Picking music for the iPod 'Poker' playlist:
My original tactic was to have some decent background, elavator, instantly forgetable hit music with a touch of guitar dribbling through the earphones, but discovered at the Jackpot €100 game that the slow depressing Sade-esque suicide inducing anthems were a bit too successful and lead to me being the table wimp... so that HAD to change. Plan B, crack out the old Eminim Show album, stick that on the iPod and picture all my opponents as my money-grabbing mother who desrves a beating, effectively TIGHT AGGRESSIVE... bingo! However, due to a technical hitch in the updating of my 'Poker' playlist, I now have "My Love" my Justin Timberlake on my iPod about seven or eight times, still not sure how I managed that!
Respect at the Mayfair Christmas game:
When I play in the Mayfair in Arklow I do well, I don't know why but I do. I think maybe the idea of driving for an hour for a game of cards focusses the mind somewhat. Having won their End of Month game before and dragging Lloyd in the door with me fresh from his 30k win I got the impression that the locals weren't happy to see the two boys from Dublin. Its a noticeable change when people respect you before you sit down at a table, in contrast to some Dublin clubs where if you are under the age of 25 people assume you're a cocky no talent ass hat! I think between myself and Lloyd finishing 3rd and 2nd respectively we more than justified whatever respect, if any, shown to us.
Shoes can be terribly constricting:
I have a pair of shoes, they're not particularly nice shoes. Lloyd tenderly refers to them as my Sporting Emporium shoes, as I wear them in order to get in the door their as they frown upon my life policy to live and die in runners . So the morining comes for myself and the usual crew of Dublin student dealers to work at the JP Poker Christmas Festival, and our hero needs a pair of shoes, so I break out the old reliables! These shoes, I know, have seen better days, they are in desperate need of replacement, but I gamble and go to work in my much travelled shoes. Most of the day passes without event, but at about 2pm, after you've been wearing the same shoes for near on 16 hours, they get uncomfortable, and the real shit of it is once you noticed they're uncomfortable it'll take a frying pan to the side of the head to make you think of anything else. So there I am, dealing away, at nearly 3am watching Ken Powell and Rob Taylor showing off their rather impressive MTT skills, and ALL I can think about is my shoes. Being super smart that I am I decide I'll just take the damn things off. This plan is flawless... until play stops and you have to get up from the table... now shoeless! Is there a lesson to be learnt from this experience? There probably is!
Thursday 28 December 2006
Monday 18 December 2006
€50 H.O.R.S.E marathon
I'll get through the background to this game as quick as possible. Basically, on a whim i decided i wanted to play horse and using boards.ie managed to set up the game in the jackpot for 8pm on saturday. We had 12 runners, and a €600 prizepool. The structure had been designed by Carl who should seek other employment rather than a tournament structure designer, but to be fair, he is the only one who did it so I wont complain too much. I had figured that to win this you'd have to be in the jackpot at 4am. I don't think some of the other players had anticipated how long this could take. We did afterall have a 10,000 starting stack which was going to allow for alot of play.
Being honest I felt that I had a bit of an edge heading into this and while I would never claim to be an expert in any of the five games, i definately knew the basics which was more that most. Also, i had a strategy. A fairly simple one but a strategy none the less. The plan was not to get involved in much of the hold'em as everyone would know what they were doing unless I had a draw heavy hand that i could get to a river cheaply on in limit. Having watched Anto have Aces and queens beaten in the first five hands i was determined not to get in trouble with big pairs. I then got JJ and check called to the river, losing minimum to Gordon's AA on a rag board.
With Omaha HI/LO i have played a fair bit of this online, and was running well until i had 3 sick beats. I have read a fair bit of omaha hi/lo strategy and felt this would be where i'd get my chips. And after the first round of this my 10,000 was up to over 14,000.
With razz and stud my plan was to only lead the betting when i could beat what i could see. if i couldnt beat what i could see but had a feeling i was ahead i'd check call the whole way down, again losing minimum this way when i was behind.
For Stud hi/lo my plan was to play next to nothing. The only times i got involved was when it was very clear that 2 opponents were playing for the hi or the lo and i could aim for the other.
We lost two players reasonably quickly but it was clear that they were not in the mood for the long haul required for this and were more than happy to dump their chips and go drinking. I must admit I was a bit baffled by this, everyone always complains about how they want good structures for low buy-ins etc etc, then they get a game with a 10,000 stack and LOTS of play and they lose patience and get bored. Cant keep everyone happy.
We got down to eight and our final table. We lost Conor K after he had two king showing in stud and was calling bets along the way, but he looked defeated, i hadn't realised he had gotten so short. I was quite happy to see him go as other than Oscar I felt that he'd be tough to get by. What I hate about playing against him is that he can play uber-aggressive, and it would appear as if this doesnt only concern hold'em. He'll keep firing bullets, big ones so that even if you think your ahead his bets make it tough to call without a big hand, and in stud games there are alot of streets to fire bullets on.
Then i got myself into a hand with Rob C. I had A2 down and 5 showing, my next card was a 3, and my next a 4. This was great but hed had three spades showing and I know Rob to me tight ight tight so when he pushed his final chips in front of him I was tempted to fold my straight. I'd a huge hand for stud but feared I was behind. I ended up calling, assuming I was behind which in my mind makes it a bad call. He had only the flush draw but I had 2 spades to dodge. Fortunately I did but I'm still not happy about the call.
After this when we got back to hold'em i played my favourite hand of the night. I open raised from UTG with 73 spades. I had been raising alot now with hands like this hoping to catch a nice draw flop. Three callers including Oscar see a 23K flop. Oscar bet out and I reraised, and Oscar called. Oscar bet a Q turn and i called. I had reraised the flop thinking that if i hit i was gonna get nicely paid in a big enough pot but I was thinking in the back ofmy mind that I have read a few posts on boards by oscar about some big bluffs he had made in limit holdem and he had told me beofre hand that the best strategy for limit holdem was to bet bet bet. With this is mind i justified my call, and then on a 10 river he bet out the standard 800 into about a 5k pot. I figured with the potential to be ahead and the great value I had to call with my 2nd bottom pair. Oscar showed 72 for bottom pair and i took a nice pot.
After alot of 6 handed play we agreed to switch to Pot Limit Omaha High at about 3am. We lost one player failry quickly. I then started to get involved a fair bit and knocked out Gordon in what people have said was a terrible play. I raised with TT68 and flop came 977. I bet out and Gordon pushed. (I later discovered that I could justify my call based on value and percentages and stuff but i'd be lying if I said i considered that). Gordon had been quite aggressive the whole way along so i figured that if i called, there was a small chance i was ahead, and if not i had plenty of outs. I called, a sweet J on the turn and we were down to 4 and i had a nice chip lead. Soon after we lost Ross who seemed to be getting tired and was playing as if he wanted a massive lead or a quick exit. Oscar provided the quick exit and left Oscar with about 40k, i had just shy of 50k which meant Alan had just over 30k. I knew both these guys were better at PLO than me so we all quickly agreed a 3 way chop. €200 in a night and home i went happy to have played well at something other than holdem.
Being honest I felt that I had a bit of an edge heading into this and while I would never claim to be an expert in any of the five games, i definately knew the basics which was more that most. Also, i had a strategy. A fairly simple one but a strategy none the less. The plan was not to get involved in much of the hold'em as everyone would know what they were doing unless I had a draw heavy hand that i could get to a river cheaply on in limit. Having watched Anto have Aces and queens beaten in the first five hands i was determined not to get in trouble with big pairs. I then got JJ and check called to the river, losing minimum to Gordon's AA on a rag board.
With Omaha HI/LO i have played a fair bit of this online, and was running well until i had 3 sick beats. I have read a fair bit of omaha hi/lo strategy and felt this would be where i'd get my chips. And after the first round of this my 10,000 was up to over 14,000.
With razz and stud my plan was to only lead the betting when i could beat what i could see. if i couldnt beat what i could see but had a feeling i was ahead i'd check call the whole way down, again losing minimum this way when i was behind.
For Stud hi/lo my plan was to play next to nothing. The only times i got involved was when it was very clear that 2 opponents were playing for the hi or the lo and i could aim for the other.
We lost two players reasonably quickly but it was clear that they were not in the mood for the long haul required for this and were more than happy to dump their chips and go drinking. I must admit I was a bit baffled by this, everyone always complains about how they want good structures for low buy-ins etc etc, then they get a game with a 10,000 stack and LOTS of play and they lose patience and get bored. Cant keep everyone happy.
We got down to eight and our final table. We lost Conor K after he had two king showing in stud and was calling bets along the way, but he looked defeated, i hadn't realised he had gotten so short. I was quite happy to see him go as other than Oscar I felt that he'd be tough to get by. What I hate about playing against him is that he can play uber-aggressive, and it would appear as if this doesnt only concern hold'em. He'll keep firing bullets, big ones so that even if you think your ahead his bets make it tough to call without a big hand, and in stud games there are alot of streets to fire bullets on.
Then i got myself into a hand with Rob C. I had A2 down and 5 showing, my next card was a 3, and my next a 4. This was great but hed had three spades showing and I know Rob to me tight ight tight so when he pushed his final chips in front of him I was tempted to fold my straight. I'd a huge hand for stud but feared I was behind. I ended up calling, assuming I was behind which in my mind makes it a bad call. He had only the flush draw but I had 2 spades to dodge. Fortunately I did but I'm still not happy about the call.
After this when we got back to hold'em i played my favourite hand of the night. I open raised from UTG with 73 spades. I had been raising alot now with hands like this hoping to catch a nice draw flop. Three callers including Oscar see a 23K flop. Oscar bet out and I reraised, and Oscar called. Oscar bet a Q turn and i called. I had reraised the flop thinking that if i hit i was gonna get nicely paid in a big enough pot but I was thinking in the back ofmy mind that I have read a few posts on boards by oscar about some big bluffs he had made in limit holdem and he had told me beofre hand that the best strategy for limit holdem was to bet bet bet. With this is mind i justified my call, and then on a 10 river he bet out the standard 800 into about a 5k pot. I figured with the potential to be ahead and the great value I had to call with my 2nd bottom pair. Oscar showed 72 for bottom pair and i took a nice pot.
After alot of 6 handed play we agreed to switch to Pot Limit Omaha High at about 3am. We lost one player failry quickly. I then started to get involved a fair bit and knocked out Gordon in what people have said was a terrible play. I raised with TT68 and flop came 977. I bet out and Gordon pushed. (I later discovered that I could justify my call based on value and percentages and stuff but i'd be lying if I said i considered that). Gordon had been quite aggressive the whole way along so i figured that if i called, there was a small chance i was ahead, and if not i had plenty of outs. I called, a sweet J on the turn and we were down to 4 and i had a nice chip lead. Soon after we lost Ross who seemed to be getting tired and was playing as if he wanted a massive lead or a quick exit. Oscar provided the quick exit and left Oscar with about 40k, i had just shy of 50k which meant Alan had just over 30k. I knew both these guys were better at PLO than me so we all quickly agreed a 3 way chop. €200 in a night and home i went happy to have played well at something other than holdem.
Saturday 9 December 2006
It's not all good
In the last week or so I've been playing poorly at best. I'm sitting at tables knowing what I should be doing but I cant quite get my brain and my hands to work together so I find my chips going in when I know they shouldnt be and sitting behind the line when I know i should be putting the pressure on. Having played well (in my opinion) in the SE's €200 game I find myself looking to play in bigger games, be it higher stakes cash games or bigger buy in tournaments and if i don'tr cash in these it slowly kills my bank balance. I know I'm after taking a nice percentage of Lloyd's drogheda game but I don't just want to piss it all away.
I played the jackpot €100 game, 48 runners, finished 13th, no return. Then I played the Sporting Emporium €50 game on thursday, 84 runners this time and again 13th, no return. I played the jackpot game so badly, i was runing well early on then for no reason donked off 6k of my 6k stack in a stupid hand trying to resteal. It was a bad play, and even as I did it I knew it was a bad play, but I just really wanted a big stack and didnt want to have to put in the work over time to get it, so once I'd lost that hand I had to play survival poker and eventually ran out of luck near the final table. Same thing happened at the SE €50 game, I sat down and decided (reasonably correctly) that I was better than most of the players at the table. This was dangerous because I assumed my raises and check-raises would be respected for what they were, but this is not the tournament to get tricky. I had 2,300 of my 4,000 at the break and managed to survive into 13th with some uber-aggressive play and finally stuck it in with A7 on a Q76,5,A board against big blinds 34.
So all in all the above tourneys cost me €165 with reg fee's for no return. I can't do that on a weekly basis, approx €500 per month if I'm not winning, and of late I'm not winning. So for the foreseeable future I'm limiting myself to €50 games, no more jackpot tuesday €100's for me. I've one or two planned exceptions to this rule which will be the Vegas Nights €100 Christmas Game, and the Mayfair Card Club €250 Christmas but I've planned on playing those for a while. STICK TO LOWER STAKES JEFF!!!
I played the jackpot €100 game, 48 runners, finished 13th, no return. Then I played the Sporting Emporium €50 game on thursday, 84 runners this time and again 13th, no return. I played the jackpot game so badly, i was runing well early on then for no reason donked off 6k of my 6k stack in a stupid hand trying to resteal. It was a bad play, and even as I did it I knew it was a bad play, but I just really wanted a big stack and didnt want to have to put in the work over time to get it, so once I'd lost that hand I had to play survival poker and eventually ran out of luck near the final table. Same thing happened at the SE €50 game, I sat down and decided (reasonably correctly) that I was better than most of the players at the table. This was dangerous because I assumed my raises and check-raises would be respected for what they were, but this is not the tournament to get tricky. I had 2,300 of my 4,000 at the break and managed to survive into 13th with some uber-aggressive play and finally stuck it in with A7 on a Q76,5,A board against big blinds 34.
So all in all the above tourneys cost me €165 with reg fee's for no return. I can't do that on a weekly basis, approx €500 per month if I'm not winning, and of late I'm not winning. So for the foreseeable future I'm limiting myself to €50 games, no more jackpot tuesday €100's for me. I've one or two planned exceptions to this rule which will be the Vegas Nights €100 Christmas Game, and the Mayfair Card Club €250 Christmas but I've planned on playing those for a while. STICK TO LOWER STAKES JEFF!!!
Saturday 2 December 2006
Sporting Emporium Deep Stack €200+€20 Game
After myself and anto’s great plan of taking on the Sligo 200+20 I managed to sleep through my planned wake up time so we figured playing the Boards/Sporting Emporium Deep Stack 200+20 game was as good an idea! For some unknown reason I fancied a bit of a gamble and Tony (Flushdraw) made a fairly convincing argument for me to play blind Omaha for 20 yoyo’s, I think he may have said “are you playing this??” which was good enough for me. So down I sit and Tony explains the best way to play blind Omaha is to look at your 2nd card 1st, then your 4th, then 3rd, then 1st. so I flip over a nice KING, and the board brings a two fives and a king, nice me thinks, a flop with potential! As is standard in blind Omaha there’s a lot of up and downs, anyway, I find myself down to the river and losing to a straight, only if my last down card is a king do I take this down, and sure enough, a big bright red king smiles up at me and I luckbox my way to a free buy in to the 200 game.
My first table starts poorly as I miss with AK, AQ and 77 and am down to about 7k… then about three or four blind levels go by with little incident and my table breaks and I’m somehow on 10k or thereabouts, that’ll do! My new table is fun, I have Conor Smith at the other end of the table and Daragh (HectorJelly) Thomas is on the big blind on my button. Having read a great deal about HectorJelly on boards I know I’m in for a fun evening and will have to play some good poker to handle him. Sure enough, the first time I limp he fires out a nice raise and I pretty much know this will set the standard for the next while. After a round or two of seeing monsters like J3, T5, K4 I finally look down at AQ, but there’s a raise and re-raise before me and into the muck they go. The very next hand the same happens with AJ.
Then I start to clash with HectorJelly. I know he is likely to raise and re-raise me and outplay me. Its very obvious very quickly this guy is a considerably better card player than I am. I fire out a raise on his big blind, and he asks me how much I’m playing, I’ve T9 and praying that he folds and gladly he does. Blinds go up to 200-400 and next time around I limp into his big blind with KJ and he checks. The flop comes king high and I bet out 700 into and 800 pot thinking that it may look like a steal and I’ve already decided if he reraises me I’m gonna push the rest in. He obliges and makes it 2k and I can’t get my chips in quick enough. He folds and I’m happy enough with how things are going. I’m thinking he might leave me alone a bit now, but the other half of my brain is thinking that he’ll want to beat me in a big pot… unsurprisingly this brings us to our next paragraph…
So it is folded around to me on the button, with HJ on small blind and Vera on big blind. I look down at 75offsuit and call the 400. HJ completes and Vera checks. We see a flop of 742, with two clubs. HJ leads out for 1100 into the pot of 1200, Vera folds. My thinking is that he has lead here with a marginal hand, at least if he has hit a set and is leading his bet size was wrong I thought and if he had an over pair he’d have raised preflop. I was reasonably confident he had a draw, maybe 56off suit or a flush draw, so I decide that I’ll try and take him off it, hope to end it on the flop but I’m prepared to call an all in. I raise it up to 4100, so an extra 3000, so I’m more or less giving him odds to call with a flush draw and if a club hits the turn I can get away from the hand. HOWEVER, calling on a draw is far too passive for a player of HJ’s ability and he pushes. He has me covered and I don’t like that he’s pushed but I go with my instinct and I call thinking I’ll be favourite but not my a long way. He tables 86clubs for a flush draw, I’m a slight favourite but if my maths is right (and its probably not) it’s more or less a coin flip. The turn is a red ace, happy days. But the river is an evil, heart breaking 8 of diamonds! NOOOOO!!!! I fall victim to HectorJelly’s poker sword… I’m not the first and definitely won’t be the last. That was a healthy 32k pot and if I won I’m confident I’d have at least cashed. I’m also pretty certain HJ will go on to take it down or at least make a decent finish.
On my way out I managed to turn €10 into €50 on the roulette table that helped and then when I got home, in true tilt fashion, I hopped into a .50/1 game on PPP. About three hands in and I raise with AK, one caller who covers me. Flop KJ9, I bet, villain re-raises, I re-raise and he pushes… at this point I know I’m beat… but I hit the call but, he shows Q-T for the nut straight. Turn is a jack… river is a king! I am sick luck box!! BUT as I write this same guy who I just robbed, has after robbing me with a river flush! NOT HAPPY! Back to even! Arghh… bleedin’ flushdraws are killing me these days!
My first table starts poorly as I miss with AK, AQ and 77 and am down to about 7k… then about three or four blind levels go by with little incident and my table breaks and I’m somehow on 10k or thereabouts, that’ll do! My new table is fun, I have Conor Smith at the other end of the table and Daragh (HectorJelly) Thomas is on the big blind on my button. Having read a great deal about HectorJelly on boards I know I’m in for a fun evening and will have to play some good poker to handle him. Sure enough, the first time I limp he fires out a nice raise and I pretty much know this will set the standard for the next while. After a round or two of seeing monsters like J3, T5, K4 I finally look down at AQ, but there’s a raise and re-raise before me and into the muck they go. The very next hand the same happens with AJ.
Then I start to clash with HectorJelly. I know he is likely to raise and re-raise me and outplay me. Its very obvious very quickly this guy is a considerably better card player than I am. I fire out a raise on his big blind, and he asks me how much I’m playing, I’ve T9 and praying that he folds and gladly he does. Blinds go up to 200-400 and next time around I limp into his big blind with KJ and he checks. The flop comes king high and I bet out 700 into and 800 pot thinking that it may look like a steal and I’ve already decided if he reraises me I’m gonna push the rest in. He obliges and makes it 2k and I can’t get my chips in quick enough. He folds and I’m happy enough with how things are going. I’m thinking he might leave me alone a bit now, but the other half of my brain is thinking that he’ll want to beat me in a big pot… unsurprisingly this brings us to our next paragraph…
So it is folded around to me on the button, with HJ on small blind and Vera on big blind. I look down at 75offsuit and call the 400. HJ completes and Vera checks. We see a flop of 742, with two clubs. HJ leads out for 1100 into the pot of 1200, Vera folds. My thinking is that he has lead here with a marginal hand, at least if he has hit a set and is leading his bet size was wrong I thought and if he had an over pair he’d have raised preflop. I was reasonably confident he had a draw, maybe 56off suit or a flush draw, so I decide that I’ll try and take him off it, hope to end it on the flop but I’m prepared to call an all in. I raise it up to 4100, so an extra 3000, so I’m more or less giving him odds to call with a flush draw and if a club hits the turn I can get away from the hand. HOWEVER, calling on a draw is far too passive for a player of HJ’s ability and he pushes. He has me covered and I don’t like that he’s pushed but I go with my instinct and I call thinking I’ll be favourite but not my a long way. He tables 86clubs for a flush draw, I’m a slight favourite but if my maths is right (and its probably not) it’s more or less a coin flip. The turn is a red ace, happy days. But the river is an evil, heart breaking 8 of diamonds! NOOOOO!!!! I fall victim to HectorJelly’s poker sword… I’m not the first and definitely won’t be the last. That was a healthy 32k pot and if I won I’m confident I’d have at least cashed. I’m also pretty certain HJ will go on to take it down or at least make a decent finish.
On my way out I managed to turn €10 into €50 on the roulette table that helped and then when I got home, in true tilt fashion, I hopped into a .50/1 game on PPP. About three hands in and I raise with AK, one caller who covers me. Flop KJ9, I bet, villain re-raises, I re-raise and he pushes… at this point I know I’m beat… but I hit the call but, he shows Q-T for the nut straight. Turn is a jack… river is a king! I am sick luck box!! BUT as I write this same guy who I just robbed, has after robbing me with a river flush! NOT HAPPY! Back to even! Arghh… bleedin’ flushdraws are killing me these days!
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