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).