swinebag's blog - proof that teachers have too much time on their hands!!

[Swinebag]

Now I always rate myself as a bit of a luckbox.

I"m sure I"m not one really. I think the difference between a luckbox and an unlucky player is just mindset.

I always try and play my best, but I tend to forget bad beats very quickly and revel in suckouts (as long as I didn"t do anything too wrong in the hand).

Self perceived unlucky players are of course the opposite.

No poker tonight. Am off to the "Frog and bucket" in town to see a few comedians. Now this should be much funnier than watching me play poker.

AND CERTAINLY NO DRUNKEN POKER WHEN I GET BACK.

[Swinebag]

No drunk poker last night, but an upturn in fortunes today. Stopped the rot in the STTs with a second and played a 182 man MTT, finishing 5th for $221.

Really looking forward to the APAT national league tonight. Manchester look pretty well equipped, but amazingly there are over 350 players signed up for the first night.

Well done Des for coming up with something that has created great interest and can only grow into something massive for Season 4

[Swinebag]

The first leg of the national league was a massive success IMO. I"m sure Des will look at the structure here so that the game can last about 4 hours rather than the three we had tonight. After a host of early casualties, Manchester rallied well to take 10th and 5th which thanks to Leeds dominance was enough to give us 1 point. On another night we will have to do better if we are to score again.

[Swinebag]

I"m going on a self imposed poker drought before the first national on saturday. The reason is nothing to do with running bad, bad beats, cold decks or life tilt though. Our school is doing its annual production (Honk) and being such a talented individual, I am taking part.

I"ll be the one moving the sofa off the stage when the lights go down at the end of Act 2 scene 1

[Swinebag]

I"m going on a self imposed poker drought before the first national on saturday. The reason is nothing to do with running bad, bad beats, cold decks or life tilt though. Our school is doing its annual production (Honk) and being such a talented individual, I am taking part.

I"ll be the one moving the sofa off the stage when the lights go down at the end of Act 2 scene 1

I"ve found someone else to do this for me been sacked, so my poker career is resurrected.

A great night at STTs and have nearly turned around the bad run from the weekend. Played in the GUKPT league game and the GCUK forum league game, finishing nowhere in them though.

If I can find the time, I"m going to play a few deepstacks on Poker.co.uk as a way of some sort of practise for the weekend. I"ll also try a pub game tomorrow just for a bit of human interaction at the felt.

Have not played a deepstack live event since september so the poker juices are flowing with anticipation with saturday just around the corner.

[Swinebag]

played a few deepstacks online last night. I cant ever remember being so card dead in 2 tournaments running simultaneously for so long. Dont get me wrong, I"m not the sort of player who sits patiently waiting for Aces, but a premium hand or 2 would have been nice.

In the 3.5K euro deepstack on Poker.co.uk I finished 80th out of 240 after 2 hours. My best hand dealt to me was JJ in LP where I called an EP raiser. I was pleased that i managed to lose the minimum as the board brought no overcards and a cheap showdown revealed the EP raiser to have QQ. I also had AQ in MP v a LP caller on a A hi flop. Again I managed to lose the minimum when I ran into AK. The rest of the time it was blind stealing and restealing to try and maintain a stack. I eventually found a hand to shove with A9s OTB but was felted when the SB had KK. Some crazy play in this tourney so was happy to get as far as I did and only had my tourney on the line in the last hand.

Also played the 10K GTD on stars (1 rebuy 1 addon) which was a bit naughty as I shouldn"t be shelling out $62 on a tourney. I wanted to play this though as there were only 550 runners (as opposed to the 3000+ you get in some other stars tourneys). I didn"t take the rebuy because It was only a single rebuy and i didn"t want to bust before the end but took the add on making it a deepstack after the break. Again I was pleased with my play but exasperated at my lack of premium hands. My best starting hand was QQ which I had in the BB v a well chipped EP raiser. Wanting to keep the pot small OOP I just called. The flop A hi flop with 3 club (no club for me) killed the action but my queens were good. My next best hand was 88 which flopped a set but no big pot. Other than a 2 AKs (one which which missed and was folded to BB raise on the flop - the other failing to take out a short stacks AJ), I didn"t have any other premium hands. I resorted to playing position and raising with junk which kept me in the tourney for 3 hours. I eventually went in about 200th from 550, when short stacked I shoved K9 from MP and was called by the BB with AJ. No outdraw so goodbye. Again I only had my tourney on the line for the last hand, which is very unlike me!!

So I feel well prepared now for sunday (and saturday too of course). I will hopefully have the mental strength to cope with being card dead. Though, if things are to even them selves out, I fully expect to be a complete cardracking luckbox!!

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the felt and/or bar

[Santino67]

Know how you feel about being card dead. I played in a live Omaha game last night, got down to 11 players short stacked. Blinds went up to 400/800 & i had just over 4k left..........then went 8 hands without seeing a single face card or anything remotely like suited connectors   Ended up pushing my last 3k with a suited ace in my hand I was so desperate  

[duke3016]

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the felt and/or bar

I"ll buy the first one if you don"t outdraw me again

[Swinebag]

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the felt and/or bar

I"ll buy the first one if you don"t outdraw me again or I"ll sulk for 3 months if you do

FYP

[duke3016]

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the felt and/or bar

I"ll buy the first one if you don"t outdraw me again or I"ll sulk for 3 months if you do

FYP

Three months -- do you really know how long I can sulk for -- it"s legendary

[Swinebag]

Had a great time at the UK champs that is basically split into 5 parts
1) the main event
2) the side event
3) the cash table
4) the sit and go
5) other stuff!!

[Swinebag]

Had a great time at the UK champs that is basically split into 5 parts
1) the main event
2) the side event
3) the cash table
4) the sit and go
5) other stuff!!

I was really pleased with my draw. There were a lot of players I was looking to avoid and managed to do this. I did have Steve Redfern to my right which was great because I knew he"d spew his chips in my direction by the end of the second level (My reads were solid ). The rest of the table seemed pretty solid and tight which bade well for some grand larceny. I did have suzanne to my left and I knew she had bubbled the FT at the vic last year so was not going to mess around with her OOP.

I was determined to play as many hands as possible to try and project a loose image, whilst at the same time making sure that I did this with the minimum risk. So I was calling raises in position and avoided 3 betting so I could play loads of flops in position for small pots. This was working pretty well at first and I showed down some weak losing hands (A6s chasing a straight certainly had Steve looking at me like I had cracked up). The real trouble was 3 fold though.

1. I got too many playable hands. I had a lot of premiums as well as SCs, small pairs and Ax suited, and must have been playing on average 3 hands an orbit or higher. One adjustment I will make will be the Ax suited. I kept getting this in EP and open raising when I should have really mucked them. If I had been card dead (which I wasn"t) then playing them would have been ok.

2. I must have been giving off some serious tellage. Every time I had the goods I got no action. I had aces then a set that didn"t get any value. I also flopped a straight that got nowhere. Most times I c bet with nothing I was batted back

3. Cold decked?? or maybe not (cant decide here). I had QQ v KK on a board of undercards. I had AQ v AK on a A hi board. I had A3 (yuk) v AK with 2 aces on board. Each time I had people betting into me so took the passive route feeling that I had lost the minimum. I"m sure that last year I"d have been busted even earlier than I did.

My stack got as low as 2750 in the second level. I was able to recover to 5900 by the first break and then it slowly dribbled away back to 3K (where I should have really been playing more conservitavely at this point). My exit came when a LP raiser made it 800 (blinds 100/200) and I found 88 in the SB. I shoved hoping for a flip or maybe a lower pair which was in this guys LP raising range. Sadly, I got the top end of his range and he flipped KK (for the third time I think) no help for me and I was busto!!

So an early exit in the first national. I had a 10 minute sulk then had a few beers so was fine. I was actually reasonably happy with the way I played and on another day I could have had a nice stack to dominate the table with, but it was not to be....

[lukybugur]

I look forward to reading your report on 4) the Sit n Go  

I think the most impressive bit about 1) - 4) was that you managed to fit them all into 16 hours!  

[AMRN]

I did have Steve Redfern to my right which was great because I knew he"d spew his chips in my direction by the end of the second level (My reads were solid ).

HMMMMMMM  Don"t remember too much spewage in that direction

[Swinebag]

Had a great time at the UK champs that is basically split into 5 parts
1) the main event
2) the side event
3) the cash table
4) the sit and go
5) other stuff!!

This was advertised as a £20 deepstack. It had £5.50 juice so I asked the if it was dealer or self dealt. The cashier said "We hope to run it dealer dealt" so I bought in. The tourney started a staggering 50 mins late due mainly to the main event taking up too much space, but also to locals turning up late to find a load of busted APATers had taken over their tourney.

The tourney was rubbish and sums up why I appreciate APAT so much. 10K chips first level 25/50 then 50/100 then 100/200 then 200/400 and 20 min levels. So more a "lots of chips to start with then a crapshoot" than a Deepstack. Still not too bad a tourney by Casino standards. The tourney was also self dealt (cant believe I fell for that!!) up to the final table. So the casino made very little effort to make this dealer dealt. A bit of a rip of when you are paying 27.5% juice!!

My tourney ended early and to be honest I was not in the right frame of mind to play it correctly. I had already decided that tight was the only way to go here. Most hands went limp UTG, limp UTG +1 limp limp limp then button raises 6X BB and its call call call call call call call. I only really played 2 hands in anger. TT in MP where I put in a big raise and found one caller. Woop woop, a heads up hand!! All under cards. I led out and was raised for half my stack. I was against the dealer who looked a decent player so decided to fold.

My exit hand came at the 100/200 level i had 8K by now and was dealt AKs in MP. after 2 limps I made it 1500 to go and both limpers called (just LOL) The board came K J 5 rainbow. One of the limpers led out for 1500 into the 4800 pot, the other one folded and it was back to me. I probably should have called here but I had decided when I saw my cards that if I hit with this then I was going for the double up. I shoved knowing that a better hand was only probably calling me and  UTG limper called flipping his KJo, no Ace nh gg gl......sigh