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

Another Clay Court Car Crash

Date: Fri, Apr 18, 2008 Professional

Good grief...........when will the live cash game pain end. I don't think I was even outdrawn in a hand.

:(


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

Bus Pass

Date: Thu, Apr 17, 2008 Professional

I had my first live tournament win since the Irish Open last night. Only a £30 tournament, so £190 for first, but it was nice to get back in the winners' enclosure after a barren month or so on the live scene.

Both the hand that kick started my tournament, and the hand that won me the heads up, involved me holding the mighty hole cards of T6 offsuit. I was hoping to find a fancy nickname for this starting hand, but it doesn't seem to have one yet. The best I could come up with was 6T = 60 = old age freedom pass on the London Underground. So Bus Pass it is then.

Anyhow - on to the key hands of the evening:

Hand1

I raise to 150 with KhKd in early position (sometimes I get cute here with a limp, but the table was playing pretty loosely so there wasn't much point).

One customer (Mitch) and we go to the flop:

Ks, 9d, 8d

I bet 300 and am called by Mitch.

Turn is Ace clubs

I risk a check, because I want him to think I am scared of the bullet, and he is an agressive player. However, he checks behind.

River is a blank.

I bet 500 and he passes.

I then fritter down to about 2400 from a starting stack of 3000.

Hand2 - (stone cold bluff alert)

Sonny raises on the button to 500 (blinds 100-200). Slider calls in the SB and I find a "Bus Pass" in the BB. Hmmm - terrible hand but only 300 into a total pot of 1500. I call.

Flop A, A, 2

Checked around

Turn is a 3

Slider checks, I bet 500 and Sonny calls, looking a bit reluctant. Slider passes.

River is another blank, and I decide that since I am first to act I am going to push for 1400 to try and pick up the decent pot. I've played the hand like I have Ace rag - I flat called in the BB. I checked the flop with the initial agressor behind me. I bet small on the turn, and now I've pushed on the river to maximise my value. Sonny eventually passes pocket 7s and the bus pass is triumphant! Phew. Up to about 5k heading to the final table.

Hand3

Tom is deepstacked and has raised four pots in a row. Sure enough he raises to 1250 in early position (blinds 200-400) and I resteal with AsJs by pushing all in for about 5k. Unfortunately, he has AK on this occasion and snap calls me.

The first 2 cards are low red cards, and it's looking bleak, but my favourite dealer, Hassan, delievers three running spades to save my bacon, and give me the nut flush.

Hand4

We get down to 6 handed. I make up the SB to 600 with A9 and Slider checks.

Flop 2, 5, 10

Check, Check

Turn is a King

I check and Slider bets 900. Now, Slider knows that I think he is too tight as a player so I will respect his bets. However, I wondered if he was trying to make a point by loosening up specifically on me, so I decide to call.

Check, Check - my Ace high is good ;). That was a case of I know, that he knows that I know.

Slider, Sonny, Fluke and a young new guy are all elimiated and it leaves myself and Tom heads up.

I start about 3-1 down on the chip count, but get back to near parity when the huge heads up hand occurs:

Hand5

Blinds are 600-1200, and Tom makes it 3600 to go. I call with Q9.

Flop K, K, 3

Check Check

Turn is a Queen

Tom bets 5000 which I call

River is a 3

I check and Tom pushes all in, and has me covered (I have about 9k behind). This is a tough one - there is not much I am beating except an outright bluff. I have the Queen, but there are 2 pairs already out there and I don't like my kicker considering Tom raised pre-flop. I still have a playable stack left as well. However, eventually I make the call and beat Tom's Ace high kicker with the 2 other pairs.

Tom was now left with about 4k, and I wanted to finish it off quickly. Tom stole a few blinds, when I couldn't call with 23 etc, but on the 3rd hand I find another T6 "buss pass" and put him all in from the small blind. He calls and is ahead with Queen rag, but I am not far behind, and hit one of my cards on the river to finish the game.

These bus passes are magic - good old Red Ken.


PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,790
Live Holdem Cash (1,106)
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 (1,791)
62,540

Online Cash Challenge Bankroll 1,800

Refusing to do a "Moya"

Date: Tue, Apr 15, 2008 Professional

Whilst having my tooth extracted on Saturday, I was mulling over the content of Fluke's recent blog post, where he talks about the striking difference between tournament play and cash play (http://extremepoker.co.uk/). He, in fact, suffers from the opposite problem that I have in that he has great patience, tenacity and reading abilities in cash games, but perhaps doesn't change gears quick enough and suffers from lack of agression in the tournament arena. Of course, he doesn't suffer from the significant blow outs on the cash tables I have, due to impatience/excess aggression/drunkeness/all of the above.

I am starting to wonder, whether tournament and cash games are in fact completely different disciplines, and whether it is possible to be truely strong in both arenas. There are numerous professional players who follow the tournament circuit, expecting to make most of their money from the cash tables. There are similarly many successful pro tournament players, who squander fortunes on the cash tables. How many are true masters of both arts? Ivey, Antonius and Negreanu spring to mind, but not too many others.

On a smaller scale you can take the Loose Cannon. For example: Sir Mike, Jody, Geoff, Briony and Volcano are all strong tournament players. Fluke, Maltese Mike, Deven and McDee are strong cash players. Only arguably Tom, Sonny and Jason make the transition between the two disciplines successfully.

I didn't used to think the difference was so marked, but now I think it is similar to the difference between high level grass court and clay court tennis. If you consider the following match ups, from down the years:

Pete Sampras v Carlos Moya
Andy Roddick v Guilermo Coria
Greg Rusedski v Jaun Inacio Chela

If you played these three matches (when all players were at their prime) on grass, the first named player would win probably 99 times out of 100. However, make them play on the clay of Roland Garros, and you would get the exact opposite outcome - the surface really makes this big a difference.

The analogy even works for the styles of the two games. A break in grass usually means the end of the set. In clay there will usually be opportunites to break back, similar to being able to reach into your wallet and reload at a cash game after making a marginal decision. Clay courters grind patiently from the back of the court waiting for an opening to pounce, much like a cash players, whereas tournament agression reflects the crash bang wallop of grass court tennis, where serves and volleys are key. Finally a grass court match is relatively quick, whereas clay court matches regularly go on for five hours plus - 4am at the Loose Cannon anyone? ;o)

Where this analogy is useful is as follows. Whilst all of the above players knew their own limitations, there were some remarkable differences in attitude. Sampras would pitch up at the French Open year after year without fail, even though he knew he was on a hiding to nothing. However, Carlos Moya used to continually pick up a "hamstring pull" every time Wimbledon was on, and only recently even attempted to play on the grass.

I was pretty close to throwing my toys out of the pram last week after yet another live cash loss, and deciding that I would just play tournaments. (Note that, for me, online cash is different to live cash in that you can multi table, and following an ABC poker style pretty much guarantees profit at certain levels. Is online cash the equivilant of hard court tennis perhaps!!??)

Anyhow, as I sat there in the dentist chair, I decided that I really must try and apply myself to live cash games, even if I feel it's a negative expected value for me at the moment. If that is still the case in a year, then perhaps it will be time to shift to the tournament only approach, adopted by several players. I have reclassified the categories of my P&L to help this analysis.

In the meantime, the key is to adopt the Sampras mentality towards clay, rather than the Moya mindset to the grass.......



PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 3,590
Live Holdem Cash (1,106)
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 (1,781)
62,350

Online Cash Challenge Bankroll 1,800