Wherever I lay my hat - as long as its Vegas

[duncthehat]

I AM A LOSING PLAYER AND I SUCK AT NLH

There thats out in the open.  No need for a discussion.

I love poker, I love playing it, I love the competiveness, the strategy, the chat, the banter.   And playing poker cured my addiction to the gee gees and sports betting.

And I am hooked on poker in vegas which can be damn expensive if you are a fish!!.  I am hooked on Vegas in June - WSOP time.  now that can be really expensive!!!

I dont do twitter and use facebook to lurk more than contribute.    But the one thing i do regret is not writing down events of the past.  My short term memory is poor so I thought this year what the hell lets do a blog/diary.   I  hope i dont bore you all to death.  Half the reason I am doing it is for memories for me in the future:

So a little about me as I am only intermittent on the APAT scene these days.

I was there at the beginning.  Season 1.   Daniel winning that first event and becoming an APAT God (sic).   Think it was what 2007 maybe or 2006 I am not sure.  Hadnt played Poker for some 15 years and then it was in dodgy dark backrooms against Asians and Germans in the heart of the reeperbahn in Hamburg.

I played real ABC then and ended up Final tabling in Cardiff and Edinburgh.  Dreams of being the next big thing and all that.   And it was downhill from there!!

I love the mixed games, its where I find I do have an edge and am a winning player.  I love Horse Razz Stud PLO and Limit hold em cash.  My bucket list consisted of 1 item.  Play the WSOP.  I am a realist $10000 is above my paygrade but hey 1500, no that is do able.

So 2010 I pencilled in Vegas.  My best mate a one time top pro pre moneymaker era, who had been off the circuit for 10 years said he would have a trip out too and all was getting booked.   Then my Dad died...............

Move forward a year we managed to do the trip.  Once in a lifetime I said to the wife (2014 will be my fourth trip!!) One WSOP bullet for the 1500 Horse.

I loved it, I was hooked.   Great table  Bonomo Zolotow Dwan Gavin Smith  (not all at the same time).   Out of my depth ermmmmmmmm???.

Bonomo plays Limit like its No limit.    My first scalp.   Dwan..... 2 down.    Zolotow behaves like an idiot in his Full Tilt shirt and Gavin Smith chips up as do I.   I love it.  The sweaty palms of the first hour go.  The chip handling returns.   A great looking railbird mistakes me for someone famous and asks for a photo..........  life is good.    And then I am bagging chips. 120 players left. 90 get payed. Day 2 dawns.  14000 Chips Amazon Room Seat 4 Table... Duncan Hodgkins Estonia.

WTF?

Seated right next to the stage with the feature table.  Day 2 is tight and tough.     Not so many internet kids left now.    Average age of the table is definitely nearer the 40 mark!!   I am short stacked but pick your moment dunc and you can double up.   Dont risk the Hold em round wait for the Stud games. 

95 left.  Bursting for a pee.  10 minutes to break and the massive queues for the toilet.  go now be quick maybe miss 2 hands.   Run down the corridor.  Piss, wash hands, run back...... Stud 8,       raise..................

[Erimus]

Nice start, makes my tales from the 15/15 at the G even more trivial, more please. We do have a runner up of a bracelet event from a few years ago grace our local tables every now and then,  love him at the tables actually, can"t fold, pleasant bloke though.

One of the reasons I started the blog was to remember my first visit to Vegas still read the first few pages, happy times.

[duncthehat]

  ............

                   Up against 2 players .    Looking like a scoop!!!    

Time to leave.  Short of the money.   My shot is over.   This once in a lifetime dream for this £50 Club player is over......

Back to wheeling and dealing in the recession hit antique trade.   Online sales are down.  Earnings down

Back in the UK it really hits me.    After planning a Vegas trip for nearly 18 months there is now an empty void.   Its nearly 2 hours to DTD best part of an hour to birmingham or coventry.   I cant motivate myself to play.   I slump into a depression.  I had focused 18 months on building up a bank roll / spending money to play in Vegas.  I bought half the roll back.  Back in the UK its NLH or nothing except for the APAT mixed games.  I play the Goliath in Coventry do crap and dont play again live until 2012.

Start reading the vegas forums.   The vegas news channel.  Start looking at hotel rates.   Then the 2012 Schedule comes out.   I find myself on the Virgin Atlantic Web site.

I phone my mate up. "Ive booked my flight"

[duncthehat]

2012 Vegas During the WSOP

I.m back.   Old hand now lol.  Point to prove to myself.   Convinced my mixed game is good enough to play the best.  2 WSOP Bullets this year.   1500 Horse and 1500 Stud 8.   But money tight and i need to satellite in.   Maybe some NL Deepstack side events, otherwise its the Nugget and their mixed game series with massive rake.

Trouble with the satelitte system is its mostly Single Table Sats, which is fine BUT its all NL except for the night before a mixed event where they have that mixed games STTs.  So a late night before the Stud 8 and a very late night for the Horse and I have got my tickets for both.

The Stud 8 is tough.  Table full of old timers.  Probably some bracelet winners from the old days but noone I recognise.   There is this one guy, grey beard in his fifties.  He owns me.  Cannot win a hand against him.  Any sign of weakness he pounces.  Look him up at the break.   Tom Schneider 2 Bracelets in 2007.  One in Stud 8 the other in Omaha 8 / Stud 8 mixed.      Try to avoid him as much as possible from then on.  (in 2013 he wins both the 1500 and 5000 Horse.   Possibly the best mixed game player there has ever been)

Can never get going yet I make day 2.  I am a shortie and like the Horse the year before I bust before the money.  I dont feel I played well at all

Onwards and upwards to the Horse.      The Brasilia room this year.   sit down at the table.  Again mostly oldies but a couple of interweb generation lack of social skills kids.   One is Tommy Chen he pretty quickly upsets an oldie but I find him pretty amiable really.  He is in my Big Blind and we hit it off.   The first level is over.  I am up on chips.  Table is beatable.  Seat 8 is empty.  I am in Seat 1.  My main concern is making sure the dealer doesnt nick my cards!!    Then Seat 8 turns up.........    Tom Schneider.       Fuuuuuuuuuuck.    He has already cashed 3 times in the WSOP this year and its only the 13th June.  (He goes on to run deep in this event and cash in another).

He is not going to own me this time!!   He raises nearly every hand in Limit hold em.  This time I fight back.  I am reraising.  I am donk leading out.  He is folding.  Life is good.   Raymer is on the table behind.  big lad!!   Looks a state and smells like ****!!.   He is out pretty quick and fresh air returns to my nose.

Dinner break already.  I am loving it.   Why o why have Horse tournaments never taken off in the UK.  I love em.

My mates John and Danny have left the cash tables and are midway through a Steak dinner.   I dash over to the gold coast for a healthy Chicken Piccan Salad at TGIs.

Our table breaks Tommy and I exchange pleasantries and off I move.     I have double starting chips on 9k which is well above average.   Pretty quickly I am involved in a Razz hand.   I have a made 9 6432 on fifth.   My opponent has a made 10 7432.  bet 2 bet 3 bet.  6th is bricks bet 2 bet 3 bet.   7 on 7th street for a 76 low. He hits a 5 for a 75 low and I am crippled.  He becomes one of chip leaders.  I eye his chips with envy.  They should be mine.   20 minutes later I am out.    I look up later and see he didnt even make the money.   Wasted my chips as well.

Thats my WSOP over.   The trip itself though is a winning trip.  A decent cash at the Aria in a NL tourney!!   12th in the Horse at the Grand Poker Series.   A winning last longer bet with RedSimon in the same Horse tourney which was even sweeter than the cash!! (He did well too coming 15th).   Played 2-4 3-6 and 4-8 limit hold em cash and came out well on top.   $600 at 2-4 limit hold em cash in one hour?   I challenge anyone to beat that.   did help that 7 of the 9 players were new to the game mind   I love the low limit cash tables in vegas at a weekend!!!!!

So 2012 over.   WSOP lifetime :   3 events played.  Zero cashes.     I am still hooked.   Time to plan next year!!

[duncthehat]

This blog is about the future.

I know it has been retrospective so far BUT I have started it to record the run up to Vegas 2014 and then a daily diary whilst I am there.   Something for me to look back on if nothing else.    

My aim is simple:  A deep WSOP run.  Not just a cash but a deep run.  The 1500 Horse is a given.   The Seniors is 3 days after I arrive.   As a 50 year old young un that is a cert this year too.    The 1500 Stud 8 is a day after the Horse and is the back up event if I exit early.

The Grand Poker Series ,  Rio Canivale, Venetian Horse Orleans Horse and at least one tourney at Binions are part of the agenda for the just 2 week stay this year.   The Grand Poker Series starts off with a couple of days of satellites $100 buy ins paying out $1000, so my first 2 days will be there.   As well as playing their Seniors event (I played last year as an underage 49 year old... tut tut)

Its 100 days to go today before I fly.   Will play the APAT Horse and Razz events in April, that will probably be all I play in East London, I dont know for sure.  Otherwise the odd visit to Birmingham and DTD and that will be all live.    

Concentrating online playing almost exclusively mixed games and low limit PLO cash.

And what a week the first week of concentrating more on Poker has been

John came 14th in the Sky UK Poker for £6500.   He is gutted mind.  My fingers ache from pressing refresh on tightys updates!!

And me, well chopped a 11 buck Horse on stars for $180 and chopped the 33 Horse last night for $435, so life is good..........   Nearly £400 up for the week  and tomorrow its only 99 days to go!!.

[duncthehat]

Had a quick look at OPR:

Best make a note as this wont last!!!!:

Duncthehat:  Pokerstars

               Rating        Prizes        ROI          PLAYED  ITM        RANK
Year 2014    96.85%    $848      191%    44       23%    22,605 of 717,205

[redsimon]

Looking forward to reading a non NLHE blog.

Not seen WSOP schedule, have they really got HORSE and Stud 8 overlapping?

See you at APAT WCOAP mixed game tournies hopefully.

[duncthehat]

Hi mate.

Yeah its a real bummer.  The 1500 Horse is on the 12th June and the Stud 8 is the 13th.  Dont know if in reality it will effect the stud field much as by the time it starts the Horse will be down to around 70-90 runners left in.

Cant really afford to play both and the Seniors unless I bink some sats whilst I am there.    Nugget schedule is out as well.   Less Stud variant games this year and more PLO but am there for the start of their series and they are putting  on twice daily 100 dollar satelittes right at the beginning paying out 1 in 10 so hopefully bink a couple of those.

Will catch up with you at the APAT mixed games.  Might even play that new fangled no limit hold em 2 card thingy they are having as the main event.   Will never catch on!!

[fandango]

Nice read so far looking forward to more posts.

[dwh103]

Best of luck Duncan. Am also a lover of the mixed games and the Nugget schedule - I"m not planning on going before the 21st June, but if you"re there at that time I may see you around!

[Swinebag]

Great stuff dunc.

Not fooled by the self deprecation of your NLHE game. I have been on your table a few times now and have never rated you as "easy chips"

You must have good fundamentals to play mixed games successfully so that must extend to the "cadillac"

I would guess you just get bored playing NLHE

Looking forward to reading more

[duncthehat]

So its getting close - 5 weeks till the WSOP, Bag still half packed from last year!!

Didnt get to the Apat Worlds.  First time I have missed them completely.  Well done to Derek on his bracelet for PLO. @oneforusoldies!!

Ended up firing 2 bullets at the DTD Grand Prix which meant I lasted a massive 2 hours!!   Decided against firing a third and dashed down to Hill Street Birmingham for their £3000 guarantee Big O Tourney.

Managed to late reg just in time and was down to 2 big blinds a few minutes later at the add on break.   As I was playing like an idiot decided I wouldnt invest any more money and was prepared to get out of the casino and go home after a poor days poker.   6 hours later I had chopped it for just under £600!!.   Strange thing this game of poker

Having last played live in early March again at Hill Street and again doing a 2 way chop (At that pesky NLH) it is certainly becoming my card room of choice having had 3 results in 4 visits!!.   added bonus that their tournaments are now being added to the hendonmob database.

_________________________________________________________________________

As a few know I have sort of fell out of love with DTD and the Grand Prix did nothing to encourage me to return quickly.   I think Rob and the rest of DTD have done a great job to improve the standard of tournaments in the UK and they continue to push boundaries with their great guarantees and that the huge majority of poker players love the place.   I have nothing but admiration for DTD its just no longer for me.   I am I know in a very very small minority but it is just a personal thing.   I almost find the place too clinical.  I cant just pinpoint what it is, the continous changing of schedule hasnt helped.    I do find the payouts quite flat for example I tend to look and what the odds are for getting a ten fold return on your money.

Here are some examples:  Odd are very approximate!
DTD Grand Prix buy in £60.    Finishing position to get £600 is 15th.  Odds of doing that 190-1  
PLO Big O - Hill Street £57  Finishing position to get £570 3rd - Odds 25-1
WSOP Horse 2013 $1500 Finishing position to get $15000 - 10th Odds 86-1
WSOP Main event 2013 Finishing position to get $100000 - 72nd Odds 88-1

Having chopped the big O i was quite happy to have got knocked out of the grand prix so early

___________________________________________________________________________________________

So this post is droning on a bit, time to look forward to the highlight of the year - Vegas 2014

The schedules are now all out.  The choice of mixed games has dropped again.  Ceasars Poker Room is not having any tournaments (they had a crap structure anyway imo)  The Venetian mixed tournaments last year were poorly attended and they have knocked the limit tournaments on the head.   Nothing for us limit players at the Aria or Wynn either.   Might wander down to Planet hollywood for a small daily as I have never been in the casino.

Thankfully the Nugget is still the mecca for low buy in mixed gamers, albeit they dont help with tax forms on wins over $5000.

The Seniors are well catered for as well so my schedule has been pretty easy to sort out.

my draft schedule, subject to lots of change, lots of making day , plenty of sit and go satelittes and of course the fact I take at least one day off!

4th June - Golden Nugget NLH $115 satelittes
5th June - Golden Nugget NLH $115 satelittes or the $235 Daily Deepstack at the rio
6th June - WSOP NLH $1000 Seniors Event - nice early 10 am start!!
7th June - Day 2 (   )  or Day 1 Golden Nugget $230 Seniors
8th June - Legends of Poker Seniors Event £240 NLH - Binions  (got to go have a look at the hole in the wall where i kicked it back in 2011 after a seriously bad beat and being dealt the wrong card in stud hi lo !!)
9th june - Golden nugget $230 Stud Hi Lo
10th june - Golden Nugget $230 Horse
11th June - Binions $200 Horse
12th June - WSOP Horse $1500 - The main target of the trip!
13th June - Day 2 naturally or WSOP $1500 Stud Hi lo if a winning trip.  Day off if out of Horse and a losing trip
14th June - Day off or Golden Nugget $230 Limit Omaha 8
15th June - Probably a daily NLH at the Rio - other options include the WSOP 1000 NLH or WSOP 1500 Stud
16th June - Golden Nugget $230 Stud 8

The Seniors and Horse World Series events are a given.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

There was some really interesting news from the EPT this week in that in season 11 they are having 200 Euro Seniors Events and a couple of mixed game £1000 side events at each venue.

EPT London will host a £1000 Horse so that has got to be pencilled in for October though will probably need to sell a bit of my action on that.

So a nice boring post with very few prose or stories, but if you are in vegas in june look me up.    Probably wont be any posts now until i am there where hopefully I will update with my progress most days.

See you at the tables - dunc

[duncthehat]

As a bit of a deviation thought it would be interesting to give my opinion as to the best 3 mixed game poker players I have played against. One of them won 2 bracelets last year but none are "household names"  I count 2 of them as good acquaintances.

Starting today with Number 3 in the countdown:

An Englishman though from his name you wouldnt guess:

Maxcel Verdugo

Came across him last year in a mixed tournament at the nugget.   A real character and table captain.  Annoys half the table but we hit it off well.  A real dry sense of humour that most americans dont get and boy can he play Horse!!

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=133648

Extremely aggressive player that really puts you to the test.   Was unlucky to get busted early in the Horse tourney I played against him and again the next day in the Carnivale horse tournament before having a deep run in the 1500 Horse last year.    Has 8 hendonmob horse cashes including a couple of wins after that WSOP Horse tournament.

A real love to hate character that will hopefully be around this year

[duncthehat]

Note to self must write more blog entries its good karma.

Last time i wrote something i chopped the sunday nighter at hill street.

Last night i make 2 entries then 2 hours later sit down to play the 7.30pm $3 rebuy on stars.

10 hours later i am sat drinking a cup of tea having binked 2nd out of 2600 plus players for $2826.

Been running good for the whole of 2014 so far.

First line of first blog entry may have to be amended

Happy days!!!

[redsimon]

As a bit of a deviation thought it would be interesting to give my opinion as to the best 3 mixed game poker players I have played against. One of them won 2 bracelets last year but none are "household names"  I count 2 of them as good acquaintances.

Starting today with Number 3 in the countdown:

An Englishman though from his name you wouldnt guess:

Maxcel Verdugo

Came across him last year in a mixed tournament at the nugget.   A real character and table captain.  Annoys half the table but we hit it off well.  A real dry sense of humour that most americans dont get and boy can he play Horse!!

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=133648

Extremely aggressive player that really puts you to the test.   Was unlucky to get busted early in the Horse tourney I played against him and again the next day in the Carnivale horse tournament before having a deep run in the 1500 Horse last year.    Has 8 hendonmob horse cashes including a couple of wins after that WSOP Horse tournament.

A real love to hate character that will hopefully be around this year

Max has the most American accent Ive heard on a Brit

He busted me in the APAT HORSE