Here I come Hellmuths of this world. Ok on Saturday I have this freeroll that I qualified for on VC to play. Really juicy with a high chance of getting a seat. There is a $12500 package up for grabs for 1st place and lets see…..only 999 runners. Bollocks to that, I thought they were giving away more. Might let a better poker player take the reins for me, while I fritter away a load of money at Luton trying to prove that I really am good enough to win something down there…hmmmm.
After really giving myself a hard time for my bubble mistake earlier this week I decided to lay the ghost to rest and put in some study time. Unfortunately Waterstones has run out of material for me so it was onto the internet for some alternative tournament strategy advice. Some good stuff on there, but a LOT if shit. I like the Hendon mob guest articles, particularly the Fox + Farmer analogy. Have been reading some good players thoughts lately and decided I like my ABCS (with S for stealing) strategy more and more lately. Restealing from aggressive cutoffs, button habitual raisers and laggy player WHO HAVE A BRAIN has been very kind to me lately. I read an interesting post lately on cash game gear changes. Basically in slightly better games this guy advocated from switching between Doyle gear, Solid Gear and lazy Gus Hanson gears at particular times. Im not good enough for 3 gears yet, I only recently got my driving licence. Aggressive, serial bluffing, re-raising is my second gear and my 4th is flop the nut gear. In loose games I let solid play make the money (this gear is easiest to adopt when not feeling confident, 11pm in UK or 6am UK playing on a Yank server). But as soon as the game gets full or rake-swappers (the tight rocks who frequently multi-table the lower stakes) the optimal strategy involves tilting the ones who can go bananas when you play games with them. Position and impied odds wins a LOT of money here.
Playing A LOT of poker this weekend with Saturday being made up of 2 tournaments, possibly playing both of Sundays. Playing the Satellite on Monday and another satellite on Tuesday if im running good. Hopefully I can keep getting my chips in with the best of it and hope the deck has been shuffled effectively which lead me to……….
The TIP OF THE DAY.
In live rookie tournaments the cards are rarely ever shuffled properly. If for exmple the previous flop contained 4 diamond or 3 of the same card for example, It is often worth playing those cards that are dealt to you in the hope of hitting the flop. Thi is especially true in rebuy tournaments where you are in late position against a preflop raiser.

WED- 26th April
Really wish that late at night when its crunch time I could engage the grey matter with a little more control. I player a little on VC last night. 2 $15 SnG’s resulted in a 1st and 2nd. The second place was unlucky as when even stacked my JJ was no match for his At all-in preflop. So I decided to reward myself with a bash at the 15k gtd, a tournament that epitomises value. It was a $27 rebuy so I thought I d just have 1 go and let it die if I didn’t pull it off. Well the form that has been lacking of late flipped and boy did I get some luck. I snapped AA with KK all-in preflop. I thought some guy was making a move for my blind and went all-in with 88 against his AA, spiked an 8 and BOOM. Then I started hitting hands and getting a stack. AK vAQ bang, 99 v 55. Again. Then card dead when we got down to 50 players. Stole a bit and maintained my healthy stack status. Bubble approaches so I use my experience and start switching gears. 3 successful blind steals in one orbit, so I show the Q8s on the last one to generate action. Unfortunately I don’t get anything in the way of a hand for AGES. With 28 people left and only 27 get paid I know now is the BEST time to get my stack up to stratospheric levels. I get 88 in late position, I raise to 7k (blinds at 2.4k/1.2k respectively- my stack 35k) and the BIG stack calls me in late position. ALARM BELLS SHOULD HAVE SOUNDED. For him to call my raise he must have a good hand. 99+ or Aqs minimum. He also snt worried about the bubble as he is the BIG chip leader on about 130k. Flop comes 6,7,J with 2 diamonds. Now instead of making a reasonable bet, say 8-12k and making a judgement after, I decided that he would (rightly) want to protect his stack and as id seen him make big laydowns before, I went all-in. He called in a heartbeat with 1010 and made a set on the turn. The thing was, I was gutted as 27th won $160 which aint really important but it is when you are rebuilding your bankroll. And there were a couple of stacks with 2/3k around. Damnnit. Next time gadget. Must remember not to fuck with big stacks around the bubble.

Update- VC and back to scratch.

Been a pretty hectic weekend for me. On Thursday last week my account on VC stood at a very healthy (for me) $3400. That’s a lot of money for me and I was proud of my long sessions of quality cash play that enabled me to get there. So guess what I did. I moved up to have a feel around. As I play .50/1 a lot I thought id go for something really juicy (for me), play my A game and test the water. So $5/10 NL it is then. Played very well for about 1 hour moving 1k into about $1300 playing my solid game. As I am a true advocate of changing gears brunson stylee, when the game looked a little rocky I thought id loosen up and show a few bluffs to get the action back. This I did and bluffed my way to a $300 pot when a scary 3rd flush card came on the river in a 3-way pot. BUT- I showed the bluff. Possibly a very very bad move there as I knew I had had pissed the guy off. He moved to the seat behind me, uh o. Anyways a little bit later and I take a kind of bad beat with AK v Aqs with a 3 flush of his showing making runner runner nut. Lost about $500 there and then things went little hazy coz the fucker starts needling me when I make what I thought was a value bet with top set against his rivered double belly-buster straight. So the legendary martin tilt took control and said "alex, ur better than these guys, you can beat them". And I waved goodbye to ANOTHER nice bankroll and had dropped $2400 before the pain was too much and I realised the bucket with which I was bailing out the sinking ship had a very large hole in it (ie my shockingly shit poker). I cannot keep doing this. Last week I was thinking that if I could keep this up I might be able to play some WSOP satellites and some really juicy tournaments, but alas, no. I opted to cash out all but £50 from my VC account. My UB account still has $300 in it but the standard in the SnG’s and the Cash is so fucking good I never see myself making any serious $ there. Plan now is to multi-table the small stakes on VC till im back up to £100. From there ill use SnG’s to fund my entry into the 15k gtd a couple of times a week and see if I can fuck it all up again. REALLY ANNOYING.
On the live front been virtually living at Luton lately. I decided to play the £100 freezeout on Friday. This is a quality tournament with a proper structure. My table was very juicy. I played very rocky as I like this image and it enables me to steal more later on. Finally I get KK UTG. I raise to 500 (blinds 50/100- starting stack 5k, my stack 4.5k) The table starts joking saying, fold anything etc etc. Then this guy who I have not seen play before re-raises me another 500. This is an alarm bell moment. Why so little? I need more info. He takes a drink and stares at me!! But this a £100 tournie, is he putting on a reverse tell??? Jesus hindsight is wonderful. I opt to call, then play it by ear. Flop comes 7710. hMmmm. I check, he checks. Turn A. YUK! I check, he checks. Stinks of slow play. Turn 4. I check river he goes all-in. I fold he shows A7c !!!!!!!!! Found out 30 seconds later he is a high-stakes Roulette player who knows little about poker. I think I saved my tournament there as he woulda called. Played good after that and got up to 7k. Then this. FP raises to 1k with blinds at 100/200. I think he has raised a few too many times lately and think my AQ is very god here. I go all-in. The BB (3k) calls and the original raiser folds AJ. BB has 88 which holds up. I then get Aks in the BB and some useless old italian limps in FP along with another weak player. I go all-in to get called by BOTH. They play a side pot. Flop comes 8,5,4. FP goes all-in lp calls. BOTH have NOTHING. River is a 2 to make a gutshot for the LP who has A3!!!! Jesus, for once could the best hand hold up. I get some handshakes and "good game" gestures but it doesn’t make me feel better. Then played the £25 NL at Luton on Sunday. Did ok and got my starting stack of 1k up to 3k pretty quickly. Then I get QQ UTG, I raise 3*BB and the BB is the only caller. Flop comes 47J. I bet roughly the pot, he calls. Turn is another 4. Little bit scary but after I think about it it isnt really. I go All-in, he calls (good player-Tom) with 97o. ? He thought I had nothing and spikes a 2 outer to take me back to "chips please". I decide to add-on so iv spent about £75 when I FINALLY get ½ a hand. 2 EP limer I have A10s and go all-in. They call- with A7 and Q10 respectively and one of them hits a Q to send me out. I was playing with the European Stud Champion form 2003. To be quite frank and honest, I really didn’t think he was much cop. As ever, the standard is weak there and if only I can get my confidence back and get on a roll again I’m certain I’m in for a podium soon.
Anyways, played the 5k gtd on UB last night. Suckout city….well,kind of. Starting stack 1500. I get KK in the BB. 1 min-raiser, about 5 callers, I raise 8*BB as I don’t really want to play a flop. 1 Caller, the button, who just tripled up with JJ v QQ and KK spiking a 2 outer on the river. Flop comes Q45rainbow. He checks, I go all-in. He calls with 45s. Now I admire his play…….in a cash game, but surely he is investing way too much preflop?
Check out Ukgatsby.blogspot.com. For some reason my links are fucked. Also good luck to my mate Seb who has just started playing online seriously. After looking at his early results he is going to be a mighty fine player once he gets some hand experience under his belt.
Gl all.

Running O.K
Been steadily making $ multi-tabling 4 .25/.50 tables on VC or 3 * .10/.25 tables on UB. Stars has seen the back of me, nothing personal I just don’t like the graphics. Cashed out another small amount to cover some live play expenses. I played 2 tournaments last night and played both of them badly. I tend to play rocky for the first 6 levels in rebuy tournies, and then assess the situation later. Same goes with the freezeouts for that matter. I just wait for good situations whilst watching Tony Soprano & co inspire me. Well that’s all very well and in fairness I did get a few chips when my KK held up against 9,10d on a board of 689 with 2 diamonds. I then went absolutely dead for eternity. No small/medium or large PP’s for ages. I got J10s on the button once and limped to see a flop that was so ugly I almost went blind. So I finished the 15k gtd re-buy period with 5.5k in chips and couldn’t be fucked with the add-on as I didn’t feel I needed it. The table had 2/3 weak players (including me) and I was certain id either get chips or die early. 240 original entrants, I get down to 110 when I FINALLY get the boots UTG. This table is so juicy Im anticipating a much needed double up so I opt to limp. All fold to the BB who checks. Flop comes AK9 with 2 clubs, so I cant even give a free card L (no A clubs). I bet ½ the pot, he folds. Boohoo. Very next hand I get KK in the BB, I find myself begging a laptop screen to raise me…….of course they all fold around to my BB. And that was the end of that. I finally went out when I made this Ugly play from the button. I have KJs and about 7*BB. Auto-push I hear you aggressive mofo’s say. Well I decided to put out a min raise and see a flop of A,4,J. BB bets small, I call ?????!?!?!!?!?!? Turn comes another 4, he checks, I pause, then go AI. He takes about 3.2 seconds to call me with A2. Bad play by me on every street, yuk.
Finished around the bubble in a $25 freezeout when what I percieved as a huge ruh ended when the BB decided he had to go with his gut and call my re_steal from the SB with A9 against my A6. My image musta been shit I guess, but I had just shown KK and 1010 so maybe he just fancied his hand without thinking about mine. So, out in both tournaments with my hand well and truly bruised and no nearer the damn cookies in that jar L .
Ah well, just looked at my accounts and im nearly out of student overdraft debt. WOOHOO. I might be playing in the £100 Luton Freezeout on Friday night but that depends on whether I can make that £ tonight from my VC goldmine. Getting to know the players there now and all their little ways, which is when I start playing my A game. No more fucking about from me, its time to go back to basics. I bought 3 new books today, Slansky and Malmuths HE for Advanced players (I shoulda bought this ages ago but I begrudge paying £30 for it when it says $30 on its front cover- normally waterstones are good value but me thinks this is a rip-off no?) , the Championship table by TJ (for collection purposes more than anything, I don’t anticipate anything I havent already heard) and some other bit of rip raff to while away the time whilst I wait for top set on a raggy board.
I promised my mate rob id post this e-mail he sent me. I agreed as it’s the only way the fish will ever get recognition for the shocking beats he puts on people ;)
"Last night was fun! I was down to £130ish, got dealt pocket 8's, I raised pot, only £21, got 2 calls then a re-raise of £100 comes in, now I know this guy is on AK or Q's, but I call anyway coz I feel lucky. Flop comes down J 6 8, absolute quality, the only way I can lose if is he has pocket J's. Turn comes 5 or 7, I don't know I was celebrating in my head already. By this time I'm all in, the pot is pretty big, lots of black chips! River comes 6, Full house ding ding ding!! The only way I can lose is if he's got pocket J's or pocket 6's so I'm pretty happy. He turns over Pocket Q's (what a perfect read pre-flop??!!) and think's he's got me well beat, I turn over my pocket 8's and walk off with £414. And so continues my streak of never being down at that casino...."Robert Apple
I should point out that some unfortunate soul lost £120 quid to him after being all-in with AK v KQ pre-flop when rob hit his 3-outer, but good luck robby you pro.
Poker PREDATOR!!!
Tip of the day- don’t tilt, ever. If you take a bad beat, leave and go for a dump or summat. THEN sit down to the left of said fishes seat and outplay the moronic twat.

Luton 18th April 2006. Its time for me to have a break for a bit. My live play has been ok late but my decisions have been wrong lately. Listen to this though. My mate Rob decided to play a cash game at Luton last night (at which there was a grade A twat- scottish drunk with a trashy girl). He sent me this at work.
"Last night was fun! I was down to £130ish, got dealt pocket 8’s, I raised pot, only £21, got 2 calls then a re-raise of £100 comes in, now I know this guy is on AK or Q’s, but I call anyway coz I feel lucky. Flop comes down J 6 8, absolute quality, the only way I can lose if is he has pocket J’s. Turn comes 5 or 7, I don’t know I was celebrating in my head already. By this time I’m all in, the pot is pretty big, lots of black chips! River comes 6, Full house ding ding ding!! The only way I can lose is if he’s got pocket J’s or pocket 6’s so I’m pretty happy. He turns over Pocket Q’s (what a perfect read pre-flop??!!) and think’s he’s got me well beat, I turn over my pocket 8’s and walk off with £414. And so continues my streak of never being down at that casino…."
Nice one Rob. Makes up for you sucking out on AK with KQ last week for your last £ ;)
Congratulations Mr Oliver Nichols (prolly spelt wrong but wgaf?) who played his 1st ever live tournie last night and came 5th. Very respectable young man, nice move all-in with A6s on the table prior mate ;). On a board of 568 with 2 spades, 1 heart, a battle of the blinds occurs. Oli, small blind, bets 6k into a 12k pot, Big stack raises another 15k. Oli thinks, then moves all-in for another 20k. Nice- the guy then has to call for all his chips and promptly folds.
Here’s my hand of doom. After fucking about in the rebuy period I wound up with 2.5k chips afte rthe add-on. Trebled up to 7k with 99 v 77 and AK. Then this hand. I get AA in the small blind. Known aggressive player, Justin, raises to 2000 from the button with blinds at 400/800.
I decide to just call and get a much needed double up. Flop comes KK7, not ideal. But I set this play up like this so it could be worse. I check, he bets small, in retrospect, dangerously small (1400). I go AI and he calls in a heartbeat. A strong player then criticises my play but what the hell, never mind. I tried to get maximum value from my hand against an aggressive player, I don’t mind that. If the flop had come k,5,8 then I would have got paid in full.

Brain cells needed. Iv just had a really fun Easter weekend in which I played poker for over 40 hours, spent 1 day taking down a ceiling for the missus’ old man and the rest watching Tony Soprano be incredibly cool. I also managed to squeeze in a 2 mile run (in the sun- the only real reason) and a trip down the gym to try and get into top shape. I also finished my abstinence of Alcohol on Sunday. 56 days without Alcohol. Am I proud of my achievement? You bet, its fucking hard.
I made a net profit of about £30 from all my online play. Including this hand, in which I played like a tit, something I am going with remarkable regularity. I have 55 in a .50/1.00 NL game on VC. My image is aggressive, dangerous, occasional bluffer. This has been my "focus" table for about 1 hour. Good player behind me calls my $3 bet pre. Flop comes Q54 with 2 spades. I bet $3, which, hopefully he will read as me betting the flush draw. He obliges and bets $10. I call hoping to trap. Turn comes another 4. Happy days but it might slow him down. I check here, consistent with giving him the impression im on a draw. He bets $20. Now I think I have him, but we are both playing with $300 so I want to do the right thing. I call. River brings another 4. I check, he bets $50. I now am pretty certain that he has a Queen and that his 4’s full of Q’s beats my 5’s full of 4’s. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! How could I think that!!!!!!! I have the best hand, but somehow I reason that 4’s full of Q’s is a better hand and lay down my cards. 1st stupid moment of the weekend.
2nd stupid moment. I know a player who regularly multi-tables 4 at a time and basically nut-pedals. So I decided that post flop, he missed his hand and my pair of 7’s was good on a board of K,8,6. Good for a $100 all-in bet.Fish.
Anyways, ran well other than that so did ok. Played the 15k twice and never got going in either.
So yesterday I decided to play in the Luton £30 re-buy satellite for their £900 main event in May. My starting table was a dream and with only 30-odd runners I felt pretty good. I found 99 in the third hand and after some deliberation got my chips in preflop in a multi-way hand. I was infront preflop and stayed there post flop when a pretty little 9 came on the flop. Quadruple up. I then got some more chips when I flopped a gutshot with 45s and called a small bet on the flop to hit my 6 in a 3-way pot. Made some more with KK and AK, lost some with JJ on a board of Q10,7 where I gave a free card on the flop and then called 1k when a king came on the turn (great play martin!). But it went ok and I got paid fully when I turned a flush and got my chips in pre with KK against KJ.
Had a little hiccup on this hand. Blinds at 50/100 we are playing 7 handed. I raise to 200 in ep with KQs. 2 callers. Flop c omes Q74 with 2 of my suit. I bet, lady player goes ai. I think about it, but she only bet about 600 more so I call. She has AA and I say nice hand. But a couple of nice hands later and I finish the re-buy period with 10k. No add-on as it’s a waste of money imao. Average is 4k. I then play some ok poker and get up to about 15k when we get to the final table. Where I proceed to put in yet another masterclass in how to fuck up all previous hard work.


Andy Ward in Secrets of the Amateurs writes:-
"Because I'm picking up the distinct impression that the standard of play (in tournament poker) is worse than ever. What I find most interesting are the trip reports of the less experienced players. They make life so hard for themselves. They can't bear to just make a good chip decision and repeat ; they have to distract themselves with all sorts of artificial goals and targets. They seem totally oblivious to the impact of stack size on play. Time and again they grill their opponent for that elusive read, when the pot and stack sizes clearly dictate one play or the other. When they guess on the basis of their "read" alone, half the time they'll get it wrong.
Well I did just that last night. I find QQ in the second hand, raise it up a bit but get no callers. Then a couple of orbits later im hovering at about 13k when this hand happens. Im in the SB with Aqs and there is 1 limper in late position. A young asian guy who I just saw call an all-in bet for ½ his stack with 22 and win ;)
I opt to raise, more in an effort to get rid of the BB who is a known good player. I raise another 3k on top. Blinds are 1/2k. He doesn’t bother to look at his cards again and goes all-in. ? ????? ? Hmmmmm……
So I go through the process 9k+ his stack of 10 leaves 19k. I have 8k left so he has me covered. I think he has a medium pp, the most likely holding given his actions. Then he starts staring at me. Now im worried- BUT WHY>??!?!? If he is good (ahem) enough to call of ½ his stack with 22 then why should I be worried about reverse tells and so forth. I fold and he show JJ. Im mightily unimpressed with myself and never really got back in contention after that. If I win that I have roughly 28k and there are 3 seats going. Average was 7.5k so I would have got there. Instead I made a crap decision after being effectively pot-commited. I "read too much into the situation and cost myself £900. Hats off by the way to a guy called Tom who played at my table last night. He was mighty impressive and I liked all of his poker. Also impressed with the way people conducted themselves last night. Why is it some of the old boys are so polite and others are so crass? A little handshake, good game does wonders for the losers mentality. A little small-talk, interest, patience and understanding when someone accidentally burns the wrong card……now that IS different gravy.
Tip of the day. Don’t get into the habit of making big laydowns late in tournaments. Odds come 1st, reads come 2nd (unless you know the player vv well).

Brain cells needed. Iv just had a really fun Easter weekend in which I played poker for over 40 hours, spent 1 day taking down a ceiling for the missus’ old man and the rest watching Tony Soprano be incredibly cool. I also managed to squeeze in a 2 mile run (in the sun- the only real reason) and a trip down the gym to try and get into top shape. I also finished my abstinence of Alcohol on Sunday. 56 days without Alcohol. Am I proud of my achievement? You bet, its fucking hard.
I made a net profit of about £30 from all my online play. Including this hand, in which I played like a tit, something I am going with remarkable regularity. I have 55 in a .50/1.00 NL game on VC. My image is aggressive, dangerous, occasional bluffer. This has been my "focus" table for about 1 hour. Good player behind me calls my $3 bet pre. Flop comes Q54 with 2 spades. I bet $3, which, hopefully he will read as me betting the flush draw. He obliges and bets $10. I call hoping to trap. Turn comes another 4. Happy days but it might slow him down. I check here, consistent with giving him the impression im on a draw. He bets $20. Now I think I have him, but we are both playing with $300 so I want to do the right thing. I call. River brings another 4. I check, he bets $50. I now am pretty certain that he has a Queen and that his 4’s full of Q’s beats my 5’s full of 4’s. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! How could I think that!!!!!!! I have the best hand, but somehow I reason that 4’s full of Q’s is a better hand and lay down my cards. 1st stupid moment of the weekend.
2nd stupid moment. I know a player who regularly multi-tables 4 at a time and basically nut-pedals. So I decided that post flop, he missed his hand and my pair of 7’s was good on a board of K,8,6. Good for a $100 all-in bet. Anyways, ran well other than that so did ok. Played the 15k twice and never got going in either.
So yesterday I decided to play in the Luton £30 re-buy satellite for their £900 main event in May. My starting table was a dream and with only 30-odd runners I felt pretty good. I found 99 in the third hand and after some deliberation got my chips in preflop in a multi-way hand. I was infront preflop and stayed there post flop when a pretty little 9 came on the flop. Quadruple up. I then got some more chips when I flopped a gutshot with 45s and called a small bet on the flop to hit my 6 in a 3-way pot. Made some more with KK and AK, lost some with JJ on a board of Q10,7 where I gave a free card on the flop and then called 1k when a king came on the turn (great play martin!). But it went ok and I got paid fully when I turned a flush and got my chips in pre with KK against KJ.
Had a little hiccup on this hand. Blinds at 50/100 we are playing 7 handed. I raise to 200 in ep with KQs. 2 callers. Flop c omes Q74 with 2 of my suit. I bet, lady player goes ai. I think about it, but she only bet about 600 more so I call. She has AA and I say nice hand. But a couple of nice hands later and I finish the re-buy period with 10k. No add-on as it’s a waste of money imao. Average is 4k. I then play some ok poker and get up to about 15k when we get to the final table. Where I proceed to put in yet another masterclass in how to fuck up all previous hard work.


Andy Ward in Secrets of the Amateurs writes:-
"Because I'm picking up the distinct impression that the standard of play (in tournament poker) is worse than ever. What I find most interesting are the trip reports of the less experienced players. They make life so hard for themselves. They can't bear to just make a good chip decision and repeat ; they have to distract themselves with all sorts of artificial goals and targets. They seem totally oblivious to the impact of stack size on play. Time and again they grill their opponent for that elusive read, when the pot and stack sizes clearly dictate one play or the other. When they guess on the basis of their "read" alone, half the time they'll get it wrong.
Well I did just that last night. I find QQ in the second hand, raise it up a bit but get no callers. Then a couple of orbits later im hovering at about 13k when this hand happens. Im in the SB with Aqs and there is 1 limper in late position. A young asian guy who I just saw call an all-in bet for ½ his stack with 22 and win ;)
I opt to raise, more in an effort to get rid of the BB who is a known good player. I raise another 3k on top. Blinds are 1/2k. He doesn’t bother to look at his cards again and goes all-in. ? ????? ? Hmmmmm……
So I go through the process 9k+ his stack of 10 leaves 19k. I have 8k left so he has me covered. I think he has a medium pp, the most likely holding given his actions. Then he starts staring at me. Now im worried- BUT WHY>??!?!? If he is good (ahem) enough to call of ½ his stack with 22 then why should I be worried about reverse tells and so forth. I fold and he show JJ. Im mightily unimpressed with myself and never really got back in contention after that. If I win that I have roughly 28k and there are 3 seats going. Average was 7.5k so I would have got there. Instead I made a crap decision after being effectively pot-commited. I "read too much into the situation and cost myself £900. Hats off by the way to a guy called Tom who played at my table last night. He was mighty impressive and I liked all of his poker. Also impressed with the way people conducted themselves last night. Why is it some of the old boys are so polite and others are so crass? A little handshake, good game does wonders for the losers mentality. A little small-talk, interest, patience and understanding when someone accidentally burns the wrong card……now that IS different gravy.
Tip of the day. Don’t get into the habit of making big laydowns late in tournaments. Odds come 1st, reads come 2nd (unless you know the player vv well).

Conduct of a gentleman

Yeah, I was right. I reckon I might have given the lady herpes. She sure smacked me about last night. Played in the £10 rookie night rebuy comp at Luton. As an aside, congratulations to JP Kelly a young regular at Luton who took down the main event for 45k. I don’t know this lad but its nice to see a young gun beat the old boys. I gather he was super- aggressive as he is in the cash games. Good luck to him.
Anyway, the tournament last night was nice. A very slow structure for a rookie re-buy tournie…MUCH better than gutshot. Was at a starting table with the owner of the Hendon card club, who appears to be a nice chap who can play a bit of poker. Why he is at a £10 re-buy comp ill never know but I can only assume he was trying a bit of promotion. Anyway, starting table was nice with some total idiots. Got a healthy stack with bits and pieces. Flopped a set of 8’s and got full value in a mw pot. Flopped top 2 in a hand where I got a free peek in the BB. Got paid. A gutshot str8 draw in the re-buy period is "unputdownable" (n.b new word) for many of these folks. Quickly got up to 7k. Then this hand just before the end of the re-buy period. 5 way multi-way pot in the last hand before the end of the rebuy period. I have J10s on the button and try and see a cheapish one. SB (idiot?) raises ½ pot, they all call so I join in. Flop comes J 74 rainbow. Hmmmm. Check check check, LP raises pot. Bye bye. He is staring at me intently. Im the only one who has a lot of chips left. Therefore he likes his hand a lot and that is all I need to know from this ABC player. The blinds call "for value" with NOTHING- EXPLAIN!!! Value means you have something, a draw, bottom pair, something!!!! And starer flips KJs which wins. Score 1 for me. After the re-buy period I have 7k and average is 3k.
I go card dead for a bit then get changed tables. It takes me about 46 seconds to realise everyone is playing too tight with the blinds now at 200/400. I raise 1st hand I get dealt and then steal twice more in the next orbit round the back. I then find A9s in early position (7 players). I raise pot and the BB calls. An Ace on the flop and I bet, he calls with Q10s (he had virtually nothing left) and I have a bit of breathing space. New table. I get JJ in the SB 1st hand. Folded round to the Button who has a big stack and bets pot. Hmmmmmmm. He isnt that strong and I really just want to push him off his weak ace (well, that’s my read anyhow). I raise pot. He calls. A pretty flop of 10,9,7 sees me acting 1st and all-in. He calls with KJs (??!!!?? LOL?) and no miracles for him and im chip leader at my table with 25k and blinds at 400/800. I get aggressive and raise 4 times preflop in 2 orbits to win uncontested.
I then go card dead for a bit. Before this hand. I get Q,10s in the BB and the SB who is short stacked raises pot when it is folded round to him. I folded this and he showed me A5 after I showed my pass. I then limped with 89o in the SB against the BB and he raised pot so I folded. On my BB next time it gets folded round to the SB who again raises pot. I have A6s which is good enough here. I call and he has A4o. Flop gives me the nut flush draw, but of course he hits one of the two fours left in the deck to rescue his ass. Dang. On my SB next orbit I get Ako. EP raises and I think he realises he is getting blinded to death so I put him on A10, AJ, KQ. I raise all-in and he calls 8k more into a 16k pot with A6s. He has A6s and obviously hits 66 on the flop and turn. Just to piss me off a king comes on the river. Those 2 combined pots would have built me up to 40k. From there im sitting prett with the chip leaders.
I hung around to watch some vicious outdraws. A guy needs the 6h to make a str8 flush. He hits. A guy (george) has 97o in the BB and calls a pot all-in raise from the SB who has KK to hit a flop hard with 379. I cant remember a hand infront staying infont. It made me feel better. Im going to take this opportunity to voice my opinion regarding the behaviour of a certain individual at Luton last night. George, who everyone knows, can be fucking annoying to play against when he is in whiny mood, was being MODERATELY ANNOYING. But in a good-natured way. This guy, no names, was being a grade A PRICK. Sitting at the table next door I wa soverhearing the disgusting language and abuse this guy was dishing out to several players on his table. "how can you play that shit you stupid fucker?" Then shouting "George, shut the fuck up, you don’t have a clue you silly cunt". All this at the top of his voice. Then someone calls over the cardroom manager Simon who says "George, for your own safety, stop interfering in other peoples pots". Excuse me?!!!! This other guy has been interfering in EVERY pot and trapping off like a total dick. If I was spoken to like that id demand bad-mouthed guy gets punished for swearing and if the management didn’t enforce justice id offer him outside. Just to shut him up. He ruined every player at his tables night last and I think I know why. I think he played a lot of the Springfest events and lost a lot of money. BOO FUCKING HOO. In the words of Andy Ward, whether you outdraw someone or get sucked out on "Get it quietly". Poker is a game of long term skill and short term luck. Take the rough with the smooth. It’s the manner in which you conduct yourself at the table that sets you apart. People notice if you are a good guy. I sure do.

Id just like to mention something that I personally feel is the biggest plus I can take from my win t’other night. I fought my way through 500 odd runners (infact 470 odd but this number will increase exponentially and always does when I win something in a tournie ;) ). Now that is a huge confidence boost. Furthermore I wasn’t overtly concerned with average stack size, no. of runners left etc as the tournament progressed. I simply focused on me and my table. Some famous poker dude once said of large field tournies "You can beat 1000 players at a time. You don’t need to. You simply need to beat the other 9 players at your table, which you can achieve". Also, there was no coincidence that I was remarkably well rested on Sunday eve. I got up early Sunday (6am), went for a walk with the missus and then went with her to the gym to do some weights and have a swim. I had a long sesh in the sauna and Jacuzzi and got home about 11am. I then had a look at the tables on Start, UB and Trib. Didn’t see anything I liked so I thought, sod it , ill have a kip. Got up about 2pm, had some lunch and played an MTT and a couple of SnG’s…..then had another kip J .
Which means tonight, after finishing early at work, im going for a walk with the lady….then having a kip. There are a couple of Rob’s mates coming along tonight, young lads that are hooked. It will be interesting to play against them tonight. They think im a rock so it would be rude not to show a huge bluff if I get HU in a pot with one of them ;)
When we got deep on Friday I felt really sharp. I think many of the other players were tired or (more likely) realised they had work early the next day and pressed the self-destruct stack button. I don’t have that button anymore. Iv made my way back from ridiculously low in many tournies now and I think that’s my main strength. Because I am naturally a fairly conservative player I was in serious doubt for a while as to whether I should completely overhaul may fairly ABC strategy. I did experiment with ultra-aggressive styles (see previous posts) but it just doesn’t suit me. Of course I recognise when to switch up and down gear respective of opponenets playing styles but I guess you could say im fairly right wing when it comes to MTT tournie strategy. I play poker because I feel its about 40/60 skill/luck and I don’t like gambling without a big(ish) edge. My doubts have been overcome. I actually quite like having the "tight, steal his blinds, he ALWAYS folds to a raise" image. It allows me to use my nodder and get a read on the internet as to my opponents hand strength.
NB this is my SnG and MTT strat here, in cash games I can play any which way. Ill talk about these gears in a later post.
I had another thought the other day. In the last few (12) SnG’s I have played lately I honestly cant remember finishing below 6th. Given the gambling nature of the $15 SnG level that’s very suprising. I think lady luck might be about to sink my battleship. Its due.

WOOHOO!
Im unashamed to just admit the biggest win of my poker career to date. I played in the 15k gtd on Tribeca last night and came third for $2.1k – get in!
This came as kind of like the icing on the cake. I was running superb with wins in every single poker session I played last week (except the HU games against Dave where he beat me with a combination of skill and ahem, vicious running cards).
Ill divulge my results for you. Given how low I was two weeks ago when I tilted away my entire bankroll, I now feel that my game is really good and with average luck I can beat most low stakes games.
This weekends results.
4*$15 SnG’s- Won 4. Got lucky when 3-way in two of these but destroyed my opponents when it got HU. My experience curve has started to fruit. I played these games as the foreground to MTT’s and I think that really suits me. 2 tables just gives you a bit more to look at, which is handy for someone with the attention span of a goldfish. These were consecutive games. That’s my best ever run of results. Amazing how many people have no experience of heads up play and simply explode.
2* $20 SnG’s- 2nn, and 4th. Played well, got outdrawn, not bothered, next case. I don’t mind getting outdrawn anymore. I take the rough with the smooth J
Cash games. Played 2 sessions Online, multi-tabling 2 or 3 .25/.50 tables at a time. Got pretty unlucky in 2 huge post, where the other person thought he was trapping and infact I was (2 pair v my top set) and then got lucky on the riv. Still logged a profit in both sessions).
Cash games live- played one session with the lads. Won about £15 aftere trying an audacious bluff with 85offsuit against Steve. The fucker never normally calls me. Seriously, iv been bluffing that guy for ages, so I thought last week id finally tell him. LOL. He wasn’t amused. He asked if I trie dbluffing other ppl at the table like Rob. I said yeah, all the time. ;) Was a good laugh and I love all the little crazy things that you can do when ur only playing for £10.
2 Freeroll MTT’s. Won $30 in one and £15 in another. Bit of a crap shoot when it gets late in these things and it appears my bullets are as effective as cotton wool in multi-way pots. When in mw pots late on now I actually type "I have aces, call if you don’t like $". And they still love calling with their mid pairs and hitting the fuckers. L
Not bad for free though.
15k gtd last night. 1 re-buy (at the beginning) and the add-on. And I never looked back. I played strong the whole way through. I stole a ton of blinds around the bubble and got healthy. I then took a hit with QQ v KK and got short-stacked but limped to the winners circle. Once I was in here, I played some of the best poker I have ever played. Proper short-stack management skills displayed with penach/e?. I don’t care, im allowed to blow my own fucking trumpet! It never ceases to amaze me as to just how many people press the self-distruct button when they get here. 470 runners, 4 hours of hard work…. so you risk your entire stack with an all-in UTG with the monster that is 66. What hands call that raise? The 2 biggies? I arrived the shortest, and stayed consistently at 6-9* the BB for ages. While all around me all hell broke loose. These guys didn’t slow down and they got into shit. If a noted strong player limps UTG with a medium stack, ALARM BELLS!!!!!! Yet last night this happened twice and JJ and QQ outdrew twice. MY hands stood up like iron. KK v AQ, AT v K9, A9 v A8, AQ v AJ. I loved it. The suckout fairy didn’t come along and paint the river an ugly shade of luck once. Its nice when that happens. I finally got a semi-stack, but I couldn’t find anything. I couldn’t even get a steal in. So I dropped again. We got down to 7. 1 guy in the cutoff I had noticed always went all-in when it was folded round to him on my BB. I knew he had labelled me and I was patient. I found A9 and he pushed on me. I called and he flipped 9,10. I won. Then I went dead for a while again till this happened. With blinds at 15/30k and my stack at 100 k the SB went ai. I have to call here as he has been at it since the dawn of time and I cannot fold as the I will only have 70lk which is not enough to even steal with.. I have J6. He flips J7. I hit 2 sixes!!!! Get in. I then went a little crazy for a bit and worked up to 400k. 2 players died. I stole and restole as now I have chips J .
Up to 600k when blue murder breaks loose. 1 big stack has tip 5s on a flop of Q52 with 2 diamonds. Other big stack has KQ diamonds. Diamond man catches and he is a HUGE leader with 1.6million. I have 600k and shortie has 200k. Shortie is Geeeaahh and big stack is G-boy. Both are good. But im ready for this I tell myself. No talk of a deal and its loco. With the combined blinds at 60k there is a lot to fight for and Geeaah goes crazy. All-in 6 hands in a row. Big stack aint bothered and is playing patiently. I find KJ and he goes ai. I ponder. Im at least live and I reckon I could be a favourite. Otherwise I know he is gonne get back up to a level where he is dangerous. I shoulda been more patient. I call he has 55. A straight race. They railbirds are at it, there is a K and a 5 on the flop. His set holds and he double through me. Fuk. I find 55 on the button after 2 orbits, I push and get called by KJ. He rivers a Jack and im out!! FUCK!!! 3rd . I made some quality moves on that table, nice re-steals, selective aggression, no limping. And it paid off. But I should have won it. No questions, I should have won it. I was better than those 2….lol
Now, you know what the good part out of all of this is? I now have a fully functional bankroll for the games I have been wanting to play. The $50 SnG’s are nice. Softer fields than the $25 ones, with a lot of action.
Ill TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO SAY THANKYOU TO POKER!!!
Im going to play in the rookie night at Luton tomorrow. Im gonna win that 2 ;)

Drunkrolling!! Woohoo baby.

This weekend see's me playing some serious poker. Im playing in the £1500 main event at Luton and the £750. I wish. Ill be playing at the .25/.50 NL tables grilling my favourite fish, friday night drunkards. Finishing work at about 4pm today, gonna go for a run (if its not raining) then have a relaxing bath and a sweet 4 hours kip. Ill then be getting up and playing in all the nice tournies and cash games with tired/ drunk people in abundance. Ill be feeling sharp as a razor. I might even use a TEC or try a satellite for a big event on UB/VC/Stars and just play for the first 2 hours while watching the Sopranos. This is quite controvertial, but i believe in allowing people to try little moves and steals at pots early in the tournie....then snapping them off when you get a legit hand. I know how to win MTT's. Iv done it before. give me a testosterone injection around the bubble and let me win a coin flip or two when someone fights back and ill be on the podium with a fat grin.
I might be playing at Luton at some stage on the weekend, as the cash games might well be V.Juicy. But probably, ill just keep grinding online.

Played at VC the other night in a freeroll satellite for the WSOP. All final table players make it to the monthly final. 1st one, 467 runners, i finished 16th when ai with AA and a huge stack up agains the only other big stack at the table. He thought i was stealing and re-raised me then spiked a lucky 7 with his 77 to make a set. Honestly. Never mind though, less than 2 hours later, another freeroll MTT for the same event....67 runners !!! LOL Cruised to FT and had some fun on the way. Made a shit load of notes on a few players who get wayyyyyyy out of line lat eon and got lucky. Ill be picking my spots if i get on any of their tables deep in.

End of the month will be something like 500-1000 runners for 1 WSOP place. Shit, but heh, its free. And most importantly, it allows me to live the dream and imagine what could be!!!

Honestly, even though id love to go if i won a seat, my brain would get the better of me and id have to sell. Even if Tiffany "im a Lawyer, so im allowed to get lucky 8 times" Williamson won 400k, id rather do it my way and win summat on merit. Im not good enough to beat Luton £20 final tables so id be seriously dead money in that kind of field. But i can still dream of outdrawing that idiot Tony G at a table and maxing a random fishy comment. Id LOVE that. Never seen someone act so badly to others and get away with it so often. If he did some of the stuff he does to guys to me, id probably swallow a couple jokes then smack him when he crossed the line.
Do you reckon id get sponsorship for that? Shit, i might just go to the WSOP just for the chance ;)

A few issues I want to quickly discuss here guys. In the realm of small(ish) stakes cash games short handed I have found that there is definitely an optimal strategy that I find useful. Don’t play more than 2 tables at once. 2 tables allows you to be more selective than many of your competitors in terms of hand selection. It also helps if you are doing something in the background that you can stop and start easily, such as writing a report, essay, or in my case updating my cv. There are some very juicy cash games out there, but you need a combination of factors. You need at least 2 weak players at your table and your seat needs to be good. The biggest improvement I have made of late is seat table and seat selection. I look at a table, 2 known strong players, forget it. Two calling stations, bingo, ill try and get a seat ahead of them and value bet them to death. Two highly aggressive players, ill play them WITH POSITION. In these short-handed small stakes uber-aggressive games, your main weapon is position and post-flop skill combined with pre-flop selectivity. I won my biggest cash pot to date last night, $145. That’s a lot of money to me. The thing was, I did earn it, but only because I gave myself the opportunity to win a big pot by getting behind 2 perpetual re-raisers (also helps if you flop the nut straight with the nut flush draw J ). The point im making is that table and seat selection are directly proportional to, id guess, about 20% of your profitability in short handed games.
Problems. I dropped 2 buy-ins last night thanks to one dodgy outdraw and one well played hand from my opponent. I wasn’t too downbeat as id already won a lot earlier. But it affected me mentally when I dropped another buy-in thanks to a ludicrous outdraw minutes later (2 outs on the river- happens all too often). But THIS was where the shit started. I had lost my nerve, I was now feeling scared of outdraws, and playing on 3 tables. I should have quit and had a cup of tea there and then!!! But, as always happens, I felt this money was too easy and would be going away. I proceeded to fold two winning hands in $40+ pots because I was convinced I was beat, alas, that would mean my oponents actually had brain cells. 1 guy gets ALL HIS $ IN with KJ on a flop of AJ4 rainbow. I fold Kings here, certain im beat. The CALLER, calling for more than $70 calls with J,10. WOW. This shit actually happens.
Problems occur when you are playing with scared money. My mate Rob regularly plays the £100 PL at Luton. He buys in for £100. Blinds are £3/£3 (I think) and the running hourly rake is £8. That’s scared money in my opinion. If I sit down at that game, im sitting down with a minimum of £300 and preferably £500. You don’t give yourself a chance to play poker properly if you CANT CHASE OFF WEAK DRAWS!!!
By playing with scared money you also get into shit with people who bet into you. Say you have Aqo. Flop comes KQ7r.Assume an aggressive player bets preflop and then again postflop. You have seen him bet the pot here with AA or 88. So, you do the correct thing if you are unsure and RAISE. This should give you information. Say you both have $50 and the pot when he bets is $7. He raises $7. Against a lot of people, im laying this hand right now, but he’s loose aggressive. I re-raise to $14. He calls. Turn, 8. Not a scary card, particularly. He bets here again, another $8. Im not sure here, so I call. River 4. He bets $10 again and now I just want to see his cards as his hand does not make sense. He flips Q8,a turned 2 pair. Now, there’s not a lot different you can do here, but always be careful of players whom you cannot put on a range of cards.
Iv also struggled lately with the limp re-raise from UTG players in small-stakes STT’s and MTT’s. Say you have KK in the cutoff, numerous limpers. The 1st limper re-raises. Its very tricky here. Here is what I have deduced,if you know nothing about their play. Call on VC or Betfair. Fold on Ultimate Bet or Stars. Seriously, im still waiting for my theory to be proven wrong. See if the buy-in is more than $10 on UB and Stars they actually have an idea and they more than likely have AA. But on VC the mid-to-low pairs are all-in material pretty eraly on for a lot of these guys.
Tip of the day. Only change gears at a table where the competition is good enough and the stakes are high enough. IE DEEP into a $20-$50 MTT or at a cash game where your opponents play more than their hole cards. These players are a rarity ;)
Gl guys, im off for a lovely sunny walk with the lady.

Back on Track
Finally the wooden wheels of the martin machine which were brutally broken have been thankfully replaced by some meaty 18" alloys. My game is back thanks to a concoction of fortune and skill…. in that order. Both accounts are over $150, with one substantially so J
I had a huge loos of form recently and lost a whole heap of my online bankroll. This has happened to me before but TODAY and from NOW ON I am only going to play in games I can comfortably beat and afford. I’m feeling really good about my game at the moment. When I was suffering and feeling all sad and depressed about amount of time taken to build such and such $ I forgot the key rule in poker for me. KEEP LEARNING. Iv immersed myself in Harrington recently (very good) and also had a dapple with the WPT books (which are shit). Iv gone back over some of the McEvoy/Cloutier advice, some of which I take, some of which I don’t (exactly what hands DOES Cloutier play?) But there is a whole heap of lovely advice on the net, and I particularly like the info on "changing gears"- (HINT Rob Apple, this is something you need to learn J ).
Should be getting a couple of refer a friend bonuses through soon ,once Seb "the Doctor" Gray gets his game (which wont take long).
Results. Planned to play the £10 re-buy at Luton on Saturday but unfortunately the M1 was rammo and I missed the start. I didn’t mind though,as I played a £30 SnG soon after and got screwed over late on. Down to 4 players and im the 3rd biggest stack. I make a minimum raise with KQ on the button. BB is a noted aggressive, GOOD player capable with moving with any 2. SB fold’s and he calls. He acts 1st and puts me all-in on a flop of KJ9. Hmmmmmm……. Bollocks im not laying this down here, if he has a str8 he checks, if he has 2 pair he probably checks also (been watching his game you know, it ALWAYS pay’s to observe). Anyhow, I call he flips J7 and its all looking good till the turn comes 7 and im out. I could have cruised to third but that’s not how I play (only £60). If I win im a firm favourite over the other 3 as big stack is reckless and the two babies are fighting for blinds.
Play the £20 re-buy and play vv well. I get bluffed on the third hand and I should have called. If I had thought about it more I would have. I cannot allow myself to panic and fold without thinking about the cards. If he is good enough to possibly be value betting the river, then he is good enough to be bluffing. Here’s the hand, comments welcome. I hold 1010 in mp. I open for a pot raise of 125 (25/50 blinds). 2 callers, 1 late pos and the BB. Flop comes Q, 8, 7 rainbow. Not a bad flop. I look at the guys as the cards go over and I reckon they missed but im not sure. I bet ½ the pot (250 odd). LP folds, BB Calls. Im struggling to put this guy on a hand as iv seen him slow play Kings, bet out aces UTG..in short mix his game up nicely. But I THINK im ahead. Turn comes 6. Not the time to get fancy, he checks. He could have 10,8. But then he "could" have pocket queens. I decide to bet so as not to give him odds if he is still drawing. 800 into a pot of 1000. He calls again. River is a ugly card, the 5h. Yuk. He goes AI for 2k. I should THINK!!!! If he has the 9, why doesn’t he just bet a little. He knows ill call. Damn, I just CANNOT see how 10’s are good on this board. If I could read him I could call, but I have real difficulty with indian/pakistani players. And he knows I know he is good. He could be shitting me. Fuck it I fold. He flips J7 for 1 pair and im pissed off. He outplayed me. Well I was out for him from then on. I knew there and the id double up from him later on. As he was the natural aggressor on my table I was watching his every hand and then I picked up a tiny tell. He paused for AGES before betting largeish, from Late position. Im holding AK and double up through him and his A2 steal. Someone else picked this up and took the guys chips a little later. I player well and had some nice hands and some nice steals late on. Then this hand. I get 1010 in the BB. Known LAGGY player raises from MP when shorthanded. He isnt YET pot committed so I put him in after deciding he definitely doesn’t want a call. He folds A5 face up. Why he showed that ill never know. Later on I get Ajs in the BB again. He raises biggish and I give him the staredown. Anyone else and this table is getting thrown into that muck NOW. But im just about getting odds if he has a smaller pair than my overcards, or more likely, I have him dominated. I call and he has 55 which holds up. Drat. Im now very low and instantly get dealt AA. Hmmmm…..
I only have 6k left. Blinds are 1k/2k respectively, so how to max my winnings. I limp of course, form LP. Known good player raises round the back and im trying to look scared so the LAGGY BB goes all-in. I should have stood up from my chair and started looking for my coat ;) BB folds, I call, LP has 44, my hand holds and im through to Final table. BUT I have a tiny stack. I get A6h in mp and there are 2 limpers. I fold. This was a mistake as I found out later. I was going to get 4 way action. In situations where you are severely short stacked its best to get involved in these large pots as if you win you are straight back up there. I pussied out and it cost me. I finally decided that calling a large re-raise with 87o was a Great play and that’s the end of that. Cest la vie.
On a high note played a 360 runner event last night and came third. Impressed myself the whole way through with tactical genius before scuppering it all with a hasty decision when down to the final 3. Never mind.
Tip of the Day. NEVER play a game that is too big for you. You will be scared and not make optimal plays. Gl all, esp Herg.