Dublin Poker

Forgot I had one of these...

2008-03-10T16:21:00.000Z

So first update in… over a year? Unlike most blog writers lose interest in writing a blog, the main reason I haven’t posted in so long is because there has been nothing to post about! By this I mean nothing ‘poker related’, which is in essence what this blog was started for. I have had many things to write about over the last year, new girlfriend, new house, new job etc. but felt that as this blog was started to keep track of my poker related stuff, I wasn’t going to fill it with anything non-poker related, ill leave that to Rounders et al!

So why the sudden change of heart? Well for one poker has crept back into the picture… only this time im on the other side of the felt! I’ve started running poker nights around Dublin since November, with moderate success. Im running a game on Thursday nights in Smyths, Fairview, which is getting decent numbers so far. It’s a €25 rebuy with the first prize usually hovering around the €400 - €500 mark. It’s handy for one night a week and gives me a bit of experience in setting up and running tourneys. We had started off with 3 nights in Dublin, but had to cancel nights in a pub in Portmarnock and Sandymount due to lack of interest. The Dublin pub poker scene is pretty packed with Vegasnights/ JP Poker already having an established client base, so rather try and encroach on their territory, I think getting one venue on board at a time is the best approach. Nick and JP have actually teamed up in a joint venture casino in Crumlin over the last few months, I haven’t actually had a chance to drop in but good luck to them and I’ll try and drop in over the next few weeks.

The website for our Poker nights is very good, www.IrishPokerLeague.com, and the plan is to branch out around Ireland over the coming year. We already have a game set up in Roscommon and Galway, and hopefully should have a network of games set up by the end of the year. The games run on an inter-pub League basis, with the top players at the end of each 10 week period getting through to a Provisional Final to play for a place in the Grand Final at the end of the year. The idea is to guarantee a ticket to a game in Australia or New Zealand, worth about €8k. It all depends on getting venues on board though!

On the playing side of things, I’m probably one of the many people who lost interest in the Dublin poker scene. Not sure why really… I know that I don’t have near as much time on my hands as I used to with my evenings taken up with either girlfriend/gym/ football training etc… and I also have a longer commute to and from work than I used to… but I have a feeling that perhaps the novelty of poker wore off a little bit, and I realized that unless you’re a taxi driver/ student/insomniac or just downright degenerate …. its not really feasible to play live regularly while working full time… I don’t think Im the only one either, as it looks like most casinos have seen a drop in numbers over the last 12-18 months. This can be down to a number of factors – too much competition for a steady declining pool of players being the main one in my opinion. The opening of Irelands first ‘Super Casino’ in the form of the Sporting Emporium, attracted a lot of new members who enjoy the location and fact that beer is served!! While this has no doubt attracted new members by making casinos more ‘mainstream’ and acceptable in today’s society (due to its location + owner), it has also pulled players from a limited pool causing a slight decrease in all Dublin casinos…

Back to the issue though, why are the numbers decreasing? While everyone knew the ‘boom’ since 2003 wouldn’t always last, it seems that, similarly to the Irish economy, the powers that be were too busy enjoying the present instead of looking to the future… Constantly raising buy-ins, while attracting bigger name players and generating large prizepools, scares away the ‘play for fun’ players, who were happily donating to these games for years. On that same point, a lot of these players realized that they were consistent losers, and coupled with the attitude of some of the ‘regular’ players in some casinos towards them, felt that the cons outweighed the pros and seem to have packed it in. Even pub games seem to have dropped in numbers over the last year (a great time to enter the market I hear you say!), but I think that the players that are still playing today will keep on playing regardless of any other changes.

While some people feel that the expected ‘mini-recession’ will cause an even further drop in poker players, I don’t think this is the case. Most casual players are spending very little, maybe only €25 - €100 per week. Unless the economy comes crashing down I can’t see numbers decreasing. Would pubs expect to see a decrease in numbers due to a downturn in the economy? (I actually don’t know the answer to this but would presume the answer is no!) And the average punter would probably spend a lot more on socializing in pubs etc than on poker.

On the online side of things… I reckon I’ve played about 5 hours in the last year. In reality I wasn’t even surprised it was that easy to give up! I never really caught the ‘online bug’ and enjoyed the social aspect of poker moreso than the actual monetary gains… although they were nice too!

I do miss playing live though, I’ve only been in a casino once in the last year, this was for the EPT ticket giveaway in Cool Hand Lukes. I was chipleader for most of the tourney but managed to throw it away and only finished 9th for €100… Put this mainly down to my being so out of practise… It did relight a little something inside me though and I have been looking to maybe start going to a game once a week/ fortnight… or even just hitting a festival every now and then!! I have a bit more expendible income now due to the new job and added income from running the poker night, and while Im saving up for a year long trip to Oz and the rest of the world in early 2009, I can start to look at paying into some of the bigger buy in events (€500-€1000) in the meantime. While my skills are still definitely ‘rusty at best’, I think the lure of a medium/ large buy in event would be the kick up the arse I need to get me back in the hotseat!

Will hopefully update this again before the end of the year J

Adios,
Rory

I had a blog once...

2007-01-19T19:14:00.000Z

Well I havent updated this in a while! Crimbo was good, the usual month of mayhem which has hit my credit card big time and left my poker BR destroyed.

I headed over to Edinburgh for New Years, or Hogmanay as they call it. The main street party was called off due to bad weather but with a group of twenty Irish there was no stopping the party!!

Online, Im still playing on PPP and at last seem to be making a steady profit. I realised that my problem was I was playing at rubbish limits. For the last two months Ive been playing at 1/2 and 2/4 cash games only, although I dabble in 3/6 when Im on a good run. I havent played lower than 1/2 in a while, and at last I feel as if I can actually play proper poker. 10c/20c and 25c/50c are full of such ridiculous players, you just cant follow any set game plan. You can make a profit but the players are so loose, they invariably suck out on you with frightening regularity that its just too stressful for the small profit you make. I used to stay at these levels because Id only ever have a few quid in the account as I preferred spending my cash on live rather than online poker.

I find at 1/2 you can build up an image and actually pull a few moves. Ive been steadily making $100 - $200 a session, and other than one big losing session the other week Ive been grinding out a steady profit. I still seem to be getting unlucky a lot in big pots, but where I used to turn off the laptop in frustration moaning about 'my bad luck', I now reload and most of the time make the money back. So this is that variance everyones been talking about then...

I bought Pokertracker and pahud, although I havent really been using them all that much. Also, pokertracker seems to have stopped working since I got a new hard drive on my laptop.

A few things I have noted at this level;

Im getting outplayed a bit in big pots, as Im still playing scared a bit, mainly because I still find it hard to look at the figures on the screen without seeing it in real terms. Whenever I get into a large pot with a marginal hand or a draw, and Im facing a big bet, I keep getting pushed off the pot because I find it hard to throw a weeks wages in without a made hand. I need to follow my instinct more and stop worrying about losing a few hundred quid here and there.

One such example is this hand which I discussed on boards.

Also, Ive noticed that the different styles of play are a lot more obvious at these levels. I find it best when Im at a table with one or two deepstacked maniacs (always good for a double up), and a few tightish shortstacks. I can push the TAG players off a lot of flops by firing out every time they check, and when I hit my hand against one of the maniacs I just keep betting out huge and once he doesnt hit Im sorted. Im still buying in short, usually between $100 and $200, and usually leave once Ive doubled this. Probably not the best method but at the moment Im bankroll building and will happily leave once Ive made a decent profit.

Ive a $500 bonus on PPP which is nearly cleared, and hopefully I can turn that into a few K. I plan on doing a bit of bonus whoring next month, probably start off on Doyles Room which is offering a 100% deposit bonus up to $500.

As for live play, Ive only played once in the last three months since the EPT feeder. That game really messed my head up, as I was in a great position to get the 5k ticket before that 3 outer on the river. It really took the thrill out of live poker for me, and I just havent been bothered going back. Im sure Ill go back eventually, but for the moment a few hours a week online is all Im doing.

I want to start playing decent live games though. I still havent played in any ranking event, which is pretty crap. I reckon Ill build up a bankroll online and use it to fund a few side events and feeders into big events. I cant bring myself to go down to the Fitz or the SE for a €50 tourney anymore. Im not sure when the next big ranking event is but I plan on playing a few side events.

Anyway it might be another while before I update this (if anyone even reads it...)

Adios

VegasNights EPT Feeder

2006-10-24T17:27:00.000Z

This was being held out in the Spawell in Templeogue, was guaranteeing at least one ticket to the EPT, worth €5000. It was €130 + €20, so they needed at least 40 people just to break even. I was in two minds about whether or not to play this one, as on the one hand, I blew a good bit in Kerry and didn't really have the money for it. Also, there was most likely only going to be one or two tickets, with nothing leftover.

On the other hand, if Im ever going to play in a big ranking event, the most likely way is that Im going to win my ticket in. I decided to go out and play an STT for a ticket, and if I lost I'd head home.

So I arrived out in Templeogue at 1pm, with the game due to start at 2pm. I was one of the first out there but eventually we had enough for a one table STT. Just as we're about to start a huge group of people stroll in, and decide to join in and play. So instead of having full table STT's we decided to have 6 seater €25 games, with one ticket on offer. I sat down and in jumps Peter (Halfbaked), who had just come straight from the jackpot after winning a €2k pot... nice!

Anyway, we kicked off the game, and I asked if the lad to my left wanted to deal. He said he would then said I may aswell seeing as I was in the middle of the table. As usual, I prefer if a game is dealt as it makes it go faster, and I will normally offer, but Ive noticed the last while that it does affect your play as you are concentrating more on dealing than playing. So I agreed to deal, as it was only an STT, but there was no way I was dealing the main game if I played it!

So we kicked off and I noticed right from the start that Peter and this other guy were more interested in knocking each other out than winning the ticket! After I noticed he was pushing almost every hand, I joked as to whether he was related to Dave 'lucksack' Masters, and it turns out it was his uncle! I found out Dave had brought his whole family along, brother, mother, father, uncle.. etc. As if the field wasn't tough enough!

Dave arrived in soon after and I congratulated him on winning his ticket over to Singapore Open. I think its worth €8000, so wp Dave.

Anyway, the action was pretty one sided, as Peter and Daves uncle were clashing in pretty much ever pot. I thought my best choice of action was to wait for a decent hand and check raise one of them. I rivered a flush against Peter, when the Qh gave him trips also, and took a few chips off him.

I was playing pretty tight until eventually I picked up QQ and managed to get it in vs Peters Q2 and Daves uncles Ax. Unfortunately for me the A flopped and Daves uncle trebled up. I still won a few chips off Peter, knocking him out. Then the VERY NEXT HAND i look down at QQ again! I couldnt remember if they were the same ones but Dave Masters seemed to think so! Abyway, AGAIN an ace flops and I double up this guy Eddie (may have been Eddie the Eagle).

What are the chances of getting QQ twice in a row and losing on both of them??

Soon we were three handed and I pick up another monster, KK. Im debating whether or not to call, when Eddie pushes all in. I call in a shot and after a long thought the other guy calls too. Eddie has 22 and the other guy has AJ. I have them both covered so if my hand stands up I have the ticket.... no ace, no ace....

The flop comes.... K K x ! Go on you legend, he flops a poker! The other lads are basically drawing dead, and take it all in good spirits. What can I say, the deck hit me in the face! One thing that did annoy me was that I was getting a few looks from people who obviously thought something 'wasn't right' simply because I had been dealing.

Fair enough, I did get some ridiculous hands, but if I was cheating I think it would be a bit stupid to give myself QQ twice in a row (losing both times I might add...) and then throwing in quad kings for good measure! Talk about drawing attention to yourself!! Anyone watching would have noticed that Eddie had AA and KK, and there was a few other big hands shown.

Hopefully no-one did think this and Im probably being paranoid, but its not the first time this has happened. I was accused by a guy in UCD before aswell. Even down in Kerry last weekend there was this drunk guy in our STT that was convinced we were all cheating...

I think Im going to stop offering to deal because you get nothing out of it and if you do happen to hit a monster, sore losers will look for someone to blame, and if the guy who flopped quads was dealing... easy target.

Anyway... everyone knows Im rigged :)

So I went up and registered, and took a quick look around to gauge the numbers. It looked like we would barely have 40 players so it was definitely going to be only one ticket with a bit of cash for 2nd. This meant that I would need to play aggressively in order to have a chance at the ticket. It was first or nothing!!

So we sat down to get started, 43 players which meant a ticket for 1st and €590 for second. I recognised a few players, obviously Peter, Dave Masters and Co. but I also spotted Joe 'Show' O Neill and Willow among others. Both of these are good players and I owe Joe a beat after he sucked out on me in the Fitz €270 a while ago. I was close to the chip lead, and I lost half my stack in a huge pot when I flopped middle set and ran into top set. The very next hand I pick up JJ and Joe pushes. After a long dwell up I call and he turns over tens... needless to say he flops his set and out I go... I OWE YOU ONE JOE!

So back to the tourney at hand! Right from the start people were playing very aggressively looking to build a big stack or go bust. The structure was great so there was no need for this, but with everybody aiming for first it was an understandable style of play!

I didnt get off to a great start, my luck didnt carry over from the STT and I was pretty card dead. No-one had offered to deal so the deal was changing hands every time, which does my head in. Ive nothing against people that cant deal but when you have 9 people at a table, chances are only 2 or 3 can actually deal. The rest just box the deck and most get confused with side pots etc. I was going to offer but as I said already I wanted to concentrate on my game and not on dealing, so I just let them get on with it and helped out where I could.

I didnt do much at the first table, moved up from the starting 8K to about 10K after I flopped the nut flush but no-one played. I moved table then and noticed straight away that this table was a LOT more aggressive. It wasn't long until my first big hand of the night.

I had Q6h and limped in (the blinds were still small).

Flop comes K48 all hearts. Its checked around to a LAG player who bets out 500 (blinds 100/200). He has about 7K or so.

I usually flat call here and raise a non heart turn, but this time I felt he had hit the flop and decided to raise. I knocked it up to 1500, which he quickly called. The turn is a blank, and Im now convinced hes hit either a set or two pair. I want to keep him in but want to make it expensive. Im pretty sure he thinks I have AK with the A hearts, so I think if the river is a blank he will call a push.

He dwells up for a bit and eventually calls. The turn is a brick and I instantly push. He thinks for a few seconds and says 'you cant have the flush...'. I keep quiet and he quickly calls, turning over 44. He looks genuinly surprised I have the flush shakes my hand as he leaves. Im really happy at how I played the hand, as this is how I would play AhK a lot of the time. I have to start betting my monsters more often, rather than simply check calling and pushing the river....

I get moved soon after to table 1, just to Mr Masters right.... I recognise Duke, Willow and Peter who are also at the table. Tough draw!

I dont play many pots until I pick up A10. I decide to limp in, as Ive no idea how a lot of these play, and I dont want to commit too many of my chips. As it turns out someone steals what turns out to be a large pot with A2, and if i'd raised at the start I would have taken it.

With this in mind, the next time I picked up a hand, AJs I raised it up. Duke was the only caller, and the flop comes 998 with two spades. I raise it up a bit and Duke calls. Turn comes the Q, giving me the straight too. I check, Duke bets big and I call. River is a brick, Duke checks and I push... he calls in a second with Q9!

I think I played every street as badly as its possible to do so... im an idiot....

I lost about 80% of my stack on this hand, and got moved AGAIN pretty soon after. I go back to the first table with about 4K to find an indian guy with a monster stack. I soon doubled up when i picked up KK vs Damien Kavanaghs JJ. Soon after I made a good all-in call on the river with K10 on a AK976 board vs the indian lad. He had 56.... It was so obvious he had muck and I explained this to another guy, Paddy, at the break. All you had to do was hit your hand, check it to him, let him bet and check call his all in. Easy money!

A quick chip count at the break showed the indian lad was leading on 60K with Willow in 2nd and Joe O Neill in 3rd. About 30 still in it...

I would have to make some plays after the break, and I had planned on doubling up off the indian lad ASAP! He was a wild player, calling all ins with 57 and A4! All i needed was a HAND!

Unfortunately, I just couldnt pick up a monster, but he dutifully doubled up 5 of the other 7 players at the table! His stack had dropped to 15K when this hand happened... (Down to 10 players so we were on the final table bubble now)

I have 18K, and pick up AJ on the button. Its raised in EP by solid enough player to 3K (blinds 500/1000). Folded around to me, and I flat call, hoping hes raising with a medium PP. crazy indian guy calls too in SB (surprise, surprise...)

Flop comes A 10 4. Crazy indian immediately goes all in, original raiser makes a tough fold (he had JJ), and I think for about 2 seconds before calling! Anyone else I would porbably fold here in a three way raised pot, but this maniac?? My chips were nearly in before his...

He flips over A5!! Ship it.... 33K pot..

Turn 10.... still good... emmm ship it please??

River Q... split pot..

aaaagggghhhh you fcuking jambag!!!

A few minutes later another lad gets knocked out and we break for the final table. Im still fuming about the runner runner... everyone else got their double up off the nutter, but could I? nooooooo....

The only people I recognise at the FT are Willow, who has a HUGE stack after sucking out on Dave Masters, and Paddy, who I was talking to at the break. I found out later the guy to my right was Daves dad.

I was one of the shortstacks but was playing pretty solid and still fancied my chances of winning. We lost the first two shortstacks pretty fast, and were now down to 7. The indian guy had a huge stack but lost it all in two hands to Paddy when he had a monster both times. After he was gone, Paddy thanked me for the advice Id given him during the break. Wait till you have a monster and let him pay you off! Easy money! Out he went and we were down to 6. A guy off boards, Russh went out next, and we were down to 5.

I finally got my chance to double up when I limped in with 10 7. the flop came a juicy 779.... i checked, the BB tried a steal, i pushed and he called with A9. No suckout and Im up to about 40K.

At this stage it looks like this;

Paddy 100K
Willow 90K
Ray Masters 50K
Me 40K
Paddy Walsh 25K

The blinds are 1K/2K, so theres a lot of preflop raises taking it down. I pick up AQ, raise it up to 6K and take the blinds. Two hands later I pick up AQ, and decide to limp in, feeling that I need to make a move if I want a realistc chance at getting the ticket. So I limp in, so does Willow, and Ray makes up the BB.

3 way action and the flop comes Qh 3s 6s

Beautiful flop for me, and I plan on betting strong to look like a steal. Ive been playing very tight so I know they think I would raise with a good hand, so i try to use this against them.

Ray bets 2K, I slam out 10K trying to show strength, knowing Willow will most likely see this as a bluff. She goes all in and Ray folds. I call in a second and she happily flips over KQ. She is genuinly shocked when I show AQ, as she definitely would have thought I would raise with that.

Turn is a brick, and Im already counting up the chips. Theres just over 80K in the pot, so Im now 2nd in chips! Oh... wait theres the river to come yet! But surely I have nothing to worry about... Im a 93% favourite here... Of all the times I have been dreading a river card this was the easiest. I was SO SURE i couldnt possibly get done over this time... not this time. I had been imaginig myself winning the ticket, playing the Irish Open.... Theres NO WAY im going out like this...

Somebody tell that to pokah who decides to land a king on the river, fucking me out of the tournament... I have never been so shocked at getting a bad beat in my whole life. I nearly fell off my chair in amazement! I mean, I would consider myself an incredibly unlucky poker player, but losing $10 STT's is one thing... losing a very good chance at a 5K ticket, on a 3 outer on the river???

That is absolutely sick.... I was literally in shock for about 20 seconds... I just could not believe that it happened AGAIN... it is simply mind boggling how one person can consistenly get unlucky at the exact wrong time over and over and over again...

I flop a poker in a shitty little STT but 9 hours later when it really matters, I cant get a 93% edge to hold up.... If this was a once off I could understand it but....

Everyone at the table was genuinly sorry for me, and Willow shook my hand telling me I played the hand perfectly, but that is poor consolation when theres a 5K ticket up for grabs. I felt physically sick getting up from my seat, and felt like punching a brick wall...

I nearly crashed the car on the way home through frustration, and I dont think ill be playing live again for a while.

Willow went on to win it, and to rub salt in the wound the other three split the 590 between them.

good luck... god knows i need it

Cue Club Team Event, Killarney

2006-10-19T16:31:00.000Z

So.... an update!

Ive been meaning to write a long one for a while so here goes...

I may aswell start with the most recent report, the Team Event down in the Cue Club in Kerry last weekend.

This was being organised by Connie, a fellow boardie, so there was a group of us heading down on the train. I was teamed up with Ehsan (Gholimoli) and Tom (DeVore), so we had a strong chance of winning it. Both of these had won over â‚¬5k in tournaments recently so I was in good company! I have a great record in Team Events so hopefully I'd go the distance...

Anyway, the Degenerate Gambling Brigade met up in the train station to get the 11am train down to Kerry. There was myself, Ehsan, Tom, Ian, Brian, Peter, the brothers Niall and Dave O' Callaghan and the infamous lucksack that is Dave Masters...

No sooner had we left the station than we kicked off a card game... just to get things going. What started off as a â‚¬20 rebuy round of each, turned into a crapshoot after about... 5 seconds ;)

Dave Masters had rebought about 8 times by the time we hit Kerry, and I managed to go through â‚¬100 without winning a single hand. Now Im clueless about Omaha but thats bad even for me! I thought Dave was pissing his money away, but he managed to suck out on enough people to end up splitting the â‚¬780 pot with Tom. Yes thats â‚¬780...30 rebuys between the 8 of us! So down â‚¬100 already and I havent even reached the casino yet! The game itself was costing â‚¬170 and the hotel was â‚¬55 so Id have to watch the cash flow situation!

We arrived in Kerry and made our way to the Cue Club. Killarneys a great place, I was down for a 21st a few years ago and always wanted to head back. The Cue Club itself is a great little place, its got a real club atmosphere about it, even moreso than the Fitz. Half snooker club, half poker room, I got the impression that the poker had only become a regular thing pretty recently. Its a really comfortable place to play poker, and I was looking forward to a good game.

Ive played three team events in the past, all Vegas Nights games, and every time they have gone the same way. I get onto a team with good players but unfortunately things go pear shaped and I never win the Team prize. Each time I have been battling for individual glory from pretty early on, due to other team members getting knocked out... this game was to be no different!

There was almost 100 players, and unfortunately Tom was 2nd out! In fairness he got very unlucky running big hands into bigger hands, and didnt really make a mistake, but it still meant that me and Ehsan were at a huge disadvantage straight away. Other Team Events Ive played have been 8 players per team, with points starting with final 18. So if you got knocked out 150th, you got the same as finishing 19th... 0 points. Unfortunately this game was different. Each Team started on 300 points (100 per player), and you points depending on where you finished. So because Tom got knocked out so early, he recieved -100 points! You only got 100 points for finishing 1st so we were pretty much dead and buried unless we both finished very high.

Another thing which was disappointing was the split between Team and Individual prize money. In other games Ive played its been pretty much a 50/50 split, but this was more like 85/15 in favour of the Team prize. This is probably better as it is a 'Team Event' but it meant that I had to finish top 4 just to make ANY profit (it was money back, â‚¬150, for 9th to 5th).

I started off great, flopping a house and getting paid off, and reraising with muck in a four way pot for a nice steal. Id gotten the 8k starting stack up to about 12K after the first few hands, and was in just getting into the groove until I saw Tom getting knocked out. I went on tilt a little after this, and I ended up going card dead and pissing a good chunk of my stack on terrible calls. I didnt see a decent hand for a good two hours and was getting very impatient. The first hand was against Ian. I picked up A10 which was the best hand Id seen in hours so I raised it up. It was flat called by the player to me left, and to the left of him Ian pushed for about 7K. I felt Ian was doing this with AK, AQ,AJ, A10, KQ, or any pair 99+. I didnt think the other lad was calling and was pretty much priced into calling due to my raise. Unfortunately the other lad did call and we checked down a Jack high board all the way to the river. Ian had AJ for TPTK and the other lad had AQ. Ian tripled up and I think the other lad won a side pot with the AQ. Stupid play by me....

I stole a few pots to hang about on 14K until my second brainfart. I picked up KQ and raised it up to 2K. It was called by a player to my left who was pushing EVERY hand, so he could have had anything. I think the rest of his team were out and he wanted to jump into the cash tables because he didn't seem to care. Anyway he called the 2K and it went around to Conor (Lazare) who pushed for 6K. Again I was willing to call the extra 4K for a heads up but there was the other lunatic to worry about. He had about 20K and could knock me out.

I thought about pushing but the lunatic looked interested in his hand for once so I thought he might have something. I flat called the extra 4K, leaving myself about 8K behind. The instant I called the lunatic pushed and I was left cursing myself for my stoooopid play. I couldnt see KQ winning a three way pot, so I folded leaving almost half my stack in the pot. It turned out to be a good fold as the lunatic had AQ, but I should never have called Conor's all in. I think he had AJ and got knocked out, but as it turned out a K fell on the river so I would have sucked out if I had called!! Ugh!

I was struggling on about 6K when we got to the dinner break, and by the looks of it none of 'the dubs' were faring too well. Tom, Dave O'C and Dave Masters had all been KO'd, and the rest of us were pretty shortstacked. We checked into the hotel on the break and I left all my gear there. The room wasnt too bad, and they told us the residents bar was open all night, so I was happy enough there!

After the break I nursed my shortstack but wasn't getting the hands and dribbled down to only a few big blinds. With the blinds at 1k/2k, I was sittin on 5.5 and was willing to push on ANYTHING, but unfortunately both of my blinds there was numerous all ins and I had absolute muck. I was going to push on anything but a lot of blinds were getting robbed so I felt I might have a chance waiting for a decent hand. Unfortunatel I saw nothing until my big blind again. I had 2.5K and 2K of it was in the pot! Obviously Im pushing anything here but I noticed the SB wasn't really paying attention so instead of making this obvious I covered my *chip* with my hands and kept quiet. Sure enough it worked and he folded it to me! I had 36o by the way :)

I doubled up the next hand and was now sitting on 7K. I soon built this up to 15K and finally felt like I had a chance. We were down to 30 at this stage and it was only myself, Ehsan, Ian and Brian left. Unfortunately Ehsan got knocked out when his QQ's ran into KK in a huge multiway pot. Ian on the other hand had the chip lead at just under 100K. If only I had called with that KQ!!!

I grinded away and was sittin on about 18K , when I had my first all in of the night. I had A10c and flat called the 2K blind. There was four of us in the pot and it came out 10 4 2 with 2 clubs. One lad raised it up to 5K and I pushed for another 10K or so. He thought for ages and eventually called with 77. I needed an Ace or a club to survive and the board agreed and sent out one of each on the turn and river! Thank fuck for that....

Up to 35K now and I was motoring along nicely. I had my eyes on the â‚¬1k individual first prize, as the team prize was out the window. Down to 2 tables now and we were nearing the money (top 9 paid). Brian was knocked out soon after, and it was only meself and Ian left out of the Degenerates. He didnt last much longer though, going out in a HUGE pot which has been discussed in detail on boards. She made a great call at the end and he was unfortunate to go out.

The team part of the game was hotting up now as players started working out who was still in the running. A young lad beside me was knocking people out almost every hand, and had a massive stack in front of him. I was hanging back as we neared the bubble, and didnt want to make my usual bubble fuck up!

I decided to pick on the shortstacks who were trying to squeeze into the money, or just stay in to get more points for their team. Eventually I got my chance when the only other remaining boardie, 'Rogue Trader', decided to push for his stack which was less than 1 BB! I obviously wasnt worried about him, but I saw a chance to pick on the BB. He was on the only team that still had two players left, and I didn't think he would want to get into a pot without a hand. He had 25K to my 35K.

With the blinds at 2K/4K, I raised it up to 10K in the SB with J7. Somehow the dealer messed up on this and declared a min raise. He thought for ages and eventually called the extra 4K and we saw a flop of 5 7 8 rainbow. I felt this was as good a flop as any and he could only call a push with a very good hand, so I jammed it in.

Amazingly he called with 9 10 for an open ender!! I couldnt believe he would gamble his teams chances of taking the main prize on such a mediocre holding. If I was in his position I was folding the 4K BB leaving him with 21K left, and just try and get as far as possible. His mate had a big stack and he didn't need to play to win, just finish high.

Anyway, no suckout and he gets knocked out in 12th with his team-mate berating him for the play. Amazingly, 'Rogue Trader' had 46 for the flopped straight and tripled up!

I was up to 60K now, but barely had time to stack my chips when I picked up my second big hand of the night... QQ. A serial raiser raised it up to 15K and I had a quick look around the table. I was third in chips beside the young lad with the huge stack and a drunk lad who had just moved to the table. I had the raiser covered and decided if the young lad folded, I was pushing. All I had to worry about was the drunk lad, but he could be holding anything!!

The young lad folded and I pushed for just over 60K. I could tell the raiser wasn't happy about this and I couldnt see him calling, so now I just had to dodge the drunk guy. He had about 70K, so it was a call for everything. I was happy enough to take the pot there, with blinds and ante's there was almost 90K in the pot. Anyway, he starts fumbling with his chips for a good two minutes and eventually mutters call, throwing in about 15K. I tell him its gonna cost a lot more, to which he shouts at me "I said CALL didnt I"... cheers dickhead. He was too pissed to count out the money so the dealer does it for him. The original raiser quickly folds pocket fives and I think at worst Im up against AK. Nope... the slowrollin fucker had AA all along... I thought he may have been acting to get the other lad in but it was plainly obvious he was folding.

Either way, an Ace on the flop sealed the deal and out I went in 11th feeling like Id been punched in the stomach... I hete getting that far in a tourney and getting nothing out of it.

I couldnt handle a cash game so headed back to the hotel with to meet up with the lads. They were pissed at this stage and had taken control of the pool table at the end of the bar. After poker, my next best game is pool. Im out of practise, but back in college I could wipe the floor with anyone! Myself and my brother started up the pool society in college, and organised going down to the All-Irelands every year. I made the quarter finals my first year and almost made it onto the Irish Team. Unfortuantely my brother did one better and just about made it on!

So I was looking forward to showing off my pool skills, but didnt realise when you dont play the game for a year, you aren't as good as you were when you were playing over 50 games a day on the free tables in college! I still had a bit of skill in me, and myself and Brian challenged the 'champios', Ehsan and Niall. Unfortunately a 'bad beat on the black' lost it for us, but we were destroying them so we challenged them to a rematch. Everyone was pissed at this stage so they were rubbing it in our faces! Didnt last for long though when we 8 BALLED them and sent them packing! Didnt even pot a single ball lads... Me and Brian destroyed the rest of them and finished the night unbeaten.

We left the bar at 5am, briefly attempted to chat up a few girls outside DENJOES (boggers McDonalds), then went to bed. Sorry did I say bed? Obviously I mean we went to get the cards and chips for a 10 man â‚¬20 Sit 'n Go in the Hotel lobby!! DEGENERATES!!!

I was down almost â‚¬400 from the weekend so this was a must win game for me! We had nine boardies and one local degenerate playing, and the game couldnt have started any better... The lucksack Dave Masters, who had sucked out on EVERYONE on the train journey game, was knocked out my Niall on the first hand!! And on the river too!! Perfect!!

Ehsan didnt last too much longer, and either did the local lad, who was convinced it was all fixed! Soon we were down to 4 and the rest of the lads had either gone to bed, or back down to the casino to see if there was any games going! We had decided on prizes for the top two and finally I started to hit hands. I picked up KK twice and hit a set both times, then 99 again hit a set. Even when I was folding pairs they would have hit a set! Finally the deck hits me in the face for a change!

We got down to heads up, myself and Conor, and we agreed on â‚¬130 for first and â‚¬70 for 2nd. He had a 5:1 chip lead so I didn't count on lasting too long... but somehow the game lasted over an hour! Eventually we were about 60:40 and I pushed with J7... eventually he called with 38! and rivered a straight!! aghg luckbox!! Good laugh though... I went to bed soon after and the lads headed down to the casino.

Although I bubbled the tourney and ended up down a few hundred euro, I still had a great laugh with the lads. Think I'll start going on these trips more often!

Thats the only live game Ive played in a while, as for online...

I recently bought pokertracker and HUD to see if I can improve my game. Pokertracker only works with cash games so Ive copied all my tournament stats onto my excel sheet. It shows that Ive made a decent profit in STT's but Im pissing most of it away in MTT's. At the moment $15 STT's are my most profitable, and for some reason Im messing up on the $20's. The $25's are profitable but I dont think Ive played enough to give realistic figures. Ive an average ITM of 48%, which isint bad but can probably do with some improvement. Still though, Im up $1654 so I must be doing something right!

As for MTT's, the figures are probably worse than the -$984 if you realise that of the $1,570 that Ive won, most of this was with three of four $200+ wins. Ive an ITM rating of 12% in MTTs which is pretty bad. 27 cashes out of over 200 games just isint up to scratch.If you compare this to the fact that I make the top 10% in about 80% of the live tournaments I play in, there is huge room for improvement there.

My worst loss in playing MTTâ€™s above $20. I just donâ€™t have the patience for these and im down about $800 altogether

As for cash games, im still trying to navigate around pokertracker and see what I can take from the stats. I havent played that many hands, about 3,500 or so, and Im still getting through the manual that a lad off boards sent me. I can see that my VPiP is probably a bit high, so I need to tighten up a bit.

One worrying thing I found was that I am unfortunately getting sucked out on a lot! (Just because Im paranoid doesnt mean they're not out to get me...) In the top 20 pots Ive lost all in preflop, Ive gone in ahead 18 times, with the other two running KK into AA preflop. I seem to run big pairs into little pairs A LOT for my whole stack, and unfortunately they dont seem to be holding up.

But when I look at my stats for the hand I am winning with the most times, AA tops the list at 72%. Now I think this should be about 80% but its close enough not to worry about. KK is 2nd on about 69%. So how come I am winning on these hands the most, but they are the two hands that Ive lost the most money on?? I thought it might be through not being able to let them go etc. but it turns out that I just seem to be losing with them at the worst possible times! Anytime I seem to get my money in as a huge favourite in a big pot, invariably THAT is when variance decides to stick its ugly head in!

Now there's no point just concentrating on how Im doing on AA and KK, thats pointless. But tbh I havent had PT long enough to analyse all the stats. It has a good feature of being able to replay your hands, and Ive gone through all of the big pots that Ive lost, although it is pretty sickening! Having to sit there and watch river after river kill me... it aint good!

Ive been trying to see if I could have played the hands any differently, but it looks like I was just unlucky... and excuse Ive been stuck on for years and cant seem to get away from! Hopefully by the time Im finished analysing my PT stats I'll find out how to change my play. I think two major things I have to do is stop buying in short to cash tables, as I will just keep getting called by big stacks looking to suck out with worse hands. Secondly, I need to get my VPiP down, and finish reading the manual to find out what all the other stats mean!

My balance was looking good until I had to withdraw most of it to finance my trip to Kerry. I left $50 in it to fund a few $15 games and hopefully work up a few hundred for a decent BR. I had built this up to $92 and was just about to head to bed last night when I decided to jump in a cash game. I jumped into a 50c/$1 game, and tried to click the box to type in how much I was to sit down with. I was going to jump in with $30 and try and grind a bit. Unfortunately I clicked the top box by mistake and took my entire BR of $92 (hey big spender...) into the game. I was about to leave and join another when but I thought now that Im here I may aswell just play a few hands. If I lost a big pot I'd leave... (you can see where this is going!)

Anyway FIRST HAND I get dealt AA... (yes its one of THOSE...) I raise to $20 and get 4 CALLERS! The flop comes K82 rainbow, cant ask for much more. Im first to act, I push and get called by one player holding 88... aaaggghhh. No luck and the $240 pot is shipped to him. As I said, this is just bad variance, but its the incredibly bad timing that sickens me. The ONLY way I could lose my bankroll would be in this situation. I accidentally enter a table with my full BR, pitiful as it is, and last one hand!

So... back to the start...

gl

2006-10-03T16:33:00.000Z

Short tourny report first.

I havent played live in a while, and as I want to do well in the upcoming Team Event I decided to get a bit of practise in. Ehsan split a game a few days ago for â‚¬5,500 so I have to try and compare well to my team-mates!

The Fitz â‚¬30 freezeout on Sunday seemed a good game, and it suits my budget well after Thailand... Im beginning to dread those credit card bills coming in...

Anyway! Ive only played this three times before, and placed 1st, 1st and 3rd, so I was confident enough to make a bit of cash.

To cut a long story short, I split it for â‚¬330 each with another boardie Rngr. He was the only person I was worried about all night (standard v.poor overall), so i was happy enough to split it with him. No major hands of interest, except when Rngr sucked out on the final table when we both got it all in preflop, his eights sucking out on my tens... I was more annoyed about doubling him up than losing chips, and even as the shortstack he was the onlyÂ player I didn't want to clash with.

So another win, the money is nice (spent already...), but Im happier that I dont seem to have lost any form, even though Im only squeezing in one game a month. I reckon Ill try and play this â‚¬30 game again next Sunday.

Football and Poker...

2006-09-14T16:30:00.000Z

God my blog is going the same way as Dublin Bus... nothing for ages and then 2 in quick succession!

The last post was purely about my trip to Thailand, so I thought Id give a quick poker update.

First though, I thought I might comment on how Ireland have been getting on lately, soccer wise... Now I'm a diehard fan of the Irish Team, I havent missed a home game for as far as I can remember, and Ive travelled abroad many times to watch them play. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to watch the Germany game in Thailand. We were on Phi Phi, a tiny island with only 700 people living on it, and 1 Irish bar! At two in the morning, all of the Irish tourists on the island packed in while the owner searched through hundreds of channels trying to find the game. The fact that it was on RTE meant we had to look through all the foreign channels to see if we could find it. So at 2 in the morning about 50 of us, all wearing the Irish jerseys, watched expectantly while he went from channel to channel.... Finally Steve Stauntons face flashed up on screen and a roar went up from the bar! We had found it on some small German channel, 'UltraSport' or something... Either way, we got to watch it!

We lost that game, but Im happy at least that I got to watch it. The Irish team have really gone downhill over the last few years, I think the turning point was not being able to beat Switzerland in the run up to the world cup.This led to fuck ups against Israel which led to us placing 4th in a group we could have won. At the time we were 14th in the FIFA rankings while Switzerland were in the mid 40's. How the tables have turned.... We have basically switched places now in terms of rankings. The reason Im talking about soccer all of a sudden, is that the new rankigs were out a few days ago, and I had to scroll down quite a bit to find Ireland.... 43rd... can you believe it? Irelands lowest ranking since the 90's.

Switzerland on the other hand, have taken over Irelands old 14th spot, which we had hovered around for a few years. Scotland have overtaken us.... as have other 'giants' such as Equador, Bulgaria, Tunisia, and Guinea... The only Team I'm happy to see overtake us is Australia, who thoroughly deserve it after a fantastic performance in the world cup. If those diving scumbags Italy hadn't cheated them in the world cup, who knows what would have happened?

I dont know what annoys me more, Ireland dropping down the rankings faster than anything ....., or England... in 4th.

Anyway, enough about football, lets talk poker! I havent really played live in about 2 months now, since I won the VN game, and I gave up on online a while before that. Id like to get back into playing live, but Im pretty broke after Thailand, so I won't be able to get a bankroll together for a while!

Ive a Team Event coming up in October, with Ehsan and Tom. Theres only 3 players to a team, and with a â‚¬150 buy-in it should be a decent tourney. I'll try and get one or two live games in before then, probably the â‚¬50 DC in the Fitz, usually a good game. Team Events have easily been my best tournaments, things just seem to go right for me in them! Hopefully I can get a good result from this.

As I said, I haven't really played online since May/June, the odd game every few weeks has kept up my hatred for it. Still though, when I arrived home I was dying to play poker, but I was still wrecked from the holiday and wasn't up for heading into the casino. So I logged onto PPP... why oh why!

I stuck in â‚¬50 and jumped into a few games. After about 10 minutes I realised it wasn't really working... I mean, I wanted to play poker, not a computer game! And thats all it is to me now. Its as much 'poker', as Fifa Pro Ev. is a game of football. Its just a computer game. Its not actually poker. I needed to actually have a real game of poker, feel the cards in my hands, have the buzz that goes with it... none of which I get from playing online. It was too late to hit the casino so I logged off and watched TV. I have absolutely no interest in playing online anymore, and look at it in the same light as the playstation or XBox. I just cant bring myself to take it seriously, which is why I dont think ill ever make it as an online poker player. Anytime I sit down, i cant just sit at one table and play a serious game. Ill have the TV on, ill be watching poker vids on U-tube, reading boards etc... so Im basically just pissing money away on it. Luckily not a lot, I play micro-limits online! No offence to all the lads who are cleaning up online. Its clearly working out for you guys!

I might still play the odd game out of boredom, but having only played about 10 hours overall since May, I think Ive successfully overcome any attraction I had to it. I used to play out of sheer boredom, with every weeknight being basically empty. But Im now playing soccer Monday, Thursday and Saturday, and going to the gym every other day, so my freetime is limited now. I think I meant start having a regular live game, like the Tuesday night â‚¬50 Double Chance in the Fitz.

Its annoying knowing that so many others are making thousands online, but a mix of very bad luck (causing TILT), and a short concentration span, mean I dont think i'll ever make much online! I dont mind losing small amounts now and then, but Im glad Ive no real interest in it anymore. Otherwise I might be logging on every night pissing away all my money! Im down a few hundred euro online for the year, but luckily some nice live wins more than cover it. I didnt realise that online poker was actually causing me the most stress... more than work/ family issues... how ridiculous is that??

Anyway, I'm probably going to hit the Fitz DC next Tuesday, and I look forward to this Team Event next month. I havent met up with all the poker lads in a while, should be good! Until then,

gl

Thailand

2006-09-12T18:37:00.000Z

People have been bugging me for an update on this blog so here it is...

Unfortunately it has f-all to do with poker, so all those looking for bad beat stories can stop reading now!

I just got back from a long break in Thailand, what an incredible country. I've never been outside Europe before so you can imagine its a bit of a shock to the system when the plane touches down in Bangkok. Total culture shock, its just so different than our little Emerald Isle!

Anyway, six of us left Ireland on Aug. 19, and got into Bangkok on the 20th, via London and Qatar. We didnt hang around Bangkok for too long, only stayed one night for obvious reasons... So armed with little more than our backpacks, we headed for 'the islands'.

We started off in Ko Samui, and stayed there for a few days. The nightlife here was great, and the beaches were just what I was after. Lovely sandy beaches with that greenish water that you just have to swim in!

The plan was to head north to a much smaller island, Ko Tao, and do scuba diving. Unfortunately we missed the only ferry due to a bad hangover, so we could only go halfway to Ko Phangan. This island is famous worldwide for hosting the biggest full-moon party. I think this is the biggest beach party in the world, and attracts over 20,000 every month. We had planned on going here for Septembers full moon on the 7th, so we didnt mind having to stay a night here. As we checked into our hotel, we were told that the black moon party was on that night! Of all the nights to 'accidentally' be on the island!

The black moon is pretty self explanatory, its the opposite to the full moon! We made our way down to the beach, and were greeted by about 5000 ravers with neon everywhere! Had my first taste of the infamous Thailand 'buckets', full of vodka and red-bull, only the red-bull is different to what we get at home in that its laced with amphetimines... Suffuce is to say my memory got a little hazy after bucket number three!

With sore heads we pulled ourselves out of bed at 9am to catch the boat to Ko Tao, and get back on track. We made it over to this tiny island for some well deserved scuba diving and detox! This is a much more relaxed island, which centres mainly around scuba diving and boat tours. There wasn't much of a nightlife here, but it gave us a well deserved break from the madness of the previous week! We stayed here for about 3 days and spent our time scuba diving and relaxing. Although we did go quad biking around the island aswell so it wasn't all chilled out!

We left Ko Tao, and headed back to Samui to catch a plane to the other side of Thailand, to the well known Phuket. 'Welcome to the dark side....' We met up with a few friends here who had just arrived over from Ireland. They were dying to go out and 'see Thailand', so we went into the town centre to get dinner. I dont think we had prepared ourselves for what was in store... Without going into too much detail, lets just say any stories you have heard about Phuket are probably true!

So we stayed in Phuket for a few days, doing Jet-skiing among other things, before heading to the paradise island of Phi Phi. This was about an hour boat journey from Phuket, and was one of the worst hit parts of Thailand by the tsunami in 2004. 70% of the population was wiped out of this tiny island, and we weren't sure what to expect. Fortunately, it seems as if the island has recovered well, and there wasn't much trace of any damage, with the buildings all appearing to be pretty new. Still though, seeing this sign is enough to scare you a little! A tsunami evacuation procedure sign in your hotel room...

Phi Phi is an amazing island. Theres only 700 people living on it, and with only 5 or 6 hotels, this only rises to about 1500 with tourists included. It was a really secluded paradise, so its no surprise that it was where the famous film 'the beach' was set. We actually rented a longboat out to the actual island where 'the beach' was filmed. Its a huge uninhabitated rock in the ocean called Phi Phi Lay, about 2 or 3 miles from Phi Phi. Its literally just huge cliffs going straight up out of the sea, but as you go round to the side, the sea actually cuts in and forms a beach. Heres a photo from the beach showing the only entrance. Absolutely amazing!

We did this trip twice in the longboats, and went to 'monkey island', where monkeys live wild, but are so used to tourists that they will eat the food out of your hand! We also did cliff diving, snorkelling but mostly just sat back and enjoyed the views. These 'sunset cruises' lasted about six hours, and you have your own boat so you just tell the guy where to go and he'll take you.

We were on Phi Phi for the 'half-moon' party, which was only small enough but definitely worth it! Set right on the beach, with fire jugglers and a decent DJ, made for a great night, and of course the infamous buckets were on offer! I decided to give these another go, after almost losing my mind at the black moon.... well the next thing I remember was swimming in the sea with a load of English and Israelis at four in the morning! STAY AWAY FROM THE BUCKETS!

Three of the lads went home after Phi Phi, two weeks being the most time they could take off work. This is the main reason we travelled so much the first two weeks, just so we could get everything in for these lads. I had managed to get the extra week off work, and although it meant having to fly home on my own, I think it was definitely worth it! The rest of the group were staying for the full month, and are coming home this Sunday, Sept.17.

So after a hectic first two weeks we had decided to stay in the same place for the last week. Seeing as my last night would be Thursday, the night of the full moon party in Ko Phangan, we said we may aswell head over on Sunday and stay for the full week.

We couldnt make it from Phi Phi to Ko Phangan in one day, so we stopped off in Phuket for one night. This gave us enough time to go to a firing range which I thought was great! Whats not fun about firing a shotgun!!

Anyway, after another night out in the madhouse that is Phuket, we got back on a plane back to Ko Samui on Monday morning, and from there got a boat to Ko Phangan. The full moon party is the biggest night in Thailand every month, and Ko Phangan is where the biggest beach party is. So as you can imagine, there was a LOT of people heading that way! It was a bit of hassle to get a hotel but eventually we got some bungalows right down at the beach.

As I said, my last night was the full moon party on Thursday, and with only 4 days left of my three week holiday, I was planning on enjoying myself! In the week running up the the full moon, there is always 'warm-up' parties, so in other words the beach is packed every night and steadily increasing until finally the madness of Thursday finally arrives!

You cant really describe the full moon properly unless you've been there. All the clubs open out onto a beach, which is about 1k long. At one end you have 'mushroom mountain', so called for obvious reasons... At the other, you have an open air club, and in the middle, you have over 20,000 screaming lunatics, most with buckets in each hand! It was an amazing night and the perfect way to finish the holiday.

So Friday morning I packed my stuff and said goodbye to my remaining friends who were staying on. As I left I stopped to think what lay ahead of me. A taxi, then a boat, then a taxi, then a plane, then a taxi, then three more planes, then drive home from the airport.... on my own.... ugh

Well theres no point giving out about it, just grin and bear it! So I jumped in a taxi to the port, and got the boat over to Ko Samui. Once there I got a taxi to the airport for my flight to Bangkok. My flights home were not until Saturday morning, but I had to leave Ko Phangan on Friday or I wouldnt make it to Bangkok on time. It meant having to stay overnight in Bangkok but that didnt bother me.

Luckily I got talking to two English girls in Samui airport who just happened to be on the same flights as me all the way back to London! So I had someone to talk to on the flight to Bangkok, and we went out for a few drinks that night. Much better than having to travel alone! We parted company in London, and I headed to get my flight to Dublin. It was delayed an hour (well done aer lingus...), and when I finally arrived they had lost my baggage!! I got this back eventually, but it was very annoying at the time...

So thats it. For all of you that actually read this far I hope Ive made Thailand sound good, because it really is an amazing place!

Next post should be back to normal, hopefully a big win in poker!

gl

Vegasnights Team Event 3

2006-07-25T17:07:00.000Z

Other than the Fitz game I played on the night of the All-In meeting, I hadn't played a game of poker in almost two months. So when the Team Event showed its head again, I jumped at the chance to play. This has been the most profitable tournament for me, and I almost held a 100% record in it. I had only played it twice, winning it first time, and losing heads up to Iago the 2nd time. In a tournament that attracts almost 150 players, Im very happy with those stats!

Anyway, the tournament had only been on three times previously (I had missed the last one, which Marq won), and it had been played out in the Anglers Rest, a nice little pub about 5 minutes past Heuston Station.

However, that pub had been sold, and seeing as the new owner didn't want poker being played, VegasNights had to find a new home for the Team Event. And this new home was the Grasshopper in Clonee, Meath. This was a good 40 minutes drive for me, but I had a good feeling about this, so the drive wasn't so bad.

Now, in the last two events, I had played for Fistful of Shamrock (FOS), but seeing as most of the lads were in Vegas, I felt it was best to play for one of the other boards teams. I put myself 'for sale' and within a few hours I had gotten offers from 3 other teams! Obviously my luck in this tournament was well known I decided to play for 'the Culchies' as I knew Brian (ntlbell) bell enough, and they had won the first Team Event, so they were proven winners! Interestingly, I don't think we had one player from ouside Dublin, so the 'Culchies' tag was pretty apt! The entry fee had been bumped up from €20 to €50, so the prizepool looked set to be big enough.

It was a team event, so a percentage of the prizepool (and the VN trophy) would go to the winning team. It worked like this; Every team had 8 players, all sitting at different tables. The top 24 finishers got points ( 1pt for 24th, 2pts for 23rd... 24pts for 1st), and the team with the most points wins. The top 9 finishers also get individual cash prizes from €80 for 9th to €1150 for 1st.

Anyway, I made my way out, and took my seat at the tables. There were about 20 tables, so it looked like there were about 150 runners. I looked around my table and immediately recognised Damien Kavanagh, who finished 2nd to Flipper in Citywest last year, earning €70k. To my left was a student from DIT, and Olly's brother was two to his left.

So a decent enough starting table, which is something I actually prefer. I seem to play better against a better standard of players, and don't tend to go on tilt as much! Nothing much to report in the first hour, my stack yo-yo'd a bit but no major hands. I had grinded my starting stack of 5k up to about 8k, when I got three huge hands in a row.

First hand, I picked up AQ and threw in a small raise. Two callers and the flop comes a juicy 10 J K rainbow. I bet big, trying to make it look like I'm trying to steal with a low pair. I get one caller (Damien), and when a Jack hits the turn, I check, hoping to god he hasn't made a house. The river brings a Queen, so now its likely Im either behind or splitting the pot. Damien only has about 5k, so I throw in 2k to see what the crack is. I may be willing to fold to an all in, but it would be a tough decision. Luckily, he flat calls, and turns over probably the best thing I could have hoped for, 8 9 for the lower straight.

Not sure if I played this hand badly or not. I know if I had bet the turn I would have got rid of him, but what were the chances of him having 8 9 after calling the flop bet? It was much more likely he had a pair with a Q after the flop, or possibly two pair off the flop which made a house on the turn. Either way, I think the turn and river were both nasty cards for me, and I was lucky to win the hand the way I played it.

The next hand, I picked up 10 10, and quickly checked. Not usually how I play tens in a multi-way pot, but I felt if I hit a set I could definitely clean up, as I felt this lad down the end was slop-playing something. He hadn't limped into a pot in a while, and had raised every pot that had 3 or 4 people limp into. So, with about 5 limpers in the pot, the flop came down a ridiculous Q 10 10 ! It got checked around, and we saw a J on the turn. I bet out at it, hoping to god the other guy had AA, KK or AQ. Something told me he had QQ...

As expected, everyone folded except this guy who called. I was about to see the river, when I heard 'raise'! Another young lad to my left, who I hadn't even realised was in the pot had decided to raise! I called the raise, as did the other lad. The river came a blank, and when the young lad threw in 1k I raised it to 3k. He only had about 3k more behind. The other guy thought about it and also called the 3k. The young lad folded here, and it was time for the showdown. I looked at the lad and asked 'you got QQ?'....'Yeh' he replied. Lovely, what a read by me I thought! So why did he look so uncomfortable? He answered my question...'You got quads yeh?'

What the ----?? How can he put me on quads here! I showed the table and raked in the pot, but my head was spinning by this lads excellent read. 99% of players would go broke here, but he hadn't re-raised my 3k because he had suspected he was beat. I take my hat off to you sir, well played. I gave this lad a lot of respect after this hand, although unfortunately he never recovered from that hit and went out soon after. Still though, great play.

Before I could get my head around all this, I looked down at my next hand... JJ ! It was folded around to one player who threw in a small raise. He had been playing uber tight up until now, and I figured him for AA or KK. I had worked up to almost 20k after the previous two hands, so I didn't want to piss away everything so fast. I was actually willing to drop this if he bet big on the flop. I don't like playing JJ, and it usually gets me into trouble. Obviously the flop came Jack high, and I nearly fell off my chair! I composed myself, and on the basis that he had an overpair I pushed. He only had about 5k so I had him well covered. Anyway, he called and flipped over QQ! Unreal... another suckout by the luckbox! No help for him, and my stack grows a bit more.

A few hands later I pick up AK, and when it's raised to 1k (blinds 200/400), I re-raise it up to 4k. The student lad behind me pushes for 6k and its folded around to the original raiser. He folds and its decision time for me. Its only 2k into a pot of almost 12k, but Im kicking myself for raising so big. The student was actually a very good player, and I knew he wasn't doing this without a hand. I reluctantly called, hoping he had QQ, or at least KK. Nope, he had the bullets and I had to dog them! A king on the turn gave me some hope, but the aces held out and he raked in the big pot. This dropped me down to under 20k, but still one of the tourney chip leaders. Amazingly, this guy picked up aces again the VERY NEXT HAND. Even more amazing, a while later he picked them up twice in the space of three hands!

A few hands later, I knocked out Damien when my AK was too much for his AQ. He was unfortunate that he didn't pick up the cards to build up a stack, but he was a pleasure to play with.

At the break, I had around 20k, and was close enough to the chip lead. I found out that only three of the original 8 players on my team were left! So, like all Team Events before this, the Team part went out the window pretty fast, and I was playing for the win! It looked like the glory and silverware was again out of my reach. Ah well, looks like I'll just have to win it again and settle for the money!

I came back after the break, and there was about 70 players still in it. We were only back a few hands when I picked up KJ. I called a small raise from the student and saw a flop of K K x. Something told me he had something good, and he bet out strongly at it. He threw 3k into a 1k pot, with only the two of us in it. A huge overbet, but he must have figured I had a hand too, because it looked like he wanted a caller. I felt my best move was all in, and did this. He groaned, shouting 'I knew you were gonna do that!... He didn't insta call so I knew then it wasn't AK or KQ, so I was ahead.

I could see he had a tough decision which meant it had to be AA or QQ. I tried to talk him into a call, but eventually he folded showing AA face up saying 'anyone else I'd call here, but you're hitting everything today'... Indeed I am! Great fold. He looked very uncomfortable, so I showed him the K and I could tell this made him feel a lot better. Normally I wouldn't show, and let the player sweat here, and put them on tilt, but he was a decent enough, and I had been talking to him all day and gave him a bit of respect for folding. This bumped me up to about 25k and I was cruising now.

I moved table soon after and went down to table one. There was a big stack of about 40k, and another lad to my left, another student, had about 30k. There was a foreign girl at the table, who had somehow amassed a stack of about 20k, although she clearly had no idea what she was doing! After seeing her call off 10k on the river with Q high, and suck out numerous times on other players, I wisely decided to stay out of her way! These players scare me!

My stack yo-yo'd a bit, and I grinded up to just over 30k, mostly through stealing with mediocre hands. Eventually I picked up 77 and saw a raise. It was myself, the foreign girl and the student guy (another good player, I thought students were rubbish at poker!). So the flop came 7c 7h 9h... hold on a minute... wtf?? Quads again! I checked it to the foreign girl, who also checked. The turn came the 6h, so now I could lose to a straight flush!... god no.. I checked again, the foreign girl checked and the student guy bet 5k. I flat called and the foreign girl pushed for an extra 2k. We both called the under-raise and I prayed for no 8 hearts on the river. The main pot was close to 30k, and I had about 20k behind me. The student lad was sitting on about 40k.

The river popped out the Qh, a safe card if no-one already had the straight flush. The student threw in 5k to the dry sidepot, and I pushed for 20k. He thought about it and eventually called flipping over the King high flush. He was amazed to see the quads, but in fairness, he should have given me credit for at least a house, if not the ace high flush. I raked in the 40k sidepot, then turned my attention to the main pot. The foreign girl still hadnt shown her cards so I asked her to flip them over. The first was the 8h (oh shit!..) and the second one was... the 2 of clubs! Emmm... ok! Bye now! The table broke right after this hand, and I went back to table 4, the one I had started on.

I dropped down a gear at this stage, as I was sitting on almost 80k, about 15% of the chips in play with 30 players left. With the average chip stack at about 20k I was easily tournament chip leader.One very funny hand happened around this time. Olly's brother was sitting on about 28k, and had been talking about it being 'make or break time', and that he had to make a move soon as he wanted to make the Fitz game which started at 8:30. Olly had been knocked out earlier, and I think he was on the way out to it.

Anyway, he had been pushing every few hands, and obviously wanted to either build a big stack and make a play for the win, or die trying! With this in mind, I joked that if he raised my big blind I wasn't going to let him away with it, and I would push in the dark if need be! It got round to my big blind, and I just threw a chip on my cards without looking at them. He raised it up to 6k (blinds 1k/2k). I threw in a white chip (20K), virtually pushing him all in. He instantly called flipping over A2, eagerly awaiting what the gods had given me! I slowly turned over the first card... an ace! The table groaned loudly, and shouted when I turned over the next card.. a king! What are the chances, I call off almost 40% of my stack in the dark, and pick up AK! go figure! No luck for him and off he went. Sorry mate, at least you outlasted your bro!

Down to two tables and we were in the points... well, OTHER people were in the points, the 'Culchies' were still sitting on Opts! As players got knocked out a lot of people tensed up as they weren't just fighting for a decent cash prize, they were fighting for their team! Luckily, I didn't have this problem and started hoovering up chips and knocking out players, climbing up to over 130K. I had over a quarter of the chips in play with 15 players left! It was about this time that I noticed that the 'Culchies' actually had two players left, and it wasn't long before I figured that another guy at my table was on my team! As I didn't know everyone on the team, it wasnt surprising that I hadnt realised this!

So now we actually had a chance at winning the trophy! all we had to do was both finish really high! I knocked out a lad in 10th and we broke for the final table. I had about 160K, and was just about chip leader. Another guy had about 150K, so between us we had over half the chips in play! We had all made the money, but with €80 for 9th, I was aiming for top three at least. €1150 for 1st looked mighty inviting, but I was more interested in keeping up my record in this event! I looked around the table, and noticed that the student I had beaten with the quad sevens had worked his way back to the FT.

The other lad off my team was there too, just about. We had a small break before the FT kicked off and I went out to stretch my legs. It was about 9:30pm, so we had been playing for almost 8 hours. I took a quick walk and I got myself ready for the FT. I couldn't believe that for the 3rd time in a row I had made the final table from such a huge field. It seems like I get all my luck in this tourney!

We took a look at the points at the break, and it wasnt looking good. To win the trophy, myself and my team-mate had to come 1st and 2nd, and another guy had to come 9th. no pressure then! It reminded me of the first team event when I had the same task when I hit the final table. Me and Paul had to finish 1st and 2nd, and the other guys had to finish 8th and 9th. Me and Paul got 1st and 3rd...

Anyway, the FT started and a shortstack got knocked out pretty quickly, ending our chances of getting the trophy. I wasn't really worried about anyone at the FT except the student. He was the only one with any concept of how to play at this stage, and was playing super aggressive. I decided not to get involved with him without a hand. There was another very aggressive player too who kept raising, but I found it easy enough to figure out when he had a hand or not, and he stopped playing so aggressive when I pushed over the top of his raise with muck.

Down to 6 players, I soon had almost 200k and was dominating the table. I lost about 30k when I had to drop QQ to an Ace high flop, and then lost a huge chunk on the only true bad beat I suffered all day. I picked up AK, and raised it up to 20k (blinds 3k/6k). The student pushed for about 50K total, and I called in a flash. He groaned loudly, flipping over AQ, and wasnt surprised to see AK. The flop brought a pair, giving him outs for a split pot. The turn was a blank, but the river brought the nasty queen. I lost the pot which was over 100k, but was more annoyed at doubling up this lad. He was the only player I was worried about, and he now had chips to play with!

I dropped down to 120K and was feeling super TILTY! I thought about going out for a walk, but with the blinds so high I had to sit there and try to put it out of my head. A few hands later I picked up 99 and this guy raised it up to 25k. I was all over the place, and instead of going over the top of what I knew was the worse hand, I flat called. Bad play by me... The flop came A K 9, so again, my luck saved me! I check raised him all in, and he called with A 10. No help, and I knock him out and move up to about 180k.

The student and the other guy off my team got knocked out soon after, although I cant remember who got 5th and who got 4th. I do remember that I knocked out my team-mate though! Sorry mate, we cant win the trophy, its every man for himself!

Down to three, and a good crowd had gathered to watch. The winning team still had a player left, and he had a good bit of support. I absolutely destroyed them 3 way, and almost knocked each of them out a few times, but they kept hitting cards to stay alive.

I was soon over 300k in chips when this hand occurred. I picked up 6h7h and raised it up to 30k. The other guy raised it up to 70k, and I had a dilemma. He had 200k so he could definitely hurt me. I stared him down a bit, and went over previous hands in my head. He had slow-played all his big pairs up until now, but he hadnt reraised with muck, so it had to be AK or AQ. I called, planning to push on a raggy flop. The flop came 2 4 10, and I briefly thought about the possibility of him holding A 10. I had been watching his eyes as the flop came down, and was sure enough he hadnt hit. I pushed and he took a full two minutes to fold, showing AJ. A little worse than I had thought... how would I have acted on a J high flop?

So now I was up to almost 400k, well in control. I had planned on letting the other two clash and knock each other out, but twice they ended up all in and the pot was split! I picked up KQ a few hands later and called the same guys all in. He flipped over A9, and hit two pair to double up to almost 250K... a big hit for me. The other guy was short-stacked on about 60k, and was staying out of our way.

A while later I had another good hand. I had 36 in the BB. The flop came K 4 9. Check, check. The turn came a 3, but put three spades on the board. I bet out 20K, the short-stack folded, and I saw the other guy check ONE of his cards before calling! Got a spade then? The river came a Qh so I checked into him, guessing he was going to try a steal. He bet 50k, and I got ready to push until it occurred to me... Even though I had him on a missed flush draw, I hadn't taken into account that he may have a piece of it anyway, like As 4c or something. I knew he had crap, but his crap might just be higher than mine. Instead of pushing I flat called the 50k, and he instantly mucked. I showed my 3 6, and he couldnt believe I had made the call, but in fairness, there was some thought behind it.

Anyway, that brought me back up to about 370k and I was big chip leader again. We played on for another 20 minutes before finally we got the chips in. I had dropped to about 320k, and the shorty had about 50k. I picked up 4c8c in the BB (5k/10k), the other guy folded, and shorty made up the blind. We saw a flop of 6 7 A, with one club. check, check. Turn was the 3c. I now had the straight draw and the flush draw. I was going to bet but with blinds at 5k/10k, and he only had 40k, any bet was committing him, which I didn't want to do with 8 high, regardless of the outs. The river came a lovely 5h, giving me the second nuts.I checked it to him, and after some thought he pushed. I called and he flipped over K5. I turned over my straight, and shook his hand. Good game mate.

Heads up now! I was sure I could beat this guy heads up, and with an almost 2:1 advantage I was very confident. 1st was €1150 and 2nd was €850. He offered a deal, where we would take €1k each. I was tempted as I was in work at 6am on Monday, and it was 11:45pm. I told him my past record and said I would like to try and win it... for the glory! He told me if we split it, I could take first place, which was all I was after! So I agreed. Probably not the best deal, but I was wary about spending half an hour grinding him down when I was in work so early, and he gave me 1st place. Anyway, I could have ------ up like I did against Iago and lost it altogether. So Im happy with €1k and 1st.

Another Vegasnights game, another win. I don't know what it is about these tourneys, but I cant lose in them! 3 games; 1st, 2nd, 1st, and over €3k profit from an outlay of less than €100... nice one!

gl

Who needs poker!

2006-07-06T10:47:00.000Z

So.......

An update at last! I havent posted anything in over a month, mainly because there is nothing to write about! I've only played poker live once this month...thats right ONCE. That was the Fitz game which i played after the All In poker meeting which was held. They paid me in so I couldn't say no could I?

The game went disastrous after a luckbox kept sucking out on everybody. Eventually I lost my starting stack to this goon, and realised I had absolutely no interest in rebuying, even though the rebuy was being paid for by All In! I just wasn't bothered sitting through such a low buy in tourney that was being dominated by such clowns...

That was the first game I had played since getting 3rd in the Regency a few weeks beforehand, and I havent played since. Basically, there was a little football tournament on which has taken up most of my time, and tbh and just havent been bothered wasting my evenings playing little €20 and €50 games.

Not to sound like these are too low for me, they aren't, but I'm saving for Thailand and cant afford to piss away money on poker at the moment. If I am going to play I would prefer it was for a buy-in of at least €100, as I think this would get me motivated.

As for online... I think Ive played about 20mins overall over the last month. Totally and utterly lost interest in it, and I cant see myself playing online over the next few months. I just dont see the point in sitting at home, stressing out over online ''''poker'''', trying to grind out a profit, when there is so much more to the summer.

Although the weather is still variable at best, Ive been taking advantage of the days when we do get sun. Barbeques, trips away... theres so much more to life than poker. Yet, when its got you in its grips, you feel like you are having the time of your life. You count the hours until work finishes and you can get home and get a game of some sort... Its not until you go cold turkey that you realise what you were missing...

I took advantage of this, and went to a car show in Birmingham last weekend. Here's a few pics... Who needs poker eh?

There were cars there too.... apparently

I havent even thought about cards, and to be honest, dont really miss the regular games. I think I'll leave off playing until I go to Thailand next month, and once I come back, think about getting a decent BR together for live poker. I think €2K would be enough to have a crack at the Fitz €100 game every week, and maybe finally venture into the world of cash games on a regular basis. Its a long way away, so Im not worried about it just yet.

Overall, Im actually enjoying not playing poker. I miss the extra income, but the summer is too good to waste, so until September it looks like there won't be much to write about! I'll keep the blog updated on any games I do play, and there promises to be a big post after Thailand!

gl

If only I was a better player!

2006-06-02T09:57:00.000Z

The hand that screwed up my WSOP feeder, the one where I folded a nut flush draw when calling was definitely the right choice, got me thinking about my game a little bit.

I figure the best part of my game is easily putting people on hands. I have concentrated a lot on this over the last while, and I've gone from being able to put people on a broad range of hands (high ace, medium pocket pair etc.) to at times calling exactly the hand that they have, sometimes down to the suit ;)

I can't really explain how it happens, I guess I just have a bit of a knack for it. Everybody has their natural strong points in poker, this is mine. It could have something to do with studying a bit of psychology in college, understanding peoples mannerisms and the like. I try to be as observant as possible at the table, and look out for any 'tells' I can pick up. It is usually physical tells I look out for, as to be honest, I'm useless at figuring out betting patterns.

Anyway, my point is, I like to think I'm good at spotting 'tells' and getting reads on players, but my problem is I don't have a clue what to do with this information. In the WSOP game, I had a well above average stack, as did Rounders. I limped into a hand with A7, and flopped the nut flush draw. Rounders bet, I figured he had some of the flop and I could scare him off it. He instantly pushed over the top of my big raise and I figured he most likely had top pair with a flush draw. So top pair with either the K or J of clubs.

As it turned out this 'read' was spot on, he had KsQ. So I've guessed the hand correctly, I think I've played the hand well up until here, so why did I make such a stupid fold? It would have been a bad fold in a normal MTT but in a winner-takes-all game...what was I thinking? You have to aim for first or nothing at all. In the end I scraped onto the final table but never really had a shot after that hand.

And this is not the first time this has happened. So many times I am landed in situations where I will have a good idea of the hand the person is on, and not know how to act upon this information. Sometimes I get it right, as with the 99 vs AA in the WSOP game. I called knowing I was behind, figuring he had KK or AA. I knew if I flopped the 9 I would push and probably get called, which is what happened. Im happy enough with how I played the hand, because if I had check raised the flop or check called and pushed the river, I dont think I would have been called as we both had big stacks. I got it right that time, but I am getting it wrong too often for my liking.

Other times, I will risk my tournament on a 60/40 because I am so sure I have the better hand. For instance, say I have Ax and there is a raise and then the chip leader goes all in. I glance at the original raiser and feel he doesn't have an ace, maybe a medium pocket pair. I am pretty sure he will fold. As for the all-in guy, say I know he is very loose, or I have picked up a tell... maybe he wouldn't go all in with an Ace... for whatever reason I feel he has KQ or KJ or something similar which I am ahead of. Say there has been no other limpers, so I can assume there are still at least 2 and possibly three aces in the deck...

Ok, so I call this guys all in for all my stack. As I predicted the original raiser folds and as I figured the all-in guy has KQ or KJ or whatever. Anyway, he hits his card and I'm off cursing about being so unlucky and the usual...

Should I not be taking these chances? I think I make a lot of plays based almost purely on reads, when I should consider other factors. Stack sizes, blind levels etc should all be taken into account, and at times should fold the better hand and wait for a better opportunity. I get paranoid about being so unlucky because I do go into most showdowns ahead, and when I lose a large amount when I have a slight edge, I get frustrated and feel robbed. "I had the best hand, surely I should win sometimes!"... how many times has this thought gone through my head!

Sure, I do think I am a bit unluckier than other people, but If I learn how to act on reads a bit more perhaps I won't play so many big hands where I'm only a slight favourite. Another thing I've realised is its ok to play a big pot even when you know you're behind! I went into a lot of hands in the WSOP game as the slight underdog, purel because I was constantly in need of a double-up. And I was amazed by how many times I actually won! Fair enough it was a lucky night in some aspects, but I realised that sometimes you should actually go in behind and hope to outdraw... (with the help of Karl and his river button of course!)

In the past whe I have been playing, I would fold a lot of decent hands, say KQ, because I be working of a read that I was sure the opponent had Ax. Even though value was there to call and hope to outdraw, in my mind I would be making the right move purely because I had the worse hand. It doesn't matter that I was only a slight underdog, I would think I was making the right moved based on my reads, which most of the time were pretty good.

I need to loosen up online, and stop playing hands purely based on my reads of my opponents. I think I need to get cracking on some of the books I bought, and figure out how to use this ability more to my advantage, and know when to ignore it.

Maybe I've figured out why I'm so bad at online!

gl

World Series of Poker....so close...

2006-06-01T08:19:00.000Z

I never made it down to the Regency game on Tuesday night, as I had to give a friend a driving lesson. I had planned on going to a game last night, probably the SE, then I remembered that the second WSOP feeder was on.

Like the last time, I didn't really want to sit back and wait for hands, as you need to build a stack right from the start in these games. Its sink or swim right from the start in this winner takes all $10 freezeout, so there's no point in playing to place well!

I had an uneventful first half an hour, and couldn't find a decent hand to make a move on. I was up and down for a while, and wasn't really concentrating too much on the game, as I had hit the final table of a $10 MTT. I was monster chip leader with at lease twice that of the next stack. With 9 left and top six paid, I felt I was in for a decent payday. At least guaranteed money... or so I thought... somehow, even though I had a huge chip lead I went out in 9th! I lost with QQ vs AA against a shortstack, then I picked up QQ again and lost to 10 10 (trips on the turn). The last kick in the teeth came when I flopped a house and was rivered by a higher house.

A mixture of bad luck and bad timing had the result of putting me on tilt, and I was annoyed at not getting any cards in the WSOP feeder, so instead of waiting for a decent hand to push on, I decided to find the biggest pile of crap could find and see if Karl and his magical RNG would reward me! So when I picked up 45s, my chips went straight into the middle... I got called by pocket eights and somehow hit a straight (thanks Karl!) to double up to 5K.

A few hands later I picked up AJ and flat called a raise of 1600 from Rounders. I figured he was on a similar range, and thought I could take him off the hand on a low flop. The flop came low and I pushed. Im pretty sure he would fold A10 AJ here, so when he dwelled up it must have been at least AQ, possibly AK. He eventually folded, figuring I had a medium pocket pair. Good read as this is usually how I would play these, but I was in loose mode and still a bit tilty from the MTT, so I wasn't playing my usual game. Anyway that got me up to 8K. I worked up to about 12K and a short while later picked up KK. I decided to slowplay hoping for a raise. 'Deadparrot', a fellow boardie obliged and raised it up to 4K. I reraised him and when he pushed I obviously called. Close to 30K in the middle, and my KK somehow stood up against his 10 10 and I was doing nicely now.

I drifted down to about 20K before I picked up the hand of the night. I picked up 99 and called a small raise from a super tight player. I figured I was definitely behind, but if I hit I would get paid off. Another lad limped too, so there was close to 10K in the middle. The flop came a lovely 889, and I was first to act. Check, bet, all-in? I chose the latter, figuring the tight player had AA or KK and wouldn't let it go. I was right, he had the aces and no bad beat (again!) and Im up to close to 50K and 3rd in chips with about 40 people left.

There was still a fair few boardies left (Rounders, Brian O'C, Rusty, careca, TheAceFace etc..), so it was looking good for one of us to get a ticket. I dribbled down to around 40K, due to not getting any cards and being at a semi-aggressive table. I lost almost half my stack in a hand with rounders. I picked up As 7c, and when the flop came Queen high with three spades I felt like this could be my hand.

Rounders bet out about 5K, and I felt he had top pair and I could get him off it with a decent re-raise. I added 15K on top and Rounders pushed. Now I was left with a decision. I knew I was behind, but with almost half my stack in the middle and the nut flush draw it looked like I had to call. It was another 20K to win a 90K pot, and I FOLDED...

I was playing scared, and was convinced that if I called I wouldn't hit. Im pretty sure he had top pair with a flush draw, although something was niggling away at me that he had made the flush. If he had top pair with a flush draw it was likel to be the K or perhaps the J, so against KQ or QJ, I reckon it was a 40/60 and I was getting almost 4:1 on my money. Stupid fold by me when I look at it now, but I've had a bad experience going into big hands like this. When I have so many outs I tend to miss, and this has influenced how likely I am to call. If this was live I would have called in an instant, but as it was online I had no confidence I would hit and folded.

This stupid play cost me the game IMO, as I never really recovered enough to have a chance at first. If I had won that hand I would have been big tournament chip leader, with 3 tables left. Instead I was struggling on 20K, while Rounders was chip leader on 75K. Im kicking myself today for not calling, but thats poker... everyone has brainfarts now and then.

I hung in, having to push 4 or 5 times to stay alive. My 60/40 edges held up and I outdrew a few people along the way, although nothing major! Usually Kx beating Ax or something.

By this stage most of boards had joined to watch the table as there was about 6 of us left in the last 18. A few friends of mine had also logged on to watch. The pressure was building as I was struggling to stay alive. Careca was to my left and every time without fail, he raised my BB! Unbelievavly every time this happened I had absolute muck... 23, 35, 26 etc.. I thought about pushing many times, but I didn't have the chips to bully and felt he would call either way, as he had close to 100K. It was annoying because it made it look like I was scared to throw my chips in, but the cards were simply too bad to play.

I was picking my spots with my shortstack and doubling up when needed. Soon we were down to 10, and when Rounders got knocked out in 10th, we broke for the final table. I was shortstacked on 35K, 8th overall. The chip leader had about 175K, so I needed a double up fast!

The blinds were coming around, and at 4K/8K I really needed to get something here. Unfortunately I picked up the monsters that are 23 and 26 in the small and big blind... Big raises and I had to fold... Next hand on the button I pick up Q9, and when its folded to me theres only the SB and BB to act. I push for about 20K, Careca folds, and 'munro' called. He had Ax and no lucky cards for me and I'm gone in 8th.

I was gutted to go out so close to the ticket, and with no commisseration money paid out, I had worked so hard for nothing... Great experience though, and I learned a thing or two about how to play online. Screw all this playing well and ensuring you go into showdowns ahead! In future I'm playing much looser and taking a lot more risks. I won nearly every showdown I went into yesterday and a good proportion of them I went into behind, although other than the 45 vs 88 at the start of the game, never THAT far behind! I got lucky that my big hands held up, and didn't really have any bad beats to give out about... for once! I actually enjoyed the game last night.

Im happy with how I played to get that far, except for the silly fold against Rounders... I only picked up a handful of playable hands all night and only one premium hand, KK. Maybe next time eh...

Anyway back to the game. Soon we lost a few more players and were down to 4, with three boardies! There was Careca, RU$TY, JamesTolland, and Munro29. There was no major action until all of a sudden there was three all-ins! James had KK, Careca had A9, obviously thinking James was 'at it', but unfortunately the CL behind him woke up with JJ.

Careca needed an ace to stay alive or James would triple up and become the CL... until a nasty, sick J appeared on the river! OUCH! Munro29 hits his two outer and knocks out the two lads to go heads up with RU$TY! What a bad beat... that nasty J probably cost him $12,500... ul, gg wp etc...

EDIT: looking at the image, Ive just realised that There was also a flush draw out, so the Jack of spades was no good as it would fill the flush for James...so it was a ONE OUTER. ughghgh....

The heads up didn't last too long, as Munro held a big chip advantage over RU$TY (who we knew was a boardie, but didn't realise until after was none other than Kieran 'Flipper' Walsh).
Munro29, the only non-boardie in the final 4, and the lad that knocked me out, went on to win it, and will now be playing in the WSOP 2006 with $2500 spending money to boot. Not bad for $10 eh...

I'm still gutted though...

gl

(I have images to go with this post but for some reason I cant upload them)

WSOP feeder...

2006-05-30T11:09:00.000Z

First update in a week, mainly due to the fact that I havent had anything to write about... Although some people find my bitching about bad beats funny, I think for the most part its just comes across as being a moany ---- :) So... enough of that for a while then!

I think my earlier post on poker being 'rigged' caused a bit of a stir on boards, or at least added to it. Its interesting that so many players, even good players are still a little concerned about how honest online poker really is. Most people that are playing long enough (me included), don't think that the companies themselves are actively cheating its customers, as they have to move to lose by damaging their reputation.

(However, I do think online is totally different to live. Whether it is the RnG, worse standard of players, more hands, whatever... something is stopping me from making any sort of a consistent profit online, which is why I lose the head so often!)

Although most players don't think online companies are cheating them, it would be silly to think that they cant do it. Also, it would be naive to think there is no cheating online, either player to player collusion, or the new type of cheating, playing with 'bots'. Nicky on boards posted a link to a thread from 2+2 about bots playing at the €20 and €30 STT's. Apparently these were easy to spot, and many posters started to make a list of the 'bots' they had spotted. Party's response was pathetic IMO. The boards thread is here and the 2+2 is here.

Anyway, enough of the conspiracy theories! It would be nice to have a report of a game or two, but other than the WSOP on Sunday theres nothing to report. I got 57th in this out of 300 or so players. $10 freezeout with a winner takes all ticket to the WSOP worth $12,500. Great value ($9500 overlay), but not worth sitting back for. Play to win, or don't bother at all! I had a great start, doubling up a few hands in, and soon worked up to over 8K at the break. Unfortunately I went card dead after the break and couldnt mount any chance to get anywhere.

Amazingly, the lad I was bitching about a while back, 'Deasun', was chip leader for most of it. I never usually publicly badmouth another player, but this lad epitomises everything I hate about online poker players. He's absolutely rubbish, and I mean I don't think he even fully understands the hand rankings yet... He is incredibly lucky, consistently. EVERY time I have played him he has sucked out big time over and over again. Now I wouldn't begrudge a bad player just for being lucky, but this guys attitude is what gets me...

Any time he sucks out on people, he insists on telling people where they went wrong, and he constantly quotes random odds as if he knows what he is talking about... He is convinced that a pair of sevens is 50/50 vs A5 preflop. He will call an all in with any ace, convinced that even if he is up againsty KK or QQ or AK he is '50/50'... He will push any flush/straight draw, no matter what, cannot drop AK post flop, etc, etc...

Now most of the time, this is what you want (well not me, but most online players). But when a player like this consistently sucks out on you with bad play, then preaches to you about where you went wrong, this can be annoying. Especially to a TILT monster like myself...

Anyway, while I was playing this, I was following the other boardies progress in the same tourney, on boards. Everybody that ran into Deasun just kept on getting sucked out! It was sick to watch and I was thankful I wasn't at his table...

Anyway, my tourney was pretty uneventful after the break until I got knocked out, and I left to pick up a friend. When I got back I was sick to find out 'Deasun' was chip leader with 5 left.... aghghh! If he wins this...

Now I don't want to seem spiteful, but he is just such an arrogant w**ker to play against, there is no way he deserved a ticket to the WSOP... All the same I didn't want to be an arsehole abusing him in the chatbox so me and my friend just watched the table.

Reading boards it appears he sucked out big-time on a lot of people to get that far, Thankfully, justice was served and he got knocked out in 3rd... The final two, 'AceAceAce' and 'BabyDod12' had a good heads up bout, before BabyDod12 took it down. €12500 for first, $0 for second. Now THATS a bubble!

Im not sure if a deal was done, but thats some hit to take. Especially as 'AceAceAce' had a 3:1 chip lead going into heads up. Unfortunately he ran pocket 88 into the bullets. ul, wp, etc

Thats pretty much the only game I've played this week, although I'm thinking of heading out to the regency tonight for the €100 freezout. Ive only played this once, and got third, so maybe its good luck. I might see if I can get in cheap again like last time. Ill see if the lads on boards will be up for an STT beforehand!

Hopefully I'll be posting tomorrow about a nice win...

Also, Ive created an excel sheet of my progress over the last six months. Overall Im up almost €5K live, although I'm still running at a loss online. No surprise there then!

Proof at last...

2006-05-22T18:44:00.000Z

Im about halfway through one of the new books i bought... came across an interesting few lines...

This is from "Dirty Poker", written by infamous casino cheater 'Richard Marcus'. He talks a bit about how you get cheated online by both the other players (through collusion) and the card rooms themselves.

"Lets take a look at how the actual games offered by every online poker site work. They use random number generators (RNGs) to 'shuffle and deal' the cards. In principle, unless they are crooked or contain bugs, computer shuffles are closer to being completely random than shuffles in a live action game. This is true because no cardroom dealer performs a totally random shuffle. He cannot obtain that result because he is human and often might just rush the shuffle to the point he is doing nothing more than riffling through the deck, leaving clumps of cards throughout.

However, there can be bugs in the shuffling algorithms. A few years back, a team of computer programmers from Silicon Valley moonlighting as card cheats discovered a means of calculating the precise order of cards in decks shuffled by algorithms used by multiple online cardrooms. Their discovery was hushed, but the fact was that with the application of this knowledge, the cheats knew in advance the hand of each player at the table as well as the future cards to be dealt; either to the players individually in stud games or on board in Hold'em and Omaha games.

The flaw in the algorithm was that the starting point used for the RNG was the number of milliseconds since midnight according to the systems clock. All the Silicon Valley geeks had to do to compromise the RNG was synchronize their programme with the system clock. Online cardrooms today insist it is no longer possible to crack their shuffling algorithms, but I wouldn't want to bet my case money on what they say.

If RNGs are truly random, then over millions of hands we should see a distribution of deals, flops turns and rivers no different than live poker. But I have heard from many sources in the know that RNG's randomness may not be 100% random. A computer whizz I know has run his own programmes to keep track of what goes on in internet poker. He chose one particular major site and tracked a million hands of Texas Hold'em. What he found, somewhat to his shock as he professed it to me, was that the RNGs seemed to be skewed to put more pairs on board and create more flush draws. Although such machination is not directly cheating its playing customers, it certainly can be concluded that biased RNGs benefit the site immensely".

"How? The obvious explanation is that they create more action. When you have an inordinate number of flush draws, you keep more players looking to catch a flush in the pot. Same thing with pairs on the board. They open up possibilities of sets and full houses. Again, more players exhibiting more staying power creates a lot more action. The end result is the creation of bigger pots, which in turn attracts more players to the site increasing its revenues through table rakes of more games. Do I personally believe this is still happening on the major sites?

You bet. Even if the RNGs are skewed by just a tiny amount, lets just say a fraction of a percent, that irregularity will generate millions of dollars of additional revenue for the site over a long period of time".

I wouldn't call this proof by a long shot, but I'm surprised that this sort of an experiment hasn't been done before. We're investing so much money into these online cardrooms, with absolutely no guarantee that we will get a fair game.
If ever there was a book to get you paranoid, this is it...

He goes on to attack all the common replies people who think they are being cheated get...

"You get all the nonbelievers who tell you stuff like "you get wiped out online because your never concentrating totally while playing", or maybe your playing too many games at once... "

Utter crap, as I knew already. I'm so sick of people spouting these reasons for why I can't make money online. I play well, I get my money in ahead, and I lose to bad players making bad moves and getting lucky.

As I am writing this, I am as usual getting horribly robbed over and over and over again...this one is all in preflop.

Why do I bother...the most annoying thing is the big 5 second pause before the river burns you. What is that all about? How do you cope with sooooo many bad beats...

Hopefully someone will do a study on this soon, and perhaps prove once and for all that online poker is utter crap...

The day online poker is banned will be the happiest of my life!

In other news, Ive been chat banned from PPP for a week for obvious reasons...

What a day...

2006-05-18T19:42:00.000Z

As per the title...

Got home from work there, and as I do every other day, I jumped onto PPP. I noticed the $20 4 table freezeout was starting. This is a new game on PPP and it seems to be the exact game I'm looking for. Decent buy in and won't last till 2 or 3 in the morning!

I played this last night aswell, and was unlucky to get knocked out when my JJ was cracked by J 10d. He runner runner flushed me, but it was probably my own fault. I doubled him up a few hands previously after he made a terrible call on a rag flop with AQ and rivered an ace to crack my kings. I gave him a bit of abuse in the chat box and goaded him into calling for all his chips with J 10. Unfortunately I forgot I was online...

Anyway, back to tonights game. I had made a great start and was table chip leader soon enough. Willzer was at the table too. I was sitting in an STT at the same time and I was CL with 4 left, when suddenly the door flew open and in runs my friend to say he's smacked his car into a kerb around the corner from my house and needs a hand moving it!

I give my laptop to my bro, and ask him to play on (he doesn't play much poker but he knows the basics!). I run out to sort out his car and arrive back a while later to find my bro on the final table of the $20 game (only 3 tables started). He hands it over to me and he's doing nicely, 2nd in chips with 7 left. Top 4 get paid with $147 for 1st, so Im sitting pretty. He warns me about the chip leader 'Deasun' who apparently kept on sucking out on people, ill have to ask Will how bad he was!

I noticed I was out of the STT, to which my bro informed me he got QQ cracked by 33 all in preflop, and he rivered the 3. Yep thats online bro... So unlucky to bubble the STT, still going strong in the MTT...

Or so I thought. I called a shortstacks all in with A9s, to which Deasun also called. Checked to the river and I find that my A9 has been cracked by shortys Q9 with not one, but two queens on the flop...

Ah well still got 6K, average is about 5K. Donkey 'Deasun' is still CL, just about when I pick up AA (I know..). I just knew it was going to go pear shaped, so when Deasun raised it up to 600, I made it 1600 (I HAVE ACES OK!). The flop came 8 9 10, I pushed to scare out the donkey... he called in a shot with KJ offsuit. Not only did he hit one queen, he hit two of them.... what do you do? Will went on to get 3rd so fair play... somehow the donkey didn't even win it, he got 4th after having half the chips in play when I left! if anyone sees him online tell him I'm going to eat his children...

Slightly annoyed now, I take a break an drop my friend home, as he had to 'abandon' his car in my place until he can get it fixed. I returned with a fresh head waiting for all the positive variance to come my way!

I sat into a 50c/$1 game with $30 and soon had it up to $50, when this happened... I hate posting up hand histories but for some reason I couldnt get a screenshot. Did I play this badly? I actually thought when he called he must have trips... but no...its online...

[May 18 19:54:27] : Hand Start.
[May 18 19:54:27] : Seat 1 : iharding has $100
[May 18 19:54:27] : Seat 2 : roryc has $48.83
[May 18 19:54:27] : Seat 3 : pokerjo90 has $52
[May 18 19:54:27] : Seat 4 : stop'n'go has $161.25
[May 18 19:54:27] : Seat 5 : and then he has $197.13
[May 18 19:54:27] : Seat 6 : AtoMcPlaboy has $7.50
[May 18 19:54:27] : and then he is the dealer.
[May 18 19:54:27] : AtoMcPlaboy posted small blind.
[May 18 19:54:28] : iharding posted big blind.
[May 18 19:54:28] : Game [56082] started with 6 players.
[May 18 19:54:28] : Dealing Hole Cards.

[May 18 19:54:28] : Seat 2 : roryc has Ah 9h
[May 18 19:54:38] : roryc called $1
[May 18 19:54:43] : pokerjo90 called $1
[May 18 19:54:45] : stop'n'go called $1
[May 18 19:54:46] : and then he folded.
[May 18 19:54:51] : AtoMcPlaboy called $0.50
[May 18 19:54:52] : iharding checked.

[May 18 19:54:52] : Dealing flop.
[May 18 19:54:52] : Board cards [6c 9d 3h]

[May 18 19:54:54] : AtoMcPlaboy checked.
[May 18 19:54:57] : iharding checked.
[May 18 19:55:02] : roryc bet $4
[May 18 19:55:05] : pokerjo90 called $4
[May 18 19:55:09] : stop'n'go called $4 and raised $4
[May 18 19:55:09] : AtoMcPlaboy folded.
[May 18 19:55:10] : iharding folded.
[May 18 19:55:14] : roryc called $4
[May 18 19:55:19] : pokerjo90 called $4

[May 18 19:55:19] : Dealing turn.
[May 18 19:55:19] : Board cards [6c 9d 3h Ad]

[May 18 19:55:21] : roryc checked.
[May 18 19:55:28] : pokerjo90 bet $8
[May 18 19:55:40] : stop'n'go folded.
[May 18 19:55:44] : roryc called $8 and raised $31.83 and is All-in
[May 18 19:55:49] : pokerjo90 called $31.83

[May 18 19:55:49] : Showdown!

[May 18 19:55:49] : Seat 2 : roryc has Ah 9h
[May 18 19:55:51] : Seat 2 : roryc has Ah 9h

[May 18 19:55:51] : Seat 3 : pokerjo90 has Qc As

[May 18 19:55:56] : Board cards [6c 9d 3h Ad Qd]

[May 18 19:55:56] : Seat 2 : roryc has Ah 9h
[May 18 19:55:56] : roryc has Two Pair: Aces and 9s
[May 18 19:55:56] : Seat 3 : pokerjo90 has Qc As
[May 18 19:55:56] : pokerjo90 has Two Pair: Aces and Queens
[May 18 19:55:56] : pokerjo90 wins $105.66 with Two Pair: Aces and Queens
[May 18 19:56:02] : stop'n'go : i had Q9!!
[May 18 19:56:03] : roryc : ???

A9 vs AQ vs Q9... I can't ask for much more coming up to the river than that! Theres only two cards in the whole deck that can cripple me, and of course, one pops out! You have to question the skill level of these players. I mean, stop 'n' go min raised my flop bet with top pair queen kicker. pokerjo called the bet AND the raise with AQ, no draw, just ace high...

When I did hit my hand on the turn I check raised him, knowing from earlier play that he is not good enough to spot that this obviously signifies a monster. I got all his chips in, exactly as I wanted, and of course he hits! It is absolutely sickening! I have now played sixteen pots of over $100 on Paddy Power, and I have won zero... thats right, still never won a pot of over $100 online. I have gone into 14 of them a mile ahead, the other two being AA vs KK. How can you be robbed so much EVERY time? Its ridiculous!!

As if losing the $100+ pot on two outer wasn't bad enough, I had joined the $30 4 table freezeout on PPP. Was only playing a few hands and had built up to about 2500, when I picked up the monster that is Q7. I flop came Q7A, and when another Queen came on the turn I was sitting there thinking "finally... ill recoup my losses!"...emm nope! I got the chip leaders money in on the turn, he flipped A7... not another two outer...

[May 18 20:09:57] : Board cards [Qs 7d Ah Qd Ac]
[May 18 20:09:57] : Seat 6 : angelsight has 7c Ad
[May 18 20:09:57] : angelsight has Full House : Aces full of Queens
[May 18 20:09:57] : Seat 8 : roryc has 7h Qh
[May 18 20:09:57] : roryc has Full House : Queens full of Aces
[May 18 20:09:57] : angelsight wins 5,000 with Full House : Aces full of Queens
[May 18 20:10:06] : Hand is over.

Fair enough I was behind up until the turn but ffs...

I give up... no matter how hard you look at it, its never ever going to be poker...

Current BR $0

Anyway enough of that bad beat moaning, I picked up a few books during the week with my winnings from the Anglers game. I have both of Mike Caro's books already (signed of course!), but to join them i now have...

Hold 'em Poker by Sklansky
Harrington on Hold 'em by Dan Harrington
Bad Beats and Lucky Draws by Phil Helmuth (I know...)
Dirty Poker by Richard Marcus
Breaking Vegas by Ben Mezrich

I hope to use the first two to improve my game, the last three are just for a good read!

good luck...and stay away from Paddy Power Poker!

EDIT: Looks like I'm not the only one who had a bad night at the tables... Paul and Ian are steaming aswell!

Another tourney... another cash

2006-05-17T08:08:00.000Z

I was due to bring out a friend for a driving lesson last night, but when I was arsing about on boards.ie, I noticed that the Antesup lads were putting on a game in the Regency hotel. This isin't too far from me, but I was still a bit wary about forking out €115 for the game. I know I won €700 on Friday, but thta all went on paying off Thailand, so I didn't have too much spare cash knocking about.

Anyway, I wasn't going to head in until I heard that Mike was going to have a 'last longest' between any boardies that headed down. Once more than 5 lads off boards headed down, the player who lasted longest without making the money would win a €250 ticket into Mike's game in Drogheda. This was a nice bonus for the 'bubble', but I was still a bit wary about the hefty €115 entry fee. I would be happier if I could get a few people for a €20 STT beforehand, which would perhaps soften the blow. I posted up about the STT and got a few replies back in agreement, so I set up a game for 7pm. The main game started at 8pm so we had enough time to get a decent game beforehand... or so I thought! It was only myself and Ntlbell there at 7pm, the rest didn't arrive until about 7:30 so TURBO blinds! I'd only brought €40 with me so it was all or nothing!

At 8pm there was still 5 left so we had to double the blinds every two hands! CRAPSHOOT! Anyway, as it turned out we €220 in the pot (a few rebuys), so we agreed €100 for first and second and moneyback for third. Anyway, an uneventful game. I sat back for a good bit, getting muck, then doubled up on aces and sat back again. I managed to split it with Gecko so we both got €100. I paid the €15 reg fee and sat straight into the tourney. At least the tourney only cost me €35 so I wouldn't be too annoyed if I got knocked out.

So... on to the game. Crazy game altogether. A night of absolutely rubbish cards but beautiful rivers! For the first few hours my best hand was 22 and I had only seen three aces. I just couldn't pick up a premium hand to get me going. I started off sandwidged betweet Ehsan (Gholimoli) and White Knight. Ehsan is a great online player, and regularly make Final Tables of the big games. Ive only played with White Knight once or twice before in the BSOP, and he seems a handy enough TAG player.

Anyway, I had planned to stay of of pots with these two as much as possible... there was a much easier ways to build a stack! The standard at the rest of the table wasn't up to much, so hopefully I could pick up a few hands and clean up. Unfortunately I just couldn't pick up a playable hand, and anytime I limped I never hit a flop. Instead of playing loose and trying to force the play I decided to sit back and wait for a hand. The blinds were small and the stacks were deep (5K starting) so there was no rush.

Eventually at the 50/100 level I picked up A9s in the BB, and flat called. It was myself, Ehsan (SB) and another lad who had played a lot of pots with mediocre hands. The flop came A 4 10 rainbow, and when Ehsan checked I threw out a small bet to get some info on the other lad. I was pretty sure Ehsan had muck. The other lad called an Ehsan folded. The turn brought another ace and I had been watching him when it came out and by the looks of it he had hit. I checked and he checked behind, hoping for the board to pair on the river or a 9 to give me the house.

The river came a 7, so I now had A A A 10 9. I felt like he wanted to bet, so I planned a check raise. I checked and he bet 500, into a pot of about 700. I raised it up to 1700, wary that if he pushed I may have to fold. I felt he had ace rag, but if he'd made a house or had a kicker higher than 9 I was in trouble. I didn't think he had the house as he didn't look like he had hit the turn or river, and I don't think he flopped it. Also, if he had a kicker higher than mine it would be AK, AQ, or AJ, which I think he would have raised preflop with. So I actually thought we either both had A9 or he had a worse kicker. A risky move, but I needed to accumulate chips. He flat called the raise and flipped over A5 so my 9 played and I raked in a 4K pot.

I knocked another lad out a while later when I called an all in on the turn with Ad7c on a
5d 7d 10c 2d board. I was pot committed and would still have 3K left if i lost. I hit the flush on the river and beat the other lads 6d 8d. He'd turned the smaller flush, which I figured he had but I wasn't happy knowing 2 outs to the flush were gone as they would make him a straight flush!

No other hands until we broke to two tables. I was still card dead and sitting on around 6K. I picked up AK and raised it up to 2K. One caller and I raised an ace high flop and took it down. Up to a high of 9K I pissed away half of it on a silly play. I was still card dead, and dying to pick up a hand, when I looked down at AQ. I again raised it up to 2K, and the same lad called. The flop came Jack high, and I felt I could take him off with the same raise as last time. I raised 2K and he instantly went all in. I couldn't see how I was ahead so I folded, losing over 4K. He later told me he had Q9. Well played, my raise must have stunk of a missed AK, AQ. Stooopid play by me, throwing in 2K when it had been checked to me. Ah well...

Ehsan made a great call at this table to knock Mike out, calling an all-in river bet with A8 on a dangerous King high board with 3 clubs. Very good call.

I was moved to table one when we got down to 11, and looked down at 99 first hand. Best hand of the night so far, and with only 4K and blinds at 300/600 I had to move. Luckily no callers and Im up to over 5K. I don't pick up another playable hand and sat back until we broke for the final table.

I had 3400 going on to the final table, with the blinds at 500/1K. I needed a hand to move on and fast! UTG I look down to see an Ace. Ready to push on any decent kicker I'm sickened when the dealer accidentally flips my second card, exposing a second ace! ugh... what a time for a dealer f**k up! Ah well, I can't blame him, it was an easy mistake, just unlucky that it happened then. My second kicker turned out to be a 4 so I had to fold...

The blinds passed over me and I couldn't make a move with my blind hands (23, 35), which were both raised, so now I was on 1900, with the blinds moved up to 700/1500. Still more than 1xBB! I waited for any hand to push on, and amazingly I looked down at 92 4 hands in a row! The odds on that are the same as hitting AK 4 times in a row, but I cant remember that ever happening! Finally I picked up the monster that is 10 5 soooted, and pushed. Ehsan raised it up for protection, but unfortunately was called by the only woman that was playing last night. As it turned out he had A7 and she had KK. A 5 on the flop and a 10 on the river tripled me up to 5700 + 1500 blinds. Over 7K so a nice pot to win with 10 5!

I doubled up again soon after when I rivered a flush and grinded my way up to 20K with a few steals. Down to 6 and top four got paid so now we were on the real bubble! If I got knocked out in 6th and White Knight or Ehsan went out in 5th they would win the Drogheda ticket. It was for whoever lasted longest WITHOUT making the money.

Anyway, I picked up 99 in the BB (blinds 1500/3K), and Ehsan raised it up to 10K. he had about 40K altogether, and I felt it was probably a race so I pushed. He called and were looking at a race for 42K with my 99 vs his AQ. An ace on the flop had me sunk, but the magic 9 on the turn saved me! Ehsan went out soon after in 5th in a four way pot which White Knight won. He got a ticket to Drogheda for his troubles, but I think he already had one...

Down to 4 and we were now in the money. 4th = €200, 3rd = €400, 2nd €700, 1st €1400. We knocked out the shortstack and it was now myself, White Knight and the other lad. I doubled up off the other lad with KJ vs K10, and now had the chip lead. Unfortunately my luck ended and I ran into a luckier player in the shape of White Knight! he had already had AA, flopped a poker and sucked out with a 6 outer on the river earlier on, and continued his rampage on our table!

He had quadrupled up earlier on after his AJ hit trips on the flop, and had a decent enough stack. I doubled him up when I called his all in with JQ thinking he had a low pair. I was willing to race, and as expected he had 99. The flop came a juicy 10 K 4 with two clubs. The turn came a third club, and I had the Qc, but somehow missed my 18 outs on the river. I now proposed taking €100 off first and making 3rd €500, as we were all even stacked. The other two agreed.

A few hands later I pushed with 66 and White Knight made a risky call with A8. I'm thinking he did this based on my earlier loose play. Anyway he spiked an 8 on the turn and out I went in 3rd for €500. Not bad off €35! White Knight went on to win it. Well played.

So thats a profit of €1200 this week ($1545 for all you Americans!). Hopefully I can keep it up!

good luck

Anglers Rest €50 Freezeout

2006-05-15T07:19:00.000Z

Ive only played in the Anglers once before, in the team event, but when I heard that this was to be the last game, I said I'd venture out and give it a go. I'd been successful the last time, bagging first, so hopefully I could keep up the 100% record!

I wasn't sure how long it would take to get through town with the traffic, so I gave myself an hour to get there, which unfortunately turned out to be a bit pessimistic! I arrived at about quarter to seven, and as I was the first one there i offered to help Nick setting up. Eventually people started arriving and I spotted a few lads off boards knocking about. I thought there would be a good few lads from boards heading in, because it was the last one, but it turns out that only myself, ntlbell, Scotty and Culchie made it down.

We had a bit of time to kill so we had a few games of pool before registering. I had a look around before registering, and by the looks of it the standard was pretty similar to the last time I played. I recognised a few faces from the last time too... mostly drunken pub player type. I felt that it wasn't going to be too difficult to do well, once I avoided bad beats and brainfarts on my part (i.e trying to bluff a player that will call to the end with bottom pair...).

I joined the queue to register and saw that ntlbell was just behind me. Noticing that we had a fairly decent chance of doing well, I joked to him "wanna do a deal when we get to heads up?"... haha... little did I know how true my prediction would be :)

Anyway, I think we started the tournament with 54 player, so I figured top prize would be between €900-€1200. We had a decent starting stack of 4400 and a nice blind structure so I was looking forward to a good game.

I didn't play a hand for the few while, trying to get a feel for the table. It didn't take long to realise basically everyone's play, something I could never do so fast in a bigger game. It was as if each player was dying to get across exactly what type of player they were. There were two super tight players, two very loose-aggressive lads, and the rest looked like they would play basic abc poker, only playing decent hands, chasing draws etc.

Lovely, I should be able to use this... I sat back not wanting to get involved in any pots where I could get outdrawn and criplle myself early on... My plan was to wait for a monster and slowwwww play! I had built up my stack to about 6K from reraising people when I felt they weren't that strong, but hadn't shown a hand yet.

Then along came my flight...American Airlines 101... aces baby! With the blinds at 50/100, I raised it up to 300 to scare out any limpers. As I'd hoped I got two callers. One tight player and one LAG. I felt the tight player was on either a good ace or a medium pair. I think he would fold anything worse and raise with anything better. The other lad could have anything!

Anyway, the flop came a beautiful A93 rainbow. I was first to act, and quickly checked acting as if I'd missed totally. LAG looked as if he was going to raise, then checked behind me. The tight player then quickly checked too. The turn brought another 9, so now I was praying that one of them had hit. I had been watching LAG when the turn came out, and I saw his eyes dart back and forth between the flop and his left card.... got a nine then?

I decided to try the old double bluff, and represent the nine. I bet out 500, which LAG called after a while, trying his hardest to pretend he had none of it. The tight player got out of there and we were heads up. I was hoping he'd hit his kicker on the river for a lower house, but somehow the river came up the fourth ace! Ugh... if there's anytime I want to hit quads now isin't it! He was clearly scared by the river, and I felt if I checked he would check behind, so I did the only move I thought could get him in... a push. I put on a big act as if I was trying to scare him out of the pot, but eventually he announces "hey everyone here comes the fold of the tournament.. I'm folding a full house! Ohh your lucky you caught that river son".

He grins as if its the best fold anyone's ever seen, when in fact it is an easy fold on a double paired board. Anyway, just to shut him up, I showed the four aces to show that he in fact "caught the river". He wouldn't stop going on about how good a fold that was for the next two hours. Not a great player... somehow he got 3rd :( Also, I won the 'top hand' prize for this, so I got €30 (which I forget to collect!).

So I was motoring along nicely now, and picking up a steady string of premium hands, which is exactly what is needed against this standard of players. It is mostly about playing your big hands well. I had only been showing big hands and tried to work off this image and start stealing a few pots with muck. I picked up 92c and when a few shortstacks limped in, I pushed. Unfortunately table image isint something most of these people think about and I was called in a shot by a pair of threes. No help and I've lost a little chunk of my stack. Ah well, he had the better hand, I just felt that my table image counted for something... not here obviously! So no more stealing with muck!

Just before the break, I had to make a tough decision. The super tight player at the table, min-raised preflop. This was the first time all night he had raised preflop, and only about the fifth or sixth hand he'd played, so i knew he had a premium hand. Anyway, I called with Q4 spades, just to see if i could catch a flop. The flop came Ks Jh 4h, so not a great flop for me, but there are possibilities of making a hand. Its checked around to me so I get to see a free turn card. The turn brings the 5s and the tight lad leads for a decent bet. Its folded to me and I reckon he either has trip fives or Ax spades.

The turn came the 9s, so I'd made my flush, but there was a good chance that I was beat. He led out for 300 into a pot of about 1500, and I thought long and hard about raising. He had about 6K, and I had about 15K so now was a great chance to get ahead. I went over the hand a few times, and felt that my read was probably right based on how tight he had been up until now. If he had trip fives I wouldn't be too annoyed, as I felt he could have either. So I flat called, and announced King high flush, I think I'm behind so i'm not raising. I took a guess at his kicker, figuring it was probably high if he raised preflop, and said "go on turn over your A10 spades". He looked shocked and turned over that exact hand!

I could tell the rest of the table was impressed by this, so I hoped I could take advantage of this later on. In fairness it wasn't all that great a play, and I 'm sure most decent players off boards would have done the same. The fact of the matter is I'm pretty sure I would almost never be able to fold this in a bigger live game, and definitely not online! This lad was just easy enough to read, and there wasn't an awful lot on the line if I was wrong.

I looked around at the break, and I was in the top 3 stacks on about 14K. Ntlbell was doing ok and Scotty was about average I think. Culchie didn't seem to be getting the cards and was struggling on just under 2K.

Im at about 14K at the break, which was well above average. After the break I continued on where I had left off, chipping away and building my stack. We broke down to three tables and Scotty was moved to my tabled. I was sitting on about 25K. I picked up AQs and when Scotty pushed for about 17K I was left with a decision. I havent played with him too much, but from what I knew I figured it was a race at best. I should have folded but instead I donked off most of my stack to him... total brainfart... He had 99 which held up and I was down to 8K. I played my shortstack very aggressively and somehow built up to over 60K soon enough!

It took a while to break for the final table and we were sitting on 10 players for a good while. I had fallen to about 55K at this stage, but was still up there with the chip leaders. It was taking a while to lose the bubble, but finally we broke for the FT and I had bang on 50K.

I drew seat one for the FT, and Ntlbell again joked about us doing a deal once we got heads up! He only had about 20K, so he needed to do a bit of work to get far. And that he did! I think he went all in the first 6 or 7 hands in a row! Most of the times he was taking the blinds, but at 3K/6K that was a nice steal! Finally Scotty decided to call him with A7. I think he was BB, and shortstacked. Unfortunately for him Ntl had pocket tens and knocked him ou in 9th.

I was totally card dead on the FT and just sat back waiting for a hand while ntl took out players. When we were down to 6, I called an all in with A4 when in was my BB. The blinds were 3/6 and it was only an extra 5K. The small blind called too, so there was a decent pot of over 30K. The flop came QJJ. SB checked, I checked. Turn came a 4. Now I had a decision. I only had about 30K, and the SB had me covered. I bet out 8K into a dry sidepot, which he flat called. The river came a J, the SB checked, and as i didn't want to commit myself, I checked aswell.

My house of Jacks over fours won and I raked in the 50K pot. I was back in business now and we were down to 5. A while later Ntlbell got nice and lucky when his A9 cracked A10 and i think a pair of sevens. It was a good call, and he was unlucky that his ace was dominated, but I was just happy that he knocked out the other two players!

Down to three and it was myself, ntl and the lad from earlier who reckoned folding a house is such an amazing fold. He kept on saying "im lucky i got this far, if i didn't make such an amazing fold earlier on i'd be gone..." etc, etc. Ntl was huge chip leader, but I got a bit back raising his BB every round. Finally the other guy decides to push and I decide to call with K3. It was about half my stack but he made it clear he didnt want a caller, and true enough i had his 10 3 dominated. No bad beat and we're heads up.

We took a little break and for the first time actually discussed a deal. We both agreed there wasn't enough in it to warrant a deal and we'd play on for the glory. I had a 100% record on the line ffs!

We started back and ntl had about a 3:2 chip lead so there wasn't much in it. I soon took the lead with some aggressive play, but ntl soon started playing the same. I then went card dead again, and had about 6 or 7 hands in a row where I got absolute crap. With the blinds at 7K/15K I couldnt sit back and wait for a hand. I was looking for a hand to make a move, but just couldnt find it. Ntl on the other hand was getting hit in the face with the deck. Aces twice, AK, AJ etc.

I finally picked up 37c and tried to raise to pick up the blinds. He flat called and I needed to hit the flop. Flop came K22, and I bet out hoping to represent the King. He flat called again, and I now had half my stack in the middle. The turn came a blank and we both checked. The river came a queen and I saw him glance at his cards. I felt he had hit the queen and the only way I was scaring him out was to represent the King. I pushed, and he called in a shot with KQ. D'oh!

Ah well. Well played ntl, the cards went your way towards the end, and I made the wrong move at the wrong time!

Still €700. Not bad for a day's work, although I'm annoyed i didn't retain my title! I got the holiday paid off, and I'm happy with how I played, so its all good! I withdrew another €300 from the online account, because I've had a lot of bad beats the last two days, and I think my run of 'no bad luck' is coming to an end! Ah well, i dont take online too seriously, and I'm chuffed I actually made a profit the last few weeks.

100 days till Paradise...

2006-05-11T07:03:00.000Z

Booked my holiday there at the weekend. Three weeks in paradise... or Thailand as its also known! I had been planning on heading over to Vegas for the WSOP, but unless I win a ticket that doesn't look likely... Next year...

Anyway, so I'm heading over to Bangkok on the 19th August... exactly 100 days from today. We havent really sorted out a plan yet, but it looks like we'll stay in Bangkok for a few days, then probably travel down to Phuket and Phi Phi and hopefully hit Koh Samui if we can. We should be able to fit a full-moon party in there somewhere too!

On the poker front, im still grinding out a good profit from $15 and $25 STT's and 50c/$1 cash. I'm still buying in short to the cash tables, but I plan to start buying in for the max $100 soon enough. I'm up over the $500 mark so I can afford to lose a buy-in or two now.

Im very happy with how online is going this week. Ive been getting the odd bad beat, but luckily they are coming when I can afford to lose chips. I've been having a great run in the $15 STT's, and I reckon thats where most of my profit has come from. I'm tempted to withdraw a good proportion of my money, for fear of losing it, but thats what I've always done in the past. I'm going to end up reloading anyway, so why not just keep this going and see how long it lasts!

Current BR: $542

Days until Thailand: 100

Update

2006-05-09T17:43:00.000Z

I've started keeping an excel spreadsheet of my results year to date, and tbh, I'm pretty surprised at the results! I knew I wasn't making much online, but I was shocked to find that my profits for the ytd totalled.....-€78! I've been going up and down like a yo-yo, and when I counted all my lodgements and withdrawals, it turns out that Ive got a total loss of -€78!

Of course this doesn't include the tickets I've won, but Im still a little surprised. Since January I've lodged €978, and withdrawn €900. Ive been lodging €100's and €50's here and there, and withdrawing whenever I hit a few hundred. Most of my losses have come from bad beats in cash games, which is fair enough. I shouldn't be playing them if I dont have the BR to be able to handle the beats.

Ive never bothered with a proper bankroll, and I can see now why you really do need one. Now I'm not to bothered about this, because I only play a few hours a week, and wouldn't look at online as a major source of income.

My live income is looking a lot healthier. Ive played around 12 live games this year, for a total outlay of €335, ive got a return of €4,125. This is due to a few nice wins in the SE and the Team Event. Its a long way off the $10K I made last year, but I hope to play a few big live games this Summer so...

Anyway, I'm happy enough with how my live game is progressing, but I really need to sort out a proper plan for my online play. So with that in mind, I lodged €200 the other day to see how much I could build it up to. I wasn't willing to lodge more than that, so it was looking like I would be buying in short to cash games. Obviously not a good idea, but hopefully I would build up to a decent BR soon enough.

I was playing $15 and $20 STT's and 50c/$1 and $1/$2 cash games. I was making a nice profit until I had a nasty beat on the 50c/$1. I had bought in for $50, and worked this up to just over $300. There was one luckbox at the table who had cleaned out a few players and was sitting on about $350. I was happy enough with how I was playing, and overall the standard wasn't great.

I lost a few pots by giving to much credit to my opponents, when the best play I find is just to wait for good hands. I only bluff when it is very obvious that the players have missed a draw. I have found that 50c/$1 and $1/$2 is very beatable, although I ahave only played for a few days, so its not much to go on.

Anyway back to the hand. We were 3 handed, and I picked up AA (lol yes its one of those...), and raised it up to $20. Super loose player flat calls which could mean anything. We see a flop of 2 4 6. Im thinking of raising to $50 or so, but this player is so loose that I think he is bad enough to call a push if he has hit any of the flop. I know its risky and its not exactly a cash game move, but I'm too used to tournament play... so I push.... for an extra $300 into a $40 pot!

Now i know this is probably bad cash game play, but tbh i was happy with the $40 and didn't want to get outdrawn.

Anyway, he called in a flash with K6. The rest of the is irrelevant, as all bad beats are, but I'm still unsure as to whether it was a silly play. I just wanted the $40 in the middle, and knew that if he did call (which I knew he might) I was probably ahead.

So $667...almost. Obviously I was annoyed, moreso as he left straight after without giving me the chance to win it back! The money would have been nice to start a bankroll with but unfortunately thems the beats...

Anyway, a few more bad games and I'm down to $100, but Ive since worked this up to just over $300, playing cash games and STT's. Hopefully I will work this up a bit more, and maybe have a crack at $2/$4 in a few months. I think I could give it a shot now, but it would be silly to jump levels so fast.

I havent played much MTT's, other than the odd $8 and $10 game. One thing that has cost me a lot has been disconnects. Eircom is acting the bollix again today and I cant seem to last 10 minutes without disconnecting. I thought it was just me but it seems everyone I know that has Eircom Broadband is constantly having trouble with it. I don't mind the odd disconnect but when you have raised for $70 out of your $100 stack with KK, and then get disconnected and come back to find you have been raised out of the hand... it can be annoying.

Anyway, here's hoping I've a proper BR in the near future...

Current BR: $364

5 in a row? almost...

2006-05-03T08:08:00.000Z

Finally, it seems as if this nasty run of luck has ended. Well I'm hoping so anyway! Looking back over the last few posts, I'm annoyed at how much of a moany f**cker I am when I'm on a bad run. It just really does my head in when I seem to be playing good poker, but I'm not getting any results.

Everyone gets bad beats, its a part of poker. It the TIMING of mine that really get to me. I can handle losing to a one outer at the start of a $3 MTT, or to a shortstack that cant really do any damage. But it seems that all my bad luck seems to be coming deep into a tourney, when I have a decent stack, and I run into a donkey with a mountain of chips. Most people love having these idiots at their table, because they can outplay them and take their chips.

I must be doing something wrong because anytime I seem to get involved with these people, I usually get it in with the best hand, but invariable the board kills me. I don't know whether I should just avoid clashing with these players or what, but clearly something has to change, because I seem to be getting knocked out of every tournament lately by players who I think I should be beating. Im getting the cards in ahead, and although sometimes I am just a marginal favourite, none of my hands seem to hold up. The most annoying was just missing out of the Drogheda feeder, when numerous times I should have taken a ticket. Ah well... I'm due a bit of variance now!

Anyway, the reason for the whole change in the tone of posts, is that the last few days I probably had my best sessions ever online. Not based on the amount of $$$ I made, but just by the fact that for the first time ever, I actually got to play some real poker.

I only had $8 in my PPP account, because I had lost my BR last week (only $100, as I had already withdrawn most of it). I had lost almost all of it in cash games, either getting sucked out or not being able to drop KK to AA (twice). I think I can beat the 50c/$1 and $1/$2 games, but I have to build a bankroll that can take these bad runs. Its not to difficult to make money playing ABC poker, and most times I sat down I would usually double or triple my buy-in before going bust on one big hand. AA vs KK lost me a few hundred, and I lost a $350 pot when I caught a straight on the turn and lost to the higher straight.

There was a few bad beats in there for $50+ pots, but for the most part the pattern was usually the same. I would slowly gather cash, until I was landed in a big pot with a tough decision. Invariably I lost basically every big pot, either through bad luck or running big hands into... bigger hands. Another thing was I was buying in short to these games. I know this isin't good as you should'maximise profits, not minimise losses'..etc... but I only had a small bankroll an wasn't willing to risk it all in one cash game. I usually built myself up to the max buy-in within an hour or so anyway. I also wasn't willing to drop down a level just so I had the max buy-in, because I couldn't seem to make a profit against the super-fish that swim at these levels.

This seems to be a big problem of mine. I play my best at the higher levels, but I dont have the bankroll for these. I don't have the bankroll to play these because I am not willing to invest much money in online play because I've had such bad experiences with it in the past.... hmm... going around in cirlces here! Something has to change...

Anyway, as I was saying, its Sunday night and I had $8 in my account. I wasn't planning on lodging any money until next week, as i'm pretty skint at the moment. Ive had a lot of expenses this month (new catalytic converter for the car, deposit for holiday in Thailand, tickets for Hi:Fi etc.), so I couldn't afford to throw any money into PPP until I got paid.

So I had $8 to work with... I jumped into a cash game and got this up to $11 soon enough, so I had enough for a $10 + $1 STT. I normally wouldn't play these, but I was in dire straights! Anyway, thankfully I won this and had about $40 to work with. I threw $25 + $2.50 into a $25 STT, and the rest into a cash game. I won the STT and got $112.50, but lost the $15 or so in the cash game. No surprise there then!

On a nice winning streak now, I decide to go all out and play a big game. Theres a $50 + $5 f/o MTT starting so I jump into that. This is the highest game Ive ever PAID into on PPP... which tbh is ridiculous. I just havent got the confidence online to fork out over $50, when I'd much prefer to go down to the $50 game in the Fitz/SE, and at least enjoy what I'm doing! But this will have to change if I want to actually make money online...

anyway, I was running nicely in the $50, and I saw that there was another f/o MTT starting, $20 this time, so I jumped into that. There was about 90 players in each, with the top 9 being paid in both. I got down to the last two tables of each, and I was above average stack in both, and for the first time ever online I was actually enjoying myself!

I wasn't getting particularly lucky, but more importantly I wasn't getting unlucky. Raises were being respected, and I built up an image at the table, something which which I wouldn't even bother doing at the lower levels. I was watching the other players, and for the most part they seemed to know what they were doing. At last! Obvioulsy there were still a few fish at the table, but for the most part the standard was what I would expect in a $50 game.

Anyway I got knocked out of this soon after in 18th when my AQ didn't hold up vs J9... a terrible move by the other player as we both had about 4K, with the average at about 6K, but it didn't really matter as I enjoyed the tourney. I felt I could actually play my game, and not constantly be worrying about bad luck and bat beats etc...

I was shortstacked in the $20 game, but picked my spots and after a few double ups, I creeped onto the final table with about 14K. The average was about 20K, but it was very disproportionate. The CL had about 70K, another lad had about 40K, and there was 4 players with 5K-10K. With the blinds at 1K/2K, it was push or fold for more than half the table...

I played a bad game at the final table, because I was playing scared. I would normally play for 1st, but the money looked so inviting that I was merely hanging back hoping a few shortys would get knocked out and bump me up the ladder. 9th was about $55, and 1st was about $550, so there was a big difference! The money was top heavy as usual, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd taking almost 70% of the prizepool. 3rd was $222, 2nd was $370, so I was hoping to sneak into the top three.

My plan actually worked, and I just kept folding until we got to 4, making the odd push here and there to steal the blinds. I doubled up twice in quick succession with QQ and AK, and knocked out 4th place at the same time. I now had 50K, and a nice stack to work with. I robbed a few pots and was soon up to 70K. The other lad had about the same, and the shorty had 40K. They had clashed a few times but the shorty kept on getting lucky and pulling through.

Anyway, we played around for a bit until I picked up Ad10c. I raised it up to 10K and it was flat called by the CL, who had a few grand more than me. He flat called and we saw a flop of 77Q with two diamonds. I checked, as did he. Turn comes Jd, so Ive a nut flush draw, and a straight draw, but am probably behind so I check. I would call a 10K bet here but not much more. The river brings a low diamond, so Ive made the nut flush, and I lead with 10K. He raises it up to 30K, and now I'm left with a decision...

His bet screams of a house, and I've only got 20K out of 70K invested. If I fold I would still be left with 50K, more than the shortstack. If I flat call, Ive still got 30K left, which is still playable. So what did I do? I went all in... he called instantly with quad sevens...D'OH! What a brainfart.

So $222. Not bad, but I'm annoyed at how badly I played the last hand. I couldn't put him on quads, but my instinct was screaming that I was beat. At worst he had trip sevens, i think thats what I was trying to make myself believe. Ah well...

I checked my account and I had €201 so I quickly withdrew €200 before I did anything stupid! I could do with the money, so I was happy with how the games had gone. I was out Monday night, and sat down on last night to see if I could pull another miracle with the $1.76 I had left. Somehow I built this up to $6 in a cash game, and was aiming for $11 to play a $10 + $1 STT, but unfortunately I lost it all when my JJ was cracked by AK.

I felt I was playing well though, so i lodged €50 back into the account to see if I could beat a few STT's. I did a little more than that!

I jumped into 2 9 player STT's, a $10 and $15. I wasn't concentrating on them too much, as Lost was on TV, and I must admit I'm a bit of an addict... I ended up winning both games, and jumped into another 2 of the same buy-in. Somehow I won these two aswell, and at this stage it actually clicked that I had just won 4 in a row! I dont think I've ever won more than two in a row, but somehow I had just won 4! I though back to see if I was mistaken, which wouldn't have been to difficult as i had been concentrating on the TV more than the laptop, but my cashier confirmed that it had gone up exactly the amount of 1st in two $10 games, and 1st in two $15 games.

I decided I had to try for five, as I didn't actually think it was possible! A proposition bet on boards earlier this year was based on something similar, after Amaru had claimed he had won 5 games in a row on PPP. tbh I didnt believe this could be done, but here I was after winning 4! I wish I could say it was unbelievable skill or luck, but from what I can remember it was just a matter of grinding out to try and make the top 3, and then playing for 1st.

Anyway, I must have jinxed myself in the 5th game, because I ended up getting 2nd... :( I was playing sooo cautious the last game, and there was one player who kncoked out basically every other player. When we got to heads up he had 15K and I had 3K. Unfortunately I had no miracle comeback and thus ended my attempt at 5 in a row.

Funnily enough, once I started thinking about getting five in a row, my attitude totally changed. There was so much more at stake that I wasn't willing to take risks that I would normally take. In fact, Im pretty sure that if I hadnt been watching TV I wouldnt have gotten past the second game. It was only because I wasn't concentrating fully on the games that I could play each one as a separate game. The minute I realised I'd won four in a row, I f**cked up. So I found the secret to winning steadily online... TV!

I played another two STT's and manged to get 2nd and 1st in these aswell. These were different than the other games in that I doubled up early and sat on my lead until we were down to three. Still, thats easily my best record ever online. 1st 1st 1st 1st 2nd 2nd 1st. I made a lovely profit from it, but I was only playing $10 and $15 games, so it wasn't nearly enough for what I had just accomplished. I wanted to keep on playing through the night, but bed was calling and I had to be up early for work... I cant wait to get home today though...

EDIT: Mr 'Anonymous' wants proof so here it is... you can see the four in a row, and the 3rd in the $1500gtd. Oh and 'anonymous', please stop pestering me, or at least have the balls to post under your own name ...

when will it end...

2006-04-28T09:57:00.000Z

... this is getting VERY tiring now... Having had a great start to the year, making the top 10% in basically every tourney I played in, the last two weeks have been absolutely disgusting. I've played the Fitz Sunday €30 shorthanded, the Fitz €50 DC, and a handful of online tourneys and cash games. The results have been similar in every game....

bad players, bad beats, no $$$.

It all culminated last night when I played the $15 rebuy on PPP in the hope of bagging a ticket into the Drogheda game. I didn't plan on re-buying, so I had to build a decent stack from the start. Only 20 players started, so it was looking like there would only be one or two tickets.

As it is with rebuy tourneys, the play was very aggressive from the start, and I doubled early on when my house beat a flush. All the chips went in on the river, which is what I love the most... O% chance of being outdrawn... the only odds that seem to hold up for me!

I doubled up again soon after, again on the river, when I made a good call with middle pair against a super-aggressive lad. He had Ace high (?) and I was soon up to 8K. I stayed out of trouble until the we got to the FT bubble, and knocked the last lad out to start the final table on 15K, 2nd in chips with the CL on 22K. The shortstacks got knocked out fairly lively and soon we were down to 5, with 2 tickets on offer (nothing for 3rd...). Exactly $600 in the prizefund.

I hung back a bit, robbing blinds here and there, and not wanting to get involved too much. I doubled up and knocked out a shortstack with the nut straight, and was soon up to 30K with 4 left. A few hands later picked up J3 on the BB. The SB completed and we saw a flop of J45 rainbow, I raised about 4K, and he hesitated for a bit and flat called. I felt he didn't fancy his hand too much, so when the turn came an offsuit 2 i pushed. He had about another 10K left and took a while to call with J9. Nice play. I think he did think he was behind, as he took a while to call my all in, but there was 10K in the middle and he was getting pot odds to call. I think he would have folded if he had more behind, as I had a tight image and he was a good enough player to fold top pair.

Anyway, baack down to 15K four handed, and I soon took out another player to bring us to three handed. I had 30K and the other two had about 25K each. With only two tickets and nothing for 3rd, it was bubble time...

A few lads off boards came to watch at this stage, and I was confident I could get a ticket. I just missed out on a big cash the last time I played Drogheda, and was looking forward to getting another chance. My plan was to hold back and not make any stupid moves, and hope the other two would clash. There was a yoyoing of everyones stack and after a failed bluff, one of the lads was shortstacked at about 10K. I was on about 32K, and the other lad had moved up to about 38K.

Finally the shortstack pushed, and the other lad called. Shorty had KJ and the other lad had AK. "no Jack no Jack!" I shouted at my screen... Unfortunatley he caught one and doubled up...ffs. A few hands later they are both on about 30K and both push. Lovely! One of them has to go out! It hink it was 10 10 vs AQ or something, but it didn't matter as the board brought out a flush...SPLIT POT...jesus thats twice now the ticket has been grabbed out of my hands...

Nothing happens for a while but two of us have been stealing every blind from the AK lad, who is soon shortstacked to 15K. He eventually pushed and is called by the other lad. I cant remember the exact hands but the shortstack was behind. Now it was his turn to get lucky and a miracle river AGAIN stopped me from getting my ticket... three times now...

I have been staying out of the action for the most part, and the other two have been respecting my raises, but when I pick up KK, I am left with a decision. I was going to slowplay, but I was SB and the BB was super aggressive and I felt he would be annoyed if I min raised. I did, and as expected he pushed. Lovely... please dont have an ace...

He flipped over AJ, and my stomach turned knowing that if he got lucky again here, I was down to 2K. "no ace no ace no fcuking ace please, one fcuking time LET THE BETTER HAND WIN!!" I was out of my chair shouting at the screen...

First card out....a big fat Ace... When is this horrible string of bad beats going to end!

AGHGHHGHG!! No more help and I'm down to 2K. Next hand I pick up 10 8 and as im big blind I'm basically all in already. I get called by 64, and a six on the flop ends my tournament.

I was really looking forward to Drogheda, but yet again, luck is the deciding factor in me not winnig. Jesus I would love one bad beat free day... just one day of normal poker. So sick of getting rivered out of tournaments on bad beats. All week its just been one after the other. ..How can I play against this!

Cheers for the support at the final table lads, but you can see now what I'm up against... you just cant beat luck sometimes.

Another day another dollar... or not

2006-04-26T16:28:00.000Z

Another report, I'll make this a short one. Made it down for the 50 DC in the Fitz, hoping for a decent game against a decent standard of players. I spotted a few boardies as I was registering which is always a good sign. I started off at table 4 but was moved to form a new table after a few minutes.

I recognised the player to my left from the Fitz €270, and Will from boards joined the table not long after, so it was looking like the standard would be good enough. Unfortunately, I think the bus for clown college broke down outside because the table then filled up with a crowd of them! Of the eight players at my table, 4 of them had never played in a casino before, and for one of them it was his first time playing live. Lovely...

I knew that all I needed to do was build up a nice chip lead and then slowplay the big hands to get maximum value from these players. After a bit of table banter at the start, it was instantly obvious to myself, Will and the player to my right, that these players would be a rollover. I tried to keep my head clear, and accumulate chips early. However, some of the stuff happening with these beginners threw me completely...

Within the first half hour, the girl at the table, one of the newbies tried to cash in her chips... Then we had this hilarious hand..

Player 1: how much are the pink chips?
Dealer : as I told you earlier, 500
Player 1: emmm...check
Player 2: see check
Player 3: i'll raise 200
Player 4: i'll see your two hundred and raise you 200 more
Player 2: your 200... 200 more... how much are the yellow ones?
Player 3: I'll call you all in...
Dealer: you cant raise only 200...actually Player 4 you just flat called... emm...Player 3... emm... ffs...
Player 1: how much are the pink chips?

The poor dealer was havin a field day trying to explain the basic rules of poker to these people...Unfortunately, I lost a good chunk of my stack from basically giving to much credit to one of these fish. I called a preflop raise with 66, and saw a flop of A43. The pot was about 700 at this stage and the original raiser bet... 50. I could see Will grinning at me at the stupidity of the bet, and as expected, I raised it to 500. He instantly folded, but then fish number two decides to call... Shit, I'm probably behind here. Theres no flush draw, and I dont think she would bet without a pice of the flop. She has about 700 left, and thers about 1800 in the pot. An ace hits the turn and as I'm first to act I check it, thinking if she pushes Im gone. I dont think she's good enough to pull of a bluff without it showing, as she has been unbelievably easy to read up until now. She checks too so I'm confident now she doesn't have the ace. Almost definitely a 3 or a 4.

Unfortunately a 4 lands on the river, and she thinks about it for a while before betting 500 (out of her stack of 700...). A lot of the time I will pay off an ace here to get info on the player, but as I was confident she would show I saw no point in paying her off. I folding showing the sixes saying "nice hand", and as expected she showed her hand.... 3 9! I was about to say very nice, thinking she had totally fooled me, when I realised something. She may have thought her 3 was good... I couldn't really put her on 39 after calling for almost half her stack on the flop... with bottom pair 9 kicker! My own fault for giving her too much credit I suppose.

She was knocked out a while later, mainly due to donating most of her stack to Will who raised all the way to the river (with NOTHING by the look of it) and she folded after blatently missing her draw. I caught up with her at the break and as i had thought, she did in fact think her threes were playable. I then pointed out that because there was already two pairs on the board all she actually had was aces and fours with a nine. So my sixes were good.
"Ah I understand... so it was a split pot? "...D'oh! I've nothing wrong with beginners playing poker, its not too long since my freeroll days... but why do I keep running into them!

I don't know how to play against them...I lost another 600 trying to bluff into one of these and was down to 1200 at the break. My own fault really... never bluff into a beginner! Its such an obvious rule of thumb. Don't try to bluff a bad player, as they will call you down with bottom pair, as in the above hand...

I caught up with Will and DocO at the break, and found out DocO had been knocked out..haha! Ah sure I was on the way out too...

Came back after the break and was ready to push on any playable hand. Picked up 10 10, pushed and took the blinds. Then I picked up AJ in the BB, and called the SB's all-in. He held J9, and of course flopped a 9. Yet another showdown I go into ahead and lose.. ah well! i cant wait for all the positive variance that's on the way!

Down to 200, and I have my jacket at the ready. I doubled up to 400 with Ace high, and then tripled up to 1200 when my 85 flopped two pair. Doubled up to 2500 when I pushed with 77 and was called by the chip leaders A6. No luck and I finally win a showdown! Robbed the blinds and the table was then broken and I was moved to the table where Mark (kinaldo on boards) was dealing.

It wasn't long before he commented that I was easily the best player left right? ... ok, now I realise that my previous post makes me sound like a cocky fucker, but the standard last Sunday was actually that bad... and there was only 20 odd players, so its not really saying much that I felt I was the best player there. It was more because I was annoyed with not cashing in a tournament where the standard was that bad...

I would never make the same claim in the tournament I was at last night. Fair enough, my starting table was pretty terrible, but for the most part the standard was what I would expect from a €50 game. Mark's table was a much better standard than the previous two, and thankfully it looked like most of the donkeys had been knocked out. I sat back for a bit, and didn't play a hand until I pushed with AQ. My raise was respected and I picked up the blinds (600). Up to 3500 now, and still a bit shortstacked but definitely in with a chance. Sat back and observed the play for a while, waiting for another hand to make a play with. For the most part, the standard was a lot better here, and I could see that I could start to build a table image, something that is pointless at a table full of donkeys.

The blinds passed over me, and i soon picked up AQ. I think there was two limpers, and I pushed for around 3000. It was folded around to the last limper, who thought about it for ages and decided that K10 offsuit was good enough to put 3/4 of his stack in the middle...

The pot was about 7000 so all I had to do was avoid a bad beat and I would be right back in with a decent stack. The flop came J9x... turn x... (at this point I asked Mark nicely not to fuck me over on the river. He reads this blog, he knows I am a moany cunt when I get rivered out of a tourney, ESPECIALLY after the week that I've had...). Unfortunately Mark decided to add insult to injury, and flipped over a nasty fecking King on the river. Cheers Mark!

So... another tourney, another bad beat, another blog entry without a win... hello variance... I'll have you now please.

Here we go again...

2006-04-24T17:50:00.000Z

I had a few weeks of 'normal' poker but it looks like its back to crap again...

Played the Sunday €30 freezeout in the Fitz. Absolutely amazed at how bad the standard was. Oscar runs a good tournament, and there was nothing wrong from that end, but jesus christ... this was probably the worst standard of players I have ever played against! I started half an hour late, but turned my starting stack of 3000 into 9000 within 15 minutes without showing a hand. The players were actually that bad...

I then got a beaten on the river by this donkey with a two outer and this knocked me down to about 2K, but I soon built my stack up again. I moved table and soon enough we were down to 3 tables. I had built my stack up to about 14K and was probably tourney chip leader. 3 more bad beats and I'm out. I went into every hand ahead and didn't make a single mistake all night, so I'm happy from that end, but I won't be playing this tourney again. Its not worth the effort of having to get by so many idiots for just a few hundred quid. The thing that annoyed me the most was that there was a few players there that I actually thought were good players, but they made some absolutely terrible plays which I just couldn't make sense of.

I like to think I've improved a fair bit from my freeroll days, but I never thought I'd see the day when I'd sit down at a tournament and know I was a easily the best player there. I absolutely walked all over them yesterday, the only thing stopping me from taking it was the usual bucket load of bad beats. Its so annoying when you play the best you can and get your chips in ahead 100% of the time, and still get outdrawn by some donkey... ah well, I just have to learn that luck plays such a huge part in poker sometimes. The unfortunate thing in poker is that the best player will not always win a tournament. In fact, as tournaments get bigger, the chances of the best player winning gets smaller and smaller. What are the chances of a pro winning the WSOP this year? I wouldnt bet on it. Hopefully it will be a decent player, and not some luckbox (wouldnt be the first time...).

Its probably my own fault for playing such low limits. From now on I don't think I'll bother with tournaments under €50. I'm also going to start playing more €100-€200 games. Anyway, with this in mind I went home and jumped into a cash game. I've moved up to 50c/$1 and have yet to find any decent players. It is so easy to make money playing abc poker... Dont limp in with anything. Raise with big hands. Go all in with the nuts. There are so many donkeys online that the only thing that will stop you making money doing this is bad beats... as I found out. I wont bore you with the details but suffice is to say I have lost three huge pots in the last two days, all on the river, all to one or two outers.

I am embarrassed to say that I have never won a pot over $100 in a cash game online. To my recollection I have been involved in about 9 or 10 pots over $100 (three in the last two days), and I have lost them all either on bad beats, or marginal hands such as the one below, where I get it all in with KK and run into AA.
The money went all in here on the flop, and maybe I'm just not good enough yet to fold KK on this flop, but the fact that the A6 went all in first says it all... I really worry about the intelligence of some of the people I play against. I dont know whether its just a side effect of pokers growing popularity, or whether pub players are starting to venture into casinos and online, but it seems that the general standard of players has gone down immensely. Has everyone moved up and left me behind?

What am I meant to do? Move up to $1/$2? $2/$4? I am dying to play against a decent standard of player. I know everyone loves to play against fish, but it just does my head in... I win pots, build up a big stack, but it always ends the same way. I run into a donkey that has somehow built up a large stack, I manage to get all the chips in when I'm a mile ahead, and lose to a bad beat. I don't mind this, but I can count on one finger the amount of tournaments I have been knocked out of where I have gone out with the worse hand...

Its times like this when I wonder why I play online. I still get zero enjoyment out of it, but for some reason I think its worth the miserable few euros that I make from it. It just really annoys me that luck has to play such a big part in poker. Id estimate that Ive lost about 90% of the profit that I should have made because of bad players getting lucky against me. The whole luck thing does my head in. What is it people say.. Aces lose to Kings one in 4.5 times... bollix, it should be more like one in 20... I know its ridiculous to moan about odds but why does luck play such a big part in poker? You cant fluke a 147 in snooker, you cant fluke a 9 dart finish in darts, you wont see Saudi Arabia fluke the World Cup... yet the biggest donkey in the world can walk into a casino and fluke his way into 1st place... what a game.

By the way it embarrasses me to say I can actually relate to Phil here...

BSOP final and Fitz €20 rebuy

2006-04-20T07:00:00.000Z

BSOP March Final

I organised the March Final of the Boards Series of Poker for last night. We were obviously due to play this in March, but its so hard to find a time and day when everyone's available. I think the structure of it is going to have to be changed if we are going to keep playing it.

Anyway, I sorted it out to play it last night at 8pm in the Fitz. Myself, Ollie and White Knight had made it through our heat, and we were meeting Iago, Hyzepher and Davey Devil in the final. The other heat never managed to get their heat played. I tried to find a day to suit all 6, but unfortunately Davey couldn't make the day that was easiest for everyone else.

So last night, I set up the table and decided to make it deep stacked to get a decent game out of it. I gave everyone a starting stack of 3000 with 20 minute blinds starting at 25/50. I thought this would make for a decent game. Unfortunately, it didn't really turn out as planned...

The FIRST hand of the night, I pick up 5c6c and limp in. Everyone limps in and we see a flop of K34 rainbow. Not a bad flop for me, but I'm not planning on risking a lot with just an open ender. Hyzepher opens with a bet of 100, which is quickly called by Iago. I also flat call, and I think Ollie and White Knight fold. I don't think I was calling any bet over 200 here.

Anyway, the turn brings a beautiful 7. Lovely! At this point I thought Hyzepher had a decent hand, maybe AK. I felt Iago had two pair, maybe K3 or 34. It didn't look like either had hit the turn, not that it really mattered with me holding the NUTS! The river was a 9, so now it was just a matter of maximising value on the hand. Hyzepher opened for 300, which was raised to 600 by Iago. I felt there was no point in messing about, and pushed. Hyzepher quickly called, and the decision was now on Iago. Ollie and White Knight were having a great laugh at this stage! Two all ins on the first hand! Iago finally ended up calling aswell...

Hyzepher KK
Iago 44

Absolute madness... I set up a deepstacked game with decent blinds and we get 3 all-ins on the first hand! Sorry lads... I'm rigged. Was looking forward to a decent game too. Ah well! Down to three and we were already on the 'bubble' after only one hand! Deal anyone? lol! I had a 3:1 chip lead over the other two, and the obvious thing to do was play aggressive. I did this, raising almost every pot (sometimes before looking at my cards!). It was working until I went over the top of White Knight with an all in holding J3... he called with JJ! D'OH! I almost got lucky with a straight, but unfortunately my aggressiveness and stupidity doubled him up...

We messed about for a while and I was pushing every few hands when I felt neither of them had anything. I was picking up the odd nice hand and doing the same, pushing hoping one of them one think I was stealing. Eventually this worked when I pushed with AJ and got called by Ollie's K10. My hand held up and we were heads up. I took control from here and pushed White Knight off a few hands with super aggressive play, and soon enough it was all over, with me taking 1st. Not the most exciting game I've ever played, but I'll take the glory anyway! And the €250 ain't bad either...

Fitz €20 re-buy

This had just started when we finished the BSOP game, and because there was only 4 tables, I said I may aswell give it a go. I started off very good, making some good calls against weak opponents. Other than Norm, the standard at my table was terrible. I've never played this tournament before, as its got such a small buy-in, and because I'm not mad about re-buy tournaments.

In one hand I picked up K7 in the BB and got in for cheap. The flop came down KK9, and I threw in 300 after in was checked around to me. It was folded around to Norm who pushed for about 2K. Normally this would be an insta-call, but Norman knows me, and knows I won't push with muck. Also the check-raise screams of AK or KQ. I already had 300 out of 1500 in and I still had outs to split or win the pot. I eventually called with the usual line "sure its a rebuy... I may aswell!" (I'm pretty sure in a decent buy-in game I'm folding this here). As expected, Norm turns over K10. I actually thought he was stronger than this, but he's still ahead. I can tell that everyone at the table is pretty surprised with how long I took to call... so at least I've gained something if I lose the pot. The turn brings an 8, and I hit one of my 6 outs on the river (9) to split the pot.

Im motoring along nicely now and triple through against two very loose/weak players when I slowplay my trips into their obvious overpairs. I lose two big pots with AQ, both times vs KK on a Queen high flop, although I should have gotten away from the second one, as he was a total rock. I got my top up at the break, and came back with about 4K. Unfortunately, the cards dried up again, and for over an hour I couldn't find any sort of playable hand. This happened the last time I was in the Fitz at the €30 f/o, and it really tests your patience...

There was a young Indian lad at our table that clearly had somewhere better to be, and he started raising blind every hand. This is fair enough, it makes the game a little more interesting! However, its not cool to announce every hand "I'll make it 1000 on the blind.... I'll make it 2500 on the blind...". What, are we meant to think your cool because you can put you chips in without looking at your cards? omg your brilliant...

This idiot kept on doing this and grinning as if he'd just re-invented the wheel... I was dying to pick up ANY hand to take him on... He sucked out on someone with muck and doubled up to table chip leader. A few hands later I look down at 44, and I'm saying that I'll probably push if this idiot raises, as he could have any two cards, and I'm willing to race against two overs as I need a double up to be in contention for a good cash. As expected he does his usual "I'll make it 1000 on the blind...". I'm about to push when Norm gets in ahead of me! Shit... I look at Norm and I know he doesn't have a strong hand. He's giving the impression of strength, but I can tell he's not holding much. After a LOOONG dwell up I finally fold, mainly because I know that the other idiot will call with anything, and while I would fancy my chances vs Norm or the other lad, I don't like my chances with 44 in a three way pot.

The idiot calls with 79o... Norm has 33! He is ahead until the river when a nasty 7 falls to knock him out. He's not too happy to be on the wrong side of a bad beat (for once!). This lad continues raising blind until a big stack moves to the table and knocks him out. I'm annoyed I didn't get the chance to double up off him...all I needed was a hand. Ah well...

I still don't pick up a hand for another half hour, and my stack dwindles down to just over 2K. I find A8 in LP and its an autopush. Unfortunately the BB wakes up with AK. We see a flop of AK4, and it looks like Im leaving the Fitz early after another card dead night... I put my jacket on, and we all have a little laugh when an 8 hits the turn... This laughter turns to shock when another 8 hits the river...ffs. The smallest buy-in tournament I've played all year, and I get the luckiest I've gotten in a long time! Why couldn't this happen in a big game!

I'm up to 5K after that lucky hand, but unforunately the cards don't improve. I get up to 10K on an all in bluff, after a raise and a reraise from two medium stacks. I knew that due to my being card dead, these players thought I was a rock, and I must have the goods. Also they were medium stacks and my stack would do a bit of damage. We were down to 10, and just about to break for the final table, so it was a calculated move on my part that paid off.

I was looking forward to the final table, because even though I was shortstacked, I had built up an image of a tight player, which I could start to use now. I also had respect from a few of the players who had been on my table all night, as i had guessed a few hands right, and it just so happened that I was right every time! I correctly guessed the exact hands of three players who had ended up all-in earlier, which definitely earned me respect at the table. I think reading players hands is easily the best part of my game, which is probably why I don't like online play so much. If only I could improve the other parts of my game, I think I could be a much better player. I'm not great at spotting betting patterns, and I've no real clue about bet sizing. These are two aspects of my game I HAVE to improve.

We had 9 at the final table with 6 being paid, from €70 for 6th, to €800 + €100 credit for 1st. I had about 12K, and the chip leader had about 40K. We were soon down to 8, after the two chip leaders clashed with QQ vs A9, after he spiked an ace on the flop. The CL then knocked out 8th, and we were on the bubble. Gecko from boards was a railbird, and the shortstack was his Dad (i think!). Unfortunately he went out on the bubble!

In the money now, but I was aiming for top 3. I doubled up with KK against the chip leader and was now up to 20K. A while later I picked up QQ and beat AJ all in preflop. An Ace on the flop had my heart racing but a Q on the river sealed his fate. The very next hand I look down at AQs, and the other shortstack pushes ahead of me! When it rains it pours eh... He has AJ and my hand holds up and we're down to 4. Im second in chips now, but feel I can bully this table if I am aggressive. The remaining players are good enough, but I feel I can outplay them, as I have a fair idea of how they play. I start raising big preflop and steal the blinds for a while and buld my stack up to over 50K.

Unfortunately I then get a visit from the stupid fairy... I pick up A8h and limp in for 3K (blinds 1,5K/3K). The flop comes 982 rainbow, and the SB pushed for about 20K. I picked up a tell on this lad earlier where he tapped his chips on top of each other when he didn't fancy his hand. I had seen him do this twice earlier, and both times he had a medium holding. I felt he had J8/Q8.
With 9K already in from the blinds, and him pushing for another 20K, I felt I was ahead.

I called and he flipped over K9, saying "you're ahead... A9 right?"... emmm, no... What was I doing? I think I was right in my read on him, as he really did think he was behind when he saw me debating a call. However, what I didn't factor in was that I had only shown premium hands, and the chances were if I was debating a call I probably was ahead. A bit confusing I know, but basically I mean that I never thought about what image he had of me. I was right in thinking he didn't want me to call, but I never thought of how my tight image would raise my hand value in his mind.

Anyway, I din't hit my A or 8, and I'm down to 30K. The next hand i pick up 99 and raise it up to 10K. The BB thinks about it, and eventually flat calls. The flop comes KQx, and he bets 10K... ----! I think he's gone in with K5 or some muck, and have to fold. Down to 20K now, and when I pick up 66 I instantly push. Not a bad move 4 handed, but totally tilt induced. The CL calls with AK, an ace on the flop and thats all she wrote. Out in 4th for €200, and very annoyed for not getting further. Probably the worst final table I've ever played. Sure, I came back from shortstack to get to almost chip leader, but I should have walked all over them 4 handed...

Ah well, €450 profit for the night, and a few points on the BSOP leaderboard!

I then went over to the roulette wheel to donate some money back, but strangly I actually won... In a moment of madness, I tried to put the whole lot on red (€450!), but unfortunately the max bet was €250. Taking this as 'bad luck', I ended up throwing €200 on 3rd 12, €200 on 2nd 12, €25 on the middle column, and €25 on...... black :) Oh and of course €1 on 7 (lucky number!) and €1 on zero...just in case! Total outlay of €452...

The ball spun around and I was beginning to regret putting any money on in the first place..."WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING RISKING ALL MY WINNINGS!".... I was about to reach for the chips and take them off when the dealer shouted those fateful words "NO MORE BETS!"... its in the hands of the gods now...

around and around it spun.... bouncing from red to black... finally landing on 1! aghghh Ive lost it all! No wait!" Its bounced into 20! I've won on everything! The dealer fetched my winnings, €725, and I realised how close I had come to losing it all... one little bounce of the ball and I'm €725 richer... one bounce the other way and Im down €452... crazy

The thing that freaked me out the most was... what if the croupier had allowed me to put the €450 on red? I would be cursing my luck that the ball rolled out from number 1 into horrible number 20, and cursing and my stupidity at making such a bet... Instead, I'm driving home with a smile on my face, and €725 richer... funny game that...

Irish Open Final

2006-04-18T13:06:00.000Z

I've been following the Irish Open on Antesup and boards over the weekend, and was lucky enough to be invited to the final last night in the RDS. I arrived at about 7:30, and left my phone in the car, as you weren't allowed have one inside. The security was very tight, as you would expect with €1 million at stake! The final table was being televised live on Sky Sports at 9:30.... oh... and there was free beer! We were greeted at the door by this...

Met up with a few boardies and had a good laugh at the prerecording of the introduction to the programme. I wasn't sure as to how the game would go, as I had never heard of any of the players, although I had watched John Wong play on Sunday, and he seemed to be a decent player. He had netted 4th in the €400 rebuy on Friday, so he was definitely one to watch out for. I also found out the the shortstack Paul Daly, was the uncle of a girl I know...

The game kicked off just after 9pm and there was a good atmosphere in the hall. The free beer helped that along! It's weird watching a televised game when you can't see the cards, and a lot of people became bored pretty easily. The blinds were so small that it left a lot of room for play, and when you can't see the cards it can become boring. However, myself and a few of the other boardies were enjoying discussing hands, which I found a lot more interesting because we wouldn't know the answers until we watched it back!

One major hand which we were discussing was where Melinn and Smyth saw a flop of 52Q (2 diamonds). Melinn bet out 50,000 which Smyth called. The turn brought a Q, and Melinn bet out 100,000. Smyth thought for a while again and flat called. The river brought another 5, and Melinn bet out a finall 100,000. A clear value bet IMO. My thinking was that Melinn had AQ and Smyth had 99 or 10 10. I discussed this with Rob who felt otherwise, based on Melinn's earlier play. However, as it turns out, Melinn had AQ and Smyth had 99! Hit the nail on the head there :). We analysed a few hands like this, but its tough to come to a result when you never see the cards!

There was a break every 10-15 mins, for the ad breaks, or when someone got knocked out. It wasn't too long before Daly was knocked out, after his A2 failed to hold up vs Ruane's QJ. We lost Smyth not long after, after he got a visit from the stupid fairy, pushing with 53o. Unfortunately he ran into Ruane's AK and out he goes in 5th. I think he'll be regreting that today... there was absolutely no need to push, the blinds were small and he had enough chips to wait for a hand. This is me in the white top... Down to 4 and I was waiting for Wong to get involved. He is a very aggressive player and by the looks of things was just card dead. He made a few moves but Melinn kept on going over the top of him, forcing a fold. Unfortunately, when Wong finally did pick up a hand (A10) he discovered that poker can be a cruel game... He went over the top of Melinn's 80,000 raise, trying to force a fold. Unfortunately, Melinn felt that A9 was good enough to throw the extra 500,000 in with! We can all guess what the river was.... I felt truly sick for Wong, who had to give an interview straight after. Terrible play by Melinn IMO. Looks like the best player at the table won'r be the winner...

We had another break after Wong got knocked out, another chunk of the audience made for the exit. I knew I was up early for work the next morning, so I didn't plan on staying much longer. Hopefully there would be some more action soon! Only myself and Rob remained from the boards contingent, as the rest of them had headed down to Jury's to watch the game. I thought about going down, but felt I could learn more if I didn't see the hands!

I bumped into Roy Brindley on the way out tho the toilets, and had a chat with him for a few minutes about the game. Nice bloke. I also spotted John Wong sporting an oversized cheque for €70,000! I congratulated him, and made my way back into the hall. The game dragged on a fair bit, as there was nothing between the last three players. Each had about 1 million in chips, and with the blinds at 15k/30k, there was no need to make any silly decisions.

Rob left at about half one, and I said I'd stay on for a short while longer. Unfortunately, there was no major action for the next hour, and I left at about 2:15am, and raced home to catch a little bit at home. By the time I got home, Ruane had just been knocked out and we were heads up. With work at 8am, I couldn't stay up to watch the end, but found out this morning that Melinn went on to win it. Fair play, a nice return off €3K! Although I still feel Wong was very unlucky not to get further. Had he won that hand, he'd have had over a million chips, and with his aggressive style, I think we'd have been in for a much more aggressive game!

Still a great night. Good experience for next year when I make the final table...

Mike Caro in Trinity

2006-04-14T07:54:00.000Z

I've been looking forward to this all week, Mike Caro - the 'mad genius' of poker- goving a seminar in Trinity College. Raced into it after work, but due to horrible traffic on the way in, didn't make it until 6pm. The talk started around 5:30 but I dont think I missed much.

He gave a very good presentation, including a slide show, and answered some questions at the end. I took a lot from what he said, although I think his example's were above a lot of the audience!.... "say you have $4,500.... say on any given night your down $20,000.... who did he think he was talking to! Most of the audience were students mate! Knock a few zero's off the end of those figures if you want them to be able to relate!

I bought both of his books at the end, and managed to get him to sign both. I got a laugh out of him, telling him I'd have them up on e-bay by that night! I look forward to reading them, and putting some of his tips to practise.

Patience pays...sometimes

2006-04-13T10:05:00.000Z

I decided to head down to the Fitz Tuesday night €50 DC game. This suits my bankroll nicely at the moment and I plan on making it my regular weekly game. I think I have a better chance of cashing in the €50 DC in the SE, as the players are A LOT weaker there, but unfortunately I'm in work at 6am on Fridays, so Thursday night poker is pretty much out of the question.

Bumbed into Careca before the game, and I spotted a few other familiar faces as I went to take my seat. I wish I could write an interesting report, but unfortunately it was the most uneventful game I've ever played! Didn't really play a hand other than the blinds up until the break. Just kept on looking down at 24, 37, 23, 46... etc... you know the feeling! Its very frustrating having to fold EVERY hand, but patience is a virtue needed by any good poker player. You wouldn't see Andy Black losing his cool over getting a bit card dead!

Still, I'm an impatient fecker at the best of times, and I was finding it hard to stay focused. The more frustrated I got, the worse the cards seemed to get! The main thing that was keeping me in some way focused was the fact that the same thing happened to me in the SE a few weeks ago, totally card dead... down to 1 big blind... ended up winning it. "Patience Pays! Patience Pays!", kept running through my head...

Eventually the break came and I went downstairs to cool off. I bumped into the lad that I split the Team Event with a few months ago, he told me he was captaining the Anglers Team for the next game. Looking forward to this one!

Anyway, came back after the break with a clear head, ready to take all the positive variance Pokah had for me! He was a bit late and I still didn't get a hand for the first hour after the break... I had built up an image of SUPER-ROCK at this stage, which is funny because I'm usually pretty loose in these games. The cards I was getting were just too bad to play. I limped in a few times with muck just to play a hand, but never hit anything or was raised. I was beginning to get annoyed now, and was down to 1800 from the starting 3300, purely from the blinds. I was ready to push on any A, K or Q, when lo and behold I look down to see aces! lol go figure, the best hand I had seen up until then was Q2o. Ah well, I'm not gonna complain! I was going to push, but decided a limp might be valuable, as everyone was expecting me to push on any decent hand! We had already had a bit of a laugh at my constant folding, and I'm sure some of the players had noticed my frustration by now!

So I limped in, and it was folded around to the blinds. The both completed and we saw a flop of J44. The SB led for 500, the BB raised it up to 1500... ah shit! I pushed, thinking that one of them had to have the 4, and cursing myself for letting them in so cheaply. I didn't care at this point... The SB folded and the BB reluctantly called, turning over J7... ok.... no help for him and I'm finally in the game on a decent 4K.

I go over the top of a bet and a raise a few hands later with 35 or something, feeling that neither player had much, and knowing that as both were decent enough players, my super tight image would get me respect. They folding, the secong player showing JJ... lovely!

Up to 6K after playing two hands, I was doing ok now. The only problem was I was still getting absolute muck! I tried to ignore it, reassuring myself I still had 6K and was above average in chips. I didn't play a hand for another half an hour until I picked up AJ. I raised it up to 1200 (blinds 150/300) and folded to an all in from a tightish player who I had picked up a small tell on. Thankfully it was a good fols, and he showed QQ.

Nothing more until I picked up QQ and was thinking about how to play it. I was EP so I limped in, probably a bad play, but it had paid off on the aces earlier, and i felt if I had a good flop I would be in great shape for another double up. I think we had six limpers! It got around to the button, who decided to go all in. The SB called in a shot! damn... it was folded around to me, and I thought about it for a while and eventually folded. The button showed 99 and the SB had AK. Feck I really am playing too tight...

Fortunately the 99 rivered a straight, so I would have lost. Still terrible play on my part though. I thought I had a decent read on the SB, thinking it was AA or KK, but was off the mark there. Even if I had raised preflop, which I should have, I probably would have isolated with the AK and doubled up... D'OH!

Nothing more until I picked up AK UTG and stole the blinds with an all in. Card dead for another long period, with the blinds now eating up my stack. I know it sounds like I was getting nice cards, but other than AA,QQ, AK and AJ there was NO OTHER HANDS! I usually play any two picture cards, suited Ace or King, suited connecters etc.. but I was getting NONE of these. Just had to try and be patient and wait for a hand.

Unfortunately, with the blinds going up I couldn't wait forever. I had dropped to 3K, when I picked up K3 in the SB. It was folded around to me, and the BB already had 600 of his 1600K in the pot, so I felt he would call with anything. I pushed and he called with 89. An eight on the flop and now I was down to 1500. With blinds at 300/600 i was looking for any good hand to push on. I picked up K10h and pushed. Folded to the BB, chip leader who called with Q7. Flop came KQx. Turn Q...ugh. river x. Ah well. A bad end to an uneventful night!

I had a brief comeback with the aces but never had a chance to get going. Patience got me to 19th, but unfortunately being card dead for so long made me play tight when I did pick up a hand. I am learning to be a more patient at the table, but nights like this still frustrate me a bit. I play poker mainly for the enjoyment and the challenge, so I don't like sitting at the table feeling like a spectator. Ah well, hopefully next week will be better!

On another topic, I got a refund this week of $54 from Paddy Power during the week. This is from the $100,000 gtd game I won a ticket into. There was a problem somehwere in th system which caused the site to keep crashing, to the extreme annoyance of a lot of players. Thankfully PPP kept up their tradition of excellent customer service, and it looks like everyone that deserved a refund got one. I'm happy as i had won my ticket in a $3 feeder, so I'll happily take $54!

My account had been empty as I had withdrawn all but $50 last week, and had lost that $50 in a cash game (the $300+ pot I lost... D'OH!). I hadn't been planning on lodging more money in till next week, so I was happy to have another bit of $$$ to play around with. I had a good run on the STT's and soon had this up to over $100. I decided to have a go at a $6 speed tourney last night. I know these are a total crapshoot but they are fast and the prizefund can be big enough for a $6 game! Sure enough after rebuys the prizefund was good, with 1st taking $1,300. I had a great start quadrupling up with JJ, but the blinds go up so fast you have to keep doubling up, doubling up etc... once the cards dry up your fcuked! i was in the top 10 for most of it, but unfortunately didn't get the cards at the end and finished 43/350 with top 27 paid.

Just as this finished another $6 opened, smaller amount of players, not a re-buy. I joined this and planned on playing the same, super aggressive. There's so little skill involved in these... Anyway I was playing an STT at the same time and wasn't really concentrating on the MTT. Whenever I saw a good hand it was all-in! Soon we were down to the bubble, with top 27 paid. Squeezed into the top 27, then top 18, then final table.

Sitting at the FT, I noticed that with the blinds at 5K/10K, only 4 players had above one big blind! lol ridiculous... Players were dropping like flies, and I made a few pushes with AQ and KJ to knock out shortstacks. Top three was decent money, so I started to take this seriously now. Soon we were down to three, and after the shortstack got kncoked out, we were heads up. Blinds were 20K/40K, I had 60K he had about 130K. First hand I was BB holding 6 10 or some crap. All the chips went in and he turned over KK. haha ah well.

No help and I finished 2nd for about $175. Nothing to be proud of poker-wise, its a total crapshoot, but I'll take the money anyway! Finished 2nd in another STT, and ended the day with over $300 in the account. Not bad from $0! thanks PPP!

Update

2006-04-10T05:11:00.000Z

Think its about time I start evaluating my play, and recording how I am getting on. It would probably be best to do this every three months, and see if I am in fact improving! I will split this into both a live and online update, as I see both as being such different games.

Live
I couldn't be happier with how my live game has been going this year. I've made the top 10% in every live game I have played this year...until last Sunday when my 'record' was cruelly cut short with my AA getting cracked by J10 in the Fitz €30 shorthanded game. Ah well!

The only problem I seem to have at the moment is not playing enough live poker. I'm lucky if I play one game every two weeks, which is doing my head in... The Sporting Emporium is becoming an ATM machine for some players, and if I hear about Paul winning any more money from there... Other than my disastrous debut, I've only got down there twice since it opened, spliting the €50 for €1K and getting fifth the other time for €100. After the nice win at the Anglers Rest Team Event in February, I'm up about €2,500 so far this year from live tournaments, although I dropped €350 of this to a super-fish in the Fitz when I STUPIDLY decided to give a cash game a go after a night on the piss... a costly mistake.

I'm still missing a big win to set me up nicely for the summer. Last year I hit the jackpot when I split the Fitz €270 for €4K just before the summer. I haven't even played this game in months... I'm facing a BIG decision in the future, because it doesn't look like I can continue the job I'm in and play as much poker as I want to play. I'm only in this job a few months, but it has cutback HUGELY on how much live poker I can realistically play. I'm not talking about 'pulling a Nicky' and quitting my job to play poker, but I feel like a job in the poker industry with more night hours would suit me better. I'm NOT a morning person... and definitely not a 6am morning person! (as I'm writing this it is 6:34am... COFFEE please!) I won't be doing anything about this for a while, but it has been at the back of my mind since getting this job.

Overall, I am very happy with how my live game is going, and I definitely feel as if I'm improving in leaps and bounds. I am placing well in almost every tournament I play in, and I am starting to notice that I am a lot more suited to shorthanded play. I noticed this last week in the Fitz shorthanded game, but I've always known it was one of my strengths. I have never placed 2nd, 3rd or 4th in a big live tournament (other than freerolls!), yet I have 6 wins under my belt. I feel a lot more comfortable when there are fewer players at the table.

Online
Online 'poker'... where to start? After I took a long 3 or four month break from this I decided to give it another go, with proper bankroll management. The first week of my 'comeback', I managed to pull in about €500, easily my best week ever online, which says a lot! Since then, I have been making a steady profit, although I lost a good chunk of it last week when I couldn't fold the 2nd nuts on the turn in a $300 pot... I'm obviously not THAT good yet to fold this! I didn't have a great week last week, finishing 6th in the Drogheda feeder (two tickets), and also finishing 288th out of about 900 runners in the $100,000 gtd on PPP last night. This was in some way down to the servers on Tribeca constantly crashing.

There was uproar on boards.ie as players were losing chips due to play continuing while a lot of players were away from the table. This was ultimately how I ended up losing. I was sitting shortstacked on 4K and the blinds were just about to hit me (600/1200). The system crashes for about 5 minutes, and I come back to find myself with 1000 left, in the small blind... my K7 doesn't hold up against JQ and Ive gone from being shortstacked with a chance of a comeback to gone. Fair enough, I din't have much of a hope, but I'm still angry about not even having a chance to comeback. What is more annoying is TWICE during the game, I went all in with the nuts after a raise... connection gone,... hand doesn't count! Grrrrr... I only lost $3 from this, as I won my $54 ticket, but A LOT of people will be angry this morning. Ken Powell won't be one of them though, the fecker bagged a ticket for the Irish Open amidst all the confusion!

I'm still playing as much satellites as I can, still hoping to bag a big ticket. I haven't played a decent game since Drogheda, and I'm dying for a game against a decent standard of players. I feel like I play my best poker against a tough field, and I have to be due a win on my decent live form... we'll soon see!

until next time...

gl

Decisions Decisions...

2006-04-04T17:28:00.000Z

Played the Fitz 30 short handed on Sunday. Had a great tournament, going out in 14th to a pretty harsh cracking of my aces... but I won't bore you with that (for once!).

I writing this because of a very interesting hand which occured about halfway through the tourney. It was against another lad that posts on boards, Dom, and I've already got feedback from him on the hand. Anyway it goes like this...

I pick up JJ in late position, I think the blinds were at 100/200. I'm thinking a raise of 500 will be enough to scare off any limpers, and I'd be happy enough with the 300 in blinds. Before it gets to me Dom raises it up to 500... Now I had a fairly good idea of the type of player he was, and my read on him thought this was either 99-QQ or AK/AQ. I felt he would respect a decent raise from me, as I had only re-raised with decent hands up until that point.

So I raised it up to 1500. We both had about 5K each at the start of the hand. I could see I had put a tough decision on him, and he took a while to make his mind up. I was willing to see a flop, although I would definitely be wary of a flat call. It was looking like he was in fold or push mode. Eventually he bit the bullet and pushed.

Now the decision was on me. I felt my read was strong enough now to put him JJ-AA. I don't think he would make this move with AK. It didn't take too long for me to muck. He flips over...... JJ.

Fair play, he made the move and took me off the hand, but I feel that position was the key here. If I had been in his position I think the hand would have played out the exact same way. I had been planning on making an initial bet of 500, which I'm sure he would have raised to 1500/2000. I then would have had the same decision he put on me, all in or fold.

A very interesting hand, mainly due to the fact that I'm still not sure whether the fold was bad. My read on him was that he was playing a high pocket pair, which turned out to be correct. Because it is so hard to differentiate between JJ and QQ, I would presume it is QQ or above, mainly due to the fact that JJ is highly unlikely due to my holding.

However, I don't think he would have made this move with 10 10. It is surprising how differently most people view 10 10 and J J. Therefore, based on my read, which turned out to be correct, surely folding is the right decision?

As from Dom's point of view, he played the hand perfectly. He was thinking about the hand the same way I would have been in his place. He knows that by pushing, I can only really call with AA or KK, as he has built up a tight table image up to that point. He may even get me to drop QQ here, that would have been a very tough decision for me.

In the end, I came to my decision to fold quite easily based on the fact that he had built up a tight image, so I was almost certain he had a hand. He in turn knew that I would not raise him without a hand (most of the time!). Therefore, when he pushed I was 99% certain I was behind. Obviously the thought of him having Jacks never came into it.

What is even more interesting is the fact that I think JJ is the only hand that would surprise me in this situation. AA and KK is basically an autocall. QQ is a tough decision which would have needed some thought. Anything lower and I wouldn't have gotten myself into that situation, as I would have either folded or flat called the raise.

As it happened, this hand was only in the early stages of a small tournament, but had this happened in the later stages of a big tournament, it would be quite interesting....

EDIT: Just won a ticket into the $100K game this Sunday in a $3 feeder. I think this game is huge, and gets a few thousand people. Would have preferred the $37 for 6th, but some little fecker beat me to it!

Happy Birthday to me..

2006-03-27T14:04:00.000Z

22 today... don't like this whole getting older thing!

Had a good weekend, went paintballing on Saturday, have the scars to prove it! Went into the Fitz on Saturday night and had my worst night ever at the poker table. I was on a high from winning €1K last week, and felt I could do well at the cash table, so I decided to head in after town, a little worse for wear (bad idea, I KNOW!). I sat down with €150, plenty to start off with at €1/€2.

I have limited experience at the cash tables so I decided to play tight until I got a feel for the table. I hadn't played a hand for the first hour until I picked up aces on the button. Everyone limps so I pot it, about €15. I get two callers, so the pot is looking good. Flop come A 10 4. Checked to me and I pot it again, €50 I think, one caller. Turn comes a rag, 2 I think, so I push for the rest and he calls with the monster that is QK?? A jack on the river and the dealer pushes a pot of well over €300 quid to some stoooopid fish.

I am a little drunk and almost open my mouth to say something, but bite my tongue and keep my manners... just. I can tell the rest of the table is shocked by the call, and I can hear whispers among the rest of them. I can see they are dying to clean this donkey out, and as I would love to retrieve my chips I (stupidly) reload for another €200.

I sit back on this again for a while and start playing a little looser, but still not comitting myself without having a hand. As this is happening I am seeing Mr Fish clean the other players out, playing absolutely terribly. He was in the usual 'Lucky Fish' mode, chasing minor hands hitting them on the river and cracking better hands.

I am dying to get a hand, as this fish is so easy to outplay it was doing my head in. Eventually I picked up KK and pot raised it again. A decent player would have realised that I had a good hand, as it was only the second time in 2 hours I had made this move, the first being with Aces. As expected, all of the better players folded, and as expected the fish called. I knew that he wasn't even thinking about what I had, he was just hoping to get lucky.

The flop came 8 J 2 rainbow, and I looked straight at him when it came down. I saw his head bobbing up and down counting to himself, so it was clear he was on some sort of a straight draw. I bet the pot and he quickly called. the turn came a blank again, and I felt I needed to end it on the turn in case he hit the river. If I just bet the pot I thought he would just flat call, so I checked it looking a bit annoyed, as if I had missed entirely.

The bluff worked (it wasn't even a good one ffs...) and he decided to try and steal it. He raised the pot (almost $100), and I pushed for another $100 on top. He thought about it for ages and finally called for almost all his stack. I flipped over the Kings, and I could see he wasn't happy. He kept his cards face down and the dealer dealt the river, the Qd. "Unlucky mate", he says and flips over 9 10 for a rivered straight.

So here I was losing pot for well over $400, against the fish of the century who was willing to call his whole stack on an open ended straight draw. As I was getting up I muttered something about being a fish which I instantly regretted, it was the dring talking. However, he simply said "listen mate, I won the hand get over it, you were outplayed...". Before I could come up with a response (which would have been nothing more than saying well done, as I was still feeling like an arsehole for calling him a fish...), the whole table burst out laughing, and some old lad, a Fitz regular (Johnny I think his name is), turned to him and said "you river the young lad twice, and now you insult his intelligence? Ah leave him alone will ya!". With this, the fish grabs his chips and leaves! He looked very embarassed as he was going.

Now I was VERY annoyed at losing two of the biggest pots I played in to such a bad player, but I feel like an arsehole for what happened. I was out of order calling him a fish, it was just because I was slightly drunk, but I think that the rest of the table were a bit unfair to him. Fair enough he was a bad player, and he was getting incredibly lucky, but there was no need for the whole table to laugh at him. In future I'll just shut my mouth when I lose a pot...

Anyway, I wasn't happy at all leaving the Fitz, and I was down €350 after only playing in two big pots, losing with Aces and Kings both on the river to badly played hands. Even still, I'll take responsibilty for losing it, as I should never have been tempted to go down there in the first place. Until I learn a bit more about cash games I'm not going to bother with them.

As for online po....po... pok... no I still cant bring myself to call it poker! As for that online game, I'm still making a small profit on PPP, although I am still amazed by how bad the standard is. It is simply amazing how bad some players actually are. And somehow this is carrying on to casino's now! I'd love to say I am getting better, but I think the average standard is just getting worse. The last three big live games I've played I've gotten far without too much effort.

The Angler's Rest game I was very hungover, and I won it. Then I played the SE €75 and got 5th. Then last week I won the €50 DC in the SE. And in all these games I can honestly say there was never any major challenge. I managed to come back from 1xBB in the €50 game ffs! As I said before I'd love to believe that I am simply getting better, but I think its a case of all the good players moving up levels, and me staying swimming with the fish...

Perhaps its time I started saving up and playing €500 and €1000 games. I'm dying for some sort of a challenge! I miss playing the Fitz €270, where I would always feel like I was the Fish hoping to get lucky. I havent played this game in months due to work commitments, but I would love to give it a crack.

As always, I am still dying to win a ticket into a big game. I have played a few Irish Open qualifiers, and I've won a few tickets, but never got further than 20th. This week I'm having trouble even winning a ticket, as I think I'm still on tilt from the weekend! It doesn't help when you get a donkey knocking you out on the bubble when his A5 rivers your AQ...

Ive lost almost half of what I won last week, and I can honestly say that I cannot understand how. Other than bad decisions in choosing to PLAY poker, I havent made any major mistakes in the games themselves. I'm just a fucking FISH magnet!

Ive got the BSOP monthly final to look forward to, at least I know I will enjoy it. Regardless of being card dead, outdrawn, outplayed... at least I know it will be FISH-FREE!

BSOP game and SE €50 DC

2006-03-24T12:48:00.000Z

Boards Series of Poker

Two reports this week, starting off with the BSOP heat on Wednesday night. We played this in the Fitz and seven of the lads showed up. With three of the seven going through to the final, there was a good chance that it would be a short an uneventful game. However, with so many different styles of play clashing, I had a feeling we would have a good game! Along with myself, there was DeVore, Gholimoli, Ollieboy, White Knight, Waylander and ocallagh.

Firstly I'd better explain the format of the BSOP. We have a total of 27 players this year, which breaks down into three heats of 9 every month. The top three from each heat go through to the monthly final, and gain points accordingly. Each player pays €50 per month, €25 of which goes into that months final, with the other €25 going into the 'grand final'. This game is played at the end of the eight month run of the BSOP, based on the top 9 players of the leaderboard. I estimate the prizefund for this should be €3,000+, presuming most players play all 8 months.

Having not made it through my heat last month, I was determined to at least get a point on the board by making the monthly final! Valuewise, I would never pay €50 to play in a tournament with such a good standard of players, as no-one really expects to excel in such a good field. It's all about pride!

Anyway, I started off well, robbing a few pots here and there, trying to get an idea how everyone was playing. I've played with ocallagh and Dev a few times, and have some sort of an idea how they play, although I keep picking up bad reads on Dev... For instance, about an hour into this game I picked up AJc and raised it up to 200 (blinds 25/50). Dev instantly raised it up to 700, representing a big hand. Obviously I should have folded, but I was convinced he didn't want a caller, and had a medium PP, nines or tens. I flat called and when the flop came K J J, it was just a matter of how much I could extract from him. I got 500 off him on a flop bet, but he folded on the turn, showing QQ. Bad read there by me...

Later on in the game I folded 88 on a J 5 2 board, saying "I'm probably ahead..." Dev flipped over J5 shouting "you're never ahead!!". Ah well, I need to sort out my read on Dev, but at least I got him to show his hand! I think he's just resentful about my jamming him out of the charity tournament win when my J7 rivered his AJ... Skill Dev...skill...lol

Anyway, other than Dev, I seem to be doing alright on reading the rest of the lads. I havent played with Ehsan (Gholimoli) before, but I was examining his play a fair bit, and I picked up a few interesting little things on his play. I put my read to the the test when I got involved in a pot with him holding QJ. The flop came A Q x, and he bet out at it. I sat back and observed him doing something that he did when he bluff Niall (ocallagh) out of a pot earlier. He riased big on the turn, I flat called, and he raised even bigger on the river, which I also flat called. I didn't raise because I wasn't 100% sure of my read, and I was more interested in getting information on him than anything else. If I had raised at any stage and he went over the top of me, I would be left with a very tough decision, as I didn't know how he played. It seems my read was correct, and I took down the pot with middle pair, J kicker. Ehsan didn't seem too happy and clearly had expected me to drop the hand!

I built up a good chip lead, but lost a lot of this, when I pushed on a 567 flop with AK, which I had raised preflop. Ehsan made a good call with Q7, and doubled up off me, making him the new CL, a role he fell into quite easily! We still had 7 players after the first hour, but unfortunately someone had to go, and Niall (Waylander) was that man! Ocallagh followed soon after, and Dev not too long after him. Down to the bubble now, and play had gone a bit crazy as Ehsan had remembered that there was a $1000 freeroll for the top 54 players on Tribeca, and he had to finish up soom to make it home for it. This wouldn't be so bad if he was a shortstack, but he was monster CL! He was raising every pot, and totally dominating play.

Luckily I picked up QQ here, and decided to push, feeling that Ehsan would call either way. He eventually did, calling with Q5 hearts, actually not what I wanted to see! It's times like this when I'm sooo far ahead that the beats turn up. Sure enough, the flop came Q 4 7, two hearts. I had flopped trips, but as I expected the flush draw was out... turn brough 6c, so now the straight was possible too... AGGGHHH!... he needed any 3,8 or heart to knock me out, and THANKFULLY didn't get it.

Ehsan took a big blow there, and his impatience cost him the game a few hands later when he pushed with 10 J, and ran into White Knight's pocket nines, and Ollie's pocket Kings! I folded pocket threes! No miracle cards for Ehsan and unfortunately he's out in 4th. I don't think it bothers him, he went on to win the game he was rushing hime for! Nice one Ehsan!

So myself, Ollieboy and White Knight join the other qualifiers for this months final. Hopefully I can keep up my good form and place well in this, putting me high up the leaderboard! As it stands

Hyzepher - 12pts
Musician - 10pts
Gecko - 8pts
Fixer - 7pts
Davey Devil - 5pts
Norwichfan Rob - 4pts
White Knight - 3pts
NTL Bell - 2pts
Ollieboy - 1pt

I need to be in the top three to make any money, and more importantly, get some POINTS!

Sporting Emporium €50 Double Chance

I was persuaded to go down to this last night by afriend, although I really hadn't planned on it. Midweek poker is not really an option since I got this new job, especially Thursday nights, as I'm in work 6am-5pm on a Friday! Nonetheless, off I went to this game, as it it suits my bankroll, and is my preferred format, double chance. I like the Sporting Emporium, as I can relax when I'm playing there, something I could never do in the Merrion, and had only found in the Fitz before now.

Unfortunately, I nearly wasn't allowed in, as apparently I'm not a 'full member' yet as I haven't given in a drivers license or passport yet. Ok... so a garda ID and my fingerprint isin't enough then no?? I was amazed when the receptionist told me I'd have to come back another day, but after seeing the look on my face, the doorman said I could play tonight but next time I would HAVE to have a passport or drivers license. Thats fair enough. I'm all in favour of security, but its a little OTT. I mean, isin't the garda ID a legal document no? Its accepted everywhere else...

Anyway, I finally went upstairs and signed in for the game, and bumped into Nick from Vegasnights, and Culchie off boards. I started on table 5, and my friend started on table 4, right beside Nick. I looked around and recognised a few faces at other tables. It didn't take long to realise that the standard was terrible, something which can usually annoy me, as I usually get outdrawn and knocked out by one of these, but the SE is different. I had only played twice previously, making the final table once, and going out early the other time, entirely due to my own stupidity. It seems as If my bad luck doesn't run in the SE, and I can get a decent game out of the place.

I think we started with 52 players. I started well, getting my top up straight away, and bringing my 3K up to 4.5K in the first hour, mainly due to steals and reraising players when I knew they wouldn't risk calling. It is rare when I actually know I am the best player at the table (without sounding bigheaded), but this time I easily was. Not to say that some of the players were all too bad, but I feel I have learned so much in the last year, that I can finally control a table, knowing when and who to push against. There was a foreign lad at our table who was very easy to read, and who would chase any draw. I drained about 2K off him when I knew he was going for the flush draw, and priced him into calling big bets on the flop and turn. His quick fold on the river made it clear what he had been going for.

I was up to close to 5.5K when a bad ruling (IMO) cost me a good chunk of my stack. The pokerroom manager (I think) came to deal at our table, and was there about 20 minutes when I picked up 93o in the BB. MONSTER I know! Anyway, a few limpers and I checked it. Flop came A 9 4.Small blind check, and I felt he had nothing. He only had a small amount left, and I thought he would push if he had anything, as there was about 800 in the middle. UTG didn't look too happy with the flop, and I felt I could isolate the SB with a bet. I threw out 500, UTG quickly folded, and the SB thought about it and went all in, I think about 800 more. I looked at the dealer, and he said its on you, just the two of you, so I called, and flipped over my cards.

Out of nowhere the Chinese lad shouts "I still have cards!". Surely this is cheating? He hid his cards and let play pass him when I made my 500 bet. The SB the moved in and he waited until I exposed my cards until he announced he was still in the hand. Ruling? The dealer/manager ruled that I should have been keeping an eye on who was in the hand. And you shouldn't?? I f the dealer syas to me, "just the two of you left..." . Am I wrong to believe him? Surely its his responsibility to know who's still i a hand. And what about the Chinese lad? He had clearly been hiding his cards under his hands and let play pass him. Cheating no?

Anyway, he had only see my 3 as my 9 had been hidden underneath it, and he obviously pushed in. I had to fold and he showed A 5. The turn was a 5 and the river a 2. I would have made a straight, but thats not important. Once he saw my 3, he knew there was no other card I could have that was ahead of A5, so obvioulsy he pushed. The thing that annoys me is, I would never have thrown in the original 500 bet if I had known the Chinese lad was still in, as I was working off the other two players. AND I would never have called the SB's all in if I had known there was someone else in the hand.

Now I'm not annoyed that I lost the hand, or even that the dealer made a mistake (everyone makes mistakes), but I feel like I was cheated a bit, and also the dealer talked down to me after the hand as if I was some fcuking newbie, spouting some rule after the hand "it is a players responsibility to ensure....". Blah blah blah. Whaty about the dealers responsibility? If you aren't sure there's only two players left, dont fcuking say there is? I'm going to post this on boards and hopefully get a definitive ruling.

Luckily the break came soon after so my TILT didn't last too long! I was on 3.5K after the break, just above starting stack. My friend was doing well and he was up to 6K. Just before the break I saw DeDeraco get knocked out by Stormin Norm in a HUGE 3way pot when his KK was cracked by A10.... ffs Norm :)

I calmed myself down, and got my head together for the second half. We were down to 4 tables now, so still a long way to go. I had soon turned my 3.5K into just over 6K, with some good play, extracting the maximum amount from a pair of Jacks.

Then came the penultimate hand. I picked up AQ, and called a raise of 800, from a lad with about 4K. The flop came 775, and he instantly raised another 1K. I flat called, as I had seen him get away with this continuation bet earlier when I felt he was bluffing. The turn brought a blank which we both checked. I was willing to fold to any 10 J or K on the river, as I felt his likely holding contained one or more of these cards. I was sure he hadn't hit yet, and maybey should have bet the turn, but luckily when the river brought a blank, he pushed and I instantly called. He was obviously unhappy, flipping over KJ. My ace high won the pot, and I got a lot of respect from the other players, calling the whole way down for most of my stack with Ace high. I was glad my read turned out right, and was now doing nicely on over 10K.

I was then moved to table one, sitting right beside my friend! D'OH! He was doing quite well on about 13K. This is when things went downhill for me. I picked up 77 a few hands in, and called a big stacks raise of 1200, after it was obvious he was just trying to isolate a small stack, who sure enough went all in. The flop came K 3 4, and I bet out 1500, to isolate the all in guy. Sure enough the original raiser folded, but the other lad turned over 10 10! ah well, I was glad I was right in moving in against the big stack.

Unfortunately, these sevens were the best hand I would get for the next 2 hours. Totally card dead. I stayed patient waiting for a hand... and waiting. Blinded down to 6K, and I raised my SB with 10 2, hoping to take the 600 off the BB. Unfortunately he called. SHIT! Flop came 2 3 7, and I took a risk betting out 2K. Thankfully he folded, showing A6s, and I was back up to almost 8K. I didn't play a hand for another hour, not seeing anything even worth limping. I was looking for any spot to rob chips, but the table was pretty aggressive, and I just couldn't get into it. I lost half my stack when I ran into a very well played flopped flush, when he let me hit top pair. Blinds were 500/1K, and I was soon down to 3K ... I was looking for any spot to push and finally picked up A7. Worth pshing when you have 3BB! I got called by A7, and an even smaller stack (2.3K) called with A10!. No help, and the A10 tripled up and I split the side pot and got 1,200 back. Blinds at 500/1K.... ffs

I put my jacket on and waited for ANY hand to push on. I picked up Q4, and wasn't too confident but when it was raised up to 3K , I saw that with the SB and BB and one limper, and 1200 of his raise, if I pushed and was heads up with the raiser, I'm getting almost 4 to 1 on my money. I pushed and the raiser showed pocket tens. A queen on the flop and I was back in it with almost 5K! I doubled up again off the same lad a while later with A4 vs KQ, and was now back in it.

Unfortunately I was still not seeing any decent cards, and was soon blinded down again, but luckily squeezed onto the final table with about 5K. With blinds 800/1500, I had to make a move soon. I went to pick my seat number, hoping for anything but seat 2 (the big blind)... lo and behold, I pick seat 2! lol! My friend was in good shape on about 20K, and with 6 getting paid, he looked set to make the money.

First hand back, I'm BB, with 1500, out of 5K in the middle. I look down to see 52 and have to fold to the raiser, a rock who shows pocket Jacks. Next hand I see 24 and again have to fold to a raise. D'OH! Down to 1xBB again! A few hands later I picker up K 10, and its folded around to me. Only the button, SB, BB and one limper have to act, and with only 2800 left, I had to push. Folded around to the limper who calls with QQ, and the flop comes QKK! A miracle 10 on the turn pushes me up to almost 8K.

I rob the blinds a few hands later, and am soon up to just over 10K. I don't play a hand for a while, losing both blinds, until I pick up KK. A raise of 4K ahead of me, and I push for my remaining 4K. he calls, and "No ace" I ask the dealer, before the player turns over A9? Luckily I avoid an ace and am now safe enough on 15K. I lose 5K when I raise with AJ, and have to fold to an all in from a very good player, who had slowplayed the flush against me earlier. I think I was ahead this time, but he played me well either way. Unfortunately for him, I was on fire now, and just kept hitting everything! I pushed for my last 10K holding 10 10, only for him to show AA. a ten on the flop doubled me up to 20K and I was back in this!

We all agreed at this stage to pay the top 8, knocking a few quid off the top spots. Unfortunately this happened after Culchie went out in 9th, effectively the bubble! Unlucky mate! Knowing I was guaranteed €100 for 8th, I decided to go all out and play aggressively. I was on fire and the deck started hitting me in the face! Soon we were 5 handed, and I was very comfortable now, and aiming for 1st. Unfortunately, as soon as I started hitting cards, they dried up for my friend, and he exited in 5th after going card dead on the final table.

I knocked out another lad in 3rd after calling his all in with JJ. his 77 didn't hit and we were three handed. I was playing super aggressive now, and knocked out the other lad soon after, although I can't remember the exact hand. Heads up, and I had about a 2 to 1 chip lead over him. I dominated him heads up and was raising any flop I could see he didn't hit.

I doubled him up after calling his all in holding 66 vs 99, but still had a good lead over him. I made a good move when he raised the flop of QJ6, 12K (blinds 3K/ 6K), and I went over the top with 20K holding 84o. I knew he hadn't hit the J or Q, and felt it was withe a 6 or a pocket pair. He duly folded and wasn't happy when I showed him the bluff. I had a big chip lead over him now, and when I called his all in with K9 hearts vs his Q5 hearts, I was confident the end was near... Unfortuantely a Q on the flop, and were back to even in stacks. At this point he offered a deal which would see us get €1,000 each. I agreed on the condition that I was the winner! He agreed, and we finished up at 3am. I took my money and headed straight home, as I was in work at 6am!

All in all, a good days work, and another live win under my belt. Very happy with how I am playing live at the moment, and hopefully I will get a chance to prove this in a big game sometime soon.

Movin' on up...

2006-03-21T18:46:00.000Z

Moved up to $20 STT's and seem to be doing about the same at these. I'm still keeping a record of my results, and I seem to be cashing in 60-70% of these games, although I really should invest in something like pokertracker to keep a proper record of my progress.

One thing that I have begun to notice (finally!) is flaws in my online game. Namely bet sizing. In live games, I am ok at bet sizing, and usually have a figure in my head when making a bet. By this I mean, if I want to keep him in the hand, what is the maximum I can bet to keep him in? And vice versa, if I want to take him off a better hand, what is the minimum I can risk for this? In live play I just bet how much I feel will be enough, how much it would need to be if I were him. But in online all you have 2xBB, 4xBB, 8xBB.... etc. I think I might read a few articles on this, as its something I've never really considered before, but I think it might improve my game.

I've played a few more Irish Open games, and although I don't find it too hard to win the $99 entry ticket, I keep going out in the late twenties to mid thirties in the main game. I've had a decent start in every game, but never really got the cards late on to give it a real shot at getting to the FT. My best finish was 21st, but with only 4 or 5 tickets every time, this is way off the mark. Fair play to Gholimoli off boards, who bagged a ticket. I would LOVE to play the Irish Open, but I feel I have a much better chance at winning a ticket in a live game.

Played a few more MTT's aswell, but no decent cashes since the $250 the other week... I have also been playing 25c/50c cash tables, and I am making a small profit, although I have gone on major tilt once or twice! I keep running into donkeys, which outdraw me in a hand, and then put me on TILT. Something I have to try and control...

I believe to be profitable at cash games it is best to sit down with the top buy in, which is $100 at this level. The reason for this is because your aim is to maximise profit, not minimise loss. You cannot play scared. Even still, with my small BR I can't be risking $100 too often, and therefore I don't play cash games too often.

Oh, and I still haven't heard the end about my friend and the one outer. The rest of the (non poker playing) lads keep going on about how he 'beat' me at poker. I could try to explain that beat implies failure on my part... but I'm a moany enough fecker as it is! I'll let him have his glory (and my money!)

Off to paintball on Saturday. There's about 15 of us heading out for my birthday (how the fuck am I almost 22....). Should be a good laugh! And I AM going to the Fitz on Sunday for the $30 game! I keep saying that I'll be going to this, but I keep drinking too much every Saturday night, and ! Havent played live since the BSOP game last month. That reminds me, I'm playing in this tomorrow night! I'll stick a report up if I do well...

gl

Beware of the Fish

2006-03-15T19:54:00.000Z

I finished my first week off on a bit of a bad note. Having got up to just over $700, I proceeded to lose about ten $15 STT's in a row. Partly due to not concentrating, mainly to do with running into terrible players. I was going on TILT after this, and instead of doing something stupid, I decided to withdraw most of my BR, so as not to tempt me into playing $50 and $100 games.

I withdrew 500 euro, so I had about $60 left in the account. Monday night, I jumped on for a little bit and saw a friend of mine playing. This lad is on PPP every night and makes a decent profit out of it. The surprising thing is, he is pretty terrible at poker. I won't name names (although he doesn't read this blog!), but this friend of mine has NEVER cashed in any live tournament. He has never even made a final table before, not even the Fitz freeroll.

However, he does make a steady profit from playing online. I havent played with him live in a while, so I presumed that since he was making money, presumably he was getting better. Until I saw him play the other night.... He has absolutely no concept of odds etc, he never factors in what the other player might have, he has no betting pattern whatsoever... and yet he is ripping up the 25c/50c tables.

I don't mean to badmouth him, he's still a mate, but he epitomises the exact type of player I cannot play against. It hurts my head watching him play... For instance, watching him the other night on PPP, he picks up A5o and raises $5. Flop comes QK7. He bets, gets raised and calls. Turn is a 5. he bets gets reraised and he goes all in. Other player has KQ; he rivers an ace.. And doesn't bat an eyelid...

While I was watching him play this happened a few more times... he had soon turned $20 into over $100, almost totally by outdrawing the other players. He never lets go of a good ace, and chases any draw, and you will not get him off a hand if he has hit anything. Now if thats what works for him, fair play, whatever makes you money, my point is, he seems to be relying almost purely on luck, and it seems to be working for him.

He will chase a gutshot right down to the river, and he is surprised when he doesn't hit. I see him betting with nothing, and calling big bets holding nothing but high cards, and when I ask why he's calling, his reply is usually, "I'll probably hit on the river".... and he usually does.

I've a feeling that he has been playing online so long, without playing live, that it has changed the way he thinks about poker. He expects to hit magical rivers, and he expects to hit his draws almost every time.

Now without just sounding like a moany cunt, my question is, can you be profitable at poker without necessarily being that good? I don't mean to badmouth my mate, he seems to be finding this online lark a lot easier than me, but I know he would get ripped apart in any decent live game. Yet, he consistently makes profit online, mainly by dishing out bad beats to poor fuckers like me who actually make a huge effort to try and outplay people.

Anyway the main reason I'm writing this is due to an incident from last night. I don't want this to seem as if I am just pissed off over a bad beat (there's something new!), moreso that I was amazed by how he played the hand. Bear in mind he has been playing regular poker for over a year, and should have a fair idea of how I play by now. Anyway heres the hand.

25c/50c 6 player table.

($60)Rory: Ad 9c
($70)Friend: Ah 10s
($20)Player 3: 8h 10c

Flop comes down 7d 9d Ac

Friend bets, I raise, player 3 calls, Friend goes ALL IN???
It is sooo obvious he has a good ace which he just won't let go of. I'm licking my lips waiting for it to get back around to me. I know I have him beat and all I have to do is avoid a bad beat and I have it. I'm a little worried about Player 3 tripling up, but I'm more interested in showing my friend 'a lesson', in how not to over play a high ace.

The pot is about $120

At this point the % are like this to win the hand.

Rory: 62.29%
Player 3: 28.68%
Friend: 9.02%

The turn brings the 4d, so now the only card in the WHOLE DECK that he can hit is the 10h. THE ONLY CARD!!! The % now are

Rory: 83.33%
Player 3: 14.28%
Friend: 2.38%........ yes 2.38%!!!

River brings the 10h.

Fair enough its a bad beat, but the way he played it amazed me. All he saw was an Ace and he pushed. I know he didn't even consider what we had. If I tell him he was 2% on the turn this means nothing to him. I can't confront him about it because at the end of the day its only a fucking game, and he's a mate. It is still frustrating though, losing to a player that believes they played the hand correctly. I know this isin't that bad a hand but it is how he would play an ace every time.

I mean, when he plays PPP, he barely watches the game, throws in random bets at random intervals, chases ridiculous hands, and cannot let go of AK, AQ etc, regardless of the flop... I just can't make sense of it. Now I don't want to sound like I'm just slagging off his play, but in my experiences it seems that at the levels I'm playing at, the looser the player, the more they seem to make. I just can't play that loose. I don't feel comfortable playing super loose like a certain Eamon O' Reilly among others. However, this style does seem to have its rewards. Eamon won a ticket into the WSOP last year, and my friend is cleaning up (online anyway). What do you do?

Finally...

2006-03-12T14:51:00.000Z

At last I get a decent cash in an online MTT. Finished 2nd in the $10 freezeout, but I'm very annoyed I din't win it. I was in the top 5 for the whole tournament, and was playing pretty well. I'm obviously happy with getting second, as its another $242 into the account, but I'm annoyed at losing when we were heads up.

He had been getting VERY lucky at the final table, and was knocking out a lot of the big stacks on badly played hands getting lucky. I wasn't complaining as I was sitting back watching him thin out the numbers! We got down to three, and I slowplayed the other lad when I hit my set on a K high flop. He pushed with AK, and no miracle for him, down to heads up.

I was way behind in chips, I think I had 40K and he had just over 200K. The thing about this lad was he couldn't be bluffed! He would call any bet on the flop, and would call 2-5xBB bets on the turn/river, if he had any of it. He would min-raise anytime he had a monster, and would fold to any min-raise I made.

I literally just kept value betting when I hit, and soon built up to close to even. However, this lad was still hitting everything, and I couldn't scare him off a hand if he had any of it. He would call down to the river with bottom pair! All I could do was play the cards I was given, and hope to hit the flop, and value bet all the way. This worked until I hit TPTK, and he hit a set. I lost big on that hand, although I should have folded the river when he min raised my value bet. It was SOOO obvious he had the set, but I just couldn't drop it.

I was out soon after, when my 66 didn't hold up to his AQ, all-in preflop. I'm annoyed for not beating him, but still happy enough about getting a few quid. Up to $600 for the week, easily the best week I've had online. Not moneywise, I've had bigger wins than this, more that I lasted this long and stayed calm, and more importantly TILT free! Hopefully I can keep this up next week... oh and there's still the matter of a little Irish Open satellite tonight... fingers crossed!

Still going...

2006-03-10T19:04:00.000Z

Miracles of miracles I've managed a full week of playing online without losing the plot! Started off the week with $50, and slowly built it up to just under $400, almost entirely from $15 STT's. I'm very happy with how I'm playing in these, and I'm cashing in about 70-80% of these.

MTT's on the other hand, haven't gone great. I've played a few $5 and $10 one's, but haven't cashed in any of them. I've also played the $10 Irish Open feeder a few times, and still haven't got a ticket yet, although I'm in one at the moment, and I'm sitting comfortably in 4th, with 7 tickets on offer and $60 for 8th. There's 10 people left, so I'd need to fuck up big time not to get a ticket here!

Don't think I'm playing anywhere over the weekend, might get down to the Fitz $30 on Sunday. I keep meaning to play this, but I'm so hungover on Sundays that I'm in no fit state for poker!

Got me ticket! Finished 2nd. Next stop, Irish Open ticket...

Haha check out what happened when the last fella went! ALL IN, ALL IN, ALL IN! Probably the only time you'll see this at a final table...

Day 4 in the Big Brother house...

2006-03-09T22:36:00.000Z

Been playing 4 days now, happy enough with how things are going. Played another 5 $15 games tonight, and a few more MTT's. Lost the first three STT's mainly through my own bad play. Then proceeded to drop another $20 playing the Irish Open feeder and $10 freezeout (when I left this Des wasn't doing too bad, wonder how he finished). Not a great start to the night, but I managed to pull first in the last 2 STT's of the night, and raked in $135, so I managed to pull a small profit of about $40 for the day. Not too bothered about making money, just happy that I'm actually playing for a few days now without losing the head and being a moany fucker about it...

Up to $364 now from the $50 I lodged on Monday. I've played about 6 hours of STT's, so it's not a bad return. I'm cashing in about 70% of the STT's I play, and I seem to be doing well when I get down to the last three, usually taking first if we are even stacked when we get down to 3. I think I've only got 2nd once. Luckily, I have yet to bubble, and I think this will be the real test!

I'm getting very bored playing at such low limits and I'm dying to move up a few levels! But I want to keep this 'experiment' running for another week or two to see if I can control my tilt first... I reckon if/when I get past $500 I'll move up to the $25. I seem to be beating the $15 without too much effort, although that could all change easily enough!

Damn Eircom...

2006-03-08T18:39:00.000Z

Made another bit of profit last night, up to about $300 now from the $50 I started with. I cashed in the last 6 STT's I played last night.

Jumped onto it today after work. Managed to keep my cool, but nearly lost the head a few minutes ago. Still only playing 1 STT at a time, and decided to play the $10 Irish Open feeder alongside it. Everything was going fine until I lost connection due to a problem with my broadband.

This has been going on for a few weeks now where everytime the house phone rings it knocks the internet off for about 5 minutes. I don't know what the problem is but its our fault for getting eircom broadband! Useless shower of idiots... I'm convinced most of the donkeys I play against must work in retard companies like Eircom and Vodafone. Intelligence not a neccessity...

Anyway, as soon as I got connection back I picked up aces. I managed to get the lad all in, and he showed QQ. Hits a queen on the flop and I rebuy. Get nothing till the break, and don't bother with the top-up as I have the feeling thats not the last beat I'm going to get. A few hands later I get AJ, and raise it up. I get 4 callers, and the flop comes J8J. I go all in and get 3 callers!

Im up against JQ, 88, and KK.... turn Q... river K... haha they ALL beat me! I don't lose the head, and simply turn my attention to the STT. I instantly get QQ and call an all. He has 67d and runner runners a flush. I reach down and turn the PC off... And amazingly I don't lose the head. This is a typical situation where normally I would lose it and go on major tilt, but a few deep breaths and I put it out of my head. I think I can get through these disgusting runs if I just force them out of my head.

Looks like this experiment could be working! Thats as bad it can get playing only 2 tables, and I managed to stay calm.... just. One I get through this patch of Mickey Mouse poker, I can continue making money hopefully.

I'm more annoyed about my poxy internet connection. It is doing my head in the last week. I don't know what is doing it but every time the phone rings it cuts the connection... so annoying. Its knocked me out of a lot of games this week. I don't know enough about internet connection to know what the problem is, but there's no point ringing Eircom...

Off to the gym now, don't think I'll play any more PPP later on. An hour of horrible beats and donkey play has got me a little annoyed, and it might push me over the edge if I play again later! I played 4 STT's and an MTT and didn't cash in any of them. Just one of those days by the looks of it.

One Day at a time...

2006-03-06T21:25:00.000Z

I got paid today, so I can afford to donate some more cash into the online fund. I decided to lodge 50 euro into PPP, and if I lost it I lost it. I've said I would take on board advice that I have gotten over the past few weeks. I have moved up a few levels in order to play against a better standard of players. I have also reduced myself to playing ONE game at a time. Until I have mastered this, what is the point in playing 3 or 4? I started off today on $15 STT's on PPP, and played a little bit of 25c/50c. I know 50 euro is a silly bankroll for these levels but its more of an experiment to see if I can make a steady profit, and more importantly if I can keep my cool.

I took each game VERY slowly, giving it my full attention, albeit flicking onto boards and a few blogs at the same time. I played 10 games, and kept a record of my progress. I got 1st in 3, 2nd in 2, 3rd in 2, 5th once, and 7th twice. It cost me $165 to play these, and I took back $341.50. So a profit of $176.50. I got a few bad beats along the way, but managed to keep my cool. More importantly, I didn't bubble any of them, which usually gets me pretty pissed off, as you can understand...

I lost $6 playing a MTT, and another 4000 Paddy Points in the $1000 freeroll. I went out of this on a horrible hand but I wont go into it... it was a freeroll, no point moaning about it! I then went into a 25c/50c cash game with $50, and simply played tight as fuck! I literally waited until I got aces and pushed on the flop. I ran into Kings, which didn't improve. I played for a little bit more, and left with $90, a profit of $40. I arsed about in a few more ash games, and lost a little. I don't want to play them too much, as I'm very inexperienced at them. But when I do play, I'm not playing lower than 25c/50c, maybe 10c/20c the odd time.

Overall, I ended up with around $200 profit for the day (although I have just jumped into another cash game...) If I can keep this up I'll be happy. I think I can grind out a decent profit at this level, because I know I can beat these. The only problem is it only takes one of my really bad days and I know I'll be on major tilt. I have to try and keep this under control.

I decided to change onto All-In, where I have been playing the odd time over the past few months. I jumped into a $5K guaranteed, for $25. There was about 250 players, with top 20 getting paid from $62 for 20th, to $1867 for 1st. I got off to a nice start, staying in the top 10 for the first hour or two. Didn't take many risks, but was watching the screen like a hawk, and watching out for any decent players. As the field thinned out, the standard seemed to be getting better. However, I still managed to run into the only two donkeys left in!

I won't go on about the hands but suffice is to say I was hit by a two outer and three outer in the space of a few minutes. I'm not too annoyed about losing, more about how I lost. Neither of these needed to sacrifice their chips on minor hands (A2 vs AK (straight on river), and 33 vs KK (again, 3 on river), and both players lost my chips pretty soon after getting them. I guess I'm just surprised that this standard of players make it this far in tournaments.

I'm always being told that its good to have these 'fish' at the table, but I never seem to profit off them. I honestly prefer to play against a decent standard of opponent. Thats why I love playing bigger games. You can outplay your opponents, not outdraw them (for the most part!) . I mean, if I have AA, I want to be called by AK, not some muppet with 75o!

I ended up going out in 30th, after these two hands crippled me. Anyway, this tourney aside, I'm happy with how today went, and I think I'm going to stick to the $15 STT's. Maybe move up to $25 and $50 in a few weeks. All I have to avoid is getting a really bad run in a really short space of time, like what happened the other week. But I can't see how this can happen if I'm playing one at a time. PLEASE GOD this is the start of a stress free online career...

Prague, BSOP and the Sweden game.

2006-03-01T22:55:00.000Z

Prague... what a weekend! Too much happened to go on about, but I would recommend the city to anyone. I'll throw up a few photo's when I get the chance. Only bad point is my phone is now down a 20 foot drain somewhere in Prague... long story...

As for the BSOP first monthly game, I was looking forward to having a live game with the lads off boards. I think we started with 18, three tables of six. I had Ken, ocallagh, Muso, 'Norwich Fan Rob' and Iago on my table. Ken was gone pretty soon, after his aces were cracked by Iago's trip eights. I had to stay out of the lads way, as every pot was being raised, usually with MUCK! I didn't see much until I picked up KK a few hands in. The flop came A8A, so I threw in a feeler bet of about 300. Rob called, and Iago min raised. I figured one of them for the Ace, and duly folded. An ace on the river nearly had me cursing my fold, until Rob showed the quads!

I saw nothing else until I picked up queens and raised it up. The flop came down with an ace, and I raised it up to isolate. Only Muso called and I was a little worried. I was down to less than 1K from the starting stack and was almost pot committed. A 9 hit on the river, and Muso reached deep. I could tell I was behind and actually though he had A9. He told me he rivered a straight. GRRR! Ah well, I let him hit!

I was down to the felt now and was forced to push my remaining 600 on Kd 10d. Rob called with pocket fives. An easy call against the shortstack. The flop came down K 10 x. AGGHHHH! I didn't want to be a moany cunt and say "here comes the 5" but on a flop like that, the way things have been running lately..... I'd have been shocked if a 5 didn't come out. But less bitching, a 5 hits on the turn and I'm out. I dealt on for the lads until they broke for the final table (after I cruelly dealt a bad beat for ocallagh... sorry! I'm jinxed!)

Could have been a good game but I just never got going. Had a good night anyway, as I got to study the lads play a bit while I was there. Its a lot easier to watch when you aren't playing. I think I'm getting better at putting people on hands, and I correctly guessed Rob's 10 10, Muso's A A, and Iago's flush draw with a pair. Although these are still only guesses, I think I am getting them right more than wrong lately. You do have to concentrate on the hand a LOT to have a decent guess though. If only I could use this more in hands that I'm in! It seems I can have a good guess at what players have in hands I'm not involved in, but when I'm in the hand I find that sometimes other factors can cloud my view.

Anyway, enough about poker, IRELAND 3 - 0 ! ! ! What a game, the best I've been at in a while. I love the Irish team with a passion, and was so disappointed we never made the World Cup, but they played like a real team tonight, and deserved the win. I bumped into IonaPaul off boards outside Landsdowne road, hope you enjoyed the match! Bring on Euro 2008!

Bad Beat Blog?

2006-02-23T18:30:00.000Z

I don't like the way the direction this blog has been going the last week. Turning into a feckin bad beat blog! Fair enough, its been a horrible week for me in poker, but I have no idea why I got so annoyed about it. I was on a great buzz from the Anglers Rest win, but this didn't last too long!

Anyway, I'm off to Prague tomorrow, and I've decided to stay away from poker for the weekend. Try and clear my head a bit! When I come back, no more moaning and bitching about DONKEYS... I promise :)

To change the mood of this blog, here's a gem of a story I heard recently...

One day during the Great Depression, this man who walked into a bar. He went up to the bartender and said, "Bartender, I'd like to buy the house a round of drinks". The bartender said, "That's fine, but we're in the middle of the Depression, so I'll need to see some money first". The guy pulls out a huge wad of bills and sets them on the bar.

Well, the bartender can't believe what he's seeing. "Where did you get all that money?" asked the bartender. "I'm a professional gambler", replied the man. The bartender said, "There's no such thing! I mean, your odds are 50-50 at best, right?" "Well, I only bet on sure things," said the guy. "Like what?" asked the bartender? "Well, for example, I'll bet you $50 that I can bite my right eye." The bartender thought about it. "OK". So, the guy pulls out his false right eye and bites it. "Aw, you screwed me", said the bartender, and paid the guy his $50.

"I'll give you another chance. I'll bet you another $50 that I can bite my LEFT eye," said the stranger. The bartender thought again and said, "Well, I know you're not blind, I mean I watched you walk in here. I'll take that bet". So, the guy pulls out his false teeth and bites his left eye. "Aw, you screwed me again". "That's how I win so much money, bartender. I'll just take a bottle of your best scotch in lieu of the $50", said the man.

With that, the guy went to the back room and spent the better part of the night playing cards with some of the locals. After many hours of drinking and card playing, he stumbled up to the bar. The guy, drunk as a skunk, said, "Bartender, I'll give you one last chance. I'll bet you $500 that I can stand on this bar here on one foot and piss into that whiskey bottle on that shelf behind you without spilling a drop". The bartender once again pondered the bet.

The guy couldn't even stand up straight on two feet, much less one. "OK, you're on". The guy climbed up on the bar, stood on one leg, and began pissing all over the place. He hit the bar, the bartender himself, but not a drop made it into the whiskey bottle. The bartender was ecstatic. Laughing, the bartender said, "Hey pal, you owe me $500!" The guy climbed down off the bar and said, "That's OK. I just bet each of the guys in the card room $1000 each that I could piss all over you AND the bar and still make you laugh!"

Barcode...

2006-02-22T23:04:00.000Z

Welcome to possibly the worst week of my life...

I am absolutely speechless at what has happened to me this week. At the start of the week I decided to get back into online poker as I had won a few tickets into big games, and I believed my luck had finally changed. Big mistake, as you can see from my posts below. I quickly decided to end this comeback due to an absolutely sickening run of bad beats, which I for some reason I feel the need to keep moaning about.

I've decided I'm going to stick to satellites only, which limits my games to 1 or 2 a week. However, I learned that even this is maybe too much. I sat down at the $10 rebuy on PPP yesterday to try for a ticket to the Irish Open feeder. Only 19 players. I played no hands in the first hour, as I hadn't seen a card over 10. Fair enough, I wasn't going to get annoyed, at least I'm not getting bad beats. I finally picked up eights and when some lad raised I only had a few hunderd so I pushed. He had 55 and hit a 5 on the turn. REBUY. Nothing again until I picked up queens. Reraised a lad and he plipped A5. Flop 234. REBUY. Still card dead, but somehow managed to fluke my way to the final table without winning showdown. Topped up along the wayJust stole a few pots.

Noticed there was another boardster at the table, pretty shortstacked aswell. He queried why I was playing, and laughed about how I was jinxed. Nice one. After a few hands I picked up 77, he went all in for about 1/3 of my stack. I called, and he flipped over KQ. Flop comes KKx.... "ul" he types...

I rob a few more pots and we['re soon down to 6. There's 3 tickets for $103 and 4th gets $55. I get into a showdown with a shortstack with AK, he has AJ. Jack on the river. "lol" types the boardster. Yes indeed, quite funny... Soon the shortstack is out and we're down to the bubble. I am forced to push on A10 and am against J9. Flop comes 10 8 Q.... AGHGHGHGHGHHGHG ! ! !

"ul" "wp".... sure that helps. 5 showdowns, ahead in all of them and I lose them all. Now I shouldn't even be getting annoyed about a $10 game and yet I feel like smashing up the house. I have to go for a walk to cool myself down. I'm sure the boardster just thought I was on a bad night... If only he knew. Why am I even getting annoyed about this? I lost a measly $30, and yet I can't think of anything I hate more in my whole life than online poker. I absolutely hate it. It brings out a horrible side of me that I fcuking hate.

Anyway, enough about that, I'm finished with online. It was my own fault for going back to it. I can't win at it and I don't think I'm ever going to figure out why...

The main reason I'm writing this is because of what happened tonight. I went down to my local, Barcode, with a few friends, to play a 20 euro rebuy they had on. I really didn't want to go due to what has happened this week online, but a friend wanted to go, so I said I'd head down. I forgot the Fitz were running it, and it was a nice surprise to see Luke there taking names.

We started with 1500 in chips, and although it was a pub tourney, it relaxed me to know that Luke was running it. It didn't take long to realise that the standard was low. Very, very low. There was a few Fitz regulars but them aside, I'd say about 80% of the players had never played before. I had to keep explaining the rules to people, and hand rankings etc. It was really annoying, but I felt that at least I should be able to outplay most of them. I didn't want to bluff too much, as most of these players felt it impossible to let go of any pair.

I had built up my stack pretty big by the break, just by raising big on the river when I knew I was ahead. Got called basically every time. I was on of the chip leaders at the break, with about 10K. Topped up and got an extra 3K. I had gotten this far without having to take any real risks. We were down to the last 40 people now, and with the average spend at about 70 euro, the fund looked like it was going to be big.

First hand after the break I get JJ. Flop comes down 45J rainbow. Lad bets out 3K, and I flat call. I think he has KK or QQ now, as he is itching to put his chips in. the turn brings a 2 and I bet 5K. He has about 4,500 behind, and thinks long and hard before folding AA! I'm about to say great fold, when he comes out with "I would have called 4K but I don't want to go home yet..." emmmmm ok? I don't know whether this was a good fold or he just didn't want to get knocked out...

I can't think about it for too long when I pick up AK. I raise it up to 1000 (blinds 200/400), and get four callers. Flop comes K 10 2 with no flush and I raise 2K. An absolute DONKEY who had been at my table all night decides to push for about 5K. Folded around to me and I call the extra 3K. A nice pot now of almost 15K. I'm a little worried he might have 10 2, but thankfully, the DONKEy has K 5. He's smiling at his mate and announces "pair of top kings(?), beat that mister!". He's amazed when I flip over AK, and grabs his jacket in disgust. Turn is a blank, and OF COURSE the river is a 5. He doesn't even realise he has won????? We have to explain how he has 2 pair.... "but the ace....". I am raging inside, but simply collect up the cards and say, nice hand... It hurts being beaten by someone who doesn't even realise they have won

Now Luke had said hello to me, and the lads had asked how I knew him etc. Over the space of the game I had been telling them about the Fitz, and what games they hold, and what games I've played etc. This DONKEY decides to throw this in my face after this hand and announce "haha, I took Mr bigshot casino's chips". I feel like ramming those fucking chips down his throat, but restrain myself...just... I am confident I can take those chips back if I just keep my cool. I'm still a fair bit above average on 10K. I look over my shoulder and notice Luke standing near to the table. I think he saw the hand as he has a sympathetic look on his face.

THE NEXT HAND, I pick up Ad Ac. I actually think to myself how horrible it would be to go out on this hand, after the week I've had. I decide I don't want to play them and raise it up to 2,500. I get 3 callers. Flop comes down Kd 7d 5d. The DONKEY who I doubled up instantly checks his cards, and his eyes fix on the left one. Jesus could you be more obvious...

I want to get the hand over, or take my chips back from that bloke. Its checked to me and I push for my last 7K. Folded around to that a lad who thinks for ages before folding. Then the DONKEY instantly calls with Kc Jd. That wasn't obvious... That stupid smile is on his face again, as if he has just outplayed Andy Black heads up in the WSOP final... DONKEY DONKEY DONKEY ! ! ! ! !

The lad who folded shouts, "I knew it! I had JJ, I knew I was behind, it was the 'blue' that scared me". (yes, some people still call it a 'blue'...). More importantly though, this lad was now dead to the one remaining Jack or 2 remaining Kings. And if the flush comes out he's gone. The pot is over 25K, and I have the chance to take most of my chips back off this lad. I stand up and take a deep breath, praying that I just win ONE showdown. Please just let me win a fucking hand where I am ahead. The turn comes down ....... Jc. I sink into my chair and deal the river, a non diamond 6. I'm out and I'm in absolute shock. I turn around to see Luke.... speechless. again probably thinking I am just on a bad night... If only HE knew... I have now made possibly the worst player in the tournament chip leader. Admittedly, it wasn't a bad move compared to the previous hand, but I he was a mile behind after I turned over the aces... why the fuck couldn't they just stand up?

UNBELIEVABLY, at a table of 8, EVERY one of them thought I had won the hand??? They thought aces beat two pair. I had to AGAIN explain how I had lost. At this point he just smiled at me and grabbed for my chips. At this point I nearly lost it. I told him he was the luckiest donkey I had ever met and fucked the cards on the table. I have never done anything like this in a live game and i feel like a total arsehole for doing it. I just cannot believe what a week I have had. I don't think I have won one showdown all week. As far as I can tell, it couldn't have gone any worse. The only hands I can recall winning are when I robbed pots, or bet on the river with a made hand. Every single showdown I went into, no matter how far ahead I was, I lost.

I lost twice to a three outer, in the space of three hands. Unbelievable. I'm not surprised that I left Luke speechless. A man who you think would have seen it all, until he saw me. You know there's something wrong when you leave a man like Luke lost for words.

EDIT: Someone just pointed out the second one was a one outer! AGHGAHGAHGAHG! ! ! !

I have no-one to blame but myself. I'm a fcuking idiot for playing online again. It triggers something inside me which makes me want to fcuking kill somebody every time I play it. This doesn't even come close to how I'm feeling now..

http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/content/patiencechild.wmv

I only lost about 100 euro this week, and yet it has probably been the most stressful week of my life. I feel sick thinking about the games I have played in this week. Absolutely fucking sick...

Paddy Power Madness...

2006-02-20T13:14:00.000Z

I decided after winning the Irish Open Feeder ticket, and the Drogheda ticket, that I was going to give online another go. I've haven't played regularly in a few months, and it did me the world of good.

My live game has improved greatly due to the absence of online play, and stress that it causes. So why am I going back to play online? I don't know really... boredom? I think I cant control my tilt a lot better, and once I don't get too annoyed about bad beats and TERRIBLE players, I think I can make a steady profit.

However, I am still amazed by online play. The first time I sat down for a small session of STT's, I had a poker rivered by a higher poker, as mentioned in the previous post. My reaction to this was very stange, as it didn't surprise me at all. What did surprise me though was that I didn't get annoyed about it and go on tilt. Hopefully this means that I have my tilt under (some) control. However, only time will tell.

Amazingly, as I write this, I am playing a few STT's on PPP. Look what just happened...

Yes, thats me getting beaten by a ROYAL FLUSH. I pushed on the the flop and when I got two callers I had a feeling I was up against it. Am I behind here?

I think its because I still don't take this seriously... I have played about 2 hours online this week, and have had more crazy hands than the last few months playing live. Should I go back to playing something that I can't take seriously?

Jesus Christ, this is amazing. I am absolutely dumbfounded by this game... Now this isin't me moaning, I'm dishing out the bad beat here.... but still...

I don't want this to turn into me moaning about bad beats, but I hope my dilemma is clear. I want to start playing online again, as I feel I can make a profit, and I really want to win a few tickets into bigger games. However, I know that I am still not taking this seriously. Hands like these crop up WAY to often for my liking, and I don't know how to deal with them. In a live game, when something like this happens, you're on a buzz for a while. But in online, it's as if I can't relax for a second before something else happens. I find this very offputting and its hard to concentrate on the game.

I can afford to throw a few hundred into my account, and see what I can do with it. I have moved up to $15 and $25 STT's and the standard is slightly better. Although you seemingly still find terrible players at every level. I was knocked out of the Irish Open game last night by the aptly named 'a horse', who decided that 10 5 was a good enough hand to push on. I think 'a fish' or 'a donkey' would perhaps be a better name...

Anyway, this post seems to have derailed somewhat due to me playing PPP at the same time! Although it did sort of reinforce my point. In the ten minutes that I have been writing this I have been in some crazy hands. I think I'm going to just have to learn to expect this when I sit down to play online. It seems to be working, as I have won 6 out of the 13 STT's I played in, and cashed in a further three. Ah well, we'll soon find out if I can get my head around this online lark...

EDIT: Fuck it, I can't handle this. I really thought I had gotten past getting annoyed about this, but it turns out PPP didn't need very long to really get under my skin. I was playing 4 STT's and 1 MTT. A mixture of terrible beats and mind-bogglingly bad players had seen me bubble in two of the STT's, get knocked out in 6th in the other after having 50% of the chips in play, and get knocked out of the last STT and MTT... all in under 2 minutes.

How can anybody enjoy this? It is absolutely disgusting. If you get bored by bad beats just scan over this, I just have to get it off my chest...

STT 1: AK beaten by A2 on KK4 flop. Turn 3 river 5. He calls an all in on the flop... DONKEY NUMBER 1.

STT 2: I push with 6 7 on 8 9 10 flop. Called by KK. Turn J. River Q. FUCKING PPP.

STT 3: I'm CL Sitting on 5K. On tilt from the from getting knocked out of 2 STT's in last 20 seconds. I fuck up and 10 hands later I'm out. Probably my fault for not controlling my tilt...

STT 4: Starting to get pissed off now, I get aces and almost fold, thinking I need a break. Player goes all in ahead of me. I fcuking know I'm going to lose.. I call anyway. AJ. .... turn J. river J. AGHGHHGHGHGGHGHGHG!!!!!

MTT: I'm out of my chair now ready to throw the mouse through the screen. I pick up AK and hit top pair on K 4 5 flop. I don't even want to play anymore so I just fuck all the chips in. Get called by 66. hmmmm turn A, river 6. WHAT IS THAT? DONKEY! DONKEY!

I have had a stress free time the last few months and STUPIDLY decided to give online another go. It took all of two days to get me straight back to pulling my hair out. Some of the retarded fuckbags that play online.... jesus christ, how do they tie their laces in the morning?? I'm not going to let myself get stressed out again over this pointless, waste of time, EXCUSE for poker. I just cannot understand how you are meant to be consistent at this. There is so much fucking luck involved that I just can't see where the skill comes into it...

COMEBACK OVER

The reason I don't play online...

2006-02-15T21:56:00.000Z

I havent posted a bad beat in months... but this one takes the fcuking biscuit! I havent played 'casually' on PPP for about 4 or 5 months. I lodged money today to play the Drogheda feeder.
I had $25 left over so I said I may aswell play a SnG. I won it and now had over $100 in my account. Nice One.

Maybe I'll play another Sng... Then this happens.

I get a poker of nines... beaten by a poker of tens. Sure that happens every day. The amazing thing was I didn't bat an eyelid. I simply logged off and went in to watch TV. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I realised what had happened. If that were in a live game I would have gone crazy!! But the fact that it was online, it didn't even surprise me.

Just goes to show how differently I view online ''poker'' and the real game. Also, fair play to PPP in their attempt to win back a customer... GENIUS

I still can't see my comeback to online 'poker' anytime in the near future. I just don't have the mentality to handle the difference in play between online and live play. I think my main problem is that I am playing the same style online as I do live. This may work for some people but it definitely isin't working for me! I think I can hold my own against most people in a medium buy-in live game, but land me in a $5 game online, and I'm lucky if I make a penny. Go figure...

EDIT: Just won a ticket worth $99 into this Sunday's Irish Open Satellite. One ticket to the Irish Open ($4500) for every 45 players. I'm down in Waterford for the weekend so I'm going to have to rush back to make the 7pm start. I may be praising PPP soon...

VICTORY!!!

2006-02-12T11:15:00.000Z

What a week! After the disappointment of just missing out on the money in Drogheda, I decided to head down to the Sporting Emporium and have a go at their 50 double chance. I met Ionapaul and JP down there, and I think we started with about 70 runners.

I started off well, and realised after about 5 minutes that the standard was absolutely rubbish. Now, I'm don't like putting down other players, as were all that bad at one stage! But it was absolutely ridiculous how bad these players were. There was myself and two other decent enough players at the table, and we were literally taking turns in taking the other players chips. Each time we would knock one of them out, another would sit in his place, and the three of us would smile at each other... Very strange atmosphere actually. Probably how Andy Black and Co. feel when we sit down at their table!

I don't want to seem like Im getting big headed or anything, (I still consider myself somewhat of a beginner!), but I have never sat at a table where I KNEW I was way better then most of the others. They were falling for everything, and it was too easy to push them around.

Anyway enough of that, coming up to the break I had a decent stack, and looking at Paul's table, he was doing very nicely. After the break, JP came to sit at our table, and it wasn't long before I had doubled him up! I had called the initial bet with 56 hearts, and I think JP had raised it. I felt he had AK or a medium pair, and when the flop came Q high, I thought I could push him off it with an all-in. Unfortunately he called with a set of Queens! D'OH! I looked across to Paul at this stage and he had a huge stack, maybe 50K+!

Nothing much to report in the run up to the final table, as I was simply card dead. Survival poker had me down to 3K with blinds at 500/ 1K! Somehow, I doubled up a few times and robbed a bit and had about 16K going into the final table.

Paul's stack had diminished somewhat to about 12K... Oops! JP was knocked out and soon we were down to 6. I think the payout was something like this;
6th 100
5th 200
4th 300
3rd 500
2nd 700
1st 1400

Paul was down to 7K UTG with blinds at 2K/4K, so I was basically guaranteed 200, bar a miracle. So why then did I feel the need to make a move against the CL with 68o? Because I'm an idiot. I had worked up to 25K, and flopped a double gutshot straight on a 10 high flop. He bet 5K and I called. Turn came a King and I thought I could get him off the hand with an all in, but he just had too much chips to fold. He called with 10 2 and out I went for a profit of..... 50euro. Shite! Paul went out the next hand but at least I had doubled his money! It wasn't the last final table we would meet at...

Then came the Vegasnights Team Event in the Anglers Rest last night. I was captain of Fistful of Shamrock's, and we had some stiff competition against some very good teams. Although it was only a 20 euro game, we were still playing for bragging rights... and of course the trophey!Unfortunately, two of the lads on FOS pulled out and I couldn't get replacements in time, so we started the tourney with 6... which was instantly 5 after Iago's early exit! Very unlucky, a difficult hand to get away from Iago.

Anyway, I started the tourneament well, landing at Careca's table. I was getting decent hands, and getting paid off on most off them. Careca on the other hand wasn't getting the cards, and was pretty shortstacked coming up to the first break. Des moved to our table, and had soon amassed a huge stack due to the great hands I was dealing him! We had sorted out a deal in the car on the way up where I would deal him aces in exchange for a few days with the trophey!

Anyway, hitting the break and I was up to about 21K, in there with the chip leaders. Des wasn't too far behind. I 'rounded up the troops' at the break and found that karlh was doing well on 17K and the other 2 lads were still hanging in! Starting the second level and I continued on as I had started, slowly amassing a big stack. Our table was broken soon after, and I was moved to Olly's table, sitting just to his left. Thank God, no more dealing! I was starting to really feel the effects of too much alcohol on Friday night, and the hangover was really kicking in. I had to keep going outside for fresh air to clear my head... feeling pretty ropey!

I still made it back in time to knock Olly out! He made a good call with pocket sevens vs my AK but unfortuantely just lost the race. I found out later that the las that knocked him out was apparently 'gay'. Nice to know Olly! We were soon down to the last 3/4 tables, and nearing the points stage. Amazingly, Boardstoopids team still had 6 players in it! If they could keep this up they would win the team event by sheer numbers. Myself and Ionapaul were flying the flag for FOS and most other teams had 2-4 players left. Nick had announced that the top 19 players would get a break and some food. haha the dreaded 'food bubble' I shouted!

Then came a row of hands that could have, and probably should have ended my tournament. I had worked my way up to about 60K, which was about 2x average with about 25 left. First hand I got pocket Queens, It was raised up to 10K, and I quickly went over the top and made it 25K. He instantly went all in. Fuck! I had a pretty good read on this lad, and had picked up a tell on him aswell. Anytime he had a very good hand, he would start tapping one chip on top of the other. I had noticed this when he had KK previously and when he had flopped a set. I folded before I could persuade my self to call, and he duly flipped over AA. Second time in a week I have had to fold QQ preflop (Drogheda).

But the drama wasn't over. Our table was broken after that hand and I was moved to Careca's table. First hand at that table I pick up JJ! I raise it up to 12K (blinds 1500/ 3K), and get a caller and an all in. AGGGHHH! I have to drop the Jacks, and realise I was up against 77 and AQ. A queen flops which makes me happy about the laydown.

The NEXT hand I pick up AJ and decide to flat call, as I am now down to close to 20K. wtf? An ace flops, and I am about to recoup my losse when a ROCK goes all in. I fold the AJ and he duly shows A9 for two pair. I could have gone out o any one of those hands, and I'm very happy with my restraint. If only I could carry that across to online play!

Soon we were down to 19 and I announced we had all made the 'food bubble' which made everyone happy! Just outside the points and it was starting to get serious... Nick sat with us for food and was praised for a great tourney. It was obvious he lost a lot putting this on, but fair play to him, it was a great tourney.

We were soon down to 18, and into the points. Boardstoopids had 4 or 5 people in the last 18, so were almost guaranteed the trophey! I wasn't too worried about it though, and was more aiming on 1st. I'm a selfish fucker! However IonaPaul kept our hopes alive after TRIPLING up when his queens hit a set against AA and KK! You jammy bastard!! Go on FOS!! I remember Careca doubling up on Aces too along the way...

I can't remember much in the run up to the final table, but Des was knocked out along the way, and when I knocked out 10th place, we broke for the final. I had a healthy stack of 88K starting, and IonaPaul had 99K. Two other boardies made the final table too. Rounders and Careca from rivals Boardstoopids had both made it with good stacks.

Nothing much happened in the first few rounds, with a lot of blindstealing going on, and not a flop in sight! I suggested to Nick that we freeze the blinds at 3K/6K, which he agreed. With the average stack at 75K, going up to 4K/8K would be too much.

A few shorties went out and we were soon down to 6. All four boardies were still in, with a lad from Poker.ie and the last member of Vegasnights. I can't remember if Careca went out in 4th or 5th, but as far as I can tell, he was pretty card dead at the table. Kept running into aces anytime he raised! I knocked out the poker.ie lad who had been stealing pots left right and centre. Pretty good player, but my tens were too much for his 68o!

Rounders had built up a HUGE stack, almost 250K by the looks of it. However this wouldn't last too long... I had been stealing his BB a lot, and going over the top of his raises, and had taken a good chunk off him. He was playing excellent poker last night. As was FOS legend Ionapaul. He was raising every pot and was announcing ALL IN! at regualr intervals! His stack was going up and down like a yo-yo!

Again, my memory isin't great, but I think Paul knocked out Rounders, and we were down to three. I was playing very aggressively re-raising the lads and pushing them off some big pots. I was raising with 27, going over the top of raises with muck.. just playing super aggressively. It was no suprise then when I reraised the Vegasnights lad all in with Aces, and he instantly called with pocket eights! An oscar winning performance if I say so myself! No eight killed me and I doubled up to over 200K.

Soon after this I got involved in a make or break pot with IonaPaul. He raised it up 40K and I looked down to see pocket tens. I raised it up to 100K which he flat called! wtf!! He had about 180K so both had half our stack in the middle now and this was going to be a HUGE pot. I was thinking he had either a low pair or A10 AJ, otherwisew he would have gone all in. The flop came Q high, and he checked it to me. I had to make a move on it, and felt he hadn't hit the Queen, so I led out with 40K. Thankfully he folded. Phew! My thinking was if he went over the top (he had about an extra 50K), I could at least consider folding and still have 60K left. It would be a very tough fold with a pot of over 300K, but I may have folded to a re-raise.

Anyway, I'm soon huge chip leader, at over 300K. Then came Paul's penultimate hand. I looked down to see 78s. A decent limping hand. I think Paul raised it up to 20K which I called. The flop came 458 rainbow, and Paul pushed for his remaining 60K. I instantly called with top pair, but unfortunately Paul was sitting on Q8. Fuck! well played! I needed a 6 or a 7 to knock him out, and for once Pokah helped me out and spiked a 6 on the river! sorry Paul, it killed me to knock out a fellow FOS member. Unlucky, you played a great tourney.

I've been watching Paul's progress over the last while, and he seems to be on the up and up. He cashed well in Citywest and I've met him TWICE at final tables this week alone.

Anyway, HEADS UP! Me and the other lad from Vegasnights had made it to the last two. We took a short toilet break, and I had a quick chat with the lad. He seemed like a nice bloke and he told me he'd been out all night playing poker in the Angler's Rest and hadn't slept! Haha, I had been worried that I wouldn't have my wits about me due to my hangover but this made me feel better! We were both equally fucked! Should be an interesting heads up match...

A good crowd had gathered to watch the final table, and I had Des and the other boardies cheering me on. Nice one lads!

I started off with about a 2:1 chip lead over him. It started off terribly, and the other lad was pushing me around. Any time I raised he went all in and I had to fold. He was a very good player and soon we were back to even, just over 300K each. I was getting annoyed as I really wanted to win this, and I was throwing it away. I knew he didn't have a hand most of the time, he just had more balls than me, and had no problem pushing. I decided to try and play more aggresively so the next time he raised it up 40K I went over the top for 120k holding 24c. He went all in! Fuck! Nice play. I folded and he showed A3 saying "I knew you were going to make a move with shit!". Fair play, nice move.

Soon he had a 3:1 chip lead over me, and I was down to 140K. I was fuming at how I had fucked it up. Next hand I get AQ, and was about to raise, when I though I may be able to slow play it. The flop came Q high, and I bet out 40K. He went all in an I instantly called. He showed Q4, and was very surprised to see I hadn't raised preflop with AQ. I went over the top of his 50K raise next hand and we were back to about even.

Next hand I get JJ. He raised it up 50K and I went all in. He thought about it for ages and finally said "fuck it I'm tired, lets do this!". He flipped over K10, and when the chips were in the middle it was a 669,700 pot. ( I had 300 left!). All I had to do was avoid a King and the tournament was mine! The flop brought out a possible straight draw, and he needed a King or J on the river to knock me out... but it never came. I WIN!

____

Very happy with my results of late. Not including my disastrous debut to the Sporting Emporium, I've had good results. Which Des seems to have noticed too. He keeps betting on me and winning!

Fitz Charity tournament - 1st

Fitz Sunday freezout - 3rd

Fitz monthly 270 - 13th

Drogheda - 22nd

SE 50 double chance - 6th

VN Team Event 1st

I've cashed in 5 out of the last 6 tounaments I played in,k and just missed out on a nice payday in Drogheda. I think the main reason I am doing well live is due to the fact that I don't play online regularly anymore. I don't get stressed playing poker anymore, and try to keep my emotions hidden, and not moan too much!

As for the VN tourney, overall it was a great tournament and fair play to Nick for putting it on. I'll definitely be back in 3 months to challenge Boardstoopids and claim what is rightfully ours! FOS will be back with a FULL team, and that Trophy will be ours! Write THAT on your arse Des!!!!!

*EDIT: Photo's courtesy of Des

SE

2006-02-09T17:57:00.000Z

Just received My Sporting Emporium Card in the post today... maybe I'll go down there tonight! Think there's a 50 euro Double Chance on. Might be interesting!
There should be a few boardies down there so it might be a good laugh. Anyway, I have to make up for my disastrous debut last month in the 75 euro double chance! I barely lasted an hour and played terribly. Hopefully will do better this time! Had a good run the other night in Drogheda, so I'll see if I can keep it up

Drogheda Tourney

2006-02-06T09:57:00.000Z

What a day...

One of the best tournaments I ever played in. Layout, structure everything was spot on. It was run brilliantly and I have no complaints at all about the day. Fair play to Mike and Tom for a great day of poker!

As for the actual game, I was nearly out before the first break! I say nearly, although a certain Dave Masters actually went out on the first hand! I think he had a house rivered by a bigger house.

Anyway, I had built my starting stack up to about 10K from a starting 6, when my stack got DECIMATED! (Cant remember the exact details of the hand, but I think this is how it went) I had called a min raise with A9, and the flop came 969. I led out for 1K, which he called. Turn brought a K, and I led out again with 3,500. He though for ages and eventually flat called. I was a little worried now, and wasn't sure how I was going to play the river. The river brought a 7, and I felt like a push was my only option. He instantly called with 77 for a rivered house?? AGGGGHHHHH!

Down to 400 and I had my jacket on, silently cursing him. OK I maybe could have gotten away from this on the river, but what was he doing calling the 3.5K with sevens?

I was forced to throw in my last 400 on K2 and luckily got 4 others in. I flopped trips and was up to 2K. A few hands later I pushed on the flop with Queens and threes on a Q37 board, and got called by a lad with the same amount of chips as me, holding..... 63c???? The turn brought him a fourth club, and the river... a blank! Thank fuck, I may have thrown a punch his way if he had won the hand! So back up to about 5K and starting to find a good rhythm.

It was now that I realised that the standard at my table, and a few others by the looks of it, was TERRIBLE! Some of the hands I was witnessing were unreal. People calling off all their stack with bottom pair, or a gutshot. I was dying to get a hand and milk these chip factories dry!

Our table broke and I was moved onto Eoin Olin's table (Mr Pillowtalk from Boards). I had only sat down a few minutes when I noticed it was a pretty quiet and tight table. I decided to start playing LAG and liven things up a bit! I limped in with J10h, and the flop came down a delicious 789. I was aiming to double up off one of the big stacks so I threw in a big bet to make it look like I was stealing. A big stack to my left took the bait and started staring me down. I threw back a few false tells making it look like I really didn't want a call. He announced "why are ya betting? You have Nothing! Just being a mouth.. Actually I KNOW you have nothing! I'm all In" Emmmm. Ok I think I'll call with the nuts... Double up to 10K

He wasn't happy at alland was pretty embarrassed by the looks of it. I knew I had put him on major tilt and was dying for a chance to take advantage. And for once, Pokah agreed and two hands later threw me down a pair of aces. I raised it up to 1K (blinds 200/400), and he min-raised it up to 2K. Lovely, please have kings!! I acted as if I'd been caught on the steal, and looked as if I was going to fold etc (oscar winning performance...). I gave it a few minutes of trash talking etc, and finally came out with "hmmm... only way I'm getting you off this is by going all in right?". I pushed all in, and now I could tell he was dying to call. I was thinking he had a medium pair, but I might be able to get him to push if I could tilt him a little more! To be honest I was acting the arsehole and really getting on his nerves. He finally said "you probably have the kings or queens, but I'm gonna fucking call you anyway". He flipped over pocket tens, and the board was no help and he was down to the felt. And I was up to 20K!

He was cursing and moaning at me but I just kept my head down and counted (his) chips! He was knocked out a few hands later and stormed out of the place. It was only after he left that I was told he was known as 'the hangman'. Apparently he plays all the big events and is a well known pro?

Anyway, I started bullying my table now and was soon up to about 30K, and starting to really enjoy myself. I lost about 5K when I limped into a three way pot UTG with Kings, and allowed Eoin to outdraw me. The flop came Q9x rainbow (decent flop for kings), so I raised up to 3K. I got one caller and then Eoin pushed all in for 5K. I felt I was probably behind, thinking he might have pocket queens, but I had to call. The other lad also called and the pot was now a tasty 15K. The turn brought another 9 which we both checked. The river was a blank. and we both checked it down, with Eoin showing Q9 for the house! Biatch!

This table broke again, and we were down to the last 100 players. I was moved to Des's tableand soon built my stack to close to 40K. Mike then decided to announce that myself and Kevin Fitpatrick were tournament chip leaders! A long way from the 400 I was down too!

This table was a little looser than the last one, so I decided to tighten up for a while until I could pick out the decent players. Des was doing his usual pushing with Ax on my BB, and I was dying to call him, but I just didn't have the cards (I had A6 and folded, with Des showing A7 etc). I picked up Queens and called an all in for about 6K, but was outdrawn by A4. Can't argue though, because I knocked out a lad just before the second break with AJ cracking his Queens.

One notable hand from this table was when I had to lay down Queens preflop to a fitz regular (can't remember his name). I raised it up to 3,200 and he pushed for 12K. I had about 30K at this stage, and as I had played with this lad before, I though at best, I was looking at a race against AK. I figured it wasn't worth it and laid them down. He later told me he had AK, but whether to believe that...

I think part of the reason I laid them down was I was having no luck with big hands all day (bar the aces). I picked up Queens three times yestarday and Kings twice, and lost on ALL of them! I seemed to be building my stack mainly from playing aggressively and robbing blinds with muck such as 10 6o (I know you liked that one Des!). I played a few good hands at Des's table, pushing people off bigger hands by representing a better hand etc. and was up to about 30K at the dinner break. Unfortunately Des, Ocallagh, Big D, Rounders, Musician, Oscar and most of the other boardies had exited before the break, as we got down to the last 50. Leslie got moved to our table just befor the break, and was left with a single 500 chip going into the break. Chip and a chair etc...

Went off to the dinner break (chicken curry...bit spicy!), and put a few more names to faces. Met gholimoli and a few others, and took a short walk to clear my head. Unfortunately, Pokah went for a walk to and forgot to come back! My luck after the break was abysmal as the cards simply dried up. Down to 4 tables and I was starting to get shortstacked. The blinds were eating into my stack, and pretty soon I was becoming shortstacked. I was moved onto another table, which had a few notables on it.

Ivan contemplates a big call...

Meanwhile Rory C gets a fit of the munchies...

Ivan Donaghy was two to my right, and Nikki from Paddy Power was on my left. I was soon down to 15K, and then 10K, after I tried to rob a pot and ran into a flopped straight. With blinds at 2K/4K it was make or break time, and I had to push on the next decent hand. I picked up KJ in LP and pushed and took the blinds. Did the same a few hands later with AJ and took the blinds again, now up to 22K. Still in with a chance!

Pretty funny hand happened between Ivan and Nikki around this time. Ivan raised it up to 8K, and Nikki stared him down, and even asked him for a chip count! He had about 90K while she sat on close to 50K. She eventually went over the top and put Ivan on the spot. I could tell she had caught him out, and he was never going to call, but of course he had to make as if it was a tough laydown etc, finally showing her a K and saying "I'm laying down AK into your Queens Nikki". Now, there's no way he had AK or he would have shown both cards? I think someone on boards said he had K10, which sounds about right. Either way, fair play to Nikki for making the move!

Mike announced we were down to 22, with top 18 getting paid. 18th was 615, and 1st was 12K + a ticket into a WSOP Qualifier, worth 1800. I've bubbled in so many of the big games I've played in, and I REALLY just wanted to cash in this one... However, with the blinds so big 3K/6K, and everyone getting 'bubble syndrome', I felt i had to keep tying to build my stack, and have a go at making some decent cash. Kevin Fitpatrick got moved to our table and was sitting on my left. So Ive now got Kevin to my left and Ivan to my right..... ROCK>>> HARD PLACE!

I robbed the blinds with AQ and was now up to about 28K. Next hand I pick up KQs. Ivan is under the gun and he is thinking for ages before he min raises the blind up to 12K. Im thinking he has either a low Ace, or a small pocket pair, because I think he would have raised bigger with anything alse. I decide with 21K already in the pot its as good a time as any to make a move. I push all in for 28K, and immediately get a caller to my left. SHHIIIITTT! Its folded around to Ivan, who thinks for ages and finally calls the extra 16K. I'm probably in bad shape.... (this hand occured right after the photo above was taken)

The flop comes down King high, and I'm looking straight at Ivan to see if he's made a set. The other lad pushes for his remaining 11K, and Ivan clearly doesn't want to call. Lovely, I have to be ahead of him. But the other lad is now scaring me. It's screaming AK, but I'm hoping to god its Queens or Jacks. Its the only possible cards that he realistically would have called a bet and a raise with, as he had shown he wasn't a loose player. Ivan thinks for a good while before eventually calling the extra 11K with 66?

I personally think this was bad play on his part, calling the extra 16K in the first place. Fair enough he was ahead preflop, but surely this is very risky to call this with 2 players in the pot? I think the call at the end was a must, as he was pot commited and was only putting 11K more into a pot of 100K+.

Anyway, Ivan turned over pocket sixes, and the other lad, a local favourite from Drogheda turned over..........AK! Noooooooo! Fuck! If ever I needed some luck NOW IS THE TIME!!!!

But no. An ace on the turn left me drawing dead, and my tournament was over. I was really annoyed at myself for getting into the hand at all, but looking back on it, the blinds were big enough for me to take a risk of stealing, and I think I'm pretty sure Ivan would have called my all in if we were heads up. It was just unfortunate that the Drogheda lad woke up with AK. Ah well! Had I won that pot I would have been on 90K+ and one of the chip leaders... Instead I go out around the bubble YET AGAIN! I didn't stay too long as I was in work this morning at 6am.

Still, I'd like to thank all the lads on boards who were supporting me and again, fair play to Tom and Mike for a brilliant tourney. Frank McCartney won it in the end. He is sitting on Ivans right in the photo above. Here is a full result list.

1st Frank Mccartney €12,070 + €1800 ticket for WSOP qualifier

2nd Colin Studdard €8320

3rd Thomas 'Bomber' Nolan €5545

4th Ivan Donaghy €3700

5th Shane Devlin €2775

6th Owen 'MrPillowtalk' Olin €2310

7th Henry McGrath €1850

8th Kevin Fitzpatrick €1385

9th Julius 'Junior' Noer €925

10th Keiran Traynor €620

11th Paul Kerr €620

12th Paul O'Reilly €620

13th Karl Hutson €615

14th Stephen Devlin €615

15th Cathal Doherty €615

16th Nikki Newman €615

17th Greg Smith €615

18th Barry Hand €615

19th Gavin Lawless (Bubble)

20th Paddy McFadden

21st ?

22nd Rory Cartwright

Better luck next time eh....

This is why I play poker...

2006-02-03T19:03:00.000Z

I have dreams about hands playing out like this... I have Jacks, I flop a poker and have a bet and a raise into me... Thank you pokah!

Turns out the first lad had A9 and the second lad had Aces! Give me your money!

Bum Deal?

2006-02-02T18:55:00.000Z

Look what happened halfway through one of my games.... Computer went crazy and totally fucked up the screen! Up to about $200 now from the $25 Paul gave me on all in. I'm pretty happy with how things are going online at the moment.

Im only playing the odd $5 game every few days on All In, and I still have no real interest in playing online... which is good! If I don't play regularly then I don't get stressed out! I've been cashing in most of the STT's I play. I haven't gone near cash games or MTT's because I don't have the energy for them.

My PPP and Pokerstars accounts are still both empty. I am using them only for specific MTT's like the Drogheda Satellite. I just deposit the price of the game and play off that. This system seems to be working well for me so far. I'm not playing much poker at all but I think this will change once I settle into the routine of my new job. These 6am starts are still killing me!

I've got the Drogheda game this Sunday and the Vegasnights Team event next Saturday. I'm looking forward to both these games and they will give me the chance to work on my live play a bit. Get paid on Tuesday, so won't be broke for much longer! Once I get my bankroll up a bit I might make a return to online, and play properly.

I think I'll wait until I have about E500 and then lodge it and have a real go at making money. I may leave this off until March though, as I don't want to come back too soon! I haven't sat down for a proper session in so long now... and I don't miss it at all! Hours spent pulling my hair out, screaming at the screen, smashing the mouse off the wall... who needs that? I've so much respect for the lads who do this full-time. Don't think I could do that at the moment!

I'm learning to take bad beats and variance, etc, but I still get annoyed by how bad some players are (including myself at times!). Some of the plays you witness online are mind boggling...

But enough about that! I found the alloys I'll be putting on my car... once I win this little game in Drogheda on Sunday!

PPP Drogheda Satellite

2006-01-25T14:05:00.000Z

Almost missed playing this one! Had put time aside to play last nights $30 freezeout on Paddy Power, as I really wanted to play in the big Drogheda game in February. It worked out at a ticket (worth $300) for ever 10 players. I think we started with 48 players so we were looking at 4 tickets and $240 for 5th.

Anyway, couldn't get onto the computer until 8.58pm because my sister has exams and needed the PC. Still, with the game starting at 9pm and was cutting it close! So the game started and I have a glance around my table. Des to my right and Dave two to my left! Should be good!

Was playing pretty tight for the first few levels, and slowly built my stack up. I was getting good cards but instead of slow playing I had decided to simply try to raise people out of pots. It was Paddy Power after all! Aces are only good preflop! Made a few big preflop raises with Kings and AK and took down pots uncontested, which is best when playing PPP.... ok I'll stop :)

Got Queens a few levels in and got into a pot with Des. Two Aces on the flop but Des bets out and gives me a nice hint. I check the turn and let Des bet the river which I duly raise! Nice one Des!

Up to about 3K and i double up with AK vs AJ on an A high flop. Was second in chips now and when I went to check the leaderboard I noticed Rounders was top of the pile! I went back to my table and then noticed that he was after getting moved to my table! Shit! Anyway, grinded away for the next few levels until we were down to 2 tables. Nothing exciting, just knocking out a few players with better hands.

Dave and Des both got knocked out on bad beats I think, and if i'm not mistaken, both by Rounders! Down to 10 and I was sitting pretty on about 13K. Waiting for it to break to 9. And waiting. And my stack started dwindling as the blinds went up and the cards dried up. This has happened to me before in games. Down to 10 and I'm to distracted by the short stacks play to keep an eye on my own.

Anyway when we FINALLY broke for the final table, I was down to about 9K, which wasn't great. Average would be about 11K. There was a few boardies still left; Rounders and Gholimoli that I remember. Anyway, I didn't get much until I picked up 10 10. I raised it up to 2.5K and got 1 caller. Flop comes AQx. She pushes all in. SHIT! Foldy foldy down to 6K.

Robbed a few blinds and got up to about 8K and then got AQ. I raised it up and got 1 caller. Flop comes A78 and I push. He takes ages and finally calls with AJ. No Jack and I'm up to 16K. Lovely! The very next hand I get AK. Theres a 3K raise ahead of me so push all in to isolate. He finally calls with tens and the flop is no help to me. Back down to 10K. I don't think there was any need for me to make this move with such a flat payout structure, but we were down to 8, and one lad only had 1K, so if I had won the hand we would have been down to 7 with one very shortstacked player. Ah well.

Another bluff knocked me back down to 6K and I was starting to sweat now. The shorty got knocked out so now we were 1 place off the bubble. Agghhh! Thankfully Rounders came to the rescue and knocked 2 players out in 1 hand to ensure I get a ticket or cash! Nice one!

We were going to just throw all the chips in but I persuaded the lads to play on for Pride! We played on and soon me and Rounders were heads up and I had a slight chip lead. The penultimate hand came when he pushed with 55 and I called with A6 soooted. I saw a magic Ace on the flop but straight away saw the 5 beside it! Damn! Ah well, I might not have got a ticket without Rounders knocking the other lads out!

See you all in Drogheda!

Just a few thoughts...

2006-01-20T19:57:00.000Z

First off some casino rules that have been annoying me;

Who was the one that came up with the string betting rule? I don't think I have ever seen a situation where a player has tried to use this to their advantage. It seems that the only people who insist on enforcing this rule are the big mouths who feel the need to pounce on some poor newbie who doesn't know all the minor rules of poker. Fair enough, it can be confusing if somebody doesn't make it clear what there bet is, but don't immediately shout 'string bet' and smile around as if you are a fcuking expert on the rules of poker. Give him a chance, and let the dealer decide if its a string bet. Obviously you would expect everybody to know this rule but if they aren't aware of it, don't make a point of it.

Also, another thing which I have been noticing more and more, is people buying percentages of other people in tournaments. Andy Black collected a fair bit of money before the WSOP and a lot of people were very happy when he came home! However, I am constantly overhearing about people 'having 15% of each other' in smaller tournaments. The promlem that I see is when the two of you are playing in the same tournament. If you do end up at the same table you will most likely avoid playing against him as you don't want to knock him out, as you will lose your 15% with him. By soft playing you are basicalling ruining the integrity of the game, and it's basically a form of collusion. I am this happens, but I think as more and more people get into the habit of doing it, it is changing the atmosphere in tournaments.

For example, if in a big tournament, player X and player Y own 15% of each other, and they both own 15% of player Z, what will happen if they all end up at the same table? There is no way that you can have a proper game of poker if a few players at the same table own percentages of each other. This could prove to be a problem in the WSOP, where so many people are bankrolled. I think that everyone should state any deals of any kind before a tournament starts, under threat of disqualification.

I know points like these have probably been done to death on other sites, but it would be interesting to see how everyone feels about them.

Rigged!

2006-01-18T18:27:00.000Z

Ok... a prize for whoever can work out how many outs I had....

Getting pissed off lately at how little poker I'm playing. This new job means I'm up at 6am two days a week and 8am the other three. I just can't fit any real poker in on weeknights, just the odd bit of online CRAP when I get seriously bored. Hands like the one above just make me lose interest fast. I still haven't got back into playing online regularly, and I don't think I will in the near future. It has been giving me a good laugh recently though... there are sooo many people who play online that actually think they are good players. Very funny watching two players argue over a hand when NEITHER has the slightest fucking clue what they are doing.

I've got the team even coming up at the start of February and I'm captaining Fistful of Shamrock, hopefully to glory! I'm gonna play a few sats and try and get a ticket into either the Drogheda 250 game or the televised Joe 'Show' game. Preferably both!

Bullshit...

2006-01-14T01:20:00.000Z

Just got back from the game there, and I somehow went from being chip leader with 16 left, to out in 12th??? And I still can't figure out how the fuck I just threw it away...

I started the game off ok, getting muck up until a few hands before the break. Started after the break with around 6K from a starting stack of 2K. I wasn't getting much until I picked up AJ and AQ in quick succesion. I had given out a bit of a rock image, and when I limped with AK a few hands later, the small blind presumed he was ahead and pushed for 6K. I called and his AQ didn't outdraw me and I was soon up to about 15K.

I was moved then to table 2 and started to dominate and bully the table. I was soon up to 20K.... then 30... then 40, knocking out players on the way and picking up their scalps! I was chip leader on the final two tables with about 42K when everthing just fell apart. First I got JJ and raised it up to 4K (blinds 500/1000). Folded around to BB who goes all-in for 8K total. Only another 4k to me. Autocall. He flips over the aces, and no luck on the board and I've taken a slight hit. Ah well, carry on... Down to 34K.

A few hands later I pick up KK and with a lot of limpers and me last to act I pump in 10K into an 8K pot. Folded around and I get TWO callers who had both checked it to me?? The flop throws an a horrible ace and with a raise and an all in in front of me I'm forced to drop the hand. They turn over AQ and..... A6? Ok.... still ok down to 24K.

The next hand I limp in with Ac10c after 4 callers ahead of me. The flop comes down 445 with two clubs. Its checked around to me so I throw in a pot bet, 10K. I don't know if I was tilting here and whether or not it was worth it to throw half my stack in on a draw, but it was checked to me and I was sure no-one had hit the 4. And it was the NUT flush draw.

It was folded around to the last lad, a calling station who had donated most of his chips to me earlier on. He seemed like the pub-tourney type and had accumulated his chips mainly through picking up big hands. I hadn't seen him bluff all night.

He had about the same amount of chips as me, and was thinking about it for a while before eventually calling. I was almost sure he had the 5 or a lower flush draw now, as he wouldn't have hesitated to call with the 4, and he had already checked it to me. He eventually called and I was starting to get pot committed. I had about 14K left and with about 30K in the pot, I would probably have to push on the turn. The turn was a blank, no club. He checked it to me, and I was going to push, but I think he would have called either way, so I checked behind him hoping to hit an ace, ten or club on the river. The river was another blank and when he pushed I was forced to fold. I couldn't see any way I was ahead.

The blinds were raised to 1500/ 3000 and after getting both my blinds stolen I was forced to call an all in for my last 9K with KJc. I wasn't too far behind and was up against A10. No help on the board and somehow I've gone from being chip leader to out within the space of about 10 minutes. Cannot believe i didn't make the money. Un-fucking-believable.

I've been thinking about the main hands I lost and other than pushing on the nut flush draw, I don't think there was much else i could have done differently. Jacks ran into Aces. Kings got fucked by an ace on the flop. Flush never comes out and I couldn't scare him off the hand.

I managed to pick up 5 scalps so I only lost a tenner for the night but it still fucking hurts. I was in great form tonight and was confident I could at least make the money. Just can't believe I was chip leader with 16 left and I didn't make the money.

I WILL WIN ! ! !

2006-01-13T11:04:00.000Z

I'm gonna head down to the Fitz tonight for the scalps game, and I have to make up for my disastrous performance from the other night. I'm going to play my top game tonight, and WILL make the money! Its all about CONFIDENCE!! Even though I've been up since 5am this morning for work I'm pretty sure I can cash tonight. Might just need a quick powernap at the break :)

I 'm not gonna make any stoooopid plays like the other night. I WILL be writing back on here after the game with a nice win....

Oh and I just noticed that I've gone over 1000 hits. Deadly!

Sporting Emporium €75 freezeout

2006-01-12T07:49:00.000Z

A friend of mine persuaded me to go down and have a look at the new casino opened up just off Grafton St. The €75 + €5 double chance was on, so I said I'd give it a go. Met up with a few lads from boards and got to have a look around the place before it started. What a slick place! Got my car valeted for €10 and all!

As for the poker aspect of the night, I was stupid for going down in the first place. Its the first time since I started work that I played poker on a weeknight. The main reason I went down was just to look at the place.... and thats all I got! The tournament started just before 9, and I was out at 9:30. Out of a double chance in half an hour! Easily the worst poker I've EVER played. My head just wasn't in it at all.

I'd had a long day at work, I was in work at 7:30am this morning, and I hadn't eaten as I'd gone straight from work to the hospital to visit my grandad, and then from there down to my mates house, where HE persuaded me to go to the SE. BIG mistake...

I started off ok, working my 2K stack up to just over 3K. Then after about 15 mins I got my top-up and was up too just over 5K. Then came the two hands that killed me. Both were avoidable, and neither were even played that well by the other player. I just paid both of them off.

Hand 1
I got dealt KQ, and limped in as there was a few callers. The flop came down AKJ with two hearts. I called a small raise, but as I had no hearts I didn't want to commit myself. A third heart came on the turn, but it was the 10, giving me a straight. I wanted to get rid of anyone on a flush draw so I bet 600, about a pot-sized bet. I got MIN-RAISED! Normally this would stink of a made flush, I better fold. So why the fuck are my chips going in the middle??? The river comes a blank, and he pushes all in for his last 350. So he min raised an extra 600 when he only had 950!! And I called?? What the fuck did i think he had?? Normally I would have picked up on the flush on the turn and checked it, but last night my head wasn't in it at all.

Hand 2
About 5 mins after the Hand 1, I get dealt K 10 and limp in. Its raised up to 200 (4BB), and from some strange, TILTY reason, I call. Normally I would dump this to a raise as it usually gets you into trouble, but for some reason I called. Flop came down K J x. I bet out to get info on the other two still in the hand. First player folded, the second lad thought for a while and eventually called. I figured he probably had a Jack, and I may be able to take it down on the turn. An Ace popped out on the turn, and he checked it to me. Now I was a bit confused... The Ace was a scare card, and my head was all over the place as I had been planning on pushing on the turn. So I checked. The river was another blank. And he checked it to me. Now on a normal night, this would stink of a good hand, but for some strange reason, I still felt all he had was the Jack. So I pushed.. with K 10??? He took a while to call, eventually saying "I have to.." and turning over AJ?? I probably would have picked this up normally, as he was the original raiser! What was i thinking???

Overall I am disgusted and embarrassed by my play last night. My earliest exit ever from a tournament, and easily the worst I've played in years. It was my own fault. I shouldn't have gone down in the first place. I was in no fit state to play and my head wasn't in the right place. just going to have to accept that poker will be resigned to the weekends from now on.

To put the cherry on the fucking cake, my mate just rang me and said he got 10th, the bubble! And he was knocked out on aces. Obviously...

Fitz €30 shootout

2006-01-08T22:00:00.000Z

Decided to venture down to this as I haven't been playing live much due to my new job. Met up with Shane (De Deraco on boards) beforehand for a pint, then strolled down to the fitz. Game started at 4:30. On the way Shane told me that it wasn't a €30 freezeout as I had expected. Instead it was a 'shoot-out'. I actually hadn't heard of a shoot-out before, but Shane filled me in on the structure. Its basically like loads of seperate STT's where the winner of each goes on to the final table. Since we only had 4 tables it was decided that the top two would go through. There was a nice starting stack of 4,000.

Started the game off well, playing tight enough until I knew what I was up against. It didn't take me long to realise that there was only one other player that looked anyway decent. Two of the people had never played before, and the rest didn't seem too confident. Now most of the time it is good to have one or two fish at the table, but when its full of them.... you could drown! It's harder to bluff, etc.

I tried to stay out of most of the big pots, only playing quality hands. We were down to 4 quickly enough, while the other three tables still had 8 or 9 players. There was an unbelievably lucky woman who was sitting at my table. It was her first time ever playing live and she knocked out 3 players from our table on ridiculous river cards. She was calling EVERYTHING! I was happy to sit back and watch her infuriate the rest of the table! Eventually I picked up KK and put on an oscar winning performance to get her to put all her chips in. Flop came down A K x, and her eyes stared at the Ace for a few seconds longer than the rest. Thanks love, you wouldn't have an Ace by any chance?

I checked, and she raised pretty big. I took ages to RELUCTANTLY call... Turn was a jack, and I waited until I knew she was looking at me, and then threw her a false tell. I stared at the jack, then my cards, then the jack... etc. River was the final king. Hmmmmmm... I looked at her and announced, "I don't think you have an ace or king, I'm going all in". She immediately pushed all her chips in and proudly turned over A 9 shouting "Haha, I have the ace!!! Beats your Jack!" ..... I turned over the kings and almost felt bad to see her go. Almost...

Anyway, down to three and Shanes table was down to six. Other two were still on 7 or 8. We stayed at three for about an hour and Shane had decided to destroy his table, and somehow got from six players to two in about 15 mins! He finished up and went through 1st with about 26K. We finished up soon after, and I went to the final table with about 17K, about average. Table 2 finished up at about 6:30, so now we were waiting for table 4 to finish. Somehow there was still 5 players left!!! So we waited... and waited...and waited. TWO HOURS later it was still at 4 players!!!!

Me, and Shane were playing cards with Rounders123 and some other boardsters, and ordered food, and STILL we were waiting! We went over to watch the table at about 8:45, and eventually it got down to two. Now it was final table time! The payout wasn't great, I think it went

8th 50
7th 50
6th 50
5th 50
4th 70
3rd 100
2nd 200
1st 320

There was no-one at the final table that worried me, and I had a healthy enough stack. Only problem was that table 4 had been playing soooo long that the blinds had gone up a LOT! When we had finished up the blinds were 200/400. When the final table started it was 1000/2000!! I started off in BB and my blind was robbed straight away. Same with the small blind. Got NO cards in the first round, then saw my BB getting robbed again! In fairness Shane had AA and knocked someone out so I can't complain. I was down to 12K now and needing to pick up a hand. Thankfully it came the very next hand and I looked down to see KK. Button went all in for about 8K with A7. 7 on the flop but no more help and he was out. Soon we were down to 4, and after Shane knocked another player out, we were down to 3.

Shane was monster chip leader, but he was getting great hands on the final table. Aces, Queens.... With the blinds 1500/3000, I went all in for about 25K with K6 to try and get the shortstack out and get heads up with Shane. He only had about 6K left so he had to call. I was delighted to see him turn over 67. OBVIOUSLY he hits his 7 on the turn and now I was in a bit of trouble. A few hands later Shane raises up to 20K. I look down to see A10 so its an autocall. He flips over 33. ...50/50 time. I hit a 10 on the flop but the biatch hits his set! I even hit an ace on the river but it aint enough. Ah well, the better hand won. 3rd place - €100. Not too bad, but Im pissed off that the other bloke got lucky on me on the previous hand. I was looking forward to getting heads up with Shane!

Anyway, Shane finishes him off soon enough, taking 1st and €320. Fair play to him, he played well. I think he went down to play the €20 rebuy afterwards. So, a good night, another good finish. I've only played the Sunday game twice now, and I've got 1st and 3rd. I think the cost/ structure suits me well. Happy enough with how I played tonight. Next on the list is trying to win a ticket into the 'Joe Show' tournament!

New Years Resolutions...

2006-01-04T11:04:00.000Z

1. I will buy a 1,000-piece puzzle; remove one piece and give the puzzle to someone who absolutely loves puzzles (that is my boss).

2. I will go to McDonald's with my friends and order Happy Meals for everybody and then slip away.

3. I will say hello to everybody I meet on street on Sunday as if I have known them for ages and then walk away.

4. I will read less books. A little learning is a dangerous thing. Too much of it can really wreck your head.

5. I will gain weight, at least 40 pounds. My mom always said I was a bit skinny.

6. I will cut down on exercise. Too much is bad for your health, it can even kill you.

7. I must watch more TV. It's very educational. Catch up on all those programs I've missed down the years.

8. I will draw up a list of people who were nasty to me in the past year, and get my own back on them in the next year!

9. I WILL drink more. Wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said, 'beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy'. So be happy.

10. I will work less. Take it easy. All work and no play can make you a dull boy or girl.

11. I will take up some worthwhile new habit, like smoking - it helps keep tobacco workers in jobs.

12. And finally I will beat Hectorjelly heads up in the WSOP 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Seasons greetings

2005-12-24T19:18:00.000Z

Just like to take the time to wish everybody a Happy Christmas. Don't think I'll be playing much poker over the next week or two, as the 'festive spirit' takes over! I plan to get nice and drunk over the next few days and think of nothing but turkey and beer!

Also, I've only had this blog running a few weeks, but it seems to be getting a good response, so to all that read it, thank you and Merry Christmas!

Merry f**ckin Christmas...

2005-12-20T15:40:00.000Z

Got off work early so i could get into town and get the last few presents for friends and family... Jesus Christ never again! Queue's to get into the car park, queue's for the lift, queue's to get into shops, queue's to take a piss, queue's... AGGGHHGHHHH ! ! !

Luckily I had already got most of my stuff a few weeks ago, as I usually do, but I never expected it to be this bad. And the choice was fucking abysmal! I searched for TWO HOURS for some decent gear but it was just terrible. Ridiculous prices for stuff that looked as if it would last as long as my Christmas hangover... That is the last time I am going into town sober this year! I'll go out to Blanchardstown or Swords at the weekend and pick up the last of my stuff.

It was so much easier when Santy took care of things! Merry f**ckin Christmas indeed...

Beer, Roulette, and .... Brian McFadden?

2005-12-17T17:38:00.000Z

Had my staff Christmas party last night. Started off in Samsara for a few pints and then downstairs to the Thai restaurant for a bit of grub. All paid for of course! Anyway, as we were nearing the end of our meal the manager announced we were off to the Merrion Casino for a 'fun casino night'. "Oh no.... They weren't meant to know I'm a compulsive gambler... Just play it cool... They'll never know!"

So off we went to the Merrion where I was greeted at the door with a "hello Rory" from the doorman. Damn! My cover has been ruined! Anyway, as I was already a member I helped everyone sign up and herded them upstairs to the room we had booked. Say what you want about the Merrion's poker scene, they really know how to throw a good Christmas party! Two blackjack tables and a roulette wheel awaited us as we entered the room, not to mention a plentiful supply of alcohol.

There was a fun casino competition on, and my plan was to play it cool... until I heard what the prizes were!

3rd - A magnum of Moet et Chandon champaigne
2nd - An ipod
1st - A Video Ipod

As soon as they announced this my gamblers instinct took over and I immediately had my eyes set on that 1st prize! Although winning at house games is usually mostly luck there is SOME strategy involved (although I'm no card counter!). We started off on 2000 in chips and I realised that I was going to have to bet big from the start in order to build a big stack. So, while everybody was betting 25's I was throwing down 500's. I started off on roulette as it's what I'm used to. I soon had a big stack, thanks mostly betting big but winning small. By this I mean I would throw 500 down on five of the six streets, so unless the sixth street or zero came up, I would win 3000 for an investment of 2500. I kept doing this and luckily kept on winning and upping my bet, until I got up to about 7000. The next biggest was only about 4, as they were only now starting to bet bigger.

I then moved over to the blackjack. Not exactly my favourite game, but I said I'd plan anyway. I recently read a book on card counting, and would know the basic strategy (it's not cheating!). I observed a few hands and noticed that a LOT of low cards were coming out, so I moved in with some big bets. They were only using two decks so i figured there were more high than low cards in the deck, which apparently favours the player over the dealer. It worked and a few 20,s and 19's later, I up to about 12K. I then went back to the roulette and worked this up to 20K.

Then I realised that I was WAY out in front, and reduced myself to betting only 1 or 2 hundred each spin. No point risking when I didn't need to! At this stage there was only about 8 of us left out of about 35, and the staff told us it was finishing at midnight. It was 11:55 so I figured its in the bag, unless the others got clever and realised there were going to have to take a big risk and throw EVERYTHING on roulette in order to overtake me. A few people realised this and threw everthing on one or two numbers. Thankfully it didn't pay off and I am now the proud new owner of a video Ipod, worth over E500, acording to a friend!

I don't know whether there actually was any skill involved, or whether I just got lucky, but it can't be a coincidence that the ONLY person there that had been in a casino before ended up winning, can it? At the end of the day, I won most of the money on roulette, and thats just a ball spinning on a wheel, so I can't see where you can outplay the others!

Anyway, it was at this stage that I realised that everyone else was a LOT more drunk than me! I had been so caught up in the whole casino side of things that I forgot it was my Christmas party! I hadn't even been drinking since I got there! I soon caught up with the others though, thanks to a LOT of vodka and my friend Mr Jagermeister... So I stumbled downstairs for a bit of fresh air (into the smoking area!), and soon got talking to this lad who had been playing a cash game. We were sitting chatting about poker for about ten minutes when he laughed and asked "mate, do you know who you're talking to!" I hadn't really looked at him too closely, as i was pretty drunk... I took a proper look at this face, and realised I was talking to Brian McFadden. D'oh!

As I was pissed, I proceeded to give him a bit of stick about the whole boy band thing. "whole things a bit gay really isin't it?" I announced, in all my wisdom. His reply was short and sweet "I'm fucking loaded mate, you think I care? Also have you seen my girlfriend?" Emmm... check-mate. I raised, he went over the top... I folded. We chatted for a few more minutes, and it turns out he's pretty sound, which is (very) surprising considering the whole boy-band thing. I suppose I would probably sing and prance around if I was getting millions...and lovely women...and a fucking Ferrari... jammy bastard!

Anyway, he manages a South African band which I've heard a few times in college and my local pub. They're called Franklyn and they are quality! I haven't heard from them in over a year, and I presumed they had gone home, but apparently they are working on their album. They really are a great band, pretty much guarantted to do well. So if you haven't heard of them before, remember where you heard it first!

So I went back upstairs and proceeded to get even more drunk and this is where things get a bit blurry.... A good night all the less! I managed to mix drinking and gambling (two of my favourite hobbies!), I won a video Ipod, and had a good laugh with a 'celebrity' that I had previously thought was a tosser. And I managed to get through it all without making a show of myself in front of all my new workmates. Although they may realise that I'm a bit of a gambler! I should do this every year...

Luck...

2005-12-15T20:49:00.000Z

There has been a lot of discussion about luck recently, mainly after this article , and I just wanted to throw a few thoughts down.

In poker, the fact of the matter is without luck you CANNOT win a tournament. In most cases the most skillful player in a tournament will be the winner, but 90% of the time, it will be a good player that has a lucky day.

Take me for instance. I was on such a horrible, shitty, disgusting, sickeningly bad run that I had to give up online, and was thinking about giving up alltogether. Then I sit down in the Fitz the other night and get an absolutely ridiculous run of good cards and breeze my way through the tournament. The only difference between that tournament and all the ones before it was luck. I never got any luck online so I quit. No point pissing money away waiting for your luck to arrive. I have played 4 games online since I quit and it has been EXACTLY the same. The good thing is I don't get annoyed anymore. I have absolutely no interest in online poker anymore.

I think luck it is the deciding factor every time I sit down. I play the same every time, (although always trying to improve!). If I get good luck, I will do well. If I get bad luck I do badly. I usually know within the first five minutes of a tournament how I'm going to do.

I think it is naive to presume that everyone gets an equal amount of luck. Some people breeze through life and find a good job, meet a nice wife, get a nice house etc, while others seem to consistently have it a lot tougher. You cant just presume that it will all 'even out' eventually. What if you lost EVERYBODY you knew in an accident? How does that even out? Can you expect to win the lotto in the foreseeable future? NO. Because the bottom line is 'Life aint fair'. Sad but true. You can bring logic into and say that everything should equal out, but it doesn't. Some people are just born lucky.

I've found that throughout my life I have been pretty 'unlucky' to put it mildly. I try to have a positive attitude and not let things bother me, but in some ways I feel I have been dealt a dodgy hand, losing many friends through car crashes and accidents, and having to endure both of my parents battle with cancer, losing my father earlier this year. However I found that there is no point in focusing on the bad things in your life. And I have tried to bring this approach to poker. Where I used to complain about bad beats and bad players, I now just accept them as part of the game. Fair enough, I get more than my fair share, but crying about it isin't going to help is it? I found that I have reduced most of the stress in my life simply by stopping playing online poker. Something which started out as entertainment had become my main cause of stress! How ridiculous does that sound? Thankfully I didn't lose any money through it, and I feel a LOT better after quitting.

Overall, I think that yes, I have terrible luck when it comes to poker, but at the end of the day, its only a game. I got sick of trying to figure out why I was consistently losing through bad luck. Bottom line is I don't care. If God or whoever controls 'luck' has decided that I will be unlucky then so be it. There aint much I can do about it is there!
So all I can do is hope I get lucky, and if I don't, just take it in my stride. Oh, and I've started buying lotto tickets... just in case...

Santa Strike Force charity game

2005-12-12T05:45:00.000Z

Well I won! I take back everything I said about poker! I love it, it's not rigged.... and I'm one lucky bastard! In a night where I flopped a poker, got aces three times, kings 4, and a teddy was playing... where do I start?

I had promised to donate money to the charity if I moaned about any bad beats, but fortunately there was no need! Other than a few minor suckouts I was just winning everything! Every time I'd pick up a great hand someone else would pick up a good hand and my hand would stand up.

i made a TERRIBLE call just after the break when I called TWO all-ins holding 77. The other two showed KK and 99. D'oh! Somehow I managed to hit quads on the flop and knocked the two out! My reasoning was I was already in for 1K, and it was only another 2K out of my stack of 9K. Still, looking back I think it was terrible play on my part. Ah well!

Nothing much happened until we were down to 18. I had been move next to Tom from Antesup.com. I won a big pot with KK vs AK on a J high flop. Nothing much for a while until I pick up aces in late position. I limp in hoping for a raise, which I duly get. An all in no less! Now at this stage I'm sitting on about 22K. The other lad has just less. Its folded around to Tom who thinks about it for a full 5 minutes before pushing. I was next to act and instantly pushed with the rockets. Tom knew instantly he was a bit screwed! There was nothing much else I was calling two all ins with! First player had KK and Tom showed AQ. A mistake I wouldn't usually expect from him but I think he realised this too and was pretty pissed off. Anyway, the aces held up and I'm now monster chip leader while Tom is down to just 1,500 with blinds at 1K/2K.

Anyway after an amazing comeback from Tom we're down to the final three. With blinds at 5K/10K and about 250K chips in play, there is an awful lot of stealing going on. I had planned on trying to confuse the lads with my betting, as I had shown a lot of big hands already at the final table. I managed to force a few laydowns, not least when I pushed Tom off A7 and showed 23! I think I managed to confuse them a few times, and Tom was a little frustrated at times, calling me a 'tricky f***er'!

Anyway, we swop chips for a while until I pick up 44. I'm chip leader and other lad went all in for about 1/2 my stack so I pushed to isolate and get Tom out. Unfortunately Tom had started getting hands and instantly called with AQ. The other lad had A6 and a Queen on the flop tripled Tom up and knocked the other lad out. Heads up and Tom had about a 3:1 chip lead. I doubled up after Tom pushed and I called with 910 on a 10 J 4 flop. He held Q6 and no queen or runner runner and I was ahead.

Then came the final hand. I had about 150K and Tom had just over 100K. I picked up J7 and decided to push and steal his 10K blind, which had worked up until then! Unfortunately for probably only the second time that night Tom actually had a hand. And horribly it was AJ. Not even two live cards! However lady luck again reared her head for me and a Jack on the turned ended Tom's unbelievable comeback!

A great night, which is made all the better knowing that 40% of my winnings went to charity. Karma Karma.......! Also Des should be happy enough after his tenner bet on me to last the longest earned him almost 200 euro!

Anyway, had a great night, put a few more names to faces, and won a few quid (sorry again Tom!), not to mention the glory! Unfortunately I've been in work this morning since 6am and with only 3 hours sleep, 5 0'clock seems a looong way away....

2005-12-11T03:46:00.000Z

I'm drunk... and tired... and going... to bed... goodnight.
SSF charity game tomorrow...

Busy week....

2005-12-06T17:29:00.000Z

So I graduated from college yesterday. I am now Rory Cartwright BA! Went for the usual graduation piss up in Renards, but unfortunately I couldn't sample too much alcohol, as I started my new job today. Despite not getting home until 3am, I still manged to get into work feeling fresh this morning!

Job seems pretty good, very interesting and well paid. Only problem is I start at 6am two days a week so its really going to affect my poker playing. Ah well, I'll make up for it in Vegas next year!

Till next time,

Rory Cartwright BA.
Media Accounts Manager

(had to stick it in!)

All In Poker

2005-12-02T18:07:00.000Z

Received an email from allinpoker today:

Dear Rory,
Your All In Poker earnings for the period 01 November 2005 to 30 November 2005 totalling USD 0.32 have been credited to your All In Poker account.

I signed up to this a while back, but as my credit card hasn't come through yet, I didn't think I would be making any money yet. To be honest I wasn't sure how the whole thing worked! However, my $0.32 profit speaks for itself! Haha, really though I think once I get the credit card this should increase! I like the idea that you get 51% rakeback, and you can make money from your downline etc.

Anyway, the site seems pretty good overall, and the 51% rakeback and regular $1000 freerolls is a pretty good incentive to join! I've persuaded a few friends to join my downline, and their off to tell their friends about it, to join aswell! Could be a good business venture for a few extra euros here and there, and it has good potential.

So anyone interested in joining All In Poker just click on the link on the right, and have a look for yourselves. Its free to join so if you don't like it just unregister.

Ok thats enough pimping for today!

Car Trouble.....

2005-12-02T00:50:00.000Z

How bout a non-poker post for a change?

Was out with a few of the lads tonight, and decided to drive up to Howth summit to chill out for a while (lovely view and all that!). Anyway, as we're going to leave, the fcuking car wont start! So out I pop to check oil, etc, but can't seem to figure out why it won't start.

So over come these two lads to give us a hand, and one of them turns out to be a mechanic. He explains that either the battery is dead or the oil has gone. Now I don't know much about cars, (key goes in, car turns on...), but I know to take care of them and check the oil, brake fluid etc. regularly. Anyway, the lads push the car down the hill to see if I can start it while the cars in motion, but that didn't help, so we had to ring a friend to come up with oil, and a tow lead.

So after an HOUR he arrived and and towed me down to Sutton village (about a mile), where we found someone with jump cables to try and jump start it, which thankfully worked!

Finally arrived back home, but christ, so much fcuking effort! Gonna have to bring it in and get it serviced tomorrow. Its been acting a bit strangely the last few weeks. Stupid thing is I was due to book it in this week for a service! D'OH!

Fitz 50 game

2005-11-30T12:56:00.000Z

Had a pretty disastrous night, so the less said about it the better! Was totally card dead for the entire night, and only played 4 proper hands. Sat for the first hour and literally couldn't make a move. Any time I would try and limp it would be raised. I trebled through in the first hand I made a move so I wasn't feeling to bad at the break.

But the terrible run of cards continued on through and forced me into making a terrible call of 3/4 of my stack with top pair. I lost on the kicker and was down to about 5BB and kicking myself. I then got blinded down to about 3BB and was looking for ANYTHING to push on. Then along came the Queens! Called an all-in an wasn't too happy about seeing I was up against A4, knowing my past history... On cue out came an ace on the flop, but a miracle Q on the turn doubled me up to about 2700 with blinds at 400/800.

Got moved table then and we were down to about 16 from about 60 starting. Blinds jumped up again to 500/1000 and I had to make a move, as I was down to just 1200 after the blinds going by me and getting raised holding 23 and 35. Picked up A4 and insta-pushed. Got two callers and with an A 4 10 flop I thought I could actually make a comback from 1BB! with about 4K in the middle the two others checked the flop. An 8 came on the turn and one of them bet a few grand to get rid of the other player.

I flip over my two pair, and he announces hes dead to an 8 flipping over J8..... river 8. Ah well, shit happens! I had a pretty terrible tourney and even without that bad beat I would have been well below average.

ANYWAY, I'm on my way out the door and throw my last fiver on roulette, RED obviously! Up comes red and I'm on a tenner. Fcuk it lets go RED again! Up comes red and I'm up to a score. Right one last time RED again. YESSS! Lovely 40 quid! Anyway I go to cash out and realise theres a 50 Holde-em cash game. Now I've only played the cash game in the fitz (or anywhere other than online for that matter) 3 times before, and although I made a big profit all three times, I still wouldn't consider myself 'experienced' by any means! But what the hey, I only started with a fiver! But I need fifty and I only gots 40...... tenner on RED...thank you!

So I sit down at the cash game, planning on playing super tight. I won't bore you with the details but I only played a few hands in 4 hours, only playing the nuts, and managed to leave with 250 quid in my pocket! I could get used to this! 250 quid from a fiver..........

Zen

2005-11-29T13:34:00.000Z

Just been 'advised' to buy "Zen and the Art of Poker"..... Don't worry lads, I will, I will.... I need to get me some of that inner peace... goddammit

Bye Bye Online

2005-11-28T22:33:00.001Z

Ahhhhhh............. the relief!

Finally after one final boot in the balls, my pokerstars account reads $0.00. At last, I'm finished with the waste of time that is online poker.

I'll keep my account open in case theres any WSOP qualifiers or boards tourneys I want to play, but I won't be playing casually anymore.
I don't know whether its the year long run of sickeningly horrible beats, or the fact that I seem to be surrounded by IDIOTS at every table I sit down at (I'm convinced they are following me!)...... either way I'm sick of moaning about my horrible, horrible luck at online (as i'm sure everyone else here is too!). When you are losing 90% of the pots you go into ahead, and losing on aces 9 TIMES IN A ROW :eek: :eek: , I think its time to throw in the towel... Its just unnatural to lose that many pots mainly due to bad luck. Ive tried every single thing to try and overcome bad beats and bad play and.... it ain't worth it

Good luck of the rest of you. Goodnight Irene

Fitz 270 report

2005-11-28T21:18:00.000Z

Almost could have been a great night....

Started off the day well, winning one of the two tickets in the freeroll before the big game. Was playing well and totally dominated the last table, holding over 80% of the chips when we got down to 4 people. Sold the ticket for €220 and took a break before the big game.

Got landed at a tough starting table, with Eamon and Willow to name a few! I built up a huge stack from robbing blinds and constantly re-raising when I felt the raiser had nothing. Only lost one hand before the break and was one of the chip leaders at the break with about 21K, from a starting stack of 5K.Got this up to about 30K by playing tight aggressive and constantly stealing..... and then Dave (Big Dragon) comes and sits to my right. Neither of us played much until he decided to push with A4s. He had about 7K, and knowing our past history I didn't want to push without aces or kings. I look down to see KK, and before calling say 'please dave, don't get lucky?' Well did he listen? Noooooo! He hits me with an ace on the river and instead of being on 37K I'm sitting on 23K. Ah well I could afford to take the hit.... never mind. Don't want to TIILLTT!!

Down to three tables, I'm still at about 20K, and get AA. These dutifully get cracked by JJ on the river and I'm down to 10K. I soon double up against John O' Callaghan when he pushes with 10 9 and I call with AJd. It holds up and a few steals and I'm soon up to about 30K. I knock out a shortstack with AK vs AQ and I'm up to about 38K. Down to about 15 people at this stage so I've made the money anyway (€350). But the proper money doesn't start till about 5th place, about €1400. I think 10th got €500.

Anyway down to 13, playing 6 handed, and I get QQ mid position. Blinds are 2K/4K, with a few callers so I raise it up to 15K. Another guy raises it all - in for about 30K. Now I could have folded here and still be left with about 22K, but this lad had been doing the same with any low pair and any good ace, so I thought I was probably ahead. Also the pot would be massive and I probably be the tournament chip leader if I won, with a great chance to win the €8,000 top prize. So I called. He flipped over AK and it was race time.

The pot was over 60K and I was leading up until the river... when another disgusting fcuking ace pops out....AGAIN. First Dave now this.... This left me with about 5K and regretting making the call in the first place. But I was playing to win and that pot would have put me in a great position with about 70K.I went out a few hands later when I was forced in for my last 5K on the big blind. Didn't even look at my cards, and even had a few callers, almost 20K in the pot. All I had to beat in the end as A high, flipped my cards...78. Goodnight.

Admittedly the Queens hand was not that bad a beat and I could have gotten away from it, but what a time to fcuking lose, and on the fcuking river again! Aggghhhhh! It was the difference from winning €350 (€80 profit!) and probably a few grand.

I thought I played the best poker I could play last night but again, as always, luck was the dciding factor. I only went all-in twice the entire night, BOTH when i was ahead. I built my stack entirely by re-raising when I thought the others were bluffing, and by stealing. I went into EVERY showdown ahead (except when I tried to knock out a shortstack with A7 vs AQ). The 3 biggest pots I played all night I lost ALL of them, ALL when I was ahead, and ALL of them on the river.... I cannot look at rivers anymore. Everytime I'm in a big hand and I'm ahad, when it comes to the river I'm nearly having a fcuking heart attack! I might just walk away from the table in future, I just can't stand watching anymore!If it wasn't for these hands, I would be writing here today about how I just won a few grand... Ah well.

Thought I was gonna be walking away with 4K again, but alas, it wasn't to be.......

Welcome!

2005-11-28T21:02:00.000Z

So I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and start up a blog... I'm sure the regular posters on boards.ie have become sick of my bad beat stories by this stage so I've decided to confine them to here! Anyway here's the latest news from my poker 'adventures'!