The Ramblings of a Poker Dinosaur

Ladbrokes Poker You Robbing Bar-Stewards

2012-01-05T02:07:00.001Z

Brian: The balance on your account is £2.91, because of the small amount you would need to withdraw in one of our shops.

you: It said it is £10.91

Brian: Yes that was the balance in Poker but you had accumulated £8 in charges due to the accounts inactivity.

you: return it to me then it's my money

Brian: i am sorry but we cannot refund inactivity charges, you have been advised on numerous e-mail that you needed to withdraw your funds in order to avoid these charges.

Brian: This is advised on the account terms.

you: Not when i opened my account it wasn't

you: This must be a new rule

Brian: This policy was introduced last year and all customers who had inactive accounts were e-mailed so they could remove the funds before any charges were applied.

you: Well I want to remove it now
you: My email has changed

Brian: You can withdraw at any of our shops.

you: I'm just off to start the Facebook Fan page entitled "Ladbrokes are Robbing Bastards"

Brian: Is there anything else I can assist you with?

you: Not unless you want to come and lick my ring.

Out with the Old, In with the New Year!

2012-01-04T02:22:00.001Z

Carla "oh my" Goddard

After running pretty bad over the last 6 - 8 weeks of 2011, I win the very first Tournament I enter of 2012 (Sunday Jan 1st) and have felt really good about my poker again for the last few days. It's daft really but Tournament poker is such a "confidence" game.

I played well all night long and only made 1 mistake in the entire night, but it was that "mistake" that guaranteed the win. (More about that hand later) The annoying thing is that I've played dozens of tournaments over the previous 6-8 weeks and probably didn't play any worse than I did the other night but still didn't cash in anyone of them.

Prior to Xmas I'd been about 6 or 7 times to the Gala Casino in Birmingham which since the cardroom re-launched/re-furbished is a really great venue. It has some really good tournaments at the sort of price I like to play when I've not won a satellite! (£25 - £50)

However I am getting the feeling that the Poker Gods do not want me to win there. The general standard of play is very poor there (much worse than the G Cov and the Broadway) so over time I'd expect to be winning tournaments there but it seems I'm going to have to struggle to do so.

I can't believe how I'm running there and am beginning to wonder if the place is just unlucky for me?

I finished 13th on my last but 1 visit there (top 9 paid) and this is the nearest I've got to cashing in a normal comp there.

When I left that night I was full of frustration as the standard of players left on my table as I walked out was dreadful.

To my immediate right I had a good player (young Scandi type) but the other 4 players at the table were so clueless you wonder how they can even manage to stack their chips.

General bet sizing in the casino is always shocking as they regularly open pots for between 5-20 bb's. At 25/50 they often make it 500 when it has been folded to them. At 50/100 then 700 seems the norm. I think partly it's because they are so bad that they really have no idea what to do post flop.

Here are 2 examples.

Example 1 (I was not involved in either of these hands)

10 player table: UTG +1 opens for 11k at 800/1600/200. All fold to BB who calls.

Flop comes K,4,6, rainbow. BB checks, UTG +1 bets 28k. BB shoves all in and it's just an extra 8k for UTG +1 to call.

UTG + 1 says "I know I'm beat but I can't fold now" (yes but whose fault is that?) so he calls and shows J,Q off suit, the BB has Kd,5d for top pair and wins.

An argument between 3 or 4 of the players then ensues as to how each player played it wrong. Each of them trying (and failing) to say how it should have been played. If I'd had a knife in my pocket I'd have slashed my wrists at this point, but as I didn't I had to go to the loo as I couldn't listen to it any-more.

Next time someone is talking complete bollox and won't shut up, I might start singing "finish talking" to the tune of "Frère Jaques". That should work.

Example 2

Getting close to the final table: 6 handed, the good Scandi opens for 8.5k from the CO at 1500/3000 the small blind flat calls. The BB shoves all in for a total of 28k and the Scandi folds.

The small blind calls (again) and shows 3,4 off suit. The flop comes 2,5,6.

Me and the Scandi just look at one another and shake our heads. The small blind tells everyone proudly that 3,4 is his favourite hand...at this point I'm crying inside.

My exit was more annoying because I had an outrageous bit of luck earlier when I get all my chips in pre-flop with QQ versus KK and AJ. The door card is a Q and I treble up. I thought great this is the night where I finally cash here.

Why do the poker Gods do this? They give you false hope, if I'd just lost with the Queens I could have gone home 3 hours earlier with the same amount of prize money, none, and been quite happy about it. But oh no, they want to pro-long my agony.

From the QQ hand I start motoring and get to over double the average, but I lose 3 flips v shorts stacks to become a shorty myself. (This was my trouble in the bad run "flipitus")

The funniest hand I had all night was when I had 22k at 1k/2k/200. (10 players) I was in the big blind and 3 players limped onto my big blind. The clock is only 20 mins so it will be 1,5k/3k very soon.

So as the action is getting round to me I make up my mind that I'm shoving anything that looks remotely like a hand. They all play abc, so I feel there is no one with a pocket pair or AJ+ .

When the action gets to me there is now 11k in the pot and I look down and see 5,6 off suit, not exactly what I was hoping for but I'd made my mind up, so I shove all in.

The 1st 2 limper's insta fold but the last one (the button) tanks for quite a while. After a while I start giving him a bit of speech play and he's reminding me that he hasn't won a pot versus me all night. He is convincing himself he will lose and the player to his right who knows him starts ribbing him saying he should hurry up and fold.

Eventually he folds his cards face up. I nearly fell off my chair, he had JJ.

What goes through these peoples minds, forget the fold for a minute, what the hell was he doing limping with pocket Jacks on the button versus 2 limpers?

Even though I get back up a bit, I lose two races at 1.5k/3k and I'm out.

The JJ idiot of course is still in after I'm out, as was the 3,4 man.

The annoying thing about tournament poker is that it always turns into a crap shoot and thinking you can play better than most of your opponents does you no good in the end. You do actually have to have the winning hand now and again.

In the latter stages it doesn't matter that they can't play, as it's the hands that play themselves that decide the winners.

I can't blame the Gala for the structure either, with 72 runners they have to finish it. I got KO'd at 3.30am and there were still 12 left.

I play my last game of the year there on the Friday prior to New Years eve. It's a £25 freezeout with a £2k guarantee, though it made just over £3k.

I see Carla "ohmy" Goddard there and we agree to swap 10% as we often do. Carla is not only a poker fanatic but also a petrol head. She can drive faster than the Stig. If she supported Man United and liked cooking & cleaning I'd have to marry her but fortunately she doesn't.

Carla's on the next table to me and we are sitting virtually back to back. At one point after about an hour and half she turns round to me and say's "don't you ever shut up?"

LOL, she was right I hadn't stopped talking since about 10 mins after the game started. I do get bored sometimes if I'm not involved in the action.

It made me think though and when I went to the G Cov on Sunday 1st Jan I decided to keep it shut and just concentrate on the game. I also tightened up my opening range an awful lot too during the first 4 or 5 levels. Just lately I feel I've been playing far too loose. My friends daughter Lizzie is a massive rock and yet she keeps making final tables at the Gala at a rate of about 1 in 2 attempts.

So I have a slight change to my game and attitude and off we go. This paid dividends for me as I missed every flop anyway in the early levels so I'd saved myself a big chunk of chips by tightening up.

The tourney had a 25k starting stack and I had 2.5k extra for early reg, so even though I just trod water for the first 4 levels I was in no danger.

Slowly as the blinds started to increase and the other players started to tighten up I opened up a bit. Also although I had opted for a more cautious start with just 15 minutes blind levels I would have to get a wriggle on sooner or later. We were playing 1 ten handed round of the table a level which is disgraceful.

So when it got to 300/600 I mentally changed up a gear. I had 2,2 and opened for 1,500 at 300/600 and I got 1caller. When the flop came A,K,9 I made a cbet. He quickly threw 10,10 into the muck face up in disgust. I couldn't help myself and showed the pocket 2's.

That was one new years resolution (no showing bluffs any-more) out the window on day one! It turned out to be a good thing though.

Later on I got KK versus the same player and flopped a boat on a board of K,3,3. I cbet the flop again only this time he shoved all in on me with total air thinking I was "at it".

From then on I had loads of chips and was always way above average. Even more unusual I started winning races versus short stacks and knocking them out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazingly I did it twice in a row and the second one was quite funny. The structure was total shite and with only 15 minute blinds I opened for 16.5k at 4k/8k with 7h,5h (I was in full attack mode by this point). The sb was a very decent lady player who had just joined the table and she shipped all in for a total of 36k.

With the action back to me there was 45k in the pot and it was 19.5k to call. I've always been a sucker for 2/1 pot odds so I make the call. I really hope she has AJ or similar but in fact much to my surprise she has 2,2 and it's a race.

I river a flush and can't believe how well I'm running, I'm having difficulty not smiling too much at this point.

While I was running good (I know winning a couple of races is hardly a hot streak, but it makes such a change) poor Lee French (who'd just been moved to my table) was having the worst luck imaginable. He sat down with a stack equal to mine (I was table CL at this point) and he played 2 huge pots against the same player and had him in knots both times. On both occasions the guy river'd him for a shocking bad beat.

The first of which he had to suffer a horrible tank call when in all honesty the guy had no choice but to call. It just showed that his opponent didn't really know what he was doing and made it tougher to take.

I felt sorry for Lee as he's a good player but I suppose while it's happening to him the Poker Gods are leaving me alone! Lee exited soon after and it did make my life a lot easier. No one else at the table is ever 3 betting without a monster but Lee and I seem to be continually getting into raising wars just lately.

I lose my one and only flip all night (for quite a lot of chips) and go back down to 206k as the Final table (10) is reached.

There are only 9 paid and the blinds are 12k/24k so it really is a bit daft at this point. Although my new found flip confidence is coursing through my veins I am sensible enough to seriously consider a 10 way chop which is suggested by one of the short stacks. The chip average is 185k, just under 8 bb's.

I don't know the guy who was the CL but he struck me as fairly inexperienced and he was sure that the fact he had nearly 400k meant he was guaranteed to win it.

I admired his optimism I really did, but I tried to explain to him that it could all change in one big hand. He said he didn't need to gamble and could wait for a big hand?! I pointed out that he could have the stone cold nuts with one card to come and it could still all go horribly wrong for him, but he wouldn't listen.

Later events would prove me a genius!

It's not that I'm clever but I've been playing a long time and have seen the most ridiculous things happen over the years.

I once saw a guy who refused a saver (when 2nd in chips) be the player who exited without a prize! "No Limit" is a big factor, it can all change very quickly. Being CL just means you have to lose 2 hands to exit rather than the one hand it takes everybody else.

One of the quotes I remember from an old time pro I used to play against was "No limit, what a great game, you can go from Brick Lane to Park Lane in 3 hands" It can go the other way even quicker!

Anyway although he refuses the 10 way chop, the CL graciously agrees to a £30 saver and we get started.

The clock is re-set back down to 10k/20k to give us "a bit more play". I do love a tournament director with a sense of humour, though in fairness Patrick is someone I have a lot of time for.

He and James both do their jobs very well and the fact that neither one of them has been promoted to the vacant position of Card Room Supervisor is a disgrace.

Once we get going, sadly one of the good guys, Tim Millward-Brookes, exited 10th when he shoved A9 and got unlucky.

9th quickly followed and we lost the player in 8th when I opened for 45k UTG +1 with AA. (Wow winning flips, and now I'm getting dealt monster hands!)

The BB shoves all in with AQ and I KO him.

I then raise and take a couple once with KK and then some with not quite such strong hands.

Initially I didn't like my seat draw for the final as I had Tom French (Lee's brother) to my immediate left and felt this would disadvantage me. However in the end it proved an advantage as I could open a pot before him. He then had to decide whether to 3 bet or fold and with the short stacks around he didn't fancy going to war with me unnecessarily without a really big hand.

Then came the hand where I made my one and only mistake all night. The blinds are 12k/24k and at this point I have approx 350k and I'm in the sb.

The CL (same "no deal" one) limps UTG + 1 with A,10. That was his first big mistake. If he raises I fold As9s from the sb without hesitation at this point. There are only 7 left and some of the stacks are very very short now. I do not need to tangle with him out of position and would have folded to a raise. I rarely play to ladder but there are times when I do pay particular attention to stack sizes and this was one of those times.

Anyway everyone else folds round to me with my suited Ace. I seriously consider making a raise as I figure he isn't that strong due to the limp. I certainly didn't give him credit to be subtle enough to be limping with Aces/Kings etc.

I wimpishly decide to just make up the bb and pay the extra £12k hoping to hit something big on the flop. Mr French checks the bb.

The flop misses me and it goes check, check, check. Checking the flop was the CL's 2nd mistake. He only had A,10 but a bet here wins the pot for sure.

The turn card is interesting and the board is something like Qs,Kd,3c, Js

The turn brought me a lot of outs as it brings a 2nd spade & gives me an inside straight draw. I also have the one over card.

As the flop was checked I figure a stab at it is worth a punt so I bet 45k, into 72k. Tom folds and the CL makes it 145k with his "nuts" straight.

Without too much thought I shove all in for about 300k and he snap calls me, oops.

Anyway with the memory of my 10 way spilt advice still ringing in the Poker Gods ears the river is a rag spade, giving me the nut flush!

The CL (well ex CL) sits there in stunned silence as the dealer counts out my chips and tells him he owes me another 305k from his stack.

The guy is down to dust and has less than 1 bb and is all in next hand from UTG. It's folded to me and I call with Q,9 from the button (no point raising here) and the sb and bb both check.

We are all good enough to know that no one is betting anything other than a monster on this board and it's checked to the river. When I bet the minimum on the river its because I've river'd a straight to KO him.

There is courteous silence as he leaves the table and he takes his exit pretty well in fairness to him.

So my one big mistake of the night was to try and push someone with the nuts off a pot, though fortunately I did with a hand that still had some outs.

When he'd gone the irony of his refusal to deal was not lost on the remaining players at the table and I could feel the love when I hit the spade on the river!

As I'd voted for the 10 way chop I felt it a bit harsh to refuse a new deal now, but Tom was not keen as he and I had most of the chips between us. Also without bragging I'm pretty sure we were the best 2 players left. So I was glad to carry on.

I don't think Tom and I played a single pot versus each other on the entire final table and we got rid of 2 more short stacks to end up at 4 players.

Tom really did want to carry on but the blinds were daft now, 15k/30k and soon to be 20k/40k so I said "let's deal".

We then did a deal whereby Tom and I both had more than 2nd place money at £440 each and the 2 short stacks took £260 each which was less than 3rd.

Tom and I had to donate £15 of our money for the 10th place saver but even so £425 from a £25 entry comp is pretty good going.

If the clock could have been re-set then yes I'd have fancied my chances (I had nearly 1million chips) but if I lost 2 flips in a row I could still have been out in 4th so the deal made sense to me.

Anyway I'm looking forward to my next game and I'm even confident of winning at the Gala very soon as I'm playing like a rock again! Lets hope I go on a bit of a heater.

Happy New Year all.

Too Much Choice - How Times Change

2011-11-25T00:54:00.001Z

I can remember when I first played poker I struggled to play anywhere near as often as I wanted to at first. In fairness it was 1976 so there was no such thing as Online poker.

My first games were in a private home game which used to run only on a Sunday night. I'd have played every night if I could have and yet I had to wait patiently all week for that game.

When I turned 18 I was pretty lucky as I only lived 30 mins drive from the Rainbow casino in Birmingham. I didn't realise how lucky I was at the time as it was probably the only casino for 100 miles that played "Hold em".

99.9% of casinos did not play poker at all in those days and if they did it was Stud. The Rainbow as far as I know ran some of the first ever tournaments ever held in this country.

So back then live poker was scarce and tournaments even rarer.

Now look at it, I'm totally spoilt for choice. Bankroll permitting I could play 7 nights a week (and most afternoons) and also enter a "big" (£100+ buy-in) tourney every week if I wanted to.

I joined the Midlands Poker Forum a while ago, though it's less of a forum and more of a Poker Listings website. It's a fantastic resource with full details of all the poker rooms within the Midlands.

Today just a normal Thursday in the Midlands (well it was Thurs when I started writing this) there are 17 different poker tournaments available to me. 17!

That's an amazing number though to be fair that number includes some over an hours drive away. Now I wouldn't even consider driving all the way the DTD (1hr 15min) unless it's a weekend or special occasion.

Of the seventeen I could drive to 12 of them within 45 mins, traffic permitting.

Just look at the big stuff that's available to me now that a few years ago would have been a "Must Play" event that I'd have travelled miles to get to.

DTD run a £300 and various £150, £100 comps every month. There is the GUKPT, UKIPT, The Genting Poker Series, 888's Super-stack Series (that has 19 legs in 2012) Then there are the APAT events, Gala are getting back into poker in a big way now. Sky poker tour, Oneway Deepstacks and something called the Mega poker tour (F knows what that is). Even the Broadway has a monthly £75 & £100 Deepstack comp.

It really is so difficult to keep track of these and it would be impossible to play them all.

This Saturday I'm going to be playing the "Grand Final" (sounds grand but it's not really) of the Poker Player Tour at the Gala in Birmingham.

It's £150+£15 with starting stacks of 10k with a 30 min clock throughout. It should have a prize pool of £24,000 and T.V cameras will be present for the poker channel and the staff from Poker Player magazine will be blogging etc.

Sounds great doesn't it but to be honest if it involved an overnight stay or over an hours drive each way I wouldn't be going.

30 years ago I'd have hitch hiked to Scotland and slept in a tent if I had to, to play an event like this.

But will the bubble burst for all these tours/poker rooms?

Is this sort of thing sustainable? Personally I hope it is as it's great for me. I can get more and more picky about when and where I play.

If this keeps up, in a few years time I won't bother getting motivated to play a tourney unless there is overlay and I've free-rolled in and it's being held in the village hall at the end of my road.

Can poker really keep expanding like this? It's very expensive to put poker tours on the road these days.

I was reading about the Superstacks at Birmingham's Stab City, the costs to run them there are horrific.

Even though they take something like £1,400 in reg fees the government have 40% gaming tax and then there is £2,000 in dealers costs. It's not something I'd see as a long term money making idea! Even worse as it is not their casino and they are just hiring it they have to finish each day by 7.00pm so as not to interrupt the normal evening comp.

While big live events are usually guaranteed to make a loss or at best break even, the spin-off benefits from online play is usually where operators are looking to recoup their outlay, either from satellites, or if winnings are credited to players accounts there is an expectation that they will play with that money online rather than withdraw it.

Unless you own the casinos and have the Online poker room to run the satellites on, it is difficult to see the long term benefits to the companies concerned.

I think Genting are obviously determined to be a very big player on the UK poker scene in 2012 and beyond. They have recently signed up the Hendon Mob and loads of other pro's who lost there red pro deals. They really do seem to have some great ideas at the minute.

I follow @MaylisBoardman on twitter and read her blog and Genting are sponsoring her into some small to medium sized events as well currently. If you visit her blog she has posted about the GUKPT Blackpool which is a good read.

Anyway the Genting expansion grows rapidly as they have just announced that they have bought the Fox Poker Club in London. Their tour for 2012 looks cleverly pitched at a £400 main event buy-in.

The GUKPT has a Main Event costing £1,000+£70 with the UKIPT having just increased the buy-ins for its Main Events from £500+£50 to £700+£70.

So what will I be playing in 2012. Well I will play any APAT event that is near to me for sure as I do love them. Sadly though the APAT World Championships will clash with the GUKPT Coventry leg which has the £100, £200 6 max £300 and £1,000 main event all running in the same week as the Goliath so I expect to be at the G Coventry every day that week.

The Goliath was the best tourney I've ever played in the UK so I will not want to miss that.

Apart from that I can just pick and choose any of the bigger tour events that visit the Midlands that I can bink a seat into.

Long may this poker boom continue and if Pokerstars does want to hire my village hall for a UKIPT event in 2012 that would be great.

Worst Clock Call I've Ever Suffered.

2011-11-15T22:49:00.000Z

I've played live poker for about 35 years now and in all that time I've had the clock called on me three times.

The previous two were about 2 & 4 years ago respectively and the third was at the Gala Birmingham last Sunday which I will give details of shortly.

Of the twice before, the first was justified as the blinds were big and the guy who called the clock was a short stack and anxious to get the game moving. I had genuine cause to think but fully understood his viewpoint.

The second was not. Firstly it was called by the dealer and not any of the players, secondly I'd been in the tank for only about a minute and it was for all my chips. It was the last hand before the break and she (the dealer) just wanted to go for a cigarette and a coffee, I thought she was bang out of order and told her so.

Anyway for my part I feel that 99% of my decisions are taken in a very timely manner. I don't waste time for the sake of it and if it's just an open fold my cards hit the muck ASAP as I want to keep the game moving. My introduction to Casino poker was many years ago at the Rainbow casino in Birmingham where they had some great cash games. They charged by the hour not a rake, so no one ever Hollywood tank folded as it just cost us all money.

As a result of watching too much poker on TV, players these days do seem to think that they have to agonise over even the easiest decision.

I'm sure they think it makes them look better players if they tank fold. On occasions when I've been caught with my fingers in the till I dwell a bit to try to disguise the fact that I have zip, but to be honest I don't even bother to do that all the time.

In all my years of playing I can only ever remember calling the clock on somebody once. Though literally hundreds of times I've asked the dealer loudly "Who's bet is it?" or "What times the next break?" or "What time does this tourney usually finish?"etc as a less than subtle reminder to the player that it's been a while.

I used to play with a guy who used to say "I had a shave before I came out tonight, if you don't hurry up mate I'm gonna need another one".

Anyway to Sunday. I was playing at the Gala in Birmingham which not so long ago had a poker make over. They have moved the cardroom so it is now in a much bigger and better place upstairs. They are giving guarantees for all comps and things are a huge improvement from when I previously played there.

The standard of play though is even worse than before. Though I wouldn't go as far as Phil Helmuth and say the standard is so bad that "If it wasn't for luck I'd win every time". I would say I most definitely fancy my chances over 90% of the field.

There is no casino with a worse standard of play this this if you take the average player. That said I've been 4 times (inc Sunday) and I've been crushed each time.

So Sunday we are 15k starting stack and a 30 minute clock for the 1st 4 levels, then it reduces to 20 minutes for the remainder.

At level 2 I find myself in a horrible spot, largely of my own making. In a 7 way pot I have K,J in the bb and on a flop of J,J,9 lead out for 450 into the pot of 700. (there are always at least 5 or 6 players to every flop regardless of whether the pot has been opened for a raise)

I get 3 callers! How many Jacks are there in the deck?

Anyway I don't like so many callers and when the turn is an 8 I'm not really thrilled about that either as some straight draws just got there. I know they all can't have a Jack so guess at least one was on a straight draw.

I check and the young guy to my immediate left fires a pot sized bet and gets 2 callers so I call as well. On reflection this was not the best call I've ever made. In my heart I knew I needed to hit a K on the river to definitely be good and I didn't fancy my odds.

The river is a 10 and it's a club which makes 3 clubs in the middle. Now I'm just beating that well known stately home, "Sod Hall".

I check the guy bets 5k into what by this time is a pretty big pot. The other 2 players get out the way and it's back to me.

I start by thinking it's an auto fold, the kid hasn't got out of line at all so far and has been one of the tighter players at the table.

As he is directly to my left I turn and give him a look, he genuinely looked nervous. He is only a young guy and looked inexperienced so I was fairly sure he wasn't deliberately trying to look nervous.

So I start thinking maybe this isn't a fold after all. I ask him a question along the lines of "what have you got?"

At this point it had been my turn to act for about 20-30 seconds, when the lady in seat 1 calls the clock on me. (I'm in seat 4 so right opposite her)

Now they have a terrible way of dealing with the clock at the Gala which differs to other places I play at. Normally when the clock is called the dealer does not actually have the authority to start the clock ticking and has to call the floor.

Only when the TD gets over to the table does he/she start the clock ticking. This generally gives the player enough time to think and often the player has called or folded prior to the TD arriving.

Not at the Gala they just insta start the clock. Sadly though they insta called the clock without telling me! The 1st I know about this is when the dealer announces 50 seconds remaining! I ask why the floor hasn't been called she says words to the effect of "tough luck, I've started it"

Anyway to my right is a guy I know quite well and the only decent player at the table and at the other end of the table is an ex-Broadway casino dealer who I also know. They both say to seat 1 words to the effect of "you can't call a clock on him that fast he's only been thinking for a short while".

The woman fights her corner by saying "well people have called the clock on me loads of times". This annoys me and I say "well I haven't".

At this point a full scale top of the voice row erupts on the table and there are about 6 or 7 players and the dealer shouting over one another! I'm not one of them BTW.

The dealer by this time has announced 30 seconds and they are still arguing and I literally can't hear myself think!

"FOR FUCKS SAKE" I shout over the top of all of them. This quietens them down and I say to the dealer "this isn't right how can I have just 60 seconds when they are all shouting. She calls for quiet but does not add any time on.

Again seat 1 pipes up with justification of why she called the clock. I immediately ask for the TD at this point and she calls for the floor but still says 20 seconds a few moments later. I ask if my clock can be paused due to the interruptions I've had and she says no.

I told seat 1 "I can't stop you from calling the clock on anyone but can you at least keep quiet after you've done it?"

Finally she put's a sock in it.

Although the floor has been called I realise that the TD is never gonna get to the table in time so I have to make a decision.

I look at the kid and say "You really don't want me to call do you?" He can't/won't answer. I pick up a 5k chip and hold it hovering over the line. He again looks genuinely nervous so as the dealer is giving it the "10,9,8,7" I make the call.

He had a straight which he'd hit on the turn with a 10,Q, ouch.

Not sure if he made a great or terrible value bet but I was really annoyed with myself for paying him off.

I have no idea what I was thinking calling him, just crazy. I think in some part I was annoyed about the clock call but that's no excuse.

I'm not sure what he was thinking when he bet a 1 card straight on that board and I don't think he knew either.

In some ways my read was good. I think after he bet he thought "Shit I wish I'd checked" and he wasn't acting nervous he was nervous.

999/1,000 I'm folding 3 Jacks on that board to these sort of players. It was painful for me, as self inflicted wounds usually are.

In some way I think by calling I was showing seat1 that I really had a decision to make and wasn't just posturing.

The young guy with the straight did say later that he didn't spot the 3 clubs till after he'd bet so was worried I had the flush! That didn't make me feel any better.

My mood was not great as you could imagine after playing so badly and the clock call on me just made it a whole lot worse. I ran bad after that and was KO'd about 20 minutes later when I flopped top pair and hit 2 pair on the turn only to run into a flopped set.

If I'd recovered from the "clock call" hand and stayed on the table a while longer I might have put my view across to the lady who called the clock when I'd calmed down a bit. But I didn't get the chance.

My main points are, a) she wasn't in the hand. b) we were at 50/100 blind level. c) she had over 80 bb's at the time. d) It was a circa 15k pot and about 1/3rd of my chips to call.

I feel I was justified in taking my time and the fact that I did call proved I was seriously considering making the call. I think we've all lost count of the number of tank folds we see but I actually did call it.

If the blinds had been 500/1000 during the 20 minute clock stages and she had 15 bb's or less then there would have been a much stronger case for her to call the clock. However trying to justify it by saying "well people have called the clock on me loads of times" was not really a good enough reason IMO.

After being on her table for a while I can understand why people call the clock on her as she takes a lot of time even over a pre-flop call for 3x even at the lower levels.

I seriously had to bite my lip on one occasion shortly after when she was tanking for a 500 chip call pre-flop.

I had a degree of sympathy with her though as she did catch a lot of flack (not from me) due to the way she plays.

She is a MONUMENTAL calling station though she does take a lot of time over it sometimes.

Guys said to her a few times "how can you call with that?" type of comments and afterwards she says when one of those guys got caught bluffing bottom pair "see you think it's fine with hands like that for you but you tell me off for playing hands like that"

They were trying in vain to explain to her that betting is different to calling but she just didn't get it.

Mind you it's quite funny to hear these players giving anyone advice. I can promise you there was no one round that table who is going to be setting up a poker coaching academy any time soon.

On the positive side at least I had the good grace to not berate her. Though mainly it was because I was far too busy being annoyed with myself to worry about her.

Anyway I shall be going to the Gala again most definitely and I like to think that I'm big enough not to spite call the clock on her at the earliest opportunity!

Regarding the Gala it has some things I like and some I dislike.

Positives

Valet parking

Excellent poker room

Very good cardroom manager

Good dealers (one of whom is so pretty I've taken a photo of her, so I can show Santa what I want for Xmas)

Good schedule for my regular buy in level (£20- £40)

Anyone answers a mobile phone their cards are insta mucked

Sunday comp starts at a great time (see schedule below)
Plenty of valets on duty

Very good snack menu

The restaurant looks good though not tried it yet

Slight Negatives

No penalty or even a warning for folding out of turn

Insta clock call without TD intervention (Well I would say that)

Breaks are too far apart (2 hrs) and too long when you get one. The 1st break last's for 30 mins which is unnecessary.

Driving to it, (located right in Birmingham city centre) is a total nightmare.

The biggest negative is a subjective thing but I don't find it's as friendly (punters not staff) as other places I play. It is most definitely cliquey. I'm fairly long in the tooth and will not allow angle shooters to gang up on me but feel the place could be a little intimidating for less experienced players.

If my daughter ever wanted to go to a casino to play poker I would not take her there as my first, second or even third choice to be honest.

I genuinely enjoy playing at the G Coventry as a lot of the players there are really nice but I doubt I will ever come to love the Gala in the same way.

It's just such a shame that the G Cov only has a £15 buy in on a Friday and Saturday as it just seems a waste of time. It never makes £1,000 yet the Gala is guaranteeing £2,000 for their Thursday and Friday night comps and £1,500 for Saturday.

So even though I've done terribly badly there so far, with only myself to blame for some of it, I really do feel I will be playing there at least once or twice a month in future.

The poker room is on the top floor balcony area that housed the old restaurant and bar area. This photo is taken from there looking down on the non-skill games!

Gala Casino Birmingham Poker Schedule

Monday

8:30pm. £10 Unlimited Re-buy

90mins late entry/alternates

Double chips on add-on

£1000 Unconditional Guarantee

Tuesday

8:30pm. £25 Deepstack Freeze-out

120mins late entry/alternates

15,000 chips

£1500 Unconditional Guarantee

Wednesday

8:30pm. £20 Deepstack freeze-out

120mins late entry/alternates/re-entry

12,000 chips

£1200 Unconditional Guarantee

Thursday

8:30pm. £40 Megastack freeze-out

120mins late entry/alternates

18,000 chips

£2000 Unconditional Guarantee

Friday

8:30pm. £20 with one optional Re-Buy

120mins late entry/alternates

6,000 chips starting stack, 9,000 chips for re-buy

£2000 Unconditional Guarantee

Saturday

8:30pm. £30 Deep stack Freeze-out

120mins late entry/alternates/re-entry

15,000 chips

£1500 Unconditional Guarantee

Sunday

5pm. £25 Deepstack Freeze-out

120mins late entry/alternates

15,000 chips

£1200 Unconditional Guarantee

For details of the casino visit the Midlands Poker Forum.
http://midlandspoker.forumotion.co.uk/f18-birmingham-gala-casino

GUKPT 2012

2011-11-01T18:50:00.000Z

These are unconfirmed dates, but these are supposedly the tour details for the GUKPT for 2012.

Jan Manchester GUKPT 23rd-29th
Mar Brighton GUKPT 12th-18th
May Ireland GUKPT 7th-13th
June Belgium GUKPT TBC
July Luton GUKPT 30th-5th Aug
Aug Coventry GUKPT 20th-27th
Sep London GUKPT 17th-23rd
Nov Blackpool GUKPT 5th-11th
Dec London Grand Final 26th Nov-2nd Dec

I was originally under the impression that the Goliath would be held from Wed 22nd to bank Holiday Monday 27th. So not sure why it starts on Monday 20th. Either they are going for 5 day 1's or maybe they have other events running alongside the Goliath.

As I'm still in Spain I will not be able to find out for a few days.

Poker and Alcohol Not Always A Great Mix.

2011-10-27T00:22:00.002+01:00

Went to Luton for weekend to play in the APAT team event. It's a 2 day comp and had 23 teams with 8 players per team. I've played them before and they can be fantastic fun. Poker is normally an individual game but one that is so much more fun when made into a team event.

All the teams wear their team shirts so they can be easily identified and it really adds to the "Ryder Cup" jingoism.

Normally it's not considered good form to jump up and down screaming and fist pumping with excitement when you river someone but it seems perfectly acceptable to have your team mates do it for you!

The banter is generally brilliant and it's normally all given and taken in the right spirit. Sadly we (EatMyStack) didn't do very well and only two of the team Richard King and Darren Newton made it through to day 2 and scored points.

Personally I had a bad start, I was active at the early levels but hit nothing and dribbled chips away. I was down to 2k (from 10k) @ 75/150 but I really toughed it out. I was so determined that I really fought hard and after getting it in with AJ pre won the race and doubled to 4k and then got up to 12k over the next hour.

I was thinking that it was all good when they broke my table and moved me. I had to play just one hand at the new one prior to the break and had a moment of madness and blew all the chips I fought so hard for on the other table and busted.

I was annoyed with myself, though when the guy called my all in shove on the turn I had 14 outs to hit for another double up. I played the hand badly as it was 100% a pre-flop fold so I can have no complaints. It makes a nice change from a bad beat though.

It's the first time, and hopefully the last, that I've ever bust a tourney playing 7,2.

In the evening I entered the normal G Luton's £30 freezeout, which had 10k starting stack and a 30 minute clock which is excellent. It had 92 runners for a £2,760 prize pool with a worthwhile £850 to the winner so I thought it would be really good. Just shows you how wrong you can be.

I got a bad break with my seat draw as I had Scott ( a G Cov regular) sat to my immediate left. The table was otherwise very soft but I was getting 3 bet lot's by Scott when I opened so was at a distinct disadvantage especially as I never really had a hand most of the time.

The initial table was really nice though, and I had pleasant conversations with a couple of the local Luton lads. I then got big blinded off that table and moved to another which poker wise was great for me. For my enjoyment level though it was the start of a nightmare.

I have never enjoyed a tournament less and this table was just the start. I had 2 young Latvian lads to my immediate right who were chipped up and they were talking to each other in Latvian whilst the hands were in progress on a couple of occasions.

The dealer, who was excellent btw, gave them a stern warning and they stopped it (for a while). They were winning most pot's they were in and to be fair were better players than the others at the table, though the fact that they were giving rubdowns to the players they were beating wasn't very nice.

They were far and away the 2 most aggressive players at the table and they were opening lot's of pots and very light sometimes. I got wise to this and started 3 betting them.

On one occasion I did it with 8s,9s and he having called my 3 bet with AQ got to see my hand when the hand went to showdown. I won the show down with two pair on a board that was 892,Q,K or similar.

Anyway the upshot was that they were deep in heated conversation (in Latvian) after that hand. My Latvian is a little rusty but my guess is the conversion was along the lines of "that old fat bastard just 3 bet you with 8,9" "yeah if he does that again I'm gonna 4 bet ship his ass"

This I figured would make matters interesting the next time I 3 bet either one of them so decided to wait until I picked up a real hand.

I didn't have to wait long and sure enough I picked up A,K about 5 or 10 minutes later and 3 bet him. At this point the "Latvian" chat started again. The dealer called for the floor and I feel I'd have been perfectly justified in having his hand declared dead.

You certainly cannot discuss what action to take with someone sat next to you before deciding what to do and the fact that they were not talking in English made it more obvious.

The upshot was that he 4 bet shoved all in with K,8 suited and I made the call.

I bust him out and go over 30k so when the TD arrived I was happy to let the play stand!

The table gets broken after that bust out so I'm on the move again and my enjoyment level starts to plummet to all time depths.

I get put in seat 1 on my new table and seat 4 is someone wearing an "A World Of Poker" (AWOP) red team shirt so he was clearly there representing them in the event.

The guy was totally wasted and that is fine by me and to be fair he was not the only one as there were 2 other players at the table who could barley lift their heads up off the table.

The game was taking an age as even asking them for their ante or to make any poker decision took ages as they were totally out of it.

Now I'm usually happy to play drunks, I personally don't drink whilst gambling but I'm happy to take money/chips off people who do.

As I sit down I place my impressive stack of chips onto the table in front of me (though seat 4 has considerably more than me) and put my pink (yeah very Russell Grant) 5k chips on top where they can clearly be seen.

Seat 4 asks me in his slurred voice "how many pink chips have ya got mate?" whilst leaning over the table and pointing his finger at me.

I say "just 2", he replies "only 2, I've got FUCKING LOADS look".

I borrow Freddie Russell's (Coventry regular) favourite saying and reply "I'm happy for you"

He says he is going to take them all off me in a minute and I wish him good luck trying.

I'm wary of him right from the start, I used to run a pub and have dealt with drunks for a living. I can usually tell the happy drunks from the violent ones and this guy didn't strike me as the happy go lucky type.

I avoided talking to him unless absolutely necessary.

Anyway after 5 minutes my read is he has won all the chips by getting lucky and busting people with bad beats rather than subtle play as he either folded pre flop or picked up a random handful of chips and threw them in the general direction of the dealer.

Shortly after joining the table he and I played a smallish pot and sure enough he gets lucky on the river and took about 4k off me. He then asked me, while he was raking in the chips where I lived and how far away it was.

Naively thinking this was a genuine question rather than the opening to a rubdown punchline, I told him.

He then said "well good cos you'll be home soon enough when I take the rest of your fucking chips you c**t."

This caused uproar at the table as you can imagine and the dealer called the floor and it all got a bit nasty for a while.

Why he was being overly aggressive towards me I have no idea, I had not really even spoken to him at this point and I have never met him before.

There were ladies in seat 2 and 8 and the C word is generally unacceptable behaviour even without lady's at the table and being drunk doesn't excuse it.

I absolutely love to give and take banter at the table as it really makes the game fun and adds an extra edge when you are in a pot with an adversary. It's probably the biggest single thing that makes live play so much more fun than on-line.

The TD gave him a strict warning that it wouldn't be tolerated and he said "sorry it was just friendly banter"

Violence is not in my nature and I'm far too old and unfit to be going round the table to fight anyone but he was lucky it was me as I know plenty of people who would have smacked him on the spot.

I really cannot understand why anyone would want to behave like that towards someone they don't know as you can never be sure who you are dealing with.

He didn't even know I was playing the APAT event as my team shirt was covered up by my jacket.

I could just as easily been a local as the field was about 50/50 split between locals and APAT bust out's like me.

Anyway the TD and dealer calmed him down and things returned to normal, ie drunken idiots (APAT event players) spoiling the game for the locals.

Amazingly they still allowed this guy to buy more drinks! As I said I used to run a pub and I can tell you that you can lose your licence for serving alcohol to someone who is clearly inebriated. Still though the pints of Guinness kept coming.

Anyway I decided that I should refrain from talking to him unless absolutely necessary and unusually for me I kept quiet at the table.

Though about 10 minutes later when I took a 20k pot off him he called me a "Jammy Bastard" so I couldn't resist saying "maybe I won't be home quite so soon after all".

I thought it was funny, though by the out pouring of foul and abusive language that got directed at me I guess he didn't find it so funny.

He seemed to think it was fine to gives others rubdowns but was not so good at taking them.

Shortly after this another "AWOP" team player got moved to our table and this was good news as it was "Cub". I don't really know him but have spoken to him once or twice briefly in the past and he seems a decent bloke.

He was in seat 6 so I was hopeful that he might calm seat 4 down a bit. Though Cub was watching something on his iPad and sensibly had his headphones on.

Not so long after seat 9 and seat 4 start arguing with each other. Seat 9 is less volatile but much more pissed. In fact he was so pissed that I really doubt he could have stood up long enough unaided to fight anyone!

The dealer had to call for calm again.

Then shortly after seat 4 started to row with seat 10, this really kicked it all off as seat 10 was pissed but coherent enough to really verbally lay into seat 4 along the lines of "I've had just about enough of you".

As I said previously seat 4 could dish it out but wasn't so good at taking it so having lost the verbal "banter" with seat 10 decided that he'd go round the table and "FUCKING KILL YOU".

Thankfully as he did start to go round the table "Cub" jumped up out of his chair and stopped him before he could advance more than a few paces towards seat 10 who was by this time also out of his chair.

This was turning into a great evenings poker.

The TD came again and though it was calmed down it was redicoulous. In the G Cov or the Broadway (2 places I normally play) seat 4 would probably have been out the door before it got this far and certainly at this point at the latest.

I've seen people marched out of both those card rooms and their chips removed from the table way before this level of stupidity.

When you pay a reg fee (or rake) in a casino it's so you get a straight game with house dealers in a safe environment. I've played in some dodgy places over the years and once in an unlicensed club in Digbeth (yeah, what was I thinking) saw a guy pull a knife at the table and try and stab someone. But you don't expect this sort of behaviour in a licensed casino.

When that got calmed down seat 4 and 9 had another set to in a huge pot where 9 doubled through 4 and won an 80k plus pot.

"Oh dear" I thought this is going to get out of hand.

Then the TD came over with chip trays and said to seat 9 "you're on the move" I said "he's not the big blind" she replied "I know exactly what he is, and he's moving"

Probably not a bad thing, though my poker brain was thinking "shit 80k of easy chips just got taken off the table"

Still pints of Guinness kept coming to seat 4.

By this time seat 4 was so pissed that he then started just open shoving with any 2 for huge amounts. While I was on a quick toilet break he managed to knock Cub out when he open shoved K,3 and Cub made the call with QQ. He hit the king and Cub was gone.

Seat 4 started losing pots and doubling the short stacks and before long he was the short stack. He shoved and doubled a couple of times and eventually a local guy KO'd him and the table breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Soon after we were down to a final table. At this point I was reunited with the seat 9 drunk. He also was still being allowed more beer and was even more pissed than before.

You couldn't make out what the hell he was saying he was so drunk.

As the seat draw was being done for the Final Table and the chips being put in place I suggested a 10 way chop. I was deadly serious.

There was £2,760 in the pool and £276 to call it a night seemed like a great idea to me. I can't remember a tourney I enjoyed playing less than this one.

The behaviour of the AWOP guy was shameful IMO and to do it wearing his team shirt so everyone in the casino knew he was playing the APAT event was even worse.

I also strongly blame the G Luton as anyone who is totally wasted should not be served drinks, and he should have been asked to leave the club as soon as he became overly aggressive.

Anyway when we've had the 5 minute break we come back to play the final and a few of the sober players have clearly been giving my 10 way chop idea some thought and we start to discuss it seriously.

Sadly the really drunk guy and the next most inebriated guy are the 2 chip leaders and the alcohol has given them a deluded view of their poker ability and the likelihood of them continuing to win flips indefinitely. They therefore refuse to deal.

Saying words to the effect of "I'm going win this, I don't need to deal with you short stack wankers".

They didn't put it quite as eliquantly as that, but you get the picture.

So we play on.

Now 10, 9 and 8 all get £80 and then it starts to climb.

7th £110, 6th £140, 5th 190 ( I think) 4th £230.

So to me my deal of "lets take £276 now" looks a good idea as it will not per-long the agony.

£850 up top, £610 and £390 for 2nd and 3rd.

Really there was no stand out player IMO (1 of the locals to my right looked competent) and if they'd all been sober and it was mid afternoon and the blinds were re-set to a sensible level I'd have fancied my chances but I just wanted it to be over.

In fact some were so terrible that they were limping into pot's pre and folding to raises with less than 10 big blinds!

The blinds were 3k/6k and there was 920k on the table so 17 bb's average but the 2 CL's had loads and the rest of us were short by comparison.

Anyway we play on and we don't lose anyone for ages as the game is very (and I mean VERY) slow going. The pissed up big stack can't function any more and can barely pick his cards up. He has to ask the dealer everything twice and he has to have someone help him put his chips in and stack them if he wins a pot.

The clock is running down and even though the structure is good the blinds go up very quickly in relation to how many hands we are actually playing.

I'd already realised it was time to dance sometime ago but I was in 1 step forward 1 step back mode.

So with the blinds now at 4k/8k/1k I know it's time to throw caution to the wind. All the others seem to be waiting for others to bust out and were playing ultra tight.

So I ship all in for 50k UTG having not looked at my cards. I don't care if I'm called or not as I've lost the will to live now.

When the the bet gets through I pick up 22k to add to my 50k. In the BB next hand an old guy UTG limps with 12 bigs behind and the lady player UTG plus1 also limps with a short stack. The sb completes and I look and see A,7 so I shove all in.

Everybody folds and I pick up another big chunk.

The very next hand in the small blind the lady limps again and I 3 bet shove (I now have lots more chips than her or the bb) with KQss.

Again they both fold.

The very next hand the slightly less drunk 2nd CL limps as does the decent local player. I was therefore thinking I'm not likely to be making any sort of squeeze play this time as I look at my cards.

However I look down and see KK. I briefly consider a sensible sized 3 bet but decide to ship in again as I feel they might think I'm at it as it's now the 4th time in succession.

The 2nd CL insta calls with 7,7 and the local lad tank folds.

The look on the 7,7 guys face was a picture when he saw the Kings. I could see he thought I was at it.

Briefly I thought "I hope these hold" then I remembered it was a £30 comp not a £1k GUKPT main event and relaxed as I knew I was good.

Sure enough a K on the flop ended it and I was now 2nd in chips. So in 4 hands I'd gone from 6 big blinds to 2nd in chips. You have to love NL.

As an old time player I used to play against was fond of saying "NLHE the only game that can take you from Brick Lane to Park Lane in 3 hands"

I'd actually done it in 4 hands but I think he would of approved.

So the game plodded on and if the blinds were low I'd have been in total control of the table but felt at 5k/10k/1k it could still go very wrong very quickly.

We lost players 10 and 9 eventually and again I suggested we talk deal.

Again the totally drunk CL said no, but he was unaware that the blinds were going up and as he hadn't played a pot for ages he wasn't much in front of me now.

The next player out would get £80 and I was offering them £300 with me and the CL having the rest. It really was coin flip time for everyone else now.

So we played on, and then drunk CL finally got what he deserved when he lost a pot to me for 100k when I flopped a flush that he didn't spot as he couldn't make out the difference between spades and clubs by this time.

He then lost a couple of flips and he was out in 8th.

When we get down to 7 players it's 4.00am and the blinds are 6k/12k/2k so someone (not me) suggests we talk deal again.

By this time the guy who was previously 2nd in chips and the 2nd most drunk had sobered up considerably. Partly for the fact that he hadn't had a drink for a few hours and also the shock of seeing me turn pocket Kings over versus his 7,7.

Having lost over half his chips to me he was now mid stack and in real danger. He was wise and sober enough at this stage to realise that his earlier bravado was perhaps a little misplaced.

So he says "well actually I wouldn't mind doing a deal now there aren't so many left".

Oh dear, then it kicks off again and the table has another argument (not me though). The mild mannered well spoken gent to my left who hasn't said 2 words all night suddenly pipes up and says "no chance, you didn't want to do a deal before when you had loads of chips so you've got no chance now."

He really meant it to and totally refused to talk deal and we played on.

Anyway not long after it's a break and the previously mild mannered guy to my left and I have a chat on the way to the facilities and I calm him down a bit.

He is understandably annoyed after what he has suffered throughout the night and believe me I felt his pain. However I explain that even though I wouldn't cross the road to piss on some of the players in this comp if they were on fire, a deal means that we can end the misery.

You don't have to like someone to do a deal. As Marlon Brando used to say in the Godfather before he shot someone "it's purely business".

He says I have a point and though he wants to play on I can see that he's is mulling it over.

Anyway on the way back to the table the 2 shortest stacks who were Luton regulars came over to me and they want a chat.

I won't say what was discussed but it was an interesting conversation.

So we restart and someone exits quite quickly (not one of the Luton lads) when I call a shove and win a race and we are down to 6.

Deal is suggested again and the other 4 want to and it's just down to the previously mild mannered guy to my left and me.(In my now lofty status as CL)

He says yes OK and I agree also.

I would certainly be unfair to now start saying I didn't want to deal as even though I had over 33% of the chips in play I was the one who suggested the 10 way chop originally and had been praying to end this comp from about 30 players out!

So someone says what about the big stack what should he have?

I loved that, as it opened the door for me to ask for a little extra.

Maths wise an equal split of the £2,410 still in the prize pool was £400 each and £10 for the dealers (felt a bit mean on the dealers they were top notch)

It was agreed that the shorties bung me 10 each as a sweetener.

Also when we walked away from the table having chopped the money up the 2 Luton lads also kindly bought me a drink.

I could have been an arse and played on but the blinds were 8k/16k/2k so even with 300k it was still just 2 flips.

If there is anyone in the world better qualified than me to lose 2 consectutive flips then I'd like to meet them.

So I finally walk back to my hotel and get into bed at aprox 5.00am with upwards of 400 profit in my back pocket.

On the Sunday we (EMS Team) meet in the casino as we have the 2 lads still in the event though they both bust inside 30 minutes.

At 3.00 pm I play the PLO event and it only really proves to me beyond any shadow of doubt that I really don't know what I'm doing at PLO. I always thought I did, but I really don't.

I used to play in a big cash game some years ago and win loads but the people I was playing were just degenerate gamblers.

Remarkably I make the final table (10) but only 6 were to get paid as it had a mere 49 runners. The way the game went we are sooooo deep it´s ridiculous.

When were down to 2 tables we were losing a player a hand and when we had 12 left we lost 2 off our table and 1 off the other in the same hand.

So I'd made the final table purely because I'd kept my head when all around me were losing theirs. I´d played ultra tight, mainly as I didn't know what I was doing.

Though I know what the nuts looks like, and I can spot a missed draw.

Right from the start I basically hit the nuts about once every hour and that kept me afloat.

Even though I was the shortest stack at the FT the chip average was great in relation to the blinds due to the lightning quick bust outs. It meant there was no panic.

Dan Owsten had a monumental chip stack and a huge CL for the entire FT. He was pretty much crushing players for fun. He did go on to win it and it was no surprise.

I didn't fancy my chances of winning with the stack I had but I certainly had enough to sit patiently and let Dan do his stuff while I waited for a hand.

The way he was going I could easily have got 2nd place without playing a hand!

When we were down to 5 I had Q,Q,J,10,ds and called a 3 bet.

The flop came Q,9,x 2 spades but I hadn't got spades. I'd flopped top set but it was a dangerous board.

I took a big gamble and decided to under rep my hand. Normally I'd be looking to protect my hand against the flush draw but I slow played it.

On the river when the board paired and brought the flush so I was able to check/call the guys shove (nut flush) to double up and win a big pot.

I then 5 or 10 minutes later knocked the very same guy out with the 2nd best hand!

As I say I'm not that great at PLO but I know what Aces look like and HU I'll take them every time.

After someone opened and the guy I had the Queens full against 3 bet's I four bet with AA single suited.

Everyone else gets out the way and the 3 better calls and shows KK47.

He knew he was behind when he called but he was short stacked so couldn't really fold.

As far as I'm aware (at the time) the board bricks for both of us and the dealer declares AA to be the winner. He mucks the other guys cards shoves the chips towards me and the other guy departs.

When he's left a player said "you were lucky there he hit 2 pair, 7's & 4's". I really didn't think so but a spectator who was standing just behind me said yes he did.

Wow, how lucky am I. Winning with 2nd best that really is a rarity.

I'll be 100% honest and say I'd be happy to swear on my children's lives I didn't see it. If I had I would have said so.

Unlike the nightmare of the previous tournament this was a real APAT event played 100% in the right spirit.

All the people on every table I played at were great and it was a lot of fun.

Anyway we got down to 3 and I was 2nd in chips.

Tactically I made 1 mistake and it definitely cost me the 2nd place finish and any chance I might have had of 1st.

Dan had 10 times as many chips as me and the other guy put together. (didn't catch his name but a real nice guy)

Anyway the short stack raised from the button (not many behind) and Dan called from the sb. I was big blind and I had a poor hand even for 3 handed. I decided to fold and let Dan knock him out. It was a reasonable assumption that he would, he'd knocked out virtually every other player on the FT.

Anyway the short stack doubled up but I would have hit a small straight and won the pot if I'd played the hand.

Not only would I have been HU I'd have had only a 1/6 chip deficit or there about.

I didn't play the hand and not too long after I was eliminated in 3rd.

So all in all I enjoyed the PLO, I'm a lot worse at it than I thought but as Clint used to say "a man needs to know his limitations".

The weekend all in all was good, excellent hotel (The Days), had a few laughs and officially 1st in the £30 comp and 3rd in the PLO.

I Know When To Run Bad.

2011-10-19T22:45:00.002+01:00

I pitty anyone all in pre-flop versus me in the next £20 comp I play at the G Coventry as they have no chance. Working on the theory that these things even themselves out I am due a lot of run good in the very near future.

I've already posted about the bad beat I suffered for £1000 on the Wednesday night (see 13th Oct post) and then it got worse.

On the Thursday I played the £200 +£25 6 max tournament. Now I used some of my GUKPT vouchers that I won via the Goliath satellites so I was effectively free-rolling but anyone who paid into this event using their own money must have been insane.

I was blissfully unaware that the clock was a mere 20 minutes otherwise I would never have "wasted" the free money let alone used real cash.

6 max is fast paced in any case and to add a turbo clock into the mix as well was just plain crazy. The event started at 7.30 with 68 players and I finished in 9th spot ( 8 prizes) @ just prior to 11.30. 60 bust outs in less than 4 hours play tells it's own story.

Real agony for me as with 20 players left I was one of the chip leaders in with a great shout of making a real deep run, and at least a final table.

I was very pleased with how I played this event and if I have to use a word to describe my play the word would be "fearless".

Whenever it's your turn to act the options of call, fold, raise or shove all-in are open to you and I have to say I was opting for the raise or shove options more than in any other tourney I've ever played.

I'd decided right from the start that I was going to come out swinging and it was nearly my immediate downfall as I was down from 7.5k starting stack to 2k at the first break at the end of level 3.

Chaz Chatta

I had Chaz Chatta on my table btw and he seemed a really nice guy. He looks class though he never got started and was out soon after the play resumed from the break. By the time the second break happened (3x 20 min levels later) I had 35k in chips as my all out aggro style was paying dividends.

With just the 2k I win a flip to double to 4k then 3 bet shove with 5,5 to get snapped by 8,8.

I hit the 5 though to go to 10k.

After that I just kept winning till I got to the 35k mark. Then I just lost a couple of crucial all ins (not me all in).

I lose with J,10 versus A,8 for a huge pot. He opened and I shoved over the top and he had to tank for his tournament life. It was the longest tank of the night (we were all aware of the clock) but he eventually called. I hit a J on the flop but he rivers the Ace. If I win that pot I have over 50k instead of which I'm back to 20k.

I win some more pots and get back to 30k and then I shove over the top of another opening bet with 6h7h. He calls with K,J and again I hit a pair on the flop but he rivers the J. Again I'm down to 20k instead of upwards of 50k.

With the total of the chips in play the chip average when the final table started would be 85k so I was trying hard to get up to a really big stack so I would not be in danger around bubble time.

Although it seems mad for me to be 3 bet shoving with 6,7 and J,10 type hands ( these plays are not anywhere near my range usually) I'd been doing it all night and it was working 95% of the time. Obviously looking and talking the way I do my table image is granite, and to be fair that's not far from the truth normally.

I only failed to pull the trigger on one occasion all night and if I could turn the clock back I'd do it now in a heartbeat. Our table had not long been joined by the eventual winner Andrew Hulme and he had a big stack. He was active right from the start and when he opened a pot for maybe the 2nd or 3rd time I felt 100% he was at it. I had Js,9s on the button (about 12-15 bigs) and I knew it was an instant shove.

For the one and only time all night my natural rock-like survival instincts won the battle in my head and I folded. I could see the finish line of the prize pool and was keen to have something to positive from the week.

There were 12 left by this time and I thought that I'd either get a better spot (unlikely on reflection) or a genuine hand, but I didn't and that was my chance gone.

When we were down to 9 players and on the bubble I was unlucky to be on the 4 handed table, so with the blinds being ridiculous at this stage I was in them 50% of the time! I shoved all in without looking at my cards 3 times and it got through every-time but I was just treading water and still the shorty.

With the short stack I was a dead duck and I knew my fate, though I at least went down fighting for all I was worth.

I have in the past bubbled bigger comps than this but I was sick driving home. Not for the money as even when Adam Wilkinson (one of my favourite players from the Broadway) tried to talk about a saver for 9th I didn't even enter the conversation. As the short stack I don't feel it was my place to be begging for a saver.

The deal was a non-starter anyway as Andrew Hulme flatly refused after a cursory glance at my stack but for me I was only interested in an official prize not an unofficial one.

The next hand AH opens and I shove from the bb with J,8 and he calls, after some deliberation with Q,7. We both miss everything and the Q wins.

I was disappointed not for the money but because I really wanted to go deep for bragging rights in the G Cov!

Steve Owen was the only other Cov regular left in and he finished in 8th spot. Like me was very disappointed that he didn't do better as he also had a big stack in the mid stages of the tournament.

One thing I will say was apart from the ridiculous blind structure the way they balanced the tables up was crazy at the end. I know it's a six max but I'm sure I've seen others where at 2 tables of 4 when they lose one they have an unofficial final table of 7. GUKPT said though that they would not do this and it would be a 4 and 3 till they get down to 6.

It didn't in the end make any difference to me but that must be massively unfair on the 3 table especially if you are the short stack!

So my 6 max tips are a) don't play them with 20 minute blinds unless the buy-in is £10 or less. b) don't ever consider folding J,9 suited when you have 15 bb's or less. c) practise winning flips and 60/40's because you are gonna need to be good at that.

Main Event Day 1

So after running like pooh on Mon, Wed and Thursday (day off Tues) it was now Friday and the Main Event! It had 145 runners including some pretty big names bearing in mind that the WSOPE was going on.

Yucel "Mad Turk" Eminoglu

I played the flight 2 @ 6.00pm which had the most runners of the 2 flights. (81). My seat draw didn't look the very best (me seat 1) as I had Yucel Eminoglu affectionately known as "Mad Turk" to my left in seat 2.

Turk is a very dangerous opponent for several reasons first he is as crazy as they come and secondly he is not nearly as crazy as he makes out. He can actually play great poker when he is on his game and he is never ever frightened to put his chips over the line.

He is always entertaining and you are guaranteed some laughs with him on the table.

At one point in the early stages he said to his opponent, who was tanking Turks river bet, "you know I'm stealing the pot but you can't do F all about it". Two minutes later the guy calls and Turk shows the nuts!

I have always got on great with Turk and really enjoy his company. I used to play a lot at the Broadway which is Turks main poker home these days. He has had some good results over the years and it's no fluke.

Apart from him though the rest of the table turned out to be fine and there was no one else that worried me. Everyone was playing "honest" poker, raising when they had a hand and checking/folding when they didn't.

Jon "Skalie" Kalmar

After an hour Jon Kalmar turned up and was seated to my immediate right (well the other side of the dealer) in seat 9. For anyone who hasn't heard of him he is known as "Skalie", and finished 5th in the WSOP main event in 2007 for $1.2 million, and has won just under $2 million worldwide through tournament poker.

So I knew things would get a little more difficult, and sure enough he was opening nearly every pot. As far as Turk was concerned we largely kept out of each others way and he was very low in chips from very early on as the Chinese guy in seat 7 was hitting every flop against him (and me) and was a huge CL on our table.

Turk flopped 2 pair versus the Chinese guys set and lost a lot of chips.

I was down to just 7k at the first break (15k start stack) having done nothing wrong, except flopping top pair a couple of times and losing to two pair etc. I also ran what looked like a great bluff but somehow got called.

Turk said to me afterwards that he would have folded to me as the way the hand was played he couldn't believe I didn't have the goods.

On the break I gave myself a talking to and was determined to grind it out and be patient. I hadn't been playing in full 6 max mode but I was probably seeing more flops than I should and I'd hit sod all.

The blinds were 75/150 after the break and I still had 7k so there was no need to panic with nearly 50 bb's.

I knew there were some very easy spots at the table and as soon as Skalie folded any hand I felt it was easy.

Turk was short now, down to 4.5k and a Cov regular opens with JJ into Turks big blind. The Turk tells him "If the flop comes low you are in big trouble" and makes the call from the big blind.

The flop comes 445 and the Turk checks but warns him not to bet as the flop is low. He ignores it and bets the pot. Turk ships in and the guy calls with the JJ.

Turk shows 7,4 for trips but the J hits the turn and Turk is unfortunate to be out.

On a personal note I was sorry to see him go, but from a poker viewpoint it made my job a lot easier.

Apart from Saklie who I had position on in virtually every pot, the rest of the table looked great for me. I won't give a run down on all the players as some of them were Cov regs and that wouldn't be fair.

Seat 8 I will mention though, I'd never seen her previously but she was an elderly lady and she did not play a pot for the first 3 hours of the tourney. Then she made a 3x raise and the entire table insta folded in unison. 16 hole cards hit the muck simultaneously!

She showed AA and proceeded to moan that no one had called her! In all she raised or 3 bet on only 3 occasions prior to a crucial hand, for me, much later in the night. Those 3 hands were AA, AA, and QQ. She limped with JJ and 10,10 etc. The reason I relate that fact is for when I embarrassed myself in a hand later.

Anyway I was feeling OK after the break and I pick up 9,9 on the button and my tourney took off! Blinds are 75/150.

A Cov regular opened for 600 (4 bb's) UTG, an active guy UTG +2 called as did the Chinese guy, as did Skalie.

Now my read was as follows the Cov regular 100% has to have AK, (maybe AQs) or a pretty big pocket pair almost certainly over 9's.

UTG+2 had a wide range all night so he was much harder to place though I'm sure he has NOT got AK or a pretty big pocket pair as he would undoubtedly 3 bet. The Chinese guy is pretty much the same he had loads of chips by now and would defianetly have 3 bet a strong hand here.

Skalie has a weak hand here as again he 3 bets loads and so I figure he has maybe a small pocket pair or 6,7s type hand that he's hoping to hit the flop with.

Now I'm in a great 3 bet spot if it wasn't for who the opener is. I know if I 3 bet and he 4 bets really big I have to fold, so I just call and hope to set mine. I feel it's a bit weak but with only 7k I didn't want to start 3 bet folding even this deep.

Flop comes 9c, 2h 3h. Bingo!

Opener bets 1k into about 3.5k, UTG + 2 calls, Chinese folds, Skalie calls, I shove in for about 6.5k. I figure if anyone's gonna hit their flush they are going to have to pay for it, and if the opener has AA or KK inc the heart he'll definitely be calling.

The opener folds, he tells me after that he had 10,10. UTG+ 2 re-shoves over the top of my bet so Skalie also folds. (He said after the hand that he had 2 hearts)

I turn over my hand and UTG +2 tables Ah5h. (Board 9c,2h,3h)

In my mind I'm thinking "no heart, no heart, no heart". I'm concentrating so much on this that when the 4 of spades is turned over I actually don't spot that I'm behind to a turned straight!!!! To be honest I'm actually trying not to look at the flop and just have a quick glance and see it's black.

I was therefore blissfully unaware and thought that when I hit the boat on the river (4 of diamonds on river) that I was never behind in the hand :)

The guy who lost seemed more annoyed by the fact that I hadn't realised he'd hit a straight than the fact that I'd got "lucky" on the river! I'm glad I didn't realise as it saved me the worry!

He seemed frustrated that a local donkey had crippled his stack! Mind you he called off his stack after getting 3 bet shoved on by the old lady in seat 8 when she woke up with Aces for the second time! He made the call with Jacks and like that hand was ever likely to be ahead of her 3 bet range? The whole table was laughing at him when he said himself "how could I make that call?"

Anyway I spoke to him the next day and he seemed a really nice guy.

Now I was sat with 18k and was well above average stack and feeling good.

What pleased me was that I had no difficulty in knowing where I was in any pot for the first 6 or 7 hours and had no tough decisions at all. I was worried that the step up in class would be huge and I'd be out of my depth from the start but my easy table draw and having Skalie on my right meant I was surprisingly comfortable.

Skalie at this point had missed every flop and had slowly been leaking chips. He opened yet another pot and I 3 bet him with 88. He called and when the flop came QJ4, he checked and I bet. He called again and the turn was an Ace. He checked and I bet again and he sighed as if to say "I know you've hit that Ace" and folded.

So things were going great but they were about to get a whole lot tougher.

After the next break we were moved inside and put on the live stream table. The seat draw was kept as it was on the outer table so still in s1 and Skalie s9.

I was up to 25k at this point when the chip average was 18k at 300/600/50

At this point things went bad for me for 2 levels. That's two hours of poker and when you don't win a pot for two hours it has a really negative effect on your confidence as well as your stack.

Harvey Butters

As time went by we started to lose players off our table and they were being replaced by really good players with big stacks! Two new additions were Harvey Butters (HB) and Jamie Sykes (JS) in seats 3 and 4 respectively.

These guys were very good and just the sort of player it is so difficult for someone like me to play against.

It was a great to watch though and there were some great spots that they put each other in. Between them they were opening every single pot. Then it got that they obviously had me tagged as a rock (I'd been card dead from when they joined) so HB was opening versus my blind every time and JS was insta 3 betting him knowing full well that HB had nothing.

The second time when HB folded JS showed a "deuce" when he folded, much to the tables amusement. Based on this recurring theme I made my best play of the whole week.

Me bb, HB opens for 1,250 (blinds 300/600) JS makes it 2,100 and when it's folded to me I make it 4,100 with 9h,10h. They both snap fold!

Jamie Sykes

Every fibre of my being wanted to turn my cards over and show what I had, but I fought the urge and mucked as I was aware that if things got desperate later I might need to do that again.

To cement my image when JS asked me to show, I said "Trust me if I'd love to turn a deuce over, but unfortunately my lowest card is a King"

Things were getting very tough now though and I was getting into awful spots against some really good players every time I ventured into a pot.

At this point I had a new seat 2 who was fairly easy, the old lady (still hanging on) in seat 8 and me! So there were only 3 soft spots at the table and I was one of them!

Hours later I was right down in chips and believe it or not the 3 of us got to play a pot versus each other with every one else folding!

Me sb, seat 2 bb and it's amazingly folded to the lady. She makes it 4x. Which is a huge raise in comparison to the way the table had been playing. Pots were being opened for a min raise + 50 or 100.

I sigh as soon as she raises as this is raise number 4 from her in 8 hours of play. (following AA, AA & QQ)

Anyway I look down and see KK. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry inside

I just flat as does the bb. The flop comes J,3,3. I check, bb checks and she ships all in for her remaining chips. Now this is a HUGE overbet of about 12k and I only have 18k left.

I really hate this spot as I feel she very likely to have AA or QQ. Though I doubt even she would shove if she'd flopped a massive boat with JJ so I discount that option. I also have the horrible knowledge that the bb has A3 well within his range.

After a short tank I know logically that I cannot fold but for some reason it takes a while for my emotional brain to catch up with the logical side and I eventually shove.

The bb folds and she astonishes me by turning over J,10 off-suit for just top pair. I hold and almost double back up to 35k.

I felt very embarrassed by my terrible tank but the other newer players at the table hadn't been on her table for 8 hours like I had. This of course cemented my image with the table as a complete idiot.

It's great if people think you don't know what you are doing when you actually do, but not so good when they are spot on! Anyway I didn't feel embarrassed for too long.

I then in the last hour feel that I do not want to be a very short stack on day 2 and I am keen to get chipped up or get KO'd.

I get very unlucky when I 3 bet with AK and double a shorty up with A,10 and I also 3 bet shove on a shorty with 7,7 and lose to A,9.

So I'm down to 14k when they announce last 3 hands of the night. Blinds are 400/800/50 and will be 500/1000/100 the next day.

I really am hoping for something but have to fold my bb to a 5 bet! Seats 3,4,5,6,7 and 8 (lady gone replaced by a top player) and Skalie 9 were all just playing all out attack style poker.

Anyway the next hand I'm in the sb and seat 3 opens and Skalie shoves in from seat 9 with As,10s. Now I've been playing a long time and I've lost count of the number of times I've thought to myself, just prior to looking at my cards, "this would be a good time to pick up Aces". It's never happened, till this time. I look down and see AA. Happy Days.

I shove in, I have 1/2 Skalies stack and the opener folds. Even though there is a 10 on the flop I hold and I more than double back to 33,900.

I ante up and fold the last hand so finish on 33,800 with the chip average about 40k.

All in all I really enjoyed the day, one hand I played made me look like an idiot which everyone got to see and another made me look like a superstar which sadly no one saw. Also in between there was some pretty good solid play and a blind structure that suited my game.

Main Event Day 2

Julian "Yo Yo" Thew

My seat draw was probably easier if anything on day 2 as although I had the eventual winner Julian Thew to my left he hadn't at that time got many more chips than me. There were obviously some very good players on the table but the game seemed much quieter than the last couple of hours of day 1 when Butters and Sykes were very active.

I exited after 45 mins sadly. I was involved in just 2 hands and didn't feel I did too much wrong with either one.

Hand 1 I'm in the bb and Carlo Citrone opens for 2.5k (500/1000) I make it 6.1k with JJ and he flats. I hate the flat call. Now he is a Sky Poker sponsored pro but I think it's based on past form rather than current. If I had to label him I'd say he is more old school than new.

The flop comes Q,xx and I fire a cbet. He flats again, which I hate even more. When the turn is an Ace I check and he shoves all in. He has me covered but not by too much.

I have a think and fold.

A short time later David Jones opens for 2k (min raise). He had been far and away the most active player on the table and when I looked down and saw 10,10 I had no hesitation in shipping in for about 18.5k.

He had me covered and snap called which worried me but he turns over 9,9. If I win this and I should 80% of the time then I'm back up to over 40k and right back in the game.

My run like a drain week continues however and the door card is a 9, and even though it was 9,6,5 and a 7 on the turn gave me some more outs I missed and left after just 45 minutes of day 2.

To be honest there were much better players in the event than me and I was a long shot to win it but with luck like that you are never going to win any tournament.

I was disappointed to leave so soon as you definitely learn a lot playing against better players and I at least felt that with a bit of luck I could have made a nuisance of myself in the event to some of the other players.

I was pleased to see that Julian Thew went on to win it as he really is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet round a poker table. He has now won 3 GUKPT main events to go with his EPT title and you don't do that without being some player.

I left the G Coventry and bumped into Dalma (the cardroom waitress) and said I won't be back in for over a week as I'm sick of the place.

So of course I was back there Sunday night to play the £100 Head-Hunter Bounty Tournament.

Head-Hunter Bounty

So my last chance to do anything in the GUKPT festival and when I got there things looked really good for me. I could hardly spot anyone in the event who doesn't play at G Cov normally.

I was only there to use my last free vouchers up but when I saw the field I was glad I made the effort.

I started on an easy table and compared to the main event it was a walk in the park!

I was the one opening loads of pots and I quickly went for the 7.5k starting stack up to 10k while we had played 25/50 and 50/100. (25 min blinds)

Then my run bad continued.

Me, Ah3h v AQ flop Ac3s6h chips all go in on the flop. Turn Kh giving me a flush draw and river Kc giving the lucky sod a counter-fitting 2 pair.

Then I'm big blind and 4 people limp on to my big blind. I shove for my last 3k with A,J.

2 of the limper's call with A,10 and 10,8 respectively. Even though they both have a 10 they still hit a 10 on the flop to bust me. So frustrating as if I win that pot I'm right back in the game.

My mate was still in the comp so I went on the roulette to let off some steam and after a slow start hit a few numbers.

I took the winnings and sat in a cash game and I did really well. I won virtually every single pot I contested and left after an hour and a half with a very decent win.

It was good to end the week on a positive as overall my week had been a "close but no cigar" type week.

Bad beat to miss a £1,000 in the 2nd satellite, bubbled the £200 6 max, lost an 80/20 in the main event, and donked by idiots in the Bounty Hunter.

In all the week had actually cost me nothing as I won all my vouchers for next to nothing and various satellite seat entries for free as well. Also whilst trying to get to final tables to win vouchers I also won the normal Saturday night tournament just before the GUKPT started and finished 4th in the Friday one.

If I'd actually paid into the events I'd be suicidal now and I'm not sure how people, no matter how good they are, can make a living travelling round playing live poker events. Although I hate on-line poker there is a lot to be said for the fact that you don't have hotel/travel expenses etc.

Anyway that's me done with live poker till the weekend, when I'm off to represent EatMyStack poker forum in the APAT team event at Luton. 25 teams, 8 players per team, it will be a lot of fun.

Wish me luck!

P.S. All photo's taken from the Blonde Poker Forum, Live Tournamnet Updates: http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?board=2.0

More GUKPT Up's and Downs.

2011-10-13T15:08:00.002+01:00

Played the £150 +15 super sat for the main event last night and it made 9 seats and £900 for 10th. Having already won a seat for the main event I only played it as I won a seat for the satellite in a £5 re-buy a few weeks ago.

Cardroom manager said I could have cash if I won so was happy to play versus 70 players to get a grand for a top 10 finish.

Went great early on then really struggled in the later stages and was always short stacked.

Exit hand a kick in the dangly bits. I shove UTG with 10,10 at 1k/2k/200 for 16.1k and sb calls with 7,7.

Rivers the 7 obv. So I finish 15th.

That pot would have put me back above the chip average and in with a great shout.

I was fekin annoyed with the bb (CL) who played a big part in me being called I feel.

At best the CL appeared to be totally oblivious to poker etiquette (he'd already incurred penalties and warnings earlier) as he picked his cards up blatantly to throw them whilst sb was considering the call. I think sb has a much, much tougher decision with the bb still looking like he might be interested in the hand.

Especially as the way he'd been playing he could easily have shoved with any old sh1t. He 4 bet shoved earlier with 5,3hh as "it's my favourite hand" and 3 bet shoved KQ into AA earlier when he had so many chips he didn't need to make those moves.

So IMO the sb get's lucky twice 1st he can make his decision knowing full well he will not get called by the "unpredictable" CL and then he hit's the 5% card on the river. I wouldn't mind but he did it to me before in the £300 Deepstack at DTD and he goes on to win it.

In fairness I think the call is easy to make (and correct) when the CL has effectively folded out of turn as he'd already seen me shove J,9 off from early position.

Overall I enjoyed the comp as it only cost me a few £ to play and the clock (25 minutes throughout) and 7.5k starting stack made for a decent game. I was a little sad driving home though as a "bag of sand" is always useful.

We had Deena Hassan as out TD and I was very impressed with her. She seems a really lovely girl and was in control of the tournament totally but in a friendly way. I doubt many guys would ever be rude or abusive towards her as they sometimes are to male TD's.

Tonight's Comp

Anyway onwards and upwards. Tonight I'm playing the £200 + £25 6 MAX NLHE.

If ever there was a game designed to test how much my aggression level and range has been increased in the last 6 months then this is it.

There will be very few locals in this so I'm expecting a much tougher time. Hopefully I run well and really get into the action.

Bad Day Turns Good.

2011-10-10T16:04:00.008+01:00

The GUKPT Coventry started yesterday, and I was in the invitational freeroll final @ 2.00pm and it went really bad right from the 1st hand.

Button seat 1, I open for 125 in seat 4 (UTG) with AQhh and get 2 callers. Flop comes Kh10h6c and I brick the turn and river to lose the first hand.

It pretty much went downhill from there and I get bluffed off a small pot to a river bet though I was totally happy about it. There was so few chips in the middle and I felt I was calling for a split at best and with 2 players still to act behind me let the hand go. Though as it turned out I had the best hand.

I then OP another pot for 125 (this was probably the 4 or 5th I'd opened in the first few rounds) and I get one or two callers and a 3 bet to 600 (ish). The sb then ships in for 6,600.

I have QQ which might seem automatic call but I did consider folding as the 6.6k man is not one to make that move without a really big hand.

After weighing up that there was only 1 prize to play for I thought I'd take the gamble and called.

He has KK and I don't improve. This leaves me with 1,300 chips. Though with the blinds now just going up to 50/100 I was still in the game.

I folded a few hands and then shove over a couple of limpers with 77. Sadly one of the early limpers had 99 and I'm out after 30 minutes.

I was dissapointed as I'd invested so much time to get to this final and even though it was free I was feeling pretty bad.

So it's just gone 2.30 pm and the evening GUKPT event 1 (£30 re-buy satellite) does not start for 5 hours!

Some stragglers come into the casino thinking the normal afternoon comp will be on though it isn't due to the GUKPT. So we play a £10 1 table SNG to pass some time and of course I run golden and win it! Hitting nut flush's like they are going out of fashion, and flopping 2 pairs for fun.

It was great fun and it lightened my mood considerably. Scott (another invitational busto) and Frenchy were seated to my left and it made for a lively table. After running so good I breeze through to HU.

Interestingly when I get HU I'm facing a 2/1 chip deficit. Now a nice lady offered to deal for the table and even when she got KO'd she still carried on dealing. (her hubby was still in the invitational event).

To save the lady having to deal the HU I kindly suggest an even split :) but my opponent declines.

I have been chatting to the lady who I didn't know but have seen at the Broadway etc in the past. From this chat my opponent deduces I've been playing a while and it turns out he has played only twice before.

Up to this point I really didn't care whether I won or not but suddenly my pride won't let me lose to him so I really start to take things seriously and grind him down to take the CL. Then he asks for a deal!

Cheeky bugger I thought but in fairness to the dealer more than anything I agree, though I insist on having an extra £5 which he agrees to.

With still 2 hours till the evening comp me and Frenchy take a trip round to Burger King to get something to eat (the food is garbage inside the Ricoh). As you can see from the photo above you get all the best clientèle @ Burger King. I really wish they would open a Nando's at the Ricoh stadium it would make an absolute fortune.

So with a small win and some junk food inside me I'm feeling much better for the evening comp.

I enter via a free ticket I've won and use another for the add on. Nothing happened of any note in the re-buy period but soon after the re-start I go on a bit of a rush.

With blinds at 100/200 I 3 bet shove QQ and hold v AK to go to 9k. Then I have AsKs and 3 bet squeeze over a OP and 3 callers. Then I do it again on the button with KQo when I make it 4.1k after a raise to 700 and 2 callers. All the players would have had to go all in to call and I was fairly confident when I made the move it would get through.

Things were looking great for me as I was on 25k and no-one else on the table had more than 5k. Then I started yo-yo poker going down to 15k and back up to 25k with alarming regularity. I was hoping to get up to 50k and be comfortable to take me into the later stages but I just kept losing in big flips.

As time went on the blinds really started to hurt. With 20 minutes blind levels it started to get daft and I couldn't bully the table any more as they were all in shoving stack size.

As the blinds got bigger I get up to 45k and then start to yo yo between 25k and 45k, with the one step forward one step back roller-coaster continuing.

I could never win the all important 2 flips in a row to get into a comfy position.

When we got to 20 players left (With 10 x £1k seats guaranteed) the chip average was totally ridiculous.

This was a big prize to win or lose on basically a total crap shoot, but I was sort of feeling OK as I'd free-rolled in.

One thing I was grateful for was that I never moved seats throughout the entire tournament and this definitely helped when I had to pick which blinds to shove into when times were really desperate!

Though I did lose a couple of 60/40's and a 70/30 when I was big in chips, I had some massive pieces of luck when I short stacked later on.

With the blinds at 3k/6k/500 I lost a big flip when I shoved all in with A,10 UTG and beaten by 9,9 so was down to the felt.

The very next hand I'm in the bb for 6k with 1.5k behind. 3 players shove all in with A,10 A,9 and A4. respectively so I call for my last 1.5k without looking at my hole cards. I have J,4.

Flop J,6,8, 4,Q to quadruple up! not only that but the CL had the A4 and KO'd the other 2 players! Boom.

Then not long after I'm in bb for 8k and 12k behind. Someone ships in for 18k total, so I call without looking again.

When I flip my cards over I have 5,3 and my heart sinks when I see he has A,5. I need not have worried though as the dealer (Steph "mixed tape") turns the flop over.

JQ3,J,8 he wasn't a happy camper.

Somehow I struggle on and we then get to 11 players but the chip average is just 8bb's. I actually get 2 walks on my big blind as when the sb looked at me I just said "You know I'm likely to call blind so you better have a hand" that seemed to scare him and he folded both times!

A few minutes later I'm in the bb again (5 handed is quick!) and at this point I have 40k with blinds at 5k/10k/1k so I have 11k in the pot and 29k behind. A deal is suggested to pay £100 each so we can all have a seat.

I agree!

So I'm in the £1,000 main event on Friday. (flight 2 @ 6.00pm.)

Also I have a free seat to the £150 super satellite on Wednesday evening where 1/7 get a main event seat. If I'm lucky enough to bink another one then I will be given the £1,000 in cash.

So I'm back to the G Coventry tonight for event 2 the £100 NLHE freezeout. I shall be using some of my GUKPT vouchers to enter this one, so another nice free-roll!

P.S. Had a nice chat with Dave Allen who runs the http://midlandspoker.com/.

You should check it out if you play poker live in the Midlands as it has all the listings for every casino poker room.

6 Days and Counting: GUKPT Coventry

2011-10-03T18:01:00.013+01:00

Getting close now and I've decided to ease down a little bit this week so I feel fresh on Sunday. Due to the "free-roll invitational" I've been going to the Ricoh 3 times a week (and playing 5 comps) instead of the usual once. (see previous post for details)

In some ways that's actually been good for me as I feel really in tune with my game and the amount of 10 minute and 15 minute blind structures I've played lately has really helped up my aggression level tremendously. When I've been playing the normal 25 minute blind level events on Friday and Saturday nights I've been starting them in attack mode right from the start and it's really paid dividends.

I failed to come first or second in the invitational event on Saturday 1st Oct though I was still in with a chance with about 14 left. I lost a flip and busted out, so I was reasonably happy about it. In fairness I've been winning flips there lately and I was starting to worry that I was using up all my run good.

2 new people came 1st and 2nd so that's added 2 to the FT and one of them, Scott, is a good player so that wasn't the best result for me. With 3 left he was way better than the other 2 but the blind structure reduced his edge and he finished in 2nd spot. That means he'll only have 5k starting stack in the final (me 10k) so it could have been worse.

After the invitational I played the normal evening comp and it had 69 runners the most it's had for a while. I started off really well, though getting KK in the bb and AA next hand in the sb didn't hurt. I actually flopped an Ace for a set and got what I think was the max from someone with J,Q on a board of A,3,8,Q,9.

Starting stack is 9k (it's actually 7.5k, but if u reg 1hr early you get an extra 20%) and I was up to 25k by 200/400. My initial starting table was very active indeed and I had several serial openers on my table including Dave Goody who was on the button to my bb.

I got moved to a really easy table where it was fold city. I started opening a few pots and picking up blinds then at 300/600 made it 2.1k from UTG+1 as UTG had limped.

The bb called as well as the limper and when the flop came A,7,5 I led out for 4.1k after they both checked. The bb folded and the limper shipped in for 25k!!

Yike, I didn't like that one little bit. I thought I was betting for value as I was sure one of them had an Ace and 100% it wasn't AK. Now I was worried he'd got lucky with A7 or A5.

Having never played the guy before my read was.

a) He had a pint of lager to hand and was clearly half pissed ( I do play the best quality tourneys) as he was slouched into his chair.

b) When I looked at him he just didn't look like a good player! I know that sounds daft but I do make certain assumptions based on how opponents look and he had done nothing in the 10 minutes I'd been on the table to suggest he was slippery. Very subjective I know, but he didn't look like the type to limp call UTG with AA and then just call a 3bet! Though if I'm honest I've not faced that move too often so don't really have an idea what that player would look like! Usually if a donk limps with AA they they 3 bet ship if someone raises pre.

b) When I started to talk to him I picked up that he wasn't that confident. ( I won't give details as too many of my opponents @ G Cov read this now)

Anyway I figured he was not that confident so although I wasn't thrilled about it I made the call and he showed A,8 and my hand held up. That put me well over 50k and made me CL with just the 3 tables left.

When they broke my table at 800/1600 we were moved to another with 1 very good player on it and 4 or 5 of the biggest donkeys ever.

Of course the best player goes busto and I also get KO'd by a shockingly bad call IMO.

I was really furious with my exit hand. I was totally card dead on that table and had literally no cards and no good spots to 3 bet or even open pot's. I'd literally folded for 2 blind levels when at 1500/3000/300 a guy limped from UTG+1 and the CL calls on the button.

When it gets to me I ship all-in from the sb with 88 for 35k more. The original limper, having looked at his hand initially and thinking that it was not good enough to raise with, then decides on 2nd viewing that it is in fact a good enough hand to call off another 35k with. He should also have been aware of the fact that the CL who was equally as shit as him, is still to act behind on the button and was liable to do anything including re-ship for 100k.

Anyway the button folds and I turn my 88 and he shows A7. WTF was he thinking? If he'd opened for 2.5 bigs and I shoved and he calls it would have been fine but to be so terrible to limp from early position and then get lucky on me really hurt. I haven't played a hand for 2 blind levels and he thinks that's ahead? Anyway in the grand scheme of things it's not a bad beat as I know I'm only about 67% but it hurts when bad play gets rewarded.

I'd have been back above chip average if I'd won so I was annoyed as he hit's an Ace on the flop and a 7 on the turn. The 7 gives me an up an down straight draw but I miss it and have to leave. If I'd won that pot I'd have been right back in the game and would have strongly fancied my chances.

To give you an idea how bad some of them were the guy to my left had less than 10 big blinds and got dealt AA when in the bb. The button raised and he just called. The flop went c/c and then bet/raise/FOLD on the turn!!!!!! Yes he folded pocket Aces with about 4 bb's left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The board was 10,9,7, 10 and he said "I thought you had the straight or a 10. The button showed 7,6.

WTF these people amaze me. I know I shouldn't bother but I did ask him "how come all your chips didn't cross the line pre-flop?" He had no answer to that question.

I didn't offer him any advice but if he reads this I'd give him one tip. If you are going to play that bad don't compound it by voluntarily turning your cards over when you fold. It just shows the whole world what a knob you are. I make bad plays myself and I have often slow played hands pre-flop and had to lay them down, but I tend not to advertise the fact that I'm a tit and keep it to myself.

On the whole though I enjoyed the tourney and the early stages in particular.

I'm very pleased with the fact that for the last few months I've been consistently accumulating lot's of chips at the early levels of tournaments. I feel my edge is far greater over the novice player during the early levels and have changed my approach accordingly. In the past I was far too tight early on and just kept out of trouble during the early levels now I'm really getting involved.

My Schedule for the Week.

I will probably go on Wednesday to the G Cov as they are having a "Sharky" special promotion night in readiness for the GUKPT festival. This Wednesdays (5th Oct) normal £15 Deep & Steep Freezeout, (15000 starting chips) has:

£1,500 in added prizes. Make the top 5 and win a £150 seat to GUKPT COV05 (Super sat for main event (ME) 1/7 gets a ME seat)

Knock Sharky out and win a £150 seat to GUKPT COV05

First player out wins a £30 seat to GUKPT COV01 (super sat £30 re-buy 10 ME seats guaranteed)

Also random prizes will be awarded throughout the night.

This comp normally gets 60 runners and the standard is terrible. (seriously the worst ever)

Regarding the "Knock Sharky out" I may take a baseball bat with me, that should do it.

My one big concern with the GUKPT events starting so soon is that I've been playing the locals at the G Cov too often lately. Even allowing for the sprinkling of good players there, by and large the standard of play of the average player there is so terrible that I'll have a great deal of difficulty adjusting to the standard in the GUKPT events and that is a worry.

Week Commencing 9th Oct

So it all starts on Sunday 9th at 2.00pm with the Freeroll Final Table where approx 7-9 of us will play winner takes all for the £1,000 Main Event seat. The evening comp is the £30 super satellite which I've also won a seat for, this guarantess 10 seats for the ME.

Then Monday I'll be playing the £100 NLHE freezeout (event 02, see http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/en/Event-Details/2011-Leg-5-Coventry/ for all event details)

Wednesday the 12th I'll be in the £150 super satellite freezout which will make at least 7 or 8 ME seats, though playing that means that I cannot play the £150 PLO event which is on the same day.

I just need to decide whether to play the £200 six max 1 day event on Thursday, or the £300 2 day event starting on Tuesday. A lot depends on whether or not I win a ME seat and if so when do I win it?

2nd Again. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Side of Me.

2011-09-26T16:06:00.021+01:00

Right now the tournament I want to win the most is the G Coventry's invitational freeroll. I've written about it in previous posts (18th Sept, & 9th Sept) but a brief overview is as follows.

Any player that makes a Final Table in one of the G Cov's normal tournaments throughout the week gets a ticket to play the "Invitation Only" early evening comp on Saturday.

Over the 6 Saturdays these are played the player who wins and the player in 2nd go forward to the "Invitation Only Grand Final". 10k chips in the final for each Saturday winner and 5k for 2nd. So with the number of weeks this promotion is running for, the max number of players that can make the Grand Final is just 12 (that's if no one wins 2 seats). Those players will play winner takes all for a £1,070 GUKPT main event seat.

As an added bonus the winner also plays rake free for all tourney's they enter at the G Coventry till the end of 2011.

Regardless of how many seats you win for the Grand Final you can have a maximum of 25k chips in the final.

So prior to Saturday the 24th Sept I'd played the Invitational 2 of the 3 weeks it's been running (I missed the first one as I didn't know about it) and on Saturday 17th I finished 2nd guaranteeing me a seat in the Final though with just 5k in chips. (a P.S. to the report on that 2nd place, Dave Goody pointed out to me that his 5,6 that busted me in 2nd place was in fact suited. A fact I got wrong on my last post.)

So went again this week for the invitational but I only made 1 final table throughout the week so I had the minimum starting stack of 7.5k. For every additional final table you make you get an extra 5k. This really does help as the invitational has a 10 minute blind structure and it's a crap-shoot from quite early on. Having some extra chips does make a big difference so I wasn't that confident when I arrived. I believe that the "Final" will have a proper structure to allow some play.

Tim Millward-Brookes had 32.5k starting stack and was on my starting table. I know that getting chips off Tim is never easy as he plays a good solid game and I've often shared a cash game table with him. In my experience most of the best tournament players at Cov are also cash game regulars.

I had Tim 2 to my left and a lady 2 to my right and the 3 of us would end up being the ones fighting it out for the 2 Final Table seats.

The lady I've not played against before which is a bit of a surprise as I've spent so much time in the G Cov lately that she was probably the only player of the 27 runners who I hadn't.

The most dangerous player at the table is a guy called Steve who is best described as a "loose cannon". He is a big cash game regular at Cov and rarely plays tourneys. He won his seat by default when he entered a tourney whilst waiting for the cash game to start. When it did he left his chips to get blinded away and made the final table when he wasn't even there!

I've played cash against him a couple of times and I genuinely have no idea what he has in most hands as he seems very unorthodox. He seems to do well though as he gets paid when he gets a big hand. People seem to think he's always bluffing. He is a player that gives that impression and I always treat him with caution as he is happy to play big pot poker.

Initially Steve got off to a good start and busted a couple of players to go from 7.5k up to about 20k. When we are down to 7 handed the blinds are getting big by this time (400/800) and I still have about 8k.

I know it's close your eyes and shove time, and I get lucky(ish) against Steve as he's itching to go to the cash table in the pit which by this time is in full swing and has only 1 empty seat available! (Coventry City were at home Saturday and the cash games are always the best on these nights)

Steve makes a big raise and I shove with 8,8 and beat his A,J. Then the roles are reversed when I have AQ v his small pocket pair and I win again. Then he open shoves his last chips in and I call with 7,7 he has 5,6 and I don't even have a sweat. So in the space of 5 minutes I go from 8k to 28k and we are down to 2 tables.

At this stage not much happens to me but we lose players very quickly and we are down to the last 10. I start the FT with about 24k.

I go card dead which is not good as the blinds are now 800/1600 but when a short stack shoves from the CO when it's folded to him I raise to isolate with Ac5c from the sb. BB folds and the CO has K,J and I knock him out.

This gives my stack a big boost and as we lose other players I'm equal CL with 35k , Tim still has about 35k as does "Frenchy" who has by far the widest range at the table and the ability to 3bet very light.

The previous 3 weeks of this event had all been won by Dave Goody and though he makes the FT again he gets busted in about 6th or 7th. I then bust a surprisingly quiet Freddie "Happy 4u" Russell out. Freddie is always fun to have on the table as he is usually talkative but he was very quiet for some reason.

I felt a bit bad busting Freddie out as we nearly always have a chat on the breaks but what can you do in a tourney with only 2 seats to be won?

When we get down to 5 Frenchy is looking the most likely winner as he has got up to 70k+ and is playing well. He then (IMO) just over did the aggression a couple of times. In a raised pot pre-flop he check raises the lady on an Ace high flop and she ships in and he has to fold.

I like the way Frenchy plays a lot, but if I'm honest I feel it was a mistake to try that move on her. She had played the least hands of anyone at the table and clearly when she raises pre and the A hits the flop she was odd's on to be winning it. He then does an action replay and Tim 4 bet shoves to make him fold.

Up to this point he had been opening virtually every pot that was folded to him and it was paying dividends as he was just picking up blinds left, right and centre.

With the blinds at 1k/2k I'd had to let my bb go to him on several occasions. I normally defend far too light but I was being dealt total garbage when in the bb. I was surviving by picking up some blinds and I also won some smallish pots post flop. I think I then KO'd the player in 5th to go to take the CL.

The big game changing hand occurred when Frenchy (who was down to 58k but still 2nd in chips) opened for 5k (still at 1k/2k). We have history, and I played a pot against him the previous week (which I wrote about in my last post) where I had KK in the bb, though this was much different as we were nowhere near as deep. I also remember some previous hands we've played in similar situations in past tournies.

I had about 70k at this point and was in the bb. I look down at 3,3 and I'm not thrilled as it's a tough hand to play post flop if you miss versus this type of player. So I take just a little time to consider my options. I 1st thought of 3 betting as his range is so wide I know he's folding lot's of garbage at this point. I also know he's 4 bet shoving any decent Ace and almost any pocket pair!

When I checked the other 2 stacks (Tim & the Lady's) I thought I'd be mad to risk my tournament life in a possible flip (or worse) by getting it all in pre-flop.

I'd folded my blind a few times to him earlier and I figured that just a call might be enough to slow him down. I decided what I was going to do on the flop based on a couple of different board types (I won't post what they were as too many Cov regulars read this). I hate to call any bet without a plan in mind for the next betting round. That said and having paid the 3k extra, the door card changes my plan as it's a 3.

I check and he bets about 10k. I think it was 3,J,2 but I can't remember. (I remembered the 3!)

I call the 10k and the turn is another 3 for quads!!!! I can't remember the exact amount but I take a chance and lead out and he ships all-in on me!

I snap call and turn them as fast as I can but he knows he's dead before they hit the table as he has just Ace high and a draw.

F' me quads twice in a week! I flopped quad 5's less than a week before versus pocket Kings in a normal comp at Coventry. I don't think I've run this good since 1987.

At this point I have 130k and my 2 remaining opponents have about 70k between them. I feel very confident at this point, in fact too confident and I said something I regretted as soon as I said it. It was along the lines of "which one of you two is going to bubble this?"

It was a little bit due to the high I was on after KO'ing Frenchy and also as I wanted to make them aware if they weren't already that someone was going to finish 3rd and get nothing.

I figured that I could raise and take any pot I wanted as they would be under big pressure to get one of the 2 available seats. However Tim to his credit started shoving all in when I raised and if he didn't then the lady was calling my raises and then hitting the flop! Blinds were 1,500/3000 now and I was quickly down to 100k and things were not going well.

At 2k/4k (10 minutes later) we all three had equal stacks and I started to get really scared that my bubble comment was going to come back and bite me.

At 3k/6k 10 mins later I was the short stack with just 60k!!!!!!!

I shoved all in light (the only time I was really worried I was going to bust) from the sb and thankfully Tim folded from the bb.

Thankfully then things got into a nice easy rhythm as I was opening for a min raise from the button versus the lady's bb and taking the hand down time after time. She was playing very tight and I had loads of walks on my bb. I was a lot more careful raising Tim's bb as I know his shoving range is much wider so I generally had a good hand when I raised from the sb. So things were generally starting to turn my way again.

A funny moment occurred when a complete novice poker playing spectator asked us what game we were playing. When we told him it was holdem he said, "so what's that game on that table", pointing to the adjacent 50p/£1 cash game, when we told him what that was he thought about it for a couple of seconds and said, "so why are you not having any cards in the middle?

I got back up above 120k and Tim was now the short stack as he'd lost a pot to the lady.

The bubble hand I raise from the sb with J,9 and Tim shoves all in for his remaining chips but it's far too small an amount for me to fold as I'm getting over 2/1 for the call. I'm surprised to find that I'm ahead and my hand holds up and we lose Tim in 3rd place.

I felt sorry for Tim as he's a good guy, I have to say that he reads this blog :) and he plays @ Cov a lot and I know he must really want to make the Final. But in poker terms I'd rather have the lady as an opponent at the Final table any-day.

We get in to HU play and it's easy at the start, 70% of hands go like this, either A) I min raise from the sb and take the hand or B) get a walk from the bb. I had so many walks from her it was daft.

Playing like this with barely a flop being seen I get her down to 46k by the time the blinds are 6k/12k. (Me about 164k)

Then the Poker Gods slap my earlier arrogance down, and in the space of 4 hands I'm out!

I open for 24k with Qd,7d and she ships all in (46k total). Now I cannot believe my hand is winning as she has been uber tight but for 22k I have the chance to win it all so I make the call.

With the cards on their backs I'm totally shocked to see she has Jh,3h. I think she really had just got fed up of what I was doing to her hand after hand and had an "oh Feck it" moment. I also know that her other half, who was sitting a little too close to the table for my liking, had told her on a couple of occasions that I was just bullying her, and she finally made a stand.

When the door card was the Q of spades I figured it was over as I had top pair. The board was Q,6,9. With 1 poxy heart on-board. The turn was the 4 of hearts and I started to worry a bit and sure enough the river hit the heart flush. FML I had it nailed on to win the event and get 10k chips for the Final Table to add to the 5k I have for finishing 2nd the previous week.

Still reeling from this the cards are dealt and I'm not even thinking straight. I then make the 1 and only bad decision I made in the entire tournament and it cost me the HU match. (well I didn't make a decision that was the problem it was just a instinctive reaction).

Head still spinning while she announces all-in from the sb and I look down and see 8,8. I snap call. What a cock. Now I know a lot of serious HU players are never folding 8,8 pre-flop but this was different.

She shows 9,9 and apart from AK, AQ and maybe AJs that was the very bottom of her range. Why didn't I just give it even 10 seconds of thought process? If I had, I would have folded that hand all day long against her. It's never better than 50/50 and most times it's 20/80.

All I had to do was fold and go back to raise/take mode again. Obviously I lose the hand and she double s again to 184k and I have about 2 bb's.

I shove blind from the sb and she folds for 1 bb! Then she announces all in and I just call blind and I'm out losing a 40/60.

I was angry as hell when I left the table as I was still steaming from the runner/runner flush but thankfully I had the good grace to say wp and shake hands with her. I am ashamed with myself quite often as I'm very often dreadful when I lose, though it's normally just for a brief red mist moment or two. Usually within 2 minutes I'm fine, I find it best to quickly leave the table and then come back and wish everybody GL though when you are HU it looks a bit weird!

Later as I got over the bad beat I then started to think about the call with the 8,8 and realised for the first time that I'd made a monumental mistake. This put me in a worse mood, bad beats I can get over quite quickly, but knowing I've played bad really lingers.

By this time I was in evening comp and when I flopped a set of 2's from the button on a Kh,9h,2s rainbow flop the guy who opened the pot had Ah,10c and cbet. Why he did this when he'd missed I'm not entirely sure as there was an all in player and it's normal not to bet in these situations without a real hand as you cannot possibly make the all-in player fold.

He then called my flop raise and my big turn bet when another heart hit. The dealer then turned the 4th heart for him on the river and my urine was starting to boil.

He then shoved all in and though I tried very hard to be gracious to the lady HU I didn't bother this time, folding face up and telling him what a lucky fecker he was.

I won't name the guy as he's a regular but I will say I was really shocked as he's normally pretty tight so what possessed him to call my flop raise I really do not know. I would have put my mortgage on him having a K in his hand when he called on the flop.

As always I felt totally ashamed of myself soon after this childish outburst partly because I know it's utterly terrible and also the guy in question is a 100% nice guy. He certainly didn't deserve my outburst regardless of his play. What made my embaressmment worse was I didn't go broke in the hand and had to sit one from his left for the remainder of my time in the tournament.

Thankfully it didn't last too long as Tim, who was on my table again, shoved a very short stack all in (2,2) and the player next to him re-shoved (A,Q). I had AhKh and wondered if it was my turn to hit a heart flush and shoved my 10bb's in from the sb. Sadly the bb had KK.

So as Tim and I walk away from the table together he's telling me about the 3 way action from his perspective as we chat. This eases my mood down considerably as I realise that I should be happy about 2nd, it could have been worse!

The Ugly Side of Me.

If I could change one thing about my game it wouldn't be a poker skill type thing it would be my total inability to lose graciously at all times. Strangely in really big comps I rarely seem to moan, it's always in much smaller comps that don't really mean much?

I think a lot of the time it's frustration in easier games when I think I have an edge and feel I should be winning. I do admire people who are even tempered, my youngest daughter when she plays never ever gets the slighest bit bothered when she suffers a bad beat.

Summary

The standings so far in the Grand Final are as follows.

Dave Goody, 3 wins so capped at 25k starting stack

My Lady HU opponent, 1 win for a 10k starting stack

Me, 2 seconds so 1ok starting stack

Baz McDonald 1 second so 5k stack

A.N. Other 1 second, 5k, (I'm told he will be out of the country when the final is on)

With just 2 qualifying Saturdays to go there will be a maximum of just 8 players, that is assuming that none of the current 4 qualifiers finish in the top 2 again. I will be trying again though tbh I'm sick of the sight of the G Cov at the minute. I've been spending far too much time in there! As soon as the GUKPT is over I may go to play somewhere else for a week or two.

A Step Closer to The GUKPT Main Event.

2011-09-18T04:52:00.013+01:00

Had a good night tonight (Saturday 17th) all things considered at the G Coventry. Played the "Invitational" tourney at 6.30 pm. For those who haven't read recent post's you have to make a final table of any of the normal tourneys throughout the week and you get an invite to it and 7.5k starting stack plus and extra 5k if you make 2 finals etc.

I started with 17.5k as I've been practically living in the Ricoh since this "invitational" promotion started and made 3 Final Tables this week.

It's running for 6 weeks in total and in each of the 6 weeks 2 players book their seat in the Grand Final. There is just 1 prize in the Final but it's a £1,070 seat in the GUKPT main event which starts on 14th October.

I had a tough 1st table as I had Dave Goody to my immediate left and he had won this invitational the 1st 2 weeks. This means he had 20k starting stack guaranteed for the Final (its 10k chips for the final if you win a weekly and 5k for 2nd) This put him in a very strong position as he could apply maximum pressure as he is already more or less guaranteed to be the CL when the Final starts. (the max number of chips you can have in the Final is capped at 25k)

With "Frenchy" ( a very active player) on our table as well, virtually every pot was being opened by one of us and lots were being 3 bet.

I was quite pleased with how I adapted to the structure as it's pretty savage IMO at 10 minute blind levels. For a live event that's about as bad as it gets. Some levels during the later stages we played 2 hands a level with people tanking on decisions for their tournament life.

I almost bust Frenchy when I had KK in the BB @ 200/400 after a limper he made it 1,400 to go and I 3bet to 2,800. He flatted. The flop came Q high and I wanted to bet something that looked weak to induce the shove so made it 3,100. He thought for a while and I could see he was sooooooo close to pulling the trigger but he folded.

I was on about 26k when they broke our table and I was then moved to a much easier one. I was doing well on this table and got to 60k. Dave Goody had by this time joined us on the Final table and was 1 to my right. He was soon on my immediate right as the player in between us busted.

Then disaster as I lost some big pot's, some in races and one big bvb pot with Dave when I fired on the river with air having missed yet another flush. When I lost a another huge pot and went back to 14k I thought I was done for as the blinds were by this time 800/1600 and we were down to 10 players.

I shipped in with 55 v A,9 and got up and put my jacket on when the Ace hit the flop, but I turned trips and doubled up.

The blinds were daft by this stage and I just kept my foot on the gas and didn't shy away from taking a flip as only the top 2 make it through.

This was pleasing for me as it's not my normal style to play big pot poker as I usually just want to keep the pots small and play post flop but it was never going to happen with this structure.

Eventually I get to HU versus Dave and I have about 110k versus Dave's 185k. Blinds are 5k/10k.

I win the first pot to close the gap a little and then Dave makes it 25k from the button. I look down at KJo. I fancy this is ahead as Dave had been super aggressive all night as he was freerolling anyway. I 3 bet shove expecting him to fold but he calls saying correctly that he's probably 40/60.

His 5,6 off-suit gets there and I'm out in 2nd spot.

I can't complain, I had a bit of luck earlier when I spiked the 5 and I also won with A,6 v A,J. Dave asked me not to write anything bad about him for the 5,6 hand! (He reads my blog regularly).

In fairness it's a quite remarkable achievement that he has won the invitational event 3 weeks running. It only gets about 30 runners but even so there are obviously some of the best tournament players in the casino playing it and though he must have gotten very lucky a few times in the 3 weeks he has also played well.

You certainly need a good push/fold strategy to win with this structure!

After the Invitational ended I played the normal 8.30pm comp (joining late) and lasted 10 minutes. I flopped top pair and a flush draw versus the most aggro player in the casino who had flopped 2nd pair. He turned 2 pair and even though the turn also gave me the straight draw I missed it all.

After that I somehow ended up playing a 3 handed £1/2 cash game. They offered to let it be rake free for the first hour to get it started and though we never had more than 5 players at any point it was a good game (for me anyway).

The two big highlights were firstly:

3 handed I make a £4 straddle from the button. The sb folds the bb makes it £12. I look and just flat with AA as i want all his chips. (I know he has something as he's a rock I've played before).

The flop comes K high and he bets, I raise, he ships and I call. I take £100 off him as his AK doesn't improve.

Second big hand: (Versus a player who'd drunk more beer than he should whilst playing poker)

I raise under the gun to £7 (with AK) and 2 players call, (UTG+1 and the button). The flop comes 10,J,Q (2 spades) I lead for £12 thinking someone has caught some of that for sure.

UTG+1 calls as does the button. Turn is the beautiful 2c and I check. UTG+1 bets £24, button folds. When he just bets £24 I'm 95% sure there is no river card that can beat me as after playing him for an hour I know he's betting much bigger with two pair/trips or even a big flush draw. He tended to telegraph his big hands throughout the night then moan when no one called him!

So I make it £48 to get more money in the pot. I really think any competent player is folding here but he calls.

The river is the 3d. (Happy Days)

I bet £55 and he tank calls saying "I know your bluffing" He has J,9 (no spades) for just a pair of Jacks. You've got to admire his optimism.

Eventually the game got down to 2 players, me and the drunk but he didn't want to play "Heads Up" so I cashed in. Good win by my standards these days as I won just less than first prize in the main evening comp in an hour and a half.

Summary

So I am through to the Grand Final where there is 1 main event seat up for grabs and only 11 players ( as Dave has won twice ) and I've got a seat in the £150 Super Satellite where 1/7 get a main event seat.

I shall try and make some FT's again this week so I can play the invitational again next Saturday. It would be great if I could win one as that would reduce the Final by another player and I'd get another 10k chips for the final. The worry is that by winning one of these Turbo structures I would be using up a lot of run good.

I may need that to challenge Mr Goody in the Final!

Terrible Bankroll Management: Roulette is a Better Bet.

2011-09-15T15:28:00.008+01:00

I'm furious with myself. At my age I should know better but last night I made a dreadful poker decision.

I decided to play the Broadway Casino's "SUPER SATELLITE" for the D4 European Deepstack Championship £500 buy in event.

Though with Zero guaranteed seats and an awful structure there was F'all super about it. When it got down to about 30 players the chip av was 10bb's.

As it was a £50 re-buy with double chips for the add on everyone (me included) spent at least £100. So with a structure like that I was annoyed with myself for being so stupid for playing it. To spend £100 to win a seat for a £500 event is daft IMO. For a £1,000 comp then yes I think it's worth a punt.

I could have sat on one of the cash tables (There were 4 or 5 which looked very juicy) with £100 and had more chance of winning £500.

Alternatively I could have played roulette and put £125 on black and let the £250 ride if it won. So 2 successful flips and I'd have won a seat. As it was you needed to win about 10 flips in the comp to get a seat.

See they say roulette is just degenerate gambling but in reality it makes more sense than poker sometimes!

What clouded my judgement was that the main event itself has a great structure, 1 hour clock and 50k starting stacks so I'd really would have liked to play it.

I wish I'd run a BAP (Asked for backers) on Stake a Shark. (http://www.stakeashark.com/) I've used the site before and know quite a few of the regulars there so I could have raised half the money easily.

I've done it before, though to be honest I don't like it as it does make me play differently. The last time I did it I swore I'd never do it again as I played a hand really badly and mainly it was because I was too timid and if I'd not have been backed in the event I definitely would have raised and taken the pot down.

Sometimes I may do something that looks a bit crazy but if it's 100% my money then that's up to me. I tend to play far more conservatively when I'm staked and that can work against you.

Anyway off to the G Cov tonight to try and satellite into the £150 super satellite (1x £1k seat per 7 players) via the £5 re-buy. So I have a reasonable chance of winning a £1000 GUKPT main event seat for £25. Now that's good value.

Post Script: Update 16th Sept.

I did go to the G Cov last night for the £5 re-buy. It had 5 seats guaranteed and 12 players turned up! I got a seat without a re-buy, though I did have the £10 quadruple chip add-on at the break. It was fun though I hated my seat draw.

I got seat 8 as I was late and 7 were seated when I arrived. Then 2 of the best players Joe and Baz were seated in 9, & 10 as they came just after me. I knew I'd have to be careful opening pots light.

It then got much worse when a complete novice busted from seat 1 and did not re-buy. The seat was filled by "Mr Khan" a player who can strike fear into any poker players heart. He has never yet peeped at his hole cards and found 2 he doesn't like the look of. One thing you can be pretty sure of with Mr Khan is either you are going to bust him or he is going to bust you.

He personally busted 5 of the 12 players from the event then managed with only 6 players left to murder his entire stack and bubble a seat!!!!!!!!!! Just an astonishing performance, but he is a very nice guy and great fun to be on the table with. I think the G Coventry should give him a free seat into the £1k main event as he would have some of those top pro's in tears. People would pay good money to watch him play them.

On the bubble he was by this time to my immediate left and I just flatted pre-flop with several hands that were automatic raising cards 6 handed, but I knew he was always calling so I just tried to see flops cheap against him and hit something big. It worked a couple of times and I picked up some small pot's and was CL after 10 minutes of bubble play. I then just tightened up even more and waited for Mr Khan to do his thing.

He then lost a huge pot and was left with just 500 chips. The very next hand (blinds 300/600) he was BB and I was SB. The 1st 2 players folded and the button flatted with a knowing look. I made up the blind.

It got checked all the way down and the button took Mr Khan out with pocket Queens. When you consider that with 8 players left he had over 50% of the chips in play Mr Khan certainly made it entertaining.

Anyway the main thing is, I have now qualified for the £150 Freeze-out Super Sat (Wed 12th Oct) where 1/7 players get a £1,050 GUKPT main event seat. By the time the GUKPT starts about 30 local players will have qualified via these £5 re-buys. That means there is a good chance 1 or 2 of us will get a ME seat, I just hope I'm one of them!

GUKPT Coventry 9th Oct 2011 - 16th Oct 2011

2011-09-09T18:26:00.000+01:00

As the G Cov, one of my local casinos is hosting the next leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) I am going to give the event my best shot. I have £300 in GUKPT vouchers that I've won via the G Coventry over the last 3 or 4 months so I can use those for side events or satellites.

Though I can definitely play some side events I'd really like to play the £1,000 main event. I've never bought in directly to a £1,000 event and don't intend starting now. However I have got several options to "win" a seat.

First off they have a £30 re-buy Super Satellite (SS) on Sunday 9th Oct. This is probably the option I like the sound of least as it's pretty easy to murder £150 in cold blood (or hot tilt) and still not have a seat.

Secondly they have on Wednesday 12th Oct a £150 Freezeout SS with a seat for every 7 runners. Again I don't like the thought of spending £150 and not getting a seat but they do have on every normal Thursday between now and when it starts a £5 re-buy Step 1 satellite to win a seat into this £150 SS. These Step 1's have 5 x £150 seats guaranteed.

That I feel is good value.

I went last night to try and though I felt confident after winning 3 Goliath seats via this method I actually finished in joint 7th when 3 of us got KO'd in the same hand! I shall try a few more Thursdays though and may get a seat.

The reason for my reluctance to buy in direct to a £150 satellite is where do you draw the line? I'd rather just play the £150 PLO side event. If you try and fail to win a seat via satellites there comes a point where you'd be better off just paying the £1,070 and buying in direct!

I've played £50 re-buy SS's before and watched people murder £500 and not make the 1st break. It's just insane and the guy would have been better off just paying the "bag of sand" in the 1st place.

On Thursday 13th Oct they have a £50 SS where you can only have a maximum of 1 re-buy or add on. It has 7.5k starting stack and a decent clock so that looks a good bet to me.

I have one other option for winning a seat and it is a little complicated to explain but I could actually win a seat for FREE so it's worth trying.

Any player that makes a Final Table in one of the G Cov's normal tournaments throughout the week (not the £5 re-buy) gets a ticket to play the "Invitation Only" early evening comp on Saturday.

The player who wins this and the player in 2nd go forward to the "Invitation Only Final". 10k chips in final for the winner and 5k for 2nd. Due to the number of weeks left for this to run the maximum number of players that can possibly make the Invitation Final is 12 (that's if no one wins 2 seats). Those players will play winner takes all for a £1000 seat.

If you win 2 seats or more for the Invitation Final you can have a maximum of 25k chips in the final.

A bit complicated but if you play regularly at the G Cov anyway it makes sense. They have always run the invitation only comps every Saturday though usually it's for £150's worth of GUKPT vouchers. 1st £75, 2nd £50, 3rd £25. To be honest I've never bothered with this tournament and even though I qualified for it loads of times I've only ever played it once.

I have decided to make a concerted effort to try and win the £1000 seat. This means I will go to the G Cov on nights when I don't normally ( I usually just go on Fridays) to make sure I'm in the Saturday Invitation only event each of the 5 remaining Saturdays. With this in mind I went last Sunday and made the FT so I shall be there tomorrow.

I don't often go to a casino on a Saturday night as for a long time now I've been playing in a private home game with friends. I will have to give it a miss though for the next few weeks.

Goliath Coventry: A Total Triumph.

2011-09-02T17:09:00.002+01:00

This was the best poker "Event" ever held in this country bar none.

What about the WSOPE or EPT London I hear you cry. Well with buy in's at a £10k & £5k respectively lets get real, 99.9% of UK poker players are never going to enter that type of event.

Also if I remember correctly the WSOPE had to held at 3 different casinos as none of the venues in London were big enough to stage it.

I think to describe the Goliath Poker Tournament as a Poker Tournament does not do it justice and does not give anyone who didn't attend it, a true picture of what this was all about.

It was an Event.

Pure and simple this was a big deal as Grosvenor have raised the bar for poker in the UK to new heights. I have played poker in casinos since I turned 18 in 1977 and I have never been more impressed. This event was well run, well attended, well promoted and all the players that I spoke to were really pleased with it and are 100% going to play it next year.

The staff and dealers were 1st class making every effort to accommodate everyone and make them feel welcome and valued. As a poker player over the years I'm more used to being taken for granted at best and seen as an annoyance more often than not.

To declare an interest I play once or twice a month on average at the G Coventry and have always found the staff to be excellent and Karl and Ruben (cardroom supervisors) work very hard to keep things friendly and welcoming. The regular dealers are a young group who have tremendous enthusiasm and though some of the newer ones lack a little experience I'll take that over an arrogant "arse in hand" dealer any day.

I hope they do keep the Goliath to one a year so it maintains it's status as a genuine poker event to be proud of. It was such a success that it would understandably be tempting to run 3 or 4 a year but that would take away some of the magic.

DTD in the past have fallen into this trap coming up with a great idea they then over do it at times.

So what did they get right?

Grosvenor, The GUKPT, G Casino Coventry, Ricoh Stadium and D4 Events all came out of this event smelling of roses and have earned so much respect and goodwill from the players I doubt they could have hoped for more on that score.

It was some of the small (and some not so small) gestures that had players singing their praises. For example on day 1a they announced that the 1st player KO'd would get free entry into day 1b. Nice little touch and got the poker room chat buzzing right from the start. It created an interesting table dynamic as well.

Also when I returned for day 2 there were 269 players and only 255 would make the money. So a room with 269 people in it was looking like being a pretty lonely place for the unlucky 14. However again a really nice gesture brought a huge round of applause from everyone in the room when they announced that the 14 players eliminated prior to the bubble would be given FREE entry into next years Goliath.

They didn't have to do that and 14 x £120 is a fair chunk of change to be giving away, but as a PR gesture it was money well spent IMO.

Also the FREE to enter team event that meant that any six players could join together and all get free entry to next years Goliath and play a private home game for a $1,000 prize was also a nice touch.

The structure was fantastic, 25k chips and 40 min clock and all levels played. The clock was even longer for day 2 and 3.

The dealers, even all the freelance ones, were excellent and they had enough supervisors on the floor to give rulings whenever needed. The Live stream from the feature table was a great way of giving the Goliath the feel of a much bigger buy in event.

In fairness though with a first prize of over £32k there are not many poker tournaments in the UK that give you a shot at winning that much and certainly not for £100.

The G Cov is without doubt the best looking casino in the UK and Grosvenor are right to use this as it's premier venue for events like this. I suppose they will always rate the Vic more highly but apart from the fact that it's in London I don't see why. Also for me the fact it's in London is a negative in my mind.

Using one of the Ricoh's conference/exhibition halls was a stroke of genius. Having the ability to seat 800 poker players in comfort in one sitting is just immense and they even have bigger halls than the one that was used.

Assuming they could get enough table tops and dealers they could easily have the day1's next year with a 1,000 player cap for each of the 3 days.

Day 1c was sold out before the end of day 1b so who knows how many they could have had. As it was day 1c had 707 runners which I'm guessing is the most players ever to sit down in one venue at one time in the UK to play poker.

It's easy to get to being central and a stones throw from the motorway. On site hotel and others nearby. Open 24hours a day throughout the festival the cash game action was great. The G Cov's normal poker room was just wall to wall cash games and sit and goes.

Charity Donation over £8k

The £20 admin fee included a £5 donation to Marie Curie and also a really nice touch was that anyone who re-entered was charged a £10 admin fee and ALL of that went to Marie Curie. In total they made over £8k for the charity.

Next year 2,500 runners

I expect at least 2,500 runners next year and would not be surprised to see 3 x 1,000 runner day ones. I even suspect that Grosvenor might make it a £250,000 guarantee as they would be safe in doing so IMO.

I firmly hope this event does not clash with the WCOAP (The Amateur World Championships) as that was the only thing that spoilt it for me. I was unable to play any APAT side events this year due to the Goliath which was a great shame.

All in all, roll on next year, I for one can't wait.

It Should Be A Big Poker Weekend.

2011-08-26T21:53:00.015+01:00

As an amateur (live) poker player this weekend is the biggest of the year and the weekend starts here! Though just sat writing this at the minute so as yet the excitement level is a gentle simmer.

Normally the "World Championship Of Amateur Poker" (WCOAP) would have had all my attention and I'd have entered 1 or 2 side events and the Main Event for sure.

They run it like a mini WSOP and it's terrifically well run by Des, Tighty, Leigh etc and as it's held at DTD you know it will go smoothly.

However this week I've been torn between my desire to make an Amateur Poker Association Tour (APAT) Final Table and the fact that I won 4 seats for the GUKPT Goliath at the G Coventry.

I'd have been insane not to take advantage of them and I must say I'm glad I did. Even though I love the whole APAT thing and everthing it stands for I have been hugley impressed with the GUKPT Goliath.

1765 runners over 3 day ones and it's run like clockwork. The venue has come out smelling of roses and I'm really pleased for them as it's one of my local casinos. I get on well with all the staff and 99% of the customers in there so really enjoy playing there.

I'd go as far as to say that I'd rather play there than the Broadway these days and that really is saying something. A nice touch by the GUKPT was to add a free team event where any six players could just name themselves to be in with a chance to win $1,000 for nothing.

I was asked by Baz "God" McDonald to join the "God Squad" and even though we had a strong line up, ( Baz, Paul O'Callahan, James Dewhurst, me, Jordan Forde and one other who's name I don't know) it's unlikely we are going to win it. Apart from me only Jordan has made day 2. Though Jordan has massive chips and is very likely to cash I guess we'd need more than 2 of us to make the money to have a chance.

Having won the 4 tickets it meant I could play day 1a and not worry too much about busting out as I could have re-entered.

The problem with playing the Goliath on the day 1a Wed and thinking I might be playing again on day 1b Thurs has meant that I really couldn't enter any APAT side events. Also to make matters worse I'm really busy work-wise currently as well.

As it happened I made slow but steady progress throughout the day and got to a peak of 180k at one point and I didn't have my chips at risk once all day. Sadly in the last 2 levels when the blinds were huge (2.5k/5k/500) I didn't win a single pot.

If I'd just had an ounce of luck I could have finished on over 250k. I doubled a couple of short stacks losing flips and also opened the very last hand of the night from UTG +1 for 12.5k with A5s into a player who had just sat down with a huge stack.

This really is below my range for UTG +1 but desperate men do desperate things and I really felt I needed to try and take a pot.

It was the usual disaster and I ran into AQ in the BB though luckily she didn't 3 bet me and I lost the minimum. (Well almost the minimum as I could have folded pre).

So the plan for the weekend is to be knee deep in BIG Live Donkaments from early Saturday right through till late Bank Holiday Monday.

If I could pick a weekend to run good then this would be a good one. When I say good I actually mean absolutely "Golden". You know what I mean: someone open shoves a short stack and the big stack re-shoves and when it's folded to you, you look down and see AA or KK.

I actually haven't run that good since 1987 but it will happen again one day I'm sure and why not this weekend? To be honest if I could win a string of races or 60/40's I'd be very happy.

I resume the Goliath on day 2 Saturday 12.00 noon and I have 119,300 and the chip average is approx 160k and blinds will be 3000/6000/500. The prize pool has smashed the £100,000 guarantee and is now £176,500.

It will be a fairly prestigious event to win, especially being the first one and the first prize will be a very big chunk by my standards.

I'm guessing that about 300 will return with me for day 2 (day 1c is running as I write this) and the top 10% will get paid, approx 177 players.

If I run brilliantly and make day 3 of the Goliath then I will have to get unregistered from the APAT main event day 1b which starts on Sunday. Normally I would be thrilled to be playing the APAT but for once I hope not to be there.

It really is a major annoyance that they clash. Obviously if I run like I normally do in these big events then the very first time I get my chips all in, at risk, I'll be putting my coat on and heading to Nottingham.

Either way I'm guaranteed to be playing in a big live event over the weekend and as always it will be emotional I'm sure!

Wish me luck.

DTD GP Day 2 & 3 Report. Close But No Cigar.

2011-08-23T03:04:00.004+01:00

Well I really enjoyed it and that's a surprise as I got so close to the really big money and came up just short. When that happens I'm generally more hacked off than when I bust early but I really did enjoy the 2 days at DTD.

My initial day 2 table felt pretty easy as I only had one tough decision the whole time I was on it, and yet it looked a really tough draw as I was surrounded by a lot of players with excellent results. In fact apart from Seat 1 who has only this current tournament rated on the Hendon Mob database every other player has done something of note poker-wise.

63 1 Suruj Miah
63 2 Stuart Fox
63 3 David Griffiths (me)
63 4 Daniel Ward
63 5 Gregory Garrett
63 6 Malcolm Muskett
63 7 Richard Simmonds
63 8 Derek Rowland
63 9 Kevin Pearce

First to mention is seat 4 Daniel Ward who I recognised from the G Coventry where he used to play quite a bit. He doesn't go there so often any more as perhaps he thinks he's above that level now. He has played some reasonably high buy in events without yet getting a really big score. His most notable performances have been 16th at one of the (£1,000) Monte Carlo events and a Final Table at the £300 monthly Deepstack both at DTD.

He either didn't remember/recognise me or is just naturally ignorant as he barely responded to me when I spoke to him.

Next to him in seat 5 was Gregory Garrett a really nice guy. I've never met him before and yet he was a top guy to have on your table. With $65,957 (46,389 Euro) for the winner we were playing for large chunks, yet he was more than happy to chat to pass the time. He has had some great results the biggest of which was winning the DTD Monthly Deepstack for £26,000 in Sept 2010.

A late comer to the table was seat 2 Stuart Fox. He has had loads of notable scores including two 2nd's and a 3rd in WSOP events over the years and about $1.4million in tournament winnings.

I have to confess I had no idea who he was until on the break a friend of mine (Dean "Bulldozer" Pearson) from the Eat My Stack poker forum said "you've got a tough draw" and told me who he was.

It was so funny as to be honest he had done absolutely nothing to show me what a good player he was. At one point he went to put in a raise and dropped a chip in by accident and the dealer made it stand as a call so he looked like a complete novice!

He was apologetic about it after the hand (he had KK) to his opponent as he assured him he wasn't angle shooting. To be fair I actually argued to the dealer that his intentions were very clear (he'd counted out the call and then added the raise on top and picked them all up together) and he had clearly just dropped a single chip from the bottom of the pile by mistake. I could see it was genuine.

He also seemed a nice talkative sort of guy and so I was very happy at my table. You (hopefully) spend hours at a poker table and I really don't see the harm in chatting to people nearby. I've always done it and for 99% of the time it's genuine. Sometimes when I know someone well I do try and gently needle them, more for fun than to put them off their game.

Occasionally I am trying to get some general info/background on my opponent, but you just normally have to listen to get all that info anyway.

I'm happy to chat to pretty much anyone, though when I spot someone who is trying to size me up I enjoy deliberately giving them misinformation.

Also at the table was Malcolm Muskett (Seat 6) who has Final Tabled a DTD Monte Carlo and finished 2nd in a Virgin Poker festival when they used to run them.

Richard Simmonds was in seat 7 and he and I ended up sharing a table at Nandos during the dinner break. Richard is from Bristol and plays higher buy in events and finished 2nd in a Broadway Festival £300 side event.

Derek Rowland according to the Hendon Mob database has played a lot of poker in Italy and Kevin Pearce has Final Tabled the DTD £300 Monthly Deepstack on 2 separate occasions and you don't do that by accident.

So on paper a tough draw but as I say it seemed a breeze to me. I played small pots and won virtually all of them (that helps) and moved steadily from the 15k starting stack to 18k by the 1st break at the end of level 3.

After the first break it was as if the table suddenly caught fire as we had 2 quick bust outs and the pots were all getting big. I won one big one and lost a medium sized one so came out ahead on the 2 and was up to 23k when the average was 18k.

Sadly, as I was enjoying it so much, they broke our table and I got moved to another one that seemed easier. These guys were all playing ABC and it was just a case of waiting for hands or good spots.

I got AA and had to fold them on the turn, it was one of the wettest boards you've ever seen. 4 to the straight and flush and me with the aces of the wrong suit.

The guy who won that hand severely tilted me as he was wearing shades and looked a total knob. He then opened his mouth and confirmed it. As he got more and more chips he became more unbearable talking a complete load of shite.

On the positive side he lasted about 40 minutes after that, though sadly I didn't get chance to get any of my chips back off him before he departed.

On this table I had one of the eventual "Golden Chip" winners sat by me Ian Turner who seemed a really nice guy. He copped an additional £15k just for making the FT which must be nice.

By now I was well above average with 30k (av24k) when our table got broke again and this time I really got an unlucky break.

I was seat 10 and in seat 1 was the eventual tournament winner Tom Bingham. This was not good for me at all as I knew straight away he was clearly a very good player and a dangerous opponent.

He was not frightened to gamble and was happy to 3 bet light so I had to play even tighter than normal though this did work to my advantage later on and in day 3.

To his left in seat 2 was a complete maniac who was prepared to call almost any bet with almost any 2 it appeared so he was another reason to tighten up and seat 3 was a young lad (about 19) in a hoodie who felt it necessary to confirm my initial guess as to how he would be playing by raising with all sorts of garbage.

If I'd drawn seat 4 or 5 I could have rocked up a bit initially then started 3 betting and won loads of chips off them. From my seat draw though it was near impossible for me to successfully play pots with them out of position and I think I'd have been daft to try.

In seat 4 was Marios Arkadiou who also made the FT. He was playing ABC from what I could see, but in fairness to him he always seemed to know where he was in a hand and made some very good lay downs on day 2 and 3.

I therefore had to tighten up and wait to play something stronger than normal. This plan then started to look like a mistake as I just didn't get any hands at all! So I started to open a few pots on the button and CO and they got through as they were by this point convinced I was a rock.

When an orbit or 2 later I opened with As2s one of the maniacs 3 bet me (not Tom). I figured I had to make a stand or they were just going to run over me, so I 4 bet shoved my remaining stack of about 21k.

He snapped with QQ but I hit an Ace on the flop and doubled up to 50k. This gave me a bit of confidence and I started to open a few more pots on the button and CO and most got through. The whole time I was on this table I didn't play any of the streets it was all pre-flop decisions.

I finished the day on 53,000 when the chip av was 59k so I was OK and looking forward to the re-draw for the start of day 3 as I felt it couldn't be worse than this table.

The bad news was they didn't do a re-draw so I had exactly the same position on day 3.

It didn't seem so bad though as on day 3 the whole table seemed to be in shove fold mode or open then fold to a 3 bet mode and no flops were being played by anyone.

I was totally card dead and survived by shoving 10BB's from the button or CO with complete garbage on several occasions. A few times Tom and seat 2 said things like "against anyone else I'd be snap calling with this" before folding to me so my rock like play on day 2 was helping now.

As time went by though no pots were getting folded to me in late position so I had to start 3 bet shoving light to survive. I did it with hands like 9,10 suited etc. as that was the best I was getting. Luckily I never got called.

I thought I'd made an error when I shoved J9 and was up against Q9 but I hit a J to survive.

We were 7 or 8 handed most of the time and the blinds were coming round very fast it seemed. I was roughly half the chip average for most of the day and it was hard work.

Later when short again and it got folded to me on the button I shoved with 88 and got snapped by Tom in the sb with JJ.

The river was an 8 and this put me over 100k but still I was way below average.

I KO'd the guy in 40th place when he shoved with pocket 3's into my BB I had AQ and hit the Q on the flop. This put me up to 161,000 and although the average was at this point about 199k I felt things were starting to go my way.

Sadly that was the last pot I won and I eventually went out shoving on the button for 80k (blinds 4k/8k/800) with Q8o and Tom had A,10 in the sb.

I felt confident when the cards went on the backs as I'm only approx 40/60 and had been running good but the door card was an Ace and it was game over for me.

Obviously to finish 30th out of 4,010 entries is pretty good but the decent money didn't start till 18th place upwards so I made a mere £460 for 2 tough days of poker. As a whole though I really enjoyed the weekend.

I feel good about this weeks Goliath event which is being held at the G Coventry one of my regular places that I play at. Hopefully I can take my good form from the Grand Prix and add home court advantage to it and run well in it.

I've also entered the APAT main event at DTD for day 1b Sunday the 28th Aug. If I make the final of the Goliath I will have to unregister but it will be worth it.

I've been exceptionally busy work-wise for the last 2 months working on some new websites and have been delivering some 1:1 coaching for people. As a result I have not played much poker but this last week has reignited my enthusiasm for the game once more.

Lets hope I play well and run better in the coming week!

DTD GP Day 2 Here I Come!

2011-08-17T01:14:00.000+01:00

Well after bubbling on my 1st on-line attempt to qualify I made a seat for day 2 at the second time of asking. I was fuming with myself after bubbling as I played a few key hands really badly. It took me a few days to get over it before I felt ready to have another pop at it.

Anyway I'm in now so hopefully I will get to see you there! It will be nice to drive up there knowing I'm already guaranteed a min cash.

I recorded my screen as I was was playing so if I can work out how to post it on YouTube I will do. Even though I will not be doing myself any favours as it will just confirm how garbage I actually am at this game!

If nothing else it should give you all a good laugh as you can all see what a total nit I am. Well that's if any of you didn't know already :)

Screenshot above shows me (Muftastic) finishing in second with three seats, though it was comfortable on the bubble for me this time as I had a huge chip lead.

Hollywooding Tank Folding Tw@ts & Players Cheering My Exit!

2011-06-27T16:32:00.009+01:00

You know you've been giving someone a tough time when they actually cheer when you get knocked out of the tourney!

More on that in a bit but first I want to talk about the thing that's tilting me the most at the moment. TIME WASTING IDIOTS!!!

Why do these people just love to have every body's eyes on them while they make a decision? I think maybe their Mom's didn't pay them enough attention when they were kids.

I've been playing a lot at the G Cov lately and that has advantages and disadvantages. Obviously I'm getting lot's of info on how a lot of the regulars play, but on the downside I can be on tilt the minute I see who's at my table.

There are two players who can tilt me before I play a hand. They cannot do anything without "tanking" first not even the simplest most obvious thing!

I get so annoyed because I feel that if I have an edge it's biggest at the low levels where we are playing deep. I feel I need to get good chips early to allow me to steal chips in the mid/later stages. Therefore I hate wasting time even at 25/50 50/100 etc as it's so important.

Friday I got drawn to the immediate right of one of the worst offenders, and played sat next to him for 4 or 5 levels till they broke our table. We got moved to the same table but were at opposite ends. By this time my patience is wearing very thin.

He seems to think it's more important to make a stylish looking bet than the correct sized one. (He has no clue on bet sizing) He can never just fold, not EVER. He has to dwell and ponce about with his chips before making a standard fold.

Often you can't prove or be 100% sure he's Hollywooding but Friday just gone he gave a couple of shocking examples. (He's a player who always looks at his cards before it's his turn to act and gives away what he's going to do before it's his turn)

The worst example was this hand. He's BB at 300/600 and has no change so he puts in a 1k chip. It gets folded to a mid position player, sat next to me, who makes it 1,700. The BB immediately looks at his cards (even though there are 3 or 4 to act before him) and asks the player next to him to give him change for the 1k. He puts in the correct 600 and takes his change back.

Now he isn't subtle enough to be faking it, he is 100% folding of that I have no doubt. The action is folded to the button who 3 bets all in for about 6k.

SB insta folds and then the Muppet in the BB starts Hollywooding. I mean WTF!! He was 100% folding for 1,700 is he really thinking about not folding now that it's 6k!

After 2 minutes of shuffling his chips and talking complete sh1t to the guy who 3 bet shoved, he then asks the initial opener who is sat next to me how much he has behind. I snap at this point!

"What difference does it make, your folding anyway?" I said in a very loud voice.

He doesn't quite know what to say to this and mumbles something. I'm so annoyed I quietly give my interpretation of the "getting his change" thing to the initial opener sat next to me. I confidently tell the guy next to me that he is folding.

I know I shouldn't be discussing anything as I'm not in the hand but enough is enough, we are nearly at 2nd break and the total amount of hands we've played is a joke.

After another 10/20 seconds or so the opener next to me calls the clock on him, hooray! He eventually folds and we can carry on with the game.

Give us a cheer!

On Thursday I got KO'd from the comp in 8th place for a very small cash. Exit hand at 1000/2000/200. One of the very few active players at the table opened for 4.5k and I shoved all in with 10,10 for 18k.

He tanked for quite awhile with AQ before eventually calling, he hits the A on the turn. When I miss the re-draw on the river I'm out and the only female at the table starts cheering because I've been KO'd!

I was a little annoyed about it at the time (it's not great etiquette is it?) but on reflection I actually think it is really funny and shows that my more aggressive style of late is having an effect on some of my opponents!

The history behind the cheer is as follows;

As far as I can remember I've played on this "ladies" table on 2 previous occassions plus the night in question. During all that time, apart from when she has been ultra short stacked, I've only ever seen her turn over AA,KK,QQ or AKs. She is the biggest rock ever!

Game 1. I quickly started to target her big blind as unless she picks up a monster she's never calling. On a couple of occassions when I've raised her blind a very short stack has shipped in behind and I've had to make a reluctant call with total garbage as the maths is right.

When she gets to see the hands I've been raising with she is clearly rattled by it and promises to re-raise next time I raise her blind though she never did of course.

Game 2. Was in a Goliath satellite which had 10 seats Guaranteed and she was desperately trying to fold her way to a seat from 16 players out!

I was to her immediate left and had to start opening for 2.5 BB's UTG to steal her blind! She was not happy about it! She eventually got blinded down to dust before shoving in when ultra short and busted out just short of getting a seat.

Game 3. Anyway on the night in question we are on the same table from 3 tables out. She immediately starts moaning that "I'm always raising her blind" and she clearly has taken a personal dislike to me.

To start off with she's a long way round the table from me so I'm only raising her blind with some sort of hand. But as players get eliminated from 30 down to 21 our table gets shorter and shorter handed and without moving seats I effectively get closer and closer to her ending up on the button to her BB.

From when I'm the CO and High Jack I'm opening the pot on her big blind EVERY round of the table regardless of what I have.

She is getting more and more annoyed about it and I'm beginning to find it funny. Then at last she calls my raise and when the flop comes Q, 10, 3 she ships all in. I have something like 8,6 off, but say I have JJ and make a "reluctant" fold. She then starts giving me some verbals.

Then next round she 3 bet shoves my raise and I fold saying I have 8's ( I didn't), again she starts with the verbals and some of her language would make a docker blush. I should let it wash over me but instead after her brave 3bet shove, I offer her a tenner if she can "turn either card over and it's lower than a King". She either can't or chooses not to and my tenners safe, but at least it quietened her down a bit.

Anyway the next round of the table I peek at 1 card and see it's an Ace so push all in (Blinds have gone up and I have 10 bigs). She folds again and when I look the other card is an Ace as well!

Anyway when she folds I turn my cards over to show her and say "Look I always have a hand when I raise your blind!"

Anyway soon after that the FT bubble bursts and she gets a much better seat draw well away from me!

I can understand her joy at my exit as she had less than 3 big blinds and she is only ever going to ladder up a few spots. I think it's a good thing when you get the distinct impression that the players at a poker table are glad to see you go out as that shows they see you as a threat.

I never target anyone at the table for personal reasons, I just make a judgement on where I think the easier blinds are and take it from there.

However the next time I'm at her table I may struggle not to raise her BB just for the fun of it!

Midlands Poker Forum

2011-05-26T01:19:00.001+01:00

There is a new poker forum that has been started recently by Dave Allan called "Midlands Poker Forum", as the name suggests it specializes in cardrooms based in the Midlands.

It has a section for each of the following areas; Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Dudley, Leicester, Northampton, Nottingham, Stoke, West Bromwich, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

Every single cardroom in each city is listed with the full details of address, telephone, email, opening hours, a quick review of facilities even car parking.

As well as the basic details they also have up to date schedules and information on the rake in cash games.

This should prove a valuable resource for anyone like me who lives in the Midlands and likes to play live poker!

I hope this forum does well as it certainly deserves to. Dave must have worked exceptionally hard to upload all the info he has so far and it will require a huge ongoing effort.

I wish him well. If you live or plan on playing poker in the Midlands anytime soon, go take a look and see what you think.

DTD Run Bad. Grosvenor Run Good.

2011-05-18T20:34:00.014+01:00

What a day. I drive up to DTD for day 1b of the Grand Prix and it takes over 2 hours to get there as the M42 is really slow. (Normally 1 hr 10 min) I only got there 15 minutes prior to start time and if I'd been delayed a bit longer it could have been so different.

Now I saw an update on day 1a that said 296 runners and 70 making it through, so knew I would have to get busy in the later stages to have any real chance of making day 2 with anything like a workable stack. Day 2 average is around 42k.

Anyway there were 258 entries for my day and I got knocked out in 256th place! It's sort of funny really as the way I play in the early stages of live tourneys would make me a pretty safe bet to make the first break. Not today though.

I was out after playing a total of 10 hands. Unusually for DTD it was 10 seat tables and I was crammed into seat 2 so started as the SB.

Amazingly for me I saw the flop 6 times in the 10 hands I played. I won a couple but was down to 7k at the start of my final hand.

10th and final hand I'm BB with AKo and get KO'd in a pot that got too big, too soon. It was opened for 5 BB's with multiple callers and 3 bet by me and it all went wrong when on a flop of K,Q,4 when I collided with QQ.

So I leave DTD at about 7.30pm and drive down the motorway feeling sorry for myself. On the way I decide to go to the G Coventry.

On a Tuesday they have 2 tourneys on, the first one is at 8.30pm a £15 "Heads Up" tourney and the second is a £15 PLO tournament that starts @ 10.30pm.

Nowadays I have to be a little careful what I write about the players at the G Cov as quite a lot of them are now readers of this blog! (since the Card Cheat entry on 3rd May)

Suffice to say I breezed slowly but surely through my first match. Our game took the longest but I ran well and just slowly ground him down. It has a 15 minute clock and 5k starting stack in the early rounds.

My quarter final game was a against one of the better players in the club but a combination of running well and playing well in a few hands got me through.

In the semi final you get 10k chips and during the first level I take an early lead 12k v 8k. Then I get it all in pre flop with JJ v QQ and don't get there.

So I'm down to 2k and things are not looking good. The blinds go up to 100/200 and I win a few pots to get up to 3k.

Then I flop middle pair v bottom pair lead out and he puts me all in. I hold and double back to 6k. Now I've got the bit between my teeth and I'm totally determined to win. I eventually grind him down so it's 16k v 4k and open with KK (the only premium hand I had) in the SB and he ships in with A9 and I hold.

Having made the final my opponent agreed to chop without playing as he wanted to go home (he had work in the morning) and by this time the PLO tourney had started so it suited me. There were just 14 runners in the HU so we took £105 each and shook hands.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the HU comp as it made a really nice change. I'd never ever played a HU live comp before.

So slightly late I take my seat at the PLO with the 7 other runners. Even though it was just a field of eight, three of them were good players so I guessed it wouldn't be too easy. But I ran well when it mattered. During the early levels I won a few small pots but when the blinds got big I started to run well.

I doubled up with AA22 v KKJJ in a blind v blind battle. Then when down to 4 players I pick up AdJdQxQx.

I open for the pot and 2 players call. The flop is JcKd6d, and I bet when checked to. Both players call and the turn is Qd. I bet again and the short stack goes all in to call and the other guy calls as well.

I hit a boat on the river and knock out 2 players in one hand. This leaves me HU with a small chip lead. As there are only 2 prizes I ask the guy if he wants to play or chop and we agree to chop it and take £60 each.

So after getting KO'd in a big runner field at DTD I win/chop 2 small ones in the same night.

There is a small added bonus for winning/final tabling the G Cov comps at the moment. They run a freeroll each Saturday afternoon at 4.30pm with GUKPT vouchers for 1st 2nd and 3rd. (£75,£50,£25) All players that make a FT throughout the week get an invite for the Saturday freeroll.

I've never bothered going before (even though I've qualified loads of times) but I may well go this Saturday as I'm starting to get a taste for these GUKPT vouchers. Also I will start with 10k bonus chips so that should give me a good chance, especially the way I'm running at the G Cov currently.

Also I've won two x £120 Goliath seats in the Thursday night live satellites that started in May. I plan on trying to win again for the next 2 Thursdays. If I mange it I'll have £480 worth of GUKPT buy in vouchers!

I cannot see them running them in the current format from June onwards as the overlay has been huge. The comp is a 10 seats guaranteed freeze out with a £25 entry fee. Therefore they need 48 runners to break even and so far the first 2 weeks have had 18 and 22 runners.

Anyway in summary winning a Golden Ticket for DTD did me no good as I've not done well there on my last half a dozen visits. But on the bright side I'm running like Golden Balls at the G Cov currently.

DTD = SPAM & Blackjack Tables.

2011-05-09T18:21:00.009+01:00

It's almost treason within the UK poker world to say anything bad about DTD but I'm gonna do it anyway!

I follow Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) on Twitter and I'm in their Facebook gang but why wouldn't I be I play a lot of live poker?

I, like many players, "follow" a couple of my local Casinos, and also things like APAT, UKIPT, GUKPT. Also when I've visited other Casinos round the country that I've played in they also have my mobile number. I'm even a "fan" of the Fox Poker Club in London's Shaftesbury Avenue though it's unlikely I'll ever go there.

If you add up all the updates/text messages etc I get from every other poker room in the country it doesn't even come close to what I get from DTD. They really are starting to take to the mickey.

From all the others I get the occasional text/twitter or FB post telling me of a new or special event they have coming up and it's nice to know. However I'm reasonably intelligent I don't usually need telling things twice. Maybe once when they first release the details then a reminder a few days before is perfect.

But DTD is driving me nuts with their Grand Prix publicity machine. So far just today I have had 3 Tweets, 2 messages sent to me via FB, 2 text messages direct to my phone and 1 email from Mr Trumper. I also post on and "lurk" on several poker forums and he has posted on some of them today!

Now look I have my own online business so understand the importance of marketing, but there is a point when it just becomes too much.

So just to clarify if I was unaware of the "Grand Prix" event I have been told about it 12 times today alone and its only 6.00pm. I have been aware of it for sometime though and actually won a Golden Ticket for it on the 16th March (nearly 2 months ago).

Right from it's very inception the UK poker community has got behind the club and I and many other people who live quite a way from the club have made the effort to support events there. I do it because I think it's important that the club does well and thrives, as the UK poker scene would be much poorer without it.

It's sad though that I have learnt today that DTD is installing Blackjack tables in the club this week and they will open this Friday (13th Mar), as the staff are being trained today. Unlike the "machine roulette" tables the Blackjack ones are the real deal.

So is DTD just going to change from being a beacon of light in the sometimes dark world of poker or can it maintain it's lofty position?

It certainly puts the club in a different light for me. I don't normally drive an hour and twenty minutes each way to visit a casino that's for sure.

I really hope that the Blackjack tables are not the start of the slippery slope, though I can't blame them for doing it. Suprised they held out this long to be honest and I'm sure most people will be fine with it.

One thing though, DTD made a big thing about being 100% poker only when it started and banged the drum about it big time. So far I've not seen a single tweet/email/text or forum post mentioning the fact that they are installing Blackjack tables. Will be interesting to see how much publicity they give to that announcement.

One things for sure if they don't stop acting like Viagra salesmen I'll be unsubscribing from their lists.

Anyway GL me in the Grand Prix, I just hope I don't forget when it's on and not turn up. If only they'd send me a reminder!

Card Cheat Gets Life Ban From Every G Casino.

2011-05-03T09:34:00.007+01:00

Scandal at the G Coventry this week when news breaks of a well known regular getting a life ban from every G Casino in the country.

How long he'd been doing it for I don't think anyone knows but the first person to question it was an APAT member during the recent APAT weekend (March 26th). Apparently the APATer who'd made an early exit from the main event played the normal Saturday night £15 comp in the evening.

This is a self deal tourney and the cheat was spotted by the APAT member rigging the deck prior to dealing. At the time the cardroom supervisor (CS) couldn't very well ban the guy on the uncorroborated word of one person, especially as the accused was a regular who was popular and apparently of good character.

Anyway although nothing more was done at the time the CS was now on the case. He made sure that the cameras were on him the next time he visited the club and was dealing. The footage was reviewed and his not so subtle cheating was clearly visible.

At the G Cov all the tables in the cardroom have cameras on them and they also have others that can be trained in on the action when required.

The footage revealed absolute proof that he was indeed cheating. On the day in question he had already been eliminated from the comp and was now just volunteering to deal. Why you might ask as how can he benefit from cheating if he's not playing?

Well his other half was in seat 1 and she was the beneficiary of several premium starting hands when the comp was down to the last 4 players. Difficult to explain in writing but basically when he was gathering the cards in he would find an Ace and put it on top of the deck and then 3 other cards then another Ace. He would then shuffle without disturbing the top of the deck and start to deal. She got the 1st card off the top, an Ace, and then 3 cards later the other Ace.

He was invited into the office at the casino and shown the footage, almost unbelievably he was still trying to deny all knowledge even at this point!

I have it on good authority that his missus also went into the office whilst the interview was underway and what happened while she was in there seemed to suggest that she was genuinely unaware of what he was doing.

Clearly if she'd known what he was doing and was therefore party to it she would have been banned also.

She has not been banned, though she's not been back since. I somehow doubt she'll feel particularly comfortable in there as everyone in the club knows about this now.

Some would seriously doubt that she wouldn't have known what he was doing but I have spent quite a time on the same table as her over the last year or so in the G Cov and am therefore inclined to give her the benefit. I have always liked her and found her to be a genuine person.

Well done G Cov I say on several points. Firstly for taking note of a customers accusations and acting on them without making a fuss so as to warn him.

Cleverly making sure they had irrefutable evidence prior to tackling him and thirdly for taking decisive action and banning the guy forever.

He'd actually won a Goliath seat in one of the £1 lottery draws and that has now been withdrawn and given to the person in second place.

The Old One Two.

In other happier news, Derek (my oldest friend) and I went to the G Cov to play the £500 guaranteed credit-crunch re-buy last night.

We always exchange 10% of any comp we both play and without bragging I think it's fair to say he's been getting the best of that deal for the last 30 odd years.

There were only 30 runners last night but even so quite an achievement I think when we finished in 1st and 2nd place. We've never ever done that before in literally hundreds of tourneys we've jointly played in.

Poker & Golf, The Most Frustrating Games in the World.

2011-04-14T15:56:00.012+01:00

Arrggggggghhhhhhhh! F!#K it.

I remember once many years ago when playing golf it was all going wrong. By the 14th my mood was fluctuating somewhere between murder and suicide. The final straw was a sliced tee shot that went straight into the water. Cue massive laughter from my 3 golf "buddies", it's so nice to have friends.

I picked up my golf bag which was strapped on a trolley and I had it over my head. I was about to throw it all in the pond which ran alongside the 14th fairway.

Just in time I remembered that although all the clubs, bag, etc were mine, the trolley was "on hire" from the club shop. The image of trying to explain in the club shop that their trolley was at the bottom of a lake flashed through my mind and luckily it stopped me launching the lot, like a javelin, into the water.

Golf as anyone who plays it knows is a game that has the ability to frustrate to the level of insanity. When it's going bad the harder you try the worse it gets.

Poker has the same ability to frustrate me. We all moan about bad beats but I'm pretty philosophical about them in hands that play themselves. Lets say I have AA v KK we get it all in pre and he hits a K. Yes it's unlucky but my opponent did nothing wrong so I can accept it.

What tilts me is when people are bad players and just get lucky, that just doesn't seem anywhere near fair.

Last night I took the trouble to drive up to Dusk till Dawn to play the live £50 rebuy satellite for the Monte Carlo £1,000 main event. I really wanted to play the event as the structure is just amazing, not to mention the £250,000 guaranteed prize pool.

During last night's sat I was on a table of 9 and it had the dangerous Lawrence Gosney on it, 3 players who were pretty solid and 3 or 4 who were just terribly bad.

Starting stacks are only 2k so you just can't go splashing around trying to see cheap flops but these idiots were limp/calling or limp/folding all night long without considering stack sizes.

I took a few pots down early on and was up to 5k when I was dealt AQs still at 75/150. The first 2 of the 3 idiots limp from UTG+1 and 2 and 2 of the better players also call so I make it 1,550 from the button.

I really don't want more than one caller, and I'd have been happy to win it uncontested as there is 825 in the pot at this point.

My bet was 1x 1000 chip 1x 500 chip and 2 x 25 chips.

The 1st idiot when it gets folded to him says "call" and puts an extra 400 into the pot. The dealer tells him it's 1,550 (I don't think he saw the 1000 chip) and I could see it written all over his face that he knew he'd made a mistake so reluctantly put the extra 1000 in.

I know 100% that he would have folded if he'd known it was 1,550 but now we are HU to the flop.

The flop comes J,7,3 and he shoves in for his last 900 chips.

I start crying inside as I know 100% he's hit the J.

There is at this point just under 4k in the pot and I figure that although I'm way behind I can hit one of my 2 overs so I reluctantly make the call.

He shows JQ which is just sick as by virtue of the fact that he was dominated pre flop he now has my AQ in a world of trouble.

Obv I miss and the biggest twat at the table has nearly 6k and I'm down to about 2.5k. Not much happened till the break though I had to surrender my blinds.

I take the add on at the break and have just 3.8k at 100/200 at the restart. I feel that I can still do OK if I get a double up and first hand after the break I get dealt JJ.

One of the better players opens for 500 and the idiot calls, so I 3 bet shove. The original opener folds and the idiot calls. So we are on their backs and he has 77.

Flop QQ7 and his limp call strategy is proving to be an absolute winner. I have him covered so have to wait till I'm the BB before finally being put out of my agony.

In BB with 10c,7c and multi limpers I check my option and pick up a flush and gutter ball but miss it all when calling off my few remaining chips.

One of the other idiots won that pot sat to my immediate left. He won the pot having limped UTG with Q,6o and flopping 2 pair!

What planet are these people on?

After getting KO'd it was only 10.00pm so I played in a fun cash game with Barry Neville and a couple of other decent players.

What made it funny was a whale who was calling and raising preflop without looking at his cards. He was 70 if he was a day and it was impossible not to like him.

Well for me anyway, I beat him in every pot I played against him! But he was destroying the rest of the table rivering middle pin straights like they were going out of fashion.

By the way, on the day of the near pond incident I got a nice par 4 on the difficult 18th after I holed from about 12 feet, ( well it might have been 8) so I left the course reasonably happy.

Thanks to the 70 year old nutter, last night I left DTD pretty happy as well.

Behemoth Bingo, Angle Shooters & Fist Pumping Idiots.

2011-04-03T02:30:00.007+01:00

Played the Broadway £40 last night. For me a £40 comp is ideal for a Friday night, enough to make it worth the effort but not too much to dent the bankroll if I'm running bad.

However the Behemoth structure (see previous post) was a total crapshoot from quite early on. It has 6 levels of 15 mins then the first break. Following the break it's 6 x 20 min levels and the remainder at 25 minutes.

So after the 1st break the blinds were 300/600 and with a 15k starting stack after an hour and a half all was fine but before the 2nd break the tournament chip average was 10 BB's.

My table was terrible even when the average was 10 BB's we were having 4 way limped pots. Not with me in them though I was shipping in by this time. It had exactly 100 runners but they were dropping like flies.

Just after I got KO'd with 20 players left it was 15 BB av and then it went even worse for the FT.

Baz McDonald, who is one of the best players at the G Cov, made the FT and did a 5 way chop but he said to me that he wouldn't play it again as the structure was so awful.

I could see what was happening with the structure very early on (unlike the others at my table) and tried hard to adjust and was playing way more aggressively than I normally would.

I just couldn't get any momentum going, no matter how hard I tried. Even though I was playing aggressively I managed to put the brakes on well when needed and made a couple of really good lay-downs.

I had a lady sat next to me who was LOL terrible. I'm seat 3 she is 4. There was one or two hands she played soooo bad.

First one, Seat 8 is BB. Seats 9 and 10 limp, its folded to me & I raise (decent amount to drive out the limpers) with 10,10 and the lady calls me.

The BB (who I've played against several times) calls as well and the limpers fold. The flop comes 7,6,2 and the BB leads out for 3/4's of the pot. Knowing him the way I do I'm 100% convinced he has either called pre with a small to medium pocket pair or AJ, A10. He'd 3 bet AK or JJ+ and I know he never has 7,6 or 8,9 in this spot.

I ponder a while and come to the conclusion that he has a set and fold. When pondering I was doing it out-loud which is perhaps something I shouldn't but I've done it for years. Anyway I think I help her make her mind up and save her chips. She mucks and when the BB shows trip 7's after we've folded she leans forward and turns her cards over to reveal QQ. Wow!

The other funny one was where I open with 88 and she flats. Everyone else folds and I cbet on a A,6,3 board. I nearly wet myself when she says "I hate Kings I never win with them" and mucks KK face up! I'm not surprised she doesn't win with them very often playing em like that!

Anyway the angle shoot, this I didn't like. If I didn't know the person it wouldn't particularly worry me but I felt annoyed as I thought the person involved was a "poker" friend of mine. What I mean by poker friend is someone who I don't know away from the casino environment, I've never been to their house etc. But I always have a chat with them when I meet them in a casino, as I've played against them a lot and respect their game.

Anyway he's a late comer to the table and I raise his BB and he calls. I know he's not daft so I'm sure he has some sort of hand.

I have A,10 and miss the flop & it goes check/check. I didn't want to bet when I missed as I know he could check/raise with air. Also we are so shallow that bet/fold is not an option. The turn is a scare card so it goes check/check again. River goes check/check and I show my Ace and say "Just an Ace". I'm fairly sure (but not 100%) he said "I have an Ace, what's your kicker?" So I show the 10. He shows just 1 card, a Jack.

So I turn my cards face down, though they are still near me and no where near the muck. At this point he starts to look a bit shifty and there is some sort of hesitation before someone else says "You have to show both to win". I took him at his word, but the dealer then tells him to show both cards. He turns over a K.

I haven't named the person as I'm not 100% on exactly what he said but my gut feeling is that he was angling to steal my chips. As I showed my Ace he knew he'd lost so why didn't he just muck? I won't be going out of my way to chat to him next time I see him in any case.

I played on the same table till about 15 mins before my exit. Then I get moved and there is a young lad in seat 9 with a mountain of chips I'm in seat 3. Seat 2 tells me that he (seat 9) has got lucky a few times and has been raising with all sorts of crap and hitting.

Anyway the button shoves in with about 5 BB's in to his BB and he calls and rivers the guy. He then starts fist pumping and says "YEAH" which is just terrible. I just shake my head and he sees me doing it. He doesn't say anything but I think he gets the message that I don't rate his style.

Ten minutes later it's my exit hand when he opens UTG for 15k, I shove in with my last 24k and he calls the extra 9k. I have AQ and he has KQ.

He rivers a flush and KO's me. Wisely he resists the urge to fist pump on this occasion.

All the cash games were full and there was quite a waiting list so I sit by Paul O'Callaghan and watch Baz McDonald (his mate) on the last 2 tables.

When it gets down to 11 they all agree a £50 saver and then on the non-Baz table a player shoves in and I go over to watch. A guy with almost equal chips in the BB announces "call" and the fist pumper does his fist pump again! He's not even in the hand the tosser. Yet he's celebrating that someone is either going to be out or crippled.

Again terrible etiquette and by this time I'm hoping he suffers a dreadful bad beat any time soon. Anyway as the FT starts I go home and leave them to it.

Paul told me about the fist pumpers (FP) exit hand when I saw him at Coventry earlier today. I'm not sure of the exact cards but this is representative of what happened.

He shoved all in on Baz's BB and Baz calls with AK. Villain has JJ and the flop comes 10, Q, 9 so that rules out the 3 K's for Baz. Then the turn brings a 3rd club on the board and the FP has the Jc and Baz no clubs. FP gleefully tells Baz that he can't even hit the A of clubs now either. Big mistake.

I wasn't there to see it sadly but 2 outs is more than enough for Baz (He's not called Baz "God" McDonald for nothing) and he hits a red Ace to send him to the rail. FIST PUMP!!!!!!!!

Behemoth Comes To The Broadway

2011-03-22T00:47:00.001Z

Behemoth is the name of a particular blind structure, I've no idea where it originated or who invented it. Mr Behemoth for all I know, anyway it's proving popular in the International and some other poker venues in London.

Therefore the Broadway Casino in Birmingham is to give it a go. It will be on Friday nights from this week and they are running it as a £40 freeze-out.

Ever since the old £20 re-buy bit the dust they've never really known what to do at the B'way on Fridays and have tried several different comps over the last few years and none of them have worked.

Going back a few years the old £20 re-buy was one of the best value comps around as there was so much dead money there it was unreal.

It used to regularly make around £10k with just over 100 runners so they decided to make it a £10k guarantee and the numbers rose to 150 and it was making £15k some weeks!

I had some of my biggest wins there and ran really well in it around 06 & 07. It was without doubt my most consistent tourney as I was running at an ITM ratio of just over 30%. So when it used to get 100 runners I was making the Final table (top 10 paid) 3 weeks in 10.

The Behemoth is replacing the latest Friday night flop the £100 FO, and for me I'm glad. £100 week in week out is just too much for me so I never actually played it. The G Coventry runs a terrible £15 self deal comp on a Friday so for quite a while now I've had no comp top play on a Friday.

The blind structure is what makes the Behemoth look interesting and I am keen to see how well it works.

It has 6 levels of 15 minutes, 6 at 20 minutes then the remainder at 25 minutes. The early levels will be a bit rapid for me but two things I like. First of all it's a 15k starting stack and secondly they are putting ALL the levels in, so it will be:

25/50
50/100
75/150
100/200
150/300
200/400
300/600
400/800
500/600
800/1600
1000/2000
1500/3000 etc.

I will probably play this most weeks if I like the structure, though I may miss the first one this Friday. I am playing the APAT English Open Championship at the G Coventry which starts lunchtime on the Saturday and I would rather feel fresh for that!

Anyway I'll let you know how it goes.

POKER EXCLUSIVE: GUKPT Goliath Tournament

2011-03-11T10:33:00.003Z

It's not often this blog reports breaking news but I'm confident that this is the first place on the interweb to post up the accurate details of a HUGE looking tournament being arranged at the G Coventry August 24th to 28th 2011.

European Poker Tournament Record Attempt.

After DTD's record breaking tournaments it looks like G Casinos are going to have a go at a record breaking event of their own!

It's called the GUKPT Goliath Tournament and these are the details I have so far.

Event will be held at the Ricoh Arena Coventry.

£100 Entry + £20 Registration*

No Limit Holdem Deepstack (25,000 points to start)

£100,000 Prize Money Guaranteed

From August 24th to 28th 2011

They hope to get over 1,500 players and break the European Record!

3 x Day ones (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday) starting at 12 Noon each day, with 500 players each day. They may even have a 4th day 1 if the event gets enough interest.

1 x Day 2 on Saturday

Final Day on Sunday (play to finish)

* 25% of the registration fees are being donated to Marie Curie.

You will be able to enter at any G or Grosvenor Casino and satellites will be held weekly at G Coventry, and various other Grosvenor and G Casinos and online at GCasino.com

There will be a central booking number for help with hotel requirements, but I don't have the details on that just yet.

The event is being run in association with the Ricoh Arena, GCasino.com, D4events & Marie Curie Cancer Care.

For those of you who have been to the G Coventry you will know that it's a big casino but even so this event will not be hosted on the normal casino floor. They are using the huge conference room (which is part of the Ricoh football stadium) adjacent to the casino.

These conference facilities can easily accommodate 500+ poker players at once.

The normal casino floor will host the cash games which I'm guessing will be immense throughout the entire festival. I will post details of the side events as soon as I have them.

This should give you a flavour of the event. The official launch will be next week but I laugh in the face of official launches. Remember folks, you heard it here first from David Griffiths.

I can already picture the headlines after the event.

David wins the Goliath!

APAT Season 5 Announced.

2011-03-10T00:47:00.000Z

It's taken a long while but finally the Amateur Poker Association has announced the details of the Tour for 2011.

I suspect that the reason for the delay was arranging new sponsors and this season will see them team up with 888.com.

This year there will be 39 added packages for APAT members but they are switching to UKIPT seats, of which there will be 29 available to be won. The APAT is NOT being sponsored by Pokerstars in any way.

There will be no £20k sponsorship initiatives as they didn't drive up membership or player numbers. Also there will be no Professional League this season as it didn't really take off.

Good news though they will be repeating the Specialist Series.

I have already bought in directly to the first event which will be at the G Casino inside the Ricoh stadium Coventry.

Mar 26 – English Amateur Poker Championship – Coventry (2 day)

Apr 21 – United Kingdom International Home Championship – Newcastle (2 day)

Apr 23 – United Kingdom Amateur Poker Championship – Newcastle (2 day)

May 28 – United Kingdom Pub Poker Championship – Blackpool (2 day)

Jun 25 – Welsh Amateur Poker Championship – Cardiff (2 day)

Jul 30 – Scottish Amateur Poker Championship – Glasgow (2 day)

Aug 25 – World Amateur Team Poker Championship – Nottingham (2 day)

Aug 25 – World Amateur Stud Poker Championship – Nottingham (1 day)

Aug 26 – World Amateur Heads Up Poker Championship – Nottingham (1 day)

Aug 27 – World Amateur Poker Championship (main event) – Nottingham (3 day)

Aug 27 – World Amateur HORSE Poker Championship – Nottingham (1 day)

Aug 28 – World Amateur Six Max Poker Championship – Nottingham (1 day)

Aug 29 – World Amateur Omaha Poker Championship – Nottingham (1 day)

Sep 24 – Irish Amateur Poker Championship – Cork (2 day)

Oct 22 – United Kingdom Team Championship – Luton (2 day)

Nov 19 – American Amateur Poker Championship – Las Vegas (3 day)

Dec 10 – The Masters Pro Am – London (2 day)

Jan 28 – European Amateur Poker Championship – Prague (2 day)

Complete schedule details of APAT’s Amateur Championship, Specialist Series, Online Championship and Online National League can be found via APAT at http://www.apat.com. Membership of APAT is free and National Amateur Championship events are ran registration free with value added for members.

I would urge any amateur poker player to give some of these events a go, they are great fun and brilliantly organised.

I Know When To Run Good.

2011-02-19T06:53:00.002Z

Tournament Poker what a bummer. I've played in a few comps recently where I'd liked to have run well and where even if I'd run reasonably well I could have won a decent amount. But of course you don't when you really want to.

I would have played the Broadway £100 last night but it was a special £250 2 day event so I went to the G Coventry with the intention of playing cash. When I got there the 50p/£1 game was full and the £1/2 had only 4 players and they were not the sort of players I want to play against.

So I decide to enter the £15 freeze-out and waste some time in that till the £1/2 filled up a bit. Of course I end up winning it getting lucky in a couple of spots when AIPF 30/70.

I had a funny feeling I was going do well in it right from the get go. I join late, level 2, and have to ante up 1.5 BB's from my 7,500 starting stack. I get 33 in late position and limp call a raise to 400 and we are 4 way to the flop. It comes 5,5,3, and the initial raiser decides not only to c bet but also check/raise all in on the turn with air.

That puts me to just over 16k immediately. From there I go from strength to strength and I'm opening loads of pots and either winning them there or c betting to take them. People start to realise that I can't possibly have a hand that often and I start to get some action. Then I open with A,Ks and get 3 bet by 10,10 I just flat and the flop comes K high and I win a nice pot which puts me upto 25k.

They break my table and I get moved to the immediate right of a drunk donk. He's over-betting a lot and is generally clueless. I'm win a few early pots and show a bluff to the drunk guy which goes down none too well.

5 minutes later its folded to him in the SB and he bets 6.4k @ 200/400 with just 5k behind. I have AK and put him all in. He tank calls with A9 and as it's only a £15 comp he misses and I'm now over 38k.

I get up to 50k when I open with KQs and get called by the BB. The flop comes QQ8, the BB who has 10,10 leads for 4.2k and I flat behind. Blank turn and he bets 5.2k and again I call. The river is a A and he checks. When I bet what I think is a bet he has to call he tank folds face up (with 6k behind) saying "you jammy git you hit your Ace". That made me and several others at the table laugh.

Then it sort of goes very wrong for a bit when I open KK and get shoved on by the rock like lady in the BB who has A,6. She confidently says she knows I have nothing as she shoves in. When I turn my cards over she says "it's a race". LOL.

Anyway she rivers an Ace and takes 15k off me. Within 10 minutes I'm down to 5.9k from 60k and then with couple of limpers I shove A,10 and I get called by AJ. I river the 10.

A little while after I squeeze several limpers with A6 from the CO and get called by A,Q in the SB. This time the flop comes A6x, and I'm back up to 25k.

I make the FT with just under average but I'm opening loads of pots now and quickly move up to 2nd CL. I make one great 3 bet shove on the 3rd in chips after he opened for 25k @ 4k/8k on the button with 77. I shove in for 130k and he folds 77 face up. I rake in the chips and show 22.

When we get down to 3 handed I have 225k out of 570k so we do a deal which has me shown as the winner (oh the glory of it) and taking the extra bit of cash. I take £265 v £240, £240

I was going to go to DTD today (Sat) for the Super 50 but I doubt I'll run this good again for a while!

UKIPT DTD 2011

2011-02-12T14:45:00.008Z

Went to Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) yesterday to play the £100 side event in the UKIPT. I've never seen so many people in the club it was absolutely packed. Every table was full and there was not anywhere to sit whilst waiting for a table. Even all the walk ways were mobbed and it was difficult to even walk around the place!

They had 478 for day 1a of the £500 main event with over 100 alternates and the £100 was limited to 103 runners. I think they could have had 400 runners for the £100 easily as they turned loads away. It was basically sold out at 5.45pm and it didn't even start till 8.00pm. Later on I was sat in the lobby (it was the only seat I could find) the phone was ringing constantly and the ladies on reception were just saying "No sorry it's sold out" and telling them they were not even taking any more alternates. They also turned loads away that just turned up.

I've been in DTD on occassions when it looks too big, with dozens of empty tables, but last night if it had been twice the size it wouldn't have been able to seat everyone who wanted to play. What recession?

They must have made an absolute fortune on the cash games rake last night.

I regretted playing the comp to be honest at 5,000 starting stack there was just no play in it and I was unable to play my normal game. Well at least I was once I realised and adjusted. Sadly I was down to 2,500 in no time at all. I got it in with KK and doubled back up to 5,000 and immediately altered the way I was playing. The reason I got action with my KK was because the entire table thought I was a drug crazed spew monkey by the end of level one.

I got moved to another table and was seated 1 to the right of Laura Cornelius, who is a presenter for the Poker Player magazine which is shown monthly on Sky.

She was very nice to talk to and although new to the game seemed to be really keen. When they broke our table we moved to anther one and were sat just one seat apart again. I'm usually only upset when I'm knocked out but I was very sorry to see her go when she got KO'd about an hour later.

We had the Sky Poker Player camera on our table the whole time as they were doing a documentary on her and the Channel 4 camera that was covering the event spent most of it's time filming her as well!

If you want to see what she's like you can here.

I couldn't believe how tight people were playing once the antes kicked in. If I'd had some chips I could have opened loads of pots and picked up lots of easy chips.

I was just so short, less than 10bb's, that I was only able to shove or fold though. In the end I was annoyed with myself for shoving with 9bb's with pocket 9's after one of the tightest players at the table had opened. He had KK and the way he'd played I feel I made a huge error shoving 9's in this spot. He has pocket 8's 1%, AK 4% and 9's beat the other 95% of the time IMO.

I was on my last table for quite a while and sat opposite a real good guy, Steve Holden, who I've known for a while. He may not remember but I used to play against him some years ago at Walsall (Junction Ten) in the small buy in comps there. He was "raw" in those days but now he's developed into a very good player.

His Hendon Mob results are here: http://tiny.cc/wk8ds

The Chip Leader at the end of day 1a is Broadway regular Dave Colclough, he's got 224k + which should stand him good stead for day 2. Dave's a really nice guy and I'd be happy to see him go deep.

There are some real big names playing in day 1b but my tip to win it all, (or something equally big live in 2011) is Jon Spinks. He won the UKCOOP online leader board on PokerStars recently and therefore has free entry into all the £500 UKIPT's this year.

I met him briefly last night for the first time in just over a year and was shocked how much he has "grown up" in that time.

That's a hugely patronising thing for me (a low stakes plodder) to say about an online poker sensation but I'm 51 so I feel qualified to talk like I'm his Dad!

He's been a great player ever since I got to know him through the Eat My Stack poker forum in 08, but to win a big live tournament you need more than that. You do need a maturity of mind to deal with everything that goes on around you in these events and I think Jon has that now.

Whoever wins will have to fight his way through the minefield of a 950 + runner field. This is certainly one of the best ever events held at DTD, and I'll do my best to play the UKIPT main event at DTD next year.

I'd advise anyone to do the same!

PPP Invitational Team Challenge II

2011-02-07T00:50:00.009Z

Well after last weeks APAT Team Event in Bolton this week it was the PPP Invitational Team Challenge II 2011.

Again I represented the Eat My Stack poker forum. Following the disaster of the APAT event at Bolton last week where only one of our team finished in the points, we managed to change that this week. None of us finished in the points! Nil Points.

The event was held in the Star City Casino (Birmingham) or "Stab City" as it's affectionately known.

The Casino has poker tournaments and cash games every night has been open for over 7 years. I live a 35 minute drive away and yet have never been there before based on the advise of friends.

The advise was good, it's an awful place and no mistake. This is what I tweeted from there Friday night. "Ever wondered where the dregs of the world play poker? Answer Star City in B'ham. What a shit hole."

I could live with the garishness of the super bright interior, I don't even mind gambling on whether or not I'm going to make it back to my car without getting mugged. In fairness it's not the place as such it's just the punters in it.

Call me a snob but most of them looked like they'd slept in their cloths on a park bench and had no access to bathroom facilities. This is a casino that simply does not have a dress code.

Think James Bond in a Tux sipping a dry Martini and think again of the cast of Shameless as it's a lot nearer the truth.

Niggy (3N1GM4) took his girlfriend there for the weekend, he knows how to treat a girl. If she puts up with that Niggy I'd marry her if I were you.

On the positive side the casino has a few unique ideas. It has a licensed betting office, where you can bet on almost anything. Even virtual football, virtual horse-racing, virtual dog races, and speedway.

Between midnight and 4.30am they do a £1.99 breakfast which is excellent and the restaurant prices and the food are generally very good. They even give out "free bet" vouchers when you eat in the restaurant so you can actually win your meal money back!

Well I turned up Friday night for the first time ever and met Lucas and Stants which was enjoyable though I made the mistake of entering the normal Friday night comp. £1 to enter but with £10 re-buys.

This will give you an idea of what the punters are like, a very high proportion of the people in it play it as a Freezeout and just leave when the get knocked out! To put it in perspective the Broadway casino, near Broad street in B'ham, has a £100 freezeout on Friday night that gets over 100 runners every week.

Even though there were 150 runners (boosted by PPP players like me) they only sold 47 add ons and bearing in mind it's double chips that just shows how price conscious they are. It was really funny for me to play in this as every one was folding to 3x raises in the re-buy period like their life depended on it.

On the Saturday (Day1) I met up with the guys and go to meet a few new faces. Pascal, (James) and Tom and also Niggys girl Victoria! Plus the usual suspects, Jeff, Lucas, Stants, Andy, Juggle, and Niggy,

We had Crumbles son in our team and by chance I had his daughter playing on my table for another team. I have to say she played very well.

The casino was very pleasant on the Saturday afternoon as it was largely empty of regulars. There were 90 players in the event and it was a friendly atmosphere. The dealers and TD's were fine from what I saw and it was a well organised event.

I liked my initial table draw and without being to unkind to my opponents I loved the look of my table even before a card was dealt. It was nit city.

The team event went the same way for me as a lot of these low buy in deepstack events do. I play quite well in the early stages see a lot of cheap flops in the first level or two and build my chips up without going to showdown too often. Most players at this level have a basic idea of what to do pre-flop but are generally clueless post flop and if I have any edge over them at all it's when playing the later streets.

I'm usually paying a lot of attention to the other players during the early exchanges even though on this occasion I'm chatting a lot as it's a nice sociable table. In fairness the whole event had a friendly feel to it.

Things started well and by the break at the end of level 2 (90 mins in) I'd moved up to 16,000 (from 10k) and had not gone to showdown once.

By this time we actually get a very good player get moved to our table though fortunately he's to my immediate right. At 200/400 he starts opening lots of pots for 900 on the 3rd time I 3bet light to test the water and he folds. I do it again on the very next hand and he gives me a look before folding again.

As by now the blinds were worth stealing I'd just started to carefully open a little wider and my chips slowly crept upwards. Not too long later I was up to 20k at 300/600. By this time there were a few 10bb stacks and one of them shoves in for 6.5k in the CO when I was SB. I jammed AK to isolate and the BB folded.

So for the first time I had to turn my cards over and the villain has KJ. The flop comes 9,Q,2, 8, 10. Sigh that puts me down to 13k. I then lose another AIPF versus another short stack when my JJ on the button loses to his A,10 shove from mid position.

Then I'm down to about 7.5k when the CO opens for 1.4k (300/600) the guy to my right 3 bets to 2.9k and I shove in for 7.5k with 88. The opener folds and the 3 bettor snaps with AK. I hold and I'm up to 18k.

At this point I really thought it was going to be my day.

By the 2nd break I was up to 28k and feeling comfortable. Then 600/1200 I'm in the BB and it gets folded to the SB who shoves in for 14.5k. I fancy he's the only player at the table likely to do this light but before I look at my cards decide that I'm not calling without a strong hand as I don't need to gamble.

Sadly I have AQ and it's no match for his K8o with him hitting a K & an 8. So I've lost half my stack in one hand after playing really solid for hours to build it up. ( I hate tournamanet poker a lot of the time)

The next hand it's folded to him again and he opens for 2.6k and I shove for 14k with 8h,9h he calls with 10h,Jh. I flop an 8 but he turns the 10, gg me.

All in all I enjoyed the weekend a great deal, I had some laughs with my team mates and a lot of the people at my table during the team event.

Even though I had a great time I doubt I'll be visiting Star City again anytime soon, but you never know!

APAT Great - G Casino Bolton - Terrible.

2011-02-05T04:50:00.014Z

After typing 2/3rds of this post I decided it sounded too much like a grumpy old man moaning (even for me) and thought I wouldn't post it up. But when Richard and Martin (Lucas & Stants) said that's why they liked reading my blog I decided to go ahead and finish it. So here goes.

Took part in the APAT Team Championship over last weekend (29th 30th Jan), at the G Casino Bolton. It was a good weekend and I enjoyed it even though the poker didn't go well for me. As always with these APAT events the poker is almost secondary to the social side of things. It probably is secondary to a lot of the people there but I find it almost impossible not to try my best when I'm playing.

I know that occasionally I take poker far too seriously and have the odd "Helmuth moment". I'm always ashamed of myself instantly following one of these as they are usually in small stakes games of no consequence but sometimes trivial things tilt me. Whereas I'm generally very cool when in bigger games.

As always the guys at APAT did a terrific job organising everything and the live updates and APAT TV coverage was 1st class. Sadly I was not at all impressed with the management of the G Bolton. As a self employed business man myself it just amazes me when firms don't seem to want to make money.

The casino itself is very nice with ample free parking and the poker room is of impressive size and layout and the tables are good quality.

The biggest complaint I have would have been so easy to sort out it put me on tilt before I started! They absolutely knew that the Team Event had 200 runners (it was a sell out months ago), also there was the Champions event plus all the WAGS, up-daters etc. There were something approaching 300 extra people going to be in the casino on the Saturday and probably 100+ on the Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

HELLOOOOOOOO get some extra staff on.

I asked a valet for a menu on the Friday night and she brought it over immediately, sadly though it was an hour later when she came to take my order. I ordered a club sandwich & chips and it tasted like someone had been clubbing seals with it. Even the chips were manky. The toast was cremated the bacon was also burnt to a crisp and the chicken was sponsored by Goodyear.

The only thing about it that I thought was funny was that it reminded me of the old joke about the guy who goes into the Chinese takeaway to complain. "That chicken you sold me last night was rubbery". "Aha, fank u very much"

I caught hold of another valet and complained about it. She took it away and I expected to be offered something else or my money back but she never returned!

I was while this was going on playing the normal Friday night comp. I was seated at a very easy table and was doing OK. Then I got slow rolled by one of the regulars. He was an old guy who clearly didn't know what he was doing and upon reflection, even though it was most definitely a deliberate slow roll, I don't think he really understood the etiquette of the game to realise what a crime it was.

Here's what happened, I got caught bluffing on a very scary river card (4 card straight) with A,6 on a board that had a 6 as the lowest card. When he tank called I said "if u can call u must win". At which point he turned over a 6. I asked if that was all he had and he said something non committal. So I said "I can beat that" and showed my hand, he said "oh, can u beat that as well" and showed his 2nd pair.

I'm ashamed that even though I had a very nice lady sat to my right (villain was 2 to my right) and another girl sat 2 to my left, I let him have some verbals. My language was "choice" to say the least and my voice was raised above was is normally acceptable.

When I'd calmed down a little I asked the dealer "is that sort of thing allowed here?" He just shrugged his shoulders and that made me even more annoyed. I told him he's not just employed to deal cards he's supposed to be running the game. I got no audible response from him so in frustration I said that as I'd been swearing at the table with ladies present for the last 2 minutes was he ever gonna ask me to stop?

I shut up then and didn't speak for 5 mins and quietly steamed. I quietly apologised to the lady next to me after a few minutes and started to build some bridges with the other players at the table. Most of the players at the table were like me there for the team event and I thought that if I had tables this easy in the Main Event I'd be in with a chance!

Mr Slow Roller was by this time hitting cards at will and was up to 50k when I had about 15k. Bugger me if 10 minutes later he doesn't slow roll someone else! This time I kept quiet and let a couple of the other players berate him. Still the dealer did sod all.

The first dealer we had did a miss deal (I have no problem with that it happens) but he didn't know what to do to sort it properely. He is suppossed to carry on as if it was fine and then just change the exposed card for the burn card. However he immediately took the card and gave the player the next one, thereby changing the order of the cards. I tried to explain it to him but he was none the wiser and having one of the locals argue that he was right didn't help.

I had one bit of funny revenge on the slow roller though with 2h,2d in the BB when he raised from the button with QQ. I called and checked the flop which was As,8s,Js, he inexplicably checked and the turn was the Qs giving him trips. I took a stab at the pot and he called, unsurprisingly. The river was another spade and I fired again. He folded his trips face up and I turned over my hand much to the amusement of the table.

After a sticky period in the tourney I managed to get some chips only to lose them all when AIPF versus a Blonde team member with AKs losing to his AQo.

It was nice to meet up and have a chat with Woody on the Friday night who I haven't seen for a long while. He'd arranged a gentleman's evening but as it was just the two of us (we're no gentlemen) it got cancelled, thanks Jeff!

Saturday meant meeting with all the EMS team and it was nice to meet a couple of new faces, Tinpot & Jackman. We had a bit of a team chat with Dean and Jeff discussing etiquette when we were 2 or 3 players at the same table later in the event. This team talk proved largely to be a waste of time as most of us didn't make it off our first table.

I feared the worst when I drew the exact same seat (13/2) as I did the last time I played an APAT event at Bolton. I ran like bum gravy that day also. From memory I think I flopped a set twice in the first couple of levels and lost both times that day also.

This time I came up 2nd best in 3 small early pots to go from 10k start to 8.5k during level 1.

Then someone opens for 3bb in mid position (50/100) I call on the button with 5,5 and the BB calls also. I flop a set on a very dry board but lose to a runner runner flush. I even 3 bet the flop as the BB lead out and had 2 callers. Just the BB called this raise and I bet half the pot on the turn as I looked like I was a mile ahead and didn't want to lose my customer.

I actually got lucky as when the river brought the possible flush he lead out and bet a weird amount of 1500 into about 12k. I was ready to ship in and certainly would have if he'd checked. But when he bet I just called. He'd got the nut flush.

This puts me down to 3k and then I get KQs on the button and the SB has KK. The dealer somehow manages to put the case K on the flop to put the finishing touches to my day prior to the end of level 2.

So as the game started at 2.30 I was out and it was only 3.50 pm. As I was first out I had to buy everyone a drink so that was nice!

I went looking for cash game action though there was only 1 game going on, a mighty 25p/25p NLHE (10 players). It was full so I asked the cardroom manager to put me on the lists. All of the lists as I really didn't want to play 25/25p.

So I was 1st on the list for every other game 50p/£1, £1/2 £2/4 and all the PLO games. I told the TD where I was (degen on the roulette) and off I went. It was over half an hour and still I'd not been called to the 25p table which I found amazing as the min sit down was only £20 and most were short stacked. I then noticed that a pretty girl who was there when I first looked at the table was gone. I realised that as players were busting out the dealer was just allowing anyone to sit down and not calling the TD over to deal with the list.

In fairness to the TD this table was outside the poker room in the main casino so it was difficult for him to see. I told him what was happening and he went and turfed the last joiner off and got me the seat.

I scanned the table and could see that £60 would have all bar one player covered so put that amount on the table. I was then told that the max was £30. Ah well i thought it's just to pass the time till another table starts, so I removed £30 and started to play.

The game seemed ok ish at first and i was careful not to play too loose. Often when playing at stakes far less than normal most players donk off chips seeing every flop. I figured that it wasn't worth playing stupid and losing £50 - £100 in a game this bad. I was still steaming from getting KO'd from the ME and figured it was wise to take it easy.

Anyway the one guy who had about £80 was winning every pot even though he was a total donk. I was slightly frustrated by this as obviously I'd only got £30 on the table. He seemed to get lucky against everyone though we'd not been in a pot versus each other yet.

Anyway the game hots up when another APAT bust out sits down. We are having 50p straddles most of the time and even double and treble straddles to £2. So all of a sudden the game looks a lot better. I get up to £50 within about 30 minutes and finally get into a pot with the big stack.

He gets lucky against me in a big pot when I have 8,9s and flop the straight. He rivers a bigger one and that put me down to just £14.

Obviously I want to reload so I take the £4 off the table and put a £20 note on to make me back up to £30 again. One of the players down the far end spots me taking off the £4 (but not putting the £20 on) and says "hey you can't take money off the table".

With the greatest respect sir I think your mistaken was not what I said. YOU THICK TWAT I'VE JUST LOST A BIG POT AND I'M RELOADING was what I actually said. Then a few others down the bottom of the table pipe up saying i shouldn't be taking money off and the dealer asks me if I've gone south.

I'm in seat 7 and lean forward to explain what exactly happened and seat 3 starts on again. I hold my hand up to him and say I'm talking to the dealer. By this time I'm on major tilt, why I'm not sure as it's a 25p game but I'm furious.

A minute later the dealer realises I've done nothing wrong as seat 6 and 8 confirm my actions. Seat 3 is still piping up and I tell the dealer to tell him to keep his nose out. As the next hand starts I'm still fuming and I start moaning to seats 6, 8 9 and 10 that seat 3 should shut the fek up.

It then turns out that the lady in seat 10 is the wife of the twat in seat 3 so it all kicks off worse than before! Oh for Feks sake, save me please!

I go back into the card room to see if any other tables are starting as I can't stand playing at this one anymore.

No others have started but the list for all the tables is getting huge as bust outs are now thick and fast from the APAT event. At last I see the TD opening a table near ours in the main casino. I go over and say about time mate. "Oh no he says this is another 25p/25p table. WTF there are 50 - 60 names on the board waiting for 50p/£1 and upwards and they open a 25p one!!!!!!

So I go back to the cash game from hell and decide to play my absolute best and refuse to tilt off money. I carefully grind my way back up and am warming to my task.

Then one of the valets gave me some entertainment. There was a young APATer next to me from Newcastle and he ordered a beer and paid for it. Over half an hour later it still hadn't arrived and when he went to the bar to ask was told that the girl in question had gone home! They didn't give him a drink and he had to buy another one as they said they couldn't be sure he was telling the truth!

Unreal, as if anyone was going to angle shoot like that for the sake of a pint. (Even a Geordie)

By this time I was starving as I couldn't eat the food on the break. I had the beef stew and the beef was like bubble gum. I asked the valet for a food menu and she said I could order but she'd been told that it would take well over an hour for my food to be done. I enquired if the chef had gone home to get changed? But was told that it was just so busy as loads of extra people had turned up today! What a shame no one warned the management, they could have put extra staff on.

Joking aside it's ridiculous to think that they are running a business and just don't want to take money off people. Two of the players on the table and 4 of their mates left the casino to go to McDonald's to get a burger as they couldn't order one from the casino. Its not just Bolton though, I remember when I arrived at the G Luton at 1.00pm for the APAT event last year (again 200+ runners) and when I went to the bar to order food was told there was no one in the kitchen till 4.00pm.

Mr & Mrs Wolvolad were there railing the event and Mr Wolvo said he was going to play the evening comp. I offered to stake Mrs Wolvo into it and gave her the money to enter us both. She came back and said she'd been told that they may not play the normal evening comp as they were short of tables and wanted to open any available for cash games.

I went over to the desk about 30 mins later and was told it was definitely cancelled. By this time my name had mysteriously been deleted from all the cash game lists and I was stuck on the 25p game. I was told I could go back on the lists but I'd have to be last on. There were probably 100+ by this time.

So I went back to the fun 25p table, sigh. I worked hard to get back into a winning position and eventually was sat with about £90 in front of me. About an hour and a half later I go into the poker room to see whats happening with my team mates and see the cancelled evening tournament has now mysteriously started but it's too late for me to enter it! WTF.

I return to my table and fear I may spend the rest of my life like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day playing 25p NLHE for eternity with a bunch of idiots.

Niggy turned up and sat down next to me in the game so at least I had someone to talk to.

By this time the pit boss had changed and they decided that double and treble straddles were not allowed and we were limited to 50p.

I cannot believe how badly organised the entire casino was as they seemed incapable of handling the extra influx of players. The cardroom manager to be fair was working his tits off but he just didn't have enough dealers and the catering staff were a joke.

Eventually I could stand it no more and cashed in. I was winning the sum total of £25 (100BB's yippe) after nearly 12 hours of play.

Things were much better and far more enjoyable on the Sunday, thankfully. I met up with Niggy Sunday lunch time and sat next to him in a £1/2 game. It was a good game and I put £160 on the table to start with.

Initially I was playing far too tight and after raising with 9,9 and just getting called by the table drunk. On a KK8 board when he over bet the pot firing £50 at me on the flop. I knew I was mad to fold but did it anyway. I had AA versus the same player and almost the same situation occurred and I doubled up to about £280.

I started to relax and widen my range, and also managed to 3 bet light a few times and take decent pots down pre flop.

The guy sat to my immediate right was a guy called Gerard from Northern Ireland. He knocked me out of the APAT Luton last years as it happens when we got it AIPF BvB with niether of us having very much. He immediatley struck me as a very good player. His friend at the table was also very good though it wasn't his day.

When Niggy and I got chatting to the Irish lads we found out that they know Jono and Cory. Who doesn't?

After Niggy left the game I had Gerards mate ( I didn't catch his name) to my immediate left and we (him, me and Gerard) seemed to get into a routine. He'd open into my BB and Gerard would 3 bet. By this time they were sure I was the biggest rock in the world and once when I 4 bet they both insta folded and I was very pleased with myself. I'd rather not say what I had as I have a reputation to live up to.

The Irish lad to my left said "go on, show any card lower than a King". I just laughed, though I was itching to show what I had but thought better of it.

Gerard was playing well and hitting cards, on one occasion he rivered a 1 outer to win a huge pot from the drunk guy.

He then got lucky against me on two occassions. The first I flopped a set but he rivered a straight. He checked and I bet £25 and he made it £90. But worse was to follow. When we had a rare multi limped pot Gerard called from the SB with 10,7 and I called from the BB with A,7o. The flop came 7,7,J . I can't remember the betting exactly or the turn card but I think it was an 8. The river was a 10 and it cost me £140 to call his river bet.

Not thrilled with my call but it looked like a good scare card to bluff on and he was certainly capable of firing on the river with a missed flush draw or the J. When people think I'm so tight it makes them try to bluff me more often, so calling in these spots is often a winner for me.

I reloaded an extra £400 and really got stuck into the game. As we got shorter and shorter handed you wouldn't have believed it was me the way I was playing. When it was 5 handed I was in nearly every pot.

When the game got 4 handed we offered to play on for no session fee, (this game was £6 per hour) but the cardroom manager said no, so it folded. I was down £180 at the end but I'd really enjoyed the game.

With a tiny bit of luck I could have won well, but even so it had been a very good game and I felt I'd played reasonably well. I eventually left the game at about 7.30pm after playing for about 6 hours. I got a bit of luck on my way to the cash desk when I degen'd on the roulette and hit a number 1st spin halving my poker losses.

Strange how I could have enjoyed a game I lost in yet hate a game I won at. That doesn't happen often I can assure you.

I'm off to play the Team event for Eat My Stack this weekend in Birmingham's Star City. Lets hope we do better than last weekend.

Good Start To 2011

2011-01-27T00:47:00.005Z

I've been working in Glasgow for the last 4 weeks and have enjoyed the city. I had preconceived ideas about the place and have been pleasantly surprised. The people I've been working with have been welcoming and a good laugh.

A few of them look and sound like extras from Taggart ( "There's been a murrrrder" ) and I've had difficulty understanding what some of them are saying as their accents are so thick.

I have played very little poker since the new year as the weekends seem all too short.

On Friday the 14th Jan I didn't bother driving the 6 hours home and decided to stay the weekend in Glasgow. I booked into a really nice looking guest house after checking it out online. Though I made one big mistake, I assumed that the room would be en-suite but it wasn't. More on that later.

I had a nap from 4pm-7pm and then made my way down to the Alea in Glasgow to play the £40 DCFO. It comes with 1 optional re-buy or add on for £20.

I was disappointed that it was self deal and also that it only had 35 runners when it started though a few latecomers did register.

The structure was very good, though it could afford to be with so few runners. 8,000 chips and 25 min blinds.

Normally I talk at the table and if I feel I'm one of the better players then I talk even more and try and captain the table. On this occasion I thought it wise to keep my mouth shut. Being English I assumed, correctly, that I wouldn't be universally popular at the table.

For the first hour I barely said a single word, merely counting out my chips and silently pushing them over the line. I played very tight early and watched the action. The players at the table were all utterly terrible. After 30 mins someone got moved to the table who was way above the others ability. He immediately started opening light and I loosened up immediately so I could play pots against him.

We played a couple of pots v each other and were starting to clash. Then I got AA under the gun and made it 2.5bb's. He 3 bet from mid position and I just called. I had a plan in mind for post flop but when it came Ah,2d,2h I changed my mind. I actually bet half the pot and he called. I checked the Jh turn card and he bet about 40% of the pot. We were both very deep (80 -100 BB's) so I raised just over a min raise and he shoved all in. When I snap called he said even before he saw my cards "I can't win" and instantly mucked.

No idea what he had but I was up to 15k and was in really good shape. Blinds were only 50/100 and I was now CL on the table. I dribbled a few chips away after that and took the £20 add on at the break for an extra 8,000 chips.

I went very card dead after the break and was starting to get a little frustrated as all the donks were getting huge hands and I just couldn't buy a pot.

When I got down to 10bb's (it took a long while as the structure was so good) I started to 3 bet shove quite light and got away with it. Got my chips back up and then lost a big pot when AIPF with AK versus 10's.

I was down to about 6bb's now and got moved to another table. I shoved all in with pocket 9's first hand and got re-shoved on by pocket Jacks. The door card was a 9 and I never looked back.

After that bit of luck I played really well and made the most of it. We were at this point down to about 16 runners and the new table was exceptionally tight. At this point the blinds were 1000/2000/100 and I opened for 5,100 hand after hand and just kept hoovering up the blinds.

When the FT started there were 10 of us and only 4 to get paid. The blinds had been 1000/2000/200 but the blinds had gone up to 1500/3000/300 as the FT bubble burst. I had 38k so about 12bb's.

We took a short break while they sorted out the FT and when I returned to the table the TD announced that the clock was to be re-set to the start of the previous level meaning I had 19bb's. This was great for me as it gave me a bit more wriggle room.

I was able to do the 5,100 bet again about 2 or 3 times a round and steadily moved up to 50k without showing a hand. I then had another bit of good fortune when again I made it 5,100 this time with JJ and the BB called. The flop came J,J,3.

It went check check and the turn was a dry card ( 7 or 8 i think) the river was another mid card and he checked again. I would normally bet smallish to get a call in this situation but I over bet the pot and he tank called with 10,10.

That KO'd him and put me up to 85k. I had then to stop opening pots as the shorties at last woke up and started shoving. Things went comfortable for me though as I wasn't put in any tough spots and we started to lose players and got down to 5 quite quickly.

With only 4 paid the short stack asked about a "saver". I didn't want to as I was a really big stack by now but wasn't too keen to voice my thoughts. Luckily for me one of the others said no and to be fair the shorty was a bit cheeky for asking as he only had 2bb's. He went next hand.

By this stage the guy to my immediate left was a huge CL and I was 2nd and the other 2 were less than 10bb's. This made it slightly more difficult for me but I was still able to take the blinds and antes on a regular basis.

When we got heads up it was 60/40 chips in his favour but he offered to spilt it. I think he was a little worried as I'd played very strong poker throughout the whole FT. He on the other hand had the simple strategy of waiting to get dealt AA when preferably your opponent had got KK. That happened 3 times on the FT but luckily I was not one of his victims.

1st was £880 and 2nd was £580 so we took £700 each and left £60 for the dealers/valets. I was pleased with how I played as although I had some big hands (Aces full, Quads and luckily spiked a 9 when I needed it) on the whole I won my chips with poor cards and without showdown.

I played the next night at the Gala in Glasgow and I should have won that tournament as well. The players were actually worse than the ones at the Alea. I ran a stupid 3 barrel bluff that donked off half my chips when I just didn't need to do it. I eventually went out 14th but should have done much better.

I sat in a £1/£2 cash game afterwards and it was incredibly soft. Regularly having 6-8 players to the flop, I won £300 and didn't want to stop playing as it was so easy.

All in all a good time in Glasgow, I've eaten tatties, neeps and haggis and won a some Scottish money. Had fun trying to spend it in my local Sainsburys as they called the manager to the checkout. They couldn't have treated me much worse if I'd been a shoplifter.

Top tip number 27. Always check to make sure your hotel room is en-suite when booking online.

Top tip number 28. Don't use the kettle in room 6 of the Alamo Hotel.

Thanks Glasgow.

This weekend I'm playing for the Eat My Stack poker forum in the APAT Team Championship in Bolton. Hopefully I can do well for the team.

After that I'm working in Bradford for 2 weeks.

My Mom is doing OK health wise and although I didn't manage to get a flight at Christmas I'm booked to go and see her the last week in March.

Poker is sometimes very insignificant.

2010-12-19T02:26:00.001Z

This blog post unlike all my others is not about poker so apologies.

Cliffs. My Mom has been seriously ill this last week and I'm not sure why I'm posting about it, but writing this has somehow made me feel a little less stressed.

Ryanair and the weather seem to own me at the minute.

I was due to fly and see my Mom & Dad, who live in Spain, on the first day the volcanic ash erupted back in April. Obviously all flights were cancelled and as yet I still haven't had my money refunded to me!

Now my Mom and Dad are in their late 70's and my Moms health hasn't been so good of late. But I have this belief that my Mom will always be there so I was not unduly worried about the cancelled trip. I was again due to go at the end of Sept when my daughter started Uni but had to change that as I picked up a nice work contract that meant no time off for a while.

I won't bore you with the hassle/arguments I had with Ryanair trying to get the April money to pay for the Sept flights as it tilts me even thinking about it. In the end I just bought new tickets, but I was not best pleased.

I therefore planned to fly today, Sunday 19th Dec - Sunday 26th Dec. This was going to work out great as my older brother who lives in Thailand and works in Vietnam, South Korea and such places was due to visit my Mom and Dad at Christmas also. I only get to see him every 3 years or so and it would have been great for my Mom who misses us terribly to see us both together.

About a week ago I get the sort of email you always dread from my Dad. He emails about as often as Halley's comet shows up and when the title said "Mom's in Hospital" I was a little worried. Now she's suffered from loads of smoking related stuff for years, asthma and emphysema mainly, though living in Spain for the last 15 years has helped her massively.

Typical of my Mom she hasn't bothered to tell me that she has been suffering from something called "Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" (COPD) recently as she said "I didn't want to worry you".

However this hospital admission was due to the fact that she'd gotten Pneumonia. Wow that was a massive blow to me I have to tell you. I was wondering if I would actually get to see her again.

Anyway I'm assured by my Dad the day after that there is no need to come over as she'd improved dramatically. To my utter surprise they sent her home from hospital a mere 5 days after being admitted.

They've done loads of tests and biopsies and stuff so it's far from over but at least she was going to be home at Christmas when me and my brother visit.

Now I wake up Saturday the 18th and find I can't get out of my front door as it has 10 inches of snow up against it and Birmingham Airport is closed. The chances of me flying out at 06.50 Sunday 19th are looking as bleak as the weather.

I despair of even the thought of dealing with Ryanair again about this possible cancellation and the need to re-book and fear more than anything the fact that my Mom is maybe mortal after all.

I shall try to get another flight as soon as I can get my car off the drive, though I still have to return on the 26th as I'm working between Xmas and New Year.

There is an old saying about not bothering to give anyone advice that goes something along the lines of, "the wise don't need it and the stupid won't heed it". However I'm gonna break that rule and give all the people reading this some advice.

If you are lucky enough to have a Mom, ring her up today or better still go and see her and tell her you love her.

Tournament Director With A Sense Of Humour!

2010-11-24T18:17:00.000Z

Played at the G Casino Coventry last night and the TD really made the table I was on LOL. We had a guy on our table who was very loud and was constantly picking fun of the dealer, a nice young girl called Abby.

To get her own back she started calling him by a nickname, "Billy", which he hates. This went on for a few minutes when the TD walked past our table.

"Billy" called him over and said loudly "I want to complain she's deliberately winding me up!"

To which the TD replied "She's been told to".

Rainbow Casino Birmingham Re-Opens Tonight.

2010-11-12T18:58:00.008Z

I've been invited to the grand reopening of Birmingham's oldest casino "The Rainbow" (1 Portland Rd ) which should make me happy but I have to say that I'm quite sad. Let me say why.

The Rainbow was for many years the spiritual home of poker in the UK back in the 70's and 80's. It was as far as I'm aware the first UK casino to play the new form of poker known as "Texas Holdem".

I won my first poker tournament there in 1978. How many other casinos were playing poker never mind actually running MTT's in those days?

Ask any old time UK poker pro if they've played at the Rainbow and the answer will 100% be yes.

It was owned by the same family firm for circa 50 years but is now under new ownership. They've closed it for six months and spent a fortune on refurbishing it which should be great news but here is the bad news.

Imagine buying St Andrews golf course and deciding not to play golf there anymore, or Wembley and not have any football matches! This is the scale of shock and disbelief I feel at the news that they will NOT be having a poker room at the Rainbow.

What total Muppet would buy the Bellagio and close Bobby's room? This is what we are talking about here.

I have friends who work at the Rainbow plus they've always done great toasted sandwiches there, so I will still pop in from time to time. Though I'm guessing it will be on my way home from the Broadway having played poker and punted my money in there.

Also the new management need to get into the 21st century. Dusk Till Dawn has about 1,200 Face book and Twitter followers. The Rainbow has a website and it's a pile of pants. Even the G Coventry has about 500 followers.

The owners need to re think this poker decision and quick. The Broadway is always busy because it has an average of 100 poker players a night in there. This is what creates it's atmosphere. Who wants to go in a casino that feels like a Library.

I also have it on good authority that the Broadway takes £70,000 a month in session fees from the card-room. (It doesn't charge rake)

So c'mon Rainbow owners, SORT IT OUT!!

__________________________________________________

Post Script.

Just got back from the Rainbow. I really enjoyed the night. Saw a lot of old faces from it's glory days. It's a shame that it won't be like that every night. From 7.00pm - 9.00pm it was a private invite only do and it was really nice. I made the effort and wore a suit and I was glad I did as most of the men were wearing suits and all the ladies were dressed to the nines. Even the hookers had their best dresses on!

BBC "Midlands Today" presenter Nick Owen officially cut the ribbon and it got a huge round of applause. The place was packed out and the atmosphere was great.

As I said earlier there will not be any Poker in the rainbow as they have no card-room and will definitely NOT be running tournaments. However tonight they put a poker table in the VIP room and more for old times sake than anything else I sat down and started the game 4 handed.

The game was fairly soft and friendly initially but when the table filled it started to take off big time. I played for several hours and only won 3 pots though they were all huge. I had a king flush in clubs twice and also slow played QQ just calling the £8 straddle and when he raised £30 again I just called. The flop was a beautiful Q high and he fired all three barrels at me.

When I left I noticed that the doorman had a counter in his hand and it showed they'd had just over 800 through the door.Which considering the size of the place shows how busy it was. I doubt though that they'll get that many in a week when it settles down.

I can't help wishing the new owners well though, the Rainbow will always have a special place in my poker heart.

Pokers Unpunished Crime.

2010-11-08T23:37:00.003Z

I've decided to post my pet hate in the hope that any live players reading this will take it on board.

Picture the scene. I'm in the big blind at the DTD Grand Prix recently playing for a 1st prize of over £10,000. So I'm taking it fairly seriously.

As I tweeted at the time I had some good players on my table and them being afforded an advantage is not something I'm too pleased about.

So this is what happened. I'm BB in seat 9. The cards are dealt, by an otherwise excellent dealer, and the Button and CO both take a quick peak at their cards and run off to the toilet.

I immediately ask the dealer "have they folded?" I didn't want to make a big fuss and thereby draw attention to whats happened but wanted to at least alert the dealer to the fact that they had both blatantly folded out of turn. He didn't say anything at all.

So now seat 6 is the new button and 5 the cut off, and so on. This meant that my BB had been put squarely in the sights of the better players in seats 2, 4 and 5.

When the hand was over and they both returned the dealer did not say a single word to either of them.

On my BB on the next orbit seat 2 was dwelling about his decision and had his cards covered with his hands. So when seat 1 folded seat 3 folded "out of turn" purely by accident and as often happens seat 4 also folded merely triggered by seat 3's fold.

Now at this point the dealer really tells them off. He actually spoke to them in a very loud voice as if they were 10 years old.

This actually got me even more annoyed. Seat 3 made a genuine mistake and immediately apologised. Not only that he apologised before the dealer even started berating him, and seat 4 could even argue that he had in fact folded "in turn" as he only folded after the guy to his immediate right had done so!

Card-rooms throughout the UK consistently ignore the "toilet fold" and yet jump on accidental out of turn folds with relish. This is something that really should be sorted.

There is only one Casino I've ever played in where the "toilet fold" is taken seriously. Not only that but the dealer handled it brilliantly IMO. As I blogged in 2008 I played the Aussie Millions at the Crown Casino in Melbourne and during that comp the "toilet fold" occurred on my table.

(Sorry for the name drop) It was Erick Lindgrens BB (Seat 4) when it happened and he just sighed and shook his head as he looked at the dealer. The dealer said quietly "I noticed".

A few minutes later the offender returned and took his seat. We were in a hand so the dealer said nothing at the time. Though when the hand finished and he was collecting in the antes for the next one he leans towards seat 2 and very quietly said (I was in seat 1 so could hear) "You must fold in turn even when you are leaving the table. This is an official warning, if you do it again it's a 10 minute penalty."

Even better still, when the dealer got rotated he quietly told the new dealer that "Seat 2 has had a warning for folding out of turn". Wow, I was really impressed with the dealer and took the trouble to say so to the TD on the next break.

So to sum up. You would not peek at your cards on the button and toss them in the muck immediately and just sit there would you? You know that to do so is to blatantly fold out of turn and you'd rightly be "warned" about it.

So TD's start enforcing warnings and penalties for this rule break and players, PLEASE DO NOT FOLD OUT OF TURN when you want a toilet or cigarette break!

WPT & Genting Finally Do the Right Thing

2010-11-05T14:55:00.006Z

Back in September someone posted on the Blonde Forum that they were not happy regarding the recent 'WPT London poker classic' held at the Palm Beach Casino.

It was advertised as a £5,000 + £300 event but an additional £200 was taken from every buy-in, with out so much as a "by your leave".

It was later explained as going to the tournament staff and most players thought that meant the dealers but this was not the case.

So only £4,800 went towards the prize pool from every player. This might be common practice in the U.S and is considered to be a service charge. Therefore a lot of players do not leave an additional tip when they win as its like when a restaurant adds 10% as a service charge.

In this case it added up-to £34,400 a quite significant sum.

Though the cheeky buggers still asked the winners if they wanted to give something for the dealers. I believe Jake Cody did in fact leave a tip and I guess it wasn't just the small change from his pocket.

Simon Tomsett (Head of Genting Poker in London) seems to be the villain of the peace and the hero was a "new" Blonde poster called "Descartes" though I think he is actually "Darcus" from other forums.

Darcus was like a dog with a bone and made it his business to stir up the situation by any means possible. He even rang the WPT head office in America! After that he was invited to a meeting with Mike Hoskins, Genting’s Managing Director of Security and Compliance.

The meeting was described as "amicable" and he was asked not to take any further action until they’d had time to investigate.

The upshot was that Genting have agreed to pay to the 18 winning players their share of the £34,400. (Jake Cody runs good!)

Also a further ex-gratia payment of £34,400 will be distributed to the dealers. What a great result.

In fairness Matt Savage (WPT), who was asked to get involved through the 2+2 thread he answers question's in, seems to have had some influence on the positive outcome.

Pity that the public relations disaster couldn't have been avoided in the first place.

Nice Guys Can Win.

2010-11-03T20:58:00.003Z

The famous French writer, philosopher and wit "Voltaire" said on his deathbed, when asked to renounce the Devil, "This is no time to make new enemies."

The Poker table is another time & place when it's not worth making new enemies for the sake of it.

As a live player I've always found it of great advantage to get on well with my opponents and have profited from it greatly over the years.

Don't get me wrong if I had the chance to win an EPT or WSOP event I wouldn't care less if the entire field hated me let alone my table. However I normally play small buy in MTT's (£20 - £75) and live satellites for bigger buy in events.

In these events being "liked" is a very good thing on the whole.

Most of the time in any typical casino tourney a deal is done they are rarely played to a finish. Often because it's very late and people want to go home and of course a lot of live players are terrible and therefore don't get in a position to get a decent ROI very often so they don't want to risk blowing it at the FT.

Now lets assume you've been a total arse at the table and been giving people rubdowns etc throughout the night. There are 5 players left and you are the short stack. Do you think you are going to offered an equal 5 way split. Of course not, in fact you'd be lucky to get offered any deal and will probably get a couple of spite calls if you shove all in.

I always seem to get a better deal than my chips should allow when I'm a shorty and this is for two main reasons. Firstly I won't accept a bad deal and secondly if you've had positive banter throughout the evening it's much more likely your opponents will be generous towards you.

My strategy is to avoid spite calls when I'm a shorty and desperately need to steal the blinds by shoving now and then. If I have the big stack to my left I'll show a genuine hand (if I have one) when they fold to prove I'm not stealing and give them a walk occasionally. This way when I shove light from the button or SB later on I feel I have more chance of getting it through.

During Satellite play it's even more crucial than normal comps as it's all about blind & clock management and above all survival.

One good example comes to mind of a £15 sat into a £150 comp at one of my local Casinos, I'm average chips and we are 5 handed on my table and 6 handed on the other.

The next exit merely gets us to a FT (10) but there are only 7 seats. The huge CL is on my table (seat 2, I'm 4) and though I've never met or played against him before we've been chatting throughout the night as we've been on the same table from the start.

We lose another player victim of the CL who seems to pick up a hand every time someone shoves in. As we are moving over to the other table I say something along the lines of "We've both played well this evening lets hope we both get a seat" Now I had my tongue firmly in my cheek when I said this but it did the trick.

For the FT I draw seat 4 and he gets 5. We play for a while and the blinds go up again. Things are getting tough for me but the CL is just a card rack and is just winning all the big pots. He knocks out 2 and were down to 8 so it's bubble time and he probably has 75% of the chips in play.

I feel that as I have the CL to my immediate left I'm in a dreadful spot as he can afford to call any one's shove just for fun.

I turn the charm up to max and don't miss any opportunity to chat to him. After a while when I'm down to 6BB's I quietly say to him "I desperately need to win a pot but don't fancy my chances of getting a raise through". He laughs and says "you could have been luckier with the seat draw".

Next hand I'm in the SB (to his BB) and it gets folded to me. All the other players sit up in expectation that I'll shove and he'll snap call, probably without even looking at his cards. But I get a very lucky break.

The rules in this casino are that if your phone rings you can clear it or put it on silent but if you want to answer it you have to walk away from the table. So when it's folded to me I reluctantly look at my cards, but as I'm doing so he says "Sorry guys I have to take this call". At which point he picks up his phone and walks away from the table.

His phone must have been on silent as I didn't hear it ring. The dealer takes his cards and pushes me the blinds and antes. The other players are none too thrilled but those are the breaks.

He returns to the table quite quickly and knocks out the bubble boy five minutes later and I've won a seat. As we are walking from the table I ask who was so important that he had to take the call and he says with a smile that it was "a wrong number".

Now obviously I would never condone "soft play" as it's cheating whichever way you dress it up. Though of course there is the slight chance that he could have folded anyway and who am I to say that his phone didn't ring?

Over the years though I feel lot's and lot's of people who maybe have had marginal hands against me have opted to fold rather than call. I think its human nature that in the final analysis of "call or fold" the question "do I like or dislike this person?" is a small factor to some people in live play.

Most people would argue against my point and believe that they never consciously do it, but I truly believe that the sub-conscious mind has more influence than we give it credit for.

Many people who have called me over the years when I'm at risk have said "sorry I have to call" when they've turned over a big hand. Which suggests that their hand wouldn't have to be a lot worse for them to have folded it.

My Mom is nowhere near as famous or clever as "Voltaire" but she always used to say to me "You'll catch more flies with jam than you will with vinegar".

What's the Value of a Poker Player?

2010-10-30T16:01:00.009+01:00

I'm talking in relation to a typical UK Casino that runs a poker tourney. How valued are we?

Generally our value is massively underestimated IMO. Let me tell you, based on my first hand experience, what normally happens when a new casino opens.

First off registration for the tourney is FREE, and there is usually a hot buffet provided free of charge on the break. Free soft drinks served to the table and all comps are usually fully dealer dealt.

When I first visit the club as I've been playing so long there is usually someone working there that knows me. I'm generally welcomed like a long lost favourite son and my opinion is asked for and listened to intently.

Any suggestions that you make are given serious consideration, except the one for topless valets! An awful lot of new places have little or no clue regarding structures, starting stacks etc in relation to likely finish times.

However what normally happens is they start offering guarantees and there is no rake or session money for the cash games. This is a huge bonus for anyone like me who likes to play cash.

So with all the free stuff numbers quickly pick up and the casino starts to get busy.

Now comes the part that the casino managers always underestimate, that difficult to quantify word ATMOSPHERE. When non-poker players come into a new casino for the first time and see that it's buzzing they are more likely to enjoy the experience.

Lets be honest blackjack is the most boring game in the world, but if there is a poker tournament going on that has 100 runners in it then the place looks and feels vibrant. Non poker players will always have a wander over and watch the poker for 10 or 20 minutes. It gives the WAGS something to do whilst hubby is sat boringly playing blackjack.

If a first time visitor to a casino walks in and it has 8 staff and 2 punters in it what is their impression going to be? Are they gonna relax and dare to ask questions when the place is like a library?

Think about it if you were looking for a restaurant to eat in and found two next door to each other, would you enter the one that was totally empty or the one that looked busy?

So everyone's a winner the casino does well numbers increase rapidly and of course many poker players are degen gamblers and always have a punt on a house game at some point through the evening.

So what happens next? Well reg fees start, at a very reasonable rate, and the hot buffet becomes a cold one. Also rake or session fees start on the cash games, again reasonable rates and it seems fine. Numbers remain steady.

Then of course the casino at best starts to take the poker players for granted and at worst sees us as an irritant. Though in fairness we don't do ourselves any favours as most poker players could moan for England.

Some comps become "self deal" though they still expect a reg fee. The buffet stops all together and the rake becomes a piss take. Any suggestions you make no matter how genuine (still no topless valets) are not even listened to.

Then the reg fees and rake start to be seen as a money making opportunity and creep ever upwards!

The inevitable happens and numbers begin to drop.

One Midlands casino, I won't name as I still have a soft spot for it, used to get 180 runners on Monday night. Yes 180 on a Monday! If you visited every other Midlands casino on a Monday and added up all the people in them, excluding staff, it wouldn't come to anywhere near that many.

On the 1st break you couldn't get near enough to a roulette wheel to put a bet on they were so packed. The break would be far too long IMO but I understand that the casino don't want them rushing back to the tourney.

You'd think they'd be valued there but again things even there are slipping. Numbers now are down to 100 a week and though still good the decline seems relentless at the moment. This has nothing to do with the credit crunch IMO as another casino I visit that is trying hard to woo poker players are seeing numbers increase.

So come on casinos, all we ask is to be treated fairly and to me if you can run a comp on a non profit basis for players then the added value that will bring to your casino will make it worthwhile.

Now if I can just suggest one more time that we have dealers and valets like this young lady on the left, the casino will be packed every night! C'mon you know it makes sense.

I Run like Bum Gravy.

2010-10-30T01:00:00.004+01:00

Played day 1a of the DTD Grand Prix today. The prize pool was £45,000 which for a £50 buy in event is awesome. Two day 1's capped at 450 runners with a 45 minute clock and fully dealer dealt.

I feel I played pretty well but just couldn't win a hand when it mattered.

I arrived late and sat down for the last hand of level 1 and picked up 3,3 on the button. Someone opens for 150 (25/50) and gets a caller. I call also and the BB 3 bets to 600.

The original opener calls, the other guy folds, and I call. So versus two opponents the flop comes 6,5,2. It goes check, check, check. The turn is a 4 and it goes check, check to me. I bet 1,200 and get a caller. River is a brick and it goes check, bet, fold.

So after starting as a short stack due to losing blinds, as I was late, I immediately get ahead of the game and feel good.

Sadly though that was one of only two decent pot's I won all day. The other was when I had 99 and called a river bluff on a board with missed flush and straight draws.

From then on I opened loads of pots and took the blinds and also 3 bet with hands like 66 and 77 to take pots. I managed to get from 13k to 20k without showing my hole cards.

From then on though it just went downhill. I kept getting it AIPF versus short stacks with big and often dominating hands but didn't win any of them.

I lost with QQ v KQ on THREE separate occasion's, KK v AK and also AsKs when a short stack shoved in blind and turned over Js2s. The only time I wasn't ahead was when I opened with AcJc and got 3 bet by AQ. The flop came QcKc7h but I missed.

People were all in against me on 6 occassions and I didn't knock anyone of them out. My entire stack was only at risk on one occasion, though once was enough.

Very frustrating day. Instead of being out I could just as easily have been sat there with circa 50k.

Great day for the DTD poker club though, when I left they had 16 cash games going!

Trash Table Talk. Tilt Alert.

2010-10-22T18:35:00.008+01:00

I've been playing live poker since 1977 and over the years I've heard some hysterically funny banter/put downs at the table.

Sadly though a lot of stuff that gets said at the poker table was funny the first time I heard it, but 33 years later is beginning to grate.

Here is some of the talk that tilts me!

When it's 25/50 people still say "it's my big blind you better not raise"

When someone returns to the table "you were dealt your aces while you were away"

Nothing is unbelievable in poker and I've pretty much seen it all, but people still say "unbelievable" all night long.

Someone hits a 2 outer and people always say "if that happened online you'd think it was fixed. (At least for the first 20 years I played live I didn't hear this.)

Why do people say they are "drawing dead" when they clearly aren't?

"you always raise my big blind" yes because you're a rock and I know you'll fold.

When people raise to 150 at 25/50 and get called by 3 people they say "no respect, I don't get any respect"

I also hate people who think that banter is complaining to the dealer about the quality of the pre-flop cards they are being dealt. I'm fairly sure the dealer could care more. BTW if you are not getting cards make your own arrangements you Muppet.

When someone raises, gets callers and calls them "non believers"

When checking the BB people who say " I'll let them catch up"

The player who just won the pot offers both his cards face down to the opponent and says "which one do you want to see." The hand is over knob head I don't care what you had.

When a player wins a pot and doesn't pass their cards back someone always says "oh are you trying to keep them".

What about when you get a miss deal, at least 6 players "Awww for f's sake" before they show a picture card.

Why do people feel the need to tell me when they have "the exact same two cards as last hand."

What about "This is my favourite hand and I don't like folding it"

People wearing MP3 players who ask "how much to me? Take the FFing headphones off and you'd know you twat.

"Deal a bit quicker the blinds are about to go up." Stop tank folding all the time and it wouldn't matter so much.

When I need a 3 outer and get a chorus telling me..."nah i had one of your outs" then another, then another, thanks for that guys.

"I would have won that hand" (if only they'd played their 7,4 off suit to a 4 bet pre)

When people say "raise" when they're 1st to act in a pot after the flop. Who the fek are you raising mate, nobody's bet anything yet!

"I hate pockets jacks" (fold them then)

When people make a dubious pre flop call and say "Yes but they were suited"

I do like it though when someone gets knocked out and says "I'm never playing here again, the standard is terrible". By not playing they will raise the standard considerably.

Worst of all by a million miles is 'Sorry' after sucking out. Please don't say that, EVER. Just say nothing or UL. Lets be honest, you're not a bit sorry are you?

Well that's enough moaning for one post. Please don't get the wrong idea though guy's I love live poker and really enjoy the banter most of the time. I've met some 24 carrot gold funny people playing poker over the years and have on occassions laughed till I've cried.

UK Poker Field Record - Smashed

2010-10-21T19:37:00.001+01:00

On 8th October I blogged about the "Grand Prix" event at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham on the last weekend of October. It's a £50 comp with a £40,000 guarantee. I confidently posted that they wouldn't get over 600 runners and was even worried they might not get over 550.

Well it just goes to show how wrong I was! With over a week to go the full 900 seats have all been sold making this the biggest number of runners ever for a UK poker tournament. Fekin amazing quite frankly, a big well done to DTD and the UK poker scene for ensuring the success of this event.

I thought the Saturday (day 1b) had a good chance of hitting the 450 cap but I was sure that the Friday (day 1a) would never have a chance. I'm really pleased it's sold out though. £45,000 prize-pool for a £50 freeze-out is just amazing.

All I need to do now, is win it.

APAT European Amateur Championship 2010 - Coventry

2010-10-16T14:56:00.006+01:00

The APAT European Amateur Championship will be held at the G Casino, in Coventry over 27th / 28th November 2010.

You can buy in direct via the Betfair Poker lobby for $120 which is approx £75. (See the APAT forum for further details).

I've bought in already as this will probably sell out. I've enjoyed all the APAT events I've ever played in, though that's surprising as I run like bum gravy in them every time!

Don't stop believing I say. I will at least final table one of these one day, I know it.

Dusk Till Dawn, Best Ever Value Comp

2010-10-08T14:31:00.004+01:00

DTD in Nottingham (UK) is shortly holding what will probably be the best value comp ever held for live UK poker players. Called the "Grand Prix" with a mere £50+8 entry fee with £40,000 guaranteed, and a first prize of circa £13,000. This means they need 800 entries to break even. I think 600 is as many as they can hope for.

It is over the Fri, Sat, Sun of 29th, 30th and 31st of October. Friday and Saturday will both be Day One's with the second and final day being on the Sunday. The event will be televised and shown on Sky.

Rob Yong (the owner) says they are trying to break the record number of entries for a UK poker comp. There are one or two things that strike me as strange about this event though, the main one being that you can only buy in "online" through the DTD website. No one will be allowed to buy in directly at the club. That seems strange to me as if they are genuinely just trying to break the record then surely that would help its chances immensely. I don't know the real reason for the online only buy in, but suspect it has more to do with channeling money through the DTD poker site than the comp it self. Whatever the reason I intend to take full advantage of any value on offer.

The main reason I think it won't make the 800 is the Friday day one. I've actually registered for that day as at my age I like a rest day in between, but running my own company allows me the luxury of taking a day off whenever I like but for most people that's not an option. Though they have now put the start time on the Friday back to 4.00pm so that will help.

Like most UK live poker players I wish DTD well and support them whenever I can. I don't play there more than once every 4-8 weeks as it's just over an hour and 20 minute drive for me but it is a very well run club.

The monthly £300 deepstack (first weekend of every month) is probably the best regular poker comp run in the country with the winner usually picking up £20k-£30k first prize.

UKIPT Season 2 Schedule Revealed

2010-10-01T23:12:00.008+01:00

The first stop of Season 2 in Galway takes place on December 2 -5, with the €1,000 + 100 Main Event guaranteeing a €250,000 prize pool. This is followed in February by a return to the Dusk Till Dawn poker room in Nottingham, where £200,000 will be guaranteed for the £500 + 60 Main Event. The full schedule is as follows;

Galway, IE Dec 2-5 Radisson Hotel €1,000 + 100

Nottingham, UK Feb 11-14 Dusk Till Dawn £500 + 60

Manchester, UK Mar 10-14 G Casino £500 + 50

Cork, IE May 19-22 Rochestown Park €500 + 60

Newcastle, UK Jun 16-20 Aspers Casino £500 + 50

Brighton, UK Jul 14-18 Rendezvous Casino £500 + 50

Edinburgh, UK Aug 11-15 Corn Exchange £500 + 50

There will be no visit to the G Coventry for season 2 which is a shame as it's only a 35 minute drive for me. Sadly it's very unlikely I will ever win a seat for one of these. Mainly due to the fact that I refuse to play a 3x turbo re-buy satellite for them.

I once got down to the last 20 with 7 or 8 seats up for grabs and shoved in for 4 million chips which sounds a lot but it was 4BB's. They are frankly ridiculous as they may as well make them 1 chip comps.

Fox Poker Club London Opens

2010-09-26T13:02:00.005+01:00

Fox Poker Club, situated in Shaftesbury Avenue London has finally opened.

Mixed reviews so far, though on the whole everyone seems happy with it. It certainly has a lot going for it, not least it's location. When you get KO'd from DTD there is literally F all to do, yet based on the Soho/Chinatown border in the heart of London's Theatre land there is plenty to do.

On the Essex Home Game forum "bagpuss" posted the following;

well i went some good things and some not so good things!!

i was too late for the tourney but thought id pop my head in this afternoon

Good things
nice to have natural light - we forget what thats like im certain!
some very very good dealers - knew their stuff
lots of waiting staff

bad things
leak in the ceiling
bare wires
ladies loo was a mess! leaks and filthy (for a first day that is appalling!)
some dealers not so good - all ins were handled not very well at all by a cpl
just looks a little unfinished
list for cash games a little too long

im sure they are just teething problems but i didnt come away enthused i have to admit

oh and £2.50 for a soda and lime is a bit steep lol!!!

Chris Baylis made me laugh with this post on the EatMyStack forum;

Fox club is pretty cool. I could definitely run worse at cash. Oh wait... no, no I couldn't.

Highlight was:

Folds to my button, I raise AA, sb calls. Flop Q92r I bet he calls. Turn J, I bet he calls. River is a T, he checks, I check behind. He tables K8 for the straight, I die a little inside.

He then proceeds to give the rubdown of "sorry mate, I thought I had king ten"

It might be a new club but nothing changes!!!

I'm sure they are working very hard to sort out the niggles and I genuinely wish them well with it. Living in the Midlands as I do it might be a while before I get in there but I will certainly give it a try.

Phil Hellmuth "Bum on a Bus"

2010-09-23T22:51:00.004+01:00

Great video, love the captions. Well worth a watch. I think the "Bum on the Bus" is Hellmuth.

Do you think that one time in the WSOPE or the Vegas main event he may really amaze us by running deep? No, I thought not.

Liv Boeree, you probably think this post is about you, don't you?

2010-09-15T12:47:00.008+01:00

I tried to watch the English Poker Open via the live stream over the last few days. It wasn't easy for several reasons. Firstly due to technical issues the stream kept crashing every few minutes. This was very annoying as I was really enjoying watching the action at the early levels. John Eames was at the table and playing well in some very interesting multiway pots.

Matt Broughton and Barney Boatman were commentating and doing an excellent job, they work well together. Barny was often spot on with the hands involved (no hole card cam) when it went to showdown, and Matt's style is very entertaining.

Sadly the tech issues got so bad it tilts me and I had to give up trying to watch. When I went back online later I saw John Eames bust out which was a shame. John finished 5th in last years event at DTD when he got it all in pre-flop with AA blind on blind and lost. As we all know poker owes us nothing, but it would have been only fair IMO if John had managed another deep run in the event this year. I really like Johns style of play, his pot control is very good and unlike a lot of players he has real subtlety to his game.

The English Poker Open, sponsored by RakeTheRake, is only in it's second year but the clever timing of it in the calender means it is sure to be a big hit as long as the WSOPE is in town.

So the stream issues get sorted and the next day I'm back watching again. Now I start tilting for a different reason. It's the Liv Boeree love fest. Liv is at the table and it's like all the other players don't exist anymore. Liv, Liv, Liv, Liv, Liv, Liv, Liv, Liv, for F sake give it a rest!

What's annoying is that they don't even know the names of the players at the other table (there are only 2 tables left at this stage). No clue who they are, how many chips they have etc. The only thing we know about the players is that they are not Liv Boeree!

Then on Poker News the next day the headline is "Liv Boeree finishes 12th" I mean WTF. Now lets be fair she's a) an attractive looking young lady and b) won an EPT event, but I find this disrespectful to the other players.

For the record the 11 players who did better than Liv at the event were;

1st Fabian Quoss £220,650

2nd Sebastian Crul £129,000

3rd Mathew Frankland £77,400

4th Felipe Ramos £54,300

5th Andrew Brennan £40,750

6th Brent Lehring £30,550

7th Mark Norman £23,750

8th Salman Behbehani £17,000

9th Steve Chimelski £13,600

10th Soap Song £9,500

11th Theo Steimer £9,500

Now it's going to be very difficult for the others (Ramos apart) to get a sponsorship deal anytime soon, unless they grow tits and get em out in a lads mag, but well done anyway. Liv on the other hand who has recently parted company with UB will probably be joining Team Pokerstars UK in the near future.

I saw Liv's facebook page recently and it says. "Apologies but this personal page is full and I can't accept any more friends - please follow my fan page for updates." Yeah right, could she be anymore vain?

Anyway that's enough bitching about her, I won't mention her on my blog again unless poker wise she does something that warrants it. Though I may post a photo of her from time to time purely for male gratification purposes. Luv u Liv. xx

Online Sit & Go's - Strange Tilt - And a winning fold!

2010-09-12T22:35:00.013+01:00

It's usually something out of the ordinary that tilts me and this was a weird one.

I've been playing 9 man SnG's on Pokerstars for the last 2 days. (Don't ask, its a long story & includes a prop bet) I've been playing at an extremely low level. ($3+40c) As you'd expect the standard isn't great and to be fair it's actually a lot worse than I expected.

I started off pretty aggressive but started to come down to their passive level. I'm surprised how good the structure is as it really does allow you to be patient. Initially I run terrible with a few bad beats, a couple of coolers and not making a quick enough adjustment to my opponents. When they shove the river it's usually the nuts! So quickly I'm down $35, but eventually things start to turn my way and I get a decent run going and win a couple and cash (top 3) in 4 or 5 consecutive comps.

So I'm feeling good and I'm in the money on another one. Really trying for the win as my opponents are soooo weak. They really are the biggest rocks you've ever seen. I was raising the button hand after hand and I was constantly getting walks on my BB. Annoyingly with AA on two occassions!

Anyway one KO's the other with AK v QQ as they were never getting the money in any other way. Then he wins a few against me when I hit 2nd pair to his top pair a few times. So the following hand takes place when I'm short stacked.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 3.4 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 25 Ante (2 handed) -

Seat 4: ME (3645 in chips)

Seat 6: HIM (9855 in chips)

ME: posts ante & small blind 200

HIM: posts ante & big blind 400

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to ME [6c 9c]

raises 800 to 1200

HIM: re-raises 8630 to 9830 and is all-in

ME: calls 2420 and is all-in

Uncalled bet (6210) returned to HIM

*** FLOP *** [3d Tc 6h]

*** TURN *** [3d Tc 6h] [6s]

*** RIVER *** [3d Tc 6h 6s] [7d]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

HIM shows [Ad 8c] (a pair of Sixes)

ME shows [6c 9c] (three of a kind, Sixes)

He types in "are you dumb?"

I completely lose it and start typing in all sorts of abuse at him. WHY? It's a tiny comp ($3) I've won a pot, yet I go madly on tilt! It wouldn't have worried me in the slightest live yet for some reason I go ballistic. I feel very aggrieved and obviously don't feel my play was so bad but even so there was no need for my outburst.

The reasoning behind my play was sound I feel as I raise to steal (which I've done successfully loads of times) and he finally grows some balls and shoves in. I've put a third of my chips in so I can't fold in my opinion. I don't suspect for a minute that I'm in good shape but I hope for 2 live cards versus AK or similar. As it happens he only has A8 so it's as good as I can hope for. I'm no maths genius but I know enough to realise that I'm 40/60 at worst.

He says "how did u get this far in the tourney?" to which I reply "easy others all as shit as u".

I don't know why but I'm suddenly in a raging temper, how dare this guy accuse me of being bad after the way he has played? I type in loads of stuff that appears mostly as **** u **** etc.

I hope the sudden raise in hostility will get him to play back again, and indeed 2 hands later I raise QQ on the button and he ships in with A,6 but the jammy git hits a 6 flush and KO's me. He then gives me another rub down!

I decide to log off stars for my sanity. Strange though as I usually only tilt on loss making sessions not profitable ones!

Anyway regarding the winning fold. I made one decision which I was very pleased with in an earlier SnG that I went on to win. Now as I said earlier the standard of play was worse than I expected (ultra loose or passive in the main) and I've only seen one player so far who looked any good. He was to my immediate right and in the hand in question he limped UTG (25/50). He is CL and I'm 2nd in chips.

Now I had Ah Qh and any other time I'd be raising with this, but I just think for a second "why has he limped UTG?" Anyone else at the table I'd have thought "passive fish" and raised but as it was him I just limped behind.

It gets folded to the SB who shoves all in for 550 total. Again the UTG player flats, with 2,500 behind. He'd raised to isolate on earlier hands and as I have 2,200 I expected him to do it again.

I have above average stack and decide I'm folding to wait for a better spot. Something just doesn't seem right to me and when the cards are turned over I'm really pleased to see the SB has A,J and UTG has A,A.

The aces hold and I'd have been KO'd for sure as the flop came Q high. Sometimes in poker it's the hands you don't play that make all the difference.

What I've learned in the few days I've been playing these is, if I can just hang around till it's down to 5 or 6 handed I'm always in with a chance. It's taken me a while but I've fought my way back from $35 down to level again. I just wish I could play as well whilst 4 tabling as I can when just playing one. I've never been able to multi table and when it gets short handed I really need to be on one or two at most.

Toby Lewis wins EPT Vilamoura.

2010-09-02T20:56:00.003+01:00

Wow I was hoping for a UK winner and we got one with Toby 1st, also 4th Sam Trickett and 5th Teddy Sheringham.

Although the CL at the start of the FT it was by no means an easy run to the title for Toby though the winning hand was just a total cooler for his HU opponent Martin Jacobson.

Toby made it 160,000 from the button & Jacobson flatted. Flop A,9,10 rainbow goes ch/ch. Turn is a 5 giving Jacobson 9's and 5's but Tony has pocket 5's for trips and it's all in and just the 2 outs for Jacobson.

He misses and Toby is the champ.

A mention to Sam Trickett who seems to run as bad as I do (though in multi million dollar comps not the £50 freezeout at my local casino). He got his opponent AIPF 6 times on the FT and though he was well ahead 5 of the 6 times he lost everyone.

Also Teddy proves yet again that he is not just a celebrity player but a "real" one.

Sadly the Brit pack barmy army of railers crossed the line of sporting etiquette on one or two occassions but that apart another terrific day for UK poker. The WSOP "year of the Brits" success just seems to be carrying on. Well done guys really pleased for you all.

EPT Vilamoura, C'mon the Brits

2010-09-01T17:44:00.005+01:00

I've been following the updates for this event and at the end of day 4 it's looking good for the Brits.

Of the 8 remaining players the three chip leaders are Toby Lewis, Sam Trickett and Teddy Sheringham. I know Sam and Toby so would be chuffed to see either of them win, though as a Man United fan, Teddy winning would be great also.

Full chip counts for the FT as follows.

1 Toby Lewis 3,322,000

2 Sam Trickett 3,318,000

3 Teddy Sheringham 1,783,000

4 Jason Lee 1,167,000

5 Sergio Coutinho 872,000

6 Martin Jacobson 441,000

7 Frederik Jensen 375,000

8 Rob Hollink 259,000

The first time I ever met Toby was at DTD when I was covering the £300 deepstack for Pokertourradio in April 2009. Toby finished 5th for £5,049 and that was only the second time he'd recorded a result on the Hendon Mob database. Since then he's had loads of great results and he is fast becoming a real name on the UK poker scene. He is a really quiet unassuming guy which is terrific. If I was half as good a player as him I'd be a right arrogant git I'm sure!

I'm sure he'll get a sponsorship deal very soon.

GL guys.

APAT World Championship is underway!

2010-08-27T15:52:00.001+01:00

The events have already started at DTD but I'm only playing the Main Event which starts tomorrow (Sat 28th). If I run well and make it through to day 2 it will be fairly tough work as we are due to play 14 x 45 minute levels plus breaks and buffet break. Overall I'll be at DTD for well over twelve hours all being well.

APAT are providing a live stream throughout proceedings if you want to follow the action, here.

http://www.apat.com/

I've been card dead the last few times I've played so hopefully I'm just storing up all the good hands for the weekend! I will update on my progresss after the weekend. GL me.

Pleased with my play, if not the result.

2010-08-25T17:33:00.023+01:00

After my last post saying I was going back to play cash instead of tournaments I get a phone call from my best friend Derek early Tuesday evening asking if I was going to the G Coventry for the £50 Deepstack (£5,000 guaranteed).

Now Derek works till midnight most weekdays so rarely gets the chance to go to the casino. As he's got the night off he wants to go so I reluctantly agree!

Now I've run terribly badly in this particular comp so feel maybe it's due to change. I posted on 15th July about this comp in more detail, but basically I've played this event 3 previous times without once ever getting above the 10k starting stack. This week it had 102 runners just passing the guarantee.

I miss the 1st hand as I'm washing my hands and on the second one (25/50) I pick up pocket 5's UTG and limp. Two others do as well and the cut off raises to 250 with AK and I flop a set. On a J high board. I get a little action from him after check calling his cbet and check raising his turn bet. (the other limpers fold pre-flop)

Sadly he folds to my turn raise as he completely missed, I would not have raised if I'd known what he had, but I thought he had something. I'm pleased though as I'm up to 11,500 which is more chips than I've ever had in this comp!

Sadly pocket 5's is the one and only pocket pair I get all night. I had AK just once and folded it pre-flop. This is how it happened:

It was at 50/100 and I still have 11.4k. I'd actually folded every single hand from the trip 5's to this hand. I open UTG+1 for 275 (1st pot I'd opened). I'm in seat 5. Seat 7 3bets to 650. Seat 9 calls and the BB also calls. I hate their calls as I really don't like AK in a 4 way pot. If they'd both folded and it was just me and the 3 bettor I would just have called as I have 114 BB's.

But I figure I'm ahead of both the limper's as they are both loose and I really don't want them in the pot so I make it 2,100 total. The 3 bettor makes it 6k total with just 500 behind (not sure what his thinking was keeping 500 back). The limper's both fold and I do as well. The villain shows KK.

Obv if it was 500/1000 I'd have just shipped in but I have 114 BB's and it's very early in the comp and there is no need to gamble this early. I still have 9.3k.

From this point on I go completely card dead and I do not get AK, AQ, AJ, A10, A9 or any pocket pair for the remainder of the comp. I'm finally KO'd at 1,000/2.000/200 (level 10). By rights I should never have lasted anywhere near as long as I did but I feel I made one or two decent plays and caught someone bluffing when I made a good river call with bottom pair.

One pot that made me smile was when I limped on the button with 10c,8c at 200/400 I wouldn't normally play this hand but with 2 limper's in front I think it's worth a try. The SB folds and the BB makes a min raise. (What an idiot) The 2 limper's call so I do as well. At this point there is 3,400 in the pot.

The flop comes AsKs8d. It gets checked to me so I bet 2,400 with bottom pair. The BB tanks for quite a while and folds, he tells me after the hand he had QQ. The first limper insta folds and the last one (who has played against me several times) thinks for a while and says "I'll give you respect" and shows a K and folds.

I didn't show of course but I feel great that I made Q's and K's fold to my 8's. My table is very weak and I survive for ages by taking the blinds once a round with pretty poor holdings. I never got 3 bet once so that gives you an idea how easy my table was. I 3 bet shoved a couple of times very light and got away with it each time. I also made a squeeze play from the BB when I had 5 limper's on my BB with A,7 off which got through.

I eventually go out when I open shove 9k (1k/2k) with K,J suited and lose to the BB's A,9. I nearly got away with that as the BB was a woman who was a total nit. She tanked for ages before calling. I think she mucks A,8 instantly! I doubt I'd have lasted so long on a tough table but the one I was on was weaker than average.

There were though some very good players on other tables in the comp last night including several Broadway players and also interestingly 2 players who made the Grand Final of Series One of Late Night Poker back in 1998/9. Pete "The Bandit" Evans (he is still a super aggressive player) who finished 2nd to Devilfish and Dave Welch who finished 3rd.

Dave Welch was European ranked number 1 in his day and won the 1st ever European ranking event at the Aviation in Paris in 1998. For the next 3 or 4 years he was widely regarded as one of the best UK and Irish players along with Dave Ulliot, Surinder Sunar, Dave Gardener, Liam Flood, Mickey Finn, Padraig Parkinson and the up and coming Hendon mobsters.

I interviewed Dave for Poker Tour Radio in the Rainbow Casino Feb 2009. The sound quality isn't that great due to background noise (at one point someone drops the jackpot out of a nearby bandit)

Listen here: (working on it hopefully uploaded soon) *Having trouble with the file, if you follow this link to Poker Tour Radio and scroll right to the bottom of the page you'll see the little arrow next to the speaker buttton for it.

http://tiny.cc/v4bta

Anyway to summarise my night out, it was enjoyable and I played the comp really "seriously" as a sort of warm up for the APAT Main Event which I shall be playing on this coming Saturday at DTD. I feel I played quite well throughout and I'm sure that finishing 31/102 was a good effort based on the cards I was dealt.

I remember once I won the £20 re-buy at the Broadway for £3,200 and some friends said "well played" to me after but I had pocket Aces seven times during the night so did I really play that well?

Don't get me wrong I'm happy to be a total luckbox/cardrack and win but in a strange way last night I enjoyed it more as I felt I out performed the cards I was dealt.

Derek lasted longer than me and I was hoping to get something back from him as we always swap 10% when in any comp together. But sadly he finished 17th with 11 paid. Though on a positive note I won £70 in a 50p/£1 cash game while I was waiting for him!

Back to my roots: Cash Monkey!!

2010-08-21T19:25:00.014+01:00

Just recently I've made a conscious decision to start playing (live) cash game poker again. This is partly after writing my "where did it all start" blog entry which documents my first 30 years or so playing cards. See here:

http://tiny.cc/fwl4n

I remembered after writing it that I've always predominantly been a cash game player. It's only in recent years that I've started to play more tournament poker. This started when my bank roll was at an all time low and entering a £20 freeze out enabled me to have an evening out playing poker for a very small outlay and also the chance of a reasonable win for a very small risk.

What tipped the balance though was all the recent tourneys I've busted out of after getting off to great starts at the lower levels when I can play flops, turns and rivers only to lose later when we got into the AIPF mode.

So now I'm playing real poker again and doing quite well at it. I know my limitations and table selection is very important to me. The good news is I've found a game I can comfortably beat and I won at my first 8 sittings in it. I then lost 2 games in a row but had a great return to form last night with a decent win. In the game there is a mixture of old people who are nitty and terrible and young lads who are loose and terrible. The young lads can't resist bluffing when they miss their draws.

The biggest pot I won last night was when I had KsKc UTG and limped. The game is 50p/£1 and Pot Limit so I could only make it £3.50 and I knew if I did that I'd probably have 3 or 4 callers. So I went for the limp re-raise option. 5 or 6 callers later and I was getting worried, however the SB made it £8 and I re-popped it to £22. That had the desired effect and everyone folded round to the SB who tank called.

The flop was 6s,8sAs. SB checked and I bet £35, he thought for a while and for a moment I thought I was going to get check raised which would not have been fun. In the end he just calls. The turn was the Js giving me the nut flush.

The SB checks and I check behind hoping to induce action from him on the river. The river is a blank and he bets £65. He only has £30 behind and I'm hoping to get the rest so I raise to £130 but he insta mucks.

I also won a nice pot off a nit when he hits bottom pair on the flop and 2 pair on the turn. The turn card gave me a flush draw. The flop was checked and he bet quite small on the turn, and as I mentioned this is a loose game and had 6 or 7 to the flop, plus me and one other called his turn bet. I have As,2s (in the BB) and the board is not paired and has 2 spades on it. I'm getting over 8/1 to hit the stone cold nuts so I'm never folding.

When a spade lands on the river I lead out and bet about half the pot and he calls. He just doesn't understand pot odds and spends the next 10 minutes calling me a fish, and I have trouble trying not to laugh.

In summary I'm playing "real poker" again and really enjoying it. I've always enjoyed playing where you get to see flops/turns/rivers!