Nearly a great week

It's been a great week, veiled in disappointment. I've had over £10,000 in live tournament winnings, but getting 4th earlier in the week, then so close to a big result in the GUKPT London Main event really left me feeling a little deflated. Illness-wise it's taken it out of me too, and I felt pretty rubbish this morning. I slept on/off until midday which is unusual for me, and really need to get in to see my consultant this week. I'm going to start going to the gym this week once my personal trainer confirms which day, and hopefully attempt to get in shape. Weighing in currently around the 90kg, I really would like to lose around 10kg's!!

Anyway, back to the GUKPT. I've had the pleasure this week of playing poker with some of Europe's top poker players, and feel that whilst i wasn't totally happy with my game, I certainly held my own. During the course of the week i've played with recent European Poker Tour champion Jake Cody, Neil Channing, Willie Tann, Michael McCool, Praz Bansi, Vicky Coren and many more. I played at some stage with all the guys that made the final table, and they all fully deserved to be there. It really was a tough field and I guess I should be happy with 16th out of over 300 entrants, but anyone who plays know it doesn't work like that!

I played my Day 1 on Friday, and it really continued like the event earlier in the week seeing very few hands. I got aces in the second hand of the day and picked up just the blinds. Fantastic! About 2 hours in I was dealt pocket 8's and put a small raise in. I was called in 3 places and the flop came AQ8. Very nice. I bet and get called by two players. The turn brings a king. Not the best card, but certainly not the worst. It makes a straight, but that would mean someone calling the flop with J10. Unless someone slow-played a big pair pre-flop then I should still be good. I bet again. The next player raises. He's a good player who'd been actively, but played the hands that were shown down very well. I know he's not calling the flop for a gutshot, and a big ace, two pair seems the most plausible. Then the guy on the button pushes all in. He was pretty poor. Overplayed a few hands and i'd tagged him as a player to get in pots with. I dwell for quite a while before folding. I'm so sure that i'm beaten, but laying down a set there hurt and cost me half my stack. The other guy had to call and he had AK, whilst the poor player had J10 for a turned straight.

After that i slowly built my stack up again to around 28k. No massive hands, just grinding out pots. I then had to make another lay-down that cost me over half my stack. I was still at the same table, but we'd lost most of the table by this point and I wasn't particularly enjoying myself. I like to chat at the table but was sandwiched between a cantankerous old guy on my left, and an arrogant old twat on my right. A guy in early position raised. He'd done this several times and so didn't necessary mean a massive hand. I had a smallish stack and after one guy called i put a meaty pot sized raise in with JJ. This left me with 14k behind and would probably have to call. Then in the BB a Spanish guy who's been a pleasure to play with and was happy to show off his hands pushed all in. He had me covered, and when the original and caller folded the decision was on me. I was getting over 3-1 on the call and the maths said i had to call. The Spanish guy then chirped up and said he would show me if i folded. I was so sure i was beaten after 5 mins I folded the hand and he showed AA. Good fold, but is it ever right to fold there. He could have had AK, thinking he was ahead and acted in the same way. Either way it kept me in the came. I doubled up when my QQ held against KQ on a J102 flop and ended the day below average on 32k.

The next day i knew i was going to need a little luck i had 20 big blinds and needed some early hands. I didn't really get them, but still managed to make some shoves at the right time and chipped up to 45k. Then i flopped a straight against Pryan who was sat on my left. He didn't pay me off, but i still managed to get up 65k+. As people had been dropping out at a pretty quick rate I was still below average, but well in with a chance. My next had was my main bit of luck during the whole event. With a raise in front of me I look down and see AQ and 3 bet. It folds around to the big blind who puts a big raise in. The original raiser folds and i think for a minute before shoving. A little reckless, but the guy who 4-bet had shown down weak hands that he'd played very aggressively and i thought maybe i could get him off the hand as it was nearly all his chips. He called (sigh!) and flipped KK (FML!). The board ran out 27J. The turn was another 7 and the river a beautiful ace! This doubled me up and from there I managed to keep my stack increasing.

By the time the bubble came around i had just over 250k, well above average. Normally I'd push hard on the bubble, but with me facing several raises before me every hand and seeing total junk i moved into the money leaking chips. I won one big pot against Ms Coren, but aside from that times were tough. We broke to two tables and against i picked the wrong card and got a very tough table draw. Sitting on about 18 big blinds and card dead i needed to find a spot to double up. A player in early position raised and seeing 88 i pushed. He had AK and hit a king on the turn. I left pretty much straight away after that pretty down.

I'm going to have a couple of days off live poker, playing online MTT's tonight and then Wednesday a satellite on Paddy poker for the Irish open. there's 10 seats guaranteed, so i guess at worst I stand a 10% chance of going to Dublin next weekend. Failing that, and the more likely scenario, I'll go to Dusk Till Dawn for the monthly deep-stack.

As of the start of April i'm going to try and play online one night a week of online MTT's and have set myself a $4k STT challenge. I'm just going to play the $16 turbos on Pokerstars and see if i can grind that total out in profit during the month. So far this year I'm running at a, obviously unsustainable, ROI of 40%. I'd be happy with half that!

Anyway. I'll post later in the week about my progress in the various things I've posted about here.

A decent start to the week...

After a few near misses over the weekend, and STILL running like shit I didn't have particularly high hopes for the GUKPT £300+£300 event starting on Monday, and i was right. Sort of.

I arrived and sat down at my table and for the first 30 mins or so it was pretty easy going. I picked up a few chips here and there, but nothing too dramatic. Then two younger chaps sat down and all hell broke loose. Raise, re-raise, re-re-raise was the order of the day from the end of the first level onwards. The more aggressive of the two was plonked directly on my left. The worst position to have an aggressive player! I tried raising, but was 3-bet every time, and as it was early on i mucked average hands. I starting limping in mid to late position to call a small raise with pairs, and occasionally 4 betting. This seemed to work out OK and i gradually increased my chips to around average. I didn't make any major hands, and my biggest pot came from a standard hand with KK. I was facing a raise and call already and was out of position so put a small raise in. The original raiser (a LAG) 4 bet me, i dwelled for a few secs before pushing all in. He dwelled for an age before mucking JJ. What took so long!

Around 3 hours in the table broke and i moved to a new table which was far easier to play on. There was obviously some very good players on the table, but they played hands in a predictable fashion. I picked up AK 3 times on this table winning twice without showdown and once losing a big pot to AA (FML). I managed to win a couple of flips with pairs and was back up to average before moving to my final table of the night. Nothing interesting happened here really. I raised the odd pot to keep my chips around average, but I wasn't seeing any cards and the short stacks were pushing to double or bust before the end of the day..

By the end of the days' play I'd not hand a hand better than bottom two pair. No sets, flushes or straights. This continued for the whole tournament. Hopefully I'm saving them up for the main event!

Day 2 i was expecting a slow start, and it was for me. Within the first 3-4 hands we'd had players all-in who were sitting on 70-80 big blinds. The same guy was involved in 2 of the hands and about 6 hands in he open pushed from early position. it was a 70x raise and needless to say everyone folded. He flipped AA. I'm pretty sure he extracted the maximum there!?! He busted about 45 mins later when he raised with JQ in early position, I 3 bet from the button with KK and he shipped it all in. I won the hand was and left me wondering how he made day 2 in the first place.

30 players had come back for day 2 and we lost 15 of them pretty quickly. With 15 left and 13 getting pair deal talk started to happen from the very short stacks. I wasn't keen, but before people on our table had even decided whether or not to consider it the bubble had bust. We had a 3 way all in on the other table and lost 2 players. Players busting continued at a rapid pace and no more than 40 mins later we were on the final table. I was pretty card dead the whole final table, but managed top rep hands a few times and slowly edged my stack up keeping in line with the average. There were plenty of interesting hands, but unless people desperately want to hear about them i'm not going to bother posting them. I eventually busted in 4th after getting it in as a small favourite (A10s) against a young chap who was running uber hot with (J9). He flopped trips and that was that. He'd already won about 9-10 hands all in preflop with the worst hand. On one hand knocking two players out with A7 vs AK and KK. He made a straight on the river of course. Must be nice.

I was gutted not to win it and the £20k first prize, but 4th paid £5,700 which will keep me in clothes, buy-ins and maybe odd drink for a few weeks.

I'm playing the GUKPT Main event London tomorrow, I'll try and make the odd post during the day. If not you'll have to wait until I get home at the end of my day.

Sunday Majors

It's been a fairly slow few days. I've felt pretty tired over the last week and have had major troubles sleeping most nights, averaging perhaps only 3 hours a night! Given i need 8 hours a night, ive had a constant headache, stomach ache and generally not feeling great. I'm going into see my consultant at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital later in the week, and will be discussing whether i need an operation on my bowel to get better. I'm not overly keen on going through this again, but i guess if i have to then i have little choice.

After the £300 at the GUKPT last week i've not played too much poker and tried to rest up. I played the £100 FO at the International on Saturday and played pretty well for the first few hours, before making an awful call on a flop where i had nothing but a flush draw. I thought maybe my cards were live too and i was getting the right price, but the guy flipped TPTK, i missed and lost half my stack. With 15 big blinds after that i played a re-shove game and eventually got caught out and knocked out.

I've been running dreadfully in online MTT's over the last few weeks. If i have kings they have aces, if i get it in with an over pair they make a set etc. Given Sundays are when all the major online MTT's happen i couldn't really not play though. I went very deep in the $1 Million Guarantee on Full Tilt eventually losing a coin flip with 170 people left (out of 2500 starters) for a $1k cash. Winning that pot would have out me chip leader... :-(. I also went deep in two other MTT's and got another couple of cashes off them. I played well throughout and busted in only 2 comps where i got it in behind. In every other MTT (around 12) i got it in with an overpair vs under-pair and they got there, or set vs some flush and straight draw, and they got there. Very disappointing, but at least when i get it in good I know it's going to work out well in the long run...

Tonight i'm going to play the GUKPT £300+£300 event at the Vic. Not my favourite venue, but the standard of play down there so far has been awful, and i know if i can catch a break in just a few spots i can go deep. I'm looking to do a STT challenge during April. I've spoken about it before, but i seem to be running OK in that area of my game and also need a little direction for a month. I'll probably settle on a target of $5,000 profit over April allowing myself to just play the $16 Turbo's (or thereabouts) on Stars, Full Tilt, Gutshot, Ipoker etc. Over the last 3 months i'm running at around 42% ROI, which whilst not sustainable is certainly a great return. It would be good to know if anyone has any thoughts on this?

Barry from Gutshot kindly loaned me the Camtasia software a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow i plan to put it into use and do a video. Probably just 8 tables of $16 turbos. I'll sent it across to the Gutshot pros for their opinions, but hopefully it'll go up on the Gutshot site, or failing that i'll just post it on here.

Laters, db

The Vic £300 GUKPT side event

I'm out... ages ago actually. raise in MP to 1k, reraise on the button to 2k, and a big raise to 7k from the SB. I'm in the BB with an 8.5k stack. When the small blind had lifted his cards he'd shown a jack. Couldn't tell what suit or the other card as i wasn't really looking. Also not sure whether he always lifted the cards this way as i'd only sat down a couple of hands before. Had a think (for 0.2 secs) before pushing. The early raises looked like they were already folding and with the guy showing a J the worst shape i could be in was a flip. He flipped JJ, hit a Jack on the flop and i was out.

In this situation WWYD? If i had a bigger stack here i would fold and tell the guy, but with the blinds 400\200\50 and about to rise again i was in bad shape... If i believed in Karma (which i do) then i probably got what i deserved!

Shame as the night a started well after seeing KKx2 and AA in the first two levels. Twice turning into boats and not losing a hand. Sadly with possibly the softest table i've ever come across i just could find any positions to make it pay. As an example by level 3 we'd already lost 7 people from my original table and had had 4-way all-ins twice with decent holdings, but also calling 3 all-ins with 94 and then J9 'cos i'm getting value'!! Writing this is really wanting to make me cry.

Roll on the £500 on Saturday!

After running bad for the last couple of weeks i've decided i don't like... Tomorrow i've decided it will change.

General gibberings

It's been a pretty dry week since my last post poker-wise. I've playing a few comps online with very little success. I played a little live PLO cash last Wednesday night at the International and finished a few hundred up. Not really my game as choice as i'm an average player, and the swings can be sick! As i had to be up early the next morning to go to France though I couldn't get into too much trouble, and as I said I finished up anyway.

On Thursday early I set off with my golf clubs for a little break with some friends and acquaintances from the digital marketing world. We were playing golf over 3 days in Le Touquet, and although i've not been feeling too great a little exercise was just what i needed. We played 3 beautiful courses on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, each of which were just awesome. I played ok on the second day, but aside from that was dismal. I need to get some practice in before I play again! On Thursday evening we had a poor meal next to the hotel, and afterwards I felt pretty bad so went straight to bed. On Friday night we had probably the highlight of the trip. A very good friend (Charlie!) had recommended we go eat at Le Jardin. I'd eaten there years ago as well so booked a table for 13 lads that evening. The whole meal was absolutely excellent, amazing service, food and wine. Given we were a rowdy group of lads i thought the service was especially good! I'd recommend the place to anyone. After that i had one more drink and another earlyish night. Hopefully i'll feel up to having some larger nights out soon. Either way I've definitely got a bit of a thirst for playing golf again...

I was going to play the £75 at the International tonight, but with the GUKPT happening next week in London i'm going to play satellites tonight and tomorrow night at the Vic for various events. I'll post tomorrow on how I get on...

I want to play at least two nights online in MTT's later in the week. I must be due another deep run now after some of the sick beats I've had over the last week... In the Brawl on FT last night i'd grafted my way up to 10k+ from 3k starting stack only for this hand to come up...

Raised in LP by a player who'd played nearly 50% of the last 42 hands and was a net MTT loser big time. I re-raise with KK on the button and he calls. The flop comes QJ2. He checks, i bet he raises i call. The turn brings a K. Tres bon. He bets, i raised all in and he snaps with K10. Of course he binks a 9 on the river, he wins, I puke. There's always next time I guess. You always know you'll hit a dry spell, i just hope it ends soon!!

Poor show...

After feeling pretty rotten last week i only ended up playing two live events and very little online. Sadly i didn't cash in the PLO event at the London Poker Masters or the Main event. I'd been pretty card dead in the ME for most of the first day, but still had increased my starting stack from 14k to 28k by the second break. After that I was still card dead, but worse than that the positions to steal blinds or 3 bet dried up too. I leaked chips to well below average of about 18k and eventually raised in late position with 88, the big blind 3 bet me as he had on the last 4 circuits and this time I took a stand.

The previous 4 circuits i'd raised and he'd 3 bet me with 77, A10 twice and another mystery hand. He was actually playing reasonably tight and so this time after raising to 2.2k, he raised to 5.6k and i pushed. He snapped me off with KK and I was out. As I was leaving I heard a couple of players saying why didn't I 4 bet fold. I guess I could have raised to 9k and then chucked it away to his push, leaving myself with around 10 big blinds, but given this was the first time I'd done it and the hands he'd 3 bet me with previously would be folded I'm happy with the way I played the hand.

That means overall last week i invested around £450 (i was nearly 50% backed) in buy-ins with no money in return. A poor week. The only shining light was winning the fantasy LPM player comp that was ran on the forum. This paid exactly £450 so it was a breakeven week. Still poor, but bearable.

I'm still running pretty bad online, and not playing my best. I've cashed once in 10 MTT's online over the weekend, and will be glad to take a breather from the game for a few days this week. I'm off to Le Touquet to play golf now until late Saturday. It'll be nice to have a bit of fresh air and exercise after feeling pretty unwell last week. Hopefully i'll feel OK for the next few days, tho' if not i can just stay in the hotel anyway i guess and watch DVD's. The same as in London!

Next week i'll be playing the GUKPT London satellite on Tuesday evening at the Vic, but aside from that will try and put in some hours online to repay the faith Howard has put in me, by backing me online.

Hating life...

I've felt a little off all week with stomach ache, but today it got a whole lot worse.

I was meant to be playing the £100 event at the London Poker Masters tonight at the International, but as the day rolled on the pain got worse and worse. Starting feeling very ill about 5.30pm and gave up on the evening. Gutted. Just slept for a few hours and taken quite a few painkillers so feel a little better, but too late sadly to win a LPM event tonight. Watching the live TV stream online at the moment and it's making me feel very jealous!

I'll see how i feel tomorrow, but considering the numbers in tonight's event i probably should go and register for the main event tomorrow. I'm going steer clear of any proper meals for a few days as i think that's what might have brought on the pain... soup and bread for the rest of the week. How exciting!

I also want to finalise my backing this week to play MTT's online going forward. I've now had four offers, one of which i won't take as it's a little odd. As I'm a little superstitious, and had success when Howard backed me over the last couple of weeks i'd rather stick with him, but i guess we'll just have to see how it turns out. Either way i want to start, health permitting, to play some serious tournament volume next week.

Do YOU care what people think?

Now lets get one thing straight. The choice i'm in the midst of making is not between working or playing poker, its between working when i know i'm going to miss half the week every week ill, and not working. My consultant at the hospital thinks taking a 'time-out' will hopefully be a catalyst for recovery, less pressure will hopefully give the treatment i'm currently on time to work, and if they fail another operation, which at the moment looks inevitable would be the last option. This would hopefully alleviate the illness, at least for a few years anyway.

Now i've decided to, for once, take the doctors advice and need to find ways to support myself. The thought of just living on incapacity/income support, or whatever, for a year makes me want to puke as much as being snap called on the bubble of any major MTT, when i'm trying to steal the blinds with junk. Much the same as my exit from the LPM event last night!! With that in mind poker seems a fairly obvious choice. In the last 3 months playing only small to mid sized events i'm currently around $35,000 in profit. This is without playing full time, and really not so far this year putting in the hours working on my game or playing it. Going forward i'll be looking to play a minimum of 2 nights live a week, and rest online which i can do whether feeling well or not.

On top of all this i'm looking into other options to generate an income. I've working in web based media for a long time in both marketing, sales and some development areas. With this in mind I, with a partner are looking to launch a website. I also want to write poker related articles, and am again in discussions with some publishers about the project. Whether any of these will come to fruition is another matter, but at least i'm exploring other options. If all this fails, then income support it will be, and then who knows. Maybe back into sales next year...

The question i have to ask other full time poker players is DO YOU care what people think when they find out what you do for a living? I guess we like it or not, poker is still viewed as gambling. something I'm not too bothered about. If everyone knew it was a pure game of skill then less people would sit in games thinking they can win in the long term. What does bother me is small minded people reflecting what I'm doing to earn money on my daughter. I pick my daughter up from school pretty much everyday at the moment. Something i want to continue doing for the rest of this year, and hopefully much longer. After picking her up one day last week she mentioned what other parents might this, in particular one mother. I assume this mother has the view poker is gambling, therefore bad, therefore I'm a bad person, and anyone i bring up . Now this woman to me has always seems like a bit of a grade-A bitch, and her looks remind me of Gail from Coronation Street. On the face of it I still don't care, but i had to explain to my daughter again that the choice isn't between poker and working, but between being ill and working. I assume she'll tell her friend, who in turn will tell her mum. I doubt it'll change her view, but you can win them all...

So DO YOU really care what people think?

dbx