fold,
chatisoff calls $1,075
nikkib8 calls $950
fold,
theblackfox raises to $1,650
pokerpops raises to $4,180 (AI)
fold,
nikkib8 calls $3,105
theblackfox calls $1,855 (AI)
FLOP ($13,415) Th      
TURN ($13,415) Th        
RIVER ($13,415) Th          
pokerpops shows  As  
(Pre 49%, Flop 24.7%, Turn 11.9%)

nikkib8 shows    
(Pre 19%, Flop 4.3%, Turn 9.5%)

theblackfox shows Td    
(Pre 32%, Flop 71.0%, Turn 78.6%)

nikkib8 wins $1,350
theblackfox wins $12,065

[Marty719]

http://www.justgiving.com/50pence

[pokerpops]

http://www.justgiving.com/50pence

I"m saving them up till I can donate a tenner... how much is this one worth would you think?

http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $150(BB) Pacific Game#239349149

grek549 ($8,414)
kotofeyich ($1,070)
jaclucy ($7,775)
prb31 ($1,625)
spartanking5 ($4,386)
belle91 ($2,000)
voronezh_323 ($3,200)
pokerpops ($4,425)
matin3185 ($3,700)

grek549 posts (SB) $75
kotofeyich posts (BB) $150

Dealt to pokerpops As    
jaclucy raises to $300
fold, fold, fold,
voronezh_323 calls $300
pokerpops raises to $900
matin3185 raises to $3,700 (AI)
fold, fold,
jaclucy calls $3,400
voronezh_323 calls $2,900 (AI)
pokerpops raises to $4,425 (AI)
jaclucy calls $725
FLOP ($15,975)      
TURN ($15,975)        
RIVER ($15,975)          
jaclucy shows Td  Tc  
(Pre 2%, Flop 7.9%, Turn 6.3%)

voronezh_323 shows    
(Pre 13%, Flop 36.8%, Turn 22.5%)

pokerpops shows As    
(Pre 82%, Flop 47.4%, Turn 65.0%)

matin3185 shows Th  Ts  
(Pre 2%, Flop 7.9%, Turn 6.3%)

jaclucy wins $8,713
matin3185 wins $7,262

[Erimus]

You should stop hitting sets, seem to recall some fish doing a similar thing Sunday night  .

[pokerpops]

You should stop hitting sets, seem to recall some fish doing a similar thing Sunday night  .

lol - indeed

played last night, despite planning not to
entertaining in the extreme
Hand 2, young Luke raises pre, I small 3-bet with K 10o
flop 10 high two spades he bets, I shove
he calls with K6ss and obvioulsy gets there
CHIPS!
Hand 3 there"s a 3way allin (not involving me) and by hand 6 two of us have taken the rb and addon...

It calms down after that (well, calms down a little) and I have a run of cards KK twice, AA twice, AK a few times. I raise 26dd and flop is 345ssx
I get loads of raises and c-bets through and yet, somehow or other, I bubble
4th
FML

to be fair, I donked off a chunk in SB an unraised pot when my 103ss flopped a flush draw and BB shipped behind my check with bottom pair...
I can should fold here but it was 24k to call to burst the bubble, give me c50% of chips in play 3handed and I had 28k back - but there were so many potentially better spots to come where I could take his chips.

after that I went to shov/fold mode. chipped up a bit but eventually random guy (who had earlier 4bet shoved A4ss and cracked AA) called me with K4s - can"t really fault the call given my range, but his "I"ve folded this hand twice to your all in" suggests that he wasn"t putting me on a range....
flopped OESD and bricked

I could should have finished the job last night. I didn"t because I made an expensive mistake late on. That"s happening too often and I need to stop it!

This isn"t in crystal clear HD - but is nonetheless a classic
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYLMTvxOaeE[/youtube]

[pokerpops]

Finally!!

Managed to finish the job in the £15+£15 at G last night.

Three very new players, one is a lifelong friend of Matt Frankland (yeah, I had to ask too, but he"s a big hitter online and has a decent set of live results too). Happily his talents haven"t rubbed off on his friend, his friend"s dad, or his friend"s dad"s mate. Unless his major talent is getting there in unusual ways and then overbetting the pot to let you know he has.

Got very lucky vs Brian "fossil" Harland aka Erimus. Called a small raise from a comfortable stack and picked up a baby flush draw and an OESD. We got it in with him having just the flush draw reducing me to just 6 outs. Happily one of them rolled off on the river.
Later I got even luckier. Although I got a teensy bit unlucky first having AK in late position when one of the youngsters who has only just doubled up to have 14bigs open shoves and flips over AA. No miracles, but it was a minor setback at that stage.
Youngster has lost a few and open shoves utg 6 handed for about 8BBs. UTG+1 overshoves for around 20BB, one fold and back to me with QQ
I call, and here"s the luck...
The player in the seat to my left, with a stack of around 15BB, decides that the action thus far suggests that he"s going to be behind. He folds KK...
On their backs and QQ>JJ>A7cc

Great fold fella

Got heads up pretty quick with a decent chiplead, around 170k - 100k. It evened out a little then I went back into a decent lead until he took a very strange line which ended with him all in on the river of a   board

I rule out the Ace having paired him up, I"m pretty sure he raises any ace pre.
Two pair? Bets weren"t big enough to represent that, given that that would rule out a flush draw for him.
A jack or a ten? Maybe, but it felt like a missed flush draw so I made the call with   . He instantly announced "good call" and showed   for absolute air. Much respect to him, and maybe I"m just not good enough to understand what he was repping.

A win and now it"s a week till my Day1 of the DTD Grand Prix. Maybe I"m beginning a run of runnning good again?

[pokerpops]

Rungood vanished on Sunday.
As did, it seems, my playing ability. I had a lot on my mind on the day having driven to Northampton to get the car loaded up with the stuff Dad wanted to take with him at the start of his new life.
No excuses though - I just played badly and ran into a lot of people making hands. I raise QQ get two callers and a 10 10 8 flop which one of the callers donks out on...
At the last hand before the first break utg raises and I have around 4000 left which I shove with   , he calls with 99 and I bink a 10 first card out and hold.
After the break I am card and spot dead and eventually I get to shoving over an utg raise with   and get snap called by the mighty   which holds

So I fire a second bullet (did I mention I won three Golden Chips?) and try again. Re-entering late in level 5 I have some successes but eventually I find   and shove over an ep raise
he snap calls with the mighty   and obviously an Ace arrives on the turn. well, it meant I was back at Dad"s by 1am and got a whole five and a half hours of sleep before driving to London and shifting all the stuff into his berth.

I decided to take my third and final attempt on Tuesday and it all went much better.
Ran golden - second or third hand I played having arrived about 5 minutes in I raise JJ and flop a set, I check, he bets, I call. Blank turn, I check, as does he, river is another blank and I pick up 2200 in chips but drop a single 100 momentarily before the other three chips. Nobbish opponent cries "string bet" and the ruling goes against me so he gets to call and see the total strength of my hand for just 100. Not happy with the ruling although he claimed he would have folded to the full 2200 so I made 100 extra..
Knocked him out a while later when I raised   to 900 at 200/400/25 and he shoved for another 2225 with J 10,
the board ran out   to give me my first live Royal Flush.
Raised AJ and saw a flop of JAJ vs someone who had KJ and paid me a full double up. Chk/chk flop, I led turn, he raised I 3bet he called and then called my river shove for about 60% pot.
Called a raise with 89 and flopped a pair, turned trips, rivered quads and having called a bet on the flop I led the turn and river and got paid
Have posted a hand on the analysis board from late on and will save stop with the boring stuff and cut to the end result
I survived to Day 2 as 5th stack from the night with 143000. Back on Saturday at 2500/5000/500

[pokerpops]

1873 entries, probably c1500 players, 11 left...

3pm, my ante of 10,000 and big blind of 80,000 will leave me with 520,000
It"s all complicated by my view on the value of the Golden Chip and a reluctance generally to ladder.

I suspect that by 3.10 I"ll either be out, or have a more usable stack

[duke3016]

1873 entries, probably c1500 players, 11 left...

3pm, my ante of 10,000 and big blind of 80,000 will leave me with 520,000
It"s all complicated by my view on the value of the Golden Chip and a reluctance generally to ladder.

I suspect that by 3.10 I"ll either be out, or have a more usable stack

GL GL GL Today