Christmas Edition

It has been a few weeks since I posted on here however I have been hard at work on the tables and have been running so very cold. That’s poker I suppose but after the highs I have experienced it has been a difficult few weeks.

I have now experienced both sides of poker, has it changed my attitude for the game? Not one bit, I still love it and look forward to the next game. What it has done is to confirm that I need to maintain my discipline at the table and also accept that winning is not achievable all the time. I have used the time to look at my mental approach and attitude and it has been beneficial in the long term as I have been playing a greater range of hands in position and during this run I have also looked for more opportunities to play specific players and position. My range of playable cards is now far wider than it has ever been and I have also worked very hard on pot control to ensure the premium hand holdings have been maximized, sure along the way there have been poor decisions and calls however I am taking the positives from this period of time.

I intend to take timed out over Christmas and am going to visit my daughter in Nottingham, she only lives 2 miles away from Dusk Til Dawn however I am not playing as I really need a few days away from the tables.

My first game back after the Christmas break is going to be the monthly deepstack at the G Blackpool on 2nd January 2010. I am going to then focus on the Castle Casino league and also use the time to prepare for the APAT Team Championships in late January at the G Manchester.

http://www.apat.com/wordpress/index.php/category/apat-national-championship/uk-team-championship/

The format for the event will be a 10,000 chip, 160 runner, multi table freezeout, with a 45 minute clock. As with all APAT events, the UK Team Championship will be registration free for members and have a £50 buy in per player. Each team will feature 8 players, kited out in their team colours. Points will be awarded to the top forty finishers to determine the Team Championship.

The 20 teams who will compete for the APAT United Kingdom Team Championship are as follows:-

A World Of Poker
Ace Of Clubs
Amateur Poker Association & Tour
Black Country Poker Club
Blonde Poker
Bristol & South West Meetup - Defending Champions
Chezger
Eat My Stack
FISO
Furness Poker
London Poker Meetup
Newcastle Poker Forum
NI Poker
Poker Player
Punters Lounge
Raise The River
Sky Poker
The Hendon Mob
UK Poker Info
Voyage In Poker

I have been selected to represent A World Of Poker - www.aworldofpoker.com together with other players from the community there. The full team for this event is:

1. Rick "doublebubble" Gilby
2. Dave "Nocash" Garden"
3. Martin "Bigbills" Devlin
4. Ky"the hutch" Hutchinson
5. Paul "Murph" Murphy
6. Phill "flisby" Gilby
7. Anna "pokerb1tch81" Astley
8. John "Little John Hare"

I just want to finish this blog by wishing you all a Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing you all at the tables in the New Year.

Post GukPT slump?

Ok so the GukPT is over, I had promised myself a few days off from poker after a heavy week however after cashing in the head hunter I realized that I needed to focus on The Castle league which had started the same week as the GukPT. The league at The Castle has been good to me over the last 2 events, the fields tend to be smaller but I cash on a frequent basis. In addition the real motivation is the end of league Final Table which has yielded a nice pay day on the last 2 leagues (in excess of £3000).

The game on Monday is £15 (2000 chips) with 2 top ups, first top up (4000 chips) second top up (6000 chips), tonight there are 40 players generating a prize pool of just over £1600. My tournament starts in unusual style for me with my chip stack being up and down like a bride’s nightie, I’m usually a grinder who steadily builds chips. I make the break having had my re-buys with a fairly average 7,600 however I know from past experiences that the tournament starts after the break. As with recent games I play solid positional poker and build my stack steadily making the final table without too many scares. I am average in chips and just focus on using every opportunity to take pots down using low risk positional plays, this works well and slowly one by one other players depart the card room. The End result being heads up against James Jones. By this time its 3am and we have both got even chip stacks, a deal is suggested and a chip count is done, (blinds 5,000/10,000) James has 10,000 more than me and takes the top points for the league. A good game for me after the roller coaster of the GukPT, league points in the bag and a nice cash too.

NO RESULTS AVAILABLE ON AWOP

Tuesday evening I play at the ‘G’ in the £30 double chance freeze out. I go out an hour after the break. I use my experiences from the GukPT well and play position well but like all poker players you can’t win / cash every time you sit at the table. I wander down to the cash table and show a nice profit on the evening which covers my poker costs so all is not lost.

Wednesday sees me once more back at the ‘G’ for the £15 two rebuy tournament, 32 players generate a fair prize pot of £1065. Again it is an evening of positional poker looking for opportunities to take pots down. I move to the final table without too many scares and I’m joined there by my good mate Linton Holling. One by one players go until four of us are left, Linton, Lin Han Li, David Doran and myself. Linton and I clash a few times over pots and my chip stack is once more up and down. I have decided I am going to be uber aggressive four handed as I want to bring this into my game at appropriate points rather than being fairly passive. Linton unfortunately goes out in fourth place, a pity as I really enjoy going head to head with him as he is a good player. The positive of his exit is it will allow me to really play aggressive poker against the other players. I have spent the time on the final table looking for reads on the remaining two players and I’m certain I have both players sussed out fairly well.

I only enter pots with a raise during the remainder of this tournament and one several occasions I re-raise pots with air using the information I have gained from the other two. My uber aggressive style pays off in buckets taking down pot after pot to the point where almost every time I am on the big blind I am getting a walk. Heads up following the exit of Lin Han Li against David, it is only his second live event and whilst he has a decent game the heads up only lasts 20 minutes as I have a 6 to 1 chip advantage and get fortunate when I turn a straight of my kicker to a medium king holding.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009
£15 No Limit Texas Holdem With 2 Rebuys
Entries: 32
Prize Pool: £1065
Position Name Prize
1 John David Hare £495
2 David Dorad £300
3 Lin Han Li £160
4 Linton Holling £110

The games on Friday and Saturday I play like a total donk! Worse than this on Friday I let a player get inside my head and allow this to affect my poker. No way is this going to happen again and I will be working very hard on strategies to prevent this in future!

GukPT £100 Head Hunter 15th November 2009

So this was the final tournament of the week in the GukPT and it attracted a field of 134 players. There was a £25 cash bounty on the head of each player, no silly discs, or pieces of paper to collect with each head being a £25 casino cash chip there and then! This was also my final opportunity to cash in a GukPT event and whilst many saw it as a bit of fun at the end of a hard week I went with my game head on.
The tournament started really well for me when I tripped up two consecutive pocket pairs (oh for such cards in the Main Event!) getting paid well in chips both times. I then got my first head when another pair tripped before filling me up on the river. Towards the end of level 3 (90 minutes in) came the biggest hand of the night for me, There was an all in from early position from the short stack on the table, this was then called by one of the larger stacks before another short stack pushed all in. The action folded to me in the High Blind and I looked down to find the ‘Hilton Sisters’ Q,Q. I deliberated what to do due to the action before me and came to the conclusion that I would be very unlucky to have run into A,A & K,K from the two pushes. I considered it carefully and came to the conclusion that it was more likely to be A,K / A,Q or medium pairs due to the previous action on the table which had been in the main loose aggressive due to the players involved and the nature of the event. Also any player holding A,A or K,K would want action not just to take the blinds and dead money in the pot hoping to get it all in good after the flop to take the head hunter prizes. Taking all this into consideration I pushed all in as there was in excess of 8,000 chips in the middle of the table trying to force out the other big stack who could still fold and have a very playable stack. The action moved round past the first player who was all in to the other big stack who clearly had a serious decision to make, he dwelt it up for ages and then announced “there is too much in the middle” and called. His dwell up gave me confidence that he was not holding A,A or K,K as he had previously not taken much time over any decision he made. The cards went on their backs and showed the following:
First All-In – 10,10
Large Stack – K,6 off suit!
Second All-In – 10,10
Me - Q,Q
I could not believe it, 10’s drawing dead except to some exotic straight, only the King or running sixes to worry about. I was a massive favorite to win the hand and did so taking two head hunters and leaving the previous large stack wallowing on a chip and a chair. This pushed my chip stack to in excess of 18,000 with the average at 6,500 plus £75 in cash chips. One more head and I’m free rolling. The forth head followed quickly after when a nice medium pair held against the short stack.
Players were falling like flies in this event and the room echoed to the calls of dealers “lost one” and tables were being split on a regular basis. In the space of 4 levels (2 hours play) the field had gone from 134 down to 52. Players continued to fall on a regular basis however to balance this my cards dried up and so my early large stack became only an average one. Opportunities to get chips into pots were limited as players pushed from earlier position thereby making pushing hands for the later positioned players less attractive, I took the stance, as I have recently that a hand worth raising with becomes not even worth calling with to an earlier raise and therefore I was mucking especially from the small and big blinds.
More tables split and I joined a good mate Linton Holling who was well chipped up, the cash bubble was quickly approaching (13 players) and with this players were pushing with any two cards, Linton, as usual went out to a shocking outdraw, he has to be a player who suffers more bad beats than most players I know, if there is a bad beat to be had then Linton is always on the wrong end of it!
I eventually ran out of steam finishing as the final table bubble in 10th place but collected £150 cash. At least I cashed in one event this week which is more than most of the player who attended this very well supported week can say. It would have been nice to final table and take home a bigger prize but it was not to be.

GukPT Day 2 14 November 2009

Ok so the first objective was achieved, I made Day 2, in fact I made Day 2 in style being in the top 15 in chips! 82 players have made it through to Day Two from the field of 287. I spent yesterday catching up on household chores but by early afternoon I knew I wanted to be back at the ‘G’, not to play but to stay in the zone, I needed to be there not sat at home thinking about what may or may not happen.

This morning I woke having slept really well, I was feeling good and looking forward to unbagging my chips and getting down to business. As usual I followed my routine and has a leisurely morning before a relaxed drive to the ‘G’. I was strange really as I have never played in any tournament of this size yet I felt ‘at home’, totally comfortable. I suppose I went not expecting too much and that I had made Day 2 was an achievement in itself.

We were called into the card room and I found myself of Table 6, the feature table for The nutz.tv.

Table Six

Seat One - John Hare

Seat Two - Gary Brewer

Seat Three - Richard Trigg

Seat Four - Mark Robinson

Seat Five - David Gerald

Seat Six - Kyriacos Dionysiou

Seat Seven - Ben Vinson

Seat Eight - Michael Greco

I spent the first level fairly quiet apart from a hand on my BB (A,J off suit) where I re-popped Ben Vinson only to face a reload for all my chips so I passed. An hour in I find K,K in my small blind and the button (Jonathon Weekes) raises ‘All-In’. I also go ‘All-In’ to isolate and the Big Blind passes. The board comes down Q,J,8,6,8 and I take down a nice pot to move me to 60,000 against Jonathon’s holding of A,7. A few hands later I find A,K off suit and raise it up and get called by Kyriacos Dionysiou (Jack the Greek). The flop comes Ad,6c,2c and all the chips go in with Jack showing Ac,7c, I have him out kicked but he has the re-draw to the flush. No more clubs arrive however the board pairs for a chop pot. Whilst I was pleased to see no more clubs I am a little disappointed that the board paired as this pot had over 100,000 chips in it and it would have doubled me through.

During this session it is carnage with players crashing out almost every hand with 28 players crashing out in the first 2 hours!
During the rest of the session I manage to maintain my chip stack around the 60,000 mark and make the meal break (3 hours in) at 61,500 against the chip average of 63,600.

After the meal break there are only 43 players remaining from the original 82 players. I really go through a spell of being card dead just as the blinds and antes start to bite, I know I need to get busy and manage to pinch a pot here and there by using position. I do have to be careful as each time I am betting into the large stacks on the table from the button, cut off and one before the cut off.

I find pocket 4,s and raise into an unopened pot and the table folds to the small blind (Ben Vinson) who calls and the big blind folds. The flop comes Ac,3c, As and Ben checks. I fire a bet at it and Ben considers this and then re-raises me All-In. I think about the situation and know he does not have the Ace, Ben has been very aggressive all afternoon and would re-raise with any Ace in his small blind as he would with a pocket pair, especially playing out of position against a small stack such as mine. I know my pair is good however I also know that Ben will have some outs, I make the call knowing he is either straight drawing or more likely flushing. Cards go on their backs and he shows 6,7 clubs (4 to the flush), the turn card seals my fate as the 10c hits. I am drawing to 4 cards on the river (2 Aces or 2 4’s) the river card comes a blank 9 and my GukPT Main Event is over as I finish 42nd.

There is one last event to play that is the £100 one day on Sunday. I am entered for this one as well. I will take my experiences of the Main Event into this tournament and will hold my head up high.

Its strange really that I was sat at the tables for 14 hours playing and I have learnt so much about my game in such a short time. Do I have regrets? Not one, I played the best poker of my life and survived far longer than many other far better players did!

I just want to thank all my mates in AWOP who have railed me throughout the Main Event, you know who you are and your support meant loads to me. A special thanks to Brian Clarke for your support and advice.

GukPT Main Event Day 1a 12 November 2009

Ok so it’s the start of the biggest day of my poker life! I get up having slept well and I don’t feel nervous at all which is a good sign. As usual I take my time and do everything slowly and then set off for the ‘G’. I arrive early and manage to park in the car park and wander into the card room and chat to a few off the local guys who, like me, have been living in the place all week!

I manage to grab a word with Brian Clarke (Weebrick) who won this event last year, I am grateful for his advice over the last couple of weeks together with the support from other far more experienced players from the local circuit. Brian asked whether I am nervous and I reply that I am a little by now buy only slightly, he assures me this is good as it will help me focus. Brian’s story inspired me last year and I secretly set myself a goal of one day playing a large tour event such as the GukPT this time last year, so here I am living the dream!

1.50pm all the players are called into the Card Room and I find myself sitting at the same table as Michael Greco, Simon Wolf and several other ‘faces’. Within 20 minutes of the start of the tournament they break our table and I move to Table 3, this is the same table I have busted out of all my previous events this year! During the first level (1 hour clock) I pick up lots of playable hands and attempt to play these however I am out of position and get run all over by other players, that’s what you get when playing out of position! On this table is Adam ‘Clarkatroid’ Clark who as many of you will know is a very strong local player, he raises and I see A,Q, (in position) and this leaves me with only 6,500 chips from my original starting stack of 10,000 and Adam calls. The flop comes Ace high with no flush or straight cards. Adam bets 1200 and I re-raise to 2500, Adam re-raises me putting me ‘All-In’. After careful consideration I fold and show A,Q. Adam later told me he was holding A,K but does not show, was it a good fold?, I’ll never know but I am determined that I will put my chips in not call them off!

The long 1 hour break comes and goes and I have been card dead for the whole of this session and I am basically on life support at 4,000 (chip average in excess of 20,000). I am feeling a little low but this is due to not having cards, I am a little cross at myself for getting involved out of position. I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH THE IMPORTANCE OF POSITION! I know I am now in the situation of playing one move poker, fold or all-in, ok this is not a major worry as I am not scared of pushing however through this week I have lost all my 50/50 races!

About 20 minutes in from the break I find 7,7 on my high blind, there are 3 limpers so I stick it ‘All-In’ and get called by one player who shows 2 over cards… off to the races we go! Second card on the flop ‘7’ on a non flushing / straightening board I win my first 50/50 of the week! But still only have 8,000ish chips and the anti’s have now started, I know from experience that these can cripple a short stack. I manage to maintain my chips however all the time as players are being knocked out I am slipping further and further behind the chip average until I find 10,10 in position, there has been a raise from an earlier player and once more I go ‘All-In’. The other players get out of the way and the original raiser calls and turns over A,J. first card out Jack!, followed by King and Queen, the turn brings an eight so I have the gut shot straight draw plus it takes his Ace out of the reckoning as this card would give me the top straight, without realizing it I call out for the Ace saying “give him his Ace”, the river its an ACE! I’ve won another 50/50, the percentages are balancing themselves out over the week. For the first time since the tournament started I have more chips that the 10,000 starting stack! (11,000) Despite this the average stack is still in excess of 24,000 chips so whilst I now have chips to play I need to continue to make progress as the anti’s are continuing to rise with the blinds.

My final table move sees me join one of the chip leaders Alan McLean, other players include Mark Livesey (AWOP qualifier) and Dave ‘El Blondie’ Colclough. Sadly Mark crashes out when he pushes with 7,7 and runs into Alan McLean’s 8,8. This is the key period of play for me as I am now determined to make Day 2 having failed to do this on my previous attempts.



KEY PERIOD

There is less than 2 hour play to go and at last I hit hand after hand, more importantly I start to pick up premium pairs, I take out one of the other short stacks when he fails to find an Ace against my Q,Q ( double’s me through to 24,000), I then re-raise Dave Colclough off a hand leaving him short stacked when I find 10,10 and he folds pre-flop. A succession of suited A,K & AA,QQ in position follow and I take down pot after pot uncontested. Thereby slowly building on my stack and getting me up to average chips. Its my Big Blind and another player pushes ‘All-In’ the players fold to me and I find Ace, Ace. I snap call and the cards go on the backs, the flop comes A,Q, rag, followed by the case Ace on the turn giving me quad Aces! More importantly it also takes my chip stack to in excess if 47,000. Players continue to exit and the main sound in the card room is the call from dealers of ‘lost one’.

Play ends for the day at the end of level 9 ( 9 hours of poker) and a chip count is carried out by the Tournament director, my closing stack is 49,100. A very satisfying day’s poker and I can look forward to day 2 on Saturday. I am rather surprised to find out that I am 5th in chips!

End of Day 1a Chip Counts

Player - Chips

Gerald David - 100,775

Benjamin Vinson - 77,675

Kyriacos Dionysiou - 77,275

Michael Fletcher - 59,300

John Hare - 49,100

Wasim Akhtar - 47,925

Christopher Odonnell - 47,325

Allan Mclean - 46,025

Andrew Seden - 44,350

Michael Taylor - 41,400

Michael Wernick - 40,625

Ganesh Rao - 40,050

Charles Denton - 37,975

Simon Wolf - 37,000

James Keys - 35,850

David Lea - 33,775

Shane Hellyer - 28,050

Adam Clarke - 27,075

Paul Leckey - 25,425

Iwan Jones - 24,875

Paul Gardener - 22,700

Keith Geary - 22,600

Gavin Powell - 21,400

Simon Cawley - 21,075

David Dring - 18,975

Priyan Demel - 18,575

Michael Greco - 18,475

Darren Hickman - 18,050

Reyaaz Mulla - 16,475

Raphael White - 13,350

John Cameron - 12,250

Allan Barnacle - 11,300

GukPT £100 Re-Buy 8 November 2009

I decided to take a shot at this event before the Main Event I will not be able to play any of the other events due to work however I set a budget of £300 for re-buys / add-ons. 88 players entered this event and generated a very healthy prize pool of £21,300.

I drew table 3 and found myself playing with a mixed group of ability and age including one young guy who clearly had little or no live playing experience (online player I suspect). The early play was quiet and the table was passive pre-flop however the limpers would then call re-raises from later position. I saw a few early flops with small to medium pairs however could not trip any of these up. About 30 minutes in I picked up A,Q suited in clubs and raised the pot strongly getting it heads up with another player. The flop came rags and he checked it and folded to my bet. Hands came and went and my stack was getting short so when I picked up 8,8 I shipped my stack of 1800 into a limped pot and took in down without seeing a flop.

I raised from early position with A,K and was called All-In by a player who had fewer chips than me so I made the call and he turned over K,Q only to spike the Q on the flop. Re-buy time and my stack was 3,500, this went to 7,000 when I slow played top two pairs against a bit of a calling station who pushed with K, rag on the river when I had hit K & J for top two. I then lost an All-In from another player when holding A,K to his push with A,9 when he rivered the 9, this took me back to 4,000.

The ante’s started to bite and I went card dead and found my stack down to 2,400 when I picked up 10,10. I pushed all in only to run into Q,Q and I failed to hit one of the two 10’s in the deck going out in 48th place.

This was not the most successful of evenings however at least I have now experienced the GukPT and am looking forward to the Main Event.

5th November 2009 - Fireworks?

I played at the G Blackpool last night in the regular £40 triple chance freezeout event, this has become the ‘game of the week’ for many local players with a maximum of 10500 chips per player with 78 players buying in creating a prize pool of £3120.

From the moment I walked into the casino there was a real buzz about the place, the GukPT starts this weekend and the atmosphere had somehow changed, it was great! As usual I arrived early, this is part of my pre tournament routine, I hate being rushed. It allows me to get my mental state exactly where I want it and this is something that I do before every tournament I play in. Throughout my life I have always been competitive but in a controlled way and this preparation stems from a passage I read, as a teenager, from an interview with Jack Nicklaus. The interviewer commented on how calm Jack remained and asked how he did it, Jack’s reply was so simple but impactive. He said “I do everything slowly from the moment I wake up, I put my socks on slowly, I eat breakfast slowly, I walk slowly, most importantly I have plenty of time to do everything. This allows me to slow down my thought processes and make good decisions through the day”. It works for me too!

OK the game, I drew Table 3 and was joined there by players including Mick ‘schoolbully’ Tetlow, Liam Dennehy, Paul Lucas and Danny Hook, it was a table full of strong players most of whom I know. As with all my recent games I was prepared to grind all evening and focused of good hands played in position. The levels before the break passed without too much incident as far as I was concerned and my chip stack was 9,700, a little below average. I had not seen many good hands but had also not got myself in too much trouble either.

After the break, with the blinds going up, I found myself short stacked (7,600) but I remained focused and was rewarded when I picked up A,A in early position, I ‘min raised’ and to my delight a player in late position went over the top ‘All-In’. The chips went in and he showed Q,Q, my A,A held and I was back in the game. Three hands later I was on 31,000 chips having played the rush of successive big hands then in quick succession I ran into Paul Lucas twice, my 7,7 cracked by his A,K and then my A,K cracked by his middle pair. Back on life support!

Our tabled split and together with Paul Lucas I moved to table 1 where we were once more joined by Danny Hook (who had previously left table 3). On this table, amongst others, were John Garside, Paul ‘Rocky’ Chadwick and Brian ‘Weebrick’ Clarke. By now my chips were almost gone, I had less than 2 big blinds and there were 13 players left in. I knew I only had 3 hands to find a spot before the BB hit me, I looked down and saw K,3 hearts, not a monster but it was good enough so I shoved my pathetic stack over the line knowing that I was going to get called. Immediately Brian Clarke re raised and another player also called this raise. All the others got out of the way and it ended up with all three of us ‘All-In’. The cards on their backs with Brian and the other guy both showing A,K! I was a hugh dog however on the positive the other two hands totally clashed so at least I had the 3 remaining threes! Yup you guessed it, second card on the flop a little 3! For the second time in the evening this escape was followed by a rush of premium hands and I was back in the game at 45,000 chips. Between this and the final table I folded a succession of big Aces, due to being out of position or because an earlier strong player had raised, each time I was proved right, my discipline has really improved so much! 20 minutes later the bubble burst and it was final table time.
Not a lot to report on the final table, I was short stacked with the blinds coming round fast so I shipped it in with A,6 off and picked up a call from John Garside who turned over K,Q and hit his K on the flop so I was out in 9th.

In summary another cash, another strong game played against a good field. I have no complaints about how the evening went.


Thu, 05 Nov 2009
£40 No-Limit Texas Holdem Triple-Chance Freezeout
Entries: 78
Prize Pool: £3120
Position Name Prize
1 Gary Orchard £1070
2 Brian Kelly £620
3 Anon £440
4 kevin Rigby £280
5 Paul Lucas £200
6 Anon £160
7 Daniel Hook £140
8 John Garside £120
9 John Hare £90