Back Online Again!!!

OK after taking a few days off from poker after a heavy session in Nottingham last weekend, I was back online Saturday.

Target Events

$4k Gtd on PKR
$100k Gtd on PKR

Win seat for Sunday Warm Up and Sunday Million on Poker Stars.

Won a seat for the Sunday Warm up early on for only 40 loyalty points, result!!!

The $100k starts and I'm sat at the tightest table I have ever sat on at PKR. Out of 449 runners I actually get sat next to Dave Knight a great player from the Newcastle where I play regularly. Not much action early on, I get QQ and take down a nice pot, then AK and hit then KK and take down another nice pot. I get moved and take down a monster pot when guy limps from cutoff. I make up SB with Jh9c, BB autofolds as he is sitting out. Flop comes 8c9h10c. I bet out, he re-raises, I push all in and he calls with J10, damn I'm behind. Turn comes 7c. Yes!!!! Now splitting. River 4c, and I take it down with a sick back door flush. This puts me up to 50k and I should have enough to get past the bubble. I bully my stack up to around 70k and am in cruise mode. Then this happens. I'm in BB and folds round to SB who calls. I look down at Ah10h and make a raise to 4k. SB pushes all in for 30k. My notes on him say "Italian fish who pushes with any 2 cards from blinds". I'm sure I am ahead and call. He has 9h4c, Flop comes 10c8c2h, I am monster favourite, but a club on the turn and a club on the river gives him a 4 high backdoor flush. This obviously damages my stack big time and I have to limp to the bubble with 50 players left. I cut loose after the bubble playing my usual small stack game. I manage to get to 16 players left and push all in with AJ, fish calls with A7 spikes a 7 on flop and I hit the rail. I get $1010 for 16th which isn't a bad return conisdering I satellited in for $2!!!

At the same time I finish on the bubble in the $4k gtd for £110 loss.

Profit for the night $900.

Gala Casino British Poker Tour Nottingham

Final Day

Arrive for 2nd day well rested after a great nights sleep, with the added bonus of hotel not charging me extra for a late checkout.

There are some big names still in with the likes of Dave Colclough, Ryan Fronda, Graeme Clarkson, Tom Rutter, Maria Demetriou, Jonathon Butters, and quite a few players left from the North East. I start the day 8th in chips on 79500 with average sitting at 52,200 and blinds at 1000/2000 and a running ante of 200.

I get sat on table 4 which looks like quite a tough table with seat 1 Jonothan Butters, Seat Two Thomas Rutter, Seat 3 P Hardy, Seat 4 Sam Wardlaw, Seat 5 R Plaistow, Seat 6 Ryan Fronda Seat 7 ME, Seat 8 Nichiei Hicks. But I am feeling good. Cards in the air and we're off.

2nd hand in Sam Wardlaw limps under the gun, I saw him make the same move the day before with AA and he gave off the same tells. I look down to see AK and am happy for the previous days knowledge and pass, he gets involved in a pot and I was correct he had AA. Very next hand I get AQ which i limp in with in early positionand have to pass to Butters re-raise which he shows AK with. So far so good. I get KK against a small stacks push with JQ and they hold up. putting me up to just over 100k. Not much action for the next couple of levels.

After the 1st break I get moved tables into seat 1, I have Graeme Clarkson on my left in seat 2, with daniel byrom in seat 4 and stuart Thompson in seat 5, dave maudlin gets moved into seat 6. We lose a few players and then Dave Maudlin raises to 15k with blinds at 2000/4000 with 400 ante, I look down to see KK, i raise to 45k and dave calls. Flop comes 9 6 6, Dave checks and i push all in. He thinks for an eternity and someone calls the clock on him. He calls with his 77 and my cowboys hold. A couple of hands later I raise from cutoff with AQ, Graeme Clarkson re-raises me, and I immediately put him on a pair probably 9'2, 10's or J's. deciding whether i want race when Daniel Byrom pushes all in from the BB. I pass and Graeme calls with his 10 10, Daniel has Ak and with the first card out K he takes down the pot. No A or Q and a lucky escape for me. We get past the bubble and after a long final table bubble I make it to the final table, but am short.

We are advi sed that Gala will buy the final table players an á la carte meal in the restaurant and after a fine feast of Filet Steak, Dauphinoise Potatoes and Spinach we make our way to the final table.

After the usual photos etc we settle down to start the final. I am the table short stack with 96k and blinds at 8000/16000 with 1500 ante. The blinds go through me and I get no hands, the BB reaches me again and I prepare to push with live cards. Stuart Thompson raises and Dave Maudlin pushes from the SB, I look at J 8 and decide to wait a hand. Stuart Thompson calls after a long deliberation with AQ and Dave shows AJ. Cool one player might go before me. Flop comes double paired and the two of them split the pot. Next hand someone pushes all in and I have to pass. Next hand I'm on button and decide that if it passes to me I'm pushing blind. It does and I push all in. Both blinds calls flop comes A2KQ 9, i announce i am blind and ask them to show what i need to outdraw. BB shows Q3, SB mucks, I turn over first card 8 and second card Q!!!! Split pot. I survive. Next hand I get AJ push all in and they all pass. Blinds come along again. Early raise from utg+1 I put him on JJ. I look down at Q8 but deicde to play, deciding that if A or Q comes I can push and he will probably pass. Flop comes A Q 2, I push and he calls with his AQ. Oops!!! Misread. Never mind $6000 for 9th place.

The tournament was won by Rupinder "George2Loose" Bedi. Well done George!!!

Profit for weekend $5750.

Gala Casino British Poker Tour Nottingham

Day 1b

Main Event $1000 Freezeout, starting stack 10k, 60 minute clock, 226 runners.

Arrived 5 minutes late for start of tournament, after sat nav got completely confused by the Nottingham one way system. Fortunately they haven't started yet and I slip into my seat and prepare for battle. I'm drawn at table 3 seat 2 and, as it turns out, will be sat there for the rest of the day. I look around the table to see some very familiar faces, in seat 4 Trevor Reardon, a scouse pro who is renowned on the circuit for being aggresive. in Seat 5 Rocky Gupta from Teeside, Seat 6 has Steve Holden, the reigning champion, Seat 7, Houng Phen who i know likes to play every hand, seat 8 Latif Aziz from Teeside, Seat 10 P Kelly, a hardened pro player. It's going to be a tough table, but I am undaunted, I feel good, my game is going well and I have a good feeling about this tournament.

15 minutes late we get underway. 3rd hand in I limp with As4s utg. Reardon raises it up, and Rocky immediately re-raises, I pass and am gutted when the flop comes 8 4 4. Oh well it was the right pass in those circumstances pre-flop. Don't get too involved early on, as don't pick up any hands. Only noticeable pot in the first 2 hours play was where I limp in with As8s, one raiser 3xBB and 3 callers, so i call to see a flop. Flop comes Ac 3s 8h. I check it as the original raiser was TR and fully expect a continuation bet, but he checks, which is a little bit worrying, "possible set being checked on rainbow flop?" crosses my mind. Turn comes 7s, so now I have Top 2 pair and nut flush draw, I am not checking now and put in a 2/3 pot sized bet. All fold to BB who flat calls. River comes Qd, missed my flush but when BB checks I know my 2pr is good. I bet out pot sized bet and he calls. Shame on him for slow playing his AK from the BB, but thanks to him for paying me off. I get to the first break on 16k, average is 11500, so a good session. Unfortunately I then had a completely card dead period during the next session and when we broke for dinner, I had dropped down to 9k. I head off for something to eat and look forward to getting back, when I know I will need to pick up a hand or two to get back in the race.

Next session starts quietly again, I manage to get my stack back up to 12k with a mixture of good play and stolen blinds, which are now at 300/600 with a 50 ante. Then I get 9s 9h utg+1. I limp in, as does the player in seat 4, Phen limps in late position and BB checks. Flop comes As 9c 7s, "here we go" I think, BB checks and i bet out 2.5k, seat 4 re-raises me to 7.5k, Phen and BB both fold. Thinking i'm probably up against an A or a flush draw I push all in á la Phil Helmuth, pushing my stack over the line in a hurried can't get em in quick enough motion, he insta calls with his set of 7's. Wow set over set, has to be the best I can see him turn over and with him missing his one outer on the turn and the river I move up over 25k.

A little while later Rocky limps from early position, and I put him on a big hand, Phen next to act raises it up, which he has been doing from this position a lot. I look down at AQ, but feel I am well behind to Rocky here, which is proven correct when Rocky re-raises all in. Phen goes into think tank for some time and eventually calls. Rocky shows his AK and Phen amazingly shows only KdJd. The flop comes with 2 diamonds and you somehow know Rocky's fate is sealed, but the River J was sick, sick, sick. Unlucky Rocky. The very next hand I know Rocky will push from BB, there is a limper initially and I look down at QQ, I raise and Rocky pushes his small stack over the line blind. The other guy passes and my QQ holds up against Rocky's K8.

Steve Holden who has been bumping along the bottom since very early on, soon follows suit and departs. Great player Steve, shame he wasn't able to defend his title into the 2nd day.

Next few hours pass uneventfully for me, although we seem to be going through players at our table at a great rate of knots.

With 1 hours play left, I have ground my stack up to 47k, and with day 1a finishing with 48k as average stack I know that so long as I avoid a car crash, I should make it through in a decent position. At this point the day's chip leader Daniel Byrom gets moved into the seat on my left. I think great, there's my chances of blind stealing reduced, but how wrong I was.

The first round after Daniel sits down it folds to me on button, I look down at AK and put in a raise, both blinds pass and I show AK. Next round I get AQ on button, put in a raise and they pass, I show again. I really don't want Daniel getting the idea I'm stealing because he is the only one on the table that can do me any real damage. Next round same scenario, this time I show AJ suited. 4th round, it folds to me on button again, this time I look down and see AA (!), with blinds at 600/1200 with a 100 running ante I raise it up to 4k, Daniel in the SB think up for a few secs and re-raises me to 10k, BB passes and I re-re-raise a further 15k. Daniel pushes all in and I instantly call. He has JJ, and my bullets hold up. This puts me up to around 95k and although I lose a small pot before the end of the days play I end up on a healthy 79500. Taking into account the stacks from day 1, I am going into day 2 with nearly double average and the 6th largest stack, so well positioned. I head off to the bar to Watch the Joe Calghazi vs Bernard Hopkins Fight. Day 2 to follow......

See an interview with me here ------>>>> http://www.thenutz.tv/videodetail.php?video_id=66555

Marathon Cash Game Session

Sunday 3pm having crashed out of $60 Terminator early doors. But cash game just starting, so I take a seat. It's a table with a mixture of local players and visiting festival goers. I sit with $400 on the $2/$4 PL table with high hopes. For the next 7 hours I seesaw from $400 down to $30 and back up again. I then decide this game is a bust, but I don't want to leave with a loss, so decide to leave once I get back up to $400. 2 hours later I'm still sat on $370 and can't seem to break back through to $400. Then in a rush filled 60 minute period I turn from $370 into $1850. I leave after 10 and a half hours of play tired but happy to leave with a nice profit after all. Good things do come to those who wait.


Overall profit for weekend, taking into account all expenses, $2060. Sweet.

Virgin Poker Festival Part 2

After the $500 i was a bit deflated but bought in for the normal Friday night Aspers donkament. 230 runners, so lots of donkeys and bullets to dodge and I got shot early on. So I go sit on a $2/$4 cash game. I sit with $200 and donk that out early on. Tbh no hands of any great note, but managed to turn my reload into abuot $500 then this hand happens. Several limpers so i raise it from the cutoff to $38 with "The Hammer" 7c2c, professional footballer calls, this worries me cos he's a bit of a rock, then early limper a female pro from Birmingham pushes all in for $60. this is an underaise so i call as does the football player. Flop come Kh 7h 3s. Footballer leads out $120, I immediately put him on a flush draw maybe Ah8h or the like, he does like to bet his draws heavy, and i flat call. Any way turn card comes Jc. He bets out $180. I flat call. river comes an eight which worries me but no hearts, he checks, yep busted flush draw now i need to get rid of him in case he has hit a pair, so I make what looks like a value bet of $150, also it leaves me not too much behind so he knows I aint passing if he re-raises. I tell him "You got a busted flush draw, let it go!!!", he calls!!!! I think damn he must have me beat but he shows Ah10h!!!! I win!!!! with 2nd bottom pair, lol. So I win side pot which was considerably bigger than the main pot, which I expected to lose also but the female pro turns over 7d2d!!!! Split pot, lol!!! You gotta love this game sometimes and the deflation of the $500 game is gone and a nice profit is made on the nights cash game.

Next day is the main event. I have lunch with a few of the Aspers regulars, while we wait to see if we get lucky in the raffle for the seats of no shows. there ends up only being 2 seats up for grabs and with odds of 50/1 needless to say I didn't get one.

Next target was to qualify for the next days STT Champions tournament. But couldn;t play many STT's cos waiting list was massive and I came 2nd in 3 STT's consecutively, so no seat for the final for me, but consolation was that for coming 2nd I turned a $75 profit.

At 1am they had a special forum challenge and I was asked to Captain the AWOP Team. WIth everyone pretty drunk by this time it was clear it was going to be difficult to get reads on people. Anyway I only came 8th in my STT, after getting it in AJ vs Q10 and fish hitting Q and then K 10 vs QJ and fish number 2 hitting Q again!!! Oh well. Good results by PsychoDave (2nd) and PK (1st) meant that we beat Blonde Poker and that's all that mattered.

With 3 tournaments running consecutively Sunday was going to make it a busy day in the cardroom. The main event had 50 odd runners starting out on the 2nd day. The STT Champions tournament had 20 and the $60 Terminator had 130. I crashed and burned pretty early on when I flopped 2pr and other guy had flopped a straight. So I decided to hit the cash tables again and what a marathon session that turned out to be.......

Virgin Poker Festival Aspers Newcastle

Well what a weekend. Went to the Virgin Poker Festival in Newcastle. Unfortunately I hadn't managed to win a seat to the main event, so would have to rely on the luck of an on the day raffle but more of that later.

$500 Double Chance Freezeout

With 12000 chips and an hour clock we were all looking forward to a decent tournament and we were not to be disappointed. Many old faces appeared out of the woodwork and with a decent sized field around 60 we knew a good standard of play would be required.

Early on I didn't get too involved and to be honest didn't get too many hands. But I have pushed my stack up to about 15k. Just before the first 2 hour break, blinds at 100/200, there was a raise from under the gun and I looked down in the cutoff at AA, with the initial raiser making it 350 to play, i bumped it up to 2350, he calls. The flop comes down 2 5 9 with 2 spades. He checks and i bet 3500. He immediately pushes all in. Does he have a set? My initial read was that he had AJ or something like that, at very worst AK, I never put him on a pair at all. I'm convinced he would only make this play with a flush draw and whilst I don't really like it I call because I think I am ahead and he is drawing. He turns over As10s and with a blank turn and river I increase my stack to 24k.

Several hours pass and I have stagnated winning a few pots here and there just to keep my stack ticking over. I get moved tables and go straight into the BB. It Folds round to the button who puts in a raise. I look down at 55, at least i got a hand to raise him with and teach him not to raise my BB. I raise it up and he calls after a long think, I have him on A rag. We end up checking it down and sure enough he has A7 and my 5's hold up. As I am counting the chips, he looks over and says "Are you GiMac?" and I say "Yes". That's how I met MadasaWasp from AWOP. Nice guy and a good player.

At the last break for the day they decide to squeeze in an extra level and it's during this level that I get the most action. My stack is still in the 20's and I need to get a few hands to make it worthwhile coming back the next day. I get moved tables and an old adversary of mine, says "Here he comes, he always knocks me out. I'm getting your chips this time!!!". I just say that will depend on the poker gods and we will see. Anyway, with just over an hour to go, he raises from Mid table position, I immediately put him on A10 or therabouts.I look down on the button and see the dreaded hooks. Now whilst JJ is one of the best ranked hands in poker, it is a hard hand to play with because of the number of times an over card will appear on the flop, but I'll take it against A10 any day. With blinds at 400/800 he has raised it too 3200, i raise a further 6000, he has 9000 behind so he has a push or fold decision. Meantime Li in the BB folds AK, he is some player. Anyway matey boy decides to push all in and I duly call. It's better than expected because he has AJ and is a 30% dog. Anyway the poker gods decided to smile on me and I knock him out once again. "You always take my chips" he says, "What can you do?" I say, with a rye little smile.

The very next hand a player pushes all in from under the gun, as does someone else. I look down in the cutoff at AA and push all in too. My Bullets hold up and I take out the two small stacks. These two hands have increased my stack to 65k and I can shut up shop until day 2.

It's getting late and the decision to squeeze in an extra level will affect my end of day chip count. It's well after 4am and nearly the end of the days play when it folds round to me on the button. I look down at A 3 and although I don't normally raise with it, cos it's not in my hand range, even from the button. I decide to use my chip stack to take down the blinds. I announce raise and Benny, who has to be the quietest dealer on the planet says something to me. I have to ask him to repeat and the whole table tells me that Malcolm has already pushed all in from under the gun for about 9k. Shit mistake!!! My only one of the day but it's going to cost me. He has AK which holds up and with a further set of blind going through me I end the day on 49000 chips.

Day 2

Play was due to start at 3pm with 21 players returning, but I was unfortunately delayed and didn't arrive until after 4pm, not a good start. I had lost approx 9k in chips and stood on 40k. This wasn't a disaster because I had just about bang on the average stack, but with the blinds about to go up to 1000/2000 there was no real pressure to get a move on. Twice I raise only to be re-raised by tight players and I find myself having to lay down decent hands. Then I go completely card dead. Everytime I look to make a move, someone raises before I can act. I'm bleeding chips and am now the short stack of the table and need to choose a position to make a move. I end up raising on the button with A4 suited. I make it 4500, leaving me approx 12k behind to go and the BB calls, the flop comes 10 5 8. He immediately pushes all in. Now he did this to me before and I figured he had something and passed. Using that information, if I was right the first time his demeanour was slightly different this time, meaning he had nothinig or was on a draw. The only thing to figure out was, was I right last time??? I decide I was and call he turns over 67 and is up and down. Someone at the table says "Thats a damn good call!!!" just as the dealer turns over a 9 of diamonds to complete the BB's straight. A good call made at a bad time and I go out in 12th position. I was happy with the way I played overall and the only two things I might do differently would be not to make the mistake at the end of day 1 and maybe I should have pushed all in with the A4 instead of just raising. Always learning!!!

The tournament ended up being won by Eric Barker an extremely good player.

It was a great tournament, won by a worthy winner and ran expertly by the Aspers Cardroom Crew.

Well done all!!!

I'll post about the rest of the weekend later.

Manage to Scrape a profit

Came no where in any of targetted tournies, and missed entry for $45k on Stars. Fortunately got 2nd in a $38 sit and go on Stars, cashed in satellite for Rio LAPT and cashed in 6-max $55 freezeout on Stars.

Profit $242.

Tomorrow going to Aspers to play in £250 freezeout at the Virgin Poker Festival.

Ooops with the frenzied online activity last night, I forgot that I also won a seat to PKR's monthly $75k PKR Masters Tournament for later in month.

Playing online again tonight.

Target events should be:

$10k Gtd PKR
$4k Gtd PKR
WSOP Final Qualifier on Virgin
$45k Gtd on Stars

Fingers crossed for the WSOP Seat!!!!!

Back to winning ways

Online frenzy tonight.

Target events:

Virgin VIP2 Freeroll

$10k Gtd PKR

$4k Gtd PKR

Virgin WSOP Qualifier

$25 Omaha PKR

Ok go out of Virgin VIP2 after an uneventfull tournie.

$10k Gtd get chips in after flopping top pair vs fish who cant laydown AK and rivers an A. $33 loss.

Win seat to Virgin WSOP Final, I already have one so $400 added to roll.

$25 Omaha I final table but finish on bubble in 5th. $27 loss.

$4k Gtd on PKR. Cruise into final and am chip leader with 5 left when I get 44 manage to see a free flop which comes J 4 10. I bet out and fish pushes allin with J 10, I'm only too happy to call, but he hits his 4 outer and gets a J on the river. Manage to get to heads up but have a chip deficit. Manage to claw my way up to even, and get chips in with AJ vs KJ. Flop comes 10 J K 6 K and i get outdrawn finishing 2nd for an $1020 profit.

$1360 profit.

A good nights play.

Aspers £20 rebuy

Never hit a thing, apart from flopping trips twice and getting outdrawn by someone hitting a straight.

$160 down.

Welcome!!!

Ok I'm new to this blogging malarky, so be gentle.

I'm planning to post the highs and the lows of playing poker as a serious recreational player.

I'm not a pro and don't think I want to be one, but I love the game and the challenges it represents.

I've been playing for about 3 years and managed to profit in my 2nd and 3rd year and paid off the amounts I lost by ways of tuition in the first year.

Over the past couple of years I've been fortunate to qualify for some great festival events, and GUKPT events and have managed a couple of minor cashes in events like the Grosvenor Grand Prix, European Amatuer Poker Champs, European Deep Stack Champs and GUKPT, but still working on that big pay day.

Aim this year is to qualify for the WSOP Main Event, but thats proving harder than I thought, oh and make a 3rd years profit.

The first 3 months of this year have started well and I'm currently $11541 in profit.

So let the shared journey begin and I hope you enjoy.