If Carlsberg did dull poker blogs, they'd do this one

[monkeyman]

So its saturday morning and unfortunately I"m neither nursing a hangover nor engrossed in the Racing Post ahead of this afternoon"s action at Cheltenham. Because I am both on a modest wage and have a birthmark that looks remarkably like the word "mug" on my forehead, I am working. Most days monday to friday I work in Norfolk County Council"s customer service centre, but I am occasionally given day release into the community and get to answer queries face-to-face at the council"s information desks which are located at libraries around the county.
 Today I"m at The Forum which was built to replace the previous city centre library which burnt down in 1994. Bordered by the library,city hall, Norwich market and St Peter Mancroft church there is a large paved area which acts as a de facto youth club. One of the joys of Norwich on a saturday is to grab a coffee, find yourself a seat just inside the glass front of The Forum and laugh at how all the groups of teenagers express their individuality by dressing head-to-toe in black, whilst you listen for the resounding "Thwack" of runaway skateboarder on innocent passer-by.
  I must confess that my postings on this blog have become increasingly sporadic and there are two reasons for this. Firstly, I have recently started writing a blog on the website of the Eastern Daily Press, which is based in Norwich but covers all of Norfolk. Most of my inane ramblings which have nothing whatsoever to do with poker are likely to see the light of day on their site. Secondly, my poker currently consists of mainly of six-handed SNGs interspersed with short sessions of seven card stud cash play. I"ve found that, allowing for the occasional bad week, I tend to make a steady profit this way and in fact the amount I seem to make most weeks is roughly equivalent to the increase in salary I"d get if I won a promotion to the next step up from my current job. Bearing this in mind, I find it increasingly difficult to justify playing MTTs and don"t think I"ve played a non APAT one for about three weeks. Its incredibly tempting to play a few big tournies just to give myself something to write about (lets face it, describing what percentage of SNGs I"ve won in a given period aint exactly a compelling read), but I seem to have my sensible, may-have-started-to-suss-all-this-bankroll-management-business head on, so grinding out the pennies it is for me.          

[monkeyman]

I managed to persuade my slavemasters to grant day release and have spent the afternoon at Fakenham races. The 2.00, a competitive juvenile hurdle event was won very impressively by a horse called Starluck who the Racing Post have now stated is favourite for the Triumph Hurdle at next year"s Cheltenham festival. As soon as I got home, and despite the fact that I rarely bet ante post, I logged on to Betfair and took advantage of the 22-1 on offer for the event in question. If you any of are dumb enough to take any notice of anything I say, then more fool you and I take no responsibility if you lose a penny backing anything I"ve recommended. However, if Starluck does win next March, I know where you live and I will send the boys round to collect my commission.    

[Swinebag]

I"ve stuck him in my "nag me" list and may have a punt later on in the year. ta

[monkeyman]

I"m in the second level of a six handed SNG on Betfair and standard raise with Kings. I am then reraised, re-reraise, my opponent goes all in and I call. He has aces. WTF was I thinking of? Ray Charles could have seen he had aces! AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH.    

[Swinebag]

I"m in the second level of a six handed SNG on Betfair and standard raise with Kings. I am then reraised, re-reraise, my opponent goes all in and I call. He has aces. WTF was I thinking of? Ray Charles could have seen he had aces! AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH.    

never fold KK in a sit and go pre flop. I"ve seen players do the same move with A7o!! (as well as JJ, QQ, and AK)

[monkeyman]

I"m in the second level of a six handed SNG on Betfair and standard raise with Kings. I am then reraised, re-reraise, my opponent goes all in and I call. He has aces. WTF was I thinking of? Ray Charles could have seen he had aces! AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH.    

never fold KK in a sit and go pre flop. I"ve seen players do the same move with A7o!! (as well as JJ, QQ, and AK)

I"ll have to disagree with you on this one Rob and will explain why.
  Most of my SNGs are played at a low level ($5 or $10) where the play tends to be very straightforward. I"ve recently got into the habit of 3-betting a lot in the early stages of these games as most of the players at this level will fold to a reraise. The other reaction is for players to hit the all in button, but probably 95% of the time they will have either aces or ace/king. This means that, as we are talking about the first couple of levels of a game, I still have the opportunity to get away from the hand if I"m trying this trick with less than premium cards. As the percentage of people who shove when confronted with a 3 bet is very small, this is a hugely profitable play if not overused.
  When playing the hand in question, I thought that he would do what a lot of players do and shove with ace/king and could well have done the same with Queens, which means that the only hand I seriously believed he had was aces. Therefore, I still believe that I should have got away from the hand, as folding after my 4-bet would still have left me with 1500 chips with the blinds only 15/30.
  Sometimes I shove preflop with with aces or kings, as occasionally players will take this as a sign of weakness and call. If I"d shoved and run my Kings into Aces, I may have considered myself unlucky. However, I still think there was sufficient information in the betting of this hand to have allowed me to escape.  

[Swinebag]

good explanation, I"m amazed you called...

even Ray Charles could see he had AA

[antthecat]

i would have pushed with kings in your situation even though you 4 betted and he went all in, i couldnt lay kings down but dont ask me about online play, ive given up on it, much prefer live play.

[Santino67]

If anyone"s played a betfair tourney, you"d understand why he called with the KK   , but not sure how their SnG"s work as I"ve not played in any.

[monkeyman]

If only every day"s poker was like today.................
   The crowning glory was my first APAT online victory after several near misses. What makes it even better is that when I switched on my computer this morning, I had no intenion of taking part. The vast bulk of my play at the moment is six handed SNGs with a bit of cash stud play thrown in for measure. I only allow myself to play tournaments if my profit from any given week more than covers the entry fee and I was about $25 dollars down this morning. I"ve had one of those days when it seems as if nothing could go wrong and that certainly carried me through tonight. There was a hand where I could have been eliminated shoving with pocket eights, getting called by queens but was lucky enough to river a straight. Not only did I have aces in the winning hand, I also had them on two  occasions in the previous ten hands. That"s all my luck used up for the mini series!    

[Chipaccrual]

Not only did I have aces in the winning hand, I also had them on two  occasions in the previous ten hands. That"s all my luck used up for the mini series!    

I thought you were kidding about the times before.  Well played tonight, even putting up with Neil"s railing of "Rollover, Rollover, Rollover"  

[monkeyman]

After last night"s success I"m on a roll and I"ve got a few things in mind for the next few days. With no disrespect to Leigh or his chipset, later this week I may be tackling a much bigger foe with a much bigger bounty on his head.
  Doyle"s Room host a bounty tournament once a week where Texas Dolly himself invites a couple of professional associates (Todd Brunson, Mike Caro and Hoyt Corkins are regulars) to put their reputations on the line against those of us who operate at the fishier levels of the game. The buy-in is $27.50 and best of all, the first time you take part, your entry fee gets refunded. On top of this, if you knock out one of the nominated bounties, you get a bonus of $500, two bounties is $5000 and three bounties is worth a whopping $25000. You may well be asking yourself why I"ve not taken part before now if the deal is this good and the answer is in the start time.  It kicks off at 9.30pm EST which I believes equates to 02.30 GMT. Even though I suspect I could probably sleepwalk my way through a day in the call centre without anyone noticing, I"m not a fan of playing through the night on a school day. Several months ago, when I was 4th in the APAT season two rankings, I was presumptious enough to book holiday to cover the days when the GUKPT grand finale was on, in case I finished top. This now means I have days off booked this coming thursday, friday and the following monday. I suspect this means that I"ll be spending an even more unhealthy amount of time than usual playing poker and will probably be setting my sights on Mr Brunson and his cronies at 2.30am thursday morning.
 Be warned, if I do knock him out, every poker related conversation from now until I draw my final breath will include a Doyle Brunson reference and there"s not a court in the land that would convict you of assault if you knock my teeth out.          

[lukybugur]

Today Leigh. Tomorrow Doyle. If you succeed (I have every faith in you), the rest of your poker life will be a total anti-climax. GL!

[Chipaccrual]

  Doyle"s Room host a bounty tournament once a week where Texas Dolly himself invites a couple of professional associates (Todd Brunson, Mike Caro and Hoyt Corkins are regulars) to put their reputations on the line against those of us who operate at the fishier levels of the game.

After the quality of last nights opponents, I can"t believe you are lowering yourself to this sort of standard, but good on you Simon for giving something back to those less fortunate than youself.  Go easy on them though.  

[monkeyman]

I posted at 10.28 and within ten minutes I"ve had two replies; I think I"m being cyberstalked