Spain Part 2

Date: Wed, Sep 1, 2010 Tournament

2 weeks have passed and we find ourselves back in Malaga. If I were to sum up the last two weeks on the Theo's farm in a sentence it would be: 'Hot hard work in a beautiful scenic place interspersed with a challenging atmosphere'. What do I mean by 'challenging atmosphere'? Basically there were several arguments while we there including the owner having a go at us. Apparently this was commonplace though according to a family who lived on the farm. This put a bit of a downer on the whole experience tbh. However we gained a lot of experience from this this farm.

So far we´ve seen a snake, many lizards and lots of wasps. There was actually a wasp nest in our accommodation with wasps in it that liked to build cocoons in our clothes around dead spiders to feed their babies eggs on, harmless though.

One of the best things we did during our stay was go to the local village festival. It's an annual event called a ´feria´that every village has. There was singing, dancing booze and food, much fun :)

Our plan is to use the hostel in Malaga as a stepping stone to make plans about where to go next. A strong possibility is that we´ll go to the South of France to do some grape picking. The season for this begins very soon and we have a contact there to help us find work. In the meantime Tahti (my m8 who I´m travelling with) will be working part-time in the hostel and I´ll be chilling out and maybe playing a bit of poker :)

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Spain Part 1

Date: Fri, Aug 20, 2010 Tournament

We have only been here for a week and a half but it has been eventful! We arrived in Malaga on Wednesday at 8pm local time. A friend of mine who lives in Malaga picked us up and took us to a hostel. After seeing Malaga from a vantage point (beautiful!) we went for Tapas and drinks.

The next day we walked around the centre and had our introduction to Spain which included heat and the language barrier. This was swiftly followed though by an evening swimming in the sea and enjoying a beach bbq with some very friendly Spanish people.

The following morning it was time to move on and begin ourr WWOOFING experience up in the mountains. It took an entire day to travel there via 2 trains and lots of waiting but on arrival we were met by a friendly Belgian man named Phillip who drove us tot he farm. After days travel an early n ight was in order.

In the morning we began work. The job we were given was to shave the bark off of 30-40 logs using spades, 6y days on we are half way through. Most days have consisted of waking up at 7am and doing this job until midday when it becomes too hot. At this point we sleep, swim, eat, play games with the kids etc. until it cools down in the evening.

Some of the best points about the farm are (in no order):

1) The view over the valley
2) The pool
3) The Charecters
4) Cats and dogs (many)

Today we have a day off as we have worked 6 days straight so we are relaxing by playing games until it cools down and we can go for a walk, possibly to the river at the bottom of the valley.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

'Liars Dice' (Drinking version)

Date: Thu, Aug 5, 2010 Tournament

I have been playing various games with mates recently including: 'Risk' 'Gin Rummy' and 'Liars Dice'. One of the most fun games we played though was a home made adaptation of Liars Dice into a drinking game. 5 of us had a mint time playing this game last night so I thought I share it with you. Be warned though, if you're a bit of liteweight like me then you can easilly end up drinking half a bottle of Whiskey to yourself in an hour or so = messy! :s

RULES:

The rules for Liars Dice that we used are pretty simple. We started with 5 players (any amount works), each of us getting 5 dice. All players roll their dice at once but conceal the dice they roll.

After choosing who goes first at random, the first player then makes a 'bid'. For example if 2 of his concealed dice are 3's then he might guess that there are 3 or more 3's on the whole table combined (including his). The next player then has 3 options:

1) Bid that there are 3 or more 4's, 5's or 6's
2) Bid that there are 4 or more of any face value (or any number above this)
3) Call the previous bidder a 'Liar'

Play goes on with players upping their bids until a liar is called. At that point the player who is wrong in this dispute must discard a die. After a player has lost all 5 dice he/she is out!

DRINKING:

Now the fun part. With 5 players we used thefollowing rules which can easiily be adjusted for different circumstances:

1st out - rolls 2x6 sided dice and drinks the number of shots they roll

2nd out - rolls a 10 sided die and drinks the number of shots they roll

3rd out - rolls 2x4 sided dice and drinks the number of shots they roll

2nd place - rolls one 6 sided die and drinks...

1st place - rolls one 4 sided die and drinks...

One final rule we added to this was that before downing each shot the drinker gets to roll a 6 sided die and if they roll a 6 they get to nominate someone else to drink that shot.

1 bottle lasted us 2 games but a second bottle is always handy ;)

ENJOY!!!

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Chopped $42k GTD HU Weeeeeeeeeee!!!

Date: Fri, Jul 23, 2010 Tournament

Varience is my new best friend, I know we've fallen out before but we're getting along like a house on fire again! I can't believe how the last 2/3 months have gone :s As I mentioned in the last post I didn't even have a bankroll very recently, instead I was treating each buy-in as an entertainment expenditure... now I'm paying off my student loan with my earnings :D

I choppped this for $6.9k (using ICM) he got $7.5k... Basically I did not want to play HU for $3k! Probably could have squeezed an extra cupl of hundred out of the deal but was too overwhelmed to bargin!!

UNREAL is definately the word 2 describe the past few months of poker for me UNREAL

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Time to reflect and plan!

Date: Sun, Jul 4, 2010 Tournament

FULL TILT PROFIT GRAPH



POKERSTARS PROFIT GRAPH



IPOKER PROFIT GRAPH



After my recent success with online MTT's and because my blog posts of late have been poor, I decided to reevaluate my results to date. With the help of sharkscope I've been able to get together these 3 graphs that show the sites I have played the vast majority of my poker on. I have played on other sites but only for relatively small amounts and and few games. As for live poker, I have been keeping records almost since I began going to the casino and overall my results are about break even, mainly due to a couple of long l8 night losing cash sessions that were balanced out by tourney scores.

To cut a long story short I've played about 2000 online tourneys on the main 3 sites I play and am about $14,000 in profit. I'd say about half of these were SNG's and later on the other half were MTT's. If it wasn't for MTT's, something I gained a taste for whilst playing for Bankroll Supply these graphs would look somewhat less dramatic!

More to the point though if it wasn't for the handful of big scores I've had lately they would look pretty depressing! However, I wouldn't have played 1000 games at the stakes I do if I hadn't continually been running deep.

In acctual fact if it hadn't been for Paul Jackson at Bankroll Supply (the company who sponsored me on the basis of 500 SNG's at the $5 level and below) I would still be grinding small stakes SNG's for a tiny hourly rate! It was Paul Jackson who persuaded me in my first few lessons with him to move up and play $20 SNG's with the odd MTT, which is when I got the bug!

My roll is now sitting at around $10k, as $4k has been spent along the way :) As such the time has come to make some decisions about my next move. I woulld love to continue with my current plan of playing tourneys between $10-$100 (i.e. max buyin of 1% of my roll) with the odd shot at a Sunday major or medium live tourney, but...
I have just completed my degree and really want to do some travelling, for which I have some savings but probably not enough.

Thinking about it now I think the best move would be this: withdraw (reluctantly lol) half of my bankroll and put this in a savings account to keep me going on my travels and until I find a job. This would still leave me with a $5k roll which would be enuf to play up to $50 tourneys which tbh above which I'm probably punching above my weight at this stage! Any advice on this decison is, as ever, appreciated :)

In summary as tempting as it is to push up the tourney ladder as fast as possible, finishing uni is a rare oppurtunity to travel b4 I get tied down to a job. On top of this realistically I should probably not get too confident and start skipping levels just because I'm doing well atm. Instead the best decision seems to be to attempt to consolidate my recent sucess by staying at the same level and taking the oppurtunity of a lifetime to see the world!

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Running like GOD!!!

Date: Thu, Jul 1, 2010 Tournament

Special thanx 2 the NPF rail who nearly made me pmsl!!!!!! :D

What next? More/bigger MTT's - sounds like a plan!

Read Full Poker Blog Post

1st for $2.9k again! C'mon!!!

Date: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 Tournament

This is the second time I have placed 1st in this tournament :D

Read Full Poker Blog Post

7th in $15k GTD

Date: Sun, Jun 27, 2010 Tournament

PokerStars Tournament #317010207, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50 USD
1245 players
Total Prize Pool: $19490.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/06/27 5:15:00 ET


Dear DapperDan098,

You finished the tournament in 7th place. A USD 633.42 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 229.41 tournament leader points in this tournament. For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/



Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.



Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

Read Full Poker Blog Post

My run continues!

Date: Thu, Jun 17, 2010 Tournament

6th out of 1248 is yet another result to be proud of! However I don't feel I played my best at several moments throughout this tourney so was lucky to make the FT :@)

It was one of the longest FT's I've played (around an hour just to finish in 6th) as everyone was still quite deep. Obviously a little dissapointed to finish 6th but $1k has softened the blow :)

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Are rules 4 breakin?

Date: Wed, Jun 9, 2010 Tournament

As I'm in London this week I decided to meet an old friend and play a bit of £1/£2 cash at the Empire Casino in Leister Square. I started well, by more than doubling my £50 buy-in with KK. I then played KQ a bit badly but rivered a Q to take me up to £200. Soon enuf I had £250 asnd was feeling very comfortable with the table.

As the night wore on though my recent lack of sleep began to tell and my play suffered as it always does. This combined with some horrible beats (won't go into those) meant I had to rebuy for another £50. More beats ensued and tilt/tiredness combined so that I finished the session at 6am down £200. Being down £200 is not a huge problem atm, but not stopping when I knew I was too tired to play is. Some rules were just not meant to be broken!

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Ship the $10k GTD!! :D :D :D

Date: Tue, May 25, 2010 Tournament

Weeeeeeeeeee!!! Shipped the $10k GTD on Stars last nite for $2.9k :D It was a $33 buy-in tourney with 500 players. I played a lot more conservatively than I have been recently mostly because I was on table with aggressive players for a good chunk of the tourney, but also because I feel my dicipline has been slipping of late.

I made it to heads up as an underdog by about 2:1. But after folding the first 6 hands I raised on the button with J8o. He called and the flop came 853 rainbow, he bet, I raised and he raised me all-in, he had k9o and I held up to take the lead. The very next hand he raises the Button and I ship over the top with A9s, he snap calls with KTs and doesn't improve Weeeeeeee!!!

The most interesting hand I played on the FT was this:

PokerStars Game #44558314612: Tournament #274587212, $30+$3 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXIII (8000/16000) - 2010/05/24 15:19:18 ET
Table '274587212 16' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: Specki76 (151472 in chips)
Seat 3: DapperDan098 (320140 in chips)
Seat 4: LordGamblor7 (753080 in chips)
Seat 6: cwirek1982 (275308 in chips)
Specki76: posts the ante 2000
DapperDan098: posts the ante 2000
LordGamblor7: posts the ante 2000
cwirek1982: posts the ante 2000
Specki76: posts small blind 8000
DapperDan098: posts big blind 16000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DapperDan098 [Ts Kh]
LordGamblor7: raises 32000 to 48000
cwirek1982: calls 48000
Specki76: folds
DapperDan098: calls 32000
*** FLOP *** [7s 2s 3s]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: bets 64000
cwirek1982: folds
DapperDan098: calls 64000
*** TURN *** [7s 2s 3s] [Qs]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: bets 80000
DapperDan098: calls 80000
*** RIVER *** [7s 2s 3s Qs] [8s]
DapperDan098: checks
LordGamblor7: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DapperDan098: shows [Ts Kh] (a flush, Queen high)
LordGamblor7: mucks hand
DapperDan098 collected 448000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 448000 | Rake 0
Board [7s 2s 3s Qs 8s]
Seat 2: Specki76 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: DapperDan098 (big blind) showed [Ts Kh] and won (448000) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 4: LordGamblor7 mucked [5s Ac]
Seat 6: cwirek1982 (button) folded on the Flop

I called on the flop because he had been playing really aggressively short handed and I felt two overs and a 10 high flush draw was good against his range, even OOP. I feel I should have shoved the river though as I'm not folding if he puts me all-in, so I'm just giving him a chance to check back worse hands. Still pleased with it though I think :)

Read Full Poker Blog Post

3rd in 20k GTD

Date: Sun, May 9, 2010 Tournament

This morning at 5:15am, 9 hours after I began playing, I finished 3rd in the 20k GTD on Pokerstars. This result has surpassed all my previous results in terms of the size of the tournmanet (3,473 runners) and the size of the cash $2,855. Needless to say I'm pretty happy with that!!!

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Taking a shot at Vegas

Date: Sat, Apr 24, 2010 Tournament

If you've read this blog recently you might remember I made a decision to save the money I won in an MTT on Stars as a bankroll for when I finish uni. I decided to do this rather than join the NPF clan in their adventure to Las Vegas. My main reasons were that if I went I would be on a budget and may return with no bankroll for poker at home.

However I also decided at the time that I may take a shot at a few WSOP side event satellites if I could find any online. And I have :D (see last article). The best I have found so far is Ipoker's "WSOP Experience" Package. This is a package that includes entry to one WSOP NLHE Side Event worth $3,600 in total.

My experience of similar sattelites on Ipoker was that the fields were extremely weak :) So I am going to allocate about 20% of my bankroll ($400) to qualifying for this package. I know it's a lot but I feel $1,600 is enough of a bankroll for MTT's when I finish uni and it will allow me to have a shot at this great opportunity!

I will be entering between 2 and 4 $60 R/A Supper Sattelites. Again it's a strange structure where each rebuy costs 1/2 of the initial buy-in ($30). This encourages you to rebuy, something a lot of sattelite qualifiers won't be doing. Anyways the first one I'll be playing is at 8pm tonight. Wish me luck!!!

Read Full Poker Blog Post

G Casino Online Poker Client Launched

Date: Fri, Apr 23, 2010 Tournament

G Casino launched an online poker client as part of the Ipoker network the other day. They asked me to review the new site and these are my thoughts.

Firstly I already like the Ipoker network because I think it's the biggest network that doesn't allow American players to have an account. Not that I agree with the American poker ban but it is generally accepted that American players are better overall than European ones. This is probably because Americans have to jump through certain loopholes that we don't to play so casual players are deterred. Also as a Nation they have been playing Poker for longer than anyone else.

Secondly I am fond of the relatively small sized MTT's, when compared with the likes of Stars and Full Tilt, at the $10-$30 level. The fields are much more manageable meaning less variance for a regular MTT player.

My experience of playing on G Casino Itself was overall a positive one. Apart from one thing which I will explain later. I liked the fact that the tables were resizeable, which I don't think is an option on some Ipoker clients. But most of all I enjoyed the fish! After losing my initial £20 deposit with the usual AA losing to QTo etc. I decided to enter a WSOP sattelite.

G Casino runs sattelites to bothe the Main Event and the side events, something I've been looking for... So anyway I entered a $20 R/A event with about 12 players. This qualifies you for a $215 Super Sattelite that has a prize package worth $5,500. The package includes the buy-in for 2 NL side events + travel & expenses etc.

The structure is unusual though in that your rebuy is worth 2,250 chips (starting stack = 1,500) and the add-on is worth a further 3,000 chips. So it seemed to me that to get the best value I should rebuy at least once and definately add-on. So I rebuy immeadiatley and get busted by a fish with Q4o vs. my JJ. The players on my table must of thought they had clicked on Facebook Poker because the standard was abysmal!! This prompted me to rebuy and I manged to reach the final 4 with first garunteed a seat (to super sat) and 2nd gtd. $185. Then came the add-on period and the bad news for me... I had already made 3 deposits that day (my first on the site) at which point they instantly lock your account!?!?! So I couldn't add-on. To cut a long story short I went all-in pre with AJ as I only had 9 BB's and was called by T4o... straight on the river omg etc. I'll be back to fish in that pond!! :D

Security informed me that this was a measure taken to protect players agaminst fraud and apologised so I guess it's OK just such bad timing! They will reopen my account tomorrow.

The site will also run a special gcasino.com £50,000 Multiplier Tournament on June 20^th. The more players that enter the tournament the more added value gcasino.com will contribute – up to £50,000! In addition the overall winner will gain a seat in the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) £150,000 Champion of Champions tournament. Promos like this mean G Casino is definitely worth a look!

Read Full Poker Blog Post