Good Idea - Terminal Outcome

Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 Professional

Thomas Cromwell was a genius. Methodical, detached, calculating - he was the thought tank behind much of Henry VIII's reign, and revolutionised government in England. Already popular with his ruthless King, he sought to cement his position following the death of Jane Seymor, by securing a 4th wife for 'ol Henry.

This is where his ingenuity came into play. English wives were out of the question - Cromwell had already hacked off the English noblemen with his streamlined new government (clearly he did not want to strengthen an enemy's position). Catholics where not an option either, as his boss had already stuck his fingers up at the Pope during the Katherine of Aragon debacle. Eureka! "If I marry him into the Protestant German nobility" mused Cromwell "it will forge a diplomatic alliance against the European Catholic powers. The boss will be most pleased".

Undoubtedly a fine plan, but Cromwell hadn't factored in the painting style of the artist he sent over to "capture the beauty" of Anne of Cleves. It seems he adopted a bit of creativeness in his work, and happy Henry finalised his marriage on the basis of the painting. Upon meeting her face to face, it seems Henry experienced the medieval version of "who the hell is that lying next to me?". It was the beginning of the end for Mr Cromwell and he was executed within a year. Cromwell had come up with an idea that could have benefited England on a global scale, but it ended up costing his life.

And so on to the Better Poker tournament last night - £50 freezeout, and 3k guaranteed so not to be sniffed at. 55 runners, so Better only just fell short of their guarantee, but the field contained several beginners and the action was fast and loose.

I had already suffered a bad beat with QQ v K9 all in preflop in a 1800 pot, when my "Cromwell Hand" occurred:

I am back up to 2800 (from a 3500 start) after winning a few small pots after the QQ nonsense. I am UTG and get dealt AcKc.

I decide to limp for 200, and the person next to act raises to 800. Now, normally I'd flat call him here when it is folded round to me, because if an Ace comes on the flop, if he has a weaker Ace, it is virtually impossible for him to put me on AK, and I will likely win all his chips.

However, I am forced to change the plan when THREE other people call the raise to 800. Since there is now 3700 in the pot before I have decided what to do, a unique opportunity has presented itself. I actually have to chance to execute a squeeze play with a premium hand. Make no mistake, when I push for 2000 more I don't want any callers, because of the size of the pot. However, my actions certainly look like AA or KK rather than AK, and it is pretty hard for people to call without really strong hands, even given the size of the pot.

I give it a little thought and decide to push (I really think there is no other option here given the way the hand has played out), but unfortunately I am called in two spots by JJ and AQ. In fairness, they both give it a bit of thought before doing so, and incredibly it's the AQ with scoops the 10k plus pot as two Queens rain down on the flop to bust me and the JJ holder.

Good idea, terminal outcome.


PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,330
Live Holdem Cash (1,961)
Live Omaha 110
Live "Professional" Tournaments (10,291)
Home Games (760)
Online Holdem Tournaments 53,932
Online Holdem Cash 17,026
Online Omaha 630
Rake (1,817)
60,199

Home Game IV

Date: Mon, May 5, 2008 Professional

The latest installment of the home game provided the usual mix of alcohol, a deep stacked tournament and a hyper agressive short handed holdem/omaha/irish cash game. In attendance were myself, Shazbo, Fluke, Maltese Mike, Sir Mike, Honest Dave, Tom, Briony, Jody, Jason, Uncle Paulie and Professor Geoff.

The tournament started with 10k in chips and 30 minute blinds, so plenty of room for manouver. However, this didn't stop the other table going potty during the first two levels, the action likely caused by Tom. Professor Geoff and Briony were early casualties in the tournament.

I placed 3rd to sneak into the cash and a £200 payout, so doubling my money. A few key hands:

Hand1
I raise with A9 to 300 on the button and it's called by Fluke in the BB.
Flop 10, J, 4
Check, Check
Turn Q to give me a ton of outs
Check Check
River is a 5
I bet 400 hoping to steal the pot, but Fluke makes a hero call with Ace high. However, my 9 kicker luckily secures the pot.

I bumble along to the final table, winning a number of small pots and, at that point, a number of key hands occur

Hand2
Folded round to Jason in the SB who limps (blinds 300/600). I am relatively short stacked on about 6k so I push to pick up the 1200 in the pot with A9. Pretty questionable play, and I am instacalled by Jason with A10, who limped anticipating this move. However, a 9 arrives on the flop and all is well - Jason now shortstacked.

Hand3
Fluke raises UTG to 1800. Folded round to me in the BB and I flat call with QQ.
Flop 10, 7, 2
I check, Fluke pushes for about 5k and I instacall. Fluke is drawing pretty thin with AJ and the Queens hold to elimate him. The check on the flop did the trick there - Fluke was relatively short stacked after suffering a bad beat to Shazbo a few hands earlier.

Hand4
Infuriating hand. Shazbo raises to 1800 on the button (we are down to 5 players). I flat call in the BB for 1200 more with 8h9h. At this stage I have worked up to about 22k in chips after the Fluke elimination.
Flop 8s, 4d, Jh
I bet 3k and it's called
Turn 9s
Check Check
River As
I have two pair and am feeling pretty good about the hand. I check to give Shazbo the chance to bluff, but what I wasn't expecting was for her to bet 150% of the pot by going all in for 14k. Horrible situation - if I call and lose I am crippled and down to about 3k. Not much makes sense but perhaps I've let her river a flush. Set? Doubtful as she would have bet the turn with the straight and flush draws. Q10 perhaps? I pass and am shown pocket 3s. Gutted. This hand costs me the chance of winning the tournament, as Maltese Mike and Jody are very deep stacked.

While I dribble down to about 8k, Shazbo is elimated, so at least I make the money. The blinds catch up with me so fast tough, because I am the short stack and we are only 3 handed. I end up pushing from the SB with 10s2d but get called by Jody in the BB with Ace rag.

The second tournament I am eliminated in 4th place (I think). It was a blind v blind battle my AJ verses Tom's A10. The ten on the river was particularly galling, because not only had I missed out on the chance to cash in the tournie, but also had a £50 last longest bet with Tom, so the river card was a £100 card!

That brought me back to level for the night, but the cash game would cost me £150, so my dodgy run in April continues. I started nicely, but then suffered a disasterous Omaha hand described below, against Honest Dave. This hand also had implied tilt odds built into it, as after that hand I spent an hour happily tilting off anoth £70 or so to Dave, in a heads up game which finished at about 7am. It was a heavy night, and such was the severity of my hangover that I had to abandon plans to play the Sunday night online tournaments, which was a shame. Anyway:

Omaha Disaster Hand:
We are playing 4 handed, I think, and I have about £250 after a decent start. Dave is playing about £100 after losing a few recent pots. Memory is a lttle hazy at this stage in the morning, as myself and Dave have been drinking some weird lemon spirit for the last few hours, so Dave is invited to fill in any details of the hand in the comments if there are any inaccuracies ;)

Dave raises in the SB to £8. I call with 6c, 8d, 9d, 5c, and there is one other caller

Flop is 6s, 7s, Kd giving me bottom pair and a wrap straight draw

Dave bets the pot for £24 which I call and other player drop out - pot is £72

Turn is 10h giving me the nuts.

Dave bets £50 and I push, but Dave only has about £8 behind so makes the call.

He has (I think) Qs, 4s, 3d, Ad which gives him middle pin nut straight draw, togetger with Queen flush draw

River is a spade, and the £190 pot heads off to Honest Dave. Win that pot and it would have been a profitable night. Ah well. It's predominantly a tournament week this week, with 3 Loose Cannon tournies on consecutive nights. Hopefully I will achieve at least one cash to try and get some momentum going ahead of Newcastle, otherwise I'll be playing the UKPT as one of the most out of form players in the field!

PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,430
Live Holdem Cash (1,901)
Live Omaha 110
Live "Professional" Tournaments (10,291)
Home Games (760)
Online Holdem Tournaments 53,932
Online Holdem Cash 17,026
Online Omaha 630
Rake (1,817)
60,359

Losing Key Pots

Date: Fri, May 2, 2008 Professional

A disappointing couple of the nights down at the Loose Cannon. I played in two tournaments, and felt like I was playing well in both, building a decent chip stack. However, when the crucial pots came I missed out - one was a bad decision, the other was a bad beat. I'm not too disappointed, as at least I am getting into decent positions in tournaments, so hopefully a run of cashes will be just around the corner.

On the Wednesday, I had built myself up to about 7k from a starting stack of 2.5k. I then lost a medium size pot with 5 players left to go back down to 4k when the following hand came up. Blinds were 200-400 and I was in the Big Blind. It was folded round to the small blind, who put me all in! I looked down to see pocket 9s. I couldn't imagine he would do this with a big pair, so I figured he had AK/AQ in which case it would be a race, but I also thought there was a decent chance he would do this with 77 or 88 (him being the big stack and just looking to bully). I called, and he turned over QQ. Wow. A clever bet on his part I suppose, as he disguised the strength of his hand with the overbet, and was lucky enough that I woke up with a hand.

On Thursday I again began strongly, and was just getting some momentum up, with my stack sitting at 7k. Blinds were 200-400 and Hugh pushed all in for about 3.5k from early position. I pushed over the top of him with pocket tens but unfortunately was beaten out by A5. The final table started pretty much straight afterwards, and I drew seat 3 so was straight into the big blind at 300-600 and I never recovered. Busted out soon afterwards pushing with 77 and being called by 99.

A busy poker week coming up now. I am hosting a home game on Saturday, which features some pretty wild and agressive players, so the cash game post tournament should be fun. Sunday I am taking the opportunity to play the big online Sunday tournaments, because it is the bank holiday on the Monday. I am particularly looking forward to this, because I just haven't had enough time to play online recently, and these Sunday tournaments, while featuring huge fields, offer the chance of a big payday if you get a decent run going. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be spent at the Loose Cannon, as I play the Better Poker event, City 100 and the League on the three respective nights. The week after that I leave for Newcastle to play in the UKPT, which will be a decent warm up for WSOP.


PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,430
Live Holdem Cash (1,901)
Live Omaha 110
Live "Professional" Tournaments (10,291)
Home Games (460)
Online Holdem Tournaments 53,932
Online Holdem Cash 17,026
Online Omaha 630
Rake (1,817)
60,659

Provisional Vegas Schedule

Date: Wed, Apr 30, 2008 Professional

Vegas looks like it's going to be brilliant this year. I'd love to be able to stay for the full 6 weeks of WSOP, but will have to make do with 10 days. All the other casinos seem to have cottoned on to the fact that the WSOP simply doesn't offer great structures at the lower buy-ins, and there are numerous tournaments all over town which offer deep starting stacks, and reasonable buy ins. What the blind levels will be like in these tournaments remains to be seen, but I have heard the Venetian has a particularly slow one.

I've put together a schedule for the trip below - I've opted for all no limit holdem, because I haven't had enough time to practise Omaha this year, so entering big buy-in Omaha tournaments is likely to be negative expected value for me at the present time. My schedule may change, of course, depending on how many second days I make, and also, if I win early on, I may give the 10k heads-up championship event a bash. Failing that, this is what we are looking at:


8 June $540 Caesars
9 June $500 Binnions
10 June $540 Venetian
11 June $5,000 WSOP Event Rio
12 June $2,000 WSOP Event Rio
13 June $2,500 Venetian
14 June $250 Binnions
15 June $3,000 WSOP Event Rio
16 June $225 Caesars

Add to this 500 dollars for a few smaller "fun" tournaments, plus a 1,500 USD cash poker budget and I think we are looking a great few days. Stamina will be one of the biggest challenges to be faced - with 12pm starts every day, it will be vital not to be out on the pop too late into the Vegas mornings. Easier said than done..........

I am back on the live tournament trail for the next 2 nights, probably both times at Loose Cannon - I'll blog them later in the week.

PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,590
Live Holdem Cash (1,661)
Live Omaha 110
Live "Professional" Tournaments (10,291)
Home Games (460)
Online Holdem Tournaments 53,932
Online Holdem Cash 17,026
Online Omaha 630
Rake (1,801)
61,075

Online Weekend + Upcoming Live Events

Date: Sun, Apr 27, 2008 Professional

Played a number of tournaments on Friday night, and it didn't go too well. I think I cashed once quite deep in the PokerStars 25k guaranteed, but this was not enough to prevent me being USD 800 down for the night. I think my treatment of online tournaments is going to have to change a little. At present I play many at the same time (up to 7 on split screens), but there are numerous downsides to this:

1) If you don't have a good night you lose $1k+ instead of $300
2) You can't see how the other players on your table are playing
3) You can't evaluate odds correctly and chase too many draws

Clearly, there are also advantages as well, but I play pretty loose in the early stages of online tournies, and my brain is just going into overload at the moment. I think I'm going to try to play 2 or 3 tournaments maximum from now on, and see how that works for me. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the 6 or so times I have cashed big in online tournaments over the last 2 years, I have played (for the most part of the evening) that tournament alone. This coming bank holiday weekend I have a rare chance to play the Sunday tournaments, so I'm going to try and put together a schedule that won't overcrowd my screen. It's always tricky, of course, as you are never sure how long you will last in a tournament, but I'll try and budget for 3 hours in each one I enter and see how that works.

I also had another small $100 win in my online cash challenge, which takes the roll up to $2k, but to be honest, I'm just not getting the time to play this enough, so I think I'm going to knock the challenge on the head for the time being.

It will also be Newcastle UKPT in a few weeks, so I need to get a bit more live tournement practice in before that, so I'll be playing (and blogging) live tournaments twice a week for the next month or so. After that, it's only 3 weeks till we leave for WSOP which I'm really looking forward to. Unfortunately, post Vegas I'll have used up most of my days off for the year (I've committed several days in the future to seeing my son) so it will be a bit less exotic after that. There's a chance I'll play WSOPE (althought the 10k GBP entry fee is eye-watering) and perhaps the UKPT Grand Final in November. Otherwise, it will be about building up the bankroll for next year, and trying out a few new playing styles ahead of 2009.


PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,590
Live Holdem Cash (1,666)
Live Omaha 110
Live "Professional" Tournaments (10,291)
Home Games (460)
Online Holdem Tournaments 53,932
Online Holdem Cash 16,996
Online Omaha 630
Rake (1,801)
61,040

Musings on receding hairlines

Date: Thu, Apr 24, 2008 Professional

Have you noticed that, since about 1995, any man under the age of 50 with a receding hairline has opted for the grade 1 or 2 all over buzz cut to disguise the soap opera unfolding on top of his head?

I have been off work for 2 days now with a virilent case of man-flu, and have had to endure wall to wall daytime television, punctuated by the world snooker championship. My thoughts on the receding hairline came while watching today's second round match between Peter Ebdon and Mark King. Now these boys have opted for a grade zero up top, and the relections coming off their heads, combined with the Crucible lights reflecting off the snooker balls didn't do my headache any favours. Whilst the skinhead option is understandable, it's a bit uniform and seems to have been taken up by the entire population. Perhaps trends will change, and in the 2012 match up between Ebdon and King, Peter will be sporting a Bobby Charlton style comb over and King will have a patchy affro similar to Dr Emmett Brown from Back to the Future.

You can tell it's been a boring few days...............anyhow - thought I'd give a quick update on this week's league match at LC on Tuesday night. Only 12 runners, which often happens when the day has to be changed from it's usual berth of a Thursday night. We were split into two tables of 6, and the action was fast and furious. Can't remember too many hands as I'm flued up, but here are a few:

Hand1
I raise to 150 with 5c7c and get called in two spots.
Flop: Ac, 10d, 2c
I bet 300 and get one caller
Turn is a brick - check, check
River misses my flush draw, but the guy has played the hand pretty weakly, so I put him on Ace Rag. I bet 700 which I hope would make him pass but he calls with A4. Bad start........

Hand2
Get involved in a large pot with Tom and McDee. Both myself and Tom end up all in on the turn with identical top 2 pair, and we chop it. McDee put a fair amount in the pot though, so it wasn't a bad result

I then win a few pots without showdown and head to the final table with about 6k, which is a bit below average. I win a few more pots with raises, and win a decent 1k pot pre-flop by re-raising a raiser to 1800 with QQ. We are down to 6 players:

Hand3
Deven pushes all in for 3000 total on the button (blinds 150/300) and I hold AJ in the Big Blind. If I lose this it will really cripple my stack, and I worry that I am completely dominated or racing. I suppose he might have A10, but my read on Deven is that that is the only hand I am beating, so I pass. I think he probably had 77-JJ there, but we'll never know. Not sure about whether that was the correct laydown or not to be honest.

Hand4
Very next hand I find Ah8h in the small blind. and when folded around I make up the small blind (400 now). Chip leader Fluke, who has been experimenting with a new LAG approach bordering on manical, raises to 1200 in the BB. I'm starting to feel pushed around after the lay down last time, so decide to flat call and see what the flop brings.

Flop 3, 8, 9

This looks a pretty good flop for me - it's low enough to not give Fluke a straight draw with big cards, and also if I was dominated with a big Ace preflop I am winning now. I decide to risk that he doesn't have a big pair and push all in for 5k in total (it's an overbet, but this pot is big enough to put me in decent nick for the run in.

Unfortunately he has the one hand I can't see, a set of 3s and I'm virtually drawing dead, and out in 6th spot.

A bright spot, however, is that I am pleased to report a winning live cash session! Not much, about £70 I think, but maybe it's the start of better form in that discipline. I also played a little online cash while ill, and boosted the bankroll challenge by 70 dollars or so in a little under an hour. Updated results below:

PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,590
Live Holdem Cash (1,666)
Live Omaha 110
Live "Professional" Tournaments (10,291)
Home Games (460)
Online Holdem Tournaments 54,832
Online Holdem Cash 16,896
Online Omaha 630
Rake (1,801)
61,840

Online Cash Challenge Bankroll 1,870

Playing monsters when short stacked

Date: Tue, Apr 22, 2008 Professional

From time to time, I like to go over previous entries in my blog and see if I am playing any situations in a way that doesn't seem to be optimal. I think I have found one - the situation where you are short stacked (7 big blinds or less), and get dealt AA or KK.

For me, if I see someone with a small stack limp or raise 3 times the blind in early position, I frequently put them on a huge hand. If you have AK, AQ, or pocket pairs you should push every time with a short stack. Several times, when I am the big stack, I have passed a decent hand in this scenario and it has turned out they have Aces or Kings. However, I am not sure that some players pay the same attention to opponents' stack size as I do.

Four times this year, I have been in the situation where I have about 7 big blinds, and been dealt Aces or Kings. To me, the best way to disguise the hand is to push all in. If you limp it looks like Aces, if you raise 3 times the blind it looks like Aces. If you push all in it could be anything, particularly if the pot is unraised. However, the results when I have done this have been disappointing - Fold, Fold, Fold and Fold.

I'm going to make a slight adjustment to my game and do a small raise in future in this scenario. I'm going to keep a dirty stack when I get short, and see if anyone makes the effort to count out what I have to see if this improves results in this scenario.

I would add though, that in a major tournament, pushing is still the way to go. When I got short stacked in Dublin, I pushed all in from the small blind with pocket Jacks with ten big blinds, and an unraised pot. Graeme Newman, a top player, called me with K10. No way in a million years he calls if I raise it to 3 times the big blind in that spot.


PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,690
Live Holdem Cash (1,806)
Live Omaha 110
Live "Professional" Tournaments (10,291)
Home Games (460)
Online Holdem Tournaments 54,832
Online Holdem Cash 16,826
Online Omaha 630
Rake (1,801)
61,730

Online Cash Challenge Bankroll 1,800