31 October 2009

After good nights sleep I decided to go the Blackpool G for the £100 buy in deep stack end of month tournament as I am not that experienced with large field tournaments that use running antes. As usual this tournament was well supported attracting a strong field of 173 players generating a prize fund of £17,300. The game went well for me in the early stages and whilst I did not have any major clashes I maintained my stack and was tracking the average well despite not really picking up and big hands. Obviously I wanted to get chips as best as I could however I was also aware that being a deep stack I needed to not ‘donk off’ chips as this would be very damaging in the later stages. The table was a mix of players from a total calling station to very experienced strong players. As with previous recent games I went prepared to play strongly in position with good starting hands but also looked for opportunities to take blinds where possible, this I did successfully and reached the break bang on average chips without any drama.

After the break the running antes started and through the next 3 levels I continued to play strong poker making some very good reads on other players and maintained my stack on or about the chip average. A new player joined the table following the unsurprising exit of the earlier mentioned calling station. I know this player from previous tournaments, a younger player who has more moves than a chess champion, who continually steals blinds raising with marginal hands. Over the next 4 orbits he raised my BB every hand but I was never holding anything I fancied making a stand with. By the next orbit the blinds were 600 / 1200 with a 75 chip running ante. As usual he went for his chips and looked at me, the obligatory 3,600 raise followed into an unopened pot. The rest of the table folded and I had already made my mind up that no matter what my hole cards were I was going to make a stand. The rest of the table folded and I looked down and saw J, 4 off suit. I called his bet having decided no matter what the flop came I was going to get in first and bet it strongly as I was confident he was raising with garbage (I do have a read on this player and this confirmed he was on ‘the steal’). The flop came a delicious Jack high and I raised it to 7,200 with him nearly burning the cloth as he quickly mucked his cards. Point made!, thank you for your donation of 3,600 chips.

Two orbits later I was on the button when I found 8,8. I raised it strongly and picked up a quick call from the small blind, having observed him for the last 5 hours of play I was confident that he was holding a big Ace but not a pair as he re-raised before the flop with pairs. The flop came 4,4,3, two hearts and he checked. I fired a strong bet at the pot, 7,200 and he re-raised putting me all in. I called immediately as I knew my pair was good and the cards went on their backs, I was spot on he showed A,Q suited in hearts. He was clearly surprised to see my 8,8, holding however as in many of these situations he had the last laugh when he hit runner, runner hearts to knock me out! (24% shot approx).

Ok so I was out but not down, my exit hand was the first I lost in 6 hours of poker, when I got my chips in I was a big favourite. Of course I was disappointed however the original field of 173 was down to 60+ and I had played very good poker throughout.

30 October 2009

Tonight I played at The Castle in Blackpool in the £30 5k +5k No Limit Texas Hold'em Double Chance Freezeout. Not a lot to say really except I played like a total donkey and crashed out 30 minutes before the break having never hit a hand all night. Well as the saying goes ‘that’s poker’.

Left the tournament and joined what can be described as a fairly ‘active’ cash table, cash is something I’ve got more into over the last 6 months and I do enjoy the game. It a great way of helping you make those ‘value’ calls. During the evening we were joined by three fairly ‘deep stacked’ cash players Alistair ‘The Fox’ Findlay, John ‘Backspinner’ Wood and an unknown called Paul. I stuck to my principle of only pulling up £40 and early on was rewarded when I doubled through twice in consecutive hands when I flopped trip Kings ( A,K hand holding) and then flopping the nuts house (4,3,3, board) when holding 4,4. After this great start the hands dried up a little until late on when I turned the nut house and then I picked up 3,3 on the button and due to my position I played it to a large pre flop raise. After the flop the board read A,6,3, both players bet into in and I decided it was time to push ‘All-In’ so stuck in £100 (pot already £100), both players called and my hand held, the other players holding A,Q and A,6. This put a nice glow on a poor night’s poker, plus a nice wad in the ‘back pocket!’

I am undecided what to play in tomorrow, there is the end of month £100 at the G which would give me great practice for the GukPT however after a heavy week I fancy a relaxing game at the Castle (£20 10,000 chips). I’ll decide when I wake up!

29 October 2009

Thursday evening and I’m playing at the G Blackpool. This game is now the game of the week as far as many, including myself are concerned, £40 No Limit Texas Holdem Triple Chance Freezeout(10,500 Chips). As with most weeks the game is well supported with 80+ players turning up, on looking round the room all the ‘usual suspects’ are in attendance, a real who’s who of local poker. There is a real buzz about the room tonight and everywhere people are discussing the GukPT which starts on 7 Nov.

I draw Table 5 Seat 3, I wander over to the table and sit down. The dealer’s seat is empty and the chip tray sat there denotes it’s a self deal table. The tournament starts, or should I say it starts on all the other tables, yup no offers to deal so as usual I end up in the dealer’s chair. The table contains many players I know and respect, Linton (Bean Flicker) Holling, Bill (you’ve got none of that) Eadie, Mick (Schoolbully) Tetlow, Enid Musson and after a few hands Nick Slade.

The first hand I win having flopped a set, taking it down on the turn, then the hands are uneventful apart from for Nick who looses a series of hands early on and takes both of his chances in quick succession. I manage to maintain my chips without really building on them, I do find it difficult to focus on playing when dealing however for other players I am putting real action boards out.

ACTION HAND

I’m not in this hand but three others are, Keith (seat 1), Bill (seat 5) and Nick (seat 8) – sorry I can’t remember where the button was however there has been pre-flop betting action with raise and call. The flop comes 9,9,10 and it ends up with Nick All in. Keith re-raises and Bill re-re-raises, Keith considers for a fair amount of time and eventually folds. Cards on their backs and Nick shows A,A and Bill shows quad 9’s, yup he’s flopped quads! Turn card no Ace – start the car, taxi for one front door! As a cautionary note to all that read this – I have dealt quads 3 times whilst in the chair, all of them on TABLE 5!

The break arrives and I have 9,600 chips, I’ve been fairly static to say the least but at least I’m still in and have enough chips to play. Following the break I deal for a short period of time and then thankfully as my chips dwindling (7,400) I am replaced by a house dealer. During the period after the break before being replaced as dealer I only pick up a couple of playable hands, one of which is 7,7, in early position. I raise it up and get re-raised by Linton, the rest of the table folds and after considering it I lay them down as I know Linton is unlikely to re-pop a pot I have raised without a monster hand.

The blinds are 400 / 800 and I’m now in seat 10, UTG I pick up A,A and raise it to 2000, hoping to get action from one player. The players fold to Enid who is in the BB, the chips all go in and cards on their backs, Enid shows 7,7, and my Aces hold. Shortly after I move to table 1 as our table is broken, my chip count is now 11,000 however the average is now in excess of 23,000 so I need a double up.

I pick up Q,Q in early position and put a strong raise in 1600 with 4800 (blinds 800/1600) and am immediately re-raised and re-re-raised by the next two players. I’ve committed more than 60% of my chips so make the call ‘All In’. Cards on their backs, with re-raiser showing A,Q and the re-re-raises showing 9,9. On seeing this I am happy, only 5 cards to dodge, the rest of the pack belongs to me! Out come the cards and out I go, for the second time tonight I see quad 9’s!

In summary a night where I did not do anything wrong but did not get many playable hands or got marginal hands in the wrong position, as I am trying to prepare for the GukPT I am not playing these marginal hands out of position as the type of player I am likely to face in the GukPT will make mincemeat of me, a sure way of donking off loads of chips!

28 October 2009

Tonight was my second and final attempt to play for a seat into the final for a chance to win a seat in the GukPT Main Event via the AWOP Satellite event. The format was the same as last week (£25 buy-in with add-on’s of £20).

As with last week the room was full with 20 players, most of whom I know from the Blackpool circuit. I lost my first set of chips (2000) when I pushed with 5,5 and got called by two over cards. From my experiences last week I knew I needed to win the 50-50 races early to build a decent chip stack during the buy-in period. Following this I lost again with another medium pair (8-8). At least this week I was picking up playable hands and it would be a matter of time before a couple held up. As with my recent play I was folding pre-flop rag Aces and other hands that have been getting me in trouble. During level 2 (30 minute clock) I picked up A,A and pushed All-In for the third time, this time I picked up two callers and my Aces held. This hand gave me a decent chip stack of over 10,000 and during the rest of the re-buy period I focused on low risk stack building. At the end of the buy-in period I had 16,000 chips and was well chipped up compared to most of the other players on my table.

During the short break in play I re-evaluated my play and using the knowledge gained from last weeks event I decided to once more only play premium hands in position as the short stacks would be looking to double through.

When play resumed, as I predicted, the short stacks had to resort to ‘All-in’ poker, I lost one race when I had 10,10 beaten by K,Q but I also won a couple of smaller pots to maintain my stack. I maintained my chip stack without really building on it and kept out of trouble until 10 players remained. The final table was fairly uneventful apart from the ‘bubble hand’ (6 seats available, 7 players left). This saw 3 players All-in with K,7 diamonds, against a medium A against A,A. The two players holding the A chopped the pot when the wheel showed and Mick exited in 7th with a cash saver.

Following this there was an interesting discussion about folding A,A pre-flop in this situation. Whilst the A,A could not be knocked out in this hand, loosing would have left the player short stacked in the event of the other two players chopping the pot. As usual when this topic is discussed opinions vary. Would I fold pre-flop? The answer is simple – it depends what is at stake in the circumstances and I would make my decision then and only then.

The final is to be played on 4th November at AWOP HQ with 12 players having qualified by right plus two more buying directly in.

Brian weebrick Clarke
Mick schoolbully Tetlow
Linton Holling
Carl Pickles
John The Viper Prescott
Gez Hilton
John Hare
Will McMurray
Tim France
Paul Murphy
Ste Haley
Joe Egerton

Direct buy-ins so far:-

John "riverasusual" Millar
Mick Ash

**UPDATE 30/10/09**

4 More players have bought directly in making a total of 18. This means there will be 4 Main Event seats to play for.

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Played at the ‘G’ Blackpool this evening in the £30 double chance freeze out. It started poorly when after 25 minutes of play I ‘donked off’ the last 2100 of my first 4000 chips with a poor call when holding the nut flush on a paired board with Danny, the other player, having hit the full house. This call annoyed me because I was aware that a house was possible on the paired board but still made the call.

I reloaded with the second 4000 chips and got my head down to go back to the poker that I had played during the weekend. By the break I had managed to get my stack back to 7,300, the average being 9,300, not a bad effort after such a poor start. The positive about the poor call being that it did not push me on tilt and that I managed to ‘get over it’ fairly quickly.

The field quickly thinned from the 42 that started and a table move found me on a table with a real mixture of different playing styles from loose to tight. I managed to increase my stack to 16,700 in part due to flopping trip Aces on my BB then checking it allowing a loose aggressive player fire into me and then he called my all in bet. Over the next 45 minutes I was disciplined and focused on playing hands in position, during this period of play I folded a series of small pairs pre flop and also numerous medium suited Aces as having to call a re-raise would have put me all in.

The blind increases dwindled my stake to slightly less than 10,000 (blinds 600 / 1200) when I found A,J diamonds in late position. I pushed with this ‘All In’ only to run into Q,Q. End of the night’s tournament when I failed to find the required Ace however I finished in 16th place.

The positive I took from tonight being my recovery from the early set back of a very poor call. It also allowed me to focus on good hands in position that will be required during the forthcoming GukPT. Hands I would normally limp with to see flops were mucked rather than called, as I am expecting limping to be punished during the GukPT so I am trying not to limp too much especially as the blinds increase.

Following my exit from the tournament I played a bit of cash poker and managed to ensure the evening was self financing finishing £50 up in cash.

Tomorrow evening I am involved in a 2 table £20 re-buy in an attempt to win a seat in a Super Satellite for the chance of a seat in the main event at the GukPT. Lets see what tomorrow brings!

Sunday 25 October 2009

OK today is another full day spent at the tables with both tournaments being at the ‘G’ Blackpool. The Sunday afternoon follows the same structure as the Saturday game, £15 buy in with one re-buy and one add on. I end up in the dealers chair until the break so this will test my powers of concentration fully. My game gets off to a slow start, which I don’t mind, as it allows me to focus and get my mental state right as I appreciate it may well be another long day. Half way through level 2 and still no playable cards when I pick up A, 7 suited diamonds on my BB. The table has no respect for pre fold raises so I just check my hand and see the flop. This comes Ah, Jd and 7h. I fire a bet having hit top and bottom pair due to the flush potential and UTG (seat 1) makes an immediate call. Two players to the turn, a none flushing card so I fire again, both these bets being good strong bets, player UTG immediately calls again. The river card once more is a none flushing one and I check. UTG check behind me and the card are on their backs with me loosing with top and bottom two pairs to his A, J. This hand has left me very short and a few hands later I push the rest of my first set of chips in with 8,8 in second position and loose to a call from two over cards. I reload (4,000) and slowly get eaten away with hands that are so ugly they carry an 18 certificate.

The break comes an goes, I take my add on of another 4000 but only have 6,700 chips in total and being card dead continues however I am determined to go as deep as I can and to ride out the spell of being card dead. The blinds increase to the 1200 / 600 level and I know I needs to find a hand to make a stand with. I am reasonably comfortable playing short stacked poker however it reaches the point on my BB when I only have 2100 left having posted the BB of 1200 (3300 chips in total), the chip average is now in excess of 13000. I look down and find 7,7. This is the hand to make my stand with, two limpers and then I push ‘All In’. One caller turns over two over cards so it’s a 50 50 race. First card out 7 and the hand ends with me hitting the house 7’s full of 5’s. Up to 9000 chips. Very next hand I push with 10,10 and again double through, I’m back in the game!

Players who are short stacked fall like flies and I reach the Final Table of 9 players with 45,000 chips from 288,000 chips in play. I am third in chips at this point and draw seat two, there are 3 short stacks on the table who quickly depart however my chips have dwindled away to 30,000. The bubble comes and goes, four players left and with the exception of the chip leader (95,000 approx) the other players are fairly evenly chipped up.


My BB and the blinds are 2000 / 4000, the chip leader raises my BB and the other players get out of the way, I look down and find Q,Q. I re-raise ‘All In’ and he calls. Cards on their backs and he shows A,K suited in diamonds. My Queens hold and I become the chip leader. A few hands later I take out a player who is short stacked when I find A Q suited in the BB and we are down to 3 players. My chip stack is now 175,000 and I have a healthy advantage but not sufficient to really bully the other players. Over the next 30 minutes I hit every flop hard and take pot after pot and build my chips to 230,000 as I take out the third placed player.

Heads Up. I have a commanding chip advantage and it last only about 15 minutes with all the chips going in with Bryan the other player pushing with K, 9 and me making a snap call with K, 10. The flop comes 10,9, rag, rag, rag and I take it down winning a healthy £510.

Sun, 25 Oct 2009

£15 No Limit Texas Holdem with 2 Rebuys
Entries: 32
Prize Pool: £1080

Position Name Prize
1 John Hare £510
2 Bryan Cook £300
3 Anon £160
4 Christine Laffin £110

Three final tables from three, happy days. Once more I have played good solid poker and made more good decisions than bad despite not really having hit big hands. Time for a quick 2 minutes and buy in for the evening £40 (4000 double chance) competition which is already underway.

Not a lot to report on the evening competition and I go out at 11.30pm having pushed with J,10 suited into an unopened pot from the button.

In summary I can say that the weekend was a great success and it has demonstrated that I can remain focused for the time I need for the long structure two day tournaments played on the GukPT. It has also enforced for me that my game is back where I need it to be to hopefully be able to compete. The bonus being the money I have won will allow me to free roll one of the bigger events in under three weeks time.

Saturday 24 October 2009

Ok its early on Sunday morning and I’ve just finished playing live. I decided that to try and prepare for the upcoming GukPT I needed ‘table time’ but more importantly I needed a long period sat playing poker. To achieve this I decided today to play two live events, the first one being the afternoon tournament at the ‘G’ and then follow this with the evening one at the Castle, both in Blackpool.

2pm the ‘G’ was a £15 buy in with one re-buy and one top up (4000 chips) 32 players. The first hand I picked up K 10 off suit and limped in UTG. The table was passive and the limp worked, the flop came K, 10, rag but there was a flush draw on the board so I bet the 2 pairs ensuring that flush had not pot odds to make the call (225 into 300 pot). Table folded back to the BB who had checked the flop and she called. I obviously put her on the flush draw looking for a free card, she called. I respect the caller as I have played many times with her and due to this I re-evaluated the hand holding as I suspected even in the first hand she would not be chasing the flush. The turn card came a non flushing card and the BB bet it (300 into 750). So I re-raised to 900, the BB considered the pot and made a good lay down putting me on two pairs. Throughout the re-buy period I made steady progress however I did use my re-buy and top up, intentionally ‘dumping off’ a small number of chips to facilitate this and went to the break with a stack of 9,300 (just below chip average). Through the next period of play I maintained the chip average without any great drama, but was playing tight controlled poker and was well disciplined in folding hands pre fold to ensure that a tight table image was maintained.

Spent my time observing closely the other players and this was rewarded in the late stages when an aggressive player who I had observed never limped into un-raised pots limped from early position. I looked down and saw Q,Q, the limp from this player alarmed me and also I noticed another player who was acting after me was already moving his stack for a re-raise so I folded. The other player re-raised the pot and got himself ‘pot stuck’ when the original player who had limped re-re- raised him ‘All In’. Cards on the backs with the original limper showing A,A. Great fold!

FINAL TABLE

Drew seat 10, I hate it as views of players 1 & 2 are restricted, but got my head down and got on with the game. Only 4 players to cash. I was above average stack but only in the middle of the pack as far as chips were concerned, time for more solid patient poker whilst looking for opportunities to maintain my position as I knew the short stacks would be pushing with less than premium hands, I was correct and quickly the table was down to 6 players. Ok so now my priority was to ensure that I cashed, but I was now the short stack but not on life support so I had a couple of orbits. The cards which had been indifferent ran good and I took the blinds down twice on 3 consecutive orbits thereby maintaining my stack. Another player goes and its ‘bubble time’, All In follows All In and each time the short stack survives to fight another hand until eventually the bubble bursts, happy days as its my first cash for over a month which is unusual for me. Ok I eventually go in 4th place but collect £90 for my trouble 100% profit on outlay.

Sat, 24 Oct 2009

£15 No Limit Texas Holdem with 1 Rebuy and 1 Add On
Entries: 28
Prize Pool: £915

Position Name Prize
1 Micheal Clarke £425
2 Trevor Haddick £260
3 Anon £140
4 John Hare £90

Start the car and drive over to The Castle for the 10,000 chip £20 game. I spend the 25 minute journey reflecting on my game and come to the conclusion it was just as I wanted it to be, solid ABC poker with few errors and some very good laydowns. The one fault being not maximizing the big pots, time to correct this! I arrive at The Castle at 8.05pm (ten minutes to spare). There are only 23 players so very little value in the pot however the cash is not as important as using the table time.

In the first two levels I make steady progress and move my stack from 10,000 to 16,000, but as before spend time observing the other players, on a positive note I do not loose a hand in these levels where I remain to see the turn card. A Table move sees me join the chip leader’s table and she is obviously running all over the table due to the wall of chips sat in front of her. I take a nice size pot down when I hit trip 10’s and a few hands later I raise my BB to 2200 (blinds 300 / 600) when I find A,J suited to 5 limpers. One caller so I’m out of position. I know little about this player other than what I have observed but he likes to see plenty of flops however I feel he tends to be passive post flop. I’m very mindful of being out of position post flop. The board comes 6 high and rainbow so I fire a continuation bet of 3200 having missed totally, I need to be the aggressor, he looks at his hand and folds rolling over A, K off suit saying you’ve got an over pair, my cards in the muck and say ‘good fold!’. This is great information as I know he firstly limps with A,K, and secondly can be bet off hands even when he has position.

20 minutes later I pick up J,J, and raise from mid position, the rest fold to the BB who immediately calls. The flop comes 10 high and she checks, I bet my J,J strongly and she re-raises me. I consider this re-raise and lay my J,J down as I believe she has either hit two pairs (unlikely due to the texture of the flop and pre-flop raise), more likely she has tripped up her pocket pair. I want the information and therefore, to send out a message to the other players, to enforce my table image I show my folded J,J saying ‘your trips are good’. The BB shows 10,10 so my read was spot on. The break comes and my chips are 14,400 still above chip average, a few players have departed and I feel happy with my game.

FINAL TABLE

Second final table of the day and I find myself mid chip count and draw seat 2, four players as fairly short stacked again and the ability of the players is fairly high. Time for more tight AB C poker whilst looking for opportunities. It goes well and I fold a succession of big-ish hands ( A, 8 suit to A, 10 off suit) and in the main I was correct to fold as I would have faced re-raises to All In pushes from the short stacks, the ‘radar’ is working well! The money bubble comes and goes (down to the final 3) and except for the chip leader who could do a sponsored walk along the wall of chips sat in front of her I am in second by some way to the short stack.

Key hand – I’m in the BB (blinds 2500 / 5000) I look down and see A 5 diamonds, the short stack pushed (another 12000 to call), the small blind announces ’I can’t call with this rubbish’ and folds. I make the call and the all in shows K,Q off suit. Flop comes K,Q 10 but only one diamond, So I need running diamonds / Aces or J for Broadway, no luck and I’m crippled. I got my chips in good! A few hands later I’m out in 3rd, another cash and the end of 12 hours of poker.

Objective achieved, I have cashed twice and more importantly I have played strong poker all day.

** No results uploaded onto AWOP **

Welcome

Hello there!

My name is John Hare aka Little John and this is my first attempt at blogging so please be gentle! I am a 51 yr old from Blackpool and love my poker. I am going to try and blog my experiences of playing this wonderfully frustrating game.

Four years ago I held the common belief that poker was a quick way of loosing my house, car, all my wages and savings on the turn of a card. One evening I was bored and was channel hopping when I found a programme called Poker Night Live (PNL) and out of boredom I started to watch. PNL ran hands from internet tournaments and these hands were summarized and discussed by studio experts. On this first visit I was bombarded with terms such as ‘position’ pot odds, ‘outdraws’, ‘bad beats’… the list seemed endless however there was something that appealed to me. The next evening I watched again and after this I became a regular viewer.

One evening, many months later, after a few days away I switched on only to find a blank screen, PNL was no more! In desperation I surfed the channels and found skypoker, to my surprise most of the ‘experts’ from PNL were there and the format was a similar one to PNL. I continued to watch, still not daring to take the plunge and open an online account. I did find however that my knowledge of poker was improving and I was able to read the boards and start to understand the importance of position and how it affected starting hand requirements.

I knew it was time to take the next step, I logged on and opened an account with skypoker, went to the lobby and found a single table sit and go for the princely sum of £1.15. With trembling hand I watched as the table opened and there I was playing poker. It seemed to be over in a flash, 40 minutes had passed and I came second, a profit on my first event. I felt like I’d won the WSOP!

I played online for the next couple of months but I knew I was missing out, I longed to play live, the face to face contact with other people, no protection of anonymity sat behind the pc. I enquired at the Castle Casino in Blackpool and found there were games played on several evenings of the week so I entered an event blindly, it was the Thursday evening crap shoot (£5 pot limit re-buy). Firstly I was sat with 9 other players, I’d never sat at a full ring table before. The dealer shuffled up and we were off, first cards dealt, I looked, phew, a pile of junk Q, 6 off suit, in the muck! The hand ended with 3 players ‘all in’ and a right bag of spanners won! Hang on I thought, where were the pot odds? How could these players call with rubbish? God they are all maniacs! I took a deep breath and thought, ‘Ok just play the game to your principles and see’. 30 minutes of folding my chips being eroded by the blinds but I still had 600 out of the starting stack of 1000, I’ve got the button and look down and find the daddy of starting hands ‘A,A’… happy days! Now we can play a hand of poker, my mind was racing, ok A,A what are the odds? Yes, its all there, ok so now lest get it heads up against one player, by the time Its me to act 4 players are ‘all in’. I knew my A,A could be a dog against multiple players but I had not played a hand so in the chips went. My hand held and the dealer pushed what seemed a big pile of chips in my direction to comments of ‘nice hand’. I smiled lamely and reached down to ‘stack’ the chips, damm! my hands would not work, I was shaking so much from adrenalin I could not physically stack the chips! Welcome to live poker! I finished 15th out of a field of 47, not a bad first live game. That was 2 ½ years ago and I like to think since then my game has improved.

I have cashed in the Castle poker league in the last 2 seasons, the Winter League via a 30 seat play off and the last Summer one by finishing 4th overall.